Is the shooting fun? Yes. Are the graphics nice? Yes! Do I wish I could play for more than 30 seconds without being interrupted by cutscenes? YES! When I am playing, it is enjoyable, I think, but the action comes in such short bursts between cutscenes I can't get involved in the game. It's a perpetual game of "just the tip," never letting me go too long on my own. The first two Max Payne games perfectly melded gameplay and storytelling, whereas this does so incredibly clunkily. I am taken totally out of the game, and can't enjoy what I think is actually pretty good gameplay. Not to mention the visual "style" of the cutscenes is so blatantly trying to be "cool" it makes me literally nauseous. The saving grace is that the multiplayer is quite robust and enjoyable (and not interrupted by cutscenes!), so I think that's where I'll be spending my $60 worth of time.
Is the shooting fun? Yes. Are the graphics nice? Yes! Do I wish I could play for more than 30 seconds without being interrupted by cutscenes? YES! When I am playing, it is enjoyable, I think, but the action comes in such short bursts between cutscenes I can't get involved in the game. It's a perpetual game of "just the tip," never letting me go too long on my own. The first two Max Payne games perfectly melded gameplay and storytelling, whereas this does so incredibly clunkily. I am taken totally out of the game, and can't enjoy what I think is actually pretty good gameplay. Not to mention the visual "style" of the cutscenes is so blatantly trying to be "cool" it makes me literally nauseous. The saving grace is that the multiplayer is quite robust and enjoyable (and not interrupted by cutscenes!), so I think that's where I'll be spending my $60 worth of time.
First off, any Battlefield game is about 20% singleplayer, 80% multiplayer. That being said, the multiplayer is phenomenal. 64 players battle on foot, in vehicles, and in the air on huge beautiful maps without a hitch, and every minutes of it is exciting. If you do managed to get bored, there are other classes, vehicles, and strategies to try out to keep you interested for a long time. I've seen lots of reviews about glitches etc. (a lot based on the BETA...*cough*), but my experience has been flawless. Also, for anyone talking about a wealth of "hackers" already...I think you just need to practice a bit more. Despite Battlefield being a multiplayer franchise, the singleplayer holds up nicely. It certainly is by no means groundbreaking. It tells a familiar story with the exact same structure as that of CoD: Black Ops, but nonetheless it is engaging with a few "wow" moments. Playing through on the "hard" setting I felt as though whenever I died it was fair, aside from one chapter with the old "endless wave until you advance" stage. Overall, I give it a 9, because the singleplayer is fairly unimaginative (although lots of fun), but the multiplayer is a 10 (ignore co-op, it's short and basically a throwaway). Very solid.
The claims that the bad reviews are rom 360 fanboys are silly. I have all PS3, 360, and Wii, and each is great. Gran Turismo 5 however, is not. All you have to do in order to realize this is watch Gamespot's interview with one of the game developers! The entire hour he is demoing the game he is pointing out flaws. Lowered graphics on the majority of the cars (even the shadows have horrible aliasing on the "premium models"), no real damage of any kind, no interior views except "premium" cars. The load times are long, a lot of environmental textures just look like flat images that pass by, and the AI is completely unaware of your presence on the track. The "upgrade" options are laughable, being as generic as paying for an "engine upgrade" that doesn't even tell you how it will change the specs of your car. That's pretty much your main performance upgrade. If you're looking for a really detailed sim racer with lots of upgrade and customization options, Forza is far and away the better game. That being said, sometimes the game does look beautiful, and with the sheer number of cars and the detail that goes into their handling, you have to give them some credit. It is probably the most realistic racing sim out there (yes, I own Forza 3 as well), and I will definitely play this game through, but the whole time I'm doing so I will be wishing that Polyphony made better on a lot of their promises. My rating does not detract for "clunky menus" or "bad music" (the music is actually a nice change from your standard racer, although I guess not for everyone), because honestly, they don't affect the game at all. So far I've only completed all of the "Beginner" racing events, so perhaps things will get more exciting as I go on, but I'm not expecting much except for things to go faster.
