Join the crew! Jack, Chris, Earl, and Kish gather Bi-Weekly for the podcast. Come here for your daily dose of PS3, XBOX 360, Wii, DS, PSP, PC, and legacy console news, talk, and geekiness.
Want a 10$ manufacturers coupon from 2K games? Well here you go! This coupon is good on the following titles:
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Wow, this is a new low.
I can assure you this is not a little joke write-up for the latest podcast, I really think I’m going too far with this one. Usually nothing offends me, but today I’ve offended myself. Making a visual mockery of the events of 9/11 is beyond tasteless. Thank god I’m a nobody… I might get beated up. That date doesn’t even mean anything, 1992 was just an estimate(it’s when Street Fighter 2 was ported to consoles). Anyhoo, listen to the new podcast and go find an old arcade game in your local bowling alley, and play it… OR THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON!!! Fuckers.
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People really are assholes. Although it’s nice to see some people give this game a fair score, it’s not quite getting the praise it deserves. While not without it’s problems, Too Human is easily in the top 5 best games on the Xbox 360. It amazes me that people gripe about such stupid little things like a 15 second death scene that you can’t skip, Really? Even though your experience, money, level progress, and all the other loot you pick up is unaffected you’re going to bitch about that? Then you sir/madam are an ejaculation-face!
GRAPHICS: The graphics are very good, and the frame rate smooth. Don’t judge this game on it’s cut-scenes, for some reason they’re not quite as polished as the actual game, seems strange that the frame rate would drop with 4 characters talking, but not when you’re fighting 20-30 enemies in the game - but it’s not game-breaking so forget it. Characters are uninspired, and you can only play as one, Baldur. Luckily you can cover that fugly mug with tons of armor and weapons. Now let’s talk about how the game plays.
GAMEPLAY: This is where Too Human really shines. “Action packed Pee-Wee” The gameplay is extremely deep with swordplay, gun and special attacks. Don’t forget the RPG elements - Leveling up, skill trees, rune system (think materia from Final Fantasy 7), and loot…. LOTS and LOTS of LOOOOOT. I didn’t even know I was a loot whore! Swords, staffs, hammers, pistols, lasers, shotguns, and I’m not even going into the armor selections - there’s quite a bit.
SOUND: The music is very “Lord of the Ringsy” and the voice acting is great… except the scene where Thor gets crushed by a pillar, I won’t tell you what happens, but when you see it you’ll know - it’s quite laughable. Another thing that bothered me was when you’re in the city, people will talk to you as you’re walking by, and their voice will jump all over the place if you have surround sound.
REPLAYABILITY: It seems infinite, At the moment of writing this I’m up to my fourth play through and am still getting new weapons and armor, but I have to put it down for at least a little while. There’s a lot of games to be played, and if I spend all my time on Too Human I’ll be missing out on many new exciting experiences… But I will be back for more!
If you’re reading this, hopefully I’ve convinced you to go out and buy it, but if not, than please go rent it and give it about 2 hours of serious play time. Maybe it’s not for you, but make up your own mind. Don’t let the negativity make an impact before it’s been experienced first hand, you may be letting a real gem slip through your fingers.
Yep, it’s here, and after about 2 minutes into the demo I realized you can level up your character…. before I could remind my brain that I am poor, it was already downloaded to my hard drive, looks like it’s back to giving truckstop blowjobs for money. Expect a full review in about a month, Too human came out, so that’ll be eating up my time. How about you? Been playing Too Human? Tried out Castle Crashers yet? Discuss in the Forums.
Today marks the release of the Xbox Live remake of Bionic Commando, the classic NES console title. Download the demo today and give it a shot. Will it be as good as the original? I plan to find out this evening! It certainly looks nice!
Check back here for an upcoming review!
Amazon.com has annouced a Gears of War 2 bundle including a super sweet Lancer replica, complete with chainsaw sounds, and a removable clip. It retails for 139$ and includes the Lancer and Gears of War 2. For an extra 10 bucks you can upgrade to the limited edition Gears of War 2. Pretty sweet!
Prove to your pals that you are the ultimate Gears of War uber-geek, with this limited edition bundle!
(No ratings - Be the first to rate this product!) Loading ...I bought Prey used about a month ago, since I had heard good things about it, and was looking for something to play over the summer while waiting for the big titles this fall. And it was CHEAP.. I think i got it for 12 dollars with shipping, and honestly I wasn’t expecting much from it.. just a little shooter to waste some time on. I did not expect to get an exceptionally fun game, with great gameplay, an interesting storyline, and a genuinely original setting. At 12 dollars Prey turned out to be an absolute STEAL.
gameplay - Qualifying Prey as a "first person shooter" does not do this title justice. Yes, the gameplay is first person, and combat factors largely into the gameplay, but there are some really interesting elements, that set it miles apart from standard FPS fare.
First, progress in the game focuses on puzzle solving.. Some puzzles are simple, and some are quite complex. They have balanced the puzzles very well in most cases, and you find little backtracking neccesary. Also the game features a really nice portal system, an underappreciated aspect of the game, condidering it was released 2 years before "Portal". The navigation of the portals, is required in solving many of the puzzles in the games. You also have the ability to alter gravity in the game, allowing you to walk on walls, ceilings, etc, at points of the game. There are some arcade machines scattered throughout the game which allow you to play a few mini games as well. Lastly a concept of "spirit walking" also factors heavily into the gameplay. This allows your character to assume a spirit form. It is possible in this form to bypass obstacles that would otherwise hinder your character’s movement. Controls in the game are simple and intuitive, and the game plays very well from start to finish.
For replay value the game adds online multiplayer support with several maps. There are also several additional multiplayer maps which can be downloaded from XBox Live for free.
storyline - Prey features a refreshingly original storyline, focusing on an alien visitation to America’s Midwest. The protaganist and his girlfriend are abducted at the genesis of the game from an Indian reservation. The bulk of the game takes place on an enormous alien spacecraft known as "the sphere". The storyline is furthered by dialogue with other characters, hints from the environment, and occassional radio broadcasts. The radio broadcasts are voiced by the talented Art Bell, the longtime host of "Coast to Coast AM", a radio program which deals with Aliens and the Paranormal. This is a prime example of the attention to detail, so prevalent in this game, that makes it such a joy to play.
graphics - For a game that is over 2 years old, Prey’s graphics hold up incredibly well. There were a few parts of the game where I was actaully blown away by the quality of the visuals. One part of the game actually features rooms which break apart into pieces and come back together reconfigured. There was no noticible clipping during these scenes, which is a testament to the game’s graphics engine.
The character design is well done, with a good variety of unique foes. The game environment is well designed, visually stunning at times, and incredibly detailed.
audio - The games soundtrack is good enough. It has a good amount of variety, and helps set the stage nicely. There is also a jukebox in the game which you can interact with and listen to various tracks, by artists such as Judas Priest, Heart, and Blue Oyster Cult to name a few.
problems - The game, while incredible, is not perfect. For one, the load times between stages can feel excessive at times. Also, in my opinion, the difficulty could be boosted up a bit. I recommend playing the game on the "Cherokee" (hard) setting unless you are a newcomer to FPS games. And thats it.. those are the only bad things I can think about in the game, and honestly they are quite small issues.
If you are looking for a fun, innovative, and inexpensive game, Prey is it. Running a quick search on ebayI see you are going to be paying less than 15 dollars shipped for this game used. At this price, Prey represents an exceptional value. Try this game out and I promise you wont be dissappointed.
Take the guesswork out of figuring out how much those Microsoft Points will actually cost you with our handy conversion application. This tool will convert from Microsoft Points to Dollars (USD) or Dollars (USD) to Microsoft Points.
Try it out here: Microsoft Points Converter
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading ...Let me first preface this review with the fact that I have the writing skills of a brain dead 1.7 year old so bear with me. Soul Calibur IV is a game that I’ve been anticipating for quite some time. I’ve played the ‘Soul’ fighting series since its debut on the Playstation One as Soul Blade. I’ve been a fan since then and the funny thing is that visuals aside, I rate all of the other games in comparison to the first. Anywho… enough nostalgia and onto the review.
Soul Calibur IV is a weapons based fighter for all that are not familiar with the series. Visually the game does not disappoint. With its interactive levels and detailed backgrounds, the game shows what the next gen systems are capable of. (Xbox 360 supporting 1080p and PS3 supporting up to 1080i). The character design is much like the previous versions of the game except more refined. The good thing about that is, the previous character design was pretty damn good to begin with.
The gameplay has been tweaked and is a bit smoother which is a definite plus. The move sets have been changed just enough to make the avid Soul Calibur fan have to practice to learn new moves to replace the moves that were changed or revamped. At times the controls can be a bit annoying when your back is to an enemy and it seems impossible to turn around. This is a minor flaw with the fighting system but it shows up enough to hinder the gamplay some.
The biggest disappointment of this game is the so called story mode. You start out with a two paragraph excerpt of the characters history, followed by five stages of no story action. I still can’t understand why they haven’t been able to put the story back into the game. Simply making a mode called ’story mode’ doesn’t mean there is a story. In Soul Blade, the story was what made the game. You trek through the story mode to unlock new weapons for your characters with handicapped battles everywhere you moved on the map. Acquiring gold and unlocking a few characters without any plot to speak of is a sad excuse for a story and that is all Soul Calibur IV has to offer. Fortunately most gamers couldn’t care less about a story mode in a fighting game so I guess I’m the only jerk that cares.
Online for some reason seems to be a problem for every fighting game ever and SC4 is no exception. For the most part, the online is pretty seamless but even with a fast connection there are times where you’ll be starting at a frozen screen until everyone syncs up. The gamer that creates the match has the advantage of lag free fighting and its hit or miss for the other(s). While you can have four players in one room in unranked online play, two out of the four are spectators. Sadly there is no option for a tag team battle so four people in one room seems pointless unless it was intentional to freeze up the game as people enter and exit the room because they are watching other people play.
For the most part this is a great game and I would recommend anyone that is into the fighting genre or a Soul Calibur fan to pick it up because its a must have. The single player mode doesn’t have much replay value, but the online capabilities allow for endless hours of weapons fighting madness. Soul Calibur IV delivered on every front but ‘the story mode’, but I suppose you can’t have everything. Hopefully in the future they will go back to the Soul Blade style of story mode, but until then I will just talk trash as I battle gamers online.
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5) Loading ...First Off, I apologize for my extreme lateness of reviewing this game. I know that Blue Dragon was released months ago, but I did have my college education, internships, and work to keep me plenty occupied. Additionally, I do not like to commit myself to an RPG without giving myself plenty of time to play it. So please keep that in mind when reading this review.
It’s been a while since I have played a J-RPG owing mostly to the fact that I refuse to buy any Sony video game systems. This is mostly due to my cheap nature, not any hatred towards Sony and their systems. Despite my lack of J-RPG experience (my last being Final Fantasy VII on the PC), I still enjoy the genre simply because I love turn-based RPG’s no matter what format they come in.
Blue Dragon had a massive amount of hype associated with its release, mainly because of its status as a J-RPG being produced and written by Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi is a legend in the RPG realm due to his title of “creator” of the Final Fantasy series and his direction of the classic RPG, Chrono Trigger. Having this mastermind at the helm should have ensured a fantastic storyline accompanied by amazing graphics and gameplay. Following the hype (and being desperate for an RPG) I bought Blue Dragon on its release date and promptly placed it on the shelf.
Months later, I can comfortably say that I have attempted almost every possible enemy, encounter, and storyline that Blue Dragon offers. The first thing that I must do is commend every graphic artist who worked on this game. This is, without a doubt, the most beautiful game I have played on any system. It may not have the sharpest graphics currently out (Crysis for PC coming to mind), but it is a breathtaking visual experience. The extended cutscenes are phenomenal, albeit a little spaced apart. This game gets highestr honors for its visual presentation, although I would have liked more facial expressions on the characters. The World Map could have been a little more detailed but I didn’t expect it to really be teeming with detailed foliage and water effects.
The gameplay of Blue Dragon is a seamless and efficient battle system mixed with simplistic controls for non-combat sections of the game. The most intuitive and effective battle mechanic is the timeline involved in every creature encounter. This timeline allows the player to set up battles so that your character’s can get in that last attack or spell before the enemy gets a chance to strike. This is mainly accomplished by charging your attacks to a certain point on the timeline in order to maximize the number of attacks. You can also charge attacks longer for a more potent strike, but at the cost of speed. Controls outside of battles are easy to use and require almost no learning curve. So, Blue Dragon also receives high marks for its controls and gameplay.
Not every game can be perfect and Blue Dragon is no exception. The storylines which were so profound and exciting in Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger have been trounced upon in Blue Dragon. I wish I could even say that there was a storyline in Blue Dragon, but it is practically nonexistent. Your characters are essentially on a revenge quest against the evil mastermind presented at the game’s introduction. You then proceed to play for 40 hours with almost no other significant plot developments. There are other minor side stories which occur in each town, but the main storyline is not fleshed out in the least. The main character, Shu, exclaims that “He won’t give up” a million times throughout the game with no credence as to why he continues fighting. The storyline for Blue Dragon receives extremely low marks because it disappears after the first 5 minutes of the game and never resurfaces again.
I put 50 hours worth of gameplay into Blue Dragon and played it to its conclusion. I doubt that most people will ever even make it to the third disc of this game let alone finish it. Blue Dragon provides some entertainment with its slick controls and beautiful visuals, but lacks any substantive plot. Considering that the story should drive an RPG, Blue Dragon fails to live up to it hype.
In the words of Meat Loaf, “Two out of three ain’t bad.” But then again, his tubby buns were never reviewing games. (I still love him though)
In May of 2000 I was wandering the Nintendo booth of E3, I see a demo station for a little game called Eternal Darkness, not hearing any buzz about the game I don’t believe I even gave it a second glance. You see, it was right next to Perfect Dark so I didn’t see the need to pay it any mind - this was mistake number 1.
The next year I was back yet again to the orgasmic, sweaty, exhausting mess that was E3. Running into the Nintendo booth at E3 2001 was indescribable, the night before we caught a quick glimpse on the evening news of Starfox and other GameCube games that we would be playing the very next day, I still can’t believe that I slept at all that night. First was a long wait for Luigi’s Mansion, next was an even longer wait for Super Smash Bros. Melee, then came Wave Race which had the same controls as (the far superior) Wave Race 64. Yeah, that still burns my ass that they changed the controls to a “more realistic” style of play, but more on that at another time. I stroll by a very impressive looking demo of Eternal Darkness, empty line, 2 bystanders and an eager employee trying to sell the promise of a new way to play survival horror. I picked up the controller and gave it a whirl… “Well, it looks good.” I put down the controller and didn’t give it another thought - this was mistake number 2.
Just so I don’t write my whole life story, let’s skip ahead to just before the release date of Eternal Darkness. I’d been hearing that there was this game coming out that was survival horror AND put Resident Evil to shame. My response of course was “GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE, NOTHING COULD POSSIBLY BE BETTER!?” I’m a very irrational angry person, and when I hear stupid shit like that, that little nugget will roll around in my head and I get enraged even thinking about it. I swore to never give Eternal Darkness a fair chance - this was mistake number 3.
June 24, 2002 was a slow day at the game store, lucky for me I’m retarded and forgot my previous vow to never play E.D. It took a whole 15 minutes to fall in love with E.D. Everything about it, from the graphics and story, down to the creepy insanity effects will grab onto you and face-fuck you until cum shoots out your ears (that was quite unnecessary).
The reason I bore you with this trip down memory lane is because with all the shit talk about Silicon Knights’ latest “masterpiece” being underwhelming to some of the press, I felt that I must step up to fight for Denis and Co.
Too Human sucks you into it’s world in a matter of seconds. Come for the gun/sword combat, stay for the RPG elements. The fact that you can play dress up with your warrior is enough for my 60 bucks. Perfect? Well I’ll let you know in a month or so, but as for the demo, I did notice a few unforgivable bugs. My first play through the game froze, the framerate stuttered in cutscenes, and on my second go, my character got stuck in mid-air when I jumped. That’s bad, but small shit that I’m hopeful can be fixed in a months time. I’ve heard that Too Human plays similar to Phantasy Star Universe, looks like another one to add to the pile of games I’ll probably never get to. 3 games, all great, Silicon Knights has yet to disappoint me - let’s keep that going. Anyhoo, go download the demo if you haven’t already, and join me in the excruciating wait for 8-19-2008.
I will now praise the work of Silicon Knights the same way I did for Working Designs or Nintendo… Until the day I, or they die (yes Nintendo is dead)
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Ok.. so I’m a fan of crosswords.. Before Jack gave me my PSP.. My countless hours on the train, commuting to and from work were spent filling out the little sqares, in the NY Times, or Wall Street Journal crosswords. So when I saw a new crossword game on XBox Live Arcade, I figured I’d give it a shot.
After downloading the trial game, started it up and selected the “Difficult” setting single player game. After playing 1 minute.. I realized that when they say “Difficult” they actually mean “Difficult if you have an IQ of 60 or less, are blind, or hands which were recently maimed in a freak blender accident”. Ok maybe its not that bad.. I wouldnt say I’m great at crosswords, but Im at least decent.. And if you are too, you will find the difficulty level of this 800 Microsoft point turd, unchallenging to say the least. Im not expecting every puzzle to be challenging.. But when you select the most difficult option in a game, and it feels like a breeze.. there is something wrong.
Arguably the hardest part of the game is navigating the extremely user friendly and innovative letter selection feature, which is apparently was modeled after a rotary phone dial. Using the letter selection dial is both frustrating, and extremely slow, just like a rotary phone, which really sucks when you have a gameplay option called “Time Attack”.
The features touted on its Xbox Live page are:
I’m a bit dissapointed in Konami on letting this one pass Quality Control.. They probably didnt even bother because.. “How do you fuck up a crossword game?” Coffeetime Crosswords is a shining example of how.. The controls will have you wanting to kill yourself.. The graphics are sub-par (and im not expecting much from a crossword game).. To get an idea of the quality of the music, you need only to step into your nearest elevator.. And challenge is non-existant..
You absolutely should buy this game if you work for Voltex, Inc.. (the developer of this shit title as well as Frogger 2.. another shit title for XBL).. In fact you had better buy several thousand copies, since no one else is going to want to..
Can you help me with this one? Im a bit stuck. 4 letters accross.. 1st letter “S”.. 4th letter “T”.. clue is “Word describing Coffeetime Crosswords”.
A free World of Warcraft themed track - “I am Murloc” by Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftan - has been released for Guitar Hero 3. You can download it free of charge from Xbox Live.
You can also check out the music video on You Tube. Check the video out here.
Happy hunting!
(No ratings - Be the first to rate this product!) Loading ...I will admit that I don’t fall under the typical GTA fanboy category, i.e. I have never preordered a Grand Theft Auto game or even waited in line for one on release date. Whether or not this due to my lack of past, current, and future PS2 ownership is another story, but this GTA release was no different for me. April 29, 2008 was just another day for me but for the brainwashed, wet-dreaming GTA die-hards, this was the day of deliverance.
Having only played Grand Theft Auto III extensively before, I figured I would wait for the normal sites to review the game, namely Gamespot and IGN, before forking over any money to the franchise. The rave reviews began to pour in with every site and person from here to eternity praising this game as a masterpiece comparable to Michaelangelo or Da Vinci. Any game that can cause millions of single nerdy men to shit their shorts and still have them sit down for hours at a time in their soiled apparel to play a game should be amazing right? I thought so too. Needless to say, I bought that game a few days later thinking, “My life is about to change forever because I have found the digital Holy Grail.”
A few weeks and numerous hours of gameplay later, I feel safe to say that this is just another example of a game that does not live up to the hype. Honestly, I feel more used than a five-dollar whore at this point. This game was praised and blessed by conservative and liberal reviewers alike and was supposed to be the Mecca of the present gaming scene. This game feels less like FF7 and more like Fable, a game that can eat up time but leaves you feeling confused and and wanting. Before I get flamed more than a 19 year old slut in 1692 Salem, I would like to expound my feelings through a (slightly) comprehensive review.
Controls: The controls for physical movement are pretty much standard for a 360 game with the left joystick controlling front/back movement and the right joystick controlling camera movement. The button layout for most of the controls is well done with good placement of buttons for gunplay, driving, and flying. The problems come in the form of some collision detection problems, turning radius, and gun control issues during firefights. Normally when I quickly rotate the joystick around to point a gun 180 degrees behind me, I want the camera to move quickly. This is not the case in GTA4 and it led to a number of deaths resulting from even minor gun battles. Thankfully Rockstar decided to hop on the bandwagon and put a cover mechanism into the game so I didn’t die 5 seconds into every fight. The problem here is that the auto-lock feature loves to lock onto the closest target EVERY FRIGGIN TIME. That might be good if I need to shotgun my way out of a room but when I have the cursor placed on a distant target I want to lock onto that person, not the guy behind the wall 10 feet away from me. Fans of GTA and similar games will have a learning curve to overcome when beginning to drive in GTA4. Be prepared to brake a lot and break a lot (of cars and bones). Other minor issues I had were the inability to turn well when coming around walls and when going up and down stairwells.
Variety: GTA games have historically offered a wider range of weapons and vehicles in each subsequent game. There is a plentiful amount of land vehicles including cars, trucks, and motorcycles along with specialties like the firetruck, police car, and SWAT truck. A few types of boats and helicopters round out the vehicles but there is a lack of planes and tanks this time around (I guess people might get upset about flying a 747 into a digital Empire State Building). What disappointed me was the lack of firearms available with only 2 versions of each weapon set (pistol, SMG, shotgun, Assault rifle, Sniper rifle, explosive) available. I would have liked a little more variety in my arsenal that just the standard cookie cutter guns of yesteryear.
The GTA franchise is always full of mission based play where you either meet a person and complete mission for said person, or you participate in some side job. GTA4 is no different with the standard variety of mob related missions and some other missions involving vigilantism, drug trafficking, and vehicular theft (surprise, surprise). For the most part, missions involve either killing someone, chasing and then killing someone, or taxiing someone around. There is something left to be desired about constant hitman and chauffeur missions although there are a few missions which are genuinely exciting and difficult. Anyone who has seen the movie Heat will enjoy what is hands down the greatest mission in the game, and perhaps the best mission in a GTA game to date.
There’s other shit to do like get a lap dance at the strip club, get wasted at the bar, or play one of the few minigames. The problem with this is that it’s really out of the way most of the time and unless you wanna spend half your time entertaining friends then you are gonna ignore these things. As redundant as it is, I would rather be running around blowing things up than taking my cousin to a cabaret club. The only thing I liked about these extracurriculars was the comedy club with real comedians (Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams) as the headliners.
Graphics: The GTA franchise has never been renowned for its graphical accomplishments, something which is quite understandable considering the vast size of the cities in each game. GTA4 looks fairly amazing for an environment which is massive in size. Character models are fairly detailed close up and the cities look almost picture perfect. Some sections of the city look somewhat bland, but to be honest some real life ghettos look pretty bleak and bland. There are plenty of beautiful sights to see throughout Liberty City which greatly resemble real New York City attractions. If there is one bright beacon of hope in this game, it is the quality of the graphics.
Audio: The audio in this game has its soaring highs in terms of sound effects, dialogue, and recorded talk shows and its massive dumps in terms of every radio station in the game. If I wasn’t driving around in a car with other characters spouting vulgar and comical lines, I was mostly listening to my own music via stereo system. I can understand the trouble it takes to get the licensing for a good soundtrack for the game’s radio stations but I can’t recall hearing a single memorable song throughout my entire 40 hours of playtime. I have no need for 5 rap stations and 1 classic rock station that plays no rock.
Storyline: The story of GTA4 can be summed up just by watching the television commercial for the game. Eastern Bloc guy comes to America. Eastern Bloc guy is looking for guy who betrayed him. Eastern Bloc guy kills enough guys for the mob until he finds the aforementioned betrayer. Yes there are a number of named characters who give you missions along the way but nobody truly intriguing. I’ve never played any GTA game for the storyline but I thought that this one might have a chance to provide some thought-provoking plot to supplement the redundant mob killings. None of the characters are really memorable and even the death of an important character at the game’s conclusion was met with utter complacency on my part.
Final Thoughts: Grand Theft Auto IV had a chance to be amazing and was certainly hyped up to be the greatest game of the past decade. However, it was still lacking in certain areas that keep it from being the best it could be. I would like to see some deviation from the same generic Mob related killing missions which permeate every one of these games. This game scores high for graphics and environment, moderate for audio and controls, and low for mission variety. The city made an amazing sandbox environment, but lacked enough substance to keep me excited throughout the whole game. I thought I was done spending half my time traveling in a game when I quit World of Warcraft but I now stand corrected. If you want a game that can kill a lot of time then pick GTA4 up. Just don’t buy into the hype and expect it to change your life.
Begin the flaming, fanboys. I’m out.
Total Tracks in Genre: 11
Length: approx. 38 mins.
This genre will leave you wondering how most of these bands got signed. In general, this is a poor choice to set as the background to the game, with a few notable exeptions.
Guide to rating: 1 = Avoid at all costs / 5 = Can’t go wrong with this one.
Track 1
Artist: Queens of the Stone Age
Track: Little Sister
Label: Interscope Records
Length: 2.53
Rating: 4
This rockin little track works very well for a variety of races. The song is quite catchy, and you will find yourself hoping it comes up in the playlist. The vocals work well, and the guitar phases are repetitive in a good way. Overall a good choice.
Track 2
Artist: Staind
Track: Right Here
Label: Atlantic Recording Corp.
Length: 4.18
Rating: 3
A catchy little rock ballad. The song isn’t bad, but a little too ‘tender’ to work very well for a racing soundtrack. Not a terrible choice but there are other tracks in this genre which work better.
Track 3
Artist: Secret Machines
Track: Better Bring Your Friends
Label: Reprise Records
Length: 3.05
Rating: 2
This song is not a good choice for racing. It feels like a 3 minute long chorus. It just never really goes anywhere. Im not familiar with these guys, but if this track is indicative of the rest of thier offerings, I am scratching my head over which retard at Reprise decided to sign these guys. In any event, skip this one if it comes up.
Track 4
Artist: Mastodon
Track: Blood and Thunder
Label: Relapse Records
Length: 3.48
Rating: 5
This track is pretty bad ass. The guitar and vocals are very heavy. This track makes me wish my car was equipped with rocket launchers, or machine guns, so i could just gun down the other cars, and maybe even strafe the spectators. It works great for me for the big multiple car races. The best track in the genre.
Track 5
Artist: Dark New Day
Track: Brother
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Length: 3.50
Rating: 3
This song is a bit manic. The song goes from mellow to hard, to mellow. The vocals are non-descript. They sound like about a billion other bands. The track works resonably well for racing, but It gets boring after the first minute and a half or so.
Track 6
Artist: Thornly
Track: Come Again
Label: Roadrunner Records / 604 Records
Length: 3.46
Rating: 4
This song is a pretty good choice for racing. It starts off with a really catchy edgy guitar line. There is some use of keyboards/electronics which adds a bit of depth to the track as well. The vocals work well enough, and as a whole the track is diverse enough to sound fresh from start to finish.
Track 7
Artist: Head Automatica
Track: Beating Heart Baby
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Length: 3.24
Rating: 1
Umm.. I just don’t get this song at all. It seems like they just didnt know what they wanted this song to be. The backgound vocals sound quite queer, and the lead tries to be harsh.. Then there is this key change at around 2.50 which is simply annoying.. Oh and they threw in a beating heart sound at the very end, just to ensure you know the name of the track is ‘Beating Heart Baby’. How original. Ungh.. Just skip this track.
Track 8
Artist: Crazy Anglos
Track: Fade
Label: Atlantic Recording Corp.
Length: 3.10
Rating: 2
This song screams “We want to be Rage Against the Machine”, as if that were a good thing.. I guess you would classify this as rap-core. Or maybe crap-core. Im going to give this a two, since im no fan of Rage, or anything derivative of it.. But other people may like this sort of thing.. And if you ignore the overwhelming desparation of it.. it is barely a passable track. Otherwise i would give it a 1.
Track 9
Artist: Unwritten Law
Track: Get Up
Label: Atlantic Recording Corp.
Length: 4.12
Rating: 2
This song screams “We want to be Helmet.. Oh wait we want to be Weezer.. Aw crap lets be both..”. This song is just plain annoying to race to. Please skip.
Track 10
Artist: The Used
Track: I Caught Fire (In Your Eyes)
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Length: 2.20
Rating: 3
These guys remind me of “The Get Up Kids” a bit. Pop-punkish non-descript track. Doesn’t work very well for any of the race types. But there are worse tracks in this genre.
Track 11
Artist: Skindred
Track: Pressure
Label: Atlantic Recording Corp.
Length: 2.20
Rating: 1
How do bands like this get signed? Highly derivative. Annoying. If you like this.. get your ears checked.
Next Up.. Hip Hop
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Total Tracks in Genre: 10
Length: approx. 65 mins.
In my humble opinion, this is a waste of a genre. These tracks are all excellent, taken out of the context of Project Gotham Racing 3. But totally useless as a background for a racing game. Now if it was possible to listen to these tracks outside of the game environment, like playing them as a CD or something, I would be happy to add them to my music library. But you can’t do this with an XBOX 360 disc. The only way you can listen to the tracks on this disc is during game play. And for this, they are absolutely worthless. Believe me.. I tired to race to every one of these tracks and.. they just don’t work well at all.
In any case I am listing all the tracks in the genre, but decided not to waste my time reviewing each track, since in my opionion they are all equally bad choices for a racing soundtrack. Please.. if you have taken to racing to any of these tracks, its time to buy a new game.
Guide to rating: 1 = Avoid at all costs / 5 = Can’t go wrong with this one.
Track 1
Artist: Mussorgsky
Track: Night On Bare Mountain
Label: Naxos
Length: 11.00
Rating: 1
Track 2
Artist: Mozart
Track: Symphony No. 40 in G Minor
Label: Naxos
Length: 7.25
Rating: 1
Track 3
Artist: Bach
Track: Brandenburg Concerto - III.Allegro
Label: Naxos
Length: 4.38
Rating: 1
Track 4
Artist: Brahms
Track: Symphony No. 4 in G Minor - Allegro Giocoso - Poco meno Presto
Label: Naxos
Length: 6.25
Rating: 1
Track 5
Artist: Tchaikovsky
Track: Mazeppa - The Battle at Poltava
Label: Naxos
Length: 6.00
Rating: 1
Track 6
Artist: Rimsky Korsakov
Track: Danse des bouffons (Dance of the Clowns)
Label: Naxos
Length: 3.46
Rating: 1
Track 7
Artist: Liszt
Track: Hungarian Attack March
Label: Naxos
Length: 4.43
Rating: 1
Track 8
Artist: Beethoven
Track: Symphony No. 7 in A - Allegro con brio
Label: Naxos
Length: 8.50
Rating: 1
Track 9
Artist: Tchaikovsky
Track: Symphony No. 4 - Finale: Allegro con fuoco
Label: Naxos
Length: 9.18
Rating: 1
Track 10
Artist: Verdi
Track: Requiem - Dies Irae
Label: Naxos
Length: 2.20
Rating: 1
