 |
Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
by leicesterpaul
First-person 3-D immersive shoot-em-ups have become ten a penny since Lara Croft raided her first tomb. It has become difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, especially for people who play "WheatChaff Separation Challenge II: The Difficult One" on the PS3. However, gaming is much like any other leisure pursuit in that ... you become familiar with names you can trust, and know that they will set the bar somewhere between "excellent" and "transcendent". One example of this is the Grand Theft Auto franchise. You know the game's going to be superb, it's just a matter of how superb.
GTA IV is the first game in the series developed especially for the XBox 360/PS3 generation of consoles, and the first full-game return to the franchise since GTA III: San Andreas (although a plethora of tie-in games have been released on various platforms). In keeping with the rest of the series, it sees you take control of the life and actions of a protagonist who's found himself embroiled in no end of trouble. In this case it is Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant of unspecified nationality (but probably Serbian or Croatian), a recent arrival in Liberty City, a highly realistic remodeling of New York.
Niko's problems in the early stages of the game are the result of his family connection to his cousin Roman, who has encouraged Niko to the city with lavish tales of living the American dream, fast cars, sexy ladies and easy money. It takes very little time in the game to see that Roman counts lying among his hobbies, as his apartment is a hovel, his tales of womanising are spectacularly exaggerated and his taxi business could charitably be described as "flat broke". He's in hock to loan sharks and other organised crime figures and his ex-soldier cousin, with your help, spends his early days Stateside digging Roman out of holes.
This game is the most expansive yet in the series despite being set in a single city. It takes you around the five boroughs of Liberty City, starting in the run-down Brooklyn clone known as Broker. From here you will work your way up to more exalted heights by working for Roman and as a result his creditors, and by killing whoever you are told to kill. In between you will need to date the right ladies, make the right connections and for the first time in a GTA game, get yourself online to take on lucrative side missions.
Many aficionados of the GTA franchise feel that this game is lacking compared to San Andreas, deeming that Niko is a less sympathetic character than his predecessor CJ; that fun elements such as bike riding and flying planes are missing; and that as a game world Liberty City lacks the variety and charm of San Andreas. Maybe they have a point, although Niko's dry humour is not to be underestimated and the road-race side missions are a hoot. In any case, Roman is a ton more fun than CJ's brother Sweet, so that evens a lot out. There is more here in the way of 50/50 decisions affecting the path you take than before too.
I'd certainly say it's a more challenging game than its immediate forerunner - gun battles are more difficult with your adversaries taking cover wherever possible and the police acting more intelligently than their West Coast counterparts. Weapons are not as readily available (a nod to New York's strict gun control laws means that you need to buy them in shady illegal stores) and for some reason Niko throws them away when he runs out of ammo, meaning you can't just buy more rounds - you need to buy a new gun at a high price. You'll spend less time shooting at random stuff here once you realise how expensive a hobby it is.
If forced to choose one or the other, I personally would pick San Andreas over GTA IV, but it's really close. This game certainly has its laugh-out-loud moments (and at least one heart-breaking one), and as a test of reflexes, problem solving and resourcefulness it's got plenty to keep you occupied. It's every bit as addictive as the other games in the series and once you get into it you'll find it hard to put down. It falls somewhere between excellent and just plain awesome, and is well worth a place in any collection.
Read the complete review |
 |
Borderlands 2 (Xbox 360)
by Zakalwe
I never played the first Borderlands, so I can't really compare to that, and usually prefer playing RPG's, but now and again just get the urge to shoot things. I kept hovering over the purchase button on Xbox live (£49.99) and ended up getting it second hand from Ebay for £18.
You play a vault-hunter (kind of like a tomb ... raider - you end up with the loot) on the planet Pandora, which is under the draconian oppression of Handsome Jack of the Hyperion Corporation, and he too is looking for the last vault. Your long term goal is to prevent Jack getting to the vault, and reach it yourself, by means of accepting missions from NPC's (some story-led, others optional), leveling up, and assigning your preferred upgrades. The story is very good, being layered from various sources in the game, and there is plenty of comic humor to keep it light hearted.
There are four classes to choose your character from, Siren, Assassin, Gunzerker, and Commando. Each has their own set of skills, so there is a class type to suite everybody's preferred play-style. You can also play co-op (4 players in a single game) and the different classes really compliment each others abilities. So far I have only played Siren and Assassin. As you complete missions and kill mobs you gain XP points, allowing you to level up, and choose your abilities from your characters skill tree; you also receive badass points that can be spent to benefit your character, like increasing maximum health, increasing melee damage, etc.
For killing mobs there is a vast array of weapons that you find through looting, or purchasing. From 6-shooter pistils that fire all 6 rounds at once then explode like a grenade, to sniper-rifles that set the target on fire. A lot of the weapons do elemental damage - fire, corrosive, etc - and some of the mobs will be resistant to different elemental attacks; fortunately you can carry 4 firearms that you can swap between (starts with 2, the other 2 spaces being unlocked as you play), and more can be carried in your inventory, along with grenades of various types and shields. When you are killed, you do not lose XP points, and the mobs will respawn after about 30 minutes, so early in the game I had to start farming kills just for XP to level up to be able to kill the area boss. The mob respawn rate can be a blessing and a curse - you can farm XP, but when you get to the end of some area's, you have to backtrack the way you came to get out again, and have to kill the same mobs again, which can be a pain if you just want to turn in your completed mission so you can go to sleep/work/whatever.
The graphics of Borderlands 2 are stunning. Instead of the common attempt at photo-realism, a lot of Borderlands 2 is like a cartoon, with exaggerated features and bold colours. It might sound garish, but it works really well, and really adds greatly to the enjoyment of playing. The environment is best described as post-apocalyptic redneck America meets Firefly, but this varies from desert area's to desert environments.
I can't fault Borderlands 2. Usually there will be something in a game that bugs me, but the only thing here is the mob respawn rate, and that can be good or bad depending on your situation. So 5/5 from me. If you like to control your characters development, kill shedloads of mobs, and not take it all too seriously (honestly, the humor is good) then I highly recommend Borderlands 2.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360)
by Seven17
I am a huge fan of the Forza series, I love the longevity of the games (around 200 hours or more) and the achievements. I have the full 1000G on this game and have played it literally till the disc wore out.
The game includes very realistic copies of real world cars, hundreds of them in fact. I think the artistic work is ... superb, a lot of polygons mean good looking cars and combined with a high FPS rate they look fantastic out on the track. The only problem is the shadows which I find slightly inaccurate. This is only a minor problem though so I won't knock any stars off.
The physics are a lot better than the gran turismo series, the cars flow smoothly and turn in at the time you want them to, chasis's aren't too stiff and settings can fine tune your cars gearbox, roll cage and tyres. You can also upgrade your cars from stock parts if you want to get them faster or looking good.
The specs are realistic and each car has a class so you can upgrade to fit within a field or race, thus making it eligible for entry into more than one race in the Event List in career play mode.
Sadly there isn't any weather in this game, and there isn't even any night driving, so I will knock a star off this because its a huge problem that Gran Turismo still excels in. This might be to do with the high FPS but quite frankly I'd rather have weather than a smooth graphics engine.
The tracks are all based on real life tracks and while they have accurately portrayed the main tracks, they haven't done so well with the gradients and bumps on the Nürburgring. There are missing bumps and dips here and there and you just don't feel that in the game.
The engine noises all sound very realistic, especially the V8's with a turbo or super charger, they really have an excellent rumble to them which sounds excellent through a home cinema system with surround sound. There is no sound from the brakes though and when you go off road the sound of the dirt hitting your paintwork is nowhere to be heard sadly.
The achievements are all offline and career based, many can be picked up in free play though such as drift lap, but this is mainly for tuned cars, which you have to progress in career to upgrade and tune yourself. I personally find it very easy to progress in career, and the achievements are very straight forward it just requires a hell of a lot of time off work to complete.
Overall this is a great game but the lack of weather and night racing lets it down. Attention to detail is missing out on the track but the physics and graphics are still the best on any racing game on any platform, a firm 4 stars from me.
Read the complete review |
