Fable 2 DLC Info
See the Future contains 2 new quests and 3 new areas to visit. Murgo returns. He's the swindler who sold you the music box in the beginning of the game. He's got some cursed items he wants you to exercise. You have to buy them, of course, at 5 gold a pop (not such a big deal for my 6 mil character... kinda bad for a beginning character).
The first is a snowglobe. When you use it, you are transported to a colorless village. You encounter three kinds of shadows... Blue, Yellow and Red. This is the first inkling to their weakness. Blues can only be killed by melee attacks. And they are pretty tough fighters themselves. Yellows can only be harmed by ranged attacks, and unlike bandits, they have good aim at long distances. Of course, Reds can only be harmbed by Will effects, and are bastard will users themselves. They use, form what I can gather, at least level 3 spells, so don't go into this mission as a fresh starting character.
Once you defeat the big dungeon that all this evil is spawned from, along with accompanying Shadow Cultists as main villains (who are easy to defeat and really really weak... weaker than the shadows) color is restored to the village. Everybody's happy, and all the people pass on to the afterlife peacefully (appearantly, the people in the snowglobe were only spirits).
The second item you get from Murgo is the Cursed Skull. It takes you to a swampy area where you are aiding a knight who was trapped by a necromancer. After the first part of the game, you soon figure that the knight isn't that nice of a guy, as he relishes in the little bits of power you bring him (power = wisps, or souls of the dead). This level is kind of a puzzle game. You need 3 different costumes: a hollow man, balverine, and hobbe- to figure some of it out. There are statues that only respond to certain creatures and won't open gates... then the wisps only follow the undead, so you need to wear the hollow man, etc. It introduces a new monster, the Poison Balverine... which sucks donkey nuts. They're as tough as the matriarch balverines, and they do extra, ongoing damage with poison fangs and claws. My suggestion: slow time, then raise undead minions. The Balvs will be distracted by the undead and you can unleash spells or ranged attacks against them.
That's it for the quests in this set, but you get two more items from Murgo. The next is an exact replica of the Tattered Spire. When you use it you return to the Spire and see Theresa. She reveals that the Spire also granted her a wish: to not see glimpses of the future, but to see all possible outcomes of the future. She takes your hand and drones on about a Queen, who's shoulders are heavy with rule (my character, who was a dude, drank the sex change potion... I wasn't paying attention as I was on the phone while I did it and suddenly he was a she... my point is, she would tell the same story, only of a king) and about the real future, which was the Queen's child... anyway, nothing really to do here. but you get a new outfit: Royal clothing, including a crown. Sad part is, you can't dye any of it different colors.
Again, you return to Murgo and he gives you a 4th, and final object (the spire, BTW, disappears from your inventory when you use it): the Coliseum. It's basically like the Crucible, except it's one massive open area (instead of several "battle rooms") and you just take on wave after wave of monsters. It's not really a quest, just a new thing to do. For every point you earn in the coliseum games, you get 1 gold, so it's a quick cash generator if you're any good. You can hit flit switches or kick chickens to earn point multipliers. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place (all determined by how many points you earn) give random items for prizes. The Ultimate prize (over 10,000 points... relatively easy as I did it on the first try) gives you the Royal Scepter. It's a magic weapon with 4 augment slots and it matches the Royal outfit.
Okay, I'm going to talk about all the stuff you can do. See the Future offers several new acheivements. ALSO: it gives you access to the Completonist Acheivement that is standard to the game. Originally, Completionist required you go to Xbox live, download the Pub Games arcade game, play online, earn points, and get an expression (Hat, Headband, Mustache Game) and a dog trick (backflip). That was the only way to get them. Otherwise, you couldn't get all expressions and dog tricks in normal gameplay, and it wasn't guaranteed to give you them playing the pub games. you had to be a lucky gambler and win lots of money.
Murgo offers 4 new potions. They are dog elixers that actually change your dog's breed. You can choose from the Husky, Bloodhound, Dalmation, and Mutt breeds (your dog is already a mutt... that potion just changes him back to original).
The new acheivements:
You get one for opening all the demon doors
One for having sex more than 25 times in game
performing 25 groin shots with a ranged weapon
Collecting all of Murgo's statues
Collecting the 10 new dyes (the final dye is a bitch to get... I still don't have it)
Several Coliseum acheivements, including kicking 5 chickens while wearing the chicken suit, getting a x10 multiplyer, defeating the necromancer in the coliseum.
Overall, I like it. You don't get much in the way of "stuff" but it has a few new items, and loads of new acheivements to strive for, as well as the coliseum, which, as I said earlier, is an easy way to earn cash. Easier than working even.
Something just came to mind: the spire wasn't completed until after you went there. I'm almost betting you can't get this item from Murgo until after you return from the Spire, or possibly even after you defeat Lucien. So, nevermind the Quick cash scheme with the Coliseum.
I never gave a proper review of Knothole Island. Here it is:
Knothole Island is suffering from 2 things: poor weather and incompetent chieftans. When you first arrive, it's in perpetual winter. You go on a mini quest and find the Sun totem to bring the winter to an end and start a blazing, dry summer. This is fine for a while, but then it's too hot, and too dry. So, you go find the storm totem, to bring the rains. this is fine for a bit, until supplies begin coming in damaged from the rains. So, you go for the Snow Totem. Then, you have the option of giving the weather power to the people, or to the incompetent chieftan.
They're basic dungeon delve quests. There are some puzzles and lots of monsters, but it's all very simple. Once you have all three, you can go to the totem Shrine and change the weather to whatever suits you. It's assumed that while you're away the people change the weather to whatever they need... as no one complains.
It offers lots and lots of new equipment, several of the items are labeled "only found on knothole island." Most importantly is the Augment Remover. You no longer destroy augments when you take them out of weapons. Lots of weapons with 4 augment slots. New augments. New potions (fat, thin, tall, short, and scar removing potions). A new legendary weapon: it's a staff. It looks awesome when you combine with the tophat and cuffed overcoat in later gameplay. There's a strange item shop. Instead of buying items, you have to trade. and it tells you what to trade for. In it you get the Black Wheel Gang outfit, including Greaser Wig, another new outfit. Several new weapons including an axe that looks like a guitar, a holy sword, an evil sword, and "Hal's Rifle." In the special collector's edition of the game, you get a Master Chief outfit and light sword from Halo. It's the equipment of some time travelling, interdimensionl travellor nicknamed "Hal." the rifle is the regular machine gun from Halo. It doesn't unload a clip terribly fast, but it does hold 24 rounds before you need to reload and has an augment slot.
Knothole Island also offers 3 new acheivements:
Bibliophile. You collect all of the volumes of the Knothole Islnd chronicles scattered around the island (there are 10 total).
Collector. You get all the special items from that crazy shop.
Meteorologist. you get Knothole Island's weather under controll.
Overall, it's short, but it has a lot of cool things to get, and some new buildings to purchase to add to your ever growing empire.
Fable 2 contains 1,000 gamer points worht of acheivements. Knothole Island offers 3 new achievements worth 100 points, and See the Future offers 13 new acheivements worth 250 points.
Overall, it's short, but it's fun.
What we know about Bioshock 2:Sea of Dreams
- You play as a Big Daddy, not just any Big Daddy, but the first EVER.
- This Big Daddy thing is not just for appearance, you have the actual stats of one. Regular splicers are basically ticks, Big Daddies are less challenging, and Little Sisters trust you more.
- With Little Sisters, you have two options; harvest or accompany (or something similar to that). Harvesting is harvesting, not much to say there. If you accompany a Little Sister, you will follow her, as she walks through Rapture. When she finds a corpse to extract ADAM from, a fuckton of splicers will come toward her, You will have to protect her from them. This is harder than it sounds, apparently. I assume that after doing this, you receive ADAM from her. Also, Little Sisters look older now, for moral reasons.
- The Big Sister, oh god, is supposed to be the villain of the game for sure. You if steal too many Little Sisters, she will notice. At first she will not care, but if you do this too many times, then will try to stop her. You cannot run; she knows the architecture of Rapture far more than you do. She is not like Ryan; detached from the ecosystem as king, she lives in Raptures and bathes in it, knowing every crevice of it. When she wants to pursue you; you're fucked. You have just enough time to set the battle arena to your advantage, then the Big Sister will arrive, usually by crawling off of walls or by jumping. Every encounter with the Big Sister will be a desperate, and you will just barely survive before she runs off. She has a long needle on her left arm, which allows extracted ADAM to merge with her bloodstream. In other words, she has an INSANE amount of ADAM. She can jump across rooms in one leap and throw furniture with the force of missiles. In other words, she is to a Big Daddy what Big Daddies were to Jack. Be afraid.
- Plasmids apparently have more depth. When you get the incinerate plasmid to level 2 for instance, you can charge it up to create a bigger flame. When you get it to it's final level, you essentially have a flamethrower.
- The plot so for; Rapture was basically fucked since Jack killed the leader, Ryan, and the ADAM supplier, Fontiane. People were killing families to get ADAM. Big Daddies were wandering with no one to protect. But the Big Sister returned with Little Sisters; and the Adam supply circulated again. That's about it so far.
- Rivet Gun and Drill; confirmed.
- Full body awareness exists now; and the current splicers are SERIOUSLY fucked up.
- Tenebuam; confirmed. Only quote that she said that was posted in the magazine; "She's taking little girls and turning them into these..... things like her. All of this, it is my fault."
Check the Video/Media section of this site to see exclusive gameplay footage!
Halo Wars
In this post-Halo 3 world, it's fallen to studios other than Bungie to keep the Xbox's most revered franchise afloat. Age of Empires maker Ensemble is the first out of the gate with Halo Wars, a PC-style real-time strategy game set a number of years before the first Halo. The game gets a lot of mileage out of the Halo universe and gives a respectable strategy experience, though the limitations of its gamepad-based control scheme can make for some frustrating moments in the thick of battle.Ensemble wastes no time establishing this game's Halo-ness; all of the menu and front-end interface elements are straight out of Bungie's shooters, the score is likewise reminiscent, and though Master Chief himself doesn't make an appearance, you still get to see a few Spartans tearing it up against the Covenant--not to mention all the Warthogs, Elites, Scorpions, Scarabs, and Wraiths your Halo-loving heart could desire.In a broad sense, Halo Wars pays a lot of service to fans, even if the game's specific storyline isn't much to write home about. You've got salty old Captain Cutter in command of the UNSC capital ship Spirit of Fire, Halo Wars' equivalent of the Pillar of Autumn. There's Serena, a sardonic British version of Cortana; sassy, no-nonsense scientist Anders; and Sergeant Forge, a square-jawed boy scout type who's your man on the ground in most missions. The characters are a little one-dimensional, and their interactions don't make them nearly as likable as the banter you regularly got between Master Chief and Cortana in the previous Halo games.
The Spirit of Fire spends most of the game chasing the Covenant around the galaxy, running up against other familiar Halo factions and ultimately getting involved in some events that very nearly changed the course of history in the Halo universe. The dialogue can get a little corny and the general flow of events feels disjointed due to all the abrupt planet-hopping, but it's all presented in lavishly produced CG cutscenes between each mission that are fun to watch, especially when the Spartans really get down to doing what they do.The story campaign--which takes place only from the human perspective--does a decent job of introducing you to the nuts and bolts of Halo Wars' strategy gameplay and controls. Ensemble made some smart design calls here to simplify traditional RTS aspects that don't translate well to the console. You generate resources transparently in dedicated supply buildings; no worker drones or static gold mines to hassle with. Buildings go into preset slots that spiral from your main base, so you don't have to fiddle with building placement. In terms of the basic rules, the game feels nicely streamlined.Still, I wish the controls were more fully realized. Halo Wars' unit management gets by on a minimum of controller shortcuts, offering only basic methods of selecting, grouping, and controlling units. You can select all of your units on the map, or you can select only the ones currently onscreen, and when you've got a group selected, you can cycle through the individual unit types, which at least lets you access their secondary abilities quickly.But you can't split all units of one type up into subgroups, even though you may not want to move all eight of your Warthogs across the map at once. You also can't set fixed control groups that you can toggle between, once you do get the right units selected. To be fair, once units are in different parts of the map, you can cycle between de facto groups based on location pretty quickly. But when you've got a big clump of units mashed together in one place, it's a clumsy and time-consuming process to split them up manually.
Then again, a big clump of units is usually all you need. Can you really fault the game for its lack of control subtlety, when the controls that are here are sufficient to get you through both the campaign missions and the back-and-forth attrition of the multiplayer? No, not really. As tempting as it is to go "Waaaah, RTS on a console! Mouse and keyboard for life," my frustration with Halo Wars' controls typically petered out at the academic level. From time to time I thought it would be cool if I were able to get into higher-level tactics, but I never found a serious need to do so in practice. And at least most of the campaign's 15 missions avoid the old standby "blow up the enemy's base" victory condition. There's some kind of unique mechanic going on in almost every mission.The familiar Halo trappings extend all the way down the game's feature list, including the campaign, mission scoring, and secret goodies. You rack up a score during each of the campaign's levels--based on your completion time, enemies killed, and finished secondary objectives--then you get a bronze/silver/gold medal based on your score. Heroic and Legendary difficulty modes are available, and you can play the whole campaign cooperatively if you want. There are even secret skulls to find in each mission that will provide various positive and negative effects on subsequent plays, just like in the Halo shooters, and you can unlock entries on a lengthy Halo timeline that fill in the broad picture of the series' history. From a top-level perspective, this is certainly a complete Halo package.
And of course, no Halo game would be complete without a robust multiplayer mode. You've got the Halo-style party system here to facilitate matches for up to six people on a healthy variety of maps, and you can mix and match AI players on either side at different difficulties to fill out slots if you want. There are two modes, starting with the regular skirmish that has you starting from scratch, building up a base and teching up the tree to get the best units. The other mode, deathmatch, turns the game into nonstop total warfare. You start with all units and tech fully researched and with a huge amount of capital, so you can launch straight into building war machines instantly. Your population in this mode scales to the number of expansions you control, so the matches here can get huge and intense as you expand your territory. The scale of the battles that resulted from playing a one-on-one match on a map meant for six people was laugh-out-loud funny at times.Ultimately, I had more fun with the multiplayer than the campaign, perhaps because I'd completed the latter and used it as a kind of extended tutorial before getting into competitive play, and already had a handle on the controls and all the UNSC units. You can also play the Covenant in multiplayer, and there are three unique hero units on each side that give a good variety of additional unique units, attacks, and abilities. The UNSC and Covenant are pretty different to begin with, design-wise, so between your choice of race and then subsequent choice of a leader character, the two modes, and wealth of maps, there's a lot to come back to in the multiplayer here.It's also worth noting that by the time I'd gotten to the multiplayer, I really wasn't sweating the controls. On the contrary, I surprised myself a few times when I managed to make some units do what I wanted them to do without consciously thinking about the required controller inputs. Call it a steep but surmountable learning curve.If you haven't heard, Halo Wars marks Ensemble's last project as a development studio. There's no doubting many of its longtime fans (and perhaps some of its employees) would have preferred to see the company go out by doing what it does best with a traditional real-time strategy game on the PC. Still, Halo Wars is a mostly successful effort to bring the strategy genre to the Xbox 360, and not a bad way to kick off a new era of Halo games, to boot.
5/5
Gears of War 2
This is a long one folks:
The original Gears of War was a huge step forward for video games back in 2006. At the time, no game could match the visuals of Gears of War, compete with the addictive multiplayer or have such a thrilling co op experience. The game's story left much to be desired, but the rest of the game's components thrived and made the original Gears of War an experience to remember. To this day, many games fall short in competing with the visuals of the original. Despite the original setting such a high bar, Gears of War 2 manages to improve on the things that made the first game great and succeeds in presenting a damn good story.
'Compelling stories is something Epic fails to create' is a phrase I've heard being used after playing the first Gears of War. However, some people may end up being proven completely wrong after playing Gears of War 2. The story picks up shortly after the events of the first. The light-mass bomb apparently didn't work but humanity is prepared to launch an all out assault on the locusts.
The locusts have been sinking cities around the last vital human city, Jancinto. It is Delta Squads job once again to lead the assault and save humanity from extinction from the Locust.
The plot in Gears of War 2 is relatively seamless and does one important thing throughout the whole game; makes the player ask questions and answers them.
Gears of War 2 wraps up the plot nicely but purposely leaves the gamer poised with some unanswered questions. Unlike before, these questions leave you wanting to play more without feeling you were ripped off. Throughout the story you'll play in a lot of different environments, experience a lot of different things and will be surprised by quite a few plot twists. For the most part I was impressed with the thrilling, on-the-edge-of-your-seat story that Gears of War 2 presented.
Gears of War 2 is the perfect sequel in the sense that it took what it had before and improved on it without making the game too different. Simply put, if you played the first game you will be very familiar with this one. The game feels and plays virtually the same, however it feels a lot tighter and more well-rounded. The cover system has been improved and you'll find yourself getting stuck on walls or going into the wrong cover a lot less. All of the classic weapons return in this game and a few new ones have been added. Among them are the turret-like Maulcher, the morter, the flamethrower and a few more.
A noticeable addition is the new executions and meatshield. Now you have the option to perform 1 of 11 new executions on downed enemies, or if you're a prick, you can use their body as a shield for yourself. All these executions are really gruesome and look fantastic.
he true strong point of the first game was it's visuals. They were a landmark for console gaming and Epic has done it once again. A complaint that a lot of gamers had with the first was the boring brown/gray palette that the first had. Epic has added a lot of colour all throughout the game. The environments are rich and the character models have that little bit of extra detail that just make you think 'Wow, that looks great.' That's something I found myself saying more often than not in Gears of War 2, and after revisiting the first game, I truly realized what an improvement it was.
New to the series is Horde mode, a survival-type mode where you and up to 4 others will take on wave after wave of locusts. You start on Wave 1, where the enemies are minimal and weak. As you progress up to level 10 by killing all of the enemies in each wave, the enemies will get progressively stronger and come in larger amounts. Once beating level 10, the enemies 'reset' and on level 11 you will see the same enemies you did in level 1, except now all of the enemies have a 'perk' such as 2x health or 2x accuracy. Once you reach the last level, level 50, you will no doubt be having a really hard time fending off all of enemies. Teamwork is absolutely vital in this mode, especially in the higher levels. If you play with 3 or 4 friends this mode is really fun and quite a challenge. Once you finish level 50 on Hardcore or Insane with your friends, you'll feel very proud.
Gears wouldn't be Gears without a great co-operative mode. Once again the surprisingly fun co-op mode is back in Gears but without too much changes. A fairly significant change however is the fact that each player can now play on their own difficulty.
Multiplayer in Gears of War 2 has been changed a fair amount, and in my honest opinion, for the better. While the original had a good multiplayer, I just couldn't get into it. I don't know if it was because I sucked ass at it, or if it was because there were a lot of elements about it I just didn't like. Now however though, I find myself really enjoying the multiplayer. The retail disc ships with 10 new maps, most of which are really well designed and quite fun to play on. If you bought the game new (or got lucky used) you'll get a redeem code to download some classic maps from the original. The teams have been upped to 5 each and I really think that was for the best. Gears of War 2 really feels like it was meant to be played 5v5, and you can feel the effect of that extra guy on each team when you play.
The amount of time I spent playing the multiplayer when I originally intended to post this review (almost a week ago) wasn't very much, and that's because it took forever to find a match. When I had paired up with one friend, and we were looking for 3 other players and then another team, it literally took 10-15 minutes for us to get into a game. This appears to be a bit better now, especially since the NXE update. I was able to play in a party of 5 people last night, and almost immediately with all 5 of us (meaning we could skip the teammate search), we found a match. This problem really effected my initial thoughts of the multiplayer, hence why I held off writing the review until I got some real playing time with it. After playing it though, especially with friends, I found the experience really fun. The same classic game modes from the first somehow seemed a lot more fun in Gears of War 2 than they did in the original.
Gears of War 2 truly blew me away. It's stunning visuals and tight gameplay were impressive, however not quite as surprising as the truly compelling story that the game presented. The massive, epic fire-fights, heart wrenching sub-plots (Dom and his wife) and overall badassness (yeah I made a new word) made the Gears of War 2 single player experience truly memorable. The co-op, horde and multiplayer modes are extremely fun and are sure to keep any Gears fan busy for quite some time. I had my doubts if Cliffy would truly come through on making Gears of War 2 'Bigger, Badder and More Badass' but I find myself completely wrong as the game pulled through all of those claims. Epic's Gears of War 2 is worth nothing less than 5/5.
The World Ends With You
It’s all too easy for RPG fans to only talk about Final Fantasy, especially when talking about Square Enix, that franchise’s creators. However, Final Fantasy isn’t the only title in the company’s catalogue, and people often forget that not only did they create the daddy of the genre, they also arguably spawned said genre as well.
And so rather than rehash yet another FF game for the DS, Square Enix has moved into its fighting stance and shouted ‘Bring It’, and brought it they have with the immaculate The World Ends With You, the first new IP from the JRPG house in many years.
The World Ends With You tells the story of Neku, a fairly stereotypical RPG protagonist to begin with. Neku is grumpy, dislikes people and is only concerned with himself. That is however, until he finds himself in a very strange version of Shibuya, a district of modern day , the games setting. Attacked by strange creatures called the Noise, Neku is forced to make a pact with various people as he learns the truth of the Noise, his new found friends and the alternate Shibuya.
While to begin with the tale is fairly generic, as the character of the game starts to seep into every pore it becomes a fantastically epic tale. Yes, Neku can be an annoyingly selfish git to begin with, his inner thoughts and feelings, and his changing sensibilities, really give the character weight.
Apart from the story, The World Ends With You is a technical feat on the DS. Its use of voice, music and special effects is outstanding, proving that while its 3D capabilities maybe lacking, you can make a brilliant 2D game on the system, and a brilliant game this is.
This brilliance permeates down to the core battle system, which most RPG’s live and die by, luckily though The World Ends With You’s system is innovative and fresh, using all of the DS’s capabilities. When you enter battle (done by using a scanning mechanic to see what noise are in the area and then tapping the icons), the screen changes as normal for an RPG, but since Neku is always accompanied by a companion, they also appear on the top screen with Neku on the bottom.
Neku uses a series of ‘Pin’s’, which give him various powers, ranging from slashing an enemy to firing a spread of energy bullets to encasing himself in protective shields, and they are all activated by various actions on the touch screen, such as pressing the stylus on Neku, slashing across him, tapping an empty space or enemy or drawing circles. They are even some that require you to blow or shout into the microphone to send out shockwaves.
Neku’s partner is controlled using the D-pad, and by tapping various directions and following an on screen series of Icons, the partner attacks the same targets that appear on both screens. If the partner hits the right icons in the right way, they earn Fusion stars, which allow both characters to unleash a devastating combined attack.
After each battle, the Pin’s used earn PP (pin points) which slowly level up the pins and may possibly let them evolve to more powerful versions. You also, rather ingeniously, earn PP by not playing the game, as the pins get better when rested. This encourages breaks and rewards you even though you haven’t played, and while you cant evolve your pins totally by just leaving it a few days, is a neat touch.
Another interesting mechanic is the light puck, a green ball of light that passes between the characters as they score successful attacks. This puck increases with each pass, and the longer you keep it in play and keep it being passed, the more powerful your attacks become, encouraging thoughtful and slightly rhythmic game play.
Each area of Shibuya also has affinities to the various brands in the game, and if an area likes one brand it can up to double your attack power, but if it doesn’t like another brand your attack can be halved. This can be solved by fighting battles wearing clothes (the games equivalent of armour) and pins of the lower brand, thereby increasing the area affinity with that brand.
In all The World Ends With You is a superb RPG, and one of the finest new IP’s on the DS. It is a technical marvel and while it does have the odd slight issue such as it can be hard to remember where to go on missions and what parts of Shibuya are where, this can be over looked easily. A truly brilliant title.
4.5/5
MK versus DC
Looking back the only good reason to get this game (if you don't like Mortal Kombat and like DC but are bored of the Trinity
being the main focus so often), is that you could play as Captain Marvel!
There's nothing outlandish or innovative about this game, it's a standard fighting game with modern fighting game graphics and an idea that is essentially a fanboys wetdream. The merging of two popular universes and the placement of hand picked characters in a battlefield of death and brutalities is going to excite a lot of people. Then there are those that aren't that fussed about the credentials and just want to play something that has characters you don't usually get to play as, despite their incredible popularity.
You get to choose a side and challenge your opponents with a new fighting system including Freefall Kombat, Test your Might and Klose Kombat along with dynamic multi-tiered zones. You can also pick your favourite character from MK or DCU and pursue a fighting adventure in the new single player mode with an intertwined storyline and two unique perspective. The cut-scenes are top notch and if they were merged you could have half a bloody animated series packaged. Both sides of the core story line are a blast to play through, giving you about six hours of single-player game play when you don't feel like getting your hat handed to you online.
When you're done with the story mode and you've completed the Kombo Challenge , which may blow your mind and cause rage, there's not much else to do beyond 1-on-1 fighting. Which is always a bummer in any fighting game EVAR. Yes DBZ Burst Limit I mean you too! That may be enough for fans that just love anything Mortal Kombat, but given the depth of features seen in previous games in the series, not to mention the feature set of the current-gen competition, and the downgrading of fatality moves, something about that screams 'not worth the full price' to me.
One thing I noticed was that attacks don't actually always hit. I mean you could be playing as Superman, punching for dear life and if you look closely at the screen or if your eyeballs are actually in the general direction, you'll notice that there's no contact. It reminded me of that infamous, ok not so infamous, World Cup game when Brazil were playing and a ball rolled against Rivaldo's foot and he clutched his face in agony and fell to the ground. Ah crazy people make for a lot of funny moments.
Anyway back to the game. The characters all look great, especially the DC ones. The Joker looks menacing, Superman looks square jawed as usual and Catwoman looks *phwoar* (as some may call it)
If you’re a hardcore fan or either franchise or better yet both and this has been a dreams of yours, then go and get it because for that adoration it doesn’t fail. It looks stylish, it just needs to feel like it.
3/5
SpiderMan:Web of Shadows
*Beware there are some spoilers in this*
You know I've always wondered where game developers went wrong when it came to superhero games. I mean take Superman. He's got the basic traits of your uber powerful hero, super strength, flight, speed, laser eyes ect. So you'd think a game with him would just be immensely fun and just fantastic. And yet every Superman related game that has come out on any console/format has let down gaming fans and comic book fans. Can you honestly name a Superman game that was bordering on perfection in terms of the formula and the resulting gameplay. Superman Returns was the best I've seen, but it was still prety flawed and repetitive.
Now Spiderman is a different dude altogether, his means of travel, his means of enemy attacks are completely different and from a logical mapped layout for a game you'd think that a Spiderman game would be more difficult to successfully create.
Well screw you logic of the universe and your minions of physics. Cos Spiderman is the only shining example of how to make a good, loyal comic book related game. Primarily I'm thinking of Ultimate Spiderman, Friend or Foe and of course the critically acclaimed Spiderman 2. Spiderman 3 made me cry, let's not talk about it right now.
But while Spiderman 2 topped all comic book games and was favoured as the best Spiderman game by many a reviewer,player and critic, a new Spidey game has come out and I'm going to say it and I don't care what toxic fruit you hurl at me - Web of Shadows is the best damn Spiderman game yet!
Whatever niggles and naggles and other words that sound like lord of the rings creatures, there were in Spidey 2 have been erased, de-bugged and refreshed in this game. You've got all of Manhattan to web-sling around. You can go by foot or by air, though there are times when dropping to the ground and loosing track will result in your mission failing.
Remember in Spiderman 1 when you couldn't go to the streets because the lazy creators couldn't be bothered enhancing the map or graphics. Remember when Spiderman would die from touching the streets of Manhattan? Oh what fun.
If you do fail at a certain point during a mission, it doesn't make you restart from the very beginning of that said quest, no no, the boys at Activision realised that would anger players.
If you are chasing a bad-guy, let's say it's Electro and there's 4 parts to this. You fight him on a rooftop, then a railway, then the river and then a bridge - well if you loose track of him at the river you're not sent back to the rooftop, you just carry on from the river again.
Yes that was a rather long winded analogy, but it goes to show that aside from the genre of the game, a general gaming faux pas has been wiped out altogether. Nothing worse than getting so close to completing a task only to have some stupid interruption ruin it for you and send you back to the beginning.
Depending on what console you got the game on you'll have a different roster of Marvel guest stars. There are some though that will appear in all formats, like the Black Cat, deliciously voiced and acted by Tricia Helfer of awesome Battlestar Galactica fame.
*spoiler alert-avert thine eyes*
Symbiote Black Cat is freaky as hell though.The hair...lord.
I don't really like this Marvel idea of having different selections for different consoles. They've done it with the atrocious X-Men 3 and also with the groovy Ultimate Alliance games. Don't. I played he Xbox version and found out Aunt May appears in another. Do you know how cool it would of been to see her go all symbiotic on Spidey!
The guest stars not only feature as geeky eye candy, but can also be called upon, when your special metre bar is full, to aid you. To be honest I was that immersed in battles that I rarely called upon them, but when you do it's pretty cool and they do fight off the baddies. Black Cat is especially useful.
The main feature of this game is the choice system, which isn't a constant re-occurence but is split evenly across the game. Depending on your choice of Black or Red, I'm sure you can guess which is good and which is bad, you'll be treated to a different cut-scene and also a different ending. Also such actions will unlock different achievements.
You'll get some 'escort' missions, which thankfully don't last too long. I hate escort missions, but the way it was done in this game made me not growl with anger...for once.
The attacks are plentiful and enhanced greatly by the real-time instant transformation between black and red. You could web zip a baddie and have changed between costuumes 3 times before your foot is shoved down there throat.
You are given tutorials in certain moves by other heroes and the ones thought to you by Luke Cage are REALLY helpful, if not annoying to get use to at the very start. Lets just say without web-zip linining enemies and being able to bounce between, as well as using the Black Suits tendril attacks, this game would be extremely difficult and annoying to many players. The B button is your friend gamers.
There is one boss battle, where you have no choice but to use such attacks as it's in the air and you're too far up to web-sling onto anything.
You gain EXP points for every enemy vanquished in this game and can upgrade your moves. There's a great array to choose from and as you progress some attacks are just that damn cool you'll never grow tired of using them. The speed and fluid movement of some attacks is just amazing and breath-taking and completely makes this game a big fat juicy winner.
I can't praise this game enough. Ok I could but you'll all poor banana juice on your screens and then fall asleep and have sticky banana juice faces.
5/5
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
It was only a matter of time before Rare brought its cutesy platforming series Banjo-Kazooie to the Xbox 360. At some point in the development process, however, a wise person realized the world might not need yet another cutesy platformer, so instead we've got Nuts & Bolts, an irreverent, self-aware, open-world, vehicle-based, Tinkertoy-workshop action game. That's a lot of adjectives, but I'd happily swap them all out for a single one like "stupendous." If you'd told me I would ever like a Banjo-Kazooie game so much, I would have called you crazy. But for numerous reasons I sincerely love this one.
Before I ever got into the unique mechanics that make this such a fun game to play, Nuts & Bolts grabbed me with its bold, batty, referential, self-deprecating sense of humor. The game pokes fun at itself and the Banjo series constantly, with references to the "lame" storylines in the original Banjo games and the fact "that italian gentleman" has sold far more games in his time. The lampoon job extends to the entire video game industry, with constant jabs at Rare and its other franchises, the Xbox 360, the Frag Dolls, and a lot more. Every cutscene, exchange of dialogue, and mission description is sharper, wittier, and funnier than it has any business being in a Banjo-Kazooie game, of all things. The game can be downright hilarious.
This sort of fourth-wall-busting metahumor is personified in the game's excellent new character the Lord of Games, a self-important set of hovering purple robes with a Pong-emblazoned TV for a face who claims to be the creator of every single video game ever made. At the beginning, Banjo and Kazooie are hanging out on Spiral Mountain, fat and out of work since their last outing eight years ago. Along comes the severed head of Gruntilda, the series' witchy antagonist, looking for trouble again. But before they can square off to see who can collect the most pointless items the fastest, in comes the Lord of Games to restore Banjo's fitness, give Grunty a new mechanical body, and send them off to a hub world called Showdown Town in a race to...collect a different kind of pointless item. The game gleefully wears this sort of game-design irony right on its sleeve.
L.O.G. creates a handful of different-themed game worlds you can enter from Showdown Town, and in each of them you'll find the same roster of Banjo characters like Mumbo, Humba Wumba, Bottles, and Klungo waiting to dispense missions that each yield a jiggy (a jigsaw puzzle piece that's the Banjo equivalent of Mario's stars). This isn't your typical assortment of generic ice worlds and desert worlds, though. There's LOGBox 720, where you explore the innards of a gigantic "next-next gen" game console. The Jiggoseum is a sort of Olympic stadium full of athletic challenges. Banjoland is like a comical museum of past Banjo games and historical event all smashed into one small space. The Terrarium of Terror is a vaguely sci-fi-themed glass enclosure full of aliens and gigantic fungi. Plenty more opportunities for jokes go along with each of these worlds, and the game smartly makes the most of them. The first time you enter a world, you get a TV sitcom-style intro with all the Banjo characters playing different comical roles (Humba Wumba is "The Long-Suffering Wife" in the "Green Acres" knock-off) and expertly produced theme music that instantly calls to mind the sort of show that's being aped.
Funny writing and varied game worlds are all well and good, but it's the vehicle-building feature that really sets Banjo apart from other character-driven action games. Make no mistake: This is not a platformer, certainly not in the style of the old Banjo games. You can run and jump, climb on ledges, and walk tightropes--and there's a good number of collectible notes to jump around collecting--but almost all of your traveling and mission action will be done in vehicles.
The workshop is where you can put together all kinds of wild-looking, multifunctional vehicles from generic parts you can find and purchase as you go. The vehicle-building is really easy to get a handle on, and you can intuit how a vehicle is going to perform just based on the parts you add. If you slap a jet engine and a pair of wings on your racing car, you can expect it to fly. An airplane with a couple of inflatable floaters attached to each side can double as a boat. There are gadgets and doohickeys for pushing, carrying, sucking, blowing, and a myriad of other functions. You can get egg shooters, laser guns, homing missiles, energy shields, and a lot more to extend the functionality of your car-plane-boat.You can save these blueprints and trade them on Xbox Live with your friends, too.
Initially, I got frustrated with some of the game's vehicle controls, and I suspect most other people will too. But it's not that they're bad; it's simply a consequence of different parts being used together inappropriately. Too many engines on a light car with basic tires will make you fishtail and spin out constantly. But if you add more weight and replace those tires with the high-grip variety, the driving will get way more manageable. So it's more about getting a feel for how the vehicle systems work together.
Don't think the vehicle-building is a throwaway feature only die-hard gearheads will get into. It's as integral to the mission-based action as it is easy to get into. There's an enormous variety of mission types available here, all designed around the things you can accomplish with a properly designed vehicle. Various missions will task you with moving cargo, getting into different kinds of combat, running checkpoint races (on land, sea, and/or air), playing soccer, demolishing an igloo, watering some giant seeds, winning a vehicular long-jump contest, knocking down dominoes, running an aerial taxi service... The point is, there's a huge number of different mission objectives.
All that variety is due to how flexible and extensive the vehicle options are. I can't count the number of times I had a problem beating a particular mission, only to go back into the editor and build a better vehicle more suited to the current task that made finishing the mission much easier. That even happened with the game's final boss, which I thought was unreasonably difficult after I failed to beat it over and over. Half an hour in the workshop and I emerged with a new bruiser of a combat vehicle that I used to trounce the boss on my first try. You feel like your ingenuity is really being rewarded when you dig deep into the vehicle possibilities and find more effective (and in some cases, entirely new) ways to approach a particular task. In fact, you'll have to make use of the workshop, as the missions get harder and harder and you'll soon hit a wall you simply can't pass with the stock vehicles. If you truly don't want to build your own, you can purchase blueprints for new pre-made vehicles that become available as you get more and more jiggies. But that would be missing out on half of the fun. I personally enjoyed starting with the stock blueprints and tweaking different vehicles out to meet my current needs.
The game makes it easy to replay finished missions from a simple menu. Actually, the game makes it easy to access everything. You can change vehicles or enter the workshop at any time from the pause menu. If you ever get separated from your vehicle, you can hold down a button to warp right back to it. These shortcuts are just, well, pleasant.
The aim for this game would of been to not only be great fun for players and especially kids, but also for those who were lucky enough to experience the original B&K game on the N64. A little bit of nostalgia now&again i never a bad thing.
Funny, inventive, gorgeous--and cheap. Microsoft decided to charge a mere $40 for Nuts & Bolts, but I got more laughs and more satisfying gameplay out of this one than most of the $60 games I've played this year. And even after spending nearly 20 hours amassing enough jiggies to take down the final boss, I'm compelled to get back in there and keep playing new missions, unlocking new vehicle parts, and exploring more of the game's beautiful world. I had no affection whatsoever for the Banjo-Kazooie franchise or characters going into Nuts & Bolts, but its list of great qualities quietly won me over to make it one of my favorite Xbox 360 games of the year.
5/5
NBA Street Homecourt
Coming soon!
Nearly there folks we swear!
BloodRayne 2
So you thought the first Bloodrayne was a raunchy vampiric leather bound adventure. Well apparently the creators were holding back, because they've upped the anty with the sequel. The innuendo, profanity, and lots and lots of blood and gore have increased and it seems like Rayne is loving every minute of it
The story in BloodRayne 2 has Rayne travelling the world so she can kill off her siblings and her evil vampire father after he had killed off her mother’s entire family. Oh the cheeky sod. Early on in the game, Rayne discovers a plan by her evil brothers and sisters to create a weapon called the Shroud. The Shroud is a blood fueled weapon that would cover the sky with a layer of blood and allow vampires to come out in the daylight and do whatever they please. I swear when I heard this I thought the Shroud was just some sort of oversized napkin that they'd run about with and thereby loose any sense of malice they naturally had. Pity..would of made for interesting gameplay viewing.
Want a symbol of over sexed bloodlust, well just activate blood-sucking Rayne. Rarrrr and all that jazz. See Rayne is half vampire,so she still needs gooey crimson sustinence. When you go to feed on someone, she leaps on them, wraps her legs around them and gorges on their necks. Yum. This enables her health to replinishs as well as some other useful abilities to be refueled. You can also execute a victim after you've finished supping on them and though there are 12 versions of kills, they do after CONSTANT repetition get a little boring, but if you like that sort of thing JUDGEMENT ALERT: (you oddball) you'll probably find it never wears thin.
Combat has been improved and thankfully the clunkyness that hampered your enjoyment in the 1st game seems to have been improved and there are also more variables in attacks and movements. Always a nice bonus. Though in saying that there's not much of an upgrade in graphics. In a second I'm going to boast about the more appealing cleaned visuals, so before you scream Hypocrit and arsonists...what? I'm going to explain. If you saw gameplay from the 1st and this one side by side, and you were new to the whole BloodRayne franchise, of um a whole 2 games, you'd be hard pressed to pick out which was the new one...if you were blind. See I got my point across in a non cunfusing way. Ssssshhh.The brutality in the game funnily enough has been improved and I suppose it would need to be as it's one of the key selling points in the great trinity of game marketing aimed at males. Tits, blood and well designed forestry!
If you've played the 1st game and enjoyed it, this seems like a more polished refreshed version. But it still has some flaws, that border on annoying, yawm-some and downright embarassing. The latter would be paired with the voice acting. Oh me oh my, that's a cheesy dialogue and cast you got there BloodRayne 2. The developers seem to have gone half and half with this game. They decided to keep a lot of the merits that stood out as a positive in the 1st game, ok that wasn't much. But they've polished up, a little spit shine here and there and that's always, normally, a good thing.Hey it's within context of the M rated game I'm reviewing!!
3.5/5
DBZ: Sagas
Ah Sagas. When I first heard about this game I got excited. See at the time the only DBZ games I had played were the standard staple that is DBZ Fighting games, so to have a game on the Xbox and for it to be an adeventure was something to wet yourself over. Well...you know um. May I remind those that own consoles that are not the wonderous XBOX that it had not had a DBZ game yet, so all my journeys into the land of fangirl drooling occured on the gameboy variants. So es excitement lingered in my fragile wittle heart and the excretion of sheer pain and bloody tears shattered free when I finally years later actually got the game and played it.
Confused about why it took so long for me to get the game after bitching about it? Well for some clever reason, the game wasn't released here in shops. And the reviews and fan critics weren't very kind to the game so I thought "Hmmm not worth buying it online if it's such a letdown" Few years later, I get a cheap copy and play it purely for nostalgic curiousity and because someone dared to request a review. You guys...it's sooo not worth it.
Characters avaible are:
Goku (The Arrival, Saiyans Duel, Ascended, RIT Armor, Cell Games) Vegeta (Saiyan Elite, RIT Armor, RIT Armor Variant)
Gohan (Kid, Kid RIT Armor, Teen RIT Armor, Teen Namekian Uniform, Teen Cell Games, Adult, Adult with One Arm...wtf?) Piccolo (Normal, With Cape)
Future Trunks (No Jacket, Dark Jacket, Light Jacket, RIT Armor, RIT Armor Variant, Teen)
Unlockables are: Yamcha, Kirllin, Tien, Bardock and Broly.
Standard stock I'd say.
Players will move throughout various stages ranging from Planet Namek to Earth ect, while playing as a level specific character. Each level has a mission objectives list, but this is slightly different from the previous levels. Players will have to collect items in each area, while battling loads of enemies and occasionally the need to protect another character will arise. Combat in Sagas is extremely simple as you have a punch, kick, and energy button and different combinations of these create combos. You can buy new moves from time to time, but all these do is add an extra punch or kick to existing combos so you see the same stuff over and over again. Button mashing is the name of the game here and after the first level or so the combat becomes mind numbingly boring. The game has a sick fascination with throwing tons of enemies at you at once and the fighting engine can’t keep up. Blocking is basically worthless and you aren’t fast enough to actually dodge enemy projectile shots.
The camera work in Sagas creates difficulty especially when you're being attacked from an awkward unseeable angle. In fairness, and this is probably just to try and not bash it so much that it's on par with the damn awful Taiketsu, it does a good job of telling the DBZ story, it's just Sagas doesn’t do very well at keeping the gamer’s interest. This is a good direction to take a DBZ game, it's just an extrmemly lazy execution of it. The voice actors from the series lend their talents once again and they sound great, but the sound effects and music leave a lot to be desired.
Gameplay is dodgy, movement is clunky, actions are repetitibe to the point of clawing your eyes out. If this wasn't a branded game it would of been burned and stamped on, though in reverse order obviously by even the most gentle and sane of humans.
0.5/5
AudioSurf
Audiosurf is at best a fun timekiller. It's not meant to be epic, it's probably meants to be the new faster, brighter and more crazy version of all those card games you have on your computer, that you play when your internet is down or when you're waiting for Crysis to install.
So how do you play this: You are the level designer of this game and you pick a song, any song, so long as you've got an mp3 of it. This creates your Audiosurf level or course. The track twists, slopes and turns in time to a quick'n'dirty analysis of the your song choice's structure. This game reminds me of Guitar Hero, only a less nerve wrecking version and I have yet to actually play any variation of those performance X-Factor style games. Mono, has players collecting coloured blocks and avoiding grey ones. Greys prevent grouping, but if the player manages to avoid every single grey block a 30% score bonus is awarded.Woohoo. Other modes, of which there are many, introduce different controllable musicships with various abilities.
Using just the mouse and its two primary buttons, the ships can erase blocks, store blocks for later use, move blocks to other piles to create groupings, leap over greys, and clear any collected greys. The main joy of this game is besting it on the various difficulties and having a colourful lightshow express your music choices. It's one of those addictive high-score games with online options, that I've heard are pretty good, such as world leaderboards. Overall this is a fun game, there's no complaints about the overall gameplay as it's standard and does exactly what it says on the chrome tin. That said, the game can be dulled if you choose a slow boring song, so be careful of our emo-tastic options.
5/5
BloodRayne
What have you done to my head gamers? Bloodrayne? I never ever wanted to play this game, but noooo someone somewhere, you know who you are, made me. Yes they put an imaginary gun to my temple and made me play this. Damn I'm getting the flm mixed up with the game. Don't worry this isn't DBZ:Taiketsu Redux.
So if you figure out the not so complicated backstory of the femme fatale lead character in this game you'll notice that she bares an uncanny resemblence to a male vampire character in Marvel. Slap yourself twice if you thought Morbius. Damn, slap yourself again. It's BLADE.
You play as Rayne, a half-vampire working in the 1930s for the secretive aptly named Brimstone Society. Hmm a murky underbelly of evil methinks? It has taken the sultry young lady under its scabby sulphur stenchedwing and turned her into agent BloodRayne, license to skank, a warrior helping the organization protect humanity from creepy things that go bump in the night. Rayne also likes to go bumpies in the night, but that's an extra-curricular note. She's also got a bone to pick with evil Nazis searching for arcane artifacts and with her long-lost vampire father, who started her not-so-happy family. Hello the Undead Boobalicious version of Indiana Jones.
A backstory is always appreciated in most games, in say Duke Nukem it's not needed at all. But that does not make up for whatever is lacking in gameplay. This is a stock example of an action adventure game, with a strong emphasis on action and lots of jumping challenges involving Rayne's deadliest foe, water. Yes dearies, long has the tale been spun that holy water was able to burn the dreaded Vampyre, when all along all we needed with a mopful of regular H2O to send them howling to their damp death. Bloodrayne does a half decent job of setting an eerie mood, only 3/4's of the time. Work your head around that bamboozle equation. It's main crutch to aid with the feeling of spookyness is fog, that doesn't always lie on the ground. Rayne hacks her way through the enemies, using more than two dozen weapons to slice and dice her mutant, Nazi, demon, cultist, and vampire foes. It's all here folks. The in-game armory includes precision pistols, shotguns that can make baddies explode in a gooey mess (radical), and more intimate devices like Rayne's harpoon (which can pull victims to her much like Scorpion's spear in the Mortal Kombat series) and her huge wrist blades. The weapons in this game are actually pretty cool and a nice departure from your average ammo fodder arsenal. Movement can be a bit of pain with the cliché traps of bumping into things and of course fecking jumping obstacles. Remember the dreaded water monster i.e puddles.
Rayne's movements are terribly jerky, to the point where it's hard to keep her under control. New attack options are featured when Rayne goes into blood rage mode--a berserker option available when you kill enough enemies with blade attacks to max out the bloodlust meter. I would say it's a Wolverine or KOTOR II copycat, but it came along first so why on earth would I say that?! Rayne indulges her vampiric nature by feeding on defeated enemies. This allows her to boost her health and apparently get a porno soundbite rush. It's um interesting...
It's not the worst game ever by no means and yet it's not the best either. It certainly is different and certainly warranted a rent at the very most if you didn't want to shell out for it. But that was when it first came out. If you find it in a bargin bin and want to whet your appetite out of curiousity then I wouldn't say no. You could certainly play worse games. But this game is clumpy and the action is just bad. Apart from titilation and the rare cool weapon executions it's just a foggy repetitious episode.
If you like vampires, like Buffy type games, but for some reason didn't find the Buffy games appealing enough and also like to play as a scantily clad dominatrix half breed femme - then by all means go out, forage and enjoy this game. If you want to live in the real world,forget this game, buy the vastly superior Buffy games on the Xbox and be damn grateful.
2.5/5
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS takes the gameplay mechanics of the original game, and serves them up in a completely new graphics engine that brings this classic game to you in full 3D, with brand new art for every character and monster you encounter.
Final Fantasy III's visuals are quite impressive for the DS and the character models are now colorful three-dimensional figures that animate far more fluidly. You'll meet dancers that will do a quaint little routine for your viewing pleasure, and you'll explore a world that's asimple tile-based layout.
I'm not sure who most of the people are in this game and if you've read any other FF reviews, ok there's just one, you might remember me stating I'm not a fan and don't play them. So I won't be rating this numerically out of some sort of credance to lovers of the series. But this has been requested and due to reasons of suchery, it's a word now, I got this of someone, played it and lo' I cometh with a mediocre review.
The full-motion video sequence recorded for the game's introduction is on par with the best FMV you'll see on an older gen console. It's a shame that more of this wasn't created for the rest of the game, and the lacklustre storyline suffers from it. This isn't the epic tale you may be looking for from your RPG, then again for die-hard fans it may be just enough for them to drool over.
There are loads of random battles, and many of the encounters you face in the game are quite challenging. The game puts you in a few situations where you can easily wander off into a dangerous area far too challenging for your party's current level, so if you plan on playing without a guide of any sort, it behooves you to save often.
The biggest reason you'll have for playing this game, if you're a massive RPG, mainly Japanese based, fan.Your quadruplet of ninja padawan orphan adventurers are a blank slate for you to work with, and tinker with them you will, if you plan to experience all the game has to offer. Each character can choose a staple first job class soon after the game begins, and as the game progresses, more advanced job classes make themselves available. You'll begin with the default White Mage, Black Mage, Monk and Fighter jobs, for instance, but are more specialized roles in due time, that I have not yet dabbled with but they include including the Dragoon, Geomancer and Ninja. You can experiment between classes at will, with only a brief downtime between character changes.
I've heard that your enjoyment of Final Fantasy III hinges entirely on your desire to play a game with decidedly old school game mechanics that may seem slightly primitive and uninviting to those who have only played FF console versions. But then again if that's the only interferring with your enjoyment of a game series that you're suppose to be an uber "fall on a sword before you let anyone bad-mouth Sephiorth or whoever he's called" fan, then you must of been born with silver spoon lodge in your gob
Yes, the gameplay can get tedious. Yes, the traveling can be slow at times. Yes, it can be difficult and require plenty of trial and error. But if you're a RPG warrior, all these challenges comes with the territory. And if you're an FF fan, I'd presume and don[t stone me for being preumptious, that this game will be right up your hentai loving alley. Did I say Hentai, I meant to say...hentai.
Devil May Cry 4
To those who were waiting on this particular review, pardon the long excursion. I'll state a few facts to begin with. I have never played Devil May Cry games before. And I will never play one again...more than likely.
See the thing is these sorts of games for me are usually thrown into a bundle with other games that you either love or hate not so much because of the story and characters, as the actual genre of game play. Another prime example of a game is anything from the Final Fantasy series. See I have never even been curious about these games and never once wanted to pick one up. The same can be said for DMC, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto (par the first aerial one) and probably numerous other games that are quite popular. Oh and any World War game. So when I say that I do not intend to ever play this game, don't misunderstand me and think I'm going to bash bash bash on this game cos that's not what I'm trying to say. What I'm trying to say is...oh wait I just said it above. Sigh that was a pointless sentence. As was that. And that...oh feck it.
In DMC 4 you play as Nero and most of the time you'll be after his love interest Kyrie, who got kidnapped by baddies, obviously they weren't hardly saints of goodness. I understand that someone called Dante was the hero from earlier DMC games and for those fans of that character, never fear, he becomes a playable character at a later stage of the game. A noteworthy is not cliché concern is the camera angling. Quite often throughout the game, players aren't given the best angle to view the action that they're immersed in. There are many sections in the game where you cannot see where the hero needs to jump or where his enemies are and this can be a serious obstacle more often than not.
While somewhat linear and a little repetitive and mini games I could of done without, the graphics and sound are both stellar on many levels, but the biggest reason the game is entertaining is the combat itself. Ripping whole armies of demons to shreds at breathtaking speed or watching a mighty end boss fall before you're ironed fringe hair might is a lot of fun. So this is me given an honest opinion of a game that, while I thought wasn't too bad, isn't something I really needed to play or to be honest wanted too. I can appreciate another person’s love of something regardless of my own feelings about it. I just find that some games aren't geared at a certain people and rely simply on initial romantic lovey dovey feelings between themselves and a curious bored gamer with a wad of money to spare.
3/5
MegaMan Battle Network 2
How many Megaman games are there now? Ok I don't have enough fingers to count, I thought 13 would be more than enough.
The story takes place in the land of ACDC (rock on!) where main character Lan lives. People in the town use PETs (Personal Terminals) to make calls, send emails, read news, etc. Battle Network 2 improves on many important aspects such as, the overall pace of the game.
Enemies have an added stockpile of attacks. For your own characters attacks rapid movement is usually required. The bosses at times need to be struck quite fast in order to be effected effectively. There are more battle chips now and Lan will acquire more on the net and also via chip dealers. You can hold up to 30 different chips at 1 time by placing them in the Folder. Virus battles pop up RPG-style, and hording teams of monster viruses gang up on you. It's simple, real-time combat, but it keeps your thumbs pumping and the strategy grabs you in.
Alot of similarities between this BN game and the first one are noticeable, this game is dubbed a sequel and yet has a lot of traits that could make it a slightly polished remake. Because of that reason, I can't really delve too deeply into this game at a gaming alone perspective because it's been said before with it's prequel game.
It's a fun rpg, and though there isn't much depth in the character advancements in storyline and backgrounds ect like you'd find in other RPG titles, the fact that this game succeeds to conquer in the gameboy rpg-ing world, is quite commendable. It's cute, colourful and an intelligent game that anyone can enjoy. Even if you're not a MM fan, you can pick up BN games.
4/5
EVERYTHING OR NOTHING
Everything or Nothing is yet another James Bond game, one that's followed in what I think is a successful succession of previous Xbox related titles. Yes I know it's on other consoles I'm just not going to list every one of them. Simplicity folks, simplicity.
One of the great things about this game is that is features a great voice cast, primarily of the people from the films, Pierce Brosnan, Judi Dench and John Cleese. No Samantha Bond Moneypenny though unfortunately.The facial likenesses of the characters is spot on too, the design team did a good job. It also has Heidi Klum and William Dafoe for goodness sake. The goodness sake expression was more in reverence of Dafoe, no offence Klum. We have Mya or someone with a single Cher like name doing the introduction song, which is awesome and Bond-like. You'll get what I mean if you've ever come across dodgy Bond song renditions and she also features in a level. There are a few other noteworthy actors/actresses in this game. I mean I don't think anyone would of heard of that dude that plays Jaws. No I'm kidding. Yes Mr Kiel Jaws is in this game too, only he plays a bad guy again, which for continuity issues makes no sense as the last time Bond met him, which we know off in Moonraker, they teamed up. Aww best friends forever didn't last long did it.
The gameplay in this game differs from previous titles, such as Nightfire and Agent Under Fire (sensing a temperature theme here). It's a 3rd person shooter. When I first heard about this I was a little bit sceptical, but after playing the game (repeatedly) I found that it works extremely well. The targeting lock on system is pretty damn good, but sometimes you can get mixed up between targeting an enemy and say an explosive barrel or something that is directly beside them. Bond can run, walk throw himself forward in a a dodging motion and also perform stealthy melee attacks and just melee hand to hand ones as well. He can also hug corners, hide behind crates ect and shoot from them. Oh and zip-line down buildings while filling enemies with bullets. Alll riiite.
You also have a nifty supply of Q brand gadgetry to help you evade and eradicate the foe. I particularly like the nano Q spiders. The spider is a remote controlled arachnid capable of sneaking through small holes to recon ahead, as well for picking up much-needed items and dispatching enemies. With the way the thing looks, as well as the way it sounds and controls, you’ll find yourself toying with it even when you don’t need to. The network adapter is equally fun because it allows you to tap into enemy systems in order to use them against the enemy. Want to use the weapon systems of a tank you can’t get to, to clear out a hangar? No problem, just target the tank and shoot. Same goes for gun turrets and the like. There's an emphasis on the word nano a lot in this game, as the main villain played by Dafoe is using them in his global domination scheme. He also is an apparent prodigal heir to Max Zorin, the creepy Christopher Walken baddie from A View to A Kill. If Grace Jones had of been in this game it would of messed my mind up. You think Resident Evil or Silent Hill is scary, I dare you to ever look that woman in the eye or even both of them!
The driving in this game is good though sometimes can be a bit erratic, but I've found driving sequences in these games to be quite fun and easy to master after a couple of trial attempts. EA has even managed to sneak the Need For Speed: Underground engine into the New Orleans section of the game to beautiful effect.
You get to drive a lovely Porsche Cayenne Turbo or motorbike in the first level, up to you. Though you will end up using different paths. You also get to drive the GREATEST CAR THAT EVER WAS MADE, the Aston Martin Vanquish. Bow before it's beauty! DO IT!
The cinematic are pretty good, though I sometimes there could of been a bit more voomph! to them. Don't act like that isn't a word.
This is one of my favourites games as is as enjoyable if not slightly, teeny tiny bit more so than Goldeneye. You like Bond, get this game. That's an order. The music rocks, the sound rocks, the gameplay is fun and you feel like a real spy. The visuals are groovy and one of the most important aspects of a game like this is pulled off extremely well in my opinion. That is, you feel like you're in a James Bond movie, this game could of been scripted for a film. Hey it'll be better than that heap o’ cack, Never Say Never Again. Dammit not that bloody song is in my head too.
5/5
Mega Man 2
I won’t say I’m a fan of the Megaman series because I’m not, I enjoy the series and have no qualms with it, but there are people out there that really REALLY love Megaman, maybe it’s the awesome name, maybes it’s the names slightly camp undertones or maybe it’s because it’s quite simply a fun, quirky and well made game. They hold the rank of Mega Man fanatic and I simply hold the rank of Mega Man gamer.
The only real aspect lacking in this game is challenge. I have a feeling Capcom made this game easier because a lot of people felt the first Mega Man game was too hard. Well, Mega Man 1 had some bosses that were practically impossible to beat, unless you used that glitch where you fire the Elec Beam, then pause and unpause the game. Also, there was no way to save the game. To make things easier this time, Capcom included a password system in the game to save your progress, and you can also find Energy Tanks in some levels that restore your energy once per tank. Extra lives also seem more common in this game. Fixing annoying flaws is a good thing, but I don't think it was necessary to tone the difficulty down this much. Unlike its predecessor, in which all robot masters had a clear weakness to one of the others' weapons, this game's a bit more open-ended. Most robot masters can be killed with the Mega Buster with no trouble.
But the beauty of Mega Man 2 is in the details. Each level is crafted to be more difficult than the last, and there is a specific way you should take on the levels. See, it's non-linear, too. That's nice; the player gets to pick their challenge. Each weapon that you pick up has different effects on the boss enemies, and you should pick the right tool for the job. The sound effects are quite good and are basically copied from other Megaman games. Mega Man 2, undoubtedly, has one of the best soundtracks of all of the NES Mega Man games, which I've played anyway.
Mega Man 2 is generally known as the best of the series I'm told, and for good reasons. It's the only Mega Man with a difficulty setting; meaning both new players and veterans can enjoy it. If you want a good platformer, look no further than this, this is classic Capcom platforming action at it's very best.
5/5