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Posted on 09.24.05 by Doc @ 7:55 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. After a summer of drought and woe on the gaming release front, leaving everyone ample time to think forward longingly to the next-gen consoles unveiled at this year's E3, the waiting for some decent current-gen titles is over. There's enough goodness this week to handily drain away any spare cash you might have had tucked away for the Xbox 360 or, you know, groceries.  Where to start with this embarrassment of riches? How about superheroes, who hit the console scene in a huge way this week with three separate titles out of the House of M. After the recent release of the insanely entertaining Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, you'd think they'd have a hard time following up. Not so. This week we get Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, and last but not least, X-Men Legends II: The Rise of Apocalypse. Developers Treyarch nailed the feel you'd want out of a Spidey game with their two movie tie-ins, particularly Spider-Man II, and they look to have improved on the formula in creating a video game based on Marvel's Ultimate restart. Wide-open environments, an accolade system that rewards you for pushing Spidey's acrobatic combat capabilities to their fullest variety, and the opportunity to do a little evil in the Venom suit all add up to a game that looks like it'll be an absolute blast. Categorized as: Games
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Posted on 09.19.05 by Tuffley @ 3:19 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.  Developer: Firaxis Games Haven't had a good duel lately? Wanna go sailing the high seas for adventure and profit? Wanna jack a Spanish Main Sail ship and become a terror of the high seas? Well, get your fill of virtua-pirate fun as Sid Meier's Pirates finally drops on the X-Box. Or sort of. Okay, not really. See, you don't really get to be a completely badass pirate -- or even the cool Johnny Depp version for that matter. Actually, you end up being a lot like Orlando Bloom -- you're out to avenge your fam from the likes a Spanish nobleman. Now you CAN choose the dark side and thumb you your nose at all authority, but then you can't get your ship repaired, as you have no safe ports or hideouts. Actually behaving like a pirate ends the game in roughly fifteen minutes. So -- ultimately -- you have to be the pirate with a big softy heart. You can't make people walk the plank (not even an option in the game), and other than the fact that you occationally rob the Spanish ships, you're an okay, swell kind of guy. At times, you also play messenger boy between colonial Governors of the various islands to stay in their favor (or their daughter's, in some cases). Yet somehow being an overdressed Fed Ex guy with a sword is somehow just not as cool as ROBBING the overdressed Fed Ex guy with a sword, which is what you REALLY want to do in this game. Because we assume in a game called Pirates!, you might actually want to be one. But, to be fair, this game aims for the lighter, more high seas high-jinks end of the Pirate equation than the maiming, killing version (and Take Two could use a game for general audiences right now, since they also publish the Grand Theft Auto series). So, you'll simply have to settle for being an overdressed nancy boy with a swor- *AHEM* dashing rogue. If you only play the Single Player mode, that is. The Mulitplayer mode is where you really get to make people eat those nancy boy jokes. You can take on four players in ship-to-ship battle throwdowns. This is clearly made to be a safer, more lighthearted alternative to the brutal, ultraviolent world of the Grand Theft Auto games -- complete with mission-based minigames, RPG elements, rhythm-based dance/sword dueling modes, and quirky characterizations made to play up the more romantic elements of the pirate life. However, trying to shoehorn a classic game into that safer alternative removes the freeform nature you really should have in a game like this. Choosing to go full-on evil pirate in single player mode should make the game tougher, yes, but not impossible to the point of not having any safe harbors (including your home port). The Multiplayer mode goes far to redeem the single player's shortcomings--but not by much, with its lack of Xbox Live capability for the Mulitplayer (the game IS XBLive "aware," meaning you can download additional ports and missions or an add-on to design your own flag). In the end, it IS a well meaning and quirky safer alternative to GTA. If you're a parent, you'll be a bit concerned about all the pirates overdoing it on the rum and of course the whole theft thing, but that's about it. If you are a fan of the skull and crossbones set, you probably already have this title, and if you're not completely out to loot and plunder, then you'll enjoy the drinking songs, the ship battles and swordfighting. If you want full frontal GTA-style Pirate action, you might find the game a little boring. But it may be worth a rental to you for the change of pace. Categorized as: Games and Reviews
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Posted on 09.14.05 by Doc @ 3:15 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own.   Overall: Published by Novalogic/Vivendi By now, you know the story. Somalia, 1993, clusterfuck military operation, plucky troops fighting their way to safety and attempting to complete their mision. Now, thanks to Novalogic's new game release, you can put yourself in some of those missions and see how you fare. Unfortunately, the ship has sailed on military squad shooters, and apparently the guys at Climax didn't get the memo. The end result is a game that looks and plays like it should have been released five years ago, and a host of rival titles outperform this one in pretty much every arena. The single-player game is pretty solid, and longish for a shooter of its kind, with sixteen missions that encompass multiple objectives. You get choices about your weapon loadout and secondary gear, and get dropped in to the thick of things to raise hell and kill a bunch of fairly anonymous badguys. You can also issue orders to your squad to try and direct the action a bit, and from time to time you'll be placed in vehicles and in control of emplaced guns. It sounds simple enough, and it is. The gameplay is very straightforward shooter fare, though the vehicle segments are a strange on-the-rails shooter experience that seems out of place in the larger context of the game. Squad control feels likewise tacked-on, or the AI on your squad isn't very good. Orders are ignored or executed with rank incompetence, resulting in a shot-up squad or your own death more often than not. After the first couple of missions, I just gave up trying to tell my squad anything and treated it like a solo shooter. Of course, as a solo shooter, the game's no great shakes. Control response is sluggish, and the difference between one weapon and the next feels largely cosmetic, which is a shame given the wide variety of available weapons. The Xbox multiplayer promises up to fifty folks at a time, though my few online games were muddled with bad lag and jerky framerates any time a large number of folks got clustered in one area. This could have been a network issue, but may also be a problem with the game itself. The graphics are passable, though a bit dated in appearance, and there are some clipping issues here and there that detract from the experience. Character models are blocky and undetailed, but the vehicle models are better. One of the more irritating graphical issues is the "displaced" muzzle flash from enemy fire. When chasing baddies around in the dark, it would be nice if their weapons fire appeared to originate at their actual location, instead of some five to ten feet in front of them. This is a nasty surprise the first few times you round a corner to attack a fire source, only to discover that he's now behind you, despite where his gun appears to be firing from. Sound is mediocre, with cheezy synthrock at the menus to boot. All the voices sound pretty much the same, and the weapons fire is only nominally varied. All in all, this would have been a passable movie tie-in game when the film came out, but enough time has passed that some graphical improvements should have been made. Add to this the subpar repetitive gameplay, poor squad command system, and frustratingly doltish AI (both enemy and ally), and suddenly this one just doesn't seem worth the time and effort. With things like Ghost Recon and SOCOM out there already and doing this sort of thing better, there's just not much to recommend this one. If you've already played all those games and are just killing time 'til SOCOM 3 and the next Full Spectrum Warrior, then this might merit a rental, but only if you're feeling desperate. Eye Candy: Buy it for PS2 from Amazon! Categorized as: Games and Reviews
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Posted on 09.11.05 by Doc @ 9:49 pm
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. After a few slow weeks, the game release schedule actually has a little meat on its bones this time around. While most of this week's big releases are franchise titles, there are a couple of original gems in there to keep the jaded contingent interested. On top of the franchise heap is NHL 06, the latest in the long-running hockey franchise from EA. With a new deke system and the addition of the "skill stick" mechanic to give players greater control over the stick and puck in-game, the game seems set to reward the hardcore player by allowing a much greater variety of maneuvers. Also new is a shot targeting system that looks borrowed from last year's Gretzky NHL. The defensive AI has reportedly been vastly improved as well, with defensemen now doing a much better job cutting down shot angles and breaking up passes instead of just flattening every player you bring into the zone. With a little tweaking on the rules option screen, you can probably even get a reasonable facsimile of the NHL's newly announced rules enforcement policy for this season. As with any EA sports game, this one drops pretty much on any game-playing platform you can imagine, so at least there's something for the PC crowd this week. Categorized as: Games
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Posted on 08.31.05 by Doc @ 1:07 am
Comments on this: none yet. Add your own. It's another thin week for game releases, alas. With the holiday season still just far enough away that the big releases haven't dropped yet, and the looming spectre of the Xbox 360 launch still more than two months off, nobody seems to have much to bring to the party in terms of new releases here in the dwindling days of summer. The only real premiere release scheduled this week is Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PSP. The game takes us back to the gang-ridden Gotham of GTA3, but with an all new storyline and some gameplay improvements over that title. Also on handheld this week is Dynasty Warriors Advance, which should have been one to look forward to, but all indications is that it should go find a convenient corner and commit seppuku for sullying the name of the franchise. There are a couple of racing titles for the consoles this week, with the '06 version of NASCAR's game and the third installment in Xbox's motorcycle franchise, MotoGP 3, but that about rounds things out.  For those of us that remember when controllers had one big, bright orange button and most of our game-playing happened at the mall while Mom shopped for our school clothes, Namco drops Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection across pretty much every platform this week. The collection brings together a slew of classic Namco arcade games to scratch any nostalgia itch you might have. Included on the full-console versions are Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Rolling Thunder, Rally X, Bosconian, Dragon Spirit, Sky Kid, Xevious, and Mappy, while the GBA version has a slightly more limited selection, but will include the big guns like Pac-Man and Dig Dug. Adding to the game's retro credibility is a licensed soundtrack of early- to mid-80s arcade standards, from Dexy's Midnight Runners to Loverboy. Also, the full console versions feature a "virtual arcade" showcasing each of the games in its original cabinet. Perhaps the best part, though, is the $20 price tag for the whole shebang. PC gamers? Suck it again. There's another installment for Ultima Online, which I'm sure both the remaining players will be thrilled to get, and of course the hotly anticipated Taxi 3. There's also a quirky French MMORPG called Dofus, and I'd like to take this moment to address the game's developers directly. Seriously, guys...do you really think there's a vast untapped market of PC gamers who want nothing more than to play Final Fantasy IV online with their buddies? With bad localization issues that make the plot and quests damned near impossible to follow? Polish the localization issues, and the game could be a lot of fun, but I don't expect it's $80/year worth of fun...especially when that'll get me into World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars doesn't charge at all. Next week: RPGs! Tom Clancy! Hockey! Dogfights over the Pacific! Buy Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary for the Gamecube from Amazon. Categorized as: Games and Headsup
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