
Just Cause 2 (Xbox 360) Review.
This is a Sanbox type game in which you roam around Panau, a foreign land somewhere (not exactly sure haha) You play as a mercenary and you have to do missions for people, sounds great right?
Game Graphics:
The Graphics are pretty damn good on this game, so far I haven’t seen a single blocky thing, it all looks beautiful, especially the game world, its so huge and even from miles away you can still see that they have put details into things (although eventually you can see some things in different places that look VERY similar). The water looks beautiful, it is one of if not THE best water I have seen in a game, it isn’t very often a game manages to keep everything looking beautiful, especially water!
Graphics rating 9/10
Gameplay:
The gameplay is fun in this game, you have a Grappling Hook which lets you either grab onto things, hang things from walls or even attack two people (or other items) together, it is so much fun, you also have a parachute that you can use to get around, that is also quite fun although it can be quite tedious if you are using it to go to far away places which is why its great that they have included vehicles! The physics in this game are a little bit weird, I mean just yesterday i drove a little car into a motorbike and the bike didn’t get affected but my car went flying into the air, it makes no sense and the ragdoll physics are a bit overboard, it takes ages to get back up on your feet again. Your main way of killing people is shooting them, this is really easy although its easy to get overwhelmed by the amount of enemies around you, the guns are able to kill anybody but bosses/mini-bosses with just a few bullets but this gets boring after a while, so you go to melee people and people hardly seem affected by a metal grappling hook smashing their face in, its annoying! so due to that the gameplay gets marked down.
Gameplay Rating 8/10
World:
The world in this game is HUGE! it takes forever to get from one side to the other, that is unless you use extractions which will take you a matter of seconds, I think that they over did it with the world, it’s too big, there’s too much to explore, I find myself getting bored of all the new settlements and areas I find as i’ve done it all about 300 times before (no kidding!) its bloody annoying! There is over 300 settlements in this game, that is way too much, it takes long enough to get to each one then you have to collect stuff then destroy stuff which always gets the army after you, resulting in low health and having to flee for your life, you end up far away from where you were and you have to go back and do it again with the next place, its too boring.
I can’t deny that the world in Just Cause 2 is beautiful, in fact, yes I can, its not beautiful, its stunning! The only flaw with the world is that its so huge it takes about 100 hours or so just to get everywhere and complete all the settlements, its good for people who like repetitive things but it isn’t for me.
Throughout the world there is also a hell lot of collectibles to get for each Faction in Panau, it takes a long time to collect it all.
World rating 8/10
Vehicles:
In Just Cause 2 there are around 107 or so vehicles to drive, you get boats, planes, jets, helicopters, cars, motorbikes etc, this gives for a huge amount of different ways of getting around the games world. The vehicle controls aren’t too bad in this although it can get quite confusing while driving a very fast plane, you end up at such odd angles it kind of screws you over (well it did for me at least haha) although the vehicle physics are REALLY bad, as I already mentioned in the gameplay section.
Vehicles rating 8/10
Missions:
This game has 8 story missions and whole load of side missions, this means that you spend most of your time doing random missions for the different factions that control Panau. Some of the faction missions can be quite fun but only some, I mean alot of them are VERY repetitive, so there isn’t a huge diversity in the mission types, they had the ability to make every mission different but they chose not to, this means that people can easily get bored with all the side missions. Due to the tiny amount of story missions and the repetition of the faction missions the missions get marked down quite a lot.
Missions rating 6/10
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Overall this game is very fun and also challenging as you seem to get killed a lot during the main missions, it also has a lot of other things to do, collectibles, faction missions and more, the game also has a huge world to explore but it also gets very boring at times, these times meaning exploring the world, the faction missions and finding all the collectibles.
OVERALL RATING: 39/50!
Create (Xbox 360) Review.
This game is a game that hardly anybody has ever heard of but it is a really good game, there were no adverts on TV or any web banners of it, it is a game that kept under the radar.
Game Graphics:
This game has a sort of cartoon-y feel to it, its bright and vibrant, everything can be changed (what it looks like, not shape but colour etc) This means that you can have say a bright blue floor or a floor covered with stars or anything. There has been a lot of detail put into all the objects of the game, everything in this game looks amazing, the graphics are really well done.
Graphics rating 9/10
Objects:
There are hundreds of objects in this game, literally, every spark you collect unlocks a new object and they are all fun to play with, they are all different although some will do the same basic function as others, hers a few examples of the types of objects you get, you can have animals, ramps, vehicles, scenery stuff, balloons and loads more, there is so much different items you can play around with!
Objects Rating 9/10
Customization:
The customization in this game is incredible! every world you go to (there are 14) you can change how everything looks and add things into the world, such as you can make the ground green grass or make it into brown rock etc there are so many different things you can do, you can add flowers, stickers, change how the sky looks and much more, there is so much customization in this game its amazing! Everything in this game is customizable and there’s an area where you can customize your own play area, this means you even get to build the world, this makes this an even better game, there is so much to do!
Customization rating 10/10
Online Capabilities:
The online in this game is quite cool, you can download other peoples maps and challenges and solve them yourself, you can also upload your own stuff which is always fun but it sounds better than it is, its quite confusing to navigate, it didn’t make much sense to me until i had looked up online how to do everything, it takes a while to get used to but once you do its fun, there are even community challenges every week that you can attempt to do, you can also look at other peoples entries, its great! But due to the confusing nature of it the online gets marked down, a lot.
Online Capabilities rating 6/10
Difficulty:
The game has a nice way of increasing the difficulty, you have 10 challenges per world and each challenge from 1-10 increases in difficulty, 10 being the hardest, once you complete the last challenge in a world the next world will have slightly harder challenges but starting from easy to hard again, by the end the challenges, even no#1 can be quite challenging, they don’t increase the difficulty too much at one point, you hardly even notice its getting harder until you look back at the previous challenges, they did a great job of implementing increasing difficulty into this game.
Difficulty rating 8/10
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Overall this game is really fun for all the family! Its a great puzzle game, its so fun and different from all those generic games, this really makes you have to use your head, this game is one for everybody, nobody knows about it yet its so good! This is a game I recommend to everybody.
OVERALL RATING: 42/50!
Dragon Age: Origins (Xbox 360) Review.
This is a game which EVERYBODY should know, it has been huge, hence why I am doing a review of it, Bioware really excelled themselves with this game, it is a pure RPG, leveling up, looting, quests etc its all there! now onto the review..
Game Graphics:
The Graphics for this game were relatively good although up close they did have a little problem, i’m not sure if this was just me but sometimes some textures took a while to render so it didn’t look the greatest at some times. I have to give Bioware props for their attention to detail, most things have got so much detail in them its great! The graphics are ok for when this game came out, they could’ve spent more time on it I think but its too late now, whats done is done!
Graphics rating 6/10
Voice Acting:
The voice acting in this game wasn’t the best, I noticed a lot of the time that people’s mouths weren’t going with what they were saying and sometimes peoples voices just didn’t…suit them i guess is the right word. The voice acting can be amusing at times such as when you want to take the piss out of your fellow adventurers (party members) that will always be an amusing part of it but overall the voice acting wasn’t that great
Voice Rating 6/10
Storyline:
The Storyline in DA:O was gripping, intense and packed with action, it kept me hooked from the start, it was interesting because you could also change how the story came out by the end due to certain things you did, this is always a great thing to add into games, I love having the choice to change the ending and such. The story in DA:O is amazing, its heartfelt, it keeps true to everything you do and best of all, its fun! I can’t get enough of playing this game, i’ve played the game to death just because of the storyline.
Storyline rating 10/10
Equipment:
There is a vast diversity in equipment in this game its amazing, there are class specific ones too! This always makes choosing your armour/weapons fun, one thing that is really good about the equipment is that it actually changes how your character looks, I hate RPG games where no matter what armour you have on it doesn’t change your characters appearance. There are literally hundreds of different weapons and armours its astounding how they managed to fit so much into one disk! But there is always a letdown, half of them look the same as at least 4 or so other pieces of armour or weapons which is disappointing and unfortunately there aren’t any really cool looking things but its still a great accomplishment by Bioware.
Equipment rating 8/10
A.I:
The A.I. in this game isn’t very great, even though you can set “Tactics” onto your teammates they still don’t seem to use them very well and enemies sometimes don’t even do anything other than run to you and stand there, the amount of times i’ve had Darkspawn just run up to me then stand still is ridiculous, the good point is that your teammates and other soldiers helping you can seem to do fairly well in battle unless they come up against some big enemy then they are screwed, this I find disappointing, your teammates are supposed to be amazing at fighting and everything yet they can’t really handle themselves that well in a fight unless you control them.
A.I rating 6/10
Open World:
This is one of the lucky games to have an open world, you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, this always sells a game for me, I love being able to go anywhere without being restricted to the confines of a linear storyline. The DA:O world is massive, there’s about 20+ places to explore and these aren’t tiny places they are usually huge cities or caves! The only downside I can see is the travel time, everytime you go somewhere there is a travel map thing which usually causes you to get a battle halfway to your place and the travel times can take a while, especially as it can take a while for it to load up the path you are going.
Open World rating 7/10
Downloadable Content:
This game has been out for quite a long time now and it has received plenty of DLC, there is The Stone Prisoner which came with the game usually, Witch Hunt, Golems of Amgarrak, Wardens Keep, Darkspawn Chronicles, Return to Ostagar, The feast day Gifts and Pranks (both are also in one DLC called Feastday Combo pack), Leliana’s Song and finally Dragon Age: Awakening. If you got the DLC code for The Stone Prisoner with your game you will most likely have also gotten the code for the Blood Dragon Armour which I might add looks amazing. As you can see this game has a lot of DLC which means it will take you AGES to get through it all and once you have completed them they are still fun to play through!
DLC 8/10
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Overall this game is very good for an RPG, most games won’t come close to comparing with this, it is an insanely good RPG and i recommend you all buy it and play it especially before you play Dragon Age II!
OVERALL RATING: 51/70!
Bulletstorm (Xbox 360) Review.
This is a game that I had been looking forward to for months! I had first seen a bunch of Skillshot Trailers which intrigued me, this was going to be a game compared to no other, it was different to all other shooters and yet going to be so fun! At least thats what I thought, after having pre-ordered the Epic Edition months in advance so that I got the Gears of War 3 Beta, it arrived, I started playing it as soon as it came through the post, what can I say about this game? well here it is..
Game Graphics:
The games graphics are brilliant, even close up everything looks greatly detailed, the world (Stygia) is vibrant with lots of colours, its also HUGE! that is you can see lots of surrounding area in the horizon, this game had lots of different scenery to offer, underground, in buildings, in spaceships, outside, deserts and full foliage areas, that was one thing that made this seem like it was going to be great but yet, it still seemed lacking in diversity of landscape, even with all these different types, most of it (to me anyways) looked very similiar.
Graphics rating 7/10
Voice Acting:
The voice acting in this game is very well done but some people (including myself) noticed that Epic re-used some of the voices from their other games and just thrown them into this which i found a bit disappointing, not much but still worth mentioning, the way the characters talk is amazing, its how everybody wishes that their hero would talk, they all swear, curse and shout at each other, its great! there are some really amusing lines in this game (Usually coming from either Grayson or Sarrano).
Voice Rating 8/10
Storyline:
Storyline! now this game, for me, has a compelling storyline! it is filled with anger, passion and determination, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through this and listening to every part about the story, it was fascinating! This game has one of the best storylines in a game that I have every played, it kept me hooked the whole way through and there were several twists which I wasn’t expecting, in short I loved it!
Storyline rating 10/10
Weapons:
The weapons in this game were quite fun to use, especially the sniper as it let you control the bullet! this made it quite fun although what I did hate was that every time you shot at somebody they always tried to dodge it and usually succeeded, this annoyed me to no end so i gave up on using the sniper but other weapons such as the Bouncer and the Penetrator are so fun to use, especially the penetrator, it is one of if not the best weapon i have used in an FPS game. The weapons were quite diverse and each weapon had an alternate fire mode which was really interesting, it wasn’t your traditional grenade launcher or something it was wayyy more powerful and entertaining, these gave the weapons much more longevity.
Weapon rating 8/10
A.I:
Now the A.I. in this game are sort of impressive, they actually work! unlike most A.I. in FPS games, your teammates will try to help you and they actually can kill the enemies! The enemies are very good at hiding and dodging although one bad point is that alot of the time you will have a couple of enemies just walking towards you not even shooting at you, just waiting to be shot but otherwise the A.I.
A.I rating 7/10
Multiplayer:
The multiplayer in this game consists of one thing: Anarchy, now this is a gametype that has waves of enemies coming to kill you and you have to do your best to get as much points as you can, this sounds ok BUT you HAVE to get a certain amount of points before you can progress to the next wave and if you dont you have to start the wave all over again, which can get frustrating. The online servers do not have a good connection at all so you constantly have BAD CONNECTION in the middle of your screen which is really annoying, the online in this game is abysmal.
multiplayer rating 3/10
Unique-ness:
Skillshots! now these little beauties are what made this game what it is! Kill with Skill! thats what was said about this game, you have to kill with skill, now some people may believe this but I myself don’t, this is due to the fact that after doing a load of skillshots you just seem to keep repeating them for one or two missions then finally unlock another set, it can get very repetitive and boring, which it did for me. There are 135ish skillshots so I have to admit it sounds impressive but after i completed the campaign i had done 130, now this i found quite disappointing as I expected to have to play through the campaign at least twice to get all of them. There were about 10 or so weapon specific for each weapon but I have to say that they were rather amusing though, such as MERCY! to get this you had to shoot an enemy in his balls then kill him by either shooting or kicking his head off! haha that one will never get old I must admit!
unique-ness rating 7/10
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Overall this game is very impressive compared to most FPS games out there nowadays and this game is very innovative and just so different. Even though the multiplayer sucks ass, i still recommend you all get this! :)
OVERALL RATING: 50/70!