Xbox360 Reviews
I've been slacking my my Xbox360 game reviews. Since the last review of PGR3, I've played Tiger Woods 2006 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Neither one was super impressive which is probably what led me to put off the reviews. I'm unveiling my innovative new rating system. It's the pricepoint at which I'd be happy to have the game. Most Xbox360 games retail for $60.
Tiger Woods 2006
I like golf games, and I don't own any of the Tiger Woods series. The game is graphically impressive (but what game on the 360 isn't?) It plays like just about every other golf game.
Pros:
- Real courses. I was flipping through the channels this weekend and recognized a course that I had played a few times in the game.
- I like the ball striking control. It requires you to pull the left thumbstick straight back and power straight forward. The right thumbstick is used for controlling your draw/fade, and the upper left trigger button is used for extra power. It takes a while to get used to, but once you get it you feel like you're actually doing something skillful to hit the ball straight.
Cons:
- It's impossible to get achievements in this game. All the achievements are awarded for online play. By the time I was good enough to even think about possibly winning some of the online achievements, I was tired of the game.
- Cut scenes before and after each swing are fun the first 34249234 times. Sure you can skip through some of them by pressing a button, but I want a way to turn them all off completely.
- Autosave! If I have a hard drive, every game should auto save. Don't make me manually go into a menu and click Save!
Rating: $35
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Like Tiger Woods, this was my first foray into the NFS series. I love racing games, but the arcade racers have never interested me. Burnout 3 is supposed to be one of the greatest Xbox games but after 10 hours I was fed up with that game. NFS held my interest again because of the graphics, but that fades too. The gameplay is based around you beating 15 underground racers. To get the opportunity to challenge each racer, you need to win some races and collect enough “bounty.“ Bounty is given for getting into chases with the cops and causing trouble. The longer they chase you, the more points you get, but the tougher the cops get with you. If you get caught you have to pay a fine or your car gets impounded. It's the same thing over and over again.
Pros:
- It's an enormous free roaming city. You could spend all day driving around... if you were really bored.
- There's a pretty high degree of freedom in customizing your car. You can change the paint scheme, buy new parts, and adjust some of the main components of the car.
- The city is highly destructable. You can drive down the boardwalk and send chairs and umbrellas flying or crash into a gas station and watch it explode.
Cons:
- Repetitive gameplay. You win races, you get bounty, you challenge the next racer. For each level you're required to get more and more bounty so the process takes longer and longer.
- Arcade racing. Forget about physics when you play this game.
- Autosave! If I have a hard drive, every game should auto save. Don't make me manually go into a menu and click Save!
Rating: $25
Previous Xbox360 reviews:
PGR3
CoD2
XBLA