The Sims 3: Generations - PC/Mac Review

Customer Ratings:

Some people keep complaining about the lack of content in this expansion pack, calling it a "glorified stuff pack". There is actually quite a lot more there than one might think. Therefore, since someone asked me to post this, here is a pretty nice list of what you can expect to find in this pack:

This list was not compiled by me, but by a Sims fan-site

' There is not a new town for Generations. The town shown in photos and videos is Sunset Valley.

' There are 10 new community lots added to Generations.

' They have not added any new Rabbit Holes. (Still unknown if they have opened any existing ones)

' One of the new community lots added is a Playground complete with a Sandbox, Swing set, Seesaw, Playhouse Set, Spring-Rides, and a Treehouse(?)

Sims & CAS

' Body hair is a feature that has been added to CAS

' New accessory for Elders: Canes

Build Mode Features

' Spiral Staircases

' New type of Window

New Objects

' Usable Strollers to transport your toddlers. One per stroller. For more than one child, multiple strollers will have to be used with other sims pushing them.

' Bunk Beds and Loft Beds which can be used by Sims of all ages

' Tree-houses

' New Playground equipment

' Sandbox

' Water Slide which can be used by all ages (Slip n Slide) not a pool slide.

' Video Camera

' Chemistry Set to make lots of new potions

' Sleeping bags

' Children's toy boxes have been improved with costumes so kids can play dress up.

' Pink Limousines

' Costume chest

' Different sized picture frames

' Lava Lamps

New Interactions,Features & Events

' Children and teenagers can play pranks on strangers, neighbors, and even other family members.

' The Sims 3 Generations has two kinds of mischief: Traps and Pranks in public places

' Pranks & Traps include: booby traps, Water balloons, covering a neighbor's house in toilet paper (or TP'ing), Stink Juice (bombs), Flaming bag of poo, Ding Dong ditch, adding hair dye to shampoo, Throwing eggs, making the toilet explode, pouring buckets of water from the tree-house onto someone, messing with the sink to make it spray someone when they attempt to turn it on and whoopee cushions under the sofa!

' "Ninja Vanish-Potion" is used to disappear from the scene of a prank. Chemistry skill required to make the potion.

' Children & Teens can be grounded for mischief, have a timeout or have their video games banned.

' Pranks can contribute to your teen's social standing and will actually let you build up a reputation as a master prankster and local legend to the other kids at school.

' Children can sleep outside in their backyard and tell ghost stories. (Flashlight included!)

' Stories will effects how your sim sleeps at night.

' Sims can now have Nightmares.

' Children can have sleepovers and slumber parties!

' Children can dress up and be a "King or Queen" and reign over their subjects.

' Sims keep memories, so you can go back and review your Sims' milestones when you feel like reminiscing. Memories of significant life moments will be recorded in their Scrapbook.

' Adult Mid-Life Crises

' Pillow Fights have returned!

' Older Sims can interact with toddlers now by performing "claw" movements while in their arms. (most likely an add-on to tickling)

' Children can now have pirate attacks in their Tree-houses. A skull and crossbones flag is hoisted above the tree house, it hisses and pops on the inside and fire and smoke emerge from the windows.

' Children can now have Sci-Fi adventures in their Tree-houses. They dress as astronauts and UFO's appear.

' Children can now have "clubhouse" type adventure in Tree-houses where they spy on neighbors through a telescope to see what others are up to!

' If your sims decide to throw a wild party. a police car may show up! But don't be fooled as they are not real cops! They are there to add to the parties atmosphere.

' Grown-ups can now have elaborate bachelor and bachelorette parties before marriage, which include all manner of festivities like pink limousines, sexy dancers and plenty of "nectar".

' Bachelor parties, will include hiring a female "dancer" to pop out of a wedding cake and spray the lucky bachelor with a bottle of "nectar".

' Parents have the ability to send children and teens to different boarding schools. They can choose anything from military school to the sports academy, and has plenty to choose from to give their children a proper education! This happens outside our current world.

' Children won't go to college specifically, but what they will do are the following: Children can go on field trips now. Field trips are really cool. It is not just a new way of going with the community as they sometimes bring special things back from these field trips and have them in their memories.

' Teens will be able to have a Graduation and a party for it. (no details given on how a graduation will work)

' Teens can have prom dances. They will be able to take their date and go to the prom and they'll take their picture at the school. You can hang these pictures at home on their walls so they can remember this day and how it was like for them. Of course if they got prom king or prom queen that's a very special moment for them.

' New parties include: Teenage parties, graduation parties and bachelor/ette parties! They have also added new fun interactions to weddings such as the "Wedding Arch" and "Cake Cutting"

' Sims can now have Dates.

' Adult sims can Woohoo in the shower and in Tree-houses. In tree-houses, you'll see the adults climbing up in there and the tree house is shaking. Leaves falling down off of it and birds will fly of the tree house .

' Not only can your Sims record home videos of their children growing up, but they can take the Data Discs out of the camera and replay their home movies on most of the in-game TV screens!

' Sims can view the world from the video's perspective while they record events around them.

' Sims are now able to record home movies, or even tape unsuspecting victims to use the footage as evidence (blackmail)

' Sims now have the ability to gift flowers and boxed gifts.

' Sims will now be able to stargaze from the ground.

' Hopscotch

' Children can attend ballet class

New Traits/Skills

' Nurturing

' Rebellious

' These traits are not specific to any one life phase in the game, but they'll provide different benefits to Sims throughout their lifespan!

' As of now we do not know of any new "exact" skills such as cooking that can be improved, but making potions with the chemistry set is something to improve on.

Careers/Professions

' Day Care profession

' Parents can take their children to Day Care at a specific time, which is an at-home daycare. How many children will your Sim be able to handle? An additional challenge is that children with rebellious ways might anger you with their antics. Having the "Nurturing" trait is a plus for this job.

' Sims have this new "Nurturing" trait. Sims with this new trait will be great in taking care of other kids; they can interact with them in a special way. It's a very active career. You have to guide your Sims through these experiences to help them advance. So other Sims bring by their kids and drop them off and you have to take care of them. As you progress through it, it gets more difficult you may even have a problem child. They're going to pull pranks and get in trouble more often. But you make sure that you take care of them like they are your own kid. And as you keep going you will have more and more children and have the ability to manage them.

' Ambitions careers have been expanded.

Lifestate/Creature

' Imaginary Friends

' This fantasy creature with a fancy pants suit, different pairs of shoes and a glowing "light bulb" on the head, moves strangely. An imaginary friend stems from a doll which a child tends to nurture. Once the doll has turned into an imaginary friend, many new interactions become available.

' Only the sim with an imaginary friend can see them. Other sims will not be able to see someone else's imaginary friend. This will be odd seeing a pillow fight or a child on a seesaw with no one else in view!

' You will only be able to see the imaginary creature when the sim who created it is selected.

' Using a special potion, sims can turn their imaginary friends into a "Real" sim.

' Imaginary friends can perform actions that sims can. For example if you have to tidy up the house just ask your imaginary friend to do it!

' Sims can have romantic interests with imaginary friends when they become teens. This romance can continue into adulthood.

' Interacting with an imaginary friend, fills the social bar and gap for your sims.

Extras

' Collections (explained below)

' We now have this new filter in buy/build mode, where you click on it and select the icon of what product you want to see. So if you bought "Generations" and you just want to see the objects from "Generations" you click that icon and that's the only ones you will see. But it's a dynamic system. If you have "Late Night" as well you can click both of them you will see only objects from both of those. So you can show just the objects that you want.

' We will now be able to Upload Screenshots and Memories to our My-Page & Facebook.

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The Sims 3: Generations is the fourth expansion pack the the Sims 3 series and I must say, it's pretty good. I got it on the day of its release via Amazon. Now I'm no game reviewer as I'm more of a music reviewer (aspiring music journalist here) but I'll try my best to describe this game. Like with most expansion packs for the Sims, make sure you got your favorite families or games backed up on CD-Rs or whatever you back them up on. I've been doing this since Ambitions came out a year ago since I learned the hard way when one of the sims in my family wasn't moving. Alright, now to the game itself.

The theme for this expansion pack revolves around the idea of life and growing up. I found this interesting for EA to base an entire expansion pack on. What about the users who like having one sim families? Well, I guess you would get some things out of the new objects. If you're a user who likes to make families and have them go on and on, this might be the expansion pack for you. Your sims will get to keep memories of their lives (examples: Marriage, birth of a child, death, first kiss,prom etc). If you can remember in the Sims 2, your sims did get to have memories. This takes that idea and expands it. Memories can also be shared through the Sims 3 website and even Facebook! The only negative with the memories feature is that it may get annoying after a while. Also, I found this to be a bit funny: after you install the game, your sims will experience their "firsts" in just about anything. For example, my teenage sims, just about to be a young adult, kept his memory of his first day in school (when I know it isn't because he's been to school plenty of times before this expansion pack was released!).

New features are built around sims for all ages but for some reason, I feel like most of them are targeted for child and teen sims. For child sims, they'll get to have a bunch of new things such as see-saws, slip n slides, tree houses, and other things. There's also the interesting addition of imaginary friends. When your sim is just born, they will receive a gift in the mail. Its a doll, which you can give a name and have your toddler sim play with. As your sim grows up, so does your imaginary friend, based on your relationship. I'm also reading that if you keep a good relationship with your imaginary friend, they can have the chance to become real! For teen sims, they'll get to go to prom and even graduate high school. However, there's one disadvantage here with being a teen sim: teen sims can't automatically drive anymore! They have to now ask their parents for lessons! The lessons don't take very long (like 3 skill points to complete). As for other sims, there's a new chemistry set like thing. You can make potions that can help or hurt your sims. Your sims can also give other sims gifts, which is nice to see return!

These are just a couple of things you can do with The Sims 3: Generations. So far, I'm enjoying it. When you get it and open the case, you might be a little disappointed: there's still no $10 card for the online store, which is easy to get over. However, the booklet that comes with the game is barely even a booklet. I think the same goes for the Outdoor Living stuff pack: it just comes with an installation guide. Personally, the booklets have helped me and seeing this removed is sad. Still, The Sims 3: Generations is a great addition to the Sims 3 series.

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For a full in depth and positive review visit

I'm really digging the new interactions available for each age group. The pranks that kids and teens can pull off only are fun and makes raising and playing kids a worthwhile experience. Teens, young adults and adults can now ask their love interests out on dates. There is even an option in giving flowers and gifts (basically stuff from your inventory). I haven't tried out the midlife crisis for the adults just yet but I'm looking forward to it. There are several other new interactions which, like the ones mentioned above, only add to the Sims 3 gaming experience. Sims now have the option to pillow fight each other, share secrets, and effect each other's social reputations. For example, if your sim cheats then that sim will be identified as a heartbreaker or a player around town. Adults can also read bedtime stories to children. All sims can share ghost stories, look up at the stars and tell even more stories.

The boarding school features for the kids and teens is another worthy installment from this expansion. There are several schools you can choose ranging from military school, sports, art and a prep school. Each school improves upon a particular skill or trait. Graduating from these schools adds a more "life like" and rewarding experience for you and your sims. There are now better wedding events (by a wedding cake), bachelor parties, and childrens' sleep overs.

Lastly, the new items (though not as much in quantity) goes hand in hand with the new interactions and features. We now have tree houses (3), strollers, new radios, TVs, tables, Wedding Arches, a Wedding cake, several new decors, a slip and slide, a sand box, 2 new cars, and several new hair styles and clothes. Finally we also have SPIRAL STAIR CASES.

I definitely recommend this expansion for the new interactions because they give more life to your sims.

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--Edit March 5th 2012 ---

To this date I still can't get this game to work properly. But that's because EA doesn't support my video card anymore. EA didn't tell me this but I had to find the information myself. Below is a list of sites/pages that have been very helpful to me. I do not guarantee that this site has the help you need.

This site has a lot of information about The Sims 3. Everything from common technical issues to creating custom content:

The page (part of the above listed site) is a break down of system requirements and have been a great help to me. It lists most common video cards and will tell you if they work or not:

This page has information of technical/graphic issues and how the fix them:

--end edit ----

This game gives you more then a Stuff Pack but less then an Expansion Pack. While it is similar to a normal Stuff Pack--new objects, clothes, interactions/activities--it's lacking in new neighborhoods and only has one new job/profession ((that I've found))--Daycare Provider. I'm not sure what this job entails as I haven't tried it yet. It should be similar to the other professions (fire fighter, hair stylist...). Possibly meaning working in a daycare center or having an at-home service.

A new feature allows you to adjust the length of the age stages--baby, toddler, child, young adult, adult and elder. I love this feature. I thought it took too long for babies (3 days) and toddlers (7 days) to age. Now you can shorten or lengthen to your preference. You can also dictate how long your sims will live in total (preset at 90 days). This feature is accessible through the options menu.

This game offers more towards young sims--more objects, clothing, interactions, ect. You can tell your young sim what to dream about by clicking the bed while they're sleeping. Some dreams come true and some turn into nightmares. Teens can go to prom and become prom king/queen. Young sims can play pranks and have bad/moody days. Sims now have graduation (once they've aged to young adult) where they have a chance at valedictorian, being voted more popular, ect. Teens now have to learn to drive. There are more 'Wohoo' options now for grown-up sims. And for the elders--canes/walking sticks--wow, that's the best EA can do, really?

As mentioned by others, memories are back but with a twist. You can now share your sims' memories online such as Facebook. I like the memory feature but not the share. I highly doubt my friends and family care if my sim gains a skill point or marries. Luckily, you can turn off the share notices in the option menu.

Installation was smooth. The EA Download Manager didn't install properly the first attempt but did on the next try when I restarted my computer. Otherwise, I haven't noticed any installation or game play issues. A hiccup or two but nothing that really affects game play.

Overall, a nice addition to the great game of The Sims 3. But I'm a little disappointed. I was expecting more. I think EA could have done more with this game. Sorry EA but you really seem to be letting your standards drop for $$$. And I've been a fan since Simcity first came out on the SNES--I miss Simfarm.

***UPDATE 6/4/11***

I lied. The game is now crashing. It started to glitch with freezing every few minutes and one sim kept pop out of activities such as using a bed, bathing, ect. Then my pre-Generation sims became unplayable and frozen. I couldn't even click on them. Sims acquired after installing Generations seemed okay. Now the game is AMAZINGLY slow and freezes every few seconds.

All this started after I sent a sim to Egypt. Upon returning home the game began to glitch...

I'm trying to work this out with EA customer service...

***UPDATE 6/29/11***

The only things that fixed those glitched was to uninstall and reinstall. Unfortunately, that was only a temporary fix. Back talking to EA tech support and they're giving me the run around. If someone has had similar issues and know how to fix them please let me know.

***UPDATE 7/12/11***

After two weeks dealing with tech support they finally admitted to having a known issue with the game. They are working on a patch but don't know when it'll be out. Go, EA! I now have a game that's crashing/freezing and don't know when they'll fix it. Teaches me for buying an EA products new. Back to waiting a few months, and then only to by used.

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I have to say, I am a huge nerd for the Sims. Buy every game, every expansion, and so far Sims 3 has not delivered. Would like to see Sims Pets back at some point...but anyway back on topic. There is no new town in this expansion (which most of us know) so don't expect a lot of new trinkets and things. There are no added jobs in this expansion except for becoming a full time nanny. The Nanny job is basically 24/7. You work from 9 am to 8 pm (and sometimes later)plus weekends sometimes, and you can have up to 6 kids, mostly toddlers. As said above, this really is the family game. Its like speeding up your life and all life's events.

What has sims brought back?

MEMORIES! Remember life story and how you could go back and see "got married," "got caught cheating," ect..well, MEMORIES ARE BACK! You have a scrapbook of your life! This is actually a GREAT addition.

MORE INTERACTIONS! Sims can give gifts, give flowers, watch the stars...woohoo in the shower...hahahahah

Guys, if you love to play Sims because you love families then I recommend this.

If you don't then I recommend Sims Medieval...with all the Quests.

Personally *why there isn't five stars* I really wish we were given a new town a new jobs. Isn't that why we buy these? So we don't see the same landscape?

O well, that is my own personal opinion.

Enjoy!

18 Wheels of Steel Extreme Trucker 2 - PC Review

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List Price: $19.99
Sale Price: $9.40
Today's Bonus: 53% Off

This is such a great game from SCS Software. They really did a nice job on this. One thing that I want to mention before I get into detail with my review is that this is an arcade-style game. The first 18 WOS Extreme Trucker, this one, and Bus Driver are all alike in a few ways. These are not serious simulator games. So buyers, beware of that. Serious simulator games include German Truck Simulator and UK Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator, and all the 18 Wheels of Steel series games before Extreme Trucker. So, the difference between the two is the length of time you can play them before you get bored with them. With arcade games, it is often only a few weeks. With the latest simulator, or even some older ones, the time is often a month or more. Also, the arcade-style games are not simulators. But none of what I said above means that arcade games are not good. They are. It is nice to have something different, and to get away from the simulator. There are not as many traffic laws in the arcade games, if any, which in Extreme Trucker and Extreme Trucker 2, there are none. So yes, they are good for people who don't like to follow traffic laws. But there are consequences, good or bad, for whatever you do, especially in Bus Driver.

Now, for details about this game. It is much improved over two years. The new physics system from SCS Software is so much more realistic than the first one. The first game had some wierd physics at times. When you drove over ice too fast, the front end of your truck lift high up in the air, for what reason I don't know. Also, the two new environments, Montana and Bangladesh, are excellent and realistic, and the others are too. The maps of the older three places were extended, and some graphics were improved. The truck acceleration system is better too, and the truck headlight system. The trucks do not just take off going fast, they have realistic speed. Also, several new trucks were added, and they are nice. The steering is not so rigid anymore, tight turns can be made with ease, but not too much ease. It is such a great game, a lot of fun, with very detailed graphics, just like German Truck Simulator. And it runs just as well as the older game, even though it has a better physics system.

If I had a choice between Extreme Trucker and Extreme Trucker 2, I would pick Extreme Trucker 2 without a single doubt. Buy this game, it is so much better than the first Extreme Trucker. All of SCS Software's recent games are excellent, and this is no exception. They know how to make quality games.

Happy trucking!!

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Could not have asked for Better! As described! Thank you! Would not hesitate to buy again from this seller! AAA+

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As said in previous review.. this is a Arcade based game. so if you are looking for long term fun then you need to find it somewhere else.

Graphics are amazing, trucks drive very well! Vast selection of different rigs and trailers.

This whole game can probably be beaten in a day. There is no commerce. No trucks to be "owned".

-TF

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l0ooks like a good game, but we can't play it. Something in the operating system is not letting us play the game.

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The game runs great and my son loves trying to do the long haul and learn the geography! Good game for the money!

Reviews of Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Lightning Rod

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MOST MASCULINE OF THE AIR SKYLANDERS..WHEN HE MOVES... HIS BUFF BODY LEANS FORWARD WITH HIS CHEST PUFFED OUT.. HE SCREAMS "I'M SEXY AND I KNOW IT" Not really.. but he does say "TODAY"S FORECAST...ME"! He confidently floats SLOWLY around (not flying..can't go over water) and manages to kill a Drow Goliath (giant green guy with shields while pressing and holding the circle on PS3) WHICH ELECTRYFIES THE CLOUD THAT HE FLOATS ON ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY GET RID OF ANY OPPONENTS NEXT TO HIM... WHILE "STANDING" STILL. If your thumbs get tired or like to be a little lazy about the individual fights..He is a great choice..speed isn't his strong suit. At first his lightning bolt that he commands down from the sky isn't very strong or easy to maneuver. Over time the lightning bolt becomes stronger, longer lasting and more controllable. I currently have him upgraded to a LEVEL 7. When it comes to the "choose your path" level you can either increase his electric cloud abilities or increase his "Lord of Lightning" abilities.

CONSOLE STATS:Starting and Maximum

MAX HEALTH: 290 (max 580)

SPEED: 43 (max 91)

ARMOR: 18 (max 48)

CRITICAL HIT: 30 (max 80)

ELEMENTAL POWER: 25 (max 100)

I chose to increase the "Lord of Lightning" abilities for more of a long range target approach. I'm not sure that was the best way to go after seeing just how powerful his "Defensive Clouds" make him. Be sure to shoot a bolt at one of the sheep at the ruins..pretty funny..

In my opinion.. I currently have all of the Air figures..they are VERY STRONG as a group! I have all of the characters released except Wham-Shell. Initially the air figure I least liked was whirlwind, but after needing her to keep other players from dying before.. I have really grown to like her. She can also shoot up and over gates or platforms, unlike most of the other players. I LOVE ALL of the AIR characters and would have a hard time picking a favorite. Sonic has saved me in one of the Troll worlds where you have to move giant boulders around.. to get a hat and some treasure I believe..when it was stuck and couldn't get anyone else to get it unstuck..her sonic scream managed to work. Her babies make great spider bait (that sounds awful)..you throw the eggs in front and when they attack her babies.. It leaves you free to attack them while they are busy. Warnado looks like more of an up close attack strategy..and if the cloud path is chosen that would be Lightning Rods too (which looks like it may be his stronger path). Warnado can't fly in a traditional sense..more of a tornado/spinning "flight", but he can manage to eventually go over water which is helpful in a lot of areas..Currently he is around a 3 in experience..Warnado is a lot of fun and seems VERY powerful right out of the package which is surprising because according to his stats within the game his "Critical Hit" is his weakness. A strong critical hit hat takes care of that.. and it's pretty funny to see the choompies and other opposing forces sucked up into the spinning tornados. Lightning Rod can't fly or go over water.. The other two can.. So..there it is..you'll have to decide what strengths you need based on your collection and budget at $9.99 each retail.

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I ordered this skylander and it came 2 days later and I just did standard shipping. But it is one of my favorite skylanders he is just so awesome from speed to strength. So I think if you play skylanders you should buy him for sure!

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Packing came quickly and in tact. My son was very excited to finally get the last of the Spyro's Adventure characters!

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My oldest son, now 12, loved playing the very first PS2 game where Spyro was introduced, so it was little wonder his younger brother, now 7, showed an interest in Skylanders. He loves collecting all his favorite characters to see what they are capable of in the game; he lines them up in a row on his window ledge so he can admire all their unique characteristics. For someone who struggles to pay attention for long periods of time, this has been a wonderful way to stimulate his creativity and his problem-solving abilities.

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Lightning rod is really nice because he shoots lightning and his second attack makes lightning strike in a circle. :)

Discount 18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin' - PC

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I wasn't to impressed with Convoy which had some stability issues. Haulin continues (leaps over Convoy) the incredible style of the 18WoS series in a tycoon game that certainly is in a very thin class of terrific tycoon games. Haulin allows you to drive and pick up cargo in the United States and Canada. If you can accumulate enough money you can hire drivers, buy more trucks as well as trailers and retire to the office.

The driving laws are slightly tighter in this game meaning the cops will certainly get on your case if the meter showing your calious regard for driving laws such as running red lights, crossing the divider, and having an accident. The fines are stiffer. The minor issue is if a gas station, a service station, and/or a company is on the opposite side of the street when you cross the divider even with your turn signal on, the red meter starts moving.

So you're a truck driver going to over 40 cities to pick the cargo that you want to haul. The price is next to it and the farther you have to go for a drop off, the more money you make. It also varies whether you want to take a chance and haul precious cargo, overweight cargo or fragile. At the time of this review, I was hauling overweight coal from Phoenix to Montreal for $38k. Ive hits lots of traffic and caused 2 accidents lol. Already, I've been fined up to $12k. With Haulin, the traffic is more diverse, more traffic jams, and the traffic lights seem to last slightly longer but still can be very fast. The AI traffic is slightly better but beware of those quick lane changes. Just like in real life, expect the unexpected. The 18WoS series seems to add a little more with each passing title.

Minor issues: Would like to see more cities, roads, highways/expressways, inclusion of parkways (you hear in real-life a lot of trucks going on parkways when there not suppose to and get stuck which would add more realism), live people (the streets are empty with no movement of people), diverse traffic signals, turn signals at busy intersections, larger cities, dont cross/cross signals for people crossing the street, your character being able to get out of the truck and go into diners, truck stops, motels, and interact with other truckers, mechanics at service stations, more lively gas stations (getting out of your truck and pumping gas) buying food and drinks (water of course), being able to open the hood of your truck, checking the engine, for leaks, filling fluids ect. How about the option of owning a home and buying office property with a dock to park your truck, and go into the office and give the paperwork of the jobs, hiring secretaries as well as other truckers in your company. Being able to get off work and drive off to your home and relax. Actually driving home not those unappealing cut scenes that say 'Next Day". I would also like to see active places all over like seeing other trucks and cars parking in parking lots either at truckstops, gas stations, service stations ect. Sometimes going to mechanic and he cant work on your truck immediately. Dual core processors are mainstream now, lets optimize the next 18WoS title to use it.

In short, this game is quite addictive and one of the best buisness simulators and truck driving games. It has the potential to go even farther if more content can be added. Many games are coming out on DVD's or are already out (for example: The Sims2) to add more content and add totally more realism, the future of this truck driving buisness sim should be released on DVD.

You need a good processor/video card/ and at least 2GB ram to run this game. Im running mine at the time of this review on a Core2Duo E6300 (Dual core 1.66GHZ) and presently 2GB of Ram (one stick died and I RMA'd it) a Saphire x1900xtx and it runs great. Be careful with onboard graphics.

I wonder if the makers of the 18WoS series will add an online version which can allow players to interact with each other on the CB, meet at gas stations, diners, motels, at a truck stop ect. People can buy homes , cars, truck dealerships, service stations with actual moving bays when your truck goes on a lift, gas stations vibrant and working pumps either self or full serve, auto parts stores within cities (where you can actually park on the street or in parking lots) , or work in the office of the trucking company. One can only hope. I think I might be the only one, lol. After Haulin, I'm hoping the graphics will be updated and new content is as well.

*Please Note*

If you own this title, you will not need American Long Haul. It's 99 percent the same. Extreme Trucker is totally different.

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I have to say that more i play haulin. more i love it.

Driving distances are soooo coool! I almost need cafe on thermosbottle in my desktop when driving. And when there are no time limits on delivering cargoes, i just pull my truck to truckstation and watch when other truck's go by. I can honestly say that this is really really gre8 game from scs!

I would like to congartulate the team who created the 18Wos Haulin`. The game has a very

solid presence and is very enjoyable

Best Deals for 18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin' - PC

18 Wheels of Steel Haulin' is unlike any other trucking game out there. For one thing when you earn enough money hauling goods all across America and Canada, you can use your cash to buy your new truck from a truck dealer or order one from the order truck part of the notepad on the game.Also in the game is the part where you can order trailers for your trucks. To find out more about the game,be sure to buy this game. If the video cards on your computer are not updated,be sure to update them so that the game works better. I had to do that and I can tell you that it works much better than it did before. 5 stars for this game,and thanks to those people who helped put this game together. One game play point, when you hire drivers for your trucking company,you have to assign both a truck and trailer to the driver.

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I bought this game for my son who is mentally challenged. It is easy enough to learn quickly and keeps him entertained for hours. He owns 2 of the 18 Wheels hauling series. Now wants the 3rd.

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This game, as mentioned in the title, needs some minor to semi-major improvements. Yes, the graphics were improved from Convoy, which by the way was horrible. But I would have liked to see even more improvement. But I guess SCS Software makes a few changes at a time. There were not that many roads changed from Convoy. Now, I will compare the two. In Convoy, the player could not save the game while transporting something. The police system in this game is slightly stricter. In Convoy, there were a lot of special missions, which I did not care for myself. I like Haulin because it is a trucking game, not a bus or car game, which are two vehicles you get to drive. Haulin is a better game, by far, than Convoy, in even more ways than listed. Also, I want to mention the map. I do not like the placement of it in Convoy. It is in the bottom left corner like in Bus Driver, another game from the same company. Bus Driver does not need to have a detailed map. But for a trucking game, where I rely more on the map, I like to have a good one. The one in Convoy is small and zooms in and out by itself, a feature that I feel is not good for a trucking game. Gas stations, service stations and the like, are marked as circles in different colors. In Haulin they are marked as squares with letters, which are easy to remember and make more sense. The Convoy map rotates too. I like the map in Haulin more. It is simpler, but better. It is a moving, detailed map that has two zoom levels, which can be changed by the player. Anyway, 18 Wheels of Steel American Long Haul has many of the same things as Haulin, but with Mexico added, graphics updated, more gas and service stations added, and more. One thing that I can't stand is the traffic. The player can be driving normally on the road, and the car in front of them can suddenly stop. I do not believe that cars in real life can actually stop that quickly, considering the fact that they are going highway speed. They fixed that in American Long Haul, but still even so, it needs improvement. This game's graphics are plain and boring, just like American Long Haul's. And the fact that this game doesn't have Mexico, nor does it have many other things, makes it a very weak 3 star game. I want to mention that the police system is not that great, or, the game setup is not, you decide. If you have to go to a gas station that is located across the road, when you cross that road to get gas or anything else, your legal status bar gets red, which means that you are close to getting a ticket. And in this game, there aren't enough gas stations for you to go to the one on the other side of the road, without losing fuel. In American Long Haul, that is not such a problem. So I really don't recommend either game. If you want a game that makes sense, buy German Truck Simulator, available on Amazon. It is a much better game. But if you want something better than this, get 18 Wheels of Steel American Long Haul.

Best Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Wrecking Ball Deals

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Don't get me wrong, Wrecking Ball can be either a potent battler (using Force Field energy, like a bowling ball), or something to reach things others Skylanders can't (tongue attacks), but he comes with a few hitches: Firstly, if you make him an "Ultimate Spinner" (leaning towards powering up his Force Field), whatever passage that is smaller than his force field will not allow him to pass until you disrupt it (also, it may also awkwardly bounce Wrecking Ball off of background items, such as lamps and other objects hanging off of walls or ceilings).

Secondly making him "Total Tongue" (leaning on making his tongue attacks faster and reach further), will leave him with weak attacks, overall.

Wrecking Ball is ok, but I think I'll keep with Spyro or Voodood as my go-to Magic-type Skylanders.

Still, the only OTHER reason I still play as him in the game, is... strangely, it's like playing a hyperactive reptilian puppy-dog (i.e. he's strangely cute).

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If you buy Wrecking Ball you must have patience... I got him in the 3 character pack with Stealth Elf and Sonic Boom really needed those 2 but he was a pleasant addition. In the beginning he's not that impressive... but I would put him out there with his crazy out of control spinning and little long reaching TOUNGE and bust up a few things.. Eventually got to an upgrade or two and WHAMMO!!! He's great to put in the beginning of a battle. He turns into a crazy spinning blue ball with a FORCE FIELD that destroys anything in his path. Those powers are followed up with a BURP attack! Who else can do this??? Be sure to press and hold the burp attack for an even bigger result! For instance; you can build it up outside of a door and wait until you get inside to release the "BURP" whenever you want... Talk about control! He adds a little humor and craziness to the game and is great for wiping out a wide amount of opponents.

STUCK IN A GAME GLITCH?????

SWITCH YOUR CHARACTER ON THE PORTAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IMMEDIATE FIX!!!!

DON'T BACK OUT THE GAME/SHUT SYSTEM OFF...YOU WILL LOSE YOUR PROGRESS..STAY CALM..TRADE CHARACTERS (or PICK UP THE SAME STUCK CHARACTER) ON THE PORTAL AND SWITCH RIGHT BACK..

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This was a birthday gift for my son and he loves it! Plays with it all the time even when not playing the game.

Honest reviews on Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Wrecking Ball

Its cool the kids loved to enhance their collection with this tongue slapping creature the help fight evil c

Kaos

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Love this little dude...prefer him to the newer version of Wreck'n Ball...new/old either character works great in the game. Creates lots of laughs from the kiddos young/old with his crazy antics. Works in both skylander games Spyro and Giants.

Buy Final Fantasy XII

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List Price: $19.99
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After a long wait, Final Fantasy XII is finally here, after such a long wait. Everything about it shines. From it's deep storyline, to its fantastic and complex gameplay. All worries aside, Final Fantasy XII is a keeper.

The Archadian Empire has taken over the Kingdom of Dalmasca. The King has been assissnated and the princess is presumed dead. The people of Dalmasca are displeased with the Empire, especially a young boy named Vaan who believes it is up to him to take Dalmasca back. Luckily, he's not alone. There's an entire resistence group out there that are willing to help him out. The storyline of Final Fantasy XII is different from all the Final Fantasy games. For one, it relies far more heavily on its political drama and philosophical intrigue. What you get from Final Fantasy XII isn't a huge epic story in scope, but rather a drama that unfolds. It's a different way to tell the story for Final Fantasy, but here it actually works. It's still got some good twists and it is somewhat deep, but don't expect something along the lines of previous installments such as Final Fantasy X or VII. It doesn't have the most memorable ensemble cast either, but you do, for the most part, like the characters.

What many fans are most concerned about when it comes to this new installment is the battle system itself. It strays away from the series roots. It is no longer the ATB style battles we've been used to since Final Fantasy IV. Instead it's Active Dimension battle. All enemies in any given area of a dungeon are present at all times and will charge you upon seeing you.

You can free roam through any area, and so can your enemies. As your characters approach an enemy they pull out their weapons and you can begin to issue attacks. You can only play as one character at a time, but you can still issue orders to other characters if you want. Since all enemies are present on the map at one time, running away can be a hassle. Enemies will give chase, and some enemies will even join in the battle.

The combat has a couple of downsides. For one, getting money is downright painful and repetitive. Your enemies don't drop money, and when they do it's not a lot. Instead you'll be forced to sell the items they drop. This wouldn't be a problem if stuff wasn't so expensive, and if the items dropped by enemies didn't sell for so little. Also, dungeon maps are huge. It's easy to get lost and overshoot your objective sometimes, even with the ingame map provided.

This wouldn't be Final Fantasy without some complexity to the battle system, though. First, there is the game's complex AI system called "Gambits." Gambits allow you t customize what your characters do in battle. You can set your characters up to attack, or you can get more complex and have them heal anyone whose HP falls below a certain percentile. Once you get used to the Gambit system, however, it's really easy to take advantage of. To the point where Final Fantasy XII becomes a cakewalk. Even worse, if you set them up too well, you'll find that the only thing you ever have to do is move around the left analog stick. It is entirely possible to track through Final Fantasy XII never having to open up the menu.

Then there's the license point system. As you battle through the game you'll earn license points which can be spent on the license board. This helps to determine what spells, abilities and even weapon and armor characters can use. Yes, that's right, weapons and armor. You cannot use a certain weapon unless you have a "license" to do so. There's nothing too complex about this and it suffers from its own little issue, the fact that in the end every character is the same.

Let's be honest on one more thing... for some Final Fantasy XII just might not be a lot of fun to play. The aspect of no random battles is nice, but take advantage of the gambit system, and Final Fantasy XII becomes a game that, for the most part, feels one-dimensional. The complexity is nice, but gambits can make the player feel like he's doing little to participate. What it amounts to is basically you moving around the left analog stick while your characters automatically carry out their own actions in battle. There are times when Final Fantasy XII can feel monotonous as a result. That's not to say you won't have fun, it's only to say that battling won't keep you as engaged for long. Especially when every character can so easily learn everything. The dungeons being so big doesn't help this. They've made big so that you will battle. And while the battle system isn't really bad in anyway, it can definitely be annoying to find that Square-Enix made a dungeon huge for the sake of padding out the length.

Graphic-wise, Final Fantasy XII is fantastic. The towns are detailed, and so are your characters. The fact that each town has so many unique looking characters on screen at once is an impressive feat. The game also sounds lovely. Even better is the games artistic design. Towns are breathtaking. The game also sounds good. The voice acting isn't the best in the world, but it does manage to be good in many areas.

Perhaps Final Fantasy XII suffers most in the story department. It's a good story, but the game doesn't spend a lot of time focusing on it. It gets off to a great start, but at some point the game just becomes so devoid of it that it's easy to lose interest in what may have been one of the series more interesting stories. Around the mid point of the game, the story takes a backseat, with developments coming further between. It's refusal to focus too much on its characters doesn't help this. It picks up again in the end and makes for a good story overall, but there's so much to Final Fantasy XII that just doesn't focus on it. What makes the story good is how well written and how cinematic each of the cutscenes becomes. When you get one of these in depth moments into the story it's really engaging and really good. The problem is just that for so long this doesn't happen much. The world of Ivalice is definitely beating with a pulse, though. Running through towns and seeing the vast populations really brings things to life. It's just a shame Final Fantasy XII couldn't have a more lively story.

The Good

+Fantastic Graphics

+Good storyline

+The new battle system is complex

+Tons of side quests and secrets to keep you busy for hours

+Beautiful soundtrack

+Well done voices

The Bad

-Dungeons are huge and save points are few and far between

-The battle system is too easy to take advantage of

-The license board will eventually make every character the same

-While the story is good overall, there certainly isn't too much focus on it

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So, here's my take on Final Fantasy's latest. Is it the greatest? Read on and find out!

BATTLE SYSTEM: Everything is in real-time, which any veteran FF gamer knows is not the way it used to be. Although it takes a while to get accustomed to this change I found the real-time battles a breath of fresh air--something this series is definitely going to need if we're ever to hope of seeing Final Fantasy 24 or so. It is so nice when the only transition screens you have are those that occur when going to menus, new locations or cut-scenes. Also, the ability to run for your life all the way across the map is really nice, especially in addition with the sounds of thousands of angry hooves and feet stamping after you!

TRANSPORTATION: I don't know about you, but I LOVE flying airships on a world map! Sadly, in Final Fantasy 12 this is not possible. Very ironic, because this is the powerful Playstation 2 and the game itself sports alot of airships. There are Chocobos, but that is the only type of transportation you actually steer on your own. You can take teleport crystals to warp you almost anywhere and later your airship can "fly" you places.

STORYLINE: I would disagree with anyone that says that this game has no storyline. But I would agree that there is so much leveling up/looting to be done between locations that when you reach your final destination you might forget your initial motive for going there. As a whole, FF12's storyline is not as prominent as other storylines, like FF6 and FF7. And of course part of what makes a good storyline are good . . .

CHARACTERS: Since anyone can learn any weapon or magic, the only thing that makes them unique are their looks. Fran looks like she escaped from the Playboy mansion, Vaan looks like a younger brother to Ashley Riot from Vagrant Story and Balthier is something of a mix between Setzer and Locke, which is cool. Reddas is an interesting Auron-like person, but he appears too little, too late in the game. Ah yes, and if only Elza in Balfonheim Port were a playable character.

ANTAGONISTS: Part of the reason I did not get drawn in by the storyline (what little there is of it) is because the antagonists were not very convincing. You won't find anyone as evil as Kefka or Sephiroth. For a good portion of the game I knew that the Empire was evil (obviously) but had no idea who exactly was the "Boss" and even more importantly, WHY? And it doesn't help either that the Empire's black-clad knights like Gabranth sound like Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. Or at least a very pathetic Darth Vader.

MUSIC: I own several Final Fantasy game soundtracks and of course I think that Uematsu is brilliant in his work. But I also own the FF Tactics soundtrack and I was surprised how good it was. One of the two composers for the Tactics soundtrack did the music for this game. Unfortunately, by himself, he's not that good. Granted, there were no songs that felt out of place, but at the same time, there were no stellar tracks that captured the EMOTION OF THE MOMENT or had the genius of the work of Uematsu's earlier soundtracks. Considering that you will spend alot of time collecting loot/leveling up in different locations, expect to hear the same track over and over again. Also, the ending boss theme, sadly, is nothing spectacular. I'd even say it's forgettable.

SUMMONS, SPELLS AND SIDEQUESTS: For perhaps the first time ever I found myself hardly ever using summons and magic. The summons are nice to look at, but die too easily and deal too little damage and sadly offensive magic is the same way (although Flare comes in handy at the end). Even sadder, to get alot of these spells and summons you have to go on sidequests that are voluntary, but end up feeling mandatory--or you could do the alternative and loot the land for 3 hours and search a whole world for the one shop that sells the magic/weapon/armor you need.

GRAPHICS: To me, the least important, but they're definitely good. Although only the first and last few FMV scenes are worth watching twice and unlike FF10, you can't buy them.

SOMETHING FUNNY: When Vaan is running around saying "I'm Captain Basch fon Rosenburg" I thought it would be funny if he also randomly said, "I'm Rick James, b-tch!"

OVERALL: If you're a casual RPG gamer, this is clearly a solid RPG that is very well thought through in terms of game mechanics. And let's not forget, you can easily log in 80+ hours before beating the game, which is definitely getting your money's worth.

If you're a veteran Final Fantasy gamer, one who's played since it's NES days (or at least its SNES days), then you'll see what a weak story and soundtrack this game has, which to me is below par for a Final Fantasy title.

Best Deals for Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy is sometimes thought of as a kiddy game with chocobos and moogles. Final Fantasy XII proves that this series can present an awesome storyline and graphics that all ages will adore.

Don't worry if you haven't played all of the other Final Fantasy games. You don't need to. There are subtle carry-overs, but this game is meant to stand alone. You are a young orphan in a city recovering after a war. The cruel Empire has taken over your home town, and you enjoy causing trouble for the soldiers.

Soon, of course, you're swept up in an epic rebellion. The storyline here is just *amazing*. Not just the plot itself, but the voice acting, the dialogue, the graphics, they are top notch. This is really like being a part of an extremely well done drama movie. They delve into issues of honor, loyalty, love, betrayal, and more. I'm an adult gamer, and I was staying up many long nights because I wanted to see where the story was going. Some of the subtle interactions between characters in cut scenes are just amazing. The small nods, the looks in their eyes, you are hard pressed to remember that they are animated in a computer game.

Gameplay itself revolves around a party of characters going on quests, fighting in battles and moving through the large world. Each character gains experience and skills as they go. You buy them new weapons and armor, train them in spells, and aim them in their career growth however you wish. There is a dual system in play here. First, you need to physically own the weapon or item you wish to use say an iron sword. But then you need to KNOW how to use it too! You can't just hand an iron sword to a 10 year old piano player and expect her to know how to use it. That skill is called a "license". You have an online license chart that lets you manage what each character knows. Licenses relate to each other. If your character learns the basics of sword work, now they can learn a more advanced version. It is very intuitive and adds a fun element to the game. It's not just one straight line that you choose and are stuck with. It's an all-directions layout where you can try new skills or expand out as you learn the system better.

I really like combat in this Final Fantasy as well. Instead of random battles where enemies appear out of nowhere to assault you, all enemies are "on the map" with you. If you're running along a path in the desert and see something really scary in the distance, you run away from it! You don't have to worry about enemies springing up out of nowhere to slam you into the ground.

The enemies in general are challenging but not impossible. There are spots where you really have to think about the enemy and what its weakness is to defeat it. You can't just brute force bash away at everything and hope to succeed.

Still, as great as the gameplay is, and as gorgeous as the visuals and music and voice acting are, I really have to come back to the plot and characters as standing out here. There's been a lot of talk in the gaming world about a game that finally goes from "little pixels on the screen" that you move from X to Y to the point of *caring* about these characters, about what they are going through, and feeling emotional about their highs and lows. I really think Final Fantasy XII has hit that level. Yes, there are one or two twerpy characters that can be annoying. Even Star Wars had Luke whining about the Takashi Station at the beginning, to set his "basis for growth". In general, though, every single character here seems real, seems complex, and you don't want to put the game down.

Highly, highly recommended.

Honest reviews on Final Fantasy XII

I bought the game the night of the release. I took it straight home and played it that very night like many of us did. Within the first 2 hours of playing I was hooked. Yes, like all new games, getting used to a new world, battle system, monsters, leveling systems and how to aquire items is always a challenge. But I think the developers saw the possibility of people becoming frustrated and they put items throughout the game to assist in leveling up, finding the way around, buying items, getting from pt. a to pt. b, ect... It is a huge, vast and enormous game, endless choices! It is marvelous!

I love the concept of having to take back your pillaged items and selling them. To me that makes it seem more real to life. If I were to go out and kill a few birds, beasts, catch a few fish ect... I would not expect ever to find a shiny brass farthing on them. However I would expect to have to take what I could and sell it. That would be how I would make my living. The same concept exists here.

I find the game to be beautiful, brilliant and hypnotic. I enjoy listening to all the characters voices, I enjoy the story line and I feel pulled into the world.

I am now about 55 hours into the game and my opinion at 2.4 hours hasn't changed. If anything it has only deepened the conviction that I have that Squaresoft knew what it was doing and that they did a splendid job.

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Last night I finished FFXII. It is my favorite FF game and the best video game I've ever played. I logged 120 hours and loved it.

My favorite Final Fantasy games that I have played are now, in order: XII, X, VI, VII, and X-2. I plan to play VIII and IX next.

What I loved about FF XII:

beautiful graphics

lots of challenging fights

huge world to explore and freedom to travel around

scenes including dark dungeons full of undead, icy mountains, foggy marshes, rolling praries, mystic forests, and more

combat system (with gambits optional) that I grew to love

memorable characters

license system for abilities is flexible and lets you choose who is a fighter, mage, etc.

no random monster encounters you can see them approaching and use location and range to your advantage

the game stayed challenging pretty much the whole way

the NPC interaction and side quests are interesting and can be helpful, but are mostly optional

What I didn't like about FF XII:

if I could redesign it, I would change the end fight it was good, but could have been better.

The best thing about FF XII is that I loved it all the way through the game, all 120 hours I played. I enjoyed all of the areas, all the boss fights, and monsters, weapons, magic, were all fun. In previous FF games, I have always liked developing character abilities and powers, and this game seemed to be the best yet that I have played at keeping the balance between toughness of monsters and power of characters good to keep fights challenging. I got wiped out a few times and had to restart from save points, and there were a bunch of close encounters where I just barely got out, but that to me is challenging and fun.

Also, I liked the visuals. I could tell by looking at the weapons my characters were carrying around exactly which sword, spear, etc., they had because the detail is that precise. You can tell a Defender sword from a Save The Queen just by looking at them. Little details make it visually impactful. Fran and Balthier are great looking characters the tall elf woman in leather and the swashbuckling leading man, very memorable. Penelo was the fun, peppy one. Vaan and Ashe reminded me of Tidus and Yuna from FF X. Basch was the tough guy. I thought the voicing was for the most part excellent, especially Balthier and Fran.

My favorite locations were the creepier dungeons with the eerie music and undead monsters. When you are wading through zombies nearly getting your butt kicked, but manage to pull through and reach the goal, that is fun. There was also a windswept snowy area with swirling magic illusions that I will never forget.

The battle system, with no random encounters, enemies you see coming on a corner map, and gambit options, is my favorite of all the FF games.

The license system is my second favorite, after the sphere grid in X. The ending was also my second favorite, after the ending in X. However, I liked XII better overall because I loved the combat system, the consistent challenges, the phenominal look and graphics, and the puzzles were more intuitive to me.

I will definitely play FF XII again some time in the future. It is my new favorite.

Reviews of Wireless Remote Controller for Xbox 360 - White Control Game Pad

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it is a nice controller looks like the xbox360 turns the 360 on but it wont sync with the system to play company is really good for refunds if you have a problem

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I love this controller. The only downside is that I was expecting a newer model. But it does works perfectly!

Toca Race Driver 3: The Ultimate Racing Simulator Reviews

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Codemasters hyped this game for months before release with numerous screen shots and talk of the new and improved physics model, damage model, and everything else. Maybe if they hadn't been telling us how great this game...errr, simulation... was going to be then perhaps it would have lived up to the promises. Oh yeah, let's also pretend that Forza Motorsport never existed and hadn't set a high benchmark for others to match.

This game is decent but it is by no means the ultimate in racing simulation. The sheer variety of cars and racing genres offered in TOCA 3 are what really saves this game. The damage model is indeed very good as well.

The major drawback as I see it is that the handling physics for the cars are not what they could be. Yes, the cars all handle differently but they still seem to lack the 'feel' and feedback that you would get from other great driving sims such as Forza and Colin McRae Rally. What you end up with is something between Forza and Gotham 2. I bit sim, a bit arcade, and a bit disconnected. At times you feel a bit as if you're floating rather than driving a race car on a race track... I should note that this is with the game in PRO SIM settings which in theory should make things better.

The other problem? This isn't really leaps and bounds ahead of what TOCA 2 offered in terms of game play. I've heard numerous comments online from others saying they thought TOCA 2 had better graphics and in some instances handling characteristics. I just ran a back to back test of the Global GT light series in both TOCA 2 and 3 at Brands Hatch and can confirm that in some ways TOCA 2 is nicer. The car is certainly more anchored in TOCA 3 and feels less floaty but you feel more feedback off the racetrack surface in TOCA 2. In TOCA 3 it seems as if you only feel the corner rumbles strips and the rest is up to you to guess when your tires are about to let go. Graphis are indeed very similar between the two games. Flip a coin?

Online play: In a word? LAG. I've noticed MANY more lag problems in this game compared to that of Forza. So far the rooms also seem to have a large number of kiddies who get their greatest amusement from crashing into others instead of actually trying to drive and win a race. Yeah, the same kids were online in Forza as well but it seems as if they multiplied and all bought TOCA 3. If you plan on buying it for a great online racing experience, stick with Forza... unless Codemasters is able to sort things out a bit with the lag issues. For some reason some of the online scoreboards are all messed up for select players as well... showing scores as -1 rather than the more usual 1490ish numbers.

Rent this one first and see if it is for you. If you spend some time racing it, the game is actually fun and the variety of race tracks and cars is a big plus. Game play is OK once you adjust your reality accordingly. The game could have been a huge hit but in my eyes it still comes up shy of topping the feel of Forza.

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I'll keep this short: if you like the genere of racing games this is a must have racing game for Xbox. It easily replaces several individual games in that it has a ton of racing styles, tracks and cars available to you. The biggest challenge (albeit, fun)is switching up styles and having to adapt your driving from a Monster Truck to an open wheel asphalt car and track. The only "minus" I'd give it is that the graphics are only "average" for an xbox game released in 2006. The in game voice overs and cutscenes of your grizzled British driving coach are a bit annyoning at first but he kind of grows on you in that he is equally free with praise and disdain of your driving skills!

Buy Hitman Trilogy (Includes Silent Assassins, Blood Money

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The Hitman series is wonderfully composed in terms of gameplay, graphics, lasting appeal, and music. All three of these games play differently Silent Assassin being the longest, Contracts being the most confusing (in terms of story), and Blood Money being the most creative.

If you've never played the Hitman series before, you'll find all of this content fresh and new. Contracts is actually mostly a remake of the first game (not included in this Trilogy, there are actually 4 Hitman games). I suggest that you play them in the order of Silent Assassin, Contracts, then Blood Money. The reason being is that Blood Money is the most open-ended of the three, and features the most realistic AI that will not freak out as much as the earlier titles. Although the AI is different in the earlier titles, it doesn't necessarily mean they were worse, but I think you will find that Blood Money will be your favorite.

Aside from the excellent gameplay, you will probably find the music very impressive. The music in these three games were composed by Jesper Kyd, with the help of the Budapest Symphony Orchestra in some of them. Silent Assassin features an overwhelmingly intimidating soundtrack akin to the Imperial March from Star Wars. Contracts features more electronic-style music (not techno), while Blood Money returns to a more orchestral style, featuring an excellent rendition of Ave Maria.

Overall, the Hitman series turned out to be my favorite single-player shooter games. Blood Money is my personal favorite. You'll find that the game has a very high replay value, as you can achieve higher ratings based on your performance in the missions, and there are more and more ways to complete the missions, especially in Blood Money.

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I did not buy the Hitman Trilogy, but I have played every single game in the series and I must say that eidosinteractive did a fantastc job with Hitman. Just recently, I decided to re-download Hitman Codename 47 and Hitman 2 Silent Assassin to add to the other two titles I have (Contracts and Bloodmoney) From the previous comments, it appears that there seems to be some sort of incompatibility issue with Vista Operatig systems. The easiest way to solve that problem is to go to the hitman2silentassassin set up icon/shortcut, right click on it, and go to properties. once in properties, click on the compatibility tab and go to "run this program in compatibilty mode for" area (select the radio button next to it) and select the operating system you want the game to be installed in. For Hitman 2, I selected Windowx XP. Once you do that, you should be all set. The game will install fine and will run with no problems. I don't know whether Contracts or Bloodmoney will run in Vista, but if they don't, just use the above method to solve the problem. I installed Codeman47 with no problems and hopefully I can run it in Vista without having to do the compatibility thing. Hope this helps...

Best Deals for Hitman Trilogy (Includes Silent Assassins, Blood Money

The trilogy is great. There's something darkly funny about dropping a piano on someone. XD

The gameplay is simply amazing. The Ai is pretty much human or close.

I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a challenge and for those who just love stelth games.

Hitman: Silent Assassins-9/10

Hitman: Contracts-10/10

Hitman: Blood Money-12/10

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If you don't mind using a little stealth, this game is real fun. Great deal.

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This isn't really a review about the games they're all great. Specifically, this review is in regards to the cheap packaging this collection comes in. Don't get me wrong; $13 is an amazing price for these games. However, all Eidos has done is thrown each individual disc into one dvd case. It would have been nice to have Contracts and Silent Assassin on one dvd.

The worst part is that the discs aren't separated they just sit on top of each other, waiting to scratch one another. I was disappointed about this because I was looking forward to getting a nicely put together collection of some of my favorite games, instead of Eidos' overstock thrown into a box. If I wanted to own a stack of scratched-up games, I'd just burn a bunch of pirated games to dvds and stack them in the spool the blank dvds come with. I purchase games specifically to avoid that hassle!

Additionally, the instructions are all in black and white. Another strategy to make the collection cheaper? To me, they make it feel even more like a bootleg copy.

Worms Ultimate Mayhem: Deluxe Edition (PC DVD) (UK IMPORT) Review

Customer Ratings:

This game is very fun and I have it on PC and will soon have it on XBOX 360. On the PC version, configuring controls for an XBOX 360 controller is difficult, so I recommend using Keyboard+Mouse. It is a remake of Worms 4 Mayhem with enhanced graphics. It also includes a remake of WORMS 3D's Campaign mode which means all you need to buy for your PC/XBOX 360 is Worms Ultimate Mayhem, not WORMS 3D and Worms 4 Mayhem. Very good game.

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Skylanders Giants Single Character Pack Core Series 2 Fright Rider Reviews

Customer Ratings:

Fright Rider is a new character released for the Skylander GIANTS world. He is an Undead Type knight of sorts and rides upon an undead steed of some variety (perhaps an Ostrich?). This mechanic is completely new to the Skylander universe and I personally welcome any and all differentiation in the characters. The design works well although I feel he should have more defense being a mounted unit. Fright Rider turns into a formidable combatant with entertaining special moves and a good mix of close and ranged attacks. Spinning spear strikes are especially effective.

He does tend to have a slight pause between attacks which leaves him vulnerable after a combo. On 3DS he is moderate jumper.

From a toy/collectible perspective, this is one of my personal favorites. Fright Rider has a neat name, unique design and is well painted and posed.

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Fright Rider is not only an interesting looking Skylander, but one with a neat backstory! Rider and his ostrich Fright were once the best jousting team in Skylands, but when a rival sent Rider to the underworld, Fright turned himself into a skeleton and journeyed there himself to rescue his longtime friend. They are now dedicated to helping others all across Skylands. An added cool factor is that they're one of the two Skylanders that are actually composed of two characters, the elf and the ostrich.

Speed: Average

Fright's movements can be a little awkward, but I wouldn't call him slow. If you still don't find him fast enough, I'm sure a hat would fix the problem quickly.

Primary Attack

As a jousting team, you can easily guess that the attack one button is used for spear related melee attacks. If you press attack one three times in a row, Fright will lash out and bite at enemies as well. The spear is eventually upgraded first to a powerful Ghoul Glaive, then to an even more powerful Halberd of Horror; both upgrades cause your spear to change in appearance. If you choose the Sir Lance A Lot upgrade path, your melee attack becomes more powerful, you gain the ability to hold in attack one and release several small undead ostrich heads to attack your enemies from underground, and you get much better combos. Attack one, attack one, attack two gives you Spear Vault, where Rider will vault off the back of Fright and slam into enemies. Attack one, attack one, attack three gives you Skull Slam, where Fright will rear up and slam his head down.

Secondary Attack

Also related to their way of life, Fright Rider's secondary attack consists of them jousting forward in a short, fast charge with the spear. It's eventually upgraded to be more powerful, and lasts a bit longer. A lot of people don't seem to like this one, but I use it quite frequently. It's especially good for the Arena Battles where your enemies are invincible and need to be pushed off or into things. If you choose the Joust Jockey upgrade path, the attack becomes more powerful and even faster, the spear can be swung at 360 degrees while charging, and while charging you can press attack three for a downward strike.

Tertiary Attack

My favorite of the three main attacks! Fright burrows his head underground (the direction of which is controllable) and once the buttom is released or the max amount of time for the attack has run out, Rider will be dragged underground and pop up where Fright's head has ended up. This is good for getting away from smaller and slower enemies quickly, and for getting out of places where you've gotten yourself stuck. The best part of this is the Soul Gem ability, which will be addressed below.

Soul Gem:

Another great Soul Gem attack! When you burrow underground, instead of Rider just traveling underground the spear remains above ground and drags down enemies that get caught in its path. It's very effective if you start getting swamped. The only downside is that large enemies, like crystal golems or Blaze Brewers, cannot be dragged under.

Overall:

Definitely a worthy Skylander. I was a little leery about purchasing a Skylander that does their melee attacks from the back of a steed, but it actually opened up the windows to some interesting attacks.

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I bought this for my sons once the new Skylander's Giants were released. The package was in great condition and showed up quickly as scheduled. The kids love this game.

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Fun game to play with the kids! Each character is different and unlocks new features on the game. Great Buy!

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The figures were sent right away and we were very happy with the conidition that they were in. I now have a very happy son.

AVerMedia - C875 Live Gamer Portable (LGP) HD Game Capture Reviews

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $179.99
Sale Price: $165.04
Today's Bonus: 8% Off

This is a very nice capture card. I have been using Avermedia capture cards for over a year now and this card is the newest and best capture device they have to offer when it comes to capturing gameplay. I Post gaming footage every day on my youtube channel and this card, along with the Live Gamer HD, have proven themselves to be real workhorses. With the new Rec Central software you have the option to scale the bitrate so you can choose between small file sizes or extreme quality.

On a rare occasion maybe once out of 50 recordings the audio will desync or just not be there and the TS video format does not load audio in Sony Vegas. Often vegas will not recognize the correct frame rate of the video file which is easily corrected by checking "disable resample" but it would be nice if I didn't have to do this. Minus 1 star for those reasons.

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I had been using the Elgato Game Capture HD to record my gameplay and commentary videos for YouTube. Some games worked OK, others would continually give me a black screen that would flash on the gameplay monitor which made it impossible to make a video that didn't have me stopping and waiting for the black screen to go away or flat out getting killed. I was well aware of the advanced tab and tried every last combination to rid myself of this problem, to no avail. The problem appeared to be game specific with some games working fine and others giving me the black screen. Honestly it wasn't worth it to keep fiddling with the Elgato. I was about to look at the Hauppauge when I ran across the LGP and decided to give it a try.

I got the Live Gamer Portable, unboxed it and decided to try out the PC-Free recording first since that was the simplest thing to set up and didn't require me to move the laptop and everything else into the room that I record in. Setup was a breeze. 3 wires, turn on the system, start playing and hit the button on the top. (Make sure to format the SD card to FAT32 so it actually works). I decided to try the game that was giving me the endless Black screen issues on the Elgato as my test recording. Everything worked without a hitch. No black screens, no lag, no problems at all. I did several recordings of 15-20 minutes and then took the SD card out, plugged it into my laptop slot and viola the video was there and looked great.

Next I decided to bring the laptop in and setup for recording with commentary to see how that worked. Setup was simple, just like the Elgato. Just flip the switch on the LGP from PC-Free to PC capture, start the software and you are ready to go. I did have to play with the level of the microphone versus the game volume to get it just right, but that only took about 10 minutes of fiddling. Once everything was set I saved the profile and use that for my commentary videos.

One thing I will point out comparing the Elgato to the LGP the LGP does all of the work for you and uses a lot less system resources than the Elgato when recording on the PC. I don't use a top of the line laptop to record and with the Elgato I had to record at a max of 720p at the lowest quality settings in order to not get frame drops. Using the exact same laptop and the LGP I am able to record at 60fps and at the highest quality settings without frame drops or lag. The Elgato has a very noticeable lag from the game monitor to what you are seeing in the preview window of the software on your PC. If you are not careful and don't wait for the system to catch up, you can lose a couple of seconds of your recording and cut off the end of your commentary.

The LGP does not have the lag issues, probably because the capture device does all the conversion right there before it hits your PC. With the Elgato, you have to wait for the system to convert the video and if your system isn't very powerful, you will have to wait for the conversion to finish before you record again or risk frame drops and messed up audio sync. With the LGP, what goes to your computer is the finished video, no waiting for conversion and no drain on system resources.

A couple of other things which make the LGP a better device:

You have the choice of recording your commentary as a separate audio file. While this doesn't seem like a big deal, if you decide your commentary wasn't that great and that you would rather just put up the gameplay video, you will have to re-record or spend a lot of time editing out your commentary in another piece of software. With the LGP, you just throw away the commentary file and use the video without having to do any more work. That's a real win! If you don't want to do the commentary as a separate file with the LGP you also have the option to go ahead and record it as one file, just like the Elgato does. The big difference is that you have a choice as to how you want to record your commentary. You don't risk having to re-record or spend time editing out bad commentary.

PC-free recording is a huge advantage, especially if you either don't have a pc near your gaming station or if you just want to take the device to a friend's house to do some recording. Add to all of that the fact that you can put the device on your PC and record to you SD card without using system resources while PC gaming and you just have another plus that the Elgato can't match.

For me, the LGP is the superior device. It gives me more options as to how I am going to record. It allows me to record PC-Free, even if I am gaming on the PC itself, which allows me to save system resources. The LGP fixed the black screen issue and the software that does the recording on your PC gives you more options as to how to record your commentary. IMHO the LGP is the device to get.

The only thing I would like to see updated would be a change to the RECentral software that allows you to setup the system to mute or reduce the game volume while you are talking. This would save some time in setup for users who don't want to mess with adjusting the commentary volume and gameplay volume so that both can be heard. Other than that, the product works flawlessly right out of the box.

Best Deals for AVerMedia - C875 Live Gamer Portable (LGP) HD Game Capture

Pros

+ Portable capture device with 720P 60FPS in PC-Free Mode

(1080P 30FPS with the beta patch)

+ Small file sizes

+ Easy to understand

(Blue ring for PC mode, Red Ring for PC-Free, flashing ring for when it's recording or streaming)

+ Easy Interface

(Novice and beginner options are easy to follow if you don't know much about video encoding. Pro option is simple with some knowledge of video encoding)

+ Can stream out of the box with RECentral

+ The time shift feature to go back and save footage that you didn't click record on is a nice touch

+ Many encoding options in PC Mode. Up to 1080P 30FPS and 60Mbps bitrate. 720P goes up to 60FPS with 60Mbps bitrate. TS or MP4 video format.

Cons

PC-Free only uses 4Mbps, 8Mbps, 12Mbps, 16Mbps at 720P with 60FPS. The beta patch as of May 23rd allows 1080P at 30FPS

(It would be nice for a a higher bitrates for a clearer picture, but I wish you could choose 30FPS with the 720P option as it'll use less space when you're just gonna upload unedited footage straight to YouTube which only runs at 30FPS at the moment, so the extra space for the extra frames aren't needed)

The lower bitrate's when streaming with RECentral aren't very good compared to using other streaming software

(XSplit, Open Broadcaster Software)

Timeshift only works with the TS video format.

Other Notes:

The official driver's can be found here:

http://gamerzone.avermedia.com/products/live_gamer_series/live_gamer_portable/download/en

The beta update as of May 22nd can be found here:

http://forum.avermedia.com/index.php?threads/beta-program-lgp-upgrade-package-1.471/

One strange thing is that I'm told it needs a class 10 SDHC memory card but I was able to use a class 4 card and it works great under ever quality option.

SanDisk 32 GB Class 4 SDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDB-032G-AFFP

These are rough estimates of the amount of space you'll take up with an hour of PC-Free Mode footage:

4Mbps (1.8GB)

8Mbps (3.6GB)

12Mbps (5.4GB) ~ Default Setting

16Mbps (7.2GB)

Honest reviews on AVerMedia - C875 Live Gamer Portable (LGP) HD Game Capture

Video capture cards have come a long way in the last several years. When I started YouTube 4 years ago there were only 2 products available. The Hauppauge HDPVR and the BlackMagic Intensity Pro. Since then many devices have come to market and I have personally tested the majority of them. In order of date of purchase this list includes:

Hauppauge HDPVR

BlackMagic Intensity Pro

BlackMagic Intensity Extreme

Avermedia Live Gamer HD

Roxio Game Capture HD Pro

When I was asked to test out the Avermedia Live Gamer Portable (ALP) I was skeptical about another device entering an already saturated market. However Avermedia has taken the Livegamer Portable into another class of capture cards by adding several key features that separates it from the rest of the pack. The first being the ability the record in PC Free mode directly onto a SD Card (sold separately). As it's name suggests this makes it the first truly "Portable" Device on the market today. Its important to note that PC Free capture is limited to 720p. The second key feature is the seamless capture of PC footage that has replaced the use of third party programs such as Dxtory and Fraps. The main benefit that the ALP offers over these programs is the minimum CPU resources it requires since the H.264 encoding is performed directly onto the device. It is also now possible to record PC footage with two or more GPU's in SLI or Crossfire without screen latency. I personally run two GTX 690's in Quad SLI and and cannot record a series via Dxtory or Fraps without frame latency caused by the second card. PC Free Recording and PC Capture optimization are the two key features that the ALP has over its competitors. My complete list of pros and cons are listed below.

Pros:

Can do everything the other products do.

REC Central remains the most user friendly software on the market.

One touch record button directly built onto the device.

PC Free Mode that can capture footage at 720p.

Full 1080p XBOX 360 & Nintendo Wii U recording. PS3 limited to 720p via an included dedicated cable due to HDCP protection.

True 1080p PC quality. Due to high CPU resource consumption most YouTuber's that use Dxtory or Fraps capture at 50-75% quality and upscale video to 1080p.

High end PC's running multiple GPU's no longer suffer frame latency.

Cons:

Recording Limited to 1080p @ 30fps. No 2560x1440+ support. 30fps adequate as YouTube down scales all video to 30fps.

Video playback is limited to 60hz (60fps). Those with 120+hz PC monitors will be automatically down scaled

If your GPU does not have an HDMI output you will need to purchase an DVI-HDMI adapter. I used the one included from a previous purchase of the PCI-E Live Gamer HD.

Separate audio amp or device needed if you plan to use headphones. I use the Astro A40 Mixamp.

No MacOSX Support

PC Setup is a bit difficult (I have a tutorial on my channel)

Overall the Avermedia Live Gamer Portable is one the most versatile capture devices I have used so far. Due to its user friendly interface and PC capture optimization it has a permanent place on my desk and is always connected. If you are interested in capturing game footage at home or on the go you can't go wrong with the Avermedia Live Gamer Portable.

Nic (Tetra Ninja)

http://www.youtube.com/tetraninja

https://twitter.com/tetraninja

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EDIT: After roughly 4 weeks of normal usage (generally 6 hours a day) my device crapped out and would no longer be recognized by my pc. I grueled through the replacement process (which was a week of back and forth with customer support) and after two weeks later, I got my replacement. My replacement had a new issue where it was cutting off the video signal everytime a black screen popped up (ie loading transitions). Not acceptable to me. I had to bite the bullet and return this item despite how much I loved using this device. I actually did a video review as well as streamed constantly with the device, and it when it worked, it worked great. Unfortunately, I cannot live with crapping out hardware, as this experience does not bode well with me. I'm going to find an alternative.

I've been doing a lot of research in the past months for a viable capture card that is capable of meeting my needs. I am proud to say that the Avermedia Live Gamer Portable exceeds all of my expectations and really sets itself apart from it's counterparts.

I've streamed and recorded footage from Xbox 360 and PS3 seamlessly through the avermedia software. Not to mention having a neato hot button so you don't have to be by your computer. It's so convenient to be able to stream and tweak the settings within the same program (I am not familiar with how to use xsplit or obs). Commentary is easy to add (you have the option of exporting a seperate mp3 file for your voice recording). PC free mode is a nifty feature, especially if you don't have a computer handy.

However I originally had some problems with the software. First, I had a hard time getting my ps3 to display correctly. Since the PS3 can't capture through HDMI thanks to HDCP, you have to use a proprietary cable to connect directly to your capture card. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. In order to get the screen to display, you need to set up a profile in the avermedia software and set it to component and then click the ready button. I had to figure this out myself and it was quite frustrating for my first experience, so I hope you can learn from this. Also, I had a problem to where the software would not recognize any of my microphones (however reinstalling the software somehow remedied this).

The HDMI cable it comes with is too short. I thought this wouldn't be a problem but it's useless to me. The usb cable it comes with is also in my opinion too short if I'm connecting it to my pc.

One thing I can proudly say is the device does not introduce any input lag, when playing rhythm games there is no change in performance. There's also no loss in quality to my tv.

Overall, there are still definitely some hitches in the software (which will definitely be fixed with updates) but honestly, you can't get a better usb capture card than this. Hopefully it can record next gen consoles.