Assassins Creed 3 review

PSN: Blumpinator

Assassins Creed III was one of the most anticipated games of the year. For a while I didn’t really care much about it. Unfortunately, these games burn me out relatively fast.

As for the first post on this blog, I want to address that this isn’t a review for the game, but just my own personal thoughts about my experiences with the game.

When I started Assassins Creed III, I was so pumped. Sure, I could have done without the cutscenes around every corner, but I think the mood was set up perfectly. However, from the start, we all knew that Haytham wasn’t going to be the main character, and we all wondered why we were playing him. Two hours later, I’m having a blast, and I actually start to like Haytham. He is a likeable dick that could actually be the main character of a game.

Let me just say, that the first five or six hours of this game are such a thrill ride. Even when you finally have control as Connor and get to explore the frontier and do some tree free running (which works great, by the way). You start to then connect with another character and understand his motives, but this feeling was soon stripped from me as the point of this game was trying to make started to get further and further away.

I ultimately feel that Assassins Creed II Brotherhood was the pinnacle of the series. It had everything right, the few added tweaks and mechanics to an already amazing game that was Assassins Creed II. I firmly believe that Ezio was a much more likeable character than Connor is. I don’t find him to be as dull as Altair was, but I don’t know how to really pinpoint it. There is just something about Connor that starts to bore me more and more as the game goes on. His outfit, on the other hand, is bad ass. Just wanted to put that one out there.

The voice acting for the game is done very well, with only a few exceptions. These exceptions killed the immersion for me though. The elder native American that talked to Connor, her voice made me want to mute my TV and just read the captions (I eventually did do this). I’m no expert, so if I’m wrong, then I’m wrong, but the voice acting in the Native American language sounded so monotone and emotionless that it sounded like I was using Google translate. Speech like that just doesn’t exist unless you’re Ben Stein or a fucking Elcor from Mass Effect.

Hopeless, I digress.

One of the coolest things about Assassins Creed II was the amount of weapons there was in the game. The variety of weapons and combos you did with each of these weapons really added another layer of fun to the game. Like a big stabby bloody crunchy skull onion. Assassins Creed III promised to have plenty of weapons and even more than the sequel did. There is a large variety of weapons, but there is sadly only 3 types of animations. Sword, Tomahawk, and two-hander style weapons like maces and great axes. I was watching my girlfriend play her game and she had bought one of the best little blades you can get, it was some sort of dirk. In AC2 this kind of weapon had crazy little stabby animations with the combos that would make your insides literally hurt when you pulled off these combos. I watched in sadness as Connor used the little dagger as if it was a Tomahawk. All of the daggers use Tomahawk animations. Only swords use sword animations. This may be nitpicking, but this game was supposed to be taking steps forward, instead its only taking one forward, and 10 steps back.

Something is going on here….

The controls have also taken a turn for the worse. Ubisoft tried to simplify the controls by making it so you only have to hold in the right trigger or R1 button to do EVERYTHING. Freerunning, jumping, climbing, etc. All things that were considered “high profile” maneuvers in the other games. Which means those long stupid chase scenes (there are many) start to really get on your nerves when you have to restart them over and over because as you turned a corner, Connor decides to try and jump up a flat wall with nothing to grab onto. All the while, your target gets away. Again, and again.
Assassins Creed III is also more horizontal than any previous title. The cities hardly have much vertical play to them, and when you can get on rooftops, the guards see everything with their X-ray vision. The frontier is really cool, and free running through the trees like an ape is just awesome. But there is little to do in the frontier. Sure, you can hunt. But why? Which brings me to my other point, that the side quests are boring, and mean nothing to the outcome of the game.
I finished the game at 40% completion. This sort of standard should not be allowed for a game of this magnitude! For such an anticipated game, for a game that is considered a runner-up for GOTY(game of the year), why would anyone allow this? The side quests really don’t matter. I tell everyone who wants to play this game, to just play the main story and you’ll have a better time. The homestead missions are okay, but really don’t change your gameplay.

I feel like Ubisoft wanted to make a Grand Theft Auto game with an Assassins Creed skin overtop of it. That’s how a lot of the new mechanics work and it shouldn’t be that way when the previous trilogy was such a success.

The multiplayer is a joke, too. I can sum it up in one sentence.

“Got eyes on my target, I’m closing in for the kill but he’s running away and I just got killed again by someone else.”  Repeat this sentence 50 times. You have played one multiplayer match. That was all I needed to play before I never went back again.

However, Something I absolutely love about Assassins Creed III was the naval missions. These seafaring adventures were the best part of this game, hands down. When I was able to play these in the first few hours of the game, I played every single one until there were none left to play until I progressed further into the story. And THIS is what the multiplayer should be!

Why didn’t anyone think of this?

I truly hope at some point in time, they either release that as a multiplayer mode in a future game, or they just release a new game with all those mechanics. Because I had so much damn fun. Could you imagine it? It could work just like any of the other multiplayer internet games out there. You could start with a shitty ship, and as you level up and get XP and unlock points you get upgrades, perks, new weapons and defenses for your ship, you could also buy more ships. SHIT SHIP they could just make it a free to play game with microtransactions and I promise you it would make money.
I honestly feel like the video game industry doesn’t understand the word of success anymore.

SPOILER ALERT BELOW

The last point I wanted to make was about Desmond. If his story is supposedly over, I think this is a good thing. Because I can’t name one person who gives any worth a damn about Desmond’s story. It was never needed. None of the apocalypse nonsense, none of the Animus nonsense, (which is a neat concept but it should have been put out to pasture a long time ago) and none of those awful missions as Desmond were needed in the series. I’m curious to see how it will go from here. But I wish the game was just about each generation of Assassins rather than Desmond playing Back to the Future 4 with his pals.

So that’s it. The game doesn’t suck. It’s a fun game, and I had a good time playing it. But it wasn’t until I had finished it that I realized it was a major disappointment. I can’t really say I’ll be getting anymore Assassins Creed games in the future. Unless they release something along the lines of a Naval game where you do nothing but sail, shoot at ships, and board other ships to kill their leader.
Someone will make it, right?

PSN All-Stars Battle Royale Review

Of course this game is going to have major criticism. It's going up against the behemoth Super Smash Bros. Keep in mind Super Smash Bros comes out once per console so Nintendo has plenty of years on Superbot, the primary developer for Playstation Allstars Battle Rolale which I think is a horrible title, which was created three years ago.

This being the first game, the original Super Smash Bros starts with only 12 characters. This one has 20. I don't know who Fat Princess is but I am familiar with the others.

These are the only things holding me back from enjoying this game more then Super Smash Bros (now referred to as SSB) 1) There are no smash attacks. Maybe because SSB is titular for "smash"ing, but it is an essential part of my gameplay and probably everyone's. 2) You can't use the analog stick to jump. I still haven't gotten used to it. 3) Instead of being knocked of the stage, you are killed(?). It's more fun for someone to knock you to the edge of the stage but you make it back to someone waiting to finish you off. 4) Because you can't be knocked off the stage there is no recovery attack which makes sense, but I find myself trying to make a triple jump or attack someone coming from a platform below. I haven't played every character, but Cole does have an attack that shoots him up but it has to be done standing, not freefall. 5) In SSB I seemed to always be facing an enemy unless I was running away. In this game I seem to always be facing away and it takes precious milliseconds to react.

Now the things I like about the game over SSB. The characters have 3 attack buttons instead of 2 which allows for plenty attacks and specials like a traditional fighting game (I consider SSB to have its own category), but there are no smash attacks which makes all these attacks dull and not very explosive. 2) I like the fact that a meter builds up for a super attack but I don't like that it makes it a race to who gets there first gets the kill. If it just did damage I'd like it better and still have to smash someone off the level.

If you don't think of this as Super Smash Bros competition it's a great game. But It has a ways to go to catch up.

WWE 13 review

One of the most customizable and best gameplay WWE games."

Overview

In 2011, Yukes and THQ completely rehauled the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw series and released the game as WWE ‘12. Two of the major points of revamping the series dealt with the controls/gamplay and physics. This year, they improved on the foundation laid by WWE '12 and have given us one of the greatest WWE games to date.


Gameplay (9/10)

Flow and progression of matches is more realistic compared to most other years in the series. Matches feel more like a simulation of real matches rather than an arcade experience. After a match has lasted a while, you and your opponent will stay down for longer periods of time when getting slammed to the mat, instead of quickly jumping up as if nothing happened. Working on specific body parts with the limb targeting system will cause the wrestler to act as though those parts are in severe agony. This added realism is great for those wanting to recreate what happens on television. However, those wanting an extremely fasted paced, arcade style wrestling game may not enjoy this as much.

Controls were altered to a style more similar to Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain and prior games. The current control scheme is identical to WWE '12 and is neither better nor worse than the SvR controls. The current control scheme features a button to initiate grapples and a button to strike, whereas SvR used the right analog stick to initiate grapples. There are still four different grapples and you can rotate to a different grapple when you are already in a grapple (i.e. moving from a headlock to wristlock). Also, within each grapple there are up to five different possible moves and the limb targeting system.

Limb targeting was first introduced in WWE '12 and makes a welcomed return to WWE '13. The limb targeting system allows you to focus on specific body parts (head, arms, and legs) when you grapple an opponent by holding RB/R1 and pressing a button associated with a specific body part. This year, the system has been expanded to allow different moves from different grapple positions. In WWE '12, there were only three different limb targeting moves total (one for each body part) and you would do that move no matter which grapple you were in or if the opponent was groggy. This year, wrestlers are able to have different limb targeting moves for each grapple position, when an opponent is in a groggy standing position, and when an opponent is laying on the mat. The expansion of limb targeting moves allows for a greater variety of moves during matches.

Reversals are easier to achieve. Wrestlers usually give a slight visual cue to when they are going to do a move, which helps you correctly time reversals. There is also a prompt that lets you know whether you were too early or too late on pressing the reverse button. There is a longer timeframe to press the reversal button compared to last year. While some may enjoy the easier reversals, I found it to be a slight nuisance. On default sliders, it will quickly become second nature to reverse nearly every move; whereas last year's took more skill and timing.

New to this year are OMG moments. OMG moments are big, crazy finishers that usually make use of the surrounding environment. With a stored finisher, you can put someone through the announce table, corner barricade, or the cell in a Hell in a Cell match. With three stored finishers as a super heavyweight (i.e. Mark Henry or Big Show), you are able to break the ring. If you are put through the announce table or barricade after you have received a lot of damage, a meter will pop up to where you will have to stop it in a certain area before the 10 count. There are also catch finishers that some superstars can execute, which requires one stored finisher. For instance, if someone springboards or jumps from the top rope against Randy Orton, then Randy Orton can execute an RKO onto the flying opponent. The OMG moments are a nice addition to the game and can make matches even more entertaining and surprising.

Leverage pins are a unique addition. When an opponent is standing and groggy, you are able to press the right analog stick to roll them up. This is a neat addition because it can add surprise pinfall attempts and more realistically simulate matches. Kicking out of pins is the same as last year's, where a meter pops up and you must stop a moving bar in a certain area. Reversing pins are still in this game. Another nice add-on is being able to determine the number of finishers someone starts a match with. Special abilities also make a return. Superstars are assigned certain special abilities, which can allow them to escape the ring when lying near the ropes, steal someone's finisher, do springboard moves, have comebacks, etcetera.

Before you start a match against the AI, you are able to determine whether the match will be Quick, Normal, or Epic. A quick match is similar to a squash match commonly seen on television. These matches typically are only a couple of minutes long, with one person dominating the offense and quickly obtaining of finisher. Moves cause more damage and the momentum bar fills faster in Quick mode. Normal matches are like any basic match from previous wrestling games. Epic matches are long, drawn out matches that can last anywhere between 12-20 minutes on average. The longest single fall match I have had thus far on Epic was approximately 30 minutes. Damage and momentum rate are reduced in this mode, so it takes longer to wear down an opponent and to obtain a Signature and Finisher. The match is likely to have more back and forth action and more reversals than the other match options. I personally love this option and believe it makes this game better than WWE '12. In previous games, I would adjust the damage sliders to get lengthy matches (10-15 minutes). There is no need to do that in this game because you are able to get great, lengthy matches by just selecting Epic. Also, if you adjust the damage sliders it will make the matches even longer.

The AI in this game is both wonderful and annoying. Matches can be entertaining, exciting, back and forth affairs if you adjust the sliders. On default sliders, the AI is passive and not aggressive despite difficulty level. I have seen the AI stand around for a couple of seconds not doing anything, while I am lying on the mat. By tweaking the sliders, the AI will become more aggressive, which makes creates fun, exciting, and challenging matches. These matches are typically back and forth with no one getting the upper hand for extending periods of time. If the AI gets a finisher, they rarely immediately use it. Some my find this annoying, but I believe it is a positive. Most of the time, using the first finisher as soon as you get it will not put an opponent away (unless you are using the Quick setting). This means that the AI can save the finisher, beat you down some more, and then use the finisher at a more opportune time, instead of wasting it early in a match.

There are several problems with the AI. Two counts against the AI are a rarity when doing a normal pin attempt. They will usually kick out of a pin attempt at one, unless you have them worn down enough for the three count. There is little suspense because they either quickly kick out, or if they do not you know you have won the match. There are exceptions to this, such as when using leverage pins or reversing a roll up. The AI will often times kick out at two. The AI will frequently randomly walk outside of the ring and remove the cover and monitors from the announce table. Once they obtain a finisher, they will regularly attempt an OMG moment through the announce table or barricade. This will be a nice novelty if it happened every once in a while, but it occurs every other match. The AI is terrible in triple threat matches, as it usually dissolves into a handicap match against you. I have read this occurs when you have the targeting system set to manual, but does not happen when it is set to automatic. I have not tried this on automatic to confirm it. Either way, it is a nuisance and make triple threat matches against two AI opponents pointless for me. The AI in normal tag team matches can be cumbersome as well. Requesting assistance from your partner typically leads to them slowly entering the ring and standing around dumbfounded until nearly the count of three, then they will break up the pin. The opponent AI also seems to be shy at tagging in their partner, unless they are already in the vicinity of their corner.

One of the biggest problems I have with this game that does not involve the AI is the manual targeting system. A lot of the time the game does not seem to register that I clicked the left analog stick to change targets. This becomes very frustrating in multi-man matches, especially online matches where you need to always remain on the attack.


Online (7/10)

Online matches have taken a step back from last year. Matches are often laggy and lead you to becoming desynchronized from your opponent(s). If you are desynchronized from your opponents, it will show them as leaving the session and they will be replaced by AI opponents for the remainder of the match. Overall, reversals are easier to do this year, which means that rarely anyone will have control of a match and there will be many reversals. Although reversals are easier overall, they are more difficult to perform on running grapples. For years, the SvR series was plagued with people executing running grapples online. In WWE '12, this was partially solved by making it easy to reversal these spammers by pressing the grapple button. However, this year they made it more difficult because pressing the grapple button rarely works and there is a significantly shorter window to reverse running grapples compared to other moves. Running grapple spammers are rampant in ranked matches and fairly common in player matches.

Even worse to deal with, but far more rare than the spammers, are glitchers. These people take advantage of glitches in the game to win. The one experience I had with glitchers turned bad for them. I was in an elimination tornado tag against two glitchers. If my partner or I went outside the ring, they were able to morph into a grapple with us inside the ring. At one point in the match, I attempted a submission on one of the guys. While I was starting to apply the submission, the other guy attempted to roll me up for a pin and he became stuck in that position. My partner and I quickly eliminated the guy I was originally applying a submission on, while his partner remained stuck on the ground attempting a roll up. We attempted various attacks to get him unstuck, but to no avail. Finally, my partner threw a chair at him, which unstuck him. We easily disposed of him afterwards. Although in my one experience the glitching backfired, it would definitely get irritating to repeatedly play against glitchers.

There have been a few times I have won ranked matches and it counted as a win, until a day or two later when I check my record and they have been changed to loses. I am not sure why this happens, but it has happened on a couple of separate occasions. One nice cosmetic improvement from last year is the ability to use custom arenas online.

Community Creations has shown a nice improvement from last year. Previously, it was difficult to access the community creations to download other users' created content. It was normal to repeatedly get an error message regarding the servers. This year, the problem has been fixed. I have downloaded several different wrestlers and arenas and have only had problems with the servers on one or two occasions.

For those that simply play games for achievements, you will be in for a rude awakening regarding the online related achievements in this game. All of the offline achievements are easy to obtain, but one online achievement requires you to reach the maximum rank. As of the time this review was published, no one had obtained this achievement, but there was speculation it required you to get over 1 million points. Typically, you will gain 1,000-1,500 points for each win, which basically translates into you needing to win roughly 1,000 ranked matches to get the achievement.


Match Types (10/10)

There is not much new in match types compared to previous years. There are still the stables, such as steel cage, ladder, TLC, Hell in a Cell, and Elimination Chamber. Special Referee matches have been reintroduced this year, but it is very limited. If you are the special referee, you cannot attack whoever you want whenever you want. A lot of times pressing the grapple button will cause you to push and point your finger at someone, instead of attacking them. If you are too unfair in a match, John Laurinitis will come down and relieve you of your referee duties. So, instead of having fun and putting a beat down on someone and practically turning the match into a handicap match (who did not do this in previous iterations?), you are forced to call the match fairly objectively. There is the possibility of turning on someone towards the end of a match by hitting them with a finisher and doing a quick count, but repeatedly attacking someone throughout a match will cause to be kicked as a referee.

A nice cosmetic touch is the ability to select whether to have a normal, blue, or black steel cage for steel cage matches. I have always wanted this option and am extremely surprised and glad it is available in the game. This makes it possible to relive some of the great early WWE cage matches.


Characters/Roster (10/10)

The roster is humongous. There are over 100 superstars available, including DLC (over 80 without DLC). Most of the important characters from today and the Attitude Era are present. Some notable superstars not present include Tyson Kidd, D-Lo Brown, and Steve Blackman. Honestly, this is one of, if not the greatest rosters in a wrestling game. There is plenty of superstars for fans of the current product, Attitude era, or both products. There are numerous possible dream matches available without the aid of created wrestlers. Although they are not characters, there are several arenas available from current shows and pay-per-views and from Attitude Era shows and pay-per-views.

One problem with the roster is a lot of the newer superstars are only available as DLC. This includes Damien Sandow, Lord Tensai, Ryback, and Antonio Caesaro. However, this is understandable considering the cutoff for the main game roster is typically around Wrestlemania, and most of these guys had not made a huge impact at that time.

Many Attitude Era wrestlers have numerous alternate attires that were used in the Attitude Era mode, but they are not available in the game outside of the Attitude Era mode. It would have been nice if these alternate attires were available. The upside is that each superstar can have the colors of their attires changed for up to 3 additional color variations. So, with a little bit of work, you can replicate attires from the Attitude Era mode, other matches, or create your own color schemes.


Story Mode (9/10)

There are two different modes that can constitute a story mode, which are the Attitude Era and Universe modes. The Attitude Era mode encompasses many significant and memorable events leading up to the beginning of the era in 1997 through its height in 1999. There are over 60 different matches to relive, which can take over 6 hours to complete. There are excerpts, and sometimes videos, prior to each match to catch you up to speed on what has happened in a particular rivalry up to that point. In each match, the primary objective is to usually win, but there are also historical objectives that can be completed that will help you unlock various items in game. This mode replaces Road to Wrestlemania from previous games and is a significant improvement. Last year's Road to Wrestlemania put you in the shoes of Sheamus, Triple H, and a created superstar. Most of the matches were repetitive because they were either backstage brawls or you were fighting the same three wrestlers. If you were in an actual wrestling match instead of a backstage brawl, you usually could not pin your opponent for the win, but had to wait for a prompt to press Y to appear to end the match. This year, you do not play as the same wrestler over and over again. Instead, you get to wrestle as and against a variety of different Attitude Era wrestlers. Also, most matches are actual matches. There is no pressing Y after you have delivered a set amount of damage to your opponent. Overall, the Attitude Era mode was a blast to play through.

Universe mode returns for its third year. For those that have not played a WWE game in a few years, this mode is similar to a season or General Manager mode. There have been a few noticeable improvements. For one, you are now able to create your own show any day of the week and create your own pay-per-view on a Sunday. You are also able to add whoever you want to the Money in the Bank ladder match at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view and be able to cash in for a title match if you won the MitB ladder match. Previous games did not allow this to occur if superstars were replaced from the original match the computer assigns. THQ said they added more scenes to Universe Mode and branching storylines. Also, scenes are supposed to occur more often. However, I have not noticed any of this as of yet. I have not seen any new scenes and it is rare for me to get a scene. I have yet to have a branching storyline either, which I guess is suppose to give you a couple of choices on what to do and a storyline will progress a certain way based on your selection.


Customization (10/10)

This is the most customizable WWE game to date. You are able to create wrestlers, entrances, logos, storylines, and finishers like in previous games. They also re-added created belts. However, the big addition is the improvement on created arenas. This year, you are able to modify nearly everything about an arena. There are five different venues (3 indoor and 2 outdoor) you can select for your arena. There are several different stages you can select. Once you select a stage, there are various possible lighting and structure scenarios. There are also little things such as the lighting in the arena (bright, normal, red, blue, and various other colors) and barricade type (steel or current) that can be altered. It is also possible to create up to 3 alternate color attires for each superstar (non created wrestlers).

Like previous years, it is possible to make nearly anyone you want and have them look great. There are 50 slots for created wrestlers and 50 slots for created arenas. You are also able to upload your created content for others to download, or you can download other people's created content.


Audio and Graphics (7/10)

The sound effects in this game are horrible. Wrestlers use the same couple of grunts when lifting opponents. Hitting the mat does not sound anything like it does in real life. Although, there have been very few games to accurately replicate that (All Star Pro Wrestling series for Playstation 2 is the only one that comes to mind). The horrid sound effects are amplified in the Halftime Heat arena (Empty Arena), since there are no fans cheering and partially distracting you from the sound effects.

Speaking of the crowd, the noise of the crowd was vastly improved. They become louder throughout a match as it becomes more exciting. Previously, the crowd would typically stay at the same volume throughout the duration of a match. The crowd will also sometimes start chants during an intense match.

The commentary system was supposed to have been immensely improved. However, I cannot tell a difference in this year's commentary compared to other iterations. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler repeatedly use the same 10 or so lines throughout every match. There were suppose to be several hundred new lines added and a new dynamic system for when and what would be said. This is simply not the case so far in my experience.

The graphics have been slightly improved from last year, but not by much. The character models look decent, but compared to previous SvR games (including PS2 SvR games) they are horrendous. The reason for this deals with the way the developers create the wrestlers now, compared to SvR. I do not know much about the details, besides in SvR the wrestlers were scanned into the game. However, the way the wrestlers are created now allows for more fluid and lifelike movement and execution of moves. Personally, I will take a loss of detail in character models for more fluid and realistic movement.


Glitches

There have been a few random glitches I have experienced. Some seem to occur consistently, while others have only occurred once or twice. The consistent glitches deal with the way the AI acts. The rarity of two counts against the AI and their persistence to perform OMG moments are small and sometimes aggravating recurring glitches. There have been two instances in tag team matches where I have lost control of one of my partners in the match, even though I put the setting to control all partners before the match started. There is a button that allows you to switch which person on your team you are controlling, but this did not let me change to the legal man at the time. During a Money in the Bank ladder match, I was suplexed off of the top of a ladder in the middle of the ring. I hit the mat at the edge of the ring and disappeared for the remainder of the match.


Conclusion

WWE '13 is one of the best wrestling games to ever be released. The controls are great. Movesets have been expanded. Wrestlers act injured when they are injured. Matches typically flow and progress like their real life counterpart. You can have an epic 30 minute match or a quick 2 minute match. The game is highly customizable and the most customizable WWE game released to date.

However, there are a couple of drawbacks, which include the passiveness of the AI on default settings, the way AI acts in tag team matches, the AI's love of OMG moments, and the rarity of two counts. Otherwise, the gameplay is nearly perfect for someone wanting to simulate pro wrestling matches.

There will undoubtedly be many wondering if they should upgrade from a previous WWE game to WWE ‘13. My answer is a resounding yes for everyone that does not own WWE '12. If you own WWE '12, I would say there is a significant improvement in gameplay with the addition of quick, normal, and epic matches and the expanded move sets. However, the AI can act whacky at times on default settings. Overall, I feel like there is a big enough improvement in gameplay to warrant a purchase, plus the AI is better in WWE '13 with adjusted sliders than it is in WWE '12.

+ Improved gameplay
+ Huge roster
+ Attitude Era mode
+ Customization

- Default AI
- Online matches

Final Score: 62/70 = 89%

Age of conan MMO Review *Made in 08*

"Great game, but Big Disappointment"

Funcom finally release Age of Conan to the public after a few delays. With all the hype going into this game many expect it to be the World of Warcraft killer or a game that will come ever close to having numbers like Wow.

I played AoC and Wow both games are good in there own way, but both games have big flaws which take away from the game.

Sound: 10/10
Probably the best part of the game. The music is beautiful. The Combat noises sounds pretty realistic. Everything fits where it is suppose to fit, nothing seems out of place.

Graphics: 10/10
Graphic wise this game tops all other MMOs on the market even Vanguard or Oblivion. Even on low settings the graphics are still amazing. The water, grass, combat, players, Npc, buildings all look fantastic. There seem to be no texture problems with the game. Each instance has it's own little feeling to it, making each experience unique.

Gameplay: 5/10
- Combat System: (8/10) The combat system is the only thing that is different from all the other MMOs which is a good thing. It makes you actually think and say aware of who and what you are fighting instead of walking away from the screen and coming back 5 minutes later because you had auto-attack on.

- Leveling: (4/10) The Leveling in this game is great but like many great things it has a huge flaw. When you first enter the game this game seems amazing. You have so many quest to do it is unbelievable. Once you past the beginning actually start the game. Again you have a lot of quest to do, but once you hit level 32 or so the quest suddenly stop and this game turns into one big grind fest. You can hardly find quest anywhere and when you do there is a chance that those quest are bugged. After level 40 this game is nothing but grinding.

-Instances: (2/10) One of the biggest disappointments in the game. The Instances in this game are one thing they should redo. The Instances here are not like WoW where if you have a party it is just you guys. When you enter a Instance you are with everyone else who entered the instance as well. Leaving you trying to find mobs for your quest and getting killed by other players when you are in the middle of fighting a quest mob if you are on a PvP server.

- PvP (Person verse Person): (4/10) The PvP in this game is FFA (Free for All) meaning everyone can attack whoever no matter what level they are, where they are or what they are doing. You can be attacked when you zone in a area, you can be attacked when you are talking to a quest giver. You could be killed right when you come back to life. Also Capture the Flag and team Deathmatch are very boring. For one not many people play them and two this game doesn't require a hole long of skill to PvP. A level 20 can kill a level 30 if he knows what he is doing.

- Classes: (6/10) The classes of this game are all good and amusing but some classes are impossible to beat in PVP like ToS and ToM. Every class has hide which is a good thing but at the same time it is a bad thing since the Rogue archetypes have nothing special about them.

Overall 6/10
This game is good but all it really is; is eye candy. There are so many better games/MMOs out there or coming out. This game needs a lot of work to be consider anything close to a Great MMO. But it is worth a try thought.

L4D2 review *Made in 09*

"Left 4 Wanting More!"

"Left for Wanting More."

Left for wanting More

Graphics: 8/10
The Graphics are just about the same as the last game, with some slight improvements.

Sound: 10/10
The Sound in this game is amazing. Each Infected has a different sound, so you know what is coming at you and the voices of the characters are really top notch. You can really get into the characters in this game just on how they speak. Really adds more to the game which the first one didn't. The guns sound the same as last game.

Game Play: 8/10

Story: The Story is a lot better then the first. The story goes together unlike the first where you are in one area then the other for no reason. This one the story follow one after another. Five Campaigns that take about a hour to a Hour and a Half to finish on Normal and up to two hours on Expert.

Controls: Same controls as last game.

Extra Goods: The New guns in this game add quite a lot to the game. Two Snipers, Three Shotguns, 6 or so machine guns, also they added laser sights which help your accuracy (You need to find this). They also added in exploding ammo and incendiary ammo. Then we have the Melee weapons which are Axes, Swords to Flying Pans and Baseball Bats. They also added two health objects as well. The adrenaline shot which heals less then the pills but it makes you move faster and heal faster, then we have the Defibrillator which brings a ally back from death. (Really helps on realism mode)

Online: 7/10

Community: The Community in this game is a lot better then the Original L4D. People seem to be talking a lot of and give pointers and help when needed. Everyone seems to work as a team and have a goal to win the game. Probably one of the best game community's to date. This L4D is more team based, with more combo's for the Infected to work with.

Lag: The main problem right now is the lag online no matter which mode you play. For some reason unlike the first L4D. This game for some reason gets some seriously bad lag when playing online at times. It is getting better but some games are just unplayable no matter if you set the server to Local or Dedicated Server. If you don't mind some lag on some games and don't mind restarting a finding a new game every once and a while then it is fine.

New Modes: The new modes in this game are F-U-N. Fun, Fun, Fun. The first game alone was fun with just two modes. Verses and Campaign. This game however added two more. Realism mode which once you are dead, you are dead for good. As in no finding a random person in the closet so he can play again. This add a extra situation you need to be careful of when playing. Another thing to realism mode is that you can't see where your allies are because they don't have the blue halo around them. The guns as well follow this. You need to go slow and work together if you want to beat this mode. And then Savage Mode is a fun mode where you collect gas tanks and bring them to one area. This is a very hard mode. You NEED to work as a team in this mode or you will fail.

New Infected: Besides the new skins for some the old Infected (Hunter, Smoker, Boomer) L4D2 has 3 more new Infected you have to worry about or can be in Verses Mode. Charger who well Chargers into the Human Players; so hiding in a alleyway will not more anymore. He only stops if he crashes into the wall or gets shot. If he hits a Human player he grabs him and bashes him into the wall he crashed into and then slams him against the ground until the human player is dead or if one of the Human Player allies comes to his rescue and kills the Charger.

Spitter, who you guessed it. Spits. But the Spit is Acid and as a Area Effect. Anyone within the green spit will get damaged. Spitters stop people from sitting in corners or trying to revive their allies.

Jockey who jumps on your character and controls where you go. And yes you can't do anything about it if you have a Jockey on you. So the Jockey can make you turn towards a Boomer so you get vomited on and then into some Spitter Acid or into fire or off a building. Whatever the Jockey see's fit that is what going to happen until it is dead.

Overall: 8/10
Overall this game is solid. The online play needs a bit of work due to the lag, but besides that the series is getting better. One can only wait until L4D3.

Warhammer MMO Review *Made in 08*

"WoW killer.. You be the judge."

"Great Game.. WoW killer though. I think not."

After delays and delays Warhammer has finally arrived. Is it deserving of the title "WoW Killer?" I will let you decide that.

I have played almost every MMO out of the market. Vanguard, City of Heroes/Villains, Age of Conan (Sadly) and the list goes on. But of course I have played Warcraft.

Sound: 8/10
The sound is pretty good in this game, about the same as Warcraft I would have to say. Nothign seems out of place.

Graphics: 8/10
If you want to get out of the cartoon looking warcraft art style this could be a game for you. The characters don't look like cartoons at all. The dwarfs are actually pudgy not build steroid using midgets like in WoW. Also there are no gnome. But that's besides the fact. The Order looks like good guys and the Destruction look evil no matter what race you chose. The Greenskins look really powerful and evil, same go with Chaos and Dark Elves. The game is designed every nicely.

Gameplay:
- Combat System: (8/10) - Pretty much the same as WoWs, really nothing. much to be said. Runs just as smoothly as WoWs.

- Leveling: (10/10) -Leveling in this game is amazing. I haven't even looked at my experience bar while I am leveling that is how fun they made this game. And you can level in PvP also. Killing people and leveling... What is better then that?

- PvP/RvR: (10/10) - The PvP/RvR is where this game really shines. As you noticed WoW is stealing some ideas from Warhammer and I wonder why that is. Everything you do PvP/RvR wise is great, from open RvR to Scenarios (Battlegrounds for all you WoW players). Is simply amazing.

Another great thing about the RvR is you can just level straight off that if you wanted. You could PvP all the way to 40 (Which is the max level) if you really wanted to. Along with leveling you get PvP rank as well which you can buy cool little talents and buffs along with weapons. If you want a true up to date MMO based on PVP/RvR this is the game to get.

- Public Quest: (10/10) - Whoever though up the public questing idea should be awarded a metal. This is another part of WAR that outshines all the rest. You pretty much compete with everyone in the area of the public quest to get the best reward but at the same time you need to help each other in order to get the final rewards. You can make a lot of great friends in doing so as well, as well as get in a few guilds. You can also do the public quest over and over and over if you really wanted to.

- Classes: (10/10) - The Classes in this game are very well done. A few classes at the beginning drag behind the rest (Magus from Chaos) but besides that there is really no over powered classes. The DPS classed do outstanding DPS but they die quickly. The Tanks do what they are suppose to and the healing classes as well. There are only about 2-3 hybrids in a sense. Like shamans have to do damage to heal better and vise visa. Overall tho the classes are wonderful and every class is useful.

Overall 9/10
This game is amazing. WoW Killer... I don't think so. Nothing will kill WoW but itself, but this game does offer a lot. The Classes seemed really balanced. Yes this game does have bugs in it but what game does. I haven't ran into anything game quitting worthy. So if you are looking for a game that is PvP based, try this game out. Its not eye candy like Age of Conan, The classes are not unbalanced like WoW.

MW2 Review *Made in 08*

"Great Game, some problems with online. But overall GREAT!"

Great Game, some problems with online. But overall GREAT!

Graphics: 9/10
I must say the Graphics for the game is good, no Great. The environment on all stages and maps matches throughout the whole game. Nothing seems out of place at all. It is really a step up from Modern Warfare 1.

Sound: 10/10
The sound is amazing. The guns sound awesome. Explosions even better. All sounds are crisp and clean. No doubt this is one of the best aspects of the game.

Game Play: 8/10

Story: The story was good. Better then the first. Only have two problems. Veteran difficulty seems a lot easier then the first game in the series. More so because you don't have enemies chucking grenades from every which angle. The second is the length. Under Veteran the game can be beat under eight hours. Which I suppose is good for a FPS but if you don't have online this could be a problem.

Controls: The controls are pretty much the same as Modern Warfare one with maybe a change or two in the buttons.

Spec-Ops: It starts out easy, but quickly gets hard even on normal. Without some glitches you can't beat a few stages on Veteran unless you are LUCKY! Overall this is a VERY good mode to play around with if you don't want to play online and have a few over your house or online that just wants to waste a few hours of killing NPCs.

Online: 7/10

Community: Its like all FPS's pretty much. Every man for themselves even when your on the team only caring about there K/D ratio.

Maps: 7/10: The Maps in MW2 bring out the Campers. Most maps have multiple camping spots and unlike MW1 these maps have a lot of hiding places and clutter (As in a lot of objects in the way.)

Compared to MW1: MW1 and MW2 are two different games with two different play styles. You can't really compare the two games. But if I had to. I would say that it is better then the First. It makes you think instead of running and gunning.

Overall: 8/10
Besides some problems with online play. This game is a very good game. Much better then the first one. If you are a Modern Warfare Fan you will be pleased with this game.

Rent or Buy?
Rent if you don't have offline.
Buy if you enjoy Online play and don't mind dieing a few times to campers.

Dead Space Review *Made in 08*

"Sleeper hit of 08"

Dead Space

::Step into the space suit of Isaac Clarke, an Engineer sent to check a communications problem on the deep-spacing mining ship. The USS Ishimura, As soon as you get on the ship... Its a fight for survival. Will you be able to save yourself and escape or you will end up like the rest. Cut up and dismembered?::

The Story: 8/10
The Story is pretty basic. Its pretty much like every other sci-fi movie out there. But don't look just at the story. Even though it is like every other movie and game, but unlike the others this game puts everything together so well. You have a lot of aw crap moments going along with the story and later after you get into the game you feel lost like you will never be able to get off this ship alive.

Game-Play: 8/10
The Game-play is very polished and very well done. But with that said you want a game that is more then a Survival Horror type of game you will be very disappointed.

If your use to the fast turns, fast action type of movements this game is not that at all. The turns are slow, but it fits the game. The actions are very smooth, very gun shoots like it suppose to. No hitches or anything of that nature. The walk is very smooth as well. The running on the other hand is very debatable. Some people say it is clunky but I though it was very smooth as well.

Your character (Isaac) can't jump, duck, kneel, crawl like in the other shooter type games, but what he can do unlike the other is curb stomp. If a monster is crawling near you and you don't want to waste ammo. Nothing is better then stepping on the things head. Be careful though because the curb stomp does have a bit of a responds time. You can shot your gun mid-stomp. So be careful when you use it. But the whole point of the game is to blow off your enemy body parts one by one until they are no more. Legs, Arms, Head. Everything can be blow off the body, but even with the monsters legs blown off he will still come after you. Even with it's head off he will come after you, even with his arms off he will come after you. So make sure before you go on the thing is totally dead.

The armor suits are decent looking. They are not amazing to look it but they will keep you safe, and they have a very good selection of guns you can use from your handy Plasma Cutter to a Force Gun. All guns are useful in different situations. BUT make sure before you go into a room that you are well prepared, if you fail to buy ammo, or running very low on it and you continue on with your mission to survive you will be in a jam when a bunch of nasty monsters come at you.

The deaths Isaac has are all different. He can simply have his head cut off or he can have his body riped around so only a torso is there.

Graphics: 10/10
Perfect. One word to describe it. Everywhere you go has detail, and not just little detail. But where this game really shines on Graphics is the monsters. They look so crisp and smooth and look as if you are watching a movie. The movements from the monsters are flawless. The environment is spooky, you have to keep a close eye out because in any moment the walls from about can break as you see pieces of it fall in front of you, as you look there is a monster or two right there. You will not shy away from this game if you just want graphics. Very well put together.

Sound: 10/10
Another 10/10. When the developers designed this game, they made sound a huge part of it. You could be walking down a hallway. No monsters to be scene but then you hear something from above you, or around the corner. It makes you stop for a brief moment just to make sure something is behind or running at you. You hear metal dropping on the ground, the sounds of monsters but they re no where to be scene.

Each monster has its own roar or shriek, and early on you will find out about this. As you continue with the story you will hear weirder in weirder things. Such as whispers from the dead, intercoms and one or two children songs.

As Isaac gets injured he starts to breath more heavy. The sound of his walking is totally different.

When your in a no oxygen zone all you can hear is your own breathing, and the shots of your gun. The monsters can't be heard so you have no idea where they are. Making it a unique experience.

Replayability: 5/10 - Length: 6/10
The Length of the game is about average for games now a days. About 8-12 hours depending if you rush or not. The Replayability on the other hand is slightly lower since once you play through one you know what is going to happen and the thrill is almost all gone. They do have a Game plus but you can only play it on the same difficulty you had it set to on your first play through, so if you beat the game on medium, your game plus will only be on medium. Besides unlocking all the achievements which is about 3-4 play throughs. There isn't any need to play again, one game play would be enough get all your thrills and needs in.

Rent or Buy?
Personally I think this is more of a rental since you can beat the game in less then a week. But if your a game collector or love these types of games and don't mind playing it over and over for achievements and whatnot then it is definitely a buy.

Fable 2 Review *Made in 08*

"Fable II.... Amazing game with small problems"

Fable II.... Amazing game with small problems

Game Ranking 9/10 and here is why.

Graphics: 8/10
The Graphics some might say is a bit kiddish but it fits the game so well. There is nothing out of place, the environment of all the areas are amazing. The attacks, magic, ranged attacks all fit, nothing glitches or hitches when you cast a spell, attack or use your ranged attack. The only problem with the graphics is some of the clothing for your character look HUGE and a lot of the hats and such are ugly. Even so all the clothing look good graphic wise but not good look wise.

Sound: 9/10
I love the sound of this game. The whimpers of your dog when he is scared to the clashing of blades to magic begin casted. Like Graphics nothing seems out of placed. The sound is right on with everything you do. Also when the people talk about you Good or Bad. It always gets your attention because ether you want to be nice to them, or they trash talk you and you just go ape nuts and destroy the whole town. The little children talk to you as well asking you for certain things which is really sweet. So all in all the sound is almost, if not perfect.

Game-play: 9/10 (I'm going to break it down into sections)

The Story: The story of the game is very good. Everything goes smooth. They don;t toss a curve ball on you and tell you to do something way out of the blue. Everything sticks to the story. In total the story is about 15-35 hours long. It matters if you rush through the game and skip everything or take your time. Enjoy the settings and people talking.

Questing: Questing is rather easy in this game sadly. The dog and the yellow line makes questing so much easier. Some quests may give you some trouble, but not anything that you can't over come. Questing in the game can make a 15-35 hour game into a 55+ Hour game.

Misc stuff to do: All the stuff you can do besides the story and questing make this game well over 100+ hours. You have from battling in this arena type event, to buying every single house and shop in the game. The Jobs take a good hour to two to level up max and there are around 6-7 Jobs (Blacksmith to Bounty Hunter). Then you have raising your family or doing your good or evil thing. There is so much other stuff in the game that I rather not post here because I don't want to spoiler anything.

Exploring: Exploring in this game is actually pretty fun. (Yes they do have fast travel as well for quests for those who want to know). A lot of people just follow the yellow line given to you telling you where to go. But if you have time on your hands, go exploring. Finding treasure chests way off your path. One or two quests. Maybe a new town that you wouldn't of gotten to before until later in the game. The Graphics and Environment also plays a lot into exploring.

Battling: The Battle system is a free roam type of system. Much like Fable 1, but they added guns and such. You will hardly if at all verse one monster at a time, most of the time you will be up against 3-9 monsters at a time. The controls are pretty simple. B for Magic, Y for Ranged and X for Melee. All attacks types are useful. You can kill almost all the mobs with one type of attack type if you want this game doesn't really require you to think when you are fighting.

Death System: Pretty simple. If you die, You get revived right on the spot. If you have a revive potion it automatically uses it. If you don't you have the choice to take money or experience away or you can just revive and take the scar.

Other stuff (Will list below)

Good verse Evil? All the great question. Should you be Good or Evil? Well both sides are pretty well balanced. Good is harder then evil. Also if your good everyone loves you and wants to marry you, if your evil everyone hates you. So it really matters what your prefer.

Is there Armor: No, just clothing which you can dye to look different.

Co-Op Mode: If you have X-box live you can set it up so you can see everyone in the game, well sort of. You see there name and a orb with there X-box live logo. You have no idea what they look like, what sex they and so forth. The only thing you can hear is people talking. They way you start to play with someone is if you click there name and ask them to join you, from there you split the exp/gold ratio. Take note, you can only have ONE person besides yourselves playing with you. So 2 players, not 3 or 4. Just 2 and it is pretty much like single player with a bit more monsters. You both share the screen as well, no split screen or separate screens for each person. The one that is joining has to be a mercenary, of course with all your skills, personally, and stats. (The joiner can NOT buy from a vendor. You also have no inventory. So you can't pick anything up.) After you finished playing with that one person all the experience and gold you earned goes to your real character. Also one final thing. At any time if there is someone around them, you CAN join them.

Community The online community is alright. Nothing much to comment on here. You do hear little kids screaming sometimes but besides that Fable 2 does have a mature community. Some people give out gold as well.

Bugs and Glitches: Not going to lie, this game does have some minor bugs and glitches. They already fixed a few with the first patch (The Experience glitch). But the game still does have some that haven't been fixed yet. Nothing really game ending worthy.

Rent or Buy?
For Fable fans and fantasy RPG fans who like Free Roam combat and want a game that can last away if you do everything this is a hands down buy. But if your just in it to rush, or you really been iffy on this game RENT IT.

Left for Dead Reviews *Made in 08*

"Left for Wanting More."

Left for wanting More

Graphics: 8/10
The Graphics are just about the same as the last game, with some slight improvements.

Sound: 10/10
The Sound in this game is amazing. Each Infected has a different sound, so you know what is coming at you and the voices of the characters are really top notch. You can really get into the characters in this game just on how they speak. Really adds more to the game which the first one didn't. The guns sound the same as last game.

Game Play: 8/10

Story: The Story is a lot better then the first. The story goes together unlike the first where you are in one area then the other for no reason. This one the story follow one after another. Five Campaigns that take about a hour to a Hour and a Half to finish on Normal and up to two hours on Expert.

Controls: Same controls as last game.

Extra Goods: The New guns in this game add quite a lot to the game. Two Snipers, Three Shotguns, 6 or so machine guns, also they added laser sights which help your accuracy (You need to find this). They also added in exploding ammo and incendiary ammo. Then we have the Melee weapons which are Axes, Swords to Flying Pans and Baseball Bats. They also added two health objects as well. The adrenaline shot which heals less then the pills but it makes you move faster and heal faster, then we have the Defibrillator which brings a ally back from death. (Really helps on realism mode)

Online: 7/10

Community: The Community in this game is a lot better then the Original L4D. People seem to be talking a lot of and give pointers and help when needed. Everyone seems to work as a team and have a goal to win the game. Probably one of the best game community's to date. This L4D is more team based, with more combo's for the Infected to work with.

Lag: The main problem right now is the lag online no matter which mode you play. For some reason unlike the first L4D. This game for some reason gets some seriously bad lag when playing online at times. It is getting better but some games are just unplayable no matter if you set the server to Local or Dedicated Server. If you don't mind some lag on some games and don't mind restarting a finding a new game every once and a while then it is fine.

New Modes: The new modes in this game are F-U-N. Fun, Fun, Fun. The first game alone was fun with just two modes. Verses and Campaign. This game however added two more. Realism mode which once you are dead, you are dead for good. As in no finding a random person in the closet so he can play again. This add a extra situation you need to be careful of when playing. Another thing to realism mode is that you can't see where your allies are because they don't have the blue halo around them. The guns as well follow this. You need to go slow and work together if you want to beat this mode. And then Savage Mode is a fun mode where you collect gas tanks and bring them to one area. This is a very hard mode. You NEED to work as a team in this mode or you will fail.

New Infected: Besides the new skins for some the old Infected (Hunter, Smoker, Boomer) L4D2 has 3 more new Infected you have to worry about or can be in Verses Mode. Charger who well Chargers into the Human Players; so hiding in a alleyway will not more anymore. He only stops if he crashes into the wall or gets shot. If he hits a Human player he grabs him and bashes him into the wall he crashed into and then slams him against the ground until the human player is dead or if one of the Human Player allies comes to his rescue and kills the Charger.

Spitter, who you guessed it. Spits. But the Spit is Acid and as a Area Effect. Anyone within the green spit will get damaged. Spitters stop people from sitting in corners or trying to revive their allies.

Jockey who jumps on your character and controls where you go. And yes you can't do anything about it if you have a Jockey on you. So the Jockey can make you turn towards a Boomer so you get vomited on and then into some Spitter Acid or into fire or off a building. Whatever the Jockey see's fit that is what going to happen until it is dead.

Overall: 8/10
Overall this game is solid. The online play needs a bit of work due to the lag, but besides that the series is getting better. One can only wait until L4D3.

Rent or Buy?
Buy... Without a doubt buy. So much you can do in single player, even more if you have online.