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Post by HundredProofSam on Mar 10, 2007 21:12:13 GMT 6
dont worry...im always there 2 give it 2 u for ts2 did u get it from game yet? how is it? peace
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Post by ΨBarnacleBrainBrantΨ on Mar 10, 2007 21:18:17 GMT 6
dude its not even lauched there....it shows a lauch date of 23rd march...my moms bday lol
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Post by K' on Mar 12, 2007 15:15:47 GMT 6
Check out its review...they say its not as good as DEFJAM NY..no gameplay..just graphics....
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iverson
Full Member
The Answer!!!
Posts: 232
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Post by iverson on Mar 19, 2007 15:18:22 GMT 6
man, i've bin following dis series rite since vendetta!!!!!! when's da pal version for indian 360s cumming out? ?
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Post by ΨBarnacleBrainBrantΨ on Mar 19, 2007 22:56:14 GMT 6
A few weeks ago we asked you to submit some questions for Kudo Tsunoda, the producer of Def Jam: Icon. The folks at the Xbox Community have grilled Kudo with some questions submitted from all participating XCN sites, and we've got the interview for you now. Read on to see it in full, including a question unique to Xbox Elite! What changes have you made to the game play since Def Jam 2? (Question unique to Xbox Elite) Kudo: The big change was basing all of our core gameplay elements on hip hop as opposed to wrestling. Whether it is the main fighting mechanic being driven by music, our DJ Controls, or the 1-player Build a Label mode, all of the gameplay uses authentic hip hop elements to define its functionality. Why did you decide to change the control system? Kudo: We really wanted to make a game that used music and authentic hip hop elements to drive our core gameplay mechanics. This is significantly different than the previous wrestling based gameplay formula and required a complete re-working of the controls. What happens if you fight to some classical music? Kudo: That is the great thing about DEF JAM: ICON, you can fight to any kind of music you like. If you put in a classical track, the environments animate and bump to classical songs just as well as hip hop ones. With the My Soundtrack feature, every type of music is fun to play to. Are you trying to keep the light-hearted feel of the game, in the aspects of being able to create completely random and crazy looking characters? Have you taken this customization to the next level? Kudo: Customization and expressing your own style is such a huge part of hip hop culture and we have really blown it out in ICON. Not only can you create any type of character you want to play with, there are over 1000 different types of clothing, kicks, glasses, and jewellery you can deck your character out in. Will there be plenty of ridiculous special moves to keep us entertained? Kudo: Each of the rappers have their own fighting style with a ton of different moves. On top of all the typical fighting moves, each rappers can also pull of our special DJ controls which allow you to control the music during a fight much like a DJ. How much variation is there in the multiplayer? Kudo: There are a bunch of different multiplayer modes plus, ICON is the first of the Def Jam games to include online play. So for the first time, not only can you enjoy all our offline multiplayer games, but you have the endless replayability of fighting people online. Is there an online mode? If so is there a ranking system? Kudo: Heck yes!!! Again, this is the first Def Jam game that has online play. And of course, there are a plenty of online achievements and leader boards. Can you explain the reason behind the name - Icon? Kudo: In our 1-player story mode, you are actually able to build your own record label by signing artists, releasing their songs, and increasing your status in the hip hop industry. The goal of the game is to become a hip hop "ICON", much like the rappers do in real life. Hence the name of the game. What music tracks/artists are lined up for the game? Kudo: With music playing such an instrumental role in the fighting, we had to get songs and artists with a wide variety of beats. We got songs from all the different areas where hip hop is going off - east coast, west coast, and down south. Just some of the artists we have in the game are Ludacris, The Game, T.I., Big Boi, Ghostface, Young Jeezy, and Paul Wall. Which special features did you only include in the Xbox 360 Version? Kudo: The biggest unique feature on the XBOX360 is our "My Soundtrack" mode. This allows you to play any song you want through the 360, and have it actually animate the entire environment and drive our core fighting mechanics. In Def Jam: ICON, the music defines the fight and with "My Soundtrack", you can fight to any and all different types of songs. We had cuts and swellings in FNR3. Injuries which could be dealt with. What can you tell us about how damage is implemented in Def Jam Icon and what consequences it has for the player (model) and the game play in general? Kudo: We use a similar HUD-less gameplay system as you saw in the Fight Night series. On top of the cuts, bruising, and swelling you see on the characters - we also have a real-time clothing system where you will see you clothes get torn and tattered as the fight progresses. These are the real indicators in game of your characters health. Coming from the successful Fight Night Round 3 (on multiple platforms) how did you (want to) evolve your knowledge on fighting engines in general and on Def Jam: Icon in particular? Kudo: The biggest step forward has been reaching what I like to call the next generation of next gen art. So many developers are still shooting for photorealism like we did in FNR3. While the characters in ICON are photoreal, we have totally stylized the environments to make the game much more like you are playing a hip hop video. Maintaining the photoreal look of the characters while being able to stylize and animate the entire environment meant a huge upgrade was necessary in our technology. Thanks a lot for your time, Kudo - and thanks to the Xbox Community Network for supplying us with this interview! www.xboxelite.co.uk/index.php?do=viewarticle&id=124
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Post by arsenalgunner on Mar 23, 2007 21:52:57 GMT 6
Def Jam releases in India by 10th April along with NBA Homecourt and UEFA.
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Post by vee-en on Mar 24, 2007 1:52:48 GMT 6
wow..cool...thts very close..!! lets hope the info is rite..!!
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Post by sanjoy on Mar 24, 2007 10:37:37 GMT 6
Def Jam releases in India by 10th April along with NBA Homecourt and UEFA. According to MA
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Post by ΨBarnacleBrainBrantΨ on Mar 25, 2007 22:00:44 GMT 6
t's a tough time for hip-hop. Sales are down over 20 percent, audiences are dissatisfied with the image and lyrics of the lifestyle, and even CNN is running articles asking if the music has stagnated. All that makes it even more difficult to swallow EA's third Def Jam fighting game, Icon, in which rap superstars duke it out to thumping beats amid shattering urban arenas. Indeed, Icon focuses on many of the aspects of hip-hop we've grown frustrated with: violence, bling, money and power. It (sometimes) takes place on the streets, but it's not about the streets or the neighborhood. And the core of the game -- the fights -- are too slow and unbalanced to overcome our disillusionment with the image. In short, Icon ain't keepin' it real. The Def Jam games have never been exactly deep in the classic fighter's sense of the word, but Icon reduces the formula even further. Despite a greater number of controls to memorize, it seems like there's less to do, or at least less that works from fight to fight. As per tradition, the face buttons launch attacks, but that's not the meat of the game. The right stick is used to unleash a series of context-sensitive blows, and can be used in concert with one of the shoulder buttons to scratch the background track like a DJ, essentially resetting the beat to trigger an environmental attack. Those environmental attacks are the key to the game. Every arena, whether it's a neighborhood street or the BET stage, bounces and shakes with the beat of the soundtrack. Hazards are timed to major beats, and explosions, bouncing cars and stage pyrotechnics all put more hurt on an MC than any fist. Using them takes a while to learn, because the game moves at a much slower pace than most fighters. Maybe that's because the MCs, or their digital counterparts, are bigger and thicker than most fighting characters. It might simply be difficult to react quickly wearing a massive parka. Regardless, the game's rhythm takes some getting used to, even with big obvious beats guiding the actions. It's not even the slow fighters that prove most frustrating. After a short while, you'll learn to sink into Def Jam's rhythm and find a sense of movement, albeit one that falls short of Super Street Fighter II Turbo speeds. Def Jam's most damaging flaw is the single-mindedness of the combat. Unleash all the punch and kick combos you want, but in very short order it will become obvious that environmental hazards are the only way to take an opponent down. Basic punches are useful only for setting up a throw or to lead into one of the moves unleashed by the right stick. You'll almost never be able to humiliate an opponent by using a love tap as the final blow; it often seems as if a straightforward punch does no damage at all. It's easy to see why EA would be tempted to take that direction, as the entire game is geared around those bumping, exploding hazards. But how about an option to switch things up? Not everyone wants to fight the way the game wants us to, and the mark of a great fighting game is a robust engine that conforms to player style, not the other way around. There are no onscreen prompts or meters; instead the color cast of the screen will change during the fight, becoming super-saturated and posterized to reflect a badly damaged fighter. Outfits also get torn and dirty, and faces bruised, in much the same way that a swollen skull showed your damage level in Fight Night Round 3. What Icon really gets right is the over-saturated visual appeal of hip hop. Given the game's immediate aesthetic appeal, it's no surprise that the game was designed from the ground up to resemble a hip-hop music video. EA may have succeeded in ways they didn't entirely hope for; the game is beautiful, yes, but it's so much like a video that it's palatable in short bursts rather than over extended sessions. When you've got time to look long and hard at Icon, there's not enough there to keep your attention. The Build a Label mode attempts to fill the void, but we quickly got tired of beating down rivals and stalkers. That sort of thing is what made us flee from gangsta records to Common and J Dilla in the first place. The F.A.C.E. character creation system, however, is more robust than the fighting. Sadly it fits into the gangland theme of the game (you create a 'suspect' rather than a rapper) but there are at least enough customization options to make some unique fighters. And since you can import any MP3 to use as a soundtrack, it's possible to re-map some of the aesthetics to suit your own style. When we first saw Icon it was impressive, and we hoped that the surface appeal would lead down to something more lasting. That's not turned out to be the case, and it's sad to see such a beautiful graphics engine with so little to do.
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Post by <<<{AnMoL}>>> on Mar 25, 2007 22:05:44 GMT 6
Well i think im gonna buy homecourt and def jam..as it was fun me and couple of my frnd were playing on xbl it was kinda fun.and the gfx are quite cool..
about homecourt still gotta think but ..i think ill put all the game buying on a hold right now waiting for ps3 to launch here gonna get it the minute it launches...by the way does anyone know where and when the launch party is..??
i havent recieved an invite for it yet ?
got for the 360 launch but missed out as i had to go to my frnds b'day
hope ps3 launch is in delhi as well...
if its in delhi or mumbai i will definately go..
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Post by ΨBarnacleBrainBrantΨ on Mar 25, 2007 22:50:56 GMT 6
Hip-hop has always been a competitive form of music. Going back to the '70s and '80s, with such crews as Cold Crush or Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, a big part of rapping has always been about telling the world how great you are, especially if it comes at the expense of a rival emcee. EA and hip-hop record label Def Jam teamed up a few years back to make hip-hop-themed fighting games, which made sense at the time. But the first two games took the nuts and bolts of a wrestling game, put it on the street instead of in the ring, and threw in a whole bunch of rappers. Unless you count Macho Man Randy Savage's 2003 rap album as a success, rap and wrestling just don't mix, even though the previous Def Jam games somehow managed to be pretty cool in spite of that. But EA also seems to have come to this conclusion because as the third game in the Def Jam series, Def Jam: Icon, trades in the wrestling for a unique fighting style, coming up with an even more ridiculous and fun story mode. All around, it's a good, if somewhat simple, time.
The roster is mostly focused on rappers who are making an impact today, though a few older guys might have been interesting.
The game's roster of licensed rappers is deep and varied, representing the coasts and everywhere in between. The game includes Big Boi, Bun B, E-40, The Game, Ghostface Killah, Jim Jones, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Method Man, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Redman, Sean Paul, Sticky Fingaz, T.I., and Young Jeezy, among others. A few nonrappers make appearances as characters in the story mode, including actor Anthony Anderson, who's great as the seemingly evil record exec, Troy Dollar. Def Jam/Warner Music Group exec Kevin Liles also plays a character in the story, and there's a pretty good cameo from another hip-hop mogul as well. While there's plenty of people in the game, you'll probably come up with more than a few omissions if you think about it for very long. For example, such acts as LL Cool J and Run-DMC are still synonymous with the label's origins, but you won't find them here. These days, the label is better known for its president and CEO, Jay-Z, who's also missing in action. On top of that, there have been plenty of often-controversial wars in hip-hop over the years, and it's unfortunate that you can't re-create some of those rivalries here. Seeing Jay-Z and Nas, The Game and 50 Cent, or even Dr. Dre and Dee Barnes beat the heck out of each other at a gas station would have been worth the price of admission on its own. The game has a passable create-a-character mode that works just like every other EA game these days, which includes all the weird sliders you can use to make your characters have awful-looking foreheads and jaw shapes.
The atmosphere and over-the-top story mode is the best part about Def Jam: Icon. Called "build a label," this mode opens with your created character as a nobody. You defend Carver, a hotshot record exec and are quickly welcomed into the fold for, you know, keeping it real. From there, you rise up to become an A&R man, which in game terms means that you beat people up so that other people will sign to your label. You interact with characters via e-mail, which is often read aloud by the involved characters. As you sign artists, you'll use your income to set release budgets for their songs, which is an investment that can earn you even more money. Along the way, you'll get stuck with plenty of bills, including Mike Jones' phone bill, The Game's paternity tests, and Ghostface Killah dropping off of his tour so that he can go make "a video game with gorillas and ninjas and s***." You can opt out of making these payments, but that's no way to keep your artists happy.
As you rake in more money and purchase fly-looking clothes, you'll start to attract women, who also suck money out of you to stay happy. There are also plenty of twists and turns. For example, as the money coming in increases, things get very serious, very quickly; complete with dirty cops who love to plant evidence, rival record execs who want to steal your artists, and scandalous women. Things escalate so much that it becomes completely comical, almost like a so-bad-it's-good hood movie. All that's missing is Master P and a truckload of stolen cell phones. But even though it's all sort of silly, it still manages to feel authentic. If anything, the "white cop keeping you down" tale wraps up a little too abruptly.
Each level has spots that you don't want to be standing in for too long.
It's got a rock-solid premise and a surprisingly compelling story. Unfortunately, the part where you have to actually fight is where Def Jam: Icon kind of breaks down. Overall, the switch from wrestling to fighting is an improvement, and Def Jam: Icon is unlike any traditional fighting game. The game was developed by the same team that handled Fight Night Round 3, and it shows. The fighting is methodical, to the point of feeling sluggish in spots. It's very focused on fooling your opponent by mixing up your high and low attacks, which can be stopped by blocks or counters, which can be stopped by grabs and throws, which can be stopped by those same high and low attacks. So there's balance to the basics of the fighting system, which are roughly the same regardless of which character you choose, even though differences in fighting styles mean that some characters are somewhat better at one aspect of combat than others. There's a second layer to the game that's a bit more stylish. The right analog stick is used for grabs and for your strongest strikes. As in Fight Night, making circular or tapping motions on the stick will unleash harder attacks, and you can go high or low with these too. What's more, if you taunt before unleashing those attacks, your attack will land even harder, often knocking down your opponent in the process.
Keeping your opponent down is key because you want to make sure your song is playing. Yes, the music in Def Jam: Icon also plays a role in the fighting. Before each fight, you select which song you want to have as "your" song. At any point during the fight, you can hold down the left trigger, then rotate the two analog sticks to switch songs. Your character reacts to this motion by making turntable motions in thin air. If you're fighting while your song is playing, you'll get a damage bonus, so it's handy. You can counter song-switch attempts by hitting the left trigger while the other player is spinning, which makes you stomp the ground, knocking your foe down. The other turntable move rewinds the current song back to the beginning and causes the entire background to explode. OK, perhaps that requires a bit more explanation.
Every stage pulsates in time with the music, and everything in the level sort of explodes on its own. This usually occurs after every four bars of music, though some songs explode more or less frequently. Each level has a number of dangerous spots that you don't want to be standing in when this happens. A constantly burning-out car swings out to the side, hitting anyone standing in the way. In the club, pole dancers whip around the pole, kicking anyone that's too close. Speakers shoot out bass waves that send people flying. A helicopter whips around in the air and nails unsuspecting rappers with its tail. Camera equipment swings around, lights fall out of the rafters of a club, gas pumps explode...it's crazy. Because you can do a turntable move to force an explosion, a big part of the game is knocking or throwing your opponent into a danger zone, then scratching the song back to make everything pop, which deals a good amount of damage and sends your enemy flying across the level.
About the only part of this game that doesn't feel authentic is the general lack of guns, but they'll show up too.
The Xbox 360 version of the game lets you import your own music, but imported songs don't seem to work quite as well as the songs on the soundtrack. It feels like the game is trying to detect the beats of your music and time the explosions accordingly, but it doesn't do a very good job of it. Also, to do it, you'll have to rip music to your Xbox 360's hard drive and put it in a playlist named "Def Jam Icon." This isn't all that convenient. Also, the "my soundtrack" mode is the only place you can do this, so you can't bring your music into the rest of the modes unless you override the entire soundtrack from the guide menu, which prevents the pulsating backgrounds from working properly. The PS3 version lacks this feature, but because it wasn't implemented all that well on the 360, you aren't missing that much, which is unfortunate because it's a really neat idea.
All in all, the fighting system is unlike anything you'd expect to see in a fighting game. Even though it feels balanced and, on paper, looks sort of complicated, it ends up feeling a bit too simple in the end. Every single move is a guessing game, and you rarely get a free second hit or any kind of real combo opportunity. All that guessing can get a bit tedious. Additionally, the computer-controlled fighters are quick to grab you the second you block and seem almost inhuman when it comes to blocking your attacks. But they've got a weakness that's just shy of being a full-fledged exploit. If you back away a few steps, you can usually taunt your way up to them and tap down on the right analog stick twice, which unleashes a straight, low attack. The CPU player usually won't block this attack, and the taunts ensure that you'll knock your opponents down if you make the hit, giving you time to back off and set up for another one. In a lot of cases, you can ride this tactic for the entire fight, but it isn't 100 percent effective, especially on the harder difficulty setting.
The solution to dealing with the spotty AI is, as always, playing with another person. Def Jam: Icon has a local versus mode, as well as online multiplayer. The online works as you'd expect, with ranked and unranked games. The game has a series of text-based taunts that are sent to your opponent, depending on what happens. For example, if a player disconnects on you, there's a specific quitter taunt. You can customize these taunts, though the game blocks you from using profanity in your taunts. Considering how uncensored and full of cursing the rest of the game is, that's sort of lame. And sure enough, the message that pops up when you try to swear says, "We know it's lame." Great. Good to know that everyone is on board with its lameness. The online game isn't quite as responsive as the offline is, which can make blocking a flurry of attacks a bit problematic, but since the other player is also saddled with the same lag issues, it doesn't seem to give one player an advantage.
Most of the game's cursing comes from the music itself. There's a lot of fantastic, uncensored music on the Def Jam: Icon soundtrack, including songs from almost every one of the rappers in the game. There are also a few other classics, such as "Ante Up" by M.O.P. and "Hate Me Now" by Nas. But there's one really weird case of censoring in E-40's "Tell Me When To Go." The word "Hebrews" is chopped out of the line "imagine all the Hebrews goin' dumb/dancing on top of chariots and turning tight ones." Perhaps this is not the preferred nomenclature these days, but it's hardly worth cutting out in this context, particularly when you take into account the sheer number of times that the infamous "n word" turns up, which creates a very creepy double standard. The rest of the audio is really great, with plenty of flavor-filled quotes from the rappers themselves during fights and taunts. The game really manages to capture the larger-than-life stage personas of the rappers. Hearing E-40 scream "bitch" in his own special way in a video game might be reason enough to buy it. It definitely earns its M rating for lyrics alone, with all of the cursing, misogyny, and needless glorification of marijuana you'd expect to hear.
That helicopter likes to swing around and hit you in the back of the head.
The graphics back up the audio quite well. The rappers look a lot like their real-life counterparts, and they get beat up nicely as the fights progress. The game's slow pace leaves plenty of room for good, smooth animation, though some of the transitions that hook the animations together still look a little off at times. Also, the animation for different characters is dependent on their fighting style. So everyone that fights in the "ghetto blaster" fighting style moves the same, and so on. That means you'll get a little tired of the movement fast. Characters even share taunt animations. The backgrounds also look really awesome, and the colors of the level change slightly depending on which song is playing. The effect of the backgrounds moving and pulsing in time with the music is very cool, which overall makes it a great-looking game.
The pace and style of the combat in Def Jam: Icon clearly shows that it came from the guys and girls who worked on Fight Night Round 3. Yes, this is technically a 3D fighting game, but you wouldn't call it competition for the Virtua Fighters and the Tekkens of the world. The lack of a real combo system and its heavy emphasis on move/countermove gameplay make the game more suited for players who like fighting, but can't be bothered to learn any special moves. But that's not to say it has no depth at all. On that note, it's likely to appeal to players who liked Fight Night Round 3 as well. But there's much more to Def Jam: Icon than its gameplay. The way it handles the rappers and the way its story mode plays out make it a must for hip-hop fans...unless you're still waiting for some sort of Lupe Fiasco/Common backpacking simulator.
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Post by arsenalgunner on Mar 27, 2007 16:05:06 GMT 6
Def Jam releases in India by 10th April along with NBA Homecourt and UEFA. According to MA Yup. Is MA's info always right??Or did he just say that to keep the guys in the forum quiet? I am really waitin for Def Jam n UEFA.
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Post by sanjoy on Mar 27, 2007 17:04:47 GMT 6
its mosttly right hehe
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