Rainbow Six: Vegas Review

3 in a month??? What's happening????
Graphics: Very nice graphics, very smooth rendering. They also have the face rendering using the Xbox Live Vision camera for Xbox Live games, which is very cool. However, they have me with severely receding hairline. Blazeyadead has blond cornrows. They should allow for some modifcations after you scan in. Overall, I have to give this a good rating: 9.3
Sound: It's OK, not much different from the other games. 8.8
AI: It's crazy. The AI is good on regular level and nuts on realistic. There are some still some issues such as guys shooting at a wall, but they will flank you. So, don't stand in one spot. 9.0
Live: Can you say LAG??? Large rooms have large lags. In the 4 versions I've played on this, it has not been fixed. But, they've added cool features such as the rope climbing. 8.2
Playability: Addicting. Even though there is lag, the smaller rooms are OK. Single player is kind of cool, going through hotels and seeking out the terrrorists. : 9.0.
Controls: A lot different than the other games. Takes a while getting used to, especially from other games. 9.0
Overall: 8.8 If you like the R6 series, you'll like this game. It is tons better than Lockdown, and more fun in some of the live stuff (without lag, of course). From the demo, I was about ready to give this a close nod to Game of the Year. But, with the lag issues, I can't do it.

Whacky Head is spinning....

Too many games, too little time.....
In the past 2 months:

• Test Drive Unlimited
• Gears of War
• Splinter Cell: Double Agent
• Rainbow 6: Vegas

And minor games:

• Tiger Woods 07
• Madden 07
• Defender

Too many games, too little time...But that's not so bad. No games Whacky wants for the next few months anyway. These games should keep Whacky busy.

Tiger Woods '07 Review

Too many games, not enough time...Boy, that's complete opposite of last year...
Graphics: Let's still consider this an arcade game versus a sim. So, given that, the graphics are good, not stunning, but good. There are some issues I have with the game. On 1 foot putts, the character is still looking 20 feet away for the hole. There are some issues with blending on upslopes where the character blends into the grass. 7.5
Sound: Not much you can do except for ambient sound, crowd noise and hits off the clubs. Well, yes there is: repeating, annoying commentaries. I understand that there are a limited amount of clips available, but mix them up. I turned them off after the second day of play. 7.0
AI: On easy mode, it's easy in the challenge matches. They miss 3 foot straight putts like crazy. On harder levels, they are making 20 foot benders like crazy. So, overall, pretty good. 9.0
Live: Buggy, but OK. There are times where players doesn't see the same shots. For example, I hosted a game where the person I was playing (Killer Nikita) saw his shot go into a bunker and on my screen it ended up 2 feet from the hole. 6.5
Playability: I do have to admit that I do like this game dispite it's downfalls. It does play a bit better than the other games and does take some time building skills and getting used to. There are some dumb things like losing a ton of yards going up hill. Yes, in real golf you lose about 10 yards per 10 feet up hill. But this game you lose about 50 yards for every 10 feet on the drive. There are some cool side games also. But then again, I'm a golfer and like most golf games. : 8.4.
Controls: This is tough. You have to be much more accurate with your shots so they don't go off line. You have to really read greens and understand them with putting. So, the controls are OK. 9.0
Overall: 7.9 If you like golf games, this is pretty fun. Battle golf is fun (match play, but you take a club away or add to your collection based on winning a hole). If you are looking for Links style or quality, a lot has to be made up on this.

PS3 Delays????

Whacky has a few theories about the whole PS3 production fiasco. They may be compounding on why there are so few PS3's available.
1) Blu-ray is not ready for prime time. Although the player has been ready for a few months, it's still in debug mode.
2) Batteries. Sony has taken an enormous black eye and even bigger loss with the laptop battery issues. And because Sony is taking anywhere from $200-$400 loss per PS3, execs may have given the hammer on production of PS3's to minimize losses for the year. My guess is that you will magically see PS3's appearing in January and February.
3) 5 games??? That's it??? Plus a really bad back-compat program? Hmm....

So, Sony will be playing catch up for the next year, but my guess is advertising will take care of that.

GOW Review

Boy, we've been slackers on full game reviews. Here is one for GOW>
Graphics: The most stunning graphic games on the 360 to date. The lighting effects, the movements, rain drops, water movement, etc. . 9.9
Sound: Unreal. Guns are very cool, grunts are cooler. 9.9
AI: Playing on "don't hurt me" mode and the AI is good. Have gotten through a few levels and they flock to where you are. 9.8
Live: The best, smoothest, lack of lag games ever for the Xbox or Xbox 360 on live. One very cool thing they added is if you're playing single player missions, you can easily invite a freind to do co-op: 9.9
Playability: This is not your run and gun Halo. For doing a lot of stuff, there is a lot of strategy in this. You have to duck behind walls, hide, etc. EDIT - a cool feature is the rolling gameplay to cutscenes stream, it's seamless, and wonderful: 9.9.
Controls: This game made me add this in here, because there is an annoyance. When you run and hit an object, it does get annoying when you stick to it. It take some skill to run, controlling with left thumbstick and hitting A at the same time. 9.6
Overall: 9.8 This game is definately worth getting from a Live and single player standpoint. I played for about 4 hours on Saturday night with no lag at all, both in versus and co-op missions. This game will definately take Game of the Year honors.