MEMBER PROFILE FOR Yankeez
Average Overall Score Given: 9.16000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 6416
Reviews
NBA Street Vol. 3
I suppose I could write thousands of words that would cause jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring reactions that would lead you all to rush out and pick up this game. I could write poetic lines about how amazing it is to play a game like this. I could take a thousand screenshots of every trick and every Gamebreaker. I could stand outside a store and yell made up chants about how every person walking buy should pick up a copy of this game. I could even beg you to buy this game and experience for yourself what its like, but I?m not going to do that. Because there are just four words I need to say for you to get the point. This game is SICK.The previous versions of NBA Street were mildly amusing to me. I could pick one up, play it for a while, and then throw it away like yesterday?s donuts. Not Street 3, though. This is truly a huge step up for this series, making games like NBA Ballers look useless. Rarely do you see so much improvement in a series in just one installment, but EA Sports Big has definitely defied convention here. This game has got me captivated. There is a lot more depth to this than recent versions, which keeps it always new and interesting, and never getting boring. You?ve got your classic pickup game, (with people leaping over defenders and flipping the ball like a fish out of water, this isn?t exactly something you?d see around the courts of America, but the style is the same), the Dunk Contest, which is pretty basic, and the Street Challenge, which is by far the most interesting mode. The Street Challenge comes off as a comparison to franchise mode in other games, making it just as fun and interesting to play as NBA Live, something that rarely happens in non-realistic games such as this. When you put those in-depth options with the straight up crazy gameplay that has never really been seen before, you have one excellent game mode.
The first step to street challenge is creating a baller (which is accessed from a different menu, but you must create a baller to actually compete in the street challenge). You can pick basic attributes from a list, with a limited point set (based on points you can earn by winning games in the later stages, so that your baller?s ability will expand), such as agility, quicks, and dunks. As you purchase more points, the cost increases so that it becomes more difficult to turn your baller into a superstar. As you up the points in different categories, your baller becomes a specialty player in whatever area you pick him to. Give him height and up his power and dunks, you?ve got a dunker. Make a short guy with some shooing skill; you?ve got yourself a 3-baller. You may then select the physical attributes, and change the baller in a variety of ways, such as head type, skin color, and a portrait for your baller.
But no baller is ready for street play without a team, so the next options are teammates. You can pick two from a list of male and female ballers, each with their owned assigned specialty. Need a 3-ball man? They got it. Need a shot blockin? dunker? They got it. Need a quick, agile, pointmaker? They got it. As time moves on you can pick up more ballers so that you can rotate the lineup, using different players for different opponents. That?s a great fact about this game; you can better prepare for different opponents. So many games leave you with a simple, unchanging lineup, but Street 3 allows you to rotate to best assure the victory. In the beginning, you pick the two players you best think compliment your baller, and then move on to the court creation.
Your court can also be customized in several ways. You can change the surface of the court, the time of day, and even the type of baskets. Get all this done, and it?s on to the competition, where you can play on your own court or several others around the country, including New York?s famed Rucker Park. The games have several different rule settings; NBA scoring is just a regular NBA scoring game, while there are other games such as pick up games, where the rules are unique to the game, and the trick point game.
Tricks are probably the best part of the game. You use the right joystick (the ?Trick Stick?), to flip the ball around like you were a member of the Harlem Globetrotters. Each move is worth a certain amount of points, and that decreases each time you do it when you have the ball, then resets on the next possession. Trick point games have a certain number of trick points you must get, and the first to that number wins. Baskets count for nothing, unless they are part of a trick, in which you are awarded more trick points. When you earn enough trick points, you?ll be eligible for a Gamebreaker, in which you go up for a shot and, if it?s a dunk, you can pass the ball around as many times as you want so that you can build up the trick points, making the Gamebreaker devastating to any trick game, often ending it. This is different than the Gamebreaker in former versions, because now the user is more involved. You don?t just get a shot that will go in for sure, or a cool dunk. No matter how many tricks or passes you manage to pull off, if you don?t time it right, you can miss that dunk. Nothing is for sure, which is what makes it interesting.
That being said, the point of the street challenge is to play up to two games a day for 10 weeks to up your rep. You have a selection of games each day, so that you don?t always have to play the same style, and then there is always another selection of games at night. This is where the aforementioned game types come into play, such as the Trick Point game, the game to 7 by dunks, or the game to 21 with street scoring. You can even play in the NBA Summer League with some of the greatest to grace the pro courts. As your rep increases, so does the number of courts you can play on. Add to that the fact that after each win you can take players from the other team, including NBA Players and you have plenty of motivation to keep getting better.
Dunk Contest is an original entry for this type of game. You can pick up to 8 dunkers from current NBA Top Dunkers, NBA Legends, or any team you like. Next it?s on to the match, where all the players you picked go at it head to head, on a variable number of dunks. If you pick three dunks, then each player goes three times, and the two best dunks are used for his score. This is where the Trick Stick is used most. You can pass the ball to yourself off the backboard, leap from the three point line, or do any number of tricks to up your score. Each dunk is worth up to thirty points. The contest is interesting, but sadly doesn?t hold up to street challenge. This would be a great mode for a party, but for basic gameplay, it gets old quickly.
Finally, you have the classic pickup game. There are several game types, all of which are available to play in the Street Challenge mode. This mode and the Dunk Contest really seem to just be practice for the Street Challenge mode, as they lack anything original outside of that mode. They work well for practice, but as far as gameplay goes, playing with no real point gets old quickly.
This game does have one other major benefit that you wouldn?t expect. It uses the NBA Live engine to create better player models, and gameplay. The faces are so realistic that it?s almost impossible to not know who someone is from the first second you see them. The player models look much more detailed and polished up in this years version compared to previous years. The controls are excellent, and quite simple to master, especially with the innovative Trick Stick, that they might as well make them the standard setup for basketball games from here on out. The player models are also outstanding, giving this game an amount of realism you wouldn?t expect from something unrealistic. This game was just flat out designed well.
Something that all fans of the NBA Street series badly wanted was online play through Xbox Live, well this year their dreams have come true. EA has integrated this year?s game with Xbox Live and did a great job, just like previous EA games that support Xbox live you will be playing on EA servers. I honestly didn?t mind, in all the game I played I rarely ran into any lag issues. One thing that some people might not like is having to create a new player for online play, that means the only way to develop your up and coming NBA Street star is to beat real life players from across the world.
One of my few complaints for the game would be in the sound department. The hip-hop tracks aren?t bad but not being able to import your own tracks is a real disappointment considering in other 05 EA sports games you had this option, the same goes for commentating as Bobbito?s voice gets old real fast, after just a couple of games I found myself just putting the game on mute and turning up the stereo. This is the part of the game where I think EA has to really work on for the next version of Street.
EA Sports has really scored big here. This game really is the best of all the street type games I?ve played. The varying gameplay keeps from ever getting old. The Street Challenge gets addicting. You?ll find yourself playing this nonstop, wishing that you could leap into the game and be the one to slam the ball home. You will most definitely want to add this game to your Xbox collection.
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
Deathrow
Overall: Great Idea, well done, but fell slightly short. The originality of the game alone is worth commendation, besides the point its a well made game. Great new idea for a sports game. If only the replay value had been better. We beat the game forever ago, just thought i would write a review now. Gameplay: The gameplay is great. It takes a little bit to get used to. Once you master all the moves and controls, you can really get into it. Three of my friends and I played relentlessly till we had beaten the game.
Graphics: Not too sure about the graphics, since we played on a nice sized TV but with 4 players... From what I saw though they were definately up to par or above average XBOX graphics.
Audio: Played with a 5 satellite speaker surround sound system, sounded pretty good. Cant remember if it supported playing your on music however, if it did good job, if not put that feature in deathrow 2. Im pretty sure it did though.
Suggestions: For the love of god, fix the replay value. Every other sports game lets you take your team onto countless more seasons. We beat the game in like 2 days. After playing the 9-12 teams or however many, it just ended, whats up with that??!!!! We were definately dissapointed and at that point lost all interest. Its not even fun to go back and play because once you unlock the top team you can just kill everyone else.. Poorly done replay value on an otherwise excellent game
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Red Faction II
I enjoyed this game quite a bit. Although it was fairly short (the single-player campaign), you can never have too many good, smooth FPSs. The multiplayer (especially with bots) adds some replay value, although it's hard to understand how they could not include system link play.Gameplay is fairly reminicent of other FPS. The really cool thing is that you can make a TOTALLY customize your controller configuration, by remaping every single button available. This is what everygame needs to include. The mouse-look is smooth and responsive, though not as responsive as the best FPS I've played on Xbox so far: Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Since you can remap the controls there's really no reason to complain or gripe about the game play since you can setup the game to your hearts content.
The Geo-Mod feature is phenomenal once again and is smoothly interlaced in the single player with bonus objectives hidden in some areas and behind breakable walls as well as some primary objectives. The weapons and graphics are also sweet at lower resolutions. There was no slowdown for me as compared to many recent games I?ve reviewed.
Again, nothing truly note worthy. Good explosions, decent voice acting. The only thing I really liked were the incessant "Big-Brother" type rantings by Sopot (over PA systems everywhere).
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Nascar Thunder 2002
I enjoy this game, but wish that when you increased the length from 5 to 10% that more pit stops were required. That would give more pit strategy into play. I don't have all day to race one track. Also, I wish that you could change the length of the races and the difficulty during the season. I enjoy racing games and this is my first NASCAR game. I'm glad I chose this game.The Gameplay is very precise and easy to get used to, in fact theres not much to get used to in your first race it's almost a give that you'll be vying for the top spot before the race is through. The AI seems to just follow the leader around in circles, not really trying to take over unless they just happen to be going a bit faster and it accidently happens. With easy controls and very smooth graphics it does make it very fun to play for atleast a race or two. (Who can resist stopping at one point and driving the track backwards!)
Graphics are on par with any PC game of the same type. This title could be very done if it were an xbox only title, but compared to any other console this one is by far the best. Actual damage, although not as much as I would have like. The inside of the cars seems to be a bit repetitive, I guess they couldn't model each drivers exact car inside and out. No complaints about the backgrounds or pit crews, all very well done and really help the score in this department.
Sound Could us some work. It needs more variation. Although I could'nt hear it very good on the wimpy TV speakers in the store. I think they should hook up stereo systems to game consoles in stores so you can get a good Idea of how it sounds.
Suggestions: Improve sounds add more options and multiplayer
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Project Gotham Racing
The overall appeal of this game is amazing. This game is fantastic, even if you don't like cars/racing, this game will get you sucked in. With a huge track selection, and a wide variety of music, and amazing gameplay, this game is a must have for all types of gamers. The game may look like just another so-so racing game, but it's actually very deeper than that with superb graphics.This game plays awesome.... I have to say it is frusterating at times, but it is not overly hard or overly easy. It take time and practice but when you complete a goal you feel like you have accomplished something. The cars each have an individual feel, I do not know if the feel is accurate because I have never drive any of those cars in real life. But I know what a FWD vs. and AWD, vs. at RWD car drives like and it seems to me like they have done a great job making these cars drive and handle like the real deal holyfield. The Arcade Race is a personal favorite and a personal pain... there have been some moments when I have almost thrown my controller out of the wondow, but there have been many more moments of me sitting and smiling teary eyed watching my flawless gold medal replays over and over. The AI is tough, they can be down right mean. There are times when they seem to be waiting for you,,, almost letting you catch up to them then they speed up, or worse you get by them only to have them put you in the guard rail at the next corner. I love it, the AI makes this game playable for me, I think they have done a sweet job here.
The game looks great. The graphics are sweet. There could have been more things going on in the world you were racing in. One example, is people, although not a part of the game it would be kinda cool to see 'em. Maybe I am just used to that,I was playing alot of GTA3. The cars look nice. Reflections are good and the overall appearance of the vehicles is crisp. You will love realistic dents,creases,and missing and smashed tail lights. The backgrounds and buildings are o.k. This could be an area for detail improvement. As I said earlier,with the power of Xbox, they could've added more detail and still kept that precious framerate.
There are an enormous number of tracks, and they are by artists that are actually good! When you start a race, its like you are listening to the radio. There are real radio personalaties that come on after songs and introduce songs and talk just like you were listening to a radio. If you dont like any of the songs, just rip your own songs to the HD and you can play them on PGR! The sound effects with the engines roaring seems like it could be improved, but everything else is very nice and deserves a 5
Suggestions: Hurry and make a sequel!
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
NBA Inside Drive 2002
I loved the graphics. The face visuals were incredible I could recognize everybody. This is the first basketball game I have played besides the 2k series that was addicting. I just wished it had street mode,3 point shoot-out,dunk contest,free throw practice, and create players,teams,etc. but still a solid gamePlays very well I think. I think you should be able to steal the ball while on the run more and alley oops should be easier to do. Also sometimes a player will move really fast in postion like he glitches because he isn't moving really but it doesnt mess up the game. Defense is also way to good. When I'm Vince Carter and I'm one-on-one I should be able to spin past but when I spin away the defender is still right in front of me. Blocked shots look good.
This just makes me wonder how much of an idiot the staff reviewer is. Like Fever, these are the best graphics ever for the sport. Players don't have that shiny-fake look to them, at a glance they look like their real life counterparts, until you see them move at about 1.5x speed. Go over to ign and see what they think... 10.0 graphics. 2?... I don't think so, buddy. I don't get how some people look at graphics, some idiot who reviewed NFL Madden 2002 here said that it had graphics that "can't be touched" by NFL 2k2 or Fever... and Madden has the worst graphics out of the three of them! Some people just make me wonder...
The sound during gameplay could be better, but it serves its purpose. There are times there will be no sound when you see the players celebrate after an impressive move. (Such as no sound when the player claps their hands.) When you control the replay, there is no sound at all so it takes away from the excitement and emphasis of the controlled replay. The music for the game was done well. Nice soundtrack.
Suggestions to Developer: Need to be able to create teams and players, have
Suggestions: Fix up those little details
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Wreckless: The Yakuza Mission
Awesome game graphically as we all have said. The storyline isn't anything original. There really should have been a Practice option so you can get to experience the whole city and get familiar with it. I feel the time limits don't allow you to experience alot of the environment while finishing the mission. I do have to admit something here. When a game gets too hard for me, i end up searching for cheat codes and beating it right away. but this is the first game that i will not ever want to cheat on. Regardless of how many times i fail a mission, i enjoy replaying it over and over because i never get tired of smashing stuff up in this game! Gaming is fun, but it also bores quick. In the couple of days that I have owned it, I've already managed to beat more than 50% of the missions. There has been some easter eggs that makes this game interesting, but unless more is revealed later, this game might collect dust pretty quick. I recommend renting it first since the lack of multiplayer makes the game somewhat pointless in terms of replay value. If you're like me when you rent games, you will probably want to get all that you can get for your $6. Yes, you can actually beat this game within the week.
You want to impress your friends? Look no further, as soon as you'll pop in this game the only word that comes to mind is..WOW!! The colors are vibrant and every small detail such as trees, buildings, cars, people, everything is perfection made. In the day you are blinded by the sun and at night amazed by the traffic and neon lights in Hong Kong. One thing thats even more amazing is seeing the replays, when you view them its another fantastix thing to look at after you've finished playing the level. Like I said, its an all around amazing game to view and play, there is no other words to say more.
The music is nothing too special. Maybe because you are so immersed up in Wreckless you don?t really pay attention to the sound. The effects such as bams and booms are good. Engines sound all right. Wreckless wasn?t meant to be a killer sound game. It really isn?t all that bad, because there are a few good jingles, but it isn?t PGR with the radio and the nice music from your HD. I really think that Wreckless should have supported this feature.
Suggestions: make the game longer
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Dead or Alive 3
this fighter, like all others to date, lacks a certain amount of depth. While replay value is really as long as you can withstand a fighter, good or bad, there is a limited number of gameplay modes. What will keep you playing is trying to get Gold prizes in Time Attack and Survival Mode, both in single player and Tag Team. Overall: In summation, Dead or Alive 3 is a must have for the beat em up in you, and an excellent addition to any xbox software library. This game has the graphics and the finesse to satisfy both aspects that a gamer craves. xbox own$ j00. Arguably one of the best fighters, Dead or Alive 2 rocked on the dreamcast. Dead or Alive 3, the xbox exclusive sequal, is no different. It is everything that DOA2 was, and more. The graphics are much improved, every fighter now has at least 70 moves and/or combos, and four new game modes have been added, including tagteam time attack and tagteam survival mode. With a host of new characters that kick butt (my fav is Bayman), the only thing that drags the game down is the lack of depth, which is understandable in your average beat em up.
You hever never seen a game with such incredible movies and the graphics are so original its really incredible.Every little thing down to the last detail
Dead or Alive 3 offers hundreds of sounds and UHs and OHs and crunch's and smacks. the FX quality is great, as was in its predecessor, DOA2. The music is flat, however, and although serving its purpose, this game begs for a custom soundtrack that is lacking in the options menu.
Suggestions: make it more in depth got more in depth on the story lines
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
WWF Raw
This is a game for hardcore wrestling fans and the fans who really want to spend $50 on it. Its a great game to have with friends around gets boring when ur aloneEverything is done beautifully the graphics the, the new grapple system the crowd meter makes this game incredible. Plus theres almost 200 items to find an bash ur oppenent over the head with and many things u can wear on ur wrestler during a match or put on ur wrestler u have created.Downside is lack of matches.
No game has come close to graphics like this and probably wont until raw 2 improves them but wwf raw really brings out the power of the xbox. Every little detail on the wrestler is perfect down to even a little tattoo like the one on Big Shows neck.
The sounds are great the tables break with a SMASH!! and chairs bend just like in real life. Commentary could have improved it but probably would have got repetitive.
Suggestions: raw 2 make more matches maybe add commentary and make it possible to download new wrestlers through ur xbox
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Halo: Combat Evolved
Overall: Right when u start the game and watch the first video sequence your like ah man this is gonna rock!Halo was all that it was hyped up to be and better.All around game that u can play over and over and online its the greatest!Gameplay: Incredible weapons and cool stuff like the banshee m12 LRV, ghost, and the M808B Scorpion MBT. Make add hours and hours to this game after u have beaten it.Most incredible ending ever.
Graphics: Smoothest FPS ever. Beautiful detail incredible levels that get ur heart pouding at the most exciting moments.only downside are occasional choppy moments
Audio: Sounds are great soldiers around u talk jack to the aliens and its just fun to listen to the mexican guy diss them lol. Perfect music is used at the right time makes u really get into the game.
Suggestions: make a Halo 2 and some bots in the multiplayer modes
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
