Spiderbite

So...post here once you get it & tell us what you think. I am probably going to pick a copy up this afternoon sometime.

Brian Shannon

I will look for it today in retail stores, hope someone has it.

Here is a review link

http://www.teamxbox.com/content.php?id=252

Flay

Looks like it sucks in the replay value area. I'm going to rent it.

rabbit77

More Best Buy employee stupidity:

Me: I see you don't have Wreckless in for the X-Box. Can you check your other stores on your computer?

BB Employee: Did you see it in the ad?
Me: Um, no.

BB Employee: Did you see it on our website?
Me: I didn't look.
BB Employee: Then it hasn't come out yet.

Me: But the release date is Feb 5.
BB Employee: All websites are wrong. Never believe what you read on the internet.

Me: .....????
BB Employee: If it's not in the ad, it hasn't come out yet. Anywhere.

So I used my $20 GC on Ghost World and head over to Electronics Boutique at the mall.

Me: So when do you expect to receive any copies of Wreckless for the XBox?
EBX employee: Tomorrow.


Edited to add: I'm kinda glad I couldn't find it anywhere because I just read the reviews; from the looks of it it may just be a rental.

AgtFox

Most of the time Best Buy has games the day after places like EB, Funco and Toys R Us get them. The real funny part is that they have the games in the back, they just haven't bothered to scan them in yet. This is why when you ask if they are in the back and they check the computer nothing shows up .

belboz

I guess those xbox guys at IGN have their heads up their asses huh?

Flay

Actually, you are refering to a girl. Hillary Goldstein.

And I could see where she got too hyped about the game without finishing it.

Spiderbite

I guess each person has different ideas as to the "replay value" of every game. I love this type of game & I, personally, play them more often than most games that everyone goes nuts about "replay value." To each his own. If I based all my library of games on other people's reviews, I would not be very happy with my library.

Anyway...I struck out today. Every place I went to said to try back tomorrow. Either they only get games (or put them out) on Weds or they just said they did not have it & to check back in the next day or two.

WNYXican

I agree Brian, if anyone's collection is based purely on which got what review and replay value, etc..then their collection is really not their own it's someone elses'.

Brianluv when you get the game let us know how it is man.

Flay

IGN gave Wreckless a 9.0.

http://xbox.ign.com/reviews/16946.html

Mattalos

Rassa. Locked for Insiders.

I'm trying to read their DoA 3 story, but that's file not found. Sigh.

Tuan Jim

Yeah, the DOA3 and Halo game guides used to be completely free too. I even have them bookmarked, but I just can't get to them now. What a load of crap -- they were public from the start and then make them Insider only?

Tuan Jim

Josh H

The point of reviews isn't just to base whether not to buy a game based on whether they said it was good or not, it is to decide whether or not to buy a game based on why they said it was good or bad.

Brian above said this is the kind of game he'll play over and over, so he can ignore the replay value concerns in many of the reviews. Others who won't play it over and over, can save themselves $50 by renting it and playing it once through since it has no multiplayer or free drive modes to give it replay value for those who'll only beat the main game once.

Anyway, my point is reviews are very helpful, if you take the time to read them and find out if the things the reviewer liked about the game are the kind of things you like about games and if the things they disliked are something that would turn you off from the game as well.

Spiderbite

Well...I got Wreckless today & have been playing on it the last 2 hours. The graphics are truly amazing. For those of you who thought PGR's replay mode was good, just wait til you see these. There were times where I honestly thought I was watching the news. The graphics are that good.

The gameplay has been fun so far. It is like Driver on steroids. You can only steer with the left thumbstick (which is a little disappointing to me since I am a directional pad man). I got used to it pretty quick though. You cannot just zoom from forward to reverse or reverse to forward like most arcade games. It takes it a few seconds.

Some things are a little troublesome. You go straight thru poles, trees, etc. It is like they are not even there. Although it would be an even harder game if you could not as there are poles everywhere. After traffic cars stop, they blink a few times & disappear. This is a little strange. Again though, this is probably to help gameplay as I was playing in heavy traffic & if some of those cars, buses, etc. did not disappear, I would still be sitting there.

Another strange thing is that when you hit a vehicle, people usually empty out of it suddenly. You also cannot hit people & at times they will go right thru your car like a ghost.

It is definitely a shame that they did not do a free driving mode so you can drive thru the city. At times it is truly amazing just looking around & seeing everything going on.

There are 2 different missions you can go on & then sub-missions under those. I tried the first mission & got thru the first 3 pretty easily on Normal mode but got a little stuck on the 4th mission. It looks like it will take me a good while to get thru the game (but then again, I am no professional gamer by any means).

I got it for $20 so I am quite happy so far. I will post some more observations as I get more time into it is there is any interest. Anyone else get it? Any questions?

Gallant Pig

$20? Is there anything to unlock or any secrets?

Tuan Jim

Where'd you get it for $20? I have $50 credit for gamespot from trading in something else, but I'm waiting for JSRF (since Morrowind got backed up). Just don't have the cash to spring for too many games right now.

Tuan Jim

Spiderbite

Well, as for the $20 explanation: I bought Animal House thru Columbia House's initial frat house comedies library for $4 bucks. Then I cancelled the membership. I took the still wrapped dvd to "nameless music store" & got a $30 credit. I also had a $5 off coupon for any video game (I got a bunch of coupons when I bought my Xbox from them). So...$50 - $30 - $5 + $4 = $19. Pretty sweet, huh? It is not something I do often. It just worked out that way this time.

As far as secrets & unlocking go...you do unlock more cars as you get thru the missions. You can also find secret cars in the missions. I found one last night but could not figure out how to get it. You may have to finish the mission to get it or something. I only spent 2 hours on it last night. I plan on putting some time into it over the weekend & then maybe i can give a more balanced review. (after playing 8 man Halo on Saturday)

dvdsteve2000

I picked this up last night at EB. My girlfriend and I played it for about 5 hours. There are many good & bad points to the game, for me at least.

Some of the Good:
The graphics are really good.
The cars respond & handle excellent.
Great surround sound.
You can play as cops, or thugs.
The car shows all damage. Looks like just a frame w/seats when done.
You get to run alot of stuff over.
Very entertaining.

Some bad:
Total Japanese setting, kind of Anime looking(Sorry, I'm not an Anime fan).
Dialogue is HORRIBLE!!(stupid)
The cars are..., uh, ...well, ...stupid.
The missions are either VERY easy or VERY hard. We either got through on one try, or struggled forever.
STAY AWAY FROM THE RIGHT STICK!! It is used to 'look around'. It's poor and useless IMHO.
Unless I missed something, there is only the 'Mission' mode. I don't see any replay value happening with this game because, while it's fun, I don't see it being fun re-doing the levels. We'll probably play it until we get through the cops & thugs missions, then trade it in.
No controller config in the options menu.

I bought this yesterday at EB. I just asked the clerk when it was coming out (they had demo boxes), and he said "It just came in, I can grab you one...". I hadn't heard too much about it, but it looked like fun, so we bought it. My GF & I LOVE driving games, such as the NFS series on PS1, Driver, GT 1, 2, & 3 for PS1&2, Project Gotham, GTA, etc..., but I'm sorry, this one falls short.

Bottom Line-You don't 'race', so alot falls onto the story & missions(especially for replay value), and I think the game falls WAY short. Driver would be way better on the X-Box.

...again, just my opinion

C-Killer Redux

This is a pretty good game, but I'm selling it back once I'm done. There are two different senarios but once you're done, there's nothing else. Maybe had there been a free mode or side games like Crazy Taxi then it'd be a keeper.

I like the dialogue and found the opening intros for the two senarios hilarious. Too bad there aren't cutscenes for every mission. It does suck about the passing through trees and poles aspect, but it is welcome since there are trees and poles almost every ten feet in certain parts of the levels. The levels also reminds me of the N64 game Blast Corps. As the missions are pretty varied. For example, you have to take out a 20 foot tall dump truck by getting enough air to smash the barrels in the back of the truck to blow it up. Simply crashing into the truck head first does nothing. Right after that you must make it to the top of a building to make an escape.

Plus they have an homage to the Back to the Future Delorean in one of the cars you can unlock.

Pasco

Remember that old (Taito?) game, Chase HQ? You had to catch the bad guy with your car in a specific amount of time. All you had was your vehicle. No guns, no weapons. That's Wreckless, just a million times better looking. It's mindless fun. Good for a rental or a bargain bin title. Looks amazing, though. The lighting and reflections are jaw dropping. There are better games out there. However, to each their own.

Trigger

Picked it up today... I also don't see what all the hoopla is about. The videos I saw for it looked awesome, but after playing it I don't think so anymore. The videos available for it are of course of the replays which are "cinematic". The gameplay is just average. It seems to be a port from another system - like it was originally planned for the Dreamcast or something. The reason I say this won't make sense, but I'll explain anyway... (just skip to the next paragraph if you don't care)... Someone I know had a 36" Sony that got 'electrocuted' and fried during a lightningstorm. They gave the TV to me for free and I just took it down to have it fixed. The tube was fine, it was just a circuit board that was fried. They replaced the board and the TV worked... but on games for the PS2 or the Dreamcast they bowed in on the sides and were stretched a little top to bottom. Xbox games don't do this except for ports like Silent Hill 2. Wreckless does this too and that's why I think this is a port. It's just a theory.

Back to the 'review' - Basically I have the same gripes, but I think they bother me more than they've bothered other people. I don't like that the pedestrians can't be run over and that they disappear. The whole game feels like some cheezeball family arcade game. The stuff you run into (poles, gates, food carts, etc...) doesn't even slow you down and in fact doesn't even make your controller buzz very much if at all, but if you flip your car over the controller vibrates like crazy until it rights itself. You can't press a button to reset yourself if you end up flipped over or get stuck inside a wall (which happens alot), so you basically have to just wait. Changing gears from forward to reverse takes forever and they assigned the buttons to the least intuitive positions you could think of. Once you get the hang of the 'physics' the missions become somewhat easy except for the ones that are impossible (and there are a few). The missions are basically the same for both cops and thugs... smash into stuff. Usually it's other cars, but sometimes it's objects. It sounds more fun than it actually is (to me).

The physics are fairly weak - very arcade-like. The AI is pretty bad too - if you're supposed to chase another car, it just basically goes along a pre-determined path or else just drives around aimlessly. If you're being chased, it just goes towards you - it doesn't try to predict your next moves or anything. The city is laid out ok - nothing special about it really. The traffic flow seems to be "drive on the left side of the road" but not always. Traffic just seems to appear wherever you are heading. I find it annoying that the traffic cars you hit just kinda disappear after a few seconds. I also find it annoying that when you hit a bus or a car the people jump out.

The graphics are unimpressive. It looks okay when you're driving around, but the cutscenes are weak and the only decent thing about the graphics is the replay which loses its entertainment value quickly. The voice acting is poor - very poor. The story is dumb (so far) and it just seems like a kids game more than anything. The sound in general is pretty vanilla. The engine sounds are stock, probably harvested from other games and the music is a mindless techno type sound that provides an arcade feel. The surrounds are in effect, but are not used very much.

The menu system is handled poorly. There are few options. No video options and only one game style... missions. The save process is handled quite inconveniently - you have to remember to exit to the menu to save or else you'll lose all your progress. This disc also didn't include any demos or previews like most of the other games that came out at launch. That's too bad, because I really liked the idea of being able to demo other games and I was hoping that would be something they would stick to doing. I'm probably being a bit harsh on this game, but I think I was expecting something a little better than this. I'm a bit disappointed to say the least. Oh well. I'm sure that many people will enjoy this title alot - people who like arcade style gaming mostly.

Here's my scores for this game out of 5:

Graphics: 4 (cutscenes - 3, gameplay - 4, replay - 4.5)
Gameplay: 3
Sound: 3.5
Replay Value: 2.5
Fun Factor: 3
Overall: 3

Value: $15.00

lordzeppelin

Nice reference, and one damn good call...now If I could find the ROM for MAME...

I'm waiting on my usual "source" to show up with Wreckless for the normal $25, then I'll grab it. I'm busy with NHL 2002 and Onimusha still anyways....

Hey Rabbitt- at least the BB employee didn't lead you to the Horror section when you asked if they had Ghost World...that's what happened to me. Fricken' Morons...

ScandalUMD

Wreckless sure looked pretty, but the word seems to be that it's a flop, with the exception of the IGN review, and I can't read how they justify the 9.0, because all their reviews are now Insider only (IGNsider=waste of money).

Is anyone really loving this game?

Spiderbite

I can say that...no, I am not loving this game. Trigger has hit the nail on the head. All of his points are spot on & I found myself nodding in agreement with everything he had to say.

The more I have played it the more I have found the missions to be...hmmm, what's the word...tedious. I just have not found myself having as much fun playing this game as I did with Driver 1 & 2. I am going to keep playing it & see what happens but it does not appear that it will be a game I treasure. Maybe I went in with too high of expectations?

huh?

looks like gamespot gave it a 6.8

review on gamespot