NHL2K6 Xbox 360 Review

NHL2K6 Xbox 360 Review

A console hasn’t really arrived until you get a complete sports line up for it, for some consoles this takes longer than others, but not the Xbox 360. When it is first came into market, In the first six months we have been spoiled for choice in sporting franchises. 2K Sports was the one stepped up to the plate again to bring us another big name sports game.

On first glance there’s not a lot of difference between the Xbox 360 version of the game and it’s last generation counterparts. Character models are reasonably well detailed for the players, but not being such a mainstream sport you aren’t going to find them easily identifiable.

Poor Models

Spectator models on the other hand are less than impressive, It’s nice they’ve gone with a full 3D crowd rather than cardboard cut outs, but they needn’t have bothered with the quality of character models they’re using here. It wouldn’t be such a big deal, but they use crowd shots a lot in replays and time outs and the like and just generally brings the game down. Graphics also take a hit with the lighting effects, or rather lack of them, basically either something or someone is in the light or it isn’t, again it’s no big deal normally, but this is next generation here, and this game just doesn’t cut it on the graphics front for a next-gen game.

Whilst the visual side of the game is less than stellar, they make up for it a bit with some reasonable audio, sound effects although nothing special are realistic enough and add to the games atmosphere. But the free flowing commentary really brings the game to life. On top of that you get some cheesy rock music over the menus but it’s really nothing to write home about.

Slick on Ice

But, even though the game isn’t anything special presentation wise what it does do is play a good game of Ice Hockey. You get the standard options of exhibition, career mode and multiplayer for your money. Exhibition mode is your standard pick-up and play mode, but different from other games of it’s kind can be played in multiplayer. Four players can play in exhibition mode, either split on to teams or all can play for the same team if they like.

Career mode is the real meat of the game though and you get plenty of different play options on hand. As well as just playing through your career match by match there’s plenty of other distractions. You can head up to your sky box to check out your trophy cabinet, take a look at your stats, check out what you’ve unlocked or play some games. The sky boxes mini-games are typically American, no pool or darts here, what you get are a trivia game, air hockey and shuffleboard, so nothing to get too excited about.

Career Me Do

Once you get in to your matches though everything is pretty easy to pick up, your basic controls are easy to get to grips with, with just your ‘A’ button to pass and ‘X’ button to shoot and your shoulder triggers giving your player a bit of a boost. There are some more advanced controls which give you managerial control using the D pad but you don’t really have to worry about these when you’re starting out.

The career mode is rather extensive, you get a good few matches a month and a good few years per career, so there’s plenty to get your teeth in to. Like the game's exhibition mode you can also play any career game with up to four players, which is nice, it means career mode doesn’t have to be the solitary experience that it is in most sports titles.

Fun For All

Then there’s the games multiplayer mode, which again can be played by up to four players per Xbox 360.You can either play two on two at home or take it online for up to four on four over Xbox Live. It can get pretty frantic playing with that many players, combined with the games pick up and playability makes for a pretty good party game, or at least something to have a bash on after the pub. That combined with the gargantuan career mode means you get plenty of gameplay for your money here.

And it’s not just for Ice Hockey aficionados, the easy to pick up gameplay means it can be fun for anyone. Overall what you have is a reasonable sports simulation that’s fun for fans and non fans alike. It’s a real pity they couldn’t have done more with the 360 version though, as apart from a slight bump in the graphics department and a couple of new moves it’s pretty much identical to the Xbox and PS2 versions. If you don’t own either of those consoles and you’re a fan of ice hockey then this is going to be a must have for you. For anyone else, you’d be better off, financially anyway, picking up one of the other versions, or at least giving it a rental.

SOCOM 3: US Navy SEALs Review

SOCOM 3: US Navy SEALs Review

SOCOM 3 is a lot like the third Terminator and Mission Impossible films. That is, it serves to show there’s still life left in the franchise without it doing anything remotely new or innovative. And like the aforementioned films, SOCOM 3: US Navy Seals is a lot of fun. It’s just not much of a step over the previous games.

What it is however is exactly what you expect straight out of the box.

Modus Operandi

If you’re looking for a decent story in your tactical shooters you might need to re-examine that affection with SOCOM 3. It has a story and there’s quite a bit of effort gone into telling it through some rather intriguing and lengthy cutscenes. But really, all you need to know is that it’s set in North Africa and there’s a rebel army to take down. Oh, and an evil dictator chap.

You command a three-man fire team that is split between Bravo and Able. The game is set over a dozen or so huge levels that give even games like the 360’s GRAW a run for it money in scope (although to be fair, I'd take Mexico city over the almost dystopian North African locations any day) via foot, or land and water-based vehicles. You can play it online and off and also make use of the headset to lead your fire team rather amiably.

Like I said - exactly what you expect straight out of the box. But is it any good?

Semper Fi

Yes, we understand that’s marine terminology but humour us. SOCOM 3 is generally a lot of fun to play. The perfect word to throw at it is amiable, because although it’s unfair to compare it to a next-gen game like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, that kind of game serves to underline some of SOCOM 3’s main problems.

GRAW presents one of the most streamlined conflicts in recent memory. There’s nothing really intuitive about its design, it’s just really well implemented and easy to operate. SOCOM 3 by contrast is extremely clunky. By holding down the circle button you can issue direct orders by selecting them and your fire team will – most of the time – carry them out.

The problem? There’s shed-loads of options in there. In fact, the number of options available to you is rather scary at first and some of these options even have a sub menu (such as the Breach ability). Sure, it ceases to be a problem when you finally acclimate to the rhythm of SOCOM 3. But GRAW gave us many of the same actions with far less menu scrawling.

SOCOM 3: Modern Combat

What’s worse is the AI of both your enemy and fire team. GRAW had its share of asinine displays from both sides but never to this extent. One of SOCOM 3’s unintentionally funny situations came from one of my fire team proclaiming aloud “Hell! These fools can’t even shoot straight!” It would have been less amusing were it not for the fact he was standing at point blank range, on open ground, shooting at the man he was openly mocking. And missing.

I half expected him to take off his mask and reveal it all to be an elaborate Police Squad sketch. No such luck.

Other areas where the game annoys is in its vehicular sections. You have full control of where you sit in any vehicle you drive. But navigating the seats is no easy thing. Take the gun mounted Humvee: there’s a turret and your guys automatically assign the gunner role to themselves when you’re driving. But you’ll be hard pressed to ever find them shooting someone.

This makes the second level a chore to begin with. You start in a Humvee with a second team in another and are assaulted by several militia types. It becomes an annoying trend of driving close to the enemy and hitting the D-Pad button to assign yourself to the turret before taking them out and returning to drive.

SEAL’d deal

And while we’re on the topic of annoyances a clear indicator of where your team is moving to would have been nice. By looking at a specific area and hitting L2 you can order your team to move there. But there is no clear indication point of where they’re moving to and strangely, you can’t move them via the menu map either.

So why a 7? Because like I said at the start – SOCOM 3 doesn’t innovate in any way at all, but it does entertain. And despite its contrivances and above problems it’s hard not to enjoy this more simplistic tactical shooter. The world may be falling over GRAW and SWAT3 and the like, but Zipper Interactive has given us a nice little send off with SOCOM 3.

But let’s start thinking of the next generation, OK guys?