Xbox 360 Reviews

Fable III Review

The Fable franchise is famous for some serious pre-release hype. Before each installment releases, Peter Molyneux tantalizes us with features that never seem to make their way into the finished product. In the first Fable, it was the promise of an acorn that could be planted and would mature into a full tree over in-game years. The exclusion of the acorn did not particularly hurt the game’s sales, but it became a marquee for the broken promises that have plagued the Fable series. Fable III was announced to be compatible with Kinect (Natal at the time) but development constraints would keep the Kinect features from seeing the finalized product. Despite this, the latest installment in the franchise manages to shake any negative effects and emerge looking like a healthy step forward for the franchise.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Review

I had pretty high expectations for The Force Unleashed 2. I was a big fan of the original and despite some big flaws it was still one of my favorite games of this generation. When a sequel was announced it seemed too good to be true, a chance to fix all the mistakes in the original while potentially improving on everything I loved about the first—Yes please! Unfortunately The Force Unleashed 2 fails to deliver on those ambitions.

The story opens with Darth Vader’s signature Tie Advanced landing on the stormy world of Kamino. We learn that Vader has been trying to clone an improved version of the Starkiller from the original game—And unsuccessfully at that. It seems that due to the accelerated cloning process each previous clone has succumbed to madness because of residual memories from the original Starkiller. In fear of being the next clone Vader casts aside, The cloned Starkiller lashes out against Vader and manages to escape the cloning facility in search of the Rebel allies from the first game.

WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 Review

In the past few years, the Smackdown! vs. Raw games have entered a niche market that has been near impossible to break out of for the developers. In last year’s installment, it seemed like they had completely given up on getting out of that market by delivering a game solely for wrestling fans. Its introduction of the WWE Story Creator mode was probably the best thing to happen to the series in a long time. In this year’s installment, THQ introduces WWE Universe among even more additions. Some of which work out fine, most of which fall slightly short.

The aforementioned WWE Universe is by far the biggest addition to WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011. It takes all the matches you perform in single player (excluding Road to Wrestlemania ) and blends them together to form storylines, and help people rise through the ranks to the point where they eventually earn title shots.

Costume Quest (X360) Review

Costume Quest is a game that targets your inner child with pinpoint accuracy and drags it out into the daylight. From its cartoony aesthetics to its whimsical story about kids transforming into robots, ninjas and monsters, I was left with a big, goofy grin on my face while playing this game.

It’s the clever way that Costume Quest takes standard RPG mechanics and dresses them up as Halloween traditions that is its biggest strength. Enemies aren’t randomly encountered on a field; instead you fight monsters by trick-or-treating at different houses, some of which have candy-giving grownups while others hide treat-stealing monsters. Instead of money, you use your accumulated candy to purchase items (which come in the form of stat-boosting badges) and new abilities are learned by assembling new costumes for your party members to wear.

Arcania: Gothic 4 Review

Every once in a while you get a game that redefines a genre and manages to shed the preconceived notions of what a game should be. Gothic 4 is not that game. In fact, I would venture to say that this game is one of the low points of the Xbox 360 library. It all begins very predictably: you propose to a girl, leave town temporary, and upon your return find that the entire village has been set aflame and your new fiancé has been slain. Our nameless hero, with his emo mop top, swears revenge upon the king who ordered the town’s destruction and sets off to kill him. 

Quantum Theory Review

Inspiration is a funny thing. Most things start as some form of creative spark—It’s crucial to the creative process. Truly inspiring games often rise to greatness while a lack of inspiration just leaves you with nothing more than a steaming pile of horse dookie. Unfortunately, Quantum Theory leans a lot toward the latter.

Super Meat Boy Review

The whole “Your princess is in another castle” stigma is hardly revolutionary. Yet after all these years it still perfectly fits as a way to propel our hero from level to level. It’s simple, but it’s perfect. At it’s core, Super Meat Boy has a pretty simple premise. Meat Boy must make his way through various traps and dangers in order to save his girlfriend Bandage Girl. The evil Dr Fetus has stolen her away and it’s up to Meat Boy to save the day. It’s nothing new, but it works.

Medal of Honor Review

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a Medal of Honor game, but EA has rebuilt the series into the more popular modern shooter genre. However is there room for a new modern day shooter? Medal of Honor is EA’s reboot of the series, but this time it’s a modern day shooter taking place at the onset of the invasion of Afghanistan. In fact the opening credits is filled with audio from reports made on 9/11.  Also I’m not sure what it is about this game, but from the get go it takes Call of Duty’s style of having them talk over an ever changing map. If you have no idea what I mean, play Modern Warfare 2 (I’m sure if you’re reading this you have). This is one of the first things the game obviously is trying to emulate from the Modern Warfare games.

Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock Review

Guitar Hero is one of the pioneers of the modern rhythm game. Before Guitar Hero, rhythm based gaming was purely a niche market and most developers refused to take on the added cost of plastic peripherals that were necessary to the game. The first Guitar Hero blew the doors off the gaming community and managed to redefine the worth of tiny plastic guitars and simultaneously lower the inhibitions of millions as they bore their souls to the rock gods. Millions of broken whammy bars later, we arrive at the 6^th major iteration of the popular franchise. Does this one live up to the spirit of its predecessors?

Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 Review

Nostalgia is a funny thing. It can lead you to believe that the stuff from your memories is better than it actually ever was. I call this little process “selective memory,” and basically it boils down to the fact that you remember the good things about your memories rather than the bad things. For example, let’s say that you had a dog during your childhood and you recall this dog being an amazing companion. You remember playing fetch and having a fantastic time, when in reality the dog was barely capable of chasing his own tail and chewed the upholstery off the furniture. You hold the dog in high regard because you developed an affinity for the dog, not because the dog was actually a great dog.