MEMBER PROFILE FOR 12buckmafia-XBA
Average Overall Score Given: 7.44318 / 10
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Reviews
WWE 2K Battlegrounds
Once in a while, you need a wrestling game that doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s been nearly a decade since THQ released WWE All Stars, which I still think is an underappreciated work of art. With the annual 2K series on hold this year, 2K Sports has turned their sights on WWE 2K Battlegrounds, a lighter hearted arcade style title with more bells and whistles than some of the cartoony predecessors from the past. Boasting a massive roster at release with more to come, Battlegrounds is available now for Xbox One and Series, but is it worthy of the spotlight or should we throw it over the top rope?Right out of the box, you should know that the character selection is pretty good. You have a list of about 20-30 wrestlers available off the top, with more that you can buy through your choice of virtual or real currency. Currency works similarly to 2K’s basketball games: Complete objectives or just play and grind, or else you can throw a few real dollars in to speed up the unlock process. Some characters can also be unlocked by just progressing through career mode. It seems like the dailies give you enough coins to blitz through common tier unlocks (like Naomi, Carmella, the Good Brothers, etc) pretty quickly, but you’ll need to play through a few days in a row by the end of it to get the Hogans, Ultimate Warriors and Sasha Banks’ of the world. Of course, if you just want to buy your way to your roster, there’s a store and there are usually rotating bundles to cut down the individual purchase prices.
One thing that will catch your eye right away is the character design. The character builds are extremely cartoony without being ridiculously over exaggerated. They’re not as over the top as All Stars was, but still fun and cartoony. The character models are the highlight of all graphics though. The standing room only crowds aren’t super animated, and the rings are what they are.
The 118-objective career mode should probably take you somewhere between 5-10 hours to complete, and has you playing out Stone Cold Steve Austin’s mission of creating a new Underground-esque wrestling promotion at Vince McMahon’s request. You take the role of a new up-and-comer each time you visit a different city, which culminates in you taking on a boss character and then unlocking that arena/battleground as you move on toward Wrestlemania.
Each of these unlocks will ultimately affect your exhibition matches too, since it’s the only way to unlock new environments and the unique challenges they bring. Each environment also has its own unique quirks and interactions. The Florida stage, for example, is my favourite battleground, with the ability to throw your opponent to Alligators.
One of the biggest beefs I had with WWE All Stars was the lack of roster depth. While a limited amount of character DLC was released (with emphasis on the “limited” part,) things were abandoned fairly quickly. By the time it hit shelves in March 2011, THQ was already in financial trouble and the developing studio in San Diego closed one year later. 2K has already announced a large fleet of WWE superstars coming soon, so if you’re waiting to see some of your favourites that are primed as “coming soon,” you will see them soon.
Of course, all DLC is subject to change, but it seems like character likenesses have been getting worked on for a while if Alicia Fox (who hasn’t been with WWE for nearly a year) is on the game’s out of the box main roster. I don’t know that you’ll see much change from what’s already been announced, but there are plenty of upcoming wrestlers that were released during WWE’s Covid cuts and some that are now out of contract, so while I want to see the previously announced Sting, I wouldn’t be surprised that wrestlers like he and Curtis Axel have been shelved. Characters have not yet “disappeared” either when they’re no longer with the company, so you can still pick up the Good Brothers, Erick Rowan and the aforementioned Fox. When the dust settles, expect to see over 100 characters, which is a massive roster for a title like this.
All of this is good and fine as a selling point, but how does the game play? Having played just about every major wrestling title in the history of gamekind (yes I still own a copy of WCW Backstage Assault too,) I’ve always felt as though the playability of a wrestling title is directly driven by its controls, basic mechanics and how those both interact together. People still laud No Mercy for Nintendo 64 as one of the greatest titles of all time, and I always felt the game both looked and sounded awful, despite being ridiculously fun overall.
You can create arenas and your own wrestlers in this, but both have a very introductory feel to them. When you get used to the previous titles allowing you to customize ring entrances down to the amount of pyro on stage, this feels like a bit of a step back. That said, I admit my hopes weren’t high for this feature to begin with, as I wasn’t expecting anything major for a fairly simple arcade title. I’d say you have enough customization options with the character creator. I think there was a lot left on the table with the arena creator and so much more that could be explored, but it’s a decent attempt nevertheless. Just don’t go in expecting that you’re going to be able to create WCW Monday Nitro or Thunder arenas with the same accuracy you’ve been able to in the parent 2k titles. If you approach it as it is (a hybrid arcade-style title with features to boot,) it’s fine for what it brings. With the unique interactive elements of the existing arenas, you’ll probably spend more time playing those anyway.
There are some interesting gameplay mechanics that give Battlegrounds the solid arcade-esque feel that matches its visual presentation. While just about every button on the controller is utilized, the game controls still retain a fairly simple feel and you can pick up on the basics within about five minutes. There are very simple combos, grappling, power-up and special move mechanics for beginners, and experts will enjoy more diverse movesets each wrestler has. Wrestlers are classed based on their fight style (ie. brawlers, all rounders, powerhouses, etc) and react with their movesets accordingly. The moves between classes are largely the same with the exception of each wrestler’s signature and finishing moves, but again, I stress that this is intended to be more of an arcade title over a technical masterpiece, so I think you’d have to go in expecting a high degree of repetition as it is. Spend as much time with the tutorial as you need to get your feet wet, because the degree of difficulty ramps up pretty quickly as you progress through the campaign.
There are some other frustrating things about Battlegrounds too. The controls themselves are clunky at times, as are the character transitions between interactive elements like the turnbuckles and ring aprons. You should be able to transition in and out of the ring and up and down turnbuckles pretty fluidly in a video game at this point. There’s a bit of stopping and starting involved with these things. Countering moves is too reactionary in this game, and when you have to mash the A button for your wrestler to get up, getting a split second to then react to pressing a different button to counter or failing it altogether is frustrating. To be honest, the more you play with the game, the better you’ll recognize the character animations to help you learn when to stop button mashing and to start reacting. The controls are definitely the biggest detriment to WWE 2K Battlegrounds.
Clipping and framerate jumps was a huge issue (as it’s always been in wrestling games) when the game was released. You could disappear under the ring mid-move, and your opponents would sometimes sink into the ring during their moves too. I also ran into some issues initially where the game would slow down with weapon shots. 2K has since released a patch that seems to clear most of that up. Just be aware that it’s an additional 2GB download on top of your game, so keep some additional hard drive space ready for that.
The commentary from Mauro Ranallo and Jerry Lawler isn’t great either. Don’t get me wrong - Mauro and Jerry are easily the two best choices for an over the top arcade title like this, but their commentary feels very isolated to each others’ lines, if that makes sense? I’m sure that most commentary teams in sports games don’t always record together, but this game in particular doesn’t really feel as though they’re feeding off each other like we’ve become used to in other sports games.
That aside, I know this isn’t a full priced retail title, and I’d say Battlegrounds offers a lot of good bang for the buck. The title isn’t for everybody, but arcade-style wrestling games are hard to come by nowadays, especially on consoles. Mobile gamers have a few options, but some (like Scopely’s WWE Champions title) utilize really heavy Pay 2 Win models. I’m not sure what the future holds with 2K Battlegrounds outside of DLC that’s already been announced. If the game winds up being popular among WWE fans, the sky is the limit for future DLC possibilities. The WWE Champions mobile game has seen character tie-ins with the WWE Zombie and Masters of the Universe Toys, and this is the perfect type of game to introduce console gaming fans to those characters, and new arenas too.
These types of games aren’t for everybody, and those who like the much more serious simulation style of the WWE 2K games are best off waiting for the next edition of that series. WWE 2K Battlegrounds is wild, over the top and more importantly, it’s fun. While it obviously lacks the customization bells and whistles of a full sized 2K WWE game, it has a good amount of content for its price point. Battlegrounds takes some inspiration from Technos Japan’s old arcade wrestling games and gives it a modern twist. This game is probably best played with all of your friends, but there’s a ton for you to do in single player modes if you decide to progress with all the unlocks.
The game will perpetually get compared to WWE All Stars and I think it’s fair. I have to admit that through my rose colored glasses, I remember All Stars as the better overall title at launch, but the lack of roster depth (including no women) and the fact that it died off because its parent studio did really hurt its potential. The fact that Battlegrounds still that potential to be discovered and 2K can do so much more with it makes this an interesting title to watch, and one I’d recommend giving a shot if it intrigues you enough.
**WWE 2K Battlegrounds was reviewed on an Xbox One X**
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
WWE '13
For years now, one of the most anticipated sports titles every fall has been the WWE game. After it became a dated annual title back in 2005, THQ's WWE franchise has become one of the best selling sports games yearly. Some of it can be attributed to WWE's worldwide fan base, however, some of it is the sheer attention to detail and meticulous planning the crew at THQ coming into this game.While Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 was a near-masterpiece of a wrestling game, THQ didn't sit content with their efforts, and ramped it up further in '12, adding ring rope physics, a simplified control structure, and a brand new submission system, among other things. The risk was just that, and reactions were divided in a whole. Some gamers went back to Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, and some moved forward. After another year of fastidious improvement, WWE 13 is ready to go, bringing with it a nod to the past.
Arguably the most anticipated wrestling game mode of all time, WWE Attitude mode was dominating a lot of the headlines coming into '13, and nods back to the days that the Monday Night Wars dominated not just the wrestling airwaves, but television airwaves period. In its prime, WCW Monday Nitro and WWF Monday Night Raw regularly did a combined 12+ market share, which, back then, was unheard for non-network television. This game chronicles things such as the rise of DX, Austin vs. McMahon, and the Brothers of Destruction wars. All of the Pay Per Views are represented, all of players are included, and THQ made sure to include original content too. While they have digitized the visuals themselves to correspond to the in-game graphics, they took all of the original audio from the old RAW episodes and Pay Per Views, and brought them into the video game. Unfortunately, they could not refer to the WWE by its former name, meaning that all references to the "F" in WWF, and the word "Federation" are blanked out (much like if you were to watch Vintage Collection today,) but the essence is still there. In fact, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler's original commentary from 1997-onward is incorporated into the gameplay too, giving it a neater feel than before. They've basically done what they can with the licensing limitations to turn this into as full of a mode as possible. Chyna, for example, won't appear in the game with D Generation X because of her bad relationship with the WWE, and chances are that if DLC continues into 2013, and more Attitude Era superstars are released, you won't see the Hardy Boyz or the Dudleys (who had one of the Attitude Era's great 3 way feuds with Edge and Christian) because of contractual obligations in TNA. Still, the rise of DX, Mick Foley and the Rock, and Austin vs. McMahon are on full showcase. They even digitized and included the Montreal Screwjob, which I never though I'd see showcased in anything, ever.
As always, THQ's attention to little details in this title again give this one of the best presentation styles in sports gaming. It's a constant flip-flop between this, and 2K's NBA titles, and again, it's hard to give one or other consideration for the best. Neither would be first and second. It feels almost like 1a and 1b. Both titles mean so much to their respective audiences, and are done so well that you can't help but smile. I may be showing my age here, but I was starting High School when Monday Nitro started to dominate airwaves, and the Monday Night Wars began. Attitude Mode brought back a lot of good memories of rushing home to finish my homework to be able to watch RAW Live and log into ICQ to chat about it with my friends. Having met the group that put this title together year in and year out, I know that they were just as big of fans back then as I was, and wouldn't think to rush into this type of gaming mode unless they could do it right, and they have.
One of the rather offputting things to me was that it appears that the controls and moveset diagnostics have been shuffled up a bit again. It's not as drastic as last year's 11 to 12 switchover, but I do wish they would pick a control schematic and stick with it. It's gotten to the point where it seems like something changes every year when it isn't really necessary. The 11 to 12 shuffle was sort of necessary to incorporate the wake up taunts and breaking point system, but the analog stick system was perhaps one of the best ideas that I felt would stabilize the whole thing for years to come. The more I think about it, however, the more I tend to think that it may have been a rash decision to keep up with some of the games (like Fight Night) that were trying to switch their controls over to analogs, and the decision to revert was after seeing that it didn't necessarily work with titles like that.
In addition to the 100+ unlocks available from the Attitude Mode, this year's DLC might be the best yet. Check back throughout the winter as we discuss the contents of future DLC packs, however, I can tell you that there will be at least 21 wrestlers, 20 movesets and 10 new championship belts added over the course of the next few months. Picking up a season pass for 1600 MSP may be the way to go here, as many of the community creations getting uploaded on a daily basis are dependent on movesets of some of these DLC characters, and you are restricted from downloading them unless you have purchased access to the character whose moves the wrestler uses. If it's multiple wrestlers' movesets, it could tread into complicated ground since Community Creations does not specify whose moves you specifically need to get access to. The WWE DLC characters themselves are always well done, and it's worth the money here since you will get access to all the 2012 DLC at a slight discount. The Season Pass will save you the time and effort, and bolster your gaming experience in a whole.
The trouble DLC has had with previous games, however, is that much of the interaction between on-disc content and DLC (and the ensuing community creations) is that the content has had trouble meshing, even if you download the game to your hard drive. It's almost like watching a tandem bicycle in action where one person is trying to pedal forward and the other backward. They all perform in the same housing, but just couldn't catch synchronicity. This was one of the glitchy problems with WWE 12, and even crashed my game a few times in '11. It's great to see this was all fixed up, and glitches were minimal, but forgivable. The only major glitch that seems to exist is that DLC characters sometimes bleed as the result of unrelated moves that don't target the head. The "First Blood" mode is really the only affected by this, as head damage doesn't appear to be relative to bleeding with this glitch. The only on-disc glitch I encountered the entire time I played was early in the Attitude Mode's "Brothers of Destruction" mode from the infamous Mankind-Undertaker Hell in a Cell match from King of the Ring 1998. If Mankind throws you off the top of the cell instead of vice versa, and you fail the objective, the game is prone to completely locking up if you try to restart or quit. This is the only instance I encountered of anything strange at all, which is a far cry from most sports games with so many interactive variables on screen at once. Bad things can happen, as you've witnessed with the collision troubles in Madden 13 and NHL 13.
Graphics: 9/10. Last year's graphics were a bit of an anomaly. The wrestlers were in full HD, while their interaction and set pieces weren't. The sets all appear to be re-designed this time around, and even if they aren't in the same HD aspect ratio (My eyesight only takes me so far and I can't tell the difference,) it doesn't show. That being said, the wrestlers themselves look great, and THQ's done the best they can with covering all of the strange angles they've had to cover with the announce tables and such. Some of the redesigned elements (like the Hell in a Cell cage) don't look as good as their predecessors, but it's a small price to pay for the great new visual style they introduced last year.
Sound 8/10. Last year's sound mechanics were great. There were almost no minor issues, and no major issues. For the most part, everything in WWE 13 in fine too. However, the game has a hard time getting "comfortable" with its sounds. Extra sounds pop up whenever they aren't necessary, some sounds just disappear (I was convinced for the first few ladder matches I played that they had forgotten to put collision sounds in altogether until I finally heard a few,) and the sound levels are inconsistent, especially when switching from cinematics to in-game play. As a big detail stickler, I'm really impressed with the fact that THQ took no liberties with matching up theme songs to correct eras, and got all the theme songs spot on.
Controls: 7/10. Starting with the negatives - It's gotten to the point where I don't feel I can invest myself in WWE's controls anymore because it seems like it changes every year, and drastically. Over the last 5 years, the control scheme has drastically changed so many times, and year over year that I honestly feel like I can't be bothered to care. This year's controls are fine, but so were WWE 12's, and so were Smackdown vs. RAW 11's (which I still believe were the best of all time.) As with last year, my only request is that perhaps instead of just a "Type A" and "Type B," they look into functionality that includes full past control sets so that gamers can transition into the new titles much easier. Outside of that, once you learn (or re-learn as it were) the controls, they're adequate and responsive enough, even if they just "feel" different than past years.
Gameplay: 8.5/10. One thing sets WWE 13 apart from the other titles, and that is simply re-living the Attitude Era. Unfortunately, you can't unsee what you've experienced, and it would be interesting to see what a wrestling fan from 2003-onward thinks about the inclusion, as everybody I know are fans of that era, and appreciate what THQ did. There's very little else to be shared about the Gameplay since much of it is unchanged from last year, short of cleaning up collision glitches and fixing some of the things that broke easily last year. The controls make it seem, however, like the movesets are much more limited, and as such, the CPU is far more prone to reversing moves than before, which can be annoying in timed challenges, where a character like Ken Shamrock, whose reversals mostly consist of lengthy suplexes, take a lot of ticks off the clock, and you may find yourself having to repeat them over and over again to get it right. Outside of that, this game is all sorts of fun, and even if you don't believe this is the best yet, abolishing the Road to Wrestlemania-style games in favor of reliving famous moments is one of my favorite moments. This was done a bit in Legends of Wrestlemania, however, just didn't carry the steam it could have simply due to the fact that the game had a lot of mechanical problems and the leveling system hurt more than helped. If you passed on WWE 12 for whatever reason, '13 is definitely a worthy pickup.
THQ always excels at making the little things count. Those little subtle mannerisms and things you never noticed other wrestlers do before: THQ got on their game film and noticed it, digitized it and put it out there for you. I have to admit, I marked and marked HARD for Rikishi's dancing animation after he wins. Only THQ, seriously. Only THQ. It's those little things that continue to bring extra charm to an already charmed title. While WWE begins to sink into relative comfort as a stellar sports title year in and year out, they continue to challenge themselves to do something new year-in and year-out. The Attitude Era opens a world of possibilities as to what we could see next. Will THQ have the resources to properly do the Invasion angle that WWF/WCW/ECW fans so desperately craved and didn't get paid off on in 2001? Will they come back with the WCW side of the Monday Night Wars? Will they re-evaluate the successes of the yesterday vs. today aspect of WWE All Stars, and create vintage roads to Wrestlemania?
We'll have to wait another year to see. In the meantime, it was a fun walk down memory lane the recapture those feelings of nostalgia.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
NBA 2k13
I haven't been to an NBA game since 2001. That was the year my Grizzlies packed up shop, ugly jerseys and all and moved to Memphis. The Seattle Supersonics were gone 7 years later, and there's no way I can bring myself to cheer for the next closest team (The Portland Trailblazers.) Needless to say, I've been an NBA viewer from the outside, however, 2K finds a way for me to rekindle and remember the days I used to watch the NBA religiously. Despite the fact that I watch hundreds of hours of hockey and MMA every year, the NBA 2K series is the one sports game I look forward to my head. I had very high expectations for NBA 2K13 this year.You can play the game one of two ways - You can either choose the online virtual currency system, or the offline XP system. Both are attained the same way and for the most part, provide the same rewards. You're using the points earned in-game to upgrade your pro or purchase locked facets like player animations. This year's "My Player" mode finds you at the Rookie Showcase, followed by pre-draft interviews, resulting in your being drafted and your career starting. This is where you should probably find yourself playing the most often if you aren't playing with your friends. One of the neat, yet disappointing pieces over the last couple games was that too much time was spent focusing on the NBA of yesterday. The Jordan and G.O.A.T. showcases were cool, but the predecessors took too much away from the current NBA. The retro teams are here to stay, and you can select from a lot of them (including posing the 1992 Dream Team against the 2012 US Basketball Team,) however, they're treated as a secondary offering, and there is an increased focus on the modern day NBA. It's a perfect harmonious balance.
Jay Z served as the executive and creative director for this game, and well, I imagine he had a hand in the soundtrack, or must have lent his songs on the cheap. The soundtrack is one of the most awkward, clunky, and possibly worst NBA 2K soundtracks yet. Most of the techno tracks are really out of place in a basketball game, and then you're left with little more than Jay Z and Kanye West music to fill in the blanks (or music featuring Jay Z or Kanye West in guest roles.) This is coming from a guy that enjoys Jay Z and Kanye. Luckily, staying true to the sports game quota, there is at least one Santigold track. I rarely find myself having to reach for the remote to mute the soundtracks, but had to do it more than once while going through player creations. By the 12th time the soundtrack transitioned from Rihanna to Coldplay to Daft Punk, I'd had enough.
Of all the sports titles released this year, NBA 2K13 has the best in-game presentation, period. All of the EA games are doing what they can, as is THQ, but they are in a perpetual state of catchup comparatively. What does NBA 2K13 do that other games don't? They immerse you into its atmosphere. For the last 3 years running (and this year is no exception,) the NBA series makes you feel like you're watching the basketball game you're playing. Continuous sideline reports, marquees and chyrons that correspond to the time of year you're playing (Jack o' Lanterns and cobwebs adorn Halloween night games, while lights and cheer illuminate the Christmas Day classics,) and commentary to match make this the most immersive experience of all the games by far. It's nice of Phil Simms and Jin Nantz to wish you a Merry Christmas, but 2K goes one step further. The commentary in most sports games make you feel like you're, well, listening to commentary in a sports game. The commentary team here of Kevin Harlan, Clark Kellogg and Steve Kerr hit it from all cylinders. There isn't a point where the commentary ever feels old or repetitive, and the reactions to everything going on is spot on.
If you've already gotten used to the way NBA 2K11 and 12 present themselves, this won't drop your jaw like it did before, but in many ways, it is still the most superior sports game out there. It excels head and shoulders in the way it presents itself over its competition, and is one of the deepest titles in all gaming, let alone the sports genre. That depth, however, may be its undoing. The instruction manual provides almost no guidance of gaming modes; rather; spending the ENTIRE BOOKLET explaining the controls. From pages 1-9, you are laid out every control in size 10 font. There are so many controls that you'd have to dedicate almost a week of straight playing to learn how everything works. Kinect controls are available too, allowing you to call time outs and do things like change or call plays on the fly. The controls are very responsive, and ultimately slot behind FIFA for overall effectiveness, though I'll discuss some setbacks of it all in the final ratings.
MyPlayer, and ultimately, MyCareer is enhanced this year. You can buy new signature moves that enhance your players' abilities, and can attend legend training camps to boost some of your skills in bulk. Everything you buy is using the aforementioned Virtual Currency system, and therein lays a huge problem. Currency is earned by doing drills and performing well in-game. There's no guarantees that your in-game performance will net you any virtual currency, so if you flounder around, or have a bad game, you could be rewarded with nothing for your efforts. The rating engine from last year is back, and it's still the biggest benefit and detriment to your NBA gaming experience. It's still too difficult to have "good" games. 3 quarters worth of work can be wiped out by one turnover, or letting your opponent score once or twice, and you could very well have scored 30 points and have 10 assists to boot. If you're up by 25 points at the time and you have one false step, I'm sure your coach doesn't mind as much, so why should the rating system? This is the gameplay mechanic I feel needs the biggest tweak. It feels like you're languishing at times, and constantly punishing an interested gamer is a really good way to lose their interest. How exactly are you supposed to get better if there's no way for you to get better? It's like going through a performance review at work where your boss sits you down and says "You did fine, but get better" and then closes the meeting without saying anything else.
The other gameplay modes haven't really changed themselves much, and the game remains a ton of fun to play, though you will have to ready yourself for a harder learning curve than past years, especially when it comes to MyPlayer, where I couldn't find any place to ramp difficulty down past Pro, meaning beginner gamers can't swing into this right away and will have trouble with things like full court presses and guiding a low 60s pro around a court full of established veterans.
Let's take a look at the final ratings.
Graphics: 9/10. Graphically, this game is good. The arenas are good enough, and the player animations are great. The graphics don`t glitch in-game, and rarely any loose limbs or things out of place with the sprite movements. The game moves very fluidly, players look as they should, and the game, as always, is presented in great high definition. I am a fan of the fact that it has just the right amount of product placement, and the fact that things like replays are sponsored by Sprite (and the halftime show is sponsored by Sprint.) Often times, creating "things" can result in awkward interaction with the in-game characters. Games like Legends of Wrestlemania were plagued by the fact that little things like belt and clothing layering resulted in clipping issues, and they often didn't match the rest of the overall game tone. The shoe creator provides no challenges, and they look great on your character. I see a bit of room for improvement here. Some of the textures in the game are a bit brighter than they need to be, and the player faces are a bit more cartoony than I remember. They're all drops in the bucket in the grand scheme.
Sound 9/10. If I could break this off into subratings and defy conventional scoring, I'd probably go something like 15/10 for the play by play commentary, 10/10 for the on-court sounds and 2/10 for the soundtrack. The soundtrack is hampered by a lack of flow, and strange edits. U2's "Elevation" is in the game, which is a great choice for video montage packages, but not the game. They've cut a lot of the songs in weird places as well, which makes even less sense. Having Jay Z as executive producer wasn't a bad idea, though I think a little bit too much of his music snuck in there, and while they tried to diversify by throwing in stuff like Coldplay and Daft Punk tracks, ultimately, it feels like I'm listening to an all Jay Z radio station that's being interrupted by a bit of channel surfing.
Control: 5/10. I play a lot of sports games every year. In fact, I would go so far to say it's probably in the neighborhood of 70% of my overall gaming. NBA 2K13 is the first time I've wanted to shout obscenities at the instruction manual. 9 pages of instructions, and to be any good at the game, you really need to know 80% of them because your AI know how to get around all of your basic moves. The basic controls are enough to probably get you through to the third difficulty (which I believe is All-Star) and then all bets are off. I've rarely recommended learning how to play all positions and spend time on the practice courts learning all of the control stick features, but believe me, spend a while doing it. The Kinect controls work well (almost a bit too well,) and anything you shout into the mic is picked up within seconds, though just like FIFA, be aware that the Kinect is constantly listening for commands at all times and the mic can be sensitive. My fiancee yelling "I'm going out" from our garage entry door caused the game to call a time out, and the Kinect called a screen play as I commented that my foot had fallen asleep. Gamers that like shouting at their TV in frustration are bound to have a field day here.
Gameplay: 8/10. The gameplay is pretty full steam ahead, and I admit is very similar to last year, controls aside. The missing showcase feature isn't a big loss at all, as the focus shift of the game makes up for it. This is still a very complete basketballing experience. Really, the biggest trouble I have with the engine boils down to the fact that it's still too unforgiving, and things often get much more frustrating than fun. It's still a bit too difficult to get the timing down for jump shots outside of practice, and the on-court gameplay element suffers as a result, having to adapt to raising your status through passes and rebounds. Penalties in "My Player" are far too ridiculous for what they should be. Letting your covered opponent score bears even worse ramifications than shooting a clutch 3, or getting fastbreak points. If you're a point guard having to cover Derrick Rose, for example, whose footwork and movement is amongst the best in the game, there's almost no recovering, and even with a triple double, you can find yourself with a C+ or C- rating for the game. I'm still very much enamored with the MyPlayer mode right now, but it might lose its lustre as time goes on solely based on how ridiculously unforgiving the rating system and shooting engine is. You end up in a vicious cycle where you're unable to gain virtual currency from anything but drills, which you need to be able to level up your player's stats. This is something that needs a lot of evaluation next year. Perhaps the inception of forgiveness rating difficulties might be something to bring to the table. MyPlayer makes you start on a minimum pro difficulty as well, making it pointless for novices to step into the career mode out of the box.
Bonus rating: Presentation: 10/10. Once again, the presentation element for this game is untouchable. I stress again that no sports game on the market comes close to the total package the 2K NBA franchise offers with the possible exception of the WWE games. Sideline reporting is normally an annoyance, but the amount of intuition built in for virtual Doris Burke's synopses are great. The announcers genuinely sound like they're calling your game and getting excited over your game. The menus are easy to navigate, and everything is laid out in perfect order. Everything clicks, from the starting lineups, to the menu cards, and the halftime report. As long as this continues, I can't see 2K giving up this part of its sports gaming throne anytime soon.
Overall, NBA 2K13 is a very subtle upgrade from the previous edition, so much so that I can't say one way or another whether it's worth rushing out to upgrade. It's only slightly better than 2K12. Gamers craving a greater challenge will definitely find substance from the new controls, and old school gamers can take solace in knowing their old controls are still intact for the most part. Frustrating elements aside, it will take a lot to ever dethrone 2K Sports for the best basketball game out on the market. Any competitors will have to find a way to step it up, and 2K's not providing much breathing room.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
NBA Baller Beats
Majesco have been outside-the-box thinkers since the Kinect came out, publishing imaginative titles like Twister and Hulk Hogan's Main Event that sort of take them away from the industry norm realm of console and stylus gaming. Now they're taking it to another level with NBA Baller Beats.Baller Beats is a rhythm based Kinect game that defies all the rules your mother set for you growing up. I remember getting lectured about the dangers of playing ball in the house, even when it was YoYo Ball, or when I was trying to teach my younger cousins how to dribble a miniature basketball that couldn't damage a balsa wood and marshmallow structure. Perhaps it was with good measure. I have the basketballing coordination of a fish trying to catch an electric eel, so needless to say, my mother's lectures were probably in the best interest of her valuables. Baller Beats is a game that requires you to keep the pace of a musical beat (on a highway-style track) with the use of a basketball. Those without one? Not to worry - Majesco has teamed with Spalding and the game comes with a fullsize ball free of charge.
A music game is really only as good as its soundtrack, and thankfully, this game's isn't half bad, featuring the likes of Wiz Khalifa, Janelle Monae, Interpol, and about 20 other bands that aren't the usual suspects you see in these games. Thankfully, for the benefit of people born in the first half of 80s such as myself, they are joined by the likes of Queen, Young MC, and Run DMC. Sports game mainstay Santigold even makes an appearance. Santigold's music appears in so many music and sports games now that if you factor in her music sales with games too, she must easily be one of the highest selling artists of the last decade.
The game poses some interesting challenges mechanically that I, and one of my fellow reviewers (Adam Dileva) were wondering about prior to review:
Firstly, my 2nd floor living room (where my XBox is) is carpeted AND has rugs in places (I have cats and anybody with cats will agree that rugs are sometimes necessity over option when their fight each other with their claws,) neither of which doesn't always guarantee great success when bouncing a ball.
Second: The carpet must absorb the shock of the bouncing motion, and I wonder if that would reverberate at all and cause my XBox to skip, or my Kinect to misalign? Granted, we've evolved past the point where anti-skip technology is less a feature and more a requirement, so I don't believe that to be an issue. Obviously, if throngs of people running in their living room playing Dance Dance Revolution didn't cause skipping effects, this shouldn't either.
The game reminds you early on to lock down your valuables, and to stand at least 6 feet away from your TV. One of the drawbacks of this game is that you need a really big space to play. You need a lot of clear space to your left and right, and I did find the game was telling me I was too close even though I was more than 8 feet away from my Kinect.
Besides that, perhaps the most valuable thing this game offers is that there's zero learning curve to get going. You don't even need to watch the tutorials. There isn't hours of cutscenes or storymodes to wade through. If you know how to operate a Kinect, that's the most difficult thing required before you start bouncing the ball. You can realistically rip the packaging off and be playing inside of 5 minutes. It doesn't get much easier than that. Of course, maintaining rhythm is a different thing altogether.
Playing on easy incorporates some very basic playground basketball. In essence, you dribble on one side, single crossover dribbles, and do head fakes while maintaining your dribble. If you can dribble the ball with either hand, that's really all you need, and can move onto the tougher levels.
Once there, the tougher levels attempt to ease you into some of the more difficult maneuvers out there. You have to start crossing the ball back and forth in the same motion, and then fake passing. That's about the extent of my skill level when it comes to dribbling.
However, if you've been attached at the hip to a basketball from a young age, the harder levels are definitely where you want to be. The game coerces you to mix your dribbles up at varying speeds, while attempting to pass to yourself behind your back, or do left to right reverse or forward crossovers in addition to adding jumps to the head fakes. The soundtrack for this game is perfect, and keeps you in line the entire time, shaking and sweating all the while. You can also do this solo or versus an opponent, however, that's really it. There are limited gameplay modes, which is expected with a Kinect title, however, if you are into the subject matter, your interest isn't likely to fade after an hour or two like other Kinect titles.
But there's the noise factor. Obviously, bouncing a basketball won't seem that noisy to you, but if you aren't playing in the basement, there is somebody below you hearing that reverberation. If you live in an apartment building or most strata properties - ditto. There's no easy way to muffle the noise without compromising gameplay, unfortunately. I was looking for some alternates to the basketball given how much noise it made, however, Majesco was very quick to mention during previews that you could not fool the Kinect and this is true. While measuring your rhythm, the Kinect measures which hand you are dribbling with, and making sure you are doing the right type of combo maneuvers between dribbles. I tried a child size bouncy ball, as well as an inflated ball smaller than a typical size size 7 basketball, and neither worked. Anything larger and lighter (like a beach ball,) unfortunately, means that you cannot maintain necessary rhythm to succeed (not to mention how ridiculous you'd look trying to bounce a beach ball between your legs.)
What this all boils down to: NBA Baller Beats is a really fun game, but the element of danger is always there. Logic, and the laws of physics dictate that you may be due for an accident sooner than later, so obviously, be careful when you're playing the game. No matter how coordinated you may be, you're due to make a slip-up, especially when you get into the expert levels. Jayson Williams was a decent passer in his time, but even he fired a basketball into the 12th row every couple games. This is a game that, a decade ago would have been one of the most popular and best money making games in arcade history. Unfortunately, the death of the modern arcade has made it so that this type of title can't thrive the way it needs to, however, if Majesco wants to try out the arcade market, this could be a huge title.
Those living in carpeted living rooms dedicated to perfecting their Baller Beats skills will probably wish to invest $20 in a makeshift section of hardwood floor to play on. The flat surface allows the Kinect to track the ball and motions much better, and obviously, give you better control of the ball.
Why does NBA Baller Beats succeed, and do what it does so well? So often, motion games feel almost like a chore. Playing Dance Central makes me feel like I'm working and exerting a lot of energy for little reward. Kinect Sports has given me that feeling as well. However, Baller Beats never feels arduous and never stops being fun. Even with my grade school basketball skills, it was hard to wipe the smile off my face, even when the basketball would hit my feet and bounce away or I'd cross the ball over into my foot. I feel comfortable in saying Baller Beats will probably one of the more underappreciated games of the 2012 Holiday Season, as the basic premise may be enough to scare most parents away from buying it for their kids. However, for those of you seeking a challenge, and unafraid to take a little bit of a risk, it's worth giving a shot. Just remember that ultimately, the game may teach you to become a bit of a better dribbler in time, however, it only goes so far as your skill level takes you. The difference between this, and most other standup motion rhythm games (like most of Konami's Bemani series, most Dance games and even Rock Band) is that you could slowly warm yourself into higher difficulties and eventually be able to do them. With Baller Beats, you're limited to your real world basketball skills. Some people will never have the coordination it takes to be able to do between the legs crossovers, or dribble behind their back. Ergo, you may never truly be able to tackle this game on its hardest difficulties.
For what it's worth, Baller Beats is a fun title that will offer you a bit of a workout in passing. If you're game to the challenge, give it a spin. It's not for everybody, but you may find its for you.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
NHL 13 Stanley Cup
EA Sports gained a huge advantage in the sports game market this past weekend under less than ideal circumstances. With the NHL and NHLPA unable to come to an agreement about well, anything, they have commenced their 4th work stoppage in the last 20 years. While the hockey enthusiasts in us hope the stoppage is closer to the 1992 edition, it could very well be close to the 2004 one. With that in mind, the only hockey anybody may get for the rest of this year, let alone this 12-13 season is through NHL 13.Being on the cover of NHL 13 doesn't quite curse you to injury and career shortening like the Madden series, which is something this year's cover boy Claude Giroux can be proud of. Giroux has gone from being a great player to a breakout superstar the last couple seasons, and could challenge for the Art Ross trophy in the next few years if he stays healthy. This year's cover was decided by fan voting as well, with two representatives of each team submitted to ballot. EA tried to stray a bit from previous cover athletes, which made for some strange candidates. In the end, and unfortunately for the Twitter support campaign spearheaded by Jeremy Lambert of Man Cave Thoughts, the Washington Capitals' Brooks Laich finished somewhere between Doug Houda and Me on the final ballots.
Numerous changes were necessitated by the need of EA's continuing efforts to create realistic sports experiences for gamers. The rating system changed. No longer are players rated on the TYPE of player they are, but the position they play, just like you'd been used to it for the last x number of years before they changed it. In trying to create a more interactive experience as well, you can take charge of everything on your team, from rosters, to the uniform colors you wear out on the ice to your team's entrance. Yes, borrowing a page from the WWE games, you can customize your on-ice entrances. Sadly, you cannot flip your opponent over the boards to eliminate him from an NHL Royal Rumble, but it's a start right?
Trade AI has vastly improved. The GMs are smarter than to accept your "Steven Stamkos for a 9th round draft pick, a bottle of Roberto Luongo's hair gel and a used DVD copy of the movie mannequin" trades now, and have reverted closer to the system dating back to NHL 95 on Genesis which sort of knew when you were trying to pull a fast one.
As with previous growth spikes in the NHL franchise, there are well over 100 teams in this game, from Sweden and back. I don't believe there to be any new leagues over last year, however, you do get updated rosters, and can once again begin the search of playing as random teams to find out where some of the NHLers of the last decade ended up.
New to NHL 13 is the "NHL Moments" mode which you've seen before in some of EA's other sports games, including FIFA. In it, you're to relive (or recreate) some of the best moment from the season past, as well as this current season (no jokes please) and some of the other record book-changing moments over time, including helping Wayne Gretzky recreate 50 goals in 39 games (don't worry, you start with 48 goals and 14 minutes left to go in the 39th game,) and Mario Lemieux scoring 8 points in one game. This game takes place in the same camera vantage point as the "Be a Pro" mode, so those easily prone to motion sickness probably need not apply. This year's challenger for the "Fifa World Cup 2006 ridiculous challenge" trophy is recreating the final 84 seconds of last October's Columbus / Ottawa game where Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza scored seconds apart to give the Sens a thrilling last minute victory. You can probably rest assured that this is halfway to impossible on All-Star difficulty, but then again, you're facing 2011 Steve Mason in net, who is slightly less terrifying than 2008 Steve Mason. The biggest authenticity setback I have here is that the retro scenarios find you playing (for the most part) alongside current players. One of the things I absolutely loved about NBA 2K11 was the fact that they managed to the majority of Michael Jordan's teammates and opponents in their retro scenarios. If I wanted to feed BJ Armstrong, I could. If I wanted to bench MJ in favor of Craig Hodges, I could. Here, I'm Doug Gilmour screening Jaroslav Halak while Dion Phaneuf takes a shot from a point that I try to tip in. Bit of a buzzkill, but it's a start! I look forward to this mode growing in the next few years.
The best of all of the additions added to this game, far and away, is the True Performance Skating. This is going to be really frustrating to those that poured dozens, if not hundreds of hours into NHL 12, but trust me, it's worth it. Make sure to watch the tutorial. It's not very hard to understand how it works (you could even do it in a game or two yourself) but the video will teach you the art of controlling your player better in just a couple of minutes. Many of the skating mechanics are similar, however, rather than having mass slowdown while turning behind the opposing nets, you can now control your player and skate backwards at will much easier.
I've chosen not to report much on the other modes this year. I admit, much of it didn't change a whole lot. Be a Pro for the most part is the same, down to starting out as Jeremy Roenick, though Angela Ruggiero and Hayley Wickenheiser can be unlocked later on. You can demand trades and retire at will, though this doesn't really enamor me to write another 1000 words on it or the other modes that I didn't admitted already take the time to do in the NHL 12 review, which can be found here: http://www.xboxaddict.com/Staff-Review/13390/NHL-12.html
Finally, I admit I don't buy into the disdain that seems to exist in the industry about the fact that EA Sports and its competitors don't take enough time to teach fringe gamers about the basics of the sport, to which I ask: Why is the job of a video game to do this? It's EA Sports' job to cater to the NHL's customer demographics, almost all of whom know what hockey, and its basic functionalities are. Granted, not every fan knows the current (expired) collective bargaining agreements, but they certain know what a stick and a puck is, and that the object of ice hockey is to put the puck in the net and outscore your opponent. Everything else comes with time. I've met hundreds of people that have played the NHL games, and not a single one got their first taste of hockey from a video game. They've all watched at least one hockey game before giving the game a try. Let developers sell games first, and let the leagues brand awareness first.
Graphics: 9/10. I'll be honest. Maybe my eyes don't work as well as they did once upon a time, but graphically, I see no difference between NHL 12 and 13. In fact, I kind of liked 12's layout and out-of-game presentation more than 13's. The splash of colors was a bit more appealing visually, though I suppose the futuristic control room angle 13 takes isn't bad either. Last year, my main gripe was that the jerseys looked terrible on the players. Once again, that is my major stitch. Perhaps we haven't yet progressed our graphical capabilities to allow for loose fitting clothing to interact with the body of a playable sprite which is forgivable, but I don't know that it would be much of a stretch to ask for real fonts and better looking numbers on players. I again stress that it's a very minor detail, but it's just there all the time in front of your face, so it's worth mentioning. Outside of that, not many more complaints. The graphics are very good, down to small details of the ice getting carved up as you play through periods. In-game slowdown is non-existent unlike the Madden game, and player interaction is much cleaner. Graphically, I don't know that there's much to improve on going in outside of my yearly gripes above.
Sound: 8/10. The on-ice sound effects are great, and the play by play commentary continues to be passable. The soundtrack lacks. They tried to go back to the NHL 2004 method of the breakout bands playing random tunes that seemed to suit the mood. It worked that year. It was a strangely memorable soundtrack from which I still remember a few tunes (Ataris - Radio #2, Bowling for Soup - Punk Rock 101, Mesh StL/Modern Day Zero - Down, Adema - Co-Dependant, Jet - Get what You Need.) In comparison, the only song I'll remember from this soundtrack 8 years from now is the tribute cover of Bro Hymn, and not for a good reason. Look, I like Bro Hymn as much as the next guy, but EA's rampant obsession in ensuring it all but has to be played after every whistle in this game is almost draining. I talked myself through a 3rd period one game, and it basically went something like this.
Me: This new skating engine is cool...whoops offside.
Referee: *Tweee*
PA: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHH OH OH OH!
Me: Oh nice is that Bro Hymn? The 46 UFC fighters that have entered to this song must be marking out right now.
45 seconds later
Me: Oh that'll be icing. Bro Hymn?
Referee: *Tweee*
PA: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH!
Me: Yep
30 seconds later
Me: Whoa nice goal. Wait...Bro Hymn?
PA: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH!
Me: What a surprise
1 minute later
Me: Offside? Oh don't tell me...
Referee: *Tweee*
PA: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH!
Me: Come on man!
2 minutes later
Me: NO!! NOT ICING AGAIN. NO NO NO
Referee: *Tweee*
PA: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHH OH OH OH!
Me: AUGHHHHH
Final whistle blows
Bill Clement: What a game! Here's the highlight reel from the game!
Me: This should be good. At least there's no Bro Hymn right?
Bill Clement: HEY YOU CLOWNS! DIG THIS TUNE FROM A BAND PLAYING TRIBUTE TO PENNYWISE!
Me: *cry*
PA: OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH! OHHHHHHHHHHHOHHHHHHHHHH OH OH OH!
(XBox is shut off and thrown in the garbage)
All these playthroughs of Bro Hymn, and Matt "The Hammer" Hamill doesn't even make one appearance. What a gyp! I guess it's fitting if nothing considering every second NHL club plays this as their goal horn song, but still. I never thought it was possible, but you CAN get too have Bro Hymn.
Control: 10/10. How do you make an already pretty perfect control system better? True performance skating. Last year, I bit the bullet and admitted EA finally did everything they needed to make for a perfectly flowing control system. They, of course, did nothing to change it outside of tweaking a few things to make it even easier, and implement easy to supplant skating controls. I'm normally one averse to change. I will admit I've gone back to previous iterations of games and played them after playing the newest one because I was too stubborn and set in my ways to adapt to new controls or gameplay mechanics. That being said, I won't be going back to NHL 12. Not on my own XBox anyway.
Gameplay: 8/10. Everything that was egregious about last year's game has started the process of cleanup, or has been resolved altogether. The overdone goalie collision detection is a thing of the past. In fact, the collision detection in general is far better, resolving the imbalance in the penalty system from last year. The only problem with the detection now is, well, it's still pretty big. To be fair, though, it is the same problem that Madden has, that FIFA will probably have, and most sports games with a reactive detection engine have. Colliding sprites have a strange rubber effect on each other. If you hit these sprites from certain angles, the colliding force "bounces" unnaturally off the person they were hitting. In Madden 13, this wasn't that bad because it always happened on a play ending tackle, so it would never affect the game's outcome. In NHL 13, however, you can check somebody at the boards behind a net, and bounce all the way out in front of the net and away from the puck. That's a terrible flaw to have in your checking engine, especially considering that if the player is not shaken off the puck and they're in the offensive zone, it basically gives them a clear path to the net. With so many of the other modes being similar to last year (or with no massive changes worth writing home about,) there's not much new detail I can go into, however, it's not a bad thing. NHL 12 was one of the best hockey games of all time afterall. I do have a massive "Be a Pro" gripe though, and that's over the fact that I have to start for a second consecutive year as Jeremy Roenick. It's kind of painstaking knowing that you have all these neat and brand new legends to play as, but you have to unlock them by starting as the same guy again.
A strong title was needed to upset UFC Undisputed 3 as sports title of the year. This comes close. I'd say it's right up there. When handing out year end awards, I'll have to revisit all these games again (since I admit it's been a few months since I've played UFC Undisputed) just to see, but for now, I believe it's probably on par. If you can still find an NHL 13 Collector's Edition (good luck) with the bonus features, it's worth shelling out the extra $20. Otherwise, this isn't as clear-cut as past years if you own previous editions. NHL 12 still has a lot of mileage to give than NHL 13 doesn't, and there's a good chance that without an NHL season to run concurrent to it, a lot of gamers might stay away for the time being. Still, if you find this one in your gift pile this holiday season, fear not. Somebody still thought pretty highly of you, and you can sit back and enjoy the best hockey experience out on the market right now.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
FIFA Soccer 13
Every year, nearly a dozen major sports titles come out for your home consoles the world over. Most end up as local or single continent favorites, and very few are a global phenomenon. F1 titles tend to be popular the world over, and FIFA is the other. The popularity of soccer is undeniable. I would say that it quite handily is the most popular sport in the world. All it takes is an inflated ball, and you can have a soccer game in any form, any fashion and any time. Over the last 20 years, Electronic Arts has taken video game soccer from an semi-licensed, decent pickup game to an all-encompassing sports title. With hundreds of teams, more than a dozen leagues, and more licenses to its name than a Vegas wedding chapel minister, FIFA?s presence grows by the thousands every month, and is always one of the best, if not the best-selling sports title every year. Last year, FIFA 12 generated nearly $200,000,000 in sales in its first week, and EA looks to continue that trend into this year. Lionel Messi is this year?s poster boy, hot off his multi-year deal with EA Sports. Messi was on the cover of FIFA Street, and looks much happier on the cover of its father title.
The first thing you?ll notice when you play the game is that, mechanically, it is so very different than even last year. Controls are much more sensitive to your actions, and jamming buttons frantically, or mashing them will impact your ability to complete passes or take shots more than before. If it sounds agonizing and detrimental to your FIFA experience, it isn?t. EA has been slowly evolving the game?s controls into this form the last few years, and ?13 is the first time you see it on full blast.
However, button caching still remains a FIFA exclusive headache. Yes, you would think that after more than a half decade of button cache goodness, I would have learned by now. I have not. It still happens once every few games at the most inopportune times.
Looking further into the new additions, it starts no simpler than the rosters. More leagues have been added, and though you probably won?t be rushing to play as any of the Saudi Pro Leagues (the best teams in the league don?t match up ranking-wise to the worst teams in the MLS, let alone Europe,) it?s nice to know they?re there, along with a couple of African Pro teams too. In all, more than 500 teams and 15000 professional soccer players are packed into this game, playing in 58 different stadiums (57 on the 360.) Of note for North American players ? It appears the only MLS Stadium is the Whitecaps? BC Place. Unfortunately, you will have to relegate DC United?s Chris Pontius and his Party Boy Anthem to shake around the Streets of Vancouver for one more year, and not RFK.
If you read the preview that we did for FIFA 13 last month, you will know they changed the sprite physics engine in this game as well to better mirror the standard set by NHL 13, and carried into Madden 13 this year. It too, like the controls is something you saw inklings of in past years, but is ramped up for this year. The result is that your on-field players no longer have transparent limbs, and in the past, all those ghost-like moves you hit on your opponents will not work any longer. You can no longer dribble through barrages of defenders mere inches from each other without making contact with a limb or torso like you would expect to see in the real game. Invisible limbs in previous versions also meant that tackling could often be a pain. Your application of logical physics was thrown out the window when the ball would mysteriously go through your legs, with your opponent following suit after avoiding tackle. Unlike Madden and NHL, the frequency of rubber band collisions is minimal, and players interact much better with each other in this game than the others. With more than 20 moving objects on screen at once, it?s a hard task, but one EA?s done well to succeed and run with.
With in-game physics changes, other things change as well by default. Many of the kicking trajectories, especially around free kicks have changed. Kicking the ball requires a little bit more precision this year, and you can even run set plays to throw your opponent off of where you?re kicking. Be aware that winning the ball off these free kicks, and even goal kicks are much different. In the past, your players would readily move themselves into position and react appropriately. All you had to do was simply time when you had to jump for the ball and wiggle the left stick. This system is still largely the same, though you do have to be weary of the fact that the improved physics and impact engine means that incorrect timing is more damaging than ever. Passing physics have changed as well for the better. You must direct and guide passes better than ever. No longer can you simply will the ball over to your teammates with the greatest of ease. Much of this is like having to learn to ride a bike for the second time, but melding all the changes together in one year rather than spacing them out over several mean you can buck up and rip the bandaid off at once rather than peeling it away over time.
The last major change happens to the career mode, which has exploded into the massive multi-dimensional experience you always would have hoped something like this would be. Most club football fans see many of their favorite players shuffle through their year representing their club and their country in friendlies and tournament qualifiers simultaneously. FIFA 13 career mode allows you to do this from both the eyes of the player, and the manager level. As a player, you can suit up for your nation if you are revered enough to make it, and as an up and coming manager, you can lobby your skills into managing your country too. This adds a bigger element of fun and accomplishment to your career mode journey, and with diversified logic in trades and transfers, makes it a bit trickier to capture the true value of your player, now based off more variables than ever.
If career mode is not for you, the exhibition modes are still around, though renamed Match Day. Match Day is a feature not unlike the 2K Sports MLB Series, where they attempt to mirror current rosters as much as possible, accounting for injuries and suspensions in order to match up your experience on-screen with the one you see unfolding before you. Struggling teams and players will see diminished in-game performance (this does not bode well for Vancouver Whitecaps fans on release day) and hot teams will ride their hot streaks onto your Xbox (again stressing at this point that this does not bode well for Whitecaps fans on release day.) You can build your gamer card up while enjoying many of the same features as last year, including the frequently updated challenges based on the happenings that week.
Just like the Madden series, FIFA has integrated Kinect features, and I believe those that own one should definitely hook it up and give it a go. The features seem to work much better than Madden, where it recognizes your voice pitch with better consistency. It will make your life much easier with its functionality and ease, and as previously mentioned, if you have a foul mouth, it will definitely have an impact on your career mode storylines, and the respect you get from officials on and off the pitch. Remember that a few swear words could also impact your playability in real-time too, as players can be booked for swearing depending at referee discretion. This does not happen very often, however, do not be surprised if it does.
The skill games are the final thing to re-visit from the preview from earlier this month. FIFA 13 implements a series of different skill games to help you improve your in-game performance while adding a bit more replay value. While skill games are not new to sports games in general (they comprise a huge portion of Virtua Tennis, for example,) these are catered more to help you improve your accuracy and abilities of certain skills. If you need to learn how to lob the ball better, there is a game for that. If you need to learn how to aim the ball better, there is a game for that. If you need to learn how to pass the ball better, there is a game for that. While I have had a bit more time to let the skill games sink in, and I am not so enamored with them as I was when I first started playing, these are just as difficult as the highest difficulties of this game itself. While you can easily attain bronze medals with little to no effort, the difficulty spikes up once you get to silver and above, to where a small percentage of players will probably carry platinum level achievements on all skills. The games have helped me not just learn the things the controls are capable of (even though I play the FIFA games every year, I'm far from good at them) but eased learning some of the new in-game physics a lot. Give them a shot.
Outside of that, much of the features that remain are ones that carry over, or that you have come to expect and enjoy from previous versions of FIFA. FUT Mode is back, and while EA press releases said that would be easier for inexperienced players to build a better team, my opinion is that it was easy enough in FIFA 12, and I did not see any difference. There are more tournaments, and match types to choose from, and the tutorial is neat, but really, if the major change is the season pass, or the ability to buy 2 dozen different types of packs, it?s really not ?easier? perse. It still requires the same amount of time investment to be able to attain some of the higher level packs, and savvy players might end up using their coins toward player auctions again instead of packs. The new mobile app is a nice touch, and will be neat to try out in the next few months (an iPhone app for EA FC will allow you to look at FUT options and access your profile at any time) as well.
Graphically, the game appears to have settled in as far as the 360 can take it, which is a lot if you compare it to the first couple FIFA titles, but not so much in comparison to ?12. Again, we?ve now reached a point where processing limitations may have about capped, so this is probably as good as it gets. There are still a few things I notice here and there which I will touch upon in the final rankings, however. I still believe that World Cup 2010 South Africa (and FIFA 11) had the best all around graphical interaction in the stadium, but the game looks much crisper on the field now. I do miss the egregious use of crowd shots and fans dressed in their respective kits though. Nowadays, all we get are shots of the players milling about the field while substitutions load before it all goes down.
Let?s take a look at the final ratings.
Graphics: 8.5/10. The pitch looks fantastic. The menus and GUIs do too. The arenas themselves look great, but FIFA?s only graphical problems continue to be the player sprites and the crowds. NHL 11 was the first game I can think of that gave off the ?full arena? atmosphere, even though everybody was doing the same thing and waving towels in ways only people with broken wrists could do. World Cup 2010 cleverly disguised a lack of live movement with the crowd animations in between. The stadiums always look and feel like they are half empty in this game, and the player movements are a bit choppy. The shadows on the pitch look really jagged, and the players move a bit oddly sometimes. The players and their jagged features don distract from the game at all, but playing a major game in front of a half-empty arena is always a bit of a buzzkill. I think there just needs to be a bit of cleaning up for next year?s title, and this will be a total package.
Sound 9.5/10. Sound appears to be the one department there wasn?t a lot of work on. Most of the commentary appears to have transitioned over from last season, though I?ve noticed some neat things with Kinect functionality. I decided to challenge a few plays verbally after whistles, and the game was smart enough to pick up on it and commentate based on my frustration, which I thought was great. With nothing better or worse outside of that, however, it seems fitting to just give it the same rating as last year. I really wish EA would send some sound techs all over North America and Europe capturing the chants and ambience of the major clubs, or, even easier, gather the input of fans the world on message boards and get some hired voices in studio to create more club and arena authentic chants. It seems like too much to ask for all major arenas and stadiums, but I don?t know that it?s too unreasonable to ask for a few chants from each major soccer team in their home games. The FIFA series? value on the virtual stock market of gaming basically surpasses all other sports games, and I?d really like to see them sink a few bucks into revamping the in-match atmosphere now that they?ve got most of the other sound stuff under control.
Controls: 9.5/10. The controls take shape much better this season. The unforgiving nature of FIFA 12?s controls make more sense now, and even though they hold you just as accountable as last year, there?s a reason behind it now. The new Kinect controls are really good, and though it could use a few more options (like the ability to change positions on the fly a bit better) and a bit of cleanup, it definitely beat Madden if you compare the two. My only problem with FIFA 13?s controls? They?re a bit too sensitive at times. Pressure sensitive controls are always one of the most touch and go things in sports gaming, and there are times where barely touching the shoot button will send the ball sailing into the hot dog guy. That?s always the most annoying part of a perfectly crafted soccer play, though I guess to be fair, you do see it about 20 times per real game, so in a way, it?s an accurate representation.
Gameplay: 9/10. EA seems to understand that FIFA?s gotten to a point where the wheel doesn?t need re-inventing, so to speak, so they?re just looking for ways to keep dressing it up. The skill games are great, and the enhanced career mode is brilliant. I?ve been playing this series since the Panasonic 3DO, and I?ve always had a lot of enjoyment out of it with the exception of a few titles. I?ve been around to see FIFA go from a basic pickup game to an exhibition and fantasy soccer game player?s dream. This title is slowly evolving to include your voice, and soon, I?m sure your motions will matter too (I?ll be hiding the valuables for Kinect goalie mode if it ever becomes a reality.) Gameplay-wise, the game draws many parallels to last year?s, but I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the way the game has changed for the better, even if it does mean you can?t get away with what you could in previous years.
Now comes the awkward yearly question of whether FIFA 13 is worth the immediate upgrade if you have FIFA 12. It?s all relative to the upgrades. You want better roster support and a better dose of realism affecting your game? Then yes. Have you been waiting for your players to do the all-encompassing act of representing club and country? Then yes. Do you spent your entire FIFA experience playing nothing but a mix of exhibition matches, challenges and FUT? Then no. Nothing?s going to change that the primary purpose of FIFA is to play a soccer video game. There are just so many different ways to do it now that you just pick one and roll with it. FIFA has long been the way to ?roll with it,? and despite a few scares here and there, doesn?t look to relinquish that spot anytime soon.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
NCAA 13
EA's yearly staple sports games start every year in most peoples' eyes with the John Madden series, but NCAA is usually the kickoff every July. NCAA is always a tough sell outside of the American market, though it continues to bring consistent sales to football fans and novice gamers alike. NCAA Football always provides gamers with a combination of an easy to get into game, as well as fairly simplistic achievements. The games are always fairly enjoyable There are quite a few gameplay mechanics that have been improved worth mentioning. Firstly, many of the new on-field awareness mechanics are improved. Receivers have more realistic reaction times and catch physics. Unfortunately, this means the insane no look catching might be a thing of the past, however, with a shift to making games more realistic feeling, this is a welcome change. The in-game presentation style is amazing, and beats anything any other football game has perhaps ever done. Even the Madden Superbowl features this year pale in comparison to some of the famous intros at the College level. The stadiums look great, and the ESPN presentation graphics almost outdo the game itself. However, keeping that in mind, there is much repetition to the way that it comes off compared to 12, and I felt like there was much in the way of Deja Vu with this game, something I hadn't felt since NCAA '08 and '09.
The Road to Glory is back. Take your player from High School all the way to the Heisman Trophy. Gameplay is a little less blocky and clunky than last year, and the gameplay flows much better. Last year was chock full of gameflow busting replays. This year it's a lot better, and you should see less interruptions. You begin in high school, and work your way to receiving recruitment and scholarship offers from universities, ending up with having to choose where to go. From there, you begin your road to the Heisman trophy. This mode is also carries with it the "Reaction Time" feature, which allows you to slow play down to make better decisions. This feature isn't new to sports games, and well, it isn't even new to EA's games (NHL 2003 had a similar breakaway camera,) but it allows you that extra split second to turn your play from average to highlight reel. I didn't quite get into Road to Glory as much as I did Madden Connected Career, especially after learning the NCAA/Madden functionality has been stripped down quite a bit this year, which is sure to irk gamers. You can no longer carry your draft classes from game to game, and I will be honest, I didn't see anywhere to import anything else to do with Road to Glory either. Granted, it got kind of messy between games when your players sprouted extra pads, and had glitchy knees and the like. As much as I thought he'd be an effective footballer, the College version of Goro that ended up on my team was anything but useful, and frankly, a bit scary.
The Heisman Challenge is the newest mode that's exclusive to NCAA. In it, you take a selection of former Heisman winners in an attempt to relive and win the trophy once again, with the intent of beating the stats they put up to get to their trophy victory. It's no secret that EA likes to reward those loyal to their products from previous years or from the moment of announcement. This is no different. Download and play the NCAA 13 demo before you do play this mode, because you'll unlock 3 more former Heisman winners. If you don't feel like going through the motions, you can still play with former winners like Barry Sanders, Doug Flutie and 2011 champion Robert Griffin III. Sadly, if you wish to recreate the improbable 1994 Heisman win of Rashaan Salaam, you're out of luck. You're basically controlling your player here and nobody else. You have some say over the plays (which are obviously a bit more beneficial as QB,) but this is basically just Road to Glory mode with a twist. You do, however, have the chance to move the player over to the school of your choosing, so you can always try to bring a Heisman winner to your favorite school, even if it's only a virtual basis.
Bear in mind that, as with NCAA games, the graphical and roster aspect of things is always a bit stripped down. You get the feel of massive throngs of rabid University football fans and their comically large crowds that often put the NFL's to shame. However, graphically, the game is inferior to Madden year after year, and because NCAA regulations do not permit the use, or profit off the names of students, rosters never have real names. If you are an authenticity oddball like me, you can probably download real name rosters somewhere, however, it isn't a service that EA can provide under NCAA regulations. Still, all the teams are represented, and you can't ask for much more than getting all a company can work with.
Graphics: 7/10. It's hard to continue taking the NCAA franchise seriously when EA doesn't tend to put into the same amount of graphical effort as the Madden games. Everything screams million dollar graphics until you get into the game itself, where it looks at times like a mid-generation PS2 title. Replay graphics tend to be a bit sketchy at times, and Road to Glory boasts some of the most basic layouts and crowd scenes this side of NFL 2K on the Dreamcast. This has to be the edition that EA looks at and realizes a bit more love and cooperative effort is needed in conjunction with the Madden teams.
Sound: 10/10. I said it last year, and I repeat this year - The aural college football experience NCAA provides you is second to none. The cheerleaders, the crowd noises, the marching bands - There's just so much love for it. Once you add the ambiance of the actual football game to it, Madden doesn't even come close. This is something I feel the NCAA games will always have in spades over any of their other sports games, always being able to take the feeling and energy from 80,000 screaming University students and bottling it into their game. The only negative, as always, are minor elements of the commentary. Madden had some problems with overlapping commentary where it felt like Phil Simms was saying the same 3 or 4 things over and over again. It's not as bad in NCAA, but noticeable nevertheless.
Controls: 8.5/10. The controls are definitely easier to manage this year, now that there has been some time to get used to it all. They're very much full steam ahead this season, and I hope it stays this way going into '14 and beyond. There's no need to keep changing a good thing (a side note hint intended to my friends at THQ and the WWE franchise.)
Gameplay: 5.5/10. I'm going to be honest here. I'm just indifferent to the gameplay element of the NCAA franchise in general, knowing that Madden is always 2 months away, and boasts everything this game does and more, and much better to boot. I don't even care that Madden has NFL teams and full rosters. It's just always been the better game player's game overall, moreso now that you know that Madden made so many changes to its in-game physics (even though that is in its infancy.) Road to Glory and Heisman Mode are great additions, as are the dream possibilities of adding those legends to your favorite universities and carrying on from there, but given how far all of EA's sports games have come over the last few years, NCAA the last few years have felt like you're getting 60% of a game, and 200% of an experience for 100% of the price point. I think nowadays, gamers would prioritize more toward what's included in the game than the overall experience.
Here's the thing about NCAA - It caters to such a specialized market that it's hard to recommend to anybody outside of it. If you are dedicated to your alma mater, and want to guide them through the NCAA season, this it the game for you. However, for those craving fully licensed rosters, professional presence outside of those included in the Heisman mode, and well, advanced gameplay, NCAA isn't for you. The biggest problem with NCAA year-in, year-out is that it basically becomes obselete around 7 weeks after release, when Madden makes its way to shelves. All the GOOD new graphical, gameplay and functionality changes seem to be saved for Madden, and this game always feels like taking a step back. It's like WWE fans nowadays watching Smackdown after watching RAW. Everything good happens on RAW. Nobody watches Smackdown outside of the hardest of hardcore fans. They just catch the highlights on RAW the next week.
It's not a bad game. It's just not the best football game out there. Just as I did last year, this is the part where I tell you Madden is the far better football game, but NCAA is the more *fun* overall experience.
Suggestions: It might be time to incorporate NCAA into one overall football title a year. Give Madden gamers the option of a $60 Madden title, or a $80-90 Full Experience which includes NCAA on the Madden engine and full roster integration again in addition to the usual 2000 Gamerscore of 2 retail titles. If Madden moves 5 million units a year, and you can sell half of those as full experience packages (I assume there's lots of overlap between buyers,) it'll be the equivalent to moving 1,250,000 full priced NCAA units in terms of revenue. I don't know how many units NCAA moves, but I know sites like Amazon dropped pre-orders down 25% before the game was even released, and assume that most of the sales are done in the 8 weeks prior to Madden's release.
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
Madden NFL 13
The end of August signals a bittersweet time for sports gamers. It is the time when Electronic Arts begins to roll out its annual stockade of sports titles. For those with only one or two sports to their palette of enjoyment, it isn?t difficult to jaunt to your local retailer and pick up the first one, and again weeks later to the second one.For those who enjoy most, if not all of the annual sports titles, trips become so frequent that you end up on a first name basis with everybody you encounter: The guy behind the counter at the store, all of the other employees you see so often, and even the same person that lines up with you over and over again. But once it?s said and done, you have a smorgasbord of sports titles, and one full year to wear them out before the ritual begins again. Welcome to the beginning of sports game season. The gun cracks off the line and Madden 2013 is the first to emerge from the starting blocks.
Firstly, a congratulations to Peyton Hillis, who was last year?s recipient of the Madden cover curse. After a stellar 2010 campaign in which Hillis combined for over 1600 total yards, he was only able to play just over half the games last year, and finished less than half of his totals from his stellar season. This year?s victim is Calvin Johnson, whose near-1700 receiving yards and stellar 17 yards per reception will be tested by John Madden calling him every night before a game at 4 AM making ghost noises into the phone. The Madden curse is yours CJ.
Last year?s Madden was a game full of mechanical improvements, better graphics, bad announcing and a fairly mediocre online experience. Fortunately, EA has found a way to fix the problems plaguing the online experience and causing delays throughout for people with larger gamer profiles, which is really refreshing. A fix rolled out within FIFA 12 early last Spring, and appears to have been transitioned into all of the EA games.
This review comes out a few days before Madden 13 does, so it feels a bit odd spoiling some of what you will be experiencing when you go in cold, but when you get the game, just pop it in and play it. Right away, without even thinking about some of the presentational enhancements, you?re going to notice a brand new physics engine. Dubbed ?Infinity,? this is the type of game-changing engine NHL players have been enjoying for the last two years. Now, more than ever, your players interact better with each other?s presences on the field. Quarterbacks can?t mysteriously float through the offensive line anymore, and they can?t hand off the ball as easily anymore. In fact, it?s going to be frustrating the first couple of times you play it, because after 21 years of shortcuts and playing the timing window like you own it, the game fires back and is absolutely ruthless. Many a fourth and inches have been stopped of its easy first down by the Quarterback?s leg tripping over his center, or a running back that hasn?t been properly handed the ball by the QB, leading to an awkward collision. The previously mentioned trip is a real thing. Infinity physics mean that your virtual squad can lose their balance and trip over each other?s feet like a bad Benny Hill skit, or get hit awkwardly and suffer cramps and spasms. Some of your games will look less like a football game, and more like an episode of the Three Stooges, but it works. This is the style of collision physics every sports game needs to have, and adds so much more to the realism aspect of the Madden series.
Make no mistake. This is enough to change the way you play Madden forever, however, the entire passing engine has undergone its ?once in a blue moon? alterations as well. This time around, it isn?t a small series of nitpicks. The way you pass has drastically changed. New series of passing animations lead off changes in pass mechanics. The ball now travels at varying speeds, across different qualities of trajectory and perhaps the most necessary (and frightening) change is that receivers no longer have 1000% awareness of when and where the ball will be. Since the dawn of Madden Time, no matter how badly you messed up your throw, receivers would always be in the neighborhood of the pass, unless they were being interfered with or your throw was so frantic that the kid eating a hot dog in the 4th row caught it. No longer will this be the case. Passing lanes are now spelled out based on a receiver?s readiness. If he can?t make it to your pass, can?t see you well enough, or is being too well covered, you are told, and you can then react accordingly and pass to somebody a bit more aware. With the Madden series making catching the ball as challenging as it should be, it is harder to connect than ever before, and you must continue to vary the quality of offense, switching up your running and passing plays. Awaiting this challenge is improved AI and defense. It has often been the case that if you select the exact same play repeatedly, the AI would catch on and catch you before you could wipe the smug smirk off your face. Now, failing to vary your passing and your runs are more punishing than ever. Again, bearing in mind that in-game cramps and injuries are impacted by the hit stick mechanics, you best learn to become a multi-dimensional Madden player if you intend on living and dying by CPU play.
That gameplay is partially enhanced with the use of the Kinect, of which the game recognizes numerous verbal commands. I?ll call this EA?s work-in-progress for this game, however. The Kinect voice commands have a limited window in which they work, and only work for a view in-game commands. They would be endlessly helpful if they worked at any better than hushed tones, since the Kinect has a hard time recognizing your excited play calling. No Quarterback in the history of the NFL has ever started a play with any less than a raised voice, so to have to tell the game you want to hike the ball with the same enthusiasm of telling it that you are going for an actual hike is a bit off-putting. As I say with all Kinect modes in progress, treat it like more of a bonus than a necessity, because that is all it is.
Before we jump into discussions of the enhanced career and Ultimate team games, it?s best worth mentioning some of the little details Electronic Arts did to enhance your experience. The first, and most important thing: GUS JOHNSON IS GONE. After begging for more hatred than a musical collaboration between Justin Bieber and William Hung, Gus Johnson?s commentary did the Madden series no favors and that era is finally over and done with. Again, I feel it necessary to reiterate Johnson is a perfectly capable football play by play voice, however, it just doesn?t transition into the video games well. Johnson is a lot like hockey play by play voice Bob Cole. Cole is somebody whose voice has associated with real hockey games so well for years, but once you put him behind a mic for the 2K games, it all fell apart. Taking Johnson?s place is Phil Simms and Jim Nantz, who, well, sure. They?re fine. I don?t know why they got rid of Cris Collinsworth, but perhaps he was part and parcel to Johnson?s appearance, so I guess you take some of the good with the bad. Simms and Nantz call the action from enhanced stadium views where EA has done everything from measure the position of the sun per what time it is in the game (I?m not even joking) to placing the broadcast booth in the exact spot where it is in the real stadium. I can?t even begin to think about what sort of silly complaints led to these types of fun changes, but well, if you really need to see how the sun shines on Lucas Oil Field at 3:27, this is the game that will show you.
Once you?ve had enough time to test drive the game play mechanics, you?ll barely have scratched the surface. Madden Ultimate Team is back, and is interwoven into the rest of the game. Rather than a standalone and independent product like the Ultimate Team modes have been, Madden?s features unlocks and players you can use both in that game mode, and elsewhere. They?ve also given incentive to those who skip MUT to play, which is equal parts conniving and equal parts genius. You can only unlock specific football legends through the use of playing through MUT, however, if it sounds too intensive, you are given a headstart if your profile shows you having played previous Madden games and other EA football products. MUT will recognize your brand loyalty and reward you with better players and potential tradebait in the way of specialized trading card packs. The more you?ve played, the better starter swag you get. This is your chance to whip out, or borrow some of those old Madden games off your friends to make your MUT life a bit easier. I didn?t find many other changes to MUT to report on, but as always, if the CCG-style sim game catches your fancy, and you love football, this is always an enjoyable mode.
Career modes return, and with them, perhaps one of the biggest time sinks in all of sports gaming. Both the coach mode and the player mode have returned, and are bigger than ever. More variables, more tasks, more ways to level yourself, your team and your players up. In fact, within the first hour I put into the coach?s career mode, I was only able to make it through the first practice, and evaluate my roster. I?ve delved a few more hours into it, and there are certain facets that continue to intrigue me more than others. The fake Twitter accounts, for example, show us the way we absorb and choose to digest our news now. Gone are the fake newspaper reports, and fake full length sports reports, replaced by a fake Trey Wingo recanting it all to us in 140 characters or less. Again, there?s not much more to report here outside of the fact that you really have to ready yourself for a career mode that will probably require 100 hours of gameplay to make a significant dent. Granted, you could sim your way through the whole thing like you have been able to in years past, but it will make your life endlessly harder in this game, and the use of challenges and goals seem to entice you not to try to take shortcuts. Prepare yourself for one thing though, which is one of the most annoying things about career modes in sports games (EA isn?t the only one guilty of this) ? Offline career contains no auto-save feature, so you have to go into the appropriate menu and save every time you want to put the game aside for the night. It will remind you that there?s no auto-save, however, it?s annoying all the same.
The online connected career mode is where the biggest innovation and stride has been made, and we could be here until Madden 14 trying to figure it out. I?m never one to condone reading instruction manuals before playing a game, but it might be a good idea here. In my time, I?ve sluiced through and written some of the most convoluted policy documents that you could ever imagine, and the connected career mode is still giving me fits days after I first encountered it and sat down to read about it. EA used the term ?Sports RPG? to try to explain it to reviewers, and it?s a term I pass on here, because, quite frankly, I can?t explain it any other way. You take on the role of your character, and guide him through his mission to become a hall of famer. However, your ?quest? so to speak is made harder by having to ensure that you analyze your potential suitors well enough, so to find an ample fit. In other words, don?t walk into that proverbial gunfight with a super soaker. If the Jets don?t need a QB, there?s no sense in trying to be their QB. Naturally, as a sports fan, you may find your moral obligation override your business obligations (I had a hard time straying away from the Seahawks no matter what I did,) but you may have to don the colors of the enemy to build a better player. There?s a bit of RPG-esque logic thrown into your face there. You couldn?t slay the Mana Beast with the bow and arrow, so why even try?
Consider that, again, that this may be another 100 hour jaunt, especially when you find out you can retire your character in realtime, and start all over again if you don?t like your character, or have worn out his welcome. You can also do that in the offline career mode.
The million (or rather, $59.99) question that remains every year is whether or not the latest version of an annual sports game is worth purchasing. In years past, my opinions have been fairly unequivocal one way or another. Madden 13 is a game for which I have no answer. On one hand, the casual Madden game will likely find no value in upgrading last year`s title right away. After all, Madden 12, while not being the best one in franchise history, was still a very serviceable game, and has not instantly aged as terribly as when, say, Madden 08 came out and Madden 07 look instantly like George Lazenby to its Roger Moore. But when you consider that the staunchest of Madden fans have been coming back for the last 20 years looking for more, it is worth the upgrade. Electronic Arts has been finding new ways to keep their franchises from running into the ground, and while THQ and 2K continue to push the pace as much as they can with their yearly game edition improvements, EA manages to keep pace. The gameplay mechanic changes would normally be enough to test drive it so to speak, but when you have taken one of your long time meal tickets (career mode) and gambled on making it a completely new experience, there can be severe repercussions. Fortunately, it perseveres, but not before it?s guaranteed to make your life difficult once in a while. Gone are the days where you can button mash your way into the next game, or transaction. This one makes you think more than ever, and might even require you busting out a notebook for reference.
Graphics 8/10. I?ll admit, I don?t think the graphics got any better, and if they did change, they actually got worse. With the new physics engine, the characters definitely feel, at times, very wire-framy. Player sprites will have awkward glitch moments on the field during snaps, and parts of them morph into strange colors. The fields and stadiums, however, look vibrant and brilliant as always, with the exception of the fan patterns in the crowd. Still, credit where credit is due, the game looks pretty good for the most part, and in a game like Madden, if the atmosphere is beautiful enough, a few blips on the playable characters are excusable.
Sound: 9.5/10. This is the first time I?ve considered giving 30/10 because of the lack of Gus Johnson, however, I might break Xbox Addict?s scoring engine. The sound effects here are about as good as you can get without the on-field swearing or inviting your opponents to perform anatomically impossible sexual acts on themselves during a heated play. The fact that EA chose to digitize numerous QBs to get the voices right is commendable, as is the added crowd effects and the much improved commentary. I still can?t help feel Cris Collinsworth got a bit of a shaft and should be brought back into the booth for 14, since I think the quality of his insight was always great, but Nantz and Simms are still good enough for me.
Control: 6/10. I was pretty civil with the controls last year, but after continuing to see the addition without subtraction, they?ve become a bit too messy and abstract. A working knowledge of last year?s game is almost a pre-requisite to be able to play this game with any varying degree of success, and as I previously mentioned, the Kinect controls can be more burdensome at times than a benefit. In fact, I will admit that between the time I started to, and finished reviewing this game, I stopped bothering with the Kinect controls, and started longing for the simplified controls of games old. I still don?t understand, for example, why you have to confirm whether you want to catch a pass or not, when you have other pressing matters (like breaking through coverage) ongoing at the time. Learning the controls in this game to their fullest extent is a yearlong challenge in its own, and perhaps it?s time for EA to look at including a simplified set of controls for those that don?t want to do more than have a game of pickup with their buddies over a couple drinks before Sunday Night Football.
Gameplay: 8.5/10. There?s a lot of déjà vu going into this game, however, it really isn?t anything new to you, the football gamer. After all, there are only so many ways you can continue re-inventing the wheel, and to EA?s credit, they find ways to put a convincing coat of black paint on the wheel every year to make it look new enough. This year did what it needed toward keeping pace with some of the other games like NHL, who have been implementing a more realistic sense of game physics into their title for a couple years now. For me, through the huge career modes, the Madden Ultimate improvements, and everything else I?ve been happy to see, the Infinity Engine is what does it for me. This is the crowning jewel of this year?s Madden game, and this collision detection system is what this game has been desperately in need of. We?re no longer in arcade-esque times where it?s acceptable to float your running back through an entire scrimmage without a scratch, so this is one of those things that I hope is here to stay and will be implemented going forward.
For what it?s worth, I must close this review with a slight update from something I mentioned last year, and offering a shout out to my pal Tracy Hackler at Panini America, who helped confirm that only ONE of the golden tickets from the Marshall Faulk Hall of Fame sweepstakes in Madden 12 were redeemed at press time for this review. So folks, there is still one out there. If you can find one of the remaining Hall of Fame Editions out there when you go pick up Madden 13, and have extra money burning a hole in your pocket, it might be worth the gamble to pick that up too. In the meantime, head out there and enjoy Madden as your precursor to the NFL season. See you again in a few weeks for NHL 13. Fans of that sport may not be so lucky this year.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Lego Batman 2: DC Superheroes
The greatest heroes and villains conglomerate on the world of building bricks in Lego Batman 2. Since hitting (in my opinion) a series low in Lego Star Wars III, Traveler's Tales has been slowly digging themselves out of the same old mould, and attempting to be innovative while maintaining the same level of fun gamers have become accustomed to all these years.Four years ago, the first Lego Batman marked a few things positive about the franchise: Continued growth outside the expansive Star Wars universe, perfect use of color and music to draw you into the ominous nature of Gotham City (even in Lego form,) and well, it was a fun game. However, it started to signal the tired nature of the classic Lego engine, and was a subtle reminder that even with a new character set, you were playing the same game at the end of the day.
Lego Batman 2 takes what we loved about the Lego franchise, and turns it on its head. Gone are the gibberish speaking voices, replaced by real voice actors, including, among others, Rob Paulsen of Ninja Turtles and Animaniacs fame. Paulsen, who provided voice talent for the original Batman Animated Series, comes aboard as the Riddler. What this means, really, is that there's no longer a reliance to stick to a movie or TV show script, and you may just original story arcs and scripting out of the Lego games in the future. Considering the Lego games without dialogue have been so reliant on its gamers having watched (or fully understanding) the basis of it beforehand, future series' installments could simply be based on canon, but not directly take storylines. This game, for example, is based on no one movie or event in the Batman universe. Rather, it builds its events from scratch while drawing inspiration.
This game finds you dead center in the middle of a non-Gotham crisis (of sorts.) Lex Luthor, following an award shunning at the hands of Bruce Wayne and a point blank robbery at the hands of Joker, finds himself developing a device capable of world destruction, which he does with the help of Arkham Asylum's finest residents. From Catwoman, to Bane, to the Joker himself, Batman scrambles across 15 levels of fun and pain in order to stop Luthor from the world. DC's superheroes are along for the journey, as are many of the universe's villains. Captain Boomerang, for example, makes an appearance as a side boss 1/4 of the way into the game, however, can be thwarted in a matter of seconds. Main quest bosses, such as Scarecrow, require a little bit more know-how and puzzle solving to defeat.
A few changes have been made along the way to give this game a new feel overall. With the addition of a larger cast of characters and enhanced graphics, there's a game within the game essentially. Where you've gotten used to the enclosed feel of buildings guiding you into levels (such as the Cantina in the Star Wars games, or the University in Lego Indiana Jones,) Gotham City is presented to you in an open format in this game, making you cruise the streets enroute to your next level, and opening up parts of the city as you progress. Gotham is a massive sprawl to explore, and while many of the streets look the same up and down, it is an interesting way, and perhaps much better style of presentation for players, adding more elements to an already expansive game. The story mode, as always, is a bit short, providing you with around 10-15 hours of gameplay, however, in typical Lego game fashion, completing the game to 100% will probably take you 30-40 hours total without cheats.
Something that was a great addition to the series was the wheel idea of commands seen in Lego Harry Potter and Pirates. The game allowed you to jump into numerous types of commands and demands by holding the B button and choosing what you wanted there. This game does not have the option, and really, while it isn't always required, can be extremely annoying when you realize the B button wants to do everything at once, and you have to be careful about which part of the screen you're standing in for a command to work. Lego Games have never been reactionary, nor is this one, however, it's a large waste of time to have to keep positioning your character in the perfect spot lest he or she do something else (like throwing a bomb when you meant to build an object.)
Visually, this game is stunning at times. The Scarecrow boss portion inside the Asylum early on is an absolute treat, for example, as is much of Gotham City. The water effects all throughout the city, as well as in the Batcave are second to none. For a game that doesn't require massive visual artistry, this game provides it. But it comes at a price. Graphic effects are scaled down in places when too many sprites are on screen, and some of the cinematics come out very jagged based on what is happening on screen. When you see the odd scaling of cinematics, and realize that yet again, you are being forced to watch them the first time you play through, you can't help but cringe a bit. Still, the graphics in this game are every bit as good as the Harry Potter series, if not better. I don't think the foreground characters and studs can look any better, but Traveler's Tales is finding ways to clean up backgrounds and make them the show stealers.
I think you already know what you are getting into gameplay-wise in a Lego game. A straight-ahead storyline mix of hand to hand combat stages and vehicles are met with side quests, and options to build minikits, collect bricks and gather special abilities. The Batman suits are back in some form or fashion. Some are the same as before, and some are brand new. You progress through story mode, and can then go back and play in free play with a mix of characters and abilities to finish unlocking everything you need to. Nothing here is different in that way from the rest of the Lego games at all.
Let's take a look at the final ratings.
Graphics: 9.5/10. Let's face it. There aren't really any graphical enhancements on the foreground of the Lego games to ever be made again. The disposable pieces are already done up, and really just stand for palette swaps from other games. The focus on graphics should really be wavered toward cinematics, backgrounds and characters, all of which this game does well. Some of the shading and light mirroring on the floors of stages are absolutely gorgeous. The characters look really good, as does the game's flow with regard to hundreds and hundreds of moving pieces on the screen at any given time (there's no Mega Man-esque slowdowns like I experienced at times with the early Star Wars games.) The only thing I don't like are the way that the framerates and quality seem to drop when crowds of Lego people are around, or there are too many objects on screen, causing the graphics to get a bit jagged around the larger objects. But, at the same time, I defy you to find a game of this type with better water graphics. I can stare at the waterfalls in the Batcave all day.
Sound: 8/10. The addition of real voice acting was surprisingly better than my traditionalist enjoyment of the Lego gibberish language. It does give the game a little bit of a presentation boost, though I admit, it was fun drawing your own conclusions as to what the characters were saying. That being said, however, most of those games were based on a movie storyline, so you would have some semblance of what was going on. With an original storyline like Lego Batman 2, this is the only way that they could have players figure out what was happening for certain, and will certainly open up the idea of more original writing in the future. Outside of that, the game is full of the same sound effects you're accustomed to, which is a bit unfortunate since I'd like to see more in the way of original sound effects per series rather than SFX recycling.
Controls: 6.5/10. The controls in this game are, well, sort of the same as the Lego Games, which is always convenient since you can pick the game up and start playing as if you'd always been playing it. The game-exclusive controls, however, are so poorly mapped. The B button seems to do everything yet again, which is the worst when you're in a position to have to do something and can't because the game doesn't recognize the distance you are away from something. Magnetic Robin, for example, activates his magnetic power with the B button, however, he also builds with B. What happens if you need to build near a magnetic wall? Tapping the B button in the Batmobile fires the weapon. Anything but a light tap causes the vehicle to reverse. Trying to fire your gun and instead reversing off a cliff? Fantastic.
Gameplay: 7/10. The Harry Potter games and Pirates of the Caribbean brought with it much more involved In-Game gameplay than their predecessors. There were more things to do, but it was very easy to manage. Lego Batman 2, for all it does to progress the evolution of the Lego Series seems to take a step backward with its actual stage gameplay. The addition of an open style Gotham City between levels is a huge breath of fresh air, and a neat concept, however, when all is said and done, the game still has a similar feel to all of the old Lego Games that had a lot of mechanical problems in execution. So much of the Lego series (because the gameplay is so similar for the sake of the younger audiences) are essentially the same game with different scenarios, and so much of the fun is based on the characters and plotlines, and this game is no exception. Lego Batman 2 thrives on a fun storyline and a healthy mixed of Batman on his feet and in his vehicles, and the mix of voice actors add to the fun too. However, it's still a shame that if you've been accustomed to a lot of the experience improvements of the other games, this one feels like a bit of a step back, despite so many leaps forward.
Overall, I still think the usual fans will tune in - Fans of the Lego Games and fans of the Batman series. There's nothing wrong with the game that stops me from recommending it to you. You know exactly what you're getting into with Lego Games nowadays, so it's just a matter of deciding upon whether you want to purchase it now, or later on down the line if you are interested, and whether the content appeals to you enough. As a side note, the game comes with a trailer for Lego Lord of the Rings as well, which should be our next jaunt down Lego Road come October.
Lego Batman 2 makes a good case for itself overall, but consider Harry Potter the continued king of the mountain of Lego games.
Suggestions: Please find a way to better map out the controls, especially when the action button on screen could be capable of doing 3 or 4 different things on screen at once.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
FIFA Street
It's often said imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But what to make of rebooted franchises? It has been approximately 4 years since Fifa Street 3 graced our Xboxes and gave us a ridiculous element of soccer that catered to a flashy generation. With a little pizzazz, a bit of capoeira, and a lot of caution to the wind, the Fifa Street franchise was headed for great things, bringing life to a sport that lacked an over the top representation much like NBA Jam did for basketball.Then the music stopped, so to speak. Fifa Street was silenced. For the next 4 years, EA?s main soccer focus appeared to be the FIFA franchise, turning that from an average series of yearly games to a fabulous one. Then, in an interesting turn of events, EA announced the revival of the Street Franchise, however, rather than calling this one Street 4, it?s a rebirth altogether. Street is back in a new way, carrying forward only the essence of the previous franchises. The game focuses more on the fast paced, flashy style of Street football than Arcade football, though it should still be considered largely an arcade-style title. The biggest difference is that the FIFA team was brought in to work on a lot of elements of this game, which you will see almost right away.
Right out of the box, you?re hit with?limited game modes. EA chose to adopt the ?Keep it Simple? rule here, and hook you up with an exhibition mode with a few different gameplay modes and a World Tour (Practice modes are available as well.) The game also includes Futsal (organized indoor football) and a mixture of 3 to 6-a-side football. Nearly all (if not all) of the teams from FIFA 12 are available, and all of the rosters have been updated to a certain point as well. In addition to teams from all of your favorite leagues, street players from around the world have been imported, giving you an unprecedented number of players to choose from worldwide.
Exhibition modes are what they are, but this game really shines in World Tour Mode. This mode will give you dozens, if not hundreds of hours of enjoyment, with the combination of all game modes, and objectives to meet. Perhaps the coolest feature I think I?ve ever seen in a sports game is the extension of the EA Football Club mode, where your friends? created characters will automatically show up in the first street game, and then make their way onto your created street team. You don?t even need to invite them (or play with them for that matter) as the game will source created players from your social network and bring them into your experience. Kudos to whoever dreamt up that idea.
You can start your World Tour anywhere you choose, and work to dominate the entire planet. The games are what they are ? Your regular mix of soccer game modes mixed throughout. Your created street team earn XP, medals and skill points while you level up to progress higher on the ladder. Once you play a region of a country, you also earn the ability to claim one of the beaten teams? captains on yours. This may pose a bit of a problem if you have a lot of friends and want to level them up instead (player poaching isn?t mandatory anyway) but is helpful if you want to build a better team much faster. To complete World Tour to its fullest will take a lot of time, and isn?t something you can simply dedicate a day or two to.
The controls in this game are pretty well thought out. The basics are very similar to the real Fifa games, with the obvious inclusion of street tricks, of which there are so many, I lost count. You run the majority of your tricks with the right stick, and the game guides you while you?re playing. Unlike the other Fifa Street games, the tricks are heavily focused on what is physically possible, not physically impossible like past games (You know, not to brag, but I could personally only ever do a jumping 1080 on a 1440 spin kick 7 feet up in the air.) Everything is what somebody has seen or done in street football before. The problem with the controls is the absolute clunky nature of it all. The controls just seem to function when they want to. The basics are always there, but it seems like the game takes on a life of its own whenever it wants to. One moment, you?re playing the most fluid game of panna you?ll ever play. Another, you can?t check, you can?t score, and you can?t pull off the most basic of tricks. This game is one that needs to live and die by its controls, and it quickly pushes the title to a ?Continued Work in Progress? state.
Speaking of clunky, I seem to be plagued with awkward EA Bugs. For an ungodly amount of time I can?t even be bothered to remember, I could not access FUT mode in FIFA 12. It was literally the day after I finished the review for it. EA spent nearly 2 hours with me one night attempting to diagnose the problem, and finally chalked it up as a mutation of a previous glitch. It took around 3 different patch updates, but I can play FUT again. In Street, something I found discouraging (and perhaps it was just me again. I couldn?t be bothered to report it) was that I couldn?t boot the game up and have my system automatically log into Live. Rather, I would have to start my console, go back to the dashboard, log into Xbox Live there, start the game up and then have it all connect. Complicating matters was when I hadn?t put my online pass in, the game crashed numerous times thinking while trying to let me put my password in. I even gave up and disconnected my console from Live for a while for the sake of this review. I still have not resolved it 100%, though it now works as designed more often than not.
Since I?m not much of an online gamer, however, it?s not a big detriment to me, but it may be to those of you who choose to play opponents over Live instead of against the CPU. I would say to tread lightly with this title as a result, but I have reason to believe I?m the only one experiencing this problem because it seems like I always am. Anyway, let?s take a look at the final ratings.
Graphics: 9/10. Certain aspects of the game look great. Characters move fluidly no matter what combination of ridiculous clothing they're wearing, with little no clipping issues. The backgrounds are detailed, bright and colorful. Overall, this game looks great. For me to call this a graphical masterpiece may be a bit of a stretch, but EA's graphics rarely seem to be lacking. The right part of the mesh ripples when you put the ball in the net, and everything flows well together.
Sound: 8/10. Audio for the game is good. With such a focus on the world of street soccer, EA's done a good job of capturing a few different snippets of languages and accents with what's available. I'm not a huge fan of the soundtrack. I like the subtle way the soundtrack songs are background music, and the lyrics pipe in on goals and instant replays, however, the music itself is just better than average. There are a few songs that give me that sporty vibe, but I feel like I should be watching a Volkswagen commercial other times. I will admit, however, that I'm not very club football cultured, and don't know if what I'm hearing are official team anthems. My soccer watching is relegated fully to the MLS and International stages.
Control: 6/10. Controlling the players are probably the weakest aspect of this game, and this leads to frustration more often than not. They aren't difficult to learn, however, it`s difficult to get into a rhythm with this game. Sometimes the game button caches, and other times it does not. Sometimes players just throw the ball away with a combination of different moves, and sometimes they don`t. Perhaps it`s ball and court physics, and if it is, it`s one of the most unintentional, yet intentional physics monkey wrenches in video gaming history. I`ll lean toward no, however. What frustrates me about sitting and playing this game is the fact that the controls just dial in and dial out as they wish. One minute, you can pull off some of the greatest soccer moves the world has ever seen because your perfectly responsive player will listen to your every command. Others, the player won`t do anything but dribble the ball up and down the court and flick a trick here and there. I found myself repeating the same tactics over and over again rather than trying to diversify because, to be honest, I gave up.
Gameplay: 8/10. When this game wants to be great, it is. When it wants to be the game that refuses to sell itself to you, it is. Granted, EA fixed all the glitches that seemed to riddle the demo, but there are still some very unfortunate glitches that rear their head at inopportune times. Getting the ball stuck at the wall is one of the worst things to possibly happen in this game, as I found that the ball and wall would become one sometimes. At certain difficulties, NPCs will freeze with the ball, allowing you to simply stand there as well, or check them easily. For a game that touts itself as a pickup, arcade style title, there are some very suspect things that should not exist out of the box without modifying options. Players, for example, seem to have no automatic aim, which while fine for a simulation title, is not for Fifa Street. Player collision, as previously mentioned, is fantastic, but again, a bit select. The CPU players seem to be able to float through you and do things that you cannot. This effect, which is, well, CPU cheating (forget the idea of making the game difficult. Difficulty should not be increased by CPU ability to do physically impossible things) adds another layer of frustration on the higher difficulties.
Overall, this is a fun game, yes. I will find myself playing it quite often until Euro 2012 comes out. But consider this title for what it is. EA chose not to call this the 4th installment for a reason -- This is a new attempt at repackaging an old Franchise. The first efforts often tend to be little more than foundations for which a company can build upon to make a continuously better product. THQ succeeded when they reinvented the WWE Franchise in the latter Smackdown vs. Raw engines. 2K succeeded in a huge way with the NBA franchise, so much so that it pushed poor EA out of basketball altogether for 2 years. EA will do it with Fifa Street, but it might take a couple more of these before it rounds out. Still, the vast inclusion of leagues and teams, and fun of the World Tour mode is reason enough to give this game a look. If you enjoyed previous Fifa Street games, you will definitely enjoy this one. However, if you are only into the serious soccer games, this is so night and day from the Fifas, Winning Elevens and World Cups of the world that you may not enjoy it at all.
Overall Score: 7.7 / 10
Major League Baseball 2K12
Once the calendar hits March every year, that familiar feeling in the air invades your senses. The smell of fresh cut grass. The sunlight shining longer into the evening, and the sound and sight of baseball. As Spring Training continues and works its way into opening day, it brings with it baseball gaming season. MLB 2K12 is out now, looking to capitalize on the lacklustre offering last year. To be quite honest, it shouldn't be too difficult.On a side note, I don't often acknowledge the other side of the console gaming spectrum, but it's believed this may be the last new title to be released for the Playstation 2 in North America. A moment of silence for a system wore out its welcome midway through the last decade, yet continued to anyway, last year's game was a disappointing cocktail of bland and monotone. A well presented series of ideas gave way to a poorly rendered game where you had to create your own excitement, as there was little generated for you. Even modes that exist for pure fun (like the Home Run Derby) didn't provide much.
Out of the box, what's interesting to me, and will probably get MLB diehards going is the Perfect Game Challenge. Rather than the offered challenge where the first one out of the gate wins a million, players now get the chance to compete in a pool, where the highest voted perfect games will show off in a tournament, where the winner gets the money. That's a nicer touch for those late to the party, and fixes last year's problem where former WWE wrestler Stevie Richards completed the task first, but lost out on his money because he uploaded the video before the contest started.
There is also the MLB Today Season Mode. This is a true hardcore baseball fan's dream. In this mode, you play your team's game the same day it happens. In essence, you are committing yourself to 162 9 inning games of MLB 2K12, which you play alongside your chosen team. I like the idea, and hope this becomes a "thing" in more sports games. I believe 2K implemented this into the NBA series as well last year, or some form of it. I wouldn't mind that EA "borrows" this idea for their sports titles as well. Tiger Woods 14 might be nice if you get to play as a pro and do a season that way, or Madden has you sit down for 16 Sundays and hammer out the regular season.
As a lifelong fan of the broadcast box, the most exciting feature for me is the intelligent commentary track. More than EIGHTY new hours of commentary happened to get recorded for this game alone by the broadcast team (same gang as last year) and the game has been tweaked to play off previous pitches, or previous motions and evolutions within the game perfectly. The commentary is so intricate and so well integrated that you would be led to believe that 2K sat the commentary team down and had them record an at-bat between every possible pitcher-batter combination in the game. It's just that well done. You can literally go hours without hearing repetition in commentary sequencing, which is otherwise non-existent in the sports gaming market today.
The two best enhancements to this game over last year come in the batter's box. Batters are properly affected, and their skills tuned to how they handle the pitcher's pitches. While you were told about stylistic matches and mismatches last year, you didn't quite have to pay as much attention to them as this year. This is great, as is the fact that batters are a tad more intelligent than last year. If you wanted to, you could still throw the same heat over and over again to different parts of the strike zone last year, and the batters would still fall for them. You can't do that this year. CPU batsmen will figure it out and chase you out of the game right quick. Swing timing is much better tuned now, and you pay the price if your swings are early or late more than ever. That alone basically takes last year's medicre controls and makes them a bit more believable.
There's not much else I can say in the way of major game enhancements. Outside of those significant tweaks in gameplay, and a few other minor additions, it still feels like I'm playing the same game as last year.
Sure, you know you're playing a different game. Those Miami Marlins unis weren't in last year's game. The Home Run Derby has been trimmed a little bit to where you know quicker than ever that your swing was a bust (what little fun that mode still had last year is pretty much zapped because of it) and the majority of the game looks as gorgeous as ever (I'll touch on things a bit more in the graphical breakdown.) Outside of that, if you stuck MLB 2K11 and 2K12 in front of me with the same graphics, same commentary track, same rosters and had me play a game on both with the different engines, it'd be like taking a Coke/Pepsi taste test as a 7 year old -- Wouldn't know the difference to be honest.
If you considered last year to be a dusty mirror, it really just feels like they've taken a feather duster to it, and put a little bit of touch up varnish around the trim. This game gets the consumer's choice "Caveat Emptor" award, because you should be aware you're just getting a better MLB 2K11. This is a no brainer purchase if you want baseball, because it's the only thing out there.
Graphics: 7/10. So much of this is right, and yet so much is wrong. On one hand, you have great looking ballparks, cleaned up fans, and great looking background visuals. On the other, the players look so out of place, and so crudely animated at times that it almost wrecks the picture they've painted. Recall back to the movie Space Jam, and how out of place Michael Jordan looked mixed into the Looney Tunes world? Now reverse that effect to where the players look out of place on nice looking backgrounds. This is slowly improving, and I'm such next year's title will feature better player rendering and animation, but everything just looks so out of place right now.
Sound: 9/10. Credit where credit is due. 80 hours of game-based commentary is nothing to sneeze at, and this is probably one of the best sports games on the market for that exact thing. You feel a better sense of interaction between game and commentator, and you don't feel as much that there are bits of commentary spliced for specific moments and specific instances, which sports games suffer from right now. The crowd still isn't very good, and I still don't quite feel audibly that I'm at the ballpark as much as this sort of title should. The menu music sucks too. That, and the fact that the music makes me feel like I'm attending an underground Grade 10 rave is all I want to say about it. However, that aside, the commentary track coming out of this game is the true stunner, and sadly may get overlooked when this game is looked back upon.
Controls: 7/10. The controls are virtually the same as last year, however, the gameplay tweaks toward them mean they make more sense. Pitching is still too difficult to care about mastering, but the swing timing, and learning how and when to control yourself does the trick in shoring up the control system. This is so far backwards to what I would have expected 2K to have done over the last year, but it works. To their credit, it does work.
Gameplay: 4/10. This game just doesn't have the pizzazz to interest me. Last year's game played average at best, and this year is almost the same. The Home Run Derby, which has been fun since every baseball game since the dawn of time, just isn't any longer. You either know you're hitting one right away, or not. Last year's was pretty similar, but this year doesn't even try to hide suspense. The improved interaction between batter and pitcher, and the ridiculously positive changes to the batting impact bring this gameplay mark up, but the fact that it's just an average title otherwise does little else for me.
Presentation: 7/10. As always, presentation in-game is pretty well done. It's not those levels of breathtaking perfection between takes that the NBA team have achieved, but it's good enough to get you into the game. Presentation outside, just like any 2K sports title is plentiful, yet messy. The menus, color schemes and their simultaneous interaction on the screen is headache inducing with the amount of colors and contrasts throughout. As I mentioned previously, the music is out of place, and may be one of the worst soundtracks to ever grace a sports game in recent memory, and it does more harm to the overall face of this game than good.
MLB 2K12 is the poster child for a video game work in progress. It's proof that you can clean up 95% of the problems with your last title, and still end up with an average game because the 5% you missed was what should've taken priority. If the game still looked like it came from a 1st year college project, but they put out the best playing baseball game in the history, people may have cut them some slack. As it stands, there isn't much waiting for you if you have MLB 2K11, and it's hard to justify paying another $60 for this if you did it last year. On the other hand, if you didn't buy the NBA title, and didn't buy MLB 2K11, well, there's a good looking combo pack out there with your name on it that has both these games. Otherwise, it's a judgment call. This game's better than last year's, but it's not necessarily worth going out and getting if you have the last couple outings.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Grand Slam Tennis 2 
Electronic Arts has a rich history with many sports worldwide, however, Tennis is one that is fairly new to their repertoire. In fact, 2009's initial Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii (all other consoles' versions were rumored, and subsequently shelved) was the first dedicated venture into the tennis market in their nearly 3 decades of existence. A solid first offering with a few party games and gameplay modes, Grand Slam Tennis filled a huge gap on the Wii previously unavailable.Nearly 3 years later, the second installment of Grand Slam Tennis has made its way to the 360, as EA puts forth its entry into a fairly competitive market for the sport. Top Spin is largely regarded as the "real" tennis game, while Virtua Tennis has done well to capture the casual gamer's market. Where will Grand Slam fit in?
It already has a bit of a licensing bonus over the other games. Whereas you still don?t have the ATP and WTA league attachments, you have all 4 majors, including their signature courts. You now can play under the lights of Arthur Ashe stadium, or slide aimlessly from pillar to post at Roland Garros, while your white tennis sneakers change color from the orange hue of the clay courts. Tennis physics are to be fairly authentic as well. Players and shots will react differently to surfaces depending on their skill set and shot style.
If you played the first Grand Slam Tennis, you may be disappointed to find out the roster is exactly the same. Three years later, in an ever changing sports market, in a sport where superstars are born on a yearly basis (though, granted, those superstars stay around for years and years,) Grand Slam Tennis 2 has the exact same roster of licensed players as it did 3 years ago.
Game modes are pretty streamlined. You're looking at exhibition singles and doubles matches, a career mode and training school hosted by John McEnroe. Training school is an absolute riot, and anybody playing through (regardless of how good they think they are) have to play through. McEnroe is top notch as your tennis teacher, offering a bit of praise for your victories, but absolutely berating you for missing shots, or objectives. If you remember being chided while at the driving range in Grand Theft Auto IV, it's very similar and just as funny.
Outside of that, it's straight ahead tennis, which is why I hope you would be purchasing this game. You begin to see very quickly that this is a tennis game aimed at the serious crowd. Rather than the bright cartoony graphic stylings of Virtua Tennis, it's a darker, more sophisticated and mature look, especially courtside. The training exercises are very tennis and aim focused. There aren't really any targets (outside of glowing zones) or objects for you to hit. If you could compare, say, the MLB "The Bigs" series, and the straight MLB one, this game would be the latter.
In the Career mode, you create a tennis player with rough skills and bring him up in the bottom dredges of his (or her) respective tour to play the greats at the 4 major tournaments of the year. You have a limited number of years, and a limited number of objectives. Meeting them result in you receiving points which you can use to unlock new gear for your create a players. Failing obviously pushes you farther down the ladder, and out of contention.
Gameplay mechanics in general aren't bad. The game measures each shot you take, and will score you upon hitting the ball, ranging from "very early" to "very late." In a rather demoralizing turn of events, I was destroying the tennis world from the comfort of my living room, but my timing was terrible. Controls are mapped out in 3 different ways: Standard Arcade button presses, a system where you can play with the bumpers, or through the right stick, which is EA's tennis entry into the Total Control market. I found this mode to be a bit awkward at first, as you're not used to swinging a racket with your thumb. Overall, it's a bit tougher to play with than just buttons, but like the NHL series, a bit of time, and you'll be used to it. I swear by the total stick control in that franchise, and while I'm still not as enthusiastic about this game's version, it's probably just my inability to accept change more than anything.
Sitting in the broadcast booth are tennis legends Patrick Cash and John McEnroe. These two talented color commentators are joined by...nobody on Play by Play. I'd assumed that with the two of them in the booth, one would likely take the lead. Unfortunately, it seems like both play the role of color commentator, throwing in very good insight, but providing little in the way of play by play. Don't get me wrong -- I couldn't ask for two better and more knowledgeable color commentators in this game, however, they don't have the neutral voice to pace the action in between.
Something I know EA prides itself on, and something I take them to task for regularly in my reviews is their attention to detail. Grand Slam does a great job with some details. Create a Player is just as good, if not better than all the other games of its time. The angle of shots and their timing is fantastic. Tennis outfits, animations and reactions to surface play is all great. I'm a big fan of the on-court play, and the fact that dust naturally kicks up and floats around players' feet on dirty surfaces. The ball reacts differently to a strong serve on a hard court than a grass court. Every little gameplay mechanic like that feeds into the idea that EA wants to create the most complete and authentic tennis experience possible. I do, however, take a bit of exception to the fact that in a game where there are only 23 roster players, only 8 of them have their shot style and play. Novak Djokovic, for example, hits shots with the wrong stance, and wrong stroke.
You'll begin to see after a couple hours of playing Grand Slam Tennis that this game just doesn't have a very complete feel, and comes off more like a work in progress than anything. It has the stylings of a great tennis game, however, it is the first building block. The competitors are well established franchises, who have had the opportunity to build on their mistakes. With little to offer outside of tennis and training, a limited roster that needs a huge boost of DLC to round out, and nice graphics, Grand Slam Tennis 2 is the first of what could be great steps forward in tennis video gaming. It just isn't there yet.
Let's look at the final ratings and how they break down.
Graphics: 8.5. Credit where credit is due. The graphics in this game look good. Players move fluidly around the court, and look exactly as they should. Pat Cash has his signature headbands, and Chris Evert's hair has the always matching scrunchie. In going with the realistic approach, this game's graphics are better than most, and are the least of EA's worries going into the sequel.
Sound: 6/10. I guess scattered play by play commentary is better than no play by play. Pat Cash and John McEnroe are very insightful color commentators, however, are left without somebody to pace them. Essentially, all you're receiving are random snippets of color commentary spliced into the silence. It seems like McEnroe will be providing play by play from the get go, but it is Cash whose voice is heard most often, though not enough. You're left with what seems to be in incomplete commentary track. Music in the game is what you can expect out of a tennis game: Energetic yet nonabrasive European techno music which you hear out of most similar games. In-game sounds are a bit over-the-top, where it sounds like almost every tennis ball is being shot at a hollow metal drum, however, they do well to capture player emotions down on the court, one thing that adds an element of authenticity to the roster.
Controls: 7/10. Controls are versatile if nothing else. If you don't like one way the controls are, you can switch to any number of control types on the fly since they are all mapped out at once. I found the Total Racquet Control feature to be difficult to get into, though it will probably be a blessing for hardcore tennis fans. One thing to keep in mind with the way EA does their gaming control schemes nowadays is that you cannot "store" or "wind up" your controls. Whereas a game like Virtua Tennis allows you to hold onto your control as you approach the shot and gives you a margin of error to work with, Grand Slam Tennis provides no such buffer. If you begin your shot too early and begin to control your player toward it, he/she may not even move out of place, and the ball will fly by. That may take a bit of getting used to. Short of that, the timing system is a great idea, and should help eager gamers begin to learn ideal times to hit and return the ball.
Gameplay: 6/10. It's a good start, but something is lacking. Strip away the glitz and glamour, and you're left with what this game truly is: A very rigid tennis experience with flexible controls, but few gameplay options, a small roster, and no Kinect support. The tennis game itself is very straight forward. You're either learning how to play the game, or you're playing it. There aren't any mini games where you're chasing pineapples, whipping 40 foot tennis balls into bowling pins, or feeding tennis ball shaped steaks to approaching lions. It's nice to be able to play on licensed courts, but outside of the ground composition, and the way the ball reacts to it, there isn't much else that offers distinction.
There isn't much in the way of special presentation, so I will skip that score and go to the end.
Overall, this is a good tennis game. It's not a great one, and while it's certainly not the best, it definitely isn't the worst (you can't get much worse than Top Spin 2.) I would recommend it to somebody who craves a proper tennis experience without being an over the top comedic look like Virtua Tennis, and is sick of the Top Spin series. Otherwise, casual gamers looking for that fun sports title to play with their friends for hours should pass. Give EA another year or two to work this one out. It needs to jump in on the Kinect bandwagon, and bring with it a better roster, which is probably the most inexcusable thing about the game. At the time of release, it was missing 8 of the top 10 women's tennis players in the world, and 5 of the top 5 men. I can understand that development of these games take time, but no Caroline Wozniacki? She's been in and out of the top 5 in the world for the last 3 years. A good go by EA Sports, but it needs a bit more before it's considered a contender.
Suggestions: Suggestions: A larger roster with more legends and current names. A lot more "fun" things to do. Keep Pat Cash and Mac in the broadcast booth, but get them a play by play commentator to pace the energy of rallies, and build a sense of excitement, or at the very least, have better crowd interactivity. I can see Grand Slam is attempting for authenticity, and it's true that very few tennis play by play men or women will speak during rallies. However, the crowd usually does the job of building excitement otherwise. This is still a video game, however, and, without a stable commentary track, or decisive crowd noise, there isn't much left to build excitement.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
UFC Undisputed 3
Following the release of THQ's wildly successful UFC Undisputed 2010, they immediately announced they would be taking a full year off to return with a better overall gameplay experience. The game's mechanics were starting to round into form, however, there was a bit too much that would have to be re-done for a successful re-release in a year's time. The game was weighed too heavily in strikers' favor and there were major flaws with submissions, the controls were still too bulky and complicated for novice gamers, and there were lag problems online.With these challenges, along with having to create a better game, preparation for a strong 2012 return began. Complicating matters for THQ was the fact that in the near 24 months since the release of the 2010 edition, the UFC decided to absorb World Extreme Cagefighting's roster, and bought Strikeforce, it's (then) biggest competitor. The shift from 5 weight classes to 7, and the sheer size of the new roster meant that it would have return larger, more intensive, and much more boisterous, whether it was intended or not.
UFC Undisputed 3 is now ready to hit shelves on Valentines Day 2012, but on a day dedicated to love, does it deserve any from gamers?
This game is, in one word: HUGE. Some of the modes are familiar carryovers, and many are similar in nature to old WWE Smackdown vs. Raw games (such as title defense mode.) Exhibition style fights are back, as are the ability to create your own cards, fighters and tournaments. A retooled career mode is back, and you can choose whether you want to create your own fighter, or guide an existing fighter through UFC ranks.
What's exciting about this game, however, is what's new. The game boasts a roster of around 150 fighters in 7 weight classes with new venues, referees and championship opportunities. Presentation has been stepped up by far. Fighters now have ring entrances, along with their signature cage-in motions (for example, Ben Henderson prays before entering the ring.) You aren't able to edit their motions or music just yet, but the term "Rome wasn't built in a day" comes to mind. For now, you can still bump to the sounds of cleverly guised songs like "S Love" when Urijah Faber comes out, and "Eminence Back" when Stephan Bonnar enters.
Perhaps the most exciting inclusion, however, is gameplay dedicated to PRIDE Fighting Championships. For nearly a decade, PRIDE was the dominant mixed martial arts brand in Japan, and at one point was arguably the biggest brand in the world, until the untimely death of one of its co-founders and supposed ties to the Yakuza resulted in the loss of their broadcasting rights, and ultimately, sale of the promotion's rights to the UFC's parent company. The promotion, which springboarded the careers of many familiar faces in the cage and in the broadcasting booth, has been reminisced upon fondly in the years since its demise. Topps have issued trading cards, the UFC have had a "Best of Pride" TV show, and DVDs have been reissued. It has yet, however, to be in video game form for this generation until now. I'll discuss PRIDE more further down the review.
The interesting thing about sports games are the fact that you can trace lineage of how long it's taken for the game to go from the development floor to your Xbox by looking at the roster. Perhaps the most telling inclusion is at Featherweight. Social media funnyman Fredson Paixao is included on the roster, however, has not fought since December 2010, and has not been with the UFC since shortly after. If it wasn't believable that this was a long-term endeavor, Paixao's face should remind you of the amount of time this has taken.
Calling the action in UFC mode are Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan, along with Bruce Buffer's fight announcements.
Hopefully you got the opportunity to read Adam's previews from before, especially around career mode, which breaks down in depth what has changed. Career mode is much more fight oriented now, rather than deterioration of skills and stat caching. In fact, your skills don't deteriorate, so you don't have to worry about having to sacrifice drills only to sacrifice skills. You also don't necessarily have to have rest periods between fights, so if you wish to go out and make your fighter the next Travis Fulton (MMA's alltime leader in fights and wins,) then by all means, go ahead. The mini-games in career mode are fantastic, and what's best is if you are the type of gamer that wants to dig right in without having to fuss about creating fighters, you can guide an existing UFC fighter on the road to glory. Career Mode to the offline gamer should likely be the majority of what you do, though it is realistically just the tip of the iceberg overall.
The new controls are a welcome change too. Those used to the old controls will still have the luxury, however, those who had trouble with performing transitions on the old game (which was a huge proponent of the striking-friendly nature) can switch to "Amateur" controls which allow you to perform transitions with the flick of a stick rather than half circles. The downfall is that experienced players have the ability to intercept your transitions a bit easier, however, it makes the game much more playable to a novice crowd. All gaming companies have ever had to do from the dawn of time is appease those who appreciated their control scheme while creating a new one for those who didn't. Too much tinkering with controls were the reason Undisputed's cohorts down the hall at WWE '12 lost me to the 2011 game after release, and are the reason why Undisputed 2010 will sit on my shelf, never to be opened again. Undisputed 3 took what it needed to do, and did it right. Undisputed veterans can enjoy the comfort of their wheelhouse, and new gamers can pick it up and go for a spin much easier than before.
One of the toughest, yet most helpful parts of the game are the returning, and revamped Fight Challenges mode. In this mode, you relive a famous fight whilst attempting to recreate it as best you can by completing a series of objectives based on fight events. PRIDE mode starts you off, and you unlock all of the UFC fights as you go along. This mode is extremely difficult, however, in having to complete the objectives, it teaches a one dimensional player how to become better well-rounded. It also showcases the fight engine?s diversity, and the amount of detail and positions you can fight from.
I would be remiss not to mention that the game is extremely smooth online. I had the opportunity to test against varying levels of connection strength (some as low as one bar strength,) and not once did I lose connection or time out as I had in previous years. There was no lag, the graphics were not choppy and there was no hang time at all. Granted, there is a possibility it was because there were limited people on the server (reviewers and devs mostly,) but it's very promising for those looking to play online on a regular basis.
Then there?s PRIDE mode. THQ went for a full spectrum of authenticity here, attempting to rebuild sets and setups, and even recreating the atmosphere of Japan?s Saitama Super Arena , down to head referee Yuji Shimada (who isn?t referenced by name, but it?s obvious to longtime fans who it is supposed to be.) Details are so precise and painstaking that the Bad Boy logo on the mat is last decade?s. PRIDE?s contribution to Mixed Martial Arts (especially during the North American Dark Ages) were so influential to so many fans that this mode alone will move copies of this game to many gamers previously on the fence. Calling the action are noted gamer Stephen Quadros, who manned PRIDE FC?s English play by play booth for 7 years, and ?El Guapo? Bas Rutten, who mixes his signature cocktail of wit and wisdom. Lenne Hardt, the injection of ringside enthusiasm was originally left out of the game (with an imitator in her place,) however, THQ thankfully decided to incorporate her after all. With all due respect to Bas Rutten, and Stephen Quadros, this mode wouldn?t be complete without her.
PRIDE rules apply to matches contested in that mode, meaning knees and kicks to the head of a downed opponent are allowed, and knees from a four point stance are allowed as well.Quadros and Bas do a bang-up job with their commentary. Quadros remains professional and knowledgeable as always, and I don?t know whether Bas? was scripted, but it wouldn?t surprise me that they sat him down in the booth, pressed ?record? and asked him to be himself for a day. For those unfamiliar, Quadros? commentary was far more diverse than Mike Goldberg?s in those early days. Goldberg was brought into the UFC as a voice who evolved his knowledge as he went by. Quadros usually carried a bank of facts into his fights, and gave birth to numerous terms used today, including ?Lay and Pray.? He also serves as introductory point to the fight challenges.
There?s a large accompanying roster of PRIDE veterans as well, including ?PRIDE versions? of many current UFC fighters, including Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera. Longtime fans will be happy to see names like Gary Goodridge, Don Frye and Murilo Bustamante representing PRIDE. The mode is split into their familiar 4 weight classes, and all of the UFC fighters can be accessed as well (all of the UFC Bantamweights and Featherweights appear as PRIDE Lightweight, and all of the Welterweights show up as Middleweights.) Much of the PRIDE roster is fighters that have appeared in previous games already (so they have been smartly re-coded for this game,) and only 3 fighters (Paulo Filho, Bob Sapp, Murilo Rua) have never set foot in the Octagon.
The amount of work put into this mode, and the amount of development manpower this must have taken pretty much show that this mode could have been successfully released as its own game with the ability to import UFC?s superstars into the roster by cross-referencing both games (THQ did something similar with Legends of Wrestlemania and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009,) but the choice to give up those revenue dollars by providing a single boisterous experience is admirable.
The only development point for an upcoming patch or Undisputed 4 PRIDE mode ? The inclusion of openweight GPs. Openweight GPs, and the mystique of expecting the unexpected were a big part of what made PRIDE such an endearing watch all those years. The inclusion of openweight categories is consistently one of the biggest fan requests, and I can understand why it isn?t something you may see in UFC mode. However, it was a big part of PRIDE Fighting (and continues to be in Japan,) and it would be fantastic to see it in the future.
Strangely, the biggest falter in the entire game might be the list of fighters. It?s strange to say this with 150 fighters already; however, there are glaring omissions in the roster. Many current favorites that probably should be in the game are not included (such as Rory MacDonald, Jake Ellenberger and Chan Sung Jung) and some of UFC?s bright stars like Brian Stann and Phil Davis are only currently available through pre-order. It appears that THQ has already committed themselves to steady DLC, however, with 2 packs already announced, and apparently more to come. The aforementioned Jung and MacDonald are two of the fighters that will appear on these packs.
There isn't much left to do now but discuss the final ratings, and how they stack up.
Graphics: 9.7/10 ? Graphically speaking, much of the game looks similar to Undisputed 2010 in theory. They didn?t do a lot to drastically change the graphics, however, the addition of motion capturing fighters mean that much of the animation has been cleaned up. Things continue to come into form, however, some of the character sprites still look a bit suspect, which is my main complaint, and a tad distracting. Dan Miragliotta, for example, looks like the 2002 edition of Dana White (the one with hair) from afar, and he looks like he?s about 90 years old up close. Outside of some of the odd character builds and graphics around them, there isn?t much else you can criticize. For a good indication of how precise they wanted to delve into the smallest of details, look at the tattoo on Scott Jorgensen?s left arm, and compare it to how it really looks, and how intricate it is, down to the outlines.
Sound: 9/10 ? It?s hard to pick holes in the existing sound scheme. If you spend a few moments listening in, you can hear the amount of care and detail put into making sure the sound was as precise as possible. For example, Bruce Buffer will announce weight in Stones if held at the UK venue. All appropriate nicknames have been carried over as well. My gripes come around the UFC portion of commentary, and the fact that it repeats itself over and over far too quickly. While playing through the Title Road on Bantamweight, every fight started with Mike Goldberg saying ?Joe, tell me about Demetrious Johnson? before Rogan proceeded to say nothing about him. There were numerous times in a single match where I would be told the same facts as well. This wasn?t as prevalent in PRIDE mode. It would also be nice to hear a bit ? more around the cage as well. Since the game is conducted close up with the feeling of silence, it would be nice to hear the combatants hitting and pressing up against the cage a bit more, along with some more noise coming from the fighters themselves.
Control: 9.5/10 ? This is the first sports game in recent memory that I can think of that added easier to follow controls while leaving the old ones untouched. That?s really all any sports game ever needs. If the controls are going to be changed so drastically from one year to the next, at least leave the old ones there for a year or two to wean familiarity out of gamers. There are a lot of controls to remember in this game, but there are so many things you can do, that quite honestly, there doesn?t seem to be any other way to make controls any easier.
Gameplay: 9.5/10 ? This, like any other sports outing is a niche game. This game hits all the demographics and niches. Casual gamers, hardcore gamers, online gamers and fight fans will all be pleased with this game once they get into it. You know you?ve made a good game when the people featured in the game themselves stand behind the project. In the past few weeks, fighters like Scott Jorgensen and Mike Swick have shown their support, with Jorgensen holding contests to give out Alpha Online Server Test passes. From top to bottom, this is a very complete experience. Gameplay mechanics no longer allow you to spam strikes or favor one style of fighting over another. Fighters can now interact with smarter fighting tactics. You can now submit a striker from more positions than before, for example, and can transition submissions a bit better than before. The new submission mini-game is a far better answer to spamming the right stick, and give you a better feel of what your fighter is capable of hitting (or escaping.) Collision detection is the only point of concern I have, as I?ve fallen privy to some phantom striking, and have lost dominant positions on the ground because the game couldn?t recognize where my opponent was located when at the edge of the Octagon. Outside of that, no citation.
Gameplay: 10/10 ? There?s no doubt. This is like comparing night and day over Undisputed 2010. The addition of fighter entrances (with their own music,) the continued addition of sponsors and little details, the extra things they did with the announce teams -- everything. The menus are very clear, and easy to navigate. The arenas are colorful, and well detailed. Events attempt to recreate the ambience of excitement by displaying pre-fight preview videos of the combatants involved. Perhaps the only thing that could make it all the better is the addition of a fake video with fight clips based around the ?Bring the Pain? song and intro, but it?s still perfect for what it does. PRIDE mode lacks the ability to create events, however, I can imagine how difficult that would be, given that the events used to introduce all the fighters at once on set, and work its way from there. Hopefully it's on the roadmap of ideas in the future. Said future is a bright one for the Undisputed franchise.
When the dust settles, and you head to your local game store, or big box to buy Undisputed, you won?t be disappointed. Waiting for you on February 14th is the most complete UFC experience ever, and the first contender for sports game of the year.
A perfect Valentine from THQ to you. Forget Diamonds. This Valentines Day, ask your significant other for UFC Undisputed 3! Happy Valentines Day Xbox Addicts!
Follow me on Twitter @paliontology -- and come discuss UFC Undisputed, mixed martial arts or gaming in general. If you're an MMA fan, look for interviews I hope to have in the future with fighters about games, and their love of gaming right here at Xbox Addict. Happy gaming!
Suggestions: Openweight!
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
Self Defense Training Camp
Martial Arts is often taught as one of the most disciplined forms of self defense. As a child, I took Tae Kwon Do classes, though I left a few belts short of black for no better reason than laziness. I always respected the values of discipline and peer-respect it instilled in me, however.In later years, I've seen some strange ways of selling Self Defense packages, from late night made-for-TV seminars to Bas Rutten's self-defense tape. Needless to say, I was intrigued at the prospect of a self defense game for Kinect, especially one put together by the ambitious minds at Ubisoft. I respect Ubisoft for taking on some of the most difficult ideas, even when they don't always pan out, and so I begin my journey into Self Defense Training Camp.
First off, it should be noted that this game requires A LOT of space to work with. If you live in a small apartment, you cannot Self Defense. If you have a very narrow living room, you cannot self defense. If you cannot stand around 10 feet away from the sensor, you cannot Self Defense. If you are pregnant, you cannot Self Defense. If you have heart conditions, you cannot Self Defense. If you cannot Self Defense, you cannot Self Defense
If this was a Twitter discussion, the hashtag for all these restrictions would be: #youcannotselfdefense
The problem with having a small living room to play this game is prevalent right away when the Kinect sensor would barely recognize my navigating motions through the menus. You see, to make your way through the menus, you have to throw punches. Unfortunately, it doesn't specify WHERE on the screen you have to aim your punches. After throwing the
following series of punches:
-A right straight
-A right hook
-A right uppercut
-A right Tiger Uppercut
-An overhand right
-A left jab followed by an overhand right
-A right front kick
-A Hadoken
An overhead Rock Paper Scissors motion finally worked, and then I couldn't replicate where I needed to throw the punch to get to the next menu, so I was stuck again. Finally,
someone else in the room discovered that it was a groin level punch moving downward that seemed to work. That's one to keep in mind later on, because I guarantee you, that will
come in handy later on.
Once you get into to the main game, you're surprised to see that nothing's unlocked. You can practice some techniques, but all of the fun modes require you to play the others to
unlock them. We're not talking unlockable characters or submodes that come with time, or passing other modes. This is entire segments of the game that are missing. In effect,
the game is forcing you to play everything (and get a perfect five stars no less) to even get to the other basic features it offers.
Before you can commit to the real aspects of self defense though, you must practice some of the techniques that will make you a self defense machine. That?s right, we talkin? about practice.
Adding a strange element to the game is the unbelievably serene announcer, who urges you to defend against your attacker with all the charisma of the dad from Family Ties. I wasn't expecting enthusiastic instruction by any means, but his calm in directing you to act outwardly toward your oppressor is awkward at best.
You jump through a series of stages that guide you step by step through some of the basic techniques, along with a timed activity at the end (which doesn?t match your sense of urgency, and trundles its way through the motions like a malfunctioning Chuck E Cheese animatronic puppet). At certain points, the game allows you to cache your moves too, because it doesn?t always react as fast as you do. Helpful, except the timed activities doesn?t carry a leaderboard, and don?t time you. The music doesn?t add ambience, the characters don?t add atmosphere, and the beautifully textured, sun drenched, bright cherry blossom trees make me wish I was outside frolicking in the park next door than playing video games.
Let me quickly take you through an overview of what you can expect in the first hour or two of the game:
Stage one: Hit your attacker in the groin, strike them in the arm, and then hit them in the groin again.
Stage two: Hit your attacker in the groin, feign interest in another technique and then hit them in the groin again.
Stage three: Hit your attacker in the groin, recite the third verse to Salt n Pepa; pull out your cell phone to dial your best friend and then use the phone to hit the
attacker in the groin.
(Stage 3 may not have happened for real in the game, but it?s pretty close to some of techniques you?ll see)
Stage four: Hit your attacker in the groin, and then just hit them there again.
I was excited to see that there was a chokehold involved at some point, only to see there was a mongolian chop followed by a kick to the groin.
In the hours I spent painfully learning that self defense is all about hindering a man's ability to reproduce, I was rewarded with no achievements. If that wasn't a kick to the
groin (pun intended), I don't know what is.
When the most exciting part of an instructional technique is the fact that completion means you're one step closer to the end, there's problems. The game has basically assumed all attacking assailants are males as well. It sounds strange, but I don?t feel properly equipped to defend myself if a woman comes up to me with a weapon in hand and asks me for my wallet, unless that woman is Boy George, in which case I?m ready to kick him right in the karma chameleon and run away.
A more apt title for this game may have been Dr. Junklove or: How I Learned to Stop caring and Love the Groin shot.
Sound: 1/10. What do you do when a game brings you almost no worthwhile sounds? I don?t think the characters made a single emotional noise. The strikes themselves offer no semblance of realistic noise, and it seems like the entire recording budget may have been reserved for Family Ties dad and his groin torturing happiness. I don?t know that this is Ubisoft?s fault either. All of these attempts at peace-inducing, serenity providing games seem to throw out nothing in the way of sounds outside of croaking frogs, rushing water and chirping seagulls. Maybe this game was just continuing that chain? In addition, with Microsoft?s attempts to create more voice command recognition in their Kinect titles, I don?t believe this title has a single one. That would be alright if the controls were responsive or the menus were easy to go through, but that in itself poses another challenge
Controls: 3/10. Credit where credit is due. The menus are a great workout for your arms since you seemingly have to throw numerous punches for your request to register. The menus are easily the best workout of the game. However, the game itself can be pretty responsive, though the controls are hindered by the fact that the gameplay lags behind so far that you never truly feel that sense of urgency you would most certainly get from a real attacker. The attacker isn?t going to wait for you to right your balance and begin your next strike from a fixed position.
Gameplay: 0/10. This game is honestly catering to a non-existent demographic. Parents shouldn?t be teaching their children that this is proper self defense. Put them in Tae Kwon Do, or a less combative, discipline oriented martial art. I can?t even begin to think who would realistically consider this to be a learning aide. Most individual demographics (be it age, gender, etc) I can think of wouldn?t think this to be effective or a must have. School gym classes perhaps? That?s an untapped marker the Kinect and Ubisoft could look to utilize. Still, the fact that this game is so happy with groin punching before it turns into a cardio workout that you?re not quite sure what you?re playing. This is a strange brew of over the top womens? self defense videos from the 80s that portray everybody as a knife wielding molester, and those fitness programs that are on TV at 5AM that take place in the warehouse of the local TV station.
I mean, in the end, kudos to Ubisoft for trying, but I don?t think the world needed this game. At one point, a loading screen urges you to join a gym or dojo to master yourself. Good idea. A Kinect is $150, and this game is $60. You can either use that $210 to join a gym or dojo instead, or just practice hitting someone in the junk while
yelling "I DON'T KNOW YOU! THAT'S MY PURSE!!!" like Bobby Hill and save yourself the trip. The game's biggest redeeming quality might be the cardio workouts, but every Kinect game out there basically does it, and it's really not worth playing and getting gold status through every single mode in the game to get there.
I believe it goes without saying: You cannot Self Defense.
Overall Score: 1.7 / 10
Kinect Sports: Season 2
Kinect Games have rarely impressed me. Having reviewed a some, played more, and enjoyed few along the way, I still haven't been convinced the Kinect has been more than a life-extending opportunity for the 360. Sure I've learned how to Soulja Boy, and the lyrics to "Black and White" by Michael Jackson, but I've also played some terribly awkward javelin throwing, and spent hours learning how to kick someone in the groin recently playing Self Defense Training Camp.Needless to say, Kinect Sports Season Two was completely off my radar this year, and when it landed in my hands, I was a bit hesitant, since I haven't been the Kinect's staunchest supporter. Still, any game from Rare peaks my curiosity enough to want to try.
Right away, the game's interface impresses before you even get into the events. While the graphics and the layout are similar to the first, the menus are responsive to your motions, and easy to navigate through. A great bit of detail included here is the fact that the game asks you where your Kinect is in correlation with your TV, and recalibrates the way it reads your movements. A very simple, but very effective tool. You should find that the game is fairly responsive to your motions and commands as a result.
Another interesting facet is the fact that the game can be used very heavily for voice interaction rather than motion interaction. Anything you do with your hands, you can also do with your voice as you navigate. As Microsoft begins to introduce voice intensive applications (such as the upcoming Rogers on Demand in Canada,) this is a good introduction to the way things work.
The thing about Kinect Development overall is that I imagine it must take forever to properly render and quality assure a single mode of game play. As a result, the game offers just 6 different sports to choose from, though they all come with a few different ways of playing them.
Tennis is a bust, plain and simple. Playing tennis handball style is always shoddy at best, but I'd sooner compliment and play the mediocre Kinect mode of Virtua Tennis 4 before this one. The biggest problem I have with arm tennis is this: Your arm is one limb, and a tennis racket is another that moves independent from it while in your hand. Having your arm act as both doesn't work. It's trying to be a tennis racket from the way your wrist moves, and as a result, you find numerous shots from the racket hitting the spine of the racket on screen. The target practice mode ends up being a bit strange, because you then see that the game is essentially just auto-targeting the mascots on screen with the flick of a wrist, rather than needing actual strategy. It completely defeats the purpose (and fun) of the whole challenge. You COULD grab a TV remote or something and use that as a mock tennis racket, but it then defeats the purpose of the Kinect's motion gaming doesn't it?
Also a bit of a bust is baseball, though, it's better than tennis. Far better than tennis. You swing your simulated air bat at the ball. It's a very difficult mini-game to master, as your timing has to be right on, and you absolutely must be standing in the same batting stance at the character on screen for it to work properly. Unfortunately, because you don't have a tangible piece of property in your hands simulating the bat (and the bat has to be rendered by your arm motions), you may find that the swing is correct, but the bat's responsiveness itself is not. What's interesting, however, is the game recognizes that you must be using both arms to properly swing. You cannot one arm like you can with, say, Wii Sports. If you only use one arm, you won't get a proper swing out of it all.
The next sport is golf, which is basically as it is. Once again, your arms mimic swinging a virtual club. Here, you begin to see a bit more perfection in response to your virtual swings. The game is responsive, the club swings as it should, but again, you can't half it and need to do a full swing with both arms. Golfing is pretty straight forward and conventional until you get to the ocean drive (driving range into the ocean) event, and a weird clown dances suggestively beside you while you're golfing. It's too bizarre for words, really.
Next up is "American" football. Keeping in mind Rare IS a British company (though BigPark is based of out of Vancouver, BC), they had to specifically go to the lengths to call it American Football lest it be confused with soccer. This mode starts to show you how good the game can be if you stop the reliance on peripheral sporting, and focus more on the sprite itself. In this mode, you play the role of quarterback, receiver and kicker as you look to do nothing but score points. As QB, you crouch, hike and throw an air football, and then throw to the receiver, whose feet and juking abilities you then assume. Toss rules and reality out the window, however. You CAN kick 60 yard field goals, and complete every pass if you try. Keep in mind that this IS a family game, so this is basically a high level, fast moving version of the game. This is pretty fun overall, though you may want to put your breakables away running on the spot like a tied up bull in a red room.
Far and away, the best modes are skiing and darts. Darts is fairly straight forward. You mimic the throwing motion of darts as best you can, and look to score 301 on the virtual dartboard. The presentation is a bit strange, as it appears as though you're playing on the set of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire," but it works for a video game. It even helps you understand the basic rules of darts if you're not aware (such as doubles for checkouts) and guides you to where you should be aiming for as well (it can be turned off). This mode is available for 4 players as well.
Once you're done with that, check out the skiing part of this game, which has the downhill dash, perhaps my new personal favorite Kinect mode. Skiing is very similar to standing on the old Nintendo Slalom arcade machines, though you will be shifting left to right. This is a full battle of your reflexes, and one of the exact things I thought the Kinect would be doing a bit better by now. You can spend hours alone playing the downhill dash, and I would wager it to be the best minigame in this whole edition of Kinect Sports.
All the while, you can collect virtual "fans" for accomplishing tasks and see how many calories you burned with each challenge. These calorie counters are always going to be a bit inaccurate, so take them with a grain of salt. I found it strange to burn 30 calories standing in a straight line throwing fake darts while burning 4 playing "golf" for 10 minutes.
All in all, this game brings you closer to the true capabilities of the Kinect. It's a bit limited in terms of gaming options, but it's a good addition to the family's Kinect library in any event. This is closer to exposing what the Kinect is capable of, and forgetting tennis, will provide hours of fun to those looking for a decent background party game that you can get most of your friends into. The nice part about Kinect games is they're rarely full retail prices, so you should be able to snap this one up and bring it home much cheaper than a full priced game too.
Keep it in the forefront of your mind for holiday season purchase ideas for the kids.
Suggestions: It's hard, really, to portray what I'd like to see out of Kinect Sports Season 3, but I'd like to see a heavier focus on individual movement sports rather than sports that require you to swing rackets, or sticks. For example, there would be greatest success of out of say, Kinect Boxing than Ice Hockey. When the sports are so equipment heavy, it's too troublesome for the Kinect (or for the player really) to pretend there's something there. I found myself reaching for a remote control, or an item I could hold during baseball and tennis, just so I had something to help me mimic motions better. That, to me is cheapening the purpose of the Kinect, which is supposed to be gaming through my motions alone.
Some suggestions for Kinect Sports Season 3 that play more into motion heaviness? Equestrian/horse racing. Dodgeball. Speed Skating. More reflex heavy games might be neat too.
Overall Score: 7.3 / 10
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
Harry Potter is back, and he's in Lego Form! Lego's adaptation of the last editions of JK Rowling's beloved series are now available to play, and not a moment too soon. The first Lego Harry Potter was arguably the best of the series to date, and set a benchmark for games to come. The game cleaned up the series' graphics, and with it, adapted a better control scheme, and an enhanced gameplay engine. This was best felt on the multi-player side, where the game would automatically split-screen players within levels that walked away from the edge of the screen, as opposed to the rubber banding technology that existed within the first few games. If you have not had the opportunity to play the first Harry Potter game, it is a must play.After purchasing and playing through Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 last year, I was hoping for much of the same. That game was easily the standout of the franchise thus far, incorporating many gameplay-easing aspects that were sorely needed. It boasted the cleaning graphic processing, fastest loading time and best Lego "humor" of the brand to date, and was probably the main reason Lego extended their contract with Traveler's Tales until 2017 earlier this year. That game was a Lego masterpiece, and set the bar for the franchise going forward. I was expecting basically the same game as last year, with a few graphic tweaks (character modelling, for example, was a bit choppy) and new features. There wasn't much else that needed to be done as long as they left it on the gameplay engine, and didn't take away anything that made the first game so good.
I will say that you should be ready to sit through a very lengthy intro process. As usual, you will have to sit through the entire movie cutscenes the first time you play them, and then off you go on your way to Hogwarts again. The game picks up immediately in a level, where you are re-introduced to numerous characters, including Mad-Eye and Arthur Weasley. Unlike the first game, where you played a small introductory sequence and then went into the game, you begin right away in Order of the Phoenix and begin your journey from there. You'll probably need a couple of hours to sit down from the beginning and just get going, as the game does not really pick up until you've learned the first couple of spells.
There is a new to this game that I don't recall from the first: the developers included a "repair" feature this time around, much like Jock in the Indiana Jones games. Arthur Weasley, for example, can repair broken machinery and they can be integrated into the level.
You may also notice that the game has a bit of a cheerier tone than the last game. Dark blues have been replaced by bright, sunny skies, and frowns replaced with smiles. This changes as the game progresses, however, and you see the darker side of the game creep up the closer you get to the final battle with Voldemort. You will definitely encounter feelings of Deja Vu - Bear in mind that this game IS a direct extension (I wouldn't call it a sequel as much as an extension) of the first, and Hogwarts looks and plays exactly the same, however, with cleaned up graphics.
The graphics have definitely had a slight tune-up from the first game. You basically cannot get any better than they output here (from a Lego game anyway). The pieces are just as good as staring at the real thing, and gone are the flat landscape backgrounds of old. Instead, you get poignant, lively backgrounds, like the buildings seen at the Floo Network fountains. This is yet another element of an improved gameplay experience that was sorely needed in these games and it's good to see these types of graphical improvements starting to occur.
There really isn't much else to add here that has not been said about previous games (or spelled out during our Harry Potter Years 1-4 review). Almost all of the main parts of this game are exactly the same. Many of the puzzles are the same, especially regarding gold brick challenges around Hogwarts, which has had some graphical touchups, but for the most part is the same laid out school. You are still helping those ridiculously dense students in peril, collecting studs to attain "True Wizard" level, and collecting crest pieces throughout. Don't be fooled by the gold brick count, which signalled game much toward completion in the past - You can collect 10 gold bricks in the first 20 minutes of playing, and still be sitting at about 3 percent completion. Let's jump to the way this game breaks down in the final ratings.
Graphics: 10/10. It goes without saying that the graphics for this game are top-notch again, and are probably the best you will see out of Lego games of this gaming generation. Everything from light shading, to color detail is projected in brilliant HD, and unlike previous Lego games, you don't get blocky awkwardness or frame jumping. You can see the amount of care that's been put into this game, with no stone unturned, and no color palette left unused.
Sound: 9/10. The sounds are just as polished as they were in Years 1-4. The trouble other franchises have are that when you have too many sounds playing on screen at once, it gets distorted and full of static. The Star Wars games have this problem in spades. Everything is fixed here, almost to a fault. The biggest complaint I have with the sound element of this game is possibly the worst sense of background repetition of any of the games. If you can't figure out certain puzzles and are stuck in a room with characters, be ready to hear the same voices and sounds over and over and over again. I found myself having to put the game on mute multiple times because of this.
Control: 7/10. Control has always been something lacking, but largely unfixable because of the amount of interaction available on screen at any given time. You will find yourself having to shift your characters in the smallest ways to accomplish hitting different objects, as your characters will always target the most convenient objects on screen for them (but not necessarily yourself). The keyboard also still does not work for cheats (though it's probably a way of discouraging gamers from entering secret code). Outside of that, everything is pretty straight forward. I continue to enjoy the element of the spell wheel and the fact that the game will automatically choose the right spell for kids if they don't know which one to go for.
Gameplay: 9/10. Without a doubt, this is the best series in the entire Lego franchise. Let's face it. You know exactly what you're getting with a Lego game nowadays. The basic formula of gameplay has not changed in 5 years. However, Harry Potter doesn't just do it a little better than the others - It does it a lot better. This Harry Potter build of all of the Lego games should be the standard engine going forward. Pirates of the Caribbean was based on it, while Star Wars: Episode III was not (it may have been because the game finished its dev cycle and was held onto while the first Potter was released, though). Everything about the Harry Potter engine fixes what was wrong in all the previous editions, and makes for a much more enjoyable gameplay experience.
Whereas you always feel like you're playing "just another Lego game" with the others, Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 breaks that cycle of repetition and is just so much more fun than the others. I didn't even enjoy the Harry Potter franchise that much, yet I find myself always entertained by this game.
There were 3 Lego games released this year - Star Wars, Pirates and this game. At this time last year, I would have told you that Potter Years 1-4 was the game to look at getting your children this holiday season. Once again, the sequel is my recommendation to you of the 3. Pirates was a great game, however, the mini-games and overall storyline just didn't translate as well into the Lego franchise. This game brings the right amount of humor, and the right amount of interactivity to make it a winner, and probably the best game of the entire Lego franchise so far.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
WWE ’12 
Welcome again to another installment of the longest yearly franchise in wrestling history. THQ took the reigns of the WWE franchise back in 1999, and has never looked back. They were never numbered before until the brand wars of 2004 started, and the franchise was known as "Smackdown vs. Raw" for the better part of the last decade. This year, with the idea of WWE's brand wars going away, and reverting more toward a "Supershow" format, THQ has switched up the franchise name, and branded it simply "WWE 12."Last year's game was an absolute masterpiece and the devs must have known what a tough challenge it would be to top it. The addition of offline and online Universe mode were franchise-defining, and the fact that gamers were finally able to share their created wrestlers (aka CAWs) for others to download was perhaps my favorite addition of all time. I was disappointed last year to see that you could only download 50 CAWs at a time, and was a bit disappoined to hear that this year held that same restriction, however, there's too much new that they've added to ease that sting. Welcome to WWE '12.
The roster of current wrestlers itself is huge, yet strangely uninspiring, but that isn't THQ's fault at all - That's just who the roster is. With the WWE building their business out of NXT and the new crop of wrestlers, there are many first timers new to the game. Expect a huge influx of NXT introductees, including Alex Riley, Husky Harris and more. Once you begin to unlock the roster, 70 superstars are available, with variations too. Cody Rhodes, for example is available with the facemask, as well as in Dashing Form. All superstars continue to be trumped, however, by the inclusion of Brock Lesnar, who agreed to appear and has been more than jovial in helping promote the game. It's neat to see him back.
Let's cut straight to matchplay improvements, since the majority of the time will be spent in the ring. The two biggest things you will notice are the addition of ring rope physics and difference in camera cutaways. THQ said they were unhappy with the way that camera cutaways happened during big moves, so they worked with the WWE to obtain more realistic camera angles in arenas, and have adapted those to show rather than the random ones you saw before. This means no strange cutaways to the announcers, or underneath the ring apron when a move is being done. Ring rope physics mean the ropes shake violently when anything is done in the ring, and react better to wrestlers touching them. This is a neat addition to the franchise, especially when you consider it was a fan request THQ was listening to. Both of these new additions add a great presentation element to the game. My only gripe with both of these additions comes with the camera cuts, however. I have an iron clad stomach and can ride any roller coaster, watch any gory film, and so on. I couldn't help but feel a bit motion sick at the knee-jerkedness of the cutaways this game. They happen so fast, and so oddly that it took my eyes a lot of time to adjust. It's not quite as subtle as it used to be.
Two big visible gameplay improvements are geared toward submission wrestlers. The new submission system, labelled "breaking point" builds tangible suspense toward winning by submission, as opposed to before, where the redder the screen was during a submission, the easier the possibility of submission was. In this game, you're given a meter to work with to see how close you are. Getting yourself closer is done through a new limb targeting system, which lets you target a specific arm or leg, and destroy that enroute to a submission win. This addition allows wrestling gamers to create a stable sense of in-match "psychology" which didn't exist as blatantly before.
Within matches, more presentation changes abound which enhance the overall experience. A comeback system will re-energize weakened fighters to the point where they could regain momentum of the entire match, hit a finisher and win. Call this a bit of "Hulk Hogan" syndrome, also commonly seen (if you can remember that far back) to the Rock and Roll Express of the NWA. Wakeup taunts entice weak opponents into a signature or finishing move, and you can button cache a finisher to take place as your opponent stands up, as opposed to pulling them up and then doing it. You'll understand it when you see it - It's a good flow addition.
Not a good flow addition (not yet anyway) is the enhanced collision detection. Given to add a heightened sense of reality and awareness, this adds a realistic, yet clunky element to the gameplay overall. THQ meant well with this. They really did. As sports games create a better awareness of sprites and their capabilities, WWE 12 has attempted to follow suit. Unfortunately, ice rinks and soccer pitches are bigger than a wrestling ring, and wrestlers constantly colliding with each other, and everything ringside ends up slowing much of the game's flow down. This is very much noticed during Royal Rumbles especially, when you have up to 6 wrestlers in the ring at once jumping in amongst either and bumping into each other. I will discuss this more in the final ratings.
As I'd previously mentioned, Road to Wrestlemania is redone too. Thankfully, you no longer play 6 different unrelated paths. Now, it's just intertwined over a couple year period with 3 different paths - One for Sheamus, one for Triple H and one for a CAW, voiced by Austin Aries. No need to worry about optional roads. No need to worry about having to play it over and over again because you missed something 7 weeks before and can't unlock Hornswoggle's alternate hat. Best of all, no throwaway matches in Road to Wrestlemania. Everything you do is relevant to your storyline. There's no more having to build up 5 weeks of momentum, only to have a nothing match with Primo in week 6, followed by storyling building in week 7. Presentation is great as well. You really feel like you're a part of the show when you see that they've attempted to counteract loading screens with "coming up next" montages and look-aheads. A huge thumbs up for all of this. This is the best RTW mode to date.
Universe carries no sophomore jinx either. THQ clearly listened to fan complaints, as everything major that was wrong with Universe is rapidly being fixed. If you consider Universe being the keys to dad's car, Universe 2.0 is an entire fleet worth of keys. It's no longer impossible set up your own title shots (22 belts are in this game altogether.) This is because there was an unfriendly logarithm that only listened to certain rule sets. This has been switched now. You can call the shots and make your own title matches. With the new arena creations, you can also create an entire federation and shows, which I will discuss more below. You can even import existing shows - WCW Nitro, Thunder, ECW - anything you can think of, which leads into customising; something that fans have always asked for is MORE customization. Nevermind creating wrestlers or entrance jackets, but what about arenas and shows? WWE 12 takes what it did last year (Universe mode,) and does more. "Create an Arena" is here now where you can customize your own ring, ring aprons, turnbuckles and even wrestler intro chyrons. The possibilities are endless here. You can take all of Universe and do it up youself. You don't even need to worry about running a WWE program yourself. John Cena and Randy Orton can transition over into the "Steve Wrestling Federation" and compete on "Raw is Steve" for all the belts.
Create a Wrestler has also been tuned up. New hometowns, new poses, new entrances and the ability to better customize entrance videos abound. You can even customize a 4-bit ring entrance with pre-determined names (up to 600 in all,) though strangely, some of the names in the past aren't there. "Matt" is a fairly common name (I know better than anybody,) but it's not there in the selections, for example. However, Yosef will be happy to know his name is. You can build your own entrance videos as well. In all, there are 10 different creation tools, and over 80 match types to choose from. In true WWE franchise fashion, however, you've got to earn your way to all the options available to you by playing.
Let's take a look at the way everything breaks down in the final report.
Graphics: 9/10 - When it comes down to it, many aspects of this game are these are the best graphics that have ever been seen in a wrestling game. The foreground and gaming surface are in beautiful high definition, with very clean sprites. Many graphical clipping troubles having been resolved, and rendering is done perfectly so that you're not bound to see the wrestlers collapse inside themselves with certain moves as you had in previous years. My only gripe with the graphics is that it seems like some background cinematics have been scaled back, and it looks really strange when the game interacts in HD in foregrounds, and non-HD in the backgrounds. A great example of this is rendered Pay Per View intros and sets, where the game itself is in HD, but the set is not, and they both act at the same time. If you don't know what I mean, check the game out on a 50+ inch TV when it happens. It sticks out. Still, it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things - The playing field and wrestlers themselves couldn't be any better.
Sound: 9.75/10 - There are no major outstanding issues to sound. The attention to the little details are fabulous, as always, from the voiceover work in Road to Wrestlemania, to the fact that THQ has added an echo to the entrance music to make it sound more realistic in the arena overall. CM Punk fans will appreciate the fact that he comes out to "Cult of Personality" as opposed to "The Fire Burns," which you don't normally see this quickly since he just made the switch recently. The game institutes a bit of an older school feel as well, kicking back to the old Smackdown games where some of the wrestlers speak to each other in the middle of matches more than just grunts. Sheamus, for example, will taunt other wrestlers in the middle of brawls and reversals.
I need to say very little about the play by play commentary because it seems like there's enough new dialogue that it doesn't cycle the same 5 or 6 catchphrases every match. My only improvement point here might be crowd interaction, which seems to live and die with bigger moves. I know one of these days they will get to the point where crowd noise can rally face wrestlers, and things along those lines, and you can see the groundwork being laid for it, but I'd like to see a bit more independence from the crowd in future games. They, like good play by play commentary, can add a lot to the match.
Control: 7/10 - This was the most challenging aspect of the game for me when I first played it, and when I had the chance to sit down with it for hours, I still couldn't ascertain why they changed the controls so drastically once again. After the new system in SvR 2007, the changes were subtle in '08 and '09, and then the huge changes in 2010 and minimal changes in 2011 left it to where I thought everything was spot on (and there was still ample room for new mechanics like the limb targeting system.) In making the controls seemingly easier, it's become harder than before to play the game. I only wish I could access the old SvR 2011 controls and switch back because, really, this game is far superior to already fantastic 2011 game, but the controls have been a hindrance of sorts to my gameplay experience, especially since I put hundreds of hours into 2011 and hours of having to learn those controls after they changed them in 2010. It was a bit of a culture shock of sorts. This is my plea as a reviewer and longtime fan of the franchise - PLEASE figure out what you'd like to do with your controls, and leave it that way.
Gameplay: 8/10. When you leave your franchise in the hands of one developer, they have to be capable of delivering a special product to be deserve the exclusive. WWE 12 is a special product in the making. It was very much there last year, but when you've spoken to the devs of this game, you understand their thirst for satisfaction is neverending, and sometimes, you end up overdoing it a bit. Limb Targeting is perfect. Breaking Point is a bit tough to figure out at the beginning, but pretty realistic to the way wrestlers sell submissions in WWE. This year's major gameplay flaw is the collision recognition/detection engine, which seems to create a lot of problems it tries to fix.
The wrestlers interact with the environments and each other almost a little too well. It was all too easy to overlook wrestlers running through each other's limbs before, because it made for a smooth gameplay experience. Now that everything has tangible space onscreen, you find wrestlers bumping into each other and things with greater ease, and interacting with items more realistically. However, this carries a bit of a downfall as well, as it's almost too easy, and too much interaction. The first 40 man Royal Rumble I played took nearly 2 hours to complete because of the new collision additions, interruptions and added difficulty to eliminate opponents. Reversals went from being too easy to do, to almost too hard, while the CPU on the easiest difficulty tends to reverse with much more ease.
The analyst side of me did some side by side comparison between 2011 and 2012, and found that the CPU reverses approximately 600% more often in WWE 12 than 2011. Some will find that as a challenge, and some will find it frustrating. Take it as a good challenge and move on - THQ's teaching you to diversify your moveset and make yourself that much more ung back to collision trouble, the interaction with the environment has led to a couple cases where the wrestlers get stuck in things momentarily and then pull themselves out. This only happened a couple of times, however, and it appears I may be the only one this happened to, so it's likely not going to happen to you.
Presentation: 10/10. There's one major reason this is a 10/10. Go play the last couple years of the franchise, and play this year. The difference is night and day. Sure there is much recycled that the hardcore gamer will pick up on right away. Argue if you will that much of the game "feels" the same. Then tell me that everything done differently wasn't done right. The attempt to bypass blatant loading screens with vignettes and match previews bring the game that much closer to the realistic presentation aspect. The Road to Wrestlemania mode has become much easier to follow along with, and all of the dead weight has been eliminated. I like the fact that you don't have to concern yourself about going through optional pathways, and keeping track of how and where your unlocks come from.
The menus present themselves better, and load much faster than 2011, especially as concerns with switching between divas, created wrestlers and DLC. Getting rid of the heavy animation was a great idea. The Universe Mode looks and plays fantastic too. The mark of confident development is when the team is happy to hand you the keys to the kingdom and let you create your own experience instead of being forced to play theirs. Allowing you to take control of the Universe and pretty much do whatever you want with it is big amongst the wrestling community, who I had earlier noted in my preview enjoy customizing every aspect through online e-feds and fantasy wrestling. If NBA 2K12 set the bar for sports game presentation, this one sets the bar for sports game customization. All other sports games will now have to play catchup if they wish to create this interactive an experience.
When it comes down to it, this game is a winner once again. The biggest problem with "yearly" game franchises are that they become stagnant. At some point in time, THQ saw that Smackdown vs. Raw was getting a bit stagnant, and starting with 2010, they began to break the game out of that mould. In the last 3 editions, this game has gone from "good" to "fantastic." With the weak controls and overdone collision detection issues, this game has a few mechanical flaws that could stand to be improved. The rendering glitches I encountered appear to be outliers, as they don't happen often enough to be a "thing" and will probably get patched up as the year goes.
Once again, I will continue to stress WWE has done the right thing giving exclusive licensing rights to THQ. If you purchased SvR 2011 and are wondering if you should be rushing out to buy '12 - I would say give it a rental and make your decision based on that. There's enough here that it's worth purchasing, however, you may take issue with things like the difficulty of the Breaking Point system, and the fact that the collision engine interrupts more than it helps when you're not used to it. If you've been holding off the last few years and have been waiting for the one to purchase - This is it. No questions asked. Put this on the shelf with NHL 12, Fifa 12, and NBA 2K12 for "Sports Game of the Year" candidates, because it deserves definite consideration. This is a great way to send the sports gaming season into the Holidays and should make happy the owners of the stockings they fill this holiday season.
Come discuss the franchise with us on our message boards, or on Twitter. You can find our site on Twitter @XboxAddicts, and I'm always around to chat @Paliontology. See you in the ring!
Suggestions: Just my request for a stable control system, and a huge please from me to allow more than 50 created community wrestlers at once.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
Family Feud 2012 Edition
Family Feud is a game show that has been a staple in my life since I was a child. Back then, Ray Combs had taken over for the legendary Richard Dawson and turned it into a hit both in syndication, and on ABC. I lived and breathed Family Feud. I never missed it in my summers off from school. I spent so much money renting the Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Genesis versions that I probably could have bought one of them, if they weren't so tough to find. Needless to say, when XBA Towers designated me their game show review guy and said Family Feud was being buzzed down from the 102nd floor, I was excited. When I found out Steve Harvey blooper videos were in it, I was looking forward to a game chock full of the usual sass and vigor only Harvey could bring to it.The day finally arrived. Off came the wrapping, and out came the surveys. Time to play the feud!
For those unfamiliar, Family Feud is a simple game with simple rules, and a simple objective - Score 300 points before your opponent, and make it to Fast Money. In Fast Money, you and a partner are given a fixed amount of time to answer 5 questions, of which you must obtain 200 points to win the grand prize. Your family consists of 5 related participants (hence the show's name)
The game starts off with the familiar current generation Feud set, where the audience sits behind the stage. Strange, but it's been this way since John Hurley was host, and they revamped the set. There are 2 basic gaming modes: The Challenge, which is a series of 16 themed event games. You must not only win each game, but you must win the Fast Money round too to successfully access the episode's unlock, which will be a Steve Harvey blooper video. Your opponent is the computer. There's the Party Mode, where you can play each other head to head with up to 4 controllers. That's it, but you really don't need anything else. These rules have been the basic rules of operation since Family Feud originally took to the air in 1976. Bear this in mind.
The Challenge Mode is where we will begin, where you place your Avatar at its place on contestant's row, and are then joined by the rest of your fake family. Or not. The game begins with howevermany human contestants you have joining you. If you're alone, you are the only person that stands at the entire 5 person podium. That's kind of sad. That poor little avatar, left to battle 5 computer controlled drones. You can have up to 4 human controlled players on your side, however, they must be carrying their own avatars, meaning if you don't have enough friends logging into their profiles locally (or enough dummy profiles on your own system,) they don't play. Make sure you make peace with your achievement seeking friends too, as the game will tell you with no uncertainty that the only person that gains achievements is the lead profile. You can choose from easy, medium or hard difficulty, and begin your road to Feudal supremacy. If you are playing for achievements, please keep track of what you've beaten on which difficulty, as you must beat all 16 challenges on all difficulties for achievements, and the game will not visually show you which you've beaten. This is forgivable since many games suffer from this simple oversight, but irritating all the same.
Party Mode is essentially just a fun exhibition-style mode. Since everybody is player controlled, there are no difficulties, however, the same rules and same awkward lack of fake family drones still apply. Again, if you have 3 human players on one side, and only one on the other, that is all you will show up to play. You also cannot customize the name of your family. They simply share the name of your gamer profile (so, for example, everybody in my group was simply "MattandLaura's family")
Lack of family members aside, once you have confirmed that you're playing, you are greeted by the host, whose name escapes me, but it sure isn't Steve Harvey. For those familiar with the show "Parks and Recreation", he looks like a blonde bouffant haired Ron Swanson that sounds a bit like Phil Hartman with John Hurley's diction. His name escapes me, but it's Scooter, or Skip McShooterdooter or something strange like that. The name's irrelevant. It's not Steve Harvey, who I was expecting to swagger out on stage, look at my avatar and say "You like this suit playa? It's from the Steve Harvey collection. You know how many buttons this suit got playa? FIFTEH!"
In this game, Family Feud consists of 4 rounds. The first and second rounds are single point values, while the third and fourth are double and triple, respectively. The basic premise of this game is that 100 people are asked a survey question. 1 person from each side goes to the front of the set to guess on their team's behalf. Top answers are up for guessing, and after the hosts repeats the survey question, you're left to the task of trying to guess what the top answers were by being the first to buzz in and get the highest rated answer on the board. After choosing to pass or play based on how you did up there, your team gets 3 strikes and one is given each time you have an incorrect answer. After you have exhausted your strikes and if you have not guessed all of the answers, the opposing team gets the opportunity to steal your points by trying to guess one answer off the board.
Here comes another Fundamental Flaw: If neither team guesses an answer off the board at the beginning, the round ENDS, and the next one begins. It doesn't even go to the next family member for a guess like it has since the beginning of the real game show's life, or (even better than just ending the round), switch to a new puzzle. No, the round simply ends, meaning that with 8 incorrect guesses in a row, your game could be declared a draw, and everybody gets sent home.
Answering itself is fairly stock standard. A selection pad will appear on screen for you to pick out letters and form words. At the top of this pad, words will auto-form based on the letters you've chosen and appear for you to quick pick with the use of the bumpers and triggers. These auto-words appear on all difficulties, and basically, if you'd like an easy way of finding an incorrect answer - type in your answer and if it doesn't autocomplete after a couple letters, it's going to be incorrect since it isn't in the database anyway. There's no way for you to turn this off at all, which begs the question - what are the difficulty modes for? One would think that in a game of this nature, autocomplete could be justified for easy difficulty, but maybe not for hard, right? The only difference between easy and hard is the frequency of which the computer misses an answer. The computer will miss every so often on easy, but never on hard. If you don't get it right the first time, consider the round stolen. Well, that's annoying.
With over 2000 survey categories, this was bound to happen, but some of the questions are ridiculously outdated. Ask 100 people today, and I guarantee the 2nd most popular TV detective will not be Kojak, nor would Magnum PI even crack the list. Nevermind the decade-long efforts of the likes of Gil Grissom, Horatio Caine and even Monk, America still believes TV's most popular TV detectives are still Columbo, Thomas Magnum and James Rockford. This, as a result, may prove difficult for most people born in the 1990s and beyond, as many of the questions appear to be holdovers from previous eras of Family Feud, and even previous video gaming incarnations. You would not get the idea from the way the questions are laid out, however. There are no references to alcohol, violence or anything remotely dangerous, the game has an extremely cartoony feel (often feeling like a Wii game at times) rather than the edgy nature of the game show itself.
Once you reach fast money, it's set up the same way, however, once again violates many of the fundamental rules of Family Feud, some which are so bizarre there's almost no way in my mind of justifying how truly absurd this is. Each of the 5 questions has its own timer, of which the host will stop the fast money round to acknowledge he received your answer and move on. This is a process that can take, well, an infinite amount of time, since you may have discovered by now that you can simply pause whenever you like at anytime. Timers essentially mean nothing since you can take as much time as you want using this simple kink in the armor. At the outside of your questions, the host would normally go over the answers with you, show how close you are to 200 points and bring on the next family member to answer again. Since this game continues to march to the tune of its own drum, this does not happen. Instead, your second family member is brought up to their answers right away, and then the host will go through both answers simultaneously. Rather than doing it in one set per person, both peoples' answers will be displayed for the one questions, and results brought up. This is a fairly ingenius, ridiculously conventional way of catching up to all of the time lost from slowing down the initial pace of the Fast Money round, but it just doesn't work. The current formula has worked properly for the last 35 years, and I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to change things up. You also are not told what the number one answer was if you miss it in Fast Money, however, I believe only one Feud game in history has ever displayed the best answer (the Facebook version), so it's not something you can really hold against this game.
A trademark feature of Family Feud happens to be the ambiguous answers shouted from time to time. Everything from the infamous "Naked Grandma" burglary incident of the Steve Harvey era, to former WCW wrestler Rick Steiner answering "6000" to a question related to what types of repairs need to be made to cars frequently. This game offers strange leeway to ambiguous answers you give it. For example, it will happily change your answers in Fast Money to something its ideal display answer, however, it cannot differentiate between some very simple assumptions. For example, entering clothes as something you wash every week is incorrect, however, the more ambiguous laundry is the correct answer. On the flip side, entering "Gel" as something a bald man does not need to buy will automatically be changed to "Hairspray" and accepted perfectly. I don't fault Ubisoft much for this, as accepting assumed answers/accompanying intelligence must be a very difficult thing to program, and I can see this being problematic for years to come should this franchise continue. It may be time to start cleaning it up, however, before voice commands become the way of video game communication, and this cycle starts all over again.
Now then, successfully win a challenge mode Fast Money round, and you will unlock a Steve Harvey blooper clip. The aforementioned "Naked Grandma" clip is first, so you know these will be good. It will just take a little bit of time to get there. Be ready for a long year ahead Family Feud fans. This isn't the game you're used to.
Graphics: 4/10. The set looks fine, and the avatars look good and do not clip with them at all, no matter what you are wearing. That's it, however. The crowd is not very animated, and the avatar interaction with other is awkward at best. The Harvey clips themselves are not high definition (though the rest of the game appears to be) either. The graphics themselves just appear to be a bit too simplistic overall. They're comparable to the Xbox Live 1 vs. 100 game, which was offered for free to Xbox Live Gold customers. This isn't a full priced retail game, however, so maybe I'm expecting too much, however, this just looks too much like a Wii game to think that there was much more done than taking that game and making it playable on the 360.
Sound: 3/10. There are a lot of sound omissions in this game that are simply unforgivable to Family Feud fans. There's no victory music when you win Fast Money, no trademark support from the rest of your family ("Good Answer!") and worst of all, the trademark theme song barely plays. There's an odd 15 second loop from the middle of the song that plays over the title screen, and the only time you hear the familiar strains of the opening is when the announcer welcomes you into a confirmed game. All of the other appropriate Feud noises and SFX are in place, but with so much major missing parts, it's hard to offer passing marks.
Controls: 3/10. There's not much to the control structure here. Basically, you just need the A button to confirm everything, and submit your answers. The constant presence of autocomplete, however, and no visible way to remove it may be the single thing that wrecks this game the most (nevermind the major flaws and strange rule changes.) Having your answers spoiled before you submit them just kills a huge part of the experience. The controls are boosted slightly by the fact that it's chatpad compatable
Gameplay: 1/10. If I were to start this at 10, and shave even a quarter of a point off for everything that was just so inaccurate, incorrect or irrational about the gameplay, it would probably have reached 0, however, I will offer solace in the fact that it still is Family Feud. It's just not a very accurate or terribly fun depiction of it. The idea of turning a game show into a video game seems pretty easy on the surface. Have your devs watch a few hours of the show to capture the essence, develop your code around said essence and go from there. Instead, what Ubisoft has developed here is the shell of a game show I've watched since I was 6 years old, and done things to it that not even the creators could conceive doing. If you're familiar with other game shows, the changes they've just gone ahead and thrown out here would be the equivalent of releasing Wheel of Fortune where Pat Sajak hosts and turns the letters, leaving Vanna White to kick her feet up and drink a martini, or a game of Lingo where Chuck Woolery decides he's not going to give you any letters, or Shandi Finnessey -- ever. This game follows almost none of the basic principles or gameplay logistics that have existed in the last 35 years, and it's puzzling as to why. I just don't understand why it a brand new gameplay experience had to be created. It's still the foundation and groundwork of the old Family Feud - It's just so different that you have to wrap your head around why someone would do this to a trusted franchise. To fully bring into perspective where my feelings for this game are after being a lifelong fan of Family Feud, this like waiting months to see Star Wars Episode I, and witnessing Skip McLooterbabooter the host Jar Jar Binks it up. This is madness.
This game show has been on and off TV since 1976, with the same basic principles, objectives and rules. Why has Ubisoft taken it upon themselves to change the basic way the game is played 35 years later? These aren't subtle gameplay flaws either. When has Family Feud continued after one family gets 300 points? When has the fast money round been played immediately back to back, with the answers displayed horizontally (both answers at one time before moving on to the next question?) When has "Family Feud" meant a 1 person family?
With all apologies to Ubisoft, and all respect to their successful gaming franchises, there should not be a 2013 edition unless it's made authentic to the TV show. Pay Steve Harvey for his licensing time and voice, pay attention to the quicker pace of the game, and please pay attention to the little details, which make such a huge difference in these types of games. Let's also see the rules return to what millions of people the word over are used to as well please.
Oh well, I still like it better than the Louie Anderson era of Feud.
Thanks for taking a look at our review of Family Feud. Come join the gaming conversations with us on Twitter. We're available @XboxAddicts, and you can find me @Paliontology. Happy gaming!
Overall Score: 2.7 / 10
NBA 2K12 
Last year, 2K Games broke the proverbial brains of the gaming community when they released NBA 2K11. Presenting a presentation unparalleled by most sports games in history, it essentially queued EA to shut its NBA Elite franchise down, and raised the bar for all NBA, and well, all sports games going forward. A year later, it still stands as arguably the best realistic presentation of a sports event in a video game, period. That is, until 2K announced NBA 2K12 and said they'd step up that bar.This year's cover boys are Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson (each on their own version of the cover,) which again, I don't necessarily agree with. In a day and age where there's a lot of licensing dollars being thrown out for the rights to these games and the purpose is to showcase today's stars, I would've preferred to see someone current with the legends, or a reversible cover at worst. Understandably, the current stars of the NBA aren't gathering much favor amongst fans, as a lockout has left the NBA season in doubt. Interestingly, this lockout also means the rights to this year's draft class were not secured for use, and so they do not appear in this game.
Last year, you were transported over Michael Jordan's shoulder into the 1991 NBA Finals. This year, you're treated instead to a beautiful cinematic of yesterday's superstars, ending with a Michael Jordan signature dunk. Nice touch.
The game loads up, and there's a bit of an awkward dilemma. The game was assumedly built around the "NBA Today" mode similar to baseball's "MLB today" mode. What happens when there's no actual games ongoing? Every day ends up being the last game of the NBA finals, that's what. Unfortunately, NBA today looks much better than last year, and takes a more prominent role on the main screen, which is a shame since you may not get to see anything it does at all this year. What you're faced with outside of the exhibition mode are your standard season mode (The Association,) a revamped "My Player" and redone "Create a Legend" mode.
There is a Legends mode (NBA's Greatest) which is essentially a series of 15 games that mark staple nights in those players' careers. You're given an objective with your respective player, and have to accomplish it. Unlike EA's player-only mode, you can control the entire team and steer fate your way enroute to victory without relying on NPC teammates too much. In a strange spin on things, the announcers speak to you throughout as if you are reliving the past, while providing some current tense commentary. It's a bit strange, but somehow, it seems to work. It also provides a cringe-worthy look at some of the odd choices made in the 90s, such as the Utah Jazz's home unis of the late 90s in the John Stockton game. Jazz fans also get to relive the beloved Iron Sled-speed big man of the NBA, Greg Ostertag. Create a Legend is a bit different this year. You pick a current NBA player and work him into legendary status, as opposed to being saddled with no choice. Without the ability to have true "rookies," the mode is a little bit more open than having to select a rookie and go from the beginning. Press conferences aren't available any longer, either, which is smart since they just served to waste time in the end, despite what they may have "provided" in NBA 2K11.
The "My Player" mode has been really streamlined too. I hated the Summer League last year, and that's gone. I love screwing around in Draft Combines, however, and I'm sad to see that one go. The business side of the mode is accentuated this year, however. No less than David Stern is involved this year in the mode, as he shows up for your player's draft announcement. This one's a first for the sports gaming market. I don't recall seeing Roger Goddell, Gary Bettman or Bud Selig involved in any video game, as neat as the idea would be. This is just another way 2K's stepped the presentation game up, able to drop these sort of jaw dropping small details into the mix. Your player can also get sponsored, appear on endorsements and build a self business franchise enroute to the Hall of Fame, and superstardom. Another feature I found helpful was the ability to pick and choose my games. This may not be the greatest thing to do when you start out, as building your player from the beginning is an all too crucial feature of these games (where the slightest setback could take more than one game to recover,) however, is great for later on once your superstar has crested. The somewhat tedious press conference mode is back, however, with a new set of gamechanging variables. Want to become the best or worst teammate ever? Press conferences can do that in a hurry if you don't play your cards right.
With all modes, the gameplay is almost just straight up basketball, and it couldn't be done any better. The game explores all possible elements of team offence, team defence and strategy. At all corners, you're reminded which players succeed from what part of the court, what their specialties are, and which players are best suited for your style of gameplay (and get hot after a couple baskets.) There's enough in here to continue reminding you that you are, in fact, playing a video game, but simultaneously enough to separate you from that fact as well. The game explores foul mechanics even better than last year, though it tends to be a bit heavy on blocking fouls at times (the game doesn't seem to differentiate well all the time between blocking and charging, and the man on D tends to get penalized more often than not). However, all of the usual basketball tendencies are there, down to your opponent calling every possible timeout in the 4th quarter of a close game.
Playing the game is fairly easy, but mastering it is very difficult. Each player comes with their own particular shooting pattern, shooting strength and shooting specialty. The 3 point speciality of Mario Chalmers, for example, doesn't match Eddie House's. Though both players are good behind the arc, each player has been tuned properly so that they will succeed better on certain parts of release. House, for example, has a better chance of draining his 3 at a higher part of his jump than Chalmers. Sadly, "Big Smooth" Sam Perkins wasn't one of the Legends created to show the youngsters that you don't need to jump 7 feet in the air to drain threes. "Smooth" would simply buff his fro, toss the ball up and will it into the net.
Anyway, these modes are all great, and very enjoyable, but I can't help but mention the absence of staple "fun" basketball modes. Streetball doesn't count quite honestly, because you've just taken the basketball game itself, removed fouls, changed the scoring system and put it outside on a blacktop. I'm talking the All Star Weekend festivities namely. In a game that positions itself as the quintessential basketball franchise, the absence of these simple modes make a world of difference to a casual "weekend feeler/rental" type of gamer. After playing the first exhibition game and marvelling at the presentation, the graphics, and the gameplay, the first question I was asked by a couple friends playing along with me the first day was "So where's the dunk contest?" That's not a question 2K has the luxury of not answering next year, since EA plans to return to the simulation hoops market next October, and will probably come armed with extensive extra gaming modes like they always do.
Graphics: 9/10: Graphically, only one word describes this game: Intense. Every corner you look, everything is well done. The arenas are animated well. The courts are animated well. The cheerleaders are animated well. Characters faces are rendered pretty well, down to the stubble on Karl Malone's face. The only thing I'm still not sold on is something I had a bit a problem with last year as well - The jerky movements of the NPCs. This is something that has always been fairly problematic in basketball video games, however, it sticks out like a sore thumb in 2K12. When everything else is done so well, you'd almost expect one of the most basic needs in a basketball game like this to be addressed. I can still see there being a bit of a processing problem attempting to move 10 foreground sprites independently, but if Fifa's found a way to move 15 or more smoothly at once, you would think this is a realistic possibility. Outside of that, the only other complaint I have is with mascot rendering and the way that the furry mascots look like they just came out of a bath where they used glue as shampoo, but that's so secondary and non-essential to the game that I don't think it's worth any sort of deduction. They all can't be as simple as Manic Mailman of Simpsons fame.
Sounds: 10/10. During the review, I spent half of my time playing with the TV's sound, and half with headphones on. I don't normally do this, but I really wanted to push the capabilities of background and foreground sound and see how well and detailed it was done in a whole. I can't find anything wrong with it. Unlike other sports games, the sound patterns don't have noticeable loops, and it transitions and flows perfectly. Every squeak of the shoes, every echoing whistle is captured. They've even done little things well, like players yelling each others' last names out for passes when that player is carrying the ball. The commentary in this game is far and away the best in sports gaming. No sports game touches the NBA franchises. There are literally hours of commentary recorded for this game, and you could play 100 games and never hear everything. The interactions between Kevin Harlan, Clark Kellogg, Steve Kerr and Doris Burke are done so well that you actually care about what they have to say. The commentary becomes part of the game, as opposed to a secondary "nice to have."
Controls: 6.5/10. For real. This game's instruction manual for controls has amongst the smallest print and most complicated controls I've seen this in a while. I'd register it a .85 on the WWF Attitude scale. The controls are great, and responsive for the most part too, but man, there's just a lot of them to remember. Even if I play this game for 6 hours a day, I don't think I'll remember all of them when the time comes. The instruction manually is literally the entire list of controls (everything else is included on-disc, or self explanatory.) It seems like there are 12 different ways to shoot, and 12 different angles to choose from on each shot. The offensive and defensive controls just don't "jive" all the time, and there are periods where the game offers little assistance with its controls (like choosing substitutions in the middle of a time out, or between quarters.) It might be time to take things back to basics a bit. There's no need to have two buttons to try to block, or 2 buttons to shoot. Maybe a bit of consistency with offensive and defensive options. The same button to switch players on defence is the same button to pass on offence. So what if you want to pass the ball from out of bounds to a player of your choosing inbounds when the defaulted player is half a court away, and you only have 5 seconds to bring him back (or he's not the guy you want to pass to?) Small logistics like this make the controls a bit of a headscratcher, and detract a bit from things overall.
Gameplay: 8/10. Don't get me wrong. This is the best and most enteraining pure rendition of basketball ever made, however, what it brings in gameplay, it lacks in flexibility. When I load this game up, I know I'm going to be playing a game of basketball, whether it's on an NBA court, or a blacktop. Sure, I'll do training with my created player, or run a drill or two, but what else? In a day and age where sports games are flashing their flexibility and waving their additional features in your face, NBA 2K12 is waving a flag of simplicity, and it might scare the odd casual gamer off. No exhibition dunk contests, or 3 point competitions. As an avid sports gamer, one of the things I like the most is the ability to pick up a game, and do something quick and dumb with it. A home run contest, or a skins game, or a game of pond hockey. I can't do that with this game, and I miss that ability, and wish it would be brought back. With that being my only gameplay criticism, I'd be remiss if I didn't focus on the positives. 2K has proved again why they basically hold all the cards in the basketball gaming market. EA will probably never admit this, but they're extremely outclassed now, and if they ever wish to bring the Live/Elite franchise back, there is no sense in doing it unless they've somehow figured a way to one-up everything 2K has brought to the table here.
Presentation: 10/10. This game deserves such widescale props for presentation that I feel I need to start scoring it on all sports games going forward. Gaming companies are beginning to present their games as an event rather than a video game, Expect huge leaps in WWE 12, and you saw big leaps this year out of the EA games. NBA 2K12 trumps the EA games. NBA 2K12's presentation style is so well done, and so effective that I never feel I need to watch an NBA game ever again. 2K12 fills my need for a great video game, and a decent basketball game (many of the games I played featured more excitement than any NBA Game of the last 10 years has.) Every gaming company looking for what a successful gaming presentation looks like needs to study this game. The 2K developers did their homework almost a little too well this year. The small attention to tedious details show the care that's been taken to make this a successful package: Lebron tossing the baby powder into the air before the game. The pre-game announcements where the players toss the ball to each other in between cuts. Kevin Harlan's one-liners during the loading of the NBA's Greatest Modes. Just sit back, and enjoy.
By the time I finished playing this game, I'd forgotten about the NBA lockout. I just wanted to play this game more, and more, but really miss the absence the All Star Weekend skills exhibitions that should be staples of any successful NBA games. I realize the dunk contest has become by and large a farce, as has most of the All Star Weekend festivities, but they're still fun. Now that 2K12 has a blueprint for a successful basketball game down, it's time to bring back some of those fun modes. Let's see some innovative things like a "Create a dunk" mode where you can build dunks to use in the dunk contest, or the ability to do little things like customize a player's release and shooting angles. This game is the best basketball gaming experience out there already, and little things for in-game customization and the addition of a couple more gaming modes will only continue to make anybody think twice about trying to compete. Buy this if you miss the lockout, and need your fix of basketball this year. Chances are it'll be better than an NBA game anyway.
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Suggestions: Get the rights to Vancouver Grizzlies jerseys please. Heck, I'll gladly pay for Vancouver Grizzlies jersey DLC if you can do it this year. I'd put up even more money for the 1995-96 Vancouver Grizzlies roster. Nothing says quality basketball like Ashraf Amaya.
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
FIFA Soccer 12
Amongst most gamers this side of the Atlantic, the Fifa series is the penultimate soccer gaming franchise. Going strong for nearly 20 years, Fifa has excited gamers for the last 4 gaming generations, and it has taken down numerous attempts at competition along the way. This year, the promise of new features and a better playing experience intrigued me, along with some of the enhanced controls. The current generation of controls started to take shape around the Euro '08 title, and started to hit its stride with World Cup last year. Let's see how this year's title stacks up.The game hits you with its tutorial right away, and the ever pleasant Martin Tyler takes you through training paces. Tyler, who sounded ridiculously uninterested in his commentary last year is a night and day improvement this year. His voice is vibrant, full of personality, and it looks like he's gotten over whatever hesitation was in his voice last year. That's a nice touch. I would recommend quickly whipping through the tutorial, because there's a bit that's been added to the way you can defend and call your teammates to defend. I don't recall any of these features in past years, but you're going to want to spend a lot of time trying to perfect these techniques because new defensive mechanics and animations mean it's tougher than before to time your challenges.
You're then whisked into what I can only describe as the world's worst menu system. Seriously, this menu system does not work for Fifa. It's one of those left to right bands at the bottom of the screen that you see in games with much less options. It works for those games, but it's terrible here. You can switch off the menu any time and start practicing with a designated superstar, and I was tempted to do so many times after trying to navigate through that trash heap of a menu. I rarely complain this much about such a small feature, but seriously guys -- what were you thinking?
There's not a TON to report in the way of new features that really affect gameplay modes. Most of the changes come on the pitch itself. Goalies are a bit smarter this year and will come out and challenge your players more. The new defensive controls are a bit more realistic in the sense that you can no longer ride a button to magnetize your player to the defender and automatically check him. Of course, this does mean it is much harder to check a player, but you'll get used to it. What may take a bit of accustoming is the new collision features. Last year eluded to the fact that EA was working on a better detection engine, and it's definitely out in full force here. You'll see the increased player interaction on the pitch, as they no longer float through each other. Checks are animated to player specific - How far you are away, how good the player being checked is at maintaining ball control and so on. It's no longer the easy stroll it used to be. This is bound to initially frustrate novice gamers and benefit the advanced ones, but to be honest, it's something that you've been seeing for the last few years anyway, and it's good to see it finally come to fruition.
Graphical improvements abound. I will speak to it a bit better in my graphics breakdown, but these are the best player animations yet. They've filled in a lot of gaps, and the actions taken include more realistic passing and kicking animations, and cleaned up scrums on corner kicks.
I'm going to skip past more of the Be a Pro-style features since I didn't see much change from last year (at least nothing that spoke out to me,) and move onto what should be the bread and butter for all Fifa faithful - the Ultimate Team Mode. Just like the other franchises, you start with a team of bronze level players (guys rated in the 50s and low 60s) and have to build a better team through playing lower tier clubs and working your way up. You can also challenge a dev-designed Team of the Week, which will give you bonus coins and challenge multipliers if you win. This is where I admit I've spent the majority of my Fifa time, and will continue to spend the majority of my Fifa time. Just like the other Ultimate Team modes in other games, your team improves through the purchase of card packs of Bronze, Silver and Gold, depending on how many coins you choose to put out. For the lazy at heart, you can just throw MS Points into the fray and purchase your teams. In fact, the game starts you off by offering an upgrade to you for 1500 coins (approximately 3-5 games depending on how good you are and difficulty you're playing on.) or the low price of 40 MSP. This continues to be a bit of a head scratcher to me - The enticement of building a better team for so cheap. The Gold packs are even only a couple bucks - hovering around or even less than the cost of 1 Rock Band DLC song. I'd highly encourage playing your team into glory, as the auction is where you can a better team for pennies on the dollar. Other gamers will put their cards up for auction (starting as low was 150 coins) and after a while, you can start picking off players from your team, or your country -- many as low as the starting price. Since the game is still pretty brand new, so many people are auctioning off what you want that if you miss out (or get outbid,) chances are something's ending only a few minutes, or a couple hours later. I purchased a pack of cards, and unhappy with the results (moreso that these guys were temps until I got the players I wanted,) I figured I would just play my way into more coins and just buy the players I wanted at auction. So far so good. Once you've built your team, you can jump into online friendlies with your friends list and over Xbox Live. In fact, many of the achievements in this game come from Ultimate Team's Online mode, so you're encouraged to make the leap.
So I've offered up so much praise to this game, and haven't outlined what's wrong with it. What don't I like about this game? Well, there's very little coming from the way the game plays. My dislikes are little things like the fact that the crowd just doesn't seem into the game, the goal celebrations are really weird (they're fine tuned so that it's all unique animation and spot on sprite interaction, which leads to some really strange things like a teammate that ran across my screen and Bill Goldberg speared me before rubbing himself on me and giving me a hug.) and the fact that substitutions are still a distracting cut scene. One thing I really like, however, is the fact that EA's implemented a better "hurry-up" system for throw-ins, just like some free kicks. For the most part, players will now run off the pitch ASAP and begin play, rather than cutting to a crowd shot or to the club manager trying to pick the ketchup stain off his track suit. Improvement points in this game are few and far between. Living in the city where much of the development took place, and working with the wife of an involved EA employee, I heard about the extra hours and late nights that went into trying to create the perfect soccer experience. I'm happy to say they're almost there, and every ounce of sweat put into this game shows in the end product.
Graphics: 9/10. Graphically, this game has done just about everything right. Players move completely independent of each other in the most fluid motions we've seen yet for any soccer game. If you take the time to pay attention to the runner animations, the amount of detail shown will astound you. Compare it to the current graphics king (World Cup South Africa) and you'll see additional frames for the smallest things like the swinging of arms when you run, to when you pass the ball to a teammate. As a Vancouver Whitecaps local, I'm appreciative they put BC Place into the list of available stadiums, though. A slight deduction for the weird coloring and blending of background advertisements, but it's forgivable in the long run considering that's not really why you're playing this game, and it's just background static in the grand scheme of things. Slight deduction as well for the crummy menu system. I'm really not a fan of the left to right horizontal menus with options popping up from the bottom of the screen. It hasn't worked in other option and play style heavy games, and it definitely does not work here. If you're going to do this kind of menu, you've really got to tone down the number of level 1 options, and maybe turn those into L2 or L3 sub-menus. I know the game wants to feed into the "play soccer anywhere, anytime" mentality where with the push of a button, you can forget the menus and play some pickup practice footie, but maybe it's time to bring back the familiarized menus with a picture-in-picture view of Kaka or whomever standing on the practice field where you can push a button to switch in between, or something like that.
Increased collision detection is something you'll have to get used to, though I don't know whether to put this into graphics or gameplay, since they affect both. You can't really meld into and breeze through defenders any longer. You're subject to every bump, bruise and collision, and even the goal celebrations seem to be custom tailored to the collision system. No two celebrations are really the system, and there are no more pre-determined celebration animations with the push of a button (granted, they will perform the same motions, it's just that the game no longer cuts to a pre-defined cinematic like it used to.)
Sound: 9.5/10. One of the biggest complaints I had last year was the overabundance of Martin Tyler's ridiculously boring and unenthusiastic play by play. Imagine my surprise this year when it's been split between the Tyler camp, and Clyde Tillsley and Andy Townsend, who feature in many of the North American games and in Ultimate Team. It's as if EA read this last year, and decided to throw them back in to shut me up. Well played EA. That, and much of Tyler's play by play appears to have been re-recorded and it doesn't sound like he's play by playing a funeral anymore. The World Cup duo are largely recycled commentary from WC South Africa by the sounds of it, but you know what? Don't care. The variation is awesome. Thank you for re-doing all of this EA. Once again, you've made a believer in me.
Outside of that, everything else is bang on. The soundtrack leaves a bit to be desired, but considering Fifa's the one EA sports franchise that allows you to shut it down and throw in your own tunes, I can live with it. The only thing I'd like to see added is a bit more crowd noise. The chants don't appear to have been re-done or added to, and the MLS especially is sorely lacking in crowd personality. It might be worth leaning on all the international offices to go out in the next year and have recording sessions with various clubs' hardcore fans recanting their various war songs. The Seattle Sounders have some very boisterous fans that I'm sure will be happy to help out, and the Vancouver Whitecaps Southsiders are pretty well singing when they get in their cars to go to the game, so there's opportunity to harness that energy too. The one thing the World Cup game did very well last year was piping in realistic sounding crowd noise (vuvuzelas) and cutting to shots of fans in team colors waving scarves and flags. This stuff goes on in every pro league, and I'd love to see a bit more of that, again, especially at the MLS level.
Controls: 9.25/10. The controls in this game have hit a great stride here. They're quick to get into, quicker than other games to start learning the complex bits (especially compared to NHL's WWF Attitude-esque complicated controls,) yet difficult enough that you won't master them overnight. This year's game brings better and more realistic defensive strategies and controls, along with a tweaking of the pressure control system. Past years saw a bit of forgiveness if you didn't hold the pass button down long enough, or you held the shoot button too long. Definitely not this year. If you mess up, you mess it all up. You have to precision every corner kick, every throw-in, every cross just that much better. Your players play to their abilities too. If you're a team of 60s going up against a team in the 90s, the disparity is felt more than past years. Don't expect the Chicago Fire to just walk through Manchester United, for example, without a bit of help from the sliders. Don't forget button caching either. The beloved soccer game feature of accidentally pressing a button too quickly and being unable to undo it (and having the player do what you don't want him to do once you get the ball) has returned, though seriously, if you haven't conditioned yourself out of the button cache in the last 6 years, you deserve to lose a few opportunities. The biggest gripe I have with the controls isn't their unforgiving nature, but the fact that I often found the ball wasn't going where I was asking it to, even with what were perfect enough passes the other 99 times out of 100 I'd execute them. Players will flounder the ball a bit more at times when you pass or shoot, which you wouldn't expect at the level you're expecting all these players to be. That kind of stuff should've been cleared up when these pros were 9 or 10.
Gameplay: 9.5/10. This game does so many little things right that I hope they incorporate into everything going forward. The Hurry up throw-in (an out of bounds doesn't always trigger a cut-scene or fade out screen any longer) is fabulous. The Ultimate Team mode might keep this game in my XBox for months to come alone, and I'd probably put Fifa's Ultimate Team right up at the top next to NHL's. The thing I like about Fifa's Ultimate Team is that it's a much easier and less difficult style for everybody to get into. NHL sim fans can be downright crazy, so they need something as intense as NHL's HUT mode, for example. I still love the player auctions, and with so many people auctioning so many players, I've been able to pick some of my favorites up for cheap, especially in the late hours of West Coast nights from European sellers. The standard modes are largely unchanged, but they had very little to improve upon anyway. As I'd mentioned before, collision detection is a vastly improved entity of the game this year, as you'll have to get used to the fact that players bump and collide as they should. In addition to no longer being able to float through your opponents, players will jostle each other during a collision, and may take each other out of plays longer than expected. You've now got real soccer referees in matches now too, and they all bring their own styles with them. You may find looser play amongst some refs than others. One will call fouls for the slightest things, and one may even miss a couple obvious calls. Pay close attention to what the play by play commentary tells you at the beginning of the match, as they usually spell out what kind of ref you have.
Last year's Fifa was great, but not really a great step up if you'd already put your cash into World Cup. This year's different. With another year to build enhancements into an already exquisite gaming engine, and the opportunity to touch up previous oversights, EA has stepped its game up once again this year. Next year's edition might be a tough sell because this one's so good, but there are a few things left over to bolster Fifa 13. Building on ambience I would say is probably the biggest thing. I'd love to be able to turn up my surround sound on full blast, and hear tons of crowd noise, songs from spectators on the pitch, and just more from the crowd in general. I'd also like to see a little bit more though into the pricing scheme of Ultimate Team. The one that really stuck out to me was the silver upgrade special team. 50 cents or 1500 coins? You'd have to put a few games or hours into getting some of these upgrade packs...or throwing 40 MS points at it. The effort divide here is not as large as the NHL series players are accustomed to, but still a bit astounding. I'm not condoning you go and spend money in buying an all star team, but it's tempting isn't it? There's more fun in the auctions anyway. Get in on it right away, because there's so much up for grabs right now, you can probably grab your players on the cheap. Somebody save BC Place for me too - I need to upgrade my stadium,
So now that yearly question remains - should you get this game if you purchased Fifa 11? What's Fifa 11? In other words - yes. This game is worth purchasing. I have no complaints about the foundation of the game, or the improvements that they made. Fifa in a whole just never stops being fun, and this game is no exception. If you're looking for what could end up being the Sports Game of the year, it's probably going to come down to this and NHL 12, unless NBA 2K12 or WWE 2012 somehow blow these games out of the water.
Suggestions: Kinect Goalie Mode? C'mon....you know you wanna.
Overall Score: 9.4 / 10
F1 2011 
Last year at PAX, I stood with a Time Warner representative, who handed me a controller while she told me about F1 2010, which would be the first official F1 release (to my knowledge) on the 360 and PS3. The last time I'd played an F1 game was back in 1997 for the PS1, and I didn't like it much back then, and to be honest, I didn't really like what I was playing that day either. After finding out the version in front of me was 95% complete (and not 30 or 40% as I'd suspected,) I decided to give F1 2010 a pass.The game, however, was vastly successful, and Codemasters decided to bring the franchise back for another spin this year, incorporating all of the F1 rule changes. I don't have much more to add, so let's jump straight into the game.
The game (and the included achievements) spends a lot of time drawing attention to the new rule changes this year, and things they hadn't incorporated into the game before, like the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS.) KERS allows drivers to accelerate a bit better out of tight corners, of which you (naturally) see many when your racing speed exceeds more than 300 km/h. Pretty helpful in qualifying, but you cannot rely on it in races, since its use is limited.
Gameplay modes are simple and to the point - A season campaign, exhibition races, multi-player and leaderboard challenges. When you get into the game, you'll see many returning features - The realistic weather system is back, meaning your races and racing style will be dictated by whether the track is wet or dry, how much rain is falling, and how windy it is out there. The vehicles are back with a good amount of detail on them, down to customized steering wheels for each driver. Remember how decent the game looked last year? Neither did I once I threw this game in. The graphics in this game are just unfair compared to other racing games. Nobody should be throwing out picture perfect environment reflection, moving fins and rain PERFECTLY BOUNCING OFF TIRES at this point in the game. There's hardly a sophomore jinx here. If graphics made completely made a game, this would the best console racing game of all time.
The career mode is pretty intricate, though with very little cosmetic change from last year. You're given a bit more to do with your driver off the track, as you can gain and lose popularity from interviews in between races. You can be the unpopular, cocky new driver on the scene, or a humble, thankful young driver looking for an opportunity to shine. You have to meet a series of objectives to succeed in your craft and hope to catch the eye of the bigger teams, and drive better cars. Learning the mechanics of KERS, DRS and proper cornering are crucial to your qualifying, and learning not to abuse these features and when to use them are crucial in your real races.
I admit, you probably won't get a lot out of the exhibition mode by yourself. You may as well jump straight into career and play all of the races in order rather than flicking off a race here and there. It offers very little outside of learning the semantics of the new features. Outside of that, just skip straight to the career mode, or save your exhibition time for the co-op mode, which is pretty neat. You're able to race on the same team in co-op, and use your powers together for good (or evil.) You can choose to shake n' bake with your partner Talladega Nights style, or just get out there and race. Surprisingly, this is a first for F1 games, though a long needed addition. I look at some of the additions games like this make and wonder why companies just haven't thought about implementing them before. So simple, yet such a needed addition.
There's little else left I have to say. This is a fantastic racing game for the right audience, so obviously not for everybody. This game hits on all cylinders for simulation-style race enthusiasts, and is the quintessential racing experience out there (more than Forza, more than anything else) by far. It's just not for everybody.
Graphics: 9.5/10. The graphics in this game in one word? Amazing. There's so much extra here that the game delivers that you may miss it when you aren't looking for it. The grandstands and things trackside are pretty straight forward, but the scenary is stunning, and the amount of detail paid to the vehicles themselves are nothing short of amazing. Trackside foliage and effects coming by your car glisten and reflect off the body perfectly. Vehicle damage is so intricate it goes down to marks on the tires, and vehicle cockpits are perfectly altered and specified per team. The graphical enhancements in F1 2011 are game changing additions and have raised the bar for all racing games going forward.
Sounds: 8/10. The sounds in this game are a bit...harsh. The control system likes to make you feel like you're wrecking your drivetrain. "Floor" the right trigger button on 1st gear and it sounds like a piece of scrap metal caught in a blender. Outside of that, the sounds are fine, with my only complaint being against the pit crew. They're a bit hard to follow sometimes, and it's not the British accents. It's just a bit hard to hear their directions in amongst the rest of the noise.
Controls: 9/10. The controls in this game are pretty sophisticated once you get to the higher up levels, which is great to see. Acceleration is realistic - meaning if you jam the triggers and go, the vehicle will redline (or skid out if you brake too hard on a turn.) This takes a LOT of getting used to, and believe me, if you didn't spend time playing this game last year, it's going to be very frustrating. I wouldn't even recommend starting on easier controls, however, since it basically hand-holds you through changing gears and cornering. Just get out there and learn it the hard way. You won't be sorry you did for very long.
Gameplay: 7/10. This is a hard one to gauge. On one hand, this is probably everything an F1 fan wants. Difficult AI, a sophisticated control and navigation system, realistic weather elements and realistic qualifying and racing sessions. On the other, the gameplay engine is going to be almost too tough for regular gamers and racing novices to get into. There's a lot of disparity between the easy difficulty and hard, but it's to be expected. The game is going to be either the most perfect racing experience ever created, or the most exacerbating one. Take it for what it is - The best F1 game ever created, hands down. If you're the kind of guy that wakes up at 4 AM to watch Michael Schumacher crack his knuckles and roll through Monaco at 300 km/h, this game is for you. If you're the kind of guy who wakes up at 1 PM to watch Danica Patrick roll through the streets of Toronto slightly faster than the BMW that breezes by me on the highway every day, this game's probably not for you.
Moreso than Nascar 2011, this game is not a fun loving, arcade style racing game. There are really no modes where the casual gamer can feel like they can pick up and mess around. F1 Racing in a whole is a much more finessed style than, say, Nascar, and drivers seem to have to exhibit much more patience and technique. This game is exactly that. It hits a very specific demographic of gamers, and excels at doing so. I cannot see a single F1 Racing fan being disappointed with much. The game puts everything it can out there from a slick processing and weather engine, to the realism of disparity between the best teams, and the "just there" teams. This is probably the most realistic racing game out there once you factor in the secondary details off the track it brings into play.
That's where my recommendations to you the reader come in. If you like the mystique of F1, don't hesitate to go out and grab this game. If you're a fan of one racing style, but not F1, I'd still say give it a go. If you don't like auto racing at all, but want an over the top racing game to play in your spare time? This probably isn't it, unless you're into a highly precisioned, more realistic racing style. The F1 and Codemasters relationship is a great one - This is very detail oriented company putting forth the best game the F1 franchise has ever seen. It's a shame that I can't recommend it to everybody, however, because it's just too product specialized, though doing anything but changing what it already is would cheapen everything.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
NHL 12
Once a year, all good Canadians gather together for a celebration of peace, love and joyous Harmony. These easy going, fun loving Canadians gather, heads held high, smiles on their faces, beers in hand and celebrate another monumental landmark in the nation's landscape. That day? The day EA Sports releases their latest NHL game.This year, September 13th was picked as said day of celebration, with a landmark showing how long this franchise has been going on. This year's cover boy Steven Stamkos wasn't EVEN BORN when the original EA NHL game hit shelves in 1989. Feel old now?
Last year's NHL turned the franchise on its ear and shook the wax out. Throwing caution aside and including more than 200 gameplay improvements (including the all new Ultimate Team Mode), I had no qualms in declaring it one of the best, if not the best installment of the franchise ever. So after all that glowing praise, how does this year's stack up?
-Goalie Contact and fights
-The Winter Classic
-The introduction of NHL Legends
-Increased hit animation (you don't necessarily fly off the handle when hit - you can get stunned.)
...and more than 300 other changes. THREE HUNDRED mechanical changes.
I would be remiss if I also did not mention that create a player now includes the ability to have female players too. Luckily, women's hockey rules weren't included (sorry, it had to be said.) How excited was I for this year's release? I was practically biting the wrapping off my copy to get at the disc. I don't often provide minute by minute, blow by blow play by play of the first few minutes of me playing a game, but it went something like this:
Me: ALRIGHT LET'S DO IT!!!!
*loading time*
*loading time*
Me: Would I like to import my NHL 11 profile? Sure
*loading time*
*loading time*
Hang on I've got a phone call.
(Variation phones)
Me: Adam? Yeah NHL 12. Yeah the loading time is ridiculous again. You want to get some lunch on the moon? Sure let's grab the next rocket out. No, I'll leave the game on.
*loading time*
*loading time*
ME: YEA!!! ALRIGHT I'M BACK TIME FOR SOME N...oh
*loading time*
*loading time*
Winter Classic!
Much like NBA 2K11 and Tiger Woods 12, the game sticks you in a scenario to start rather than a menu. Here you are at the start of last year's Winter Classic at Heinz Field. It just...takes a little while to get there when you get going. Ever since EA stretched their profile system into your gamertag for all of their sports games, loading time has been a real bringdown. Getting to the moon and back is a slight exaggeration, but I'm sure that if I were to add up all of the crazy profile loading time issues, it would total hours in a hurry.
Once in the Winter Classic, you can play out the game, or just one shift, after which you are given the choice to leave, however, and play the interactive tutorial to familiarize yourself with the changes, and with the game's controls. It starts off very similar to last year and ends with defensive maneuvers. It is what it is. You can go through, or just go and play the game.
The game itself looks and plays very similar to last year. All of the basic controls are pretty much the same, as are the majority of notable gameplay mechanics. However, the controls themselves are much more responsive, and better tuned than they were last year. Perhaps it's a psychological reaction on my part, but it seems like the game's much more responsive and as a result, it allows you to play a more confident game right out of the gate. The new hit animations, however, do change the game up quite a bit. No longer do you have to worry about getting automatically rubbed out of every play. Your players can shake off, and carom past checks with a bit more realism than taking dives soccer style every time they've been hit. The controls continue to have multiple variations of their actions. For example, on Faceoffs, you can pin your opponent or lift his stick in addition to taking the draw itself. I continue to like the fact that this game caches more in-game highlights than most others (with the possible exception of Madden,) and they build it into in-game highlight packages. Gary Thorne and Bill Clement are back calling the action, and the commentary once again is spot on and well done. Thorne is so much better calling hockey than baseball, and it definitely shows here. With the way hockey commentary is changing implementing sideline reporters, it would be neat to see the presence of someone like Ray Ferraro, or Pierre McGuire (say what you want about his sense of excitement -- he's still a brilliant hockey mind) at ice level in future games providing in-game insight.
Something EA did this year to add a bit more of a roster X-Factor (as if the game didn't have enough with its implementations of international leagues and minor leagues right?) is the inclusion of a bunch of legends, from recently retired Chris Chelios and Jeremy Roenick all the way to forever beloved Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
Be and Pro and Be a Legend game modes are similar, and they remain, to me, possibly the most fun in the game. In Be a Legend, you start as Jeremy Roenick, as he's the only one available to you. Restrictive? Maybe, but for those of you who don't remember, or are too young to have played it back then, NHL 95 Jeremy Roenick has the distinction of being the single most unstoppable entity in hockey gaming history. That year, he could score goals with his eyes closed, check opponents THROUGH the boards, pass with laser-like precision, and once his shift was over 12 goals and 14 assists later, he'd re-hydrate on the bench with rubber cement because NHL 95 Jeremy Roenick's body was too tough to accept pansy liquids like water and Gatorade.
Does NHL 12 Jeremy Roenick match NHL 95 Jeremy Roenick? I didn't think so, but after scoring 2 goals and 4 assists in the first period of my first game...perhaps. You'll continue to receive tasks, goals, positive and negative coaching throughout your games., which is the main focus of this mode. As you level up and continue your career, you will unlock more Pros over the course of time. Beware, however, as many gamers online have reported trouble with the unlocks themselves, and many have reached levels where they should be unlocking players, but do not. Whether this is a connectivity problem (some report the problems fixes itself when you log into XBox Live,) or an in-game glitch remains to be seen. If having all of those pros matter to you, however, then it could be a problem. Myself, I'm content to have the unstoppable Roenick in my corner.
Game minutes in Be a Pro/Legend mode are a bit more realistic now. Your energy meter tells you when you should/shouldn't be on the ice, and much like Fifa's Captain your Country, you're kept in the loop as to where you should ideally be on the ice, so you aren't just floating out there. The game and your energy level are tuned so you can't leech and spent 38 minutes out there hogging the puck and taking the game over yourself. You'll be debriefed after every shift and told what you're doing well, or what you may have done wrong out there.
Not to be outdone by the Legends, the standard Be a Pro Mode is no slouch. This year, you can start with a full CHL career, or just the Memorial Cup followed by the entry draft and a career from there. If you import your NHL 11 profile, it will automatically default your pro from last year as your player from this year.
Hockey Ultimate Team is back again, and again, is one of the things that keeps this title in the elite category for all sports games. Like exhibition mode, the base premise is the same - You build your teams through a series of hockey card packs, sign them to contracts (also done through cards) and take those teams online or offline against other created teams. If you are familiar with EA's online offerings (like Madden Superstars, which I referenced a few times last year, but have since stopped playing,) they are using those business models to evolve the console games too. Madden Superstars started sticking different "versions" of players (ie. player of the week Michael Vick, Pro Bowl Michael Vick) in special edition packs. NHL 12 does and will be doing the same thing. My hope is that they read this review, and decide to hook me up an with NHL 95 Jeremy Roenick card. I won't even need the rest of the team. I'll just assign all my contracts to that one man army, and off I go. Forget goaltenders. I'll just stick a silhouette of NHL 95 Roenick in net, and people will be too afraid to shoot. Ultimate Team Mode is something I hope remains a constant fixture of the game. It's just too good, and has gathered too much momentum to take away, or try to downsize in the future. If anything, I'd like to see a special edition for next year similar to what the Madden crew did - A limited collector's edition featuring a legend autograph in every pack with a special edition pack for HUT to sell the mode further. Panini has a hockey license too, and a pretty knowledgeable hockey staff that I'm sure would love to jump in. It might be a tough business transition, however, as EA and Upper Deck have already formed a partnership in past years, and given that UD tends to work on a more in-advance schedule than Panini (who tend to make their real-time changes much quicker,) that groundwork would need to be laid almost ASAP for next year. Still, just an idea.
Something I always take the time to note is the in-game soundtrack. When your primary gaming taste is sports, and you play a bit of everything, the soundtrack and the atmosphere it provides are always something you keep an eye out for. Madden this year dropped off their usual quality, and after NHL's ridiculously spot-on soundtrack last year that bordered on the greatest and most appropriate choices ever, this year's a huge letdown. Sure, ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" is a cool choice, and what hockey game isn't complete without a bit of Billy Idol? But Black Tide? Bush? This is the NHL, not a local 6 year olds game where all the kids skate for the puck while little Ricky's dad controls the music, scoreboard and local hot dog stand.
I don't have many other problems with this game. I'd really like to see a few more things added to the presentation side of things this year for sure - I'm hoping a patch comes out that gives the Winnipeg Jets their actual unis, and the same for their AHL Franchise. I'm also a bit curious as to why the Atlanta Thrashers unis were just pulled out altogether rather than being a Jets alternate. Too soon? I'm also hoping that if all of this business around legend unlocks are true, that gets fixed too. I'm not that concerned about not unlocking the past since I'm only interested in the present (unstoppable Roenick aside) but that's a pretty big problem that will need to be addressed in a future patch.
Graphics: 9.5/10. Graphically, this game has very little left to accomplish within the means and boundaries of the 360. The player sprites are leaps and bounds better than last year. Players look realistic, and what I imagine must be the hardest texturing (the ice surface) is done spot on. The crowds are night and day compared to last year. The floating, towel waving wrists are gone, and replaced by animated crowds wearing tons of jerseys from different eras, representing all sorts of demographics. The only thing keeping this game from getting a perfect graphic score? The jerseys. Why do the player jerseys come out worse looking every year? The Florida Panthers, for example. The letters on the jerseys are too far apart, and the numbers are too small. This seems to be a symptom of most of the jerseys. Some look fabulous, and some just look terrible. I realize this is such a small detail in the grand scheme of things, but it sticks out so badly to hockey fans that it's almost unacceptable. It's like watching real NHL players go out there with those fake Chinese knockoff jerseys and attempt to make a game of it.
Sound: 9/10. Sound again, for the most part is great. Every grunt, groan, slash and skate stop are represented here. Commentary is well done. Again, few complaints here outside of the soundtrack and its ambience. NHL 11's soundtrack must have been a generational thing that proved you don't need current music for a current music. They tried again to get back to that a bit this year, but it flopped. The NHL's musical situation is one that keeps energy and rhythm alive between faceoffs and during goals. That energy gets really sucked out in a hurry if you play the wrong music. There's nothing that kills an arena's buzz more than say, Miley Cyrus during a TV timeout (she's not in the game at all. Just my example.) It'd be good to get back to the "hockey songs for hockey fans/players" approach we've seen before, rather than the "This might sound good in a hockey game. Let's do it" -type of thing we're seeing this year.
Controls: 10/10. I've complained hard in past years about the games that have too complex of controls. Looking back, many controls here are similar, if not the exact same of last year's. But everything was fixed. The game doesn't feel so foreboding or unforgiving as last year, and you can wrap your head around pressure touch passing and checking much better now. The game makes you work (and properly I might add) for perfection, but doesn't punish you if you don't hit everything at the right time. EA took the time to listen to the gripes of gamers here, and really outdid themselves.
Gameplay: 9.25/10. So much is right with this game, and very little is wrong. There are a few things that could be made better - HUT contracts a bit wonky, and it seems like it may be too hard to re-up players at times. I'm not so fond of the overdone goalie contact. While it was a welcome re-addition, that collision detection really messes with you. There's almost too much for what it is supposed to be. Interestingly, the demo had some big holes and problems with the contact drawing too many penalties. This appears to have been toned down a bit with the updated game tuner downloads, but there seems to be a bit more exaggeration in the whole thing than I'd prefer. Outside of that, what else is left to say? Nothing major about this game is wrong. There's nothing that is a caveat that is big enough for me to tell you this game isn't worth purchasing. If you're purchasing for the first time in 5 or 6 years, then you need a few hours to sit down and re-learn the wheel, however, if you bought this last year, and know the song, then yes, it's that good.
Is it good to buy this year if you already have last year? I don't know the answer to that one. I'd say so, but I know it's hard to put down another $60 when you did last year, and the product is somewhat similar. I'd say it would be a no brainer if there was a special edition that gave you much that a regular edition didn't ala Madden, but I don't think the Be a Legend Mode is incentive enough for me to tell you that you MUST get it, especially given the fact that so many people are having trouble unlocking past Roenick. On the flipside, 60 bucks isn't that much. That's an average of one less Starbucks trip a month. Cut down the caffeine and go grab this gem.
During the bleak years of the NHL franchise in the mid-2000s when 2K was beating EA so badly gamers were calling for Electronic Arts to lose their license, EA learned some massive lessons, and the games are so good, you forget there used to be another alternative. We don't need one now. This game is so diverse, and so large in its overall experience that there's almost too much to keep you interested for another full year. Thanks to EA for yet another year ahead of fun hockey, and for getting "Don't Bring Me Down" stuck in my head for the next week.
Like the review? Hate the review? Think I?m the best or worst game reviewer in the history of ever? Give me an earful on Twitter @paliontology, and follow our site too @XboxAddicts. See you very soon for Fifa 12. I've been looking forward to that one since the Spring.
Suggestions: Let me pick the soundtrack next year. Please. It would also be great (in an ideal, less payment for licensing world) if you could get all the goal horn songs from all the NHL clubs. It would be awesome to hear Holiday blare when the Canucks score at home, or Chelsea Dagger when the Blackhawks score, for example. It would also be nice to get an "ice level analyst" type of personality like Ferraro or McGuire out there. Someone who can throw out things like coaches speaking to players, or in-game injury reports like they do on real broadcasts. I'm just grasping at straws here since there's not much I can suggest gameplay wise at this point. Oh right -- PLEASE look into fixing the profile loading time issues pre-game. If I didn't have to keep waiting minutes at a time when I loaded my EA Sports games up, that would make me the happiest game reviewer on the planet.
Overall Score: 9.4 / 10
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
Warhammer 40000 is one of the world's biggest tabletop miniature games. Apparently, after 39,999 failed attempts, Games Workshop has helped create a solid hobby for players and collectors alike on try 40K. Solid enough for THQ to get on board and create a video gaming adventure in the universe.Coming into this game, my only knowledge of Warhammer was that you could play it on a tabletop, and it probably involved dice. I also walked into a Games Workshop one time looking for a gift for a family member that played, and was matter-of-factly informed by one of the patrons that my knowledge of Warhammer was "noobish at best" and that I would "get pwned if I ever sat at one of their tables." I thought the purpose of trash talk was to downtalk people who:
a) Were interested in whatever you were trash talking them about?
b) Throw someone off a similar game or interest you shared?
Needless to say, when I was asked to review Space Marine, I had to first be convinced it wasn't a Halo game, and then be convinced I wasn't the worst person in the world (or this site) to do it. But I knew I'd need a bit of help.
So I solicited the Twitter advice of Strikeforce Heavyweight fighter Josh Barnett, who is an admitted Warhammer fan. He said he enjoyed the game, and said I should put a little research into the storyline it was from. So I did. I still don't know what the hell I was reading. I don't think the outside world realizes just how complicated Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer and all this stuff truly is, especially to someone whose only exposure were 2 roommates that used to play once a week with their work buddies while I sat watching old Pride FC events and playing Astropop. With these storylines, I gave up somewhere around the time I realized Orcs were spelled with a K in the Warhammer universe, and in trying to figure out what time period this all took place in. I just decided to dive head in.
The game starts with a brief cinematic and introduction to the charactrs, from which I've gathered the following: You are the hero Titus, South African decendant of famous voice actor Stephen Root. You are fighting a mixture of British and South African superhuman orcs and coming to the aide of a bunch of humans. Your race is undefined, you've grown liver spots on your face at age 40, you're probably about 9 feet tall, and capable of wearing a suit of armor that is completely impractical due to its size, but allows you to sprint and kill things with the greatest of ease.
Outside of the liver spots, being a Space Marine sounds kind of cool. Oh, don't forget the jaded old guy with only one eye. He's got to be in every one of these games. He appears to be decendant of King Triton from the Little Mermaid. I didn't catch his name, but someone's name in this thing is Leonidas. Probably him.
Anyway, enough making fun. Let me preface the rest of this review by saying that if you don't follow or don't understand Warhammer 40,000 like me, it doesn't matter. Understanding everything will give you more of a vested interest naturally (you'll probably understand why you're in this war a bit better, and understand the fictitious repurcussions,) but if you can take this game for what it is, you may find you still enjoy it.
The game sets you off with Stephen Root jumping from a plane onto an Ork ship, trying to single handedly take down a mini army. Within a few seconds I learned how to headshot, disembowel and bludgeon to death the orks in numerous ways. Fabulous. This is the best game ever! This mission is basically a tutorial level, which teaches you all of the various melee combo moves, stun moves, and special kill combos. Then? Wave after wave of fun ensues. Tons of orks come pouring out (which is a theme you'll see all throughout this game) and put you right into the fracas. The controls are extremely responsive, and work to perfection. The camera angles follow you wherever you go, though almost to a fault. If you overshoot your enemies, it will show the camera from the back, and won't necessarily throw you back into battle. You will have to adjust yourself, and the camera before you get curbstomped by an orc. This isn't as bad as it sounds - just annoying. You won't die overshooting an enemy, especially not when you can regen health by weapon special killing an orc, which is pretty simple to do. You then continue on assisting the humans at war. The humans are a measly 6 feet tall, and don't wear 9400 pounds of armor. In other words, they're pretty much bait. You'll probably have grown accustomed to the musical score at this point, which you'll notice is fine tuned to rise and fall as the mood allows.
With regard to your weapons, you start with a simple sword and a crappy pistol. The pistol is about as effective as Jessica Simpson at a spelling bee, so be sure to plot out explosives around the enemies you could shoot instead. Eventually you get upgraded to some ridiculously unfair combat weapons (a chainsaw sword? How can ANYTHING ever compete with that?) and interesting guns (which serve almost little purpose outside of proving how much more fun hand to hand combat is) to aide you in your quest. The game itself plays out very much like a movie. You as the Marine faction are attempting to stop the threats of orks and forces of chaos from corrupting the world and taking it over (all in the name of evil of course - you're never the bad guy playing good guy this side of Braid.) Your main source of fun in the first few chapters are the Orks, leading to a fairly gory and epic showdown with their boss. The game then shifts and becomes a giant psychological battle with the forces of Chaos. This is about as much of a high level overview as I can provide without spoiling anything. The game is very story and plot rich -- all of it well explained and well thought out if you're willing to sit through the lengthy cutscenes. But again, if all you're interested in is mindless killing by dudes dressed in cool looking armor that appear to have been fighting things for hundreds of years, this is still the game for you. Even as a Warhammer non-fan, I have no hesitation telling anybody (whether interested in plot or not) that Space Marine is a must play. I have a few minor beefs with the gameplay and controls, which I will address below. However, it shouldn't be enough to deter you from at least giving it a try. Let's see how the game rates.
Graphics: 9.5/10. The graphics in this game are fantastic. With all of the camera hopping, angle jumping and crazy scrolling possible due to the melee engine and the control system, they never glitch, never spot and no textures ever mess up. The in-game graphics are colorful and very detailed. No matter how many sprites are on screen, the game never slows down or blends textures. This is the mark of very well done design, and it's one of the things you really take for granted in one of these types of games until you see it in action and realize no corners were cut, and yet the game's performance was never affected.
Sound: 9/10. The music in this game fits every scenario perfectly. It rises to build suspenses, and drops at quieter times. Not a single piece on the original score was inappropriately placed or inappropriately done, and is probably the game's greatest strength sound-wise. Game SFX are a close second. Every bone crunch, every squish, every weapon stab, every bullet penetrating an orc's body is captured in perfect squeamish glory. The biggest sound downfall in this game is enemy dialogue. It's refreshing, and rather heartwarming that the Orks and humans speak the same language (which begs the question of why they didn't try to negotiate and hug out the great war,) but there wasn't a lot of verbiage recorded, and as a result, you've probably heard most of the one liners by the time you reach chapter 3. By then, you'll probably be sitting there picking off and predicting what they're going to say. "Here comes a human. Yup. Oh no the humans. Yup. Kill the humans. Seen it before." Cinematic dialogues are a bit cheesy too, but it's to be expected in this type of game, so I can't fault it much.
Controls: 7/10. At last, we arrive to the weakest part of the game - It's controls. They're perfectly responsive, and everything does what it's supposed to. The trouble is what happens when you over or undershoot your controls. If you overshoot an attack, it's harder than it needs to be (both by camera angle and recovery control) to recover and go again, and by then, you may be getting attacked by numerous enemies. Tougher still is when you face a boss character, who has the ability to nearly kill you with one fell swoop. For that matter, why can't the space marine jump at all? Why are so many developers deciding nowadays that jumping is an optional skill for a character to have? You've got this reckless killing machine, capable of using numerous weapons, often simultaneously, and commandeering an army of highly skilled war veterans through a battlefield, yet he can't jump? What's the logic behind that anyways?
Gameplay: 8/10. This game succeeds where others like it failed. Don't shy away from it (like I was doing) because it's a Warhammer game, or something that you feel you may not understand. The game does a good enough job to the outsiders of explaining just what's happening. You don't need a diverse knowledge of Warhammer canon to jump in and play. Very few video games I play make me say "Ok this game's cool" out loud in the first 5 minutes, but this game hooked me from the first melee kill and kept me going. My main criticism is that the game is a bit redundant - You basically just run around hacking and slashing things. But yet, it doesn't try to be anything else. Most of the achievements are even around killing things, and you can expect to have 500 kills racked up before you know it. Then, when you're done killing things on your own, you can do it with a buddy too and share the fun. I wasn't a fan of the jump pack either, as it was too difficult to ground slam and control, and I got stuck behind the scenary of the stage a few times too, having to restart my checkpoint.
Send this note off to Fox Interactive: This is what you probably envisioned Terminator Salvation was supposed to be like, instead of that steaming pile of development garbage that can be found on clearance shelves for $5 now. This game is so gruesome, so intense and so much fun that anybody can pick this up and enjoy it. Video gamers will enjoy the melee combos, the outlandish weapons and ridiculously overdone kill system. Warhammer fans will enjoy the visuals that accompany their favorite storylines, and can rest their vivid imaginations for a few hours while the game lays it out for them, and THQ will hopefully love the fact that this is a really good effort that leads to more of these games down the line. This game gets a thumbs up from me, and if you're looking for a fun afternoon of mindless fun kills where you don't have to go out of your way to find the action, Space Marine is one of the best ways to do it on the 360. If you still have video stores in your area, give this one a definite rental before you do buy, as you'll be turned onto everything the game offers, but may be turned off by the overall limit to gameplay functionality in a whole.
Suggestions: Please fix the odd camera angles and get on another one of these ASAP. This is fun stuff and I look forward to a sequel...and I'm usually a sports gamer.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
NCAA Football 12
It's hard to say nowadays what truly kicks off EA Sports' official season. Is Tiger Woods the kickoff, or is NCAA? Both usually come out at the same time, but given that NCAA's more a celebration of amateur sport, perhaps Tiger? It was pretty crystal clear this year, since Tiger was out before the snow thawed in Vancouver. Most gamers, however, will tell you NCAA is the one they reach for, either in support of their favorite college teams, or to tune up for Madden 2012.In a strange turn of events, I had the opportunity to play Madden BEFORE NCAA this year, so my perspective is a tad upside down compared to the norm. Regularly, I find one formula holds true to NCAA and Madden - Both possess similar play engines, but one's presentation blows the other's away. Madden's in-game presentation was decent this year, but rife with tons of improvement points, like horrendous menu loading time, choppy player sprites and perhaps the worst play by play commentary since Tony Schiavone sat down on WCW Monday Nitro.
After popping NCAA into my Xbox, I was surprised to see the intro video had loaded by the time I switched my TV on. Better yet, the online pass access screen was lightning fast. Even better yet, the menus took almost no time to load. Edge: NCAA.
As usual, the presentation maintains its collegiate vibe. Team colors adorn all corners, with cheering crowds and signs all about. The game, as usual, doesn't take itself seriously during loading, and definitely has a fun presentation style. There's no denying that this game has a lighter feel to it when loading. You'll also see right away that the game's partnered heavily with ESPN as well, with their commentators and sideline reporter Erin Andrews along for the ride. (In Game Weather is also brought to you by the Weather Network.)
Before jumping into gameplay, it's worth commenting about the fact that this game just throws caution to the wind and throws everything but the kitchen sink at you with its new features. You can turn this game into your own. Forget NCAA Football 12. If you're the kind of guy who likes to customize everything, turn everything into his own and give it its own identity, take a picture of yourself, photoshop it onto the cover, print that out with your name and slap it on the front cover. This game allows you to customize everything from uniforms, coaches, teams, everything. I haven't seen a sports game that allows you to build/wreck it this good/bad since WCW Revenge for the Nintendo 64. Even past editions haven't been so out and out ridiculous like this one.
The new Be a Coach mode is interesting. You get to coach as much, or as little as you want. You can strategize and flip on the fly, modify pass lanes, call audibles and even switch up your hot routes. If all of that is foreign to you, well, you can just select plays and watch. All achievements that you can get from gameplay are strangely available here too. Go figure.
Then there's the mindblowing Road to Glory mode, where you start your player from his senior year of high school all the way to Heisman Glory, and you can even build the teams you play against. Unlike Nintendo Ice Hockey, however, you cannot stack a team of all skinny guys or all fat Marios and use it to your advantage. Much like Madden, however, don't expect that your player will have a fabulous high school year and get recruited by a big name school. Just like getting drafted by the Cleveland Browns every year, you'll probably get a middle of the road school (or Akron, in which case you're pretty much the best player by default even if you redshirt, or just shut the game off.) You have the build up your coach's trust from the beginning, because again, you're just a new kid starting from nothing. Certain positions will allow you to flip around to others as well if you believe it gives you a better shot of starting, or making it to the show. You can also decide you want to be the next Garo Yepremian and just become a kicker.
So with all this mind, I haven't even discussed the gameplay. Some of it's because I was able to write this entire thing in the time it took to load a game.
Alright, so it's not quite THAT bad, but the loading time is a little on the slow side, but you quickly see that you're not just loading players, but mascot animations, collegiate cheerleaders and sideline reporting. The game interface itself looks and plays like Maddens previous to 12, with the simplistic kicking system, play selection screen and buttons. In fact, I'd go so far to say it's a mirror image. All of the buttons are the same, the camera angles are the same (thankfully, all of the right camera angles are defaulted, meaning you don't have to go around switching things to the way it was before.) There's even a button for your selected player to pep up the home crowd on defense. I had a bit of a hard time adjusting to this, however. It responded perfectly when I was playing, but the crowd didn't respond (story of my life.) On the flip side, the crowd would cheer at the drop of a hat in Be a Coach mode, but the player would run offside from the line of scrimmage. I had to eventually stop trying to bring the crowd into the game because I was giving up so many yards that the opposition just had to walk into the endzone once a quarter.
This may be my lack of college football knowledge, but the first down system in the game seems to be messed up, which may be a pretty big deterrent in the grand scheme of things. I admit, I don't watch college football, but it seems like the second the ballcarrier's foot touches the first-down line, it's an automatic first down, even if you push him a couple yards back, or the ball doesn't cross the line at the end of the play. Perhaps my games rules were skewed, but I didn't touch them at all before starting up, so I was a bit taken aback at the ease in which first downs were attained in this game of inches. Still, the gameplay is pretty sound, but after playing Madden, you may agree that the vast improvements they made to the gameplay engine on that side make this one almost night and day in terms of overall playability. It's often said that the yearly games serve as nothing but a cash cow with roster updates and little changes. Not so. Check it - This game and Madden were released a month apart, yet they're so very different. I'll address this a bit more in closing below.
Back to NCAA - One of the things that frustrates me year in and year out is the lack of player names, which takes a lot out of the identity of game itself. Unfortunately, the NCAA's regulations with regard to player exploitation and use of likeness means you will likely never see real college player names and faces used. This rolls across all sports. You'll never see anybody in a collegiate program in the NHL games either. Still, it would be a nice gesture to see fake names make an appearance. MVP Baseball 2005 (still my pick for the best top to bottom pure baseball game ever) took the names of devs and testers and made them college baseball stats. I realize that rosters of thousands of players might be a tough go to make fake names for, but it's a small sacrifice to give the game a bit more identity instead of "HB 17" on the back of uniforms. Unless you start taking advantage of roster sharing, there's always the "Dude that looks like..." game. My favorite players in the game were the Washington Huskies halfback dude that looked like Ahmad Rashad, and the Oklahoma Sooners QB that looked like UFC fighter Cheick Kongo. Seriously though, it's a bit bush league when your create a player is the only guy in the entire country that gets to have his name on the back of a jersey. Even a fake generator for next year would be fine. East Coast standout Archie Abdul-Luongo would be better than nothing.
Graphics: 8/10. To a man, the graphics are great, but not spectacular. The players are individually animated, but still awkward. Player Collision is still kind of sticky, especially when playing Coach modes. The players move a bit awkwardly, almost like marionettes. This I understand must be a difficult process, however and continue to applaud EA's attempt to simultaneously individually animate a team, referees and sidelines within a down. It's better than everybody programmed to run toward the ball like 5 year olds playing hockey that all skate for the puck. The players themselves may not be all that great, but the atmosphere is fantastic and the way that they animate the playing field the way you choose is second to none. Go play a foggy 105 degree game at night and tell me you don't feel like you're watching football played live from the inside of a sweaty glove. Disgusting, yet amazing.
Sound: 9/10. Sounds are where NCAA always trumps Madden. Brass bands playing team songs, cheerleaders shouting random things, and well, the play by play in this game is leaps and bounds better than Madden, though the Storage Wars fan in me can't shake the fact that Kirk Herbstreit sounds a bit like Darrell Sheets this year. I keep waiting for Herbstreit to tell me about his Wow Factor. Still, that being said, all the grunts, groans, crunches and hits are well represented here. The commentators provide enough insight that it isn't overbearing, and feeds well into the overall atmosphere of the game.
Controls 8/10: It's hard to say anything new about the controls without just cutting and pasting exactly what I said about Madden since all controls are basically the same. They're easy to figure out (and if they're too hard to figure out, one button mode cures that in a hurry,) though fairly awkward overall, especially when you find your right hand needing to hit 3 commands at once. I did find that playing an armchair coach was a bit easier here than Madden, and I'm just as bad a football coach there as I am here.
Gameplay: 7/10. The in-game football gameplay itself is average and nothing spectacular. I didn't quite enjoy playing football, however, as much as I did not playing football (in the sense of all of the extra features.) I think something that you're going to see from NCAA in future years is that this is something that's going to become more of a multi-faceted experience title than just a football game. THQ has done well to do this with their WWE games, absorbing you in farther than just a wrestling match and a few chairs. This is the direction I can see NCAA going with next year and future years. There's a lot less to balance in the NCAA since you don't have to worry about long term contracts, free agency or salary caps, and I see EA starting to compensate for that in other ways. I know this title gets overlooked by straight NFL fans (and I admit, if it wasn't for the fact that I was reviewing it, I wouldn't have picked this up either,) but it's good to see that there will be in fact more to make you take a look than the Be a Pro transitions over.
Overall, let's look at both of EA's yearly football titles to see who wins out. The better football game is Madden 12. Madden sucks you in with a better, crisper and more comprehensive on-field football game. There's absolutely no question here, but to be fair, some of it may be the gameplay improvements they made. NCAA, however, is the better football PRODUCT. If you crave a bit more outside of just football and legacy modes, NCAA is the all comprehensive product you're seeking. You never have to play an actual game of football, and you can still spend hours and hours doing whatever - Customizing teams, playbooks, uniforms, teams, everything. If you could sandwich NCAA's flexibility with Madden's actual game, you might have the ideal football game. But there's always next year right? Until then, I can't honestly tell you which one's the worth buying most. Both games excel in completely different directions and are both worth looking at and playing. If you're a long time player of both franchises, both games are worth getting - Consider this a transition year for both games. Once they implement the game changes from this year's Madden into NCAA 13 along with whatever else they choose to touch up, you'll probably be looking at a possible future candidate for best football game ever. Until then, this is basically just a push. You'll win with both titles. You'll lose with both titles. Expect greatness above perfection, and expect to be entertained.
Like the review? Hate the review? Think I?m the best or worst game reviewer in the history of ever? Give me an earful on Twitter @paliontology. See you soon for NHL 12!
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Madden NFL 12
EA?s Madden football series has been around so long, John Madden himself still had color in his hair when the first one was released, and he?s been grey for over 20 years. If you?re old enough to have played the first few games of the series as it came out, you?ve seen the ups and downs, and trials and tribulations of the football giant. The Super Nintendo games, for example used to regularly blow the Sega Genesis games out of the water, and once EA implemented cutesy Mode 7 graphics into the SNES versions, all bets were off. Then came commentary. The now retired Pat Summerall lent his voice to some of those early incarnations, and a plethora of football names have come and gone through the ranks since then.Time and again, Madden?s presentation looks nothing short of breathtaking. Graphically, Madden is one of the best looking sports games, period. The playbooks are so comprehensive, you swear EA?s downloading updates to your system while you sleep because you?ll see something new every time you play. The games are easy to get into and easy to enjoy but hard to master, which is what every sports gaming enthusiast or newbie craves. Marketing is fantastic as well, as Madden Nation rolls strong online through Facebook and Twitter (#maddennation,) even though the man who the series is named after has long retired.
The only complaint I have with Madden each year is its Play by Play. This has been the only sticking point the last few times out, and Madden 12 already had the possibility of failure attached, bringing back Gus Johnson and Cris Collingsworth for yet another spin around the sun. Both men are great football commentators in their own right. In fact, I?d go so far as to say Johnson is possibly the best LIVE football play by play man out there in terms of the way he goes about building excitement. However, that doesn?t translate well when you?ve got a microphone in front of you with no game to call where your comments are pre-recorded and spliced into random parts of the game. It?s nothing against Johnson himself. It?s just that very few people have that ability of overall transparency in their voicework that makes this sort of thing effective. Johnson?s voicework didn?t translate well last year, and I hope that he was done a better service this year.
This year?s Madden Curse nominee..err...Madden Cover Boy is Peyton Hillis, who won a final poll against Michael Vick of all people to adorn the cover. Seriously? That might be the first poll in the history of anything online that didn?t need to be rigged to get the intended result. Peyton Hillis, who prior to this game I thought was the name of an upscale suburb in Southern California, walked away with almost 70% of the votes and will hope not to tear or blow anything out this season for his willingness to appear on the haunted cover of the Madden series. Good luck Peyton.
EA gave fans the choice to buy one of two versions this year. The Hillis version, and a Hall of Fame cover featuring recent NFL Hall of Fame inductee Marshall Faulk. The special edition also comes with a one of 4 autographed Faulk autographed cards, a shiny embossed bronze cover, a pack of Ultimate Team cards which make a team so good it would probably take years to compile naturally, and a $90 price tag, which all things considered is worth it if you play the game more religiously than the once a week your favorite team?s on. The Limited Edition is also limited to 125,000 copies, and one lucky 360 owner will also find a golden ticket of sorts - A solid gold 18K Faulk trading card. It?s not known yet whether the card was inserted into the box itself, or was a redemption. Panini has been issuing their NFL and NHL Golden Ticket cards as redemptions in packs of their ?Contenders? sets this year because they come encased in an unbreakable Beckett Grading capsule, and as such would be too large and bulky (and easily searched) in regular packs. It may be weeks or months before we find out which way this ended up, but there will be one fan that wins more than a cool game cover.
This game, like all other EA Sports games follow the online pass system. In other words, either buy the game new, or expect to have to pay the purchase price + $10 for the online pass if you want to play on XBox Live. This is really nothing new. Since UFC Undisputed 2010, it?s been common practice in the sports gaming market to do this. If you want to test the waters, you?ll get the option of a 2 day trial.
The first few Madden games had ridiculously sized menus. They would be multiple pages with numerous options. This expansive sprawl has been trimmed year after year, and I?m a bit relieved to see the menus simplified into one page again. Menus are easily to navigate through and you get to where you want to be quicker than ever before. One thing I noticed, however, and this may be my hard drive acting up (though I did just replace it a couple months ago) is that this game suffers from the same hang time and lag a lot of EA Games started seeing last year once World Cup was released. An EA employee I spoke to said it was due to the amount of content the system was attempting to load at once, but I?m used to experiencing weird lag BEFORE menus, not during them, which I had here time and again. Making matters worse was the amount of time it took for the menus to show up to BEGIN WITH. By the time it confirmed EA Online Pass, and my settings, and asked my parents permission to play, I swear it was time for Madden 13. I can only see this getting worse as you continue to build your EA Passport, and it has to scroll through a ton of games to get point totals and things. Something?s got to give, and I hope this is being addressed in future games (I realize it may be too late for the ?12? games, so I won?t criticize it too harshly for this year?s games from this point on.)
As usual, the presentation is out of sight. I don?t know how many hundreds of hours of game tape were studied going into the mere presentation of this game, but it gets everything right, from the camera angles of the tunnel huddles to the peeks behind player shoulders behind the benches during TV timeouts. All of the stadiums look great and the fields look better than they do in Madden ?08, which I thought had the best field layouts yet. Unfortunately, mixed in amongst all the majestic beauty, the player sprites don?t seem to be in full HD and are animated a bit chunkier than past years. This may have to do with one of the main changes made to the gameplay engine - Enhanced collision detection. As was the case with all previous sports games, damage was enacted by a pre-determined animation which wouldn?t always cooperate with the ball. A system of collision detection based on where you acted was piloted in last year?s NHL game, and has now made its way into the other games. Welcome change for sure, but it comes at a bit of a sacrifice this year.
The one thing that doesn't seem to change year after year is pass animation, and pass AI. It's not surprising to see nearly perfect pass AI. No matter what difficulty you play on, somehow the AI will always anticipate who you're passing to and you'll find yourself throwing into double or triple coverage into jumping defenders. Making matters stranger is the fact that the pass animations don't appear to have changed much, and already annoyed Madden fans might not be so happy to see David Tyree's famous catch is still being re-enacted at the most inopportune times. Tyree retired. This pass animation can too.
Player performance in game is hugely impacted by the momentum they generate throughout their play in-game. Nervous and shaken quarterbacks will be more likely to throw erratic passes, however, confident QBs will throw crisper passes. A confident running back may be the most dangerous weapon in the game, often able to break coverage like nobody's business. One particular game I played featured a Rashard Mendenhall that was so unstoppable, it was Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl-esque. Defensive players carry this same momentum. Sacking a quarterback, providing good coverage or hitting big tackles will bolster their in-game ratings as well.
Positive changes do abound in this game, and I will give EA huge accolades another big thing - They appear to have incorporated the lockout rule changes already. The lockout changes were announced at a time when a game is normally ready to go into finalization or production, and I applaud the foresight to put these changes in, rather than providing an inaccurate experience. Reasons like this are why the NFL should continue to take solace in their decision to have one yearly football game flying its flag.
Franchise Mode is strong as always, with few changes necessary, and little ones made. As a GM, you now have to bid against other general managers for free agents, and can learn to expose loopholes in collective bargaining yourself. You must now make proper roster cuts each week (in fact, there's an achievement for making a last day cut,) and you shape your final roster out of a larger one. One thing I noticed when making a trade as well was that you could trade your players for draft picks, which I don't recall seeing in previous years. There isn't much else to say about Franchise Mode to be honest. It is what it is. I continue to like the fact that you can transition your characters from the NCAA games too. It adds that little something that links both games, and makes them both worth picking up, or at least trying out.
Making another appearance this year is the Ultimate Team Mode. This mode debuted last year in an attempt to close the gap between video gaming, fantasy football and collectible card games. In it, you create your dream team by use of strategic card purchases, purchasing packs, and renewing contracts with cards as well. It?s not for everybody, but it is definitely worth playing if you did not get the chance with previous EA games, or just want to rise to supremacy again. The game within a game is almost like a CCG. You start with a group of average players (and maybe one or two superstars) and work your way up the ladder from there, playing other mock teams both offline and online. Madden NFL Superstars on Facebook was the introduction to this game last year, and it runs strong alongside its console counterpart, though they don?t interact together (maybe something that could change for Madden 13?) This is an easy time sink if this type of thing interests you. I?ve met people that spent more time tooling their teams together and wheeling and dealing than playing the actual game itself last year, and this mode is a definite touchdown (no pun intended) in the Madden bag of tricks. I've heard Ultimate Team referred to as a cash grab of sorts, which I disagree with. Really, it's a game that's asking you to invest your time into it rather than take the easy way out, though if you don't have the time to do that -- Well, there's the easy way out. This is no different than going on eBay and buying loot for MMORPGs rather than taking the time to earn it.
So how does Madden 12 stack up in the final ratings?
Graphics: 8.5/10. Let's face it. This isn't Madden's best game graphically. EA Sports has already proven that they can bend the 360's graphics processors to its will and create masterpieces. The players look a tad out of place at times because their quality of animation is so much different than the fields themselves. It's like characters from a Georges Seurat artwork sitting down at the bar in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. I think most of the graphical capabilities have been reached already, but since we'll probably have 1 or 2 more Madden games on the 360 before its end of life, polishing animations are about all that needs to be done at this point.
Sound: 6/10. Sadly, Gus Johnson still just does not fit in this year. I don't know what you can do to fix the commentary problems. I'm beginning to think this is long running more toward the game of football itself and the way it plays on a video game system. As I said earlier, some play by play commentators have a voice and style that can transition well into any medium, including video games. Jim Hughson was one, Pat Summerall, Bill Clement (for hockey,) Marv Albert. These guys all have fantastic all purposes voices. I'd even go so far as to say Cris Collingsworth is fine too. All of these guys probably work out because of the reserved nature of their voices. THQ found a way to make the oft excited voices of Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan work for UFC Undisputed. I don't know why it is Gus Johnson just doesn't work for Madden. It might be the fact that his brand of excitement doesn't translate out of real time. It could be that you just don't "feel" the commentary in amongst the ambience Madden provides. I can't really pinpoint it, but Gus Johnson and Madden really aren't a healthy marriage. Speaking of the man himself, John Madden's "Ask Madden" mode is still available in the playbooks, though his voice no longer guides or justifies why you should be taking a play.
The other sound effects are fine, though I'm a bit disappointed about the fact that the whole experience doesn't provide as great an ambience that I'm used to in EA games. NHL, Fifa and World Cup last year did a ridiculous job sucking you into it, making you want to wave towels and paint your face. From an audio standpoint, Madden feels for all the world like a video game, and not an experience. There's not a lot of stadium bumping music playing between downs, and there's not a whole lot extra going on between possessions. This is really the only place things could change a lot for the better.
Controls: 8/10. The controls for this game have always been pretty simple to figure out, though my experience and things I'm used to keep wanting me to look for a turbo button at all times. This may be more an observation of the way things are laid out on an Xbox controller, but it feels like everything is a bit too scrunched. You really feel it when you're playing on offence too, where your right hand has to find a way to push through coverage, stiff arm/juke/jump and protect the ball, often simultaneously. My poor fingers weren't meant to bend in some of the ways the controller asks you to move. It'd be nice to see something from that combination (like protecting the ball) move over to the left side next year.
Gameplay: 9/10. It's amazing what a giving a series a different lease on life can do. It's hard to remember back to when all the EA games carried "Arcade" and "Simulation" modes since both modes have sort of congealed themselves together over the last few editions. Gone are bashing turbo buttons, or crazy 100 yard hail mary passes, or field goals so long that they make NFL Blitz look realistic. Added are realistic elements - Players properly convey the speed they're supposed to. Hot routes and plays are played the way they're supposed to, and if you don't comply, you pay the price. It's next to impossible to block punts and kicks rather than turboing your way into the ball every second play.
I will say default gameplay won't be for everybody, so I would encourage Madden vets to stop and go through options before jumping in. There's a defaulted playbook feature that drives me crazy. You get 20 seconds on the play clock by default, and get "best" plays predetermined for you. Sounds good right? Not so much. If you want to select your own plays, you have to opt out of that screen, select your play and hike the ball within that same period of time. Add to the fact that it takes around 5-8 seconds for your players to line up in a proper hike, and you've basically got 12 seconds to look through your entire playbook after you opt not to choose a pre-determined play, choose one and go forward. If you like having a bit of control and time to pick your poison, I'd disable this mode lest you comply with numerous delay of game penalties.
Oddly, the best saving graces aren't in the football gameplay itself. Ultimate Team Mode and Franchise Mode always add diversity to the expansive Madden experience, and it's no different this year. Since that strange jaunt into NFL Head Coach 3 years ago, EA decided to stick to what they did well and they've spun the extra modes into something special for football fans. Madden is also known for its ridiculously easy achievements. This year is no exception. On my first spin through Madden ?12, I unlocked 6 achievements without even looking at the list. Upon looking at the list, it appears everything can be attained offline, and in a few hours. That isn?t to take away from the game this is of course, but Madden?s achievements each year are a complete 180 from NHL and Fifa, which take forever to attain.
We now come to the age old question. Is the retail version worth your 60 bucks again this year? If you're going to pick this up casually throughout the year, and already have Madden 11, it?s hard to say. I probably wouldn?t bowl other gamers over to get it. Is the collector's edition worth your 90 bucks this year? As a sports card collector, and lover of all things shiny, Yes. A thousand times yes. I don't normally go out of my way to recommend anybody buy collectors editions, especially when they cost 50% more than the retail edition, however, the value of what you receive far surpasses the price of admission. Marshall Faulk wasn't a notorious signer during his football career, and Panini still has not released that many of his autographs. These are the best looking of any Faulk autographs I've seen, and an efficient way of obtaining his autograph. The Ultimate Team is also just as clutch as Faulk himself. While I'm not really a huge fan of giving the farm away like they've done here, it's hard to say no when it's being offered like that, at a fairly inexpensive price. If you can spare the extra 30 bucks over and above, head to the store and pick it up. This game isn?t THE must get in the history of football games, but it?s still a very good one, and I?m sure you?ll enjoy it if you need your NFL gaming fix this year.
Like the review? Hate the review? Think I?m the best or worst game reviewer in the history of ever? Give me an earful on Twitter @paliontology. See you soon for NHL 12!
Suggestions: Just one of these years, I'd love to see the CFL finally cave in, and I'd love to see Canadian fields, and CFL teams incorporated somehow. My fingers are stiffened from crossing them year after year hoping we can get the Canadian game, its giant ball and its 4 mile long, 3 mile wide field in the game. Year after year, I'm disappointed, but feel I might be expecting too much. I'll keep dreaming.
Overall Score: 7.9 / 10
Shadows Of The Damned
I'm a sports guy through and through. If it's based on a professional sport, I'll probably play it. I've even been begging overseas game developers to NTSC up the cricket games for years. Needless to say, I tend not to stray much.But once in a while, there are games that pique my curiousity based on other interests. LA Noire drew me in because I enjoy gangster films and the 50s in general (the same reason I was drawn to Mafia II.) The Dead Rising games and my enjoyment of campy horror films were a great relationship, and it is for a similar reason that I was drawn to Shadows of the Damned. Originally dismissing it as "Just another shooter game," I took a closer look when it was released. Its living film concept intrigued me, and when XBA towers came calling for a reviewer, I asked to bring it on, especially when I heard music game legend Akira Yamaoka was responsible for the score. Yamaoka, whose musical talents grace everything from Silent Hill to Dance Dance Revolution, is one of the best when it comes to scoring a mood. He could score a birthday party cake cutting and make it sound like the creepiest thing since the Robert Munsch book "Love you Forever". Game Developer Suda51 is no slouch either, working on everything from the No More Heroes series to the Fire Pro Wrestling one. Hopefully this All-Star calibration leads to an All-Star video game right?
The game quickly reels you into its achievement web ala The Simpsons Game. Press start and you're given an achievement, instantly binding itself to your profile. You're then whisked into a series of cinematics as you're introduced to protagonist Garcia Hotspur, looking like a cross between Antonio Banderas with the tattoos of UFC Fighter Alessio Sakara. Following a cutscene, you're whisked into a hotel room where the story begins. Undeads have claimed Garcia's love Paula, and he has to get her back. Following a 10 minute shootout, you are introduced to Fleming, the game's main antagonist, and you find out your gun is a wisecracking skull companion named Johnson. The all-knowing, all-transforming Johnson will be your companion as you enter the underworld to get Paula back. That shootout was simply the opening credits welcoming you into the Shadows of the Damned.
The game then puts you smack dab in the middle of the Underworld chasing Undeads, learning the values of light-up goats, and fighting strange looking beasts and strange looking monsters. There's a bit of inspiration drawn from Silent Hill besides the music of Yamaoka. You'll see some similar looking monsters and similar looking themes. The game often stops to see if you can apply what you've learned, or if you can figure your way out of jams without the help of Johnson. He will, however, step in if you can't figure it out, and will give you hints. Think of him as a less obnoxious and less overbearing Navi.
As the in-shape yet not well armored protagonist, you will begin to see the effects of undead abuse. As you are hit more, you will notice the screen border turn and close in of the color red until you have died, or until you rejuvenate your life. This is accomplished by drinking bottles of sake or any other alcohol found in random spots throughout the game, in bars, or through vending machines. Upgrades to your weapons and your character are accomplished by finding red gems buried throughout various levels throughout the game. Levels are vast and will take upwards of a half hour to an hour to beat on average, giving the game a solid overall playing time.
Stand around and take a quick look at your surroundings. The graphics in this game are very well done. Unlike other games of this time (behind the back view shooters) where the graphics are a tad lacking, fuzzy or blocky, the graphics here are pretty clean, pretty detailed and well textured. The loading time is very palatable for a change, as it does take 35-45 seconds to load a stage, but there's no massive loading in between, and when you see the size of the levels you may be surprised. You cannot, however, skip past the cut-scenes, and some of it may be because it's loading other parts of the level (ala American Wasteland and Operation Flashpoint: Red River) but you still get a fairly large area in between for not much loading time.
Controls are very easy to manage, though they can provide some challenges because of how much mileage the two action buttons get. The A button, for example, does 180 turns, 180 aim turns and dodges amongst a couple other things. You have to bash the A button in conjunction with directions or other buttons for each thing to work, however, it does get a bit annoying when you are in the middle of trying to dodge and suddenly do a 180 turn and get hit with a projectile. If you are stuck trying to figure out what to do next, or are at a dead end, the answer is probably to hit the X button, which does everything from reload your gun and open doors to climb ladders and jump through windows. Garcia seems to be a rather versatile man, able to jump through broken glass of 3rd storey windows without flinching. The threat of shattered ankles in an unfamiliar territory are no match for finding a lost love I suppose. "Paula" will often show up to guide you astray, and the unwitting Garcia doesn't seem to learn his lesson...ever. This may get old by the end of the second act's first chapter, but really, venturing down dark corridor after dark corridor will probably get a bit old, and variety is the spice of life.
Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot toward the roaming aspect of the game. This isn't an open world with rolling hills and castle after castle with large landscapes for you to roam. The game is very much to the point and puts you into each level, guiding you to where you need to go. Rather than relying on a huge world of run and gun, the game is reliant on you solving puzzles and problem solving your way through the Underworld. Granted, much of the problem solving is grabbing your gun and shooting things, but Johnson will teach you certain things about the underworld and then expect you to remember how to deal with them later on. The "buddy comedy/ebony and ivory" aspect of Johnson and Garcia's partnership will be one of the things that will continue to draw you back time and again, and will be one of the things that continue to lead you toward an awaiting battle with Fleming, and your fate.
Graphics: 9/10. Something about this game's graphics just jump out at you. Texturing is done very well, the underworld looks, well, seedy and everybody and everything look great. The inanimate objects are about the only thing that aren't done so well, and are average as best. One may argue that it's there purposefully so you the gamer are aware what you are able to break and not break, but it's an odd eyesore in an otherwise beautifully animated world. Outside of that, everything else works. The enemies are animated perfectly and move as fluidly as you'd want them to.
Sounds: 8.5/10. Imagine if you will a survival horror game where the screaming demons aren't obnoxious, and there is so much glurge that your speakers distort and are unable to process the 12643 simultaneous foreground and background noises. Just because there are 12000 enemies to be killed does not mean each one is speaking at the same time and must be heard no matter how far you happen to be from it. This game's a bit more reasonable about everything going on. Granted, the ominous yelling and bonechilling screams still abound once in a while in the background, but they don't get to that point where you're reaching for the mute button. As mentioned before, Johnson's advice is a reasonable volume, and he never becomes too loud or too needy in his sidekick role. The voice actors are all relative unknowns in the grand scheme of things too, and as a result, don't just become characters voiced by a Hollywood actor. Rather, the voice and identity are retained by the character on-screen itself.
Controls: 7/10. If I had to pinpoint a weakness in this game, this is it. I feel the controls could have been mapped out a little bit better. The frustration of the A button taking up so many different actions in battle wore a bit thin on me in the early going. Considering you have to take down most of the regular undeads with headshots, aiming is a touch annoying too, as pinpoint precision is often required. Even with a gun trail aiming you straight to the head, don't be surprised to hit a shoulder, or graze the head enough that it doesn't lead to a kill. As a result, you will have to adjust your aiming, but I do recommend standing back and firing, since somebody forgot to tell Suda51 that zombies don't jump, and as such, they are capable of leaping from meters away onto you. Johnson will teach you all of the controls as you go through the first chapter, as well as teach you how to fend against the different types of enemies, so if you see yourself doing something you didn't know about, or cannot figure out how to solve something, you will have help.
Gameplay: 8/10. This game is nonstop entertainment once it gets going. The only trouble is, it's going to take a while. The first level of act 2 is very slow moving for an intro stage, and it takes a long time to get going through wave over wave of repetitive battle. Stick it out and you'll be rewarded with a story rich thrill ride. As mentioned, the game doesn't go out of its way to scare you and become a living shock video like many games of its kind do. In fact, most of the scare tactics and seemingly instant actions will be foreshadowed on screen if you are paying enough attention. I wouldn't call this game all ages, but all skill levels perhaps? The game doesn't ever overwhelm you with tons of weapons and vast worlds like a sandbox game, but it won't bore you either. Development has stayed within reasonable means making everything easy enough to just pick up and go. This might detract those used to stacking weapons or getting creative, and there are better options for gamers that like to keep things a bit more complicated. For everybody that wants a humorous, well rounded and fun game bashing the daylights (no pun intended) out of strange creatures and doing crazy things like firing beams of light at goat heads, look Shadows of the Damned up.
The thing I like about this game is that in spite of claiming itself to be a "Survival Horror" style game, it never loses sight of what it is. This game is extremely satirical, and never takes itself seriously. Picture a grindhouse-style film with over the top visuals, purposefully badly written dialogue, and concepts so outlandish they're just ridiculous in nature. This is what Shadows of the Damned brings to the table, and if you're looking for a game that messes with you a little bit just as much as it draws you in, go out and get it. If you're not laughing at Johnson, you're probably laughing at the enemies onscreen, or the fact that you got yourself worked up for nothing, only to calm down long enough and catch an eyeful of something so strange you can't help but crack a smile. This game is a little bit of Robert Rodriguez, a little bit of John Swartzwelder and a little bit of the PS1 game Nightmare Creatures. It took 6 years for the first one to be released, and I hope this game does well enough that a sequel doesn't take that long. It certainly is not a game for everybody. It's definitely not a game for the light hearted, squeamish or those easily disturbed, and it's not for those who absolutely despise shooter games, because humor and amusement aside, that's what this game is. Still, you're basically playing one marathon Grindhouse film, and that will be its best selling point. While it probably won't rush out and win game of the year awards all over the place when all is said and done, it will contend for a lot of your time right out of the box and is more than deserving of it.
Overall Score: 8.1 / 10
Operation Flashpoint: Red River
Codemasters and I have a pretty rocky relationship. I was one of those cheat happy kids that rushed out and got a Game Genie when I was a kid, and to this day, I still have my Super Nintendo one buried away somewhere. Those hours of glitching my games out, the infinite lives, the messed up sprites - Pure fun. The games? Well, we didn't get on so well. Over the last 20 years, I've played bomb after bomb from the company, with the exception of the Colin McRae/DiRT franchise. The consensus? They make good racing games, but what else?It was with a bit of hesitation when I got a request memo from XBoxAddict Towers asking me to review the new Operation Flashpoint game. For one, the last first person game I was asked to review (Serious Sam HD Second Encounter) was an absolute bust and I haven't played an FPS since. Secondly, well...it was Codemasters and it wasn't a racing game. Thirdly, the game was subtitled Red River. Any Canadian young or old having been through Boy Scouts will probably have memories of eating Red River on a camping trip, which may be the worst sludgy excuse for oatmeal on the planet. Still, I'm indebted to Codemasters for life for the Game Genie contribution to my childhood, so I graciously popped Flashpoint: Red River into my 360 and took it for a spin.
Upon loading the game, you're treated to a well done and hilarious intro video bringing you up to speed as to what's happening from the Reagan Administration until now. I wonder if the game's introduction was re-done following the death of Osama Bin Laden, as it glosses over the time between 9/11 and the focal point of the game, a fictional war taking place in Tajikistan. The game brings life to a fictional terrorist group called ETIM waging war on the Tajikistan/China border and mentions the killing of Chinese athletes at the Olympics "last year," meaning the game takes place in 2013. The video, which is rather light hearted and humourous should mean the game's got a very lighthearted tone too right? Wrong.
Aside from the wise-cracking squadron leader, the game launches you into some fairly serious business. Your in-game training lasts all of about 30 seconds and really just consists of crouching and shooting at dummy targets, so make sure you familiarize yourself with the controls early in the outlaying areas because once you finish your little training, off to war you go. You're a squadron leader in the US Marine Corps (referred to as the USMC from this point on,) and your job is to kill or be killed while leading your team into the call of war. The game seems to rely heavily upon the fact that you know what you're doing already, as the knowledge that I lead a squad and I'm not a shooting lackey would have been helpful as the game has me bark commands to my squadron. My experience with training missions is at least some form of calibration of my surroundings and what I'm doing out there, so this is a bit of a change. I do admit, however, I never read the instructions and just start playing. The game assumes every guy does that, and opts to teach you the secondary controls while you're playing.
Be ready to die a few times when you start out, and be ready to sit through a lot of loading time. The game seems to loads as much of the entire mission as possible to prevent mid-mission loading and stalling, and the wait times up front can be lengthy sometimes, especially when you consider the game does not just refresh reload the last checkpoint and get you going again. It will reload all sprites and characters, and the entire level and start from your last save point. Saving is all automatic, so you don't have to worry about losing your place and having to start half a level back because you forgot to save.
In continuing to play, it's important to note that this has been specifically built to cater to a specific demographic of gamer. This is not for the standard FPS player who spends hours playing deathmatches with his buddies online. In fact, there is no competitive multi-player at all to be found. None. The game is centered upon co-op missions, and full tactics. In fact, I would suffice to say this game is less of a first person shooter, and more of a clinic in how to be an effective team leader. It may seem quite overwhelming to begin with, especially in being thrown straight into a battle and trying to figure out how to get your troops to follow you, or attack, or defend their post. This is definitely a trial and error in the making, as you will have to learn to make many decisions on the fly while you're often running or being shot at, many of which times you'll find yourself running directly into a wall or an awaiting gunman. This sense of urgency is a good step into a what little realism you can get out of a simulated war, as it makes you accountable for your actions at all times. Think about all those games you've played in the past harboring the "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" philosophy. Rarely have I come across a game of this sort where AI drones came at me from multiple angles in multiple areas where I had no idea where gunfire was eminating. Often times, all enemies were established to be in front of you, and the only way you could get shot from the side or from behind was if you yourself turned away from the action. Red River will come at you from numerous angles, and will teach you how communication is key. Your comrades will be buzzing in your ear with directions, and you yourself must provide some back in turn.
The controls themselves are pretty responsive for the most part. A bit of frustration lays in little things, such as the fact that you click the left stick down to run, however, when you unclick, your player continues to run. You must physically let go of the left stick before he goes back to walking pace (or becomes exhausted - whichever comes first) which when you can slow down but are still in the line of fire becomes a bit awkward. Some of the controls don't always react with the same knee-jerk reaction time you need in the game either when you try to combine functions. I found running and diving into a concealed area to be a bit of challenge. Coming from, say, GTA IV or Mafia II where the characters will make fantastic leaps to dive behind something and crouch in dramatic fashion, the character here might duck behind an object but makes no bounds to conceal himself properly. I'm not sure whether that's up to me, but I couldn't find proper controls anywhere that properly accomplished this. Unfortunately, you get the feeling that perhaps this game was better geared to the whims of a PC keyboard. There is a lot that you can do and want to do, but getting compressed on a 360 controller seems to hinder its effectiveness at times. For example, you must push both left stick and pad if you wish to run into battle or cover and bark commands for your team to follow simultaneously. This would be easy for someone with 3 thumbs, but unfortunately, I've been slowed down by my ordinary genetics. Still, once you
A feature I do give a solid and unabashed thumbs up is the game's way of healing your character and his allies. I'm tired of playing countless first person shooters where the character gets shot and harnesses the magical healing powers of not getting shot at or standing still till he's at 100% health before trotting back to the battlefield without a scratch. Whoever invented and adapted that idea into video gaming deserves a punch to the groin. At least Duke Nukem and Commander Keen's grandpa from Wolfenstein 3D had to find medipaks to heal themselves with. If you get shot at, Red River makes you heal yourself by patching your wounds and then healing them right there on the battlefield. Granted, it's not terribly realistic, but it's still the best idea out there. Better than standing in a corner till your health meter mysteriously rises to prominence again anyway.
The game has an interesting in-game soundtrack. Starting out with "Why Can't We Be Friends?" and its epic chorus line on loop in the intro video straight through to Cowboys from Hell by Pantera and Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth, the tracks are definitely meant to psyche you up and keep you energized in moving from checkpoint to checkpoint, but they fall a bit quiet in-game. Since this isn't a psychadelic Vietnam flashback in a box, we're spared the possible trite misuse of Gimme Shelter and Edwin Starr's War.
With everything in mind, realistically, there are two types of first person gamers that will like this: Those heavily vested in playing more tactical ops, and those who want to play missions with buddies online. The series loses a ton of potential gamers because of its lack of competitive multi-player, and as a result, it loses its "Pick up and Kill things" element that other first person shooters succeed so well at. This by no means is a bad title, nor is it one for the ages. This is a straight forward, average shooter where no one element of the game exceeds another.
Graphics: 6/10. These types of games are always hard to figure out graphically. Just because the approaching enemies blend into the background, does it mean they have effective camouflouge, or is the game glitching out and processing things correctly? What type of gun fires green lasers at you? Is modern machinery so advanced in 2013 that I'm led to believe chinese soldiers fire weapons out of Star Wars? All that aside, the graphics are average at best. The villages look as they should in remote Tajikistan, and capture the very primitive lifestyle of a country we as average citizens don't know a lot about. The backgrounds, their backdrops and all the unmoving objects look great. It's just a bit problematic with all the NPCs and vehicles, which look a bit choppy at best most times. Texturing isn't very clean on most things, from ally outfits to tire treads. There are times, to be honest, where I feel this game isn't any better graphically than a regular Xbox game.
Sound: 7/10. Nothing here is of anything worth note. Gunshots are gunshots. Running in the dirt is running in the dirt. Again, with the continued insistence this game appears to have on the idea that you're not playing an FPS so much as you are a leadership simulator, most of the emphasis in-game also falls on yelling and listening to commands and getting your teams on board with the mission objectives. You won't have time to listen to anything else, so treat the rest of the sound outside of that just as Codemasters did - auxillary filler. When you consider this, you may realize a lot of sound effects are left out when they should be (like creaking doors, splashing in water and such.) Still, the sound experience overall is good enough.
Control: 7/10. The controls are easy enough to follow along with, however, as I mentioned, the biggest problem lays in the fact that there's too much to do at times, and a good enough spread to do it in. At least with a PC keyboard, you've got one hand on the keyboard (or mouse) to control movement, and shooting and such, and the other's free to roam the buttons for other commands. Here, your left hand has to move and select commands. It's rare that you have to do both simultaneously, but you'll find the option is needed a few times throughout. The game doesn't do a good enough job getting you into the controls eithervia their attempted training stage, which is completely unnecessary considering the mapped buttons for those are the same as every other FPS 2005 and beyond. The game should have spent more time combing over what I consider to be the bread and butter of this game: Proper strategic p: 6/10. Let me continue to hammer this point home, and I ask Codemasters to please prove me wrong if I am. This is not primarily a first person shooter game. This is not a game where the objective is to rack up levels, kills and headshots in a thinly guised veil of a historic war. This is basically a tactical operations first person leadership style sim where you're looking more to guide your Marine Corp through a successful war campaign and nothing else. You better bring your A-Game. These truly are stupid drones who won't move until you tell them exactly what to do. Feel like engaging in war and letting your troops fall in to back you up? You'd better tell them to do so, otherwise, you're a one man army. Granted, it may reflect the disciplined belief of Marines that they wouldn't enter combat without their leader's approval, but come on guys - a little help here? The gameplay seems to fall consistently with the rest of the experience. It isn't terrible, but it's just nothing better than your average game.
I don't really know who to recommend this game to. All of the FPS players I know live and breathe by the Call of Duty and Halo series, and I can't see any of them enjoying this. Even some of my old PC gaming pals who used to have FPS clans for games like Unreal Tournament and Quake back in the day wouldn't like this, despite the team aspect of things. Fans of the old school War Room and Panzer General style games might find this a bit too hands on, but perhaps that's the demographic Codemasters is looking to capture here. It's too intriguing of a gameplay style not to at least rent, or borrow from a friend. If you've absolutely gotten fed up of those Black Ops types games and you love first person games and are looking for another challenge, this is definitely for you. As previously mentioned, this game is probably going to lose a lot of buys from the deathmatch seekers, because of the absence of a competitive multiplayer. One of the criticisms against the last Flashpoint game was how horrid the competitive multiplayer was. Rather than tweaking and improving, they dropped the idea altogether, which nowadays seems to be a death knell for a game in this genre. Co-Op multiplayer, however, is always good fun if you can find patient gamers looking to spend an afternoon hashing out strategies and taking down enemy forces with brains over brawn. For everybody else, however, seeking that goodtime first person shooter where you can cycle through co-op friendlies and every man for himself gunfights, move on. This isn't the game for you.
Overall Score: 6.2 / 10
NASCAR The Game 2011
It?s been a couple years since EA last made a Nascar game. In those 24 months, I?m not sure a lot has changed, but we?ve entered a new era with Activision publishing a new (presumably yearly) title in Nascar 2011. With a current roster, game engine built from scratch and promising a realistic driving experience, Nascar is poised to become one of the, if not THE premier racing title on the 360.When you get into the game, it?s a career mode, exhibition and multiplayer. First, however, you must select your signature driver who you will be taking through any career modes. You may create your own driver and paint your own car (complete with sponsors) or select any one of the included drivers. To say the roster is large is an understatement. The field is composed of Nascar veterans like Bill Elliott, and up and comers like Ryan Truex, and the game even has female representation in JJ Cobb and Danica Patrick. I don?t know how many people are included in all, but considering there?s a full field of 43 cars in a single player race, there?s at least that.
The career mode if you are familiar with the Sprint Cup is a series of 36 races starting at Daytona and working its way through everything Nascar has to offer, from the insanely difficult Infineon course to the 15 second-per-lap Bristol Speedway. You?re welcome to choose a race difficulty from 2% of a real race all the way to 100. Taking you through the career tutorial is a guy that sounds eerily similar to Jeff Foxworthy, who takes you through racing basics like drafting and slingshotting. The game assumes you have some Nascar knowledge and sends you right into qualifying before you race. You may, however, bypass qualifying by agreeing to start in last.
Qualifying should be pretty simple and straight forward. You drive once around the track to warm up your vehicle and tires, and then twice more to qualify. Controls are easy enough. Right trigger accelerates, and left trigger is your brakes. Pretty much every other button is a car view or switching camera angles. Seems simple enough, right? Then you race, and you realize everybody around you is driving on a perfect track, and one slight slipup in the degree of your turn puts you seconds behind. Meanwhile, someone nicks your car from behind causing you to fly off the track and lose your way for the rest of the race.
This is your introduction to the touch and go race physics. You can fully run into your race rivals at 120 MPH with no effect, however, someone doing the same to you can result in a lost lap and 12 car pileup. Considering all accidents normally trigger caution flags and a race restart (you can turn the flags off if you wish,) this means you run the risk of 12 seconds of actual racing per race with a dozen restarts and a race finish. The restart and lap resets are pretty true to life to regular Nascar, but the race physics are not. No matter how badly you bang up a vehicle, no accident truly renders it undriveable, nor do these same accidents result in the absolute need to pit. While your vehicle may run a flat, again, it is never to the point where you cannot drive it. The car will pull slightly, but that?s it. When vehicular damage in Grand Theft Auto IV is more realistic than your game, and you are a real racing game, that?s trouble. Once you get your basics down, however, this can be a fairly sound racing title as you race the clock (and your opponents) to the checkered flag and those valuable Nascar Sprint Cup points.
Adding to the frustration is the fact that you can end up in pit lane completely accidentally via a dustup and be penalized for illegal pit entry. You must enter pit lane at a pre-determined speed, however, should you exceed it, you receive an illegal entry flag. Should you enter it backward, you receive a flag (and deservedly so,) however, if you accidentally fly in via accident, the same penalty may apply.
The multi-player options are pretty limited. Your choices are to race regularly, or in your standard eliminator mode. With the touch and go physics, and the fact that neither of you qualify and just start at the back of the pack, you can find yourself messing up early and often. It?s advisible that you turn caution flags off, and let it be what it is. One of your friends will always be the kind of guy that throws his race in the can and decides to race backwards to try and start accidents.
The field is also cut down to 21 cars maximum here, as opposed to 43. The split screen is well done enough that you will have more than enough room to pay attention to what you are doing. By default, it is a horizontal split screen, which I find is far superior for the purpose of race awareness and position jockeying than the vertical split screen you saw out of games like Split Second. The game, however, is prone to crashing if you create too much clutter on screen at once. You?ve got to be careful with accidents you purposefully cause, as numerous trips were taken to the Xbox to hard reset the system based on large scale crashes.
You will have to learn the ins and outs of Nascar tracks, as with all courses, the ?turn left? stereotype does not apply to the different road race-style tracks like Watkins Glen and the aforementioned Infinion raceway, which after playing a race must have been crafted by the most evil design team this side of the creators of Atari?s ET game. Each track comes with its own set of difficulties, banking angles and straightaways. You may have an easy time at a track like Pocono which is stretched out well for beginners, however, may have a hard time at a place like Bristol with its high angle banking and low speed racing geared toward jockeying more than the race itself.
Graphics: 5.5/10. Something?s lacking. Sponsors are here. Oddly shaped race vehicles are here, but it?s hard to figure whether the game is going for realism, or something a fair bit cartoony. If we?re looking for realism, well, the most realistic graphics come during the loading screen when the lanyard flicks back and forth. You get the sense you?re headed toward something great, and then you get a fantastic looking track with fancy sponsored boxes and flat grandstands. Unlike the real Nascar, the cars here just don?t seem to pop to life with the same vigor, and neither does the rest of the game. Sadly, you don?t get to see your pit crew working on your vehicle, though you do get to watch the entire drive into pit lane and then choose (once your car is parked) which services will be rendered to the vehicle.
Sounds: 3/10. A racing game really needs to have a good sound base. At no point while playing this do you really feel in sync with anything really. Your pit crew do speak to you on the mic, and you do have your basic tire screeching and such, however, there?s nothing to pull you in farther. With fairly bland background graphics to boot, and less than lively grandstands (even in the deadest of heats,) there?s little personality. Huge accidents barely make a noise, and with little more than your pit crew talking to you and a few noises here and there, there?s not much more to speak of. The in-game soundtrack has a few licensed songs, but seems to rely heavily on ZZ Top?s La Grange and a Disturbed track. Naturally, these songs do not appear during races by default, which is understandable considering this is supposed to be a simulation.
Controls: 10/10. Realistically, there?s not much more you can hope to attain out of the game?s controls. Really, you need your accelerator, you need your brakes, and you need realistic steering. The game?s realistic damage variables make it so that if you mess up too many times and hit the wall too hard, you WILL feel it and your vehicle will drive all wonky, reflecting the damage you have done to it. Keeping straight will become extremely difficult, and you will have to drive with caution or drop out of the race altogether. There?s nothing you can do here, but you can?t fault the game?s mechanics because technically, it is doing everything right, and punishing you for your terrible driving. A 10/10 normally denotes perfection. Well, for a racing simulation, you get no boost, no power drifting, or need to e-brake and fishtail around corners. This isn?t the best controlled racing game in the history of video games, however, you can?t take points away for what a game doesn?t have because it doesn?t need it.
Gameplay: 5/10. This game won?t appeal to most gamers. Really, this game is for a specific target market, and I?m sure it will hit that market positively. Nascar fans have already given this game some pretty rave reviews, and it has tested and played well amongst that demographic. For the rest of us, however, admittedly this is a fairly bland racing title with some semblance of promise wrapped up in pretty tracks and lots of corporate sponsorship. I do give Activision a lot of props in attempting to recreate all of the cars as best they can, even bringing aboard male enhancement pill sponsors. Alcohol sponsors, however, continue not to be in the game for the sake of maintaining its rating (as any alcoholic inclusion would likely result in it having to be an M rating.)
This game will be fun at times, but frustrating most of it. The race physics here are almost too much to bear, and may drive people away from the game (no pun intended) rather than bring fans into it. It seems that much like THQ has done with WWE All Stars, if you want to draw casual onlookers into Nascar through the use of your video games, you may have to deviate from the norm, and sadly release another title like PS1 forgotten memory Nascar Rumble.
This game is seriously for the hardest of hardcore NASCAR fans, who will probably love the massive roster, detailed vehicles and huge selection of courses. For everybody else, well, to be honest, there are so many better racing options out there for you. This game will either provide you with 20 minutes, or 20 hours of fun depending on where you fall into your love of Nascar or simulated racing titles. If you are not a fan at all and like fancy crashes with cars driving crazy speeds and jumping mountains, stay away and go play Burnout or Split Second. If you crave that somewhat authentic driving experience because you wake up every Sunday to watch the races and want to act it all out again, this game might be for you.
Graphically, this game isn?t as crisp as the EA titles, though I would say Activision did well to represent all possible sponsors to give this a better sense of realism and the game does have a lot to work with for future years. This definitely isn?t a must-buy title, though if you do need your NASCAR fix at all costs, give this title a look, but know going in that you aren?t faced with a great gaming experience, and you might need to give it a couple years before the next great Nascar title hits the market.
Suggestions: I'd love to see an arcade-style variation to the simulation-style variation. Allowing the serious and the casual to switch off back and forth would be a huge step forward, as would better race physics and vehicle damage, allowing with knocking vehicles out of races because they're too damaged.
Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
Virtua Tennis 4
Virtua Tennis and I have a long standing history. There used to be an arcade in the Vancouver area called Playdium which featured the original Virtua Tennis set on a projection screen. That 15x15 screen was my introduction to Sega's long standing series, and though I could never beat the tournament mode myself, I still had lots of fun.We met very briefly on the Dreamcast for Virtua Tennis 2, and again more in-depth for the 360's releases of Virtua Tennis 3 and Virtua Tennis 2009. Basic gameplay still remained the same, but a home release meant a robust experience of mini-games and career modes. I remained a huge fan, though I was a bit put off by the fact that the 2009 edition was a couple small graphical tweaks and less impressive mini-games. That one sits on the back of my gaming shelf while Virtua Tennis 3 still logs a few hours every couple months. Needless to say, I was excited about the release of Virtua Tennis 4, and curious to see how it translated with the Kinect.
Something about Virtua Tennis that has always stood out is its layout. The Japanese developers have always retained a very Japanese identity to the Virtua Tennis series. It feels like I'm stepping into a Japanese anime every time I come to play, and the intro video here does nothing to dispel that notion, playing a cheesy sounding song of determination and victory over a video that can only be described as Jackson Pollock meets a 1st year graphic designer and a bad back room lounge singer and cranks out the student's art project final. Then we go into the usual mix of brightly colored futuristic menus, uncharacteristic music and arcade-inspired sounds. It's a homecoming of sorts. Welcome back to Virtua Tennis. Nothing has changed, but everything has changed.
Let's first start by dealing with the elephant in the room that has waited for its turn every since it was announced - The Kinect Mode. Every Virtua Tennis gamer with a Kinect is wondering how it turned out, and whether this is going to be a series defining moment for the franchise. I hope it isn't, because the Kinect mode is very awkward. At no point did I, nor anybody I was playing the Kinect mode with ever get used to the awkward state of the Kinect mode. It's creative yes. You and your opponent (or doubles partner) stand next to each other in a vertical split screen and use yours hands as tennis racks mimicking every facet of the game of tennis. The downfall here is it is fairly unclear whether you have to run from one end to another to chase the ball, and you will find yourself whiffing at many corners trying to do backhands. In fact, it's best to just cheat the Kinect and use your opposite hand forehand to do a backhand. With the limited space many people have in their living rooms, it will be difficult to properly play up what this mode is expecting you to do. Fortunately, there's also a party mode with tennis based mini games you can play which is slightly better, but not by much. Again, it's a bit unclear how you should be moving, where you should be standing and what the ideal positioning is in this game. I'd treat Virtua Tennis 4's Kinect mode as a freebie or bonus, and nothing but. It's nothing to write home about, and won't be the reason you should be buying this game. Let's call it a work in progress and leave it at that.
First up with controller-based play is Arcade mode. Much like before, the exhibition mode consists of 4 stages - representing each "tennis major." I quotate the previous because much like previous games, they aren't ATP/WTA licensed, so Sega does not have naming rights to the major tournaments. In the exhibition mode, you have the opportunity to control any of the regular roster players, or your created player (which happens in world tour mode, which we will cover later.) Sega's promise to keep the rosters current, is, well, somewhat true I suppose. Every player represented IS currently playing tennis, however, the representation has a bit left to be desired. Basically, what Sega's done here is ported over all the players from Virtua Tennis 3 and 2009 that are technically still playing tennis (or let me rephrase - not retired since I don't think Tommy Haas has played in a couple years now) and added a few additional new characters, the only unquestionable one being Caroline Wozniacki. Perhaps the other names included (like Juan Martin Del Potro) are indicative of how long this game has been in development, as Del Potro WAS a top 5 player at one point, and a couple of the other new players were in the top 20 as well, but no longer are. Fernando Gonzalez, for example, is a new addition, but after rising to #5 in 2007, he's nowhere to be found in the top 300 players. We've also lost David Nalbandian and his herculean in-game grunts.
Anyway, while I continue grasping at straws, you should know the controls here are exactly the same, as is the basic layout and many of the graphics. However, many of the gameplay similarities stop there. As I mentioned before, Virtua Tennis 2009 was criticized for the fact that it was basically a glorified Virtua Tennis 3 skin pack. If you have played the series enough, you'll quickly see the beneficial gameplay tweaks. You have better control of the ball's flight path and the game recognizes better how and where you hit the ball, making your preparation for a shot that much more crucial. No longer can you get away with gimme shots from bad angles that would have no realistic chance of working on a real tennis court. If your player has a special skill (ie. hard hitter,) you'll also notice a purple meter filling up as you use whatever the player's skill is. When filled, it will flash and ripple from the middle out. What this means is you can set up a power shot if done from the right angle. For example, a hard hitter must set themselves up to hit a decent return, and then you hit the B button and the direction in which you want to hit it (the direction can be changed any time leading into when the ball is finally hit.) It will cut to a quick on-the-fly slow motion scene where your player will wire the ball at top speed into the area you asked for it to go. You can do this once per meter, but as many times in the match as you fill your meter up. You should get at least one per standard 2 game set. Once you have completed the 4 tournaments, you play a legend in an exhibition boss battle. After you play the world's best, such as Federer and Nadal, and you beat them down, who could possibly be standing in your pathway to supremacy? None other than...JIM COURIER. Courier's hardly a name that strikes fear in tennis hearts, especially once you've played 2 grand slam winners beforehand, but he was a 4 time major winner, and I admit, one of my favorite tennis players as a kid. Courier's somehow at least 10 times better than your previous opponents, but easily beatable if you can hammer baseline shots at him and position him to offer you smash winners as you approach the net. You then complete arcade mode after beating him. It should be noted that Courier is the only legend on the 360 version, though hopefully this changes with DLC.
Exhibition mode is just as it was before as well, only you play just the one match. There's no need to describe this
further, as it is what it is - a pick up and play type of style. Your court choices are limited in exhibition mode, but will increase as you play different courts and tournaments in World Tour Mode. This is the game's single player bread and butter, and what we will cover next.
In past years, World Tour was simply a globe with a "week at a time" calendar with activities and a stamina meter where you played mini tournaments to bolster your ranking. The World Tour here has been completely revamped. It's now a 4 season (one per major) board game style where you decide whether you want to bolster your skills, or focus on your ranking. Rather than ranking numbers, it is now done through a star system. As you compete in tournaments, or tend to publicity events for fans, you will gain more stars which will propel you toward high rankings, and qualifications for tournaments (you will need to have a certain number of stars to qualify for each tournament. You don't have to have a max number to qualify for majors, as you can simply go through a qualifying tournament beforehand.) I can't stress enough how much fun this mode is, though there are a few little annoyances. Like before, you must balance your stamina and your activities and entering tournaments, but this time, your stamina plays a bigger factor. If your stamina is in the red as you go into a match, you will have a nagging injury cramp up and annoy you in your ensuing matches, however, Sega's way of portraying this injury is having your character move at the speed of a turtle for the first couple steps and then regular speed. You never know when the character will break through that turtle speed, and the game will never give you an indication so you will either watch the ball fly by you helplessly, or you will be jamming the control stick so hard you will run past somehow. This stamina feature is the biggest hindrance to the entire career mode. There will be times where you will go into a tournament with full stamina, and end with none simply because of the way the game does its in-tourney stamina drain. This then injures your player going into the next tournament and takes a certain amount of "days" (turns at progressing on the map) away from them, only the game seemingly has no concept of time. I've lost 7 days before due to something I couldn't help, and in a 56 turn season, losing 1/8th of it is unacceptable. To get your stamina meter up to avoid this ridiculousness, you have to play training exercises and pass them frequently. However, with the fact that you must balance getting stars with training, I will say that it might take you 2, maybe even 3 plays at the World Tour mode before your character is capable of winning all the majors. The World Tour mode itself is approximately an hour per season if you play it through and don't just rush from point A to point B, and the mini games are fun enough that you probably won't mind. World Tour mode outside of the inexplicable crazy that is stamina hindrance is a huge win, and a massive step in the right direction. In fact, I dare say this mode alone makes the game worth purchasing, and we haven't even talked mini games yet.
The new mini games in Virtua Tennis 2009 were so bad that I held out little hope for this year's edition, however, they've started to make a believer out of me again. Every mini game this time around is pretty fun with the exception of the annoying soccer serving game where you have to serve a soccer ball into a net past a goalie and later defenders (unless you have a perfect serve every time, expect to have difficulties with this past level 1.) They dropped the infinitely enjoyable avalanche, however, and replaced it with...nothing. They kept a form of the shopping cart game from VT2009 and replaced it with you delivering hatched eggs back to mother hens. In exchange for dropping avalanche, however, they did also get rid of all the other unenjoyable mini games too, like the pirate ship, and that bizarre game where you had to volley hams at the alligators.
The effectiveness of XBox Live was too hard to gauge. None of my opponents did anything but stand still and send back easy lobs, and I couldn't tell if this was some sort of online boosting tactic, or if the system was broken and unresponsive. The connections, for what its worth, seemed to be very fast, and the loading time was great with no hanging, slowdown or freezing. This has never been a problem with any of the Virtua Tennis series, however, and I don't see why it would be here either.
That about ties it up for this review. Let's take a look at the individual ratings.
Graphics: 7.5/10. The graphics here have neither improved nor worsened from the previous games. They aren't bad, but they aren't great. While nothing ever glitches, flashes or crashes, they're still unspectacular at best. It wouldn't be much of a stretch here to say that these were the same graphics I saw as the first time I played Virtua Tennis 1, but I'd be exaggerating as they are somewhat improved. Somewhat. They are good enough for this game, however, since if you've played the series before, you know it's a cartoony arcade-style experience.
Sound: 8/10. Once again, sound effects, grunts, and music are perfectly serviceable for this game. They've redone all the music, and they all sit in the background better, as well it should be. Hitting the ball doesn't seem to have the same punishing effect as it did before, however, the noises are well within reason and they don't overpower the whole experience, which is a problem I've had in the past with some of the earlier Top Spin games. I would like to hear a bit more realism in the grunting in the future though, and perhaps a bit more with footwork and running, especially on clay courts. I understand this isn't a simulation game, but I don't think it's too much to ask.
Controls: 9.5/10. Stamina based problems are really a gameplay mechanic flaw, so I can't detract it from the control score. What Sega has done here is bought into the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality, and left the basic controls as is, however, tweaked everything that needed fixing. As mentioned before, you can steer your shots better, and are expected to prepare and anticipate the angles of your shots better. As a result, you get a much better and much more accurate tennis playing experience. Balls don't fly out of bounds with such relative ease anymore, and you can aim your shots in corners perfectly. You can no longer win with impossible to return/realistically do drop shots, however, it's now harder to do those great slices and drop shots too. In exchange for these great control tweaks, serving within the boundaries are a bit harder, but considering
Gameplay: 8.5/10. Virtua Tennis is a game where you probably know what you're getting into at this point, outside of that awful Kinect mode and the hard to swallow questionable stamina draining during tournaments in World Tour (I should add it isn't a problem anywhere else.) While I can't penalize much for the Kinect mode (since again, I treat it as nothing but a freebie at best,) it's a huge problem in your first few play throughs in World Tour, to the point where it will keep you from winning major tournaments. You can breeze through all the matches until the end, only to find you can barely move in the finals, and can't take the low road and retire early from the match. If I could provide Sega with one development point for any future patches, it would be to heavily re-assess this mode because in trying to provide a somewhat realistic player career pathing experience, this is far too unrealistic. Nobody in their right mind is going to cruise through a tournament at 100% and suddenly pull up so lame in the finals that they can't even win a return point, let alone a game, a set or a match. Outside of this? No other gameplay flaws I can think of that are worth mentioning, and if you have read my reviews, you know I dwell on the small things a lot.
Overall, Sega's put a lot of effort into this game in the 4 years since they released the last big one (Seriously, Virtua Tennis 2009 needs to be stricken from the record as never having happened.) I just wish they would have put a tad more effort into signing bigger tennis names to it because this really isn't an accurate representation of some of the constant big names in tennis from week to week. There's no sign of tennis' breakout stars of the last couple years like Robin Soderling, Mardy Fish, Li Na or Francesca Schiavone. In fact, Justin Henin, one of Tennis' biggest names of the last 10 years has never been in a Virtua Tennis game while she was in Top Spin 3, so you know it's possible to acquire her name. Once again, it's my hope that Sega will in fact pull some DLC magic with this game and release a more expansive roster for the 360. Losing Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pat Rafter to another platform was bad enough, but in a day and age when a more graphic and resource heavy game like UFC Undisputed can support a roster of 70 unique fighters, there's no excuses for Virtua Tennis.
For what it's worth, however, this is a fantastic game by every stretch of the imagination. Those who have waited 4 years for another installment will not be disappointed. The truest of true hardcore fans that continue to regard Virtua Tennis 2 as the greatest thing since sliced bread might want to give this one a try because this game is closer to that than 3 and 2009 were. If you're looking for a higher level simulation, Virtua Tennis is not, and has never been for you, however, if you're looking for the best tennis game for your buck, and something you can sit and play for hours and hours by yourself, or with your friends who just want a fun tennis experience overall, Virtua Tennis 4 is the game to get. Just pray Sega gives you a bigger roster as time goes by.
Suggestions: Please fix that crazy stamina drain in career mode. You can't be serious that an opening round match against a low seed takes away as much stamina as a semi-final and leaves you with nothing for the final.
Also, DLC roster expansion that's fairly inexpensive? Something that turns me off of buying more DLC characters in other sports games is the cash grab of $2 or $3 per character. Something a bit more cost effective (realistically, 40-80 MSP max?) would be a great strategy. I'd only buy 2 or 3 characters if they were $3 each, but I'd be happy to maybe buy everybody if you made it pretty cheap. Things like packs of 10 ATP or WTA players for 400 MSP.
Overall Score: 8.4 / 10
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean
With the internet continuing to provide us with a plethora of options for everything nowadays, and our collective attention spans dwindling in a whole, sometimes there's a shining beam of light there to capture our short attention spans with the same thing over and over again in a different tightly bundled package. Cats always fall for and chase a laser pointer no matter how many times you do the exact same thing. We're cats, and the Lego game series has been our laser pointer. Time and again I get excited to see really neat franchises Lego-fied. Batman. Indiana Jones. Harry Potter. Yet time and again, I'd be playing with the same thing. I'm sure cats figure out eventually that it's the same uncatchable object they're chasing, but they give in. I in turn have also given in, and resigned myself to the fact that Lego Pirates of the Caribbean could very well be the same thing I saw come out of any number of packages over the last couple years. Needless to say, my expectations weren't that high when I popped the game into my 360, though I knew I'd probably have fun in the end.I can sum up the basic plot of this game in 4 lines if I so may...
This is the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow.
Pirate so brave on the Seven Seas.
A mystical quest to the isle of Tortuga.
Raven locks sway on the Ocean's Breeze.
The game starts similar to Harry Potter, where it thrusts you into the gameplay after a lengthy cinematic (similar to past Lego games, you cannot skip cinematics when watching them in story mode for the first time) and starts you off as Will Turner in Port Royal before you have a short swordfight with Jack Sparrow, followed by a short cinematic and then teaming up. This was the first time the game crashed on me and I was only about 10 minutes into it. Good start. Then it happened again. Then again. Finally, on attempt #4, I was able to get a decent ways through it. I'll put some of the blame on my system and possibly the hard drive, but considering I've only ever had this problem with Harry Potter, and now Pirates which both run on the latest build of the Lego engine, I'm sure I'm not the only one that's had this problem.
Anyway, as you progress, you will land back in Port Royal, which serves as your landing hub for the game. I was impressed to see that all 4 movies are included, so if you're not big into spoilers, you may want to catch On Stranger Tides before you play, though the Lego series does so well to jumble the actual storyline (but keep you informed of it) that it may not even matter.
As previously mentioned, this game mirrors closer to Harry Potter than its predecessors or Clone Wars. You're given a greater variety of commands specialized to each character in a wheel format much like the Potter game spell wheel. Many of the characters have fairly diverse move sets and fairly diverse tricks.
Graphics have never been a problem in the Lego series, and this game is no exception. If anything, the graphics are cleaner and crisper than almost any other game in franchise history, rivaling Clone Wars every step of the way. I don't know how they manage to do it, but some of the characters (Jack Sparrow aside obviously) really look like their movie equivalents without blatantly pasting the face on the body. Will Turner, for example, really does look like Orlando Bloom.
The control scheme is this game has been tweaked too by the looks of it, though I couldn't initially place my finger on what it was. I guess perhaps the developers of the last few games through the controls were a bit loose, as things have been pretty tightened up. If you've had success with measuring distances in previous games, accustom yourself to having to change those previous conceptions. You may find yourself having to stand closer to objects to build them, or farther from objects to hit them. The small character door controls are a huge improvement though since the game finally recognizes with a great deal of confidence what you're trying to do, and doesn't dawdle around in getting you through that door. However, I found that the characters weren't aiming as well for things (or the game wasn't steering them toward things with any success) which was a huge step back in my opinion because the controls had started to round pretty well into form. It's always a bit mind boggling what little details developers think should change from sequel to sequel, and this is one of those confusing things that just can't be explained. The world was right in Lego Harry Potter. Why do away with a good thing?
Then there are the bugs. This game is rife with them. Whether it's characters getting stuck in corners you can't get out of, the game crashing at inopportune times (something I hadn't seen since the Harry Potter game,) one-time events that unintentionally never happen again (come on, this is a children's game, not EQ: Scars of Velious,) and the possible inability to get 100% naturally because of glitchy happenings, this game does well to mess with the heads of completionists, even if un the game through isn't really as exciting as these games were before because you just know what you're getting this time. A few little mini-games and cute little additions are always on tap which they are here (characters playing barrel roll is one of the neatest little things in any of the group's games,) but there's nothing much else that will shock and surprise you. I swear they even used some of the exact same kit builds for things from the Star Wars franchise.
For those of you who read my Clone Wars III review, you may remember that I posted the Lego game formula for success, which (I quote verbatim) was:
-Play Story Mode
-Unlock Gold Bricks
-Find Gold Bricks
-Red Bricks
-Build Minikits (or that game's equivalent)
-Try to Obtain True Jedi/-Complete Story Mode
-Play Free Play
-Find the Last Gold Bricks
-Find the Last Red Bricks
-Finish Building Leftover Minikits (or that game's equivalent)
-Finish Obtaining True Jedi/Indy/Batman/Wizard
-Get 100% after obtaining everything
-Play a bonus level for an a achievements along the way for beating each level, getting all bonuses and 100%, and a couple cutesy role reversals.
-Enjoy the same basic engine with a different plot and different characters with the same abilities.
Not surprisingly, this is the exact same formula. I guess if you only play these games based on the representing franchise, you may not notice as much. However, given that this is game number what...8? 9? following this basic formula in the last few years, it is definitely wearing thin on me. With little variety in what offerings this franchise has left, the Lego series is quickly going to see itself fall down toward the point where it becomes nothing more but franchise boosters and games for children only who won't know the difference. One can argue this is exactly what the Lego games franchise seeks, and is doing well to get there since they do continue to pop out million sellers on the same formula. I just can't see this flagshipping next gen software, however, and I'm worried that this is exactly what it's going to be like 5 years from now, as it was 5 years previous to this.
Graphics: 9/10. This is possibly the most tantalizing of tropical paradises you can hope to obtain from Lego. The graphics make you wish you were little Lego Jack cruising the aqua colored Lego stud seas dancing amongst the plastic Dolphins and single stud Starfish. At every corner, every foreground is accompanied by a stunning background. No stone was left unturned, and no detail spared. Something Traveller's Tales always does well is never forget what this is - A Lego game. If you pay attention to some of the little details, you'll always have a smile on your face. Elizabeth Swann doesn't have legs - She has a lego connector to round her dress into form. Little tiny Lego cannonballs crash with reckless abandon. Ships disintegrate into the Lego pieces they were built from. This is perhaps the best graphic effort in the Lego series, and that's saying a lot considering I thought it couldn't possibly get better than Harry Potter. The only thing keeping this one from perfection is that texture mapping on some of the more difficult processes (like explosions and waving flags) aren't quite there yet. There's continued improvement, but it needs a bit more work before capping what the graphics are capable of.
Sound: 7/10. The sound has drastic cleanup compared to Clone Wars. Sounds are crisper, cleaner and better sounding, however, default audio levels still seem to be a bit off, where I don't hear enough emphasis on the important foreground events and even on quieter levels, within the background, you don't get the feeling you're on a tropical haven. Too much emphasis is placed on the musical arrangements, and while it doesn't take away from the game in the end, a little boost of sound effects and less love for the soundtrack will give the sound mixing a push in the right direction.
Controls: 7/10. While the standard melee combat works fine, I had a lot of problems with the action commands (the B Button.) My mind had accustomed itself to the distances in which you could successfully hammer, build and throw, and it seems like you have to readjust yourself to it again because this game throws old logic out the window. I found myself having to focus on items more to do these commands, whether it was standing closer, standing farther away or continuing to flick my cursor about trying to get a lock on an object. The guide arrows are helpful initially, but it's that much more difficult to focus your throwing weapons and objects. With Harry Potter, you were able to multi-focus your spells and could walk in a line with relative ease ala the Stuart Townsend swordfight in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but this one feels as bumpy as biking down a cobblestone path.
Gameplay: 5/10. In the eternal debate of Pirates vs. Ninjas, I've always sided with Pirates. I was excited to see what TT was capable of doing with this game, and though I have a visual winner on my hands, I'm less hesitant to agree when it comes to gameplay. Sure you've got a couple cool new mini-features, and the engine is much better served now that they've tweaked some of the camera issues, but this is still the same basic game I've been playing for the last 5 years! It really didn't help that the game kept crashing until I hard drive installed, which is probably a symptom of the fact that the game is running so many additional features that the system has a hard time processing it all. Once I got past the fact that my game crashed as often as Danica Patrick, it was moderately entertaining, if not predictable every step of the way. The biggest pleasure I got out of the game was seeing how TT transformed Pirates into the Lego world. This is one of my favorite movie franchises of all time, and watching it get Lego-fied was neat at first, but the finished game itself not so much. Still, I will remain interested in how they spin popular franchises into Lego. But I'm out if there's a Lego Twilight. That'll be too much to even try making sense of.
I will continue to sound like a broken record, but it's true. At a day and age where you can hold 60 bucks in your hand and have dozens of suitable unique gaming options in-hand, the Lego franchise is very quickly falling behind in my mind's eye for where my gaming money should go. If not for the prevalent lack of younger audience games for the 360, this franchise is dead in the water (no pun intended) because it ceases to bring anything new to the table outside of famous franchise character builds. It's such a weird conundrum to be stuck in if you're Travelers' Tales and Lucasarts: Your ideas work, your franchising works and your product sells. Why fix what's working? Lego in general is lucky to have the same beloved purchaser philosophy that Pokemon has: Nothing ever needs to be changed, yet people will continue to trust and enjoy because of the fact that it's such a trusted brand. You probably played with Lego as a child. I know I did. My future children will one day play with Lego, and my grandchildren will too. I have a feeling, however, when I sit down in 2044 with my grandkids to play Lego Sesame Street: Oscar's Revenge for my XBox 27000, I may be playing the same basic engine with little Chuckie Paligaru that I am now.
I ended my last Lego review with "An exhausted gamer can dream." I'm still dreaming, but at least this one wasn't a nightmare. All Lego games should be released with this new build engine going forward. Anything less is a step back into the primitive camera hell of 2006 where you will rubber band your buddies off cliffs or to their untimely demise.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Michael Jackson: The Experience
Every child has a lingering memory of the first thing they really wanted and begged their parents for. Whatever it was, we all retain that one memory that stands out above all.For me personally, the first time I really begged my parents for something was when I was 4. That summer, Michael Jackson was releasing a new record called "Bad" and despite the fact that my parents owned no other music of his, nor do I remember having heard anything outside of Thriller, I wanted that record in the worst way. I'm sure my parents still remember how much I asked them for it, and the satisfied amazement when my dad handed it to me the day after it came out.
Fast forward a lot of years. Michael Jackson is no longer with us, and the tributes continue to pour in to celebrate the life of a talented, yet controversial life. The latest of these tributes is the Michael Jackson experience, released now for all major consoles.
The 360 version, however, is arguably the most supercharged of them all, and the one you want to recommend to those stuck on which one to buy. Featuring full body recognition, the ability to sing AND dance to MJ's music simultaneously (the likes of which possibly have not been seen since Karaoke Revolution Party edition) and so many gaming features available that it would take the entire Jackson family to take them all down, this game brings it with a commanding force not seen since Captain EO.
The only bit of uncertainty coming into this release was the way the track list was going to be done. Ubisoft severely crippled the PC gaming market by making multiple versions of the game with many crucial MJ tracks exclusive to certain retailers. You couldn't even play Thriller or Billie Jean out of a regular box and had to buy from a specific retailer just to have access. Sery, they decided the 360 version should have as much music available to it as possible, and this version includes every song available across all versions right out of the box, with the only exception being "Another Part of Me" which is initially an HMV/Wal-Mart exclusive.
Anyway, semantics are semantics. What you'll notice right away is the game coerce you into stepping in front of the Kinect in a playing field, and it digitizes your silhouette directly into the game. Unlike Dance Central where your actions are controlled by a character, the game digitizes YOU. It's an outline of course, but it will pick up little intracacies. For example, the game digitize a hoodie if you're wearing one, or a hat, or in my case, it digitized half of a t-shirt I had on based on the way it captured me. While you still show as a floating outline, this is still extremely cool, and is a perfect part of the ambiance of the game.
There are 3 basic elements to this game - MJ Dance Videos, Solo and Party. The game doesn't much care for the whole "career mode" aspect of things - It basically gives you everything you can work with out of the box. You don't have to play easy to unlock medium, and then that to unlock hard, for example, which was something that I felt crippled my enjoyment of Dance Central quite a bit.
The MJ Videos section are very similar to those weird late night infomercial music video dance DVDs you saw for sale in the early part of the last decade. Here, you will be guided by choreographers in certain dance portions of the game and then urged to follow along and do them in sync. There's nothing further to that. There's very little interactive element outside of watching and mimicking. The game doesn't score you, and the game doesn't judge you based on these videos. Those are reserved for solo and party.
Solo is actually as it says - The single player mode. There are no difficulties perse, just 4 types of "performances" you can do. Some songs come with just the vocal performance option, which is you standing where you are, channeling your inner Star Search and singing for all you're worth. You don't need a mic, or headset. As long as you have configured your Kinect's microphone, that's all you need. The Kinect does a fabulous job of picking up what you're singing, though the overall judging is a bit tough in the sense that missing a slightest syllable kills your chance of getting perfect. I don't know why more singing games can't just give into the fact that Rock Band and the old Karaoke Revolution games did it right - There's no need to veer from accepting slight imperfections.
Vocal Performance only is available on very few songs, however. You normally start with the dance routine, which itself is similar to Dance Central where you follow the actions onscreen of the dancers around you. The moves aren't named, however, and just boxed actions. There are two box colors as well. White boxes at the bottom right mean that there's action and dancing to be done, and blue means that it's a static pose for that determined period of time. For the most part, the moves on the easier songs are pretty simple to follow along with, however, there's no move name or good way of guiding you toward the moves (hand motions and foot motions aren't measured that succinctly) as you're left to simply follow along to what the dancers are doing. Once you think you can handle it, you move onto the Performance piece, which is dance moves combined with singing. If you're worried about your coordination, however, you don't have to do both simultaneously. You simply dance the musical interludes and choruses, and you sing the verses of the song. Again, depending on how co-ordinated you are, this is either a benefit or detriment. I found it to be the latter simply because it was killing what little momentum while dancing I had to stop, sing and then pick the game up (considering that I have a dancing condition worse than two left feet, this was very little momentum.)
Once you've mastered dancing, and you've mastered the base level performance, you can move onto Master Performance. This is the hardest level of that particular song which finds you dancing a harder routine and then singing along again. If you know your Michael Jackson music and can't dance a lick, fortunately, the game finds it in its heart to judge you differently for each, so while you may finish 60% on the dance floor, you can still be a 5 star singer. Something you'll notice very quickly on while playing is that the graphics in this game are gorgeous. Every song has its own stage which appear in front of you in vivid color and immense detail. Think of it a bit like the way the stages in Beatles Rock Band worked - You've basically been implanted into the video playing in the background that are unnaffected by your actions in the foreground. As previously mentioned, since the game digitizes you into it, it is your actions on your dance floor area at center stage that is the thing that changes throughout.
Party is your multi-player options, which give you the ability to play songs as a team, or battle against each other. Performance Mode can also have one person dancing while the other sings. It's fairly simple and straight forward, and there isn't much more to it. This whole game has a very simplistic "What you see is what you get" experience out of the box, and you'll see that the achievement list reflect that as well. The majority, if not all the achievements are based simply on performance itself. Since there's no career mode, or ways to level up, and the game just provides you with everything up front, you earn most of your achievements based on 5 star performances, which means you could be plugging away at everything for 4 hours, or 4 years depending on how badly you perform. Me personally, I lean toward the latter. No matter how many times I played any stage, as of press time here, I only have one achievement, which I got on the first song I played for completing the damn thing.
The one thing that makes or breaks this game more than anything, however, is the song list. All Michael Jackson fans should be absolutely satisfied with the track list. There are a couple strange inclusions and exclusions (like why "The Girl is Mine" is included, but the other McCartney/Jackson classic "Say Say Say" is not,) however, for the most part, the majority of his album hits are there. Hardcore fans may be disappointed not to see songs like "Scream" and "We are the World" not on the track list, however, there is always a chance you may see these on a DLC docket one day (if Ubisoft has any plans to do so.)
Something you may have noticed throughout the review is the lack of options or choices the game provides. It's not to say this is not a bad thing. This is not a game where you have to play for hours to unlock everything, and why should it be? The purpose of this game is good clean fun without worry of having to take hours before your friends come over to play and try to madly unlock everything so you have more than a bare bones game for them to have fun with. Yes, the options themselves are in fact bare bones, but considering the objectives of this game are to dance, sing and have fun, it more than meets and exceeds those objectives. In fact, at many points throughout playing this game, I felt I enjoyed it more than Dance Central, which many gamers still consider to be the single best selling point of the Kinect.
Overall, this isn't the quintessential Kinect game, but really, the only reason is because it's strictly a Michael Jackson game, and MJ isn't for everyone. That being said, this is what a Kinect game should be. The game supplanting you and your surroundings into the game is so ridiculously excellent that I can't describe how hilarious it is if, say, you have a pet and you see it wander into the capture range. Master performances are tons of fun, and for the amount of time it took for this game to hit the market after the Wii version, I'd say it was worth it. While these single artist games never seem to stand the test of time long term and sadly it will be all too forgotten by the time multi-artist sequels capture their essence and run with it, Michael Jackson experience sets the benchmark for this genre of Kinect game. Every Kinect owner may not like it, but you should at least try it. If dance games are up your alley, this game is for you.
Overall Score: 8.2 / 10
L.A. Noire 
2004 seems so long ago. Back then, gaming releases ending in t; were the music games of choice, and my PS2 disc drive was run ragged by the first Katamari Damacy. It was back then that the concept of a game called "L. A. Noire" was first revealed. Announced as a Sony exclusive, the game would be so groundbreaking and extensive that it would not see the light of day until at least 2007, when Sony's next generation console would be out on the market.(It should be noted at this point that Duke Nukem Forever was approximately 9 years into its development life.)
7 years later, and much has changed. My gaming loyalty has shifted from Sony to Microsoft (though I admit the PS3 makes for a great 20 pound paperweight that sounds like a jet engine when it plays a Bluray,) the Karaoke and Dance Dance Revolution franchises still exist, though with little fanfare compared to where they were, and well, the little engine called L. A. Noire is no longer Sony exclusive. On May 17th, after numerous delays and promises of a whole new gaming experience, it was released for the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Sony really could have used this previously exclusive title to their favor had it been kept that way given the recent controversy around the PS Network, however, it just wasn't meant to be. Those seeking consistency, however, can take solace in the fact that Duke Nukem Forever still hasn't been released.
Before the game landed on shelves, Noire had a tall order to fill, with numerous pre-emptive tags accompanying it, amongst them "Game of the Year" and "One of the most beautiful gaming experiences of all time." The game even debuted as a cinematic at the Tribeca Film Festival, treated like any other film release. With a cast of many accomplished voice actors, and tremendous research and detail applied (some 100,000 photographs of Los Angeles' skyline alone went into the inspiration of this game,) this game was groomed to be something special. Rockstar has chosen to supplant you, the gamer, into 1947 Los Angeles. Ask any pop culture buff about what happened in LA in 1947, and they will tell you without hesitation that it's the year of arguably the most popular unsolved death of the 20th century - The Black Dahlia. In 1947, a young woman named Elizabeth Short was murdered and her body left out for public display. She was dubbed "The Black Dahlia" and for the last 65 years, the murder has remained unsolved, with numerous movies, books and documentaries established for the purpose of sharing facts with the hope that one day, things would be solved. It seems all too coincidental that the game would be situated in 1947, and not have elements of Short's murder in a crime-based game.
Something you will notice right away when you purchase the game is that its heavier than usual. For those who have not followed the release, you may think it just comes with a extra thick instruction manual right? Wrong. The extra weight is around the fact that the game comes shipped on THREE DISCS. If you have the hard drive space, install it, and then get cracking on the experience.
The opening cinematic takes you through a high level overview of 1947 Los Angeles - A city of opportunity and elegence bent on helping people live out their American dream. I recommend watching it in full to grasp the kind of setting the game will put you through before it sends you into your first murder investigation. You find at the beginning of the game that you're no more than an entry level patrolman left to the whim of the senior detectives, entrusted to find a murder weapon. This mission is get you used to the type of game you are playing -- much different than previous Rockstar outings. While you still do have the ability to drive a vehicle, you don't have a lot of the liberties you had in, say, the GTA games. This game won't allow you to just run out in the streets and fire endlessly at civilians. This game supports the same "open sandbox" type of style that Mafia II employed - You have a world to roam freely, however, you can only do so while in a mission. GPS Devices also did not exist in 1947, so if you need directions to your checkpoint, you are left to your partner's knowledge of the city and its layout if you don't wish to continue looking at the map every couple blocks. This is extremely helpful because the city's map is massive. Every bit as large as GTA IV and then some. Get ready for a city that will take hours to see, hours to explore and even more time to accustom yourself to.
The game's use of darker imagery and a seedy contrast sets you immediately into the type of grimy underworld the darkened streets of a large city can be after dark. During the first mission in which you must scour an alley for a murder weapon, you are introduced to the game's soundtrack, along with how it affects your gameplay. The music will rise and fall as you near clues, or find new leads. The music itself is done such that it keeps your intuition sharp, and keeps you on the edge of your seat waiting for that next clue. The environment is not static either. If you accidentally bump into a garbage can or a palette of crates, you will interact with them, and guaranteed you will unintentionaly scare yourself once or twice. Your controller will also interact with the music, vibrating when a clue is near and available for you to interact with. The purpose of this mission is to get you used to the way the music, clue-finding, and hand to hand combat system works, as you well have to fight a suspect in this mission.
At this point, I should add True Crime (actual crime, not the video game series) buffs may be appalled at the fact that the detectives initially handle crucial crime scene pieces barehanded as I was, however, it's all in perspective -- This truly was a different time lacking the technologies we have now.
Rockstar has also listened to those of you who complained about the fact that driving was too tedious and non-essential to your game. You have the option of driving to the scenes yourself, or for those times you have a willing partner, you can climb into the passenger's seat and be chauffered to the next checkpoint. You also do not have to watch the drive unless it is plot crucial, as you will simply be fast forwarded to the next point. Rockstar has also accommodated for those discussions that always happen while you're driving - As a passenger, you do have to sit in on the conversation before you are jumped to the next scene. Be aware, however, that there are achievements for driving different cars, as well as miles driven, so if you care about those things, allowing yourself to be taken places will delay and hinder your ability to get them.
I'd recommend playing the first 4 missions in one sitting before you decide to chop things up, as each is an introductory stepping stone into everything this game has to offer. We've already discussed the first mission and its purpose above, and once you complete that one, you move onto a bank robbery and learn how the gunfire engine works. If you've played one of these games, you've played them all. Left trigger aims, right trigger fires and B reloads. You're then whisked into the third mission, which is simply chasing a bail jumper and learning how the climbing and running system works before you have another fight. Lastly, the last introductory mission is one where you tie all of these elements in with perhaps the most game-defining piece, and something so innovative that it can change the entire face of your missions: The interrogation.
What Rockstar has done with recording dialogue is they have not only captured voices, but faces as well. More than 30 cameras were used to capture all character faces throughout, and once you bring this fact into what you see, you begin to see the immense detail in all sprite facial movements. When you interview characters, you are expected to analyze facial expressions and deduce whether they are lying (you must provide proof,) whether they are telling the truth or whether you doubt their statement, but don't know one way or the other (or cannot provide proof.) Successfully completing interviews will reward you with in-game XP and "intuition" points which you can use to find clues while in future interrogations or crime scenes. Anyway, once you pass this mission, you get promoted and are sent on to the remaining 17 larger scale missions. This introductory sit-down should take around an hour or so.
While the main game unfolds around you, there are two side cinematic inclusions that bear absolutely no relevance to the starting plot, but are given to you such that you're led to believe they must have some purpose later on. The first is a series of videos in between missions. Phelps is seen in his younger days working through his paces as a US Marine (you're told later that he was given a silver star in World War II for killing more than 40 Japanese soldiers) and his relationship with a character named Jack Kelso, whose current relationship with you is undisclosed. The second is found through 13 newspapers you can find at different crime scene investigations. Finding a paper headline will shift you to a video piece centering around psychologist Dr. Harlan Fontaine and his professional relationship with a student and his friend in need of therapy. Again, their relevance to the present is not discussed, but through these subtle reminders every mission or two, you are still to keep it all at the forefront of your mind. As you continue to progress through the game, you will begin to see an agonizing and startling reminder of what the city of Angels was capable of 65 years ago, and what our city's police forces continue to see in their day to day lives.
Lastly are side missions. As with all Rockstar games, these exist too, but are completely optional. If you don't care about optional side missions, you don't have to do them, and they don't have bearing on the game. Similar to the vigilante pieces from GTA IV, whether or not you do them is completely up to you. These are all done in the form of dispatch calls. As you are driving to various parts of your current mission, you will hear an APB over the radio, and the game will ask whether you wish to react to or ignore the bulletin. There are a lot of these, and these will keep you busy for hours on end along with the regular plot line. Tie all of this together, and yes, you've definitely got a solid game of the year candidate.
Graphics: 7/10. For all I've said about the mastery of the facial expression and interrogation systems, the graphics in this game really aren't that much of a step up from, say, GTA IV, and because so much resource is used up by the faces (even in the cinematics,) all of the other graphics have been sacrificed in return. Character movements are often choppy, and backgrounds look out of place in contrast. Corners have obviously been cut for the 360 release, though I'm not sure what could have been done to improve things since a system's only capable of so much, really. You know those early green screen era Hollywood movies that were remastered in high definition years later, and suddenly you could see the green screen effect, and almost a graphical separation between the background and foreground you wouldn't previously have noticed? This game is full of that. Unfortunate as it is, it becomes very noticeable, and perhaps this isn't Team Bondi and Rockstar's fault. Perhaps this is finally the year and time that the age and limitations of the 360 begin to show. It's not worth dwelling on this point long term, however, and as you'll see (if you haven't already,) this is far from a deterring point for this game.
Sound: 9.5/10. Every little sound bite of this game makes you feel like you're trapped in an old episode of Dick Tracy without the hideously deformed villains and campy yellow raincoat. The ominous jazz music interlays, the dialogue, the whole soundtrack, really. Sound capturing sounds like every discussion is happening in your living room next to you. Every gunshot rings out with clarity. This was done so spot on that if you close your eyes for a few minutes and listen in to what's happening around you, you'll swear you were hearing something authentic from 1947 itself rather than a 2011 video game kicking back to those times.
Control: 8.5/10. The controls in this game are extremely easy to get the hang of -- almost TOO easy. Once you've played a Rockstar game with controls mapped to almost all buttons, you're expecting to have to press buttons to climb, jump over objects, or open doors, which are done automatically here by just walking toward them. Gun controls are as simple as you could expect them to be. The only thing that keeps this from being a perfect score really is the driving mechanics. Driving a vehicle from the 1940s isn't supposed to be as feather touch as the game makes it out to be. The vehicles handle too lightly given how much they weighed, and the roads give you that same "stick of butter" feeling from past Rockstar games which makes for an awkward driving experience. Given that driving is always such a huge part of these games (if you choose to do it this time around, that is,) I wish they would have spent a bit more time to make this part of the game a bit more rea 10/10. Let's face it. I can complain about the driving experience, and the often entry-level graphics, but it doesn't make it this a make or break as to whether you should be picking up this game. You can easily be chauffeured if the driving is that annoying, and well, graphics should never make or break a game unless it severely hinders your ability to play, which this absolutely does not. Every facet of the gameplay experience just works.
Sometimes you forget how different the world was back then. With no easy way of researching information, you have to call the switchboard operators for 411s. Newspapers are crucial to day to day life, and there's no professional sports to tie the city together in any form or fashion. The Dodgers didn't arrive until the late 1950s, and the Angels, Kings and Lakers didn't show up until the 60s. LA truly was a city left to its own peril, and if this game doesn't leave you with perhaps a little sense of relief that you didn't grow up in those times, I don't know what will. This is a gamer's game, and not just that - This is the type of game that serves to bring fans of yesteryear in with it. If you were looking for a good police-style game voided by the loss of the Police Quest franchise for example, this is it. Few games so plot rich will grip you until you realize you've just spent the better part of your day engaged in its clutches. For all gents and dames, LA Noire is a bit of James Ellroy's LA Quarter, a bit Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, a bit of clever film-making and a lot of Rockstar's tremendous ability to connect you to who you are playing and why you are doing it.
While the 360 version will not be remembered as a graphic masterpiece, the game should continue to be lauded for what it truly is - An innovative stepping stone into the next generation of strategic gaming. They say in the gaming industry that once you have given, you cannot take back. Well, a little gaming studio in Australia has given us a facial recognition system that will prove to be this game's longest lasting contribution to video gaming and lays down the gauntlet for all future challengers.
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
Take a peek through my profile, and you will see that I've played a few Lego games from start to finish. While never the best games I've ever played, all were enjoyable in their own right, and from the original Star Wars Trilogy, to Batman, Indiana Jones, Rock Band and Harry Potter, the Lego adventure games have been a staple on my gaming shelf, and have connected me again in a cartoony way to franchises I was familiar with. However, having never seen Star Wars past the two trilogies, you will have to excuse my lack of plot knowledge with this current installment.On March 22nd, the 8th game in the 360 generation's Lego Adventure gaming series (Bionicle aside) was released. After exhausting the movie saga in the previous two efforts, Lego Star Wars III would center its plot around the Clone Wars. Initial rumors of an all new engine and gaming experience peaked the curiosity of fans used to the same base model over the last 4 years, however, the demo released in January proved that indeed, this game would (no pun intended) clone the engines of old. Granted, the game is geared toward younger gamers who probably wouldn't be able to tell, nor care about the differences, but you had to wonder how this game would hold up with older games, who had played the same tune with a different instrument time and again.
Much like Harry Potter, the game starts you off in a level and scenario similar to the end of Star Wars Episode II with the death of Jango Fett, culminating with Mace Windu aiding in saving you all and helping you board (assumedly) the Mon Calamari to begin the rest of the game. Right away, this level well very quickly show you what Traveler's Tales has done to test the processing limits of the 360. At one point, you will see well over 100 independently moving smaller sprites on screen at once, along with approximately a dozen others of various sizes. The best part? No slowdown. That is very impressive, as is the enhanced character detail and shading. Characters are as shiny as Michelle Kwan's forehead, and just as smooth, however, not as polished. Harry Potter was (pardon the pun) brilliant in its graphic work, and unfortunately, Clone Wars is well behind in this aspect. Even in the highest of Hi-Definition, graphics are still a bit jagged and rough. This has been a bit of an issue for Star Wars dating back to the the Original Lego Trilogy, and it continues here.
Once aboard what I assume is the Mon Calamari, you start in the cockpit of the ship, left to build and destroy as usual. The entire level selection takes place on the cockpit menus itself (not like previous games that would have you walk into separate places for each chapter, and serves as a much more efficient way of getting the job done. Unpurchased characters walk throughout the ship that you can buy, and the in-game percentage counter serves to tell you how far you are through the game, and how long you've been playing. There is no looking for the special tavern or blackboard to enter your secret codes in either. You can simply pause the game and enter your secret code there. These journeys were meaningless in previous games, and it is good to see this all streamlined.
Rather than chapters that are obtained as you finish others, you get straight to the point and can choose whatever pathway you want to play from the getgo. The main storyline is broken off into 3 separate chapters which take place within the span of the first 2 seasons of the Clone Wars cartoon. Each chapter is broken off into the pursuit of 3 characters - Count Dooku, General Grevious and Asajj Ventress. As in previous Star Wars game, the levels are a mixture of walking and flying stages spread across cute landscapes with a variety of characters. However, very quickly on, you see the same patterns forming that you saw before. Menu streamlining and UI enhancement aside, this game is almost like you never left the last Lego Star Wars franchise. Characters walk around in story mode solving a mission based on the adapted plot with their weapons aiming to collect True Jedi, Minikits, Gold Completion and Red In-Game Powerup Bricks, and once done, you may repeat it over in Free Play Mode to collect what you missed (though it's never recommended to Free Play something until you have completed the game and have one character out of each class for simplicity's sake.) Thankfully, the charging option to hit multiple enemies has carried over from Harry Potter to make combat a bit easier.
In typical Lego game fashion, this game has reliance on solving mini objectives and puzzles utilizing the skills of the characters given to you at the beginning of the level. Amidala, for example, can subdue animals. Anakin Skywalker has tremendous raw power and the ability to defeat multiple enemies at once, and Jar Jar Binks' legendary lack of any usefulness makes you wonder why they even bothered to include him yet again (thankfully, they still haven't incorporated full voice into the series so you don't have to listen to him either.) Star Wars Lego has been less about puzzles, however, and more about combat, which this game has plenty of. There is never a shortage of perils on-screen at any time. If you don't have to worry about falling off a cliff somewhere, you will be chased down by plenty of enemy drones, ships or gunfire. This game in a whole offers a very clever and manageable boost in difficulty. Despite the cacophony of opposition, it never becomes too overwhelming or difficult to deal with, and you are never pigeonholed into repeated deaths from unfair angles. Once you've obtained the invincibility red brick (or cheated to get it, since the Lego games are always a code user's haven,) I implore you to stand in the middle of a fight scene with constant streams of drones pouring through the doors and see just how much can appear on screen at once.
There are 19 levels in all including the introductory level. Lego Harry Potter had some curiously short levels, and it carries over here as well. Many levels in Count Dooku's chapter are single screen, single scenario levels that should only take about 5 minutes to finish if you are paying attention to your surroundings, while you begin to see longer levels when you play the Grevious chase. Also new to this game is what the game refers to as "screen tag," which splits your characters up into different parts of the level to solve their own bits and meet up somewhere along the way. Ever wondered "Why don't they cut through stuff more often with their lightsabres?" Your curiosity should be satisfied since you get the option to cut through plenty of things. The novelty does wear a bit old, however, especially when you're in the middle of cutting out a hole to climb through and are being shot at by a dozen drones.
Compared to previous Lego Games, this one does not carry the same sense of fun into it that the other franchises did, and as a result, this game just isn't as fun as the ones before. Despite not being much of a Batman fan, I still enjoyed that game. Same with Harry Potter. This one started out promising, but by the end of it, it left me wishing that the next Lego game wasn't a franchise I really enjoy wanted to see in Lego form because a small part of me wants to be done with this engine and never play another Lego game again.
It's a shame really, this feeling that if you've played one Lego game, you've basically played them all. If you are addicted to the Lego series, or have a great fascination in Star Wars canon, or how the Clone Wars deals with its Lego treatment, it is worth checking out because at this point, you know exactly what you're getting, and how you're getting it. Luckily, this is not a full price retail release. It smartly hit shelves at a slightly discounted $49.99 MSRP on launch, which matches most Kinect titles and games aimed at a younger audience.
For series fans looking for just the new Lego game, however, be forewarned. From a fundamental standpoint, if you have played any of the franchise's adventure-type games in the last 5 years, you have played Clone Wars already with different characters or a different plot. Go follow the advice of Lego Rock Band and see if you can stack 6 lego bricks in the 6 billion different ways the game says you can do, because there's more variation in that. With these games now, there's just no diversity. Quite honestly, when I pop in a Lego Game, I can expect this exact formula out of it:
-Play Story Mode
-Unlock Gold Bricks
-Find Gold Bricks
-Red Bricks
-Build Minikits (or that game's equivalent)
-Try to Obtain True Jedi/-Complete Story Mode
-Play Free Play
-Find the Last Gold Bricks
-Find the Last Red Bricks
-Finish Building Leftover Minikits (or that game's equivalent)
-Finish Obtaining True Jedi/Indy/Batman/Wizard
-Get 100% after obtaining everything
-Play a bonus level for an achievement
-Collect achievements along the way for beating each level, getting all bonuses and 100%, and a couple cutesy role reversals.
-Enjoy the same basic engine with a different plot and different characters with the same abilities.
All of the above apply, and those seeking any change from previous editions need not.
Now considering these games always end up as Platinum Hits, it obviously continues to be a lucrative franchise, and therefore I continue to see value in the family gaming aspect of this. However, I continue to feel this whole concept is getting dragged mercilessly through the production line onto retail shelves. This is by no means as bad as the Guitar Hero Franchise yet, of which we bid recent adieu, but it certainly is not far from there at this point. What was once a great concept and a fabulous spin on gaming and franchising is now getting a touch old. Clone Wars won't even be remembered as the best Lego Game, despite the consistent improvements made. That spot may be reserved for Harry Potter.
It's hard to hate on such a fundamentally sound gaming franchise. The Lego Games are never buggy or glitchy, and throughout the way, they have always fixed any game design flaws (such as the on-screen rubber banding effect that plagued multiplayer in the old games) while adding a couple bells and whistles here and there. In that time, even EA and THQ have identified the gaming world is much different than before, and has become much more of a fly by night society. You can no longer say any of the yearly franchises like NHL or Smackdown vs. Raw are "exactly the same" every year because so much work is done in between, except to in-game graphics, which often stay similar, or show little change. Engines, sounds, entire experiences are changed. I don't see that here, or I see almost the opposite. The graphics and the plot are different, but the same sound effects show up, the same basic control scheme and the same basic expectations remain game-in game-out. Never once have these games become so boring they aren't worth playing, but there comes a point where that sense of deja vu is so prominent, you crave change.
Furthermore, these games have never sunk to the point where they are an obvious cash grab where the company has mailed in their efforts knowing they will sell out anyway. I'm sure that as long as Lucasarts and Traveler's Tales turn out million sellers on this Lego Engine, things won't change that much, and you will continue to see simple extensions to this Lego house, but until then, an exhausted gamer can dream.
Overall Score: 6.7 / 10
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12
Gifts for golf nuts came early this year from our friends at EA. After striking a major deal for the Tiger Woods franchise, EA made the business decision to release their newest title a bit earlier this year. Barely into the year 2011, we're to say hello to the first 2012 EA Sports title before the first quarter is over. You see, this is the year Electronic Arts finally scores a huge boom for golf gaming, and they didn't let you, or Tiger Woods himself forget it. This is the year that the Augusta National Golf Course is included, as is the Masters, and there was no way EA would release this while the tournament itself wasn't fresh in everybody's minds. The game released March 29th, a full 9 days before the annual tee-off in Georgia. It's hard to say, however, whether EA wanted to downplay their association with Tiger this year a bit, or upsell their new addition, but the packaging of this game very clearly painted a picture that this game was "THE MASTERS: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12" and not just the latter, though once you pop the game in, you see that it is still very Tiger heavy. Joining the announcing fray this year is the legendary Jim Nantz, perfect considering Nantz has been the voice of the Masters for well over 20 years. Nowadays, a Masters without the voice of Nantz would be like the Superbowl without at least one scandalous lawsuit-inducing commercial. Thankfully, EA recognized the two go hand in hand and brought him onboard.When you jump into the game, you're placed right on the last hole of the 2011 Masters where Tiger Woods is tied for the lead with Anthony Kim. You've then got to birdie the par 4 18th to win. The 18th isn't very difficult, and you should be able to stick your 2nd shot close enough to the hole to take home your 5th green jacket. You're then swooped into congratulations, 5 achievement points and into the create a golfer screen. Here, you can import your golfer from TW11, or create a new one with the assistance of EA's standard creator you now see in all their games. This time around, however, the Vision cam works faster than just about all the games, and no longer do you have to wait half your weekend for your character's face to be generated. Following this, you're taken to the main menu to begin your career, or play around with the different game modes.
Graphics have always been solid in the Tiger Woods series, and this is no exception. The players look even better than they did last year, the sun glistens brightly off even the smallest of ponds, and even the grass textures look better than last year. EA decided to institute what appears to be a more 3-dimensional grass texture than past years, which makes fairways look tidier, and rough look rougher than ever. I still wonder, however, why they continue to make much of the background characteristics very hollow and one-dimensional. I understand that the game is completely about golf, and never graphics first and golf second, but the uninspiring backdrops coupled with bright golf courses make me wonder if I've suddenly regressed into a golfing version of Streets of SimCity. There's just so much more to be done with the graphics that EA is more than capable of doing. Hopefully as years go by, you will start to see much more detailed golf greenery. Layered bunkers and meticulously groomed fairway patterns are definitely the way of the golf gaming future.
With regard to gaming modes, one of the cooler additions is the "Masters Moments" game within a game. Here, you're faced with the task of taking your created golfer through a series of scenarios from actual Masters tournaments of the past, from Arnold Palmer's surge through the 1958 leaderboards, to Tiger Woods' masterful chip-in in 2005. You get different medals based on how well you follow the objective. You "master" the challenge if you do exactly what the golfer himself did. If you're a Tiger Woods veteran, I'd recommend jumping into this mode right away since with very few mechanical gameplay changes, you'll be playing much of the same game. Of course, if you don't feel your golfer's stuff is up to par yet, you can go back to the main menu and select "Tiger at the Masters" which is a mode where you play as Tiger and guide him through his Masters victories. Each year requires you as Tiger to play all 4 rounds and win (and master the scenario by beating his score.) The game even tries to mimic the real thing as much as possible. For example, you start the '05 Masters in the rain and are expected to play Augusta under less than ideal conditions.
If you have not played a golf game in quite a while, be prepared for an initially puzzling control system. In a day and age where player equipment is controlled with the right stick, you swing with the left one, while lining your shots up with the D-Pad. The buttons themselves perform basic commands like speaking to your caddy (which we will touch upon,) adding power to your drives or previewing your putts or shots themselves. Outside of that, I'd say hit the pause button and jump into the controls for a little while. You can play pretty easily without looking at the controls on the easier stages, but you're going to need all the help you can get lining up putts and angling chip shots in the harder pin sets.
Perhaps the best new feature is the Caddy assistance you can receive, which will really help new players along the pathway to greatness. Your caddy will start off as raw as you with your course, using his little knowledge of the course to guide you along, however, the more he sees the way the course shapes up through your play, the better and more effective he will be. Of course, you may be about 90 strokes behind the leader and so far beyond missing the cut that you can't even see Craig Stadler's mustache (a feat in itself,) but Rome wasn't built in a day, and not even Tiger Woods took home the Masters in his first attempt. Still, as your career progresses, your caddy will stick with you and you should find him to be one of your most valuable resources in determining how to play the ball to stick it closest to the hole.
One of the most baffling things about this game is that while the gameplay itself continues to become more robust and boisterous on a yearly basis, the number of courses shrinks. While the Nintendo Wii version had 25 courses, the XBox got a grand total of 16, with the rest needing to be purchased. Those who pre-ordered from Gamestop in the US got a slight reprieve in receiving a download code for Scottish golf course Turnberry. Canadians got Bethpage Black, but both will have to shell out XBox points for the rest. It's unknown how many courses there will be in the end. By Masters weekend, there were 19 total available for 360 gamers.
Something that the seasoned pros will be wondering when it comes down to it all is how different is this game to Tiger Woods 11? Truth be told, there is very little to do in the way of gameplay improvements if you spent endless night after endless night playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. It's hard to argue this when really, there isn't any water to squeeze out of the proverbial stone, but the game is heavily relying on the fact that the loyalist Augusta-seeking gamers will come looking for the new challenge. For the rest of us that purchase Tiger Woods on perhaps a bi- annually or tri-annually, you'll see huge improvements that are leaps and bounds above the last game you purchased. Considering the last Tiger Woods title I personally owned before this one was Woods 09, I see huge improvements in the overall gameplay and feel of this game. All those fun multi-player modes like Skins game are still there, so tee up those quarters and throw down with your friends for some hard earned bucks. The overall PGA Roster isn't large to begin with (and I admit, it wasn't clear to me whether I could unlock more,) but with the utter ease of create a golfer, you can have yourself facing off on the links with your friend in no time.
Graphics: 7.5/10. It takes a lot for me to give a perfect or near-perfect graphic score to a game. You have to be right up in the upper echelon of your genre's game. Tiger Woods doesn't dazzle graphically when compared to some of the more popular titles for all of XBox, however, when you compare it to all other sports titles, and its predecessors, at this point, the graphics are the best of any golf game out there I suppose. Each hill rolls with the lushest of greens. Every body of water glistens in the sunlight. Still, the biggest problem with the graphics is that it lacks that certain pizzazz with detail. When I play St. Andrews, everything seems so wooden. The building look like basic characterless structures, and I don't feel the creep of the fog, or that same feeling that the ball is going to disappear into the abyss like I do when I watch thos poor golfers tee up at the British Open. With the addition of the 3D grass, it's getting there, but it really isn't anywhere close to where it could be, especially given the powerful processing powers of the 360.
Sound: 8.5/10. There's much to do with the sound in the Tiger Woods franchise. EA is big on little details, so at any given time, you may hear birds chirping in the background, the crowd stirring in anticipation of an exciting shot, or the underbrush underneath a player's feet as he stirs amongst the bark mulch where his ball is now laying. All that's missing really is continuous crowd noise in the background as people move from hole to hole, or random crowd effects therein. I still don't feel like I've got that same level of crowd tension coming from the gallery when I'm about to take my putt. Perhaps this is all offset by Jim Nantz. Nantz's inclusion is possibly the best commentary inclusion into an EA Sports game since Pat Summerall had a few lines back in Madden Football 97 for the N64, though the first time EA included Clyde Tillsley into its soccer games would be a very close 2nd. With Augusta becoming a yearly staple of this franchise, I hope Nantz is as well.
Control: 8.5/10. The controls themselves are well done, and nearly as good as you can get. The new caddy feature is easy to use and The only complaint I have for someone new coming in (keeping in mind that EA's new games come paperless and the manuals are kept in the game themselves) is that it's too hard to figure out which button does what, and what is necessarily the controls. No longer do you get to play with the simplicity of NES Golf controls, where you jam the up and down buttons to switch clubs. The control scheme falls somewhere in between NHL 94 simplicity and WWF Attitude difficulty. Swinging your club is as simple as flicking the left thumb stick, but it's a bit tougher to switch clubs and such. Overall, however, there's nothing wrong with the controls, and nothing you can't figure out after a minute or two of fooling around with the buttons.
Gameplay: 9/10. Let's face it. Golf is not the most exciting sport to play a video game of. You can't spray ice shards in your opponent's face. You can't slam dunk over a gawking 7 foot centerman. You can't push through a wall of defenders enroute to the end zone. EA does what it can to ensure the experience you get on the virtual links is as exciting and fun as possible. While it will never deliver the hard hitting action of the Fight Night franchise, or the open world of Need for Speed, The Masters: TW12 knows how to cater to its niche market, and without a doubt, I would say there is nobody that can come into the market to encroach on its territory, or even come close. I've never found arcade style competition like Outlaw or Hot Shots to even be close to the calibre of gaming or experience as Tiger Woods. They're two completely different types of gaming, and for a sports enthusiast such as myself, golfing is best suited to the world of realistic sim, this game is for you golf fans. If you purchased Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, you may not want to rush out as quickly, because mechanically, you're playing a very similar game. However, this is a must purchase for all new golf enthusiasts looking to buy a title, because that caddy mode is crucial and speedpasses you on the road to catching up to any more experienced friends you have that you want to eventually take down. Online tournaments are still tons of fun as you compete against the best golfers worldwise, and you will have lots of fun outfitting your golfer in the best, or ugliest of golf clothing and equipment. Overall, if you have never played a Tiger Woods game before, and are wavering between an older, cheaper title to ease yourself in, don't. Spend the extra money and buy this title, which doesn't leave you to sink and swim into playing like older titles do. In a strong year of EA Sports Titles (the ones that made it to market anyway,) this rides that wave of momentum and continues to prove why EA is the best in the business when it comes to sports.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Major League Baseball 2K11
Poor XBox owners. That's not a term you hear from the competition very often, but you have to sympathize with baseball fans that only own an XBox. EA left the baseball market following MVP Baseball 2005, and since when 2K Sports offered up MLB 2K6 as their first exclusive, you knew you were in for trouble. Music and layouts redundant with the NHL series, graphics that made 4D Boxing look like Picasso, and few redeeming qualities overall. But you could see the seeds growing. That year, Jeanne Zelasko, Jon Morgan and Joe Miller put together a fantastic commentary track, and...well, that was about it. 2K didn't get much revenge on EA for stealing their football license that year.Fast forward 5 years. 2K has continued to try to improve their MLB franchise year after year, while putting out 2 editions of "The Bigs" on the side with the help of their former development studio Blue Castle (now owned by Capcom and producing the Dead Rising series.) The Bigs threw simulation baseball out the window and focused on recreating something you would play at your local arcade in an elongated form. It worked. The Bigs 2 was probably my favorite baseball game since Base Wars for the NES, and I still hold it in the highest regard as one of my favorite games on the 360. I put down my simulation hat, however, picked it up again for a small test drive of MLB 2K10 and firmly planted it back on my head for MLB 2K11. It didn't hurt that the graphics didn't look like an Apogee Shareware game, however, I admit it stung slightly that Little Joe was no longer riding shotgun with Jon Miller. Still, with that being no reason at all to dismiss a game, it was time to get going.
The first thing you'll be hit with is the option to use "Living Rosters," which, if you have never come across them are basically the coolest feature in a sports game. Essentially, if rosters change in real life, they change in your game too. If a player is injured for real, he is in your game as well. Adding to the fun aspect of Living Rosters is "MLB Today" which allows you to play the games on that actual day in-game. Make sure to mark your calendars for July 12th, as one of the achievements require you to play the All Star Game on its actual date, meaning this achievement only comes once a year. Since 2K reserves the right to discontinue the MLB Today feature at any time, this means you may only have one chance.
2K has decided in their recent sporting games that they would make it as confusing as possible to navigate their menus. The menus are fully hidden every time you load up the game, and are accessed by (of all things) the right stick. With a large variety of gaming modes, the game appears on the surface to be an absolute gem. The graphics and menus are gorgeous, and upon first glance, there is so much to take in that this game could take an entire baseball sked to unravel. You've got your normal mix of exhibitions, season modes, tournaments and mini games. The 2K mini games have come a long way since NHL 2K5 pond hockey with pudgy stick figures, and these will provide a couple extra hours of fun.
The game itself is very intrinsic and intimately involved with statistics, just like the real game of baseball. You will feel the effects of the new Dynamic Player Rating, which will analyze the player's usefulness over the last 4 weeks, and push him into hot or cold streaks respectively. Unfortunately, you can't turn this feature off if you really don't like it, so you will have to deal with it no matter what. In trade, the online experience has been enhanced. 2K is innovating the next chapter in sports gaming, allowing you to have up to 64 players in one online game - with one person representing every possible member of both rosters. If that isn't the sports gaming idea of the year, I don't know what is. I expect both 2K and EA's sports franchises to follow suit. It won't be long until you are seated on the bench waiting for the coach to sub you in within every game.
Once the manager gets you out there, you're faced with similar gameplay mechanics in previous versions. Batting is done on a contact or power basis, and all through the right stick. You simply swing the stick forward to bat for contact, or hold it back and swing forward for power. You will be given ratings for your batter's contact and power stats, along with his stats against that type of pitcher to determine what you'd like to do. The game measures your swing to the split second, and it is amazing how badly you bat when the game measures you that closely. This is definitely an early highlight of the gameplay engine.
Visually, the game is nothing special. In fact, I would go so far as to say the graphics of the Blue Castle games are superior to the graphics here. The Bigs 2 featured cavernous yet lively looking stadiums. While the game looked like one giant Saturday morning cartoon, at least it never looked like an empty lifeless painting, which is what some of the backdrops in MLB 2K11 look like At times, it feels like you're playing a game with a superimposed green screen image that comes to life only occasionally. Camera angles are very strange in the sense that you never quite get a feel of how far your ball is capable of traveling outside the confines of the baseball field. Though the game will attempt to have you pitch single player with the standard over-the-shoulder view, it may be worth looking into the home plate cam for both batting and pitching. If a home run is a sure thing, the camera never changes to let you feel the impact of the home run. You just see a top down view of the field as the camera swings to the same angle near the stands to show there was a homerun. Given how punishing a homerun is supposed to look, this is a bit of a letdown in comparison. The same can be said for much of the graphics in this game. Player models are very sound, and well done, but the fields feel uninspired, and crowd seemingly needs to be rescanned into your picture every time they're shown in-game (which is usually just foul balls) and don't add much life to the whole experience.
Announcing your game this year are Steve Phillips, Gary Thorne and the 6-pack summer diet himself, John Kruk. For what it's worth, they do a great job, poring over and providing stats few commentators this side of Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez provide you with. Thorne, who pulls double duty with EA's NHL series is still an odd choice coming from someone who has never listened to his baseball broadcasts, though I understand now he's no longer that involved with pro hockey, so this is actually the sport that got it right.
Anyway, once you have popped out for your third out and take the mound, this is where the "fun" begins. Putting fun is quotations is accurate because at times, there is none. This is where all of the frustration of this gameplay engine shines through. Pitching is done by selecting a pitch and mimicking the pattern onscreen. The crazier the pitch, the harder it is to do successfully. An onscreen guide shows you where the best place to aim for would be, and on your first few tries, you best assume you've aimed for the stands, because that's where your pitches will end up. The pitching engine makes you long for the simpler days when all you had to do was hold the button down to select power and then guide the pitch into the strike zone. Here, it's all left up to the way you do your pattern, and if you mess it up somehow (which happens more often than not,) you'll find the pitch landing at your catcher's knees, or worse, making a beeline for the peanut salesman.
If your opponent hits the ball, however, the fielding system is interesting. Your fielder will get the ball with a meter above his head. This meter will help you dictate how hard and how accurate the throw will be. Mess it up one way or another, and you get an easy error, however, get it straight on and you can get that much-needed out. Repeat this for 9 innings for the course of an entire season, and, well, that's your season in a nutshell. Let's take a look at the box score and bring this night to a close.
Graphics: 6/10. Graphics are never 2K Sports' games strong suit, and this is no exception. Hi-Def menus aside, player details are about the only "pretty" in-game feature of this game, and they're done extremely well. Uniforms look crisp, and players look like they should. Otherwise, the rest of the graphics are almost PS1-ish in their execution. Stadium backdrops look almost green screen-flat at times, and the crowd panning and animations are no better. Granted, the graphics have gotten better year after year, but in this generation of gaming, they just can't look like they came hopping out of Ken Griffey Jr's Winning Run. It's a small price to pay for an attempt at a more mechanically sound game, but The Bigs 2 had more personable and engaging graphics, and that game was put together in a tiny Burnaby, British Columbia gaming studio without the mass amount of resources this game must have had. Thankfully they have the grass palettes right. Nothing says realistic baseball like an aquamarine outfield that rivals an indoor tennis court.
Sound: 7/10. The Gary Thorne train appears to be rolling itself into sports gaming with the force of a thousand ball park hotdogs in your stomach. Will next year's NBA Elite game be called by Thorne and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? I realize Thorne's left hockey and is now doing baseball fulltime, but it's still strange to hear him calling the shots since I'm not a Baltimorean. As previously mentioned, the Play by Play and color is very well done. You really feel like you're listening in on a baseball broadcast, though it misfires once in a while and you will hear the odd duplicate line. It's to be expected though since every game does it. 2K has clearly taken the time to have facts and figures about almost every player. At some point, you can all but expect to know what college a player went to, what his batting average is against right handers on a Sunday, and how many servings of Hamburger Helper he eats before a game. Outside of that, there isn't much here that makes you feel at any point that you're not just playing a baseball video game. Something EA and THQ have done well with their sports games is attempt to perfect in-game ambience. I never once felt that connection while playing MLB 2K11. It would be nice if the trains whistled over top of the fans at Safeco, or if you could hear the frustration of 20 years of mediocrity in the chants of Toronto Blue Jays fans. The baseball sounds are crisp enough, but I'm just not wowed like I was with the Bigs 2. On second thought, the game has my boy John Kruk. Best baseball game ever.
Controls: 5/10. Look, this stick pattern pitching just doesn't work. I don't want to feel like I'm playing with an etch a sketch every time I'm about to throw a pitch. The frustrating thing about this above all is that the pitching engine almost gives you no incentive to use anything but all star pitchers, for fear of throwing 12 wild pitches an inning. The system has to be followed so perfectly, and the degree of difficulty is so far between 90-rank pitches and 60-rank pitches that the slightest hiccup results in you throwing into the 4th row of seats. Batting controls are fine. Fielding controls are great. I may complain about the pitching, but I do appreciate the fact that fielding and throwing to bases can vary by how hard and accurate you've chosen to throw the ball, and you only have that same split second real baseball players to do aim and position the throw. However, one real problem with this feature is that the base you've chosen to throw to isn't always the one thrown to, even when you have pressed the right button. You don't often run into the dreaded cut off man ruining your attempt at a defensive gem, but when it happens, it happens on a grandiose scale. Nothing beats 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th with the tying runner on second base where an off kilter throw from the outfield to home plate ends up in the hands of the first baseman somehow, even after you've pressed the A button and positioned your throw perfectly. No wonder they're offering you a million bucks to throw a perfect game.
Gameplay: 7/10. The real fun in this game lays in multiplayer. The option to play a 64 man roster online is genre-defining, and tossing wild pitches all night isn't so bad when your friend is just as bad as you are. 14 inning pitchers duals can be sickeningly fun when you have somebody with you to enjoy the experience, but assuming you will be playing the majority of the game alone, be ready to experience a lot of frustration out of the gate if you have not played the previous games and accustomed yourself to the pitching engine. The MLB Today mode is one of the coolest in all professional sports games, and allows you to live out a season of sorts even if you don't want to play the actual season mode. Again, remember - July 12th. All Star Game. 40 achievement points.
Regardless of whether this game is a must purchase or not, you've got to admit one thing - You don't have a lot of options. If you want something that's going to put you as close as possible to a simulation baseball gaming experience, Major League Baseball 2K11 is your go-to. This is the rotation ace that will give you some solid innings every time out. It will throw the odd stinker, but hopefully by now, you have your ace reliever in the Bigs 2 sitting in your bullpen ready to clean up and close out. This is not a bad game despite my gripes. There are some very key saving graces.
As I mentioned before, the Play by Play is second to none. The mini games are agonizing at first, but fun once you get the hang. This is a very serviceable game in a whole. If I had to name it after a baseball player, this would probably be Jesse Orosco. You're going to get a lot of mileage out of Orosco 2K11 and it'll get the job done. It will remain consistent well after it has worn out its welcome. It will just never be spectacular. It will always just be there. If you have MLB 2K10, I don't feel there's any need to upgrade unless the new features catch your fancy so much that you need to have this game. In playing with a group of MLB2K10 vets, all said the game was barely an upgrade from last year. That about told me all I needed to know.
Overall Score: 6.1 / 10
WWE All-Stars 
It's been 11 long years since we saw the likes of a true no holds barred arcade-style wrestling game. After a packed decade full of the likes of Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game, Slam Masters (and its Saturday Night home edition) and arguably the most popular wrestling title of all time in WWF Wrestlefest, Sega and THQ's joint effort Royal Rumble opened up the last decade, which flickered out into deserved mediocrity. Since then, there has been no true arcade wrestling worth mentioning. After the borderline embarrassing Rumble Roses series, the genre has been pushed on the backburner while games like the Smackdown vs. Raw series and Fire Pro have been left to carry the torch forward.Enter Sal DiVita, the mastermind behind Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game, a morbidly fun concoction of Midway's fighting game engines and the family fun of the World Wrestling Federation. While the likes of WWF Raw graced our home consoles, DiVita and the crew of Midway spent 2 years designing Wrestlemania for its 1995 release. The game never took itself seriously: Hams, bats and inflatable mallets were substitutes for blood, and wrestlers like Razor Ramon could shake you down into 20+ hit combos full of physically impossible, yet hilarious wrestling slams. The resulting effect: A fun and memorable game. Though DiVita himself admitted certain elements of the game itself were less than desirable to him as a wrestling fan (such as the comedic elements of the blood substitution with objects,) it was still a favorite project of his (he even confirmed the existing rumor that Adam Bomb is hidden within the annals of the game, though he would not divulge how to obtain him, stating only that the character was incomplete and there was no sense in attempting to procure him.) Midway didn't collaborate with the WWF ever again, and eventually, THQ secured exclusive rights. Sal DiVita's continued vision of the ideal arcade-style wrestling game had long been silenced.
That is -- Until now.
When Midway declared bankruptcy, THQ purchased the San Diego studio that produced the less than memorable TNA Impact game, and put them to work on a new wrestling game. The goal? Come up with a sister product for Smackdown vs. Raw: Something a bit more cartoonish, frantic and hands-on, targeting the market wishing to pick up a larger than life product with larger than life products. The lead designer? Sal DiVita. Welcome to WWE All Stars.
The day this game was revealed for the first time, it was tough to ascertain exactly what it was. The characters all looked like themselves, but twice the size, ridiculously muscular, and pulling off all of their moves with acrobatic ease miles above the ring resulting in a crash so epic the ring would ripple like water when stones were thrown in a pond. Was this for real? Meanwhile, THQ released yet another stellar edition of Smackdown vs. Raw, leaving the door open as to what All Stars was trying to accomplish. Eventually, little details continued to leak into the market, including the rosters, and that this would be an arcade style title with no ties to any previous titles. This was a new concept by the new team in San Diego, and it would be independent and not necessarily based on any other games.
The largest form of intrigue came on January 18th, when Macho Man Randy Savage cut a promo interspliced with scenes of him appearing in-game, signaling the apparent return of Randy Savage to the WWE fray. It was confirmed later, however, that while Savage did not sign a legends contract with the WWE itself, he has a deal worked out with THQ, and has been given WWE's blessing to appear in future titles, starting with this one -- and what a "one" this one starts out to be.
If you have the hard drive space, I would highly recommend installing this game. It is so graphic intensive that it not only has a fairly staggering loading time, but older systems may run into menu lag. The lag, importantly, does not happen in-game at all, so there is no need for worry there. The game gives you the option for a few types of gameplay, including exhibition matches, a Fantasy Warfare mode and the Path of Champions. The game also has a fairly impressive Create a Wrestler mode, of which you could put a few hours into and come out with some fairly impressive character models. There does not, however, appear to be a character share mode, meaning no community creations this time around. Fortunately, all game modes are unlocked to begin with, however, characters are not. Only half the characters are available to start with, however, can be easily unlocked which I will discuss in the course of the review.
The exhibition mode consists of standard match types, Extreme Rules (basically chairs at ringside with a garbage can full of endless weapons) and Steel Cage matches (in the new style cage.) A ladder match was originally shown in videos and assumed to be one of the match types available, however, it did not make the final cut for now. THQ would not comment further on the exclusion outside of the fact that they could not make it work properly with the game's physics.
The Path of Champions mode is your standard career-esque mode, similar to the Road to Wrestlemania, but without much of the side story. You choose an objective pathway: You either take the Path of Legends and compete at the end against the circa 1994 version of the Undertaker (with the purple gloves and trim,) or a more current path which culminates with taking on Randy Orton at the end, or D-Generation-X waiting for you at the end of the Tag Team campaign. You wrestle in a series of matches with vignettes in between culminating with your match at a pre-determined Pay Per View. Long time Undertaker fans will appreciate the Path of Champions most of all, which may be the most entertaining of all. Videos take place in the Funeral Parlor (complete with Paul Bearer) and attempt to take you back to a time when he played one of the most imposing and intimidating forces in wrestling history. Sadly, the Ultimate Warrior is not shoved into a coffin in the course of the videos, nor does Papa Shango make a surprise appearance to make Warrior vomit green all over the screen. Each Path should take approximately an hour to complete, and you will have to complete it a few times in the grand scheme of things if you wish to capture all of the achievements.
The 15-match Fantasy Warfare mode is probably the best feature of the game, far and away. This is also the easiest way to unlock all characters. Once you have popped open the game, play through the Fantasy Warfare mode, as it will take you through a venerable tour of all of the game's match types, as well as sets and character move sets. (You can also finish once as all the Legends, and once again as all of the current Superstars for 2 achievements.)
The mode is the essential embodiment of the game's objective: "What if?" The mode pits a legend against a current superstar in a scenario. For example, the "King of Scotland" mode pits real Scot Drew MacIntyre (whose presence in the game is questionable) against Canada's favorite Scotsman Roddy Piper. You will watch a 3 or 4 minute long video clip of footage leading into the match followed by the match itself. Some of the videos are extremely well done (The "Better Lifestyle" showdown between CM Punk and Steve Austin for example) and some are just a bit off (like the Jimmy Snuka vs. Kane intensity battle,) however, sealing the deal is that THQ managed to get the WWE's video voiceover guy to come in and voice all of the cinematics. If that isn't an attempt to bring you as close as possible to the action, I don't know what is. In fact, the cast of wrestling devotees that worked on this did such a good job that almost no stone is left unturned. Alternate attires and little details paint a picture of lifelong fandom. This is the first wrestling game I can remember featuring Andre the Giant in his pre-1985 attire, afro and all. This game also features both versions of the Rock's most popular theme (for entrance and the lyric-less version for victory.)
The gameplay experience itself once you have gotten into it is very easy to get into, and very simple to pick up. The controls are less intensive than Smackdown vs. Raw (which I will continue to refer to occasionally as SvR from this point on,) and though a bit confusing (like why you cannot run until you have hit or been hit,) can be easily mastered over the course of a couple matches. Calling the game from ringside are Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, who reunite as an on-screen team after almost 2 years. Announcing your entrance to the ring is none other than the original voice of the squared circle himself Howard Finkel.
There are 4 distinct character classes the game offers you up. You can find out which class your character is by pressing the Y button at the selection screen. They will either be an Acrobat, Big Man, Brawler or Grappler. Depending on your character's class, you will have access to certain skill sets the other wrestlers don't. For example, Acrobats like Randy Savage and Rey Mysterio can bounce off their opponent's chest onto the turnbuckle, or springboard off the ropes with dropkicks. Big Men like Big Show or Andre have the ability to heave their opponents up the air and chain attacks better than weaker characters. They also have the ability to kick their opponents out of the ring with one fell swoop. A big portion of the XBox Live element will be determining the class you are most effective with, and deciding how to take your opponents on. The wrestlers are balanced well enough that nobody has an unfair advantage, and even Rey Mysterio can slam Andre the Giant with ease if called upon. Granted, every class has weaknesses too. Big Men and Brawlers are slower than Grapplers and Acrobats, and have distinct defensive disadvantages as well. However, their raw power means moves they do unleash will be much more effective and lead to quicker victories.
The objective of the game is simple: Beat your opponent and pin him for a 3 count. How you get there, however, is different than other wrestling games. You have your standard strike attacks done with the X button, your stronger strikes with the Y button, the regular grapple with B, and the strong grapple with A. It should be noted strong attacks may have a bit of a lead-in time, so be careful because a standard strike in response could end that chain of momentum.
Movesets appear to be geared more toward character class rather than wrestler, though each wrestler's set of signature moves always correlate to their normal moveset. Bret Hart's signature move, for example, are a few of his 5 move setup into the Sharpshooter. John Cena does his patented "You Can't See Me" Suplex. Given that each wrestler has just the one finishing move, you will see all of Undertaker's finishers over the years rolled into his signature moves, while the Hell's Gate move ends up as a simple ground move. The movesets in a whole are by no means groundbreaking, but since matches will rarely top 5 minutes in this game, there is no need for a diverse library of moves that have not been seen used in wrestling matches outside of Japan since 1976.
Your HUB located in your respective corner tells you a story. You have a 4 tiered lifebar, 3 smaller boxes of which your attacks will charge toward signature moves, and a vertical meter leading to a starred letter F. The smaller boxes when full will overlay a small star, which signifies that you have a signature move to use. Perfectly executing a signature move requires slight lead-in, but when done unleashes an exaggerated, yet staggering version of a wrestler's secondary finisher, or lead-in move to his finisher. Eventually, as you wear down your opponent, the vertical meter fills, and eventually you have the ability to do your finisher, in which again, your wrestler performs a larger-than-life edition of his regular finisher. CM Punk's Go 2 Sleep regularly looks like a painful move, but in All Stars, it is a wonder his opponent's face is not caved in at the end of the match. Roddy Piper's sleeper hold gives new meaning to the term "Ragdoll Physics" and Eddie Guerrero's Frog Splash now comes complete with a front flip. It should be noticed that while you can block a signature move, you cannot block a finisher. In addition, you can miss signature and finisher attempts, which will penalize your wrestler and result in having to charge up the meters again from a decreased point. The game itself looks great. The graphics are very refined and comparable to any wrestling game ever released, if not the best overall. The game, however, does not quite play as well as it looks.
The more intricate controls can be a bit bothersome to get to used to, especially when faced with switching your focus in 3 or 4 player matches and attempting to reverse or block. The attacks overall are tougher to block than SvR, and while the focus is shifted as simple as flicking the right stick, it can be hard to re-focus on an opponent and attack him when he is not necessarily the closest player to you at the time. All controls otherwise, however, are extremely responsive, and never to the point where they are too responsive, nor do they fall into the dreaded button cache which EA games have taken to doing. The game provides a solid mix overall of all the elements it brings into it, and has done well to lift itself out of that enigmatic shadow of doom and gloom it was quickly putting itself into in its early days.
There is one unfortunate thing about this game overall, however, and that is the limitations it brings with it. After being spoiled with 70 or 80 man rosters in the last few wrestling games and more than 30 gameplay modes, you will have to make due with 30 superstars here, and only a small handful of match types. Keep in mind again that this is not meant to embody the day to day stylings of the WWE like the SvR series is, and the ratings below keep that mind. This is the type of game you would have saved your quarters up for to play as a kid, that is the essence of what the THQ San Diego team have tried to capture here, and that is how my ratings below treat this game - It is not compared in any way to the SvR series because the two are apples and oranges.
Graphics: 9.25/10. The game's use of color to paint a picture is unparalleled in this genre of gaming. With the exception of cinematics, the entire game is in vibrantly colored high definition (the exception obviously being the inability to broadcast VHS quality footage in high definition,) with bright textures adorning every corner of this game. In fact, the game pushes the display capabilities of the Xbox so heavily that it causes lag in the menus. Colors transition from one spectrum to another with relative ease, and the character models are appropriate, given the larger-than-life aura this game attempts to give off. The only troubles with the game remain the same clipping issues you see with all wrestling games. As an example (whether it was intentional or not is still debatable,) Andre the Giant's foot disappears into his opponent's chest during his signature move stomp. Some of the odder graphic misfires also include Hulk Hogan's shirt during his entrances, and about half the players' chins, who look like they were modeled after mixed martial artist Antonio "Big Foot" Silva. Still, these are minor details that don't affect the game itself.
Sound: 9.5/10. The game comes armed with more bleeps, bloops, bone crunches and painful screams than humanly necessary, and it never once becomes overbearing. Sound intensity increases with the quality of impact and the type of move. Jack Swagger's ankle lock comes complete with ankle breaking sound effects, and if you listen long enough to Bret Hart's Sharpshooter, you might hear a tendon snapping in the distance. The commentary has been painstakingly crafted to a level of detail even the most critical fan could enjoy (Jim Ross shouting "STONE COLD! STONE COLD! STONE COLD!" during a Stunner is one clever kickback to the old days) and Howard Finkel's return is detail perfect, right down to the point where he drops "The" from Bret Hart's nickname and refers to him simply as "Bret Hitman Hart" as he used to do. Pop on a set of headphones at some point, or pop on your surround sound and indulge in the stereo separation of the crowd and bass blasts contained in the signature moves. Wrestling game sound has come a long way since the days of WWF Warzone and Attitude, that's for sure.
Control: 7.5/10. The gameplay is as close to an out-of-the-box, no instructions required game that you can get. You can pick up controls in less than 10 minutes through simple experimentation, and the on-screen prompts. However, this may also be the weakest part of the game. The basic controls themselves are very easy to get into, and like a good arcade-style game, it reminds you of what they are if it sees you having difficulty with something, or it wants you to try something new. However, much of the controls outside of that tend to be a bit of a crapshoot. You strangely cannot run at the beginning of the match and have to build toward that, and when you can, you may Irish whip your opponent, since that has been mapped into the same button. If you have played Smackdown vs. Raw for years and years, you may also find yourself cursing at the controls early on, which are vastly different here. I can't count how many times I pressed the left bumper thinking I would run, or flicked the right stick trying to grapple. Reverse controls are also bit sketchy at times (but thankfully much tougher to pull off than the SvR series,) and in typical 90s arcade gaming, you may find your button-mashing friends get the upper hand on you more often than you like in multiplayer modes. All attacks, however, are clean and responsive, and once you accustom yourself to what you can and cannot do, you can easily build up toward your specialties again.
Gameplay: 8/10. The gameplay in its purest fun is form. This is the wrestling title to reach for when you want an hour or two of mindless fun. While the gameplay modes are limited compared to Smackdown vs. Raw, and you can't climb ladders and put people through tables, there are plenty of other ways to punish your opponent. Learning the strengths of each wrestler class will prove beneficial, and increase your match quality and efficiency. The graduated signature move system deters players from abusing special moves, and the game appropriately borders that mixture of serious and funny without crossing into one too far.
Given the type of game this is, 10 match career modes are fitting, and the Fantasy Warfare mode contains far and away the best match-defining cinematics in wrestling game history, complete with clever video editing and voiceovers. I am disappointed that the ladder match mode was cut, there is no Royal Rumble (meaning sadly, no return of the infamous Wrestlefest dogpile,) and the Extreme Rules match is fairly unspectacular in a whole, but that aside, the overall gameplay is very sound, not glitched in the least and can result in some very frantic and punishing experiences when you get together with all your friends.
This game is not for everybody. I find that there will be no middle ground in determining enjoyment. If you're a wrestling game fan, you will either really enjoy this game, or will not enjoy it at all. Realistically, if arcades still did good business, this game should have through to coin-ops for a few months because it would have cleaned house there, and then come to home systems carrying that wave of momentum. Unfortunately, this is 2011 and not 1991 and the industry in a whole is so much more different than when I popped my allowance into an arcade machine, and was barely tall enough to see the animated Ted DiBiase I selected blaze across the screen in Million Dollar glory. This game works to recapture some of that magic, and suffice to say, based on my feelings, I believe this is a fantastic game, and if any game would have ever dethroned Wrestlefest as king of the arcade mountain, this would have stomped a Steve Austin-esque mudhole into that title.
This game is a should-play. Whether it becomes a should/must-own will be your decision after putting a few hours into it. THQ has committed to supporting the title as long as the market calls for it, meaning it hopefully will not be a one and done like Legends of Wrestlemania. This is the game that Legends should have been. That game with its only external support (the roster unlock from Smackdown vs. Raw 2009) ended up being a clunky mess of uninspired gaming. This game takes that idea and runs it into the game it should have been.
This game has more than surpassed my expectations after I dismissed it after watching those hokey gameplay trailers. I admit that I had fully written the game off as nonsense, and am now fully willing to receive my serving of crow for it. They toned down the ridiculousness and cranked up the intensity well enough to make a likeable wrestling title. This is one offshoot that will not disappoint, and hopefully with efforts like this and NBA Jam, open the doors to more simple playing arcade-style efforts aimed at capturing what previous generations of gamers were forced to leave behind as the market changed. This is one offshoot that does not disappoint.
It should also be noted that in his typical easter egging fashion, Sal DiVita confirmed to me the presence of a hidden character that was unreleased and unspoken of prior to release. I could not shake him for details, nor was I able to find out who it was. I will say it is NOT Honky Tonk Man, who was recently confirmed as free DLC in April, as he confirmed Honky's appearance and said there were more hidden secrets.
Suggestions: All I can suggest is to clean up the controls to match some of the reaction time to the fast pace of the game, and maybe a few more game play modes. Hell in a Cell, the use of tables and more weapons would all have been great for this game if graphically possible.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Fight Night Champion
Fight Night has become the definitive voice of boxing video gaming. Ever since Knockout Kings made way for Fight Night in 2004, every game has been better than the last, with all types of enhancements along the way. It has been a fairly lonely 18 months at the top for Fight Night Round 4, a game that showed some of the highs and lows of boxing. EA did well to support the product, providing numerous DLC packs along the way. Some overpriced ($5 for a ruleset?,) but many free, and all fun. EA would also run product placement server updates as recently as September, where your fighters could appear on Friday Night Fights sponsored by the new Resident Evil movie. Combine a great fight engine, an interesting (read: unresponsive but tolerable) stick control system and the largest roster to date, and what's left that's still needed?Realism. Fight Night Round 3 had very little, and while Round 4 had more, it still left a bit to be desired for those seeking a real boxing experience. While the game wasn't overtly cartoony or unrealistic, Fight Night Round 4 left behind some of the in-game fight damage mechanics its predecessors had brought to the forefront. This realistic element is what EA Sports hopes to capture in its upcoming release Fight Night Champion.
Champion hopes to fix some of the oversights of Round 4, as well as providing a much more realistic and dark portrayal of the realistic possibilities in boxing, and not necessarily in the ring. How realistic? It has been given an M rating based on the brutality promised. Also added to the fray are one-punch knockouts, something boxing has, but Fight Night lacked. Fight Night Round 4 suffered slightly in the fact that rarely did your fighter provide you with a one knockdown win, no matter how devastating the beating laid upon the opponent prior to the fall.
The newest and biggest addition to the Fight Night Family is the eponymous Champion Mode, something that was previewed as game-changing, taking you away from the comfort of a regular boxing ring and training regimen. You would begin the game in prison of all places, working your way out into boxing supremacy ala Dwight Mohammed Qawi (who still has yet to make his Fight Night debut.) Pushing the fight outside the ring is a huge risk as well. Sports games that have deviated outside of its normal boundaries have either done very well (Fifa Street) or have been so poor that the mere mentions of their existence cause the stiffest of toes to curl and the freshest of milks to curdle (WCW Backstage Assault.) A simple playthrough will determine whether this risky mode and risky addition of one punch knockouts would overshadow the entire game experience.
Much like NBA 2K11, the game starts you in a scenario and has you pick up and play right away. Once the game is popped in for the first time, you're taken through a slight cinematic and then start in the middle of getting knocked down, of which you're supposed to get up to find yourself in a bare knuckle brawl. Welcome to the first part of Champion Mode, where you will be playing out the life and livelihood of Andre Bishop. You're not clear why he ended up in jail, but you've got better things to worry about when your opponent is flying toward you in a fit of rage. Once you move past that, you play what is almost a movie-video game hybrid documenting Andre's rise and fall from boxing stardom, and his interaction with his family and friends in the face of a corrupt boxing promoter that will do anything and everything to get his way, or ruin those around him if he doesn't. This mode employs every single boxing movie cliche in the book, including:
-The 100 year old trainer with a Brooklyn accent that wears a painter's cap and hates the corrupt promoter.
-The protagonist's parents dying previously in a mysterious accident.
-The attractive daughter of the corrupt promoter that has better morals than her father.
-The corrupt promoter being about 60 and looking like Malcolm McDowell.
-A Younger brother that follows in his brother's footsteps
-Jail and jail gangs
-A clear-cut e plots with numerous types of fun adversity to overcome that only a high-budget Hollywood film (or high budget video game) could provide.
The only thing missing was a plot-defining montage featuring the music of Joe Esposito or Bonnie the way, you'll learn how to strategize your fights based on the scenario presented in front of you. It is my recommendation to continue on with Champion Mode, as it is clearly put together well enough to train you how to play the game well along with guiding you through its story. It's never clear to you whether it is ok to quit, however, or whether you have to continue on to the end, which is approximately 4-6 hours of gameplay. You should know the game does save after every fight/checkpoint scenario, so you are able to quit and pick up later. The game also does not change if you lose, or quit, and will simply allow you to start from the last checkpoint (it automatically saves.)
As I'd mentioned, the gameplay for Champion Mode is approximately 4-6 hours total depending on how quickly your fights are over. You're put into some very interesting scenarios along the way (such as completing a fight with a broken hand) that will help you sharpen different aspects of your fight game until you reach the final match, or the "boss fight" if you will. I admit - I breezed through story mode with relative ease until I got to the final boss, and at the time of writing this, I had not completed it. The skill and difficulty jump is so great that I had trouble making it out of the 5th round no matter what I did. Not to say the boss is unplayable, because he is not. However, because of the closed ended nature of the mode, you do not have the ability to grind out better skills through training camp, and it may be a frustrating experience until you are done. Waiting for you on that side are a cool 10 achievement points, and bragging rights that you actually completed champion mode without throwing the game in the trash in a fit of rage.
Next up is legacy mode, which bares many similarities to the mode of the same name in Round 4. Same premise - You start as an up and coming fighter and work your way up an amateur tournament and into the pros enroute to becoming the greatest of all time. There is a lot of deja vu here in the outlay, down to the fonts used. A similar HUB and similar features are interfaced differently, however, the new training style is a fair bit more realistic, with the ability to focus different styles for different fighters, which you can prepare through by paper scouting your opponent prior to. There are better opportunities to apply logic to your approach of a fight, but if you're the type that just wants to run and gun and stand toe to toe with your opponent raining down hammers, well that's still there for you to do too. The XP system is a much better way to hone your fighter than generalized permanent increases based on training, and will create a much more accurate fighter overall per your preferences.
Outside of that, there isn't much more to add. If you've played Fight Night Legacy Mode before, you know that mixed in amongst your training and fighting, you can be challenged to different fights from different fighters (I found this to happen, however, only when the fighter was an up and comer. After establishing yourself in the top of your division, nobody was asking for title shots.) Moving up a weight class is different than Round 4 too. You no longer need to prove yourself and work up through the top ten. Once you are an established fighter that holds titles in a lower weight class, you're free to challenge for the next division's titles right away. You are held, however, to just the one weight jump. Even though most weight classes are less than 10 pounds apart, you cannot be the next Manny Pacquiao and hold titles in 7 different divisions.
Lastly is the standard exhibition or "Play Now" mode. The roster, while fairly rounded at 54 fighters, isn't as large as previous games. Fortunately, there is a Fighter Share mode provided by EA. Much like Smackdown vs. Raw 2011, you can download other peoples' created fighters. There are some great reproductions, and some very very bad ones. Cleverly, some afficionados took to using the XBox Live cam and a picture of the real boxer and creating their fighter with that, so you do have some very good looking reproductions. This is a quick way to help you bolster that roster with the likes of Rocky Balboa and Clubber Lang, find some user-created versions of fighters dropped from previous editions like Arturo Gatti and Floyd Mayweather, and even find those fighters that haven't made it yet like Dwight Muhammed Qawi and ever charismatic Prince Naseem Hamed, arguably the most popular fighter to never make it into these games.
You will hear a familiar sound when you launch into your first fight - Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas are back calling all the glitz and action. Both bring back the charm that has made their commentary work so well throughout the years. Tessitore's enthusiasm is unparalleled, as it Atlas' inability to make sense. Atlas throws out some absolute gems this time around, including comparing boxing to a hot dog eating contest, and a fighter that regularly wins by KO to "A character in one of 'dem jaw movies" (probably in reference to Jaws).
If you have played a previous Fight Night, you'll also see that the controls are different, yet the same. Total Punch Control has been tweaked slightly, and is still available via the stick, however, they have also brought back button control punching that was popular previous to Fight Night Round 4. This allows for both types of players to thrive, as well as allowing the more experienced players to vary and switch up on the fly. You may also notice that the punch recognition engine has changed. In promising a more realistic fight experience, punching has changed to where your punch is impacted by where, how and when you throw the punch. Throw the wrong punch too close in, and you will simply hook your arm around your opponent's head. Punch too soon and you whiff. Severity of punches will depend on how they land. No longer will all of your punches be so crisp and perfect, which took away from much of the simulation aspect of the past. This will require a re-adjustment phase, but thankfully that shouldn't take long.
The only downfall of the new control structure is with so many buttons for punching, all of the other functions end up scrunched up into what little buttons are left over. The majority of left over functions now reside on the left side D-Pad, and it is an absolute pain. The signature punch is gone, and forget being cutesy and switching stances mid-frenzy. With low blows being mapped to the up and down of the D-Pad, it is too easy to try to switch stances and accidentally head butt your opponent. Likewise, it is too easy to TRY to headbutt your opponent and accidentally taunt, leaving you open to a clean shot.
The unveiling of Champion up until release was through a series of stunning trailers and preview pieces. These trailers were so well done that they could make the hardest of boxing haters excited for such a game. Unfortunately, it ended up being like one of those comedy trailers where the funniest parts are in the previews already. It's not to say this game isn't good, because it is. I just felt something was missing overall, whereas I felt like I received a pretty complete experience playing Round 3 and Round 4.
The Andre Bishop story mode is very well done, and to those who have not played the game, don't quit out when it begins because it is not just a solid (albeit predictable) plot line, but if you have never played it, or Fight Night in general before, it will teach you not just how to get started, but how to become a well rounded fighter.
Overall, is this game worth $60? Maybe? It's definitely not "no" but I admit I would pick most EA Sports games made over the last year before I picked this one if I could only pick one. I consider myself to be one of Fight Night's staunchest supporters, and while I appreciate the improvements and changes they made, I had a hard time separating some of the darker aspects of this game being any different than just Fight Night Round 4 with the contrast setting on my TV turned lower. Certainly, the game is much more graphic at times (especially with some of the cinematic elements of Champion Mode) but some of the on-screen gore seemed to be re-hashing some of the ugliness available in Fight Night Round 3 before it was somewhat toned down for Round 4.
I can certainly see value in the game's claim of providing a much more realistic experience, as you will quickly see when punches no longer make automatic beelines for your opponent like magnets to a fridge, and you'll laugh the first couple times a punch completely sails by your opponent's head while he is in a daze, however, the game still lacks a few key elements in regard to making it a much more realistic experience. Still, the game does well to give a bit of a look at the seedy underbelly of boxing, and the fact that the franchise remains unlicensed means EA should have the ability to continue to do with the game as it pleases.
Graphics: 9/10 - The game's graphics remain pretty and full of detail. The Andre Bishop cinematics look fantastic, and the amount of detail put into everything (even small things like skin blemishes) is admirable. The amount of work done to continue making the fighters as real as possible also continues to be one of the strongest visual suits of this game. Cuts and swelling continue to be as close to the real thing as possible too. The biggest complaint I have with this game is with the amount of seemingly recycled everything. Much of the presentation outside of the graphical enhancements are basically the same thing over again, especially some of the cooler aspects of old like the slo-mo multi-angle knockdown cam during fights, which is basically just the same thing 3 games running now.
Sound: 7/10. Something's missing. Everything here just does not match up to where it should be. So many of the sound effects have been shuffled over from Round 4 that it feels like I never left at times. After releasing an amazing soundtrack that is comparable to any of the best sports games of all time in the previous game, this one makes me neither excited or fired up to box. It seems like the Konrad Old Money show with one fantastic track (Aloe Blacc's "I need a Dollar") and a dozen other unmemorable secondary tracks. EA could have kept the recycling ball rolling and put the Round 4 soundtrack into this game as well, and it would've scored higher. Still, credit where credit is due. The sound does not falter, and does well to accentuate the fights and training. The tense music during the Andre Bishop fight scenarios is a bit cheesy, but given that the whole thing is supposed to play out like a motion picture, it's more than tolerable.
Controls: 6/10. Button Cacheing. Badly mapped left D-Pad controls. Get past these and the controls are pretty good, however, it's a hindrance knowing you could accidentally throw low blows when you mean to switch a stance, and that the total fight control on the right stick can sometimes be so feather sensitive that it lines you up 6 punches when you meant to throw one and shuffle for another. This will ease up with experience once you have gotten used to how the system works, but it can be extremely frustrating those first few fights. It's nice to have the ability to use both the sticks and the buttons at your leisure to throw punishing combos, but those default controls really cripple tactical switch fighters that like to mix things up.
Overall, this game is so indicative of the rest of the current boxing industry that it's ridiculous - So much promise, but a tremendous let down in the end. Much like any of the boxing superfights being hopped at any given time, fans get so amazingly excited only to be left with an empty wallet asking "That's it?" This game feeds into the "That's it?" mentality. It's strange thinking about this as I type out my final thoughts, but too often we ponder that a perfect game may be achieved by taking elements of a couple games and putting them into one release. EA did here, and somehow, there's something missing. This game took the brutality elements, control scheme and realism potential of Fight Night 3, the other control scheme, basic mechanics and fight engine of Round 4, injected it with a dose of reality and a permanent in-game dimmer switch and called it Champion.
Please don't get me wrong. This is a very good game and those of you who will be picking it up having never played a previous current gen boxing game will be very happy with it. However, for the dedicated fans who have waited with baited mouthpiece for that next vulgar display of brutality, it falls short. Putting it in cinematic terms, this isn't like EA presenting Godfather III as a worthy continuation of an amazing series. This is more like EA releasing Back to the Future II. Sure it's great, but when you have knocked a previous attempt so far out of the park and set the bar of expectations that much higher and then show up on release day with this, it's just going to fall short in its overall expectations.
The game, however, remains faithful to the sport of boxing, and continues to be a worthy ambassador for the dignity it looks to get back after so many years of disappointment. Champion Mode, as cheesy as it is remains a gripping look at the hardships we don't see that often out of professional athletes while never letting you forget that this is in fact a video game. The one punch knockouts happen appropriately, with an appropriate enough frequency that it never gets old, and the game does make you earn it before you actually get to have it. My previous complaints aside, as a longtime Fight Night fan, I will continue to show up and support every effort this series puts out, but there's a lot of rebuilding that will have to be in-store for whatever they choose to call the sixth game.
Suggestions: The controls are far too sensitive out of the box. If that can be somehow re-tooled for the next game, that would be awesome. Control mapping is just fine (even the left D-Pad can be managed if everything was less sensitive) and I would really recommend leaving that the way it is because I think it's finally at that point where it could work for everybody.
It might be time to completely retool the Legacy Mode and add more elements of reality. The cuts/swelling damage meter is a great addition, but I'd like to see more in the way of career threatening/ending possibilities, like one too many head shots taken resulting in things like concussions and too many concussions leading to PCS symptoms resulting in early retirement. Legacy Mode sponsorships seemed to be a bit broken as well. I don't think I encountered a case where I was getting more than 5,000 for sponsorships, even when I was a world champion pulling in so much money per fight that it made no sense to not just wear my own gear.
Outside of that, what else could make the game that much cooler? A promoter mode for Fight Night 6 would be amazing. All the other sports games have some form or variation, but the ability to promote and sponsor fights and fighters would be a great boost. Make sure promoter mode fighters come with their baggage too, whether it be a penchant for performance enhancing drugs, or money, or what have you. It's not boxing without dramatics and theatrics.
Overall Score: 7.5 / 10
Lucha Libre AAA Heroes of the Ring
Most Professional Wrestling enthusiasts that know the band of fans outside the WWE and TNA will often speak of AAA and Lucha Libre wrestling in the highest regard. For years, the AAA has showcased the pinnacle of athletic wrestling from Mexico and beyond. Their unique, high flying style has integrated its way into North America now, but for years, the talents of the likes of Eddy Guerrero and Rey Mysterio were as hidden as their faces behind their colored masks. During the 80s and 90s, many lightweight young high flying up and comers that could not make it to the WWF or the National Wrestling Alliance cut their teeth in Mexico. Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko and the late Art Barr were among those who made their name alongside the Luchadores (the endearing term given to Lucha Libre Wrestlers) before finding suitable success in the US. It was hardly surprising, then, that there were a degree of excitement when a Lucha Libre game was announced for all systems.
To build excitement, Konami handed out professional grade Luchador masks at E3, and sent interested parties home with the promise that this would be the wrestling game of the year. Finally, the game hit the market on October 12th, six sided ring and all. Hopefully, however, this game would be slightly better than the last six sided ring game to hit the market, that being TNA Impact. Impact was a lucklustre title bogged down by a poor wrestling engine and transition system, leading to awkward matches and an awkward game in general.
Before jumping into the game, it is often good to err on the side of caution when it comes to Konami's sports games. Granted, they've blessed us with Blades of Steel, but one attempt at a wrestling game this grande 20 years ago was not only lacklustre, but ended up in a lawsuit with the WWF. The engine for that game did ultimately lead to providing the engine for some of their classics like the Ninja Turtles arcade game, but given that they haven't had the best track record with this kind of thing in the past, I was a bit skeptical. Rumble Roses and Rumble Roses XX weren't bad, but hardly long term wrestling classics noted in the annals of gaming.
As I popped the game into my 360 for the first time, I had my fingers crossed that Konnan was retired from wrestling, and he would be in the game. The game opens with lucha legend La Parka doing his trademark dance while you watch clips of AAA in action. So far so good. You're then treated to a welcome piece by -- Konnan. With extreme sadness I listened to him explain the basic controls, which appear to had been done for all consoles at once, as he implored me to hit "dis button" to grapple instead of the button's name. No matter. Training videos don't amount to much in the grand scheme of things. Numerous gameplay modes do, which Lucha is stocked with. Besides your standard exhibition and handicap wrestling matches, there's online play, king of the mountain-esque tournaments and a few gimmick matches. Wrestling games are also often defined by how diverse their story modes are, and how deep gameplay is within it.
The story mode is of most importance I'd say, since it drives how successful the game will be to solo players. Lucha Libre forces you to play story mode anyway, because when you start playing the exhibition mode, all the characters aren't available to use, and are unlocked as you play story mode and win specific types of regular matches. You can choose between being a Tecnico (Face/Hero) or Rudo (Heel/Villain) and you create a character to get started, known throughout as "rookie" or "the new guy."
The Rudo story mode doesn't center around the character, however, so much as it does the faction itself. You will not only be playing matches as yourself, but other members too. Unfortunately, as a rudo, it meant I had to play as Konnan, the faction leader. The story mode is neither interesting, nor deep. You, as the rookie don't have much input into how your career turns out. You simply follow along with what happens over the course of a few cinematics and matches. Gamers searching for that deep story mode where the actions you make/take affect the rest of it should keep searching. You are dictated toward your matches and progress, and if you are quick enough, should be done the whole thing in around an hour and 20 minutes, if not less when playing on Easy.
The game's idea of increased AI by the end, however, is to simply block and counter everything you throw at them while making your reversal window so small, it is too hard to to get used to. You will be beaten pillar to post with no chance of recourse outside of when the computer messes up, or in the case of handicap matches, the fighters accidentally grapple or hit each other.
Be ready for the worst opponent recognition mode since WWF Wrestlemania 2000 as well. With multiple-opponent matches, the auto-target system misfires on a regular basis, and you will find yourself tearing your lucha mask off when you run around a downed opponent to hit another halfway across the ring, and your luchador (though closer to and facing the other opponent) does an epic dive onto said downed opponent, leaving the standing one to come in for the kill. Luckily, the AI is rarely intelligent enough to do anything but punish you, and after you wear both of them out, you can simply climb the turnbuckle, hit both of them and pin one for the victory. You will rarely find pinning in 2 on 2 bedlam matches difficult, as once you do pin your downed opponent, the other is content to stand and watch rather than break it up. For added challenge, they will oppose submissions, so feel free to try to submit all of your opponents if that suits your needs for opposition better.
You do get exposed to the different types of matches in story mode, however. Unlike the WWE, there aren't Punjabi Prisons, or Hellacious Cells, or Elimination Chambers. AAA has built a tradition of high flying, multiple-wrestler matches with traditions like "Hair vs. Mask" and so on. You will encounter many of these types of matches in story mode, giving you a decent feel over what AAA is about. Again, much like the characters, the gimmick matches must be unlocked. There's no way to just jump into mask vs. hair matches, for example. This is a slight drawback, since the story mode doesn't offer, or put forth much excitement.
Fighter entrances also consist of generic rock music followed by posing on the entrance ramp, hardly the exciting, high energy entrances of old when Juventud Guerrera used to run to the ring at full speed and spit a gallon of water into the front row while signalling for the Juvi Driver (before you look, he was not in the game and likely will never be in an AAA game due to professional differences and his inability to co-exist with the booking team.)
Getting into the gameplay itself, it's not much better than the story mode. The graphics are average, but good enough. Sadly, this might be the best part of the game, and it isn't even that good. The weapons look like 3D Studio Max reproductions, the ring girls look like blow up dolls, and about the only positive that comes from all of this is the fighter sprites looking great. The fighter animations are clunky, however. The cinematics aren't even in high definition half the time. Gameplay videos, and the intro video are, however, you can see digital blocking and blurryness in some of the other videos.
The controls are clunky, and the movesets are very limited. Reversals, which are done with the right bumper must be done at the perfect moment, or else they fall within the "too early" or "too late" header. Unlike TNA Impact and Legends of Wrestlemania, where the reversals occured too frequently and too easily, this one almost pushes it to the other extreme, though it is somewhat manageable in the end.
I give the controls credit for one thing - Consistency. They are just as clunky and awkward as the player animations, play by play and overall feel of the wrestling engine. Reversals seem to work whenever they feel like (even in impossible situations,) and for a wrestling game where actions and exchanges happen at a very frantic pace, the controls do not keep up. When I think about the king of bad controls in a wrestling game, I always refer back to WWF Attitude, which made you dial your friends, take a run around the block and balance on one foot to do a clothesline. But you know what? The controls were responsive. This game has very simple controls that are not responsive. For a game that suffers from awful gameplay, the controls provide little further incentive to want to purchase this game, or even rent or play in the first place.
Moveset collision detection is laughable as well, and this game, for whatever reason continues to play into the current generation wrestling game philosophy that wrestlers shouldn't sell big moves. Top rope dives, moonsaults, and sentons are sometimes meant with selling reminiscent of Road Warrior Animal, who often couldn't sell a gunshot if he was hit point blank. On the other hand, a simple punch near the ropes causes you opponent to fly head over heels out of the ring. Go figure.
Lucha Libre wrestling prides itself on excitement, fast paced action and the continued ability to drop your jaw in awe when you think you've seen it all. Somehow, Konami has found a way to slow down the excitement of Lucha Libre so much that it feels like every much is Vader vs. Mabel from Men on a Mission played in slo-mo. If you so much as touch wrestlers from certain angles, they will fly over the top rope and out of the ring like they were shot with a cannonball.
Animations are pre-determined, so you can still get hit from odd angles, and reverse from impossible angles and be pushed through the reversal animation. The worst part might be the fact that the game suffers from slowdown. Konami decided that in 2010, it was acceptable to follow the lead of Mega Man 2, and have in-game slowdown. This only occurs when you have more than 3 sprites on screen interacting simultaneously, but still, the game doesn't look like it is resource-heavy enough to warrant slowing down.
Calling this awkward mixed bag of action are Konnan (there he is again!) and another person whose name I didn't catch and couldn't find online. You do have the option to set the play by play to English or Spanish, and even if you do not speak the language, I would recommend choosing the latter. The play by play isn't just bad -- It's terrible. It's like listening to the Mexican equivalents of Sean Mooney and Lord Alfred Hayes calling matches together. Neither talk much about wrestling, or the moves themselves. In fact, it appears they recorded about 10 minutes worth of generalized dialogue and the wrestler names, and are working off that database. For a game trying to portray an authentic depiction of Lucha Libre wrestling, they don't even call the moves by their proper names, opting instead for a Vince McMahon-esque approach, referring to the most dangerous highest flying of moves as "WHATAHIGHFLYINMANOOVA" or "FLYING DIVE!!!" rather than their affectionately dubbed Spanish names like "Tope Suicida" or "Cielo Perfecto Uno." This won't be lost on the casual gamer looking for goofy wrestling fun, but will be lost on the hardest of hardcore wrestling fans.
There are a few nice things though that should be noted. The roster is quite large once you unlock it, and old WCW fans will recognize many of the luchadores from the glory days. Silver King, the aformentioned Konnan, Vampiro (without the facepaint or dreadlocks) and La Parka are included, and WWF fans remembering the short lived AAA cross-promotion may remember the likes of Cibernetico and Dr. Wagner Jr. The Create a Luchador mode is very detailed, with an almost infinite amount of costume combinations. You can even play as mini versions of the regular wrestlers by inputting the Konami code at the title screen which is always good for a few laughs and extra fun.
If you can also move past the slowdown and sluggish nature of the game, learn the controls, and give it the time of day, it is somewhat fun to play with friends in multi-player modes. It is nice that every wrestler has a high flying moveset, and everybody has the ability to take flight no matter who you take, or no matter what size they are. Everybody in Lucha Libre is on a level playing field, and you need not worry about taking a Rey Mysterio and getting beaten down by your friend using Big Show, who cannot be slammed or picked up, or sell moves for the life of him. That aside, this game offers very little else.
I appreciate what this is doing for the sport of lucha libre in providing another outlet for advertisement, but this isn't the way to do it. The most exciting parts of the whole thing occur in the video clips of actual AAA action, and never in-game. You don't get to sit your opponent on a chair and do a 720 off the top rope into their lap like the videos show, nor do you have someone doing a twisting plancha over the ropes that would win Olympic Springboard Gold. Overall, no amount of free lucha libre masks could convince me to recommend this game to you, the reader.
The wrestling game industry has been a fair bit topsy turvy over the last 15 years, ever since Midway tried to turn wrestling into Mortal Kombat through its Wrestlemania Arcade game. You've had some definite highs (the first Smackdown vs. Raw, SvR 2006,) some definite lows (WCW Backstage Assault, which didn't even have a WRESTLING RING,) and some of those go-betweens that made you scratch your head (WWF Royal Rumble for the Dreamcast, WWE Legends of Wrestlemania.) File this game into the category reserved for WWF Wrestlemania and WWF King of the Ring for the NES, along with TNA Impact for current gen. This game is one of the very worst wrestling games ever made. It doesn't sink quite into the doldrums of Backstage Assault, Backyard Wrestling, NES Tag Team, MUSCLE or WCW Wrestling, as there's a special spot in wrestling game hell for those abominations. But it is safe to say that this might be the worst wrestling game put out at least 8 years.
This game can be compared very closely (both in the 6-sided ring, and the overall gameplay and feel) to TNA Impact, which was bad too, but at least the story mode was decent and lasted for longer than an hour. This game means well -- It really does. It's just not any good. Lucha Libre Wrestling is that somewhat likeable newbie at work who's never done anything to hurt anybody, but just isn't good at what he does, so you have to let him go after probationary review.
Some companies are just made to do wrestling games -- Konami isn't one of them. Unless Konami can find a way to siphon employees from companies like THQ to fix their wrestling game franchise, I hope they take this game as their message that they should be sticking to what makes them stand out, like Bemani.
Suggestions: Bring familiar wrestling gamers onboard for play testing and development of any sequels, especially those who are a fair bit more versed in Lucha Libre. This doesn't capture Lucha Libre's free flying, fun loving spirit at all outside of the sprites themselves.
Overall Score: 3.5 / 10
NBA Jam
Nearly 17 years ago, I went to a local arcade for a birthday party and saw my Grade 5 classmates crowded around an arcade machine playing something and screaming at each other every few seconds. "NBA Jam," as it was called, seemed to be this 2 on 2 basketball game featuring the day's stars, except they were allowed to foul, cross the time line even if in the opponent's zone, and you couldn't step out of bounds. This game was the runaway hit of the birthday party, and into the next couple years, where many of us attending the party purchased some form of the game (whether it be the original or the future released Tournament Edition) for our Super Nintendos, Genesis, Game Gear or Game Boy systems. Everybody had their favorite team, and even the non-sports gamers got involved. The upcoming years would see releases of terrible competitors like Shut Up and Jam and Rapjam Volume One. Still, nothing could beat NBA Jam for the top spot. Eventually, Midway found ways to make stale a once mighty franchise, and games like NBA Jam Extreme, NBA Hangtime and NBA Showtime: The NBA on NBC started to slowly put to sleep the once mighty giant. They weren't bad, but at the same time -- They just weren't that same NBA Jam.Earlier this year, Electronic Arts announced a rebirth of NBA Jam, with a release date for the fall. While EA Sports' Vancouver campus hosted a open beta test party for fans in the Spring, the first time the all but finished product was seen by public eyes was this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) in Seattle. The Wii product was basically done for its standalone release, and the 360 and PS3 versions were a bare bones, yet playable version that would be given away free with NBA Elite 11.
Elite was delayed due to poor reception of the demo, and its many glitches and bugs. The game was later shelved altogether, likely due to the success of NBA 2K11, which is easily one of the greatest start to finish basketball games in the history of video gaming. NBA Jam was then announced for the 360 and PS3, with the promise that the bare build would be filled out and released as a full game close to the holiday season. The end result? NBA Jam threw down on shelves November 17th in fairly limited quantities (in Canada anyway) for a reduced shelf price of $49.99. A collector's edition by no means, many gamers had difficulty finding it on release day, especially after the delay of shipments to some stores. The EA representatives at PAX promised many surprises which would keep the old school fan entertained for hours.
The first thing you may notice is that the game falls prey to whatever delay problem all EA Sports games since World Cup South Africa have. The title screen and selection screens will hang, almost giving off the essence that the game has locked up. This seems to be problematic only on systems, however, with more than a few gigs worth of content on the hard drive. EA's recent games (with the exception of NHL 11) for whatever reason seem to have problems finding saved files and settings in a reasonable amount of time. The controls do also take a bit of getting used to, so it is worth heeding the advice of the game and playing Jam Camp mode, with the incentive of Big Head Mode upon completion.
The Jam Camp reward is one of dozens of in-game rewards given to you for everything from playing a game with a friend, to getting 10 blocks, to scoring 100 points in a game. Each reward (called "Jam Challenges" in-game) unlocks something, whether it be players from the former NBA Jam games, to different basketballs, to different powerup modes. The rewards are fairly random in the way they're seeded, so don't expect that scoring 100 points will unlock a prolific scorer, or shooting 10 3-pointers will unlock a prolific outside shooter. Winning 100 games, for example, unlocks Bryant "Big Country" Reeves, who I don't believe was a part of 100 winning games in his entire career. It's a neat way for extras to appear in-game, and adds incentive to continued gameplay.
It is also worth noting here not to go looking for gameplay options (such as quarter lengths and difficulty) in the options tab. Since there are a few different gameplay modes, each type has specific gameplay options which are found by hitting Y when prompted for options. In most cases, game mods will be available to you where you enter your initials. Once the game loads up, you're welcomed by the friendly voice of Tim Kitzrow, the original voice of NBA Jam. The Tonight's Matchup screen is replaced by him simply stating the matchup at the tip, and off you go.
The "Play Now" game follows the basics of basketball and NBA Jam. There are no tournament edition-esque powerups, bells or whistles. You and your friends just engage in a simple game of shove and shoot 2 on 2 basketball for courtside supremacy. You will notice right away how good the game is graphically. That is, if you've left the game in an HD View.
There is a second mode dubbed "retro" which I would only recommend for owners of small screen CRT TVs. If you have an HDTV, and a big screen at that, the retro view (which is supposed to look a bit like the original NBA Jam I guess,) actually hinders gameplay. On a larger screen, it looks like Leisure Suit Larry left the 1987 CGA World of the Lounge Lizards and took up pro basketball. This mode itself will provide hours of fun, however, you will notice right away that the shooting engine might be a tad broken, which I will touch upon a bit more later on in the review.
After the Play Now mode, there is a career mode, dubbed "Classic Confrontations" mode. Sadly, this mode is not hosted by Alex Trebek, nor does it give you the opportunity to solve rebus puzzles for a car. Instead, you select a team, and play through 30 regular games (broken down by division) and 6 challenge games to unlock NBA Jam Legends. This is fairly simple and straight forward. It should take about 8 or so hours to complete one playthrough in total, which brings us to saving. Saving in this game is done through your hard drive this time around, and not through the use of passcodes or PIN numbers after initials like some of the latter Midway incarnations. There isn't much more to this mode, however the next mode is where the game gets its new edge of diversity.
Dubbed "Remix Mode," this gameplay feature is very similar to NBA 2K11's Blacktop Mode (sponsored by Sprite!) There are a series of mini-game challenges, along with the Remix 2 on 2 mode, which is the classic game with powerups. Similar to Tournament Edition, powerups appear on the floor to collect, however, there is only one total as opposed to one on either side of the court. You can shrink, gain speed, or shoving power amongst some of the options available, Sadly, the floor hotspots and the "dunk anywhere" powerup does not make an appearance here.
The other inclusions of Remix Mode are:
21. Somewhat different to traditional 21 in the sense that this is basically a halfcourt basketball where the first to 21 wins. after scoring, the game resets behind the arc, and you might compete for the next basket, rather than starting with a free throw.
Domination. Hot spots line the court that you must shoot from and claim as your own. Each zone will give you points the longer you hold it and this is the only way to score. Typically, the first person/team to 100 wins.
Elimination. This mode pits you against a timer, and the objective is simple: Outscore your opponent before the timer runs out to eliminate them. There is nothing more to it.
Smash. This follows the "put enough stress on something and make it break" idea played on the remix court. You must dunk, alley oop and shoot your way into breaking the backboard. Status is tracked with a lifebar for the backboard at the bottom of your screen, and the first one to shatter the backboard completely wins. The game is obviously slam dunk supported, and while you do get some credit for jumpshots, the real damage is done with violent rim-rocking.
In Remix Mode, you pick your team and set out division by division for a mix of these challenges. Along the way, you will find yourself playing not only today's stars, but many of yesterday's as well. Some of remix mode can be really fun, but some of it can be downright frustrating. In all of the remix mini game modes besides Smash, it is played on a top down view on a half court. This makes gameplay somewhat difficult once you have adjusted to horizontal life, and some of the modes are done in very poor execution. It becomes too difficult to keep track of how to get a ball sometimes, and bearing in mind how easy it is to block shots, increase that by however many players could appear on the court at once and you may find yourself slamming your controller down and walking away in frustration. I know I did a few times. Remix Mode requires more nerves of steel and patience some times rather than skill and dedication.
You can't really skill your way out of being shoved by 3 players in a corner over and over again until you no longer have the ball followed by the next cluster of action. The only thing missing from the corners of pain is Dhalsim sliding over and over again in that perfect moment where you can't block and fall prey over and over again till you're done. Keep at it, however, and you'll find yourself pitted against legendary basketball Hall of Famers like the Beastie Boys and the Stickmen.
You will likely find most of your in-game time, and the most full you will have is in the remix 2 on 2, and the classic 2 on 2 modes. After all, that is what NBA Jam is all about, and unlocking more players along the way is always a nice bonus. I assume EA took the time to have to contact each of the retired players (or their estates) to obtain permission to use their likenesses, which is applause worthy. It's nice to see many of the early NBA Jam faces like James Worthy and Kevin McHale, and even the return of the late Drazen Petrovic, who was believed to be haunting the spirit of the original game. Petrovic tragically passed away in a car crash after the release of the original arcade game, and a sound bug coincidentally caused the game to trigger Tim Kitzrow's voice to yell "PETROVIC! PETROVIC!" randomly. The bug was later fixed, but anybody with an original build has probably been caught offguard by it a few times. Either way, getting all these players must have been a mammoth undertaking since I assume the NBA player's association retains no responsibility to a player's rights once retired, much like the NHLPA.
EA was all about bringing old friends back to the party. They famously hired Mark Turmell (the creator of Jam) to come back to breathe life into the franchise again. However, even he seems to have forgotten much of what made NBA Jam so fundamentally perfect in the first place. There are many things wrong with the final product that are both puzzling and unusual, and should have been caught or tweaked during beta testing, and I hope can be addressed in future patches, or in future releases if this isn't a one and done deal. Some of the many shortsightings of this game include:
Unbalanced computer assistance in peer to peer play. It tends now to penalize the winning team more than benefit the losing team. The winning team can't make their shots, but at the same time, the defensive team does not benefit from the computer helping them score, nor do they have any heightened defensive awareness. Basically, if there's a 30 point difference in score, it's just as hard to come back as without CPU assistance. You can tell it's there because the computer sure benefits from CPU assistance because their defence is so mechanically perfect, it is difficult for you to move up court, let alone take shots.
Awkward controls that you cannot customize. This is one place where I will give Electronic Arts proper due for at least perfecting for the Nintendo Wii version. Every sports game since 1996 has placed turbo controls on the top right side of the controller, but this one goes top left, and then doesn't allow you to change them for your comfort. The shoot and pass buttons are also transposed from the norm of old games (this again normally isn't an issue if you have the option to change controls,) and we found a few people were still jumping on defense when they meant to try to steal because it was what they were used to from past games.
Poor defensive mechanics. Compared to the originals, it's too easy to steal a ball and block a shot, and way too unforgiving to shove (basically, if you miss a shove, there's no recovery and an automatic free shot for the offence.) The difference between goaltending and blocking is just as inconsistent though, and must be the hardest thing in the world to get 100%, so I don't fault them for this. Goaltending can be called when the ball is still on an upward arc right after release, however, late blocks are just as prevalent.
An awkward jump shot engine. You would expect a basketball player in video games nowadays to release the ball when you release the button. This seems to be fairly straight forward. NBA Jam's jump shot engine has turned the basketball into a fly, and the basketball player's hands into tar paper. The ball releases at the apex of a jump when the player is close enough to the hoop, however, in almost all other cases with the exception of edge and top of the arc 3 point shots, it is released halfway into the player's descent. As previously mentioned, it is too easy to block shots in this shot. This is the reason why. This is a huge falter in my opinion, and deserves some sort of mechanical improvement or patch before even roster updates. This creates a huge gameplay problem in some of the multiple-player remix modes, as the cranked up ability to block shots means it is very difficult to get a shot to the hoop to miss, let alone score.
Uselessness of fire. Being on fire was one of the greatest feelings in the NBA Jam world at one point and time. Tim Kitzrow drove home the fact that yes, you had the world laid out in front of your in one 94 by 50 hardcourt slice of heaven. You were capable of doing anything you wanted. You could dribble into oncoming traffic, close your eyes and feed a child his baby food while you stood on one foot and karate kicked a skyscraper as you shot a 3 pointer from half court. Flashbulb upon flashbulb popping to capture the majestic moment you soared above the rim and slammed that basketball after doing 27 front flips beforehand. You were indeed on fire. This version makes fire little more than a flaming basketball, a few noises and a fancy set of elevated slam dunks. Your shot percentage otherwise does not increase, nor is it beneficial in any other way. In fact, I would suffice to say I shot more airballs and missed more shots while I was on fire than when I was not.
Almost Unplayable mini game modes. The vertical halfcourt layout for games like Domination and 21 add a degree of difficulty. Domination, especially, requires the use of many jump shots, and with two simultaneous defenders at all times, getting a jump shot through the hoop, let alone scoring one is challenge alone. The best approach to these modes seems to be to let you opponent do the defensive work and for you to get the ball that way if you are on defense. It is a guarantee that almost 100% of the time that you block a shot in these modes, you will not get the ball. To that extent, more than half of your successful steal attempts will end up in somebody else's hands in this mode. This often results in quick and easy victories -- for the other team. 21 is easy enough to figure out after a playthrough or two, however, the fun of Domination is bogged down by the inability to get anything through to the basket.
With this in mind, don't get me wrong. This is still a great game. A 4 player game between friends cannot be beat. This game is easy enough for anybody to pick up and get good enough at after a few playthroughs to be able to compete with friends amply. The same rim-rocking, jaw-dropping basketball experience is still here. It's just a bit different, and besides, when you play your friends, nobody goes for outside perimeter jumpers or 3 pointers. Everybody wants to jam, and this game provides more than a few ways to dunk a basketball in your opponent's face so hard he will still be trying to rub the Spalding logo off their foreheads. Electronic Arts recognizes that this isn't necessary a complete basketball game out of the box, and the price tag reflects it. In Canada, the game is between 20-30% cheaper than your regular retail title, and you will quickly get your money's worth out of the regular game. Just remember to tread lightly when it comes to Remix mode and the add-ons it provides.
Graphics: 10/10. There is no questioning the graphics in this game. The eyesore that is Retro view aside, this game showers you with colorful graphics in the highest of high definition. Everything is crystal clear, and EA has even done a fantastic job of restoring photos of some of the legend players, and incorporating them into the game. Longtime NBA Jam addicts will smile watching players like Bill Laimbeer and the late Drazen Petrovic stand alongside their current teammates. Midway had graphic glitches they just could never fix up before, and EA has made those a thing of the past. The remix mode courts all look gorgeous, the arenas themselves are detailed and the clean player sprites are exactly what NBA 2K11 was missing. You can continue to wander your eyes around the courts weeks after you've been playing, and can find something new you probably did not notice before. The only oddity is the fact that the cheerleaders and dance squads in the background don't seem to move at all in the slightest. Still, this takes nothing away from the game itself.
Sound: 8/10. There are little things that you may not pay attention to that will catch you offguard, making the sound in this game that much neater. For example, the air raid sirens every time the home team scores a three pointer in Utah, or the royal ditty that plays to start off the 4th quarter in Sacramento. Some of it may be missed because of the in-game music, which is best just turned off from the outset and left alone.
This game also can't be done with anybody besides Tim Kitzrow calling the action. If you want to see what NBA Jam is like without Kitzrow, go play some of the original NBA Hangtime. It just isn't the same. It is such a relief that EA and Kitzrow were able to work together on this project. The only criticism I have of Kitzrow isn't with the man himself, but with the fact that in this day and age of gigabytes of storage, there should be more than what seems to be a few minutes worth of one-liners and lead-ins recorded. Granted, it must have taken Kitzrow and EA's recording tech Terry Calico days, if not weeks to perfect the speech patterns of calling names and incorporating them to sound natural with a line afterward, but upon the odd slam dunk, I was hearing the same one-liner 7 or 8 times a game, and it seemed like I had cycled through them all after a handful of games. All that aside, you will get the odd sound glitch here and there, but nothing so severe it throws you off the game.
Controls: 7/10. The controls are awkward, but easy enough to accustom yourself to, especially since you cannot make modifications to them at all. The crossover button can be both a benefit and a pain, as you can just as easily dribble into, and out of trouble. This button will, however, be your best friend in the late stretch if you are ahead playing the CPU, and computer assistance has kicked in. The only way you will be able to dribble past your defender is utilizing the crossover button to get around them. Be weary of the dunk zones around the court as well. You as the controlling player have a small area in which to begin your dunks, and the mechanic is not as forgiving as before. Learn where your player is effective from to use your crossovers and shot buttons to get that much better.
Gameplay: 7.5/10. I spent at least one whole summer playing NBA Jam Tournament Edition. I even logged at least 100 hours into the absolutely awful Game Boy version 15 years ago. Not once did I ever not want to play NBA Jam when presented with it. All of that changed the first time I played Remix mode, and the first time I started playing Classic Mode and realizing that not only was I blocking 40 shots a game with the greatest of ease, all my shots were getting blocked. In what is easily the highest scoring basketball game in history, I took an 8-6 lead into halftime one game, and not for a lack of trying to score. I watched helplessly as Bill Laimbeer scored 6 3 pointers in a row in a game of 21, and I airballed a 5 foot jumper while on fire.
At times, this can be the most frustrating basketball game ever released for the 360 (The NBA Elite 11 demo does not count since the full game never made it to shelves,) yet can be the most fun when dipping into multi-player games. For a change, XBox Live isn't your burial ground where players playing day and night will keep you from even having the ball, let alone scoring. NBA's Jam's simplicity means that even with a bit of practice, my video game hating father could go online and have a go at winning.
Still, there are no words to describe some of the garbage that is the remix mode. One of the EARLY division challenges requires you to win a 4 person game of 21, in which you may not even possess the ball for more than half a second at a time, let alone find time enough to score 21 points. You can scheme to win many of the 1 on 1 challenges though. One challenge, for example, pits you against Julius Erving in a game of Domination, where if he gets on fire, he automatically lays claim to all 7 zones. Winning this challenge is going to seem frustrating at first, especially when he gets the ball back once you've claimed all the zones and he proceeds to run circles around your efforts. The easiest way to win? Claim 6 zones and ride dunks while on fire until time expires. All you have to do is have more zones than he does.
All in all, this game it was what it is. NBA 2K11 still is your actual basketball game of the year, but that game will never NBA Jam. Nearly 17 years after I fed my first quarter into an NBA Jam Arcade machine, my love for the franchise is still just as strong, even if this version does not love me back as much. I only wish and hope for good things in the future now that this rests in EA's capable hands. Patching the troubles, and creating a bit of diversity in gameplay would make this game even better, and development wise, would be much easier now that the foundation and groundwork have been laid for the road ahead. NBA Jam fans should definitely spend the purchase price and get themselves this game. Those on the fence may want to wait for the game to dip slightly in price before taking the leap, but whether you enjoy basketball or not, NBA Jam has been as much about the sport as it has been an amazing and fun video game experience.
Suggestions: Besides tightening some of the gameplay screws, maybe a faux HD version of the retro view playable on larger screens? It's just a mess as it is right now, and can't be played on HD TVs larger than maybe 19 inches. Maybe more hidden characters that aren't NBA Legends? It would be neat to throw down with today's pop culture legends just like we did DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince way back when.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
There is a magical time once a year for this seasoned gaming nerd. Once a year between September and December, everything that is relevant to my gaming habits tends to surface. All of the music games come out. All of the sports games come out, and Vancouver's weather tends to make me want to stay indoors more often. Once a year, I finally get to open my wallet and not shudder at the sticker price of a new video game as I stand in line between the unshowered and unhygenic masses waiting to flash their Edge cards at EB.On September 28th, Activision released RedOctane and Neversoft's final contribution to the Guitar Hero market. Dubbed "Warriors of Rock," the game promised to capture the golden ages of Rock, and help user in the era of Vicarious Visions, the new developers going forward. Upon seeing the original trailer in early summer, I was excited to see many songs I had previously been clammoring for, including the previously unreleased Lunatic Fringe (known nowadays to UFC fans as Dan Henderson's entrance music). Upon seeing the final setlist, however, my excitement started to slow. Re-Dubs and Live Tracks aside, only 20 of the 93 tracks were recorded pre-1990, with 7 of those being Rush's 20 musical journey 2112. Alongside Rock Pioneers like Neil Young, Tom Cochrane and Tom Petty, included as apparent "warriors" of Rock were the likes of My Chemical Romance and Third Eye Blind, hardly known for their contributions to musical history.
Continuing onward were the ongoing comparisons between this franchise and Rock Band. Despite (arguably) having better quality, and more dynamic setlists than Rock Band since the expansion into multiple instruments, Guitar Hero has always been burdensome to play. It has always been inconvenient to have to select your difficulty before selecting song, and with menu sorting and interfacing options, I always felt more regret downloading songs from the GHTunes environment than benefit. Once that was out of the way, the vastly inconsistent scoring windows per instrument always led to general disarray. The timing windows playing guitar and bass were so large, you could drive a truck through it. However, the vocal window was so small you couldn't push a pin through the opening. Given that I spend about 90% of the time singing, I was always unable to play for more than 30 minutes without getting frustrated, especially getting 65% on songs I could 100% in Rock Band. I'm not so competitive that it would stop me from playing the game by any means. Just frustrated that there was little to do in the way of offering a bit of breathing room or freedom to be your own vocalist because you had to constrain to hitting the exact notes at the perfect time.
Still, it is always worth coming into things with an open mind, which is what I did for this game. As an added bonus, the first wave of shipment offered a free download code for the latest Soundgarden album, which is one rewarding gesture Guitar Hero has over and above the Rock Band franchise. Last year, early US Guitar Hero 5 buyers were given a voucher for a free copy of Guitar Hero Van Halen, which they received almost instantly upon redemption, and in some cases almost 90 days before the street release date.
Upon loading the game, I was surprised to see Guitar Hero had reverted back to a regular title screen, rather than the band driven concert atmosphere and automatic Party Play. Gone was the ability to drop into the song played onscreen and continue to the end, from the title screen anyway. Party Play is still available, but you have to select it from the main menu. What was a pain though? I had built up a fairly decent cache of tunes from the GHTunes Library, which I was also surprised to see did not carry into the game, despite my later confirmation that the GHTunes program in Warriors was ported directly from 5, menus and all. That was disappointing. At least my DLC ported over this time without having to download a patch for it.
I would also recommend being careful in re-downloading tracks you had picked up out of GHTunes for Guitar Hero 5, and trying to play them again in Warriors. Some of the songs aren't fully compatible, and will lock up your XBox as you go into QuickPlay+. If you run into this problem, however, just go into the "Jam" area of GHTunes 2.0, and you can delete songs there. Unfortunately, because the software is the exact same across 5 and Warriors, you cannot tell what was created specifically for this game and past ones. You're left to guess. This specific piece of software, however, isn't really what defines the Guitar Hero franchise, or this game. What new has been brought to the table will.
Something cute that Guitar Hero 5 debuted was the ability to put your avatar out on stage rather than creating a character. This feature has remained, and to add an even neater touch, if you did last use your avatar, he or she will then appear in the demo videos. Evidentally, Neversoft liked the avatar feature so much that they left all of the pre-song menu options the exact same as Guitar Hero 5. Once again, you're forced to select your difficulty and instrument type (if Guitar or Bass) prior to entering the song menu, meaning constant switching back and forth if you wish to play a song on hard, and then on expert, or Bass or Guitar outside of Quickplay Challenges.
My ability to hide my cynicism here is short lived, and I must ask whether Harmonix has copyrighted the ability to select difficulty after selecting a song. If they have, someone has to send every music game maker in the world a memo to cease and desist, lest they be sued. If they have not, someone has to send a memo to Vicarious Visions for the future that every single music game since Dance Dance Revolution Max (6th Mix) has allowed you to select the song you want to play and then bring up a menu for difficulty. If my timing is right, next year marks 10 years since DDR Max came out. At least you can switch instruments without having to log out of your profile, which was Rock Band's downfall in the past. Still, that offers little solace overall.
Once there, the song menu shows approximately 110 songs by default - The standard tracks included with the game, and then the Neversoft Instrumentals. The available song list, however, looked a little short, and was quick to tell the story that you had to unlock tracks in Quest mode to be able to play them. Missing from the beginning is the entire 2112 experience, along with other curious tracks like Fury of the Storm from Dragonforce. I hate to sound unprofessional in my saying this, but come on guys. This is so 2008. Your previous game allowed you to play every track from the beginning, so why would that feature be suddenly denied for a future release?
To make up for having to play to unlock, Neversoft added a level up system, and song-specific challenges for everything in QuickPlay+ mode. Leveling up allows you to unlock things like avatar awards and in-game enhancements. All the songs to be unlocked must be done through Quest Mode (or if lazy, Guitar Hero usually has an "unlock all" code which I'm sure exists here as well.) As a general criticism I aim at both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, there has become so much crossover between the two franchises that song lists between the two games have started to overlap for the worse. Playing something that was previously in Rock Band is not a privilege once Guitar Hero has licensed it, and vice versa. The inclusion of Interstate Love Song in Warriors of Rock, for example, is not noteworthy since Rock Band has had it for almost 3 years. Likewise, Jimi Hendrix tracks held for Rock Band 3 are hardly groundbreaking since most have appeared in Guitar Hero. I can definitely understand using them as DLC and giving gamers the option if they have one or the other and want it for both, but I doubt that many gamers that have already spent money to purchase a song as downloadable content want to see that song take the spot of something previously unreleased on the launch day soundtrack.
Guitar Hero gets a slight thumbs up in the sense that transfer licenses only cost $5 per game, as opposed to the $10 gouging Harmonix has thrown out for Lego Rock Band and Rock Band 2. The self-entitled gamer in me wants to remind everybody that in many cases, we already spent full purchase price to buy the rights to play these songs in the first place, so why should we have to spend more money to buy the rights to play them again in the next game? Nevertheless, the music game lover in me relents and puts forth the dollars to buy the licenses anyway. The hypocrite in me takes exception while the entertainer in me never looks back.
Disappointingly, QuickPlay shows you how little was done to improve this game over its predecessors. Really, the biggest difference between the layout of 5 and Warriors once you launch into a song is the "Get Ready!" font used for vocalists. The vocalist scoring system is still too difficult for vocalists to have fun with and score well, while the guitar timing window is too forgiving, leaving the drummer's window too unforgiving. Once again, there is no balance between instrument timing and presentation. The background animations are very pretty but repetitive, and all elements of fun seem to slowly slip away with every passing minute. If this was all the game had to offer, the review would probably end here with a 0 out of 10 for offering nothing but a waste of time. We were, however, promised the idea of a storyline to become a warrior, which is nestled within the Quest mode and is the next stop in this review.
Once you enter into Quest mode, it all makes sense as to where all of the effort in creating this game went into. Narrated by Gene Simmons in an attempt to sound like the late Robert Stack, Quest Mode follows familiar Guitar Hero characters as they make the transformation from their current "normal" state to an undead warrior state. Some, like the Austin Tejas Ichabod Crane transformation are really amazing. Others, like Lars Umlaut's transformation into gothic ManBearPig are just bizarre. It is your job to transform the characters into their "Warrior" state by singing songs and collecting Ankhs. Many songs have been given their own in-quest video treatments, with some of them being absolutely game defining.
The Quest video package for Bohemian Rhapsody, for example, opens with all 4 members standing in a diamond just like the actual music video singing the first lines of the song, and then it takes off into the most fun rendition of the song this side of Wayne's World. The 2112 chapter, which occurs approximately 2 hours into quest mode is one of the neatest, and most bizarre chapters of a video game I have ever played. The chapter centers around finding the legendary guitar, and then you are swept into a colorful and awe-inspiring 30 minute sequence where you play all 7 chapters of the song nestled between a story told you from the mouths of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart themselves. You cannot drop out of the chapter at any point, but being able to do so would probably take away from the overall effectiveness of this biopic, and it is probably for the best. 2112 is probably the best representative of the Quest Mode, because there are a few things that are slightly lacking in the overall experience.
Unfortunately, within each chapter, you are bound to a set list of songs, which prove simultaneously intriguing and tedious. I don't understand why it is that both Rock Band and Guitar Hero decided their career modes would restrict you from being able to progress with your own song choices (though the early Rock Bands allowed you to create song lists, and Rock Band 3 dumps the idea of a conventional career mode altogether,) especially after you've paid hundreds of dollars for the other versions and/or downloadable content. Something else that is unfortunate is the inability to transition the Quest Mode video presentations into QuickPlay. If you want to show that cool Bohemian Rhapsody video off, for example, you have to back into Quest Mode and play it with your band. Lastly, I dare say the Quest Mode comes off like a poorly put together Jack Black film in its scenarios and dialogue. Guitar Hero's never shyed away from being slightly cheesy, however, so I admit it is rather charming that they chose to look at things from this light.
That, in a nutshell, however, is all the praise I can provide this game. Nothing else is fresh. Nothing else is innovative. Sadly, nothing else is really that enjoyable. If this game lacked the slightly entertaining story mode, this game would be an outright insult to the senses and urges of music gamers everywhere. When you break it down to its core, this game is really nothing but an overglorified skin pack. You could play Guitar Hero World Tour, 5 and this next to each other, and could go all day without finding any fundamental changes in gameplay, both for the worse and what little good there is.
Singers still have to hold the controller close by to activate effective star power, and are handcuffed to a terrible scoring and judgment system, which at the higher difficulties is demoralizing at best. Drummers will still likely find some fun in the need for double bass pedals, and well, the game IS called Guitar Hero. The guitar and bass note charts still provide more variety than Rock Band, but are by no means game defining, or worth the purchase price. Add to this what may be the most inane achievements of any 360 games, and this game is not going to be a classic for future generations by any means. You begin to wonder when Neversoft checked out and left their imagination at the door when the achievements urge you to finish with scores that have to be divisible by other numbers, or in the case of one achievement, ending a song with the exact number.
Thank goodness for completionists that other gamers have uploaded cheaty ways to achieve these scores through their uploaded GHTunes songs, otherwise, there would be no rational way to complete some of them.
Graphics: 8/10. The strong suit of this game is its graphics, which I thought were very smooth and well done. With the exception of Beatles Rock Band, which had its own dedicated CGI videos, Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock's graphics definitely beat out any of the Rock Band games. The sprites move with great fluidity, the characters and background are bright and burst forth with color, and the character transformations are definitely some of the most bizarre, yet most pretty animation sequences you will see this side of an RPG.
Sound/Soundtrack: 3/10. This game suffers from a poor executed soundtrack. The soundtrack has all the right artists performing all the wrong songs. Neither Guitar Hero nor Rock Band have a problem recycling each others' songs if licensing permits, and this game already uses many songs that show up in its competitor, so therefore, I don't know why some of the song choices are here.
Something continues to rub me the wrong way with re-recordings as well. It didn't work for Jimmy Buffett, nor Motorhead beforehand, and really, it doesn't do much in Guitar Hero either. I appreciate the efforts of Alice Cooper, Joan Jett and others trying to make their music playable in these games wherein I assume many of the masters were not recorded on enough tracks to satisfy inclusion into the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series, but none of us grew up on these re-recordings, and they aren't the versions we are familiar with. The game gets slight kudos for the inclusion of some modern day rock anthems such as Uprising and Tick Tick Boom, but very few of the artists here that gained their fame post-1990 fit the title's moniker, and bands like My Chemical Romance and Five Finger Death Punch have no business in a game created to celebrate pioneers and warriors of Rock music.
Gameplay: 3/10. If Guitar Hero was a bakery, its start was like a fresh eclair drenched in mouth-watering chocolate sauce, then dusted with the finest of powdered sugars ready for the first passerby to gaze upon it to take it home. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a stale danish pastry with a congealed fly who met an early demise because the fruit filling cemented his legs to its surface.
Much like Singstar, the game continues to put out the same thing time and again with seemingly little care taken toward its end user, resulting in the poorest of products with so much promise and so little to show for it. This might not be a problem if the franchise had no competition and could coast on its heels sequel in and sequel out. This market, however, is arguably the most competitive with the frontrunning two franchises, and so many others trying to catch up with the promise of real instruments and a better user experience. Many of those games have failed to impress and will fall by the wayside.
There comes a point, however, when a name is not enough and the performance put forth matters most. Guitar Hero has used its name to take itself places that other games only imagine because it arrived on the scene first. The Guitar Hero franchise at this point has become very reminiscent of the guy in the office who does just enough to keep his job. Day in, day out, he's the unprofessional one cracking jokes about how many more hours there is until the weekend, or how he can't wait to drink away the taste of a week where barely did anything anyway. While the people around him bust their butts to perform at a high level, he sits there watching Youtube videos and thinking about his plans after work. The people around him continue to evolve their skillsets and work habits, yet he languishes in past accomplishments, and continues to belief he's a valuable cog in a machine that has clearly turned him into a spare part.
4 years ago, the music gaming franchise was led by the Guitar Hero franchise, proudly holding its flag high up at the top of the gaming mountain. However, as competition crept in, they failed to rise to the challenge, and nearly 2 years after its last great evolution, it continues to be the exact same as it was then. In the business world, Amazon suffered a similar plight where they watched eBay pass them so quickly, their business ended up in a tailspin of which they almost did not recover. Amazon, however, created a smart plan and recovered to the point where they again are at the top of their class, and eBay finds themselves in second place again. Guitar Hero, however, has not only never acknowledged their trouble, but they must continue to believe that they are such visionaries in an ever evolving market that the same basic engine and flawed gameplay are ahead of their time. Otherwise, why would you continue to go back without measurable change?
Guitar Hero missed the window of opportunity to do what Dance Dance Revolution did to Roxor Games and In the Groove - Buy out their biggest competitor at the height of their own popularity to strengthen their core product, and will continue to fall farther behind Rock Band with efforts like this. At a time when the gaming and business world are driven more than ever by the ability succeed by thinking and look outside the box, Guitar Hero struggles to find the lid, and is completely in the dark as a result. The only people I would recommend this game to are the hardest of hardcore music gamers. Otherwise, save the $60 for something better and wait for the disappointed gamers to trade in and buy it used if you really have to have it.
Overall Score: 4.5 / 10
NBA 2K11
Video games and basketball have often been a less than sweet science. Ever since NBA Jam changed the way we viewed video game basketball forever, many basketball games have fallen prey to providing an unrealistic game with glitchy sprites, impossible passes and dunks from areas of the court no player could realistically hit. NBA Live and the 2K series games honestly had become nothing but yearly farces of the sport with easy to obtain achievement score. This year, 2K Sports decided to tinker with things a bit, and distribute a more realistic experience while announcing that Michael Jordan would grace their cover, and much of the game would celebrate his career with the Bulls, and create an additional gameplay arc between yesterday's superstars and today's. Not to sound like a skeptic, but is it really a good marketing ploy to build a game showcasing today's stars focused around Michael Jordan? I mean, granted, he is arguably the best player of all time, and he's owed at least one good real basketball game dedicated to him in his lifetime (says an owner of Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City from 1995-onward,) so onward goes the journey to quickly erase Jordan vs. Bird: 1 on 1 as the best MJ focused basketball game of all time.Upon loading the game, you are quickly treated to a quick Michael Jordan visual followed by a loading screen with a familiar note. Suddenly, you are transported from 2010 into the entrance tunnel of Chicago Stadium behind Jordan as he runs into the arena. Following a quick runout, you exchange high fives with...Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen? Rather than being taken to the main menu, you are thrown directly into June 2nd, 1991: The night of Game 1 of the '91 NBA Finals between the LA Lakers and the Chicago Bulls. Waiting for you to pick your surprised jaw up off the floor are extremely close recreations of both rosters. Some of the Lakers squad is missing, for example, but all the key players they could get are faithfully restored in all their glory. Pumping into the game is commentary by Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg, along with sideline reporting from Doris Burke. You get quickly wrapped up in realtime stats, and case reporting of the previous series and what brought you to tonight's matchup.
I assume the purpose of this portion of the game was to introduce you to NBA 2K11. The controls, if you have not encountered them before (I admit that I have not played the 2K series since a brief encounter with NBA 2K7, and so I do not know if this has been the control scheme for quite a while,) they are confusing. Most basketball games have made the shoot button on offence and the jump/block button on defence the same. This game, however, does not. The same button used to shoot on offence is used to intentionally foul on defence, which I quickly found out. A second quick intentional foul then caused the game to glitch and stop functioning. Players continued to move and jockey for position, but James Worthy couldn't retrieve the ball from the referee for a throw-in. After having to restart the system, I had to start again, but less majestically this time. I may never know whether the game was rigged to play out like this, but much like the Chicago Bulls in the real game, I also lost by 2 points following a clutch shot with seconds to go by "Big Smooth" Sam Perkins. The loss was eerie in how similar it was to the real game 1, down to the size of Sam Perkins' gargantuan lips.
Odd controls aside, you begin to quickly see how intuitive the gameplay engine really is. Coaching timeouts are done in real time, and give you the ability to substitute players, shift the focus of your gameplay and check the energy ratings of your players without going to the pause menu. Those players then collide and contact with each other realistically without the sprites going through each other, which you feel on your controller with every push and juke. Smart AI dictates your every move, and you can no longer get away with 20 fast break slam dunks a quarter. Most importantly, the game does not play host to any sort of computer assistance feature. Unlike most games in the post-NBA Jam era, there is no hidden helper computer assistance that would allow you to make desperation shots and create large openings leading to easy points. Like a real game of basketball, you need to adapt your game because your 12 point deficit could easily be 20 points if you play under the belief that the CPU will let you back into the game. After years of playing sports game after sports game with rubber band physics, easy goals, turbo powerups and game changers, it is refreshing to see one that will punish me for my stupidity rather than enable it.
The basketball product itself, however, is not without its flaws. Earlier on, I had mentioned the game crashed approximately 5 minutes into my first play. The game lags and suffers through in-game presentation features, especially around free throws and timeouts. In the first hour of playing, the referee held the ball for at least 30 seconds prior to free throws more than once, and the game itself hung during a timeout until repeated pausing and unpausing fixed it. Granted, this could be a possibility with my disc itself, but I had no other problems elsewhere. The controls themselves (an aforementioned problem) prove unresponsive once in a while, and some of the defensive mechanisms prioritize one type of motion over another. It is not uncommon to see a block attempt never happen despite the fact that the button is hit, instead choosing to box out into double coverage while your opponent dribbles around you and shoots an open jumper.
Going back to the earlier point about Harlan, Kellogg and Burke, they encompass what may be NBA 2K11's calling card for years to come: Presentation. If presentation was something that was commonly scored, this would get 11,000 out of 10. Everything this game does about presentation is right. You become quickly wrapped up in the perfectly done play by play, down to its stats and realtime adjustment. A sideline reporter in a video game is usually useless, but they've captured the essence of the sidelines perfectly through Doris Burke's dialogue. The commentary is so intuitive and game-specific that if a player from each team appears anywhere in the top 5 of most stats, the commentators take a moment out to recognize them and speak about them in the same breath without missing a beat.
The camera angles all over the place, and the mascots and dance teams that abound make you feel like you're watching the NBA on NBC back in the mid-90s, or something similar. This TV experience is even pushed forth in the season mode (dubbed "The Association,") which does previews to games ahead, using correct calendar dates, rosters and the current in-game record (ie. a preview of Saturday, November 24th when Andrew Bogut and the 1-1 Bucks take on Dwight Howard and the 2-1 Magic.) Even cooler, the game follows the in-game date and the time of day on your XBox to welcome you to the game. One game I played in the Association wished me a happy Veterans Day, and then told me to add extra milk to my cereal for a morning game (it was 2 AM.) While the time and date have played a role in games before, I don't believe I've ever had it come up in a sports game.
Moving past the in-game experience, you'll find a wealth of game modes, from the standard exhibition games to a career mode and situation play. New to the game is Blacktop Mode, sponsored by Sprite. While obeying your thirst (is that still their slogan?) you are free to play a small cache of playground games. There's the 3 point contest, 21, and of course, the most popular game we grew up with - The Slam Dunk Contest, complete with the ability to jump everything from a bench, to a Sprite Green colored car. Most of the games are pretty straight forward, however, the slam dunk contest has a pretty high learning curve, and you may get really frustrated before you get any good. Rather than the Jordan vs. Bird slam dunk contest which involved you picking a dunk and then hitting it from the side of the screen, this one suffers from the "WWF Warzone" effect; that is; you have to hit about 478 buttons before you have the chance to dunk, and then you have to make sure your measurement is right to complete the dunk. As I mentioned, it can be extremely frustrating, and I gave up on it before I figured out how to do anything but standard dunks (as a reference point for my patience, I beat WWF Warzone -- many times.) If you would like to take your frustrations out on non-NBA stars, a bevy of celebrities are included as well. Channeling the memories of Rapjam Volume 1, this game includes musicians like Snoop Dogg, and ; like Drake.
Naturally, the cover boy Michael Jordan has not been forgotten. There is an entire Michael Jordan challenge mode where you must mirror or beat tasks his Airness accomplished, along with a gallery of obtainable Air Jordans, and upon completion of those, an Ultimate Greatness mode. Something that long term basketball fans will dig is the fact that they have attemped to carry over some of the best rival rosters the Bulls faced in those days, from the 89-90 Cavs, to the 85-86 Celtics and the 97-98 Jazz. Included too are the accompanying Bulls rosters. In all cases, they have attempted to transition over as many players as possible, but understandably, it's tough to gather permission from retired players when they are no longer in the spotlight, or an active part of the NBA Player's Association.
In many cases, that era's uniforms were not carried over either, so if you were eager to see 2010 gaming Michael Jordan dressed like a 1985 Bull, you'll be disappointed. However, if you were interested in seeing Kyle Macy outfitted like today's Chicago Bulls, I've got good news for you. This is deterring as much as it is benefitting toward the game. In a business sense, this is a poor advertisement for today's NBA if you think about it. None of the current stars have been a part of the marketing materials, and the only interaction I had with the current generation of the NBA was an image of Lebron James in the pause menu of the '91 finals. Even when you get to the main menus, it is heavily Michael Jordan focused, and his name appears at the top of the list of selectable players in many of the mini games, with some of the other Legends included afterward. Granted, if the NBAPA has received a handsome royalty from 2K to create the game, what would it matter to them? However, if the NBAPA is giving 2K Royalty kickbacks with the expectation that this marketing tool will help continue to build a business based on a sport rapidly falling behind the others, David Stern must be sorely disappointed.
Still, with everything rolled in, this is going to be one of the hardest basketball games to pass up, even in future years. NBA Live/Elite has always been a very arcade-focused title with simulation and strategy secondary. This game almost seems to be an opposite. There are so many different ways to formulate your on-court performance that you could easily spend hours unleashing your inner Zen Master Phil Jackson before you even touch the court fulltime.
Some reviewers have called this the best basketball game of all time, and some the best of its generation. I agree with the latter, but to give it the title of best of all time might be overdoing it. It might be the best PURE basketball game of all time, and certainly, EA has got to put out a massive answer to 2K whenever NBA Elite 11 comes out, because in this day and age of fly by night success with a "What have you done for me lately?" attitude, 2K has pulled so far ahead of its comparable competition that there may be no coming back for Electronic Arts this year. No matter how good Elite is when it gets released, it may not be good enough to keep up with this one. This is truly the year of the sports game, and with gem after gem hitting the market, we may be spoiled with the best sports gaming annual harvest of all time. Word to the wise though? Make sure you remember to save at every corner. This game suffers from selective autosave, where it will autosave in some places and not in others. I lost my Association and Air Jordan data more than once forgetting to do this.
Graphics: 7.5/10. The graphics of this game, while pretty, are by no means perfect. Player digitization and motion capture are perfect. Some of the court textures, however overpower the images of the players themselves to the point of distraction. NPC animation during things like motion capturing are awkward. Body types and body models in the mini games and during standstills (like timeouts) look like they came straight out of NBA In the Zone 2 for PS1. These can be forgiven, however, since the finished in-game animations are fluid, and the players look about as good as you can get them.
Sound: 10/10. The sound transcends just your regular on-court exploits and noises. The Play by Play is maybe the best ever. Most games gear play by play and dialogue toward the game at hand, and this one caters to the game beyond. Doris Burke will speak to you about a recent timeout on the coach's strategy, and the play by play team will look forward to games ahead while discussing the current action. This game has set the benchmark for the way all play by play should be done in a sports game, and kudos to 2K for thinking outside the box when figuring out the logistics of the game this year.
Gameplay and Controls: 8.5/10. So much is right, yet so much is wrong. Playing the main game is pretty well done with the exception of the couple different hangups I mentioned above. The Sprite Blacktop mode, however, is a waste of time for the most part. The slam dunk contest needs heavy improvements, and the 3 point shootout, 21 and the other modes are basically half-cast mini games that were given very little attention in the grand scheme of things. The various season and career modes are not bad, though the "My Player" created star mode is too difficult for a beginner to pick up and go with unless they have logged hours of gameplay before.
The Controls, while simple and quick to pick up, may provide frustration, especially when they are game specific (like the slam dunk contest) and are prone to a bit of unresponsiveness at times. There is no in-between in my saying that you will either come back and play this game time and again, or you will not. If you do not enjoy this game in the first hour, there is no sense coming back to it because you will have experienced its bread and butter, and if it does not appeal to you, then this game is not for you. This could realistically be said about any game, I suppose, but everything falls into each other somehow. If you didn't like the opening game against the Lakers, you may not like the Michael Jordan mode. If you don't like My Player, you probably won't like the Blacktop Mode. If you don't like the Association, you probably won't like the game at all.
This game definitely does not have the unabashed "Must keep playing" sense of 2K's last lights out title (The Bigs 2), nor does it carry the replay oomph the EA titles have to date, but there is more than enough to keep the avid sports gamer busy, and pure basketball fans and gamers likely will not see a better game this year. I do hate to write a game off before it has been released, but as I had mentioned earlier, NBA Elite will have to do a lot to even match everything this game puts forth into the market.
Suggestions: You could just fix everything that's wrong with this game, market it around someone current next year and it would still be one of the greatest basketball games of all time. Ditch Blacktop Mode and make it an All Star Game thing instead. Dunk contests deserve a bit more flash than on an outside court in the dark. I look forward to seeing how the in-game experience next year tries to top this one because it will be difficult.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter
Serious Sam came out when the world needed a wisecracking muscular gun toting video game hero, having been shunned numerous times by Duke Nukem at that point and his promised sequel "Duke Nukem Forever." We had started to suspect at that point that "Forever" would be the amount of time it would take for that game to be released, but still, Serious Sam started to fill that void. With a stash of ridiculously over the top weapons, fearless enemies meleeing their way toward you and a game experience rebuilt around a new engine, it seemed the HD remix of Serious Sam's Second Encounter would be an enjoyable single player experience on paper.The franchise came out around the time that gamers wanted to kill everything at all costs, and as many things as possible. The great boom of games released calling for Strategic Despotism quickly made way for games like Carmageddon II. In this way, Serious Sam was providing a conduit for those making the leap from one type of video and shooter to the next. We as gamers had slowly started to evolve our tastes from ritualistic first person games requiring the utmost patience and strategy to one that required little more than an itchy trigger finger and beautiful explosions. The boom probably lasted until the Halos and Quakes of the world brought us back into a sense of reality (if you could call it that.) Still, years later, the fond memories of Serious Sam were such that there is a 3rd installment due in 2011, and remade versions of the First Encounter, and now the Second Encounter, originally released in 2001.
The HD Remix debuted at first on Steam online, and was released on XBox 360 at the end of September for a whopping 1200 MSP. We were offered a copy for review, and a chance to see how Sam's second encounter looked in high definition, which was something I took at word, and should have taken with a grain of salt.
The title screen was puzzling. Here I was told that I would be playing a high definition remix, only to find graphics reminiscent of an XBox game, or a launch title (Some of the graphics are very similar to King Kong's, though I dare say the latter had a cleaner in-game presentation.) The menus are vivid and deep with color. The game is too, though once you begin playing, you begin to see that perhaps there was more that transitioned directly into this game than the storyline. You begin the game in a clearing and progress your way toward your first of Serious Sam's many familiar foes - the fearless headless guys that yell and come to battle, melee weapons or suicide bomb ready to go. The one-eyed monsters that resemble Gossamer from Looney Tunes, and any number of robotic, undead or gun-toting masses, each with their brand of artillery. The game gives you about 30 seconds to adjust before subjecting you to wave after wave of enemies, which has always been Serious Sam's calling card. There are more than enough types of enemies to keep you entertained, all of which follow no rhyme or reason as to what their origin is. Within a few minutes, you may be assaulted by skeletons, followed by a chainsaw wielding, overall wearing version of Ichabod Crane, and then by a half-woman half-scorpion hybrid. All of these enemies do have names, but I felt it unnecessary to become intimately acquainted with them.
Still, if you are one with a thirst for knowledge, and assistance with your surroundings, Sam is equipped with a computer system that analyzes its surroundings and the onscreen enemies, and gives you a breakdown of who, or what you are up against. This interface also tells you in a roundabout way how much health the monsters have left (your target will be green if they are healthy, yellow in the middle, and red if they are nearly dead) and also controls weapon selection, which can be done one of two ways. You can either cycle through them using the bumpers, or (which you may find more convenient with multiple enemies on screen each affected differently by different weapons,) you can press down on the D-Pad and bring up an easy to navigate list of weapons you currently have. You will quickly find efficiency in the latter method, especially once you have figured out which weapons are most effective on which enemies. Cycling through them with the D-Pad will net you faster results than using the bumpers, leading to quicker kills and faster level times.
To that extent, however, save often. Stupidity will abound, whether it be targets that are too far to jump to, or an unseen projectile killing you instantly. The Y button will be your friend, as it quick saves your game, and death will take you back to the last save. The rest of the controls are fairly straight forward, and while they take a bit of getting used to, are simple enough to figure out to at least start you on your way.
The most fun thing about Serious Sam has always been its secrets. Serious Sam hides more easter eggs than possibly any game out there, past or present. Everything from hidden weapons to gags causing one-liners are found within every level. Long after the main story line loses its interest, gamers will have more than ample opportunities to find secrets within the game. You will even be rewarded after too long, as one of the achievements is to find 80 secrets. In the first hour of gameplay, I believe I found one, though there is one right at the start behind you, and I missed it.
What was done to the sound in this game? I'm going to assume absolutely nothing. The only sounds that are clear are the gunshots, and Sam's voice. Everything else sounds like it was remixed with a reverb filter and then fed through a PC speaker. If you close your eyes and immerse yourself in the majesty of the soundtrack, you may open your eyes and find yourself face to face with 1995, complete with Rise of the Triad's god mode. Of everything in this game that did not work, the sound was the most broken.
Strategizing weaponry is an interesting task as well, as many of the guns share bullet rounds, and the game never seems to decide how many it will let you carry early on. During one stint with the napalm flamethrower (arguably the most effective short range weapon in the game next to the chainsaw,) the game capped me at 420 rounds, not allowing me to pick up any others I found along the way. After firing 7 shots, I went back to maximize my stash again, and suddenly it credited me for all 200 rounds, leaving me with a new total of 613 and eventually work my way up to 999.
This was only slightly as puzzling as walking out into an open field and being bombarded with numerous radioactive bullets, completely unable to tell which direction they were coming from, or who was firing them. To make matters worse, while you are gifted a sniper rifle early in the game that you cannot zoom in or zoom out on. Once you have clicked the zoom button, you either have to commit at that distance or reset and try again from the beginning. In fact, the sniper rifle is fairly useless in this game anyway. The purpose of a sniper rifle is to allow combatants to engage in long range tactical warfare. Few feelings beat the one where you have hidden in such a well secluded spot that nobody can find you, and you take that moment to crack your knuckles, begin to hum "O Fortuna" to yourself, take aim and remove your opposition from a far.
In Serious Sam, there are few places to hide and strategize, and the enemies always know where you are. Some can shoot at you from around corners and still hit with deadly accuracy. You can barely strafe past many of these bullets, having to jump over them at the last second instead. No easy task when there can be upwards of a half dozen of these coming at you sometimes. Due to the wide open nature of all of the areas in this game, it is also easy to figure out that killing wave after wave of enemies after you (many of which do not fire bullets at you) requires nothing more than running backwards in a straight line firing guns at your attempted killers. Many come at you in a straight line, leaving little to do but to point and shoot. Rarely do you run out of space employing this tactic, and Sam has been gifted with the ability to run backwards with as much grace and speed as running forward, which is a bonus.
During this review, when decided how to weigh the good and the bad, I quickly realized one thing: I didn't have any fun playing this game all over again. I consider myself to be one of the easiest going gamers out there, and it is hard to find a game that I have not at least cracked a slight smile playing. Reviewing this game at the request of XBoxAddict.com was, in one word - arduous. It took me three separate sittings to find the strength to complete the first level alone, and after playing what I thought was at least two hours, I was surprised to find at the end that only 24 minutes of gameplay had elapsed. Please don't get me wrong - the weapon variety was appealing, as was the fact that there were solid multi-player modes and a co-op mode, though after sitting down and playing this, I would not wish to subject any of my friends to either of them. The game is much like one of those movies you saw 10 years ago, thinking at the time that it was absolutely hilarious, and then you re-watch it today and wonder why you even laughed at it. In other words, this is basically gaming's answer to Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
In the end, while I appreciate the fact that we are being given ample opportunity to relive our younger days through the magic of high definition remixes, Serious Sam's Second Encounter in HD comes off to me as nothing more than a rushed marketing ploy, and a $15 advertisement for an engine that is too good to house what it is currently outputting. As one who never shuns in the face of achievements, I admit I was disappointed when I ran through the corridor to end the first level because I received an achievement for completing a level, meaning this game would be forever associated with my gamer profile. Seriously though, loyal Serious Sam fans will probably look at this game as an ample tune-up for the launch of the third installment, but fans looking to recapture the glory of a once entertaining and once humorous game are best off to find the bargain bins where the original reside and play those instead.
The jokes, the look, and the execution of the game were something that worked when first person shooters attempted to be nothing more than Friday Night testosterone driven trash-talking catalysts for gamers on HEAT.net, but as we move forward in this day and age, there are some things best left behind. This is one of them, and it gets a recommendation to avoid and wait for Serious Sam 3, unless your XBox points are burning a hole in your pocket and you need to spend them on something. Let's take a look at how this stacks up in the summary:
I found very little difference in graphics from the 9 year old PC version, and even then, some of the original's graphics are better. The characters are definitely low-def, the texturing in and outside of buildings appear to have little to no work done to them, and the only things in-game that looked remotely high-definition were the power-ups. No matter how much I played the game, I never got past the fact that it felt like Sam was crouching the whole time. His center of gravity is extremely low, and he is either very short, or the enemies are very large. I also understand that it is hard to compare graphics from a game released today to one released a decade ago, however, calling this game an HD remix is very borderline. Don't get me wrong - some enhancements are noticeable, but they are few and far between. While the graphics would normally deserve perhaps a 3, it is easy to appreciate that despite how much can happen on screen at once, the game never really suffers from slow-down or lag.
There is very little to go upon, as most of the sounds consist of gunshots, enemy screams and Sam's gruff tone, though as mentioned above, it seems very little of it was refined. Music is used to set a scene here, and is mostly reserved to warn you of an upcoming fight. I will give the developers some credit, as no matter how many enemies are put on screen at once, it never feels like the sound is distorting or breaking from the amount of simultaneous noises. Again, given how much action can be taking place on screen at once, this is very refreshing.
The biggest plus this game has is the engine of which its built on, which is a great control scheme for this type of game, and gives a lot of hope for Serious Sam 3. Weapons are easy to sort through, collate and use, and despite the frustration of repeated deaths during platform hops, that falls more on the shoulders of awkward level design than the controls themselves. If this is in fact that control scheme that Serious Sam 3 will be following, I would call it a definite boost, and while you will need about 30 minutes to an hour to fully acquaint yourself with the controls, it adds a playable element to an otherwise disappointing game.
This game is by no means unplayable. There is never a moment in which this game passes its realm of capability, and really, if are you are spending $15 to download this game, you must know what Serious Sam is all about. Still, the game does not stand up to anything it needs to. To compare it to today's games would be simply unfair, leaving only the age test, of which it has not withstood. We often look back at what our past gaming life was with fond memories, and have started to understand as of late that what happened in a past life should have stayed in a past life. The hours we poured our hearts and souls into games as children are the same games we cannot pour more than 5 minutes into today. Whether it be broken gameplay, poor graphics or anything else that detracts, the harsh reality of reviving once-popular franchises is that we've moved past them, and so should those trying to bring them back.
Not everything in life is going to be that rare franchise that transcends the generational gap and continues to entertain new generations. Hopefully the disaster that is this remake will have other companies stand up and take notice that we do not need every good game of the past 10, 20, maybe even 30 years to be re-released just because it was good back then. In a whole, this franchise reboot was unnecessary, as was charging people $15 a shot for it. This could easily have been bundled into Serious Sam 3 as a thank-you, or collector's edition extra.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
FIFA Soccer 11 
For years, we sports gamers had very little to go on in the world of soccer. Sega Master System's Great Soccer really didn't live up to the presumptuous use of the adjective, and after fun old Nintendo Soccer, NES gamers had Tecmo World Cup, which was basically a limited port of the arcade game Tekhan World Soccer. Then, in 1993, Electronic Arts broke the mould of lacklustre soccer games. Fifa International Soccer for the Panasonic 3DO revolutioned video game soccer as we knew it, and with that, the new leader in sports gaming took over the North American soccer market. Fast forward 15 years, and though a few soccer franchises exist and threaten once in a while, FIFA remains arguably the definitive soccer franchise. That is, every year except for years following the World Cup.
FIFA games seem to have have a tendency to drop off in overall quality in years where a World Cup release accompanies. World Cup 1998 and 2006, for example, are two of the greatest arcade style soccer games ever made, but the FIFA followups have been nothing spectacular. FIFA '99 was a one sided, average soccer game with a fantastic soundtrack too good for the product it was supporting, and FIFA 07 fell flat after bursting into the current generation with two great games. World Cup 2002 was garbage, and FIFA 2003 fell into that year's EA sports game trap of fantastic presentation with mediocre gameplay that all of that year's annual releases were prone to. So, I will admit that after spending the summer playing World Cup South Africa, a soccer game that was so well done that I didn't believe anything could top it, I did not know how to approach this year's FIFA release.
My hopes were middling. Low because of the streak of bad followup games, and high because NHL, Madden and Tiger Woods 11 were so well done. Still, the dev teams are always different folks working on different games, so this one could go either way, which you will see very quickly on. The game hits you with its options before you even get to the main menu. Before the game even starts, it checks your list of Fifa 10 achievements to determine skill level, and imports any settings you may have from World Cup South Africa. These are great, and always helpful features.
Once you enter the game, you quickly see that it is unlike any other soccer game out there. You are hit with teams and players from 30 leagues, and enough gameplay modes to keep you busy until FIFA 12. The separate Pro and Managerial modes have been combined into the new Career Mode, which allows you to be a player, manager or general manager over the course of an entire career. Everything is almost the same as before, but to add a bit more to the sense of realism, you have to balance your budgets and pay transfer fees for players.
Then there's a Creation Widget within the game that adds the ability to customize all facets of the game - Players, kits and even teams. Sadly, no ability to make a soundproof 9 million seat stadium yet with each fan blaring a vuvuzela. An endless element of cheap fun to create the worst possible soccer player, name him after your best friend and stick him out in Norway Tippeligaen playing for Strømsgodset IF. If that wasn't enough, the game allows you to build your own soundtrack and customize your CDs into creating a more unique game experience. This feature will be most helpful to those who have spent more than 5 minutes listening to the soundtrack.
My mother told me that if I didn't have anything nice to say, I should say nothing. My mother doesn't read these reviews, so she'll never know I told Electronic Arts, and you gamers that FIFA has the worst soundtrack of all of the EA games this year. This soundtrack is so unspectacular that Michael Jackson's estate should have to pay Electronic Arts to borrow the term "bad" for any future re-releases of the 1987 album, because this collection of music corners the market of that word's use. The soundtrack, however, can easily be disposed of and doesn't take away from the game.
Once you do get into the game itself, you see quickly that there have been many mechanical improvements over not just the last few FIFAs, but even World Cup South Africa. The goalies move faster and smarter and the controls have vastly improved. The players move down to the exactly precisioned direction of your game pad and a smarter passing system means that gone are the days of passing in the wrong direction and it reaching the sideline official before it reaches your player. Ther's also much better collision detection and collision animation between players, who shove each other and bump into each other much more realistically than before.
Calling the action through these new changes are the "dynamic" team of Martin Tyler and Andy Grey. Tyler, an extremely distinguished football play by play man sounds less than happy with this gig, and comes off as monotone, disinterested and quite honestly, boring. Andy Grey's color commentary falls just as flat. This is a huge disappointment, given that Clyde Tilsley and Andy Townsend did such a great job just months before for the South Africa game. I'd be much happier if EA just got those two back for every game.
Graphically, it's surprising to see FIFA's graphics don't stack up against past games. Player animations are great. Every slide tackle, shove and strong tackle are captured in immense detail, and teammates even celebrate with you after goals now. This is still a work in progress, as the limited animation sequences mean that 5 or 6 players could be doing the exact same fist pump over again while you play the world's smallest violin, but still, a neat addition. The rest of the presentation, however, suffers. The fields don't look that great, especially in the weather elements, and the stadiums feel a tad dreary as well. South Africa captured the beautiful game well, but FIFA makes it look, well, a little less beautiful.
Still, there's very little that should stand in the way of whether or not this is a purchase. Overall, while it breaks the streak of poor followups to World Cup games, it feels like this game is missing something. It's a fairly complete soccer experience, but it might be hindered by a somewhat lacking presentation. Popping the World Cup South Africa every day was like taking a hit of fresh oxygen. The game was jubilant from the second Clyde Tilsley welcomed you. The colors, the energy, the soundtrack, the way the crowd dances in their nation's colors - Everything. This game's energy feels a fair bit more dreary. Martin Tyler's often uninterested play by play takes away from the game itself, and Andy Grey provides even less in the way of insight by way of his color commentary.
The amount of in-game options and modes will continue to bring the avid FIFA and soccer fan back time and again. Never have I encountered a game with so many teams that they needed a "miscellaneous" section to fit them all. Much like its NHL and Madden brothers, there are so many game modes that you feel like you may have ripped the store off and purchased 4 games for the price of one. However, if I were approached by the casual player looking for that one great soccer game this year, World Cup South Africa would win out over FIFA, which doesn't quite envelope you in its atmosphere as much.
It seems the best graphics are reserved for the tournament games. World Cup 2006 and Euro 2008's graphics were night and day in comparison to their Fifa followups, and while it isn't quite as drastic between this and South Africa, the graphics of the World Cup game were much better. You could easily believe you were playing on a torn up field in the middle of St. Kitts, or in front of 90,000 people at Nelson Mandela stadium.
FIFA's biggest weakness with graphics is within the in-game presentation. The player animations are great, and some of the mechanics (like how far the players slide in the snow) are spot on. However, when you start to add things like weather hazards to the game, the graphics look almost PS1-like in their execution. The falling snow looks very canned, and the snow covered fields look like players sliding around in wet cotton rather than something ravaged by the elements. It would be nice if the Madden team and FIFA teams could share graphic and behavioral sets, since Madden has been doing such a great job with its snow since Madden 64 nearly 15 years ago.
For what it could be, the sound is a bit disappointing. Fans don't quite have the same unique bite as the World Cup game, nor do you see as much of them. Martin Tyler's monotone and uninspired play by play might be the worst in modern video game history. Playing an exhibition match in a rainy stadium with Tyler's play by play is depressing enough to make you want to cry halfway through. The in-game sound effects, however, are great, the most bone jarring occurring when you hit the crossbar or posts. The unforgiving noise, followed by the controller shaking so violently it nearly falls out of your hands is simultaneously one of the best and most disappointing feelings.
No doubt about it; the game's controls continue to be one of its best assets. Button crisp passing, pressure sensitive shooting, and they have even improved player control and the arcs and angles in which you can take your player depending on how you're pressing down on the left stick. Even the hardest of the controls are very easy to pick up, and don't leave you scrambling for the instruction manual every time you do something wrong. I tested as much on somebody who had never played a current gen-soccer game, and he was scoring goals and using custom celebrations with 10 minutes. That is definitely the mark of a good control scheme. The game does get just a half mark off, however, for the one thing that continues to be a thorn in the side of new and intermediate gamers alike - Button caching. Nothing is worse than accidentally pressing the wrong button and being unable to do it when the ball lands at your feet.
Replayabilty; something EA's done really well with all their sports games is provide you a return on investment, something that really matters nowadays more than ever to folks in a financial crunch. Your $60 is going much farther these days with EA games, more than almost any other gaming franchise out there. There are so many modes, and so many ways to modify your game that I dare say it's unparalleled in what it brings to the table. Some of the greatest video games put out there had fundamental flaws in their graphics, sound and presentation, but are remembered fondly for what they brought outside of that. FIFA brings it, and although I wouldn't put this game up with the best EA Soccer games of all time, your money will still be well spent if you go home with it.
Suggestions: This game is so highly customizable that all it lacks is a stadium builder. That would be cool, as would a Canadian or American announce team you could select for the MLS games.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
NHL 11
Nineteen years ago, Electronic Arts set out to create the perfect hockey franchise. Back then, the most popular hockey games had no NHL sponsorship, no yearly cover ritual, and no affiliation with the NHLPA. Released in 1991, the first EA Sports hockey for the Sega Genesis began the annual traditional of fall hockey games accompanying the NHL season. EA did not have an NHLPA license, and were left to refer to in-game players by their numbers. Nearly 18 months later, NHLPA Hockey ?93 came out and this time the roles were reversed. EA had an NHLPA license, but not an NHL one. This time, the players were referred to by name, with no logos in sight. They got both for NHL 94 (still referred to as the best in the entire franchise,) and have not looked back since. Occasional glitch aside (the exclusion of fights in 94 and 95, Dany Heatley?s replacement with Joe Sakic in NHL 2004, and pretty much all of NHL 2003,) the franchise has remained solid and at the top of its class, despite early decade pressure from 2K sports.September 7th marked the latest installment of the franchise, featuring cover boy Jonathan Toews (who had barely passed his third birthday when the original was released,) marking the first time teammates were cover stars in back to back years, after Patrick Kane?s appearance last year. The disc behind the shrink wrap this year promised to deliver more than past year over year additions in comparison, boasting new gameplay modes, graphic enhancements, and a vast difference in the overall presentation and flow of the game. 200 changes in all were the calling card beckoning veteran gamers to put last year on the shelf and get with the game.
As in past years, EA wants you to play their pre-game training session before letting you into the main menus (though you are free to opt out at any time.) The first thing the game asks you to do, however, is create your pro for the Be a Pro mode, generating a random name in the process. Suit up Viacheslav Vikingstad ? make your Russian mother and Norwegian father proud!
If you?ve been through the tutorials before, you know that in many cases, the game will not let you go past a drill unless you have completed it successfully. A couple of stick handling drills during this tutorial are touch and go in what the game will and will not accept as a successful attempt, so if you?ve learned to play your own way, this may take you a LONG time to complete. This ends up being a rewarding experience for new players, but frustrating for familiar gamers. Skip this step and head straight to the menu, and play a game.
When you do, be ready to be treated to an amazing experience of realism. Pressure sensitive controls await you, along with a new checking system that reacts to the angle, distance and time you begin the check, and customize the outcome based on your input. No longer will your checks look like a randomized animation sequence, and no longer should they disrupt the overall flow of your gameplay. Of all of the gameplay enhancements this year, these were my favorites.
Sketchier goals have come and gone in past years. You could kick pucks in, you could have pucks bat off your hands in the net, and you could get away with things that you could not in the real league. This year, EA looks to close that gap by introducing disallowed goals and video replay, though it seems to come up very infrequently, and something that as of review time, had yet to be experienced at all. Still, this is a very welcome inclusion for the sake of realism. Vancouver Canucks fans will be free to re-live legitimate playoff goals being disallowed during a third period comeback all over again.
A small, but noticed difference is the soundtrack. In past years, Electronic Arts tried to go with a modern vibe, using current artists and current music. This year, they looked deep into the annals of successful hockey music tracks and brought a soundtrack of old and new music. 2 Unlimited's Twilight Zone is suddenly relevant again, and adds to the fun of the game.
You can continue to slap, snap and wrist shots using the right stick while using the triggers to do anything from dish pass to pressure pass and jar the puck loose from battles on the boards. Players move about with relative grace as smooth animation guides you from one end of the ice to the other. How you get from one end of the other and get the puck in the net, however, is harder than it sounds.
A big problem in picking up this game every year and trying to involve others is the controls. There is too much to take in from one gaming session, and too many nuances for the novice gamer to begin with. The NHL 94 (2 button) controls are too simple to play with, while the standard controls are almost enough to need a mail order how-to DVD encyclopedia. Gone are the days of telling your friends that ?A is shoot, B is pass and switch player and R is turbo? and in are the days of ?flicking the right stick at a fairly perpendicular angle will result in a snapshot.? One can argue it provides the depth a hockey game needs to survive in today?s sports gaming market, however, on the other side, it may be too hard to suck a new gamer into the gaming side of this from the getgo. Luckily, easing them in is possible with the amount of off-ice fun the game provides.
Be a Pro and Be a GM mode have returned as well with little change, so if you have played it before, you will know what you are up against. Be a GM Mode pits you in the driver?s seat of your franchise, where you are tasked with building it into a successful Stanley Cup champion while building yourself a positive reputation around the rest of the league. Doing so will make other GMs more amiable to deal with, and will give you more opportunities to make trades and improve your team rather than having to build from within. Whether you choose to be the next Brian Burke, or the next Dean Lombardi is ultimately up to the way you interact throughout. Or, you could strap on the skates of young Viacheslav Vikingstad and carve up the ice in the third edition of Be a Pro mode, and this time, you can take him to unrestricted free agency.
The biggest addition to the game this year is the Hockey Ultimate Team (HUT) mode where you start a fantasy team from packs of cards and earn in-game EA Pucks to buy more packs to upgrade your team and build a powerhouse to play with online or offline. Those who played the demo earned up to 3 special packs for the full version based on actions taken (like inviting other friends to play the demo) to give them a bit of an edge right away. Impatient gamers can also choose to spend Xbox points to buy packs if they do not wish to wait to earn pucks, and get their players and option cards that way. At around $2 per pack, the price is much less than your standard pack of real hockey cards, and you will probably end up with better pulls as well, with less clutter resulting. The system itself is not complicated to anybody familiar with collectible card games, as you can use power up cards to make your players better, while utilizing contract cards to lock the players up and make them happy campers. Juggle your players and lines often to find which combinations have the best chemistry (known in hockey circles as Alain Vigneault mode,) and you can then take your teams online and compete in leagues for monthly championships, bragging rights and pucks, with the right to display your league?s championship logo on home ice for everybody to see.
What would the HUT mode be without player depth? Despite being called NHL 11, the game boasts leagues from around the world, with this year?s notable addition being the CHL and all its subsidiaries. All of last year's leagues such as the AHL and Sweden's Elitserien are back too, including Peter Forsberg and Markus Naslund in the mix playing for Modo. In all, we are looking into the thousands for players available, making it such a boisterous and bountiful experience that almost no two teams can ever be alike. This Snowflake-like effect will result in countless opportunities online, and you will probably never play the same roster in a new league over again. HUT be what NHL 11 is remembered for introducing us to, and will likely make or break its fond remembrance in the annals of hockey gamedom. Online gamers will ultimately decide whether this mode will be a success, though the online marketplace has turned into a zoo and will continue to be an overpriced wheel and deal as budding merchants try to sell their best players to the highest bidder.
One thing remains for certain, however. NHL 12 will be hard pressed to pay as many dividends to hockey fans as NHL 11 has. The game is come a Frosted Malt, a scented candle of fresh ice smell and a tape of the guy sitting near you jeering the opposition away from the most realistic hockey experience possible. A hockey game has never been this intuitive, deep or large before. From Ron Barr?s stretched out digitized face 17 years ago to Jeff Carter?s stretched out digitized face in 2010, Electronic Arts has rarely strayed from creating the best hockey game possible, and when we look back on the greatest editions of the franchise, this will be up on the shelf with the likes of NHL 94 and NHL 2004.
In Summary...
EA Sports games can have the most beautiful, or most awful graphics. NHL 11?s are somewhere in the middle. Winning the Stanley Cup, for example, brings up a well attempted on-ice presentation of the cup, however, try to focus on the celebration when your eyes end up fixated on the entire crowd waving their towels in complete sync with wrists that move impossibly per the human skeletal structure. Once you get past the fact that Gumby and his entire family have somehow bought up all the tickets to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and believe in towel power, make sure to collect your Conn Smythe trophy from cringing Gary Bettman and take a victory lap on the gray ice. Once every few years, EA gets ice tone and ice textures perfect, and then it goes back to being too cartoonish. This I will never understand.
Year after year, the biggest gripe I have with the soundtracks is that they aren?t hockey enough. This year, EA took a step back and gathered music that has enticed crowds to clap their hands, stomp their feet and be forced to remember the fact that we pushed 2 Unlimited to the top of music charts in 1992. It works. I would rather watch my players skate and warm up to songs that pump crowds up like Twilight Zone than a slow jam from Theory of a Deadman or Templar. Play by Play continues to be as good as it can, but I continue to be disappointed that Jim Hughson is no longer a part of the game.
For those who have played the game in the past that are used to the controls, there is little to no learning curve for the new things. I admit the controls always make me wonder how EA looks at the novice gamer coming in fresh to this game, or how the novice gamer would handle the controls. The Madden Games have always had simple enough control schemes to pick up, as have the FIFA and World Cup games. NHL 11?s? Not so much. The default controls makes WWF Attitude?s (video gaming?s previous king of ridiculous controls) look like Arkanoid?s in comparison. Something I?ve found, however, is that the right stick continues to be a tad unresponsive to stick related actions. Though the deke system isn?t as outlandish and unrealistic as say, NHL 07, it?s a bit too tight at times. I will also continue to mourn the loss of the turbo button too, which I much preferred over the new hustle option.
For every bad thing I?ve said about the game, the unending depth and continuous possibilities in every mode of the game will continue to entertain and fascinate for hours on end. This game has appeal to everyone ? The two friends looking to play a Saturday afternoon exhibition game. The armchair General Manager looking to build a franchise. The budding and imaginative gamer wanting to step into the shoes of a pro. The collectible card gaming entrepreneur with a passion for hockey and a touch of marketing and sales smarts. It?s always questionable every September whether or not its going to be worth paying $60 for what in the past has been updated rosters with a few gameplay tweaks. This year, it?s definitely worth sacrificing the price of a ticket to a live game to enjoy this year?s edition of the best hockey franchise in gaming history.
Suggestions: A control system that's somewhere in between the NHL 94 and NHL 11 controls would be great. I would like to see it turn into a game that intermediate gamers could pick up, and there, to me, doesn't feel like there is enough of an intermediate control.
The graphics don't make or break the game, but could be tweaked slightly. The international jerseys, for example, don't look all that great, and I know that some of that comes part and parcel with the IOC's restrictions on advertisement and their affected revenues. The hypnotic synchronized towel waving is honestly a huge distraction as well.
I would also love to see a simpler mode of HUT available that is much like the Madden NFL Superstars game on Facebook -- something that doesn't require a lot of extraneous effort, but can be picked up easily, and can be played by strategists too -- not just a hockey fan. I'm not much into the NFL, but I'm enjoying the Facebook game.
Outside of that, this is a masterpiece of a hockey game.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
