MEMBER PROFILE FOR Frink
Average Overall Score Given: 7.90000 / 10
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Reviews
Backyard Wrestling: Don’t Try This At Home
For those of you with limited attention spans (you all know who you are) I?ll make a general statement: Backyard Wrestling is bad. A mixture of mediocre graphics, repetitive gameplay, and quite possibly the most irritating custom soundtrack option ever will make you wish you hadn?t paid $50 for it, or even a $5 rental. However, if you are a hardcore Backyard Wrestling fan or crazed Insane Clown Posse fanatic you may not hate this game.I always figured that games with wrestling in the name would be best played doing?I don?t know, wrestling. If you are playing Backyard Wrestling you are sorely mistaken. Though I guess it is Backyard Wrestling and not Professional Wrestling, but you?d image that wrestling would still be an integral part in it. Backyard Wrestling is a button masher in quite possibly its worse form. It becomes so tirelessly repetitive that I have to stagger sessions longer than an hour with something enjoyable. It?s painful to play for longer than that.
Quite possibly the most annoying bug, or if it is intentional a terrible choice, is the fact that all weapons thrown appear to heat seek. No matter how far away, unless a large object is obstructing its path, an object will hit you. So, basically, if you do not want to lose, you must immediately pummel the crap out of your opponent then pick up a weapon and do a similar action. Repeat 25 times and you have a match.
Another integral part of the gameplay formula is the reversal. The reversal has been in every wrestling game I?ve ever played it has never been such an important feature. The way combos are set up in this game, they can go on for an obnoxiously long period of time, so unless you are countering expect to be on the ground for a long period of time. The reversal would not necessarily be a bad thing, if used moderately, because no one likes to lose without getting a chance but it is heavily overused. Overused, like most things, to the point of annoyance.
Ok, I?ll just lay it out there I am not a fan of the Insane Clown Posse. I don?t care for their music and I am by no means a member of their near cult-like following. With that being said, playing 10 hours worth of Insane Clown Posse commercial wasn?t enjoyable for me. Their logo and/or likeness is plastered everywhere: clothing, buses, signs?you can even play as them. I?m all for companies getting money from sponsors to produce video games but I really don?t want to be subjected to them every waking second.
I will give Edios credit for one thing; they do have some pretty humorous level and weapon ideas. Playing inside a slaughterhouse is pretty funny. Not only can I play in a meat locker, I can beat my opponent over the head with a severed cow head. Is that tasteless? Yes. It is humorous? Also yes. Sure, PETA won?t exactly be happy with a game where you can throw your opponent into a swaying cow carcass but it gave me a chuckle. Along a similar vein, they did try to add in some level interactivity which I applaud them for, but the amount of it is minimal. You can break tables (which is expected) and you can break threw some wood here and a pillar there, but nothing that truthfully wowed me.
The graphics in Backyard Wrestling are sub-par, keeping with the theme of the rest of the game. The models are blocky, incredibly bland and lack any form of detail. I am playing a next generation console; I expect detail in my models. Generic male and female bodies don?t cut it when I?m surrounded with games showcasing excellent graphics. I would say that Backyard Wrestling would benefit from being developed exclusively for the Xbox graphics wise but I don?t really think it would. I don?t even think it taxed what the PS2 would do; it just appears as though the graphics were of a lower caliber than what I expect in my games.
There is one thing Backyard Wrestling does right and that is blood. When I say right you can substitute to an extreme excess. If you are squeamish (and the slaughterhouse situation listed above didn?t do it for you) this may not be the game for you. Though there is an ungodly amount of blood, once you get passed the initial shock and awe of it you will notice that similar effects are used throughout. The physical damage to the body, if I have ? of my health left or ? seems to change mly, nothing stood out graphically. I tried to even look for details and such, but really there wasn?t much. Graphics are another area where Backyard Wrestling truly lets me down.
Sound is one of the areas where I was most frustrated. With Insane Clown Posse sponsoring and providing the music, I truthfully wasn?t expected a whole lot that would fit my musical taste, but that is not something I can judge since it is a personal preference. I was very true in that statement and there also wasn?t much of a variation in genre, leaving me let down in the soundtrack.
With some further exploration of the menus I noticed that there was in fact the custom soundtrack option. One of my favorite features of the Xbox I was excited about this. I opened it up and looked at how it was set up and realized that custom soundtrack capabilities were very much tacked on. To enable just your soundtrack you have to first uncheck the entire current soundtrack one by one. Though I didn?t like doing this I thought I?d just have to do it once and it would be done. So, I unchecked them all and checked my entire custom soundtrack. I was happy, especially since doing anything violent with Billy Joel in the background is humorous. I then turn my Xbox off and come back to it later that day and turn it on to hear American Hi-Fi. I think, well there must be something wrong, I check the settings and low and behold all the settings were put back to default. After that I merely muted the music, I was incredibly frustrated by the whole process.
The sound effects and voice acting were average at best, nothing stood out but nothing truthfully annoyed me, your standard fare. However, the terrible utilization of the custom soundtrack feature did hurt my final thoughts on the whole situation.
Suggestions: Eidos, you have a license right now that could sell a lot of copies. Not to me, but to those who enjoy the Backyard Wrestling videos. I suggest totally revamping the wrestling engine to make the game play more like a wrestling game and less like Final Fight. Avoid heat seeking weapons whenever possible. Use higher quality models on most of the game, the current ones do not compare to your competition. Definitely add some variety to the default soundtrack and integrate the custom soundtrack option much more than you do currently. Put the Insane Clown Posse in the game occasionally (if you are continually sponsored by them) but do not use it so much it becomes obnoxious.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4
Welcome to the world of Neversoft?s Tony Hawk 4. Ok, I know you?ve all said it, ?Extreme sports games are played out.? Well, Tony Hawk 4 will change your opinion entirely. The 4th installment has rid itself of the off the wall physics and outlandish trick scores that plagued Tony Hawk 3. No longer can I score a 700,000 point combo in the first 20 seconds of gameplay. Though that doesn?t help for bragging rights, it does add difficulty and realism to this installment. This, among many other improvements, bridges the gap to the latest Tony Hawk game and makes the game worth owning.
The basis of Tony Hawk 4 is, of course, the Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater engine, the same one used since the beginning; however, there have been a few changes since then. The big revision to the engine in Tony Hawk 2 was the manual, 3 was the revert, and now 4 is the spine transfer. This allows you to go up a spine (a set of ramps back to back) and transfer from one side to the other. This comes in handy in many situations and allows for a lot of gaps that were otherwise inaccessible. Another addition is that of skitching, which allows you to hold on to the back of cars and ride behind them for extra speed. The engine is as solid as it was in the beginning and it seems to just get better with every installment. The major gameplay improvement of Tony Hawk 4 is the free roam career mode. Taking a hint from Acclaim?s Aggressive Inline, Tony Hawk 4 has done away with timed runs and taken up a much freer playing environment. You skate around and then find a NPC with an indicator above his head. You then press B to speak and they give you a goal. These can be standard goals similar to those in the previous Tony Hawk?s (high score, S-K-A-T-E, big combos) or those completely new to Tony Hawk 4 (such as breaking the barriers off rails, freeing a painter from a shark, or the new C-O-M-B-O mode in which you must collect the letters to the word combo all in one combo). With every challenge that you complete you earn cash. At any point after you exit a level you can choose to spend your cash on movies, levels, secret characters, cheats, etc. Also, when you earn a stat point, the stat point goes to every skater, not just one. This means that you only have to beat all the 190 challenges once, not once for every character, to complete the game. The Create a Skater and Park Editor seem to improve slightly with every installment, but no vast improvements thus far. The Create a Skater now allows you to scale body parts individually, allowing a much more realistic (or much more ridiculous) character. There is also the option to purchase extra equipment for your custom skater (clown pants, eraser hair, things along those lines). In addition to all of this, Tony Hawk 4 now has a variety of mini games, from Tennis to Poo Dodge (a mini game in which you avoid feces flung by monkeys), to keep you entertained. Not all of these mini games are of the highest quality, but they are fun distractions to kill time. All in all, the gameplay is very solid and makes for a very enjoyable experience.
As a whole the visuals on Tony Hawk are great. The character models are better than ever and the environments are picture perfect. The texture of the environment are great, a good example is to look at the animals in the Zoo level, very well done. The character animations are all very fluid and smooth and the physics have been scaled down a little, making it more realistic than it was in Tony Hawk 3 and that makes the character animations even better looking. No longer do you just bleed, after falling down several times you receive bloody elbows, knees, and other battle scars. There is however one thing that bothers me, this issue is the look of the NPC models. From a distance the NPC models look quite good actually. When you accept a challenge, however, it zooms in on these models and they look horrible. They appear as though they were plucked directly out of an N64 game and placed into Tony Hawk 4, very blocky and a ton of jaggies. Even the character models used on the skateboarders themselves seem much worse than those used when you are controlling the character. But, outside of that the graphics look exceptionally good and provide a very realistic looking game.
Sound is a difficult category to rate on a genre such as extreme sports. The reason for this mostly is the fact that a lot of the sound that goes on in these games is music and judging music is all an issue of personal preference. However, Tony Hawk 4 does have a wide array of eclectic music and the custom soundtrack capability, so you are no longer limited to the default soundtrack. This means you can all now nail your perfect run with your favorite music playing in the background, video gaming bliss. The sound effects are all very well done. The NPC speech is all voice acted, which is a little touch that I enjoyed. Tony Hawk 4 is a much more believable world compared to the other games in the series so you can now skate by a crowded street and hear a number of conversations going on. This all adds to the realism of the game and its surrounding environment.
Suggestions:
Well, I can?t say I have a whole lot to suggest. Working on the NPC models would be great and new features are always nice. Something I?ve always wanted was the ability to drop in rather than falling from the top of the ramp to the bottom. But all those issues are minor and I just hope to see another game in this fantastic series.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
The Simpsons: Hit and Run
Mmmmm?a good Simpsons game. The latest installment in the vast Simpsons franchise, The Simpsons Hit and Run, is a breath of fresh air for any Simpsons fan. If you are reading this review I am going to assume you have at least some mild interest in The Simpsons and have invariably played on of the previous games and was, unfortunately, let down.Continuing with the trend of ripping off popular video game premises Simpsons Hit and Run let?s just say borrows a majority of its gameplay aspects from the insanely popular Grand Theft Auto series. There is no room for argument in that aspect, but this time instead of butchering the premise, it pulls it off quite well. You can consider it a dumbed down version of Grand Theft Auto, with little to no violence. Now this is an odd concept and I know you are all thinking to yourselves, ?Grand Theft Auto?no violence? That?s absurd,? and though you may be true in some aspects Hit and Run pulls it off really well.
The majority of your action in Hit and Run will be vehicular with a large array of vehicles at your disposal. Each of the five characters (Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa, and Apu) starts with his/her own vehicle and from there you can purchase more with the coins you collect. Yes, I did say collecting coins. Hit and Run also throws in a few platforming aspects which I enjoy. So, I guess it does have some aspects different from that of GTA, but they are minimal. One of the main downfalls of Hit and Run?s premise is its lack of variety. As you progress into the game you realize that you are just playing the same mission over again with a different goal in mind (like destroying a limo instead of a van).
You have to understand that this game is definitely geared to the children/early teen generation, though there is a lot in there for the older audiences (especially the die hard Simpsons fans). One thing that doesn?t make since to me, specifically because of this demographic, is the insane difficulty of the police. The issue of the police is something once again borrowed from Grand Theft Auto. You have a meter in your bottom right corner, when that is full you will get a ?? and a police car will chase after you. Now, this was expected but what I wasn?t expected was how hard it is to outrun the police. It seems as though no matter how fast you go, unless you are on a good length of straightaway you will end up getting caught. It is not as though it is completely impossible, just incredibly difficult to do. Though, all in all, it doesn?t end up being that big of an issue when you are caught because it only ends up being a 50 coin fine.
Though the majority of action is vehicular, you still do a good deal of it on foot. You can walk through the section of town you are currently in and explore inside some of the more important buildings (Nuclear Power Plant, the Simpsons?s Home, Kwik-E-Mart, etc.). Indoor exploration was actually one of the most lackluster of the features of the game. My expectation was to be able to actually explore the house, go into each of the rooms, walk through the halls, interact with the objects, but that didn?t really happen. It ended up being as though you were stuck in one hallway and you can walk to a room or two but it was mostly used for receiving goals.
There are quite a few mini-games scattered throughout the level, but the same as with the goals they are also limited. The majority of them are racing, with a few different types (laps, time trial, etc.) but not a whole lot of variation there. For a little comic twist, they threw in a variation of the standard 1?2?3?GO, depending on which character you received the challenge from (for example Ralph says 1?1?1?GO), though that is minor it definitely adds a little Simpsons touch to the game.
Another main gripe with Hit and Run is the camera angles. Camera angles are something that plagues many games and can make it an overall bad experience when done poorly. Unfortunately, Hit and Run is one of those poor examples. There are quite a few instances (especially in buildings) where the camera will get caught behind another object completely obscuring your view of the character. You can imagine how this can be annoying, especially during the platform aspects of the game. A nice feature would?ve been the click to center behind character button which is common in many platform games. This would?ve helped in those predicaments listed above.
Converting a 2D concept into a 3D game must be a daunting task, which seems why it is seldom well done. Here it is not exactly the case either. The trend lately, especially among cartoon-esque games is to be cel-shaded. So, that was my immediate thought when I heard the premise. Instead, they went for a very simple 3D look. While it is not a terrible look, I think cel-shading would?ve definitely suited the premise better.
There are a lot of intricacies in the design of the level. A lot of inside jokes that a Simpsons fan would get are included in the levels, which definitely makes it enjoyable to walk around and just explore the levels and see what you come up with. You do, however, run into some low quality textures. Especially on signs and objects, if you look closely (or the unfortunate camera angle gives you a great view of the object and not your character) you will notice a lot of pixilation.
This game does not, by any stretch of the phrase, utilize the Xbox?s potential. It appears as though it was developed for the least powerful of the consoles (PS2) and ported to the others without improvement. This leads to a good deal of poor anti-aliasing (jaggies) and overall lackluster looks. I always felt that if games were developed for Xbox then ported to other consoles (ala Splinter Cell) you would get the best looking game for all three consoles.
Sound is definitely an area where Hit and Run excels, not necessarily because of the quality of the sound, but the superb voice acting that comes along with it.
It features voices for over 50 characters with voice actors from the show itself. This just leads to some hilarious and great dialogue. You can?t forget Professor Frink does have a cameo voiced by none other than Hank Azaria. Unfortunately he isn?t playable, though I?d love for him to be.
Sound effects wise Hit and Run is pretty standard fare. You have your pretty generic noises for all of the individual sound effects, nothing that really stands out from your average video game. From what I?ve heard Hit and Run doesn?t really make use of the Xbox?s Dolby Digital sound, which is a let down for those with great surround sound systems (I, unfortunately, am not one of those people).
Suggestions:
Overall you made a very enjoyable game. A little variation in the missions wouldn?t hurt. Redesigning the camera system however is a must, it would improve the game a good deal. Also, developing for the most powerful console first and downgrading would definitely help the game in the graphics area. Make good use of the Xbox?s audio capabilities, I?m sure Xbox owners would appreciate it. If the series continues on the path that it has been, the next game should be excellent.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Tony Hawk's Underground
The Tony Hawk Pro Skater series is one of the few games that has had multiple sequels and continues to be of an incredibly high caliber. There has been an influx of extreme sports games over the past few years, some have flopped and others have succeeded. The Tony Hawk series seems to be the game that raises the bar and from which all other games are compared. The fifth installment, Tony Hawk Underground, has added some wonderful new features but also has its downfalls.A common criticism of the Tony Hawk series, but something I wholeheartedly enjoy, is the fact that it is mainly combo based. A lot of people note that it is not realistic, but that?s its appeal. Companies have tried (and failed at) making a realistic skateboarding game and what it comes down to is it lacks one major element: fun. Playing a video game is meant to be a larger than life experience, if you could do it at your own leisure, why would you simulate it in a video game? THUG pulls this off well, allowing you to do some large combos but keeping the point values down (unlike the near laughable scores you could obtain in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3).
The gameplay of the Tony Hawk series hasn?t changed much to the average user, but those diehard fans will note marked improvement with every sequel. THUG is no different. The main addition is the ability to now get off your skateboard and walk around. The troubles of getting up stairs and into tight spaces are no more. There are some issues with this system though; the most noticeable is the camera difficulties. When you get into a tight space for example, the view of yourself is obscured by the walls. Luckily the developers coded in a center view button, which fixes this problem a good amount of the time, but it?s still a hassle. There are also some other small additions (hip transfers, wall plants, wall pushes and acid drops) which are quite handy. An addition to the combo system, based off of the walking concept, is the addition of combos off of your board. Though an interesting concept, THUG does not really pull it off well. Once you are off your board you have a timer which denotes how much time you have until your combo is ended. With the limited amount of time you have, the majority of the time it is hard to keep your combo going. I overlook this feature 90% of the time I?m doing combos, but the wall plants and wall pushes definitely come in handy when you are in a jam.
The career mode of Tony Hawk has been drastically changed in THUG. You are now required to create a custom skater to begin career mode. From then on you build your skater from a local nobody to a nationwide sensation. While doing this you get sponsors, create your own signature deck, and all kinds of other superstar related activities. I personally enjoyed this a lot more than the traditional system. Seeing your character (who I of course modeled after myself) in all of the cut scenes and such really added another level of believability. My major gripe with the career mode is its length. Traditionally it would take me at least a few weeks to beat one of the Tony Hawk?s, but Underground took me a whopping 2 days. I?d say about 10 hours total. This coupled with the lack of Xbox Live gameplay (a crime in my opinion). One nice workaround to the lack of Xbox Live is XBConnect which will tunnel the system link play, allowing you to play online. It?s really a lot of fun and makes me hate the developers more for neglecting traditional online play (which WAS included on the Playstation 2 version).
An interesting new addition is the enhanced stats system. Unlike the traditional system where you would get stat points and then level them up however you saw fit, the new system adjusts the stats for you according to what you do, making your character a much more suited to your style of playing.
There are two features that have been there since Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2: Create-A-Skater and Create-A-Park. THUG has added two more: Create-A-Trick and Create-A-Deck. Create-A-Trick is much like what it sounds, you create a custom trick by linking a sequence of current tricks. It?s a fun tool to play around with, but doesn?t really add much to the game. The Create-A-Deck is also an interesting tool, with a practical use. It adds another level of customization. Now, not only can you create your skater, but also your skater?s signature deck. Without any graphics editing software on the Xbox, your physical changing of the elements is limited but they did a good job of allowing a good deal of customization. It seems as though Create-A-Skater really hasn?t changed much, besides a few new articles of clothing it?s the same old, same old. Create-A-Park has changed quite drastically though. It now allows you to recreate the career mode experience more than ever with the ability to create custom challenges. The parks are now larger than ever and have a much larger variety of items to place in your park.
Though I was impressed with a lot of Underground?s new features, its downfalls are quite major. Xbox Live is a must for this type of this title; I can guarantee you would?ve sold more copies with it. The length of career mode is also a major downfall, dramatically hurting its replay value.
The Tony Hawk series always seems to be a step behind the rest of the gaming world when it comes to graphics (luckily it makes it up in gameplay). THUG continues with bad, blocky player models. Luckily they have improved from Tony Hawk 4?s near disgraceful NPC models.
One thing Underground does have going for it are textures. They really do convey the feeling of the levels and are generally done quite well. You can especially see the improvement when playing the unlockable Old School levels. They?ve come a far way from Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater 2.
The environments are also quite well done. A well done environment is a necessity to making a game such as this believable. The modeling of objects throughout the world isn?t of the highest caliber, but the layout and overall look of the levels make up for it.
There have always been interesting details throughout the Tony Hawk series and this installment is no different. In 4 they added blood stained and war damaged bodies, while they are still there to some extent (though not as noticeable) the thing I noticed was he damaged to the skateboards. Damage to skateboards might sound like a very minor thing (and it is), details such as that really add to the quality of a game. Depending on how you use your skateboard, will reflect the damage it takes. You can notice that after a large amount of board sliding, the paint on the bottom will chip off, leaving exposed wood. With extended falls the board might actually break in half, angering your player.
To sum up my feelings into a concise statement, the overall look of Tony Hawk is mediocre. Though there are some well designed environments and interesting details, the modeling really detracts from the game?s look. It catches your eye and bugs you, taking you out of the world the rest of the game is really trying to pull you into.
Sound is always the hardest area for me to judge, for many reasons. Probably the most important reason for my difficulty is my lack of knowledge in the field. I am not an audiophile nor do I have a lot of knowledge on the subject. I really enjoy music but I am not a critic of it. As far as music goes, it is all personal preference so impossible to rate. I could judge it on my opinion but that is entirely biased. I will try my best to explain this after my disclaimer
Tony Hawk Underground incorporates one of my favorite features of the Xbox: custom soundtracks. I really think that is one of the most enjoyable things about owning an Xbox, the ability to customize what is playing during the game. If I don?t like Underground?s soundtrack, doesn?t matter I can listen to whatever I choose and the ability to choose feels great. The default soundtrack is pretty diverse from Kiss to Nas to The Clash.
Sounds effects wise THUG seems pretty sound. It has pretty realistic samples for all the different materials/objects. Cheesy sound effects are another thing that can take you out of the experience and make you realize that you are just playing a game. Keeping you enthralled in a game is what separates a good game from a mediocre one.
Suggestions: The thing I?d really like to express is the need for online play. It?s not an option in this generation of games; it?s almost a requirement, especially for a game of this kind. A significantly longer career mode would be nice. Working on the graphics (models in particular) would be nice. Break the trend of Tony Hawk being one step behind graphically. THUG was a very enjoyable and solid game that could?ve been great with some enhancement.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
