Xbox Game Reviews

[Winnow]

I grabbed 6 Xbox games off the newsgroups over the past two days to see what kind of quality Xbox games were being put out right before Xbox 360 hits the stores.

X-Men Legends 2

Mentioned elsewhere. The first game in this series was highly entertaining. The sequel, adds a few things, fixes a few things, and polishes up the UI. It's more of the same which is a good thing if you liked the first one.

Burnout Revenge

I only played it a little so far but like it better than Burnout 2. The original Burnout is still the best IMO because it wasn't completely out of control with crashes yet kept the intensity level high at all times. The original Burnout was best for PvP races IMO. Burnout Revenge seems good for single player. The first new event I tried was intentionally taking out traffic flowing the same direction as you to extend your race timer and gain points while avoiding head on traffic and obstacles. Beyond that I havent seen much yet but the Crash for points games look like they have more creative setups for you to maneuver through.

Tiger Woods 2006

Also mentioned elswhere. Great character generation system and a wide variety if skill level play including easy levels for novices to start right away. I'm not looking to bust my controller while playing a golf game. It's more for relaxation or winding down so easy is good.

Mortal Combat: Shaolin Monks

This might be Kwon's dream game. Tons of martial arts mayhem with all sorts of combo moves. Great animations and overall graphics. Good single player story/campaign as well as PvP. I've never played a Mortal Combat arcade game and nad no trouble picking up the basics so this is worth a look if you like fighting games.

Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects

If superheroes are more your thing, go for this game over Shaolin Monks. This is a great Marvel Comic PvP and PvE fighter game. When fighting another opponent, the battle area gives enough room to run around in but not too big that you have to chase your foe all over the place.

I like it simple when it comes to fighting games and this is a straight forward button smasher with advanced combo moves available if you want to learn them. There are more characters to unlock but so far I've seen The Thing, Wolverine, Elektra, Iron Man, Spiderman and all are well animated. You'll like this one if you're a fan of Marvel comics.

Indigo Prophecy (Fahrenheit)

This game is a must see. There aren't too many new games that bring a new interface to console games but this is one. It can best be described as an interactive movie. The story and voice acting are top notch for a game and I think you'll remember that more then the actual gameplay when all is said and done.

The game takes place in the near future (2009) so it's only slightly futuristic. There's a combo crime/horror theme as well. The controls for the game are very well done. The way you interact with objects and people is done through fluid controller stick motion. At times, you have a few choices of what to do or say with a timer countdown to keep you from sitting there and thinking about it too much. It's somewhat of a detective game as you look around for clues. If you get close to one, the controller motion options pop up at the top of the screen allowing you to interact.

You have a psychological status bar for all people you play and you play several characters in this game. Basically, if you do something good, your psych status goes up, if you screw up or make some poor decisions, it goes down. If your psyche goes down too much, you get suicidal. Like Fable, actions have consequences for the remainder of the game.

An example of what not to do:

My character was injured so I took some medicine that I found in the bathroom cabinet to relieve the pain. The label clearly said not to mix with alcohol. A little while later I was boosting my psyche by eating some food. I raided the fridge and then found a bottle of booze which I drank and killed myself because I mixed it with the drugs.

Earlier in the game, you are investigating a murder in the men's bathroom of a restaurant. I was playing the male character along with a female partner at the time. I took a leak in the urinal and my female partner's psyche went down 10 percent. lame! I was setup! Earlier, I had found a clue in the toilet stall so thought I was going to examine the area again for clues but instead my character whipped out his manhood and started taking a leak. Be careful!

This game is well put together. I recommend it for people that are looking for a story driven game instead of action (although there is action in the game) and for those that like detective/crime solving games. It really does feel like you're part of a movie. Well done.

This game is listed as Indigo Prophecy on Metacritic:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platfor ... fahrenheit

That might be what it's called in the United States. I grabbed the PAL version off the newsgroups. I'm guessing Michael Moore ruined the name Fahrenheit in the U.S. so they changed it.

[Hesten]

Im downloading Fahrenheit for the PC too ATM.

Been a good month for PC games.
Fahrenheit, Warhammer - Winthers Edge, X-Men Legends 2, and Fable, al games i would consider buying (need to try Fahrenheit first though).
But guess how many of them are available in denmark yet .

So guess downloading till i can buy the originals

[Syenye]

played indigo prophecy at e3 and wasn't impressed... sounds like one of those games you have to play all the way through though... maybe i'll try it again!

[Winnow]

played indigo prophecy at e3 and wasn't impressed... sounds like one of those games you have to play all the way through though... maybe i'll try it again!

Nay. You may not like this type of game. The controls and UI are worth seeing. It could almost be described as super advanced a Zork game. If you don't like listening for clues, walking/running around and trying to figure out what you need to do to advance the game then this one isn't for you.

I've categorized movies before as best viewed Friday/Saturday or Sunday for slower more thourghtful movies that are best watched when not hyped up for the weekend (or at E3!). It's the same for games sometimes. This game is a Sunday type or "sick on a Tuesday" type game.

[Winnow]

Checked out a few more X-Box games today.


Shattered Union

Nice turn based war game. The setting is in the year 2010 in the United States. The election of a hated president in 2008 has torn apart our great nation and civil war has broken out with 7 factions vying for power, trying to unify the U.S. again.

This is strickly turn-based which I like. Perfect for player vs computer or PvP with two people in the same room (not X-Box live although that's an option).

You can play a campaign or skirmish. Pick the territory you want to start in...I chose California and its neighboring states. (go Arizona!)

Your units have eight factors to them. Their attack value vs Infantry, Armor and Air. Their range, fuel requirements and movement and some other stuff.

I played a skirmish. That allows you to use a set amount of money to buy your units and then place them on the battlefield. The default allowance is 800K which allowed me to pick up 4 heavy armor, 8-10 various infantry units, a couple helicopters, some light armored vehicles, and a couple B2 Stealth bombers (which cost 125K each so you can't go overboard on them)

Fun game. I played on ultra easy mode to start off with. I had to hold off the Confederacy faction from taking some outlying cities of my territory for 13 turns. I ended up wiping out my computer opponent but that probably had to do with me starting out on easy.

It's a nice casual strategy game. It looks like you can get foreign support from the Russians and maybe some other countries. If you don't kill the enemy unit you attack, they can attack back, but only once during your turn...so strategically, you can do something like send in some infantry to attack a target before sending in a B2 so the B2 doesn't get shot at...probably a bad example as B2's are hard to hit....but maybe send in some infantry before flying an Apache over to take out some ground troops.

It's a fun one to play vs a friend in person while drinking some beers if not in the mood for real-time action. It's very easy to learn and play quickly with a nice tutorial but also has enough depth to keep strategists going for awhile.

The units are oversized for the map and you see the hexes with color coding for where you can move and what you can reach with an attack.







You can see the intro flash movie here:

http://www.2kgames.com/shatteredunion/home.php

Greg Hastings' Tournament Paintball MAX'D

Now this is a fun game. Again, great tutorials to get you up and running quickly. If you're up for some PvP or team vs team competitons, this is a great game.

The opening video shows a bunch of nerds in real paintball competition. A tutorial takes you through all the different ways to move, shoot, reload, lean out from protective walls, run, dive, call you team for support or point out a target for your other team members to focus fire on.

Winning tournaments gains you points with which you can improve your skills and buy new equipment. The whole game is well done. The 3D graphics of all the real life equipement you can buy is impressive and again makes be drool over what coming with the next gen consoles.

This game plays better than it looks in screenshots.

Here's a review:

http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox/1016/G ... l-MAXD/p1/

Blitz: The League

This game is a lot more fun to play than the crap EA Sports and their official NFL license put out. Seriously. Madden 2006 was total crap..regurgitated 2005.

While I appreciate the endless cheerleader crotch shots and colorful language, it did get a little tiring hearing shit and fuck all the time in the game.

I'm surprised they felt the need to use "what the fuck are you doing?" when you mess up on a tutorial. The game could have gotten away with the bad attitude they were trying to get across without pretty much assuring that they'd be pissing off mothers everywhere.

Anyway, the graphics, sound and gameplay are all better than Madden 2006.

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I wouldn't buy any of them but all are worth a look if you're in the mood for a strategy, pvp, or sports game.

[Zamtuk]

is fable for the computer worth getting if you already beat fable for the xbox?

[miir]

is fable for the computer worth getting if you already beat fable for the xbox?

It's basically the same, but it looks better.. The extra content feels like it was just slapped on at the end. It's not very challenging