Warlocked Reviews

Customer Ratings:

I think this is the best game for GBC if you are a RTS fan I have ben playing it nonstop for over a week. Basically it is a copy of war craft and/or Age of Kings but with less units, even with les units you dont realy need anyting but Knights and Archers... but calvery would be nice.... At first it may seem too easy but it gets HARD later on ex. killing giant spiders, rescuing wizards with only 2 grunts (grunts can't attack), repelling attacks on your main hall... even though you can only build 3 types of units the MANY different wizards and dragons keep you busy. Once you beat a campaign you think " I'm done" but you still have the other race to play as, plus the army's menu and the wizards will keep you busy ( it seemes that you can never have enough wizards.) also you can fied bonis games will keep you playing like puzles and five card stud. Over all.....BUY IT! It's like having a PC game that you can play any where and keep in you'r pocket!!!!!!!!

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Hi i have been gaming for a while and i enjoy all types, since most reviews afther say the game is awesome or horible, but i will give a fair review.But to start I would like to say i would give this game a 3.5 but there is no half of a star rating, but i felt that the game wasn't good enough to be awared a 4 mark. Warlock is a neat little rts and is fun to play while travling, be sure to bring extra batteries! this game can get addicting, but it's pathetic when you compare it to other rts's like age of empires and startcraft etc. But you have to think. This little pak did pretty well and i enjoyed the game very much. You have to read the manual for a bit and practice the controls for a bit. But once you got those the game becomes easier to understand. The graphics are like 1980 ones but you can make things out, which is really all a games needs to have. Sound is good, and music changes during the battles, so it creates more of a mood. When you selecting on one of your troops (1 of 4 posible types) they give a little grunt that you can hear to know that you selected one. The game is really easy at first but it gets hard, you'll find yourself planning your attacks more carefully. Each game contains wizzards that have special abilities. and everytime you beat a level all your troops,wood and gold are put into a chest called "the War chest", after you completed one races game (there are two Humans [good, can use knights elfin archers and grunts] and Monsters {bad, can use wariors, skeleton archers and goblins]) niether has the any advantages over the other, but i found the humans quest easier then the monsters. Any way i would recomend this game to any one who read this reveiw and wants the game. But you may want to rent it before buying, so you spend less money.

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This is the best gameboy gameboy game I've ever played. The best way to describe it is to say it's a portable Warcraft. The game is as good as Warcraft II except for 3 things:

1.The graphics aren't great.(It's GAMEBOY) 2.There are no tech trees and only 2 buildings you can build. 3.You tell your units to go left and they go all over the map.

Here's the jist of the game: You're either the humans or the weird beast things. both start with a town hall, which builds little guys which are the same as Peons in Warcraft. With them you build a wide varity of buildings (2) which are barraks and gaurd towers. The guard towers look like they are made of toothpicks and shoot arrows which look like toothpicks, the barraks make men. The men are little guys with something sharp that looks like a toothpick and the other are little guts that shoot arrows that look like toothpicks. You can also get mages and stuff later in the game.

I said it allready but this is the best game on gameboy, just watch out for the toothpicks.

Discount Everydaysource Compatible With MICROSOFT Xbox 360 Controller Analog

Customer Ratings:

The analog sticks don't move well when you install them, they stick when you move them they don't return to proper position after you move them on the contorller

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Daughter rewired and replaced everything she needed on an old controller to get it working again. It was what she ordered and arrived when it was supposed to.

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These went to great use for me. Since my analog sticks on my previous controller are really worn out these new ones worked like a charm.

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Is a good deal and it's better that buying it used. Recommend to everyone that wants to buy analog sticks.

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they last as long as the originals great product. id recommend this for wearing controller analogs any day than buying a new controller

Review of Rome: Total War - PC

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List Price: $49.99
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Today's Bonus: 87% Off

I've been following this series since I started playing Medieval Total War, and Rome is a beautiful sequel. I bought this for my dad, and he can't stop playing. It appeals to fans of the Civilizations series (like my father), as well as fans of Age of Empire's real-time battle sequences. Like Medieval, it's really two games in one, except with significant improvements over its predecessor. What's great is that if I'm not in the mood to fight lengthy battles, the option exists to autocalculate them but you won't get to lead the troops the way you want.

When I first started playing Medieval Total War, there was a steep learning curve to understand how to win real-time battles against larger forces. Some of what I learned in Medieval I've been able to translate over to Rome, so I can imagine anyone trying the game the first couple times might have some difficulty getting the hang of the battle sequences. Start with easy battles where you outnumber your opponents, and learn which units oppose which the best (horses against archers, spearman against horses, etc). Use Pause as much as you need. Eventually you'll recognize the strategy involved with flanking your opponent, hiding your cavalry in forests, and positioning archers behind a protective wall of infantry on a hilltop. If you suddenly charge an enemy from behind them, they will panic! If a general dies in battle, the troops will be demoralized! And if you destroy a building, or worse lose an heir, that will be reflected in the main game.

The reverse is also true. What units you build in the main game and where you position them on the map will directly control how the real-time battles will look when they begin. It's that kind of realism that makes this game truly dynamic and fun.

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I remember playing civilization for the first time. I started playing friday evening, and only stopped when I could hear the birds outside on saturday morning.

RTW is the same deal. You get drawn in totally to the world of strategy and compelling gameplay. There are differences of course. The main one is the added realism... better graphics, and it doesn't look like RTW cheats (Civilization did). In fact, the graphics engine was used in a recent TV program on BBC3 (a BBC channel, aired in the UK), where a team of tv personalities re-enacted famous historical battles in real time via a virtual simulation that was provided by a networked version of this game!

I have all the graphic settings up to max and it works a treat on my Radeon 9800 pro, 1 gig or RAM and an XP2800. In fact, the final game works better than the demo (in terms of performance and less bugs), although, admittedly I still see crashes to desktop once every 10 or so hours of play. In most games, this would be unforgivable, but I haven't docked any points because it always seems to crash immediately after auto saving, so just re-loading the game and hitting the Continue Campaign option seems to put me back where I was.

One of the defining factors of a good strategy game is that it gets more difficult the more successful you become not because you get to harder levels, but simply because being successful means you have to work harder to keep your conquests, and this game gets this perfectly. You start off with a few cities, but as your empire grows, you not only have to deal with enemy armies, but also keeeping your own people loyal (through either loyalty by keepin them happy, or by fear via large garrisons in every town). You also start to find your armies stretched, and cities well away from your capital become particulalry prone to attack from rebels. Being a good general on the battlefield is only part of winning this game.

The game also has a twist about half way through, where something unexpected happens within the Roman Empire (well, it was for me, perhaps I just didn't pay enough attention in history class!), and its something that totally turns the game.

You also get non-roman civilizations unlocked if you complete the Roman campaign, something that adds to the longevity.

A (very) minor niggle is some of the voice acting and scripting, which seems to be produced by the same casting people that produced some of the over-the-top Hollywood dialogue from the 1950/1960 era... the ham-it-up spirit of Tony Curtis lives on!

If you are a fan of the previous total war games, you really need to play on hard medium is just too easy, particulalry because on that level, the enemy doesnt seem to mind getting too close to your castle walls and just sits there and gets decimated by arrows. Previous fans of TW will also really appreciate the better modelling of castles, which are now more realistic. The battlements now work (you can place soldiers on them), and to storm an enemy stronghold, you have to either scale the walls, batter the gate down, or simply demolish the walls. Sea battles are still not modelled in real time, although the reasoning for this is probably so they have something for the next game (or expansion) because everything else is modelled perfectly, and in detail.

Overall though, its a must have for any strategy fan. There's simply nothing out there to compete in either scope, depth or realism, so I must give it full marks. Oh, and also because its just an addictive, thoughtful, thinking-persons strategy game, with enough graphics and fun-factor to wow the video console kids into playing the game!

S

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This game is INCREDIBLE!

I am Roman, from Rome, Italy. Classical studies are in my backgroung... this game is a perfect recreation of ancient Rome: its politics and, especially, the way Romans used to conduct war.

You can play the game in tactical and strategic way, deciding to just stick to strategic or to delve into tactical too.

In strategic, you govern cities, move armies, build new structures (as Temples, Academies, Stables, Training Facilities, Arenas), hire and train troops, etc. If you do battle you then decide if you want to go into tactical or just want the fight to be resolved based on the number and kind of troops you have.

In tactical you fight. You will see hundreds of soldiers on the battle field. All in formation, just as the Romans used to fight. You will battle hordes of barbarians, opposite Roman factions, greeks, etc...

What was in history... IS IN THIS GAME.

But most of all...this game is FUN.

Normally games that are too realistic are really boring. This game has it all.

I won't go on and comment too much on graphics, fighting engine, help menu, sound... because it is all so good it all deserves a 10 out of 10 and just one comment: SUPERB!!!

I'll just add a note on Soundtrack: I makes you feel like you were in the first 20 minutes of the movie Gladiator. Incredible.

This is one of the best games I EVER SAW IN PC.

If you are an RTS fan YOU HAVE TO BUY THIS GAME.

Honest reviews on Rome: Total War - PC

I got Rome:Total War [hereafter refered to as rtw] the week it came out, late in september last year. I got home at about eleven, from going somewhere, i don't remember, it's not important. What is important is that i played this game until five in the morning, then woke up at ten to keep playing it. It's that good.

You ought to start out with the Tutorial Campaign, which teaches you the basics of the campaign map and fighting battles. The graphics for the campaign map and battles are superb, really.

Well, before I continue, I should explain more about the system. Players start on the Campaign map, where you control cites and provinces, and can build buildings, recruit units, set tax rates, attack and conquer armies and provinces. This system is detailed to the point of laberinthine complexity. Fore example, at least ten factors can influence the population growth rate, the annual income, and the happiness, or 'public order' of a city.

You can construct a myriad of buildings in each province, such as walls, to augment the defensive capibilities of the city, Barracks, which allow the recruitment of better troops, and roads, which allow armies and other units to move further along them, and increase trade income.

One has to start out as one of the three available Roman factions: the Julii, the Brutii, and the Scipii. Each of these factions controls different cites, and have different natural enemies. The Julii, for example, will find themselves fighting mostly with the Gauls. These tree factions, or families, are allied with each other, and with a fourth faction, known only as SPQR [senatus populusque Romanus, or the senate and people of Rome], who controlls Rome alone. You'll soon find, however, that they pretty much control your lives, too.

Before I ramble about the Senate, I should explain about family members. Your faction is lead by a pater familias, the male head of your particular family. He has sons, who serve as generals along with him, and get married to have children of their own, and daughters, who can marry other men, who will enter the family, and become generals as well. You can also reward a valourous captain [the commander of an army when it is not lead by a general] with membership in your family, and bribe foreign generals with diplomats to join your family.

The Senate is extremely well integrated into the game. Most prominatley, they assign you missions, such as to take a province, blockade a port, or achieve some sort of diplomatic goal. But don't dispair: the Senate will give you some sort of perk for doing their bidding, be it denarii [money], an advanced unit, or priority appointment for an office. And, of course, it'll improve your standing with the Senate, but more of that a bit later. Anyway, yes, the Senate also assigns several offices to members of each Roman faction [including their own]. I won't go into details about these offices, except that some are obviously more prestigious than others, and give bonuses to the attributes of the family members who hold them.

Ok, well, anyway, you have a standing with both the Senate, and the People. At the start, your standing with the Senate is rather high, and the average citizen on the street hates your guts. Obeying the Senate improves your standing with them, whilst military conquests, and disobeying the Senate improves your standing with the people. If the Senate starts to dislike you, they'll start making more difficult demands of you, setting stricter time limits, and simply refraning from punishing you if you suceed. If you conquer enough provinces the Senate may demand the suicide of your faction leader, or you will be outlawed. If you refuse, the Senate will outlaw you, and the other families will declare war on you. Your next step is to take Rome, making yourself Imperator [emperor].

All this will take a while, of course. And after you beat the campaign as a Roman, you're allowed to play as many other factions, including barbarians, Greeks, and Egyptians.

Well, yes, this review is long, but I still have to discuss the battles. Whenever one of your armies encounters an enemy army, or attacks a city, you can either have the computer take all factory into consideration and automatically resolve the battle. Or, you can take the more fun option, and fight it yourself. The game goes to the battlefield mode, where the geographical features of the area where the battle's taking place will be taken into consideration. Your general [or captain] will open the battle with a speech to his troops, where he'll highlight such things as the numerical balance of forces, the makeup of each army, and your chances. You'll then be allowed to position your troops.

The battles themselves can go any way. Legionaries throw amor-piercing javelins known as pila before charging and can enter the famous testudo formation, cavalry can form wedges, amd archers can fire flaming arrows. The battlefield physics are great, too, men can be killed by falling stone from damaged walls, men go flying if hit by a cavlary charge or elephants, and men fighting downhill will have significant advantages.

Anyway, the graphics of the whole game are stunning, you'll find yourself hooked in mere hours. This is why I made my two suggestions. Trust me, as a veteran of both other Total War games, rtw is the best yet, graphics aside. Its level of detail is simply amazing, soon you'll find yourself thinking about what the senate'll think of you going out to the movies. Well, maybe not quite that involved, but trust me, you'll be hooked. If you have a good enough computer, this game is an absolute must!

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Over the years I have played a number of RTS games such as this but RTW has to be the absolute best so far.

The graphics and attention to detail are incredible and the gaming system is outstanding. From the novice to the hardcore gamer, everyone will enjoy this program.

Once of the main things I really like about the game is the ease with which you can be up and playing the game without having to spend countless hours reading a complex game manual and more hours getting "slaughtered" learning to play.

The game includes a very good tutorial scenario that takes you step by step through the game play system. After that, you can be up and succssfully commanding your armies in short order.

To truly and fully enjoy the game does require some practice and getting used to managing your empire, however, the system is not overly complicated and if you don't want to attend to all the mundane details of administering your cities, simply turn on the "automanage" feature and continue with your conquests.

The automanage system does a fair job of keeping your cities running and the local population happy, however, from time to time, it will be necessary to intervene in the administration of some of your cities to get the best results or order them to build specific units. The only thing in this area I think they could have done better or differently is to make it possible to to manually administer cities that do not have a governor. The way it works now is if a city does not have a governor, i.e. one of your royal family members, physically in the city, the city defaults to "automanage" and you cannot order the city to build specific buildings or units, you can only tell the city what focus you want it to work towards, i.e. military growth, cultural growth, financial, etc. Otherwise it's a good AI system.

I couldn't find many negatives with the game or the play system other than some minor shortcomings mentioned in other reviews so overall I give this RTW a well deserved 5-Stars!

On the hardware side, I highly recommend upgrading your video card to get full enjoyment from the game. When I first installed the game, the graphics card in my PC was a 64mb

Ge-Force 420 MX and it was struggling to keep up, so I upgraded to a Radeon 9550 256mb card and the game now runs flawlessly. Having the more powerful card allowed greater resolution in the game and full use of all the special effects and full character/object rendering.

Anyway, enough for now, if you don't already own this game, this is a must have for the strategy and war game buffs. If you want a bloody, mindless, hack and slash game, this is probably not for you although there is plenty of action, death and mayhem for all.

Thanks,

Rick

Reviews of Gold/Purple Xbox 360 Modded Controller (Rapid Fire) COD Ghosts

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List Price: $139.99
Sale Price: $89.99
Today's Bonus: 36% Off

This transaction was a disaster. We paid $100 for a modded controller. They lost the product. It never arrived. When I complained they sent another one, but it was not the correct controller. And because I'm not a gamer I didn't realize it. My son did on Christmas morning and he was crestfallen. So he tried to buck up and use the replacement. It turned on and then off and then on and then off intermittently. Then it stopped working altogether. I've called and called and emailed GeniusMods and they don't pick up, or their message system is filled. I've emailed them my order number and asked for a return shipment sticker. But nothing. No answer. I'll never buy anything from them again and am happy to tell everyone I know who's a gamer to stay away from them. What a bummer. My son is still upset about it.

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Controller would disconnect on occasion. I use an oem battery pack and I have not had any issues since. Aside from that the controller is beautiful.

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I was a sucker for the gold and purple combo. I mean what else screams royalty than gold and purple? Okay that sounds REALLY corny but you can't say that wasn't your initial impression after seeing this controller too..

I was really happy with the controller, it came so fast and was brand new, still sealed in the package. I was afraid of the gold looking cheesy and gaudy but it looks great in person. Very reflective and definitely something that grabs attention. All my friends are jealous when they are over to play Xbox.

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I was a little concerned about buying this controller as some of the other reviews made this seem like a poor product, but was not at all disappointed! it looks just like in the picture. However, there is NOT a button on the back. You use the sync button on the controller to do the mods. the gold looks perfect so far no peeling after 3 weeks of constant play. Very good controller over all! I have also bought and recommend custom controller parts from this seller as they are very good.

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the controller works great and looks so cool, i would buy another again for my brother. controller was deff worth the money.

Best Xbox 360 Wireless Controller with Transforming D-Pad and Play Deals

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List Price: $64.99
Sale Price: $48.72
Today's Bonus: 25% Off

I have owned a Xbox 360 since 2005, and I've gone through a couple of controllers in that time. I finally needed a new one so I bought this one with the upgraded D-Pad and it is fantastic!

Not only is the raised D-pad fantastic but I use it way more now than ever before. It makes going through menus and such much easier.

Not only that but the grips on the joystiq's are upgraded with ridged cups instead of just a smooth curve top. It makes control I think much better especially during fast movements.

Not only that but there is a texture now to the entire controller, which makes holding it when your hands get sweaty much easier.

I really hope these controllers will work on the next Xbox, because I definitely plan on using this until it dies.

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I bought as a replacement and so far it has been Great. I can not comment on the changeable d-pad as I have not found a use for this. The controller holds a great charge and it comes with a empty battery shell if you ever need to use batteries while waiting for the controller to charge. You also get the charge cable and a course a chargeable battery. Definitely worth the $45

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What's there to say? Its a new 360 controller, folks. Those are always nice. Especially when you need a new one. I don't use the transforming d-pad at all, but it is a free feature, and free things rock. I like the new sticks, too. They're more grippy. I know that's not a word, but it describes it best. The old controllers just had those little nubs on them. This new one's got grooves on them to really provide good purchase for your thumbs.

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I had this on a wishlist for Christmas and although the picture is of a black controller, I got a special edition Grey controller instead. I'm definitely okay with this, especially seeing as how this controller is supposed to be $95. Works great, recharger is great.

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So we all know you gotta impress the dads as well as kids and this is what I got my husband he was excited.

Best NFL Street 3 - PlayStation 2 Deals

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As an owner and player of the first two games, I had high hopes for the third installment of NFL Street. The good news was that the graphics and rosters had been updated. The bad news is that after playing the game for at least an hour with a friend, glitches were evident. I do not remember all of them, but there is a terrible glitch as the line of scrimmage. Before the ball is snapped, the defensive linemen can pretty much jump over the offensive line and sack the quarterback whenever they want. The game loses all appeal when you can't get any positive yardage. If you do not use this glitch, I can see the game being fun with a new list of moves and a new way to use gamebreakers. Overall, I give this game 2 stars out of 5.

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The NFL Street series are my favorite games out of them all. I prefer the Street series even over the Madden series. To me, it is just more fun to play and there are more things to do... climbing on and running along walls, jumping off objects to hurdle players, pitching the ball whenever, multiple tips on almost every incomplete pass makes for exciting football.

IMO this is as good if not better than the first two street games. There are more features... more players... new cities to play in and more game features. One new feature that I think is neat is you can collect footballs during games and after you collect them you can use them as the game football. There are all 32 team footballs (each having it's own unique design) and then other footballs that have different objects on them. There are like 50 different footballs you can collect in all.

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When I first purchased NFL Street 3 I was somewhat dissapointed; however, after learning the controls completly I found that this maybe the best NFL Street yet. The graphics are much improved and the ablity to jump is a nice feature. Also the gamebreakers are much improved so when you use one, you are not guranteed to score unlike in the past 2 games. Although I have read in other reviews that Respect The Street mode is a negative part to the game, I would have to disagree. This new mode made the game addictive to me because I always wanted to keep getting farther and farther into it.

In my opinion there are not many negative factors to the game other that the fact that it would be nice if the folks at EA Big made the controls more similar to Madden 07. I confuse the controls sometimes

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This is an okay game. This game gets old pretty fast and redundant. It's okay for kids but if you're looking for a game with physics, this isn't the game for you.

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It was hard for me to give this a 2 because I am a big fan of EA Big games but this is a sheer disappointment... Every drive ends or begins with a fumble on offense and if not that your picked off a lot or 4 and outs constantly... It is almost impossible to get a completion. The other night I threw four picks and 1 touch... NFL Challenge is no more either. This game lags and is just saddening...

Discount Super Mario All Stars

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Every since the original Nintendo came out, Super Mario Brothers has been a favorite game for many people. The sequels were just a popular, just as much time wasters, and just as much fun.

When Nintendo released their new, better system (which is what, two or three generations old now), they knew they'd have to release these modern classics to convince people to upgrade. But they were smart about it. Instead of releasing them for the Super Nintendo as separate games, making people balk, they took advantage of the better format and released them all on one cartridge, with better graphics to boot. To sweeten the deal, they included "The Lost Levels," a new, harder version of the original Super Mario Bros. not previously available in the states. And they included the ability to save your game or continue on that level when you die, something I greatly missed in the originals.

Ok, I confess, I've never actually beaten any of these games in spite of the combined years I've had them for the original and Super Nintendo's. But I have had loads of fun over the years playing these games. And with four great games on one cartridge, how can you possibly go wrong?

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This game is the best game in my Nes series next to Donkey Kong(1994).You can play Super Mario Bros.(#1),Super Mario Bros.2,Super Mario Bros.3,and The Lost Levels(#4).This game is better than the Nintendo editions since they have better graphics and you can save games!

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I used to love this game when I was a little kid! It's cool because it is actually 4 games on one cartridge! Super Mario Bros., Mario Bros. 2, Mario Bros. 3, and Lost Levels. The best mario is still Super Marioworld though(sold on a separate cartridge.) There isn't much else to say, except these were the good mario games before they came out with the less-than-exceptional N64 ones.

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Super Mario All-Stars can be summed up simply as this: A great revamping effort done by Nintendo that combines the first three Super Mario games as well as a new game, titled The Lost Levels, that had previously only been released in Japan. Super Mario All-Stars is a great addition to an SNES collection, considering you were a fan of the Super Mario series the first time around. The save feature comes in handy at times, giving you four slots per game in which to save your progress. A great play for a real Super Mario fan.

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Super Mario All-Stars has 4 great NES Mario games, along with enhanced graphics, sound, music, and an added save feature! The games are:

Super Mario Bros: The one that started it all! This game is just plain fun!

Super Mario Bros. 2: Japan didn't want to release the real Mario 2 in America, because they thought it would be too hard for us! So they put a Japan-only game named, "Doki Doki Panic" and added Mario characters to it. Although it's the oddball of the series, it is pretty fun!

Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels: The REAL SMB2. This game is HARD! It's like SMB with some neat twists! You can be Mario or Luigi. Mario has medicore jumping power, but great traction. Luigi has great jumping power, but mediocre traction.

Super Mario Bros 3: Although not my favorite Mario game, [I prefer SMW] this is the best of the four. Mario has some cool powerups, tons of levels, and new challanges!

Got an SNES? Then get this!

Buy Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Sony PSP

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List Price: $16.00
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I just started playing this game yesterday, and as of now my mission status says that I'm 11% finished. So far this game has done everything to amaze me. First of all the city is ENORMOUS! I cant believe that Rockstar was able to squeeze this much information and detail into a tiny DS cartridge. Not only is it large, but it is also incredibly detailed. You wont see any "Flintstones" type backgrounds where the same buildings repeat several times, or you keep seeing the same park every few miles. Anyhow, onto a few points I've noticed about this game.

First of all, this game is DEFINITELY for adults only. Parents, DO NOT get this game for your 10 year olds birthday. There is (so far) sexual innuendo, graphic violence, and liberal use of the F word.

Second I hadn't read any press about this game prior to playing it, but I was hoping for some licensed songs to make it to the soundtrack. The music, while good, is nothing recognizable and serves as little more than background. Honestly I cant fault the developers as this game is already full of other features. Also, there is little to no voice acting again, what can you honestly expect in a game this size (might I add the largest DS game made to date).

Third Most everything about this game has been executed flawlessly. The cutscenes, the aiming mechanism, the driving physics, the "mini" tasks that you must do such as hot wiring a car, disarming a bomb, or hacking a security system Everything is perfect. Honestly, in my day of playing this game I have yet to find anything which I can fault. It really is that good.

I predict that this will become the #1 Nintendo DS game very soon, unseating Mario Kart, which has been #1 for quite a while now here at Amazon. This game is nothing less than a masterpiece and is reason in itself to pick up a DS if you don't already own one.

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Chinatown Wars somehow manages to push the technology in the DS more than anything I've seen. On top of that, the developer has managed to make one of the largest and most in depth games on the system as well. I won't go so far as to say this is the best game on the DS, but I am nothing short of impressed. This game isn't some attempt to make a quick buck... the developers went out of their way to do a great job.

GRAPHICS: Fully 3-d environment with an amazing amount of detail all presented in cell shaded style. You can even read many of the billboards and signs on the buildings even though the game is presented in a top-down perspective. There is so much detail in the graphics I am constantly discovering new things every time I boot the game up. My only major complaint about the graphics is that I think story-board presentation is flat, lifeless, and kind of ugly.

SOUND: Sadly this game doesn't have the quality of sound that the big console versions have. The funny, wacky radio stations with hours of dialogue are gone, but that isn't surprising since this is a DS game. The sound that the game gives us is still pretty good though and above average for most DS games.

CONTROLS: Probably the weakest part of this game, the controls are still very solid. Driving a vehicle with the d-pad on the DS can cause a lot of fatigue, but that's more a problem with the DS than the controls themselves. While running around on foot the camera sometimes gets positioned at a bad angle and requires re-centering constantly. A moderate annoyance, honestly. More annoying is the fact that I have trouble finding the "sweet spot" where you can hijack a vehicle, which sometimes results in me slowly walking around the vehicle pressing the button until my character climbs in. Combat controls are pretty solid and the lock-on feature works very nicely. In fact, the lock-on is almost a little to easy to use. Selecting weapons and throwing weapons is kind of clunky and requires use of the stylus, but it still works.

STORY: This is a standard Grand Theft Auto crime story with a lot of contrived elements. You are a member of the Triad aspiring to avenge your father's death and uphold the family honor. Entertaining and often humorous at times, but nothing amazing.

GAMEPLAY: Lots of stuff to do in a huge city with three major islands. The DS game has almost the level of depth of the preceding console versions.

>> In addition to standard GTA style missions (travel here, do something, come back to hideout), the game offers many other distractions: scratch lotto cards, drug dealing, ambulance rescue, security camera destruction, insane jumps, buying property, and so on and so on. The amount of stuff to do is almost overwhelming if you are a completionist.

>> The game has a very enjoyable and solid driving and physics engine which emphasizes wild arcade driving action.

>> Taxi system for those times when you don't want to actually take the time to drive to a location. Helps eliminate some of the repetition you would otherwise experience in the game.

>> Clever and intelligent use of the stylus for hot wiring cars, making Molotov cocktails, etc.

>> Police chases are really fun and focus less on escape and instead emphasize disabling the police cruisers, a welcome change in the GTA formula. Very fun.

>> A mission replay feature is available in Chinatown wars. I love this because in previous GTA games it wasn't possible to replay my favorite missions over after completing them. It is a great feature that should have been in the previous games from day one.

REPLAY VALUE: Game length is pretty hefty for a DS title. Based on my current percentage of completion I expect about 12 to 16 hours of gameplay, but that is only if I were to plow straight through the missions and ignore all of the interesting stuff to do off the beaten path. To get 100% completion I expect at I'll have to pour in at least 25 hours of gameplay, possibly much more... I can't really tell. Multiplayer is present in this game with couple of modes, but I haven't tried any of them out yet.

All in all, GTA: Chinatown Wars is one of the most full-featured games to be released on the DS. I'd prefer to give the game only 4.5 stars, but since Amazon doesn't allow half-stars I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and round up to a rare 5-star rating. I highly recommend this mature-themed title to every fan of the GTA series or to anyone looking for a quality crime-themed action title.

[NOTE: Be aware that my first copy of this game was defective, but the retailer was gracious enough to provide a working replacement free of charge and without any hassle. I hope that my original faulty copy was the exception and not the rule.]

Best Deals for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Sony PSP

Set in GTA IV's Liberty City, Chinatown Wars goes back to the classic GTA over-top view with a more animated approach and is much more enjoyable to play then Liberty and Vice City stories bar none. The gunplay, driving, side missions have a more arcade feel to it which is what easier to play then the previous PSP GTAs.

The cut scenes are a let down, no talking just reading and loud annoying music playing throughout, I found my self skipping over them there is no menu option to turn off cut scene music.

Because you have the over-top view the gunplay has a easier sense of play to it, you can run and shoot easier switching weapons is brought up by pressing `select' and is easy to maneuver dozens of dumpsters to find extra guns. I just wish they gave you a little more bullets when you find guns because I feel like I run-out even when I try to stock up.

The driving is fun and fairly simple to do, however I felt it was to unforgiving here you got a small screen driving through a big city I can never drive without crashing it seems, you drive under the train tracks or something and they tracks don't dim thy stay solid so you can't see your car when you're driving under it, driving at night the light from the light posts can look like on-coming cars if you're drving fast enough so is sometimes hard to maneuver they should have made the streets just a little bigger, and I would've liked to see motorcycles drive like cars, they're all over the road and very hard control if you wanna drive fast which is what you want to do in a GTA game.

I never knew drug dealing could be so fun and addictive, it's an easy way to get a lot of money, buy cheap and sell high and with drug dealers `tip-offs' you can find good deals. I got so addicted I started playing those side missions more then the story missions.

Evading cops has never been beter, if you're driving away from the cops and you make the squad car crash the normally bold yellow star will fade and if you behave it will go away, the higher your wanted level the more the cops will try to stop you and more to stop for you.

I like the little thing the game has you do, like stealing a parked car you twist the analog to unscrew bolts to hot wire cars, flip the L and R buttons to dig threw garbage dumpsters or to break the windshield out of your car. These are fun little ways to better engage you in the game, they're easy to do and you never get the sense of frustration.

This is one of PSP's best games to date and a great installment for Grand Theft Auto. If you own a PSP and you should own this game.

Honest reviews on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - Sony PSP

I honestly didn't know just what to expect upon hearing of the looming release of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on the DS. I had figured that there would be little to no chance of the game bearing any sort of resemblance to the franchise we all know and love. Well, I was wrong. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a stunning achievement in every sense of the word, as the series' debut on the DS not only manages to retain nearly everything that made the series so great and revolutionary on home consoles, but in some cases even improves on them. Taking place in Liberty City, Chinatown Wars finds you in the shoes of Huang, who is looking to avenge the death of his gangster father. While the game provides a good story and memorable enough characters, Chinatown Wars also features the tried and true classic GTA gameplay, which is a surprise and an achievement in themselves in translating all of these features to the DS. Translating the Liberty City from GTA IV is also brilliantly done, and there are tons of side missions and optional activities, along with two-player multiplayer modes; all of which will keep you busy for quite some time. The game's graphics can appear occasionally grainy in some spots, but for the most part, achieving these kinds of visuals on the DS needs to be seen to be believed. Chinatown Wars also makes great use of the touch screen and stylus features, and does so without over-complicating things as well. All in all, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars isn't only the best third-party game to hit the DS yet, it is a stunning achievement that needs to be in the hands of every DS owner. Even if you aren't that much of a GTA fan but you own a DS, Chinatown Wars is definitely worth playing at the very least, and stands as one of the best games available for the handheld.

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Finally the ever so popular GTA hits the ever so popular DS! You can tell a whole lot of effort has been put into this game. The graphics look great and it is a BIG DS game. The town is HUGE. Its addictive and it still gives you that GTA feel to it. Its the same sandbox enviroment and you can do missions. The only thing I don't like is the fact that the game is in bird's eye view. Driving can get a little confusing but you'll get used to it. I have a feeling this game would be a best seller.

NOTE: This game is for mature audiences only. If you are willing to buy this for your kid, make sure he/she is mature enough.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Black HDMI Cable (Retail Packaging) Reviews

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $49.99
Sale Price: $8.50
Today's Bonus: 83% Off

I Love my XBOX 360 with it's Microsoft VGA Cable.

Just wanted to Clear this up for people with the older 360's looking to boost their graphics. (This Cable dose exactly what it is meant to do, that is why I give it 5 Stars).

I have a non-HDMI XBOX 360 core system mfg. 7/2007, the picture doesn't show it well, but all this package contains is a Standard HDMI cable and a adapter that connects to the large A/V port on the back of the 360 and goes out to SOUND ONLY.

This WILL NOT Adapt your Standard 360 A/V port to HDMI.

This product only works if your XBOX 360 Already has a HDMI port in the back and it just gives you ports for audio so you can attach your 360 to HDMI and your surround sound receiver. where as with just HDMI cable, the sound is just coming from your TV's speakers.

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What you see is what you get. Take a look at the package. You see two ends of an HDMI cable. That is a plain vanilla HDMI cable that you could get anywhere. Over on the right is the audio dongle, and you are seeing just about the whole thing except for the part that connects to the Xbox 360. It all works fine. This audio dongle is slimmer that the standard Microsoft A/V progressive cable, which is what gives you the room to put the HDMI cable in.

Don't get this unless you have one of the newer HDMI Xbox's. This is not a conversion kit.

Don't get this if you plan on running the HDMI cable from the Xbox 360 to your receiver, with another HDMI out from your receiver to your TV. If that is your setup, just get a plain HDMI cable and save money.

Don't get this if you plan on running the HDMI cable from the Xbox 360 to your TV, AND you have a Digital Audio Out on your TV that you can run to your receiver, AND you have verified that the Digital Audio Out will not truncate any Dolby Digital 5.1 HDMI signal down to 2 channel audio, which can happen with some TVs. Of course, you'll need a spare HDMI cable to test with first, but if you still get DD 5.1 out of the Digital out on your TV, then no need to get this.

Otherwise, if you still need this for the separate optical audio connection between the Xbox 360 and your receiver, then this is perfectly acceptable, though much more expensive than a plain HDMI cable you can get online.

Best Deals for Microsoft Xbox 360 Black HDMI Cable (Retail Packaging)

Maybe I'm dumb, but it wasn't clear from the other reviews that all you need to hook up your XBox360 elite to a HDMI connection is a regular $5 HDMI cable. Period.

The only reason you need to buy this (except if you're dumb like me and didn't pay enough attention to the other reviews) is if you want to hook up video to one place (like your tv) but have the audio go somewhere else (like a receiver that doesn't have any HDMI inputs, or has run out of them).

Unless you are in this rare case, go to your cable closet, pull out a spare HDMI cable, and you'll be fine without wasting your money on this.

Oh, it works fine, just like any $5 HDMI cable would. :-P

Honest reviews on Microsoft Xbox 360 Black HDMI Cable (Retail Packaging)

To clarify and hopefully help some of you; from what I understand, the Xbox HDMI only supports 2-channel PCM audio over HDMI. Also, if your tv happens to have an optical output, it most likely only outputs 2 channels and not 5.1. It is therefore that microsoft includes the adapter in this package so that you can get 5.1 true the optical output. There is a hack you can do if you have a component cable, however, leaving the metal part exposed, increases the chance of a short circuit. In short, if you'd like to have Surround sound, you may need this, else, you don't need the adapter and are better off buying a cheap $5 HDMI cable.

It is unfortunate that MSFT didn't build this into the system and is charging this much for it.

Edit: As T Berry clarifies in his comment, you can get 5.1 through the HDMI cable if you have a reciever that supports hdmi (which I don't) and go from there to your tv. This cable is needed if you need optical audio. The xbox supports HDMI 1.2 and not 1.3 and so you cannot get Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio streams through HDMI (if that's important to you).

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The HDMI AV kit includes an HDMI cable (which you can find online for about $5.00 if you look around) and the XBox HDMI AV adapter. The reason they sell this kit is because they designed the standard HD-AV (component) cable connector to be too big to work in conjunction with an HDMI cable, so if you want HDMI video -ANDoptical or Red/White RCA audio, you have to use this adapter to get the audio connections into the XBox 360's rear port.

...Or so they want you to think.

The truth is that this is just the same connector as the HD-AV cable (Component cable) but it lacks the video connection, and the housing is slightly smaller. No technological wizardry involved. It's just a smaller plastic box, and thus your HDMI cable will fit next to this in your XBox 360's connector port.

You could spend the money for this if you're not very handy. By all means, I'm sure Microsoft needs the money!

OR, you could take a dremel to a used XBox 360 HD-AV (component) cable, cut out some of the extra plastic, and use THAT in conjunction with your HDMI cable.

I take no responsibility for your clumsiness or if you mess up your XBox 360, but I can attest to the fact that a cut-away HD-AV cable works fine for transmitting audio while your HDMI cable transmits video.

So the choice is yours: $50 for this thing, or use your existing cable (the one that came with your XBox 360) and a Dremel, and save yourself some cash.

Best PlayStation 3 - 320 GB System/PlayStation Move Bundle Deals

Customer Ratings:

MOVE VS. OTHERS :)

Ever since the launch of Slim, the PS3 has been undertaking a quiet revolution or... could it be the console's midlife crisis? :) Here's what happened recently and I will only note the more important developments going 12 months back (writing this in Oct., 2010):

NetFLIX streaming, now disc-less, 1080p, 5.1 surround sound

Much larger disc (this one is triple the size of the original Slim)

Move

3D gaming

Blu-ray 3D

This is a lot of new 'stuff' for a 4 year old console. I am not going to go into bean-counting mode and compare the PS3 improvements with what we see at the other guys but, clearly there is a lot of life in the PS3 and a lot of what the PS3 has to offer today 3D gaming, Blu-ray 3D either cannot be duplicated or is unlikely to be implemented by other consoles of this generation.

WHAT YOU GET, WHAT YOU MAY NEED

Briefly, this is what you get in with this bundle and I will make it very short because there's a lot of info. at the Amazon page:

PS3 Slim with...

* 320GB HDD as far as I know, the largest hard disk a console has ever had. You CAN upgrade it to a 500GB if you want but 320GB should probably be enough. See PS3 Slim reviews for details and features

* Move controller, of course

* PlayStation Eye camera (must have for the Move to work)

* Sports Champions (Ping Pong is simply awesome, some of the games play much better with a second controller)

* A demo disc so you can see what Move can do for you (most of the demos can be downloaded from the PSN)

DualShock 3 controller (rumble, motion sensitive)

ONE USB wire mostly to charge the controllers

I marked with asterisks the items that come with the bundle are not included in the Slim 160GB package.

Depending on how you are planning to use the PS3, this is what you don't get but may end up buying eventually:

HDMI cable for HD output (a component cable should work too but you can get a decent HDMI for $3-5 or so)

One or more extra USB wires same as above, don't pay more than $2-3 for one

One more Move Controller (some games will either require two controllers or will play better with two)

One or two Navigation Controllers (you can use the DualShock in your left hand but it feels weird)

Dedicated charger, especially if you have more than one Move controller or you also have a Navigation controller

PS3 TV remote controller to use when watching movies

TO BUNDLE OR NOT TO BUNDLE

We got the bundle because we really needed a fresh console but, it turns out, if you already have a PlayStation 3 Eye camera all you need is the stand-alone Move controller to be able to play Move games. If you don't have the Eye then it's going to cost a little more but the general idea is that it's possible to ease yourself into the Move universe and possibly stop if you feel that the Move is not for you. However, if you get yourself hooked, the odds are that you are going to spend A LOT on extras, eventually see above.

THE PS3 BUNDLE VS. OTHER OPTIONS

At the time I'm writing this you can get a Move-less, 160 GB PS3 for $100 less. In my view, it's probably worth buying this bundle even if you do NOT want the Move because you should be able to sell your brand-new Move controller ($49), the PS Eye ($30) and the Sports Champions ($40) game and make close to $100 in the process and you will STILL have a console with TWICE the disc capacity.

MY RATING

This bundle is probably the best PS3 deal ever see my notes on how you could sell the Move stuff if you don't want it and still end up ahead. I've been a PS3 owner ever since the 60GB classic became available and I've been impressed with the PS3's reliability, versatility and its sheer power and I've owned both 'classic' and 'slim' models, upgraded most, gave away a couple. In the end it's a matter of personal taste but the PS3 is increasingly the most popular 'gaming' or 'entertainment' implement in our household. And we DO own an Xbox too.

I will not go through the long list of PS3's features. It would be an exaggeration to say that it does 'everything' but, in my view, it does a lot more than the competition and it's doing it increasingly well. Agreed, features and capabilities do not come for free and sometimes they don't even come cheap (see my list of possible add-ons above) but I can't say that I have the feeling of being constantly nickeled and dimed when I upgrade my PS3. I will have no choice at this time but to order the extra Move and Motion controller from Sony but the charger, the larger discs I used to upgrade my old classic, all of the cables came or will come from third party vendors and even for the old SixAxis and the remote controller there were alternatives at the time I decided to buy the Sony-made ones. In addition, the 'basic' PS3 console can take you pretty far as it is and you can have a lot of fun without having to spend one extra penny.

To conclude, this bundle gets 5 stars:

for being chuck-full of 'stuff' (controllers, game, huge hard disc)

for being the most cost-effective PS3 deal at the time I am writing this (Sep. 17, 2010)

for the PS3 being the most feature-rich, well-balanced console you can get these days

____________________________________________

Aug. 16, 2011 Note:

Quite a lot happened to the PS3 since I posted my review. A week or so ago Netflix became part of a new category named TV/Video Services with Hulu PLUS, Vudu HD Movies, NHL GameCenter Live and MLB.tv. I've had Netflix for quite a while and if Hulu adds a lot of movies show to what I'm getting from Netflix I may say goodbye to my satellite provider. Under the Music tab I can see now Qriocity. I believe there is a 6 months free trial but I'm a Pandora guy so I'm not sure I'll sign up. It's good to know it's there.

Oh and... funny coincidence. I just read that Sony cut $50 of all consoles sold in the US. I paid $499 for my first 60GB PS3 back in 2007 (came with 8 or 10 Blu-ray movies so it wasn't THAT bad a deal) and it's still one of our 2 PS3. Not even a hiccup after 4 years of gaming and movie viewing.

--

>> Brush your teeth, it's the law!

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Buy Bulletstorm - Xbox 360

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $15.85
Today's Bonus: 47% Off

As a gamer, I've found that there are many different kinds of games. And due to the many different kinds out there, you have to have an open mind to truly enjoy them all. This game is no exception to that rule, so if you are not open to over-the-top violence and absurd lines of dialogue kin to Duke Nukem . . . well, please stay away.

To make things simple, here's what I've found:

Pros

-Entertaining / Fun.

-Short but lasting. The main story is fairly short, however, the variety of weapons and ways to kill leave a lot that can be done over multiple plays.

-Variety of weapons

-Open to DLC / sequel.

-Wonderfully epic moments. The boss fights were quite memorable.

Cons

-Can be repetitive

-If you don't enjoy linear games, stay away. There is one set path, with some secrets but nothing major off track.

-Lack of versus multiplayer

-Extremely short. If you're looking for a long lasting story, this isn't it.

-Not enough boss fights. The boss fighters were epic, but there weren't enough of them.

All in all, this game is a lot of fun. If you're annoyed by cursing, violence, or extremely over-the-top action stereotypes though, this will not be enjoyable for you.

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The title of this piece refers to an interview I once saw with the developers of Halo: Combat Evolved. This was Bungie's big goal, to create 30 seconds of fun for the gamer, and then let him do it again and again. And it worked Halo is arguably one of the greatest FPS franchises in the business!

However, without fail, the same thing could be said for just about EVERY shooter out there. Point, shoot, reload, point, shoot, reload... Still fun though, right?

People Can Fly and Epic Studios have done just that with their new opus, Bulletstorm. Only, this time, they added a couple new wrinkles to that 30 seconds; a nifty new tool, the tether; and a carnival house devoted to pain! Just about everywhere one looks in Bulletstorm, one sees something they wouldn't want to get too close to in real life cactus covered in deadly spikes, exposed electrical wiring, man-eating plants, etc. Each of these things are designed to be used by the player to rack up crazy combinations of over the top violence visited upon the bodies of maniacal (and most probably cannibalistic) muties out to kill you. The more you manage to wring out of a combo, the more points you get. However, since points in Bulletstorm equate to cash, and cash is what you need to buy more ammo and upgrades for your fabulously twisted weapons arsenal, it behooves the player to be as creative in his kills as he possibly can. This "skillshot system" is what changes everything People Can Fly obviously love video-games, and it shows in a perfectly balanced system designed to reward player creativity with bigger and better toys...

One example is the flailgun, a weapon you find early on that shoots spiked grenades connected by a chain like a sadistic bolo, perfect for tying up a foe which you can then use to fling into a group of his buddies before remotely setting off the explosives, multiplying your skillshot count by the overall amount of enemies. If any of them end up stuck to a cactus, or slamming up against an explosive barrel, you get credit for those things, too! All these seemingly disparate mini-atrocities add up to one big score, which the player can then use to buy themselves something nice from the store. And since every item in the store is a weapon or something weapon-related, that "something nice" is definitely gonna be something you like. This, of course, is just one small example not only does each weapon have a secondary mode, they also have their own specific skillshots to unlock inspiring the player to use each weapon in ways he may never have thought about before!

As for re-playability, Bulletstorm has that in spades. Playing thru the campaign opens up challenge areas you can take on separately by yourself, or with a couple of friends (the main campaign has co-op as well!). Your scores are kept track of and placed on the gamerboards for everyone else to see. The better you get at manipulating each one of these spaces, squeezing out more and more skillshot points, the better you end up being in the campaign upon every consecutive play-thru. In the end, the experience is akin to billiards the better you get at it, the more satisfying the experience. And with graphics this good, and characters this fun to hang out with, you're gonna want to get better...

On the subject of multi-player, results can be mixed. If you're playing with friends with a common goal, you're gonna have a lot of fun. If you're playing with strangers, you're probably not gonna have any fun at all as most of the gameplay relies on mutual cooperation and good communication. But with a single-player experience this good, who cares?

Best Deals for Bulletstorm - Xbox 360

Instead of reviewing this game on the simple story, sound, graphics, gameplay criteria I will instead review this game based on what it's advertised as being. I find that to be a more realistic scale than comparing every game to each other. Instead I'll just tell you what Bulletstorm delivers from what it promises. The quoted statements below will be comments Epic Games put out to advertise why people should buy Bulletstorm.

"Incredible New "Skillshot" System Combine outrageous gunplay with Bullet storm's unique kick, slide and leash mechanics as you kill with skill. Every enemy presents a new opportunity for stylish, over-the-top and ever increasingly bloody ways to take them down."

10/10 The skillshot system is everything promised in the advertising and more. It is fun, it encourages fun strategy and is awesome to watch. Basically what this is is when you kill an enemy in a creative way you get more skill points to use for buying guns, ammo, upgrades, and buying new guns. So as you play you find that kicking an enemy into a giant cactus, throwing them off a cliff, or shooting them in the butt is much more cost effective than playing this like a standard FPS and just shooting from cover. Bulletstorm is also kind enough to have a data chart showing you which attack you have done and which ones you haven't so you can focus on new ones. It works wonderfully at encouraging players to develop new playing styles and experiment with new strategies, where so many other FPS's discourage creative play and boil down to hoarding ammo and shooting from cover or running and shooting. That won't work in Bulletstorm since if you play like that you'll get less ammo, and less upgrades, and the game really will be less fun since the skillshots really are quite impressive to look at.

"The Circle of Awesome Kill with skill to rack up the points. Cash in these points for upgrades. Use these upgrades to pull off even bigger and better "skillshots" and earn even more points. Bulletstorm's upgrade system truly is a circle of awesome that rewards players who kill in the most creative ways."

10/10 My comments on this are the exact same as for the skillshot system. You upgrade your weapons by activating dropkits and spending skill point you get from creative killshots to get better stuff. The two systems complement each other beautifully and it really is hard to come up with such a good system to promote gameplay, the right amount of fun and incentive to make the system work.

"Badass Weaponry From your trusty Peace Maker Carbine to the explosive Flail Gun, Bulletstorm delivers an arsenal of the most inventive, death-dealing weapons ever seen that truly put the fun back into the First Person Shooter."

7/10 LIES! Lies, slander and blood libel! Not really but they are stretching truth to the breaking point, the weapons are very generic and standard FPS weapons any FPS player should immediately recognize. They have specific names but they're irrelevant, despite their names what the weapons really are, are a machine gun, a pistol, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, and one weapon that I didn't unlock. In the game you also get temporary weapons like miniguns. Each weapon has an upgrade which all boil down to a secondary fire/explosion based attack, and while they're really cool looking and good for gameplay purposes Epic games is lying straight to your face when they say their weapons are "the most inventive" they're not. The only reason I didn't make this 5/10 is because one weapon the electric whip you get very early is awesome and inventive and makes some parts of the game hilarious and fun and is in fact "death-dealing" as the advertisements claim. So to recap the weapons are not in any way inventive, but they are fun and deadly, and the whip is new and inventive and the guided sniper rifle set up might be new to some players, but not likely.

"A Pulp Sci-fi Adventure Featuring a script by the acclaimed Marvel Comics writer Rick Remender (The Punisher), Bulletstorm takes you on a journey filled with plot twists and turns from betrayal to revenge and ultimately redemption."

7/10 This was kind of hard to judge, the story wasn't great by any means, but Epic games came right out and said it's a pulp sci-fi adventure so we know no realism or unique plot devices are going to be in the game. Which is good, this is what us players want; we want game developers to be honest about what they're selling instead of hyping up their product when it doesn't warrant it. The story does require suspension of disbelief, if you're going to sit there and question how humans could mutate into monsters or how a giant metal wheel could stay on a dilapidated train track in the desert than this won't be enjoyable for you. The plot does have twists and turn but all of them are very simple and many of you will subconsciously or consciously know what's coming before it happens. That being said though the story isn't boring, it's easy to follow and does give satisfying explanation on who Grayson Hunt is and surprisingly the game does pose some interesting moral questions. For example is Grayson as bad as the person he seeks revenge against for the people he's killed; this is the first FPS I've played where the main character is called out as a hypocrite for killing soldiers who were following their orders while at the same seeing himself as superior to the antagonist who kills innocents to achieve their own ends, who actually killed less people. You won't get that in most plot driven games, seeing it in Bulletstorm was impressive. Grayson's status as a hero, anti-hero, or just a person is completely open to interpretation from the player. The only major flaw with the games story was the ham fisted way they made it so they could set it up for a sequel. The plot had no resolution and both our antagonist and protagonist are in the exact same position as when the game starts. Because of that I can only give Bullestorms plot a 7/10, if the ending had been better I would have given it an 8 or 9 just because I support the game makers choice to be honest about the quality of the story line, but they ruined it by going for a cheap cliffhanger ending that can only be resolves through a sequel.

"A Dangerous Planet of Forgotten Paradise Travel from scorched desserts to tropical forests and an adult playground resort on a beautifully realized paradise defiled, delivered by the power of the Unreal Engine."

10/10 This one was easy, the graphics are incredible, the environment is great, the levels aren't too repetitive and it was enjoyable to travel through Bulletstorm. If all you want is good graphics and fun gameplay just read this and buy it. For the rest know that Bulletstorm goes through a decaying planet inhabited by feral humans and mutants constantly warring for food and you have to make it through the large decaying city through the various gangs and monsters in sewers, dams, city streets, disco balls, a horizontally collapsed skyscraper. The game graphics are good, they are bright, colorful, flashy, and are a nice change of pace from the dark grays, whites, and browns so common in most FPS's.

In total Bulletstorm has great graphics, awesome skillpoint system and is really fun to play. The story is nothing special and the ending isn't good and the weapons are not unique, but that doesn't take away from Bulletstorm as much as I make it sound. It's a very high quality shooter, with great graphics, and creative game mechanics and honest advertising that should be rewarded over other games that keep releasing the same game over again with new maps and weapons and different characters. Bulletstorm brings something new, it's fun, and that's all I ask for. If you have any questions I'll respond to them in the comments section.

Honest reviews on Bulletstorm - Xbox 360

I'm writing this review for the gamers that are still trying to decide whether or not to buy this game. Here's the short answer; Rent it or wait until it hits $30 NEW.

Mini Review (Short and Fun Just like the Game-lol):

The Story (wait Bulletstorm has a story?)

The story is set in the future and the character you play is a guy named Grayson Hunt. He's a mixture of Marcus from Gears, Russell Crowe in Gladiator, and a drunken' swearing Uncle. If you so much as tripped over a FPS (First Person Shooter) you'll know the story cuz there all the same: You're a badass, who's got a chip on his shoulder, and someone backstabbed you so now you have to go get some revenge. You go from point A to point B like any other FPS, but in this game you're doing it in style. I did laugh occasionally thru ought the story mode but I basically skipped most of the cut scenes toward the end (which is cool that Epic allowed the player to do that). Oh yeah and there's a lot of swearing ....a lot.

Graphics/Sound

If you have surround sound this game kicks. I also can't say enough about the graphics. They're no Crysis 2, but they sure look good. Nuff said.

Gameplay

Let me start out by saying just get thru the first Two Chapters. The rest of the game (7 Chapters overall) is a blast. By Chapter 4 you're able to start really leveling up (more guns and add ons) and experiencing what the game really has to offer.

This game was made buy Epic (Unreal and Gears of Wars games) so they know what there doing. The controls are tight and fluid. Like I said before if you've played a FPS before you'll feel right at home. Bulletstorm's gimmick is something called the "Leash". You hit one of the thumper buttons and it brings your enemies to you. Which from there you can kick that enemy back into walls, kick'em and shoot'em, or just blast'em right there. This gives you kill points or kill/style points. The crazier your moves the more points you get. This overall is fun and cool but it does get stale only because of the game's limit of understanding of skill points. What I mean is I "Leashed" an enemy, kicked him up in the air, shot him in the head and a guy right behind him all at the same time and got 250 pts. It's hard to explain but if you saw it you'd be like wait he did that, and he got the minimum? What gives?

Replay Value

Online play has horde mode (fight swarms of enemies with friends/online players), and Echo's mode (Revisit any chapter and try to get a higher score).

Bottom Line (3 our of 5)

It was a simple, fun, funny experience, just short on replay value. Even though this game isn't selling that well I hope Epic decides to make another one.

No Online Multiplayer ( Team Deathmatch) kills buying this game for $60 for me. If you feel the same rent the game (to just play the story mode) or like I said buy it for $30 NEW. If you rent the game or buy it used ...you have to spend $10 online to unlock Echos Mode or the online horde mode (which isn't worth it).

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First off, this game is very fun, but there's no need for anyone to buy this game; people should just rent it. The main story is pretty short (I'd guess around 6-8 hours though I'm not sure) and there's really no other modes to sink your teeth into. There's a challenge mode where you can join your friends and essentially play small portions of levels. However, with no competitive aspect and little variety it quickly becomes boring.

The story is a relatively generic jock sci-fi throwaway which ends up taking place solely in a blown up theme park. The game is very vulgar, but in a childish way where it's so stupid it's kind of funny. However other times it comes back around and you're left just shaking your head. The leash is an interesting gaming weapon, but it is very simplistic, allowing for very limited attacks and experimentation. Most effective attacks boil down to leash a guy to you (unless they're "too fast" which was annoyingly ridiculous) kick them away and blow of their head. The guns you get are pretty cool, but with very limited ammo most of the time and only two weapon spots the fun is limited. Also, the coolest part of the weapons, getting a new one and trying it out on a bunch of baddies, ends around 3/4 of the way through.

The whole point system is very interesting, with how the leash gives him the hud and points for effective play resulting in ammo and weapon upgrades, but at the same time it gives points for things that break the idea. For example groin shots (dude, you just don't shoot another guy in the d*ck), getting drunk, and killing insects. Why not just get rid of all the pretense and make a wicked awesome game, who cares if it does or doesn't make sense.

Finally, I had a multitude of glitches, the worst being a game breaking glitch where I had to restart the whole level. Along with that large glitch (of which I've heard there are many other gamebreaking glitches, mostly involving your AI partner getting stuck) there are many other smaller ones, for example some of the animations/challenges not activating when they should (especially for nut shots).

In the end, this game is essentially a placeholder for Gears of War 3. If they didn't have to release it when they did, I think Epic could have had an absolutely amazing game on their hands.

Reviews of Port Royale 2 - PC

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List Price: $19.99
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I played Port Royale II for a couple weeks before losing the CD to a pile of Christmas wrap in the trash (probably). So when my wife wanted Pirates! instead, I went for it. (Besides, she let me buy a couple Fraggle Rock DVDs at the same time.) Now we have to take turns at the one computer powerful enough to play the game.

Sailing around is quicker and more interesting in Pirates! The land has interesting little landmarks, and you can choose to go ashore if you want. There's weather clouds that affect speed and running into reefs can hurt ships (unless at easiest difficulty).

Fighting naval battles is faster and much easier in Pirates! Port Royale II had a much harder battle because you could be up against several ships at a time versus your fleet (you sail one ship at a time at the enemy and switch to the next in your fleet when that one gets too hurt). With Pirates, you always use one ship against one or two enemies. The enemies are usually one small armed escort ship and one poorly armed cargo vessel. If somehow you loose, you have to re-engage the battle with another ship if you want to continue fighting.

Sword fighting is pretty easy to master in Pirates! (I have never ever lost a swordfight, and I am #3 most notorious pirate in the world.) I have only played the two easiest difficulty levels, so maybe this will get harder. I almost always sail one of the smaller, faster ships, get in to boarding range, and swordfight to a victory (even with 40 of my crew to their 150 crew). The animation during sword fighting isn't bad, but pretty repetitive, as there's only about 6 different scenes. Big ships, Little ships, Bars, Garden (for the honor of the governor's daughter), Fortress, etc.

Trading is much better in Port Royale II. I could spend all my time trading and amassing a fortune without a fight. You could even buy property and build plantations or factories in different towns, set up automatic trade routes using hired captains, and even strongly affect the local economy by what you did or didn't supply the town with. Pirates! doesn't allow enough cargo capacity, variety of goods, towns with money, or reason behind local prices to make trading very interesting.

Reputations with different countries make much more sense in Port Royale II, where people hold more of a grudge for acts of piracy. In Pirates!, I was able to capture a dozen Spanish ships before their towns would stop letting me sail into port and earning promotions based on sinking the odd pirate ship, then I quickly marched into 2 or 3 of their towns and replaced the governors with Dutch, and earned a not quite whopping 1100 bounty on my head. I made much more than that from just sacking those towns. I cleared my entire reputation by sailing the brother of a Jesuit priest from one town to the neighbor (about a 30 second run), and was instantly awarded with a Spanish promotion to Admiral (for all my good deeds sinking pirate ships presumably).

Doing missions was better in Port Royale II. There you would get an assignment to sack a town, gather a quantity of goods, or follow a trail of a pirate, etc. Usually it involved going quite a distance under a time constraint. In Pirates, you always just escort a ship from one town to the neighbor. You almost always have to defeat exactly one pirate along the way. I had one mission that I was to deliver a special crop to Marcaibo. Along the way, I stopped by a settlement and was asked to escort a governor to Marcaibo. Next door was a Jesuit mission, where I was asked to escort some settlers there also. I fought the three pirates (one chasing each of my escortees), and was rewarded with a promotion and land (what's that for?) when I got into town. Other missions are to find pirates (they're everywhere, but the named ones can be hard to track down), or dig up burried treasure (buy cheap map pieces and then walk your crew around land following landmarks to the oh-so-obvious piles of treasure). In Port Royale II, pirate treasure floats in the ocean.

Land battles for capturing cities only exist in Pirates! and are fairly easy and turn-based. If your crew outnumbers the soldiers in town, as long as you fire at them from the cover of trees, you will win pretty easily. In fact, if your crew gets unhappy (rare if you fight ships as often as I do), then go fight a town and do so poorly that your crew is reduced. The crew will be happy because there is now more gold per person, never mind that half just died senselessly due to poor commanding. In Port Royale II, taking a town consists of firing on batteries out in the water, using hundreds of tedious passes of your ship, firing once on each pass to avoid being hit by the battery.

Romance is a nice addition in Pirates! You have to earn a rank before getting to dance with the Governor's daughter. The prettier ones are better dancers. To dance, you have to follow her hand signals as to the next step (one of 6 directions). It takes a little to get used to, but failure doesn't cost anything so there's plenty of chance to practice until you get it right (or buy the dancing shoes which will override most of your bad moves with the right ones). Give the lady a good dance and she gives you gifts or information leading to pirates. Make her happy a few times and she will want to marry you.

Sneaking into towns in Pirates! isn't something I've tried yet. It looks pretty tedious, and I can sack the town faster than that if I really want to get into an unfriendly place. My wife isn't as bloodthirsty as I am (I sail on Captain Feathersword's Friendly Pirate Ship), so she has done this several times, and ended up in jail almost half of those attempts.

Port Royale II has a better variety of ships, or at least they matter more. In Pirates!, I always sail small fast ships and defeat even the biggest by outmanoevering them. In Port Royale II, you had better have a comparable sized ship or you were outmanned and outgunned.

Both games seem to be pretty stable, assuming you have the graphics power to run them. I did find that about 20% of the time that Pirates! is launched, it would run very slowly. Rebooting would solve the problem. The first time I ran it I didn't know that wasn't normal and spent the first night playing battles in slow motion and complaining that it takes forever to get anywhere. At normal speed, it is much more fun.

MY RECOMMENDATION:

If you like a trading game, get Port Royale II.

If you like being a bloodthirsty pirate who always wins, get Pirates! (and stay on the easier levels).

If you love pirate games, get both and have fun with a broader spectrum of activites.

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This game is awsome, I've played Port Royal 1, and Port Royal 2 just bring it to the next level. Obviously this is not a boat racing game, so I don't understand why are other reviewers complaining about the wind. It is a trading and simulation game, and the trade is a lot of fun. Graphics are great, trading engine is crazy, and completely open ended. Buy low sell high, make profit trading in the caribbean sea, get higher social ranking by hunting pirates, establish automatic trade routes, and many more things you can do in the 17th century. If you like any kind of trading game that put you on hook for many hours, you can try this one.

Best Deals for Port Royale 2 - PC

I am a pirate simulation guy. I played Pirates, Pirates Gold, Pirates 2004, Sea Dogs, Pirates of the Caribbean, Port Royale and High Seas. No game has the trading down like Port Royale 2. It is the best trade simulation game available, bar none. With that said, the piracy part of the game is very difficult. You cannot operate at all without a Letter of Marque. If you attack a country's ships without a letter everyone pretty much hates you and you cannot trade any more. The game for you is basically over. You need to trade (which means you probably need to be friendly with 2 countries). Although you can buy your reputation back to neutral or just wait long enough for your reputation to get better. I think this makes the game more true to life.

The ship to ship fighting is pretty basic, you need to have more men than your opponent or you will lose. A bigger ship with more men is necessary to win most battles. Unlike Pirates where you can always win whether you are in a rowboat or a ship of the line. Sometimes there is a sword fight, which is impossible to lose unless you close your eyes until the fight is over.

You can get married; look for buried treasure find castaways floating chests. There is really a lot to do in this game. Time does not fly by and you really have control over how much time actually goes by. This can be accomplished by slowing time down when you are in town and speeding it up when you are at sea. There is no wind to speak of in the game, not historically accurate but who cares? Nothing is more boring than watching your ship take forever getting from one place to another.

You can personally control many sea captains and ships. It can get very hectic and long-winded but all in all I think this is a good game. I have played it more than the new Pirates since I find it much more challenging. A superior trade simulation where you can actually trade tobacco...imagine that, oh wait Sid Meier couldn't. It is worth the 20 bucks to pick up a copy.

Honest reviews on Port Royale 2 - PC

Unfortunately, a lot of these reviews are trying to compare Port Royale 2 to the remake of Sid Meier's Pirates. The two games are not meant to be alike. This game, made by the same company that gave us the Patrician series, is a carribean trading game with a good amount of action included. It's about building up a legal or illegal trading empire. Sid Meier's Pirates is an action game trading plays almost no role.

This game excels in the trading genre, and is ok in the action drama. It doesn't rely on as much micromanagement as the Patrician series, but still manages to deliver.

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This is a great game, very fun, but make sure this is what you are looking for. This is not some sort of action, adventure, or RPG game. This is a strategy. My review won't go into detail, you can read tons of detail from other reviews, but I wanted to make sure you all know, this is a strategy game, don't buy it thinking it is anything other than that.

Thrustmaster T-Flight Stick X Flight Stick - PC Reviews

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List Price: $29.99
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Basically, they took everything that could be improved about the old Fox II Pro and improved it--added more buttons, more than MW4 could recognize, but whose fault was that? LABELED them, how lovely, and the feel and balance are otherwise much the same. Good, robust, reasonably priced unit, very glad I gambled (mildly) on a new product.

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This is a great joystick. Just need more ps3 games to use it with. Excellent for blazing angels, tough for warhawk though. Controls can be remapped for different games with a chip inside to save settings.A definite recommendation.

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Great stick for a decent price. Good quality and features.

I used the 2 day delivery, it arrived on time. The stick has an USB cord and the nice eazy option of a switch to chainge from a PS3 or PC, T-Flight, Stick X. A very happy customer.PS3/PC T-Flight Stick X.[[ASIN:B00154GXZQ T-Flight Stick X for PC & PS3

Honest reviews on Thrustmaster T-Flight Stick X Flight Stick - PC

T-Flight Stick X for PC & PS3 had fox2pro stick for a year of steady use and was happy with it. this is the new version with more buttons (some are quite awkward to use). shape and lightness of the stick are same as fox2 but heard an unwelcome crunch after only 3 weeks. part of the auto-centering ring inside broke and my stick now leans right if let go. pretty much unuseable now.

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I've been a flight-sim enthusiast for 5 years (FSX and IL-2: 1946 Dark Blue World,) but found that the controller I was using (a leftover X-Box 360 Pad) didn't give me the "realistic" feel of flight. I'd purchased another joystick a few years back (Logitech Extreme 3-D Pro) and it wouldn't work with Windows Vista no matter what I tried. Thanks to that frustrating experience, it was with great hesitation that I purchased this joystick. I'm very happy to say that my hesitation was completely unfounded! This Thrustmaster T-Flight X Stick has been an absolute JOY to play, and has truly transformed the many hours I spend flying into a challenging, very rewarding experience. I'll now list the PROS:

Truly a "plug n' play" stick. I simply plugged this into an external port on the back of my desktop computer, and within a minute, it had automatically located and downloaded the necessary drivers. I turned on my sim, assigned functions to the myriad buttons, and bingo I was flying! (By the way, I have Windows 7 64-bit...)

Ergonomically well-designed. It literally fits my hand like a glove. The resistance is correct and firm with the turn of a wheel located under the base, and the bomb, rocket, and gun buttons are easily ready to hand. The throttle, trim, and rudder function (twist the stick for L or R rudder) are perfectly designed and very sensitive, and likewise thoughtfully located. Quite handily, the throttle button has a small "notch" built in that allows the throttle to lightly click into place at 55% power, a generally good setting for cruise power on most aircraft. The number of buttons corresponds well with the essentials of all necessary flight regimes and weapons functions of most sims. I even had a couple of extra buttons left over until I could come up with some keyboard functions to transfer to the stick.

It has a good weight about it. It doesn't move or slide around, and with the help of some 99-cent Velcro strips, I firmly attached it to the throttle stand I built. It doesn't go anywhere unless I purposely move it. It now sits comfortably in-between my legs, just like a real WWII or Korean War-era Jet. With a nice, large screen, I quickly feel totally immersed in aerial battle.

Now would be where I'd list the CONS, but I don't really have any to list! The only thing I'd tell the designers is, on the next version, perhaps redesign the throttle button so the "dip" for the left hand's thumb faces in the opposite direction towards my front, and not off to the side. It's not a huge pain, but it would make this stick that much more perfect in my opinion. Likewise, a resistance adjustment wheel for the throttle would be nice. I'm also considering opening the bottom panel and seeing if there is enough room inside to add some lead weights, just for the hell of it and because I like to tinker with all things mechanical...

In sum, I highly recommend this stick. I couldn't be more pleased with it, and the price is definitely right! When I was shopping for a stick, I didn't see any others that felt this good and had this many buttons within the $30 price range. I was getting really bored of playing with the X-Box pad, so this breathed renewed life into my flight-simming experience.