A big improvement over 2k15, I'll give them that, but still **** overall. The reversal system is still very annoying, i just turn it off. same for the chain wrestling minigame garbage, turn it off. with these options on, you spend more time watching this little moves and playing the mini games instead of seeing the cool big moves. spacial detection is still a problem. I'll have a finisher ready, and stand in position waiting for the prompt, and sometimes it doesn't come, giving the opponent recovery time, then you have to set him up and try again. The BIGGEST detractor to this game, by far IMO is this notoriously obnoxious and ill-conceived submission mini-game. Slap on the sharpshooter for example, and don't watch the wrestlers struggle, instead watch this STUPID little mini game where you control one colored-bar, and have to chase your opponent's colored-bar in a f****** circle! The catch? Both bars move at the same speed AND they control like they are on ice... but somehow the computer (even on easy) can match your moves step for step so if you try to slow down to reverse direction, they will see and avoid you. the REAL problem with this mechanic, that makes it DUMB is that think about this for a second... if I have the move on my opponent, that means I'm on offense, and my opponent should be feeling pressure and taking damage... however, the mini game is in favor of the opponent, as it's a countdown to force the hold to release, not the other way around (meaning he doesn't have to try to catch your colored-bar, just avoid and it will release). More often than not, even with the opponent completely in the red on damage, this gives you only about 2 seconds to start the circle chase. what a completely inept mechanic! And there's no option to turn it off... what's wrong with a good old-fashioned button-mash while in a submission? They did a great job overhauling and streamlining the creation process, and the game plays a little faster than last year (but still too slow). Another ongoing annoyance, BTW is that if you start a taunt, you can't break from it, so if you pick a wrestler and aren't sure how long a taunt animation will take you are left helpless in doing a goofy pose for the crowd, while your opponent recovers, walks right in front of you and attacks with you helpless (there are a lot of wrestlers, which is awesome, but good luck remembering their taunt lengths). They should make the simple change, of allowing you to break the animation by attacking or grappling or moving, etc.
This game would more appropriately be named "Batmobile:Arkham Knight". I am enjoying the game in 5 minute spurts or so, then i'm forced in to some tank battle or chase. i'm trying to get thru the story, and am about half way thru, and am stuck on some part where i have to use the batmobile to get behind 'supertanks' that are only vulnerable from behind. i don't want to play this... i'm just suffering thru these tank battles (there are A LOT of them) just to get to the traditional Arkham gameplay, which is fun, just broken up too much by batmobile stuff. I cringed when the first Riddler challenge was a freaking race... collecting the Riddler trophies was my favorite part of the former games, figuring out how to get to certain areas, etc. but now I've got to do timed race challenges and use the Batmobile to pull down walls and such. The worst part for me is having to figure out how to get the Batmobile up to certain areas so as to use the missle launcher to destroy something or break down a door to get in. This isn't quire as cool to me as Batman sneaking in a place, ninja-style. I gave it a 4, because I'd say roughly 40% of the game is like the other Arkham games and doesn't require Batmobile gimmickry. The original Arkham Asylum is still my favorite of the series. Contained, dense, deep, and eery areas to explore. Now we get machine guns and rocket launchers and having to get behind enemy tanks to hit their weak spot, bleh...
Graphics are great. Gameplay is soooo sllllooooowwww... Buttons are on delayed response, so i'm yelling at the TV "punch, dammit!" while hitting the button 12 times in a row waiting for the slowest punches ever. I'm glad they give you the option to turn music off in the menus, tho! It can take like an hour to create a wrestler, and I don't want to hear the same 12 songs fast-paced songs looping, so rather than mute my TV for parts of the game you can turn off music in the menus only, and leave the entrance music as-is. Great! They should stop trying to "recreate the WWE experience" and just make a fun wrestling game. Every great game needs a good character creator, and this one is better that it has been, but the organization is just silly. Go in to one menu to create a new character, then go in to a completely different set of menus to create a moveset, then assign it to that character, yuck! Also, OCD I realize, but i you want to create a modern appearance for a wreslter, you have to clone it and take up an edit slot, so now you have the same wrestler in two spots. Want to have a title match, but use that John Cena you made in nWo gear? You can't because the belt is on the OTHER John Cena in your character menu. Same for "retro" versions of a character, why have them in separate character slots? Just put all the versions under one character, and let me pick the look after I've selected that character. I haven't been able to stop playing FirePro over the years because its fun to play, and only take a couple minutes to set up and finish a match, WWE 2k15 isn't really... fun...
So far its been great! The game is fun play and easy to learn. Controls are tight and responsive. The only criticism I have (which I have for many games) is the cutscenes are soooo boring to me. It's not fun to watch digital characters have a "dramatic" conversation with pauses between statements, for minutes at a time. Speed it up, and just tell me "go get this item, then come back: rather than take 2 minutes to explain why we need that item, etc. Thankfully, you can SKIP these scenes... aaahhhh... There are also spots where your character stops in place, gets his radio out, and stares at it while we listen to the conversation - why not just have the audio play in a "earpiece" while we are running around? These are just personal design choices I would have done differently to move the boring bits faster, but it's a minor gripe in an otherwise great game. I've played for about 2 hours now, and no rage-quittin'... so far so good!
Hate to say the usual, but it's true: if you're a fan of the Lego games in general, you'll enjoy this one pretty much by default. As far as the DC Comics subject matter I have praise and I have nitpicks... Praise: They fixed one my my biggest gripes with the other two Lego Batman games and that's the "suit swapping". In the older games, you'd have to swap Batman's outfit to get thru a mini-puzzle, but you could only do it at nearby changing stations, which got annoying. Now, they have the suits on a menu-wheel which you can swap out at anytime, as you unlock them. It's so much more convenient, and is a game-changer for me (I never did complete the other two Batman Lego games, partially because of this). Praise: There are a TON of characters to collect, which is always fun. They followed Marvel's lead (if only they could to that with their movies too) and have just about every main character you can think of! Praise: Not to spoil anything, but fans of Tron will be pleased with some of the puzzles. Nitpick: They use many of the mechanics from Marvel (probably can't be avoided) which is fine, but Alfred is the "Captain America" of this came using a serving tray!? That's just an insult to Cap, lol! Solomon Grundy plays the role of Hulk in this game with the innocent-dumbness - which anoys me, as Solomon Grundy is not supposed to be unintelligent (then again, with all the New 52 reboots, maybe I'm wrong... he was smart in Super Friends!). They also replace "Stan Lee in Peril" with "Adam West in Peril" lol. Nitpick: Why make Batman & Robin the central focus AGAIN? It's like DC has no faith in their own main brand or other characters. Just call is Lego DC Comics (just like "Lego Marvel Comics" did) and that way you can open up the story and levels to not be all about Batman again. Granted, the story progresses and you get more characters, but I rolled my eyes for the first hour of playing having to go thru all Batman stuff again with this new game. Nitpick: DLC on day one. Meh, unless we stop buying it, they'll keep doing this. Alternate outfits and extra levels which could easily fit on the disc. I get it, they do that to make money, but it would just be nice it DLC were actually add-ons that came later due to fans wanting more, and not preplanned as part of the money machine. Nitpick: Celebs. Conan O'Brien and Kevin Smith? Geoff Johns? Stan Lee in the Marvel game I get, as Stan's an icon OF Marvel, and has cameo'd in comics, cartoons, and the movies. Why do I get Geoff Johns instead of another DC character or alternate costume? Weird.
This game is FUN! The weapons storage system is so forgiving, and makes it much easier to load up on your favorite mega weapons for a mission run. There's no need for "realism" with the inventory, and having to start finding ingredients all over again in a game like this - thank you for chanign that from the older DR games! The controls are tight and responsive, the vehicles are useful and handle well, the characters are entertaining, the cut scenes are SHORT and TO THE POINT (i hate long cutscenes with slow pacing - LET ME PLAY), and the amount of characters on the screen is staggaring! There is a neat little novelty of getting more missions and small items via the Xbox Smartglass, there are plenty of optional collecting items to hunt for if you want, the environments are fun and organized well with plenty of buildings to go in and out of. Here's a nice little OPTIONAL exploit as well... if you rant to just enjoy the game, and power thru everything (like me) you can rank up easily/quickly with the scythe weapons, and as you character levels ahead faster than intended, the bosses and challenges are a breeze. I get it some people want a hardcore challenge, but i want to play a game that is fun and entertaining to me, which is a little challenging, but let's me progress thru without getting frustrated or bored. Give this game a try even if you haven't played the old Dead Rising games!
Uck! More of the same aggravations from GTA-style sandbox clones. Driving gets annoying because of the camera shifting around if you have to reverse, which you'll do a lot getting stuck in the environment or traffic pileups. What can't any of these games have a "lock camera view" option? If i could adjust the camera to zoom out, etc. like in GTA, have one of the views be "locked facing forward" so it doesn't try to pan around when i'm reversing and turning at the same time. Saints Row 2, 3, and 4 were great and fun to me anyway, but Watch Dogs takes itself too seriously and many the missions aren't fun and feel more like chores. The one i rage-quit on, and gave up was an "enemy convoy" where you have to stop a target and know it's path. Would be fun to use one of my new hacks to slow him down, but sure enough, the path they take has no blocker, explosions, bridges, traffic lights or ANYTHING to use so i'm stuck ramming him with my car. Then he just backs away, and takes off not stunned or damaged at all, while i struggle to turn around and catch up. Can't even jump out of the car fast enough to use my gun - and, you apparently can't shoot while in the car. I guess this hacker can't figure out how to lower the window in any vehicle to stick his gun out and shoot? The WORST tho, is having other players randomly appear in your game and mess with you. I tired to figure out if this could be turned off but doesn't look like it. Sorry, but i don't want random strangers jumping in my game and tyring to hack my phone or put a bounty on my while i'm trying to chase down this target in his invincible car without the use of any hacks. So far, Dead Rising 3 has been the only game i'd consider good or great on Xbox One.
Why make a great game intntionally frustrating and difficult. I can't get past teh Deathstroke battle. I get incirmentally better at it on my later attempts, but it's not been fun in any way. The same moves over and over and over and over and over again... it's just really long, and if you make any mistakes you take so much damage you have to start all over. I'm on normal difficuly, because that's the only way you can get newgame+ unlocked. Also, i pre-ordered so i could get the extra constumes, and i can't use them in the game until i beat it first? That's stupid. All the Saint's Row games are fun, Dragon Age, MASS Effect, Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, all great games that are PLAYABLE without multiple attempts and dont' force you in to trial and error on the same spots. Arkham Asylum was so great, and had none of these ridiculous battles. Someone is just too much a fan of Deathstroke so made the call to make this stupid battle try to seem "epic" by making it take way longer and more effort than it should.
Sigh.. more of the same frustrating mess from the previous games. i want to be able to enjoy these games, and will keep trying since i liked AC2 so much, but this one is yet another disappointment. More long cutscenes with wooden animation that aren't interesting and you can't skip. More redundant, slow, boring "follow me" missions where you must walk slowly behind a guide. More random chase missions which you'll accidentily start climbing a wall when you intended to trun a corner, and lose more ground on your target. And my least favortie of all, the "tail" missions. I hit the first one of the game, rolled my eyes as i'm back in familiar territory, and just like with previous games, it's so annoying, not fun, and frustrating that i must quit the game. The mission I'm now embarssingly stuck on is to follow 2 guys, who will occasionally turn around and may spot you. That's easy enough but there enemy police are also looking out for you and they are all over the place. I get spotted no matter where i go, and even if i'm successful in eluding the enemy, my traget will be out of range and i can't get back to them fast enough without failing the mission. To me, these are just filler missions that take way too much time and have no entertainment value, but they are also way too tricky and difficult. If there's a way to skip these garbage missions, i'd be fine with them as an option, so i could get to the missions that I think are fun. You know, the ones where you actually ASSASSINATE targets or the climbing puzzles. There is fun to be had with these games, but they make it such a chore to get to. I feel like i spend an hour of unfun to get to the 10 minutes worth of fun missions. Not worth it to me. Add to the trade-in pile.
I love it! This is a great RPG, lot's of loot and power up options, and the fighting is ENTERTAINING! No button mashing or trying to move the camera around during battle. Great turn-based fighting system to go at your own pace! I saw the complaint about the magice system, and all it takes is stop and read the traingin prompt - it's so simple, almost like the scanner mini-game in the Batman:Arkham Asylum games or lockpicking in Fallout 3. You hold one stick down (wow, hard) and move the other stick until you find the sweet-spot, then push up on the first stick. Simple. The graphics are super clean and clear (being a cartoon and all) and the effects are eye-catching (my electirc billy club is pretty sweet!). Try the game out if you like RPGs and if you barely even like the show.
Trying to keep this positive (should it be this hard..?). I believe wrestling games such as FirePro Returns WWE No Mercy are the best in the history of the sub-genre. I've played all the "Smackdown" series that evolved up to WWE '13, and it's been a struggle, but WWE 13 isn't "as bad" as the series has been for the past several years. The good... The redeeming quality of this version of the similar games, to me anyway, is the several adjustments you can make to the gameplay.. Example: First match in, on "easy" I was getting pissed, and almost rage-quit, because every other move I would attempt would get reversed. Luckily, I discovered the setting in the confusing mess of a menu system, and learned you could scale-down reversals in several areas of the match, or even turn them off! This way, the game became way more playable. The reversal button is on the right trigger, which is not a fast-press button, and throws my timing off. Turning off reversals is a lame compromise, but at least I can get thru a match without feeling like I have no control. I love the inclusion of so many title belts, and the several slots you get to create new titles. Even though it has limited customization options to the belts themselves, you can make an IWGP or ROH World Title if you wish. They did make it a lot easier to pull off the big finishers and moves using the announcer's table and ladders, which is also a plus. I'm still waiting for them to get up to having at least 8 characters in a match, for a proper Survivor Series match. They do have a 6-man elimination tag, which is my favorite, but why do my characters randomly jump off the apron and walk around on the floor? The Bad... CAW is soooo sloooow.... why do you have to wait for the items to render on the character as you are browsing? Why no wait until my selection is made, then apply it to my character? It's still a pain to experiment and there are still several of the same costume items we'll never use. The menus are confusing, and disorganized, and the moves list is confusing (even for a 20 years plus, wrestling fan). Go see how No Mercy organized their moves list. I find myself wanting a specific version of a DDT, and have to browse thru to find the code-name they use. Why not preface these such as "DDT: Impaler DDT" or "Piledriver: Adjustment Piledriver". Why force us to listen to the looping entrance music while browsing the menus or creating a character? You can turn the music volume down in the options, but then of course that also turns down the in-game entrance music. Want the Royal Rumble to not be as cool? Turn off the entrance music, then each competitor comes down in complete silence. Why not have another setting, or better yet, don't play entrance music in the menu and creation menus. Several move animations are almost silly, or look like they aren't done. Again, look at No Mercy. All moves move with a fluid, constant motion, and it looks like the characters are making contact with each other, and the animations look like they are based on real people moving. In WWE '13, you still get missing frames, or movements that look like an animator that's never watched wrestling made in an afternoon. The ugly. Good luck getting online to download a character or play a match. The servers are so bad. I was able to download characters after several tries (even the ones I buy from WWE) are a struggle because (even with a fast ISP) I'm forced to sit and watch the logo spin for several minutes, then either forced back to to the main menu with a message that the "servers are unavailable" or I'll get one or two steps in, THEN get stuck and kicked out. Very frustrating. I have yet to be able to play a match against someone online. All-in, I am enjoying this game for the first time in a long time (for the series), despite it not living up to my dream version of a modern-day FirePro/No Mercy hybrid. It's still not enough to stop me from playing FirePro Returns on the PS2.
If I was stranded on a desert island, and could only choose one game to keep with me, this would be it. If you're a wrestling fan, you'll completely appreciate how setting up feuds and leagues and tournaments never gets old. The level of creation and customization is staggering. Just about every move you've ever seen on TV is represented or has a close equivalent in the master list. Plenty of match types and you can create your own championships. Easy to play and learn, moves are based on precise timing, not button mashing or anything the current WWE games are forcing us to do, like stopping a fast moving icon in a specific part of a bar to escape a move. There is a basic reversal system, and the big moves are easy to pull off. One of the neatest features is the CRITICAL! system where certain moves can cause an immediate injury or knockout at complete random. They are semi-rare, and will always surprise you when it happens. Older style graphics may seem lame to some, but it allows for more sprites on the screen (8-man tag match, anyone?) and fast loading. Check out **** for more info and a helpful community for sharing creations and tips. BTW, there are over 500 slots for your created characters, so you can create just about anyone you want, and have room to keep them!
It's fun for at least one playthru. The story is great, and there are plenty of surprises. Characters come and go in dramatic fashion, and you never know who is "safe". It's a semi-throwback to the old Space Quest and Leisure Suit Larry style of play, with point and click puzzles and the occasional quicktime battle. Fun game!
This game confused me at first, and didn't seem like much. I went thru the early stage then the world was opened up to me, and i just didn't "get it". After coming back and trying it again with guidance from a wiki, I knew where to go, and what to do, and got in to a grove. Choices matter, there's ton of stuff to explore, but you don't need to find everything or do every mission if you don't want to. The RPG elements such as growing skills and building/repairing weapons is great for tailoring your gameplay to fit your preference, and the stories and side-quests are actually fun and interesting! The shooting and fighting isn't as tight as say Borderlands, but it holds its own, and the auto-targeting system (again, optional) helps get you out of any annoying jams where you can't catch an enemy in your aim (we're not all Call of Duty, combat ready with the thumbsticks, after all). It's also actually handy to be able to switch between first and third person whenever you wish as well. Try the GOTY version.
I'm giving this an 8 even though I agree with a lot of the negative reviews about the ending and lack of consequences of choice. It is very fun to play, and the action/combat is tight and enjoyable (love the sniper rifle). I wish there were some large variance to the results, inviting multiple playthrus. ME2, to me, is better than ME3, but ME3 is worth at least one complete playthru, and if you liked ME or ME2, you'll have fun playing ME3, even if you will be left flat or confused with the end. Bring on a new ME series, and have parts of the game locked out based on a choice you make which take you down a certain path. Have character's relationships change irrevocably and have them join or not based on how they feel about you or other characters.
I can't say enough good stuff about this game, but here are a few of the standout items. It's fun to play! The controls are tight, and it's easy to aim/shoot. If you like exploring every twist and turn of an area, looking for hidden goodies or collectibles, you will enjoy this! The colors are vibrant and the graphics are crisp. The missions are engaging and never seem like busy-work. There are a few fetch quests, etc. but they are rare and optional. You can skip side-quests if you want, and just concentrate on the story. Need to level up or at an area that's too tough for you? Jump in a public game, and play a bit with or go do a few side-missions to gain some XP and better guns. The character classes are varied so you should try them all to see which is your favorite. The skill trees make a big difference as well. Once I had enough skill points to fill our a whole tree, it made the character feel completely new! A neat feature is if you beat a "boss" you can revisit the area later, and the boss respawns, rewarding you with big time loot and XP every time you beat him. Not finding rare guns enough? Follow Gearbox on twitter or Facebook as they are giving out "golden keys" which you can use any time to get a level-appropriate rare weapon, shield, etc. Great game, fun to play!
I wish the previews or the notes on the box said something about the missions I've actually had to go thru so far. "Enjoy missions where you... walk... slowly... listening to conversation." Ugh... I get a mission where I have to walk with someone, and listen to info related to the story, which I don't care about. Of course the person I'm to follow is walking slower than my slowest speed, so I have to stop and wait for him to catch up or get a few yards ahead of me. Who designed these "missions" and thought they'd be fun? It would be different if the conversation was clues to the next mission or something, but it's just random jibber-jabber about characters in the story which I'm already disregarding because the cut cenes are lame too! Why do developers treat their cutscenes like they're right out of a movie? We don't get distinct facial expressions or mannerisms so watching 2 wooden characters move arbitrarily while having a conversation is not anything particularly interesting. At least speed it up; we don't have to watch a guy drink a beer, slam the mug down, shake his head, turn his head, then start to speak do we? I'm skipping most of these by now... Also, several times as the game moves along, they will drop you just outside the building you're supposed to go in, then you take 8 steps to enter the building and the cutscene starts. Why not just start the cutscene instead of making we wait for the town to load, and take 8 steps, and then wait for the cutscene to load? Eavesdrop missions are nothing near being fun. Plus if you get spotted by mistake, you have to start from the beginning of the mission, and listen to the same lame dialogue again to get to the part you messed up on. I rage-quit over on these a couple times, because I'd get spotted by someone off-camera and have to start over. Then there's the great "new" addition to the AC franchise: running in snow! It's bad enough I have to commute across the entire map to get to the next mission, accidentally trying to climb every fence and tree stump I get too close to, but when I hit the woods I'm now "running" in 3 feet of snow, and it slows the already annoying chore down to sheer agony. I've been playing for hours, in the hopes that I'll get to something that is fun in this game, but am near the point of adding this to my trade-in pile. AC2 had some great buildings to climb and the dungeon puzzles, which was fun. Instead of that I have a chase mission riding a horse I can barely control thru the woods, and am bumping in to every tree and rock along the way. Maybe I'm in the minority here, but in an AC game I want to be able to explore, collect, and take missions with freedom to decide how I want to play. Why am I penalized for killing someone? Some missions have restrictions "complete mission without killing anyone" in a game called "Assassin's Creed"..? So far, not good... I'm giving this a "4" just on the anticipation I have this game will get better, based on what I enjoyed from previous games.
I had fun setting up my character, and starting thru the tutorial... that's about it. After I escape the first dungeon, I meet a knight and decide to fight him and take his soul (I'm a thief in the game after all...). He kills me in 3 hits... Fine, try again. Respawn/reload the game, he kills me again! The fighting is so lame... He hits me, and my character has to go thru this delayed reaction/animation, realizing he's getting hit, and by the time I regain control, I'm hit again, then dead... again. Fine, can't fight him, I'll reload the game and run away. Nope, he just follows me no matter where I go, and how far I run. My hits are so weak, they barely register, and of course, he has no slow down from my hits, just continues thru his attack motion as if I'm not hitting him multiple times. 9 Deaths later, and screaming at he TV, i quit. Not fun. Why not at least "reset the scene" if the player is killed? If it was a mistake to fight the first character I meet, why not let me learn that, and leave him be upon reloading? Do i have to restart the whole game, and go thru the tutorial dungeon all over again? How many similar situations would ruin my evenings if I decided to keep this torture session disguised as a video game? I would have loved to play with a friend to help me, why restrict me from doing so? Multiplayer is random and can't be coordinated. Not fun. I gave it a rest and tried again the next day, still not fun. At all. Trading it in for Batman Arkham City.
I had fun setting up my character, and starting thru the tutorial... That's about it. After I escape the first dungeon, I meet a knight and decide to fight him and take his soul (I'm a thief in the game after all...). He kills me in 3 hits... Fine, try again. Respawn/reload the game, he kills me again! The fighting is so lame... He hits me, and my character has to go thru this delayed reaction/animation, realizing he's getting hit, and by the time I regain control, I'm hit again, then dead... again. Fine, can't fight him, I'll reload the game and run away. Nope, he just follows me no matter where I go, and how far I run. My hits are so weak, they barely register, and of course, he has no slow down from my hits, just continues thru his attack motion as if I'm not hitting him multiple times. 9 Deaths later, and screaming at he TV, i quit. Not fun. Why not at least "reset the scene" if the player is killed? If it was a mistake to fight the first character I meet, why not let me learn that, and leave him be. Do i have to restart the whole game, and go thru the tutorial dungeon all over again? How many similar situations would ruin my evenings if I decided to keep this torture session disguised as a video game? I would have loved to play with a friend to help me, why restrict me from doing so? Muliplayer i random and can't be coordinated. Not fun. I gave it a rest and tried again the next day, still not fun. At all. Trading it in for Batman Arkham City.
