Vegas Bound

[Nxs]

Well fellas, here in about three hours, I am off to Las Vegas to play MX vs ATV: Reflex. I will be back on Sunday damn close to midnight. I will send the games from the Dirty Bastages contest out next week assuming the winners contact me.

If you are interested, I will be posting pics from my trip in this thread assuming there is an internet connection in the hotel.

Behave whilst I am away ladies and gentlemen!

[Slaymate]

Have Fun We want to see some Show Girls

[Nxs]

Not sure I have any pics of the showgirls. Drunken haze ya know.
I did have a great time and I have some pics and vids of the game but, I can't post them for a while so, you will just have to wait.
I have some of Vegas though that I will post either later today or tomorrow. I am being pretty lazy right now.

[Gazz]

No pictures of girls? Damm you NXS, damm you!

[Nxs]

Originally Posted by Gazz

No pictures of girls? Damm you NXS, damm you!

Well, I can post the pics of your mom that I have but, they are not really PG rated

[Nxs]

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas! That is not the case today though as THQ held a press event for MX vs. ATV: Reflex in Las Vegas and GamersHell was invited to join the festivities.

As I have never been to a THQ event before or Vegas, I was pretty excited to go, except for the plane ride. After I arrived at the hotel on Thursday, I was supposed to meet up with THQ and the other journalists that were already there. That did not happen. The front desk could not find the group so, no stories about late night partying.

Friday, however, turned out to be a great day as we were to ride ATV's or dirt bikes out in the desert then play MX vs. ATV: Reflex that night.

Riding the ATV was a great deal of fun! It was something I had never done before and I would recommend that if you ever get a chance to try it, do so. Something I didn't expect though, was the amount of information about the bikes, how they work, which one does better in what terrain, and who prefers which bike from the instructors.

All the instructors were professional riders and it was really interesting to learn all these things. Especially knowing that I was going to play MX vs. ATV: Reflex that night.



Now to the good part, the game. After the initial presentation, which by the way was pretty short, we were allowed to play the game. They had four Xbox 360 stations set up for single player and that is what I would go to first. Mainly because I wanted to learn how to play before going on the multi-player stations. However, they were filled up quickly and I did not get the chance to play in single player mode. I did get to take some footage though. Which you can find here and here.

The one thing I immediately noticed was the load screen. It is not your typical picture in the background and a bar that fills up whilst you do nothing. You actually get to play on a little track while waiting for the level to load. Plus, this is the place where you can switch vehicles. Which I thought was pretty cool.

Since I didn't want to wait all night to try out the single player, I moved over to the PS3 stations to give multi-player a shot.

There was only two other people on the PS3 station when I went over, there were eight of them hooked together by the way, and because we could make our own servers, it was a tad hard to find the other players unless you asked 'what server are you on?' because most of the time, all us of had no idea as the servers were named THQ1100, THQ1101, etc. and when you have an open bar, no one really pays attention to that! Not that this is a bad thing.

Right behind the PS3 setup, was two 360's that were system linked on two huge screens. I did not spend a lot of time here because I wanted to play the game. I did manage to grab some video from the one screen which is here.

So, I had to move to where the action was! Apparently, this was at the eight player set-up for the 360's.

I spent a good three hours playing here. After all of us stopped making our own server, things went pretty smoothly. The load screen, that you saw in the above video, is basically the lobby where you wait for the other players and select your vehicle.

As you would guess, the host gets to choose the map, what type of game, and vehicles. However, just because the host chooses the type of vehicle does not mean that you don't get to choose which one you want to use. For example, if the host chooses motorcycles, you can choose an ATV or a dirt bike. And of course, they all have different stats.

This is where talking to our instructors came in handy. The MX bikes are faster but, they are less stable. They are good for open maps. The ATV's are not quite as fast but, due to their lower center of gravity, they handle a little better and are better for tracks that have a lot of trees and obstacles.

When you first start out on MX vs ATV: Reflex, it is a little tricky to get the hang of the controls as the buttons are just for braking. The left stick directs you whilst the right stick shifts your rider. This is the part that I found makes Reflex so fun. It takes control to a whole new level as taking a corner at high speeds is more than possible when you shift your riders weight in the same direction. This also applies when you are in air. When you jump, using the right stick can save you from a nasty crash just by pulling back, pushing forward, or side to side. Even if you do land kinda of bad, there is a little arrow that pops up and if you push the left stick that way, you are saved from crashing.

Now, you can turn this of and just watch the rider if you are so inclined. Makes it a tad more difficult but, most people will get the hang of it rather quickly.

Stunts in this version of MX vs ATV are a bit different as well. No more pushing buttons to get the desired effect. Think of doing the tricks more like doing moves in a fighting game. As you hold the left shoulder button, moving the right stick up, left, down, right, or a combination of them, will make you preform some fantastic stunts. Sure, it takes a little bit to get used to but, once you do, you will never want to go back to buttons again.

If you have heard anything about Reflex, it is probably that the tires deform the terrain and it makes a difference. If you had any doubt about this, let me remove it!
This works just like they said. When eight bikes go through a turn and tear up the terrain, it can very well screw you up by making you go off track. It is really quite nifty. The only thing is, is that there is a limit to how far down it will go, so you basically can not sit there doing a doughnut until you bury yourself. Would have been cool though.

Graphically, it is a really pretty game. Everything looked crisp and clean and I am sure it will be even better when it comes out in December. The videos posted above should give you some idea of how it looks. Although, I am not really sure it does the graphics justice as the videos were taking with a camera.

Overall, I am pretty impressed with MX vs ATV: Reflex. The controls are amazing, it looks sweet, and there is a lot to do. I really can't wait for the game to be released as after four hours of playing it, I am left wanting more.

[RaiZen18]

Originally Posted by Nxs

Well, I can post the pics of your mom that I have but, they are not really PG rated

ROFL! That made me laugh lots! Probably post those pics in kindergarten right?