Assassin's on Home Turf

Assassin's Creed 3 has to be the most entertaining and elaborate story lines in all three of the games, sure there has been good story lines in all of them, but this one it really hits home. I recently had the opportunity to play the "Boston tea party" level, and I must say the experience of playing it was amazing. The story begins as you playing a English assassin sent to America to search out your American brotherhood counterparts, but in all the scuffle you meet a Indian woman of a local tribe who you later become romantically involved with.

Later on you find yourself as a little boy who tries to later save your mother from a attack on their land and becomes unsuccessful, who you find out was a assassin like your father, and was recruited by him as well. After learning to climb tree's (which is extremely awesome by the way) you venture off to meet a older and wiser man who teaches you the way of the "Brotherhood".

Assassin's Creed has a ton of positives about it, great gameplay, action/cut scenes, as well as voice acting, weapons, etc (I could go one for ever)
Gameplay- The gameplay has a amazing feel, and flow, there isn't one thing about it that I would change.

Storyline- As I stated in my rambling above the story line has so much to it that you keep wanting to play it to see what's going to happen next.
Graphics- The graphics, are down right amazing, between climbing trees, and the fight sequences every thing is down right solid.

Replay Ability- The Assassin's world leaves so much on the table, there are so many side missions, and multiplayer, that putting it down is nearly impossible.

Controls- The controls are a tad difficult for beginners, but eventually you will get the hang of it.

Total rating- I really am enjoying this game for the fact that I can't bring myself to take it out of my Xbox. I give this game a 9 out of 10, surely for the fact of the constant in and out of the real world, and the assassin's world.

I suggest you rent it from Gamefly , or go to your nearest Gamestop, and pick this game up, you won't regret it!

Homefront Bound!

Today I will review the game Homefront, and I have to say that this game is a pretty decent game so far. The voice acting, and graphics hold up their own, but what really takes the cake on this game is the story.

The game takes place into the future where Northern Korea has taken control of the United States of America and you play as "The Pilot" a man that was saved by the "Rebellion" a group of Americans that have banded together to fight back.

As I stated before the graphics, and voice acting is pretty decent, however I have noticed that the game can be kind of buggy. In the opening sequence you find yourself opening the door to some North Korean soldiers that proceed to beat, and capture you. When you come back to reality you find yourself on a bus transporting you through the streets of some desolate American town. At this point you are able to look around but nothing else, as I looked around I saw a lot of disturbing things, like the following, families being torn apart, parents being shot down in front of their kids etc.

 

The sad part of this game is the true reality of it, and how possible something like this could happen, and for that the game makes me wanting more. I haven't made it completely through the game yet, but I have come across some amazing weapons, and projectiles.  

Even though I usually breakdown the game, I haven't made it completely through it yet, so I will give you my rating of what I have seen so far.

I give this game 5 out of 10, it's good enough to hold my attention, but yet still not really worth buying it. I suggest you rent this game from either Gamefly, or maybe RedBox, or your local video store ( That is if they even still exists )

Just Cause.."It Stinks"

So it has been awhile since my last game review, but for this one I'm going to let you know about this game. Just Cause 2 is the sequel to Just Cause (duh!). There isn't much I can say about this game for I didn't keep it long, in fact Gamefly sent me the game I put it in, and was immediately disgusted with all aspects of the game.




At first glance the game has potential, but it is quickly taken away from the terrible voice acting in the game.

Normally I would breakdown all aspects of this game, but honestly it wasn't worth my time.

The closest game I can compare this one to is Bionic Commando, that's pretty much it about this.
My suggestion is to rent before you buy, either from Gamefly or RedBox something along those lines.

You have me in a fit of RAGE!

Today's review is the ID game Rage, from what I gathered Rage was supposed to be the second coming of DOOM. Well to my dismay it ha fallen flat, cutscenes have to be the most beautiful, and graphical thing I have ever seen on a video game. What was supposed to be the saving grace of this game was the guns, and to be honest if the enemies where to blow apart better it would be a lot more fun. With that being said the story, and gameplay fall somewhat short.
In this segment I am going to break it all down for you, starting with gameplay.

Ganeplay -  With all the side missions, and tasks you need to do to to even get somewhere gets pretty redundant. The controls are easy to learn, but I hate jump buttons on first person shooters, to me they are as useless as tits on a bull, I will give the gameplay a 6 out of 10

Graphics-  As I said in the opening paragraph, the graphics for the cutscenes in the opening are by far the best scenes I have ever seen. However the in game graphics are well... ok at best, I think they could have done better with them, I will give the graphics a 7 out of 10

Soundtrack-  There really isn't much of a soundtrack to the game, it's more voice over's and cheesy music when enemies are near and when you are in the towns you get a lot of background voices. The voice acting in the game is def a bright spot for it so I will give the soundtrack a 7 out of 10

Story line- The story line is kinda interesting, it takes place after a giant asteroid crashes to earth and mutates surviving humans and those who escaped the devastation are force to fight against then mutants, I will give the story line a 8 out of 10 ( Hey it could happen..right? )

Replay-  the game has 3 discs, and let's face it I have the attention span of a fish. Once I beat this game I will never play it again so I will give game replay 3 out of 10

Overall-  The game isn't bad, but it's not great either. With all the driving, side missions, money, and crap that needs to be collected just gets redundant quickly, Well in my opinion it does, I will give the overall game experience a 5 out of 10. The game is entertaining at times but it just gets boring quickly, my suggestion is to rent before you buy ( Gamefly )

There is a multiplayer, and a online mode so I can't speak for that part of the game, but I'm sure it is fun for the people that play these types of games online.

Xbox 720?

Could it be true, a new Xbox is on its way? Bill Hall general manager of Windows Live has said the the new Xbox will be released "in time". I couldn't be more excited about this but I am left sitting here scratching my head wondering what they could do to improve the gaming experience. Bill Hall has gone on record by saying this

“We’ve had Hotmail and operated Hotmail for about sixteen years, we obviously have Exchange, and Outlook, that people use at work. We just decided it was time to do something new and bring the best from each of those and put them together and release it right in time for the new wave of products that we could have coming out with Windows 8 with the new version of Office with the New Windows phone and the new Xbox.”

It's not a whole lot of information, but it will keep us "Box Heads" at bay for a little while... right?? 

Movie Games, Game Movies

Movie Games- This has been going on for years, games that are based on summer blockbusters where the movie is a huge success and brings in millions upon millions. But we can't say the same for the video game adaptation. Games are supposed to be a fun way to bring the movie home, whatever it's a movie video game based off a comic book, or a game based just off the movie alone. Let's take a look at a couple of video games that have bombed (in my opinion)

The firs Iron Man movie video game was horrendous, the graphics were ok, but the game play and pretty much everything was just awful. The one saving grace this game had was Robert Downey JR, being there for the voice. I would never suggest this game to anyone ever! just saying.


Who can forget the ultimate disaster that frustrated kids all around the world, stop me if you have heard this one before ... ET the video game! nothing much more to say about this, I'll just show you instead.

I think I made my point, to anyone who has ever played this game you will understand right away. If you are to young to get it then just be thankful for Xbox and Playstation.

Game movies- So far this hasn't worked out to well either, either they don't get the right actors to play the characters or they just completely ruin the story. Let me give you a couple of examples, to prove my point 

Super Mario Bros- 1993 

This movie starred Bob Hoskins as Mario, and John Leguizamo as Luigi, and Dennis Hopper as Koopa... really a giant lizard is a human, this was a huge disappointment

 Wing Commander- 1999

How many pretty boys can you put into a crappy adaptation hmm let's find out, too many that's how many.

This movie sucked really bad enough said 

Prince of Persia-2010

This movie was supposed to be a huge success... Whoomp Whoomp.

                              It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as the main man, and wow, what a pile of dung 

These are just examples of video games and movies that never reached their potential (or never had it) 

What is your list of movies and games that didn't meet your expectations? 

While your at it follow me on twitter @johnnyboy1286

or like me on facebook The Gaming Life

Age old war

Every one has a friend out there that always says that their gaming system is the best. Stop me if you have heard this one before, "Xbox is better" "No! Playstation is better!" well I'm fact they are both great in their own way.

Playstation 3- Playstation has many features that draw people in for example, Blue Ray, and free online play, but is that enough to get you to spend $300.00 dollars or more? Playstation's games have certainly come a long way in their game play and their graphics. But since I'm not a big movie watcher I can't see spending the money on a glorified blue ray player.
The Playstation Move is pretty cool, but once again it feels like a glorified Wii, however the games that use this system are pretty insane.

The Xbox 360 has a lot of great features that also draw gamer's in,
Great games, comfortable controller, but most of the people that own a Xbox they own it for one thing HALO. Now I'm not a huge first person shooter gamer, and I don't get into COD etc, but I can defiantly appreciate a great game and a story line and Halo seems to do that. Have I played it? yes of course but I'm no "Master Chief".
Xbox does have the most amazing motion gaming device yet to date and that's the Kinect, the games for the add on are a little bubbly and they feel like a cartoon. When you think about it though you have so much fun jumping, moving from left to right, and sweating up a storm you forget that your not even holding a controller. Xbox is also on the top of it's game with its dashboard offering internet access, watching videos, chatting with friends via the Kinect, just revolutionizing the gaming experience.

Xbox, and Playstation will continue to go head to head for a long time. I am biased because I own a Xbox 360 and a Nintendo Wii, eventually I will own a Playstation but until then LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!!       

Follow me on twitter @johnnyboy1286 or like my page on facebook The Gaming Life