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Average Overall Score Given: 8.00000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 6
Reviews
Brute Force
Overall: Brute Force fails to meet the level of pre-release hype surrounding the game, but just barely. The game suffers more from it?s own potential than any real flaw in the game and when you rank the game based purely on the fun factor; it?s a winner. Gameplay: This game carries more dynamic levels of gameplay that anything else on the XBOX right now, and it?s all good. Some of the most intriguing aspects are the way in which you can traverse through the battlefields eliminating enemies. Take the lead and shoot up anything unfortunate to cross your path or take a leadership position from the back as the strategic leader sending your forces into battle while you snipe the enemies from afar. Sounds good and it?s just the single player aspect of the game.
Multi-player while not as good as Halo provides some fantastically good times when your able to have 8 characters on the map that are controlled by just two people. It?s a nice touch when you are limited in the number of players but can still play a more complex game.
Graphics: There is some room for improvement in the visuals. It's better than most, definately next generation stuff here.
Audio: I don't pay much attention to sound so if it's not annoying, it's usually fine by me. The guns could sound a little better but all in all it's definately well rounded in the audio aspects as well.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Shenmue 2
Overall: As much as I wanted to like this game, it was a huge disappointment and I?m pretty easy to please. This game could have been so much more, but it deeply lacks depth in gameplay as you will spend almost half your time behind the controller watching cut scenes. I kept asking myself if I had bought an interactive movie with a little gaming thrown in. Make no mistake, there are some great elements to this game but there is very little ?game? to Shenmue II and no way to bypass the cut scenes so you?re a captive prisoner to them. Without them, this is about a 10-hour game in regards to actual gamer interaction.Gameplay: This game contains all the important elements to be the perfect game. Unfortunately, it falls drastically short in all of them. It has a great concept in regards to story line, but appears that they are trying to spread the wealth of it?s 16 chapters over too many games when each game should cover more ground. It has breathtaking visuals in it?s cut scenes, but one every three minutes is overkill. I was impressed with it?s fighting engine and controls, but it was frustrating to battle it out with enemies only to find out that you must lose so that that the story can continue. It has great action and exploration overtones, but little gameplay for the player to actually interact with the game.
In summary, what little gameplay is excellent, but there?s not much in this game.
Graphics: Many have exposed the game for unappealing graphics. I disagree wholeheartedly. The graphics are not the most detailed, and the fluidity of the characters isn?t the best, but by and large, the visual experience of this game is truly inspiring when taken collectively. The color pallet used in the game makes almost every scene a stunning image.
Audio: The voiceovers in this game are terrible, not because of they are in English, but because you get tired of hearing the same thing over and over. If I had a nickel for each time Ryo says ?sure? when moving crates, Bill Gates would be the second richest man in America. Same thing goes for other characters in the game as well. Variety is the spice of life and the prospect of having characters say the same three words over and again is frustrating.
The other elements in the game are actually quite good. The music and the background sounds really add the experience.
Suggestions: It?s certain that the developers have a great plot and story to tell through the Shenmue series. It?s too bad that we don?t get to see much of it being told in each installment of the game. There?s hours on end in this game that is mindless, non-interactive, and just plain boring that could have been substituted with more involvement from the gamer if the developers would push the story along.
My suggestion would be to cut 75% of the cut scenes and let the more of the story evolve in actual gamer interaction rather than being led through the story by the nose in cut scenes.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Overall: This game is both superb and flawed at the same time. It?s revolutionary in terms of gameplay graphics but really lacks depth in the storyline and the cut scenes are like getting a root canal. While it?s a great romp in the park the first time around, it has little replay value and the challenges in the game differ little with each map.Gameplay: Splinter Cell sets the bar for gameplay a few notches higher with it?s innovative physics and fluid movements of the main character. Your first mission or two makes you realize what gaming should be. That being said, this game incorporates a little too much of a good thing and there?s little variety in gameplay from level to level.
If you?re content with a repetitive, but great style of play on different maps, go no further because what SC does, it?s the very best. If you seek even the slightest variation or character development, you?re going to be disappointed as from start to finish, only the maps change, not how you complete the challenge.
Graphics: Regarding gameplay graphics, this game is rock-hard solid. The use of lighting and shadows is superb and the fluidity in which Sam moves is outstanding. Add night and thermal vision into the mix, and you have a great visual gaming experience.
I didn?t degrade my rankings, but Splinter Cell?s cut-scenes are so bad that I thought it was worth mentioning. As great as the gameplay aspects of this graphical masterpiece are, the cut scenes are equally as bad.
Audio: The sound and voiceovers are very good, but not great. This game borders on silence so it?s a little hard to critic this game on gameplay audio.
Suggestions: This game would have been perfect if the developers would have taken the old adage ?there?s more than one way to skin a cat? to heart. I would have enjoyed utilizing different stealth strategies from level to level and certainly would have preferred maps where there was multiple avenues to complete the mission.
I found sneaking around in the shadows great the first 3 or 4 levels exhilarating, but it became old hat by the end of the game. It would have been nice to mix it up a little more at some point in the game with a mental challenge or two to go along with the extremely linear gameplay that exists in the game.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind
Overall: If you're intrested in an immersive game where you can be part of the action and control your destiny, this is the greatest game ever made.Gameplay: It's greatest asset is its replayability and ability to keep a gamer satisfaction for literally hundreds of hours. The depth of at which each new character can be viewed as an entirely new game is absolutely amazing!
Graphics: While it's not the prettiest game right out of the box, soon gamers will realize that the numerous environmental changes and variing landscapes make this game a visual masterpiece.
Audio: Sound should complement a game without overwelming it. The games subtle and simple audio has your heart racing at the right time and provides just the right amount of seasoning to make the game a perfect gaming experience.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
