Buy Dragon Age: Origins - Xbox 360

Customer Ratings:

So I purchased the Xbox 360 version of Dragon Age: Origins yesterday and have spent WAY too many hours in Ferelden when I should be doing far more constructive things.

Is it too much of a stretch to think that someone who names their blog after semi-mystical airships might enjoy a roleplaying game or two?

The game is not perfect. The graphics are decidedly sub-par, audio glitches occur far too frequently, and on a regular basis I notice tiny white specs, which are the "seams" showing between some images that display environmental graphics. Screen tearing, I think it's called. The latter wouldn't be so bad, if I didn't also have to look for a similarly white-ish graphic that indicates a chest or box or crate or body requires ransacking for the requisite reward. I'm always rotating the camera back for a quick second to be sure I'm not missing out on some loot.

But so what?

The game is deep, the voice-acting well done over all, and this may be the best WRITTEN roleplaying game of the current generation, even if the story itself seems safely (perhaps too safely) rooted in standard RPG conventions. Not even Mass Effect has dialogue options that are as "realistic" and rewarding to hear as what can be found in Dragon Age.

But, just to meet my "geek" and "nerd" quota for the day, I read some reviews. I've never seen so many one-star "reviews" based on just one or two aspects of what is otherwise a fantastic game -one-star bashing based on (you guessed it) the graphics or the heavy (oh so time-consuming) dialogue.

My take is that this phenomenon exposes a fundamental shortcoming of this particular generation of games -there simply aren't enough good RPGs that elevate story and dialogue as THE fundamental pillar of the game's success.

In just one short decade, gamers have forgotten how story-heavy games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, KOTOR, and other RPGS really were.

In just one short decade, everything is about graphics.

What a tragedy.

Gaming has gone from a hobby filled with gaming enthusiasts with imagination and open-mindedness (in terms of what can be considered a successful kind of game), to a hobby filled with mindless addicts seeking the nearest, the quickest possible thumb-twitch to get their needed dose of adrenaline.

And the internet is such a "perfect" forum for them to express their distaste. Twitchers with short attention spans "write" quick, twitch-like reviews that say GRAPHICS SUCK and FAIL and give one star reviews, as if that's all that matters in a game.

Hardly.

Rather than pay attention to either the mostly positive or mostly negative reviews, rather than pay attention to the polarization that can occur in the review sections of buy-sites, be sure to check out Metacritic or GameStats or other sites that organize and collate reviews from ACTUAL CRITICS.

There's a concept.

Dragon Age is a fantastic game. Deep characterization and playing fundamentals/strategy (on higher difficulty levels), lots of looting and blood and gore, romance with a pretty guy or girl, long-term support from Bioware (hopefully) as evidenced by the downloadable content available on the day of release, and huge "bang for your buck."

Even at 60 dollars retail, that averages to at the very least a dollar an hour in terms of value, for anyone who completes the game. And this isn't 60 dollars of sandbox. Dragon Age doesn't appear to be as much of a "sandbox" game as Morrowind or Oblivion. While great games themselves, they left some players feeling a little left out in the cold, wandering around without enough of story-driven momentum to sustain interest. One can only loot so many caves, kill so many monsters, close so many gates, that don't have significant impact on finishing the game.

And did I say dragons, arch demons, and dark fantasy elements?

Anyone who enjoys RPGs should buy this game. Now.

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I am astounded at the backlash against the game, mostly due to the graphics. So it's not incredible detailed and brilliant as people want, so what? KOTOR wasn't exactly top-notch in graphics either but it didn't matter. It was the story and gameplay that counted and that's the same here. From what I've seen, the PC version isn't massively different, a bit sharper but not by that much.

What counts is the story and gameplay and man, BioWare have outdone themselves on this. The brilliance is how it overturns the classic cliches of fantasy adventures. Elves aren't superior beings but divided, the city elves second-class citizens in slums while wood elves are wild and considered myth. Dwarves aren't drinking comic relief but hold to ideas of honor while in truth holding to an ultra-rigid class system that keeps the commoners down. And magic is considered something to be feared rather than used. Twists like that give the entire genere a nice kick.

As for complaints about how it starts slow, that's tradition for BioWare. Hell, it took KOTOR four or five hours on one planet before things got kicking and same with Jade Empire and Mass Effect. After you get through the origins and to the main story, things take off huge and the game is amazing to play. Each origin is fantastic to see and leads to different experiences and the combat is good too. I admit the PC may have an edge with the birds-eye view thing but this is still a great way to make it work.

So ignore those hung up too much on how it doesn't look utter perfection. If you want a game with PLENTY of replaybility, epic story, great characters, good combat and a rewarding play experience, this is it. Bravo to all involved creating it, you've made a true classic.

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The PS3 version is 17.3% better than the 360 version for 4.2 reasons.

The 360 version is 13.7% better than the PS3 version for 2.4 reasons.

Which version is better for you will be determined by your saving throw.

NO SPOILERS

I picked up both versions. I have two identical TVs, one bedroom, one den, both 50" 1080p Panasonic G10s. For this review I put them side by side in the den, PS3 hooked up to one, 360 to the other, and choose the same origin story. I played the PS3, my wife played the 360, we both took the day off of work, a "Bioware Holiday."

BIOWARE

The Bioware RPG is one of my favorite video game genres. KOTOR 1 is still my favorite story. I played through Mass Effect 7 times. If you like Bioware, you will like Dragon Age.

KOTOR 2 GRAPHICS

Bioware didn't make KOTOR 2. Until now. Dragon Age's graphics in general look like a last generation game, upconverted to HD. And why should they not? This game was 5 years in the making. Personally, if I could wave a magic wigglestick, I would magically wish the graphics into the year 2069, to play in my PS9 in my flying car. Unfortunately, I live in a condo that doesn't allow wigglesticking. So the choice is (A) Play the Bioware game. (B) Don't play the Bioware game. (C) Eat a cup cake. No one plays Bioware games for the graphics. You play for the CYOA storytelling.

6 COMPLETE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE NOVELS

Dragon Age is 10 Novels long. With 6 unique hero journeys. That can be twisted good or naughty. Warrior. Magic. Thief. Hybrid-Hybrid. Bioware is the only developer on the planet that makes this kind of beautiful uniqueness. This kind of awesomeness only comes around once every few years. Is this flavor of awesomeness perfect? No. Is amateur pornography perfect? No. Sometimes the pacing is off, or the dialogue excessive, but it gets the job done. The job is to experience a genuine human story--even if you're a lesbian elf. Dragon Age is fantastic video game storytelling. And better written than most fantasy novels.

BLOOD SPLATTER OR POTPOURRI?

I'm going to give Bioware the benefit of the doubt and believe that after battles my characters are splattered with blood and not potpourri. It's hard to tell visually, but I don't think they would censor themselves because this game is, like, totally Mature.

GAY SEX NO NUDITY

My wife likes lesbian threesomes. In books. In movies. In video games. In our kids' crayon drawings. She had never played a Bioware game before, but she likes role playing, and I told her Dragon Age has lesbian threesomes. Now, like with most video games, the depiction of sex isn't much more sophisticated visually than taking two barbie dolls and slapping them together. And there's no nudity. Because Bioware understands the genuine human condition--that people make the special love with their cloths on-even if you're a bi-sexual dwarf. So if you like realisticly-sized breasts well-covered with beige felt bikinis, then you, my friend, are in for a PG-13 flavored treat.

CASUAL VS HARDCORE

My wife played on easy, I played on normal. If you're an uber-genius, like me, who enjoys micromanagement, obscure RPG tactics, and general strategery... Then prepare to spend a lot of time, with the game paused, in clunky interface menus, because that's how real men play. That's how my grandpappy played his Bioware games, and his grandpappy before him, back when Bioware wasn't even Canadian, when they were still French, and the TVs had 11" screens and were powered by fire--usually dry hickory. So if you want that kind of authentic gaming experiece, you can have it. But if you just want to enjoy the story, crank that menu to easy, slump back in the couch, and unbuckle your pants for a good time.

PS3 VS 360

Like with all games, it's a choice between graphics vs framerate. The PS3 has slightly better textures, color saturation, contrast level, resolution. The 360 is less pretty but smoother. The PS3 is the supermodel with arthritis. The 360 is a Ukrainian gymnast. You get to choose who you want to take to bed. But since all you're going to do in bed is talk... It's not such a big deal. Unless you put two 50" plasmas right next to each other, you're not going to see the difference. I'm going to keep the PS3 version (because I like the controller better) and give my 360 copy to my favorite charity FVGFBO that provides fantastic video games for blind orphans.

BUY IT, PLAY IT, LOVE IT

* UPDATE

I have played 115 hours, beaten the game twice, tried three of the six origin stories, watched every sex scene, won every topless hottie boss battle, and found "teh secret nipplz." Personally, I feel this is the best Bioware game to date, the best written video game of all time, and a genuine evolution of the Bioware formula. For those of you fleeing in terror from Adult Content, know that, like in real life, bi-sexual dwarf sex is awkward, optional, and over in less than a minute. You can get through the whole game without "going hairy."

Honest reviews on Dragon Age: Origins - Xbox 360

I am giving this game 5 stars; incredible story, engaging game play and tactics, great voice acting,and characters you grow to care about not withstanding, what sets this game apart, what sets most Bioware games apart, most notably Mass Effect and now Dragon Age, is its approach to morality.

The difference between Dragon Age and other notable RPG's is subtle; I invite you to think back to previous offering in this genre.

JRPG's such as Final Fantasy series, Tales of Vesperia or even the classic Chronotrigger lacked any real morality decisions, or "Role Playing". The story plays out for you, whether you want it to or not. Almost like content in between cut-scenes. Moving from there, you have games with morality choices that are gaged on a meter with a clear line between good and bad: Bioware's KOTOR is an excellent example. However, with the coming of Mass Effect, and now Dragon Age, Role Playing has evolved to a more natural level.

No longer forced to chose between good and evil, it has become possible with these games to actually Role Play a complex character, and in no other game has this been more possible then in Dragon Age. The dialog choices are almost agonizing. My character is anything but black and white. Decisions are not without consequences, whether it be the changing opinion of party members, or the uncovered quests, or even missed opportunities (for example, I killed some one who could have been a party member, I did not know it until I spoke to a friend who played the game differently) Often, the consequences can be brutal; knives in the back cold blooded brutal. This is a true Role Playing Game, that begins to approach a level of engagement never seen before. When I make choices, I do not think,"is this a good, or bad action". I think, "how would "I" handle tis situation?"

You are never forced down a path, or forced to join a faction. This game allows one to play in the truly grey area of human nature. For this reason, I give this it 5 stars.

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Note: This review is primarily but not entirely based off of a complete play through as a Human Blood Mage on the Hard difficulty. On a 10 scale system I would rate this a 9 of 10 (4.5/5).

Bioware's new offering is a role playing tour de force but at the same time is also the premier presentation of that development studio's technical handicap.

Dragon Age: Origins is a solid RPG for the 360 that more than justifies the investment of a retail purchase for the RPG genre fan. The game provides a rich single player experience with a cohesive and engaging storyline in J.R.R. Tolkien's Fellowship of the Ring and George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones tradition within approximately 60 hours of unique playtime. Working out at more or less a (US) dollar an hour price this is an unbeatable deal for the RPG fan but maybe not be so for the non-genre fan. Those that place a premier value on cutting edge graphical presentation, action packed style or an expansive, durable and free multi-player experience will probably find Dragon Age to be tiresome, boring or limited in scope, respectively. BioWare has (barring the yet seen release of the new Star Wars RPG) played to death their current engine's style. The engine used in Dragon Age is BioWare's Eclipse. Those familiar with the Odyssey and then Aurora engines used in their previous titles such as Knights of the Old Republic will be familiar with the format. Unfortunately the bar has already been raised technically with Bethesda's Fallout series and narratively by BioWare's own Mass Effect series.

Dragon Age's most immediately apparent shortcoming is its obviously lacking graphical presentation. While, as an RPG fan, I can say that the graphics were never a point of overt disruption to the actual experience of playing the game they were often a source of disappointment for an otherwise superb experience. The textures were painfully off in that materials that should have had a shine were dull and those that should have carried a flat color were heavily reflective. It is unpleasant to see men running around in boringly uniform and oddly shiny leathers while knights were entombed within heavy, dull plate metal. Many of the textures of the equipable items were reminiscent of PlayStation II or original XBox textures, robbing the player of the aesthetic pleasure of customizing their character's equipment. This issue was aggravated by plainly awful terrain textures. The ground, sky, roofs, floors and hillsides are best left ignored, to pay too much attention only detracts from the immersion into the game.

With the most obvious visual shortcomings of BioWare's engine put aside the remaining faults are non-technical. The format that the designers chose to relay the story to the player is an audio presentation navigated by an in-engine dialogue tree. This goes a long way of keeping the player immersed in the game by never removing them, graphically speaking, from the game but after a long period of time serves to lend a tired quality. The first third of my game was played with rapt attention to the dialogue and in-engine cut scenes. The remaining majority of the the game I turned on the subtitles and skipped through it as fast as I could read. By hour 30 or so the I felt as though I were trapped in a nightmare realm of a B grade "choose your own adventure" audio book. While the actual voice over work is excellent the stiff animations and limited graphical variety offered to the player greatly detracts from the ability of the game's characters to relay the otherwise impressively written storyline. The fact that the array of options in the dialogue tree falls short of BioWare's previous Mass Effect title only rubs raw during the initial stages of play. By the end I found myself inclined to forgo conversation entirely and simply simply skip ahead, desperate for more action and less stiff, unstimulating talk.

Regardless I feel obliged to point out these failings not because they break the game but because this is a tremendous fountain of entertainment that more than justifies its retail price but still carries significant blemishes. If you were to play Dragon Age everyday for four hours straight it would take you about two weeks to get through a complete single player campaign. There are six unique starting stories to choose from, each with its own flavor of play through (but without uniquely different experiences). This is not an exercise in filler but instead a meticulously designed story that received an obvious level of care from the design team. A certain system of tolerance is required by the older gamer who is already very well experienced with the traditional concepts of Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons style story telling but the subtle attention to detail will reward most players. The last major fault with the game is the bizarre decision by the design team to attach a "skin" of gore to any character recently engaged in melee combat. It is very hard to take a character seriously when they calmly discuss Fereldian politics while looking like they just fell into a tank of tomatoes and suffered an epileptic fit. Note that this can be turned off.

The gameplay mechanics are solid with the only exceptions being that the combat is not as easily paused and therefor tactical as in prior BioWare titles and the difficulty level is wildly varied. At times the player will find themselves cutting though vast swaths of disposable enemies and moving through the story with little true opposition until they are presented with a seemingly impossible task or boss battle. These startling interrupts to the flow of play at times can require the ejection from the level to the world map in order to purchase more potions so one could "potion spam" their way out of that stage of play. This is a recurring theme that is barely justified by the fact that the game allows for on the fly difficulty adjustments.

Bottomline: This game is not a rental, it has enough gameplay hours to not simply justify a purchase but actually demand it. RPG fans will not have a complete library without this game but those who find extensive dialogue and substandard graphics to be tiresome should look elsewhere. If you want immediate action, consistent stimulation and endless hours of free online play for your gaming dollar then you are better served by pursuing on Modern Warfare 2. On the other hand if you desire an immersive, paced story and extensive narrative then Dragon Age is a great deal.

Major Pros:

*Immersive and structured storyline

*Full array of classes and skills

*Personal feel to character development

*"Just one more quest" gameplay

*Fulfilling moral decisions

*Branching story

*Excellent voice overs

*Non-linear world map

Subjective qualities and food for thought:

*Not an action game

*Zero free online play but pay-per-play downloadable quests

*J.R.R. Tolkien-esque storyline and Steve Jackson-esque aesthetic

*Demanding narrative

Major Cons:

*Simply awful terrain textures and equipment skins

*Stiff character animations

*Dated engine

*Overwhelming codex/inventory management system

*Often frustrating, ambiguous dialogue tree

*Silly gore effects

Review of Indigo Prophecy - Xbox

Customer Ratings:

There have been games throughout the years that have truly done something original, different and completely engaging. It always seems to be that these games fall by the wayside in terms of popularity which is a shame. Indigo Prophecy falls into this category as an original game with a fantastic premise and incredibly exciting gameplay.

Never before have I played a game that was so interactive in its story-telling. When trying to describe this game, I would point to God of War, a PS2 game in which there were scenes where you have timed button presses that would move forward a cutscene. It helped bring you into the story, the cutscenes so that it was you that were doing all of the cool acrobatic manuevers killing the hydra. Another game that used this to a lesser effect was Resident Evil 4, for example with the knife fight that you had to push buttons to keep Leon safe. Indigo Prophecy takes this idea and pushes it to the extreme.

IP is basically and incredibly interactive movie. It mixes the adventure genre, which is seldom seen on console, and movies and melds them into a cohesive and incredibly engaging story. It starts off with a bang as you immediately find yourself killing someone you don't know in a diner. You feel like you're not in control of your actions and as a result you have a body in a restroom and a policeman drinking coffee in the restaurant. What do you do? You're free to act from here on out. Do you leave the body and rush out? Do you hide the body? What about the blood? What about the blood on you? What about the knife? When you leave do you pay your bill? You can take care of all or none of the options above. And the story will be different, sometimes marginally sometimes drastically. Oh, and by the way, that cop sitting outside needs to use the restroom and soon the screen will split and you better be out of there before he makes it to the restroom.

This opening sequence exemplifies everything this game is about. Choices, story and gameplay all merged into one. But innovation doesn't end there. As soon as Lucas (the murdering protagonist) is free of the diner, you take control of two police detectives who investigate the scene. You can switch between the two on the fly and you have to find clues, make theories and basically do everything in your power to catch Lucas. Its this give and take gameplay, where you have to play one side against the other, that truly gives the game a sense of urgency and excitement.

Going back to the God of War example, when you have cutscenes in this game, you better not put your controller down. Gameplay pushes forward the story-centered bits as well. Whether its doing a simon says type control scheme to manuever your character past cars that are hurtling toward him, alternating between the L and R trigger as fast as you can to save someone who's drowning or using the R stick to make dialogue choices on the fly (you're timed) to hear all you can, the game makes sure to bring you into the story. Its very effective and really ratchets up the tension.

If there is one sore spot in the game its the graphics. While not bad, exactly, they don't necessarily push the Xbox in the way that this last year of Xbox life should. It looks like a first or possibly second generation Xbox game. Artistically the game is good. The characters in the cutscenes move really well and realistically. And there is never a moment of lag or skipping seen in a lot of games today. The character's faces have some nice emotion to them and the graphics aren't stellar, like I said, but they do a decent job. There's a ton of aliasing, however, which is sad.

Another sore spot is the controls. When you are in direct control of your character (i.e. actually moving them as opposed to having control of the cutscenes via button pressing) the game is pretty loose. It reminds me of playing the old Resident Evil games. You have the cinematic camera which causes some confusion as to which direction you should push your character. As a result, you will do a lot of figure 8s in the game which can cause a lot of problems when you have to hide the evidence because a cop is at your door and the timer is going down. Character animation while moving is also very stiff and a big difference from the cut scene animation.

The audio is terrific, however. While the box says the game does not run in 5.1 in game, I think it lies. My receiver lights up whenever 5.1 is being used and its always lit with this game. And it sounds like 5.1 is being used. The voice acting is absolutely wonderful and professional. Each voice matches the character and it helps enhance this feeling of playing a murder mystery movie. With voice acting becoming so important in games today, this is most welcome and really helps sell the game. Musically, the game also excels by using the very talented Angelo Badalamenti to score it. That name might not mean much on the outset but he has created scores to many Hollywood movies including most by David Lynch (Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., Twin Peaks) but also Dark Water, Arlington Road, etc. The score is absolutely beautiful and moving; it really fits in with what is happening on screen.

What this game does best is meld the story-telling of a movie with the gameplay of video games. It exposes the limitations of both and yet uses the best of both to create an engaging, moving and very interactive story. For me, this game is a perfect building block for video games. I can overlook most of its flaws because it is so different, so exciting and so damn cool. It warrants a 5 star review simply because of what it did. I would most heartedly recommend this game to those who love a good story, like action adventure games and want to be impressed with what video games and movies can accomplish together.

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I actually just recently sold my copy when I got this invitation to review. Indigo Prophecy was a pretty fun and interesting game. The story was what sold me and the "choices that affect the game" approach. Much of the gameplay is similar in a way to Shenmue. There's a lot of exploring and minigame sequences for action scenes and forth. Most of these mini games are done like Simon Says and the ever so grueling L and R tappings. These give you somewhat of a sense of realism while playing the game but that doesn't make it too much fun. The fun really comes in having a variety of choices and seeing what happens when you do this or do that. The characters you play as have a mental state meter that goes up or down depending on what happens. Why yawning knocks off 20 points to this is beyond me but overall a neat feature. The story starts off intense and gripping at first but then starts to get strange and seems a bit rushed. I don't want to spoil it for you but you'll see what I mean once certain deaths occur. In any case I'd give this game a rental. It's fun for what it is but the L and R sequences and the storyline at the end doesn't make it a keeper. You should be able to finish it relatively quickly.

Best Deals for Indigo Prophecy - Xbox

I bought the Xbox version of Indigo Prophecy simply because the machine doesn't get all that much use. I prefer adventure/rpg games and they are scarce for the Xbox, to say the least. Unfortunately, the game was clearly written for the PS2 and then ported to the Xbox with little thought about gameplay. This time Atari took a good game and definitely did not make it better.

Let's do the good parts first, since Indigo Prophecy really is a good game on many levels. The game's inner story is based on an actual legend associated with the change of Mayan eras. Into this new era is supposed to be born an 'indigo' child who will come with a prophecy that will grant great power to those who would listen. Add in a lot of human sacrifice and a dollop of paranoid plot to take over not just the world, but the universe, and you have Indigo Prophecy in a nutshell.

Oracles use randomly chosen instruments to carry out sacrifices, and this is the story of Lucas Kane, who suddenly finds himself a murderer and must elude both the police and assassins from a secret clan long enough to find out what happened to him and why he suddenly has strange powers. Pther key characters are Lucas' brother Marcus, and two police investigators, Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles. The player get's to control all of these characters, often in the same episode. The story is good, and the modern noir settings and sound are as well. Where this game runs into trouble is in the action game play and artwork.

Action is managed by to different operations, either following directional sequences displayed on the screen, or in rapid toggling of the two trigger keys. On any of the typical Xbox controllers these operations are more irritating than challenging. Accomplishing significant parts of this game involve being totally focus on the few square inches of screen where the progress of the challenge is displayed. So there you are in the middle of an action sequence and you can actually miss most of the action. It wasn't until I happened to look at my PS2 controller that I realized all this activity would have been much smoother if I had played the PS2 version of the game.

Artwork is low detail even for a PS2 based game, and looks even weaker on an Xbox. This is odd, considering that there isn't a lot of intricate action to eat up computer time that could have been dedicated to graphics. Atari chose to make this game on a slim budget, and the story, while strong, isn't enough to make this a real winner.

Overall, this is a three and a half star game on the Xbox, but a solid 4 on the PS2. Good entertainment, but not particularly memorable.

Honest reviews on Indigo Prophecy - Xbox

I've beat this game twice already, and still love the game. You can approach the game from quite a few different levels and do different things.

But overall, this game has an amazing storyline and plot. It keeps you hooked, because you see what happened, then you just have to keep playing because you want to see what happens next in the story. Thats the good thing. The graphics are pretty good. I didnt see no flaws in them. The controls, can be a pain SOMETIMES, but hardly ever. The sound in the game, very good. The sound fits the theme of the game perfectly. Very good on that part.

The game is REALLY fun, the simon says sequences, get you more into the game and the scene thats happening. And talking to people is also fun, when you talk to them you usually have a couple different answers you can answer to their questions. Which sort of reminds me of my favorite game, "Shenmue". But this game is VERY good, and should not be passed up by any gamer.

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Indigo Prophecy is an awesome game/interactive movie. As I played I really began to care about the characters. The music and atmosphere are awesome. I only have a few minor complaints. My biggest problem was the left/right button mashing sequences toward the end. It was alright when they were spaced out but the back-to-back ones caused me no small amount of headaches. I got so fed up with this in the last sequence that I just stuck with the mediocre ending instead of trying to get the good one. Overall though, it was an awesome game.

Review of Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days - Xbox 360

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Let me just start off by saying that this game is a rental, not because it plays poorly or is full of bugs, but because the single player story is under 5 hours long. That's right laddies and gentlemen, it took me under 5 hours to beat this game. It is absolutely abhorrent that the developers/publishers are getting $60 for this. If anyone else out there is like me, just based on the shear irritation I experienced upon finishing this game in under 5 hours, I will more than likely not play through it again. I bought this game because I enjoyed the first game (even though it was buggy and full of little technical issues), and that it took me a couple of days to finish it.

Now on to the performance of the game. The shooting mechanic is vastly improved in this game, and the cover system works perfectly. About 99% of the game runs beautifully at a very constant frame rate and the action blends nicely into the ongoing dialog the two characters, Kane and Lynch, carry on throughout the game. Also, I actually enjoyed what they did with the camera, making it look like the entire experience was recorded.

So in closing, if you really, REALLY want this game, go ahead and throw $60 out the window. But if you can be patient, and learn from my horrible mistake, either rent it or wait for the price to come way down.

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Kane & Lynch 2 demonstrates what happens when a development team tries to form an entire game around one glimmering fragment of a good idea.

The story is almost non-existent. It's Mario Bros. Two guys fighting their way through each level, trying to rescue the girl. That's it. It, obviously, continues with the same two irredeemable and unlikable lead characters from the first game that one feels no connection to or interest in.

Also, like the first Kane & Lynch, it tries far too hard to be edgy. As a fan of cleverly applied foul language, I'm put off when a game is so blatantly trying to appeal to twelve year old boys with excessive use of the 'F-word'. It comes across fake and insincere and patronizing.

It has one note of gameplay. You run through hallways shooting people, until you get to the other side. Then a new level loads and you shoot through another hallway, shooting more people. Four hours later, the game is over.

Many have rightfully complained that while length is not everything, it's hard to justify a full retail price for a four hour game. I agree, but I also would not have wanted to sit through another four hours of the same tiring, boring, monotonous action. In fact, I started looking forward to the end arriving, by about the third hour.

Multiplayer has potential, but falls flat. Part of that is due to the poor matchmaking, which seems dated. You'll spend a lot of time waiting in lobbies for people to join and games to start. The loading screens between games, joining lobbies, leaving lobbies, returning to lobbies from games are lengthy and a bit frustrating. There also isn't any host-migration, which has come to be expected in modern multiplayer games. This results in a _lot_ of prematurely ended games due to the host dropping out. I tried playing Cops & Robbers for four hours last night and I never completed a game. Cops and Robbers is four rounds long and in every game over those four hours, the host left before the third round.

The concept of the multiplayer in this game is interesting, though. I'd like to see someone expand on the idea and execute it much better. It could use some polish and definitely could use more maps (there are five or six, I think though it feels like only three). There are three additional maps, but you only get those if you pre-ordered the game from certain retailers. Even then, you only get ONE of the three locked maps; not all of them. If you ordered from Amazon, you got a special assault gun, instead of any maps. I believe that you can play on those maps if the host has the map, but I have not come across any games where that is the case. You also can't buy the maps as DLC.

There is also a Co-Op mode. It's nothing to write home about. It's just the single player game, but with the other person playing Kane. So instead of one player falling asleep with their finger constantly yanking the trigger and pushing forward through the path, someone else can suffer along with you.

All that said, Kane & Lynch 2 does a couple things right. First, while the graphics often look very dated (especially the faces and animations, if you stop and watch Kane running around) -the "camera man" filters they apply cover it up. In fact, the effects they apply can be absolutely stunning and go a long way toward improving realism. (Of course, there is never any explanation for why some guy with a camera is following two murderers around with a camera, risking getting himself killed by stray bullets the entire time, and witnessing to countless crimes by these crooks). Still, the effect is very cool.

I also like that the game, except for frequent long loading screens, has a bit of a "one long tracking shot" feel to it. Think of the scene from Children of Men, but much longer. If they could have found a way to stream-load the game, instead of having loading screens, it may have been memorable for presenting that sort of "game starts at point A and goes to point B and you never stop at any spot in between" experience.

So, in conclusion, Kane & Lynch 2 is a one-note game with a couple intriguing elements that belong in a much better game. I suspect this game will appeal to the same kind of mindset that gets off on all the weed references in Modern Warfare 2 or buys Bayonetta just because it features a naked chick in a "hair suit" standing in stilettos. These people probably wouldn't even realize they're being patronized, though.

For everyone else I suspect they will find it boring and repetitive and wish they'd spent their money elsewhere (even despite the couple of interesting elements that could have had potential). Rent it or pick it up at no more than half of retail price. Otherwise, skip it.

It really seems like IO Interactive had a brainstorming meeting and they came up with one good idea that had enough content for one level of the game and that was the last brainstorming session they ever had, until the game was released. As for why they spent so much time making so little game? There seems to be no explanation for that.

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The other day I was reading an interview with a game developer who said he wanted to work on a game with sensibilities that echoed the movie Heat [Blu-ray], because no one had done it yet.

First things first. When people fantasize about a "Heat"-esque game, I'm sure there's only one thing that comes to mind: epic street-level shootouts involving scads of ammo, automatic weapons, cops, shattering glass, screaming pedestrians and duffel bags slung over the shoulder. I'm pretty confident no one wants to play a "Heat" game that revolves around your ruined relationship with your wife and stepdaughter, or meetings in diners with arch-rivals.

If we can agree on that, then I'm here to tell you that Kane & Lynch 2 is as close as you're going to get to a Heat-esque experience in the gaming medium. The entire single player story is one brutally violent street-level shootout after another, while the multiplayer modes masterfully evoke the tense feeling of being in a gang of like-minded criminals who will do anything to go home with a bigger cut including killing their teammates in cold blood.

Kane & Lynch 2 also inhabits its own game space with the kind of confidence few games can manage. That is to say, everything is of a piece and seems the result of a singularity of vision so rare in these times when games seem content to come to you, when it should be the other way around. So few games challenge players to really accept things on the game's level also see Dead Rising, Bioshock and Demon's Souls Greatest Hits.

Because of this, many people have criticized elements of the game as flaws that are actually deliberate design decisions including the woefully inaccurate weapons you start the game with, the briefness of the story mode, and the nausea-inducing camera. That's not to say the game isn't without its flaws. It's loaded with them. But if you can get past them, you'll enjoy it for what it is, not what you want it to be.

Two caveats: One I did not pay full retail for this game. It's been out for nearly 8 months, so I picked it up on the cheap. This may color my opinion somewhat. Two online communities are notorious rovers, and due to the fact that this game underperformed at retail, it's kind of difficult to find a lively online game with any consistency at this point. Still an enjoyable experience though.

Honest reviews on Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days - Xbox 360

theres a Few things this game did right. the Atmosphere of China is just Beautiful and realisticly done...even Breathtaking at times..the best i have seen in a video game...and shooting through the city streets and buildings is suprisingly Fun. shooting it out in Arcade mode with the A.I. is fun as well...and the game overall has a great Flow to it just like K&L1...but the story mode and its levels are BORING and tedius. i feel like its so Bad, this game shouldnt have had a Story mode at all...

this game should have focused on the Heist theme that the Multiplayer and Arcade modes are based around and expanded on it. they should have invested their time into making about 20 Good Levels filled with Guards for players to blaze through with A.I. or Co-Op, steal money and valuables and try to get away...and with the Money you make, you could buy outfits, masks, guns, vehicles, hideouts and so on...overall, focusing on your CAREER as a criminal mastermind. maybe have it so that if one of your Crew members dies during a heist, hes gone Forever...and youd have to buy a new member to your team or continue through the levels 1 member Short. this would have been 1000 TIMES MORE FUN than the horrible story mode.

also, what is up with having to pay for content thats ALREADY IN THE GAME??? some of the guns were visably shown as Locked...which means they are Already In The Game...yet i have to PAY ACTUAL MONEY to unlock them??? i just dont think this makes any sense at all...

as far as buying this Full Price, i would NOT...i was able to get it for 1/4th the full price...and for THAT, the multiplayer is well worth the price...

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i'm so glad that i rented this title because i beat the game in 6 hours. The first reviewer is right when he said it took him 5 hours to beat it. it took me 5 hours to get to the 2nd last mission before i went to bed that night. the next day it took me about 30 min-1hr to beat the last one.

the game is REALLY fun, and very addictive to play. i love the weapons in it. so much better then Dead Men to me. shooting is much better in this one, then dead men.

i found the graphics to be a bit grainy though.. not too top notch like some other titles. that bothered me for about half of the game, before i got use to it.

this game really deserves like 3 stars from me, but i am giving it 4, cuz i had alot of fun playing it, but i beat it really fast... so i am glad i only spent $6 to rent it and play it. i got 4 days on rentals, but i only needed 2. returned it.

i wish there were more missions or harder ones. after i beat a game, i see no further reason to really keep it around. i have a 360, so i don't play online. (i don't want to pay). if i had the pc specs for this game, i would buy it and play multiplayer online. i'm sure that has to be fun. i don't own a ps3 either yet, so i don't know what multiplayer is like for this game. but if multiplayer is as fun as the game is, then i would buy it to play online.

for those of you waiting to play it out there, DEFINITELY DO NOT PAY $60. DON'T DO IT! NOT WORTH IT!. Not even worth $20. just go rent it. trust me, you'll thank me later, especially ppl who are like me and the guy above who can beat games in like 5 hours or less... and note, usually it's very rare for me to beat a game same day i get it..but dog days is so fun to play i got addicted to it, and i think that's how i beat it so fast.. cuz i was playing it all the time, and it is easy.

just go rent the title. if it does take you longer then 4 days rental time to beat it, just re-rent it.

Buy FIFA Soccer 11 - Xbox 360

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I played FIFA 10 a lot and pre-ordered FIFA 11 to make sure that I would receive the game on its release date. I have already played dozens of matches in several different game modes and completed over 40% of the virtual pro accomplishments. Here's my take on FIFA 11:

NEW FEATURES:

Manager Mode and Be A Pro Seasons Mode from FIFA 10 have been combined into a new mode called Career Mode. Now you can choose to be the manager, to be a player, or to be a player/manager. This mode is simpler than last year's Manager Mode. Some of the features such as players scouting and stadium upgrades have been removed. In my opinion this takes away from the game's depth. I used to enjoy just playing as the manager and simming matches, but I don't think it will be as satisfying in FIFA 10.

Be a goalkeeper. Goalkeepers are now playable characters both offline and online. This adds a little more variety to the game, although playing against the computer can be fairly dull because the AI rarely threatens your net. In offline games, FIFA 11's solution to the boredom problem is to give you a little bit of control over the computer players on your team. You can follow them with an overhead ball camera and tell them where and when to pass. As for the online play, goalkeepers are both a blessing and a curse. A good goalie can help your team win, but a bad one can easily ruin your game by intentionally allowing the other team to score.

Personality +. Players now look and move more realistically, although this only really applies to big stars on major teams. All of the players on a team like Chelsea or Real Madrid look pretty authentic, but if you drop down to a lower league like MLS, you will find that there isn't nearly as much attention to detail. Players who would never attempt difficult skill moves in real life will be doing fancy tricks and step-overs.

GAMEPLAY:

The actual game is fun to play. The controls are very good and responsive. The players move around fluidly. Shooting is fairly precise, although the chip shot is practically worthless now due to complaints about the ease of chipping the keeper in FIFA 10. Goalie control is simple and intuitve. Passing is pretty easy once you get a feel for the system. The defensive AI is much tougher than in FIFA 10. They are better at tackling and much better at reading passing lines and intercepting the ball. On the other hand, the offensive AI is still completely terrible. The computer is awful at making runs, which results in lots of low-scoring games. Even on the high difficulties, it is easy to prevent the computer from scoring because they hold to the ball too long and they always try to do the same thing on offense: run along the wings and try to cross it in for a header. If you can stop that, they probably won't score. This makes defense too easy and it also makes offense too hard because your bone-headed AI teammates will rarely make smart runs or passes that help you score. Instead you pretty much have to do it all yourself. On a positive note, there are hundreds of teams to choose from. Some people have complained about the national teams, but all of the big ones are in there and even some small ones like Slovenia.

VIRTUAL PRO:

Like FIFA 10, FIFA 11 lets you create your own virtual pro for use in offline and online matches. This was one of my favorite features in last year's game and the virtual pro system has been streamlined a little bit for 2011. You can improve your player by achieving certain goals such as scoring 10 goals in your career. This year there are more accomplishments than in FIFA 10 and the system used to track your progress towards the accomplishments is a little more organized. Also, there is more customizability with your pro's attributes and position. For example, if you choose to make him a forward, you can make him a "finisher," "target man," or "creator." All three options will have a different effect on his attributes. This allows for greater flexibility and strategy. However, you can switch positions at any time between matches, so nothing you choose is permanent.

ONLINE:

This is the biggest problem with FIFA 11. As of right now, there are numerous bugs and glitches in the online play. The Pro Club system is particularly bad. Screens freeze while searching or loading matches. Players lag out in the middle of matches. Math histories sometimes disappear, erasing the result. It seems like EA did not even bother to test these modes because they have not been working very well. There is no excuse for a rich company like EA to release a major franchise game like FIFA in an unfinished state. Many people who bought the game feel outraged about this. My guess is that EA will probably fix these problems eventually, but right now the online modes do not all work smoothly.

OVERALL:

This is a fun game. Right now I'm rating it 3 stars because EA released it with broken online modes. However, if I EA can fix these problems then this game will improve to 4.5 stars in my estimation. The actual gameplay is pretty fun. The only major problem is with the online lag and bugs. For FIFA 12 I hope that EA will improve the computer AI because the CPU players are utterly inept at manufacturing offense and threatening the goal.

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I am mainly interested in the Manager mode, so here are some quick observations:

Can play Manager mode as a Manager and player, as a player only or as a Manager only. You will need to play on Professional or higher, if you want to make it to the Leaderboards.

Manager mode is simplified quite a bit, but menus are much more cumbersome. Instead of simply playing the games, you now have a calendar mode, similar to the one in Forza 3. To get to the game, you have to let each day pass (smart way to hide the longer loading times). Maybe I'll get used to these menus, but for now, they seem too complicated.

Transfers: You have now a menu to sort by any criteria you want. You can find many top players from Day 1 (unlike Fifa 10), but you will no longer afford them easily. In Fifa 10, you would make an offer slightly higher and the deal would almost always get through. In Fifa 11, if the player plays in the main 11 team, many times you would need to make his club a top offer (up to twice the asking transfer price). Once the club agrees, the negotiation with the player is a separate step. Fabregas would have to wait I don't have enough money yet.

Some things seem to be out (or buried in some obscure menus???)no Scouting, Stadium Improvements, etc. Lots of options are in though how to set up the team, what strategies to use, etc. Some were already available in Fifa 10, but Fifa 11 gives us even more.

Gameplay: AI plays slightly better defense, long passes work better, dribbling is better. Shooting is not as spectacular as it was in Fifa 10, but maybe closer to reality. For a pure fun game, you may want to keep Fifa 10 around, because Fifa 11 is more tactical and scoring is not as easy as before.

Multiplayer: you will need to activate a unique code that comes with the game. If you buy a used game, double check with the seller to be sure they didn't use the code.

Graphics: seems to be the same engine, but the players definitely look better than in Fifa 10.

Bottom line different game from Fifa 10, but still fun. Should you buy this over Fifa 10? Fifa 10 is a pure fun, more arcade type of game. Fifa 11 is more of a sim and is more tactical. Both are great games and different enough to be worth owning.

Updated Feb 19th: I am removing one star from the rating, because as of mid-February, the rosters didn't get updated with the January transfers. In Manager mode, the game claims it checks for latest teams, yet still the old teams show up. Torres is still with Liverpool, Pienaar is not with Spurs, Dzeko is not under Man City, Suarez not with Liverpool, etc. This detracts from the game experience. For a game called Fifa 11, they should have 2011 teams. I will update rating if game gets patched.

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the game is good and i feel it is the best soccer game out but it has it's problems. the bigest problem i have with the game is how unrealistic some of the gameplay is. for example it is so easy to score of crosses just cross the ball in and you got a great chance to score. also its way to easy to score goals and make passes and like alot of EA sports games it has alot of glitches and game freezes also beware if you buy the game used you will need to buy a online pass just to play online pass cost 10 dollars having said that i still preffer this over pro evo 2011

Honest reviews on FIFA Soccer 11 - Xbox 360

I have been playing FIFA for years now and have been thoroughly enjoying it all these years. I got this game on a release date delivery ( just like the years before). I play strictly offline and on Manager mode mostly. I have played through over 2 seasons now and here is my feedback on what i think of the game.

gameplay ai has gotten tougher, but sometimes you feel like the referee is working against you. free kicks are awarded to cpu on a 10 to 1 ratio. you find yourself playing conservative football for 90mins only to find that the ai gets in on a cheap header through a fk awarded in the 91st min.. manual passing seems to have gotten better and i thoroughly enjoy it. pressure from the cpu defenders seems to be excessive and they are on your face. you have 30 different skill moves to make but they wont leave space to do anything. most of the time the second you get the ball they are on your back or face to push you and get it away.. overall i feel that improvements were made but excessive agressive ai doesnt always feel realistic.

manager mode replaced by career mode with options to play as a player, manager & player manager. i have played as a manager, although the game doesnt crash like the previous years here are my gripes.. found a simple bug on a calendar, one would think after aug 12 would come sep 12 .. not in fifa aug 2012 is followed by sep 2011 and then oct 2011.. this is pretty basic and should not be seen in a title like fifa.. it takes a ton of time to simulate the days that you dont have a match and its boring to sit and watch it move through day after day..

graphics same as last year

sound same as last year no change..

i dont use the creation center, virtual pro and online so i wont write about it here..

having said all that i keep playing this stupid thing over and over again.. its frustrating when you get scored on in the 89th min.. but may because i have played the football games through years or lack of a better choice this disk still sits on my xbox and gets played every night.. i have not played the PES series for years now and i am not sure if i will be satisfied making the switch this year.. but for now i am hoping they would release a patch or 2 fix the obvious bugs.

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I decided to wait a while before writing this review, knowing that by the time the review was written most of the people who wanted to buy this game had probably already done so. Still, I thought writing a review was important because I've reached the point where I have taken this game out of my Xbox and I'm no longer going to play it.

The first thing I noticed was how good the graphics are -it's really an incredible game to look at. Player faces are great, the stadiums which are included are great-looking, it really looks very, very good. Now the bad.

I spent most of my time playing this on career mode at the professional difficulty level. Here are some of the interesting things you'll notice (suffer through?) during game play:

Somehow defenders can come from behind a player sprinting with the ball in the other direction and steal the ball without any kind of slide and calmly head the other direction. As soon as they make contact, they have the ball. This makes break-away goals next to impossible, even with the fastest players in possession.

It's nearly impossible to score from the middle of the field due to the defenses habit of gang defending. As soon as I have the ball anywhere near the front of goal, at least two defenders will converge and steal the ball. Meanwhile, I can be practically attached to players all over the field without stealing it from them. I have given up a ton of goals where my defender was in the perfect position but it didn't matter. Extremely frustrating.

Heading the ball is a mystery to me. Because I can't score from the middle of the field, I decided to focus on crosses. Thing is, it seems to be random whether my player wins the cross and even more random whether the ball is on target. I have tried aiming everywhere, and the ball will still go into the crowd half the time. That's when I win it. My son counted in one game and I lost 12 headers in a row. Player skill level doesn't matter.

If you play career mode with MLS teams, there is no off-season transfer window because the game strictly adheres to European transfer rules. So the only time you can purchase/sell players in an MLS season is during the summer transfer window. And if you want to improve your team, it's best to buy players from your current league or a lower-tier league because no upper-tier player will play for your team, no matter how much you offer.

Turn off hand balls. You'll concede penalties in nearly every game otherwise. It's hard enough to play against better teams with just the fouls that are called when you're lucky enough to steal the ball.

This review is long enough so I've just included the things I found most frustrating. I could probably write a book. It's unfortunate to say but with each version of this game the graphics get better while the gameplay gets worse. I'm not sure what they can do to improve things, but EA needs to take a fresh look at this franchise.

Reviews of Crysis 2 - Xbox 360

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This review is coming from a guy who after playing the demo for 6 hours still wanted more

The good:

*Campaign is big, and took about 11 hours with a fair amount of graphics ogling and exploring (to put this into perspective, I beat modern warfare 2 in about 4.5-5)

*The levels that take place directly in the heart of the city have this sandbox feel to them that I haven't felt since metal gear solid 4, you really feel like you have freedom to approach the situations as you see fit.

*Just finished my play through on the hardest difficulty. You can get through 16 of the 19 levels without firing a bullet if you're stealthy enough, and the other 3 only have one required firefight in each. Very impressive for an fps.

*Slipping in and out of cloak for stealth kills on the humans is badass, especially when they are aware something is wrong

*TONS of weapon and suit customization, you wont get all of it in one play through.

*Graphics(HD tv, probably the best I've seen all year)

*The musical score is absolutely amazing, Hans Zimmer working on this project is just awesome

*Didn't know this, but apparently it supports 3d, for the 8 of you out there who that applies to

The Bad:

*Multiplayer matchmaking is still kind of wonky

*Complaints from the demo are still present(Stealth kill animations don't work right occasionally, host migration sometimes fails and ends the match, etc)

* As usual the writing suffers at a few points, but show me a game that doesn't

I would put it as a contender for game of the year, but with Skyrim, mass effect 3, Arkham ciy, uncharted, portal 2, La noire, witcher 2 and sooooo many other high profile games to come, crysis 2 sets the bar high, very high, for this years video game entertainment along with the likes of killzone 3 and dead space 2. 2011 is off to a great start but Crysis 2 is definitely leading the way.

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I got Homefront and Crysis 2 on the same day but I'll leave my Homefront review for another day because since Crysis 2 went into my 360 it hasn't left it.

Graphically really nothing comes close to Crysis 2. Now let me clarify that statement from the angle from a retired video game programmer : there are other games currently available such as Halo Reach or Mass Effect 2 which do seem to offer equivalent next gen visuals but they're fudging a lot of what you see. In many cases the lighting may not be dynamic or the reflections aren't really true, the game engine instead falls back on pre-rendered shadow maps and refmaps to use the geeky jargon. The Crysis 3 engine does it all and seemingly for real. A good example would be at the beginning of the game I came across a blue flashlight just laying around. I thought it was important and picked it up thinking it would come in handy later. But no, it's just there to show off the realtime shadows that EVERYTHING in the environment casts. It was toy the devs put there for you to play around with. And your onscreen character also casts shadows everywhere not just where the programmers thought it would look cool in the level.

But graphically there's so much more the water effects, the smoke, the mist, the ultra realistic fire, the in-game rendered cut scenes and of course the massive NY buildings are all a step above what any other game offers. I could ramble all day about the visuals but really you should download the multi-player demo to get a tiny taste of it.

Of course, visuals alone do not a good game make, and the gameplay has to be equally as good. Thankfully Crytek learned from their other 360 outing (FarCry) which was rather lacking in the things-to-do department, and with Crysis 2 they added a slew of entertaining ways and unique tools to approach any situation. Sure, what we have here is a glorified corridor shooter where your direction is preset due to the commands barked at you from a static intercom. But most of the action is in huge open areas with distinct hints depending on your choice of play want to stealth it out and take out the bad guys silently? No problem. Want to go in guns blazing? Again that's no problem. Want to do a bit of both, heck that's covered too. I never felt rushed even on levels that were applying pressure to get to the end and I completed the missions at my own pace. The tension is real, caused by the intense on-screen action, and not because of some fake clock timing down in the corner of the screen. This game deserves to be savored at your leisure and let's you do so.

I really don't have anything negative to say about the single player campaign even though the game has a couple of my ultimate pet hates. One, you will lose all of your weapons and powers at some point and there's nothing you can do about it and two, boss battles. Boss battles can destroy a game for me turning what could be a fun experience into an exercise in repetitively learning the correct way to kill the boss but not here. It all felt flowing and natural and not forced or repetitive.

I completed single player on the easiest setting in 9 hours and 45 minutes. It felt long and these days that's a good thing. I immediately started a new campaign from the beginning on the hardest setting. I want to get some of the collectibles that I missed but also relive the game's finer moments. You can tell it's a good game when despite needing sleep you decide to do one more mission.

Multiplayer is where I'm holding off. It can take weeks, months sometimes to get enough experience in an MP game such as this to decide just how really good it is. Frankly I consider MP to be a bonus and would easily have paid the full price for the SP alone.

If you read my other game reviews you'll see I'm quite harsh on games. It's rare, although not unprecedented, that I consider a game worthy of all stars. This is one and it should be in your game collection immediately.

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I had been playing Halo Reach and Black Ops since release and got burned out on them so I switched over to Crysis 2. I have had the game for a couple weeks now and I have really enjoyed the game. In my Opinion the Campaign is much better than Black Ops and if there was an inclusion of Coop it would have been on Par with Reach. Multiplayer is also fun but for me is slightly behind both Reach and Black Ops for multiplayer.

Maybe as I progress through the multi more it will get better. And one thing it does MUCH better than Black Ops is pairing you up with opponents that are at an equal playing level to yourself. In Black Ops you were almost always completely over matched or completely dominating. There was no middle road in the matchmaking and Crysis does a GREAT job with this.

The Campaign has an AWESOME open fell to the levels and the aspect of the Nanosuit are great for gameplay. The storyline is also very well written and played out. The campaign also does a great job with the difficulty levels in the campaign allows new FPS players to get there feet wet but also making the very difficult for experienced FPS players.

The best part of the game in the GRAPHICS, they are INCREDIBLE!! The Cry Engine from game one (Far Cry) has been spectacular and the new CryEngine3 is the absolute best yet.

Pros:

Campaign

Graphics

Matchmaking in Multiplayer

Nanosuit

Cons:

Multiplayer as whole not as good as COD or Reach

A few bugs in the game but will be fixed soon!

Lack of Coop in campaign (single person story line i know but inclusion of another twist with Coop would have been AWESOME!!!)

Honest reviews on Crysis 2 - Xbox 360

this was a day one buy for me. i was fairly confident from my research into this game and my time playing and watching the demo, that this was going to be something special...understatement...

since i had played the demo and no other previous crysis games, i decided to engulf myself in the campaign. i watched my buddy play multiplayer a bit. it looked like it had a few changes. otherwise i've only experimented with the customization a bit. so let me just get to the good stuff..

graphics-10/10 this is the most beautiful game i've ever seen on the 360. it is amazing! installed on my old school jasper xbox it runs with no issues. fast, beautiful, nutts...and i don't own a flatscreen tv either. this game has 3d options, which i think would be even more gorgeous.

gameplay-9.7/10 controls are very solid. one of the complaints that you might get is that you have to double tap y for grenades. but come on! this game utilizes the back button for multiple things!? yes, the back button. so the controls take some getting use to, but are very solid like i said. it more about honing your skill as this super ninja, then the controls...and when i mean honing your skills; it looks like the more you kill and through the different difficulties your suit abilities stack. not for sure but it looks like it. also i'd recommend trying out tactics in campaign, because most of the suit abilities that are in multiplayer. (also try all the guns..try all the guns while on the move..etc)

story(campaign)-9.5/10 i promise, no spoilers.. i thought the story was pretty good. everything together with the story is awesome. but i can't compare to the other crysis games because i haven't played them. i watched all the cut scenes on my first playthrough and i thought it great.

music-10/10 hanz zimmmer did an amazing job with his music for this game. i tried listening to my own music while playing, but it didn't feel the same. the zimmer music is amazing with the game. like i said, overall as one package its well done.

multiplayer9.0/10 i believe theres 12 maps and 4 game modes. 6 vs 6. amazing and fast paced. to me it felt more like battlefield than cod. some halo. i felt i really needed to us this pimped out ninja suit to my advantage. situational classes. lol. (i'm a geek) controls are similar to campaign, same for abilities. you have 3 stats; strength, speed, stealth. by using those you can gain abilities from there tree of "perks". the customization is pretty indepth. not black ops, but doesn't fall too much short of that. from the abilities and guns that i've tried i really think they did a good job of balancing things. considering that everyone has a nanosuit... just like cod by using abilities they can get better and theres all these other "assessments" that are similar to cods challenges. multiplayer really take some insight into your strengths and weaknesses to figure out what your good at. like i said, use single player to figure that out.

overall this is well worth the 60 bucks. multiple playthroughs for sheer awesome-ness and collectibles, furious multiplayer, and an overall very well done and polished product. i said to my friends this was going to be my filler till BRINK came. well....i feel silly for calling something as amazing as this filler...buy it. trust me on this one...

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Crysis 2 reminded me heavily of Avatar. The two are dissimilar in almost every way except the one that matters most. In both I was left feeling like despite the amazing visuals, neither connected with me because everything contained within them felt contrived and unbelievable. I could not relate to anyone or anything going on because it was all so one-dimensional.

How could you relate to the events of the game, it's about an alien invasion, right? Well, yes. But that isn't the issue. The real problem with the game is that things happen that are so illogical you can't even suspend your disbelief to enjoy the game, even as fun popcorn schlock.

So I'm just going to say it: I don't know what the big deal is about the graphics.Obviously this aspect is a lot more important to some people than it is to me. But to me, graphics in video games are much the same as looks are when evaluating attraction in another person. Good looks aren't everything, but they aren't nothing either. However the greatest looks in history don't stop some people from being rotten and horrible people. The same is true for good graphics. They aren't nothing, but if it is all you have, you don't have very much. Not to me, anyways. I have an HDTV and I was underwhelmed by he graphics. Probably because it is common now. Metal Gear Solid 4 probably still has the best graphics I personally have ever seen, and that is just my objective opinion. But my point is, you can't just make things shiny and smooth and have that make it a great game. That's not how it works. I suppose that might be the easiest way to appeal to the most people, but for people like me, who appreciate even decent storytelling, I just spend the game looking at the plot inconsistencies instead of immersed in the action.

With such high production quality focused on the detail of the game environment, it is very unfortunate that seemingly so little attention was paid to the fluidity and cohesion of the story -what little of that there is. The whole game you are ordered around like a mindless grunt. Crysis 2 also uses one of my least favorite game techniques, and that is playing a main character that never speaks. I assume this is so that the player can imagine the character having whatever voice they want. But to me, it just gets irritating, especially when another character calls you over the radio and asks you a question, and then continues talking even though you have not made any indication that you can hear them. Voiceless main characters should be used in RPG's only, if it must be done at all, because typically in an RPG there are multiple variables depending on how you make choices. Crysis 2 is not that. It is linear storytelling. And there is nothing wrong with that, except that your character essentially has no personality whatsoever because he never speaks and never makes decisions on his own.

The last big problem I have with the game is the AI. Crysis 2 is unique to me only in that it is an FPS stealth game. Especially on the hardest difficulty, you really can't have an out-and-out firefight with enemies, you die after just a few hits. So what that means is you will spend a good portion of the game cloaked. Which is actually interesting to me. However, being cloaked from enemies and having to sneak by them is only tenuous when the AI is decent enough to detect you. And they aren't in Crysis 2. I played the game the second time through on the hardest difficulty, and it is actually really boring. I spent most of the game cloaked, and the rest of the times were "boss" battles where you have to fight in order to progress to the next area. Considering that cloaking is one of the two main abilities of the Nano-Suit, the developers really didn't make it very exciting to be cloaked.

I really cannot talk about what plot inconsistencies there are because they involve spoilers in the game. But they are there, if you pay attention.

However, I couldn't do a fair review without also talking a bit about what Crysis 2 did well. The levels are big, and there is quite a bit to explore if you have the inclination. Weapon models are good, and the graphics are very well done. The game is also very smooth, considering the on-screen action, explosions, and everything else. It is also a fairly lengthy game, considering that it's a shooter.

In the end, I felt Crysis 2 was a game I could have lived my whole life without playing and I would not be sad to have missed it. I am glad that there seems to be a highly positive response to the game, but I just cannot agree with it because of so many blatant problems in the final product. If you enjoy good shooters regardless of plot, or if you like good multi-player FPS games, buy this, it is definitely for you. But if you're looking for something with any sort of complexity or originality, look elsewhere.

Reviews of ABBA You Can Dance

Customer Ratings:

My wife is a great fan of the Just Dance Series and she just loves the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!. Whenever she is feeling under the weather, she pops the movie in and after a short while she is singing along. So, picking this as a present for her was an easy choice for me. And it sure got me brownie points...

GIMME! GIMME! GIMME A MODE AFTER MIDNIGHT!

There is a number of modes, I am sure you will find the one for you. There is, of course the classic Dance Mode, where you get to follow the dancing figures on the screen, trying to match their moves holding the Wiimote in one hand (only one is required corresponding to the gloved hand of the dancer). There is also a Story Mode, where you get to participate in a mini-musical with ABBA, enhanced with their original music videos, snippets from their tours and numerous pictures. And then there is the Karaoke!

I AM A MARIONETTE!

What is the use of having an ABBA dancing exergame if one cannot sing along, right? Well, this game got you (almost) covered. In the Karaoke Mode the lyrics appear under the dancing figures and they get highlighted with the rhythm in order for your to sing along. It is a very fun mode, one clearly missing form the other JUST DANCE games if it was not for the issue of the missing microphone.

MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!

For the karaoke to function properly you will clearly need a microphone (such as the Logitech Wii Vantage USB Microphone, the Logitech Microphones for the Wii or even the Nintendo GameCube & Wii Microphone) as, unfortunately, NONE is included. We had to order one separately. Of course, until it too arrived, my wife was far from discouraged from simply singing along anyway!

This is where the game looses the perfect score, though: the karaoke mode is a major selling point so UBISOFT deciding not to include the required microphone (which is essential in fully enjoying the game) was a bad (and cheap, I might add!) marketing decision.

TAKE A CHANCE ON ME!

Once you solve the missing microphone issue, you will be having tons of fun with this game. I always liked their sound yet I was never a huge fan of the ABBA. Nevertheless, I caught myself not a small number of times singing along their happy tunes as well. What can I say, their pop 70's mentality is obviously infectious!

RECOMMENDED!

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So we get four friends together along with this new Abba Dance game, four "mature" women who would certainly be Broadway stars if only we had the time and lived in New York and didn't have other jobs or families. (And if we could sing!) This game has some challenging moves, but after a few sips of wine it's time to discover our hidden talents so we pick up our Wiimotes and throw ourselves into the rhythms of "Dancing Queen" and try not to throw ourselves into the coffee table. At first we're barely moving in the same direction with the dancers onscreen and we're jabbing each other with errant elbows or outstretched arms a beat too late. But we're determined! After several times practicing this song (and a few more sips of Chardonnay) we're into it. We're not only moving along with the dancers on the screen, but we're all moving together, in the same direction. Not hitting each other. We're good. Darn good!

At the next gathering of friends and family, we bide our time before making our debut. Everyone has finally arrived. Food and drinks flow and everyone is having fun catching up on each other's lives. Our eyes meet over the crowd. It's time. We turn on the Wii, take our places in front of the big screen, all four of us. The music begins. "You can dance, you can dance! Having the time of your life..." The room becomes quiet except for the music blaring from the Abba Dance game over the TV's speakers. In almost perfect (well, somewhat coordinated) moves we begin our dance routine, following the dancers on the screen, our singing a little shy at first but gathering steam as everyone watches, mouths open, amazed when they suddenly realize that we can dance! We're amazing! Everyone (who isn't rolling their eyes) joins in the singing with the lyrics on the screen. We are stars, at least in our own family room! We collapse at the end, laughing our heads off. Other guests pick up the Wiimotes to try. While we probably won't quit our day jobs just yet, we vow to get together again in the following weeks to practice some other songs in the game in time for the next party. Since there are 26 of them, we should be kept busy (and exercising) for a long time.

There's a reason these dance games are so popular and I think it's because it's a great way to get some great exercise in a fun way. And anyone can learn the dance moves and routines if you do them often enough. When you're dancing alone, striving for high scores makes it easy to keep the motivation going so it's a form of exercise you look forward to, rather than putting it off. (And you can sing as loud as you want!) Two thumbs up for this fun game!

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I am 27, I own 4 other wii dance games by Ubisoft, and I love all of them. I also love ABBA. This ABBA game is leaving me a bit disappointed. The moves are just way too easy for me. In most of the songs you just stand in one place and wave your arms around. The dance moves for each song are quite repetitive as well. Once you are 30 seconds into the song, you've already seen all the moves you will be doing. I like my dancing games to have some footwork as well as arm work, instead of just standing in place.

After playing this game for an afternoon, I must conclude that the target audience for this game is older adults, and that is why they made the dance moves so simple. They probably figured that most ABBA fans are probably older. (Not the case for me and my friends, but whatever.)

So, if you are perhaps a middle-aged person that wants to get some exercise, and you love ABBA, this game would be perfect for you because you don't have to be a great dancer, and the moves aren't very fast. I got 5 stars on every song on the first try, so I think the wiimote is good at picking up your movements, too. The scoring is much more lenient than Just Dance or the Michael Jackson Experience. Even if you don't get the move completely right, it will still give you a perfect score.

One other issue I have is that on the four person songs, there are no pictograms to show you what to do, so it makes those ones a little confusing at first. I'm not sure why they don't have them, I guess it wouldn't fit on the screen or something?

So just to recap: this game is probably great for beginners, older adults, and maybe younger kids too. More experienced dancers will probably be bored, even if you do love the songs.

Honest reviews on ABBA You Can Dance

I wasn't certain about buying this game, as the reviews were so-so. But, I'm older, and not in the best condition. After an unhappy visit with the doctor I decided to change my slothful ways & give it a go. ABBA is like The Carpenters...even if you don't like them that much it's amazing how many of their songs you actually know. It's perfect for me. Easy moves, still got my heart rate up, following the model is an interesting exercise in hand/eye coordination. I imagine you get better as you learn the moves. I like that I didn't have to go out into the cold to do it, nobody else was here to see what I look like when I dance except for the cat who took refuge under the chair. She probably thought I was having a seizure or something. I enjoyed it. I can't really do the yoga bits on Wii fit & I find the cardio stuff kind of boring. So, this is something to put into the mix. If you're looking for a way to ease into exercise you'll do OK with this one.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for ABBA You Can Dance

It's similar to a "Just Dance" except with all ABBA dancers & songs. In the Dance mode, there are pictograms, lyrics, gold moves, "x, ok, good, perfect" grading throughout the dance moves. There's also a stars gauge that indicates your overall performance over the course of a song.

Also has a mini-musical game mode where you dance, sing, & follow a story being communicated through music & dance moves. You choose your choreography & be part of a musical. Haven't done this yet.

I didn't expect a Karaoke option. This will be cool to try. I'll need to buy a Hudson Wireless or Logitech USB microphone to play this part. (Of course, I'm already singing along to all these songs from my childhood).

This game is better than I expected! If you like the old ABBA songs & like to dance along, you'll love this game. Voulez-Vous & Dancing Queen are my favorites but I recognize & like all the songs.

Best Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360 Deals

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List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $18.45
Today's Bonus: 8% Off

Please ignore the reviewer that stated (repeatedly) that "this game is just like GTA IV... If you hated that you will definitely hate this." That could not be further from the truth!!

Red Dead Redemption is Rockstar's newest sandbox game, and it is a very good change up on the already popular GTA series. Let me start off by saying I have always been a huge fan of GTA games... until GTA IV. Tried and tried to play it, just could not get into it. Everything about it was wrong for me, and I know a lot of others felt the same. Sure RDR is very similar to GTA IV, yet everything about it is so much better.

Graphics are amazing, game play is easy to pick up and hard to put down, shooting system is improved, horse riding is intuitive, and hunting is a blast, just to name a few. This is GTA on steroids. Don't get me wrong, the huge cities and fancy sports cars were a ton of fun, but this is so much better. Set in the early 20th century, Red Dead Redemption takes place in the ever changing Wild West. Dusty old towns, bustling saloons, and family ranches are presented with such accuracy and clarity, you'd think you are back in the old west yourself!

Red Dead Redemption's scale is beyond HUGE!! The Wild West has never looked so good. There's a fullness to the sunsets that's so breathtaking you almost forget about the task at hand. The characters play a role nearly as big as the landscape, if not more. The dialog is smooth and witty, and the hometown feel of McFarlanes ranch only adds to the beauty.

There are so many side missions and quests, it's tough to get bored. From helping a stranded women on the side of the road, to tracking and shooting trophy bucks, there is truly something for everyone. Don't feel like shooting or riding around on your horse? Play some cards! Drink a shot!

Your thinking what I'm thinking aren't you? GTA on horses. Yes, but as you play on through the game you will quickly realize it is so much more than that. It's a nice change up in the video game world, and quite a surprise in the western genre.

Now I know this was a very short, somewhat random review, but I hope it provided enough insight to help you decide on the purchase.

***********UPDATE**********

I have gotten a few comments about my review. Some feeling that I have not experienced all the game has to offer, and should wait until I'm further along and write a detailed review. My review was an attempt to give a quick firsthand look, and to knock dead a few misconceptions. I believe all first time buyers need an initial review to help them decide to buy it or not. The game experience should be left up to each individual.

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I'll admit, I had some reservations about Red Dead Redemption. The studio that released it (Rockstar) hadn't done too much to distinguish it from GTA with horses. Within the first 2 hours, however, I was blown away. The story starts with our hero John Marston attempting to track down his former gang leader Bill Williamson and bring him to justice. After a short cut scene, he's shot and left for dead. The game opens up after some dialogue and tutorials, leaving you to your devices in 1912's Texas and Mexico. The first thing you'll notice is the beautiful visuals. Everything has an incredible amount of detail and draw distance, and the character models animate wonderfully. Watching the sunset on horseback is a truly visceral video game experience, and won't soon be forgotten. Combat works in a very fun, gritty way. You have a large variety of period weapons to deal the bad guys (or good guys). Quests can appear by talking to certain NPCs essential to the story. They can also appear at random, forcing you to act quickly or watch an innocent die. What really surprised me was how well the minigames were made. Poker could be sold as a separate game in of itself, with AI "tells" and bluffing. Five-finger-fillet is pretty funny to watch if you make a blunder. Horseshoes and bar fights provide some enjoyable distractions. You can waltz over to a local movie theater and watch some very funny silent films that convey the mindset of the times. Red Dead Redemption has the most believable open world I've ever played, with every feature one would expect. The atmosphere is simply unmatched in terms of immersion and realism. I haven't even mentioned multiplayer yet. RDR supports up to 16 players over Xbox Live or PSN for full-on gunfights and skirmishes. Game types can range from free-for-alls to CTF-structured team based modes. There is also a separate mode called "Free Roam" that lets you and your friends form a posse and explore the entire single player map. You can slaughter gangs, hunt down wild game, and duke it out with other posses over an enormous map. There's a fully featured ranking system that tracks your progress throughout your online exploits. Multiplayer should keep you hooked for weeks on end as you shoot up the West. Overall, Read Dead Redemption is an incredibly good game that can't be missed. Pretty much everything is perfectly polished and consistent, and you'll find yourself loving the Wild West's final days. Go buy it now.

PROS

+ Awesome, deep combat

+ Breathtaking visuals

+ Addictive multiplayer

+ Strong voice acting and writing

+ Best open world in a video game to date

Cons

Occasional animation glitches

Some network problems, especially in Free Roam

Could be a little more difficult

Best Deals for Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360

Not many games am I willing to shell out 50 bucks to buy. I decided to go against my better judgement, and buy it because it had a pretty good reputation . . .

IT ROCKS!!

I was a little nervous about it being in the old west because that wasn't something that sounded that interesting for a videogame. Believe me, I take it all back. It only takes 10-15 minutes from when you start until you're sucked in for good.

Not gonna lie: I'm not the best when it comes to some video games, and I'll admit that I may agree with others: The game can be a bit easy at times (Just warning those hardcore gamers who may say "Psh, way too easy!"). But there are so many things to do, and they are all so much fun thing to do that, in my opinion, who cares if it's a little easy.

Clearing up some issues I read from others:

Someone said that "It takes forevor to ride from town to town". Yes, this may sometimes be true, but you can hire a stagecoach for a small fee, OR set up camp in the wilderness and say "Travel to ________" for FREE! I prefer to ride from town to town because you may stumble into a group of deer you can hunt for money to purchase a new weapon or horse, or you may find an opportunity to help strangers to gain Fame and/or Honor.

Things to do:

Go on main missions, hunt, become a bounty hunter to bring back criminals (Dead or Alive! The choice is yours!), go on stranger side missions, help those in need on your way from town to town, Patrol the MacFarlane Ranch at night to stop any cattle thiefs/rustlers, be a cowboy (herd cattle), play a game of horseshoes/blackjack/poker/mumblypeg, go to the saloon for a drink (and walk out so drunk you can't stop falling), jump on a moving train and kill the "driver", look for treasure, clear out a gang headquarter, JUST PLAIN EXPLORE!! Over time you'll find what side hobbies you like, and do them to take a break from the storyline. I, personally, like to do a main mission or two, then do some stuff on the side to keep things different.

1 thing that is truly great: The scenery. Nothing beats riding around during sunrise or sunset when the sky is a mixture of purple, orange, and red. It's just great.

I really hope this review helped you make a decision about whether or not you'll purchase the game. Make sure you click yes if it did. ;) Happy travels

Honest reviews on Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360

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QUICK REVIEW (LESS READING)

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Graphics9.5 Excellent details and textures, everything from the wool jackets, to the animal pelts you collect is highly detailed and gorgeous in HD. I did have a few hiccups and a freeze up during a cut scene, it happened one time, and could very well be my Xbox.

Sound10 The surround sound is top notch in Red Dead Revolver, from a steam engine barreling down the tracks, a cougar growling from the bushes, to the small things like birds chirping and wind blowing...the sound envelops you and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Gameplay10 Excellent control setup (GTA vets will be right at home) the only thing that took a bit of getting used to was riding a horse, its not bad, just a bit different than a car in terms of handling. Plenty of story/mission hours to waste away, followed by double the hours you'll spend just exploring and causing havoc (or helping the kind settlers).

Re-playability-9 Just going home and being able to run around the Wild West is enough for me, Rockstar included a solid story, but you can make your own as you go, helping damsels in distress, or massacring an entire settlement, its all up to you. This is gonna be a great game for a bit of relaxation...or some stress relief.

Multi-player9.5 I only played a bit of MP, since the rest of my "posse" hadn't received the game yet (or were struggling to get one at the store) The premise seems really interesting though, and the game of death match I played was a real nice change from the normal FPS death matches I've been playing lately. The open world MP game has always been something I wanted to see more of, and I'm sure once this game gets into more peoples hands its gonna be a real treat for the gaming world.

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I've been a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series since it had a top down view, so when this was announced by Rockstar I was pretty interested.

The first thing I must say is Rockstar has really outdone themselves, this game takes GTA to the next level, while taking it back a hundred years on the time line. The first thing you notice is the vast area you get to call "home". The colors and sand blowing and swirling is truly beautiful eye candy. I hate to compare this game to GTA, but the undertones are all there.

I don't wanna share any of the story, and honestly that's icing on the cake for this game. The graphics are simply gorgeous, from the leather straps, and jackets, to the grizzly beards on the characters...all very well done. One thing I must say is not being in the big city setting is a breath of fresh air, no car horns blaring, police sirens at every corner, just the wide open Western range...at times I thought I could taste the fresh air.

As far as game play goes, its hard to beat. You can do anything, and I mean anything (*Ill give a example at the end of this) The stores and shops are fantastic, and walking into a new town just makes you feel like a real gunslinger! Again I don't wanna get into the story to much, but the voice acting and cut scenes are almost Hollywood movie grade, its always nice when you feel for the characters, and this game does an outstanding job of delving into their history and stories!

As another reviewer said the game takes about 20 hours to play through the main story, however getting 100% completion will take you some extra time. The problem is playing through the game, no matter how hard I tried to go to the next mission, I ended up going way off track, killing a bear, saving a stage coach, or just getting a bunch of horses together to test a dynamite stick on. No matter what path you choose, your in for a surprise...Red Dead Redemption really delivers.

If you haven't picked this gem up yet I would highly suggest it, I said I'd give an example of doing whatever you want and here it is: Find some poor townsfolk, give em a round from your six shooter in the kneecap, hogtie them, drag them behind your horse to the nearest railroad...and leave em on the track, sit back and wait for the train to come through, nothing better to relieve the stress of those long days at work/school.

Red Dead Redemption far exceeds anything you've played before, pick up this game, and I'll see you behind the saloon at high noon!

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360

I heard about Red Dead Redemption just after it was released and was immediately intrigued. I saw here the potential to fix the flaws of GTAIV-the opportunity to take GTAIV and craft from it a more refined experience: a tighter storyline, improved controls, and a more focused world. The Western setting seemed perfect for the task. Not to mention the Western theme is, for some unknown reason, generally unused in video games. (I suspect that will now change.)

In the end, RDR improves on some aspects of the GTAIV formula but falls short on a few other aspects.

The world is much more refined and focused in RDR. Almost all buildings can be entered. NPCs have genuine conversations with one another. In general the world is better. Most impressive is the way the developers simultaneously allow the player to take in the loneliness of the empty deserts while still making the world feel alive and inhabited. This is accomplished by adding in a lot of wildlife (all of which can be hunted; you can even go catch and tame wild horses!), a system that introduces the player to random but dynamic encounters (for instance, you may find while riding along a road in the middle of nowhere that a gang is lynching someone on a nearby tree; you can choose to save the person or move on), and the stranger system (these are NPCs marked with a special icon on the minimap who provide Marston with special tasks to complete--simple, nonessential missions).

The controls are still just as unresponsive as they were in GTAIV. When playing RDR it sometimes feels less like I'm controlling Marston and more like I'm just giving him a nudge in the right direction. That said, combat controls are quite improved--the indoor combat mechanics are now quite functional and significantly better than those of GTAIV. Also, the controls are certainly not bad, and you will master them after a few hours of play. But for me at least the nagging feeling created by the general unresponsiveness has never went away.

GTAIV has a severely flawed save system which caused you to have to often repeat entire missions, including driving to the location (taking many minutes sometimes) and listening to the same dialogue many times. RDR has a much improved save system. You can save at safehouses as always, but you can also put up camp anywhere in the wilderness and save there. Furthermore, missions contain well-placed checkpoints at which you can respawn upon failure.

Now we come to the first of Red Dead Redemption's two great faults: the storyline. Like GTAIV, RDR takes its storyline seriously. Very seriously. There are a LOT of cutscenes in this game, and unlike the dialogues in such games as Mass Effect 2 the cutscenes in RDR aren't interactive. That means that I have higher standards for the narratives they present to me.

GTAIV's plot was certainly nowhere near the perfection of The Godfather, but many of the characters were believable, and the most believable among them stayed around for the whole game, allowing for nontrivial relationships to develop. In this way the story was at least effective enough to justify the numerous cutscenes.

Red Dead Redemption has a decent premise (I'll explicitly mark when spoilers might appear). Marston is a former outlaw who, for reasons unknown, grew a conscience, left his gang, and started a family. In events prior to the game the government threatened to hurt Marston's family unless he agreed to hunt down the members of his former gang.

That's a premise that could be made into a fantastic plot. Unfortunately RDR does relatively little with it. For a very long time essentially nothing will happen in the overall plot. And it won't be until the game's conclusion or "epilogue" that you'll meet the family you're supposed to be saving--far too late for you to develop feelings about them and hence really care about saving them.

You'll meet a lot of characters. Nearly all of them will be ridiculous and extremely abnormal in some way. I actually found it nearly intolerable how every single character in the game was almost a parody, a joke. There are very few humans here--Bonnie is one of them, a girl who saves you at the game's start and helps you recover. Unfortunately, Rockstar tosses Bonnie away after the beginning of the game. This is, in fact, the general pattern in RDR: once a real relationship is established with a character, that character will be eliminated from the game--the character will just disappear from existence.

There will be a few sideplots here and there. Most of them will be as ridiculous as the characters. But the overall plot advances shockingly slowly, if at all. Tension is nonexistent. Character development is nonexistent. And even though the premise I gave you above is printed all over the game's box, it takes the game an astoundingly long time to actually present all that information to the player.

Some minor spoilers follow.

The first half of the game is spent tracking down Bill Williamson. The game will come up with all sorts of ridiculous reasons why you can't just go find him. You'll have to do really ridiculous tasks for really ridiculous characters, and it's even more ridiculous that of all the people in the world only the most ridiculous could help you find Williamson. That's the word needed to summarize this part of the game: ridiculous. When you finally confront Bill Williamson, of course he escapes, but not without throwing a veritable army at you. Once more, ridiculous. You spend half the game trying to kill him, putting up with artificial plot device after artificial plot device, and then you fight through a ridiculous army at his fort... and then he escapes. How satisfying. As I said, it's ridiculous.

Spoilers end now.

Ordinarily the plot of RDR would be perfectly suitable for a video game. But most games don't take their plots as seriously as RDR takes its plot.

The ending, though, is just unacceptable in all mediums. It's completely unnecessary and reminds me of the Fallout 3 ending. It feels like it was tacked on just to make the game feel "serious" and "emotional" and to make up for the total lack of tension throughout the entire game.

The second great flaw of RDR is its system of morality and the illusion of choice. RDR, like GTAIV, has a very thorough system built in to make wrongdoing fun and entertaining. So you've got this vast framework to facilitate all these morally questionable activities. But then the game encourages you left and right, at every juncture, constantly to do what we all know is morally right. You almost universally get more rewards for sparing the lives of enemies than for killing them. Very, very, very few of the missions in the game ever require you to do anything considered wrong in the game world, and when they do they often provide some mechanism to avoid taking a hit to your honor if you don't want it to go down.

After having played RDR, it actually comes off as rather preachy to me. You're placed in a world in which you can do good and bad and yet the game tells you to do good pretty much as often as it can. It seems that when writing the story the writers forgot that this is a video game that should be at least minimally reactive to the player. As it is, you--the player--are absolutely irrelevant to the story.

I don't consider this a great flaw like the previous two, but it's worth mentioning that a vast amount of this game feels automated. The Dead Eye component (read: magical aiming) aims and shoots for you. And unless you have it set to "expert" aiming, to shoot somebody this is all you have to do: look somewhere in their general vicinity; hit the left trigger; the game aims for you; fire with right trigger. If you want a head shot, no problem: after the game aims at their torso for you, just slightly nudge the right thumbstick upwards. It's almost guaranteed.

For a game that seems so obsessed with realism, many missions in RDR will have you think that some of the gangs you're up against could rival the U.S. military in manpower. For instance, when you first transition from the initial area (called New Austin) to Mexico, you'll float on a raft down a river separating the two regions, and I'd wager at least 30 bandits come out of nowhere on the Mexico side to kill you. Of course, using Dead Eye or the left trigger makes it easy: the game aims for you.

Finally, I'd like to comment on something I hear being said about RDR a lot. I've read in many places (and in many reviews here at Amazon) that the game gives the player an unprecedented amount of choice. This is not at all true for several reasons. First, as I said above the game is greatly biased towards what it considers morally right actions. But more importantly missions are all completely linear, straightforward, and have precisely one path for the player to take. In the end, RDR tells you how to play the game and rarely gives you a choice to meaningfully deviate from its recommendation. When you do have a choice, it generally provides greater rewards for taking its preferred path.

As an example of a game that truly does present meaningful choices about how to approach a mission, I offer Deus Ex. But even the Elder Scrolls games (Morrowind, Oblivion) give the player more options for approaching quests than RDR does.

In the end, RDR is a fun game but it flounders in its own seriousness and aspirations.