Xbox 360 Reviews

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Review

As the screen loads up and that all familiar blue loading font works its way across the screen, that sense of nostalgia is incredible. The main menu looks no different to its predecessor, though it comes with the added bonuses of a firefight and multiplayer mode. Putting these to a side for a moment, I eagerly throw myself into the campaign mode to see how dramatically a time passage of ten years is about to alter my playing experience.

First impressions are grand. The guy in front of me is telling me to look from left to right, and from looking at the different points I catch my first glimpses of new surroundings. 343 Studios have done a brilliant job at remastering the visuals, and due to the new game engine in the campaign, a quick press of the back button allows you to switch back and forth between the original graphics and the remastered ones. This allows for constant comparisons throughout the campaign which will see yourself finding a beautiful looking landscape, hitting the back button to travel back ten years, and then again to give yourself a comparison of how the better the visuals in this game look.

The Baconing – Review (Xbox)

If The Tick was a playable character in the next Diablo game, the result would be a lot like The Baconing.  This is the third game in the Deathspank series, but Hothead Games and its titular hero is mighty, indeed!  Only Deathspank, hero of the downtrodden, can bring the Thongs of Virtue to the enchanted Bacon fires that can destroy these mystical underpants, thus freeing his realm from a world-devouring evil created by his own hubris.  I have to clarify that this is really the story of the game.  The Deathspank series is a very self-aware parody of the action RPG genre and the sense of humor shines in The Baconing.

Gamers who haven’t tried the first two games can jump into the series with The Baconing without having to worry about the backstory.  Deathspank’s entire world is ridiculous, full of non-sequiturs, and easily summed up in the short intro.  He accidentally doomed his world by wearing six pairs of enchanted panties at once, and now has to go out and hit bad guys with his mighty weapons.

Battlefield 3 – Review (Xbox 360)

Battlefield has always offered a different twist on what everyone has come to expect from the modern shooter market. Some of the renditions have been reminiscent of an anime or cartoon. Others offer a small, niche free-to-play experience. Yet others have full scale warfare of epic proportions on a battlefield that feel very much like a war-zone. Many who choose Battlefield as their shooter do so because, rather than a small skirmish, you get the feeling that you are in an actual war. Battlefield 3 does not disappoint in this aspect and goes above and beyond the others to deliver the best multi-player in the franchise and raises the bar for what should be expected from a modern shooter.

Battlefield 3 is extremely focused on multi-player, but that is not to say that single player is completely non-existent. The campaign is rather short, but offers a wide variety of action throughout and is certainly enjoyable. You spend the majority of the game moving through cut scenes that are taken from the present and spend the majority of your game replaying the small snippets they discuss as the story progressing, until it comes to the ending that can be seen coming from some way away. The campaign, as it seems with many of the campaigns of modern shooters, is forgettable, but it is not the focus of Battlefield 3, so for what it’s worth the campaign is a solid addition to this immaculate title.

Batman: Arkham Asylum Retro Review

Pre-2009, if you mentioned the words “Batman” and “video game” in the same sentence, chances were good that the recipient of the conversation would cringe. Video games just weren’t kind to the poor Caped Crusader, as most of his games were at best mediocre, never taking advantage of the terrific franchise.

NBA 2K12 Review

Let me get this out of the way so you won’t dismiss this review as ignorant gushing. NBA 2K11 was the best sports game of all time. Period. End of story. With the classic teams ranging from the Seattle Sonics to the rugged Detroit Pistons, it was a real treat for both new and old NBA fans a like. Then they threw in the improved graphics engine and the few core gameplay tweaks that helped refine the experience. I honestly thought NBA 2K12 had no chance to match what NBA 2K11 accomplished, but I was wrong. Once again, 2k Sports puts out another solid addition that is better than its predecessor.

One of the things that fans of the series are going to notice right away is that the gameplay is now at a fluid, organic pace. In previous versions, player movements were often seamless, but were sometimes buckled by awkward animations. It could ruin the experience and make you realize that you were playing a game. Now, the player movements are seamless and the animations have never been better. All the animations in NBA 2K12 have all been tuned to look identical to the person on court.

The Gunstringer – Review

Microsoft hasn’t done much to dispel the belief that the Kinect is just a gimmicky toy for children and middle-aged women.  With games like Disneyland Adventures, Zumba, and My Little Pony Tea Party Kinect representing the system, it would be easy for hardcore gamers to overlook an excellent game like The Gunstringer.

Gears of War 3 – Review

Every so often a franchise comes around that transforms the industry permanently.  All other games of a similar genre released afterward seek to emulate said franchise and inevitably are compared to it, either favorably or unfavorably.  These past five years have seen the meteoric rise of one of these treasures.  Since its release in 2006, Gears of War has had a profound impact on gamers across the globe, and the third installment in this magnificent trilogy is about as close to perfection as this medium allows.  While the first two games in the series were fantastic, they lacked a noticeable component that prevented both of them from achieving an even higher degree of acclaim.  Gears of War 3 has that component, emotion, which allows it to ascend from a video game to art that evokes the gamut of what makes us human.

Bloodrayne Betrayal – Review (Xbox)

Older publishers have been trying to adapt their 2-D classics into modern 3-D games, but Majesco is doing just the opposite with their Bloodrayne franchise. Originally Bloodrayne was a third-person shooter/slasher hybrid about a sexy vampiress who fights Nazis. Neither the first game, nor its sequel were particularly well-received, and there hasn’t been a new game in the series for close to seven years.  Now Rayne rises from the dead as a downloadable 2D sidescroller.

Gears of War 2 – Retro Review

As the credits began to roll at the
end of the first Gears of War,
players knew immediately that Epic Games would develop a follow-up. As
anticipated, Gears of War 2 was released
two years later, in November of 2008. The first game provided Epic a foundation
to build upon in the sequel, and Gears of
War 2 certainly relies heavily on this framework.

Dead Island – Review (Xbox)

It’s interesting to play Dead Island hot on the heels of Deus Ex, since both games fall into the same genre: First Person Action RPG.   Gamers might have thought that Dead Island was a blend of shooter and survival horror; and it certainly is that, however it has the heart of a Role Playing Game.