Speed Freek Review

Posted: 08-10-2007 | 08:46:48 Category: Kontrol Freek, Review, Speed Freek No Comments

Well the day is finally here I have finished testing out my Speed Freek, and writing up my summarized review of the product.  I did this review a bit different than my game reviews, simply because I wasn’t sure what categories to break it out to, and how to give it a number rating.  The product is an innovative idea without competitors to compare it to - so how can you fairly say that this is above, below, or just average compared to the rest of the products out there - when this is essentially it?  To put it short, if you are looking for an edge, this just might be your product.  It did in fact help my scores on the test runs that I did. 

Read the full review here

New Review Coming Soon

Posted: 28-09-2007 | 10:10:29 Category: Kontrol Freek, Review, Speed Freek No Comments

I was contacted by the engineer of the Speed Freek product available from Kontrol Freek.  He asked if I would be interested in giving the Speed Freek a try and write up a little review of the product, which I glady accepted.  Unfortunately for him, i recieved it just in time for the Halo 3 release - so I haven’t gotten to give it enough time for a full review.

Last night I started gathering some times on Forza Motorsport 2 time trials based on my best times on a track over a course of 10 laps.  Giving me time to get familar with the controller again, the track, and the car’s handling.  I plan to do the same exercise with the same cars, same number of laps, with the speed freek attached - to see if it can improve even my rather poor skills in racing games.  I have a few other racing games, and perhaps even some non-racing games in mind if time permits.

I plan to have the review completed and available before the end of this weekend, depending on how busy I get with the family, and the after-hours work I am doing to cover an upcoming trip - it might be delayed a bit, but I think its doable.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Review

Posted: 27-11-2006 | 08:58:05 Category: Game Reviews, Games, Marvel, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Review, Ultimate Alliance, Xbox360 No Comments

About the game:
This game would be categorized as an action/RPG. You control a team of 4 super-heros between the players that are playing. In other words, if you have 3 players, there is 1 extra team mate that is AI driven unless someone chooses to use that character instead of the one they are currently using. There are more then 20 Marvel Heros to choose from Including Spider-man, Captain America, Blad, Wolverine, Iceman, among many others.

Single Player (Story Mode): 9/10
The story mode of this game is quite extensive. I originally thought that it was going to be pretty short, but after 8 hours of gameplay I just made it to episode 3, and from what understand there are a total of 5 episodes. You interact with a large number of Marvel characters, and a LARGE amount of super villains. There are a ton of costumes, powers, and various other things you can unlock for each character - let alone characters themselves that need to be unlocked. During story mode you pick up credits that can be used to purchase items for each of your super heroes.

Multiplayer: 9/10
I have only played multi-player on a local game with a friend. So this review is based on that alone, though you can also play the story mode over live, and I believe there is also a versus mode (which I have not tried at all). Considering the local and live multiplayer, and the two different modes that these can be played I think that the multiplayer mode is great. I also like that if you play co-op mode each team mate can switch to the remaining team members.

Graphics/game play: 8/10
The cut scenes look great, and the gameplay graphics aren’t too shabby either. Without the super powers this would be a little bland on gameplay, but having the ability to use a number of super powers for each character you play, and the ability to switch between the powers (and the characters) makes the gameplay extremely versatile. Even if you played the game through with one team, you could do it all over again with a completely different team, and completely different powers.

Achievements: 9/10
The achievements are split very nicely across the game. There are achievements for just completing the story mode of the game, and points for simply doing things in the game (such as defeating X enemies). There are also points for co-op play as well as arcade mode play. 46 achievements in all, and to get them all I think it would take an enough effort to keep you in the game for quite a while.

In Short..
This game has a nice story that will actually take you a while to complete. At times it can be challenging and your entire team might die, but for the most part if you play smart you will have no problems. There are a number of small little puzzles to figure out, and also a few side missions to complete as well. There are a ton of unlockables in this game, and a nice evenly distributed achievement point system. I have this on rental - but I would have no problem actually buying this title

I give it a 9 out of 10

Gears Of War Review

Posted: 22-11-2006 | 11:56:57 Category: Game Reviews, Games, Gears Of War, GoW, Review, Xbox360 No Comments
Introduction:
First of all this game had some serious hype. It has been talked about as the most anticipated title to date, and everyone seemed rabid for this game as Emergence Day grew near. I however, believe it or not, was still on the fence about this game - I generally play shooters on the PC and rarely at that. Due to all the hype, and every single friend I know getting the game, I decided to give it a shot anyway.
About the game:
The game has online versus mode (ranked and standard player match) as well a campaign (or story mode). One great benefit to the story mode, is you can also play it in co-op mode (even on live) for those of you that want to team up for the good of the world.
Single Player (Story Mode): 9/10
The story mode as I mentioned above can also be played with a friend, without anything cut out, including the cutscenes, which I found to be a great benefit and alot of fun. There are 5 acts in all, most of them I would estimate took about 2 hours or so to completely (I am by far no expert at these type of games), Act 5 being the shortest (this one clocked in about 35 minutes to complete). There are three difficulty levels for the story mode: Casual, Hardcore, and Insane. In order to play insane you have to complete the game in either Casual or Hardcore. So far I have completed the game on casual and I am in the final stages of Act 4 on Hardcore (at the time of this posting. The story is very well written, and the enemies act very smart - they use cover, they try to flank you, everything that you as a player are trying to do to them. The A/I is pretty impressive. In fact the only negative thing I have to say about the story mode of the game is the ending cinematic was a bit weak in my honest opinion.

Multiplayer: 9.5/10
To be fair I have not played versus very many times yet, but so far it is amazing. You can fight on a team of 4 versus 4, which allows for you to come up with some interesting strategies to try and take out the other team. For all of you that like to compete against other gamers I think that the maps, and game types will definately not dissapoint. I have to admit Curb Stomping another player on live is alot of fun.

But wait there is more! If you prefer to just group up with a buddy and just work your way through the story you can do this locally on split screen, connecting with your friends console on a LAN, and evey over Live, I personally went through the entire story mode with a friend, and its great to have someone to actually talk to, and actually plan your next move, instead of having the CPU blindy do what he thinks is best. To be fair, the CPU team mates are rather smart and help out a ton, but you cannot really come up with a plan with them over voice chat now can you?

My only complaint (and the reason for the 9.5 instead of 10) is that your current save game is used for 1 Player, and online Co-op. this means that in order to play co-op with a friend and not skip a section of the game, you cannot play story mode on your own when that friend is not around - its not horrible, but I really wish seperate save versions could be provided.

Graphics/game play: 10/10
I have to say that the graphics are probably the best I have seen thus far on any game I have ever played. There are so many things that just make you stare in awe over. The rain looks extremely realistic, your gun even makes the area around it blurry (from heat & smoke). The gameplay is amazing, and the controls are layed out perfectly by default. There are nice little extras too, like the benefits, and drawbacks that you recieve when trying and succeeding (or failing) an active reload. Enough cannot be said about the graphics and gameplay, you simply have to experience it for yourself.


Achievements: 8/10
I think the achievements are spread out pretty well in the game. There are achievements for finishing each act, for each difficulty, and of course the higher difficulty levels are worth more points. Also, are achievements that are based on collecting COG tags, consider this the “hidden fruit” of the game - 30 in all, and 1 achievement for each 10 you find. There are 2 achievements you get simply be doing active reloads, and also achievements for playing co-op with a friend (of course my gripe here is you have to be the secondary player to get the points - when I think it should simply be based on co-op story mode for both players). Finally there are achievements based on multiplayer play - I am always on the fence on these type of achievements. I understand that its a great reward, and something to strive for (and keep you playing) multiplayer - but on the other hand it requires that you have the pay service in order to recieve these achievements. You cannot get the multi-player achievements unless its ranked play - and you cannot play ranked play if you dont pay for a gold membership. I, and most of you probably have gold status - but telling standard silver members that they cannot achieve the same 1,000 points that the rest of us can without buying it - it just doesnt sit well with me..

In Short..
This is the game everyone was talking about, this was the game that everyone said you HAD to get, and honestly I didn’t buy into it at first. Finally when the game was released I went out and picked up a copy after seeing that EVERYONE (as expected) was playing this game - and I figured I should at least give it a fair chance. That being said, as you can see in my Live Eye profile, at the time of this post, I have spent more time on this game than any other. That is a pretty interesting statistic considering this is a combined play time for each game since 10/01/06. (of course I did have two repair orders in the begining of that time. If this game allowed you to save seperate co-op and 1 player story mode progress, i probably would have given it a 10 out of 10, it is the only thing that truely lowers the overall score in my eyes. My rant of the achievements and non-gold members also plays a factor, but that can be overlooked considering all the other factors of this great game.


I give it a 9.5 out of 10

Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy Review

Posted: 21-11-2006 | 19:49:50 Category: Game Reviews, Games, Lego, Review, Star Wars, Xbox360 No Comments

About the game:
In short this is Star Wars episode 4, 5, 6 (the original trilogy) in the world of lego. Everything is legos, the characters, the ships, the actual land - Everything. There are small puzzles, where you have to build items from a pile of legos, push things to the proper location of the ground, and pull levers etc.

Single Player: 7/10
Single player and multi-player are essentially the same thing (as far as I have seen thus far). The reason I rated it so high is there is a total of 18 levels, 10 bounty hunter missions, and a mission called lego city. There are a ton of hidden items needed if you want to go for the full 100% achievement through each of these levels, so they keep you exploring. There are a ton of things to unlock - about 100 characters from what I read, among other things. You can ride animals, and drive star wars vehicles. At the end of Episode V you take out the death star, so the whole level is flying a ship - which was a nice suprise.

Multiplayer: 6/10
This rating might change after I look at the multiplayer options a bit further but I have read on the forums there is no multi-player co-op. I am not sure if there are other game types online, I have mostly only played single player - and am still not very far into the game. My brother was over for a visit today so we tried the co-op mode. It was alot of fun to work together instead of having the second character just being a computer AI following me around, but it was also very frustrating at times. It isnt a split screen multi-player so if you are on the far left, and your friend is on the far right - someone ends up getting bumped or you both just spin your wheels. On more then one occasion I actually died because of us being in different areas of the room.

Graphics/game play: 8/10
Keep in mind that everything is based on lego blocks, so you arent going to get graphics that compare to something like oblivion, but for legos they are looking pretty sweet. As far as gameplay goes I really like the special attacks - for example Chewbacca will tear the arms off of a foe that is close to him. Nothing is funnier then watching a lego storm trooper stand there wondering where his arms went. The movie sequences are actual scenes from the movie - but are acted out by legos, I found myself laughing at this scenes quite a bit - but perhaps I am just to much of a star wars fan.

Achievements: 8/10
I think that the achievements are done pretty well, at least from what I have actually gotten and from what I read. For example the normal 18 levels each have an achievement - which is to complete that level without dying. There are quite a few areas that I can tell you that this will probably be a pretty serious challenge. You have 4 hearts, which amounts to a single hit from an enemy - you can however get hearts back from killing others and destroying various items in the level. I wouldnt call them impossible, but they actually require a little skill to accomplish them.
There are achievements for the lego city and the 10 bounty hunter missions, these are hidden levels - I havent touched them yet so I cannot really write on the difficulty or worth of them but they are based on levels you must first unlock so I think they will be comparable in challenge to the others.
Finally the rest of the achievements is based on the percentage completion of the game (which is related to the numerous hidden items that you unlock throughout the levels) there is one at 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%, and the points increase the higher in percentage you obtain. With the amount of hidden and unlockable items, I think the 180 points for the 100% is a valuable reward, and you are also rewarded for your work on the way there.

In Short..
The first time I put the game in I was somewhat happy that i rented it. I just thought it was strange, but as I played more I am actually really liking it. I have not gotten very far so perhaps my review is a bit early, but I definately would recommend giving it a chance. Maybe rent it first to see what you think, and go from there. That’s what I am doing

I give it a 7.5 out of 10

That completes my first review ever, I am not much of a writer