JohnnyK98

The Xbox 360 had a pretty good selection of fishing games; one of my favourites being Bass Pro Shops: The Strike. Seeing as this is the only fishing game available on the Xbox One console, and that this game was on special for $9.99, I had to pick it up. What we get here is a realistic fishing game, not so much a simulation though. European fishing is different than American fishing in that you're allowed using three fishing rods at once. There are no boats in this game either, the lakes are very small. You can modify and customize your tackle box before fishing, and then you walk around until you find a desired location, and from there get your fish-on. There's a terrific tutorial that gives you the very basics of the game, with some pretty good voice acting too. I was legitimately excited to start fishing on my own. Not before long, you're fishing on your own and competing in tournaments. These can be quite enjoyable to play, and definitely challenging. Selecting which different types of baits, hooks, areas of the lake, etc... All of these play a major factor in the game. It's quite easy to catch a random fish, but it's difficult to catch a specific fish and stay consistent. A few things REALLY disappointed me in the game though. Graphically, this game on consoles is ugly to look at. Sure, the environments can be lush with greenery, and at times the game can look beautiful, but the framerate is locked at 30fps, and at times actually lowers. There's also a LOT of pop-in and visual glitches. Another thing is the water itself. The water is very basic, and looks last gen (even The Strike on Xbox 360 had better looking water effects). Hardly any reflections, the water's very muddy/murky, not very detailed, there's a complete lack of water physics, etc. Seeing as this is a fishing game, I expected much, much more. The fish are rendered well, but given that this is an Xbox One title, I would've liked to see a bit more detail... Some of the textures are very low. The multiplayer experience from what I've played can be extremely laggy too. Walking from one location to another is just a series of teleporting. Overall though, seeing as this is the only fishing game on Xbox One, I'd recommend it to any fishers/fishing-game fans. The gameplay is terrific, it it has some major rough edges.

Good to see another shmup game arrive on Xbox One. There's only two at the moment, the other being Raiden V (as far as I'm concerned). Pretty strange considering the Xbox 360 had a plethora shmup games to choose from, including region-free games from Japan. It was the console of choice for this niche genre. Ghost Blade HD is a very simple bullet-hell shooter. There's two firing modes: Spread shot, and forced shot. Forced shot being the most powerful, but slows down your ship - and it also collect most points (nothing new here). There's 3 ship types available, all are fun to use - each with its own unique shot type. The scoring mechanic is equally as simple, kill your enemies quickly. The more consecutive enemies you kill the higher your score. Each of the 5 stages are fun to play, with great enemy/bullet patterns and detailed environments. I especially love the enemy design and the animations - they're absolutely top notch. Ghost Blade HD is a good looking game. The music is also catchy and hyper-energetic. There's the typical options you'd find in any good shmup game, like alternate music, graphics settings, monitor type (yes, you can flip your monitor 90 degrees), etc. And of course, LEADERBOARDS. The game runs smooth at 60fps, but when things get hectic the game slows down but it's intentional. I've seen some reviewers that are new to the genre count this as a negative, but it's a core mechanic of most bullet-hell type games (imagine playing Mushi Futari with no slow down!) If you're new to the genre, it's a good place to start, and for shmup veterans they'd be interested in the hard mode and 1cc'ing the game. Ghost Blade HD also fixes a lot of the problems the Dreamcast version had, making it the definitive edition. For $9.99 this game's a steal.

I won't be reviewing the games themselves, but rather the implementation of them as a whole. Remember that you need at least 8GB to download this collection. The games previously released on XBLA will download one by one, and THEN Rare Replay itself will begin downloading. Once everything's done, you're ready to play. The old XBLA games will reboot in an Xbox 360 emulation. One issue is that there's no way to resize your screen, which means some of the text/games will be cut off. And now, on to my biggest complaint; the menus. They're incredibly slow and unresponsive. As a matter of fact, they're prone to FREEZING. I've had this happen on multiple occasions. It's incredibly frustrating to navigate, and a real shame they're so badly implemented. It makes the overall product/experience feel rushed. Other gaming collections like Namco Museum or Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on the Xbox 360 do a FAR superior job in bringing those old games back with functional menus/UI and gives an overall smoother experience. Not so with Rare Replay. A bit disappointing, considering we've got stronger hardware to work with on the Xbox One.

Fantastic game, but there's a few bugs on the Xbox One that require fixing. 1) The weapon wheel doesn't quite work right. When activated, there's a chance that your cursor will get stuck. To fix the problem, you've got to fiddle with the joystick and re-centre the cursor. This is particularly annoying in combat situations where you NEED to choose a weapon instantly. 2) The second issue is with the BFG itself. After selecting the BFG by pressing the A button, you want to return to your regular load out by pressing Y. But for some reason, the game automatically switches to the combat shotgun as the default weapon, and NOT the load out you've selected. Let me explain: You've got the rocket launcher and chain gun selected. You find yourself in a tough spot, so you press A for the BFG. You fire off one round of the BFG, and then press Y to go BACK to your rocket launcher/chain gun combo. The shotgun appears. You've go to reselect your weapons manually by using the weapon wheel - which has a chance of NOT working properly (as explained above). These two major bugs can cause some frustration throughout the single player campaign. It happens over, and over, and over again. And completely messes up the fluidity of the arena-style combat. Until these two bugs get fixed, the game will remain an 8/10 for me.

Painkiller drops the ball on every occasion. If you were expecting a fast paced type FPS in the vein of Quake, Doom or Serious Sam, you're mistaken. Painkiller is a dull, slow, repetitive shooter. The gameplay itself is so uninspired. The enemies slowly walk your way, and slowly throw projectiles. There's really no variety here, unlike other games of this old school FPS genre. Even on the hardest difficulty Painkiller is a walk in the park. Overall, it's a painfully CASUAL experience. Sit down, listen to good music, and shoot anything that moves. Simple as that. And once you're done the EXTREMELY short campaign, you can purchase a bunch of DLC for $8.00. What a slap in the face. AVOID! Unless you happen to find this game on special.

If you grew up playing Unreal Tournament on PC, this is a major nostalgia throwback. UT3 is about six years old on the Xbox 360, but it still holds up very well in 2014. Graphically this game still looks great, and it runs surprisingly smooth amongst all the chaos. There's always at least one or two multiplayer servers available with a small handful of people playing. The single player campaign was average at best (the story is absolutely atrocious), but you can always play in coop mode with 3 other people, which really boosts the fun! I highly recommend this game, especially if you grew up playing arena shooters.

This is a Mac review of Crusader Kings. Seeing as my MacBook can't run Crusader Kings II, I decided to download the first game. I was not disappointed. Crusader Kings definitely has a high learning curve, but after farting around for a handful of hours I was starting to get highly addicted. It's an epic journey as you claim territory, make friends and foes, care for your vassals and kingdom, practice diplomacy, etc. You can really sink your teeth into this game and have an absolute blast. Get a cup of coffee, play, and have fun on your quest. Sadly, there are a few major downsides to the Mac version which really kill the experience. The screen isn't optimized to go fullscreen so you're stuck with black bars at each end of the screen. I also had issues with the game crashing, and it happened every hour or so of playtime. Overall the game itself is a gem, WHEN it works. I can't say that these issues happen to all Mac users, but this is my experience with the game. I would've given the game a solid 9 out of 10, but the crashing and annoying low res box-screen ruins it.

Some say Alien Rage is generic, and it is, but in a good way. It hearkens back to the good old days of Quake, Unreal and Doom where gameplay came before story, and where you played as a badass marine. This whole game reminds me of Quake II with a mix of Bulletstorm, but unfortunately there are a few set backs. Some of the boss fights feel cheap, there's a section where you man an underpowered mech (yawn), the environments grow stale and boring halfway through the game... But it's not as difficult as people make it out to be. This is still an old school shooter at heart, even if it does have a regenerating health system, but it never feels as if the game is slowing you down. As a matter of fact, hiding under cover for too long will get you killed quick. This game is an absolute blast to play and ALL the weapons are very satisfying to use. Alien Rage also has high re-playability, taking different routes or using different weapons/techniques can really up your score on the leaderboards. Also a big thumbs up to the voice acting! Nothing pumps you up like firing a futuristic minigun and mowing down enemies while yelling and shouting expletives. I hope we get to see some DLC.

Wow, you can tell the developers put a LOT of love into this game. This is one of my favourite team-based multiplayer shooters to date, reminding me of the early days of Team Fortress. There is an incredible amount of depth in this game which may surprise many gamers. I especially like the character design, each is animated and voiced absolutely perfectly. I always found myself laughing and smiling throughout a match. There's also a plethora of customization options for each character class as well. Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare is a STEAL! And did I mention, FREE DLC? Better believe it!

Step aside Duke, your time is over. Serious Sam is the champion of old school first person shooters. Serious Sam 3: BFE is a gem. Brutally violent and action-packed. Although graphically the game can look quite ugly on consoles, the developers put the emphasis on frame rate and gameplay. Rarely do console games run at 60 frames per second, but Serious Sam runs smooth. The enemy design and art style are especially worth mentioning; they're big, they're mean, and they're aggressive. A MUST BUY for old school fps fans!

Hands down the best multiplayer first person shooter on the Xbox 360. This game has several modes and maps from the Team Arena expansion, and a few new exclusive maps. This is the exact same Quake 3 Arena you grew up with, but on consoles. Unfortunately there is a few latency issues since there are no dedicated servers. The developers didn't see fit to patch the game or support the community by adding new maps. Also don't be surprised if you can't find any servers, people rarely play. If you'd like to join the community visit the Xbox Quake Arena Arcade forums, add me (JohnnyK98) and lets get our frag on!