CCL Messageboard

If you're like me then you love to play video new and old. I love going back and playing some old games I grew up with. Feel free to write reviews of your favorite or least favorite video games from any system past or present. What did you like about 'em? What did you hate? Lets see your review.

Good topic idea, I think I've been over looking it cuz my eyes always check for the dark circles indicating new posts. I just got a Xbox 360 a month ago and have been playing a lot of the newer and older games on it to rack up my achievements a little bit, once I start beating some games I will have to start posting.


The only game I have "beaten" on 360 is GRID, a racing game that came about about a month and a half ago. GI magazine gave it a 9 out of 10, which I totally agree with. The racing action is top notch. I am a big time racing game fan and was really interested when I first heard about it. It has a nice long career mode without being seemingly never ending. The graphics are better than NFS, Forza 2, Gran Turismo (yes I said it), AND Project Gotham. Once you kill the volume on your pit chief and your team mate the sound is great. If you crash there is a rewind feature, you get four rewinds per race if you play normal difficulty, (they call it "flashbacks").

A good racing game player can get about 500 achievement points out of one play through the normal difficulty career mode. Theres about 70 some odd cars ranging from classic muscle cars to multi-million dollar European racing cars, and around 100 races from start to finish. Also the races consist of various types; standard X number of laps around a track, theres one demolition derby, some touge races (think the Canyon from Need for Speed Carbon), and drift scoring races, (don't worry they are better and more challenging that the ones in Need for Speed).

I guess the last good thing to say is the difficulty level stays the same through the whole game, its starts out challenging and stays just challenging enough to gray some hairs, but not bad enough to go bald.

This game is also available on PS3, and PC

Oblivion: The Elder Scrolls IV (10/10)

Quite simply, the best RPG ever made.

A lot of stock to draw upon, not the least of which is the collective of previous Elder Scroll incarnations (particularly Elder Scrolls III:Morrowind), but when it comes to crawling through dungeons armed with a sword and your wits,Oblivion is the game you've always wanted to play since you picked up your first gaming console.

The most impressive feature of this game is the absolute, consummate level of immersion; meaning once you're in, you are IN and want to STAY in. There are many long lasting moments as a game player where you will lose yourself in the vast world of "Tamriel", where 5 hours of game time can whisk away if one is not "cautious". The minutae of the game, by design, will not be covered in this review, making allowances toward the "unfolding" of each wonderfully crafted event during gameplay. Suffice it to say, the main quest is engaging and moderately complex, not out of place in an Arthurian setting, and one which you actually end up caring about in short time. All in all, the craftsmanship is first rate.

The other impressive feature is the level of free play. This is the paragon of "sandbox" gaming; again with the exception of Morrowind which could be jeered as "too open ended", no other game comes close to the level of character freedom associated with this game. There are almost 400 side quests (with the expansions). They are often superior to main missions on other RPGs, to give some indication as to how engossing they can be. Figure the minimum time to finish a quest is about an hour of game time (some much higher), you can hope to spend almost 500 hours of gametime "finishing" the game, and Bioware Software continues to support this product with updates and plugins to keep the consumers engaged. It is easy (quite easy) to ignore the main quests altogether in search of something else to do, to quell more... immediate player needs shall we say. As they unfurl throughout the game, the player will have plenty to do to keep himself occupied.

All the proper fantasy devices are prevalent in this game: essentially a search and rescue to restore the land of Tamriel, a richly detailed and markedly expansive world; the likes and size of which have not been attempted in any other RPG with any real success (there are about 20 square miles of actual "footage") Shamelessly cluttered with ruins, dungeons, caves, and other adventuring areas of interest, there is always someting to do. One of the hallmarks to this game is the lavishly detailed towns that make up Tamriel, each with it's own identity and each providing enough personality to properly align the roleplaying elements this game has furnished for you.

Character customization is a must for any RPG, and of course, Oblivion delivers. A number of different races, astrological signs and professions allow for quality character and personae generation. Later in the game, the character can embark upon a sequence of guild based side quests; rather a charter that promotes either thievery, wizardry, mercenary skills or assassin based vocations... all of which serve as their own reward.

The voice acting is superb (if not repeated a bit), the graphics (and artwork, to keep them separate) are wonderfully rendered and genuine to the architecture of the medieval period. THe animation sequences, mostly during combat are done with precision.

The mood of the game is perfectly augmented by an effective score by composer Jeremy Soule, who has effectively hit a home run with every other RPG he has laid hands upon (notably the Balder's Gate series). As an experiment, this reviewer had the soundtrack muted during gameplay which made for a very sterile gaming experience.

There is genuine satisfaction with this game the further your character travels throughout the main quest. But the game may not be for everyone. It is first and foremost a cerebral game; i.e. if you have had unpleasant experiences with RPGs in the past this will likely not solve your problems. Indeed, there is a narrative richness to this game: the more it unfolds, the more attached you will be to your avatar, and the satisfaction becomes a bit more passive than actualized. In other words, if you find tedium with leveling up a character for the sake of completing a game, you could find yourself ignoring the artifacts during elevated play that make this game as grand as it's intentions.

The gameplay is photo-realistic, and the melee sequences are a means to an end; do not expect the level of technique and showmanship of Halo or even Mass Effect. But these are not the Gods that Oblivion pray to, in fact it is part of its appeal.

Finally, one of the strongest indicators for a successful RPG has been deployed throughout the development of Oblivion: there is no penalty for relaxing gameplay and returning days, weeks or even months later. THis serves as a perpetuating gaming experience, one that doesn't force you to re-acquaint yourself the with the mechanics or lore of the land in order to continue seamlessly. You are never punished for NOT playing, as the rhythm of gameplay is obvious and self-evident, and with the help of an intuitive journal, you can re-familiarize yourself with your previous actions, decisions and history. This is a remarkable achievement for Bioware, for a game of this caliber and size.

There is simply nothing wrong with this game for those looking for the ultimate role-playing experience. Whether it be through tabletop Dungeons and Dragons, or the family of turn-based Balder's Gate games there is something here for both camps. Consider Oblivion your reward for having an active imagination, and an excuse for unleashing its true potential. And if done properly, for many years.

The best games of recent times I have played:

1. Oblivion. Dementia pretty much covered this in all its glorious detail. 9.5/10

2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Usually I avoid FPS games, unless there's a great hook for it (Return to Castle Wolfenstein for example). This would have been the top game of the past few years IMO, if it had a longer single player campaign. Everything about this game is stunning, from the graphics to the music, to the game engine. As I don't play online, that whole aspect is lost on me. If the single player campaign had just a few more missions, a bit more extended game play, this one would have been the tops of its genre. 9/10

3. Resident Evil 4. This is perhaps the best game I've ever played. I played this on the PS2, and I was floored by it. Not only is a great advancement on the RE story line, post-Umbrella, but is an ideal starting point for new fans to jump in on. The game controls are far more instinctual than previous RE games, as is the aiming mechanic. The puzzles are less cerebral than in previous games, but is still an important part of the over all game play. Actions early on in the game can have an important effect later on (players will know about the dog for example). Everything that made the priginal RE game great is here, as well as new material and vastly improved game play. 9.5/10

4. MLB The Show 08. The latest installment of this franchise has tons of new features. The main focus should be on the "Road to the Show" game play mode, where you create a player, and try ot get him to the Big Leagues, and stay there. 07 introduced this mode, but had some of the old flaws of the previous career modes. The 08 version has eliminated the old AI habit of bringing a player up, sitting him on the bench for weeks at a time, and stunting player development. The shift from contract goals to developmental goals in season is a more than welcome change. Even so, the AI is still horrific. The trade/GM AI is certifiably nuts (CC Sabathia for Willy Mo Pena straight up), and the manager AI is also awful. It's apparent that a lot of work went into the player creation aspects (there's not much you can't modify in creating your player, especially for appearance), and it upgrading the graphical appeal of the game, at the expense of AI development. If the AI is improved in the next edition (09), this will be the ultimate MLB game on any platform. 9/10

5. Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. This one for the Wii is a lot of fun, more so for RE fans, but still fun. Heck, I've even gotten my wife and daughter to play this one with me. This one is a rail shooter that takes a player(s) through the events of RE:0, RE:1, RE:3, and new materials. Game play is simple, point shoot, repeat. Guns are your friend, and the bigger the gun, the better the friend. There are some tweaks to the traditional RS format though. You can choose alternate paths in game when the option arrives. Some will lead to caches of stuff, others just to an easier path, others to harder ones. In addition, there are "files" that can be found in game. These files give more details on events and characters that further expand the RE universe. New materials include missions for Albert Wesker in RE:1, and what Rebecca Chmabers (RE0) was doing between RE:0 and RE:1. WHile I haven't finished this one yet, we're up to RE:3. Two player is much easier than single player, and having a gun controller/adapter for the Wii-mote is also helpful. 8.9/10

Resident Evil 4 was, hands down, the best horror and 1st person shooter game I had played up to that point. THe storyline and interaction were the best of the best. I will have to check out Umbrella Chronicles, if they ever do a port.

Resident Evil 4 is a First Person shooter??? Is that the Wii version? I know the GC and PS2 versions aren't.....

I'll agree its a great game, my second favorite game of all time, looking forward to Chris Redfield's return in 5.

Well, 3rd person shooter with the camera RIGHT BEHIND the shoulder.

Agreed that RE4 is one of the best games in years, but I think Metal Gear Solid 3 still takes a higher spot IMO.

The Metal Gear games are the games that are making video games more than just video games. MGS3 was the first game to absolutly blow my mind. It's amazing story and even better game play experiance is just epic. My only complaint about this series is that it's been a Sony exclusive and is gonna make me shell out 600$ for a PS3 to play MGS4.

If you have a PS2, do yourself the favor or picking up any of the Metal Gear games. They're more than worth the money.

Rock Band 2

first impressions:

The first thing you will notice right off the bat, no more solo tour. But fear not, they did something COOLER!! Now you can play any single instrument on the Band Tour. The new song list so far is pretty sweet. Of course some songs won't appeal to certain people, but that's what you get with a game covering several sub genres of music. There is now a challenge mode, I have not tried it yet but I will update this review as I play the game through. From what I can tell Challenge mode has various instrument specific challenges, be it vocal, guitar, bass or drum. Speaking of bass you can now play solo on bass, unfortunately there aren't any achievements for beating the game with a particular instrument. Finishing the game is no longer a matter of beating it on guitar or vocal, its just a matter of playing through it with any combination of instruments, including as I said, playing with just one. SOOOOOO that means that going through the game will take a rather LOOONG time. Going through all the cities and playing all the venues and earning fans, getting a specific # of stars to unlock new venues etc. I think this was the best idea out of the whole game. With Guitar Hero and Rock Band 1, you played through the song list, beat the final song, or boss like in GH 3....... and that was it. Sure you could play your favorite songs over again, but it didn't take you anywhere. NOW you will play a ton of songs in various orders just like you would playing Band World Tour on RB 1.

MORE NEW STUFF

For 400 Xbox credits, you can obtain a small license file and load ALL of the songs from RB 1 onto your 360 HD and play them in RB 2. THIS IS WELL WORTH IT. You can also go into your Xbox 360 interface and delete the songs you hate and never have them pop up in a Mystery Setlist again!

More info to come, tonight I will play some of the challenge stuff and come back here and tell about it.

Watch out for my Star Wars Force Unleashed review coming soon. Also Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia, and more throughout the holiday season, lets face it, Sept starts the holidays now, at least as far as releases of good games.

I invite other gamers to revitalize this thread by typing up a review of whatever new(ish) game you are playing or just played. You don't have to beat it to review it people.


EDIT: The challenge area for Rock Band 2 is pretty arbitrary. You play preselected groups of songs and they are instrument specific, it says you unlock songs doing it, but you also unlock the same songs by playing the Tour, but there are some achievements for playing through them so they are worth the effort.

STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED (Wii version)

Wow, this game is cool! I'm loving the story of Vader's secret apprentice and being able to use a ton of Force powers. You start out as Vader on Kashyyk. You can Force choke Wookiees until you hear their necks snap. Levitate enemies and throw them across the room, drop them off a ledge, or pull enemies close and slice them up with your saber.
As the apprentice you can shoot lightening at your enemies which is nice.

Vader sends the apprentice on several missions where he has to destroy rebels AND Imperial forces so there are no witnesses who can report to Palpatine on what Vader is doing. You have enemies on both sides which makes it interesting. You get to fight Jedi and Sith lords, aliens, and droids so the action is pretty exciting.

Problems I have with the game are that it takes a long time to beat the bosses at least on the Wii version. I really work up a sweat swinging the remote around like a lightsaber. It gets a bit tiring.
The other thing is that the apprentice is sent to Corascant and the Jedi Temple, which is in ruins, where you fight Stormtroopers and a Sith lord from the past. I think its a Sith trial or something but its hard for me to believe that Palpatine would not sense the apprentice especially if they they are both on the same planet.

All in all, its a pretty fun game. I'm not too far into it so I cant say much more about it. It makes me have second thoughts about selling my Wii though.

I give this game 7 nerds out of 10.

Did you end up playing Mercenarys 2. I played the first one on ps2 and loved it ages ago. Got a 360 now but the game looks allright?

OMFG LEGO BATMAN IS SO COOL. IT'S SO FUNNY AND CUTE AND SOOOOOO MUCH FUN ESPECIALLY WITH A FRIEND

I picked it up for the 360. The graphics are great. The game play is very solid and flows very well. The puzzles are cleaver, divers and plentiful. The replayability is huge.

My biggest concern with this game was that it might become repetative and boring. I'm proud to say that I had no such issues. It's very much the simple kids game of the previous Lego instalments but improved in every way to not feel like your playing Star Wars or Indiana Jones. I never got the feeling that I was playing just a redisinged version of a previous level. Although the exeption to this is the vehicle levels. They arnt bad or rehashed, just once you've played through the second vehicle level, you've got the basic formula, thus becoming slighty repetative. Though there is a lot of stuff to blow up witch almost makes up for it.

IMO, one of the games best features is not just its large list of 40 something playable characters (22 of witch are cannon Batman characters we love) but that each character has their own personality and you really feel like your playing an individual instead of just the same one character with a different color or disign.

The game isn't perfect, however. It is very syplistic and wont take the mind of Batman to figure out. And sometimes a simple task like jumping onto a ladder or platform may take several attemps (A problem shared by all previous Lego games). Traveller's Tale could have done somthing more to fix all the previous bugs and annoyances. At this point at their 4th lego game (5th if you want to count the SW Complete Sage) it's pretty unexaptable. But honostly, thats really the only promblems I came across.

I know anyone who has read my rants about how Lego Batman will be the greatest game ever may think I'm comming of a little bias, but I really looked for flaws in the game, and honostly, if you know what your getting into with a Lego game, you'll still have the same great fun as before. But if you arn't a fan of the series, there isn't really anything here to change that.

Bottom line: The game has lots to do. The experiance is at it's best, as most games are, when played with a friend. You're deffinatly getting your money's worth here. If your a fan of either Batman or the previous Lego games, your're in for a great treat.

Here's IGN's review of LEGO Batman:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/912/912708p1.html

They gave it a rating of 7.7/10 Good
It says basically that it's the same system as the previous LEGO games, the good and bad is still present. I've only played the Star Wars one and I really didn't see any bad elements, but IGN did mention that there is still no online co-op. Online co-op would have made this game a lot better and it's a bit disappointing that it's not included but I still want to play it because I'm a huge Batman fan and the characters are all there and they look great. But I gotta think of the replay value.

So what should I do, buy it or rent it?
I rented LEGO Star Wars and that was sufficient for me.

Skywalkeranni


I opted out on downloading Merc 2, the ebgames customer reviews were rather low on it. From what it sounds like it is not nearly as cool and fun as the original.

I got LEGO Batman instead, haven't burned it yet, but I know I will like it. Recently I have DLed Rock Band 2, LEGO Batman, Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia, and Star Wars Force Unleashed. Give SW FU a try if you want, basic hack and slash, but its Star Wars canon (meaning its considered actual story by George himself) and fills the gap between Revenge and New Hope.


reviews and updates to Rock Band 2 review coming, I am back in college studying for A+ Cert to be an IT Technician so time is more limited.

Star Wars Force Unleashed is a way cool game.I bought it for the PS2,I have a Wii but you can tell my disdain for the Wii when I buy my games for my older,but far superior to Wii, Ps2.My main complaint about SWFU is that it is EXTREMELY TO SHORT.It took me a little less than 8 hours to beat the game.Don't let this snafu on the game makers part stop you from enjoying every little thing there is to this game though.I have to disagrre with the poster that said this game was just your basic hack and slash genre game.If you feel that way your playing the game wrong,most of the time the light saber attacks cause way less damage than the many force attacks at your disposal.I have a major issue with a part of the story that happens later in the game but I will not vent it here because it is a major spoiler and it would only show my Star Wars geekdom.All in all this game is a must play for gamers,but I cannot say that it is a must buy because of its extremely short storyline.So I will rate this game as a 4 out of 5 stars( it fails on the aforementioned game length and some of the camera angles are frustrating when you get forced into a corner or edge of the screen) and a definite must rent/borrow and only buy this game if you are a Star Wars fan who must own all such things.

BATMAN
Sega Genesis system

This game rocks! Based on the 1989 Batman movie, this is one of the best superhero games I've played. Its pretty simple but for some reason I really like it. The music is good and the best part is when you get to drive the Batmobile and fly the Batwing. You then face the Joker in the cathedral. The game stays close to the movie which is always a plus.
Its not a spectacular game but I think its fun. If you have a Genesis then check out this game sometime.

Here is a pic of the title screen.

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenchaichi 3.
For the Wii.

Such a fun game. Especially if your any kind of fan of the Dragon Ball universe. alking into this game, I expected that standard side view back and forth fighting experiance, but I was happily surprised that the fights take place in a truly 3D like dome setting.

The cell shaded graphics fits the DBZ disign perfectly. The graphics arnt anything amazing. It looks pretty much like last-gen graphics, but they get the job done.

There are lots of different fighting areas, all of witch have destructable elements. The first time you blast your opponant through a building or a mountian, you cant help but smile.

The fighting is fast paced and super intence. With the arena style combat, much more stratagy can be implemented in a fight. There are lots of great energy moves and combos that can be pulled off pretty easily. No 30 button combos just to pull off one kamehameha, wich I appreciated.

The game uses the Wii remote, classic controller, or game cube controller to fit your preferance.

Over 150 playable characters, all of witch are upgradable, witch makes this pretty much the ultimate DBZ experiance IMO.

A down side is that the game lacks the pick up and play feeling. You really have to get used to playing before you start becoming formidable. The game is not easy, but that doesnt take away from it being fun at all.

Story mode consists of all the Dragon Ball Z and GT sagas, a quick Dragon Ball saga, and all but 2 or 3 of the movies.

There are many many different tournoment types in the game. An interesting aspect is that you can not just choose a tourny to play at any time, you have to show up at a designated time when the tourny is open.

There is also a small RPG game mode witch I have yet to fully explore, but it seems really confusing and not worth the time, but thats just me.

Either way, the game can be enjoyed by everyone, but Dragon Ball fans will love it.

A First Look at Fable 2


Well, the first thing that happens in Fable 2 is a bird craps on your head.


When you first start playing you're 10 or so, and you do chores for money to buy a magic box ............ and guess what, I am not going to spoil anymore.


Its pretty much the same game play. Even on a regular TV the scenery and animations look great. It is a very colorful game, which I think is a bonus. Throughout the game you have a faithful dog that can point out items lying around to you. I am not sure what else he is good for but I am sure it will turn up. Also I have heard that if somehow the dog gets killed he is gone for good for the rest of the game. I have only played through the first hour or so in the game, currently my character is about 16 or 17 years old, there is a time skip just like in the first game.

I will add more stuff is anyone shows any care that I posted this. Recently this thread has been a bit dead. Hopefully with the holiday season around the corner more and more people will look in here for game ideas for themselves and others.


I considered doing a Fallout 3 review, but how the game begins is SOOO cool I wanna keep it a secret. So I will just say this. Its Oblivion, but set in a post nuclear (like 300 years or so after) Washington DC. I never played the other Fallout games, but I know that they were more like Diablo than this. Oblivion fans rejoice .......... Fallout 3 is gonna be fun.

Far Cry 2

It sucks.

This game was a disapointment. Boring and repetitive. Bought it today, returning it tommorrow. Call of Duty 4 reigns supreme for yet another week. I hope Fallout 3 isn't a letdown too. It may take COD: World At War to dethrone COD 4: Modern Warfare.

Aw, I couldnt disagree more. True Far Cry 2 is no COD4, but nothing can be. And Far Cry isnt the quite the game for someone looking to play full on action shooter. Far Cry is one of those games that requires more patients at times.

I loved being able to hunt my enemies. And one of my favorite aspects is there not being any one direct way to advance in the game. There is so much stratagy you can apply. You can take on your missions ANY way you see fit.

And the environments are beautiful. So much time of my Far Cry 2 experiance was spent just exploring the jungle.

So basicly, if your looking for a shooter to just jump right into and blow sh*t up, Far Cry 2 may not be for you. But it's still an amazing game, even if it isnt for everyone.