L.A. Noire First Impressions

Category: Review    

 

      This is  a quick first impressions review of L.A. Noire, keep in mind that I'm only a few hours into the game and this is not my official review of the game.
     L.A. Noire is the latest game out of Rockstar games, develop by  Team Bondi and Rockstar. L.A. Noire takes place in a 1947 Los Angeles (L.A), you play the as Cole Phelps who has returned form World War II and joins the L.A.P.D.  Cole starts as your average Joe police officer who solved a murder case and work his way up though the ranks.
     The game features an open world experience seen in the Grand Theft Auto series and last years Red Dead Redemption. Solving murder cases play out similar to one my favorite games of all time Shumue, where you find and examine clues and make notes into notebook and ask witness question to peace together information to solve the mysteries. L.A. Noire introduce truth, doubt, and lie system when Cole is interviewing a witness or a suspect base on the facial expressions; if you think the person is lying call them on it but you better have proof to back it up, you also can choose to believe or doubt the person. During these parts of the game if you choose the right option you will get more information out of them but choose wrong you will get less information. There sometimes where a witness or suspect will flee and you will have chase them down though the town. Sometimes during the case you can aim you gun at them and wait a few seconds and Cole will fire a warning shot to stop the flee suspect. L.A. Noire also offer car chase and bawls with suspects. Driving in the game is fine but I don't think it is as tight as it was in Grad Theft Auto 4.
      The presentation of the game is in a 1940's film noir style, in my opinion each murder case plays out like episodes in a television show, with each case has title screen. There is the option to play the game in black and white to get the classic film noir feel. I've been playing the game with color to get the richness of the game's color.
     Deepening which system you buy the game for, the number of disc the game comes on will very. If you buy the game on the Xbox 360 it will come on three DVD and if you buy it on the Playstation 3 it will come on one Blu-ray disc. Don't worry Xbox owners the only time you have to swap the disc are during part of the story, so your free to explore the city without swapping the discs all the time.
     L.A. Noire is a very fun game even though it it runs into the problem of being repetitive at times. It still a game that is fun and with an engaging story. If you ever played any other Rockstar game like Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption then you know that Rockstar doesn't skimp on the amount of content they give you. Its a game that is worth the pick up and play, and that could in be in for game of the year.

Stay tune for a full review.

Battlestar Galactica The Complete Series (Re-imagined) Blu-Ray Review

I will admit that I didn't watch the series until about a year ago, at that time it was on DVD and on an old tube TV. Since then I have re-watch the series on Blu-Ray, on a proper 1080p HDTV, I have an insight into how the show looks on both formats.  Now instead of talking about the show itself, I will be reviewing the Blu-Ray complete series that was release in April 2010.

VIDEO: 5/5

     Battlestar Galactica is a show that definitely benefits from being on Blu-Ray. The video received an MPEG-4 AVC transfer and it looks absolutely amazing, you can see every dimple on Adama's face. One of the thing that sticks out to me when watching the series on Blu-Ray that I never had notice on the DVD is the film grain, most people don't like film grain in video but it adds to the greedy feel of the show.

AUDIO: 5/5

    Every "Frak", FTL jumps, engine roar, and explosion sounds crystal clear. Battlestar Galactica delivers a 5.1 Master Audio, that sounds breathtaking clear and draws you into the universe.

EXTRAS: 4/5

     Most of the Extras from the DVD release have made it to the Blu-Ray. There is one extra that I notice that didn't make to the Blu-Ray release for some reason, the season one DVD release had a TV special that the Sci-fi channel had called "Inside Sci-fi" where cast and crew talk about the show. The DVD and Blu-Ray release are still missing "Face of the Enemy" webisodes, which is odd since it has the other webisodes. The Blu-Ray release does come with exclusive extras, their is picture in picture track that plays during the miniseries, two trivia tracks, and BD-Live.

PRESENTATION: 4/5

     The box set of Battlestar Galactica comes with all four seasons of the show on 20 disc,"Razor" is part of season four set. Also include in this box set is the movie "Battlestar Galactica The Plan" to bring the total number of discs to 21. Each season comes in it own box  and "The Plan" comes in standard Blu-Ray case.  This is my only problem with this set is "The Plan" looks like it was just thrown in at the last minute, I wish they would have put it in a nicer case that fill out the remaining space in the case. The other issue with the "The Plan" is on the season disc of the show, the disc have image of Cylons, the ship, and space but "The Plan" has the standard Universal disc image.
     Moving onto the layout of the disc menus, Battlestar Galactica uses Universal's standard disc menus that they use on every Blu-Ray release, in my opinion are uninteresting. "The Plan" has advertisements that play on the menu, I payed over a hundred dollars for this set and I don't what to see advertisements, especially on the menu!

Each season case laid out

How each season fits into the case

Images on the disc

Universal's standard menu setup

OVERALL SCORE AND RECOMMENDATION: 4.5/5

     The Blu-Ray release of the series does it absolute justice, except "The Plan". If you are a fan of the series or newer comer like me Battlestar Galactica will offer you something that you are looking for, and a must buy for any fan of the series.

XBOX 360 Slim Review

Follow up to my XBOX 720 post

So the "The New Xbox 360" has been out for couple months now, I thought I would give a review of it and do a short follow up to my Xbox 720 post.

I will be reviewing the 250GB version.(the only different from the other version is the size of the hard drive)

Design - The smaller design is one of my favorite changes to the system, it now fits in my entertainment stand without laying it on its side. I'm not a fan of the glossy finish, it's a finger print magnet and I notice on mine it seems to scratch easy. The hard drive is no longer on the outside, it now is inside of the console on the bottom side. Unfortunately you can't replace the hard drive like the Playstation 3

Touch Sensitive Buttons - Now instead of press buttons, all you have to do is swipe your finger across it to active. I'm split on this feature, on one hand it is nice to swipe your finger and your done but on the other hand it's little too easy to accidentally press the buttons, if your where adjusting the system. 
Disc Reading Volume - I very happy to report the disc drive is quieter that the older version, but I wouldn't label "Whisper Quiet" like Microsoft would have you believe, unless the game is install on the hard drive. 
Built In Wireless - One of the things that I wanted from the next Xbox that has made it into this current system. It is nice to be able to connect to the internet without cables. On a side note since I wrote my Xbox 720 article I have figure out how to connect to the school internet without going thought Cisco Clean Access. 
Red Ring of Death - This time around the 360 can't red ring, since Microsoft didn't include the red LEDs! Since the new system have been out I haven't  heard any reports about the system failing, unlike the previous version.

So all in all the new Xbox 360 brought some much needed improvements. If you looking to buy Xbox 360 or trade in your old version for the new version, you will not be disappointed.


"The New Xbox 360" receives  8.5/10

Wii Step It Up!

When the Wii was first release all it needed to sell it was the fact that it had motion control to interact with the game. In the passing years, it has been reported that about 60% of all Wii owner don't play there Wii anymore. There's a good reason for this, here are some of the things that Nintendo can do if they want to improve the Wii to compete with the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.


1. DLC (There's no reason that the Wii can't have DownLoadable Content. The Wii lets the user to use up to 32gb SD card for storage.)
2. Play DVD ( Nintendo had stated it would take more then a firmware update to play DVDs; but hackers of the Wii prove this wrong. Nintendo also stated that the Wii is gaming system and not multimedia system, Nintendo needs to redefine their system now that netflix was release on it.)
3. Online Gaming (Sure the Wii has online gaming; but its crap in compressing to the Xbox and Playstation. With no setup servers on Nintendo part, online is left up to the manufacturer of the game.)
4. Exclusives (Probably the Wii has the most exclusives games on the market to date, but their crap. Nintendo take a page from Microsoft and Sony's book and throw some money at game manufacturer to get some great game on your system.)
5. Give a dam (This point ties into my last point, my Brother and I feel that Nintendo has attitude of just not caring who manufacturer games for there console. Nintendo mono is if you manufacturer for are system that great and if you don't, will we don't care.)

There's a bunch of thing the Wii can do, only if Nintendo took time and money to work on it.

PlayStation Move over for Project Natal

These are some of my thoughts on the PlayStation move and why it might fail, compare to the Xbox Project Natal. 2006 a new gaming system that would change the video gaming industry forever was release onto the world. The Nintendo Wii did that very thing that it promise by delivering a new way to play video games. The 2010 holiday season will bring Sony's Move, there answer to the Wii. How does this change the video gaming industry like the Wii did? It doesn't, the controller is the same size and shape as the Wii controller, and it has a ugly ball on top, its nothing new! Now lets look at Microsoft answer to motion control gaming that is coming out at the same time. Why I feel that Project Natal has a chance at succeeding? Microsoft is taking what the Nintendo Wii did for the gaming industry to the next step by removing the physical controller all together. By letting the player used their body to control the game, this would aloud for a more realistic gaming experience. These reason I believe the Move won't be successful and the Project Natal will. I guess we have to wait until this fall to see who wins out.

XBOX 720

What I would like to see for the next XBOX system

1. Blu-Ray Player (I know this should go without saying, I remember when the format war was going on Microsoft said if HD-DVD lost that they would come out with a Blu-Ray add-on. The war ended in early 2008, now it April 2010 and no Blu-Ray add-on.)
2. PS3 style of replacing the hard drive (No one whats to play $130 for 250gb hard drive that they can get for about $45 on newegg that about $85 difference in price)
3. The ability to store media on to the hard drive
4. Continued with the ability to use third party USB flash drive to save data (I like this feature, the ability to store DLC, Demos, and save game on USB drive. The only thing I would like to see is the ability to use a flash drive bigger then 16gb.)
5. Quieter disc player (My 360 sounds like coffee pot making coffee when its reading from the disc player.)
6. Built in wireless card (Get with the times Microsoft every thing now has a build in wireless card in it.)
7. Internet browser (I live at a college dorm that require me to log in before you can use the internet. Which would make a hundred dollar wireless card pointless because I have to use my laptop to stream the internet to be able to connect to xbox live. If it had an internet browser I could log in and play wireless.)
8. Free online play (Most gamers would say that xbox live is the best online system out there, making it free would make it even better. For $50 a year I could buy new video game for that price. Plus the Wii and Playstation 3 have free online play.)
9. No Red Ring or 3/4 Ring of Death (don't rush the 720 out to market before the other systems to make profit, Take your time with it Microsoft!)

Now I know some of these thing you can do with the PlayStation 3 already and Microsoft would be smart to include these features in there next system. Lets just hope that Microsoft doesn't name it XBOX 720!