Game Review

Dance Central 2 – Finally a more complete game

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For those with Kinect, Dance Central should be one of the title that you are familiar with. The first Dance Central was a breakthrough as it is the first full-body motion dancing game ever made. It leapfrogged this genre of game and shadowed its predecessor like Dance Dance Revolution.

However, the game wasn’t really complete and it has received a number of complains from gamers. Among them includes the lack of two-players and online mode. Dance Central 2 attempts to address some of those issues.

After playing Dance Central 2 for a week plus, we have decided to give it a GT score of 8.5. To cut the chase, let us drill down to the 2 major reasons on why you should buy this game.

Two-players mode

What makes Rock Band popular? It is the ability to play with your friends and participating together in the game. This is exactly what Dance Central 1 lacks in.

With Dance Central 2, up to two players can now dance together in front of your Kinect. So is this really that good? Well based on our experience, with two players tangoing, you really need alot more space. So those with tight space constraint, you might not get to enjoy the two-player mode as much. Remember the epic ‘Father-smacks-daughter-while-playing-Kinect’ video? You can expect to see more of such videos in time to come!

Overall, the experience is still great. Having to play with your family or friends together makes it easier to break the ice and get you on the dance floor. Also it makes the second player look less stupid as he is now actually playing unlike in DC1.

Break it Down

We have tried Michael Jackson: The Experience before and we notice the stark difference between how this game teaches you how to dance VS Dance Central. Already Dance Central was a clear winner. However, in Dance Central 2, the developers took great pain to make it even easier for noobs dancer like us to learn how to dance.

Firstly, voice command. Players can now choose to skip or go back to the previous move easily with voice command. Surprisingly, Xbox understand our Singlish accent better than Apple’s Siri. You can also slow down, speed up and even take a video footage of yourself!

Based on our experience, learning the dance is really simpler! Although it may be better if they can allow us to see different views of the dancer. After all, it is a 3D avatar right? Can’t we just rotate them and get a better view for certain dance step?

Conclusion

The songs collection, the improved Break It Down mode and the two-player mode is what makes this game stands out . What we feel lacking is still the ability to play online. Nonetheless, we still recommend this game as one of the must-get for Xbox 360.

 

Gadget

iPhone 4S – Should you get one?

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iPhone 4S is sure attracting lots of attention online. This all new iPhone while similar to its iPhone 4 physically, is actually packed with more power internally. Four main features to look out for:

  1. A5 dual core processor (the same processor that powers the iPad 2)
  2. 8 MP camera with new CMOS sensor – time to throw away that point and shoot camera?
  3. Dual Antenna – to solve the ‘grip of death’ problem of iPhone 4
  4. Siri – your voice command butler that may not understand Singlish (wonder if Apple is working on this…hmm…)

If you have a iPhone 4, probably it will probably be better to wait for the real next-gen iPhone 5 which is rumoured to be announced Q1 next year.

Here’s another more in-depth review from CNET for iPhone 4s

 

Siri

Here’s a video that showcased the potential problem with Siri for Singaporean. Siri doesn’t understand accent well! I really pity the Japanese in the video..

Spoiler: Jump to 0:57 and see how Siri misinterpret this Japanese.

Of course, it is make for the American and British accent but what about user outside this two countries? May Mr Brown’s Simi will serve us better!

Siri has a sense of humor too! See the video below:

 

When is iPhone 4S coming out?

iPhone 4s is coming to Singapore on all three telcos on the 28th of October 2011. Check out the individual telcos for their iPhone 4S offer.

Game Preview

GTA + Heavy Rain = L.A. Noire

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I can’t stop thinking of Heavy Rain when I first saw this trailer for L.A. Noire. Of course, this game is not surprisingly similar to GTA since it is developed by Rockstar Games. I am glad that Rockstar moved away from GTA IV. The novelty of an open world concept whereby you can commit all sorts of vices is dying off. Personally, I find that chasing cars, killing people and racing on GTA is getting mundane and repetitive with GTA IV. I stopped at the 20th mission when I keep failing to chase down a car and having to repeat it all over again.

So now Rockstar wants you to be the good guy. In L.A. Noire, you play as Cole Phelps, an LAPD officer in the turbulent time of 1947 Los Angeles. Instead of having mission to kill a certain gang leader or to fight off some gangster, you are now presented with cases. As a detective, it is your job to interrogate suspect, interview witness and gather evidences to bring justice to L.A.

Tech

The facial express is really sophisticated and the level of details is simply amazing. Compared to GTA IV, this is definitely a giant step forward. I had to compare this with Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain.

The level of details seen in Heavy Rain, published about a year ago, managed to achieve fairly realistic facial expression as well. However, the two technologies used by Quantic and Rockstar are slightly different. In Rockstar implementation, there is a mix of 3D video with mesh animation whereas in Quantic Dream is purely mesh animation. In other words, what you see on Rockstar is essentially a 3D video of the facial expression captured by the cameras.

Gameplay
In this game, you have to solve crimes ranging from homicide to arson. While interrogating suspect and gathering evidence is part of a case itself, Rockstar also dishes out the regular high-action shooting and chasing mission. A fresh game compared to the usual GTA. And yes, this game is also having the same open world concept. You are free to explore the city. Check out the review by IGN below.