Friday, March 16, 2007

Weekly/Monthly Reviews

Gears of War, FF 12, Prison Break and more!

I know I have been behind on the reviews, but I am back!

I played all of Gears of War on the Xbox 360, and in co-op mode that game rocks! I played FPS on the PC all my life and games like Halo on the game pad don't cut it for me. But this GOW (Gears of War) really is easy to pick up and play and is a challenge to master.

It is real fun to be covering your team mates back (AI or otherwise) and the graphics feature high resolution textures and HDR otherwise known as High Dynamic Range which is a colour/lighting programmable effect which drastically changes the playing environment and makes games feel like movies (HDR is used in SFX for films) and even more life like. But it takes a hit on the CPU (well it does on mine when I play CS:Source with HDR on) but you would barely notice on the Xbox 360. Sometimes when you enter a new map it takes 3-4 seconds to buffer the high quality textures so you can spot a crappy texture here and there until the action begins.

This game is worth buying an Xbox 360 - I can't wait for the next installment!

 

Meanwhile I bought FF12, Yes I BOUGHT Final Fantasy 12 PAL not NTSC not downloaded, I paid £30 from www.play.com.

I got the game yesterday and since I have experience with FF11 (the online only game) I quickly noticed how the battle system is upgraded from FF11.

I mean the party leader automatically attacks after an attack is initiated (so he will go on attacking till you tell him otherwise) and other party members fight on their own.

What I do like is you can set "macros" or Gambits to help automate your team members more efficiently.

This all equates to fast quick paced battles while you are on the map (so now warping to a new screen to fight). This removes random battles but allows you to stay clear of enemies or allows them to come after you.

The voices are quite good and there are some stupid cockney accents in there, but the lip syncing is horrible and doesn't even come close to FF10's quality. Animation and level design is allot better, but the level graphics in towns is hampered by the low quality of the textures which are then heavily filtered. It is hard to tell unless you play the game on a LCD, trust me.

Prison Break was on last week, the game is up for Sucre but how did C-Note survive? Looks like he might stitch up Mahone to the FBI snitch in his team! The President lets Schofield get away but caves into pressure from The Company and doesn't grant pardon to the brothers and instead steps down from her position as President! Michael and Lincoln have no choice but to make a run for it - but what's that! Sarah is being tailed by the FBI Women - she will lead them straight to the brothers! What do you know it isn't on this week! Boo!

Smallville was back on yesterday! Yeah!
Lana finally finds out Clark's secret, but can she get out of the Luthor's grip to finally be with CK? Allot of surprises but in the end the inevitable happens, and you are left to wonder - just what is growing inside Lana's womb?

Hana Yori Dango Season 2 is into the last few episodes (finishes episode 11), I am going to watch 9 and 10 tonight and 11 is out Saturday(wont be subbed till next week).

 

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