Bayonetta Review

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(More customer reviews)check your brain, sense of reality, and expectations at the door. bayonetta is something else.
it's ridiculous, knows its ridiculous, and completely revels in it. from her exaggerated sexy catwalk gait, to the way she kisses barriers away, to the fanservice 'photo op' moments at the end of certain combos, to the way her clothes disappear as you pull off a powerful combo (because her hair not only forms her clothes, but also her most powerful weapons, *of course* they'd get used up when she does something powerful), to the nonsensical plot and cast of characters, to the over the top violent eviscerations...bayonetta is a real gamer's delight...if you have the right mindset. i personally couldn't stop grinning and laughing through the game.
+ everything about this game screams quality (one might argue the script is 2nd grader-quality, but i'd argue it was intentionally so).
+ massive amounts of combos so novices can't help but pull off cool stuff, but also tons of depth so the gamers that want to be *great* can be. there are some tricky combos that can be strung together that are insanely cool - see youtube.
+ not quite as hard as the devil may cry series or ninja gaiden...a bit more approachable, if you can handle the chaos on screen.
+ NOT FOR KIDS. seriously. cussing, partial/implied nudity, violence.
+ hilarious soundtrack. from jazzy-j-pop to orchestral, very unique.
quick tips
- don't spam the dodge button. you're doing it wrong. just like radiant silvergun or bullet-dodgers of the past, you have to focus on where your character is and who's about to hit you. THEN press the dodge button.
- don't button mash. learn the combos, especially the immediate wicked weave ones (e.g. heel stomp). if you can summon those on cue, you won't have as much trouble fighting the flaming enemies (they hurt you if you hit them directly)
- you don't have to finish the game to grind. pressing RB at chapter end lets you re-play any previous chapters. chapter 2 is great for grinding halos early on.


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Blurring the borders of good and evil, this cinematic and stylized adventure stars Bayonetta, a heroine bent on sending supernatural forces to the depths of hell. Armed with her four enchanted guns known as Scarborough Fair, she battles both monstrous behemoths and angelic enemies. By combining special magic attacks, summoning primal forces and unleashing devastating weaponry, she impressively punishes anyone who gets in her way. From its fluid and intuitive combat system to its gripping story line, Bayonetta is one action thriller that won't disappoint. Utilize Deadly CombosViewlarger.

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Virtua Tennis 3 Review

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(More customer reviews)When Sega's Virtua Tennis first appeared on the Dreamcast, it was easily the best tennis game ever made. A follow-up, Tennis 2K2, improved on the original, and was eventually ported to the PS2, GBA, and PSP. However, a rival franchise, Top Spin, soon appeared on the Xbox, and stressed realism over the simple arcade action offered by Virtua Tennis (which was originally an arcade game anyway). The questions were soon asked: a) Will Virtua Tennis return? and b) Will Top Spin influence it?
The answer to the first question has been answered with an overwhelming YES, but the answer to the second may not be so obvious. VT's trademark controls are back - one button each for topspin, slice, and lob shots, with the analog stick controlling both character movement and shot direction - but VT vets will undoubtedly notice some tweaks right away.
The biggest addition is the "running shot", where your character will launch a powerful stroke while charging full-speed at a ball just out of reach. While this allows you to return out-of-reach shots with more force, your court position becomes compromised, as you're often far outside the lines once your momentum stops. What this means is player position in relation to the ball is much more important than in the past two games (which would automatically adjust position for you as long as you hit the button at the right time). In Virtua Tennis 3, it's more difficult to get precise angles and top-power shots, but ultimately, this makes the gameplay deeper and makes hitting great shots more rewarding.
But isn't Virtua Tennis supposed to be an easy-to-learn, easy-to-play experience? Well, yeah, and it still is - it's just that the learning curve is a little steeper. One might wonder if Sega did this in order to give the online portion of the game lasting appeal, and it certainly seems like it worked, for better or worse.
Create-a-player and World Tour are basically the same - start with a scrub and slowly work your way up through the rankings over a 20-year career, playing imaginative mini-games to improve your skills, entering tournaments, and collecting new gear. Outside of World Tour, there are Exhibition matches and Tournemant mode to play (with up to four players, with options galore), and you can also play the mini-games with multiple people via the new Court Games mode.
VT3 has vastly improved visuals. Player models are crisp, clear, and colorful, the courts are full of personality, cheering crowds, and ubiquitous advertising. While some player close-ups still look like brain-dead clones (or worse), the motion capture is amazingly, hauntingly realistic. Federer's casual yet deadly serve is perfect, Sharapova tucks her hair behind her ears, Nalbandian does his one-legged power backhand, Nadal dashes all over the court, Davenport wraps the ball around her racket when serving....the attention to detail is astonishing. The music is the same guitar cheese as before, which is a love-it-or-hate-it detail, but the rest of the sound effects are spot-on (a few overly energetic grunts aside).
VT3 is easily as good as either Top Spin title, and is arguably the best tennis game ever produced. New players shouldn't have a lot of trouble picking up and playing, but long-term fans of the franchise should be ready for a small and sobering dash of realism. A tiny bit of the Virtua Tennis magic has been lost, true, but do not let that stop you from picking this up, as there's certainly enough goodness here to make up for it.
Virtua Tennis 3 comes strongly recommended as a highly enjoyable single- and multi-player experience (thank goodness for wireless controllers!). It's without a doubt one of the finest four-player non-shooter games on the 360 (nice to have a four-player game with no split-screen!!), and even gamers who don't normally play sports or tennis games may very well find a lot to like.

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Virtua Tennis 3 X360

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Vanquish Review

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(More customer reviews)Let me get right down to it, there is a lot more to Vanquish if gamers actually take the time and give it a fair chance and see it for what it truly is...A huge, daring leap in this genre of gaming; which has succeeded beyond my expectations.
In this Call Of Duty and Halo obsessed multiplayer age of gaming, a lot of stuff is starting to get really dull when it comes to the shooter genre. All the multiplayer obsessed gamers have forgotten where games originated from. Games used to be about a great SINGLE PLAYER experience where you could sit back and enjoy everything without being cursed at and being called a "noob" when you mess up.
Some people are hating on this game because it has no multiplayer. Just because a game is a shooter does not mean it needs multiplayer to be successful at providing a stellar gaming experience. I look at this game and praise the creators for going outside the "standard" for modern day shooters. I also compare this game to titles such as Devil May Cry, Ikaruga, or any type of score keeping game. It encourages the (determined) gamers out there to replay the campaign over and over again to challenge themselves and see how great they can be and achieve the highest scores. If you have ever played Ikaruga (a top down space shooter) you will understand what I'm talking about. There are bullets flying everywhere, intricate level design, sharp graphics, a level of strategy involved, big badass bosses to kill, and knowing that you are going to die a few times (or a ton of times) to finally become proficient at winning.
Vanquish is not a toy that you play with once and toss aside. It is meant to be played again and again to fully appreciate its beauty. If you consider yourself a hardcore gamer looking for a great challenge and looking to return to the roots of gaming, you will agree with alot of the views I have on this excellent game. That being said, I will get to the main points on why Vanquish is a must play title.
STORY
If Vanquish has a flaw, it is the story. It is your typical good vs evil with some mediocre characters that you do not really connect to, but some of the stuff they say is quite funny or rather cliche depending on your view. The game knows it is over the top and doesn't take anything too seriously so it sort of makes sense. I could care less about a solid Triple A story so this flaw does not bother me at all. If you are going into Vanquish looking for a deep story; just go play Heavy Rain...Vanquish is an action junkie's game.
GRAPHICS/SOUND
WOW...this has got to be the prettiest game I have seen in 2010, everything is so crisp. Your character's suit has so much detail and moving parts I literally spent about 2 minutes just moving the camera around looking at every little detail. Environments look amazing too, there would be a lot to look at, but take your eyes off the action too long and you're dead. Your robot enemies all look superb. They move how you would expect robots to move, just picture one of the latest Transformer movies and that will tell you exactly how detailed they are; ranging from the smallest to the biggest of the robots they are all great. Your enemies look even better when they are being blown up, explosions are fantastic and the larger enemies' explosions are like the 4th of July; all kinds of colors and sparks fly in the air and slowly dim to nothingness, leaving only a tattered broken shell of what they were. If you love big explosions and bursting gunfire you will love Vanquish, every sound is crisp and never sounds out of place.
GAMEPLAY- Most important part of a game to me.
This game is not about hiding behind cover and taking pot shots at your foes. Cover is best used for seconds at a time to either recover your health or plan your next attack. Stay behind cover too long and it will eventually be destroyed by a bigass robot. Slow motion or "bullet time" has always seemed cliche in games that just tack it on as an after thought, but it actually works in Vanquish. When everything is going so fast all the time, it is excellent to slow down time and line up those headshots with the sniper rifle or vault over some cover, slow down time in mid-air and blast a robot in the face with a shotgun, that is the definition of badass right there. When you are near death, time will slow automatically and this gives you a chance to retreat and let your health regenerate as well as give you time to think about your next move. Vanquish is all about speed and elegant flow of combat. The speed comes in the form of your suit's boosting ability. You can boost all over the battlefield for a limited amount of time before your suit overheats. This ability really gives a whole new dimension of gameplay and allows you to retreat quickly or go in guns a blazin'.
This game is actually not just a mindless shooter, but requires some strategy, if your going to boost up to that big robot and melee his ass across the battlefield, you better hope there are no other bots around because once you melee, your suit is overheated and you cannot boost away from danger. Some may say this is cheap, I say it just makes things more interesting and doesn't make you so powerful that every battle is easy. Weapons range from standard assault rifles, a shotgun, sniper rifle, missile launcher, grenades. There are a few unique weapons too, buy the game if you want to see them. You technically have one weapon, but here is the best part...It literally transforms into whatever weapon you select. Right before your eyes you see your shotgun morph into a sniper rifle or your assault rifle morph into a rocket launcher. The animations for these transformations are the coolest thing I have ever seen in a game and is great to see because I have grown tired of watching my character constantly swap guns off of his hip or back or see them appear from nowhere *cough* Grand Theft Auto...excuse me... Overall the gameplay is superb. And those looking for REPLAY VALUE: there are challenge missions that you unlock which are basically like Gears of War's Horde mode where waves of enemies come after you, the challenge is to kill them all as fast as you can with only one life...and they literally are a challenge because they get really hard on the later waves. Hardcore gamers rejoice!
CONTROLS
You can't have great gameplay without great controls and for the speed that Vanquish moves, you surprisingly never feel out of control. It may take a good half hour until you grasp the control scheme, but once you do, you will be killing robots left and right and feeling like a badass while you do it.
Vanquish is a title not to be missed, I really hope people do not overlook this game. This is a hardcore shooter/action fan's dream come true. Give Vanquish a thorough play-through and I dare you not to crack a smile when you feel like a god killing all those robots in such a stylish destructive force.
NEW: I bought the triple weapons pack for vanquish. The three new guns are awesome! They just add that much more to an already near-perfect third person shooter experience. The download is pretty cheap too.

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Directed by Shinji Mikami, the creator of the Resident Evil series, VANQUISH is a sci-fi shooter that sees players take the role of Sam, a government agent kitted out with a futuristic battle suit. A versatile fighter with a huge arsenal of weaponry at his disposal, Sam also has an array of martial arts skills that he can use to take down his robot enemies.

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Outrun Online Review

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(More customer reviews)Well, first off, I'd like to say that purchasing this game through Amazon, as opposed to through the XBL Marketplace was a delight. It's nice to know that I don't have to have leftover Microsoft Points sitting around. Those curious about how it works, you're paying for a unique download code. You can go to the marketplace on your 360, punch in the code, and download it right away. Not only that, but if you are away from your 360 at the time of purchase, you can just hop on the Xbox website, and redeem the code there! I choose to do it this way, since it's way easier to type in the code on a keyboard than hunt and peck with a controller. When you turn on your 360, it'll start the download right away.
Ok, enough of that, and on to the game. If you've played any OutRun games before, you'll know what to expect for the most part, but there are a few new modes.
The standard OutRun Mode lets you choose a path while you drive, ultimately ending up at one of 5 different locations. There are 15 areas to drive in total. There is also a 15-course marathon mode that lets you drive through each locale in succession.
There's also Time Attack, which is self-explanatory, and Heart Attack mode. This has you completing objectives to get the admiration of your girlfriend. The better you do on a given objective, the more hearts you get, and the higher grade you receive per objective. It's a different way to race, since the objectives can vary from "pass the other vehicles" to "don't hit anything" to "drift through the rings" and so on.
The game also has a 6 player supported online mode. This is pretty cool: It's unranked, so it's all in good fun, and you can race in a variety of modes. Unfortunately, there wasn't an abundance of games available to join when I tried it out. What also would have been helpful is a lobby viewer; something that lets me see who is in a room and whether the game is in progress. Currently, all that happens is you join a game, you get put in a room that has an open slot, and usually, there's a race in progress, so you have to wait for however long until it ends. There's no progress bar, no nothing. You can't even tell when everyone in the room is ready to race, because there's nothing to indicate it. I can't tell when my opponents are done choosing a car and color and transmission style. Not good.
The game is also missing some extras that the Xbox version had. Original outrun music, old cars, etc. However, that's not too big of a deal: the cars perform almost identically, so it's ok.
If you're a fan of the series, definitely pick this up. If you are a fan of arcade style racing, pick this up as well. If you're looking for something with a touch of realism, you'll have to look elsewhere, but I'm sure you knew that already.
Graphics are clean, although there are some draw-in problems that pop up (quite literally) when playing online.
Overall, this is a great game, and worth the $. Pick this one up.

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SEGA's classic arcade racer returns. Experience multiplayer OutRun via Live Arcade. Race 10 Ferraris on 15 challenging courses, all in stunning Hi-Definition for the first time. OutRun Online Arcade - it's a beautiful journey.

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Resonance of Fate Review

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(More customer reviews)For summary judgment, skip to the very bottom.I'll never understand Sega's game release date logic. They often release some simply outstanding games (Skies of Arcadia, Valkyria Chronicles, Sonic Adventure, NiGHTS on Sega Saturn, Shining Force, and now this), but when they release them, it's amidst larger, more notable games, and as a result the Sega games get kicked to the curb. In particular they did that with Valkyria Chronicles - it was released, surrounded by two of the largest games at the time, Call of Duty: World at War and Gears of War 2. It never stood a chance. Nevermind the fact that Sega never even bothered to advertise Valkyria Chronicles in GameStop or Amazon or any other game store. I only knew about it because I specifically target RPGs. We've got people who are just now playing the game, realizing that they skipped over a classic.
Resonance of Fate is/will be such a game too.
Overshadowed by the hype that is Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3, I fear that this one will go under the radar and not get played for two years like its brother. If you're reading this review, hopefully you're at least curious, or maybe you just weren't impressed by Final Fantasy XIII. I suppose it's possible you already beat that game and moved on. In either case, this review is going to be a bit difficult to follow, because I have to exert extra effort into how to express what I think about this game. Not bad, just...different.RoF takes place in the distant future, where humanity has so destroyed the world that the majority of the population is gone and dead. Before their end they created a large machine, called Basel, that is designed to purify and replenish the earth. It was not able to do this, as the remaining population decided just to live on some of the levels of Basel and ended up ruining it. It's livable, but not able to do what it's designed to do. The story unravels slowly as you are introduced to the various characters of the game. Unlike other RPGs, there is no "meeting" your party. You start with all three of the characters you'll be using, and though one or two may leave or be otherwise not available at times, generally you're working with the three. There's a reason for this - the battle engine, which I'll get to later, works best when you have a full staff. IT's not for nothing though: there's something to be said about a game that actually shows its male characters watching porn while the female character is taking a shower...then cracks jokes about the size of said female character's breasts (no, there is no nudity displayed!)The graphics in RoF remind me a lot of Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope or Magna Carta 2 - where everything looks like the screen is at maximum contrast and sharpness and things just "pop" at you. This can be good or bad - it's an acquired taste and certainly not nearly as visually stunning as Final Fantasy XIII, but it's not a horrible looking game, either. In fact some of the towns and buildings you'll visit are quite detailed, down to things moving in the background and the changing from day to night (something very few RPGs do anymore, by the by) as you adventure. There are a given number of game engine cutscenes, and a select few CGI full motion ones. What is there, is fairly short and not designed to be the focal point of the game by any means. The cutscenes last barely a minute each, and are snippets of the overall story. The majority of it is told through the quests and the dialogue between the characters, so if you're not a fan of reading, you might want to skip this game.Don't expect to see the usual swords and spears of other games. RoF uses guns and other artillery to get the job done. These guns can be customized with different parts to make your characters as powerful as you want them to be. Your weapons also have levels of their own besides the characters' levels. As you level up, you gain various skills and enhancements that make your characters more potent in battle...and trust me, you'll need them. Some battles are extremely simple, but you get to bosses that use certain strategies that will push your skills to the limit. In regular battles there are times you seem invincible; some bosses can bring you to your knees with a few shots. It's that random. You can run and shoot in given directions, jump and shoot your enemy into the ground, or juggle your enemy into the air from below. There are a variety of other techniques that you can leverage to assist you, all of which require a lot of multitasking to do. It's not the type of game you can button mash your way through - maybe a few of the regular enemies, definitely not the bosses. For example, you might run, but be stopped by a boss who levels you with a major attack. Depending on how much damage you'd taken up to that point, you might be sent into critical mode, which makes you so weak that all you can do is shoot and run away; no fancy tricks. One more hit, you're dead, and have to try all over again.Without going into too much detail about the battle engine, know that it feels like a mish-mash of a number of games from the past: Max Payne, for the acrobatic gunslinging; Wild ARMs, just because; and a pinch of Dark Cloud, in that the enemies you defeat hold the key to "rebuilding" the world around you. As you slay each enemy, you'll gain energy hexes that are used to navigate the world. This naturally forces you to do battle in order to advance in the game, and discourages you from running from every enemy. You really shouldn't be about running anyway...because you'll come up against a boss that will mop the floor with you in short order if you don't keep your party sufficiently powered up. If you're feeling adventurous, RoF features a number of difficulty levels that you can unlock as you beat the game, each one incrementally more challenging than the ones before it, with the base level being difficult enough as to frustrate most reviewers. If you're a glutton for punishment, the game will give you what you came for. However, I want to warn you: The battle controls are a bit difficult to learn. There are so many controls that make use of basically every single button that they can be overwhelming. There is a full on training section; use it. DO NOT try to just jump into the game and start playing without going to the training, because you will get killed and you will get confused, I promise you!!!Resonance of Fate is a throwback to older games such as Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man and the NES versions of Metal Gear, where you'll encounter bosses that are so cheap that you feel compelled to defeat them no matter the cost. To the game's credit, it never feels like you're underpowered or underleveled, because you were forced to grind to unlock the energy hexes. But it's the tactics used by the bosses that will frustrate you - attacks that take nearly 10x the damage you're accustomed to taking up to that point, attacks that go the full range of the map, and attacking you from behind cover. But it gets better: the game rubs this dynamic in further when you die, because you're given essentially three options. Load your game, which means you're strolling back however far from wherever you last saved; Retry, which lets you try again to beat the boss without walking back to him at a cost of 200 Rupees, or Retry in Hero Mode, which lets you try again to beat the boss without walking back to him AND gives you enough power to do some major damage, at a cost of a staggering 20,000 Rupees. It's entirely possible these amounts go up as you progress each chapter; I didn't die enough times to verify. But you can't help but be absolutely livid at the notion that a boss used a cheesy tactic to take you out, costing you precious money to get a second shot at him. It actually encourages and energizes you to beat the snot out of him when you regenerate. What's worse though, is that if any one of the three characters dies, it's Game Over. There is no reviving in this game, which just adds to the challenge.IF I had to note the most impressive thing about the game, it's the music. Clearly, Star Ocean was inspirational when deciding what tracks to compose for this game, because it's just as well orchestrated and intricate as SO. Every theme you encounter has an epic feel without being too overpowering or loud; and the battle music changes depending on what you're doing at any given time. I can assure you that I'll be getting the soundtrack...that is, if one is ever released, which it probably won't be.In summary: do I recommend it? Absolutely. This is a sleeper hit for sure. It's a shame that it is being overlooked in favor of other more notable games, and it's even more a shame that Sega has not pushed this one harder. It almost seems like Sega has just stopped emphasizing the US market since the failure of the Dreamcast which is unfortunate: if not for them, we wouldn't have the types of games we have now. Resonance of Fate is a must try. Even if you don't feel comfortable buying it just yet, rent it at least.

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Battle in fantastic cinematic action as your characters wield firearms in a semi-real time gameplay system. Pull spectacular moves and precision attacks through this special mode designed to chain enemy attacks together. This unique story is built around a gigantic clock tower like machine delving deep into fate and the machinery that controls it. Masterfully crafted environments illustrate the deep tapestry of this dystopian world. Customize your characters and give them a unique look within the game and cutscenes. Extensive weapon customization allows your character to have specialized weapons from parts unlocked or bought throughout the game. Customize and change the look of your character by unlocking costumes along the way.StorylineCivilization on earth has long been forgotten with the previously lush world now a burned out remnant of its former self. Originally built as an experimental life support system, Basel is now the only place on Earth where mankind can sustain their lives. As their role their PMF (Private Military Firm) the group (Vashyron, Zephyr and Leanne) must seek out and complete quests for their clients leading them on a journey that will reveal the truth of Basel.About the Developer Experienced RPG development team, Tri-Ace, behind this entirely new vision of fate within a steam punk world. The Tri-Ace development team has had a hand in developing some of gaming's most celebrated RPG franchises from Star Ocean to Valkyrie Profile. Sega and Tri-Ace now introduce Resonance of Fate, which adds a new spin to the genre with a new cinematic action gameplay system centred around gun play and a steam punk styled world.

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Virtua Fighter 5 Review

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(More customer reviews)I like fighting games, and I have been enjoying Virtua Fighter for some time now. I bought this when it came out on the ps3 (this and resistance were my main games "back in the day") it looked amazing, was very fluid, and I had a blast playing it. Bad thing was, you could not play it online. People I know in real life, do not play fighting games as much as I do. So playing them at home, leaves little to be enjoyed. When I heard the 360 version was coming out with online play, I decided I must buy it, and I'm glad I did.
The graphics look pretty much the same, and the game is as fast on both platforms. The main change, and the whole reason I bought the game was to play online.
If you have played DOA4 online, you can imagine how VF5 is online. The game does have slow down while you are playing. Though you can get through many matches without any slowdown, eventually, you will meet slowdown. It is usually quite funny when slowdown happens, everyone is waiting on the slowdown to end so you can fight again, which leads to copious bouts of laughter as everyone is trying to regain the upper hand, the game seems to just freeze, or go neo in matrix slow. With that said, I still enjoy the game, and I think if you give it a go, you will too.
I am glad sega put online into this game, and I cannot wait for Soul Calibur 4 to come out, with online as well!

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Virtua Fighter returns with the next release in the series. Virtua Fighter 5 includes new features like enhanced gameplay mechanics, added characters, new fighting styles, and redesigned environments.

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Armored Core 4 Review

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(More customer reviews)Armored Core 4 - Circa 2007
(Special note: If you never played an Armored Core game before and don't care much for huge battling mechs with endless menus of customization drop this score down to a one star. Also if you have Xbox Live and want to try this game you can download a demo for it over XBL Marketplace)
GOOD:
- Armored Core finally comes Xbox ... well Xbox 360.
- Online Play with up to 8 Players online (at once) and be able to trade schematics (your mechs blue prints) online with other gamers.
- The Graphics in this title are pretty good and a step above the previous generation of Armored Core titles on PS2 with most levels having sweeping vistas and energy blades looking like glowing pillars of light. Although on a bit of a sour note the landscapes are as barren as ever with most levels taking place in abandoned cities and deserts.
- More of the same great Armored Core action that fans of the series have come to expect (sorry fans this title seems to not have Nine-Ball thought). Over all, like in every Armored Core title the missions are a mixed-bag with some pretty lame missions mixed in with the over the top missions (so you can never expect what will come next).
BAD:
- The Story is very confusing even to long time Armored Core fans. In this title companies own countries and well after that most people will quickly get lost as well as stop caring.
- The store-garage section of the game has been redesigned as well from previous Armored Core games. Now you build your mech from a pool of available parts and after equipping you have the option to buy said parts before leaving the store-garage menu and going back to the main game. In this way the Shop and garage is now one place, and the effect is that it's all pretty confusing for both Armored Core fans and people new to the franchise.
- The contrast in this game was odd sometimes, now for most missions you can see clearly, but in some missions it is so dark you can't see more then a few spaces in front of you, but in other levels it was so bright that your screen will look almost completely white.
IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- While in concept this game plays very much like Steel Battalion or Chromhounds the game play is much faster in pace.
- Tons of customization options for your mech, think of this game like the Grand Turismo of mech games. For those who have never have played this series before it can be pretty overwhelming.
- Paint your Mech (or any individual part/weapon) any color you want and have the option to have lots of different cameo styles too. On top of that you can even make your own patch/logo (using a bunch of clipart and such) and add this patch to any part of your mech as many times as you like (yes you can make your mech covered in logos and look like a Nascar if you wanted). Also, emblems or Patches that appeared in From Software's other mech game Chromehounds are also carried over into this game.
- Have up to five different mechs in your garage as well as schematics for lots of mech you have beaten in combat (during the single player game).
- With about 70 missions this Armored Core game is a bit shorted the previous ones, all missions have a normal and hard setting, unlock hard setting after you beaten the game.
- This game comes with two controller options and one custom option (setting up your own custom option is most likely your best bet).
- This Armored Core now has a totally redesigned HUD that has a minimalist look and takes up little space on your screen
- All mech come with an energy field called Primal Armor (or PA), which is a protective energy barrier that cuts down on damage taken, Over Boosting (think nitro's for mechs) or prolonged normal boosting can and will drain the effectiveness of this energy barrier (although it can and will recharge).
- The lockbox that is normally found in previous Armored Core games (which worked more like a gun sight) is now removed from the HUD all together; the game will now automatically try to lock on to enemies when in range. Holding down the lock button over an enemy (by default clicking in the Left analog) keeps the lock stuck on that target and makes a small window appear in the left corner of the screen with a zoomed up image of that target.
- You can now fight on water (hover just above the water line) unlike past AC games where you would fall straight to the bottom if contact were made with the water. If the player stops boosting, they will sink into the water but they are still able to get out to the surface if they boost. The only way to sink now is to let your mech go to far (underwater) and not boost out of the water. It should also be noted that in the games options you could set you mech to auto-boost over water so you don't have to hold the button and never have to worry about sinking.
- Boosting along the ground (slide boosting) no longer takes energy, now it will do the opposite and cause your energy bar to refill although more slowly the just standing still.
- Stabilizers have been added, these are parts that shift the balance of your mech (in a few areas), and they also serve to add an aesthetic looks to your mech.
GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Armored Core (PS1)
- Steel Battalion (Xbox)
- Chromhounds (360)
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- This game is also on PS3
- Like I stated above if you have an Xbox-360 and Xbox Live (you don't even need a gold membership a sliver membership which is free will do) and want to try this game you can download the demo for it on Xbox Live Marketplace. It's a three missions long demo.
- The Moon Light Laser blade is in this title (but it's a hidden part)
- In this Xbox 360 version of the game you not only get achievements for beating chapters (6 in all) but also for beating certain mission on hard mode (usually the mission where you have to fight rival mechs) and for beating simulation packs which work as this games version of the Ranker Ladder that was found in previous Armored Core games.

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Armored Core 4 reinvigorates next-generation platforms with the classic action that defined mech games! This 10th anniversary edition of the hit games has an all-new storyline, new environments, and online capability.Engage Primal Armor the all-new defense shield that adjusts its strength according to specifi c battle conditions

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