I am not sure why I started playing this game right as I got it but I did. The game is pretty but not in a unique way. It is very linear. Super linear in career and cars are given to you or simply become unlocked into using a particular vehicle. Lots of rear wheel drive muscle cars which swing out of control easily on certain roads. It is a ok game so far but the tracks seem limited.
The loading times are long asf. Loading to race, loading the fancy menu - it feels almost as long as Skyrim. GRIDS2 has more realistic graphics than PGR4 but it is not as varied and there are no weather effects. In the first season of GRID2 you are stuck playing the same level multiple times. You eventually get shipped to Paris in Season 2 of the career mode but the repeating levels and linear career mode is very in your face.
The game feels good and fast in the city levels. Though when in the forest and coastal tracks it is easy to fly off the track or hit a solid road sign that will destroy your speed. The game has a limited rewind feature which can be used to cheat your way out of bad situations.
20 races in and I think I finally have a handle on the cars. The levels get better as well. The city levels in general are very pretty, especially in the later game - too bad no screenshot option. Loading times stay consistently bad. The graphics definitely make up for the long loading times. I will say that this is the best looking racing game I have played so far on the 360. There is not shortage on great racing games on the 360.
I had to change my camera view to "bonnet" because the 3rd person view swings too wildly causing me to under/over steer into every corner. Once I changed the view I was better able to handle the car around corners.
I think the issue with the game "seasons" is that you spend a few races on the same tracks until the end of the season. Once the season ends you get to get fresh new tracks and the circle repeats. The later tracks look good so its worth the temporary slog to see whats next. It is a lovely game and the night levels are really dark.
There are no weather effects which would have been cool but I figure that weather would be too much for this game engine and the 360. I am in the later part of the game now and everything is starting to come together. There are no more new tracks to see but I have quite a few vehicle challenges to complete. Vehicle challenges seem to be the best way to play because you are not interrupted by the NPC cars.
How it ended
Fun right up until it ended. Not a long racing game but there are extra things you can do to extend the playtime if you want to.
Conclusion
My rating 8.5/10. Definitely in my top 5 racing games on the 360. Lovely graphics, lovely night racing. No much weather but the sense of speed in the edge game cars is great. The announcer is a little annoying but you get accustomed to his random input. A nice arcade racing game to add to anyones collection. I would recommend it over Forza 4. No in game screenshot feature.
Strategy
I had to change the camera view because the 3rd person view made me crash "alot". Do all the promo events to ensure that you see all the special track locations. Though in the end you wont miss out on much by doing the bare minimum to unlock the next event. When the game ends it locks you off from the career mode so if you want to do and get everything the first time make sure you enter every challenge before you complete the season finals.
First impressions the game is pretty. I did select the option to lock the framerate at the cost of graphics. The world is detailed and has lots of things to loot but I hate having limited slots for my left hand abilities while still being able to carry infinite guns. The sound and lighting is excellent. It makes me question my whole concept of early gen games being bad since it came out in 2007.
As I got further into the game I got to buy more slots with cash. I gobbled them up quickly but even with enough money they limit how many new slots I could buy at one time. Then eventually limited the money I could keep in my wallet. Despite this limitation I did push on, listening to voice notes and checking corners for secret rooms as I did in DeusEx.
Conclusion
Its a good game. Sound design is excellent, voices everywhere. A bit too many weapon options and linear design. 8/10 would recommend.
Strategy
Play on easy. The game really has no strategy, its A to B stuff with a few hidden corners that give you extra stuff to add to your already OP arsenal of stuff. If I were playing on normal I would probably be constantly running out of stuff because of the max limits.
Right off the bat, Halo4 is certainly a pretty game. An "A to B to C" shooter with big set pieces and beautiful sky-boxes everywhere. From what I have played there is not much to it. I keep running out of ammo which forces me to pick up strange enemy guns. The vehicles are not fun to drive. Every texture is meticulously crafted but the game just sends me from place to place to push a button, shoot some baddies, press another button, watch a cut scene with in world babble then repeat. Things are happening and only this one guy and his Ai can stop it. Doesnt make much sense.
This is my first halo game so I have no reference point. This might be how they all are. I do get lost in some of the more open areas. Not sure if it is because of the seamless textures or poor level design but the solution seems to always involve going up to the highest point. I will have to see how the rest of the game unfolds.
Halo 4 is pretty but its not a fun shooter. 7 out of 10. I am going back to FarCry 3. Might come back to it later. This is when I started playing several games at a time because playing multiple levels of hal04 back to back can really numb your skull.
Picked this up again and it's still boring. At this point I try to avoid enemy waves by throwing a grenade then running past them. The UI message telling to swap to another weapon looks exactly like the pick up weapon message. So I end up confused with in a fire fight.
I will have to pull out a new game from the stack because this is not worth my time. Pretty but dumb sci-fi.
Conclusion
Boring game. I give it 5/10. Even playing on easy it was just like watching a movie with annoying shooty sections.
How it ended
I just stopped playing the game at a random level. I am not even sure how far I was into the game. I took the disk out and placed it back in storage. Maybe I need to play an earlier ODST, H3 or Reach.
The game has Thief vibes, good graphics and movement. I like it already. Maybe because I recently completed Thief. I cant believe that this game was made in 2012 before Thief(2014). By level 2 I got the blink power which pretty much broke the game. Or atleast broke the things that made the game similar to thief.
This game is not Thief. The magic goes a bit too far to be honest. I suggest you play Thief before you play this game because the blink ability is way over powered. it is fun blink. There is way too much magic in this game. Lol, talking hearts, teleportation, possession of animals, it crazy. It's like they added everything into this game but I choose to only sneak around. I could be doing way more damage but alerting the guards creates chaos which is a free fall into more chaos. Sometimes I can accidentally trigger a guard and not realize until I get attacked by another guard on the other side of the building.
Blink really breaks this games navigation. I remember searching around walls and corners for access point in Dues Ex Human revolution - it was a puzzle in itself to find entrances to buildings. In this game blink is omnipresent. There might be ways to play without using blink but its so convenient why would you not use it? You get the blink power so early in the game that it becomes the primary tool for navigation instead of a late game metroid-vania accessory like the space-jump in other games.
Magic aside there are lots of things to loot and alternate routes in which to steal stuff. So that fact makes it scratch that Thief itch. There is enough there to make any play style fun. Not too many enemies, the levels are not too big and there is breathing room to plan your attack. You can also save anywhere which is a plus for some people.
Conclusion
The game is good and cheap. 10/10. Its a short game but you will spend a good 30minutes running around each area. Depending on your play style its similar to Thief but with over powered magic abilities.
Strategy
I tried to not kill any guards. but then I got blink and now I blink everywhere. And sleeping darts. Use sleeping darts but you never have enough. Save your money for upgrades and slots. All you really need is blink. The game over stays it's welcome but has replay value if you want to search for every coin. Completed Mar0126.
The cutscenes are long, like really long. Some of the longest cutscenes I have seen in a xbox video game since 2024 and they do not give you much information. At one point I got up and washed some dishes while the cutscene was playing. Should you skip the cutscenes? Yes, no, maybe. I did not get much context from them at all. In my first play session I go a hang of the game, first playing on normal then rolling back down to "Easy". I do not have time for bad camera and cheap enemies. The frame rate was bad at first but you get accustomed to it. Its almost like a stylized bad frame rate like in No More Heros. Yes, its a very HMH kinda game.
The cutscenes in this game go on and on and on. I think 80% of this game is cut-scene. I am finding the game to be very repetitive, even while playing on easy there arent enough enemies to really get accustomed to the mechanics. I will have to replay an older stage to see how it is. So far I am just cruising through the game on Easy.
Towards the end of the game the cutscenes start to make more sense and the action scenes get more intense and wild. I think to myself I probably would never be able to see these awesome scenes if I had played the game on normal. Its a tough game with some awesome set pieces that will blow you mind.
Conclusion
Lots of cutscenses and a deep beat-em-up system. I played on easy so no chance to really dive into the combat system but can feel the depth and the madness of it. The set pieces and environments are impressive - certainly full of spectacle. I give the game a 7/10. Its good but only play it if you like beat-em-ups. The story is wild and spectacle is turnt to 100.
Strategy
Play the game on easy. you will thank me later. The game is hard and the camera is wild but the graphics and the weirdness makes it worth the trip.
