Borderlands 2 Review: XBox 360

            A BAZILLION GUNS!!

There is something to be said about any game where you lose track of time and play for hours on end and suddenly realize you have been playing for six hours. And it can all be summed up by one simple statement: if you loved borderlands, you will love Borderlands 2.

The story so far:
Handsome Jack, evil CEO of weapons manufacturer Hyperion. Jack takes credit for finding and opening the Vault from the first game and is massively mining the alien substance, Eridian, and looking for an even bigger vault. He's ruthless and takes pleasure in killing anyone that gets in his way. It's now up to you along with a few returning characters and the resistance to defeat Jack before he discovers the new Vault.

BL2 is far superior to the first art wise, with blues, greens, purples just popping out of the game like a comic book. The level design is fantastic, and not the same "mostly brown" that BL1 gave us thanks to the addition of areas filled with ice, grass and volcano surroundings.

The game play is very fun, however at times it gets a little tedious when you run out of ammo. Gearbox Software must have realized from the first game that the ammo vending machines were not getting used much at all, but I can't help but feel that when they decided to reduce the ammo drops, they actually made it a lot harder as you will find yourself with no ammo with your two primary guns and having to run a good five minutes back to an ammo vendor to be able to continue a quest or instance you're doing.

The enemies you face have been upgraded and the AI is much better than the first game, some of you may remember you could pull aggro and run backwards with a conga line of baddies, mercilessly pumping round after round in to them. Now, the enemies roll out of the way, dive for cover and some even try and flank you.
Also there is not just new types of bad guys, some level up if not killed pretty much straight away and this can lead to some fun and challenging kills.

The story line is great, but I haven't felt like it's really epic. More to the point, I feel the focus is still on the loot rather than on the story, and I'm OK with that. Anyone how played the first and will play the second  mainly for the loot and shooting things in the face with a wide variety of weapons.

Skill trees have been vastly improved not only aesthetically pleasing, but the skills have been vastly improved.

Vehicles are still more than anything, horribly useless. Mainly used as transport and still no flying machines for you to use (or so far as I have seen). The vehicles drive better, but you will still find yourself crashing into a raised section of road now and then or trying to steer around something and fail.

Some new features have been added and some completely reformed to better utilize them.

BAD-ASS RANKS: for certain things like killing x of creature type x there are skill points that can be put into things like extra accuracy and shield recharge.

CUSTOMIZATION: Loot drops can some times be skins for your characters outfit, head or vehicle.

SHIFT ACCOUNT CODES: Gearbox have stated you will be able to get codes for Golden Keys, all you need to do is link your BL2 account in the settings/extras menu and keep an eye on Gearbox's twitter. AMAZESAUCE!

MULTIPLAYER LOOT: I have big issues with multiplayer loot, it still comes down to the system of "whats mine is mine and what drops is mine", there is no roll system and I think this does hurt the multiplayer a little, play with your fiends and avoid loot ninjas.

The other issue with loot seems to be that even though you share cash and ammo when picked up, you are unable to trade them, making it feel like a set back when your sniper runs out of ammo and you can't give them more when you don't use that ammo.

All in all, this is still an amazing game and the pros definitely outweigh the cons.You can tell that Randy and his team at Gearbox Software put a lot of time and love into this game.

SCORE:8/10 Claptraps.

Max Payne 3 Review.

Max Payne 3 has been nothing short of amazing. The very few shortfalls of the game are far out weighed by the other factors that really kept me playing.

I have tried other first person shooters for their story modes, but none has really captured me like this game has, most of them I either finish eventually only because online multiplayer servers for that game are down, or I don't finish the story mode at all.

I found a lot of FPS games focus on the multiplayer side, but don't do much to captivate you and pull you in to the story mode much if at all.

In saying that, Max Payne was never a multiplayer FPS to start with and was pur story driven, however more games should support a decent story instead of a focus on mindless blasting of other players.

It was a cold rainy day. I had a cup of hot joe and a mouth full of chocolate.

The story itself dragged me in and made me connect and care for Max, something that most other games these days don't seem to be able to do.

In addition to the attachment, is the gritty gum-shoe detective monologue and the emphases on words (some,  for no reason) when Max is talking, you would see a word flash on the screen and flicker a little, it made for a great experience (OOOOO SHINY!!)

STOP! Bullet Time

The mechanic known as bullet time was excellent in the main story mode, it provided a way to pick off many enemies with head shots and dodge bullets, shoot grenades out of the air as well as rockets and Molotov cocktails.

In the online multiplayer, however, it was more of a hindrance and takes a lot of getting used to, usually I would be killed while it was happening as my reaction time seemed to be laggy and could have been better perhaps if our internet speed in Australia was up to scratch with the USA.

Also, the multiplayer has a loot function that seemed to be a function that does not work well, loot an enemy, get shot by the next passer-by. Not the best mechanic in a shooter, it helps collect funds to unlock weapons.

I have a wager, you’re going to lose.

The wager system in multiplayer means that before a match starts, you can bet on a player to get the first kill, most corpses looted etc, I also found this to be a bit random. Sure you can wager on the guy with the highest kill streak from the last game to get the first kill, but anyone out of 16 players could get that first kill and you’re now out of pocket.

I have all the guns, but I have no ammunition.

Like most FPS games, you have a certain amount of ammunition that is replenished by dead opponents or picking up guns, in the story mode I found this a little frustrating, as when you go from one room to another (an action sequence for some rooms would involve opening a door and then being locked out of the previous room) and you would not have enough ammunition either from shooting people or not changing to a new gun. This would lead to entering a new room and having to try and melee a bad guy, the issue here is melee does not kill them initially and you would have to kick them while they are down over and over, meaning that the other guys in the room would just hammer and wail on you while you tried to get a new gun or extra ammunition.

All in all, a great game, the story mode draws you in and makes a great connection, the story is solid and does not have the usual plot holes, the twist at the end is somewhat expected in a way, but leaves you questioning it until it happens.

If you want a multiplayer online FPA, though, I would still suggest Call of Duty, as the multiplayer in Max Payne 3 is just a pain to get used to. RockStar have really stepped up here though and attempted something that may eventually become a great thing.

My rating: 7/10