Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition - Playstation 3 (Video Game) newly tagged "xbox 360"

There's a little disc icon that turns into an orange, one-wheeled robot labeled "BONUS CONTENT."

Sure enough, all 4 add-on packs appear here. The smallest is about 550MB, the largest is 1.6GB. No code needed... but a voucher code is still included. Mine was behind the map, before the instruction manual. I have not used it, but I did install the expansions to test - they install with no code and appear in-game (the menu tells you they're available and you need to go to a fast travel station to get to them).

As of this writing, the "most helpful" one-star reviews bash the decision to not include the 4 expansion packs on disc. I can understand this, considering other games (Fallout 3 GOTY, which I purchased along with Borderlands GOTY) DID put the content on there. It made the game feel disposable - once your voucher was used up, your resale is the same as the regular BL game. I am thankful for all those who complained. I can't help but think someone somewhere heard your logic and agreed.

Here's the problem - as of now, there's no way to tell what version you're getting. I bought mine from Amazon so I can confirm that at least one batch of theirs has it - but that's not to say everyone will get a "new" version. Same in-store. There was nothing physically on the outside that told me I was getting bonus content on disc. So until all of the old stock is purged, there are going to be some disappointed consumers. Even after that, there's sure to be fraudulent after-market sales of used GOTY editions.

Good luck in getting the version you want, and enjoy the game - I'm pretty stoked about the hours in Pandora front of me.

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Until it becomes established knowledge that there are in fact "on-disc" versions, check Gearbox & 2K's forums for official word. As of Jan 2011, I still feel things are speculative among the online community of BL players, even though I can personally confirm vouchers are not needed for the newest printings. This is what you get when game developers waffle, but I thank the powers that be for getting it right; sorry to those who "suffered" for the rest of our benefit. ;)

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LEGO: Marvel - Xbox 360 (Video Game) newly tagged "xbox 360"

Heli-carrier and on some of the missions sounds like an adaptation of Alan Silvestri's score from "The Avengers", lending more gravitas to the game (or as much gravitas as you can lend to a game made up of Lego bricks).

The gameplay itself is outstanding. With the HUB/sandbox being concentrated in and around Manhattan, there's plenty to do in the Big Apple. Every corner of the city is alive and teeming with different challenges, from random encounters with the various denizens of the Marvel Universe like J. Jonah Jameson, Heimdall and The Punisher, to races with the likes of Ghost Rider and Blade, to puzzle-solving with Ant-Man and Reed Richards. There is never a shortage of main story and side-missions to immerse yourself in. Additionally, the controls are identical to the Lego Batman controls, and the puzzles, land races and challenges are not too difficult, so that younger children (like my 6-year old) will find themselves challenged and not frustrated or upset. The map of the city is big but not clunkily so, enough to keep children immersed in the experience, and the mapping is superb, not too far from the amazing job Rockstar did on Liberty City in GTA IV. All the major landmarks are there (The Empire State Building, Central Park, Grand Central Station), as well as the tried-and-true Marvel Universe landmarks (The Stark Tower, The Baxter Building, The Daily Bugle, The Oscorp Tower, Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, The Avengers Mansion and the X-Mansion).

Did I mention the insane amount of playable characters? This is quite frankly the largest number of characters ever employed in a Lego game to date. There are 132 playable characters, not including pre-order characters and DLC (An Asgard DLC pack is rumored to be in the offering once "Thor: The Dark World" hits theaters). As a result, there's a little bit of everything for everyone; Avengers fans can play as any one of their favorite heroes, X-Men fans have their merry band of mutants to use, Fantastic Four fans have theirs, etc. Even Rocket Raccoon and the Guardians of the Galaxy are available! Not a fan of the good guys? You can play as any of the evil mutants from The Brotherhood, or as the Sinister Six. Characters both big and small, from Abomination, the Red Skull and the Heroes For Hire, to minor characters, like Howard the Duck, Union Jack and Squirrel Girl, are playable. Even Stan Lee shows up, playing the Citizen in Peril throughout the game.

As per the norm, there are 45 Xbox achievements in the game, and some of them are a doozies. Adults who have spent time reading Marvel comics and watching the various films will recognize a lot of them and have a knowing smile when uncovering them, from the "Fastball Special" to "Welcome to Level 7" to "It's Clobberin' Time!". There are also a few in-jokes that will have the adults chuckling if not outright laughing, from Nick Fury paraphrasing Jules' "Avenging Angel" speech from "Pulp Fiction" to a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent cracking a joke about "Snakes on a Plane", making a point to use clean language (since it IS an E10+ game).

Now, all the above being said, the game is not flawless; no game is ever flawless, and Lego Marvel Super Heroes suffers from many of the similar issues that plagued prior Lego offerings. The split-screen during multiplayer sessions is still frustratingly uneven, leading to some situations where certain missions necessitate one of the players dropping out because it is otherwise impossible to reach certain areas of the screen. An example: There was an outlet that a charged-up Thor needed to activate in order to uncover a brick, but because of the split screen when I would get near the spot the outlet would just DISAPPEAR. After some head-scratching between me and my daughter, we finally realized that if she dropped out of the game the outlet would reappear. It was unreal, and I could just imagine the confusion if 2 children are playing the game together and this happens to them.

The flying mechanics are also still annoying, which is unfortunate since a lot of the gold bricks require some sort of flying challenge to uncover them. Making matters worse, a number of the flying challenges take place in and around Manhattan, which just adds to the frustration as there is literally zero room for error. After trying to complete a flying challenge and failing time after time after time, I wanted to throw my controller across the room. And if *I* have a problem doing the flying challenges, you can imagine the difficulty my 6 and 10-year old have. It's just a damper on an otherwise superb game and is going to make 100% completion of the game extremely difficult.

Despite the aforementioned (which I consider minor) issues, this is a game that is as fun for adults as it is for kids. Lego Marvel Super Heroes has earned each and every one of its 5 stars and is a must for Lego and Marvel enthusiasts alike. Excelsior!

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Twice Tempted: A Night Prince Novel (Kindle Edition) newly tagged "xbox 360"

Dating the Prince of Darkness has its challenges . . .

Leila's psychic abilities have been failing her,and now she isn't sure what the future holds. If that weren't enough, her lover Vlad has been acting distant. Though Leila is a mere mortal, she's also a modern woman who refuses to accept the cold shoulder treatment forever--especially from the darkly handsome vampire who still won't admit that he loves her.

Like choosing between eternal love and a loveless eternity . . .

Soon circumstances send Leila back to the carnival circuit, where tragedy strikes. And when she finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer who may be closer than she realizes, Leila must decide who to trust--the fiery vampire who arouses her passions like no other, or the tortured knight who longs to be more than a friend? With danger stalking her every step of the way, all it takes is one wrong move to damn her for eternity . . .

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Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed Bonus Edition - Xbox 360 (Video Game) newly tagged "xbox 360"

The controls are simple enough to be picked up and played with ease by anyone, yet difficult to perfect. They've really done a fantastic job of requiring skill to truly succeed with not only racing, but weapon use and defense. Drifting for boost can involve a careful balance of throttle, stunts require timing and aren't a simple gimmick like what I've seen in newer Mario Kart games where just jumping up and down randomly gets you a boost (stunts can actually fail if timed poorly, thus slowing you down in the game). Skill in planes also rewards you for risky maneuvers - barrel rolls and flips aren't only useful for evading weapons - but they encourage risky/cool flying because you get boosts for risky behavior.

CHARACTERS/KARTS: Of the negative points made in other reviews, characters are mentioned. They are not as familiar as Nintendo - and even to Sega fans, may not be familiar. They aren't to me - as I really only recall the Sonic type characters... but I do not care what the characters look like. The "fresh" and "new-to-me" characters are welcome, whoever they are. Each character drives a different Kart, and each Kart has a unique handling style that isn't simply based on "weight" like the N64 Mario Kart days. Given the same Kart mods, there is still something unique in the way they handle and you will quickly develop favorites to choose for the various types of races depending on whether or not you need better handling for a flight challenge, speed for a timed lap race, or acceleration (among other attributes).

KART vs BOAT vs PLANE: Another point criticized in other reviews is the sense of lost speed for boats and planes. This may feel true at first when hopping into a boat, but as a boater myself... a sense of speed typically is lost on water. When all you have is blue surrounding you and no road signs or pavement texture below you passing by, it's hard to gauge how fast you're going. Just like when you're in a plane.. so arguing that a sense of speed is lost is just perception. Additionally, boats do accelerate poorly in water as they do in this game compared to Karts... so don't let your boat come to a stop (i.e. don't hit rocks). Additionally, waves play a roll - hit the waves properly, and choose gently turns to maintain speed. The boosts hit while boating or within a plane generate lots of speed - and if I were going any faster to begin with, some of the flying "ring" challenge modes would be near impossible to handle. I found the handling and control of each of these modes to be right on as well. Kart mode is awesome, boat is "fluid" and you get the sense of being tossed around if not adjusting properly - gentle turns and gradual direction changes are best for maintaining speed. Plane controls and feel works very well - left stick steers, right stick for barrel rolls and stunts... truly one of those games where the Xbox controller works with you and not against you.

GAME MODES: Single player mode is really well thought out, and unique. The progression through the game is not linear, and involves a great variety of options. It's best not to get into too many details here - just know that nothing disappoints. Multiplayer modes include battle style racing, where players are eliminated as they lose their three lives given. To win.. not all players need to be eliminated - you could also cross the finish line first (alive). There are also racing modes that keep weapons out - pure racing. Nearly any game mode can be play split screen with a friend cooperatively. I do not have a whole lot of multiplayer experience yet, which leads me to one of the few negatives - this is not a very popular game online yet. I was not able to find a game to play in late at night when I first tried. I don't know if I needed more patience because I'm used to starting up Halo 4 and finding players immediately or what. Hopefully this will change as the game gains popularity.

BALANCE (vs Mario Kart): Most weapons shoot in a straight line, requiring skill to hit targets. When hit by a weapon, your Kart doesn't come to a dead stop, and the speed loss while there isn't devastating. It can make the difference in a race, but can also usually be avoided if skilled. All shots can be blocked (technically) if you are equipped to do so. There is no stupid blue shell. Mario Kart really abuses that thing... it's sad that if you're racing a Mario Kart game and you're in first, the only way to avoid being hit is to drop out to second place (hoping they haven't launched the shell already while in first) - which jeopardizes you race since the pack may be close behind second place, and just isn't fun. It's stupid. There are two targeting like weapons in Sonic - one is somewhat rare and scrambles your controls (not much a problem if you just remember to reverse your steering), and the other a drone bot. This targets a vehicle in front of you - not first place automatically, and an indicator on your screen lets you know when it's near... so if you have a boost item or drift boost just at the right time, you can avoid it. There is a weapon that targets the lead cars, however it places objects in front of them so skilled driving around them (bees..actually) overcomes that. These more balanced approaches make for a much more fun game in my opinion. You'll more consistently place where you deserve to - as there aren't as many devastating chains of bad luck that take you from first to last.

OTHER: Polished graphics, creative tracks (landscape often changes for each lap allowing different vehicle use), shortcuts are fun along with great variety of options in track paths (the arcade demo is relatively linear, and a bad representation of this). Transformations are cool and well thought out - unique look to each character's vehicle.

There are too many good things to list, which is why this review has focused primarily on contradicting the various cons I've seen in other reviews throughout the internet.

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Medal of Honor Warfighter - Xbox 360 (Video Game) newly tagged "xbox 360"

No one is lying when they say that this is a combination of COD and BF. But the fact you can distinguish who you are by country is very unique. Of course you have the option for weapon skin color.

Single player- As someone who served, and one who is married to a military service women... I feel they did a great job with the single player. The worst thing you can do is play this on easy and just try to swing through it. Play it on the hard settings, like a true gamer should. It makes it that much more enjoyable and rewarding. When you do complete the campaign, you open up the option to play it again on tier 1 or hardcore. Hardcore settings is very challenging, and you can open up a very nice achievement by completing it without dying. Very challenging is really nice to have for the hardcore gaming crowd. Download the HD settings if possible, you will not regret it. This game has to best cut scenes out of any FPS hands down! Without spoiling anything, you will also have a couple car missions. Those are very unique and very well made for this game. The story can be a little difficult to track, and I understand that complaint by those who make it. They did make it in a sense where they expect you to know the characters. For those who are purchasing this as their first MOH game, it can lead to a little confusion on that part. If your prior service, I promise you this. You will more than likely enjoy the campaign mode on this game. Especially if you achievement hunt while doing it lol.

Multiplayer- I already covered the gameplay on this, so this will be a little shorter. I'm going to make me major point. PLAY WITH A FRIEND ON HERE. If the fire team is used like it should be... It is a very good multiplayer FPS. If you do not, and play with a random person... You more than likely will not just dislike this game, you may regret even buying it. Working with your fire team member offers a variety of advantages. You can heal each other, resupply your team member, and if you avenge your partner's death it will bring him back without crediting him one. All of these things I mentioned provide points, depending on how many points you get, you will get streaks. With those you will hit certain advantages given by what you choose as your soldiers personality. The weapons selection provides to foundation of what weapons your will use. The maps take some getting use to, but are very well built. They are made for team work. Our group plays to win, and we have found that working in your full team of 12 with these maps provides some great advantages. If you do not work with your fire team at a minimum, you will have many disadvantages to those tha do work together. I have not found any MAJOR glitches. No one crawling under the map or anything like that. No saying every once n a while you might have to jump to get across something you shouldn't have to jump to get by lol. (This did come out longer than I thought).

Worth and Replay Value- I am going to be honest. If you are not a team player, and do not want to be... Do not buy this game, that's why COD is available. It is very rare to see anyone walking out of a game without getting killed, and killing many. And those guys are taking advantage of the fire team opportunities that are available. The single player is very enjoyable and intense, there are things evolved in it that make it very unique. The multiplayer is tough to love if your not open minded and up for something s little different. It's crazy, but the more I play it. The more I love it. Graphics are great and is a very smooth shooter. Nothing wrong for disliking it, because there are real reasons not to. It comes down to preference on this one. The replay value is high, because the more you get use to things and learn what combinations work best for you... The better it gets. I hope this helps guys. You want to play on Xbox 360, hit me up at gamer tag "FoodnDrugAdmin".

Overall rating of game 7.75/10

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SanDisk 16GB Cruzer Bamboo USB 2.0 Flash Drive (SDBAMBOO-0016G-B35S) (Personal Computers) newly tagged "xbox 360"

Sometimes symbols of nature can feel calming that to have a hard piece of metal. I wish all my usb flash drives were coated in wood.

It's built well, so far, I have no technical problems.

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Dance Central 2 - Xbox 360 (Video Game) newly tagged "xbox 360"

My personal favorite new additions include the ability to make my own playlists and the Dance Crew challenges. There are already a decent amount of pre-made playlists, but you are able to pick your own songs for some killer back-to-back dancing sessions. As for the Dance Crew challenges, this is as close as you are going to get in a story mode for the game. Essentially, you meet a Dance Crew, dance the selected songs, and unlock the next crew. This makes it more of an immersive game versus dancing for the heck of it.

One huge bonus of Dance Central 2 is the ability to have two players, either playing cooperatively or battling it out. The second player can hop in and out of the game with ease and at any time. Like the song? Jump in and play. That easy.

One of the main niceties of playlists is for working out. Our Kinect to Fitness and Health group has already seen great success in people losing up to and over 100 pounds from playing the original Dance Central. On top of the improvements already mentioned, the workout mode now has its own screen in Dance Central 2. Calories are tracked from every activity, including Break It Down mode. When doing the playlists, the songs flow from one to another without interruption. What I absolutely LOVE is how quickly you now move into the song. No more waiting for your dancer to bounce around and talk buckets of smack. They might do a quick move and a few words, but nothing like the original Dance Central. And finally, when the dancing is done, the calories are added all up. The calorie tracker may not be totally correct (no weight or gender asked), but you definitely have an idea of how close you are to burning off that Halloween candy.

Break It Down mode has returned and has been made more inviting for us impatient folks. The same mode from the original has returned, but with added voice control. There is a sweet satisfaction in yelling, gskiph after being told to perform ehitch a ridef for the millionth time. Better yet, for the returning veterans, you will be able to pick out certain steps to learn, versus learning the routine. And for the curious mind that wants to know exactly what they are doing, you can shout, grecord videoh and a video of you dancing a particular move will show up behind the dance leader for comparison.

The final added feature that really brightened my day was the cleaned up store-front. The first Dance Central had the ability to buy extra songs, but was made cumbersome by having to pull up an extra menu and scroll through a few songs at a time. The new store is built into the game and is just as easy to navigate as the playerfs song list is. With a quick flick of the wrist, you can be jamming to James Brown in no time.

GRAPHICS AND SONGS

Despite all the nifty new features, the dividing point between Dance Central 2 and Just Dance 3 seems to be the songs and the graphics. Ifll have a more detailed comparison of these two games up later. As for Dance Central 2, the graphics are very similar, but have definitely had an overall. Character models are similar, but backgrounds and special effects have been smoothed out and upgraded. The game is a lot more pleasing to the eye. Between the scenic locales and neon hand paths, everything feels more alive than the original.

Everything in a dance game comes down to one thing: songs. The fact is, if you enjoy the music, you will enjoy dancing to it. Dance Central 2 has everything from Gaga to Willow in it. There isnft a song on the list that you probably wonft hear at the club. The song variety is a little more eclectic than the first Dance Central, but you still wonft find anything your granny might be anxious to jump into. The songs are all fun, even the Bieber one, but thankfully there are those playlists to pick your favoritescjust in case youfve had your fill of ethe Biebh.

THE FIVE Ffs

When reviewing games, I like to look for the five ffs: family, fitness, fun, functionality, and firsts. Dance Central 2 is rated for the teen crowd and above. Mostly for lyrics, but there are a few mildly suggestive dances. I mean, do you really think you can dance Baby Got Back or The Humpty Dance without smacking some booty? For the fitness folks, there isnft a better game I can think of that will get your cardio flowing. Playlists and trimmed song intros will make sure you are getting a full heart-pounding workout. Without doubt Dance Central 2 is one of the most fun games around. Now with two player tracking and voice commands, the same trusted functionality of the original has been upped. There isnft a lot ground-breaking features that Dance Central 2 brings to the table, but you can expect a lot of additional features compared to the original. Calorie tracking, playlists, uploading to Facebook, and more have all been done by other games, but now you can have the complete package.

PROS

- Streamlined play
- Two players
- Playlist creation
- Calorie tracker
- Many more!!

CONS
- None!

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you have ever been interested in a dancing game, then this is the one to get. With the streamlined play, ability to bring in your previously owned songs, and added player tracking, youfll be partying for quite a while. The song selection has spread out, but still maintains its roots. Essentially, the bottom line is, if you own a Kinect then you will need to eventually own Dance Central 2.

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