I've been going for easy achievements still, and that means quick game reviews!
Terminator: Salvation
This game tried very hard to be like Gears of War. It's play style is very similar, but it just doesn't come close. It's not a terrible game, but it's not a good game either. You'll tear through it in a day, easily getting all the achievements, and then you'll be done with it and never think about it again. You can play this game co-op, if you want, but it's not really necessary. Of course, if you have a friend who wants to get some achievements too, go at it.
As for the story, this game is actually a prequel to the latest Terminator movie (which I still haven't seen, shame on me). The premise is pretty basic. While out on a mission, John Connor gets a distress call from a group of resistance fighters trapped behind enemy lines. He decides to go after them, even though the rest of his group thinks it's a suicide mission. That's about it.
The game is pretty simple, but it's short and does have a few cool vehicle levels. Rent it, or get it used if it's really cheap.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
A lot of people have decried this as one of the worst games on the 360, but I actually enjoyed it. I'll admit, it was very poorly designed, but I still had fun with it. Maybe it's my soft spot for all things Marvel.
This game loosely follows the movie of the same name. Aside from just dealing with the Silver Surfer, Dr. Doom, and the US Army, though, you'll also go up against classic FF villains the Skrulls, Red Ghost, and Terrax. And no, just like in the movie you never really see Galactus.
You run through each level switching between members of the FF on the fly (or you can have up to four player co-op), beating up enemies and solving simple puzzles while you collect points to power up your heroes. Each character has a unique set of super powers. The problem is that you'll spend a good 90% or more of the game as Thing. There's just no point in being anyone else. He's the strongest, and even on the highest difficulty he just tears through the enemies as long as you keep him powered up. Not only will you spend most of your time as Thing, you'll also keep doing the same move over and over. His ground pound move sends out a shockwave that affects all enemies around you, and is really strong. It even affects flying enemies! So even though you have a good variety of moves in the game, you'll spend the whole time using just one.
There are a few times when the game forces you to be the other characters. Each one has their own solo level. Human Torch actually has three, but they're all flying levels, usually chasing after the Silver Surfer. Mr. Fantastic has to stretch his way through a space station hallway filled with lasers, and the Invisible Woman goes on a sort of stealth mission through a military base. Oh, and Thing has a very short solo mission where he has to plow through a room full of enemies (replaying this mission over and over is a good way to power everybody up, by the way).
So yes, this game is hugely flawed in its design, but it still plays well. I had a fun enough time with it that I didn't even gripe too much that the difficulty achievements don't stack. Yes, you will have to play this through twice to K it. The game is pretty short though, and if you get all the collectibles on your first play though, you can just blast through the second one, only stopping on Thing's solo mission to power up.
If you find this game cheap somewhere and you're a big Marvel fan, pick it up. It'll be a good couple of days' playing time. Or just rent it if you want more easy achievements.
Showing posts with label xbox 360. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xbox 360. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Game review - The Orange Box
I have a confession to make. I've never played Half-Life. Never. Now, I know to some of you that might sound blasphemous, but I'm not much of a PC gamer so it's not that big of a deal to me. The biggest reason I wanted to check out The Orange Box was for Portal, and Portal was the first game from the collection that I played.
This was a very cool game. Great concept, great execution, and incredibly frustrating difficulty at times. The story, while too short, was compelling and humorous. It's the extras that bring the hardcore difficulty. The extra challenge maps, super hard versions of the last six rooms in the story, were hard but doable. It's the medal challenges that will have most people pulling there hair out. The last six rooms each have three medal challenges, one for the least time, the least steps taken, and the least portals used. I'm telling you, even with cheat codes some of these are obscenely hard. But overall, this is a very fun game that is totally worth the time to play through. I only wish it had been longer.
Moving on to Half-Life 2. I actually really enjoyed this game. Like I said earlier, I never played the first game, though I did read the Wiki article on it before playing this. Half-Life 2 turned out to be a fun shooter, but with some pretty nasty difficulty, especially if you're going for all the achievements. All three games, Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode One, and HL2: Episode Two, had some achievements that would have been really difficult if it hadn't been for one thing: cheat codes. Hey, I'm not proud, I don't mind using them. I paid my dues on the NES and SNES back in the day.
Anyway, these are some pretty fun games if you want to take the time to go through all of them, and you can get the achievements pretty easily as well. The story is very cool, also, but I'll warn you that Episode Two ends on a cliffhanger. I have no clue when Episode Three will be out, or if the 360 will even be getting it. I know The Orange Box came out a few years ago, and I haven't heard anything about Episode Three yet.
The only game in the collection that I didn't get to was Team Fortress 2. It looks like a cool online shooter, and I've heard a lot of good things about it, but I don't know anyone else who has the game. I don't usually like playing team games with random people, so I never checked it out. Maybe someday I will, and I'll write a review on it then.
My final verdict: This is a great collection of some really fun games. If you see it cheap somewhere and you're looking for a good shooter or a really unique puzzle game, pick it up.
This was a very cool game. Great concept, great execution, and incredibly frustrating difficulty at times. The story, while too short, was compelling and humorous. It's the extras that bring the hardcore difficulty. The extra challenge maps, super hard versions of the last six rooms in the story, were hard but doable. It's the medal challenges that will have most people pulling there hair out. The last six rooms each have three medal challenges, one for the least time, the least steps taken, and the least portals used. I'm telling you, even with cheat codes some of these are obscenely hard. But overall, this is a very fun game that is totally worth the time to play through. I only wish it had been longer.
Moving on to Half-Life 2. I actually really enjoyed this game. Like I said earlier, I never played the first game, though I did read the Wiki article on it before playing this. Half-Life 2 turned out to be a fun shooter, but with some pretty nasty difficulty, especially if you're going for all the achievements. All three games, Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode One, and HL2: Episode Two, had some achievements that would have been really difficult if it hadn't been for one thing: cheat codes. Hey, I'm not proud, I don't mind using them. I paid my dues on the NES and SNES back in the day.
Anyway, these are some pretty fun games if you want to take the time to go through all of them, and you can get the achievements pretty easily as well. The story is very cool, also, but I'll warn you that Episode Two ends on a cliffhanger. I have no clue when Episode Three will be out, or if the 360 will even be getting it. I know The Orange Box came out a few years ago, and I haven't heard anything about Episode Three yet.
The only game in the collection that I didn't get to was Team Fortress 2. It looks like a cool online shooter, and I've heard a lot of good things about it, but I don't know anyone else who has the game. I don't usually like playing team games with random people, so I never checked it out. Maybe someday I will, and I'll write a review on it then.
My final verdict: This is a great collection of some really fun games. If you see it cheap somewhere and you're looking for a good shooter or a really unique puzzle game, pick it up.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Game Room update
I felt the need to make another post about Game Room. So far I'm really digging the concept of this game/application. The selection of titles available for it so far is pretty decent, and from what I hear there are supposed to be new games every week. There is, however, one very glaring problem so far. This thing is glitchy as hell! I've had more problems with Game Room than any other 360 game. I've had achievements not unlock for me, only to unlock way later when I'm not sure why. I've had achievements unlock that I shouldn't have gotten (not a bad glitch, admittedly, but still a glitch). I've even had trouble actually buying new games. Worst of all is the challenge system. Trying to send a challenge to a friend is never guaranteed to actually work, and completing a challenge can be even worse. Sometimes after you complete a challenge, the game will attempt to contact the server to let the other players know, but it won't be able to do it, so you'll have no choice but to forfeit the challenge. This is frustrating, to say the least.
I don't want to be too down on this, it's still a very cool idea. I just think Microsoft released it a bit before it was ready. It's desperately in need of a patch. On the bright side, not everybody seems to have these problems. They're only affecting about half of the people I've talked to. So it could be that you won't have any problems. I think I'm going to hold off on playing any more Game Room until a patch is released. Some of you might want to do the same.
I don't want to be too down on this, it's still a very cool idea. I just think Microsoft released it a bit before it was ready. It's desperately in need of a patch. On the bright side, not everybody seems to have these problems. They're only affecting about half of the people I've talked to. So it could be that you won't have any problems. I think I'm going to hold off on playing any more Game Room until a patch is released. Some of you might want to do the same.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Game review - Game Room
Okay, for those of you that are achievement whores and completionists, I want to issue you a warning about the new Xbox Live Arcade game, Game Room.
Game Room is kind of a non-game game, actually. What it is, is a room that you fill up with classic arcade and console games. You can play these games and earn medals and such, and you can go to your friends' arcades or invite them to yours. It's a very interesting idea. The problem is, you have to buy all the games you want to place in your room. With Microsoft points. 240 points a piece, or $3. That's better than standard Live Arcade games, but still adds up if you want to add a lot of games to your room. And you will want to do that, because that's how you earn achievements in Game Room. You have to play a lot of games, earn medals, and unlock new items and themes for your arcade. Depending on how good you are at the games you play, you may have to spend upwards of $70 to get the complete 1,000 achievement points. Yes, I said 1,000.
Now, this on the surface is okay by me. It's not too different from Family Game Night. Some people may not like it, and that's fine, you just don't buy it. But here's the kicker. Game Room is free to download (only the games you add to it cost money), but the moment you load it up you get a five point achievement. There's no going back after that, you can't remove the game from your list. If you're a completionist, you'll have no choice but to buy up a bunch of games to get the rest of the achievements.
Now, personally, I don't have a big problem with this, but I know a lot of people are upset about it, so I wanted to make sure you have all the information beforehand. If you're a completionist, and you're not interested in spending a lot of money on classic games, don't load up Game Room.
On the other hand, if you're like me and you love classic games, check it out. It's a very cool concept.
Game Room is kind of a non-game game, actually. What it is, is a room that you fill up with classic arcade and console games. You can play these games and earn medals and such, and you can go to your friends' arcades or invite them to yours. It's a very interesting idea. The problem is, you have to buy all the games you want to place in your room. With Microsoft points. 240 points a piece, or $3. That's better than standard Live Arcade games, but still adds up if you want to add a lot of games to your room. And you will want to do that, because that's how you earn achievements in Game Room. You have to play a lot of games, earn medals, and unlock new items and themes for your arcade. Depending on how good you are at the games you play, you may have to spend upwards of $70 to get the complete 1,000 achievement points. Yes, I said 1,000.
Now, this on the surface is okay by me. It's not too different from Family Game Night. Some people may not like it, and that's fine, you just don't buy it. But here's the kicker. Game Room is free to download (only the games you add to it cost money), but the moment you load it up you get a five point achievement. There's no going back after that, you can't remove the game from your list. If you're a completionist, you'll have no choice but to buy up a bunch of games to get the rest of the achievements.
Now, personally, I don't have a big problem with this, but I know a lot of people are upset about it, so I wanted to make sure you have all the information beforehand. If you're a completionist, and you're not interested in spending a lot of money on classic games, don't load up Game Room.
On the other hand, if you're like me and you love classic games, check it out. It's a very cool concept.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Game review quickies - 3/2/10
Since my 360 had been broken for the better part of last year, I wanted to up my gamerscore a bit now that I have it back. So recently I played a few quick games to do just that. Here are the reviews.
Fight Night Round 3
I'm not big on sports games in general, boxing games in particular, so I have to admit I took the cheap route to the K in this game. Set the game to easy, turn off DQs, then just groin punch your way to victory. You rarely lose a fight this way. The game only has eight achievements and you can get them all in about five hours. An easy K. Now, if you wanted to take the time to learn the game legitimately, it seemed like it could be fun. Using the right stick to control your punches was something I hadn't experienced before. If you like boxing games, you might really dig this if you take the time to learn it. Or, you could do like me, spend a night punching people in the groin and get an easy K.
TMNT
This game was actually more fun than I thought it would be. This is the first Ninja Turtles game I've played since the NES days, so I don't know how they've been lately, but this one is decent. Of course, it still has lots of problems. Publisher Ubisoft put their stink all over this game, giving the Turtles all kinds of Prince-of-Persia-style moves, running up and along walls, swinging from poles and things like that. It's pretty cool, except for that you don't have to push a button to get them to do it, they just do it. As a result, you wind up running all over places you don't mean to, and often off into pits and dying. A lot. Fortunately, there are checkpoints every few minutes, so it's not that big of an issue. The combat is okay, but very simple. The game was obviously intended for a younger audience. The best part is that the twenty-three achievements are all very easy to get. Most of them you get just going through the game, and the ones you don't only require you to replay one level. I got all thousand points in one sitting. Easy K.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
This one will take a bit more time than the others, but it's a fairly easy K as well. It's far from a perfect game, but in the end I still had fun playing this. It was developed by Traveler's Tales, the same folks responsible for the current Lego crossover games (Star Wars, Indy, Batman, etc.) and actually plays pretty similar to them. There are only six levels in this game, each with a number of sub-missions you must complete. The combat kind of sucks. Have you played any of the Lego Star Wars games? You know how when you're controlling a Jedi, and you swing your lightsaber at an enemy directly in front of you, but somehow you still miss? Yeah, this game is like that. It gets pretty annoying, especially because many of the achievements are to kill so many enemies with certain characters. Still, it's not terrible. I managed to get every single player achievement just going through the game. You will likely want to find a guide for this, though, as you have to collect a great number of hidden treasure chests to get all the achievements and some of them are tough to find. There are two co-op achievements. If you have a friend who wants to play with you (either local or online) you can get these easily. If not, just do what I did and find an easy mission in the first level, sign in another controller, and run through that mission the required number of times. Sounds annoying, but it was actually quick and easy to do. Two days playing time, and I have another thousand points for my gamerscore.
Jumper: Griffin's Story
Okay, here's where things get ugly. I actually started playing this game a long time ago. Like at least a year. I got to the end of the third level and got stuck, so I quit and never came back. After playing the games above, I saw this turd sitting on my shelf and figured I'd try and go back to it. There are only twenty achievements in this game, each worth fifty points. I already had a few from before, but ones I still needed included beating the game, beating it very quickly, and beating it without dying. I was not optimistic. But then I figured the game out. See, you have to understand that this is a bad game. Horrible camera, questionable fighting controls, uneven health pickups, etc. The fighting is based around teleportation (this movie is a prequel to the movie Jumper from a few years back, with Sam Jackson and Hayden Christensen), and to attack guys you press a button and teleport to that side of their body and attack. You have to watch this little ring around your targeted enemy's feet and try to press the button that corresponds with the green spot on that ring. If you hit it you build up your meter for power moves. If you hit the red spot on the ring, the enemy will block and counter you. Sounds simple enough, but the enemies always move around, thus moving the position of the ring, thus changing the context of your buttons. You have to think quick, and that gets pretty tough when there are five other enemies all trying to attack you at once. But once you figure out the rhythm, once you get the game down, it starts to get a lot easier. As you progress through the game and upgrade your weapon, it starts to get even more easy. At the end of the game you get a sword that literally cuts through dudes like a hot knife through butter. And the best part is, you can carry all your collectibles, weapon upgrades, and experience over to a new game after you beat it. So, muddle through it once, learn the combat system, and collect all the weapon upgrades, then you can start a new game and basically be unstoppable. On my second run through, I had no problem beating it without dying, and I did it in about a half an hour, too. After that it's just a simple matter of finding the collectibles, and you can use a guide for that. So this game is not an easy K, at first, but if you can force yourself to figure it out the achievements will soon fall into place for you.
So there you have it. Four games that, with a little work and patience, can really pad out your gamerscore. Rent them if you just want easy points, or if you're like me and have a compulsive urge to collect, pick them up on the cheap from your local used game store.
Fight Night Round 3
I'm not big on sports games in general, boxing games in particular, so I have to admit I took the cheap route to the K in this game. Set the game to easy, turn off DQs, then just groin punch your way to victory. You rarely lose a fight this way. The game only has eight achievements and you can get them all in about five hours. An easy K. Now, if you wanted to take the time to learn the game legitimately, it seemed like it could be fun. Using the right stick to control your punches was something I hadn't experienced before. If you like boxing games, you might really dig this if you take the time to learn it. Or, you could do like me, spend a night punching people in the groin and get an easy K.
TMNT
This game was actually more fun than I thought it would be. This is the first Ninja Turtles game I've played since the NES days, so I don't know how they've been lately, but this one is decent. Of course, it still has lots of problems. Publisher Ubisoft put their stink all over this game, giving the Turtles all kinds of Prince-of-Persia-style moves, running up and along walls, swinging from poles and things like that. It's pretty cool, except for that you don't have to push a button to get them to do it, they just do it. As a result, you wind up running all over places you don't mean to, and often off into pits and dying. A lot. Fortunately, there are checkpoints every few minutes, so it's not that big of an issue. The combat is okay, but very simple. The game was obviously intended for a younger audience. The best part is that the twenty-three achievements are all very easy to get. Most of them you get just going through the game, and the ones you don't only require you to replay one level. I got all thousand points in one sitting. Easy K.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
This one will take a bit more time than the others, but it's a fairly easy K as well. It's far from a perfect game, but in the end I still had fun playing this. It was developed by Traveler's Tales, the same folks responsible for the current Lego crossover games (Star Wars, Indy, Batman, etc.) and actually plays pretty similar to them. There are only six levels in this game, each with a number of sub-missions you must complete. The combat kind of sucks. Have you played any of the Lego Star Wars games? You know how when you're controlling a Jedi, and you swing your lightsaber at an enemy directly in front of you, but somehow you still miss? Yeah, this game is like that. It gets pretty annoying, especially because many of the achievements are to kill so many enemies with certain characters. Still, it's not terrible. I managed to get every single player achievement just going through the game. You will likely want to find a guide for this, though, as you have to collect a great number of hidden treasure chests to get all the achievements and some of them are tough to find. There are two co-op achievements. If you have a friend who wants to play with you (either local or online) you can get these easily. If not, just do what I did and find an easy mission in the first level, sign in another controller, and run through that mission the required number of times. Sounds annoying, but it was actually quick and easy to do. Two days playing time, and I have another thousand points for my gamerscore.
Jumper: Griffin's Story
Okay, here's where things get ugly. I actually started playing this game a long time ago. Like at least a year. I got to the end of the third level and got stuck, so I quit and never came back. After playing the games above, I saw this turd sitting on my shelf and figured I'd try and go back to it. There are only twenty achievements in this game, each worth fifty points. I already had a few from before, but ones I still needed included beating the game, beating it very quickly, and beating it without dying. I was not optimistic. But then I figured the game out. See, you have to understand that this is a bad game. Horrible camera, questionable fighting controls, uneven health pickups, etc. The fighting is based around teleportation (this movie is a prequel to the movie Jumper from a few years back, with Sam Jackson and Hayden Christensen), and to attack guys you press a button and teleport to that side of their body and attack. You have to watch this little ring around your targeted enemy's feet and try to press the button that corresponds with the green spot on that ring. If you hit it you build up your meter for power moves. If you hit the red spot on the ring, the enemy will block and counter you. Sounds simple enough, but the enemies always move around, thus moving the position of the ring, thus changing the context of your buttons. You have to think quick, and that gets pretty tough when there are five other enemies all trying to attack you at once. But once you figure out the rhythm, once you get the game down, it starts to get a lot easier. As you progress through the game and upgrade your weapon, it starts to get even more easy. At the end of the game you get a sword that literally cuts through dudes like a hot knife through butter. And the best part is, you can carry all your collectibles, weapon upgrades, and experience over to a new game after you beat it. So, muddle through it once, learn the combat system, and collect all the weapon upgrades, then you can start a new game and basically be unstoppable. On my second run through, I had no problem beating it without dying, and I did it in about a half an hour, too. After that it's just a simple matter of finding the collectibles, and you can use a guide for that. So this game is not an easy K, at first, but if you can force yourself to figure it out the achievements will soon fall into place for you.
So there you have it. Four games that, with a little work and patience, can really pad out your gamerscore. Rent them if you just want easy points, or if you're like me and have a compulsive urge to collect, pick them up on the cheap from your local used game store.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Game review - Gears of War 2
I wasn't a huge fan of the first Gears of War. I thought it was a fun game, but the multiplayer held little interest to me, and as a result I was finished with the game once I completed the campaign. Gears 2, however, seemed like a much better game to me. I can't really explain why, since the two games play almost exactly alike. I just had a lot more fun with Gears 2. Maybe it's because the achievements were a lot easier in Gears 2. I only managed to get 100 points out of the first Gears, but I have 585 so far from Gears 2.
If you haven't bought this game yet and you're interested in it, be sure you get the Game of the Year Edition! It comes with all of the download content, giving you access to like 19 extra multiplayer maps, an extra campaign mission, and 750 more achievement points. I found mine brand new for $30, so it's totally worth it.
I haven't had a chance to play the multiplayer yet, but I have a lot of friends who play it so I'm sure I will soon. I did play the training missions against bots, and it seemed cool. The new Horde mode, which basically pits you against waves and waves of enemies, is very cool but almost impossible to play alone. You need friends for this.
Whichever kind of gamer you are, if you stick mostly to campaign missions or play a lot online, this game has you covered. And for the price it is these days, you can't go wrong. Check it out.
If you haven't bought this game yet and you're interested in it, be sure you get the Game of the Year Edition! It comes with all of the download content, giving you access to like 19 extra multiplayer maps, an extra campaign mission, and 750 more achievement points. I found mine brand new for $30, so it's totally worth it.
I haven't had a chance to play the multiplayer yet, but I have a lot of friends who play it so I'm sure I will soon. I did play the training missions against bots, and it seemed cool. The new Horde mode, which basically pits you against waves and waves of enemies, is very cool but almost impossible to play alone. You need friends for this.
Whichever kind of gamer you are, if you stick mostly to campaign missions or play a lot online, this game has you covered. And for the price it is these days, you can't go wrong. Check it out.
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