360Junkies Reviews

[ Review ]

1.   Graphics/Sound

2.   Game play/Controls

3.   Story

4.   Pros/Cons

5. Final Thoughts

[ REVIEW ] Wheelman DEMO...it's a joyride!

There are 2 things every man wants, to own a monkey and be in a heist. So Dane Cook says. Well, this game fulfills one of those desires, it slaps you right into the center of some of the best looking, hollywood chase scenes. I think the best way to describe this game is, GTA4, but with more of an emphasis on driving. Take, Need For Speed underground's free roaming, add in a dash of GTA, and lightly sprinkle in some bullet time and you have Wheelman, featuring Vin Diesel. (Is that REALLY his real name?) 

1.   Graphics/Sound

Graphics:

The game looks good, the cars are well detailed and i was impressed with the level of detail IN the cars. When you first take the wheel you will notice Vin shifts gears and reacts to what is going on outside of the car. The passenger does the same thing making the  people actually feel real. Old games, you get sides swiped, your people sit there, this game, you get hit, your passengers are freaking out.

My largest complaint graphically is that vin, moves kind of robotically. He is OVERLY large in the upper torso, looks kind of foolish and he doesn't have a lot of smooth animation outside of the car. Granted this is a driving game, but there are elements where you need to get out of the car and they are poorly animated. Also! Why does he look like he is made from plastic? i know that there is the ability to make people look real and not like a glazed doughnut. 

Sound:

The game has wonderful music that crashes you into the car chases. It is intense and pounding and adds to the intensity and hype! The car sounds are pretty good too, but unfortunately i think they put more time into the cars and not into the cut scenes and voice acting. Now vin is not the best actor, that is just my opinion, but in this game the cutscene dialogue feels chopped together. It feels more like they filmed on other sides of the world and just tried to splice the conversations together, i don't think the studio wall has as much emotion as their human counterparts, because sometimes it feels like that is what they were doing.

2.   Game play/Controls

Well, this game handles well. The cars are not as responsive or realistic as a racing sim, and the shooting takes some getting used to. There are some pretty impressive moves that you can do such as, throw the car into a 180 go into slow motion and shoot at the cars chasing you. You can jump from one car to another and hijack it, which was pretty cool. One cool feature is that they take your car and focus on it as the weapon, you have the ability to crash into people and throw them off the road, a flick of the joy stick and you throw your car into the one next to you. The thing i don't like, and i guess this is just standard in a race game, is that you have TURBO on every car, i wish that when i moved from car to car they had turbo boost. Sadly, i got in my jetta and it did not have a turbo button, maybe i need to get vin to drive it :D. It uses a similar system to burnout to build your special moves. 

The controls themselves are laid out well. You can do a multitude of moves with little practice. Over all, not a hugh learning curve, but air jacking may aggravate you a bit, since you have to be in the right spot behind a car to do it. 

3.   Story

So far the story is that you are a wheelman (big shocker) hired by someone, who we don't know yet, and you start out picking up a girl who has just stolen a brief case. what is in that brief case? not sure, diamonds, documents, a copy of resident evil 5? not sure but i am sure this will be explained more in the actual game. Vin apparently has a past and that is all we know so far. The story seems promising enough and i am really interested to see how it will unravel and where it will take us. I am sure it will be intense, this doesn't just seem like another driving game, but a game with a fast paced story. I could be wrong, this is just the demo.

4.   Pros/Cons

Pros:

If you love driving, this is a FUN demo. If you like vin diesel, hope you like him coated in doughnut glaze...oh, that sounds wrong, all the women are flocking to XBL to download it now. If you like gunplay, crashing into cars and intense action, this is a FUN game, it is worth the demo i hope that final game is  a bit more polished. 

Cons:

I still cant get over Plastic Vin...i thought i had seen the last of shiny characters, but guess not. Also the voice acting is better between house cats and sometimes more entertaining, it seems like they try to be funny or witty and it doesn't come across right. I was not pulled into the story right away, but again, this is a demo, though it should be polished more, i hope the final is smoother and that the story flows better. Also, it seems that most cars are pontiac, just an interesting thought...i do want to go out and buy a pontiac now. Multiplayer?!?!?! Does this game have it? we will find out and i wonder how fun it could be, tons of car jacking and races that include crashing into other drivers? we shall see.

Final Thoughts:

Fun game, worth a play, leaves a lot of questions for me in the final build. I reccomend checking it out and deciding for yourself, Has A LOT of potential to be a very fun game. replay value, not too sure if it has it, as of right now, No. Check it out and let me know your thoughts, so far it's seeming like a rental.

[ REVIEW ] Wanted: weapons of fate demo

Wanted weapons of fate is finally out for demo. I have been waiting for this since i first heard there was going to be a game for it! I have to say, i am not disappointed. I personally loved the movie and purchased it on blu-ray the day it came out. Saw it in the theaters opening night and read the graphic novel well before. Initially i was disappointed that the movie plot was different from the graphic novel. But the changes were done well and they kept a lot of easter eggs in the movie and kept true to the graphic novel style. Honestly with the novel being so dark the changes made for a better movie, in my opinion. But, this is not a movie review! This is a game review! "and now your feature presentation"

1.   Graphics/Sound

Wow...is all i can say. This game is BEAUTIFUL! The graphics are smooth, textures and lighting are top-notch. It is one of the best looking games on the 360 yet! The environment has destructible elements, the blood is flying and the bullets are curving. The use of focus makes the game feel like you are playing an intense action movie. 

Sound:

The score is on par with the intensity of the movie. It is pounding and fast paced. The voice acting is done by professionals and people like cross have returned to lend their talents to the game. The environmental sounds are great, i played it with surround sound on and you can hear the bullets hitting all around you. The guns have a nice deep boom to them and you can almost feel the power behind them. It is pretty intense hearing a plane door blow off and the air sucking things out while the alarms are going off and gunfire is all around. I can't wait to see the rest of it and so far the cutscenes look quality.

now i must warn you this game is overloaded with profanity and violence. The profanity is very excessive, but so was the movie, the Graphic novel was even worse. But the stay true to the feel of wanted, which is good! An example is the game difficulties, easy is labeled "Pussy" which made me chuckle. 

2.   Game play/Controls

Gameplay:

This is your semi standard shooter. It is over the shoulder but done better than strangle hold. Don't get me wrong, stranglehold was a fun game, but wanted takes all of those things people have been wanting and trying to do and they have done them well! The aiming system is a bit quick, but you adjust to it, i needed to turn up my look sensitivity because when you focus aim it is a tad bit slow. The use of bullet time is NOT over used and can only be activated when you have adrenaline. You can curve bullets and the curving aiming system is very well done, takes a little getting used to but works great once you get the hang of it.

There are some tutorials that you can play which are very entertaining and help you get a handle on the controls better. When you get a headshot on someone using bullet curve (BC as i will call it) the camera slows down and follows the bullet to its point of impact. the camera transitions are very smooth and i can't get enough of those awesome cinematic shots.

Another bonus is the cover system. sure it is something used in a lot of games now, but the way wanted does it is somehow smoother feeling. When jumping on cover your character smoothly hits his back to the wall and walks along cover, you can pop up really quickly and you also have the option to blind fire! It is done really well and adds another element to the game, there is more strategy that a normal shooter which is nice, but you can run and gun if you wish. when behind cover you have the option to hit A which moves you to the next cover zone depending where you aim the joystick or hitting Y which lets you use assassin time and everything slows as you run. 

One of my favorite features is the melee. When you are close enough you can hit B and take an enemy out, this also gives you instant adrenaline. The moves are very stylish and bloody. They are everything from a keen to the head to a knife in the naughty bits. When you hit the person blood is splattered all over the screen.

Controls:

As i mentioned it is a bit quick over the shoulder and a bit slow when aiming, this is easily corrected. There controls are nice and simple and you will be mastering the art of bullet curving, melee and general gun fighting in no time at all. 

3.   Story

The story picks up where wanted the movie left off. (spoiler warning if you haven't seen the movie, if you haven't go do yourself a favor. Even my wife liked it!) Wesley just took out the fraternity, well one chapter, he is now setting his sites on the french chapter. Characters from the movie return and it seems that they may make sequels to this. The demo didn't really give away much as far as the OVERALL story, but there is a slick trailer at the end with game footage and lots of gun fighting. I am excited to see this story unfold because it is a very unique story and just good all around action!

4.   Pros/Cons

Pros:

The game looks and sounds great, the game play is smooth and fast. It is definitely worth the play. Now wether or not the final game will be a purchase and if there is replay value, i can not say, but the demo is free, so give it a shot...get it? lol

Cons:

Controls take a bit of getting used to, i am sad that James McAvoy didnt come back or angelina. But the person doing Wesley's voice did a superb job. 

Overall Wanted was an awesome demo and i am looking forward to the final game. I have to say, i genuinely think that this game may break the "movie game" stigma. It may be one of the first, if not the FIRST good movie based game!

[ REVIEW ] Street Fighter 4...it's about time!

1.   Graphics/Sound

Graphics:

First thing, you will notice this game is visually stunning! From the first fight i was floored by the graphics style of this fighting game. Most fighting games go for a sense of realism nowadays. Street Fighter 4 doesn't try to make a realistic looking fighting game. They stick to the basics and keep the action 2d but in an interesting way, they throw in very detailed 3d environments and models. Though you can't move through 3d space, when you do ultimate moves and combos the camera will shift and fly around the actions. It is done very tastefully and it is not a distraction. The graphics are nice and smooth i didn't notice any lag in the matches i payed. The sound is OK, it is nothing spectacular but i do like the option to change the characters voices to Japanese, for some reason i like them a lot more because they match the mouths more. Over all, very visually pleasing, keeping with the look of the old Titles and adding amazing new visuals. Even down to the characters faces, when they get hit they have an amazing amount of detail in their eyes and mouths. 

2.   Game play/Controls

Gameplay:

This game plays JUST like the old school street fighter 2. Even the combos are the same button sequences for most of the moves if not all, i never knew them all. The game play is very smooth, transitions to different angles for the super moves are smooth. There is a great challenge mode that takes you through all of the moves for each character, it's training but with rewards such as costumes and art work. You can lean everything from basic punches and kicks to super moves to super combos. Very well done and adds a lot of replay value. My main issue is that the last boss, seth, is a bit of a pain. Sure the last boss is supposed to be hard, but he is down right cheap, and will teleport all over the screen once you beat him 1 round. I noticed that on any difficulty he feels the same, he feels just as hard on easy as he did on the hardest setting...odd really.

Controls:

As i mentioned, the controls are very similar to the old school SF2 if not exactly the same, it does feel easier to link combo moves together. If you are expecting soul calibur level combos, 20-30 hits, this is not your game, but there are some nice combos that can be easily strung together with practice.

3.   Story

This is where i had an issue, most of the stories started out looking promising. Each character has an anime style, hand-drawn movie that opens their arcade mode. Sets up a little something that you hope explains what all of this means. But once you play through the story and beat the last boss who is unnecessarily tough on any difficulty, you get a book-end anime. Well, this one doesn't explain anything! None of them really were a complete story and the sort of tie together. It honestly would have been better if they had not added them in my opinion. There were many times my wife turned to me and said, "what just happened, i am more confused now than i was before!" That pretty much sums up the story, then again, it is a fighting game, not an adventure fighting game.

4.   Pros/Cons

Pros:

Amazing fighting game, tons of fun and online Versus makes it that much better. adding another element of replay. Tons of unlockables from characters to costumes to artwork. They are supposedly releasing new content for it later that includes more playable characters.

Cons:

The story makes no sense!? Like any fighting game you will get tired of it, but it feel there is enough small stuff to keep you playing it for a good while. 

Over all i personally loved it, it is one of my top fighting games. Then again, i did used to spend my afternoons in elementary school at the 7-11 around the corner from my house with my best friend perfecting our skills. It's a great game, long overdue!

[ REVIEW ] Left 4 Dead- Putting you in the zombie apocalypse!

Zombies, a HUGE trend lately in the video game and pop culture arena, what is our fascination with bring back the dead? When I heard about Left 4 Dead, I was not really that excited to tell you the truth. Zombies are cool sure, but it didn’t seem like the kind of game that would hold my attention for hours. Well that is true to an extent but then I had to step back and look at this game for what it was. I loved I Am Legend. I know, those weren’t zombies, they were supposedly vampires, but same general idea. Last survivor in this crazy world of monsters and he has to survive. Well Left 4 Dead takes that idea and builds on it! They put the last 4 survivors after the zombie apocalypse together to give them a fighting chance at survival and reach the extraction point. Along the way you encounter tons of zombies and some more “advanced” zombies.  By special request here is the Left 4 Dead review! On to the review!

1.   Graphics/Sound

Graphics:
First thing you will notice is the beauty of this game. It is nothing special but at the same time it is a beautiful game that creates a sense of realism. They really create eerie environments which include hospitals, abandoned houses, barns, fields, forest roads and even air ports. This game is definitely creepy at times. There are certain areas that are not lit and you have to depend on your trusty flashlight to illuminate the darkness. Fortunately it never runs out of batteries. The shadows and lighting in this game are superb. The graphics and zombie models are excellent. Dismemberment is a beautiful thing in this game and the detail on the boomer when you blow it up is amazing. It’s gory and is probably not suitable for kids, but it is everything a zombie massacre should be. When you go running around with the shotgun zombie limbs and blood will go flying!

Sound:
The sound in this game is wonderful! It does not distract but enhances the mood and puts you in the action. If you play it with surround sound you will notice all the small details and effects that are thrown in. You can hear the rustling of zombies lurking in the shadows the moans for your brains and when the special zombies are around you know it! Each of them has a very unique sound and soon you will be able to identify them by their grunts and snarls.  The way that the halls echo make you wonder where that hunter is. Where is he waiting for you so he can pounce on you and rip you to shreds? One of the eeriest sounds is the witch, when you approach her you know it and you know if you are not careful you are about to get murdered. There were many times my heart was racing in anticipation as our health gauges were low and there were zombies swarming. The music is very eerie and subtle adding to the tenseness it is not overpowering and it build well as the special zombies approach.  

2.   Game play/Controls

Gameplay:
Ok, I have to be very honest here. The single player game is NOT that good. The reason being is because the AI doesn’t always do what you want it to, not a surprise there. Over all the AI is good about getting zombies off you and healing you when you need it. They can be very dumb and get themselves killed making the game even tougher. If you want to start out and get a feel for the game I recommend Beginner, friendly fire is off and the zombies are just trying to give you hugs. Easily disposed of and you will take little to no damage. Extreme may leave you crying like the witch.

The weapons in the game are pretty basic and unfortunately not that varied. You start out with a pistol 1911 that has unlimited ammo. You can choose from 1 other weapon that include either a Mini Uzi or pump action shotgun.  As you move on you will find ammo stations that sometimes have weapon upgrades which let you choose from a M16 rifle, Semi-auto shotgun, and a Ruger sniper rifle. Normally I love sniper rifles, in this game, not so much. It is bolt action and takes too much time to reload at the pace that this game throws zombies at you, it’s kind of pointless and not powerful enough.

Now, where this game shines, as do many games by valve is in the MULTIPLAYER! You can join up with 3 of your friends and tackle the zombie horde online or Co-op on the same box.  It limits you to 2 people not 4 on local play but you can have 2 people on the same box playing with others over live, if both of you have Gold memberships. The ability to tackle the story mode with your buddies makes this game an AMAZING game. It is good for building up strategy to survive your way to the end and it allows you to use people as bait while others take out zombies. 

VERSUS mode is one of the MOST fun games I have played on live. In versus mode you can team up with 3-7 of your buddies and play against each other or find people over live to play with. In versus mode the teams are 2 teams of 4. The basic premise if zombies versus humans…didn’t see that one coming. One team will start out as the survivors and the other will start out as…yes the zombie horde! This is what makes it so fun! The game is divided up into the 5 chapters from the campaign and each team takes turns playing the chapter as the survivors and zombies before you move on. For example, your team is the survivors, your will start out in chapter 1 and have to fight your way to the safe house. The other team will then start out as the zombies and do everything zombily possible to stop you. When the round is over, by the survivors reaching the safe house or the zombies killing them the round will switch. And the previously zombie team will now be the survivors and you can have your revenge on them as you try to stop them from getting to the save house. Points are rewarded by distance traveled, amount of health and survivors have at the end and how many zombies/how much damage you do. You will get a total for chapter 1 then moves on to chapter 2 rinse and repeat until chapter 5 where the scores are totaled up. So if you lose the first round don’t worry there is plenty of time to make a comeback!
The zombies are a blast to play. The regular zombies are still AI controlled as well as the witch. You get to take control of a random special zombie. These zombies are the Hunter, smoker and boomer. Each of them have a special ability, the hunter can jump huge distances and pounce on people and tear them up. The smoker can shoot his tongue out and drag a straggling survivor down a dark alley or strangle them from the rooftop. The boomer vomits on people covering them with bile that attracts hundreds of zombies. If you are sprayed you will glow purple and all the zombies will focus on you. If the boomer is blown up next to the survivors they will cover all surrounding people with bile. Once in a while someone random will spawn as the TANK this is a behemoth that can turn over cars and rip up pieces of the ground and throw them at the survivors. The tank is tough to kill and takes everyone focusing on him to get it down as fast as possible, but a skilled player can eliminate an entire team if they don’t work together. Remember, hiding behind cars is not safe. The tank can turn it over and throw it on you!
As of right now there are only 2 levels from the main stories 4 that you can play, but soon there will be DLC letting you play the other 2 levels in versus!

Controls:
Not going to lie, the controls are very well done. At first I thought to myself “why in the world is the melee button my left trigger” I am used to games where a button is the melee and not a trigger. Well it didn’t take me long to figure out why, melee makes up a good majority of this game. When you are surrounded by zombies you can melee them knocking them away giving you time to reload and blow them away. It also is useful for knocking the hunter and smoker off your teammates. This prevents you from dealing damage to them if you were to shoot the zombie off. The controls are laid out very well and they take a little getting used to if you play games like Call of Duty or Halo 3. But once you get them you won’t think twice about bashing a zombie in with your shotgun. The D-pad is used nicely to turn your flash light on and off as well as take pain pills, use the medpack, and even equip your pipe bomb or Molotov.

3.   Story

What story? No really, there is not that much of a story to the game, honestly there doesn’t need to be. It is the basic mismatched group of people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. There is no character development and the same 4 people need to be extracted every single time. The characters are pretty funny though. You have the rough tough biker Francis who is tattooed and hates everything.  You have the Bill the former Green Beret and Vietnam vet who is hard as nails and limps a long. You have Louis who works in IT. Last but not least, Zoey the college student who loves horror movies. (My personal favorite character) You go through 5 chapters of each level and the objective is to get to a safe house where you can restock on weapons and health. The final chapter is the rescue mission where you have to activate a distress radio and wait 10 minutes for the rescue party to get you, during this time, wave after wave of zombie, special zombie and even 2 tanks will swarm you and try to stop you. If you survive a rescue vehicle will show up and the team needs to climb aboard. Then there is a small cinematic, if you can even call it that and then your stats. 
The one cool thing is at the beginning of the level it will show you a movie poster with the characters names and under each is says “Played by: [gamertag]” this was kind of cool because it made it feel more like a zombie movie and personalized it a little more.

4.   Pros/Cons

Pros:
This game is tons of fun with your friends. Versus mode is one of the most fun things I have played in a long time. It is great getting to play as the zombies and try to stop your friends from reaching safety. Even though it is limited to 2 levels from the campaign at the moment it is hours of fun. My wife who hates scary games and zombies found that she loves this game and enjoys playing it with friends. There are some fantastic achievements that make you work for them, but they are well worth it and fun to go after. My favorite one is All 4 Dead, which is rewarded when you control the tank and kill all 4 survivors in one round.

Cons:
The main con to this game is that the single player is fun once, but after that it is not that fun without friends. This game was definitely designed for a group of friends. I wish that they made the characters customizable,that would have added another level to this game. I would say that to only have 2 levels for versus mode is a letdown but they are releasing content soon and it will be free. So that argument is gone!

Overall I think Left 4 Dead is a solid zombie survival game, it is tons of fun with friends and getting to play as the infected is an excellent feature. This game is definitely worth the purchase if you have friends you can play with. I rented it first because I did not think it looked that good, but once I played it online, it was a must have! If they continue to release levels for it and tweak the bugs, this game will have a lot of replay for a good while to come! I highly recommend it!