Xbox Live Code Generator

Xbox Live Code Generator

Civilization V: Solo-play Review

In 1991 Sid Meiers created a video game called Civilization and was claimed to be one of the best strategy games of all time, since then, there has been 5 more games (Civ 2, 3,4, Revolution,5) A sequel (Alpha Centauri, which is a sequel based on acheiving the tech victory in the normal civ games.) Spin-offs(Call to power 1,2, Colonization) And Expansion Packs (Currently only for Civ 3, 4)

Personally i had only played Call to power 1 & 2 and didn't really understand what the fuss was all about. But when i bought Civ V out of curiosity and played it...well lets just say i played it for 10-15 hours straight...

So in honour of Civ V, which i claim is "The Most Addictive Videogame EVER" Here is my Amazing review.

Civilization V is a game which would appeal to many Chess or Risk game Fans, what with its war segments needing incredible strategy to pull off successfully.Now unlike most games, Civilization V doesn't contain a Story mode as such, although a normal Single Player game can take up to 16 hrs to complete, which is as long as a basic story mode. The game itself is Powered by Steam, So there are steam achievements, which there are currently 150 of for Civilization V. There is an acheivement for gaining a different type of victory (Scientific, Diplomatic, Cultural, Domination) and one for each Civilization you win as. The Acheivemants include references to other games (for example, the Domination Victory acheivement is called: Exterminate, Exterminate, Which references the Daleks from Doctor Who.)
The Graphics are alright, but to get them to be really good you need a really high powered computer, but either way they are still good, humans look like humans, Cities look like cities. The best part graphically is the incredible Diplomacy screen, which you use to talk to computer players. When you select a Leader (Computer's character) to talk to, it shows some really solid and smooth graphics of the Leaders that look almost lifelike, for example, Montezuma is standing over a fire moving his arms regularly and the fire in front of him blurs the areas slightly above it to give it a natural, realistic effect.

This Is Montezuma when he's happy....
and also before i accidently insulted him and started a war between us...

 The Gameplay itself is something you would regularly expect from a Civilization game. You Set up your first city with your settler and tell your only warrior to explore, and as your city grows from food, buildings and units take less longer to build. each civilization playing takes turns moving units around the board and building stuff for your city to improve food or Construction, research, culture and Gold.
Since this isn't a strategy guide or a tutorial (Civilization V Has short tutorial's on there, and they are also a good way to get achievements quick.)

Note...The City is mine....and i'm under attack.

Although the problem i have is that some things aren't explained in the manual (Which only explains how to install the product) Or The Tutorial's, but using the Civilization Encyclopedia on the game, i did find a lot of things, and since the search bar only searches for topic names, i can't find something i don't know the name of easily... Also the building: Pharoah's Tomb has no purpose really, because i checked and it doesn't benefit you, but if the enemy destroys the city with it in, they get loads of Gold.
The soundtrack is awesome. Despite the fact that its predecessor Civilization IV won the first ever Grammy to be awarded to a video game for its amazing main menu theme, Baba Yetu...which mean's the Lords Prayer in Swahili, so naturally this game had a difficult task of living up to Civilization IV's soundtrack standards. Each Civilization has a Theme song that plays during the main game, and they also have two Diplomacy themes, depending on if you are at war with them, or not.
You start the game in the ancient era and once you have researched some science, you advance to the Classical Era, Then The Medieval Era, Renaissance, Industrial, Modern, Post Modern/Future.

To be honest, the best ending is the scientific one because that's the only one with something remotely like a cut-scene, when you finished researching then building the spaceship parts, then watch as the marvellous rocket zoom into the great beyond known as Alpha Centauri.

I Win...

Although i'm not a big fan of the Domination Victory's Due to the fact that my cities fall like rocks...but for some reason, a nuke only damages a level 11 city till half their health is depleted...and they regain health every round...and nukes cost Uranium....and there is like only one or two Uranium tiles in a small map.

So Naturally... Whenever i play versus a computer player who want's domination, this happens to me...

Gandhi wins.....Fatality....of Millions....FUUUUUUU

There are about 18 different Civilizations Including American,English,Japanese and Indian. There is also currently 5 DLC available, with one of them free, and downloads onto the game as soon as you update the game.

So Overall, Civilization V Is one of the best video-games of 2010, and i rate it...........

New Amazing Ape Logo.

A New Logo, Made using Pictures of Winnie The Pooh And Donkey Kong.
Of Course, I turned Donkey Kong into Diddy Kong, if Mr T. Was The Mother and DK Was the Father.
Isn't Winnie The Pooh The Cutest you've ever seen....if not....then you will never open your eyes again after you go to sleep tonight....MUHAHAHA

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded

The New Format of AmazingApe Reviews, I Give You, The First True Amazing Review.
KINGDOM HEARTS RE:Coded.

Graphics :
Wow, The game is probably the most beautiful graphically for DS, although because its so detailed in the graphics, it sometimes causes the game to jutter now and then, in scenes where lots of enemies appear.

So This is how 60 minute makeover got rid of the carpetting in 3 minutes.. 

The game has 2 different types of cutscenes, either the basic RPG text box talk, or a CGI cutscene. The Games best part graphically is probably Hollow Bastion Part 1, due to the fact that Hollow Bastion possibly looks as good as the Original KH game on PS2's Hollow Bastion Part...
There are bad Points though...the Castle Oblivion segment isn't too atractive and its so white that my eyes start hurtin

GAMEPLAY:Now, The Gameplay is unique to this game, because the Keyblades in the game work differently than the other games, for instance...each keyblade has the same stats, although some work better with combos, and others critical hits etc. it also copies the commands from Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, the Only difference is that instead of having a Command Style, you have a bar that slowly fills up and, when full the bar levels up and a power unique to that keyblade is temporarily unlock, when the bars MAX lvl is full, you can unleash a finisher that can seriously damage the enemy.
Replacing the panels from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days, Re:coded has an interesting Stat Matrix, a machine which you insert chips (That you either find around the Datascape, or earn them in battle) to unlock Abilities,Cheat matrix's that help you while also dooming you (I noticed that using cheat matrixs actually make it harder, and aren't really worth it)
There is Also a Incredibly pointless minigame accessible from the main menu of the game, called the Avatar menu. in it, you have a character based on the KH mobile game (Not Coded) and you can make him wear costumes from characters in the KH Series from Yuna to Zexion. The Problem with this is that you start off with 1% Costumes and the only way to get extra costume parts is by:
A) Get a Sector quest from a friend (Its in the Avatar menu and you are basically sending a friend a randomly generated sector, while also recieving one)
B) Collect enough trophies (in-Game Acheivements) to unlock parts
 Also, in the game itself, there is a insane difficulty curve in Olympus Colliseum. This is a dramatic reconstruction of how i completed Olympus colliseum 1st time.
Sora: Hi i am level 10
Phil: Save The Day
LAYER 1
Sora: ooh warp...
LAYER 2
Hercules: Oh Hai, I'm Hercules, can i join you
Sora: Sure.
LAYER 3
Sora:HI PERSON
Cloud: SILENCE, I KILL YOU
Sora: Arggg im dead
3 lvls up later
Cloud: Damnit you beat me
LAYER 4
Sora: Wow, lets go to that door leading to the boss
Cloud: WAIT I'M HIDING IN A SPOT WHERE YOU CANT SEE ME
Sora: Lets go
They go to boss without Cloud
LAYER 5

I JUST WANNA BE YOUR FRIEND......JUST KIDDING ROOOOAARRR

----They Get Their ass handed to them----
7 lvls up later
Sora: Finally i beat Cerberus
Hades:Hello, I'm going to fight you now, and your health will not replenish
Sora: FUUUUUU----
So as you can see, you realise that you need Cloud, but because you notice the huge door first, you assume there isn't anything special on the floor, so its a long frustrating time to beat Cerberus & Hades
Also, Hollow Bastion part 1 may be graphically pleasing, but it is still frustrating...You lose your keyblade and cant use a weapon OR magic, you just have to run around until goofy and Donald join your team and fight for you. So all in all, The Gameplay is fun, yet really frustrating.
STORY:
This game didn't need to be made... for one, all the worlds in the game, featured in other games, so no originality...and the only major plot points is the Sora's Heartless and Castle Oblivion parts... The other segments were pointless because near the end....the journal gets reset, wiping all the journal charcters (Except Data-Riku)Memories of you.....in fact, since you are Data Sora, your mind gets wiped....and this is before the Castle Oblivion part...

The Mysterious Message

The Basic Story is that Jiminy Cricket has found a mysterious Message in his journal from Kingdom Hearts 1, so he goes to Mickey, who then digitises the journal (Why did he do it in a room full of books, what if something went wrong...he might merge the books together....) and creates Data Sora, who travel through the worlds beating the crap out of bosses, beating up Riku is Hollow Bastion Part 2, killing Sora's Heartless who is easier than Cerberus...Memory wiped, meeting with Mickey in Data Traverse Town because...Mickey forgot about the message and returned to the journal (Oh Yeah, i forgot to mention, Mickey, donald and goofy get sucked into the journal, but they do nothing until Hollow Bastion 1)so Mickey and Data Sora (Who wondering what the Fuck Mickey is because his memory was wiped and he hasn't met a furrie yet) head to Castle Oblivion, where Sora Beats the crap out of the final boss....Roxas, and get to Namine, who tells Mickey the only piece of information that would be useful in the series....Roxas, Xion, Axel, Namine, Terra, Ven And Aqua is in trouble and real Sora needs to go rescue them...Thats the only thing the story of this game was made for.... And i said it in a few words...
it would of been better if they put this in Kingdom Hearts :Dream Drop Distance as a flashback Mickey has.
FINAL VERDICT
Graphics: 10
Gameplay: 9
Story: 7 (4 for the length of the story and 3 for the story itself)

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed NDS Review

Hello Kingdumbheartness here with another review, this time on a Star Wars game...This is it, The shit-stopper, one of the shortest games ever made...even shorter than Super Mario Bros on the NES...this is...

Star Wars Force Unleashed 2-NDS: Review made by Thomas Griffiths/Kingdumbheartness/Arceusavenger
GRAPHICS AND REPLAY VALUE: the graphics are worse than MJ The Experience on NDS, its basically just 2d graphics and not that many cool special effects. The Backgrounds are dull after the first 3 levels and get repetetive. Unlike the other versions of the game This one has no unlockables, so no collectibles so there is no point replaying levels. The Cutscenes are basically drawings, with sound and on the rare occassion a home console like videoclip of Starkiller killing something.

You Think This looks fun...it isn't

the graphics of the characters and robots are badly constructed and the only relative replay value in the game is replaying the final to get both endings.
So the graphics and Replay value are rubbish....what about...

THE GAMEPLAY: You use the stylus to slash people with a lightsaber by drawing lines repeatedly on your foes, the problem with this, combined with the force powers is that its incredibly easy to kill anything in the game...so instead they toss loads of them at you at once...which would be alright, if it wasnt for the fact that you could blast them all with force lightning, stunning them for a second, which would give you plenty time to kill lots of stormtroopers...in fact there are only 9 types of enemy in the game...Stormtrooper, Starkiller clones, Vader, Some giant Monster thing, red coated stormtroopers (i think), a giant robot boss (see screenshot above)some teleporting trooper, Carbonate shooting robot, Rocket firing robot...Each of them easy (Especially vader)
The force powers are accessed using icons in the top right corner of the touch screen, select each on and tap or drag the stylus to use them. There are certain areas in the game which require you using force powers, which would be interesting puzzle moments....if not for the fact that they tell which power to use and where.
The game has a XP system which is pointless because, whenever i level up, i notice no difference in my stats, Health or Force Bars or force powers.
So Yeah, so far there is nothing really redeemable with the game but since its Star Wars it must have a good
STORY: This has to be, the single, most crappiest Star Wars storyline ever, also the shortest...in fact, this version is even smaller than the Home console versions, which had about 9 levels...
The story begins with Starkiller, who doesn't know if he is a clone or not, so he runs out of Kamino in a fit, killing stormtroopers on the way.He aims to find Juno Eclipse (His Girlfriend) and prove he's still alive, Meanwhile saving Rahm Kota from a Gladiatorial arena, then he goes to Dagobah and meets yoda, who is like "mmm Vision you have...Piss Off" so Starkiller does what Yoda says and finds Juno's starship under attack by Imperials and Boba Fett, who then kidnaps Juno and takes her to Kamino, luring Starkiller to Vader...So Rahm summons a rebel fleet and they all bombard Kamino, which is weak for some reason, he then confronts vader, who you attack a bit, defeat starkiller clones, repeat a couple of times then cutscene of Vader throwing Juno out of a window, then you fight for the final time, when he attacks, dodge and wait till he finishes the attack, then you have to use a certain force power to hurt him, but to actually hurt him, knock him into a lightning tower and he will be electricuted, repeat and eventually he will fall...then you have a choice, for light ending let Vader live, for Dark ending Let him Die...It doesnt matter which you choose because you can just replay the boss fight and get the other ending easily.
Anyway all in all the plot doesn't focus much and goes all over the place so that is why i rate it overall...

Next Review...Sonic Colours Wii

Michael Jackson The Experience NDS & Wii Review Part 2

Hello and welcome to Part two of the Michael Jackson: The Experience Review.
This time i will review Michael Jackson, The Experience on wii, and my, my is this an odd case, on with the show...
Review: Michael Jackson The Experience-Wii
Graphics: The graphic i have seen here are some of the best i have seen in a dancing game ever, ok the people have a ghost like aura to them so you can't see there face, but thats only because, they had to use a MJ impersonator to do the dance moves because MJ is dead, so they would have to at least try to make the dancer look like MJ. Unlike the Ds Version, there is a difference with every Song's setting and the dance moves in it. For instance, The song Ghost's takes place in a haunted mansion, and half-way through, Michael Jackson spins and turns into a skeleton...now when i first saw this i was amazed, especially with the back up dancers in their ghostly attire...Yes, this game has, unlike the DS version...Back up dancers.Now The Background was nice too, not only did the odd ghost appear on the roof of the inside of the Mansion every now and then, but the fireplace behind MJ and the dancers was flickering wildly as well.This is the full footage of Ghosts, from Michael Jackson The Experience, here for Review purpose only...

Another song that impressed me a lot was Earth song, the setting, like the music video, in a post apocalyptic future, but halfway through the song started showing off the wii's graphics, while MJ is yelling and Dancing (no backup dancers in this song), Thunder cracks in the background while wind a black ash (i think)  flies all over the screen, take a look...

So That was the graphics part of the review, the graphic showed that even a non HD console can have better graphics than some HD ones (cough cough Sonic 2006 Cough cough).
Now onto:

GAMEPLAY: Now the gameplay is basically the same as just dance and just dance 2, you basically use the wii remote and follow the dance steps shown on left or right (Depending on if you are MJ or a backup dancer respectively) when they reach the marker at the top, now there are some problems, like for one, the wii remote isn't the best motion sensing controller in the world, and you could be dancing using your whole body and it would only sense the movement of the arm the wii remote is in, so really you could just stand there moving your hand but well, whats the fun in that eh? also some of the symbols are slightly informative, like when it tells you to do a certain move, sometimes there is more to the move than indicated on the icon. and sometimes there isn't an icon, but that usually only happens when the dance moves are in the pattern and you know what dance move comes next.
Now those flaws aside, its a decent way to dance and, if you can't do a certain move, play other songs to get stars and, unlike the DS version, these stars unlock tutorials to teach you how to do the moves both in-game and in real life instead of pointless memorabillia.
Overall, the gameplay is pretty damn decent, if slightly faulty.
Now onto the final and possibly most important part of a dance game:
THE SOUNDTRACK:
Michael Jackson The Experience on Wii has about 27 songs, which is 15 more than the DS version, and of course, they all have a different background and most of the time different clothes and colours on MJ, instead of the blandness of the DS version, also the dancing moments are unique with each song...and of course THIS ONE HAS THRILLER!!! although some of the slow songs get boring easy due to the slow dance moves and easy difficulty, so anyway yeah the music is perfectly synced in with the dance moves unlike....The DS version...and you may think i am slandering the DS, but as you can see Ubisoft are clearly putting more effort in the home console games instead of the Handheld games...even the Psp has the same graphics as the DS version, although, the PSP version does have THRILLER!!! unlike....the DS version.
So Overall The Graphics are some of the best on wii, the gameplay is excellent, if slightly bad, due to the consoles disabilities, but the soundtrack, due to the fact that its Michael Jackson, although the often slow songs get kind of boring.
So Overall, i Rate Michael Jackson The Experience:

Michael Jackson The Experience NDS & Wii Review Part 1

Michael Jackson was a famous musical icon who sadly passed away on june 25 2009, but around the time of his death, a rumour went around saying that Michael Jackson was working with a video game company to make the ultimate dancing experience, and it certainly is impressive....For The Most Part, This Is it, The Michael Jackson, The Experience Review by me, Thomas Griffiths

 First Review: Nds Version
Now first i will talk about the graphics, which are sort of nice for a ds game, the problem i noticed was that throughout the whole game he just keeps doing the same dance moves, although on certain songs (only the key songs apparently) he does moves that ACTUALLY featured in a performance/music video...the cartoon Michael is sort of nice but there is really no difference in the model of the character other than the odd clothes change now and then.
Now, on to the gameplay, there is pretty much nothing i can say other than....Elite Beat Agents Rip-off, but it is still enjoyable and the tap icons appear in time with the music, which is nice...but, the dancing is basically him doing the same moves repeatedly, changing every now and then (Moonwalk Rarely Seen)

Footage From Billie Jean

Sometimes there are neat segments where you have to rotate the stylus on the touch screen really fast till the lights at the bottom of the touch screen light up, while this is going on Michael is spinning and if you light up all of the lights Michael does that tippy-toe thing he does (see above image.) Overall the gameplay and graphics are average, the graphics need a bit more work on them, and i would of liked to see some originality in the gameplay.
Also, you get a certain number of stars at the end of the level depending on how you did, you can also get a crown as well if you did exceedingly well...the reason you need stars? To unlock more songs and unlock some cartoon versions of MJ Memmorabilia which is pointless, Also there is no multiplayer mode...in fact there is only one mode, Tour, which is basically just doing the song
Now onto the main part of the NDS Review, the Music...Michael Jackson The Experience has a small list of twelve songs, including Beat it, Billie Jean, Bad, Smooth Criminal and Streetwalker (You remember that one right?...you don't, its on the 2001 re-release of the BAD album as unreleased song...) but of course i am angry because, it misses out one of the best Dance Routines of all time...THRILLER, They left out Thriller!!! perhaps there were so many different dance moves that Ubisoft couldn't get away with the same dance moves over and over again, without someone noticing...
So Overall, The Game copies Elite Beat Agents unique gameplay (Like all other Dance Games for DS) The Music was great if a small setlist, of only 12 songs, sadly they left out some key songs that make the Wii version more unique, and finally, The Graphics are too repetetive, So the Overall Rating is:

I will Release Part 2 of the MJ Experience Review tomorrow, Stay tuned for the Wii Review, Which will feature in part 2...See You Soon
KingdumbHeartness/ Thomas Griffiths