Forza Horizon Review

XBox 360 Exclusive
Microsoft Games/Turn 10/Playground Games

When I got my 360 earlier this year, it came with Forza Motorsport 4. At first I wasn't thrilled. I've never been a fan of driving simulators. Since I'm not a driver I found it annoying to have the car be that realistic. I never got past B license on any Gran Turismo game and I didn't enjoy the original Forza on the original XBox. But after giving it a chance and enjoying the game a lot more than I thought, I found out about Forza Horizon.
I got the game from a Gold Box deal on Amazon and when I started playing the game, I loved it immediately. Unlike the Motorsport games, Horizon is more like Midnight Club. It's a open-world racing game where you are a rookie driver at a fictional racing/music festival in Colorado. The storyline involves you as the rookie driving festival races to move up the divisions and become champion. Each division has a "rival" who you try to beat to the next division. When you do, they challenge you to a race and if you beat them, you get their car they challenged you in. Each rival is kinda a one-dimensional stereotype (a urban street racer, a Jackass-like reality show host, a billionaire [who made in fun of my Audi R8 for some reason, probably jealous since I beat his Lambo] and the champ, Darious Flint.) Don't worry about the story that much, it's not like you're playing racing games for the plot after all.

Along with the festival races, you also get to race in street races, which earn you more money and unlike the festival races, civilian traffic is also a factor. Two random and fun additions are "publicity stunts" and "barn finds." Publicity stunts are races mostly involving you versus a non-car. One race involves a 1970 Mustang vs a P-51 Mustang, you vs. a hot air balloon, a helicopter and some racing involving Minis and Pergeouts.

Being a next-gen racing game, there are tons of cars in the game with tons to buy as DLC. Even though the game is now $30, you can spend $50 to get the season pass and get every DLC car. Personally, I only bought a couple DLC packs (my favorite being the Top Gear pack, which actually has a Ford Transit Van, weird, huh?). They've also added a Rally expansion for $20, which is recommended if you're a rally fan and was disappointed with Dirt Showdown. The 1000 Club was also added, giving you specific tricks, races or challenges for you to do with each car. That DLC is free and gives you stuff to do if you've already won the championship.

Although I'm comparing it to Midnight Club, it's still a Forza game, the driving are realistic and that's what makes the game for fun than Midnight Club or Need for Speed. Playground Games had previously made Blur, an underrated arcade racing game that I loved, and they did a great job here. If they make Forza Horizon 2 on XBox One, I might consider getting it (meaning an XBox One).

My grade: A+

Nicktoons MLB Review

Rated E

Review based on XBox 360 Version (Downloaded from XBox Marketplace)

Buy at Amazon

Rent at Gamefly

Maybe I'm not the best person to review this since I haven't seen a Nicktoon since the mid 90's when Ren and Stimpy were first on and when Doug was actually a Nicktoon (Doug later became a Disney property by 2000), but around the All-Star Break, XBox Marketplace had the game on sale for $2.99. It was 90% off! It was cheaper than renting it and it took only 1.6 GB of Hard Drive. So I figured I'd give it a try.

I guess you can say that this is a kid-friendly version of The Bigs, the arcade-like MLB game 2K created a couple years back. It still has the violent collision at the plate occur when there's a play at the plate. Maybe they should have had that option depend on which Nicktoon character is the runner. Prince Zuko or Yak would make since, but Kitty Katswell or Katara bowling the catcher over is rather weird at times.

If you like Nicktoons and enjoy baseball, then this game is a fun little romp for you. If you're not a Nicktoons fan, I would suggest just renting this game. If you have an XBox 360, it's an easy way to get some Achievement points.

Grade: B-

Grand Theft Auto V First Review

Rated M for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Review based on XB360 version.

So, I'm 46% into this game according to the 100% checklist in the game and I can tell you that this GTA so far is the best GTA since Vice City (my personal favorite) and surprisingly a more fun game than the last two Saints Row games. Rockstar fixed what I considered the one weakness of GTAIV: the fun and humor. GTAIV was a little too serious with its plotline about Niko's previous life was kind of a downer and the insistence of having to have relationships and friends was annoying to me. I know relationships where in GTA: San Andreas, but it was a minor part of the game.

This game has a neat little way to spice things up. If you're driving around, the GPS will occasionally flash and an event happens. Usually some characters purse or vehicle is stolen and you chase after the character (one woman's pink classic car was stolen and it took forever to kill the carjacker and bring it back), then you have the choice to keep the car or money or return it and do a good deed. Sometimes a character is on the side of the road and needs to go to another place and you drive them there. One time I got out of the game in a forested area of SA and a mountain lion attacked and killed me. That was kind of weird.

The storytelling is great. Franklin (kind of similar to Carl for SA), Michael (a dead ringer for Tommy Versetti in Vice City) and Trevor are great characters who are very different people who have different experiences in the game (some characters can do certain things that only they can do, like Trevor is the only one that does "Rampages")

I'm just short of halfway on the game and so far I've robbed a jewelry store, stole a weapon from a Blackwater-like group (then gave it back) and of course stolen cars, shot at people and ran from the cops. In GTAV, the cops aren't directly on you like other GTA games (and most notably Saints Row IV, since Steelport is a simulation, the cops appear from thin air and you have to chase a golden CID at fast running speeds to lose your wanted level). If you cause enough trouble, you have to try to hide from cops on the street. On your GPS, little flashing red and blue dots appear with cones that show their line of sight appear. If you avoid the cops, your wanted level disappears. Now, I imagine that it's not the same if you do something right in front of (or especially at) a cop, but I haven't done that yet.

So, halfway in, my review of GTAV is: A

Saints Row IV Review

Deep Silver/Volition Inc. 2013

Rated M

Review based on XBox 360 Version

My first experience with Saints Row was the second game, which was the first on the PS3. I only got to play the first game when I got my 360 earlier this year. Ironically, it's the only one of the four games I haven't finished yet. This may be because when you go backward on a game series, you realize that the first game is usually weaker than the newer ones. Just the idea that your character doesn't talk in SR1 and then basically won't STFU in the other games (they mention that in the new game, apparently your character was scared when he [male only on SR1] was scared speechless by Julius and Gat and the others]) kind of turns me off. But I had the same problem with playing the first Mass Effect after playing ME2 and ME3. But enough of my problem with playing games out of order, back to the review.

Saints Row IV may feel like an expansion pack to Saints Row the Third. Well, that's because it is. It's basically the same Steelport as the first, except that your cribs are gone, the Syndicate tower is replaced by a gigantic UFO, and there's gigantic platforms all over the city which you can super jump to (it's easier later in the game after you upgrade your powers). The story (which isn't really important in a SR game, but nonetheless) is that after you and the Saints prevented a nuclear attack on the US, ride that wave to become President of the United States. Well, at least you get to have a "name" in this game. Aliens attack the White House, and capture you and a large amount of your crew. The aliens put you in a simulation of Steelport and, well somehow you have to destroy the aliens in a series of missions inside and outside the simulation. Along the way, Earth is destroyed and Johnny Gat is still alive and your character has super powers like super jumps, firing icy and fiery projectiles and explosive ammo.

The game is still just as fun and practically insane as the previous games. But there are some annoyances. First off, once you get all these powers, the game becomes way too easy. I played it on Normal difficulty, but after I reached Level 25, you're basically invincible. Your notoriety also shrinks way too quickly once you play the game long enough and I was able to take 100% control of the city by Level 30, making notoriety useless since there are Saints everywhere. Kill one person, a cop shows up and five Saints shoot him before you can even shoot him. In normal circumstances, you can lose all your notoriety by chasing a "Golden CID" and destroy it. But at higher levels, the notoriety drops so fast, it's unnecessary. One time, I tried chasing it, and the notoriety disappeared, and so did the CID.

Mind you, none of the major DLC has been released yet. Maybe they'll have a way to keep the notoriety from dropping too quickly. I hope Volition will consider that.

I would give Saints Row 2 a A- and Saints Row the Third an A. I will give Saints Row IV a B+. This grade can be adjusted when all the DLC comes out (and the probable GOTY edition comes out). With GTAV coming out next week, hopefully Rockstar looked at the Saints Row games and I hope they remember to add some fun and goofiness in GTAV. Something I thought was lacking in GTAIV.

Injustice: Gods Among Us Review

WB Games/Nethersrealm Studios 2013
Rated T
Review based on XBox 360 Version

Credit: Gamestop

In all honesty, I like fighting games more than they like me. When I play games like Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, or the reboot of Mortal Kombat, I can't seem to get the hang of the game. If I play at any difficulty level past easy or medium, I'll easily get my ass kicked by the AI, let alone if I try playing someone online. But in most cases, playing Injustice is one of the few fighting games (the Soul Calibur games and Dead or Alive being the others) I can play (mostly) without getting my ass kicked (too much). The fighting motions and actions feel good and less jerky than other 2D fighters, and what can you say about the Super Attacks. Batman running you over with the Batmobile, Superman punching you into space and knocking you back down again, they're great and hilarious if you think about it. I'm glad they put several personal favorites of mine, mainly former Teen Titans Cyborg and Raven in the game. Although I'm disappointed that Raven's voice is so different than it was in Teen Titans. I have read that Tara Strong is still the voice, but they decided to have her do a lower, darker voice. I guess the sully teenager wasn't right for the game, I guess. The only glaring problem with the game is the same problem with all fighting games with me. I can't play it at the hardest levels and most of the modes in Battle mode are just too hard for me to pull off. Despite that, this is probably my co-favorite fighter along with Soul Calibur IV.

Grade: A-

PrisonerDrW's Review of LEGO Harry Potter, Years 1-4

LEGO Harry Potter, Years 1-4 (Played on Xbox 360)
Released 2010
Rating: E10+

Credit: Gamespot

One thing I've always liked about the LEGO games is that they're fun to play and not too challenging. In this game, obviously, you go through the world of Harry Potter from his first story (The Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone to The Goblet of Fire), basically following the movie time line. Each Year/Movie has six chapters, but they're only connected by being in Hogwarts, which has many rooms and outdoor areas to get the Gold Bricks, Red Boxes, a Hogwarts Student in Peril needed to get the 100% done (I'm at 84%). Like most of the first LEGO games, the characters don't talk, just make noises, like grunts, mumbles and whatnot, but that's not too annoying since we're used to that in a LEGO game. Overall, a fun little game, especially if you're a Potter fan



Grade: A-