Showing posts with label First Impressions. Show all posts
9/18/13 12:00PM | Grand Theft Auto V is finally here, and I've had a chance to play a good amount yesterday. Here are my impressions so far:
As great as the trailers look for the game, it looks even better when you're actually playing the game on your TV. The city is beautiful no matter the time of day or weather conditions, and it's really impressive when you consider it's among one of the last major releases for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
So far I've got about 7 hours on my save, and am currently playing as Trevor. The character switching mechanic works well, and I found myself switching between characters every few missions or so, just to get a change of perspective.
Aside from the visuals, the game's controls are really impressive. Having just gone through a bit of Max Payne 3 not too long ago, the feel of that game has moved into GTA 5, which makes the shooting and third person movement better than it has ever been in GTA.
The only issue I've had so far is not being able to access some Social Club features, but it's understandable and Rockstar is fixing these issues as I write out this post.
The pop-in issue that apparently arises from installing both discs to the hard drive is something else that have bothered people, but if you have a USB drive with a nice reading speed, installing disc two on there instead of the Xbox seems to work fine. This of course doesn't affect the PS3, so if you have that version you're good to go.
For me as an avid fan of this series, this game so far has lived up to the years of anticipation and I can't wait to play more of it.
Be sure to check out my review of the game later on. I hope to have it up within the next two weeks. I also plan to review GTA Online separately after it launches on October 1st. Hope you're enjoying Los Santos so far!
So I picked up Final Fantasy XIII-2 on Tuesday, and played for about an hour, and then went back to Final Fantasy XIII. It's not what you think though! Final Fantasy XIII-2 starts off great, its just that I haven't beat XIII yet.
After putting in about 35 hours of XIII, playing XIII-2 immediately after all that I could see some of the positive changes made to the game. The combat is still fun, fast, and fluid, with an emphasis on speed since there is no real animation when switching Paradigms, so you can get to things like Ravager/Commando, or Sentinel/Sentinel faster.
I'm missing some of the characters already, but the focus on Serah and Noel seems to fit into the story based on how much XIII I've played so far.
The Random encounter system is very welcome and offers up a chance to start battle preemptively more often than XIII, and being able to use monsters like the demo showcases will be pretty cool.
Once I finish up on Final Fantasy XIII, I'll be going straight into XIII-2 with the story fresh in my mind which should help when it's time to review it. I hope to have a review up within a week or so, as long as the boss battles don't get too crazy!
Despite a rocky launch involving updates, playlist errors, and slow downloads, the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map is now available for Xbox 360. Coming later for PlayStation 3 and PC, The Map Pack as you probably know brings 3 new maps to the table, and 2 greats from Call of Duty 4.
The 2 remakes: Crash and Overgrown, play almost identical to how they originally were, with the exception of new killstreaks and perks to used. Infinity Ward had to be careful when picking the maps since the new perks in Modern Warfare 2 could throw off the balance that they have established, but so far things seem great and it's fun to play on these maps again.
The three brand new ones: Storm, Bailout, and Salvage, all feel great and varied and fit right in with the fast paced action that MW2 brings. In the end, these maps are a great addition, but it's still pretty hard to swallow the $15 price point that the pack brings. This is a must buy for those that play Modern Warfare 2 with friends and for competition on a daily basis, but for others that can't get past the 1200 MSP price, wait until they reduce the price.
So far I'm about an hour into the game and it's seems to be slowly introducing you into the gameplay mechanics for the new battle system. The visuals are pretty impressive even though the Xbox 360 version is spread across three discs which have compressed cutscences. It's not that big of a deal unless you analyze the PS3 and 360 version side by side. The characters so far are pretty interesting and the story actually make some sense although I haven't been playing long enough to fully know what exactly is going on.
The combat system is pretty neat and although you only control one party member in battle, you still have to strategically plan your attacks that can coincide with your teammate's actions.
I hope to have a review in a timely manner, but from what I've heard about the length is that it will take 30+ hours to complete.
How is the game for you so far? Please feel free to leave comments!
