Xbox LIVE Addicts: Kabia Review Imports - Xbox LIVE Addicts

Welcome to the Halo 3 ODST review.

Lets start off with the Solo/Co-op campaign.

You start the game with a cut-scene, and then you drop. The cut-scene details throughout the game are low quality.

To give you an idea if you haven`t bought the game, go check out Halo: Combat Evolved. They are similar to that,

The drop sequence is pretty amazing, it takes about a minute to get to where your going, throughout this minute there`s comm chatter, with a few jokes added. When You`ve hit the ground you`re given a “tutorial”,it isnt much of one, then you have to blow the door off.

The aim of the campaign is to walk around “New Mombosa” and find items that are clues to where your other squad mates are, along the way you can collect audio recordings which tell you how this happened from the point of view of a female civillian; the voice acting is shoddy.

Once you have found a clue, you suddenly get put into the shoes of one of your other squad mates and play out the clue. The story line with the clues isnt too good, but they can be fun. You lack use of vehicles in ODST , only one or two of the missions give you access to them.

The games good points are,

• The new weapons are pretty powerful
• The game is fun
• The “VISR” mode helps you see your enemies, including invisible brutes

Bad points of the game are,

• The game is too dark
• The “VISR” mode seems to brighten up one area of the map, but after a while it goes dark
• The load times from inserting the disc etc. are terrible. It took me 15 minutes to get the game started after I had given it a break
• The “VISR” mode seems to turn off after a cut scene and after you have finished playing a bit more of the story (which is very annoying)
• Normally after you`ve played each part of the story, a phantom appears and drops enemies which becomes annoying if you are low on ammo

Over all we give this game

7 out of 10

Modern Warfare 2 was publicised as the most anticipated game of the decade, let alone the year, and rightly so. With its 60 fps (frames per second) smooth as liquid movement, its amazing graphics, and I’m only talking the single player campaign.

Modern Warfare 2 has a good but slightly lacking story line that is also repetitive at times, along with its many unexplained twists.
The campaign continues from where Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, left off. Not immediately after, but five years later. You have two operative teams, the US Rangers and Task Force 141.

Who do you play as?:



You begin the campaign, as Private First Class Joseph Allen, an US Ranger stationed in Afghanistan. The US rangers are said to be the most Elite force in war history, you begin the game in the middle of training a group of Afghan force unit. Then you sent to “The Pit” to re-do your training, it leads on from their.

You also play in the campaign as Seargent Gary “Roach” Sanderson, who is part of Task Force 141. 141 is a team of people including our old friend “Soap” Mc Tavish, returning from CoD:4, who has been promoted to Captain of the SAS. TF-141 is a covert section of the SAS, who go in do whats needed and leave, without being noticed.(change)

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Over command of you at all times is General Shepard, a bold man who cares not of danger, just has a lust to win… Or so you think, but I wont spoil that for you.

Graphics

The graphics in Modern Warfare 2 are a great improvement over CoD:4`s, even over World At War`s. As we said above the fast frame rate also makes the movment slick and smooth this is achieved by the new streaming graphics that previous CoD games have not had. It also increases overall graphics if you look at the details on one of the AI or even another person in MP or Spec ops. You could probably tell the direction in which the wind is blowing by their hair. The weapon graphics have also been greatly improved, and this makes the experience even better.

Gameplay

Modern Warfare 2`s gameplay has greatly increased in standard since CoD4, no instead of a continuous onslaught of re-spawning enemies from in front of you. Your faced with “Clever” AI, who will be limited in numbers, but will also use the terrain to an advantage, they will climb ladders, jump onto roofs, ect. This means you can be attacked from any direction and more than one at a time, and also means there is no invisible trip wire that stops the AI, some will be relieved to hear this.

While the campaign is fun, its short, very short. On regular it took me around four to four and a half hours to complete, it also has a very loose plot, almost no plot. The story telling isnt great either. It seems that they actually made the ideas of what they would do before they wrote the story, this is proven by some very great action scenes and all manner of weapons and challenges in the campaign.

Characters

As we said in the graphics, the characters are great in detail and much work must have gone into them, this may be said. It all comes down to the voice acting and looks of the character thats important.

NOTE: some characters are in spoiler tags, so not all have to view them

Captain “Soap” MacTavish

Soaps appearance is a little Mr T-ish, which personally I do not like since Ihavent seen many Scottish people looking like that. His voice is the same actor, yet it seems to lack in passion compared to CoD 4, his voice action is flat, and almost unbearable it seems to tone down the missions.

General Shepard

General Shepard has the look of the a classic american war hero, strong and bold. He acts full of courage, and his voice acting is deep and full of passion. It makes the missions with him so much more realistic. Overall Sheppard, although his outcome in the game is annoying, is a good character.

Now begin the Spoiler characters, you do not have to read these if you dont want to ruin the game for yourself.




Ghost Whoever Ghost is, is a mystery, he wears a bandana to over his face at all times, and is head of Communications. He is part of TF-141.

He is also voiced by the same person who did Gaz`s voice in CoD:4, so maybe that is who ghost is. His voice is full of anger excitments, and when hes in missions he looks absouloutley awesome.








Captain Price Yes captain price is back, and hes ready. With slight changes to his appearnce, hes pretty much the same, moustache bearing cool-guy you loved before.

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Splinter Cell Conviction, most likely the game with the most release date delyas in history, time after time it hs been delayed, but was it worth it? Read on to find out!

Never having played a single Splinter Cell game before I wasn’t to sure of what to expect, but I’m sure you’ll agree with this review if you have played with the game.

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Taking place three years after the events of Splinter Cell: Double Agent, former Navy SEAL Victor Coste is held in a Black Arrow facility interrogation room as he is interviewed by an unidentified group of men, recalling events in the past tense. This includes his ordeal to find his daughter stolen from him, Sam thinks Third Echelon took her and he is out for revenge.



Gameplay

I didn’t know quite what to expect of the Splinter Cell game. But I can tell you how i feel about the gameplay, with its un-countable amount of ways to complete one level, see a pipe? Go climb it.. Is there a window? Go hang out side of it and pull someone through it..



The games story line is obviously a well rehearsed and well written one, maybe if you had played previous Splinter Cell games you may see slightly what is coming around the corner but otherwise the twist and turns of this game leave you speechless. Add the storyline to the diversity of the amount of ways to accomplish things, Go straight in all guns blazing, try sneaking and taking everyone out with a well placed remote explosive, throw a sticky camera and get everyone on their feet with a little victory tune.. Talk about terror tactics. Or you can sneak and just wait… Wait for them to come to you. The great thing about this game is that you can use all of those methods, on most levels.

Your weapons and gadgets are the life and death of you in this game, use an unsilenced weapon at the wrong time your a dead man, while the pistol is probably the most used weapon you can get many, many more weapons. Gadget now these are the real stars, EMP grenades stunning everyone for a short whole and giving you more cover than a smoke grenade to run for it.

Flashbangs, use them to distract people or use them to stun everyone in the room and take them out. The portable EMP is a smaller range but higher intensity version of the grenade, allowing you to have two types of EMP. Stick cameras, stuck because you dont want to get caught? Throw this to the wall and then survey, or even alert everyone with a victory tune, and when they come past blow them up!



Along with the highly addictive and immersing gameplay comes the graphics which also get high marks in our books.



Graphics



With a great story I was hoping the graphics would hold up throughout.

Most of the time the graphics are fantastic but when it comes to cut-scenes it all starts to go rather down hill.

During cut-scenes character around you degrade quite a bit into over rounded cartoonist shapes, with rubbery faces, leaving you out of the emotion of the cut-scene, but this gets pushed back up a bar by the voice acting which seems deeply passionate, with real emotion in the voices heard through, from cut scene to fight scene these voices hold up thought.



With the worried panic of enemies unable to see you, as you shoot out a light, a mass of shouts can be heard “go get him!” And then you know its on, the backgorund music changes suitably.

The area around you is also rather detailed and varied, the projection system used to the best of its ability on the buildings.



Although this review has been short I’m sure you can sum up what this game is all about, a balance of quality and quantity some times it leans between one or the other but it always pulls itself back.



We give Splinter Cell Conviction, five out of ten

AQUA - Naval Warfare is a new game to the weekly expanding Xbox Live Arcade, but this game stands out from the crowd, it's new take on the top down action-shooter Genre and its overall setting of future naval warfare.

In AQUA you are placed as the commander of your ship, armed with all types of sea weapons, from torpedoes to shotgun burst gun fire, the main aim in each mission is to take down the enemy to complete the objective, be that escorting a allied ship, collecting objects to get something running or just making it out alive, this game is different.


Gameplay
Although this game is different from most of the arcade title, the controls remain the same of those of a two stick shooter, meaning you feel at home if you are used to those games.

The diversity of missions is small so it does get repetitive from time to time, along with the surroundings this can cause the game to be played for a short amount fo time before getting bored, although you will always get back to it, even if its just to complete the game it makes you want to finish it. Very addictive.

A strange addition to the game is the cut scenes, which are few and far between, they take you to a hand drawn slightly moving sketch world, which gives you some of the story, the story is something the game also lacks at the beginning but it seems to slowly gain one as you go through it.


Graphics
While they are not much to look at and they get repetitive the scenery does look rather natural to the game, being a top down game there isn't much to be said on the detail but ships do look great, especially the friendlies as they gleam a golden colour with plenty of detailed extras dotted around them.

Voice acting is alright although lacking a sense of passion, with a nice script let down but the monotone of the actors, it also can drag on.


Conclusion
I may have given this game a bad look but it really isnt up to me to say, this is a new game genre to me, i suggest you try it out yourself! After all the down points it is still an addictive game.

We give this game 7/10

we suggest you try it before you buy it.

Imagine it you were lucky enough to get DOOM, you've played it and played it over and over. It gets better every time, then you hear a rumour DOOM II is out.

A week later your walking, no, skipping out of the store with DOOM II in your hands, you feel like the luckiest person on the planet and cannot wait to get home to play your new game.

You may have thought the days of early 3D graphics were over, well no! Bethseda to the rescue, asthey have revived the grandfather of Call Of Duty, Batlefield, MAG and just about any game in the FPS genre.

So what has changed and what is it like to play DOOM II? Read on to find out!

In DOOM IIthe graphics have been slightly improved, to support HD, but they still stand at their original state. But in all honesty, you tottally forget about the lack of quality, you feel like you are in the game and it feels amazing.

DOOM II still feels like th ebest game ever, still as addictive as before, if not more. You become immersed in the game and lose all track of time, never wanting to stop adding to the pile of bodies, never wanting to stop jumping as you turn a corner and get shot!

So we have established that this is still the amazing game it used to be, but whats changed?

Well there is now multiplayer, 4 player deathmacth, pitting you against three other players in a full on battle to the finish! While not the busy, amazing multiplayer experience we are used to, it is still very fun!

There is also Co op, allowing you to group up into a team of four and help eachother out, or just die a lot! So you've finished the campaign on your own, but you havn't done it with four of you, well you will want to! Just open every door possible and then the fun really begins!

Although great this game does have one flaw, but is easily over come, the control scheme, there is no in-game tutorial teaching you all the controls. This can leave you confused at times, but simply enter the pause menu and look at the controls!

While you may have thought DOOM was dead, it is not, it's better than ever.

We give DOOM II a XBLA Review Rating of 8/10!

Be sure to buy it! You will love it!

We've all done it; we have all repeated a line from a western, normally an Eastwood one as well. But Rockstar has brought you the ability to be the cowboy, well okay not so much the bank robbing, people killing, rich type, but you can still break the law!

Red Dead Redemption brings you to the land of Cowboys and Indians, Lawmen and Gangs, Horses and Carts, with the base of a brilliant game, how did Red Dead Redemption Turn out? Is it the new GTA? Has Rockstar made their best game yet? Read on to find out!

Who said westerns were over?

Red Dead Redemption follows Rockstars normal layout of HUD but of course being western it requires a few changes, for example the health bar is gone, instead you have a dead eye meter and your horses stamina bar.

Why no health bar? Because you now regenerate health, so when that screen goes red take cover and wait for a moment.

Another change to the layout of the HUD is the wanted level, or should I say the bounty bar, it is invisible until you break the law and instead of a star ranking you get a bounty of cash amount, and then your run from the law begins as usual.

One slight annoyance with the game overall is that it doesn't work on TV's that are not wide-screen, the horse stamina bar is known to disappear off the edge of the screen, leaving you clueless as to when stop hitting the A button.

Red Dead Redemption brings forward some of the realism brought to you in GTA IV, including beautiful visuals, physics, breakable objects and more. You can walk into a saloon and start a full on bar-fight minus broken bottles. You can lasso a criminal (or an innocent civilian) hop onto your horse and drag them behind you slowly pummelling them to a doomed fate. Or you can hog tie them and carry them, put them on your horse for ride; you can even leave them on a railway reliving those old western moments.

Gameplay

Red Dead Redemption delivers an extremely believable game, allowing you to feel like you are John Maston, with the amazing visuals and excellent voice casting leaving you at times feeling as if you were there at that moment shooting that guy or saving that damsel in distress. The story line goes hand in hand with this unbelievable experience.

The storyline has to be one of the best written ever, nothing to predictable and overall a very believable story again making you feel like you are playing a piece of history.

The graphics as we have mentioned are astounding! The thing you will most likely use the most, your horse, looks and feels so natural to ride, your horse is your car.

Although the storyline is great, in-game dialogue can get a bit repetitive, your character seems to have to tell everyone he meets the story of why he is looking for the gang members he used to ride with and it never differs.

While the main gameplay remains the same, you can free roam or you can do the story, new things have been added. Stranger missions are the first noticeable one, you will talk to a person leading you into a cut scene, then you do as normal, this is a good way of finding areas of the map and to get 100% completion you have to do these!

Another new thing to do is Gang Hideouts, you walk into certain areas of the map and must eliminate the gang members “hiding out” there, once you have done this you earn a reward be it money or weapons. Again these must be done for 100%.

One nice touch to the free roam gameplay is mini games; poker, blackjack, five finger fillet and a strange game called liars dice. These add a nice change to the way of constantly doing missions, allowing you to sit back and yell when you get that achievement for getting a high enough winning in poker. Although be warned, you, like in real life, can become addicted to it.

One last new feature added are Challenges, you can start them by shooting certain animals picking certain flowers or herbs etc., these challenges are another way to earn money, fame and honour and can be completed in between mission locations etc.

Red Dead Redemption is a must have game for this year, with a large expansive single player and even larger Multi-player mode, with beautiful graphics, picturesque once in a life time views and some very funny and interesting moments, Rockstar seem to have outdone themselves, if you thought Red Dead Redemption was just GTA set in a wild west movie you were wrong. It is incomparable to a game such as GTA, in a league of its own Red Dead Redemption only has a few faults which don’t effect the gameplay massively.

Red Dead Redemption gets a well earned 9/10! For its excellent gameplay and graphics only let down by a few minor problems, Kabia suggests you definatley Buy This Game.