XBOX 360 Game Reviews! < Updated 12/27 > MAFIA 2 & AC: Brotherhood

Ill be updating this a lot and remember this is purely my opinions, dont find fault with me if you do not enjoy a recommendation:

Lets start in order of newest released (excluding Black Ops):

Index:
Mafia 2
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Black Ops
Fable 3
FIFA 11
UFC 2010
Halo Reach
Red Dead Redemption (and GTA 4 and the DLC in the advice section)
Just Cause 2
Dragon Age: Orgins
(More Coming Soon!)

Here we Go

Mafia 2

Im not going to sugar coat this; Mafia 2 starts off like a rough semi-playable game. the first five minutes are basically a long cutscene that describes the main characters past. After that, and having the option to either go to jail or war (you dont literally have the option) and you go to war, which is basically your instructions in how to play. after that, it takes forever to get into the game. However! once the game starts to pickup pace it gets much better; more like other mafia games. though it plays much more like a first person shooter then the third person shooter franchise of the Godfather Series. The game isnt as free roam as the godfather series either, its more direct though you do have the option to freeroam as long as its you dont "go to bed" which starts a new chapter. its a combo between The Godfathers theme; AC: Brotherhood chapters/mission style, and its own spin on gameplay.

Recommendation: Its still $60 dollars, so unless your either a DIEHARD mafia/godfather/gang gamer/fanatic or you have extra money from christmas or laying around id wait till the price dropped a bit.


Assassins Creed: Brotherhood

the day after thanksgiving i was mindlessley walking about in best buy, looking for a new game to occupy my time when i remembered about Assassins Creed: Brotherhood was out, so i picked up, but not without hesitation. Because i had hated the first Assassins Creed, viewing it as way too repetitvie and somewhat annoying. But i'd read good things about AC: Brotherhood from OXM and decided that it was worth a shot. The gameplay is quite interesting i must admit, the graphics in this game are by far some of the best ive seen in awile, much better then Black Ops and comprable to the cutscenes in MW2. The plot outside the assassin part is somewhat confusing if you havent played Assassins Creed before but inside the Assassins part, makes good sense with a strong interesting plot, though the puzzle aspect kinda annoys me but thats a personal prefrence. Ontop of that they have Halo-esque assassination cutscense within the game, make it more gruesome and even more amazing. I was hooked within 15 minutes.

Recommendation: Its worth the 60 dollars, especially if you were into earlier Assassins creeds. if not id suggest waiting for a price drop depending on how you felt about AC:2

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Now with Black Ops, you either will love it or hate it depending on your views of previous Call of Duties. Black Ops isnt like Modern Warfare, in setting/plot, or Call of Duties 1-3. I can better demonstrate the difference of Black Ops by first stating how call of duty 1-3 and MW1&2 are similar, they both have you play the campaign from many different angles, usually as a Russian, Brit, or an American, also the first three are World War and The Modern warfares are, well modern.

Black Ops take place between these two settings, it takes place in Vietnam/Coldwar era. You play a single character the entire way through, and the main screen actually flows into the game. The Campaign is like any of the others, earn gamerscore for completion, but realistically not anything worth gushing about, played one Call of Duty campaign, you've pretty much played them all. (Recommendation: Play campaign anyway for GS and To get used to the weapons)

Now for the meaty part of the review, the part majority of you were waiting for, the multiplayer review. I'll quickly skim over the basics, What you will see new in Treyarchs attempt to "Improve" multiplayer is, a new market based aresnal, you unlock your arsenal how you would in any other CoD but, unlocking it, doesnt mean you can have it right away because you need to purchase it first. Some argue that this is better because along with it comes the ability to just buy attachments (theyre all unlocked when the gun is, avg attachment will cost you 1000) and camos (except gold, unlocked at prestige 1, level 14). others argue its worse because it doesnt take any skill now, i personally dont give a shit in either direction because it realistically doesnt make that big of impact.

Besides that, there isnt many new things that are major, now is the skimming part:
-Camo: you can now have your face painted (unlocked at lvl 33)
-Customizable weapons: Now engrave your clan tag/emblem for 1000 apeice into your gun (done by indivual gun)
-Custom Emblem- Buy and design your own logo, much like any other image creator (Gutiar hero tattoos, tony hawks etc)
-No more vote skip- Vote on your map, previous or next or random, much like the halo multiplayer system.

Overall the graphics and dynamics are more of a reminder of Infinity wards Modern Warfare 1, and the sniping was improved slightly. The maps are ok, not an improvement over MW2's or MW1's, some are actually a lot worse, but when map packs come out, it wont matter.

My Recomendation: Buy it, for no other reasons then: 1) Everyone one earth will be playing it for at least 6-8months 2) If you previously loved call of duty 3) need a new FPS 4) actually pretty well done, and improvement of Treyarchs usual piece of shit games (I.e World at War, the forgotten bastard child of Call of Duty)


FABLE 3:
Fable 3 puts you in the driver seat of Albion, the fictional land that was first introduced in fable. You start off as the prince in a dark time and almost instanly have to make a tough desicion between life and death. The game is very interesting and interactive for about the first hour...introducing a new pause menu area (called the sanctuary) which is quite amazing if i do say so myself a huge improvement over the last game. The graphics are amazing too, another bonus for the game. after the first hour though you start getting kinda annoyed and just want to be king already, it took me about 6 hours to become king and that was grinding out quest after quest...the game is not over when you become king, i wont spoil it for you but my advice: SAVE YOUR MONEY, and dont buy unneeded things.

Only downside is many people are experincing glitches (i am one of them) that when you load a game or a new map area you spawn under the map and only way to remedy this is creating a new game until a patch comes out.

My advice: Wait a few weeks till patch comes out to be on the safe side but definitly worth the $60 price tag.

FIFA 11:
Not much to say about this, kind of a niche game but i picked it up (i play soccer so this might be more biased review than anything else) But an amazing game, while playing manager mode you feel like your honestly the manager, you can edit your team to almost no end and you have to pay attention to contracts and what not. no downside to this game unless you do not enjoy sports/soccer.

My Advice: pick it up if you enjoy soccer or sports, definitly worth the $60 dollars.

UFC 2010:
AMAZING GAME. takes a bit to get into especially if you havent played a ufc game before, and career mode is a bit high maintence, but create-a-fighter is a great feature and the sponorships are amazingly well done. especially creating trunks/apparel to gain the most money. (you get money for wearing the logo's on your clothes during a fight, more if you win) also the ability to mix up your fighters style is great....only con is the submissions, very annoying but survivable once you get the hang of it.

My Advice: Worth the Money, especially because its only $40 at best buy.

Halo Reach:
This game varies depending on what exactly you want to do... If you're in Halo from the long haul and have been playing since the first one on the original Xbox, ignore the rest of thread, earn $60 bucks and go buy it. If not then keep reading.

The campaign is amazingly well done, by far one of the best campaigns i have ever played, and I'm not a big fan of Halo. I couldn't put down the controller for days, the campaign is definitely the best part of the game.

Online play is basically the same as Halo 3, but better then ODST's. The only new things that they have added since Halo 3 are the assissinations (really cool finishing moves that earn you extra credits) new vehicles, improved the forge, and made the armor slightly different and how you obtain it. I personally like the new way of unlocking armor because you don't have to go hunting through levels for skulls or complete achievements, you can buy them. Though I do recommend signing up for Halo Waypoint if you haven't already, gains you a free avatar item and free armor in Halo: Reach.

My advice: Just buy it, price tag: $60

Red Dead Redemption:
Im going to be blunt. The only cool things in this game are the body swinging from a noose (i like intense games) and the name. I got the game when i first broke my leg and had nothing better to do, i thought it'd be good because my friends said it was, i got the game put it in excited, played for 20-40 minutes got bored and played Battlefield Bad Company 2. The last fun thing i did in the game was hop onto a train and executed the conductor, but there was nothing you'd expect a western to have, like robbing it etc.

My advice: Buy GTA 4, because at least then you can play the Lost and the Damned, the only good release from Rockstar in awhile. The ballad of gay tony was ok, and GTA 4 it self was too realistic. None of them are worth the money, make the two games and the DLC worth $20 and maybe. this game gets a DONT BUY from me. PRICE TAG UNKOWN

Just Cause 2:
Just cause 2 is very much similar to Just cause one, just change the enviroment and add a couple new gadgets, new plot and new black market. besides that the controls are pretty much the same, no fall damage for the most part and actually pretty easy...it is very enjoyable, good, and the graphics are good. if you enjoyed the first JUST CAUSE, you will also enjoy this one though you will forget it after a few hours of gameplay for a more interesting game

My advice: Buy it if you have spare change, beaten all the games you currently have or for some reason were addicted to the first one. Price range will be between $40-60 dollars, its been awhile since ive seen it.

Dragon Age: Origins
One of THE best games i have ever played in my life, it literally took over my life for a couple of days until winter vacation was over and i had to return to school. The gameplay grabs you straight from the start and the plot is almost as good as a movie...the graphics are Astounding and fluid. the customization in the beginning is great, from your choice as three races, different classes, and different casts make for a very interesting game, especially because every single combo has a different start and game. i recommend this game to anyone who enjoys RPGs or has decent taste in general...especially because Dragon Age: awakening came out not to long ago for a decent price...this game will have you glued to your box for weeks.

My Advice: Clear your schedule, fork over the money for Dragon Age Origins and Awakening and wear shades when you next go outside after the weeks of gaming.

Ill post more soon, but im blanking on games at the moment...hope ive helped some what, ill also post a $20 and under thread where i will tell you about the best games for under $20.

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