TTG_Gold_Jake wrote

Red Dead Redemption
Game information:
Developer : Rockstar Games San Diego
Publisher: Take-Two /Rockstar Games
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Engine: R.A.G.E ( Rockstar Advanced Game Engine)
Downloadable Content: Outlaws to the End, Legends and Killers Pack, Liars and Cheats pack, Undead Nightmare and The Hunting and Trading pack
Rating: 18+

Synopsis
AMERICA, 1911. THE WILD WEST IS DYING
When federal agents threaten his family, former outlaw John Marston is forced to pick up his guns again and hunt down the gang of criminals he once called friends. Experience an epic fight for survival across the sprawling expanses of the American West and Mexico, as John Marston struggles to bury his blood-stained past, one man at a time.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]


Story

The story
In the year 1911, John Marston, a retired outlaw formerly of a gang led by Dutch van der Linde, is taken away from his wife Abigail and his son Jack by government agents. The agents tell Marston that he will be reunited with his family if he hunts down the remaining lead members of his former gang. Left with no choice, Marston travels to the territory of New Austin to capture or kill one of his old friends, Bill Williamson, who now runs his own gang of bandits out of Fort Mercer. Marston confronts Williamson, only to be shot and left for dead outside the fort. A rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, finds him wounded, and brings him to a doctor to be treated.
After recovering from his wounds several days later, Marston begins repaying the MacFarlanes for their help in the form of several jobs around their ranch. At the same time, he recruits help for a plan to attack Fort Mercer. Along with U.S. Marshal Leigh Johnson of Armadillo and his men, con man Nigel West Dickens, grave robber Seth Briars and drunken arms dealer Irish, Marston uses a Trojan Horse strategy to breach the fort. Marston and the Marshalls breach the fort and massacre Williamson's gang, only to find that Williamson had already fled to Mexico to seek help from Javier Escuella, another member of Marston's old gang. Irish offers to take Marston into Mexico over the river border. Along the river, Irish and Marston encounter Mexican bandits. Marston and Irish take the bandits out, barely making it into the country.
In Mexico, Marston works with Mexican Army Colonel Agustin Allende and Captain Vincente de Santa, as well as the revolutionaries in the area led by Abraham Reyes. He also improves his gun skills under the tutelage of elder gunslinger and childhood inspiration Landon Ricketts. Allende promises to deliver Escuella and Williamson to Marston, but soon betrays him and has de Santa attempt to execute Marston for working with the revolutionaries and killing Allende's men with Ricketts. After escaping execution, Marston sides with the rebels who help kill de Santa and successfully get Marston to Escuella. Following Escuella's capture or death, Marston joins Reyes and his men for an assault on Allende's villa, not only culminating in the deaths of Allende and Williamson, but also Marston's rebel friend Luisa as well when she attempts to save Reyes. Reyes takes control of the surrounding Mexican counties, and vows to march onto the capital with his rebel army. Marston, meanwhile, returns to the city of Blackwater to meet with his government contact, Edgar Ross.
Much to his dismay, Ross will not let Marston return to his family until Dutch van der Linde, who has emerged from hiding, has been killed. While Dutch and his men wage war on the United States Army in the area, Marston has several run-ins with Dutch who manages to elude capture each time. Marston eventually joins Ross and a group of U.S. soldiers in an assault on Dutch's hideout. Marston follows the outlaws to their base, and confronts Dutch on a cliff. Dutch ultimately chooses to commit suicide, falling off a cliff to his death. Before he dies, Dutch warns Marston that the government will always find another "monster" to justify their pay.
Marston is released from his deal with the government and returns to his family at his ranch. After some time spent getting the farm up and running again, Marston is forced to repel the army when Ross betrays him with a surprise attack. After Marston's friend Uncle falls, Marston manages to get Abigail and Jack out safely but stays behind to hold back the soldiers. Despite a valiant last stand, Ross and the soldiers riddle Marston with bullets. Jack and Abigail return to the ranch after hearing the gunshots, finding John dead and the soldiers gone. John's body is buried on a hill overlooking the ranch, his grave inscribed "Blessed are the Peacemakers". The game then jumps three years ahead to 1914, where the fresh grave of Abigail rests next his. A manthe spitting image of Marstonis seen standing at the graves. It is revealed that it is John's son Jack, hardened by the last years. Jack walks away from his parents grave and then becomes the playable character.
Jack searches the land for Edgar Ross, who has now retired by the lake and apparently earned medals for both John's work and his death as an outlaw. After questioning Ross's wife under the guise of a messenger, Jack learns that the retiree is enjoying the day out hunting. Eventually, he finds Ross dropping ducks at a riverbed. When Jack reveals his identity and intentions to Ross, the two get into a heated argument, with Ross claiming that John Marston killed himself with the life he lived. To resolve the dispute, the two have a duel, in which Jack guns down his father's killer. Almost immediately after Ross's death, Jack looks down at his gun in confusion; while he has avenged his father, he might have put the very future his father had died to give him in danger. Jack holsters his gun, pauses, and then walks back up the riverbed.
A newspaper summarizes the fate of John Marston's companions. Marshal Leigh Johnson retired as sheriff of Armadillo, and then moved as far away as possible from the town. Abraham Reyes, though promising to lead Mexico into an age of freedom, was consumed by power and became a tyrant. Bonnie MacFarlane eventually married, but it is not said to whom, although several conversations heard throughout MacFarlane's Ranch suggest she married her foreman, Amos. Irish shot himself dead in an outhouse in Thieves Landing when his gun discharged. Seth Briars eventually found the treasure he was looking for and became rich. Finally, Landon Rickets passed away quietly in his sleep. Wikipedia'd

Gameplay
Red Dead Redemption is a third-person action-adventure game set a fictional open-world American Wild West environment for players to explore. Gameplay area types include frontier towns, rolling prairies teaming with wildlife, and perilous mountain passes - each packed with an endless flow of varied distractions. Along the way, players will experience the heat of gunfights and battles, meet a host of unique characters, struggle against the elements and animals of one of the worlds last remaining wildernesses, and ultimately pick their own precarious path through an epic story about the death of the Wild West and the gunslingers that inhabited it. In their travels throughout the territories of the gameworld players partake in a morality system built on honor and fame, where they gain or lose points in each area based on their actions. The game features an easy to use cover system, a variety of mounts and period specific weapons including a cattleman revolver, a mauser pistol, a repeater rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a throwing knife, a lasso and more. Western themed mini-games are also available, including showdowns, gambling, hunting bounties, cattle herding and five finger fillet. From amazon

Graphics
The Graphics are stunning, with a massive variety of places to go, and things to do you are never short of a spectacular sight, from mountain ranges
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
To deserts!
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Controls
The controls are very similar to GTA IV, although they have implemented a better cover system, it is much more effective because you can easily shoot, it is somewhat like GTA's but better!!

MyLifeIsBRO wrote

TTG_Gold_Jake wrote

Red Dead Redemption
Game information:
Developer : Rockstar Games San Diego
Publisher: Take-Two /Rockstar Games
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Engine: R.A.G.E ( Rockstar Advanced Game Engine)
Downloadable Content: Outlaws to the End, Legends and Killers Pack, Liars and Cheats pack, Undead Nightmare and The Hunting and Trading pack
Rating: 18+

Synopsis
AMERICA, 1911. THE WILD WEST IS DYING
When federal agents threaten his family, former outlaw John Marston is forced to pick up his guns again and hunt down the gang of criminals he once called friends. Experience an epic fight for survival across the sprawling expanses of the American West and Mexico, as John Marston struggles to bury his blood-stained past, one man at a time.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]


Story

The story
In the year 1911, John Marston, a retired outlaw formerly of a gang led by Dutch van der Linde, is taken away from his wife Abigail and his son Jack by government agents. The agents tell Marston that he will be reunited with his family if he hunts down the remaining lead members of his former gang. Left with no choice, Marston travels to the territory of New Austin to capture or kill one of his old friends, Bill Williamson, who now runs his own gang of bandits out of Fort Mercer. Marston confronts Williamson, only to be shot and left for dead outside the fort. A rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, finds him wounded, and brings him to a doctor to be treated.
After recovering from his wounds several days later, Marston begins repaying the MacFarlanes for their help in the form of several jobs around their ranch. At the same time, he recruits help for a plan to attack Fort Mercer. Along with U.S. Marshal Leigh Johnson of Armadillo and his men, con man Nigel West Dickens, grave robber Seth Briars and drunken arms dealer Irish, Marston uses a Trojan Horse strategy to breach the fort. Marston and the Marshalls breach the fort and massacre Williamson's gang, only to find that Williamson had already fled to Mexico to seek help from Javier Escuella, another member of Marston's old gang. Irish offers to take Marston into Mexico over the river border. Along the river, Irish and Marston encounter Mexican bandits. Marston and Irish take the bandits out, barely making it into the country.
In Mexico, Marston works with Mexican Army Colonel Agustin Allende and Captain Vincente de Santa, as well as the revolutionaries in the area led by Abraham Reyes. He also improves his gun skills under the tutelage of elder gunslinger and childhood inspiration Landon Ricketts. Allende promises to deliver Escuella and Williamson to Marston, but soon betrays him and has de Santa attempt to execute Marston for working with the revolutionaries and killing Allende's men with Ricketts. After escaping execution, Marston sides with the rebels who help kill de Santa and successfully get Marston to Escuella. Following Escuella's capture or death, Marston joins Reyes and his men for an assault on Allende's villa, not only culminating in the deaths of Allende and Williamson, but also Marston's rebel friend Luisa as well when she attempts to save Reyes. Reyes takes control of the surrounding Mexican counties, and vows to march onto the capital with his rebel army. Marston, meanwhile, returns to the city of Blackwater to meet with his government contact, Edgar Ross.
Much to his dismay, Ross will not let Marston return to his family until Dutch van der Linde, who has emerged from hiding, has been killed. While Dutch and his men wage war on the United States Army in the area, Marston has several run-ins with Dutch who manages to elude capture each time. Marston eventually joins Ross and a group of U.S. soldiers in an assault on Dutch's hideout. Marston follows the outlaws to their base, and confronts Dutch on a cliff. Dutch ultimately chooses to commit suicide, falling off a cliff to his death. Before he dies, Dutch warns Marston that the government will always find another "monster" to justify their pay.
Marston is released from his deal with the government and returns to his family at his ranch. After some time spent getting the farm up and running again, Marston is forced to repel the army when Ross betrays him with a surprise attack. After Marston's friend Uncle falls, Marston manages to get Abigail and Jack out safely but stays behind to hold back the soldiers. Despite a valiant last stand, Ross and the soldiers riddle Marston with bullets. Jack and Abigail return to the ranch after hearing the gunshots, finding John dead and the soldiers gone. John's body is buried on a hill overlooking the ranch, his grave inscribed "Blessed are the Peacemakers". The game then jumps three years ahead to 1914, where the fresh grave of Abigail rests next his. A manthe spitting image of Marstonis seen standing at the graves. It is revealed that it is John's son Jack, hardened by the last years. Jack walks away from his parents grave and then becomes the playable character.
Jack searches the land for Edgar Ross, who has now retired by the lake and apparently earned medals for both John's work and his death as an outlaw. After questioning Ross's wife under the guise of a messenger, Jack learns that the retiree is enjoying the day out hunting. Eventually, he finds Ross dropping ducks at a riverbed. When Jack reveals his identity and intentions to Ross, the two get into a heated argument, with Ross claiming that John Marston killed himself with the life he lived. To resolve the dispute, the two have a duel, in which Jack guns down his father's killer. Almost immediately after Ross's death, Jack looks down at his gun in confusion; while he has avenged his father, he might have put the very future his father had died to give him in danger. Jack holsters his gun, pauses, and then walks back up the riverbed.
A newspaper summarizes the fate of John Marston's companions. Marshal Leigh Johnson retired as sheriff of Armadillo, and then moved as far away as possible from the town. Abraham Reyes, though promising to lead Mexico into an age of freedom, was consumed by power and became a tyrant. Bonnie MacFarlane eventually married, but it is not said to whom, although several conversations heard throughout MacFarlane's Ranch suggest she married her foreman, Amos. Irish shot himself dead in an outhouse in Thieves Landing when his gun discharged. Seth Briars eventually found the treasure he was looking for and became rich. Finally, Landon Rickets passed away quietly in his sleep. Wikipedia'd

Gameplay
Red Dead Redemption is a third-person action-adventure game set a fictional open-world American Wild West environment for players to explore. Gameplay area types include frontier towns, rolling prairies teaming with wildlife, and perilous mountain passes - each packed with an endless flow of varied distractions. Along the way, players will experience the heat of gunfights and battles, meet a host of unique characters, struggle against the elements and animals of one of the worlds last remaining wildernesses, and ultimately pick their own precarious path through an epic story about the death of the Wild West and the gunslingers that inhabited it. In their travels throughout the territories of the gameworld players partake in a morality system built on honor and fame, where they gain or lose points in each area based on their actions. The game features an easy to use cover system, a variety of mounts and period specific weapons including a cattleman revolver, a mauser pistol, a repeater rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a throwing knife, a lasso and more. Western themed mini-games are also available, including showdowns, gambling, hunting bounties, cattle herding and five finger fillet. From amazon

Graphics
The Graphics are stunning, with a massive variety of places to go, and things to do you are never short of a spectacular sight, from mountain ranges
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
To deserts!
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Controls
The controls are very similar to GTA IV, although they have implemented a better cover system, it is much more effective because you can easily shoot, it is somewhat like GTA's but better!!

nice copy and paste?

TTG_Gold_Jake wrote

MyLifeIsBRO wrote

TTG_Gold_Jake wrote

Red Dead Redemption
Game information:
Developer : Rockstar Games San Diego
Publisher: Take-Two /Rockstar Games
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360
Engine: R.A.G.E ( Rockstar Advanced Game Engine)
Downloadable Content: Outlaws to the End, Legends and Killers Pack, Liars and Cheats pack, Undead Nightmare and The Hunting and Trading pack
Rating: 18+

Synopsis
AMERICA, 1911. THE WILD WEST IS DYING
When federal agents threaten his family, former outlaw John Marston is forced to pick up his guns again and hunt down the gang of criminals he once called friends. Experience an epic fight for survival across the sprawling expanses of the American West and Mexico, as John Marston struggles to bury his blood-stained past, one man at a time.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]


Story

The story
In the year 1911, John Marston, a retired outlaw formerly of a gang led by Dutch van der Linde, is taken away from his wife Abigail and his son Jack by government agents. The agents tell Marston that he will be reunited with his family if he hunts down the remaining lead members of his former gang. Left with no choice, Marston travels to the territory of New Austin to capture or kill one of his old friends, Bill Williamson, who now runs his own gang of bandits out of Fort Mercer. Marston confronts Williamson, only to be shot and left for dead outside the fort. A rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, finds him wounded, and brings him to a doctor to be treated.
After recovering from his wounds several days later, Marston begins repaying the MacFarlanes for their help in the form of several jobs around their ranch. At the same time, he recruits help for a plan to attack Fort Mercer. Along with U.S. Marshal Leigh Johnson of Armadillo and his men, con man Nigel West Dickens, grave robber Seth Briars and drunken arms dealer Irish, Marston uses a Trojan Horse strategy to breach the fort. Marston and the Marshalls breach the fort and massacre Williamson's gang, only to find that Williamson had already fled to Mexico to seek help from Javier Escuella, another member of Marston's old gang. Irish offers to take Marston into Mexico over the river border. Along the river, Irish and Marston encounter Mexican bandits. Marston and Irish take the bandits out, barely making it into the country.
In Mexico, Marston works with Mexican Army Colonel Agustin Allende and Captain Vincente de Santa, as well as the revolutionaries in the area led by Abraham Reyes. He also improves his gun skills under the tutelage of elder gunslinger and childhood inspiration Landon Ricketts. Allende promises to deliver Escuella and Williamson to Marston, but soon betrays him and has de Santa attempt to execute Marston for working with the revolutionaries and killing Allende's men with Ricketts. After escaping execution, Marston sides with the rebels who help kill de Santa and successfully get Marston to Escuella. Following Escuella's capture or death, Marston joins Reyes and his men for an assault on Allende's villa, not only culminating in the deaths of Allende and Williamson, but also Marston's rebel friend Luisa as well when she attempts to save Reyes. Reyes takes control of the surrounding Mexican counties, and vows to march onto the capital with his rebel army. Marston, meanwhile, returns to the city of Blackwater to meet with his government contact, Edgar Ross.
Much to his dismay, Ross will not let Marston return to his family until Dutch van der Linde, who has emerged from hiding, has been killed. While Dutch and his men wage war on the United States Army in the area, Marston has several run-ins with Dutch who manages to elude capture each time. Marston eventually joins Ross and a group of U.S. soldiers in an assault on Dutch's hideout. Marston follows the outlaws to their base, and confronts Dutch on a cliff. Dutch ultimately chooses to commit suicide, falling off a cliff to his death. Before he dies, Dutch warns Marston that the government will always find another "monster" to justify their pay.
Marston is released from his deal with the government and returns to his family at his ranch. After some time spent getting the farm up and running again, Marston is forced to repel the army when Ross betrays him with a surprise attack. After Marston's friend Uncle falls, Marston manages to get Abigail and Jack out safely but stays behind to hold back the soldiers. Despite a valiant last stand, Ross and the soldiers riddle Marston with bullets. Jack and Abigail return to the ranch after hearing the gunshots, finding John dead and the soldiers gone. John's body is buried on a hill overlooking the ranch, his grave inscribed "Blessed are the Peacemakers". The game then jumps three years ahead to 1914, where the fresh grave of Abigail rests next his. A manthe spitting image of Marstonis seen standing at the graves. It is revealed that it is John's son Jack, hardened by the last years. Jack walks away from his parents grave and then becomes the playable character.
Jack searches the land for Edgar Ross, who has now retired by the lake and apparently earned medals for both John's work and his death as an outlaw. After questioning Ross's wife under the guise of a messenger, Jack learns that the retiree is enjoying the day out hunting. Eventually, he finds Ross dropping ducks at a riverbed. When Jack reveals his identity and intentions to Ross, the two get into a heated argument, with Ross claiming that John Marston killed himself with the life he lived. To resolve the dispute, the two have a duel, in which Jack guns down his father's killer. Almost immediately after Ross's death, Jack looks down at his gun in confusion; while he has avenged his father, he might have put the very future his father had died to give him in danger. Jack holsters his gun, pauses, and then walks back up the riverbed.
A newspaper summarizes the fate of John Marston's companions. Marshal Leigh Johnson retired as sheriff of Armadillo, and then moved as far away as possible from the town. Abraham Reyes, though promising to lead Mexico into an age of freedom, was consumed by power and became a tyrant. Bonnie MacFarlane eventually married, but it is not said to whom, although several conversations heard throughout MacFarlane's Ranch suggest she married her foreman, Amos. Irish shot himself dead in an outhouse in Thieves Landing when his gun discharged. Seth Briars eventually found the treasure he was looking for and became rich. Finally, Landon Rickets passed away quietly in his sleep. Wikipedia'd

Gameplay
Red Dead Redemption is a third-person action-adventure game set a fictional open-world American Wild West environment for players to explore. Gameplay area types include frontier towns, rolling prairies teaming with wildlife, and perilous mountain passes - each packed with an endless flow of varied distractions. Along the way, players will experience the heat of gunfights and battles, meet a host of unique characters, struggle against the elements and animals of one of the worlds last remaining wildernesses, and ultimately pick their own precarious path through an epic story about the death of the Wild West and the gunslingers that inhabited it. In their travels throughout the territories of the gameworld players partake in a morality system built on honor and fame, where they gain or lose points in each area based on their actions. The game features an easy to use cover system, a variety of mounts and period specific weapons including a cattleman revolver, a mauser pistol, a repeater rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, a throwing knife, a lasso and more. Western themed mini-games are also available, including showdowns, gambling, hunting bounties, cattle herding and five finger fillet. From amazon

Graphics
The Graphics are stunning, with a massive variety of places to go, and things to do you are never short of a spectacular sight, from mountain ranges
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
To deserts!
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Controls
The controls are very similar to GTA IV, although they have implemented a better cover system, it is much more effective because you can easily shoot, it is somewhat like GTA's but better!!

nice copy and paste?

Considering I did state the fact I copied and pasted the main article, you can't really criticise me.

conwell73 wrote

kung fu panda 2 review

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Everybody loves a good kung fu fight. Theres no denying that it isnt mesmerizing to watch or take part in. Dreamworks Films have done a great job of marrying the defensive fighting style with hilarity in their popular Kung Fu Panda film series, which follows an overweight panda through his journey to become an ultimate kung fu master. To accompany this weeks theatrical release of the series first sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, video game publisher THQ has released four different video game iterations, based on the popular fiction.

Arguably the most interesting of the four is the XBOX 360 version, which features full motion control using its Kinect camera peripheral. This means that you can perfect your fighting stance, blocks and attacks using great physical form. No controller required. Its a great idea in principle, but there are some very prevalent shortcomings and issues that mar the experience and its interesting design choices. Enter the dojo as we explore the ins and outs of the fighting style known as Kung Fu Panda 2 for Kinect.

Taking place after the events of the movie, the games under developed storyline sees our hero Po recruited to fight alongside the Furious Five once again, in order to defeat a new threat that is set to destroy kung fu and its animal masters. Enemies take the form of menacing wolves, gorillas and komodo dragons, each of which know more than they should about the Furious Fives perfected fighting style. As you make your way through the games story mode, youll come across these foes many times, forced to engage them in one on one fights that resembled a turn-based structure. One combatant attacks while his opponent defends, then the roles are reversed after a certain amount of blocked attacks or when a time limit ends.

It is important that you make sure to take advantage of all of the time you have to properly string together different types of punches, kicks and jumps, in order to deal the greatest amount of damage possible within each attack opportunity. If you fail to break your opponents block after a few hits, it will be his turn to deal dastardly amounts of damage onto your virtual realization of Po, taking away limited hit points in the process. Though, depending on your skill as a kung fu master, you may be able to block most of his oncoming attacks. That is if the games Kinect controls feel like working, which is something they occasionally tend not to do. To say that the games motion sensing mechanics are fair weather and inconsistent would be a bit of an understatement.

During certain intervals in the campaign, Po appears on-screen to teach players different attacks, blocks and evasive tactics. These tutorial sections show you the correct motions to perform each move, though the sensor sometimes fails to register your movements properly, making it tough to play the game with the precision that is required.

An example being that, in order to block attacks (which can come from either side or a combination of both, which is shown by an indicator placed at the top of the screen,) your arms must be placed upward and outward in a strong-armed muscle man pose. It sounds easy enough, but the games motion sensing abilities will often fail to register that at least one of your hands, even if theyre in the correct raised position. This makes it difficult to defeat some of the games tougher adversaries such as the Wolf Master, because their battles require precise evasion and blocking techniques to go along with well-timed attack combinations. Having to restart the same battle over and over again can be quite frustrating, especially considering the fact that the game makes you fight through several minions before you can take on the one who defeated you. Often, this can mean an extra five minutes or more of menial and repetitive battles, which almost always follow the same structure as they did the first time.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

When the game works well, it can be enjoyable, despite its basic design and repetitive conflict. Stringing together attack and block combinations can be quite fun, once you get into the groove, but the control issues really mar the experience. Youre essentially following Po as he walks through different environments, coming across flanking enemies in the woods, hills or even in town. Once this inaugural meeting occurs, a fight erupts, pitting you into physical combat with up to several foes. Though the game allows for your choice of fighting stance (power, lightning or flow,) each one ultimately feels the same due to a lack of move variety.

The only time when your moves really vary is when it comes time to finish an enemy off with one of three special attacks, which are dependent on the form you choose at this point. When the Kinect sensor confirms the position your arms are in, it will automatically use that forms finisher to cap off an enemys life force, which unnecessarily takes players out of the experience for a short period of time.

Additional special finishing moves are available at certain times when a combat meter is full, allowing you to verbally call for one of the Furious Five kung fu masters to automatically finish off your foe, using their unique abilities. The implemented Kinect microphone does a good job of following your command most of the time, though there were a couple noticeable hiccups where it took more than one shout to get it to register.

The majority of the games length and content is included within its story mode, but its few shining moments come from elsewhere, in its free play challenge mode. Within this mode are close to twenty different challenges which score you based on performance, awarding medals (with gold being the creme de la creme.) These mini-games include skill practice sessions, combat arenas, rickshaw races and noodle serving each one featuring a set time limit and potential clues that are dependent on the difficulty you choose.

The best of these is definitely the noodle serving mini-game, which is set-up like the popular Flash game, Cake Mania. You have to choose the right noodle concoction for each customer, cook it, and then throw it to their table. If you fail, you will lose points and valuable amounts of time, while happy customers will occasionally sit around for a second helping. Its fast-paced, frenetic and relatively fun, though very limited in its scope.

The other mini-games are enjoyable, except for the rickshaw events, because those events tend to bring out the worst in the games motion control capabilities. Youre moving from right to left and back again in order to avoid obstacles, while blocking baskets thrown by your opponent(s.) The side to side movement sensing works well, but it fails to register a lot of blocks while youre moving, leading to many game over screens and inherent frustration.

Its unfortunate because these mixtures of racing and combat had the chance to be a lot of fun, but poor design prevents them from achieving their potential. There are only a limited number of each, so you wont have to play through too many of the mini-games you dislike in order to earn achievements. Though, on that end, it should be said that theres a severe lack of noodle cooking events too, which is disappointing.

Like its celluloid parent, Kung Fu Panda 2 for Kinect features impressive presentation. The game is colourful, vibrant and rather pretty at times, though there are moments (especially during battles) where the games resolution drops and begins to look outdated. It does a great job of representing its source material through its art design, character models and visual aesthetics.

During combat, its easy to tell if your block has been registered because Pos arms will lift up to represent what the camera thinks youre doing. This means that you can try to fix your stance before an enemy attack comes in though, a lot of times, you dont have enough time to do so before youre clobbered. Overall though, the animation work is pretty well-done, with Pos animations looking the best by a long shot.

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

Our giant hero pandas voice over work is extremely well-done and sounds exactly like actor Jack Black, though the other voice actors are no slouch either. Combat sound effects found within each battle can become generic and boring, but there is some nice music to be found on the games original soundtrack. Through its audio, the game feels like an extension of its celluloid source, which will help children identify with the characters they love. If youre looking for an extension of one of your childs favourite films, this game does deliver that in spades. The world is alive with tons of audio and fully voiced dialogue, with some nice humour. Though it must be said that it suffers from the same one-liner repetition that a lot of games have had in the past.

Video games based on childrens movies and other licensed properties have had a bad rep over the years, and this game unfortunately does little to change that in any positive manner. Its disappointing considering the fact that the first Kung Fu Panda game was a lot of fun to play and ended up being one of the most impressive licensed games in recent memory.

Those who are looking for a good workout or a game that will keep their kids active while they virtually entertain themselves will get some fun out of this disc, but the frustration that ensues from poorly tracked movement controls will rain on their parade quite often. Kung Fu Panda 2 for Kinect is an interesting experiment with some creative design choices that ultimately feel undercooked and poorly implemented. This kung fu style has some promising potential, but its technique needs quite a bit of work. It needs some more time in the training dojo.

Pros:

Does a good job of representing its source material
Under-developed storyline
Interesting ideas

Cons:

Poor motion tracking controls
Repetitive and frustrating

oLeXaR wrote

[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

---

Late last year, Atari and developer Eden Studios released Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360. Purportedly the first "massively open online racing" game, Unlimited provided you with a wide-open setting (the Hawaiian island of Oahu), a myriad of slick rides, tons of different races to take part in, and an online mode that actually let you occupy the same basic driving space as other online players and challenge them in competition. Not everything the game did on the 360 worked brilliantly, but it was an inventive and unique piece of technology that was impressive in its own right. Now the game has come to the PC, and for all intents and purposes, this version is nearly identical to the 360 game. It's a little rougher around the edges than its 360 counterpart, but if you never played the 360 version and think the idea of racing around Hawaii while bumping up against other online players sounds like fun, this version's worth a look.


If nothing else, Test Drive Unlimited is a nice change of pace from the typical batches of cheesy street racers and hardcore driving sims.
You start by picking a basic character model to represent yourself, and you're whisked away to fabulous Hawaii to buy a car and a house, do a lot of random racing, and drive hitchhikers and models around the island for some reason. That's about all there is to the premise. While it's not shocking that a racing game wouldn't have a major, in-depth storyline, the way the game introduces itself and the open-ended nature of the game world give you the impression that there might be some kind of plot to tie everything you do together. There isn't. The lack of a cohesive thread to the missions and races does make Test Drive seem a bit pointless, but after a while, you cease to care and find yourself oddly engaged by this scattershot series of objectives. It helps that there is quite a lot to do on the island. The objectives themselves don't extend beyond races, time trials, speed challenges, and some basic delivery missions, but there are enough of them to keep you going as you explore the massive island of Oahu.

The way the game forces you to explore is clever. You start out with only a few available mission icons on the huge world map, but as time goes on, you'll see more and more begin to pop up across the entire stretch of the island. If you happen to have driven through a road where an objective resides, you can simply click on that icon on the map and be instantly transported there. But if an icon appears on a road you've never driven on before, you have to drive there to access it. What this does is force you to cruise through just about every nook and cranny of Oahu without being overly pushy about it. There's often more than enough races and missions available at any given time, so if you don't feel like driving halfway across the island to see something new, you won't necessarily be hurting for things to do right where you already are.

It's just too bad there's not more variety to what you end up doing. Races are fairly typical street races, with up to seven opponent drivers and a number of checkpoints scattered throughout a course. There's a huge roster of them to take part in on various roads that range from hairpin-filled hill climbs to straight-and-narrow city races. There's also the time trials, as well as the speed challenges, which task you either with driving a set speed past a number of speed traps laid about a course, or simply reaching a designated speed within a set amount of time. The missions are more repetitive, which come in only a few set categories. You'll either find yourself delivering illicit packages for seedy individuals, delivering some of the game's more expensive rides to dealerships and mechanics, delivering hitchhikers to their desired destinations, or delivering high-strung models to their homes after a long day of shopping. Basically, you're a delivery service no matter how you look at it, and the only variances are in what you're delivering, and occasionally what kind of car you're driving. Fortunately, the various races and challenges are quite a bit more compelling than these missions. However, you don't earn nearly as much cash just sticking to the races, so you'll likely be inspired to put up with the monotony of the missions.

Why? Because without cash, you can't buy any of the game's numerous cars, houses, clothes, or upgrades. Obviously, the big draw is the cars, and there are over 90 licensed cars and motorcycles available in the game. From basic rides like Volkswagens, Chryslers, and Chevys to more exotic models of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Aston Martins, there are plenty of available cars, and you can likely expect even more to be made available via the Xbox Live Marketplace at some point. Paying more for new cars isn't the most ideal scenario, but at a less-than-full-retail-price $40 price tag for the game, it's a little bit easier to swallow.

Building up a car collection is key, as you'll need at least one car from each of the available A-through-G car classes, since at one point or another, you'll encounter races that require cars from these specific classes. Some races also require very specific cars, but if you don't want to buy them, there are rental agencies that will give you access to those cars for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. To house all your rides, you'll find yourself buying real estate throughout the island. Each house has its own look, but more importantly includes at least a four-car garage, if not higher. The houses don't have a ton of purpose beyond acting as basic hub levels and as a storage area for cars, but they're a nice touch all the same. You can also spend credits you earn from the hitchhiker and model missions on clothes for your character. Though it's not as if you stare at your character much while you're driving, there are enough cutscenes in the game to where it sort of makes sense to be able to dress up your driver in some new threads.


There's a ton of races and missions in the game, though the variety of objectives is smaller than you might prefer.
Other ways to earn money involve the online component of the game. You can tap into the online audience by creating your own custom race challenges for them to take part in, or by selling your cars via the online trading market. Buying and selling cars is exceptionally simple; all you have to do is jump into the trade menu when you're in one of your houses, and buy and sell accordingly. You can set prices however you like, though you'll likely want to judge the market for your particular brand of car before trying to price gouge people with that Volkswagen Golf you have no use for. Creating challenges is a bit more involved a process. With this feature, you can map out a course of just about any length using all the available roads on the island. You can set all sorts of arbitrary rules, like time limits, whether or not the driver is relegated to the cockpit camera view, and whatnot, and you can also set entry fees and awards. Of course, the trick is that the awards are taken from your bank account, so you'll want to be careful with how much cash you're dishing out. Fortunately, there's also a time limit for how long a custom challenge can sit on the servers, so you're not destined to get gouged by people forever. You will, however, be able to access your custom challenges within your own game for however long you like.

The online driving audience is obviously a big draw of Test Drive Unlimited, since so much of the multiplayer functionality has just been built into the basic gameworld. There is no quick-and-dirty multiplayer menu to jump into to find a match. Every designated multiplayer race appears as an icon on the map just like the offline races, and at each race you'll find the option to jump into a player match or a ranked match with any other players hanging out at that race. It's a little bit more convoluted than a standard menu system, since you might have to scan the various online race icons on the map, trying to find a race to get into, but in our testing, we found a decent number of competitors at just about every race hub, though mostly for player matches. Ranked matches have been decidedly fewer in quantity. It's probably also worth mentioning that Test Drive Unlimited doesn't offer any kind of single-system multiplayer, so if you want to play against friends, it'll have to be online.

If you prefer simply driving the open roads to sticking to predetermined courses, you also have the option of tracking down other players free riding around the city. This is where the whole MMOG comparison comes in (or as the game refers to it, MOOR, or massively open online racing), as players driving around the city are very visible to you while you're not engaged in a race or mission, and if you happen upon any rival online drivers, you can challenge them to a quick race for cash and ranking points. All you have to do is flash your headlights at them, and they can choose to accept or decline the challenge; if they accept, you just pick a finish line somewhere away from where you're currently situated, and race to the end.


One thing you can't argue with is the myriad of hot rides the game offers up.
The whole system of being able to find other, random players while simply driving around the island sounds brilliant on paper, but it doesn't offer quite as much freedom as you might hope for. For one thing, you can't just run into every single driver that happens to be in your vicinity. Though you'll certainly find plenty of other players driving around, there seems to be a limit on exactly how many can appear to you while you're in a specific zone of the island, and getting specific players into your zone can be kind of a pain if they aren't already on your friends list. It's not a bad system in theory, since it does prevent the streets from getting overcrowded with rival racers, and to its credit, the switches between instances as you drive around are completely seamless, but if you want to find someone specific that isn't automatically appearing on your list, it's a rather clunky process.

Still, caveats aside, the multiplayer is where it's at, both because of the variety of ways to compete and because the online competition is just better than the offline. When you're racing offline, the opponent artificial intelligence is, in a word, limited. Opponents wreck and end up in the dirt more than you will, and the only advantage they'll ever have is if they have a markedly faster ride than you do. You'll also notice that if you end up having to redo races a few times, the opponents will follow the exact same AI routines every time, braking at the same points, veering around other drivers at the same times, and things like that. The only thing that can seem to throw them off this is you wrecking into them, but after a while, the routine resumes.

That's about the worst thing you can say for the in-car action, however; the core driving mechanics are quite solid. The handling of the various cars can take some getting used to, as almost every car is a bit squirrelly and prone to random spinouts. But once you get a handle on things, you can pretty easily master the controls and take to the roads with minimal issue. Of course, you'll still have to navigate around AI-controlled traffic and, occasionally, cops. But it's more the random traffic that poses an issue than the cops. Whereas AI cars will sometimes veer into you at random or bunch up at intersections, cops rarely seem to care terribly much what you do. Scraping or crashing into other cars alerts them, but you have to do it a bunch of times in a short period before they'll really start coming after you. Typically, all you have to do is avoid wrecking for around 10 seconds after alerting them, and your alert level will just drop right back to nothing.

Obviously, the lack of cop interaction prevents them from getting in the way of your enjoyment of driving around the island. In fact, with the exception of the AI traffic and largely immovable scenery, everything about Test Drive's design seems built with the expressed purpose of making Oahu as leisurely a place to drive around as humanly possible. Sure, the racing can get intense at times, and there are few things more frustrating than taking on a timed car-delivery mission and inadvertently wrecking into another car while trying to take a blind corner as quickly as possible, but for the most part, driving around Oahu is a relaxing experience. The game's mileage counts for each point-to-point drive are completely accurate, and unlike most games that tell you that you'll be going 15 miles to your destination, you feel like you're driving a realistic 15 miles. For some, the pacing of the island's travels might feel kind of sluggish, but for those who just like the idea of driving a hot car against a striking backdrop, Test Drive provides precisely that.

And it is quite a striking backdrop. Oahu is rendered with a high level of detail, and it looks extremely pretty as you're driving from place to place. Of course, most of the island's highways stick to the shorelines and heavily populated areas, but there's plenty of windy mountain roads and backcountry areas to explore, too. If you've got a high-end PC, you're going to see crisper in-game visuals, especially if you run it in HD mode. It doesn't look perfect, mind you. When you aren't speeding along, some of the more obvious texture seams and lower-resolution set pieces tend to stick out, and the fact that there's absolutely no people at all wandering around a bustling beach community is altogether weird; but at high speeds, the environments look great, especially with the attractive motion-blur effect the game uses. Unfortunately, high speeds also sometimes cause some problems for the game. Specifically, texture pop-in and frame rate hiccups tend to occur at frequent rates. The actual frame rate never seems to drop below 30, but you'll see these quick hitches from time to time that can be a little off-putting. The environmental streaming also tends to chug a bit no matter how powerful your system is, and we did run into some occasional graphical glitches specific to the PC version, like extreme amounts of flickering from the textures and lighting.

The cars in the game are modeled beautifully, looking like pristine, out-of-the-factory renditions of their real-life counterparts. There's no damage modeling to any of the licensed vehicles, though you can damage the generic AI traffic. Collisions look strange, though, as the physics of you smashing into another car at a 150 miles per hour just don't look right. It's also bizarre when you go head-on into a lamppost or fence or something equally unassuming, and get stopped on a dime by it. There's also no car-customization element to speak of. There are some basic performance upgrades you can buy that sometimes do involve some visual upgrades, but there's no way to trick out your ride to make it look like your ride beyond basic paint jobs and some rim upgrades you can grab at the time you purchase a car. It's just strange that a racing game involving such a community-driven design would go to the trouble of letting you play dress-up with your character that is barely visible outside of cutscenes (and also doesn't look particularly good, dressed-up or not), but wouldn't let you give your various cars more unique identities. Each car also has its own unique cockpit view that's accurate to the real car; a feature sure to please the kinds of car fanatics that love this level of detail. It's especially cool if you've got a driving wheel hooked up.


It's all about the cockpit camera view.
The in-game audio is reasonably enjoyable though not nearly as in-depth as many of the other racers on the 360. The game has good car sound effects but a fairly forgettable soundtrack consisting largely of songs from relatively unkown bands. There are a few notable tracks by artists like Queens of the Stone Age, Metric, and the James Gang, but you're more likely to want to get your custom soundtrack on while playing this one. There's not a hefty amount of voice acting in the game, save for a few awkward (and abysmally lip-synced) lines during mission set-ups, but what's there is serviceable.

While Test Drive Unlimited blurs the line between single-player and multiplayer racing better than anything that's ever tried it before, it's not quite a slam dunk. The game's open-ended mission design belies its purposeless nature, and the whole massively open online racing thing isn't quite as massive as one might be led to believe. But even with its limitations, Test Drive Unlimited's concept is executed well enough to make it an addictive and interesting racing experience. Of course, if you already played this game on the Xbox 360, the PC version isn't different enough to make it worth looking at. But for PC players who didn't try this on the 360 and are interested in something new and unique in the driving-game genre, there's nothing quite like Test Drive Unlimited on the market right now. Though you're undoubtedly going to take issue with a few of the game's peculiarities, there's enough here to make it a racer worth checking out.

---

Pictures
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ] [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]