When I first heard about this game I was wondering, as I am sure that many other gamers were also wondering, how could it be original and not a total rip off of the lauded and very successful Grand Theft Auto series. Then again, to be totally fair, any game that offers a free world where you can drive cars around and shoot at people is in its very premise a rip-off of Grand Theft Auto. But, this game offers an entirely different narrative, different cars, weapons and themes, and yes, while there are portions of it that liken to Grand Theft Auto, upon playing it and beating it, the only real thing that it has in common is that you can shoot people and drive cars. Everything else is entirely different.
This fathoming from Avalanche Studios (SE) and Eidos Interactive, saw a late 2006 release date, which was before the new Grand Theft Auto even came out for the Xbox 360. Read more
When you look at the barrage of World War Two games that are constantly released every year in and year out, its hard to wonder which ones are worth playing and which ones are better left on the store shelves collecting dust. In my experiences, I have found that a majority of World War Two games fail to ever deliver as promised, are historically inaccurate and are void of anything unique or special whatsoever. However, once in a very great while a video game production company will sink are large part of their annual budget behind a World War Two shooter, and when they do, the results tend to be fantastic. This notion is entirely true when it comes to one of the better WWII games that you will ever play on the Xbox 360, that game being: Medal of Honor: Airborne.
If you have been reading my prior posts than you already know how I feel about games that are surrounded by hype but that in the end fail to adequately deliver on their over hyped nature. And nothing makes me angrier when I am duped into buying into the hype and playing a game, only to realize that it entirely fails to deliver whatsoever. So this notion once again rings the liberty bell in my mind, that ring saying, hyped and not able to deliver equals a game that makes me mad. And fortunately for me, I only had to waste a few hours playing this sucker to realize that indeed it was what it was: just another shooter game with a large advertising budget from its maker, Ubisoft, and one that totally fails to deliver as promised.
It seems that all of the while that the next generation consoles have been on the market they have been seriously lacking in any great flight-action, dog-fighting games whatsoever. Sure there were a few hot releases such as Flying Angels I and II (UbiSoft, 2006; 2007), however these action flying games were limited to the WWII era and did not focus on modern day airborne combat. That all changes now with the recent and much anticipated release of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Namco/Bandai Games America, 2008.)
I know I know, you are all wondering what in the hell would prompt me to write about Madden NFL 2008 when the 09’ version is already out. Simple. Because I aim to review ultimately all of the Xbox 360 games that were ever released for the console. New or old, good or bad. In the US or in Europe – I want to play them all and write about them all. Enough Said. So with that out of the way, I must honestly tell you that I spent ample amounts of hours behind the screen of Madden NFL 2008. It was, by far the greatest football game of all time. Period. And I know what some of you naysayers are thinking. What about 2k Sports and what about the fabulous 2k football series that was inadvertently canned when Madden – or shall I say, EA sports – was awarded the exclusive NFL franchise rights for video games, which if I remember correctly won’t expire until sometime in 2010. So, given that 2k can’t make a real NFL game, and that All Pro Football stinks worse than a sweaty football jersey, all we have is Madden. And it is the best football game out there.
As if we all hadn’t heard about election enough during 2008 that it would make our brains explode, the geniuses over at Wideload Games (who are they?) and at Gamecock (remove the word game and you will know what I think of these guys) decided that the best way to capitalize on Capitalism was to release an animal-based democratic party video game for the Xbox 360 that really, really, really sucked. And sucked hard on all levels mind you. First of all, anytime you see a game with the title, Hail to the Chimp on its cover, you already know that this is going to be a really sloppy game. Then add to the fact that the entire premise of this game was to garner easy bucks off stupid gamers during the longest election years in the history of the United States. Shame on you Wideload and Gamecock – your attempts at foiling hard earned money out of gullible gamers has been revealed.
Yes you read the title right, I was able to mostly beat this pathetic excuse for a World War Two in game in nearly an hour. (Okay about two, but for the sake of a catchy titled I somewhat stretched the truth, so sue me.) This game screams carbon copy so loud that even the scientists in the museum next door turned their heads and muttered, what in the hell? Where to start on this one, and trust this review will be short, like the game was for me. Think of every bad WWII game that you ever played and add this one to the pile. Same weapons, same controls, same shoddy graphics, same narrative, premise and underlying plot, well it varies ever so slightly. In this game you are trying to stop Hitler from building the atomic bomb before the US completes their Big Boy. There are three different types of players that you can control sniper, stealth and brute force. They all have their own who-cares specials and abilities.
There are good reason, and many of them as to why a great role playing game like Elder Scrolls will always dominate the top spots, at least in my mind. When it comes to a good role playing game, especially when you have to top what Bethesda did with Oblivion, here is a good rule of thumb: do your homework, and make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before the foot enters the video game mouth, so to speak. So now that the cat is out of the bag, you must also be prepared to spend ample or considerably similar amounts of time developing the game (in this case Oblivion spent four years under the knife prior to its release) if you are to ever hope to top a game like Elder Scrolls, which deserved fully the earning of the Game of Year – twice in a row! Yeah, it was that good.
If you like assassin movies and always wondered what it would be like to be that person that cares not for what or whom he kills or destroys and has absolutely no conscious, then you will adore Hitman: Blood Money. Io Interactive offers a decent video game that is adorned with all of the goodies. A shooter, a strategy based thriller and a game that will make you a hard, cold blooded killer. You are a hitman, who has been raised in a secret government project for one purpose: kill people that get in the way, and do so quietly.
Wow, wow and wow are the only three words that crossed my mind when I had a chance to play this game. First off, where to start, because this is without a doubt the worst Xbox 360 game to ever be created. Seriously, it’s really that bad. I will start by wagging my finger at the developers! Shame on you Cauldron and Activision, you both know better and this one is a surefire strikeout for both of you clods. And how could you ever release this game with your name on it, thinking that you would not get flack from the gaming community as a whole. I know that the History Channel wanted a game, but seriously you had to go and make this lackluster, junk bin fodder? Really? Yes people this game is so bad that when you pop it (and I don’t ever recommend that you even waste time doing so) in to your Xbox 360 you will notice that the graphics are keen to the Sega Dreamcast, and we all know how much that console really sucked.
