Crysis (Xbox 360)

Most gamers have probably already played this aweome first person shooter on the PC. And that makes sense. The game did come out almost 5 years ago, and only for the PC. But, you needed a powerful PC to even run the game, and few had the hardware capable to play Team Crytek's amazing shooter. Thankfully, EA has ported the game over to the Xbox 360, and very well I might add. This is one of the nicest looking Xbox 360 games you will ever play. But, as I often say, graphics don't make for a solid game. You need gameplay, too. And Crysis has it to boot.
Crysis is set sometime in the near future. There is a heated battle going on between Americans and Koreans, and you play as one of the soldiers sent in to take care of the opposition. But, you are not alone in the battlefield. You are equipped with a special suit, which gives you strengthened shield, health, jumping and running abilities, and just plain more power! By clicking one of the buttons on your controller, you can turn on your shields, which will slowly drain. But as soon as you turn them off, they will fill right back up. The same goes for your health and running and jumping speed. You will be able to make higher jumps and run much faster than normal by using your suit power. You can even turn on stealth, which is similar to Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid. You are hidden from the enemy for a short while. The game path is slightly linear, but mostly open and you can decide where and how you want to go through the stages. It is very open to the player, and you can decide to be all sneaky, or go in guns blazing. The choices of gameplay really gives the game not only more replayability, but also makes it just so much fun to play.
One big deal about Crysis on PC was the graphics, and in 2007 it was amazing to machine gun a palm tree, and watch is tear apart and fall down. The same can be done in this version, but some things are taken out. The game runs nice and smooth, and I never noticed any screen tearing or motion blur, unless you are going extremely fast, or your character is hurt, which makes the screen blur a little. Snowflakes fall on your visor in cold stages, and water can splash on your suit, making it harder to see. The lighting and attention to detail on surfaces is quite amazing.
The story stands out because, it's a bit of a twist. Near the middle of the game, I won't ruin it for you if you have not played it, but let me just say, it's not all about fighting the Koreans. There is much more at stake than you may think.
The game is nice and lengthy at about 5-8 hours of gameplay, and it's just so nice and refreshing to see a FPS that is original and easy to play. I have to recommend this game to everyone. It's so good.

Graphics: 9.5 out of 10
Sound and Music: 9.4 out of 10
Presentation: 8.1 out of 10
Gameplay: 9.6 out of 10

Overall: 9.4 out of 10

Rallisport Challenge

What a terrific racing game! If you are at all familiar with rally racing, then this game will be easily recognizable. 'Rallisport Challenge' came out in 2002 and is only available for the Xbox.

Hmm..where to start? First off, you need to know that I like racing games. Very much. And rally games are just plain exciting, with all of the slipping and sliding around on the track, what's not to love? This game somehow captures all of the high-speed excitement of rally racing, and does it beautifully too.

Graphics are phenomenal. For an Xbox launch game, this is one of the best looking. The licensed cars in this game look real, and they drive amazing. The dirt and even snow on the course will fly up and all over, really helping to put you smack in the middle of the race. If you flip or wreck your car into a wall, then you will damage it, and it will show by a busted tail light or window.

Gameplay consists of, you guessed it--racing! There is basic rally course, uphill driving, and snow driving, and of course, multiplayer racing modes. You can play Instant Action to dive right into the driving, or do career mode to open up more tracks to play on. The driving is so much fun in this game! It truly mimics real life rally driving. Your car will slide across the dirt if you don't slow down enough on a turn, and it might even flip over if you have too much speed. It is all fast and exciting racing.

Presentation is basic, and that works well for a game that is about nothing but racing. The menu are very easy to navigate, and it's so simple to tell where to go on them. The menus load fast and look great.

Sound and music are good, and especially music in my opinion. The music is fast paced thumping beats and really gets you in the mood to race. The sound of your cars on the dirt and the engines are good, and work well at putting you right into the racing action.

Bottom line here is, this is a fantastic racing game that all xbox owners who like racing games should own. It is fun and exciting just like a racing game should be, and the 'Challenge' in the title is true. This game is a challenge!

Graphics- 9 out of 10
Sound and Music- 9 out of 10
Gameplay- 9.5 out of 10
Presentation- 9 out of 10

Overall- 9.1 out of 10

Terminator 3: The Redemption

Atari already has the rights to Terminator 3, so why not make another game? The company already produced 'Terminator 3', and 'Terminator: Dawn of Fate', so I guess they want to make another go at it. And this one is probably the best one yet.

In 2004, Atari released 'Terminator 3: The Redemption', and it is exactly that in my opinion; a redemption of the game franchise. This game is basically a shooter at it's heart, and all of the levels are based around that fact. The gameplay involves you controlling a re-programmed T-1000, aka Arnold Schwarzenegger, to run through the levels and eliminate skynet. He has lots of abilities in his pocket, like running and gunning, but he can also commandeer vehicles, and drive them throughout the levels. It's much faster than walking! The ability to use other vehicles really helps to give this game variety. The game is all on-rails shooting, in 3D, and you should think of it as such. The gameplay can be akin to arcade style action, where you just shoot and punch you way through a level until you complete it. The story is ok, but very weak, and really doesn't compel you to play the game more. I like the fact that Atari made a button to press on the controller that makes Arnold spew out a one-liner. He might say, 'Excellent'. Or he might say, 'Talk to the hand'. It always makes me laugh. The voice actor is an Arnold sound-alike, you can tell right away. But, it's not bad. The music is very good movie style orchestra, and the sound effects are great, but seem like they are all muffled. The graphics excel and look much better than 'Dawn of Fate's' did, (but that game is just plain ugly on purpose). Presentation is top-notch if you like Terminator type of things, like machines and wires. Basically, presentation is very well done.

There could have been lots more put into this game, like more modes of play, and playing as other characters. What we have here is a very exciting, graphically powerful action shooter game, and it works well as that. Try it out if you have any interest at all in the Terminator movies or games.

Graphics- 7.9 out of 10
Sound and Music- 7 out of 10 (very cheesy)
Gameplay- 8.8 out of 10
Presentation- 9.9 out of 10

Overall- 8.4 out of 10

Mafia

This game was originally made for the PC in 2002, and later ported to the Xbox system in 2004. It is developed by a Czech based game company called Illusion Softworks, and published by Gathering of Developers.

The game stars a taxi driver named Tommy Angelo, and through a series of events, you later become part of a mafia crime family, a la Don Salieri. Salieri is a well off man, mostly due to the fact that he is head of his crime family and has his cronies do all of his dirty work for him. I don't want to ruin the story for you, because it is done very well, but rest assured, this is one of the best plot-driven games you might ever play.
The gameplay consists of doing jobs for the Don, and making sure he is happy with the result. The job might be stealing something valuable from an opposing crime family, or just ripping some random people off for lots of money. There are about 12 (or more) jobs in the entire game to complete, and they are all varied in gameplay. Right from the beginning, this game looks and plays a lot like a 'Grand Theft Auto' game, but actually, it's very different. There are not any 'odd-jobs' that you can perform in between missions, and you can't just walk up to people on the street and talk to them. This game is very different from GTA. The city is very big, and even though it is fictitious, it looks very much like New York City did in the early 1930's. The roads are all open, and you can drive your old time car anywhere you want to. If you run a red light or speed over the speed limit, you will get a ticket from the cops, and if you don't stop, they will arrest you if they can catch you. The gun play is very bad, and I expected more from it. You have to move your aiming reticule over the enemy to target him, and then shoot him. For some reason, this doesn't always work. Sometimes you will be right in front of a mobster, point blank, and you shoot him, and it doesn't hit him at all. Thankfully, there is a button to help with targeting. Just push the black button, and you will automatically lock-on to your enemy, making him very easy to shoot. The on-foot controls are kind of lame, and turning is different from most 3rd person action games, but once you get the hang of it, it's really not too bad.

The sound and music is very good, and I will particularly note the music. When you arrive into a certain part of the city, an old song will play that sounds like it's from an old radio, and it's usually jazz or swing music. It really helps to get into the mood the game's setting presents. The sound is very good and gunfire sounds great. All of the characters in the game are well-voiced by very good voice actors, and it in just icing on the already sweet cake. All of this just helps to propel the story, and it works great.

The graphics are also well done, and though I don't know how good 'Mafia' looks on a high-end PC, the Xbox version looks astounding. The characters faces are of particular note here; they almost look real. The smoking effects from characters cigarettes are also very realistic. The cars look like old timers, and everything is brought together nicely. When you cross the bridge into a certain part of the city, the game has to enter a short loading screen, but it's just that. Short. There is some ugly blur effect on walls and building that are far in the distance, and there is some weird slow down when you are driving very fast, but this happens rarely because most of the time you will be taking lots of slow turns on the roads.

The game's presentation is top-notch, and I hope that other crime game would follow suit. The title screen looks very good, and there is some more modes in the game, like free ride, which lets you ride around the whole city in any car you want, and earn money by causing damage, among other things. There is also a racing mode where you can race any car you'd like around a tied off track in the city. There are LOTS of cars in this game! They look like real ones, but are not real in fact.

This game shines the most in it's well told story. It is like a Martin Scorsese picture that he never made! The story is truly that good. It really kept me playing. If you like crime games, give 'Mafia' a shot. It might be just what you're looking for.

Graphics- 8.9 out of 10
Sound and Music- 9 out of 10
Gameplay- 5.9 out of 10
Presentation- 8.5 out of 10

Overall- 6.7 out of 10


NOTE: (Try looking into playing the PC version of this game, I hear that it's much better to control than the console versions. My review is of the Xbox version of the game.)