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Shadows of the Damned Review

Posted on September 30, 2011October 5, 2011 by GameNinjaX

Say hola to the newest badass demon hunter in town Garcia Hotspur from Shadows of the Damned. Let me start off by saying this game requires a lot of crude humor to enjoy, I’m talking every sentence there is a F*** you Mother F**** or a Holy Shit! (My personal favorite). As well as your hilarious sexually oriented jokes such as his main gun being named Boner, which eventually upgrades into Hot Boner and you’re asked to blow shit up with your flaming hot boner.

Anyways, this game is very enjoyable for a zombie 3rd person shooter game. It reminds me of a Devil May Cry feel mashed with House of the Dead and it works! The story starts out with Garcia killing a few demons in his apartment and realizing that his “Angel” (think deep Spanish accent) was taken by demons and dragged down to hell. You know typical Dante’s Inferno story line. Garcia Hotspur is such a badass that he decides to unleash his wrath on the demons and zombies in hell while chasing after his girlfriend Paula. His wise mouthed sidekick Johnson is a floating skull that can transform into torches, and guns that allow Garcia to do some heavy damage.The guns are a powerful handgun named Boner, a shotgun called skullcushioneer, and the machine gun teethgrinder.

The game play in Shadows of the Damned is an over the shoulder 3rd person shooter infused with puzzles to progress through the game. The puzzles are pretty simple, but keep the game interesting because the introduced a “you can’t kill zombies while there is darkness surrounding the area, which also takes away Garcia’s health.” How do you shine light on the darkness covered areas? Shoot the mounted Goat heads on the walls of course! (Don’t ask me, but apparently Goats are a symbol of light).

Then you also have your occasional boss battles that can be fighting anything from mounted minotaur knights, to grim reapers. There is also one part of the game where you can have Garcia read a book called Stinky Crow, I highly recommend taking the 5 minutes to read the book. Not only will you enjoy what happens in the end of the book, but Garcia’s narrative that sounds like he had some serious issues reading back in elementary school. I guess Garcia got A’s in demon hunting but had a little bit of trouble in the literature department.

Shadows of the Damned Rates:

Gameplay 8/10 The 3rd person shooter had a smooth feel to the game and the zombies definitely made me jump a couple times throughout the game. Not to mention all the laughs throughout Garcia’s and Johnson’s commentary.

Graphics 7/10 Nothing special here, but nothing to really complain about. Shadows of the Damned has your average Xbox 360 and PS3 graphics which could have been improved upon a bit more.

Audio 8/10 The zombies and demons made the typical aarrhhh noises and sounds but the voice actors for Garcia and Johnson did an awesome job.

Replay Value 7/10 The only reason I would run through this game a second time would be to laugh at the jokes again, not to play through the story.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters

Posted on September 28, 2011September 28, 2011 by feliciarosee

I was so excited to see the email in my inbox. “We have shipped Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters.” I had been waiting to play this game since the movie was out in theaters. Little did I know that I accidentally rented it for the Nintendo 3DS and not Xbox 360. At this point, I don’t know exactly how big of a difference it would have made. What I do know is that it was one of the worst games I have ever played, and I barely got through the training in the beginning. I was so disappointed because it had some pretty good reviews at first and seemed to follow its storyline pretty well, but I was terribly wrong.

For starters, the graphics were TERRIBLE. I felt as if I had gone back in time and I was playing a game from the ‘90s. With all of the cut scenes of conversation it was even worse. It showed the different characters as 2D on the screen with just a huge dialog box of what they were saying. It didn’t even scroll by itself; you have to press A over and over… It was even worse when I realized there was a part where the same person was talking and it had a separate box for every few words (this box could fit up to 10 at least) and they only worked in maybe 3 or 4. While playing, it doesn’t have much of a 3D affect, or at least to me it seemed as if they just labeled it 3D and threw it in there if you REALLY pay attention.

The game play was the worst part. I felt as if this game was just dragging on and on, without really going anywhere. In the beginning you obviously start out with the training sequence. This was one of the most annoying things I have ever experienced. At one point, you have to simultaneously press the touch screen, the joystick and one of the action buttons. Flying was the most irritating as well because you have to press A twice to jump and then stay floating. I kept pressing too fast or too slow and was never really able to do it the first time. Directionally, flying is just as terrible because you can fight while fighting but it is really difficult to aim and turn.

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters Rates:

Gameplay 3/10 The game itself seemed to take forever just to get to the first stage after training. I didn’t play much longer after that but I felt as though it was all talk and not too much hands-on action and training. There were a lot of areas in this game that could have been improved upon and could have been done different to keep up with the new-age technology and gaming we have these days.

Graphics 4/10. I have no reason to even back it up for why I gave it 4 points, because I really don’t know. I just feel as though they tried a little bit to give it a good look, but in the end it was just terrible.

Audio 2/10 I felt as though I wasn’t really even sucked into the game or interested enough to listen. It is extremely unfortunate because I have never really had that happen to me before. I had absolutely no interest in this game after my first 20 minutes.

Replay Value 2.5/10 Although they did try to have the storyline in there, it just was way too slow for me and the graphics just didn’t catch my eye enough to even bother playing to see the rest of the worlds.

If you want to try it out I highly suggest renting or borrowing it from someone that already has it. I wouldn’t waste your time on this game though try playing my personal favorite Nintendo 3DS game Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D

Dead Island Review

Posted on September 23, 2011September 27, 2011 by blooddash

The first thing I have to say about this game is that it deserves the Mature rating it received. If you don’t care for cursing, blood, dismembering, gruesome scenes, zombies, guns or other such things, then this is definitely not the game for you.

Now, for everyone that has no problem with these, I give you a game that is a lot of fun. Dead Island is basically a zombie game with RPG elements to it. If I were to compare it to another game, I’d have to say that it’s a mix between Left 4 Dead and Borderlands.

The story of this game is that you are immune to being turned into a zombie and you have to go around and help a bunch of people with different tasks trying to get off the island. You start off in a hotel on the beach and continue toward your ultimate goal of rescue. The main quest takes you from the beach, to the city, along to the sewers, and several other places. I enjoyed the change of scenery and it made things feel very different. I hated some areas and enjoyed others more.

The map and environment is basically open to explore. You load in and get to walk around and go anywhere you want with no loading. If you change areas, like from beach to city, then you have to load. But this is because it’s a completely different area and map. I played with the game installed on my Xbox 360, so there may be some loading possibly elsewhere but I haven’t heard anything about it.

There are 4 different characters to chose from and each of them have their specialties: blunt weapons, sharp weapons, throwing weapons and firearms. You are able to use any weapon in the game that you want but the abilities you get pertain to these weapons. Every character has an ability called fury. It’s makes you very strong for a short period of time and gives you a special weapon to use. Each character’s weapon pertains to their specialty. Sharp gets a knife, blunt gets brass-knuckles, throwing gets throwing knives and firearms gets a pistol. You have to build the meter to use it, but it honestly doesn’t take too long to get it up. It’s a free pass to kill everyone in your path until it’s gone.

Each character has 3 skill trees. The first is only for fury. There are upgrades in there that increase damage, health, time and several others. It’s very helpful if you enjoy using fury a lot. The second is the combat tree. These bonuses are most often related to your weapon of choice. Here you can increase damage to your specialty, durability of your weapons and give yourself bonuses and skills to use, such as ramming enemies to the ground. The third and final one, is the survival tree. This one has a large range of abilities. For some, it may give more healing, lowered prices, more xp and the ability to avoid zombies. For others, it could make them attract zombies more or even give you a chance to recover a thrown weapon instantly. The thing that I enjoy is that the creators didn’t just give the same trees to every character. They’re all specific to the character. Some skills may be similar, but others may not show up at all on the other three character’s skill tree. It makes your character feel more unique.

There are a lot of weapons to chose from and you will find them absolutely everywhere. Melee weapons are either sharp or blunt, but there are several different types with different ranges and bonuses. The larger weapons provide more damage, but take much more stamina to use. Weapons also have an attribute called force. The higher the number, the easier it is to just knock a zombie on the ground. The last thing to note about melee weapons is durability. Every weapon takes damage the more you use it. You can find workbenches throughout the game to repair your weapons for a low cost. It’s never too much.

The other weapons include firearms and explosives. Early game you will not be able to find a single firearm. Even if by some chance you do find one, there wont be any ammo to use for it. So that may seem like a lost cause for some, but mid to late game you start to see them everywhere. If you want to use them, you are free to do so. It does make the game a little easier at certain times, but it’s completely up to you whether or not you use them. I used them for specific situations. Explosives are basically molotov cocktails or some kind of grenade made from ingredients. They always have a huge blast radius, so use them with care.

The game allows you to find a lot of different items lying around. They take up no room in your inventory and you can hold as many as you want. These items are either used for quests or, in most cases, to upgrade weapons. At the workbench you can upgrade weapons for a cost. This uses no items at all and increases the base attributes of the weapons. Every weapon can be upgraded 3 times. The other way to upgrade weapons is to use items found or bought to attach onto the item of choice. You find recipes for these mods and there are a lot of them. They range from nails in a bat to a sword hooked up to batteries that you can use to electrocute the undead. You can even upgrade your guns to have poison, fire or electric shots.

There are several types of zombies in the game for your enjoyment. There are the really slow and stupid zombies, but there’s also the Left 4 Dead running zombies that pissed me off the most. As you progress through the story you’ll see the others. One is a zombie on roids that’ll knock you to the floor and kill you far too easily. Another is a charger that runs at you. There’s one that gets close to you and blow up, as well as others that spit some kind of flammable fluid on you. Among the zombies are some humans. Nothing special about them. It was a good cast of enemies that they put in the game in my opinion.

Playing the game is a lot of fun. You can go at it solo or play multiplayer via system link or Live/PSN. People can jump into your game freely if you allow them or you can do it to others. They also allow you to have saved spots if you want to invite your friends but others are in the way. You can join any game that is where you are in the story or earlier. Sorry, but no power leveling off of higher level friends.

All of these sound like a great game, but there are some little things that make the game a little troublesome at times. The game seems to be released as a beta. There are a ton of glitches. Most are minor inconveniences, while others are good. For instance, an NPC wont talk to you or some unknown force wont let you get up the stairs. These can be fixed by just reloading your game. A good one is being able to duplicate weapons. I used this one a lot. Oh, how I loved this glitch! There is one in particular that the company is working to fix ASAP though. A small percent of people have found that while playing online with friends, their entire character data was deleted. Yea, that’s right… Imagine putting in 10+ hours into the game only to find out it’s gone. I’d be pissed off. From gamers reports, the game just stopped autosaving all together. Next time they tried loading the data for that character they realized that the character wasn’t there at all. No record of them ever being there.

Dead Island Rating:

Graphics: 8.5/10 The graphics on the zombies were great. Slicing off limbs and smashing heads in left bloody messes everywhere, but there was nothing that really stood out. Plus, the characters had a weird way of talking by wobbling their head side to side constantly.

Gameplay: 9.5/10 The game was a lot of fun to go through and got you hooked mission after mission. There’s so much to do in the game from grabbing items to killing zombies for experience, that it’s hard to put down the controller. The game does feel like screwing you at times by throwing everything at you and spawning you right there once again. This is what made me feel like stopping. I hate how the computer functions at times…

Audio: 9/10 The sounds really immersed you in the game. Zombie sounds everywhere, but they were still distinct. Every zombie type had their own sound, so you knew when you were going to be ambushed by those runners. Didn’t always mean you lived, but at least you had that second to realize they were coming after you.

Replay Value: 9/10 The game does have a lot to make you keep playing. It truly does. The leveling up and items that you can get do help to add to the enjoyment. Plus, if you’ve got some friends, it’s a lot of fun to join their game and help ’em out a little. I personally beat the game and still play with my brother and friends. Not sure how much more it’ll last if they don’t play, but in my opinion it’s doing the job for me right now.

Overall: 9/10 The game is a lot of fun. Leveling, weapons, upgrades and a ton of missions add to the flavor and playability. I’m still playing it now and enjoy it a lot. The one thing that’s holding this game back is all the glitches it has. I’m not joking when I say that it feels like it was released as a beta. They needed to get more testers for this game.

xbox-360-el-shaddai-ascension-metatron cover

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review

Posted on September 22, 2011September 27, 2011 by GameNinjaX

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron could have been one of those revolutionizing video games for the gaming industry, but it just fell short.. very short.

I wanted to like this game for the fact that the graphics and the game designer also created Dante from Devil May Cry. The graphics were absolutely stunning in some of the environments such as this one.

The game play is a third person action adventure, that basically ends up being a very boring button masher. In the beginning of the game, you learn the basics of fighting and eventually learn how to steal your enemies weapons. Sounds fun right? The problem is that there are only 3 weapons to use in the entire game, with very little variation in the fighting style. Let’s just say that Dynasty Warriors characters have more moves and combos than the main character in this game.

The first weapon is called the Arch, which is the most interesting weapon to pound demons heads with. It is a dual sided blade that looks more like a bow designed to stab and fight off hordes of demons from the heavens. It is also given a unique feature to help Enoch glide around the stages.

The second weapon is the Gale, which is a long ranged bow attached to Enoc’s back. This weapon is fun for about 5 minutes but then gets very difficult to keep enemies at bay.

The last weapon is called the Veil, which used to be a shield for one of your enemies but Enoch decides to break it in half and receive gauntlets. The Veil weapon is just a pound away attack that makes you feel like your character is running around with Hulk hands.

The story of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron is from the book, Apocryptic of Enoch,which follows the main character Enoch as he travels the Metatron looking for the seven fallen angels to stop them from destroying the world. Enoch is consistently being guided by Lucifel who is in charge of protecting the world.

The seven fallen angels are all angels that broke away from God’s reach and heaven, with their own plans to start civilizations and rebellions of their own. It’s up to Enoch and his guardian angel, Lucifel, to Ascend through the Metatron and save the world.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Rates

Gameplay 4/10 This was the main reason why I couldn’t continue playing El Shaddai. The game play is supposed to be action adventure, but really it is slow button mashing battle with the same actions over and over again.

Graphics 9/10 The graphics are a unique blend of cell shading animation combined with a very Japanese stylized art. At a few parts of playing El Shaddai, I had to just stop and look at the environments.

Audio 7/10 The audio is meant to sound like the background sound effects are coming from a “heavenly” voice which ties into the game plot well.

Replay Value 5/10 The game play is just too boring to keep on replaying this game.

If you are into Japanese art and experiencing a new kind of game play in video games, I would suggest renting this game at least once. It seems like the developers of this game were focused on the graphics and then realized that they needed to actually make this a playable video game and rushed it. If the developers found a way to make the game play more enjoyable, this game could have easily been a 9 out of 10.

Batman Arkham Asylum Review

Posted on September 17, 2011September 27, 2011 by blooddash

I noticed that we don’t have a review for Batman Arkham Asylum with Arkham City coming out soon. Now that’s just a shame isn’t it? I know it’s a little older, but hopefully this will convince some of you guys and gals to go out and play it before the new one comes out. Now let’s begin.

In Arkham Asylum (AA), you play as the Caped Crusader, Batman. He’s just as awesome as ever in this rendition. The story starts with Batman taking Joker to AA. He ends up breaking free of the guards while you’re there and now you gotta stop him and all the other baddies that are let loose.

Inside of AA, there are plenty of bad guys to fight. Harley Quin, Zsasz and Killer Croc to name a few. There are plenty more where that came from, including a plethora of henchmen for you to beat up. They really went all out on the cast of this game. There are even several items referencing other characters just for you to reminisce about.

When you start the game, you’ll first notice the amazing graphics. Trust me, they stand out so amazingly. The creators put the Unreal engine to good use here. Every character has an amazing amount of detail and their animations are so fluid and vivid. On top of that the environments are even more amazing. AA has so many tiny details everywhere that it’s almost too much. You know that corner of the room that no one cares about? Well they do. That’s honestly how much detail is in there.

So throughout the game you play as Batman from a third-person view. It may seem a little odd to some at first but it’s for the best. It lets you admire everything and take in everything around you completely. It honestly does. When a game is in first-person, you’re limited to what you can see directly in front of you. So you may see one enemy in front of you, but not the two on the side about to jump you. It’s for this purpose that they implemented it into the entire game. You’re playing third person normally, but when you get into combat it becomes almost an overhead shot. Suddenly, the environment becomes an open view and you can see everyone and everything around you.

The combat system that they input into Batman Arkham Asylum was simply amazing. It’s a freeflow system that allows you to stream combos very easily, while looking visually stunning too. It’s not only entertaining to the player, but anyone watching as well. You have a punch button, counter, stun, dodge, and your equipment. You can attack your enemies head on and if you spot someone going to attack you from the back, you hit counter at any time, even in the middle of your combo to keep the train going. Now, you’re not limited to only enemies directly within arms distance. Batman is too awesome for just that. If you knock an enemy out and the other is a few feet away, point in that direction with the analog stick and hit attack and Batman will leap across the area to attack him now. The idea of freeflow is being hammered in so much that getting a combo of 50-60 hits is well within reason.

The other combat system is Batman fighting from the shadows. You basically have enemies that are armed with guns and searching the area. Your job is to take them out stealthily. It stays true to Batman and how he takes out enemies one by one. You can string them up from gargoyle statues or even drop them on your enemies below to frighten them.

The detective angle of Batman Arkham Asylum for the Xbox 360, is great as well. It’s not only focusing on the fact that Batman is a great fighter, but still keeping in touch with the fact that he’s the best detective ever. There are puzzles hidden around for you to figure out and follow the clues to the next area. They implemented an alternative view mode called Batcowl. It identifies key items in the areas such items, trails, NPCs, badguys and whether or not they have a gun. If you want, you can stay in that view forever. It makes the game easier by identifying everything easily, but you don’t get to enjoy everything else because it kind of puts things into an x-ray view.

Batman Arkham Asylum Rating:

Graphics: 10/10 The graphics are absolutely amazing. I can’t repeat it enough. Everything from the environments, to the characters and even items scattered around are so clean and crisp. It really allows you to be pulled into the game even more when the game looks like a movie.

Gameplay: 10/10 The fighting is awesome. The detective work can be difficult if you want to go for side objectives, but still engaging enough in the main story to allow it to still be present.

Audio: 10/10 The sounds of the environment help to pull you into the game more. You don’t have loud music when you’re trying to be stealthy. It makes no sense. So what ever audio is in there has its place and purpose.

Replay Value: 10/10 I played it twice. Once on normal and once on hard. It wasn’t just to beat the game, but because it was so much fun. It doesn’t take away from the experience at all. I may play it one more time right before Arkham City comes out.

Overall: 9.8/10 I honestly want to give this game a 10/10, but that’s just not possible. No game is perfect. But this is the closest to one that I’ve ever played or seen and it’s honestly one of my top favorite games. No complaints at all about it and I would recommend it to anyone. Here is a video clip of the upcoming Batman Arkham City, set to release on October 18th 2011.

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X-Men Origins Review

Posted on September 15, 2011 by GameNinjaX

X-Men Origins was a very interesting spin off of the Origins movie about Wolverine. It followed most of the storyline from the movie but there were some significant differences. You start out in the jungle when Striker and his team were searching for the adamantium. He still has his bone claws but he is just as BA as ever.

After you do a few quests here it jumps forward to the present time when he has the adamantium. This is where it starts getting kind of annoying and confusing because you have to follow certain paths with your feral senses, which cuts out a lot of the graphics because you constantly have to have the senses turned on.

I really did like how they made it somewhat easier to find out where you have to go that way though because it is extremely easy to get turned around and lost. I loved the different special abilities such as lunge and the claw spin, those both did a lot of damage. This game seems great but it was somewhat frustrating to me because it kept switching back and forth between the jungle and the present day, I wish that it had just been in sequential order but I guess the parts they added that were separate from the movie made it somewhat necessary.

There were certain parts I didn’t agree with much as well because of the way he meets the characters. As the game progressed it seems EXACTLY like the movie, but then it throws you off because when he meets back up with the old team mates from Africa you meet them completely different and then you have to fight them. I will admit fighting Fred “the Blob” Dukes was entertaining because at one point you hop on him and start to ride him through shelves to get his health down.

In X-men Origins fighting Gambit with Wolverine was also somewhat frustrating because you have to climb a giant construction site to get to him and it seems to take forever because there are other enemies along the way. The initial ending fight with him is somewhat interesting, but unless you are good at blocking and quick attacks (I’m not entirely good at that haha), it may take a few minutes to really get him.

X-Men Origins Rates:

Gameplay 6/10 just because it followed the movie well, but I didn’t particularly like the side stories it kept going through and how it kept switching back and forth from the past to the present so quickly. I would have liked to have gone straight through.

Graphics 9/10 It had amazing visuals and as Wolverine got injured you could see right down to his bones and it was extremely gory. You can watch him regenerate as well which was pretty cool.

Audio 5/10 The audio was kind of a letdown because there wasn’t too much music and it was mostly just the effects (gunfire, injury sounds…) I think it would have been a lot better with more background music and maybe even a few good songs in the fight scenes could have made a difference.

Replay Value 5/10 I would never spend the money to buy this game. It is extremely slow in the beginning, yes it ends up getting quicker after a while but it just has a lot of repetitive monsters and you don’t really see a fluctuation of different enemies other than fighting the other member of the team (ex. Gambit, Deadpool, Victor…)

Oh, just a hint for all of you World of Warcraft fans out there… I found an extra achievement that comes up as “WoW!” hahaha… the picture is below… do you recognize that sword?

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Review

Posted on September 7, 2011September 27, 2011 by blooddash

Assassin’s Creed is a game about two factions waring against each other over the ages. The two factions are the Assassins and the Templars. You play as the assassins. Now this particular game takes place after the events of the previous game, Assassin’s Creed 2. So I would recommend playing that and even Assassin’s Creed 1 before touching this one. You don’t have to, but the story may seem a little off for you if you haven’t. The next paragraph is a brief synapses of the previous titles. If you want to just jump to the review of the game skip the next paragraph.

The game has two main stories to it: Ezio’s and Desmond’s. Desmond is a man from the modern age that is reliving his ancestor’s memories through a machine called the Animus. This is so that he can gain knowledge and also train using the system. Ezio is his ancestor and his story takes place during the Renaissance period in several areas of Italy. You go about a beautiful landscape and take on missions to infiltrate, assassinate, and procure items of worth. Your father and two brothers were killed at the beginning of AC2 and the story continues as you learn to be an assassin and get revenge against the Templars. There is a much deeper story to the game that you may uncover if you so desire, but is not necessary.

Let us now begin with the game at hand. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood begins at the end of the second game. If you remember correctly, you were left with some cliff hanger of an ending. So as Desmond you must now relocate to a new safe zone. Once you achieve this you continue on in the Animus to find out where The Apple is so you can use it in modern times. You once again play as Ezio Auditore and must go through a lot of missions until you can finally get the correct memory. It’s pretty straight forward. If you’ve played the older games it’ll feel very familiar.

The game play is amazing. You can climb buildings and basically use the entire environment like a jungle-gym. Running and jumping from building top to building is very fun and smooth. It’s all really organic. The combat system has been refined even more from the previous games. You have even more weapons at your disposal and can pick up the weapons of fallen enemies and use them as your own. The enemies are more responsive and not everyone dies to the counter attacks any longer. So that means you actually have to fight on occasion. There is an amazing system put in called Execution Streak. If you execute an enemy is battle you can flow from one enemy to another in sequence and just kill everyone in one hit. Now this isn’t to say that all the enemies will sit there watching, so you have to watch out for them attacking you during your streak, but these can be countered. It’s just awesome how it all strings together.

You have six stores you may purchase: the medic, blacksmith, tailor, art, stable and faction buildings. The medic heals and sells poison. The blacksmith sells armor/weapons. The tailor sells pouches and dyes your clothes. The art merchant sells you maps. The stable provides you horses in the area. Finally the faction buildings can be bought to place either mercenaries, thieves, or courtesans in the area.

Now the main reason for the name of the game is the Brotherhood. As Ezio you go about rebuilding the Assassins. You find followers and train them up among the ranks and they level up. As they level up, they get better armor and weapons until they are a complete assassin. These assassins can aid you in your battles if you call for them and it’s absolutely awesome when you use it the first time. They pop out of nowhere and attack the enemy you had selected and then disappear if a battle doesn’t start. They have missions you can send them out on to get experience, as well as gold or items. During this time, you can not use their aid in battles for obvious reasons. They’re gone. Haha. So when you select to send them out, it tells you how long they’re gone for and you can continue what ever you were doing. Now, you can select up to 5 assassins for a single mission. Adding more to a mission increases the chances based on their level to the difficulty of the mission. If they fail the mission, they are dead and you must get yourself a new assassin to train yet again. This happened to me once and I lost 4 assassins. It was very sad.

The music was good. It pulled you into the battles with heavier sounds and while you’re just riding around there’s nice and peaceful music. I was a little surprised to hear a little opera, but I didn’t mind it.

The graphics are amazing yet again. The individual graphics for the characters aren’t leaps and bounds over the previous game, but they’re still as good as ever. The designers have done an amazing job on the landscape and that’s how it should be. For a game that’s so vast and open, it’s honestly a miracle how they get so much of the environment beautifully put in without feeling clunky at all. Everything feels as if it should be right where it is. On top of that it all looks perfectly how it should. I’ve had the pleasure of going to The Colosseum in Rome and I have to say that it took me back there. Any kind of landmark that they put into the game is so beautifully done that you could look at a side-by-side photo and not be disappointed. Honestly, take a moment to enjoy if you play.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Rating

Graphics: 9/10 The graphics were top notch. The environments were so amazingly crafted that not a single thing felt out of place. The characters were designed well enough, but it felt like they didn’t want to work on it very much since the last game. This isn’t to say that they’re bad, just not enough to give a 10 to.

Gameplay: 10/10 I loved the game play. Everything flows so perfectly with each other and pulls you into the game. I just didn’t want to put it down. I’m being completely serious. I did not want to stop playing because it just pulled me in so much.

Audio: 8/10 The music fit the scene most often. They used music that fit the era, as well as what was going on but at times it felt like the game got bored with you. There was one time that my escape from guards took a lot longer than it should have, and eventually the music just went away. There was nothing but sounds of my character running. So that didn’t feel quite right.

Replay Value: 8/10 If you’re an achievement whore you’re going to be spending a long time going back in this game. Little added tasks in missions make it very difficult and if you want 100% in the game you’ll be going back to quite a few missions. Trust me.

Overall: 9.5/10 The game was great. The game play pulled you in and wouldn’t let you go. The graphics were absolutely breathtaking and if you’ve ever been to these locations, you will agree with the level of detail. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone. And if you’re a bit of a detective, you can go into the extra secrets in the game too. To be honest, I did and it got me hooked. Played the whole game through in 3 days. Barely did anything besides sit in front of the TV. Totally worth it.

Madden NFL 2012 Review

Posted on August 31, 2011September 27, 2011 by GameNinjaX

Madden NFL 12 is here on time as usual, just enough time to get excited right before the season begins. There are some noticeable upgrades compared to last years madden that make the game play a lot smoother and takes out all the WTF?! moments. By WTF moments, I mean the times where Darren Sproles would run right over and truck Ray Lewis for a touchdown (which would never happen in real life). The developers over at EA focused on eliminating, or at least minimizing, this issue by implementing a feature that takes into account a players force and where they are being hit.

On all the previous Madden games, when you tackled another player in the chest or from the side, the opponent would just fall backwards. In Madden NFL 12, the opponent will actually fall corresponding to the location of the hit. Not only that, but they implemented a new feature that takes into account individual force, because we all know most punt returners cannot truck a middle linebacker. So if you see Ray Lewis or Brian Urlacher in the back field staring you down, you better hold RB and tuck that ball for dear life.

The Graphics have somewhat been improved from Madden 2011, but not by any significant amount. This was a little disappointing because it tells me that Madden is at its full potential on this generation of consoles. Even though the graphics already look so detailed, that my dad will walk in and think there is a game on, why should we keep purchasing the same game over and over again? I think EA will have some trouble in the next few years trying to sell Madden if the only difference is roster updates.

Another feature that I enjoy is the sound track on this years Madden NFL 12. Snoop Dogg, Common, Rise Against, and many other artists made there way on the Madden NFL 2012 soundtrack and make you feel like bull dozing a few bodies into the ground.

The best thing I enjoyed about this years Madden, is the fact that on my first game I stomped the Raiders with the Chargers 28-0, and unlocked 4 different achieves for doing so.

Chargers > Raiders

Madden NFL 12 rates

Gameplay 8/10 The game has been improved over and over again, for more than a decade now. There is no wonder that there are T.V. shows just about winning this game in tournaments. Madden 2012 just adds more features to making a video game feel as real as possible.

Graphics 8/10 I can’t complain about the graphics because it does fool older people into thinking there is a game on T.V., but the difference in the graphics from last years game are minimal.

Audio 9/10 This years soundtrack is a very nice addition to the overall feel of the game. When I’m leaving the menu screen on just to listen to the music, then you have to give the publishers kudos.

Replay Value 8/10 I will be playing Madden NFL 2012 for the entire football season, my friends will be playing Madden NFL 2012 for the entire season, and you will be playing Madden NFL 2012 for the entire season.

I recommend buying this game if you are a fan of football and video games. If you are a casual gamer wanting to know what the Madden craze is all about, then I suggest renting it on GameFly