The game animation is getting the most attention because of the use of MotionScan technology to capture subtle movements in the actor’s facial expressions. 32 high definition cameras are set up and the actor sits in the middle performing their dialogue. This allows for the player to base their interrogations on both character dialogue and behavior. Interrogations proved, at least to me, to be the most difficult aspect of the game. You are given three options in response to a statement by a victim/witness/suspect: truth, doubt, and lie. In order to accuse someone of lying, you need to have evidence correctly linking the lie. This is sometimes flawed because if you accuse someone of lying, their next statement will tell you to prove it, but depending upon what they ask you to prove, it might take you away from the piece of evidence you had in mind. It only happens a few times throughout the entire game, and sometimes for the better, but you can’t always base a lie just on their previous statement. I tried basing lying mainly on eye movement, but that method didn’t serve me too well.

Overall, I think the interrogations are incredibly fun, however disheartening it is when you score 0/4 questions correct. This leads to one of the complaints I have seen about the gameplay. If you fail an action sequence (suspect escapes or you die, etc.) you immediately have the choice to restart. However if you fail an interrogation, there is no option to re-interrogate the person. The case continues onward with fewer clues open to further the investigation. So there is much more leeway for mistakes in the action than mistakes in the more challenging interrogation segments of the game.

The game has no multiplayer mode, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because I don’t believe there was a big following to either the GTA IV multiplayer or Red Dead Redemption. So you can complete the story mode as well as a series of 40 side missions called “street crimes” in 15-20 hours of gameplay. While this means that many will inevitably flip the game rather quickly for the trade-in value, the developers have attempted to combat that by leaving two series of desks out of the game which will later become DLC.

The street crimes are often short shoot-outs or car chases that you can either access by responding to calls over the radio while driving a police vehicle, or access through free roam mode in the cases menu of the game. The focus of the game is 5 desks: patrol, traffic, homicide, vice, arson. Each desk pairs you up with a different partner and while the early cases are individualized, the later cases are more contiguous which keeps the game flowing and they get more involved/challenging.

Being a racing game enthusiast, I can’t say I enjoyed the driving sequences of the game. Whether because of the limitations of using 1940’s era vehicles, often slow and bulky, or the seemingly inept ability for citizens to get out of the way when you come barreling down the street, siren blaring, in pursuit of a suspect or traveling from one location to another. While you can fast travel by having your partner drive, finding hidden vehicles and film reels, solving street crimes, and discovering landmarks all play into achievement hunting. Since you are on the good side of the law, there are no cops to chase you as your wanted level increases from car crashes or vehicular manslaughter, but property damage and car damage are calculated and factor into your overall rating for the case. (You are given a case report at the end, which tells you how many clues found, questions correct, tip for improvement and a rating scale from 1-5 stars.)

The story has some interesting plot developments that keep you interested throughout the 21 cases. There are 13 newspapers that you can find in the main story locations which add backstory to the seemingly unconnected plot lines moving toward a crossroad by the end. There are also flashbacks to your time in the war which give more character development and story. I’m curious to see how the extra DLC desks will play into the story of the game.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed the role of the crime scene investigator/detective. There are many characters in the game to keep it fresh and interesting. The gameplay is solid albeit frustrating at times. But I’m looking forward to re-playing those cases I scored poorly on to see if I can accuse the correct suspect this time around and not get chewed out by the chief… The pace might be slow for some, you can definitely take your time scouring for every clue in the case, and going back and forth between the log of dialogue and your trusty notebook of clues during the interrogations, but I enjoyed the balance between cut scenes and action. I never felt bored during the cases, I was engaged in the game and excited to continue to see where the story was heading.

If I had a rating scale, I’d give it 4.5 carrots out of 5.

For the uninitiated Portal gives you control of a multi-dimensional portal transmitting device. You have two portals, a blue one and a orange one. They are connected through time and space and momentum is maintained as you travel through them. Imagine a bottomless chasm between you and your objective (a slice of cake perhaps). You shoot one portal at the wall on the other side of the chasm and the other on the wall next to you. Now you can safely between the two and get your just dessert!

After playing through just the opening chapters I can tell you this: Popping in Portal 2 and letting it entertain you while you sit in your comfy chair and sip your beverage of choice is why we play games. From the first seconds of the opening scene you’ll feel that you’re in a familiar place that’s changed, and changed for the worse. You see the events of Portal 2 take place long after the conclusion of the first one and time has not been kind to the Aperture Science Center. But never fear, you’re well enough alive and ready to do some science!

I wont go into too much detail as I don’t want to spoil anything. My advice to you is this: Stay away from reviews, play it with the lights off, turn up the volume and enjoy! Take breaks when you need, you don’t want to overheat your thinking cap, and feel free to invite your friend, spouse, significant other or your favorite companion cube to play too. Watching someone struggle with the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device for the first time is a joy.

Oh and there’s multi-player co-op too. Something about two little robots each with a portal gun which means you have up to 4 portals to help you through time and space. Yes please.

Enjoy!

First – I was a huge fan of the first game. I spent countless hours completing challenges, exploring the island and collecting cars and properties. To say that I was excited about the sequel is an understatement.

Having said that – here are my thoughts on the game thus far, I’m about 2.5 hours into it and have driven my first car about 140 miles.

The first thing I noticed were the cut scene graphics and voice acting. They’re not horrible, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I find the story silly and unnecessary. Once I got through the initial cut scene it was time to take my first car out for a ride. Right away I noticed that Forza this was not. The handling just feels a bit wonky. There are 3 settings to choose from in the options menu – from full assist to no assists, but I find my current car doesn’t handle the way I think it should. It could be that me in my lowly first Lotus just aren’t sporty enough to begin with to really see how the cars handle.

My biggest gripe isn’t the handling it’s the gearbox. There is an option to use a manual gearbox (my preferred choice), but there’s no option to change which buttons shift which way. The default is that Y shifts up and B shifts down. Now in every racing game I’ve ever played on the 360 (with possibly the exception of TDU) I’ve used B to shift up and X to shift down. This is hardwired into my brain and training it in the new configuration has been frustrating.

Another issue I’ve found is the inclusion of off-road trails. There are several vehicles in the game that can take advantage of them, but the GPS does not distinguish between them and their asphalt cousins. Following the GPS over 5 miles of off-road terrain in an old Lotus at 45mph is not fun. It’d be nice if it offered an all asphalt route.

Overall the Island looks nice. The cars look cartoony but I think that is consistent with the arcade nature of the game.

The bread and butter however is the multi-player. The whole island is like an open lobby. While you’re driving along to your next destination you’ll see icons of nearby players, their level and how far away from you they are. Getting together with a group and cruising the island looking for new locations is a nice way to spend an afternoon. There are also in game clubs you can create for your friends to meet in and post challenges to and I feel overall there was lots of time spent on enhancing the community feel to this game.

Though it has some short comings – I’m not entirely ready to give up on this one yet. I think having an IGC group online would be cool and if you can get past some of the annoyances there may be a diamond shining under all that coal, somewhere or at least some marginally less sucky stone.

If it’s any consolation the game sells for $49.99 at retail (remember the good old days?). If not add it to your gamefly and I’ll see you online!

5 stars for Mario Kart on the Xbox.

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It is a french game so there is strong language and some nudity.

5 stars for originality and a great story.

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Heavy Rain – A WillyQ Review

Game-play goes strictly from any RTS game.  Cities produce people, people gather resources, resources build infantry, and infantry invade and conquer others.  Each player starts with a city in 3500BC and has until 3000AD to win the game.  The years goes by quickly until the mid 1950′s.  There are four ways to conquer:  Domination is the hardest and requires a massive to capture 4 capital cities.  Economic victory occurs when the player earns 20,000 gold units and builds a World Bank.  Culture victory requires a very diverse city and earns 20 or more unique people to live in their town.  At that point, the player may build the United Nation to unify the world.  The last victory is very cinematic.  By evolving your technology to the space age, players can build a section a space station and travel to Alpha Centari to colonize the planet.   The game features a turn based system.  This allows players to move their armies around the map, but limits how many place each unit may move.  Also building construction is measured in the number of turns before completion.  If your city has the gold to do it, these buildings and units may be rushed, but it will cost you.  After all moves have been made, the turn ends and your opponents units move around the map.  Some may be engaged in combat with others, some may even be attacking you.  Years advance by the 100s until 0AD, 50s until 1000AD, 25s until 1900AD, 5s until 2000AD, and then its every two years.

Players have many choices along the way to achieve these victories, whether research as much science or mine for gold, while maintaining security for your borders.  Each match has 4 other countries with their own hopes of conquest.  How a player reacts to each culture is entirely your own method, but peace has its advantages.  Players will be able to exchange technology for either more rounds of peace or a for more advance science.  But be careful, each science allows your peaceful ally one step closer to destroying your city.  Different science options will allow players to advance in different directions.  University studies will advance science by 4, it will decrease gold production.  At this point, obtaining another city will become very important.  Settlers can be built in the city to build other cities or your army may just want to attack a near by city to conquer it.  With multiply cities, players will be able to focus science at one and gold production at another.

War will happen no matter route you decide to go towards.  So a good defense of your cities will let you focus your time on other advancements.  As the years drift by, your army will become more powerful.  Since the starting year is 3500BC, weapons are nonexistent.  Researching certain science fields will give players distinct advantages to victory.  Warrior groups will begin with basic swordsmen and archers.  These soldiers can be upgraded to knights, pikemen, riflemen, and eventually, tanks and troops armed with machine guns.  Army units will advance themselves through combat.  Every 3 victories grants that unit a perk.  Perks range from an extra move per turn to extra defense during battles.  However, land based troops aren’t the only concern.  Airplanes, dive bombers, and battleships can turn the tide of battle sharply in one’s favor when the technology is researched.  Not all countries start on the same land mass, so transporting your army from island to island to hunt down your enemy will create problems if your troops aren’t protected.  With three different fields of combat, defense proves to be an excellent offense.

Building up your cities is quite important no matter which victory path you plan on winning.  Cities offer growth of the population that obey your request.  The more you have, the faster you will be able to conquest.  There are 5 types of basic buildings:  Science, gold, culture, Food, and production.  Science buildings consist of libraries and universities.  Gold buildings are markets, banks, and trading posts.  Culture is very important.  While your people will obey your wishes, happy workers work better.  Plus with more culture, players have a better chance to gain unique people.  Production buildings are workshops and factories that speed of the creation of other buildings.  Food builds increase your population turnover.  These consist of harbors and courthouses.  Besides the basic buildings, players may also choose to build Wonders.  Wonders are massive structures from the many years of civilizations.  They can include Leonardo’s Workshop to the Internet to eventually the Manhattan Project, giving the player a nuclear warhead in which to dispose of his enemies with a touch of a button.  These wonders can drastically improve the quality of life and production for whichever city they are built in.

Overall, players can expect to play between 1 to 2 hours per match depending on the difficulty of the game.  Advancing your technology the quickest will provide the best defensive base in which to secure your victory.  The game itself can be found online mostly from the games on-demand for download from the marketplace.  If your lucky, you may find a used copy at your local Gamestop for 24.99.  For those for thrive on gamer points, spending 4 or 5 days on this will net you a nice 800 more points without being to invested in it.  For those on the edge, download the demo on the marketplace for a quick sample.  The demo stops at 1250AD, but leaves the player wanting more.  Both myself and Godlywayz SBG have the game, so hit us up if you want a quick game.

Like other Battlefield games, each team has a set number of tickets or lives in which to bank off of.  The first team to deplete the other of their tickets, wins the match.  Territory positions are located on the map that allow the players to respond right back in the battle.  These positions, though have no effect on the total tickets, can limited advancement of the opposing team and can make kills easier.  Players receive points for kills or territory captures that allow them move through the army ranks to reach General status. 

Players have the start of 3 different unit classes to choose from at the start of every spawn.  They are Rifleman, Gunner, and Sniper.  Each class is equipped with weapons to defeat enemies in their classes.  Riflemen are best against all infantry and small vehicles.  Gunners  are set for tanks and suppressive fire.  Snipers, of course, can kill infantry from long range or a lucky TNT blast on a tank.  While players unlimited ammo, certain ammo does require a 10 second wait between reloads.  Players also have the ability to drive or fly their way to victory by using 4 different vehicles set the game.  The fighter plane is equipped with dual fixed cannons for strafing their targets and two free-fall bombs to take out tanks or enclosed encampments.  The tank allows the driver and top machine gunner to traverse most Terran.  The driver has control of the tank cannon and a forward attached machine gun, while the gunner can use his machine gun to shoot in every direction.  The jeep is best used to transport 3 players either into combat or to capture a territory.  While the only defense is a back mounted machine gun, players are vulnerable to small arms fire since the jeep is not enclosed.  Finally, two of the maps start the players from an aircraft carrier which have four boats for beach landings.  The boats are equipped with two machine guns on either side and can hold a total of five soldiers.  Located on three of the four maps, is a bomber wing formation capable of carpet bombing a wide area.  When this power-up becomes available for use, both sides are notified with a text in their screen.  The opposing team can shoot down the bombers either with fighters or stationary flak guns located around the islands.  Control of the territory which houses the bomber wing can make battle quickly turn in your favor.

For an arcade game, this is probably the best buy for all this game can offer.  Whether you like to charge into battle or sit back and pick people off from a distance, players will enjoy this fast pace game.  Clearly a bargain for only 1200 Microsoft points.  Download the demo and try it for yourself.  I have yet seen anyone not buy the game after playing the demo.

The game is set 2 years after the second movie in NYC.  The player is a rookie character joing the Ghostbusters as a equipment tech, testing new add-ons to the popular proton pack.  While the proton streams will be the primary weapon choice, the 3 additional add-ons help the player take down the ghosts easier for the trap.  The main story was written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd and further develops the plot from the first movie surrounding Gozer, the Destructor.  It seems Gozer was just a pawn in an even wilder plot to merge our realm with that of the ghost world.  The game takes the Ghostbusters to previous movie locations like the Public Library, a museum, Central Park, and fifth ave.  With plenty of ghosts to trap or vaporize, players will find each ghost difficult to trap or eliminate.  Of course, all the characters are back in their orginal roles, looking much younger then they do now, including Peck and a damsel in distress voice by Allysa Milano.  And of course, Stay Puff, Slimer, and the librarian are back as well with even more terrifying ghosts to manage with.  The campaign takes about 14 hours to run through.

The proton pack goes through many changes in the game.  Aside from the proton stream, a lime blower, Meson Collider, and Stasis stream have been added to assist the players on ghosts.  It is important to scan the ghosts throughout the game as well.  The player is equipped with a PKE meter and Ghost goggles to help locate the ghosts.  By scanning ghosts, the player can review the ghosts weaknesses as well as background on the ghosts.  This is needed as some ghosts can be vaporized with the Stasis Shock function.  As the player traps ghosts, money is added to by upgrades to the weapons making them very powerful.  Be mindful when upgrading certain functions, some are quite expensive.

Multiplayer is a mix of competitive co-op and just survival.  When a player is slimed by a ghost, it is important to revive him quickly, as the odds are extremely stacked against you.  Also, running solo is not a good idea as you may find yourself alone against several powerful ghosts.  Just like in the movies, crossing the streams is never a good idea, players will notice when this happens from the vibrations from the controller.  The best way to stop this is to stop firing and retarget the enemy.  If not, protonic reversal occurrs and everyone dies.  Competition rounds are in a 3 round format with 7 distinct play types to challeneg everyone.  Only the best teamwork survives each mission.  Instead of EXP awarded, money is given to players for ghosts trapped and for bonuses at the end of each round.  As the player advances to GhostBuster of the Year status, different uniforms are unlocked.

The game itself is very satisfying to anyone who wants to feel the power of a proton pack, however, their are some downsides to the game.  In the campaign, players may find themselves reviving their more experienced colleages more often.  Also, trap dunking is an add-on to the trap for a quick trap.  However, it must hit the trap correctly or it is a waste.  The proton pack does overheat after prolonged use, and the time it takes to recharge may hinder some critical shots.  With the PKE equipped, the player can not shoot and movement is limited.  Also their is no zoom function it.

In all, the game is worth it to those who have always wanted to be a Ghostbuster.  The cutscenes are very funny and enjoyable and gives a more action-comedic feeling then what the movies could provide.  Achievements are named from popular sayings from the movies and are more fun rather then challenging to get.  While the replay value may not be the same for everyone, the Professional difficulty is quite difficult and requires people who mastered the trap dunking.  If a third movie is to be made, this is a great start to things to come from the Ghostbusters.

Presentation

From point A to point B, I was impressed with Astro’s attention to detail in every possible way that you could imagine. When doing research on a possible headphone purchase, one of their employees went above and beyond to give me comparisons between their product, and their competitors. They detailed why they chose to do certain things, and why they felt their execution was superior to their competitors. Upon receiving the system in the mail, I was almost taken aback by the high quality of the packaging; I felt as if I was opening another console for the first time! Everything was organized neatly into two boxes, one containing the headset and it’s case, and the other containing the MixAmp and all the cabling. Following the easy to ready instructions, I was up and running in no time. I was suprised to find that I’m able to wear the headphones night after night withought feeling discomfort or getting “listener fatigue;” from the research that I’ve done, this is most definately an exception in the headphone industry.

Graphics

All of the packaging, including boxes, manuals, and online marketing materials were top notch. As a person with some background in graphical design, I enjoyed all the research I did on this product, eventually leading up to actually having it in my hands.

Sound

Utilizing Dolby Headphone technology to produce simulated 5.1 surround sound out of two speakers, the A40 MixAmp is essentially a home theater reciever that can fit in the palm of your hand. That’s right, no generic 5.1 here; it genuine Dolby product, containing Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital, and the afore mentioned Dolby® Headphone. Some people may argue that simulated surround is not as realistic as having 5 speakers crammed into your headphones, or even utilizing a standard home theater setup, but the first time you hear someone sneak up behind you in Call of Duty 4, you’ll wonder what they’re talking about. The crispness and clarity will have you hearing things you’ve never heard before, in games you play every day! Another big feature of the A40 system is that it offloads voice communication while in a LAN environment, essentially eliminating system lag in order to provide crystal clear converstaion with your teammates. I was not able to try this feature, but most, if not all, of the MLG pro teams are currently using the system, which utilizes a daisy chainable connection in the back of the Mixamp to connect all the people on your team. The adjustable volume control on the unit also allows you to further enhance communication by determining the game audio to voice communication ratio.

Gameplay

Your situational awareness will increase greatly when wearing the A40 system. This is the exact same equipment the pros are currently using, and if they aren’t, it is been proven that they’re clearly at a disadvantage. You will be able to tell where enemies are coming from, allowing you to position yourself to dispatch of them quicker. You won’t automatically become a better player on the digital battlefield by using this setup, but it will certainly help you get there faster.

Replay Value

This setup is such a high quality piece of sound equipment (audiophile grade, even) that I’ll be using it for many years to come. It is constructed well, and the company backs their product to the hilt. If you purchase this product, you will not regret it.

Review originally posted on GamerHusbands.com.