Split (3)

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Awesome headset at a decent price. The sound quality of this headset is good. It could be a little better, but considering the space that the headphones have to work with, the speakers are pretty good. The removable mic is nice for when I'm not using the headset on my xbox 360, but I did put the mic on backwards once (and thus put the headset on backwards as well). A little common sense or a little more care would have prevented this misstep, and I haven't since repeated it. The surround sound is excellent as I can track people in Left 4 Dead accurately enough to be accused of cheating on xbox live. I use the digital connector when I plug this headset into my xbox 360 and my computer, but I originally purchased this headset for the multiple connectors that come with it. A similar product from turtle beach cost nearly $50.00 more for just the connectors to hook it up to my pc and my 360 (not using the digital output on the pc). Now, This is not a wireless set, which I find beautiful as it cuts down on the weight, and the expense of the batteries, but it comes at the cost of at least 3 cords being connected to the controller and one cord to the headset. It is a lot of cords to have to move when i switch it from my pc to my 360 and back. Be aware of this. Also, the cord length is very generous, as the only problem that I have had with it is keeping the excess cord out of the way. I've heard of a few complaints that I think I should address. The first being that you can easily break the mic portion of this headset. The solution is simple care for your product, disconnect the mic when not in use and you'll not have a problem. Mine works beautifully and is several months old. The next complaint is that the headset itself does not have a way to turn it off. This is a comment left by reviewers who obviously can't read as the instructions state in large, easily readable letters that to turn it off you simply hold two specific buttons (and turn it on the same way). I was considering a turtle beach headset of almost the same value, but my girlfriend purchased it before I ordered mine. After her headset blew a speaker a month later, I decided to try a different brand and hope for higher quality. I'm very pleased I didn't fall for the hype over the turtle beach headsets, this is a much more quality one.	video-games_xbox
My WWE 13' Review. Its that time a year again for THQ to release its yearly Rasslin' game this time with WWE 13. I purchased the xbox version and I didn't have many expectations but I knew I was getting a solid update from WWE 12 WWE 13's controls and game play is pretty much the same as WWE 12. The A button to grapple, The X button to punch, etc. For me the AI was kind of stupid at earlier difficulties. When I was playing on normal difficulty there was points where the AI opponent would just stand there and do nothing. There are some minor gameplay glitches but i expect those to be taken care of if THQ releases a patch somewhere down the line. There are several match types in the game including the returning Special Guest Referee and I Quit match. Both of the matches are fun to play and you should have fun messing with your friends online with special guest referee. The Inferno match also got a bit of a touch up and now works similar to a way you eliminate people in Royal Rumble. The Universe mode is back and better then ever. You can now reset universe mode and change up everything. The current roster getting old? No problem! Make your own roster. The mode is almost endless. The Online play is about the same. After the first day I have had no trouble at all downloading, uploading, and playing online. The people who play online are still cheaper then ever before and I would recommend just playing this game with friends. People tend to run attack, run attack, do the same move over and over, and be cheap. Stick to friends when you are playing online. THQ also lowered Royal Rumble Online to six people rather then twelve which is understandable because they don't want to slow down the servers and Royal Rumble always glitched in previous games online. We will see how good THQ's servers will keep up when people from other countries get the game. The game took out their Road to Wrestlemania mode and replaced it with the all new Attitude Era mode which takes you back in time fifteen years ago and you relive WWE's greatest moments from Mid 1997-1999. Honestly, I don't know why this mode gets so much praise. The objectives and matches are long and kind of boring and the video packages are heavily edited. For example, the 1997 RAW intro edited out Ahmed Johnson for some reason. The mode is more of a chore honestly. Get fan axxess you won't regret it. The mode is not as legit as I thought it would be. When Kane debuted, we all remember Vince McMahon saying "THATS GOTTA BE KANE! THATS GOTTA BE KANE!" Vince is not on commentary and JR is during this and I didn't feel that Nostalgia. The only people who I feel will like this is people who didn't see this era in WWE, or the younger audiences. Create a Wrestler is back and its the same as 12 except they added kick pads and you can use transparency for tattoos and clothing (This is a good thing) Create an Arena mode is probably one of the best features of the game as you can literately edit everything in arena. The stage and everything can be edited. Anything you create you can upload to the servers and you can now play with your created arenas online which is a HUGE plus and will make the game way more fun to play with friends. Ultimately, WWE 13 is a great game with lots of customizable features. Wrestling fans will be playing this one till the release of WWE 14 (if THQ is still around ha ha ha) If you enjoyed WWE 12, you will love WWE 13 even more. Oh and THQ should lower the crowd noise. Holy crap so loud why.	video-games_xbox
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. This game is hands down the most fun I've had playing video games this year. I've been excited for quite some time now to find out what happens to Captain Price, Soap and their villainous target, Makarov. So let's get to the review. I will begin with the Campaign, then review the Spec Ops/Survival and then lastly the Multiple Player. SPOILERS AHEAD When we last left our heroes, Soap and Price they had just killed General Shepard, and were attempting, with the help of Nicoli to evac Soap out of Afghanistan. The game pics up with a nice little beginning, and unlike it's two predecessors has a longer campaign(more along the lines of the length of Black Operations). I was worried, but having beaten the game through, I can say I'm quite impressed. Not only has the AI been improved over the previous two games, but so have the graphics. I've noticed that the guns in particular have been improved in many, many different ways. The sounds have been improved, in most cases sounding more realistic. The weapons themselves look sharp, and very highly detailed. All the different attachments are a lot of fun to play with, and make for a variety of different play styles. But here is my first gripe with the game. While playing through the first time, I met with two bugs. The first, was a bug when I was picking targets from the improved AC-130 Gunship. I hit my own guys by accident, and the game called out friendly fire, but became stuck in a loop because of a check point. It wasn't a huge deal as I just restarted the level, but kind of weird and a little annoying. The second was during the invasion of Berlin, several Russian soldier whom I killed became stuck in mid air, or in standing positions. I assume these bugs, mostly minor cosmetic issues with the game play will get smoothed out in a future update. Unless this kind of stuff really, really bothers you, I wouldn't worry too much about it. The story progresses and a lot of questions the first and second games raised actually get answered in a believable and interesting way. While it is true that Soap does indeed die towards the middle of the game, playing as both Price and a new character, Yuri, is a lot of fun. There are some really, really interesting game play additions that do spice things up a little. One as I mentioned earlier in the review is the improved controls, and the "reloading feature" on the AC-130. I wish that many more parts of these games that involve vehicle mounted weaponry would come with ammo limits, to make the game more challenging and realistic. But, here they've done a great job! I really had to think about which weapon to use, and which targets to attack, when to wait and when to just mowe them all down. I really feel like they made all the weapons on the AC-130 have a use now, unlike the first game, which you could use the rapid fire explosive weapon and never need the others. All in all the campaign is great. Not too long, but not too short. The Spec Ops/Survival section is really cool. Survival is a little easy, but fun and the variety of weapons and tactics one can use to maximize his or her efficiency is top notch. The Spec Missions are amazing, and compared to the last batch these are a huge and fun improvement. One, which requires the player to wear a Jugg. suit and collect nerve gas samples! Another is disarming a nuclear sub! As for multiplayer, it's easiest summed up by saying this, It's the tried and true COD Multi. I haven't noticed any major issues, though I've only played for about 2 hours of MP time, I also can't really say much about the new perks, most seem pretty balanced. So, that could change. I did not partake in Elite, so I cannot speak to that. I do have some general complaints to discuss. In Black Operations, Treyarch introduced a couple of things that I wish had made it over to MW3. One was the running maneuver, that allowed you to jump into the prone position. It was very useful in both the MP and the regular game. Surprisingly it wasn't over powered and worked quite well. Why it wasn't included is beyond me. Another BO thing that I wish had been included was both the Combat Training and the ability to add bots into MP games to shoot at for fun. It's one fun thing that this game just doesn't have. I was very happy to see the return of 3rd Person. Another issue I have with the game, is that some weapons just never showed up in the campaign. The SAW, and the Single Grenade launcher among that appearance of the XM-25 which I had in the beginning and only for a few shots. I think there could have been a little bit more variety of campaign weapons. I was also disappointed to see that the "Museum" did not return, which I thought was an incredibly fun little end thing from MW2. If you've liked the others, then you won't be disappointed.	video-games_xbox
Game over, man! Game over. Incredible graphics. Brilliant writing. A sci-fi epic to put Star Wars to shame. Intelligent enemies that use the environment against you. Without a doubt, it's the best shooter I've ever played. Now, enough about Halo. Lets talk Aliens. (There are some spoilers in the review, but considering how bad the game is, it doesn't really matter) Aliens-Colonial Marines is not the game I was expecting. The graphics were disappointingly bad. The story was a grade-A mess. The game was glichier than Fallout 3. Colonial Marines opens with a cutscene that seems to mimic Aliens to the point of deja vu. After a quick update by your commanding officer as to how bad the situation is, you're thrown headfirst into the Sulaco (from Aliens, in case the billions of commercials didn't get the whole Aliens thing through) Aided by foulmouthed O'Neal, you rescue an infected marine named Keyes from the clutches of some... brown goo. Yes, folks, the Xenomorph creep looks like snot. The first level also introduces you to several recurring themes in the game- fleeting moments of greatness squashed by technical incompetence, cheesy Marine dialogue, bad voice acting, and dialogue seemingly spat out by a random word generator. Ah, the sounds of pure terror- Alien hisses, clanking in the distance, the "click" that tells you your pulse rifle is empty. You won't find any of that here. Instead, Gearbox has, as is the custom with rush job games like this, several tinny soundbites that vaguely resemble the sounds of Aliens in the same way the demos resemble the actual product- no, if any, similarities at all. Bob the Sound Hamster must have been busy the night before this turkey shipped, because it takes a special kind of stupid to make a game sound this bad. By the end of the first level, the grating pulse rifle noise will be stuck in your head. Sadly, there are still more headaches to come. By far, the most evident shortcoming was the lobotomized behavior of the aliens. The movies portrayed the vicious alien xenomorphs as cunning hunters, stalking and outsmarting their reckless human prey. These ugly 3-D models that dare call themselves aliens are nothing like that. Their strategies include...running mindlessly at the player with no self-preservation instinct..."moonwalking" straight in to corners...or just ignoring your attempts at using your pulse rifle to turn them into extraterrestrial mush. The human enemies, Weyland-Yutani mercenaries, are just as brain-dead. When you go up against a mob of these grunts, get ready to crouch. With your character having such low health, you have to take cover behind... those awkward-looking computer things. Yes, in Aliens- Colonial Marines, there is much squatting and dying witout reason. There's no strategy, no tension, no point. But wait- it gets worse! On the technical side, the game seems to be built on an older version of the venerable Unreal 3 engine. For the same engine that is used in games like Gears of War, the "updates" Gearbox/TimeGate/Nerve/whoever made this game added to the engine must have included downgrading it to Wii levels. To be even more technical, the graphics could be from a Nintendo 64 game- from 1996. Fuzzy, blurry textures, lazy lighting, stiff characters don't help a game that already screams "failure" from the poorly rendered opening cutscene to the abrupt credit roll. The art design and architecture from Aliens is butchered by making it as blocky as a Mario game. Then you have the "story". I say "story" because it fits the minimum story requirements, such as having characters and settings. Not that any of those settings or the characters in them will interest you in any way. I actually had a hard time keeping up with the story and characters because the whole thing must have gone through the proverbial blender. The plot of Aliens- Colonial Marines can be summed up in a few words- blah, blah, blah, aliens, blah, blah, blah, facehugger, blah, blah, blah, hold on a minute, you're going too fast! And...HICKS IS ALIVE!!!!! HOW!!! WHY!!!!! It doesn't matter. To Gearbox and SEGA, it just matters you give them your money for an unfinished and incomplete game. Don't give in. As fondly as I feel about the Alien movies, this is a disgrace. To get this most out this game, just buy it used and get a season pass for the DLC. At least that, along with the patch, fixes the most glaring bugs. The game still sucks. Even patches can't fix stupid.	video-games_xbox
Legend of the legendaries, above all others. This controller is the best investment I've ever made in my life. For real, I've had several people tell me both bad and good, like na bro you don't want that controller, mine did this or it breaks easy and the others would say it's phenomenal. You can map any button to literally ANY button. Yes I kno they have the option to button map on regular controllers, but not only does the Elite have the four paddles (which I will add are comfortably placed) but you have the option to map both of your triggers as well. Crazy right? Crazy awesome! Alright next on the agenda of righteousness, the sticks, you get the choice between three different lengths, short and long both being concave and the medium length is convex ( I use small left and medium on my right) you gotta try out different ways to find your personal thumb twitch if that makes sense. Also with the sticks you can set the what I assume is the stick response I haven't really researched but you have 4 options to choose from those being delayed, aggressive, instant and smooth. (I prefer smooth I seem to die less). NOW THIS IS WICKED!! By far my two favorite parts of the controller, #1 being that you can dim that obnoxious Xbox light on your controller. Thank you!! #2 that you can manage the power of your controller vibration in four different locations of your controller! Whaaaaat? And I can set it to where I never have the controller vibrate? Yea I can go without that annoying sound and distraction so once again thank you! Pretty sure everyone knows about your triggers and your options, right? How you can set your own dead zones separately for both triggers? And you have those switches on the back to set it as a hair trigger? Yea? Cool so onto the fact that you can create multiple button mapping setting, save them all and have two set on your controller at a time with a switch to go from one to another. That is crazy awesome! So my opinion for the bad reviews or my homies that have had their controllers fail, try treating it a little better. Don't mash those buttons, it's not necessary lol, and don't eat finger food wiping those food greased up fingers on your sticks, of course they are going to give in over time. You wouldn't drive a Porsche off a cliff into a lake would you? I mean if I had that kinda money to blow don't let me like to ya I'd do that n a heart beat. Sounds like a rush	video-games_xbox
Ultimate Crossover, Ultimate Clash, Ultimate ... Cash Grab. I'm going to get this out of the way first: Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is an excellent game. The character roster is expanded, the fighting engine is fine tuned to achieve a better balance, and online play is enhanced significantly from the previous incarnation. If you have friends at your palce often (or even if you don't, since you can play online), Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a great game to occupy yourself with. Finding the perfect three-combatant team and using their abilities to complement each other is, as always, very rewarding and fun. My personal team is Phoenix Wright/Frank West/Deadpool for laughs, and Zero/X-23/Strider Hiryu for actual rounds - as you can see I used quite a few of the new characters, so they're definitely not just filler characters as some might say. That being said, let's get to the obvious elephant in the room. This game comes just half a year after the original Marvel vs Capcom 3. Those who bought the original game (or, heaven forbid, the collector's edition) are now in possession of a useless copy less than a year after buying it. This is the latest in a long line of problematic business decisions by Capcom, who have by-and-large really dialed it in in regards to their game releases; recent games have been carbon copies and blatant cash grabs in an attempt to make as much money as fast as possible. Though 12 characters larger, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is no different - while other companies fix their fighting games through patches and downloadable characters (see: Mortal Kombat), Capcom has returned to its Street Fighter 2 days by rereleasing slightly updated versions of the same fighting game over and over (we're already seeing this in Street Fighter IV) - something that actually led to the devastation of its fighting game franchises years back. Back when game systems had virtually no internet connections and games came on cartridges, this was defensible if not acceptable; now, with modernized game system constantly linking to the web, it's completely unacceptable. On its own merits, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is a five-star game. A great lineup, a fun fighting system, and literally hundreds of hours worth of gameplay as a result of arcade, mission modes, and online features makes it one of the best fighters in recent years. Unfortunately, given Capcom's track record, I have no choice but to dock it one star for being an update that could've been relegated to DLC, and another star for coming out less than a year after the last game, making many players' previous investments worthless. Even at the $40 price point, it's still ever so slightly insulting. Still, I'd recommend a purchase if you, like me, didn't get the original upon release, or even if you did, because the new characters are honestly really great. If you're still on the fence about this game - either because you disapprove of Capcom's practices or because you bought MvC3 back in March, but still want to try out the new characters and enhanced online - I say just bite the bullet and grab this game. However, once you do, send an email, snail mail, or message to Capcom's Twitter telling them that you disapprove of this kind of business practice and that they will lose you as a customer if they continue in this manner; you have a voice, use it!	video-games_xbox
2K Sports obviously isn't trying very hard. I may as well start with the good things. The batting and pitching interfaces in this game are great. Holding back/releasing the R stick is a lot more involving and intuitive than just pressing the A button, and the Batter's Eye adds some extra depth to it. Pitching is extremely frustrating until you change the pitching system to "Zone", which I highly recommend. It's the best pitching interface I've ever used. Both the batting and pitching interfaces make sure the challenge lies in your skill level and your strategy, rather than your ability to figure out the system. Now the bad. 1. As everyone knows by this point, the game likes to lock up after the third or fourth inning. This can usually be avoided by loading another game to the title screen and then putting the MLB 2K6 game back in, but the fact that I even have to do this is kind of a drag. 2. The fielding is ridiculous. While playing this game, you shouldn't think of your fielders as human beings, but cars instead. If you're running back, you can't suddenly break left. You have to come to a complete stop and make a 270-degree turn before you do. If you try to adjust your man just a few feet to catch a routine fly, you'll usually end up messing up and putting him out of range, so it's best to just leave him standing there and hope he makes a shoestring catch. 3. The baserunning is twice as bad as the fielding. Every game dating back to RBI Baseball for the NES has done a better job than this game in this department. You queue up your bases, meaning if you hit an outfield single and press "advance base", it has the runner go to second. Press it again and he'll run to third; again, to home. This wouldn't be so bad, except a) the base queue indicator is so small that you can't read it without taking off your attention to look straight at it, b) the queue will sometimes go up and down without you doing anything, and c) even if a baserunner is queued for third and he slides in safe on a close play at second, he'll still get up, practically dust himself off, and just start loafing it to third for the easy out. I'm sure it was all in good intentions, but it's just horrible. 4. So I endure about a dozen freeze-ups, about 25 instances of Andruw Jones juking himself out of the ball in center field, and about 5 billion instances of Edgar Renteria getting up from a slide and jogging to third with the second baseman standing on base with the ball. I finally win a game. Then a glitch prevents me from saving the game. So it's all gone. Things like this are enough to make you resolve to never play the game again. The only thing that keeps this from a one-star review is the progress made in the batting and pitching systems. Overall, it's a terribly executed game. Graphically it's not bad, but clearly an uninspired port-up from the previous-gen versions. EA's MVP series isn't perfect, but it's pretty good. I don't know the specifics of how long 2K Sports has exclusivity of MLB sponsorship, but let's hope we don't have to suffer through their games anymore and actually get a studio making MLB-licensed games that knows what it's doing. Based solely on this game, I don't see myself buying another 2K title again.	video-games_xbox
Worst Halo in the Series. Why is this game so terrible? A 5 hour campaign, firefight mode that requires you to invite 3 other of your friends on live to play with, multiplayer maps that have already been sold on xbox live as downloads. What makes this game worth 60 dollars? This is by far the worst Halo in the series. The storyline is terribly broken, which switches characters and missions constantly, leaving you without a hint of immersion. I had no idea what I was doing until 3 hours in the campaign, only to be switched to another persons perspective. The big sell point of this game was also of course, the firefight mode. I have yet to get more than one person in a game for this mode since xbox live friends are more for show than to actually play with. I understand the novelty of getting your buddies to link up their xboxes to play halo, but that was 5 years ago. It's time to open up coop gaming to random people. I hate how Bungie is limiting my experience of Halo to how they think I should play it. It's my friggin game, stop telling me I can't play campaigns with a random person online! How do you think we make friends on xbox anyway? The multiplayer disc given in ODST is a combination of all the Halo 3 maps sold in downloadable content before. There isn't one new map available. Why am I being resold stuff I've already bought? Many people have complained about this, so anyone who bought ODST gets to play Halo REACH beta now. If the game is as bad as ODST I can expect my Halo enjoyment to drop significantly. ODST is terrible not because it gives you paper thin content, but because it was sold as a bonified 60 dollar game and it was just an upgrade. No one cares about the Halo universe, how the spartans came around, or how the covenant came into play. I'm not learning about Darth Vader, I'm playing a FPS. I want to play Master Chief, not prequels like ODST with terrible story arcs.	video-games_xbox
A terrible disappointment from a beloved franchise. I should start by saying that Dead Space 1 is one of my favorite games of all time. Dead Space 2 was different, and perhaps too much of a shooter for my liking, but for all that it had a lot of new weapons, stunning set-pieces, new enemies, and an interesting and creepy extension to the Dead Space world and mythology. In short, I grew to love 2 too. Not so Dead Space 3. Dead Space 3 seems to have really polarised opinions, so you should probably read a few reviews before making up your mind, but here's my two cents worth. This game is not without its merits (and I will get to them too), but overall, it is bad. The story starts off with a completely ridiculous over-the-top premise, continues with hammy, hard to believe character interactions and finishes up with a frankly ridiculous final boss scenario that was very hard for me to swallow. Your co-op buddy appears and disappears at really weird times and it makes no sense and has a very jarring effect on you as you play. And what about the necros. There are virtually no new enemies in this game, apart from the human soldiers (which are rare and forgettable besides) and the gun-wielding necros (not much fun either). The pack make a come-back in the guise of feeders with slightly different behaviour, but... it's just not enough. On top of this, most of thee necros just come at you in waves. Generally you enter a room, open a box or hit a switch or whatever, and then get hit by waves of necros. This gets old very quickly. To make matters worse, the VAST majority of these waves is populated by slashers and pukers. The standard draw of the game - to tactically dismember necros as they come towards you - is gone. There's no time for tactics as they are generally coming at you, quickly, from three or four different directions. Virtually every room is that way. :/ And the weapons lend to this situation. I was really interested in the weapon crafting system, but it's actually not very interesting. You quickly learn that a decent shotgun with a grenade launcher is the best weapon for most situations, and that's the end of that. I will admit that there are probably people out there discovering the joy of weapon building, but for me I missed holding 4 very different weapons with 4 alternate firing modes, each of which was very useful in some situation. This game limits you to half that; Two weapons consisting of two simpler weapons taped together each. The suits too seemed to have no real special properties, unlike in the last game, and you just find it and put it on and that's that. Disappointing, though in New Game + that element gets better... Another problem with this game is the lack of unique environments. Once you touch down on Tau Volantis, the environments don't change much, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for a lot of the spaces, in stark contrast to the first two games, where every area felt very different and presented different challenges. The spelunking sections too were quite boring and too numerous. Honestly, by the time I was 3/4 through the game I really just wanted out, and not because I was scared s***less, but because I was plain bored. But credit where credit is due, I really enjoyed wandering around the debris field, and there were a lot of extremely satisfying engineering puzzles that made me feel like a kick-ass engineer. The same goes for the set-pieces. They were much fewer than in Dead Space 2 say, but there were a few that really made me feel great. In fact, once you get into orbit around Tau Volantis, that first quarter of the game set in the debris field isn't too bad. Until, that is, you realise that there are areas which you cannot enter in single-player mode. I hate that with a passion. Especially because co-op mode was terrible for me. I waited a long time for someone to join and then when they did, they dropped out (booting me back to the first area) all the time. It was probably an idea which sounded great on paper, but which was awful in reality. I was told that it was drop in drop out co-op, but that's not true. It's drop-in, drop-out, log-out. :/ I won't say much about the microtransactions thing, because in all honesty you don't notice it that much, and the resources are not too hard to lay hands on if you're thorough, so I'll just wrap up by saying that this game is not terrible unless you compare it to its predecessors. But it's not very good either, it's... okay. I had to play it to see what was going to happen, and although I'm bitterly disappointed by the way they have squandered the franchise, what can I say. I'd wait until it's dirt cheap before buying to be honest, ESPECIALLY if you loved the first two.	video-games_xbox
It's like they forgot to make the other half of the game. Assassin's Creed Revelations (ACR) Ezio is back for one last hurrah before the third installment of the Assassin's Creed saga. He has traveled to Constantinople - the Crossroads of the World to discover the knowledge of Masyaf from Altair's clues. Pros Combat works just like always Graphics are outstanding They've added bombs Cons Just about every extra or mini game was cut Story is just unforgivably bad for many reasons Weapons and game in general are nearly identical to previous Cutscenes lack any familiar faces Unsure what's happening outside Animus Gameplay - 5 of 10 It's really sad to see this happen to such a standout series, but they fell into the CoD mentality. And in many ways the lack of innovation is apparent in the game. In short, if you've played ACII or Brotherhood this will be a depressing game to play. At least it was for me. After playing for less than five hours you notice a few things that just show a complete lack of effort. First of all, the city is smaller than Rome. Is it like that in real life? Who really knows; but shouldn't it be at least the same size just for gaming purposes? Secondly, there are very few side missions. You have the assassin's guild where you level up your assassins and do imaginary side quests where you can't see what's going on. You have the thieves' guild, mercenary guild and collectables. They removed SO much from what AC: Brotherhood had. Sure it was a little scatterbrained at times, but the gaming value was great because you just had so much that could be done. Aside from a few minor additions and this "defend the city" mini-game it is for all intents and purposes a large expansion for Brotherhood. If there were a number attached to it I'd say it's Assassin's Creed 2.75. That's right, it's of a game. It could have easily been a DLC for Brotherhood for $30 in my opinion. Sure it's a holdover for ACIII, but it is by no means worth paying $60 for. Thank God I didn't. Gameplay is the same exact engine from ACII in 2009 for obvious reasons. Combat is literally identical. Purchasing weapons, pouches, shops etc. is all the same. The map is the same, viewpoints same, same same same. What isn't the same is the magic that I first felt when I played ACII. It was the feeling I had when I first played Final Fantasy VII. You could tell they had made something truly brilliant. Instead of being ridiculous and just expanding on ACI, they listened to the critics and fans and fixed almost every problem the game had. Features and Extras - 3 of 10 The only extra I really count is the Animus Island. This is sort of a spoiler but you find out literally the minute the game starts. Desmond is stuck in the Animus and you go through these really weird simplistic platforming levels where Desmond reminisces about his life. It looks like Tron. Why does this not impress me? Because they were so rushed (or lazy) that you don't even get to see the videos from his life - he just talks about them as you bounce from platform to platform. And you only have the ability to do basic jump and create walkways. You don't have any assassin capabilities. Gone are the interesting puzzles and historical data as well as almost anything that made the game worth a second play. A lot of assumptions are made by Ubisoft. First off, they assume you've played the game before because they don't even have optional tutorials or the training grounds from AC: BH. They also assume you won't notice they've cut so many things or that you understand the backstory of Altair and Ezio's past. Why Ubisoft, why? Weapons - 5 of 10 There is only one new weapon - bombs which you can craft. And they tried to really "blow" this out of proportion like the combat was going to be way different. It's a nice feature and is occasionally helpful, but I find it cumbersome in the heat of the moment. Crafting is a little customized as you can use multiple ingredients for the three constituent parts. Aside from the bombs all the other weapons are minimally changed. Story - 4 of 10 The story is woeful, boring and hard to follow. Ezio is looking for the "wisdom of Nicolo Polo" who is Marco Polo's father. And honestly it's a cobbled together collection of uninspiring cutscenes. Prince Suleiman whom Ezio met on the boat coming to Constantinople is one of four main characters and probably the only one who isn't instantly forgettable. Ezio is in Constantinople for some reason but I have no idea why. I'm not even sure who the main antagonist is yet. This is just another reminder of how this is a shadow of ACII or even Brotherhood. The developers couldn't even be bothered to make cutscenes with Desmond's crew in them. This is because you're stuck in the Animus the whole time? Give me a break. The only redeeming quality to the story is it has one historical figure in it. Graphics and Presentation 10 of 10 Visually the game is mind blowing. The detail put into every little thing creates a tapestry of beauty that borders on a pure work of art. For an action/adventure game it looks better than anything I've yet seen and that includes the Uncharted series. Every piece of armor has intricate engraving and lighting is lifelike. Textures are detailed even with close up views. The people's faces look so realistic it's hard to describe. Ezio's hair in particular appears to have individual strands. And this is hard to believe because the first game looked amazing at the time. But they managed to build on that and maybe spent a bit too much time on it. Conclusion - Maybe rent Despite the unbelievably good graphics, it doesn't redeem the slovenly game development that was dropped in our laps. The gameplay is surprisingly much less fun that AC: BH even though it's so similar. To sum it up: the storyline sucks, the extras are non-existent, weapons are almost the same, map is smaller, graphics are better. There's less of everything aside from graphical content. I'm being generous when I give this game three stars as I really think it's closer to two. What is so painful and disappointing is how great the previous games were in comparison to this one. Stay away if you're not a huge AC fan, because this one is a money making machine nothing more. Let us hope that they dust off their keyboards and use the full capability of a multi-million dollar development company for ACIII.	video-games_xbox
The best Gears of them all and yet Epic played it safe. I am not a Gears fanboy but I have played the earlier two games and while Gears of War 3 isn't my most anticipated title of 2011, it does rank pretty high. I've been playing a considerable amount since release and I'll split my review down to the single player and multiplayer aspects of the game. This review might not go well with the fanboys and the true fans of the game but it is what it is. If you are a TL;DR person, go get the game. Buy it and enjoy it with your friends or alone. It's worth the price of the admission. Single Player: The yay part: + You finally get to play as Cole Train! How awesome is that? + The environments are varied, have more color and are lively. + The shooting and action sequences pack a lot of oomph. + Visually, the game looks better than its predecessors + Boss fights are fun + New weapons are a welcome addition + Last but not the least: 4 Player Co-op for the campaign! The meh part: - The pacing of the campaign feels a bit off to begin with. Character switches don't help - The story feels a tad weak - might be the expectations and/or the hype - Feels like more of the same. If it ain't broke, don't fix it but still... - I am not a great gamer but Hardcore mode feels like a walk in the park. Multiplayer: This is where I have a real problem with this game. The issues with the Single player are all possible nitpicks. This is where the game loses a star in my opinion. The awesomesauce part: + The maps overall are well done. + The Horde gameplay has been improved considerably. The addition of tower defense mode considerably improves the gameplay for this mode. + Beast mode is fun at least initially. + The weapons are well-balanced including the Double Barrel Shotgun despite the whining. + The reward system of medals and ribbons feels alright. The sigh part: - Matchmaking based on skill is non-existent or broken. - In a versus Execution game (Quick), I wound up on a team with 4 bots and the other team had a bunch of fast shooting players. Needless to say, I was schooled proper. Nice team-balancing there eh Cliff Buzzkillski. This has happened more than once and I am not happy about it. - I was expecting more on the map front but additional maps through DLC has become standard. - Beast mode while being a great idea feels lacking in depth. Feels a bit too short. - The biggest problem I have so far and it frustrates me to no end. Ranked matches take forever to get into and so the solution is to get into a Quick match. I walk into a match and a bot's on one side and he just won't die. I can't get into the game unless the bot dies and 3-4mins later, after the bot somehow manages to die, I get into (usually) a losing team (bots are near useless obviously). I am not sure which genius decided to not kill the bot right away (and this happens a lot) but this is one of the poorest designs I've seen in a multiplayer shooter. This has been a source of considerable frustration for me. In conclusion, I believe this game is a fitting end to the franchise. Epic might disagree and yap on about Business 101 and might make a 4th Gears game but I digress. The lingering feel is that Epic for most part decided to play it safe and it shows. Despite my continued frustration with parts of the multiplayer, this is a good game and the best of the Gears franchise.	video-games_xbox
One of the best comic book based video games ever. Have you ever wanted to be Batman? To just go into a room and kick 6 guys butts all over the place. Well with Batman Arkham Asylum you can do just that, or hit them with a bat-a-rang, or hang them from the ceiling. This game looks great and has fairly easy to pick up game moves as well. The action begins with the Batman returning the Joker to Arkham Asylum. The thing is the Joker and all the prisoners are now running the island with Batman being the one hunted. Your job as Batman is to save doctors and other innocent peoples lives if you can, while fighting tons of bad guys, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy just to name a few of the villians you will face on the island. The voice acting is perfect with Mark Hamill as the Joker and Kevin Conroy as the Batman, both actors as well as the voice of Harley Quinn returning from the animated series to reprise their roles and give the game a familiar feel. In this game the Batman is big, strong and fast. There are 4 basic combat moves but you'll need to master them to add up combos to unlock new gadgets. You can enter detective mode and use infared lenses to see enemies through walls. You can take enemies out with bat-a-rangs, explosive bat-a-rangs, grappling hooks or swing down with your batline and take a guy out with a kick. Stealth mode is just that, stealth batman, you can crouch down sneaking up on a guy then choke him out while another guy is 5 feet away and he won't hear you. The Batman is that darn good! The Riddler has hidden things in different rooms through out Arkham Asylum and he will give you clues to finding them. There are 6 main buildings you'll have to fight your way through, all the while the Joker sending wave after wave of baddies against you. There are some lip sync problems during the cut scenes, the AI could probably be a little tougher for a stealth game but overall this game is fun, looks awesome and is a true blast to play. Batmans face and suit take damage during the game so by the end he looks pretty beat up which is cool. Plenty of achievements for your gamer score should have you playing through this game at least twice. Graphics 9.0 Sound/Voices 9.0 Gameplay 9.0 Overall Amazon score 4.5 out of 5 stars.	video-games_xbox
Almost as good as gears 2 (edit. As gears 2 is my 5 for this franchise, this one has to be a 4. I didn't like the story as much, I didn't like losing certain people, and I'd rather fight conventional locust over lambent whatevers. It's neat when they blow up the first few times, but it's ultimately just an annoyance. Other than those few things, this game is among the best in it's class. Would recommend without a doubt. EDIT: I've been achievement hunting and gave this game a thorough second look. I'm changing my rating to a 5 from a 4. Between arcade, versus, and horde this game really does set itself apart from the other games in the series. It never ceases to be a challenge, and maintains form as something I really enjoy plodding through. First, I tried the campaign on insane after finally trying the end all be all gears difficulty on gears: judgement, which was honestly a lot cheaper in how it kills you when it does (A LOT of frags). The story is still engaging to me, the game play is every bit as polished as any you could mention, and beating it was honestly satisfying. It wasn't miserable, and it wasn't easy. It was a firm lesson in strategy and pacing yourself. Great campaign, and arcade mode gives that little bit of competitive edge when playing with friends to really push it over the edge into my top 5 all time favorites. Next thing I tried was versus, where the pace is obviously a bit faster. Granted, there is a firm belief that cheap shotgun blasts to unaware opponents is a skill move, and I'm going to find that to be ridiculous in any game that has that dimension, but it isn't impossible to combat. Otherwise, the versus is engaging and it does seem fairly well balanced. There's not a lot of excessive explosives, there's always a chance of surviving your encounter. It's just a matter of figuring out what it is and if you can come away with a kill in the process. Good stuff. Then I tried horde, which I can only compare to firefight from halo. Waves of enemies that become increasingly difficult through rounds. The only thing about this that I find annoying is leveling up your ability to do things like building barriers or turrets. Obviously this is overcome with a bit of time, but I'm not a fan of giving advantages to players because they played a lot. Even playing fields are the basis of competition. It's a bit ridiculous when you're in a game with someone who pulls out a rocket baring silverback when you're in there trying to lancer a platoon of heavily health boosted grenadiers. Really cod, and not a fan. Last I tried beast mode, which is honestly just tacked on in my opinion. It can be fun to run around as a berserker or corpser, but for the most part, if I play much more of this variant, it'll be for instagib melee mutator and medals if I wind up caring to go for seriously 3.0. All in all, this game is awesome, and if you're into aggressive shooters this is one you shouldn't miss out on. If you're finding it too hard, give it some time, because it's worth it to pick up a little skill in this game. It's made me stronger in the other shooters I play between the recoil and strategy involved. Don't pass on the retro, and learn to play tag.	video-games_xbox
Leaves you wanting more. <XBOX360> I have not played an open world story game since GTA Vice City because mafia stories are cool to me, but gangster street thugs are lame. Sleeping Dogs, set in Hong Kong and placing you as a highly skilled undercover police officer sent to infiltrate one of the Triads, appeared to be change of pace and ultimately what led me to purchase the game. I was immediately impressed by the large world and I could easily see the thought and effort that when into designing it. The detail and graphics were pretty amazing as well. However, I was a bit disappointed that the story mode did not take me through more of the environmental features like car jumps. I also wish there were some easter eggs or inside jokes hidden in the world. (Maybe there were, but I didn't find any outside of an occasionally clever l33t speak license plate.) These sorts of fun little sides are what would keep me running around in the world, with no missions, just for fun. The story line was engaging and I wanted to know what came next. I also happened to enjoy the open feeling I was left with from one of the last scenes. The voice acting was great, but I wished the characters could have been a little more expressive. They all seemed to have a "straight face" whether they were sad, happy, or angry. I loved the variety of remarks and insults from the general population as well as the variety of character types. The controls were easy to learn for basic maneuvering as well as fighting. The game allows you to use a loose fighting style or a more precise and target style by locking onto opponents. The combos required for advanced moves were easy to learn and execute. (For those who say the fighting style was boring, you should be playing a fighting game then which would require complex combos.) At times opponents could pose a slight challenge until you learned how to best counter their actions. The most enjoyable part of the fighting style for me was the short moments of slow motion after perfect execution giving it a very cinematic quality. I am an intense FPS player and therefore any 3rd person action usually puts me off or at least makes me skeptical. The gun play in this game is very smooth. Someone here suggested it was "spray and pray" because you have an open target radical to shoot through and I would strongly disagree with them. The shooting felt very precise to me when you were up in the action as you should be. If you were trying to stay too far away the effectiveness of your weapon would greatly decrease. The maneuverability of the vehicles is disappointing. The controls are very stiff and some vehicles seem to overcompensate giving an overall unpleasant experience driving. It took a bit of getting used to, but I still left all of the racing missions and car theft till the end. FINAL WORD: The game looks great and sounds great. The story is interesting and engaging, even if you don't have empathy for some of the characters. Controls for maneuvering, fighting, and shooting are easy to learn and execute. Driving controls and the feel of cars are somewhat lacking and can be an annoyance. Outside of collectables, I wish the game gave me more reason to freely explore the world. I do wish the side missions and main story line were more closely related. The game was easy to complete 100% without needing a game guide, Google, YouTube, or a walkthrough and this made the game very relaxing and entertaining. However, I do wish you could turn the difficulty level up if you wished. The game left me wanting more in a good way, and I cannot wait for an expansion! *Bonus Hint: If you cannot find the last lock box, head up to Victoria Peak.	video-games_xbox
Extremely Fun, But NO STORY WHATSOVER! Definantly an Arcade. Well, I played this game when the XBOX majorily lacked Mech games. It was before games like MechAssualt, Steel Battalion, etc... I poped this in my XBOX, and right from the top it was a lot of fun. But after awhile it got a bit old. Here's what I thought of the first MAJOR Mech game for the XBOX: 1) Gameplay: It's fun! You can do all kinds of cool things, beggining with turning into a jet, TONS of upgrades, rockets, the ability to use incredible fire power, and the overall fun of the game. Unfortunantly, after the first cut scene, the game in NO way refers back to the story. It is fun, but it gets a bit dull on the >12th mission (NO connection with the story) trying to now destroy a ship. You did it! Good job, now destroy that city. Good job! Now detroy that plane. Good job! Now, resist the battle tanks and protect the civilians. Good job! Mission complete, now this time...". The whole thing IS fun, but its just endless destruction. Then more destruction, then a bit more, now fly to this new base, a bit more action. It is fun, but with NO story and minimal upgrades, it gets really dull, and has almost NO replay value. And to add to all this no multiplayer, this is probably just a rent, not a buy. No story, multiplayer, and no real organazation of levels or even ability to figure out what mission your on. If u like button mashing Mech killing, this is for u. But if your also looking for some sort of story, and maybe a good multiplayer game, this isn't for u. As for the button mashing, flying Mech frenzy, its a BLAST! You can turn into a jet and fly all over the place freely, shoot rockets, machine guns, jump, etc... and its all a BLAST. Definantly a good rental, this will keep u busy for a FEW nights. 2) Graphics: Pretty good. Lots of shooting, explosions, dirt, destruction, etc...and it's brought to life pretty well. The problem I had with this was that u CANT really enjoy these graphics to their finest the entire time, as there is quite a bit of frame-rate slowdown (where when a lot is going on and the screen gets really slow and choppy). It happens so often it gets a bit annoying, and it took away largely from a great gaming experience. To finish this section, the graphics were very good, NOT GREAT, and the frame-rate slowdown was too big a deal to ignore, and it after awhile got so annoying, I shut the thing off for a few minutes. Its not 24-7, but its hard to go more than 15 minutes without seeing it...which is just not exceptable counsidering the XBOX's power. 3) Options: Where the game failed. No multiplayer, no different types of games or difficulty settings, NO way to have more than a few games. I mean, its like they just slapped this game together in less than a month. Theres a single player game with NO story, and thats it. No multiplayer, different game types, and or ways of playing the game. What would have been cool was a way to win awards, train, a few more graphics, and actual story to go by. This game was not a very good one, because of the so few options and work seemed to be put into it. Overall, this is a good rental on a night that your bored, but definantly NOT a buy unless u can find it for less than a twenty. It just doesn't go up there with the great games the XBOX has to offer, and the depth it claims to have just isn't there. A game that could have been so much more, GUNMETAL was a very good game...until u looked for more than endless button mashing and Mech power. Overall, I'd give this a 2.5 stars out of 5. Felt like a half game, not reccomended to anyone who wants more than a button masher. Hope this helped, Thx!	video-games_xbox
GET YOUR MONEY'S WORTH. If you've looked at the stock market recently, you know things aren't looking too good. Fortunately, JUST CAUSE 2 (JC2) offers a fun "game world" for you to escape to! Now considering inflation and the pathetic minimum wage, don't you feel that a game should be worth that hefty price tag? This is one game where I definitely feel I am getting my money's worth! To put it in perspective, I played 30 hours of FINAL FANTASY XIII and had nowhere near as much fun as with this game. I am only 20% complete with JC2, but have already surpassed 30 hours of game time! Am I bored yet? No. Why? -- You can do missions for 3 different factions at any time you want. -- You can liberate villages (and sometimes it's just a matter of finding all the powerup crates). -- You can liberate military bases. -- You can walk, extract, drive ground vehicles, choppers, boats, aircraft, motorcycles and utilize the parachute/grapple. -- You can hijack any vehicle, even if it's in motion! -- You can upgrade weapons and armor. Yes, the bad guys are hard to kill, but they do have body armor. The civilians die more readily. -- You can explore the whole huge map right from the get-go! -- You can find Easter Eggs like an homage to the LOST series. -- You can play this game for short bursts of time if you have a busy life -- and still have a blast! -- My top 5 things to do: 1) Take off in a jet, towing a car behind me 2) Making the bells fall down in the bell towers 3) Driving a limo through the jungle during a mission, with baddies on your tail . . . and still making it to the safehouse intact. 4) Headshots. About 1/3 of all my kills have been headshots. The other third melee and the final third is just plain sloppy shooting. 5) Poke fun at BolO San TOE Si's craaaaazy accent! On that note, yeah, the storyline is nothing special and the voice acting is funny, but it was obviously meant to be that way. This game is not trying to be "ueber-realistic". The most realistic part of it are the graphics. My goodness! They really need a camera item for this game so Rico can take pictures of the game world. The flight controls are a little hard to get used to, but after awhile it almost feels like they grafted ACE COMBAT into the game! The only other cons I have: -- The HEAT levels are a bit inconsistent. And why is it that every time I walk into a village, even if I don't do anything, violence breaks out between the locals and the Panaun Army? -- I'm playing this on a 50" screen projected by an HD20 Optoma projector. Even at this size, the text on the map legend is hard to read. -- A few glitches where you can't reach 100% for an area. This seems to be due to blowing things up from too far away. Well, I think that about wraps up this review -- it's cutting into my time with this game! Play it!	video-games_xbox
A Legend in the Making. Fallout and Fallout 2 were some ground breaking games. They were amazing additions to the wonderous variety of open end (sandbox) type Role Playing Games. Fallout 3 is no different. Now a first person shooter with the option for second, Fallout 3 is definately related to it's siblings. Even though Bethesda purchased the rights to Fallout they did not screw up this game with unfamiliar aspects. This game very much feels like Fallout and is much deserving of praise. Like every game though there are a few problems. For Fallout 3 this is mostly bugs and a few gaming concerns of mine, nothing really taking away from the awsome experience I had playing. Pros: 1. I love the sandbox style gaming. Just like it's predecesors, Fallout 3 does not require you to stay on the main quest. In fact most of the game are side quests and hidden missions along with hours of fighting, item collecting, skill honeing and plain fun. 2. The Weapon selection while not extremely large is still very impressive. Many melee weapons to choose from and a resepectable display of firepower with the guns and futuristic energy weapons. 3. You now have your own house. Fallout 3 has the options of owning your own house or penthouse with multiple themes and house add-ons. Definately a supper plus and new addition to this game series. 4. Downloadable content. Fallout three already has addon missions that can be downloaded with also the promise of more. 5. This game is definately set up for endless sequels and expansions. 6. Specialized weapons. I really like the idea of the blueprints used to create the special weapons. The repair skills and the weapons combining was also a pleasant addition. Cons: 1. This game can be short. Don't get me wrong this game in no way is short. The main storyline is great but the main mission is rather short. I understand the other games in the fallout series were like this but it seemed I was halfway through the game in my first sitting until I sidetracked from the main quest to do side missions. Not a bad one but something I was concerned with. However the downloadable content has reassured me this game will have fresh playtime constantly. 2. Small gameworld. Fallout 3 is based on Bethesda's Oblivion engine and really shows this in the game world. The game map is only slightly larger than Elder Scrolls Oblivion's. The map is of course large enough to enjoy but I found it lacking as there were only two fairly large towns and the first one you run across has the chance of being blown up by your character. I felt better about this concern when it was revealed new towns will be added in future downloads. "The Pit" being the newest. 3. I was slightly disappointed with the weapons. I think there is a great variety but it seems the melee weapons greatly outnumbered the projectile weapons. It seemed Fallout 1 and 2 had a greater number of weapons. Like my other cons this problem is solved with downloadable content. 4. I was also a little disappointed you could not have more followers. It seemed in Fallout 2 I had three followers helping me out with the fighting. I am sure there is a logical explanation for limting the followers to one and your pet Dogmeat. Not a real downer but a tiny disappointment anyway. Even though I had a few concerns about this game it seems Bethesda has done great with bringing out new content in the form of downloads and expansions. I apploud this idea and give this game five stars instead of the four I was going to give until I discovered the downloadable content. Again Bethesda has really done a great job in giving gamers another fallout and also following up with expansions and addons that should make this game stay in the light for years to come. The possibilities of endless involvement in the Fallout world has been open and Bethesda deserves an A for excellent game mastering. -Mike	video-games_xbox
Max killed himself as he faced another tedious maze. Having recently bought an X-Box there were a few games that I decided to buy after reading the hyped reviews. It could even be said that some games fall into the so-called "classic" family of games; Max Payne was touted as one. I got this pretty cheap so bought it based on the recommendations and glowing feedback. Well let's say I half hated it and half liked it (Not loved it). I only just like it a bit more than I hate it, and I think after beating it to the end I'll either trade it in, sell it, or let it sit for days when I just want to play a couple of levels shooting people and nothing more. What really killed the enjoyment factor of this game for me is the awful writing and faux - ( for kids, this means fake ) - wanna-be, Raymond Chandler-esque storyline. I have pretty much everything Chandler wrote on my shelves at home and let me tell you I was turning in my grave... I ain't even in it, yet. Lord knows what Chandlers thinking about now. Some of the dialogue was beyond lame and it just bogged down into drivel; tedious at that. There was many a time that had I not needed to find out where in the story line I was, I would have happily skipped the cut scenes with dialogue. Yuck factor 9.5. Then the biggest thing to kill the pleasure of this game, the coup de grace of annoyance and rage that formed a hatred in me for this game... THE MAZES!!!! and the BLOOD LINES!!!! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... There was nothing more tedious, pointless, plot destroying and just plain stupid than these devices. I saw no point in totally slowing down the pace of the story with these idiotic drug and dream sequences. Running along in darkness with the aim of jumping and balancing for loooooooong periods of time with controllers like the X-Box type made me hate this game more than anything else! Everytime I got a whiff of a pending dream sequence I could feel my blood pressure rising. I have actually paused the game in the middle of another blood line sequence in part three, to come and write this review. My hatred of these sequences is so strong it compelled me to write this review just to warn people that this is what you have to look forward to as a reward for getting through the tougher parts of the game ... not that it's that tough, but wheres the rewards?! Instead they want to torture you with these mazes that drone onnnnnnnn and oonnnnnnnnn. I'm giving the game a 3 for the actual shooting aspects as I enjoy the gunning and running. If I could give the game 2.5 I think this would be more realistic. I don't even want to buy Payne 2 because I am so put off by the mazes in this game. I also think the game has saves in some really stupid places which makes you tediously repeat some sections over and over when you have come a long way through them. I hired GTA 3 the other night and this is my idea of a game... Max Payne is fun and yet tedious; the fun is good fun but the tedium is too much. I don't mind mazes either, I've played and loved Prince of Persia which has awesome mazes. Max Payne is pretty much, Max PAIN in the *SS. If you like it that way then then your in for a real treat!	video-games_xbox
Just watch the movies - it'll be a more engaging experience. Big Jurassic Park and dinosaur fan in general. So I'll try out just about any dinosaur-related game, even if I know it's bad. This game is beyond bad, it's not even a game. You just watch it and hit the occasional on-screen prompt. Some people might want to classify this as an "interactive movie" more than a video game. But there are good quick time event focused games out there (Shenmue, Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, etc.) that are actually interactive. This doesn't even come close to being as engaging as those other "interactive movie" games. It just plods along as you watch it. There are very few decisions to even make. The few decisions there are (like choosing which dialogue option the character says) don't have a real influence on the story outcome. There is also no meaningful interaction with the environment. Those are two of the most basic fundamentals for something to be called a video game: the player making decisions that effect outcome and the player interacting with the game's environment. And they're just not really here. It seems some positive Amazon reviewers bought this game for small children who they claim enjoy it. I could see young kids being entertained by the color, noise, and that "Ah! I pushed a button and something happened" kind of simple child-like excitement. But it's a Teen rated game, it's got some language in it. Like when one of the park keepers calls his daughter a "smartblank" while joshing with her, or a comment on how Nedry's fat blank must've got stuck in the door. I wouldn't recommend the content for young children, and I can't see anyone older than seven being truly entertained by this "game." Another warning to Jurassic Park fans: pretty much all the characters are original in a side-story that happens during and after the movie. You don't really see or "play as" or even "interact with" Grant, Malcom, Hammond, the kids or any of the characters from the film. I paid $20 to download this game from XBOX live and regretted it after the first "level." I see here on Amazon resellers are charging ridiculous amounts ($48-$75 at time of writing) for new and used copies (probably because there are so few physical copies because the game sold so horribly because it's not even a game). Don't pay that kind of money for this game. Don't pay any money for this game. Just don't waste your time with it. There are other dinosaur games out there. There are Jurassic Park games on classic systems that are actual video games. And just sitting on the couch watching the original film is far more exciting and engaging than "playing" this "interactive movie" for your Jurassic Park fix.	video-games_xbox
Eventually they'll get it right. I bought both WWE 2K14 and 2K15. My review of 2K14 can be found in my history. I rate this one higher even though I don't think most gamers do. I'm going to explain the differences. The Create a Finisher is gone. The Create a Story is gone. The roster is much better in 2K15. The NXT and Showcase modes are relatively fun. Most of what I had read must have been based around WWE 2K15 on the XBone and PS4. This is a near carbon copy of 2K14 on the Xbox 360. You can still Create Divas in the 360 version. No match options were removed, it's exactly the same as 2K14 match options. One negative is the Community Creations community isn't near as active on 2K15. You can download pretty much any wrestler you can name on 2K14's Community Creations, not so on 2K15, but there's still some good created wrestlers, especially if you like Indy wrestling. If you're into International wrestling, then you would probably prefer 2K14's Community Creations. 2K15 has 1-2 created versions of the biggest name international wrestlers like Great Muta, Cibernetico, Liger, and you're as likely to find 1 bad one for every 1 good one. I had read "limited creation functions", but that doesn't apply as much on the 360. It hasn't changed since 2K14. What has changed is how Community Creations works. On 2K14, you can download the max 100 wrestlers if you want to in one night. On 2K15 it limits you to 10 downloads per 24 hour period. There's a simple way around it, but the way around the limit doesn't work if you're downloading logos, arenas, move-sets. It's a little annoying, but the default roster had at least 20 wrestlers in it that I had to download on 2K14. The game plays smoothly, character models are a little crisper than in 2K14 and I don't feel as distracted when playing it as I did in 2K14. I kept wanting to create a story, create a finisher, I just knew I would figure out how to make a finisher that didn't look herky jerky, but it didn't work. This 2K15 has more moves since it retains all the moves from 2K14 and adds all the moves for the new wrestlers who weren't in last year's game. Since I don't watch wrestling much, most of the moves are new to me so I didn't miss the create a finisher option. Other complaints I've seen on 2K15 is the removal of custom entrance music and the custom entrances only include one generic motion. Those are both right. I usually play wrestling or even fighting games for an hour or so and it's just to relax. I turn the entrances to off. So those removed features aren't noticeable to the way I play the game. But they are gone for those who do like custom music and custom entrances. Both features were in 2K14. It just came down to me preferring this roster over 2K14's. It's a good wrestling game. I will say it's not as good as those old wrestling games on the N64. But I've been saying that about every wrestling game I've played since Wrestlemania 2000, No Mercy and the WCW vs games on the N64. This 2K15 is the better buy of the two as I ended up sinking fifty dollars in a used version of 2K14, whereas I only spent the price for 2K15 plus 2 DLCs that were only seven dollars.	video-games_xbox
Fun Combat, Everything Else Sucks. If you play games primarily for story or characters do not buy this game. If you play games primarily for a sense of exploration or to see breath taking environments, do not buy this game. If you have zero patience for grinding do not buy this game. However if you play games primarily for combat mechanics then this might be the game for you. Combat is hardly perfect in this game, but it is where this game shines, especially since each character has their own unique take on it. This game is deeply flawed, but this one aspect was enough to turn it around into an enjoyable experience for me. The other good thing I can say about it is that, while grinding is required, it isn't nearly that much. If you've ever grinded in a game and not minded that much then you'll probably be okay with its use here. Probably the most disappointment part of this game to me, is the way it discourages exploration. You keep teleporting back to your school at the end of every mission, so you keep seeing the same places. You do get your airship to fly you around to other regions (don't get too excited it's just a cutscene then teleport) but without traveling on the tedious overworld map for far too long you still can't get much of anywhere. And trust me the overworld map is tedious. You walk slow, and the random encounters there are as generic as they come. The chobo's mitigate this issue, but since you have a limited number of them and the last for a limited time, you still won't want to explore. Especially since there are level 99 enemies running around the world map. If they catch you you're screwed. They are fairly easy to avoid but to someone who hasn't seen them before newly exploring and area and getting destroyed for it it feels like an "F you" from the developers. Also you have entirely too much downtime between missions. I get they wanted something else to break up the action, but the missions are by far the best part, yet if you just jump straight to the next one you'll die. Oh and this game lacks polish in a number of small areas as well.	video-games_xbox
Good, simple, old fashioned FUNNNNN. I work in film production, and, generally, my life is very, very complicated. When I sit down with a videogame, I want something, which unlike my real life, is simple and easy to understand, accompanied by a hair-rasing adrenaline rush. Burnout 2 delivers in spades! No it's not "reality based", but hey, I have a real car for that. What it is though, is internally consistent, so its fantasy physics quickly become believable. I also love the linear stucture. Too many games now are "open ended". To me that means lacking in structure, lacking in tightness. Burnout 2 has only one difficulty level in its chamionship mode, and really only one way to get through said mode, but with perfectly ramping difficulty, and a wonderfully well thought-out variety of courses and challenges. Also great is the fact that the A.I. is NOT elastic, and will keep moving ahead if you screw up. Who likes eleastic A.I.? Why was it even invented? The graphics are not cutting edge, but they're pretty good (better than Midnight Club at any rate) and have a sense of fun and humour to them. I hated the bland, greyish boxes they called "a realistic city" in Project Gotham. The places in Burnout 2 may not exist in real life, but they FEEL much more like real places you beleive COULD exist than the various cubes supposedly representing the buildings of NYC, London and San Fran in Project Gotham. Again, if you want to drive in a real city, why not go do so in real life? Video games are about fantasy and escape no? Besides, no real city would have such perfect driving routes, as real cities were not optimized for use as video game racer backdrops. Burnout 2 also throws way more polygons at you than Project Gotham did. Who cares about perfect reflections? Your eye can't really tell (studies in 3D graphics have proven this). Here, the X box processor is focussed on tons of traffic and complicated environments with huge draw distances. THAT, your eye will perceive, and adds greatly to the sense of realism and the speed rush. Basically, if you want to have fun with your X Box, get Burnout 2.	video-games_xbox
Major disappointment. Superman Returns... Did 'you' notice flying dragons, destructive robots, flying saucers, and monsters in the movie?? No! This game has you continuously, and I mean that very much, fight against these creatures. You have to destroy them with heat vision, freeze breath, or basic attacks over and over again. Then, once in a while you get to fight Metallo, Multiple guy, Bizarro. Again, you use heat vision or basic punches, kicks, grapple moves to defeat them. Does this sound like the movie? No. The only connection to the movie that this game has are the cutscenes. Once in a while there will be Lois typing on the computer, someone tossing a newspaper with the headline "Superman defeats ____". I was hoping for a connection to the movie like Spider-man 2 had. But... nothing. Freedom? Never. Yes you get to fly around Metropolis, which looks nice, but then every minute you are stopped by an emergency. Time to extinguish buildings, defeat monsters or villains, and just make sure Metropolis's health bar doesn't reach zero. That's IT. The end of the game has something new. Stop a storm. Yay? Well, after the third time you do this, it is no longer ANY fun. No visits to the Fortress of Solitude. No major conversations between Superman/Lois, Superman/Lex, or Clark/Lois. You don't get to save Lois. The cutscene does that for you! So, does this seem like the game they promised? The fighting is ridiculously repetitive. It has Spider-man 2's XP. You fight the baddies and gain XP. Then you move on. You do NOT get to fight Lex Luthor. The cutscene does that! Anyway, the graphics are good but the gameplay is horrible. Barely any connection to the movie. No freedom. No romantic plot with Lois. There isn't even James Marsden's character! There's no Superman JR! If you want freedom, a beautiful city, a connection to a movie, flying high above buildings, saving people - then buy Spider-man 2. At least there you fight the villains in the movie, save MJ, and race the Black Cat. Please - Rent before you buy.	video-games_xbox
Good game with TONS of potential. Waiting for Brink had me very excited. The concept of it was very fresh and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Now that I have it... I'm not dissapointed but I just expected a little bit more. The graphics are good in this game. Not fantastic, think sort of Bordelands/ Team Fortress 2. I would say this game is a lot more detailed than the two though. The customization allows you to do so much with the character. Scars, tatoos, facepaint and more. There are about 12 different items to choose from in each catagory, so it'll be hard to find someone exactly the same. The maps are bright and very straight to the point. Most maps are just paths to the objectives which makes sense. You have objective 1,2,3 and they are all laid perfectly on the map. Some people may not like this though as it may get old. Gameplay is innovative but I think it may take a patch or two to get it perfect. I say this because it seems a bit unfinished. Yet with a little bit of fine tuning, this can be great! Not to say I don't like the gameplay because I like the new approach on things but it can be just a bit smoother. Such as sometimes I'll want to pull up my iron sites and it'll shoot first from the hip before pulling up. Small things though that shouldnt mess up the experience. The Parkour system works fine but will take a bit of getting used to. That is what makes this shooter unique and gives it a lot of potential. The gunplay is ok. Such as what I mentioned above, sometimes things just just don't happen as instant as you want. Could be just lag though, which I have experienced as well while playing the campaign online. So I wouldn't take any points away for this. The only full complaint I have is that the AI is HORRIBLE! If you play single player, Your teamates simply stand in a spot and shoot the other team. No movement or anything. At times they may help with the objective but I wouldn't count on it. Sound- Sound is amazing. Every weapon sounds like it's supposed too and weapon attatchments have great sounds as well. Replay Value- As far as this goes, If you want to earn every weapon attachment or even just gain more rank. You could play this game for a good 2 months before getting completely tired of it. There are about 8 maps and missions for each map. You also can play for each side (Resistance and Security Forces) campaign. Which can also add some replay value even though each mission is the exact opposite of the other factions. (ex- Security- gaurd this door, Resistance- Breach this door). With some DLC and maybe some weapon add-ons, this game will add a lot of extra time and fun, which I am looking forward to this. Conclusion- This is a great game with potential. I only hope that this game doesn't go un-noticed. For people who love team based shooters, this is definetely the game for you. If you plan on playing solo, I would probably steer away from this game. It is team base and the AI isn't good enough at the moment to buy simply for single player gameplay. This shooter is VERY team based. Medics are so essential and everyone must play together and communicate. So if you plan on getting this be ready to do those things. I would rate this game a 8/10 but can see this getting a much higher score if they fix some things.	video-games_xbox
Nice Limited Edition Console Will Delight Any XBox Fan. Nothing beats an Amazon Warehouse Deals "Used-Like New-Factory Sealed" buy! When that is the sole description you are getting a brand new sealed item in a damaged box. Got this for $347 and the box was barely damaged with the insides pristine. DOWNLOAD SPEEDS- Take into consideration that I live in the mountains and have the worlds slowest broadband. But even then the download speed from the Microsoft server to the hard drive is ridiculous. For me it was 500 Mb an hour. You heard me. An hour. Took 4 days to download Forza 6. The console needed an immediate update. Took a full day. The Rory Mcilroy Golf game needed a 10 GB update immediately. Another full day. And it slowed down my internet so much that Im couldn't stream anything during the download. Something you have to live with. COLOR- I was actually hesitant about the blue color but I couldn't pass up a great deal. Some of the pictures posted show the color to be a pretty bright blue. I think that is from using a flash. The color is actually not that bright and blends in well with my black component theater system. It doesn't stand out at all. No regrets about the color. CONTROLLER- It's a pretty nice upgrade from the regular controller. The textured finish gives it a nice firm feel. The new battery compartment gives the controller a sleeker feel from the back. The silver bumpers are nice. 1 TB Hard Drive- Enough said, but also consider that the XBox One games can be huge. An external drive will still be needed for the intense multi-game players who play a dozen or more big games. LIMITED EDITION- That it is! FORZA 6- It does come with the standard edition game plus the 10 year anniversary pack. Great graphics. Fun game. I bought this as a replacement for my XBox 360 that I used for 2 years. There is a learning curve due to the menu setups being totally different. Load times for the games are much quicker, Super happy I got this for about the same price as a black 500GB. Scoping out the listings all day for a week paid off.	video-games_xbox
Milage may vary. Take this review with a grain of salt. I love Brawler type games (ie God of War). I love green lantern and have been reading him pre Ron Marz era. The game is a fun game. The graphics and the voice overs are fairly good. I didn't notice any graphical glitches or much sound errors. However one thing about the sound, when you are playing two player co-op it gets a little weird cause Hal will talk into his ring to speak to Sinestro when Sinestro is standing right behind him. Some occasions the lines spoken to Sinestro are spoken to Kilowag. Game play is straight up brawler. You move to an area, kill a bunch of folks, then move onto the next area. Usually once you defeat all the enemies, you have to solve some sort of puzzle or a button mashing sequence to progress. Puzzles are not very challenging and can usually be solved fairly quickly. There are a variety of enemies but they tend to repeat. The game is somewhat challenging in the beginning, namely because you hit like a wet noodle and lantern energy is not replenished regularly, requiring you to use heavy light attacks. As you progress through the game you can level up, and unlock new moves and abilities through "willpower points." Willpower points are gathered through destructible items or through chaining combos. This makes the later stages alot more fun since you can 5 different types of enemies on the stage and you need different powers to take them out. The game makes using constructs easy, you can map 4 to each shoulder button + face button (aka left trigger + b will use the gattling gun). Once you progress through the game and unlock everything the game becomes very very easy. Pretty much you have unlimited lantern energy, and every fight you can go crazy. I wish there was an insane difficulty, because at this point you can just pull out your constructs and pretty much 1 shot everything (hello jet). The ground brawler sections are broken up by rail shooter segments. These are okay, and suffer from the same difficulty issues that the brawler section does. It goes from easy to very easy. Not many games have couch multi-player, but the game pretty much stays the same. To me it seems that the enemies don't get stronger at all and now with another person it becomes even easier.] All in if you want a good brawler then go for it. The difficulty level could be upped. I'm surprised that no DLC or unlockables have been included. Once you finish the play through there is not much else left to do. The game came with 2 3d glasses. These glasses are not designed for an adults face. The 3d looked okay, but nothing to write home about. This game gives me the opportunity to play as green lantern, which I have been waiting for for a long time. However as an objective video game player it suffers from the curse of being a movie tie in game. While not as bad as some of the other ones, it is defiantly no spider man 2 or wolverine. Its short enough to be beaten while rented, or pick it up cheaper.	video-games_xbox
Economical Uppercutting. If Madcatz's FightPads have one great thing going for them, it's that the controllers are roughly 1/5th the price of most decent arcade sticks on the market. Those who are interested in trying Street Fighter for the first time and know better than to try and rough it out with the standard Xbox controller should seriously consider the pad as an affordable alternative to emptying out wallets and collecting change from the couch for a TE or a HRAP. Most everyone will use this controller for Street Fighter IV or Super Street Fighter IV, games that require more practice and refinement than other major fighting games such as Soul Calibur or Mortal Kombat. With that in mind, if you aren't sure that you are committed to the game enough so to learn the combos and tactics, Madcatz's FightPad is a good way to dip in and see if you like Street Fighter without the possibility of leaving disappointed and broke. Put simply: the game is not for everyone. With that out of the way, the controller itself is similar to the terrific Sega Saturn pad, which is very good for fighting games. I disagree that the controller feels cheap, although it is extremely light even when compared to a standard Xbox controller. And just like other reviews have established: the buttons are great, the directional pad is okay. More than half of the characters in the game operate with QCBs and QCFs, which I find very comfortable to pull off with the FightPad. However, charge characters such as Chun-Li or Vega are much easier to play using a fightstick. I have had this controller for over a year now, and would likely buy another simply for its price and its portability. I usually play SSFIV on the 360, but if I'm on the go it is nice to boot up vanilla on the ol' laptop and bust some heads with yesteryear's installment. In these cases, a fightstick is bulky and a chore to pack up, while the FightPad is not can be toted just about anywhere. So, in conclusion, the Madcatz FightPad is certainly an economical and logical path to giving Street Fighter a shot, as its shortcomings are greatly overwhelmed by its low-price point. Cheers.	video-games_xbox
Most Innovative Game Ever. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is the second game in a series of three (to date). It is available for XBOX, Play Station 2, PC, Game Cube and Game Boy Advance. This review is in reference to the Xbox version. The game is set in 2006: a corrupt guerilla militia attacked the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. They now occupy the building and have taken dozens of hostages. This is where you come in, but not to save the hostages. There are top secret documents located somewhere within the embassy: you must find and destroy them before the terrorists have a chance to get hold of them. Building on the enormous success of the original Splinter Cell game, Pandora Tomorrow once again pushes the boundaries beyond expectations. All areas of the game - the lighting & shadowing, animation, physics and sound design have been boosted to create an even more enveloping environment to play in. The single player game is nothing short of fantastic: it boasts a set of new hi-tech gadgets for you to play with as well as new moves to help you evade and engage your enemies. However, the truly groundbreaking aspect of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is the Multiplayer mode. The only game of its kind, the Splinter Cell's multiplayer mode pits two on two in a very unique way; two stealthy, agile spies with third person perspective against two armed & deadly mercenaries in first person view. You wouldn't think it would work as well as it does, but it's perhaps the most well balanced multiplayer game ever made. Mercenaries may have lethal weapons, but spies are faster, can climb, hang and break your neck. Spies can move more quickly through the shadows, but mercenaries have an available motion tracking vision. Mercenaries have motion tracking but spies have hidden routs to travel unseen, etc. etc. etc. - it is this type of counteractive system that is applied to every facet of the MP experience. It's extremely addictive and even more fun than it sounds. A wide variety of maps are available to choose from, all of which are incredibly well designed. Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow is not a revamp of the original, but is an original itself.	video-games_xbox
A fun game, but some major flaws prevent it from really soaring. As someone who has some experience with the guitar, I was very intrigued by the idea of GUITAR HERO with a real guitar. Most people will be relieved to hear that this game does what it sets out to do and teaches guitar successfully. This game does the majority of things very well but a few issues keep me from awarding it 5 stars: 1) Inability to customize difficulty. The auto scaling difficulty was frustrating because I have had previous experience with guitar and was getting sick of the watered-down version of play that everyone starts on. I was anxious to scale up to more realistic guitar play, but never scaled up soon enough. I feel that the game should let players choose a difficulty or the developers should tune the auto scaling of the difficulty differently. 2) Colorblind individuals may experience some difficulty as each string has a color associated with it and the colors chosen are close enough to each other to confuse. Also, the screen is laid out in an inverted form of guitar tablature and may lead to more confusion if you have previous experience with tablature. 3) The pacing of the game could use some work. Although similar game pacing is present in games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, this game is slower in pace. In career mode, you have the choice to play ~2 songs until the ~5 songs in the set are complete. Then to progress, you are forced to play the five songs in uninterrupted succession with encore songs added at the end. This can lead to fatigue and sometimes sucks the fun out of the experience. Although great game, I worry of the consequences of learning from this game as I felt as if I was using a different part of my brain playing Rocksmith than when I was playing guitar on my own. I felt this game was more of a reflex game where playing guitar is more than that. Although I may seem to be criticizing the game harshly, there absolutely are many great moments where you are actually playing the full guitar part for a song you enjoy and those moments are the real enjoyment of the experience.	video-games_xbox
Back to 1942. Last year I was playing COD4 like it was going out of style, and still am. However my time playing it has been cut a bit due to the excellent offering by Treyarch. A lot of people bagged the game before it came out due to the setting, WWII. This may be a big deal to some, but not to me, and if you like FPS than it shouldn't matter to you either. The game, at it's core plays eeirly similar to Modern Combat. The controls are the same, the engine is the same, and the leveling in multiplayer is the same (well almost). Now, with the obligatory Modern Combat reference, and the mentioning of the WWII setting out of the way I can give you some pros and cons. The Pros: Graphics: Absolutely beautiful. Some of the best water and lighting I've seen. Some people may dis agree, but I think it is stunning. Gameplay: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The controls are responsive, and tight. Co-Op Campaign: Something COD4 did horribly wrong, 5 does right. Up to four players killing Nazis! For those of you without LIVE you'll be able to play two player co-op locally. Zombie Mode: Beat the campaign and you and up to three other friends will be put in a barn to fend of wave after wave of Nazi Zombies. One of the best parts of the game. Death Cards: You'll find these scattered throughout the game. It's not just simple find and collect them all, they each do something to alter gameplay. Find the first card and you'll be rewarded with a "Exploding Headshots". So instead of your standard headshot, watch the head explode like a freaking watermelon. Multiplayer: Now if you have LIVE, you're gonna love it. There are some quirks which have been mentioned. Namely spawn points. However, it's not enough to detour you if you enjoy competition. Leveling up (by gaining kills) is as addictive as it was last year. Now the Cons: Campaign: The length is the only problem. The story is passable, but it goes by way to fast (unless you play on veteran, which is recommended). You'll get through it in about 6-10 hours depending on your skill. Vehicle Levels: This is my own personal bias, but I hate vehicle levels in shooter. All of them. Whether it's Gears of War, COD4 or COD5, I just can't stand them. I think they disrupt the game. I didn't come here to drive a tank, I came here to shoot you in the legs with a shotgun. Enemies in the campaign: Just like COD4 the enemies never stop spawning unless you reach a certain point in the level, kind of a pain. That, and on higher difficulties there is an insane amount of gernades being thrown which makes for some frustrating moments. That's really it. It's a great shooter, not quite as good as COD4 but it's in the same league. This game has gotten an unfair stigma just because of the setting. In my opinion it's unwarranted. If you liked COD4 you'll like COD5. If you like online multiplayer, you'll like COD5. If you like killing zombies in a barn with friends, you'll like COD5. If you don't like the aforementioned, or you want more of a single player expierence, this probably isn't for you.	video-games_xbox
Spend the extra 300 bucks and get this. I very nearly bought a cheaper cockpit, namely the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/GTR-Simulator-GT-Model-with-Real-Racing-Seat-Driving-Racing-Simulator-Cockpit-with-Gear-Shifter-Mount-and-Single-Monitor-Mount/dp/B005CLU138/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">GTR Simulator - GT Model with Real Racing Seat, Driving Racing Simulator Cockpit with Gear Shifter Mount and Single Monitor Mount</a>. It's a decent cockpit, reviews are OK, but you can tell by looking at it that it's a lot less stable than the RS8. Another reason I bought this instead is that the TV placement relative to the driver is much closer. So I was able to buy a 43" TV and get the same viewing angle as if I had bought the GTR and a 50" TV. Another big reason I opted for the RS8 was the tubular frame with built in cable management. Reviews and videos of various driving cockpits made me want to poke out my eyes with all of the wires laying around. With the RS8 I was able to route all of the cabling internally and it looks great in my game room. The console holder behind the TV is genius. There's an Xbox in the photo, can you see it or it's cabling? Nope. Important to note that this RS8 is the 05. If you Google reviews for the RS8 you might see some of the 04 model which had space issues with certain pedal brands. With the 05 they have resolved that completely. The chair is comfortable, and with the velcro side padding removed even a big guy like myself (240lbs) can sit comfortable and game for hours. Also, assembly was dead simple. The instructions provided are basic, but almost not even necessary. A few cons however, nothing worthy of docking a star. The driving wheel bracket is very nice in that it is very articulated and allows for exact placement. It's also very prone to working loose and I'm still trying to find a solution for that. When folks get up their natural inclination is to brace themselves on the wheel, and it invariably ends up moving itself loose. Same thing with the shifter arm - I've had it get pushed loose several times as well. For the wheel bracket I will very likely fabricate a replacement.	video-games_xbox
Great/Large Size/Comfortable/Great Noise Cancellation. My husband has a Playstation 4 and he loves to do gaming late at night with his friends or other people that are playing. When I saw these gaming earphones, I thought that they looked like something that my husband would like. I placed the order and these were shipped to me quickly. Now, I do not game at all, so I am relying on my husbands input completely for this review; however, can tell you that if I could make my own pillow, it would be made out of the padding of these headphones! These are SO soft and seem incredibly comfortable. My husband had used these each night this past week, and he said that these are fantastic. He said that they are comfortable to wear for a long period of time. He likes that they cancel outside noise very well, and the microphone works great too. He said that he is surprised that these are on the larger size, and due to that, they fit his large/average sized head well and the ear covers cover his ears completely so that he can hear others talking well. The color changing feature is great and my husband looks cool wearing these! I received this product (very kindly) for free during a special promotion. I treat each product that I review as though I paid full price for it. There are many up-and-coming companies with new products that they want people to test and review so that they can have their name and product out there. I always give my honest review of a product (good or bad) in order to give those shopping on Amazon my best opinion of a product that they may want to check out. I too am an avid Amazon shopper and I value the opinions of those taking their time to write an honest review. My review is not influenced or manipulated and I am not paid to write this. I hope that I have answered some questions and that my review was helpful. Please feel free to send me any questions related to this product; I will try my best to answer them for you. My review, thoughts, and opinion are unbiased and 100% that of my own.	video-games_xbox
All Killer-No Filler. Ubisoft Montreal has once again put their collaborative effort into stealth action. The result, a title that pushes innovation and graphical abilities of the XBOX. Splinter Cell chaos Theory once again ups the ante on reallistic stealth action. Taking its cue from normal mapping titles such as Chronicals of Riddick and Doom 3, Chaos Theory presents some of the BEST art direction in any gaming experience. Real time lighting effects are once again perfectly pulled off, surfaces all have a distinct look and everything has an impressive level of detail. Another feature is the physics engine included in this installment. NPC's now have a hightened sense of reallism instead of an animated look. Chaos Theory also features an impressive library of sound files. Enemies have relevant lines when they become suspicious and communicate with each other to find you. CT's sound engine adds a new depth to gameplay with "sound masking" Sound masking allows machinery, as well as ambient background sounds to drown out some of Sam's movement. Much like the photosensitive bar which shows you your cover, you now have a sound bar which shows you how much noise you can make. Although the game is fiercly enjoyable, I've encountered only one bug. There are times when too many sounds are being played at once and the sound engine pauses to play a new sound. If you're sneaking though a room with a radio playing, and a machine humming and you whistle to get the enemy's attention, all the sounds stop-the enemy says something-and the music and humming starts again. Considering how taxing CT is on the system, this is hardly a fault, just noticable. The Gameplay is perfect. I must have done the first level four times over just to take in what the game has to offer. Enemy AI is vastly improved on and offers a good challenge. Most people who have never played a Splinter Cell game would think sneaking around from shadow to shadow, subdue-or kill-gaurd, lather, rinse, repeat would get boring. Although sneaking around is the best way to get through the game, there are always new situations and the player never gets bored. One complaint from past SC titles was how weak Sam's guns are. "Was" past tense. This time around, the guns have more of a lethal sense and the game supports run and gun-its not impossible, just harder. Echelon agent Sam Fisher is also more of a lethal character this tme around with the inclusion of a knife and usage of environmental hazards. You can now knife a character, throw them over a cliff or ship rail or ledge etc... New improvements on the game include hacking, EMF vision mode and OCP pistol attachment(disrupts lights, computers, radios for a few seconds) Overall, with new moves, gadgets and an engine makeover, Chaos Theory once again proves itself a heavy weight champ. If you're looking for an anime/X-files inspired goofy stealth game, pass this one up and get a copy of Metal Gear. Gamers who want to immerse in a believable plot, reallistic gameplay and stealth action suspense should pick up Chaos Theory ASAP.	video-games_xbox
Madden 13 breaks the mold.. sets new path for franchise. Since I was a sophomore in high school, this time of year always brought with it something very special for me. I've sacrificed many things for Madden over the years. Food, libations, school books, car payments.. you name it and at some point I probably sacrificed funds allocated for it to make sure that I can get Madden Football every year on launch day. I grew up with the game and it's a part of pop culture for many of us 1st generation gamers. But the road has been long for the series and as of late, very winding. Over half a decade now since the next generation consoles were released and a large part of the customer base has been unhappy with the effort put forth by what is suppose to be the flagship franchise for EA SPORTS. The game has shown very little innovation over the last 5 years and more had been taken away from previous generation feature sets than had been gained by graphic enhancements and platform upgrades. Trying to understand this from a consumers stand point has been a very difficult process. We've watched other titles like FIFA, NHL and NBA2k constantly push the envelope of what is possible in sports gaming while Madden seemed to struggle with direction and creativity. I can honestly say that with Madden NFL 13, EA SPORTS has finally put it's best foot forward and is pushing this game back to the front of the pack in the sports gaming landscape. I believe that this new Madden team, with guys like Roy Harvey and Josh Looman, fully understands what it takes to compete in the marketplace and what the future of Madden gaming should look like. Madden feels like a new game to me for the first time in 5 years. Let's start with the biggest change in the title this year, Connected Career Mode or CCM. Ever since Head Coach 09 was published, the hard core Madden community has fantasized of a world where we would see that depth, that level of immersion and control, find it's way into Madden. This year Josh Looman was given the opportunity to do just that. Connected Career Mode is an all encompassing game mode that takes the place of Offline Franchise, Online Franchise and Superstar with one robust, diverse and very engaging career mode. The concept is part Franchise Mode, part RPG and completely ridiculous in depth. I think in some ways, almost TOO deep for your average Madden gamer. Perhaps even your average hardcore Madden gamer.(looks around suspiciously). Luckily they have added in some one button automation for some of these tasks, otherwise you could spend literally hours trying to make sure you cover all your bases in between your actual games. Every week this year you will have to.. * Progress each of your players manually by allocating their XP over all their ratings categories(you can globally auto progress if you want) * Scout college recruits individually by ratings categories. * Complete practice scenarios that will earn you valuable XP towards your Coaching goals * Manage your coaching schemes and related XP distribution. (for coach mode CCM) * Manage all contract negotiations with upcoming free agents. * Negotiate all proposed trades (cpu or human) * Manage your teams trading block. * Pre-season tasks also include cut down days Your ability to complete these tasks in the most organized, creative and efficient manner will dictate how your franchise will stack up over the years to your peers, CPU or otherwise. In fact, that is a large part of what Connected Careers is about. Not just about connecting the game modes together, but a deeper connection to the game and the greats that have played in the NFL in the past. Your career is constantly evaluated against others in your league, but also against the legends of the game, giving you incentive to strive for respect among the greatest football players of all time. Let's start with some basics, because you might be overwhelmed at this point. CCM has two modes. Player mode and Coach mode. Player mode puts you in the place of either a current NFL player, a historic NFL legend or you yourself imported into the NFL as a player through the gameface technology. Admittedly, I have not played much of CCM in this manner so I will defer to others to give you a more in depth perspective here. I will say that it is a full featured first person mode encompassing a lot of the features I'm about to go over in Coach Mode. Coach mode is the long awaited replacement for the stale Franchise and Online Franchise modes that Madden had offered up the last few development cycles. 32 teams, acting as individual, competitive entities with tact and organization, all striving to build a championship teams. That is the type of experience we all want to be a part of. For the most part, it's now at your fingertips. I say "for the most part" because they had to sacrifice a lot of legacy features to get there. NCAA import draft classes, roster editing, multi-user franchises, ability to play any game, equipment editing... all gone. It's a hard pill to swallow when you consider how long each one has been in the game. It takes some courage in your vision to completely turn in a different direction and implement something that, you as a developer, firmly believe in. That's what CCM is in Madden 13, the basis for a new direction for the series. You can now bring together up to 32 people into one fully functional online league that rivals any game mode on the market today. Each coach will control one team in the CCM. All the goodies are there this year. Draft, salary cap, free agency are a integral part of each CCM and you have to manage them accordingly. All statistics are tracked over the games, seasons and even the careers of every single player in the CCM. There will be no need for additional stat tracking programs or websites that manage salary caps and trades. All of those features are built into the mode this year and the software and CCM website will handle it for you. This year the CCM will start with a pre-season. It's a REAL pre-season too. You will have to make roster cuts each week until you progress down to the 53 man roster limit. It gets excruciatingly tough to make those last few personnel choices in week 4. Your pre-season games will also feature the usual depth chart re-ordering in the latter quarters of the game. This allows you plenty of in game experience with the back half of your roster as you go through the cut down process. There are few bugs with this process though, as you will find your kicker punting and vice versa, if you don't have adequate depth there (and who does). You will also be able to offer trades to both CPU and Human teams (option to specify one or both) every week up until the trading deadline. These offers can also include draft picks. You can also put player on the trading block to prompt offers from other organizations who might be interested in your player. And they maybe interested, because players are rated dynamically this year. What I mean by that is, each player's overall rating can fluctuate based on what team he is on or what scheme he is playing in. A player that might not be good enough to see the field in New England might be a better fit for Green Bay and push his way into some playing time. Understanding your scheme and how that impacts everything you do in CCM is vital for success. Importing NCAA draft class maybe gone for now, but you will have a very deep experience with the new scouting and storyline mechanisms in CCM. Each week you be allocated a certain amount of points which you can utilize to unlock the ratings categories of incoming rookies in next years draft. You are given some generalities about each player like projected round, size and production in college, but the rest is up to you to find out. There are two stages to the process. The initial minimal allocation of scouting points will open up a letter grade for a category. But if you want to know the actual rating you will need to spend substantially more to unlock it. The ranges in the letter grades can be substantial. I've seen up to an 11 point difference in actual rating based on having the same letter grad. Some categories are extremely steep in point requirements to unlock. These are things like development, clutch and other highly sought after traits that could put a guy on the top of your board. You will have to spend your scouting points wisely to have a shot at feeling prepared for the draft. I found myself reaching for straws about the 4th round because I had not down a good job of focusing on later round players needed to fill a roster. Some rookies will have branching storylines that you will follow all year long through news updates inside your CCM. These storylines can vary greatly and impact a college senior's ratings throughout the scouting process. Injuries during the season and even in the combine can impact their incoming draft status and ratings. You cannot predict draft classes anymore in Madden 13. Each week you will also have to allocate some time to manually progressing your players. That's right, I said manually. There is no more potential rating. It is gone. Players only get better by performing on the field and translating that performance into ratings increases that you choose. Those increases will get progressively more expensive though, the higher the rating gets. You have to decide when your best efforts would be spent elsewhere. Points can be applied at any point in the season and you don't lose them if you skip a week. This is the point at which you will find some utilizing the auto-progress feature. To manually go in and progress each player every single week is going to become tedious for even some of the hardest core gamers. It will be interesting to see how this deep feature is embraced by the community as a whole after a few months of grinding on it every day. At the end of every season you, as a coach, will be evaluated by ownership against your contract goals and expectations. You can and will get fired if you do not meet those goals. Don't fret too much though, you can start over in the CCM without restarting the whole thing from the beginning. You do have options. If all goes well you will move into a fully functional, living and breathing live draft where all that scouting work you put in during the season can be put to good use. Trey Wingo will be hosting as you plow through 7 rounds of goodness. Trading up, trading down, you will see it all, even from the computer. Having experienced this with 10 users, it was the most fun I've had in gaming ever. The Draft is just a great time, plain and simple. Rookie contracts are slotted so there is no real negotiation process, you just agree and they are placed on you team at the pre-selected amount. Whether they all make your roster will be another story. Rookies that are cut will go out into the free agency pool. There is free agency both in season and during offseason so you will be able to fill out your roster with veterans too. CCM is stat tracking machine too. It keeps all historical and career stats and allows you to compare and contrast the careers of any players in the league as well as identify and award Hall of Fame status to retiring players every year in your CCM if they are deserving. This is the kind of depth that adds to the extended playability to a game, online or offline. One huge aspect of CCM that I have not touched on is the social media integration. EA SPORTS has revolutionized the way we will utilize twitter and facebook to connect with others in our Madden Connected Careers. There is a virtual twitter feed ever present inside your CCM where the pseudo accounts of former players, press and other football royalty will comment, praise and lament everything that is happening in your CCM. It doesn't stop there though, you can then push that virtual feed out to a real twitter account that you can then follow, thus taking the virtual out of the feed and integrating it directly with an account you setup specifically to funnel the information out to the real world. Ingenious. There is additional support for Facebook groups, but the twitter aspect really has my social media weenie going crazy. EA SPORTS has also gone the extra mile with CCM this year and built out a very extensive website at [...] that will bridge the gap between your console and your computer, integrating your experience like never before. The site is built in HTML 5 and brings you deep analytics as well as providing functional value such as providing the ability to advance your league from the web. This type of anywhere, anytime mentality has become the hallmark of Roy Harvey and his team on whatever projects they have taken on. I'm really impressed and inspired in the direction this team is headed with the online tools they are providing in Madden 13. When you look at the whole package of what EA SPORTS has brought to the table with the new Connected Careers mode, you can't help but be impressed with the effort they have shown finally. It's been a long time coming but this overhaul is complete one and something that should provide much to chew on in the coming year. The other major implementation in Madden 13 is gameplay related. The new INFINITY ENGINE is touted as EA SPORTS answer to the real time physics properties that they have been lacking in their Madden titles. This year, each player has up to 40 different tension points on their body that replicate the physics of body movement during contact. This physics model will be the driving force behind the majority of interaction animations you see and will work in conjunction with the motion capturing that EA SPORTS does for their tackle and hitting scenarios. This new engine creates a much more organic feel to the interaction in almost every instance. Blocking, tackling, catching and even after play skirmishes and pile ups show the dynamic diversity that a real time physics engine like Infinity can bring to the playing field. The engine really shines in multiple player tackles and hits. The engine is not without flaws though. You will see some odd arm angles and contorted bodies at times. Your players might react a bit violently when colliding with teammates causing runners to fall down and such. Overall though, it's a pretty solid feel for a first attempt at integrating it into the game and I can tell they have tightened it up since the demo launch. I can't wait to see how far they can push this new engine. I expect big things down the road as EA SPORTS and Vic Lugo continue to leverage this new engine in years to come. Overall, I think this years Madden will go down as the beginning of a new era for the title. It's been a long time since I could say confidently say that in a review of this title. EA SPORTS has won me back with this effort. The replayability factor with this title appears to be extremely high. It's something new, something different and something REAL deep that I think will keep me coming back all year long. I give Madden NFL 13 a 90 out of 100 rating.	video-games_xbox
A great idea that is lacking in execution. The Technomancer is one of those rare titles that gamers really need to experience themselves; it can fit equally into various camps, like "great," or "horrible" or "it's the video game equivalent of a spaceholder." Set on Mars in the distant future, step into the shoes of a Technomancer, a unique soldier that is able to blend warrior-like skills with roguish guile and electricity-infused magic. The dystopian system on Mars is rife with corruption, mutants, and tiny piles of scrap metal that are just waiting to be looted. Technomancer is not a good game, but it is not a bad game either. In fact, the best way to define it would be to liken it to a B-rated film; something so normal and generic that it is painful, but in all the right ways. One thing is for sure though and that is that Technomancer has a distinct "Total Recall" feel (the original Schwarzenegger film, or the Philip K. Dick story, "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"), and that is never a bad thing. I will not sugar coat it, Technomancer feels exactly like Bound by Flame but with a dystopian sci-fi setting rather than a high fantasy setting. In fact, I am fairly certain that Technomancer IS Bound by Flame, just in a new pair of jeans and a fancy hairdo (which may be fitting since they reported take place in the same universe). Mind you that is not necessarily a bad thing, just a bit disappointing if you had played Bound by Flame and were excited for the dirty Martian action-RPG. Like Bound by Flame, your main character (in this case, Zachariah) has three primary stances; Combat, which is essentially a sword-and-board warrior that substitutes the sword for a clunky mace, Thief which, eschews power for speed, a dagger, and a pistol, and the Technomancy stance, which is essentially a magician, complete with staff and lightning enchantments. The combat is relatively unintuitive; switch to your preferred stance and slog away. Combat is broken up slightly by going into a slow-mo mode that is essentially set for timing counters/dodges, but beyond that it is simply a matter of pressing the appropriate attack, dodge, or interrupt button at the right time; pretty standard fare. Combat is simply not fulfilling; a bit more challenge here, a bit more direction there, and things could shape up to be a bit better, however, the animations for combat are horrendous. Wooden, fake feelings, and good heavens, the stance animations are atrocious. Standing at the ready in the thief stance looks painful and awkward, as one side of Zachariah's body looks straight as a board and highly unnatural. Locking on in combat is crucial, as camera angles can be detrimental at times, yet actually targeting an enemy to lock on is a feat of Herculean proportions. More often than not, melee turned into a bout of smashing buttons in no particular order/direction hoping that you hit something while your NPC follower holds aggro. Speaking of NPC's, Spiders and Focus Home have done a right swell job on some of them (though they are no Garrus or Tali, Alistair or Lelianna of Bioware fame) and really tend to be one of the better aspects of Technomancer. Based on your relationship with the follower you can gain bonuses that can help you in your travels. Given my playstyle I am definitely drawn to Amelia, as she is a guardian (i.e. tank) and adding to her tank-like function, her passive relationship bonus is a plus to creation (crafting, which is huge in Technomancer, as that is where the majority of your gear and power comes from). Romance options are limited and are not really compelling, but for the completionists out there the option is there. Crafting ... good ol' staple of modern RPGs. Technomancer has a fairly exhaustive crafting feature, though at times I did feel that it was a bit of a slog. Admittedly I feel that way with EVERY game I play that has crafting in it (take World of Warcraft, Skyrim, or Division as examples; I rarely crafted in any of those games). You will want to go through and grab as many resources, break down as many items, or hunt for various junk piles (i.e. resource nodes) as you will be going through a TON of leather, metal, or exotic items just to get a little more out of your gear. While there are plenty of different items to craft, I do wish that weapons or gear were a bit more customizable outside of the category 1, 2 or 3 (DPS, Crit, Hit% etc.) and really ... I wish the weapons looked better. I never really felt rewarded for a crafting or finding a new wicked great staff because it was an ugly metal pole that looked rusty. Just like the staff you start out with. On the subject of the way things look in Technomancer, the one thing I loved above all else was the environment art / aesthetic. Technomancer is set on the dusty red wasteland of Mars and it works. The environment aesthetic is so spot on with "Total Recall" that I actually felt like I was running around Rubble City while Douglas Quaid/Hauser was off doing his thing with that guy that had the baby protruding from his tummy tried manipulating all of the everything. Needless to say, the world that Spiders has built in Technomancer is most certainly its shining achievement. The Technomancer is the equivalent of a cheesy 90's sci-fi action flick mashup; think Steven Seagal's Under Siege meets Jesse Ventura's Abraxas: Guardian of the Universe all set in the dusty red planet of yesteryear's classics like Total Recall or Dune. For as grand as that sounds, fans of past Spiders titles may be a bit disappointed in the lack of varied gameplay between titles. Others that are new to the universe may be a bit let down by the lack of depth, yet carried along by a decent supporting cast, an interesting and fun if trope-y story, and stellar world-building. While Technomancer may not be deep, overly fulfilling, or entirely sophisticated, it does contain an abundance of charm. Charm not unlike your favorite campy films of years gone by.	video-games_xbox
Good but flawed, NOT a must have. This was a solid enough game. I'd probably give it 3.5 stars if that were an option. First, the positives. Fantastic cast! I love each of the actors and their performances were top notch. Graphics were lifelike and very nice, with some exceptions mentioned below. Powers were cool, and the controls were decent. The story certainly wasn't ground breaking, but it was pretty cool as well. The live-action scenes were cool but I could have done without them. Not a great variety of weaponry, but ammo was plentiful enough. The not so good: Although the graphics were good, there seemed to be a glare or haze over everything at a lot of points, which got distracting. The controls, although good, had one major flaw or two. First, it felt like the character was constantly walking through mud. There was no sprint button and no melee attack. What? That's right. The only way you could do either of those things was to use one of the powers. The cover system was clunky and I didn't like it. I would have preferred a manual cover system. The power progression system was lame. You had to "find" the power up points, rather than using an experience based system. The powers were cool bet definitely not as cool as I had hoped for. The game was incredibly linear, to the point it was annoying. For example, you could NOT open 90% of doors in the game. That's right, unless it was where you were "supposed" to go, you weren't allowed to open those pesky doors. Maybe they thought you would get lost. I also had a number of game crashes, but not too many. Overall, although the game was very solid, it was definitely over hyped and didn't quite hit the mark. I'm glad I played it, but if I were you I would probably wait for the price to drop to about $40, you'll feel much better about the purchase if you do. ***UPDATE After finally finishing the game, I decided to "round down". I had originally given this 3.5 stars, but rounded up to four. After experiencing another huge flaw in the game that I forgot to mention initially--the checkpoints--I decided to drop it down to three stars. It is amazing to me that such a modern game would have a check-point and save system as idiotic as this, and that is putting it as kindly as I can. The final battle ended up being nothing short of one of the most frustrating and irritating experiences in video game history. Even though the final battle takes place in a number of stages, you have to do it ALL over again if you get killed. You go all the way back to the cut scene too. The result? It took me forever to finish the final battle because of this positively moronic checkpoint system. Trust me when I say that when you finally finish, any satisfaction or joy that you would normally receive from finishing off a game will be all but gone. You will be HAPPY it is over, and hopefully you haven't thrown your controller into the wall by then.	video-games_xbox
Best Drums evar. Amazon was the only place I could find a replacement drum kit. I called every retail outlet around. I was finally put in touch with a gamer guru at a [...] who gave me the skinny on the Rockband2 drum kit. I was told that it was discontinued. "WHY?" I cried in dismay. "Well," he said with that snooty comic-book guy attitude "Because the Rockband Beatles drum kit replaced it". "Well," says I, "I'll take one of those." He replied, again in that same self-important manner, "No can do. We don't have any in stock and we won't be getting any in stock. Ever." At this point, my frustration level is rising but still I politely ask "So, is Harmonic not going to support this game any longer? What can I do? I've got a dead kit and want to rock out man. I wanna get the band back together and go on tour. You know, groupies and crazy coke-fueled parties with the roadies. Millions of adoring fans screaming out for another encore. What can I do to get that thrill back man? What can I do to feel alive again?" He tells me "Well, you could wait for Rockband Greenday to come out. It's got a drum kit in it." Hope rising I ask "So, what's the difference between the Rockband 2 kit and the Greenday Kit." Thinking that there's going to be some kind upgrade or new feature that'll take my drumming to the next level. "Well," he says "the box is a different color."........ I'm now speechless and in a blind rage I let out a howl of frustration and hang up. I want to drum, and I want to drum NOW!! I finally resolve myself to not being able to drive to a store and get my instant fix and so I start checking on my online options. [...] - nope. Ebay - nope. Newegg - nope. Amazon - "OHMYGODTHEYHAVEIT!!" I place my order and receive my drums in a timely manner, jonesing the whole time. Suffering from restless wrist syndrome. Absently drumming on anything in reach. The kids get fed up with being pounded on their little heads and I think they are happier than I am when it finally arrives. The angels shine down from above as I open the box and set it up. I am finally made whole again. Free and complete. Ready to rock out. I call the band and we fire up a jam session. WOW!!! I thought my last kit was amazing but with this one from Amazon, WOW! My arms are a blur as they fly across the pads, sticks clicking and clacking like a madman, cymbals wobbling so hard they almost fly off as they are pounded into oblivion during my drum fills and crazy solo runs. Bliss and a total connection to the divine. A zen moment that lasts for hours as we finally come down off our musical high to realize the house burned down around us as we played. Thanks Amazon, thanks for being instrumental in my being homeless!! Oh well, at least I have my drums.......	video-games_xbox
Fantastic. Okay, I never played the original "Guitar Hero" that started this whole guitar peripheral band game thing. But I played the second at friends' houses and borrowed it once. Thought it was pretty great and lots of fun. But the first I owned was Rock Band with Guitar Hero 3. And Rock Band really did it for me. The blaring colors of Guitar Hero were replaced by mellower tones that focused more on the music. And rather than generic rockers you could make your own guy, which I had fun with. What finally got me to quit playing it so much was... I started to run out of songs. I still had some favorites I'd play: Welcome Home, Reptilia, The Hand That Feeds, Afterlife (downloaded), Black Hole Sun. But other than that there wasn't much left to do. Other than go through on the drums (boring) or five-star everything on Expert (not interested). And then here's Rock Band 2. Basically it's the same thing, but without any of the problems from the first one. There's new songs and quite a lot of them. You can make all the characters in your band and play through tour mode with a single player. Some album information is even given when selecting songs from the list. And it's still the same great fake guitar playing I loved. But what really clinched Rock Band for me (and the Guitar Hero games as well) was that it opened up to me so much music... So many artists that I'd heard of or had heard a few seconds' worth of songs from, but ones I never could give a chance. A lot of good music is represented here, forcing me to expand my horizons and really get into some stuff I should have liked already. To sum it up, if you liked the original Rock Band or any of the Guitar Hero games, this is a given. If you're new to the franchises, this is a fine place to start. (But you may want to use a Guitar Hero controller if possible. The puff of the strummer on the Rock Band model doesn't have a very good return spring, so you kind of have to hammer it on those faster songs. The Guitar Hero controller has a more noticeable click and a fast response so I prefer it. Some people may think differently, however.)	video-games_xbox
Great Game For A Simpsons Fan. In my opinion, this is a very good game, especially considering the fact that I am an avid admirer of the Simpsons. This game is among the best Simpsons games ever made. It is like a combination of action, adventure, and sports all in one. Adventure through all of the various parts of Springfield in this Grand Theft Auto-like game. This game is packed with all sorts of little Simpsons humor and you will learn a lot about the world of the Simpsons. You pick up trivia from every corner of this game to make sure that there is not a boring moment. There are many different kinds of things to do in this game. What you do will reflect your personality. If you love cars, you will journey through the game and try to collect all sorts of vehicles, trying to find the one that feels perfect just for you. An interesting part of this game is that all of the cars come with their very own rating. There are ratings for speed, acceleration, toughness, and handling. Choose the car that best fits your style of play. Journey on the safe side of the law and pick a car that you can go slowly in with nice handling to avoid accidents and run-ins with the police or take a ride on the wild side and get the fastest car possible to cause carnage all over Springfield. For those video-gamers who love a good challenge, this game has all sorts of tough bonus missions making you sit there and try your hardest to complete them. The scenarios in this range from peaceful suburban neighborhoods with law abiding citizens, (with the exception of the player) to jam-packed cities breeming with all sorts of colorful characters and vehicles. Each level features a different character (some levels make you play with a previous character) with a total of 7 levels in the whole game (don't let the small number of levels fool you, they take a long time to complete). There are all sorts of little things you have to do to complete each level 100%, but you can get through each level by completing just the primary missions of the level. To 100% all of the levels, you need to destroy all sorts of things, find hidden objects, and complete all sorts of bonus missions. The missions in this game feature skills that you need steady hands for. These include chasing, tailing, destroying, and rushing along. This game boasts a vast amount of mystery when it comes to the plot. It is exceedingly eccentric, but will still keep you wanting more. The entire game is shrouded in mystery. The last level features a creepy surprise that you will have to play the game to find out. Overall this is a very good game that I am sure all Simpsons fans(and most others) will greatly enjoy.	video-games_xbox
Disappointing and awkward. I have spent many, many, hours and days playing the original Halo. Exploiting every bend in the rules and getting to know the game unreasonably well. I bought this game because the reviews said it was good... You do have better graphics, and updated menus and music. But the magic of the original Halo is lost. The music is wrong. It sounds like it was done on a budget with a highschool orchestra and choir. And like someone decided to spruce it up a bit with their own awkward touch. Sub-par. The graphics and visuals are lacking in my opinion. In the opening scene, just look at the stars. There are too many! And purple! There is also no depth. I remember playing Halo 3 for the first time and marveling at the depth of color and detail. Halo CE Anniversary seriously lacks this. And the art. I have always admired the art in Halo games. Bungie did an amazing job keeping things seamless and beautiful. 343 just seemed to slap this one together. Speaking of slapping it together... Transitions, in music and video, are terrible. Choppy and cut at awkward times. I understand it's hard, but it's worse than the original Halo CE! There is no exploitation (in the classic Halo sense) available. You walk too close to a rock, and before you get there, you run into a barrier. Seriously? You could literally drive right up on-top of the map in the original. There may be something to find in this game. But the personality, the magic... It's gone. I am seriously sad. But hey, I should have known Microsoft could never live up to Bungie... Bungie must have kept all the good developers... Reach multiplayer? Seriously? Halo CE Multiplayer was (and is) ... I don't even have words. And the opportunity to play it on Live??? Missed? mmmmmmoving on. Too angry. I will play this game through once. And then I will go back to the original. I care more about the overall original experience than half slapped-together graphics and music that somehow make the game worse. I miss Bungie. More than my ex girlfriend.	video-games_xbox
Great for Alice fans. Review of the American McGee's download as well. Fourteen years ago, I was introduced to American McGee's Alice. I longed for it and finally got it in 2003. I dearly loved the game and played it through so many times that I lost count. When Madness Returns came out, I was ecstatic. First, when you buy the game new, there is a free download of American McGee's Alice. I was absolutely jumping for joy. I had gotten a new computer that was not compatible with the PC version from 2000. So getting to play that game again was seeming to be a big thrill for me. I bought the game used and as such, the free download had been used. I bought the download through Xbox Live. It wasn't that expensive. I loaded it up and was giddy to play it again. Then I got a bit disappointed. Here's why.... Madness Returns is formatted for console games. McGee's isn't. The controls are clunky as all get out. They're no different from the PC version, except that you use Y, X, B and A. Along with the triggers and such. Her health runs down just a quickly as it did back 2000 as does the blue meter for her weapons. If she jumps from too high she dies on impact. There is no double jump and targeting enemies is difficult. For nostalgia purposes, I like playing it. The imagery is very dated due to the same graphics being used but it's still creepy and very Alice. Being a casual gamer that does not spend hours upon hours trying to beat a game or learn the nuances, I'm glad that I knew what I was getting into in the first place. If I were playing this game for the first time, I would be disappointed in the way that the older game is presented. It's a PC game put onto a console. The thing that is really irritating about American McGee's Alice on Xbox 360 is that the Boss Battles are a bit more complicated for the clunky controls. MADNESS RETURNS Alice Madness Returns is a great installment. The imagery is amazing with the updated graphics. And rather than being just a revisit of the first game, there are new areas and places to explore. The only problem is, it gets really repetitive. There are no Boss Battles. A tease of one happens in the Hatter's land, but that's it. It's not a hardcore horror game, though it is rated M for a reason. This game is definitely not for children or for those that don't like blood and violence. There is a very sinister undertone to the game surrounding the fire that landed Alice in the Asylum in the first place. And that undertone is revealed in full close to the end. It's a very disturbing element and it's something that some might find in poor taste. All in all, I find this game to be enjoyable. I have played it through multiple times. I will recommend that if you can, purchase the dress and weapon add - ons. They are very valuable when facing certain foes. The more powerful weapons make it easier to dispatch multiple and annoying opponents. It's' a good game that is well worth it if you're a fan of Alice.	video-games_xbox
Overhyped Game Backed Up By FanBoys FLAWS LISTED. This is one of the most overhyped game I've seen. Commercials and trailers give the illusion of an epic game, but this game is no where near being epic. I asked a few folks to rate this game from a scale of 1-10. A lot of them gave it 9s or 10s. I asked if the graphics and gameplay was THAT great to justify for the high score and many of their responses were "yeah, but I rate it based on how I enjoyed it, but the game was filled with flaws especially the console version. So this review goes for the console version (x 360). I've spent about 70 hours altogether thoroughly exploring and taking my time playing the game and I have to say it is very similar to knights of the old republic and mass effect 1 in terms of control. The plot is similar to the typical medieval setting, reminds me a lot of lord of the rings because think: Dwarves, elves, orc like creatures? Dragons don't exactly help originality here. So for all those fanboys out there that rave about the game, I'm here to douse out your lame mediocre inducing flame about this game that is far from a 10, I mean it'll probably be a 10 if the highest score was 100. FLAWS (hopefully more patches will come out to alleviate some of these problems): UPDATE#1 1a. Just found another flaw to add to the list. You can't manually dodge attacks. Like in real life, if someone swings a sword at you and you back out of the range of the swing, it should miss you right? Not in this game. Spells follow you even though you move aside like it has a heat seeker built into it. The minute a melee character starts their attack on you, it's too late to even try to move aside because you can be 10ft away and the game will still register it as a hit. So try it, stand in front of a person with a sword and as soon as they start their swing, back off. You still get hit as you're running off....even if you're 5-10ft away... 1b. I agree with those ppl that say the end battle is too hard. It is exceedingly harder than any battle you've faced in the game, especially to the average player lacking any outside help like faqs and guides. Even the hardest battles in the game is nothing compared to the end battle, so even if you feel like you're doing fairly well throughout the game, the end battle will catch you offguard. Ridiculously hard. UPDATE #2: Main character has no voice acting. Everyone else has it except you, why does this make no sense whatsoever? 1. One of the biggest flaw in this game is the lack of exaggeration, facial and body animation and expression. No way can any game lack so much basic fundamental animation and still be declared anywhere above even a 6. Please play this game and see it for yourself. Example: You walk into your house and found everything gone. A real person would react in a sense of disbelief and a look of horror would be seen in their facial expression - a distortion of their facial features etc. Their body expression and movement would be an exaggerated by wild movements to the circumstance - flailing their arm about wildly, shaky legs due to fear, falling due to clumsiness caused by fear and not thinking correctly etc etc. However, in this game, the animation would be a significantly washed down version where the person's facial expression looks plain but with his mouth open at the most. He would stand there like a dope and the only further evidence of horror would be the yelling that came out of the hole in his face. Play this game and watch carefully at the animation. Look at their face and body movements. Now, pretend if you were in their circumstances or ask yourself: "How would a real person REALLY react if they were in that situation?" Sorry, but this game is washed out. Graphics and animation in this game is done to the bare minimum. 2. Graphics. Subpar at best, especially to the caliber of graphics there are nowadays. I'm not talking about the art, I'm pretty sure the game was suppose to look the way it's suppose to look currently, I'm talking about the quality of their graphics. The graphics in this game has not advance NEARLY far enough to justify any positive remarks to it. It is not even worth talking about. Smooth binding in the graphics is horrible. Watch as the characters walk, their legs go through their clothing sometimes. That is one of the most simplest and basic of mistakes and this game just takes the cake. To anyone that think the graphics is alright, check out other games that recently came out. GOOD GAMES, sorry but this game is a disgrace. Makes me want to get a PS3 just to play God of War 3, totally smash this game in every aspect. I know some PS1 games that'll still smash this game. Believe it or not, there's actually floating characters in this game. I've witnessed it twice, just noticing a character in town just floating 20 foot up in the air.... 3. Lame storyline. It has a typical plot, beginning through end. You basically play this whole game knowing the exact outcome of it. There are some variations, but the kind of twist this game has to offer is hardily worth a second glance into. 4. Battle system for the console version is not smooth and I would find it hard to deal with especially during battles that require a smooth battling system. Lets all admit, lags and delays kill. Play the PC version if you can, it's significantly better in my personal opinion. Example would be you having to babysit after selecting a skill. Usually when you play, if you choose a skill, you should be at least confident that your character will listen to your command and use the move. However, there is a slight delay and sometimes your character will ignore your commands to use it completely. Many times in this game you'll have to double or triple select moves to make sure they even use it. In the game you are also able to make your teammates hold their positions or follow you. However, changing between either will cause a slight delay in which all your characters are very temporarily stuck in place helpless. This isn't all that bad unless of course you have a horde of enemies on their way or already surrounding you, a one second delay or so can hurt you, especially when it happens over and over again. 5. Can't delete save files in game.....you have to go into your system memory....I mean what the heck? 6. This one is either me or maybe it is for everyone. I find the navigator for the map useless many times. You know the one that shows you where to go and stuff. Many times it doesn't. I would definitely like the type of quality objective navigation system found in Oblivion. I don't recall even being able to add navigational marks on the map to help me navigate it. 7. There's some sexual content in this game, but oh boy is it corny and embarrassing. 8. The game should be a bit more clear with choice outcomes, some in which will cause you to lose teammates. I mean losing a teammate that you mainly use a lot in most if not all of your battles is a very serious thing and I just think the game, even though it is RPG, should at least give you some hints at least when it comes to serious choices like that. 9. Horrible character development. Throughout the game, I don't think you'll find one single character that you'll be really attached to other than using them in battle. Alistair, for one, is one of the most annoying characters in the game. If you were a woman character, you have the choice of romancing him. However, how can you romance a person that you want to hate so much? Play the game and find out. I'm glad it is just a game, too. 10. When you gear up your character and you're not talking to them, you see their gear on them. But when you talk to them, suddenly all of their gear disappears and they appear in their default gear. This game is pact with these little flaws which in the end equals a giant big massive blunder. CONCLUSION: This game is fun in many ways, however, if I had the choice again I'd opt for the PC version. More angles to use, less game killing glitches, less obvious flaws, etc. After playing it, I have to say I'm sorely disappointed because I was expecting an epic game filled with epic boss battles. Sorry, but after you play God of War on the PS2, these games are just blah. They all need to learn the definition of EPIC-ness. Epic, in my book, means a moment that you'll always remember. A moment that put you in the edge of your seat, your heart beating fast, your eyes wide, your hands gripping remote. And when it is over, you have this good and bad feeling in you. Good cause you just played the most awesome and time worthy game ever and bad because it ended and you wanted more. This game just doesn't have that. I'm glad I'm through it, it was sort of fun, but boring many times.	video-games_xbox
An Excellent Entry in the Alien Franchise. The reviews for this particular game have been inconsistent and while it can be confusing at times I think it's easily explainable also. It's a very niche game. On one hand it's not fully a third person shooter and on the other it's not totally a survival horror game. Yes, you spend much of your time evading/hiding from the Alien. Yet, it's still an action game. What polarizes the game and in my opinion creates reviews that are all over the place is the games uniqueness: It's an Alien game. It's an Alien game in the sense that it captures the fear and victory of the first movie. For several years the video game industry has been treated to the James Cameron flavor of the Alien Universe: mowing down waves of Xenomorphs and in a sense that is proper for the sequel to the original Alien. What Isolation gets right is that it captures the first movie: the Alien is the perfect organism and it's bent on taking you and any other human out. It's bigger than you are, stronger than you are and if you are smart then you may survive. What I appreciate most about Isolation is that it prioritizes fans of the Alien franchise. In my opinion the creators of the game worked very hard to make Isolation rewarding for people familiar with the Alien universe, remastering the Alien soundtrack and hiring the original cast to record easter egg audio files, creating the low-fi feel of the first alien in the game. It was not a lazy effort in any respect and full care was given to make the entry believable in the Alien universe. That being said I will break down what I did like and didn't like in the game: Cons: -The Alien AI isn't totally 'smart'. It would frequently hound me despite not giving it a reason to, obviously spawning in my area to create the tension. -Back tracking can be tedious. Push this lever then backtrack across the map to push that button then head back to the lever type stuff. -Some random spawning of enemies can be frustrating later in the game. I understand that it was an effort to increase the challenge towards the end of the game but... -It's a bit too long. At nearly 20 hours it can simply outstay its welcome and could have been brought back to around 15 hours or so as some 'errand-boy' objectives could be done away with. Pros: -It absolutely nails the feeling of the first Alien movie. From the atmosphere to the Alien itself it completely puts you in a survival story with you and an Alien bent on killing you. -The AI is very good: although I pinged it earlier i must say that at times the AI for the Alien in completely believable. There were times that I was surprised that the Alien knew what I was planning on doing and to avoid spoilers I won't elaborate. -The soundtrack is organic. Not only were the original audio recordings pulled from storage and remastered but they didn't simply play in the background. The tone of the music would change depending on the situation the player is in adding to the fear or wonder going on at the time. -It's challenging. The game will not hold your hand. In addition to be a horror/action game it's also a puzzle game in many respects. The basics of the world are introduced to you in the first few hours of gameplay but after that you are on your own. It can be frustrating sometimes but it pays off in the feeling of accomplishment when you progress. -The checkpoint save system. Like most gamers I prefer to save whenever I want to. But in this case, you can only save at terminals. It really adds to the tension of the game and while it can seem daunting each time you reach one you feel victorious. As I said before, reviews have been all over the place and typically I tend to agree more with IGN or Gamesradar. If you look yourself you will see conflicting reviews. The reason why is this: It's not a shooter and it's not a survival horror game. It's an Alien game. If you love the Alien movie then you will love this game.	video-games_xbox
New Perspective on an Old Game. Mechassault Lone Wolf cashes in on player's need for large scale destruction. Although the genre of giant robots is pretty overcrowded with mediocre titles as it is, Lone Wolf ushers in a worthy sequel to a good title. The first thing I'd like to address is this whole alternative rock in video games fad. I think the musical score is fine as it is without Korn. Other titles such as Prince of Persia: Warrior Within are going along with this whole fad. I'm sure lots of people love Korn but I don't need to hear them everytime I fight a boss. Besides that, the music and sound effects as well as voice acting were well executed and presented nicely in surround sound. Visuals in the Mechassault universe are even better this time than the original XBOX release. Mechs feature an excellent level of detail and battle damage. The terrain sells the scale of how large the mechs are and particle effects are down right amazing. Much more dramatic this time around are the mech explosion sequences, which are far more dynamic and imaginative. Much more elaborate this time around is also the destruction of buildings. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Players will no doubt find the damage detail and collapse animations more intricate and believable this time around. Lone Wolf's gameplay has received a fun new innovation-love it or hate it, mech jacking. This time around players have access to "battle armor" a small mechanized suit which allows several new features. Battle armor allows players to grab onto walls, fly and of course, hack a enemy mech and eject the pilot allowing the player to take over the mech. Besides these few new features to gameplay, Lone Wolf is still the same circular running and zig zag strafing shoot 'em up that fans fell in love with the first time around. Battles get intense and players must make decisions on whether to continue firing weapons or jump jets at the sake of overheating the mech, or to withdraw and allow the enemy to funnel to you. Boss battles are never really hard until the very last boss-not only do you have to put up with the alt rock again but the battle is far tougher than any other since you will be fighting one gigantic mech with nothing but your frail little battle armor. For fans of the series, Mechassault Lone Wolf offers plot closure to the original and a few new features with a totally revamped and improved graphics engine.	video-games_xbox
Are you ready to get your blood pumping? This will definitely do it. Where do I start? This game is massive! I am having a hard time adjusting to the button controls (and as I type this I'm realizing that I can probably make some changes to that) as I'm just coming off of Just Cause 3 where the d-pad (by default) are my weapon selections and for GR it is my (by default) binoculars, team commands etc., and my weapon are cycled by Y. Again, I'll have to see what my control options are when I get home. I've read a couple players challenges with helo flight controls...I totally get it. I can't seem to make heads or tales of how to fly them. One comment I did read, by a helo pilot apparently, said that they are pretty close to life like flying. Wouldn't know..never flown a helo. None the less, this a truly challenging game from many aspects. Some missions are very complex in way of really having to plan your attack. Your teammates are a huge part of how you make your way through. This isn't your standard 'shoot-em-up' kind of game and strategy is key. For instance. your faced (for one mission) with a complex of 6 guards and your mission is to place 3 bugs...undetected. The complex sits on a cliff overlooking a lake/ocean so your entry points are limited, as the main gate access is right on the road and is often traveled by the armed forces that assist the cartel. Sniping from the beach below won't work as the audible fire will call attention to the remaining cartel members...so you have to really think about it. (Small spoiler) Timing of the movements of the two overlooking the water is your key to the start of taking down the guards out front. Once you take out one while he is out of sight of the other you quickly have to coordinate the take down of the 4 others up front. Sync-shoot the three furthest from you with your team and you take out the 4th which is closest to you...all while the remaining one overlooking the water is in no line of site with the rest. Once he is out of line of site, you execute the sync-shoot command and quickly move to the final target...but don't you dare shoot with anything but YOUR pistol with a suppressor being that close. move to the back of the complex and take out the final an plant your bugs. Just typing that was intense! haha! In all seriousness, this is the most exhilarating game I have ever played...hands down!	video-games_xbox
Disappointing. (We waited 5 years for THIS. [Revised October 8 with addition complaints] I loved the earlier Rock Band, games. Even if Rock Band 4 was going to be more of the same" that would be good enough for me. But Rock Band 4 is actually much less than the same. It feels like it was scaled down. This is what Im disappointed to see removed: 1. Song variety. The game comes with less songs and less recognizable ones. You get a bargain bin selection of tracks peppered with a few higher profile ones. Not being able to play songs that interest me will cause me to lose interest. 2. An interactive career/story mode. Instead of the movies in RB3 you get text descriptions about your bands progress. Its now like a 1980s PC text adventure. I know many players don't care about this but it was a fun bonus when you are on tour trudging through the same songs repeatedly. 3. Customization of characters. In RB3, you were able to make a band member look like yourself or someone you know. (I custom-made Mick Jagger and Roger Daltrey lookalikes in RB3.) Now it, its basically just a gender, a skin tone and hairstyle. 4. Overall customization. For example, in RB3, you could design a band logo and have your band members put it on your drum kit or t-shirts. Nothing like that now. 4. Online play Removed. 5. Support for keyboard and pro guitar peripherals This is not a big deal for me personally but it add to the stunning list of removed features. Other complaints: 1. Harmonix didn't change their pricing model. In this Spotify age, $2 for one song is too much. The should have either given the game for free and charged for the songs or charged for the game but drastically reduce the price of tracks. (Or offer some kind of subscription service.) This is an expensive game to begin with. As an Xbox One user, the cheapest possibility is the $60 game plus a $25 adapter to use my last-gen instruments. Then, because of the weak selection of songs that come with the game, you will need to buy at least 20 DLC songs ($2 each) to make the game worthwhile. (By the way, despite pre-ordering the legacy adapter prior to the game launch, its out of stock and Amazon tells me they have no estimate of when it will be shipped. Until then I can only sing using the USB microphone.) 2. Major complaint: I bought Rock Band 4 on the promise that I could import all $200+ worth of Rock Band tracks I bought on Xbox 360. You can do that but you have to hunt for each track one in the Xbox store and download them one at at time! If you are like me, you don't remember each track you purchased. So to be sure that you get them all, youll have to click on each one. There nearly 2000 songs. So this will be a long, tedious process. What good can I say about Rock Band? Well, the gameplay is still fun there's just less of it so far.	video-games_xbox
Quality RPG content at an affordable price. There is one thing that pulls me to games like nothing else, bang-for-your-buck. Think Skyrim, Fallout, MMORPG or a JRPG (pretty much any of them) I could spend 60 dollars on a sub-par, WAY over-hyped action adventure game cough the last of us COUGH (had to take a jab, I played it, it's so mediocre it makes me question if any of you have ever read a book or watched a movie before the year 1999.) But I digress, Dark Arisen is BANG FOR YOUR BUCK. For 30$ you're getting a solid 200+hours of adventure, exploration, leveling, gearing up and what have you. The story...well it's Japanese, that's as far as I'm gonna go on that subject. What you come to this for is game play and tried and true mechanics. From this point forward I'm just going to review the new content. The new content is a decent addition and warrants another 25-40 hours of game play, easily. Essentially it's a endless dungeon crawler with constant gear upgrades as your fuel to keep plowing through. My favorite part however is the fact that it's difficult. New bosses and enemies are quite effective at killing you, should you be under-geared or inattentive. The new music is nice , on Bitterback Isle anyway. I will note they replaced the original opening theme to something that doesn't force you to spam start and A (or X) as fast as you can to avoid someone else (or you) hearing it. I will admit that cheesy opening theme grew on me and on several occasions I caught myself singing along. I actually miss it. They made fast travel easier for all of you who whined. Also, wow almost forgot JAPANESE VOICE OPTION!!!!!!! It's a big deal. While I actually didn't mind the English voice-work over-all it had some short comings for side characters and other random events that totally shattered the consistency. The Japanese voice option is a refreshing addition and breathes some genuine emotion into the events, whether or not you understand it (there are sub-titles) To all American voice actors involved with video games Please try harder to not sound like monotone, chronically depressed robots. Buy it, it's great and underrated. For those who played the original, if you liked it I would suggest a purchase of this. If you have no inclination to return to Gransys...Gransis?, (w/e) I would recommend you look else where because essentially it's more of the same but supremely refined.	video-games_xbox
Just the same really. It really wasn't that long before this edition came out that I played the original version of this game and had a lot of fun with it. While the game is FUN and is basically the same thing, just the fact that the graphics and sound is better, this is a bad first impression for 343 studios, and makes me wonder what Halo 4 will be like. Basically this game is the Combat Evolved campaign remastered with the Halo Reach online multiplayer attached, so if you're just wanting to get this game for the online benefits, you might as well get Halo Reach and play that, because you're not missing out on anything here. The graphics, though they are a lot better now compared to the original and you can fascinate yourself by switching in between graphics any time during the campaign, are not even as good as Halo Reach. Just a lot of tweaking is all it really is, and the maps are tweaked just a little bit in the campaign. The sound is better too, notably the sniper rifle! I was disappointed that Blood Gulch was reduced to a small, crammed canyon that's really only fit for four players (being an RvB fan, I like to see what material they just might use later on, and yet they STILL used this), hmm. The sloppy ridiculous violence was reduced, which is real nice considering the blood splatters from the original made it unrealistic and ridiculous. That was a real bonus, but, and maybe I'm missing something since I haven't played the entire campaign yet, I can't imagine why this should be rated M, honestly this is as ridiculous as Halo Reach being rated M. Let me tell you this though. Buy the original Combat Evolved for the original Xbox, then get Halo Reach for the multiplayer benefits, and you've got yourself the Combat Evolved Anniversary minus the remastered graphics for Combat Evolved. Although, I suppose thirty bucks is pretty good for a remastered campaign with the Halo Reach multiplayer attached. Fifty bucks would've sucked. Anyway, it's your choice. I played this at a friends' house and if I had a 360 this would be my choice. Halo really is a fun game but the company has really been coming out with excuses to make more games considering that Halo 3 was claimed to be the last one, then came Halo Reach as a direct prequel to Halo 1 and then this, then the upcoming Halo 4.	video-games_xbox
I expected better. I have owned all halo games to date. I am not going to review the campaign mode since I haven't played it yet. The thing I have enjoyed most about the previous halos was the multiplayer. I even enjoyed halo reach even though bungie was no longer involved. Anyways, the faults I see with halo 4's multiplayer are many actually. CONS -The frag grenades are considerably weak. They basically have to land on the opponents' legs in order to have noticeable damage. -It's quite unfair that the more you play, the more upgrades you can get. I understand it's for the purpose to give people a reason/goal to keep on playing. I'm the type of guy that can start off playing most FPS's and do generally well. The previous halos for example, I did well even though players were usually 'ranked' higher than me. -The scoring system sucks. A kill should earn just one point just like all of the previous halos and other FPS's usually have. For instance, you get points for an assist which are very easy to get in this game as opposed to halo reach. - The weapons don't seem to differentiate when it comes to power. What I mean is that it takes about the same amount of time to kill a person with any weapon (not including power weapons). For example, I can be shooting a person in the head with a BR and still get killed when all they have is an assault rifle. And it's not just those two guns. I seem to notice it with most of them actually. Kind of defeats the purpose of actually being good with a BR. -Lastly, the action warning thing ( I have no idea what it's called) is no longer there. What I'm talking about is when you used to get shot, a red 'arrow' would appear on the screen to show you from what direction it's coming from. Not only that but if you have trouble finding the action, it will no longer appear either so it can be harder to find people. It's annoying. Not everything is a bad improvement with this new halo however. PROS -I really like the fact that the power weapons don't always appear in the same location. So no more 'rushing' to get them all the time or else you will lose. -The graphics and sound are astounding. The noise especially is awesome. -I do like that if a person quits in multiplayer (team slayer for example), another player will join. So your team will have a better chance to win. -I do like the load-out weapons/power-ups. It's nice that you get rewarded for kicking ass in a game. And the weapons aren't cheap either. No rockets for example. Or no helicopters gunning you (COD). Overall, I was and still am disappointed with this game. I know that a game has to keep on progressing and adding new things so the players don't feel cheated on and think they are just buying the same game over and over again but with different maps. I agree that they have to make changes. But I think this game has way too many changes, and it honestly feels like I'm playing COD like a lot of other people have mentioned. If I wanted to play COD, then I would have bought it. I will still keep on playing halo 4 however and hopefully be able to adjust to it but I doubt it. By the way, I am not hating on halo since I have enjoyed every halo to date, and actually, it's the only game I play for the xbox or ps3.	video-games_xbox
This game is not ready for the shelves. Summary: Don't buy into the [material] put on by advertisers of this game. This game is BAD. The only selling point is the cutscenes. ... Pros: 1. Cutscenes. There are numerous cutscenes with Naiobi, Ghost, and Sparks that fill in some areas of the movie. Nothing's really crucial to the movie here, just a small, hollow love plot and explanation how the nuke plant blows up. These scenes most likely ended up on the cutting room floor (of the movie) because they would have jilted the pace of the movie and lead people into all kinds of directions not really critical to the plot. There is a preview of Matrix 3 at the end, but you can catch this by watching the preview after the credits of the movie. Cons: 1. This game is buggy to the point of humorous. (...) 2. Controls are pittiful. PLEASE heed this warning and do not believe what others might say. Rent it and find out for yourself. 3. Too many places where gameplay suddenly stops. I'd be playing along and all of a sudden it goes to a cutscene in an unknown location and the characters are doing something unrealted to what I had been doing. It's obvious these guys slapped together this game in a hurry. 4. Maps are uninspired, boring, and repetitive. I was praying for the end to the "Tunnels of the Real." (BTW there are major bugs in this section - the gunsights were useless (just point the gun at about the center of the screen) and the bomb at the end just baffled me. Just plain stupid and very bad programming. 5. Enemies are pathetically stupid. Killing off bosses was a cinch. In most cases, they can be beaten on the first attempt. 6. Graphics are poor. Very poor. 7. Not realistic. I watched MTV [pushed] the efforts at making this the most realistic game ever in an hour-long special. Don't buy into the hype machine. Just watch the characters run and you'll believe me. There isn't anything realistic about these characters movements.	video-games_xbox
Good, but not good enough. I love the concept, and the overall execution is good, but i can't help but feel that, as a whole, the game is somewhat lacking. Combat: Destiny has a great combat system. Shooting mechanics are quick and responsive, and powers are well implemented, in that they make sense from your class's perspective, and are not too OP. Also, weapon upgrades are good, though there is no crafting system 9.5/10 Story: Unfortunately, the Devs seemed to be more interested in giving you guns, and significantly less so in crafting a coherent narrative. What little story is there is wrapped in incredibly vague terms such as 'light' and 'the darkness' that are all almost completely lacking in context (kind of like the entire premise of Dragon age: Inquisition being the equally vague concept of 'stopping the spread of chaos'. What is it? 'It's bad, and you have to stop it!' But what is it? 'Uh.......well you see.........Hey look, it's Skelator 2.0!'). Worse still, if you want any lore you have EXIT THE GAME, go to the official Bungie website, log into a Bungie account, and slowly read codex ingrams as you UNLOCK THEM. IN. THE GAME. The immersion breakage is unreal, lol. 3/10 Sound: By contrast, Destiny's soundtrack is excellent. Music is atmospheric and hyper-futuristic, and fits the the game perfectly. All other sounds such as gunfire, footsteps, character breathing, etc. are done well. 10/10 Graphics: Great, sometimes jaw dropping visuals add a great deal to the games overall atmosphere (and serves to make the rift left by the barely coherent story even wider). 10/10 Characterization: The few characters who are (somewhat) more than quest givers (this is where the MMO elements come in, sadly) are well written, but have extremely short roles. 9/10 Overall, i give this game a 3/5 (I wish Amazon would give us the ability to do half-stars). It's fun, but forgettable with a vague, incoherent story, great combat, good characterization, and amazing graphics. In other words, a mile wide and an inch deep. I would save my money if i were you.	video-games_xbox
Took my abuse for 2 years. If you are looking for high quality and long lasting headphones for gaming... These are it. I don't know how many times I dropped these, kicked them, threw them, and just overall handled them roughly. Used them to play Destiny and FIFA and people say they can hear me clearly, almost too clearly. They probably would have lasted much longer but I raged and smashed them to hell. Xbox controller survived my rage, but the headset lost audio on the left side so I then smashed then some more and threw in the trash. A bit extreme, I know. In any case, these things felt very HIGH quality. Good weight to them, excellent overall feel. One thing I really liked was the removable microphone, so if you just want to listen to music or watch Netflix, whatever, these were great for that. Also used them for phone calls. Another cool thing about the mic is that it was flexible, so you don't really need to worry about it breaking if you drop the headset, or whatever. If you're eating while gaming, this is a very nice feature to have, simply position the mic a little bit away from your face but still able to talk with it. Make sure you move it away from your mouth if you are drinking beer, or...whatever else you drink. Because you could easily dip the mic into your drink if you're not careful. The packaging is really nice. I feel like it adds to the price of this headset (fancy packaging always adds to the price) but the box is very durable and REUSABLE. I packaged my headset a few times for transporting during moves across states and such. Keep the box you will love having it if you ever need it. And the cable is detachable! So if you step on the cable or something it won't rip the headset off your head, and won't damage the wiring on the actual headset. The cable will just simply disconnect and you just reconnect to get back into action. I don't know if these are 5.1 surround or whatever, but they sure did help while playing multiplayer FPS games. You can use these with the PS4, although its kind of a hassle to set your audio levels (because you can't connect the xbox adapter to it, obviously) but still get the job done. Really wish I hadn't broken my headset.	video-games_xbox
If you can make it here you can make it anywhere. <div id="video-block-R351SHCAC8PICX" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/D10z76ZqaRS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/713oJs81jzS.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> GTA 4's story centers around a sarcastic Eastern European immigrant come to America to get a fresh start away from the corruption and violence of his home country. Whoops. Critics have often harangued the violence and the criminal aspect of GTA, but what flies over their heads is that satire is the premise of the series and always has been. And frankly, the violence here pales in comparison to <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Gears-Of-War/dp/B000FRS9II/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Gears Of War</a> or <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Condemned-2-Bloodshot/dp/B000XJO7A2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Condemned 2: Bloodshot</a> just to name two. GTA's immense popularity is not because of the degeneration of our society (we've got reality television for that), it's because the series is constantly innovating and offering fun spot-on gameplay, brilliant humor, and is a game made by and for an adult audience. So if your child is playing this game, blame yourself for giving your child the means to get it or for not paying attention to what they are doing with their time, not Rockstar for making top-of-the-line entertainment meant for adults (see the markings on the box?). GTA 4 seperates itself from the past iterations in several ways. First, the arcade feel is largely gone. While the controls are vintage GTA, the overall feel has changed. In previous games, I never got into the story because I would get sidetracked rampaging with katanas and molotov cocktails or hunting for a tank. Now a lot of the distractions like crazy weapons and vehicles and building up your character stats are gone and the story behind the madness is a truly engaging one for the first time. The city is more alive than ever and there is more to do. The characters you meet are all brilliant and interacting with them is seriously fun. Take your girl out to a bar and watch her serious issues surface as she stumbles around slurring curses about "that fu#*ing whore" she thought you were checking out. Or challenge your buddies to bowling, pool, or a friendly game of darts. You ca even head to the comedy club to check out actual routines from Ricky Gervais or Katt Williams. The dialogue during these bonding activities is varied and reveals much about your Liberty City aquaintances, many of whom have special services to offer you should you become close. The entire game is so well-written that one often gets the impression that they are playing a Tarantino flick. Oh yeah, it's that good. The multiplayer aspect is also fun and varied allowing you to battle stangers for Liberty City dominance or just drive around with your friends wreaking havoc. Taking into account the amazing single-player game this really wasn't necessary, but the fact that it is even included just makes this game that much more awesome. Now all of that is well and good, but what makes GTA 4 the second work I'm upgrading from mere video game status to an official work of interactive fiction (the first was <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Mass-Effect/dp/B000OLXX86/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Mass Effect</a>) is the sheer depth of the world in which you exist. So far I have spent multiple hours just surfing the game's internet. That's right, there is a virtual worldwide web in-game complete with dating sites, a Craig's List parody, advertisements, personal blogs complete with flame wars, email, and much more. Hell, you can even download custom ringtones and themes for your cell phone! That is nuts. Do you know how ridiculous it feels to spend that amount of time in a video game surfing a fake internet? There are also several satirical television shows you can watch in your apartment (go Republican Space Rangers!), and naturally there's the radio; the sweet, sweet, sounds of GTA radio stations. There's a rock station featuring Iggy freakin' Pop as the foul-mouthed DJ, classic hip-hop and R&B, smooth jazz, techno, LCHC (Liberty City HardCore), and even an all Bob Marley station just to name a few. Then there's the thinly-veiled talk radio parody station Weazel News featuring the funniest Rush Limbaugh impersonator you're ever likely to hear. You even hear news reports about incidents you were personally involved in as you drive. This game is DEEP. Honestly, if you like video games or digital entertainment of any kind then this as good as it gets. And if you don't like those things, do your best to hide your ignorance and don't go spouting off about things you don't know anything about. GTA 4 is a brilliant satire full of jabs (and a few haymakers) at American politics and any violence is incidental in comparison to the brilliantly crafted story and interactivity of the in-game world that Rockstar has created. I'll say it again: this is not just a video game, this is interactive fiction on par with some of the great works of modern storytelling. If you own a video game system and you think you can handle some naughty language without getting all hysterical, buy it. It's that simple.	video-games_xbox
Best game in title series and franchise. Halo 4 is by the far the best game in the title series and the franchise. Combat Evolve through 3 are wonderful games and Bungie has done an amazing job creating such a fantastic series but 343 has brought a lot to the table and has done the fourth game more than justice. What have been majorly revamped are the art and gameplay (obviously). The imagery of the game is amazing as technology has made the graphics and dynamic lighting more remarkable than ever, not to mention the enhanced gun sounds, but what stood out most to me was the use of an actual orchestra to score the game. This departure may not be received well by everybody, as the Halo theme is no longer in the game, but the sound of real instruments creates a more cinematic feeling. Yes, the gameplay is Call of Duty-esq, but that is the progression of technology. Is it really the duty of a franchise to maintain 2001 controls? The additional maneuverability in firefights allows for more diverse fighting tactics, not to mention the awesome Promethian weapons and left bumper utilities. The only thing I miss from the Bungie games is the English dialogue from the covenant. My favorite part of Halo 2 is when you earn the moniker "The Demon." Although, I am extremely happy to be playing a game without the Flood. Aside from the technical aspects of the game the story was intense. This was the first time the writers disregarded making the dialogue baby-safe, in other words, they let Cortana and Master Chief speak in esoteric military and astro-physics lingo that I would have to look up, which was cool. Moreover, the story opens up the two main characters and develops them and really lets the player connect and empathize with them. One detail I specifically appreciate about Cortana is her accurate human anatomy, i.e. no over-sized dome-shaped breasts, as well as the fact that she's not a TOTAL vixen. [Spoiler alert] The best component of the plot is the cruelness of Cortana's rampancy, one of the best tragedies in a story is the tragedy of an inescapable, continually degrading, imminent death (like the episode "I Remember You" from Adventure Time where I balled my wittle eyes out). I felt some tears coming up in the end. I'm really surprised I haven't heard anyone else talk about their feelings on the game, especially since I only got it on Christmas. Anyway, 343's note before the credits makes me anxious to play their next game. BTWs, I played it on Legendary, it's not too hard.	video-games_xbox
Assassin's Creed Continues To Evolve...And Impress. First things first - If you haven't played the first Assassin's Creed and subsequent releases (or at LEAST starting with II, and going forward) - go no further. Do yourself a service and start with II as a bare minimum and work yourself forward to this, the 3rd in the Ezio Auditore trilogy. Otherwise, you'll be completely lost. For those of you familiar with the story, you're going to find Ezio Auditore in his twilight years on a quest to find Altair's legendary, yet quite well-protected, library. The Templars have caught wind of it and Ezio is also trying to find his way in to thwart their attempts at worldwide control. This is hardly a spoiler as you're quickly brought into this within minutes of beginning to play Ezio - no further spoilers here. From the standpoint of playing all of the previous Assassin's Creed entries, how does this one fare? Well, I finally played it tonight and I must say that it is really quite remarkable. There's a major change in the way that combat is handled - you select a primary and then a secondary weapon so that you can enter a sword fight and then throw knives at will, for example (no longer do you have to constantly "weapon wheel" between sword and throwing knives constantly). Graphic engine has been updated and it's quite smooth; I don't find it stuttering nearly as often as it used to. Even the story itself has been given a facelift - now there's more of a cohesive, unified story rather than a series of seemingly disjointed events culminating in your goal in the first place of killing "x" person because he did "y". "Eagle vision" also has some significant improvements, some subtle and some not. For example, in addition to identifying enemies, you'll actually see faint red lines indicating a guard's patrol route. This enhances the formulation of tactics. In other cases, where smoke bombs are even more effective at obscuring your enemies' ability to attack you, "eagle vision" will actually allow you to pierce the cloud and attack your enemies at will. In addition, you will be collecting materials to craft a variety of different bombs (lethal and non-lethal). The animations of Ezio kill moves are superb and some of his abilities show that Ezio, in his twilight years, is deadlier than ever. The music, as always, is very well-done and the voice acting is even better than usual. The beginning of the game reminds me of Matrix Revolutions, but I do mean this in a good way. The environments are breathtakingly beautiful. The game has departed from Italy and finds itself in Constantinople, once the true crossroads of the world between Europe and Asia when the United States was still a mere 264 years away from declaring its own independence. Ezio finds himself with new equipment (the hook blade is fun opening a variety of attacks as well as an ability to zip line around your environment - fantastic!), friends (including a romantic interest), and actually enters into the conflict politically - it's no longer a mere Templar/Assassin conflict. There are layers to appreciate here as Ezio makes an ally and as I am starting to delve into it, I truly appreciate what Ubisoft has created here. If there is one thing that I have to complain about, it's the mode where you have to defend your own Assassin's Keeps in addition to creating them for those of you familiar with Brotherhood. It becomes a "tower defense" game at this point...and I don't mean that in a flattering way. It's one thing that Ubisoft could have omitted (or seriously improved upon) without impacting the story whatsoever. It comes off as a silly gimmick that didn't appear to have been given a significant amount of thought in terms of how it flows with the rest of the interlocking parts. This is an oprhan 301st piece in a 300-piece puzzle; it doesn't fit and, quite honestly, you don't really need it to complete the experience. I haven't had a chance to explore multiplayer too much, but what I've seen so far seems to indicate that Ubisoft has taken the best parts of Brotherhood and have added both modes and additional customization not seen before. I'm more into the story then the multiplayer, but Revelations has shown me enough to convince me to give it a try...later. Assassin's Creed is still, first and foremost, about a continuing and quite fascinating story. And the final chapter to the overall story arc (with Ezio's presumably ending here, if rumors are believed) is to come in yet a single year, although how Ubisoft plans to bring this epic to a conclusion in the absence of such a strong character like Ezio has my curiosity piqued. Despite the fault of "tower defense", everything else is so vastly improved that I still have to give it a solid 4.75 stars (5 stars on the Amazon scale - don't think it deserves a 4). Enough said - get it and enjoy!	video-games_xbox
Very Mediocre. I bought a used copy of this game after it was touted by Game Informer as having one of the top ten scariest game moments. How can you go wrong with a horror game set in a prison? Loveless execution, that's how. This game feels like a simple mod of a generic third-person shooter with some prison uniform skins slapped into place. The playability is uninteresting and loose -- the characters sort of slide across the ground while scissoring their legs instead of looking like they're actually making contact with the ground while running, and so on. Torque's lack of reaction to anything around him consistently bothered me. An iron door would slam right behind him, or a guard would be torn in half immediately before him, and he would have NO REACTION AT ALL (in contrast, think about Resident Evil 4 -- Leon would crouch slightly in reaction to nearby explosions). This could probably be passed of as trying to cast Torque as stony and cold, but in reality I'm sure it was that the dev shop management didn't budget for those little extras that really breathe life into the game. The attempted 'gritty' language is just egregious. Combined with the stupid AI, it leads to some real annoyances -- for example, I was following an NPC, and I stopped to look at something and apparently wasn't following quickly enough for his satisfaction. He starts hollering the same "come on, m* f*r!" audio clip over and over at ten-second intervals, drawing my wife into the living room so she can scold me for the game's pointless, naughty language. The fact that the game is older really isn't an excuse for its high degree of crappitude -- there are some truly hair-raising, beautifully crafted horror games that are 4+ years old -- Eternal Darkness and the 'Haunted Asylum/Orphanage' level in Thief: Deadly Shadows come to mind. Life's just too short to play mediocre games. Stick with solid action games like RE4 or Riddick, or lovingly crafted horror titles like the ones mentioned above. Strongly suggest you skip this game.	video-games_xbox
Loving Xbox Again. The Elite is my 2nd Xbox 360 that replaced my old 360 premium which I ended up selling to a friend of mine. My old Xbox 360 had the older chipset so I made sure the Elite that I got had the Falcon chipset. The 120GB hard drive is plenty enough to download arcade games, game demos, TV shows, and movies. My previous 360 with the 20GB hard drive got filled up too fast. I've owned the Elite for about 2 weeks now and have been using it every night playing Call of Duty 4. So far the Elite has been very reliable. It's also amazing when using it on a HDTV! I've also downloaded a couple of movies with no playback issues. Because there is no built in Wi-Fi I had to buy the Xbox wireless adapter which is another $99.00. I also sent in a check for the optional extended warranty for $59.90. I was expecting the DVD drive to be quieter than my previous Xbox but it was just about the same. Just turn up the volume a bit and you won't hear it. The RROD can still happen on an Elite with a Falcon chipset but it's not as frequent as the older versions. Just make sure the production date is sometime this year and the team location is FDOU. Also make sure that the Xbox is in a well ventilated area! I ended up getting lot #0805, Team: FDOU, production date 1/27/2008. By the way, 1.5yrs later my old 360 premium that I sold to my friend got the RROD. It took about 3 days to get the packing materials from Microsoft and 8 business days later they sent us a refurbished Xbox 360 and that's been working well so far. Pros: Black finish, 120gb Hard Drive, HDMI output, HDMI cable, Falcon Chipset, 3yr warranty, Xbox Live Cons: No built in Wi-Fi and DVD drive is a bit loud when reading disc. UPDATE 6/8/08: Bought a PS3 but is only used for watching Blu-Ray movies. Xbox 360 is still my prime use for gaming and watching downloaded TV shows and movies. Noticed that the PS3 runs just a tad hotter than my Xbox after a couple of hours.	video-games_xbox
Sadly mediocre. Two Worlds is the story of a man searching a conflict-torn land, both within and without, for clues about his sisters disapearance. During the journey he confronts the diverse loyalties of the people of the Kingdom of Cathalon, fights Orcs and other monsters, all the while choosing sides in the various conflicts. An organization of mages called the Society does magical research all across the land. Their primary foes are a collection of necromancers who are forced to do their hated research mostly scattered on the edges of civilization. They seek to understand the Taint, a recently arisen undead corruption that terrorizes graveyards. A group of warriors called the Brotherhood seek to support the Kingdom fighting alongside the military. A guild of merchants fittingly called the Merchants Guild seeks profits through shops in every village and town, while an underground crime organization called the Giriza seeks profits through less scrupulous means. Two factions vie for control of the northern highlands, Clan Karga and House Skeldan. In addition there are various villages and towns filled with many people the hero has the choice of helping as well. Beyond the Kingdom lay the lands of the Dwarves to the north who have mysteriously shut their borders. The Kingdom is besieged by invading Orcs from the south. The people worship many gods. Among them are Maliel and Yatholen, the latter served by strangle snake people and a race called the Scapulari who should look strikingly familiar to any fan of a series of certain recent pirate movies. All of this occurs on a land full of the ruins of the ancient Dwarves who left mysteriously after the great war, a Great War with many battles and heros. With such a rich and potentially fertile ground it would seem that any somewhat intelligent and imaginative individual could come up with an intriguing and attention grabbing plot full of well developed characters and dramatic plot twists. One can imagine choosing sides in the mage's war and seeking out and finding the secrets of either side while fighting at least several magical battles with their champions. Or if magic is not to one's taste imagine a dramatic confrontation between the two vying factions in the highlands as you join or possibly lead pitched battles as the rebel Clan raids the headquarters of the House or as the House cracks down on the population supporting the rebels in frustration with not being able to find the rebel hide-out. At the very least one could see the hero participating in a battle between the forces of Cathalon and the invading Orcs. As you help to defend the walls from the Orc siege or sneak outside the gates to show the Orcs the secret passage into the city. Or if history and archaeology are interesting imaging traveling to Dwarven ruins to find lost artifacts or reading of their exploits in books. One can see the hero talking to scholars to learn about the history of the Humans, the Dwarves, the Elves, anyone. Imaging searching out the renegade anthropologist who actually went and lived with the Orcs. Imagine actually finding out anything at all about the snake people. None of that occurs in Two Worlds. Instead we get two dimensional characters, quests that are almost always: go there, get or do that, come back, and get payed. And that is the end of it. There are no resolution to the quest lines, they just end. Oh, I just killed the head of one of the major factions in the game but no one even talks about it. Oh, an entire city has been taken by Orcs, but not one person mentions anything about it. Formulaic. Pathetic. Sad. Disappointing. There is no history, no books to read, no depth or dimension to the background of the land inwhich the game takes place. We learn nothing about what the sister is like, we hear no reminiscences of our hero's childhood and why he is so fond of his beloved sister for whom he is struggling so much. No story of the Orcs, no story of the Humans, no story of the snake people, or the insect people. We learn nothing about the gods or their religions. In fact there are no temples anywhere in the land. And the ending(s)! Don't get me started on how the endings are both horribly abrupt and full of absolutely zero explanation and extrapolation. The best thing about the ending is that this game is over and I can move on to other things with actual imaginative content. This game is exactly what my title says mediocre: not as good as it could be. Just like Fable there is a massive world just waiting for epic stories to be told about it except those stories are not told. All we have is a thin veneer overlying an otherwise ordinary, as far as the actual gameplay goes, RPG experience. The game is just as fun as its peers far as the game mechanics go, but ultimately where an RPG should excel (in the story) it is very disappointing. Fun rating of 3 for the moderately interesting game mechanics and general gameplay. Overall rating of 3. One point because you can't give zero stars, one point for being an open-world RPG, one point for gameplay.	video-games_xbox
Spectacular. Wow. Graphics are incredible as you knew they would be if you experienced the first one. The sequel just looks better overall, sporting livelier colors and a little more variety in the levels. The first one was admittedly a bit murky and monochromed but this one does away with all that. Sound is absolute mayhem, with a superb sound mix and a new music score by Steve Jablonsky of Transformers (the recent movie) fame. This is one loud game and you'll be able to tell the difference once you fire that Lancer which now sounds like it packs some punch. The story is a bit more refined, even if the voice acting kind of bites in a couple of instances. I wouldn't necessarily blame the voice acting actually, just the way some of the lines were written, they just feel flat and forced. A lot of questions are put out there that are not necessarily answered and by the end, you'll still have a bunch of questions that'll demand some kind of answers. Still, Gears of War 2 has a much better story than the first one and is definitely more involving, especially in regards to the character of Dom who has a genuinely moving moment which I wouldn't dare spoil. You also have some boss battles that are simply stunning in their execution with bosses so large you have to take them out from the inside (and yeah, I'm not telling you anymore than that). Have a friend join you to take on the Locust cooperatively and the game just gets that much better. Multiplayer is a blast as expected and before I go into that, I have to mention the controls. They've refined them to a point that the game just plays much more fluidly than its predecessor and its immediately noticeable. Being that the controls have been fine tuned, it makes playing the single player and multiplayer portions an even more rewarding experience. I felt the first one had some moments where I couldn't even take cover properly but thats been fixed. At any rate, there are some great multiplayer modes with an interesting take on capture the flag where the flag is a person you have to drag back to the scoring zone by force. And if you haven't heard by now, there's a new mode called Horde that lets you and four other friends (forgot to mention that the player capacity has been increased from eight players to ten in total in the versus modes) hold your own against fifty waves of Locust soldiers and beasts, coming at you faster and stronger with each successive wave of increasing numbers. Definitely my personal fave of the multiplayer modes. What I love about this game is that it doesn't dangle a carrot in front of you just to take it away at the last second. The first one was definitely guilty of this, showing creatures and events transpiring that you never really got to deal with or simply had to watch in a cutscene. Not here does this happen and let me tell you, I couldn't believe some of the stuff that happened in this game in terms of the level design and what not. I would love to tell you more but I couldn't for fear of ruining the overall experience. Let's just say that you will not be disappointed or better yet, I don't think you CAN be disappointed. This game delivers on all fronts and is one of the years best, period.	video-games_xbox
SO COOL YET TOTALLY BLOWS. I'm sure you guys are wondering how a cool game can blow so here's the word. I play the games and I play franchise mode. Here's my response on both issues.... Gameplay: GREAT. K-Zone is so awesome to use. You can use pinpoint accuracy in throwing your pitches. To balance this out, when the pitcher starts getting tired or a big slugger is at the plate in a pressure situation in a close game, the cursors go faster. To throw the ball, you must first move the cursor to the desired location. Then you hit the corresponding button. Y may be for a slider, A for fastball, B for cutter and so forth. You pick your spot, hit the button and a horizontal cursor moves across the screen and you simply hit any button (A,B,Y,X) when it lines up with the initial location and then vertically the cursor moves and you again hit a button to line it up. If you miss too far left, the pitch will go left. If you miss high or low, it will go higher or lower. It makes it fairly tough at times to be accurate which is how it is in real life. If that was confusing, if you've played basketball and used the free throw system, this is exactly the same but it's not as frustrating as in basketball where Shaq NEVER makes one. Turning double plays is easy. Fielding can be a challenge at times if you don't get your player in proper position but overall, very easy to do. You shouldn't make too many human errors with the controls. Batting, depending on the difficulty level. Don't use legend at first or you will be frustrated. Start off with rookie and develop your swing and PATIENCE and work your way up. Graphics, pretty life like. Very nice overall. Great part of having an Xbox, you can add your own stadium music, batter intro's etc. Takes a lot of time but it's worth it if you are into that kind of stuff. When playing with two friends, it's easy to see the pitch with the K-Zone. To solve this, simply, change it to a meter system and the K-Zone disappears. You lose total precision yet with the vibration on which tells you when you are out of the strike zone, you can still get your pitches fairly close without your opponent knowing where the pitch is coming. Very nice they added this. Makes playing with others fun. Overall 5 stars. Now, onto the franchise mode. Totally freaking blows. Contracts: Not real amounts. Some players make more and some less than their real life counterparts. I played a game three times and it wouldn't save. I HAVE to have accurate stats and I don't want the CPU to have to simulate a game for me. I had to. It wouldn't save. Also, you can't save a game in the middle of it as in Madden 2005. You must simulate it or shut your Xbox off. I suggest, shut off the Xbox. When you simulate and then reload the season without saving, that's not fail proof. I lost once through simulation (I accidentally hit simulate instead of play game) and reloaded and play the game later. I really did lose. It was the fourth game of the season and I should've been 3-1. The standing showed 3-2. It somehow counted the loss that never was. Very homosexual. One time I had to quit a game midstream because I wasn't ready for legend mode. I was losing 6-2 in the 7th. I ended up winning 10-4!!!!! Tell me where that teams two runs went? To top that off, it mysteriously saved it. I simply simulated and quit the season WITHOUT saving because I simulated and then shut the Xbox off. Suggestion, NEVER simulate regardless. CPU ALWAYS tries to screw up your lineup no matter what you tell it. If you don't keep a good memory on who last pitched, CPU will try to pitch someone twice. If you make a trade, it's over with. Your whole rotation is in shambles. CPU is just ignorant. There are a few good things however in the franchise mode. You can do a GM franchise season or whatever and you have to choose a team and work for the GM. Depending on his managing style will depend on what tasks you must perform. Money grubbing owners (Royals, Pirates) who care nothing of winning will want you to keep costs and complete minimum even if it means trading your best player like Beltran to the Astros for minor leaguers or whatever complete rip off occured a few season back with the Royals. Of course, the Yankees want nothing short of a championship or you'll probably get fired really quick. It's cool to mess around with until the GM tells you to axe your favorite players because he's overpaid. You won't always get fired if you ignore his wishes as long as you do the most important one. In my case, it was winning and I won several titles so who cares if I got to keep my favorite player if I won a World Series. The owner wasn't too pissed. Minor leaguers: You can promote, demote and check out stats for your minor leaguers. At the end of the season, a progress report is issued and shows how your players are doing. When making trades, be sure to click with the analog stick to check out the players profile and his potential. It's always good to sneak in a minor leaguer or two in a big trade as they will be the future of your franchise. Especially the Kansas City Royals or someone like that. They can't afford anyone but minor leaguers and seem to be a farm team for the Yankees and the rest of the MLB. Overall, with the stats errors, CPU retardation and stupid fake contracts, it's a 1. Balanced out, I give the game an overall three. It's fun, until you run into problems (all the time).	video-games_xbox
Worthless--save your money and buy something else. I would rate this less than zero stars, if I could. My only guess is that we have a defective item because we have had so many issues from set up to actually getting logged in and start playing. There is no instruction manual included in the package. You must look up instructions and troubleshooting online, and even then they're written so vaguely that you have to do a lot of trial and error on your own to figure out what exactly the problem is and how to fix it. The item came with cards with bar codes and numerical codes to download the games. After trying numerous times to enter the codes and download each game, it finally told us the codes had already been used but the games never downloaded. Instead we had to pay again for a game we already paid for in our initial purchase. Throughout the course of setting up family members on the one machine, we discovered you have to pay for the same game multiple times if multiple family members want to play. So for Minecraft as an example, you have to buy and download the game for Jane, and you have to buy and download the game for Jack. It's all tied to a single gamer tag. Oh, and if you choose to change your gamer tag, be ready to pay $10 just to do that. Adding a child to your account is a nightmare, too. You have to constantly reenter passwords, passcodes, email addresses, account info.... Why a CHILD would need to have their OWN email address assigned to them by XBox Live is beyond me, especially because it's supposed to be under the adult's account and all transactions are to be made by the adult, not the child. We've decided this is a waste of money for the average family and anticipate returning it. So, unless you have a techie with supreme IT skills in your family or circle of friends, buy a Playstation instead. Your sanity, blood pressure, and bank account will thank you.	video-games_xbox
The all mighty Forza die hard Forza fans have grown to know and love is dead. TLDR: It terrible, frustrating, glitchy, and has limited redeeming qualities, but it's 13 bucks. Buy it. Review: I have been a die hard Forza fan since it came out. I left Gran Turismo because of how much more enjoyable and realistic Forza was. Being a motorsports(keep that word in mind) fan, I loved circuit racing, tuning my car, and racing against other race car drivers. I used to spend countless hours just racing and tuning, racing and tuning. It was great. Now, Onto Forza 5. I read the reviews of the die hard Forza fans and thought "Well. It can't be THAT bad. None of the previous versions were bad. Some were better then others, but overall, they were all good" Well I was wrong. I'll break it down into what I hated and what I loved: Hated: 1) The Drivatar: If I wanted to be sideswiped by some 12 year old while trying to have a proper race, I would have played online. I play offline for a reason. I've seen these Drivatars ride some REALLY weird lines through turns, Slam on their brakes in front of me for no reason, and go flying into a turn, just to sideswipe you, push you out of the way, and pass you. Like I said, racing against a 12 year old. And the worst part of it all, You CANT turn it off. I want to go back to the days of M. Rossi. Now they say it gets better if you turn the difficulty up to Unbeatable. Which it does. Cars still run weird lines. Occasionally will try and run you off the road, but it is tolerable, but that brings in another issue. 2) The races are short: When I say short. I mean SHORT. 2-3 laps. I can't remember a race that was longer than 3 laps. I'm sorry. But a game with the word "Motorsports" in it, Should have decent races. This game has 10 races per Series, all 2-3 laps long. I would rather have 2-3 races per series, all 10 laps long. The game also places you in almost dead last, Usually something like 14th out of 16. I'm not opposed to competition, but 2 laps to pass 13 cars, when people are sideswiping you and cutting you off, is not easy. And you can't change this. Leveling up does nothing, cars PI does nothing, cant qualify(You never could but it'd be a nice feature). Now I would love to see an Endurance race personally. I used to love the 2, 3+ Hour races in GT. However I can understand them not being included. but 2-3 laps per race. What is this? Need For Speed? 3)STUPID Series Challenges: Or whatever they call them. I have never seen a racing series, where one of the races is a race track littered with garbage, cans, cones, all sorts of crap, and the object was to drive through it all as fast as you can. Again. This is a "Motorsports" game. Not need for speed. Such an event may be a fun event to play around in. But why does almost every racing series have such an event. 4) Glitches. Has this game even been beta tested? Every single time I race the stupid Speed through London on the TG Test Track, my sound freezes. I have to constantly pause and unpause the game to unfreeze the sound. Car coming to a dead stop if I put a quarter inch of a tire on a sand dune you're not supposed to cut. Static noise if the game is played for too long(Need to restart the xbox fully to get rid of this) 5) The menu: The menu in this game is trash. Although aesthetically pleasing, it is difficult to navigate and find options. 6) Trophy System: 3rd place is gold now? What is this? Elementary school where everyone needs a pat on the back for a job well done? No. 1st is gold, Second is Silver, Third is Bronze. Frankly, I think this is last minute adjustment because they realized how borderline impossible it is to get from 14th to 1st in 2 laps while dodging what seems like 12 year olds that sideswipe you to get their way. That sentence actually sums up every race in this game very well. 7) Cars: Now I don't hate the cars. DLCs have been there for a while and the game does include a decent handful. But tuning them has become, odd. I can't quite put my finger on it, but somethings just not right. Also, browsing for cars is horrible. Also, gaining Manufacture Exp doesnt warrant free parts anymore. 8) Money: You can make a descent amount of money, but the process is slow and unimaginative. No surprises. You don't get cars for winning series. You get small amounts for races, even the hard ones, a little more for completing the series, and then 35,000 for every level you go up. It's linear, It's boring, 9)The series are unimaginative. More or less there are some combination of: Pick an A Class Car, Restart race 15 times because you keep getting sideswiped by 12 year olds, or if you're on the highest setting, the 2 laps allotted isn't enough time to go from the back to at least 3rd. Repeat this on some combination of Road America, Road Atlanta, Nurburgring Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi, STUPID TG London Challenge, Silverstone, Some kind of road fictional road course and 3 more random challenges. Next series. Same exact thing, but this time in a different car. And there aren't that many series in the game. The Good: It looks GORGEOUS. It still puts a smile on my face to turn up the volume(When there's no static of course), take a beautiful sounding car, and just go all out on Nordschleife. That's it. To me it seems like the end of a great series. They took something wonderful and unique that had a niche market, and tried to expand it to the open market. Took out a great deal of great features. Destroyed the realism, the challenge, and the "Motorsports" aspect of the game. Forza has basically become Need for Speed, which I thought was the point of Forza Horizon? Two games, two different target audiences? Apparently not. Unless I hear Forza 6 has returned to its roots and more, I will not be buying it. This series has lost it. For 13 bucks, it's worth buying just to go screaming through Nordschleife once in a while. But if you want a true Motorsports game. Look elsewhere. The Forza we all knew and loved is dead.	video-games_xbox
Perfect Pinball. I've always loved pinball games. As a result, I lament their demise from the modern world. Pinball video games are usually a mixed bag, and enthusiasts can point to a few really great ones in the annals of gaming history (Alien Crush, Pinball FX, etc.). Pinball Hall of Fame trumps them all. Pros: -It's got about a dozen tables -- all painstakingly modeled after the real thing. Legendary tables like Pinbot and Fun House are here. 3 new tables have joined since the Wii/PS2 version -- including Medieval Madness, my all-time favorite. Some of the older tables are a bit basic, while the more modern ones have tons of progressive tasks to do within the game. It really spans pinball history from the most acclaimed manufacturer, Williams. -Table goals give you little meta-missions within the games. Each table has 5 challenges, which unlock an achievement when you complete them. This then opens up a more difficult set, wizard challenges. It's great replay value, and got me to continue with tables I would've otherwise stopped playing. -The physics are just perfect. This is a make-or-break for pinball games, and they couldn't be better. Even the flippers react differently, paying homage to their respective tables. -Graphically, the game looks amazing. Hi-res textures are a big improvement from PS2/Wii, and the way the LED screen is called out in the corner is clever. -There's a mode with score challenges for random tables in a time limit. It's a great little idea to tie all the tables together, and is the only way to unlock Jive Time. Cons: -I love having leaderboards, but there's no way to organize them. It merely shows your placement in the entire leaderboard. I thought having a friend leaderboard was mandatory for Xbox Live... -It's tough to find a perfect view. I tend to use smart cam, which pans along with the ball. But regardless of the view, you can rarely make out the lights on the table's surface. This causes you to miss out on a few elements. ------------- Overall, I absolutely love this game. I find it spending more time in my Xbox than Tekken 6, Brutal Legend and NBA 2K10 put together! If you have any affection for the silver ball, pick this up!	video-games_xbox
Can anyone do this genre right. I love casino games of any kind. In particular, I love poker. Naturally a habit like this can get rather expensive and so rather than spend hours in an actual casino, I resort to playing video simulations of casino games to pass the time and to improve my skill. I own nearly every possible casino/poker game on the market (for all consoles and PCs) since Vegas Dream for the original NES. I must be either stupid or at the very least, stupidly hopeful that eventually there will be a group of programmers who can actually produce a game in this genre that lives up to its potential. As with all of my purchases, I bought the World Series of Poker for X-Box on the day it was released with much enthusiasm and blind hope that this would be the game that ends my search for a decent casino/poker game. Sadly, I could not have been more wrong. The game has all of the potential of virtually all of others of its kind: acceptable graphics, functional interface, and most importantly, an awesome idea. The game, however, falls short in virtually every other conceivable way. Let us begin with the AI. I really cannot figure out if the computer AI is good or lucky. Nearly every computer player in this game is unrealistically aggressive. It might pass as acceptable if there was a noticeable range of player skill, but rest assured that when you enter a game, each player is going to play with the boldness of Gus Hanson, without the necessary intelligence. Part of the problem is that the blinds increase so quickly; you barely have any time at all to wait for a decent enough hand to play properly. In real life, the World Series of Poker takes days to complete. This game has you finished in less than an hour or two if you are lucky enough to last beyond the first 15 hands. Speed is also a problem with revealing the flop, turn, and river. In World Championship Poker (another game with great potential that fails miserably) you could at least control the speed at which the cards are dealt. In this game, they shoot the cards out without enough time to even process who is going to win during a showdown. What was Activision thinking? Have they never even seen how a poker game plays out on ESPN? Where is the suspense? Where is the action? I have many other less important complaints that I will spare everyone from having to read. The bottom line is, take it from someone who knows what people want from this genre: REALISM. This game isn't it. Keep on searching.	video-games_xbox
A LONG wait but a Good Start. Overall, the game is very impressive. I will admit, the start is a little bit slow and seems like a mix of many other main line shooters but if you stick it out, you won't regret it. You start off in Brooklyn; there is no authority and all is in chaos. You spend the first few hours just rescuing people and getting to know the area and mechanics. After this, you finally get the opportunity to team up with 3 other players which helps you get a taste of the tactical skirmishes the game offers. To me, this game really shines with co-ops.. you can specialize in many different realms which give an mmo class sort of feel (upgrading perks, healing allies, buffing your team, building turrets, etc). The matchmaking is very easy to get started with, and teams right now are easy to find... As for the PVP areas, its all in the DEAD zones which is more focused on end game. Right now I know the very basics on PVP and will add more as I get to know more... I mostly bought the game for PVP. Replayability - so far its early but I have not come close out of running out of things to do as well as the PVP opportunities and strategies this game presents... I think you'll be content for a good while and challenged enough to stay interested. They are also working on many DLCs so there will be continual content to stay engaged with (whether this is a PRO or CON, we will wait to see). With the beauty of the game, the differentiated map and coop/pvp opportunities...I would recommend this to any gamer. Note: If you found this review unhelpful, please reply why and I will try my best to help you in your decision. Thanks! EDIT: One reply has a good point that needs to be considered: You DO need to be online to play the game, even single player. (Thanks V. Hernades) Also a Ubisoft account is required. EDIT2: There has now been a LOT of server issues which are not allowing me and many others it seems to connect. Hopefully all this will get straightened out soon but have to drop the rating down to 4* for now for all the inconveniences.	video-games_xbox
A Fun Distracting Game, Limited only by your athletic prowess (and the kinect. Kinect Sports Rivals is a game with a history. Before it even came out, everyone was raving about how amazing it would be and that it would demonstrate the full potential of the Kinect. Cue to launch day, where critic reviews are mostly underwhelming. The majority of critics cite that the simplistic games do show some technical prowess but the games themselves are dumbed down to such an extent that they are not mindblowingly fun or the controls do not feel up to par with the hype. After having played with this game for a while now, I can fully voice my opinions and reflect on what the critics and gaming websites said. Sports Rivals comes with a multitude of sports games meant to cater to a wide range of people. Part of the simplicity of the games adds to its charm, however, that only works so long as the controls are adequate. I will start off with the few games that just don't make any sense to me, control-wise. The absolute worst offender is Tennis. I can't figure out how to play it, and either it's the latency of the swing, or just poor controls, but I can never win a game I'm not serving. I've tried both hands, and my avatar always seems to flail about, unable to return backswings like a chimp with a tennis racquet. Soccer has occasional glitches from time to time, such as kicking to the wrong teammate, netting a block and surrendering the ball to my opposition. While I would consider it to be my own sub-optimal skill, it just seems to happen way too often to be a coincidence. That being said, soccer is actually fun from time to time, and one of the better games to actually get yourself moving. Whereas Tennis is just something I would play in order to finish the storymode. The last of the troublemaking games would be shooting. I don't know if it's development oversight or not but I can't ever not be shooting so long as my hand is being registered. This inability to withdraw the gun makes aiming so much harder and I can't avoid hitting negative point markers. However, don't let the weaker games bring down this purchase. There are some really fun sports such as Rock Climbing and Wake Racing. And those don't disappoint at all. Rock Climbing is my personal favorite, as I'm able to rip down opponents and hop my way all the way to the top. Bowling against Cliff Paul is another plus, take revenge against all those times your state farm insurance wasn't giving you the best quotes. Overall, I would net this game a 3 out of 5. I would have given it a 4 of 5, but I paid full price due to buying it on launch day, of the 59.99. My best suggestion would be to get the game but to also wait until a price drop of some sort. It really feels like a $50 game max, and until that time, don't shell out the money.	video-games_xbox
A Great SIM game. I finally got the opportunity to rent this game from a local video store after only being able to play it in Best Buy for a few minutes. I must say that I am VERY impressed with the realism and realistic appearance of this game. It is definetely a step up from the always crappy, arcadey, unrealistic NBA Live series. My last game of NBA Live was when I was playing at a friend's house, it was the most boring game I ever played in my life, nearly every shot was a dunk and it was too easy to score. I switched over to th 2K series that same year and was really impressed with the dreamcast version. Since then, admitedly I really have lost interest in the NBA overall due to whinny players, so I stopped playing B-Ball games all together. However after seeing NBA 2K7 on display in my local Best Buy I had to try it. First off the graphics in this game are VERY impressive, the court look life like, if you are not looking close enough you would think its a real game, the courts actually look wooden like their real life counterparts and from what I have seen so far the game captures every detail of the home teams court. The crowd looks lifelike and not flat. The game even has the floor moppers! A lot of attention was given to detail and that translates to great looking game. In addition to the courts, the players look pretty good as well. My only small complaint is that the faces and facial expressions could have been done a bit better. Close ups of the players' faces can look very weird at times, but this does not really take away from the overall appearance of the game. What good is great graphics if the actual gameplay sucks? Fortunately 2K7 does not suffer from this flaw that many next gen games do. The gameplay in this game is very fun and realistic. Unlike NBA Live, you can't just run it in and dunk every play, nor can you shoot 87% from the field. Shooting the ball is pretty difficult, but at the same time realistic. On average, a "good" shooting night for a player is around 50% - 55% and this game reflects that very well. Don't expect to hit EVERY shot, and even if you are wide open, you may still miss, it can get frustrating at times, but hey, it happens in the real NBA as well. The default quarter length for 2K7 is the standard 5 minutes, but since this is a true SIM game, if you want realistic scoring, you have to raise the minutes to 7 or 8 minute quarters. Don't expect to scors 100+ points with 5 minute quarters as you can do with NBA Live, and I perfer it that way. The controls of the game can be very cumbersome, expect to be fumbling your fingers all over the controller trying to figure out how to do things, because buttons don't always seem to be in the right place. There is also a shot stick (R-stick), but I rarely use it, because it feels unatural. The left thumbstick controls the dribbling and movement, and you can use it to do fancy moves with the ball based on your player's dribbling skills and signature moves. The shooting takes some effort to perfect, and until you get used to it, you will find yourself bricking seemingly easy shots. Some players like Shawn Marion (Suns) on Josh Childress (Hawks) have very strange releases which makes jump shooting with them even more difficult. Speaking of shooting, free throw shooting is also pretty difficult, you have to have use the right thumbstick to control the player shot motion and since each player has different motions, this will take a lot of practice as well. Another thing about the controls is the the right thumbstick controlling the menus, it is very confusing and frustrating as well. As I said before, I am not really into the NBA until it comes to playoff time, so I have no idea how accurate the rosters are except for the obvious players. Of course AI no longer plays for the Sixers, but obviously he is still on the Sixers in the game, since the pending trade is VERY recent. Other game modes include Pratice mode which can be used to perfect your shot. There is also a street mode in which you can play 1 on 1 up to 5 on 5 using any players you like. It even has the old playground favorite of "21" in which you can play against 2 or 3 other guys from the league. There is also a seemingly deep franchise mode, which I probably won't be able to get into since I only have this game for 5 days. I am HIGHLY impressed with this game, so impressed in fact that I am considering purchasing this game once I turn it back in. Good thing EA didn't buy itself out of competition with the NBA, or else we would be stuck with NBA Live and all the arcadey crap it has to offer. 2K7 is for true NBA ballers that know the game is a lot more than 50 inch verticals, 85% FG percentages, and pretty dunks. This game is HIGHLY recommended if you want a true NBA sim.	video-games_xbox
I like it. ...don't know if it's worth damn near $60.00, though. Maybe $30.00 Haven't read the other reviews. This are just my thoughts. There are things that I like about the game: 1. The look and feel of the game, i.e., graphics and music. The game has improved in appearance. 2. The storyline (of course). I like the way they integrated the story with the character 'Dominic'. 3. The concept of creating a 'family'. 4. You get into the action really fairly quickly. 5. I like that crew members have specialties. 6. It's somewhat unpredicatable--> there are various routes into a building that you can take. You have to figure out the best ways to utilize your men. 7. I like that each business has special perks. 8. I like that you can get favors and perks from officials 9. I like the Don's view screen where you manage finances and businesses and such. But (and here we go with the negatives): 1. It's not like you're buying property or cars and clothes with it. You don't really use the money for anything besides purchasing guards to protect your businesses and upgrading your crew members, so... this function lost it's appeal rather quickly, for me. 2. I wish I could recruit crew members more frequently. Seems to be a slow-moving process. 3. Crew members...? They have their uses. They're a great addition...just have to be careful when it comes to your mob 'hits'. Their trigger happy ***es are guaranteed to just screw it up. I usually take one (the demo expert--the most reliable one) and have him post in close area as a precaution. 3. I think this game is easier than the original, imo. WAYYYY easier. I just defeated the first family and was like, "That's it?" In the first Godfather, a horde of mobsters were coming out of nowhere to fight me tooth and nail. In this one...I think I could have singlehandely taken out that house. Maybe it gets harder with each family, I dunno... If you can esacoe the scene of the crime then you'll have no issue with cops. They pretty much leave you alone... 4. I'm under the impression that I either have to kill my crew memebers or setup a wireless connection to upgrade the weapons qual. of my crew members in Xbox live. Not interested in going through a 'process' to play a stupid game...I suppose I'll just keep whacking them. (laugh) I like the game alright. There's been some great improvements. The new concepts just need to be better developed, imo. 3rd times the charm...(wink, 'Godfather 3')	video-games_xbox
A Great Purchase for First-Time Xbox 360 Owners. I own a PS3 and I am happy with it. I wasn't going to get a Xbox 360 until this bundle came along. I mostly got it for the included Halo Reach and the new Xbox 360 Slim console, which doesn't seem to have the overheating issue or Red Light of Death that older Xbox 360 consoles had. Pros: -Comes with a 250GB hard drive. This is necessary to play games smoothly. Installing the game to the hard drive makes the Xbox 360 run quieter and cooler. - Built-in Wi-Fi. You no longer have to buy an adapter to connect wirelessly. It's built into the system. - Built-in Kinect port. This Xbox 360 Slim has a special port just for the Kinect so you don't have to buy an adapter. - 3 Free Months of Xbox Live Gold. Xbox Live is the reason to get the Xbox 360. Its extensive online service is more user-friendly than PSN, but you will have to pay $60 a year after your 3 months are up (Amazon has some deals to get a Xbox Live membership around $45-50) for it. - Halo Reach (downloadable token). There is no physical disc. Instead, they give you a code that you download from the Xbox Marketplace to your hard drive. - Fable 3. It's an RPG game. Not my kind of game, but if you enjoy role-playing, you might like it. - Official Xbox headset. It's a mono headset, which means there's only one earpad to hear voice from. It works fairly well, but I have the Astro A40s so I don't use it. Cons: - Have to pay to play online. - Does tend to get hot when playing from the disc. - Fans run much louder than the PS3. To summarize, this is a great bundle for someone who doesn't have a xbox 360 or would like to have both systems. If you already have a xbox 360, there's really no reason to get this one. Most Xbox 360 owners will probably already have Halo Reach and Fable 3 isn't really a console seller. Now, I can game with friends on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 with ease. Also, I purchased the One-day shipping (which was $10 bucks for me) and it really did come the next day, just in case you were wondering about pushing your delivery date up.	video-games_xbox
Frustration Central. And here I thought the Lego series was infallible. So far, all the titles have been fun, challenging, and witty. Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues proves that team Tt is capable of floating a lemon out there after all. Other reviews have already detailed the differences in this game from its predecessors, so I won't rehash that. I will say that this feels like a rush job. Consider how much attention to detail went into the first Indiana Jones game; clearly the designers loved the movies as much as the rest of us. I suspect that when they saw The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, they must have had the same reaction we all had: man, this movie is poo! And yet, the poor schlubs had to go make a game out of it anyway. You can tell their hearts aren't in it. The layout and "story" are the definition of 'slapdash'. It certainly doesn't help that because the film that inspired it is so bad, nobody I know sat through it more than once; hence, no one gets the references. I can't even remember who played Oxly, can you? Did you even remember there was a character named Oxly? Anyone? No? So while I had hopes that source material wouldn't affect the game quality, it did. Turns out, you can't polish a turd. There is really nothing about the game that isn't frustrating. By the time you figure out what you're expected to do (as usual for Lego games, the instruction manual that comes with it is about as helpful as a box of toothpicks), you realize, "Man, this is going to be tedious to do seven or eight times." You basically run around the main story locales looking for the one character who can open this or dig up that, so you can use that item to open this door or find this vehicle, just so you can unlock another character or vehicle, etc., etc. It gets rote quick. The story levels are not really puzzles at all, just a mandate that you do these things in this order, which you will because there is really no alternative. You can't go wrong in the game, which depletes its challenge. By far the biggest flaws in the game are the "race challenges" you have to perform ad nauseam in each level. You take the designated vehicle through a series of slaloms before a clock ticks down and then you get another character to unlock. The races are usually boring, but some of them are so frustrating that if you're playing this with your young children the odds are good that they will have a couple extra unsavory words in their vocabularies by the time you finish the task. In particular, the "green jeep" race in Part 3 is damn near impossible to complete without having first slammed your controller through the coffee table. Whoever thought these races would be fun ought to be tossed into The Well of Souls--without shoes. Note to all game designers: 'challenging' is not the same thing as 'frustrating'. If you haven't plunked down your hard-earned for this one yet, save it and put it toward Lego Harry Potter instead.	video-games_xbox
A little something for everyone, why are you complaining. I got Resident Evil 6 on launch day. I'm a huge fan of the series and I couldn't wait to play it. At this point I have finished all four campaigns and I'm playing through a second time. This game has gotten a lot of mixed press and in response to those who have given it bad reviews I ask you; what did you want from this game? Some popular complaints I've seen are that it's too actiony and not classic resident evil, the controls are sloppy and the lighting is too dark. First off why would you want this to be identical to the first few games in the series? They already made those games and we already had those experiences. I love the first three games but I've already played them a million times. Aside from the fact that I don't understand why people would want Capcom to emulate the first three titles there is a great deal in this game that should appeal to classic resident evil fans. There are Zombies and both Leon and Adas campaign are creepy, atmospheric, and ripe with awesome puzzles that are reminiscent of the first three titles. Aside from Chris's action heavy campaign which I'll admit is BY FAR the weakest of the four campaigns, there is still so many survival horror elements in this game. I will admit that Chris's campaign plays like a less polished gears of war clone but there is SO MUCH other content in this game that is great and in addition to that some people like run and gun action and I don't think there's anything wrong with Capcom trying to appeal to this crowd IN ADDITION to classic resident evil fans. As far as the controls go I think if you are complaining about the controls then you haven't played around with the massive amount of control customization that this game offers. You can adjust the sensitivity,switch the main characters perspective to left handed, invert all the controls, change the button layout, you can even choose between having a cross hair or the classic resident evil laser sight (I use the laser sight). Once I tightened up the sensitivity and played for ten or so minutes I was pulling off head shots every time. As far as the brightness issue goes, I haven't had any problems seeing or enjoying the beautiful graphics at any point in the game. I turned the brightness up to 35 and everything looks great without being so bright that it washes out the graphics. I play on a 42' Panasonic Viera plasma TV and everything is sharp, bright and gorgeous even in the low light sequences when you are walking around with a flashlight. In summation I love RE6 and I am saddened at how much gamers have come to expect. This game has a couple very minor annoyances like a quick time event here or there that shows up so fast that you get killed cheaply but those annoyances are so few and far between that it in no way detracted from the over all experience. The enemies are varied and some are very imaginative, the boss fights are EPIC, there are some great set pieces and there is enough diverse content here that it should make ANY gamer happy whether you are a die hard fan of the first three or if you are die hard shooter fan. Survival horror, Action, Run and Gun, Awesome enemies, Great Graphics and tons of bonus content. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?	video-games_xbox
Got bored, burned a few villages down, stabbed a couple leopards, drove off a cliff. How was your day. The very first Far Cry was pretty awesome, when I had a chance to play it. The graphics were breathtaking for it's time, and that was way back when I was hobgobbling about on a Windows XP rig my dad threw together with a side of chopsticks. The second one was pretty, but it was disappointing in several areas. It didn't feel like you left an impact on the world no matter which random warlord you sided with, your Buddies died way too easily when you DID have friendly AI around (plus the fact noone would hop in the same car with you and speed away from a one-sided gunfight, that was really grating) and the general lack of friendlies about made it feel like I was stranded in Africa with a swastika carved into my cheekbone. Also, having malaria is kind of a mood-killer. Predator and Instincts, I honestly remember very little aside from the fact that the map editors from every Far Cry that featured one was beau-ti-ful. Now.. Far Cry 3? Some things started to not make sense when I was playing. One of the main things was, "why do I need to slaughter a white-bellied tapir to get the most pretty fur from it's coinpurse to line my wallet with, or else I can't have it? Why did I have to kill like, eight bears for whatever gear I had last time for that matter? Can't I just jack one of these pirates for their gear?" Well, whatever. I got to beat up a jungle today. What did YOU do, huh? Get a coffee at Starbucks and play crappy music on your Mac's speakers? I bet not one minute of your life involved stabbing a shark to death. The characters are portrayed true to their nature. The voice acting is superb, and the generic pirates sometimes sound like Spike from Cowboy Bebop so that was kind of cool too. Gunplay is how it should be. There isn't really a "nyerr this is my BFG with unlimited ammo because I am a huge babby" mode because there's pros and cons of each weapon in your arsenal. Guns hit when you can make the shot and miss when you don't. And oh god that CQC is amazing and creative. The way you can chain machete combos together.. Just, beautiful. It seriously never gets old. Vehicles feel really real to me. As in, there are several occasions where I tilted back on the right thumbstick to see what was going on behind me while pressing on the gass with the right trigger. Upon turning back around, I'd find myself careening off a cliff, running over a guy with a broken down car asking for help, a tiger, off the side of a bridge.. Needlessly, really realistic (and hilarious, considering the protagonist actually flinches and jolts when you crash into things/the window breaks. I can't count the number of times I imagined Jason climbing out of a wrecked jeep, plucking glass out of his arm and looking positively sad about it.) The only thing I don't like is: - Coop. It looked promising, but playing the first level was positively annoying. It felt like.. Playing a broken Army of Two, when I played it with my brother. Granted, my brother was like 5 at the time when I played that game and the concept of "please don't eat a bullet margarita" eluded him, but you die waaaay too easily in Cooperative mode. Whereas I could wipe out an outpost by looking at people a certain way before, I'd die if they threw whatever change was loose in their pockets at me. And missed. - That whole "I can't carry four weapons because I don't have a tiger's nuts to craft a sling for it" thing. It wasn't game breaking, but I can't be the only person to say "Are you kidding me" when I literally looted a body for a "Worn Wallet" on the way to buy a gun to kill a bear so I can make an "Extended Wallet" from a dead pirate. It just felt.. Kind of stupid. Now if it was like.. different outfits? Or to come up with new ideas for the character to craft something awesome like in Dead Rising 2? I could roll with that. Everything else was pretty cool. The search for artifacts and letters are difficult, but they really are a "well if you're bored do this" sort of thing like fetchquests in the subways of Fallout 3. However, they actually aren't just swimming through jungle brush until you find them; it doesn't feel irritating to figure out "how in the hell can this stupid totem be under me if there's no underwater caves in sight". It actually feels really rewarding when you do find whatever opening to wherever. Plus, you tend to have the opportunity to stab a tiger on the way, so that's fun too. Bottom line: I'd reccomend this to my friends, yeah. As long as they tolerate electronica, at least. A lot of songs, mainly electro beats would play during intense moments aside from tribal-sounding 'ooh-ahh' tunes that would play during the "ooh self discovery aren't you a unique snowflake" scenes.	video-games_xbox
Updated: Refinements make it worthwhile. Improvements: The locomotion system does make running a little more fluid, though I think its hype has been a little overstated. More importantly, the realism of things like pass completion % and kick coverage has been improved, without having to do drastic manipulation to the sliders. Also, the inside running game for you and the computer creates more space and allows for more 6-7 yard rushes, so you aren't limited to running outside to get good gains. One nice addition is a slider which lets you set the disparity in speed between the fastest and slowest players, so you won't have to cuss over Defensive Tackles chasing down your QB from behind anymore. The AI does a nicer job in pass coverage, and the logic of its offensive playcalling is much improved. Having your opponent's offense retain the personality of its real-life team, and not just its formations, (ex. Georgia Tech option) was long-overdue. The graphics are slightly refined, but nothing dramatic. Dynasty has not been altered much, but Recruiting has been tweaked. Now, the phone calls to recruits bring up topics randomly, and you have to determine how you want to handle it (ex. make a strong pitch, change the topic, etc). Not sure yet how I feel about it, but first time through it feels less laborious and predictable, so I think it will be better. Overall, it is clear EA focused more on the gameplay and less on the peripheral features, which is good. I do not play Online, but the Online Dynasty enhancements seem significant. As someone who has been playing NCAA since the old Bill Walsh College Football days on Super Nintendo, I would say this is the best of the new generation, without too many significant flaws or gaps. Even if you have NCAA 10, it's worth the purchase, because it is a much more refined and realistic game. UPDATE AFTER 2 DYNASTY SEASONS: Hard to get a pass rush; the CPU QB always seems to dump it off right before you sack him. I've had to dial down the CPU pass rush because my QB was getting ripped 5-6 times a game, mainly because the offensive tackles will just watch the DE run by...you need to get comfortable stepping up into the pocket. Recruiting is definitely much better - harder to cheat it, and easier to recruit against another team. Don't like the playcalling...now you have to cycle through 100+ shotgun passes one at a time instead of being able to use all the buttons (now only can use "A" to select). I've gone to 6 min quarters because I've found you can't get enough plays in at the traditional 5 min quarters. The running game is definitely more realistic...my RB average 5-6 yds per carry and you can find nice seams up the middle. Overall, my initial review stands...this is a significant improvement in virtually all areas and worth the purchase.	video-games_xbox
Overall pretty good with a few head scratching steps backwards. Can't listen to voice messages sent from a 360? WTF. Achievement system prettier but less functional and slower to access. Unlock an achievement and you wanna see what it was while you're playing, just don't because it takes you out of the game to a loading screen and then you have to click on the achievement to see it. Not as simple as the 360. Game will be where you left it though. One of the big head scratchers for me is the controller won't give you a warning before the battery dies. Again WTF? Caused me to crash my chopper. Probably would have crashed it anyway since I usually run my batteries dry before swapping out but a warning would at least let me know to have a pair on standby. I wasn't sure if I would but I actually like kinect. I programmed the TV for it so when I walk into the room and say "xbox on" it turns on the TV and the xbox. It's like living in the future. It's worked pretty good for me with just voice commands, haven't used the hand gestures. During setup be sure to turn your TV up pretty loud so kinect works better with your voice. Can't stream music or movies from your Windows pc like you could with the 360, I've heard that will be fixed with an update, I've heard it's because the xbox one doesn't have a media player in it yet. Probably wasn't finished but they didn't want Sony to get a huge jump on them. The smart glass app is way better than the 360 version, can't wait to see how different games use it. Definitely should have a bigger hard drive considering battlefield 4 is taking up probably 40 gigs by itself. It's going to go quick because games are just going to get bigger and bigger. Biggest thing I miss is my chatpad, I hope MS comes out with an adapter or a new version because smart glass isn't really a replacement. If I just want to type a quick something I shouldn't have to grab my tablet, launch smart glass and then launch the remote section in smart glass just to type. A widget shortcut for Android would be nice. Battlefield 4 plays great and with 64 players it's amazing. Main reason I bought the One and my only complaints there would be with EA and their business practices and server issues but that didn't stop me from buying premium because I'm addicted. If you consider yourself a gamer get one, If you're on the edge then wait because it's only going to get better. I do suggest downloading your games instead of buying the disc just for convenience of not having to get up and change disc but if you have slow Internet buy that disc or it will take FOREVER to download just one game. Between dead rising 3 and Battlefield 4 it was probably 60 gigs I downloaded in one day, don't think I've ever done that before.	video-games_xbox
Almost Perfect. Almost perfect Like most reviews these headsets are almost perfect. The known mic issue for me isn't as big of a deal because I don't use xbox party chat very much, and lately have been playing single player focused games such as fall out 4. Sound quality is amazing. Ive owned cheaper turtle beach products in the past for xbox 360 so this is my first premium headset. I was absolutely amazed at the audio quality, I feel as though the head set has a very good balance. Im no audiophile but I found the audio quality to be superb. Ease of Bluetooth: If you're reading a review of the elite 800x then you should know that its an xbox headset and that is all. So I will not complain saying you cannot use on PS4 or PC, if you want to use with PS4 or PC then look at the elite 800. Having 100% wireless from the xbox is extremely convenient. Not only for gaming but for around the house listening to music from your mobile device, or watching a movie not having to worry about keeping your controller on, or having to use a big and clunky adapter that other wireless headsets require. The app is easy to use via mobile or on a computer and found it easy to update the headset. The many features the headset offers makes you feel in control and adjust the settings to your liking. Noise canceling: This is one of the features the elite 800x is lacking in. The noise canceling feature is very weak. Comparing the noise canceling to Bose, there is no competition. However it does help a little bit to feel completely excluded from the rest of the world when gaming, music, or movies. But if you're looking to just wear them while doing homework and would like the noise canceling to drown out a noisy roommate or family member youll be disappointed. Comfort: This is why I say these are almost perfect. They sound incredible, and the Bluetooth audio and fully wireless from the xbox is exactly what I was looking for. However they're not comfortable. To the point Im on the verge of returning. The ear pockets are not deep enough or the ear cushions are not thick enough. This makes the inside of the headset push against your ears causing pressure. I think if they had a different ear cushion this problem could be remedied, and I will be looking for a search. I strongly recommend trying someplace or a friend that has them to try them on, because for me the fit and comfort is really, really terrible for a $300 headset. I was also very disappointed they did not include/even offer a travel case. For a $300 headset I expect some sort of travel protection.	video-games_xbox
Lots and lots of fun. This is a new edition of the previous Star Wars Lego games. They have been repackaged and some extras have been added. The biggest difference is the improvement in graphics and continuity. You can play the game by yourself, with a partner or on-line. And, after you have completed everything, you can do it all in one fell swoop! That is what the game claims, I haven't reached that point yet! I was introduced to the Star Wars Lego series with the last installment, Star Wars Lego II: The Original Trilogy and I must admit I was a bit disappointed the first time I played this game. There is a significant difference between the difficulty of the games as well as the playability. But, once I realized that it was unreasonable to expect the entire set to be 2007 X-Box 360 quality, I started having a lot of fun. Now, I should add that my daughter has loved this game from day one. She had played some of the older games at her friend's and was extremely excited to get the game (she made me pre-order it!) Short and sweet: the game is a lot of fun. It is not too difficult, but that doesn't really matter. There are so many hidden items and very funny scenes that the game is a joy to play. You don't find yourself laughing out loud too often playing video games, but you will be in this one. Storm Troopers in speedos, enough said...... The game is good for children and adults. This is also a game you can play with your children. The two player mode works very well. The two player mode is also good for helping children (and adults) understand the concepts of cooperation and sharing---a definite plus in the world of gaming! There isn't anything too bad in any of the games. Characters explode into a pile of legos and you can shoot buildings apart---that is about it on the violence scale. It is definitely a fun game and you will not be disappointed!	video-games_xbox
A Decent RPG for the price. I played the original Two Worlds on the pc, and while it wasn't the best in storytelling it still had a certain charm about it. I wanted this game after hearing that the expansion for the first game was going to be a full game itself. You pick up where you left off in the first game. **Minor spoiler for new people* Your sister is a prisoner and so are you. She is harboring the essence of a god in her which your enemy is using to strenghten his own power. You are used to keep her from dying as he extracts power from her. You get tossed into a prison, but you get broken out. *****Spoiler end******* That is the basic premise of the games storyline. It's not a great story, but as long as you can look past that you will see the gold beneath the silt. Combat The main draw for me was being able to customize my character's skills and class. Most RPG games usually lump you in warrior/mage/stealth categories and you stay there the duration. Well here you get a choice to go any route. Be a warrior that sets traps and draws his prey in. A spellcaster that can take a hit and dish it out. A rogue that can fight in the front lines and disappear only to re-emerge and do a slient kill. You can still go the pure warrior/mage/rogue route but it will probably be hard for you to want to stay that way. Crafting Remember the days of junk equipment cluttering your inventory? Like who needs 7 swords that dropped from guys when you are low on inventory space. Well you can break it down and use it to upgrade equipment in Two Worlds 2. Makes gathering junk equipment worth it. You can also brew your own potions and save the recipes for later. So any flora and fauna is useful in this game. Spells as well are now craftable with the new DEMONS spell system. The spell system is really robust and customizable , for instance, you can create a spell that you set down as a trap and when an enemy steps on it they get surrounded by monsters. Or you shot a missle of fire at an enemy that bouces towards another enemy after it hits one. Alot of room for some unique spells in this game. If you do a youtube search for two worlds 2 spells, you'll get a few videos of what i am talking about. Multiplayer I haven't played much of the multiplayer, but from what I've seen it is fun and worth the price of the game. Different modes of play include: Adventure: Co-op Questing mode Duel: PVP in an arena Village: Like Adventure mode but based out of host's town. So if you like to have customization in your RPG ,aren't really worried about having a triple A storyline, and the ability to play multiplayer in a few different options, you can't go wrong with Two worlds 2.	video-games_xbox
A Warning. If you are reading reviews to decide if you will buy this game, then don't. Do not buy this game. I can not stay it any clearer than that. And I love first person shooters! I love the hop scotching from cover to cover. I love the run and gun Rambo styles. So when I finally find time to spend with a new game, guess the joy in selecting a new Medal of Honor. The graphics are great. The areas wide open and huge. The AI is smart. Skill and weapons can develop up. Hey, it's a WWII shooter. All of which means jack against the great flaw. This game commit's the single worst sin a game can. In all the reviews I've read. All the reviews I read, few mention it, even then in passing. Stunning consider it's the deal breaker. I never review items. This, in fact, is not a review, but a warning from the grave. That is the checkpoint system. When you die (and you will. You are as venerable as a new born kitten and they die harder than a Terminator on PCP.) you restart at the beginning of the objective. For all the free world, choose your own path crap, there are set paths you have to take to an objective. Different areas you have to take. Die and you start all over. Conquered ground loss. No, not loss. As if never taken. You will literally play the same segment hundreds of times. Health packs are rare and there are no short cuts. You can fight through five areas and be standing in front of your objective when you die. Tough! More than one objective at the end of that road? Start back at the beginning. Fight the same fight over and over and over and . . . Its Groundhog Day WW II style. This is bad enough to dismiss the entire game? Ever see a nun drop kick a puppy and wonder where that level of anger can come from? Enter a zone with full health and get killed by someone you can't see . . . for the fiftieth time. Then you'll know. Sweet lord, you will know. They are cheat codes. If you can awkwardly hold the controller to press both bumpers and a confusing combination of keys all while being beaten over the head like a member of the Three Stooges. Of course you game will not save with cheats employed no matter how far you get or EVEN IF YOU STOP USING THEM. You have to turn the game off and restart it. . . There's a neat little surprise for you. Use it once, find it not worth the effort, complete a level and next time you turn the game on . . . you get to REPLAY that level, AGAIN! Did I memtion that you will replay the same battle a few HUNDRED times? Just wanted to be sure. So do not buy this game. Just say a silent prayer for those of us Electronic Arts violated and remember they but for the grace of game reviews go ye.	video-games_xbox
Alies few, Enemies many. Choose your path carefully. An award winning game, here is my review for Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic 1. Plot: 4000 years before the movies started. The universe was in fear of the sith lord Darth Malak. He wanted to destroy the republic. You are (either a solider, a scoundrel or a scout. Male or Female, its an RPG game so you can choose what you want to be) on a ship called the Endar Spire, where it is being attacked by the sith. You are sopost to be guarding a jedi called Bastila Shan who has taken an escape pod off the ship to escape. You are met by Carth Onasi who is a republic captain and solider who wants to beat the sith and save Bastlia. From after escaping the ship you land on the planet Taris which is being held under sith rule. You must now escape Taris and help Bastlia and Carth destroy the sith once and for all! Characters (down below) Main Character: Because its an RPG you can choose to a human male or female. solider or scout or scoundrel. When you get to Dantooine you can upgrade to a jedi, so either you be a guardien which focus on mostly hand to hand combat (lightsabers included) which is a higher version of solider. a Sential which is upgraded from a scout so you are the jack of all trades meaning you focus a bit on hand to hand and a bit of the force powers, Or become a jedi councler which is upgrade from a scoundrel so you focus more on the force powers than hand to hand combat. Carth Onasi: is a solider. can NOT be upgraded to a jedi. He uses blasters and pistols most of the time unless you switch him to blade weapons but preferes to shoot more than sword fight. He is a moody republic with a tragic backstory. When you bring him along in your 3 person party sometimes he has good things to say. Because this is an RPG you can side chat with characters durring missions and during free time if you want to run around, by saying that if you truly are intresting in Carths backstory you can talk to him about it but it will come out during normal story line can't miss missions so other than that he really is a slient character. Or if you finnish all the side chats early in the game when you go to talk to Carth all you can ask "what do you know about the planet we are one?" once he answers you said "never mind" end of the conversation. If you are a female character you can have a romantic relationship with Carth if you chat enough with him and love him enough. Other than main missions where you need Carth I left him alone 99% of the time unless I wanted a useless chat to waste time. Bastlia Shan: is a sentinel Jedi who carries a yellow double blade lightsaber. From the time you meet her to when you get to Dantoonie she acts as if she is better than everyone that includes you as well. She is an ok jedi fighter, but because she is a sentinel she is split between combat and skill points so if she wants to heal her self better than most of the others in here she can. Side chatting with her is kind of boring, she acts like she shows you right from wrong but she really doesn't. If you are a male character you can have a romantic relationship with Bastlia. If you finish all side chats early you can ask Bastlia about what planet you are on or revist a vision you both shared. Mission Vao: a 14 year old blue twliek girl who is a scouldrel. She can NOT become a jedi She is tough little rebel who is good at hacking computers. She can be used to fight with blades or pistols if she is your party when battle comes. Side chatting can lead to a side mission of finding her long lost brother Griff, and you chatting with Mission can be able to play games of Pazaak card game which with Mission you can only play for fun but you refine your skills so when you betting players in the game you can win money off them. After I got to Dantooine I left her alone 99% Zaalbar: is a wookie who is with Mission Vao when you first meet him. He can use his bowcaster (a crossbow that shoots lasers), Or you can have him blade fight which he is very good at. Side chatting with him is boring because he will either make grnades for you untill you have too many or you can try to talk to him about his past but untill you get to the story line where he tells you about it he refuses intensely. So I left him alone 99% of the time. T3M4: he is an astromech droid. Not like R2D2 but is more like a flat headed small droid who beeps and boops alot. He is best at intellegence where you can upgrade his computer hacking skills and repair skills. Once you get past the main mission you need him for I never really used him again. Side chatting with T3M4 is so boring!!!! The developers of this game make him use the same 3 to 4 different beep boops bops and whistles over and over, you can only ask him one question and nothing else. Very useless talker and companion in my oppion. HK-47: my fave droid in the whole game. He is a smart ass talking, "I hate everyone else but the master" kind of droid. He is a range shooter. He has a translater in him so he can talk to spieces that you cant so he makes a great interpiter for your party. The HK character won "2004 best character of the year" award because of how awesome his little speeches and talks are. He is very funny. Not a bad fighter but I take him along for his colourful comentrary more than anything. Canderous Ordo: is a Mandalorian who carries a very very big gun. He loves to fight, shooting perferenced. He is a good shooter and can talk alot of hits. If you upgrade his weapon and armor he is a damage sponge. He can be defeated if he takes enough damage but he is one of the tougher fighters in the whole game. Side chats you can learn about his fighting past and because of how the republic are still recovering from the Mandalorian wars you can see how people react to him in your party. He cant Not be a jedi sadly. Jolee Bindo: is a jedi counsoler who carries a green saber. He is portayed as a tad senile with his old age but he has the most health out of anyone in the entire game. He focus mostly on force powers so his force powers are stonger than most unless you go into force specialization. Side chatting with him is fun at times because if you act too nice to him he call you a jerk, if you are too mean to him he still calls you a jerk. You can learn that you don't need to chose light side or dark side because everyone and everything can be gray or netural. He is a great fighter, I use him alot because who dosn't want a jedi to fight by your side? i love jedi! Juhani: is a cathar a human cat like creature who is a jedi guardien (blue lightsaber) who loves to fight. You first meet her on Dantooine and if you can get her back to the light you can have her as a companion. She fights great in hand to hand combat with lightsabers. Side chatting with her, most people say she has annoying whineing at most. If you take time to chat with her you can learn about her past. She is also the very first ever lesbian in the entire star wars universe ever. Once you do her side quests her side chats are totally boring because you start talking with her and the only thing you can say is "nothing more" and leave. So once you run out of side chats with her just don't talk to her anymore. I use her alot because the more jedi in your party the more fun you can have. Leveling (down below) Leveling depending on your character class and how you get experience points you can get it fast or slow but the all have the same level points so get to the different levels. What I hate the most about the leveling up factor is you have a caping level of 20, so depending on what level you get to Dantooine, mostly either around level 8 to 10. You can only get a few levels of being a jedi which really sucks because you don't have much time to level up as a jedi and you can only get either 10 or 12 force powers depending on what level you become a jedi. Dantooine explantion: If you knowticed I say "When you reach Dantooine" a lot in this review, this is because the first 2 worlds you are on from the start are like tutorial worlds so you can figure out how the games machanics are and how to fight. Dantooine is when you become a jedi for the first time and you can fight with a lightsaber. Feats: they are add on abilties you can have for example "duel weapon 1, 2, and 3" if you have one or all of them it gives you less of a penality when you fight with 2 weapons, one in each hand. If you didn't have any of them you would have a penelty for instance less damage done to the enemy and more to you. Not all feats have draw backs, for instance "Conditioning" makes your character stronger in health points, force points and resintiance to poison and force attacks with NO draw backs at all. Skills: there is computer which means how well you can hack a computer how many security spikes you need to hack into the computers, the higher you computer skill is the less computer spikes you need to hack a computer with. Repair: repairing computers or robots, the higher the skill the less repair parts you need to repair. Demolition: how well you can recover land mines you run across, disableing them takes alot less skill to do then recovering them so you can either use them agents enemies or you can sell the ones you recover. Stealth: there are stealth belts in this game that can make you sneak past enemies and get one shot sneak attacks, the higher you stealth skills is the easier enemies are to sneak up on. (in my oppion Stealth is not a very usefull skill at all, I only use it once during the whole game at the most). Awareness: how well you observe your enviorment, meaning you can spot land mines easier. Higher your Awareness skill is the more you can see land mines, also you can spot invisable enemies but there are not too many in this game. Persuade: is how well you can talk to others with Persuade checks. For instance sometimes you can talk you way out of a bad situation or possibly get a higher reward out of people who offer money. Security: is how well you can break open a lock. Some items and doors are locked, you can bash them open if your skill is not strong enough to break open the lock. Treat Injury: a self explantiory skill I think, the higher your treat injury skill is the more health you can restore to your self from health packs or by force healing. Armor: There is light, medium and heavy army. The heavier the armor the more protection you are going to have. But most armor resticts jedi force powers, so if you fight someone as a jedi with armor that resticts your force powers then hope you don't need to force heal your self or force attack someone outside of hand to hand combat. Armor Upgrading: honestly it sucks! only 5 armors in the game can be upgrade. There are more than 5 different armor in the game, there are 39 armors in the game, so 39 minus 5 is 34, so you have 34 more armor's the developers could let have let you upgrade but didn't want to. This includes jedi Robes. Armor Overlay and Underlay: that means you can have 2 upgrades in the armors that you can upgrade. Sorry you can NOT pick how you want to upgrade your armor it already comes predetiermed. So you need to buy an overlay (non specific they work in all upgradeable armors) and an underlay (same as the overlay) then go into a work bench and upgrade your armor with a tap of the button and then you get what they called the improvered "X" (X meaning the name of the armor you upgraded except it now says upgraded) Sword (non lightsaber) Upgrading: None lightsaber swords, there are 25 different types of bladed non saber weapons and only 6 can be upgraded. The upgrades are all predertermed and you need 3 for a fully upgraded blade, they are Durasteel Bonding Alloy, Energy Projector and Vibration Cell. Blaster Upgrading: all pistols and big blasters. There are 42 different types of blasters and pistols in this game. Only 7 are upgradeable, so 35 are NOT upgradeable thanks to the developers. Like all the other upgradeable weapons and armor, the upgrades are predetermined so what you upgrade is what they give you no exception. For a fully upgraded blaster you need Beam Splitter, Hair Trigger, Improved Energy Cell, and Scope. Lightsaber Upgrading: Any and all lightsabers, single blades, short lightsabers and double bladed lightsabers are upgradedable. You do have a bit of choice with these upgrades, you can change the colour of the blade and some of the side crystals they give you, so you can have more damage per swing if you want or others you might find. Loot Generator: it is RANDOM. Depending on your level is how good or bad items you find in the game are. Some of the items are predertimed in the game which makes it feel like a rush and find sometimes. Overall Story: it is very well written out! I can see why this is given 2003 Game of the year from many different companies. Overall Characters: Tho I wish some of the characters were a bit better made. Some of their dialogue choices are quite limited and otherwise I feel most party members are useless. I use jedi party members more because, 1 = lightsabers are the ultimate butchering tool agents any enemy in the game. 2 = jedi can force heal so if you do NOT have health packs on you, you have a free way of healing your self along with your alies. 3 = most non jedi party members can be defeated by jedi easily and only other jedi's can stand up to enemy jedi's you meet. Overall Weapons and Armor: I am happy with what I got but upgradeing falls really short in this game. Not like an RPG game at all, more like a power up that you can keep forever if you wish Overall Game: I like this game, it is good, I bought it when it first came out in 2003 for the old xbox. Con: To me and this is just MY oppion only, it is NOT as good as its sequal game Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords. But you should buy this game!!	video-games_xbox
After 4 different headsets, THIS IS THE BEST. For about a half a year now, i've gone through 4 different headsets and my goal was to find which has the best true surround sound, best sound quality, best quality/ comfort, and bang for your buck. The other headsets ive used are the turtle beach earforce x11, astro ax40, and turtle beach x 41. These seem to be the most popular among the xbox and ps3 gaming crowd. Now i could go into extreme detail about each and why one is better than the other but ill go over just the basics pro and cons of each. X11: light, good 2.1 "surround sound", good sound quality for 50 bucks, sadly its only 2.1 surround sound, and has some background static (nothing to much though). X41: wireless (pro and con because wireless headsets loose sound quality but less wires), surround sound is pretty good but for the price you can get better. Lightweight and wireless receiver is good. Astro a40 and mix amp: Amazing mids and highs, bass could use more. Detachable mic, and customizable ear cup plates. the quality is top notch. heavier than turtle beaches (pro or con, really just personal preference, personally i like it), the surround sound is great...250 bucks! Tritton ax pro: the sound is amazing but the mids and highs are just slightly worse than a40s but the bass much better, cheaper and a 40s, detachable mic, customizable surround sound levels (great addition, especially if your willing to spend some time and find the perfect level for you). surround sound, to me, is better and a40's. very comfy, works great on 360 and ps3, has a heavier feel than turtle beach, has more wires to setup than turtle beaches. Overall: The ax pro's and the a40's are the better of the four between the two the ax pro's are my favorite. Both have extremely great surround sound quality. But i felt as if the ax pro's have just a slight edge and the true bass makes playing single player even more immersive and you can turn down the bass for multiplayer. Where the a40's don't have that strong bass the ax pro's have but the a40's do have a slight advantage b/c the high sounds seem to be a little bit more crisp. Lastly the a40's need the mixamp to work w/ surround sound so that $250 where the ax pros don't need an external device for any effect.	video-games_xbox
I Like It. You know, this is a good game, significantly improved over last year's version. Mainly, I like the precision pitching. I thought that pitching in 2K7 was the best I'd ever seen, but it just consisted of choosing the pitch well, aiming it well, and timing hitting the same button twice well (sorry for that convoluted sentence). Pitching in 2K8 takes a little more skill than timing though. You move the right stick in a pattern that (loosely) replicates the spin of the ball, and that gesture is rated on a 0-100 scale. The more closely you've matched the called-for pattern, the better the pitch. Of course, in addition to this, you have to aim it will (with the left stick) and time the release of the right stick well to help with control. Pitching only takes a few days to pick up, but mistakes are never entirely eliminated. That makes for more realistic gameplay. I've enjoyed batting, too. The swing-stick is improved. Timing on both the step and the swing is very meaningful. When you're even slightly off, it's going to be a pop-up or a weak ground-out. You have some small control, using the left stick, on the direction you're trying to hit it. This all adds up to a better batting experience than simply pushing the 'A' button at the right time. Fielding is better as well. The right stick is used to direct the speed and direction of the release and throw, and the timing occasionally is tricky. Again, this is much better than hitting one button and all throws being equal. I rather like the graphics, too. I agree with others that the faces don't match very well all of the time. Still, the parks are well done, and whenever I've left the game on while I'm flipping channels, I'm regularly tricked into the thinking an actual game is on. They have the batting stances and pitching motions down awfully well, too. So, I've not much other than praise for this. There aren't a whole lot of frills. It's a basic, good baseball game that hasn't gotten dull for me yet (and I've played it a lot). I'd recommend it if that's what you're looking for.	video-games_xbox
A Depart from the Genre. A little background about my playing history with the series: I've played every GR starting with the original. Big fan of the series. GR:FS is a good game. The campaign is, like most GR's, a compelling ride. I think the game is graphically impressive and the gameplay roots are shared with previous GR titles so fans of previous GR titles will find some enjoyment from this game. Where GR:FS stands to lose some of its fans is where it departs from the other games in the series. Naturally, GR:FS is set in the future and your soldier is equipped with a wide variety of high tech gadgetry. This uber-advanced gear, along with a new, Sam Fisher-esque marking system which allows you to "mark" enemies to assassinate in tandem with you squad mates, molds the game into more of a rail-shooter akin to Call of Duty than the traditional GS we're used to playing. Traditional GS tactics of stealthy advance and even cover are thrown to the wind due to an active camouflage system that makes your squad practically invisible. In fact you will only be spotted by the enemy if you are withing 10-15 meters and remain in their field of view for a few seconds. Passing through their field of view while camouflaged and consequently triggering their interest will not hinder you if you continue to move out of sight, as the AI's remarkably poor short-term memory results in them forgetting that you even triggered their awareness. These add-ons to the game arguably result in a smoother, more cinematic experience. An experience, I would like to add, that is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is necessarily a fundamental depart from what the GR series has traditionally imbued. The motives are most clear when considering the dominating financial success of video game shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield. In a relatively stagnant market such as the video game market, publishers are increasing pressure on their developers to copy the recipe for success- in this case the most successful shooters on the market, COD and BF. Supporting this theory even further is the radical multiplayer change. I actually bought this title primarily for the MP. The multiplayer of GR:FS consists of small maps and revolves less around shooting you opponent than it does about gaining a tactical advantage in regards to the new "intel" feature. Again, I will restate that this is not necessarily bad. I enjoy the multiplayer in it's own right, however it's vitally important to state that this game, in my opinion, deceives the consumer by even holding the title "Ghost Recon". It's like a food company selling a new brand of hot dogs that taste like juicy apples: it tastes good, but it is NOT what you were expecting or what you wanted. All in all, the game is not bad. The campaign is fun and well-paced. The high-tech gadgetry, though taking the series in a completely different direction, is fun to use against unsuspecting AI. The multiplayer is a bit addicting and held my interest for a while. I'd recommend any potential consumer to rent or borrow this game from a friend before you buy it. Also, note that buying a used copy is often unwise if you desire to play online. Online play requires a Key-code that can only be used once. A used copy will most likely not contain the key (or it will have already been used) and the game will prompt you to purchase a new key (cost something like $10-$15). Hopefully this review was useful to some of you.	video-games_xbox
Finally takes a major step forward. The last 2 years I have been hesitant to buy with last year's iteration being one of the worst in the series. This year's game seems like THQ really took the time to listen to the fans and give players a chance to create their own game. The create a finisher is back and not improved from the version 2 years ago but that's ok! it works and it allows you to create some of the sickest finishers ever! The most engrossing portion however is the create a story mode. If you plan on spending any significant amounts of time in this mode, get a USB keyboard because in order to create a great story you will have to develop good dialogue and it's not something you can do in an hour. Just for me to develop my story from the beginning of the year to Wrestlemania, took me the better part of 4 maybe 5 hours. You can choose to create an entire show or focus your plot over various weeks for a show, set conditions and even control the cutscenes. It's just that deep! But, it gets a bit clunky. Depending on your character, if you want it to be as 'realistic' as possible, you want to make sure your cutscenes fit your character. I'm using the Undertaker BTW so there are very few cutscences that fit his persona but it's workable! Also the sounds that are used for these portions really could have been fleshed out a bit more and the crossfading for these sounds is bad. There is no way to have say, the crowd cheering while simultaneously have the taker's theme play as he runs into the ring. It takes a bit of getting used to but this was something sorely needed. One of the other things you may like about playing the sotry mode is now almost any belt sanctioned by the WWE can be put on the line including the Hardcore belt! And already in 48hrs, there is a lot of uploaded content online. Too bad you can't edit someone's else's storyline but on the other hand it prevents a lot of needless stealing...LOL Everything else about the game is pretty much the same as past iterations. The control buttons and stick pushings have been a bit streamed down and as some old problems were solved, a few new ones occur. For instance, it's a not as easy to do submission moves unless you really have a character built for doing it. And it still feels like you have to standing at that particular spot to execute the submission move and also to pick things up. There still seems to be some clipping and targeting issues that still plague this game umpteen years later. Thankfully they didn't keep the same formula which made LoW such an underwhelming title. One other thing that you may lik eor dislike is that the HUD is mostly gone now and replaced with small halos which tells you how well you are doing. I still wish that they would make it so that as you focus on body parts, it does realistic damage as opposed to using the same animations. Otherwise, this is probably one of the best wrestling games THQ has put out in about 3 or 4 years, with the Story design one of the longest yet best parts made!	video-games_xbox
The Most Complete NCAA Football Game on this Generation. I have played NCAA Football all the way from 2005. I've always preferred it to Madden. When the NCAA franchise began to be created for the Xbox 360 and the PS3, many features were missing from the previous generation. However, I am happy to report that I am very satisfied with my experience with this one for it's many improvements over its predecessors. However, there are still a few concerns I have with the game. In terms of graphics, this is the best looking NCAA game in the series. However, that is not saying much as the graphics are very similar to NCAA 13. There is very little improvement, and the only substantial improvement will come on the next-gen systems (if there is another NCAA). In the audio department, there is a pregame show during dynasty mode as well as a halftime show. Both are honestly very forgettable as you will hear the same lines over and over again. While the halftime show does reflect the events of the game, the pregame show is random as I tend to skip it. In terms of commentary, Brad Nessler does a great job like always. He is a great play-by-play announcer. Even in this game, he still sounds like he is into it and interested in the on the field action. The same, however, cannot be said about Kirk Herbstreit. He sounds bored out of his mind and almost like he is reading straight from a script card. The commentary has never been the same after Lee Corso left, and Kirk has become worse with each installment. Now for the gameplay, this title really shines. Offensively, this game has really been improved. Offensive blocking is much improved and features a very dynamic blocking system. Along with blocking improvmeents, the option game is much more streamlined telling you before the play who to key on when running the option. Defense features a new "Ball Hawk" mechanic which makes getting interceptions much simpler and easier to do. There aren't as many random interception drops as previous games. For the modes, there are a ton of them including Dynasty Mode, Season Mode, Road to Glory, Heisman Challenge, the new Nike Skills Trainer, and the new Ultimate Team Mode. While I could go in depth with each mode, this review will be a bit too long, so I will just focus on the changes for each mode. Dynasty mode now features RPG elements to leveling up coaches and unlocking new skills. This could help recruiting become easier or making your team more injury resistant. Recruiting has been simplified, but it takes away from the person feel of calling each recruit. The Nike Skills Trainer is a tutorial which teaches the mechanics of the game and its new features. The drills are challenging, but you are awarded with an ultimate team card for getting gold. If you are familiar with Madden, then you already know about Ultimate Team mode. You pretty much collect cards of the players are put them on your team. There are a bunch of characters such as Bo Jackson and Barry Sanders as well as recent ones like Rob Gronkowski and Andrew Luck. The mode is ok, but it has EA cash grab written all over it. Overall, I haven't enjoyed a college football game like this one in a long time. Finally, allot of concerns I have had with the title have been addressed. While it still has some things I don't like about it, I overall can't complain too much. Unfortunately, this might be the last NCAA Football game ever made due to a contract dispute between EA and the NCAA. I recommend it for football fans as well as people looking for an alternative to Madden.	video-games_xbox
It's ......FUN. A lot of people have waited a long time for this game, and the question, as with many others, was, will it live up to expectations/match the hype? For me, it does. There has been a lot written about "Saint's Row is a GTA ripoff," and things to that effect, but I have always seen it differently--I will try to explain what I mean in the course of this review. I was not really intending to write a review of GTA IV here, or a comparsion, but when you consider Saints Row 2, or the first game, for that matter, it's really difficult not to compare the two. I feel that they are all good games in their own right; I happen to prefer Saints Row 2, and will do my best to expain why. Now, to the review: The original Saint's Row was the reason I purchased my 360-I had read all the previews and was so interested to play the game, I purchased a new console to do so (like I bought my PS2 so I could play Vice City). At the time most people disparaged the first Saints Row as a "GTA clone" or GTA ripoff," but, I didn't see it that way, in fact, to me Saints Row instroduced some things that I think GTA IV incorporated, so from my view, GTA IV is a Saints Row ripoff--for example some things Saints Row had first- 1. GPS 2. Cell phone interface, including easy access cheats 3. When you die you lose some money but NOT your weapons (thank god, finally) 4. NPC's look more liike people, than cartoon characters But, that's just my view. I always have felt that, Saints Row is more "FUN" than the GTA games. The new Saints Row, even more so. The game begins with your character in the prison hospital; at this point you get to choose the gender and ethnicity of your character, and pick his/her voice. I'm just wondering how many guys made their character a female, and ran around in their underwear for awhile (I know I did, lol). The cut scenes can be very amusing, that way. Anyway you make your character, then an NPC who is a 3rd St Saint, gets himself stabbed so he can get into the infirmary, and help you bust out of prison. The first "mission" involves you two fighting your way off the prison island, and getting back to town, which has changed a lot since you have been away. From here, gameplay is similar the to the first Saints Row-you do side missions of various types to build up your "respect" gauge, once your respect indicates at least "1x" you can then play missions and try to beat strongholds. You gain "respect" by completing the various levels of activities, killing cops, klling enemy gang members, and now, new features-you can gain respect by skillfull driving-coming close to other vehicles without crashing into them ("near miss") getting air, going on 2 wheels, driving on the wrong side of the street without being hit, etc. The cleaner the near miss, or longer you are on the wrong side, higher you fly etc, come more "stars"--sort of like "kudos" in the PGR games. This is cool! Now, here's my main point. this is why in my opinon Saint's Row 2 is a better game than GTA IV. It's simply more fun. Now, GTA IV is a great game. But after awhile things about it get OLD-your "friends" nagging you all the time to hang out, and my LEAST favorite thing--all the damn "chase" missions--where you drive somewhere (usually way across town or, later, on another island), find a location, kill a bunch of people there, then, the final target escapes the area and you have to finish the mission by chasing him/her all the way BACK across town. After 5 or 6 of these you get SICK of it. In fact, just today I decided to play today, put the game in, and came across just a mission. I put quite a bit of time into GTA IV so that I could unlock all the islands, now, I just don't care about playing it that much anymore because I know I will be facing a couple more dozen "chase" missions. There are a couple in Saints Row 2, also, but not as many, and not as frustrating, to me, anyway. Anyway, here is why I prefer Saints Row 2 to GTA IV: (and what's improved since Saints Row 1) 1. You can select your characters gender/appearance/voice, etc. 2. ALL AREAS OF THE CITY ARE UNLOCKED TO BEGIN. I have always HATED that in the GTA games, you are locked out of other areas of the city, sometimes till pretty deep in the game. 3. You generate money-once you have completed several story missions, and control a few areas of town, you are generating a couple of thousand dollars a day; then when you buy a couple of stores, another thousand or two; you can then buy clothes, weapons/ammo, etc 4. HITMAN and CHOP SHOP activities improved-now once you start a hitman or chop shop list, as you roam about the game will show you where the hitman target is (you don't have to have a specific weapon for them anymore, yay), and if you happen to jack a car that's wanted, the game will show a message "wanted by the chop shop" and draw you a GPS route to the chop shop. Cool! (and both are good ways to make easy money and a lot of respect). 5. New activites: You can now drive a taxi for fares, drive an ambulance as a medic (instead of just picking up groups of people you actually go on scene and do CPR, etc- and many other things, including driving a flaming ATV into things and people, driving a septic truck and spraying poop on things and people, and many, many others. Also old favorites, like SNATCH, ESCORT, DEMO DERBY, etc. are still there, in more locations. 6. The aiming system: Saints Row has no "auto aim" or "lock on," and I think this is BETTER. It does take some getting used to, after all the years of GTA, but the problem with GTA'a aiming, is it almost always "locks on" the wrong target. So while an enemy is pumping you full of shots, you are "locked on" to somebody else. Sucks. In Saints' Row, you "free aim," you have a gunsight on screen that changes size and shape, depending on the weapon equipped; when your shot will do damage the gunsight turns red; when you are aiming at a friendly, it turns to a green cross, telling you not to shoot. Easy. Once you get used to it, it really is better. 7. Retrying missions: If you fail a mission you can usually choose to restart from a checkpoint, if it's a mulitpart one. This eliminates a lot of driving. 8. Easy use of cheats: Like GTA IV, once you enter a cheat code into the phone, you can bring it up again and select it. This is nice; you don't have to remember it/key it in every time etc. To those that will say, "but that disables ome achievments" I don't care. Achievements are OK, but I'm not that invested in them; I don't care about getting 100% compeletion either; in games like this, I just want to play through the story missions enough to finish and get the ending. 9. The health system: One of my favorite things-if you are taking damage, take cover somehow, and gradually your health will regenerate. This can be helped by carrying food items. The game does not have "take cover" as such, but you can still crouch behind objects, go around corners etc. I still prefer this to the GTA health bar to 0- "wasted" To give balance though, there are a few things I don't like that much: 1. Damage modeling on the cars-I agree this isn't so good...GTA IV does this better, no doubt. But I think the "spirits" of the game being different, vis. this game is for "fun" I can forgive that. 2. "Pushbacks" I didn't like these in the first game, and still dont. A "pushback" happens when, you get a cell phone call that an area your gang contols, is under attack from the gang you put out of there. You must then respond to that area, and repel the attackers--you win the "pushback" by killing from 5 to 12 "lieutenants' of the gang that are marked on the map. "Pushbacks" aren't especially difficult, just annoying because you are very outnumbered, and need to have max ammo for whatever weapons you are carrying. The good side of them is, once you've finished one, you have killed enough enemies to move your "resepct" up enough to do a new mission. The bad thing is due to the "numbers game" you will get killed a lot and have to retry. Two tips for this: always have plenty of ammo, and stay in the car as much as possible. 3. Flight controls. You can fly helicopters and various general aviaton planes. But the contols are awful. It is fun though. Saints Row 2 is a great "sandbox" game. It's not GTA IV but it's really not rying to be. They are both good games for different reasons, but I can tell you, I will be playing this game a lot more, because it is FUN!	video-games_xbox
Its a 3.... Spoilers. I love Dragon Age origins more then any game have played recently. However I was not happy with this expansion at all. It had good and bad things in it, The bad however was that everything and all things you did in Dragon age besides whoever you made king/queen is null and void. I thought id bring over my Dailsh Elf who was friends with all the original cast and in the end made anora Queen and Alistair apparently was my characters Boyfriend or whatever they call it in Dragon age. Well Anora was in it for 3.5 seconds and when I met Ohgrem he was only at 50% with my character even thought in the original game we were friends at 100%. There is a completely new cast of characters you party with, they all have an interesting story however there was not enough time to build them as In depth as you did in the original. I gave one gift out and it got me 16 points, I went threw two places and everyone I had at 100 and already did all their side quest. So the characters were interesting but not enough time was allowed in this game to like them enough. And then there is a side mission where the nobles want to kill your PC... honestly I did not under stand, I want to let the town be destroyed because everyone there is a jerk. If I was my PC id let them all burn and go back to Ferelden... but that's my opinion. The fighting is the same, the new monsters were really cool. The new "Mother" I want to know why she looked different then the one in the original game. I LOVE the new classes they added and the new skills. That was a nice...however all the stuff that was GOOD about this game I wish they would have made and add on to the original game instead of making me pay 40 dollars for this expansion, that I felt should have been like 25-30 dollars. So over all, it was decent but they took everything away started you somewhere knew nothing you did in game one effected this game at all. Makes me not really want to carry any other characters over, it is GOOD if you start a brand new warden even though there is no Origin story for him/her, but at least starting new can make you feel better about this world. New abilities are worth it, there are new weapons you can make with wade and that's neat... But over all I give it a 3 out of 5. In the game box they released a paper with a dragon on it and a date that says 02/01/11.... So I hope its Dragon age 2 or a MUCH MUCH better expansion that will make this one seamen like another "Return to Ostogar DLC"..... It you want to get it I say wait till it goes cheaper and don't buy it brand new unless you plan on making a new warden. Apperently is comment is my Opinion. Thanks.	video-games_xbox
Too hard for an anime based game. ok where do i begin... at first glance it looks cool and all cause of all the characters and story lines wrong the cpu fights are WWWAAAAAAAAAAAYYY too hard as they ALWAYS get SOME KIND of atk or def boost so far i've seen up to +80 (forget what fight it was though) the replacement jutsu is broken beyond hell. you can only do it like 5 times while the cpu seems to spam it endlessly you constantly need to hit the cpu from behind and pray it doesn't Sub Jutsu(which it usually does) they block just about everything and even when you manage to sub jutsu yourself, they instantly turn and face you 90% of the time when you're supposed to be able to attack their flank so between subs and blocks the cpu is damn near untouchable and the gaara vs deidara fight is waaaaaaayyy stupid took me like 10 tries on SUPER EASY to beat him. cause what he'll do is jump back to the very edge of the screen where you can't really get him (cause gaara is a slow pos) even with the chakra dash. and he just SPAMS bombs over and over till you die. i was only able to beat him cause i managed to hit him with a ultimate jutsu and most of the awakenings are way too broken. (susano'o mainly) i have the game on the super easy setting and i'm constantly losing. and trust me, i have very little patience for losing well mainly the way i lose pisses me off. but anyway. controls are decent at least. decent at best though the subing is pretty touchy. you'll find yourself doing it when you don't want to and using them all cause of the sensitivity. oh and my biggest peeve. they're almost making you buy real naruto playing cards just to unlock crap the game comes with 3. that's it. but then you gotta go out and buy more. all in all this game is complete trash. challenges are nice. just not near impossible ones. ones that make you need 976593729762903 tries to beat ONE battle because some retarded developer thought it'd be cute to give a cpu enemy a +80 atk boost. so folks save your money like i didn't. don't get this game	video-games_xbox
Same classic Madden. First of all, I own both an Xbox and the newer 360. I bought Madden 08 initially for the 360 and absolutely hated it. My son likes it though, but then again he always preferred Blitz and other arcade-style football titles over the more realistic ones like Madden or Sega's series. That, by the way, perfectly describes Madden 08 on the PS3 and 360---too much like an arcade game. Since last year's game, there are only minor improvements in Madden 08 for the Xbox and PS2. Obviously, there are some roster updates and purists will find that reason enough in itself to spend for 08. The new "weapons" icon found on the 360 and PS3 versions is found here as well. This is indeed one of the few improvements featured on 08 sorely missing on its predecessor. Essentially, pulling back on the left trigger will highlight which players on both your team and the opponent possess "weapons." This is actually quite helpful. Say, for example, you're playing on offense against the Bears. You'll certainly want to avoid passing in the direction of CB Nathan Vasher if at all possible. If you're running the ball, you might like to avoid the route that could put you directly in the path of MLB Brian Urlacher. Another nice little quirk appears in the Superstar mode. Before this year, you had no choice of which team you'd be selected by in the draft. If you're a diehard Cowboys fan, just imagine how sick you'd be if picked by the Redskins or 49ers. On this year's game you now have the option of being selected by your favorite team. Don't think, however, that your superstar will be #1 on the depth chart. Indeed, if you pick, say, the Colts and you're a QB, it's very likely that you'll be the back up to the back up---in other words, you'll still be #3 on the depth chart if not #4. This year's game still has a few of the minor glitches occasionally found on last year's version. Sometimes your running back is obviously down when he fumbles, but the referees still call the play against you. Sometimes you will see a player get "stuck" behind another or whatever. Perhaps your team is beating the competition 42-0 in the middle of the fourth quarter and the opponent still "goes for it" on 4th down and 25 when, in reality, most teams would kick a field goal just to avoid the shut out. All of these things, however, are forgiveable. There may be a tad more polish to this year's game, but it still plays essentially like 07 and earlier. In my eyes, though, that's a good thing. To me, it's still classic Madden. Maybe I'm just too old and set in my ways, but I'm in no way ready for the stellar graphics and arcade feel of the 360 version.	video-games_xbox
Flashes of Next Gen Gameplay with No Sign of Next Gen Graphics. Gameplay: The gameplay is good and can be a lot of fun for casual gamers. Matches are fast-paced, weapons seem a little unbalanced, but playing as both pilot and Titan offer several innovative features such as par-core, double-jumping when you play as a pilot, and a variety of neat offensive and defensive weapons when you play as a Titan. Titans aren't overpowered, can be earned easily, and can be killed just as easily. Getting a Titan amounts to getting temporary superpowers or a kill streak. Map design is top-notch as expected. Unfortunately, the low number of human opponents and the high number of rather stupid enemy bots, are real weak points to the game, because it's difficult to distinguish between bots and humans, and mowing down a bunch of bots, who initially have the upper hand on you, just isn't very rewarding. If the matches were 10 v 10 humans (at a minimum) with a few less bots, the longevity of the game might increase significantly. Graphics: Any reviews you've read saying that Titanfall is beautiful graphically are simply being dishonest. At the highest settings, the game looks comparable to Homefront, is noticeably less impressive than Black Ops II, and is simply put to shame by both Battlefield 3 and especially Battlefield 4. In fact, both Tomb Raider and Battlefield 4 on the PS4 look and run significantly better than Titanfall, at the highest settings, on PC. So if graphics are important to you, Titanfall is definitely not the game for you. Additionally, the color schemes are quite bland with pale green, beige, and light brown schemes without a lot of contrast, which can make it very difficult at times to identify enemies hiding in plain sight. Verdict: For the casual gamer who enjoys chaotic battles that don't require a lot of skill or the hard-core gamer who wants the occasional distraction from his or her competitive shooter of choice. While I think the gameplay is good, the game lacks any longevity because of the lack of human players and the abundance of distractive, stupid enemy bots. $60 is definitely about $30 too steep to pay for this game. If you want to play the game on console, my gut tells me that both the XBOX One and XBOX 360 versions will have identical gameplay (hence the delay in launching the XBOX 360 version). So you're probably better off getting the XBOX 360 version of the game to experience flashes of next gen gameplay, without having to shell out the cash for a new system on the false promise of experiencing next gen graphics, which simply are not part of the Titanfall package.	video-games_xbox
Finally played it and it's great. Now, I'm a hardcore fan of Halo Reach, but I'm not going to make any comparisons between the two only because Reach had a long way to go when it first came out, and now it's packed with different playlists and maps. I assume the same will happen with Halo 4. I say this because my only complaint thus far is that "there aren't enough maps or playlists" but I realize it just came out. Anyway, the graphics, for one, are amazing. Watching it in HD is a treat, but I'd imagine it'd look pretty good on most TVs. The music is also lovely to hear; very full of passion and feeling, even though it wasn't even the same guy who composed it as the other games. I like that sprint is always a possibility, and there are many different armor effects, some of which are pretty useful. The gameplay is still very similar to previous games, so it doesn't feel like a totally different franchise. I'm not sure if some people may be disappointed by this, but I was glad to feel like I was still playing a Halo game. There are new weapons, and there are indeed new enemies. The story also was very captivating; it seemed to have a lot more cutscenes than previous titles, but they interested me more than previous games' scenes had. I felt like we were getting to know John a little better, and Cortana seemed a lot more lifelike than ever. The campaign had less missions than other Halo titles, but it was still fun, action packed, beautiful, and interesting. The multiplayer is fun, as well. So far there are only a few gametypes, but I know that will change. A new map pack was just released (but I'm not reviewing it here). Even though the multiplayer gets a little repetitive due to there not being as much content as say, Halo Reach, it's still a lot of fun. I haven't really found any glitches or anything of that sort. Flood is a fun gametype that is exactly like Infection, but you are Flood instead. There's SWAT which is personally my favorite gametype. The last thing I'll discuss is Spartan Ops, which although some have said it is lacking, I enjoy it a lot. For one, there are a ton of episodes and chapters. The graphics and gameplay are just as great in these missions, and it's a lot like Firefight, only "with a purpose," as 343 promised before the game came out. When I'm getting tired of matchmaking I sometimes play Spartan Ops because it's still action packed but a bit easier (depending on which difficulty you play). I would say that this game is worth its full price. I eagerly anticipate new content and gametypes that will come about, but it has still offered me endless hours of play already. I'm happy if a game gives me an hour of play per dollar, and this goes above and beyond that.	video-games_xbox
Such a Great Purchase. I am so glad that I picked this up on Amazon Prime Day. I've spent about three hours playing, plus countless other hours hearing from friends and coworkers just how great it is. Everything in the top reviews is true, so I won't cover most of those. Some of my favorite things so far: Feel - I love that this game escapes the CoD roots of massive amounts of weapon and skill customization. Instead, you have guns and they shoot bullets. Lots of bullets. You can upgrade your weapon with specific upgrade points that are unlocked by finding secrets or performing challenges throughout the level. It's just a riot using all of the weapons (except the pistol you start with). It's pretty much a hold-down-the-trigger-and-pray festival with molten hot lead. Glory kills - I almost wished I hadn't seen spoiler videos of these prior to playing the game, simply because the joy of ripping into a demon is too much fun. There are a wide variety of glory kills (epic executions), and it's nice to be rewarded with extra health or ammo, plus, physically crushing demons is just icing on an already very polished cake. It's a very fun part of the game that isn't necessarily unique to Doom, but the style and function of this puts it head and shoulders above other shooters in terms of execution (no pun intended). Music - I freaking LOVE the music! It's a kick-ass mix of metal with some electronic and it is constantly changing with the tempo and pace of the game. As soon as it kicks in gear, you know there's about to be an ass-beating around the corner! Secrets - I love how many secrets are buried in the game, but I also like how you are rewarded for finding them. Weapon upgrades and bonuses to your health, ammo, or armor can be unlocked through discovering secrets or completing challenges. It's just an additional layer of fun and I'm already planning a second playthrough to go back and find everything that I missed. Some people may not like the non-stop action (why wouldn't you?), but so far, I'm hooked. 5/5 in my book and the graphics are glorious to look at to boot!	video-games_xbox
Not quite the "Collection" you were hoping for. The Dreamcast was Sega's last hardware console, and it entered with a bang back on 9/9/99. No one had seen 3d polygonal graphics this realistic on a console before. And for the first time ever we got a Sonic title in REAL 3d (take that, Sonic 3d blast.) Remember the fun you had hooking up its included dial-up modem so you could converse with other Dreamcast lovers around the world, submit your fastest times, and download holiday themes for your game to your VMU? Well, over a decade has passed now, and time has not been gentle to the world's fastest hedgehog. While the resolution has been improved, Sonic Adventure is still stuck in a 4:3 format. The cutscenes are a pain to watch, although not as painful as playing as Amy Rose or Big the Cat. The hub world is clunky and cumbersome to maneuver through. Racing as Sonic is no longer as jaw-dropping as it once was, and the bad control shows its age. It's hard to believe I once considered this one of my favorite games. Okay, how about Crazy Taxi? First the good news: It's in widescreen HD. Now, the bad: No Offspring. No Bad Religion. Instead, the original catchy tunes are replaced by some forgettable garage band punk tunes that completely contrast with the spirit of the game. While driving frantically from point A to point B still has its merits, it feels like a washed-out experience compared to playing the original Dreamcast or arcade game. Space Channel 5 Part 2 at least offers the biggest laughs you'll find here. (I mean that in a good way.) Nothing feels better than dancing with a growing group of friends to extinguish invading aliens. The gameplay is simple, while the rhythm is harder to duplicate correctly than the first game. Although you won't find much replay value, it's a hoot to play through the first time. Note that only the first Space Channel 5 was released for the Dreamcast in the U.S., but Space Channel 5 Part 2 did come out for the U.S. Playstation 2. Bass Fishing was probably more impressive back in 1999, but still makes for a decent arcade fishing simulator. You pick your bait and where you want to toss your line and wait for fish to swim by and bite. Hmm, doesn't sound too exciting. The graphics are pretty bland compared to today's games. I already traded in my copy for another game. With only four games and none really having the time-tested replay value of a Nintendo title, you can safely pass until the next addition or a more all-encompassing edition arrives.	video-games_xbox
Don't let the name fool you. Despite the game's title, this game is not at all in the same vein as the wonderful Baldur's Gate PC RPGs. It's a hack-and-slash dungeon crawler, and in terms of gameplay it is nearly identical to Diablo II, but with better graphics. If this type of game appeals to you, great! If you're looking for your RPG fix though, you'll have to get it somewhere else. Let's start with the good points. The game is pretty fun if you're into hack-and-slash types, especially with two players. Any game with a two-player cooperative mode always scores points with me. The graphics and sound are very good, and the game is easy to learn and easy to control. There is some replay value to it, as there are some new modes you can unlock by finishing the game. Beat the game once and you'll be able to play a special game mode that puts you in a tough dungeon on a short time limit, playing as none other than Drizzt Do'Urden. Beat that mode, and you unlock Extreme difficulty in the normal game, which is several times more difficult than usual. If you manage to beat Extreme, you can play as Drizzt in the normal game. There are some bad points to the game, however. It's extremely short; you can beat it in under 10 hours. It's really a shame that the game is not more extensive. Also, as with any game of this type, it can get quite repetitive after awhile. The game is very easy as well. The Gauntlet is really the only difficult part of it. Even on Extreme, I had no problems completing the game quickly. And finally, although I knew this wasn't really an RPG when I bought it, I still couldn't help feeling disappointed at the great lack of depth compared to many other games that have been set in the Forgotten Realms. I would have liked to see a wider variety of D&D skills and spells brought in, as well. For instance, the Sorceress (and all spell-casting enemies) doesn't have any spell effects aside from direct damage. It would be cool to have things like Entangle and Charm Person available, to have a thief class with all their many skills, and so on. I realize why many of these things were left out, but a little more work on the design could have added a welcome element of strategy to what it is essentially little more than a slugfest. My list of complaints may be long, but don't get me wrong; for what it is, this game was executed extremely well. If you're looking for a game like Diablo, you will enjoy this. If you want an RPG, you're better off with Morrowind, or waiting until Bioware rolls out their Star Wars RPG this summer. It's better with a friend, so BG:DA scores a few points there. Still, rent before you buy. You could easily beat this game in a weekend, and you might never play it again after that.	video-games_xbox
Excellent value, around 30 hours of good times. The Orange Box rocks for 4 games and does well in the 5th. Having played HL2 on the PC, I first jumped into portal: Portal is a first person puzzle game with some quality writing for the AI that accompanies you through your levels. Clever players are required here and I enjoyed the challenges involved. Puzzles are tough, but not too tough to reduce the fun. Level designers were careful to leave hints about where to put things in the first few levels. They also occasionally restrict you from an obvious cheat by making some floors/ceilings/walls incapable of opening a portal. The end was a lot of fun and was an excellent "final test" of the skills you developed during the puzzles. HL2 is such a high quality game, but appears a bit dated even on the 360. I won't say much about it here, since the controls transferred well and the difference between PC / 360 was pretty minor. Episode 1 and Episode 2 were also enjoyable, episode 1 clearly feeling like an addition and not quite as polished a game experience as HL2. But Episode 2 was pretty fun until the end, when the player gets overwhelmed in a siege scenario and only awesome basketball skills will get him/her out. (play it... you'll understand what I mean later). Finally that leaves TF2. I suppose i'm jaded after playing hundreds of hours of TF on "GLQuake" and TF on half-life so maybe my opinion here should be taken with a grain of salt. It's a good time but as I've found with most other xbox multiplayer games there isn't as strong a community (I don't know to specify a favorite server to play at)... and the lack of custom server rules has made things a bit more bland. I used to like the server-customized sounds and music of the old TF on quake... but hey. anyways for the 360 this game has put together the best ratio of fun per dollar. Definitely worth it's weight.	video-games_xbox
A massive disappointment....for a game with huge potential. I finished Ghost Recon Wildlands a week ago, and having completed everything the game has to offer, I can honestly say: The game is a major, unrealized disappointment. What I saw was a game with huge potential, a large open world with co-op capabilities, tactical stealth and shooter elements and a variety of ways to approach objectives. All of that it is hampered by a mix of poor design choices, a just didn't care attitude when it comes to vehicle physics and bug fixing, oversights, missing features and a "get out the door as fast as possible, patch it later" attitude that Ubisoft has been guilty of in the past. Let's start with the story. Ubisoft had a great opportunity to do a ''Shadow of Mordor'' style story: depending on which cartel branch you took out first, it could change the game world. In Bolivia, there are four branches of the Santa Blanca Cartel that need to be taken out alongside the leader El Sueno: Security, Production, Influence and Smuggling. Take out Security first, the rest of the cartel becomes disorganized and less competent in combat (because you took out their trainers and camps and commanders), take out Influence first, the cartel radio stops broadcasting and the cartel's grip on the country weakens somewhat. Take out Supply, and Security beefs itself up in response. Take out UNIDAD (Bolivian Special Forces) HQ in the southern province of Flor De Oro, their patrols become less frequent and they aren't as a big of a threat. Ubisoft instead goes for a shallow, uninspired story in which none of the characters are given any meaningful backstory, it's just "X character is bad because Y reason, go kill him/her." It just feels hollow, there's no impact. I felt like there was no meaningful progress to the story as we dismantled the cartel piece by piece. The four man Ghost team you are a part of is given little backstory and development, and even after how many hours I can barely remember their names; they're insanely forgettable. They are good at repeating the same lines over and over though. Them being Special Forces doesn't tie into the story at all; they could be CIA hired mercenaries and it would change nothing. The ending of the story (the true ending that is) literally makes your efforts throughout the game mean nothing. It is a literal cop-out, and a certain plot element comes completely out of left-field with zero buildup and it then leads to a cutscene and after the game ends. In addition, none of your targets (and there are a lot, each province has what is known as a Buchon, there are 5-6 Buchons per cartel branch, taking them all out unlocks the Underboss and taking them out unlocks the Boss of that particular branch. Unfortunately there's no variation in the missions; it's always arrive in province, get intel on who the Buchon is, collect intel that unlocks missions to take down the buchon, doing 5-6 missions unlocks the buchon takedown mission, and then the Buchon is taken down. Rinse and repeat another 19 times (two of the 21 provinces have no buchons in them). It quickly becomes tedious, and the Buchon never taunts you or acknowledges your presence in their province, which kind of dulls the impact of taking them down. Each one is given a small backstory, but they're never elaborated on beyond that. The world doesn't change and react to your actions. You take over a base carefully with no detection? It makes NO. DIFFERENCE. That base will be repopulated the next time you load your game or if you travel to another province and back. The SAM sites respawn, and cartel members remain in a province even if you cleared out the buchon. It has no impact and basically is a middle finger to your efforts. It begs the question: What's the point? I could kill hundreds of sicarios in a province, leave and come back, and they're all still there. Like I had never come through to begin with. One thing that stood out is my team is supposed to be a special forces team, invisible and unknown. Yet El Sueno eventually talks about us on the radio as the "four Americans" and puts a bounty on our heads. Does it change anything? No, cartel doesn't prepare or react to our presence after this. Honestly, in my opinion the world is a little TOO big. The provinces look nice from a distance, but up close structures repeat and the civilian AI doesn't react to its surroundings. Bases have no variety; its almost always variations on a few buildings, one tower, guard post, alarm. I ran into a civilian in Koani (the salt flat province in the northwest) bundled up like it was extremely cold, and I saw civilians dressed for summer. In Inca Camina, the mountainous, cold province. The fact that planes fly at a snail's pace means it can take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to traverse from end to end. ==THE NEGATIVES== The attachment system is a mess and it feels like that the devs didn't care, and half-assed the whole thing. Some weapons can accept a lot of attachments, others can't (yet have rails and the ability to mount the attachments, they just refuse to mount them). It makes for a very jarring experience. The weapon damage for the most part doesn't differ between guns; most guns are pretty much identical in that regard. The stealth mechanics are a mess. Sneaking up on a base can easily end in failure because of some random enemy somehow going on alert, destroying what up to that point was a relatively silent approach. Cartel gunmen are insanely omniscient; they can spot you at night just as easily as the day time, even when they're facing away from you and wearing sunglasses. Coming from Metal Gear Solid V and it's excellent stealth gameplay, this feels like a step back. The dialogue. Dear God, the dialogue. The same 3 or lines repeat and repeat and repeat so many times, you'll know the Spanish for "what are we waiting for?" very quickly. I got tired of hearing "the music that makes your butt bounce up and down!" very quickly, to say nothing of "this medal has a coca plant on it. That's kinda cool", but the worst one is the aforementioned "what are we waiting for? There's gotta be more of us than them. Charge!!!" Apparently everyone in Bolivia has maybe 2 lines, and they repeat them each and every chance they get. EMP is temporary against vehicles, when it completely fries and destroys stationary electronics. Makes convoy assaults a bit frustrating if you get bogged down fighting the escorts, as the convoy vehicle will get moving after a short time. Rebel Drops (vehicle drops) are really broken; helicopters spawn in buildings, up against buildings, sliding down cliffs, fall on top of you, essentially in places that aren't ideal for a helicopter to spawn. Its a bad kind of random. To add, some weapon attachments are in the wrong place and not where the text says they are, which is a huge oversight. There's also multiple copies of the same attachment in multiple provinces. The game quickly devolves into a collectible hunt. There are 21 provinces, each with: 10-14 Kingslayer Files/Legends, 3-5 Weapon Attachment boxes, 3-5 Weapon Cases, 4-6 Rebel Missions. That adds up to a lot of collectible hunting, which can get annoying, especially since a lot of these collectibles are inside heavily defended bases. The weapon variety is weirdly inconsistent. There's only three non DLC shotguns, not that many pistols (or machine pistols), a good selection of Assault Rifles, but Light Machine Guns are lacking and the developers could have added far more Sub Machine Guns. There's no semi-auto .50 cal rifles, no automatic shotguns. In addition, a lot of weapons are locked behind a paywall, which just smacks of greed. In fact, you can buy all the weapons and attachments if you want to. The character customization is extremely limited. There's barely any hairstyles or facial hair, very few facial paints, the majority are flag face paints locked behind a paywall. There is only one Special Forces style face paint available in the game. The combat system is okay, but lacks elements that should logically be in the game (blindfire, human shields apart from grabbing someone, low run to cover). The weird thing is that AI can blindfire yet you can't. The co-op system in my experience is sloppy and glitchy, requiring multiple disconnects and reconnects so we can see each other in game. When it does work, its fun and enjoyable. For a game that calls itself a tactical shooter, it has a lot of errors. Your character throws grenades at a pathetic range, reloads weapons by pulling the charging handle with their shooting hand (highly discouraged, especially in Special Forces), there's no +1 chambering when reloading mid-magazine, your character will loudly yell when they kill an enemy with a weapon, etc. Reload animations for weapons are incredibly samey and lack any variety (ACR reloads the same as the TAR-21, MP5 reloads the same as the Scorpion Evo 3, etc), pistols don't even lock their slides back or display accurate pistol mechanics, so every weapon will have the same 1 or 2 reload animations. It's weird using an ACR use the same "rock in" magazine animation as an AK-47 despite them having radically different designs. Vehicle physics are unacceptably terrible. Cars handle like they're on ice, APCs slide around and motorcycles are basically unusable. You shoot the tires of a truck, it explodes. Somehow. The damage model is very sensitive; lightly tap a cement barrier at low speed with the bumper of your truck? Windshield is smashed, bumper is hanging off, one headlight is out, it looks like I hit the barrier at high speed. Your character has the resiliency of a wet paper bag when it comes to vehicles. Light tap? You're down on the ground. Camouflage is cool and varied, but doesn't do anything to mask you and is useless. You could wear all black at night and get spotted as easily as wearing green in Koani (white salt flats) Despite supposedly being invisible and unknown, the cartel immediately opens fire on you when spotted. There are no disguise/blend in options. Sniping is less than optimal; there's no long-range scopes (6x magnification is the highest, want 12x? Too bad) you can't snipe very far as enemies don't spawn after a certain distance (or they're not rendered) and bullets drop like cannonballs (I can visibly see the bullet falling out of the sky). It's possible to snipe at over 1km, but its difficult on account of the bullet physics. There are an insane amount of bugs. I myself have fallen through the map, had my motorcycle launch itself into the atmosphere upon hitting a pebble, had documents not appear on the map, had my character model start stretching out while running, had dialogue constantly repeat for missions I had long completed and many, had my weapon float in front of me, my helicopter decided to fly backwards at full throttle into mountains and many others. The helicopter physics are atrocious and the plane physics lack basic controls that every open world game before it has had. There's no horizontal rotation controls/yaw controls for planes or helicopters, and helicopters handle terribly. It's un-intuitive and weird. No helicopter fast-roping for co-op, which would make stealth insertions easier. No non-lethal options (even knocking out counts as a kill) Movement options are limited (no quick dive out of the way, no jumping, no forward roll or side roll). Weird thing is, AI can roll but we can't. Can't move bodies once killed. No wire-cutters for fences, which means fences are essentially walls. No flares for aircraft. SAM coming your way in a medicine helicopter? Hope you can dodge. Rebel missions become useless once you have fully upgraded abilities, yet they keep spawning in each new province. They're the same missions, over and over and over again. There's no variety in Supply Raids, its the same "steal helicopter/steal plane" mission over and over. To expand more on the missions, they're incredibly tedious and samey. Each province has the same subset of missions and rebel missions. Collect the intel in the province, which is always a folder or a person to interrogate. Blow up this, tail this person, kill that person, rinse and repeat. =POSITIVES= For what is there, the clothing customization is really deep and interesting; its fun changing out outfits and changing from winter camo to forest camo to desert camo and running the gamut from looking like a soldier to a CIA operator. The mini-drone is very cool to use. The controls are good, and its fun scouting and spotting enemies and planning an attack. *The world of Bolivia is very beautiful, with varied ecologies. It's definitely a very colorful vibrant world. Waterfalls, canyons, deserts and mountains. I have no bad things to say about the world of Wildlands. It is a very color-rich world. You can visit the Yungas Road, but strangely La Paz and Sucre, the capital cities of the country, are absent. There's no really big cities either, just small towns. I came into Wildlands with elevated expectations; I enjoyed the beta, and I wanted to give it a shot. Messing around in co-op was a blast. It seemed like a fun game. Yet it's so clear that Ubisoft messed up majorly by releasing a beta/demo a week before release, and then not using the beta to fix anything. As it stands, I can't recommend Wildlands; it is a mess of a game, with all sorts of gameplay elements from other, better open-world games thrown in with no care towards making said elements work. The game that exists here doesn't match the beauty that Bolivia has to offer.	video-games_xbox
I give a straight up 2.5. I have something called freedom of choice, and speech. I did not like the game therefore I am rightly entitled to MY opinion on it. I bought the bundled package yesterday, wanted to really play the game. So after downloading it and playing for about 2 hours, the servers go down. And still are not 100% up today. I find this unacceptable. The graphics are ok, crisp, clear, but with some jagged edges and blurs that harken back to last generation consoles. I have noticed all the 1 star reviews have been deleted by Amazon, in order to boost sales, and not let good old Microsoft down. Well guess what? Tough %%%%!! The game has it's fun moments, wall running, jumping with the jetpack in the air to take down a titan or soldier is great fun. But after a while you think wow I payed 60 dollars, or got the console JUST for this. Which I was ready to purchase Forza 5 and Dead rising as well. Well suffice to say I won't be purchasing anything from them. I took back the system, period. Especially when the servers went down, and the excuses started. Also having 6 vs 6 is not that much fun, people are easy to hunt down, I want more challenge, free for all, a single player campaign that doesn't require the net. In case it goes down (again). So this game is/was overhyped, but I think the true gamers know there are a lot better games with much better substance out there. I've never in my life seen something like this, just to boost sales, and popularity for a product. Take it down as much as you want, I'll just keep posting it back. Pros Accurate controls, unless your in the air, then it's tough The learning curve is pretty easy, but not overly so. The Titans are loads of fun, especially to pull out the pilot of your rival, and toss him away. Environments are rich. Very fast paced, so if you have epilepsy, best play something slower. Cons Server keeps crashing, even today. Graphics are ok, barely looks next gen. Frame rates can drop dramatically, making it very hard to play. (I have a 50mb connection with boosts to 70mb) btw. Overall it's just another innovative shooter that has been glorified because of poor console sales. Period. This is an authentic, to the point, review and opinion of the game. If it gets taken down, you'll know I was right. Thanks. Quit making people out the be liars--------You know who you are.	video-games_xbox
Endless Possibilities. I am sure most people know and have heard of the Grand Theft Auto series. So skipping sraight to the point, this game is fun from the beginning and never stops. It builds from all the previous tittles and adds so much more details and realism its astonishing. Regardless if you like progressing through an actually interesting and engaging storyline(1st time for GTA) or creating havoc in Liberty City, you will not be dissapointed. Thats what everything boils down to. If you want to know about some "cool" (aka violent/destructive) things you can do, read on. What brings this game to life is the amazing amount of detail. Just pay close attention and you will see civilians quarrel, car accidents happen, people being arrested, etc. all without the player having to do anything. In one instance, I recall accidentaly punching a female civilian only to have all the other civilians come after me, out. Outnumber I decided to run only to be chased by a small mob. So I decided to hijack a car. As I was getting into the car, one of the civilians I was being chased by reached in. I began to accelerate the car and the door slammed shut on the civilians arm clamping him to the door. When I noticed him dangling with him arm jammed in the door I decided to swerve next to a car. The civilian's body made impact with the oncoming car which succesfuly removed him from the car and splattered blood on the oncoming car's windshield. If you crash your car into explosives, you will see a beautiful slow motion view of your exploding car in midair. Its movie-like details that come to life that truly awe the player. And although this may sound too violent, etc. its the main reason people play GTA. open-end world. Aside from all the cool details one may discover through the game, the develepors also fixed many of the annoying details of past GTA games. Free im is now possible, the there is an enjoyable multiplayer, you cant dissapear from the cops simply by driving into a pay-n-spray, and many more. Parents, if the scene described above disturbs you, then go for mario kart. Everyone else, you will never run out of things to do, and the fun never stops. GTA IV is sanbox king.	video-games_xbox
Had the first series one of whirlwind and trigger happy. Pop fizz new character. Abilities: Pop Fizz: A-throwing potions B-drink potion go all jekyll and hyde (grow big and bash things) Z-change potions (there are three different ones) Whirlwind: A-toss rainbows B-whirl up a thunder cloud Z-fly Trigger happy: A-shoot money B-throw pot of money (like bomb?) Z-gatling gun (machine gun) Trigger happy in my opinion should be upgraded by the pot of money upgrades when given the choice. With one of each (series one with A ability gun upgrade and series two with pot of money upgrade) the upgrade of the pot of money was much better. Your pot of money get turned into a coin that when thrown will injure the enemy, act as a mine, and if it land on heads instead of tails (or vice versa I can't quick remember) will do more damage. I use it a lot to get enemies that can't reach me yet as it's almost a one shot kill each time. Whirlwind is NOT a favorite. It flys like all wind and other birds. The rainbows are not able to be aimed much and seem to take more time then most since they arch. They also don't do much damage although you can upgrade so it throws three instead of just one. The thunder cloud is also not much help as it doesn't go far and stays stationary. If you upgrade your clouds, however, you can use three and they will connect and injure those within the triangle. Pop Fizz is a nice character. Jekyll and Hyde is definitely this mad scientists nickname. When you upgrade you have three potion (green, yellow, and purple) but you start with a yellow potion that does damage when thrown. The green potion does damage and leaves acid to hurt those standing in it and the purple does damage will giving the potions legs for three to follow you around and I think do further damage (it's hard to tell). When you drink the potion after pressing B (which take a couple seconds so make sure you are out of hitting range) you turn a dark blue/purple "Hyde" version and grow to twice your size with no potions but the ability to beat your enemies into submission with your bare (and very large) hands. Reminiscent of Slam bam's button A ability. Only lasts a short while before reverting back to "Jekyll" with your potions back. Z button switchs between buttons.	video-games_xbox
How does EA's only competitor stack up. I owned every EA College Football game since Bill Walsh's College Football. Right behind their NHL-line, their College Football games were top-notch. However, after the 2001 version, I didn't get them again because I didn't want to get games until I had a PS/XBox/GC. Instead, I'd end up getting a Dreamcast when they went on sale for dirt-cheap. I eventually got Sega's College Football 2k2 version when it came out. Other than the crappy ranking system, it was a great game. Combined with the NBA2k and NFL2k serii, I had almost been completely turned into a Sega Sports fan. So, I ended up getting an XBox and going broke and splurging on a bunch of games. One of those happened to be College Football 2k3 and here's my review! Introduction: Obviously, it's a college football game. EA's NCAA Football's only rival. All 117 Div 1a schools, 25 bowls, the BCS (named Sega Championship Series), tournaments, exhibitions, practice, XBox Live enhanced, everything you need for a College Football game experience is here. Gameplay: 8/10 This is an area I was expecting more of. The gameplay flows worse than the Dreamcast version, much like the graphics. It's not bad, though. One thing I'm glad they improved on is the running defense AI. My two main problems with it before were, you could run the same play over and over and they'd almost never stop it. Another problem was that even though you could do that, you could almost NEVER break runs longer than 30 yards, not even on the easiest game. I realize this could be a ''personal'' problem, but when you can't even do it with Nebraska on a team like Baylor, something is wrong. Now, if you get the right blocks and get outside, you can actually break a really long run. Also improved upon are cuts, you can actually cut while running now and not be tackled right away. By now, everyone should be used to what modes you have available. Legacy is what you get this game for. Build your team through shrewd recruiting, picking when to redshirt a top-notch Freshman, cutting the slack to have room for recruits who you aren't sure about, decisions like that will make you #1 or could make you bowlless. One thing lacking from the game is being able to edit your schedule. It could be used as a cheat, however, with the BCS (or Sega Championship Series in this game), making a weak schedule wouldn't necessarily help you. Might get you a BCS game, but not the championship game. Other than legacy mode, you have your standard exhibition mode, season mode, tournament mode and practice, where you can, obviously, practice. There's also the Sega Challenge, which lets you try and get records, and when you get them, you get a code to enter at SegaSports.com and you can win prizes and such. Graphics: 8/10 Not bad, but I actually think they're a little worse than the 2k2 Dreamcast version. At least, the in-game graphics. The players just don't seem to be as good nor do they flow as well. The graphics overall are much better looking. The intros are nice. I must admit, I expected a little more considering the XBox's power, but nothing that takes away from the game. If you count replays as part of graphics, it might up it to a 9. I know replays don't exactly ''enhance'' the gameplay or anything, per se, but they're really nice and the multiple angles, including a reverse which shows it one way, reverses it, then goes forward in another angle. The interaction with the announcers and telestrators is reallyt great too. Since Sega has teamed up with ESPN, all the graphics are ESPN authentic as well, which is a really nice touch, better than the generic graphics Sega has been using. Sound: 8/10 The announcers are pretty good about not being too repetitive. They interact with the play on the field very well. Most teams fight songs are there, however, depending on your sound settings, it's hard to hear them sometimes. The sound effects are pretty good, though some taunting would've been really nice. Not a whole lot more to say about the sound. Replayability: 10/10 Obviously there is no reason to ever stop playing this game. Withover 117 teams, you could do a legacy with all of them, even if you just simmed the whole legacy, it would take forever. Changing recruiting styles and play styles is also a good way to keep playing. Ever though of changing Nebraska into a pocket passing team? You can try doing it right away with Jammal Lord or wait and recruit a passing QB. Things like that will keep you playing for months.	video-games_xbox
Great Controller for the Everyday Gamer. About 2 months ago, I purchased my XBOX Elite Controller. While most of you will initially notice the $150 price tag and be turned away from this controller, I implore you to give it a chance. On the surface it doesnt seem worth double the price of a normal controller but that was before I got used to feel of the controller in my hand. You are able to program the paddles that are located on the back of the controller to match whatever you desire. This allows you to always keep your finger on the trigger and able to react to the ever changing environments you will encounter. Another perk that I have noticed are the extended joysticks that come with your new controller. You can change both or just one so that they are taller than the stock controller. This allows the gamer greater control over their character in the tenses moments which can literally be the difference in life and death. By using magnets to the joysticks to the controller, the gamer is able to constantly switch between layouts which comes in handy on counsels that have multiple gamers playing on them. The only two negatives I would have about the Elite Controller would be that you are unable to customize the aesthesis of it and the learning curve that you will encounter when you first pick it up. Unlike the factory controllers which allows you to customize almost every facet of the controller from button color to the overall color scheme of your controller, the Elite Controller only comes in matte black. Im sure in the future Microsoft will be offering the customizable version of the Elite Controller in order to keep their customers happy. As for the learning curve, this is minimal at best. This will be most noticeable during your first couple games, your instincts will still be to reach for the X button instead of using the paddles on the back. After this uncomfortable period, the controller will begin to feel just as normal as any controller you have ever had purchased in the past. To review, although the Elite Controller has a hefty price tag ($150) the benefits you will receive are definitely worth it. Just stick it out through the first couple of games, it will seem different but as I mentioned earlier this period will fade away and you will notice gradual improvements in your skills.	video-games_xbox

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