360 Rant Rave Forums

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dyin’ time’s here! The first expansion to the roleplaying shooter Borderlands introduced the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, a healthy helping of Halloween leftovers that debuted closer to Thanksgiving. The ample serving of new enemies, new locations, and new storyline was enough for one or more bounty hunters to tackle. The new content, however, is geared a bit more towards group play.
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In a Shacknews interview posted yesterday, Gearbox’s Mikey Neumann addressed issues such as the current looting system, DLC, and firemen.

When asked to address the free-for-all loot system (or as I like to call it, that-which-bitchslaps-WoWheads), Mikey touted the honor system that has not seemed to fail him in his own experiences with the game. He admitted, however, that if there is a large enough demand for it then even this can be addressed. “There’s some technical hurdles there that we’re going to have to look at, but obviously whatever people are clamoring [for], we’re gonna try to make it all better.”

In more gamemaster-friendly news, Bioware gave us a little insight into the Dragon Age: Origins Toolset, and it seems pretty deep. While this may be familiar to those who have played games like Morrowind that came with such an extra disc, Bioware’s teaser video seems to portend the capability to tweak even storyline and voice acting elements. If the company’s boast is true, you really can build your own adventures with the Dragon Age Toolset.

By the time we got in with Mikey Neumann, Creative Director for Gearbox, he had whittled his way through 40 or so of the XBL gamertags on his list of preorder pals. We didn’t ask many questions, as he sounded exhausted from constant loot grinding; he told us he’d probably have Randy [Pitchford, CEO/president of Gearbox] handle the PS3 preorders. We joked around a bit in the starting areas of the game, and he even called my gamertag weird (but not as weird as a tag that sounded like “balsamic gorilla”)! Vash shot off the Leviathan (a quest-rewarded rapid fire rocket launcher), surprising Mikey, who apparently hadn’t played much with that particular weapon. He asked Vash to show him the stats on it, and he dropped it to the ground to do so…only to have Mikey ninja it! After handing over the Leviathan, our Pandora guide brought us to the yet unexplored and more dangerous parts of Pandora – the endgame.

In our time with Mikey, we scoured the later levels of the game in attempts to find superloot. He answered a few questions I had, like why Lilith’s Phase Strike was so weak. Maxed out, the ability at the end of the Siren’s Assassin tree should do +800% damage, but that doesn’t seem to yield the big numbers that, say, Mikey’s Mordecai could do with his 17k-30.7k damage critical melee strikes. He assured me that this was most certainly a bug that was going to get patched. It was also refreshing to know (as we were still near the end of just our first playthrough ourselves) that the game’s enemies seem to scale well, redlining Mikey himself a few times.

Before long our time with Mikey was at an end. We didn’t have much loot the first time through, but other members at 360RantRave who made his esteemed list managed to snag him for one more opportunity that proved more fruitful. The weary but good-humored dev allowed those who were still in party to tag along for a second, more successful attempt. With Mikey’s help, we gained a good bit of loot, one particular item being a rocket launcher with close to 1k damage!

We thanked Mikey for his time and for making a great game, making sure to save so we kept our loot drops. We then giddily returned to the dusty wasteland of Pandora, newly equipped with a fresh armament with which to bring pain to the denizens of the Borderlands.

Introduction

Pandora awaits you in this genre-defining RPS, or roleplaying shooter. It’s not often that games can mix and match a variety of genres like spices from an Iron Chef’s signature line, but Gearbox and 2K games have made quite a tasty concoction with Borderlands. Released on North American consoles on October 20th, 2009, Pandora’s denizens bring the pain to your door in the form of acid-spewing creatures, gun-toting psychos, and, to use Mikey’s words, “laserd***” guardians. The Vault is calling, so as Zombieland’s ass-kicking Tallahassee would say, “time to nut up or shut up!”

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Introduction:
World domination! That is what the famous civilization series is all about. That and choice; the choice of who and how you want to do it, and as far as that goes Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution (Civ.) is 100% accurate. If you are an old Civ. fan there are things you will miss, but for new comers to the series there is plenty of fun to be had and enough number crunching and strategy abound to keep you busy for the rest of your summer.

Gameplay:
You are one of 16 famous leaders through out history from as far back as Cleopatra to as recent as Gandhi, each receiving different bonuses at the start and through each technological era. The single player is very open and does not feature a ‘Campaign’ mode that most strategy fans would expect, but it has 5 degrees of difficulty from Chieftain to Deity. Also included are a number of pre-made scenarios that have different rules from your standard method of play.

Victory is decided in one of four ways: Domination, Economic, Cultural and Technological. You can take over all the other civilization’s palace cities, obtain 20,000 gold and build the world bank, obtain and keep 20 Wonders/Great People/Converted Cities and build the UN or research Space Flight and launch a mission to Alpha Centauri. Anyway you look at it the game, there’s a large amount of diversity for victory and play style. The game features a very familiar looking technology tree, which can be daunting for new players the first couple of times they see it, but becomes second nature after a few games.

Extras:
The multiplayer in the game is sadly plagued with disconnects and latency issues, which make it seem like the game was rushed. As I mentioned before, technology plays a big part in the game – mainly in the changing of the era. You start out in the ancient era and then move to the Medieval, Industrial and Modern era’s once you have researched 4, 14 and 24 technologies respectively. There are currently no imbalances between civs. during online competition, but if you do not use your era bonuses you will find yourself quickly falling behind. That is, of course, if you can at least find a game that you can join and won’t have at least one player lag out or quit early.

Conclusion:
While it is a good game, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution does very little to stand out from the other titles this summer, and the multiplayer on it suffers tremendously. While there are numerous possibilities for single player combinations to make your games different, they do not differ quite enough for my taste. Though the game is still good for a laugh when you find yourself being threatened by honest Abe or Gandhi, how can you not enjoy it?

Score: 7.5

The demo for Top Spin 3 is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Top Spin 3 features stunning graphics and revolutionary gameplay that contains innovative new controls, Signature Style™, and expansive online offerings, and gives players control over a wide selection of current top ranked tennis pros like Andy Roddick, Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova, as well legendary* players Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg and Monica Seles. An incredibly deep player creator system provides fans with complete control over every aspect of their character with a new freeform face sculpting editor, and customizable swing animations, hairstyles, makeup, tattoos and grunts.

Top Spin 3 offers a wide variety of gameplay and features, including situation-specific behaviors, revamped audio with enhanced crowd reaction, and precise controls that fans can easily pick up and play while still providing the most genuine tennis experience possible. All-new Evolutionary Visuals™ showcase the intensity of the game as players sweat, demonstrate fatigue and accumulate grass and clay stains on their clothing over the course of a match, while competing at courts that have dynamic weather changes. Competitive players will also be able to create matches online and test their skills against friends or other ranked players around the world via singles or doubles in Exhibition, Custom, or World Tour Matches.

Game on!

Don King Presents: Prizefighter delivers the deepest, most authentic, and entertaining boxing experience available. The life of a boxer is more than just a night at the fights—it’s about building a career and rising to stardom. You must train, overcome adversity, get promoted, and avoid the temptation to rise in notoriety, all while watching the story of your rise to champion unfold in a unique, live-action sports documentary style that features real-life legends from the world of boxing.

The demo is now available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace.  You can view a trailer HERE. 

• The boxing lifestyle: A full career mode offers a comprehensive story line that follows you through real-life boxing situations such as injuries, resisting temptations, facing stacked odds against a corrupt judge, and more. These dramatic moments are told in a sports documentary style using the voices and images of world famous boxers and celebrities from the boxing world.
• Best in the ring and in the booth: Don King Presents: Prizefighter offers up a roster of approximately 80 boxers, along with 30 licensed, active professional boxers and 10 classic, legends of the ring. Classics include Larry Holmes, Ken Norton, and even the Cinderella Man himself, James Braddock. The play-by-play and color commentary are provided by none other than HBO Boxing broadcasters Emmanuel Stewart and Jim Lampley.
• Exciting boxing venues: Don King Presents: Prizefighter features more than 20 fight gyms and venues including Madison Square Garden, Trump Taj Mahal, Boardwalk Hall, and many others.
  Training through mini-games: Through a variety of fun and exciting mini-games, train and increase your skill level by participating in different rhythm-based modes including jump rump, heavy bag, focus mitts, speed bag, and shuttle run.
• The virtual gym: This unique online mode lets you form and compete in virtual gyms of friends or any available competitor. Choose from any of the legendary or active champions in Prizefighter, or use up to eight of your own customized boxers in this feature.

Game on!