MEMBER PROFILE FOR guns_a_blazin'
Average Overall Score Given: 9.63636 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 0
Reviews
Gears of War
Overall: This is the highly anticipated third person shooter from epic games. You play as Marcus Fenix and fight off an alien invasion of your home planet by the Locust.Gameplay: Gears is a third-person shooter that forces you to use "stop and pop" shooting tactics in order to take out your enemies. Using the environment for cover is of the up most importance in Gears especially in the higher difficulty settings since being out in the open for any length of time will result in quick death.
The AI in Gears is very good, and that goes for both your AI team as well as the Locust enemy. The controls are very easy to learn and work well. In no time you will be running and taking cover as well as rolling from one cover spot to the next in order to evade enemy fire.
The Campaign mode is great. And the storyline is very engaging. Some would say it is very short and I would agree if this was a one player only game. However, I have finished the campaign twice, once on Casual and once on Insane and both times I have done so with a friend on co-op over LIVE. And in this regard I think Gears is just the right length.
Speaking of CO-OP, that is one of the best aspects of Gears. You can play through the entire campagin, not just a dozen or so missions as with other games, with a friend either over LIVE or split screen. And they can jump in at anypoint that you are playing so you don't have to wait for them to start up the game. This is a big plus for replay value and should be an example for other games.
The multiplayer aspect of Gears is very good too. There are three game types. Warzone (team with most victories), Execution (player with most points), and Assassination (one team attempts to protect their leader, while other tries to take the leader out). All games are based on 4 on 4 with Gears vs Locusts.
There are a decent amount of maps and over all the game play is solid. I have noticed that often it is hard to get into a game because you lose connection to the host before you even get into the room. As well, there seems to be a bit of a glitch where your character freezes up and you can't move or shoot. This has happened to me and I have seen it happen to other players as well.
Graphics: Gears is a beautiful game. Set in a backdrop of destruction, the game looks very griity and real. The blood splatter on the screen when you perform a chainsaw kill is awesome. And the explosion of Locust bodies from a frag grenade is really cool. For sure a 17+ title.
Audio: The sound effects and voice-overs are great. The music works very well at setting the dark atmosphere for the game. Sounds great on surround sound turned up loud.
Suggestions: Gears 2 would be my first suggestion. But please fix the glitches on LIVE. Otherwise, Gears is a rock-solid title and Epic accomplished what they set out to do.....make a game that for sure lives up to the hype.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
FEAR: First Encounter Assault Recon
Overall: First-Person Shooter that puts you in the middle of a top secret operation gone terribly wrong. Your job is to locate top-level personal and eliminate the threat.Gameplay: FEAR plays like any top rated FPS. The graphics are smooth and the controls are easy to learn. Weapon selection is very good and the ability to slow down time in order to take out the waves of oncoming soldiers is a big bonus. I've been waiting for this game to make it's 360 debut ever since I saw it for PC.
The campaign is great and the atmosphere is dark and creepy. (Creepy little girls, of "THE RING" variety, always make things extra chilling).
I haven't played much online multiplayer, but from what I have I can say it looks as good as offline. Another cool aspect they through in is that your gamertag is written on the back of your characters uniform when you play online. That is so cool!
Graphics: The game is beautiful to play. There are the occasional hiccups in frame rate but not that bad. The flashback sequences are pretty scary and more often then not you'll be asking yourself "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!"
Audio: The sound in FEAR is top-notch. Best played in 5.1, in the dark for sure. Voice over are awesome and the weapon and explosion sound effects are dead-on.
Suggestions: This game is an excellent experience. Not so hard as to frustrate players but also not so easy as to make you feel you wasted your cash. The presentation is top-notch Hollywood style with you in the leading role. My only suggestion to the dev team is to add online co-op of the campaign. That would rock! Always great playing through a great story with a friend on LIVE.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
Overall: This is a first-person team shooter with 24 person online action. There is also an awesome campaign mode that you can hot-swap between your team AI characters in order to always stay in the action and switch to different classes (ie sniper or special ops) depending on what the sitaution calls for.Gameplay: BF2: MC is one of the best Team FPS' on the market. This game is a ton of fun in everyway. Your main objective in the campaign mode is to complet mission objectives as they are assigned through the level. This is acheived by hotswapping through soldier classes on the fly in order to stay in the heat of the action.
But the best part of this game is the online component. The object of online is to capture as many command points as possible and hold them so that your team controls more respawn points then the enemy team. This also makes the opposing teams ticket counter countdown to zero faster thus giving you the victory. The EA website is an awesome bonus in that it tracks your stats for just about everything related to the game once you link your gamertag to their website.
Graphics: The game is beautfiul and sharp. The physics are great and the character models are very detailed. There are some collision issues and also some clipping that occures while in play. And more often then not when you get killed your dead body will do some real crazy shaking after the fact.
Audio: The weapons and explosions sound great in this game especially in 5.1. This game is loud and is best enjoyed played that way. But just rememeber to have your mic switched to manual and not voice activated or else you'll be sharing that loudness with all your teammates and that becomes annoying quick.
Suggestions: Not much to suggest here except to work on map collision issues like the barrel of a tank being able to penetrate a wall without damaging it. Also, altough 90% of the time the online is lag free, when it does lag, it really lags.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Overall: You play the original trilogy of the Star Wars universe through the LEGO character perspective. Includes all the major charcters as well as vehicles.Gameplay: You play this game through story mode first by completing all three episodes of the Original Trilogy. All along the way you collect LEGO studs which become your currency and unlock new characters and vehicles that become playable through the Free Play Mode which allows you to reach other areas in the game that were previously inaccessible. These areas lead you to more secret items and allow you to build Lego Star Wars vehicles from "mini-kits". Also includes extra challenges that are unlocked once you find Gold Bricks and Power bricks. This game is so full of extras that you will be playing long after you complete the story mode in order to finish 100% of the game.
Graphics: The game is visually stunning. Very shiny and crisp. Just as the first LEGO Star Wars, this game is beautiful to play and watch.
Audio: Game sounds are excellent especially in surround sound. Although the characters don't actually speak words, their actions most of the time speak louder than words.
Suggestions: This game is one of the most fun titles for the 360 just as the first was for the Xbox. What would be really cool would be online co-op play over live. That would be awesome.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Black
Overall: You are a Black Ops soldier working with your AI team to capture the leader of a weapons dealing group called the SEVENTH WAVE.This is a beautifully rendered FPS with amazing visuals and sounds as well as tough AI opponents.
Gameplay: The story is told in the way of flash backs to misions that took place a few days earlier. Right from the start you are ducking for cover and unloading bullets on your enemies. And when I say unloading I mean UNLOADING!
The gameplay is great and you'll find your self flushing out enemies and not always rushing into action since pretty much all of them have full body armour and the only sure kill is a head shot or an RPG. You'll know what I mean when I say that you have to strategize because if you go in running and gunning you'll likely get over powered by alot of enemies. But at the same time, if you take to long hiding out and thinking of your next move then be prepared to turn around and see the enemies advancing on your position and trying to flank you. This game is amazing. If you love fps's then you'll totally get into BLACK.
My only issue with BLACK was in regards to the enemy AI. Now don't get me wrong, these guys for the most part are very smart and take cover when you shoot and try to flank you from different directions, but occassionally I would notice that if you take out an enemy with a headshot and there is another one a mere 3 feet away, he barely reacts to his comrade getting dropped which leaves you with a clean shot to take him out. Thats not too smart but also not always the case.
Graphics: Simply put, THIS GAME IS BEAUTIFUL!
From the moment you start unloading bullets or firing RPG's and blowing up vehicles and buidlings, you will understand what I mean. The game shows alot of detail and I would say is one of the higher quality visual titles for the current-gen systems
And speaking of details, it is a totally intense feeling when you are looking for an incoming RPG and seeing the smoke trail approaching you and knowing you are a few seconds from impact. When you experience it you'll know what I mean.
Audio: When I played through BLACK I had my 5.1 on and the sound was GREAT! If you already haven't figured it out, BLACK is all about the weapons so be prepared to hear LOTS of bullets, LOTS of grenades, and LOTS of RPGS! And with all that you canbet you'll hear LOTS of stuff blowing up in the envionment.
The sound is awesome. And the louder the better! feels just like your in the middle of the craziest war movie ever.
Suggestions: Many people believe that this game was too short. My opinion is that it was just about right in the approx 10 hour range. Mind you after I finished I would have loved an extra level or 2 but you have to remember that each level is taking between 40 and 90 minutes to complete with a few exceptions like the first level. And if you play on higher dificulty settings and have to complete more secondary objectives, it won't seem as short. Maybe if you had included downloadable content such as new levels, then people wouldn't have been so quick to criticize. Just a thought.
My only real suggestion as i know it has been a major complaint from the get go, is that this game DESERVES on line play. A title this good should be shared with others. At the very least a 2 person, split screen co-op would have been awesome. Just glad to know that by the way the story ended, we can look forward to BLACK 2.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Halo 2
Overall: Follow up game to megahit Halo: Combat Evolved. This time around, Halo2 includes Xbox Live support, duel weapon weilding, vehicle jacking....Basically Halo 1 on Steroids baby!Gameplay: AS soon as you start playing Halo2 you start to feel right at home with the controls as they are as familiar as Halo. The only thing that takes a little getting use to is the duel weilding aspect, but that takes very little time to adjust to. the gameplay is amazing and full of action and intensity. The enemy AI is turned up since the first Halo which makes it even more challenging.
This game was a joy to play from start to finish in campaign mode. Bt even more enjoyable than that is the Multiplayer on Xbox Live. That aspect is what makes this game rock to a new level.
Now I am no Halo Professional and will be the first one to admit that I get my !&%$@#* handed to me often on LIVE but I get my fair share of kills and even the I ain't amazing, I love playing this game on LIVE. The matchmaking system that Bungie set up with it's ranking system is to be applauded. AT least when I go into a match I know that I will be playing with other of comparible skill (some more experienced, some less, but none the less pretty close), instead of walking into a match where I can barely squeeze off a round cause my competition does nothing but live in front of an XBOX playng Halo all day and night.
Kudos also goes to bungie for their stats tracking and all the other features on the bungie website. They aimed to make this the most amazing online FPS experience and they surpassed their mark.
Graphics: The game is beautiful! Lighting effects, everything is just beatiful. AS mentioned before, there are popins during cutscenes but that does not effect the game play. And seeing as there is no load times between levels, that is a really small price to pay, so I really wouldn't complain about it.
Audio: The audio in Halo2 is just as amazing and beautiful as it was in Halo: CE. The sound effect of the weapons and environment are just awesome. I don't have 5.1 but I do listen to this baby through my stereo and through headphones so I do get it all up close and person. Awesome sound!
Suggestions: Bungie did an amazing job on H2 and deserve all the acclaim it has received. You all surpassed our expectaions for this game (and the expectations were high) especially with the Xbox LIVE features and Stats tracking with the bungie.net site.
I really don't know what you can do to improve such an amazing experience that is HALO2, but I am sure you will find a way. As Halo:CE was my reason for purchasing an Xbox, Halo2 was my reason for subscribing to LIVE, (although I've been on live well over a year). Halo3 may be my reason for buying the nextgen XBOX. Thanks Bungie!
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Unreal Championship
Overall: Lightening fast FPS! This game takes place in the future where shooting up opposing teams with crazy weaponry is a sport.Gameplay: This game is super easy to get into. I had never played an Unreal game until renting this one from Blockbuster back in June. From the moment i put it in THE BOX, I was hooked.
The game play is super fast and keeps you moving around alot so as to not get a rocket launched @ your backside.
The single palyer campaign is very cool and a nice way to sharpen your skills for where this game really shines.... on LIVE.
Playing UC on LIVE just rocks! This game is so fast and the graphics and sounds are simply awesome. Sure there are better games out there today with crisper graphics and sounds but for a game that was realeased in 2002, this game looks amazing.
I loved it so much that after renting it for a week from Blockbuster, I purchsed it on eBay.
Graphics: The visuals are very sweet. The environments are sharp and detailed, The charcter models are great, and the weapons look awesome when you fire them.
This game gets high marks on all fronts for visuals.
Audio: The sounds in this game are really good too. From the sounds of you fragging your opponent, to the sounds of your weapons and even the backround noises in the environments. All I can say is awesome.
As with all games, when I play I liten to the game through my headphones as my
BOX is hooked up to my stereo system. And on days when the little guy is at daycare, well I'll crank the speakers. :)
Suggestions: This game was amazing. Having played it and also UNREAL Tournament for the PS2, I would say that the control scheme is much better on the Xbox so hopefully that stays the same.
The game had no noticible flaws, so all I can say is just up the graphics and sounds to what we expect from todays games. And while your at it, maybe make the single player mode a little more interesting with a storyline or something. Great Job! Keep it up! :)
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Counter-Strike
Overall: I LOVE THIS GAME!!! I never played CS on PC until after I played it on Xbox so I had no pre-concieved ideas as to how it should look/feel etc. I gave this game a rent one weekend in december and right from the go I was hooked.It's fast paced action and live play makes this game a must have for Live or XBC players. The Single Player mode is fine to help you get use to the maps and practice on the bots but playing online with and against real players is where this game is at.
No it may not have the best graphics of an Xbox game but compared to the PC version it looks pretty sweet. It's nice to be able to log on to Live, pick a server and be kicken'some or gettin' some kicked in less then 2 minute is usually the first game I pull out when I go for the Xbox. And when you've only got an hour or less to play this game is great cause you can get your fix fast and not have to commit a whole lot of time too it. Straight 5's all the way!
Gameplay: Loads of fun when you play on Live. Great to get online, pick a map, select your gear, and start kick'n some in just a few minutes. Super fun with headphones on and hearing your enemy's approach from around you. Intense!
Graphics: Looks sharp to me compared to the PC version. Mind you I have almost no time on the PC version, just basing it on what I've seen. All in all looks great to me.
Audio: Nothing beats putting on your headphones and listening to gunfire and foot steps as they approach you from different directions. INTENSE!
Suggestions: Story mode for Single Player. But love it the way it is anyway.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder
Overall: Awesome first-person shooter with squad based elements.This game has beautiful maps as well as charcter detail and the realism is just amazing.
Gameplay: Getting ino this game relatively easy. Pick your squad, equip them and your set.
Hardest time I had with Rainbow 6 games was all the planning aspect of those games. Found it alot of work to do in order to play the game. Mind you I realize that it makes for a much more intellectual experience. Only thing is I don't have the time to invest in such games.
Also enjoyed the ability to switch players on the fly.
I haven't played this game on Live yet but have read that is is pretty sweet as well. I love the fact that they keep coming out with downloadable maps. Makes it alot more fun.
Graphics: The game is beautiful. From the weather effects right down to the backgrounds and charater models. A nice looking game.
Audio: Nothing sounds assweet as bullets wizzing by your head. Very intense and realistic. Great job in the sound department.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Overall: This game has it all. Responsive gameplay, geat help system, beautiful graphics and amaing moves and that's not even going into the amazing story.Gameplay: After seeing all the reviews on this game on tv I though I should really pick this game up. When I saw it bundled with Splinter Cell, there was no way I was going to let it go.
The game is easy to get into and a treat to play. Some of the jumps are insanely hard to pull off gut having the ability to reverse time sure helps in trying things over. It's also nice to have save points in nice places through out the game.
Graphics: This game is a visual masterpiece. The environment is amazing from the character detail right through to the castle walls. It's just awesome to go into landscape mode and look around.
Audio: The sound in this game is sweet. I tended to focus more on the visuals but that is not to say that the sound didn't play a big part of this game.
Suggestions: Did find a bad camera angle now and then when in the middle of a fight sequence. Not a major flaw but something to look at.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Halo: Combat Evolved
Overall: This game was the reason I bought my Xbox. I purchased the Adrenaline pack so that I could play this bad boy right from the go. And let me tell you. It didn't disappoint in the slightest.Gameplay: The visuals and story and sound are just amazing in this game. Very well done job. Looking forwars to Halo2 without a doubt.
I have played Halo on XBC but tend to get my @$$ handed to me in rather quick fashion. (Seems like people spend alot of time playing this game. LOL) But I really enjoy it anyway even if I suck in multiplayer death match. It's still a beautiful game and a treat to play against others.
Graphics: This game is beautiful and I'm sure no one needs to be told that. You only need to play it once and you can see why it was GOTY.
Audio: Just as in visuals, this game is sweet in the sound dept as well. I love blastin away alien scum through the stereo speakers.
Suggestions: Just give us Halo2.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
