Gaming Review: Need for Speed Undercover

Throughout EA’s multiple releases of the Need For Speed franchise since I can remember, or more specifically, since NFS: Most Wanted I’ve found myself playing yet another release of the maverick racing title thinking to myself “Well, this is exactly  like the last Need For Speed game I paid £40 for, ouch" . Leaving the sore imprint in my head of “Why didn’t they stick to the Most Wanted formula?"  and I’m relatively confident I speak for a lot of you out there when I say that, particularly having the same discussion with colleagues, friends and even some friendly chums on XBL I get the impression that I am not alone on this one. 

Well it’s not all bad news with Electronic Arts’ newest impression of the franchise, as it appears that they have taken notice to their demographic audience and tried to address this issue with what I’d remark on as a re-incarnation of the elements and conventions that created ‘Need For Speed: Most Wanted’ and stuck a brand new label on it.Inventively enough, in the latest instalment of NFS, you assume the part of; yep, an undercover officer, accompanied by the luscious agent ‘Chase Linh’. Your objective throughout this hollow plot is to foil an assemblage of street racers that have managed to get their fingers in the financial pleasantry that is an international smuggling syndicate. The predictable storyline is communicated through an ensemble of cheesy cutscenes that appear to barely motivate you to play through the next race. 

It’s evident that they’ve tried to imitate that cliché saturated, corny approach that Most Wanted had, and yet it somehow doesn’t make such a positive impression as it’s predecessor did, I think it has become too evident that Undercover has attempted to play on the success of the NFS: Most Wanted version of the franchise, and therefore does manage to as much of an appeal due to lack of originality in that respect.As like the previous NFS titles, you’re backdrop for roaming and racing is set in an open-world environment, with Undercover being set in the fictional city of ‘Try-City Bay’. The game, again like previous titles, will begin you with a shoddy set of wheels even ‘ma and ‘pa will crack a smirk at, however it’s only for a short period before you’ll bag yourself a ride even Xibit, or specifically Westwood won’t have a thing negative to say about. 

You’ll earn yourself some serious dollar as you progress throughout the game, in which you can use to unlock a plethora of over 50 vehicles from a multitude of manufacturers, to acknowledge a few favourites such as Nissan, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Dodge and many more.Tuning you’re car can have different levels of granularity, meaning you can purchase upgrade packages with your not-so hard earned dollar to improve the performance of your ride without any particular detail, comparatively however you can also tune and tweak individual components of your ride if you’re a bit of  a petrol head and enjoy tuning in that level of detail, so it’s nice to see an option of detail for gamers who may or may not want to tune their rides in as much or as little detail.As progression takes place through the game, earning money, purchasing new vehicles and upgrading them accordingly. You can also earn ‘driving points’ for ‘dominating’ an event/race, which essentially doesn’t involve much more additional skill than driving fast all the time. 

Earning these driving points will allow you to upgrade your driving attributes, which is a nice feature to include; the only problem being is that they do not appear to have an affect on your driving performance what so ever. A be a legend soccer hack game also makes a certain emphasis on driving with style and quality, such as drifting, near misses and driving dangerously close to other cars, however this doesn’t make a particularly significant impact on your overall performance apart from giving you a nifty nitrous boost, so apart from that there isn’t much incentive to drive the way the game wants you to. 

However the game has a new feature of being able to make a ‘J-Turn’ which is an extremely nifty little touch that will aid you in both evasion and chasing scenarios alike, but that’s about as far as that goes as well.The authorities have returned in NFS: Undercover, with what I can only describe as a happy one. Tasks which include the takedown of numerous police vehicles and racking up some serious financial damage is entertaining to say the least, also there are some nice little objects during these tasks you can be inventive with to destroy and wreck the cars such as towers, billboards, trucks etc. Some of these objects can create some fairly cool looking results, but a lot of the time you barely get to see a police car collide with a log truck, but still somehow manage to totally obliterate the pursuing vehicles? It’s some odd discrepancies like this in the game that do decrease the gameplay quality and evokes the sense that the game wasn’t thoroughly checked through during or after development to pickup on these abnormalities. 

Like the reported instances on various websites and blogs that comment during police chases it’s possible to just stand still without being found or caught, police have the ability to immobilise you with some road spikes, but yet during my experience, along with other instances that I have read about, they do seem very reluctant to do this throughout the game, as well as the lack of ‘ferocity’ the police seem to come at you with, they just appear to be very tame and restricted in their offensive in taking you out, which all contributes to a lower quality of gameplay.

A huge downside with this title is it’s frame rate, when I began reviewing the game I thought that either my 360 was about to red light or that my cache was in serious need of clearing out, but after some browsing online I found that this game has been notorious for it’s slow frame rate, which has been reported to be even slower on the Playstation 3, which personally interrupted the handling on some of the cars and generally the gameplay experience, along with some aliasing on the cars and the graphics don’t appear to have had much of a re-vamp, there seems to be no apparent reason for such a slow frame rate, which may suggest that the game’s development was rushed to ensure it’s release for the Christmas period, maybe…?Comparison aside, the game does manage to produce some fun gameplay that will keep you mildly entertained, fans of previous releases of Need For Speed may love it, or find it a replica of previous games they have spent their hard-earned cash on, although if you’re a fan of the Most Wanted instalment of NFS, I’m sure you enjoy a lot of aspects in this game, in which case I would recommend it. 

However if originality and new thrills is what you’re after then purchasing this game I’m afraid may be a mistake you may want to avoid.  In summary the game is entertaining for periods, along with some nifty little tools like the GPS map and the quick-jump feature which allows you to jump to the race within closest proximity is relatively nifty and some pretty cool multiplayer too. But the game just appears to have used its predecessor’s successful image to rely on its success rather than originality along with some evidently rushed development, which I’m afraid this time around hasn’t been a particularly winning combination.Likes:Stays true to the Need for Speed seriesBugatti Veyron appearance will be appreciated by petrol heads.As always, Need for Speed has an impressive array of customization.Dislikes:Choppy framerateNo Anti-Aliasing, resulting in the most jagged game ever to be released on Xbox 360.No 'real' innovations have been made in this title, it just feels like a copy & paste of Most Wanted.Online play, again, hasn't been given the changes the franchise has needed since Underground.The game will only appeal to people who haven't heard of Midnight Club.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe - Gaming Review

The whole concept of two colossal fictional franchises, in this case the blood-soaked brand that is Midway’s Mortal Kombat series, and a varied selection of characters from the universe that has been forged by DC Comics; sounds like an extremely exciting and appealing proposal with masses of potential. Here at Addict Gaming we got the opportunity to get a complete hands-on of the resulting child that was created by the collaboration from Midway & DC Comics. 

Here are our thoughts and feelings on the title…Like mentioned above, this game’s concept brought around masses of potential for a great fighting title, but I am disappointed to say that it appears to be nothing more than a empty shell of what it could have been, but that’s not to say it is a bad game, it just did not deliver to expectations - particularly from the extensive online ad campaigns and viral videos that were distributed throughout the net prior to it’s release.

Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe consists of three main offline modes; Story, Arcade & Kombo Challenge. From the titles alone it is fairly self explanatory of what they consist of, but for your benefit we will go into a bit of detail about themFirst and foremost the story mode; Straight from the beginning I got the impression that the story was going to be a poor excuse for the two different franchises to battle it out, and from developing progress in the game, I discovered I was right. Everything about the game’s plot is a relatively poor excuse for these guys to kick the crud out of each other, if you don’t want to spoil the story, then ignore the next few lines, otherwise continue reading. Essentially Superman (DC) & Raiden (MK) destroy their respective enemies; Darkseid (DC) and Shao Kahn (MK) at the same time. 

This for no apparent reason leads to both bad guys infusing with each other to create the oh-so-creatively named ‘Dark Kahn’ which eventually leads to the merging of the two realms. Now in all respect, it’s general rule of thumb that a lot of fighting games do not focus on the story or plot, which is generally accepted, but I felt that this particular title could have had much more substance to it, in particular the characters from both franchises as they have a particularly extensive portfolio of background history around them, and I felt that those responsible for the story of the title had rushed the development of the story either for a release this side of Christmas, or simply because they didn’t want to. 

 This was evident from the ridiculously predictable linear plotline, and the corny dialog (which in all fairness could have been to keep in line with the comic-like dialog on behalf of DC Comics).Regardless, the story mode game of sky whale hack donuts play itself consists of you selecting a side to fight with (a gold sticker to anyone who guesses who you can choose between). This then consists of a series of cut scenes which lead to each character you fight with for anything up to 4 different battles, each fight being transitioned by another cut scene, gradually developing the so-called ‘story’. Now here is where I have to give some due credit to the developers, although the games aesthetic isn’t the most advanced on the market today by far, the game does however have some very nice visuals, in particular the characters as opposed to the backdrops. From featuring the Unreal Engine they've managed to implement a detailed use of lighting and shading to give each character a very bold, distinct aesthetic. As well as detailing some characters with a reasonably dark, gritty sense of illustration, for example Batman looks pretty bad ass, in juxtaposition to the Adam West embodiment of the dark knight. In overview the game appears to have an adequately smooth, bold appearance which is always a pleasing feature within a game.

 The combat system itself is also another (if not the most) uplifting feature in the game. From utilizing the same fighting-style system as previous Mortal Kombat titles, it also has its distinctive ‘Klose Kombat’ and ‘Freefall Kombat’ which makes this game worth playing at LEAST once. From using Klose Kombat the camera pans in to the two characters who then can exchange a variety of hefty blows to the face, body, torso & arms with the use of X, Y, A & B, with some just as impressive sound effects to boot. Personally I loved the melodic crunching of Sub-Zero’s nose as Superman made contact with his forehead, surely it can’t be topped by that? Of course it can, on particular levels featured within the game it’s possible to charge your enemy through a series of walls, quicker than a speeding bullet! Even more enticing is the ‘Freefall Kombat’ which allows you to knock your enemies down great heights, and jump down after them to deliver a further pummelling before you smack them into the shattering concrete below!  

Which I will admit now, did have me shouting ‘Owned!’. In my head of course…The other game types, Arcade & Kombo Challenge, are self-explanatory. Arcade mode is essentially like any other MK game out there, working your way through a series of enemies before leading to the ‘big boss’ Dark Kahn, completing the game with each character unlocks a short illustrated ending, which can be viewed at any time after unlocking it, this mode also has the famous feature of fatalities and the DC equivalent; Heroic Brutality. Which again is also an extremely satisfying bit of salt to add to the wounds as it’s always been throughout the MK series. ‘Kombo challenge’ is literally what it says on the tin, you can select each character that each have a series of 10 combo’s that can be attempted, obviously graduating in difficulty, with some that are for the fighting platform guru’s that a lot of us would probably prefer to eat the controller than sit there and try to execute successfully, if you’re a completionist then you’ll have to try, with 5 gamer score awarded for completing each characters challenges. 

This is will keep you busy for a temporary period before you either get bored or like I said eat your controller with frustration (that’s right, I have issues).On the overview, the game in itself is a fun, fast-paced inventive re-incarnation of the much loved Mortal Kombat series. However like mentioned before it just feels to have lacked any true substance or content, which would have greatly improved the overall quality of this game. It’s nice to see that they haven’t made it as difficult as some Mortal Kombat games which ultimately lead to bleeding thumbs and such, which might not appeal as much to die-hard Mortal Kombat fans, but it certainly will attract a larger audience in general. But in general particular aspects of the game just appear rushed and ‘bolted on’. 

An instance of this is the online multiplayer. Everyone is aware that it will be difficult to compete with titles such as Gears of War, Call of Duty & Halo dominating the multiplayer sector of XBL, but it just appears far too evident that a bit more time and development could have vastly improved the online features of this game. On the final summary, I would recommend this game to any fan of the Mortal Kombat series, or fighting titles in general. But it’s disappointing to say that this game has only limited re-play value, which with a bit of luck and patience, could be improved with some DLC from the guys at Midway, nudge nudge.Likes:Great Graphics, supplied by Unreal Engine 3.Interesting array of charcters from the DC Universe.Stayed 'true' to the previous games, fixing everything that was broken, leaving the things that weren't.Dislikes:Poorly thought out story.Lack of 'Awesome' Fatalities.Game only offers 2 unlockable characters, both of which aren't really worth the hassle.