Showing posts with label Microsoft XBox 360. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microsoft XBox 360. Show all posts

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Mega Man 10 - The OST


Here's all the music with echo and reverb all in one video...


...and here's all the music without it in one playlist.

Thursday, March 14, 2019

Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Music of Solar Jetman...and more!

Here's a playlist of all the songs! Thirty-three to choose from, including all the planet approaching themes as well as some unused stuff!


Here's Jetpac Refuelled. It's an XBox Live download for the XBox 360, and it's got a lot of levels to it. It's the same as the original: get the fuel onto the ship and blast off, and get it all done in one piece before the timer runs out! You have power-ups this time around, and the game looks really good for something that's an XBox Live download.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

My Review for Prince of Persia (PS3/XB360)

Since the original Prince of Persia was released in the 1980s, we have seen not only numerous ports of the original but also numerous sequels, including the severely underrated Prince of Persia 2 for Super Nintendo and the god-awesome Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for the PlayStation 2.

Unlike a lot of franchises, there really hasn't been an abysmal entry in the Prince of Persia series per se. Even though each entry in this series has an altogether different storyline, the main gist remains the same: get from Point A to Point B, try not to die in the process, and take on all comers victoriously if somebody decides to get all up in your grill.

When I first heard about the game in 2009, it was already finally released. It was interesting to know that the review I read for it in PlayStation Magazine gave the game good marks. It would be another two years or so before I finally got a chance to play it.

Not surprisingly...the game measured up. What started as a really interesting game turned into a spectacular tour de force of Brobdingnagian proportions.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics in this game really capture the mood of whatever environment you're in at the time, whether it's the dark, grimy corners of the Corrupted's territory, the lush brownness and greenness of the healed Fertile Grounds, or the otherworldly dimension where you learn to use the Power Plates, Ubisoft Montreal did a bang-up job here, and it all trickles down to smaller stuff - the soldiers and Corrupted look downright menacing, and Ahriman - when you finally get to meet him - actually looks scary.

My only complaint is that sometimes, when you're using the Yellow Power Plates to execute the Flight of Ormazd power-up, it can be kinda hard to see what's in your flight path at times, which can cause one to run into walls they didn't expect to be there and therefore perform their best impression of Rage Guy.

Sound: 10/10

The music hits the right note in this game - it captures a serious yet accomplished tone with a slight oozing of machismo in the healed Fertile Grounds, and carries a feeling of supposed despair and hopelessness whenever you explore one of the Corrupted's tainted haunts. The symphony of Ormazd's realm where you learn to use the Power Plates is as out of this world as the environment it's used in. The soundtrack for the healed territories will stay in your head for a while...and for the post-N64/PS1 gens of the 2000s, that's notable.

The in-game dialogue is nothing less than a sheer delight. If you're not being taunted by one of the four Corrupted, you'll be laughing or going "Oh, wow, that makes sense," at some of the banter between the Prince and Elika. The fact that some of the humor from this comes from simply pressing a button talk to Elika means that you'll be pressing the left shoulder buttons for more than just three Achievements/Trophies.

The sound keeps the game rolling, whether you're sliding down slopes, hanging off narrow beams, walking on walls, fighting Ahriman's forces or using the Power Plates to get where you need to go. There's a lot of action in this game, and the game's sound keeps track of it all quite well.

Gameplay and Control: 9.5/10

For a game where you're more or less forced to play the game the way it wants you to, the controls actually aren't that bad.

It's pretty easy to get the Prince of walk on walls and jump from one wall to the next, and grabbing rings to extend your wallruns is just as intuitive. As long as you remember to tap the jump button once and not repeatedly mash it while climbing up a wall, you'll be fine.

It still has a few faults, though: sometimes you'll accidentally wallrun on a wallrun path when you want to climb up a wall next to it, mostly because of where you're standing at the time which causes your jump to want to "lock on" to the wallrun path. Also, sometimes you'll be climbing on vines when all of a sudden you can't move and the only way to rectify this is to press and R2/RT to slide down and get moving again - probably a glitch of some sort. The controls are a bit short of perfect in this regard, but they're still good.

The battles are really easy to get through, due mostly to the easy controls - you'll be linking commands together into combos and deflecting and block your adversaries' attack in no time. The only regret I have about the fighting controls is that there isn't a two-player mode to back it up!

Presentation: 10/10

The story here sounds like typical fare: man meets woman, man follows her into temple, man finds out woman is Princess of an all-but-dead ancient people, man is forced into war between the gods of light and darkness of the Zorothustrian religion. Simple, right?

Well, the way it plays out - Elika's knowledge of the city, the Corrupted, and the gods; the banter between the Prince and Elika; the moments after healing lands where Elika and the Prince get to know each other - adds enough complexity to the works to make a unique story out of it. If there were to be a second Prince of Persia movie, I wouldn't mind it being based on this game.

Replay Value: High

Even after getting the Achievements/Trophies, collecting all the Light Seeds and beating the game, there's still enough thrills inside to fill more than one theme park. Even if you';re bored, running through the entiure healed Fertile Grounds of an area of the ancient Ahura in a dominating, systematic fashion makes for a nice time killer. It's pretty easy to have a blast with this game even after all the challenges are fulfilled, and there's even an epilogue available as DLC if you're connected to XBox Live or PlayStation Network.

Final Score: 9.5/10

In a generation of video games dominated by excellence in multiplayer and borderline decency in single-player, this one turns it all around makes it known that a great single-player experience isn't dead. When the words "interactive movie" ever happen to turn up in casual conversation, this game will be the first thing to come to mind.

If there's any game that is either a worthy enough entry in the series that is equal to Sands of Time or worth the time and effort to get the Platinum Trophy or all the Achievements in, this is it. I had a blast with this game, and I can't wait to dig into another game in the series to see what Jordan Mechne's legacy-maker of the original has wrought as much as to see what more magic the rest of this wonderful dynasty has to offer.

Monday, May 6, 2013

My Review for Sonic Unleashed (PS3/XB360)

Yeah, this is my review of Sonic Unleashed from GameTrailers. I thought I was being too easy on it, so I took a look at it and re-balanced the score a bit. Yeah, it seems slightly negative for something that got a 7.75 out of 10.

I'd change it on GameTrailers, but even close to a year after the site revamp, all the stuff that we had available to us before then - the blogs, the reviews, and basically everything not a user video - still hasn't been ported over.

Ever since the release of, oh, say, Sonic Adventure 2, fans of the blue hedgehog have been disappointed by the lack of an entry that is the same quality of the early titles, particularly Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Mostly it is the result of a gimmicky gameplay addition, sloppy controls, and a recycled storyline.

When Sonic Unleashed was revealed in 2008, fans and gaming publications alike viewed this as the game that would break the cycle. The game showed more and more promise as time progressed.

It was all blind faith in the end.

Nerd rage then emerged from both the fanbase and the gaming magazines, with complaints of the Werehog gameplay being another gimmicky afterthought as well as the game being buggy and laggy at times.

This clearly wasn't "the game."

Graphics: 8/10

Well, at least the graphics aren't a jumbled mess.

Sega put a good bit of graphical detail into the game. Whether it be the Chaos on some of the signs in Shamar during the day or the patterns on the Titan's skin, the game looks wonderful. It's not perfect, but it's decent.

Sound: 8/10

The sound you hear when you collect a ring is still here, but I still miss some of the old Genesis/Mega Drive sounds.

The music is decent, and it's really wonderful in some spots. You'll probably get burned out on the music, though, so (thankfully) you can play your own music in lieu of the game's soundtrack.

Gameplay and Control: 5/10

Sonic is still able to peform his trademark moves, but it's all too easy to send yourself into the wild blue yonder to your death at times. The Sonic Drift technique looks pretty cool, but it's hard as crap to get the timing down for and you can beat the game without having to use it if you max out your stats. Playing as Sonic the Werehog is different; you're focusing more on trashing enemies than on speeding up to get through the stage. Some may consider it unnecessary; I had no qualms with the Night segments.

tl;dr: Night segments weren't so bad, day segments (especially with the homing attack) are just this close to awful.

Presentation: 4/10

This is where the game is truly a mixed bag. I like the RPG element where destroying enemies gives you experience that you can boost your stats with. Aside from that and collecting things, there's not really much else to enjoy. Sure, there are the Hot Dog Missions, but some of them are really difficult at times simply because you're fighting against (and cursing at) the level design. You also have no checkpoints in these missions either; you die, you go back to the start. It's really unforgiving at times.

Bugs creep in during the action at times, almost as much as cheap deaths, as even the screen indicators fail to load properly at times. You know you're in trouble when that happens.

For some reason, the game also gets laggy in a few spots. Most of them are when you're fighting a lot of enemies as Sonic the Werehog, but the ones where you play as Sonic the Hedgehog are particular nasty, particularly in Eggmanland. This combined with the loading problems makes me wonder if Sega adequately play-tests their games.

Replay Value: Low

If the game was cleaned up a little more and the difficulty was better balanced, I wouldn't mind playing it again. I really wouldn't. But once you collect everything and get all the Achievements/Trophies, there really isn't much to look forward to. As it stands, you probably won't play this again unless you really enjoyed it.

Final Score: 6.25/10

This game could been above average. Unfortunately, the same flaws that have marred Sonic titles from the 2000s (save for the Dreamcast games) also mar this one. I really hope Sonic Colors (and, maybe, Sonic Generations) will be any good.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

My Review for WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010

When I first picked this game up, it had been a long time since I had last played a wrestling game (the last one being WWF No Mercy for Nintendo 64), and I had no clue as to how different wrestling games had become since the last generation or two of video game consoles. The only thing that seemed familiar to me was that it had the THQ logo slapped on it.

When the game loaded up, the first thing I saw was the game's training mode, which let you press Start at any time to access the rest of the game's modes and features, including the Training Checklist. This was a sight for unknowing eyes, as this was my first time playing the game and had no idea what to expect except for John Cena and Triple H to be in the game. Once I got used to the controls, however, the game became very enjoyable, and I cannot wait to see how future editions of the game turn out.

Long story short: This makes me want to play SvR 2011.




Graphics: 9/10

The arenas are pretty detailed, and the wrestlers' virtual selves look really close to their IRL versions. Some of them look a little funny, but other than that, their images are basically authentic. The Titantron videos are there, and the visuals for those are crisp as seeing WWE live and in person.

The crowd looks better compared to last year (from what I've heard), but they still look like they're stuck in the N64 age. Nevertheless, the game looks great.




Sound: 10/10

What would this game be without sound? Not very interesting, really, and it's a good thing that the sound keeps it exciting. All the theme songs are there, and the crowd reacts quite nicely when the action gets exciting, and react to certain moves like knife edge chops just like in a real event. The wrestlers grunt when attacking, being worn down by submissions, and getting hit, and the announcers for all three brands (yes, ECW is featured) are there as well. Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole as well as Tazz and Jim Ross are in fine form, but Matt Stryker and Todd Grisham are pretty interesting.

Some of the voice acting from the WWE Superstars in Road to WrestleMania is hilarious, if not well-read. They may speak a little softer than in a real WWE event, but the mood is there. Don't be surprised if you find yourself laughing at some of John Cena's comments or The Miz and John Morrison's Dirt Sheet antics.




Gameplay and Control: 9/10

This, as I said earlier, is the big thing I was worried about when I put this game in for the first time. Would they be great or awful?

I'm glad they turned out well.

The controls allow for a wide range of attacks and actions, just like in the N64 titles. Unlike the N64 titles, you have more grapple moves than ever and all the strikes hit pretty hard. There is a more realistic scope of attacks than back then.

The characters still "snap in place' sometimes for some attacks (the most obvious one being John Cena's Five Knuckle Shuffle) and sometimes you'll find yourself hitting the referee on accident because he couldn't get out of the way...blame the targeting systems, since there really isn't a "perfect" one yet.

Other than that, the game controls fine, and it feels like you're really there. Also, the four difficulty levels are quite well-balanced, so don't worry about getting smacked around too hard on Legend (even if the more complex matches, especially 6-Man battles, become completely insane at that point).




Presentation: 10/10

Create-A-Superstar Mode is as detailed and in-depth as ever. No surprise there. Whether it's creating as close a replica of yourself or re-creating a classic WWE wrestler or video game icon, making your own characters has never been so in-depth or easier. You'll be spending as much time in Create-a-Moveset, deciding whether to have your split image pull a German Suplex or go for a Russian Leg Sweep.

The menus are minimalist here; they're not flashy or anything, but at the same time it isn't all cluttered up and everything's easy to read.

The arenas look pretty good, and Yuke's has gotten just about every detail down to the ring post decals to perfection. The commentary is interesting (as always), and there are more than enough match variations and game modes to keep you entertained.



Replay Value: High

Even though you'll be playing the following year's edition, you'll still be playing this one for a while, simply because of all that you can do. With the ability to play online as well as upload highlight reel videos to YouTube, there's more to do than ever before outside of the squared circle.

Say what you want...SvR 2010 has given the fans more of what they want.



Final Score: 9.5/10

A few control gripes aside, this one will definitely make you want to play SvR 2011...and probably keep you from wanting to part with it at your local GameStop. All in all, this is a great game.