Buy Gold's Gym Cardio Workout - Nintendo Wii

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List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $16.74
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If you enjoy cardio boxing and want to work up a sweat, then this Wii game is for you. After doing the basic lessons and moving on to the regular ones for only a couple of hours my arms and shoulders feel like I can't lift them anymore. I'm pretty sure I'll be sore tomorrow morning.

This is basically a cardio boxing game. The rest of the exercises are short games and workouts that are unlocked as you progress through boxing exercises. It looks like there are 6 regular ones and 4 that use the balance board. This is the extent of the balance board usage. None of the boxing exercises use the balance board. This is a little disappointing, but since you can't jump on the balance board it would be a little difficult to do the boxing footwork which is bouncy, without damaging the board. Still, I thought the description of the game was a little misleading since the use of the balance board is limited to leg raises, push ups and a couple exercises that are already included with the Wii Fit.

Still, I think this is a good addition to my Wii Exercise list because it's engaging and holds my interest and I like games where I can build up the score and compete against my past scores. Here are a list of the pros and cons that I've discovered so far:

Pros:

Choice of music. There are several different music choices that you can preview and play during your workouts.

Choice of settings. You can choose a gym, forest or seaside setting.

Lots of movement and easy to understand instructions.

You acquire points which you can use to buy things at the gym store, like different outfits.

You can pick your trainer (male or female) and there are several different training levels so you can play according to your abilities at a pace that is good for you.

Great response time on the controls and great sounds. "Pow! Crunch! Wham!" The movements and clicks of the Wiimote register right on. You can also click through scenery pans and other peripheral scenes to speed the game. (Thank you, UBI Soft!)

Cons:

The graphics are a little ragged on an HD TV with component cables and 480p settings. Wii HD Link Component Cable

They are also a little simplistic compared to other Wii games, not bad, just simplistic.

The balance board is used in only 4 of the side workouts, not in the main cardio boxing.

All in all, I still think it's a good addition to my Wii workout collection and it's one that's fun enough that it'll get used often. It's good arm and shoulder exercise that will compliment my We Cheer Wii game and a good way to work up a sweat without getting bored.

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I actually got my copy a couple of days before it was supposed to be released from a video game store. It's mostly cardio boxing, although there are other exercises including Punch Dog, reverse sit-ups, back strengthening and squats that utilize the balance board. There are 4 other exercises that have to be unlocked as you progress through the game. (I just unlocked Jump Rope today, on my 4th day.) Gold points are earned to be spent in the Shop on gear, and additional items go on sale as you go.

After initial "registration", you choose your trainer, either Alex or Nina. Other trainers are unlocked as you progress. (I just unlocked Brenda.) Each day, you have a choice of doing a prepared workout or an ala carte workout. After the prepared workout, you get to leave a punch stamp on the calendar, indicating that you've completed that day's workout. There are Boxing Examinations you can take to test yourself.

As of yet, I haven't noticed the scale feature and I had to enter my weight manually when I first set up my profile. All in all, it's a great workoutmore interesting and interactive than Wii Fit (which I still love). I was sweating after about 5 minutes, and I'm STILL sore from my first workout! There's less jumping and hopping around than My Fitness Coach, which, with my bad knees, is a big plus. I look forward to unlocking more of the features of this game!

Update: 4/12/09I've unlocked a couple of the "Special" workouts in the Shape Boxing, but only done Dodging, which is really tricky because you have to throw punches at the same time! I've unlocked all the locked excercises in Exercise and they are "Roadwork" (running & boxing a bear that crosses your path), "Sandbag" (punching 10 sandbangs in the allotted 3 minutes), "Log Chopping" (using the remote to saw through a log in 3 minutes), and "Jump Rope". I've unlocked another trainer named Bob, who looks like the BIGGEST guy on Muscle Beach, and a two new outfits for the trainer I've chosen (Brenda), as well as a few new items that were given to me for reaching a X amount of punches. I'm still loving this game and have lost about 4 lbs since I've been playing it (along w/Weight Watchers). It's not hard on my bad knees and I feel the burn where I should.

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I review Wii games on YouTube. If you want to see more of my reviews go to youtube.com/wiiviewr.

Honest reviews on Gold's Gym Cardio Workout - Nintendo Wii

I've had this for a month now, and I have to say I've really enjoyed myself. I got bored with the Wii Fit within a few weeks; my biggest complaint that other than the Hula Hoop, nothing really gave me a good workout.

Can't say that for this "game." I've worked out every day, and look forward to getting on it first thing in the morning. I do the prepared workout, and every other day will supplement it with some a la carte shape boxing or exercises. I like my trainer, and the little rewards are nice eggs to work toward.

I drip like a sieve, and my muscles are sore. That's a good thing.

I like that you can pick three different levels in the prepared work out (light, regular, hardcore), or just do a la carte if you want more or less.

However (and there's always a however), there are some flaws.

1) Not everything registers. Be it squats, upper cuts, ducks, or dodges, sometimes you have to REALLY exaggerate your movements to get it to register. It's very frustrating to throw an uppercut and nothing happens, or to throw a punch and it registers a duck simultaneously when you're doing ducking combos.

2) As noted by others, it doesn't weigh you. Missed opportunity there by Ubisoft.

3) The English translations on screen ain't such be good done right. ;)

4) On the sandbag exercise, it's too easy to knock the bags out in 45 seconds. I haven't unlocked all of the elements of the game yet, so I'm hoping there's a "free" mode where you can do the side exercises for as long as you like.

5) Sometimes it doesn't register the "up" on squats. You have to really "bounce" (again, exaggerating motions) to get it to register, which takes away from the work out intent. I don't want to exaggerate my motions; I just want to work out and get my sweat on.

6) The "training" mode on the side exercises should be the default, and you unlock the "challenge" mode. Seems silly to challenge someone who hasn't even trained yet.

7) After a prepared work out routine, my trainer tells me that I really kicked butt (nice encouragement) and that I should try a harder work out next time. Um. You picked the work out, Alex, not me. Why don't YOU try a harder work out next time. Maybe in time it will get more difficult (although I'm not complaining. It's working me out as is!).

I know these sound like a lot of gripes, but they are minor compared to the overall positive impression of this game. It's a good work out, and I'm really enjoying myself. Beats a membership to one of the shape boxing gyms that are popping up all over the place. Seems to be ahead of that trend a bit, and is something you can do at home at your convenience.

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Got it today and it may be considered too soon to give a fair review, but truth be told I've been duped. I was expecting a well rounded cardio workout but from start up you have to focus on boxing. Don't get me wrong, if they called it "Cardio Boxing" I would have understood, but I was hoping for something my wife and I can use. She has little or no interest in cardio boxing.

For myself I enjoyed the cardio boxing and I intend to use it as often as time allows. I was able to work up quite a sweat from it and I'm in pretty good shape to begin iwth.

They should have called it cardio boxing or something similar. In that case I would have judge it for what it is.

If you like cardio boxing and are looking for a different and fun workout, give this title a shot, but don't be fooled into thinking you are getting something you are not.

I have to admit when using two controllers, the boxing is challenging and fun. The boxing tips are authentic and I would even suggest this to amateur boxers or martial artists looking to hone their reflexes.

Reviews of Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway Limited Edition - Xbox 360

Customer Ratings:

I have been waiting a long time for Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway to come out. There have been numerous delays and the game was supposed to come out sometime last year. Well it finally came out and I picked up the game yesterday from my local Game Retailer.

The game follows up the first two Brothers in Arms games that came out earlier. You play the role of Sergeant Matt Baker who leads squads of men through Holland during Operation Market Garden in September 1944 during World War II. Operation Market Garden was the last German victory in Europe during the war.

I think the game has a great story line. The game in my opinion is very well done and acted out. It really shows what I think every soldier has to endure and go through during wartime. It is very emotional and gripping. You find out that soldiers have to make life or death decisions that can effect them the rest of their lives. This game shows not only soldiers struggling through this conflict, but also Dutch civilians who were caught in the crossfire between the Allies and the Germans.

If you are looking for a game where you make tactical decisions about how to fight battles during Operation Market Garden, this is it. Your decisions can decide the life's of your soldiers under your command.

The AI is very good in this game. I read some game reviews from other gaming websites where the game reviewers were complaining about German Soldiers who were just standing around when you shoot at them. First of all, you can now sneak up on German Soldiers to plan an attack without them knowing your there. In other words, you can set up an ambush. You set up you and your squads where you want them to fight the Germans. Of course the Germans are going to stand around if they don't know that you are there hiding. Second you can now set up you and your men where the Germans are caught in a cross fire when you fire at them with your weapons. The Germans get confused because there is no where to run and hide. So of course a lot of them are going to stand around because of the crossfire. That happens in real life too.

The graphics are real good in this game. I understand the developers of this game went to actual locations around Holland and took thousands of pictures to make the game looked like Holland during World War II. That is very impressive.

I think the game has a lot of replay value to it because the Germans react differently every time you play the game again. Each time you try to figure out how you will fight different battles throughout the game. I recommend buying this game especially if you like playing World War II games like me.

October 5, 2008

UPDATE: I just finished playing Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway and I noticed a couple of things I wanted to update about this game. I'm a true gamer who likes to give honest opinions about the games I play. The above opinions were given when I was only half way through the game. Here are the updates.

1. The graphics are great at the beginning of the game and toward the middle, but not at the end. It seems like the game developer got into a big hurry to finish this game and just threw in graphics from the "Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood" game into the end of this game. The trees and buildings at the end of game just look dull and not very detailed like at the beginning and the middle of the game. The game was already a year behind schedule and I'm sure the game developer got pressured into finishing the game as soon as possible. I was wondering why I never saw any game trailers that show any missions that were at the end of this game. Now I know why.

2. None of the mission maps you play through are very big throughout the game. You play a little way through a mission and then you get a cut scene. That scenario plays over and over again throughout the game. Too many cut scenes and not enough playing time. If you want a comparison in map sizes, try playing Battlefield: Bad Company and you'll see what I'm talking about as far as map sizes go. Battlefield: Bad Company maps are a lot bigger with less cut scenes.

3. Operation Market Garden was all about the Allies taking and holding major road bridges along Hell's Highway throughout Holland during World War II before the Germans could blow up any of the bridges. Well in the game I didn't see one major bridge shown in any missions. There is one small bridge in the game that goes over a small canal but I don't count that. I'm talking about big huge bridges over major rivers. I didn't see any at all. I was really disappointed. Why were there no major road bridges shown in the game? That is what Operation Market Garden was all about.

4. There were lots of different vehicles used during Operation Market Garden by both the Allies and the Germans. In the game, I only saw one kind of Allied tank (Sherman Firefly) used in the game and one kind of German tank (Panzer IV) used. I didn't see any German Panther tanks, Tiger tanks, German Halftracks, German Volkswagen Kubelwagen, etc. I also didn't see any other American tanks or any British tanks of any kind. What is up with that?

5. Not every mission in this game has you play with squads of men. In fact in some of the missions, you fight alone against the Germans. And in some missions you don't fight at all. Running through a building that is on fire is one of them. There is no shooting at all. I thought in every mission I would control squads of men.

This game reminds me a lot of Medal of Honor: Airborne. That game could of been awesome too if it had of been done right. I remember that game went through a lot of delays just like Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway did and it came out about a year later than it was suppose to. Medal of Honor: Airborne was great the first few missions and then it went downhill the last couple of missions. This game is the same way. After playing the game, I'll have to change my rating from 5 stars to 3 stars. Sorry. I just feel this game could of been made better.

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WWII-based shooters seem like a cliche at this point, but Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway stands above the rest. The tone is more like the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, and the game's story follows this same method. This is the first WWII (or any for that matter) FPS that actually doesn't glorify war and doesn't dumb down the entire experience to a one-man-army taking down Nazi Germany by himself. Your squad actually does things. Tactics are actually rewarded while run-and-gun checkpoint racing (like Call of Duty or Medal of Honor) styles are punished severely. The cut-scenes throughout the missions and between the missions provide the depth that is often not in other FPS titles. The game does an excellent job of showing the stresses of war on your character, going as far as to show elements of post-traumatic stress through the game. The tone is hardly positive, which goes with the setting of Operation: Market Garden. Characters die, and there's a feeling of chaos through certain sections of the game. So far, this is one of the best single-player games I've played this year.

The single player mode alone is worth playing through. The multiplayer, however, is not. There's only one mode, and I don't think I've ever seen a full room. While the single player is mindblowing and amazing, this game won't have the legs that other shooters (Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War, etc) will simply because of the lack of players.

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Great game. Very realistic, but...it will lock you out from your save point without notice. I got two chapters from the end, and could no longer load my save point. Never got to finish the game. Saw similar comments on line about the game losing save points. Be forewarned. You may start the game, but may not ever be able to finish it. No updates available to fix this bug.

Honest reviews on Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway Limited Edition - Xbox 360

Received the game on time...

I know it's an older game but I have had plenty of fun playing it.

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Well, the game itself is amazing. It's one of the well written and enjoyable games out there. Issue is, I cannot review the limited edition because the people I "Bought" it from only sent the game, not the LE box set. Thankfully it was taken care of, but I digress. can't really review.

Black 250GB 250 GB Hard Drive Disk HDD for Xbox 360 SLIM Review

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Received my 250GB hard drive yesterday, it took about 30 seconds to install. and works great so far! I would like to note that amazon suggests buying the xbox360 transfer kit with this item. Which is NOT needed. You just have to go to the storage section on your xbox Dashboard and transfer your saved items from internal memory to your new Hard drive. I had 3.1GB of data to transfer and it only took about 5 minutes.

Also, in some cases you may not be able to use some of your DLC, all you have to do to fix this is go into your account page on the Xbox Dashboard and go to the "Transfer Licenses" option, then transfer the licenses from your INTERNAL MEMORY to your HARD DRIVE. I haven't had to do this yet, but it was brought to my attention that it may happen.

This product works in Xbox360 Slims ONLY. not the old models.

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that even though it says that this hard drive is 250GB, You really only have about 228GB of space to use. This is the case with most Hard drives. 228GB should still be plenty of space for most people.

Example: Installing Forza Motorsport 4 (disc 1) to my Hard drive took up 7.6GB of space (This took about 10 mins). Skyrim took up 3.8GB of space (less than 5 mins).

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This is not the original xbox 360 Hard drive but it works exactly the same way. I've had it for many months now and so far no problems. Very satisfied with this product and would definitely recommend for anyone that wants to save some money.

Best Deals for Black 250GB 250 GB Hard Drive Disk HDD for Xbox 360 SLIM

So I was a bit skeptical about this hard drive. I took a chance, good thing I did since my 4GB Xbox 360 S from Walmart did not contain a hard drive. I installed it and to my surprise it worked. It fit really tight and caused some slight cosmetic damage to the drive upon insertion and removal. I had to apply ample amounts of pressure to install and uninstall the drive. Upon removal there was several scratches on the drive and pieces of plastic shaved off of the drive due to the tight fit. I removed any excess material and blew out the hard drive slot and it worked fine. A little scary when it did not want to fit, but it is working fine.

ProsMuch cheaper than the MS version and it works.

ConsThis hard drive fit a little tight. I had to apply a good amount of force to install it and even more to remove it. Upon removal there was scrapes on the drive due to the hard fit. I took and removed any loose plastic that was damaged and reinstalled it.

11/30/2012 UPDATE

I have had this hard drive for several months now and it is still working great. So glad I made this purchase.

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My son loves his hard drive. He liked how fast it took to get here. He will recommend it to his friends.

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I bought this Hard Drive about a month ago, but it is starting to act up. My xbox loads a little slower, and I've gotten the Red Dot once in a while, but it hasn't flat out crashed. I recently bought an xbox original game online, and found out the hard way that this was not a Microsoft certified hard drive. If you don't intend to play any xbox original games, then go ahead and buy this for the price, but it sucks when you can't play classics such as Knights of the Old Republic, Battlefront, or Halo. I'm going to return this before it completely crashes and just buy the actual Microsoft Hard Drive.

Buy Street Fighter X Tekken - Xbox 360

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List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $14.50
Today's Bonus: 27% Off

I have this game for both systems. The 360 version was bought here on Amazon. And the PS3 version was bought 5 days before launch at a local mom and pop shop.

Online

Street Fighter X Tekken is a ton of fun. It really is. But it's cons are very difficult to overlook. First there is the situation with the online. In this day and age netcode is too important. The ability to play online against friends or even strangers from around the world is one of the reasons the genre has made a complete comeback. SFXT's netcode sacrifices sound in order to run smoothly. The kicker is that it still struggles to run smooth even when sacrificing this precious audio. If you rely on sound for hit and block confirms, just stay away.

***Online update*** As of 4/10/12, the sound issue has been addressed, but many have complained about increased input lag since the patch.

Local to online co-op a.k.a. couch co-op

Got a friend over and the 2 of you want to jump online and do some ranked matches together? If you bought this game on Xbox 360, it's not possible. I'm not sure about later, but right now as I write this review, the 360 version does not have couch co-op even though it's advertised to and is even in the manual. At first Capcom blamed Microsoft. Claiming that the 360 was not able to do it because of it's architecture. That was a blatant lie that they got called out on because MK9 among other games can do this very thing. Then they claimed the 360 version was never supposed to have the feature and that it being in the manual was a mistake. And now, at the time of me writing this, the latest "explanation" is that they were on a tight schedule and they made the "tough decision" to leave it out. Which means the whole time they intentionally kept quiet about it long enough to get our money and let us discover the mode was missing on our own.

Controls

Now I already had a SF4 Round 2 TE, but I was hyped about this game. So I picked up a SFXT Fightstick V.S.(which I'll also be doing a review for) and it works wonderfully. If you're an arcade stick user you've got nothing to worry about. But pad warriors beware. The game has a problem reading diagonal inputs from a pad. Quite often when attempting to jump towards or away from your opponent, you'll get a neutral jump instead. And you'll also get swept when you're trying to crouch block because it'll register as down instead of down/back. This is a serious problem and wouldn't have possibly made into the final retail build if the game had received any sort of Quality & Assurance testing. Taking builds to tournaments and having top players fiddle around with it on the flashy new arcade sticks you're trying to market does not substitute for Q&A.

Color Edit Mode

KoFXIII offers up an amazing color edit mode. SFXT does not. As of right now only 2 colors are available. The additional packs will supposedly be free. But even though they're on the disc, Capcom sees it fit to ration them out over the course of 2012 rather then just let us have our fun with the color options now. The majority will have likely moved on already by the time all colors are finally available.

Gems

I was in favor of the gems initially while everyone else was skeptical from the beginning. I saw them as a potentially fun mechanic if done right. Well, everyone else was right to be skeptic. When you've faced as many people as I have online using the auto block gem as a crutch to defend against what would have otherwise been solid mix-ups, it suddenly becomes clear to you why the community thought they were a bad idea, and why tournaments don't allow them at all. The gems take an already unbalanced game and makes it even more so.

Disc-Locked Content: The new meaning for DLC

If you thought what I said before was bad, it gets even worse here. Locked away on the disc that you've already spent your hard earned money on is a ton of content that Capcom intends to squeeze you for. There are 12 additional characters, costumes, more powerful gems, additional quick combos, and more colors for the edit mode. Here's an idea of just how bad Capcom intends to make you literally pay for your decision to get SFXT. In Europe the costumes have already went on sale. They are £0.79 each. Which is about $1 US. There are 38 characters readily available and 12 locked characters. That's 50 characters total. Each character has 2 alternate costumes. So if you want them all, that's $100 just for COSTUMES. That's not even counting how much it's going to cost you to unlock the additional characters. You're already paying more for locked content than you did for the purchase of the game initially.

Engine

The good: The Tekken characters utilize ground bounces. And the Street Fighter characters utilize wall bounces. If you pick one of each, you get the best of both worlds. The Tekken characters surprisingly fit right in. Some of them fight a lot like their Tekken versions(Kazuya), and some fight nothing like their Tekken versions(Heihachi). But Capcom did a wonderful job of capturing the essence and character of the Tekken cast.

The bad: Damage scaling on combos is so severe, it's as if you're penalized for getting good at the game. It's too easy for non stick users to accidentally trigger quick combos, and there is no way to turn this off. "Grey Health" regenerates too fast. That combined with the heavy damage scaling results in most ranked matches ending in a Time Over. And Pandora is an unusable mechanic. It's so weak, no one dares to even bother with it. If you trigger Pandora during a match, there's a 95%+ chance that you're going to lose because of it. Scarily, there are even more problems than what I've named. I just listed a handful.

Graphics

This game looks great! Everything is in the SF4 art style, but the characters have been touched up a bit. And characters that had to be built from the ground up like all of the Tekken characters, and some from the SF side like Poison, Hugo, Rolento, etc. look amazing. The stages all look great too.

Overall

A game backed up with lies and shady business practices from it's publisher isn't something that I can honestly recommend. It's a great fighter at it's very core, but purchasing it will just encourage Capcom to continue treating their consumer/fanbase like they're stupid. SFXT is a ridiculous cash grab masquerading as a fighting game. I can't recommend someone buy half of a game for $60 and then the rest of it, which is locked ON THE DISC for over $100. They didn't have time to make sure the 360 version had couch co-op. They didn't have time to make sure the online was solid for either console. They didn't even have time to make sure pad players could enjoy the game. But they did however have time to make content to lock away on the disc. In short, do not buy this game.

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Wow, do I feel ripped off by this game! Believe the bad reviews. I do not care if they want you to buy stuff that is already on the disc, the game itself is horrible. I only play online, and the online is totally broken and unplayable: lag, dropped sound effects, dropped controller inputs, lack of options. You name it, Capcom screwed it up. I am putting this game aside for a while. Hopefully, Capcom will repair all that is wrong with this game through updates, and then I will reevaluate it. It's too bad, too, because Street Fighter and Tekken are probably the ultimate fighting game franchises... and Capcom took a big stinky dump on both of them.

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This game is a huge waste of money.

*First off the story in this game doesn't really exist just like every other fighter.

*Second, capcom has 12 characters locked out on the disk so you can't play as them until they officially release the DLC over the next 6 month period, in which you have to pay for the characters. You shouldn't have to pay for something that is on the disk. They are selling you an incomplete game. People found ways to hack and unlock the 12 characters and the company is now suing and getting Microsoft to ban those peoples accounts even though they are just using what should be theirs in the first place. Also, there was day one DLC for alternate costumes which pretty much only change the color of the characters clothes. If you were to buy every outfit it would cost around $100 extra.

*Lastly, Capcom is known for coming out with reprints of the same game. Street Fighter 2 came out at least 5 times. Street Fighter 4 came out and then 6-8 months later they came out with Super Street Fight 4, then 6-8 months after that came out with Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition. This also happened with Marvel vs Capcom 3, now there's Ultimate MVC 3.

So unless you want to keep buying the same game over and over again, I would wait for Crapcom to release the Super, Ultimate, Give me all your money again edition of this game.

Honest reviews on Street Fighter X Tekken - Xbox 360

Capcom has released a full game and charged full price for 60% of it. DLC has become a staple of this industry and its not surprising companies are trying to add more content to keep the title played longer. This is the opposite. This makes me want to get rid of this game and not purchase the next one they release.

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Ok, so I am a die-hard Capcom fan. Have been since I was seven years old playing Street Fighter II in an actual arcade. Never would I have imagined that I would be driven to the point of actually slating one of their products, but low and behold, Capcom seemed determined to sway me, and other loyal fans, to do so.

I purchased the 360 version of Street Fighter x Tekken. I was mad before its release when I found out that it was going to have less characters than the PS3/Vita versions, but Capcom placed the blame for this on Microsoft through lack of communication, so I empathized and proceeded to buy it upon its release, even though it was still exactly the same price. Upon the purchase, and although even the instruction booklet that comes with the game lays out the set-up for it, there is no local co-op on the 360 version. So all the hype about 4 people playing at once? Sorry, not gonna happen on this version.

Wanna know what else? The 12 supposedly DLC characters that are being added to the roster of the Vita version this fall to "celebrate" Street Fighters 20th anniversary, are already on the disc. In full. On all versions. What does this mean? You buy the game for retail, with all of this content on the disc, just locked. How do you unlock them? You pay them more money for characters that you've actually already paid for. Nice.

Capcom's repsonse? There are numerous responses, each one digging the lie deeper. It's even to the point that Capcom officials are calling its consumers "whiners" "moaners" "cryers" "entitled gamers." Yes, Capcom, I am an "entitled gamer." I am entitled to the content that's on the disc that I already purchased!

Anyways, this disgusting marketing ploy is probably why the price is already starting to drop just a little over a week after its release. I was overly enthusiastic about this game. I wish game makers who actually care about the fans had produced this game. The one who did obviously doesn't care about his franchise.

Cheap Saitek X52 Flight Control System

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List Price: $129.99
Sale Price: $99.95
Today's Bonus: 23% Off

As a previous owner of the X45 flight control system and avid flight sim junkie, I was compelled to upgrade my HOTAS system to something newer. I was originally looking at the Thrustmaster HOTAS system, but could not conjur up enough money to purchase one. After playing with the X52 at a LAN party, I was sold and went out and purchased one that night.

The X52 has loads of improvements over the X45 not even mentioning the LCD MFD. One addition which I would have loved to see in the X45 are the eight removable suction cups on the bottom of the stick and throttle bases. The cups first out of the box will do some sliding around, but nothing so drastic that it'll mess your flights up. They do a great enough job to keep the stick down during normal use provided that you don't slam the stick around, but for a flight system that costs this much, I don't think that'll be too much of a problem for most people.

Just like all other Saitek sticks, the X52 is fully customizable in both hardware and software. Not only can you move the lower shelf on the joystick up and down to fit your hand, but you can also adjust the force on the throttle stick. Like all other Saitek sticks, however, you cannot adjust the centering force on the stick itself. But I did not find this to be too much of a problem as it is much looser than all other HOTAS systems that I have owned. The X52 also comes with the Saitek SST programming software, which (again, like all other Saitek sticks) allows you to program every button on the joystick to either an axis, mouse axis, single keyboard stroke, or a complex macro.

I also fell in love with the three modes and color coded mode identification LED to let you know what mode you are in. As a result I can have a mode for A-A, one for A-G, and one mode for general tasks when playing Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, making it easier to keep my hands on the flight system at all times.

The MFD is also a cool addition to the X52. It has a time display to let you know what time it is in up to three time zones, as well as a built-in stopwatch to time your flights and coordinate your turns right on time. And if you can't remember what you programmed a button to just simply hold down the info button and click the button you want to know about and voila! Your button's function is displayed on the screen.

All in all a great HOTAS system for those of us that cannot afford the Thrustmaster HOTAS systems. This flight stick runs perfectly with games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and Falcon 4.0 my two choices and recommendations to pair up with this stick.

And for those of you who want to know about Windows XP Professional x64 support the stick works perfectly using drivers available on the Saitek website.

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I probably spend more time than I should with flight sims, mainly IL2-sturmovik but also FS2004 and lomac, and have worked my way through a few sticks.

before I purchased the X-52 I used an X-45 for near a year. I was happy with it and it still worked perfectly, but when saitek released the'52 I knew I wanted one.

I have used it about 2 weeks now, and man is it sweet. the action on all the axis' is silky smooth,and accurate. I believe the "non contact" technology they are advertising has alot to do with this.

All the buttons are laid out in an intuitive manner, and there are more control options than the X-45 has. the blue LEDs are spiffy, and they thought to allow a way to dim or extinguish them if you so desire

The multi function display is nice to have, but essentialy just eye candy unless you need to know what time it is or what profile you are running.

overall it has a quality feel and look the X-45 was maybe lacking a bit.the hand rest on the stick is adjustable for height, which is also a nice touch. its large enough to accomodate large hands, mine arent exactly tiny and I moved the rest up a notch to be comfortable

I also liked the "two stage" trigger as now a slight pull is guns, and pull it fully and its guns+cannons.its the little things that mean so much.

anyway, it comes highly recommended by me, and at least 6 of the people I fly with also have and love their X-52's. you can't go wrong if you are looking for an advanced flightstick/throttle at a fair price.

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EDIT: Use a bit of silicone grease under the plastic swash plate disk to drastically reduce friction and improve control fidelity. Audio fader or scuba types work well, but you may also find it at a hardware store. Teflon grease also works. Use thick grease. Do not use petroleum-derived products on plastic.

We can't compare this stick to Thrustmaster really because their stuff now is garbage. Thrustmaster pretty much forced Suncom (maker of the fab F-15 series) out of business with lawsuits claiming the newcomer was infringing on their patents to produce "realistic" flight sticks. Then we now have a monopoly on the supposedly authentic stuff which has produced crap like The Cougar. Thanks Thrustmaster! Then there's CH Products...good, smooth, but ugly, expensive, and low resistence. Saitek has been making these strange looking, possibly gimmick-rich products for a while. I think they've finally created a near ultimate HOTAS with the X52.

Clearly if you don't like twist rudders on the stick (as the real Comanche has) then you need to buy some pedals (everyone raves about CH's). But the throttle alone on this Saitek is worth the price. X-Plane and Longbow Anthology (when it works, which is rarely...might have to partition Win '95 spot for it) love this system. Every trim control and slider is recognized in X-Plane. In Longbow 1/2 I have most of the flight and cockpit commands in just one main mode and its pinkie mode. I'll save another mode and its pinkie equivolent for campaign comm stuff. That still leaves two more modes on this thing. Amazing. It's a bit of a headache programming it, but not from the standpoint of design. There's so much you can do with it that it's easy to get overwhelmed with where to put what command. Then you realize you could put such and such on a pinkie shift mode and move it over to the next button, yadda yadda yadda. It'll take hours unless you sit down and plan out your programming strategy ahead of time. But it pays off. Oh, and the mouse stick on the throttle works fine. I'm using it right now to surf the net since my Viewsonic optical was DOA (with no warranty, instructions, 800-number...unbelievable). I don't want to take my hands off the controls to retract flaps and gear after just taking off in an F-4...it's the easiest moment to stall.

My first gripe is that the twist rudder is a little weak on the spring to the right, but I set a significant deadspot in the control panel configuration to prevent me from accidentally yawing when I don't want to. Also, I haven't managed to get the toggles or the fire button to recognize pinkie shifts. For instance, I wanted engine offs and weapons jetison to be toggles+pinkie, with the fire+pinkie as master arm. It doesn't work with that, in Longbow Anthology, at least. But I need the keyboard nearby for a variety of other commands anyway, so it's not a big deal. I leave master arm on, I just wanted the neat effect of switching to it on the fly. There's nothing quite like having laser designator on a stick button to trigger one or two seconds before a hellfire impact, though. The lower hat on the stick does tend to get flipped occasionaly, but I put all my target next/previous/best/close on it. That makes it less of an issue.

The stick is adjustable to your handsize (my first adjustment that seemed perfect actually was too cramped) and it feels well built. I completely discount any complaints that the stick is too easy to tip over or has too much range of motion. If you're not strapping, taping, tying or otherwise attaching them to something, then you're an idiot. You should do that with any HOTAS. Even with my old Playstation I had the Flight Force Pro throttle and stick tied to the flat arms of a wooden deck chair with wrapping present ribbon/string. Couch throw pillows, queen size pillow, and standard pillow made great cushions. You can get a whole flight seat set up with just stuff around the house or from the local department store. Friends would freak out seeing me with Gunship 2000, Ace Combat 2, Colony Wars, and Star Fighter with that setup. Like I said, if you don't do twist rudders, buy pedals. If you don't like the stick, buy a CH one. The throttle is probably the best out there. I like the Saitek how it is and for the price you're getting stick and rudder for free when the only thing left on the market anymore that can compete with this is CH at $100 per item. I'm thrilled with my purchase.

Saitek has very few useful profiles, and it is not easy to make good ones. Go to Simhq and look for any of my posts. I have a link at the bottom of my signature that will take you to a zip of profiles. Amazon apparently doesn't allow for URL's to be listed.

Honest reviews on Saitek X52 Flight Control System

I've owned the x45 HOTAS for almost a year since I decided to finally try the x52. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the x45, I just got a little curious about the x45's older brother.

Here are my observations comparing the two HOTAS: x45 vs. x52

* x45 Buttons/Hats were a little hard to reach with smaller hands on the stick, but I actually prefer the rocker switch for rudder control located on the throttle. I only wish it was designed better and more ergonomically. It felt weird for me to pull on the stick on the x52 and have to rotate the it for rudder control as more often than not I find myself rotating the stick inadvertently. Stability sucks while playing games, it's just not heavy/stable enough to keep from tipping often. SOLUTION: I've fabricated a bracket out of wood and steel to solve this. Solid as a rock on my chair or desk! Heavy as a rock though... =0(

* x52 Buttons/Hats are easier to reach on the stick, but having the rudder twist on the stick is a drawback for me. I'd rather use the rocker on the throttle or rudder pedals. More available modes are nice, but I've honestly never run out of buttons on the x45. Stability sucks while playing games, it's just not heavy/stable enough to keep from tipping over. Fabricating a bracket to mount on would solve this. The x52 just feels much bigger than the x45. It's a little uncomfortable moving the stick around because of its size, but the huge deadzone in the stick seems to be the biggest drawback for me. Can't seem to solve it with software either...

Unfortunately, I will be returning the x52 after only a few weeks of use and going back to my trusty x45. It looks cooler than the x45, feels better, but functionality has not been improved for me. Biggest drawbacks of the x52 are as follows (in order of importance):

1) Huge deadzone that can't be compromised with software. My x45 doesn't exhibit this flaw.

2) Rudder twist on the stick rather than a rocker switch. I would have preferred that they improved upon the x45's rocker switch on the throttle on the x52.

3) The HOTAS just "seems" much bigger when I'm playing. It's a little uncomfortable how tall the stick is and how much I have to throw it around for fast game playing.

Anyways, my $0.02. Have fun with whatever HOTAS you end up going with. I happen to love the fact that I paid $64.98 for my x45 on amazon, less than half what I paid for the x52. In my case, the x45 is simply a much better buy for what I got. But whatever the case, go test drive first. See what works for you! Just make sure you can return either for a refund.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Saitek X52 Flight Control System

First, a short plug for AMAZON: They've provided the SAITEK X52 at a terrific Christmas price, delivering it with flawless service!!! Kudos to all of you at Amazon.com! Happy New Year!

I own and operate the Thrustmaster Cougar and now have the Saitek X52 to compare. First of all, they are similar and different but you can't fully appreciate one without knowing the other. This is a terrific opportunity to do a head to head comparison.

The X52 is simply a delightful work of art. It is beautiful sitting on my desk in the dark with it's illuminated buttons, switches and most of all the throttle's blue, backlit LCD. I wouldn't have believed I could own such technology for approximately one Ben Franklin but it's true and I'm in a little bliss over this new, superb flight control system.

THE GOOD X52

There's so much to say about this pair of controllers and almost all of it is positive. The aesthetics are unpretentiously modern star wars motif. The textured black on silver puts one to mind of a new stereo outfit. The little rubber inset grippers on the rotaries, dials and POVs are very appealing but the configurable intensity blue LEDs and LCD are so peerless that a smile is invoked every time I look the controls over. You can move the hand rest for the flight stick to five positions. This should accommodate a range of large to small hands nicely as the POVs, buttons and mode switch are put in effortless reach of thumb, index and pinky fingers. The stick has a short rotational throw with "relatively" strong spring resistance for rudder control. This is one 3D stick that doesn't seem to produce an affect on the X and Y axes when the rudder twist is engaged. There's a lock at the base of the stick to eliminate the rudder function but isn't especially necessary if you don't wish to use the stick's rudder feature. It really doesn't seem to interfere at any time.

The SST programming software can be optionally installed. In other words, you can keep things bare bone simple by allowing the buttons to be assigned to basic tasks within a game. You lose a great deal of potential function by not programming the X52 but you will still have a very powerful controller even in its most basic form. The SST isn't exactly intuitive but with a few hours of reading the installed Profile Editor's manual, under the HELP tab, and some experimentation, you will be amazed and pleased by a powerful and well thought out programming interface. You can really open up the interface by switching from a 3D display to a tabled "Data View". It seems as though there is no limit to the variation and combination of switch settings with 3 Modes and six base toggle positions. Like the Cougar, you can continue to multiply function by invoking the pinky button while selecting what a button, slider or POV will do. You have a micro stick on the throttle that will most likely be used as a mouse control. There's a hat on the throttle as well as a thumbwheel that operates very much like the thumbwheel mouse button combination on modern pc mice. The fore mentioned Slider and Thumbwheel are not on the Cougar's throttle but the X52 lacks the dogfight and Speed Brake switches. All else has comparable counter parts. The Cougar and X52 flight sticks are also close in features. The X52 lacks two POVs but has a 3 position rotary and six toggles on the base. The flip-up cover for the primary pickle button on the X52 stick is an Easter egg to me. Some might consider it a nuisance or waste but it can be left in the up position and poses no restrictions for critics. I find it an appealing item that shows a playful and generous attitude on the part of Saitek's engineering team. Another nice item is the small green power LEDs on the X52 controls. Again, it may be unnecessary but why not? There's a space for them and if you should choose to turn the LEDs and LCD backlighting to the off option, you'll still know your units are powered up.

THE BAD X52

Hardly worth mentioning when considering the incredible price! The units are very light weight; less than a pound for the throttle and perhaps a little more than that for the stick. Unless fastened down or minimum resistance is set for the throttle, you will be tipping and sliding it around when throwing the handle forward or back. I haven't wanted / bothered to install the supplied suction cups so that may be the way to go for many users. Suction cups aren't for me though. The action of the flight stick's axes is so light that you will require some practice getting used to a feather touch for control. It can be readily done but may not be immediately what you want for confidence inducing sensory resistance. I am happy with the action now but initially it didn't feel right. You might wish the flight stick handle to sit an inch lower as the zero contact design seems to have elevated the stick a bit more than it would be otherwise. If you can mount the stick a little lower than desk top level you might like the stick height a little bit more. Also, there is no solid detent for the idle and afterburner on the throttle. The resistance at least doubles when these boundaries are engaged and I do know that I have reached them but the familiar snick into a detent is what I'm used to and thus it doesn't feel quite right at this stage of my introduction to the X52. It's not a disaster without the detents and the lack of them may prove to be an absent point of wear that won't become an issue one day.

The SST programmer interface lacks the availability of a REMark statement but a comment can be made to momentarily appear on the throttle's LCD when a button press or macro is engaged. This quieted that lacking REMark complaint to a barely audible murmur from me. To see a short definition of a key press on the LCD adds to a sense of total technology coolery.

The multi language hardcopy manual looks loaded and promising but once opened you will be disappointed in the 30 pages of pertinent information that in part is a warrantee disclaimer and Saitek contact information. The manual that gets installed with the SST software doesn't mention the X52 at all but refers to the X36 and X45. One reference to setting milisecond timing for keypresses isn't correct with this version of the SST. There's still enough help available to understand the X52 adequately and it's a good guess that an update help system is in the making. By contrast the Cougar has an excellent hardcopy manual but in just a few hours I feel I know as much about the X52 as I do of the Cougar after two years of intermittent exposure. Sometimes less can be more.

The SST programming software lacks a literal KEYTEST applet, as well as many other FOXY like application and programming aids. Any of the FOXY like applets would be a terrific addition to an otherwise great programming interface. I might add that within the X52's control panel is a TEST tab. When testing each button, POV, mode switch and rotary, there's has been an ever so slight jittering in one or the other rotaries. Right now, I'm seeing nothing so I won't know how that will fair in the future but for now, it is not a problem to me and at present, doesn't even exist.

THE FINAL CONSENSUS

Quality, at least in part, is in the eye of the beholder. The Saitek X52 is light weight plastic. The Thrustmaster is heavy duty aluminum. You can never compare the two on a price level. The Cougar's FOXY programming language interface with all it's tutorials, keytest applications and interactive graphical interface is without comparison. The X52 simply is no match for these two features. But the Cougar is more than twice the price and doesn't have the LEDs and informational mode LCD with three time zones, button engagement information and timer. But, in the end neither really performs any greater or less than the other. One is a Honda and the other is a Hummer. They're both terrific and will get you reliably to your destination. I wouldn't want to choose between them and I'd rather own them both if possible. If you want the most expensive and robust feel that performs extensively and well, then you need the Cougar. If want the coolest looking, feature laden outfit available, go for the X52. I love the X52. I won't know how it will work in two years like I know of the Cougar but for the moment, I'm a coon in a cabbage patch.

Reviews of 50 Cent: Bulletproof - Xbox

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This is one of the worst games ever created. It deserves zero stars. Talk about pointless. The graphics are sub-standard, the storyline is non-existent and the game is solely based on violence. Now don't get me wrong, I usually don't have a problem with violence in video games but when there is absolutely no other point to the game, don't act like it has some story line. Mowing down cops and street thugs is not a storyline and it becomes so boring so fast it will make your head spin. You'll have more fun throwing your controller across the room after about ten minutes than you'll ever get from playing this piece of junk. If this game didn't feature the name "50 Cent" it would have landed in the bargin bin immediately. It's not even worth the bag it would come in if you were fooled into buying it. Don't waste your money on this piece of garbage, not even for a rental.

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This is pretty much the worst and most over-hyped game of 2005 and made a lot of 'bottom 10' lists in many magazines last month. And it bloody deserves it.

The problems with this game begin before you even lift it off the shelf in the store. I mean take a look at the cover. It's 50 Cent, one of the few African American 'role models' around these days, in a defencive pose with a stereotypical 'angry black guy' look on his face (oh, please don't hurt me Mr. Cent!).

Now I am not a fuddy-duddy conservative who blames people like Marilyn Manson for corrupting kids or whatever because I know kids are more intelligent than adults give them credit for. But America is a very racist country and when 50 Cent misrepresents the Black Community and backs up the xenophobic myth that all Black people are evil or killers or gang-bangers in some way I can't help but get very annoyed.

Second of all is the fact that this drivel game is no more than a laughable male fantasy. Yes, I know Mr. Cent has been shot 9 times but it was all at once with low calibre bullets. It's not as if he goes out and gets shot at every day and is immune to all lead fired in the direction of his person. I know 50 Cent has had a really, REALLY, RE-EALLY tough life, that I would not wish upon anyone. But when violence and death have haunted you your whole life the LAST thing you should do is capitalise on a game that glorifies gun-play and gang warfare. That's just disgusting and perverse and if Mr. Cent truly 'kept it real' (what a ridiculous, meaningless phrase) he would treat his demons with respect. Using music as a way of working through them is fine but starring in a video game where the main enjoyment comes from blowing people away certainly is NOT. As I have said, there are few African American role models and he should set an example to those following behind him. While his innovative music may have made him a huge success this game smashes any credibility I feel he may have had.

Third? Well the story to the game is childish and stupid anyway. It's not even entertaining accidentally as it's just way too dull.

And fourth? Well don't get me started on the horrible targeting system and awful controls. It'll make you want to smash your control pad into your TV screen. What a horribly cheaply programmed game!

Fifth? Well, that would have to be the bland, graphics and tedious environments. It all adds up to a pretty (read VERY) unsatisfying experience. Mere days after being released most stores had zillions of copies traded in as those foolish enough to buy it blind quickly discovered what a rotten game it is as well as a hideously over-indulgent and grossly misjudged vanity piece. BEWARE!!!

Graphics C

Sound B-

Gameplay D-

Lasting Appeal D

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very good first person shooter. the missions SUCK after the first 5 stages are opened up..and its hard to figure out what to do in the latter levels so i just gave up. also its hard to target your guy when shooting alittle..but not alot. i just keep going through the first level in Queens getting as much money as i can to buy videos and music...but that will get old soon. rent it, its worth the experience..the exclusive music 50 did for it is good too...

iLL .

Honest reviews on 50 Cent: Bulletproof - Xbox

Okay...this is a review, not a g-unit bash commentary. Unlike some people, I have the b@lls to say that I actually do enjoy some of 50's music. Though not without his issues(you all know what I mean), he is an interesting person. This game was obviously a companion piece to his get rich or die trying movie. Universal kind of dropped the ball on this one. It's not a terrible game, but it reeks of a rushed product. In game graphics are good, but the cinemas seem kinda washed out. The music, well, it's all g-unit so you'll either hate it or love it(ha!).I personally thought that some of the game exclusive tracks were better than his released stuff. Now, the gameplay.....Have you ever been stuck in the mud with some heavy ass boots on? That is a good description of the controls. Why is 50 so slow? The targeting is not as bad as everyone says. Of course its going to be hard to get a head shot. Do you really think anyone can get off a perfect shot everytime? Surprisingly well written story. The "overkills" are by far one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Think Dead to rights, but much more graphic. Voice acting varies from decent to hilarious. Our friend Marshall Mathers is funny as hell as the crooked cop. Anyway, yeah I bought the game, I liked it. I'm just saying that it could have been so much more. All games can't be Halo after all.

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Its a good game I've been wanting for a.while its a challenging game I play it alot I still haven't passed it but its a great gem I love 50 cent and yea its great

Review of GM Master Mod BLUE CHROME Metal Thumbsticks, Trigger Stops, Bullet

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List Price: $299.99
Sale Price: $109.99
Today's Bonus: 63% Off

Item exactly as described, and then some. Was very pleased with the quality from the minute I opened the box.

The mod function does A LOT. it has ten modes and you can add on a bunch of different sub modes. The ten modes of rapid fire are more than enough because you can program them all. Plus with the extra sub modes this modded controller is capable of so much. in all id estimate there are thousands of combinations of mods and modes.

Jump shot , drop shot, quick scope, everything works great. I play gears too and the perfect active reload helps a ton. in all I saw a huge performance boost after using this controller.

The trigger stops are really good too. they definitely help and are easy to get used to. also the metal thumb sticks grip real nice. everything about it is awesome. bullet buttons I haven't gotten used to yet since the tops are flat but they are responsive. im thinking of putting on regular buttons.

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lots of fun. company has great customer service. any problems they fix, and train you in this products functions .....

thanks Geniusmods...

Best Deals for GM Master Mod BLUE CHROME Metal Thumbsticks, Trigger Stops, Bullet

The controller arrived on time and worked flawlessly out of the box. More surprising was the company aftercare, since they on their own initiative contacted me to make sure I was satisfied with my purchase and offered to address concerns in the event I had one. Actually first time, that someone contacted me to make sure I was happy with product. Would highly recommend this product and I can't wait for one to come out for Xbox One. I highly recommend.

Honest reviews on GM Master Mod BLUE CHROME Metal Thumbsticks, Trigger Stops, Bullet

Very awesome controller. Does even MORE than the title says. I do wish it would work with my rechargeable battery for my Play and Charge Kit though. Other then that though. I love it.

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Fast shipping! Works as described. The mods don't work when controller is plugged in. Not sure if that was listed in description, so I can't really complain. Easy to follow instructions. Love the trigger stops! This is a great controller and is HEADSET COMPATIBLE! Would definitely order again.

Reviews of Xbox 360 NFL Denver Broncos Controller

Customer Ratings:

This controller works great for regular gaming. However, to play any type of game that requires a headseat with sound or microphone use the port where you put the headset is defective.

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Overall the product was good, I would have prefered it if the description would have noted that the controller WAS NOT wireless. For XBOX360 you are led to assume the product is wireless.

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My boyfriend absolutely loved this. This makes the perfect gift. It got here quickly. The controller looks great and feels great.

Rock Band 3 Wireless Keyboard for Xbox 360 Review

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List Price: $39.99
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I will kinda cut the actual Rock Band 3 part of this thing out, because the focus here is on the instrument, the 360 version specifically. I'll just say that it does its job perfectly fine with the game and move along.

So, on to the actual keyboard. Anyone who's ever spent ten seconds messing around with one will either know or secretly understand there are usually two things about keyboards when it comes to their construction: the keys have a certain weight to them, and the instrument is usually solidly built (not plastic-y). The MadCatz keyboard fits both of those roles perfectly. It does NOT feel like the vast majority of the other Rock Band 3 instruments, namely the guitar: thin, hollow plastic things which feel like you could snap them over your knee. No, this cat is pretty solid and feels like it could take a battering if need be. The keys have a natural weighted feel and respond just as they should, but with a single addition of ridges over the left ends of some, likely to help newbies with the game align their fingers with the colored sections without having to look down...as much.

If I've given the impression that this thing has a built-in speaker, think otherwise. And Rock Band 3 doesn't, as far as I can remember, have a freestyle mode to let you play whatever on the keys. But, this does come with a 5-pin MIDI outlet, and all of its buttons and keys and I'm pretty sure literally ALL of them, even the touch strip are programmed for use with MIDI software. This puts it further into something more of an actual instrument than just a game controller.

It makes for a compact, fairly versatile item, albeit for the niche market of music gamers and creative keyboardists. As for its interplay with Rock Band 3, there's no real need to mention it here other than it works, because anything deeper is on the game side, which I'll save for a review of it rather than this peripheral.

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There is little to say about the keyboard... it's two octaves, the keys feel pretty nice, and it responds quite well. Overall it's well built and functions nicely with Rock Band 3.

The real problem with it is not in the hardware, but in the game itself. You'll find that the disc only has 63 songs with keys out of the 83, and at least 6 of those 63 tracks aren't really worth playing, unless you enjoy hitting 5 notes and then playing nothing for half the song. The songs that do have a reasonable amount of keys, however, are incredibly fun on both standard and pro, and certainly makes the purchase worthwhile. Additionally, downloadable songs will come with keyboard parts when there is one in the song, so you'll quickly be able to add to the small library of key songs.

The pro keyboard mode works very nicely, offering a nice extra challenge on top of the standard instruments for those who want it, and you may even learn a few things from doing it. My only complaint here being that, in practice mode, you can only slow down to 60%, which is still to fast to properly learn some of the more complex songs like Roundabout.

Overall, the keyboard is a really nice instrument and a nice addition to Rock Band.

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Being a piano player for the last 30 years and finding that most rock bands don't have a place for piano players, I was really excited for Rock Band 3 to come out! But then my excitement turned to frustration when I tried to play the pro keyboard setting, and here's why. You have to learn how to read music all over again using Rock Band 3's vertical scrolling-style, and the lines and spaces are so close together that even though the notes are color-coded white and black it's still hard to read on a regular TV screen. Plus the game puts symbols over the special bonus-point notes, and then it's impossible to tell if they're white or black. If they had just put the keyboard part scrolling horizontally across the top of the screen as they do for vocals, and using real ledger lines and notes, this would have been a pianist's dream! As it is, you feel like a 5-year old learning piano for the first time with music as a foreign language. I switched over to the regular keyboard setting within 48 hours and haven't looked back.

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The keyboard was pretty exciting to play with and get the hang of. Having had some piano experience in the past, it wasn't too difficult to pick up on but there are some pro's and cons to be aware of.

Pros:

1) The keys are spaced out pretty much like a regular keyboard, and there's a strap if you want to use it as a keytar.

2) Its pretty easy on battery life and there are normal AXYB buttons on the pad, unlike the old RB guitars, to allow easier navigation.

3) Sits pretty comfortable in the lap on a couch too if you prefer not to use the strap, or if you have a stand.

Cons:

1) The keys are REALLY sensitive. You've got to get in the habit of not resting any weight on the keys because it'll set off a press which can screw up a combo sometimes.

2) You only play with 1 hand. 2 hand play can be done but because of the size of the piano, its kinda awkward, and when the key segments shift in game, it takes some practice to learn where to replace the hands.

3) For non pro-mode keyboarding, the 5 keys to play are hard to find at first because there are 2 sets of color coordination on the board itself. Smaller color codes are right above the keys, under the large color boards, showing where to play.

All in all, its fun to play, as Rock Band has been since it came out and the keyboard adds a little more flavor to a pretty immersive game already.

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Honestly .. I had no expectations when I bought this. My worst fear was that I would use it with Rock Band 3 before it would be retired to the corner of the room reserved for the plastic guitars. Never did I dream that I would be using it even when my XBox was sent to the shop for repairs. I use this instrument every single day.

First off, unlike the mustang guitar, this doesn't feel cheap. The keys have a nice feel to them. The instrument itself also has nice weight that feels snug in my lap, but I can also pass it over to any nearby person by the "neck" without arm strain. It works as designed with the XBox and in Rock Band itself.

It takes a little while to get used to the Rock Band tablature. The trainers are pretty horrific. They don't explain much of anything such as it is only designed for one hand. That said, it is still pretty awesome to jam out with friends. Overdrive works by pressing a button and the touch sensor makes audio distorting pretty fun (I couldn't stand the whammy bar on the guitars). On easy and medium songs, I found I could laze back in my couch when playing, but once I hit the hard songs with the keyboard shifts, I needed to sit up and maintain good posture.

The instrument really shined for me when I bought a midi-to-usb converter. I'm currently doing eMedia's piano teaching software (which is pretty awesome) and the keytar makes for a wonderful practice tool. I'm able to play it through the computer with the software, enabling it to watch my playing and provide feedback. I'm also able to practice when I take a break from work. I just plop it on my desk, fire up my piano trainer, then play along for ten or so minutes. After which, I return to work feeling refreshed.

This is so much more than a game controller and definitely worth every cent. And hey, if you play at work like I do, maybe your co-workers will appreciate it as well (probably not, but you can still hope)

Reviews of Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice - Playstation 3

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Pros:

+A lot of good gameplay

+An overall charming story

+Lots of things to do off the beaten path

+A Huge emphasis on strategy

+Well done anime inspired art

Cons:

-Still a few problems with the camera

-By now the graphics need an improvement to better bring the story to life. The anime inspired art is really nice, but how about an anime scene or two to really convey a character's feelings or actions? Beyond that, the battlefield and character sprites look exactly like they did in the first two games. A graphical update would've been really nice.

In 2003, Disgaea came out and breathe some new life into the Tactical Strategy RPG. It quickly became a cult classic. Disgaea 2 came around and stayed true to the first by changing very little. In that sense, Disgaea 3 can be summed up as being a continuation of the things that worked in the first two games. If you enjoyed the first two Disgaea games, then you'll like Disgaea 3.

Disgaea 3 focuses on Mao as he tries to overthrow is Overlord of a father for destroying his game console. It's a joke of a story but it's meant to be such. In all honesty it isn't much of a bad story at all once it gets going. The story is told through still shots of the characters facing one another as the dialog pops up on screen. There's voice acting, although some of it is quite forgettable. But there's also a good sense of humor, mainly because the story doens't take itself so seriously. Disgaea 3 knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything more. It makes the overall experience of it fun and satisfying. But as the story progresses it actually becomes about so much more than a mere broken Slaystation Portable.

The story is charming overall, but the presentation of it isn't so much. Certainly character portraits carrying the story out isn't so bad, but by now Disgaea should be willing to take its production values to new levels with the Playstation 3. An anime cutscene or something to help bring some of the more dramatic moments to life would've been really nice.

Battling in Disgaea 3 is no different than it was in the previous two games. You move characters around the battlefield executing attacks. Disgaea has always had a huge emphasis on strategy mainly because of the Geo Panels. Depending on the placement of Geo Panels and the placement of Geo Blocks, characters can be granted certain bonuses ranging from an attack boost to even some that aren't going to help you at all such a hindrance to your defense. Disgaea 3 also brings back the bonus gauge where after a battle you can get certain bonuses depending on how much damage you've done or how many panels you've destroyed. Even by the third installment, the Geo Panels system manages to be unique. The Geo Panels also help to make a difference in your strategy. You'll find your level doesn't mean much if the enemy you're facing has a huge boost by the Geo Panel he's standing on.

Disgaea 3 also keeps the level cap incredibly high. You can go all the way up to level 9999. It might seem like the game puts more emphasis on level and brute force, but chances are you'll find there's still a lot of strategy involved in the game, and that's mainly because there's so much outside of the story to do, and the Geo Panels provide a neat puzzle element to the game.

The biggest problem, however, is that it doesn't look any different from the first two games. You're basically getting a Playstation 2 game on a Playstation 3 console. Tactical Strategy RPGs have never been the best looking games, but Disgaea 3, despite being on the Playstation 3, looks almost exactly the same as the first two games. There isn't a real noticeable improvement in the game's artistic or graphical design. The anime inspired character portraits are very nice and detailed, but the overall look of the game isn't much. It also still suffers from the camera angles. While you can rotate the camera you'll find that there's not much else you can do with it. Pillars and other environmental objects will still be in the way.

Disgaea 3 is a good game. Excellent for Disgaea fans. It may play the same way, but that isn't a bad thing at all. What may not settle well with some gamers, however, is that it's a Playstation 3 game that would've been better suited for the Playstation 2.

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I could not disagree with the three star review more: the current iteration of "Disgaea" is, IMHO, the best strategy game ever made, overtopping both of the original offerings in this series.

Why, though? What makes this offering stand out from its counterparts? It's simple, really: it's precisely the bizarre storyline of the main quest. Lots of people heaped praise on the storyline of the original "Disgaea". I wasn't one of them. I personally thought that, while the story had its moments, in the end, it was pretty blah (particularly considering the cast of wonderful characters appearing). The storyline for the 2nd "Disgaea" was less entertaining than the first (mostly because the cast of characters wasn't interesting in the least, until the post-game madness started). Yet, I loved the first two games, precisely because of what happened AFTER the game. The number of extras in the first game was impressive, and the extras in the 2nd game were absolutely stagerring.

But finally, I really enjoy the storyline. I won't spoil it, but it is incredibly strange, and wholly entertaining. Rather, I'll break my review into the typical pro and cons sections:

PROS:

1) Storyline It's funny. It's well-written. What more could you ask for.

2) Music At times, it's positively incredible. The music playing in the background while in the academy (i.e. while not battling) ranks among my favorite video game themes of all time, and the main theme is good as well. The battle themes are less impressive, but this is actually nice, if one attempts to beat the game with skill as opposed to level-grinding (I would rather focus my concentration on the battle at hand).

3) Voice-acting I enjoy it immensely. It works very well for the story present (although the Japanese voices annoy me).

4) Extras I'm not talking about in-game extras (of which there are so many, I cannot even begin to describe them). I'm talking about the soundtrack CD accompanying the product. I love music CDs, when they're free.

5) Price Most Sony PS3 games are sixty bucks, and most PS3 games stink. It's nice to get a fifty dollar offering that is enjoyable.

6) In-game extras You could easily play this game for 150 hours. There is so much craziness to end the game, it's not even funny.

CONS:

1) Graphics Yes, I know. It's not really important to the main offering. But come on. Most of the time in the game is spent either in battles, or in the school. There's really not much to illustrate here. Why not go the extra mile and make some interesting NEW character designs? I mean, these are the EXACT SAME monsters we saw in the original "Disgaea".

That's about it. Really.

This game, however, will not appeal to anyone. Action gamers, stay away. There's nothing wrong with that, and the comment isn't meant as an insult. Some people don't like the slow pacing of strategy games, or the level grinding madness that ends each "Disgaea" game. Strategy gamers, come one, come all. Let's face it, we haven't gotten many strong offerings recently (I deplore the DS "FFTA" game, and the Wii's "Fire Emblem" was a pretty frail offering as well). "Disgaea" fans well, I don't even have to tell you, do I?

Good stuff.

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This is my first Disgaea game in the franchise. I certainly hope it isn't my last. I've put in about 6 hours into the game, enough to give me an idea of how the game will play. I have to say, it's been fun, great fun.

It's like playing a saturday morning cartoon, except it has a lot of content kids won't get. The game starts with Mao, who wants to defeat his father the Overlord, because his father ruined his video game system(sound familiar?) that cost him millions of hours worth of data. And so our quest begins. The voice overs sound like something off of Fox Kids saturday morning shows.

The game offers so many little things to do and manage. I was actually quite intimidated by the options it gave me when I started playing because I was pretty clueless. After some experimenting I'm slowly understanding parts of it. It is an srpg, but it is like no other srpg I've ever played. The levels are usually small and offer some traps, and puzzles as you traverse the area. I have a feeling this game is going to offer me a lot of great hours. There's so much to upgrade and different things to do.

I'm sure by now everyone knows this game has the look of a ps2 game. And honestly it does. But it's been such a good time, it doesn't bother me one bit. I love it. Rent it, buy it..I don't care. just play it

Honest reviews on Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice - Playstation 3

Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories are Japanese strategy RPGs originally available on the Playstation 2. The original Disgaea has been ported to the PSP with upgrades and improvements. There will be a Nintendo DS port later this year. The original Disgaea is also being resurrected as a "Greatest Hits", somewhat of a milestone for a series like this.

Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is the story of the demon Mao in the Netherworld and his quest to become a hero and overthrow his father, the Overlord while he attends the Evil Academy.

The story throws snorts, snickers and outright laughs at you from the moment you boot the disk in your Playstation 3. Wry, tongue-in-cheek humor is de rigeour for this series.

You start with a level 1 set of characters and have the possibility to progress through the story, with the option of restarting again when you finish it, to a level cap of 9999.

Damage to opponents can rise to the millions of points.

You can "enter" a weapon or other item in your inventory through the Item World to raise its attributes.

Homeroom and Student Council votes must be secured to have more party members, better weapons and armor available at stores.

The amount of customization and stat augmentations you can make are staggering.

You can choose to have Japanese voice-overs, should you desire.

Negatives include dated sprites. While the game is displayed on my 1080p television, the sprites (not the backgrounds or cut scenes) are a little pixelated, which I would like to have been a little more sharp. But this is a minor quibble.

If this is your first outing in the SRPG world, it is strongly encouraged to get the strategy guide or find a good wiki as you will need a leg up in sorting things out. They've crammed everything including the kitchen sink into this game.

If you want to try the cheaper Greatest Hits version of Disgaea, no one would fault you, conversely, the PSP version is highly lauded as well. The latest iteration is averaging a low to mid 80/100 scores from most sites, taking points off for the mild graphical upgrades, but cheering the deep replayability of the game.

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I don't write reviews at all for things I purchase on Amazon so if I'm writing this then I have a reason.

This. game. is. epic.

Yes, it's good. But what I mean is that the battle system, items, characters, EVERYTHING is so huge and deep that this game has more to offer than not only any other console game and most MMOs on the market today. I'm not saying it's the greatest game, I'm saying in terms of scope there are VERY few things that can rival this.

Now I will start to list random good points about the game in no specific order:

Voice acting I was about to cringe when I was preparing to hear the voice acting for the first time because there are a lot of times when Japanese media is brought over to the U.S. and the voices are murdered, but I was pleasantly surprised. The VO work is amazing in English. I even recognized some of the voices from various anime and other game work. I like the voices so much I have yet to switch over to the Japanese track and coming from a guy who usually does switch over, THAT'S saying something.

Battle system deep, deep, deep. I must say the battle system for this game is incredibly deep, so much so that there's so much to talk about I will only say it's awesome.

Story Some push the story aside for being stupid, but I beg to differ. It's so unique and so different that it's what everyone has been asking for something new. It's not serious at all, it's just fun and crazy. The Overlord's Son, Mao, wants to defeat his father because he stepped on his game console and game he spent 4 million hours on. Oh and it all takes place in the Netherworld......which is one giant school. Long story short it only gets better as you go along. If that isn't unique, then I don't know what is.

Items, character choices, customization, etc again, words cannot describe how much freedom you are given in this game. Choose some classes you like, give them weapons and armor, choose their skills, kill things. It's unbelievably massive.

Visuals in a day and age dominated by all the latest 3d graphics, it's a nice change of pace. Colorful, crisp 2D graphics with a little bit of 3D in the mix. It looks beautiful.

There are a few bad things about the game....

Lack of explanations I must say they don't explain enough to you in the tutorial of the game. There's so many things to take into consideration when making all the choices around the game that sometimes you have no idea what will happen or what's the point of something. It's never too bad though as you might be able to figure it out, or heck it may even be in the manual, but I haven't opened it so I don't know.

Scope yes I said the scope of this game is amazing, but for some it will be too much. There's just so much to do and see that not everyone will be able to do so. This really is personal preference though. I love the scope and depth of this game, others may run away...far away.

Various battles Some battles are just downright annoying. There are very few 'normal' maps when there isn't some sort of 'catch' to the battle(high ground, geo panels, high walls, super small maps, etc). Instead you are forced to fight on something new almost every fight which can keep things interesting, but others times I was just hoping for something...simple. Then there are downright cheap enemies and attacks. Enemies with super high dodging ability, enemies that hit 4-5 of you guys at once from across the pacific ocean if they felt like it, and many other things. To make it worse they might throw anywhere from 1-20 of these guys at you. Like I said, keeps things new and interesting...but sometimes you just want....simple.

All in all, you won't find a game for this price(I got my copy for $30) that offers this much. It's amazing how much content is on this disk. 9999 lvls, 30+ classes AND monsters to choose from, DLC, extra missions, 20-30 hours main story mode, customizable classes, weapons, etc. If you've been looking for an RPG that will last you a long time then look no further. This game might just last you a lifetime.

Buy King Arthur - Xbox

Customer Ratings:

the game is fun. way more fun when playing with friends. doesnt follow the movie that well but overall really fun game

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dont waste your money on this game i bought it and it was just ridiculous. if you want a good game buy rocky legends. i only give it 3 stars cuz they did a good job on the characters

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I bought this video game for my 16 yr. old son.

It arrived in new condition and within days of placing the order.

He enjoys this game and finds it challenging.King Arthur

Honest reviews on King Arthur - Xbox

Cute graphics, some historical inaccuracies (e.g. saxons dressed like romans wielding celtic shields and fighting like roman legions). Game play is simply too hard for 1 player as you reach higher levels, feels more like gang rape then video game (you're the one on the wrong end),

Want to experience saxon gang-rape? Play this game.

Cheap Tinkerbell 2 Lost Treasure - Nintendo DS

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The first game was great! My daughter played it constantly (to be honest, so did I). By when my son lost it, she opted to try this one instead of replacing the old one. Well, at 6, she was able to beat in with the first day of owning it. While she likes it, I think she likes the ability to "tink", which she loved in the first. But, you cannot make outfits or jewelry like you could in the first one. Because it was such as bust, I am going to buy the first one for her again. If they come out with a third version, I will wait for reviews before purchasing.

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For those of you who loved the first Tinkerbell game, you will be disappointed in the second one. The game is able to be played in two different modes, one story mode and one fairy mode. The fairy mode is very much like the first game only this time you are able to be the type of fairy you want and then do little chores for other fairies. You also have a little house to decorate. It is very fun but they dumbed it down so much from the first game, if you are looking for a challenge, dont get the game. The story mode is INCREDIBLY simple. I was able to beat it in less than a hour. No challenge. No excitement. Very sad little game.

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My daughter cannot stop playing this game, she received several other ds games and this seems to be her favorite by far. She likes the option to play as five different fairies and the cards that come with the game that she gets to use by typing in the different numbers for codes. She also like the scenery in the game and to also decorate her fairies home.

Honest reviews on Tinkerbell 2 Lost Treasure - Nintendo DS

The first tinkerbell game went on and on and on and it was good! Fun.. this game there are two parts.. story mode and fairy mode.. I beat story mode in less than an hour.. way too simple.. the fairy mode you can make up to 5 fairies in different talents. you do a few things for other fairies and then your story is over.. then you get to do it all over again for another talent fairy.. the first one was developed so much better game play wise.. however, I do like the graphics and the different places in this one compared to the first one.. the movement isnt as much fun. I dont know.. high scores for tink game number one.. medium scores for tink game number 2.. I hope the 3rd one is much better.

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My daughter is just 6 and she loves the game and liked learning about fairies. I think it is her favorite game for now. Thank you to the seller for delivering in just a couple of days.