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Reviews
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
It’s not uncommon for video game companies to pull off elaborate April Fools jokes, giving us a glimpse of a game so far out there that there’s no possible way it could be true. That’s what Ubisoft did this past April Fools, by teasing a game that looked like it was a joke; Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was shown and I believe, vastly disregarded as it was revealed on April Fools day. Turns out it was no joke, and what we have with Blood Dragon is an 80’s inspired game that will have any gamer old enough to reminisce about the older days of VHS tapes, big hair, gait The title may be called Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon but rejoice, no Far Cry 3 game is actually needed, as this is a self-contained expansion that bathes in its pure 80’s awesomeness. Case in point: Michael Biehn voices the action hero, Sergeant Rex Power Colt (is there truly a more 80’s hero name than that?), best known for Corporal Dwayne Hicks from Aliens and Sergeant Kyle Reese from Terminator. Blood Dragon is completely over the top and ridiculous in every way, but that’s where the charm comes in. I’ve never seen anything quite like Blood Dragon, and bet is you haven’t either.
Blood Dragon happens after the apocalypse had an apocalypse and is set in the near future of 2007. Rex is a Mark IV Cyber Commando, complete with a single mechanical eye that glows red. Rex may be park man, part machine, but he’s all American and out to get revenge all while saving the girl. Blood Dragon starts off with an awesome action sequence and probably the funniest tutorial I’ve ever played. There are so many 80’s movie, sci-fi, and pop culture references that you’ll for sure get flashbacks of the decade if you lived it. Blood Dragon even comes complete with 8-bit cutscenes complete with voice acting that you only saw in B-rated movies from the 80’s that were so bad they were fantastic.
As Blood Dragon is built with the Far Cry 3 engine, you’ll notice many similarities in the core mechanics and gameplay if you’ve played the game before. It is set in an open world (though much more condensed than the full Far Cry 3 game), you can hunt animals, use the ‘camera’, and more. Rex can use his cybernetic eye, not only for that cool look that the ladies love, but to also help in in combat but also allowing him to zoom in on the battlefield, as it will mark enemies so he can keep track of them through walls and around objects. Instead of the regular knife from the base game, Rex uses a glowing sword that when executing an enemy, can also chain his attack by throwing a ninja shooting star; that’s right, this game has shooting stars.
As you progress you’ll gain access to bigger and better weapons for more firepower. You’ll start off with a single pistol, but soon be able to use an assault rifle, sniper rifle, shotgun (which is probably the coolest shotgun in gaming due to how Rex holds it over his forearm like a true badass), mobile turret, flamethrower, and even a glowing neon bow and arrow for those that want to play stealthy. As you progress through side missions you’ll also gain access to upgrades for your weapons for purchase, making your awesome weapon even more awesome, as if that was somehow possible.
So why is Blood Dragon called Blood Dragon? Well I’m glad you asked, as there’s a fantastic and logical reason behind it; there are Blood Dragons in the game. These monstrous animals are a mix of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Bearded Dragon, and they are absolutely massive and equally dangerous if you aren’t careful. Oh, and they can also shoot lasers out of their eyes; that’s right, dinosaurs that can shoot lasers. Pure awesome. Blood Dragons have neon stripes along their bodies that are not only for show, but also give you a clue to their awareness and aggression levels. Green means they are minding their own business and won’t care about you as long as you stay crouched and avoid making any sounds. Yellow means they are going to investigate or are about to enter combat. If you see a Blood Dragon turn red though, you better hope it’s not against you, as they are more foe than you’ll be able to handle on your own for quite some time. They seem to have a fondness for cyberhearts though, which are the organs you’ll rip from the cyborgs you’ve defeated in combat and then use to your advantage. Throw one of these hearts nearby and they’ll have no choice but to go after it. Happen to throw one near some enemies or an enemy base, and you’ll in turn make the Blood Dragon somewhat fight on your side as he starts to attack your rivals in devastating fashion. Essentially you’ll use these cyberhearts as bait, luring the Blood Dragons to where you want them to fight at; just make sure you don’t make it angry at you by accidentally shooting it, as it’ll probably be one of the last mistakes you make.
As you kill enemies and complete quests you’ll earn CP (Cyberpoints) that will slowly progress you through thirty levels of awesome. There are no fancy skill trees or skills you need to worry about, as each time you level up you earn a new health bar, ability (like takedowns for the heavy enemies), or something similar automatically. You can go liberate the enemy garrisons and once they are clear of all threats, it can now be used as one of your outposts to make quick travel much easier. Liberated garrisons will also offer side quests for you to complete which result in upgrades for your weapons, so they are highly encouraged to do.
While the main campaign is very short, though very, very sweet and full of awesome, it’ll only last you a very short while. In typical Far Cry 3 fashion though, there’s actually much more content doing sidequests and hunting than there is the actual storyline. While the main campaign might only take you a handful of hours, liberating all the garrisons, doing the weapon upgrade quests, and hunting the rarest animals will last you easily upwards of eight to ten hours. For an expansion, that’s well worth the price of admission, and that’s not even taking into account the 80’s nostalgia you’ll get from actually playing.
Blood Dragon is every 80’s kid’s game they’ve been waiting for since then. Lots of swearing, middle fingers, macho manliness, neon, and overdone voice acting you could ever want. Blood Dragon is homage to the 80’s movies that were so bad that you loved them for it. Even if you’re not an 80’s kid or it wasn’t your favorite decade, the neon and glowing art style Blood Dragon possesses is no less impressive.
Sure, blood Dragon is basically the best parts of Far Cry 3 lumped into one with a new coat of paint and the humor cranked all the way up, but that’s what makes this so charming. The tale of a great game is not always just its graphics or gameplay, but if you’ll remember it; I’ll certainly be remembering Blood Dragon for quite some time. This was one of the most hilarious titles I’ve played in quite some time and I was smiling the whole time I was playing due to the script and execution of every line. From the opening tutorial that had me actually laughing aloud, to the final mission that was gratifying and a great climax, I enjoyed every minute of Blood Dragon, and for the mere price of admission, you should to. This game could possibly be more 80’s than the actual 80’s were, and that’s AWESOME.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
God Mode
IDDQD. If you’re and old school gamer, you’ll know that this was THE code for God Mode back in the day. Here we are twenty years later and now God Mode has graduated from a code that enabled you to become unstoppable to a game of its own filled with tons of running and even more gunning. God Mode is all about shooting down dozens and dozens of enemies while you collect money and experience and work towards character and weapon customization while playing along with three other friends. Essentially God Mode will pit you against hordes of mythical and undead creatures in a package that is mindless fun… for a while. The story in God Mode is thin and won’t have you caring at all why you’re playing, but there is an underlying storyline here for those that do care. You’re dead and to avoid being stuck in purgatory, you need to fight your way out of the Mazes of Hades against unrelenting waves of creatures to do so. That’s about it, but let’s be honest, you’re going to be playing God Mode for the chance to shoot hundreds of baddies, not for the thinly veiled plot.
God Mode is essentially a hybrid of Horde mode from Gears of War and Firefight from Halo ODST, though there’s nowhere near the amount of strategy needed here. God Mode is simple in premise; shoot everything that moves. That’s it. Enemies won’t really give you much trouble once you learn the mechanics and basics and all you’ll need to do is hold down the trigger button for the most part and strafe from side to side. Being a third person shooter with an emphasis on crazy frantic action, expect a straight forward concept with some fun, albeit short lived, fun.
Killing enemies nets you valuable experience and gold; the bigger and badder the enemy, the more you’ll gain. This experience helps you to level up which allows you to purchase higher level weapons and upgrades for your weapons, outfit aesthetic options, and abilities with the gold you’ve acquired. You’ll start off with only a SMG and Shotgun but there are a ton of other weapons you can purchase later on when you reach the required level to unlock them for purchase like the Railgun, Buzzsaw, Machine Gun, and more. Weapons can be upgraded for bigger magazines, higher accuracy, and more damage with gold as well. You also can unlock new abilities as you level up and even upgrade those as well, making God Mode a much more fun experience once you gain enough strength and money to do so.
With only a handful of missions to play, essentially maps, you’re going to have to enjoy repetitive gameplay if you want to keep playing God Mode for the long haul. Each mission is a set static event, meaning that all the enemies you see will spawn in the exact place every time and it’s always the same enemies at preset times. Where the variety in gameplay comes is in the randomized Tests of Faith in each smaller section of the missions. These Tests of Faith are randomized game modifiers that can make the section in the mission dramatically tougher or simpler, or odder. Sometimes these mutators will cause friendly fire to toggle on, make enemies tougher and larger, give everyone unlimited ammo (my personal favorite), damage you if you leave the alter’s range, change your weapon every so often, make enemies small, make the sound messed up, or even have all enemies wear party hats. It’s completely random and that’s where the real fun comes in. I just wish the maps themselves were more random, as I can play one of the maps with my eyes closed due to the amount of times I’ve played it, and while yes the modifier can change how I play, outside of a few of the more specific ones, it doesn’t affect gameplay all too drastically.
Once you level up a bit, upgrade your weapons and abilities, you might be looking for more of a challenge. There are Bronze, Silver, and Gold modes to play on, with the higher difficulties netting more experience and gold, but it’s still the same maps you’ve played already on Bronze. These are where Oaths come in and allow for more challenge and rewards. Oaths are like Halo’s skulls, toggling different personal modifiers like no shields, less ammo on pickups, dealing less damage, and more. Each Oath toggled on will give you bonus experience and gold for mission completions. You’ll want to be playing with friends that cooperate well when you’re trying to play with multiple Oaths turned on though, as you can become overwhelmed quite quickly when you’re not at 100% character strength.
Complete a whole mission and you’ll be granted a short amount of time to gather as much gold as you can possibly find. The catch is that friendly fire is turned on during this brief romp and can become frustrating if there’s someone with a very powerful weapon killing you when you simply want to collect gold.
I really enjoyed God Mode for the first few hours, as I was trying to level up to purchase better weapons and make things easier for me to level up even further. Problems started to appear once I got the hang of everything though and I realized how easy it was for someone to mess up your gaming experience if they wanted to. Firstly, there’s nothing stopping you from jumping right to the Silver or Gold difficulties right away, so someone brand new to the game can join you running Gold matches and very quickly waste all of your shared lives, causing you to fail the mission in a short amount of time. One match I had a random guy leave his controller and his character just standing there, getting killed multiple times. Playing the harder missions with someone that isn’t as upgraded or simply as good is incredibly frustrating, and while it’s not always their fault, playing on Gold matches with people that still have default weapons is no fun either.
God Mode is all about pure simple arcade action that never takes itself seriously. It favors gameplay action over substance and that’s not always a bad thing, as sometimes you just want a mindless shooter for a brief period. That being said, the gameplay itself is incredibly shallow, which isn’t helped by the fact that the missions themselves are static with the Tests of Faith being the only changing dynamic every time you play. You need to pick your weapons before a match and you can’t pick up any other weapons (unless you get the specific Test of Faith that randomizes the one in your hand). It probably isn’t helped by the fact that the majority of the guns sound very bland and don’t feel very powerful at all (until they are fully upgraded). The best guns are going to take you awhile to unlock, as you’ll need to sink in quite a few hours to level up enough to purchase them. While this progression system isn’t a bad thing, there’s no carrot constantly dangling in front of you to motivate you to keep on playing for the most part once you get what you’ve been saving up for.
There are a lot of bugs though, and even more lag at times.On three separate occasions I had to completely back out to the dashboard because either the game froze or half of my team weren’t able to attack any of the enemies running in place, thus losing our gained experience and money for that mission. That being said, when you get a team of four together that play well and focus, God Mode becomes blast to play and well worth he price of admission (800 Microsoft Points).
With missions being exactly the same every time, save for the Tests of Faith, it’s inevitable that you’re going to become bored of the game in time. You’re going to eventually play the maps enough times that you’ll know them off by heart, to the point that when you get the dense fog modifier, it won’t really affect you all that much since you know what’s going to happen enemy wise. God Mode’s biggest downfall is its lack of variety, which is odd to say, since every match tries to play different every time, but playing a mission for the fiftieth time, you won’t be fooled, despite which Test of Faith is activated. It’s straight forward, has an amusing narrator (for a short while), and can be recommended if you want a simple shooter for some mindless fun in short bursts. I hope there are plans for DLC that adds more maps and weapons, as I’m already tired of what’s included in the base game itself. I wish God Mode had more longevity, though maybe I played too long at once, as I really wanted some of the higher level weapons, and now I feel that there’s nothing else worth playing for.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Defiance
I’ve been reviewing games long enough now that I have a system for my note taking, collecting my thoughts, and then expressing them to the best of my ability in a cohesive manner. That’s generally not too challenging as most games have a beginning, end, and all the fun stuff in between that I need to describe. This becomes incredibly much more difficult when the game I have to write about doesn’t ‘really’ have an end, and the product you get to play day one can change drastically in a short time with a single patch as content is fixed, changed, removed, or added. This is the case with reviewing Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) games, as they are consistently changing and story flow and gameplay can vary drastically from the first few hours to the next hundred or so. That being said, this review is based on what I’ve played up to this point and the state of the game is in at the time of publish, but keep in mind Defiance WILL change and evolve in the future, as all MMO’s do over time. Defiance is the latest MMO title to hit the market, but there are a few things that set it apart from the others in the very crowded genre. Firstly, Defiance is a third person shooter, and while that’s not unique in itself, to have a MMO based on it is; so I guess this classifies as a MMOTPS. This allows the MMO fundamentals to be mixed in with the mechanics of a shooter as well. If a Defiance was developed by a group that have never done an MMO before, I would probably have been a little more worried, as the scope of this game is quite large; luckily Trion, the makers of the PC MMO RIFT are the ones behind the gaming side of Defiance. If you’ve played RIFT you’ll no doubt catch many similarities but it’s very interesting to see a developer come so far from making a traditional MMORPG and transition to a MMOTPS. Much like RIFT, you’ll have traditional quests and the normal pallet of MMO mechanics, but they’ve also included the unique dynamic events once again to keep things interesting.
Sure Defiance may look like a typical sci-fi story and setting that has a post-apocalyptic backdrop, but what really makes Defiance unique is its ideas; namely being tied into the TV show with the same corresponding title, due to premier very shortly on the Syfy channel (Showcase for us Canadians) that will play alongside events in the game, with promises of some intertwining. Defiance will look and feel very rough around the edges when you begin, and even most likely give off a bad first impression, but keep with it and you’ll see how fun it is to play cooperatively with hundreds of other players simultaneously taking down an Arkfall invasion and consistently improving your Ark Hunter character that you create.
So what’s the backdrop of Defiance? An alien civilization invades Earth after their own home has been destroyed but only come to realize humanity calls this planet home afterwards. The aliens begin to terraform Earth’s landscape which sets the post-apocalyptic visual setting and clearly makes a hostile conflict between the two species. A character named Karl Von Bach claims to have a device called an Ark Core that claims is going to not only save the world, but make him famous and the worlds hero, though that’s before it’s lost and in the wrong hands. This is where you come in, as you need to track it down and save the day, and subsequently, Earth.
As I mentioned above, a large draw into Defiance is that there is going to be a TV tie-in show that looks almost like Battlestar Galactica mixed with Firefly. If you play the game you’ll recognize certain characters in the show, such as Joshua Nolan and Irisa, and vice versa, which I think brings a very unique dynamic, trying to break the medium barrier for fans. Hopefully in later episodes of the TV the Defiance game will get DLC and updates that will show more characters from the show. There are a lot of really cool ideas that could be done with this tie-in if done well, but that’s a lot of if’s and a lot of waiting and seeing what will be done. With a very distinct opportunity here, Trion and Syfy have a chance at making something very special if both sides are treated equal, so here’s to hoping it’s not going to simply be a gimmick that gets forgotten.
Usually with high profile MMO’s there’s an attached monthly subscription fee that tags along, simply as a cost to play a constantly evolving game. Defiance won’t have any of that as there is no subscription required; all you need is space on your Xbox 360 hard drive (10 GB) and an active Xbox Live Gold subscription. All of the game’s patches are done through the game and separate from Xbox Live itself. So how can Trion afford to offer an MMO without the monthly fees generally required? That’s where microtransactions come in; you can purchase in game currency, Bits, in exchange for real money (your Microsoft Points) to buy certain boosts and loot boxes for a chance at better items and weapons. Keep in mind that the exchange rate is currently overpriced for many items and there’s not really anything you truly NEED to purchase to make a massive difference in the game, maybe aside from the extra inventory spaces early in the game, but those can be earned in game without the need for purchase.
A big issue that free to play games suffer from that use real currency as an economy is that it has the risk of becoming pay to win, though luckily that’s not the case here, as you can purchase XP boosts and cosmetic items, but nothing massive that will make the playing field uneven for other players. While PC MMO players are going to be used to a less than perfect launch with many server crashes, bugs, downtime, and more, I don’t believe many console players will be. Most console players are going to buy the disc, put it in their 360, and want to play. Some might not understand why they need to download and patch the game for an hour or more before even starting the first time. The lack of a cohesive tutorial and even menu system is going to no doubt frustrate many players which is compounded by the fact that even something as simple as chatting is more of a hindrance than it is an asset. Even with my chatpad connected and asking the area chat for help on topics, the chat is barren for the most part, but more on that later. You will have to exorcise your patience when learning the ropes and figuring out nearly everything on your own; so bring your tolerance and don’t expect any hand holding of any kind. You’ll be thrown into the world of Defiance and left to figure out what to do on your own to much frustration and confusion.
As you finally patch the game for the first time and get to log in, you’ll be prompted to create your own Ark Hunter, though don’t expect much from the character creator, as there are so few options that almost everyone you come across will look very similar (aside from the visual clothing you earn and can purchase). While most MMO’s make you pick a class and force you into that role, instead in Defiance you pick one of four unique starting abilities (which I’ll explain later on) and as you level up (which is very different from the standard way as well) you’ll gain new talents and perks that will improve your character, albeit slightly, sometimes even unnoticeably.
As the core game of Defiance is a Third Person Shooter, it will play very much like Borderlands, with a slew of randomized guns of varying types and stats, left for you to choose what suits your play style best. While guns will be your main weapon, you’ll also have your base skill you chose at character creation in which your timer refreshes in time, a shield (not in the traditional sense), and grenades that also work on a refresh timer. As you adventure you’ll come across mods to equip in your guns, thus improving them as you level and fight tougher enemies. Every character also eventually gains access to summon a vehicle, be it a car, van, or ATV, that can be used at any time outdoors (which is the majority of the time).
MMO’s are generally meant to be played with other people. Sure you can solo and progress, but generally the bulk experience of these types of games are enjoyed better with friends and other players, as the risk versus rewards become much greater with bigger groups. To do this you need to coordinate with other players, which is generally done with the in game chat system (this is excluding outside voice programs of course), so if you’re in game solution to be social doesn’t work well or is too confusing to use, you’re going to have problems right off the bat. Sadly, Defiance suffers from this greatly. The menu systems and even figuring out HOW to chat, even with my chatpad equipped, took way more work that should have been explained to me from the beginning. The menu system itself is not only overbearing and confusing, but even when you kind of figure it out it doesn’t make any sense.
Because of this you’ll generally see no one talking in chat, but for more than that reason alone. Generally MMO’s have chat boxes that are static and will always show what the last few lines said were, so that you always have that social window open to other players. The problem with Defiance’s system is that the text fades away so quickly that unless you’re focusing on it, anything being typed will be missed, especially in the rare instances where more than one person is chatting.
I can’t figure out if this was a huge mistake on Trion’s part, or if they were trying to take away that reliance on traditional text to communicate. Sure you can simply use party chat with friends and never think twice, but for those times when you’re playing solo and want to make new friends or talk to someone that just helped you on a quest, it’s generally not worth the headache. Sure it’s a relief to not see the usually ill-fated chat that trolls usually dominate in these games, but for those times when you truly do want to communicate with others, you’re going to have a frustrating time simply even figuring out how to do so. Even if chatting was done simply, which isn’t the case at all, the way that it’s handed currently with it fading so quickly and only showing a few lines at a time, makes it near impossible to do so with much purpose.
In Defiance you play the role of an Ark Hunter, essentially an all-around specialist and bounty hunter who hunt for salvage and financial and personal gain. Backed by Von Bach Industries, you’ll have access to some of the most advanced technology that exists, namely in your EGO implant. EGO, the Environmental Guardian Online, is the latest in technology and will power your HUD and even pair you with a Cortana-like AI that will help you where possible and give you constant feedback and tips about your environment and situations. This advanced EGO implant makes even the most timid Ark Hunter a force to be reckoned with.
The EGO system is also how Defiance tracks your character’s progression as you become more proficient in time and experience. Forget the traditional leveling system with a level cap and numbers that equate skill and experience; instead, as your EGO level rises, you won’t always see your characters numbers become larger, making you more powerful. You won’t instantly do more damage with your guns or gain mass amounts of health simply because you leveled, but instead will have access to gaining more abilities and perks which will enhance your character ever so slightly; it can even greatly affect how you play. It’s more meant to help you tune your character to how you want to play rather than artificially adding larger numbers. This is where the choice of the four major skills comes into play as you create your character.
The first of the four main abilities is Blur. Blur allows you to seemingly become a blur, in or out of combat. While active you’ll gain bonuses to movement speed, defense and offence chances. You’ll be able to dodge shots and attacks much more frequently and even increase damage you inflict as well. The Cloak ability is exactly as it sounds; you can turn invisible for a short amount of time allowing you to setup a specific situation in battle, or flee when needed. Overcharge is an EGO power that basically permits you to go berserk for a short amount of time, allowing you to inflict much more damage from your weapon. The last EGO power, and the one I personally chose and use on my Ark Hunter, is Decoy. This allows you to send out a hologram of your character to where you desire, and doing so will distract the enemies that see it, allowing you to either setup a combat situation or flee when needed; you can even swap places with your Decoy and teleport to it if you desire. Leveling up this power lengthens the durability of your hologram, thus giving you a longer amount of time to setup what you intend to in battle.
As you raise your EGO level you can unlock other powers which will only take effect when equipped (and thus turned into a perk). Think of a skill tree, but it’s in a grid instead, allowing everyone to eventually have access to all of the powers and abilities (though you can only equip a certain amount of perks at a time, based on your EGO rating). If you want that really good skill that’s a few blocks away that will help your gameplay, you might have to spend a few EGO upgrade points just to obtain it. Skills can then be upgraded multiple times to boost their effectiveness as well. Made a mistake with a skill or it’s simply not working as you hoped (which is to be expected, as many doesn’t always seem to perform as well as you might think by their description), you have the ability to repsec at any time, providing you have enough in game currency, scrip. You’re going to level up enough to purchase many skills you don’t care about or want, but this encourages experimentation, as you can have multiple loadouts (as you progress in EGO levels) to find what works best for your play style. I’ve already taught you more here than the game ever tries to do.
As Defiance is a shooter, the main attraction is going to be its weapons. You’ll get to choose from SMG’s, Rocket Launchers, Sniper rifles, Shotguns, Pistols, Infectors, LMG’s, Assault Rifles, and even a Bio-Magnetic Gun that allows you to heal other players. Like the EGO system, weapons also have their own leveling system that’s a completely separate progression. While good in ideas, it’s a little flawed in execution for a few reasons. The basic idea is that if you do damage with a specific type of weapon, you’ll level it up, this making you more proficient with that type of weapon, earning you bonuses like reload speed, accuracy, damage, and more as you progress. The catch is that have a cap on how much each gun can be used towards the progression. Essentially you have a set amount of XP you can earn with each gun towards weapon progression with each individual gun.
If you max out your XP earning with your favorite or best gun, you’ll need to swap it out for another of the same class if you want to continue earning XP in weapon proficiency. That wouldn’t be a major deal if you were constantly finding new upgrades like in Borderlands, but it’s nothing like that in Defiance. You find upgrades so infrequently and rarely that you’re going to need to swap for a less powerful gun to continue your weapon progression. You essentially keep downgrading your weapon just to earn experience with it. Sure you could ignore the weapon progression, but you want to constantly be improving your weapons, and thus your characters, so it’s a viscous cycle you can’t escape.
Like any good MMO, you’ll have quests and tasks to undertake, you keep you interested and playing. Most quests aside from a few and the main story missions are going to all fall into the same ‘shoot everything dead then activate the object to win’ scheme. While the quest basis might be bland for the most part, the open nature of the world does make it a little more exciting. If I’m in an area working on a quest and someone else comes along in the same area, they can kill enemies and flip switches, etc, to help progress both of our quests. I’ve had times where I go to an area for quest and a mob of people were there, finishing my quest in literally seconds which was awesome considering we weren’t even grouped. The byproduct and downfall to this mechanic (and lack of a useful chat system) is that proper teamwork is generally not required if you’re playing with random people instead of friends in voice chat.
While there are main missions to keep the story progressing, there are numerous side missions and challenge that will keep you busy enough and to fill any desire of mission type you might feel like at the time. Challenges will vary from Time Trial, Hotshot, and Rampage modes. Time trial will have you on your vehicle of choice, driving through preset rings to try and earn a gold, silver, or bronze medal for your best time. Just like weapons, vehicles also ‘level’ which will gain you speed and handling bonuses as well the more you use them. Hotshot challenges gives you set weapon and amount of ammunition as you try and get the highest score possible. Rampage challenges are extremely entertaining and have you equipped with super powerful weapons trying to demolish all of the enemies before the timer reaches zero.
For those that want to take a break from the grind and regular missions, there are also co-op and competitive modes for you to opt into if you desire. These multiplayer modes simply bring your main character over, allowing you to put your characters build against other players. The basic PVP is done in Deathmatches and can be a fun way to test out a new loadout and perk selection against other actual players instead of the incompetent enemy AI. Sure the multiplayer portion isn’t perfect, and there are many tweaks that are needed to provide balance and fairness (I’m looking at you shotgun users in PVP) but this is something that Trion will hopefully fix in time, much like many other issues with the game.
Arkfalls are the most interesting events and portion of Defiance in all the hours I’ve sunk into the game so far. As a mentioned before, if you’ve played RIFT before, Arkfalls are essentially the Rifts that opened up around the game world where anyone in the vicinity can participate to take down the enemies and bosses. Arkfalls can vary in size, where a small team can take out the smaller ones without much problem in the set amount of time, but the larger ones will take a much larger force to take down. Spawning spontaneous boss fights will encourage impromptu cooperation with other players in the area if you hope on defeating these Arkfalls before the designated twenty minute timer ends. To a MMO newcomer, seeing a hundred players in the same area all shooting and running around, it is going to look like chaos, which it is in a way, but you all are working towards a goal. The problem with Arkfalls (and missions for that matter) is that the more players that are in the vicinity “helping”, the harder the enemies become and their health scales accordingly. So if you and a small group are killing an Arkfall on your own, you may do 100 damage per bullet for example, but if there are a hundred players there, the health of enemies are boosted so greatly that it feels like you’re using a water gun trying to kill the enemies. The other problem with Arkfall events as well is the massive framerate issues you’ll encounter once a good fifty-plus players all show up in the same area, and that’s not even including the massive lag spikes that come along with that.
On the 360, Defiance simply doesn’t look that pretty. Textures, models, and animations can be downright ugly; obviously a tradeoff for allowing such a large amount of players simultaneously on the screen at once. There is massive slowdown at overcrowded Arkfall events and even in the less dense areas, you’ll notice quite a lot of screen tearing that never seems to go away, even in cutscenes. It doesn’t help that the world itself simply looks bland from its art direction either. While the PC version looks much better in the visuals, it still definitely looks a little aged, though I’m not sure if that’s partly because maybe the consoles were the lead platform.
The biggest problem with Defiance is its design, especially the menu and UI layouts. The tutorial shows you how to shoot and move, but that’s about it, as you’re left on your own to figure out many of the intricate nuances and mechanics on your own if you don’t dig deep down into the menus. Even getting into specific menus itself is a chore that isn’t even explained either, so I fear many players won’t even ever figure many of these issues out on their own without help, though again, trying to ask for help with the useless chat system should be an interesting feat to overcome. Even the game box boasts Kinect support, though nowhere in the game does it actually tell you how to use them or access its features. After a dozen or so hours once I figured out the hidden menus within menus, I only then found out the Kinect voice commands.
There are many issues that need completely changing, fixing, or balancing, which I’m sure is going to come in time, but asking players to have this amount of patience that aren’t used to it on a console is going to be a challenge. Simple things like, why can’t I have more than one quest at a time so that I don’t have to keep coming back to the same area multiple times never are answered, though hopefully Trion will find a way to do so within game rather than having to rely on players figuring out that they need to go to the website and read the forums and such to figure these things out.
It might seem like I’m ragging on Defiance a little too much, and while it’s merited for the issues it has, it is doing some things right, which is why I keep logging in to play my Ark Hunter. As this is an MMO, it’s meant to be played for hundreds of hours, not just a handful, and because of that it seems like the beginning may be a little too slow for most peoples liking, though stick with it and trust me, it gets better (content wise). Players need to feel like they are being rewarded for sticking around and playing for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours, and these rewards do come too far and infrequent for the bulk of Defiance’s gameplay; yet something keeps drawing me in.
Then it just kind of hit me. Defiance really feels like a single player game that just also happens to populate the areas with other players (kind of like Test Drive Unlimited did). Also, you’re basically not working towards anything. Sure you’re gaining EGO levels, doing quests, and killing bad guys, but it’s not using the traditional MMO treadmill design that dangles that carrot constantly in front of you to continue you to play.
Defiance does a great job at a few things; oddly enough one of those things is letting you decide whatever you want to do at a given moment without actually directing you anywhere specific. Maybe you want to kill a few minutes doing Time Trials, or an Arkfall appears a few hundred meters from your questing area causing you to deter from your original plan. Maybe you scored a cool mod upgrade for completing that Arkfall, so you might want to PVP a little while to test it out. It takes some learning and time to get it figured out, but you don’t need to really have to have a plan of what you want to do before logging in like you do in most MMO’s.
I’m very interested to see how the show not only is, but how it ties in with the game itself. Hopefully it will help promote the game to bring in more players and vice versa, getting players to watch the show. It’s a very interesting concept and a first of its kind that has a lot of potential if done correctly and with care. While the game itself might not be a game changer at this very moment, we’ll see how the TV show tie-in works and what DLC is planned to coincide, hopefully with events that occur in the TV show. While the game had me feeling very apathetic towards it, something keeps me logging on and playing some missions and pursuits, so obviously they’ve done something right. Again, you have to keep in mind that as an MMO, the game WILL change over time, usually for the better, and my personal history with Trion’s last game was a positive one, so I trust that they are going to do the best job they can to make Defiance a game you want to buy and keep logging in to play while it’s constantly added to and improved. Just be patient with the game, take it for what it is, and hopefully the accompanying TV show tie-in will be something special for this first of its kind experience. Again, I have to rate the game based on what it is as present time and not its lofty and ambitious goals that I can see it striving towards further down the road; that being said, if you have patience and take Defiance at face value with the understanding that it will improve in time, you’ll find yourself strangely hooked like myself even with its many shortcomings.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Gears of War: Judgment
The Gears of War trilogy wrapped up Marcus Fenix’s tale of his plight against the Locust with a definitive ending. So what was next for the Gears of War games if the main protagonist’s story has been concluded? A prequel of course! Rather than start a new Trilogy, instead we go back in time to shortly after Emergence Day happened and follow Gears of War veteran Damon Baird and his command of the Kilo Squad during this time period. If you’re unfamiliar with Gears of War lore, Emergence Day is the day that the war between Humans and Locusts began when the Locust invaded the planet Sera from beneath. Gears of War: Judgment takes place very shortly after Emergence Day but long before the original Gears of War. As I’m a fan of the Gears of War series, I was curious to get ahold of Judgment as I wanted to learn more lore about the COG, Locust, Emergence Day, and all of the main characters we’ve come to love over the past three games. There were two things that made me unsure about how Judgment would turn out though. The first being that it was now developed by People Can Fly, best known for the lukewarm Bullet Storm (though with Epic Games’ help), and that series staple Cliff Bleszinski was no longer at the helm of a Gears of War title. So did People Can Fly capture the essence of Gears of War and create an engaging new tale in the series, or is it a new take on the series with different design choices? As it turns out, a little bit of both.
Gears of War: Judgment takes place many years before the original Gears of War and just shortly after the pivotal Emergence Day event that reshaped Sera. Judgment is experienced through the perspective of Kilo Squad, led by Lieutenant Damon Baird. If you know your Gears lore, the Lieutenant title before Bairds name might seem odd, but there’s good reason for it and it’s explained why he is a private in the era he’s best known for with Marcus in the trilogy as well. Baird leads Kilo Squad which consists of himself, fan favorite Augustus Cole, and two new members, Sofia Hendrik and Garron Paduk. They are tasked with saving Halvo Bay from a then frightening new enemy, the Locust.
Baird joined the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) on Emergence Day and he is now leading Kilo Squad after only being a lieutenant for a week, and he is still the cynical and humorous engineer we’ve come to love. Cole was a Thrashball star a mere few months ago, but now he’s a private under Baird’s authority. While this is a long time before Cole turned into the Coletrain, you can see the start of his persona and he still brings the Cole type of intensity to every battle. Sofia Hendrik was assigned to Kilo Squad and likes to play the voice of reason within the squad. Garron Paduk was originally a member in the UIR during the Pendulum Wars but ever since the Locust destroyed his homeland, he wants revenge and coins the COG for that sole reason.
Gears of War: Judgment starts out with Kilo Quad going to trial for something they’ve done. Colonel Ezra Loomis is holding the trial against Baird and his squad for the actions they’ve committed against the COG’s wishes. Judgment then plays out through a series of flashbacks from each of the characters each retelling their story and what ‘really’ happened for them to make the actions and decisions they did. It seems like Loomis has already made up his mind about the fate of Kilo Squad, but he continues to ask each member what happened and to explain themselves. War rages on right outside the trail room’s doors but Loomis is determined to get to the bottom of what happened and give his conclusion and sentence to this trial.
As you progress through the main campaign of Judgment, before each section you’ll see a glowing iconic Gears skull on a wall. Here you’re offered a chance to play a slightly more difficult version of the upcoming section and tell Loomis what ‘really’ happened. If you declassify a mission, your testimony will tell exactly what happened and slightly change the course of the campaign. Sometimes this involves using different weapons (or very specific ones), having time limits imposed on your actions, increasing the number or difficulty of enemy Locust, or even greatly reduce your visibility from sand storms.
You’ll get to experience each member’s own parts to the Judgment story throughout the campaign and while it was enjoyable to see each side of the storyline, each character plays the same way and doesn’t alter it in any way. What I didn’t expect though is that the core gameplay feels much quicker paced and fluid in general. I don’t know if this is something purposely designed by People Can Fly or simply a byproduct of going back to basic gameplay, but either way it works and feels like natural Gears of War with more action.
After you complete the main Judgment campaign you’ll actually unlock a bonus campaign title Aftermath. This unlockable campaign takes place during the events of Gears of War 3 and focuses on Baird, Cole, and Carmine on a mission to gather reinforcements before Azura is invaded by the COG. While it wasn’t expected, Aftermath was a welcomed change of pace when compared to Judgment, as it plays more like traditions Gears of War 3 and bookends a few of the looming questions you may have had when Baird and Marcus split up in Gears 3.
The staple of Gears of War gameplay has always been about the cover based system and the awesome weaponry (to go along with the active reload system), both of which are still the mainstay in Judgment. All your favorite weapons return; the iconic Lancer, Retro Lancer, Hammerburst, OneShot, Shotguns, and even more alongside some new additions. Even weapons and equipment that weren’t in the series until the later games return, like the Silverback, even if so ever briefly which kind of confused me on how it fits into the canon.
As referenced above, the campaigns Mission Declassification challenges are one of the big new features in Judgment and offer a little more insight into what happened as Baird is on trial. The challenge of these can vary wildly, carrying to anything from simply more Locust to fight, to only being allowed to use specific weapons. There is a reason you’ll want to attempt these challenges though, as accepting and succeeding in these challenges will greatly boost your score in the new performance indicator at the end of each section and chapter. The higher the score the more stars you unlock, the more stars you unlock the more bonus content you gain access to in multiplayer like new skins. Some of these mission challenges are quite fun, but there are others that will take much practice and patience, especially the timed missions on the harder difficulties. While I liked that it was an option to accept it or not, it felt like it was a way to simply arbitrarily lengthen and make it more difficult rather than simply throwing more enemies your way.
Speaking of throwing more enemies your way, this is one big issue I had with level design. While each chapter is broken up into smaller bite sized segments, the all seem to end in the same way. Sure, Horde mode is gone from Judgment (more on that later), but it seems they wanted to keep the spirit of it alive and at the end of almost every chapter, you’ll have a few minutes to set up camp and defenses before waves of enemies come randomly hurling at you, ala Horde mode of past. I kept waiting for some cool boss fights or amazing set pieces to start playing out, but it never seem to come until the very end. While this makes the Gears gameplay quicker and fluid (aside from the Horde-like endings of chapters), I was disappointed with the campaigns flow, not story wise mind you, but gameplay instead. I keep wanted something cool or memorable to happen; it didn’t.
So how is Kilo Squad going to take on the devastating Locust, as these new COG recruits are nowhere near veterans in the war yet and still have a lot to learn. New weaponry is introduced in Judgment and surprisingly, they are all quite memorable armaments that I hope stick around whenever the next Gears title releases. First is the Booshka, a UIR grenade launcher that not only will explode with a direct enemy hit but it can also lob its shells off of walls and other obstacles for added strategy. The Markza is another UIR weapon that’s a fantastic semi-automatic rifle that has a large ammo capacity and a decent scope range. The Locust also have new weapons as well, as it seems they got their hands on a Markza and then modified it by having a larger barrel to inflict even greater damage, but in doing so they lost the scope ability; oh and they fit it with a blade on the stock as well. When you are setting up camp for the Horde-like sequences, you’ll even find a new Tripwire Crossbow that allows you to setup your own trip wires wherever you think the ambush will take place. Lastly are two new grenades, the first being a Spot Grenade that will give you the ability to see opponents that get within its detonation range for a short period of time. The last new useful tool is the Stim Grenade that is going to be a godsend to those that love playing support and medics for their team. When thrown and detonated, medicinal gas will heal anyone in its radius and even revive fellow teammates as well.
Multiplayer returns to Judgment, though it might not be completely like you remember in the previous games. Judgment ships with a total of eight maps, four of which are playable in OverRun and Survival modes while the last four are played in the Free For All and Domination game variants. If that seems like a low amount of maps for specific modes, it’s because it is. Classic modes like Team Deathmatch and Domination return, but gone is the fan favorite Horde Mode and is replaced by something, well, different. OverRun and Survival are new to the series, though simply just variants of the core gameplay we’ve already known.
OverRun is essentially Horde Mode combined with Beast Mode; this is essentially your new Beast Mode, but bigger and better. OverRun pits two teams of five against each other but it is all class based gameplay. Each team has objectives like destroy or defend and the team with the most points at the end wins. There are four main classes you’ll choose between: Engineers, Medics, Soldiers, and Scouts. Soldiers can take more damage and drop ammo boxes for the team. Engineers repair fortifications and have access to a turret for defense. Scouts use Spot Grenades that will help locate enemies for the team while also being able to snipe from specific perches, and Medics can use Stim Grenades for when they are needed. With class based gameplay, you’re going to need to coordinate and have communication if you want to win. With five versus five gameplay and Locust versus COG, things will get intense, especially once the more devastating Locust enemies start to appear like Corpsers and the new Rager enemy type.
While OverRun may be the evolution of Beast Mode, Survival Mode is definitely the new iteration of Horde Mode. While Horde Mode had you trying to survive fifty waves of enemies that could easily take hours for a single game, Survival instead challenges you to simply survive ten waves of oncoming Locust attacks while protecting Emergence Holes. Instead of saving up money to buy fortifications like in Gears 3 multiplayer, it’s all based around the class play, like in OverRun, instead. Luckily if you decide you need to change classes at any time, you can do so quite easily to help the team with what’s needed the most. You’re going to need communication here if you want to survive. Ten waves might not seem like much, but the difficult ramps up pretty quickly if your team doesn’t have a game plan or isn’t communicating.
Free For All Mode is new to the series as well, and while this may not seem like a big deal, it works mostly because of the new setup and weapon loadouts for multiplayer. Everyone now spawns with one gun and one grenade, no more forced Lancer and Pistol combo, so learn quickly what your gun of choice is going to be. It’s a nice change to see that I’m not forced to start with the same default weapons everyone else is, and the same goes for grenades too. Pick whichever one suit you best, as I almost always chose the Stim Grenade so I can be support for my team. One thing that I noticed almost instantly though while playing online is the inability to stick grenades to the wall. I thought I was doing something wrong, as you can still do it in campaign, but it’s been nixed from online play. Sure this lessens the random deaths taking a corner, but it would have been nice to learn that somewhere as opposed to dying while staring at a wall, trying to get my grenade to stick.
As you progress online and in the campaign you’ll level up just like previous Gears titles. The difference in Judgment though is that there are now certain milestones that when achieved, net you prize boxes that contain random contents inside. You’ll unlock new skins for your weapons and characters or some extra XP. It almost felt like how Mass Effect multiplayer awarded you with boxes of random goodies inside, except there’s only skins to be had here for multiplayer.
Everything isn’t as brown as it was in past Gears games and the campaign had a great way of telling its story, it was really only the design choices for level flow and pacing that let me down. Judgment also suffers from the same problem the previous games had, where they don’t setup the main bad guy nearly enough, as he essentially gets no face time in Judgment saves for his boss battle, much like General RAAM and Skorge previously.
If you’re a Gears or War veteran you’ll almost instantly notice how much quicker pace Judgment is comparatively. Baird and his crew are younger and not as bulked up compared to the sequels, so it makes sense. The new weapons are great to use and the optional Declassified Missions are a fun distraction if you’re looking for a real challenge, though it did at times simply seem like an arbitrary way to lengthen gameplay and harden the difficulty. Drop the Microsoft Points for the VIP Pass and you’ll be granted with six new maps when released, two new modes, five exclusive weapon skins, four armor skins, two character skins, permanent double experience and even a VIP-only playlist that also grants higher XP returns.
To be honest, I struggled a little trying to score Gears of War: Judgment, as I loved the new innovations to multiplayer (though I still wish traditional Horde Mode was still included), and I enjoyed how the plot is told through flashbacks and in smaller segments, but a few missions in and it became apparent that it was the same thing over and over again without the grand set pieces that previous Gears of War games always included. With no big action sequences and a campaign that feels like it’s stringing you along, trying to make you believe something big and cool is going to happen, you’ll keep waiting for it, even after the credits roll.
Judgment did its job of making me warm up to Baird a lot more than previously (I was always a Marcus Fenix guy) and it was entertaining learning about his back story, I simply wasn’t overwhelmed with the campaign in the slightest and there really wasn’t that much memorable about it. Truth be told, I enjoyed the Aftermath chapter more than the whole of Judgment campaign. I don’t know if it’s because it had more traditional Gears 3 gameplay, or because it had the Baird and Cole that I’ve known for three games now, but I feel like I should have enjoyed Judgment’s six to ten hour campaign much more than the single hour of a Gears of War 3 add-on. The multiplayer will keep you hooked, make no mistake about that (albeit 8 maps is nowhere near enough on disc), just don’t expect the over the top exhilarating sequences from Gears of War 2 and 3 to return. I’ll leave the judgment to you.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Metal Gear Rising, not Solid; this isn’t a story about the infamous Solid Snake or Big Boss, which is why the Solid has been dropped from the title. Rising is to distinguish that a new hero is at the forefront of this tale, someone that we’ve played before…unwillingly. If you’re a Metal Gear Solid fan like myself, you’re probably still a little bitter over the debacle of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. For those that aren’t in the know, essentially when the trailer was shown it depicted Snake in certain stages and it looked great. We all bought Metal Gear Solid 2 and had the ole bait and switch done to us. Sure we played Snake for a bit at the beginning, but then he was swapped out with a prissy looking man named Raiden and we kept waiting for the game to give us back control of our beloved Snake; it didn’t for the most part, and after all these years I still hold that grudge. Raiden returned in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and he was given a much cooler style as he was half cyborg at that point.Going from a character that we loved to hate, to a bad ass cyborg ninja, it seems Raiden was finally star in his own game once Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (referred to here on as Rising or Revengeance) was announced; but Revengeance almost never came to be. Four years ago when Rising was announced it was intended to bridge the gap between Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4 (3 was a prequel) and by Hideo Kojima himself. After realizing that they were unable to make the game they wanted based on the swordplay mechanic it was quietly cancelled, but in 2011 something unexpected happened. It seemed that Rising had been passed off to Platinum Games (known best for Bayonetta, Vanquish,and Mad World) to take the reins of development. This was a big deal, as it game Platinum Games more freedom to develop the game they envisioned but keep correspondence with Kojima Productions to help with the basis. This is also when the name was changed to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I’m not sure how Kojima, Konami, and Platinum Games have done it but they’ve managed to salvage Raiden’s image and he’s no longer on my hate list; quite the opposite in fact.
Taking place four years after the events from Metal Gear Solid 4, Risings plot focuses on the cyborg ninja Raiden and his fight against Desperado Enterprises, a private military company. Private Military Companies (PMC’s) are employing more and more cyborg technology as it’s become prevalent since the fall of the Patriots which is causing uneasiness and constant battles to gain more power. Raiden works for the peaceful PMC Maverick Security and has vowed to save lives rather than being the killing machine he was once known to be at a younger age; Jack the Ripper.
Not wanting to be a solider on the battlefield any longer, Raiden now works as private security, escorting a VIP when they are attacked by other cyborg ninjas, namely one called Samuel Rodrigues. The two do battle and Raiden falls, almost completely broken and mangled. Maverick Security is able to reconstruct Raiden into a better, stronger, and more lethal version of his formal self after the incident and this leaves Raiden looking for revenge and vengeance (do you get the clever Revengeance title now?). Raiden is reconstructed by his PMC, and his search for Sam and the company he's working for, Desperado Enforcement LLC., drives him into a quest for vengeance. I won’t go into too much more details about the plot, as it keeps the carrot dangling in front of you long enough to want to find out what happens, but also because it’s so short that it would ruin almost the rest of the game. While Revengeance might technically be a spin-off of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, it does take place in the same universe and expands the main lore even further.
Raiden’s weapon of choice is his trusty Katana that he not only wields in his hands, but with his feet as well. Playing as Raiden is absolutely nothing like playing as Snake or Big Boss. While in the Metal Gear series you’re generally trying to be as stealthy as possible and not be noticed, Rising is the complete opposite, with an emphasis on action, sword fighting, and combat prowess. There is one section in Rising that forces you to go the stealthy route, but for the most part you’ll be given an option, though I highly suggest putting Raiden’s battle skills to use as you earn Battle Points from defeating enemies which can then in turn be put towards upgrading Raiden’s weapons and abilities (amongst other things). Raiden likes to face his challenges head on, so don’t deprive him of what he was born to do.
While Raiden’s weapon of choice will always be his blade that seems to harness the power of lighting, he is also able to equip and use secondary items such as grenades, rocket launchers, and more. As you defeat bosses along his journey, you’ll gain access to their weaponry as well which can then be used as a sub weapon. You have light attacks which cut horizontally and heavy attacks which slice vertically. While most games have you memorize long and confusing strings of button combinations to perform in combat efficiently, Raiden is quite different, as he more relies on parrying which will lead into his own combos of attacks, lifts, spins, juggles, and more. Raiden makes his entire attack skills look so easy and seamless, transitioning to one attack from another without any hesitation; the gameplay feels just as smooth as well. Once you get a few levels in and really wrap your head around the combat, what works and doesn’t, you’ll feel almost invincible when you’re parrying attacks from all sides and taking out a horde of enemies one by one with ease. This is where Risings big hook comes in: Blade Mode.
Almost any object in the game can be cut with Raiden’s katana, including enemies and much of the environment. Activating Blade Mode will slow down time and present a translucent blue line that represents the plane that you want to cut on. Rotate to any angle and cut away, as since it’s happening in slow motion, you could get in dozens upon dozens of intricate cuts through an enemy before even hitting the ground. Blade Mode allows you to precisely slice enemies and objects strategically, which will be needed when you need to disable a boss with very specific cuts or want to specifically cut off the left hands of enemies. Blade mode takes its toll on Raiden though and it will drain his fuel cell energy. To refill his fuel cells, and his health, he will need to perform a Zandatsu move upon a greatly injured enemy. This move will expose the enemies’ weakness, allowing Raiden to perform a final blow-like maneuver to refill his fuel cells and health, while making it look cool though of course.
Raiden’s most used combat tactic is his ability to almost sense incoming attacks, which he can then parry, regardless of how many enemies are surrounding him at a given moment (much like how combat in Assassin’s Creed works). This allows him to counterattack and pull off exciting combos that will surely open enemies up for a devastating Zandatsu attack. Raiden can also Ninja Dash which not only allows him to run with increased speed, but allows him to flow over and under objects with parkour and other ninja moves without any effort. As you complete battles you’ll be graded on your performance and receive a grade based on your actions. The higher the grade the more points you gain to spend towards upgrades for Raiden’s equipment and maneuvers.
If you’ve played previous games by Platinum Games, there’s no doubt you’ll compare it on the surface to Bayonetta (or even the new Devil May Cry), but the biggest difference I found with Rising is how powerful Raiden truly feels once you get the hang of the combat mechanics. There are a few tutorials and VR missions you can take to learn the basics, but you’re going to learn best by simply trying everything out for yourself and seeing what works best for you. Rising has a fantastic balance of offense versus defense, and the more masterful you become at combat, the less reactive you’ll have to play and can start to go on the offensive more often. You’re going to feel like a complete bad ass once you learn the combat mechanics and having a handful of giant mechs coming your way only excites you, to see how quickly you can brutalize them and make it look good.
Rising does have its flaws though and there were three major ones that stood out in my play session. The biggest problem is the tutorials, or the lack thereof. Sure the VR missions will teach you some things, but many of the core mechanics aren’t taught to you early on, or ever. Nowhere in the game does it teach you half of the things you need to really know; half way through the game I learned I could lock on to an enemy. Yea, half way through I figured it out myself by trial and error when the camera kept giving me grief in big battles. The same goes for Blade Mode; sure it teaches you how to use it, but not really the ‘why’, which is a complete game changer once you realize you can refill your health at any time. Once you know what you're doing however, Revengeance goes from fun combat mechanics to feeling like a truly bad ass cyborg ninja. It’s that big of a difference.
Second is the length of Rising. It’s extremely short and my final clock in was just around four hours long. Yea, I didn’t search for all the collectables or try and S-rank every battle, and true, the timer at the end doesn’t count cutscene time, but it still felt very short. If you know you aren’t going to play through the game multiple times, find all the hidden collectables, or try and score high on all of the VR missions, the full price tag might sting you a bit in the end. However, if you’re the type that wants to find every collectable, S-rank all the battles and VR missions, and play through the much more challenging difficulties, then you’ll find that there is plenty for you to do in Rising.
Lastly is the voice acting, and specifically when it comes to Raiden. Quinton Flynn returns as the voice actor, and I don’t remember his performance this shoddy in Metal Gear Solid 4, but to be fair it’s been quite a few years since I’ve played it. You would hope that the main character’s voice acting would be strong enough to carry the emotion and seriousness of his lines, but it seems very hit or miss, almost in every scene. Sometimes it feels like he’s trying way too hard and trying to mimic Christian Bale’s Batman voice, and other times he sounds way too sissy for the event that is unfolding in front of him. There are times where it’s perfect as well, especially with the purposeful dry one-liners, but it’s very inconsistent as a whole when it comes to the voice acting.
The best part of Rising aside from the constant high octane battles is easily the boss battles and crazy set pieces littered in each of Rising’s seven chapters. The boss battles are completely over the top and are intricate multiple-phase encounters that don’t disappoint. You’ll have to learn their attack patterns quickly if you want to survive, it’s just a shame there weren’t more bosses in the game, as they were easily the highlight of the whole package.
All of that being said, Metal Gear rising: Revengeance is a completely over the top action game that makes you feel immensely powerful once you learn the mechanics, albeit without the game’s help. There are some genuine hilarious moments and many subtle fan service moments that Metal Gear fans will thoroughly enjoy. The Solid may have been dropped from the title, and Snake may not be the hero this time around, but Raiden’s stock has certainly gone up with me in my books; if you were surly with how Metal Gear Solid 2 treated you and still haven’t forgiven Raiden yet, just as I was, give Rising a chance as long as you know this is absolutely nothing like a Metal Gear SOLID title, this is Metal Gear RISING. You know it doesn’t have much sub(sis)tance when it comes to game length, but you’ll completely enjoy it the whole way through.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Serious Sam Double D XXL
Serious Sam Double D actually released back in mid 2011 on the PC, but unless you’re a hardcore Serious Sam follower, you’ve probably never heard of it. Interestingly, Croteam, the original Serious Sam developers, announced that they were going to allow better known Indie game developers make Serious Sam games in their own styles and however they wanted. Three games came of this initiative called the Serious Sam Indie Series, and Serious Sam Double D by Mommy’s Best Games was one of them. For those that have never played a Serious Sam game, it’s a line of first person shooters that never takes itself seriously and comes from a time where using cover would have gotten you ridiculed. Serious Sam is a man’s man and shot everything in sight with his plethora of guns. Nothing has changed here in the updated XXL version of Serious Sam Double D (This game referred to as XXL from here on) as Sam will be mowing down hordes of enemies in his path to battle against the evil Mental’s army immediately as the game begins.
So in the past year and a half since its PC release, what’s been added to prompt the Xbox Live XXL version release? XXL packs in more content, challenges, campaign missions, enemies, challenge rooms, leaderboards, couch co-op, and even more upgrades to make the Gunstacker mechanic even deeper. Clearly Mommy’s Best Games wanted the XXL in the title to stand for something.
So what’s the big catch with XXL that separates itself from other shooters? Hands down, the Gunstacker mechanic. As you progress through the game you’ll find new guns along the way, sometimes even multiples of the same types of weapons. As you find special connector pieces you can then attach guns to one another for an eventual maximum total of six guns stacked upon one another. That’s right; you are stacking guns on to one another to make a proverbial death machine of firepower. The more guns you collect, the more broad your weapon creations can become.
Finding all the weapons and connectors won’t be an easy feat though, as many of them are well hidden and will take many playthroughs to find all of XXL’s secrets. Once you connect your guns in any order you like, all you have to do it squeeze the trigger for all of your guns in that stack to shoot all at once. You’ll find many types of guns, ranging from Tommy Guns, Shotguns, Rocket Launchers, Laser Rifles, Grenade Launchers, and even Chainsaws. Something I wasn’t expecting though was the option to collect multiples of the same types of weapons. This means you can collect more than one Shotgun, Tommy Gun, or any other type of weapon and use them in your stacks to suit your situation. If you really want a close range weapon of death, why not try four Shotguns and two Chainsaws? Or if you need to quickly dispatch a mass amount of bad guys and suicide bombers, why not try multiple Tommy Guns linked with some Laser Rifles. Experiment and try multiple combinations and learn what works well in each situation. Or you know, stack some Grenade Launchers with Chainsaws for some whacky results.
A huge new feature included in the XXL version is now the ability to augment your weapons with special power-ups as well. In any level you will probably pass along a shop keeper that allows you to purchase new upgrades for your weapons (and let you change your gun stacks) with the currency you collect from killing the hordes of bad guys. When you purchase upgrades for your guns, you can toggle them on and off on each weapon (that you unlock it for). For example, you can unlock a perk that allows your Tommy Gun bullets either ricochet or go through enemies but if you purchase both, you can put each one on a separate gun if you wish. There are some odd augments such as changing your Shotgun’s bullets into bees, but this just fits in with the wackiness of Serious Sam’s world. You can even purchase upgrades that allow you to increase the ammo of specific types of weapons that you can carry at once.
So why would you ever need six guns stacked upon one another? You’ve clearly never played a Serious Sam game then if you’re asking this. Just like the series is known for, you’ll have dozens and dozens of enemies hurled your way at one time. You won’t just have dozens of small minions thrown your way though, there are also massive enemies that will be trying to rip Sam’s face off as well. All the classic baddies that you’ve been fighting for years return, especially the iconic creaming headless suicide bombers, but there are also some new enemies for Sam to learn and shoot down as well; Lava monsters that use pogo sticks to jump around annoyingly, exploding pancakes that irritate with vuvuzelas, monkeys with jetpacks that throw exploding bananas, and even cute kittens that are attached to glass vials filled with green ooze. Yea, the game is weird, but that’s how Serious Sam’s have always been. Each type of enemy will attack Sam differently and will pose a challenge when multiple types of enemies are coming at you from every angle and every type of gun stack will be needed to keep Sam alive. Not to worry though, as checkpoints are more than plentiful and you’ll never get too frustrated by starting far back into the level.
Another new inclusion in XXL is the addition of local couch co-op finally. Sam can team up with his buddy Dan ‘Huff’ Huffington to battle Mental’s army together which makes for a much more hectic game, but much more fun. If you watched the hilarious live action trailer for Serious Sam Double D, that is the hilarious Huff that player two gets to play as.
XXL features hand drawn art that looks like it’s taken straight from a Flash game in a browser, which isn’t a bad thing, as you have to keep in mind this is made by an indie developer. The gun stacking system is innovative as it is silly, but it’s intended to be that way. XXL features great humor with some hilarious one-liners that even made the teenage boy in me chuckle at its adolescent jokes. The childish humor is intended and fits perfectly with the absurdness of stacking six guns on top of one another and it never takes itself too seriously.
Unexpectedly, there are even a few levels that change the standard ‘shoot everything on screen’ formula up and make for an interesting distraction. One level even has you navigating a giant dynamite powered unicycle… Yup, that’s right. There are a few sections that even rely more on platforming and stacking enemy corpses to reach your next destination. There are even a few sections that you slow down time and have to platform your way up by jumping across moving rockets, but these sections were the most infuriating parts of the whole experience for me. The jumping mechanics are simple, but never feels really tight which brings the frustration when you fall off edges for the tenth time.
There was one really big downfall to XXL though, and that is the game’s length. You’ll finish it in one sitting; sure the game allows for multiple playthroughs to find more collectable secrets and better your times for the online leaderboards, but after my second finish of XXL, I felt I got what I needed from the game. That being said, I did enjoy XXL, as will any fans of the Serious Sam games or anyone wanting a mindless shooter. Simply turn off your brain and blow up everything on the screen with your stacks of guns. Also, don’t ask what’s going on or why, as it wouldn’t make sense even if there was an answer, just enjoy piling guns on top of one another and blowing up everything you see.
While XXL may not bring much innovation outside of the gun stacking, it’s a mindless but entertaining journey with Sam, as is the case with Sam’s previous games as well. I wasn’t sure what to expect with XXL being developed by indie developer Mommy’s Best Games but was pleasantly surprised by its perfect fitting into the world of Serious Sam; As Sam’s journey becomes more difficult, you’ll quickly learn that it’s not always about the size of your guns, but how you use them.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
DMC: Devil May Cry
When the new redesign of Dante was first shown off back in 2010, to say there was a backlash from long standing Devil May Cry fans would have been an understatement. Dante, the protagonist of the series has always had a very distinct look and feel about him, and when Capcom announced a new Devil May Cry game was coming, dubbed simply DmC: Devil May Cry, there was a huge uproar as it seems the iconic style of Dante has been changed so dramatically that he wasn’t even somewhat similar to the original Dante. Capcom has its reasons though, as DmC is a reboot of the franchise, so what better excuse to re-envision not only the world and story of Dante, but the appearance of himself as well. It was quite surprising to see the initial reaction of fans to the new look of Dante and how negative most people seemed to be about a simple appearance change. Needless to say, Capcom had a lot to prove once the game was released to show that the game itself would be able to appease long standing fans of the series. To do so, Capcom enlisted the help of Ninja Theory to develop this new vision of the Devil May Cry universe. Ninja Theory is best known for Heavenly Sword and Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (my personal favorite game of 2010) and once I learned they were the ones behind the new Devil May Cry, my worries were laid to rest. Team members from the original games have also helped in this new DmC to work alongside Ninja Theory, so it’s not something as simple as Capcom passing the torch to someone else without some backup.
Rest assured, as DmC: Devil May Cry retains all of the awesome combat and action that the series is known for. Dante himself might have changed in appearance, but he still has his signature cockiness to him, but he’s now more realistic with not only his looks, but his actions as well. The game is still a hack and slash game at its core but the art and level design has made it slightly different from the previous DmC games you might remember. The backdrop setting is more contemporary and is set in an alternate reality in the game’s series. This new take on Devil May Cry is done from a Western perspective as opposed to the previous games. This makes the backdrop, setting, characters, and even gameplay different from the other games, though that’s not a bad thing. It’s clear the new Dante is trying to appeal to a younger and more modern audience and it only works because of the fantastic work done Ninja Theory has done to make the world just as believable and fitting.
As this is a reboot of the series, the essentials are unchanged when it comes to Dante, his brother Vergil, and the demon king Mundus for the most part, but the new art direction is a welcome change and the backdrops are much more modern and visceral. The game starts off with Dante waking up with a hangover after a mysterious girl knocks on his door with a warning about Hunter Demon that has found him. Suddenly Dante is whisked away into a seemingly alternate dimension, called Limbo, where the modern city looks transformed into a twisted reality filled with demons and monsters out to kill Dante. The mysterious woman has been sent to help Dante so that he can meet the leader of “The Order”, which the public in the real world think they are terrorists. In reality, The Order is fighting off the demons in Limbo and against a much more nefarious evil set loose in the world.
Dante learns that he’s the son of a demon, Sparda, and an angel, Eva. Dante is known as a Nephilim, the offspring of a demon and angel, and he is being hunted by the demon lord Mundus, as Dante is the only one who is able to stop his plans. In the original game, Dante was half human instead of angel, so this is another twist Capcom has put on this reimagining and because of this change, there is a big mechanic change to the combat as well, which I’ll get into shortly.
Being pulled into Limbo by demons, or willingly entering to help The Order, Dante will experience a truly living, albeit twisted, world that is trying to kill him any chance it gets. In Limbo, the environment will constantly change, trying to trap or kill Dante any chance it gets. Not only does Dante have to worry about the demons that are sent to kill him, but the living world of Limbo as well. The art direction and style that Limbo is portrayed is done fantastically and you never really know what to expect, as it’s not always as simple as getting from point A to point B when Limbo opens a giant chasm, making it impossible to pass. While the heart of the game is in the deep combat, a good portion of navigating through Limbo will now have Dante trying to platform correctly throughout it. It’s a welcome change of pace now and then, getting a small break from button mashing to having to find the correct path in the changing world of Limbo.
Being a Nephilim, Dante has not only the powers of a demon, but an angel as well. Once Dante comes to terms with what he is, he also unlocks new abilities and weapons to help him survive against Limbo and the demons that reside within. Dante will eventually have many weapons and even more abilities to help him on his journey, but the classic Dante weaponry returns, along with new toys and abilities to slay demons in Limbo. Dante’s signature sword ‘Rebellion’ and twin pistols ‘Ebony and Ivory’ return for the classic DmC gameplay you’ve come to enjoy over the years, but Dante has plenty of new weapons at his disposal once unlocked as well.
Rather than the standard inventory with weapons to select, Dante instead has an Angel Mode and a Devil Mode that are activated by holding one of the trigger buttons. In Devil Mode, Dante’s Rebellion is replaced with a hulking Axe known as ‘Arbiter’ that is much slower but incredibly more powerful and able to penetrate shields and defenses. Angel Mode grants Dante a large scythe named ‘Osiris’ that isn’t meant for massive hits, but instead many smaller and quicker ones to act as a crowd control. These different modes can also be used to help Dante traverse through Limbo as well. Devil Mode will allow Dante to latch onto specific objects and pull them towards him, allowing for new platforms and pathways. Angel Mode will allow Dante to pull himself towards the object that he has latched onto instead. These moves can be used in conjunction with each other to help you pass some large gaps and even used on and against enemies to keep your combos going for a better score.
As you fight demons in combat, your style rank will continue to increase the longer you keep your combo going. In order from worst to best ranks are Dirty, Cruel, Brutal, Anarchic, Savage, SSadistic, and finally SSSensational, for those that truly get a hang of all the strategic complexities of the combat mechanics. The combat I found was much easier to perform in comparison to the original games, but that could also be because of the much more depth and options given to you with the personalized upgrade paths for your weapons and abilities. There’s a point a few missions in where you’ll have to go from simple button mashing to very specific combat strategies, as certain enemies can only be harmed with specific weapons or attacks.
As you defeat demons and make your way through Limbo, you’ll be gathering souls; some to use as a currency for upgrades, and others to recover health and other items. With a plethora of upgrades for every weapon and your base abilities, you can really customize Dante’s move sets to the way you want to play. I like being much more nimble and quick, so I upgraded Osiris as much as I could first. The beauty is not only being able to pick the moves that you use the most often, but Ninja Theory also got many of the small things right that many games seems to still get wrong to this day. You can test new abilities out in a practice arena before committing to them. After choosing a skill and simply not finding it as useful as you initially thought? No problem, refund any of your upgrade points at any time to put into other weapon or ability upgrades without any sort of penalty. It’s a small thing that many might not notice, but there’s nothing worse than wasting upgrade points for something you regret later; luckily that’s not a worry in DmC.
Two electronica groups compose the soundtrack with their modern and metal beats that fit the Limbo world so well; Noisia and Combichrist. The voice acting is superb and Dante’s specifically is done to the point of being fully believable. I really only had two complaints overall with DmC. The first being the camera that always seems to not show an enemy charging up about to hit you, resulting in much unneeded health loss. The second is a lack of a lock on system. Sometimes you want to specifically target a certain demon, but doing that manually isn’t always the easiest when you’re surrounded by a dozen or more enemies at a time.
I’ve only played the first two Devil May Cry games, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect with this reboot in a drastically new direction. Though you may not agree with Dante’s redesign, give DmC: Devil May Cry a shot, as many of the gripes are grossly exaggerated. There are a slew of hidden collectables and a ranking system that will entice you to replay levels for a better score (complete with online leaderboards). It’s not just a simple button mashing combat game either, DmC has some great platforming elements within and this game is easily my favorite out of the series so far.
DmC has great combat mechanics, a great soundtrack and voice acting, and a story that keeps its paces without boring you along the way; the game even allows you to fully customize every single button to your preferences which very few games do these days. You may know the origin of Dante previously, but you’ve not seen Dante in this kind of light, but you should; just don’t get stuck in Limbo.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead, originally released in five separate episodes on Xbox Live, is now also available in disc form at your favorite gaming outlet as a compilation of said five episodes. At first I wasn’t sure how well the episodic releases were going to work and affect my interest, as sometimes I just want to power through a game and complete it (not just for review purposes) when I’m able to. After getting through all five episodes (I played the first two as they came out and the last three on this disc version back to back), I can understand the episodic delivery method. Sure, waiting at a cliffhanger at the end of each episode isn’t always fun, but that longing and eagerness to find out what’s going to happen plays so well into the story telling of The Walking Dead. For those unaware of what The Walking Dead is, years ago Robert Kirkman created a comic book series named The Walking Dead which focuses on an epidemic zombie outbreak. Since then the zombie genre has completely exploded in popularity even resulting in The Walking Dead being adapted to an insanely popular TV show. For those fans already in the know, The Walking Dead game takes place in the same world of Rick’s story (it takes place as he’s still in a coma) and the comics are canon, but this is a completely different story with completely new characters. If you know your Walking Dead characters (comic or TV show), you will run into a few familiar faces which is a great fan service, but keep in mind this is an alternate story focusing on other survivors.
These days it seems almost too easy to create something with zombies in it and it’ll instantly become a hit, but simply adding zombies to a story will only get you so far if that’s all you focus on. If you know your craft well enough you’ll create a story about people, desperation, and sacrifice while playing on every emotion available, which also happens to have zombies in it. This is where Telltale’s The Walking Dead excels and shines beyond anything I expected. Telltale has focused on the characters and the human elements of the situations rather than making something strictly about zombies and trying to survive; sometimes survival is only part of the story, and that’s what The Walking Dead will show you. You’ll be given many difficult decisions to undertake and will completely affect others in your group and even their livelihood. One tough decision after another, you’ll need to do what you can to survive, but you’ll have the hardship of caring for others as well in a world where modern society crumbles and nowhere is seemingly safe for too long.
You are put into the shoes of Lee Everett, hailing from Macon Georgia and a former history professor at the University of Georgia before the outbreak. As the game begins you’re being hauled away from the city in a police car for being a convicted murder, though it’s unclear if you’re really a bad guy or not at first. Aside from the main points of detail, much of Lee’s background is quite vague, though done purposely so that you can fill in those gaps yourself during your travels throughout the five episodes. It’s odd, Lee is a voiced character with his own quirks, personality, and emotions, but at the same time he’s who you choose him to be with all of the decisions you make throughout the game, if that makes sense. If your personality is to be completely shut off to everyone Lee will reflect that. If you decide to be honest and open, that’s a possibility as well. By the time you’re done The Walking Dead you’ll see Lee as almost a reflection of yourself (if you’re honest with yourself and choose the options you probably actually would in those impossible situations). Early on Lee will stumble upon a little eight year old girl named Clementine (who you’ll get to know as Clem) who’s left alone at her home as the outbreak happened. While you’ll play as Lee the whole time, Clem will always be a constant in Lee’s story and even his (and your) decision making when impossible situations arise. I don’t want to delve any further into any of the story as it’s easily the highlight of the game and if I spoiled anything I would not forgive myself, as I’m glad nothing was spoiled for me. I will say though, that the relationship that Lee and Clem form over time is something that you need to experience. It’s not often that a character is not only voice acted so well that it’s believable, but the smallest facial emotions that show only add to the believability of these and the rest of the character’s you’ll meet along the way. If you know The Walking Dead comics or TV show, she’s much like Carl where she starts off as a simple kid but is forced to grow up much too quickly . Do you protect her by sheltering her from the evils in the world that you face or do you protect her by teaching her to protect herself in the harsh world they now live in? Decisions like this will be a constant and if it wasn’t for the flawless deliveries from the voice actors, it would not have been as gripping of a tale that it truly is.
You’ll meet a variety of survivors along your travels, some of which will stick around for the whole journey, where others will not make it as far as you expected. You’ll constantly be making life and death choices and once you get a few episodes in, there are some seriously difficult choices that you’ll have to make and you might even question yourself as I did, wondering if that’s what you actually would do in that situation. The choices you make carry weight and aren’t as simple as ‘good’ or ‘bad’; almost every choice seems to fall into that grey area. Quite often I had a logical reason for choosing what I did, but sometimes it’s not as simple as that and you need to choose the lesser of two evils. From the very beginning you’re completely hooked by the tale that unfolds in front of Lee and it doesn’t let go of your attention until the final credits roll. You’ll experience tragedy, fear, relief, shock, anger, and almost any other emotion you can think of. The Walking Dead is a sad story that will weigh heavy on you even after you’re done playing. Lee and Clem won’t be forgotten for quite some time and I’ll be remembering them for years to come.
I may be painting The Walking Dead as simply a decision making game, and while that’s true and where the game carries its weight, it’s also an adventure game, though not probably what you might expect from Telltale Games. You’ll be able to move Lee around freely and there will be puzzles to solve but the real game mechanics is the ‘choose your own adventure’ style of gameplay. The left stick will control Lee’s movement and the right is a reticule that will show pop ups and interactions on it when hovered over appropriate objects, people, or zombies. In the later episodes there will be times where you’ll have to shoot walkers and having to line up your shots, and while these may feel a little out of place since these sequences are so few, it’s just another tool Telltale uses to catch you off guard and keep your attention.
As you interact with other survivors, dialogue choices will appear on screen, usually with timers so that you can’t sit and lull it over. You’re given just a few seconds to read the responses and make your initial reaction to the circumstance at hand. You make your choice and the game moves on, no second chances are given. Every choice you make will adapt the story as you progress, and it’s completely possible to affect the outcome of others in the following episodes. Regardless of how you decide, your choices are going to add up over Lee’s journey and could add even more tension later on.
It’s odd, but the walkers don’t even always seem like the biggest threat to Lee and his group; sure they play a part in the overall tension and lack of safety, but the true tension comes from interacting with other people. Some people handle bad situations with stride, others don’t. You deal with fellow survivors, bandits, and walkers; how you decide to deal with each situation will sometimes show you something in yourself you may not have expected; I know it did with me. It can become a heavy burden, knowing that no matter what you do and choose, not everyone will survive, regardless of your intentions.
After finishing The Walking Dead it felt like Telltale tapped into almost every emotion possible throughout my story of Lee and Clementine. As I got half way through on my second game, making completely different decisions to see the different outcomes it became apparent that while you’re given many choices, the major core plot points are always going to be forced on you in some way. This isn’t a bad thing considering the level of writing and voice acting, but don’t expect a drastically different outcome for Lee and Clem at the end of it all the second time around. That being said, please play through it at least twice, as I found my second go a much tougher time, as I was TRYING to be a jerk instead of the selfless hero, but still found myself gravitating to my natural instincts. Sure the critics will say it contains the “illusion of choice” since the outcome will essentially be the same, but it’s not always about the end, it’s about the journey, the relationships you build and emotions you experience with the choices you make.
While some may not enjoy the controls or the ‘interactive story’ element, I believe it suited this story and game mechanics perfectly. The writing and acting is done to absolute perfection, the story truthfully moved me and there were even two specific moments where my jaw literally hung open as I whispered “oh my god” to myself. It’s very difficult for a game to get you so invested in its characters and story in such a short amount of time; Telltale has done this to perfection. Even the short lived characters are memorable and I replayed the game a second time just so I could visit with them once more.
I’ll come right out and say it; The Walking Dead made me cry. It’s been a very long time since a video game has been able to do that to me (1997 to be exact, when Aerith died in Final Fantasy VII). The Walking Dead is perfectly paced, keeps you wanting to move forward but doesn’t give you time to fully process and dead with what heavy moral decisions you’ve made at the same time. Lee, Clementine, and Kenny are now some of the most memorable characters I’ve ever interacted with in a video game and they will be remembered for many years from here on.
If I had played and finished all these episodes before the New Year I would have zero hesitation of giving it my Game of the Year choice; it’s that good. I’m very particular with my words, and I don’t normally throw around “must” and “need”, but you must and need to play the Walking Dead. I’ve never given a perfect score, and I’m not sure when I will again, but I’ve never had a game engulf so many of my emotions so deeply before.
Suggestions: Season 2....please!
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Kinect Party
Who would have guessed that Double Fine Happy Action Theater would get a sequel one day, though now simply called Kinect Party. Once again, just its predecessor, Kinect Party allows you to jump into an open ended game without any of the boundaries of learning controls, mechanics, or objectives. Once again, with augmented reality gameplay, the game will react to you and your actions rather than you trying to figure out what to do. Your Kinect will get some good use with the eighteen new mini-games (channels) and you’ll most definitely have a unique experience even if you’re not the intended child audience. If you read my review for Double Fine Happy Action Theater or played it yourself, you’ll understand that the point of these “games” is that there is no real point. There’s no score tallying, no levels to complete, no bosses, and no objectives aside from simply having fun and seeing how the game reacts to what you’re doing. Because there’s no real objective, there are also no barriers of learning how to play; simply move around and try stuff to see what happens. This may seem like a dumb idea to some, but for people that find a controller and memorizing controls a hurdle to overcome; Kinect Party is the perfect solution for those that just want to experiment.
Kinect Party has eighteen new mini-games, but if you own Double fine Happy Action Theater, those eighteen will also carry over and import into this sequel as well. You have the option to choose a specific game and have it stay on the screen until you decide to move on, but the default will automatically cycle you through each one after a few minutes with each. You’ll quickly see what ones you don’t care about and what ones need to be played for an hour at a time like the Dubstep video maker.
For some of the new mini-games you’ll don virtual costumes and accessories (for no apparent reason at all other than you can), destroy castles as a fire breathing dragon, chop down objects like a ninja, become a fairy with wings and a wand, dig for buried treasure like a pirate, throw fireworks out of your hands, and many more. By far though is the Dubstep video mini-game where some Dubstep music plays in the background and then it changes based on the tempo and music by swiftly switching scenes. It’s something that needs to be seen and experienced, as it was my favorite game in Kinect Party hands down.
When you’re not given any direction of what to do, you tend to experiment, and that’s where half the fun comes in. You try things and see how it reacts in the game world, opening up a whole new playground for you and the kids to enjoy. You could leave the game playing on the TV and I guarantee if people walk past the TV, at some point they’ll start moving their arms to see what happens. Sure it’s really just a collection of mini-games, but it offers unique experiences that let you simply play without borders.
At any time you can take a picture of yourself and then upload it to Facebook for all your friends to laugh with (or at) you. This feature was missed in the previous game so I’m glad to see it integrated here quite well. There is even some basic photo editing software included for those that would like to spruce up their pictures before sharing them with the world. With the ability to track six players at once (if you have the play space), Kinect Party makes a great background game for the kids or even a party, regardless of age. Sure the kids are going to enjoy it, but so will you and your friends after a few drinks; there will be many laughs to be had by all.
It seems the tracking has been improved since Double Fine Happy Action Theater and I never once had any control issues that plagues many Kinect titles. Just like how webcam software can place masks over your face in real time, Kinect Party does that and takes it one step further with full body tracking, allowing you to wear full costumes and hold many (and weird) accessories.
If you own the first game and enjoyed it even in the slightest bit, make sure you get Kinect Party since those mini-games will directly import into Kinect Party. The most notable thing worth mentioning though is that Kinect Party is FREE on Xbox Live Arcade until December 31st, so stop reading this and go download it before it’s going to cost you. What are you waiting for, there are some hilarious Dubstep videos to go make!
Suggestions: Tim: please never stop making entertaining experiences and games like this!
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed
When you think of kart racing games, you’ll most likely instantly think of Mario Kart. It’s alright, most others do as well. Last year Sega released a kart racer and although it was fun, it wasn’t anywhere near to dethroning Mario from his kart racing empire. Sega and developers Sumo Digital are back behind the wheel with Sonic & All-stars Racing Transformed (referred to as Transformed for the rest of the review) and a slew of additions and improvements. If you don’t know developers Sumo Digital all you really need to know is that many of the creators from some of the best known racers work here. Their previous bodies of work range from Blur, Project Gotham Racing, Pure, and more; so fret not, they know how to develop racing games. Does that necessarily translate into a fun karting game though? I was actually surprised with how much I was enjoying Transformed once I caught on and learned all the mechanics. If you’re wondering why the title has Transformed in it, the answer is quite simple; during certain points of races your vehicle will transform between kart, boat, and even plane. This mechanic alone makes for some interesting course and map designs that can instantly change the flow of a race. Not only will you have to master drifting with your kart, but the driving feels very different and much looser when racing as a boat. If you’ve played Mario Kart 7 you’ll understand exactly how these transformations take place mid race.
New to Transformed are also a handful of new weapons for you to use against your rivals as you battle for first place. You’ll have many interesting weapons such as snowballs you can shoot, puffer fish to lay a trap behind you, boost power-ups, and even a baseball glove that will catch any objects thrown at you for you to use back against your rival. While there isn’t a huge assortment of power-ups, the main few do the job adequately and can keep races on the more difficult settings much more interesting.
Even if you’re a casual Sega fan, you’ll probably recognize a few of the playable characters included and unlockable in Transformed. If you’re a true Sega fan though, you’ll really see how far Sega has gone to please its fans with the inclusion of some of the characters and their corresponding levels. With almost thirty characters to play and unlock, it’s obvious that Sega has done a great deal for their fans. Some of the returning characters include Sonic with his sports car, Miles “Tails” Prower, Knuckles, Metal Sonic (with this Bonus Edition), Amigo from Samba De Amigo, Ulala from Space Channel 5, Beat from Jet Set Radio, B.D. from Crazy Taxi and more. There are some new comers to the race scene this year though, such as NiGHTS, Joe Musashi from Shinobi, Gilius Thunderhead from Thunderaxe, Vyse from Skies of Arcadia among other notable characters from Sega franchises.
On the 360 version you can even unlock your avatar to be used as well. There are even a few third party characters included; one of which seems fitting where the other seems completely out of place. First is Ralph from the new Disney movie Wreck It Ralph which makes sense, as he jumps into other video games in the movie (and characters from the sonic franchise appear in his movie as well). Oddly though, Danica Patrick of real life NASCAR fame is also an unlockable character. Each character has their own unique and transformable vehicle along with having their own home track that suits their corresponding game world. To unlock more characters aside from the initial ten selectable at the beginning you need to play and progress in the World Tour mode by earning stars.
With over twenty tracks (4 of the popular ones from Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing return), you’ll be challenged on land, water, and air; it’s a good thing your vehicle can transform to adapt to all of these situations. World Tour Mode is the main career progression where you’ll start off with single events, but eventually branch out to others that will also have you not only racing against your rivals, but also time attacking, drift challenges, traffic attack, and more. As you pass challenges you’ll earn stars based on which difficulty you pick (1 star for easy C class, 2 stars for medium B class, and 3 for hard A class). The more stars you earn the more branching paths and unlockables will open up for you. There are also other modes such as Grand Prix, Time Attack, Single Race, and more. Grand Prix will have you racing a series of four tracks in hopes to earn the victory and move onto the next cup series.
As you earn coins during your races you have the opportunity to spend them in a slot machine before a race for five coins per pull. If you’re lucky you’ll have match three icons, thus earning you a special power-up at the start of the next race. Also, as you complete races, the racer you use will also earn XP that goes towards leveling them up which eventually unlocks vehicle mods that will allow you to set your vehicle with specific stats which can be perfect for all different types of races and events. Sometimes you’ll want more handling as opposed to speed or boost, and this is where these unlocked mods come in.
With the ability to play local co-op with four players, everyone will be able to enjoy racing as their favorite Sega character against their friends. If you don’t have friends to come over and play you can also compete over Xbox LIVE with up to ten players total. The online lobbies are left to be desired and will have you waiting quite a while as players continue racing if you join late. Also a frustration is the inability to have two people playing as the same character. So if you really like your one character and someone else in the lobby chooses them before you, you’re forced to race as someone else.
While I really enjoyed the land and air racing, the boats didn’t handle well at all, even when I had Tails’ full handling mod equipped. You’ll instantly think you’re playing Wave Race or Hydro thunder, but it doesn’t control nearly as well as those games unfortunately. The problem is only with the water vehicles, as it just feels really loose.
What I initially thought was going to be Sega simply trying to borrow as much from Mario Kart what they could; I found the game was fun and simple enough to distinguish itself amongst the competition. Sure we’ve seen the transforming vehicles before, but Sega has done a great job at making these transitions feel natural and distinct from one another.
Transformed is a fan service from Sega; not only from the inclusion of many obscure Sega characters and levels but even the music that has new and remixed Sega tunes that will surely put a smile on your face once you recognize the song. The game seems very balanced, has a challenging difficulty (when on hard), has solid drifting mechanics, great race courses, and characters that everyone should recognize and enjoy. Honestly, I was much more impressed than what I was initially expecting. I may have been expecting a mediocre kart racer that would feel like many others but what I got was a solid and fun kart game with recognizable characters and fun drifting mechanics that has a lot of replayability and game modes for you to enjoy.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Harry Potter for Kinect
Eurocom seems to have been busy these past few years. Most known for their last to Bond game offerings: Goldeneye 007: Reloaded and 007 Legends, they’ve now switched to a completely different franchise and bring us Harry Potter for Kinect. Harry Potter for Kinect attempts to condense eight full length Harry Potter films into a collection of roughly thirty minigame sequences. As you’ll be reenacting most of the pivotal scenes in the Harry Potter lore, you’ll do everything from brewing potions, flying on your broomstick in a Quidditch match, fight against Dementors, battle the great Bassilisk, shove your want up a trolls nose, and even have a showdown against he who must not be named. Each minigame plays different from one another, which means you’ll have to learn new controls for most of the games. With no overall control scheme encompassing the whole package, some of the younger people trying to play may become confused early on as each minigame only lasts two or three minutes tops.
As the game generally follows the main plotlines of the movies, you’ll begin with having to choose a wand (well, actually the wand chooses you) as you get ready for your first year at Hogwarts. You’ll participate in all they key moments from the films, but if you’re like me and haven’t seen the movie in quite a few years and have forgotten much of the story, you’ll still feel lost while playing Harry Potter for Kinect. A big problem with the game is that it assumes you know everything there already is to know about the Harry Potter universe as it doesn’t do a good job at telling the story in any way and simply hops from sequence to sequence. Sure the game attempts to tell a story between games during loading, but a still picture from the movie and a brief sentence about what’s going on doesn’t really do the story justice at all. It really felt like you were being rushed through the books as quickly as possible assuming you already knew all the details that fit between the story gaps. For the huge Harry Potter fans this won’t be much of an issue, but for someone that’s not privy to all the Harry Potter knowledge, there’s little to no explanation of the storyline.
As you progress through each year of Hogwarts, you’ll control multiple characters from the films throughout such as Harry (obviously), Ron, Hermione, Snape, Dumbledore, among others. Surprisingly, they look very true to their movie counterparts and were instantly recognizable, even for the casual fan of the movies like myself. If you want to pretend to be your own wizard though, that is now an option with Kinect’s face scanning technology. You can scan your face (or any object you hold up to the camera really) and then play with that avatar throughout the game. Be warned though, while the game says it’ll put your face in the game, you’ll end up looking more disturbing than Voldemort himself. The face scan technology may ‘work’ but it’s far from being accurate and you’ll end up looking as much as a troll as the ones in the game.
While some of the minigames aren’t terribly exciting, such as mixing potions or in a pottery class dealing with wailing Mandrakes, the best part of the controller-free experience though has to be casting spells. Not only do you need to wave your hand as if you’re swiping your wand but you also can shout out the spell names just as the wizards of Hogwarts do. At first it seems silly having to shout out spell names at the TV, but once you get the hang of it and the arm motions it becomes second nature. Once you get over the hurdle of looking and sounding silly it can be quite entertaining. The younger players should love this feature. For some of the other games you’ll be jumping, ducking, dodging, and much more to make you work up a sweat. Oddly, in the parts where you have to jump over obstacles, your character will almost ‘float’, making it look very odd.
The overall difficulty of the game is quite low, though there were two or three sequences I had to play a few times as there were huge spikes in difficulty randomly throughout. Oddly enough, the “bosses” weren’t even the difficult sections which was more frustrating, knowing that the ‘easy’ sections were the ones I was having troubles with. It wasn’t due to poor Kinect controls either, each minigame gives you a set amount of times you can get hit before failing, and while the default number is usually more than enough, only being able to get hit five times on the section near the end when you have to cross the burning bridge was nowhere near enough.
You’ll want to play Harry Potter for Kinect in very short spurts when you simply want to kill ten or twenty minutes between other games. The reason for this is that there is very little replay value (even more so if you don’t have a friend to play co-op with) once you complete your first playthrough. I actually finished the game’s main mode in one standing, and granted, you do unlock variations of levels (like new potions to brew and wizards to duel against) as you progress, it is more of the same and will only entertain you for a short period. The game feels more like an interactive story rather than a fully-fledged title and even I noticed that the original voice cast wasn’t included, so things will sound quite off to the true Harry Potter fans. While most of the voice acting is passable, some of the characters gave truly terrible performances and many lines are constantly repeated during the sequences.
Normally licensed games like this either have poor controls (especially for a Kinect game) or are rushed to make it out on time; I can’t really see why this was released. The movies have been out for quite a while and while I will give it kudos for including split screen multiplayer, multiple difficulties, and a bunch of unlockables, it won’t mean a thing unless you are on top of your Harry Potter movie knowledge. The game tries to get you involved in the Harry Potter lore and relive what you’ve seen in the movies, but if you’re not a huge Harry Potter fan you won’t have a clue what is going on or why with its poor storytelling and pacing.
Some might find the constantly changing controls per minigame refreshing but I can imagine how frustrating it will be for the younger audience who starts to grasp the controls and does well only to have the next minigame play completely different than the last. The spell casting is fun though since every minigame doesn’t use those controls; it’s sporadic when you get to pretend to be a powerful wizard rather than flailing your arms about. I’m very glad to say that the game doesn’t suffer from broken and frustrating controls like many other Kinect titles, quite the opposite in fact; the problem Harry Potter for Kinect suffers from the most though is that it becomes tiresome very quickly and simply put, isn’t really all that fun outside of a handful of minigames. Huge Harry Potter fans will overlook its shortcomings but the rest of us Muggles should stay far away and hope we can cast the Protego spell.
Overall Score: 4.3 / 10
LEGO Lord of the Rings
Who could have imagined that simply adding the charm of LEGO to some of our favorite franchises would have been so successful? It seems like yesterday that LEGO Star Wars was released and started developers Traveller’s Tales down a long bricked path towards success. Best known for their LEGO parodies of Batman, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones, the newest franchise to be added to the Legoverse is the beloved The Lord of the Rings franchise. Taking you through the complete trilogy, you’ll experience The Lord of the Rings with the classic LEGO gameplay mechanics that we’ve come to love over the years.Yes, I know what you’re thinking; that if you’ve played one of the LEGO games, you’ve played the all. I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this too, as I’ve passed on the last few LEGO games as it seemed tiring and repetitive after the second or third LEGO Star Wars title. If you’re like me and haven’t played any of the LEGO games in a few titles or want to see how far Traveller’s Tales has come with refining their solid gameplay, LEGO The Lord of the Rings is the perfect excuse to give them another chance as it’s a very solid (and plastic) title.
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how a LEGO Lord of the Rings game would translate, being as it’s a much darker tone and quite a lengthy tale to tell compared to the other LEGO games. The past LEGO games have generally been parodies and spoofs given that much of the LEGO humor is goofy and slapstick; so I was wondering if this would translate very well into the dramatic story of Tolkien’s literature. Traveller’s Tales put my uncertainty to rest and the game seems to have hit the sweet spot of being true to the source material but also adding in just enough of the secret LEGO spice to make it charming and hilarious without taking anything away from the serious tone of the story. Middle-earth seems to be a fantastic fit to be created from LEGO blocks and all of the combat, collecting, puzzle solving, and exploration you’ve come to expect from a LEGO title is included here.
Based on the film trilogy, LEGO The Lord of the Rings will follow the storylines from The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King; LEGO-fied of course. Frodo was a simple Hobbit that was deemed worthy of taking on a dangerous task of destroying an ancient and magical ring that threatens all of Middle-earth. Frodo must destroy the ring, but to do so he must cast it into the fires of Mount Doom, though he will not take this burden alone; a fellowship is formed to help him on his quest and includes Gandalf the Wizard, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, Aragorn the Ranger, Frodo’s Hobbit friends Sam, Merry, and Pippin, among others. You’ll be surprised with how great the minifig versions of the characters reflect their likeness to the films.
Seeing how the movie trilogy is quite a lengthy undertaking to watch from beginning to end, I was wondering how stripped down the game would be to make a more streamlined telling of the movies, as there’s no way that the twelve plus hours of film would simply be copied into game form. Well, LEGO Lord of a Rings is a long game, quite lengthy in fact if you decide to do the side quests and collect all the hidden pieces. Even if you simply want to play through the story, you’ll easily get a dozen or so hours out of the game; you’ll also be pleasantly surprised as I was with how true to the films the game adapted itself.
Many scenes are created almost one-for-one, though some will have the quirky LEGO humor attached. For example, when the Kings are receiving their rings at the beginning, one actually drops it and tried to pick it up without noticing, or at the fellowship forming scene, Merry and Pippin are wearing mustache glasses to try and blend in. There’s so many small examples like this that really add the LEGO flavor to the Lord of the Rings without doing a disservice to the movies. I found all these LEGO-fied scenes actually quite entertaining and it probably helped that now for the second time in the LEGO games, the characters are fully voiced. Not expected though was that the dialogue and music is actually pulled directly from the movie, as I don’t think any set of voice actors would be able to hold a flame to the performances the actors portrayed in the films. As you finish each ‘movie’, credits will actually roll, fooling you into thinking that the game is only one of the movies at first before you continue on. Rest assured, the whole epic trilogy is included and fully playable all the way from the Shire to Mount Doom.
As you begin Frodo’s journey you’ll notice that Middle-earth is an open world for you to explore as you wish. As you progress through story chapters you’re able to venture further and further from the Shire in your quest to destroy the ring. As you get further in the game and unlock new sections of Middle-earth to explore, you can actually run all the way back to the Shire if you wanted to, adding a sense of awe to how big Middle-earth really is, even if it is made out of LEGO bricks. As you move forward in your quest and unlock more sections of Middle-earth, a glowing trail of ghost-like LEGO studs will subtly guide you towards the next story chapter, if you so desire to do so.
The standard drop-in, drop-out gameplay for a friend to join (or leave) on a whim is still included, as is the split screen free roaming dynamic camera. There are even a few sections in the game that has two events going on at the same time, and with the power of the Seeing-Stone, you can jump between either storyline or if a friend is playing with you, each of you doing their own section simultaneously. These sections are much more entertaining with a friend beside you, as communicating to them of what to do and when is much more fun than playing alone.
As you finish a story mission you’ll unlock its Free Play option, allowing you to not only replay it again, but it also allows you to play with any of the characters you’ve unlocked up to that point. This allows you to finally collect many of the secrets and collectibles hidden throughout each of the levels that you previously couldn’t access. You’ll collect studs and collectables, but you really want to be on the lookout for Mithril LEGO bricks, as these can be used to forge new and awesome items at the Blacksmith provided you’ve also found patterns for the Blacksmith to use. Yea it’s just another layer of collecting to endure, but the items you get from doing so will help you unlock and collect even more secrets throughout Middle-earth.
If you’ve played the LEGO series before, you’ll generally know what to expect from the level design as a whole. There’s a healthy mix of fighting and puzzling, never too heavy focused on one to bore you, but constantly switching it up so it feels engaging. You’ll experience all of the massive and iconic battles from the films (such and the Mines of Moria, Gandalfs battle with the Balrog, the battle for Helms Deep, and all the other notable scenes) but you’ll also have many puzzle sequences that while never too difficult, offers a variety of gameplay and changes the pacing, much like the movies.
With over 80 LEGO minifig characters included, you’ll be able to play a vast majority of the characters you come across during the game, but there’s also new abilities added specifically for this game as well (which include being able to throw Gimli at breakable objects). All of the playable characters each have at least one special ability that need to be used to collect many of the hidden secrets and collectables. Aragorn can track friends and enemies, Sam can start fires, grow flowers and vines to reach new areas, and also use his elven rope to explore, Legolas can tightrope walk with ease and use his bow to open new pathways for himself, Gimli can smash rocks with his axe, and Frodo can use his elven cloak to become camouflaged, use the Phial of Galadriel to light dark places, and more. Many of the characters will have some duplicated specials, but you’ll quickly find your favorites and learn to quickly swap between characters to figure out puzzles faster.
Handling a franchise as big and beloved as The Lord of the Rings has to be done cautiously; on the one hand you need to be true to the source material, but on the other you need to add the LEGO humor that the series is known for without going too overboard and changing the feel of the story. Sure some of the scenes have been slightly changed to have a little more of the LEGO feeling and comedy to it, but it’s never completely beyond the realm of believability if the story was to take place in the LEGO universe. This is most likely due to the fact that the films’ actual dialogue and music are used throughout the game which adds that much more believability to it; this was also the biggest and most pleasant surprise with the whole game, as it was very unexpected. I’m still waiting for online co-op though after all these years Traveller’s Tale.
Just because it’s a LEGO game, I implore you to not simply pass it over because of its kid friendly exterior, as you’ll be passing up a great and solid game with a huge amount of replayability and charm. Traveller’s Tales seems to constantly surprise me with how they handle big franchises and I’m more than happy to know that they did Lord of the Rings justice. So much so that this is without a doubt my favorite LEGO game to date and proof that attention to detail and proper care is a great mixture for game licensing when done with the right set of foundation (LEGO) bricks.
Suggestions: Online co-op. Seriously, we've been asking for this in the LEGO games for years now.
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Dragon Ball Z for Kinect
Dragon Ball Z For Kinect is actually the game’s full title, just to remind you how you’re going to play it in case you forget somehow. The name says it all and you’ll be brawling in the Dragon Ball Z universe played as a first person fighting game. You’ll play as all the main staples of the series within; from Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Gohan (multiple versions), Krillin, Raditz, Buu, and many more. If you’re a fan of series this sounds awesome doesn’t it, and on paper it does seem like a great idea. But remember that the game’s title has “For Kinect” in it and you can probably guess how well this is going to go. It seems like some companies really know how to utilize and make Kinect work, whereas others don’t and tend to release fundamentally broken games that aren’t all that fun. I’ll let you decide where this one falls into place in that scale. You’ll be punching, kicking, jumping, charging up, and performing a number of moves to battle your opponents in some large scale open arenas. Well, I should amend that statement; you’ll attempt to do all those things as battle will frequently change between melee range fighting to far ranged combat. With over fifty characters and a hundred moves, Dragon Ball Z For Kinect will attempt to make you feel like a true Super Saiyan, but the poor tracking and uninspired gameplay will make you wish you found the seven dragon balls so you could make a wish for something else.
For the first time on the consoles, you’ll be able to follow the main popular storylines from the series in a first person perspective. If you were a fan of the show as a kid you’ll be happy to know that the Story Mode covers the main battles from the Saiyan Saga (with a Great Ape Vegeta battle included), Frieza Saga, Androids Saga, and Majin Buu Saga. Surely this will bring back some memories for those that love the show and manga’s, but there’s also a catch. The story mode is very summarized and condensed and there are just over twenty battles in all of the Story Mode for all of the battle lines. With fights being only about five minutes each or so (depending on your skill level and patience) you’re going to finish this game very quickly. I’ll let you do the math, but needless to say that you’ll be able to finish it in a single standing (albeit a sweaty one). After just a few simple rounds of combat you’ll quickly realize that the combat is reparative and really uninspiring. If it wasn’t for the cutscenes before and after the fights, it would almost be a complete wash. Story Mode has a great idea behind it but only hardcore fans lokoing to remember those great storylines will be the ones enjoying it.
Since the game is in first person, your character will ‘try’ to mimic all the movements you make. Throwing punches and moving your body will be essential, and while using this view is supposed to make you feel like you’re truly a character in the universe, it’s very difficult to become absorbed with it since you can’t’ even admire yourself when you’re pretending to be Goku or your other favorite characters. While Kinect will track the basic kicks, punches, and super moves, performing many of the other moves seems like a gamble for the most part and sadly it was much easier to just flail my arms doing punches the whole round rather than actually trying to become creative with my offence by varying attacks.
Certain moves feel great performing, like when you want to charge your Ki meter by having to squat and pull your arms close to your body like you’re really charging up in the show. The same goes for the signature Kamehameha beam attack move that has you charge up like a Street Fighter Hadouken then releasing it by thrusting your arms outward just like in the anime. There is some strategy in the battles as you need to decide to make many light attacks like punches or absorb some hits and charge up for a devastating Kamehameha beam (which becomes stronger the higher your combo is).
Unless you’re playing on the most difficult setting, there’s not much challenge to be had here as every enemy practically fights the same way save for a few and you can see their attacks coming a mile away. The real challenge is getting Kinect to recognize the motion you meant to do when you have a limited time to perform it without failing. Sadly, every match plays out the exact same way where you’ll start with a barrage of punches to initiate a combo that leads into a cutscene, more punches to continue the beating, and then even more punches to finish the cutscene combo. You’ll at some point have to dodge the enemies charged attack by performing a QTE (yes, that’s right, a QTE with Kinect. You can imagine how frustrating this becomes) and then repeat the process for five minutes until you win. If, er, when you become bored you can charge up for a super attack to try and mask the repetitiveness, but even after a dozen matches or so, it won’t be as exciting any longer. Even if you’ve avoided taking damage the whole match, the enemies will taunt you with their power levels to try and convince you you’re nothing; it makes for a silly experience.
So what do you do once you beat the Story Mode in three or four hours? Well there’s a Score Attack Mode that’s included to try and convince you to continue playing. Here you go for a high score in battle, being able to choose the fighter you wish that’s been unlocked in Story Mode. Oddly enough, the bulk of the achievements are tied to Score Attack Mode, so those achievement hunters of you out there, yes, sadly you’ll have to play through the game twice to get them all. I haven’t forgotten to mention the multiplayer, there simply is none. Yup, that’s right. In a one versus one premise of a game, there is only room for a single player here. Big oversight, I know.
One of the selling points on the back of the box is that the game supports QR codes to unlock special content like characters, power ups, moves, and more. Great, I scanned the codes that were included in the box (which happen to be on the back of the cardboard Goku Hair that’s included), now where can I get more? Yea, I couldn’t find out any information either anywhere.
There’s one small saving grace for the game though, but that’s only if you’re a really big fan of the series. Included is a twenty minute film adaptation of the Dragon Ball: Epsiode of Bardock manga. The reason this is somewhat a big deal (for Dragon Ball fans) is because this is the first time the movie is released in our territory. Needless to say, if you’re a hardcore fan it’s a must, but is the full price worth a twenty minute episode?
Unless you’re an absolute hardcore Dragon Ball fan and can put your bias blinders on, there’s really little reason to play Dragon Ball Z For Kinect. Not even for the free included Goku Hair. While it’s a great idea, the execution simply doesn’t work nor is it fun. Sure it was a gag to just charge up the whole match and only use Kamehameha beam’s to win, but that amusement can only last so long when basic moves and dodges don’t always work when intended. Dragon Ball Z For Kinect: your power level is nowhere near over 9000.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth
I was always taught to not judge a book by its cover. I may have unfairly done that with Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth when it arrived, so I went in with low expectations. Luckily, every now and then you get surprised and things are better than you were hoping. That was the case here with Battle for Earth, as the Kinect controls worked flawlessly for the most part and you get to pull off some of your favorite super heroes powers on the battlefield. Don’t go in expecting Battle for Earth to resemble the blockbuster movie that recently released; instead, the plot is almost a retelling of a popular storyline from the comic series Secret Invasion crossover. The general plot is that shapeshifting alien Skrulls are impersonating Earth’s greatest heroes, infiltrating the ranks with a nefarious plot. While you’ll easily notice that the fake heroes glow green, apparently no one else does, and with that being said, the story really held no interest for me in any way.
The plot is never really expanded in depth as you progress; actually, aside from a brief explanation of why you’re fighting in a specific location aside from the Skrulls wanting to destroy it, there’s no real storytelling here at all. But take it for what it is, Battle for Earth is a fighting game, and even though the comics could have provided a more interesting story, there’s not much here in terms of plot to push you forward. Unless you’re a hardcore comic book guy, the story won’t matter much to you, but if you already are that type you already know this storyline. The main reason I wanted to keep playing is to see how each of the super heroes performed in battle and what moves they had to fight with. You’ll have all the mainstays of the universe such as Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man but you’ll even come across Wolverine, Magneto, Spider-Man, Venom, and more.
If you played Ubisoft’s PowerUp Heroes, you’ll know exactly what to expect with this Avengers title. Battle for Earth is essentially a fighting game with Kinect controls done with a wonderfully comic book art style. You’ll be punching, kneeing, jumping, and mimicking your favorite comic heroes’ moves to battle against the Skrulls. The fighting engine is clearly based on the one PowerUp Heroes used but has been expanded and improved with its gesture recognition.
You’ll see cue cards on screen showing you how to perform moves available to you based on what super hero you’re using and mimicking them with your arms will perform them. As much as following diagrams might seem very basic, there’s a surprising amount of depth for a basic Kinect fighting game. You can perform dodges, counters, ultra moves, and regular attacks with an overlying rock-paper-scissors-like mechanic where one type of move is always the counter to another. As we all know, proper recognition of Kinect games can vary from being flawless all the way to completely broken; I honestly though that this would be another game with shoddy motion recognition but I was pleasantly surprised when all of my movements were performed flawlessly.
Depending on who you’re fighting as, each hero will have three unique Super Attacks, each one being a two part movement to perform that usually has you holding your arms out in one direction and then making a specific motion to launch the attack. If you manage to chain together Super Attacks you’ll get a combo, with the ability to switch characters at any time during battle (every match is two versus two) by simply holding your left arm up, you can chain together some interesting and deadly combos against your enemy Skrull. As you land offensive moves or even get hit yourself, your Special Gauge will slowly fill up during the match. When it’s half full you can use a Breaker if you find yourself stuck in the enemy’s combo, but if you wait till the meter is completely full you can then use your special Ultra Attack. Using your ultra will start a quick cinematic of your hero hitting the enemy up in the air and will then prompt you to shout a specific line they would say in the comics as well. Once in the air, the faster you punch the enemy, the more hits you’ll land on your enemy. It seems a little gimmicky at first, but it’s a game based on comic book heroes, and aimed at younger audiences, so it gets a pass.
Every match is two versus two and being able to swap characters on the fly will become an important strategy later on in the more difficult stages. Every stage in the campaign has predetermined characters, so you never get to pick your favorite team in the story mode, just in the other modes. The only issue I had with this is that you’ll clearly find characters you are better with and some that either isn’t as fun or you’re just not as effective with. There were times where my two favorite characters were grouped together, but there were also a few matches where my two worst were paired up as well. This also was a little confusing to have to remember all characters Special Attacks motions, especially mid-combo and switching characters quickly. The other strategy that comes into play with two characters is the health bar system that allows the non-active hero to recover a percentage of their lost health, so taggin out regularly becomes a necessity in the later matches.
As you progress you’ll unlock new characters and certainly find some new favorites the further you get into the game. You’ll be playing as Spider-Man, Thor, Venom, Wolverine, Magneto, Doctor Doom, Loki, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and more. While you’ll only get to use some of the characters a few times in the campaign, once unlocked they can be used in the other modes with your custom teams. Sadly there are only a few levels that provide nothing more than a backdrop for the fighting and you’ll have to fight in them each about a dozen times to finish the campaign which isn’t all that exciting. There’s also an online multiplayer to face off against other players, but given that the biggest games of the year have recently been released, I was unable to find a single match the few times I tried and just let it sit and search.
I was surprised with how Battle for Earth looked; sure I was expecting a comic book art style, and I did get it, but the cel-shading suites the game quite well and the characters look like they were taken straight out of the comics. Characters moved and acted like I expected them to and the backgrounds of the levels were vibrant in color and had a lot of small details if you take the time to notice. It was a shame that the story is pushed on you in comic stills rather than cutscenes and being animated. It made it difficult to really care about the story when you’re simply given a few comic panels with a voice over attempting to make you care about why you’re fighting. That being said, all the voice work was pretty insignificant aside from the odd catch phrase being thrown out there and I couldn’t even remember much about the soundtrack by the time I started writing this.
Pretending to be Iron Man and use your light beams to fight off a Skrull is satisfying, as is being Spider-Man and shooting your webs. Emulating your favorite heroes will surely put a smile on your face, especially the first few times you shout their catch phrase for an Ultra move. Unfortunately it does become a bit old quickly, as all you’re doing is these two on two battles over and over in the same arenas which makes for a shallow experience. Sure it’s fun in spurts, but I did beat it in one sitting…er, standing which makes it a little difficult to recommend. Yes the game is fun (in the short term) and Kinect tracks your movements flawlessly, but you will complete the game very quickly, so pick it up if you want a decent game for your Kinect, just wait till it drops to your price range first.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Fable: The Journey
I’ll admit, I was among the majority of gamers that was disappointed when Fable: The Journey was first announced last year, being shown as an on-rails Kinect game rather than a fully realized RPG much like the past three main Fable games. Then we were assured that Fable: The Journey was “not on-rails” so I waited with cautious optimism on faith. In Fable: The Journey you’ll be using your hands to cast magic spells against your enemies, but for the majority of the game you’ll be steering your trusty horse Seren throughout the campaign. Here we are a year later with a Fable spinoff game solely for Kinect; so is it on-rails and does it live up to the quality the franchise has brought so far that I’ve loved for years? Taking place half a decade after the events of Fable III, you play as Gabriel, a normal guy travelling with his tribe and due to falling asleep when he was told specifically not to, is then separated from his friends and must take quite a long detour seemingly across a vast majority of Albion simply because a single bridge was destroyed. Gabriel comes across a woman running from something and reluctantly decides to help her when she utters out his name. This woman is Theresa, the same one from each of the previous Fable games and will take you on a journey to battle an evil darkness simply called The Corruption. It’s the tried and true tale of a reluctant boy who doesn’t want to be a hero but eventually accepts it once he realizes his destiny. It’s a shame that Gabriel is a whiney kid who isn’t all that likeable, tells bad jokes, and is clearly way too affectionate about his horse. The same goes for the pacing of the game that just repeats the same order of travelling on horse, get to a new dungeon, clear the enemies to get upgrades and repeat.
For being a full length Kinect game (roughly eight or so hours), luckily the decision to allow sit down play (well, actually force as there’s no standing up play) is the only option here. So be prepared to flail and thrust your arms all over while sitting on the couch (while sitting straight up if you want a chance of Kinect to even attempt to recognize your intended movements).
Easily half of the whole game is Gabriel driving his cart from place to place while attempting to not only gather experience orbs but to also try to not steer your horse into objects with Kinect fighting you the whole time. You need to virtually hold the reins with your arms outwards, pulling one arm in to correspond with what direction you want to try and turn. Once you see how slippery the steering controls are, you might wonder how many ales Gabriel knocked back before setting off on his journey. There’s one major flaw with having at least half the game being horse riding though; it’s completely boring. Sure it may be fun at first to try and collect all the experience orbs on your path but when the game even tells you that you’re able to drop your hands and have Seren autopilot, there’s really no reason to put any effort into these sections other than whipping the reigns to make it go faster. There will be times where you get to brush Seren and feed her apples to help her regenerate health, but as you can imagine, these sections are not all that exciting either.
When you aren’t busy steering Seren for half of the game, the other half is the combat against enemies with your magic gauntlets. Your right hand is your main offensive spell, Bolt, and is cast by holding your hand shoulder level palm outwards and then thrusting it forwards in the direction you want to cast it…in theory. Your left hand is used for your Push spell that can be used to stun enemies and manipulate objects in the environment (though my left hand spells never ever seemed to work)…in theory. Once you realize that none of your spells are going anywhere remotely close to where you’re intending them to you can recalibrate the Kinect, though not mid-battle, meaning you have to restart at the last checkpoint every time you recalibrate. It’s very deceiving though, as your spells seem to work for the most part in the training and calibration section, but once in the wild your spells will miss so badly it’s as if there’s a magnetic field bouncing them away from your target. The biggest problem is there is no targeting reticule so you never know where Kinect thinks you’re trying to aim as opposed to where you’re actually attempting to.
It’s almost common knowledge that most Kinect games simple work or fail quite hardly at even working somewhat correctly. This game falls into the second category and in my experience, is simply broken when it comes to controls. You’ll steer Seren into countless walls and obstacles and miss nine out of ten shots with your spells, but hey, at least the horse grooming section works like a charm. I was honestly very surprised that Lionhead turned out a product this broken when other games like Dance Central are the epitome of how to do a Kinect game properly. When you’re stuck on the tutorial section for over a half hour because your spells don’t register properly, frustration kicks in quite quickly and it’s hard enough to keep motivation to continue playing when half the game is a horse carriage simulator, never mind fighting with the controls the whole time.
Every loading screen is a reminder of how to properly sit, as if to try and make you think that’s going to help in any way. Sadly you’re simply at the mercy of Kinect and with the many frustrating hours I had trying to pull in the reins, I can’t recommend it, even for the Fable diehards like myself; there’s simply too many huge failings to overlook.
Reflecting back I was trying to see how this fit into the Fable lore and gameplay, but the more I thought about it, the more it didn’t seem to fit at all. Sure it takes place in Albion and includes Theresa, but there’s no moral system, no marriages, no sword or arrow gameplay, no becoming a king or having children, no choices to really be made, no house buying, and most importantly, there’s no chickens to kick. That’s what makes Fable…Fable. Instead we’re given a horse racing game with some magic gauntlets that shoots a spell.
You’re force fed this relationship between Gabriel and his horse in an attempt to make you really care for Seren like you did your dog in the past two Fable games but it doesn’t work and feels so forced that it’s almost embarrassing. I understand Gabriel loves his horse, but it’s almost at times as if he LOVES his horse. I never thought I’d play a Fable game I didn’t enjoy, but when so little effort is done to make it work as intended or make it feel like a real Fable game, this is the result. Simply put, unless you want a horse and carriage simulator, it’s just not that fun in the slightest. Oh, and whomever told us all that it wasn’t on-rails to appease us; they lied, it is on-rails completely.
Overall Score: 3.3 / 10
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
You know, I have to admit, it wasn’t that I was going into Call of Duty: Black Ops II with low expectations, but it was more that I was expecting simply more of the same. Realistically, Treyarch could have played it safe and essentially given us the same game once again and we would line up to get it and it still would have sold millions regardless of the end product. Needless to say, I was quite surprised once I delved into Black Ops II and uncovered what’s been tweaked, added, and improved in the series. For being a yearly game, it’s sometimes hard to get excited about a franchise when it always feels like more of the same, and that’s what I was totally expecting before I started playing. Luckily Treyarch decided to try something new and not simply play it safe and it feels like for a yearly title that Call of Duty actually feels much improved over the previous year rather than just having a few new tweaks. So let’s declassify Black Ops II and delve into one of the better shooters this holiday season.If you played the campaign of the original Black Ops, you’ll once again be met with the game’s protagonist Alex Mason and his partner Frank Woods. With the campaign having two separate story arcs, the returning heroes will be played by recounting events that occurred in the 80’s and Mason’s son David taking the reins in 2025. Back in the 80’s, Mason and Woods had an encounter with a man named Raul Menendez, and because of this battle between them, Menendez is now the world’s most dangerous terrorist with a plot to bring down the worlds technology infrastructure for his own gains.
In 2025, Mason’s son David visits Woods in hopes that he will have some information that will answer his questions and lead him to Menendez. The time jumping never becomes confusing as weapons available in each era stay true to their respective time periods and it seems the further in the future it becomes, the more over the top the action also does as well. Woods might recall a mission where they were riding horses while shooting down tanks and choppers, but David’s mission could have you wingsuit gliding down the side of a mountain face to infiltrate a base.
The story’s strength is also reinforced by the fact that you are finally given some actual choices to make in the campaign that will affect the outcome at the end. With some tough choices to be had, you’ll actually see a branching story path emerge that will make your decisions actually have some weight accompanied with them. You’ll inadvertently at times decide who lives or dies, only to find out much later on. With a decision to be made in most levels, you’ll have to play through the campaign a few times if you want to see all of the conclusions.
To bolster the empowerment of choice comes some special missions you’ll be given after a certain point called Strike Force missions. These missions are played similar to a Real Time Strategy game where you can be the commander with a bird’s eye view and direct your ground forces to attack or defend anywhere on the amp you choose. If that type of gameplay simply doesn’t appeal to you, you’re given the option to freely swap from any unit and play as them in a traditional first person view if you want. Be warned though, if you let units die in these missions, they are permanently dead and will affect the outcome and ending you receive. These missions pop up during the campaign at designated times and you’re given the option to play or completely ignore them, but doing so will change the outcome of the main story. You’re also given a specific amount of campaign missions to complete these Strike Force levels before they disappear for good. While they are technically side missions, it’s a really interesting take and I’m glad that they actually weigh in on the campaign story depending on your performance.
Playing the normal campaign missions will feel familiar, as many are the same formula of tight corridors that open up into large battlefields finished off with an awesome set piece. New to the series though is finally the option to choose and customize your load out before each mission. This may seem like a small addition, but finally being able to pick my favorite weapons and attachments for a campaign mission is a big deal and something that was needed to make it more involving.
The ever popular Zombies Mode from Black Ops returns once again, though vastly expanded and improved. Zombies is now broken up into three different modes that vary from the traditional Survival mode, Tranzit, and Grief mode. Survival Mode is your classic zombie gameplay where up to four players are challenged with surviving for as long as possible against oncoming waves of undead. Tranzit Mode is a much larger experience with a bus that can move your team from area to area, trying to unravel the mysteries of what’s going on while trying to survive. At first this mode can be extremely overwhelming as the map is absolutely huge and once you get on the bus and see how far you traveled, you’ll wonder how to get back. Tranzit is actually the whole Zombie play space and if you play Survival, those are simply small sections of the Tranzit map broken up for a more intimate experience.
New to Zombies though is an interesting mode called Grief. This is where one group of four players challenge another group of four but there’s also a group of four players controlling zombies. This Humans vs. Humans vs. Zombies is appropriately named 4z4 and adds a new twist on things. The team with the last human alive wins, but there’s quite a lot of strategy involved; do you sabotage the other team or work together for a period to fend off the zombies? It’s definitely a mode you’ll want to give a try with your buddies and turned out to be much more entertaining than I was expecting.
Call of Duty multiplayer, the only reason quite a few gamers actually buy the series annually. As I said before, Treyarch could have simply put a new coat of paint on top of the old game and it still would have sold just fine, but it seems they wanted to change things up here as well, for the better. Most notably is the new create-a-class system appropriately dubbed the “Pick 10” system. You’re now given a 10 point system to use on weapons, attachments, perks, and more, with each item costing 1 point. It may seem much more simplistic, and it is to a degree, but it surprisingly adds a whole new layer of customization to make your class exactly the way you want it to. If you want to only have one gun with three attachments and specific grenades, so be it; the same goes if you want multiple weapons with no attachments but with many perks. There are even new slots called Wildcards that allow you to essentially “break” the old rules, allowing you to have three attachments, two perks in the same tier, and many other choices to suit your play style.
Call of Duty wouldn’t be the same without Prestige levels and a ton of unlocks. Firstly, you gain an unlock token for each level you rank up which can be spent on weapons, perks, scorestreaks, attachments, and more. Once you are level 55 you have the option to Prestige, but now that you won’t be able to unlock every item once you hit 55, you may want to prestige to continue earning upgrade tokens by leveling up. Your weapons now also gain experience and rank up and even your weapons can prestige, adding a whole other layer to the customization and length of gameplay.
If you’re a casual Call of Duty player, or even new to the series completely, there is finally a practice mode of sorts that you can begin with to learn the ropes and even earn a few levels before jumping online and getting slaughtered. Bootcamp offers you the option to play against bots so you can learn the maps without the harshness of doing so online against players much better than yourself. It was a much needed addition, though I wonder after all these years if it’s going to be used very much.
Some other changes include all game types and playlists are available to be played directly at level one finally. If you absolutely love the Hardcore mode but hated having to level up just to play it, your prayers have been answered. The new scorestreak system replaces the old killstreak mechanic and bases your available call-ins based on points rather than kills. This attempts to have teammates actually work towards the mode’s objective rather than their own agenda. There’s also an option to stream online for community members to watch as well; aptly named CODcasting. It’s great to finally see something like this finally included on disc; and while it may not be the most robust system out there, it’s included and is going to be a great base to improve upon.
Graphically, Black Ops II looks great considering the age of the engine being used. Large scale battles convey the vastness and faces and emotions still look fantastic in campaign, but many textures are very low resolution and shadows still look horrible in most places. Sure you’re not going to notice these things when you’re controlling the amazing grand scale set pieces but those that look at the finer details will notice some of the rigidness of the finer things.
The sound goes hand in hand with the visuals of the game and for having a song composed by Trent Reznor, the music in each of the campaign levels suit accordingly. Music sets the mood and it’s no different in Black Ops II when some orchestra strings take front and center while you’re defending yourself against oncoming tanks. The same goes for the weapon sounds, as the guns sound great and each differ from one another. The voice acting is clearly the strong suit and I think I may have squealed a little bit when I realized that Michael Rooker (Merle from Walking Dead) voices a character perfectly. I’m glad that attention was taken with the voice acting, as nothing can ruin a games immersion worse than someone who doesn’t know how to deliver a line believably.
Before you even begin playing, you’re given an option to enable graphic content or not. It’s clear later on in the game when you’re decapitating enemies with a machete along with some other very brutal sequences, though nothing still tops the shocking ‘Airport’ level from Modern Warfare 2. Aside from the finer details with the graphics I really didn’t have many complaints about Black Ops II. The only other issue that stood out for me was the laggy menu screens when selecting your loadouts pre campaign missions. There’s no slowdown in the game when a hundred things are happening at once, so I’m not really sure why the menu’s for loadouts is annoyingly slow.
With Call of Duty Elite now fully supporting Black Ops II (now with zombie support), you’ll be able to break down and check out all your stats and even get help to become better at the game as well. It’s going to be hard to go back to a Call of Duty game that doesn’t allow loadout swaps, a branching campaign story, and I can’t even imagine using the old Create-a-class system anymore now that Pick 10 is vastly superior. For those with 3D TV’s, you’ll also be happy to know that Treyarch thought about you as well. I’ll give it to you Treyarch, you surprised me and I’m thoroughly enjoying all the changes you made to the series, to the point of actually probably being my favorite of the series so far.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
007 Legends
We all know how well movie based games generally fare (you can’t see my sarcastic face right now) but what happens if the game is actually based on five separate movies? I think you already know the answer. 007 Legends is supposed to be a celebration of not only fifty years of Bond on the silver screen, but the anticipated upcoming release of Skyfall in theaters also. Developed by Eurocom, known for last years’ decent Goldeneye 007, 007 Legends may use the same engine, but there have been some additions added to the game such as stealth and “smarter” AI. I say additions because they are not improvements in any way. Legends opens up with I’m assuming a scene from the new Skyfall movie (as noting is really explained otherwise) that shows Bond (Daniel Craig) on top of a moving train fighting an enemy. A sniper is radioed and told to take out her target. In a frantic rush before the train goes into a tunnel, she fires and hits Bond, causing him to fall off the train and over a bridge into a lake below. What you see next is Bond sinking into the water deeper and deeper and this sets off a chain of memories from his previous escapades; his life flashing before his eyes if you will.
The opening mission Bond is recalling is his adventure in the movie Goldfinger. The first odd thing you’re going to notice when Bond is reliving his past missions is that it’s Daniel Craig as 007 in each memory flashback. 007 Legends incorporates five different Bond films as different memories that span multiple eras and actors that portrayed 007. If you can read between the lines, that means there are five missions in the game, each of which last just over an hour on average; you can do the math for length of the campaign. You’ll play through missions from Goldfinger, License To Kill, Die Another Day, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, and Moonraker. If you know your Bond films, each movie represents a different actor’s turn at being 007. What makes not only the movie choices odd (as there are much better that could have been used) is the fact that each of these missions are retold with Daniel Craig being Bond. Sure, casual fans may not care, but it’s extremely odd seeing Craig in old classics, just like it was seeing him in last year’s title as well; though it’s compounded since he’s taking over four more actors’ work. To make matter worse, it’s not even actually Daniel Craig that voices Bond in the game, but instead an impersonator that isn’t convincing in his acting in any way.
On top of all of that, each scene from the movies isn’t going to play out anything like what happens in the movies. Almost all of the events never actually happen in the films and it makes it feel very forced and shoehorned in to simply ‘work’, which it doesn’t. I don’t remember Bond on a minigun in a helicopter shooting down dozens of bad guys, but hey, it has been a few years since I’ve seen the movies so maybe it’s my memory. I would normally never talk about the ending of a game in a review, but this is something that needs to be known ahead of time: There is no satisfying ending. Even when I completed the game, I felt no accomplishment as there was no climax or true ending. Instead, after finishing the Moonraker level you’ll be greeted to a message informing you that a Skyfall mission will be available to download (for free) after the movie is released mid Novemeber. Does that mean I don’t get a real ending unless I’m connected online, get the DLC, and play one more mission? That’s asking quite a lot when the biggest games of the year are already out or are about to be. It put an extremely bad taste in my mouth and you aren’t rewarded for finishing the game in any way with any conclusion.
As you begin the game you’re given the option if you want to play in Modern Mode, where your health regenerates, or in Classic Mode where you have to find health and armor packs to stay alive. You’ll also be granted with difficulty options, but unless you’re achievement hunting, I suggest medium or easier so you can get through it quicker and onto the rest of your gaming backlog.
Bond will start each mission with his P99 pistol complete with silencer. As you defeat enemies you’ll also be able to pick up two primary guns as well, swapping whenever you please. As you kill enemies and complete objectives you’ll gain XP for level and weapon based goals. With this earned XP you can spend it on weapon upgrades and new skills like health regeneration. You’ll have to find a MI6 weapon cache before you’re allowed to equip the upgrades though, and those don’t appear all too often.
Bond will also have some of his gadgets such as his iconic watch that has two uses; one to ping an area for radar purposes, and second to use as a laser to destroy cameras. In reality, the watch gadget is useless as there is no need for radar outside a few forced stealth sections, but more on that later.
007 will also have access to his phone which moonlights as a camera, hacking device, and a biometric scanner. When electronics need to be hacked, Bond can whip out his phone and wirelessly do so with a minigame that isn’t any fun at all (along with the other hacking minigames that aren’t great either). Putting your phone into that mode will show everything in an x-ray like vision so you can see where devices are connected. Using the Biometric view will help you scan for fingerprints when needed and is necessary to find door unlock codes. Later in the game Bond also gets access to his pen which doubles as a weapon of sorts. With three different types of ammunition, this gadget pen can tranquilize an enemy instantly, shock them, or distract from a distance. Outside of the forced stealth sections, you won’t have a need for the pen at all.
So let’s talk about the newly added stealth mechanic in Legends. You’re encouraged to play the spy role but simply aren’t given the tools to do so properly. Stealth is an ‘option’ (apparently), but you’ll find out right from the beginning that it doesn’t work that way since it’s completely broken. You are unable to move bodies and if a patrol sees a corpse, the alarm is set off. There is no way to tell an enemy’s field of vision before it’s too late, and very early on you’ll learn that it’s simply quicker to fight your way out rather than to try and fight against the shoddy mechanics. Worse still is that there are a few sections in the game that require you to adhere to these unfair rules and if you set off an alarm or someone see you, you’re back to the checkpoint beforehand. It will cause you a few restarts and extreme frustration; guaranteed.
Mission pacing and variety don’t change throughout the whole campaign. You’ll start the mission, have a few gun fights, inspect a room with your gadgets to find a clue to where the boss character is, clear more rooms of enemies, have a vehicle section and then have a predictable quicktime event (QTE) against each mission’s boss character. That’s right; every boss in the game is a simple QTE and doesn’t vary at all. You’ll punch him by flicking the sticks up or down until he has no health left, he’ll grab a weapon, you’ll dodge then block it to make him drop the weapon, then finish him off with the same QTE and complete the level. Needless to say, only performing a QTE against Oddjob and Jaws was more than a letdown.
General enemy AI doesn’t fare much better either. First, you’ll simply have a handful of enemies thrown at you and once they are all dead you can move on. None of the enemies are smart and the more difficult ones simply have more armor on and can take more damage before dying. Enemies will stand out of cover waiting for you to shoot them or simply run towards you making your automatic weapon an easy way to clear the room. For the odd time you actually find a grenade make sure you use them, as they aren’t smart enough to run away from them.
For the completionists out there, many hidden items await you to search and find that when fully collected in a level will unlock some bonuses, though nothing all that interesting. The problem I found was that you aren’t ever told what the hidden items are and they don’t glow or shine very brightly to make it easy to find either. If you absolutely need another reason to play through the campaign again, at least these are here for those that want to get 100%.
MI6 Mode is available for those that want more challenge or to simply play with some fun modifiers on like paintball mode or ragdoll physics. Here you can essentially set mode of the settings such as weapons, health, how strong enemies are, ammo, and more. There is even an online leaderboard for those that like to brag about how hardcore they can beat missions at as well.
When you finish the campaign in a single sitting or weekend, you’ll want to head over to the multiplayer section which allows you to play online with twelve players or split screen with four. You’re going to notice right away where the multiplayer gets its influence from. You have level rankings and even a prestige-like system in place for those that truly have the time to devote. You’re able to equip gadgets and attachments to customize your character online as well.
There are a few mode offerings outside the standard deathmatch and team deathmatch and if you’ve played a FPS online in the past few years you’ll know what to expect, though with the other massive games coming out just around the corner, the online population is sure to dip quite soon (as it took me awhile to find some matches). Starting out is extremely unforgiving as you’ll most likely be matched up against much higher level characters than yourself and you start out with nothing. You’ll struggle for a few hours until you level up enough to get some decent weapons and attachments. Honestly, if Legends multiplayer didn’t have four player split screen (as very few games do that these days), it would be quite forgettable.
If you’re a Bond buff, you’re going to become quite annoyed with not only Craig being cast in each film’s reimagining, but that many of the characters in the films were changed in the game as well. The biggest offence was that Jinx didn’t look anything like Halle Barry or even try to be. Apparently M is actually voiced by Judi Dench, but the poor acting that is portrayed by a fake Daniel Craig simply does the brand disservice. In the opening act of the game, he doesn’t even get the iconic line correct when asked his name; it’s that untrue to the films.
That’s what I don’t get. 007 Legends is supposed to be a celebrate fifty years of Jame Bond films, and with half a century of source material there is a vast library to choose from; why were all of these films and changes chosen? Instead of a game that captures the classic Bond essence, you get a game that is trying its hardest to be Call of Duty instead. Sadly 007 Legends tarnishes the brand rather than celebrates it.
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Just Dance 4
I think I’m coming to terms with dancing games being my guilty pleasure as I actually look forward to playing the new ones when they come out; finding those lost hits that no one else enjoys but myself and then busting a (surely terrible looking) move in the privacy of my own home (though my daughter seems to laugh at me every time I play these games) is quite fun for me. With that being said, I did bust out some embarrassing dance moves with the new Just Dance 4 and then shared them to the world on Xbox Live and my Facebook. I can laugh at myself, and if you can too you’ll have an entertaining time with Just Dance 4 as well. Is Just Dance 4 is sequel with a slew of new features or just a glorified song pack? As it turns out, a little of both.Any game in the music and dancing genre is only as good as its soundtrack and with fifty new songs to show your moves and break a sweat to there’s surely to be at least a few songs you’ll enjoy. Yes, I know you’ll probably hate the songs that I enjoyed (and vice versa), but for me here’s a few of the notable songs that stood out for me that was either fun to sing along with, dance to, or both: Beware of the Boys (Mundian To Bach Ke) by Panjabi MC, Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen, Istanbul by They Might Be Giants, Moves Like Jagger by Maroon 5 , Mr. Saxobeat by Alexandra Stan, Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, The Final Countdown by Europe, and Wild Wild West from Will Smith (and as a side note, Gangnam Style by PSY has been announced as coming soon DLC). There are some other very odd and interested song choices as well, but it really makes Just Dance 3 stand out among the competition by not taking itself too seriously. Just like the previous Just Dance games, unfortunately the dance choreography is not the “official” moves, so don’t look for that here. Instead the routines are more set on simple “fun” dancing, even though a lot of quirky moves are expected of you.
The first thing you will notice when you start Just Dance 4 is that the controls aren’t done like more Kinect games where you swipe or hold your hand in a spot to make your selection. Instead, you hold your hand palm outwards near your body, hovering over where you want to select and then you have to extend your arm and pull back quickly, as if you’re pushing a button. I understand how on paper this may seem natural but in practice it took quite a while to get used to and you’ll be fighting against the game every time you want to press the back button. I wish controller and voice navigation were included and it’s a shame the very first thing you do in Just Dance 4 is met with some confusion and frustration.
To those unfamiliar with the series, Just Dance 4 is a dancing game (I know, you weren’t able to tell from the title) that seems like it came straight from the eighties with the neon color palette where Kinect will track your body and limbs to determine how good (or poor) of a dancer you truly are. Just like the previous Just Dance games, 4 is also very space friendly and I had no issues with Kinect keeping track of my moves, even when I was doing quirky things like spinning and moving from one side of the room to the other.
The core mechanics behind Just Dance 4 remains the same, you’re judged and scored based on how well you can mimic the on-screen dancers performing the routine to the selected song. Your moves will range from miss, ok, good, or perfect but also just like the previous games, you’re never told why you are doing well or poorly. If you keep missing moves, you have no idea what limb is doing the wrong thing or if it’s a Kinect issue that’s preventing you from being a dance master. The same goes for technique as well; sometimes I absolutely did not do the move correctly, yet I got a perfect for flailing my arms around.
So how are you supposed to know what sweet dance move is coming next for you to show off? Small icons will scroll across the bottom of the screen prompting you of what you’re supposed to try to attempt in beat with the song. One of the biggest issues I have with the Just Dance series still remains though; a series of moves can be implied for a single flashcard that doesn’t even remotely hint you were supposed to move your arms or legs a specific way. There was a move where the cue card only showed an arm up in the air, yet I was somehow supposed to know that I had to do a specific kind of dance move with my legs as well. Needless to say, it’s a lot of trial and error until you learn the routines by watching the dancer rather than solely relying on the scrolling cue cards. Another familiar problem returns as well, as there is no real tutorial for songs or moves either, so if you’re unable to master a specific move there is no assistance anywhere included to help you become a better dancer.
A new feature I really did enjoy is the inclusion of Dance Quests in each song. These are essentially small objectives for you to complete as you play each song that range from scoring 3 stars to getting a perfect finish at the end. With no story mode included these Dance Quests are almost like your missions and will usually take you a few tries at each one to obtain them all. Complete these quests and you’ll get a big boost to your Mojo level and rank up, earning unlockables as you progress. You’ll now even have a Dancer Card where you can display your best scores, challenges, favorite songs and more. Not a game changing feature but it’s a fun little addition.
The popular Just Sweat mode has been expanded and includes some simple yet effective tweaks to the mode. You’re now able create personalized sessions to start your workout, change the timer for how long you want to sweat for, and even track how many calories you’ve been burning for the duration of your workout.
For the fans that know the series inside and out, Dance Mashups are an interesting way to keep things fresh. Here you’ll play the new songs from 4 but with different routines from previous games and you may even notice a few cameos from some of the previous dancers as well.
I’m assuming the Just Create mode didn’t catch on from the previous game as it’s no longer an option; though replacing it is a feature I admittedly spent more time with that I care to share. Autodance is a feature that will record small clips of your routine and then mash them together in a (usually) hilarious way. These clips can then be uploaded to Just Dance TV (JDTV) and shared with your friends, all of Xbox Live, and even straight to your Facebook wall. Go into the JDTV menu and you can search for your friends’ videos, popular, featured, most recent, and more. Here you can actually watch the clips of random people that decided to share their hilarious moments with the community and I found myself watching quite a few as most are quite entertaining (expect you, yea, the guy that plays Just Dance 4 with no shirt and only boxers on and then shares it to everyone).
Just Dance 4 is a very party friendly game and allows up to four players simultaneously provided you have the floor space to do so. For the songs that really show off the party play, each player can have their own unique moves and there’s quite a few times that you’ll actually be interacting with one another rather than simply doing the same moves side by side. So I hope you and your friends are close, cause there’s many dance moves that incorporate some fun moves like holding hands and twirling when dancing as a team.
For those with someone to play with frequently, the new Battle Mode is where you’ll want to be. Here you’ll dance off against one another in five different rounds in an almost odd take on fighting games. You each have a health bar and the better dancer of the two will be a victor and get to play their song choice next. It’s an interesting take on multiplayer dancing and I can see it being quite fun with a group of friends, especially after a few drinks.
The visuals in Just Dance 4 are very similar to the previous games and it has the same style and feel, though it seems like much more work has been done so that it’s more entertaining to watch rather than just simply a dancer in front of a backdrop. For example, the super hero that dances on top of a building with Godzilla in the background walking through the city was actually entertaining to just watch when you’re not the person playing, and I almost spat my drink laughing when the guy face plants at the end of the song.
Many of the moves you’re intended to pull off seems much more involved in Just Dance 4. You’ll be kneeling, rolling on the ground, circling each other and many more advanced moves. Just like the previous games, Just Dance 4 seems to rate you better when you’re enthusiastic and having a good time rather than solely judging you on accuracy and technique, and that’s not always a bad thing. My only real complaints are the change to the controls with the menu, as it never really feels ‘good’ to use even once you get the hand of “pressing” your selections and the lack of new features and modes besides the few listed above.
While Just Dance 4 won’t have the variety and genre depth as some other dancing games nor official dance choreography, it makes it up in trying to provide you with simple fun by dancing around and if you can laugh at yourself (or friends) you’ll have a good time. JDTV is an awesome inclusion I can’t wait to see in future Just Dance games and others in the genre as well, even if I do feel like a creeper watching people dance in their living rooms.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Dance Central 3
Known as the game that sold Kinect at launch, Dance Central returns for the third time with some fresh moves and a new look built on top of a solid base of dance moves. It’s time once again to dust off your Kinect once again and start shaking your booty to the new iteration in the series. On the disc you’ll receive over forty new songs to dance and sweat to, though if you own Dance Central and Dance Central 2 you’re also given the option to import all those songs into Dance Central 3 (for a small fee of 400 Microsoft Points) for a robust song library. Surprisingly, Dance Central 3 boasts a story mode that’s not only entertaining, but completely silly and off the wall, though it’s partly why I enjoyed it. You’ll be dancing through each of the decades starting at the 70’s and working your way onwards to the music of today. You’re a member of the Dance Central Intelligence (DCI) and you’re going to be traveling through time to stop the evil Dr. Tan from eliminating dance before it’s too late. You’ll do this by traveling back in time to previous decades to meet up with the other dance crews that were sent back to learn the hottest dance moves of that era to battle against Dr. Tan. You’ll learn era icon moves like The Hustle, The Electric Slide, The Macarena, The Dougie, and more on your quest.
When you enter a decade you’re given a list of 4 songs to choose from that coincide with that era and then dance them to the best of your ability. There are two requirements to dance to the “era craze” song (essentially the ‘boss’ song); the first being obtaining 15 stars over the course of the four songs in the selection, and the second being able to decipher a handful of “era craze” dance moves that you’ll use in the final song of the decade. During certain songs, you’ll see special moves that need to be mimicked for you to unlock them to progress. Sometimes these moves are easy and other times these moves can be extremely frustrating to master, causing numerous retries.
For those that have played the previous games, the core mechanics stay mostly unchanged, and for those new to the series, Dance Central uses Kinect’s full body tracking to allow you to mimic dance moves shown on screen and score you based on how well and accurate you recreate those moves. The harder the difficulty, the more moves and more difficult they become and the better you’ll look on the dance floor (hopefully) once you learn the actual choreography. For those that are not so gifted in the dancing department, Dance Central 3 finally introduces a Beginner Mode for those completely new to the dancing games or those with two left feet.
A dancing game is only as strong as its song lineup and Dance Central 3 tries it’s best to cover all the bases, regardless of your musical preferences. Music from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, and even modern hits are all included on the disc and playable from the start. Everyone is going to have their favorites and songs they avoid, but here’s just a few of the songs that I really enjoyed that stood out for me: "Around the World" by Daft Punk, "Better Off Alone" by Alice DeeJay, "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by Backstreet Boys, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5, "Sexy and I Know It" by LMFAO, and “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” by New Kids On The Block (my wife would kill me if I didn’t list one of her favorite songs ever is finally in Dance Central). Other massive gits from today are also coming as DLC hopefully sooner than later like "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen and "Gangnam Style" by PSY. It’s clear Harmonix knows their music and what the fans want.
Dance Central 3 is also going to be one of the first games to support the new SmartGlass functionality by using your tablet or smartphone to allow you to queue up or change songs in specific modes. You’ll be able to create playlists to suit the party’s mood and requests, purchase DLC to buy on your Xbox, and even track calories burned as well. I’m excited to try this SmartGlass feature out in a party setting, as having the option to rotate songs on the fly without going into menus seems very fitting.
Party Mode is a fun multiplayer mode that allows you to dance to random songs and play minigames during the routines as well. Depending on how well (or not so well) they are performing, usually dependent on how many drinks everyone has had, the game will actually adjust the difficulty to the appropriate levels. So those that aren’t as gifted in the dance department, fear not, as this mode will actually adjust to your skillset rather than you constantly trying to play catch up.
The newest feature included in Dance Central 3 is also its biggest one yet. Crew Throwdown is a competitive party mode that allows two teams of up to four dancers each compete head to head to finally settle one and for all who just got served. Your crew will have to prove their moves in a series of performances, battles and mini-games to prove who the hottest crew is. The most hilarious mini-game in this mode though is without a doubt the “Make Your Move” game, which has players making up routines on the fly and challenging the other crew to match the moves. The only issue with this mode is that you’ll need an obscene amount of living space room to accommodate this mode properly.
Those familiar with the previous games will be happy to know that all the familiar faces, crews, and mechanics return in Dance Central 3 but with a fresh new look to match different eras. The new multiplayer modes are welcome, though keep in mind you’ll need to possibly clear out the whole living room just to accommodate that amount of people. I found more songs in Dance Central 3 that I wanted to keep playing over and over when compared to the previous games, and the soundtrack is definitely more varied and broad. You’ll unlock new characters and costumes for the characters as you level up and progress through the game while dancing the night away.
There was only one major issue I ran into during my play through and it was quite a frustrating hurdle to overcome. In the story mode when you’re about to play the “era craze” song you need to prove that you’ve masters the moves that will be used for that song. The issue I ran into was that it won’t let you progress until you master each of the four moves and if you get stuck on a certain move, there’s no way to bypass it. The problem with this is that it’s not done in the traditional level style where you can see red outlines on the limbs that aren’t doing the proper motions; instead you just get a pass or fail without knowing why, so you’ve never told what you were doing wrong which seems counter-intuitive when you’re trying to master a specific move set. After literally doing the Macarena for fifteen minutes without success (though I’m not sure why since I unlocked the move by doing it in the first place) I asked the wife to try. After another ten straight minutes she somehow got it, but we weren’t sure why or how. So you can essentially get blocked from progressing without the game telling you why, so just be warned of potential fnix is known for being one of the few companies that understands Kinect and somehow always makes the game that seems to work flawlessly where many others fail to simply work. They’ve done such a good job in the past that Dance Central is known as the reason you buy a Kinect, and what they’ve done with Dance Central 3 is no different. More than just a glorified track pack, Dance Central 3 once again shows how fun it can be to get together with a group of friends and simply dance the night away while laughing at one another’s moves, or lack thereof.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Assassin's Creed 3
Ubisoft made some big promises and provided us some lofty expectations when Assassin’s Creed III was announced. Ezio’s story has finally been told over the course of three games and with the series starting to verge on fatigue, a new member of the Assassin Brotherhood was revealed along with a completely new backdrop that finally takes us away from the older crusade and renaissance era. Like previous installments in the series, Assassin’s Creed III’s greatest strength comes from its ability to tell a story that blends real world history with a fictional conspiracy overtone and characters. So the first thing I asked myself when I started playing Assassin’s Creed III (AC3) was “Did Ubisoft live up to their promises to what they’ve shown?” I’m happy to announce that not only did I enjoy my time with a new assassin and setting, but certain elements of the game even surprised me quite a bit when I wasn’t expecting them to. For those unfamiliar with the series, the Assassin’s Creed games tells a tale about Desmond Miles, who happens to be a descendant in a long line of assassins throughout the eras. Desmond and his crew are looking for ancient artifacts that will hopefully provide some much sought after answers that are desperately needed. There is a machine called the animus that Desmond can interact with and when he does so, he can relive his ancestors lives, which unlock many clues yet provides more questions along the way as well. The assassins are fighting for the right reasons whereas the Templars who operate as a modern mega company known as Abstergo want the same artifacts, and Desmond to get answers, for quite nefarious reasons.
For those that know the series very well inside and out, like myself, Assassin’s Creed 3 takes place directly after Revelations and begins with Desmond and crew entering a long lost temple with the hopes to unlocking a door that seems to have the answers they’ve been seeking for so long. Desmond is in search for an amulet that also acts as a key, hidden by one of his ancestors, and thus begins Desmond’s dive once again into the animus to experience the life of his ancestor, though a completely new one this time; so say goodbye to Altair and Ezio as Connor is the new hero this time in the animus.
The new protagonist is Connor, the son of a British father and a Native American mother who gave him his birth name of Ratonhnhaké:ton, believes in people being free from tyranny and seeks to uphold justice when his clan are threatened during the American Revolution. Seeking liberty for his people, Conner will hunt his enemies and do what it takes to bring justice and do what’s right for himself and family. The game starts off nothing how I imagined and after two hours or so completing the first two sequences you’ll be given a plot twist that was simply jaw dropping.
I don’t really want to discuss any of the story elements as there are a few plot twists that need to be experienced without being ruined to have the same impact. Like others in the series, you’ll jump between Connor and Desmond segments, both equally rewarding, just know that the first half of the game is almost painfully slow, but about the time Connor is an adult and making his own decisions, the story comes together very strongly and with a fantastic pace that will make you want to keep playing to find out what’s next.
Taking place in America in the late 1700’s, Connor’s adventure will take place in the busy streets of Boston, New York, the wilderness between them, and even the open seas. So many new mechanics and optional tasks have been added that you could become overwhelmed with how large the open world truly is, especially factoring in the frontier zone where Connor takes up his new residence. The wilderness area takes on a whole new gameplay element of its own and opens up the options of either hunting animals for their trophies, or tracking your enemies in the deep snow among the treetops.
Where most of the games in the series has you essentially progressing the main quest with some minor optional things to do, side quests can distract you for hours depending on if you want to hunt wild animals, liberate the city of Templar control, or even take to the Atlantic seas for some naval action. What Assassin’s Creed III does so well is allow you to take on the main story missions at your own pace but should you decide to venture off for a while, you’ll never feel like you’ve missed something and even the side based missions feel story based rather than just thrown in to prolong game time. When you decide to progress Connor’s story, there’s plenty of optional mission objectives for you to try and achieve which in turn adds replay value and makes you think of doing missions a different way then you may try the first time.
Two big improvements come with the streamlining and simpler made controls when it comes to the free running and combat mechanics. Platforming is much easier to do now without the need to hold down multiple buttons and combat isn’t simply waiting to counter the soldiers surrounding you. It feels like I had more control over Connor’s actions and everything simply felt natural. Traversing trees is a cool new trick yet just as simple as ever to actually perform. The same goes for combat, where you have so many more tools and options at your disposal, without the need to learn a slew of new button combinations to pull them off.
The series has always vastly improved on itself each year, so what’s the new feature in AC3 that makes it stand out against the previous games? Foremost is a completely new engine (named Anvil Next) that translates into much better graphics, an incredible amount of new animations that look much more fluid, dynamic and changing weather that can affect your stealth strategy.
For combat, the biggest new addition has to be the inclusion of firearms that include pistols, rifles, and muskets. Muskets can be picked up from enemies who drop them and even used against your enemies with the bayonette on the end. When you realize how long it takes to reload a musket, you’ll truly appreciate those who used them in combat and the strategy in doing so. Haystacks are still the staple of hiding spots but now there are mobile haystacks in carts that Connor can use to close the distance to his target unseen. Bushes can also be hidden in and are aptly placed in the wilderness to disguise yourself from the wild animals you’ll be hunting.
Previously in the series you needed to find and unlock viewpoints, usually the top of a tall building so that the map would become un-greyed out and you could see the streets and alleys on the map. This has slightly been changed in AC3; you’ll still be looking for viewpoints to unlock a large section of the map, but it’s not completely necessary as you un-grey the map as you run through each area.
Combat has been vastly improved as well. When you block the camera will slow down, allowing you slightly more time to think about your offensive and defensive options in that moment. When you see a line of enemies aiming towards Connor, you’re able to grab another enemy and use them as a human shield to prevent being shot.
In the frontier you’ll not only have to deal with the wild animals but you’ll also have to deal with the elements and weather such and rain, fog, and rain. In deep snow Connor will move much slower as will enemy Templars which can change your strategy drastically. Connor is able to hunt animals for skins and meat in the wilderness and if you’re not careful you’ll even find yourself being hunted by bears, wolves, cougars and more. The cleaner you kill an animal the more valuable the pelt will be worth, so it pays to kill your game with your blades or bow rather than ruining the fur by using a pistol or musket.
Much like how you would upgrade your manor in previous games, Connor has a homestead that can be upgraded from a single building to a village and residents that will live there. Connor can do missions to convince people to settle near his homestead; doing so will make the available economy boom and allow you to start selling materials by caravan for a profit. You’ll eventually have people that can craft you items that you can sell for bigger profits and netting Connor a better future.
The most ambitious and surprising addition has to be the inclusion of naval warfare. To be honest, I wasn’t really expecting much from these optional missions though I was pleasantly surprised with how entertaining and challenging being the captain of your own ship would be. Your sturdy ship, the Aquila, is yours to control, from the steering, speed, and weapons. If you have enough funds, you can even upgrade your ship to make it one of the most feared boats on the seas. Wind will determine your speed in certain directions and will make fine navigation along nearby rocks a chore if the wind isn’t to your favor. Managing to use the wind to your advantage and circling around your enemies ship to get those perfect shots are extremely rewarding, much more so than I was really expecting. You’ll have to do a simple tutorial during Connor’s story, but do yourself a favor and start saving your money, as upgrading your ship and having open water naval battles are some of the best parts to Assassin’s Creed III.
You’ll notice that your Xbox 360 version of AC3 comes on two discs. The first being the campaign and the second being the multiplayer. If you’ve not play the multiplayer mode from the previous games, it’s essentially a clever take on cat and mouse, where you’re hunting a player target, and they are hunting one as well. The person in the lead will have more people after them, making it more difficult to stay stealthy. The essentials of the core multiplayer experience from previous titles return here, but Ubisoft has worked on making it a staple of the game, and it seems like they finally might have done it in a new mode called Wolfpack.
In Wolfpack mode you can team up with three of your friends and it’s a cooperative multiplayer experience where your team is tasked with eliminating designated targets. You’re given a set time limit to assassinate your targets and if you truly work as a team and synchronize kills you’ll earn huge bonuses. If you manage to eliminate your targets a new round will begin and you’ll have another set of targets, but made more difficult in each round with a shorter time limit, spread out targets, and other things to put your team assassin skills to the test. Playing online modes will earn you points for customization and other unlocks to keep you enticed to continue playing. If you’ve not cared for the multiplayer portion of Assassin’s Creed in the past few games, at least give Wolfpack a shot with a few friends, as it’s different enough to shake things up a bit.
For how much I ended up really enjoying my time with Connor, there were also plenty of times that ran into slight hiccups. The first major issue I had was with the voice actor of Connor himself. Sure he’s capable, but he doesn’t hold a candle do the quality voice work of Ezio. Maybe the sometimes off lip syncing played a part in this opinion, I’m not sure, but at times it felt like he wasn’t emotional enough with his line deliverance. The vast majority of the time Connor will do exactly what you want him to, though there’s the odd time here and there that he won’t or he’ll do something that he shouldn’t be able to such as falling off places you shouldn’t or getting into an animation loop bug unable to pull his sword out. There’s quite a bit of clipping with certain characters and areas, though while not a serious issue, it draws from the immersion when Connor simply walks through a character. The first time I met Ben Franklin, he was actually invisible in the cutscene, though his book that was being carried was floating there, making for an awkward scene and me wondering what went wrong.
When playing in the city landscapes you’ll notice early on that Assassin’s Creed III tends to focus much more heavily on horizontal traversing and navigation rather than horizontal from the previous games. Sure you can get onto rooftops, but don’t expect many of the tall buildings we become accustomed to during our journey with Altair and Ezio.
The beginning starts out very odd and very slow, it’s actually not till you’re quite a few hours in until things start to become very interesting plot wise. The wait is well worth it and there are plot twists to come that will surprise and delight you. There is so much variety of things you can do in Assassin’s Creed III that it almost feels like too much at times. But if you want to take a break from naval battles and go hunt some rabbits in the forest you can.
There’s a bit of a learning curve, even for seasoned veterans of the series like myself. Learning what trees Connor can and cannot traverse takes a little time to get the hang of without having to think about it. The same goes for climbing certain rack faces and cliffs. Once you know what cracks and rocks to look for you’ll have no problem, but in the beginning it’s not always clear why you can’t get up some ledges and not others. While combat is much easier now, it’s simply different, and that too takes a few battles to really get the hang of disarming and attacking at proper times; though it’s very rewarding once it becomes second nature.
Did Ubisoft deliver on their promises and lofty expectations? I believe so. While I haven’t truly fallen in love with Connor yet like I did with Ezio, it’s almost kind of expected, because to be fair, Ezio’s story was fleshed out over the course of three games where this is Connor’s first outing. I’m happy with the direction they took with the Desmond storyline and even though it has some flaws, they are easily forgotten once you get knee deep into Connor’s struggles and have a few sea battle victories under your belt.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Zone of the Enders: HD Collection
Hideo Kojima may most famously be known for the Metal Gear series, but aside from that series, any fan will probably tell you that Zone of the Enders ranks right up there with some of the greatest that were on PS2 back in the day. With Zone of the Enders releasing in 2001 and its sequel in 2003, has these PS2 greats ages well with time or is this HD upgrade a simple cash in on a great brand? I’m glad to announce that not only does this HD Collection upgrade do the series justice, but that the games themselves actually hold up quite well after a decade. The original Zone of the Enders tells a story about a boy named Leo that’s thrust into an impossible situation when feeling from the destructive BAHRAM forces. He manages to escape into a nearby hanger and stumbles upon a pilotable mech specifically named Jehuty. As it turns out, Jehuty has a built in AI named A.D.A. and helps Leo along the way. Leo is contacted by the resistance, since he wasn’t the true proper pilot for Jehuty, and is then tasked with returning and transporting Jehuty off the colony and to a station on Mars. As Leo fends off BAHRAM forces and becomes better acquainted with Jehuty and A.D.A., he must also save civilians and his friends while also defending the colony. It concludes with an emotional ending that truly shows how far his and A.D.A.’s “friendship” has come since the day he accidently found Jehuty.
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner is the sequel to the fantastic first outing that had awesome visuals, story, and gameplay. The main protagonist this time around is no longer Leo, but a man named Dingo that happens to stumble upon a hidden away Jehuty once being attacked by BAHRAM forces. This is the same Jehuty that Leo piloted in the first game, though he hid it away for no one else to ever find again. Now that Dingo has found it and is piloting it, Leo will make a return in the story in an impactful way, but not as a playable character. Eventually Dingo becomes critically injured and the only way to save him is to place him inside Jehuty and keep him on life support while in the mech. Leo doesn’t like this as he thinks Jehuty belongs to him but abandons this plight once he realizes dingo can’t leave jehuty without dying. While both games are quite short to complete, the stories are engaging and interesting enough to keep you motivated to keep pushing forward.
For being a launch title for PS2, the original Zone of the Enders had some great visuals for the time and the gameplay was quite engaging with some solid battle mechanics. As you do battle against other mechs around the colony you’ll have the ability to lock onto enemies from afar. From a distance you’re able to use Jehuty’s blasters to shoot from a distance though the bulk of your gameplay will come from up close and personal sword melee. Leo (and Dingo in the second game) also has the ability to dash in any direction to avoid attacks or even charge up a powerful attack against the BAHRAM forces.
Missions you’re given will send you to different towns and cities across the colony. Each section of the colony is its own internal small map that can be entered where you’ll fight other mechs and level up for doing so. You’ll find upgrades and ammo for your secondary special weapons (after they’ve been unlocked) from defeating enemies, clearing areas, and saving survivors (which are like side missions).
While the first Zone of the Enders mostly took place in urban areas with destructible environments, the second game had a much more industrial feel to it and a sleeker presentation. Before each mission A.D.A. will quickly brief you on your current task at hand and there would be some banter back between Leo and ‘her’. In the second game it’s done in a more visual manner, where you can see Dingo’s face on the side of the screen, as if Jehuty has gotten upgrades during the time after the first game ended.
The 2nd Runner improves on almost every aspect from the first game. Visuals are greatly enhanced (especially the special effects and particles), the UI is much cleaner and the anime visuals are more readily shown. Combat seems to be much more fluid and combining melee attacks is much simpler this time around with Dingo at the helm. While I enjoyed Leo and the story from the first game much more, the gameplay and visuals from the second were so improved that it makes it a toss-up to decide which one I would rather suggest.
Instead of placing scoring weight on game mechanics, I’m more focusing on the HD upgrade the two games are receiving, as it’s not truly fair to judge a game that is over a decade old on its mechanics when compared to games of today; That being said, the HD visual upgrade is simply fantastic. Text is no longer muddled and textures have much more detail and are very sharp. Frame rates have doubled since the 30fps on ps2 to double that to 60 along with the standard definition to high definition wide screen. The anime drawn cutscenes are preserved and look much cleaner and as a whole package it’s done exceptionally well.
If you’ve not experienced these gems on the PS2 a decade ago, this is your chance to do so in full HD glory. While I really loved the first Zone of Enders on the PS2, I never got around to playing the sequel until now. I’m happy that I did as I finally got to see how improved the sequel was and most surprising though is how well the games have held up over the past ten years. Sure there are some minor camera issues and the voice acting in 2nd Runner is less than desirable but this HD Collection as a whole package can’t be beat for the price to experience two of the best games the PS2 ever had. And while Kojima may be more known for the Metal Gear series, any Zone of the Enders fan will tell you they are extremely excited for the eventual Zone of the Enders 3 one day.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Ask a gamer what their favorite fighting game is and I’m certain a good percentage of them would list Tekken as their preferred fighter of choice. Since its debut back in 1994 it has garnered fans with its unique fighting engine and deep gameplay mechanics. Over the years the series has been refined and evolved into a deep fighter with a vast and unique roster with many characters that are easily recognizable by their face alone. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was originally an arcade only title, but eventually it received a substantial update, named Unlimited. The Unlimited update for the game is what the console versions are based upon and now we have it in our homes, able to play our friends and enemies online. While the original Tekken Tag Tournament came out over a decade ago, it was known for boasting a huge roster with virtually all the characters from the previous titles. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 boasts the same accomplishment and contains almost virtually every noteworthy Tekken character from all of the previous games. With the largest roster to date in a Tekken game you’re now also able to choose a team of a solo fighter or a team of two.
While Tekken Tag Tournament 2’s storyline may not be the “official” plot line (as some characters wouldn’t exist if so), it’s more of a ‘what if’ or super-fight matchup between all of the characters. Not that you would expect a deep and engaging storyline from the majority of fighting games, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 still has ‘endings’ when you complete the Arcade Mode; cheesy videos and all (I’m looking at you ending sequence for Ling Xiaoyu).
The game is not called Tag Tournament for no reason, as you have the ability to tag in your secondary character whenever you choose. As you swap out your current character for the secondary one, the one not in use will slowly regenerate a portion of their health if needed. If a players’ life bar is emptied in battle, that player will lose the round, even if the backup character has a health reserve. This makes it imperative to swap and tag your fighters in when needed and to keep an eye on each health bar. If you happen to see your health bar flashing, make sure you go on the offensive if possible, because you’re being given a temporary boost in strength when you tag.
While the original Tekken Tag allowed for some combos and juggling with tagging characters, it has been greatly enhanced and now allows for extended move-sets and combinations. Tag Assaults are combinations that are finally done simultaneously with both characters making for some spectacular looking beat downs. There are even Tag Throws which can extend your combos and make your assaults even that much more devastating.
My favorite feature about Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has to be the option of allowing the player to choose in what type of battle they want. You can choose between 2 vs. 2, 1 vs. 1, or even 2 vs. 1 battles across mode such as Time Attack, Survival, Versus, or Arcade. Surprisingly there’s even an option that allows for 4 players to play together in a single match in 2 vs. 2 battle.
For those that don’t have hours a day to dedicate to learning all the finest intricacies of a deep fighting game, there’s usually a practice mode included where you can learn a few of the moves. The problem with most of these is that they essentially give you the move lists and that’s it; no real help learning the timing or what you’re doing wrong when it doesn’t work. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 tries to remedy this with not just adding a simple combat arena and showing you a list of moves to attempt. Instead, the practice mode dubbed Fight Lab is a fresh take on trying to teach you the basics but in an entertaining way that involves a robot with a hilarious storyline. You control a combat robot, aptly named Combot and will progress through levels of the Fight Lab, teaching you mechanics and moves to hopefully become a much better Tekken player that can pull off Tag Assaults and more on a whim. The best part is that the whole Fight Lab training is absolutely hilarious and done in such an odd mannar that you’ll laugh at almost every level. Even if you’re a Tekken master, I suggest playing through Fight Lab as it’s completely silly but very entertaining; and if you are a Tekken master, you’ll be happy to know that this is the first time you can customize Combot’s appearance and move-set.
Speaking of changing characters’ appearances, character visual customization is taken to a new level. While you won’t be creating characters from scratch, you are able to change almost every aspect of any characters’ costume. My Xiaoyu for example has a few outfits, one being a pink Power Ranger look-a-like, and another being a Santa outfit with a cute backpack. Being able to customize your favorite character to look exactly how you like does make you enjoy them just that little bit more.
When you eventually go online to play against your friends (after you use the included Online Pass) you’ll still be able to choose 2 vs. 2, 1 vs. 1, or 2 vs. 1 battles. Finally though, someone has figured out that gamers don’t enjoy staring at a lobby screen waiting for someone to join; Tekken Tag Tournament 2 instead chooses to throw you into a training area where you can practice some last minute moves and combos just before you’re prompted that an online opponent has been found. While it may be a small thing, I really enjoyed being able to test a new move just before fighting someone, and not staring at a boring lobby screen is a massive plus in my books. Every match I played was free of lag, and even though you can set to try and find similarly skilled opponents, I almost always wound of battling against Tekken masters, swiftly getting defeated, but at least it was a lag free beat down.
The biggest addition to the online fighting arena though has to be the surprising announcement of the World Tekken Federation; think of this as essentially a Battlelog or Autolog for Tekken. Logging onto the World Tekken Federation (WTF for short; I’m sure not by accident) website, you can get a complete breakdown of your past online matchups and a plethora of other insight to help you become a much more well versed Tekken player. The breakdown of matches will even detail the amount of throws, low blows, counters, throws dodged, low bloes dodged, tag assaults, tag combos, tag crashes, total damage for both players, their current online rank, fight duration, battle points earned, staged played on, date, gamertags of your opponents, and somehow, even more. You can track your achievements, and even see the Tekken tweets complete with a global map showing where people are tweeting from. To be honest it is much more robust than I was initially expecting and the battle history metrics alone is worth the hassle of the free sign up.
With a slew of new stages (with many breakaway walls and floors) and well over 50 characters to choose from across almost every Tekken game, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is without a doubt the most robust, polished, and deep Tekken to date. While it may not have much to completely revolutionize the series, it’s a solid package that can be called the ‘best of’.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
I'm somewhat new to the strategy genre, not because I've never played the games before, but because I was never all that great at them for whatever reason when I was growing up. Civilization V really warmed me up to the genre, and ironically it is also from the same developer as XCOM Enemy Unknown; Firaxis, best known for their Civilization games. So let's clear some of the confusion straight away, this XCOM game is not the shooter that is due next year (That game's title is simply XCOM), XCOM Enemy Unknown is a turn based tactical strategy game that is a re-imagination of the original from almost twenty years ago, UFO: Enemy Unknown. Having gone back to the series roots, Firaxis has made a simple barrier of entry, especially for players less experienced in the strategy genre like myself, yet still a very deep layers of a metagame that longtime fans and genre enthusiasts will enjoy. XCOM is now much more approachable for more than the diehard fans and is done in such a fantastic way that even casual fans of the genre like myself should play Enemy Unknown.
You are the fearless commander of XCOM, a global defense team comprised of members from every major nation, tasked with battling against an alien invasion and defending Earth. Not only will you control and dictate your soldiers in battle, you'll also have to build your base headquarters from bare bones to fully capable, research aliens and their technology, and balancing the funding of the operation as a whole.
Set slightly in the future, commanding XCOM will set you down a specific path for the main storyline, but the decisions you make along the way will greatly affect outcomes and strategies going forward. Many times the aliens will attack multiple places at once and you'll be forced with the impossible task of deciding who to help. Do you help the city that needs it the most, or the one that will reward you better, thus making your overall job of saving the world easier. Do you value the immediate rewards more so than the long term rewards? Choose wisely, as your decisions will catch up with you in the end and you will be the one directly responsible.
The bulk of your gameplay of the twenty plus hour story will have you in a classic isometric perspective with a moveable and rotatable camera to help with your strategy. You begin with controlling four soldiers, though later on this can be bolstered up to six, making a big difference later on. While many missions will have you simply finding and destroying any alien contact, others will have you defusing bombs, attempting to capture a live specimen, escort missions, and other types that will test your strategic forming abilities in every way. Like many strategy games, the map will be 'foggy' until you've explored the area and will hide the actions of the enemy aliens until they are in view.
My favorite feature in the whole game is something you learn very quickly, that your team can stay your team throughout if you are careful enough and the longer they survive the more abilities they'll gain and become more powerful. Don't become too overconfident though, you WILL die and lose some of your important teammates along the way and you will most likely become emotionally attached to some of them, especially if you rename them to match actual family and friends. If you're able to keep your soldiers alive long enough to get some combat experience, they'll become randomly assigned to one of four classes; Assault, Heavy, Sniper, or Support. Each class plays completely unique from each other and will mesh very nicely when used in a team setting. Each time you level up you're given the choice of choosing one of two skills, both of which are very useful in its own right; it will just depend on your squad makeup and play style. Some choices I found very difficult to decide, such as deciding between making an individual member much more effective, or making their skills enhance the rest of the team nearby, again, it will come down to preference.
While some classes take much longer to come into their own than others (snipers start out very weak for a long time, but once leveled up they are a necessity) each soldier has the same core abilities such as being able to move, fire, take cover behind walls and objects, and using the Overwatch skill, which allows you to stay behind cover but fire upon any enemy that moves into your field of vision; a very useful skill on the harder difficulties and later missions. Being a successful commander that brings all of this squad home must know when to also be defensive and let the enemy come to them rather than walking into a trap.
Once you have an alien in your line of sight, you're given the option to fire upon them, and doing so will allow you to select your enemy and then show you the probability chance you have at hitting your target (along with other information like their health and the damage you can potentially inflict). Being able to easily cycle between targets and even choosing which team members go in order will play a huge role in your strategy in each fight.
A huge part in the strategy element of Enemy Unknown is what actually happens between your regular missions. At your XCOM underground headquarters, you'll begin with only a few areas developed and unlocked, but you'll spend the resources needed to expand and upgrade your base as well. You decide what continent you want your base in at the beginning of the game and choosing your base location determines which bonuses you'll receive throughout your play through. You'll manage construction, research of new weapons and armor, manage your soldiers (and hire new ones when the experienced ones perish in battle), and determine what your scientists and engineers should focus on project-wise. You'll be able to scan Earth to keep tabs on the growing alien invasions around the world and respond accordingly. There will be times where you'll have to even send interceptor planes at incoming UFO's and then dispatching soldiers on the ground to recover any remains once it's been shot down. It's a very deep metagame that takes a lot of patience and understanding to do everything you want to that integrates nicely with the on-ground missions you do with your soldiers.
There is even a multiplayer offering for those that like to play online against their friends (or others). The offering is a light one at that though, with 1 vs. 1 going head to head with teams of six in a single mode (killing the other team). While it may seem light, there is some depth, as you get to choose your soldiers (even aliens) and depending on what classes you choose, you could have a complete advantage or disadvantage, as you're unable to see what the opposing player has chosen until you find each other on the map. While the multiplayer portion is a bit bland, there's nothing quite like playing against another human and trying to adapt your strategy to their gameplay rather than the AI's. While it's not the deepest and most engaging multiplayer I've played, it gets a pass and I'm actually hoping for some new vs. or co-op maps and missions via DLC.
I never really expected to care about my soldiers as much as I ended up doing simply because I named them my friend's names and tried to make them look the part, but I did. The first time I lost a solider when he was quite experienced, it dawned on me the importantance of not only keeping them alive but how finely balanced the risk vs. reward system is in XCOM Enemy Unknown. While you may feel safe attempting those 80% chances to hit your enemy, there is a chance that things can take a turn for the worse and these random elements keeps the game exciting and very challenging at the same time. You never feel like you have enough time, money, or resources to do all the things you want, and that's a good thing because it forces you to determine what is more important. Do you go for the short term gain or invest more into a bigger payoff much later? Each decision feels tense and engages you from start to finish.
Even on the lower difficulty settings, the game can become very difficult quite quickly, especially if you lose some of your experienced soldiers or have nations drop support of XCOM. The game is by no means perfect; many times you'll have line of sight issues (sometimes in your favor where you'll shoot through a wall, but usually the opposite where your vision is apparently blocked) and very little is explained clearly and you'll learn more from trial and error (the error usually resulting in a dead comrade). Some may get turned off by the massive spikes in difficulty out of nowhere but even with its faults, stick with it and you'll have a fantastic time deciding what's the right thing to do at the time.
When things work out in your favor though, it's exhilarating to experience your pinned down and outnumbered soldiers come back from near death. The highs are high, and the lows are very low; if you're like me, you'll curse when you lose a max rank soldier due to your own stupidity but cheer when you make that last ditch effort with a 20% chance to hit with your fingers crossed. Enemy Unknown took me by complete surprise, as I wasn't expecting much from a console strategy game. Firaxis has found the magic formula of making the game much simpler, but not easy. XCOM is addictive, and much like Civilization, you'll probably be like me and keep saying "just one more mission before bed". If you can appreciate a fantastic balance of risk vs. reward, XCOM Enemy Unknown simply cannot be passed up, even for the casual strategy fans like I was.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Borderlands 2
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Wreckateer
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Just Dance Greatest Hits
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor
Overall Score: 1.0 / 10
Spec Ops: The Line
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Disney Pixar Brave: The Video Game
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Lollipop Chainsaw
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Dragon's Dogma
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Inversion
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Dragons Lair
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Max Payne 3
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Diabolical Pitch
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
Ridge Racer Unbounded
Overall Score: 4.7 / 10
Pinball Arcade
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Trials Evolution
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
Rayman 3 HD
Suggestions: Please don't HD something just to do it. Fans of the originals will be sorely dissapointed if issues like these aren't even fixed.
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
Armored Core 5
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
The Splatters
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Sine Mora
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Street Fighter X Tekken
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Asura's Wrath
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Syndicate
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
SSX
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Alan Wake's American Nightmare
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
The Darkness II 
Suggestions: 5 years between cliffhanger endings is just mean.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Final Fantasy XIII-2 
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Double Fine Happy Action Theater
Suggestions: More 'levels' please!
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2012
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Raving Rabbids: Alive & Kicking
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Motion Sports: Adrenaline
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Black Eyed Peas Experience
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Rayman Origins
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
PowerUp Heroes
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Tropico 4
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Dance Central 2
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Dead Rising 2: Off The Record
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Need for Speed: The Run
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Just Dance 3
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Spider-Man: Edge of Time
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Forza Motorsport 4
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
X-Men Destiny 
Overall Score: 3.7 / 10
Dark Souls
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
The Sims 3: Pets
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Gunstringer, The
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
SkyDrift
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Rise of Nightmares
Overall Score: 3.3 / 10
Driver: San Francisco
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Call Of Juarez: The Cartel
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Bastion
Suggestions: Make a sequel!
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
UFC Personal Trainer: The Ultimate Fitness System
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
F.E.A.R. 3
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Dungeon Siege 3
Suggestions: Please don't release a multiplayer component that has no use unless you're the host.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Alice: Madness Returns
Suggestions: Not for the developers no, but someone in power please let McGee make his version of the movie!
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Child of Eden
Suggestions: Please make DLC song to further the experience!
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Brink 
Overall Score: 6.2 / 10
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
DiRT 3
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Thor: God of Thunder
Suggestions: Sega, please stop putting this garbage out.
Overall Score: 2.0 / 10
Shift 2 Unleashed
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Portal 2
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Rio
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Knights Contract
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Stacking
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Dragon Age 2
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Two Worlds 2
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Splatterhouse
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Sonic Free Riders
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
SBK X: Superbike World Championship
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Nail'd
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Front Mission: Evolved
Overall Score: 5.3 / 10
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Dance Central
Suggestions: Online dance battles for part 2 is a must, so is telling me why I'm doing a certain move wrong.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Fable 3
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West 
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Alien Breed 2: Assault
Overall Score: 6.5 / 10
Medal of Honor
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Halo: Reach
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Mafia II
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Hydro Thunder Hurricane
Suggestions: Downloadable ghosts!
Overall Score: 7.9 / 10
Singularity
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Deathsmiles
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Transformers: War For Cybertron
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Earthworm Jim HD
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
After Burner Climax
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
UFC Undisputed 2010
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Just Cause 2
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Final Fantasy XIII
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
BioShock 2
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Chime
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Mass Effect 2
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
Suggestions: Taking out the competitive multiplayer is a huge deal breaker when the PC version had it and the slowdown in co-op is quite detrimental on the gameplay experience overall.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Death By Cube
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Assassin's Creed 2
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Forza Motorsport 3
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
DJ Hero
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Saw
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Lucidity
LucasArts may be more known for their past titles like Monkey Island or Star Wars but now they are trying something completely different with Lucidity and getting back to the basics with a unique looking side scrolling puzzle platformer.Sofi is a little girl that enjoys hearing bedtime stories from her grandmother and one night as she nods off to the stories, her imagination takes control and she awakes in a dream world following a firefly that will lead her into a dream landscape. As Sofi skips through the forest, it's the players' job to make sure she safely navigates to the end of the level.
As Sofi becomes more and more curious, she continues to explore more areas and more danger becomes present as she presses on trying to also find fireflies. Sofi is persistent and will keep the desire to press on and explore what is ahead in her dreams.
Lucidity is a puzzle game at heart, and like any good puzzle title, everything starts off will little difficulty and quickly ramps up to keep the challenge and players' interest. Very quickly though, levels become very complex and difficult which becomes quite frustrating early on.
Overall Score: 6.3 / 10
Wet
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
Halo 3: ODST 
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Wolfenstein
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Overall Score: 9.3 / 10
Trials HD
There are 5 different bikes that can be used in races once unlocked and range from slower but easier to control beginner bikes all the way up to the fast and powerful advanced bikes that are much harder to control.
There are over 50 races and they are separated by difficulty levels; Beginner, easy, medium, hard, and extreme. The number of races in each bracket will also vary and scale depending on the difficulty. Medium for example has 11 tracks where Extreme only has 4.
As you progress, you will also unlock up to 8 different Tournaments which is essentially just a series of different tracks played in a row where your score is based on the start of track one to the end of the final. Its fun to see how quickly you can do a certain amount of tracks in a row, but the real challenge is balancing that with how few faults you can incur while doing so.
As you race a track you will see a small meter at the top of the screen and this will show a comparison of you against people on your friends list and how close you are to each other as an icon instead of an actual ghost.
The other main section of Trails HD is the skill games. Should you bore of the racing or just want to try something substantially different, then this is the half of the game that anyone can enjoy.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Madballs in Babo: Invasion
There are 2 factions in the Babo universe; the first being the Babo and the others being the evil Scorched. Each faction has 6 playable and unlockable characters and each character has their own special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Gameplay is a mix of platforming while rolling your ball throughout the level and traversing tricky areas, and another side of combat as many enemies will be doing what they can to stop you. It very much felt to me like a mix of Marble Madness and Smash TV.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
Suggestions: Make any track packs importable to World Tour, simple as that, especially if it costs full price.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Suggestions: This would have been even more engrossing if it was 2 player co-op and I don't get why this isn't an option to be honest.
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Ghostbusters
Suggestions: -Please don't label something as campaign unless it truely is that.
-Having an Ecto-1 driving stage would have broken up the monetany a little bit.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Prototype
Suggestions: - While having 100 different moves is awesome, tryign to remember them is not. A quicker way to remember them other than having to pause and go in the menus would be helpfull.
- Please don't insert trash quests and missions just to artificially lengthen the game, I don't want to become bored having to arbitrarily finish something just to progress the plot when it's not needed.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
UFC Undisputed 2009
Suggestions: -Inter-weight class fights
-Online that can't be abused by boosters
-More old school fighters
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
Ninja Blade
Suggestions: Over the top can be fun and interesting, but there is a fine line between awesome and absurd. Make mid-level checkpoints. There were times where I wanted to play but couldnt set aside an hour so there was no point sadly.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
Suggestions: -AI that isn't braindead
-Multiplayer that means something other than one mode
-An expansion that feels like Butch Bay, not Riddick 1.5 with guns.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Godfather 2
Overall Score: 7.4 / 10
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Suggestions: Please, if we aren't going to get the option for non English voicing, then make sure that it's done well, especially when we have to sit through it for 40 hours or more.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Resident Evil 5
Suggestions: Moving while aiming has been a request since RE4, and I understand it is a design decision, but can't there be a middle ground somewhere?
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
Halo Wars
Suggestions: Simple. Covenant (and Flood if we are so lucky)campaign story. More DLC with possibly unit variants.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
Skate 2
Suggestions: Add more features to the replay editor, not take away. Actual facial animations would be a plus, espcially now since bails are a larger part of the game.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Last Remnant, The
Suggestions: Last Remnant needs polish. I don't mean would look better with it, I mean NEED. It's quite an embarassment to have framerates this poor and I hope more testing is done before launching other titles.
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
Tomb Raider Underworld
Suggestions: Simply fix the camera, its been an issue for WAY too long and I would be happy.
Overall Score: 7.1 / 10
Left 4 Dead
Suggestions: Many more scenarios for download and some more playable types of zombies in Versus mode.
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
Mirrors Edge
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Gears of War 2
Suggestions: Horde mode would be even better if each 10th wave was versus a Brumak; simple as that.
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Suggestions: Learn what people like from the competition and build ontop of it. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel to be successful.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Fable 2
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Tomb Raider: Legend
Overall: Intro:If you ask most people what they think about the Tomb Raider series, most will vividly remember how much enjoyment they had fun years ago with usually part 1 or 2. From then on, the series continuously declined in quality, and basically fun overall. Eidos has dropped Core Design from this title all together after the huge decline in the series and went to work on the newest installment of the series, and we now have Tomb Raider Legend. It builds on what made the series great and it’s cool once again to enjoy a Tomb Raider game.
Gameplay:
As the story begins, Lara is back, and is haunted by flashbacks of her mother’s death years ago. As the story progresses, you explore many different lands on different continents with a story revolving around the power of a sword broken into fragments that seem to be scattered across the world. Throw in a plot that involves the King Arthur Legacy and you have yourself a somewhat decent story line that may not enthrall you, but will definitely make you want to see what happens next.
Cutscenes are throughout and flashbacks that unlock more pieces of the story’s puzzle keep you interested other than the basic ‘figure out puzzle, then move on to boss and beat the level’ schemes. The new team did their homework, and if you have ever played Resident Evil 4 or God Of War, you will recognize the interactive sequences that require you to press the correct direction or button at the right time to either keep her from dying, or to collect secrets in the level, which in turn will unlock bonus features, costumes, cutscenes, and more. It’s nothing new, but it is more entertaining than just sitting and listening to the story unfold on its own.
One thorn in the side that the series has always been plagued by was the controls. Not so much how sloppy it felt, but you had to always be perfect with your jumps and directions or else you would miss that critical jump and fall or miss a cliff edge. These inconveniences are a thing of the past, now that you can run around freely, swim, jump, climb on ropes and poles, scale cliff edges, and use ladders, all while looking good and even showing off with some flips and vaults in between if you wish. It is by no means perfect, especially when trying to jump off a rope in a certain direction and the camera is fighting you, but it’s a major improvement in the series.
A nice new addition is that if you are climbing a pole or rope, or shimmying across a cliffside, you can press a button in time with your movements, and it will make you move twice as fast. Though I spammed the button while always doing this, and it seemed to do the exact job, but is necessary in later levels where you only have a few seconds to hang onto a ledge before it breaks away with you on it.
Swimming was a big part of the series in the past as well, with many underwater caverns, swimming levels and puzzles that usually involved getting wet somehow. As most games, swimming in the original series was no different, and was one of the leading causes of frustration with poor controls that had you either drowning, or not being able to see where you are supposed to go in time. The mechanics now are much smoother and actually doable, but still not perfect, with you sometimes barely getting up in time for air, or not being able to see the hole you are supposed to swim through due to the underwater camera angles. Lara’s signature dive is in the game again, and taken to a new level, where in one section, you actually have to dive off a 200ft cliff which is still my most memorable section of the game.
Combat is also still in the game, and it has been given an overhaul as well. You are given many more moves than previously before and respond quicker, but it really doesn’t feel all too different at the same time. You lock onto your enemies and can start shooting away, but you are also given a manual aim as well if you wish to use it, though it wasn’t very accurate the further away you got, even with the more powerful weapons. Much like previously before as well, you must shoot, jump, and avoid all at once if you wish to avoid being target practice. While it sounds like a lot, sadly it gets really easy as you master it. You keep jumping, and when you have a moment, let some rounds off, and then return to jumping like there is something down your pants, and repeat. It is very basic, but it’s also fun to be doing flips throughout a gunfight, to run up to an enemy and then blast him like your invincible.
A similar version to the infamous bullet time is also implemented and as you become in melee range of an enemy, you can run up their chest, back flip off them into ‘bullet time’ and shoot them down easily, since it gives you a damage bonus. This works great in crowds of enemies, since when you are in slow motion; you can lock onto your next target and hopefully get 3 or 4 before you touch the ground. It does become very easy when you learn how to do it swiftly, but it definitely doesn’t loose it’s cool factor seeing it again and again.
Lara has a new gadget this time as well, which is much like a grappling hook. This will help you cross long gaps like a swing, will pull enemies towards you much like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, and pull boxes and items towards you that may be too heavy to move on your own will.
Your favored dual pistols are back as well, and like always, with the infinite ammo. Now that you are allowed to have two pairs of weapons at a time (always your pistols, then another weapon of your choice), many times you will be picking up an enemy’s gun after killing them due to it being more powerful until you run out of ammo for it. You are also given grenades this time, and while they are powerful if they hit, that’s the clincher, “if they hit”. These will bounce around like they are made of rubber, and rarely ever explode on time to do any real damage, unless they bounce back to you, then of course they go off in time.
Your D-Pad will control your tool belt of sorts. You have your PLS, which in essence is your flashlight, that is attached to you, you can use your health packs that you’ve saved up, and since almost every enemy drops health, you will basically never run out, and will also control your binoculars which help with puzzles. Using the binoculars are much like Metroid Prime, where if you ‘examine’ a switch or block, it will tell you if the item can be activated, moved, or destroyed, though there were very few times that you are so stumped on a puzzle that you needed to resort to this method. The flashlight was also basically useless as there weren’t all that many dark levels or spots that you couldn’t really see that well.
If you played the last Tomb Raider (Angel of Darkness), you still have a stealth mode of sorts, but I never used it once. There was no point when you could just run up and use your ‘bullet time’ to basically 1-hit your enemies. I still don’t understand why this is even implemented.
An exciting feature is when Lara gets to use her motorcycle; wish sadly is only used twice in the game. It’s very simple and very arcade-ish, to the point of being too easy. The first time using it is much too short, cause it’s new and cool for something different than the regular platforming, and the second feels too long, as you just want it to end so you can progress.
Lara’s own mansion makes a return, but has a different reason behind it this time. Instead of being a training ground to learn all your new moves and practice them, it is now basically a small mini level that has its own secrets and collectables. It’s mainly meant for exploration and to break up the monotony, but it’s very nostalgic with many of it’s own puzzles to solve.
With this new edition also comes new ways for puzzles to be solved. Physics help play a role in this that require you to really understand what your object is, and how you are going to do it in the environment you are surrounded by. It is by no means as advanced or in-depth as Half-Life 2’s physic puzzles, but it makes you think the same way. There were nowhere near enough puzzles in this fashion, but playing with boxes on sea-saw’s doesn’t get old quick.
Much like previously in the Tomb Raider’s, the puzzles will sometimes have you thinking of how you are going to do two or three things at once, but once you catch on to how things are done and completed each time, many of the puzzles become too simple, almost to the point of feeling like tasks, rather than puzzles. You will be moving boxes onto pressure plates, while you then much use your acrobatics to reach another portion to flip a different switch for example. There is simply not enough actually challenging puzzles, and once you do figure out how it’s done, you usually feel stupid for not realizing you didn’t notice that block that you could move the whole time.
Visual:
When comparing the different versions, the 360 version easily wins out, by having 720p enabled. You will see much more detailed textures on walls and ground, bump mapping to actually make it look more realistic, lots of foliage that the other versions miss out on, particles and dust in the air in the tomb levels, water flowing and slashing, and the whole environment in general just looks so drastically better it’s hard to even suggest the other versions when comparing (Though we all know it’s the achievements).
Lara herself looks much more realistic and not so “38-22-38” like before. She actually looks like a real woman, a very attractive one at that. A nice feature as well is that whatever guns you are equipping or carrying, will show up on your belt or around your shoulders and doesn’t magically go into your inventory bag like previous.
Cutscenes look decent, but basically only look like a prettier port of the other versions. Explosions and the environment is really what makes you enjoy the graphic features by far. Some of the levels are designed so beautifully that you actually may stop to look around and take notice.
Sound:
Lara actually sounds like Lara, and not like someone reading off of a script. Her voice is well acted and very distinct with her accent. The other characters also do a great job, though a few of them just felt bland overall, but it seemed more due to their character, not their acting. Lara will wink or be witty in dialogue, and if you weren’t watching the screen you would be able to tell what her face motions would react like. She sounds like she has emotions, and that’s very important for her character as the story progresses.
The music is very moody and fits in with each level. With the bike levels, you get an action rock-like beat and while you’re jumping platforms deep in an underground tomb, you will get moody backdrop music. It’s not too distracting, but it wasn’t memorable either.
The dialogue actually is not quite what I was expecting. I was honestly expecting lots of cheesy lines and some script that even I could have come up with, but to my surprise, it’s actually quite well written and doesn’t bore you with too much back story and bland characters. It has its humor, it has bad guys you love to hate and just sound evil. It was quite a treat to be this surprised and not feel too “Hollywood”.
Closing Comments:
The game is very short, as in 8-12 hours, and the puzzles really aren’t as challenging as they should have been. It did have a nice mix of platforning with having to jump and swing lots of places mixed in with the few puzzles here and there, but ultimately, I would have been greatly more impressed if I actually got stuck and had to look up how to finish a certain puzzle.
The combat is extremely easy and other than the odd boss fight or two, I rarely ever had to heal, especially with almost every enemy dropping health along the way. It wasn’t the lock-on that trivialized the fighting, it was that the AI was not at all aggressive, and was very predictable.
On the bright side, it does contain a decent amount of replay, since you can do any level at any time once it’s completed, and even try the time trials to unlock more goodies for Lara. Though once these are done, it really only adds a few more hours onto the overall gameplay and again, after figuring out the puzzle schemes, it’s not challenging in any way, even on the most difficult setting.
A great Tomb Raider like this has been long overdue but it is finally here and while it may be short and not have you thinking terribly hard to complete it in a weekend, it’s all about the fantastic ride to the end and the entertainment in between. Lara is back, and she is as cool as ever. You don’t have to be ashamed anymore to say you enjoyed a Tomb Raider. Legends delivers what Tomb Raider used to feel like, now lets hope for an even more improved sequel.
Overall: 7.96 Gameplay: 7.8 Visuals: 8 Sound: 8.1
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Table Tennis
Overall: Intro:When Rockstar first announced their next game, it was definitely a shock to everyone, no one really expected something this drastically different from their previous titles. Table Tennis lacks guns, violence, hijacking, profanity and blood, which Rockstar has used to make their name, but in no way does it make this title un-cool.
Table Tennis has a simple objective; to deliver a very fast paced gameplay that is simple enough to pick up and play, yet be deep enough to keep you coming back for more. This is all it does, and surprisingly, better than most would expect.
Gameplay:
As you start up the game, you will be greeted with the cl@!%#*!ic “Rockstar Presents”, and even by the GTA font alone, you know this already feels like one of their games. Simplicity is one aspect that the game has strength in, but unfortunately at times, is also its weakness.
Soon as you start the game, you see a background with two players with the very slim menu choices in the upper corner. You are greeted with choices of Tournaments, Exhibition, Training, and Xbox Live.
Training is actually quite helpful and will teach you the basics of how to play, and then get into advanced techniques for later on. It’s broken down into sections from serving, returning, spins, counter spins, drop shots, slams, aiming and more which actually help later on with difficult matches. After a few goes, you’ll have the system down and want to jump right into a game, which is where the action begins.
The controls are incredibly simple, yet very precise to the touch. The left analog stick is your movement of your character, and once your about to hit the ball, your aim for where you want to hit the ball on the table. Your right stick controls the spin on the ball, and after your opponent hits the ball towards you, the longer you hold the stick in a direction, the more spin you can attain. The danger in this is that while your ‘charging’ you’re hit with a lot of spin, you are unable to move your character, so you have to think ahead where you should be to return the hit.
With four different types of spin, you can always keep your opponent guessing of not only where you are going to drop the ball, but if it’s going to have front, back, left, or right spin to help it curve as well. This is where counter hitting can also come into play. So if a shot was coming to me with immense right spin and going to go off the table, I would hit it right back with the same type of spin to essentially neutralize the spin on the ball and get things back into my favor.
A very clever yet subtle feature works very well once you even realize it’s there and in place is the use of the rumble feature of the controller. As your about to slam the ball towards your competitor and holding the direction you want for spin, once your controller starts to shake it means that you are getting dangerously close to the edge of the table. If you do not heed these warnings your shot will go out of bounds and off the table, and honestly, having not read the book before playing, it made things extremely easier once I learned this tactic. You will get a feel for how much is too much over time with more and more gameplay. Eventually become very skilled in this can net you easy points where it can nick off the edge of the table and basically become un-returnable.
So after keeping all these things in mind, there is also another aspect that will come into play and usually help you win easily against the computer (as opposed to a person). The more you charge your spins, the more your focus meter will fill up, and once full, you can use it to unleash an extremely fast return or even more powerful slam. While this works great against the computer players, against real players, it can help, but not as effectively. In single player, the camera will go into a slow motion mode, make it look all awesome even if you are just trying to reach for a save return. In multiplayer is just speeds things up to insane rates of returns and you will watch your rally numbers increase very quickly.
Camera work is flawless, and while you do only get two choices of close or far (close being the much easier to see the ball with), it never once felt like I didn’t know where I should be looking. If you are at one corner of the table, and they are at the opposite other, the camera will slightly pan enough so it just seems like the perfect angle. If you are playing multiplayer on the same system, one person is on the bottom for their serves, and then it switches so each person gets to play on both sides of the table. I did find being on the top side of the table a bit odd, and missing more shots I shouldn’t have been, you do get used to it eventually and it will feel natural.
Loading times are decent, though with how little is actually on the screen, it seemed at first it should have been quicker. At least while you are waiting for it to load, you can look at what you’ve unlocked so far with each character, and even get hints on how to unlock more arena’s, clothes, and characters.
Picking and choosing the character that fits your play style is crucial as well. You are given a choice of a few choices at the starts, and as you progress through single player tournaments (note I didn’t say career mode); you unlock new players along the way along with clothes and arenas. If you are a power player and want to slam your opponent every chance you get, then Jesper is your choice, but watch his zero rating in serving. Liu Ping from China is your all around choice which most people online tend to use I found. If you want to trick your challenger with awesome spins and fakes, the Luc or Kumi are the way to go. Learning more than one character is crucial for online play, as using a defensive character against another defensive character makes easy scoring a challenge.
Each character is rated on spin, serve, power, and accuracy, and actually feels different than each other as well. While there is no rating for movement, I did find that certain players I preferred just seemed to move quicker than others. As you learn to be in the right place at the right time, you won’t rely on the footwork as much, but it can be frustrating to miss that shot because it doesn’t feel like they move quickly enough at times. While you are charging your spin, you can not move either, so it’s a lesson you tend to learn early on very quickly.
One downfall to the games simplicity is its lack of modes as well. All you get are exhibition modes for a quicker play, or tournament to unlock items and features. That’s it; there is no career mode in any shape or form. Regrettably there is also no create a player either. And for player options, you get to pick their color and style of up to a few shirts, not even wrist or headbands. While the choices are very slim mode and player wise, the gameplay does redeem it and is quite deep and involving.
There is quite the intensity that becomes apparent once you hit milestones in long rallies. Once you realize you have been going back and forth for over 50 hits, you seem to become more focused. As the rallies become much higher, and even breaking the 100 mark, you become tense and it’s exciting with the result either being you standing up cheering, or shouting new profanities because you accidentally hit the net with the wrong spin. When even playing the lower 7 point games, they can take time when you have two very good players and are scoring back and forth on each other.
When you play online for the first time, you will feel just at home since it’s identical to the single player in almost every aspect. Just as single player, you can choose Exhibition for the quicker matches, or a Timed Tournament which is 4 to 8 players all playing at the same time in a Round-Robin style of play with a set amount of time. Unfortunately the settings are very weak, and once you are done an exhibition match, it boots both players, even the host, to the main Xbox Live screen where you can hen either host again and invite your friend, or join a random game. Being able to play with my friends reputedly without having to send an invite every time would have been much enjoyed, but rather it’s a h@!%#*!le. While setting up a Timed Tournament, you can pick either 4 or 8 players, and should you choose 8 and you don’t have a full room, you can not start the game, even if 4 of you are there and waiting. It’s another simple thing that could have been avoided but just brings frustration instead.
While online, the same pace feels the same. While there isn’t many lag problems, the few times I have had them brings very weird occurrences. Sometimes I won’t be seeing my opponent move, but an invisible paddle will still hit the ball, or sometimes the ball will float there for a second as if it’s waiting to be hit by them instead of me scoring a point. Another odd bug that I’ve run into that’s only happened once so far is while I picked Juergen to play with, the person I was playing with said it was Jesper and was even his name and model instead of what I see on my own screen.
While there are certain things that I’ve noticed that shouldn’t be there, it by no means takes away from the quick action and frantic gameplay. With there being absolutely no extras, career mode, or mini-games, the single player is very bland and quick to finish. Multiplayer with a friend or on Xbox Live does feel like it compensates for what it does lack.
Graphics:
As noted before, from the moment you turn on Table Tennis, you know that it’s a Rockstar game, not only from its patented font, but just the feel and style of the product as a whole.
The players in this title look simply amazing and realistic for the most part. While in replays, you can see everything from beads of sweat on the forehead, to the fine hairs of an eyebrow. Each character looks unique and the motion capture of each is marvelous. When you need to quickly move to the side you can see them plant their foot and push fluidly rather than just strafing.
I don’t think I’ve seen better clothing in a game before this title. Shirts will droop and bend and move like they do in real life. Reach for a high slam and the shirt near your armpit actually stretches, lean and bend over to hit a drop shot and your shirt will actually sag with gravity. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s something so fluid that you have to notice it.
To add another level of realism, players will also sweat over time and the longer the rallies, the more sweaty your character gets. It makes the color of your shirt darken as well depending on where they are sweating. It’s not a necessity, but having it definitely makes it feel like a genuine 360 title.
Each player will also have their own stances and hold the paddles their own specific way. This just breathes more life into the characters and with no drops of framerate and the lighting being perfect, Table Tennis is one of the more realistic looking titles on the system thus far.
Sound:
To be cliché, you will hear every ‘ping’ and every ‘pong’ the ball makes as it bounces off the table. Even the crowd can be heard at times, and when they want someone to win, you will hear them chant their name or country without too much repetitiveness.
With Table Tennis being such a rhythmic gameplay, Rockstar has picked the perfect choice of a soft ambient techno to play in the background that just seems to fit the whole style of the game. Obviously your own soundtracks are recommended, but they have certainly combined the style of gameplay with the style of music to fuse a wonderful mix.
Closing Comments:
Rockstar has not made a mini-version of Virtua Tennis or Top Spin. While many aspects may seem the same, they have combined fluid gameplay with simple controls to make a completely new experience. While it may seem like the next-gen version of ‘Pong’, the pacing, gameplay, and addictiveness of Table Tennis is represented so well that with it’s low price tag, should not be p@!%#*!ed up.
Table Tennis is simple to pick up and play, yet very deep if you want to invest the time into it. While it does have it’s shortcomings with lack of modes and create a player, this title is completely about the gameplay. It is exciting, it is additive, and this truly is Table Tennis bought to us by Rockstar.
Gameplay: 8.8 Graphics: 8.3 Sound: 7.8 Overall: 8.3
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Project Gotham Racing 3
Overall: Intro:PGR 3 may be one of the first games in quite awhile that has fooled me with the screenshots before hand that looked pre-rendered but upon playing it the first time, you realize that it’s completely in-game and much more than you expected. Not being one for many racing games, I decided to pick PGR3 up to add some more variety to my launch collection, and I was not expecting it to turn out that it would be my most played title. With so many different modes, a large selection of cars, and a plethora of extra features, PGR3 has huge replay value that doesn’t get old quickly.
Gameplay:
The Project Gotham series has always had a unique premise; to win races, not just by being the first across the finish line, but to do it all with such a style that would be fit for a Hollywood movie. This is achieved with the games Kudos system and it works simply yet effectively. You take a turn normally, no big deal, but take that turn going way too fast, power sliding by hitting your emergency brake and having the nose of your car inches away from the turn’s wall, and that is how you get the Kudos that you need to progress further and unlock more goodies. Catching air, going on 2 wheels, doing clean sections, and racing perfect lines can earn you more. Kudos is all about skill and precision, not going fast as possible into a wall and just accelerating out of it like most racers. Your score goes higher the more you string together moves and slides, so to get some of the goals you need, especially in the hardcore setting, you need to sometimes even slightly slide on a straight track to keep your combo and multiplier going. The risk being that if you have a huge combo going and then misjudge when you start sliding into a turn and hit a wall, you lose your whole point combo. Knowing when to keep stringing moves together and when to let the Kudos add to your score definitely comes in time, and will differ with everyone’s play style.
PGR 3 is much more heavily based on skill rather than “wall riding” that other games let you do without much consequence. The first rule that you learn very quickly is that you must use your brakes to take turns slowly and controlled until you learn how to do sliding E-brake turns at breakneck speeds. Braking means you will make the turn, which in turn means you keep your momentum much faster and have an overall higher speed. Sometimes the game can be a little forgiving in which you just barely touch the wall and it won’t penalize you and take your Kudos away, though it doesn’t always seem to be consistent when it chooses to do this, nor does it happen that often unfortunately.
You are placed into the game with a set amount of cash to buy your first car and then sent off to go start winning your trophies and medals. Not only do you get a decent amount of starting cash, but you quickly notice that you won’t be starting off with an ancient car that has no real hopes of winning any races; but instead, you can start off with quite the decent racer to get your racing career headed in the right direction. Quickly you start earning more than enough cash to buy yourself a much faster vehicle, and instead of selling off your old car to afford the newest ones like most racing games have you do, PGR 3 leads you more in a collective direction; where all your exotic beauties can be showcased in your numerous garages.
PGR 3 offers 5 different city locations which doesn’t sound like a lot, but there are many variants of the city, all with different turns and even feels to them. One feature I quite enjoy that Bizarre Creations has added is not just made the tracks separated by car cl@!%#*!es, but by race types. This means that while there aren’t many different city settings, there are numerous different race types for every one. These can range from drift style races, speed challenges, to cone challenges and more. So rather than giving you a set car for a certain track, you will want to pick a car that is going to be better suited for the type of race you are attempting to complete.
With of choice of 80 different vehicles ranging from the “lower” end Ferrari’s, Lamborghini’s, and Lotus’, all the way to the super top performance TVR, RUF, Benz, and even the coveted Ferrari F50 and McLaren F1, along with concept cars that would make you drool if you were to see them p@!%#*!ing on the street. Each car handles very differently and certain cars are best suited for different race types. You will obviously enjoy and prefer certain cars to others for their own individual handling and speed, but as soon as you play on Xbox Live, if you aren’t using the “normal” cars that the majority of players do for each cl@!%#*!, you will sadly be left in the dust; regardless if you can take turns superiorly better than the rival that can double your top speed and acceleration.
Single player career mode is divided into 23 multi-tiered championships, and each of them usually has their own “genres” or style to them to offer a play change, rather than the same monotony most racers do. So one championship may be all head to head street racing mixed with some one on one medals to win, while another championship can be all cone challenges mixed with drift and overtake objectives. While the single player is short to initially complete, there is plenty of replay with trying to get all the different medals and achievements that can only be done by choosing a harder difficulty level. Having never really played much of the previous series, I can hold my own while challenging the medium setting, but trying hard is a challenge best left to PGR veterans. For those of you that absolutely love a challenge, hardcore is just that. One mistake on this setting could mean the whole race, and usually does. While this is great news for those that are that good, it can be quite frustrating when you are about to win a long enduring race, having then having lose it on the last corner because you started to turn a split second too early or late. It leaves extremely little room for error, but it’s a great way to keep going back and trying to achieve those elusive medals.
If you want to just quickly start a race, you can do so easily, but there is much more that you can choose to do rather than your typical race. Modes differ from the standard Street Race to Eliminator in which the last driver to complete is lap is knocked out until there is only one victor. Team Street Race adds almost a Nascar feel in the sense that you and your teammates must do what it takes to win; so sometimes having the better racer up front with your partner behind you trying to block the opponents from gaining is what it takes to win this Red vs. Blue battle. Team Eliminator which is much like the normal version, but the victor wins it for their whole team. One of the more unique modes is the Capture the Track mode in which you have to “own” as much of the course as you can by having the quickest time in certain sections. So while you can be amazing at certain corners and have great speeds in sections, you need to have the majority of the track in your control by the end of the timer.
Should you grow tired of racing, there is still much PGR 3 offers for anyone. The biggest noteworthy of these features being the Route Creator, where you can make your course just the way you want, race it, and even play it with your friends over Xbox Live. You start by choosing the city and it gives you an overview of all the city roads. Picking the start line will get you going right into the good parts where you can pick any road to use, the corners to take, all exactly how you want to race. You are free to make any style of track you want, whether it is a point to point or a circuit race, or even a long straight drag race to finally prove which of your friend’s car is superior in horsepower.
Another great feature is the Photo mode, where you can walk around your garage of all your cars, and freely able to take pictures how you want. There are camera settings for zoom, tilt, height, free movement, focus, shutter speed, brightness, contrast, even sepia. It’s not completely open to take it always exactly how you want, but it certainly does the job. The real exciting part of the Photo Mode feature is that you are able to take a picture of your car whenever you like just by pausing the game. This can lead to some really amazing pictures of you overtaking someone on the inside while sliding almost along the wall, or even with all four wheels off the ground getting some air. Factor in the ability to move the camera freely, and you can turn into quite the photographer. One of the games achievements is to take a picture of your car in every city, so definitely spend the time and play with this great feature. The only complaint I have about this is that there is no ability to share or post your photo’s online somewhere, so you can only share them on your with your friends. Adding an online gallery of sorts with rankings would have been a great addition.
Bizarre clearly had Xbox Live in mind when developing PGR 3, and it clearly shows with the robust online features it contains. While playing single player offline, when you finish tracks it automatically uploads your times and scores and places it into the rankings and before you exit out, shows you where you are in the world’s ranking for your efforts. Think that you are the best in the world on a certain track with your car? Go online, download anyone’s ghost car and race against it to see how you really stack up against the best in the world. You are not limited to the top 10 or 100 people either. If your placed 300th place and the guy that’s ahead of you in ranking has somehow beat your time by a long shot, you can watch their race or choose to race his ghost to see how it was done. One key element in this feature is that you can watch the replay and learn from it, but you can watch it from any angle you choose. If you play in the 3rd person view and want to know how to take a certain turn like the best do, watch in that view. If you use the @!%#*!pit view, you can even watch the whole thing like that if you wish to learn from the best to better hone your skills.
This is where Gotham TV also comes into place. You can see who’s racing online from the leader boards, tune into Gotham TV, and watch in real time; races that they are competing in at that very moment. Of course you have the ability to change to any racer, and any camera angle you wish as well. Play online enough and your TRUESKILL ranking will go up, which is how the game determines who to pair you with, much like Halo 2’s ranking system. Get good enough and you may even appear on the Hero’s Channel on Gotham TV that showcases the best in the world. Having been on Gotham TV numerous times myself, I can tell you that it adds a pressure factor knowing that thousands of people could be watching how great or poorly you race.
To combat cheating by only racing with your friends and working your way up the leader boards that way, Bizarre has made it so you have no choice for your competitors. While not being able to race along your friends for rankings, I haven’t found it to be a huge issue. Another measure they have taken to detour people that cheat by learning one course and just raving that one over and over to improve rankings, is by picking what cl@!%#*! of cars you want to race, not the course. Each cl@!%#*! then has a random choice of a number of maps which are suited for that cl@!%#*! of car. It’s a far from perfect system, but its wonderful having a variety of random maps when earning for your online profile.
One huge difference to keep I mind when playing online, is that you are playing real people that can and usually will do what it takes to win. More often than not you will race against the kind of competitor that will side swipe you just before a turn, making you spiral out of control into a wall at 200mph, and this is to be expected, but when you do have a race where everyone is respectable of each other and won’t crash people into walls for the sake of making a turn, it makes such a memorable online experience. Feedback is there for a reason, and so are the zones that you choose to play online, so prepare for the dirty racers that will take any means necessary to win. One word to the wise is to avoid going into the first turn of a track online with everyone else, as it’s very seldom that you will come out with your clean slide and getaway.
Load times are slightly more than usual, but can get annoying and tedious when restarting races and waiting for it to load all over again. For the visuals this game puts out, I find it’s reasonable; mind you I’m not sure what they would be like without the Hard Drive.
Visuals:
The one feature that this game has that makes it stand out visually is the @!%#*!pit view. We aren’t talking your normal view where you can see the steering wheel and maybe a rear view mirror, this is much more, and shows off what the 360 is more than capable of. Instead, this is inside the @!%#*!pit where you see your steering wheel, you see your hands gripping the wheel and shifting, the rear view mirror, the speedometer, your tachometers, and anything else that is actually authentic to the car you are racing. That is until you flick the right stick which acts as if you were turning your head inside the view. So you actually have to move the right stick left or right to check your side mirrors to see if someone is trying to overtake you. It’s the next step in realism, and overtime I found myself looking at the dash for my speed rather than the overlaying HUD. With each car being an accurate depiction of what the car is actually like to sit inside, it’s difficult to not be impressed, and finding yourself learning all different kind of blind spots. For a truly unique experience, choose the McLaren F1 and race in this view. Since the bucket seat in this car is directly in the middle and not on the side, it’s as close as you will ever get to racing one.
Lights, shadows and reflections will all bend and deform around the hood and windshield of your car, and this is the most obvious when you are using the in-dash view. First time seeing this came should make you impressed with what is possible now in next-gen systems. While you corner, slide, and brake hard, your camera will shake and blur depending on your velocity and force you can going into turns. This again is most apparent when using the @!%#*!pit view. Where the game does not inherently feel as fast as a Burnout title, the speed sense you have while in-dash is quite astounding, and you don’t always see the corner come us as early as you would like.
PGR 3 showcases HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting which gives a more realism effect. The easiest and more of the impressive examples I can give is that when you come out of a tunnel and back into sunlight, you will have a second of bright light everywhere as if your eyes were adjusting to coming out of the dark like in real life. It’s just one more step closer to realism, and while subtle, it works perfectly. My only wish is that you could choose to turn the HUD completely off so that I couldn’t see a turn coming out of the tunnel on my map, rather than trying to see it coming at me 200mph while my eyes adjust to the sun.
Overlooked aspects in PGR 3’s graphics are definitely the background and layout. Most games will save space and look great while racing, but if you ever stopped and looked at trees or the crowd while still, they were usually animated 2D cutouts. Those are long gone now this generation, with fully 3D pedestrians watching the race, and fully lush trees. They have many more animations than any other racing game I have seen will even take pictures of you as you go by with the flash of their camera’s going off. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s so much improved that it’s very noticeable.
On a bright side, there is damage modeling, but it feels as if it’s almost a cop out and just in there because. The most you can really do to your car is bend your bumpers and spoiler, and crack your mirrors and windshield; regardless that you are going over 200mph into a wall head on. It is hard to drive with no mirrors using the @!%#*!pit view, and does add that want to keep your car in pristine condition, but sadly it’s purely a cosmetic addition, it does not affect your cars performance in any way. The damage does look great, but personally I wish it had more much like Toca 2 did.
Visually, this game is easily one of my top choices for 360’s launch titles. It’s very impressive, and with an HDTV it looks even better. It’s not something that absolutely screams next-gen, but you will be very impressed when you see it for the first time.
Sound:
Not being much of a car guy, I didn’t really realize that there could be so many different sounds for a car braking at different speeds, different engines revving, tires squealing depending on your speed, and the differences of them depending on your position to the car.
Every car does sound different, and not just the engine sounds. Like said above, anything you do with the car, will sound unique for that car. If you played enough, and had your 5.1 surround sound set up, knew the cars sounds well enough, you would be able to tell if my McLaren F1 was coming up behind you on your right just by the sound of my motor pushing itself trying to overtake you. Yes, it is that impressive and distinct. Something else I wasn’t expecting was that the sound will also differ depending on if you are using the 3rd person views, or the @!%#*!pit. Inside your car, your engine will sound incredibly more mean with your sub woofer turned high up, where as the outer views you will hear the squealing of your tires as well but from a distance.
PGR 3 offers a soundtrack that will cater to almost everyone. You are given the choice of 9 different music genres that you can change on the fly. Pressing up or down on your D-Pad will change between the genres differing from Rock, Electronica, Hip Hop, Industrial, Bhangra, J-Pop, and even Cl@!%#*!ical. Once you find the style of music you want, simply hit left or right on the D-Pad to choose different songs in that genre. This is all great and there should be something in there you will enjoy, but obviously playing your own play lists and music through the 360 dashboard is much more preferred
Closing Comments:
There are so many modes and extra features that PGR 3 offers that even non racing enthusiasts will want this title. Bizarre has created an extraordinary launch title, and this is not one to be p@!%#*!ed up. Need that final reason to buy a HDTV or simply justify your 360 purchase? This is that reason.
Gameplay – 8.6
Visuals – 9.0
Sound – 10
Overall – 9.2
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The
Overall: Intro:The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is finally here after much waiting and anxious anticipation. If you have ever played any of the series, most notably Morrowind, then you understand the broad range of freedom and scope that Bethesda can deliver. A game where you can literally explore for hours finding new places, dungeons, and towns, but being able to stop on the way, look around the vast landscape around you and even look at the minute details that have gone into the world to make it immersive as possible.
From the moment you are thrown into the main storyline in a cl@!%#*!ic good vs. evil plotline, there is much more underneath the basic premise and will have you traveling all over, and if Bethesda has done their job right, hours and hours spent on side quests, advancing ranks in guild missions, exploring landscape for more dungeons and treasure, and arena battles that can easily get you sidetracked.
Gameplay:
Start Oblivion, and after the game’s first cut scene that explains briefly what is happening in the world, you instantly start to design your character with much detail and enough options that you can spend some time getting just everything perfectly. Adjusting facial features such as length of nose, hair, chin and such is just the starting. Even getting your eye color the way you want, the options are very deep, and should make you happy with how you want to exactly look. There are different races to chose from, each having their own positives and negatives for stats and certain cl@!%#*!es.
As you start off the game after creating your masterpiece of a character, the first dungeon, which is basically following the King and his guards for a prison break, you are taught some of the fundamentals of gameplay, and while you are guided along where to go, everything you do here should be thought of as the “Training Level”. As you complete this first dungeon, everything you have done up till this point will be noted and you will be given a recommendation of what type of cl@!%#*! you should play based on how you have been so far. You are more than welcome to pick one of the template character cl@!%#*!es, or even completely customize your own how you wish. At the end of this first dungeon before you leave to the outside world, you are given one final chance to change any aspect about your character including name, race, appearance and skills. Once you leave this section, there is no turning back for any character changes, so make sure you understand what skills do what, and which ones to make your primary, or you will have major headaches later on. Sadly, this is more or less learned by trial and error if you’ve never played Morrowind, any anyone who has, will understand how the leveling system is and the difference in making skills primary or secondary.
As you leave the prison’s sewers, you are now set loose in the world of Cyrodiil with your first task that starts you along with the main quest, though it does not pressure you into doing so. This being Oblivion, you can march through the main storyline if you wish and complete that portion of the game, or simply do whatever you want and travel anywhere doing anything your heart desires. When you are on a specific mission or task, your comp@!%#*! will have an arrow always pointing you in the right direction, so you are never truly lost on where you should be heading next. If you are given a red arrow, it means you are not in the correct city or zone or need to go through a door somewhere, but if it is green, the person or place you seek is nearby.
Don’t feel like walking everywhere and want to get where you need to be right now? Bring up your map and choose the icon of the place you wish to go to magically be whisked away instantly (minus the loading screen). The only trick to this is that you have to either visited the place before, or know of it through conversations with NPC’s if it’s a town or city. So as you are give a quest to go clear a certain dungeon of all the vampires or whatnot, if you have not been there before, or traveled within proximity, you have to walk (or if you’ve obtained a horse at this point) the way. Most areas needed to go are near a city, so worst case scenario; you fast travel to the closest city or town, and then do the journey from there.
Making any quest you have available from your journal your “active” quest is very easy, and will instantly give you the new arrows of where to go, and the descriptions of what is needed to do, so that coming back to old forgotten quests is not really a burden in remembering where you were before you got sidetracked.
The main quest has a very simple Good vs. Evil concept at the start, but as you learn more about the King’s @!%#*!@!%#*!ination, long lost son, why Oblivion Gates are opening up across the land, and how you are going to stop them, it becomes much more involved and more time goes by than you ever thought would in a single player game. If you were to strictly only do the main storyline and absolutely nothing else, I found it was surprisingly over quickly, though the multiple climaxes of the plot does not disappoint at all. This is nearly impossible to do though, as you will get sidetracked and venture off to do other things to advance your character and chart new areas.
There are literally so many things you can do, that a simple 20 hour main quest can at times not even be remotely close to your focus. With multiple guilds that will have you doing errands and quests escalading in difficulty to climb up the ranks, cities that are littered with people that all have problems that apparently only you are capable of solving, join the battles in an Arena to make a name for yourself, rob people blind for everything they have then sell it to make a profit, explore mysterious dungeons and be a treasure hunter, become a vampire and feed on the living, or even buy a house for yourself and do what you wish with it. With it being completely open ended, this is just a fraction of things that can sidetrack you from any certain quest or anything else you may be doing, without it being too daunting at the same time.
You can play any style you wish, so if you prefer to sneak in the shadows, pickpocket people, steal their items to see if you can get away with it, and just simply act roguish, you are given the skills to do so. If you would rather just smash your enemies with a giant hammer or sword and plow through anything that looks at you the wrong way, feel free to do so as well. Even combine different styles and play exactly how you wish, and depending on how you decided your skills, almost any character cl@!%#*! or skills are possible.
The more you use your skills, the greater you become at them. If you want to become a master archer, keep using it and you will become more powerful and unlock more skills as you progress. If you want to be a master at haggling for better store prices, that is also a viable option that if you become good enough, you can actually invest into stores and reap the benefits.
The strength of armor, spells, and weapons you obtain in the game are solely based on your characters level, which in turn is risen by your main skill attributes. This is why picking your main skills is very important, because if you pick a skill like Acrobatics for example that is naturally going to level up as you progress, you will become burdened by the level advancements, because you can now jump and run fast, but your combat and defensive skills will lack, causing you to constantly play catch-up with your other skills.
There are four guilds across the land, which you are able to join, obviously after some tests and tribulations though, to prove your worthiness and trust of course. The four guilds that you are able to join are the Fighters, Thieves, Mages, and Dark Brotherhood. They all have their own quests and rewards, and at times, interconnect and can sometimes be difficult to do one guild orders without failing another’s at the same time. Though sometimes very daunting and frustrating at times, the rewards in the end are generally worth all the trouble and time spent for it, not to mention the achievement points.
There is an Arena in the Imperial City where you can become a gladiator to rise in the ranks and compete for gold and fame. Sadly, if you are very proficient at combat, this side portion of the game can be done very quickly if you decide to finish it quickly, as in around 30 minutes start to finish. The non combat heavy characters should enjoy the challenge though trying to fend off fights in one vs. one, one vs. two, and even one vs. three. And like the guild quests, the achievement points alone should be incentive enough to complete this action filled portion of your adventures.
Radiant AI is something that Bethesda touted about for a long time, and in simple terms, this basically means that NPC’s can almost think for themselves. They will have certain tasks they need to get done, such as work, or getting to places and anything in between is almost “as it happens”. An easy example of this would be, say a certain NPC is hungry because its lunch time. They will look around the house for something to eat, but what happens if you stole all their food while they weren’t looking? They would venture out to get some, or better yet, if you happened to put a poisoned apple in their pocket without them knowing, they could take a bite of that, and then you could do what you wish with their belongings once they keel over dead.
Sometimes you need to obtain information from NPC’s on clues where to go next, but sometimes they will not like you, or trust you enough to divulge secrets to you. Depending on your skills, you can try to sweet talk them with high speech craft skills, charm them with spells to make yourself seem more attractable, or simply bribe them with money. Obviously trying to bribe guards and other characters will not always be looked upon kindly and may even lower your disposition towards that person.
With so many skills that become unlocked, and spells you may obtain throughout the course of the game, there is a hotkey system that allows up to eight items able to be changed on the fly. These can be pieces of armor that may have certain enchantments you need for certain situations (water breathing items for example), different weapons for different types of monsters (bow and arrow to pull it close, then hack away with a sword), and of course, all different types of spells you may have. Considering the scope of the game, it can feel very limited to only have 8 hotkeys especially if you are a mage heavy character, though combat driven character may not notice this burden as much. If there was a way to have different sets of 8, it might have been handier, but also being set to the D-Pad, it can sometimes be annoying to try and hit one of your diagonal arrows for a certain spell in time, but not always correctly choosing the right one.
While the game feels and plays out like it is meant to be in first person mode, there is options for playing in third person, but with making combat incredibly tougher not being able to always judge your distance, and some of the embarr@!%#*!ing animations like jumping and strafing, it feels more immersive in first person by far. Moving the camera back to third person is usually only used when traveling to get a broader scope of your surroundings, or if you are trying to find a secret lever or item on the ground.
Certain bugs are still present, such as odd sound glitches, clipping through walls, NPC’s sometimes acting “brain-dead”, and my personal favorite, breaking into someone’s house, then going in and talking to the NPC and them acting like nothing has happened. The apparent bugs can be annoying and at times frustrating when you get stuck somewhere, but overall, you learn to live with it, and it doesn’t really take away from the game so much that you notice after awhile.
Visual:
Visually, there has not been anything to this scale done before, and the distances you can see at times, especially on mountaintops, can be very breathtaking. Your environment is not flat, and with trees and gr@!%#*! swaying in the wind, or rain coming into your face, there is a huge level of detail put into the world. Day and night comes and goes, and you can even see deer run across the land in the plains. Exploring can be very enjoyable to see how high you can actually get, or how deep a lake actually goes. Waterfalls will even have mist at their base with plants needed for alchemy usually thriving near water sources.
Almost every weapon you own will look different from others, and as you obtain the higher level ones, they can be very intricately detailed and simply gorgeous to look at with glows and enchantments on them as well. Armor is the same way, with light chain or leather armor looking very distinct from heavy iron or steel sets, with them even shining differently in the light.
In dungeons you will find cobwebs in corners, dirt on the ground, dust on treasure chests and littered bones if it’s quite a dangerous place to be. Sometimes the walls can look repetitive, but with all the lighting effects and the traps laid out to look for, it’s usually not noticed.
Physics also play a role, where if you kill an animal on a downward slope, they will roll and tumble accordingly, even bouncing off rocks or down cliffs. This can be pretty entertaining itself, but when you want to loot the monster you just killed, chasing after it down a hill waiting for it to stop gets old. Hitting someone in the head hard enough with a bow can even make them back flips, sending their body one direction into a wall, and the weapon in completely the opposite direction.
For how gorgeous everything can look, there are still faults that are apparent, and sometimes even take away from being immersed. While you can see for miles at certain places, the objects far off don’t look sharp and usually have very low textures, enough to be extremely noticeable and out of place. As you travel across the land, since it’s such a huge area, it will sometimes stutter as its loading everything in the vicinity nearby. If you are on horseback, it only makes the problem worse, sometimes almost skipping if you have one of the faster horses. It’s bearable, but really shouldn’t be there. Fortunately the regular loading times of exiting or entering places are decent; it seems to just be the traveling outside for the most part.
Sound:
Sound is undoubtedly the absolute star of the game and brings in a new feeling of gameplay, due to every single NPC being voiced for all dialogue. Obviously many minor characters that have very few lines, or even just one, you sometimes think that different characters have the exact same voice. Surprisingly even with the one-liners and sometimes repetitive responses, nothing sounds too out of line or cheesy.
The star casts for two of the main characters are voiced by celebrities. Patrick Stewart plays the king that gets @!%#*!@!%#*!inated very early in the journey and you can distinctly tell that it’s him. It’s quite amusing, though I was waiting for him to tell me to “engage”, not “Close shut the gates of Oblivion”. The majority of the main quest focuses on the long-lost son of the emperor, Martin, who is perfectly voiced by Sean Bean.
The music definitely adds a special feel to certain situations as well. As you adventure and explore freely, you hear a happy cheery melody that makes you feel like you’re floating across the land and that all is good in the world. When an enemy spots you, the music will change to a tense battle sequence so that you know you’re in combat, and gently fades away once your combat is over. Dungeons will have an eerie musical score that makes you feel like you want to be creeping slowly and watching your footing.
As you pluck your bow and arrow, you will hear the string tighten and “twang”, swords will clash and make it sound like there are sparks, water drips in dungeons, footsteps of people and yourself that change according to the type of ground you are on, and even you swaying in the water. Skeleton bones crumble when you defeat them, ghosts and wraiths let out an eerie wailing gasp when they are defeated and being in an Oblivion gate is overall pure frightening with the music and enemy battle cries.
Closing Comments:
One of the major things that really stuck out for me was that there were only 2 cut scenes in the whole game; the beginning and end, which is unfortunate due to how beautifully they were done. With all the criticisms that could be held against it, it’s impossible to deny the enjoyment that will come from everything that is possible from this title. Bethesda has scored again by listening to the fans and improved upon many aspects from Morrowind. It is by no means perfect, but there is nothing else that compares to the scale and immersiveness that you will get from enjoying this game.
Simply put, Oblivion is the single best single player experience you can get that has come along in quite some time on the Xbox 360. With almost unlimited gameplay hours and never a shortage of things to do, Oblivion is an incredible experience that should be even played by non RPG fans. It’s not often a gem like this will spoil us for expectations for future gaming.
Overall: 9.46 Gameplay: 9.3 Visuals: 9.3 Sound: 9.8
Overall Score: 9.5 / 10
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Overall: Intro:Take the underground street car modding culture and open free roaming city from Need For Speed Underground 2, mix in the high tension and fast paced police chases from Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, add a whole lot of speed and attitude with an onslaught of more than 30 way too fast vehicles and you have yourself the newest EA addition to the long running series: Need For Speed Most Wanted; and it doesn’t disappoint.
Gameplay:
Surprisingly Most Wanted boasts quite an impressive career mode that doesn’t tire easily and has you wanting to keep moving up the ranks of the Blacklist to extract your revenge, more-so than the fame and bragging rights of just being the best street racer in the city.
You arrive in Rockport with your BMW that has been customized and tweaked way too fast for your own good. You are greeted with some street racers and leave them in your dust quite easily with your overpowering car and way too much nitrous that shouldn’t (and probably isn’t) legal. Eventually a local cop who obviously thinks he knows better pulls you over and gets ready to arrest you while explaining how he owns the streets. While you are about to hand over the keys to your prized possession, he gets an announcement on his radio of a pack of racers causing havoc and is forced to head off after them, letting you go with a stern warning to leave. Of course he keys the side of your car as he walks away, making you cringe to the sound of it, just to make you spite his evilness that much more. You then meet up with the local racers and are introduced to Mia, who seems to want to help you and warns you about the crowd here in Rockport and to be careful. The apparent leader of the group; Razor, explains that if you want to race against a Blacklist racer, you have to earn it and put the pink slip to your ride on the line, which is why no one is stupid enough to do it. You give your pink slip to Mia, so does Razor, and the race is on after a few cheesy lines about him boasting to stealing your ride, then your girl.
Things are going your way during the race and then you get a call from Mia telling you something must be wrong with your car, since you left a lot of oil back at the starting line and if the race isn’t finished quickly, you are going to lose. As fate would have it, your engine blows and you lose the race very abruptly. Razor tows away your ride, and the cops come to arrest you for your wreckless driving.
You find out that Razor had his lackeys sabotage your car before the race, and that he tipped off the cops to get your car and you in jail. To make matters even worse, he has gone from #15 on the Blacklist to the #1 spot, in your car! This is where the career mode begins as you work your way up the blacklist to challenge Razor to obtain your revenge and win your car back. Now that you have no car and very limited money, you must scrape your way up from the bottom and work your way up to the most dangerous and notorious racer in the city.
The Blacklist is a simple yet effective system of progression. For the opportunity to race a blacklist racer, you must have a prerequisite amount of challenges and a certain value of bounty on your head by the city’s police force. There are two different types of challenges; races, which include circuits, sprints, speed traps, tollbooths, and drag races, and then the more interesting portion of challenges are the milestones, which are all cop related and will have you attempting different goals such as “tagging” or scraping paint with a certain amount of cops, outrunning the police for a set amount of time, destroying enough squad cars, or even obtain a certain amount of dollar value damage to the state by crashing into poles, buildings, trees and the likes. Milestone events will earn you bounty dependant on how long you are being pursued for, the amount of damage you cause, how many infractions you rack up; which can vary from excessive speeding to hit and runs, and the heat level on your car. Obviously the longer you are being chased and the more dangerous things you do, the higher your bounty gets, but also the chances of being caught and the aggression level of the police gets turned up as well.
Your “heat” level is basically the cops’ gauge of how dangerous and wanted to them you are. The cops keep track of your heat levels for your individual cars and they will respond accordingly. The higher your heat level, the more intense and severe their techniques for attempting to stop you will be. Heat level one isn’t really a challenge, as usually it’s just normal police cars driven by simpletons that can be evaded and taken out quickly, but once you reach the higher heat levels of four or five, you will have a slew of twenty plus police chasing you, range rovers that can roll your car, helicopters that will follow your position, and even the federal cop from the beginning of the game in his extremely overpowered Corvette C6 that will use any means necessary to stop you ranging from road spikes and even rolling road blocks that are almost impossible to avoid.
Luckily you do have some tricks up your sleeve to help you when needing to take turns at way too fast speeds or gain some distance from the relentless maniacs behind you; Speed Breakers and Pursuit Breakers. In essence, a Speed Breaker feels like bullet-time for your car which will help you slide through exceptionally unyielding turns, right yourself out of a fishtail, avoiding traffic in hectic intersections, or even guide yourself under a moving 18-wheeler. Using this feature does slow you down when you stop using it, but usually it’s overall quicker than hitting the wall and having to use your nitrous to speed back up. Pursuit Breakers are markers set on a building, power line poles, towers, gas stations, or even scaffolding that when sped through, it will collapse; causing the police to either be destroyed if they are in close proximity to you, or making them stop to observe the situation and call for backup while you speed away at leisure. Nothing is more satisfying and ironic than multiple police that are constantly on your tail trying to wreck you, being crushed by a giant doughnut sign as you get away freely.
Now when you do complete the needed challenges and achieve the needed bounty, you are ready to challenge the next blacklist racer, with pink slips to both cars up for grabs of course. Most Blacklist races are usually 2 circuit or spring races, but get more diverse as you progress in the story. One thing I found was that the “boss” racers usually aren’t all that amazing until you reach the #5th racer or so. They seem to make a lot of mistakes that a player wouldn’t do, like running into all of the light posts or seemingly swerving into traffic when there was no reason to. When a blacklist racer is defeated, you are presented with 6 markers; 3 of which you can see, which are usually unique paint jobs or parts that try to tempt you away from picking from the other 3 unknown markers that can be bonus cash, get-out-of-jail-free cards that you can bank, impound cards to get your cars back from the state that have been caught, or if your very lucky, the pink slip to the adversary’s car.
Once you move yourself up the ranks a few notches, you will notice quite quickly how fast these cars can get. Of course if you win a Blacklist racer’s vehicle, you do save quite a lot of money that you would normally have to spend upgrading the stock cars that unlock as you progress. On any car though, you can get numerous different visual parts and performance upgrades which is slightly different than most games, where you really can tell the difference between various different levels in upgrades. Got way too much heat on your car but want to keep using it without having to worry about your car being spotted so easily? Upgrade your visual car parts such as body kits, spoilers, roof scoops, rims, vinyls, or even a new coat of specialty paint. Doing so reduces your heat, dependant on how drastic the visual change on your car, but for a cost. On the performance side of upgrades, there are four levels of upgrades that can exceptionally improve your ride and you will notice the change even on the lower upgrades. What EA has done though to coax you into playing longer is making the highest and best upgrades only unlockable once you achieve a certain rank yourself on the blacklist. It’s rewarding and works well to make you want to move up the list rather than deter you from hoarding obscene amounts of cash early on in the game.
Like most racers, there will always be the cars that just plain suck and you don’t want as you start out, but as you get further in the career mode, while there may not be plenty of choices of different rides, you are rewarded with awesome vehicles; almost a ‘quality over quantity’ approach. For example you can unlock the new Mustang GT, an RX-8, different Mitsubishi’s, even a Lamborghini once you reach the top few spots of the blacklist, and you quickly forget about the Chevy Cobalt you started off with.
Since you do make money every race, and with every Blacklist race, having the shot to win a free car, you not only obtain a decent amount of cash, but you will come along Impound markers If (and when) you get caught by the police, your car will get impounded, and you can either pay the fines that you have been racking up (which is an obscene amount at later levels with high heat), or if you have them saved, can use the impound markers that you may have one from winning a Blacklist race which will get your car back into your possession.
Another cool feature is that there are plenty of little shortcuts everywhere for you to shave seconds off your race time or to try and pull ahead of that rival. Sometimes they can be very helpful and give you a much needed head start against the other racers, and other times it may be harder, where you might have to come out of a secret tunnel or p@!%#*!age, but have to take a very sharp turn to get back onto the road, ultimately slowing you down. The fact that the other racers can and will use the shortcuts as well makes it feel more like you are racing a person and not just a scripted racer since they will not always go the same way every time. In pursuit modes, shortcuts are absolutely needed when trying to evade that last cruiser or two, and pulling into alleys or turns at the last second is sometimes what’s needed to fool the cops so you have those few more seconds to get away.
One great thing EA has also done is litter the streets with destructible objects like light posts, garbage cans, cardboard boxes, fruit carts, and many other items that when ran into, will either fall over and cause an obstruction for racers behind you or simply explode and makes the race feel much like a chase movie. The only problem I have with these things are that you can hit a row of trees or light posts for example, and while it does slightly slow you down, there’s hardly any consequences for driving that badly as you don’t slow down very much. Do this in a blacklist race or a pursuit and that’s a completely different story, but during regular races, it almost seems too easy at times. The catch to some of these objects, are that not all of them are destructible, and are usually placed in crucial spots around turns that will make you dead stop and make you wish you did upgrade to that next level of nitrous. It doesn’t always make sense why you can completely crash through a row of light posts, yet hit the wrong sidewalk that you aren’t ‘supposed’ to go up onto, and it simply doesn’t allow you, much like invisible walls in other games.
While there is an online mode, it feels just thrown in and nothing exceptional. With only an attention to purely racing, there are many features that could have made the online simply amazing. You and three friends can team up online and race your custom career mode cars against each other to see who the top racer is, or go into random ranked games and earn your worth online. An impressive feature that EA added to the online mode was a real life Blacklist that tracks the top 15 most dangerous racers in the world. There are many filters that you can choose to search or create games such as a ‘incomplete races’ or disconnect percentage, or even collision modes should you want to rub paint with the other racers or see who can simply get to the end first. This tends to eliminate many of the “jerks” that we’ve all come to loathe and create a much more pleasant environment. Of course if you want on the real Blacklist, you need to play ranked games, and those filters are pre-set and people will do anything it takes to win.
With an ample selection of vehicles and a terrific sense of speed, the fact that the single player mode has more than 15 hours of gameplay that doesn’t even count the hours of unplanned cop pursuits, additional races to get cash for that final upgrade you want, or even the daunting milestones needed to race people high on the Blacklist, is quite a treat and doesn’t seem to grow dull very quickly with its high replay value.
Visuals:
With 720p or 1080i enabled, the game simply looks extremely sharp and crisp with a constant 30FPS. The lighting will bend and deform on the cars curves, as will the shadows that makes it have a realistic feel to it visually as you p@!%#*! under some overlaying trees or go through a tunnel. They also seemed to have put in HDR lighting, as when you do come out of a tunnel, it gives you a moment of bright light as if your eyes were adjusting to the brightness difference like in real life. Driving into the sun directly will make it very difficult to see what’s ahead of you and even getting glimmer off the shine of the adversary ahead of you.
As mentioned above, when debris is ran into it can either tip over and fall causing distracting sparks, or explode if it’s a garbage can or boxes. Even at later levels of the Blacklist when you have literally a dozen or two police chasing you, there seems to be almost no slowdown that’s very apparent.
Obviously you can’t tell when speeding and racing, but if you look at the roads and ground when stopped, you can see that the pavement has cracks and can even appear wet when it’s not. It doesn’t just look like the typical pavement either that has the repeating cracks in the same places either.
EA has opted to present the cut-scenes to gamers in a fashionable way that hasn’t been around for awhile. While games now will rarely have the pre-made FMV movies and do everything with the in-game engine, we are treated to some cl@!%#*!ic style movies that we grew up with. Interestingly it’s not at all cheesy (the visuals, not the script) and looks quite unique. The actors were filmed and then many different filters were used to give it almost a comic book feel where you sometimes can’t tell if it’s CG or if it’s real people. It’s very incomparable to anything else, but it brings a certain charm to the plot line. The only letdown being is that there aren’t enough of the videos throughout the game. They are not needed to progress the story, but they are amusing to watch.
Sound:
Each car sounds authentic, and when you do upgrade to that bigger engine or strap on the nitrous, you can even hear the difference of the performance in your car. The Mustang GT frankly just sounds mean, and when you finally hear the Lamborghini’s take off from the start line, you can just catch the difference that the sounds of the different motors make.
Easily the most noteworthy sound feature the game has is the police. If a cop sees you, you will hear them on the radio communicating to each other the whole time they are chasing you. You overhear their plans to try and box you in, or set up roadblocks and can change your choice of direction accordingly. Once you can decode the police’ codes of the plan of action they are going to take against you, you will be able to figure out of they have laid road spikes to stop you, or if they are just calling for backup to help take you down. The police jabber sounds genuine and they constantly discuss your location and their best plan of action to arrest you.
In the movie sequences, the acting seems to sometimes be over the top, but they do play the parts very well. With some of the one-liners, it sometimes does sound very cheesy, but you forget this once you’re back into the adrenaline fueled racing. Unfortunately for me, much like the last two of the series, there was no songs that I really enjoyed at all, though fans of the previous soundtracks should enjoy it, though with the 360’s media player this isn’t really even a concern though.
Closing Comments:
It’s a shame that you can only race in the daytime and not at night like the Underground series, since when I think of illegal street racing; I don’t normally picture it mid-day in the middle of a city or freeway. The best feature that EA could have added was a pursuit mode online where players could be police or racers, but instead the online seems bland and if it wasn’t for the real online Blacklist, there wouldn’t be much point to playing online other than against your friends.
While the game’s name; Need for Speed, may fool you in the beginning when you have a slow-moving car without nitrous, once you start earning some cash, win some cars, and then upgrade them, you will not be disappointed.
The real thrills come from the police chases, the close calls, the Speed Breakers to escape past a two-row line roadblock of SUV’s, flipping a cruiser car off a ramp then speeding away to escape, and taking the huge jumps that reward you with a glorious slow-mo view of your car taking flight complete with ‘speed lines’ behind you.
Surprisingly for a racer, the game has an in-depth story mode that makes you keep wanting to move up the blacklist and prove yourself against the rivals and the cops that you are the most dangerous racer in the city.
EA has done a wonderful job creating an accelerated experience where you get to race your way-too-expensive vehicle at speeds that will have a whole police force after you in attempts to stop you. The game is challenging and has a high replay value while looking great and effortlessly being enjoyable at the same time.
Need For Speed Most Wanted does not disappoint and is a remarkable addition to the welcomed series. If you are looking for something entertaining wheather it be for long haul races to move your ranking up the Blacklist, or to simply tease the police while having them pursuing you, this game should be one of your Most Wanted.
Overall: 8.2
Gameplay: 8.3
Visual: 8.0
Sound: 8.4
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
Marc Ecko's Getting Up
Overall: Intro:Mark Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure takes many different game elements and combines them into one. You get the Graffiti gameplay that Jet Set Radio pioneered, similar acrobatic skills much like Prince of Persia, and you are even given some stealth moves and kills to go along with a game enriched with Hip-hop culture. Great ideas when put together on paper, but execution is much more complicated it seems to excel further than average.
Gameplay:
You are Trane, a gifted guy that wants to make a name for himself and become a legend graffiti artist. New Radius is your home, which could relate to a slightly futuristic New York City. Opposing gangs will constantly get in your path, causing you to take them out so you can freely tag your name. Tough times call for tough measures, and you will even have the Civil Conduct Keepers (CCK) doing anything they can to annihilate you for good, which are basically like police with a license to do whatever necessary to put an end to all graf writers.
Obviously the focus of the game is the graffiti tagging and the culture it has, as this is what your main goals to accomplish are. You are given different tools that will be used depending on the king of tag, how big, where it is, and what style you want it to look. Basic markers, spray-paint, stencils, and even a squeegee-like broom to glue your banners onto things is how you are going to get New Radius to recognize who you are.
Your black book is your bible; this is where graf writers practice their tags and art, and if given the opportunity to meet a legend, where they will sign their tag. Before you go into a mission, you can decide what tags you want to bring in your black book this time for variety, since you only have a certain amount of slots of choices in any given mission.
When you see a surface like a wall, window, billboard, or even side of a building, you are able to freely tag your name how ever many times you wish, in different colors and styles…almost. For some reason, there are certain walls and fixtures that simply don’t allow you to tag there, which doesn’t make much sense considering the premise of the game. Numerous times I’ve been denied of not being able to ink my name on a bench or somewhere obscure which really felt like it took away something from character, since he’s so ambitious and wants to get his name everywhere.
With the press of a button, you can active your ‘Instinct’ which will show you gold and blue vapors that point you to where you want to make your mark. With the gold ones being your primary targets for the missions, and blue for bonus missions and points. Now that you are standing in front of your marked X, a white outline of a design will show on the surface, and from your black book, you can decide what art you want to showcase. When it’s a simple just “Trane” tag, you can pick the color and design, but when it’s a bigger marker or in certain spots, you are given a choice of some pre-determined art where you don’t really get to pick the color scheme. More art becomes unlocked as you progress through the game, and in the later parts where you are literally tagging a whole banner or side of a building, the art is quite a piece to admire. Bonus missions also come in the form as simple tasks like tagging a certain wall 10 times within a set amount of time. The more missions you complete, the higher your Rep becomes.
Now that you are in position to start your tagging, you actually have to make Trane do the motions, not just a simple button press. You actually have to move his arm up, down, left and right to fill within the borders and complete your art. Much like using spray-paint in real life; if you don’t keep moving as you spray, you will get drips in your art which then take away from your total score. In time you never really get drips after you learn the form of spraying properly, although the controls for doing so on the PC were quite tiresome in the later levels with much stricter time limits.
One huge downfall of the whole graffiti aspect of the game is that you can not make your own art and tags. You are forced to layer the city in “Trane” tags and art that you may not possibly appeal to. A game about freeform and expressing yourself, yet you can only pick a few different styles and colors. This is one of the reasons that it felt almost like completely no reason to replay the game upon completion, I just had no desire to see TRANE plastered everywhere. If it could have something of my own choosing, or any kind of customization, it may have had a longer life left in it.
People generally don’t kindly take to you vandalizing their property, and in a large part of the game, you are fighting your way out of a tough predicament, or against rival gangs and the CCK. You are given your basic punch and kicks, with many combinations in between; you also can roll, block, and grapple your enemies. You can even embarr@!%#*! adversaries by using your spray paint in their face to get the needed time to rest up or start another flurry of attacks.
If you grapple with someone, you can rapidly press the punch and kick buttons to try and get the upper hand from which you can go into combos, or even throw them into oncoming traffic or trains for easy kills. If you are patient enough, you can attempt to go for stealth kills, where if you are not seen and come behind someone, you can get a one-hit kill by slamming them over the head with a can of your paint. Since usually not many enemies hang around solo, once you are uncovered, you are left to fend for yourself against the rest of the bad guys.
To reach many distant sweet spots for tagging, you are going to need to be intuitive and figure out how to get up to that billboard when there is no ladder. This has you jumping caps, climbing ledges, shimmying across balance beams, hanging over ledges and slowly crawling much like a Tomb Raider setup of controls. Much like most platformers, you will run into areas what you should be able to jump across or grab onto, but you simply wont as it was not the designed path to take to get to the area you need. Frustration can set in easily just because you didn’t see that one pipe that you needed to climb in the corner, rather than you trying to jump impossible gaps.
Perhaps the greatest example of the most enjoyable portions of the games controls would be a level where you need to graf the sides of a moving subway train, and yes, you are riding it on the roof and sides, not the comfort of the seats within. Having to switch sides, lean against the side of the subway, and duck on the roof to avoid being knocked off by the pillars screaming by you, all when you need to complete your tag within the time limit as well. It can feel very rewarding at times, and completely frustrating at others, though a Keyboard and Mouse were simply not meant to play this game, you need a console version, or joypad to get the most ease of use out of it and avoid much disappointment.
Visuals:
The graffiti in the game simply looks astonishing, and the fact that all the pieces are done by real graf artists even further enhance the fact that this is a very gritty environment. Your tags can look great, or if you drip a lot while painting can look like something you’d rather no one see.
New Radius looks gritty and downtown urban, but even more importantly, it feels like it as well. Dark filters and the graf all around you from other people really bring you into the world and truly make you think it is the slums.
The cutscenes feel very unique and tell the story while painting the picture (no pun intended) clearly for you. The art style and storytelling really makes you feel like you connect with Trane. Though the gameplay graphics may not be up to par with many of the bigger titles out there, it does it’s job and immerses you into Trane’s world filled with fear and culture.
Sound:
Easily the strong point of the game, the soundtrack and voice acting are almost unparallel by anything else out there. You have actual hip-hop talent like Talib Kweli (Who also voices Trane), Rakim, Eric B, Mobb Deep, Pharoahe Monch and some other big names as well. A notable feature as well is that not only is great music put into the experience, but they are all played at carefully selected portions of the game so you don’t hear the same song over and over wishing you had your own music playing in the background.
With an in-game iPod player, you can also pick and choose your favorite songs to hear while playing as well; the only feature missing from this is actually loading an MP3 folder on your PC, or play list from your Xbox.
The voice acting is more than your typical B grade talent saying their few lines of dialogue that you are forced to listen to throughout the game. The script is quite clever and the lines are not cheesy that usually make you roll your eyes. Talib Kweli does the honors of Trane’s voice and makes it sound authentic and MC Serch does Trane’s rival Gabe. Looking into the credits, other actual big names such as P. Ditty, Charlie Murphy, Giovanni Ribisi, and even Adam West, yes, Batman, grace the cast list as well.
Sound effects are also more than your usual “bang” and “crash” noises. As you tag walls and use your aerosol, you can hear it spraying, and as you refill and shake the can, you can even hear that as well. Using a simple marker on the wall even gives you that squeak that new markers do. Combat sounds are deep and feel very powerful because of it, and doing a combo into someone’s face makes you bite your lip from the sounds of it alone.
Should you opt for the extra $10 and purchase the Limited Edition of the game, which you should since there’s many extras, you will also get the soundtrack of the game that even has music that isn’t in the game portion, but made for the title from other famous artists as well.
Closing Comments:
With an average 12 to 15 hours of gameplay, there are many unlockables to obtain such as new tags, songs, and fight moves. Unfortunately, due to the lack of being unable to incorporate your own art into the game, there isn’t much incentive to spray TRANE all over the city again. Sure I would put probably something profane or toilet words, but something that simple as even editing the words, would have added much more.
The camera work gives a very cinematic feel and Trane is simply just an awesome character that develops and you find yourself enjoying him much more as the game progresses. The only thing that kept coming to mind was everything gameplay related was very average and didn’t stand out as a champion of its own. Very unique idea and concept to compile all these different styles into one, but just doesn’t seem to exceptionally shine in one unfortunately. .
Splurge for the Limited Edition to get a quality soundtrack, a silver sharpie to start your own graf all over your own city, and your own black book to record all your art, the big shiny looking box also is a bonus too.
Overall:7.73 Gameplay:6.5 Visual:7.5 Sound:9.2
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
Burnout Revenge
Overall: Intro:The substance to Burnout is easy: Drive way too fast, drive dangerously against traffic, crash into everything, and take down your opponents any way possible. Criterion has proved that you can take a current-generation game and do more than the regular 360-coat-of-paint and call it a new game.
Improvements of features, additions of new ones, incredible high definition visuals, very detailed sound effects, a lengthy single player, and a very addicting online mode proves that it’s more than just a port. For those that have had the game already on Xbox or PS2, the question is: is it still worth buying again?
Gameplay:
First: the new features that were given to the Xbox 360 version.
Previously in Crash modes at the starting line, you had a golf swing bar that you had to get perfectly if you wanted the best possible crashes, since it was what your starting boost speed was based upon. This usually led to many restarts and frustration, just to get that faster boost you need to rack up the crash values. This whole feature has been scrapped thankfully for the much easier racing start where you have max speed regardless. This allows you to focus more on your correct path to crash paradise and raking in the demolition.
After every event you finish in single player, it automatically goes into a full replay of your whole race. From here you can skip, fast-forward, and rewind to where the most action happened, and then record a 30 second clip of it. Think your explosion looked amazing, or that taken had to be seen to be believed? Xbox Live allows you to show the world your replay, which in turn can be voted and if it’s awesome enough, be showcased in the Top 20 clips for all to see. With that being one of the achievements as well, you better remember to record every awesome thing to prove it. Sadly, you don’t get much control over the camera, and sometimes the camera will change just as you want it to be facing somewhere else, missing some of the action. One interesting feature as well to this, is that when you do upload and share your clip, you can then send a message to a friend, or your whole friend list, which theoretically all of your friends would watch your clip and vote it for you. After 2 or 3 messages of “Check out my awesome Burnout Clip!” it gets old very fast, and there isn’t a simple 1-button way of viewing it either. You need to go to the main menu, then Clips, then View clips, then your friends list (which is a pain since it is done alphabetically, even if they don’t own the game), and then find it, view it, then save or recommend it.
The saving grace feature of this enhanced version of Burnout is easily the Live Revenge. It works simply and will have you up very late some nights trying to extract that sweet revenge on the player that somehow keeps taking you out every chance. Revenge is simple; you take someone out and you are then essentially a takedown up on them, take them out even more times and it keeps track of those too. In the lobby when you are waiting for the host to start the race or crash mode, it clearly shows you how many takedowns you are up or down with someone. If you are ahead on takedowns, there is a green yield-like icon with the number of times you have taken them out. If someone has taken you out, it will be red and show the embarr@!%#*!ing number instead, usually with the person har@!%#*!ing you about it, making revenge that much sweeter when you take them out.
At the start of an online race the camera will do a flyby of the points leader (World ranking or room depending on ranked or player matches), then if you have any, rivals will be pointed out as well so you know exactly who to gun for and try to take out. Red names above the cars means they have takedowns on you and you should try your best to make them crash to get your retaliation. If their name shows green, that means you have taken them out and they are going to do everything they can to make you eat wall, barriers, busses, or oncoming car hoods. Obviously, some of the achievements are based on this which vary from taking one person out 5 times in a row, all the way to making someone your arch rival by taking them out over 100 times! Needless to say, this adds a huge amount of replay since EA tracks everyone you’ve ever taken out or been taken out by; meaning that days or weeks later, someone may come into your lobby that you never got a chance to tangle with since they took you out, or vice versa.
While these features don’t look like much on their own, also include more Xbox 360 exclusive race tracks and crash junctions on top of the regular game. If you are new to the series, Burnout Revenge offers more than your regular racing game.
Rather than your standard race point A to point B, include rivals that are going to be trying to not only push you into traffic, but also slam you into walls and take you out by landing on top of your car. If you don’t drive against traffic, narrowly miss slamming head on, check same-way vehicles, drift corners at speeds more than 200mph, take jumps, and takedown your combatants, you will not get the boost required to finish in first place, making this a much more adrenaline based racer.
While there may only be half a dozen or so tracks, that does not include the small variants of each, and the forwards or reverse on them as well. Different paths and shortcuts change completely if you are doing a course forwards or reverse and feels very different from the others as shortcuts are what you need to learn if you want to stay ahead of the competition. One flaw that isn’t apparent at first until you put numerous hours into the same tracks over reputedly is that tracks have a preset traffic pattern. This means that the more you learn the bends and curves of a race; you will also learn that the same bus that you keep crashing into on that one hairpin turn is there every single time. While you don’t notice it all too much, as usually other things are on your mind, like the person rubbing your rear bumper trying to take you out, or concentrating on the upcoming corners to keep your place, it does seem like a large oversight to not have random traffic patterns.
Other racing variants include Road Rage which pits 2 teams against each other. Essentially a cat and mouse game where one team chases and tries to take them out, while the other has a set amount of distance needed to cross while not being taken out by the opposing team that usually has permanent boost to even things up. This mode can get very entertaining and white knuckled, especially when you accidentally take out a fellow teammate.
One of the new features that Burnout Revenge brought us was Traffic Checking which allows you to now hit traffic going the same way as you as long as they are not busses and large vans, and then using those like bullets to send opponents crashing or into the pileup ahead that you caused. The single player mode of this is called Traffic Attack in where you need to basically hit enough cars and do an adequate amount of damage to meet goal. Causing large pileups, getting crash combos, and even trick shots across other lanes help you reach your goal, but generally it’s somewhat boring and not challenging at all.
The crash modes are the most unique events that Criterion brings to the table in this series. You are given an overview flyby of the intersection or overp@!%#*! that you will be hurling yourself towards, usually showing just a hint of where the biggest crashes need to take place, or what jumps to hit to meet your goals. You pick your vehicle of destruction, and every car, truck and van has rating of Speed, Force, and Weight for you to decide whether you need to quickly crash into something to stop the flow of traffic, or get there slower but cause more destruction with a heavier vehicle. As mayhem occurs with automobiles piling up, your crash breaker meter slowly fills up and when it is at 100% full, you have to hit the B button as fast as possible to explode your car, which in turn sets in motion more carnage and the possibility of filling the meter again. Online crash junctions don’t give you a fly-over preview like single player, so if you don’t know the tracks by name, or can’t react quickly enough your score will be lacking compared to others. The other new crash mode that was added to Revenge was Crash Battle, that pits you and up to 5 others online all heading for the same intersection at the same time from different roads or angles for some truly huge devastation.
Usually when a racing game has the “rubber-band effect” included that makes it impossible to keep a distinct lead, its not welcomed very well, though in Burnout it would not be the same game without it. The game is designed so that you are constantly battling for your position with racers trying to take you out any chance possible. As the game progresses, the AI does become more aggressive and will infuriate you more, but they are still no match for playing on Xbox Live against real competitors.
EA has done a wonderful job of making you want to go to your favorite retailer with your memory card as well when you pick up their game. If you have an Xbox 360 memory card and the retailer has the proper demo disk in the interactive system, you can download an Xbox 360 car to race in your game as well as a theme for your dashboard. Unfortunately at this time, EA has noted that the downloaded car does not work at the moment, but Burnout Revenge will be patched shortly in the future to allow it to be unlocked.
Visual:
A high definition TV with 720p is what’s needed to really see the difference between this version and the Xbox or PS2. Much crisper colors, more sparks, and more debris on the tracks really are shown off in its glory. Surprisingly for an ample boost in the graphics, the loading time does not suffer all that much more than the Xbox version. Burnout emphasizes on great frame rate and impression of speed, but lacks neither.
Region specific damage is just another feature that has been added to immerse you in the experience. Always rub the walls on a single side of your car and only that side will look like it’s been thrashed, leaving the other perfectly fine. While by itself doesn’t seem like that much, also make note that much more detail has been given to the whole car designs, such as being able to see the treads on tires as well.
Your surroundings have also been looked into with much more detail. Much sharper textures, great effects when making contact with others vehicles and simple debris littering the track adds much more than the previous versions. As you crash, and you will, your car will deform much more and more spare parts will be flung around the track as well. When using a crash breaker, it simply just looks and feels more mean and explosive with car parts being considerably blasted apart with the screen shaking to further emphasize its m@!%#*!iveness.
While the cars may not be licensed, many of them you can tell what they are supposed to be, and the ones that aren’t, you wish were real cars simply due to how cool they appear.
Sound:
With surround sound, you will hear the slightest bumps from your opponent on all directions and the roaring engine of you shifting gears while your tires squeal from that obscenely long sliding drift you took around the bend between two busses that are honking their horns at you. As your turbo boost kicks in, it sounds very distinct, almost like a jet taking off, and with a great sub you will feel it as well.
As you use your Crash Breaker, you can hear the subtle intake hiss, like it’s charging up, before the huge rumbling explosion. As parts of cars and vans fall from the sky, you will hear them fall to the pavement as well as the other vehicles screeching their brakes to avoid the inevitable collision.
The music is along the same lines as Burnout 3’s genre of music and is quite catchy. While there isn’t much for genre variety, I didn’t find many songs that I was constantly skipping past, though loading your own play list is always preferred as usual.
Closing Comments:
With more features than other games ported to the Xbox 360, it’s refreshing to see that more content was added other than the usual graphic overhaul and addition of achievements.
Live Revenge doesn’t make Burnout a completely new game, but the enjoyment you will get from taking out ‘that annoying kid’ we all loathe on Xbox Live will be more satisfying than any achievement you could accomplish otherwise.
If you have already played Burnout Revenge on the Xbox or PS2 and are contemplating to get it for the 360, you will want it if: you never got around to completing it, now have the TV and sound system to showcase the added features, are addicted to achievements, solely buy games for their online components, or love Burnout A LOT. If you never have played Burnout, you need this version to see what a true arcade racer with exciting online action is all about.
While it’s still a hard sell to recommend the purchase if you already own it for the Xbox or PS2, with the new features, you will be up to the wee hours of the morning trying to extract your revenge or move your World Rank up even higher. Kudos to Criterion for making a truly excellent port of a current generation game to the Xbox 360 by raising the bar others may not have done.
Overall 8.9
Gameplay: 8.9
Visual: 8.3
Sound: 9.5
Overall Score: 8.9 / 10
BioShock
Overall: BioShock For Xbox 360Opening:
It’s not very often that a game comes along that almost everyone can agree is a required play experience for any gamer that brings together all game elements so perfectly. Bioshock is more than a very attractive FPS, it also has a blend of RPG elements where you can customize your character and weapons to anything you choose.
With a very engrossing story, amazing visuals, incredible sound and enough scary moments that you care to admit, the plot has a much more emotional impact than an explosive one.
Story:
Bioshock’s primary focus is the engrossing story, and it’s done extremely well with intertwining story lines conveyed through radio messages and old audio logs that you find while searching around the city.
Its 1960, your plane crashes in the ocean, you are the lone survivor and the game begins with you swimming along your plane wreckage as you see a lighthouse off in the distance. It actually took a few moments to realize you are playing, and not watching a CG intro movie
Rapture; masterminded by Andrew Ryan, is a city set under the Atlantic Ocean, and as to progress, you discover why the idea of the city as failed and is trashed, and why there are Splicers out to kill you. You are kept on track to Bioshock’s plot with always letting you know where to go with onscreen arrows and a top down map that shows where you have and haven’t been. Audio diaries are scattered everywhere and explain Rapture’s back-story, its citizens and their personal tales. Instead of having a convoluted story with details from many citizens, it focuses more on in-depth stories from just a few, that also seem to intertwine and unfold the cities history and what went so wrong. Hearing all these stories unfold makes the city seem much more alive, which is ironic being that the majority of everyone is dead. While you are not forced to listen to all these audio diaries, doing so will unravel all the main characters back story and more details about the main plot.
Genetic tinkering is possible with a substance called ADAM which can give the user incredible powers called plasmids. This invaluable resource is only able to be harvested by Little Sisters who use an exaggerated sized needle into dead victims. These Gatherers are then in turn protected by guardians called Big Daddy’s who will fight to the death to protect the little sisters. Big Daddy’s come in two flavors: Bouncers and Rosie’s. Bouncers have a drill on their arm, are very intimidating in size and sound, and will rush at you before you can even move out of the way should you make him mad or try and get too close to the Little Sisters. Rosie’s don’t seem as menacing from their look, but they have a very large gun that can make quick work of you if you don’t take them out quickly.
This is where the games moral dilemma comes into play. Do you harvest the Little Sisters for more ADAM, or save them for less and be their hero; thus making the game a bit more challenging. Both choices have benefits and consequences and with 3 different endings, these choices will play out to the story as well.
As the plot unravels and you find out what exactly has caused Rapture into its current state, you will be surprised with moments of shock and awe as plot twists keep you guessing and thinking of why events have happened in this fashion.
Gameplay:
You start off with limited slots to customize different key traits of your character, but this increased as the story progresses and you purchase more with your ADAM collection at specified locations in the game after dealing with the Guardians of Little Sisters.
Plasmids are active powers that you genetically enhance yourself with. Electricity will shock your enemies and stun them for a short duration as you proceed to fill them with your weapons’ ammo. Incinerate will engulf your enemy in flames, slowing draining their health, but can also be used to melt ice or set oil spills ablaze that they may be standing in. Telekinesis will allow you to pick up random items like chairs and boxes and whatever isn’t bolted to the ground and let you hurl them wherever you wish much like Half Life 2’s gravity gun. Security Bull’s-eye paints target on an enemy for security cameras and bots to attack them instead of you! With the enrage plasmid, you can make Splicers fight each other as well. Insect Swarm will send a large quantity of bees to annoy, distract and slightly damage your target, as you blast away. You even can use decoys and wind traps to ruse Splicers and lay traps for them. Even making a Big Daddy your ‘pet’ to attack anything that it sees for you, which in turn you will then kill when he is low on health to get his Little Sister’s ADAM is possible.
Tonics are essentially skill slots for weapons, plasmids and skills, but give p@!%#*!ive effects such as speed boosts to running, attacking speed, and many other skills that will greatly enhance your character in any way you desire. Should use choose, you can make your wrench attacks more powerful, or you can choose to get increased health and EVE everytime you use a med kit or hack something. Static Field is also a great skill to use, which will generate an area effect zap to anyone in range when you are struck, but beware; should you get struck with a Big Daddy pet in range, he will turn on you very quickly! With more than 50 different tonics, you will have a robust character exactly how you wish.
Plasmids are great, and very handy, but this is a FPS game at heart, and you are eventually armed with a wrench and a pistol gun all the way to a Dart Gun and Chemical Thrower with other various types in between. To make things even more in depth, each weapon can also acquire three different types of ammo which all have different effects on different enemies. Due to the era the game is set in, even the weapons look vintage and not very high tech at all (until you upgrade them). During the course of the game, you will find one time use weapon upgraders where you can choose to change your guns’ performance from bigger clips, faster reloads, damage increases, and greater accuracy. Doing so also changes the visual look of your weapon, so it always seems fresh even though it’s really the same weapon, just modified to your liking.
As the game progresses, enemies who used to die in one shot to the head will now take 2 or more. The scaling is somewhat constant, and eventually you are introduced to the camera feature in Bioshock. The purpose of this camera is to research the Splicers and other enemies to learn more about them by photographing them. As you become more knowledgeable by taking more and more photos, you learn weaknesses and even will gain damage bonuses versus certain enemies. Using the camera as much as possible is definitely recommended and will make your life much easier; but it is not a necessity to completion of the game. It’s a subtle way to add more intensity to the mood of the game, where you COULD have your gun ready for an enemy charging at you with a fireball, but take a picture of the same enemy in an action shot close up for huge picture bonuses instead, at the risk of getting hurt.
Splicers come in a few varieties from thugs that try and beat you with any blunt weapon they have in hand, Leadheads that will shoot at you, Houdini’s that can teleport anywhere and shoot fireballs at you, Nitro’s who toss Molotov @!%#*!tails at you, and Spider Splicers who can crawl on any wall or ceiling throwing hooks at you and are generally hard to see as they tend to stay in the dark and obscure corners
While there aren’t really many level “bosses”, there are characters that are involved in the main plot that you do battle against, but they really are just more powerful and resilient than normal Splicers.
Setting up traps will make your life much easier and will save you much ammo when you can get an enemy to simply run into a proxy grenade or a bolt trap trip-wire instead of pumping a clip or two into them. These tactics are almost needed for fighting Big Daddy’s later on where at first they will seem almost unbeatable, though once you learn their weaknesses (and research them for bonuses!) and how they react, setting a room with proxies and bolt traps will make quick work of the meanest Bouncer or Rosie in moments.
With security cameras everywhere, flying bots that keep guard, and turrets that can mow you down in seconds, Hacking these items will become a necessity to not only help preserve precious ammo, but once hacked, will fight on your side for you against any Splicers that come into sight. If you have ever played Pipe Dream for the NES or any variant thereof, you will understand how to hack and most likely be pretty efficient with it from the get go. For those that don’t know what this game was, hacking is completed by playing a 30 second minigame where you need to connect a start and end pipe with ooze quickly flowing from the start before time is up or you fail to connect the pipes in a line. While it has its charm at first, the challenge does get pretty difficult towards the end of the game with many unusable slots for pipes and the timer going even faster. Keep in mind that there are Tonics that can help with hacking as well. It gets very tedious, and for those with not much patience or skill, you are able to simply buy-out the hack or use an auto-hack tool to avoid playing the minigame and possibly failing. To fail a hack will either send out drones to hunt you down, or it will short out which damages you in the process. Vending Machines and other helping dispensers for health and other goodies can also be hacked to give you extra items not normally purchasable and also at a reduced fee. Again, it’s not forced to be done, but will make your adventure in Bioshock much easier and saves you money in the end.
Death in Bioshock isn’t so much a consequence as it is more of a slight setback. You are reincarnated at the closest vita-chamber with your entire inventory and most of your health. The perk with this system is that any damage you have done to enemies will stay as you run back to finish them off. So as you die while bringing a Big Daddy down to half health, when you run back to finish him off, he will still be at half health. This lack of death penalty keeps things fun and moving. No boring reloads of games saves, but also too easy when you get lazy when you don’t care if you die later on. The only downside to this system I found was that skillful gameplay was not rewarded, as anyone can kill anything with enough “tries” at it, though on the bright side, it gives you many chances to experiment with different options to kill people. Even playing on hard mode, the flaw in this system becomes apparent. Sure, Splicers will have more health and take less damage and even use heath stations, but it really doesn’t require you to play anymore skillfully.
Visuals:
Because the visuals are so appealing and have so much personality to them, you are almost compelled to search places that aren’t even required to. With Rapture being an underwater city, you will find water everywhere on the floor and even leaks in the walls and ceilings which always give you a reminder of surroundings and how trapped you really are in Ryan’s envisioned city. Because most citizens have been murdered, you will see blood and ‘experiments’ on corpses in many places that has seemed to go horribly wrong. Though not as constantly gory as Doom 3, some rooms look like something out of a great horror movie with extreme detail to even blood smears.
Apparently on some systems, this visual prowess will cause some slight hitching when picking up items or while saving. Personally, my system never ran into this common issue, though watching a friend play on a different system, I have seen it take up to 5 seconds sometimes to continue on after picking up a tonic for example. It’s not a very big problem, but in a compelling story so engrossing, it’s a shame you realize you are playing a game because of these small glitches and being taken out of the immersiveness of Rapture’s tale.
Surprisingly, the only CG movie in Bioshock is the ending. Every cut scene is done in engine and keeps things flowing without having to stop and load every time. While this is common practice now, I was just surprised to see no CG when the commercials ads on TV are stunning to watch, yet nothing like that is in-game.
Sound:
The atmosphere of Rapture is always around you with eerie music that helps set the mood and uneasiness with very tense moments. Jukebox’s play music as you walk by them and is properly set to Bioshock’s era. Even vending machines will talk to you as you walk by much like carnies at an amusement park, to taunt you into using them.
The bigger weapons sound mean and appropriate while firing. Even Big Daddy footsteps as they walk by seem to thud deeply and just make you tense as they saunter by as the screen shakes to further sell them to the player.
A stunning voice cast really sells the story of Rapture and its demise and doesn’t seem like it has a weak link from any one person. Enough praise can not be given to these actors and sounds uniquely genuine from every cast member with much brilliance in their lines. The audio diaries keep the plot and back story ongoing and sound very authentic with that scratchy recording feel to it. The actors do such a good job, that you will find yourself taking sides with certain characters and starting to despise others, just from what you have been told and hear. This is all from only voices which is quite a feat and really give you that emotional impact that is very rare in today’s games that simply try to wow gamers with the biggest and best graphics.
Splicers can be heard moaning, talking to themselves, and even scavenging around. Hearing the small creaks in the floor and walls really sells that Rapture is definitely under the ocean. Not only does the water look perfectly real, the sound to flowing water and dripping is also intact.
Closing:
Quality and depth is what sets Bioshock apart from not only the flooded FPS genre, but in the whole industry as a whole.
A lot can be done with the indirect fighting methods and really makes it not feel like every other FPS on the market. Setting up intricate traps for Big Daddy’s then luring them into them feels so rewarding and will guarantee to put a smug grin on your face, as you really feel you outsmarted them. This says something for Bioshock’s AI as normally this much satisfaction is only attainable from other human players.
Bioshock is easily a contender for game of the year, which is no feat for what has and will be coming out by years end. Absolutely do not let this title p@!%#*! you by just because it may look like just another shooter; it has much more under the hood and begs to be played and discovered in everyone’s personal way. Now, “would you kindly” go play Bioshock, as this is an essential gaming experience and a must for any gamer’s collection.
9.8/10
Pros:
-Amazing visuals and sound that HAVE to be experienced due to its uniqueness.
-A compelling plot that has twists and makes you want to continue playing just that little bit further.
- Defeating Big Daddy’s feels completely rewarding, as it’s very difficult to combat them head-on and succeed.
-Voice acting sells all the characters perfectly all the way from the lowly Splicers to the main story people.
-Up to 20 hours of gameplay on a single play through which is more than double the average FPS title.
Cons:
- The death system as first seems like a blessing, but trivializes any fights and doesn’t reward skillful play.
- Minor graphical hiccups on some systems that is just enough to be interrupting.
- Final boss fight came too quick and wasn’t very challenging in any way.
- The only (ending) CG movie is very short and though you feel satisfied for beating Bioshock, it also leaves the “That’s it?” feeling lingering making you want more.
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock
Overall: You may have never played any of the Guitar Hero games, but it's probably s sure bet that you've seen or heard of it. The game's premise is to place you into a guitar shredding rock god, complete with your own guitar to play on! It's like playing air guitar, but not looking as silly.The series will by no means teach you how to play a real guitar in any way, but it does replicate some of the feel as you frantically use the fret buttons to win over the crowd you are playing for as they cheer for you.
Guitar Hero III (which will be referred to as GH3 from here on) is now here for us to rock on, but does it hold up against its previous installments now with a new developer behind the mix?
Harmonix, who have made the first two Guitar Heroes are now gone and making the anticipated Rock Band coming out this holiday, so with their absence; Activision (specifically the Tony Hawk guys) have taken over. Many people wondered if they could keep the franchise going as strong, or if something would be lost with the change of hands. The Guitar Hero you have come to know and love is still here and not going anywhere. It may have some new tweaks for better or worse, and some minor flaws, but the core gameplay is still there with a makeover of new graphics and audio choices.
With a new developer also comes a new guitar for users to rock out with. The major change is that it is now wireless as opposed to its wired older sibling. The fret neck is now detachable for ease of storage (though it does seem somewhat unnecessary), the guide button and start/select have been moved for ease of access and now and are also raised slightly higher to make it easier to activate your star power should you not want to raise the guitar upwards to activate it instead. The distance of the wireless capabilities are great, as I was able to go as far as I could in my apartment with no interruptions at all. The only flaw that was very disappointing was the forcing of having to use AA batteries instead of making a slot to hold your Xbox 360 rechargeable battery, though to their defense, even after many hours of use I’ve not had to change batteries yet. It is not necessary to re-buy the guitar in the bundle to enjoy GH3 should you be accustomed to your GH2 guitar, but it is a great new device to use wirelessly.
As notes appear on the screen and you match them with the color coded fret buttons and strum at the same time, you are graded on your performance, accuracy, combo of notes in a row, and how awesome you can rock out. The same formula is used for single player career that as you beating a set number of songs in a track list, then unlocking an encore song before unlocking the next set. Tried and true it does work, though it does feel a bit overused now, but this is where some of the new features kick in to help keep it fresh.
The most notable new feature would have to be the boss battles that you face in a few spots in the game instead of an encore song solely. While it is a welcomed new feature, it feels very flat in substance. You will be shredding off against Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave, and Slash from Guns and Roses/Velvet Revolver in songs they actually recorded for GH3 though battle rules will now apply. Instead of your regular star power, you have combos to complete, and if you hit the last note in the combo, you will be given a powerup attack that can be unleashed against the boss (or opponent when playing Battle Mode online). Attacks can vary from broken strings (where you must rapidity tap the corresponding button to ‘fix’ it), double notes that turn a single note into two and two notes into triples, difficulty up that changes your notes from medium style or hard and hard to expert, and the lefty flip which reverses all the buttons for a short time. On their own the attacks aren’t too devastating as you are able to recover from them pretty quickly, but you are able to store 3 attacks at a time and can unleash them all together or in a row for more damage. The gimmick with boss battles is that you need to defeat them by making them fail by the end of the song, not just survive it like the rest of the game. Out of the game’s eight tiers of songs, there is only 3 bosses and it feels very tacked on and only the final boss is quite difficult (to the point of major frustration). Simply they aren’t really that much fun and there aren’t nearly enough of them. On paper I can see how the idea seems a fantastic new addition, but most battles are ended very quickly to basically whoever can launch their 3 attacks all at once first.
Not really a new ‘feature’, but worth mentioning is the incredible boost to the difficulty. You will soar past the first half of the game and probably even the first two bosses, but then all of a sudden you hit a wall of difficulty that can be outright disheartening to even try and complete it after failing so many times in a row. It’s almost seems as if Activision is catering to the hardcore longtime players as newcomers may be turned off by the sudden boost of challenge. Playing on Expert will have your wrists and arms in agony after a prolonged amount of play, yet it still keeps the ‘one more song’ charm wanting you to keep trying. It seems that a fair amount of the achievements are also geared towards the better players with some making you finish the game while flipped on lefty mode, hosting ranked matches and winning 15 in a row, and even beating a certain amount of songs with a controller (not the guitar!). Even the hardest song in the game that is unlocked once beating the final boss, has its own 3 achievements that seem near impossible to ever get. Some of them just seem odd and stick out as achievements you’ll probably never get without sitting down for a good amount of time trying to learn how to play with a controller. Activision has seemed to decide that some hardcore shredding is more favorable to some slower paced memorable riffs. With some of the last songs to beat like Metallica’s ‘One’ or Slayer’s track, the difficulty is so turned up out of nowhere that non-veterans of the series will probably not even have a clue where to start to combat these songs.
To combat the upped difficulty, a saving grace is that the Hammer-ons and Pull-offs are incredibly easy to actually do properly in GH3. In the previous GH’s, you had to do the Hammer-ons with extreme precision or risk losing your combo, now with GH3 it is much more lenient and pulling off a huge chain combo with just using the buttons is quite the feeling. On top of that, the notes are much brighter and easier to see when you are able to do this, whereas before there was a small white ring around the note and not very noticeable when shredding a fast metal song. Though in quite a few songs where there should be allowances to Hammer on and pull off, it isn’t set that way unfortunately, which also factors into the difficulty. It is also much more forgiving this time around as well when you miss or mess up a note or chord and seems harder to fail songs. It seems to be quite easy to skim by finishing songs with 3 stars, but you will still have to work furiously to gain those elusive 5 star rankings.
With other new additions, there are also some flaws that come with them as well that seem to be a hindrance more than being welcomed. The most noticeable right away is the addition of ingame advertising and product placement. Normally it’s not too big of a deal to have a branded guitar that is from a sponsor or something along those lines, but GH3 turns it way up with you playing a Pontiac set, Axe billboards to even an Axe Guitar buyable from the store with Axe dancers that can accompany you on stage. One other hindrance is some slight frame rate issues. Normally something as small as this can be overlooked as long as it doesn’t stand out, but with a rhythm based game and you generally only looking at one section of the screen, there is no excuse for it in this title. When activating your start power if there is quite a few notes on the screen, you will notice some drops in frames just enough to distract you and most likely make you mess up your combo.
Single player mode hasn’t really changed, but there are some new additions that will seem to prolong the life of this iteration of the series. Being able to play Co-op career is great but the real fun and competition is when you get on Xbox LIVE and challenge friends and oncommers where one person is lead and the other is b@!%#*!. The fact that every online experience so far on GH3 has been lag free only speaks better about this new feature. For some reason Activision also decided that six or so songs would be co-op only unlockable. So this means that if you don’t have a friend to come play with you you will never get to hear or play these songs in your career mode. While you can play these co-op only songs (Sabotage by Beastie Boys being the most noteworthy) online, it still seems a very odd decision to not make these playable by yourself. Another odd choice included is that the game does not ship with a co-op quick play option, only career mode. While there has already been a patch to remedy this, the people that aren’t online with their Xbox 360 are left out until they complete the game on co-op before they can just jump in for a quick song or two.
Playing online finally is a feature many fans have been asking for now for quite some time. Online you can play Face-off, Pro Face-off, Battle, and Co-op. Again, it makes no sense why you can’t do career Co-op online, but at least your friends can join in whenever. This online component is where the Xbox 360 version really shines through. The 360 version is the easiest to navigate and with the incorporation of friend’s lists, getting a game going with a buddy is quick and painless. The Playstation 3 version has no friend’s list type of matchmaking, so this means you can only play against random people online. With the Wii version being the middle ground, you can play friends, but only with the h@!%#*!le known as friend codes per game. The Wii version is also not setup for any type of download content that the Xbox 360 and PS3 version will be receiving in the future.
There have been some subtle and dramatic visual changes since Activision has taken over. All the same meters that track your song progress are still there but with a new makeover. Some new small changes would be the note counter that you can keep track of how many in a row you’ve hit, and at certain milestones it will tell you “100 note streak!” which makes you want to concentrate even more on the upcoming notes streaming towards you. Between segments of sets there are now short little cutscenes that eventually play out the well known story of the garage band wanting to make it big. The art style looks exactly like a Gorillaz video (it may even be done by them I think, it’s that similar) and while it’s a new addition to have a ‘story’as to why you’re playing, it’s also completely unnecessary; it simply doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of GH3’s style. The other thing you will notice right away is the makeover of the characters on screen. The main male singer sticks out terribly due to the exaggerated design that look like he’s been stung by a bee in the jaw. The lip syncing in GH3 is spot on though and looks as if he is actually performing the song for you. Even small mouth mannerisms make it look realistic. The singer could have used a little less detail and given it to the backup band members, but in all, it’s a noticeable increase from GH2 and just overall a sharper image.
Obviously with GH3 the main feature is the choice in songs that are included and will obviously favoritism will vary from personal tastes in music but there seems to be a strong mix of cl@!%#*!ics and ‘awesome’ songs, to downright awful and honestly, quite forgettable ones as well. GH3’s soundtrack vary across many different genres with cl@!%#*!ic rock tunes such as “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, Punk tunes like “Anarchy in the UK” by the Sex Pistols, 90’s rock with some Smashing Pumpkins and even some Pearl Jam, and of course the difficult metal genre being represented by Metallica’s “One”, Slayers’ “Raining Blood” and the hardest song yet to date in the series that is unlocked once you complete the campaign; “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce which this song alone will give you premature arthritis. The biggest plus to the song selections is that more than half are actual master tracks. That’s right, no more terrible covers that stick out (Well, not as many at least) as you rock out to the tune you have come to learn and love. Interestingly, a few bands even re-recorded their songs for GH3 such as the Sex Pistol’s (as a side note, their master track has actually been lost from the studio, hence the reasoning to do so) along with the Boss Battle tunes. Overall the song choices are very high quality, with everyone always having a few songs that they just need to play, it’s just a shame that the majority of the bonus songs are very unknown and simply not that great or fun to even play.
Downloadable songs are a given and will be coming in the future, but as usual, the songs are kept under wrap until launch. Though Activision has confirmed it will be the same pricing scheme forcing a pack of 3 songs for 500 points. Let’s hope the songs will be worth it, though prolonged longevity of a game you’ve invested so much time and money into is never a bad thing and very welcomed.
Normally a game’s website is hardly worth mentioning as it’s usually the same formula of reviews, pictures and videos, but GH3’s has been completely redone and is now your portal to contests, tournaments, finding nearby fellow rockers and much more. You are able to create an Online Band (much like a Guild or Clan) where you can see all your members’ progress and even see how many groupies you’ve attained. This is done by linking your gamertag (another Xbox LIVE perk!) to the websites account that should be easy. As of this writing (and even since launch still) the ability to link your gamertag has not been working. They are aware of the issue and hopefully it will be fixed, as the promise of finding local tournaments, or searching for rockers in your city or town is to promising to not sign up for.
There are some great new additions such as the song list (yes that is a debatable subject) and the amount of master tracks is too big of a deal to not mention again. Online play is what the franchise has been begging for and is also a very welcomed addition. The harder difficulty will ensure that the more experienced rockers will be enjoying it longer, but it’s a two edged sword where it will also potentially scare away newcomers with such a sudden difficulty increase out of nowhere.
Boss Battles and Battle Mode simply isn’t all that fun and don’t end up lasting long enough to really be that enjoyable since it’s really the first to get the powerups is generally the one who wins. The ingame advertising stands out very noticeably and is outright annoying to see plastered everywhere rather than being subtle. The frame rate issues are the major flaw as it has no place in a rhythm game and is more than just a small issue as it can change your outcome of a song, especially in the hard shredding metal songs. Even with these problems, GH3 keeps its charm for the same reason you bought it. You will be hooked for hours, and with endless challengers waiting online for a battle GH3 still makes you feel like a true Guitar Hero, which is what the game sets out to do.
A fantastic online mode and a great website that offers much community involvement (benefit of the doubt is being given here as once it’ll be fully functional soon) really are the high points other than the song selection of course. The major downers are the boring and out of place Boss Battles / Battle Mode, the m@!%#*!ive advertising within game and the frame rate issues being the only true hindrances, but they do carry a large weight to them due to their simultaneous importance and annoyance.
Fret not (get it?) as if you are a Guitar Hero fan this one is not to be missed, and should you be a newcomer to the series, splurge and get the wireless guitar bundle and rock out like a true Guitar Hero!
Final Ranking: 8/10.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
