First off, I would like to say that I have finally got passed level 20, good luck with that Volcomstoner. Moving on, Gears of War 2 is just around the corner. I'm sure many are wondering if Gears 2 will live up to it's hype, and after seeing around 27 minutes of gameplay I have to say I am disappointed. However, I really am excited to see what the whole game has to offer. The video does contain spoilers, but if you're willing to watch it then click here.
Gears of War 2
Though I wanted to see Eagle Eye, I got stuck watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and it was pretty funny. It was nothing bad, but nothing special. If I were to rate it I'd give it a 3 out of 5, which is worth watching. Well, the big move is in 6 days, and along with the move I pretty much received a car. The good things about it are it gets me from A to B, and it was free. The bad thing about it is it's in terrible condition. Oh yeah, and I was never taught how to drive. Did I mention that I am 19? However, I'll learn how to drive eventually, and my grandfather is going to fix up the car. Anyway, I found out recently that my family and I are spending Christmas with the rest of my family that live in New Jersey. SNOW, yeah that's right snow. I haven't seen snow since I was 6 maybe 7, so it's been a while. We're supposed to go snowboarding so I'm looking forward to that, and I love cold weather so regardless of what we are doing, I will probably enjoy it.
Onto gaming. I'll start with Hell's Highway, it's great, haha. I've also been playing Pure, Braid, and Castle Crashers. Braid and Castle Crashers are great games, but I've been having more fun with Pure. I'm still debating if I want to buy, rent, or not even get Silent Hill: Homecoming. If any of you have played it, let me know if it's any good. Also, my Xbox LIVE membership has ended, so I need a new one. Other than that, I'm waiting for Gears of War 2, and the Fall update. Well that's it for now, later.
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The Good: Awesome story that draws you in - Outstanding online multiplayer - Plenty fun and unique weapons to use - Finishing moves are satisfying - Great soundtrack - Achievement tracking is helpful - Voice acting is top notch - Great bosses - Horde mode is exceptionally great. The Bad: Some people may experience technical issues. When people hear the words Gears of War three things usually come to mind, chainsaw gun, online multiplayer, and game designer Cliff Bleszinski. But what is really Gears of War? Gears of War is a Sci-Fi Third Person Shooter, by Epic Games. Gears of War takes place on the planet Sera which has been overrun by a seemingly large enemy called locust. In Gears of War you took on the role of Marcus Fenix, a COG soldier imprisoned for treachery. His friend Dominic Santaigo gets him out of jail, and the journey begins. The mission was simple, to kill the locusts with the resonator, and save humanity from extinction. Obviously, something goes wrong and the resonator fails, so you end up using the Lightmass Bomb which is supposed to be a lot stronger than the resonator to say the least. However, things were not easy, why? Because the great locust general Raam was in the way of the Lightmass Bomb. In the end Raam was defeated and the Lightmass Bomb was deployed, giving the COG a much needed victory on their side. That brings us to Gears of War 2. Gears of War one was nearly perfect, but Gears 2 exceeds expectations and cannot be called anything less than flawless. Gears of War 2 takes place 6 months after the deployment of the Lightmass Bomb. The locust are back, they're meaner than ever and they're sinking entire cities. In Gears of War 2 you take on the role as Sergeant Marcus Fenix the returning hero of Gears of War one. You will be assisted by best friend Dominique Santiago, and other returning squad members. With humanity at the brink of extinction and their back against the wall, they take one final stand to save the last sanctuary in the city of Jacinto. One by one all of the cities around Jacinto sink, leaving the COG with nothing to do but to take the fight to the locust, to their territory and fight to save humanity as a species. Graphically, this game looks amazing. The people at Epic did a phenomenal job, everywhere you look, every single environment, vehicle, character, weapon, whatever the image, everything looks simply amazing. The great thing about it is that in Gears 2 there's so many different locations, whether it's online or campaign, so you really get to see some really cool and unique environments that you'll remember for a long time. You ride quite a few different vehicles, and all of them look great, but no spoilers here. Characters, whether they are good or bad they all are so diverse looking. You could easily get the feeling that you're playing Mass Effect with all of its diversity. I know I said this twice already, but there is no other way to put it, the game graphically, looks flawless. The sound, most of the sounds of the game have been changed from Gears one to Gears 2, but first, let's start with the soundtrack... ...it's amazing, especially the cinematic parts, you know the cut scenes. I don't want to get to much into it so I don't spoil the game, so let's just say that Epic did a wondeful job. As for the weapons, vehicles, and environments, they all sound great and better than in Gears one. Whether it's the sound of the Lancer, a King Raven, or even the sound of cover blowing up from an explosion, it's all great, everything just sounds right. A lot of people say Mass Effect's voice acting is the best they've every seen, but I would have to go with Gears 2, and it definitely helps that their facial expressions are perfect. All in all I'd have to say that the sounds in Gears of War 2 are amazing, top notch, a masterpiece, I would go on, but I think you get the picture. So a little about the gameplay, Gears of War 2 is a Third-Person Shooter. The idea of the game is using tactics and using cover to your advantage, while trying to kill large amounts of enemies at a time. The health system is in the center of your screen, it's a COG symbol with a locust skull in the middle, the more red it gets the sooner you need to get on cover and let your health regenerate. That's basically the idea of the game, now all you need to do is add some characters and a great story. In Gears of War 2 they do just that. The story in Gears 2 is definitely longer, and more interesting than the first. Many said that the people at Epic games were taking a big risk by making the story more deep than the first, meaning that the story is at a more personal level. In Gears one the idea of the story was to kill the locust. In Gears 2 part of the story is trying to defend Jacinto, which is humanities last hope. The other, more deep/emotional part of the story is trying to find Dom's wife Maria, who's been missing for years. In Gears 2 there is this thing called Watercooler Moments. What that is, is that every minute or so there is something cool or unique going on to keep the player from getting bored. Cliff has mentioned this in a few videos, and let's just say he stayed true to his word. Since I'm talking about gameplay, I will mention the technical issues. This is the only problem that I came across while playing the game, and I have to say it's inconsistant. What I mean by that is that not everyone will experience it. For example, someone may be on a cover and one of their squad members will completely spazz out trying to get on the same cover. Now another person playing may be at the same exact spot, do the same exact thing and nothing will happen. So that's why I don't see it as a big deal and consider it very inconsistent. The controls for Gears of War 2 are very simple, and will take a newcomer around a half hour to learn the controls. After that they will be playing like a pro. If you have already played Gears, then the controls will feel better than before and will be like a second instinct. As I said before the idea of the game is to use cover as you can and kill a lot of locust. To get on cover you go near it, press the A button and ta dah, you're on cover. What's next shoot and kill the enemies, to look over the cover so you can aim you simply push the Left Stick up. Then to aim at the locust use the Right Stick, then when you are ready to shoot the locust push down the Right Trigger and you'll shoot. After you've killed all of the locust just pull back on the Left Stick and you'll get off of the cover. It's that simple, to learn the rest of the controls I suggest you read the manual. Replay Value, there are many reasons why you will be popping in Gears of War 2 five years from now, or until Gears of War 3 is released. The main reason is due to it's online multiplayer. Gears of War was such a huge success due to its online gameplay, and Gears 2's online multiplayer has been greatly improved. With the new 5 versus 5 the game will be that much more challenging. However that's not it, there is also new characters, returning characters, re-done returning maps, new maps, new weapons, returning weapons, new modes, returning modes, finishing moves, new finishing moves, picture taking, online co-op, bots, and Horde mode. There is so much Gears 2's online multiplayer offers. I don't want to say to much about the multiplayer because I don't want to spoil the game. But Horde mode is where you and up to 4 other players take on up to 50 waves of locust, each wave will contain more locust and they will become more powerful. You can play on any difficulty and any map, so have fun. Well that sounds like enough, don't you think so? Well, it's not, there are other reasons to play the game several times. In the campaign there are many paths to choose from, so on a second or third playthrough you can choose a different path and can see something new. Trust me you don't want to miss anything in this game, Watercooler Moments remember. Now another reason that actual kind of goes with the choosing a different path is the 41 collectibles. They are similar to COG tags from Gears one. Another reason is that there are 4 different difficulties, Casual, Normal, Hardcore, and Insane. Casual is for the lesser skilled players, and then Insane is for the top notch Gears players out there. The last thing for replay value are the achievements, which vary from many things, for example collecting all 41 collectibles is an achievement, and probably the most difficult to get, Seriously 2.0 which is getting 100,000 kills. Luckily, you can get most of the achievements in any mode. Also, new in Gears of War 2 is achievement tracking, which is very helpful. All in all Gears of War 2 promises to be a worthy addition to the series, and easily places itself in the top 5 of games on the Xbox 360. I'd personally say it's number one, but that is my opinion. Whether you're playing with your friends down the street or somebody in a different Country, it brings you close to thousands of people across the globe, and lets you have a great experience with them. Anybody who owns a Xbox 360 should without a question purchase this game. With a great story, fun gameplay, and plenty of replay value there is no reason not to get this game. Oh yeah an grab a jacket, it's going to be a cold winter.
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The Good: Great visuals to go with plenty of unique locations - Not only does the story draw you in, but the sound effects do as well - Terrific voice acting - Great sequel - Using the tank is a lot of fun - The action camera and gore system are both satisfying.
The Bad: Some annoying glitches/issues - Time frame rate can drop at times - Online multiplayer is not all that great. Brothers In Arms has always been known to have a great story that was complimented by satisfying gameplay. In Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway it's not different. In Hell's Highway you take on the role as Staff Sargent Matt Baker. His mission, complete Operation Market-Garden, too bad things don't always turn out the way you plan. Throughout Baker's hellish journey, he will encounter many tasks, whether it is trying to become a great soldier, finding Kilroy, or even deciding how to eliminate an enemy. On your first play through the game (whether you are playing on casual or veteran) can take up to about 8 to 20 hours. Hell's Highway has a great story, and that has to do with the focus being about the characters. There are a lot of interesting characters, but I'll only list a few. The main being Staff Sargent Matt Baker. Previously in Road to Hill 30, Baker lost half of his original squad in Normandy. The deaths of his squad weigh heavily on him, so he is determined to not let another man die under his command. Staff Sargent Joe "Red" Hartsock, a man that understands that war doesn't make any damn sense, and is prepared to make the tough decisions ahead. Private Frank Laroche, a supposed 19 year-old who lied about his age to get into the military. Franky is the only soldier without any real experience. But made the squad do to an amazing job in training, such as hitting a quarter from a really far distance, and his natural skills with most firearms. Other than the story being about the characters, what is there? Combat. During combat you will have at least one team by your side, you may have more depending on the mission. There are three types of teams the Fire Team, which is equipped with longer range weapons, the Assault Team, equipped with lighter and shorter ranged weapons, and the Special Weapons Team, equipped with either a Bazooka or a Machine gun, depending upon the situation. So you have a squad, a large environment, all you need are enemies, and you get them, a lot of them. The enemies are smart, for the most part. They will react upon how you act, but there are some flaws. For example, sometimes they will run around for a few minutes trying to get on cover. Speaking of cover, Hell's Highway has a pretty decent cover system. Pressing LB (Left Bumper) near a cover will put you on that cover (I don't literally on it, I mean behind it). Be careful though, because in Hell's Highway one of the new additions are destructible cover. In time the cover can be destroyed and if you stay on one too long you may become hurt. But there is a glitch that I came across, sometimes when you enter cover you may levitate on top of it, and could become injured. Which brings me to the health system, there isn't one. So how do you get injured or die? Well, you can die. How this works is if you stay in the open or not on cover for too long, your screen will little by little become more and more red. Eventually your whole screen will become red and you will be shot. To have the redness go away, all you have to do is get on cover. Weapons, there are a lot of them, and by the end of the game you will have used most of them if not all of them. The weapons vary from rifles, to machine guns, to grenades, to the bazooka, and the list does not stop there. Though there are a lot of weapons you only carry four. You carry a rifle, a machine gun, a pistol, and grenades. However, you are able to replace the rifle or machine gun with a different weapon, such as the bazooka. Which is great to use on a group of enemies for two reasons, one, it kills them, and two, most of the time it goes into the action camera view. When it enters the action camera view, it zooms in to where the enemies die (while it's happening) then it enters slow motion so you can see all of the effects, such as the satisfying gore system tear apart enemies limb from limb. Another way to take out enemies is the tank. The tank is like the icing on the cake. You can run over enemies, shoot them with the machine gun on the top, or blow them to bits with the rockets. The are some problems while in the tank, while driving the tank the game may become laggy or even freeze causing you to restart you Xbox 360. There is sort of a scavenger hunt in Hell's Highway, consisting of two things, the first being, finding all of the Recon Points, and the second being, Finding Kilroy. There are two Recon points in each chapter, and three Kilroy's in each chapter. Replay value, there isn't much except after you beat the game once you unlock the Authentic difficulty which is the hardest. On Authentic all HUD elements are disabled, you won't have the crosshair to assist your aim, and the enemies are amazingly accurate. Which brings me to online. There are Ranked and Player matches. But the online is nothing special, but that doesn't mean that it is terrible. The are many maps to play on, you can play as the American's or the German's. There are up to 20 players all together. You can customize your character, but only a little. It's somewhat like Grand Theft Auto IV's customization. Graphically, Hell's Highway is amazing. The environments all have a beautiful and unique look to them. The weapons are all great looking, such as the pistol used by Baker that has Brothers In Arms written on it. The characters look awesome from head to toe, and all of them are unique looking. Some things stand out, such as the letter R over the heart on Bakers helmet, or Franky's name written on the back of his uniform. However, there are some noticeable time frame rate issues, but very little. The sounds of Hell's Highway are just wonderful, whether it's the sound of the weapons firing, the terrific voice acting or even the dramatic music that draws you more and more into the battle. Everything is on point. All in all Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway had a great story, with really fun combat and proved to be a worthy addition to the series. Though there were a few problems here and there, they can easily be overlooked. If you are a fan of the Brothers In Arms games, or a fan of historic shooters then you should consider buying this game, if not, a rental at the least. For those of you who are interested about the game, there may be a little bit of a surprise at the end, but you have to play and beat the game to see it.
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The Good: Good start - Terrific voice acting - Great story that draws you in - Plenty of different and unique planets to visit - Many fun and unique powers. The Bad: Terrible vehicle navigation - Some annoying glitches/issues. Mass Effect, you take on the role of Commander Shepard, an Alliance Military soldier. His mission, save the entire galaxy from ultimate destruction. People save the world all of the time, but an entire galaxy, that's a step further, and some. Throughout Shepard's Epic adventure, he will encounter many difficult tasks, whether it being to let an entire species die, find himself on the everlasting Prothean Artifact hunt, or even something such as saving a planet. On your first play through you could expect Mass Effect to take around 15 to 30 hours, and that just being the "main" quest. Add up all of the other goodies, and you could see the game take around 40 to 100 hours, possibly even more. Mass Effect begins with the customization of your character, and let's just say there are a lot of options to say the least. (Some of the options for customizing your character will effect side-quests.) The most important probably being your gender, you have the option to choose an already created Commander Shepard, or customize a male or female of your liking. Other options are your background (how you grew up, or even how you joined the military), in the background options you will come across your combat style. It has your basic soldier, but that's not all it offers, the others are engineer, and adept. (The other three are infiltrator, vanguard, and sentinel. All of these are just a combination of the first three.) Adepts, vanguards, and sentinels all have biotic powers. Biotics are arguably the best and most fun to use. With the push of a button, you can lift an enemy several feet high, attack it while it's in the air, and then watch it fall to the ground. What's better, the more powerful your character is, the higher you can lift the enemy. You can use the power as many times as you want (not just that power but all of them), it just needs a short recharge time after you use it. Now after you complete all of that, you will actually begin the appearance part of the customization. It has a variety of options to choose from, such as scars, hairstyle, and even eye shadow for women. When you complete the whole process, your journey will begin. Mass Effect has a great story that sucks you in. The quests, the species, the combat, it all just works. The quests, whether it be the main quest or the side quests, you can't but help to want to play it all. There is just so much to do and at times you may feel as if it's never going to end. The species, let's just make it short, there are a lot of them. So I will just list a few that are in your squad. You have your Turian, Quarian, Asari, and the biggest badass of them all, a Krogan named Urdnot Wrex. Wrex is probably (once again arguably) the best member on your squad. He's a Vanguard, which is a mixture of a soldier, and an adept, which uses biotics. So he's got the up close and personal feel of a soldier, but also has the ability to stop people in their tracks (literally) with Stasis. Many people think Stasis isn't all that great of a power, but if you are playing the game on Hard, or Insane, Stasis comes in handy, especially when fighting Saren. There are other species that you may never see if you decide not to do any side quests. For instance, on one of the uncharted worlds, you will come across a deer-like creature that apparently speaks. (I personally never figured out how to make it talk, but it gives you the option to speak to it.) Now there are some bad parts about being on uncharted worlds, and it's Mako's vehicle navigation. Mako is the vehicle that you drive while on many planets. You do not have to use Mako most of the time, but it's much quicker if you do. The good things about Mako, it can drive up pretty much anything, it can hover, but only for a short time, and it also shoots rockets. The bad, it's great that you can shoot enemies while in Mako, but unless you are level with an enemy, chances are you will miss them. Another, I would not necessarily say this is bad, but when you are killing enemies in Mako you do not get the same amount of experience points as you would on foot, in Mako you get less. The last thing about it is the driving, it's not as easy as it should be. In time you will get used to all of it, and it will become easier. As already mentioned, the combat is great, and biotics are really fun to use. The enemies do not hold anything back, especially on the harder difficulties. But as great as the combat is, it's not perfect. While in combat the game may be come laggy, it's not that big of a deal, but sometimes it gets a little annoying. Another good, and bad feature in combat is the cover system. It's great that this game has a cover system, but sometimes it may become more trouble than it's worth. For instance, you will try to get on cover, and you will, but you will end up on the same side as the enemies, chances are they will kill you. Now it really is not that big of a deal, I have played and beaten Mass Effect over 60 times, I never had a big problem with the cover system. So in combat you need weapons, and you will get them. Mass Effect offers the basic assault rifle, sniper rifle, shotgun, pistol, and grenades. However that's it, no rocket or grenade launcher here. Though there are not any rocket or grenade launchers the game makes up for it. On the five basic weapons you will be granted the ability to upgrade them. As you become better and your level goes higher you will be able to add more upgrades to the weapons. The max being three for the firearms, and the max being one for the grenades. Now with all of this you will be in the weapon inventory a lot, which causes a problem. The weapon inventory can become annoying to use at times, but just like Mako, you will get used to it. There is one more down side to all of the weapons, and it's the limited amount that you can carry. Replay value, Mass Effect has plenty of it. Whether you want to play as a different gender, see a different ending, or even for achievements. Playing as a different gender will change up the romance quite a bit, and by romance I mean the relationship of your squad members. Mass Effect offers three endings, and all three are worth seeing. As for achievements, a lot of them require you to play Mass Effect at least twice, some of them even three times, such as beating the game on Insane. Still, those are not all the replay value offers. If you were renegade your first play through, why not try out paragon on your second. Maybe you want to see different side quests. Whatever it may be, there is plenty of replay value. Graphically, Mass Effect is beautiful. It has a lot of unique planets and locations to visit. There is something unique about each planet. For instance, on one of the planets, in the sky you could see asteroids falling into the planets atmosphere, and it is really cool to watch. The character models look outstanding, each and every species look great. Just like humans, each and every single person in a species look different. Though the game is great looking, the time frame rate is a problem. You will be able to overlook it, but it's the small things that add up. Sound, I do not think there is one bad thing to say about the sounds of Mass Effect. To start, the game has a great soundtrack to go with everything, whether you are in combat, or just walking around on the Normandy. The sound effects are really good too, whether it's the firing of your weapon, the sound of wind and snow in the middle of a blizzard, or even the sound of Mako landing on a planet. But what stands out the most is the voice acting, which is by far the best I have ever seen in my entire life. The characters lips, mouths, and facial expression all match everything they say. This is definitely something you can call phenomenal. Although Mass Effect has a few technical issues, it is still an amazing game that you will come to love. It has that great Sci-Fi experience that everybody is looking for. It was definitely worth the wait, and a great start for this series. If you are a fan of BioWare, Sci-Fi,or RPG games Mass Effect is a must have. Also, if you have the money you should consider buying the DLC on the Xbox Live Marketplace. It's a great addition to the game.
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The Good: The new Flick-it control system makes it feel like you are really doing the tricks - Ok Graphics, but still almost everything on the Xbox 360 has good graphics - You can share your footage with everybody, well everybody that can go to EA Skate's website. The Bad: Some challenges in the career mode can be very difficult - In some Jam sessions online you are placed in a small area with 6 other people and expected to win - Sometimes the loading screen can get a little annoying. The story begins with a cut scene of a skater getting hit by a bus, which leads to surgery, and then the customization of your character. If you are a female, you will be a little disappointed because you don't get to choose your gender. You can ONLY be a male. As for customizing your character you have quite a few options varying from your appearance, hand gestures, the clothes you wear, etc... There are many skateboarding brands to choose from, such as Alien Workshop, Plan B, Flip, Enjoy, etc... After you are happy with your character the surgery begins. After that you are off to rehab where you learn how to do a variety of things such as flip tricks, timing, grinding, and other skills needed to complete skate. After you complete those challenges the city San Vanelona, is yours to skate. Watch out though because there are security guards. Your goal in career mode is to get on the cover of the best to skateboard magazines, Trasher, and the Skateboard Mag. Throughout the game you will unlock locations such as the X-Games, and the Plan B Warehouse. You will also have many challenges to do such as Jam sessions, photo shoots, best trick contests, so on and so forth. There are also hidden spots in the game where you have to find and beat the high score there to OWN the spot. The maximum number of sponser in the game is four which is the deck, trucks, shoes, and wheels. Graphics are good. With the new Flick-it control system you can have fun pretty much anywhere in the game, for example you could spend hours grinding the same bench over and over just to see what you can do. As I listed before there are several different challenges in the game. Some of them are easy, but some of them are very difficult to do, and can take quite a bit of time to do. The most difficult one being a 360 Flip to a FS Crooked grind by Rob Dyrdek. The easy challenges in the game however help to balance it all out. The more you play the better you will get and the hard challenges will not seem so hard anymore. Another feature is being able to upload skateboarding footage onto Xbox live so others can see it. There are a few options to edit your media, for example you can change the speed of the footage, the camera angle, and the appearance. The sound on Skate is pretty good, such as the noise for the powerslide, the flipping of the board, grinds, and the voice acting. Bailing on the other hand sounds like somebody smashed a watermelon with a sledgehammer. The game has a soundtrack and it's pretty lame. Luckily when you get tired of the soundtrack you have the option to turn it off. There are ranked, and unranked matches. There are three online modes, which are Races, Freeskate, and Trick Events. For races there are only two options Deathrace, and Spot Race. A deathrace is were you race through markers to the finish line, usually down steep hills, which is what makes it fun. Spot races are where you have to do a certain trick in the mark to move onto the next one. Freeskate speaks for itself. As for trick events there are four options to choose from, the first being Spot Battle, which is where you have to get the most points on that spot, another is a Jam session, where you are placed at a location, you are given a time limit and you have to try to get as many points as possible until the clock runs out. The other two game types (in the trick events) are SKATE, and Best Trick. The Maximum amount of players in a room is 6. But that's not all you can do online, as I wrote before you can view and rate other peoples footage. If you get tired of skating, you can watch other people play on skate tv. You can also look at the leaderboards, and see where you rank. Overall Skate is great game, I do think it is better than a 7.5, that score was pretty harsh. If you are a fan of skateboarding games, then EA's Skate is a MUST have.
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The Good: Great story, keeps you guessing until the end - Great soundtrack - Plenty of creepy environments - Great sequel.
The Bad: Poor combat - Repetitive, maybe too much for its own good - You have a limit of 10 slots to hold stuff. Silent Hill has always been known for its ability to put you in a very unsettling atmosphere, have a couple of odd characters and would compliment those factors with a great story, the same can be said for Silent Hill 4: The Room. Though many things are the same as previous Silent Hill games, Silent Hill 4 does not actually take place in Silent Hill. Another big change in Silent Hill 4 is there are two perspective modes, the first being third-person and the second being first-person. The combat has improved, but at the same time has also failed. Silent Hill 4: The Room is the 4th installment in the series, the 3rd on the PlayStation 2 and the 2nd on the Xbox. "It was two years ago that Henry Townshend moved into room 302 of South Ashfield Heights, an apartment Building in the medium-sized City of Ashfield. Henry was happy and enjoying his new life. But five days ago, something strange happened. He began to have a recurring dream each night." (- silenthill4.net) Oh yeah and one more thing, he could not leave room 302. The game begins with Henry waking up in his bedroom, he walks out, goes into his living room and sees that his door has been chained shut from the inside, with words on the door "Don't go out!! Walter." On top of that his windows have some magical force-field on them not allowing him to escape at all, nobody can hear him scream or make any noise what so ever. Henry turns around and sees what seems to be a portal forming on his living room wall, seconds after a ghost starts to come out of the hole, it flys towards Henry and he faints. Much like Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill 4 too has the main character have a nightmare before you actually get into the game. Henry again wakes up and walks around his apartment. Soon he will hear a loud noise coming from his bathroom, he checks it out and finds an enormous hole in the wall. With no other way out of his apartment Henry decides to go into the whole hoping it leads him out of his apartment. As mentioned previously, Silent Hill 4 two perspective modes: the first being the original Silent Hill view, third-person, which will be used when exploring other worlds and environments. The other is a first-person view, which is used in Henry's apartment. There are many things to interact with in his apartment and some with many focal points in the same area, so you will have to be careful of what you are trying to view. Some of the things you can do in Henry's apartment are use the sink, look out of his window(s), use the phone so on and so forth. As for the third-person perspective, you will be traveling in and out of dream-like worlds through portals. As for the story, it is a great one, but some characters such as the main protagonist Henry Townshend has no emotion at all. If you were to light a tree and Henry on fire, the tree would scream WAY before Henry would even speak. You would think someone going through all that he does would show a little more emotions. But as I said before the story is a great one, many people complain that it is too confusing and makes no sense until the end of the game. Who wants to play a game if they figure out the ending halfway through the game? Silent Hill 4 keeps you guessing until the end. As for the combat, it is better and worse than previous Silent Hill games. What it did right was make it where you have to defend yourself and cannot just run past all of the enemies. How did it do that? By putting you in narrow locations with several enemies, it is definitely safer to kill the enemies than run past them because just running past them (if you can) will cost you a lot of health. Now the bad part about it is that in the game there are ghost that you cannot kill and they can hurt you without actually attacking you. All they have to do is fly near you causing Henry to rub his temples and then you will lose health. Now there is a weapon in the game that can keep them pinned on the ground. Which brings me to my next point. In Silent Hill 4 you are limited to 10 slots to carry stuff. Which can make the repetitive gameplay even more repetitive because you will have to go back to Henry's apartment just to drop off items, and make space. Silent Hill 4 has four endings, they depend on how much you take care of Henry's apartment and his neighbor Eileen Gavin. Later in the game Henry's apartment and Eileen (who will accompany you later in the game) will become possessed. So if you want a good ending, that is a space taken away from your ten slots. Eileen also can help you beat up the monsters by giving her a weapon, but it will also cost you one space in your ten slots. Now you do not have to save Henry's apartment or Eileen, but the expect to get one of the bad endings. (When I say bad ending I mean this: there are four endings, Good +, Good, Bad, Bad +. All of the endings have titles but you'll have to play the game to figure them out.) As all previous Silent Hill games, Silent Hill 4 will give you a rating at them end of the game and show you all of your stats. The graphics are without a doubt good, a slight bit better than the PlayStation 2 version. The environments are great looking. One of my favorite parts in the game is when the ghosts come out of the wall. The way a portal starts to form and then a demonic ghost comes out of it, it's just really cool to watch. As always, Silent Hill's soundtrack and sound effects go great with the environments. But some of the sound effects in Silent Hill 4 come off as kind of lame. For example: When you are in the hospital you will encounter a freakishly tall patient or nurse (I'm not sure exactly what it is) and chances are you will kill it, but the sound it makes when you hit it sounds like someone is burping. Another part where I questioned the sound effects was when you are in the Subway on the train, it sounds like someone is walking on flooded grass, but it's metal you are walking on. Those are really the only two that I thought were kind of lame, but there were plenty of great sound effects. Though Silent Hill 4 did not take place in Silent Hill, it had a great story and had that unsettling atmospheric feeling of Silent Hill. Silent Hill 4 is easily a worthy addition to the series, and probably my second favorite. If you are a fan of the survival horror genre or just a Silent Hill fan, Silent Hill 4: The Room is at the least a rental.
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The Good: Great story - Outstanding visual design - Plenty of creepy environments - Great sound effects and soundtrack to make the creepy environments even more creepy - Great sequel. The Bad: Unless you are playing on hard, the game may be too easy - The game is too short - The combat sucks. Silent Hill has always been known for its ability to put you in a very unsettling atmosphere, have a couple of odd characters and would compliment those factors with a great story. In Silent Hill 3 it is no different. Silent Hill 3 is "you could say" a direct sequel from the events that took place in Silent Hill. Silent Hill 3 is the second installment on the PlayStation 2 and had huge shoes to fill after Silent Hill 2. In Silent Hill 3 you take on the role as Heather Mason a teenage girl with a bit of a chip on her shoulder. At the beginning of the game Heather is walking into an amusement park with a knife in her hand, eventually you will complete the task and the game will go to a cut-scene of Heather waking up in a restaurant. Soon after Heather goes to a pay phone and calls her father, she tells her father she is on her way home. As soon as she hangs up she notices a middle aged man standing not far away looking at her. Heather turns to him and gives him a look as if she wants him to leave her alone. She walks away and the man continues to follow her. The man trys to talk to her claiming he is a detective and wants to tell Heather about her childhood. Heather does not care to hear about her childhood so she trys to lose the man by going into the women's restroom. Here you will have you first save point and this is where the game really begins. Before the game even starts you have to choose the level of difficulty, I suggest you put both Riddle and Action on hard. If you do not then the game may seem way too easy and you can just run through 90% of the game. The story is no doubt a great one, but some of the characters such as Douglas the detective have no emotions and make the game seem less believable. One of the main problems is that the combat is really horrible, whether you are shooting something or beating it with a pipe. The final boss is the only boss that provides somewhat of a challenge, but all of the other bosses and enemies really are way to easy to beat even on hard. For example: The second boss. You are at the bottom of the sewers, it is a pretty big demon probably over 10 feet tall and could probably kill you in two maybe three hits. But all it does is swim around just to stand up, get shot as soon as it stands up, start swimming again and this is repeated until it dies. For those of you who have played a previous Silent Hill game you know that the camera angle can sometimes get a little frustration and can leave you helpless to attack in certain areas. It is no different in this one. One of the parts that I thought was pretty cool was when you were in that Haunted Mansion at the amusement park. It was kind of like when you went to an amusement park with your family, your little brother saw the haunted house attraction, and your parents made you take him. Throughout the whole thing your brother was scared and amused but you were like this is lame. I thought it was pretty funny to say the least. There are three possible endings for Silent Hill 3, and at the end of the game (after all of the credits) it shows your stats for the game. Varying from the time it took for you to beat the game, to how many the times you saved the game, and even things such as boss fight times. If you happen to do good the game unlocks some new features and cool new items which will make you want to play again. Graphically Silent Hill 3 is phenomenal, everything looks just simply amazing. The character models are top notch, the enemies look great, and the environment looks breath taking, literally. The lighting makes areas look realistic and the shadows can play tricks on your eyes making you question "Do I really want to go that way?" Now to compliment the games amazing look Silent Hill 3 also has a outstanding soundtrack to go with the dark creepy locations, and makes them, well creepier. The sound effects are great too. When you see the shadows and hear the sound of an enemy around the corner, it makes you nervous ever time. Then when you actually turn the corner it would be considered and "Oh snap!" moment but with dirtier words. Though the gameplay was not the best, Silent Hill 3 is still a great game and a wonderful addition to the franchise. The story was great, the graphics are probably the best I have ever seen on the PlayStation 2 and the soundtrack is amazing too. If you are a fan of Silent Hill, or survival horror games Silent Hill 3 is a must buy. Of course since it is 2008 and the game came out in 2003 it is probably more realistic to say it is a rental.
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The Good: Satisfying story - Variety of unique weapons and equipment used to complete the tasks ahead - Great boss fights - Outstanding visual design - Sharp control.
The Bad: Not being able to walk into a Best Buy, buying a Nintendo 64 and the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. As ever Zelda game begins you take on the role of Link. Your goal... ...master a variety of unique weapons, learn skills needed to overcome difficult tasks, become a hero. Oh yeah and one more thing, save the world. In the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time it is no different except in one way, everything is better. As the story begins your nothing more than a child that lives in the Kokiri Forest. But by the time you have completed the game, you will be a part time Poe hunter, married to a fish, have an angry man throw bombs at you in Zelda's Castle Courtyard and you will even find yourself on the everlasting Skulltulla scavenger hunt. But that is not all the game has to offer, there are many side tasks and mini-games apart from the main quest, which is to stop Ganondorf from taking over the land of Hyrule. Since the game is open world and there are many places to visit the possibilities may seem endless. Whether you are at the Zora's Fountain being eaten by a whale god known as Lord Jabu-Jabu or on the Death Mountain Trail under attack of molten rocks spewing from an erupted volcano, your to-do-list will never seem to end. The controls are great and easy to use which is good because you will need things to be simple while moving, shooting or climbing on objects. While there are many bosses and other enemies, the game is mainly focused on the puzzles within the game which will require you to think before you act. However, the puzzles are not just to get from room to room in the games many temples. One of the puzzles are figuring out who to give a certain mask to, another is figuring out how to defeat a boss. For example: In the Forest Temple your placed in a circular type of room with several walls and a picture on each wall. On each picture is a pathway leading to a castle. The boss is a zombie form of Ganondorf and is riding on a horse. He travels into the picture, onto the path in the picture until he reaches the castle and is no longer visible. So what you will have to do is wait and see what picture he comes out of. But you have to pay attention because it looks like he is coming out of all of the pictures, so you will have to wait and see what picture he actually comes out of, then attack him with your newly acquired Fairy Bow before he attacks you. After you repeat that a few times Ganondorf's horse will die, and Ganondorf will start to throw an electric ball of light at you. So now you are faced with new challenge, you will soon figure out that you are pretty much playing a game of ping pong, but with swords and a ball of electricity. You will soon get the hang of it and Ganondorf will not hit the ball of electricity in time, thus causing the ball of electricity to hit him which will momentarily bringing him to his knees, giving you your chance to attack. Now that is just one of the many bosses let alone enemies. There are many unique weapons and equipment in the game, such as the (as I stated before) Fairy Bow, which is suited more for the adult Link. But not to worry, young Link uses a Slingshot. The variety of weapons as well as equipment depend on what Link you are playing as. For example: When your are young Link you can buy Magic Beans and plant them, when you become adult Link they are full grown plants that act as a magic flying carpet. One of the major items in the game is the Ocarina, and throughout the game you will learn many songs, some for turning the game from night to day or vice-versa, another is calling your horse Epona, though the best is probably the ability to warp to certain locations. Which is great unless of course you like to walk or ride your horse, but hey if that is the way you want to do it go right ahead. While you are riding your horse you could do a little poe hunting for some extra rubies. A perfect 10 does not stop here, because of the phenomenal job the designers did. The graphics are simply amazing, whether you are in an underground dungeon or in Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly, the whole game just looks fantastic. It helps that the game is fluid, not choppy and this game is as fluid as it gets. Though most of the dialog in the game is text, the game's sound is great too. From the sounds effects of the town folk in the Market, the sound of your blade hitting the shield of an enemy, or in the dungeons and temples. They all have a unique sound to them that adds to the experience and just feels right. All in all the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is a masterpiece, this game has been out for ten years and people are still talking about it. If you are a Zelda fan or just someone who wants a fun action adventure game, then Ocarina of Time is a must have. If you are really considering on getting this game and you have a Wii you should buy it on the Wii's online store, it will cost about 10 dollars. I would suggest you play it on the Nintendo 64 but finding one and the Ocarina of Time may be way too difficult.
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| Date Joined: | Aug. 23, 2008 |
| City: | Dunedin |
| Gender: | Male |
| Alignment: | Microsoft |
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AttackedCamo will put up the video blog after he gets some sleep. 8 hours, 30 minutes ago |
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Torb is Gearsy. 6 days, 6 hours ago |
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Oni just finished Mirror's Edge... short but sweet 1 week ago |
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Strife88 started playing Halo 3. 1 month, 2 weeks ago |
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Enemy cannot wait for Gears of War 2 2 months, 3 weeks ago |
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Thomas_Crown The deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. 3 months, 4 weeks ago |
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