XBOX Reviews

Tom Clancys HAWX

Tom Clancy’s HAWX for Xbox 360 puts you behind the throttle, in the fighter pilot’s seat. As a member of the elite HAWX squadron, you’ll find yourself manning cutting-edge aircraft, training on all the newest weapons, and carrying out dangerous top-secret missions set against the backdrop of a chaotic future, where private military companies (PMCs) are constantly putting your skills to the test and forcing you to defend your reputation as one of the top military pilots on Earth.

Fly alone or work with other pilots. View larger.

Let E.R.S. help you demonstrate your skills. View larger.

Experience photo-realistic environments. View larger.

Perform tricky maneuvers to try and escape brutal dogfights alive. View larger.

Take on secretive, black-op missions all over the world. View larger.

Shifting International Dynamics: The Hazards of PMC Warfare
Set between Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 and Tom Clancy’s EndWar from the popular Ghost series, Tom Clancy’s HAWX takes place in a world where warfare is constantly evolving–a time when state-sponsored militaries lack the funds and personnel to modernize their forces and elite, private mercenary groups have grown in size and scope to pick up the slack.

The Reykjavik Accords of 2012 defined the role of these PMCs in combat, and they made it fully legal for these groups to purchase from the international armaments market, leading to a shift in the structure of global military power. Over time, you’ll do battle on the front lines of both sides as this shift reveals high-stakes arms threats and a terrifying glimpse of the future.

HAWX: The Elite, High Altitude Warfare eXperimental Squadron
You’ll begin the game as former U.S. Air Force Pilot David Crinshaw, assigned to provide air support for the well-known Ghost Recon team. You and your fellow HAWX pilots are some of the most highly-trained specialists in the world. Based out of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, you’re tasked with everything from testing secret and experimental aircraft weapon systems to carrying out combat and recon missions, training other top pilots, and attempting to capture enemy technologies.

With the rise of the PMCs, your unique skills in higher demand than ever before. And with 49 playable planes available in game, plus additional planes available to some pilots through pre-order bonuses or VIP memberships, there’s no shortage of sleek, fast, deadly aircraft at your disposal as you put your skills to use.

An Iconic, Enhanced Reality System to Help You Deliver Results
When you’re in the midst of a firefight, E.R.S. in-game technology can help anyone survive, if you know how to take advantage of it. Featuring incoming missile detection, an anti-crash system, damage assessment, a tactical map, and weapons trajectory control, E.R.S. even allows you to issue orders to your squadron and other units, much like the iconic Cross-Com system in other Tom Clancy games. When you’re getting started, you can ease into the rigors of flight and gain confidence by using a special assistance mode that offers support through the E.R.S. This mode can be switched off at any time, deactivating safety features and allowing you to perform advanced maneuvers.

Cutting-Edge Realism and Innovative Multi-Player Modes
Whether you’re in a classic F15 Fighting Falcon or a new-generation Gripen, the controls and flight graphics are designed to keep you on your toes. And the game’s photo-realistic environments have been created using detailed satellite data. When you pull back on the throttle to jet all over the world, you’ll experience this authentic world from a variety of viewpoints.

Game play options aren’t limited either, with the campaign featuring solo and multiplayer options with seamless jump in/jump out functionality, and a PVP mode where players can challenge each other to dog-fights for bragging rights, earning experience points and cash, and unlocking additional weapons.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars good but not great
Its fun for a few hours but no real reason to play it over again. Try ace combat for the 360 instead. Multiplayer has only 1 mode and it is pretty much the same thing over and over. It is fun to Fly with 3 other friends in the missions but it makes them very easy even on the highest difficulty.

4 Stars HAWX delivers a ridiculously good time!
As an avid fan of flight games for years (in the Ace Combat tradition, not the realistic flight sims) HAWX is a worthy addition to the franchise. Unlike Ace Combat, which always takes place in fictional countries, it’s fun to take your plane over real locales. Like Ace Combat, it also suffers from a laughably preposterous story–but the flying is solid, fun, and engaging enough to keep playing. The online multiplayer is also a fun and excellent addition.

4 Stars HAWX Review
Enjoyable, yet short, arcade/simulation jet fighter game. Graphics, controls, and playability are very good. Cons: too short.

4 Stars good fighter/ flying game
this is the first flying game i have played. i thought about the “flight simulator”, but with my anger for games running slowly on windows based pc i decided to just pick up a game i could fly and shoot planes down. good flying game, fairly easy to pickup what is going on with the story, even if you have never played a tom clancy game.

3 Stars Passable, but could have been a lot better
Let me say that HAWX gives a great first impression. There are a lot of good ideas at work in HAWX, and you can tell the developer tried to make an innovative arcade fighter sim. Unfortunately, those innovations are implemented so poorly that you almost wish they hadn’t bothered.

The game claims to have more than fifty licensed planes you can unlock. This is true. What it doesn’t tell you is that about a quarter of these are Dassault Mirage variants, and while the Mirage is undoubtedly fine plane, it’s not so awesome that unlocking another one feels like much of an achievement. And speaking of unlocking, the XP system is designed around multiplayer even though it is used for the campaign. If you don’t have XBOX Live, have fun accumulating the 1.4 million or so points needed to reach Level 40 at ~600 points per mission.

Plane handling is okay but not great. An A-10 handles an awful lot like an F-22, and in general you won’t notice a whole lot of difference from one plane to another. Some go 2000km/hr and others just go 1500, but nothing seems to willingly go slower than that unless assistance is off (more about that shortly). Not the end of the world, I suppose, but it does take some of the luster out of “50 iconic in-game planes” when you realize they all handle the same.

The “Assistance Off” mode is a great idea in theory. The game pulls back to a long distance view, airspeed and altitude/attitude indicators are disabled, and your plane gets a significant maneuverability boost at the cost of a much higher chance of stalling. It sounds good, but aircraft have HUDs for a reason: knowing how fast you’re going helps you avoid a stall, knowing how far you are off the ground is helpful during a stall, and knowing where your aircraft is pointing helps you recover from a stall. In short, you get more maneuverability at the cost of being able to use it effectively. Thanks, HAWX.

Still, even with all this HAWX isn’t a bad game, and even if you just play the singleplayer campaign there’s a lot of fun to be had. It seems ideal for an impulse purchase once it hits the discount bin if you’re into multiplayer. If you’re just looking for the singleplayer campaign, consider renting it instead.

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Call of Juarez

Call Of Juarez is the only game to give you an authentic look into the Old West and all its glory through the eyes of the hunter AND the hunted. It’s 1882, somewhere in South Texas, and 19-year-old Billy Candle stands accused of murdering his mother and stepfather. Hot on his trail is Reverend Ray McCall, his stepfather’s brother and an infamous gunfighter who believes the Lord has chosen him to be Billy’s judge, jury and executioner. Call of Juarez is an epic western adventure about vengeance, survival and the search for a legendary lost treasure. The distinct rough-and-tumble beauty of the Old West is recreated, through detailed and realistic environments that spread across miles of terrain

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars Some good, some bad, some ugly
This review is very late in the game, but with the sequel coming out soon, I figured I’d weigh in.

Call of Juarez is a Western-themed first-person shooter that was actually released back in 2006 in Europe. (For some reason it took the publisher an extra year to release it in the US.) I had been excited about the game since early 2005 when I first heard about it. I’m a big FPS and Western fan, so the prospect of this type of game with modern graphics was incredibly appealing.

Well, it’s not a great game, but it does certain things so right that it cheers a part of my soul. It is good to know that there are others out there as crazy as I am.

In the game you play as two opposing characters, alternating between their viewpoints to fill in their respective sides of the story. Reverend Ray is a tough old codger with a violent past. He is now a preacher, and considers himself to be an instrument of God’s vengeance. The other character, Billy, is a stupid kid. Ray is his uncle. Billy is framed for the murder of his parents, and Ray goes after him. That’s all you really need to know, story-wise.

The Good: Reverend Ray.

Marc Alaimo, the actor responsible for voicing Ray, is fantastic. His performance imbues the character with all sorts of interesting nuance and power. One of the better bits of voice-acting I’ve ever heard, especially in a video game.

The character is well-written, too, beyond just the great dialogue. Ray begins the game as a vengeful self-righteous force, but towards the end is finally made to question his “calling.” The great part about the writing is that instead of questioning God, he questions himself. He acknowledges that it was his own selfish hatred that blinded him rather than attributing his blunder to God either misleading him or not existing. This was an unexpected turn, as stories with characters of this sort usually devolve into some sort of “people who believe in God are crazy” message. The character is also visually well-designed. He wears a piece of armor under his coat that actually deflects bullets in the game (complete with ricochet sounds). One of his “weapons” is a Bible that he quotes terrifying passages from, Pulp Fiction style. Enemies nearby will freeze when they hear it.

The other good bits are the weapons. These guys did their research. While the shotguns and rifle feature no variants, the pistols are pretty great. Included are such unusual guns as the LeMat revolver, an 8-shot percussion pistol with a shotgun barrel under the main; a hold-out barrel-less SAA, which I’ve seen a picture of in a book before; Volcanic Repeaters, the cool looking precursors to the Winchester rifle.

The Bad: Billy, the other main character.

He’s a wuss, a loser, and his voice acting is pretty weak. It’s not horrible, but its mediocrity is highlighted by Ray’s excellent performance. His playable segments are also not that fun. The bow is fun, the whip isn’t, and sneaking isn’t nearly as fun as running-and-gunning like Ray.

The Ugly: the character animation. Whenever you’re interacting with another character, all they do is stand there and talk at you. If there is ever any body acting, it’s an arm movement. Otherwise, they all just stand there with their arms at their sides. Compared with the wonderful full-body acting of the characters in games like Half-Life 2, it just stands out and makes the game world feel artificial. The graphics engine is actually really detailed and realistic, with dust blowing across the landscape, lots of foliage, etc, but when these barely animated puppets yell bad dialogue at you without moving, it really destroys the illusion.

If you’re a Western FPS fan, it’s worth checking out. I have high hopes that they fixed some of the problems for the sequel, due out this fall (Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood).

4 Stars Call of Juarez game review
Awesome game with nice controls and gameplay. The only thing I would change would be an optional weapons category that could be purchased instead of found.

4 Stars Well worth it. Very fun and a refreshing change.
This game is a definite pick up for anyone looking for something different. If you have any interest in westerns at all you will enjoy this game. The story is great and really holds your interest throughout the game. The scenery is authentic and by itself makes the game worth it’s reduced price tag.

As far as game play, it all works as expected for a FPS. Some have complained about Billy’s role in the game but it too is very fun and refreshing. There are a few scenes where you really have to pay attention to the where the bad guys are and even listen to their conversations to know when you can make a break for you next hiding spot. Billy is not Master Chief, Marcus Phoenix or any of the other FPS dudes but that is what makes it so nice. There are plenty of games to cover that approach to gaming. That being said, the other character, Ray, does have the “kill’em all” approach to justice. The way the story weaves back and forth between the two works well and gives you a chance to truly experience the story.

I personally think there are very few games worth the initial $60 price tag – Halo, Madden, Fable…maybe but not many others. We all have our favorites. At the reduced price this game is well worth it.

4 Stars A good game
This is a good game not great but good. Especially if you like westerns. The only downside is how quickly it can be finished.

1 Star Are You Kidding Me?!!
i thought i was buying a FPS but who knows what the developers were trying to create with this. it goes from sneaky/stealth to puzzle solving to platformer to FPS. to frustrate things even more, the subtitles are microscopic and the voice acting was done by out-of-work pornstars. you either need a theater-sized tv or plenty of patience if you even care as to what’s going on with the story. and what a story it is (granted four chapters was all i could handle). you alternate segments between a young retarded lad named billy and his grisled, bloodthirsty yet also retarded preacher uncle. billy’s missions are all about stealth and running like a coward. if you try to take down any of your adversaries, 20 more magically appear and instantly kill you. his uncle is a drunk killing machine, which is actually somewhat fun until the game throws a 3rd grade puzzle at his 1st grade logic and jumping ability. lastly i’d like to mention how glitchy this game is. i walked into town to hear the same “cow moo” sound effect stuck on repeat for a good five minutes. NPC’s repeat the same lines over and over as well. and more often than not, i’d find myself walking towards what looked like an ocean only to have mountains suddenly materialize in the horizon. same thing with buildings. and sometimes, you can magically warp into these mystery buildings and be stuck there forever, how fun!! don’t buy this thinking it’s “gun 2″. don’t buy this game because good games are scarce in the summer. just don’t buy this for any reason!!

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