Kung Fu Chaos Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Not many good reviews of this game, but I don't think the reviews are being fair.OK.This game does have bad moments such as the multiplayer, but I think the single player mode is interesting and fun.For example, they have some mini games in between levels such as throwing the princess at other players to knock them down.Other mini games include catching as many stuntmens from the roof as possible while trying to avoid being hit by falling cows, tables, and chairs.There is some replay value because you need to complete some levels with 5 stars to unlock hidden levels or characters.If you don't believe me, just rent the game and find out for yourself.

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Product Description:
Kung Fu Chaos is the fun brawler game that makes you the star of your own kung-fu movie!

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Jade Empire Special Edition (Rhino Demon Exclusive Content) Review

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(More customer reviews)Jade Empire: Special Edition is a lot of fun.The milieu is a fresh breath of air from the typical fantasy setting and the combat is certainly more dynamic.Instead of issuing commands and then waiting for the computer to resolve dice rolls behind the scenes, the combat is pure real-time martial arts.You jump your character in and out, dodge, roll, and have to actually connect when you strike.It brings out an urgency and involvement that is sometimes lacking in RPG combat.

The graphics may not be at the level of Oblivion, but they're crisp and pretty.Plus the game runs on a system that's not quite state-of-the art without issue.Apart from a few bugs (sometimes the camera angle gets stuck, easily fixed by a quick reload), Jade Empire runs smoothly.

The game has limited replay value, though.This is simply not as in-depth or large a game universe as Knights of the Old Republic or the Baldur's Gate series. You have a small starting town, which there is no point revisiting once you finish the introductory chapter.After that, there's a somewhat larger town (Tien's Landing) and then the Imperial City.Again, once you leave the town, you probably won't have any reason to ever go back.And the Imperial City is the same story:once you've wrapped up everything and head to the Imperial Palace, you won't be going back to the City.

That's a shame because the game feels so linear as a result.There's side quests in each urban location, but nothing that really makes you feel like you're forging your own destiny in another world.You won't be doing anything equivalent to rescuing Anise's castle in BG2 or acting as a hit man for the Genoharadan in KOTOR.

So my final verdict is that this is definitely a good game.But will I dust it off the shelf every few months, eager to give it another go (like I do with BG2, Kotor, and even Fallout 2)?That I can't be so sure about.

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Product Description:
Step into the role of an aspiring martial arts master and follow the path of the Open Palm or Closed Fist. In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of an empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land or crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses strength and fighting mastery to bring peace or will your power bring pain and ruin?

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Jade Empire Review

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(More customer reviews)From the people who brought us Knights of the Old Republic comes another genre-blending game with a fabulously twisting plot. If you own an Xbox, you should own this game. It is not only the best Action RPG on the Xbox but one of the best RPGs played in recent memory.

For those who have played KOTOR, this game will be instantly familiar. At the offset, you pick a character and are thrust into a world of moralities. Unlike KOTOR, the morality system is a little more complex for the most part. Instead of focusing on good and evil, your character has the choice of being endlessly helpful, understanding and tolerant of everyone (in other words believes in the power of the human spirit) or someone who reveres strength. As an example of this strength concept, there is a decision early on about a dam that is open and has caused problems for a town because the sailors are land locked. A wine merchant wants the dam to remain open so he can make a killing off of the sailors. If you follow the Way of the Open Palm you would probably close the dam so that the town can prosper in what is should be doing. If you follow the Way of the Closed Fist, on the other hand, would decide that if the town were strong they will survive this current hurdle and that it is only that, a hurdle. It gets a little more tricky than that and does open some areas for roleplaying your character and deciding what you would really do in that situation. Bioware is also wonderful at making you think about your decision as they give you new information just as soon as you make a decision that might change how you feel about the situation.

My only complaint with the system is that while they say that the two paths are different from looking at things as good and evil, there are still some instances where there is a "good" and an "evil" way of doing things. I might have rationalized why I would be doing something that way, yet I would get points from the side I didn't want because it was clearly delineated as "good and evil choice." So, that's a bit frustrating given that their system isn't supposed to be good and evil. But, overall the system works well and really makes you think.

I didn't really care for KOTOR because of the battle system and that is probably the reason I'm enjoying Jade Empire much more. The fighting system is simple yet deep. As you progress you will learn different martial arts style that you can map to the D-pad for quick and easy access. And you will be constantly changing your styles as the techniques to defeat enemies will constantly evolve. Some monsters are immune to certain attacks so you will have to experiment and find the best ways of devastating your foes.

On the simple side, the combat is really about rock, paper scissors. You have a quick attack and a time-consuming attack (and a knock back attack that really only helps when you are surrounded and need some space). When someone blocks you use your time consuming attack, otherwise you mostly use your quick attacks to offset their own long attacks. It's pretty simple and easy to used to. However, some battles can become a button masher either way you look at it. But it's still exhilarating and fast with many ways of deciding how you want to play. Do you want to focus on using weapons, martial arts, magic, transformations? A little of the above? It's all up to you.

The game is beautiful most of the time. The art style is impeccable and really helps create a full-flesh universe. Since it's based on oriental myth, it doesn't take place in the Orient as we know it but a mythical world that incorporates themes from oriental culture. Because of this, the desiginers are free to create whatever their imagination can make. And it's beautiful. There are some places that I stood for awhile and just looked because it was so surreally beautiful and soothing. It made me wish that sometimes our world wasn't so industrialized and that we could go back to what was a more simple beauty. It was that affecting. However, sometimes, the backgrounds look painted on. Some of the hills and areas that act as blockades for where you can't go aren't that well designed. Also my character's body type makes me laugh because his pecs are super large and his abs are indented in his body that I laugh whenever I see it.

The game moves impeccably fast as well. Your character runs and I mean runs through the areas. The framerate is great. But, like KOTOR before it, the game stutters sometimes when you are running and turning the camera. When the camera pans, the game flutters sometimes as it tries to take in everything that happens. In battles, the game hardly ever stutters. And the battles can end up having a good dozen or so enemies fighting you and your partner so they can get pretty hectic and the graphics engine does a great job keeping the motion moving.

Aurally, the game is a treat. You will find some cameo voice actors that are immediately familiar (look for John Cleese in a hysterical role). The music is well done and has a wonderful oriental bent to it (of course). Also, Bioware hired a real linguist to help create the fictional language used in the game. It is very familiar to oriental language but isn't real. It was created solely for this game. And that's amazing.

Unfortunately, my problem with the dialogue in the game is the same problem I had with KOTOR. It's great and all but all too often the plot developments and dialogue becomes a "talking head" type situation where anyone who has something important to say gets a close up of their face while their lips move and the dialogue is heard. This is unfortunate for me because I get impatient sometimes and will just read the subtitles and skip through most of their dialogue. It's never "dynamic" in cutscenes like in some RPGs I've played (hands down the best use of dialogue in an RPG goes to FFX that used dialogue to move the plot but it wasn't a novel dialogue, it was like movie dialogue). The dialogue in Jade Empire is sometimes like a novel. So, for those who aren't interested in talking heads delivering dialogue this might get annoying after a time. But the dialogue is genuinely well voiced and excellent.

My only other complaint is the load times.While not as annoying constant as Fable where each and every small zone no matter how small had to be loaded for a good 5-10+ seconds, it still is a pain when you have to go through zones for a quest.For instance, in the beginning of the game you have to go through the town to the school (a load screen) to get a quest, go back to town (load screen) to talk to someone, then back to the school (load screen).And it's unfortunate because the actual quest takes maybe a minute, but a good 20 seconds of the time is spent in load screens.That's a uncharacteristic load time though as generally the areas are big and don't usually require many loads.Although another incident where it is very noticeable is in an arena combat situation where before and after each arena battle it has to load for a good 5-10 seconds.The kicker is, some of the arena battles are over in about a minute or much much less and yet you have to deal with two load screens comprising a good 10-20 seconds.So, in some areas it can be annoying and definitely pulls you out of the game when you should be pulled further in.And, it becomes especially annoying considering that games like Halo 2 are seamless after the original load.

Overall, though, this game is gold.It's perfectly plotted and paced and has Bioware's trademark in excellence stamped all over it.It ranks as one of my favorite games this year so far along with God of War and Psychonauts.I would definitely recommend buying this game.There are some problems that I have noted but you know regardless of the problems, this is an excellent game with an excellent story.And, at 22+ hours, this adventure is worth taking.

**NOTE: You should definitely pick up the Limited Edition of it if you can still find it.For the initial run they are all Limited Edition and after they are gone, you will only be able to get this, the standard game.The Limited edition has a new character and weapon style and a making of as well as some other fun things.Same price, so definitely check out the limited edition over this version if you want the game.

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Product Description:
Set in the ancient, mysterious world of mythical China, players train under their master's watchful eye and learn powerful martial arts and mystical powers. When danger threatens, players travel across the world, from the harsh mountains of the Land of Howling Spirits to the lush gardens of the Imperial City. In their adventures, players face powerful human and supernatural foes, learn exotic and magical martial arts, and discover the darkest secrets of the world. Only by mastering the greatest fighting styles and defeating the most powerful enemies will players earn their place as a master of martial arts in the world of "Jade Empire."

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Jade Empire Special Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A note on my ratings and preferences:
I have never been able to come close to giving a game 5 stars. There are just way too many ways for a game to go wrong. I am not opposed, indeed I dream of encountering a 5 star game. It has just never happened. 5 stars would mean it was a work of art.4 stars means it was a truly excellent game that I highly recommend, but it will still have problems. 3 stars is mainly positive but with notable problems- worth trying depending on your preferences. 2 stars is seriously problematic and not recommended.
I prefer storyline and character in a game. I am not terribly good at games and have a very low frustration level and so like the difficulty on the easy side, however, I will fight through difficult play if I really like the game. I read complaints sometimes about games being too short, but I have yet to find one that was too short and rarely finish the games I play.My favorite genres are rpgs and action adventure, but I will try anything.

Jade empire, a beautiful game I loved, is a classic example of the four stars above. Easily one of the best games I ever played I can still name a lot of small things wrong with it.It's funny, before I started playing computer/video games in the current 3D generation I would have assumed that a great many of these games would be much like jade empire.These would be games with strong stories, meaningful dialogue choices, intelligible character development, people to talk to, heroism, at least somewhat diverse challenges, and, yes, fighting.It is still surprising to me how rare bioware is and how rare a game like this is.I mean, I finished this excellent game about 5 minutes ago, I appreciated it, even loved it a good bit, and I really don't want to sound like a complainer, but sometimes I feel like this is the 10,000 pound elephant in the room nobody ever ever talks about and I find I just need to now, here, after this very enjoyable game.It's like this.What if you loved movies, but no one had ever made anything like, I don't know, the godfather (pick your own; what I mean is a masterpiece, Casablanca, sunset boulevard, fanny and Alexander, whatever).What if the only movies were like, oh, at best, superman returns (by this I mean a good popcorn genre movie, a good movie, a fun movie)? What if two or three movies came out a year that were even as good as superman returns and the rest were various levels of worse.That's how I feel about games, that's where I think we are with games, and sometimes I feel stupid for liking them or for believing, hoping, waiting for them to be more. And sometimes I get so tired of the hype, the games that score 100 or 5 stars or whatever, games I like but still think, yeah, but it's just a game. There are thousands and thousands of movies, songs, paintings, books, that stand in some other realm of power. Maybe a game is just different and cannot go there, but somehow I think they can and I await the people with the vision and talent and courage to take the first game over. I do think it's possible and I do think bioware, the people who made Jade Empire are probably the most likely of all the people currently making games to do this.

Okay. I will rate on these categories:

Difficulty: excellent! There are difficulty levels (which I love with a burning passion, and see no good reason not to have). I think there were three and I unlocked a fourth when I finished on easy. Easy was very very easy and I imagine on normal I would have been fine, maybe dying six or a dozen times, but I love cruising through the combat. It helps make the walking around, talking, collecting parts of the game that I so enjoy that much larger. It also alleviated some of the issues concerning sluggish, non responsive controls that, fairly speaking, had something to do with my framerates and fading computer.The rpg elements were quite clear and sensible and dialogue/puzzles and navigation were pretty simple. I actually hate to say it since it didn't bother me really, but a wee bit more challenge on dialogue and puzzles might have been okay, I'm just thinking of a little more kotor type things, just, maybe something with a little math or something.But, really, for me very high marks on this, if you like things deadly challenging, complex, obtuse, involved, you might not be so happy.

Graphics:very very nice, varied and pretty environments. It is in no way a jaw dropper like oblivion or something, but on the other hand, unlike oblivion, its environments tend to be on the wilder more inventive side which makes up for a lot.Indeed I think that is the more important to me.Also the characters look really quite good. I enjoyed walking around the world looking around, though it had its limits- mainly that the view always seemed a bit hemmed in, not a lot, I'm just saying getting to a high spot didn't really lay it all out for you. I liked the Far East setting, particularly for being modestly original.After getting a ps2 and trying some of that system's rather overrated japanese rpgs it was funny to finally play a game with actual Asian characters and have it be made in the west.

Storyline:very good, well paced, interesting and clear. The characters and character interaction in say, knights of the old republic 2, was deeper and to me better (I compare because these are both similar and the best of their kind). Also there was a section of kotor 2 that hinted at greatness and there was no moment like that in jade empire, but on the other hand jade told a whole story that was complete in itself. It made basic sense and didn't dissipate into emptiness or nonsense. This is a more rare and valuable quality than one might think in gaming. I also really liked that you really moved through the story, there weren't any big actions or sections that felt so separate, like, here's the gameplay and the story is over there. The meaningful dialogue was really important to making that happen and the more I see of that in games the happier I shall be.Of course, the lack of regenerating enemies, random fights, and leveling up also added to the pace and the immersion of the storyline.The game handled serious stuff pretty well, but the comic relief stuff was fairly weak though the crazy inventor may have had a moment or two. Everything about this game was elevated by the totally great and professional 100 percent voiced dialogue.So, if it were a book with this story, or a movie, kind of cleaned up, it might be a C or something.For a game it was great, maybe an A- (I don't know where these grades started coming from all of the sudden).

Gameplay: Sorry, this is getting ridiculously long so I'll try and move along. Let's see, loved the dialogue stuff, just talking to people and basically doing quests that involved talking. I mean, loved it. I only wish there was more of it and more complex, especially using charm or intuition which I went to some trouble to develop very highly but too rarely got a chance to employ, especially in the last third of the game. I'd read the complaints about the simplified rpg elements with stats and equipment and all so was more surprised at how much there actually was to it. But that's just expectation. In reality It was pretty slim, no clothes or armor or weapons (sort of) and you don't do anything with companions stats or anything. I think you do tend to have more money than things to buy and your development is maybe more standardized underneath than it seems.The biggest diversity in the development mainly comes in the weapon styles and it's most meaningful because you can only develop a small percentage significantly. Only one companion travels with you at a time, but that was actually better than I thought too. There are enough cutscenes and gathering spots to feel like you're a little group. Navigation is clear and pretty fun. Minigame is fun enough. Load times for everything are shortish. The amount of fighting in this game, while significant, is, thank the celestial bureaucracy,definitely less than most, and in a way that tends to leave you in the game world more and in your stat screens less (though maybe a little too much less, but barely). I will add, mainly since I've been messing some with the PS2, that there is no nonsense about fights taking place somewhere else, out of nowhere, or with load screens (god how a hate that stuff).You see an enemy, you fight it.

Okay, I rarely finish games, but I did everything possible in this game and it took me 31 hours.I really liked it and in the middle dreaded that it had to end at some point- a way I feel when I'm reading a book I like a lot, but so very rarely with games. I would rate Jade Empire on a level with maybe 4 or 5 other games ever! Everything else would rate below it.I strongly recommend it if you're at all inclined. Good luck.

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Product Description:
Platform:WINDOWS XPPublisher:BIOWAREPackaging:RETAIL BOXRating:MATURESet in an ancient world inspired by mythical China Jade Empire lets you train under your master's watchful eye as you learn powerful martial arts and mystical powers. The PC version includes additional monsters fighting styles and enhanced graphics. Jade Empire is the award-winning action RPG that was originally released for the XBox game console. Jade Empire delivers an incredible story-driven game with high-resolution graphics and improved controls. Step into the role of an aspiring martial-arts master and follow the path of the Open Palm or the Closed Fist. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land or will you crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses his strength and fighting mastery to bring peace or will you instead use your powers to bring pain and ruin? Improved combat AI and difficulty levels New world map interface.Features:An incredible engaging story that makes you the noble hero. or the treacherous villain!Many fascinating characters to interact withBeautiful mysterious lands to explore discover and save. or conquerRich blend of role-playing and exciting real-time combatEnhanced for the PC! PC version includes the entire original game with additional content in the form of new monsters combat styles and combat re-balancing for extra challenge and new items. The mysterious world of Jade Empire comes to life with beautiful high-resolution graphics and new visual effects and details System Requirements:Windows XPProcessor: PIIII 1.4 GHzDirectX 9.0512 MB RAMFree hard drive space: 15 GBAGP 256MB DirectX 9.0DirectX-compliant Sound Card

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