Oblivion, Elder scrolls 4

  Letter from the author: I have finally gotten my computer working correctly on Blogger. Now I shall be unleashing a fresh batch of reviews to all everyone out there. Sorry for the long downtime, but now I'm back!

 Intro: Oblivion has received it's awards for a reason. It creates a new age of gaming, one with an endless amount of fun and creativity. Oblivion has it's rough edges of course, but this is one game you'll want to read about.    

 Pros: The combat system takes a few minutes to get used to, but after that, it's a breeze. The enemies aren't too difficult if you don't push yourself. For those people who like a slow paced game, there are difficulty levels in Oblivion, though playing on normal is perfect for starters. The sheer variety of Non-player-characters is great. Though once or twice you might think, "He seems very familiar..."

 The magic system is vast. And easily might take a few runs through the game to even try out SOME of the magic available. Enemies "level up" as you do, gaining better weapons, better armor, and sometimes better spells.

 The quests that you can play through are very fun and some equally challenging. Tons of quests will fall upon you as you venture into new cities, and areas. Some quests are insanely hard, though if you train very hard for them you can beat them.

 The graphic powers of Oblivion are so, so, so great that compared to Elder Scrolls 3 (Which I did a review on), Oblivion seems like the "Real world". Though sometimes you might not notice the wondrous view right next to you because you are being chased by a pack of seething bandits, it is ALWAYS there.

 Cons: Oblivion is not suited for little children, some children might be fine with this game, but it is violent and will be pretty creepy for kids. If their character is trudging through a rat infested cave, and suddenly a huge zombie jumps out at them, the little kids will be scared out of their wits. The sight of an Oblivion gate might also freak them out. Anyway, let us now go to the real "Cons".

 The graphics might be a little unsharp at a long distance. The NPCs  might glitch and not move, or stand IN a rock. This makes the game a bit silly, when a bandit stands completely still and lets you burn him with fireballs. The next huge compliant on my part is the loading speed. It takes FOREVER to load an area. Sometimes the loading speeds aren't too bad. It still is annoying when you're being chased by a ton of evil ghosts, or robbers, and you run to a door and open it. Then this peaceful music comes on... and you wait... Then finally you find yourself outside! Some might say that they use that time to "Prepare" or "Make battle plans". Those sayings are mostly just to cover up for the fact that they completely hate loading times but don't want to say. Some of the battles in the game are too hard at sometimes, and might need a LOT of training to be able to master them. For some people (Yes, yes... I go under this category) even beating the first Oblivion gate is too hard, and too beat it they have needed to train a ton.

Overall: Oblivion is a great game, tons of stuff to do, tons of quests, and tons of characters to meet. There is an awesome number of dungeons to explore, and a huge amount of enemies. This game is NOT recommended for children. Great for everyone else though, and a perfect game for an RPG fan, or just anyone!

 Overall score: 9.5

Xbox 360

 I have attained an Xbox 360 now, so anytime now, after I stop wasting all my time playing the games on the 360, I will post some new and revised reviews. I will re-review Halo 3 and after I get ODST, I will re-review that. I might get Xbox LIVE, then I'll post my gamertag and Halo Forges.

 J.J.

Halo 3 ODST

Intro: You are the Rookie, a ODST who's drop pod lands away from target and you set out to find survivors. Continues from the end of Halo 2 to the start of Halo 3. A new and interesting look at the world of Halo, from the view of a ODST. I do NOT have this game, but I have done exstensive research on the ODST game, so I can easily say I can make a great review.

 

Pros: The game has better graphic models and the addition of the silenced SMG with a scope, and the silenced pistol with a scope, add a lot of fun to this game. The SMG is very fun to use and easy to use as a long ranged weapon. The world graphical models are almost perfect. The game offers the new gameplay mode Firefight, where tons of enemies rush to their death at your hands in waves. You get points for killing enemies in Firefight and if you kill 2, or more at a time you get even more points. You can play this mode with friends on split screen mode, and people everywhere on Xbox Live. This game includes all mutiplayer maps from Halo 3.

 

 Cons: The gameplay time is just over 6 hours and for some people being the Rookie, not Master Chief, is very boring. The stamina bar might be discouraging for some, those who are\used to the energy bar system might not like this game. For people who like the "run out and go kick some butt, without caring about health" style of game play that Halo CE, Halo 2, and Halo 3 were structured around, this stealth style gameplay might NOT be for you.

Overall: The Halo 3 ODST game is worth a balanced $40-$50. It contains a very fun mutiplayer to keep you busy when you have friends over or just want to play Xbox Live. The price is right so "drop" right on by to your local store and buy yourself a copy.

Overall Score: 9.0

Burnout Takedown 3

 Intro: Burnout Takedown is a well equipped racing game, filled with lots of play time and races. A great game for people who want a lot of fun!

 Pros: Has good graphics and rivals are actually a little challenging. Lots of fun cars to use and great tracks. Has very fun, addictive racing. Has over 100-150 hours of replayability. Split-Screen has choices between a normal race, road rage (trying to smash other cars), and crash(try to crash into traffic to create a huge traffic jam). You always get a fun boost of excitement when you smash another car aganst a railing or traffic.

 Cons: You take a long time to crash unless you smash into a civilian vehicle, rivals can hardly touch you even if you have hardly any skill. The game might take to long to complete for those with zero patience. The game makes you crash imediately when you smash into a car going the same way as you, unlike in Burnout Revenge. The game might seem boring when you get further into it and you think it's too hard to beat a certain level, but then just skip that race and try another race.

Overall: A perfect game for someone who likes Need for Speed but wants some thing with more speed. Fun to the point of liking it better than some PS3 games. Great for the whole family, and easy for people who have just started to play racing games.

 Overall Score: 7.5

Need for Speed Carbon DS

Intro: Need for Speed Carbon is another "Need for Speed" game in which you race cars with awesome vinyl and lots of nitro. Fun for a while, great for everyone.

 Pros: Has great music quality, good graphics, and some nice customizing features. Racing is fun and each boss is challenging. The cars are well modelled nicely and have good preformance. Though some cars seem a bit too fast, making you crash at each turn. Customizing gives a great deal of customizable items and you can even customize your dashboard!

Cons: AI's are not smart and even your "drafter" or attacker" ( A type of partner that helps you, he/she also has a car and races) sometimes hit you, or even mistake you for a rival car. After you beat the game it becomes very boring, at least it did for me. There could be a longer storymode, this one seems very short. It consists of only 6 territorys and 12 bosses, maybe over 60-64 races, and if races only take 3-5 minutes, that takes only 300 minutes ( only five hours!!! ) to complete storymode if you beat it all on your first try.

 Overall: A good game for the family, though only 5-6 hours long you might reconsider buying this game. For this amount of money you can easily get a game with 20-40 hours of game play, on about any console.

 

Overall Score: 5.5

Halo 3

Intro: Another addition to the Halo series. The Flood gets to earth and Master Chief needs to fight them off. I do NOT own this game, I have seen friends play it, and have watched it on Youtube (over 40-50 hours of watching Halo 3 gameplay). I can safely say that I have enough info to easily review it.

Pros: The gamplay is diverse, setting you in a jungle for the first level, and then in a UNSC building. The graphics are simply amazing and the AI's are smart, and never act the same. The mutiplayer is about the funnest thing ever. You can unlock new armor and equip them to your liking. The mutiplayer maps are modelled nicely. There are more weapons than in Halo 2 and all of the weapons are more fun to use. The game even brings back the Halo CE's Assault rifle. With new vehicles like the Chopper, and the Hornet the game adds alot of fun gameplay ideas to the mix.

Cons: After playing over and over again on campaign it might seem boring, but XBOX LIVE solves that. The game glitches some if scratched up, but that is to be expected.

Overall: An awesome game, worth at least $40-$50. Very fun to play with friends, via local mutiplayer, or XBOX LIVE. Fun for just about anyone!

 Overall Score: 9.5

CrossFire

 Intro: A first person shooter thats lots more fun than other free online FPS. CrossFire is a unique free FPS, here's why.

 Pros: During gameplay you can pick up enemy weapons and use them yourself. You also can buy weapons from the weapons shop, with "money" you get in-game, forever! Usually free online FPS games let you buy weapons for only a few days. After you play a match you have the option to "save" the match. This lets to save it for later replay. In replay mode you can view the game from anywhere in the map, from every player's perspective, or from a third person view. You can pause rewind and fast-forward the game. The graphics are ok.

 Cons: Sometimes in replay mode the game glitches and the view gets messed up. It takes a long time to gain "money" and you have to repair your weapons or they will get bad, and less effective. The repair option wastes all your money, and only if you're an ace player will you really start earning money.

 Overall: A great game has it's "money" making problems and some glitches. But it's completely free, so it's worth it.

Overall Score: 7.5