DARC_Legions

Everything might not be as perfect as we had hoped, but at least Bungie tried something different. In the future, competitors in the FPS genre will be assuredly be trying to lift some of the ideas from Destiny to add some mmo-ness into their own games. The core gameplay and controls feel excellent, as you'd expect from a Bungie FPS. Enemy AI is competent, on par with top tier co-op titles like Mass Effect, Gears of War, etc., but I wouldn't say it really stands head and shoulders above it's competitors in this regard. It's a shame the alpha and beta had to take place mostly on the Earth maps, because all the other areas in the game are much more appealing to look at. There are some incredible skyboxes in Mars maps. Competitive multiplayer seems to take a backseat to co-op play this time, in the sense that the character abilities seem like something you would expect in a co-op game. It seems like the abilities in pvp need some balancing and tweaking done, and I'm sure we'll be seeing plenty of balancing updates for pvp in the coming months. However there is less co-op content than I was hoping for, I do hope the expansion packs come out soon and are substantial in the amount of content. I wish repeated playthroughs of levels offered more variety in enemy types and spawns, once you've played an encounter at Lv 30, it's nearly the same every time. I would have preferred more of a randomized enemy spawning system (a la Left 4 Dead) rather than always knowing what lies behind every corner. Explore maps don't have enough different types of side missions yet. Hopefully we can get a ton of new content fast and they will improve on some of these areas, but as of now this game needs help. All that aside though, it's still a ridiculously fun game but Bungie's destiny is yet to be determined. The next few months will tell. 9/10 just for being so much fun, could be a 10 one day but it needs some TLC first.

I know there are a ton of positive things to say about this game, but i would like to point out what I feel is its biggest weakness. The look sensitivity is too way slow, even on the highest setting. Any possibly of this game winning over FPS fans seems doubtful in its current state due to this oversight. This disappointing blunder severely needs to be addressed in a future patch. At some points the limitations of current-gen gaming already make me hope for an announcement from Rockstar of a PS4 version of the game. That, with the aim sensitivity fixed, would truly be your perfect-10 game. However, this is still one of the best games available on the current-gen systems. 9.75 out of 10.

I know there are a ton of positive things to say about this game, but i would like to point out what I feel is its biggest weakness. The look sensitivity is too way slow, even on the highest setting. Any possibly of this game winning over FPS fans seems doubtful in its current state due to this oversight. This disappointing blunder severely needs to be addressed in a future patch. At some points the limitations of current-gen gaming already make me hope for an announcement from Rockstar of a PS4 version of the game. That, with the aim sensitivity fixed, would truly be your perfect-10 game. However, this is still one of the best games available on the current-gen systems. 9.75 out of 10.

One of the main things I would like to point out in this review is that my opinion of this game would be lower if there were more AAA-quality games available on the Xbox that fit into the same sub-genre as this game such as Bayonetta. To me, DmC: Devil May Cry stands as one of the best "character action" games on 360, but it does not surpass the absolute best offerings on the console to date such as DMC4 or Bayonetta, partially due to the broken style system. I enjoyed this game overall more than Ninja Gaiden II, but the mechanics of NGII's combat system were also obviously superior to this game. I've never been skilled enough to consistently achieve SSS combos in any previous DMC game, and I'm ok with that. At the time of writing this review, I've completed all the DMC's except 3 (I had traded my PS2 for an original Xbox before that came out or I would have played it too) on the "Normal" (aka Devil Hunter) difficulty. In DmC 5, however, SSS combos (NOT overall level rankings) can be achieved by pretty much anyone who knows how to button-mash their way through any simple hack-and-slash game. Similarly, if you don't care about your rank, you can cheese your way through huge sections of the campaign with minimal effort, though a few of the boss fights will force you to exhibit some skill to beat, although they all revolve around extremely predictable patterns involving swinging between a few platforms with one of your two seperate types of grappling hooks while the boss will probably be trying to vomit on you or something like that. Most of the levels look incredible, and I like how they are all based on twisted versions of everyday places such as a carnival, nightclub, factory, etc. but the actual map layouts are bland, and there's so much platforming this could almost be considered a platformer with melee combat. The lack of lock-on made me curse alot as the game miserably tried to "predictively" select the enemy I wanted to shoot with guns and/or grappling hooks. I love the soundtrack in DmC, but then again I am into industrial metal music, and I do realize that a lot of people aren't. The game even suprised me by featuring a few songs that I have had in regular rotation on my MP3 player, which is rare for me since most games either have epic movie-style soundtracks, or just boring licensed garbage like a lot of EA Rockstar games. Contrary to other user reviews, there is thankfully only a little bit of actual dubstep in the game. Industrial is not dubstep, kids. The characters have a lot of terrible dialogue, just like the other DMC games. Overall I enjoyed the story in this newest entry more than DMC 1-4 because it was the only one out of the entire series where I could even tell there was supposed to be a story, even though they did copy a Futurama episode for the factory level. Finally, I would rate this game an 8.5, I would have given DMC4 a 9.25, and Bayonetta would get a 9.5. I'm rounding up the 8.5 since there's so many zeroes on these user ratings. People are acting like it's worse than Vampire Rain or something, I mean, come on. It's actually a pretty fun game when judged on its own. However, it's a step down compared to all the other games in this series (except DMC2).

This is an extremely fun game with a massive open world, but it definitely has its fair share of issues regarding certain things like the occasional texture pop-in and/or screen tearing that may occur (which is quite common in open-world driving games). There are some other minor problems mainly related to interface and things like finding other players during online play (filtering the map to show only my friends inexplicably showed nobody but I had 4 friends sitting right beside me at the time). Once you get together with all your friends, get ready for hours upon hours of driving around together. You can start races with any cars around you by pressing A to flash your lights which shows your challenge on every player's screen that is close to you. There can be around 50-100 cars spread all around each server's map at once, and up to eight at a time can jump into an instanced race, cop chase, or other type of challenge. The person who issued the challenge chooses any event they have unlocked (there are nearly 200 different events with more in DLC already confirmed), when it pops up it shows the proposed event in the bottom corner of your screen and you can press Back to ignore it, or A to accept their challenge. You can also start races by pressing A as you drive over their starting line. Those of you who enjoy Midnight Club should definitely check this game out. If you are familiar with Midnight Club:LA, imagine that game but with a map that is much larger and has a much greater variety of terrain including the full real-life islands of Ibiza and Hawaii. That means you'll plow through vast plains of 3-foot high weeds, get massive air off mountainsides to jump across riverbanks, and navigate tight urban streets more akin to MC:LA. However, the graphics in this game are about the same detail as those in MC:LA, which is not a compliment since that game is over three years old by now. Sometimes the graphics will stutter when the game is loading during gameplay, but this mostly seemed to happen during freedriving, and barely ever happened during the instanced races. I can say without a doubt that despite the minor graphical and disc-streaming issues this is still one of my top five favorite driving games ever to come out for the 360.

There are hardly any multiplayer RPGs on consoles. Two Worlds II supports 8-player Co-Op & PvP, with several modes to choose from in multiplayer, and of course has an absolutely HUGE single-player map. I did not play the first Two Worlds much at all. I borrowed it from my brother and didn't really like it much. I didn't really know what to expect from Two Worlds II. I had seen some videos on YouTube of TW II that looked pretty good, so I was willing to take a chance and get it when it came out a few days ago. I'm extremely glad I did. The videos on YouTube don't compare to the real thing at all. This review covers the multiplayer campaign only, I have been too addicted to it to do much in the single-player. No other game has been in my Xbox, and I've barely even watched any TV. I've been spending all my free time leveling up in Co-Op matches. I've already met a great group I quest with, and a good number of us are all near the same level. I spend about half my game time grinding for XP and loot with them, the other half I devote to helping some of my friends level and clear missions who have also just recently bought the game that are lower level than me. My main character is currently a Level 38 Mage, I have an alternate that's a Level 12 Warrior. The level cap in TW II is 37,262; and no, you will never get that much XP. The highest level player I've ever seen was a level 225. I got to build my own village with It's own economy. I can use my chest in my house there to transfer good warrior gear I find with my mage to my other character, he has a lot of great items waiting to use when he becomes high enough level to equip them. The game plays great, lag is very low on Xbox. It does start to lag a bit more when all sorts of crazy action is happening (a bunch of mages casting the most powerful and flashy spells and summoning up to 11 creatures each being the usual time this happens) , but it is very manageable and is not nearly frequent enough to bother the players much or stop you from wanting to play. Network connections are usually quick and smooth, and all multiplayer lobbies show player's ping (connection speed) right next to their name when they try to join your lobby. The structure of the game for Co-Op is very similar to Borderlands, NOT the gameplay, don't get confused, this is a third-person fantasy RPG. I am referring to the way the game unfolds, in that the multiplayer is not free-roaming, it is split into separate HUGE maps. These are not like the tiny maps in Fable III. You can get lost in them. All multiplayer maps have multiple teleporters which are absolutely necessary due the GIGANTIC size of most of the maps. Two maps that are smaller are underground dungeons, which are still quite large and maze-like, one is a mixture of indoor and outdoor, and then there are four sprawling outdoor maps, each of these complete with one or more towns and several shops. There are currently 7 multiplayer missions, each has multiple objectives and after completing them all you can move to the next map. This is one of the best online experiences on consoles because it is unique. The co-op mode alone is worth the $60. Just try to name another great online multiplayer RPG on consoles in the last five years. If you say Fable, you're wrong because that's not a true RPG, and it only has 2 players, not eight. Borderlands is a shooter/RPG hybrid, so that doesn't count either. PvP and Village modes are huge bonuses. I give Two Worlds II's multiplayer portion a score of 9.5, which could possibly become a 10 once they sort out a few (very minor) bugs and release the DLC that adds more multiplayer maps that are for high-level characters, with super-hard enemies and better loot. The game controls and interface are perfect to bring PC-style complexity to the console. The button mapping is a bit strange at first (sprint is on L-Trigger), but character control is generally very good, and five buttons are assignable to any skill/spell/item. There are three sets of these hotkeyed buttons, one set is when you have your weapon out, it automatically changes to another set when you put your weapon away, and there's one more when you're in sneak mode. That's 15 abilities/items available at any time, without having to stop and access the menus. The Single Player campaign would score a bit lower than the Co-Op because the in-game dialogue and cutscenes could have used some improvement. I haven't gotten far enough in to say much about the story, but it seems decent so far. But it's still got a HUGE free-roaming map, and the same awesome skills/magic system. To put it shortly, GET THE GAME NOW! Trade in some old games if you have to, sell something on eBay, do whatever you have to do, but if you like RPGs and you play online you should be rushing to the store right now, just like I'm about to rush back to my Xbox to go grind in Co-Op.

This game is still a lot of fun, even after 10 years. If you have played Crazy Taxi before, then you know it's worth the $10. If not, just imagine doing some GTA-type "drive to the checkpoint" missions in a cartoon-ish city, and old-school arcade driving physics. (You basically can't turn without drifting). I can't say that I've even found a handful of driving games on XBLA worth buying. Crazy Taxi may not be perfect, and obviously isn't as deep as most disc-based driving games, BUT if it weren't for Hydro Thunder, this would be the best driving game under $20 available on XBLA in my opinion. Also, some people may prefer this game over Hydro Thunder, whether you prefer closed-in racetracks (on water) or an open city. If you ask me, a second place finish isn't too bad in this case.

Ok, I just have to throw my 2 cents in here. In my opinion, the game was all-around perfect EXCEPT 2 things: First, the game is a bit glitchy, but its not glitchy often enough to ruin the game or anything. But, the biggest reason why I would not recommend this game is because THE GUN TARGETING IS GARBAGE! I set it to auto-targeting mode (called "Casual Targeting") and my friend's 4-year-old son cleared out the Fort Mercer Gang Hideout (unlocked fairly late in the game) in about 4 minutes. He was mainly just pressing L & R-Trigger repeatedly. This game is TOO EASY. Then, if you set it to "Expert Targeting" it thankfully removes the auto-aiming, but the gun aiming is WAAAY TOO SLOW even on the max setting! Yes, the gun targeting is terrible, and ruins an otherwise great game. I am on 360 version btw. However, I did really enjoy the storyline in this game.