MEMBER PROFILE FOR maneatingcow
Average Overall Score Given: 7.73333 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 543
Reviews
Group S Challenge
Capcom has stepped up to the starting line to compete against reigning racing franchise Project Gotham Racing with it's own offering, Group S Challenge. Group S Challenge offers over 50 cars, advanced graphics, car customization, and 3 modes of play. With all those features, you'd assume it had a good chance at competing with Project Gotham Racing, right? Sadly, that is not the case.The controls of Group S Challenge are similar to most racing games. Folks that have played PGR or Gran Turismo should have no problem jumping right in. The controls are more realistic than some racers, and this should appeal avid racing fans. Group S Challenge offers some interesting game types that should keep racing fans happy. The Circuit Mode is the one mode which you will probably play the most. It is broken down into three parts. "Championship" allows you to work your way up the rankings and race in Challenges for GP's (cash) to upgrade your car. "Duel" lets you go one-on-one with the computer. "Line Line" mode is the final mode, which best resembles follow the leader as you follow a predetermined path to earn more GP's. In the Arcade Mode, you can race against the computer or a friend (System link is NOT supported) with 20 tracks at your disposal. Also offered for Arcade mode is a "One Make" mode, which gives every player the same car, allowing the outcome of the race to be based upon skill, not on the quality of the car. It's a nice mode to have, as everyone knows someone that says "You beat me because you had a better car!" Now you can make them put their money where their mouth is. Regardless of the quality of the game modes themselves, the tracks seem quite bland, and offer no real variation from the usual stuff you'd see in a racing title. The Circuit Mode itself can easily be cleared in a weekend, without sweating it out too much, which will leave you with Arcade mode to keep you occupied, which would be fine, if more of your friends could play with you.
The graphics in Group S Challenge are top notch. The graphics are very close to the quality present in Project Gotham Racing 2 (It's hard to pick which is the better of the two). The details on the cars are quite nice (Although no physical damage is show due to licensing reasons) and look quite realistic. Your surroundings are equally impressive. I often found myself distracted by the detail of the cities/tracks instead of paying attention to the boring gameplay. Many of the tracks you've seen in a hundred other racing games are in Group S Challenge, but looking 10x better. The only major downfall with the graphics is the tracks based on Tokyo streets. They seem to be a bit bland compared to the rest, but other than that, not much to complain about.
Compared to the graphics, the sound in Group S Challenge is terrible. Don't get me wrong, the car/environment sound effects are great, but one can only take so much bad techno music before they bash themselves in the head with their controller until they are rendered unconscious. The XBox has a hard drive. The XBox has music ripping capabilities. Do the math. Any developer that DOESN'T use that feature is ignoring something that's quite easy to implement. Soundtrack Support in XBox games should be the same as Interactive Menus are in DVDs. Available on every disc.
Suggestions: In the end, Group S Challenge is another average racer. It has nothing major to offer to the racing world except pretty graphics, bad music, boring tracks, and lack of multiplayer options. If you are a racing nut, you probably already own this game. If you are not, then go get Project Gotham Racing 2, as Live play is enough to make it a must-buy.
Overall Score: 6.8 / 10
Tetris Worlds: Online Edition
With over 42 different versions released over it?s life span, its hard to find any gamer that has not at least HEARD of Tetris. With the release of XBL, it was inevitable that some puzzle games would soon make their way to the amazing service. The first to arrive is Tetris Worlds Online, a re-vamp of the Tetris title that arrived on XBox June 2002. With the core of the title staying the same, and the only true addition being Live play, it is enough to make this budget ($20) title worth owning, and makes the perfect title to include free in the latest XBox Live kits.The gameplay of TWO is quite simple. Drop the blocks into their proper place by rotating them with the X or Y buttons, the Y or UP on the directional pad will hard-drop the block, and hitting L or R will ?Hold? your current block. The story mode within TWO is not really worth mentioning. While the guise of a story mode exists in the game, it is merely a challenge mode, and is not really all that challenging at all. The only real reason I?d recommend to play it is to get a feel of the new game modes included. The new game modes are very diverse, and are a blast to play in multiplayer or on Live.
The major problem in the game is fitting a game to your specific tastes. TWO does not offer full customizability in its Live play. You can choose Game Mode and Game Type, but you are limited to those only two. The game limits your game level to 15. Some newer gamers find that fast, but cranking the level to 20 or 25 would help to increase the challenge when two veteran players are competing. There are even more options that the game gives you no control over, including Ghost Pieces, Infinite Spin, and the ability to Hold your blocks. Some believe these are ?Cheating? and go against the standard ways of Tetris. These options would have taken some extra time, but would have made a much more appealing game in the end.
Even further into the Live mode, we find the worst thing possible: Bugs. TWO is not without it?s share of bugs, but unlike some other minor ones that appeared in other games, these are a bit major. Communicator cutouts happen often on Live, leaving one person out of the conversation as they can?t hear one particular person. The only remedy for this is to exit out of the current game and re-enter, which can be a major hassle if this happens to the host. Strange errors occur where one player will continue playing after the match is over, and if they complete the goal of the match, they will win, even if they are already defeated. Other users may experience the mythical ?Ryan? error in which your game will lock up and a screen will tell you to ?Go Tell Ryan.? Ryan must have missed that memo.
The graphics, on the other hand, are quite nice for a puzzle title. Plenty of detail was put into the backdrops for each world. Not exactly Splinter-Cell quality, but decent for game in which you will have little time to look at the backdrops. The menu system is also decent, and carries through to the Live interface. You are able to access all of your personal user menus through the main menu as well as the Game Lobby. The only major gripes in the Live interface are the poor look of the ?Who?s Talking? icon, as well as the display of the Gamer Tags. The ?Who?s Talking? icons are very small, and very poorly colored when lit. It took another gamer to make me notice it was even there. The Gamer Tags are displayed below your respective Tetris ?Matrix,? yet longer names are trimmed, even though there is plenty of room for the full names. These slight annoyances could have been easily remedied yet they were ignored.
The sound effects in the game are decent, but similar to the graphics, are nothing spectacular. The music in the game is a decent blend of Techno music. Sadly, none of the old-school Tetris music is present. Not even the familiar Russian folk song ?Korobeiniki? makes an appearance in the game (Most will remember this song as the theme from the original game). The saving grace of Tetris World?s sound is that they allow the use of the XBox?s custom soundtrack feature. This feature is very nice, especially if you can get your hands on some classic Tetris music on CD, to bring back those nostalgic feelings. If you don?t, the repetitive Techno of the default soundtrack will soon drive you nuts on Live.
Suggestions: Please patch this game. It?s being shipped with every current Live kit, and these errors can really set a bad example of what the Live service is like. This title is already very popular on Live, but the patch would make it 10x more enjoyable.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Blade 2
Everyone?s favorite daywalker has jumped from the pages of a Marvel Comic, to the big screen, and now into his own videogame. Blade 2 takes place after the second movie, but sadly, the game is not able to capture the action of the films, nor the comic book. Blade 2 contains an awkward control system, not-so-spectacular graphics, and some of the most annoying voice acting since StarFox 64. If you are a big fan of the movie series or the comic book, you will enjoy this game for a while, but odds are, you will be returning it to the rental store a few days early.Blade 2 takes an interesting approach at the game play. Developer Mucky Foot understood that the game should have frantic action where you will fight multiple opponents at the same time. In Blade 2, the left joystick controls your movement, while the right joystick controls your hand-to-hand moves. In order to do combos, you must time your movement of the joystick. The speed that you must move the joystick is much too slow for the combos, as enemies constantly can hit you to break your combo chain. The 4 standard buttons are then used to jump/reload/strafe/rage. The directional pad is used to select a weapon, but you can also use the black/white buttons. To fire your weapons, you use the R button. There are only 4 selectable weapons in the game: Mach Pistol, Glaive, Shotgun, and the UV Grenade. Only the pistol is selectable from the start, the rest you will have to earn by collecting glyphs in each level. After you unlock all of the weapons, you can only take a certain amount out into battle, so you will have to choose wisely as to which weapons you want to bring. One of the biggest gripes with the weapons is Blade?s most famous weapon, his sword. You are not given the ability to use the sword whenever you want. Instead, you need to build up your bloodlust meter, then hit the B button. In order to charge up your bloodlust, you must attack a certain amount of enemies. It would be better if you could use your sword whenever you want, and the bloodlust meter would allow you a period of time of invulnerability. The character AI in Blade 2 is horrid. You can easily lead the enemy characters around a large area without any of them hitting you. The enemies usually come to you in packs, and often will just stand there as you attack one of their comrades. The controls do get annoying when you are attempting to do a combo on one enemy, and another will come from off the screen and attack you, breaking your combo off. This would be a fixable problem, except Blade 2 gives you no actual control over the camera. There are many variations in the different levels, with 3 main missions to play, but the downfall of the missions are the objectives. Each mission objective is nearly the same. Each mission has you killing or destroying something. It would have been nice to see a bit of variation in the missions. The game play was a major letdown, as I was expecting more from an action packed franchise.
One of the most essential things in bringing a movie/comic book license to the realm of videogames is to translate your character flawlessly across to the new medium. Blade looks like the bastard love child of the Wesley Snipes and Gary Coleman. The overall model of Blade is bit under-par for this day and age in gaming. During cut scenes or other close-up shots of Blade, you can see the polygons break right through his face. Maybe back in the 64 bit days this was acceptable, but there is no reason for those kinds of mistakes now. One of best graphical features of the Blade model is his trench coat, which he wears in many of the levels. The coat looks very realistic and moves along with Blade?s movements. It is sad that the same detail to realism was not used elsewhere, like in the enemy models. The enemies you face all look extremely similar. Unlike the movie where each enemy was very detailed, each of the enemies are very bland. The world of Blade 2 is a toss up in the graphics department. The areas are nicely detailed, with some good textures all around. Sadly, the other objects which inhabit the game are quite bland, and don?t have many good effects to them at all. This game barely takes advantage of the Xbox?s power.
Blade 2 does have some decent audio in it. The sound effects in Blade 2 are very suitable, and are nice and clear. Sadly, none of the good music from the movie Blade 2 was able to be included in the game, but is replaced by some watered down techno music, which at times reminds you of the movie, but other times leaves you uninspired. The voice acting is one of the worse aspects of Blade 2. None of the actors from the film lend their voices to the game, so have been replaced by people who seem to be trying too hard to sound like the actors. After playing Blade 2 for long enough, you will be sick of the phrase "Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer." As well as the enemies constantly yelling ?It?s the daywalker!? and ?Get Him!? Even worse is the game pauses to load most of the sound clips. The audio is decent, but it could be greatly improved.
Suggestions: The control scheme is very interesting, and could be great for this sort of game if you implement it well. If you are going to pay someone to do some voice acting, be sure to add a little bit of variation in what they say, as people will usually be playing the games for hours at a time. Custom Soundtracks. I?ve mentioned this excellent feature in nearly every review I have done. It?s one of the best overlooked Xbox features out there!
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
House of the Dead 3
House of the Dead 3 is a great fast paced shooter that will keep your heart pumping throughout the entire game. Sadly, the entire game of HOTD 3 can last 30 minutes or less. The game has been upgraded from the previous installment, with all new graphics, all new play mechanics, and a shotgun replaces the standard pistol. Even with all of these improvements, the overall length of the game and a few other setbacks make this game less enjoyable. The only thing that truly saves this game is the inclusion of a direct port of the Dreamcast version of House of the Dead 2, including all of it?s mini games as well as it?s original modes. If Sega were to have teamed up with WOW Entertainment and released a House of the Dead collection, containing all of the previous games, it would have warranted the $50 price tag. Seeing how this is not so, you are better off renting this game and finishing it off while you wait for your pizza delivery, because as it currently stands, it would only appeal to House of the Dead?s hardcore fans, as well as those who are nostalgic about the Dreamcast?s glory days.The game play in HOTD3 has been completely reworked from the previous HOTD games. You still have the ability to use a light gun for the game (See the Mad Catz Blaster review for more on this), but for the first time in a console HOTD game, using the controller also works perfectly fine. The manual control of the crosshair helps for the new fast paced game play in HOTD3. Gone is the weak pistol of the past. Now you are equipped with a shotgun, capable of taking out multiple zombie s !&%$@#* in one blast. Speaking of Zombie s !&%$@#* , you no longer will have breathing room in between zombie attacks. The zombies now fly around from every corner, making the game move much faster than it?s predecessors. Removed from the levels are the innocents that used to appear. These sporadic civilians are now replaced by teamwork events, where you are rewarded with a unit of health if you successfully defend your partner from a zombie attack. These events are much easier than the civilian rescues of the past, as the game pauses for a moment and highlight the zombies you must attack to gain health. The game is separated into 2 different modes, Survival Mode and Time Attack. By completing any one of these modes, you unlock HOTD2. No boss battle or challenge mini games are available for HOTD3, which was a big let down. There are a total of 4 bosses in HOTD3 (with one being repeated in 2 levels). Each of the lesser bosses underneath the final boss are much easier than the final boss, and do not help to prepare for the final battle against him. The boss battles are nicely designed (I must say it was an interesting battle against Black Sabbath?s ?Iron Man? at the end of the game), but the battles against Death and Sun seemed a bit too simple and predictable. The drastic changes in game play are a nice way to give new life to an old franchise, but the game suffers from the extremely short length. Taking alternated routes to the final battle were not as interesting as they were in HOTD2, as you will always see the same areas throughout the game, regardless of the paths you take.
The graphics in HOTD3 are much improved from the previous titles. The zombies and scenery are extremely lifelike, and help to get you sucked into the game. Another new feature for the series is you can now see your gun on screen. This is another cool graphical feature, which allows you to feel more as if you are part of the game. The zombies in the game show a very wide amount of damage to them when shot. With the shotgun being a more powerful weapon, any shot to a dead carcass renders a nice sized hole. The holes in the zombies look quite nice, if you get a spare second to take a glance at them. There are other minor graphical effects that make the graphics stand out from some other games. Some zombies crawl across the ceiling, dripping some sort of fluid off of their body as they move. A major let down of the graphics is that only the zombies and certain barrels and containers display physical change after shooting them. With the extremely limited selection of areas to travel to in the game, it would have been nice to have realistic damage on most surfaces.
The audio in HOTD3 is decent, but is nothing spectacular. The standard zombie growl and attack noises are there. There are some cool sound effects when enemies bust though walls or cut through doors. The voice acting in HOTD3 is slightly better than the previous games, although it still has its cheesy moments (?I think it will open if we shoot it?). These kinds of vocals are expected from the HOTD series, and had a slight nostalgic value. Seeing how the music in HOTD3 is pretty basic, it would have been a nice bonus if they had included the option for custom soundtracks to replace the default one.
Suggestions: I like the new approach to such a cool game series, but if you are going to continue with the same fast paced zombie-shooting action, you will need to add some serious length to the game. Including HOTD2 was a nice touch, and may be the reason why many people pick up this title. If HOTD4 is in the works, be sure to include the original HOTD, as it has yet to receive a decent console release.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Test Drive
The previous Test Drive title, Test Drive Off Road: Wide Open received varied reviews, but overall, it was not received very well. With the features the latest installment of Test Drive boasted to contain, many believed it would be an excellent title, but it ends up falling short. Test Drive has good graphics, but that is one of the only things it has going for it. Shortcomings in the game play and audio departments make it a game you will think twice about before purchasing.Test Drive?s game play is one place that any racing game should not falter. Test Drive has some very awkward controls. The layout is well done, but the in-game control is hard to get used to. To make sharp turns, using the brake will cause you to slow down way too much, so you are forced to release the gas, which will cause you to wipe out. This leaves the brake with no major use during the game. The AI within the game is also quite annoying. If you wipe out, you will be able to easily catch up to everyone, as they seem to slow down if you get too far behind. The same goes if you are in first place. Your opponent?s skills and driving ability seem to improve to give you a challenge. Although this does make the game a bit more difficult, it is very unrealistic. The game features many different modes, and allows you to jump right into the modes with a ?Quick Race? option, if you want to play but don?t want to have a single fast race. This feature is great, but the modes, which the Quick Race mode is based on, are not. Test Drive features Single Race, Underground, Multiplayer, Cop Chase and Quick Race modes. The Cop Chase mode is one of the few interesting modes, where you must tag the opposing cars until their arrow is black, which means you ?arrest? them. You must ?arrest? all of the cars before they pass the finish line. This mode would be more fun if the controls were designed better. The only real mode that seems original is the Underground mode, which seems like something ripped off from the movie The Fast and the Furious. They couldn?t have picked a better movie to take an idea from, but they managed to screw it up quite a bit. You play a character that has been hired by a former street racer to help him retain his investments. The story line gives good reason for your character to be in the race, but other than that, it is really quite flat. Bad writing and voice acting make the story very bland, and boring. The mode is entertaining for the first couple of matches, but they get a bit repetitive after a while. Overall, the game play is quite bland, and could use some well-crafted original features.
The graphics in Test Drive are quite nice. The cars are nicely detailed, and are partially reflective (reflect lights but not scenery). The cities themselves are also very good looking nicely detailed. The trees, people, and other cars look quite nice while driving along, and the pedestrians run to avoid the cars. On a closer inspection, you can see that the textures within the game are pretty bland, but it wont be too major of a factor when you are driving down the road at 100mph. The smoke and lighting effects are quite nice, and add a bit of atmosphere to the different levels, most of which take place late at night. The real chance to check out the levels is during the replay mode, which has some great shots of the levels and the street action. Overall, the graphics are quite nice, and are one of the few shining points in the game.
The sound effects are very annoying in Test Drive. You will hear the same engine sound, and the same tire screeching sound for EVERY car. Each car is of different weight, and power, so each should have a distinct sound, but it seems the developers overlooked this fact when creating Test Drive. The voices of the characters are quite bland, and act out the poorly written lines as if they were simply picked from the street for the part. The music within the game is decent, featuring music by Moby, Saliva, Young M.C., and DMX. If the in-game music does not fit your tastes, Test Drive supports one of the little used features of the XBox, the soundtrack option. The major highlight of Test Drive?s audio is this ability, but it still has it?s problems. You can choose a soundtrack from the audio options menu, but that is it. You are stuck with whichever track the game chooses for you (It plays them in order order). The track you hear on the main menu will be the track you hear in game. While racing, there is no way to switch tracks or soundtracks, for that matter. Even worse, when the track is done playing, it will restart the track from the beginning, which during long races can get quite annoying. Overall, the audio is a bit on the poor side, but would have been better if the soundtrack option was implemented more intricately.
Suggestions: Spend some more time implementing useful and fun game modes. Refine the controls, audio, and the soundtrack option. You guys got the look down; all you need now is some great game play!
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Gauntlet Dark Legacy
Midway seems to have perfected the idea of a mindless hack-and-slash game wit this title, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. The game is an adaptation of the Arcade/PS2/Gamecube title of the same name, and a continuation of the Gauntlet series. In Gauntlet, you play as one of the chosen warriors that have been given the task to kill the demon Skorne and send him back to the Underworld. Gauntlet has poor graphics, repetitive sound, but somewhat decent game play, but in the end it just does not make the grade. Gauntlet is a fun game, more so in Co-Op mode compared to single player mode. Both modes become very boring and repetitive over time.Gauntlet features a simple control scheme to help mold it?s image as a hack-and-slash title. The A and X buttons are used for attacks, while the B is used for defending. The Y button is used for magic, but not the normal kind you would think of. The magic in Gauntlet appears in bottles you can pick up to use on an enemy. The joy pad is used to control you character?s movements. The directional pad allows you to scroll through your available items, as well as equip/use them. The actual game play is quite shallow. To defeat a group of enemies, you simply have to rapidly press the attack buttons. It?s that simple. If you do not destroy the enemies ?Generator? they will continue to respawn for eternity. Most of the game involves you running around killing the same bad guys over and over again, and a few puzzles mixed in to add a little bit of variation. The lack of more complex controls is one of the main downfalls of Gauntlet. Since the game was incarnated from an arcade machine, the controls could not be too complex, as the average gamer would not want to go and play.
The graphics on Gauntlet are some of the most horrid I have ever seen. The graphics seem to resemble a high quality Nintendo 64 game. Gauntlet takes little advantage of all of the Xbox?s built in functions, and relies purely on the Arcade graphics to pull the game through. Items and surroundings often can be seen with jagged edges all over them. The main characters themselves are not too bad, but the enemies look terrible. Graphics such as this could have been abandoned with the Psone. I would rather see a game 5 months late with good graphics than to never see it at all.
The music in Gauntlet fits the mood of the game well. Certain tracks fade into others as your character changes location, which is a nice touch. The sound effects in the game seem to be overused quite a bit. Being a hack-and-slash style title, the sounds emitted by your weapon of choice should vary a bit, but not in Gauntlet, as you are forced to hear the same sound dozens of times in a row. The announcer?s voice is one of the coolest voices I have heard in a while, but the individual character voices are terrible. The voices never change for your character from Level 1 to Level 999. These voices are as repetitive as the sound effects, and also drag the audio down.
Suggestions: Please take full advantage of the XBox?s capabilities! Taking an extra 6 months of game time to increase the quality of the graphics would have helped. Adding some more depth to the story mode, in the form of a plot or more challenging puzzles would have made this game go a lot farther.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Jet Set Radio Future
One of the most overlooked games for the Dreamcast has been redone and improved for the XBox, with a nice new futuristic twist. Smile Bit has taken this game and molded it into something that any player can pick up and play. Myself, being a veteran from the first game was able to quickly adjust to the new style. This is a game that not only you will enjoy, but you and your friends can enjoy for some fast paced multiplayer. But the major question is, is this game a must buy for the XBox? In my opinion, hell yes.Once you get used to the simple controls, you will be flying through the city in no time. JSRF has a simple control scheme, A is jump, Y is for 180s/tricks , X is the grind switch, R for Talking/Tagging, and L for centering the camera (Which sadly, you will use a lot in certain levels). You can hone your mad skills in the Garage with Roboy, although after the lessons, you will want to silence his loud mouth J After that, you go off to the different parts of the city, spraying the walls with your colorful tags. You are free to roam all over the different parts of the city, as long as you have unlocked them. Throughout the game, Rival Gangs and other Skaters who want to challenge your skills will face against you. Beating the Skaters will prove to them you are no noob, and they will then join you and become selectable in the Garage. Within certain sections of the city, the police will finally catch up with you, and you will need to defend yourself by tagging the officers. They will get harder as you progress through the game, and will also begin to bring in heavier artillery for you to deal with. JSRF offers a good amount of challenge, but the difficulty seems to be more within the normal levels compared to the bosses. The multiplayer is one of the best I have seen on the XBox. The multiplayer runs at 60fps, and has absolutely NO SLOWDOWN, even with 4 players! JSRF offers 5 different multiplayer modes, including normal racing, a capture the flag game called ?Ball Hog,? an all out tag battle, and a mode similar to one in Tony Hawk 2x, called Graffiti Wars, where you attempt to tag more than your opponent in the time limit. Even if you don?t have a friend around, you can simply choose the practice mode, which will allow you to play against the computer in any of the multiplayer modes. Overall, the game play is excellent, and the multiplayer may even rival the current king, Halo.
Smile Bit is one of the pioneers of Cel Shading, which can be seen in the game Cel Damage, as well as future XBox titles Orchid and House Of The Dead 3. The cities are massive in JSRF, and you can see as far as you could in real life. No fog tricks used here. Everything in JSRF has a cartoon look, but it is all still well detailed. Take a look inside the doghouse in the Garage to see what I mean :) The characters look amazing, with smooth edges and a hip futuristic look. If you have ever seen any choppy screenshots of JSRF, you?ve seen what happens when there is just 1 frame of it. While the game is running, it?s as smooth as can be. Smile Bit seems to have perfected Cel Shading in JSRF, and has also added plenty of cool effects to compliment it in JSRF. If you hit the B button to boost, the screen gets a nice blur effect that makes you feel the speed. The mist from the spray cans and sparks from your skates are also very well done. One of the coolest features in JSRF is the create a tag option, where you can create a custom tag to paint on the city streets. The create a tag option gives you control on text size, position, angle, texture, as well as the ability to paint whatever you want on your tag. With time and patience, you can make some killer tags with this creator. If you search online for some Jet Grind Radio tags, you will see what you can do with this powerful too. Overall, the graphics in JSRF are near flawless.
If there is one thing you notice, it?s the audio in JSRF. The sound effects are great for the game, but the main highlight is the music. Featuring 30 tracks to skate to, JSRF has one of the most interesting and confusing soundtracks. It features many tracks remixed by the Latch Brothers (3 Beastie gentleman, from what I hear?), some of them even returning from Jet Grind Radio. The tracks are a mix of odd Japanese pop, British pop, Hip Hop, Techno, and a couple American bands from Grand Royal records. The music fits very nicely, and most of it you have never heard before. JSRF allows you to play any track you want in the Garage, but within levels, the tracks are pre-selected and mix together very nicely. The absence of a custom soundtrack option is missed in JSRF like many other games, but the tracks that it comes with are plenty good for the game.
Suggestions: Lan play for support for 5+ players would have given JSRF a major edge over Halo. Now if JSRF had Online Play, it would be golden :) The custom soundtrack option is also a must next time around, as well as the ability to download custom tags for use in game, which is a feature from Jet Grind Radio that is sorely missed. Create a skater would have been a cool option too, but now I?m just pushing my luck :) My final suggestion is to bring the next JSR game to the XBox... because if it's an improved version of JSRF... then EVERYONE will be getting it, trust me on this one.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Wreckless: The Yakuza Mission
Wreckless is being compared to GTA3 everywhere, so let me start off by doing the same. GTA3 without the ability to roam around out side of your vehicle, and without weapons, and with some pretty odd missions = Wreckless. Does this make the game poor? Not in the least.The controls are simple enough, with R or A accelerating, L or X breaking, B button for Reverse/Side Brake, and Y button for actions (Like operating an elevator?. Why can?t you order some fast food with the button? That would have been killer :) )
The controls are simple enough to get used to quickly, and myself not being a racing game fan, love the controls. The power slide (Performed by hitting the gas and brake at the same time) is excellent help for the many quick turns you need in some of the racing missions.
Wreckless is an excellent demolition racer. It may seem like the only objective in the game is to smash things, but there is much more to it than that.
Wreckless has mission that range from the simple seek and destroy, racing laps, and an intricate tag game. The missions range in difficulty, with there being no real pattern to the difficulties. The first mission in both A and B scenarios are very normal in difficulty, but as you get farther into the missions, some get so nerve wrenchingly difficult, you will be building up more road rage than you would in the real streets. Anyone that has played Wreckless knows how hard the A3 and A4 missions are, and If you get Wreckless, you will learn to hate these missions as well.
Although the missions are cool, there are not too many to go around. A good 40+ missions would have made this game sweet, but the mediocre amount of 20 makes it come up a bit shallow.
The replay feature adds a lot to the game. If you want to check out your last run, simply go to the replay menu and hit play. From here you can hit Up on the D-Pad to adjust the camera angle (Between normal, windshield, and Photoshop mode). The right joystick can be used the same way it is used in mission mode, to change the view manually. It is very cool to use the ?Photoshop? mode to view the action. It makes it seem as if the action is part of a movie. If you like a Replay so much and can?t part with it, you can save it to the Xbox HD, and don?t worry, you can save lots :D
Although it has some high points, Wreckless has it?s down falls, but they sure don?t fall in the graphics category.
If there is one thing this game shines in, it?s graphics. Wreckless has some of the most beautiful scenery and objects, much better than anything I have seen before. The characters are not as detailed as the scenery, but you only really see them up close in the high-res real-time cut scenes.
The scenery itself is great, with many different objects that can be smashed to little pieces, some in brilliant displays of colorful sparks. The buildings are excellent looking, many with breakable glass or stone pillars surrounding them. It?s cool when you do a power slide and go a bit too far, and crash into a pillar, and then you watch it tumble down before you.
The Replays have some of the coolest graphics. Camera angles and effects that make it seem like the action is being watched on a Infrared screen, a security camera, or even the shaky hand of your local city?s camera man during a high speed chase, it is one of the coolest aspects of Wreckless.
If you bought DOA3 for the eye candy, and to show to your PS2/GCN loving friends, this is one game you may want to have on the shelf when they come over.
If you are looking for a game to show off your killer stereo with some kicking driving tunes, you may be dissapointed.
Well, here is one of the pit falls for Wreckless. It has the action, it has the graphics, but frankly, the sound blows.
Wreckless has some good music, but a lot of it is just sounds too much alike. Bizarre music created by the Soyuz Project, who makes some interesting electronic music, but it just doesn?t fit. The other artist featured on the album is BT, who you may remember from such movies as Go, Driven, and The Fast and The Furious. With these kinds of car soundtracks on his résumé, I expected more from him. The tracks are overcome by all of the destructive sounds in each level, and this may be a reason for my personal distaste of the music. If you want to hear the tunes, be sure you crank the sfx down and the audio up in the pause menu.
The sound effects are great, you can hear all of the metal crunching and tire screeching sounds. The pedestrians do make noise, but the game lacks normal road noises, like honking horns, or noises of construction. The lack of these sounds makes the city seem more artificial.
The vocals are ok, nothing to scream about, but there is not much dialogue in the game.
Suggestions: Seeing as how Bunkasha usually deals in more ?dirty? things (No joke? they are a Japanese Pornography company, but none of that is in the game? sickos :P ) I will cut them some slack. But, there are many things to cry about in Wreckless. Number 1 is no multiplayer support. A racing game without multiplayer is like wearing sneakers without socks? just not natural. It would give this game a perfect 5 in game play if it had multiplayer. Tied for second would be custom soundtracks and more missions. Both would have added a load more to the game, and given Wreckless an almost perfect score.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
Azurik: Rise of Perathia
Just like to start off by saying, if you have read one of the numerous reviews from all over claiming this game sucks, try it for yourself before you pass final judgement. Azurik takes place in a world known as Perathia, a world divided into elemental realms. There are six elemental discs, which kept the balance of the elements equal, but they have been shattered and spread all over the elemental realms. It is your job, as a Azurik, a guardian of Perathia, to recover the discs and restore harmony among all of Perathia. Your only weapon is the Axion, a powerful double bladed staff that can use the powers of the elements. The game takes place across many different elemental realms; which include fire, water and earth.The general controls of Azurik are very good. The Left Joystick is to move Azurik around, and the right to move the camera. The camera is a bit annoying at some parts of the game, but holding the Right Trigger will center the camera behind Azurik, offering a good camera angle to fight with. The Left Trigger allows you to use one of the more unique features of Azurik, the Elemental System. With this system, you can power up your Axion to use certain elements. Each of the four colored buttons, A, B, X, Y, can activate the Earth, Fire, Water and Air powers respectively. Do add depth to this system, you can also combine multiple elements to give you multiple different combinations of powers, offering a total of 15 different combinations. This system goes even deeper, as you have to seek and find each power, and each power has three different levels to attain. This adds tremendous depth to the games fighting mode.
But don?t forget! That is only the fighting in the game; don?t forget about the disc fragments you must search for, across the elemental realms. The realms are nicely made, with certain sections blocked off until you gain a certain elemental power. Other areas are left blocked until you perform a task, such as hit certain switches, or wait until nightfall. These interesting puzzles and quests make the game more than just a standard hack and slash job. All of the Realms are connected by one giant ocean, which not only allows access to these realms, but also hold some secrets of it?s own.
The only major downfall of the game play is that it is sometimes difficult to figure out what to do next, quite difficult to a certain degree, but not enough to make you hate the game.
Visually, Azurik is beautiful :) The elemental realms are each depicted as realistic as I have seen in any game to date. The environments cry out realism and detail. When moving fast, your character gets a cool motion-blur effect that trails him. The fire realm is one of my favorites, as the fire has a nice look to it, but coolest thing is the lava. Certain parts of the lava flow like a stream and others form ?waterfalls? of lava. It is a very cool effect.
The only downfall of the graphics is the somewhat choppy water animations. At times, Azurik seems to ?Float? over the water, practicing some air-swimming (He is the guardian of the elements, but I didn?t know he could control the air power that well). Other than that minor problem, the game is perfect.
The audio in the game is excellent. The soundtrack is amazing! It really sets the mood of the game. I am glad that they did not include the custom soundtrack option, as the music is excellent for making you feel like you are truly ?in? the game. The voices are also dead on, with the words matching the mouth movement with little error. The voice acting seems to have been done by people that actually knew what they were doing; and most likely had prior voice acting experience. The audio is all I had hoped for.
Suggestions: One of my major quips with Azurik is the save points. In certain areas of the game, there are plenty of save points to be found. In others, you have to back track a long way just to save your progress. The second problem is the villagers. They are ok NPCs, but they say very dumb things, basicly cheering you on. I wish that they had a purpose. It is odd to think that Azurik is the ONLY one trying to achieve harmony in Perathia. It would be cool if another guardian joined him during the game, to help fight some bad guys. Or if they simply were anywhere and gave simple hints, it would be nice. I?d like to say that Adrenium did a great job, and that I hope they are able to make a sequel.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Star Wars: Starfighter - Special Edition
For anyone who has played Star Wars Rouge Squadron, you know how killer of a Star Wars game Lucas Arts can make. But Starfighter SE falls short of a perfect game... MUCH shorter than it should have. SFSE, being a PS2 Port, could have had many more improvements. SFSE could have been more dynamic in it?s modes, and it became boring quickly into the game. The game is not much fun in single player, but multiplayer can be fun if you play it with a friend that can tolerate the controls.The left joystick is used to turn and point the nose up/down, and the right is to roll the ship. I would have liked it better if the ship auto centered itself, but you need to press the right stick down to center the craft. The right trigger allows you to boost your ship, and the left allows you to brake. I found this odd as well, as I later changed the triggers to the primary/secondary weapons. The controls were a bid uncomfortable, and if they had not included the option to customize the controls, it would be the final nail in the coffin. SFSE allows you to play as one of three characters. This could have been an interesting feature of the game, but of course, you can be one of three no-name characters never before seen in the series. The only noticeable thing among the three characters is that the character you start as flies a Naboo fighter from Star Wars Episode One. Each ship has a different secondary weapon than the last, which is a nice touch. The levels are quite simple in design. Find target, shoot, survive. Slight variations to this theme exist, but do not add much more depth to the gameplay of SFSE.
You can tell this game was ported from the PS2. This ?Special Edition? was supposed to improve graphical elements, but if they have improved greatly, then god only knows what the PS2 version looked like. The main 3 ships are nicely rendered, but the larger ships just look plain. The textures on these ships are very bland and simplistic. The planets and stars look ok, but there are not many amazing things you can do with them. The graphics are choppy in some parts, as the games seems not to take advantage of the Xbox?s anti aliasing abilities (not that the PS2 has no built in anti aliasing abilities) Overall, the graphics could use some work.
The music in the game is very nice, and the voice acting is ok, but the story and vocals are quite lame. The music features many classic John Williams music as heard in all of the movies. The music comes through the Xbox flawlessly, offering quality similar to that you would hear in the theatres. There have been reports of problems with the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, a problem with the voices not coming through. I was not able to test this out, as I do not have a 5.1 receiver. Overall, the sound is decent, but the vocals are not up to par with the music.
Suggestions: Lucas Arts, we love you and all (We can move past the whole ?Jar Jar? thing?.) but we are willing to wait for a new game. We do not want Xbox to get bad ports. Lucas Arts should have worked on the story a bit more (How about NOT basing it on Episode 1?. We need some more old school ships and characters!). The graphics could have utilized more of the Xbox?s abilities, as well as updated character/ship models. One factor that would have made me enjoyed the game more and made me want to play it more is different missions that are more than just seek and destroy missions. This game has much room for improvement, and I hope Lucas Arts will use this game as an example of what NOT to do on their future game developments.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
Dead or Alive 3
An amazing fighting game. Team Ninja has improved the fighting engine greatly from the DOA2 series. Offering 3+ new characters to play as, as well as new arenas, new battle modes, and improved graphics, DOA3 is by far one of the best fighting games of it's time.The game offers a Story mode, which allows you to fight through a number of fighters in story themed battles. Although easy to beat (if you DO NOT count the final boss... CHEAP), the Story mode rewards the player with ending cinematics that look too good to be true.
The tag battle mode has been altered to make it easier for beginners to get into the action. Some veterans at the DOA series may dislike the new tag mode, as it makes performing certain throws a tedious task.
Survival Mode is the same as the past games from the DOA series. You face against as many opponents you can defeat without loosing all of your life. After defeating an opponent, you gain some of your life back. Who said that fighting games weren?t fair :)
Time attack mode is just the same as story mode, but with no story :) The objective is to fight through your opponents as quickly as you can. Even some secrets will be unlocked if you are quick enough....
Exercise mode is perfect for the beginners, and allowed me to practice up on the old Mugen-To. Exercise lets you run through all of your character's moves by simply pressing the buttons that appear on screen. It is perfect for those who want to get a little more skill with their favorite character.
If there is one game that has had lots of hype around its graphics, it?s DOA3. People were concerned that the many images floating around the net were nothing but high-res images that would look nothing like the real in game graphics. They could NOT have been so wrong. With graphics rivaling that of reality, DOA3 has some of the best graphics EVER seen in a game.
The characters are extremely well detailed, so detailed in fact that you can see the individual bumps in the fabric used to make the costumes. The characters retain their Anime-Inspired looks from the past games, but it does not hinder the game in the least.
The stages are EXTREMELY large. The details in e stages are so amazing that it is hard to believe that they could have been made in such short time (11 months). The amount of detail they contain and the sizes of the levels could only have appeared on the Xbox, and it sets a benchmark that I hope other game makers will attempt to meet/top.
The sound in this game is excellent. The individual sounds of the characters attacking each other as well as the voices help to make the game more realistic. The sounds of each stage (including the amazing sounds of the beach level) also help to set the realism of the game.
My only gripe with the game's sound is the inclusion of 3 Aerosmith songs (Of which I have only heard 2 of in the game). The intro song "Nine Lives" is quite annoying, with Stephen Tyler doing an imitation "Cat Wail" that sounds more like a cat being run over by an old Buick. I do not count the music against DOA3, for it only appears in the credits and the intro, the latter of which can be easily skipped.
Suggestions: One thing that would make this game better is the inclusion of some more secrets. This may be remedied, however, because the Japanese version is said to include some new stuff to the game (not much is known yet). The US version will be upgradeable to the Japanese version so we can use the new features. The only other thing I would like to see added is ONLINE PLAY. I would love to fight some other people around the world :)
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
