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You dont rent games 
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I haven't rented a game since the 360 launched. I'm pretty sure Gears 1 was the last game I rented.Comment
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wanted to see what buzzman had to say about itComment
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love you <3
had to dig this thread from page 2 though whats goin onComment
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Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (DLC)
Release Date: October 26, 2010
Developer: Rockstar
Game Type: Sandbox-Western TPS
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Red Dead Redemption was one of the best games to be released thus far in 2010. So months later, after the game has been gathering dust for many, they reenergized the game by adding an entirely new single player experience that turns the Wild West into a zombie apocalypse. It was simply a no risk, high reward scenario for Rockstar. There may not be a single person in this world that doesn’t like Red Dead and zombies.
To get it out of the way, the story is a giant mess, but it was done intentionally. It begins after you return home but before the ending “plays out.” It presents itself as a grade-B horror film that makes you laugh at supposedly “terrifying” parts. After the zombie outbreak, Marston doesn’t really think it’s a major problem that zombies are running around and eating people. On his travels, looking for a cure, he meets up with just about everybody from the original campaign and boy do they shine. All of them leave you with memorable interactions that are hilarious and much more enjoyable this time around. It’s not until you reach Mexico and start to piece together the puzzle that it starts to fall apart and get a little boring. It drags no way too long because the Mexico missions are very boring. You will only play them to get to the end to find out the forgettable and cliché conclusion that just didn’t seem to fit the tone the established the entire game.
The missions and gameplay is essentially the same thing as before, just with a few minor adjustments to fit the zombies into the grand scheme of things. An example of this is instead of picking flowers for a random stranger, you have to find a certain zombie type or instead of clearing out a gang hideout, you clear out towns and free them of zombies. So if you didn’t enjoy the original campaign, the zombies don’t necessarily change much. It can get a little repetitive as is the case with all sandbox games, but it seems liked a lot of pointless missions this time around.
They did add a few new weapons to the game. One of them is holy water and fire which both sort of set them on fire and kill them. Nothing too exciting there, but the newest weapon, the Blunderbuss, uses zombie parts as ammo and it absolutely destroys the zombies, sending them into a million pieces. It’s a great weapon to have because ammo is scarce in Undead and obviously have plenty of sources to gather ammo for it.
Along with the single player campaign, Rockstar added a new multiplayer mode called Undead Overrun, which is a horde type mode. It’s the simplest form of horde, but it’s still very fun. You have a time limit to kill X amount of zombies, and you have a coffin that when opened, adds time and ammo to all players. Once you run out of time you play until you run out of ammo and die. It’s not as addicting as initially thought, but it can provide some good gaming nights for your buddies and yourself.
So the DLC that they released had to have surpassed everyone’s expectations. Not only did they add another 6-8 campaign to 100%, but they brought with it a fun multiplayer mode, more achievements, and another reason to play Red Dead again, and that can never be a bad thing. The fact that it was released for $10 is an absolute steal, but maybe it was an apology issue for overpricing its previous DLC.
Final Score: 5/5
Recommended Price: 800 Microsoft PointsComment
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Well I just beat the shit out of Castlevania. Its amazing the entire game is basically shit, yet the ending had me craving for a sequel.
Im about to review Castlevania and Black Ops today and tommorow.
Next game IM playing is Heavy Rain with the Playstation Move. Will be the first time I play a Move game.Comment
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Call of Duty: Black Ops
Release Date: November 9, 2010
Developer: Treyarch
Game Type: First-Person Shooter
Price Paid: $60
Graphics: 8.5
The Call of Duty franchise goes under the radar in its graphical department. It’s something that isn’t a high priority with most first person shooters. Yet, each game in the franchise has gotten progressively better, albeit not by a whole lot since the introduction of Modern Warfare. It seems as if the developers were satisfied enough to just tweak a few things here and there.
Watching a little bit of Black Ops, no one would argue if you thought it was Modern Warfare 2. Almost nothing has changed. It might be a sign of laziness, but Modern Warfare 2 had impressive visuals, so why mess with something that already works.
The main difference just seemed to be the lighting and the environment. Black Ops took place in every environment imaginable. Water, jungle, sand, snow; it had it all. The strongest showcases for the game came when in Russia when you were trying to escape the prison, surrounding you in darkness, then suddenly being exposed to an open area outdoor prison shootout.
Aside from the surroundings, the character models looked real good. They had a variety of famous faces along with new characters that gave you the impression these were people and not poorly designed flat faces you see in a lot of shooters. I Must say, Reznov’s new look is badass and glad he’s back.
Sound: 9
The voice acting in Call of Duty is famous for bringing in celebrities to do the work. It has always been a great success for them, and Black Ops delivers a trio of great voice work. The protagonist, Alex Mason, is voiced by Sam Worthington of Avatar fame, Ed Harris plays his commanding officer, and Victor Reznov makes a triumphant return from World at War, as Gary Oldman reprises his voice. He really is the best character in the entire franchise, and all of that is due to the great work of Oldman. He is a broken man this time around, and you get to play out the events that scarred him far worse then war. Truly wonderful scene. Russian accents are way more entertaining then any other.
The score was definitely not up to par with the previous games. I can’t even count with my hands the number of times a score got me pumped up, ready to rape the enemy, but looking back, I can’t recall any one scene that the music didn’t throw you into the scene and get your blood pumping.
Gameplay: 8
Call of Duty 4 was the best balanced game and arguably a genre defining game. Since then, every entry has tried to imitate it buy going bigger and more badass. The effect that had wasn’t a good one. The game started becoming out of control. Instead of the game coming down to skill, random luck, and route running, the kill usually went to the player that saw the guy first.
Black Ops is the closest Call of Duty has come to capturing that magic of 4, but even then feels like it needs some work. The maps, guns, and perks (outside of flap jacket) feel a lot better balanced, but it still feels a little OCD. So much is going on at once that the game doesn’t feel like the number one objective for most players. It can be frustrating when you play with randoms who aren’t team players. Your experience obviously varies with each passing game, but nothing is worse then shitty mates.
At first there was extreme problems with the connection of the servers and if you had a party of three or more, you could forget about finding a game in less then ten minutes. Thankfully, the developers got right to work on a fix, and now it’s well-working with just the occasional hiccup. It’s nice to know you can count on them this time around to fix the game’s glitches and unfair advantages.
Moving onto the much hyped wager matches, they are a piece of shit. The higher wage matches are full of campers and the low stakes one are not, but you don’t get jack shit for winning. It really was a failure in terms of intention, but a success for a quick brake from the normal style COD has become. The COD points are also a bit of a meaningless new feature. You earn them so easily, you can practically buy everything you need right away and as you unlock them. It might have worked better if you actually had to earn them.
The entire “customize yourself” campaign they kept pushing before release was also a bit of a waste. The face paint, gear outlook, race, and your own red dot all wore off extremely fast and I have never heard a comment about them since the first week of release. The one really neat feature was the emblem creator. If you try, you can come up with some pretty creative shit that isn’t a penis. I personally created a sweetass looking Diglett Pokemon, but I’ve seen great ones of Batman, TMNT, and South Park, plus lots more. Your missing out if you don’t attempt one yourself.
Last note about multiplayer is the addition of theater mode. It’s almost up to par with Bungie’s Forge mode. It’s an extremely user friendly and you finally have a chance to showcase some of your funnier or cooler kills. It’s a very welcome addition to the franchise.
Finally onto the best thing about Call of Duty now; Zombies. The mode came out of no where and was such a giant success, countless games have tried to re-create it for their game, but there is only one that can be king, and that’s Nazi Zombies. They literally changed nothing about the mode except for a few power ups and special weapons and of course the maps. The two new ones on first play were awesome, but after a bit, I was disappointed in the lack of everything I loved. Little to no Easter Eggs to be found, less strategy, and more casual friendly. That’s not to say you can’t make one up yourself and when you do it’s still very fun, but it seemed to lack the magic feeling of World at War. Not to worry though, the mode made huge leaps and bounds with every map pack, and I expect nothing less again.
Lasting Appeal:9
Hours Played:50+ Hours
Game Difficulty: 7
Trophy Difficulty: 5 or 8 (depending on skill with veteran)
The single player was the second best in the series. It clocks in at about 6-8 hours, which is loads better then Modern Warfare 2. The mystery and the way in which they handled the missions came to together in a bit of an anti-climatic sort of way that everyone should have saw coming, but it didn’t harness the amount of fun I had playing. In doing so, it will definitely get me to replay it other then for achievements. Fun Fact: I played COD 4 single player a total of 8 times.
The achievements are pretty basic. All of the offline shit mainly consists of beating missions on veteran and collecting Intel items. The others deal with zombies. You already know if you you’ll go for them or whether you can. Veteran is still a bitch, but if you have the patience you should have no time getting them all.
Multiplayer is going to be a lot friendlier for a majority of gamers. There is less shit to aggravate you, more options to choose from, and overall better experience. You should have no problem getting your moneys worth. Even if the competitive multiplayer isn’t for you, then zombies will. I think it’s nearly impossible to not enjoy both.
Final Comments:
Black Ops was the biggest entertainment launch of the year, and while it didn’t deserve it, still delivered a kick-ass gaming experience. It shouldn’t win many awards, but the amount of product you get is an incredible deal. It’s impossible to deny that. If it’s something you enjoy, you’ll love it, if COD was never your thing, Black Ops most liely won’t change your feelings, but offers much more then your used to, so give it a rent and find out.
Right to the point:
+ Competitive gameplay
+ Zombies!!!!!
+ Amount of detail with your stats
- The first half of the single player
- Easter Eggs
- Customization
Final Score: 7/10
Recommended Price: $40Comment
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Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Release Date: October 5, 2010
Developer: MercurySteam
Game Type: Action-Adventure (Hack-n-Slash)
Price Paid: $45
Graphics: 9
Castlevania: Lords of Shadows is not only the best visually appealing games in the series, but one of the best looking games in the business today. When you see the first cutscene up until the very end credits, everything just comes away looking so smooth and well-placed. The transition from cutscene to gameplay isn’t much different other then amount of zoom you go into with the camera.
The decision to reboot the franchise out of a castle seemed to have a wonderful effect for the game. It allowed them to create such a vast amount of settings to travel through. From the snowy mountains all the way to a swampy gasland, they put in a lot of work to make the levels as different as they could, and if not for that, might have been the most repetitive game to date, but more on that later.
They did a pretty impressive technique with the camera that was pretty neat. To show you just how massive some things were, they had it zoom out as you were running to say a giant Titan or a Castle, and as you got closer the zoom would get lesser until you were just a tiny figure among. Nothing ground breaking, just a little visual treat.
The character models mostly looked great. Gabriel was looking great along with some side characters he met along the way, but some of the other characters, be it poor execution or terrible design, just didn’t look right. Zobek, your partner, looked hideous whenever he was on screen, and the Satan’s appearance might be the worst representation of him I’ve seen in a long while.
Sound: 7
The soundtrack to Lords of Shadows is the game’s strongest point. It creates a very nice balance of slow peaceful tone in times of sadness for our character, but has some really fast paced Inception-like music that matches the giant boss battles you come to face. An example of how they made it work so well is when you come across a giant Titan 100x your size, the music is vibrating so much; you can feel the waves hitting your body. Of course, you have to have a decent TV to experience this effect, but it’s impressive.
The voice acting is horrendous. The main character attempts to give Gabriel emotions, but his voice just doesn’t fit his muscular body and feels forced plenty of times. It’s a shame too because there are moments that should be better then they were, but you kind of pass off Gabriel feeling hopelessness inside him. Patrick Stewart was much hyped for the game, but he was such a disappointment. Everytime he talked it felt like he was bored of reading. He had a monotonous voice, and what made it worse was he also read the narration before each chapter that practically put you to sleep. Such an awful casting choice in what is usually the easiest part for a game.
Gameplay: 6
If the game didn’t have Castlevania in its name, you’d never guess it was part of the franchise. There is no castle, there are trolls, spiders, and ghosts, and there is no Dracula. The only thing it has in common with the series is platforming. But this is the first 3D Castlevania that works, be it, not by high standards.
The entire story for the game is very boring. You’re trying to resurrect your murdered wife by collecting the broken pieces of a godly mask. I’m pretty sure you won’t know exactly why you’re doing anything until the last few hours of the game, but you probably shouldn’t care either. It’s average in every way and features a very lame ending that feels like a laughable mess. I guess this is why you shouldn’t try and stretch a 12 hour game into 30.
The gameplay is nice and fluid at the start. You have a cross that is upgraded into a super weapon that does all sorts of shit, but you end up using it as a whip most of the game. It’s a great weapon at first, and mowing down enemies is fun, but after about 3-4 hours, it starts to become super repetitive. You hit them a few times, move around, and then hit them again. Sure you could do special moves, but the cool ones require so much magic, it’s a waste on the weaker foes. It makes it a little worse because there are such a variety of creatures, yet there are basically 3 class types and you defeat each enemy in that class the same way. Once you get to the boss battles its basically hit twice, dodge twice, rinse and repeat. By far one of the most repetitive games; even for a hack-n-slash which usually gets a little leeway.
The platforming and puzzles are the best part of the game. The platforming is a much needed relaxation from the usually gameplay, and are long portions when you actually get to scale a building. I found that it was very smooth and rarely did I fall because the game was glitchy, rather me just jumping to the wrong spot. The puzzles are relatively easy, but when you run into one that requires real thinking, you get a sense of accomplishment when you solve it. A nice reward for doing something you were going to have to do anyway.
The magic was a great feature, it’s just there wasn’t enough of it to constantly do that fun moves. One move drained half the bar, and while you can absorb energy from your fallen victims, it wasn’t enough. One part of the magic that was cool was the ability to regain health by hitting foes while your under magic. Too many times in these types of games I couldn’t find health and one little miss-up and I’d have to star over, but that health trick saved me plenty of times.
Lasting Appeal: 6
Hours Played: 35
Game Difficulty: 7.5
Trophy Difficulty: 9
Lords of Shadow is a very long game. I clocked it in at 35 hours, and that is an amazing length for a non-RPG game. While many see that as a positive, I felt it really hurt the game because everything got old fast, and it didn’t have that great story to overshadow it. Maybe a hardcore fan of slashers would find this a dream, but as a fan myself, I like the games to be around that 12 hour mark.
Once you beat the campaign, if you want to get the trophies, then your going to have to replay some levels and access the areas you couldn’t before. While, I myself will never ever come back and play this, trophies whores will. Nasty little trick they pulled on people who are casual trophy collectors. In order to get the platinum, you’ll probably end up clocking in another 5-10 hours, adding to the already massive length. It’s hard to believe the amount left to do, yet the lasting appeal is so poor.
Final Comments:
Lords of Shadows was my third most anticipated game of 2010. Sadly, those high expectations only set it up for disappointment. While it wasn’t a failure, Lords of Shadows is barely considered a good game in my eyes. The reboot was fine and was a much needed jolt into the series, but the first installment was poor. It’s funny though. Despite everything that was wrong with the game, there was a lengthy epilogue cutscene after the credits that was such a masterpiece, if they do infact make the sequel, I’d be there day one ready to buy it. It was that good. If you decide not to play the game, I don’t blame you, but please check out the epilogue on youtube. It’s worth your time.
Right to the point:
+ The visuals
+ The puzzles and platforming
+ The epilogue
- Repetitive Combat
- Story
- Enemies
Final Score: 6.5/10
Recommended Price: $20Comment
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I love your damn reviews.
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yes, you really do an excellent job presenting these....good workComment
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what do you guys think about the new scoring system?Comment
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