Contest!! - Prestige 14 buildout.

JULY CONTEST!!!

UPDATE!! - I will be having various contests throughout my prestige level 14 so this is not the only one. Follow me on Twitter for more updates! twitte.com/RaptorClaw141
Ok folks. Since I failed at prestige 13 with only blades, I am going to let you decide my buildout for prestige 14. Now here are the rules. No purchase of anything. just free things like stalkin me. :-)

• Only tweet/blog reponse your buildout once. I will RANDOMLY select the buildout/winner. (Tweet or blog response)
• MUST be following me so I can DM you the codes.
• Subscribe to my YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/RaptorClaw141

If your buildout requires weapons that I do not have unlocked, I will use default items till they are unlocked. For example, if you pick a primary weapon as the PM63, I will use a MP5 or M16 (Default class weapon) until I have it unlocked.

If your buildout is selected, I will use it and nothing else for my prestige 14.

So, here is what the buildout should look like as an example:
MAC11 w/Grip, RPG, Frag, Flashbang, Jammer, Lightweight, Scout, Marathon, Spy plane, Sam Turret, Napalm strike.

You can decide whether or not I should use a Pro perk or not.

Winner will get the following:
1600 MS Points
Very next Call of Duty DLC code. (Could be Black Ops or could be MW3. If Black Ops comes out with one, which they very well may do, you will get that one. Make sense?)

I will randomly pick the winning build out and will screen record it for all to see the winner.

Prestige 15 will be an awesome contest as well.

Thanks and I am looking forward to your entries!
Raptor Claw 141 out.

L.A. Noire Sound Review - Single Player

L.A. Noire is a new Detective game by Rockstar Games. I can say this game is very different from what I am used to playing so I am coming into this fresh. This game was a lot of fun to play albeit LONG but extremely immersive. I COULD NOT PUT the controller down. I just wanted to keep playing. Mainly because of the story line. VERY VERY Cool. Much better than L.A. Confidential. But that is not why I am here, I am going to review the sound of the game.

Little disclaimer…These reviews are my opinion on sound as a player and what engages me into a game and doesn't annoy me while playing a game. I will be rating my sound review on close-to-real as possible on certain genres. I will not rate anything on gameplay like graphics or mechanics. I am just rating sound. If I miss anything that you would like me to review on, comment or tweet me and I will update the review accordingly.

Rating is as follows: 1 through 10
1 Being BAD, what were you thinking, horrible sound.
10 Being the Best sound element ever!

Ok, let's review the sound for the game L.A. Noire



Music: Music in this game is based on the music in the 40’s. Very trumpety (is that a word?) and orchestra like. When I hear this thrilling music type, it makes me feel like it was in the past (40’s 50’s) time frame. The music also played a very key role in when you are close to clues, when you have reviewed clues etc. A very nice spin on music usage in a game. This is something other developers should take note on putting into their games in the future. The constant music throughout the game was also nice, made me feel like I was playing a “movie-game”. Dramatic and suspenseful but not overpowering.
Music gets a 10


Ambient: The ambient sounds in this game were done extremely well. Obviously Rockstar’s focus on sound for this game was a very high priority. Everything from the wind, walking, running (both on land, water and mud), steam, flashlight clicks and other ambient sounds like doors, doorbells, knocking, creaks, placing objects on other objects, finger tapping…well just way too many to list. Distance and depth was also very noticeable to keep the game immersive. Great job on this one as well Rockstar. One of my favorite sounds of the game was when the operator/dispatch was talking to the detective as you could hear the switcher and cord pulls in the period of that system back in the day. Awesome!
Ambient gets a 10


Dialog: Dialog in this game was done very well. All the voices were unique and fit their character perfectly. Again, it made it feel very movie like as the dialog flowed with the story line. The voices also did a good job evoking the mood of a particular scene. Dialog was done very well. Some of the dialog portions that really stuck out to me was the dialog sounds over the phone, radio and such as it fit with the time period being portrayed. It didn’t sound like “Today’s” sound. Make sense? The ONLY thing that bugged me was the dialog all sounded like it was in a tunnel. Meaning the echo associated with setting didn’t seem to work well. Outside in a wide open area, there shouldn’t be noticeable echo and indoors seemed the same. Other than that, dialog was done very well.
Dialog gets a 9.5


Vehicles: This should really be under ambient but since there were so many vehicle elements I will keep it here. First, AWESOME job keeping the sounds of the vehicles accurate with the time period. Everything from the sirens, horns, trains, trolleys, doors, engines… you name it. They were all done very well. Way to go on keeping it accurate guys!
Vehicles gets a 10


Overall Sound: Overall sound design, engineering (Surround sound), and accurate elements of the time period being portrayed was done extremely well. Like I said, I am not a big fan of game types like this but this was one I couldn’t put the controller down simply because of the great awesome sound that this game has. It was a pleasure to play this game. Overall Sound rating gets a 10!

L.A Noire overall review: 10

That is all for now, Raptor Claw 141 out.

Trenched (XBLA Game) - Sound Review

Trenched is a new game in the Xbox Live Arcade. I saw a lot of people tweeting about it and figured I would give it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised by what I experienced when I started playing this game. It is a nice change from the norm. Trenched is a 3^rd person type shooter/strategy game that is developed by Double Fine games. This studio is also the one who brought the XBLA game “Stacked”.

Little disclaimer…These reviews are my opinion on sound as a player and what engages me into a game and doesn't annoy me while playing a game. I will be rating my sound review on close-to-real as possible on certain genres. I will not rate anything on gameplay like graphics or mechanics. I am just rating sound. If I miss anything that you would like me to review on, comment or tweet me and I will update the review accordingly.

Rating is as follows: 1 through 10
1 Being BAD, what were you thinking, horrible sound.
10 Being the Best sound element ever!

Ok, let's review the sound for the game Trenched



Music: Menu music has a military snare drum sound to it and that is about it. It was subtle and not too annoying. There was a low tone rumble while in game play to keep the tension and stress up but other than that, that was it when it came to music. It would have been cool to have options to play various rock music as you fight the waves of enemies. Since I use a hybrid headset system, I can plug my rock in and play with the game sound as well. (But I only did that AFTER I did a sound review.)
Music gets a 7.5 just due to lack of music throughout the game.


Ambient: Ok, what lacks in music sure makes up for in ambient. Double Fine did an awesome job handling the ambient sounds in this game. There were very diverse sounds for each unique portion of the game. Everything from being on the ship to being on the ground fighting. While on the ship, you could hear the water, the seagulls, the mechanical noise, siren/warning sounds and even the running on the deck. Menu sounds were cool with the metallic switching sounds. What I did find interesting was the subtle surround sound processing based on where you were looking to hear the appropriate sounds coming from behind you or in front of you. Good job on this for something that really didn’t need it but helps with the depth of the overall game sound design and engineering. Now while on the ground fighting, the blurping engine sound from the trench was entertaining. The walking noise of the trench was decent along with the other misc sounds that occur when you fortify/lockdown the trench. Now the one thing that I didn’t understand was the “noise” that occurred when enemies start their approach. There was no surround sound processing so you had to look around to see where they were coming from with the visual cues and their sreetching sound was very loud and the same for each enemy. It would have been better is the volume was not so loud and the noise had surround sound processing that way you had to listen to hear where they were coming from and maybe something different for each enemy. Other than that, the ambient sound did very well for this game.
Ambient gets a 9.5 


Dialog: The voice overs were done very well. Kept it simple and for this type of game, it worked well. The digitized voice of “Dad” was done in a way to work with his character in the game s well as Vlad. The other voices were again simple, and kept to the overall story of the game. Good job on this one as the VO was designed and engineered well.
Dialog gets a 9


Vehicles: I won’t count the ship as it really sits in the ambient part of my review so I will focus on the Trench. The trench certainly had attention to detail to it to its fluttering engine sounds, it’s movements when you are moving about the battlefield and when it needs repair by you. J I noticed the enemies had no sounds when they moved. Is this by design? Didn’t make sense but would have been a nice detail. The weapons were all unique and reloading had some pretty cool sound but could have been a tad louder to hear the cycle of the reload. Other than that, overall a good job on the vehicles.
Vehicles get an 8.5


Overall Sound: Double Fine’s sound team headed by Brian Min did a great job with the overall sound design and engineering. There was some small issues that I wish could have had the same attention to detail as the ship got mainly the enemy sounds but all in all, no major issues with the sound. For a XBLA game, this game certainly didn’t lack in the department of producing a sound for a game that keeps me wanting to play more. There was nothing major to annoy me and I like to play this game as the sound is good and fun to listen to.
Overall sound gets an 8.5!


Trenched overall review: 8.5

That is all for now, Raptor Claw 141 out.

DIRT 3 (Single Player) - Sound Review

Dirt 3 is the latest racing game from Codemasters. I was really excited to see how much better they could make an already awesome sounding game. There was a lot of things in Dirt 3 that Dirt 2 had from a sound review perspective but there was a ton of detail things I noticed right away. Let’s go.

Little disclaimer…These reviews are my opinion on sound as a player and what engages me into a game and doesn't annoy me while playing a game. I will be rating my sound review on close-to-real as possible on certain genres. I will not rate anything on gameplay like graphics or mechanics. I am just rating sound. If I miss anything that you would like me to review on, comment or tweet me and I will update the review accordingly.

Rating is as follows: 1 through 10
1 Being BAD, what were you thinking, horrible sound.
10 Being the Best sound element ever!

Ok, let's review the sound for the game Dirt 3



Music: Let’s start with an easy one; menu music. Menu music should not be boring and it should never be annoying. It needs to be very subtle and somewhat mellow as there are times you need a break and for me, I like having that “white noise” going on in the background. The music choices for the game were very diverse and none were on a “stupid” scale meaning what were they thinking putting that song in here?... Anyway, music was decent for menus and replays. Just wish there was a way to change songs on the fly as I wanted to cycle through the different music choices and I am one I want the option to race with music on. (So I played my iPod in the background)
Music gets an 8.5.



Ambient: AGAIN, Codies did a great job with the ambience in this game. No trailer this time but sound engineering was dead on. All of the new environments sounded great. The snowy tracks were very cool. Makes me want to go race in the snow now. The wind, dirt, water, bushes, and other ambient was done extremely well. Nice attention to detail guys!! My only gripe was the freekin whistle blowers!!! They drove me nuts! I understand putting the crowd into it but that just was like nails on a chalkboard for me. Other than that, Ambient gets a 9.5



Dialog: The voice overs were done very well. WHY DID YOU TAKE OUT THE RACER CHATTER??? I loved that!!! Oh well. The intros and team dialog was good. Albeit basic, the voice overs gets an 7.5 rating simply because you took out a cool part of the game which made it less technical and that was the drivers voices over the radio.



Vehicles: Since this game is a racing game, this is where most of my focus will be. I am using my Dirt 2 review a little as a lot of it is the same except for a few things… Like um.. THE DETAILS!! Codies got it even better in this game. I love hearing the nitrous and little details sounds from the engine and other race cars. You can really notice this in the replay function of the game. While racing, the creaking sounds, metal bangs, acceleration sounds, gear change and especially the dirt/gravel hitting the wheel wells all were DEAD ON!! Don’t believe me, go watch the movie “Dust to Glory” and hear for yourself. AWESOME Job on this one! Rating: Big time 10!!!



Overall Sound: Overall Dirt 3 did not disappoint. They took out some fun aspects of the game like the other racer chatter and I didn’t have the ability to change the music while it is playing but as far as the overall sound, phenomenal job guys. I just hope this same sound design and engineering flows over to your other games which I have in my GameFly Q. Overall Sound rating gets a 9!

DIRT 3 overall review: 9

That is all for now, Raptor Claw 141 out.

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2010 (Single Player) - Sound Review

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (2010) was a game that was introduced at the E3 conference in 2010. I know when I saw this; I got pumped as I was an avid player of all of the NFS games throughout history. Racing or chasing is all you do and it was a lot of fun playing. Now onto the sound review.

Little disclaimer…These reviews are my opinion on sound as a player and what engages me into a game and doesn't annoy me while playing a game. I will be rating my sound review on close-to-real as possible on certain genres. I will not rate anything on gameplay like graphics or mechanics. I am just rating sound. If I miss anything that you would like me to review on, comment or tweet me and I will update the review accordingly.

Rating is as follows: 1 through 10
1 Being BAD, what were you thinking, horrible sound.
10 Being the Best sound element ever!

Ok, let's review the sound for the game Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (2010)



Music: There were two areas for music for this game. In game play and menus. The menu music was subtle and not annoying. How I do this is I sit in the menu area for a good amount of time. If the music doesn’t get on my nerves, then I am happy. This music certainly didn’t annoy. Now, the in game music is broken up into two parts. Cinematic and Radio music. Cinematic is when you are a cop and chasing a racer or you a racer being chased by a cop. The music choice for that part of game play was awesome. When you are just a racer, you get a choice of a few songs and frankly, I only liked two. The choices of the music for the “Radio” soundtrack when you are racing was a bit weak. I am not one to load up music on my Xbox HD so I was hoping the music would have been more of the music like there was in NFS Most Wanted. Cinematic music was good, albeit singular and the choices for the racer soundtrack was lacking.
Music gets a 6

Ambient: When I was a photographer at race tracks, both dirt and tarmac, I am always listening to what is going on around me. Not much on this one, there wasn’t that much of ambient. No dirt in the fenders etc. Only sound I really noticed was the slamming of cars, tire screeches, the “swoosh’s” when you fly past something, the engine and sirens. The only thing that annoyed me was the overuse of the glass breakage, almost comical.
Ambient gets a 7


Dialog: There were limited voices in the game which only consisted of the car review VO and the Cop chatter. The thing that annoyed me was when the cops were saying they were chasing a car. Cops do not say, “I am chasing a red Alfa Romeo Spider” I mean REALLY??? Product placement on the vehicles was a bit overdone. The VO on the car review “Show Room” was done well and I learned a lot about the cars which was cool. But the cop dialog I just didn’t like all that much.
Dialog rating: 6.5

Vehicles: This was something that NFSHP got close-to-real as possible but not dead on. The various vehicles in the game had their distinct sounds but all pretty much sounded like the others in their class. Didn’t hear much on the superchargers or nitrous. It was a bit weak. Engine sounds specific to the vehicles was ok.
Vehicle rating: 6.5

Overall Sound: I know EA wanted to bring this franchise back to life and they did an ok job. For something you just want to pick up and have fun with ok. But from someone who wants more when it comes to sound, I was let down a little bit on this title. Hopefully the next one will be a bit better. I will do a review on the Shift titles to see the level of immersion on the sound for those racing games. My favorite sounds in the game were the turbo and the helicopter. Sorry guys, this one just wasn’t that strong in the sound category in my opinion.
Overall Sound rating gets a 6.5

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2010 overall review: 6.5

That is all for now, Raptor Claw 141 out.