1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

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voor

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby voor » January 28th, 2007, 10:18 pm

RE: COD2.....Finally!  Man, that's the most aniticipated review for me and you've talked like it's been ready for the last 6 months!

 

I love this line, which is why the game rocks..." the stages are so well designed that you barely realize how completely linear the game is"

 

Think about it.  Platformers are completely linear, so the design has to be almost perfect.  COD2 is the most linear FPS I've played, and the design is perfect I'd say.

 

Still awesome..

 

BTW, I played multiplayer with one other person and never had trouble.  Of course, it wasn't like Halo where you're shooting every 4-5 seconds.  Instead, I played it ultra-realistic, creeping around, and sometimes we'd go over 5 minutes without a shot.  Sounds boring, but very tense.

 

 


a1
Posts: 3032
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby a1 » January 28th, 2007, 11:51 pm

[QUOTE=J.M. Vargas]

[QUOTE=a]Every time I read a review of Gears I want a 360 a little more. Has anyone here heard any news of a price drop? I'll get one once it drops to $300.00.[/QUOTE]

 

The complete opposite: [url]http://www.joystiq.com/2007/01/26/xbox-360-price-cut-unlikely-in-early-2007/[/url]

[/QUOTE]

Actually, that is exactly the news I was hoping for. I wouldn't expect a price cut this early, but the article implied that a late 2007 price cut is possible. If I could get one for $300.00 next winter or fall I'd be happy.


feilong801
Posts: 2173
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby feilong801 » January 29th, 2007, 1:21 am

It is definitely true that online co-op on Gears is a very strong aspect of the game, and was certainly the main selling point for me.

 

@Shawn: Well, it's a matter of personal taste, isn't it? Since I don't have near the time (or organizational skills, or ability to be brief, and, most likely, the income) of the VGC, sure, yeah, I'm gonna buy stuff I think is going to be good. So I'm probably gonna like what I'm reviewing. I don't go out of my way to buy lemons, that's for sure!

 

My grading system is what I feel like calling something. It isn't scientific at all. In the case of Gears, I thought it was an outstanding game.... that was a bit soft in story and dialogue and had a surprisingly lean ranked online system (though the co-op is great).

 

And for the record, I had a good first impression of Red Steel, but my actual review of it was D+. I keep changing my mind on the game, but it's never gonna be over a C in my book, unless the game prints real money out of the Wii disc drive. Gears of War is of course waaaay better than Red Steel.

 

Also for the record, here are my grades on the VGC forums:

 

Brain Age DS: B

Drill Spirits DS: C-

Mario 3 on 3 DS: B-

Star Fox Command DS: B+ (This is the only one that I overgraded, in my opinion. Should be a B- or a C+)

Advance Wars DS: A

Phoenix Wright I and II: A

Cooking Mama: C

 

So, Gears beats everything in my book except Advance Wars and the PW games. So I didn't give Nintendo an "all A" report card. You should sort of figure out at this point that I like RPG/Stratagy/Adventure games a bit more than action titles (though I still like em'). I'm just now getting to the point in Oblivion (after owning the game since last July!) to where I can fairly review it. It's one of the easiest slam dunks ever for me, a certain A, if not A+. 

 

Anyway....... I'll go back to doing some crack now .

 

-Rob 

 


bluemonkey1
Posts: 2444
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby bluemonkey1 » January 29th, 2007, 3:30 am

Good reviews overall.  Just a couple of gripes:

 

-Call of Duty 2.  Got this recently it really is an excellent game.  Anyway on Saturday I went back home and did this on 3 player deathmatch for hours.  There were probably a good 6 or 7 maps that worked really well with only 3 players split screen.

 

-Gears of War.  Your comment about the save system is completely unfounded.  ALL games I have played in co-op work that way.  Except that usually you have to restart the whole level.  In this game the Chapters are regularly spaced with no more than 10 minutes gameplay between them.  So you can just load up from the latest chapter that you got through.  The chapters are spaced liberally throughout each of the Acts so it really isn't a problem.

 

I am also a little confused.  On the one hand you complain how flimsy the manual for NFS was but then you also complain that Gears doesn't have a tutorial mode.  A game should have one or the other.  Not both.  Since from your NFS review you clearly read the manuals why is Gears lack of a full tutorial mode a problem?


Superjay

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby Superjay » January 29th, 2007, 7:22 am

I liked all the reviews except the Gears review you forgot to give it an A+ and say that it was the best game you ever played ever. You remember like you did by mistake when you reviewed Resident Evil 4.

chrisbid1
Posts: 941
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby chrisbid1 » January 29th, 2007, 8:12 am

his complaint about the saves are not how they are spaced out, but that you can only save one game per user profile.

in this day and age of hard drives, there is no excuse for that (nor is there any excuse for save points in general, really)

JustLikeHeaven1
Posts: 2971
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby JustLikeHeaven1 » January 29th, 2007, 11:45 am

My main gripe with the 360 is the way it caters to the "mature" crowd.  When I say mature I don't mean actual mature people...rather people that lust after games that are more akin to your typical summer blockbuster (all style, no substance).  After looking at the Critic's reviewed 360 games the genres breakdown like this.

 

FPS - 4

Racing - 8

Sports - 8

Fighting - 1

Action Adventure - 5

Compilation - 1

 

The first three genres are the most typical games found on the system and also happen to be my 3 least favorite genres.  The few games that do interest me in the system are few and far between.  I wish more creative orginal games were made (Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Kameo, Gears), but the system continues to force FPS and Racers down our throats.  The biggest reason for this is because of Xbox live.  These genres prove to be more multiplayer friendly and thus are the games that come out for the system.  Most people are happy with the game selection at this point, but I am still frustrated with it. 

 

Plus the hardware durability scares the hell out of me.  I still read horror stories about the red light O doom.  The 360 is one of the least reliable systems in recent memory.  Here's hoping that 07 is the year that the 360 truly shines.

 

The only reason I posted this was because 2 of 3 games reviewed fall into those dreaded genres that I can't stand. 


bluemonkey1
Posts: 2444
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby bluemonkey1 » January 29th, 2007, 12:38 pm

How is a third person shooter more creative than a first person shooter?  Surely Prey is far more creative than Lost Planet?

Sounds like you should check out XBLA.

To my ears it just sounds like you have a particularly biased view of the word creative.

Chrisbid do you have the game out of interest?


bluemonkey1
Posts: 2444
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby bluemonkey1 » January 29th, 2007, 12:40 pm

Oh sorry just wanted to post one more thing.  You think that the FPS proliferation is due to XBox Live and they are popular due to the multiplayer but the best parts of most of these titles is the single player.  Call of Duty 2, Quake 4, Prey, PDZ and Far Cry are all better single player games than multiplayer.

JustLikeHeaven1
Posts: 2971
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

1/28/2007: Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, Need For Speed Carbon

Postby JustLikeHeaven1 » January 29th, 2007, 1:36 pm

[QUOTE=bluemonkey]How is a third person shooter more creative than a first person shooter?  Surely Prey is far more creative than Lost Planet?

Sounds like you should check out XBLA.

To my ears it just sounds like you have a particularly biased view of the word creative.

Chrisbid do you have the game out of interest?

[/QUOTE]

FPS can be creative, but most of them boil down to the same thing...if it moves shoot it.  I find the genre to be terribly stale...There is only one FPS that matters on the 360...Halo 3.  Sports games and racers have only advanced so far...and most of it was done last generation.  There is room for improvement, but Tiger Woods 03 is just as fun as Tiger Woods 07.

 

The 360 lineup is hardly what I would call diverse.  If you crave titles that are "extreme" *shudders* then its got you covered.  Personally if I see one more WWII shooter become successful I'm gonna scream.  When developers cop out and use proven formulas like GTA (Saints Row) or WWII settings (too numerous to mention) and they actually sell well...it doesn't paint a pretty picture for the industry's future.  You are going to see less and less orginal IPs this generation and thats a shame. 

 

 



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