MEMBER PROFILE FOR Kamshaft-XBA
Average Overall Score Given: 8.24921 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 2158
Reviews
Motocross Madness
I could go on and on about the fact that the original Motocross Madness was the game that started my love for the genre. When Rainbow Studios created this masterpiece back in 1998 people were amazed! They had nailed it. Then a few years later came Motocross Madness 2 and it set a very high bar for any motocross game out there.Then Rainbow Studios moved on to develop ATV Off-Road Fury for the Playstation 2 while Microsoft and Rainbow sadly went their separate ways. As they say, the rest was history. To date, the name “Motocross Madness” has sat on a shelf for over thirteen years. Did they somehow forget about it? Too much Halo on the brain? Who knows when publishers decide to bring back an older title, even if it’s just for the name. They need to stop and think and look at what made the original title great in the first place. You always risk making the new game worse than the original. Case and point, the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s hard to beat the original.
These days, we are seeing rehashed title one after another. But it seems to me that most of these “remakes” miss the mark. Honestly, publishers don’t seem care to ask the people that were present back then to contribute to help convey the excitement that was felt back then. I think most people would offer to do it for free too.
This “version” of Motocross Madness is NOTHING like the original title that was released back in 1998, nor Motocross Madness 2 for that matter other than the simple fact that you ride a motocross bike. This is truly sad. Will people have fun? Sure they will. Does it even have a sliver of the original game? Like I said, nothing.
The game basically consists of a combination of “Pure” from Disney Interactive and Mario Kart! And where is the motocross drifting coming from? Devs should know that in motocross there isn’t any drifting; none. And the boost? Really? Like Mario Kart, you collect stuff like coins like a platform game. Catch my drift? (See what I did there?)
The game controls are very frustrating. If it had good physics then things here wouldn't be so bad. In fact, they are the same, if not worse than MUD. I can’t get used to the fact my Xbox Live avatar is riding on the bike either. I could on and on about how this game fails for me but the fault lies with Microsoft and the developer.
Blame number one, Microsoft for using the name in vain, and releasing this game that is nowhere near the original game. Blame two, the developer for pitching this idea. Do you guys not remember the phenomenon of Motocross Madness or do we just remember things better than they really were? Was this release just a bad marketing attempt?
I really wish I had better things to say about this game but sadly, I do not. They should have made “Motocross Madness HD” and simply just update the old game or just called this game something else entirely, as to not tarnish the brand.
If you never played the original Motocross Madness and you don’t care to know the original then you’re fine; you’ll have fun at 800 MS points, as it’s not a rip off. You’re basically getting Mario kart with motocross bikes. But, if you do remember the old game, run away. It’s too different and too “arcady”. For the people that may think that this is all out of line... What if they did the same thing thirteen years from now and released a game titled "Halo", and made an avatar side scrolling version? You'd loose it. I rest my case.
Microsoft has unfortunately has cheapened the name, “Motocross Madness”, and shame on them. I beg, please don’t do the same thing to “Midtown Madness” as these iconic games deserve more than just an insulting avatar bobble-head knockoff that is nothing like the original. Trials 2 HD is better; go play that instead.
Overall Score: 4.2 / 10
MUD - FIM Motocross World Championship
Most of you that know me or have been coming here to XboxAddict.com for a while know that one of my gaming passions is the off-road racing and motocross genre. With the fall of THQ the motocross gaming community has been left wondering what will happen next, or rather who will publish the next great off-road/motocross title. With only a handful of developers such as RedLynx, 2XL Games, and now Milestone, they are probably the only folks on the planet that can actually make it happen or even care to. We’ll see.Only a couple of months after the sale of the majority of THQ assets MUD comes along. For Namco it’s perfect timing as the competition was coincidentally eliminated. The strange part is that no one bought the rights to the MX vs. ATV franchise in the first round, mind you the overall sales of Alive probably didn’t make that franchise terribly attractive either. Anyways...
MUD is really the new kid on the block. Straight out of the gate the Italian developer has done a great job getting me excited about a new motocross game! Let’s face it, most of us motocross gaming lug-nuts weren’t terribly impressed with Alive, but we bought it anyways. Why? Because there are so few off-road titles out there. We really need our fix, even if it only comes once every couple of years.
MUD appears to take the right steps into making a great motocross title; it jumps right in with the loud punk-rock style/skateboarder music (which is appropriate) and grunge like UI graphics. However, in my twelve years of reviewing these games I’ve learned to look past the lipstick and mascara. Once again, the UI interface design is very well done, however, with all this loudness going on in the bottom right, there’s a poor attempt at a tutorial. Why is this really important? Well, they are actually introducing new mechanic to the genre. I was hopping in the game with my past skills, which didn’t apply anywhere.
They’ve approached the genre this time with a relatively new idea: “Scrub-ing”. (If you don’t know what a “scrub” is, google-it. If you find medical stuff, keep looking.) Scrubbing is not a new thing to the motocross world, but in the gaming sense, it is. I’ll explain later if this new mechanic helps or not.
As I navigate through the menus of the game, I’m left in the end figuring out what the differences between “Official Mode” and “MUD World Tour”. From what I’m able to see is the MUD mode is like a mini RPG with all the same tracks. Seems like pointless fluff. I found the various modes to be confusing and they seemed to be the same stuff just rehashed. When that happens I sometimes feel like I just got ripped off.
The controls. Where do I start? Controls in motocross games have been all over the place over the years. At first you had basic left, right, up and down, pretty much like a flight sim. Then Rainbow Studios came up with the preload mechanic, which worked well for years. Then THQ/Rainbow came up with the dual stick bike and rider control scheme, which took a lot of getting used to, but in the end it worked well. MUD now, decided to challenge things with the “scrub” system, but does it work? Well, yes and no. When it does work well and you manage to execute a “good” or “perfect” scrub, your bike suddenly takes off in a burst of speed as you pull ahead of your competition. Where it fails is when you are asked or prompted to do a scrub and the burst accelerates you into a corner. Your forward momentum is too high and slam into the corner. This is partly because of some poor planning in track design to work with the scrub mechanic; not my idea of fun. Controls need to be fun, and if that fails the rest of the game falls apart like a house of cards unfortunately.
The physics of the bike don’t feel right either. Why? If I get bumped the bike will get airborne sometimes and slam into the sides of the track like a ping pong ball. Your average bike weighs about 100 kg (230 lbs), so they don’t get airborne too often when slammed, especially with the force from another rider. I completely understand that the physics need to be fun, but here they are not. I was better off not doing too many scrubs and simply staying clear from other riders.
With the boost you get from the scrubs, there was another feature to speed boost (see the pattern here)?, and it's in a form of some sort of in-game energy drink. Are we playing a Popeye game here? You get three cans of this stuff. This I personally thinks it cheapens the overall game quality.
The game visuals are the best part about of the game; the shading, the details, etc… even the ruts. Ruts have been requested by motocross gamers for years and these guys implemented them very well, and they will actually impact the drivability of the bike on the track. The graphics engine they are using can only look a whole lot better on the next-gen systems. Keep this engine and your artists guy, as the game looks fantastic! What I’d personally would like to see is a mud roosts on the screen and a tear off system. So as you race around the track, you get mud on your goggles and would need to hit a button to swipe it clean. This would add a whole new dynamic to the game, and with today’s consoles, it should be do-able.
The sound is where 95% of most racing games fail because it’s incredibly hard to simulate an engine sound accurately. What needs to happen in this industry is a realistic engine sound simulator engine (sort of like an Unreal engine for sound) or a standard way to capture sound and have it render in a game. So when the RPMs are up or down and different gear loads, it sounds right. Sadly, most engine sounds in off-road games sound more like a “weed-wacker” than the real thing. The MUD bike engine sounds are just monotonous all the way around the track. This needed to sound better.
The game core itself has potential and I really don’t want to discourage the developers over at Milestone (Italy) of not making another motocross title. Understand, that this is their first motocross title, and they really need to get informed on what the motocross gaming community wants in a motocross title. Personally, I don’t want an energy drink popin’ mechanic in my racing titles.
I also, didn’t see any Supercross tracks, or the hint there were any. I did see some freestyle tracks or arenas. If you’re going to sell this in the North American territories then add Supercross tracks. The game only sports only 12 tracks, but they get pretty repetitive after a while.
I sank roughly 6-8 hours into the game and still wasn’t able to figure out how to do a trick. Maybe I’m getting old here, but really? My advice to the developers is to add Supercross tracks. It’s huge here in North America. Don’t change the visuals too much, or just make them better if you can. Overhaul the physics, and bike sounds. Streamline the overall UI and include better tutorials.
Best advice I can leave Milestone with is, take a look at successful off-road games like Motocross Madness 2 for the very large community it had and take notes, and MX vs. ATV Unleashed with the quads and monster trucks, my kids still love to play that game!
Being that MUD will more than likely be the last retail motocross game we’ll see on the Xbox 360, (besides Motocross Madness on Xbox Live Arcade), and the game retails for $39.99, you really can’t go wrong here. Is this a great motocross game? Sadly, no. Are you going to be having fun with it for more than eight hours? You might. I’m I looking forward to another motocross title from Milestone? Hell yes!
Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
F1 Race Stars 
Every once and while gaming companies compete against each other for everything. They’ll “borrow” gaming genres, “borrow” ideas, “borrow” box art, and sign crazy licensing deals to make the next big “pot of gold” gaming title. Every single publisher is guilty of this action, however the amount of grace and tact in the way they “borrow” these bright ideas remains completely random. Now, is there anything wrong with that? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.The racing kart genre is one of these bright ideas that publishers latch onto, but why? Because, that damn Italian plumber made boat loads of money with his version of the game. So it’s a completely natural occurrence that the “copycat” factor kicks in, and that publishers want a piece of that racing action.
Example: This year alone (2012), Sonic & All Stars Racing, Little Big Planet Karting, and now this one. That’s only consoles, not handhelds, nor PC! The first problem I saw with this title before opening the box was the fact a Formula One (F1) licensed title was being marketed to a North American audience. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying there are absolutely no Formula One race fans out there, but let me tell you I personally don’t know any, and I have a lot of race watching buddies. If anyone is into racing around here, it’s NASCAR at the very least. It’s just a really hard sell around here is all I’m saying.
The art direction of the game is spot on, why? It’s simple; the caricature-like character are well designed and fit the overall look and feel on what I believe was their demographic target audience. If you read most of my racing title reviews, you’ll quickly notice that I do enjoy most of them.
Did it get my son excited? Sure it did. The music followed the same suit as the art as it did its job. However, it was short lived. The career portion offers nothing really new. You start off by choosing what you want your driver to look like and you have the incredible choice of picking your own avatar! Talk about something awesome! Well, That falls short too and the only aspect that you see visually is your head. When the race starts, that goes away, so there’s no real peck or awesomeness to be felt here unfortunately.
In every game that is created a developer needs to ask themselves one important question: do I let my cool AI programming kick the players butt or do I let them win a bit and make them feel empowered? There needs to exist a balance there. Unfortunately, F1 Race Star does not have that balance. The AI will always get the upper hand. I can’t imagine racing AI programing being easy, but when you smother it with insane rubber band AI it makes it near impossible to get ahead. The multiplayer sessions are the most fun and the most frustrating, as it clearly uses more rubber band racing here, which I personally hated. The only time it’s been fun is with your own friends. If the AI is involved, forget it.
With this title, it’s obviously geared to a young and family audience. Did it succeed? Let’s just say my seven year old son, didn’t really enjoy it, and he loves Mario Kart. As you can see this review was a double edge sword. First time for me quite honestly. Does it really bring anything new to the table? No, just the F1 license.
Lastly, the game sits at $40 and it’s really not worth that money even, unless you’re a hardcore Formula One fan. But, even then, from a pure racing gamer stand point, the controls are terrible, and track design needs work to fit the controls. You might want to pass this one up and wait for it to show up in your local bargain bin. BUT... IF, and only IF you live in Europe or anywhere else that adores Formula One. You might want to check it out, it’s $40 after all.
I really hate scoring a game on the low end, but sadly overall, if you live in North America skip this title and go play the real Formula One game from Codemasters. It’s a lot better, and it scored better too! Even, my seven year old son didn’t even wanna play anymore.
Overall Score: 5.7 / 10
Karateka
When I was a young gaming buck of 13 years old, I was a proud owner of a Commodore 64 straight from Canadian Tire (Google it!)! When this title came out, I had heard crazy mythical things, like “It looks real!” Even back then, that sounded pretty farfetched; none the less, the point is, that it captured our imagination just like Halo did. We look at Halo 1 today, and we say...”Seriously?”Karateka, then published by Broderbund Software played an important role in my personal gaming soul! A few years ago, I reloaded the game via an old emulator, man, I remember saying, “I remembered this looking a lot better”. But did the game change? No, I did. Just goes to show we remember games better than they really were! Visually of course, even Halo (Anyone remember the anniversary edition?) can’t escape it, folks.
Our good friend, the creator of the game, Jordan Mechner is also famous for the original Prince of Persia and his writing on the Sands of time film. But, this time he’s brought back Karateka. Yay!
What drove Karateka into most people’s hearts was the simple story, its timing based combat system, and the crazy difficulty level. You had to kick some ass to save the princess, with one life!
This version of the game is basically the same as it was back then, with way better graphics, sound, and music. It’s still basically a 2D, on rails, side-scroller. This time though you have three different characters or chances. The point is that you have to try and make to the end with the original given character, which is the true love of the princess. Not the Monk nor the Brute, these guys are second chances, really.
The underlying challenge of the remake is getting the rhythm of the attacks down, and then earning your counter attacks, and trying to complete the game in one sitting. Just like the old days.
It took me roughly 40 minutes to get from start to finish, with five do-overs. Thus, the love of her life completion will have to be another day. The replayability will exist when you clear the game with the main character (the first one), then try and beat your friends via the leaderboard, which is sorted out by points and time.
This is where game differs from the original, back then you had one kick at the can, no extra lives. If your health ran out, that was it. No checkpoints, no saves. It sucked, in retrospect and the birds are still annoying, just like the old days. Personally, I would have liked to have seen a remake with a higher budget. A game more like Bruce Lee was, or could have been.
Overall, game is a nice trip down memory lane for those of us that even know what Karateka even was. However, I personally can’t see this appealing to the younger crowd unfortunately; maybe it’s not meant to, who knows. Mr. Mechner had an insane amount of hardcore fanboys emailing him to remake it! Karateka will forever be part of our youth.
Overall Score: 7.8 / 10
Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2012)
Do you have the need, the need for speed? Well, I do! Electronic Arts and Criterion Games graces us with yet another "Most Wanted" title. Wait a minute... another one? Yes folks, there's old name recycling going on here. Have a look! At the end of the day does it really matter? Not really, but come on. Couldn't EA's marketing team come up with another highly creative title? Like "Most Wanted 2". I know everyone's doing it these days, with movies like Total Recall and stuff. Oh well, it's just the creative person in me speaking at this point.Who is Criterion? Unless you've been living under a rock, they're the fine folks behind the incredible Burnout series, Need for Speed Paradise, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. They were bought up by EA back in 2004. Let me tell you that they have engineered some of the best crash physics in racing games to date, period.
On with the review!
The city of Fairhaven (who comes up with these names?), is one without pedestrians. Lucky for them, otherwise it would be a complete bloody disaster! The city itself is roughly the size of what Burnout Paradise was, plus it's a complete wide open driving sandbox. I was really excited when I found out they were going in this direction as I personally didn't like the linear vibe of Hot Pursuit, I felt it was more of a step backwards. I remember having loads of fun with Paradise. Again, you'll talk to just about everyone comparing this title to it. Is this a bad thing? Nope, because it represented hours of fun!
The single player is not really a campaign. It's a series of various races to acquire the faster and faster cars, with cop chases thrown into the mix. As you progress, you accumulate what they call "Speed Points", it's basically a measuring stick to unlock more races like the "Most Wanted" ones. What are these Most Wanted races? As you progress thru the cookie cutout races, you unlock races where you can potentially unlock really fast cars like the Alfa Romero. Overall, short and sweet fun. The coolest part of this version of Need for Speed Most Wanted is that you don't have to unlock any cars, you one with a logo swirling above it, then you can simply drive up to it and it's yours, it's that simple. You just have to find them all. Like a treasure hunt.
The multiplayer is the main reason you should run out and buy this game. Why? It's simple, it's the best part. However, the multiplayer events lack good explanations. You'll have everyone running around trying to figure out the main objective. If you are playing with a younger crowd with the attention span of a gerbil, things will go south and trash talking will fill the air quite quickly. But, if you are playing with a crew of good friends, you will have the time of your life whipping thru the bottomless pit of events. Which should keep everyone entertained for a while.
Here comes the good, the bad and the ugly. The good first. This game looks incredible! The cars look great, reflections, shadows, etc... It's beautiful, and enjoyable. The bad, I had the odd frame rate stutter during races and that's very annoying, even with the game installed on the hard disk. The ugly, the cops...these police chases in Need for Speed Most Wanted are ruthless! They are like rabid dogs. Now is this a bad thing? Yes, and no. Sometimes, you don't want to be chased by cops, and sometimes you do. It's mood thing really. But, when you are trying to just play, they butt in. Uggh.
I've only tested the game with one piece of driving hardware, which was the Microsoft wireless steering wheel. Functioned quite well actually. But, the violent action of whipping the thing left and right, your arms are all over the place. Why? Because the cops are always on ya! I ended up going back to the standard Xbox 360 controller. However, I did not try the full sized Microsoft steering wheel. I just don't have the space, and time.
Unfortunately, the reality that the game faces is it becomes repetitive quite quickly. I honestly think these guys need to re-think this franchise. And on the flipside there's not a whole lot you can do with this type of racing game.
Think of Need for Speed Most Wanted like this... it's a pick up and play game, which you easily walk away from and resume later without many repercussions. Most racing titles have this advantage.
Overall, Need for Speed Most Wanted is a welcomed title, however if you are looking for a deeper racing title, you'll have to look elsewhere. But, seriously how deep can a driving go? If you want that crazy depth, Forza might be a better choice. But, this is NOT Forza. It has a lot more of an arcade appeal to it. This isn't good or bad, it just is. It all depends on the mood you're in, sometimes you'll want a deeper racing game, and sometimes I just want to blast around with your friends online for an hour and Need for Speed Most Wanted will give you just that; The fix, the Need for Speed.
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Skylanders Giants
Greetings portal masters! The Skylanders family is back, and this time they've brought a few big friends. Skylanders Giants!Before I get started: For those of us that have children, and an Xbox, was no escaping the all mighty Skylanders toy phenomenon last year, especially around the holidays. What wasn't there to like? A wide variety of awesome looking collectable figurines, and they actually held your game data inside of them. There really was, and still is nothing like it on the market! If only our 80's Star Wars collection did that!
Let me educate you on what I personally went thru last year with this craze. As a relatively new parent I wanted to make my kids happy last Christmas. So, like an unknowing father I bought them a small stable of Skylanders toys for Christmas! I honestly had no idea what in the world I was getting myself into. A few months after the holidays, I found myself frantically hunting around the major department stores looking for those elusive missing characters, this lasted something like six months! Uggh! Slam-Bam ended up being that final character in our collection. Additionally, I was also able to acquire a few rare ones too!
After, playing the first Skylanders (not Giants) throughout the year. I decided to ask some of my close friends (that owned the game) what their thoughts were on it. Questions like, 'How long did they play for?' and 'What did they find the funnest?' It literally was a mixed bag. Some loved it till the cows came home. Some, played it for a week and forgot it ever existed. However, any way you sliced it, nobody really hated it.
Let's jump in to what this new title is all about. Giants is plain and simple a sequel. That's it. Thanks for reading the review, good night! Just kidding. As you open the package, you'll be presented with three new characters, Tree Rex (Giant), Jet-Vac (regular-sized) and a Series 2 version of Cynder (regular-sized) which was available later in the year as a collectable. Lucky for us, Activision is selling a new and previous owner version respectfully, so there is no need to buy another portal, if you've got one already.
The game starts off by re-introducing our good ole friend Kaos, man this guy is like a Terminator, he just keeps coming back! And he's up to no good again!
As you play through the game you'll quickly notice that the level cap of the older characters (series 1) has been increased from ten (10) to fifteen (15). Do these extra levels really do anything? Well, yes, and no. First off, you can take every single one of your Skylanders that you've leveled previously, and get them up to 15. Do you get additional powers? Unfortunately, no. Your overall stats (i.e. health points) however do increase, thus, making you a little stronger. If you had a character like I did, My Trigger Happy had over 23,000 gold, so I went on a little shopping spree. Why not right? But more on that later.
If you decide to set down a series 2 character on the portal, example Trigger Happy. You have the ability to buy an extra power. They call these wow-pow, in which the first gen characters will never have.
You'll quickly notice that you'll be swapping out character a little more to get into the 'Giants only' areas, if that's the way you wanna play. From what I could tell, you can go thru the whole game without a Giant, but why would you? The reality is that Giants are an intricate part of this title, hence the name of the game, duh! This swapping is not a show stopper, in fact my kids would exchange characters several time during a session, or until every single one has perished.
In Skylanders Giants there are a total of eight unique Giants characters, eight unique and never seen before ones, and eight unique regular sized characters which are a mix of old familiars such as Hex, Prism Break and new ones with LIGHTS! (I was told that those are actually powered by magic!). And lastly there are twenty-four Series 2 variants of the originals that have different poses and the additional power; for a grand total of forty-eight new Skylanders! So, when you get the game, you'll only have 45 left to collect! Let's not miss the point here: the additional fun that you get out of this game comes from collecting the characters. Think of it like a never-ending Easter Egg hunt!
Toys for Bob has also added story difficulty levels this time around. Finally! So, if your kids are small and just want to blast through the game now they can. If you want to step it up and go medieval Skylanders, you'll want the Nightmare difficulty. As for the environment, Toys for Bob added multiple houses throughout the game that contain vendors where you can do various purchases from lucky charms, Skystone pieces, battle arena levels, and a few other things. In the previous game you couldn't really spend your money on anything other than powers.
I also, experimented by putting the series 1 adventure statues, from the packs. Well, they work, and they look great! So, nearly everything you've purchased or will purchase is compatible in this version of the game. I was really curious to see what they'd carry over.
Another improvement is the overall graphical quality of the game, it has been greatly improved, and heaven only knows I've stared for several hours at the previous. Let me tell you it looks great! You see even bump mapping (google it!) on Tree Rex the giant's bark texture. The interface also got some much need improvements.
In the audio department. I've noticed some use of famous voice actors. I'm going guess a few. The Conquertron has to be George Takei from Star Trek! Also, I'm told Kevin Sorbo from Hercules (TV series) is in there somewhere. Sounds great anyways!
Multiplayer is the same as the last game, two player on screen co-op. I really wish Xbox Live support would have been added, thus the loss of a few points.
The bottom line is, that if you are new to the Skylanders universe, please read my Skylanders review. It will give you a good introduction to the whole thing. This particular review is taking the approach of having the previous title and how it migrates. And if you are in my situation, where you've collected Skylanders, you'll definitely enjoy this one! The same awesome fun as the first original, and much more! Enjoy!
Overall Score: 8.8 / 10
Skylanders Spyro's Adventure
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
MX vs. ATV Alive
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 7.6 / 10
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
Darksiders
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
MX vs. ATV: Reflex
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Tony Hawk: Ride
Overall Score: 8.3 / 10
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Overall Score: 9.7 / 10
Lode Runner
Most young readers / gamers are probably asking themselves..."What the heck is Lode Runner ?", "Is it like Halo, or Gears of War?" Hmmm, no, not quite, but what it was, is just as popular.Let's start from the beginning...Back in the 80's when Back to the Future, and Max Headroom were king, games were programmed by single individuals. Lode Runner was no exception. This game was completely designed, programmed by one guy named Douglas E. Smith. Soon after was picked up by a publisher called Broderbund Software back in 1983. They were same people behind such releases as Choplifter, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Karateka and Myst. These cats would actually give EA a run for their money back then!
How cool was this game ? Lode Runner was literally one of my first gaming experiences. I was 12 years old, and it was me and my buddy huddled around the Commodore Vic-20, taking turns playing, and before we knew it...quite a few hours had gone by. The game honestly had it all, fast easy to jump into gameplay, as for the graphics and sound...well...we played it on a black and white television with mono sound. That didn't matter to us, why? Because, the game has the most important element in a game, addicting gameplay.
Why was this game cooler than other game out at the time? First off, it was playable at home, so my parents didn't freak out, simply because I wasn't (on what they thought) hanging out at the arcade filled with quarter poppin' drug dealers, and excessively loud music. I was playing games at home in a relatively safe environment.
Lode Runner was also advanced in the level creation department, it was probably, if not the first game to have an easy to use level editor included with it. You have to remember this creative aspect or the do-it-yourself approach to gaming was basically in its infancy. Sadly, we had to save levels we created on a cassette drive.
Ok, enough history...
Lode Runner is back in on the Xbox 360 arcade, and hosting all the really cool historical features I detailed above, plus featuring a very cool new coop multiplayer mode, 272 brand new levels, five other gameplay modes, high-definition graphics and five unique environments. In one of the environments, they also have an interesting mechanical level that changes as you get near objects and switches that really changes the level and makes it more interesting. My favorite was the volcano environment; they have mines that let you blow crap up, to help progress to the next level.
Lode Runner also makes good use of the 360's controller by using the triggers for determining the direction of your digging. Let me explain, to dig left while running you use the left trigger, and vice-versa for the right. In the old days this left and right stuff was really hard.
Let me be perfectly honest, I haven't played every variation of Lode Runner from years past, and I don't know what they've brought in from the Nintendo or the coin-op versions. I just know that our Xbox version rocks, period. The younger audience members might want to at least try the demo.
Why? The basics of this game should be a building block for a lot of (so called AAA titles) games out there. This is simple addictive gameplay at its best. Do yourself a favor, and buy Lode Runner for the mere 1200 Microsoft points. Why? Because you are not only playing a great game, you are playing a part of gaming history.
Overall Score: 8.5 / 10
Shadow Complex
Epic is known for their landmark titles such as Unreal, Unreal Tournament, and the Gears of War series. But, mainly for developing the most beautiful and popular game engine out there. Wait a minute…who is this recently acquired “Chair” developer? They are the geniuses behind the arcade title called Undertow. How can I put it? Epic Games and Chair Entertainment got married, and Shadow Complex is the baby. Where does Shadow Complex actually stem from? No clue! Seems like a new universe.The Shadow Complex story begins with you (Jason Fleming) in some sort of power suit saving the president from being killed. But then the story shifts gear, with a cut scene (in an arcade title?), away to you and your girlfriend Claire in the woods of Washington. Then things decide to go bad, and she gets captured by the bad guys. Now, enough about story, how does it play?
Keep in mind that the game was made by the same folks that created Undertow. So, you will notice suddle parallel similarities between the two. With the left thumbstick you maneuver our hero, and you aim with the right thumbstick, sort of like Robotron. The right trigger, is shooting of course, the right bumper you are going to use lot, it's to fire your hook, launch missiles, toss grenades, and much more.; This title at first glance seems like a “run-of-the-mill; side scrolling (nearly 2-D) shooter, but it cleverly gives you the ability to take out enemies in the third dimension, and the game seamlessly switches between the two.
This title is not your run and gun arcade title. It's a complex mission based, action adventure game. The entire layout of the game world is neatly laid out in a grid/maze-like matter. It's easy to find your way around, with a large amount of trigger-based puzzles, but equally easy to get lost.
One of your objectives is to assemble the suit that you are seen with at the beginning of the story. This is when you really start kicking butt, one of the highlights is when you start running crazy fast. Incidentally, you unlock an achievement to cross the entire lake in hyperspeed….good times!
Just to give you folks an idea, I was able to muscle my way thru the game on normal in about 7 hours. But, I’ve only scratched the surface, the replayability is really high for this game as you can go through it over and over.
Shadow Complex is an excellent value for 1200 Microsoft points. It could easily pass as a full boxed product (At a discount of course). Hell I’ve seen worse original Xbox titles.
Do I recommend this arcade title? Of course, it's great bang for your MS points. Enjoy!
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Pure
Overall Score: 8.6 / 10
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Suggestions: Coop mode would have been cool.
Overall Score: 8.7 / 10
MX vs. ATV: Untamed
While constantly comparing the old with the new, and digging deeper into MX vs. ATV Untamed; I'm starting to think the developers went with a more realistic setting for the game, rather than a borderline fantasy-ish vibe to the tracks. Personally, I miss racing thru a Mayan environment, or an old logging camp. Why? At the end of the day, we are playing a video game after all. Maybe they could try and bring back old Unleashed tracks to download off marketplace?
On a technical note, the game finally runs at solid sixty frames per second, unlike pervious MX games which were were locked in at thirty. This makes a big difference in order to give the player the sense of speed. Well done!
In the sound department is where things get shaky. Primarily the bike sounds and environment sounds. Here's a bike example. You come into a corner, the bike sounds good. You hit the brakes to do a power slide, your bike still sounds good. You pop the clutch to accelerate out of the corner, and the bike still sounds great. You start to accelerate out of the corner and about ten to twenty feet out, the bike sounds burst into a screaming over-revving madness. The bike sounds from the previous MX games were fine, other than the sound variance going over the "Whoops". Here's a track example; on "Split Oak", I would hear a crowd cheering me on, and I look around, I see no crowd. Sadly, this is the area where the game looses most of its points. But, at the end of the day these quirks are not show stoppers; you can always plug in your Zune and listen to tunes on the other hand.
I don't usually include bits about achievements, but THQ/Rainbow Studio has included a few humorous ones that give out absolutely no points. Like the "Clean Freak" achievement. Stay with your bike in the water for about a minute or so. You clean off your bike. Bam! An achievement! Watch the credits to the very end! Bam! Another achievement! Too funny, we can never have enough of those darn achievements. Cool stuff.
As stated earlier, the multiplayer is a bazillion times better than MX vs ATV Unleashed ever was. Seriously, folks. The final score of this review, was totally dependent on the simple fact if THQ/Rainbow Studios was going to mess up this portion of the game or not. Also, the longevity of this game will be determined if it worked or not. Simple. MX vs. ATV Unleashed was just broken. With MVAU, I was able to race online with MVAU with twelve (12) THQ peeps, they were on a mission to prove to me that there was nothing to worry about. Thanks guys! The worries have been put to rest. Rider collision detection is spot on, sometimes, too spot on! It just works. The only thing I noticed was if you did get slammed into (t-boned), it sends you flying a little too far than normal. But, like a real race, the first corner (In order to get the "Holeshot") is always messy, but it's always good to see a nice pile up. The lobby system of MVAU is quite ingenious, while you wait for you opponents to show up, you can practice on a sort of "practice track" setting. At least this way you not sitting around looking at the ceiling waiting for others to show up or hit "ready". I personally would have liked to of seen a bit of randomness here, especially if this game takes off online, riding this same practice track will get old.
They brought back Tag! (Whoever had that idea, give them a raise!) Yay! I remember in the hay day of Motocross Madness 2 (MCM2), the community played this mode to no end. It's really good to see that they are bringing back the things that just work. Tag, in this incarnation looks really cool, when you are "It", your rider has these "Ghost Rider" flames shooting out the back of his helmet. Looks freaking awesome! Other online "Mini Games" as they are categorized, include a tron "lightcycles" game mode called "Snakes", where you ride around and leave a trail of sorts, and you try to avoid other people's trail. The dynamics of this is that it's not two dimensional like Tron, you can actually jump over and sneak under the beams to avoid them. Piles of fun!
MVAU supports all of the Xbox Live features we've come to love, plus the game supports LAN play too! It's about time this feature was added. So, plan on inviting your friends over for a supercross night! Great job!
The real hope is that THQ/Rainbow Studios rolls out downloadable tracks to last us until the next release. I'm not talking about cheap gear downloads. The game does have thirty tracks (twenty indoor and ten massive outdoor), that should keep us all busy for a while. Personally, my time was spent with the Enduocross tracks.
Christmas is upon us and racing games are far and few between this time around, not counting Dirt; MVAU is so far the only open air off-road game for our Xbox 360. And if you're not into PGR 4, or Forza 2, then ask Santa for MX vs. ATV Untamed. It's a lot of fun for all ages.
Overall, MX vs. ATV Untamed is an incredible improvement over its brothers and sisters that got released in the past. Any true motocross or off-road fan will gladly welcome this "next-gen" experience. With great new multiplayer modes and all the technical improvements to this game. THQ/Rainbow Studios has listened to the community, and delivered. Well done!
Overall Score: 9.1 / 10
Assassin's Creed
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
Viva Piata
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.6 / 10
Xbox 360 Video Game System
Overall: This is a great piece of engineering marvel, the whole thing. I honestly have nothing bad to say about this thing. Xbox Live, enterface, controller, user-friendliness. Great job Microsoft!Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Gun
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.2 / 10
Jade Empire
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
Star Trek: Shattered Universe
Suggestions: Starsphere needs to either watch the Trek series and movies, or catch a clue they are just like many other developers out there that failed to use the Star Trek genre to make a decent game. With all the material out there, how can in game stories be so bad? Take notes from the Star Wars X-Wing series if you want make a fighter based Star Trek game and mix it with the best Star Trek flight sim, Bridge Commander, and you might have a game worth playing.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Soul Calibur 2
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.8 / 10
Midtown Madness 3
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
After 10 years since the first Jurassic Park movie came out someone finally stepped up to make a worthwhile game that actually brings a little pride to the title. Unlike back in the day when somebody decided to make a shameful Jurassic Park game for the shameful Sega console where the objective of the game was to literally slaughter dinosaurs to death. This
time around Konami has decided to add a much needed element; strategy.
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is a Sim game much like Sims Theme Park and Roller Coaster Tycoon. In Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis you must also create a theme park. Well look at the title (Jurassic Park), it is practically screaming for a game of this genre. Konami also decided to add missions in the game but the real addictive part is trying to maintain your park and not so much the missions.
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis is very slow at the beginning just like any other Sim games. I had to use the in game step by step tutorial mode which is really well done. It'll teach you the essential elements that you need to start your theme park in a matter of minutes. Once you actually start a new park this is where it starts to get interesting. You just have so much to do at a time that you might want to keep a little note pad and a pen close by. First thing you have to do is get some of that cash flowing so you can start the formation of the new park. The process of getting the cash to start flowing is an involved one, with many interconnected threads, which can make the first few years of park operation a frustrating, tedious, and disappointing affair. In order to actually breed your first dinosaurs, fossil digs must be funded and ripe sites selected. The fossils are then shipped to labs, where the dino DNA is extracted, but several batches of fossils must be collected before enough viable DNA can be harvested to create your first attractions (50% to be exact). Once you're ready to begin production, the over grown reptiles must be provided with food, water, shelter among the underbrush, vaccinations against nasty dino epidemics, and a proper enclosure to keep them from killing amongst each other. But there are little tricks you must learn along the way to help manage you dinosaurs healthy life. For example, you can put several different kinds of trees but some trees can be hazardous to certain dinosaurs health.
Managing your dinosaurs is only half the battle you still have the park's human inhabitants to contend with. Most of the guests in your park are pretty fussy. Some of them like to see enormous T-rex's snack on little helpless cows and goats while others enjoy watching there favorite herbivores wonder around the plains so you have to keep everyone happy, therefore you must create several different types of dinos. There are 25 different species to pick from so it won't be that hard. While you have to keep you guest entertained they all expect to be kept well-fed, well-rested therefore you must answer there needs one again. You have to add of those rest rooms every now and then, and don't forget those restaurants and Chip stands. But don't forget, customers like to have everything nice and tidy therefore you will have to manage a staff to come clean stuff up once in a while. But with all this said there is a few restrictions in the game that I wish didn't exist for example you can only have a certain amount of dinosaurs in your park. But these limited restrictions don't really affect the gameplay that much. And let me tell ya, the replay value in this game will keep bringing you back for seconds. As if that is not enough there are still missions to undertake if you need a different challenge. They are a good distraction, but not too rewarding. I enjoyed more playing God in the main mode.
The Best part according to me in "Operation Genesis" is the
exquisite visuals throughout. Your eye candy will be tingling from the shear
depth of every little detail on every little element. The landscape is
dotted with all kinds of ambient plants. Water effects are well detailed.
And all the dinosaurs are just as impressive. A herd of dryosaurs skittering
across the plain chirping at one another, or a ceratosauras stalking her
prey, looks amazingly authentic. And larger dinosaurs bending trees as they
come marching by, this game has a particularly nice feel. All the dinosaurs
move fluidly, with elastic skin, colorful markings, and little blockiness.
If you didn't have to build a park, the game would still be worth the
purchase. The camera movement enables you to zoom in and out without losing quality. You are able to swing 360 degrees easily, which is smooth and
efficient. Also all the menus are nice and very easy to use.
Their roars, grunts, slurps, and growls are all very realistic as if
they had been recorded directly off one of these nightmares back in the
day..way back in the day. And I love the sound of when a tornado comes
roaring threw but the after math isn't pretty; lot's of cleaning up to do. Sometime character will talk to you, giving you hints, warnings, and instruction. The soundtrack is the best though. The game has 10 original John Williams's tracks from the movies including the very catchy theme song.
You've gotta' love it.
Suggestions: After playing this game, I don't think I will even think I'll
ever lay eyes on rollercoaster tycoon again even if it did just launch onto the Xbox not to long ago. I think I will stick with this game. Well I'm a bit mad at the creators; they are making me spend all my time playing when I should really be doing homework. Joke, great game, my hat is off to all of
you.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Kung Fu Chaos
Suggestions: Xbox Live level downloads, and multiplayer co-op mode would have been nice.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Can you say Xbox graphics?!?! WOW! This is a visually stunning game with its huge environments that are beautifully rendered. Two thumbs up. Everything moves fast and smooth on the screen, never saw a single frame hiccup. Not much else to say hear, but...
Overall the visuals are awesome! A-la Indiana Jones!
Suggestions: Keep up the good work!
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Phantom Crash
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Serious Sam
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell
Suggestions: Besides having a near perfect game on your hands. If you guys are thinking porting this title to the other console, this will only sell more Xboxes. The only version I can see living up the sheer beauty of this game, is the Windows PC machine running fairly highend hardware.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Toejam and Earl 3: Mission To Earth
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
Most people will say that gaming isn't exactly a contact sport, but I can tell you from experience that, if you get too carried away, your body will pay the price. Be it from a lack of sleep, leaning into a big turn in your favourite racer and falling out of your chair, getting in a fist fight over the last free controller, or refusing to stop in the middle of a 4/4 tie in a best of 5 match of Halo for the violent thunderstorm outside your bedroom window, there's more than one way to put the hurt on yourself via video gaming. I've experienced all of the above at least once, but my personal favourite and perhaps the most common video gaming injury, would have to be a malady induced by severe button-bashing, the blister. Ah yes, chronic gamer's thumb. Before Crazy Taxi 3, I can't remember the last time I played a game 'till my thumbs hurt. After Crazy Taxi 3, however, I was hard-pressed to ever recall a time where my entire hand hurt. Moreover, I am quite certain I can't recall a time where I was in that much pain and decided that just "one more game" couldn't make things any worse... And the thing is, severe Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and a touch of Gamer's Arthritis aside, I couldn't have called this one any clearer from a gameplay standpoint if I had a crystal ball. Crazy Taxi 3 was born for your Xbox, and if you have one ounce of gaming appreciation in your bodies, you'll skip the rest of this rant and go directly to your nearest retailer and pick it up. On the other hand, if you're a sceptic who's had the misfortune of being influenced by various reports that would be so naive as to label the game "simple" and "repetitive," allow me a few quick moments to open up your mind to the gaming brilliance that is Crazy Taxi 3. Choose you driver, hop in your convertible cab and hit the road. Engine roaring; tear through the hills of fictitious cities while dodging traffic, cable cars, people and time. Power slide through turns, jump off cliffs and out of parking garages, and test the limits of your reflexes to become the ultimate Crazy Cabbie. Oh yes, this game will try the limits of both you nerve and gaming ability. Put simply, Crazy taxi is quite possibly the most deceptively complex title I have ever played from a gameplay standpoint. As you progress through the game's ratings scale by picking up and delivering passengers as quickly as possible, you will slowly but surely realize that there is much, much more to the game than delivering your fare from point A to B.Sparks fly, phone booths crumble, pedestrians dive out of the way, cars flip. You'll see it all in Crazy Taxi and thanks to the game's amazing visuals, all will want to see it, as well. I can't recall the last time a game has drawn in this many on-lookers, much less the last time this many non-gamers simply had to put down their work and give it a go. Everyone from Accounting to the fun-deprived Power Students had a sit-down with this game, and the mass of addicts often exceeded 10 or more eager gamers. If you're looking for a show-pony for your Xbox, this is an unquestionably good choice. More importantly, if you're looking for a game that packs an almost infinite supply of replay ability, Crazy Taxi knows how to deliver. Though many were concerned that an arcade title such as this would have trouble when making the transition to the big green Xbox , Taxi comes through in a major way. As I said earlier, the mini-games are awesome. The fact that you have to be one hell of a driver to get to the top of the "money list" on either course will easily keep you busy for a good 30-40 hours. Not to mention that beating your records in CT is the most competitive single-player experience ever. It's just the type of game you can set down for a few days and instantly come back and be as into it as you were the first time you got that S-license. Aside from the spotless control and awesome visuals, the presentation in Crazy Taxi is quite cool. The level design is absolutely spectacular, all three maps will floor you with their level of detail and ingenuity.
Suggestions: I can't stress enough how addictive this game is. For such a simple concept, we're shocked that after 20 hours plus I still can't get enough. My hat goes off to the Sega team.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon
Hayyyyaaaaa !!!!! The sound rendered in full lush Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, not every game on the Xbox boasts this killer sound combo. You hear everything, the cry of Bruce, the environments. Also, the music is quite good, with a cool little Bruce Lee rap track to keep you in the mood. Overall, well done!
Suggestions: More like the one-on-one fighting games.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
2002 Fifa World Cup
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Spy Hunter
Now, Spy Hunter moves along very quickly on the screen, it almost has the same speed sensation, polished look and feel as Rallisport Challenge. Aside it's small pitfalls; Spy Hunter is a true blast to play. The controls are very easy to use, but I don't know how many times I've accidentally engaged the turbo system by pressing the "X" button twice, this was very upsetting because when you look at Spy Hunter in it's basic form, it's a driving game...they could have thrown the turbo on the black or white button or one of the triggers. Very bad.
This control scheme is different than the other racing/driving titles. I would have liked to have seen the gas on the right trigger and the brakes on the left. The physics in the game aren't too bad considering the vehicle travels from land the water. The car turns into a boat, then a motorcycle, very nice! The car hosts all the toys, oil slick, machine guns, it's got it all!
The gameplay overall needs work, but it's nothing you can't live with. But, some things need to be fixed on the next version.
Now as much as hate to say it, this is 95% a PS2 port. But, Midway was very clever in giving Xbox owners a little more. But, this tid bit of goodness will only appeal to an older audience. Because they've included the classic arcade version of Spy Hunter. Yes, the classic arcade 2D top scrolled version of Spy Hunter is only available exclusively to Xbox owners. But, unfortunately this wears thin fairly quickly, giving the game (the new one) an average overall graphical appeal. But, we should all be grateful that third-party publishers are bring games to the Xbox. If it weren't for them, the Xbox would be much less than it is. In our forums, I constantly see people talking about leaving the ports off the Xbox, but what they don't realise is that third-party publishers' support is very important to the future of the Xbox. Now, back to the game...The in game animation sequences are a little on the "low budget" side. Why? Because when you see animation in games like Silent Hill 2 or even Dark Summit it leaves you to wonder...what happened?
Now the graphics on the Xbox version of Spy Hunter are good (yes, even though it's a port). Whatever the PS2 can crank out, the Xbox does it better by at least 50-80%? Bar none. Making thing look that much better on the screen. Overall, use some of the Xbox's special graphical features, please. It still looks good.
Suggestions: Larger area would be a very good addition to this game. The courses are in my opinion laid out for you. You can't wander off a street in the middle of the city. You are always magically kept on track.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Knockout Kings 2002
Suggestions: Online playablity, and less loading time on the Xbox version. Other than that keep up the good work!
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams
Suggestions: Fix the controls system and object collisions.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
TransWorld Surf
Suggestions: If you make another version of this title, add a tutorial. A step-by-step matrix stop motion-like explanation of the controls and show people on how to actually pull off tricks, might actually make this game super fun. And, put this game over the top like SSX Tricky, make the character do crazy sh**! This is what makes SSX Tricky very fun.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
ESPN NFL Primetime 2002
Prime Time features commentary from ESPN broadcasters Tom Jackson and Chris Berman. The commentary was actually executed quite well with tremendous depth in the knowledge department. Tom Jackson will tell you pretty much everything that you need to know about every major player that is on the field and Chris Berman does some excellent play-by-play job that it sounds like it was taken directly from an ESPN broadcast. The sound effects on the other hand are a bit to be desired. Besides the odd grunt or smack sound there hardly any sound effects in here. And seeing how the Xbox has superior sound capabilities to any other system, sound effects are something a developer should do a half-assed job on.
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 5.0 / 10
Mad Dash Racing
Suggestions: More variety in the characters, online or LAN racing in the next version would be nice. Keep the big bands coming.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Arctic Thunder
The sound has a very obvious, but great arcade sound to it, which I think make this title what it is, an arcade snowmobile combat title. There is unfortunately no Dolby Digital 5.1 surround on this title; it would certainly be a nice feature to add in future versions. Think about it, passing another rider, while going really fast on the green power-ups in surround. The snowmobile sound itself is ok, not perfect but simply ok. But, when you are like me, and hear snowmobiles all day zipping by your house, you know what these machines sound like, thus becoming more picky. Overall the sounds are a tad below average.
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Max Payne
Suggestions: Fix the game saving section. Other than that a sequel will be most invited.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Airforce Delta Storm
Suggestions: Eject cockpit feature in order to survive, a way to turn off the instant replays at the end of your battle, a more dynamic afterburner power up, to get that extra burst of power.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
MX 2002 Featuring Ricky Carmichael
Suggestions: Fix the graphics. Add terrain shadows, and better water. Go to a real motocross race and listen. Then fix the sound. Online racing would be nice!
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Dark Summit
Suggestions: Loose the goo pits and the land mines. And a sequel would be welcomed.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
The visual are stunning! You can tell that extra TLC has been taken to bring this title to the Xbox. It almost has a Tony Hawk 2x feel to it. The look of the buildings, the cars, the grass, the bikes and the characters are truly well done. On the first level, you can actually notice the blades of grass. WOW! This is not just another cheap PS2 port. Nice going Acclaim!
Suggestions: Easier way to unlock the other levels. Or maybe it's just me.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Nascar Heat 2002
Suggestions:
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2x
Suggestions: Can't wait to see Tony Hawk 3. Different levels, and maybe some commentary from Tony himself?
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
NHL Hitz 20-02
Suggestions: Get the ice to wear properly. Options to go 5-on-5. Options to have larger arenas. Keep up the good work!
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Test Drive Off-Road: Wide Open
This game is from the makers of Midtown Madness for the PC, what happend? This game is an obvious port job, meaning that it came from another console with lesser abilities, and it shows. The AI is so bad...that it ALWAYS tries to run you off the road when you pass. Very fustrating! Be careful buying this game...if you don't mind that it's a port from another console and the AI will get you fired up. Sure, buy it. I've played many off-road racing games, and this one could have been so much more. The game play concept is very good, but delivered in a weird way. Angel Studios doesn't have a reputation on putting out games like this (Scratching my head). You want a off-road title that is better, get 4x4 Evolution 2 (It's a port too, unfortunately).The overall controls are very good, and truck physics are believable...but the AI stinks. The AI makes passing almost impossible....they kamakazee into you every single time. This game has tremendous potential, but suffers alot with it's annoying qwirks. If you plan on playing this with AI, but with other real gamers, it's a pretty nice game. Sometimes when you try to climb a hill the traction goes out the window, it feels like the truck is climbing a hill of ice. The nice parts of this game are the variety of levels, stadiums, vast outdoor terrains, make this game not a dust collector right away. Don't get me wrong, this will keep you entertained for a while...but not a long time.
Graphics could be so much better. The 3D truck models are very well put together, and they appear very accurate. The environments just don't seem that well done....there is a lot of pixelization going on here on the terrain. The waterfalls in Yosamete need to look like the DOA3 waterfalls....100 times better than the ones in the game. The Xbox has the power use it. Some of the environments are very cool, and very nice, but it needs more attention to details. Also, the trucks even get dirty after a while...very nice touch.
The trucks have a really weird sounds to them...I've never for one driven a truck through piles of mug....the the motor sounds at higher revs sounded fake. The soundtrack selection is quite good, the tunes keep you rocking throughout the terrain and races. The stadium environment sounds are quite good, it feels like you are in a big arena. Very well done on that.
Suggestions: Use the Xbox's powerful graphical potential. No more PS2 ports...the PS2 is a year old. 3D model crushing on collision. Dirt could wash off when you go in the water.
Keep the soundtrack...improve the sounds.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
Don't play this game, unless you want to be sucked in by a game! For a lack of better words, "This game is INCREDIBLE". I honestly don't know how else to put it...the folks over at Oddworld Inhabitants did a fantastic job putting together this package. When they say this game needed to come to a 3D world, they weren't kidding! The characters, the story, the graphics, the music, the sounds, the gameplay and the immersion, are simply outstanding. This very dark, unique and creative environment is well thought out to keep you hangin' on for a long time! Buy this game! The overall gameplay is very well done, you can play thru many parts without a simple peep at the manual. There are all kinds of little helpers along the way to guide you on your path, on finding Munch! The controls are simple and easy to use. The camera movements are excellent, thus you don't bounce all over the place trying to find yourself with the camera. Overall, the game play is very well put together. The small thing that got on my nerves is the camera rotation orientation was backwards for me. And the character sometimes ran too fast, when you had to be careful in certain situations. But these small shortcomings doesn't effect the overall gameplay that much.
The visuals are STUNNING! The water, the smoke, the skins...EVERYTHING has extremely well crafted. The attention to details is quite remarkable! The use of the Xbox unit's graphical abilities is used very well....stuff almost looks real. And I'm a pretty picky person visually.
The sound effects, the musical score are also extremely well crafted. Every crack, fart, tip-toe, dog growl and speech is done well within contex, not over-done. Bravo! The music soundtrack is very "movie" like in Dolby Digital 5.1...the Floor woofer even kicked in on some parts! The sound quality will not let you down.
Suggestions: Sequel, sequel and sequel...the Oddworld is a very unique and creative environment. Keep up to good work! Don't fire the sound and graphics people.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Dead or Alive 3
What can I say? I love fighting games, I love good graphics, and I love women! This is an all inclusive package. The levels are big, bold and beautiful. You jaw just drops when you see this game for the first time. You can see that this game is influenced by real kung-fu movies like "Drunken Master", "Crouching Tiger", to name a few. This game definately captures the martial arts vibe in a HUGE way!The controls are very responsive, which helps a lot with this type of game. The movements are accurate, not sloppy. As far as the storyline, it's very weak, if you are looking for a deep emersive story, it's not here. But, it has a hint of a story...I don't think this was the object of the developers, to make a fighting game with a BIG storyline to it....besides when you are fighting there is no time to absorb a story. Stay Alive (Isn't the title name a little bit like that?) !!!
Wow, wow, wow and WOW! Visual the best looking game on the Xbox at this point in time, given they are the first ones out of the gate on the Xbox. It will be a while until some other game tops this one. The visuals have a anime-like look to them....I really don't think the developer were trying to make it look real. Simply put AMAZING GRAPHICS!
The sound...what can I tell ya?!?! It's people fighting, I noticed that if you slam someone into a wooden door or wall, it sounds just like it (Like I've done that before...) !!! The environment sounds created a really good sensation of vastness, especially on the cliff level.
Suggestions: Online fighting! Head-to-head matchs would be nice. Don't fire the graphics guy, nor the programmer.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Cel Damage
This game reminded my a lot of the Quake series, not for how it looks, but how it plays! This is all good, cartoons duking it out, with large axes (my fav), gunships, mini-guns, black holes (hole of death as I like to call them) and much more. At first I thought this games was way too fast, but after a while I got used to it. Thereafter you become thankful of the speed. You can also slow things down in the options section. This is a kick-ass game if you are into the "deathmatch" thing, but if you are looking for a deep story....You're looking in the wrong place.The way to get the most out of this game is to invite a few friends over for a good cartoon spanking! It's a party-type game in my opignion, this game will keep going and going. When you turn on the insane mode, things move very fast on the screen, it's almost un-playable. Thus, you only use this if you have 15+ hours into the game. The overall gameplay is excellent, giving you a small variety of characters to choose from, more would be nice. But the selection is good. (Maybe in another version of the game) Last but not least, larger levels would have been nice...I don't know if this was a Xbox limitation, this gets crazy when people are shooting all over the place, and there is nowhere to hide. But overall gameall is sweet!
The graphics are amazing for what the game really is...a cartoon 3D shoot'em up, slash'em up! It does all of this without missing a beat. I was told this puppy flies at a crazy 60 frames per second! Another cool thing I noticed playing the game is that when a player gets (pardon me here) shopped in half, the 3D model of the car, splits the car on that angle precisely. WOW! Is all I have to say, don't change too much here! Keep it up!
The sound effects are on the money! When you drop off the cliff it makes that "ziippp!" sound on the way down, just funny as hell! But the music is in my opignion is in the wrong on contex, it's just not crazy enough. I was expecting a Looney Tunes or Ren and Stimpy like soundtrack, but it just wasn't there. Like I said before the sound effect of the machine guns, baseball bat, ray guns (freezer) are spot on in my opignion.
Suggestions: Online playability! Online playability! Online playability! Online playability! Better soundtrack and larger levels! Keep up the amazing work!
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
