Posts tagged 360
Games Inbound – March 2010
Feb 26th
Here are the games that you should keep an eye out for this March.
This will be a new monthly thing.
Battlefield Bad Company 2 – Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Dragon Age Origins Awakening – Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Final Fantasy XIII – Xbox 360 and PS3
God of War III – PS3
Just Cause 2 – Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Metro 2033 – Xbox 360 and PC
Red Steel 2 – Wii
Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition – Xbox 360 and PS3
Resonance of Fate – Xbox 360 and PS3
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey – Nintendo DS
Yakuza 3 – PS3
Resident Evil 5 – Lost in Nightmares
Feb 17th
Part of the new expansion of Resident Evil 5, Lost in Nightmares, has been released today on the XBL Marketplace. I’m going to assume that the content will be released late tomorrow for you PS3 users as well. You will be at Spencer’s Estate, where you team up with Jill to fight a new evil. This is just one part of the DLC that is coming out, and the full version (Resident Evil 5 GOLD) will be released March 9th, 2010. Along with the DLC today, there is also a download for two costume. One costume is a fairy tale outfit for Sheva, and the other is a Warrior outfit for Chris. Download them today!
Lost in Nightmare – 400MSP aka $4.99
Costume Pack 1 – 160MSP aka $1.99
L4D2 DLC: The Passing – Coming Late March
Feb 12th
Left4Dead 2 with be releasing new DLC called ‘The Passing’ for Xbox 360 and PC to be release late March. The Passing takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival. In the beginning and end of campaign, you will encounter the survivors from the first L4D (Bill, Louis, Francis, and Zoey). At the end of the campaign, they will help you fend off the horde while you try to escape.
In the campaign you will find a new weapon that looks like an LMG, as well as a golf club to bash in the heads of zombies. There will be a new kind of uncommon common infected known as ‘Fallen Survivors.’ They carry weapons, health, and all other equipment. You may see one of the running from you, but that’s when you should chase after them and kill them so you can get an item from their corpse. There will be interaction between the new and old survivors, as well as more dialog for all the characters (hurray for more stories about Ellis and his buddy Keith!)
The first Left4Dead will also be receiving DLC that explains how the original survivors get to the point where the new survivors are. Thus linking their stories together.
Bioshock 2
Feb 11th
Would you kindly?
PC, Xbox 360, and PS3
You return to the world of Rapture as Subject Delta. You’re on the hunt to find the little sister that you are bound to, known as Eleanor.
Bioshock 2 starts off with you and your little sister (Eleanor). You are fighting to defend her when a splicer uses a plasmid on you to control your actions. You are commanded to shoot yourself in the head with a handgun, and you do so. One may think that Subject Delta is dead, but he might just be waking up, 10 years later (2 years after the first game ended). You explore the underwater utopia known as Rapture, trying to locate your little sister, who is now grown up. You start off with your drill, using it to fight your way through splicers and such. Throughout the game you will acquire many guns such as the Rivet Gun, Shotgun, Machine Gun, and others. Each gun may be upgraded a maximum of 3 times, thus making the firearm even more deadly. There are a total of 11 plasmids, each with their own unique power. You will also find many more tonics in this game than you did in the previous. Little sisters still exist in this title, and are more important than they even had been before. As a big daddy yourself, you can take a little sister from another big daddy by killing him. Once you have a little sister on your shoulder, you can go gather ADAM from two bodies per sister. Before you pick them up each time, you can decide to adopt, or you may harvest them. When you are done gathering your two parts of ADAM, you may take a little sister back to the ventalation system and either rescue them or you can harvest them. After so many rescues you will be given a gift. There are a total three gifts that you can obtain, and the first two contain very useful tonics that will help you with your little sisters for the remainder of your game. Researching is still a very useful part of this game. It will help you gain more advantages when fighting a researched enemy. There are a total of nine different enemy types as well. While you are on the hunt for Eleanor, you will find more certain characters that you may either kill or let live. Letting them live, depending on your play style, usually will help you out in the end. You’ll also be on the hunt for audio logs as usual.
Graphics in Bioshock 2 look incredibly similar to that in the original Bioshock. There has been improvement but you can still see the same old style there was. The developers definitely paid attention to detail. The morbid artwork and the disturbing environments. I was constantly awed by the beautiful scenery and art on the walls. The water effects are similar to the first game, but greatly improved. You will see so even in the beginning of the game. The ragdolls in this game react the same as they do in the first game. Objects sometimes glitch through the floor but I have only seen it happen a few times. While I was playing on the PC version, I am not aware of the drop in graphics that the console versions had, but I’m sure they were not much different.
When listening to the audio logs, you will notice that they are done so well that you may even stand still just to listen to the whole thing. The voice actors in this game did a very well job of combining insanity with beauty. You will find that music is only in place when there is a working record player, you can also hit the record player to hear a funny skipping of the needle. Loading screens may not be around for long, but the music that plays during them is also quite fantastic.
Bioshock 2 has very few prerendered cutscenes, mainly in the beginning and the end, but they look fantastic. Mostly everything else that exists is all ingame. The character movements and the weapon animations are spot on.
The mulitplayer game mode feels like it was just slapped together real quick. On the PC version, it sometimes takes quite a while to get into a game. If you do get into one, with balanced teams and a fun game type, then it is pretty enjoyable. Playing with friends in the only way I could see you playing multiplayer for that long of an amount of time. There are 40 levels to get to and you unlock plasmids, weapons, and tonics at certain levels. It’s 5v5 and there are game modes such as Team Deathmatch, 1 Flag CTF, and Free For All. You can pick from a small list of characters and also customize your mask and your melee weapon. It’s a little weird to explain how it all works, so you would just have to see it for yourself.
The only bugs that I have encountered are things such as a door glitching through a wall, objects falling through the floor, and splicers being idiots and not realizing I’m right next to them. This isn’t exactly a bug, but autosaves only happen when you load a new level. Levels can take up to 2 hours each, and if you don’t save and your PC/console messes up, you’re screwed out of all the work you had been doing. Thus, ragequit ensues.
I was able to complete Bioshock 2 on Medium difficulty in roughly 10 hours. The replay value of the game seems kinda low. Half of the appeal of it is the story, but there are multiple endings (four) that you can get by doing different options throughout the game. The only downside to this game that I can see, is that the multiplayer didn’t have a lot of thought put into it. The guns and upgrades are awesome, the plasmids rule, the combat kicks ass, and you may find yourself running back for more.
Xbox LIVE Discontinuing Original Xbox Support
Feb 5th
We can’t play Halo 2 online anymore? NOOOOOOOOO!
As of 12:00AM on February 5, 2010, it has been announced that Xbox LIVE will no longer support the Original Xbox or it’s games (even the ones playable on the Xbox 360). Their excuse is that this will make way for bigger and better things for the Xbox LIVE experience. The date of discontinuation is April 15, 2010. It is also rumored that the 100 friends list cap is due to the support of the Original Xbox, so we may see an increase on that in the near future. Major Nelson says, “We did not make this decision lightly, but after careful consideration and review we realize that this decision will allow us unprecedented flexibility for future features.” In all honesty, I assume that he didn’t have much of a part in the decision and that it wasn’t a tough one to make for that matter.
I for one I am quite disappointed in this. I already shared my disgust for this change. I loved playing Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball online. Shockingly, that was one of my favorite online games ever. The population died somewhat and only has glitchers now, but it was fun for it’s time. I can only hope that they make something good out of this painful change. Please leave a comment below expressing your opinion on this big change that Microsoft has issued.
XBL Holiday Rush
Dec 18th
Major Nelson announced earlier this week that MS would be holding XBL deals starting Dec. 18 – 21. Keep an eye on your dashboard every day for the next week to see if you can snatch anything worthwhile. Today’s holiday deal is the 2010 glasses for your avatar, and can be obtained here: http://bit.ly/6I3s6t
The Army of Two: TFD Demo dropped yesterday, and my friends list is lighting up with potential buyers. Check the review section later this week to see my review of the demo itself, and my speculations for the outcome of the game.
Next week is going to be a big week for XBL Games on Demand, they’re dropping some big titles onto the marketplace including Lost Planet: Colonies Edition, and Devil May Cry 4. Gears of War will join the lineup December 29, just in time for the new year.
Kiddies Get Access to Social Networking on the 360.
Dec 15th
The patch to set up parental controls on the 360 Dashboard has gone live in all countries but the US, which is set to receive the update on December 15. This update allows parents to allow or deny the use of certain applications on the 360, meaning that the minors on LIVE will be able to access Facebook, Twitter, Last.FM, etc. if their parents allow it. Granted, most children don’t have parents incorporating any censorship over their game titles and activities online. I’m sure that a large population of this community of young gamers more than likely have these options available to them.
More as the update drops on Tuesday.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game
Jun 17th
I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghost!
Consoles: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, DS.
The Ghostbusters were everywhere in the 80s. It went from movies to even video games! The games that they did release came out for multiple systems but all revolved around the same concept and gameplay. They were mainly on the NES. The first game, Ghostbusters, was horrible and just down right awful. Their second game, Ghostbusters II, had been improved yet it still failed to grab everyone’s attention. Now, the year is 2009 and a new game has released. Ghostbusters: The Video Game is what it’s called. I must admit, it isn’t a very creative name but that’s alright. You also get to fight the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. In this review I will give you details on the story, graphics, and overall gameplay.
In a game with the title “Ghostbusters,” I bet you all can guess as to what the object is. Yeah, that’s right. Catching (or “Busting”) ghosts is your main priority. The story takes place after Ghostbusters II. You play as a new recruit, he has no name other than Rookie. You fight along side of Ray, Peter, Egon, and Winston. You go to numerous locations such as the Hotel, the Library, and the Museum. You will encounter a few familiar ghosts such as Slimer and the Grey Lady. Your PKE meter will be very essential in this game. It’s used to detect spiritual entities, cursed artifacts, and take samples. In a few scenes, you will have the Ecto-1 to assist you. You can also upgrade your different streams which I will get into further in the review.
The graphics are solid and nice. You will notice that the cutscenes have a smoother look as well as a nice framerate. At times the framerate will drop and it is usually due to too many things going on at once. The effects on the proton streams are flashy and definitely captures the feeling that you would see in the movies. The only complaint that I have is that there will be an occasional graphical glitch but it isn’t enough to ruin it.
The voice acting is very well done. You will notice that they put in some comic relief at random times. Everyone loves a good laugh, right? The Rookie doesn’t speak at all, giving it the feeling that you are actually in the game. The music in the game will get repetitive. It may not bother you at all but if you pay attention to the little things then it may. Sound effects are spot on and you will recognize many of the noises from the proton pack that are in the movie.
One of the cool things that they added in was the ability to upgrade your weapons and your ghost trap. There are 4 weapons. They are the Proton Stream, Stasis Stream, Slime Blower, and Meson Collider. Each upgrade for the weapons will reduce recoil and increase the amount you can use it before overheating. Upgrades for the ghost trap consists of increasing the capture speed and making it so you can slam dunk a ghost into the trap, thus bypassing the capturing phase.
The cutscenes look good, sound good, have some humor, and even load the next level while you’re watching them! In turn, it creates what looks to be, seamless gameplay. There isn’t much more I can say about them.
While playing online, there are two ways you can play. One way is to join a single match were you play only one of the six jobs. The second way is to play one theme which then chooses three jobs out of the six available for you to play. You can play online with 1-4 players for multiplayer, or 2-4 players for co-op. The jobs are Survival, Containment, Destruction, Protection, Thief, and Slime Dunk. Each one has their own unique objective.
I’ve noticed a few bugs near the end of the game. Such as Ray disappearing and the story continuing to go on. This causes the game to glitch out and making it impossible to continue on with the story without using a Revert to Checkpoint. Another one I discovered was when I went to smash a stone ghost into the ground, it went through the level, and one even went outside of the level where I was barely able to destroy it because it was on the other side of a way. These bugs aren’t that big of a deal and it doesn’t kill the game in any way that I see.
In the end, Ghostbusters is a fun game for all and it may not have too much of a replay value but it does give a lot of fun for the whole family. Whether you’re a casual or hardcore gamer, it’s still for all. The Ghostbusters live on with this marvelous game. As for me, all I have to say is that “We came, we saw, we kicked it’s ass!”
The Godfather II
May 3rd
EA releases yet another game, and this one is The Godfather II.
Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
When I heard about this game I thought nothing of it. Nearing it’s release date, I decided to look more into it and it seemed to be a good game. I decided to purchase it, hoping for the best. I get the game home, start playing, and it seems kinda bland. The more that I played it, the better it got. I started to enjoy being able to take over territories, placing guards, running around with my crew doing missions, and just being able to explore places like New York and Florida. The game itself is very repetitive and you’ll find yourself doing the same things over and over.
Your main objective is to capture territories and controlling all of the cities. You capture a territory, place guards, and move on to the next one. To take over one of the territories, you must scare it’s owner bad enough to let you own it. The ways you can scare them is by smashing their stuff, hanging them over edges, pointing a gun at them, or even slamming them into the wall. There aren’t many options when it comes to it.
Graphics for the game are quite nice. They’re not terrible and they’re not amazing, but they are good enough for my standards. Like it’s been said before, that you shouldn’t judge games by their graphics alone. You will notice some parts of the level loading strangely or even some random floating objects, but they can be overlooked.
In the game you will find that there isn’t much audio. Some music plays occasionally but unless you want to go into one of the disturbing strip clubs, don’t expect much music.
The only awesome thing about this is being able to use the Don’s View and being able to go out and take over territories with a group. While doing those things, it keeps it really fun for me. My favorite thing is to go out and take over everything, one after the other.
There aren’t many cut scenes in the game, which makes it a little stale. It needs more action and face posing. There should have been more effort put into making more animations and cut scenes, but it doesn’t entirely ruin the game.
There are a few bugs that may make you angry at times, but they aren’t bad enough to make you rage quit or anything. Maybe a few patches will fix further bugs that are discovered.
In my personal opinion, I think that The Godfather II is a slightly above average game that deserves more attention. It was highly anticipated by many during it’s announcement, and seemed to die off shortly after. I enjoy the game, but the reply value for it is moderately low, because once you beat it, you won’t want to go back and play it again most likely. In the end, I give The Godfather II: