MEMBER PROFILE FOR Chr0nik
Average Overall Score Given: 5.50000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 3364
Reviews
American Chopper
American Chopper for Xbox provides a platform for console players to build and ride personalized choppers. Challenge your race skills on a variety of missions while earning valuable style points to put forward to unlock new bikes along your journey. Taking the idea from the top-rated television series American Chopper, players will help the show's stars Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. build some of the craziest bikes on the road. Your player will get to ride the signature theme bikes as seen on the show such as the POW/MIA Bike, Black Widow Bike, Jet Bike, or you can create your very own customized choppers and then put them to the test. Players will experience true to life physics and handling as they cruise through each adventure.Where to start? When creating a game like American Chopper, there are a few things that need to come to mind. First thing is that you are competing with other highly rated and popular games including the Need for Speed Underground series. Players are going to want great game play as well as a vast choice of customization options that you would see on the road and in the shop. Unfortunately, American Chopper fails poorly in both areas. Game play is dry and offers nothing innovative. There are two modes: Instant mode, and Career mode. Instant mode is simply a mode that allows you to play levels that you have managed to unlock in the game. Career mode is a watered down story mode that really lacks innovation and design. You find yourself starting off with mini-missions that are repetitive and seem some what kind of cheesy seeing that they have no correlation with the actual television show. The missions mainly consist of things like fighting off opposing bikers, poker runs, performing chicken style maneuvers with your bike, racing against the other members of OCC, etc. The game play utilizes style points which borrow itself from the Kudos points system awarded in PGR. Pulling off moves and tricks earn you style points. You accumulate style points for use later on to purchase bike upgrades and customizations. Unfortunately, riding the bike and accumulating enough points to acquire a worth while reward is somewhat frustrating and difficult. I got a kick out of the first few minutes of game play, but the concept got old very fast. The process of building and customizing bikes only starts later on in the game. By this time, you most likely have put this game back into its case and have forgotten about it. The game really left me with a feeling of emptiness. I was like, hey how is this anything like the TV show? I feel like this game tried to combine aspects of PGR, NFSU, with some GTA. It was a mix that was left in the blender for too long and became an unrecognizable mess.
The visuals and graphics in this game are a major letdown. I thought that a game based on beautiful bikes would have maybe paid some attention to the graphics. Graphics are choppy and jagged edges rule the screen as you race down seemingly endless missions. I felt like I was playing this game on an old Nintendo 64. American Chopper does not come close to using the potential of the Xbox graphics capabilities. I expected to see high resolution models of bikes, shimmering paint jobs, intricate detailing. I was left with a cheap looking representation of a motorbike. Player models are fairly represented, but again are missing detail and polish. There is honestly no excuse for developers to be putting out games that look this terrible. Playing this game on a 53 inch HDTV with the High definition pack A/V pack was not even able to salvage the visuals of this game.
Suggestions: Mediocrity seems to be the overall summary of American Chopper. I would have to say that overall this game was a big disappointment. True American Chopper fans and die hard motorcycle enthusiasts may be able to get more lifetime out of this game, but too the casual gamer, American Chopper does not deliver the goods. The game is a mish mash of already existing titles that seems to have been hastily thrown together to feed off the popularity of the television series. Playing this game for more than an hour is a truly challenging task. I am really disappointed that more time and effort was not put into this game seeing the potential that the OCC franchise has shown to casual bike enthusiasts. At least this game has one bright spot, a 29,99$ retail price tag.
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
ESPN NHL 2K5
The latest installment of Sega and Kush games is ESPN NHL 2K5. Building on the past two releases (NHL 2K3 and NHL 2K4, a lot was expected from this upcoming title. The ESPN series of hockey games are known for their dedication to sim style hockey, and appeal to the hardcore hockey fan. Being a hardcore fan myself, my expectations for this release were very high.
Many nice little improvements, but I feel a lot more time could have been spent polishing up the game instead of adding pretty useless features.
You can't beat the price of the game, but more time and effort is need to bring this game up to par with it's cousin NFL2K5
Suggestions: lish up your graphics and menus. Give it the feel of an authentic ESPN presentation
2.More selection for the create a team/player. Additional equipment choices, faces, stadiums, set prices for tickets, refreshments, etc.
3.More realistic default slider settings. I should not have to spend all my time tweaking the sliders to get an authentic representation of an actual NHL game.
4.Ditch the party mode and skybox games, concentrate on the actual game itself. The ESPN franchise is for sim fans. If I wanted all the extra stuff, I would buy EA sports or NHL Hitz.
5.Maybe add features such as broken sticks, losing your helmet, major penalties, blood, instigator rule, more realistic injuries, etc.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
NHL Rivals 2004
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced NHL Rivals 2004, the company's very first attempt at the sport of professional ice hockey. Rivals 2004 is a simulation-style hockey game that clearly draws influence from gameplay elements found in both EA and Sega's NHL games. Unfortunately, NHL Rivals 2004 doesn't do much to set itself apart from the competition, and, additionally, it has some rather problematic flaws that deteriorate its gameplay to the level of subpar, at best. Gameplay is a mix between NHL Hitz and EA Sports NHL2004. Gameplay controls are fairly easy to get the hang of. If you have played hockey games in your life, it should only take you a period or so to get used to all the controls. Gamspot sums it all up with the following comment "NHL Rivals 2004 is most certainly geared to cater to fans of simulation hockey but lacks the cohesive gameplay of its competitors. The game just feels very loose and sloppy in some key areas. Specifically, Rivals' AI is often questionable at best, especially when it comes to goalies.
Compared to the other available hockey games on the market, NHL Rivals ranks at the bottom.
NHL Rivals' graphics are probably one of its strongest features, but they still have alot of work to do for next years incarnation. Ice Textures are very nice as well as arena detailing. Player models and animation are average at best. Animation is often choppy and player models do not justly represent the actual look of a character. Seeing that this is a first party Microsoft game, there is no reason why they are not fully utilizing and exploiting the Xbox's graphic capability.
The only good thing about the sound in this game is the custom soundtracks and the crowd reactions. Game commentary is awful and is extremely repetative. It often "clips" or gets cutoff.
Suggestions: Play ESPN hockey and take alot of notes. If MS wants to be a real player in the Hockey video game market, they need to step up to the plate with next years release and give the fans what they want.
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
NHL 2003
I was hoping that this game was going to appeal to the mass of hockey fans out there who have been voicing their displeasure with EA's recent releases of the NHL series. I seriously thought that EA would come out with a solid title this year, but once again they have failed miserably. Let me just say that this game has already been traded back to EB Games.Hardly any. First major flaw is gamespeed. The default gamespeed is horrible. It leaves you with the feeling that you are playing special olympic hockey in wheel chairs or something. There is no flow to the game. I tweaked the speed to the next notch to try to improive this, but it became way to quick. I had no control over my players, it was like the turbo was stuck on. Goalie AI has improved, yet it is still buggy. You are pretty much able to score the same ways as last years version. I still scored a few goals with the drifter shots coming in from the blue line over the goalies shoulder
Graphics are nice, but they seem to be the same old graphics as last years edition of NHL Hockey. There is some new player and goalie animation, but besides that it leaves you with the feeling of dejavue.
Blah Blah Blah. I think the time has come to drop Jim Huson and that super lame and annoying color commentary guy. Jim Huson is once again calling the game the same old way with very repetative game analysis. The color commentary is annoying and frustrating. It is one pointless joke after another. Thank god color commentary can be turned off.
Suggestions: How about being creative for a change instead of just adding little tweaks to the existing platform. I really gave EA the benefit of the doubt this year and went out to spend my money on this title. Result, total dissapointment. The game is just as bland as ever with hardly any noticeable impovements. I give EA the thumbs down, Hopefully NHL2K3 from Sega sports can fill the void.
Overall Score: 4.0 / 10
Dead or Alive 3
Overall: This game was the second biggest dissapointment besides WWF RAW IS WAR. Almost makes me think that all the emphasis was put on making a graphicaly superb game, but at the expense of gameplay. I played this game for about an evening and it has been a coaster on my coffee table ever since.Gameplay: Gameplay is very fast, lots of great moves, tagteam play is a very cool concept. Characters look good and have moves that correspond with their physical stature. The bigger guys are slower, yet have much more devastating moves and Vice versa.
Graphics: Graphics are stunning, fighting areas are incredible, Tina.... what else can I say about her, wow. This is where the game really shines, unfortunately in my opinion it is the only brightspot.
Audio: Sound is good, but not great. The Chinese sound with the subtitles really bothers me. If I am paying 90.00 canadian for a game, I expect the sound to be in my language, english. This point really turned me off.
Suggestions: Less focus on graphics and more emphasis on Gameplay. This games story mode sucks..... I got fed up of this game within 20 minutes.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
UFC: Tapout
This games overall appeal is very strong, whether you are a fighting fan or not, whether you are with friends or alone, this game can offer a high level of fun for everyone.Gameplay is great, the moves are fast and furious. The attack and defense system are not complicated. Many may say it is too easy. Fights usually are over quickly, depending on your talent level you can end a fight in 10-15 seconds, or you can have it go for 3 rounds.
Graphics are crisp, models are very detailed. Some may say the characters almost look superimposed into the screen. I find that alot of work and effort was put into recreating the fighters to the closest point of realism possible.
Sound is pretty bland and repetative. The fans cheering almost becomes annoying after a few minutes. It sounds like they are all blowing into referee whisles. The high pitch cheers will make you want to turn the sound down. The fighter grunts and noises sound a little too computerized and they do not offer much variation from fighter to fighter.
Suggestions: Improve on the sound, improve on the create a fighter, there are way too little options available to customize your fighter to your liking.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
