Frayhua Reviews: Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Wanted: Weapons of Fate

Style: Third-Person Shooter
System: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC
Publisher: GRIN
Developer: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Release Date: March 17, 2009

Story- Wanted: WOF takes place about five hours after the movie and the story is Wesley Gibson going to find out what happened to his mother.

Presentation

Graphics- The in-game graphics are good, but framerate issues hold it back as well as the cutscene graphics that look like an early Playstation 2 game. The explosion effects could’ve been better. Overall, the graphics are decent.

Sound- Some of the voice actors from the movie don’t return to lend their voices to their characters in the game. Tom Kane replaces Morgan Freeman as Sloan and Jimmi Simpson replaces James McAvoy as Wesley Gibson. Thomas Kretschmann reprises his role to as Cross and Terrance Stamp reprises his role as Pekwarsky The voice acting is good, especially the one liners from Wesley. The music is as awesome as the movie and it’s fitting each stage perfectly.

Gameplay

I.) Campaign- The gameplay is your standard third-person shooter like Gears of War and bullet time slow motion like Max Payne. You hide behind cover and shoot. The cover system in this game is a good way to get from cover to cover really quickly. You can slow down time or you can curve bullets at the price of adrenaline points. Bullet curving is done by holding R1 or Right Bumper and using the right analog stick to determine the trajectory by a white line meaning the enemy can be hit. If the trajectory is red, you can't hit your target. Curving bullets cost one adrenaline point. If the bullet hits it’s mark you earn one adrenaline point. If you slow down time you use two adrenaline points. Melee finishers on enemies earn two adrenaline points. The game you can also play as Cross in flashbacks. The game has only three weapons not including sniper and turret sequences. The weapons are one handgun at the start of the game, a different type of handgun later on, and Cross two handguns.

II.) Game Benefits- The game can be easy like Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow by itself, but with the melee finishers, bullet curving, and bullet time slow motion the game it’s a total joke. In the first levels you can go from cover to cover and use melee finishers on enemies, including enemies with knives wearing hoods on Acts 7-9. It also works on the second boss called The Russian because there is even an achievement on Killer difficulty(Hard Mode) to do this. Bullet Curving is fun, but it get old fast because the enemies are taken out very easily. Bullet Time is cheesily used when fighting bosses like Araña and The Immortal. First, weak enemies appear so you can kill them to fill up you adrenaline points. Next, you wait to see Araña repel down or The Immortal to run really fast so you can slow down time to shoot them.

III.) Value- This game is short and can be beaten in about four hours and the boss characters you can play as offer nothing new because they play exactly like Wesley. This is a good rental to get
achievements or trophies depending on what system you have.

Overview

+ Decent visuals
+ Great sound
+ Game better than the movie it’s based on
- Easy
- Short
- Lame replay value
- Bad value at full price

Frayhua Reviews: Red Steel

Red Steel


System: Nintendo Wii
Style: 1-Player First-Person Shooter (4-Player Multiplayer)
Developer: Ubisoft Paris
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: November 19,2006
ESRB Rating: Teen

Story- A man named Scott Monroe wants to marry Miyu, the daughter of Yakuza boss named Sato. Things don’t go well and your on your quest to save Miyu.

Presentation

Graphics- If you saw the E306 trailer for Red Steel you were like, Wow the Wii has graphics like the PS3 and Xbox 360. That isn’t true the real graphics look like a Gamecube game. The environments look great, but the enemy models could use a little more work. Framerate issues occur at random making this truly feel like a old Gamecube game.

Sound- The voice acting is well done. The music and sound effects are great, but the music can be generic at times. When characters speak Japanese there are no English translation of what they said.

Gameplay

Single-Player-(Gunplay) The controls take some getting use to for the Wii. Holding the A Button is lock on and moving the Wiimote forward will allow you to zoom in. When zooming in aiming reticle is still on screen to allow new players to easily score headshots. Holding the A Button and thrust the Wiimote in a fast motion to cause Focus Mode. Focus Mode is when time stops and you can kill all the enemies or make them surrender. To make enemies surrender you must shoot their weapon out of their hand and wave you Wiimote in a series of up and down jesters. The B Button is to shoot. The C button is to jump. The Z Button is crouch. Press Left on the D-Pad to switch weapons. To reload press Right on the D-Pad or flick the Nunchuk in an up and down motion. Hold Down on the D-Pad to select grenades. When holding Down on the D-Pad you use the Nunchuk to throw grenades in an under or overhanded jester. Melee attacks are done with the Nunchuk when close to and enemy. The camera is sensitive because if you get the Wiimote off screen, the camera will spin like crazy until you get the Wiimote back on screen. Overall, the gun controls work well, but the A.I. is smart and stupid at the same time. The A.I. is very accurate from really far away, but there are times that they really dumb like when they freeze for no reason sometimes, stands out in the open waiting to get shot, and not having any time to avoid grenades.

Single-Player-(Swordplay) In addition to you standard shooter there are sections where you use your sword to combat enemies in an one-on-one sword fight. Sword fighting controls: For movement hold the C Button plus the control stick to evade enemy attacks. Hold the Z Button to execute an attack with both swords in both hands. The Wiimote is slash in many dirrections, but you can’t thrust. Flick the Nunchuk left or right to block or parry enemy attacks. There are three problems with sword fighting.

1.) If you use the Nunchuk how the game wants it to be used, you’ll lose in the later fights.
Note: I switched to the way the Tanto was shown on screen and fights became even easier.

2.) You can’t skip sword fights.

3.) The sword fights are very generic, especially if you fight Mama San Sasori and Tokai because it’s just a cheesy excuse to dodge more often.


Multiplayer- This is your shooter with Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and a mode called Killer, where players are offer a objective for that round and you hold the Wiimote like a cell phone to hear you objective. There are only four maps: Dojo, Restaurant, Games, and Docks. This was a Wii launch title, so that means that there is no online play.

Overview

+ Good Control Ideas
+ Decent Attempt With Physics Using The Unreal Engine 2.5
+ Solid sound
+ Decent Story
- Dumb A.I.
- Decent, but Flawed Visuals
- Sensitive Camera
- Sword Fighting With The Way The Game Wants To
- Generic Sword Fights
- Not Being Able To Skip Cutscenes or Sword Fights
- No Translation When Characters Speak Japanese
- Long Load Times

Frayhua Reviews: Soul Calibur II

Soul Calibur II

System- Playstation 2, Gamecube, and Xbox
Style:1 or 2 Player Fighting
Publisher:Namco
Developer:Namco
Release Date:August 27, 2003
ESRB:T

Story- Characters with their own motive searching for the Soul Edge and Soul Calibur

Presentation

I.) Graphics- The character models and the environments look fantastic. They animate really well.

II.) Sound- The music, voice acting English and Japanese, and sound effects sound excellent.

Gameplay

I.) New Characters- Soul Calibur II has 5 new characters:
Talim, who wields elbow blades.
Hong Yunsung, who is similar to Hwang.
Raphael Sorel, who wields a rapier.
Cassandra Alexandra, who is similar to her sister Sophitia Alexandra.
Necrid, who the most derivative character in the game and is created by Todd McFarlane.


II.) Returning Characters- Nearly everyone from SC is back except for Hwang, Rock, Edge Master, and Siegfried. Note: Siegfried is Nightmare’s 3rd costume, but you still have Nightmare’s moves.

III.) Guest Characters- There are 3 guest charcters in total, but 1 for each console.
PS2- Heihachi from the Tekken series.
Gamecube- Link from The Legend of Zelda series.
Xbox- Spawn from the Spawn comics by Todd McFarlane.

IV.) Bonus Characters- Soul Calibur II has 3 bonus characters that are similar to Hwang, Rock, and Lizard Man.
Berserker, who is similar to Rock from original SC.
Assassin, who is similar to Hwang from original SC.
Lizard Man, who is the same as he was in original SC.
Charade, who is similar to Edge Master and Inferno from the original SC.

V.) Single-Player- You have your standard modes of Time Attack, Arcade, Survival, Team Battle, and Practice. Also there is a extra mode of all the standard modes mentioned featuring the use of the weapons you collect in Weapon Master Mode. Weapon Master Mode is this game Mission Mode where players fight under special conditions so you can unlock new characters, weapons and costumes. The weapons have their own status effects such as regenerating health, guard damage, attack power, etc. The only problem is that some weapons such as the Damascus Sword for Mitsurugi and the Vajra for Maxi are overpowered because those weapons had no defense period and their attacks can defeat your opponent in 5 hits even though your opponent has their best weapon. Attacking them does very little damage. Overall, everyone is balanced except on selecting extra weapons. Still this is a well made solid fighter to pick up and play.

VI.) Multiplayer- is just one-on-one via standard or extra weapons.

Value- Soul Calibur II is a near perfect sequel to the Dreamcast classic.

Overview

+ Great Sequel To A Dreamcast Exclusive
+ Solid Presentation
+ Simple for Newcomers and familarize veterans
+ Lots of stuff to unlock
+ Strong Multiplayer
- Some weapons can be overpowered

Graphics- 5/5
Sound- 5/5
Gameplay- 4.5/5
Entertainment- 4.5/5
Final Score- 19/20= 9.5/10= Superb

Frayhua Reviews: Far Cry Vengence

Far Cry Vengeance
System: Nintendo Wii
Style: First-Person Shooter
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Release Date- December 12,2006
ESRB: M

Story- Like any Far Cry game except Far Cry 2 you play as Jack Carver trying to escape islands filled with deadly mercenaries.

Presentation

I.) Graphics- Far Cry games have great graphics, but this version is atrocious because of the cutscenes and in game graphics. The cutscene graphics are poor, dull, uninspired, and boring to look at. To top that off, this is even worse than the in game graphics. I’m wondering how in the hell is it possible to have cutscenes worse than the in game graphics? When you die long load times happen for no reason because the in game graphics are like a bad N64 game. The foliage isn’t a pleasant sight to look at due to the atrociousness that the game provides. This is also accompanied by framerate issues that happen for no reason at all.

II.) Sound- Wow the sound is bad because of the voice acting and also that the sound in Far Cry Vengeance stops and goes when it wants to at random in the game. I could have sworn that I bought this game at full price of $50. The game was brand new along with my Nintendo Wii around launch day. Don’t worry my Nintendo Wii works fine. Trust me if you play it the sound will bug out later when you put the game in.

Gameplay

I.) Single Player Campaign- The gameplay is a FPS or First Person Shooter with good controls for the Wii. The game’s A.I. or Artificial Intelligence is a joke because there accuracy is awful because they can barely hit you even though your standing a few feet away from them. Even when you kill an enemy the other enemy doesn’t even notice that. The only enemy that's smart is the sniper because you can barely find him through the crappy foilage and the aiming controls are slow and clunky for the sniper rifle. The aiming is fine with other weapons, but with the sniper rifle you have to wait for the A Button to lock. If you move the Wiimote forward after pressing the A Button it wouldn't work because of the delay meaning sniping is nearly impossible. Their is Predator mode which makes you go faster but it makes the game even easier serving no challenge. How could anyone release broken A.I. like this?. Did the play testers complain? I guess not because this game wasn’t even play tested at all. This serves no challenge to anyone even on Hard difficulty.

II.) Multiplayer- If you hated the campaign your not going to like the multiplayer because it is just two-player deathmatch which is called Chaos and Predator Mode. Their is no Map Editor like in the other Far Cry games. Worse multiplayer ever.

Overview for this Streamlined Game includes:

- Long Load times
- Awful Graphics
- Awful Sound
- Aiming with the sniper rifle
- Boring Gameplay
- Worse A.I. of all time
- No Map Editor
- Dull Multiplayer with only two modes for two people
- Feels like a bad movie based game for Uwe Boll's Far Cry movie



P.S. Don't watch Far Cry the movie by Uwe Boll because if you see it for 30 minutes you'll be bored.