Discount Corsair Vengeance 1500 USB Connector Dolby 7.1 Gaming Headset

Customer Ratings:

I writing this review after only a little bit of time with these but this is my first impression. The headset this is replacing is the Plantronics Gamecom style. Compared to those, these feel like a dream. Much lighter than you might expect which indicates that they have used a lot of plastic in the contsruction. Anyway, they look large but they don't feel heavy at all in my opinion. The memory foam cups feel really nice even with my glasses on. The one complaint I have in terms of comfort is that I prefer cloth to pleather and Corsair does not include the cloth ear cups in this like they used to in the HS1A. Mic seems fine but I have yet to try it in game. Cord and volume controller seem well constructed.

The articulation on the ear cups is a little odd. They will swing forward to almost flat but do not articular backwards barely at all. They seem comfortable on my head so there are no complaints about it. Just something I noticed.

As for the sound, I can tell that most people complaining about this have probably had audio experiences in the past where they simply plug a headset in and it works and sounds fine. When you throw some 50mm speakers in there, things get a little complicated because you need some juice from your audio source to get the things moving. I am using a Creative X-Fi Go! USB soundcard and I was able to achieve pretty good results. At first, I will admit, they sounded hollow and lacking in bass. However, with about 10 minutes fiddling with the equalizer software, I was able to achieve just as good sound quality as my JVC monitor headphones which are a nice set of headphones for music and movies. The point is this don't expect plug and play. You will have to mess around a bit with these and I would highly suggest not using these with onboard sound chips. I haven't tried it yet but I would suspect that doing that would create mediocre results. For my part I had to boost the 62, 125, 1K, and 2K Hz levels to get this to have some kick and not have the voices sound hollow. As I am listening to music as I write this, I am noticing a much more precise sound reproduction than I am used to. Less inherent muddy/echo effect in the sound reproduction. I am hearing things in recordings I am very familiar with that I have not noticed before. That is a plus in my book.

My biggest issue with virtually every gaming headset I have owned is that they tend to break in under a year and sometimes within 6 months despite being wellcared for. If Corsair's 1300 holds up with regular use, they will have exceded my expectations in many ways.

In the end, it is so hard to know how to take reviews of audio equipment because it is so subjective and because in the age of MP3s and compressed audio files many people don't even know what "good sound" is any more...

EDIT 11/6/12: After a year of use I can easily say this is the best headset I have ever owned. I have tried Logitech and Plantronics headsets but none hold a candle to this one. After a year the memory foam is holding up like new and they are as comfortable was they ever were. The pleather grew on me quite a bit. I noticed that this material is MUCH easier to clean than cloth cup pads and this has made me a pleather convert. In terms of durability, these are as good as the day I bought them. They hold up really well. Best money I have ever spent on a set of gaming headphones. Heart to Corsair. They are definitely one of the best computer part and component manufacturers in the business.

Update 5/14/2013: After a year and a half of use the hinge for the right earcup finally cracked. It is still hanging together barely and I can use them but soon it will give away completely. This may have been from repeated trauma somehow but I would say that this was typical use. I am not hard on my equipment. That said, this is approximately 3 times the lifespan of my previous headsets. I liked this one so much I will be replacing it with the same product.

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Back on September 16, Corsair introduced their new Vengeance line of gaming headsets and peripherals. The Vengeance 1500 headset is the follow up to the Corsair HS1, one of the best gaming headsets available, at any price. The new Corsair Vengeance 1500 USB gaming headset is based on the Corsair HS1 USB headset and now looks as good as it sounds.

PROS:

Great sound quality

Very comfortable

New aggressive appearance

Replaceable earpads

Large, accurate 50mm drivers

CONS:

None

COMFORT

When I reviewed the HS1 a few months back, I wrote that it was supremely comfortable, but that they were just a tad heavy and loose on my head. I'm happy to say that the 1500's fit better than the HS1 and stayed put during my testing. The 1500's still use the uber-comfy memory-foam earpads and have very good padding on the headband. I wore the 1500's for two to three hours at a time and experienced very little discomfort.

SOUND QUALITY

Like the HS1, the Vengeance 1500's sound crisp and accurate--just the way I like `em. For those who prefer a more custom sound, the 1500's respond well to EQ settings in the Corsair software.

I listened to a lot of FLAC-encoded music files and LAME-encoded VBR MP3s with the 1500's, spread over multiple genres like rock, classical, dance, rap, and trance. They all sounded great with the EQ flat, but responded pretty well when I switched EQ profiles in the software. Pumping up the bass was fun on certain songs, but it sacrificed some accuracy to allow for artificial bass. When I left the EQ flat, I felt the bass was nice and tight.

I put on my favorite test movies, Saving Private Ryan, Star Trek, and Tron: Legacy, and really enjoyed the Dolby Headphone setting. Positional cues were accurate and dialogs were easy to hear. The 5.1 surround effects worked well and enhanced my listening enjoyment.

Playing games on the 1500's was a lot of fun. I could hear every detail while playing F.E.A.R. 2 and the location of the sounds were spot on. Gunfire and explosions were satisfying too.

The mic worked fine in my Skype tests. I could hear the person on the other end perfectly and was told that they could hear me clearly as well.

SOFTWARE

The new control panel and drivers also work with the HS1, so if you're an HS1 owner, you should go download it. The control panel is easy to use and not overwhelming or complicated at all. If you want to fine tune the 5.1 or 7.1 settings, you can customize the sound to your heart's content. The EQ supports profiles and includes a few presets that work well out of the box. Also, I had no issues with the 1500's on a Windows 7 64-bit system. There were some HS1 owners who had problems with the old HS1 software running on Windows 7 64-bit.

BUILD & DESIGN

The obvious difference between the HS1 and the Vengeance 1500 is the all new styling. The 1500 bares very little resemblance to the HS1, other than being a circumaural, closed back headset. The HS1 didn't look bad by any means, but I think to some, it looked bland for a gaming headset. The 1500's are anything but bland and I personally love the new styling. I'm also a sucker for accent stitching, which Corsair uses on the headband in their signature blue. The headband now has a textured appearance as well.

The ear cups have also been changed from a silver/gray matte plastic to a combination of matte black, glossy black with a strip of blue. The brushed chrome appearance of the lower section of the headband also give the 1500's a sleeker, stylish appearance.

The folding mic has been moved from the outside of the headband, to the inside. The move is not only a cosmetic improvement, but it moves the mic even closer to the user's mouth. The mic also doesn't make a cheap clickety sound when rotated, like the HS1 did.

The cable and wired remote on the 1500 is identical to the HS1. The long, tangle-proof headphone cable still controls the volume and mutes the mic. The individual volume up and volume down buttons light up blue during normal use and change to red when you press the mic mute button.

CONCLUSION

Corsair took an already great headset in the HS1, and made it even better with the Vengeance 1500. It's comfortable as hell, sounds great, and looks awesome. I'm not sure you'd find a better headset in its price range, or any other price range for that matter. If you're looking for a new gaming headset, the Vengeance 1500 needs to be at the top of your list.

* Review unit provided by Corsair

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So I was looking for some 3d Surround Sound headphones and being a fan of corsair, I decided to ignore some reviewers and go with the majority opinion which seems to be fairly favorable.

When I first got them, they sounded all right, and an EQ in the driver console really brought out some great sound. Not heavy booming bass at all...nice clean sound. I was also very pleased with the sound of the microphone which is crystal clear and appropriate volume.

1 problem I had was that...being a former Razer Barracuda owner, when I read surround sound headphones, I took this to mean there are multiple speakers in the cans. Unfortunately this is a "simulated" surround sound..not a true surround sound...and I was a little disappointed because the surround experience I found to be very very lacking compared to the barracudas. (Dont buy the barracudas though, they have their own problems like bass unless you have razers soundcard or an x-fi)

Anyway they were fairly comfortable day 1, and I played for a couple hours and I was fairly happy with them.

Fast forward 1 week.....

These things hurt my left ear... no matter what I do....my left ear just is very irritated by these headphones...the cushions are nice memory foam but they evidently remembered to be more collapsed than at first and now they dont push out far enough to keep my ear from rubbing against the speaker grating inside and its most unpleasant. (My ears do not stick out at all)

Its something I can passively use for 30 minutes maybe...but extended gaming sessions were a painful experience.

Also when I first got these headphones they felt a bit tight on my head at any size adjustment..but they have since worn in or ive gotten used to them... perhaps if you have a large head..avoid them...this may also be why it bothers my ear.

At first I was really tolerant about it but overtime one BIG dealbreaker for me is the control box....its uselessly close to the headphones themselves and it cannot sit on a desk..it can only dangle...this adds so much weight its obnoxious and pulls to one side of my head. When will headphone companies learn that we actually need to use these things and want them to be practical for extended gaming sessions?

Also Im not fond of the way the headphones pivot in their design. If I have to answer my phone, they tend to snap awkwardly as i try to pull them off and have the tendancy to fall backwards off my head.... the way the pivots pull causes this and its just sort of obnoxious. Why did they do this? Did they test this stuff at all in a practical setting? strange.

For the money they are very disappointing. I made the mistake of "liking" them on day 1 and throwing away the packaging..so I cannot return them...and by day 7 Im here shopping for a new headset.

So to sum it up...

Sound Quality 8 sound clear but bass is lacking even when EQ'd heavily. Explosions sound crisp and not like explosions in games and movies. Id like more versatility here.

Comfort 4 At first they are fine but a little tight...a week later they arent tight, they just hurt.... maybe your experience could be different but the memory foam seems to lose its bounce overtime and makes them uncomfortable overtime. after 1 week they are ok for 30 minutes but not ok for raiding.

Ease of setup 6.5 Downloaded drivers from corsair and plugged them into my USB port and they didnt work... I had to restart my computer..then they worked but the corsair consol didnt show up...i reinstalled and restarted again and then it finally worked. bleh....

3D surround sound 5 These try to emulate the effect but its dead obvious that adding different forms of reverb doesnt mean "directional" sound to even a semi-coherent listener.

Microphone 8 no complaints from vent buddies...sounds clear and clean, very nice mic.

Value 4 What can I say? if they are uncomfortable what gamer will actually ever use them?!

Personal Grade C(may not be the average sum or total of each part or whatever...this is just honest and direct perception)

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Vengeance 1500

Corsairs foray into the gaming headset is a good one. The biggest complaint other than the general lack of sound quality you get out of most gaming headsets is "bass rattling". For instance, someone throws a grenade... a tank drives by and your headphones rumble and grind like a maxed out cheap stereo in a cheap car. Needless to say the 50mm drivers on the Corsair 1500 negate that common complaint. Highs are very nice and lows are decent. Nothing booming but crisp and balanced with the highs, voices come through clearly. Corsair includes a software set that is very slick and minimalistic that lets you tweak your EQ. There are plenty of sliders and options as well as panels to turn on and off Dolby/7.1. Under this pane you can also tweak each virtual speaker and create a custom 7.1 soundscape. Remember the best kinds of headphones are the most flat in terms of sound. This being so that the user can control the headphones to their liking. The microphone is good... tested on Skype and Ventrilo which both came back with thumbs up.

The headphones are seemingly well constructed with my only complaint is the fake metal construction. It seems to be plastic, or at least the lightest metal known to man. However, it still feels sturdy and no creaking. The pads on the sides of headphones cups are soft and help keep the phones off your ears. The braided cable is super long and when I say long, I mean longest headphones cable I have ever seen. Someone at Corsair knows I keep my computer several feet from my desk. The pads along the top are nicely done and the Vengeance 1500 has a nice overall has a clean look. The headphones fit firmly on your head so they don't flop around when you look down or from side to side. They are a closed set of headphones so outside noises don't permeate. I definitely wore them for a six hour gaming spree with no problems other than some sweaty ears sometimes and a bit of tension from the stiff band.

These headphones are plug in play... you plug them in, Windows installs them and bam... ready to go. The only thing you might have to do is set them to default in your control panel depending on your sound card/mobo set up. The 3D aspect works in games whenever you plug them in. Once plugged in the headphone attachment controller illuminates blue with a "+,-" for volume as well as a mute button. I have had them for about a week or so and got to play them with several different games and am so far impressed with the overall feel of these headphones. I got these as a demo unit from Corsair.

4.5 out of 5.

Pro's

Good Sound Closer to a audiophile headset.

No Bass rumbling!

Plug and Play

Comfortable with a long cable.

Con's

If you have a large head the tension on band may bother you.

Update:

Here you can see my youtube review. Please amazon make your vid. uploads bigger >.

Review of Monopoly Tycoon - PC

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $14.99
Sale Price: $12.50
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

This isn't a bad game. I tend to use the full range of stars for reviews, so truly fantastic items get fives. Threes don't mean the game isn't worth your time, it just might not be your taste.

Positives: A well thought out spin on the classic monopoly game. All the elements are there. Railroads, properties, color groups, hotels, and of course, monopolies.

Looking for a competitive game that won't drain your whole afternoon? Want to know exactly how long the game will last? This game can be played with definite limits. A plus for those who have time windows to play in.

Differences: The game isn't so much about controlling the whole gameboard (in this case a city) or driving others to bankruptcy. Instead, you play against others in a race to complete the goals of the scenario. This might be overall sales, empire value, or election to mayor. Some scenarios do pick off players one at a time (in a Weakest Link style fashion), but this doesn't mean that player went bankrupt, just that they were in last place in some fashion when voting was conducted in the town by its "citizens".

Negatives: Marketing fluff This isn't really a sim, but a complex game. To call this the world's first competitive sim isn't anywhere near the mark. Rollercoaster Tycoon is more of a traditional sim, and Simcity more so. This is definitely a souped up boardgame that is complex enough to require a computer to model it. Second complaint, this game has nothing to do with Rollercoaster Tycoon (Chris Sawyer). The folks at Deep Red have made a great game, but the association by the publisher ("brought to you by the folks who brought you") is plain irresponsible. That's like saying Activision "makes" Quake.

Depth: The game seems to have a lot of different strategy. I have gone down several paths to win scenarios. In other words, I don't feel like I've played the game out, yet. The Computer AI is challenging, but doesn't seem to practice the same depth of strategy I do. You get the feeling you can manipulate it. Online play may be a key here (haven't played online as of this writing).

Overall, I find this game fun and challenging, with enough variation to allow for subtle strategy changes mid game. Some people ARE reporting lockups and freezes on the community boards, but its unclear whether something is really wrong with the code itself, or these are jsut isolated issues. I myself am not dropping a warning on this for game stability.

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Update: This will not play on Vista/Windows7 unless you disable the music/sound in the game menu. Which is disappointing because it's cool when the decade changes...the music changes to suit that decade. You may also have to right-click on the icon, choose properties, Compatibility and change to XP SP2.

Monopoly for the PC has been out for some time, so I don't know why the complaints about how this "isn't Monopoly". What's so exciting about regular Monopoly that take hours to play?

This game is fast pace and cut-throat. I can just imagine what the multi-player is like. Being that I haven't played that yet, I'll just stick to the single-player. It has the familiar game pieces (as their 3D representative character) and blocks. The premise is similar, but with a twist. Instead of hopping around a board via die roles, you pick a block and start building. The single player gives you progressive challenges each with 3 difficulty levels. You only need to complete the easiest level to progress to the next. You also have railroad and utilities that you can buy in some scenarios.

In single mode, you are pitted against 2 computer challengers and get scenarios such as "Be the first to make $2,000 in 1 day of business." This is where the "sim" comes in--you're not only building a wide array of shops, you're trying to build what will draw the consumers and shut out the competition. You poll the people in the neighborhoods near where you want to build to find their desires, which change over time. Fill a block with businesses and take it to auction--if you outbid the others, all of your stores get free rent/utilities for a period of time so that your bottom line grows. The game starts in the 1930s but ever 1 "day" is a five year advancement in time and you gain the ability to build new business that weren't available in the previous time period. Fads come and go so a store that was popular in the 1940s may not be in 1960s. That's okay because you can renovate and change the type of business it is.

If it sounds like you get bogged down with all this, don't worry, you don't. You don't have time as it's very fast paced. Building is a matter of choosing a business type and dragging the mouse over x-number of squares and it zooms to completion immediately. The larger the building and/or the nicer the frontage, the more it costs. You can also sell off businesses that aren't doing well or change them into a different business. You have day businesses and night ones so you have to pick your building time well. Money comes in from customers, but goes out when it's time to re-order supplies and pay rent at 6 a.m. Also, you want to keep an eye on your cash levels and those of your opponents so you can send your block to auction at the best advantage for you.

Like the traditional Monopoly, you can get "Chance" cards, some good, some bad. No passing go or landing in jail, though. One thing that's a neat touch is that the music changes to the appropriate period as you move through the decades.

The only things that can be frustrating is the auctions--the characters can be tediously the same. (If you decide to quit the auction, you can click a button and speed up the pace. I wish it would just do that itself instead of bidding continuing to come from the computerized opponents.) The other thing is that it takes you through specific challenges--you're not just allowed to play a regular multiplayer against the computer (at least at first--I haven't finished all of the challenges.) The scenarios do help you get started if you didn't do the tutorial, but it would be nice if you could pick and choose which ones you want to play instead of forcing you to complete each challenge before moving on to the next.

All in all, they've kept true to the idea of Monopoly, but have given a new spin to an old game.

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Monopoly Tycoon is significantly different from the Monopoly board game we've all played, so even if you liked the original game, you might not like this one. Monopoly Tycoon is a real-time strategy game where the object is to build up city blocks and satisfy the needs of the city's residents in order to win. The pace is fast, and the computer opponents know the rules and play hard even on the easy difficulty level.

Let me point out that you CAN play games against the computer without playing a scenario. I've read reviews that say this is impossible, but they are mistaken. The game allows you to host a multiplayer game with up to five computer opponents. You can also select various types of win conditions. Even though you are hosting a multiplayer game, if you want to play by yourself, simply start the game without any human opponents. Simple. But be warned; when playing multiplayer, you cannot pause the game nor speed up the clock.

There are a lot of positives to this game. I've had no problems installing or playing the game, and I only have a Pentium III/500 Mhz. The graphics are excellent -true 3D with easy camera controls, wonderful lighting effects, night and day, cars and people that move about the streets, and more. The environment really makes the game -it is well done and fun to look at.

Unfortunately, you don't spend much time looking at your creations. You're always on the lookout for new business opportunities, which typically means identifying a need for a given block (for example, your citizens might want a grocery store) and then building the appropriate store to service that need. Repeat indefinitely. You rarely have time to sit back and appreciate what you've built! The game does have some time-saving features that become easy to use with practice. But ultimately I found myself wishing that I had some time to enjoy my city.

There's some fun buried beneath the surface of this game, but it won't appeal to the average gamer. Unless you like economic warfare mixed with real-time strategy, this game probably isn't for you. And it really doesn't bear much relation to Monopoly. But it's still an innovative game, and it's certainly fun to look at -when you feel you can spare the time just to look!

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The guys at Deep Red have done it again. The last time I was driven to write a review was when I had lost an entire weekend playing Risk II, created by the same bunch that have developed this little gem.

If you're into tycoon games or the best of the Sim games, you will surely love this baby. It will blow your Monopolies clean off! I've not long had my copy because I had to import it, but I've barely stopped playing it since I tore the pack open.

The AI provides great opposition, the 3D is genuinely gorgeous, the learning curve is nice and shallow, the entire game oozes quality from the moment you install it. I've just finished playing 10 hours straight over a LAN with my girlfriend. She's got bigger monopolies than me but boy, did I have fun beating her, and winning the race to be Mayor. The scenarios are so varied in this one all of the citizen's of the city vote each day for the player that they want to be Mayor. How cool.

I guarantee, if you're like me, it will turn out to be the best 40 bucks you've ever spent. Be quick though, it seems to keep selling out. I guess that's confirmation of the fact that this is one awesome product.

Way to go, Infogrames this is your best yet!

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There is in computer games (as everywhere) an attempt to mine existing licenses for extra cash. That's why you get things like "Clue: The Movie" and "Lord of the Rings: The Dental Floss". The results of this are often tedious and atrocious, keeping the wrong elements while discarding the stuff that might be fun. Developer Deep Red has gotten it right with "Monopoly Tycoon" by keeping the property names and a few key concepts of "Monopoly" and combining them with business simulation concepts and real-time action as found in "Roller Coaster Tycoon".

First thing to keep in mind is that this is NOT Monopoly-The-Board-Game nor even Monopoly-The-Computerized-Version-Of-The-Board-Game. It's a Real Time Strategy game, and time moves rather quickly. It requires far more "twitch" than, say, Roller Coaster Tycoon or Trevor Chan's marvellous (but far more complex) "Capitalism" series.

It's also a business simulation: You can buy property, build hotels and apartments, and even the railroads and four utilities (Gas Works and Telecoms are added to the board game's Electric Company and Water Works)--but most of the time you're surveying the people of the city, building businesses, and adjusting prices when your competitors try to undercut you.

A few things make this work: A good selection of scenarios with different goals; pleasant, fully 3D graphics which capture the flair of the board game, AI which does a pretty good job of thwarting the obvious plans, and brevity, brevity, brevity. You =can= play a long game but the scenarios are mostly on the short side and it's possible for a game to swivel back and forth between players rather dramatically.

The titular "monopoly" itself carries over nicely from the board game: With it, you can build hotels AND it allows you take over a competitors' businesses. (You can do that without a monopoly, too, but it's drastically more expensive.)

There are downsides: the overall coolness of the 3D presentation is offset by the rather bland building graphics (where every store more-or-less looks like every other), the musical score consists of one short-ish (albeit good) track, the vital data you need to get to quickly is spread out in a couple of places--and this seems to stem from the developers' desire to make the game a little harder--and some things about the mechanics are not entirely clear (again, perhaps from the same desire to make the game harder).

But, all-in-all, as a short diversion, Monopoly Tycoon is pretty sweet. It's a shame that a sequel is so unlikely.

Review of Sonic Heroes - Xbox

Customer Ratings:

Sonic heroes is a graceful and excellent attempt at combining adventure, speed, exploration, and it cleverly destroys repetition in the process.

The game's base is simple. You can take control of 4 teams, team sonic, team dark, team rose, and team chaotix. This is where the game truly shines, the 4 different teams give sonic heroes a sense of replayability unlike any game before it. Games like jak and Daxter, Super mario sunshine, and voodoo vince really don't have anything on this game in terms of replayabality.

However, instead of stopping there, sonic team decided to make the levels truly brilliant. The levels are different, vigrant and alive. THe fact that this is a non stop thrill ride through picure perfect levels completely rocks.

It is sad, though, that the minor problems from this game garnered bad reviews from bigger magazines and .coms. For instance, falling through levels is a bad glitch in the game. It will piss you off, the targeting system also goes wacko alot of the time. 90% of the time this isn't a problem but be noted, this isn't a perfect bugless title.

Anything else that sucks? Ya, the voices, nolstalgia for kids and fans of the show but another degrading element.

DO the bugs and the voices make this a bad game? No, the multiple gameplay styles and awesome experience shouldn't be left out. If you buy one game this year it should be this one, it really hits gold.

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I don't know what this game is like for the other two platforms, but on Xbox, it's a tad confusing. The game gets away with this by giving you control of three characters at once and dividing the characters up into four different teams--Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, and Team Chaotix. Each team member has his or her own strengths, and your abilities as a team change depending on which character you have set as the team leader. The inclusion of the four different teams, however, seems a bit pointless since the game is virtually identical for all four of the teams, save for some different story elements in between levels. To be blunt, no one cares about these peripheral characters that Sonic Team seems hell-bent on pushing on gamers. People play Sonic games to play as Sonic the Hedgehog.

Unfortunately, the game suffers from a problematic, finicky camera, occasionally spastic controls, and some bad clipping. The level designs are pretty straightforward, though you'll occasionally find portions that aren't entirely intuitive. Moreover, it's likely that you'll find yourself plummeting into a bottomless nothing without any idea of what you did wrong more than once. This is a rental, for sure.

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This is excactly how i wanted this game to be like. Super speed, super sound, super graphics, gameplay, super heros! A bunch of levels. There are four teams to choose from, each team with their own difficulty level and missions. THere are about 10-12 missions for each team, and each team has their own special team move, (Team sonics is my favorite.) PLus! the missions aren't that hard, and arent that easy, so it will take u a fare amount of time to beat them, but it isn't overly frustrating, like most games are now a days. Dispose of all of the lousy reviews of this game, their just being fussy, this is the real review for this game. Go Sonic!

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this is not what I was hoping for. I have played several other sonic games and this one didn't measure up. not the seller's fault, just a clash withj me.

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My kids really love this game. The game was in great shape. They were really excited that it worked in the XBOX 360 even though it was an older game.

Review of Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1

Customer Ratings:

The original Sonic series has always been considered to be Sega's best. During the 2000s, the series had nothing but a big line of clunkers and game collections, with a few exceptions (Sonic Unleashed, Colors, Adventure series, and the handheld games, to name a few). Then, instead of re-releasing the old Sonics again, Sega finally decided to make Sonic 4, a game that was meant to take the series back to its roots? Did it succeed? I'd say so.

Sonic 4 may happen to rehash of Sonic 1 & 2 elements, but the level design, leaderboards, music, homing attack and graphics are all-new (At least, to the original series). The basic gameplay holds up pretty well, and there are some really cool gimmicks added into this installment, such as running across a path of cards, riding in a mine cart, having to beat the special stages under time limits (and no jumping during the Special Stages), etc.

Of course, there have to be some flaws. First off, since this was built from ground-up, the physics are off and somewhat floaty. Another thing is that it was really easy compared to the previous Sonics. You won't have a hard time being able to collect 100 (or even 200) rings. Lastly, although this is minor, it could have been more fitting for Sega to use the classic design of Sonic for the game.

Those flaws aren't to say that the game is bad. The game itself is just as fun as its predecessors. In fact, while it does contain 4 zones compared to the other Sonics' 6+, certain levels themselves are pretty long. I timed it, and the game is actually just as lengthy as the old Sonics, if not longer. It could be a bit steep for a purchase, but it is totally worth it.

Overall, people can say it's a rehash, but in my perspective shown above, in which I think about what's beyond that, it's a new fun Sonic game. Just be sure to have the Steam service installed on your computer. Does it have a lot of flaws? Yeah, but they are pretty tolerable.

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I remember my brother and I playing the old Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic and Knuckles on the old Sega Genesis. Then, when my brother out grew it, me and my best friend would spend hours in front of the television playing it. I grew up and I didn't hear or see much about Sonic for a long time. Then I managed to find Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles for download here on Amazon. I was so psyched! Then, one day my cousin asked me, "Have you seen Sonic 4?" I was so excited that Sega had finally made a new Sonic game. My cousin allowed me to play it on his tablet, and I was hooked from the start! So I downloaded it for my computer.

At first, I couldn't get Steam to work, but another cousin of mine, who knows computers even better than me, got it working and it's played great ever since! I like how Sonic has the new look, sort of like how he looked on the cartoon Sonic X. You also fight Dr. Eggman, who I always called Robotnik (they're actually the same person). I love how they incorporated many of the classic things like the spiral tracks in mid-air and the loops, but mixed it with a 3-D look and a few new things as well. One of my favorite features is you can go back and play the same levels over and over again and amass like 30 extra lives before playing the more challenging levels! It'll definitely be a game I play over and over again. I can't wait for Episode II!

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When I bought the game, I was thinking that this would be a pretty cool title. Well, to me, it's average. The hub world is okay, but the idea of choosing any world in any order you want to play doesn't feel right to me. I wish getting the Chaos Emeralds were slightly easier. Now the stages themselves aren't really that hard, it's the fact that if you fail the level (hitting the red "!" circles or running out of time), you can't just instantly go replay. But that doesn't bother me too much. The physics are alright however. Anyhow, if you love Sonic and want a good time killer, then go ahead and pick this up. (Especially if you want Episode Metal in Sonic 4: Episode 2)

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Pros:

-Return to form

-Interesting environments

-Levels flow nicely

Cons:

-Terrible console models (hopefully you can find some decent mods)

-Physics are a little strange

-Levels are a little to familiar

-Hubworld takes away from the flow

Overall:

Sonic 4 Episode 1 is a good game, but it does little in the way of innovation. The use of Wii models on a PC port comes off as lazy, and the controls still need some tweaking. The game is fun enough to warrant it's price tag, but at the same time, it feels a little too familiar. Strangely, Sonic Generations seems to come off a lot fresher, despite being a nostalgia based game. I have high hopes for sonic 4 episode 2, as it seems to be distancing itself from both nostalgia, graphics, and controls of this game (Look up the trailer, seriously). I'd buy generations instead, but if you don't have the money or hardware for it, this game is fairly good in its own right.

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This game gets a lot of hate for what it did wrong, and while there are a lot of issues with it, it's not a bad game. It just isn't worthy of being called Sonic 4. The graphics look quite nice; they're cell shaded and the environments look really good. There's a new homing attack feature. And it runs on a fairly strong computer with no issues.

Only issues is the physics, which suck. A lot. But overall, it's a pretty solid game. Lets just hope that Episode 2 is better.

Reviews of Xbox 360 8 MODE Rapid Fire Controller CHROME BLACK with WHITE Leds

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The controller came to my house fast without paying extra for shipping, and sadly that's all the positive news I have for this controller. When I received my controller I first noticed the glossy outer shell, which looks nice at first, but after you pick it up it gets smudged from your fingers, and doesn't take long to loose the nice gloss look. I notice that the controller is quite a bit lighter/cheaper feel then a standard controller, which I found odd because it's an MS Controller, just modded. In COD Black Ops I started messing with the controller settings, and found that a lot of the settings don't work that should, like Mode 1 MW2, and Mode 2 MW2 Akimbo (Dual Trigger) just causes you to shake without firing one shot. Mode 3 COD4 Fast gets you locked out for firing to quick in Xbox live matches. Mode 4 COD4/COD5/MW2, nothing!!! Mode 5 Black Ops & COD5 Fast works for awhile but will lock you from firing for 5 seconds (ANNOYING!) if the new patch detects it. Now Mode 6 GOW2 IS THE BEST ONE, odd as well that it says GOW2 Mode. Mode 7 and 8 work, but not preferred for fast paced games. One of my biggest complaints is the left stick has to be pushed down EXTREAMLY hard to get it to function. Another annoying feature of this controller is I can't be more then 5ft away from my Xbox before it disconnects me. This product is actually WORSE then the ones selling for $49.99. One other note is this controller offers no setting adjustments, which means when they come up with new patches for the games, you will probably be left in the dust. Might want to think about forking a few more $$$ for the programmable model. Also check out the Xbox 360 IntensaFire Solderless Controller Mod kit, it took me only 4 minutes to install and get it running (only cost $30 WITH programmable features). Don't forget that once you start using modded controllers, your ratings will go down because people DO spot this. To avoid a bad rap, just stop firing the second he's down.

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Came fast packaged well perfect condition.

Got 2 one for each grandson

love them

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Very easy to use and does more than I was told and

the directions were very clear came 2 days sooner than

was expected.

Honest reviews on Xbox 360 8 MODE Rapid Fire Controller CHROME BLACK with WHITE Leds

This mod is not good because when I had gotten mine it was painted black and I could see the white spots on it. And when I put my mic in the controller it starts buzzing.

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This was a gift for my son he is 16 . He really liked the way it looked and I was impressed as well . The photo does not do it justice. We are both gamers and this was purchased for offline use only. The different modes are easy to switch back and forth from. This is a very effective and easy to use device.

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Here's the premise you're this little guy with a net and a light sabre running around trying to capture these monkeys. The monkeys wear different colored pants, and have little sirens on their heads. The pants tell you how tough they are to catch, and the sirens tell you if they've caught on to the fact that you're trying to capture them.

In addition to the trusty tools I mentioned above, you get a whole slew of other gadgets you can use to capture the monkeys, including an r/c car, slingshot and monkey radar. Unfortunately, the monkeys are also armed with everything from grenades to machine guns to canons.

In addition to being hilarious (the commercials for the game were great, if you got a chance to seem them on TV), the joy of the game is using the analog controllers to move and manipulate gadgets.

The game was the perfect difficulty, not too hard as I had suspected it would be. I still haven't completely finished, and look forward to hours more fun netting those pesky little chimps!

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I got to admit, I know the game is aimed more towards kids but I'm 35 and I had a blast with this game. I never even heard of the game til it was shown to me in someones' collection. Being bored one day, I put it in the Playstation to check it out and, lo and behold, I played that game til early the next morning. The object of the game is to catch all the monkeys lose in each level. Trust me, it isn't as easy as you might think. It takes some smarts to get them lil critters. Armed with several different gadgets, you're a one-man monkey catching machine. I know it might seem like a silly game to you but it's one of the most fun games I've played in a long while. You definitely owe it to yourself to see what it's all about.

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I thought Spyro The Dragon was great,but when I was done,I was looking for some other great action/adventure games.Ape Escape took the place of excitment,and it didn't fail.You'll love this game!

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I love APE ESCAPE. It is the best Playstration game ever. Just look at the other revues if you do not believe me. You need a dual shock controller to play this awesome game. the mini games are really cool.

SteelSeries 5H V2 USB Gaming Headset with Virtual Surround 7.1 Reviews

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List Price: $99.99
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Like other reviewers, these failed on my after a few months with the right speaker cutting in and out. For the money you can get much better sound quality, I would not recommend these to anyone.

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Let me start off by saying, for gaming i don't think there is a better headset out there. The virtual 7.1 works flawlessly and the mic on this thing is crystal clear. Its relatively comfortable, although I start to sweat around my ears around the 1 hour mark. Also if you are considered one with a small head, i might go try it on first. I have what you call a large head with some hair and i have this thing cranked all the way down. Works for me but not so sure about others.

Music Very mediocre. i know it is optimized for GAMING but i still feel it fell short in this department. don't expect to be blown away or even satisfied if you want to listen to music a lot on headphones.

All in all its a solid headset, and is well worth the money if you are into gaming.

UPDATE:so it has been 4 days and the right side of the headphones has stopped working. i am very surprised/annoyed because i handled these things like a baby and still went out on me. i thought it was something funky with vista so i turned on the "flip sound" so the left side plays on the right and visa versa and no sound still. plugged it into a friends computer and same thing. not very happy that i spent $100 on these and they fail within such a short amount of time.

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I bought these to replace a broken pair of 4H's.

These have the same sound as those, so if you're looking for something cheaper, get those. I bought these because I needed to take these apart because I move them around a lot, and I needed the braided high-quality cables because they're abused by other people.

As some other people on the internet have noted, this headset is geared towards gamers with its custom high-treble soundscape (for bullets and footsteps, which are very noticeable), so if you're more than an occasional music listener, these might not be too good for you. I hardly ever listen to music, so this wasn't a problem for me.

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I've had this headset for close to 2 and a half years now. The sound seemed good. Gunfire was crisp, footsteps were nice and clear in first person shooters. However, a couple of months after I've used it, the sound from one of the cups started to cut off. You could get it back by moving the volume dial until you hear sound from both cups again. That didn't really affect the sound as much as it was just an annoyance. Then shortly after, the thin plastic cushion on the headbands started to disintegrate. Little black pieces of the plastic would flake off and the sound now is static-y in the cups.

Overall, for the price, the quality is really bad. The build material needs to be upgraded or else this headset would probably not even last a year. The new 7H seems to have the same material on the headbands so I would watch out for the flaking problem. A suggestion for Steelseries would really be to use cloth for the headband cushion and just overall have better wiring in these cans.

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I was expecting more from this product after reading dozens of reviews on the quality you get in fps games.

I was sadly mistaken, this headset sounds awful.

VERY awful if you enjoy listening to music or pretty much anything other than games.

There is 0 bass whatsoever in this headset no matter how much you play with the drivers EQ it will not put out bass.

Sort of sounds like ipod earbuds but larger.

Their claims about positional sound with this headset all derive from the simple fact that high frequencies emit a clearer direction than lower frequencies. This modification can be done to any headset that gives you 10 band EQ adjustment. just up your treble and lower your bass and mids, now you've got better positional audio for gaming.

I hear the siberia v2 usb has decent bass, so I'd go for that set before purchasing the 5hv2 usb.

experience: 5 years playing cs 1.6 competitively and gone through around 30 headsets/sound cards in this time.

CableMax Kinect Compatible USB 16' Extension Cable Reviews

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I bought this cable to work with non slim version of xbox360. This worked perfectly with no delay in response. This cable is a must if you xbox is away from TV hiden in the closet or other room until they come out with wireless kinect controller similar to Wii.

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Not a whole lot to talk about on this product. It's a 16' USB cable, which works as-advertised.

I've used this both for extending wired keyboards with high-power requirements (e.g. Logitech G510's) as well as have one permanently installed in cable channel running up to the Kinect. Works great for both uses.

The problems other reviewers are seeing with "incompatibility" with Xbox Kinect systems, is that this will ONLY work for the standalone Kinect model. The standalone kit comes with both a USB cord which connects to your Xbox (you will be extending this part w/ this cable), as well as a power injector. When you buy a bundled system, the power injector does not come with it and the cable will be different. Something to keep in mind! If you've bought your Kinect separately from your XBox, you should be good to go. Otherwise, look elsewhere or buy the Kinect power cable separately for use with this item

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I got this because I needed to extend my 16 inch cord to 24 inches with power. This worked as I needed it for my Kinect.

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Received cable in March but ran into problem with the new tv setup I ordered it for and didn't hook it up until the other day(June). Doa. Subbed out an amazon basics USB extension and everything works great. Too bad I missed the return period. First time I've taken it on the chin from amazon.

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cable works great with kinect. you will have plenty of room with this cable to play in any large room. the connection and reception is very good.

Reviews of uDraw Game Tablet with SpongeBob Squigglepants and Studio Bundle

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This game is so much fun!! The SpongeBob game uses all parts of the uDraw board and really helps to build eye/hand coordination. My daughter and I have a blast playing each other and this game is one that I can play my heart out and when she wins it's not because I let her...this game provides equal competition for both :-) Wii love it!!

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I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my 4 year old son, who loves to draw and loves Spoungebob. Overall I am happy with the value, you get the Wii U Draw tablet, and a U Draw game, and Spoungebob game. The U Draw Game is pretty fun and has a lot of options for drawing. The Spoungebob game, however is kind of hard for a 4 year old. It is a bunch of mini games, but you only have a few seconds to complete each mini game, so that makes it challenging. Overall though my son does enjoy it and Amazon did have the best price for the bundle, so I would say this is a really good value pack for the money.

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My 6 year old son wanted the draw tablet for his birthday, he loves the tablet but the Spongebob game is kind of boring for him.

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I brought it for my kids, but they are 2 and 4 and couldn't quite connect the dots between what was going on with this and the what was happening on the TV. Maybe when they are older we will try again.

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Kids loved playing this game, bought it for their birthday and it shipped extremely quickly was very happy with it overall.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Reviews

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I played this game as a kid and spent many months obsessing over it. It was a real blast from the past to play it again as an adult, though much easier. I love these old point-and-click adventure games. Some of the "scene work" in this game is still impressive to me, although outdated. If your kids have an active imagination and have time to sit and think through a situation, I would recommend this. It was kind of tough to install because it was designed for an obsolete operating system and I couldn't save the game periodically. That is my only complaint.

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A fantastic game although old still very playable and enjoyable, with a great story plot art work and charecters.First came on 11 floppys and now you can get it on cd! 3 paths in 1 game!!! wits team and action! Think your way through team up with an old freind Sophia Hapgood or Fight your way through!! You can pilot a german u-boat an hot air balloon and ride a camel! A timeless classic from when they were at the best Lucas Arts Entertainment!

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The game is really fun but it requires soundblaster to have music and voices.Plus you need a 32-bit comeputer to play this game. Sence my computer is the Windows xp home edition it will work.Overall very entertaning expirience just like back in 1993.

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I loved this games since the very first time I played it. It was my first Indiana Jones game. Although it was really difficult to me at first, esp. the Battle mode. I got it on the DOS cd-edition along with my Sound Blaster 16. The main reason why I love this game so much is because it is a real clue seeking and finding game of which you can choose 1 of 3 different paths which will lead you through the game and not a fight and shoot Indiana Jones game. I was very sad when the newer versions of Windows came out when DOS was stopped and I couldn't use my SB 16 anymore because of the newer mother boards and the 16 bit slots were gone when the Pentium computers came out. I got it on Wii now.

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Besides Monkey Island, this is my most favorite computer game of all time. Why? It's funny, it's challenging, it's adventerous, and it's a long game play. THOROUGHLY enjoyable!

Review of Xbox 360 Energizer Power & Play Charging System

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I was looking around for what charger would be perfect for not only charging my batteries but keeping them charged and even holding the controller for when I wasn't using them and I've used all that are on the market and I have to say that Energizer got it perfect.

First, the look of it is great and sleak. Others complain that it doesn't match their Elite or SE controllers but the truth is that the controller(s) basically shadow the charger itself anyway so it doesn't matter. The light unlike the Nyko is great, it's not too bright like the Nyko station but not too dull like the TeknoCreations charger.

Second, the build is by far the best out of the three or four charger bases out there. The tree-like charger isn't too light like others have said, when it's not charging anything it's light because...well it's not charging anything. Makes sense. It's also not top heavy as also referenced, as long as you have it on a flat surface of course. Somone who may put it on carpet or something along those lines would be wobbly.

Overall: Best looking charger station, which is what they were going for, and not too much more in price. Not to mention it holds your controllers well. 5/5

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This charger does everything it says on the case, including the part that says batteries not included. The batteries being not included is kind of a let down, but it charges only actual xbox batteries or energizer which cost, at the cheapest price, around 10 dollars each. That would make this item cost way too much. The product itself looks great and is a great place to not only charge the controllers, but also a nice place to store them when not in use. It is very sturdy and has no problems holding or charging 2 controllers at a time.

This is far superior to the nyko chargers primarily because you don't have to remove the batteries ever again. It also charges in the same amount and looks much better.

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looks great works excellent charges energizer rechargeable batteries and microsoft rechargeable packs without a flaw, i was reading the reviews and i was doubtful but glad it works excellent this would of been perfect in black for my elite system love it. looks great next to my ps3 exactly same type model controllers charger.i would recommend this to my friends who own the ps3 version chargers it looks great next to each other.

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I love this charger, I have had it for months, I originally purchased is from EB when they first came out, and am buying another one as a present. I have been waiting for a charger like this for quite a while. Displays my controllers very nicely, and I have NO WEIGHT ISSUES. It charges just has fast as the Microsoft charger, except you can use energizer rechargeable batteries or the Xbox 360 Rechargeable Controller Battery Pack. I have nothing bad to say about this attractive addition to my home theater system.

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First off, I would give this charging system five stars just because it was easy to take out of its box. No hard plastic, so I didn't cut myself or have to go get the scissors just to get this thing open (unlike the plastic MS's Play n Charge kits come in).

Now, on to the actual charger itself. While shopping around for chargers, I settled on this one because

1) Unlike the Microsoft charger, I didn't have to take the battery packs out of my controllers.

2) Unlike the Nyko charger, I could use the Microsoft rechargeable battery packs that I had already purchased. Plus, the bad thing about the Nyko charger is that both of the batteries come in white. This is great if you only have white controllers, but I have an Elite system that came with a black controller as well.

This is a nice little system because I can leave the batteries in my controllers and just have to plug them in to start charging them. Charge time was excellent, and the red and green lights indicators are a great touch. The unit feels sturdy and I can't understand why other reviewers would have a problem with it tipping. Also, it looks cool! The other charging systems might charge faster, but you can't beat this one for ease-of-use, looks, and overall convenience.

I would indeed recommend this charging base to all my friends.

Review of Madden NFL 12 - Xbox 360

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EDIT 9/3... see end

Final Edit 9/5

Brief first impressions from playing the game for a few hours today: (I skipped Madden 11, so any comparisons to previous versions are Madden 10 or before)

Pros:

Visuals; stadiums, fields, weather look very nice. Crowd is still a little boring but that doesn't bother me.

The Franchise Mode improvements are nice. I haven't made it to an offseason yet, but the expanded rosters, cut days, and IR system force you into some tough decisions which are a welcome challenge.

New pump fake system; I haven't read about this in any of the other reviews, but in my opinion it's one of the best new features. Unlike previous games, where there is one 'pump fake' button which makes the QB perform a generic pump fake, Madden 12 lets you hold the left trigger (on 360) and press any receiver to pump fake to that receiver. This is very useful for pulling linebackers out of the middle of the field and throwing behind them, or getting safeties to commit before lobbing a bomb over their heads.

Realistic injuries; The new 'player roles' system in general is very cool, and it has some nice results. I was playing as my team (Go Steelers!) and Aaron Smith went down with a torn bicep... the same exact injury that caused him to miss the playoffs last year! Players who are injury prone in real life are more likely to get injured throughout a season in this game.

Rookies; I love the fact that you don't instantly know what you got out of a guy when you draft him (or for the current rookies when you start a Franchise). After each preseason game, you learn more about each rookie (unlock more of their individual attributes), and their 'overall' begins to narrow down to reflect their actual skill. It's not until after the 4th preseason game that you are able to see the actual Overall rating for each rookie, as well as their Potential grade. (The interesting thing is... by that time, you've already made 16 cuts!)

Cons:

Be a Superstar; I didn't spend much time on this mode, so take this with a grain of salt, but I wasn't impressed. I imported a 'Road To Glory' player from NCAA 12, and it jumped right to a screen with my schedule on it. I had already been drafted, and I didn't even know it! I think if you spend time playing a guy's whole college career, they should make a bigger deal about getting drafted. Or, you know, at least tell you that it happened.

AI play calling; I'm playing on All-Pro, which shouldn't be too difficult, and somehow the computer knows EXACTLY which play I'm going to call every single time. I'm not one of those guys who uses the same play over and over; I mix it up quite a bit. Yet no matter what I call, the computer has it sniffed out. Run a counter play, and they happen to bring a weak side / FS blitz. Pick a run between the tackles, and what do you know, there are 8 guys in the box even though it's 2nd and 17. I've found myself calling a TON of audibles at the line of scrimmage, because it's the only way to actually get your plays off.

Commentary; I'm a few hours in, and it's already getting repetitive. I like the voices better than Madden 10, but they need to mix up some of their phrases. Most of the time, Gus Johnson's thoughts sound disconnected and he gets way too excited (come to think of it, that should be a 'pro' since it's quite realistic)

Sorry if I rambled, but hopefully I helped. The ultimate question is usually, 'Is it worth 60 bucks if I already own Madden __', and that answer is not going to be the same for everyone. If you like Franchise mode and you can deal with some frustrating AI features (some of which will hopefully be patched out), then there is a good chance you will enjoy the game.

REVISED 9/3: Still enjoying Franchise mode, but a few complaints. One, importing a draft class from NCAA will overwrite the new 'draft logic' which ensures that there are NFL-ready talents at most positions scattered throughout the draft (i.e. not just in the first and second rounds.) I've found it to actually be more realistic to NOT import a class, since the new logic is pretty good and allows you to scout gems in the late rounds, which is quite fun. Still, this is a bug that should (and almost certainly WON'T) be fixed... until it's a "new feature" in Madden 13.

As mentioned in one of the comments below, there are perhaps too many injuries. This tends to be a problem with most annual sports games, because they introduce a new feature and then over-tweak the gameplay to show it off. Injured Reserve is new to Madden this year, and it seems like they have gone overboard with the "HEY! Look what I can do!", resulting in too many season-ending and long-term injuries. There is an 'injuries' slider you can adjust, but I have yet to notice if that affects simulations (may only affect games that you actually play)

I've played a little more Be a Superstar, and I am still lukewarm on it. I like the new development system where you can assign skill points to improve your player, and I like that you are awarded skill points based on what the TEAM does (much better for playing as a defensive player,) but something about it still feels unpolished.

Final edit / opinions (9/5)

I've been back and forth on this version of Madden, but I'm finally off the fence, and I can't say I'd recommend the game. Sure, the visuals are improved and there are some nice tweaks to the franchise mode, but Madden 12 is plagued by the same thing that has plagued the series for a long time, especially since 2004 or so (which, by pure coincidence, is the last time that EA Sports has had to compete with another NFL licensed game). The problem is the lack of attention to detail; I know EA has gone to great lengths to have realistic and detailed player introductions this year, but the problem is that this game has far too many more pressing issues that seem to be ignored. The blocking on punt returns is miserable, the Franchise AI is frustratingly stupid, the audio commentary is VERY repetative, and the list goes on.

The problem is that EA doesn't NEED to fix any of these things to keep selling copies... as long as they're the only show in town, and they can half-heartedly implement a few new features every year so that there is something to put on the back of the box and something to show off in the demo, people will keep buying the game. They suckered me in again this year, although this is the first time I have bought a NEW version of the game since 08, but this is probably it for me.

Supposedly, EA's exclusive rights to the NFL expire in 2012, and NFL 2K could be making a return. I'm not sure if it will be any better, but it will at least encourage some competition in the marketplace, and force Madden to stop giving us half-efforts.

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I think Madden 12 has made some progress....I think. However, Madden 11 was so bad that it's hard to tell. I'm unsure if I like it more because Madden 11 was garbage, or if it has some actually quality to it. Here is as list of things I consider to be pro's & con's of Madden 12.

All of my experience's are based from playing on the All Madden setting.

Pro's.

1.)The Presentation. The presentation is very good. It definitely feels/looks more authentic and adds excitement before the game. The presentation in previous Madden's was a joke. I think it was Madden 10 that had Jet's flying over and fire works going off before every game. Doe's this normally happen? Jet's...maybe. Seems like I've seen that happen on occasion, but it doesn't happen before every game for every team. But fireworks...before a NOON kickoff? What team shoot's off fire workers during the day before kick off? Ridiculous. I sometimes wondered if the Madden programmers actually watched football? Well, that joke has been replaced with some realism. The Madden team has done a great job this time around.

2.)Catch options/awareness. This year receivers seem to be able to do more. Whether it's trying to stay in bounds or come down in the end zone or falling to their knee's to make a catch, this aspect has been (thankfully) expanded. It was always frustrating to throw a pass to a receiver who seemed oblivious to the sidelines or made no effort to come down in the end zone despite their high ratings.

3.) Franchise. I love the new franchise additions. Trying to rebuild or maintain a good team over the years is my favorite thing to do with Madden. I'm especially thrilled with the cut day's. You have walk on's and rookie's who's rating's are not revealed until you play them during the pre-season. The longer they last, the more you learn about their rating's. Occasionally you do get some gems that are good enough to make your team and actually start in some cases. You don't fully know what you have until all the pre-season games have been played. Yet, after every pre-season game, you have to make some cut's. It makes this a lot more enjoyable. You really don't know if this guy you're cutting will be a better player then the guy you're keeping. The auction for free agent's is better, as well. You can't sign every player you want. There are many good, solid additions to the franchise mode.

Con's

1.) New collision system. This has been describe as a new feature that "uses momentum to produce more authentic tackling." Not true. Here's an example. My linebacker, Demarcus Ware, who happens to be a All Pro/All word linebacker has gotten past the offensive line man and is making a b-line to the running back who is taking a hand off from the QB. Ware is running at almost full speed, the back is just getting started and has taking two steps. Now, Ware should blast this guy...no matter who it is because Ware is a great linebacker and has a high rating AND has all the momentum. What happens? The running back trucks Ware!! Runs right over him. Not possible. This kind of thing happens all the time in this game. The multi tackle aspect is still bad. Many if not most of the time the initial tackler will get blown off when another tackler joins. You'll have big, massive DT's that get thrown off the ball carrier after the small DB join's in. Or the initial tackler will continue on the original projected path before the second hit holding the invisible man, I guess. It's also harder to tackle in the open field. Seems like every offensive player can cut on a dime. Trying to tackle in the open field reminds me of trying to operate a very sensitive mouse pad. You move the arrow a little to the left and you blow right past the link. A little to the right and the same thing. Maybe this is something that will change once I get used to it. But right know it's frustrating.

2.) Rating's. At this point I think the ratings are a practical joke on everyone. The only real noticeable ratings are the speed, quickness, and acceleration. Ever other rating seems to be pointless. Running back's will routinely break multiple tackles even if their strength,trucking,power, rating is low... and the defenders have a high tackle rating and the size/momentum. Big, massive, strong DT's routinely get tossed to the side or run over by smaller back's. Every running back I face is exactly the same... a tackle breaking beast. There is no difference between Ahmad Bradshaw and Adrian Peterson...in Madden, that is. None. Every back that I've faced will almost always break multiple tackle's before being brought down. It's so unrealistic that it becomes frustrating and not enjoyable. Maybe if I lower the setting that will help, but then what's the point of having a All Madden setting? I want it to be hard and challenging, but not in a unrealistic almost cheating kind of way. I find the same problem with the offensive line. All Pro linemen will routinely get beat by leaser opponents. I don't mind Albert Hansworth tossing my All Pro center to the side or knocking him on his butt, but when it's anybody and everybody, this becomes a frustration and it makes the whole rating system and everything else pointless. There's no point in bidding or drafting good offensive lineman because they get tossed around by every defense they face. At this point I've abandoned the play action. 8 out of 10 times I'm sacked. I thought maybe I wasn't running enough and therefore the defenders where not "buying" the play action...wrong. No matter how many times I ran it and no matter how successful I was at running the ball, almost every time I went play action I had a defender on me before I could even set my feet. They never even hesitated.

3.) The commentary sucks. I think they forgot they actually had this in the game. Collinsworth routinely contradicts himself. One minute your QB is one of the most accurate in the league, and then literally a play or two later accuracy is one of his weak points that he struggles with. There's this bizarre misplaced enthusiasm as well. Small, not so meaningful plays are celebrated, while big meaningful seemingly game altering play's seem unnoticed. It's like their not watching the same game, emotionally sometimes. It's the same with the crowd. At one point I was driving down the field in the last two minutes of a game to try and take the lead. At this point the crowd is cheering and appropriately in the game. I throw a pass to a receiver who appears to have made the catch for what would be a very needed first down...but they call him out of bounds. I challenge. They review it and over turn it which gives me this huge first down...and nothing. The crowd doesn't erupt in cheer or anything. The crowd is quiet....literally. No applause. No chanting. Nothing. I'm at home too, by the way. It was very disappointing. The replay sucks too. They show the replay but you don't get to watch the important part. They show my player running down field, turn and head towards the side line...and that's it. They don't show the catch and the keeping of the feet in bounds. They show multiple angles of my receiver running his route but not one angle of him making this great catch. Who signed off on this? How can someone see this and say "yeah, that's good."

Ultimately, Madden is what it always has been. It's either a complete disaster or it's close but not quite. I would say there has been some improvements, sure. But some of the most frustrating things that have plague this game over the years are alive and well. I wouldn't recommended you not buy it, but I wouldn't recommended that you do, either.

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Frankly, I'm writing this review because I'm tired of reading people whine about things that simply are inevitable with any video game. Video games are not real life, so of course playing Madden will not be like controlling actual NFL players, duh. The audio commentary is pre-recorded and randomized, not live. Sometimes it's going to seem weird, duh. When you have a game that has deep calculations at so many levels with hundreds of variables, sometimes there will be bugs, duh.

The better comparison is with other games in the Madden Franchise. I have owned and profusely played every Madden Game since 03. Honestly, this is the best Madden since the switch to next-gen consoles (Xbox360, PS3, etc.) The franchise mode finally got the treatment it deserved after being fairly ignored since the next-gen switch. Another great twist is that now, the stat's aren't absolute; the engine has been programmed to change players ratings in-game based on how they perform. One reviewer complained that his players weren't performing like they "should", but that's because of the new shift. I personally love it because it makes it much more like the real game: even superstars have bad games sometimes, and sometimes bad players have temporary bursts of greatness. It gives the game a much livelier feel.

In summary: if you've liked Madden for years, you'll love this game. If you're new to Madden and like football, give it a try. It takes a couple of games to get used to how things work, but once you get the hang of it it's a lot of fun. Don't listen to negative reviews from people who expect too much out of something that's just a video game at the end of the day.

Honest reviews on Madden NFL 12 - Xbox 360

I usually think the ranting reviews of Madden every year are overboard, but this is a really poor quality release. I'm actually going to return it, which at $40 for a trade-in is what I paid for it after the Amazon $20 credit for purchasing it. I've played Madden every year since the mid-90s and have never really been upset with a release. There are always glitches and annoyances, but overall the game is fun and realistic so I can live with it. I did not buy 11 last year b/c I just didn't have time to play much. So, Pros/Cons since v10 follow.

Pros

Sideline catches work now! In v10 receivers would just continue running with no concept of the sideline.

Graphically it looks better than v10.

Auto-sprint and auto-strafe are nice additions.

Half-time is gone, which was annoying in v10 because they would run down the games.

Cons

Announcers are consistently out of sync with the action both time-wise and action-wise. I just picked off a pass and returned it for a TD for example, and they start talking about how "the CB took a risk on the pick and missed and then he has to hope for Safety help, Safety can live with an aggressive corner" like I didn't even get the pick! Time-wise, you can literally make a first down or score, and no mention of it then when your lining up for the next play all of a sudden "Huge Touchdown right there!" And sometimes a mundane 5 yard catch in the middle of the game is met with "Huge catch there!!" from them. WTF?

Rosters are horribly out of date, and the game prompted me to update it the first time I played it. Some examples; Palmer is playing for the Bengals, Hasslebeck for Seattle, and Asomugha isn't on the Eagles roster. It's like they never bothered to update the rosters from last year?

You can't turn off accelerated clock in Franchise mode (it always runs down to 20s), which makes no sense to me and makes it harder for folks that like to adjust their play before the snap.

In-game menus are really slow. It's very clunky to change formations or the like, to the point where you can easily get screwed up because your hands are moving faster than the menus.

The overall game is slow, maybe we're reaching the limits of the XBox hardware, I'm not sure.

Using the A button for kicking is harder than necessary, since it's not as responsive as the stick was so you have to better anticipate timing and mash accordingly. I don't really understand the point of this one, since the stick worked perfectly well. Making kicking harder would be fine, but making it more tedious doesn't work for me.

Replays! Their on every play, half the time they don't even show the key part of the play and I can't figure out how to turn them off. Again, just another clunky interruption to the gameplay.

It just doesn't seem as fun this year, since you're playing against rosters that aren't accurate and the overall mechanics are clunky throughout the game so I'm sending it back...

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Madden 12 is so-so. I see it like this:

The football.

The football is okay. It isnt great, but it is good, and on par with recent releases of Madden. There are things which are interesting, and things that will drive you nuts. I got tired of the run-off that happened before each play, outside of the final two minutes of the half(s).

Player Modelling.

I dont know who decided it would be funny to make all the big men O-line, D-line look like overstuffed water balloons, but I didnt care for it. It looks retarded.

The Franchise.

For many of us, this is the reason we buy Madden. The Franchise is lackluster in this incarnation of Madden. There are a few neat ideas, but they have been executed poorly. There are expanded pre-season rosters, and cut days, but they are very arbitrary. You can make the cuts, then go sign a F/A and you dont need to cut again. Also the menu is not really to my taste, I like having it up instead of needing to call it up, but that is a personal preference.

I think it is a GREAT idea to have the overall player rating uncertain, but basic measurables that remain a mystery? I guarantee, every team knows how fast each player on the team is, for example. This needs some tweaking. There are measureables that make sense to keep unsure awareness, ZCV MCV, etc... But speed, strength, jumping? These are quantites teams know.

Scouting within the franchise is also broken. 4 weeks of scouting over a whole season? And all you get is +big hit, +stiff arm?

That isnt a feature, that is BROKEN. Why am I paying a scouting agency to tell me things I could find out by watching college football for 20 minutes some Saturday? You pay scouts for in-depth research on players.

The game as a whole.

I have one of them new fancy black x-box with built in wi-fi and hundreds of gigs of storage. So I install all games I play. This game still likes to hang coming in and out of menus, and weird places that you would think arent particularly intensive. They will probly fix this with a patch eventually, but how do you drop the ball like this and ask for 60 bucks to have the honor of gold testing a game?

The overall.

If you havent bought a Madden in several years, you might like this, it may be the jump forward you have been hoping for. But be smart, rent this on first, because odds are REALLY good you might think this wont be worth the 15 dollars you will be able to get it for used in a few weeks.

Mx Vs ATV Untamed - Xbox 360 Review

Customer Ratings:

This is a fun game, no doubt about it. The graphics are great, the open environments are well laid out.

Customization is a bit limited in that the gear is already out of style (perfect example are the TLD helmets a style that wasn't a hit 2 years ago and yet they're the only TLD choices in the game). They would have done well to allow color customization of generic gear in addition to the brand name in the game. The bikes themselves, while looking like Yamahas, Hondas, Kawasakis, Hondas, and KTMs have bizarre names and limited plastic customization. They must have a trademark dispute going on with the Japanese makers.

Also, I race motorcycles in real life. Guys either race two wheels or four. I don't really have any interest in racing quads but to open locked areas of the game, the game forces you to race all the various vehicles. I would have preferred to have a MX ONLY career mode, unlocking all MX events. Also, I don't care about the freestyle mode and yet I have to play that to unlock MX-related areas.

As for the audio, I turned that down to zero almost immediately. The sound of the bikes is quite good and there's a definite difference between 2 strokes and 4 strokes.

The Supermoto is a refereshing addition but the tracks are way too wide open. Crank your bike up for full top end and you leave the pack behind almost immediately. Also, in real life the biggest visual difference for Supermoto is the slick tires. Yet the game has you race on the knobbies. A minor visual annoyance, yes, but they could have easily added street tires for the REAL look of Supermoto.

Overall a fun game with decent customization. Is it worth $60? No. Buy it when it hits $29.99.

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Untamed is definitely the best of this series with improvements to the graphics and interface without any compromises to the great feel of riding off-road vehicles. It's no Dirt or Forza 2 in terms of graphics, but it is several steps better than its predecessors. The environments are varied and beautifully modelled and rendered. There are many fun elements to ride on and jump over and through. The achievements are distributed in a logical way and are challenging without being frustrating to obtain.

They have removed the aircraft from the newest version (which is no big loss) and added increased customization capability and a much welcomed test track while you wait for your selection to load.

A great game to play with kids of any age. My six year old has played two previous versions and especially loves the 'free ride' mode.

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most realistic motocross game i have ever played. you can see the ruts, in first person camera you can see the handle bars, the viser, and the camera shakes as you hit bumps, simply put, awesome. the physics are better, its not so much like a car game where you just press the gas and go. the tracks are pretty cool, even the nationals. only downside is the rider stance is kinda beginnerish looking. too laid back not aggressive enough. awesome game. buy this game yesterday.

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Mx Vs Atv Untamed is a good game. The single player mode is awesome and the multiplayer is the best. The tracks and free roam are hecka fun. I will also give you some cheats.

Type in on the cheat screenCrazylikea

Also trynohands (or maybe it is) no hands

Have fun with this game!

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The game is great except for one thing. The AUDIO! They had it pretty well figured out in Unleashed and for some reason, they took 2 steps back in Untamed. I can't really figure out why considering it is the same people that made Unleashed.. It sounds like a car instead of a bike and is so UNRealistic (the 2 stroke sounds pretty real though). Oh, one other thing, the clutch action is pretty lame too. It doesn't help much to cure a case of the bogs. I do like the brakes. The physics are better too and it is much more realistic in terms of launching jumps. No longer can you just clear an entire section that only a rocket bike should be able to clear. It is also less forgiving. If you screw up, you pay for it. Just like in real life. The computer generated competitors are much more competitive. Getting the holeshot is pretty difficult compared to Unleashed where holeshots were commonplace. All in all, it's a good game but they missed the boat on the engine sounds.