Xbox 360 S 4GB with Kinect Nike+ Bundle Review

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List Price: $299.99
Sale Price: $249.99
Today's Bonus: 17% Off

Be aware that this bundle comes with only composite video, so you'll need to invest in either an HDMI or component cables to get high-definition output. The Kinect also doesn't come with a clip, so if you don't have anything to put it on except the television itself, you'll need a clip-on stand.

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I have already lost five pounds and I have been doing this since last Friday. It will have you sore but it is well worth it. I do the cardio portion of it once I get home from work. It is only 20-30 minutes but it makes you feel like you've done hours at the gym. Good luck and hopefully this helps.

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I am a 45 year old woman who is out of shape I bought this because i did not want to join a gym. The workouts are tough but worth it. It comes with a controller, something that is missing in description. The kinect is great and really motivates you after seeing your outline or as i call it my blob on screen. After doing my assessment and picking number of days to workout an exercise program was designed for me. I made it through my first week. My husband who runs half marathons tried it out and he felt the burn. He was sceptical about my purchasing it. This is helping both of us getting our workouts in during frigid winter weather.

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I got the Xbox Kinect on the suggestion of a friend as a way to improve my reaction time and coordination. The Nike+ bundle was a nice bonus. I have worked out regularly with it since I got it. It isn't perfect on tracking my movement, but for the most part, it is a good alternative for working out on my own schedule. Very convenient to run down to the family room whenever I have a few minutes.

I am a 53 year old woman, so maybe not the target market for Xbox. My adult sons were very surprised when I got it. But it is useful for my needs and I have recommended it to friends.

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Just so you know, it DOES contain a remote control, which I thought was unclear in the description. Great bargain.

Gauntlet Dark Legacy Reviews

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Alright well i just bought this game today and let me tell you people, this game is sweet. I had a couple friends over and we played for 5 straight hours, the multiplayer madness is the first of its kind!! The spells, characters, levels, bosses, surprises, monsters.... they all change so much that this game will never get boring. And after playing for that long we only got through the FIRST world. The craziness of spells flying in every direction is enough eye candy to keep you busy for quite a while. And while many games hqave similar qualities, Gauntlet also includes leveling (up to 99), buy items, buy health, mini bosses, team combos, and so many hidden keys and chests that the replay value for this game is never ending!! Go out and buy this game, you wil be glad you did. Peace out.

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I loved the original arcade version of Gauntlet as a kid. I spent so much money on it. I couldn't wait until Gauntlet: Dark Legacy was released for the XBox. Graphics are nice. The gameplay is good with nice changing camera angles dependent on where you are on the screen. I believe they even have the same guy doing the voice-over from the arcade version.

What is really cool about this game is the multiplayer mode. Nothing like having a few friends over for some four-player Gauntlet fun. I just wish the game utilized the 5.1 Dolby Digital capability of the XBox but I understand that it is really not needed for this game.

In addition, there are so many characters to choose from now, not just the Warrior, Wizard, Valkrie, and Archer from the original. I believe that there are 24 or so characters that can be unlocked for this game. Talk about replay value!

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I love Gauntlet, but I have some minor gripes. First, the graphics aren't that much better than the N64 version. I expected alittle more from the powerful and mighty XBOX. Second, some of the levels are taken from the N64 game. Keys, barrels, and runestones are in the same spot!!! ( Note: Of course there are far more levels and characters than N64, but re-hashing old levels. Pleeessse. Bottom line: If you're new to gautlet, give it a try. It's simple, fun and a good multiplayer.

If you're a Gauntlet veteran, enjoy the gamejust don't expect to be blown away.

Would I buy it again? Yes.

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GAUNTLET DARK LEGACY rocks the XBOX! 1 to 4 player cooperative action, spectacular magic effects, terrifying boss battles and 50 playable characters! Go alone or with up to 3 of your friends, embark on a quest to collect the mythic 13 rune stones and battle the evil wizard, Garm! 30 Awsome powerups, wield the electric amulet, super shot, acid breath, fire shield, thunder hammer, x-ray glasses and much more! 60 Dangerous levels! Hack and slash your way through the Forsaken Province, Warrior King's Moutain Realm, Dwarves' Ice Caves and many more! 50 Classic GAUNTLET characters! Play as the Dwarf, Jester, Sorceress, Archer or Valkyrie. Can you find all 42 hidden characters?!. Gauranteed hours of endless violence, one of the most re-played games I own! If you like action/stage games at all, then you must play GAUNTLET DARK LEGACY!

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I received this for Christmas as my husband and I loved playing this on the original XBox that our son took with him when he moved out. It would not play, so I contacted XBox/games and was informed that this game WILL NOT play on the 360. I would give the game five stars for everything, but I wanted to warn anyone with a 360 that you are wasting your money.

Best Red Faction Guerrilla - Xbox 360 Deals

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I do not normally write reviews, but I want to mention this game to help its sales since I know it it not as heavily covered as some other game releases this year.

In short I agree with the other positive reviewers so far. I do not usually like open world games. I thought Grand Theft Auto IV was ok, but this seems superior. The mission types are more varied (to me), the weapons are more interesting (the sledgehammer alone is great!) and the ability to interact and demolish buildings is much more "real." Also the mech vehicles are well done.

The physics engine for the building is simply amazing. It makes games that do not have their buildings take damage now seem "off."

I like that the multiplayer has the standard fare, but also some newer approaches involving destroying or defending buildings. This certainly should help people get longer value.

I have not played the previous Red Faction titles so cannot compare. I will say the story is not amazing, but it is good enough. You can read other reviews about the story. And if I had to choose between gameplay and story, I would choose gameplay.

Cons: As mentioned, sometimes missions can be a bit repetitive. Also, sometimes there are way too many enemies that spawn. But you can still come out victorious.

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The third title from Volition's Red Faction can be summed up in one word, phenominal. Volition paced themselves and it paid off. They paid attention to every little detail of the game; the environment, the character movements, the weapon reactions and the automobiles.

A brief review of the game shows that it comes to terms with what gamers want now-a-days; destruction. Whats more fun that making your own door into a building? Tearing the building down afterwards, of course!

The game is set on Mars, thankfully. Volition has returned to its roots with this one, even including a glimpse of the Ultor mines. You get to return to Capek's lair and retrive something called a Nano Forge. For those who have played the first one may notice something, and I am sure they agree with me on this; The best part of Red Faction Guerilla, is that they incorprated the same infrastructure as in the first Red Faction. Upon returning to Capek's lair, yuo begin to notice this, as it is set the same exact way the original was. In my opinion, that is amazing. You begin to pick out the similarities as you progress further into the game. You return to the badlands, and even travel through the canyons where you first run into the merc's.

The story is not so much cliche in the beginning, but it starts to get a little repetative after the first territoy. But hey, you get over that as soon as you start smashing buildings down.

All in all, thisis Volitions best game yet. The set forth their real potential and it shows. This game is sure to go down, in my book, as one of the best games for the XBox.

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Red Faction remains on top of the massive destruction sandbox genre with Guerrilla. Mars is under iron fisted control by the once liberating EDF, who has now become a openly genocidal tyranny, because covering up mass civilian slaughters is apparently not worth the effort. You are Alex Mercer, demolitions expert and new found point man for the Red Faction, a underground resistance that you've been a member of for 11 seconds... wait, what?

Your missions are the basic story driven resistance on the run until you become the revolutionary juggernaut. Weapons are the basic plethora, either plundered from enemy dead or cobbled together from scrap materials, which are your basic monetary funding. The story however really, truly, desperately needed a runup, as you arrive on mars, brother dead, you, resistance, join, lead demolition missions. That story is rammed into your gullet in about as much time as it took me to write that sentence. At least doom had you on a boring seeming hunt for a lost technician before dropping you in the soup.

Prepare to destroy anything and everything in sight. Entertaining propaganda and spin stories from the controlling forces are hilarious, and background chatter takes a while to become repetitive, giving it a good feel of gritty, downtrodden rebels. Despite being instantly promoted to point man, you are treated with some disdain and contempt, and are sent off with sanctions to not screw up by just about everyone. Sabotage and insurrection actions actually make sense, and rather than send you against strongholds first, you can cut power, destroy fuel reserves and checkpoints, and generally cause mass chaos rather than charge headlong into heavily guarded meat grinders.

Graphics and audio are entertaining, though some buildings look pretty pathetic when they're collapsing, giving the feel of watching a scale model rather than a real building. Voices are well acted and appropriately emoted, though the blatant love interest side arc is about as subtle as a hammer to the face.

Nits are widespread, and cause enough teeth grinding to cost this a full five stars. Your sledgehammer is your best weapon by far, and theres not even a halfhearted explanation as to how you manage to plow through meter thick rebar enforced concrete walls with a lazy swing. You need scrap to get more pockets to carry more demolition charges. Hills with more than a 5% incline are unclimbable, and you can't exactly be sneaky when you have to plow through every wall rather than climb over them. Physics of building collapses are nice, but momentum physics are godawful. You can knock soldiers over the horizon with a well timed hammer blow, and an atv can knock a twelve ton dump truck out of the way like its a tinker toy. Alarm levels don't go down with finding good hiding places or killing off small patrols, but reentering a hideout with a small army on your butt drops it to zero. For a game that tries to be as serious as your basic medal of honor, it fails horribly in some portions of suspension of disbelief. There's no briefing on the main bad guys in your codex, or even on your sudden new found allies or superiors outside of loading screens.

Regardless of some major gameplay and story issues, the game is fun, which is what matters. Charging into HW without any backup or preparatory work will instantly get you killed, and while you definitely have superhero level endurance and amazing combat skills for a technician, this manages to be a game that will always make you giggle as you tear through buildings and army battalions like a wrecking ball. I'd still make this a rent first, as there are enough issues that can rub certain gamer types the wrong way.

As an aside, seeing as how almost every one of my reviews now reads 0 of 1 helpful votes, please comment why if you don't find this review worthwhile. Thanks.

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take an open world thrid person shooter set on mars with the most advanced destruction engine to date, throw in some highly addictive multiplayer, and you have yourself the best shooter so far this year(as of June 2009).

forget everything you thought new about in-game environmental destruction. the first time you play Red Faction:Guerilla you will see the new age of destruction. see buildings break apart piece by piece as you tear down the walls of oppression.

in the time since the last red faction, mars has become victim to another tyrannical organization, called the EDF. you came to mars looking for peace and quiet, trying to settle down with a regular mining job. then a tragety comes about that causes you to stand up against the EDF and rain down all kind of destruction, they never bargained for.

controls handle great on the Saints Row 2 engine, whether your switching weapons, fighting, tearing down a building, driving a truck or mech (oh yeah.. theres mechs!!) they also added a cover system similar to GTA IV. theres very little to complain about in this game.

the story of one man fighting for not only his own freedom, but the freedom of an entire planet is inspiring to say the least. it truly is an evil government, and they simply cant be left to continue.

as you take the role of a terrorizing freedom fighter (think Gordon Freeman) you have a nice variety of missions to complete, from specific target buildings that need to be destroyed, to defending worker caps/invading EDF camps, various story missions, timed vehicle deliveries (ew), chase/tailing missions, ect.

overall its a great game. its got the most ambitious/advanced destruction engine to date with a good story, smooth controls, and a wealth of areas and weaponry to unlock.

gameplay 9.5/10

graphics 8.5/10 (considering the interactivity)

controls 9.25/10

sound 7.75/10

story 8.75/10

*destrucion 10/10

overall 9.25/10

replay value = high

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THIS REVIEW AND VIDEO ORIGINATED FROM:

When you think of interstellar tyranny and galactic civil war, Red Faction isn't the first game that comes to mind. But when you replace those two things with Mars and unprecedented destruction, you have a different story entirely. Red Faction: Guerrilla is Volition's third entry in the series and brings with it the most unmeasured, gratuitous destruction this generation has seen.

The story isn't going to win any awards, but it does what it needs to do. For what it's worth it follows Alec Mason as he arrives on Mars to work with his brother. Shortly after, the Earth Defense Force (EDF) kills his brother and targets Alec for being part of the resistance, part of the Red Faction. From here Alec is assimilated into the rebel ranks and must help them push the oppressive EDF back. The only problem is, well, the EDF has an entire army. Guerrilla warfare anyone?

Unlike its predecessors, Guerrilla deviates from the conventional first-person viewpoint by going third-person. Along with this change comes the shift to a free-roaming, mission based environment ala Grand Theft Auto. If that sounds strange you're not alone. But surprisingly, the change works incredibly well and, if anything, infuses the game with explosive variety that many open-ended games lack.

Mars is setup into six distinct zones that must be liberated from EDF control. Each activity you undertake will earn you salvage (the game's currency and means of purchasing new equipment) and/or lower the gauge of control for the EDF. Lowering control allows you to gain access to the story-based Red Faction missions that will progress the game and unlock other zones. These missions are all very fun and in case you misstep, the checkpoint system is very forgiving. This setup works extremely well as you're given the choice of just running rampant, destroying EDF structures or partaking in the various activities around Mars.

It wouldn't be a Red Faction game unless it put a tremendous amount of effort into destruction and Guerrilla is no different. Every single building on Mars can be brought to the ground in glorious fashion. It looks great, feels satisfying, and simply never gets old. The only problem I have is when you're trying to destroy a building it sometimes is kept standing by just one or two supports. In that regard, the destruction physics can be a bit off, but for the majority of the time it's a blast to swing through obstacles and watch the debris fly.

If you're not one to constantly follow activities, Guerrilla rewards for taking out important EDF structures. These targets range from small, less important buildings to heavily fortified, high importance structures. Destroying targets is a quick way to unlock Red Faction missions and is quite fun at that. There's nothing like collapsing a power planet surrounded by EDF troops and making a quick getaway. If running off the beaten-path doesn't appeal to you as much, activities like Demolitions Master, Heavy Metal, and the rail-shooting rides with Jenkins are among the greatest in the entire game. Demolitions Master is probably the best activity since it's so unique. It's basically a puzzle that requires the annihilation of a building in a certain way.

There are also a couple different multiplayer components worth noting. One is called Wrecking Crew which is more of a pass the controller, party mode. It has various modes such as limited ammo or simply blowing up barrels, but they all deal with blowing buildings apart. It's a good time with multiple people but not something you'll be spending most of your time on. The other component deals with the competitive side of things. You'd think meshing destructibility with the diverse range of weaponry available would be something unbelievable. And it is it's unbelievably ridiculous and broken. It's setup like Halo and in that respect it works well. It also uses various unique backpacks, like the Rhino which can charge a short distance through buildings. But it all goes to hell once the games begin. For instance, on certain maps teams can spawn-kill the entire time. Weapons are completely unbalanced and make otherwise close matches into blow-outs. While I found the different gametypes very unique, the gameplay online was simply too chaotic and unrefined to be anything worthwhile.

The destruction and campaign in Red Faction: Guerrilla is unquestionable great and something definitely worth experiencing. Unfortunately, full retail price isn't justifiable as once you're 15 hour romp is done, there's little reason to revisit Mars.

Discount Super Mario All Stars

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Got an SNES? Then get this!

Best Sega Classics Collection - PlayStation 2 Deals

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At first glance, this Sega Classics Collection appears to be a great buy for it's price. The packaging states that classic Sega games from yesteryear such as Golden Axe, Alien Syndrome, Space Harrier, Outrun, Columns, Fantasy Zone, Virtua Racing, Monaco GP, Tant R, and Bonanza Bros are here, but these games hardly resemble the classic favorites from Sega's heydays. Maybe that's because the games are supposedly "remastered" with different graphics, sound, and music; and none of it is for the better at all. The graphics on all of the games look like polygonal messes, the music is atrocious, there's way too many load screens, and plenty of more gripes that are too many to mention here. Space Harrier isn't challenging here, Golden Axe is annoying with some just plain bad hit detection, and the racing games are almost uncontrolable. If you have fond memories of the aforementioned games, avoid this at all costs, and others who may be looking to pick this up, be warned: these are not the classic games the way you remember them. Sega usually has a good history track with classic game compilations (the various Smash Pack volumes for example), and why they would try something like this now is just mind boggling. Avoid at all costs.

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Yes, unlike similar compilations by Midway, Taito, etc, most of these games are remakes, and a bit challenging (I couldn't get used to the "new" Golden Axe, for starters). However, both Virtua Racing and OutRun seem to have made it relatively unchanged (though there must have been licensing issues over OR, since the familiar Ferrari has been replaced by a larger car that looks out of place, IMO), as did Space Harrier, so that's a redeeming factor. My take? If you like the new and different, it's worth picking up, but if you're looking for actual arcade ports, better try some other compilation.

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These games are REMAKES of arcade games. The remakes are WORSE than the original, especially Golden Axe! The only decent game is Space Harrier and Out Run.

Overall DON'T buy this game. I recommend Capcom Classics Collection, Midway Arcade Treasures 1, then Namco 50th Anniversary Collection.

Dear SEGA: Why not make a collection of true original Sega arcade hits. Game like Altered Beast, Shinobi, After Burner, Metal Slug, Zaxxon, Frogger, Choplifter, Planet Harrier, Golden Axe, etc.... Alex the Kidd, Phantasy Stars from Sega consoles. The fun brawler similar to Kung-Fu Master from the Sega Master System.

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With the exception of Virtua Racing and Columns, these are all "remastered" editions of the listed Sega arcade classics. I'm giving 3 stars because I absolutley love Virtua Racing; it was the only reason for me to purchase this collection.

V.R. is nearly a perfect translation. In fact, they have gone a step further by incorporating some anti-aliasing and realtime lighting...the result is astonishing (be sure to check out the photos I uploaded!). The only downfall is that the controls are a little touchy and the driver animation is inaccurate while playing in first person mode (the on-screen steering wheel barely turns at full steer). Otherwise, this is very close to the original arcade, Yu Suzuki classic.

If you're not into V.R. however, pass this up. Hopefully Sega will soon wise up and "open their vault" of arcade classics. It amazes me that they have not done so in light of the success of classic compilations from Midway, Capcom, etc.

Come on, Sega!

Edit 03/04/2008: I decided to give Alien Syndrome another try since I had a second player to play it with. This game is considerably more fun to play with a second player than playing alone. The controls are very similar to Smash TV and Robotron; both analog sticks are utilized. My only complaint is that you can only shoot in eight directions despite using the analog stick. This collection is now a good buy at under $10.00 along with both Alien Syndrome and Virtua Racing.

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I had the urge to play some classic games and purchased this thinking that it would be a collection of original arcade classics, however on playing the games on the disc, they are remastered versions of the originals. Some are good remakes, outrun being particularly impressive but far too east. Space Harrier also has done well from the face lift and Alien Syndrome. However the others are not great by any means i have to agree with one reviewer that Golden Axe is Awful! Bonanza Brothers is ok. The only real original looking and feeling game was the VR racing which bought back some childhood memories. This collection is not that bad and at $20 it isnt ripping you off..but you can go to target and they are selling them for $9.99, at that price it qould be a bargin.

Look at other classic hit titles before buying this one!

Skylanders Giants Single Character Pack Core Series 1 Flashwing Reviews

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List Price: $9.99
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I never thought from the You Tube footage that she would be so powerful! But straight out of the box she was pretty powerful and a lot of fun to play with among the newest figures available. Initially her earth element attack consists of shooting a crystal out of her curled up tail (like a scorpion). It makes her appear a little more aggressive while she's in battle(for the guys out there). She spins as part of her secondary attack (like Warnado) but seems to be much more powerful and controllable. I have found her to be surprisingly useful when battling the human shields. They can't be attacked from the front, but you can spin "dash" behind them and attack. As her third attack she shoots multiple lasers all around her from her wings(they can't be aimed). This doesn't help with enemies straight in front of her, but it does shoot all the way around her sides and from behind which is handy when she becomes surrounded. Over time she increases in damage levels from her crystals, and gets her armor increased by 40 after the third upgrade. She never truly flys, just spins quickly. Her final Soul Gem upgrade can be found in the "Bringing Order to Kaos" level. This creates a crystal lighthouse that keeps Flashwing from moving but creates a long range attack from a light emitted from it every few seconds and is her most powerful damaging attack.

BEGINNING STATS:

MAX HEALTH:260

SPEED:43

ARMOR:24

CRITICAL HIT:10

ELEMENTAL POWER:25

Choose Your Path Choices:

SUPER SHARDS PATH:

This attack strengthens her long-range abilities with more rapid fire of her crystal shards. After her fourth upgrade on this path her crystal shards stick into surrounding walls and shoot an additional attack when you press her primary attack button (the X on PS3) a second time. Her last upgrade along this path actually helps her to heal from those wall embedded crystals as she passes closely. Each crystal gives her an increase of 5 HP.

SUPER SPINNER PATH:

This increases her ability to do more of a spin "dash" attack with increased damage and armor while spinning. Eventually with her "Reflection Deflection" upgrade her armor increases to over 100 while spinning! This upgrade also reflects her opponent's shots right back at them.

KEEP IN MIND WHEN YOU CHOOSE YOUR PATH.. ONLY THE SERIES 2 (OR ORIGINAL RE-RELEASED)FIGURES CAN CHANGE BETWEEN PATHS AT ANY TIME. I GUESS IT'S A BONUS FOR BUYING THE "NEW" OLD FIGURES.

MY OPINION:

In the early stages of the game with all the currently available figures, I'd have to say that Flashwing and Hot Head are my top two new characters that I like! They are my 6 year old son's favorite too! I tend to prefer ones with powerful attacks, not melee attacks, by the way. I was honestly shocked by her beginning critical hit number (being her weakness) but I have really enjoyed playing her and can only guess that she must get powered up rather quickly from her starting numbers or the Pants Hat that looks like red and white spotted boxers made the difference.

AMAZON AND OTHER RETAILERS SELL FOR APPROXIMATELY $9.99

ANY OTHER AMOUNT IS THIRD PARTY..

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The people behind Skylanders sure have come up with an interesting variety of dragons, and Flashwing is a great addition to the mix! An Earth Skylander, her body is composed of gems and crystals, and her attacks incorporate not only that, but the ability to reflect and use light. "Condensed light" even eventually increases her armor. I was worried, being a gem dragon that she'd be all girlied up, but I was luckily mistaken!

Speed: Slow

Flashwing moves at a steady but slow gallop. She's a handy Skylander though, so don't be put off by that. A well chosen hat will fix that problem.

Primary Attack:

As can be expected from a gem dragon, Flashwing's primary attack is firing crystal shards from her tail. It starts out slow, but is sped up considerably after being upgraded. Holding in the primary attack button for a few seconds (after being upgraded of course) allows her to fire a laser beam from her wing tips. If you choose the Super Shards upgrade path, the crystals can embed in walls and shoot off more Crystals, as well as heal Flashwing if she stands close to them.

Secondary Attack:

This one, the Shimmering Spin, I actually find myself using more than the primary. Flashwing gets up on the tips of her toes and spins quickly, crashing through everything in her path. This, like the crystals, needs to be upgraded to be the most effective, but it still very much gets the job done, especially when you get surrounded by enemies or use her in the Battle Arena. If you chose the Super Spinner upgrade path, the Shimmering Spin will gain the ability to last longer, deflect enemies shots, and shoot out lasers if attack one is pressed.

Tertiary Attack:

In Flashwing's basic upgrades, she can also fire crystal shards in all directions except, unfortunately, forward. While it is effective if surrounded by Chompies, I personally don't find it all that helpful in the harder levels. When you are surrounded by Mace Majors or something of the sort, it just doesn't deal enough damage or fire fast enough to take them out efficiently. I also tend to single out my enemies, so while this may be a good attack for somebody else, it doesn't do much good for me.

Soul Gem Ability:

This is definitely one of the best Soul Gem powers, counting the ones from the original game! Crystal Lighthouse causes a large crystal to spring up from the ground and create spinning beams of light that deal constant damage to enemies so long as the attack button is held in. This does unfortunately leave Flashwing vulnerable to the tougher enemies, but it can start hurting them from a distance so that by the time they get close enough to do any real damage, they're just about dead.

Overall:

To me, she definitely gets a 9/10. I was so eager to get her I overpaid a bit to have her shipped from a part of the country where she was in the first wave, but it was worth it! She's definitely a good addition to anyone's collection of Skylanders.

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This product was ordered for my 9-yr old son who loves Skylanders and was getting the upgraded game for Christmas. This was more affordable than most retail stores and arrived in perfect condition. Thanks!

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My daughter loves the new Skylanders Giants, and these new character designs are both clever and creative. They are great additions to any collection.

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The whole faminly loves this game. Its fun for all ages and we rec'd this package on time and as listed in the details. Great game for any family to play!

The Sims 3: Ambitions Review

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I have been playing Sims since The Sims 2 was released and I haven't felt much excitement playing The Sims 3 until I bought a copy of The Sims 3: Ambitions. I, too, became quickly bored with World Adventures, and was hoping this new expansion was a bit more substantial than the last. When I was through with my first 8-hour game-play session with Ambitions, I was left with a new-found love of the Sims and also some new gripes.

First, I must say that I loved going through the Stylist Profession and liked that I did not complete the whole entire profession in one gaming binge. I enjoyed being actively involved in my Sims' career path and I enjoyed making Sims over. I personally have a lot of custom content installed and the residents of my town ended up getting much-needed styling. The most valuable new addition in this profession was the new hair options for men. (Previously, I repeatedly used the same hairstyle for many male Sims, as I hated all the other styles and custom hair for men is not abundantly available.) There are several new hair options for female Sims as well, but I don't use them since I have so many custom options that are much more attractive. While you do only receive 2-3 job opportunities per work day as a stylist, you can go back to the salon once you complete those opportunities and continue to style other Sims to gain job experience, and you can also buy a drafting table for your Sim to research new design ideas and further increase your job experience, which allows you to be promoted.

Active participation in professions is very time consuming, which I love and am annoyed by at the same time. Like the reviewer before me stated, if you have multiple Sims in your household, there isn't really much time in a day to be actively involved in their lives when you are so busy with your Sim with an active profession. I found myself only tending to my other Sims' needs when my Stylist Sim had a day off. If there is a way to send your Sim to their Ambitions profession and turn off the active involvement for a period of time, I have not found it yet, and it's been impossible for me to fulfill opportunities for other Sims in the household when my one professional Sim is always busy. This is my biggest gripe about Ambitions so far, but compared to World Adventures and The Sims 3 base game, this expansion is quite impressive.

I also added a SimBot to my household. I did not have an issue with my SimBot breaking thingsin fact, she repairs everything that breaks and came to my household with a good amount of Handiness skill. This SimBot is a robot that you can control just like any other Sim, but the robot has different and interesting needs.

Another thing I love about this new expansion pack is that it contains elements of Open for Business from The Sims 2. For example, my child Sim can make numerous baked goods using his toy oven and sell them at a newly-purchasable baked good stand in front of the house, and anything your Sim creates can be sold for good money (depending on your skill level) at the consignment shop. You can also choose to be self-employed and make good money fishing, farming, sculpting, painting, and more, and I really enjoy the options that this new expansion pack allows for.

Overall:

This is definitely a major improvement over World Adventures, and I think this new expansion pack allows for a more active and engaging gaming experience, which I personally like, aside from the fact that I am alienating my other Sims. I think this EP was worth the money because of how it changes game-play and doesn't just add new items, interactions, and wishes as some other EPs have done. I can't wait to explore more professions, and hopefully there will be more available to us all in the future. Happy Simming!

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I got my game delivered on Friday, May 28 and was very excited to get it installed and start playing. This really looked like it would be a ton of fun and it was at first. The new town that you get with this expansion, Twinbrook, is beautiful. The EA Sims team did a wonderful job creating this new town. There are lots of new things to see (I really like the "swampy" area, it's kinda creepy and spooky). They also added several new items with this expansion and I think the new laundry system adds some more realism to the game. I thought it was kind of dumb at first but it is kind of neat to see them do laundry now.

As for the careers, I started off with the new architect career since I love to build houses. It seems more like an interior designer career to me. All of the jobs were to redo some particular room so there was very little building to do. This may change after a while but it got boring doing the same types of rooms over and over so I moved on.

Next, I tried the ghost hunter. Again, this was a lot of fun in the beginning but I soon realized that I get the same types of jobs over and over. There are about 5 different types of jobs for your ghost hunter sim to perform. These range from collecting "casper" looking spirits to investigating paranormal activity inside the rabbit holes around town. This career got boring fast too. You do the same types of jobs over and over and you only get maybe 2 or three jobs each night. I had my sim do these and he was back home way before his job time was supposed to be over. Also, it didn't take me very long to reach the top of the career.

After I had been ghost hunting a while, I got my sim hitched to a sim lady who registered as a self employed sculptor. This is probably my favorite of the careers I have tried so far. She sculpts some pretty cool looking statues after her skill gets high enough. When she first started, she was sculpting chairs, toilets, and other household items and it was pretty humorous to see these. I like that she starts out with a big block of whichever material I choose for her to use (clay, topiary, wood, ice, etc.) and I get a nice surprise when she finishes. If you want a particular sculpture,you can have your sim sulpt it if he or she has already learned to make. After my sim's skill was high enough, the sculptures sell for a high simolean price too. So, between her sculptures and my ghost hunter's salary plus selling spirits to the Science Lab, they got pretty rich rather quickly.

My sculptor's lifetime wish is to maximiaze her painting, sculpting and inventing skills so I also have an inventor's table. Most of the stuff that she has invented is useless crap that you can sit around your house as nothing more than decoration (like a bobbing llama head that drinks). She has invented the digger thing but it woke up everyone in the house when I tried to use it and then the hole only had scrap in it. The digger may prove to be interesting though from what I've seen in videos online.

The only other career I have tried so far is the stylist and I hated it. I created a stylist to be married to my architect. Each time she offers to give a makeover to another sim, it opens a new CAS window where you style the sim however they request (new makeup, new hairstyle, new everyday wear, etc.). At the start of this career, no matter what I chose in CAS, the sim always came out looking horrible. It got on my nerves so I gave up on it very quickly. I don't see the point of doing anything to them if they are just going to come out looking bad.

I haven't tried any of the other careers yet. I did get a simbot and it annoys me. The sim couple had a baby and it would always go get it out of the crib, even if it was sleeping. The baby has been pretty cranky with this thing around. The sim babies have always kind of worked my nerves anyways but they are necessary if you want to play a family but they really are annoying with this thing around unless I watch him and make him leave the kid alone so it can get some sleep. It's handy to have it do the laundry and some cleaning but it keeps breaking stuff in the house when I try to have it do upgrades. It's handiness skill is high but it always breaks whatever it's working on so I hate the thing. It just kind of gets in the way.

One thing that did surprise me and I thought was a nice touch is that as your sims progress in their careers, they will get a notification that the mayor is honoring them at city hall. If they make it there in time, they get medals, commemorative plaques or even keys to the city. My ghost hunter even received something that looks like a small graveyard. It's really kind of cool looking. I forget what it's called though. I do think that the recogonition for outstanding work is pretty cool and it was totally unexpected for me.

All in all, this EP is kind of fun but it is VERY repetitive and I can see it getting old fast. There were not very many new items which adds to the sims everyday lives. There is the laundry system, trampoline and a couple of other things though. Oh, and the "Curly" hair that you get when you register the game is horrid!

If you like the new task oriented sims that it seems we have to live with now, you'll like this. As for me, I really wish they would give us an EP that gives the sims more open activities like some of the EP's of the past (Nightlife, please!). I don't care for this new style of play that the EA Sims team keeps coming up with. I miss the days of the open ended gameplay. Sure, it got repetitive too but I at least controlled more of the sims lives than I do now and that was what I liked about it. I mean the game is called The SIMS, it should focus on SIMS and not a pretty new town or repetitive tasks that are far too easy and get way too boring way too fast. For the way the Sims has now progressed (whether I like it or not) this is a decent expansion. I can have my sims do the painting, sculpting, writing, etc. and register them as self employed and still get some fun out of it though so it's not completely horrible for me either.

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I suppose by now I should know better. The second expansion pack for the Sims 3 promised great things, much like both the base game, and World Adventures. Like both, it fails to truly deliver.

Basically, like the previous installments of the sims 3, this EP is little more than a rehash of a previous one-in this case, Open For Business. Sadly though, it doesn't really play as well. If you are interested in crafting and selling items, instead of opening up your own store, You send your items to a consignment shop, which in turn sells your items, and gives you a cut of the money earned.

The new "Professions", as they are called in game, are interesting enough; inventor, sculptor, fire fighter, Private investigator, Stylist, architect, tattoo artist, Paranormal investigator. There might be a couple more, but these are the ones I explored in any real detail. As I said, the professions seemed interesting, at first. The new items for use in increasing your skills for each profession were also fairly neat. But the professions themselves are a bit of a letdown. For Jobs that require you to gather information, or hunt in some fashion, all you really do is run from lot to lot, trying to fulfill certain requirements, in order to get to the next step of the assignment, much like the quests in WA. After the first couple of jobs, it gets very repetitive. For the more creative professions,you spend most of your time crafting or designing. Again, interesting at first, but after your 3rd or fourth tattoo or hair appointment, it gets pretty boring.

Adding this to the severely limited amount of time in a Sim day, and what was already a hectic game of time management for your sims, becomes a race against the clock to get anything done at all. It didn't really make for an enjoyable time.

However, there are a couple of bright spots in this EP, so all is not lost. The inventor profession has some fairly cool items you can make: Mining equipment for drilling large holes in the ground; a fruit vaccuum to make harvesting a bit easier; the time machine is actually a kind of neat addition to the the existing rabbit holes. For sculpting, I didn't play around too much, but I did get to the point where I had several materials to choose from in the creation of each sculpture, as well as the ability to sculpt other sims, which again was kind of neat. The idea of the tattoo station was neat, and once CC creators get working on designs, we may see some really great options for tattoos.

The best part of the EP though, is the new town, Twinbrook. It is well put together, and I prefer it over both Sunset Valley and Riverview. It showcases all of the new Profession related lots quite nicely. wandering around the town was much more fun than much of the actual gameplay.

So, all in all this EP was ok, but for me, it really didn't live up to the promise. If you enjoyed the quest based gameplay in WA, you will probably enjoy this EP as well. If you were looking for a little more freedom of gameplay, this isn't quite it.

J

Honest reviews on The Sims 3: Ambitions

This game is a LOT like World Adventures. The Sims 3 is becoming less and less like it's predecessors, because it is changing from controling a family to having to focus in on 1 sim. You can't focus on your other sims while your sim is doing 1 of the new "professions". The new jobs are fun at first but get boring with the same thing over and over again. There is a lot of community requested features in the game that make it more fun and realistic, like the laundry system. You can now also own any community lot to make money off it. That is fun too, but you can't have traditional employees or really work on the lot unless you are cleaning up plates, puddles, and trash. I would say if you don't like World Adventures, skip this one.

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I play Sims 3 almost exclusively these days and I was looking forward to the expansion and the new professions. Unfortunately, I felt ambitions was rather lacking. While I like the new careers, I felt it was annoying to have to follow 1 sim around and leave the other sims unattended without a time stop feature. This is really tough if you have more than 1 sim in your house, as stuff happens while you are away. I also didn't like the missions. Banishing ghosts just requires you go to a house and point and click. There is no particular challenge or skill involved. And while you do this, your sims household is left unattended. The difficulty does ramp up after a while, so all is not lost, however, I just didn't find it enjoyable to miss out on the household fun, while 1 sim was out doing a mindless job. I would've like a 'time stop feature' which would freeze the current house and let you get back to it, and let the other sim return when done so that you can enjoy both things.

There is also an unfinished quality to the game. While I enjoyed the addition of the new traits, I didn't find anything really exceptional about most of the content. The careers I play tested (ghost hunter and fireman) were dull.

I will keep playing sims 3 ambitions, but I wasn't loving it like I liked the expansions for Sims 2.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Xbox 360 Reviews

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Before I begin, if you are expecting this game to be a traditional Resident Evil game focusing on survival horror, forget it. It is nothing like it. Granted that it was pushed more as an action third person shooter (which it is), I can see how people got confused due to "Resident Evil" being in the title.

Gameplay: Average

Hit detection is terrible in this game. Even shooting in short, controlled bursts makes your aim fly around. Also, zombies are fairly easy to take out if you aim for the head (unless you get swarmed) but enemy Spec Ops soldiers apparently have cement heads because 4-5 bullets to the face isn't enough to kill them.

Single-Player Campaign: Horrible

If you want to play this game on your own, don't bother. It is short, only 6 missions, each about 1 hour long (depending on difficulty). Teammate AI is a bust. They will walk directly in front of you, into trip mines and even into fire. You're basically on your own, which isn't great when faced with a zombie horde accompanied by Hunters, Lickers and Tyrants.

Multiplayer: Only Redeeming Quality

>The game supports full campaign co-op so you can play the campaign with up to 3 other friends (4 total including yourself). This makes for a much more rewarding experience, especially when you try to beat the game on harder difficulties such as Veteran and Professional. Also, there's an element where your teammate can get infected and turn into a zombie, in which case you have to put them down or spray them with an anti-viral spray before they turn.

>Versus mode also adds some unique competitive multiplayer modes like Heroes and Survivor. Heroes is where you play your favorite RE character such as Leon or Claire. They have massive amounts of health and the point is to kill all the heroes on one team to win. If you die, you come back as a regular soldier (and significantly weaker than the Heroes). Survivor pits 8 players for a fight for only 4 seats on an evac chopper. The ones left behind are pretty much screwed. Keep in mind that all modes have zombies, lickers, hunters and tyrants. So you're not just fighting the other team, but these CPU-controlled enemies as well.

Graphics: Average

The graphics are not terrible, but there's also nothing special about them. Some levels are too bland and boring. There are some recreations of your favorite scenes of Resident Evil 2 (such as the car crash at the beginning of the RE2 or the train from the ending). It doesn't too polished though, giving it a quite jagged look. The cutscenes are much better, but are too few to actually enjoy.

Sound: Good

The sound is probably one of the better physical aspects of the game. The guns in particularly sound powerful and devastating.

Overall: 6 out of 10

In the end, it's not worth $60. If you can get it for $20-30 bucks, then you should consider it. Also, make sure you have friends to play with because it's not worth it if you're going to play solo.

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My star rating speaks for itself for the most part, so I'll just attempt to justify it.

The game has bugs in the very first level, in what should be one of the most polished and epic parts (where you see Birkin)

The cover system at times is unresponsive, or I can't take cover behind things I should really be able to cover behind.

Many reviews label enemies in this game as "bullet sponges". They're right. In a level you have to fight 3 Mr. X's. Their only weak spot seems to be the head, and I can probably mathematically prove that I put enough bullets into one of their heads to easily fill its volume and more. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's, "Ok I've been shooting at this thing for about 3 minutes, why won't it die?" This was only on Normal difficulty by the way.

The game is designed around co-op, given how the team mates specialize to help make a "squad", but local co-op isn't in the game. WHAT? The AI is terrible. They'll give you first aid... some times... when they feel like it. They'll never revive you. They get themselves into stupid situations and get themselves killed, but you'll need to revive them if, for no other reason, than you need them as a diversion so the big baddies won't take turns knocking you to the ground in an inescapable chain of death. Yeah I'm bitter.

There are no vehicles, no interesting objectives in missions, what should be epic zombie battles can quickly get annoying if you get infected with a virus several times in succession, since this means you will turn into a zombie and die because you probably ran out of antivirus, and the computer is too dumb to pick some up and heal you.

Little things like this make the game feel grindy and chorish. The weapon unlock system takes FOREVER given how short the campaign is. This is exacerbated by the fact that the levels aren't interesting to replay given how long each individual level is. I tried to farm points but all I could think at the level select screen was "Oh god this level again?!" with every level I highlighted.

The enemies have a glazed look over them which is... odd, but it isn't game breaking. What's worse is the only resident evil characters I remember seeing in the game are: Mr. X, Hunk, Birkin, Nemesis, Leon, Claire, Sherry Birkin. On the outset this sounds like a lot... except for you interact with them in extremely boring ways. Hunk is just kind of "there" in your first mission, Birkin is buggy as hell. What should be an epic first encounter feels like, "Oh god not this again!" Nemesis is a "boss fight" where you sit behind cover and pump like 20 clips of ammo into his head until he "gives up" so you can put something in his head. You run from or kill Mr. X, and well anyone who followed the game knew about Leon. I'm very let down by the way they handled that. It's outbreak, Raccoon City! There should be carnage in the streets, Tyrants mowing down zombies, Nemesis fighting Mr. X, Leon popping out with a rocket launcher to say hi, the U.S. military doing whatever they can just to get a foothold through the carnage but being easily overwhelmed.

Mayhem, objective based combat, and lots of interesting zombie moments should have littered this game, but what we got were perfect boxes withing boxes which describe our levels. Sometimes infinite enemies will pour in, sometimes you have to kill your way though (with little help from the game), sometimes you peek around the corner and the zombies and military are playing drinking games just waiting for you to show up so they can double team you for god knows what reason.

If I haven't made my case, I don't know what will.

So let's do a quick recap. The weak cover system, bullet sponge enemies, and lack of interesting objectives make this a terrible third person shooter. The lack of real horror moments, cheap mechanics, and no interesting use of RE characters make this a terrible game in the RE series, not even deserving to be called a "spin off" game. No local co-op despite the game's design around it, and a terrible AI ensure this game fails at basically whatever genre it was trying to be. They should have payed me to play this game.

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Bought this to play through the campaign with a buddy and honestly, I'm pretty disappointed. But first, the positives.

The concept itself is pretty interesting setting you up as an opposing force for the bad guys in a historically big videogame event the fall of Raccoon City. The playable characters look unique, the voice acting is fairly decent, and a couple of the mechanics infection and bleeding, are nice touches.

On to the cons. The biggest con for me was the AI, both of the enemy, but more particularly of your AI teammates. They don't employ their specials in a timely fashion, they won't heal you (with the exception of the medic, and even then, with little rhyme or reason), walk into fire, and won't play with a modicum of intelligence. Several of the levels involve mines with laser tripwires AI Teammates run into them, and having been blown up, they then proceed to charge into the second row, and then possibly the third. And these aren't hidden tripwires. In one area, there are walls of flame. They will stand in the fire and slowly roast. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen NPC AI this bad at least not since the PS1 generation, and even then, no truly worse example comes to mind.

I played through as the stealth character Vector which had some interesting mechanics cloaking ability, motion detection, silent movement, etc, all of which would have been interesting, had the game allowed me to use them. But, the level design wasn't very conductive to it. When it was possible, the AI teammates just charged ahead anyway, triggering every encounter possible. So I pretty much was just another generic shooter guy, except when I could use the stealth ability to revive downed team mates, and occasionally try and outflank or get behind a group of Spec Ops (which often seemed to trigger successive encounters, or pull more into the firefight).

Speaking of level design, it's very straightforward. Point A to Point B, which isn't itself bad. Nothing wrong with it. But they aren't conductive to using the various skill sets provided to the team few opportunities to snipe (which really makes me wonder what the Sniper, Spectre, is for, given the mobs and zombies appearing out of nowhere), minimal chance to employ stealth, and not particularly conductive to the use of teamwork. The general formula is to overcome waves and waves of more or less identical zombies, generic Special Forces, and the occasional Lictor or other BioWeapon. Enemy AI is simple in the extreme they charge. That's it, with the exception of Spec Ops, which shoots and ducks.

Graphically, it's a bit unimpressive. Pretty generic, pretty choppy character animation, and fairly forgettable aside from some of the special effects and the sync kills for hand to hand, it reminds me more of an end of last generation title. Zombies also crawl out of solid walls, solid floors, and various other solid objects. Compared to some of the other recent games including the rather disappointing Dead Island ORC just doesn't hold its own graphically.

Story wise, there really isn't one. You interact with a few of the mainline RE characters, very, very briefly a couple of sentences here and there. And the gullibility of your team in its dealings with Umbrella borders on ludicrous, serving only to move you from one section to the next.

Overall, ORC showed a lot of initial promise great premise, interesting character types and abilities, big name behind it. I wanted to love it, but I can't. It failed horribly in the execution, poor attention to detail, and monumentally bad AI.

If I could do it again, I'd Wait for it to hit $20.

Honest reviews on Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - Xbox 360

Upon receiving this game, I had no idea what to expect. Once I popped the game in, I knew right away that this was going to be a mediocre game. Graphics are OK, enemy AI does its job, friendly AI is the worst you could possibly imagine, and there is a major gap between its difficulty settings. If it's not set on professional, the game is too easy; set it on professional, the game is very difficult. AI isn't smarter, it just takes more bullets to put 'em down to the point where you'll blow half, if not all your ammunition. Anyway, positives: The game creates a very interesting dynamic where, if you force enemy combatants to bleed, ALL the zombies will attack that NPC. Just know, that perk works both ways. If you bleed, you're more susceptible to infection which if left untreated, will change you into an uncontrollable zombie. There are several classes, each with their own perks (medic,scientist,etc) and melee options with their own melee kill sequences. The story is OK (approx. 6hrs 7 hrs) and the fan-service is solid, but what makes the game is teamwork. This is obviously not the best game in the series, but probably the most enjoyable spin-off they've come up with. I must emphasize, DON'T BUY THIS GAME IF YOU DON'T HAVE THREE OTHER PEOPLE TO PLAY WITH. The game is not enjoyable solo because friendly AI is awful and make the game more difficult then it needs to be. I would recommend this buy for four friends at $30 or less.

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This review is from: Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Video Game)

Experience:

Level 1: Begins with cover based shooting. Glad to see Capcom is blazing new trails in the 3rd person shooter genre. Also you can't "vault" over cover. I mean it only took them how ever many years to give you the ability to run AND shoot. Maybe in 3 more games they'll include this option.

Cover based shooting takes forever. Your guns are inaccurate, head shots don't drop enemies, frag grenades do pitiful damage, enemies take entire clips to the chest (on normal difficulty), and the only thing more inaccurate that you with guns is your NPC squad with guns.

Encounter Birkin boss fight. Birkin nails me with pipe and locks me in perma-stun until death. 2nd encounter knocks me down. This time analog prompt appears (rotate analog stick to dodge) to allow me to roll out of the way. Why it didn't appear in the first encounter I have no idea.

Birkin kills squad member, move to revive...die

New strategy: Use squad as meat shield, sprint like crazy while hearing their cries of anguish fade into the distance...pass level.

Level 2: Unlock stealth for Vector. Encounter military types in City hall. Stealth and sneak up behind enemy when I realize I have no stealth kill...on a STEALTH character. Sigh, in perfect position to set up cross fire. Execute..enemy begins melee combo attack while I'm pouring a clip into his chest. Locked into perma-stun until death.

Crossfire attempt 2: Watch my team flail about as if they're trying to target everyone at once and some enemies that don't exist. Use all stun grenades. Team refuses to acknowledge my assistance by actually killing a single soldier. Survive encounter with 1 bar of health. Remaining squad memebers...KIA. Developing hatred toward moron in charge of AI.

Get to archive room to burn evidence. Can't see a thing. Turn up gamma no effect. Wander around library beginning to wonder if my purchase was worth it.

Get to ending with multiple Lickers. Watch as animators were too lazy to give the Lickers an actual "death" animation. Licker stays in attack pose after 2 clips or more until finally disintegrates; was dead the entire time. Other Licker models merely go "limp" and fall from the ceiling. Very lazy on Capcom's part.

Level 3: Exploding zombies...this is getting stupid. Am becoming bored, and really wishing I'd read the reviews.

Hospital catches fire. Hunter mini boss fight occurs.

Use team as meat shield. Hunter kills "Lupo" and "Beltway" but I'm alive and that's what's important.

Revive Lupo. Revive Beltway. Beltway then runs directly into a fire and stands there until he dies. Revive Beltway. Move to next room. Lupo suicides on trip mines that were guarding an aid spray. She can't even pick them up! Why is she going for an aid spray!?

Turn game off in disgust.

Update: Continued to play and got to one of the end levels where I had to re-enter Birkin's Lab.

On the elevator and attacked by lickers. Killed lickers but one glitches and gets stuck in the freaking wall. My cracker-jack team decides the best thing to do is to just shoot the wall...forever. After the Licker has disappeared through the wall. I am not kidding. They all lined up and proceed to shoot at NOTHING. And because you can't issue team commands, the only way to make them stop is proceed to another check point.

This is one the biggest things that I am hating about the game industry. EVERYTHING MUST have multi-player.

I know that a ton of people who disagree with me will say "Play on Xbox Live DURRR"

The thing is that I shouldn't have to. That's an excuse and bull**** one at that.

I understand that there are some games that have a single player campaign added as an after thought. Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a perfect example. I didn't get that impression from "RE: ORC." I thought it was going to be a mixture of Dead Space, and Gears of War. A solid single player experience with a strong multi-player element. And Capcom was more than happy to make people believe that. Instead they give me an amalgamation of Gears of War, Jericho and Vampire Rain.

THIS GAME SUCKS. DO NOT BUY! Seriously. Spend your money on ANYTHING else. Burn it if you have to. You will get infinitely more enjoyment from the outcome of torching your hard earned cash than spending it on this travesty of a "game."

Discount HDE Crystal Blue Replacement Xbox 360 Controller Shell Cover Kit

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it's made out of a cheap plastic. i put it all together with my old controller parts and i can't get it to work, it made no sense to me because the controller worked in any other shell i had but this one. i turn on the controller and the light just flashes. i tried syncing it with my xbox but still wouldn't work. i wouldn't waste the money on buying it.

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After 2 years of having the same white xbox 360 controller I felt like i needed to change color. I bought this shell in order to not buy a new one that might cost a lot more than this, and I found this item. When i got it I didn't really think it would work. I was too lazy to install the whole thing so i decided to keep the white shell and put the blue triggers, bumpers, joysticks, and d-pad. When i got to the bumpers I had a little problem...the holes in which you need to set them in were to small so i got a pair of safety scissors and carved the holes a little bigger and fit just fine. After i was done it looked very cool. In other words everything fit in just fine. When i put the whole shell on it fit just fine and had no problems.... I totally forgot, if you want to do what i did( white shell and blue buttons,triggers, etc. when putting on the d-pad just use the original screws.

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Must have for the gaming son. He likes it a lot. He has been using it every day since it arrived.

Buy GM Master Mod GOLD Metal Thumbsticks, Bullet Buttons, Trigger

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Over a year ago, I had purchased a gold modded controller from Geniusmods that just had the rapid fire function. The controller works great, but we have been looking for an updated model and came across this. This controller is amazing in so many ways.

We were impressed to see how many mods were available on the controller. The controller came with a manual that went over all the functions of the controller, and we have yet to get to try out all the functions, but I can assure you the controller offers a LOT.

The controller itself just looks and feels amazing. The metal thumbsticks and bullet buttons feel nice, just overall makes the controller feel really solid and great quality. I wasn't too sure how the metal thumbsticks would grip after playing with the rubber top ones for so long but they grip pretty good. They have notches around the rim, and they are concave to hold your thumbs. Overall they feel solid and I feel like they are more precise because of the added weight to them.

The controller is light, as mentioned. The rumbles were removed, and I was surprised to see how much lighter it is, even with the metal thumbsticks and bullet buttons. But it truly is lighter, which is pretty nice. I sometimes do miss having the rumbles though.

The trigger stops are amazing too. I love how quickly they let you shoot. Even without the mod you can shoot much faster with just the trigger stops. I had no idea how great they would feel until I got a chance to try them out. I'm in love.

The mods have a lot of custom settings which is also nice. Drop shot has multiple settings, jitter has multiple settings, and rapid fire is completely adjustable. It is nice to dial in the perfect settings to suite your playing needs. I haven't really played around with them too much, I'm just using the default settings for now. Eventually I'll get around to trying out everything.

The price I paid was unbeatable for what the controller came with. We've done lots of research on modded controllers and could not find one that had all these functions for a price like this, and I am pleased to say we received a quality product with lots of functionality. Very happy with this purchase

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I gave this controller to my brother as a birthday present. He is a huge gamer, as am I, but he is a gamer to the extreme.

From the minute he opened it he was screaming in excitement. He quickly took the controller out of the packaging and tried it out. He has informed me that his K2D ratio has gone way up since using the controller.

Being a gamer myself, I was curious about the controller and gave it a try. I'm in love. Here is my review:

The controller is light as the listing mentioned they removed the rumbles to reduce the weight. I wasn't entirely sure why one would want a lighter controller but it feels nice.

The trigger stops are AMAZING!!! I used trigger stops an the FAL with the rapid fire mod enabled and I was shooting faster than I could imagine. It has a great feel to it and definitely makes a difference.

I used the controller for a few hours and there were so many mods that I didn't even get a chance to try all them out. There's quick scope and jump shot and so much more. This thing is amazing. I sort of feel bad that I keep using my brothers present so I'm going to get another one for myself in a different color :)

Definitely worth the money. I've had other mods and none have compared to this one. This is hands down the best mod and the price is unbeatable for what you get with it. I'm in love with geniusmods

Best Deals for GM Master Mod GOLD Metal Thumbsticks, Bullet Buttons, Trigger

sorry but its the worst controller ever I want to get my money back if I can because its losing money

Honest reviews on GM Master Mod GOLD Metal Thumbsticks, Bullet Buttons, Trigger

the remote does not do anything different then a regular remote, I contacted the company and got the round around from them, just avoiding responsibility to handle this, the remote is back in the box without a use, I do not recommend to deal and buy from this company.

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This is a gift for the #1 guy in my life who is soon to be 10 and he saw this months ago and went crazy wanting it....I waited until he had forgotten and bought it for his birthday 7/29 and I am excited

Reviews of Guns of Icarus Online

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List Price: $19.99
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And this has long since become one of the most engaging and intense multiplayer titles I've ever picked up.

But, this isn't for your usual CoD player. This is for the player who likes to focus on teamwork and coordination. The Battlefield series touches into this in some ways but not to the degree that Guns of Icarus Online takes it. In GoIO, you either work together or you die together.

For starters you are given three classes to choose from. Pilot, engineer, or gunner. All three roles can be interchanged mid battle should the need arise but they won't be as specialized in the role due to extra tools each class gets over the other. It doesn't take long to get good at one or the other, but it will take experience. The best pilots in the game only get there by learning from others and by learning the limits of each ship (there are six by the way). The best engineers likewise only get there by learning what tools to use and when to use them. Gunners are perhaps the only class in game which requires mostly the skills you bring to the game (a good aim), but it is more than that. A good gunner knows what ammo to use and when to use it. They transition between guns and along the way help repair when needed.

It is a punishing game if you think within the box of your class. Gunners and pilots do not come with the tools to do heavy repairs but need to be able to help if a ship is under heavy fire. Engineers need to not only keep an eye on the repairs but also on ships approaching. Giving call outs and in a moment, hopping on a gun to deal critical damage to an enemy ship. Pilots are very much the orchestrators of everything.

So hopefully that is an idea of the intensity matches can get. Each ship has a crew of four players. If one person is not working together, but sitting on a turret or does not understand what they need to repair...that ship can be easily obliterated by opposing ships.

Matches can be very one sided because of this, and then they can be very tense and tough battles other times. I've been in fights where we were down by 3 or 4 kills and came back and won because our ships regrouped and changed our attack plan. The other team couldn't adjust and we went one after another picking their ships off.

The community is one of the friendliest and will help new players grasp the concepts. So if all of that just terrified you, don't. Come on in and fly with us!

But despite how grand that all seems, do not forget that this game is an indie title. It is not a big budget dev putting it out. With that comes advantages as well as disadvantages. The developers are very friendly and responsive but the game has it's bugs. Some are annoying, some aren't. However, when you consider the bugs with the level of gameplay it makes the bugs seem so small that they stop mattering as much.

The game is beautiful and the immersion is fantastic. It is clear this title is a labor of love and what is fantastic is...it stemmed from a simple idea. The devs who played Battlefield saw the vehicle concept there and saw how one could create an entire game around just that. Which is why I note earlier, BF comes close but not to the degree of this. In BF vehicles are fun but there is not always an emphasis on working together to crew a tank or helicopter. It often times comes down to people just using vehicles as a means of quick travel.

In the end, I regret not buying this title sooner. I waited on it, didn't give it much of a look other than a glance. Then finally on a Steam sale I jumped. Now I'm over 150hrs into the game and can't put it down. I really urge new people checking this out to give Guns a shot. It isn't a perfect game, but the gameplay is beyond what you'll ever get from the big studios who only make things for money. The potential for it in the future is wonderful and it keeps getting better.

See you in the skies!

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Guns of Icarus Online was a risky venture for Muse Games. Tired of the control investors took over their products, they shed the political shackles and got down to making the game of their dreams. It turned out incredibly well for the rest of us.

You are a gunner, and engineer or a pilot onboard the airship of your choosing. You will do battle against other airships for control of points, or for total destruction of the opposing team. This job is best done with a crew of four human players, and because of this, the in-game community is very interesting. Veteran players spin up new players on the job, barking commands over their headsets and showing them the ropes. Veteran teams work together like a well oiled machine, producing some of the most exciting player versus player matches out there.

The competitive scene is very intense, with multiple clans fighting it out for bragging rights in various tournaments set up by the community. The developers of the game are known to join in on these matches, as well as casual matches throughout the week. This is one of the few games in which you can actually count on meeting the entire development staff in game at some point, flying with, and even befriending them as you go.

The Devs are extremely well integrated into the community and will not only shoot the breeze with you on the forums, but will actually listen and implement change on occasion if a good idea is tossed their way.

Best Deals for Guns of Icarus Online

I'm in love with this game, so, sadly, my only review of it would be biased. If you are interested in playing, look up some gameplay footage to see if it strikes your fancy.

A team of four crewmembers all get on the same ship: one person pilots, and the other three can either be a gunner or engineer. While all three rolespilot, gunner, engineerhave specific jobs, they are not barred from pulling double duty. All players get one special tool per role, and an extra tool for their specialization; the pilot gets two extra tools that influence the ship's movement, the gunner gets two extra ammo types when using guns, and the engineer can get two extra repair items. However, this also means that the pilot gets one engineer tool and one ammo type, etc. etc. This sort of relationship between members keeps the game fresh, because many different strategies can be put into play. For example, an engineer could shoot a gun, and repair everything he needs in the area, or a pilot can start repairing while his ship flies on cruise control.

The community is very nice, as well. There are several 'Community Ambassadors' that were picked as volunteers to act as mediators to problems and moderators of the forums. Most, if not all, questions relating to game problems or aspects of the game will be answered very quickly if asked.

The game's lobby has three different chat types: One to your crew, one to your team, and one to the entire community. If any question is asked in this 'Regional' chat, there are many people who are willing to jump in and help.

Honest reviews on Guns of Icarus Online

Look, it's just the best online experience there is, it's the perfect blend of action and teamwork. If you like the steampunk setting, fast paced combat or just online cooperative play in general, this is a must have.

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So I suppose I should start off this review with a confession. I have played nearly 800 hours of guns of Icarus online and I have no plans to stop playing anytime soon.

This is simply the best co-op multiplayer experience I have ever found. Think L4D but with more cooperation. Working as a team is necessary to accomplish anything, thankfully the game naturally encourages teamwork.

The best part is you get to do it all while flying through the air in steampunk airships, coordinating complex tactics and formations with at times over a dozen crew members and teammates at once. It is just so incredibly rewarding when you get everyone working together just right and the beautiful enemy airships disintegrate in front of your eyes (the game really is gorgeous).

As great as all of that is and sounds it's only half the reason I've played this game more than any other game I've ever owned. The community is simply fantastic and the devs really care. I'll be honest and admit I used to play a lot of big name games made by the giant corporations of the gaming world and I enjoyed them. But it was really awful having to deal with all the trolls and punks and bigots and everything else that is prevalent on the internet. Furthermore you often felt like the developers would just make the game and dump it on you without ever touching it again or fixing problems that existed when they made it.

GOI is different. The community is friendly and welcoming and anyone that tries to ruin the game for anyone are taken seriously and handled by the community and the devs. Even better than that though is that it's made by a small group of people that really care about the game. The game is constantly updated tweaked added onto and really nurtured and cared for. You can actually email the devs directly and get a response in less than 24 hours and they not only listen to the community they are actively involved. They play in tournaments, post on the forum, play matches with the community and lurk in the lobby chat to talk to the player base.

This game may not be for everyone; but if you're the type of person, that likes people, and playing games co-operatively with said people to vanquish your foes you really should check this out; just be prepared to get hooked, because if you're anything like me, you might never stop playing.

Buy Skinit Hello Kitty Music Pattern Vinyl Skin for 1 Microsoft Xbox

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List Price: $19.99
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I know if you are cheap like me the price seems steep but I have an ipod that has had a skinit on it for FIVE YEARS and there are no scuffs or curling edges. I bought this to hack it. I cut it in peices and fashioned it on a mini xbox controller. Super cute and my 4yr old doesn't know the difference

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this product sticks to the controller completely and the controller has been used plenty since hristmas and has yet to even start coming off. yes i would reccomend this product

Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV FightPad - Ken Review

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So I picked this controller up about a month ago and at first, I thought this was one of the best purchases ever. It improved my gameplay significantly over the standard Xbox 360 controller. Then over time, the buttons and dpad started to lose their sensativity. It's gotten to a point now that I don't land my moves any more as regularly as I used to. Thanksfully, the Madcatz Tournament Stick is made from much better components. If this gamepad were not so expensive relative speaking, I would have given it a 3 star but given the price of $40, it drops to a 2 star.

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This is a good fight pad and the D-Pad does work much better than both the Xbox analog stick and the Xbox D-Pad. However it does look and feel kind of cheap. The artwork is great, but it looks like it will soon chip away to white plastic. If you love fighting games and can't afford a $100 stick I would recommend this, but I would never pay more than $40 for it. They will make more, so just be patient. Don't over pay for this now. It's just not worth it.

Best Deals for Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV FightPad - Ken

As some people have stated, this controller is light and feels a bit cheaper than the XBOX controller and no, there's no vibration and it is wired; but who cares?! I really don't. If you want to be able to pull off moves without having to access awkwardly positioned buttons, you should pick up one of these controllers. The d-pad is such a great improvement. I only jump when I mean to now and I can pull off moves on the first attempt! If anyone has ever played any of the street fighter games on Sega Saturn, like Xmen V street fighter, Marvel v street fighter or any of the street fighter alpha games, you will know that the Sega Saturn controller had the best setup for playing street fighter games. I particularly thought the Nights controller was great for playing street fighter since the buttons were a little more spread out. Those controllers were PERFECT in my opinion. This is not quite up to that par, but it is VERY close. It is an absolute improvement over the XBOX controller. I can't see how anyone could be disappointed with it. It will definitely make things easier and make the game more enjoyable.

Honest reviews on Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV FightPad - Ken

If you remember ever using a sega saturn controller, it was excellent for fighing games. It was small and compact, and the Dpad was large enough for accurate input movement. I bought this Madcatz controller hopeing for something similar to the sega saturn controller. To my surprise, this madcatz controller is MUCH LARGER than a saturn controller. In order to make the cuircitry for the home, and turbo buttons, the controller is double the thickness of a saturn. This makes it a bit uncomfortable, especially when trying to press the Blue & Green buttons.

In 3D fighting games where I press Blue & Green to perform a grab, my thumb often hits the Red button accidentally. This is because the controller is so large, you often hit an 3rd button when you are doing a grab.

I bought the "Max Shooter" adaptor plug, which lets you use a PS2 controller on a 360. It works perfectly, and I use the ps2 controller to play Virtual Fighter 5 on my 360.

I will still keep this Ken controller to play Marvel vs Capcom when it comes out on Live. The Dpad is actually very responsive. So I will give it credit for having a good Dpad. I just do not like the large overall size of the controller.

P.S. If you (or a friend) have a Dreamcast, you can purchase a seperate adaptor for the Dreamcast which lets you use a sega saturn controller on a Dreamcast. That is how I played Marvel vs Capcom in the past on my DC.

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I am surprised at the high rated reviews this product has gotten. I am a fighting game enthusiast and know a good Dpad when I try one. I loved the old-school Nintendo Dpad, and the Playstation 2 Dpad is also very good. They offered precise feel and control. When I got my Xbox 360, I was shocked at how poor the Dpad was on that controller. Everything else, including the analog sticks are so perfect, but the Dpad is clumsy and ineffective. I'd try to hold back to block and end up jumping or doing some other random direction.

So after reading some reviews on different products, I thought I'd give the Madcatz fightpad a try. When I received the package, I already had a gut-feeling that it was no good. This was confirmed moments later as I tried to play with it.

1) The diagonals were very difficult to locate and I couldn't hit them with any consistency. Very bad news in a fighting game. I found that I had to hit a precise 30 degree angle from the down position to get down-back, and that should be 45 degrees, not 30. But this could have been a defect in the particular controller I got, and might not be an issue in others.

2) However, I'm sure for all of these controllers, the feel of the pad would be the same. The floating Dpad is very loosey-goosey. While this makes it very easy to throw fireballs, any slight pressure will move you away from your intended position. So if you needed to hold back to block, you might accidentally jump or duck.

3) The construction/material of the controller feels very light and cheap. This wouldn't have bothered me too much if the controller worked great but it didn't, and this only added to my disappointment.