Two Xbox 360 games I wanted to like, but didn’t.

Posted by Jason Poole on Jul 27, 2011 in Video Games | 0 comments

There were two games that were release in the first half of this year that I was really looking forward to playing and they were Dragon Age 2 and L.A. Noire. Here are my reviews of the two games.

Dragon Age 2

After playing the first Dragon Age and not really enjoying some of the aspects of the game, I thought that the new improvements to the Dragon Age game play looked pretty sweet. I enjoyed the original DA until I got about half way through and found my self not really liking the repetition in game play and the very long dialog. After reading many reviews of the improvements to the combat system  and overall game play, plus watching a ton of videos, I was looking forward to playing DA2.

The long dialog sequences are still there…  actually, they even seem longer.  I feel like I watch more cut scenes than actually playing the game. No wonder it takes 50 hours to play the game. The combat system does seem a little more fast paced and more controlled, but I still find it a little confusing to which bad guy I am attacking. Also the massive blood over lay (which was in the first one), I find, is very pointless.

Now, just to be all fair, I have only played about 2 hours of the game, so correct me if it does get better.  I just can’t seem to get into the game and find myself more bored with the repetition. And I am a big RPG fan (my favorite genre) and I love a good story line, but it feels like I am watching an animated move with occasional game play.

BioWare’s other big titles, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, I loved and finished both, but I just can’t seem to get myself to like DA2.

 

L.A. Noire

Of all the games that were coming out this spring, this title I was looking forward to the most. Trailer and gameplay videos looked awesome and the facial animations were incredible. I pre-ordered L.A. Noire and really anticipated its May launch.

I am a big fan of Rock Star games, including the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Redemption (which was, in my opinion, the best title for the 360 last year), and even Table Tennis.  This game was an immediate hit to me and I had to play it.

At first I was loving the game.  I could not quite figure out how to tell if someone was lying or not, but I was still able to solve cases and move up.  The side tasks were fun at first, but they became very repetitious and the aiming system really makes shootouts pointless. I also found that the cases were very repetitious as well.

This was another game where I felt like I was watching a movie most of the time. I really like the genre, so the sense were nice and entertaining, but I found that the game play was very simplistic. Also, the driving controls are way to touchy and I found it very hard to drive without running into other cars and people.

This game is beautiful and if you like the noir genre, it is entertaining, but again, I found myself getting bored with the story line and repetition.