MEMBER PROFILE FOR ChroniC<420
Average Overall Score Given: 8.66667 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 86
Reviews
Assassin's Creed
Overall: @!%#*!@!%#*!in's Creed will stay with you long after you finish it. Here is one of the most unique gameworlds ever created: beautiful, memorable, and alive. Every crack and crev@!%#*!e is filled with gorgeous, subtle details, from astounding visual flourishes to overheard cries for help. But it's more than just a world--it's a fun and exciting action game with a ton of stuff to do and places to explore, rounded out with silky-smooth controls and a complex story that will slowly grab you the more you play.
Make no mistake: @!%#*!@!%#*!in's Creed is one of the best efforts of the year and a must-own game for Xbox 360.
Gameplay: In @!%#*!@!%#*!in's Creed, the greatest joy comes from the smallest details, and for every nerve-racking battle, there's a quiet moment that cuts to the game's heart and soul. Climbing towers to uncover portions of the map is a simple mechanic but forever satisfying, thanks to the beautiful vistas and soft musical themes that accompany the view. Even the drunks that pester you are amusing and fun, though their constant shoving is more than annoying, especially if you are trying to pickpocket a pedestrian or eliminate a target without a fuss. It all makes your missions that much more compelling, and you'll be inclined to explore every nook and cranny and take on every optional task, just for the fun of it.
There's a ton of stuff to do, and even when you've exhausted your official tasks, you can search for the collectible flags and crosses strewn around the cities and countryside.
You could probably plow through the main quest in 20 hours if you're lucky, but completists might spend close to 50 hours finishing every quest and gathering every collectible.
Graphics: The visual design has a lot to do with how believably organic everything feels. The cities are absolutely huge, and though you don't get full exploration privileges in the first few chapters, they eventually open up to let you travel seamlessly from one side to another. Everything is beautifully lit with just the right amount of bloom effect, and almost everything casts a shadow, from tall pillars to Altaïr's cloak. In fact, sometimes the shadows get to be a bit much and may make you think for a moment that there is artifacting on your screen, when in fact it's a character's head casting a shadow on his or her own neck.
Every object, from scaffolds to pottery, is textured so finely you feel as if you could reach out and touch it. Animations are almost as equally well done. Altaïr scales walls, leaps majestically from towers, and engages in swashbuckling swordfights that would make Errol Flynn proud. And he does it all with fluid ease, generally moving from one pose to another without a hitch. Minor characters move gracefully as well, though one of the game's few visual drawbacks is the occasional jerky animation on the part of a citizen.
However, it's easy to forgive, considering that the cities are populated with thousands and thousands of individuals. In fact, these tiny blemishes are noticeable only because everything else looks so incredible.
Audio: What you hear is even more impressive than what you see. At the top of a temple, you hear little but the rush of wind, the twittering of birds, and the barking of a far-off dog. In the most populated areas, your ears will fill with the din of street vendors, the pleas of beggars, and the occasional humming. It's never too much, though, and the game does a good job of making sure you hear what you need to hear (for example, the cries of citizens who need your help), without filling your ears with pointless noise.
All these effects, along with the clangs of swords and groans of @!%#*!@!%#*!inated foes, are outstanding. The voice acting of the supporting cast is similarly remarkable. Conversations are completely believable and delivered with the perfect amount of solemn dignity. Oddly, the weakest link is Altaïr himself. Actor Philip Shahbaz does an all right job, but he isn't up to par with the first-rate acting of his fellow troupe.
Rounding it all out is a beautiful orchestral score that is most notable for its subtlety. Many of the game's most impressive moments are accompanied by lovely musical themes that add even more threads to the game's rich living tapestry.
Suggestions: There are few differences between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. PS3 owners are blessed with a slightly more solid frame rate, although the 360 version features a little more contrast in the lighting, so it's pretty much a wash.
But regardless of which platform you go with, you'll have an amazing and unforgettable game. @!%#*!@!%#*!in's Creed is the kind of game you tell your friends about, and one that should be in your collection.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men
Overall: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a dark and gritty drama featuring two men, one is a flawed mercenary and the other a medicated psychopath. Forced together on a violent and chaotic path of redemption and revenge, no action is considered too harsh as this volatile partnership is pushed beyond reason in this brutally realistic, character-driven third person action shooter from Eidos Interactive. Gameplay: The core gameplay in Kane & Lynch is your standard third-person shooter with cover elements and a light dusting of squad tactics.
You can fire from the hip, but it's somewhat more accurate to fire while aiming. Unfortunately, even when you're aiming, hitting your targets is more difficult than it should be because your automatic fire has a wide spread on it.
Kane is supposedly a bad@!%#*! arch-criminal; he should be able to hit his targets with short, controlled bursts. You're able to get behind cover and either blindfire or pop out for aimed shots, but there's no easy way to stick to walls. You don't press a button or anything; instead you sort of get up against a wall and turn sideways. Then after jiggling the controls back and forth a bit, you'll eventually snap into place to get behind cover. It's such a pain that you'll rarely want to use it, and it seems like you're always snapping into cover behind something at the most inopportune times, making the game quite frustrating.
There's no health meter, but if you go down, you don't die immediately either. You can be revived by one of your teammates with an adrenaline shot. If you get that shot too frequently, you'll overdose and die. If your teammates don't reach you in time, you'll die too.
Also, if one of the guys on your crew gets dropped, you have to make sure he gets revived. If he dies, the game ends. Between your poor accuracy, the enemy's sharp accuracy, and the boneheaded AI from your squadmates, this all adds up to you keeping your squad on a very short leash.
Graphics: While it might seem like a basic heist game, Kane & Lynch does a good job of moving the action around, and you'll see a variety of different environments and situations, ranging from banks, to prison breaks, to full-scale conflicts in the middle of illicit poppy fields.
It also has some good-looking player models, with Kane and Lynch both looking appropriate as over-the-hill criminals. And even though their faces don't animate much in-game, they still look good.
Most of the animation isn't so hot, though, and you'll see a few ugly textures here and there too. Some of it looks a bit unfinished, like the way you see guys go through the motion of hitting you with an adrenaline shot, but their hands are actually empty.
Audio: The soundtrack is probably the best part of the whole game, delivering some tense music when the game calls for it. There's a lot of voice acting in the game.
The voices are appropriate for the characters, but the dialogue is hokey and filled with gratuitous cursing. The good ol' F word is certainly appropriate, given the nature of what these guys are doing, but when it's every third word out of every character's mouth, it comes across as a crutch that drags down the rest of the game a bit.
Lynch frequently responds to your squad-orders by just shouting "F*** you!" Things like that just make the game feel purposely abrasive, and not in a "gritty" or "cool" sort of way.
Suggestions: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a premise with promise, and if you've been waiting patiently for a game to really dive into the whole "crew-based heist tale" concept, you might be able to look past some of the story flaws. But when you consider the nearly ridiculous number of extremely high-quality shooters available recently, there's not much room for something like Kane & Lynch, even taking into account the somewhat unique nature of its story.
That said, the multiplayer is a smart idea that's worth seeing, even if playing it makes you wish that it was used in another, better game.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
FIFA Soccer 08
Overall: EA Sports continues to experiment with its FIFA football series, creating a more challenging and slower-paced game for the 2008 outing. Last year's FIFA was supposedly built from the ground up for the Xbox 360, though the game still had yet to surp@!%#*! the standards set by the franchise's entries on the previous generation of consoles. For FIFA 08, EA Sports promised to refine last year's effort while delivering a host of new gameplay modes and features. The result is that this year's FIFA plays a substantially different game of football, thanks mostly to an increased difficulty level and a sense of decreased pace. The raft of new skill moves means the game rewards practice and perseverance, but it could be argued that this makes it the least accessible FIFA to date. Thankfully, though, FIFA 08 wraps its new simulation feel in a superbly presented and very well-rounded package.Gameplay: EA Sports has made a lot of claims about FIFA's new game modes and features, and they've been flagged up in the game's menu system so series regulars know where to start. At the top of the list is the new Be-a-Pro mode, which puts you in the studded boots of a single footballer rather than an entire team. The default side-on aerial camera perspective shifts to an over-the-shoulder view, and you're awarded or deducted points based on how well you serve the team. This means keeping the player in position, p@!%#*!ing the ball around, and--depending on your position--making tackles or scoring goals. While controlling one player in a team of 11 might seem strange, it's an interesting, compelling new take on gameplay. Although it's tempting to run up the field and shoot at goal regardless of your position, the only way to succeed in this mode is to play your part in the team. There can be long periods where you see little of the ball, particularly if you're a defender in a good team or an attacker in a poor one, but on the whole it's a successful experiment on the part of EA Sports. The online component of FIFA 08 has been designed to provide football fans with everything they need for an authentic experience. All of your online activity feeds into a central database, which offers more detailed information than the standard Xbox Live achievements system (although that is still present). You can also keep track of your favourite team's real-world activity thanks to the ESPN Soccernet integration, with live updates from the major clubs from around the world along with ticker-tape updates throughout the main menu system itself. We especially liked being able to jump in and see scheduled matches for six of the world's major leagues, as well as the current table standings and top scorers of the day. Having said that, we found big clubs like Manchester United were much better represented than those such as Blackburn, and even then we had difficulty accessing the listed news feeds in full. The online play holds up well from a technical standpoint, with only the odd bit of barely-noticeable lag to speak of. It also has some thoughtful features, such as only letting the player with the ball pause the game, and limiting the frequency and length of time players can spend in the menus.
Graphics: Graphically, FIFA 08 is the best-looking football game on the market by a considerable margin. Not only are players immediately recognisable thanks to the way that they move as well as the way they look from afar, but close up they also feature individual facial details, personalised items of kit, and haircuts. The 30 licensed stadiums boast both scale and detail, with video boards up high displaying feeds from the camera cranes that sit above the goals. There are also some really nice smaller touches, such as the shirt deformation technology and dramatic, low-angle camera shots that would be impossible to achieve with even the best hi-def cameras. However, that's not to say there aren't a few graphical problems. While players boast natural appearances and extremely lifelike movement, it's spoiled by a plastic look that makes their expressions appear forced. We're sure that the intention was to make them look like they're sweating, but the reality is that they look like they've been shrink-wrapped.
Audio: In addition to the Be-a-Pro mode, FIFA has a variety of other ways to play a game of football. The kick-off mode is the place for a quick practice match with up to three friends gathered round your TV, though there are online equivalents with both ranked and unranked matches. The long-term challenge of FIFA 08 comes from the numerous tournaments that have been packed into the game's offline and online modes. Pretty much every major competition from the major domestic leagues has been included, plus you can create a custom tournament to make things such as continental or world cups that may happen in future. Predictably, EA's seperate World Cup franchise means that this tournament isn't included in the game, but there's nothing stopping you from setting one up yourself.
Suggestions: EA Sports has taken substantial risks with this year's FIFA, but the resulting game can certainly be considered a successful experiment. It plays a more difficult and more refined game of football than its predecessors, and while it should be emphasised that the game is perhaps too difficult at times, it will reward players who put in the practice. The sheer number of game modes make FIFA the most complete football game on the market, while the authenticity and quality of presentation continue to enhance the package overall. It may fall just short of greatness, but it's a FIFA that's well worth trying out for anyone who's been avoiding the series.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
