Alrighty. I'll try to make this quick and simple. This book was easily one of the best things I've ever read. Completely awesome. The ultimate Bourne experience. If you like Bourne read this book! I highly recommend it.
I read every page. Awesome Bourne action! Awesome, tense, interesting story. Though it can get a little slow and political at times, it's still pretty interesting. Just read the book, that's all I can say. Bourne kicks a** in this book!
I'm about to start reading the Bourne Ultimatum book, so I'll see how it turns out! :]
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10
Reread Value: Good
- Stefan
May 17, 2008
May 13, 2008
MK vs DC Idea
This is for me to get this off of my chest.
First off this game was such a bad idea in the first place, they had to hire comic writers to think something up for them. Well they thought up a story! MAGIC! Oh yeah, that's explains everything! How much are they paying these guys anyway?
This is the biggest, most pitiful excuse for a "new" game I've ever heard of. Ed said it would be new and never thought of... Uhhhhh, crossover games have been thought of before. And we never thought of this idea because we never thought they would do something so stupid to this already dying franchise.
I really don't understand why any real fan would support this "new" game. People say there making it teen to appeal to other audiences so they can get more money off of it. OK, so why the heck would you support such a thing? Why are you buying this game? Is it to give them money for a bad idea, or to get an awesome new MK? Talk about prejudging the game! Giving it a chance and saying it may be good is prejudging it!
The people that say this game is going to be good base their thinking on non-facts, false hopes, and imagination. The ones that say it's probably going to be a stupid and a useless game (like me) base what we say on facts, what's been presented to us, and an idea that's absurd; and we don't like what we see, it's as simple as that.
So if you go around saying "Give it a chance! It's gonna be cool!" are you basing what you are saying on fact, or imagination?
But I guess we will see.
- Stefan
First off this game was such a bad idea in the first place, they had to hire comic writers to think something up for them. Well they thought up a story! MAGIC! Oh yeah, that's explains everything! How much are they paying these guys anyway?
This is the biggest, most pitiful excuse for a "new" game I've ever heard of. Ed said it would be new and never thought of... Uhhhhh, crossover games have been thought of before. And we never thought of this idea because we never thought they would do something so stupid to this already dying franchise.
I really don't understand why any real fan would support this "new" game. People say there making it teen to appeal to other audiences so they can get more money off of it. OK, so why the heck would you support such a thing? Why are you buying this game? Is it to give them money for a bad idea, or to get an awesome new MK? Talk about prejudging the game! Giving it a chance and saying it may be good is prejudging it!
The people that say this game is going to be good base their thinking on non-facts, false hopes, and imagination. The ones that say it's probably going to be a stupid and a useless game (like me) base what we say on facts, what's been presented to us, and an idea that's absurd; and we don't like what we see, it's as simple as that.
So if you go around saying "Give it a chance! It's gonna be cool!" are you basing what you are saying on fact, or imagination?
But I guess we will see.
- Stefan
May 4, 2008
Grand Theft Auto 4
After the impressive awesome expansiveness of GTA: San Andreas, this newest instalment has a lot to live up to and beat. Thought we are not done playing through the missions, I can tell you what I think so far..
First things first..
Vehicles The detail put into the sound and look of them is very nice, such as bullet holes, tires busting, the vehicle stalling. I'd say there are 2 things that are very wrong with them.
One is it takes nearly 30 feet for the car to stop after you press/hold the brakes, which will result in the failing of many missions and extreme frustration.
Two is Niko (the main character) seems to have a dislike of seat-belts, which means some of the times you wreck, you simply eject out the windshield of your car. Also this will result in the failing of missions, and also death.
Stealing/getting into vehicles is relatively the same as it was for GTA:SA, you press Y and Niko walks up, opens the door, throws whoever is in out if anyone is in there, and gets in. The problem is if you even so much as accidentally press Y near a vehicle that's not yours, Niko automatically approaches it and starts to steal it, if you jerk him out of the animation before he steals it or touches it, and if a cop is around, you will become wanted and they pursue you.
..Great automobile detail..
Getting in a taxi has problems too. Taxi's are a quick, and affordable way to get around the cities but how you get in them is by holding Y. And that will lead to accidental tappings of Y which will lead to you stealing the taxi instead of getting in it. Very frustrating. Also if there is a taxi and has someone is in it, they won't stop for you when you whistle (LB). This will lead to you running around wildly in the streets looking for another taxi.
First things first..
Vehicles The detail put into the sound and look of them is very nice, such as bullet holes, tires busting, the vehicle stalling. I'd say there are 2 things that are very wrong with them.
One is it takes nearly 30 feet for the car to stop after you press/hold the brakes, which will result in the failing of many missions and extreme frustration.
Two is Niko (the main character) seems to have a dislike of seat-belts, which means some of the times you wreck, you simply eject out the windshield of your car. Also this will result in the failing of missions, and also death.
Stealing/getting into vehicles is relatively the same as it was for GTA:SA, you press Y and Niko walks up, opens the door, throws whoever is in out if anyone is in there, and gets in. The problem is if you even so much as accidentally press Y near a vehicle that's not yours, Niko automatically approaches it and starts to steal it, if you jerk him out of the animation before he steals it or touches it, and if a cop is around, you will become wanted and they pursue you.
..Great automobile detail..
Getting in a taxi has problems too. Taxi's are a quick, and affordable way to get around the cities but how you get in them is by holding Y. And that will lead to accidental tappings of Y which will lead to you stealing the taxi instead of getting in it. Very frustrating. Also if there is a taxi and has someone is in it, they won't stop for you when you whistle (LB). This will lead to you running around wildly in the streets looking for another taxi.
..Car explosions are better than ever..
Walking/Running It can be quite clumsy at many times. When you walk out in front of a moving car, whether it is going 1 or 100 MPH, you instantly go into rag-doll mode which can take up to 7 or more seconds to recover from. You will also run into just about everything because of the clumsiness of the walking and running. But the animations of the way he walks is better that previous GTA's.
Weapons The aiming first.. I'll put it simply.. crap. When in an intense shootout, (naturally) you tense up, pressing the left trigger hard which switches you to lock-on mode, and can mess your aim up horribly. Pressing the left trigger slightly is how you free-aim, our preferred method.
The action of the weapons is pretty brutal.. as in the people you shoot don't die instantly, if you don't hit their heads. As always in the GTA series the animation of the firearms is undetailed.. the automatic pistol's slide doesn't move, to reload the AK-47 he simply cocks it..?
Hand to Hand Combat Ridiculous
Missions I'll try to sum this up quickly. Repetitive, annoying, frustrating, boring, similar, expected, and not fun. The same crappy missions you have always had to deal with with the GTA games. You go to someones house, cut-scene, they follow you out of the house, get a car!, drive them to a destination at the other side of the map, cut-scene, go to another point close by, cut-scene, kill everyone!, get something, pickup your tag-along person, drive to a certain point across the map again, cut-scene, mission done. Almost Every Freaking Time! And of course you will fail these missions almost every time the first time, and even the second, and maybe a third. You do get a text massage on your phone that lets you press A and retry the mission, which does help the frustration, a tad bit.
By the way, you will constantly be called countless times by the people that get you missions and asked to do something, or go eat with them, or play darts. This gets really stupid and of course frustrating.
And of course you will have to beat a ton of stupid missions to unlock the next city/island, so you can play in it. Why don't they just let you NOT do the missions?! I mean come on Rockstar! We don't like them! Let us just have every place to begin with...... Oh well.
Environment Alright, I'm gonna try to go into detail about this. There are three major
cities/islands. We've unlocked two already, but have crossed-over into the third for a little bit (having 6 stars while we tried to drive through as much as we could before dying). And from what we have experienced they are basically all the same. The scenery is all nice and pretty (graphics wise). ..Yes you can still swim..
But here are the huge problems: Not only are they extremely hard to get around in, it's just darn impossible to! It's so darn cramped! A building here, a building there, oh a car!, another person! Oh look, another freaking wall I just ran in to again! and again, and again, another light post, another immovable tiny object that flipped my car over! You can't move!
And you certainly can forget about stealing whatever car you want, whenever you want it, because 7 out of 10 times there's a cop or two right there with you! Many times I have gotten wanted with no cops within a mile, and even 10 or so seconds after I even stole the car, or committed any other crime.
Oops I bumped a cop, I'm a criminal! oops I bumped a pedestrian, I being cursed at! Oops I ran into a building, and another, and another. Oh man, I hit a little white picked fence going 100 miles an hour, it didn't move and totaled my car, I flew out of the windshield and hit pavement! What's that in front of me?... Oh, ha ha, IT'S MORE PAVEMENT!!!!
The places are pretty big but I don't think as big as GTA:SA's expansive awesome and free-roaming nature. That was what we liked, not city, after city.
Uh-oh, I'm wanted again for firing a pistol, run! I crossed the road, a car bumped me out of nowhere, rag-doll mode. Get up Niko! Get up! He's up. Run! Another bump, rag doll, up Niko!... Are you getting the picture?
The environment may seem impressive for the first few hours, but then it just becomes a huge hassle and hugely "same-old same-old". I'm not impressed with it.
You can't go in to almost every building, just a very select few. Such as: Clothes shops, restaurants, umm.... strip-clubs, bars, bowling ally, um.. internet cafes........... yeah that's about it. Yeah there are "Pay and Prays", but that's it! No automobile up-grader places at all, and you can't choose the color of your car like you could in GTA:SA, what's up with that?!
..Blood graphics look good..
The cites are lively and sound nice though.
One more thing.. we gave Niko eye glasses, but we quickly found out when you die, or go to jail they disappear, forcing you to go to a safe-house, and re-apply them. Just some stupid glitch I guess.
Walking/Running It can be quite clumsy at many times. When you walk out in front of a moving car, whether it is going 1 or 100 MPH, you instantly go into rag-doll mode which can take up to 7 or more seconds to recover from. You will also run into just about everything because of the clumsiness of the walking and running. But the animations of the way he walks is better that previous GTA's.
Weapons The aiming first.. I'll put it simply.. crap. When in an intense shootout, (naturally) you tense up, pressing the left trigger hard which switches you to lock-on mode, and can mess your aim up horribly. Pressing the left trigger slightly is how you free-aim, our preferred method.
The action of the weapons is pretty brutal.. as in the people you shoot don't die instantly, if you don't hit their heads. As always in the GTA series the animation of the firearms is undetailed.. the automatic pistol's slide doesn't move, to reload the AK-47 he simply cocks it..?
Hand to Hand Combat Ridiculous
Missions I'll try to sum this up quickly. Repetitive, annoying, frustrating, boring, similar, expected, and not fun. The same crappy missions you have always had to deal with with the GTA games. You go to someones house, cut-scene, they follow you out of the house, get a car!, drive them to a destination at the other side of the map, cut-scene, go to another point close by, cut-scene, kill everyone!, get something, pickup your tag-along person, drive to a certain point across the map again, cut-scene, mission done. Almost Every Freaking Time! And of course you will fail these missions almost every time the first time, and even the second, and maybe a third. You do get a text massage on your phone that lets you press A and retry the mission, which does help the frustration, a tad bit.
By the way, you will constantly be called countless times by the people that get you missions and asked to do something, or go eat with them, or play darts. This gets really stupid and of course frustrating.
And of course you will have to beat a ton of stupid missions to unlock the next city/island, so you can play in it. Why don't they just let you NOT do the missions?! I mean come on Rockstar! We don't like them! Let us just have every place to begin with...... Oh well.
Environment Alright, I'm gonna try to go into detail about this. There are three major
cities/islands. We've unlocked two already, but have crossed-over into the third for a little bit (having 6 stars while we tried to drive through as much as we could before dying). And from what we have experienced they are basically all the same. The scenery is all nice and pretty (graphics wise). ..Yes you can still swim.. But here are the huge problems: Not only are they extremely hard to get around in, it's just darn impossible to! It's so darn cramped! A building here, a building there, oh a car!, another person! Oh look, another freaking wall I just ran in to again! and again, and again, another light post, another immovable tiny object that flipped my car over! You can't move!
And you certainly can forget about stealing whatever car you want, whenever you want it, because 7 out of 10 times there's a cop or two right there with you! Many times I have gotten wanted with no cops within a mile, and even 10 or so seconds after I even stole the car, or committed any other crime.
Oops I bumped a cop, I'm a criminal! oops I bumped a pedestrian, I being cursed at! Oops I ran into a building, and another, and another. Oh man, I hit a little white picked fence going 100 miles an hour, it didn't move and totaled my car, I flew out of the windshield and hit pavement! What's that in front of me?... Oh, ha ha, IT'S MORE PAVEMENT!!!!
The places are pretty big but I don't think as big as GTA:SA's expansive awesome and free-roaming nature. That was what we liked, not city, after city.
Uh-oh, I'm wanted again for firing a pistol, run! I crossed the road, a car bumped me out of nowhere, rag-doll mode. Get up Niko! Get up! He's up. Run! Another bump, rag doll, up Niko!... Are you getting the picture?
The environment may seem impressive for the first few hours, but then it just becomes a huge hassle and hugely "same-old same-old". I'm not impressed with it.You can't go in to almost every building, just a very select few. Such as: Clothes shops, restaurants, umm.... strip-clubs, bars, bowling ally, um.. internet cafes........... yeah that's about it. Yeah there are "Pay and Prays", but that's it! No automobile up-grader places at all, and you can't choose the color of your car like you could in GTA:SA, what's up with that?!
..Blood graphics look good..
The cites are lively and sound nice though.
One more thing.. we gave Niko eye glasses, but we quickly found out when you die, or go to jail they disappear, forcing you to go to a safe-house, and re-apply them. Just some stupid glitch I guess.
Verdict Yeah, the game's good, NOT new-gen to me at all. It simply feels like a tweaked, slightly up-graded, hugely down-graded San Andreas. GTA:4 is fun, there's things to do. If you like GTA like we do, for it's free-roam, and play around ability, get this game, you won't be disappointed.
Ruling: 8.5 out of 10
Replay Value: Great
- Stefan and Joey
......................................
Quick video showing some of the bad, and the good. (With a few misspelled words, sorry.)
Ruling: 8.5 out of 10
Replay Value: Great
- Stefan and Joey
......................................
Quick video showing some of the bad, and the good. (With a few misspelled words, sorry.)
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