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MVP goes out with style. You know what really irks me about the recent exclusivity licenses given to EA (Football) and Take Two (Baseball)? It's the fact that the licenses had been taken away from the games I liked (NFL 2K5 and MVP Baseball) and got awarded to their statistically worse opponents, Madden and MLB 2K5 (at least in my mind they are). Sigh! At least MVP doesn't give a dismal, or even a decent performance in it's final show (for at least a while anyway), MVP stole the show and then burned the stage to the ground! I will be looking forward to the ending of the exclusive licensing of the MLB, since I will have this game to come back to when it ends...
Pros: 1. Owner Mode (Choose to be a George Steinbrenner or a Bud Selig with your franchise for 30 years!)
2. Better fan sound (very loud chants of LETS GO BUCS in my stadium... and I only have a 12,000 seating capacity!)
3. The A league farm teams are added to round out the minor league system (who doesn't want to be the Lynchburg Hillcats?)
4. Oodles and oodles of Unlockables (I haven't unlocked anything yet, but I hear that is is deeper than last year)
5. You can still manage a ball club long after your grandkids are dead in Dynasty Mode (it and Owner mode are two separate modes)
6. Mini-games to give that extra boost to a prospect or star player (in Dynasty or Owner Mode)
7. Common bugs from last year are fixed (progression is less erratic and Players develop into stars and the lefty bug is gane as well)
8. Hitting and pitching are a lot harder this year (realism)
9. Allows for 720p picture on a high definiton TV (If I had my Xbox hooked up to one, i'd still be ogling right now)
10. The Hitters eye (have an easier time hitting... It hasn't helped me though...)
11. Send the manager out and argue with the umpire!
12. Filters on the managers e-mail (no more spam!)
13. Online play
Cons: 1. Hitting and Pitching are a lot harder this year (frustration)
2. Hitter's eye (too hitting-oriented?)
3. The EA Trax stink (the Trax this year are all forgettable and at many times annoying songs from who-the-heck-is-this bands)
4. No custom soundtrack options (this has always irked me about EA. They have custom soundtrack options for titles such as Madden and NASCAR, but they do not have it for some of the other titles)
5. The commentary is basically recycled from last year and with no new dialogue
6. Curse the Vortex from the hitting mini-game... it makes the ball fly back beyond the foul line
7. Online play is just so-so
Final Verdict: Definite buy. This is probably going the be the last MVP title for a long time and even with the limited online options, the single-player modes will keep you busier for most likely longer than the actual MLB Season this year. I probably wouldn't be suprised if some people actually play MVP 2005 until the exclusive license agreement has ended... that's how addictive this game is.
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video-games_xbox
|
Nothing Special. After having the same two controllers since the Xbox 360 launched in 2005, I finally decided to take the plunge on this new one with the transforming D-pad. Long story short, it's really nothing new or special at all.
The main feature of the controller is the transforming directional pad. With a simple and easy twist, the buttons go from the clumsy and inaccurate pad that Xbox players have always experienced, to something more or less the exact same. So what difference does the twisting pad make? Well, in its original state the D-pad is almost flush with its chassis, not really giving you a great tactical feel. But when twisted, the four directions of the cross become raised from their plastic back, giving you an easier way to feel around the up, down, left, and right buttons. It's nice to have that little bit of distinction from the rest of the pad, but that's about all you get.
The pad still has the same overall mushy and unresponsive feel to it, which is upsetting because I was really hoping that Microsoft would have gotten their stuff together to give hardcore gamers what they really wanted. Like something along the lines of the PlayStation or Nintendo Wii's far superior, better feeling, more precise directional pads.
Honestly, my favorite thing about the new controller is its minimalistic approach to design with its monochromatic color scheme. The shades of gray and black really make this controller look slick. That being said, it's confusing why the would they would even chose this color scheme. For instance, when playing games there is almost always a tutorial portion, quick time event, or HUD where you are shown an on-screen representation of the buttons that matches the original controller's A,B,X, and Y buttons with their respective colors (green, red, blue, and yellow). So, for anyone unfamiliar with the layout of the controller, seeing the on-screen, green A button then looking to the physical gray A button may be a bit rough at first.
Ultimately, this new controller definitely serves its purpose as a typical Xbox 360 controller. However, if you were hoping to finally play some serious competitive Street Fighter or the upcoming Mortal Kombat 9, don't hope any drastic changes.
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video-games_xbox
|
this is fine, but if you do not have access to . This Xbox One comes with the digital download versions of the game, this is fine, but if you do not have access to the internet, good luck downloading them. One thing people fail to let people know about the Xbox One and PS4 consoles are that they are extremely slow in regards to download speed. This wouldn't be so bad, but every game you purchase (digital or hard copy) must be downloaded before it is played, and this process literally takes hours. The previous generation consoles would download a game in 20 minutes. As for this generation, not at all. I literally had to wait a day and a half to download 6 games (I had to leave it on overnight, because unlike the older consoles, if you shut them off, they stop downloading). Another problem with this device is that it is extremely glitchy, All my friends and I have gotten our consoles from different stores and used different methods. We all experience troubles getting kicked offline, experiencing freezes, ect, and the PS4 is not better. I will admit, the controllers are nice and the graphics during game play is absolutely amazing. This system is not backwards compatible, you can't use previous generation controllers, and you can't use previous generation headsets. If you had an expensive gaming headset (like I do) for a previous generation console, you will need to purchase an Xbox One headset adapter. I haven't seen very many good reviews for the official microsoft version, but you can order one from Turtle Beach, if the headset does not fit, you will need to buy a PS4 chat cable as well. (It was recommended to me personally by a Turtle Beach Associate) This device comes with a standard headset, and although the headset is extremely much more clear and crisp in terms of communication when compared to the previous generations headsets, it is extremely uncomfortable and will hurt your ears. This device is also rather large and can not be sat horizontally. It is nice that it plays bluerays though. I would give this rating more stars, but this console has caused me more frustration just getting used to it than I was ready for. The great games almost make up for the negative experience and missed expectations though. I would still recommend this console, just expect to go into this purchase with some patience or your going to want to return it for an Xbox 360, a truly superior console indeed. Don't let this review make you want t purchase a PS4 instead, a PS4 is equally bad and just as disappointing.
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video-games_xbox
|
Slow loading between levels and buggy but also nice graphics and fun albeit basic gameplay. The visuals are beautiful for this game, as many of the reviews on the web mention. Five stars for that.
The storyline/gameplay is pretty much linear, which is understandable but feels a bit constraining after playing lots of open world games.
The controls are decent, although fairly simple. This is a plus or a minus, depending how complex you like your games.
The game is a launch title, so expectations need to be low. Launch titles are always hurried and never take full advantage of a platform. This game reminds me a bit of Gun, which was an XBox 360 launch title. Both were rushed, both were ok but not great, but both were fun games that gave you an excuse to play with your shiny new console.
If the review stopped there, I would have given the game four stars - being generous since it is a launch title.
The trouble is the game is buggy and very slow loading as well. Installing took a while, which is fine, but even once installed it is always slow to switch between scenes and load levels. Given all the content should be on the HDD and the XB1 is a very powerful console, that is unacceptable. Furthermore, it is buggy. For instance, after meeting the emperor and fighting the first boss in a circle of fire, there was a cutscene about being in a treasure room. After that it went to the "installing..." screen and never progressed further. I waited over two hours and still no progress. Turning the XB1 off and on didn't help. Eventually I tried removing the game disc, then turning off, then on, then replacing the game disc. That fixed the problem - the next cutscene came up (Maximus and his father) and then the next chapter of the story began.
The slowness and bugginess would justify two stars. I am being generous and giving it three since it is a launch title, which cuts it some slack.
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video-games_xbox
|
if on the fence--Now is the TIME to buy. PROS: lightweight. Fast plugin connections, good media type support, plug into a jack on the router-- on the internet. RUGGED sturdy controller
CONS: text input slow with controller. Controller sticks cannot be remapped or changed unless specifically game supported
First of all, I wish to thank sMakTard89, gEEpPo01 and the thousands, perhaps millions of others who beta tested this product through its zephyr and falcon chipsets, sending it in multiple times for service after it failed. Special thanks to the guy who bought his box off of Ebay for $1200 after its original owner waited all night in line and bought it then promptly placed it online for auction.
Now, in its Jasper chipset, designed to run cooler, and, knock on mahogany, the Xbox 360 should be less prone to breakdowns. I decided to jump in and make a purchase because it came with a game I might be actually interested in playing.
The fact it could play .avi's, DVD video and Netflix streaming was certainly a deal sealer as I do not think the Playstation or WII had all these capabilities.
I quickly set it up and the first thing to try was the Resident Evil game, as I heard a few people had a problem getting the drive to read it. No problem, it loaded, it wanted to play. My problem was in trying to figure out how to get it off the screen and install it to the hard-drive. I set that aside and decided to try and play a chapter instead. Stunning graphics, every year they get better and better with that part of it. After the cutscenes, it came my turn to do something in the game. Ugh, as a longtime computer gamer with vast experience with the keyboard, mouse and assorted controllers, the Xbox sturdy gamepad with its movement and camera thumbstick will take some getting used to. After 14 minutes of trying to get my drunken sailor of a guy to walk over to the meat market without going zen with the sky or moored in the mud, and after bumping into every post, pail and stray goon with a machete in sight, I moved on to something else (maybe Kung Fu Panda might not have been such a bad game to start with after all).
I had a movie on a thumbdrive and after a moment, located the USB ports behind the springdoor (cute). I found the Dashboard selections to play it. However, a message indicated I would have to be signed into Xbox live in order to get updates; prevented its immediate playback. Now was as good a time as any to activate my Xbox Gold card for Netflix steaming use; the thing downloaded, updated and the .avi could play. Wonderfully, the Xbox 360 could pause the movie without it ever timing out. My entertainment center's DVD player blanks out after a pause of three minutes and worse, on an .avi or mepg file, it will quit altogether requiring a cue it up from the very beginning and fast forward to the spot it was previously at. The Xbox, however, will remained paused there and though my experience is limited, I have not seen it blank out yet. Additionally, options are present which will allow skipping and rewinding with far more control than that of my entertainment center, ESPECIALLY with .avi files.
The Netflix streaming went rather well, and after a disappointing download from Xbox live for a free Resident Evil movie 2008 (it is NOT the movie only the film clips from cutscenes in the game itself), I streamed in the REAL movie from Netflix (Resident Evil Extinction). As of now, I have far logged more movie than game time, but, that could change.
Now all that needs doing is try to figure out how come the get the media from my computer portion is not working and get longer audio cables to extend and use the entertainment center speakers instead of the Tv's.
A worthwhile purchase(at 399.00, sorry beach).
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Edits
After using the unit for around a week, I can go into a few more things:
The red color is the shade of those red audio cable ends.
The noise is not noticeable, or at least it does not seem any more obnoxious than any other thing in the living room: computer, refrigerator, wind tunnel fan. Amongst the three, I have to look to see if the Xbox 360 is even on. However, when compared to my shelf of books and pile of old tractor parts, it is definitely louder, so there might be something to other customers' concerns about Xbox noise. Regardless, the sound of growling monsters and screaming women being shot by AGM type 39 blast cannons will not go well in a library setting.
It seems the controller issue regarding moving my guy around, is not my problem alone. Internet searches have revealed many people would like to swap the functions of the left and right thumbstick. In its most default and common setting the right Xbox thumbstick controls camera and aiming while the left thumbstick supports movement of the character. Currently these thumbsticks cannot be swapped and the solutions are as follows:
--The specific game supports (maybe) it in its configuration settings and the gamer can change it,
--The controller is disassembled and the wire leads removed and re-soldered on the controller's logic board,
--a "southpaw" controller is purchased (a rebuilt Xbox controller soldered by someone else to have the thumbsticks swapped),
--the gamer learns how to use the thumbsticks in its default settings.
As someone who trained for years using the right thumbstick on a computer configured Logitech gamepad to move my character front back and sideways, this of course introduces a learning curve with results earlier described with the included Resident Evil game. I am contemplating my options along these lines to perhaps considering the purchase of an additional wired Microsoft Xbox 360 game controller for the PC to facilitate learning the default movement and camera control to stay consistently trained across these platforms.
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video-games_xbox
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it went platinum for a REASON. oh my god where to begin!
alright, let me say this, this game is like metal gear solid but without the plotline that makes you question the meaning of purpose, hence it's FUN.
use tactics like car bombs, poison, sniper rifles and piano wire to kill your enemies, and that's only the stuff they tell you on the back of the box.
Plotline- alright this is a great plot, your priest (funny a preist and an assassin are good buddies) friend is captured and the hitman breaks out his signature baller pistols (this is a sequel mind you) again, you revive more missions from diana to pay the agencey for info on how to rescue your buddy, i have not completed the game yet because certain levels are too much fun to not do over and over and over again.
Gameplay- 5 outta 5 on this one dude, 1st or 3rd person fighting and dozens of weapons, including realizm, civilians will run up to cops shouting that you killed someone so your identity must be masked quickly, hell i've even had civilians run up to me pointing in the direction of a body of a guard i killed. you CAN go gung-ho but it takes the fun out of the game, it'd be like MGS with invisibility, plus it USUALLY gets you killed in a matter of seconds. More importantly is how entertaining it is to make hits, i can play the saint petersburg stakeout for hours at a time because making a kill from a concealed location with a sniperrifle and then walking away from it is so much fun, and if i feel like target practice then bust out an AK and let loose, also if you use the signature baller pistols you will get a special treat of taking down anything with 1 shot, which is realistic because baller pistols are like cannons.
Graphics- awsome, just awsome, blood pools and smoke pours from the tip of your barrel plus your signature red tie will blow in the wind and over your shoulder depending on if your running or walking or in the level, very nice, plus this game has some ragdoll that tops brute force, now THAT'S impressive
Weaponry- very good, and you have a shed in sicily where you can grab any weapon you've found in levels (and escaped with) and practice firing on ducks, scarecrows pigs ect, unfortunatley you will usually only use a sniper rifle, scilenced pistol and a fiberwire plus the occasional AK47 if [it] hits the fan (which it will). but you CAN weild things like aks, ballers, shotguns, m16s, sniper rifles, kitchen knives crossbows and eve Katannas (more of a disguise weapon then an arm).
Misc- this game was done VERY well, very intelligent AI, also hard to perdict, only a seasoned vet can effectivley sneak up behind a guard that's urinating, use piano wire and then store the body in a correct place, after 5 months i still screw up, plus RAGDOLL!!!!! this game has some of the best i've ever seen, for those that are saying "wtf is ragdoll?" it's when body's go limp when dead, rather then in MGS2 where all the guards will have identical deaths you can shoot an enemy in the head with a 9mm pistol and they might fall down or spin and die, but with a shotgun the will more likley hit the wall behind them (and leave a nice painting), plus draggin the corpse shows the beauty of ragdoll unlike certain stealthy's (mgs2).
pros..........all of the above (and the ability to save right before a kill, and do it over and over)
cons
hard to do, will aggravate the average gamer
most people will rush through levels with aks and get through the whole thing saying "that was crap" because they've cheated and taken away the fun
overall
great game because in this killing is an art, and using an AK is like photocopying.
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video-games_xbox
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Great potential, but frustrating gameplay. I played this game on normal difficulty, and have a considerable amount of gaming experience.
Pros:
- Fantastic visuals; every level has a lush and unique feel
- Very enjoyable 'arena' combat, using objects and the environment to defeat groups of enemies
- Great level-up system; use points to purchase new powers and combat combos
Cons:
- Very buggy enemy AI
- Poorly tuned abilities
- Extremely poorly tuned boss fights
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this game is how good it could have been, if the developer had put a little more effort into play-testing it. So many parts of the game deserve four or five stars: the graphics, animation, music, sound effects, character development system, and even the cheesy (but fun and appropriate for Star Wars) story. All of these are fantastic.
Unfortunately, the game is simply not fun to play. Occasionally you'll encounter a more open area with several enemies. Those are rare times when you can enjoy yourself, lifting enemies, throwing things around, and generally wreaking havoc.
The rest of the time, you are:
1. Fighting enemies who literally just stand there doing nothing while you kill them. I assume this is some sort of bug, but it was happening constantly.
2. Fighting enemies that are so 'smart' that they can always block and interrupt your lengthier combos. No matter what you try, you will get interrupted, until you finally give up and switch back to alternating the same two over-powered dash attacks that you know will let you win without sustaining damage. This works, but not being able to use other abilities is no fun.
3. The boss fights are much like this, but taken to the next level. The third boss, for example, spends much of the fight completely invulnerable to any damage, while attacking you. The remainder of the time, she is incredibly effective at blocking all attacks, and can easily interrupt any of your lengthier combos. She occasionally uses an instant attack that is un-blockable, and has the potential to remove roughly a third of your hitpoints instantly, if you are knocked in the wrong direction.
What could have been fun ends up as a long, boring, obnoxious fight where you spend most of your time jumping around like crazy looking for a half-second of weakness every minute or so.
The other boss fights and cinematic sequences are pretty much the same. One sequence in particular, involving a star destroyer, could have been an incredible moment in the game. But, due to the way it was tuned, it will frustrate you so much that you may just throw the game away before completing it.
This game could have been fantastic, but the developer just didn't spend enough time testing it with real gamers, to tune the fights.
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video-games_xbox
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Five Fun Stars, but needs a bit of refinement for 200+ price tag (EDIT JULY 2013, IT BROKE & NO RESPONSE FROM MC 4 MY 2yr WARNTY. EDIT: JULY 30, 2013. THE UNIT BROKE, MAD CATZ DID NOT MAKE GOOD ON WARRANTY, DID NOT EVEN RESPOND TO MY EMAIL! BUYER BEWARE. ITS OVER FOR ME AND MADCATZ PRODUCTS.
NOVEMBER 5, 2011.
So I got the unit from the madcatz website for 220 because if you order directly from there they have an internet coupon code that gives you 10 percent off, which is awesome because you can have it shipped 2day xpress with the extra cash you save if you want to. Anyways, i am a 33 yr old gamer, and have always stayed away from the madcatz brand since the days during the n64. I bought alot of junk controls from them that forever made me stick with the oem brand of whatever system i owned since then. Needless to say I was extremely skeptical, but I knew I would just return it if I didn't like it so I said what the hell. Well, I think the wheel is worth what you pay for it, and im glad madcatz has finally made a quality product other than their competition fight sticks. It has alot of weight to it, almost all steel, has a nice feel with rubber grips and 270 degrees of rotaion. the included lap supports are very sturdy if you must play this way, and the secure clamp is also very ergonomically designed to secure the unit onto a desk which is probably the optimal way to set it up. The force feedback is extremely present and does a very good job of giving you a virtual sense of where your cars tires lie on the road. The noise the wheel makes is minimal however sometimes slightly noticeable. The pedal set does not feel as well crafted as the wheel, but you will not slip on the rubber grips and they are spaced very well. They provide good resistance although not as authentic as a real auto, but are very easy to get used to and learning the different vehicles in the game really lets you see just how functional they really are. The triptronic shifter really feels authentic and you can even feel the vibrations around the area where the shifter lies when you shift gears. Without a pedal set, the feel would just not be as immersive, and since they are included it just was the more affordable option. Ive been waiting for the black friday deal for 28 bucks on the forza 4 game but meanwhile i cannot put the demo of forza 4 down. It feels fantastic with the wheel and if youve ever played an arcade game that had a racing wheel attached to it like sega's old daytona usa, well, this feels better than that technology. It says on the box that it "works great with forza 4" and they are not understating that one bit. I cannot compare to a fanatec but I had to pass on that because the cheapest compatible set that is in stock available to ship is 300 plus tax n shipping and does not include a shifter or pedals. Im not saying that it's not better, the fanatec looks dope as hell, but for the price this madcatz is doing the trick.
EDIT:
DEC 6th 2011
Black frizzle came and went and i got mii hands on Forza 4 $(27) n I also picked up Midnight Club LA Complete Edition. ($15) My opinion about the wheel hasn't changed one bit. In fact I cannot put either of these games down, especially Forza 4. Every car just changes so dynamically as you feel the simulated power of torque going to the wheels as you downshift and take a corner or even the slight grooves in the pavement that can pull you to either side of the road. It feels pretty phenomenal, for me that is. This is the first time I ever considered purchasing a wheel and thanks to Turn 10 studios for making a game that simulates car driving at a level I have never witnessed or experienced. There may be better simulation racing games for other platforms, i don't know, but for the 360 using the madcatz force feedback wheel along with forza 4 is sure to bring you hours upon hours of enjoyment. (p.s.) midnight club la rocks just as hard but it's definitely an arcade racer. It supports force feedback on this wheel and although it's not utilized as accurately as forza 4, I would still give the force feedback and vibration support a 4.5 out of 5 on this game. Another game I tried out was Baja: Edge of Control which is also compatible with force feedback and vibration. You can feel the both functions in the game but it's not as present as in either forza 4 or midnight club. This game was meant to be played with a wheel and after having played this game with a controller for the past couple of years, i can honestly say i don't know what i was thinking. Anyway, i guess you can tell my enthusiasm. However, for 250 shipped and at my doorstep within 3 days from madcatz gameshark website, you cannot go wrong with this wheel. *You also get a full 2year warranty*
Edit:
Jan 6th 2012
This wheel is still going strong! Ive had it for about 2 months and Forza 4 is still taking up all of my gaming time. Ive received games like Saints Row 3, Skyrim, Metal Gear Solid HD, n' Darks Souls over the holiday period but have not even ripped open the plastic to try them out (sorry Skyrim!) It's just that the total feeling of Forza 4 is truly outstanding with all the control that you get while playing with the wheel. One thing that has improved is the wheels overall flexibility. When I first began using the wheel it had some quirky stiff points at certain positions but those seem to have now kinked themselves out through use. I play about an average of 2hours when I get a chance, and although it hasn't been daily use, its been quite frequent.
I hope they make an optional set of steel pedals as it would probably enhance the game that much more. Overall still a phenomenal experience and cant wait to see what they can do with the power of the next gen systems for driving simulators. PEACE!
Edit:
Feb 4, 2012
Almost another month has flown by and Im still pleased as punched with my racing wheel. Ive noticed a few critical negative reviews about this product and decided to lay down more information on my experience. Im still rockin' Forza Motorsport 4 every time I fire up the 360. The wheel is still sturdy, still provides great feedback from the game, and only seems to have "broken in," so to speak. I have learned the pedals "touch" and am now able to use the brake and gas more to my advantage. I recommend using some racing shoes or something with a sticky sole because the rubber padding on the pedals sticks really well to these kinds of shoes and helps with keeping you throttle and braking like a semi-pro. I have also started to use the paddle shifters more often than using the triptronic shifter and the feedback from these shifters feels closely approximated to what I feel on my real life car. Up to now, the game is still garnishing most of my 360 playtime and probably will be until the next best 360 racing game is released. Now time to go burn some mo' RSX rubber
Edit:
March 26, 2012
Da wheel is still alive n' kickin wings! Turn 10 upped the cap on the car level from 150 to 999 on the recent update and its a good thing because I have been playing the game so much that I have usurped the 150 mark already.
There is just so much content by default in this game because of the amount of cars and how different they all handle. The steering wheel wouldn't mean much if it did not interact with the game the way it does, but fortunately it has done its job and is still providing its dose of awesomeness. Everything still works just as good as the day I plugged it in.
Edit:
Friday April 27, 2012
I have the 5.1 dolb-digi sound turned up with Aphex Twin's "Richard D. James" album for driving music and the options to focus more on engine sounds enabled. The music goes perfect with Forza and pumps u up if you are into his music or something similar. The wheel is still working awesomely and have been taking turns playing Forza 4, Baja Off Road Challenge, and Midnight club L.A. I must say that the more I play Baja with the wheel, the more I think that they should sell that game with a disclaimer that says "needs force feedback wheel to even have a chance at winning" Its really tough, but its extremely fun especially since you are constantly turning the wheel, downshifting, hitting the e-brake to take a bank, clutching and revving to get a good start, and adjusting the damper on the springs while you're flying off a jump to land perfectly. It's alot of fun. Well, prolly be my last update for a while and will definitely post if anything bad should happen to it. Later.
Edit:
June 28, 2012
Recently started playing Dirt 3 Complete. The game works really well with the game but Forza 4 still makes best use of the wheel in terms of simulation. After playing Dirt 3 fer a few weeks, I had to switch back to finishing all of the event lists in Forza 4. The game still impresses me especially after being able to buy and drive the most expensive cars. The addition of the Porsche has been really great and prove extremely fun to drive with the wheel. I still agree with my 5 fun factor stars.
Edit:
September 3, 2012
I am still racking up hours on Forza 4. The wheel is still providing the same experience as when I first started using it. I also started using the "manual w/clutch" option in the Forza game menus to make the driving as simulated as possible. After switching to manual with clutch I finally realized that this unit seriously needs a pedal set with a clutch. I had to map the clutch to the "A" button on the wheel and while it works well to really enhance the simulation experience, it also shows the shortcomings of this wheel's setup.
I recently saw this wheel here on amazon advertised for $179.99 and if you can get it for that price then I feel it's a fair price. If you have to pay more then it might feel like one of those purchases you curse yourself for having to pay premium because there is no one else selling this product for less.
I still agree with my 5 fun factor stars, and if you can find this product in the 180 dollar range you might be able to justify this buy. It's still a solid wheel, and as this year has proved, has provided me with the best racing experience and the most control in game I have ever felt or witnessed. I can only imagine what the FANATEC setup would feel like and if you have extra to spend on the equipment then I would most probably recommend going with the other brand because it has so much more options when it comes to controlling what Forza 4 lets you control in its game.
Edit:
November 26, 2012.
One word. Forza Horizon. Okay so that's 2 but cmon man, the game deserves it. Cant believe it was $15 on black friday from the devil store himself: microsoftstore.com. The wheel plays as charming as ever although I am getting closer and closer to buying the Fanatec setup cuz its such a bute. Anyways, still gaming with da wheel alot and Horizon works beautifully with it. Just as fantastic as Forza 4! Probably gonna be my final post since its been 1yr with this awesome little wheel, but it has undergone extensive use, been used by ppl other than myself who were really rough with it, and I thankfully have not had any problems with it. My final thoughts are this; If you have the extra cash to spend please do yourself a favor and get the Fanatec. This is not a bad wheel by any means. This wheel is currently on *special* at gamestop online for $179.99 although currently not in stock. [...] At that price point I would recommend taking a shot at it. Otherwise just save up a little bit more and get yourself the Fanatec. As I reflect on the year in review I can see how it can be called a great starter wheel and a great way to greatly enhance the Forza series games or most other great racers on your xbox.
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video-games_xbox
|
Second Grader Approved. I'm a gamer from way back, and when I had kids, I knew I wanted to let them game, but in controlled amounts. Then we got a Kinect. When I saw how much jumping around my rather sedentary eight-year-old daughter does when she plays it, I was sold. In fact, she gets such good exercise when she plays that I really don't limit the time she spends with it. Needless to say, she was very excited to get a new title, particularly because she does like to play Dance Central with me, but tends to find it a bit frustrating.
One of the features of the game that I found particularly nice is that it contains a mix of songs for both older and younger kids. My son is a bit too young for the Kinect yet (he's only two), but I think this feature would work particularly well in families with multiple children in the 6-10-year-old range or so.
Like those Kids Bop CDs, the songs in Just Dance Kids 2 aren't sung by the original artists but, unlike those CDs, I didn't find this annoying. The songs have a lot of kid appeal and don't contain any offensive content, which is a good thing. Much as I like Dance Central, it has many songs to which I do not want my young daughter dancing.
The dances are all performed by actual children (as opposed to the virtual characters in Dance Central) wearing a variety of costumes, which I thought was a cute feature. I think it's especially funny to watch the kids dressed up as gnomes dancing to the modified Crocodile Rock theme to Gnomeo and Juliet. That song is a particular favorite of my daughter's. The backgrounds are all varied and adapt to a theme as well. Regardless, they're all colorful and fun to look at.
As for the dances themselves, they're fairly simple, easy to follow, and definitely age-appropriate. The game can be played by either one or two players and, after having joined my daughter on a few of the dances, I can say that it's definitely a good workout. The game really gets kids moving and because the moves are so varied, they're working every muscle imaginable. As you dance, you're rewarded with stars and a score, so it's excellent motivation for challenging yourself to do better and, consequently, spending more time exercising. What's not to like about that?
The game has a lot of nice extra features. My daughter enjoyed creating her own playlist, though I don't think she's made a music video. The video feature in particular impresses me because it gives kids the chance to exercise some of their own creativity.
All in all, I give this game high marks. It's fun for my daughter, it encourages physical activity, and it's great fun for me to watch her dance and see how much she enjoys herself.
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video-games_xbox
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Interesting, but has its flaws. I just finished a stealth playthrough of the game. To me, it was a somewhat frustrating experience, but still fun. I wanted the good ending, so I killed as few people as possible, but I did resort to direct combat at times.
Attacking people directly is not only quicker, but there is also a more satisfying array of options. The game gives you many lethal weapons, such as guns, traps and the ability to reprogram any enemy technology to target bad guys instead. There are also powers that allow you to summon rats that devour your enemies and whirlwinds that slam them into walls.
In stealth mode, there aren't very many ways to incapacitate the guards. There are crossbow bolts that put people to sleep, and you can sneak up behind people and knock them out, but that's about it. The option to knock people out does not always work as planned, either, and, even if the prompt comes up on screen, Corvo will sometimes raise his knife to block instead, usually right before the guard turns and sees you creepily standing behind him, which understandably freaks him out.
In a nutshell, if you're still deciding which way to play, stealth offers the good ending, and violence offers gameplay fluidity.
One decision I thought was strange was that the game always had Corvo carry a knife in his right hand, even if you are doing a nonviolent playthrough and even when you are only attempting to use a stealth skill such as blink. I never used the knife, but it was always there, in a space that could have been occupied by more useful abilities or equipment.
The area levels are relatively open, compared to some of the more linear games that are out nowadays, but it's difficult to fully appreciate your surroundings in a stealth playthrough. At some points, I just wanted to walk around and look at the city, which had a watercolor aesthetic I really liked, but guards are everywhere, and you have to get rid of all of them before you can explore openly.
I did not let that keep me from doing sidequests, though. I am very much a completionist, so I tried to explore all the areas fully before I left. There are many sidequests that don't even show up in your journal until you find a specific area, like saving a woman who's surrounded by rats or protecting an accused witch from overzealous guards, which helps with replayability. It was also fun to find the runes that upgrade your abilities and listen to the Outsider's (the guy who gives you your powers) take on in-game events.
Though I tried to be as thorough as possible, and though I played stealth mode, which is inherently time-consuming, I finished the game in about eight hours. The story was a little formulaic, and the only characters who were really interesting were Granny Rags and the Outsider. I did like the audiographs, though, which important characters used to record their private thoughts (Sometimes too private, actually. If I was feeling guilty about murdering someone, I probably wouldn't record myself saying so.)
Another thing that offers insight into the world is the heart the Outsider gives you, which can tell you more about characters and places in the game. The heart has a really cool voice and sometimes says interesting things about important NPC's. I was especially shocked at what it said about Piero, the scientist who upgrades your equipment at the Hound Pits Pub. Unfortunately, minor NPCs with similar backgrounds all have the same descriptions, like 'she hides her hands, which are red and raw from work,' will be a description for all women who aren't nobles or major NPCs.
The tall boys, which were featured heavily in advertisements, show up very late in the game, and, as far as I could tell, there's no way to incapacitate them without killing them, which was annoying. There was an interesting tidbit in one of the books at Lady Boyle's party, though, which made them way more interesting and sympathetic.
Despite my negativity in this review, I did like the game enough to give it three stars. I enjoyed playing a new IP, and I actually do like stealth games most of the time. Dishonored offers a lot of unique ways to get around without being seen, like possessing animals and stopping time, and it was fun to play with all the different options. The more destructive powers look promising too. Usually I can't stand to play the darker path, but for this game I'll try to give it a go so I can try out all the abilities.
I pre-ordered this game months ago, and I think it was worth it. It was exciting to play something so new and different, even if there were a few flaws. Dishonored is hard to fit in one category, so I'm not sure how to recommend it to others, but hopefully this review will help anyone on the fence about buying the game.
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video-games_xbox
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Amazing graphics and fighting styles. Sure, we've been spoiled recently with incredible graphics in fighting games. Tekken, on the Playstation 2, is one of my favorites, with its shimmering waters and floating leaves. It's pretty amazing that barely a year later, it's been blown out of the water!
First, I have to admit that the 'story mode' is very cheezy. Well, that's the same for any fighting game. You choose one of the many characters, choose an outfit, and jump into battles. Your person says a few words, the enemy says a few words, and they fight. With some good button-mashing, you can zip through any story in no time at all.
That's not what these games are built for, though. They're best when played multiplayer against a real human opponent! The story mode and other training modes are just to get you to learn the moves. And this is where it truly begins to shine! There are a variety of fighting styles represented in the game, and each one has a wide number of moves. They're truly amazing once you get them down, and the graphics are incredible. Their movements are smooth and fluid, from the slice of the hand to the bouncing of the pom-poms.
The backgrounds are true eye candy. There's a level where you're playing surrounded by aquariums, and even the floor you're on is the glass top of a fish tank! Another level has you fighting in the snow - and your feet mess up the snowdrifts! You can fight in a candle-surrounded room, with beautiful flickering fire, and knock them over with your opponent. Smash through a wall, and you're out on the roof! Roll off the roof, and you're down in the courtyard! It's truly like watching a fighting animation on tv, but you can control the action.
Half the fun is figuring out the secrets of each level. Can you smash through the trees? Can you throw your enemy through that plate glass window? The water splashes with each step you take, the electric fence zaps your enemy, the neon sign flickers as you fall against it.
This game definitely shows off the incredible capability of the X-Box, and is a must-have for anyone who loves fighting games. Even if you don't currently, this game might convince you why they're so much fun!
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video-games_xbox
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The Zenith of Role Playing Games. After playing this game for over one hundred hours I believe I have an adequate amount of time spent for an accurate review. Being a fan of RPG's I would have to say I am somewhat biased, but have played hundreds of games over the course of 16 years.
Game play: Elder Scrolls IV has some of the most phenomenal action I've ever seen in an RPG. I would definitely consider it to be an action RPG. Unlike many conventional role playing games everything is real time. The new radiant AI system was used for Elder Scrolls IV in which the NPC characters lead regular lives and make their own decisions. Unfortunately this means that sometimes you can't find members of your guild or faction. I count seven different factions which I have joined so far; The Knights Errant, The Blades, The Fighters Guild, The Mages Guild, The Arena, Order of The Virtuous Blood. Each gives you the ability to advance to the top. While the game is not as interactive as I would like (i.e. the ability to cut down trees etc.) it is considerably more interactive than many other RPGs out there. Quests are quite varied in length, difficulty and aspects. There is a main quest line which has you searching for an heir to the emperor of Cyrodiil.
Setup: One of my favorite things about this game is the hot buttons where you can have eight different spells, weapons or armor of your choosing. This allows for great ease of use while in the heat of a battle. There are four sections in the menu area: character, weapons, spells and log of quests. It is a huge improvement over Morrowind in my opinion and is very organized. Each section has subdivisions to divide even further.
In the beginning of the game you are offered a choice of races and then classes to choose from much like Elder Scrolls III; after which you are able to customize the look of the heroine with an unimaginable number of facial features and skin tones as well as age and hairstyle.
Leveling up is done by increasing your major skills; each class has a set of major skills for example mine was a Breton, battle mage, the mage so a few of my skills were blade, blunt, alteration, destruction, conjuration and a few others. If you are looking to level up a great deal plan on spending hundreds of hours playing the game because after nearly 110 hours of game play my character is at level 33 out of 120. Also many people believe that the monsters/people that are fought level up with you. This is not entirely true. As you level up the actual enemies change-not their level. For example at level one the most difficult animal you will fight in Cyrodiil is a wolf while at my current level it would be an ogre.
Graphics: The artistic care that was taken to create this game is breathtaking. Every little detail adds to the overall masterpiece that is Elder Scrolls IV. It is by far the best looking game I have ever seen bar none. Much of this is due to the graphical prowess of the Xbox 360 or one's top of the line graphics card. Nonetheless, the makers of Oblivion have created a work of art. The forests are so realistic it's sometimes easy to forget it is a game. Each leaf and flower is discernable with vibrant vivacious colors and moves with the wind. The shading is the aspect that gives the most realism to the game. Unfortunately, I can only describe the landscape of the game to a certain extent. In order to truly experience it you must try it for yourself.
Music: There isn't much to say about the music. It is dreamy and fits the medieval feel of the game; as usual is in 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound.
Cons: Unfortunately there is no such thing as a perfect game so of course there are a few small downsides to Oblivion. One of the things that really bothered me is the speed of the leveling up. I wrote about this earlier on in the review. I would have expected to be much higher in level by the time I had completed all the quests for each faction. 144 quests and only at level 33-doesn't exactly seem like even trade-off. However, I'm sure there are quicker ways to achieve a higher level. Some smaller qualms I have with the game are: the voices used for NPCs in the game-from what I can tell there are only about ten different people doing voice acting, while in battles when your horse is near, the enemy most of the time goes for the weakest thing around, which is of course the horse. I lost probably three or four horses because of this. The "solution" is to pay for horse armor by downloading it on Xbox Live for like $2.00. Honest, I don't think you should have to pay for something that they messed up.
Rating:
Game play: 9.5/10
Setup: 10/10
Graphics 10/10
Music 10/10
Replay Value 8/10
If you absolutely wanted to play Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the cheapest price my recommendation would be to buy an Xbox 360 core system. You ask why I would say to get an Xbox over just purchasing it for the computer; the most obvious is the graphics capability of the average game player's computer. First of all if you plan to run this game on a laptop most would need to purchase a whole new computer with a GPU to handle the game probably running anywhere from $1500 to upwards of $5000. Secondly it would be possible to upgrade a desktop computer to run Oblivion. If you plan to do it you would most likely need to have at least 1 gigabyte of free RAM, a graphics card for the game I would expect to be about $200 or more. The last thing and of course the most expensive is the processor. A hyper threading 2.8 GHZ Pentium or better is I believe minimum to get a smooth running game. I would suggest a dual core processor. In essence it would not only be cheaper for most just to buy the Xbox but a lot less of a hassle seeing as the 360 already has the capabilities to run this caliber of game.
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video-games_xbox
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Sid Meier's Pirates. This game isn't Sid Meier's Ninjas! I just have to accept that and review that game I actually played instead the potential awesomeness I could've played. In opposition to the PC version, the XBOX version has some hastily tacked-on plot (something about having to save your family from an evil baron.) Like I'm sure everybody else did, I choose to ignore all that in lieu of terrorizing the French.
You may remember that Sid Meier is responsible for the insanely addicting Civilization III. Pirates! is a bit of a change of pace in terms of scope - instead of overseeing the fate of an entire civilization for several thousand years, you're limited to taking charge of a single pirate crew in the Caribbean from the mid- to late-1600s. (Since most pirates never got past the wizened age of 45, this makes sense.) After naming your captain and choosing a proficiency (most would choose to improve their dueling prowess, but I choose Wit and Charm for more effective wooing) you're given control of a small ship.
Sailing around and just randomly attacking passing boats can be highly amusing, if not totally broken. Case in point: I was in my insignificant sloop when I saw the Queen Anne's Revenge sail right on by. Channeling my inner Johnny Depp, I decided to go in for the kill. Out-gunned and severely outmanned, I knew the first volley of 15 cannonballs (in opposition to my three) would knock me right out of the water. Instead, I found myself to be... unharmed. I then did what any completely insane pirate would do--bashed my pathetic heap of timber against the legendary ship.
Onboard was the fearsome Blackbeard, flaming beard and all. After a suprisingly easy game of Simon Says that required all of three button presses, I had slain the most fearsome pirate on the high seas and taken his ship. If that isn't evidence of a game in need of balancing, I'd like to know what is!
(Speaking of Blackbeard, my dad is writing a miniseries all about him. Check it out.)
That's basically an apt description for the entire experience: an abundance of strung together mini-games. You've got the "dancing to win the affections of the governor's daughter" game, which I prefer to think of as "virtual finger torture." Other examples include the "laying siege to a city" pseudo-RTS and the "sneaking into a hostile area" stealth portion. Needless to say, playing gets to be repetitive in a big hurry.
BOTTOM LINE: I'm not saying you won't be highly amused for a couple of hours. Quite the contrary. Once the novelty wears off, though... I'm afraid you might come to the same horrified realization that I did. You're just playing the illegitimate child of a Mario Party game.
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video-games_xbox
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A thoughtfull rookie review for anyone interested. My exact review, after playing the full story and giving my mind a time to process it:
**Contains technical spoilers***
Final fantasy XV is a very exciting and short story in an impressively massive world lacking cities and full of incredible dungeons.
If you compare FF XV story to other FF games, it is very short. ***Main Spoiler*** if you take other FF and divide it in chapters measuring the content to match each FF XV chapter, you could get from 30 to 40 chapters in each game. Meanwhile FF XV has 15 chapters... Than makes you feel uncomfortable if you only focus on the main story. But it is almost inevitable to wander off doing a lot, really... A LOT of stuff there is to do all around. The only downside of all the extra content is that is is made just by individual missions that rarely can be added up as something as big as a Side Story... I would say they never add up as a big story... You only take quests and have a lot of fun going and coming all around Lucis and Altissia.
Other thing that feels odd is that you can not wander to any other cities than Altissia and Lestallum. I mean.. if you can ****SPOiler*** time travel... You should be able to visit imperial city, Luna's city, and Insomnia... And perhaps some other cities that never have to do with the story, as it was with many FF cities like Daguerreo from FF IX...
And the other thing that feels odd:
When you can fly, you can see there's a big big big big big chunk of ocean and land you should be able to explore and could be full of mobs and why not a random town or an island or more hidden Astrals or one of this extra explorable cities mentioned before...
So then why the five stars? Because it nevertheless gave me that awsome Final Fantasy feeling. Felt like a youngling, all emotional and totally absorbed into the world. And I have seen the game has gotten very big free updates that give even more freedom to exploration. So it stills exceeds the five stars even if it's not the romantic thought I had of a FF game... I would say specially because it's not the romantic thought I had of a FF game and still delivered that Final Fantastic Feeling.
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video-games_xbox
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Hate yourself, not the game. I can't understand why people are being so negative towards this game. This game is a great stealth/action game that wraps up a lot of missing plot elements from the previous games in the series. It's fun, intense at some points, and is one of the more entertaining and challenging games I've played in a while. Yeah, there was a bug when it first was released, but it has been completely resolved. Yeah, there is profanity in the game, but the game is rated M for mature. If you can handle playing a violent game with tons of gratuitous killing, then a few "F-bombs" shouldn't get your panties in a bunch. I think the use of profanity in this game adds to the atmosphere of the storyline. Plus, if you don't get spotted, nobody knows that you're there to curse at you. If you don't want your 12 year old kids hearing that kind of language, read a real review before purchasing the game for them. The information is available months before the game is sold in stores. Don't blame others for your poor parenting skills. And yeah, some of the stealth elements from the previous games in the series have been taken away, but that doesn't make it any less of a stealth/action game. The game can be played however the user chooses to. There are actually awards you can unlock for making it through a whole level undetected or without firing a bullet. It adds a different dimension to the game play. Making a whistling noise or throwing a can doesn't define a stealth game. And without spoiling the storyline, certain character emotions would make one not want to be as stealth as a spy gathering intel for the government. It's more about getting answers by any means necessary, even if it means making your presence known. People need to learn that reviews can influence other shoppers' purchasing decisions. Rating a game a 1 because you didn't know what you were buying your kids or you have a personal problem with the company that released the game is just ridiculous. This game is worth every penny that Amazon sells it for. Despite being for a limited mature audience, this is an amazing game with great replay value. I highly recommend it. 5 stars and stripes.
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video-games_xbox
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Grab your fedora and grab your badge! We have bad guys to catch. READERS BEWARE: WHILE I DON'T SPOIL THE STORY, I DO TELL YOU THINGS THAT THE STRUCTURE DOES THAT I MAY OR MAY NOT LIKE. ALSO BEWARE THAT THIS REVIEW IS VERY LONG BECAUSE WITH A GAME SO DIFFERENT, IT IS HARD TO TALK ABOUT IN A SHORT REVIEW.
L.A Noire is a hard game for somebody to review without a bias. On one hand, it does incredibly unique things that most companies wouldn't dare do, and thusly deserves credit for doing that and doing it well. On the other hand, however, it is so different from anything in almost every way that it could turn many people off, and with good reason. It is a detective game, meaning most of the time you will be searching around crime scenes and/or interrogating suspects, and because of such has a snail-like pacing at times during certain gameplay passages. Adding onto that is a 1947 Los Angeles setting, and you have all the ingredients to make the common man of today's society turned off to this game. However, if anything about this game interests you; if you just reading this review because you are slightly considering buying this game, this is an absolute must-buy. I personally love detective stories and shows, and the 1947 environment was intriguing to me, so it was a must-play for me. The game is not without its problems, and it certainly isn't the best thing Rockstar has ever put out, but it as unique a gaming experience as you will ever get, and it is certainly going to be a game of the year contender for 2011.
For starters, lets talk about the background behind this game. First of all, as you probably know, this game is published by Rockstar. Rockstar is widely renown for their open world games, namely Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Next in Rockstar's line of open-world games is a Team Bondi developed game called L.A Noire, and it certainly is unlike any open-world games preceding it. L.A Noire was originally announced in 2005, and Rockstar picked it up in 2006, so after five years of development they are releasing it now in 2011. As you probably know, in L.A Noire, you are a detective who is solving crimes. Many people have been skeptical because this is a large step in the mature section for Rockstar. You will not be running innocent civilians over, nor will you be shooting anybody who doesn't deserve it. You are a cop/detective in every sense of the word, and therefore must act like one. This is a much different game than any of Rockstar's previous outings, however this is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it is a great thing to see Rockstar take a step in a different direction. L.A Noire is a game in which if you like either detective movies or the 1940s as a whole, you will love the hell out of. That being said, if you don't like either of those things, it is hard to say whether or not you will enjoy this game because of its structure.
You play as Cole Phelps, a deeply complex WWII veteran turned police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department. At the beginning of the game, Phelps is just a police officer, but as he solves crimes, he gets promoted to different desks, from Traffic cases to drug cases. I say that Cole is a deeply complex character because while you play as Cole, there are things that he does that you have no control over. He also does things that require a large inference with the information given to you throughout the game. What gives you some of this information are flashback cut scenes between cases that refer back to Cole during the war. During these scenes you learn more about not only Cole and his background, but also his relationships with some of his ex-war comrades who appear in some of his cases later in the game. The problem with these flashbacks is that at the start, you have some sense as to why they play them, but there is a large portion in the game in which you don't really know why they are there, and it can hamper the experience a little. However once you see what purpose the cut scenes serve, everything will start to make sense. Until then, however, you will have all of this information and not know what to do with it, and it can get disorienting at times.
The story consists of 21 different subplots in the form of police cases. The great thing about these cases is that no matter what you do, whether you get everything wrong or not, you will always get an answer. There are points where you might not choose the right answer, and the game will tell you that, but you can still get past it and move onto the next case. There are also 40 street cases that act sort of like the stranger missions from Red Dead Redemption. Occasionally, you will get a call on the police radio station that will tell you that there is a crime in progress, and you can choose to answer the call or not. It is during these cases that much of the shooting in the game will occur, but I will talk about the shootouts later in the game. While each case only slightly furthers the overall story, each case is gripping in its own ways. You will want to figure out who is responsible for each one of these crimes, and it is immensely satisfying when you do.
Another thing you should know about the overall story is that while it does feel like a story about Cole, the last act of the game shifts the focus from Cole to the corruption of the city. It would be fine if the shift were less jarring. It seems like it just comes out of nowhere, and it left me wondering where the story with Cole was going to go. The only explanation I could think of as to why they would do this is that the player never really knows what is going to come next. There are surprises and twists throughout, and the structure of the story made me think of the structure of an investigation in that you never know what is going to happen. If this is what Team Bondi was attempting, I salute them for that, but it isn't something that many people may pick up on. Another thing that bothered me about the story not because they did it but because it has been done many times in games recently is the ending. I won't say what happens, but it has been happening a lot in games, and it makes the game feel less depressing than it should be. Granted, L.A Noire's tone is never necessarily happy. This is a gritty environment; there is a lot of corruption, and it never feels like anybody has too much fun.
The tone of this game contributes to the maturity of this game. Let me just say this right now: THIS GAME IS NOT FOR THE IMMATURE PEOPLE!!! You encounter many crime scenes in which people have been brutally murdered, including a few in which the victims are females who were left naked. The nudity in the game is handled completely maturely. Nobody makes jokes about it, and you never feel like it was just there to have nudity. There is also a lot of language in the game. F-words are aplenty, though not so much so that it makes the game feel like a swear-fest. Not only that, but the setting itself is enough to make anybody under the age of 18 turned off immediately. There are no rocket launchers, helicopters, or anything of that nature. The most advanced things you get are a 40's car and a gun, and that's it. It is something that I personally loved, but I can easily see many people hating.
Since we are on the subject of the setting, let's talk about the world of L.A Noire because god is it beautiful. Team Bondi recreated 1947 Los Angeles to a stunning 90% relativity. Buildings and cars are all beautiful detailed, and they all look like they fit in the 40's setting. One of L.A Noire's greatest achievements is the fact that it makes you really feel like you are in Los Angeles in 1947. The jazz music, the environments, the streets, the clothing on the citizens, the stylized look of the game; even the overall tone of the game feels just perfect for it's setting. I even saw banners that said "Vote for Nixon for House of Representatives." If you don't know, Nixon was a Congressman for Eastern L.A during this time period. That level of detail alone just left me with my jaw on the floor. There are some pop-in issues with the world, some worse than others, but this by no means deter from the outstanding setting of the game.
What adds onto the beauty of the game are the details of the citizens themselves. As you may be aware of, Team Bondi is using motion recognition software called MotionScan, and it looks incredible. The way it works is that each actor wears a special suit that covers everything but their face, and many cameras take the scene from many 360* angles, and the computer turns it into a complete 3D model that they can then put in the game. This technology makes all of the animations in the game absolutely stunning. You can see everything as if the character were doing it in real life, from the realistic tiny twitches in people's faces during questioning to even climbing up steps incredibly realistically. Using this technology both in-game and through cut scenes makes both look great, and sometimes you can never even tell the difference between cut scene and gameplay. There were even times where I felt that the gameplay looks BETTER than the cut scenes, and that is an achievement in and of itself. There are a few characters that look rather strange with this technology, and there were even people who looked the same or looked similar. Overall, however, everything Team Bondi did with this technology is an incredible achievement, and it works very well with the game and its mechanics.
Speaking of the game's mechanics, let's talk about the gameplay. In L.A Noire, most of your time will be spent searching crime scenes for clues, following up on those clues, questioning people to learn more, and interrogating possible suspects. Let's start with searching the crime scenes for clues because this is the thing that may turn many people off. When you arrive at a scene, you can search the entire scene for clues. This mechanic is very interesting because it allows you to figure out new things about the case, and it also can affect your judgment as to who may have committed the crime. In that sense, the feedback you get from finding new clues is greatly satisfying. However where there is good, there is also bad because these sections are probably the slowest in terms of pacing of the entire game. There will be times when you have to search all over for things, some of which may be useless to the investigation, and it can get cumbersome. Near the end of the game, I found myself getting tired of this mechanic, however the reason for this may be the speed in which I played through this game, which I will talk about at the end of this review.
Next is following up on your clues. These are the some interesting parts of the game in my opinion because it is here where you the player get to judge for yourself what the truth behind the crime is. There is always a reason why you are going to a certain area, no matter how out there it may seem, and they always have something to contribute to each case.
Lastly, there are the questioning and interrogation parts of the game. These parts are certainly the large talk of the game, the most controversial parts of the game, and definitely the most unique parts of the game. During these parts, you are given somebody that you can ask a list of questions to, and when you ask the question, you have a selection of three things to do with their answer. You can select "Truth" if you believe they are telling the truth, "Doubt" if you believe that they aren't telling the truth but don't have any evidence to support it, or "Lie" when you know they are lying because of a clue that you have in your notebook that can support you. Of course, it would not be able to be done very well had the MotionScan technology not been there. Because of this technology combined with the brilliant performances by all of the actors, there is always a truth behind a face, whether they might be lying to you or telling the truth. It is a very interesting system, and highly rewarding when you get all of the questions right. I only really had two problems with it. Problem number one: there were times where I felt like it looked like they were lying, but I didn't get it correct, and it made me angry. The only explanation I can think of for that is that everybody acts differently when they are lying, so you shouldn't think that just because one person acts a certain way when they are lying doesn't mean that everybody else will act the same way. The second problem I had with this system is that there was many times in which people who had absolutely no reason to lie or hide the truth would do so. Case and point: there was a point in the game where I had to question one of the neighbors, and even though they had no connection to the case, they would still lie to me for no reason whatsoever. I mean come on; I'm a police officer! It's not like I'm going to send him to jail because he told me something that helped on the investigation. Besides these two minor complaints, it is a very well done gameplay system, one that I hope is built upon and improved upon towards perfection. The game does a good job at introducing you to all of these new gameplay styles, which is impressive given how different they are from anything else in the video game industry.
What greatly helps with all of these new gameplay mechanics are the intuition points. As you solve cases, you gain experience points, which are used to level up. Whenever you level up, you gain one intuition points, and there are 20 levels overall. Using an intuition point allows you to do one of three possible things. When questioning somebody, you can use an intuition point to either remove an answer (from either Truth, Doubt, or Lie), or you can ask the Rockstar Social Club community and see what the community chose the most. The last thing you can do with an intuition point is to show you all of the clues on your mini-map at a crime scene. The only problem with this, however, is that if inspect one of the clues that you find, the rest of the clues disappear from the crime scene. I don't know whether this is intentional or maybe just a glitch, but if you use an intuition point for this purpose, you probably will want to locate all of them before you inspect any of them.
You also do a lot of driving in L.A Noire, as well as parts in the game where you will be doing shootouts. Both of these sections serve their purpose, and do a fine job at that. The driving is similar to that of GTAIV, although I felt like I had much more control over the vehicles in L.A Noire than I did in GTAIV. What helps with this is that there aren't nearly as many cars driving around in 1947 Los Angeles as there were in modern day Liberty City. If you want to find out where to drive in certain places, there is a map in which you can set custom waypoints, or you could set a destination using your trusty notebook. While you don't have an outline as to how you can get there via your mini-map, you can press either Square (for PS3) of X (for 360) and your partner (who is with you throughout the game) will tell you when to turn or to go straight. It is a neat little addition, and I actually found myself liking it better than the predetermined route. The only problem with it, however, is that sometimes it can be delayed, and if you are driving fast, you can occasionally miss a turn. Not only that, but the game never really told me that I could do that, and I had to figure it out myself. On the other side of the spectrum are the shootouts. The shootouts are something that, like the rest of the game, I can see people not liking. It is similar to Red Dead Redemption in that it is cover-based, includes auto-aim (to a certain extent), and uses the dot as the crosshair. The only thing is that this game is based to be realistic, and because of this the auto aim doesn't follow the enemy forever, which I thought was actually appropriate. Not only that, but you only carry a pistol with you wherever you go which makes sense for a cop. You can, however, pick up weapons from dead enemies that vary from a shotgun to a Tommy gun. There aren't many weapons in the game, but it fits seeing as though the main drive in the game isn't the shootouts. What really tells you that the game doesn't focus on the shootouts are the fact that it doesn't show you how much ammo you have for any weapons you pick up (for pistols, you have unlimited ammo), and it is possible to run out of ammo for a shotgun or machine gun.
Last but certainly not least to talk about with this massive game is the incredible voice/acting work of all of the people in this game. There are over 350 credited actors in L.A Noire, and each of them is brilliantly characterized due to well done acting. The most impressive actors in my opinions were the people who had to act like they were lying during interrogation. Not only do they have to be somebody else, but also they have to be somebody else who is guilty of lying, and because of which have to act like they are hiding something. It is not an easy thing to do I'm sure, and because of that I tip my hat to all of them. However, the one who really steals the show is Cole Phelps, played by Aaron Staton from the AMC series Mad Man. He does a terrific job at making you believe he is the character he is portraying, and it highlights him as a truly great actor in this generation.
L.A Noire is not a game everybody will love, because Team Bondi didn't make it to be a game everybody would love. If nothing about this game interests you, I can tell you to go out and buy this game now, and you probably wouldn't enjoy it because of it's snail pace in certain areas. It is a game that perplexes me as to why anybody would say "yes" to it, but I'm glad that that somebody did. L.A Noire is one of the most enjoyable and unique gaming experiences I have had in a long time. It's innovative questioning mechanics, outstanding visual design, and its incredible setting make this game unlike any game you have ever played before. The game will take you about 20-25 hours to complete, adding another 10 hours or so if you want the 100% completion, and you will enjoy all of it. L.A Noire isn't perfect, and it isn't for everybody, but if you are even remotely interested in the game, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better bang for your buck game out there this year.
Story 8.75
While the overall story in this game is great, it still has plenty of issues that hold it back from perfection. The stories in the individual cases are fantastic.
Gameplay 9.25
Many unique gameplay additions such as the interrogations make it different than everything you have played before, but the gunplay is slightly less satisfying than it could have been.
Graphics 9.5
The world is incredibly detailed, and it sucks you into believing that you are in this corrupt 1947 Los Angeles. Characters look stunning despite the occasional disappointment.
Sound 9.0
The voice acting is terrific, and the soundtrack of 40's songs is good as well. The jazz selection fits perfectly into the setting, and overall is very well done.
Length 9.0
A 20-25 hour campaign combined with an additional 10 hours for the 100% completion, not to mention incentive to play through again to find different ways of completing quests gives you a lot of game to play. Lack of multiplayer may disappoint some, but I felt like multiplayer would have been completely out of place and it was, quite frankly, unnecessary.
OVERALL: 9.25/10
(Not an average score)
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video-games_xbox
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Greatest thing since sliced bread. Pros:
Awesome battery life
Noise cancellation is no joke
Multiple settings (for more bass, more treble, and equal)
They light up
They're extremely comfortable
I've had mine for a year and a half and they still work perfectly.
Has USB and Audio Jack cords(also has a cord for XBOX)
Great distance coverage
Has a button for more gaming sounds or more game chatroom volume
Cons:
Makes your ears hurt quicker if you're wearing glasses(around 10-12 hours of continuous use)
some people have complained about sound being lost from one ear cup after some time(anywhere from 1mo. to 6 months after buying)
They stay lit while charging(even if they're completely charged)
You won't be able to hear anything but whatever the headset is playing
First off, let's make something clear. I bought this headset back in may of 2013, but I never left a review because I wanted to wait a few months to see what they're like. However, I forgot to leave a review, so I'm here now with one a year and 5 months later!
I wanted a headset that would allow me to hear my PS3 games while not disturbing the other residents in the house, and let me tell you! I didn't believe the hype of how great they were, I simply saw the best deal and great reviews-so I gave these babies a try. They came in on time, in a huge box that screamed high-tech. My first test run and they worked great! I was playing Skyrim, and I had saved in the middle of a cave against zombie-type creatures. When I first put the headphones on, the creatures sounded so up close and personal that I was actually scared to move forward! They block out anything and everything-from people yelling to the ambulance to the dogs barking. You won't hear a damn thing-which can be good or bad! The light from the headphones work to this day, still as bright and beautiful as ever. Also, I can walk to the other side of my house and still have connection, which is a great perk.
They're easy to hook up, and the instruction manual gave clear directions on how to set them up- and these headphones work for phones, PCs, XBOX, PS3 and anything with an audio jack or USB port. I use them to listen to music, watch videos, play video games, skype calls, and google chats. The noise cancellation on these things is no joke; if you need serious alone time or quiet these do just the trick. The microphone works, but I don't have much experience with microphones so I can't compare sound quality. There seems to be only slight static during my skype calls(I can't hear it, but my friends can) but they can hear me fine. better than phone call quality at least. The light is bright; and they stay lit while they charge(they kind of pulse for lack of a better word-they blink, fading in and out from black). The microphone piece is adjustable, and you can tuck it in to the headphones to keep it safe!
I'm rambling, but overall these headphones have lasted almost a year and a half and they still work perfectly. They only get uncomfortable after 11 or more hours of use, and your energy level will tire faster than their battery life. I love these, and I will definitely buy another pair after these die out. I highly recommend these!
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video-games_xbox
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Difference between 360 and ONE. My review is actually guideline for Xbox user. Most of the buyers are interested in exact difference between ONE and 360.
The new Xbox One is in market, you can expect ONE to be faster, smarter and better than the current console. But what are the key differences:
Sensor:
New Kinect for Xbox One features a 1080p camera and it also features a 1:1 movement ratio with little to no lag. It now has a 250k pixel infrared depth sensor and a webcam, with a wider angle lens. Use of the Kinect sensor is optional with Xbox One.
Xbox 360 has 640480 @ 30Hz (IR depth-finding camera)
Hardware
The Xbox One has big change over the Xbox 360. ONE includes an 8-core AMD system on a chip, which should be more than enough to bring proper next-gen looking games to your living room. To put things in perspective, the Xbox 360 used a Xenos processor which had three separate cores. No where near as much power as the Xbox One.
The Xbox One is better in multi-tasking. It now has 8GB of RAM vs 512MB. Storage is up to 500GB internal memory over the 250GB maximum found on the Xbox 360. Games are subject to mandatory installs with the Xbox One however, so expect that storage to fill quickly.
Blu ray:
You will now be able to play HD movies without having to download them first via the internet. With 4K support too you'll be future proofed when the Blu-ray Disc Association finalises the ability to put a 4K movie on a Blu-ray disc - something that isn't possible at the moment.
Does Kinect in Box?
Kinect is no longer the optional extra it was with the Xbox 360. If you want the Xbox One you've got to sign up to Kinect too.
Look and Feel:
The two boxes look radically different with the Xbox One ditching smooth curves for a blunt, squarer design that matches the company's user interface. The controller now also gets a built-in battery and easier to hold.
Standing Position:
The Xbox 360 allows you to display your console either standing-up or lying down. The Xbox One console is designed to remain horizontal. Vertical positioning of the console is not supported.
Cloud:
The Xbox One has far greater scope when it comes to the cloud, way beyond the ability to store game saves or download content. Microsoft comments on Xbox One will be able to give your games more power to create new gameplay, persistent worlds and deeper experiences; update automatically, so you shouldn't have to wait for downloads or update; and let you start a game, movie, or TV show on one console and finish exactly where you left off on another.
Compatibility:
XBOX One has new Kinect sensor. ONE can't play 360 games and vice versa.
Xbox One will not support USB or external drives.
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video-games_xbox
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Respect the Game. Movie tie-ins are usually a rather tiresome affair. They sell bundles of units and are more often than not a large pile of mediocrity. The Godfather game is different. Obviously it's been made on the back of the unparalleled success of Francis Ford Coppolla's gangster masterpiece. And it will sell for this reason as well. However, The Godfather game has it's own place in the epic narrative.
It would have been easy for EA to put the player in the shoes of Michael Corleone - the main protagonist in the movies. Indeed, it may have been due to the failure in securing a license to use Al Pacino's voice and likeness that forced EA's hand in creating a fresh perspective on the famous storyline. What we're left with is a new take featuring your good self; a narrative that sees you seamlessly weave in and out of events loyal to the film. For example, when Luca Brasi is stabbed through the hand and garrotted - at the start of the first movie - you look in on the event through a window, you're spotted and the scene turns into a revenge mission. It's expertly executed as you feel a part of a story that is genuine and loyal to film.
The violence has been superbly recreated also. The realistic nature of the firearms in The Godfather makes for interesting gameplay. As you might be used to the rather `cartoonish' gunplay of Saint's Row and GTA, The Godfather might at first seem unforgiving. And it is. But it's realistic - take one bullet from close range and you're sleeping with the fishes... it's as simple as that. Conversely your own guns carry the same clout, so shootouts often become intense and challenging affairs, if a little frustrating. Where as in GTA's gun fighting success is dependent on how quickly you can change targets and get your shots off, The Godfather sees you picking your shots and timing runs between cover. It's obvious that EA's development focussed heavily on the walking and shooting parts of the game, as this is where most of the appeal lies.
Driving however is a different affair altogether. Given the nature of The Godfather EA were limited on what is and isn't possible for the driving sections. The physics of the cars mean they are frustrating to play with. Most of the vehicles are slow and the faster cars seem unnaturally quick. The handbrake turns that work so well in GTA are irritatingly difficult to pull off, especially when being chased by the coppers. Cars bounce off kerbs but smash right through lampposts practically unaffected. Other vehicles, however, are seemingly made of concrete.
Also, getting from one way point to another can be at times be tedious - GTA gets round this by the superbly scripted radio stations, but The Godfather doesn't have such ingenuity - you're instead treated to a violin-based soundtrack that is depressing once the novelty has done a runner. The valid excuse is that most of this isn't EA's fault - this is more or less what it was like to drive a car in 'them days'. There was no radio; the cars were lame, classic, but moved like pair of concrete boots. Where the violence is so real, so must the rest of the game be if only for consistency.
As you would expect much of what you do is directed by the storyline. However there have been provisions for those who are more impulsive. Outside of the missions there are businesses to extort and rackets to take over. Doing as such will build your weekly wage, which you can then in turn spend on clobber and sorting your hair out. You have a respect bar that increases with each completed mission, but coolly this isn't the only way to gain kudos amongst fellow gangsters. Buying a nice wise guy suit brings in the plaudits and boosts the respect meter as much as whacking a guy. Each time your character levels up you get a point to allocate to his attributes. It's a bit of a weak RPG element, but worth thinking about when acquiring garments.
Extorting businesses is tricky, but worth the effort. You'll usually have to take out two or three 'bad guys' before being able to get to the owner. When you do the situation requires thought. Essentially you need to scare the businessman into paying, and you do so by finding his or her 'limit'. So while some owners will agree to 'protection' as soon as you ask, others will have to be battered to the brink of death. Pretty sick, but then the life of a gangster isn't for fairies. Be warned though, going over the top or killing the proprietor will render the business inactive for a while and you'll get nothing but a bruised set of knuckles. It's a fantastic sidetrack to the main game that has to be taken seriously if you want to hire muscle and buy more powerful weapons for later missions.
And so you've got two sections of the same game that sit paradoxically to each other. The superbly well balanced combat game play that forces you to be thoughtful and timely. And the very dodgy vehicle part that frustrates and bores more than anything else. It's difficult to review a sandbox game without making a comparison to GTA, although it's slightly unfair to do so with The Godfather given the rules imposed by the subject matter. At it's very best it delivers a gritty realism, but by the same realistic token, it can be at times terribly dull.
It is difficult to dislike The Godfather as EA have been so faithful to everything we loved about the films - but this is the undoing of the game also. It would have been forgivable to exaggerate the gameplay in places in order to make it more entertaining. But The Godfather is a game for the purists and in order to please it has to feel genuine, The Godfather certainly is.
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video-games_xbox
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One-player review (stick to what you are good at. Left 4 Dead 2 has to be one of the best improvements in a game that I have seen in a long time. Not only does it add a lot in the multiplayer sphere, but it also gives single players something to do in the game. This was one of the things that bothered me the most in the first game - personally I do not like having to play games with other people because I started with the Atari and sharing my kills just doesn't feel good all the time. This doesn't mean I do not online play BUT I hate it all the time. Enter this selection of the game and everything it offers and - boom - you have something that makes almost everyone happy.
One of the best things about the new game is simply the look, the number of enemies, and the selection and handling of all the weapons you use. If you thought the terrains were interesting in the first game as well, you'll love the new maps. Not only do you have to fight your way through different selections BUT you have a montage of different bosses and new zombie-types to kill your way through. Sure, there are the goodies that all came out but you also have clowns, different types of chargers, more dangerous boomers, and other stuff. You also have al types of weapons laying around to appeal to your killing pleasures. If you like long distance weapons, for example, you have a nice grenade launcher to set up with. If you like tactile weapons, you have a gun specifically suited for you, and, if you like rapid fire, you have weapons like the AK or the more Euro versions. You also have the wonders you carry, from some collected stuff that the spitters carry and that will attract zombies into fires or wherever you want them to bombs of all types.
It's a zombie-killing dream.
I also like the maps that a person has to work through because they have a lot to offer as well. They also make use of the different weapons you learn, and pay you back for putting in work when you know you need to practice range and firepower. I personally find myself trying to learn all of the weapons but do not like things like the AK, and I say that because they spit bullets but do not have any sort of accuracy. Honestly, I think you could do more damage with a grenade launcher than with this. As I said before, the maps make a lot of difference, too. When it comes to the specialized zombies, for example, they have to follow the features just like you and they suffer from it just like you. You also have pros and cons depending on the terrain, with different weapons working better or worse in these situations.
The "million zombie" thing that is advertised - who knows. I do know that I have killed at least thirty thousand as one player and they are all beautifully rendered, and I have yet to tire of it. The game does have a few glitches in it and that should be worth mentioning, like where you walk into a wall or ceiling and cannot get out. Still, this happens only a little and does not take away from the freedom to enter closed doors in hotel rooms, to take when you want or need, or to gun down armies of the infected. And this is only touching on the one-player side because I know more on it that the other. I will leave the two-player + to others that are better schooled in it than I.
All I know is, whether you like one or the other, this should settle well with you. A good buy for the zombie shooter in you.
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video-games_xbox
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It's 100% worth 15 bucks especially when the servers don't work. I am torn on how I really feel about this game. Much of it has to do with the fact that no matter which way you decide to buy this game, you are only getting a portion at a time and much of the replayability relies on your online connection.
In a sense, $15 dollars for a portion of a game is something that will give gamers pause. Hitman is not quite a demo but not the full game either. The idea is, gamers with get an episode a month which can add up if you buy each chunk or pay the full price upfront and HOPE that you get all 7 episodes to this game in a timely fashion. Keep this point in mind: Even if you pay $60 bucks upfront, YOU DO NOT GET the full game; your episodes will simply download as they release with no extra charge. You are pretty much getting a promissory note from Square Enix that by November, you will have the full game. Gamers will debate this breakdown because its already bad enough that gaming companies obnoxiously charge us for DLCs and portions of games that at one time was a part of the full game and then to ask us to have an always on internet connection just seems like asking for too much especially when the companys server isn't holding up.
So, as someone new coming into the Hitman series, I am very much tempted to go back and try Absolution because I am having a feeling that at the end of this new generation experiment, I am going to be left wanting. As a word of warning to those who are new as well, this is NOT Assassins Creed. This is not a game that rewards just for the kill but the patience needed to make the kill. Hitman relies very heavily on stealth and patience to get the best possible outcomes and a run n gun mentality will not give you that.
As far as the game play is concerned, unless you are a veteran of the series, you won't breeze through the Intro Pack as this is called. As you play, you get to learn that there is more than one way to take down targets and as said before, you will learn that you cant always rush through a level. Because of this, I did come to like the idea of donning disguises and finding opportunities that got me into unique positions to take down targets. That is the beauty of the game. Not only does it take patience to play but you are only as good as the disguise you wear as you eliminate targets. This game is pretty much a sadists playground. In the training mission, there was a wicked joy I had when putting rat poison in in a targets drink, watch them get sick and follow them as they run to the bathroom then drown them in the toiletwhich got no AI response but more on that later. Prior to that, I simply knocked him out with a wrench and snapped his neck. The point is if you go through a level enough times, you can find different ways to knock off the same target. The question is, do you want to run through the same level multiple times?
This is when the Intro Pack starts to wear thin and problems start to show. You have 2 training levels you can play through and then the main mission in Paris, all of which have multiple ways to get you to the same outcome. But where this gets hampered is the reliability of your connection. The game can be played offline but you are limited to starting points and items you can choose to go in the mission with. My biggest problem yesterday is that the servers were down most of the day and only briefly could I actually try a run through of the Paris mission from another angle before the server crashed right after eliminating one of the targets with a broken chandelier. Also, once you complete the Paris mission, you can choose to do Challenges where you can go after different targets and earn bonus points if you meet certain kill conditions but again, you need to be connected online to complete this. But, its in the same location and most of the target are generic targets. There seems to be a good portion of the game that relies heavily on the online component in order to get as much as you can get out of this small section of the game.
The only other issue I had with Hitman is the AI which can be hit or miss at times. At times it feels spot on when no matter what you do, the AI would respond almost to what you expect, thus players have to watch ALL NPCs because if you don't pay attention to what some of them do, you will fail. There are times however, that they do some boneheaded things. For instance, the AI response for the bathroom drowning was wrong in my opinion. It didn't seem right that not one of the nearby guards at the bathroom seem concerned that me and my target went into the bathroom, then the commotion that had to come from my target being killed by said toilet drowning. Then my character is walking out by myself and from the time I left to the end of the mission, nobody investigated the bathroom nor found his body. Or, maybe my kill technique was just that good but I doubt it. There were some other issues I had where the AI wasn't as immersive as it could be. There was one time I interrupted a phone conversation and the other person just kept right on talking even as I strangled the phones owner. I also found it weird that as you changed disguises, you couldn't hide them (yes, I know its a bit much) as you were hiding bodies. Thus, you may have dumped a body in the freezer but your disguise is still on the ground. When AI guards came to check the area, they would walk right by your discarded disguise and never report in or treat it as suspicious.
To sum up, the game play elements are pretty good as you learn the different ways into and out of situations in this game. Its fun as well to sit back and observe all thats happening around you as well as look for opportunities in which to take out your targets. Many of them are unconventional. Its actually great to play a game in which not everything is solved by gunfire but by blending in and not leaving a trace if possible.
The bigger problem is convincing gamers to pay even a portion of a game thats going to be released over 7 months. Sure the Intro Pack may be enough to entice gamers to get their feet wet but what about just releasing a demo to see if this is something people really wanted to get into? This new method of paying for games is walking a thin line of convincing studios to dilute gamers further and further for gamers. What we paid for at the same price 10 years ago, we were given a full game; nowadays almost every game you buy, there is DLC waiting to happen.
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video-games_xbox
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I went on an Easter Egg Hunt and a War Broke Out. Although the shootouts in Wolfenstein are fun, so much emphasis is placed on searching through every nook and cranny for hidden items, you forget about the war.
Wolfenstein is a Mission Based First Person Shooter that pits an American Super Spy vs Nazi Super Soldiers. There are 8 Missions in the game that advance the plot and a few Side Missions for no apparent reason. The game also features Multiplayer Modes with a variety of different game types.
Concept: 6/10
You are Agent BJ Blaskowicz, American Super Special Agent sent to thwart the Third Reich's Super Soldier Program during WWII! Not only do you have a silly name, you have an ancient relic that gives you supernatural powers. With this relic, you can see in the dark, slow time, shield yourself from bullets, and increase the power of your guns. Actually, as far as super power bestowing ancient relics go, this one is pretty weak. But, if you need an excuse to kill Nazis, this game does the job.
Gameplay: 5/10
The gunfights are solid. BJ is armed with machine guns, a sniper rifle, grenades, a flame thrower, a few energy weapons, and the aforementioned ancient relic of bestowing mediocre powers. The Nazis are good at finding cover and shooting at you. Nazi Sub Bosses with special powers buff their allies, forcing you to make decisions about how to survive the encounters. However, some of the sub bosses are really cheap. If you don't fight them exactly how the game wants you to, they insta kill you. The Bosses also suffer from a 'Stand Here and Do X Now' design. It's a good thing that checkpoints are generous. At the end of each level, you are graded on time, enemies killed, and how many hidden items you found. Hidden Gold allows you to buy upgrades for your weapons. Hidden Files give you deeper insight to the game's story. Because weapon upgrades are tied to searching every nook and cranny in a level, and not tied to killing enemies, the game feels more like an Easter Egg Hunt than an adventure.
Graphics: 7/10
The game uses ID's Doom 3 Engine, so Wolfenstein doesn't look nearly as good as Gears of War 2, Halo 3, or Call of Duty. The cutscenes are fairly well rendered, but there is nothing jaw dropping. The character models look average. Some levels look better than others, but overall, Wolfenstein looks sub par compared to the other first person shooters out there.
Story: 5/10
The game fiction seems broken in Wolfenstein. The title screen is a crashed bomber on a field in flames... for no reason. When you select an option like "Continue Game" or "Options" they show different Nazi Soldiers... for no reason. The story is told through cutscenes and feels disjointed at times. The NPC's don't even really look at you when they speak. You click on them and they just sorta state the obvious. A huge problem with the game's fiction is that it clashes with the gameplay. If you're in a level, NPC's may be shouting, "HURRY, WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!" But in order to upgrade your guns, you have to search levels thoroughly to find Gold. So, you ignore the characters pleading for your help in order to rummage through garbage cans in alleys. Think about that for a second. You have 6 Allies urgently begging for your help in a firefight, but the game decided that it's more important for you to look through garbage.
Sound: 9/10
The gunfire and explosions do a decent job at keeping the action exciting, but the real hero here is the music composer. The music of this game is reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark and really captures the spirit of adventure.
Replay Value: 6/10
The Single Player Campaign is only 6-8 hours long. There are 4 Difficulty levels in the game and you can replay Missions over again if you want to try and find more hidden items. If looking in dumpsters in Nazi Germany is your thing, then go for it! There are Multiplayer Games with different objectives, but they aren't as fun as Halo, Gears, Red Faction, or Call of Duty.
This game is rated M for warlike violence. Characters get shot, dismembered by sniper bullets, vaporized, and immolated. There's no nudity and I don't recall any foul language. So, most Americans would think that this is ok for kids!
Overall: 6/10
The game really feels sub par. With a short single player campaign, emphasis on collecting hidden items over story, and cheap insta-kill bad guys, Wolfenstein falls short of the competition.
Rent it if you want to have some fun killing Nazis over a weekend.
Buy it if you're a collector of first person shooters or you really want to get into multiplayer.
Avoid it if you're already playing Gears, Halo, Red Faction, Call of Duty... and you don't want to take a step backwards.
If you like this game, I can recommend Doom 3, Bioshock, Red Faction, Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty, or Left 4 Dead.
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video-games_xbox
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They say you can never really go back home again. Silent Hill 2 is on my short list of favorite games, as it is, I'm sure, on most Silent Hill fans' lists. It, and the first game, are shining examples of why this series is spectacular. Unfortunately, they are the only two games that I feel are great in the series. The third one felt more like a coda to the first (and was way too short), while the foruth one had more than a few design flaws that made me lose interest.
So, now the torch has been passed to Double Helix, an American developer, and the result is Silent Hill: Homecoming. Even with its flaws (and boy does it have some), Homecoming has become my second/third favorite game of the series and bodes very well for Silent Hill's future.
The story begins with you, as Alex Shepherd, tied to a gurney and being pushed down dilapidated halls of some hellish hospital. Looking to your right and left, you see even more disturbing sights as doctors drill into a patient or drop a body down a large and presumably deep hole. Eventually, you're led into an observation room and left alone. The doctor that left you is murdered, you break free of your bonds and have to make sense of where you're at.
Right away, the game had its hooks in me. This first level terrifically set up the rest of the game, but also presented some genuine frights and more than a few disturbing sections. From here, you'll go back home and try to figure out why Shepherd's Glen is cloaked in fog, where your brother left, why your mother seems catatonic and what exactly lurks in your flooded basement...
From a story perspective, Homecoming feels like a mix of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 (with a splash of Saw thrown in the mix), which is definitely a good combination. Unfortunately, the story is also the most straight forward of the series (it's a Western game now) and while they try to mimic the essence of Silent Hill, they lose the ambiguous feel that tasks you with putting everything together. By the end of the game, you pretty much know all there is to know. Some might like that, but it was a sore spot for me.
The combat system, which was supposed to push Silent Hill into this new realm, isn't very good. In fact, I found myself trying to avoid enemies more in Homecoming than in any of the previous titles. On paper, it sounds good: light attack, strong attack and dodge. But the problem is that you absolutely have to dodge attacks or even the lowly dogs will eat your face. The problem is further amplified by the small, claustrophic areas you are in. A lot of battles take place in very tight corners, making dodging very difficult. And even when you successfully dodge in the small rooms, eventually you'll run into a corner, the camera will go wacky and you won't be able to see what you're fighting or, more importantly, see when to dodge.
Then, when you're in the big rooms, Double Helix is kind enough to throw two or three (or five) enemies at you at once. Dodging one is a pain in the butt as it is, but trying to juggle three enemies is...well, it's hell. Add to this some enemies with their gaseous breath that I could never seem to dodge and halfway through the game I never wanted to see another monster again. And don't get me started on the boss fights...
So, why the four star review? Because of what happens halfway through the game. At the halfway point, the game ratchets up the tension, brings the story into new light and really made me want to play more. In fact, I played the last half of the game in one sitting because I had to see how it was going to end. The last half really makes up for any of the deficiencies in the game. And the story, while not as great as it could have been, was still incredibly engrossing and moving. It made me want to continue, even after the fifth time of dying from a cheap shot.
Graphically, Homecoming is obviously the best in the series. The new sheen of gloss mostly works, though some of the monsters with the more colorful highlights (the gaseous monsters, for instance, with their red chests) look fake and break the color scheme. Taking a page from the movie, the transitions to the other world are real time, with the paint flaking off and floating into nothingness. It's cool but it's not as terrifying as waking up or just finding yourself in the other world.
And, of course, the music is phenominal. Akira Yamaoka, series music/sound effects creator and producer, returns to craft a haunting score that mixes industrial with noises, rock and some heart-pumping effects. Very awesome, some of the best of his music in my opinion.
In the end, Silent Hill: Homecoming is a great addition to the series that retains some of the best of what the series has to offer, while simultaneously trying new things. Some things work, some don't. But it is a step forward, in the right direction. It feels like the most cohesive Silent Hill story since the second game and tries to branch into new territories. Having a new developer really helped the series avoid becoming stagnant. And even with some faulting moments, it really is an involving and engrossing trip into hell. And I can't wait to see what they do next.
Definitely recommend giving it a chance.
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video-games_xbox
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95 hours. Yes, 95 fulfilling hours... That is how much time I have into this game. Even so, I am only about halfway through it.
On the back cover, it simply says "You will die." !! ..and with good reason. The game is terribly difficult, but don't worry, it isn't just unreasonable difficulty, as I first assumed. The difficulty is overcome by a steep learning curve. How you learn, and how quickly you learn, is entirely up to you. I personally chose to read up on Dark Souls online forums. The game has it's own Wiki page which describes everything you encounter and need help with. You can choose to play the game through, of your own accord, but know that you will probably miss out on some things during your first play through.
The expanse of the world in which you wander is incredible, doubled by means of gigantic beasts and bosses, which at first seemed gaudy, but eventually these creatures become part of the grand scope of a daunting world. Each type of enemy you fight has a different skill set, and different attack methods. Once you feel you've learned how to battle and survive, the next foe shows you just how little you actually know. You find yourself engrossed in the vast array of armor and weaponry, all of which lends itself in different ways to help you in the quest. As your inventory expands, you realize just how important it is to be familiar with armor, rings, spells, stat levels and weapons.
As for the 95 hours of play, the first 71 were spent on my first charachter, with which I gained knowledge about the game. To give you an idea of how steep the learning curve can be, I started a 2nd charachter, and in 24 hours, I have surpassed the level and progress of my first charachter, simply by knowing how to fight and which stats to bolster.
About the multiplayer: I did not begin to explore the multiplayer aspect until recently, and now I'm wishing I had done so, earlier. As you play a solo style campaign, you can see other players moving in and out of your world, like ghosts. You can see what type of armor they are wearing, as well as their weapon. You see them dodging and swinging at unseen foes, and you may even watch them during their final moments of life, simply by touching their bloodstain on the ground. These people may or may not see you at the same time. You may leave cryptic messages for others, using a set list of words or descriptive terms, i.e., "Try Right" or "Be wary of illusory wall". You may also read the messages left by others, which mostly are helpful, but many times are blatantly obvious.
Once you acquire certain items from merchants and NPC's, you may summon or be summoned by the other players. What I love about this is that if you are having trouble with an area or boss, you can enlist the help of another player, and together defeat the challenge. Once the area boss is finished off, the other player disappears, and you find yourself having achieved victory and ready to continue the game. VERY HELPFUL.
The 2nd aspect of multiplayer is invasion. Another player may invade your world, or you may invade theirs. The ensuing battle is often quite epic and rewarding, even if you've lost. Upon death in this scenario, you haven't lost anything except the souls you were carrying, which may be retrieved by returning to the place of death (the other player has returned to their world, at this point.) The first time I was defeated was by 2 players that had double teamed me. I had almost finished off the first player, when the second arrived and brought my demise. Before returning to my spawn point, I could see them bow to each other. I actually laughed. It was perfect! (Gestures such as bowing or waving are achieved through a simple select button menu.) A NOTE ABOUT INVASION: Invasion can only happen when you are in human form, which is not the default. You can choose to play the entire game on your own, without ever having to worry about another player attacking you.
Thirdly about multiplayer, it does not allow party mode. You are unable to talk with one another for help or direction, and instead are limited to the in game gestures, and otherwise common sense methods. On one hand, this is frustrating, but it's also unique and continues to add to the challenge of Dark Souls. I have not tried the chat mode yet, on Xbox live, but I'm assuming the game will not allow this, either.
From the ominous atmosphere of the introductory dungeon, to the stenches of Blight-town, to the mutated beauty and horror of The Chaos Witch Quelag.... Dark Souls will leave you wanting more. Even as I write this review, I feel I'm wasting valuable Dark Souls time. ;-)
BE WARY of Dark Souls.
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video-games_xbox
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Simply amazing and a great value. I came into this game and didn't know what to expect. I was amazed. For starters, half-life 2 was insane and i just beat it. I didn't start episode one yet but after i beat all of the half life 2s i plan on going back and replaying them. Half life 2 is the best single player expierence i have ever had with a shooting game. The first few levels are fun but once you get every weapon oh man it is fun. Anyone who hasn't played half life 2 yet here are the list of weapons: 9mm pistol, SMG, .357 pistol, shotgun, crowbar, pulse rifle, sniper crossbow, grenade, rocket launcher, pods that will let you shoot enemies at things (only effective in 2 levels) and last but not least the gravity gun. In the last 2 levels the gravity gun gets maxed out and is insane. Next is portal i am at test chamber 18 and i have had a blast with this game. Although it sounds different it is loads of fun. It is simple you shoot portals and go through them. It is pretty hard and some of the last testchambers but it is fun. Last but not least Team Fortress 2. This game is fun and trying different classes is loads of fun. I haven't played it that much but when i did play i had a lot of fun. It is pretty easy to pick up and play and trying out different clases is sweet.
Note: I am adding to Team Fortress 2 here. Team Fortress 2 is a lot of fun. People may be turned away by its cartoon graphics but don't. TF2 is really fun because of the classes. I have tried every class and all are fun to play as. I tried out every class and switch off between classes. Sometimes if i am doing bad i will become a spy and sneak behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. Every class is a lot of fun to play and anyone with xbox live should check it out.
Overall: For the normal 60 bucks you are paying this game is a lot of gameplay hours. This game is not for everyone so for people who are playing half life for the first time RENT IT FIRST. If you like it i encourage you buy it but if you don't well that stinks because this game is amazing.
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video-games_xbox
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NYKO MODULAT POWER BUNDLE. GREAT BUY. I purchased two of these for my sons. My youngest son age 14 is on the Autism Spectrum (High Functioning) and is really very hard on all charger cables (like the plug'n'play etc). Due to this and burning out batteries partly because he is on his system whenever he isn't on school (or lost privilages) he would also leave the batteries constantly on charge. So after I did some searching around, I found this product and since I have purchased nyko brand batteries and accessories since my oldest son (16) got an Xbox 360 about 5 years ago, and never had issues with their merchanise I decided it was my best option. The box fits to the system through the USB port on the left side of the Xbox One console and locks into place (which means it doesn't end up all over the floor of his room tanged up in all the other wires etc). I also like that it does not allow the batteries to overcharge, this is a huge positive for me. This helps my sons get into a routine of when taking a battery out, replacing the second back in to charger base therefore always knowing where his spare battery pack is at all times.
The bundle I purchased came with the Xbox One Remote which although my sons both already have them it means that when they get either damaged or ware out (as over time everything does) I won't waste more money on new remotes. The remotes are a huge asset if you have someone who watches Netflix or Hulu for example through the console or uses the app to watch cable tv instead of paying an additional monthly fee of $3-$4 a month on each tv for the digital decoder that some Cable providers such as TIME WARNER CABLE now requires.
All in all you really can't go wrong with this NYKO MODULAR POWER BUNDLE it's the most financially viable option I've found and evem though my kids consoles are not Standard BLACK so obviously there's a colour difference but my sons soon got passed that since the only person who sees their console is them.
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video-games_xbox
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An exceptional fighting game. Prior to the release of Street Fighter IV, part of me was wondering why I even wanted to buy this. I haven't really played a fighter in years and I only got the HD Remix version of II just to psych myself up for this release and yet this game was on my list to buy for games in February. Maybe it's the name, the calibre and quality Capcom is known for but maybe I want to go back to 1992 and 1993 when it was fun just to fight people and friends. There's a couple of balance issues here and there and the new fighters aren't as memorable as previous new ones like Cammy or Fei Long but it's still a fun fighter with enough accessibility for new players and yet room for the hardcore.
Story: Not really much of a story here but basically after II, the supposed fall of M. Bison and Shadaloo has actually brought about a new threat, that of S.I.N, the weapons section of Shadaloo. Each character will have an anime video at the beginning and end of their arcade playthrough but they're a little brief, not really substantial but they're at least cooler than text ones or bizarre ones (Dead or Alive 4 anyone?)
Graphics: When HD Remix was released, character models got an upgrade that looked more anime-influenced than anything but IV takes it in a different direction with a more striking and colorful art style and frankly it's gorgeous. Even the background levels look stunning such as being on a boat in front of a sun setting by the bay to a tranquil-looking jungle and a busy marketplace. Character models and animations are also quite well done with small details like Blanka's eyes popping out when you nail the final blow or the second try Dan has to do before he finally throws someone. Installing to hard drive is a must since load times are barely found and replicates an arcade experience even more.
Sound/Music: Included with the collector's edition of the game is the soundtrack and it's actually really awesome. From techno to big epicness, the music in the game is really great. While others praise 3rd Strike's soundtrack more (which I haven't heard), the tunes in this one is cool...except Fei Long whose theme literally has his yell voice clips mixed in. As for voice acting I always kept it at Japanese and I prefer it that way and of course nobody can complain about Japanese voice acting. Even cute little catgirls with high voices are better in Japanese so there's no complaints here.
Gameplay: Anyone who knows how to hadouken and lightning kick will easily get the hang of it but there's some other gameplay elements to give it a bit more kick. EX moves where you perform a bit more damaging version of a move is here and if you get hit enough, your revenge meter will fill which'll let you unleash a powerful Ultra combo complete with more cinematic camera angles rather than just 2D. They're slightly difficult to pull off and some characters like Guile or Vega have ultras that I still haven't been able to say even in practice mode with the meters at infinite. Going through the training and challenges will let you become more capable over time but be warned: some of the people online are either cheap move fighters or really good so I'd either fight computer for a good while or at least train in player matches.
The character roster is quite good though there's some inclusions and some absent. Added are Abel, Crimson Viper, Rufus and El Fuerte. Abel's probably the easiest to get into while the rest are a little practice-makes-perfect kinds where you really got to know the ins and outs of the character to use them effectively and not spam fireballs or just turtle and flash kick everyone. Included in the roster are Sakura, Dan, Cammy, Akuma, Gouken and Fei Long as well as favorites such as Ryu, Chun Li, Vega and Guile. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses and you'll probably use some more than others unless you really know how to fully use one character.
One thing that is always found in fighters are exploits or cheap moves. For example, a move that knocks you off your feet the minute you get up or people who jump in and sweep, back away, jump and sweep but most AI characters aren't like this, that is until you get to Seth. Keep in mind I don't play most fighters so I can't say if there's anyone worse but this guy is probably one of the most infuriating characters not because he's fast, better and more agile but because he spams, cancels out moves and seems to almost know instinctively what you want to do. Charge moves can be done 3 times in a row, throws can find you anywhere and he'll even teleport into a throw and well, let's just say he's a pain. Some characters will also do that as well and never seem to let you have a chance or keep you in the corner until you're dead so be warned that some fights will make the veins in your forehead pop up...just like a fighter would do.
As for the collector's edition, it comes with the free Brawler pack DLC which is alternate costumes for certain characters, the aforementioned awesome soundtrack, a comic detailing the new characters moves and combos and the anime film "The Ties That Bind" which is roughly an hour. I haven't watched it yet though I get the feeling it'll be either really cool but cheesy or cheesy and unintentionally hilarious. Or maybe all of it. Oh and there's a Crimson Viper figurine (rather tiny actually, there's more plastic case than the damn figurine) for the Xbox 360 version while the lucky PS3 buyers get Ryu. I don't see why 360 doesn't get Ken just for compliment's sake or even Chun Li and Crimson Viper is one of the more "meh" characters so I don't get why they picked that one.
As for the game itself, it's awesome, I haven't experienced a lot of hiccups online and despite some of the dubious requirements for unlocking Akuma and Gouken, the roster and moves make this a must buy for fighter fans.
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video-games_xbox
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Definitely NOT for adults, but not intolerable for them, either. . I got this game because I have an eight year old kid who I also took to the movies to see "The Smurfs 2". She thought it was cool there was a game based on the movie, so I opted to get this for her. It's a good thing I have that kid, otherwise this game wouldn't get played, as it's target is DEFINITELY the kiddos.
It's actually well constructed for what it is. A simple tie in game to a movie that has good animation, and voice talent from the movie, so the Smurfs look like and sound like what they did in the movies. We're not talking AAA title graphics here, but they're nicely done, and gameplay mechanic is simple enough that my 8yr old enjoyed playing it. Wasn't too easy for her, so that was good.
This is a simple game that follows the basic plot of the movie through a series of levels/adventures to recover gold coins, and free animals. You don't "kill" anything in this game, you "free" them. That actually reminds me of an old Apogee game, Commander Keen, you never killed anything there, either. While there's no Dopefish in this game, the feel is kind of the same. You look for coins, collect "smurfberries", and work towards the ultimate goal of rescuing Smurfette (and recovering other Smurfs).
Once you rescue Smurfette, the game opens up certain areas that were unreachable previously. You can then play as any Smurf, including the rescued Smurfette, but the first time through the game you can't play as Smurfette, as you're trying to rescue her. There's not a ton of replay value to an adult, but my daughter loved playing as Smurfette, so she enjoyed the replay because of that.
It's a game that you can leave the young kids play on their own and not have to worry about what content they might run into. An inoffensive game that poses some challenge to little kids, looks nice, and isn't one you totally want to run screaming from. Unless of course you can't stand the Smurf theme song, which does come up quite a few times during gameplay. :) Recommended on the condition that a kid is playing. NOT recommended for adults...
Unless you're one who likes to play Xbox 360 games just for the achievements. In that case, this is a pretty easy 1,000 point game for an adult. :)
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video-games_xbox
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a whole new level of rpg. First off, I have been playing this game since it first came out and I am on my 4th play through , so it's replay value can be pretty high.
This game came out around the same time as final fantasy 13 and was put aside because IGN, Gamespot and Game informer hyped final fantasy through the roof knowing that it wasn't any good. This is the game they should have been excited about had they not been payed to say other wise.
Resonance of Fate is a tactical real time / semi-turn based rpg action game, i don't know how else to describe it. You go about daily jobs and missions while experiencing character development and a story that you piece together. The world is based on a tower with many floors that you fill in with hex pieces that recreate the area hidden.
The game lets you customize any weapon with grips guards barrels clips and sights as you see fit. Also you can customize the appearance of your three heroes.
Game play consists of setting a path for a character, then pressing a button to make them start running to said point, as you run you pick targets and gun them down in a big flashy noisy way that blows any other rpg attack out of water, as you do this you can jump into the air and keep blasting until you hit the ground. All enemies have shields but with the scratch damage made by using sub machine guns you can nullify those shields making the next direct hit a kill. You would probably just want to watch a you tube video of this cause its too much to go into here.
So in conclusion I love this game, people say its bad but its so not, on here alone there are so many people giving reasons why its the best in thought out rpg entertainment. SO, awesome story, great characters, super good voice acting, innovative game play, amazing graphics, hundreds of enemy types that are really quite bad ass looking {no blue bunnies throwing rocks here ff fans}, hours upon hours of game play my first play through took 63 hours and amazing action based combat that will leave a feeling of nothing has ever done this , this well and probably wont, all hail SEGA
thank you
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video-games_xbox
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Feels unfinished. I'm a very big fan of RE and have been excited about this game for years. I wanted to like it, even when I felt the temptation to turn it off after an hour I kept going. I did warm up to it a little but my final conclusion is that it's just ok. While it is playable, it gets VERY boring after a while. All of the environments look the same (it's very easy to get lost or turned around if you're in a hurry or running from something), green herbs are scarce, and they've done away with purchasing upgrades using money. You now have these stupid little things called skill points. Each skill thingie you pick up in the game (instead of money) is probably worth about two points each, which is ridiculous because you can't get hardly anything once you finally rack up enough points to purchase something. All of the skills you really want cost about 12000 points, so you have to beat the game and play again before you'll have enough points for something decent, or you'll have to skip out on the crappy semi-helpful skills you need in order to save up for something big. You also don't get to find treasures like you did in 4 and 5. I thought that was great fun and definitely made the game replayable because you could always find something you hadn't found before.
Remember how easy it was to point and shoot in RE5? Say bye bye to that. I'm not exactly sure what they've done with the lasers on the guns, but it makes it absolutely impossible to see what you're shooting from faraway. I'm not a hardcore gamer or an expert but I've heard people compare game play to Modern Warfare blah blah blah a bunch of other games I've never played. So maybe it's just me that has that issue, either way it's ANNOYING!!!!
I know everyone has some reservations about new games when they come out, they're expecting the old formula that they liked with a bunch of new stuff thrown in, so if you're reading this review. I get that, I totally do. I'll end this by saying, it's worth a play, it was fun and I enjoyed it, but it's definitely not a game I would want to play over and over again like 0-5. It feels like an unfinished RE game, with all of the things that made it fun removed.
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video-games_xbox
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Fantastic gameplay and little else. As always let's start with positive because everyone likes good news. The core gameplay is phenomenal. Phenomenal. Guns sound realistic, environments blow up and can be destroyed, there is always plenty of ammo, many objectives to complete through out a mission, seriously this is a very well put together single player game. Yeah, I said single player - I'll get to that a little later. The men and women of Criterion are the same people who brought you the fantastic Burnout series and have decided to take a swim in the FPS pool. In my opinion, they've nailed the gameplay. While the game is a blast to play (pun intended) it's not without its flaws...
As for the bad news. The game is single player. Criterion said they purposely did this to focus on the best single player experience possible without having to divert any effort into making a possibly flawed multi-player add on. The focus was single player all the way and I'm very glad they took this path. Now, while the single player is great - it seriously is way too short. For those of us lucky people who've played the demo, you can beat the first mission (there are 8 total missions) in under 10 minutes. I'm not even joking. I tried to go as fast as I could and ended up besting mission in under 4 minutes. Sad. Granted, the rest of the missions take anywhere from 25 min to 35 min, any seasoned FPS player can beat this game in under 5 hours. For a game that launches at $40, that may be a bit steep.
Let's talk replay value. 4 difficulty levels. Beating the game on normal gives you silver weapons which means unlimited ammo. Beating the game on hard gives you sliver weapons and unlocks black ops difficulty. Conquering black ops will give you a wonderfully powerful gun that no one has ever heard of before in a FPS game. Ready for this one? It's an M16 with grenade launcher. Thrilling. And for that awesome BFG, it's nothing more than a large machine gun with 500 bullet capacity with 150 round clips. I mean, it's not like I've spoiled anything by telling anyone who's ever played a FPS game about weapons that every game already uses. So there you have it, those are your incentives for playing through a second or third time.
To close this review on a positive note, I'd like to say that I did love this game. I loved every minute. It is short. It does have some short comings but if you can see past these things and just want a game where you can blow up everything in sight and use destructible environments to your advantage against the enemy, this game couldn't give it to you any better. It's still in my top 5 for FPS games. My only suggestion to you the consumer is that you first rent or borrow the game. Unless you will keep it to play again to relive the ultimate destruction, you may feel a bit ripped off. I know many of the people that have this game reviewed haven't played through the entire game. They will see what I'm talking about. For what it's worth, I applaud Criterions first effort into this genre. I applaud loudly. Everyone who has played this, I can guarantee, is going to be looking forward to Black 2.
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video-games_xbox
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One of the Must Own Xbox 360 games. First off, I realize this review is late to the table, but I only picked this up about 2 months ago and I would like to share my thoughts.
Graphics:
The grapchics are very well done in this game. They really set the tone.
There are some minor things like texture pop in when loading a new area or when just joining into a multiplayer game. These non texture moments are very short and really take nothing away from what is a graphically gorgeous looking game.
Single Player:
This game is average when it comes to the solo campaign compared to other shooters. Meaning the length of time to beat it is not the shortest nor longest single player shooter campaign.
There are some obvious omitions. Like bosses you see but never get to fight.
In no way do you ever feel like your not having fun. In fact, the game is fun all the way through.
The ending leaves a bit to be desired. Frankly, it really doesnt have a good ending at all. Sure you fight a boss and feel like its finished and the game lets you know there will be a part 2, but when it does end youll find yourself saying "Wait...Thats the end?"
Given all that, its still amazingly fun to play through.
Now lets add some meat to this. The solo campaign is playable with another person via split screen, system link, and the best of the three via Xbox Live.
The game is really fun to go through with another person.
However there are some moments that youll find very frusterating if the buddy your playing with is not of the same skill level as you and the difficulty is too hard for him. During the game there are points when the two of you must split up. Its in these moments when if one of you dies, you both go back to the point of the split and start over.
This is a minor gripe and the parts that are like this are usually short so it really doesnt hamper the campaign too much.
Xbox Live online play:
This is your meat and potatoes for Gears of War.
There are four game modes.
Execution, Warzone, Assasination and Annex.
The multiplayer in this game is based on rounds. You won't be playing matches where you continually spawn and rush in to kill some more. (No Deathmatch.)
One person (Guy/Gal who creates the match) is the host. That person picks game type, round length, and duration of a down.
When you are downed in this game, its basically as close to being dead as you can get. Another player from your side is able to pick you up provided they reach you in time.
Execution: In execution if you are downed, you cant be killed from distance. You must be killed up close execution style, via curb stomp or any weapon provided they are close enough.
Warzone: Basically the same thing as Execution except the fact that if you are downed you can be killed from a distance.
Assasination: One person is the leader on each side. The round ends when that person is killed.
Annex: King of the hill type gameplay. Go into cirlce, stay there long enough to capture it, then add time to your teams side. Try to hold it till the pre set points to win is met. (You do respawn in this gametype.)
All that out of the way the Online portion of Gears of War is amazingly fun. Once you know how to play and are good with the controls you feel like a gracefull killing machine. In fact if your really good the matches veiwed by bystanders will look spectacular.
The only drawbacks to the online play are a few glitches and the fact that the host will always have the advantage.
Because the game is never server hosted and always hosted by the player that creates the match that person always has an advantage in a one on one. Most people say its because the Host is more powerful but this is not the case. Its because due to a delay in the time that your information of positioning is sent to his xbox and then returned to you with his positioning you are not seeing exaclty where he is at yet he is seeing exactly where you are at.
Basically, your xbox sends info on your location, shots fired and in what direction and whathaveyou to his xbox, on his screen he now sees exactly where you are, but your xbox is then waiting on his posistioning and all that so on your screen the host is not exactly where you are seeing him.
Its not a huge delay as in your seeing the host 10 feet in front of you yet he is behind you. its more like he is 10 feet in front of you yet he just moved to the left a bit but on your screen that hasn't happened yet.
Most people can get around this hurtle by shooting ahead of what they are seeing. If he is moving left, shoot slightly left of him.
Anyways, this is the single biggest drawback to Gears of War online.
Now it takes away a lot from the gameplay. However I have never found myself at that much of a disadvantage that I have given up playing. The game is just incredibly fun.
The glitches I mentioned earlier are the fact that some people have learned to get out of the map. Usually its just an annoyance to tick people off.
All that being said, the game is fun to play online despite its drawbacks. However for Gears of War 2 I really hope they move to server hosted gameplay which is the norm for games that are this popular and this competitive.
Sound:
The sound is great, the music is eerie. The gun fire sounds exactly as it should. The voiceovers are great too. Throughout the campaign youll hear the various other characters chatting with eachother and it never sounds forced. The music as mentioned is eerrie, but it never gets in the way nor did I ever feel it to be repetitive.
Exploding someones body with an up close shotgun spray sounds very satisfying and using a chainsaw on someone sounds equally gratifying.
For sheer fun this game is a definate 5 very easily.
However for all the drawbacks I mentioned I simply couldn't give it a 5 at all, but like I said, it deserves a place on your shelf.
If you haven't picked it up yet, you really should at the very least rent it. Or save yourself some money and buy the game outright because if your a shooter fan youll end up buying it anyways.
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video-games_xbox
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Fingerprints of a Masterpiece. Greetings Amazonites.
Alan Wake has the fingerprints of a masterpiece on it, but the game itself falls short of such a title. There are moments of incredible immersion, story-telling, and action; there are moments where the game is clunky, cliche, and downright silly. Overall, it's a rewarding experience that could easily have been one of the best games ever. Read on for a breakdown of some positive (+) and negative (-) points.
(+) ENVIRONMENT: the graphics and sound in the game are good. I'd say they are great, but you can see some minor graphical funkiness and lip-sync problems; these aren't a big deal, but perfectionists might have a problem. The game world looks great--downright spooky at night--and really surrounds you in the world. The music and sound effects are great and play at the perfect moments to keep you in suspense.
(+/-) GAMEPLAY: this is a mixed bag. The mechanics in combat are pretty good: use a light source to remove shadows from a bad guy and then blast him with a weapon. It works, it creates tension when there are multiple enemies, and the variety of light sources and weapons seems just about right. The movement is okay; sometimes the camera gets in the way when navigating areas and jumping. There isn't a lot of variety, and that's where it gets weary at times. The light-shoot tactic is the same throughout the game; sometimes it takes longer with different enemies, but the basics remain the same. Driving isn't too bad, but it's definitely not a driving sim. There are also some pointless sequences that require you to push a button repeatedly--like pushing a cart out of the way (why not just use the stick to move it rather than button mash?). Overall, the gameplay is good but not exceptional and does little to separate itself from the pack.
(+/-) DESIGN: there are several elements to game design that need comment. The levels are linear and there is little in the way of finding secrets or exploring; there are little areas where an obvious side path is present to follow but even those side paths are one-way. There is only one way to finish a level or find a way through a region.
The story is exceptional but gets too choppy and unfocused. The tantalizing mystery really keeps you playing and wanting to see what happens. The cut scenes, voice acting, and so forth are really, really good. I'm not a huge fan, normally, of story driven linear games, but the pacing and narrative here was excellent. Then you come to the last chapter... while it was good and gripping, the ending made little sense to me. Maybe it was intended as a cliffhanger, but the scene fell apart as the story wrapped up. This is a great weakness; a good story needs to be more cohesive and wrap up loose ends. I understand mystery and cliffhangers, and the need to keep it open for the future, but I also want the story to make sense and I want to feel fulfilled when I play through and finish.
The game is fairly short: there are 6 chapters and each chapter should take no more than 2 hours to finish. The upside is the game seems paced well and this time seems about right for this style of game. The downside is the game time really doesn't measure up to a full price tag.
OVERALL (3 stars): Alan Wake is worth a play. It has a good story that ultimately falls flat at the end due to loose ends, plot holes, and unexplained events. The action and narrative pace keep the game going solid throughout. The environments are fantastic and the characters are interesting. The length of the game warrants a lower price tag. I'd recommend picking it up for a discounted price, but I don't see it as a game of the year or other legacy.
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video-games_xbox
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One Word. EPIC. This game is amazing. I don't get why people are saying this is same as the rest. They have spent 3 years making each game unlike the 1 year for COD. I mean comon have u even played the other 2? Yes the basic game mechanic is the same, but hell every gears game has played differnt. Gears 1 was fast paced, Gears 2 was slow paces, Gears 3 some were in between.
The ammount of content for this game is worth 60$.
1. A long campaign. No 3-4hr COD campaign. Typical gears campaign with 5 chapters and 5 acts. The games story keeps u hooked.
2. 4 player co-op. Dont like the NPC's on your team? well get someone to take their spot
3. Arcade Mode. U get so many points per kill
4. HORDE! Take Horde from gears 2, add in the ability to buy stuff like in Nazi Zombies, and add in a bit of tower def. Just an overall good time
5. Beast Mode. Horde but the other way around. What isn't fun about running around as a beserker?
6. Multiplayer. What can i say about this? Hop online by yourself with a friend on the couch or friends on XBL. All of the fun game modes are still here including the new Team Death match.
6.5. As you progress in the game u also lvl up which earn you near character skins, weapon skins, and medals.
NO MORE LAG! Everyone who has layed either gears game remembers joining a supper laggy game, "Hosty", and the only way to even attempt playing was to hole b and rev your chainsaw. Say nomore. Gears 3 is on dedicated servers now. This means instead of everyone connecting to a person then that "host" connects to the games server. Everyone connects to that server now without having to go threw someones connection.
Another great thing about this game is it is a lot easier for someone to pick up a controller and play if they have never played before. So if you never played Gears before pick it up but before you do I would recommend beating gears 1 and 2 or watching a dude beat the games from start to finish on youtube (less fun).
Beta Players: This is for anyone who played the beta and is still not sure about the game. What I can tell you that has changed is the Retro seems to have been nerfed, sawed off has its radius lowered, and Trenches has been re done along with thrash ball.
Last this is not a game for kids. Who the hell keeps buying their 6-7 years old these games? This game is rated M for mature not M for oh my kid is crying i will by this game. Its gory, pretty sure the characters are cussing every 5 sec, oh and you chainsaw people to a violent death. Last thier is a reason why online content is unreated. People swear and cuss like drunken sailors. I will say this if who have bought your kids these games have u even watched them or listened to them play. They cuss usually cuss more than anyone.
Yes I understand some kids are "mature" enough to play this game.
See You Online!
XIGRIMxREAPERIX
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video-games_xbox
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Really fun for an old game. I just (2009) got Crackdown and Saint's Row, having already enjoyed all the current open-world/sandbox shooters. Though these two are about the same age, Crackdown has held up MUCH better and is MUCH more enjoyable.
I've read reviews saying Crackdown is too easy and others saying it is too hard. In terms of completing missions/quests, it does seem harder than <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/BioShock/dp/B000MKA60W/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">BioShock</a> (my all-time favorite shooter), <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Fallout-3/dp/B000UU3SVI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Fallout 3</a> (my 2nd all-time favorite), and <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>, but easier than <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Grand-Theft-Auto-IV/dp/B000FRU1UM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Grand Theft Auto IV</a> (with which it has virtually nothing in common). It is nowhere near as hard as non-sandbox shooters such as Halo 3 or even Eat Lead. Climbing buildings and jumping between them to get the "agility orbs" is a lot of fun and nowhere near as difficult as in the latest <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Prince-of-Persia/dp/B001ASJIS6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Prince of Persia</a>.
I gave this 5 stars for fun and 3 stars overall because although it is plenty of fun to play, it does not compare to the previously mentioned more recent games when it comes to graphics (good but not great), variety, nor richness of environment and gameplay, but if you have already played the other games to death, Crackdown is a fun, cheap game to play while waiting for Bioshock 2 or Fallout 4 or GTA5 or whatever the next big sandbox game turns out to be.
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video-games_xbox
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Great Game. Being a fan of Romero's original Dawn of the Dead, I was hot to buy this game when it came out, even to the point of buying a whole new system (the 360), but hesitated because of reviews that warned that you don't have time to explore the mall and have fun on your own, you have to do the 'cases'. I'm here now to tell you that is not true. The game is designed to let you play it as you want. If your goal is to 'finish' the game, so you can brag to your friends that you 'passed' it, then you will indeed have a difficult and frustrating time. But this game is BEST enjoyed by throwing out the walkthroughs and just playing on your own. It's as free-form as gaming gets, and that's what I was hoping for with this title. It's a lot more fun to discover stuff on your own in this game than to follow the advisory 'walkthroughs' available online and in the official guidebook. Besides, you won't be able to complete the game until you are levelled up anyway. This occurs by simply playing and getting points for doing things you would naturally do without advice from anyone. So ignore all the bad reviews from kids who are only interested in bragging to their friends that they 'conquered' the game. And after all, is THAT really worth bragging about?There are some points that are made in reviews that are quite valid, but should not dissuade you from buying this game. The ONE save slot was not a good idea. In order to level up you will be forced to go back to the beginning all over again many, many times, and even WITH the skip to the next feature with the start button, it takes a full five minutes to get back in the mall to start over (with a better level and abilities).Another bad idea was no option to enlarge the type of the script parts. It IS unreadable on over 99% of TVs it will be played on. Another is that there is no option to turn off Otis's transceiver, and it constantly rings. It is really a pain to answer the transceiver only to have the text message he give you be UNREADABLE due to small text size!!These are bugs that Capcom, with all their experience in producing videogames, should have ironed out before releasing it. But even so, since there is no other game like it, it still is worth purchasing. I've been playing it for a couple of weeks now and, while I've seen most of the mall and used 99% of the weapons (some are only availble after defeating certain 'bosses'.) I have only tapped, I would say, 25% or less of the game. I hope Capcom releases another mall-zombie game but with the problems ironed out and even more freedom (options to play 'boss-free', etc.)
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video-games_xbox
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Welcome To The Assassin's Creed. Assassin's Creed. Wow, what an amazing game. You've got a good story, gameplay, graphics, and its open world. What more can you ask for? Yes there are a few bugs but nothing you couldn't get past. This is my review of Assassin's Creed.
Story 10/10 - The Date, September 2010. You play as Desmond Miles who was kidnapped by Abstergo. He is being forced to use a machine called The Animus which is a machine that reaches inside the genetic memory of ones ancestors. Attempting to reach the memory needed Desmond's mind blocks it. He has to now become his ancestor Altiar. His life takes place in the Third Crusade 1191 AD and is part of a clan that follows The Assassin's Creed. Altiar breaks the creed and is stripped of his rank. He has to now redeem himself by doing taks that his master gives him in the cities of Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem. Along the way as Desmond and Altiar you find out what secrets and betrayals. What is it Abstergo is looking for? Play and find out.
Gameplay 7/10 - The gameplay is something new. As Altiar you take the abilities of the Assassins. Free Running (Parkour), weapons (Swords, Hidden Blades, Throwing Knives), and the hits. They usually concist of, climb to the top of this, rescue some people here, easedrop, pickpocket, and beat up. It becomes tedious after awhile due to having to do that just to get to your target that needs to be assassinated. But not enough to make you give up. The free running is amazing, sword fighting is fun, and so on. When introuble you can either run out of site, hide, or blend in as a monk.
Graphics 9/10 - Next Gen graphics are here. The enviorment is amazing and beautiful, detail in face and voice acting is on hit. The game looks beautiful and the music goes well with what is going on. The only flaw you may see are a few things bugging like his lower tunic, but that's far and few.
Overall 8/10 - The game is a classic and is a great start in the trilogy. I enjoyed playing Assassin's Creed and is great for replay. I did it mostly for the Achievements. Things become repetative but moving past that it had a sold great story, looked amazing and was a wonderful play. Assassin's Cred gets a 8/10. If you enjoyed this game look for the newer titles Assassin's Creed II which is already out in stores and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood out in stores November 2010.
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video-games_xbox
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I love this game. This game is awesome! I played it all the way through so many times. There are 4 difficult setting for story mode: Easy, Normal, Veteran, and Professional. The story is great. Some people might not like it because it doesn't relate too much to the older RE story lines, but I liked it. I like how this is the first RE game to give you an CO-OP option and you and a friend can play the story mode together.
I like the controls for this game. It uses 3rd person view over the shoulder action. The button lay out is similar to RE 4 and if you played that you be right at home with this game.
The graphics are amazing! Everything looks so real and detailed. The sound is great too. The sound isn't based on scary sense this game is more action pack now, but I like it because everything is supposed to be a faster peace and you need the audio clues to play well.
What I like most about this game is the mini game, Mercenaries, after you beat the game. In mercenaries you play a survive horror match, where the goal is to kill as many people as possible with the limited time you get. You can play solo matches o team up with a friend and play together. At the beginning of each match, you start off with 3 minutes and you can find more time capsules and break them for more time to be added. There are 150 enemies limit on each map. (But, it is pretty hard to kill all 150 enemies. Especially on solo mode.)If you kill all the 150 enemies and still have time left on the clock then that time will be added to your score. There are 8 maps in total. You have to earn each map with a high letter grade to move on to the next map. Also, if you get a high level grade you earn more characters to use in the game. To me, this mini game is more fun than the actually story mode. lol
There has been a great additional DLC that came out after called RE Reunion. This optional DLC is worth it because it adds two more stories and additional characters in mercenaries. Be sure to get it, if you like RE 5.
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video-games_xbox
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Mediocre, But Curiously Fun. Being a fan of role playing, stealth and shooter games, I really hoped Alpha Protocol would be a hit. Unfortunately, it fell flat and for many reasons. It's not to say that it's a bad game, necessarily. It's just that it's not very good. The graphics are sub-standard and the animations - especially that of patrolling enemies, which look more like robots than humans with tank-like movements - are lacking. The voice acting is pretty bad, too...almost like something out of a cheesy B-list action movie. The gun play is not bad, but you will find yourself frustrated at the lack of accuracy, especially early on. And the hand to hand combat is borderline embarassing. For comparison's sake, if the close-quarters combat of Splinter Cell: Conviction is a 9/10 (which I think it is), then Alpha Protocol's rates as about a 2/10. Not that it's difficult, it just looks unrealistic and almost cartoon-like. The game does have a slight RPG element to it, in that you can upgrade the protagonist as you progress and as you see fit. Whether you want to be a stealth-based operative or an assault first soldier is up to you. Now, for all of the negatives there are to be said about this game - and there are a few - I still find it curiously fun. I don't know why, but I was compelled to continuously pick up the game where I left off until the bitter end. I mean, I just found it strangely addictive. The game is not necessarily fulfilling in any way, either. It's not like it has a blockbuster ending. I guess I just had a decent time playing it. In the end, I guess that's what counts the most, right? You can pick this game up for under $10.00 just about anywhere (I paid $7 bucks for it). Even though this game is wraught with problems and really isn't full of redeeming qualities, it's fun and probably worth buying for the bargin bin price.
PROS
- It's strangely addicting and fun
- Has some decent RPG elements, such as (limited) character and weapon customization
CONS
- It's not very pretty to look at
- The music, voice acting and story are all fairly bad
- The hand to hand combat is comical
Overall score: 5/10
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video-games_xbox
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Blockades My Port (USB port that is. This is one of those products where it could have been so much better if they had thought just a step or two further ahead. This will work well to charge your batteries. The modular design does make it a bit more discreet because it blends into the console. Unfortunately, the console was large enough already so this made it even more of an anomaly in your entertainment system making it dwarfed only by a full size receiver (if you have one of those still).
However, where it really dropped the ball was not in the looks department. That fault goes to Microsoft for building the behemoth. It's ultimate drawback is that it uses one of the three USB ports, but does not replace it. This power station would have been made just that much better if it has included another USB port on its external shell. I understand that most USB modular chargers do not provide an additional USB port either. Of course, those have the option of being connected directly to the back ports of the console. This power station can be plugged into one port on the console... and it just happens to be the only one that is conveniently accessible after your console is set up. Since this blocks the side port you will need to reach behind the console to connect any external USB devices. For many of us that can easily prove an inconvenience since it now means you are doing it blindly reaching behind the system to avoid having to completely disconnect it from your setup. As it is this has proven to be too much of an inconvenience for me. I ultimately disconnected it, and it now collects dust.
One last thing I think that could have been done to improve the product would have been to optimize the space a little bit more. It would seem to me that the seats for the batteries actually could have been configured to accommodate up to four batteries.
Of course most of this is a moot point since the power station is a legacy item at this point now that the second iteration of the Xbox One has been released. Just the same, I know there are still interested buyers out there for these chargers and I hope some of them catch this review as I am confident many of you will recognize the drawbacks this design creates before they purchase it.
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video-games_xbox
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Final Review. I'm not calling this a review since i've only put a little over 4 hrs into the game but I wanted to post my initial thoughts about it as a contrast to the bad reviews that have already popped up, my feelings could obviously change the further into the game I get and i'll be sure to update as they do but for now i'm really enjoying it.
I'll start with the combat since that seems to be where the most complaints have come from, it is what it is, I don't think its terrible just very bare bones at first, when you start out all you can do is just mash x over and over and over again until the enemy is dead. You have no other skills until you start to visit trainers and unlock them. I've gotten a pistol and learned how to kick from a trainer last night so now I can throw a kick and gun shot into the mix. I honestly haven't found the combat to be all that difficult, i've had no problems with animals or creatures, stun locking me to death or anything, in fact the only enemies i've had give me a hard time have been a few of the trainers that have kicked my butt so I don't know if they have lowered the difficulty for the console version but i've had little trouble so far. Obviously I can see why a lot of people would not enjoy the combat as it seems that it will take a very long time to put together a good compliment of skills to make you feel like your doing more than just spamming X.
Graphics seem to range from mediocre with some really awkward character animations to really quite nice looking, I thought the first island you go to has a really nice look to it however in a few areas that seemed very graphics intensive the frame rate stutters a bit so I don't know if thats do to poor programing or just the 360 showing its age and struggling. Overall I think it has a nice look and runs pretty well for the most part, I never experienced any bugs, glitches or freezes in my 4 hours with it last night that normally accompany these types of games on release so I was very happy about that. I do have the game installed to my hard drive so I don't know if it performs worse when it isn't so I would keep that in mind.
The starter island has a nice size to it, not to big and not to small, you can run off and explore without being afraid of getting lost which I liked. There are caves to explore and treasure chests scattered all over to loot. It has fast travel and a well organized menu system where everything is easy to find allthough some of the writing for explanations is pretty small which has caused me to have to lean close to the tv a few times to read it. I like the leveling up/glory system quite a bit as well.
Sure it has some minor annoyances like the frame rate issues, awkward animations, small writing, why do I have to pay someone 500 gold to teach me how to kick, its kicking for the love of pete, how complicated can it be?! Oh and I love it when I place my gun directly against an enemies forhead only to miss! But these were all like I said minor annoyances that did not dampen my enjoyment one bit. The dialogue can be quite humorus and the voice acting is mostly solid. But then again what do I know, I love everything so take all of this with a grain of salt.
!!!!UPDATE!!!!: I'm a little over 11 hours into the game now so pretty far into the 2nd island, i'm still very much enjoying myself but I did run into my first creatures that have given me problems. There are a few animals on the 2nd island that attack so fast and frequently that getting stun locked to death is not out of the question, fortunately that has not happened to me, i've come close but i've always had enough healing items to outlast them or had companions to assist me. There does seem to be a bit of trial and error in knowing which enemies can be handled easily and which ones might be a chore to take down but you learn very quickly which is which and you learn tricks to help you deal with the ones that are a hassle, for instance you never seem to be very far from help so if you are near a city or have recently passed by a guard or natives in the wild you can agro the tougher enemies into chasing you back to where the friendlies were and they will assist you in taking them down.
This may sound a bit aggravating but don't worry because at this point in the game help is on the away. You will come to a point where you will have to choose between using guns or voodoo. I went the gun route so now I have gained the ability and access to muskeets which has once again made the game much easier are far more enjoyable. Those pesky creatures that before were pecking you to death can now be dispatched at a safe distance where stun locking isn't even an option for them. So now what I do is switch to my muskeet to deal with those enemies that are a hassle like the firebirds and gouls then back to my sword for enemies that are easily dispatched by it like boars and monkeys to avoid wasting ammo. Its a shame then that it takes almost 10 hours to get to the point where you can use guns or voodoo, they make the game so much better, so much easier and so much more fun but it sounds like many people are just going to give up before they reach that point and its that point that I really feel like the game gets going.
!!!!!UPDATE 2!!!!! I'm a little over 15 hours in now, I completed my first big boss battle against a giant rock titan which was fairly simple but still pretty well done, I wasn't expecting to run into any massive bosses so that was a nice surprise. I've gained access too my own ship now so the game has really opened up allowing me to freely travel between the islands though not all islands are currently open to me. Combat also continues to get better as I continue to unlock new skills, the newest addition to my repertoire is the ability to do power attacks, I can now hold down the X button at different times in my combos to perform more devestating attacks which has added a much needed new layer to the sword play. Muskeets continue to be a massive lifesaver, i'm sure voodoo has its benefits but i'm really glad I went with guns. I will say that I did encounter my first freeze during a load screen, completely locked up my 360 so I had to shut it down but 1 time in 15 hours is still way better than Skyrim which I lost count on how many times it locked up on me.
!!!!!UPDATE 3!!!!! 30 hours into the game and while i'm still loving it I will say that technical issues become more of a problem the further into the game you go, its almost like maybe they were running out of time so they had to start rushing so quality control started to take a hit. I've experienced several freeze's now, only once during actual gameplay though, the freeze always seems to happen when moving between islands and trying to load up the new location, its not a big deal though, it doesn't happen frequently and i've just gotten into the habit of saving before travaling to a new destination. The frame rate seems to take a hit whenever it rains so thats been a bit annoying but my biggest complaint of all would be that in the Treasure Island dlc the pirate Harlock seems to have glitched out and not appeard on the beach for me to deal with his setting me up, oh well, I guess sailing away and leaving him stranded there is punishment enough. Like I said though despite these issues i'm still very much enjoying the game. I love the main character, i've nearly maxed out my gun skills so now i'm blasting my way though enemies without much oposition. I met the gnomes which were pretty darn funny and i'm really looking forward to see how it all turns out.
!!!!!Final Update!!!!! So I beat the game yesterday, my play time was just shy of 40 hours and that was with doing every single sidequest I came across as well as both dlc's so for an open world rpg it was a little on the short side but still a very satisfying experience that I would highly recommend. There is no post game though so make sure you do everything you want to before heading to the final battle or keep a save file handy if you want to go back and do more since once you've dealt with the final boss its all over. The story was entertaing, the voice acting well done and the combat really a cake walk after those first few tough hours but like I said I went with guns so I can't comment on the voodoo so if you go that route your experience will probably be vastly different.
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video-games_xbox
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A FUN GAME WITH A FEW FLAWS. I'm a huge fan of the western genre; movies, books, video games. So, I was naturally excited when Red Dead Redemption was announced. I really enjoyed Red Dead Revolver. I ordered RDR from Amazon ( Why get it anywhere else when the golden guns and money off of a future game purchase were included) hoping for great things. The critics liked it and the few reviews that were posted all made it seem like it was going to be a great game. The day that I received RDR in the mail, I fired it up and started playing. That's when it hit me that the game may not live up to the hype.
The game is slow starting out. It gradually builds up a little steam, but what is up with all the cut scenes? I like a good story in my games, but this borders on the ridiculous. However, it is with the cut scenes that the graphics really shine. Pros and cons I guess. The graphics throughout the game, not just in the cut scenes, are great. It really does feel like you are riding around the Old West. The voice actors are some of the best that I have come across in a video game. The lead actor doesn't try and do an Eastwood impression which is an easy trap to fall into when doing a western.
What really drives me crazy, and takes the score from 5 stars to 4, is when night has fallen in the game. It is sooooo dark that there are some areas (even in town) that you cannot see a darn thing. I am forced to either play the mini games or save the game until the sun rises. Some realism in games is perfectly fine in games, but it doesn't have to be pitch black outside for me to know that it's night in Armadillo. What's the point in playing if you can't even see where the heck you're going. My first horse died when we fell off a ledge because I couldn't see the drop in front of me! Rockstar, you could have eased up a bit.
Speaking of horses. The controls for the horse are very loose. It may take a while for some people to get use to controlling the horse. Once you do get the hang of things it isn't too bad riding around on a horse. Again, a little more work on Rockstar's part and they could have come up with better controlling. Or they could have "borrowed" the control set up from Gun (which this game reminds me of).
The weapon wheel is clunky. You have to hold one button to access it and another to select your new weapon. The transition is not smooth in the least bit. While you trying to switch from your gun to your rifle you're getting blasted. I shouldn't have to die or have my health taken down because of inferior way to switch between weapons. An easier, smoother way to transition between weapons would have been nice.
These things frustrate me to the point that I can only play RDR for a short amount of time before I have to turn it off to keep myself from throwing the game in the garbage.
September 24, 2020-
Since, my last post I have finished the game all the way. Now, I would give the game 2.5 stars if that were possible. The last part of the game, with the wife and kid, should have come first. Not only would it have been a better story it would have served as a tutorial(if you needed one). What game has the tutorial part of the game (i.e Call of Duty's training for guns, throwing grenades, etc.) at the end of the game? I have also sold this game. I don't regret selling it one bit. I don't regret buying it, but I wish that I would have rented first. Needless to say, I won't be bothering with the downloadable content.
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video-games_xbox
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Great additon to the Arkham franchise....just as expected. First off I want to commend WB Montreal for doing such a good job with this game. It was some mighty big shoes to fill and they did an excellent job of bring us a game that felt just like the previous 2 games. I have read some complaints that WB Montreal did not do as good of a job as if Rocksteady did this game. I find that completely ridiculous....I guarantee if it wasn't public knowledge that Rocksteady handed this off to WB Montreal than nobody would have been the wiser.
As for the game? I am loving it. It has been 2 years since we got Arkham City and I was really itching for some new batman story to play. Sure there was the Harley's Revenge DLC a while ago but that was way too short. Some say this feels like Arkham City DLC,and I agree that it could pass as that,but I don't understand how that is really a bad thing. If this was DLC this would still be worth it. Harleys Revenge is $9.99 and only lasted about an hour to play. This game is at least 10 hours long and the story it great plus 8 Big boss battles!!
I have also read that the game is very buggy and I have yet to experience any bugginess issues.
If you are a big Batman fan as I am,and really enjoyed the 1st two games,than I think you can not go wrong with this game. It has everything that made the 1st two games so fun. It's not groundbreaking by any means, but are any sequels of games groundbreaking? I find it very unfair by other reviewers for slighting this game based on the fact that it is not innovative. Very few sequels/prequels are 'groundbreaking'. Also for putting down WB Montreal for not doing a good job on this title is so far from the truth. Again, I have not gotten to any part in the game where there has been any glitches or bugs that take me out of the game,but maybe that can still happen. The music, animation, character design, gameplay, and story are just as great....and often times better....than its predecessors.
Thank you WB Montreal for Arkham Origins. I am loving it!! 8.5/10
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video-games_xbox
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Great game with some flaws. Jade Empire is an adventure Role Playing game in a complete fantasy world of magic, weaponry, and martial arts. You begin your journey as a young student of the martial arts after your village came under siege and your master was kidnapped by an unknown enemy. In your travels to locate your master, you discover that your homeland, The Jade Empire, has fallen into complete darkness and despair, incomparable to the idyllic environment of your village nestled away on the boarder. As you come to discover the mysteries of your heritage, and shed light on your darkened past, you find that you are destined for great things and that the very salvation of mankind depends upon you as the last Spirit Monk.
The best thing about this game is its story, and I tried not to give too much of it away, but the story is far from being the only great thing about this game. In addition to fighting and leveling up numerous martial and magic styles, there are about a hundred side quests you can undertake which will determine the characteristics of the protagonist. In short, you can pursue one of two philosophical ways of life: the way of the Open Palm or the Closed Fist. The way of the Open Palm is a belief system of harmony, and protecting the weak; while the Way of the Closed Fist is the worship of strength. A follower of the Way of The Open Palm will go out of his or her way to help people who are in difficult situations and don't know how to help themselves. This can range from helping an old lady see through the forgery of an Imperial Writ threatening to claim ownership of her teahouse, to saving someone being stormed by thugs. The Closed Fist follower will do just the opposite. Instead of bringing peace to peoples lives, a follower of the Closed Fist will bring chaos, but he or she will do so to see if this person is strong enough to not fall into complete ruin. If the person dies in the process, then that is good, for that person is weak and only the strong should survive and be worthy of anything. It is because of this that the Closed Fist scheme is often interpreted as evil, and is a far more dangerous path, for you will make twice the amount of enemies. Side quests all deal with people and their individual problems. You can either solve these problems for them or worsen them. To deal with them all is really the girth of the game, and most of them are in plain view and not easy to miss. So, it is not like you will need to search for them.
Another great thing is the game's numerous locales. There is the village where you begin. Tien's Landing, a town suffering from the opening of their Water Dam and a swarm of troublesome pirates. A pirate's camp on a deserted island. A haunted Forest. The Imperial City. The Lotus Assassin fortress beneath a huge Necropolis. You venture into the spirit world among other strange places. All superbly displayed on your TV screen in excellent Xbox graphics. Side objectives in addition to your main quest can be found in each location, which makes this game very engrossing, and very long. Only game that may be longer than this would be something like Final Fantasy.
Now that I am done praising this game, it is now time to mention its quirks. This game is obviously inspired by Chinese myth (inspired, not taken directly) and it is made to look like China, with upturned eaves on houses and pagodas in the mountains. HOWEVER, they all speak in English and have American accents. This annoyed me to no end. They couldn't at least find some Asian voice actor with an accent? I would have preferred reading subtitles and listening to real Chinese than what I got.
The people you meet throughout the empire are the same characters again and again, just with different voices and wearing different clothes. This was so cheap.
When people speak in Tho Fan, a fictional language of the prosperous East in the game, they use the same words (or sounds) perpetually, when they are supposedly using different words which you see in the subtitles below.
Among these nagging problems this game has, are the huge historical and religious inaccuracies. Although there is a wheel of Life belief in China, it is not governed by a Water Dragon. The Chinese Dragon is simply an elemental creature, often residing in the sea. They are not even considered Gods. Another huge blunder was the game's depiction of the Imperial City, which I am left with no choice but to assume that this is supposed to be the Forbidden City of China, which, during an emperor's reign, they would never allow common folk to tread its stone roads (that is, if they wanted to keep their heads). But in the game the city has a poor quarter, a common folk district, and a rich district, which borrows from the social strata of medieval monarchy of the west.
But what dose it matter? The gaming experience is great and I enjoyed it.
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video-games_xbox
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Very solid game. This game is phenomenal. It's not quite Survival Horror. Indeed, it was marketed as a Thriller and along those lines it satisfies. I've played it seven times now, mostly for the combat and atmosphere but I also lose myself in the story pretty easily. So let me elaborate a bit on one of MY top ten games of all time: Alan Wake.
STORY
Much better than I expected. I can't think of a survival horror game in which I actually cared what happened to the characters. To me, I just focused on the gameplay and staying alive, going through the motions. But Alan Wake is a very story-centered game. Whether it's in cut scenes, in the narration, in the manuscripts, or wherever, you remain in tune with the narrative and trying to figure everything out. Alan Wake is a famous author of crime fiction who's been suffering with a bad case of writer's block. He and his wife take a trip to a small town in the Pacific Northwest presumably to just leave their problems all behind them. But then Alan's wife goes missing, and the cold eerie nights of this small town present to Alan a problem far bigger than his writer's block!
I won't spoil anything for you, but the plot will keep you guessing right up to (and in fact BEYOND) the end, which of course is what you would expect from horror/thriller. Just know that the plot gets deep, and it never lets go of you!
PRESENTATION
Bar none! The game goes for a sort of TV series feel and it's easy to see. Each level is not called a level but an "Episode". Events are narrated as you play, in between action sequences. The camera lets you move it so you can see behind Alan as he's running forward, stuff like that. And I like how in the main menu you can access tons of content you've unlocked. You can read pages of the manuscript (a book you start writing near the beginning of the game), listen to songs that have played in the game, even listen to radio interviews you've stumbled across while playing. It's nice.
GRAPHICS
Superb! Even critics have little bad to say about it. The scenery is gorgeous, in and out of cut scenes. Textures are everywhere you want them to be, and the lighting is right on the money. Now I will admit there is one graphics-related flaw, and that's the facial animations of these characters! They could use some serious work. Still, this is a very small part of the game and therefore didn't hinder my enjoyment of it in the slightest. For the most part, this game is beautiful.
SOUND/MUSIC
Alan Wake has one of the best video game soundtracks I've ever heard. I immediately went and got a hold of every song I heard in the game, including some very inspired tracks by Poets of the Fall. Good stuff! The sound effects are spot on. Everything sounds as it should WHEN it should, and the audio when you're outside at night is thrilling!
COMBAT
Though the focus in this sort of game is never on the combat, Remedy did pretty well with it in Alan Wake. What the combat entails, usually, is driving a sort of shield'o'darkness off of your enemies so they become vulnerable to your main weapon (e.g., a revolver, shotgun). You can also dodge enemies when they get too close (which can happen very quickly if you drop your guard!) and you get some other goodies later on as well. The appearances of your enemies and their defeat are satisfying, without any blood or gore which was a welcome change for me.
You don't get an endless variety of enemies or weapons. What you get are changes in Alan's SITUATIONS (usually via inventory changes and environmental tools, traps, etc.) and then later some pretty surprising changes in the environments you end up in as well. You start the game expecting the gameplay to be mostly stuck in the woods, but you'll end up in a variety of interesting locations the more you play. As in most shooters, enemy models and ways you'll mostly be taking them down do repeat. But the game does a great job of mixing it up most of the time so you're never fighting the same enemies the same way for too long.
CONCLUSION
Especially for the price it's going for now, this is a great game! The story and atmosphere alone are a must-experience for any psychological thriller fan. The combat is satisfying though not on par with full-on action shooters. It won't scare the hell out of you like Survival Horror games, but it keeps you on the edge of your seat and keeps you wondering who's who, what's what, why and everything in between!
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video-games_xbox
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A second rate copy that isn't worth the price. Homefront bills itself as having an interesting story that engages the player into a quality FPS experience with multiplayer that is even more engrossing.
The reality is that the single player gameplay is ripped straight off of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and has a story that will strongly remind the player of Half Life 2 but without the aliens, depth of story, or characters that actually make you care. The multiplayer is forgettable, me-too, and neutered for the purpose of sticking it to the secondhand market.
If you like the Modern Warfare versions of CoD, you'll be just fine playing Homefront. The controls are very similar and the on screen displays, indicator, and health management are absolutely identical. I noted no glitches or anything else, hence the two stars; I never had any issues running the game (it has one patch you will need to apply from XBL).
The single player campaign is an absolute ripoff. It took me all of four hours, and I am hardly a great gamer. There just wasn't much substance to it; while it has a good progression from mission to mission, there is ultimately no final resolution (gotta make room for a sequel) and just leaves you feeling like you've accomplished nothing. The guns are just thrown in willy-nilly with zero understanding of how firearms actually work or how combat units would be equipped. A single unit having ACRs with backup flip-up iron sights and no optic, the KRISS Super-V, and M16/M4 variants all at once? No Kalashnikovs to speak of despite the story demanding that North Korea has become a world power via the reuniting of the Korean peninsula? Moreover, ammo management is seriously broken; while I didn't find myself having to melee my way through an enemy position, I find it curious that I couldn't pick up ammunition from an M16 or ACR when I had an M4, and they all use the same ammunition in the same STANAG style mags. The developers clearly got all their firearm knowledge from CoD and Future Weapons and didn't so much as even read Wikipedia for background. The story itself is interesting (fighting a guerrilla campaign in US suburbs), but the story requires so much suspension of disbelief that you might as well be fighting purple blooded aliens on orbiting installations intended to protect against a bizarre spore based life form.
As far as multiplayer goes, it's nothing special. Retail copies include a code to unlock exp levels above lvl 5, if you bought it used, too bad, buy the code online from XBL. This means any secondhand owners get less value from the game unless they pay the developer something; this is a new and novel way to maintain a revenue stream even in the secondhand market, but it's silly to think that this game will still be played multiplayer in six months. But if you're buying it thinking you can trade it in later, expect to get even less than the usual pittance due to this.
In short, because you won't be getting a long playtime out of it...
The single player campaign is 1/3 as long as it should be. Unless you plan to go multiplayer, it won't justify it's own price.
The multiplayer isn't novel enough to justify buying it for that, and the extra code means it won't have the same attraction to others, so it won't be around all that long.
They want $60 for this? They didn't put the money into single player, their code means they expect to get paid by secondhand buyers, and they didn't add anything else novel or unique.
If you want this for single player, wait until you can get it for $10. If you want it for online multiplayer, get one of the CoD:MW games; they're more widely played and they did it better anyway. I expected at least a few weeks of diversion out of Homefront. It didn't even keep me for a weekend.
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video-games_xbox
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Double Agent LE, get it. This fourth installment in the Splinter Cell series of games takes a radical change in direction from the previous three games. In the game you are Sam Fisher, an NSA operative who is given the task of infiltrating the JBA, or John Brown's Army, a terrorist organization.
Double Agent for the Xbox 360 uses a branching storyline that allows the gamer to make choices that ultimately affect the final outcome of the game. The previous games were more linear in their approach to accomplish goals. There are fewer 'levels' in Double Agent than in previous versions, but only because each level is much larger and there are multiple missions that occur on each level giving you the experience of a longer game.
You are given assignments or 'objectives' in the game, some of which must be completed at the time they are given, if you choose, and others can be done at various points throughout the game. This is accomplished by using a 'free roam' approach to some levels rather than limiting when and where the player can be at any given time. An example would be that you are asked to acquire information about the top members of the JBA, and you do so by locating records on them and getting retinal scans of their eyes. All of this can be done at any given time during the game as the opportunity arises.
The developers went all out to give the gamer plenty of 'eye candy' in the form of graphics. There are areas that have large groups of people, each with different characteristics whereas before they were limited to only a few characters. The level that is based on the city of Shanghai truly gives the look and feel of being there. The details are incredible, right down to the rain that falls on Sam's skin and clothing, acting as real rain would with those surfaces.
The only real let-down of this game is the way it ends abruptly without giving any continuity towards the next game or finalizing the series. You're just left wondering "so what happened?".
The online multiplayer mode, or 'Spy versus Upsilon', has many features that are very appealing to players new to the series, but leaves some hard core fans of this game wanting to return to the previous title's, Chaos Theory, 'Spy versus Merc' version of online play. UBI has removed many 'gadgets' that were previously available, forcing the spy to be more true to his calling by using stealth but at the same time losing something in the process. The user community seems to be split as to whether or not the multiplayer change is a good thing. For me it's better, but only because I was never good at the previous online game.
I give the Xbox 360 version of the game an 8.5 out of 10 rating.
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video-games_xbox
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Just say No to Identity Vampires. I just wanted a damn console to play games on, not an electronic leash held by identity vampires. Sony can do this, Nintendo can do this, Microsoft used to be able to do this but apparently no more.
Almost instantly regretted this purchase. It is by far the worst console I have ever dealt with.
A year ago when this thing was originally released Microsoft supposedly "backpedaled" on several anti-consumer "big brother" plans. Even so, they have permanently damaged my trust. My Xbox 360 has not been allowed online since last year and never will be again.
Microsoft stated that because their reversal of the "always online" requirement was too late in the manufacturing process for the launch consoles, players would have to connect at least once to get the supposed "day one" update. This is largely why I decided not to buy one right away despite the reversal - even though Microsoft also published instructions for an "emergency offline update" which ostensibly bypassed even this. Flash forward to a year and several major software revisions later, I figured it would be safe to buy an Xbox One and never connect it to the Internet.
Not so.
Microsoft has made it impossible to complete initial set up of the console without an active Internet connection. A year later, the damn thing is still a brick if you don't let Microsoft "activate" it. Furthermore, even if you do activate it, it's STILL a brick if you don't sign in to it with a Live account and allow Microsoft to harvest your identity for later sale to advertisers.
For all of the hardcore collectors out there, this thing is completely worthless. I can take a 12 year old unused Xbox out of its box, pop a game into it and play it. In 12 to 13 years when MS shuts down Live for Xbox One, every one of the damn things that hasn't been activated yet is going to be forever a brick.
You can't create local accounts - it's live or nothing. You can create "guest" accounts - which you aren't even allowed to name, so if you want your kids to be able to play with their own profiles but not sell their identity to Microsoft for the privilege, forget it. The system derives the name of a guest account from the one that MS "blessed".
If that wasn't enough, if you decide you want to manage your game saves on the console, you can go pound sand. While the console will save games offline, you're not allowed to see or manage them there - that's all, apparently, meant to be done in the "Cloud". If you want to delete a particular save, your only option is to purge all game saves from all games on the console.
If the majority of my technology experience was with smart phones and tablets where anti-consumer controls are commonplace (but not strictly mandatory like they are with this console) I might be tempted to forgive MS the faux pas of baking so much hubris into a chunk of technology if the experience was awesome (for the record I'm not tempted to do that), but after having spent a year with the PS4, by comparison the XBOX One console feels cheap and flimsy, half the time I can't get it to power on by hitting the XBOX button on the controller, and everything from the system menu to the graphics look sub-standard.
Microsoft has finally delivered on the fears that the game industry collectively registered a little over a decade ago when we started hearing about the first Xbox console.
If you value your privacy, or your rights of ownership don't buy this console - the handful of exclusives aren't really worth it.
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video-games_xbox
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WARNING! - This is NOT like Unreal Championship. This is not a bad game, but I feel I MUST post words of caution here to potential buyers who are getting it for use on Xbox Live. Don't bother reading this review if you're looking for info on the 1-player part of the game.
If you're buying this game because you want to play a straight-up upgraded version of Unreal Championship on Xbox Live, you may be deeply disappointed. There are no standard fighting modes. No deathmatches. There is only one online game (and only 4 or 5 maps for that game), and if you don't like it, you're out of luck.
Other less-than-stellar points of caution:
- Load times are AWFUL. I mean, much much longer than any other Live game I have.
- You can not use your headsets in the lobby to talk to others.
- Almost all of the 4 or 5 available maps are way too large.
- People can and will join and drop from teams in the middle of your games, sometimes drastically throwing things off balance where one team has 6 players and another has 2.
All of this said, the one available online game IS somewhat fun and interesting. It does have the interesting element of basic shooter-meets-strategy. It's essentially a team-based capture the flag game, only you need to collect 4 flags instead of just 1. Where it gets a little different is that your team needs to maintain control of generators to power various extra (and needed ) items, such as automatic turrets, vehicles, force fields, etc. This adds a bit of strategy to the usual kill-kill-kill of the FPS, and I've enjoyed that so far.
Still, if you want an extremely solid FPS (first person shooter) on Xbox Live, Mech Assault and Unreal Championship are still better games. And for shooter-meets-strategy, Star Wars Clone Wars "Conquest" mode is still the top of the Xbox Live heap, IMHO.
This game is fun, don't get me wrong. I was just suprised and a bit disappointed by this game. I expected AT LEAST the things from the first Unreal for Xbox (like a standard Deathmatch option) to be here, and they're not. Though they have developed a pretty decent online game mode, if you don't like the one mode, you've wasted $40.
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video-games_xbox
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It had great potential, but ultimately fell very short. STORY:
The modern-day events of this game take place immediately after the end of Revelations. For the majority of the game, you play as Connor, a Native American Assassin who fights in the American Revolution. It's very cool to interact and see famous historical figures of the time, and if you're a history buff like me, you'll love the story of Connor. You also play a small portion of the game as Haytham Kenway, Connor's British father. His section of the game is especially interesting, as Haytham was a cool, likable character. Connor, however, was not as good of a character. He's very bland and dull most of the time, not having much of a personality. He's fine to play as, but it's ultimately the supporting characters who carry the story of the game. Unfortunately, you're forced to play as Desmond a few times during the game. I've never really liked Desmond or his story all that much, and I loved the way that they did it in Revelations. His gameplay was completely optional, but if you liked Desmond and wanted to invest some more of your time into his story, then you could. In this game, however, it is not the case. You're forced out of the Animus to play as Desmond at some points in the story, and while these mandatory missions, while brief, are a very annoying pause in the engaging story of Revolutionary America. Unfortunately, the ending absolutely stinks in this game. It was just so abrupt! and it wasn't a cliffhanger-level abrupt like in the past games: the story of Desmond Miles, who we've been playing as since the very first game in the series, has an absolutely awful ending. This, combined with many other flawed aspects of the game, makes me believe that the game was extremely rushed. Like I said in the title, Ubisoft could have made this game a whole lot better, but they rushed it out and it was very disappointing.
GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay in the game is much different from the previous games, and the changes are a really mixed bag. Some of the new additions, such as hunting or trading on the Homestead, are useful, but the past games' versions of these were much better. Ubisoft tried to fix many things that were fine in the first place, such as renovating shops and collecting your income from the bank. Combat has been simplified a lot more, and some strategy is required for some enemy types (this prevents you from counter-spamming every single enemy in the game). While it's very fun and much simpler to do, the other games just seemed to do it better. Switching weapons is very annoying here. The other games got it perfectly! Here, you're taken to a huge menu where you have to scroll through many items to select your weapons. This can be extremely frustrating if you're in a tight spot and you need to switch weapons very often, very fast, because the whole menu transition disorients you for a second or two. Notoriety has been changed slightly as well, now being represented in three levels rather than one percentage. You can travel to four main zones in the game, although you'll only really be spending a lot of time outside of main missions in one or two. There are many annoying bugs with the game, and these can be really frustrating. Sometimes, even when your Notoriety level is incognito, guards will randomly come attack you while you're on your way to a mission. It's easy to deal with the initial 4 or 5 that come charging at you, but you can be stalled up to about 20 minutes because wave after wave of guards just come out of nowhere after you eliminate one. This is good if you just want to slaughter guards, but when you're simply traversing the city or on your way to a mission, it can be very frustrating. For the most part, the game world looks great, but there are MANY graphical errors and bugs. Most of the time, these aren't game-breaking, but sometimes it's annoying when your objective is to follow someone and then have them stand completely still for five minutes. While for the most part, the majority of missions in the game are good, many of them just aren't that good. There are too many tailing missions, and it can be frustrating to do them when your target is moving very slowly. Some of the mission constraints are near-impossible, and some of them were just bad level design rather than an actual challenge. It's also frustrating when you spend many hours crafting the best weapon in the game and then not being allowed to use it because the optional objective says otherwise. A lot of the missions don't require much strategy at all, just memorization of a specific route to take. This can be very annoying, because in some missions there's 1 or 2 ways to do it right an a million ways to do it wrong and fail. Naval combat, however, is probably one of, if not the, strongest aspect of the game. You can purchase upgrades for your ship, select missions, and look for treasure in the Caribbean. The combat itself is extremely simple and fun, and I'm glad that Ubisoft is incorporating it much more into the next game. The free-running in the game, while made simpler and faster, is also very flawed. Sure, it can't be absolutely perfect all the time, but it's very annoying when you're trying to scale a large building and then you jump off because you were holding the stick in the wrong direction.
OVERALL:
While this game had the potential to be an awesome game, it fell very short of most fans' expectations. Most of the side missions are really pointless and boring, and they didn't add anything at all to the game. While the supporting cast of characters was very interesting, our main protagonist is nowhere near as likable or interesting as Ezio and Altair. Many missions are flawed and/or tedious, and Desmond's sections are just frustrating. The story is great for the most part, but the ending completely ruins it. In the end, I feel like this game was very rushed. If Ubisoft had waited a few months, maybe a year, to release the game, then it could've been much, MUCH better. I still recommend this to fans of the Assassin's Creed series, but it isn't even nearly as good as the previous installments.
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video-games_xbox
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Halo takes a lot of steps forward but also many steps back. I've been a halo fan since the original Xbox days and it's always been a great series. The story and multiplayer have remained great. So does Halo 5 do the same? Ehh sorta
Story: It takes place after Halo 4 basically Master Chief receives a message from an old friend and goes rogue with Blue team. While Spartan Locke and team Osiris is tasked with bringing him back. To avoid spoiling it I won't say anymore but while it has great production values. Great cutscenes, voice acting, and awesome graphics. The game runs at a solid 60 FPS with dynamic resolution. Overall the story reached some high points but also took some missteps which I'll talk about later. It's just not a selling point in this halo which is a disappointment.
Gameplay: Now halo has changed a lot adding new abilities such as ground pound, ADS, thruster packs etc. I didn't like these changes at first but they grew on me and I enjoyed myself a lot. This makes the multiplayer fast but it's still all about precision shots which are still best done from the hip. The abilities aren't overpowered either in fact pretty well balanced. Now in Multiplayer you have Arena (classic halo modes) and 343s new war zone. Arena is at its best and a the shining point in Halo 5. Especially now since Big Team Battle is back and social playlists. Now war zone is okay it can be fun but just pales in comparison to the fun of BTB. Also Halo 5 DLC is all free and it recently just got Forge mode. Overall the multiplayer is great and stable with a decent connection. It's too bad there was so many steps taken backward with this Halo.
Bad Stuff: First off Microtransactions. Halo has a new REQ system that allows you to buy these packs with RANDOM UNLOCKS. Reminds me of destiny which can be frustrating. While they can be earned through multiplayer by REQ points and they can be generous at times it does become a grind. Now the story is short. And Master Chief is only in about 3-4 missions of which there are 15 in total (and some are just interacting sections) Locke and his team are not bad characters but Master Chief is the character that built Halo. Just sucks that there are a lot of steps taken backward.
Final Verdict: There's a lot of stuff that I like about this halo but also a lot that I don't like. While it is a worthy part of the series it's not worth 60$. I'd say wait til this drops to 45$ at most but most likely 35-40$.
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video-games_xbox
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Pretty good. I am predominantly a simracer rather than an arcade racer, so I am reviewing this from the biased perspective of someone who typically likes Forza2, RacePro and Gran Turismo. I have never played any of the NFS games. But I have played and enjoyed the Burnout games. So I DO like arcade racers now and then too.
Pros:
- The presentation is hip and energetic with pulsing sound effects and visuals.
- The audio is cranked all the way up by default. So if you are using a driving seat with some kind of vibration system like an Aura Bass Shaker or Buttkicker, you will need to turn it down. Mine started getting pretty hot in a matter of a few minutes compared to games like Forza 2 and Race Pro- which would barely warm the units up.
- Cockpit view feels less claustrophobic than GT Prologue. Not sure why.
- Camera shake does definitely add to the realism and excitement.
- Money is earned pretty quickly so you can buy new cars- a lot less grinding compared to GTP. Also when you buy a car, you can later turn around and sell it for the same price as you bought it.
- The beginning of the game puts you through a trial race from which it provides you with a recommendation of the gameplay settings. This is a nice touch- especially for introducing newbies to the genre.
Cons:
- Although the presentation is more "hip" it is also much more cluttered. There is often too much graphics and too many statistics presented to you both in the HUD and after the race.
- Program is not entirely bug free. It froze on me twice. And on another occasion I was able to start racing BEFORE the green light!
- Load times are pretty long so I recommend installing it on your harddrive- which helps a little.
- Even in Pro mode (i.e. no traction control, stability, and abs) it felt easier to control than Forza 2, and definitely easier than Race Pro.
- The force feedback on the wheel appears weaker than Forza 2. I was surprised it was already set at 10/10 by default.
- Cars do not appear to be visually as pleasing as Forza 2 or as accurate as GT Prologue. For example, the rear airfoil in the Audi TT does not raise automatically at greater than 75mph- which it does in GTP.
- Quick Race mode gives you a limited set of cars to start with. Although you earn cash pretty quickly and you can buy them.
- Cars are pretty aggressive on occasion, forcing you off the track on purpose. But at the same time, sometimes you see it do some really weird turns (that are not a result of a spinout) and decelerations that seem to indicate the AI decided to revert to following its rail.
On the whole NFS is simracing from a NFS perspective. It's a good effort for the NFS franchise. They presumably want to try and keep their existing customers (who tend to prefer a more arcade-style experience) but at the same time take a small nibble at the simracing piece of the pie currently dominated by Forza, Gran Turismo, and others.
Hardcore Simracers will probably be better off sticking to the Forza and Gran Turismo series. Forza3's new ability to wind back time so you can redo a portion of the race will likely be the top feature in the game- allowing you to practice a corner over and over.
I think casual games will still find this game enjoyable for the excitement-drenched visual and audio experience. I find that even though I am a semi-hardcore simracer, this title does grow on you after a while.
Addendum:
I recently played the demo version of Forza 3. Here's a quick comparison against NFSS:
F3's driving physics definitely does feel more accurate. E.g. on the Audi R8 about 70% of the power is supposed to be in the rear wheels and 30% in the front. In F3, it feels right. If you do too sharp a turn and hit the gas too hard, you will oversteer. In NFSS however, the R8 feels like a front wheel drive vehicle- in a hard corner, I can usually turn the wheel in the direction I want to go and just floor the gas, and eventually the car will straighten out. Your car almost never oversteers. I do admit though that NFSS' version of the R8 physics does make it more fun sometimes- you can whip your wheel around on a hard corner and just floor the gas- gives you a heroic feeling when taking an insane corner- which admittedly is not a good way to drive on a real race track.
The steering vibration in F3 is much stronger, and it really adds to the illusion of weight of the car. So if you through a serious of left/right turns quickly, the wheel will pull very hard in both directions and it really gives you the sensation that your car's weight is being flung from side to side.
NFSS' gas pedal feels a lot less "analog" than F3. NFSS' response tends to feel like it's a 1 or 0. F3 feels about right. You step on the gas gradually and you can feel and hear the gradual build up of power.
F3's cockpit is closer in view so you can see the dials more clearly. However the rendering of the cockpit is not as detailed as NFSS- and certainly much less detailed than Gran Turismo Prologue. Also with the closer cockpit view in F3, half of the rear-view mirror is truncated.
Even though I tend to prefer realistic racing sims, I find I really missed the camera shake in NFSS. It really does add a lot to the experience. When I play F3, it just feels rather tranquil by comparison.
NFSS' replay camera view is incredibly weak- there is really only 1 view. F3 has brilliant camera views. Just about every conceivable camera view is included. I have never seen so many views in a racing game. This is particular important if you are serious about analyzing your driving. And just as in Forza 2, you can toggle on/off detailed telemetry about your car.
However, still, the one feature that makes F3 the hands down winner, is the ability to rewind time so you can retake a corner. I found myself using this quite often and really appreciating it the more I use it- especially so that I don't have to restart the race just because I spun out toward the end of the last lap. However, I can see that this can be such a powerful crutch that people will over use it... perhaps forgetting that in real life there are no undos when it comes to real car racing... But for now I am thankful the feature is there. It is such a great learning tool.
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video-games_xbox
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I've been playing almost nonstop. Awesome game. I've played the Assassin's Creed series from the beginning, and this is definitely my favorite in the series so far. It runs much more smoothly and has none of the persistent bugs of the previous title. The graphics overall are improved and the environment looks beautiful, and not just because it is set in the Caribbean. The one and only problem I've found with this game is that my character has trouble targeting specific enemies during sword fights on ships.
The thing that really sets this game apart from other games and indeed others from the same series is ability to sail freely and engage in piracy. Assassin's Creed III offered players a taste of this, enabling players to upgrade a ship and sink other ships in naval battles, but AC IV has dramatically expanded upon it. Now, instead of being able to sail only during certain missions, you can sail an open ocean, pirate British and Spanish ships of all sizes using an array of shipboard weapons, and visit dozens of uncharted islands freely, when not on a mission. You can board crippled enemy ships and fight their crews to secure more plunder and even add them to your own fleet. A never-ending supply of plunder targets, inclement weather, and the ability to actually explore sunken ships deep underwater with a diving bell ensure players will always find something to do. This game world is by far the largest one in the series.
There's no shortage of activities on land, either. Lots of collectibles, unlockables, assassin contracts, and buried treasure will keep you busy when you're not playing through the thoroughly entertaining main story. In fact, I've been so preoccupied terrorizing the seas and collecting treasure that I'm not even halfway through the story and haven't tried the multiplayer yet. Normally, collecting stuff gets tedious, but I haven't gotten bored at all, because the whole time, I'm racking up money and materials to upgrade my ship and purchase new outfits and weapons.
So yes, I am very pleased with my purchase!
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video-games_xbox
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When you factor in the hype, this game is vastly Basic. I didn't finish the game, there I said it, Within the first ten minutes of a game I can tell if im going to like it or not, and this game did not bring me in. It seems to me these next gen titles are all hype, they look so good, but then you pick up the controller and it all goes downhill. Watch Dogs is no exception. This game isn't even on Sleeping Dogs level.
What I liked: 1, I liked the hacking and knowing tidbits about NPC's lives with the click of a button. 2) The NPC's feel very alive in the city. 3) some of the mini games were fun. And thats pretty much it.
What I didn't like: 1. The main character is not worthy of being the main character, with a new game like this, you need a memorable character to match and Aiden is anything but. Even his name has been used to death in other video games. 2. The story from where I stopped playing at is just so un-engaging to where I couldn't even stomach playing. Im one of those gamers that needs a good story to push through a game, but this one just flops right out of the gate, and from what I hear, the ending isn't great either. 3. The driving, OMG THE DRIVING IS HORRENDOUS. Its as if the car is stuck on the hand brake at all times, vehicle collision is like non existent, and the radio is very clunky. You drive alot in this game so why would they make that element so hard to control is beyond me, its worse then GTA4's driving controls. 4 the False Advertisement, for one this is not the game I was expecting, thank god I rented because if I pay full price for a game, I expect A GAME IN RETURN. They hyped this game up to be Gods Gift to Consoles and it turned out to be a mediocre open world game that looks like it was made in 2009. This game actually turned me off from getting a new console to be honest. We have to take a stand. If we Keep buying crap like THIS. Then that is all we will ever get in return.
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video-games_xbox
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Forza Horizon 3 Is The Best Raing Game Of The Year. Not Greatest Racing Game Ever Like Fanboys Say. Well after spending more hours behind the cockpit of this newest entry to the racing world, I spotting a few things that needs to be pointed out, I'm ready to review this item with ZERO bias. ZERO hype. I'm no professional reviewer, not being sponsored. Nothing. I just know there's a whole bunch of people out there who wants to know more about the game, without being charged up on the hype train.
Forza Horizon 3, is certainly not this MAJOR leap from Horizon 2 like the fanboys and overly hyped are saying. But I would love to say it's a great step in right direction. Let me begin by saying, that FINALLY we get a racing game that's not set in LA or Tokyo. Australia is great setting for car culture and adventure. The wild life is a nice touch. Both human and beast. (Yes. I just referred humanity to wildlife for obvious reasons.) Racing games have a reputation of being lifeless, and while this game is just SPRINGING with life, like there's not a gang of kangaroos hopping and evading the Horizon festival, there's enough to let you know that the world is alive. It's also a nice touch that the game starts you off as "being the boss", instead of the cliche "work your way to the top" approach most games insist on taking. I'm sure this has been said over a million times, you being the boss, controlling Horizon Festival and all. Create your own tournaments, exhibition races, bucketlist challenges, and send them to your friends to enjoy. Speaking of friends. Ever wanted to shoot a video of your friends cutting up in their cars, but you didn't have a decent camera to do so with? Well the all new drone mode changes that. Get amazing shots of cars, and the landscape with dramatic effects to post up to youtube for the rest of the world to see. Really cool and yes I'll say it "cute" feature to have. And the dynamic weather changes is much better from Horizon 2. It's not raining every to minutes! In Horizon 2, everytime you turn around to sneeze it started to rain. Made you think "how gloomy can a person be, to make them want to make a game where it's raining almost ALL the time.". That's been balanced out here in Horizon 3, and that is a most WELCOMED change.
The car list is just as healthy as it was in Horizon 2. What do you expect from a racing franchise based off car culture? The car customization is just as well as well. The details are spot on, and not one mismatched or out of place part I can speak of. Proportions are all right, and solid. The engine swaps are an awesome feature. Putting a V12 inside of a S13 is insane, and 4 rotor in a Mustang is just batty, But you can do just that. Build a proper street machine, a straight up race machine, or an off road terrorizer. The choice is yours. I'm sure the games main attraction was the inclusion of widebody kits. In fact, I'm positive that's where all this hype is coming from. Who wouldn't want to throw a rocket bunny kit on a FRS/BRZ, and add many decals and graphics to your ride? But this introduction of widebody kits is the games double edged sword. *sigh* time to piss off the fanboys...
But I'm gonna say it, although the customization is slightly larger than other Forza games, it's still NOWHERE near the Likes of Need For Speed. You only get about 19 cars to do such major customization on, Not all are widebody of course. Like the old muscle cars get blowers and that's about it. But nowhere near the depths of the likes of Need For Speed or even The Crew for that matter. You can't change the head or taillights, exhaust tips, and add decals on the windows of your cars like you could on Need For Speed. And of course some cars still have nothing to offer instead of the preset Forza upgrades like front bumper lips and the wing signature Forza wing.
Another problem I'm still having is that the game STILL FORCES you to go off road. Even when you obviously DON'T want to. It makes since if you have an offroad machine. But when I'm cruising in my clean street rides, and going to a location on the map, maybe I want to keep it clean and not risk it getting damaged or clean for the sake of not damaging my work of street art? Forcing even a race car to go off road just to get to a certain location just BUGS me to know end. When I'm cutting up in my Rally Fighter, then I'll consider going off road crazy. But when I'm in my Honda NSX-R or Audi R8 or C5 Z06, I want to hear about cutting threw fields and wrecked ship grave yards to get to any location!
Plus it seems like the developers of the game are still stuck in the past of "no replacement for displacement". It was evident when I passed threw one of the speed traps, and only got a two star rating the woman calls me and says "come back with a bigger engine to go faster". Really? In the days where people are turning over 1500hp in inline6 Supras and Skylines, I have to have a bigger engine to get better speed? The tuning throttling is annoying as well. Got an RB26 R32, R33 or R34? Cars we all know are capable of handling well over 900 horsepower. But nope. I took a R33, and the most I can squeeze out of it was 621hp. But you can take a EB110, and make it one of the fastest cars in the game. Luckely it had a V12. Because that's the only sure fire way of getting those 1320 style power ratings. Just doesn't seem reasonable to me,
The point system might need a little combing as well. Not major. But sometimes when I'm drifting, it seems like the scoring just purpously
stops. And that gets really annoying.
And I get to the biggest problem of all. The cheesy acting. Yes. It's cheesy. Very cheesy. The radio DJ's or cringe worthy. The people who associate with are just as corny. That Warren guy. Maaaan. There was a part in the game where he goes all fangirl emotional over a barn find Holden. And I'm sitting there thinking "really". The acting in Horizon 3 is no improvement over the previous Horizons guys. Sorry.
I would really love to see some features added in future dlc packs. And I really want to see a 4th gen fbody Camaro SS and Trans Am WS6 finally make an appearance as well. Come on. We've got the C5 Z06 and 1995 Cobra R. And the Monte Carlo SS. The 4th gen Camaro SS and Trans Am isn't much to ask for.
I'm sure I'm missing things, but I'm gonna give the game more play time, and come back for things. As of now, this is as unbiased and rational and helpful I can be. Forza Horizon 3 is certainly the best racing game of the year. But CERTAINLY not the greatest racing game EVER like the fanboys want everyone to believe. Go into this game with realistic expectations and you'll let yourself be impressed and left wanting more.
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video-games_xbox
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Not perfect, but very good. Time will only make it better. I got my Xbox One on launch day, so I've had about a while now to play with it and find out what I think about the system. It is an excellent follow-up to the Xbox 360, but not without some minor flaws.
*What I like:*
[+] The dashboard is integrated WAY better than the Xbox 360 and PS3. There is no longer the feeling of "in a game" or "in the dashboard". You are ALWAYS in both. Say you are in the middle of a game but want to spontaneously change a system setting or launch another app etc. Both the 360 and PS3 had some semi-dashboard functionality built into the dashboard/home button, but most everything required you to first exit the game and go to the dashboard (aside from some shortcuts to go straight to a different game). Now, you press the dashboard button and without interrupting your game in any way, you now have access to the full dashboard and settings, etc. There is really no such thing as being required to "quit" a game anymore, which is awesome.
[+] Speed. I always was surprised that through the entire life of the Xbox 360 (including the 360 S and 360 E), there was an unacceptable amount of lag on many core dashboard functions. Something as basic as showing your list of games, or list of gamerpics to change to, or achievement lists, or loading marketplace screens, would often take several seconds of waiting to populate. The Xbox One's startup is acceptably fast, but basic things like loading marketplace content or my list of installed apps, achievements, etc, is very quick. Switching between game and dashboard is no longer the slow annoyance it used to be, but rather is nearly instantaneous.
[+] Dashboard Layout: The Xbox 360 dashboard was too cluttered and poorly organized, in my opinion. There were many different 'sections' to scroll through with LB and RB that made it take longer than necessary to get around. The Xbox One dashboard only has three now, it's much cleaner and simpler. Your pinned games/apps, main section to switch back to currently in-use game/app or browse your other apps, etc, and the third section is for browsing/downloading new games/apps. Very easy to navigate. It's also completely add free. Though at launch, the Xbox 360 had very few ads, and over time Microsoft worked a lot of extra advertising space into the design. So let's keep our fingers crossed that doesn't happen again, especially when you are a subscribing Xbox Live Gold member! I also like the notification and achievement changes. You can earn 0-point achievements in random apps, like for watching videos and such. It's admittedly pretty pointless, but if you don't like the idea of pointless achievements, you can easily ignore their existence.
[+] Built-in game DVR. Very cool feature that removes the need for external recording equipment for anyone interested in that. Even if you don't plan on using this feature, it could still benefit you in the form of more & better guide videos from other people that will likely be swarming onto YouTube.
[+] The controller. Controller design has come a long way since the old Atari joysticks or uncomfortable NES gamepads. I have used Sony's Dual Shock 3, Nintendo's Wii U Pro controller, Xbox 360 controller and Xbox One controller. They are all fantastic. But I must say I always liked the 360 controller the best. The Xbox One controller is simply an improvement upon that one. The only downside to the 360 controller was the mediocre D-pad, which has definitely experienced a massive improvement in the XBO update. They also moved the guide/dashboard button higher, which I like since I used to accidentally hit that when I meant to hit Start/Back. I even like how they redesigned the battery to go inside the controller. It takes slightly longer to swap a battery out, but since I use the USB cable to charge instead of swapping batteries (no Quick Charge Kit yet exists for the One like the 360 has), that doesn't matter at this point. The only thing I don't like is renaming the Start and Back buttons. "Press Menu" sounds way less cool than "Press Start" you're used to on any game's splash screen.
[+] Noise levels and cooling/reliability. Anyone who had a launch Xbox 360 or launch PlayStation 3 (I have both) knows what I'm talking about. Those things were LOUD. Distractingly loud. Even over my high-end surround speakers. The Xbox One's internal fan is very large compared to the launch 360 (google photos if its internals). Large fans can move more air and are not as loud as small fans. This also helps with its reliability, as the Xbox 360's biggest launch issues were overheating problems. Microsoft learned from this and I guarantee that will not be an issue here. I wanted to make sure of this, so I have literally had my Xbox One powered on almost 24 hours a day for the last week since launch day. This is because if it's going to overheat, I want to know now rather than down the line after the warranty is up. And I'm killing two birds with one stone because Killer Instinct has some goals related to how long you are in practice mode, so I leave it idling in practice mode while at work. Yeah, call me crazy. But anyway, so far, it has handled being constantly on for days at a time with not a single issue.
[+] The HDMI-In is definitely a unique feature to the Xbox One that the other consoles can't touch. It's not for everyone; you might not care about it. But it certainly opens up some neat possibilities. Any other HDMI-enabled device you may be interested in using can be switched to and from at a moment's notice. I plugged my PS3 into mine, not for the purpose of gaming (since there is a tiny bit of input lag), but to be able to have a game disc in my XBO and a Blu-ray movie in my PS3 so I can switch without removing the game. I could certainly live without the HDMI input, but since it's there I may as well experiment with some interesting ways to use it.
[+] I obviously can't speak for everyone else, but my Xbox One console, disc drive, controller, and Kinect, all function flawlessly and had absolutely no issues.
*What I don't like:*
[-] Launch line-up. If you are on the fence about buying the console and you're not immediately sure what game(s) to even get for it, you could easily wait it out a while longer. Forza 5 and some of the multi-platform releases are pretty cool (like Need for Speed Rivals), but I'm not sure they're $60 cool. If you are buying the Xbox One now, you're doing it for the novelty of being among the first to have a cutting-edge system. This is true with the PS4 as well. Anybody who swears by any of the launch game is just a fanboy drone. There are a handful of *pretty good* games for both systems, but I see them as more of $30-40 titles. Honestly, I've enjoyed the downloadable Xbox One games the most, such as Killer Instinct, Peggle 2, Halo: Spartan Assault, or the free Kinect Sports trial. A big disappointment is that digital versions of full retail games (like Call of Duty Ghosts) cost MSRP. Until Microsoft shares some of the cost reduction from going all-digital (no marketing, manufacturing, shipping, middle-man retailers, etc), I will ALWAYS buy my games in the form of the retail disc version. A $60 retail game should be $40-50 tops from the Xbox Live Store. It's so backwards that all the retail games are a flat $60 at all times via the Xbox Store, when already Amazon has had various sales that have at some point put them at $39 (Lego Marvel Superheroes) to $49 (almost every launch game). Have some digital sales and permanent price drops and I might actually buy some of them!
[-] No backwards compatibility. This would have been an even more important feature now than it was on the Xbox 360. We've now had eight years to build up a game library on our Xbox 360s. Mine is quite large. Not being able to use that collection as a buffer between Xbox One launch, and when all the great XBO exclusives hit, is very disappointing. The original Xbox only had four years to amass its game library, and since it was the first of Microsoft's consoles, there were far less owners with far less games than now exists with the Xbox 360. A lot of the same sentiments apply to the PlayStation 4. Both consoles could have benefited greatly from a backwards compatibility feature, since neither of their game libraries will be very expansive for at least a year or so. It's also disappointing that I need to keep both consoles connected to my TV. When I bought my Wii U (and PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii), I could give a nostalgic farewell to my Wii (and PS2, Xbox, PS1, GameCube) and disconnect them from my AV setup entirely, while still playing all my games.
[-] There are not yet many ways to show the system off to your friends. The games are nowhere close to pushing the graphics to their limit. The cars on Forza 5 are gorgeous. But Call of Duty and any other multiplatform release will disappoint as far as graphical difference between 360/PS3 and One/PS4. But that's expected, and happens with every new generation. I'm sure the games further down the line will be much more graphically impressive (Titanfall, Destiny, Gears of War, Halo, etc).
[-] Two steps forward, one step backwards: There are many features absent from the new generation of consoles that my last gen consoles have. Firstly, playing 3D Blu-ray movies. My old PlayStation 3 had this feature, but neither the PlayStation 4 nor Xbox One's Blu-ray drives can play 3D movies! Why the step backwards? I know both will likely eventually get an update to add this feature, but it is so lame to see features missing that my old consoles have. Another example of this is the Xbox One's hard drive. 500GB is your only option. There are no higher tiers you can buy like they have for the PS3 and 360, and unlike last generation, this hard drive is *not replaceable*. You also can't view how much of that space you've used, like I could on my 360. I know 500GB sounds like a lot, but I guarantee it will get eaten up much faster than last generation, and you have no way to expand it. And unlike on the 360, you can't add a flash drive or hard drive or any type of external storage. Not just for game saves, but you can't even put music or video files on a flash drive to play from your Xbox One. I still have to turn on my PS3 or 360 for this. There are also fewer USB ports than the Xbox 360 had, and I don't think you can ever have too many USB ports. On the front of the 360, 360 S, and 360 E, there were two USB ports. There are *zero* USB ports on the front of the Xbox One, which makes playing with the Play and Charge USB cable connected undesirable. There is one USB port on the left side, but that means if someone trips on a Play and Charge cable when it's plugged in there, it could damage the port or cable much more than if they were on the front. Another feature we used to have that is mysteriously absent is a recent players list. Just finished a game with someone not on your friend list? Good luck sending them an invite, message, or viewing their gamertag in any way; there is no longer a way to see a list of people you just played with. All hope is not lost though, most of these issues can be resolved in a future system software update, if Microsoft chooses. Some of them will require waiting for a console redesign though, such as swappable hard drives and front USB ports.
*What I'm neutral about:*
[*] The Kinect: Luckily, you aren't required to even have this plugged in so it's not a big deal. But you are forced to buy it with your console anyway, so you might as well find out what it has to offer. Unlike the Xbox 360 Kinect, this one does not scan vertically or self-adjust. The initial setup has an on-screen meter to tell you when the Kinect is pivoted to the perfect vertical angle. Kinect's voice commands are *kind of* cool, but I'm still more of a controller person. I prefer to navigate with my fingers than with my body or voice. I'm glad they made the new Kinect look a little bit neater than the 360's Kinect though. It does have a very much improved camera though. Skype calls with the Kinect are awesome (though outside of the novelty & testing factors, I probably won't use Skype that much). When the full version of Kinect Sports Rivals, and other games designed specifically for Kinect are released, I will probably see more of the value it offers. But for now: eh.
[*] The console's physical design: It actually looks very nice to me. But it does have a small amount of boring-ness to it. It's just a big black box, basically. The key will be to keep the glossy part free of scratches and dust. Glossy consoles are notorious for aging much worse than matte consoles. It's also quite a bit bigger than the Xbox 360 redesigns (but on par with the launch Xbox & Xbox 360 sizes). But I do have to say, I am very glad they are taking precautions to avoid the overheating issues of the launch 360s. The giant cooling heatsink/fan inside, and ample ventilation room inside this ominous monolith, will make it much more reliable and less susceptible to failure; an acceptable trade-off in my mind. I'm sure down the line there will be a smaller version of it. But I didn't want to wait 3-4 years to get it.
*Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4 vs. Wii U*:
It's hard to really compare these in a fair way, because I think all three of them were built for a slightly different audience, and for different purposes. But everyone wants them to be compared anyway, so here I go. So far, I have gotten more mileage out of my Wii U than anything else. But this is simply because Nintendo has had an extra year to come out with some pretty good first-party titles. Its large touch-screen controller is another gimmick as the motion controllers were on the Wii, but many games do manage to use it in a very good way. I would put the Wii U's game library in 1st place compared to the other two consoles, which both have pretty mediocre launch libraries. But again, Wii U had the head start, and in a few years I'm sure all three consoles will have a plethora of great games to choose from. On the other hand, the Wii U gets last place in terms of power/graphics. Most of the games I play are cartooney Nintendo games, so graphical prowess honestly doesn't matter that much. But I have never and will never buy a first-person shooter or multi-platform release on the Wii U, because in those games, awesome graphics can really improve the experience. And the Wii U simply can't compare to the PS4/Xbox One in terms of raw power. Price-wise, obviously the Xbox One gets last place since it costs the most. The PS4 is the most true-to-form gaming console of the three. Hardcore gamers may not find much enjoyment in Nintendo's family-friendly Mario-type games, and the Xbox One was clearly developed with the hope of taking over your cable box and being a big media center instead of just a gaming console. The PS4, like the PS3, has a lot of media capabilities and video streaming apps and so forth, but it was primarily developed primarily to play games. I do have to say, I really like the new controllers on all 3 systems. I would personally give the Xbox One's controller the title of "best", but the Dual Shock 3 and Wii U Pro controllers are also both very good. Nintendo basically copied the Xbox controller on that (other than right thumbstick placement) which is probably why I like it so much. All three consoles are great, honestly. But I don't think you can say one is the best or worst, as they all have very different strengths and weaknesses. I usually just end up getting every console so I don't have to worry about engaging in fanboy "which is better" arguments. But if I could only afford one, I would probably buy the Xbox One due to its *FUTURE* game library (huge Halo fan), and also because, of the three, it easily has the best online multiplayer experience. But if I could only have one console right this second, it would be the Wii U since as of right now, it has the most games worth playing.
*The Bottom Line*:
The Xbox One is a great console with great potential, but as with most launch consoles, the games just aren't quite there to back it up, YET. If you are waiting to get an Xbox One because you're unsure of the game library, you are probably justified in continuing to wait. I honestly just got it because I knew for sure I would eventually get it anyway when Halo 5 comes out. But it the price is holding you back, you may have to wait YEARS for this to become affordable. So if you are okay waiting that long, great. But otherwise you might as well get it now so you can actually use it while you wait for the game library to improve. If you are on the fence over the console because of the 360's launch reliability, I would honestly not let that hold you back on this one since Microsoft learned a very painful & expensive lesson from that, and designed a much more reliable console this time around. Chances are, there won't be any price cuts on it for at least a couple years, and the price cuts aren't usually anything significant until around 4-5 years after launch. So if you have the patience (I didn't), definitely wait. But since I am 98.4% sure the price will still be $499 when Halo 5 comes out, I figured I may as well get it now along with the extra pre-order perks.
A solid system; I definitely do not regret my purchase. 4.5 stars.
Update 2013.12.07:
I've developed a few more thoughts after a couple extra weeks of use. First of all, I got my Killer Instinct milestone of 6000 minutes in Practice Mode complete. For this, I just loaded Practice Mode and literally left my Xbox One powered on for 6000 minutes straight. If you do the math, that is 100 hours or more than 4 straight days. And not just powered on at the Dashboard or a menu, but in a game where it is constantly displaying animated 3D models and doing millions of calculations per second. My point is, that's a pretty good amount of consecutive time to push the console. A launch 360 would probably have red-ringed from doing that, and it would also power the fans so loud you wouldn't be able to hear anything else in the room. The Xbox One stays ultra quiet and ultra cool. Success.
However, I've become less fond of the way achievements are set up. Simply, it takes a long time to scroll through and read what all the achievements are for a game. Each achievement has a hi-res image associated with it, and instead of a large grid of small icons you can quickly glance over and read descriptions for like the 360 had, you have only a few achievements on the screen at a time, and it is quite slow to scroll through, have it download the images and descriptions, and read them all. I hope they improve this experience in future dashboard versions.
One good/bad/neutral (depending on how you look at it) finding is how to invite a friend to a game. It took both me and my friend quite some time to figure out how to even invite each other into a multiplayer game. Coming from the Xbox 360, it is not intuitive at all. There is no "Invite Friend" option. You have to be in the same Xbox Live party, then start a private game, then it automatically tells the other person in the party that a game is ready, and they can choose to join it at that point. It was kind of annoying at first, but hopefully once you understand how it works, it may be quicker than the old way of doing it.
Update 2013.12.29:
I've ran into a few more very minor disappointments relating to features the Xbox One doesn't have that the PS3/360 did have. You can read about this under the "Two steps forward, one step backwards" paragraph.
Update 2014.01.06:
My initial impression of the Kinect was mixed, but after you get over the awkwardness of talking to your Xbox, you can really get some good use out of it. I think game-wise, the best way (for now) to see what the Kinect can offer are the full body motion games like the free Xbox Fitness app, and Dance Central 2014. You can even just view what the Kinect sees by looking for the "What else does Kinect see?" option in your settings menu. It's really cool to see the infrared view, distance-metered view, along with the standard HD view. But for me, the best use of the Kinect, is to no longer need to search for the controller in the dark when watching a movie. "Xbox Pause" and "Xbox Play" commands have gotten a lot of use!
Update 2014.02.25:
As I predicted, Microsoft has addressed many of the shortcomings I mentioned through their February and upcoming March system updates. They have added the should-have-been-included-from-the-start feature to manage your hard drive's contents and see how much free space is available. They added a controller battery level monitor icon on the dashboard. March's update will be improving party chat and adding a recent players list that I mentioned was a last-gen feature mysteriously absent from this console. However, I am still (im)patiently waiting on 3D Blu-ray support, and USB storage support, among other nitpicks listed in my original review. Hopefully Microsoft keeps listening to user feedback. The updates thus far are promising, but they still have some work to do.
Update 2014.03.08:
This may be the final helpful tip I have on this review: The new Titanfall Xbox One bundle is the same thing for the same price, but includes a full download of Titanfall, so you should probably plan on purchasing that one instead of this. Enjoy!
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video-games_xbox
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Bioshock - Dissenting Opinion. The game Bioshock has been rated highly by the player community and the game press, but I find that the game has serious shortcomings that really reduce the enjoyment of the game.
It's hard to rank the flaws from serious to less serious, but they add up.
The game is primarily a first person shooter. As such the weapons, challenges and non-player character behavior is important to player enjoyment. In Bioshock, the weaponry starts underpowered, and fails to progress at a rate that keeps up with challenge difficulty, even though the game designers provide sparse and highly scripted "weapons upgrades". The NPC algorithms are primitive, for instance the routing algorithms are highly flawed (NPCs go to odd or impossible places and often get stuck) and the designers use ultra high speed translation by NPCs such as the splicers or "Rosies" exhibit to enhance difficulty. This speed motion often seems unfair and frustrating. At other points in the game, the designers provided "barrier" puzzles that simply consist of lots of NPCs gangin up on the player. It's easy to eventually defeat these puzzles, but not rewarding at all. Contrast Bioshock to Half-life2 where the player is constantly involved in trying to figure out what happened or what the authorities or covenant are up to in order to progress. Bioshock is nowhere near the Half-Life caliber of game play.
Then there is the art work. Bless the artists for putting so much style into this game, but the game seems to be designed for the sake of the art, and I have to say, it is not that impressive. The style is 50s modern or in many cases 50s noveau-deco and although initially entrancing, is highly repetitive and becomes tiresome after several hours of game play. For instance there are only four or five variations of NPC splicers - they all look the same.
Bioshock is set undersea, and the rendering of water and aquatic scenes is supposed to be the big artistic achievement, but frankly the water rendering (as on XBox-360) is not all that impressive. Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls III had much better fluid physics, tranparency, fog and refraction in its rendering of water than Bioshock and it was rendered on a much older engine and technology, XBox circa 2002.
The event that finally put me over the edge (I refrained from throwing my controller through my LCD, but just barely) was the entirely frustrating finall boss battle. I won't reveal the end, but who's idiotic idea was it anyway to refuse players the right to save their game during this battle? Are we trying to prove the level designer is more manly than the players or something.
In short I recommend that prospective players or gift buyers simply skip Bioshock and go to Half-Life2 orange box, a true masterwork in the FPS/Adventure genre.
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video-games_xbox
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Damnation...is what this game deserves. There was a lot of hype surrounding Damnation, but I didn't really pay attention because I was too busy working and waiting gleefully for Batman: Arkam Asylam. But sadly, it got pushed back to Fall, and my local Blockbuster was fresh out of copies of Red Faction: Guerrila and Protoype. So here we are, Damnation. A game I played for about fours until I realised there was something far more interesting and enertaining in the cubbard underneath my kitchen sink. It's sad becasue this game had a lot going for it. Giant steam-powered motor cycles, platforming/parkour elements, giant steam-powered motor cycles, a ruthlessly steampunk art deco, and of course, giant steam-powered motor cycles. On paper, all of these elements sound to make one heck of a shooter. However, Damnation does the impossible and falls completely flat on it's overhyped face.
For starters, the story doesn't make a lick of sence. It approaches the player like we're supposed to know the basic story and all of the characters and their ambitions without even playing it. Like I said, I didn't follow Damnation through the hype train, so if something was exlpained in an article or video, then I guess I didn't here it, but it still won't earn any points in my book. I mean, I didn't follow the first Gears of War on the hype train either, but I still understood the basic story just fine. And that plot was bananas! The charcters range from eye-rollingly cliche(mainly the lead protagonist) to painfully annoying (mainly everyone). For a game that looks like it's all about the story and narritive, it all feels like an after thought.
Before I go on, let me say this. Developers. You want to make a steam-punk video game? Great! But before you do, watch "Steamboy" or just about any movie from Hayao Miyazaki. That is what steampunk is and what it should be. I mention this because the whole steampunk direction of Damnation was royally screwed over. The whole point of steampunk is to merge old world design/technology with modern design/technology and give it a flare of fantasy. In Damnation, steampunk means having some steam powered guns and vehicals, painting everthing gun-metal grey and depressing-uninteresting brown, and include so much grit it would make a shellshocked war veteran with no eyes break into tears. I know steampunk has a lot of different styles, but this is definetly not a good look. While some games can look good with all of the colors of the dirt spectrum, like Gears of War, "depressing grit" does not belong in steampunk.
It appears that I've compared Damnation to Gears of War twice in this review. Why? Because Damnation has a lot things that seem they were taken from Gears. The atmosphere, the narrative, the awful vehical sections, heck, I'm even gonna go on a limb and say that Damnation is trying to be Gears of War. The guns look and sound almost like the ones in Gears, the laughable "gore system" is very remenicent of the one in Gears, the friendly and enemy AI has the same (low) IQ of the AI in Gears, all that it's missing is a cover system. Which is ironic, because that's one of main things this game needs. Enemies spam almost all the time and you'll die after a few shots. Crouching behind walls will only block your aiming, and sure you can fire over ledges you hang from, but you can only use your pistol and you'll rarley find ammo for it. Speaking of which...
The only thing that I mostly enjoyed was the parkour mechanics. While they weren't as intuitive or as fluid as say the Prince of Persia series or Assassin's Creed, they're simple and get the job done say for a few problems. While games like Assassin's Creed allow you to free run all over the place, Damnation's parkour follws moslty a linear path. Also, the camera isn't much of a team player as sometimes it will be facing a direction that seriously hinders your veiw of a ledge or platform, even the ocasional bottomless pit. Most of the time moving it will help, but there will be certain cases where the camera will get caught in the geometry of the level.
I moslty blame the bad camera for the level design. The levels are a mess of buildings and structures, and it's never clear which ones you can climb or which one leads to your objective. Add the fact that there is no in-game map, and you can bet that you'll be running around a level trying to figure out where to go more than once. There are also moments where the level will kill you even if you're a tad off on your precision. There were many times were I barley miss or even see a ledge and I'd fall into a pit. This annoyance occurs both in the on foot sections and vehical sections. The game makes up for this by have a lot of checkpoints. But still, nobody likes dying over stupid reasons.
There is a word that describes Damnation, and that word is "Rushed",and the game reeks of it. An unimaginative story (if you can even follow it), bland graphics and animations, and there are bugs glitches at almost every corner. If the developers took less time on the art direction, and spent most of their time and moeny on fine tuning the gameplay, Damnation would've made a fantastic shooter. As I've said in my Turning Point review, focusing on art and art alone while making shooter is a very bad tactic that'll only end in horrid mechanics and bad AI.
While Damnation isn't a bad game neccassarily , it's faaar from a good one
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video-games_xbox
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Not a Fan of the Direction COD is Taking. Okay, so to begin, my review is strictly 100% based on online multiplayer. I've been playing COD online since the World at War days. I know it's a long review but I want it to be very thorough.
For me personally, I am rather disappointed in the game overall. I feel as if COD keeps evolving and has officially gotten to a point where it has just simply gone too far and the game makers are trying to do too much. I personally enjoyed playing Modern Warfare 2 and 3 and was pleased with Black Ops 2 due to the fact that the guns and equpient used were real. You were shooting actual guns that actually existed and were using kill streak rewards that also actually existed. Back then the gameplay was simple and competitive; you had a gun, a couple grenades, and a tactical item and killstreaks (or scorestreaks in this game). Simple yet satisfying by all means. Now it has evolved to this scifi/fantasy where you have a futuristic gun, several types of futuristic/unrealistic grenades, jump suits, Exo abilities, and scorestreaks all on top of that (you can make a very strong argument that they basically copied and pasted the Titanfall formula). And in my opinion it is just too much. They had the perfect formula back in the Modern Warfare days and now due to the fact that they make a new game every year and are continuously looking for new ideas, they have strayed away from that formula.
Also, speaking of the killstreaks, this COD may contain the worst set of killstreaks of any game in the series. None of them seem to be overwhelmingly helpful except for maybe the last two. This to me was probably the biggest disappointment. Killstreaks were what set COD apart from many FPS games, and to dilute it down as much as they did in this game simply makes me cringe. They also have what is called a Goliath suit (which, as a scorestreak, is painfully worthless). It is basically a carbon copy of the titans in Titanfall. I mean, come on, they aren't even trying to hide the fact that they took some of Titanfall's ideas and incorporated it into this game. I do like the Black Ops 2 approach by making it a scorestreak as opposed to a killstreak, making more players play toward the objective of the game as opposed to going strictly for kills.
The maps are underwhelming if you ask me. They do have the necessary attributes to account for the new jumping abilities but that's all the nice things I have to say about the maps. They aren't bad but they don't really bring anything new to the table.
The spawn system they have is also pretty bad. It's not as bad as Ghosts - which is practically impossible beat as far as horrendous spawns go - but I do feel like I am constantly getting shot at from all directions, which is pretty annoying to be honest. I've even had times where I've spawned and gotten a free kill due to having another players back towards me after taking only a few steps after spawning.
All in all it can be enjoyable to play sometimes, but for the most part I do feel strongly disappointed in the game overall. They have completely strayed away from the formula that put COD on the map to begin with, and after being a fan for such a longtime, it is frustrating to see the direction they are taking.
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video-games_xbox
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The Western Genre Finally Done Justice In a Videogame. While the Western genre was represented in videogames from the early days of arcades and consoles (Outlaw on the Atari 2600, Gun. Smoke in the arcade, and Wild Gunman for the NES are just a few that come to mind), the genre has always taken a back seat to other themes, such as military action, high fantasy, or sci-fi. As a uniquely North American setting, and one wrought with controversy over the battle between settlers and Native Americans, the appeal to a worldwide gaming audience wasn't quite as enticing to publishers. To make matters even more difficult, much of the charm of the Western genre comes from the aesthetics: wide open spaces, a sense of loneliness and desolation, and an archaic feel that teeters on the cusp between the young days of the United States, and its emergence into modern living. With the advent of 3D, "open world" games on the PS2, Xbox, and their current successors, it would have seemed as if that intangible essence could finally be captured in game form. However, the first major attempt at this, the 2005 title "Gun", ended up disappointing many despite its positives, with its lack of content and surprisingly small rendition of the old West. When Rockstar Games, the home of the GTA series, announced an open-world pseudo-sequel to the Western action game Red Dead Revolver, the question lingered as to whether they would learn from the mistakes made by Activision's development of Gun.
Well, the good news is that RDR manages to make good on the concept of a Western open-world game, and with a vengeance. Without giving too much away, RDR encompasses 3 of the major archetypes of Western movies in each of its acts: the traditional "sheriffs, tumbleweeds and wastelands" type of Western, the "spaghetti Western" sub-type set in a volatile Mexico, and the more "socially conscious" Western a la "Pale Rider", set in more northernly climes. Linking these 3 themes is the story of John Marston, a former outlaw forced back into the gunslinger lifestyle by shady government agents, who need his help in hunting down his old cohorts. The game takes place in the early 1900s, as the Old West slowly fades into the wind in the face of encroaching technology and societal development. That's not to say that the game eschews the traditional vistas of westerns; in fact, the march of progress is more of a vague backgroun murmur. You'll ride through prairies, pine forests, deserts scrublands, red-hued mesa canyons, moss-laden swamplands, Mexican villas and forts, snow-covered highlands, and rough 'n tumble towns.
Wagon-trains, locomotives, and horseback riding are the means of transportation here, and whether you prefer a six-shooter revolver, or a lever-action rifle, there's always the threat of your brand of frontier justice buying you more trouble than you thought it would. To that end, you'll end up learning to use the slow-motion "Dead Eye" to not only win duels at high noon, but to hunt wildlife, or to shoot the rope off the neck of an unfortunate lynching victim in order to save her. Yes, you heard right- out and out heroics in a title from the house that Grand Theft Auto built. RDR gives you the choice to build a reputation as either a hero or a villain, although the main storyline will still play out the same way. And there's no doubt- this is a world in need of a hero, even if many of the stories you become involved in along the way end up taking a dark turn (in typical Rockstar Games fashion, the spirit of sarcasm and dark humor is alive and well here). Marston, while certainly not a white-hat wearing saint, is certainly more akin to the traditional hero than the stars of prior epics to come out of the Rockstar stable.
You'll get more chances to make that choice than in GTA IV. While the number of "proper" side missions is still a bit too skimpy for me, the developers have placed a fair amount of random encounters and tasks that will pop up at any given time. These can include rescuing a man's wife from a hanging, stopping a stagecoach robbery, foiling a kidnapping, transporting dynamite on a wagon, giving a stranded person a ride to town while fighting off bandits, or catching a horse thief. There are also various challenges involving hunting, the ability to become a night patrol deputy, and of course, the perennial favorite of the frontier- bounty hunting. Gambling, horse-breaking, and "five finger filet" round out the activities. Also available is the opportunity to replay story missions you've already completed. And then there's just the simple joy of riding out into the wilderness, which is rendered surprisingly well, and with a stupendous feel for atmosphere. Few games have succeeded as well in rendering a real sense of time and place, with moody lighting and art design that really works. While the focus is ostensibly on the single-player experience, there's a surprisingly robust on-line multiplayer component, that uses the environments of the single-player game. I've only played a little of it, but it certainly felt entertaining, even to a primarily single-player gamer like myself.
I would be remiss if I didn't note the shortcomings, even in a well-crafted game such as this. As was the case with GTA III, the third act of the story felt relatively truncated and rushed in comparison to the earlier parts of the game, as if the final deadline suddenly popped up, and forced the developers to hurriedly wrap up the storyline. The controls are still somewhat awkward, even if ostensibly made so in an attempt to give your character "weight" and realism. And let's not forget, the setting does not lend itself to the type of chaos and wanton destruction that GTA fans might crave (although the ability to lasso and drag any given bystander behind your horse does present quite a temptation to the inner miscreant in us all). The game is more contemplative and reflective than your typical open-world free-for-all.....yet does manage to feel more fun than you would expect, in part due to a more liberal dosage of things to do outside the storyline. In sum, I'd recommend it both due to the fact that there's really nothing else out there that fills this niche, and due to the fact that aspects such as the mission replay feature and the constant stream of random mini-missions and distractions gives the single player aspect of the game more longevity than you'd expect. Recommended!
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video-games_xbox
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To be or not to be an expanison pack. Halo: ODST was rumoured a small expansion to Halo 3. However, what you get is a six hour campaign which further expands the boundaries than that of Halo 3, a great new mode built on cooperative called Firefight and an entire second disc filled with every single map released for Halo 3's multiplayer.
Halo: ODST brings about some changes, there is no Master Chief and there is no sight of the game being played by his rules. This includes no dual wielding, recharging shields and gravity won't feel mocked anymore by Chief's jumping. Instead, you'll take the role of the Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, or ODST. These guys don't have all of the strengths of the Chief. They can only aim one weapon at a time. They have a health bar that requires health packs to restore once their light overshield is depleted. They can't jump as high or fall as far or take as many bullets without stumbling into Death's open arms. They handle quite like Master Chief did in Halo: Combat Evolved, and they have a powerful scoped pistol to complete the throwback feel.
The ODST may handle like the Halo of yester year but the campaign among other modes is as fresh and exciting as one could hope for. With the Chief sitting this one out, Bungie has gone from its usual Spartan driven romp and has focused on a more character driven, thus creating one of the most satisfying Halo storylines yet in the franchise. The ODST actions take place during the events of Halo 2 (ah, the memories), just as Master Chief is wreaking havoc on the Covenant and forcing the Prophet of Regret to make an emergency slipstream escape.
However, the big guns of this army is the the new mode firefight. The action is non-stop with one random wave of Covenant foes coming after another. As you make it further into the match, difficulty modifiers, called skulls, get turned on, dramatically increasing the level of challenge. It's a hell of great time. My match with some mates lasted just under three hours and by the end of it all we restarted for another load of fun. Good times.
Halo 3: ODST isn't a true sequel, but it is more than a standard expansion. If you're on the fence about buying it, drop your reservations and go snag a copy. If you love Halo, you owe it to yourself to pick this up as soon as you can.
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video-games_xbox
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A great game! Have you ever wondered what video game . A great game!
Have you ever wondered what video game is for you? If you like sports and especially the NFL, this is the game for you. Madden 17 for Xbox One is a top of the line sports game. For whatever console, you play on, buying Madden 17 won't be a mistake. Being an avid gamer for years Madden has never let me down. It has continued to improve they game play and graphics every year. Since playing Madden I have never even thought about buying another game. Playing other games just doesnt give me the thrill, like engineering a 4th quarter come back to win the game against your friend. Then being able to trash talk after. Madden 17 is the game for you if your serious into the best sports gaming.
Gameplay:
Madden 17 took a whole new step when it comes to gameplay in video games. The graphics are incredible, every year they are getting more realistic. Madden has added new mechanics and improved the gameplay to make it more realistic than ever. They added what you call special moves The special moves are juke moves, spin moves, and truck moves. Each play has a different rating for these moves. Depending on their overall for the move is how well they can do it. Also, Madden has online games, and connected franchises where you can start a franchise online with all you friends. Online games put you to the true test. It shows if you can be the best or not. With connected franchises, it tests your football knowledge. You must play the game and run the team. Its the ultimate challenge. Are you up to it?
Quality:
The quality of Madden 17 is like no other. For just $60 you can buy madden 17. With just spending $60 you can create memories that will last a lifetime. If you think about it, what else can you spend $60 on and enjoy it like Madden 17. I cant go anywhere else and spend $60 and have fun like I do playing madden. The best part if you can play it when you want, by yourself or with your friends. Its up to you.
I would recommend Madden 17 to anyone looking to get serious in to gaming. Madden 17 will take you into a whole new level of high quality gaming. Madden is great for anyone who loves football and cant get enough of it. Buy Madden 17 and youll never want to go back to any game ever again.
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video-games_xbox
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The Dead Rise Again...Time For Some Fun. Dead Rising was one of the initial XBox 360 Launch titles that left a huge impression on fans of Microsoft's titanic console. You either loved it, or you hated it. Now, 4 years and several generations of 360 console design later, we have Dead Rising 2, a modest but ultimately rewarding update to one of the 360's most classic "killer apps".
Story:
Picking up several years after the events of the first game, we are introduced to a new protagonist. Chuck Greene, a former motocross champion and devoted father, has been doing anything he can to obtain Zombrex, the only drug that can successfully counteract the zombie virus. His daughter Katie was infected a few years prior to the events of Dead Rising 2 in the Las Vegas outbreak (non-gameplay story element). Unfortunately, Zombrex is a severely temporary measure and the poor girl must receive her Zombrex dose every 12 (and later, every 24) hours or else she too will turn. Chuck enters the "Terror Is Reality" Pay-Per-View game show in order to win money for Zombrex, but the flamboyant and over-the-top host of the show may have other plans. Soon, Chuck and Katie find themselves stuck in the middle of another major outbreak...now the third major U.S. outbreak since the initial Willamette incident. However, Chuck soon discovers that this outbreak was definitely not an accident, and has only 72 hours to clear his name and escape Fortune City.
It's not too complex, but the story picks up nicely after the events of the first game, and 2 years after Case:ZERO (DLC prequel). Chuck is an extremely likable character, and even his daughter Katey is too sweet not to like...an unusual trait for a capcom game as their child characters are commonly irritating. In typical Capcom zombie game fashion, there is a huge twist and conspiracy. Thankfully, Dead Rising 2 does not seem to be getting as out-of-control as Resident Evil's story has become, though I fear for the future of the franchise. For now, the story is typical horror movie and zombie game fare and is an enjoyable element to the game, not to mention there are plenty of characters to meet, from devious incestuous sisters to sultry reporters and a whole new slew of irritating psychopaths.
Gameplay:
Similar to Dead Rising but much improved, the newest and best feature has to be the weapon creation system. Seemingly random pairings of objects can create devastating new weapons for you to use, and half the fun is figuring out how to obtain these said devices (unless you cheat and use the internet you ninny). There are now more zombies on screen than ever before, and Survivor AI is VASTLY improved. No longer will they stand around like idiots, getting themselves killed...stick a weapon in their hands and you've got a very useful AI partner to tag along with you for as long as you want to keep them around. Unfortunately you still can't issue them any orders other than going to a specified target area or calling them back to you. Chuck has different abilities than Frank, and the RPG-ish character progression system is identical to Dead Rising, except you don't have to worry about taking pictures for "PP" (Prestige Points). I can't help but chuckle when the game tells me I received 10,000 PP, but that's besides the point.
The Mission system is also virtually identical to Dead Rising, though there is a tad more variety this time. Some rescue missions require you to fetch object, or even pay money to the survivors to come with you...sometimes thousands of dollars! The game is designed so that you basically cannot beat it in one play, as there is simply too much going on and you will not make it in time. It is identical to Dead Rising in that the game basically boils down to a hectic and stressful time-management game.
Mechanics:
The game moves and sounds great. Load times are awful but it is to be expected...the game is HUGE and there are more areas to explore than the previous game. Vehicles, weapons and random objects all function fine, and the single player experience is relatively fluid with few glitches. However...
Multiplayer:
A first in the Dead Rising series, now your friend can jump in as a second Chuck to help you with the game. This is LOADS of fun and adds tremendous replay value, though it is incredibly glitchy and can result in strange things happening to your save files and characters. You cannot separate and must always remain in the same zone, but you can split up to cover more ground within that zone, and the game handles it VERY well. However, the competitive multiplayer "Terror Is Reality" mode can be very glitchy and completely unplayable...many times my "Zomboni" wouldn't grind any zombies, leaving me scoreless in the Zomboni game. Other times the system lag or poor connection just totally botches your scores or progress in each mini game. While fun, TIR gets stale when you spend 75% of your time losing connection to your opponent or experiencing glitches that make it unplayable.
Overall:
A fantastic update to one of the 360's best launch titles. Capcom nailed it in the fun department but there really isn't enough difference from the previous game to truly set it apart. IF anything, it is a great upgrade, but still feels the same. Let's finish up with Pros & Cons:
Pros:
- Weapon Creation system is fun and discovering all of the combinations is half the game
- Fortune City is huge and there's always more stuff to find...you may NEVER find everything in the game
- Improved Survivor AI makes rescue missions less of a chore and more fun. They fight so well that chances are you'll inadvertently kill them, not zombies!
- Multiplayer Co-op is ingenious and adds a whole new (if glitchy) dimension to the game
- Tremendous replay value - there's so much to see and do that it will take you many playthroughs to experience it all
- Not for the squeamish: When the gore isn't in your face, there's enough sex and innuendo around every corner to satiate all your primitive desires (no nudity or actual sex, perv).
- Game is designed for multiple playthroughs - you just won't beat it all in your first try
Cons:
- Extremely glitchy multiplayer Terror is Reality game, as well as possibly character/save file damaging errors in co-op
- The game boils down to stressful and frustrating time management for pretty much the entirety of the story
- Archaic and unforgiving save system means that if you neglect to save you could potentially lose HOURS UPON HOURS of progress.
- While replay value is very high, repetition can tedious and ultimately the game may become boring
- No user-designated waypoint on the map...seriously? NO WAYPOINT MAKING ON THE MAP? It's 2010 CAPCOM! YOU'RE 15 YEARS BEHIND!
- Psychopaths are ridiculously hard at earlier levels, and some have no obvious weaknesses making them exceptionally irritating and a chore to fight
- Game is designed for multiple playthroughs - you just won't beat it all in your first, or second...maybe even third try.
- Overtime Mode (the game's post-story climax) is ultimately a letdown
- No more survivor death scenes, one of the first game's most gruesome features. In fact, it's a CHORE to get the survivors killed!
- Overtly racist and viciously anti-American overtones and stereotypes may offend some players
In conclusion, I would say that if you loved the first game, give this one shot. If you're moderately interested in sandbox-type games, give it a look. Casual gamers turned off by replay and tedium may want to stay away.
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video-games_xbox
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Damn good. A long time ago I picked up a role-playing game at Gen Con titled "<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Abyss/dp/1896983006/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Abyss</a>" which was a reimagining of "Dante's Inferno" on steroids. It was gloriously violent, decadent, and imaginative. When the Open Game License was released for Dungeons & Dragons came out, I was convinced this was the chance for "Abyss" to triumphantly return and, after tracking down the license holder and a publisher, wrote an entire book for the game. But then the 4th Edition of D&D was released and the publisher's interest waned. "Dante's Inferno," the video game by Visceral Games, is what I imagine that tabletop game would have looked like.
When I completed my manuscript I sent it to my cousin, a <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/renowned-scholar/dp/0915838184/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">renowned scholar)</a> on "Dante's Inferno." He demurred criticism, explaining that he had never played a video game before (it was a tabletop game remember) but that he appreciated the effort. I imagine that's the response most people familiar with Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy" will feel about this game: it's not very accurate, but if the kids are interested in literature that's a good thing, right?
In the video game, Dante Alighieri (Graham McTavish) is transformed from an Italian poet to a Templar Knight on the Third Crusade. A deeply flawed warrior, he manages to break his vow to Beatrice (Vanessa Branch) before slaughtering Muslim prisoners of war at the city of Acre. Sin and death surrounds Dante, from his doomed fellow crusader and brother-in-law Francesco (Tom Tate) to his brutal father Alighiero (JB Blanc) to his forlorn mother Bella (Pollyana McIntosh). Dante's disillusionment is central to the belief that as a Templar his soul is untouched by the murders he commits - it is a credit to "Dante's Inferno" that it takes on such weighty matters as the Papal Bull of the Crusade. But Dante is one tough mother, so when he is stabbed in the back and death comes for him, Dante wrestles the Geiger-like scythe from him and proceeds on a quest to return to Beatrice...only to discover that Satan has absconded with her soul into hell. Thus begins Dante's descent, accompanied only by the poet Virgil (Bart McCarthy).
And that's the part we've all been waiting for: fighting in literature's most infamous hellscape. The nine circles of hell are lovingly (hatefully?) inspired by Hieronymous Bosch and other medieval artists: ferrying with Charon, battling Minos, resisting Cleopatra, slaying the many-mouthed Cerberus, facing his father's greed, and overcoming the gigantic fire demon Phlegyas.
It's impossible not to learn about the original text by playing "Dante's Inferno" - a quote flies at you every time you die. There are a variety of damned souls throughout that can be saved or condemned through mini-games which in turn gives you new powers, all of them drawn from the poem. You can't help but admire a game that's willing to teach you a piece of classic literature even as you beat it up.
There are a lot of flourishes in "Dante's Inferno" that have nothing to do with the poem and everything to do with its predecessors, "Devil May Cry" and "God of War," from the big honking scythe to the fact that Dante can fight for up to ten seconds in mid-air, from the completely unnecessary tassels that dangle from his arms to the power-ups that reward you for button mashing. This is a game where strategy is not so much rewarded as beaten out of you. And yet "Dante's Inferno" is also a jumping, puzzling game, brutally uncompromising in sending Dante to his doom. The medium difficulty is just about right for fighting but makes many of the other challenges too hard; the easy setting makes the various puzzles surmountable but the fighting too easy.
By the sixth circle the creative team behind "Dante's Inferno" seems to have run out of steam. Whereas in the previous circles we were gifted with whirling two-headed demons that spilled gold, corrupt infants with blades for hands, moaning temptresses with tentacles unfurling from their abdomens, and shuddering behemoths of disgusting filth, the sixth circle just starts repeating itself. We get horned demons, then horned demons with axe and shield, and then horned demons with wings and two swords that can turn into flames. The eighth circle with its ten "bolgie" is the worst, as a narrator explains the sinners and sins rather than actually showing them - after spending hours with wailing corpses flailing, boiling, and skewered, it's obvious the design team ran out of ideas and budget. Things don't pick up again until the last circle, when you face down Satan himself. Compared to earlier battles, the final fight was a cakewalk.
The end of "Dante's Inferno" isn't the end of course - in the game or in the poem - but it will be interesting to see if Visceral Games can make Purgatory just as compelling.
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video-games_xbox
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The Metamorphosis of Shay- Rogue Assassin. I'm a fan of Assassin's Creed, so I was willing to go for more. This video game is recommended for older teenagers, tho its not as extreme as video games set in modern times, so I'd let a mature 13 year old play it. It requires 1 GB of free memory on your Xbox, so I had to free up space to upload it. This might be a problem for some people, tho. The game comes with a download voucher for FREE in game content, that you get thru your Xbox live account. The free content is THE SIEGE OF FORT de SABLE, a fort raiding mission. Lots of fun no doubt, but only if you have an Xbox live account. Mine expired.
The first thing that impressed me was how detailed and exact the artwork is for the game. Like the other AC game, you start out stranded on an island, looking for an assassin, tho this time everything is covered in snow, instead of being tropical. However, the missions change, from arctic sea battles, forts, and old NYC, you'll be entertained by the different locals. The Rogue assassin, Shay, has a very cool story arc in this game. Another nice feature to AC Rogue, is the lack of loud looping rock songs. So if you want to listen to your favorite tunes while playing this, the game sounds won't disrupt you for the most part. Another feature I liked, was that they didn't overload the game controller with difficult to remember commands. I'm not the world's best gamer, so sometimes this can be a problem for me. They do have a cool power--eagle vision, that you get when you press down the up/down button.
Overall, its a fun addition for fans of the Assassin's Creed videogames. However, if you've never played an Assassin's Creed game before, don't worry, you don't need to know any backstory to play or enjoy what's going on here. I might recommend renting some version of AC from a BOX painted RED, if you know nothing about the game, prior to buying this edition. If the AC story or characters don't click with you, I'd pass this by as well.
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video-games_xbox
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Great game with just a few flaws. I hadn't played any of the other Grand Theft Auto games before I got "San Andreas" for the Xbox, but I pretty much knew what to expect before I started playing it. Still, the game exceeded my expectations and is a blast to play. Allow me to list the things I like about it, before I make a few complaints:
You control a character named CJ in a free-ranging storyline that takes you to three different cities. The game world feels big, and the quests will take you to every part of the map. Although the three cities are just a tiny fraction of the size of the real cities they're representing (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas), they still contain lots of different neighborhoods and it will take ages to explore each one. (And you will have an incentive to explore each city carefully, as each one is full of a different kind of easter egg you can collect to improve your final score.) The ghettos of Las Santos, the hippie areas of San Fierro and the neon glitz of Las Venturas all nicely reflect the popular images of the cities they're imitating. In between the cities there are woods, a desert, waterways, mountains, farms -- the design of the game world was done with lots of care and attention to detail.
I love the multiple radio formats. It's great to cycle through the stations and pick appropriate music for the current setting and mission. And I normally listen to rock and hip-hop, but even the reggae and country music stations in "San Andreas" sound good to me. They obviously spent some time in assembling the songs to get a representative list for each genre, and I dig being able to hear stuff from bands like L7 and Black Uhuru that I'm not familiar with. The DJs do fine work as well; Chuck D as the bombastic old-school rap DJ ("I don't even get paid to do this! I spin these records as a public service!") and Axl Rose as the classic rock DJ (and former lead singer of ersatz band "Crystal Ship") are wonderfully self-aware parodies. I would have liked to have a classic jazz station too or a spoof on NPR, but really -- I have nothing to complain about because the radio aspect of "San Andreas" is exceptional. Even the commercials are wickedly satirical.
I love the varied gameplay. Of course you do a lot of driving in "San Andreas", but there are over 100 different vehicles, from monster trucks to sports cars to bicycles to helicopters. Bouncing through the streets of hilly San Fierro on a motorcycle is a genuine thrill. Many of the quests are of the "deliver this package" or "kill that informant" variety, but there are plenty of more original ones, such as one where you have to drive around with a Mafia guy tied down to your hood until he's scared enough to squeal, one where you street-race a souped-up low-rider through Los Santos, and even one where you have to dance to the rhythm of a particular song to allow you to jack a van full of audio equipment.
The optional side quests are also terrific -- you can assume the role of an ambulance driver, a delivery courier, a vigilante policeman, a fireman, a car thief, a taxi driver -- there are always things you can do outside of the main quest line. There are minigames galore, such as training sessions for driving and flying; you can play pool for money against the shark at the local bar; arcade games at the convenience store; even a demolition derby. You can also get extra money for doing "insane" stunts, like driving off the side of a mountain and bailing out with a parachute.
The details are well-realized too. There are about seven classes of guns in the game, from a pistol-with-silencer to a sawed-off shotgun to a sniper rifle. You can perform melee attacks with items such as a pool stick, a samurai sword, a chainsaw or a bunch of flowers. You can buy all manner of clothes for CJ -- I have him wearing the "Helmut", a spiked metal helmet that makes him look Prussian, sort of. You can get different tattoos and hair styles. You can date different girls with different temperaments. You'll recognize a lot of Hollywood stars among the voice actors, but even the non-famous voice work is good.
And my niggling complaints:
I know that "shooty" games are harder to interface with on consoles than on PCs, because joysticks don't allow as much accuracy as mice when aiming, but "San Andreas" makes it TOO easy by allowing you to press a button to auto-aim at enemies in front of you. I know this game is cartoonishly violent (that's one of its strong points), but it still seemed unbalanced to me that I could single-handedly mow down ten or twenty enemies just by crouching and quickly cycling through them with the auto-aim.
Also, I know that this is very much an adult game, with tons of swearing and violence -- I don't mind that. It seems slightly strange to me though that "bitches" and "hos" are so common (one mission description even says "Take the ho downtown to the hotel"), but I've heard no racial epithets in the game. These characters would definitely be throwing around the "n-word" to each other if their slangy conversation were true-to-life. I guess it wasn't worth the controversy to include it.
And I seriously wish you could drive a bus in the game. How funny would it be if CJ was able to jack a school bus and do a mission where he had to pick up a bunch of kids and take them to school? I don't blame the makers of the game for not including kids anywhere though -- it's not a game for (or about) children in any way.
But as you can see, my complaints are pretty small. "San Andreas" is hilariously profane, over-the-top violent, satirical, varied, open-ended, detailed, funny -- it's practically the perfect game.
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video-games_xbox
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Same Old, Same Old. Due to lack of reviews after this game being out a week so far, I'm finding the fanfare Yukes tried to hype this game is turning out worse than 2009 in which TWO releases of WWE games couldn't even come close to match the sales of SvR 2008. I have played this game several times with a friend, and I will list off several things to warn buyers;
-If you didn't get the code for Austin; beware. Austin IS on the disc... the "download" for him is nothing more than a key to open him... it was 106KB when it should've been around 100MB.
-No Inter-Gender fights... period. Yeah, not too big of a deal, but this country needs to stop being so prudish and accept we all poop. It won't kill anyone to allow it.
-Title belts are even smaller this year. The ECW Title is roughly 70% smaller than it's real-life counterpart... it's almost absurd. Does Yukes use the Kids Replicas to make the Titles?
-Several match types are available in the Road to Wrestlemania stories... but you can't play them in Exhibition. Special Referee and I Quit are just a couple... why the heck was this even allowed? Also, why is Shane McMahon a huge part of the RTWM's but not a playable character?
-All animations that are listed as "New" are not always the case. Roughly half of the move animations that are "new" were just removed from previous versions and added back into the game.
-If you download a CAW online... you cannot edit ANYTHING on them. They will have either no theme, the RAW theme... you're stuck with what you download.
-Story Designer MAY have been worth it, but for 360 unless you pay for Live... you can't upload them online. On top of that, words are censored online that make no sense; "mystery", "horsemen", and "groin" are a few. Even Ron Simmons' catchphrase is censored.... yet available as a graphic for both CAW parts and for Reels. On top of that, "CHRISTIAN" is censored! That's right, can't use the wrestler's name online because it's a religion as well!
-No game play mechanic improvements to be found. Minor cosmetic changes were made. The Havok engine makes the ropes move more realistically but they still have more bugs than ever before. Yukes blatantly ripped off the idea from TNA Impact for side grapples as well... and there are less ground grapple options per wrestler than ever.
-Only 16 moves can actually submit people. SIXTEEN.
-If you edit your CAWs attire or create a new one... the game will revert that CAW back to the last time you altered them and drop half or all of your attribute points. Did ANYONE bug test this game? Every year it seems Yukes never bothers to test anything.
-Due to the gender restrictions... the MNM entrance is useless but still present in the game. Durrrrrr.
-You CANNOT defend Titles in the Elimination Chamber. Sure, they fixed the buckle glitch from 2009... but EVERY Chamber has been for a Title and they screwed that up somehow? They should be ashamed of themselves at how badly they put a wrestling game together in which 90% of it is just a copy and paste job.
I can literally go on and on and on with this. The Rumble is a nice addition, but the time it takes for someone to walk to the back and someone else to get in the ring drags it WAY too much. You can eliminate people even faster than 2009 and you will find yourself alone in the ring usually 25 out of 30 entrants every time you play the match from anywhere to 30 seconds to over a minute inbetween.
The good just does not outweigh the bad... which is what Yukes is known for. It's definitely worth renting or if you have a friend you can play it with... but spending $60 on this game would be a huge mistake. Regardless of it being listed #122 on Amazon in Video Games... the general consensus in the gaming community is only die-hard WWE marks are loving this game and the pro-wrestling fans are wondering when we're going to get a polished, finished, bug-tested, and playable game.
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video-games_xbox
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I really don't get all the complaints. It's like FFX, the HD version. This is kind of ridiculous. The hate being heaped on this game is almost bizarre, given how remarkably SIMILAR it is to other Final Fantasy titles, most clearly Final Fantasy X.
Let's try to do this quickly, yes? We'll start with linearity. People have complained repeatedly that they hate being confined to one path. Yet everything that happened in FFX, in one way or another, had almost that same effect. Whether it was Kilika being destroyed which left no way back to Besaid thus forcing you on to Luca, or being chased out of Bevelle post arrest and never allowed to return, or "Home" being destroyed leading to a hasty retreat off the island, your path was certainly forced in FFX until you gain control of the airship. Which is not all that unlike the portals found on Gran Pulse in XIII. And there really is no reason to return to lower ranking areas, is there? To what, fight monsters that can be killed with one swing? In my mind, that's actually something that drives me nuts in RPG's: backtracking and having to fight meaningless battles the entire way. Also, just because the Calm Lands in X were a wide space, that doesn't mean they weren't totally linear, cause they was, yo.
Isolation/Distance from the world at large: Much like the chaos that ensues after the 1st "death" of Seymour in X, your characters in this game are almost from the onset branded--literally--in a way that forces them out of the mainstream population. Just as you were "the traitors that killed a maester" in X, you are social pariahs condemned to purging thanks to the nice tattoo you didn't ask for. No towns? No duh. Again, I don't really recall any cities or large gathering spots other than Luca in X, since the premise was an enemy that, thru destruction, prevented any real societal growth. In many ways, the lonely, sparse roads you travel in XIII feel exactly like the ones you walked in X: paths designed to be out of the way, avoiding any kind of organizational opposition.
Characters: This is easily the most confusing complaint of all. Just as in X, the neccessity of sticking with each other, and really only each other, leads to broad character exposition. Many conversations, revelations, and emotional interludes come out in the countless scenes that fill you--almost, OVERLOAD you--with story. People saying there's no story or that it's subpar simply aren't being honest about how none of these games really make any sense. JRPG's aren't known for having realistic, or even logical fantasy plotlines. You want well explained, believable role playing? Play Mass Effect. But if you want some crazy story about hidden deities, lost rebels with strange hair and chipped shoulders, Final Fantasy has always been the right stop for that. No it doesn't make sense. Tidus was a dream, and the gods are toying with us. Whatever; it's still beautifully developed and lots of fun. Not to mention that as far as characters go, I truly believe XIII has X beat, since unlike whiny out-of-sorts Tidus in X, Lightning is actually really restrained and quite awesome. The game gets extra points for not having an annoying lead.
Bottom line: X was my favorite FF, until this one. They are very much alike in most respects. Even the leveling is similar, as the Crystarium is truly just a 3D Sphere Grid. So if you ever loved the experience found in other FF's, in particular X, there is no good reason not to pick this game up at the insane price of $15. It's a steal at that price. And contrary to what you've heard, it's really not so bad.
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video-games_xbox
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A very impressive and extreamly underrated Xbox gem. Chronicles of Riddick is one word...AMAZING. I'm not a big fan of the movie(the Riddick film looked extreamly uninteresting and I won't even bother to check it out)eventhough I did enjoy Pitch Black. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is a very impressive and great game that is almost flawless. The game has a very awesome storyline(even if it's movie like)and the atmospher of levels is just breath taking. You do more then just "escape" from Butcher Bay, you have to do favors for Inmates find a way out of certain areas and meet more people and ect. Butcher Bay shows some really impressive stuff, let me begin by saying this is one of the best looking video games out today, my jaw dropped out how amazing the visuals looked. These visuals can be ranked up and comparable with other beauties like Doom3 and Resident Evil 4. Now there are a few parts were the Visuals don't shine and that's a really bad thing when I mean that but it really doesn't ruin the game for you...
I'll make this review Short and sweet....just like the game...SHORT...and sweet. The game can be beatin in less then 7 hours, but it's still worth the money(well...I waited for the price to drop down to 30 bucks)and a superb rental. The creators should have made a tad bit or more like WAY MORE longer.. But the use of Stealth makes up for that as the game does have some really amazing stealth action to it.. I also And I didn't like the fact that you couldn't have more parts in the beginning where you're doing inmates favors(that was my most favorite part of the game)...Other then that...Lets get to it!!!
The Good
-Great Gameplay
-Breath taking visuals that you must witness
-Superb story line
-Great level invorments
-Nice voice acting
-Nice aray of weapons
-Awesome Stealth gameplay
The Bad
-The visuals gets a big fuzzy in some parts of the game but it's ok..
-The game is too short!!....but sweet..
-Needed more missions in the prison scenario in the beginning of the game...that was the best..
-Needed more enemies...
The Ugly
-Dwellers...ugh..
Overall Chronicles of Riddick is an amazing achievment from Universal and they did great at making this game awesome and heck I find this more better then Halo, yeah you heard me fanboys...Besides that I've already mention everything above about this game...Overall Escape from Butcher Bay is one of my favorite Xbox title(now)and all in all....I give this Underrated Xbox game a............
4.2 OUT OF 5 STARS...
lates
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video-games_xbox
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Best Music Gaming Franchise Out There. I was a musician before I was a gamer. I've consistently heard from certain other musicians that, "you shouldn't play Rock Band, just learn to play a REAL instrument." Well, I have learned how, and Rock Band is still a really fun party game that anyone and everyone can enjoy, no matter what your skill level. Deep down, I think those people who refuse to play Rock Band are afraid they aren't going to be good at it. Now that Rock Band 3 is out and incorporates some real instrumentation, I want to see if these musicians will change their tune.
I think most people who play RB3 will have already played the earlier iterations and probably have some of the instruments already. The biggest advancements of RB3 is the addition of PRO modes and vocal harmonies.
PRO MODES: Keep in mind that just because they have PRO modes, you still have gradations of difficulty within that mode. So it isn't like Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert, PRO. Once you are in the PRO modes, you have PRO-easy, Pro-medium, PRO-Hard, and PRO-expert. I have not yet played the guitar or bass on the PRO mode. I have been playing drums in the PRO mode. If you are pretty good at drums, you will have no trouble adding in the cymbals. Another good thing about PRO-drums is that all DLC has the PRO-drums in their charts. So, you can immediately play all your old DLC (and previous RB songs for that matter) using the PRO mode. I also recently got the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rock-Band-3-Wireless-Keyboard-for-Xbox-360/dp/B003RS19N4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rock Band 3 Wireless Keyboard for Xbox 360</a>. I never took piano lessons, but I'm generally musically inclined and know a little bit about keys. You can use it like a guitar (or key-tar) and you can play non PRO mode, only hitting 5 of the keys (red, blue, yellow, green, orange) or play PRO-keys and play about an octave and a half at a time. I've found that there is a big gap in difficulty between PRO-medium and PRO-hard. That is where my difficulty level is at. PRO-Expert seems to still only require 3 finger chords at a time.
HARMONIES: I'm so glad they finally started adding harmonies. I only wish the DLC I had purchased had that already in there the way the drums does. One negative is that only one person can be signed in on a vocal at a time. Which means there really aren't any achievements available to the "backup" singer. At least, I haven't found a way to have a second vocalist signed into the game separately yet.
These are the biggest improvements in my opinion. They changed around the gameplay somewhat. Your band's tour now give you more options as to what you want to play at given venues, which I like. Another thing I noted is that I now have no trouble with using my wireless mics from Lips. I got that game, just so I could use the wireless mics in RB2, but I never was able to get them to be in sync and they always had a huge amount of echo. I don't know what they did, but they work great in RB3.
Don't be afraid of the PRO mode. All other modes are still here. But the PRO mode just takes it up to the next level.
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video-games_xbox
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Xbox One. Having been a video gamer for over a decade now, I am very confident in my ability to assess, fairly objectively, the features of any game and/or game system given enough time with the product. Having said this, I would like to note that since the first Xbox came out, I have primarily used the Xbox and Xbox 360 as my gaming platform as opposed to any of the Playstation consoles, or even PC. This fact certainly influenced my decision to buy an Xbox One over a Playstatiion 4, But I still expect quality from the product even though it is my preferred brand.
The Xbox One bundle that I purchased cost 349 USD, and is the 1TB version, which is the highest storage capacity of the models offered at this time. My console came in a bundle with three games: Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rare Replay, and a code for a digital copy of the game, Ori and the Blind Forest. The console also came with one controller, the power cable, and an HDMU cord. The Bundle that I chose did not come with a headset, however, so I had to buy one of my own.
For starters, I was a little disappointed that the bundle did not have a headset included, because I like to play games online, and I like to communicate with the other players. That disappointment has more to do with the store that I bought it from though, because the associate that rang up my purchase said that there should be one in the box. I was, however, very happy to see that it came with an HDMI cable included, because this means that they really focused on upgrading the graphics. The controller for the Xbox One has also slightly improved. The basic design is essentially the same as an Xbox 360 controller, but the new generation are more contoured to mine hands, have smoother buttons, and are much more responsive in my opinion. Once I had the console hooked up I began to try to figure out some of the features. The home screens are a little confusing at first and there aren't may tutorials or help screens that I found useful, but once I played around for a while I started to like the way it is set up. The Xbox One is set up to be a media hub as well as a gaming system, and there is even a way to pull up apps while watching live TV. There are apps that you can download and snap to your home screen for easy access, an online store where you can purchase games apps, movies or music, and a social feed where you can see what your friends are doing if you are connected to the internet. Speaking of internet, this console comes with built in Wi-Fi which makes it very convenient if you don't want to have a modem or router in close to the Xbox. One feature that I find quite annoying is the game installing. Whether or not you own a physical copy of a game, you have to spend 10+ minutes of your life waiting on the game to install before you can play it. I understand that having games installed on the console makes them faster than reading them off of a disc, but I still miss the days of being able to put a dick in my game console and not having to wait to play it (That was one of the things that made me prefer console gaming to PC gaming in the past). Once I get into a game, I am again reminded as to how good of a system the Xbox One is. The graphics are much improved from the last generation of consoles even in these early game releases, I have had no problems with games skipping or not working, and load screens are minimal when playing offline.
Over all I would give the Xbox One an 8 out of 10. There are many features on this that I like, the ability to seamlessly transition from gaming to TV, the ease starting and closing games (once they are already installed), and all of the apps that are available. I bought the Xbox One mainly for the purpose of gaming, but I am impressed with it as a media hub as well. It is a well-built product and I would highly recommend it for any gamer: hardcore, recreational, or casual.
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video-games_xbox
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Fun But...Not Quite There. Big fan of Spiderman games. Spiderman 2 and Shattered Dimensions are favorites followed by Web of Shadows. Spiderman 3 and Edge of Time were ok. I was really looking forward to this title since it was announced and I saw the trailers. Picked it up for $60 which I normally don't do...I usually wait for a price drop unless I'm really excited about a game. Unfortunately I feel like I overpayed based on my experience with it. I expected more from Beenox after I heard they were working on the game for a couple of years. By now they should have had the formula down as far as what worked with all the earlier games and what didn't. It was fun but a bit underwhelming.
I'll get the cons out of the way first.
Note* Some of the Cons are also Pros and vice versa as explained below (I'm not bipolar :p)
Cons:
Free Roam (also a pro): It's great to be able to swing around Mahattan and all but something's missing. There's not a lot of variety to the goings on in the city like say WOS, where you were almost overwhelmed with stuff to do while being attacked by...EVERYONE, so you're left with just well....swinging around. You collect comic book pages as you do which adds some incentive to keep swinging I guess.
Side missions: Not much variation to the bad guys during side missions. In WOS you had guys with bats, guns, knives...really big goons. Here you have a couple different vanilla variety bad guys without a whole lot of color or flavor. You can save civilians while they're being accosted by them and earn XP which is the only real incentive to take them on.
The City: I've been to NYC many times and it's a very vibrant city. The devs didn't do it a whole lot of justice here. They could have thrown in the WTC under construction for authenticity or something of the sort. Maybe more interaction with the New Yorkers you encounter or more variety in those encounters. Assassins Creed has got this down perfectly for their games.
Combat (also a pro): The combat is fun but comparing it to Arkham games, which it tries to model the combat after, leaves something to be desired. It feels a bit to simple and a tad repetetive. Combos consist of, for the most part, punch, flying kick, WWE move, web and repeat.
There's also plenty to like about this game.
Pros:
Free roam is back! Though not as engaging as in previous free roam versions it's awesome to swing around Manhattan and the swing graphics are great. This is what Spidey is all about.
Combat: Beenox makes a valiant effort to give this game the Batman Arkham series style combat and who can blame them. They get an A for effort. The mechanics are a little simplistic but get the job done. The combat graphics are better than previous installments and are fun to watch. Webbing foes during combat is well done and has a more realistic look to it. The enemies you beat don't just disappear when you beat them and you can watch them as they wriggle in the webbing or hang from the ceiling, which my son loves to do when he plays. He likes when they "Stay there."
Graphics: Overall the graphics are pretty good. Spideys suits are nicely detailed. Swinging looks great.
Story: The story is decent and folows the reboot storyline. I like how they incorporated the human/animal DNA splicing aspect to some of the villains. Made the Rhino more believable than just a guy running around in a rhinoceros costume.
Replay Value: Moderate. I like that you can collect actual digital Spiderman comics since Spiderman #1. Collecting those will bring me back. Also to get my swinging around Manhattan fix. Otherwise no huge draws for replay IMO.
Bottom Line:
I believe the game is a solid entry into the Spiderman genre but could have been much more. Once again I have to compare to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City for what current technology can accomplish when done right. Hard core gamers won't find it very challenging. If you have a kid who is a Spiderman fan they should enjoy it, since it is fun and fairly simple to play. I would recommend as a purchase for under $35 to add to your Spidey collection. Otherwise wait and rent it for now to see for yourself. Let's hope that perfect Next Gen Spiderman game comes along sooner or later...there's so much potential. I guess this'll have to do for now...
Overall 3 1/2 stars.
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video-games_xbox
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one of the best JRPGs i've ever played. Wish they would release this one on PC. I wax and wane in terms of my affection/tolerance for JRPGs, but Lost Odyssey really pleased me.
The good:
- Though the graphics are a little dated in 2015, the overall visual design and atmosphere of this game is really wonderful. Transitions to new areas and progression in the narrative actually feel engrossing and special the game has this lovely ambience of discovery and revelation as you play through it.
- Story & atmosphere. I am not a gamer who cares much about story, honestly, and I expect JRPGs to have lame stories. But to my surprise, Lost Odyssey was surprisingly thoughtful and engrossing and kind of gentle and sad. Its leagues ahead of most of what's out there in terms of the narrative quality. The elegant, melancholic, dreamlike atmosphere really supports the amnesiac-based narrative well. At the same time, its remains a solid, reliable JRPG at its core it doesnt get as swept up in its own artsy-fartsiness as an indie title would.
- Interesting, varied locations. Much of the game is linear, but you're always moving on to an interesting new place that feels unique and lovingly crafted and interesting to explore.
The bad:
- Not *necessarily* bad, but it is pretty old-school in its feel and pace. Being a JRPG, the turn-based combat is kind of tedious and simplistic early in the game, and a lot of the story is conveyed through text. I had no problem with this, but its worth noting that, overall, the game expects a little patience from you, and probably relies on a certain amount of nostalgia for the 16-bit era.
- Lots of discs and frequent loading on Xbox -- this game's really begging for a consolidated PC re-release.
Overall, Lost Odyssey could pretty much be a Final Fantasy game, but I personally like it better than any FF Ive played it has a (somewhat) more mature ambience and slightly darker aesthetic. I recommend the game highly to anyone who has ever enjoyed a JRPG this isn't one of the best known or most popular, but many who play it consider it one of the best, and Id count myself among them.
Bonus tip: At the point in the game where you get the boat, maybe halfway-ish through, there's an obscure little island you can land on with some incredibly difficult enemies. It is very hard to beat them at that point, and will take many tries. But if you can survive just one of those battles, you reap tremendous rewards in XP that will frankly overpower you for many hours to come. It could be seen as a bit of a cheat, but if you've patiently fought your way to that point in the game, you may welcome a break and the chance to just be wildly powerful for a little while, and it's oh-so satisfying when you finally manage to accomplish this little trick.
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video-games_xbox
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Can a man leave his past behind by eliminating it. Story:
John Marston is trapped. He is trapped by his past. He trapped by the future that he wants to have. He is trapped by the ending of the old west and the coming of the new. He is trapped by a goverment that will use any means necessary to eliminate people like the man he used to be. His only way out of this trap is to take down the members of his old gang so that the goverment will release his family.
All John Marston wants is his family back so that he can retire back to his farm with his wife and raise his son. To do this he will deal with tricksters, mad men, revolutionaries, legends, and law men. All in order to capture the former members of his own gang so that they can be brought to justice in the name of progress.
John's long journey for redemption begins when he steps off the train to begin his hunt. Will he find that he is redeemed when his task is done or will he find that scales of fate are not so easily tipped?
======
I really liked playing this game. It really reminded me of bio shock and mass effect story wise. The story in this game made me want to keep playing in order to see what happened next and find out how John's quest to reunite with his family turned out. John Marston is also a very likable character. It's easy to forget that no matter what he is trying to be, he has still killed hundereds of people for profit.
He doesn't try to make many excuses about his past, only that he saw himself more as a robin hood character than a highway bandit that murdered people in cold blood. Apparently it took a botched robbery job, during which he was left for dead, for him to figure out that he may not have been on the right path in life.
This is the central conflict in the games story really. Can someone just walk away from everything they have done and expect to be left alone, even if they try to make amends?
There are several characters in this game that come and go as the games goes on. Just about everyone of them is memorable and well written. For the most part they are not one dimensonal and kept me interested enogh that I actually wanted to see what kind of crazy scheme I was going to get dragged into on the next mission. That being said, most of them disappear after you move onto the next section of the game and you don't hear anything else about them unless you read the ingame news papers that pop up every once in awhile.
There are also a ton of side quests, mini games, and collectiosn quests to keep completists happy. There is also a online componet that I cannot comment on since I did not play it.
In closing this is a westren themed game worth playing. The story is interesting and the gameplay is fun. On a side note, this game does end in a sense. The ending of the game is a little off, but it is how westrens tend to end. It also lets you go back and do any side missions that you may have missed. It did actually make me think a little bit about the interactions between Marston and the goverment agents that were holding his family. Ross may have been ruthless and willing to do whatever it took to get the job done, but he does give Marston his reward; even if it is short lived.
I would recommend this to any one that likes sandbox games, games that have stories that make you think a little bit and those whol like the old west setting. m.a.c
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video-games_xbox
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Good-quality, highly-convenient headphones at a reasonable cost! A good buy. This is the second PDP product I have owned. The first was a lighted controller for the Xbox 360. That product has served me very well for the past two years, so I figured this one would, as well. How did it measure up?
Well, in comparison to my Turtle Beach Xbox One headphones, the sound isn't as good. The Turtle Beach headphones provide a more powerful and cleaner sound, but they are quite a bit more expensive than these. The sound on these is completely adequate, and the fact that they are completely wireless is really nice.
The fit on the headphones seems good. I haven't had any problems with them slipping off because they are too loose or giving me a headache because they are too tight. The sizing can be adjusted, and they seem stiff enough that I'm not concerned they will slide from the size I have them adjusted to. The green LED lights look really cool, too! Like the LED controller I own, the lights on these can be turned off to conserve battery life, but I usually leave them on because they look too darn cool to turn them off. Besides, I don't play games for long periods of time so running down the battery isn't a problem I have to concern myself with.
Setting up the headphones to run with the Xbox was very easy and too very little time. (You will need to have an open USB port on the system to use them.)
I noticed that a lot of other reviewers voiced complaints about the mic. Since I don't really play any online games, this isn't an issue for me. I generally only use headphones so I can play at a volume I like without disturbing anyone else and so I can pick up on small noises in a game without being distracted. My son sometimes plays Destiny multi-player online and uses headphones while doing so. He says the headphones from the Turtle Beach are better and prefers to use them for online multi-player games. Otherwise, he has been using these new ones. (I think the novelty of the new ones and the cool look are what is driving his usage of them.)
For the price, these seem like a very good offering and are well worth the investment!
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video-games_xbox
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Mixed Results. Overall, I would not recommend this product. The cable I received did not work with the Kinect. It continued to display an error message that, The configuration has changed and the Kinect will now be restarted." The Kinect restarted, but the black box on the bottom right of the screen did not show the tracking typically seen.
We tried several setups to no avail. We tried both an original and new Xbox to see the difference, however neither worked. We tried the new Xbox with the adapter that plugs in to AC power and it produced no noticeable difference. We also attempted to move the power cables away from the Kinect cable to ensure it wasn't a magnetic field interference as well.
**We will try to return and see if it was defective**
Update: I read some other reviews and saw that they had defective cables, so I decided to give this cable another chance. Unfortunately, it did not work out well. It was different than last time, however. We plugged in the cable and the Kinect started up properly. However, the black box on the bottom right hand side showed tracking of a player but it stuttered as if the signal was slow.
We tried a Kinect game, Dance Central 2. It did not track me well at all. The dancer on the screen will indicate if you have done a dance move incorrectly by a red outline. I was getting red outlines frequently to a song I play all the time. I stopped the game and went to the Kinect settings where you can see what is actually happening. I went through the setup again and couldn't get an error to go away that said the Kinect could not find the player.
I tried more setups to no avail again. I connected it with the adapter for the old Xbox 360 to see if more power to the cable would help. It made no difference. I attempted it with the old Xbox to see if it was a console issue.
In summary, I would not recommend this product. I find it odd that other reviewers even state that their cables worked especially with all the "fake" reviews going around. However, its possible that I received two duds but I'm thinking that if there are two duds to one person, this cable is probably not great quality anyways.
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video-games_xbox
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Fallout 3 in Vegas? Yes but thats not a bad thing. So Fallout New Vegas is not going to be the most polished thing in the world out there but I have to say it was one of the best games I have ever played and I would honestly say that you will love it to.
Story: You play The Courier and your job was to deliver a package to the New Vegas strip....then someone kidnapped you, stole your package and shot you in the head. After miraculously surviving and being stitched up you head out to find out who shot you in the head and why. Along the way you will explore the Mojave Wasteland and which is embroiled in a war between the New California Republic and Ceasers Legion both who aim to control Hoover Dam. The reason I highly love this story is because everything you do changes the environment whether you side with the NCR or the legion or become your own boss you are the master of what happens in this massive world. The story is also not a grey one as no one faction is the good and the bad its all based on what you believe of them. The other great thing with the story is the world truly is what you want it to be so you will not be ushered to places it will be your choice on whether to go to these places and when you go.
Graphics: Not gonna lie its basically the Fallout 3 graphics except a lot sunnier. The frame rate is still pretty trippy and not too solid jumping up and down like a kangaroo. So if graphics are your thing buy a computer and then do one of the graphics mods because the graphics are not the best.
Gameplay: Gameplay is actually very solid just like fallout 3 the VATS system still works just as good. Inventory works like a charm with the addition of new weapons and even features like the need for different ammos like armor piercing ammo for armored foes and etc. Another thing that comes up as innovative is the hardcore mode. Hardcore is a mode which makes the game very difficult includes things like hydrating, keeping yourself fed and even when you break limbs you got to go get special items to repair it.
Verdict: Fallout New Vegas is an amazing experience and although maybe not the prettiest or bug free game it is one for the books.
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video-games_xbox
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I've had Turtle Beach in the past and have been very happy with their products. I had done a bunch of research before finally purchasing this headset. I've had Turtle Beach in the past and have been very happy with their products. Sturdy builds, comfortable, high fidelity sound, and mic monitoring.
Let me first say that sound quality with this headset is pretty fantastic, definitely a premium experience. Far and away the best gaming set I've ever heard. This is why I'm so incredibly frustrated though..I want to use this headset, but Turtle Beach dropped the ball on Mic Quality and Mic Monitoring COMPLETELY.
MIC QUALITY
I noticed in my research that Mic quality had been a HUGE issue with this headset. Apparently the new design with the mic hidden in the can made for a much poorer output quality. This was a deal breaker for me until I found that Turtle Beach had come out with a firmware update that addressed this issue.
Almost every review I read had an update at the bottom explaining that the poor mic quality issue had been addressed and that it was now resolved.
I can't stress enough THIS IS NOT THE CASE. I have updated both my headset and the base and I receive constant complaints from party members. They say that it sounds like I'm muffled or talking in a tunnel. I've tried every combination of settings, reset every piece of hardware, made sure everything was up to date. The quality is just not there.
MIC MONITORING
Mic Monitoring is a huge selling point for me. It's a feature I can't do with out. If I can't hear my voice I don't know if I'm too quiet/loud and I tend to not talk as much. I'm really into team based games so communication is key for me.
Mic monitoring is WAY too quiet. I can only hear my voice when there is no other audio coming through the headphones. I have downloaded the turtle beach application on my phone and have adjusted all settings and crank mic monitoring all the way up. I still can't hear. As far as I'm concerned this headset does not provide Mic Monitoring.
CONCLUSION
I'm usually not one to complain, but this is something consumers need to know. I can't understand how Turtle Beach continues to sell this as a PREMIUM set when mic quality is worse then the cheap first party Xbox mic. When you invest in a $300 headset every aspect should work flawlessly. If you intend to use this headset to communicate with other people do yourself a favor and DO NOT BUY IT.
This has been one of the most frustrating consumer experience of my life. I will no longer recommend Turtle Beach. They are selling a fundamentally flawed product. I gave it 1 Star because I believe that is all this product deserves, the short comings between the terrible mic and inaudible mic monitoring it makes the headset unusable. This is shame because the sound quality is superb. If anything changes Ill make sure to update this review. Until then, please save yourself the time and disappointment and buy something else.
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video-games_xbox
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Great Spyro-ish gameplay in a Funky world. ToeJam and Earl III for the XBox is a great game for funk-loving teenagers, and even features a naughty/nice setting so younger kids can play too!
You're in control of three funky space aliens who love funk music. There's the slim, hip DJ ToeJam, the portly, upbeat Earl, and their female sassy chick Latisha. All three have unique personalities and really get along well together, while poking fun at each other too.
The general plot is about as meaningful as any other capture-coins-and-solve-quests game, which means not much at all :). It's very similar to Spyro. You start out in a "world" (The Grassy Zone) with a look. In this case everything is grassy and green. From there you gather keys and go into sub-worlds, each with its own keys to collect, items to gather, enemies to "funkify". Your ultimate aim is to find all of the funk albums that were lost by your leader.
The graphics are great. Each character has his or her own moves, and is nicely 3D rendered. The worlds through which they jump, swim, fly and crawl are great. The trees in the grassy land are different from each other and look like trees. The water ripples. The city streets of the Urban Zone have graffiti on them and have street lights and other objects. The sky cycles from day to night. It's very well done!
Combat is great, too. You're not actually "killing" things, unlike Spyro and other similar games. Instead, you're trying to "funkify" all these poor musically-inept humans! You run after them blasting them with your funk rays and notes, and eventually they get a shining disco ball over their head indicating that they now appreciate funk music. It is TOOOO funny!
Add in to that the wicked sense of humor the characters have. Note again that there is that nice-naughty setting. So if kids are playing, the comments are pretty tame. "Why don't you have a mouth?", one girl asks TJ. "I wanna be just like you, Latisha" says another. Each player's comments are unique, and they say different things to different people. Some are hilarious! Even the naughty setting isn't "bad", it's just a little risque.
We've played this game both with adults and kids and everyone has loved it. Get with the funk, and get your own copy!
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video-games_xbox
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Possibly my favorite game for the Xbox. This game is terrific. Apart from one or two graphic anomalies (no game is perfect) and two significant omissions from the documentation, the only negative thing I can say is that it's too short (about 17 hours on easy level). It's beautiful, fun, funny, and just a great experience. This is one of my favorite games for the Xbox.
(The important omissions are that you can strafe (step sideways) and back up without turning, each by holding the left trigger and moving the left thumbstick; and, you get 100 souls each time you get a gem, so you can open two doors marked 170 when you've only collected 70. Those two tidbits might be in the documentation, but I didn't catch them when I quickly read through, and they're important.)
I found this game to have just the right mix of goofiness, scariness, and challenging obstacles to be fun. Most of the time, you're trying to solve puzzles and get past/around/over/through things, but sometimes you have to shoot your way through monsters and evil spirits. However, the shooting isn't really the point: the threats are mostly just part of the atmosphere, and your arsenal consists of just one "weapon" with a few upgrades along the way.
The graphics are awesome, the sound just right (except for the pause music which will drive you insane if you listen to it too long), and the game play smooth. If you like platform- and puzzle-style games with a little goofiness, a little fear, a good dose of the supernatural, and lots of puzzles, this game is the game for you.
And by the way, my family played through on the easy level all together, and the scary stuff wasn't too much for my four-year-old... as long as we kept reminding her it wasn't real, just a drawing. Yet for adults, a couple of images are too creepy or disconcerting to laugh off completely or easily forget.
I just wish it was twice as long. For the price, I'd expect more than 25 or 30 areas. But it's so much fun, we're already playing through it again on the next higher skill level...
9.4 out of 10.
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video-games_xbox
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Largely disappointing. If you thought the Dragon Slayer laser disc game from the 80s was amazing, you'll like the "watch video and press buttons when told" mechanic that makes up so much of this game.
Much has already been written about the game in other reviews, so I am reviewing primarily to disagree with three points I see repeated here over and over again:
First, the graphics on the Xbox One weren't all that impressive. I run a high-end full HD projector on a 150" screen, and the grass and trees had that 2D billboard look. The texture maps were good but I'd rate the character models as medium quality. The hands were largely fixed-in-place like claws, and the movement was a bit wooden and unnatural. It wasn't immersive in the least. It would have been impressive five or six years ago on a last-gen console.
Second, I don't see any connection at all to previous installments in the franchise. Those were typically very mission- and goal-oriented and involved a lot of puzzle solving. While they did have "push this button" sequences, they just connected you from point A to point B. In this one, you load up the game and spend the next 30 minutes watching a vaguely interactive movie. There are somewhat open segments where you can wander around, but it all feels sort of pointless compared to previous Tomb Raiders.
Finally, to the reviewers who lauded the new "more realistic," less buxom female form -- have you ever actually seen a Tomb Raider movie? Angelina Jolie doesn't exactly qualify as average. However, I can say this -- the main character in the game does look pretty much exactly like every other Square Enix female character. I suppose that appeals to some people.
Speaking of which, I should have expected all of this when I saw the Square Enix name -- none of their games have ever appealed to me, but I thought they had a reputation for amazing graphics so I figured I'd give it a shot. Disappointed on all accounts.
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video-games_xbox
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A Masterpiece of Story, Gameplay, and Artistry. How many times have you played a game and thought that it was the most amazing movie you'd ever seen? Probably never, but Bioshock, the famous first-person shooter, fits that criteria; being one of the scariest and most creative video games I've ever played.
Set in an underground Utopian city called 'Rapture', Bioshock delves into the dark history and practices of the once noble citizens of an Ayn Rand-esque city. The leader of the city's name even resembles the well known objectivist, his name being Andrew Ryan (see if you can't get Ayn Rand out of those letters).
The story begins with you crashed in the ocean, clinging to life after your plane crashes. You scramble onto this strange rocky protrusion that sticks out of the ocean as the tail of the plane heads to the murky depths below. The creepiness begins here. The lights go off and on, and when they finally turn on, you see an elevator. Once in the elevator, it descends into rapture.
I don't wish to give too much of the story away as it is very satisfying having it presented before you as the game intended. But what I will say is this; your character in the game uses both standard weapons (wrenches, tommy-guns, pistols, shotguns), as well as Plasmids that were developed in Rapture (they allow you the power to use fire, ice, electricity as well as others thru your left hand). These Plasmids helped to destroy Rapture. The people of Rapture became obsessed with 'improving themselves,' addicted to plastic surgery and the like.
Bioshock is quite the masterpiece for anyone and everyone. It is probably the most satisfying gaming experience I've ever had, and I cannot wait for the upcoming 2nd sequel; Bioshock Infinite. If you have not checked out Bioshock yet, do not wait. If you have played it before and are thinking of giving it another go, then get cracking. It's a fantastic game.
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video-games_xbox
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What could have been. Please do not be fooled by the attractive graphics for this particular title. I have been waiting for someone to make a sniping game on par with Sniper Elite and this game is a disaster. Sniper Ghost Warrior tries to take on the roll of putting the player into the shoes of a real bad ass sniper, but due to terrible execution and glitches the game falls flat.
Weapons: At first glance the assortment of weapons seem generous. Grenades, C4, throwing knives, pistol, and a nice group of rifles. Sadly when it comes to the rifles they are all essentially the same with no real difference between them except for the muzzle sound.
Mechanics of Gameplay: The enemy AI is Predator. It doesn't matter if you are 5 feet or 50+ feet away if you wander into their line of sight they will start to pick you up immediately. If you try to hide in the bushes your detection meter will go back down for a second...and then the enemy will switch to predator vision and find you in no time. If you do manage to escape an enemy who has detected you and you did not kill them they will constantly be on the look out for you. This would not be a problem if only their eagle eyesight didn't detect you from 100+ yards. I also ran into an annoying bug in one of the missions. I had to make it to a machine gun nest on a hilltop a defend the position until an evac chopper arrived. Sadly the enemy was able to shoot through my sand bags and even the hill top making the mission unbeatable.
Story: The synopsis is simple. South American General guy throws a Coup d'tat. You play the undercover sniper sent in to kill him and you get into adventures along the way to the tune of marking enemy camps for bomb runs and fighting your way to extraction points.
Conclusion: If you're looking for a game that emphasizes stealth sniper play this is not that game. Due to the terrible mechanics you are often better sniping everything you see before proceeding. If you try to play the stealth game you will be found and you will be shot. Regardless if this review changes anyone's mind to play this game I implore them to rent the game first and not shell out $40 up front for this game.
If you want to try a real sniper game I suggest Sniper Elite for the original xbox/PC. Old copies can be found on the internet and those with PCs can download a copy from Steam at store.steampowered.com for about $10.00
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video-games_xbox
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Great sound! pore 3d/binaural image. As a blind individual, the audio in the world around me and what I can do with that audio make up my job, and most of my personal hobbies. In saying that, this review of the DSS2 will be from a blindness standpoint.
Physical unit:
A little bit smaller than an Alltoid tin, the outer casing is made of plastic. On the left side of the unit, starting closest to you is a volume/mute nob, headphone output, and USB power pass through. On the front of the device, facing you, are three buttons, most left, an EQ preset: Press this button and the DSS2 will cycle through a veriety of EQ choices. Second button to the right is your virtual speaker angle: When pressing this button, different virtual speaker placements are cycled through. Most right button, is surround on/off toggle. On the right side of the unit, starting from the jack closest to you, AAX input, and stereo pass through (I haven't used these so can't comment on what they do). USB mini, powering the device, opticle input. On the back right side of the device is a power switch. Left on, right off.
Audio quality:
The DSS2 has a clean high power headphone output being able to drive professional headphones, such as my Beyer Dynamic DT770's. The bass is low and clin, mids present, and highs krisp. If your looking for a nice headphone amp, that can accept a digital input, this is a very nice choice.
Virtual surround:
It depends on the audio sourse/mix. On music DVD audio discs you won't notice much difference from the stereo downmix, a little more space, but it's inside your head.
Videos/gaming:
Better, but still not outside my head enough.
I'm used to listening to true Binaural recordings, from microphones placed inside my ears, and that is 100% more outside my head than the virtual surround from the DSS2 seams to be. It's like they have the front placements mastered, but the rears are like the wide part of the stereo field for the most part. Again, the mix will very, at times you can tell where the sourse is to be from, but I was hoping it would be more outside of head than it is.
Pro's:
Clean loud amp,
no artificial virtual envirements with fake sounding reverbs
Cons:
Not very 3d/binaural all speaker angles are pretty inside of head
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video-games_xbox
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Decent but could have used a few more months of polish. Pros:
- Price is good for what you get. I.e. a solid simulation engine.
- Game is highly accessible, even for novices. It allows you either race to qualify or spend more money to skip qualifying.
- Vibrations are depicted mainly by visual screen shake and stronger audio feedback than in Forza. This is to compensate for the lack of steering wheel vibration. Instead the forces on the steering wheel are used to give you a sense of inertia that you might be feeling when making a turn. You don't really get this sensation in Forza. Overall I think Race Pro's approach is more effective. If you want to simulate the vibrations of a car you can easily do so with a Buttkicker. Whereas it is not easy to simulate inertia without having to buy an expensive hydraulic car seat like a SimCraft APEX. Having a wheel tug at you is likely to be the best you can get on a small budget.
- Cockpit view also adds greatly to the sense of immersion which is now becoming a standard part of racing sims.
- Support for steering wheel is good- you can use the track pad to turn your camera while driving, which is not possible in Forza unless you use the standard game controller.
Cons:
- Does not have the large number of cars and tracks as Forza 2.
- Optimal racing line does not automatically adjust with your current speed as in Forza. This is a pity as it is a useful tool for helping beginners understand how fast they need to take corners. Instead, while you know you need to slow down, you don't know by how much.
- Menu interfaces and voice overs are minimalistic and not as polished as most other game titles these days.
- You cannot simply pick any car you want to drive and have a go around a track. You have to earn them in career mode.
- Some reported disk access latency when playing off the DVD. Instead you should install the game on the 360's harddrive.
On the whole, racing simulation enthusiasts will enjoy this game. If you're new to this genre you will get more bang for the buck by going with Forza 2, especially at the Platinum edition price of Forza 2 these days. If you like a more arcade-game-like experience rather than a simulation, Grid is probably a better candidate.
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video-games_xbox
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SO INCREDIBLY UNDERATED AND MISAPPROPRIATED. WHENEVER I COME ACROSS A REVIEW ABOUT DSII THAT RATES IT AS MEDIOCRE TO AVERAGE, I'M SO BEWILDERED AND CONFUSED....
AND THEN I DRAW THE SAME CONCLUSION - THE DESERT STORM SERIES IS A THINKING MAN'S GAME, IT'S NOT FOR THE AVERAGE MINDED GAMER WHO JUST WANTS MAYHEM, CHAOS AND IMMEDIATE SATISFACTION THROUGH DESTRUCTION - THOSE OF YOU WHO NEED THAT, PICK UP "GRAND THEFT", AND BE BORED WITHIN AN HOUR. DSII WILL GIVE YOU YEARS OF ENJOYMENT.
DESERT STROM II HAS SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT OVER DESERT STORM, AND THANKFULLY SO. BECAUSE MY FAVORITE GAME WENT FROM DESERT STORM, TO DESERT STORM II.
I HAVE YET TO FIND ANY OTHER SIMULATED WAR GAME ON ANY SYSTEM THAT OFFERS WHAT DSII OFFERS. NO OTHER WAR GAME ALLOWS YOU TO DROP AND ROLL. NO OTHER WAR GAME HAS C4 PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES THAT CAN BE MANIPULATED LIKE DSII. NO OTHER WAR GAME HAS CLAYMORE MINES, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, NO OTHER WAR GAME ALLOWS YOU TO MOVE YOUR OTHER MEN AS STRATEGICALLY, EASILY AND ACCURATELY AS DSII.
THE SNIPER IS FAR SUPERIOR TO OTHER GAMES, THE BAZOOKA, THE FOCUS ON ENEMY TROOPS IS A MILLION TIMES BETTER. THE LASER DESIGNATOR WAS THE FIRST AND BEST. OTHER WAR GAMES DON'T HAVE THE PHOSPHORUS GRENADES THAT SET ENEMY TROOPS ON FIRE. THE GRAPHICS ARE WONDERFUL AND THE SOUNDS ARE SUPERIOR TO THE OTHER WAR GAMES. THE MUSIC IS TREMENDOUS. THE FACT THAT IT HAS SO MANY DIFFERENT LEVELS THAT YOU MUST BE SUCCESSFUL AT TO CONTINUE IS SO GREAT, AS WELL AS 4 DIFFERENT SETTINGS: EASY, MEDIUM, HARD AND EXTREME - NO OTHER WAR GAME HAS THAT!!!! I'M TELLING YOU, THIS GAME ROCKS!!! THIS GAME IS AWSOME!!! I'M PRAYING FOR DSIII TO COME OUT SOON.
I HAVE TO ADMIT, WHEN CONFLICT CAME OUT WITH VIET NAM, THEY FAILED. THAT GAME DESERVES A MEDIOCRE RATING. BUT I THINK THE REVIEWERS OF DESERT STORM I AND II, WHO GIVE THIS GAME AN AVERAGE OR BELOW AVG. RATING, CAN'T SEEM TO GET PAST THE EASY LEVEL, AND ARE JUST FRUSTRATED. ANYONE GIVING THIS GAME ANYTHING LESS THAN 5 STARS IS JUST SOMEONE CONTENT WITH GAMES THAT DON'T REQUIRE TOP SKILL AND THOUGHT.
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video-games_xbox
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Two Excellent Games, Two Decent Ports. (Note: This review is based on the Xbox One version.)
In 2009, a company called Rocksteady released "Batman: Arkham Asylum" to the then-current generation of consoles, and it was incredible: featuring a story in which Batman is trapped in Arkham Asylum with a rogues gallery of his most famous enemies, intuitive controls and an atmospheric presentation gave the player an unprecedented sense of *being* the Dark Knight. (The first time you grab an enemy from overhead and leave him dangling from a gargoyle, then swing away while his friends start panicking and trying to figure out whats going onwell, there aren't many gaming experiences quite like it.) A couple of years later, Rocksteady followed up with "Arkham City," which took the previous games virtues and added a considerably larger world to explore with a longer main story and more side content.
Now, both games are available in a single package, "Batman: Return to Arkham." Theyve been updated to run in the latest version of the Unreal Engine, supposedly bringing them up to par with the technical standards of the current generation. As well see, thats not entirely true. But if youve never played these games before and are wondering if this new release is worth your time, the answer is an easy and emphatic yes.
If you already own or have played through these games, the answer has more to do with individual preference. When it comes to the graphics, I would say that on the whole, environments look a little better, while characters look noticeably worse. Specifically, all of the character models seem badly over-lit, completely losing the play of shadows that was such an effective part of the presentation in the original versions. This isn't a huge issue in Asylum, where Batman spends much of his time alone. But in "City," with its greater proportion of character-drama cinema sequences, its hard not to think back on how nice the character visuals looked in the originals.
This cosmetic qualm, however, is my only real complaint, and I want to reiterate that while its annoying, it shouldnt deter anyone who really wants to play these games. The games themselves are still fantastic, and in this release they include all of the DLC. For "Asylum" this mostly means some extra challenge maps; with "City" its a collection of amusing costume changes (you can even play as the animated-series Batman) as well as additional game content, including episodes with Catwoman interspersed throughout the main story and an entire additional campaign that takes place after the main game ends.
Both games have their partisans. I personally prefer the first one; I think "Arkham City" sprawls just a little too much for its own good. But they're both superb, and with this collection, you can try them both and decide for yourself which you like better. The only thing that isn't included is "Arkham Origins," the stopgap title released on the way to the final installment, "Arkham Knight." Rocksteady has shown a desire to play down the existence of "Origins," so its omission here is not surprising, if a bit disappointing. (Its development by a separate studio may also play into its absence.)
"Arkham Asylum" and "Arkham City" both stand the test of time exceptionally well, so again, if you missed these games in their original incarnations, now is an excellent time to catch up. If this is a retread for you, it will be a matter of how much you want to revisit them (and perhaps how proactive or lazy you feel about digging out your old system to do so). I bought this collection despite having played both games years ago, and I never regretted it. Graphical quibbles aside, they remain extremely compelling experiences.
~
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video-games_xbox
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GET BACK TO BASICS. Multiplayer:
1. Way too futuristic. Wall running and constant, and I mean constant, double/boost jumping is annoying as hell.
2. Limited guns and STUPID special abilities - want a one shot guaranteed noob kill? Then use the 'golden gun' or the even more annoying 'jumping shock' technique - worse than the old panic knife (panic knifing is gone in this game by the way) which was at least fun back in the day as long as you weren't on the receiving end.
3. Worthless Score-streaks. Score-streaks are almost impossible to get anyway since the game encourages constant dying. No matter how good you are, you will die on average every 30 seconds in this game because of so many one shot kill noob special abilities and the BAD HIT DETECTION and people sneaking up behind you.
4. Headsets and Footsteps aren't that helpful - Sound whoring doesn't really help that much unless you are in free for all. I use Astro A40s with the proper settings and I sometimes (50/50 of the time) still don't notice a guy sneaking up behind me when playing team deathmatch or ground war. And that's because friend and foe's footsteps sound alike - I preferred Cod Ghosts footstep detection to this actually.
5. BORING AS HELL. After about 2 matches, I don't feel like playing anymore and turn off my console. The game just is way too repetitive and multiplayer isn't fun.
6. Damn it, there's no trolling - which makes it perfect for little kids under the age of 12. I LOVED trolling with knife, bombs, etc, in previous COD games. Sadly, trolling isn't possible anymore. You can't run around the map knifing guys and getting streaks like in the good old days because of all the jumping and futuristic crap in the game. I enjoyed COD Ghosts more for trolling than this ugly ass game.
Treyarch massive FAIL. If there is even a hint of futuristic crap in the next COD game, I'm not buying. Fool me once.
The one guy who wrote the review GET BACK TO BASICS was right.
NO MORE DOUBLE JUMP. NO MORE JETPACKS, NO MORE FUTURISTIC WEAPONS, NO MORE SUPER SPECIAL ABILITIES. BYE. OH, and GOD HELP US, NO MORE WALL RUNNING.
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video-games_xbox
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As long as you never see/play the XB1/PS4 versions - this 360 version is perfectly acceptable. If you've been holding out from upgrading to a next gen system in order to enjoy the last bits of mileage from your 360 then this version of 'Watch Dogs' will certainly get the job done provided you don't sink your teeth into and experience the glossier Xbox One version (runs at 792p vs the 360's 720p with enhanced visuals, anti aliasing and less screen tearing). On it's own this sprawling, open world game looks every bit as good as Ubisoft's other recent sandbox 360 titles (AC4, Far Cry 3, etc) although the level of atmospheric world detailing falls short in comparison to the likes of GTA5.
The game box contains 2 discs - one for hard drive installation (7 gigs of space are needed and the install process lasts approximately 10 minutes) and the other a game disc which is needed each time you boot the game up. Load times whenever you start the game or re-load after a death are also a mild annoyance and can take upwards of 1 minute - although, thankfully, load times are minimal once you're actually in the game world.
'Ambitious' is the word that first comes to mind after absorbing the game for a few hours. The map encompasses the city of Chicago and its surrounding burgs and is massive in scale. The game is clearly patterned after the real-world stylings of the GTA series albeit with a cyberhacker bent. While Ubi's other sandbox titles offer a plethora of sidequests and minigames - Watch Dogs ups the ante with an excessive amount of diversions and collectibles that overwhelms and distracts to the point of annoyance and detracts from any forward momentum experienced during main-storyline missions. The overall feeling from start to finish is one of bloat and I really wish some fat was trimmed to give the game a more streamlined pace (Far Cry 3 is a good example of an Ubi title that maintains a nice balance between side missions and the main story).
Other flaws with the game include - poor driving mechanics, mediocre selection of music tracks to play in the cars and on your phone, slow tank-like controls while indoors, plenty of screen tearing and an uninspired storyline and unsympathetic characters.
Still, if these types of games are up your alley there is plenty to do and will require 50+ hours for a 100% completion rate providing good bang for your buck for the obsessive, completionist type gamer.
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video-games_xbox
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We love being able to have more than one or two family members playing at once. We have been playing Rabbids for a couple of months now, and this has been a fantastic addition to our (fairly small) Kinect game library.
I have five kids. Most Kinect games in my house involve a whole lot of planning out who gets to play with whom, long discussions about turn-taking, complaints about who is "stuck with" playing with the youngest siblings "all the time," etc.
What I love with Rabbids is that there are games the kids can play together. As I write this, my 5 and 7 year olds are playing. They are able to play most together (if I count right, 33 of the 37 games are available as 2 player games), but if one of them wants to take a break, there are some they can play alone (35 are available as single player ones).
When the bigger boys are involved, the game selection is far more limited, as only five games are available for 3-4 players. I wish there was a bit more selection in those 3-4 player games. But I am thrilled to have anything that they can do as a bigger group.
My 13 year old told me, "Some of the games are really weird, but a lot of them are awesome."
I love that many of the games really get the kids moving. Seriously moving. They are earning points for jumping around, or they are required to run in place. Many of the games require the kids to be cooperating -- the kids don't tend to love those. I do though.
It is interesting, too, because many of the games are so very realistic. The kids are moving around, trying to avoid the lasers... and it really looks like the lasers are burning paths in the carpet and leaving sparks all over.
Some of the hand control aspects are a bit difficult, so we end up using the XBox Controller in addition to the Kinect movement controls. Not a big deal, but I thought I should note it.
This is a game I would purchase, as we love the flexibility to get more people involved.
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video-games_xbox
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A little fun but a little more overrated. Now in no way am I basing my review in other reviews I'm merely putting a little emphasis on the many people praising this game when I feel it doesn't deserve much at all. Now to discuss the actual game.
Overall the game is a blast at first the detail put into some of the towns is amazing but falls short based on lack of actual variation of the actual climbing sequences. For example as in the first one there are viewpoints and as in the first one with the exception of 3 or 4 of the 66 viewpoints they all practically have the same structure climb to one wooden plank then to another. It feels lacking in many ways.
However gameplay has been improved and varied compared to the first yet the is no need for it. As before the primary example would be the hidden gun that takes some getting used to and with the exception of the tutorial mission is essentially pointless I never found a use for it same goes for the so called helpful poison blade. I may have gotten the wrong idea based on what the developers promised but it still left me striving for more when you finally get these new blades they're broken and do not work as the developers promised. Versus locking on to someone with the gun and holding down the button to aim you have to position Ezio perfectly or your aim will be a few centimeters off it gets redundant and frustrating. Along with this the poison blade fails entirely when poisoning a guard or brute you're more likely to be hurt than your target and the other guards will most likely spot you making it easier to just use your double hidden blades.
Now speaking of game play and broken; I feel it needs to be mentioned that the overall climbing system is in fact that there will be moments where the game will instead of having Ezio move to an above ledge he will perform a wall-run and jump this happens more than would be preferred. it works well till it breaks itself it seems. For no matter how well the whole one button does everything seems it always finds a way to break itself like with the leaps of faith sometimes instead of performing Ezio will just mindlessly jump to the ground.
Speaking of mindless the graphics are a major step down as well worse than the first maybe. The character models are creepily modeled they have eyes that are either cross-eyed or necks are like giraffes etc. The unnatural animations don't help either they twitch consistently and for some reason when you run you have this bizarre hunch nothing terrible just awkward and detracts from the experience. Speaking of that can anyone tell me why your arms are always spread away from your body when you walk? It's just strange. Oh and to be clear the facial rendering like speech, and mouth movements, etc. it extremely strange as well some characters mouth's just twitch up and down as well.
Now the games not all bad though the main satisfaction comes from the assassinations despite how broken some are. Double assassinations feel rewarding that's about it however they are usually overshadowed but the heinous amount of flaws the game has for being a AAA title. Buy the game if you can look past these said flaws I would recommend renting it due to it's short length even with the repetitive side quests. It wouldn't be an Assassin's Creed review without the word
repetitive would it? The game is decent at best. With broken gameplay, bizarre graphics and use of modeling, there's some fun to be had with assassination's but that's it.
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video-games_xbox
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Better than RE4?, well. RE4 was a staggering reboot for the ailing franchise; Res Evil's traditionally clunky controls were discarded and scaled back the puzzles in favour of rapid-fire action against far faster and more aggressive enemies than ever before, all wrapped up in amazingly detailed visuals. More than just being the pinnacle of the RE franchise, many people consider RE4 as being among a small handful of the best titles created for the last generation. RE5 has a handful of problems, and is nowhere near in the same league as RE4 in terms of all-time classics, but it does provide a suitably similar mix of exciting action, along with some utterly gorgeous visuals.
Two-player co-op can be played either online, over system link or split-screen. It's great to see Capcom supporting such a wide range of options for the co-op mode. While the general exploration and blasting of monsters plays out very similarly to RE4, the environments have been expanded a little, with many more split paths to give each player enough elbow room to fight. There are some great moments where one player can stun an enemy with a headshot, while the other rushes in and smashes them with a melee attack. It's even possible to link melee attacks together, so one player's punch will send an enemy stumbling back, then the other player's kick knocks them to the ground.
RE5 also adds a minor improvement to the movement controls. RE4's quasi twin-stick movement has been upgraded to today's standard twin-stick 'turning while walking' control system. For some odd reason though, turning with the right stick is disable when you're running. As you'd expect though, your feet are still nailed to the floor while shooting, to retain the usual Res Evil tension. As you've probably gathered, RE5 mirrors the gameplay of RE4 very closely, but this can be both a blessing and a curse. As in RE4 you'll spend the bulk of your time dispatching monsters and scouring the environments for ammo and treasure. You still collect treasure from corpses, cupboards, crates and by shooting it off walls. You still spend it on upgrading the same damage, reload speed and capacity characteristics of a very similar range of pistols, shotguns and machineguns. You're still forced to waste a lot of cash upgrading early weapons, only to have to sell them back for a fraction of the price when the better weapons are unlocked.
In lots of ways it's a good thing that RE5 sticks closely to RE4's brilliant template, but in other ways it's a shame it's progressed so little. A lot has happened in the games industry over the past four years and RE5 does feel dated as a result. It sure doesn't look dated, because the graphics look incredible, but it feels old. Other than the co-op mode and a couple of very minor tweaks here and there, the gameplay is identical to 2005's RE4.
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video-games_xbox
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I really wanted to love this game. I've really been looking forward to this game. First, the good news: the graphics, despite some glitchiness including slow texture draws and freezes during cutscenes, are generally excellent. The music's fantastic, and the voice acting is better than average
The controls are a little difficult to get used to and fairly flaky at times--"full impulse power" doesn't always mean full impulse power, for instance.
The HUD is generally unobtrusive, which can be good except that in this case, it's unobtrusive to the extent that it tends to leave out important information. (For example, jumping to warp drive while you have an enemy ship targeted removes that ship's reticle from the HUD, which is a pain in the butt when you're trying to figure out how long you need to stay in warp to close on the ship.)
The biggest problem I've found--and it's a doozy--is that your allied ships' AI is completely unreliable. Ships stop, veer off on courses to nowhere, and alternately disengage from fights they should stay in and get their butts kicked in fights they should disengage from. On the last mission I played, I was tasked with towing a captured ship out of a system while fighting a running battle against pursuing ships. The best method for this would have been to aim the ship with the captured Klingon in tow (the Enterprise) at the destination starbase, and then to alternate among the other three ships to take down the chasers. The problem was that any time I switched from Enterprise to one of my other ships, Enterprise changed course, veering back into the battle. In effect, this turned what could have been a fun tactical combat challenge into a not-fun-at-all tactical tow-truck simulation.
In short, this portion of the game is a mess, and I hope Bethesda plans a patch, because, as usual in any group-tactics simulation, the missions you're tasked with completing rely heavily on your allies behaving like they have a clue. Very, very frustrating.
There are a lot of other small problems with the game--niggling things that are more a symptom of rushed, poorly thought-out design than anything else. (For example, the selected item title in a menu displays in nearly-illegible black. Who thought THAT was a good idea?) None of these are show-stoppers, but added up, they detract from the experience.
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video-games_xbox
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The audio is great, noise cancelling is great. Let's just get this out of the way, if you do not use party chat on the xbox, this headset is unbelievable. It is fully wireless, no need to even plug to the controller for chat, and everything coming into your ear from the headset is phenomenal. The audio is great, noise cancelling is great, chat from other party members comes through crystal clear, there is no signal interference between the transmitter and the headset even with my router essentially right next to the base. With me so far? Lets get to the deal breakers:
Chat Functionality - When i use my headset to game, I use it to hear and be heard. The internal mic, while it makes the headset look cool, functions incredibly poorly for voice chat. In use, people tell me that they can barely hear me through their headsets, even when i put on the broadest mic setting and speak loudly. That is not even a little bit ok if i am paying $300 for a premium headset.
Mic Monitoring - This is a pretty heavily advertised function of this headset. Use mic monitoring to make sure you aren't yelling, right? Wrong. Because the internal mic (as described above) is so bad, you will never hear yourself in the headphones unless you turn game sound off.
I give it 2 stars because i want to love it so bad, but the mic is such a glaring disappointment that it will likely go back in the box and get returned to amazon.
EDIT 11/4/15: After using this set for a couple of extra days I have noticed some critical issues.
1) Mic Placement - Because of the design of the headset and the location of the microphone hole, headset placement is very important to the overall function of voice chat. After playing with it a little bit, I am able to wear the headset comfortably and have microphone function adequately.
2) Personal volume - This is a soft mic, and since my primary use for the headset is to minimize overall volume when i game after my wife and kid go to sleep, I tend to not speak full volume as a play. As a result, I probably come through softer all on my own than a typical user might. If you talk softly, you can expect this to be an issue. Tuning the mic for a quiet room helps, but you will still be a little quiet. If you are speaking at full volume, you won't have an issue.
In all, continued use has lead me to change my initial rating from 2 to 4 stars. The mic is still a little bit disappointing (from a purely ease of use standpoint) but could be better. The mic monitoring is still practically non-existent. I no longer feel that these issues are significant enough to warrant a return, I will be keeping the set and i will be happy to use them into the future. I would go so far as to recommend them to anyone in the market for a truly wireless experience with great sound.
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video-games_xbox
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Great easy to use headset for consoles but it has some minor issues. Everything about the LucidSound LS30 has been great except for a few things I want to mention.
The earpads are not easily replaceable with aftermarket ones. The pleather earpads are glued on to a plastic ring that clips on to the speakers. The only way to replace it is to rip out the earpads and super glue the replacements it to the plastic ring. This would be something I would consider if the pleather starts flaking off. I really hope that LucidSound makes velour earpad replacements similar to Brainwavz.
There are 3 EQ settings and I find the default setting to be the best for gaming due being more balanced. The other two EQs (bass and treble) are better suited for music. Overall the sound quality is warm and a little bit more neutral than other headsets that have boomy bass or piercing highs.
Mic quality isn't the greatest. I wouldn't recommend it for post commentary for Youtube videos but it is good enough for multiplayer gaming on consoles. I'm still having trouble finding the optimal positioning with the boom mic so that my voice can be heard without hearing my breath.
The headset does feel heavier than a normal set of headphones but it is surprisingly comfortable and doesn't feel heavy while wearing it.
*Update 9/1/16*
Regarding the microphone breath issue, I was able to remedy it with "Cat-Ears Mini Fur Microphone Windscreen (Medium)." The fit of the microphone covering is a little loose and I wish the fit was more snugged. The great thing I love about this cover is that I don't hear my breathy voice anymore. I'm quite amaze at how well this product worked.
*Update March 15th, 2018*
So my headband finally cracked after one year and nine months. Seems to be at the same spot that some of the reviewers have mentioned. I currently have the crack glued and taped. Hopefully it'll hold until I figure out a replacement. Everything is still working fine with no issues. I'm debating if I should upgrade to Lucid LS40 or look for another brand.
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video-games_xbox
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You've got a lot more than penguins to fear in Antarctica. In keeping with my tradition of playing and reviewing games that are now ancient by gaming standards, I am proud to present my review of "The Thing" for original Xbox. If you've been on the fence for the last seven years, unsure of whether or not to make this purchase, wait no more! Having just finished the game, I am here to tell you that yes, it is a good buy. (Heck, I would say that it's a good rental too, but since no store would even have it these days, good luck with that.)
I really loved this game. Other reviewers have said it and I agree. When it comes to Movie/Game Tie-ins, "The Thing" got it right. That doesn't happen often. It's the rare breed of video game that does go well with the movie, or well enough at least. The only one I can think of that did it better is "Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay". But that game was a prequel, instead of a sequel. Other games could learn a lot from these movie adaptations. (Are you listening, "Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green"???)
The Thing's graphics are top-notch. At least, they were by 2002 standards. Today, eh... not so much. They're good for an early Xbox game, which is what this is. A lot of grays and browns. But it's not bad, really. You wouldn't expect a lot of varied colors inside an Antarctic base, which is where most of the action in this game takes place. It all serves its purpose.
Some reviewers have commented that the enemy things themselves weren't varied enough; I disagree. I think they were fine.
The voice acting in the game is good, though the tough guy dialogue is a bit hokey at times. Still, it was good. And the sound effects were excellent.
The story was kind of convoluted and hard to follow. I finally quit trying to follow the details, once I realized that it was all just an excuse to set you up for the next level in the game. Plus, it all boils down to something really simple anyway: Bad guys try to run experiments on The Thing; the experiments go bad (or good, from the Thing's point of view); Thing tries to take over the world. The rest was just ancillary.
I liked the outdoor snow scenes. The interior of the bases were fairly monotonous. Some of it got kind of old, seeing the same style corridors and doors over and over. There was a lot of good atmosphere built into the game, creepy stuff like finding bodies on meathooks. And of course, who could ever forget the head in the urinal?
Some of it was limited by the graphical qualities of the early xbox, but even so, it is something special. The whole game experience leads to something that - while not being exactly frightening - is certainly creepy and memorable. All of it feeds a very effective feeling of isolation; it's you against the world. Which may be one of the reasons I preferred to play this alone at 1:00 in the morning...
While the graphical nuts and bolts of each level were repetitive, the level designs themselves were very inventive. I was surprised at how much cool stuff there was to do, and at the difficulty levels of the tasks to which you were assigned. Many of them called on you to use your brain quite a bit, as going in guns blazing just wouldn't cut it.
And that does bring me to one facet of the game that you will likely find as frustrating as I: the Difficulty. The Thing is a HARD game. If you play it, you will die. Not once, but many times. As someone who once beat Mike Tyson on Punch-Out, and more recently, has beaten "Ninja Gaiden Black" on Master Ninja mode, I am no stranger to difficult games. But this is something else. Many parts of this game are simply hell on earth to get through, causing you to play through them again and again... You better have a high tolerance for that, or else you'll beating your controller - or your head - against the wall.
Some of this is due to poor design. The save stations are few and far between. And the controls are a bit clunky. The item and weapon inventory are both keyed to the D-pad, only in different directions. So lots of times when you are trying to switch weapons, which you'll be doing a lot since you need the flamethrower to finish off Things, you'll accidentally go the wrong way and not be able to get it in time. All while being rushed by the enemy and killed. Or you might accidentally switch from your Medpacks to a grenade, which can really screw you over.
Another annoyance is that crouching is tied into depressing the control stick. So lots of times in the middle of a fight, you'll end up crawling around when you want to be running.
But by far the worst is the amount of save stations. Especially toward the end, where there's one particularly grueling area. You have to get out of a burning station, and then fight your way through a snowy canyon, sniping a good three dozen (at least) enemy soldiers. This was the hardest part of the game, and there was no place to save. Luckily, restarting the level keeps you at the beginning point of that. But if you don't make it through after your first hour of trying (and trust me, you won't), you may be tempted to leave it and try later. There goes your progress.
Plus, often times you won't have enough health packs to keep going. Not without restarting at an earlier point and playing better. My advice? Save and save a lot!
The game touts its Fear and Trust systems. I thought these were a great concept , but like many other reviewers, I found them to be worthless in practice. If they game were truly squad-based it might matter. But the team members you get only remain generic NPC's, and never develop into anything worthwhile. You don't care if they trust you, because 9 times out of 10 you won't need any of them anyway. By the time you reach the end of the level, any of them that have survived simply disappear mysteriously, unable to progress through the pre-programmed level.
This is my biggest problem with this game. It took an idea that is quite cool, and never really followed up on it. Despite whatever it may claim, this game is a solo effort. The fact that your squadmates are never allowed to join you in the miniboss battles just emphasizes the point.
And this is a highlight of the game to me: the Minibosses. There are at least 3, and all of them are hell on earth to actually beat. Most of your dying efforts will consist of just trying to figure out what to do to damage them. None of them are easy at all. The hardest - which actually turned out to be the easiest - was the one with a Thing in a glass booth in the back of the room. The whole time you are fighting, you are trying to keep from shooting that booth, to accidentally let the other Thing out. (Hint: Rapid-fire shotgun, then torch him! You'd better do a good job on this one too, with about 5 health packs left over or so. Because that's all you're going to be getting for a LOOONG time, buddy!)
In conclusion, I think this is an awesome game and I love it. It is not without its shortcomings, but I recommend it to all who love the movie by John Carpenter, and not really anyone else. Guaranteed to please!
Plus, the ending to the game answers the question of what really happened to R. J. MacReady at the end of the movie... Or does it? It's up to you to decide!
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video-games_xbox
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Dark Souls 1 is my current favorite game of all time. I love Dark Souls 1. It has it's flaws, but I have said for a couple years that it's my favorite game.
I was psyched about DS2. After beating it 5 times and farming for every item in the game, though, I am left a bit disappointed. Sure, it's a fantastic game, and highly recommended! But I can't give it five stars. I can't because it's not as good as it's predecessor. It's too bright, too easy, and too forgiving.
Dark Souls hasn't gone full-casual, but it took a step towards it with this release. There's a tutorial area, communications with NPCs are far more verbose, and there's not much in the way of missable secret encounters, areas or endings... none that matter, nothing like Dark Souls.
Meanwhile, online is full of griefers and quitters and cheap players who are more interested in exploiting the game's weaknesses for quick and easy wins than being creative, competitive, and having fun. Add to this how anyone can be invaded by players of any level now and you have a far more frustrating multiplayer experience mixed with your watered-down single-player experience.
Lag is a huge issue with this game. Modders, from day one, have been a huge issue with this game. The experience of Dark Souls may have been a one-time exclusive event for early players of the first two games, because DS2 doesn't deliver properly.
I get that FromSoftware wants to add more to the multiplayer experience but they've taken away from the challenge and enjoyment of the game in the process. They've even released a few patches post-launch that have nerfed some of the harder areas of the game.
All that said, the game is fluid, the graphics and music are very nice 90% of the time, there's been a bit more balancing of things from the last game, and when you're not being invaded by exploiters or cheaters it can be quite enjoyable.
I strongly recommend the original DARK SOULS instead if you haven't played either.
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video-games_xbox
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Just a quickie, current reviews don't do it justice. This game is incredible. I have a love/hate relationship with it. There is a learning curve to it with regards to drifting, which is a required skill if you wish to place in any of the races. At first I hated it, cars kept spinning out from oversteer... or I'd smash into a wall due to understeer. Went searching on forums to see if there was any kind of trick to it, general consensus is PRACTICE! Which is what video games are about. That frustrating, wanting to throw your controller through the wall because it "JUST WON'T DO WHAT YOU WANT!" feeling followed by pure ecstatic nirvana when you finally nail it.
This game is a sure departure from the original Ridge Racer formula where you're basically on rails and the cars float around the circuit. Bug Bear, the developer behind Flat-Out really knows how to make a racer!
There is an interesting aspect to the game that happens when nailing several drifts in a row and boosting through opponents, low-walls and shortcuts it seems to transform into a melee of flashes and hectic explosions that evoke pure adrenalin. Like raging out, hulk-status. Not in a cheesy way, but it does remind me of Mario after he gets the flashing star.
Another little thing I like is that once a level loads... it's loaded. You can restart the race with zero-load time. Which is great for when you fail into a wall and get dropped back to 12 place on your last lap.
A minor quirk that doesn't detract too much from the game is every once in a while after boosting though a shortcut or after a "takedown" and you get the (skippable) cinematic, upon resuming racing it might throw you into a wall or into the next curve at a very unsalvageable angle. This however happens rarely, but frequently enough to mention.
I am about half-way through the un-lockable levels of the city, I have yet to try the level editor and I don't play multiplayer. I will update this review if anything more needs to be said about it, or once I try the level editor.
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video-games_xbox
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Captivating. This game sparked my current obsession with the second world war, which is the highest praise I can bestow. I played and enjoyed Calls of Duty 1-4, particularly the fourth, which was set in the present day. However, I only decided to purchase World at War after a great deal of deliberation on whether my money would be better spent on Gears of War 2. Needless to say, I am far from disappointed.
The game is divided between a narrative campaign, which can be played solo or with up to three friends, and an extensive multi-player mode which builds on the highly-acclaimed equivalent in Call of Duty 4. The campaign is further divided between two characters: a US Marine fighting to take Japanese-held islands in the Pacific, and a Russian soldier participating in the vengeful push against the Wehrmacht from Stalingrad to Berlin.
What makes the game so captivating for me is that these two stories are so different from each other, and from the vast majority of WWII video games, which tend to focus exclusively on the Allied invasion of Normandy. Playing through these campaigns I began to realize how weakly I grasped the global scope of the War. I was struck by extent that the Red Army suffered to grind down the bulk of the German Army on the Eastern Front. I was shocked by the guile and ruthlessness of the Japanese defenders in the Pacific, forces that have rarely appeared in the virtual arena.
The multi-player mode only cemented my fascination. The weapons have clearly been given a great deal of attention, and the class system expertly allows the player to tailor her experience to suit individual preferences and play styles. The voice chatter certainly breaks the WWII atmosphere, but the "mute player" option is always available to preserve sanity.
Highly recommended for anyone with a passing interest in shooters or WWII. Please do not allow your under 18-year old children anywhere near this game. Spouses may require that earphones be purchased, in which case I recommend the Turtle Beach Ear Force X4.
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video-games_xbox
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Absolutely awesome game, even if the single player campaign feels a bit incomplete. I'll focus this on the single player campaign, since I don't have XBox Live and don't play much online anyway.
Overall, the game is truly excellent. I haven't been so completely absorbed and enamored by an FPS game since the original Halo first came out. The graphics are among the best, if not THE best, of any game out there. The pacing of the game is fast and furious, with enemies popping out everywhere, grenades raining down constantly (giving you mere seconds to dive out of the way or throw them back), your AI teammates yelling back and forth, and objectives you must race to accomplish in minutes. The way in which the story progresses is absolutely engrossing. Although the story itself is pretty much along the lines of your run of the mill Tom Clancy game scenario, it is presented and told in a manner that makes you really feel like you are a part of what's going on, and really makes you care about the characters involved.
There are a few levels that add variety to the gameplay, such as a level where you covertly sneak behind enemy lines as a sniper to assassinate one particular bad guy. Another one puts you in the role of a gunner on an AC-130 Spectre, providing air support to your normal character's team on the ground.
The only real gripe I have with the single player game is that it is too short. While I loved every minute it lasted, it just didn't last long enough, and it feels a bit incomplete as a result. I suspect that the campaign was originally intended to be longer. For example, the main villains in the story are called "the Four Horsemen." However, you only end up dealing with three, and the fourth one is never shown or even mentioned. Obviously there's a story gap there. I'd advise experience FPS players to play the game on at least the 'Hardened' difficulty level. This makes the game considerably challenging, but also adds some much needed longevity to the campaign.
A technical issue I have with the story is that the portrayal of USMC Force Recon is not accurate. Force Recon is a covert spec ops type unit along the same lines as Navy Seals and the British SAS. However, the game's Force Recon levels have the Force Recon Marines kitted up like regular infanry, and participating in large unit full scale mechanized assaults that would really be tasked to regular infantry. Also, the ranking structure of the Force Recon unit is not accurate. Recon platoon commanders are Captains rather than Lieutenants, as the game portrays. And I don't think that lower ranks like Private or PFC are even allowed in Force Recon units. Yeah I know this stuff may seem like nitpicking, but one of the trademarks of the COD series is its historical/technical accuracy. And unfortunately, for anyone familiar with Marine Corps units the portrayal of Force Recon in COD4 will just ring false. Having a brother and a few close personal friends who've served in the Force Recon community, I have a bit of a soft spot for them and would've liked to see them portrayed more accurately.
Nevertheless, COD4 is an amazing game that belongs at the top of the list for any FPS lover.
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video-games_xbox
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