Full Game Early Impressions

Max Payne 3 – Early Campaign Review

***SPOILERS*** Its been nine years since the release of the last Max Payne game. The wait is finally over gamers as Max Payne 3 is amongst us, or should I say me? This particular article details my early experiences pertaining to the single player campaign of Max Payne 3. If you want my final review as well multiplayer review of Max Payne 3 check out Video Games Source regularly. Max Payne 3 is a noire style action game developed by Rockstar Studios and published by Rockstar Games for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The game released today May 15, 2012.

I have some history with Max Payne. Besides watching the Mark Wahlberg movie I have completed both games on my original Xbox. This time I am playing the game on my Playstation 3. The first thing I noticed was the long install time of Max Payne 3. I didn’t check to see the file size however I haven’t had to wait this long for a install in a long time. Upon start up you see a cutscene of Max moving into his new apartment in Sao Paulo Brazil. Voice dialog and music immediately brings me back regarding Max Payne’s noire. Max talks about a “new start” amongst other things during the opening cutscene which gives you a really good indication as to what kind of a man Max Payne is. After the cutscene your now at the main menu screen showing a animated image of Max Payne drinking and smoking a cigarette. The menus include: Story, Arcade, Multiplayer, Settings and Playstation Store. The main menu screen also has a Social Club and News area to explore with Start and R1 L1 buttons respectively.

Next I choose Settings and wrote down the default button layout for the Dual Shock 3: LS-move, Select-attachments, D-pad-pain killer, camera toggle, quick turn, L3-crouch/prone, L1-weapon wheel, L2-shoulder aim, Start-pause, RS-camera, X-sprint, vault, roll, Square-cover, Circle-reload, Triangle-interact, R3-bulletime, R1-shoot dodge and R2-fire. At first I was messing up with the controls since I haven’t played a Max Payne game since my Xbox days. As I settled in I was taking cover, using the weapon wheel and engaging bulletime like it was nobody’s business.  The controls are solid so far. I love shooting while prone full 360 degrees. Max Payne 3 doesn’t totally feel like the older Max Paynes per say, that is due to the new cover system I am thinking.

I then choose Story to get the campaign started. The Story menu tabs broke down into New, Continue, Chapter Select and Grinds (achievements/trophies). Difficulty comes in the form of Easy, Medium, Hard, Hardcore and Old School. I choose Medium just so I can run through the game and get it reviewed at a respectable date. Next up was Targeting which gave me the choices of Hard Lock, Soft Lock and Free Aim. I choose Soft Lock which locks hard in my opinion. I could imagine what Hard Lock feels like. As for the chapters I completed they were Something Rotten In The Air, Nothing But The Second Best and Just Another Day At The Office. I am currently at the beginning of Chapter 4: Anyone Can Me A Drink which is a flashback sequence telling us why Max had to leave New Jersey.

As for the story so far it revolves around the main protagonist we all know and love Max Payne. Max became a bodyguard after hooking up with a long time associate Raul Pesos (hope I spelled his name right). Max moves down to Sao Paulo Brazil and becomes a hired bodyguard for a rich business man named Rodrigo Branco. Max is more in charge of protecting his wife Fabiana more than anything. Gangs have tried to kidnap her in the first chapter and was actually successful in the second chapter. The third chapter was to negotiate her release by giving her captures 3 million dollars but things went wrong badly for Max and Raul. As for a overall synopis of the first three chapters you have shootouts with gangs in a penthouse, a nightclub and a big futball stadium (I am American btw).

The gameplay is a mash-up of cover based shooting and using bulletime. You have to take pain killers to restore health and searching around for clues like celeb magazines and dropped photos fleshes out the missions. There are also golden gun collectibles in each mission that you can find. There are scenes where Max must use bulletime on moving helicopters and other times when he was  protecting Raul in the Futball stadium. The gameplay doesn’t really add nothing spectacularly new to the series but is nonetheless fun and quite visceral due to the updated visuals and sound design.

The main thing I can say about the gameplay is that its addicting so far. When you get your last kill the screen transitions into a slo-mo kill cam that really brings out the gore and hit detection system in Max Payne 3. The guns I played with range from Uzis, pistols, small machine guns, shotguns and sniper rifles (so far). Yes you can mix and match some guns for dual wielding which I have done. Every gun does have a distinct feel with Max acting accordingly in a realistic manner when using different weapons depending on size and weight.  Playing through the first couple chapters I can really appreciate Max Payne’s presentation. Its strong in my opinion like every other Rockstar game.

The atmosphere is thick but not as dark (so far). The visuals are impressive showcasing nice textures in-game as well in cutscenes. There were some clear framerate issues during some cutscenes and big shoot-out sequences but not many. Overall I would say the game runs really good despite the hiccups. The music is really good along with the voice actors so far. The world has that glow like previous Rockstar games have. So far I would say the first couple of chapters in Max Payne 3′s single player are action based and gives us little in the way of story. I know this is a methodical game and the story will heat up eventually. Overall, so far, so good gamers. Thanks for reading.

Mass Effect 3 – Early Impressions

Mass Effect 3 has finally landed and it is now time to save earth. Strap your space boots up soldiers cause this is gonna be one hell of a intergalactic ending to the Mass Effect trilogy. So how are the first couple of hours of Mass Effect 3′s story campaign? Good. Its good so far but let me give you the run down of my experiences via this early impressions article. First off yes i am playing Mass Effect 3 on my Playstation 3 which right about now has me feeling pretty fail honestly. The reason being I played and beat the first two on my Xbox 360 and had all of my  import save files on there. I simplay wasn’t thinking when I ordered it at the time. Its ok I still have my M-55 Argus Rifle from my pre-order at Amazon.  Mass Effect 3 is a RPG developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is out now.

Setting Up Your Character

Just like with every Mass Effect game before it you initially have to set your character up if you have no import data. You start out having to Choose Your Experience which tailers Mass Effect 3′s gameplay accordingly to your liking. Here you can pick between Action, Role Playing and Story. I choose Role Playing since that is how the older two games played which helps me feel more comfortable playing Insanity. Classes: Soldier, Infiltrator, Vanguard, Sentinal, Adept and Engineer. For my class i choose Sentinal since that class is strong with biotics and engineer powers and it doesn’t help that Sentinals can use all weapons and have special biotic shields. I am playing my first playthrough on Insanity difficulty.

Next you have to go through your psychological make-up and soldier history options. You have to either pick Space Cadet, Colonist or Earthborn. Since Mass Effect 3 is about saving Earth i went with Earthborn (felt appropriate). You then have to choose between Sole Survivor, War Hero and Ruthless. I choose War Hero since I plan on being good Shepard this playthrough. Next you have to pick who died in your previous playthroughs (Mass Effect) serving Commander Shepard. Here you can choose that both Ashley Williams and Kaiden Alenko died serving. Or you could choose Ashley Williams separately or Kaiden separately. I went with Kaiden because he was the first to die when I played Mass Effect my first time while tracking down Saren Arterius.

The Game

The Button layout for the Dual Shock 3: LS-move, RS-camera, Dpad-Up: squad attack, Right: squadmate 2/attack, Down: ralley, Left: squadmate 1/move, attack, L1-tight aim, L2-mapped power/ weapon wheel, Select-quick save, Start-mission computer, R1-shoot, R2-mapped power, Triangle-mapped power, O-melee, X-use/take cover, quick vault/storm, Square-reload/switch weapon. This is the first time i ever played Mass Effect with the Dual Shock 3 and guess what? It works! It has more to do with Mass Effect 3′s default button set-up and mainly its mapped powers. Performing combos are seamless (so far). It also seems like when you manual biotic command like Throw or Warp from quick select it connects to your target more effectively than previous games The melee looks and feels totally different. You can melee from behind cover (I did it to a few Cerberus guards already).

Combining powers is a effective strategy while playing on Insanity. Early in Mass Effect you meet back up with Liara T’soni on Mars investigating a old Prothean archive. Liara comes equip with a biotic called Singularity (creates a small blackhole around enemies and sucks them into it). They don’t literally get sucked in though. My strategy has been to use Singularity on a small group of enemies then quick command either Throw or Warp. From a combat perspective its effective and quite easy to perform. The controls aren’t perfect however. I still experience getting stuck on cover and walls. The new roll strafe takes some getting used to as well. I must say the controls do seem more action based when controlling Shepard. I wonder how the sprint and roll works in multiplayer.

The beginning of Mass Effect 3 starts out on Earth in the midst of a huge Reaper attack filled with giant Dreadnoughts and small ships dropping down Husks and Cannibals. Earth is basically being demolished at a fast rate. Captain David Andersen reenlists Shepard and tells him to travel to the Citadel Council to enlist there help but first I had to make a trip to Mars. The Mars sequence is filled with Cerberus agents in search of information that can stop the Reapers. I notice Weapon Benches during the Mars mission. At Weapon Benches you can pick your team’s gun loadout and mod weapons (but only at the benches). You pick up quite a few armor pieces early in the game gauntlets, chest plates etc. There are a few weapon mods laying about as well.

To unlock new abilities such as the Grenade Lift you have to reach level 6 first. I’m level 5 (so close). As far as leveling up your class powers there is a new design that branches out into a tree-like branch pattern. Say you want to upgrade Warp. You gain XP by collecting, killing and story progression to acquire upgrade points. Warp’s upgrade interface goes from rank 1 to 6 with 8 slots to fill that takes different upgrade points. Some slots increase damage and recharge speed for Warp. At the bottom of the screen you can see Warp’s stats as you choose an upgrade. I like the new upgrade system. It more in-depth and adds some RPG back into this RPG if you catch my drift.

Early in Mass Effect 3 you meet James who is a ex Cerburus agent now Alliance member (interesting). You meet up with Ashley Williams who servs with Shepard in the game’s first mission. You hook back up with Liara T’soni on Mars (like i alluded to above). You communicate with Joker on the Normandy but don’t see him. EDI the Normandy’s AI is back. As far as where I am in Mass Effect 3 I escaped an attack on Earth to get help. I flew to Mars to get information on how the Protheans were about to defeat the Reapers. I’m still currently at the Mars station fighting Cerburus Guardians and other grunts. i died a few times but purely out of carelessness.

As far as everything else goes Mass Effect 3 is solid. The cinematic opening game’s tutorial was fantastic. The gameplay so far is really good with the classic Mass Effect dialog trees. Combat is more fast pace and visceral. The guns feel really unique. The voice acting and writing are good so far. I’m involved in the game’s atmosphere and its holding me in which is the the sign of a great game. There are some performance issues regarding cutscenes (choppiness and stuttering frame rates). During gameplay there are performance issues but not nearly as noticeable like it was in cutscenes.

Its early but Mass Effect 3 is showing me some good things. Its a different Mass Effect but its also a very good Mass Effect so far. If you want to check out my multiplayer impressions and final review make sure to visit Videogames Source in the next few days. Thanks.

Homefront – Multiplayer Impressions

Homefront is a first-person shooter and like most first-person shooters it has a competitive multiplayer component to go along its single player campaign. If i had to give a brief synopsis of Homefront’s multiplayer it would be its not a bad multiplayer at all, its just not over average either. I personally love vehicles in modern military shooters that Homefront incorporates. My gripe is that it just feels like i played this multiplayer before. Homefront was developed by Kaos Studios and published by THQ. For this particular Gamer Blog article i am playing Homefront on my PC via Steam.

The Multiplayer section of Homefront has the following menus: Quick Match, Join Match, Create Match, Armory, Challenges, Leaderboards, Recorded Games and Practice Map. The Challenges section shows which challenges you can complete in-game for rewards. Each challenge usually has a specific gun associated with a set amount of kills you must achieve. For example LMG: 5 kills. There are also vehicles challenges were you have to get a specific amount of kills with a vehicle. Challenges can also be completed by getting wins across certain gamemodes. I never saw what prize you get for completing these. I do know you will level up naturally by completing them. I also played a few Practice Map games. These were beneficial where you can practice driving vehicles and learning a map’s layout and structure.

When you play games in the Recorded Games section of Homefront you can participate in recorded matches. I played one game that was recorded but haven’t watched the match yet. I honestly haven’t even looked up how to watch my matches after playing a Recorded Games match. Like most modern military first-person shooters when you first see the lobby there is a loadout screen accompanied with it. Homefront’s screen has a Infantry Loadout section where you can pick and choose who you want to play with. There are four unlocked classes right off the bat you can play with and two locked reserved for higher level players.

The starting classes are Assault, SMG, Heavy and Sniper. You can pretty much figure out the base weapons and skills for those classes. The locked classes are Tactical (lvl 6) and Explosive (Lvl 35). There are also vehicle load-outs which i think is really cool. Homefront really incorporates their vehicles into there multiplayer. You can even spawn in vehicles when you play some matches. I spawned in a Abrams tank a few times. I started out playing with the noob class aka Assault. The Infantry Load-out menu lets you customize and choose what you wanna use depending on what you unlocked. You can change primary and secondary weapons. You can change weapons attachments and weapon camouflage.

You have two purchase slots where you can add special ”abilities” like Tactical Reload, Thick Skin, Ice Cold etc. Homefront has a plethora of multiplayer maps that can fit vehicle gameplay on. For the most part the maps were decent and featured various USA small town settings. Maps: Farm, Cul de Sac, Angel Island, Crossroads, Green Zone, Big Box, Spillway, Borderlands, Lowlands, Low Lands, Water Way, Overpass and Bridge. Matches can support up to 32 players. The PC version had many lobbies and matches going on everytime i played Homefront’s multiplayer. Matches varied along with rules and unlocks. I can say for sure many gamers on the PC still play Homefront.

I played Battle Commander mostly which is like Conquest in Battlefield. I also played the normal Capture the Flag and Team Deathmatch gamemodes. I am sure there are more gametypes in Homefront’s multiplayer but those are the few i spent all of my time playing. For the most part the multiplayer in fun. The gadgets really do make a difference and i really enjoy the vehicles in Homefront. It doesn’t take long to learn the ins and outs of its gameplay. Prone is useful in multiplayer i learned that early on. However i always get that feeling that i been here before. I can’t really comments on killstreaks since i didn’t any. All i know they are there and have benefits.

Homefront’s multiplayer can best be called average in my opinion. Its not bad but its not great either. I do believe it’s a serviceable multiplayer which has a split divide of gamers who love it and some who don’t like it. I sorta fall in the middle. Thanks for reading.

Homefront – Early Impressions

Homefront is a first-person shooter set in 2027 in the United States under KPA occupation. This particular Gamer Blog article will detail the my early experiences while playing the single player story campaign of Homefront. For reference i am playing the PC version via Steam. Homefront was developed by Digital Extremes and published by THQ. It released Mar 14, 2011 on the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

One of the first things i did was put my gaming rig to work. I built the thing just over two years ago around a 4870, Quad-Core and 6 gigs of RAM.  I was able to max every setting in Homefront’s graphical settings department except resolution. I am also playing through the game on a Xbox 360 gamepad. I figured i just bought the thing might as well use it. I know its borderline blasphemy to use a gamepad over the keyboard and mouse especially for a shooter on the PC but deal with it. So far the game runs good. One thing that is weird regarding the graphics in Homefront is this weird shimmering glowing metallic sheen on some NPCs clothes during nighttime gameplay missions.

Homefront’s story is the driving force of the campaign so far. It tells the story of North Korea’s rise to power and ultimately taking over USA. Homefront centers around the Resistance in Montrose Colorado under KPA occupation. The atmosphere and setting is good. It really feels like you’re in a occupied US town in America’s heartland. The story early on evokes emotion as you see KPA troops slaughter innocent civillians in the streets. You see parents being shot in front of their young child. In a labor camp mission sequence you see children running up to you begging for food. Its a unique setting indeed. Homefront also does a decent good on making you feel like you’re part of a resistance and your fighting for something big mainly being freedom.

Early into the campaign you join up with the resistance. You meet Boone (commanding officer), Rianna, Connor Morgan (hothead) and Hopper. You basically do missions with them in-game. Some players are changed or added in. An early highlight from the single player campaign is taking control of the resistance’s  remote controlled military vehicle called the Goliath. You use a remote targeter to highlight enemy vehicles and troops. The Goliath homes in on them quickly firing missiles and machinegun fire. Its a real killing machine that was easy and fun to control.

The resistance has a safe zone called the Oasis where people and kids live out of the KPA’s reach. Most of the early gameplay moments had me moving from cover to cover to throw grenades at KPA Sentry Towers. Sentry Towers use lights to track people in occupied neighborhoods. Oh yea, it shoots you dead if it catches you for a few seconds. The protagonist is a pilot of some sorts but i have yet to learn what the Resistance broke him out of KPA’s grasp for. Currently i am fighting my way out of a labor camp with Hopper and Morgan.

As far as the controls go using the Xbox 360 Gamepad its ok but not as good as the keyboard and mouse. Homefront has decent visuals and the recreated occupied near future Colorado town looks good. There are many real-life advertisements in gas stations, schools etc. The sound design is decent. The guns sound good. The music is fitting so far. The voice dialog and writing needs some work.

Hope the latter picks up sooner or later considering i’m writing about the story campaign. The atmosphere does evoke emotion and at times seems graphical. As far as guns go i been mostly using various assault rifles. On occasion i have a secondary pistol. You have grenades handy most of the time. The guns as far as feel and shooting are good but not great. The kickback isn’t that strong no matter what type of gun used a few hours in the story campaign.

Homefront’s story campaign so far is ok. I admit the setting is unique but gameplay isn’t equally unique early on. I am having fun however and the atmosphere is thick. The graphics are alittle above average. I am waiting to see some game changing gameplay. Controlling the Goliath was the only real change up so far. Thanks for reading.

Bastion – Early Impressions

Bastion is a action role-playing game that took the gaming industry by surprise last year. Gorgeous visual artstyle along with its real-time voiced narrating just oozed of coolness. After putting in a few hours into a Steam copy of Bastion one thing is for certain and that is, Bastion is one slick game! Supergiant Games are the publishers to this stylish RPG while Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment the publishers. Bastion originally released on the Xbox 360 first (Jul 20, 2011) and then on PC (Aug 16, 2011). Like i alluded to above, i am playing through Bastion on my PC via Steam.

The main menu screen shows Story, Help & Options, Leaderboards, About Us and Exit Game. i immediately went into the options and changed some graphical settings. I also plugged in my Xbox 360 gamepad: A-evade, B-attack 1, X-attack 2, RT-secret skill, LT-defend, Y-heal, X-use/interact, RS-reload, Back-open pack, LB-Next target and RB-prev target. The Xbox 360 gamepad works flawlessly with Bastion on the PC. It didn’t take me long before i was  evading, shooting arrows and activating my special skill seamlessly. The controls are responsive and gameplay rewarding for this indie arcade RPG.

I changed my PC settings around to fit my hardware (4870, Quad Core and 6 gigs DDR3 RAM). I cranked up the resolution to 1680 x 1050, Anti Aliasing 4x. The game performed and looked great. The art in Bastion pops out of the screen as you traverse the three quarter top down view world. I choose Normal Mode for my difficulty. I could have went the easier route of No Sweat Mode but why do that? As far as the story goes its sketchy early on. However “The Kid” is the protagonist while “The Stranger” who sounds like a dead ringer for Shaft is famous for his in-game voice narrating and is useful when asking questions.

The Kid is on a quest to rebuild Bastion piece by piece. He does that by collecting Cores found in the Skyway. The Skyway is a overmap and shows all of the areas to collect Cores and complete Proving Grounds missions. You will unlock more areas as you collect Cores.  Where you already collected a Core the Skyway will show a dark island. Proving Grounds are also on the Skyway world map. Here you can win special items when you complete specific weapon challenges. I completed the Breaker Bow challenge and won some string to upgrade my Bow with. Bastion is a RPG albeit it a mild one. You gain XP that can be used to upgrade and add to The Kid’s special skills via the Distillery.

The Armory is the place where The Kid can either store his weapons or choose which weapons he wants to carry. At the Forge you can upgrade your weapons by collecting or winning items found while hunting down Cores or completing Proving Ground missions. There seems to be a good selection of weapons and magic to use in Bastion. Every weapon has its own unique upgrade abilities and all of the special skills are unique and effective in combat. I’m currently using the upgraded Cael Hammer, upgraded Breaker Bow and the Mirror Shield special skill.

When you choose which Core to pursue you find that the missions are varied. Some require you to fight waves of enemies like Gershel and his Scumbags, Gasfellas and Squirts. Other times you have to fight a boss to retrieve the Core. As you find Cores and put them into the Monument Bastion grows stronger at which time you can contruct your own Forge, Distillery and Armory stations. You will gain XP and on occasion run into interesting NPCs to talk to. You will always gain XP and find unique artifacts and upgrade materials when out Core searching. Bastion is a solid game all around and it really has no glaring weaknesses early on.

The gameplay is solid hack n slash where using range weapons and your shield are important. The special skills use up Black Tonics so i used them only when i needed to. Bastion is fun and engaging as far as gameplay goes. Bastion’s greatest strength is its presentation. Its a cool game. The music, visuals and in-game voice narration reaks of coolness. I really enjoy this game’s atmosphere. I could type all day about Bastion but i am purposely gonna cut it off here so i can beat the game and review it soon. So expect my full review of Bastion in the near future. Thanks for reading.

Kinect Adventures – Early Impressions

Kinect Adventures is a adventure game that comes bundled with the Kinect motion sensor for free. Its a compilation of games such as 20,000 Leaks, River Rush, Rally Ball Reflex Ridge and Space Pop. Kinect Adventures was developed by Good Science Studio and published by Microsoft for Kinect exclusively for the Xbox 360. Kinect Adventures released November 4, 2010.

Kinect Adventures puts you through an initial but lengthly configuration process where you have to move chairs and other furniture around to make space. You also have to stand correctly in front of the Kinect sensor for sometime. The process was much longer compared to other Kinect games i played recently such as The Gunstringer and Forza 4. Maybe that has to do with those games being much newer? One thing is for certain if you want the best experience with Kinect Adventures make sure you have ten square feet available for two people. For one person you need less space.

Kinect Adventures’s main menu screen is broken down as follows: Adventures, Free Play (which i played), Play Online and Time Play. If you choose Online Play you can play agaisnt a stranger online (two people). I played Free Play just to get my feet wet since Kinect still is pretty fresh from my gamer perspective. I first choose Rally Ball and played some Sure Shot and Treasure Chest. Under each game there are various sub-versions of each game to choose from with different rules etc. For Rally Ball you basically use your arms and legs to whack and kick balls that bounce towards you hitting targets as if you’re in a hallway.

Let me tell you after a few games i was winded. I consider myself in decent shape but found myself breathing heavy as i moved from side to side kicking and swinging my arms. I knew i looked foolish but didn’t know how much till the photo was shown of my performance. Thats right, Kinect Adventures automatically takes your photo as you play and shows a brief slideshow after you finished the game. It was pretty funny if nothing less. From that alone i saw the draw of Kinect as a casual and fun device for the family. Some other quick things of note. You can change to your Xbox Live avatar instead of the defaults. Kinect Adventures automatically keeps tracks of different players statistics and their profiles.

I also played 20,000 Leaks which puts you in a leaking glass cage. You have to plug leaks as they pop up. You will have to use your feet even for this. I was bending down, moving left and right using my feet to plug leaks as they spranged up. You have to keep all leaks plugged for your score to increase and new leaks to emerge. Just about every game i played on Kinect Adventures had bad lag. For games such as Reflex Ridge its clearly apparent lag was an issue with limb movements, ducking and jumping. I would say that Kinect Adventures has the worst lag out of the all the Kinect games i played to date. Your rewarded either a Bronze, Silver and Gold star depending on your performance.

This article details my early impressions with Kinect Adventures. What i get as of now is a game that has lag but is fun to play and was a workout at times. Thanks for reading.

Forza Motorsport 4 – Multiplayer Impressions

Forza Motorsport 4 is the grandest of all driving games available on the Xbox 360. Its deep, beautiful and has a multiplayer gamers need to check out if they haven’t already. This particular article will focus on my recent experiences regarding Forza Motorsport 4′s multiplayer. For the record i have played Foza 3′s multiplayer which was fun. I do believe Forza 4 upped the ante regarding multiplayer due to the increase driver count per match and new exciting gamemodes such as The Playground: Tag (Virus). Forza Motorsport 4 is a driving game developed by Turn 10 and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. It released October 11, 2011.

The Community Menu houses all of the multiplayer menus for Forza 4. Its basically where you want to hang out if your playing online all day. Main submenus include: Race Online, My Club, Rivals, Leaderboards, Auction House, Storefront, My Profile, Message Center. At the bottom of the screen you can see Top Features, News Feeds, File Depot, Rivals Alerts and Car Club HQ. One thing Forza 4′s community especially Turn 10 manages to do is make you feel good by giving you free stuff. For example, just by logging into multiplayer i received a Daily Credit Bonus of 2,416. Thats not all, Turn 10 Community  also “gift” me a DB5 Vantage (James Bond old school).  ”My Profile” section of Forza 4 has all of your personal online info. Edit Playercard (can net you an achievement by setting it up), My Stats, Affinity, Media, Options and Team Credits. The Clubs section lets you create car clubs for multiplayer. Add players and give them access to your garage of cars to use (for all club members).  Its also where you can set up to compete against other car clubs.

The Rivals section has Monthly, Top Gear, Hot Laps sections you can try your hand at. Most of your time will be spent in the Race Online section of the Community Menu. Menus here include: Find Race, Create Race and Invite Friends. Find Race is where i started and has the following sub menus: Quick Match, Turn 10 Select, Circuit, Multi Class Circuit, Drift, Motorsports, The Playground, User Created Races. Turn 10 Select: Cycled Production, November Speed Pack, Ferrari Showcase, 5 on 5 Soccer. Multi Class Circuit: A and E, The A B Cs, Forza Le Mans, S and D. Drift: Unlimited Drift and Unlimited Drift RWD. Motorsports: American Muscle Drag, B Class Time Attack, RWD Unlimited Drag American, Stock Car, RWD- Unlimited Drag, Stock Car Unlimited Drag. The Playground: Tag (Virus), Cat and Mouse, Keep The It, Soccer, User Generated Races. That about covers all of Forza Motorsport 4′s online gamemodes.

The first match i played was a Circuit Race. I picked the Saleen S7R. I don’t remember the track honestly other than the fact it was a huge track and it took forever to complete five laps. The host of the race didn’t even compete. Since it was just the two of us he figured he would let me race alone until the next match filled up with gamers. I did end up winning the match. Gained 17,000 XP which boosted me to level 3 or Driver License D status. I was also awarded level 1 Affinity award and a level 2 Affinity award from Saleen and 2000 extra credits to spend.

The second section i visited was Drag. I figured i did drag racing in reallife so a videogame shouldn’t be a problem, wrong! I picked an old school ZR1 Vette. The problem at the time for me was that you can only modify cars you buy or win. I didn’t have a suitable car so i had to pick a car with stock tires, gearing and suspension. In other words, the cars were not set up for drag racing, they were just stock muscle cars basically. In every heat i got spanked by other gamers online by about 3 seconds in the 1/4 mile. It was fun still and quite addicting. I kept playing over and over. You can only quit a match after a race and you better be fast when you do it. Next time i play Drag i’m buying a car and modifying it specifically just for drag racing.

The Playground is a fun area of Forza 4′s multiplayer if you just want to act like kids and play around on tracks. I played Tag which was fun. It says “You are it” on the screen when your it. I was driving the wrong direction trying to tag other drivers. Everybody had mics and was having fun. One thing i want to make clear. If you want to level up fast i would play multiplayer for XP. Its fun and there are many ways of scoring huge amounts. Forza 4′s community is pretty big as it should be. Many people have mics. Afterall what other driving game does the Xbox 360 have similar to Forza 4?

Forza Motorsport 4′s multiplayer is addictive with interesting and fun gamemodes. Its also good for leveling up and learning how to drive. Thanks for reading.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One – 1 Hour Demo Review

Since i am a Playstation Network + member i was fortunate enough to play Ratchet % Clank: All 4 One for one hour today. Being a fan of the series for a while now i was skeptical about the whole co-op presentation until today. I have played the beta for Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One and even the single player demo on PSN. None of it compares to the full game. Or should i say one hour’s worth of the full game. Insomniac Games are the developers and SCEA the publishers to this co-op action platformer. Release date October 18, 2011.

Lets start at the very beginning for the fact this game was 14GB worth of pain to download on my Playstation 3′s hardrive. During the install process your shown a comedic cinematic cutscene of Ratchet sitting next to Clank for an interview. Apparently the scene takes place recently after the events of A Crack in Time and Dr. Nefarious escaped but is now captured. Quirk is now President and takes part in finding Nefarious which was (i believe) the first level you suppose to play in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. Since i only had an hour i joined and completed as many levels/sections of the game as possible (sporadically). One section i played with the help of Susie we had to escape a robot base where they contruct minions. I believe that was actually the tutorial level.

When choosing a match to play you can dictate the search criteria such as Friend’s Only, Location, Allow Games in Progress, Play as Ratchet, Clank, Quirk, Nefarious, Difficulty and if you want Cheats or not. When i entered the lobby i saw about 20 different open in-game lobbies at a given time. Some of the levels were called Phonica Moon (i played), The Dead Groove, Uzo City (i played), TeraWatt Forest (i played), Alduaros Plains (i played) and N.E.S.T. (i played), Polar Sea (i played). Every level i played on was very unique in design and featured genious ways of involving co-op amongst the players with occasional boss fights.

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One ran butter smooth and looked really good for most of my matches. There are checkpoints on levels as well Venders where you and your buddies can buy wild weapons and guns. You can also keep your weapons on the same level when you leave that map before completing it. Otherwise you only start with a pistol on maps you never played. There is also a ranking system for each player. For the most part, all of the games i played were free of stupitity as every gamer helped each other and competed with one another to net the most rewards at the end of the level. Boss fights were fun and took alote of teamwork most of the time.

The comedic atmosphere and presentation that i always enjoyed is all in Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. The visuals are pretty good and the art style even better. The cities, desert canyons, snowy mountain levels and ruined city levels looked really good. Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One doesn’t look nearly as good as its PlayStation 3 predecessors but its good enough. The great voice acting between the comedy team of Quirk, Nefarious, Clank and Ratchet always kept me giggling.

Cutscenes do play a part in the story (there is one). Depending on which level or section of the game your in you can see them. Since my hour didn’t give me the freedom of playing the game from beginning to end i caught a few cutscenes while playing in some levels. I got a real feeling of competitiveness while playing Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. At the end of each level everybody is scored and awarded accordingly. Wether you collected the most bolts or found the most collectibles everybody can see it. Everybody can also see NOOB status on screen when you died the most out of everybody.

Let me make it clear, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One is a fun fun game. I was skeptical about Insomniac Games making a Ratchet game with 4 player co-op. After witnessing the quality of All 4 One i can safely say its a good game.

DC Online Universe Free to Play – Early Impressions (PS3)

I may not be the biggest comicbook or MMO guy in the world. However i do recognize a good deal when i see one. That sweet deal being the F2P version of DC Online Universe.  WBIE are the developers and Sony Online Entertainment are the publishers to this DC Comics inspired MMORPG. DC Online Universe originally released way back on January of this year for the PC and Playstation 3. As the title says i decided to play through DC Online Universe via the Playstation 3 for the fact i am in the process of playing a few PC MMOS at the moment. I also wanted to see how the controls are since i almost always playing MMOS on my PC.

You start the game by choosing which world you want to play in  PVE or PVP. Your then treated to an epic CGI presentation showing many DC heroes fighting against evil. Now its time to pick my body type, mentor, power, weapons, gear, movement and name. Each category for creating your male or female hero are deeply layered. After about a good fifteen or twenty minutes you’re shown a comicbook style cutscene with voiced narrating introducing you to Brainiac and his plan of world domination involving Exobytes.

The controls were probably the most intrigueing aspect that made me want to play this on the console. The Duel Shock 3 controls: X-jump/dive-up, Start- PDA, L1-Lock-on, Select-fast chat, D-pad-quick actions/talk, Square-melee, L2-role shift, Triangle-range attack, L3-fast movement, R2-wildcard shift, R1-block, O-interact. The controls were surprisingly decent. It felt like i was just playing a hack n slash game with RPG elements. The only complicated aspect of the controls were accessing the in-game HUD and flipping through pages.

Gameplay in DC Online Universe centers around completing missions and leveling up. XP is earned overtime in which you can earn Power Points which are used to strengthen your protagonist. Immolation, Ignition, Iconic Powers each have separate upgradable trees that you can assign Power Points to. You can also earn Skill Points over time which will boost a Trait of your liking making your character even stronger. The tutorial helps you understand the latter in more detail as well combat techniques. For the most part the tutorial involves your character breaking out of one of Brainiac’s ships.

You will fight robots, Overseers and a Ship Guardian. After sabotaging some of the ship’s armies and circumventing the ship you then meet up with the mentor you choose. My mentor is Superman and you do some combat together before escaping Brainiac’s ship. Your then welcomed to the hud of DC Online Universe which is a Metropolis Police Station. You see all of the other players partaking in missions or acting silly. You can upgrade youir character and much more in DC Online Universe’s hub.

For the most part as far as early missions go in DC Online Universe they are pretty easy. Its mostly “go here destroy group of enemy” type deal. I dare say however its kinda fun playing this game. Sure the visuals aren’t any good and the sound design at times can be cheesy but the game does have a little fun factor involved in it. Thanks for reading.

1 Hour Demo Impressions – Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe

On occasion PSN+ members get to try out full games for one hour before making a decision on whether or not if they want to buy said game. Today i downloaded the five gigabits sized Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe to see what it was all about. I had an hour which was plenty of time for me to play around with every gamemode. Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe was developed and published by Midway back on November 16, 2008 for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

The main menu section featured sub-menus of One Player, Two Player, Online, Extras and Options. The button layout via the Duel Shock 3: Square-attack 1, Triangle-attack 2, X-attack 3, O-attack 4, R1-grab, L1-throw, R2-block, L2-3D movement. I’m a Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV fan. After actually playing Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe this game from a controls perspective felt like it was dipped in molasses. They the controls are slow, sluggish, wonky, unresponsive and featured too much button lag. Lets not get into the hit detection it was pretty abysmal too.

The gameplay is centered around performing Finishers, Breakers, activating RAGE mode and trying to perform combos. The best characters that i used were the Joker and Liu Kang. Joker could throw bombs at will at any distance pretty much. For the most part it seemed to me that the DC Universe characters were overpowered compared to Mortal Kombat’s fighters. The character roster featured Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Sonya, Shang Tsung, Kitana, Joker, Cat Woman, Flash, Superman, Batman, JAX, Liu Kang, Raiden, Kano, Baraka, Death Stroke, Wonder Woman, Lex Luther, Captain Marvell and Green Lantern. There is a separate in-depth area that gives lengthly bios of every fighter which can be found in the Extras section of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

I picked One Player then choose Story mode to get antiquated with the gameplay, visuals and sound design. You can pick which story you would like to play either Mortal Kombat or DC Universe. I played some of both and they are similar in plot but have different cut-scenes obviously. The story had to do with the merger of Mortal Kombat’s realm and DC Universe’s realm. The visuals are very washed out looking. Granted this game is almost three years old. The voice acting and writing were average. The cutscenes featured mediocre camera work. Then again, its a fighting game but Mortal Kombat vs  DC Universe lacks story telling.

After playing through some of the stories and Arcade mode i then visited the Online section. The online section was worse then the single player. I kept getting logged out for one. There is no quick matchmaking. You have to challenge or somebody challenges you to a fight. Most people in the lobbies didn’t even want to fight. The online system is archaic for this fighting game. When i did get a few matches they weren’t fun.

After the online fiasco i played around in the Kombo Challenges section. This section is your typical trials / training section if you will. There you learn combos and must perfoirm specific sequences of moves, specials etc. Its a training area to be frank. You can pause and check out any fighter’s moves list during the training. By the end of Kombo Challenges training my hour was practically up.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe isn’t in the same leage as Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs Capcom or the last Mortal Kombat game released. It seems the devs of the latest fighting mastered the art of making a fun addicting deep fighting game. Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe wasn’t fun however i’m very grateful i had an hour to spend with it. Thanks for reading.