Airport Mania: First Flight Review PC and Android

I've written before about how terrible airplane travel has become. You can't get from one side of an airport to another without taking off your shoes, unpacking and maybe booting your laptop, and being yelled at by red-faced goons. (Sometimes the goons are members of airport security and sometimes they're ham-fisted passengers, but they always yell.) Despite vowing to never ever ever ever cross the sea by plane again, I had to get to a junior high school graduation in Tokyo so I broke down and went by plane. From Newark to Tokyo. All the horrors of airport security came rushing back to me like a bad inflight movie. Surely it won't be long before people give up on airplane travel completely. And don't call me Shirley.

(Speaking of inflight movies, there are some in this game, but more on that later.)

If you were born in the last ten years or so, you might imagine that humming, cooing male and female airplanes with giant eyebrows are something out of a science fiction novel. Actually, they're your "customers" in Airport Mania: First Flight, a game that places you right in the control tower directing planes. Russell Carroll and Reflexive Entertainment are doing their part to keep the good, happy, carefree and simple image of airplane travel alive with this newest time management game, one of the cutest to come along since Moppin Toppins Waits Tables. Believe me, airports used to be this fun... before terrorists became boogeymen and shoes became alarming.

You start out in the tiny regional airport, Happy Valley Municipal Airport. Complete enough goals and levels and you may make it as far as Great Lake City International Airport or the fiendishly difficult Desert Flats National Airport.

Your job is to get the planes in, unloaded, refueled and refitted if necessary, filled with new passengers, and out! The faster you accomplish these tasks, the more money you'll earn for your airport. As planes appear in the sky, you click on them and assign them runways to land, then gates to taxi to so that they may unload their passengers. After unloading, some planes may need to be repaired. Others may need to be refueled. Actually, until playing this game, I was under the impression that all planes refueled at the gate before taking off, but in Airport Mania I learned that only some need refueling. And they do it at a nearby fueling station. Once a plane is ready to head back to the skies, click on it and then click on an available runway and away it goes. Sayanora, suckers!

Gameplay in Airport Mania is simple at first, but naturally the difficulty rises as more and more planes arrive needing directions from your control tower. If planes end up waiting too long, they'll leave your airport in a huff. (Someone who's an expert on airplanes told me this rarely happens outside of computer games.) Luckily you've got layover spaces (they look like giant supermarket parking spaces) to park your waiting planes in. Planes are happiest when waiting in these spaces, but they still lose patience quickly! Sometimes I spent too much time trying to get a gate color bonus only to end up with some very unhappy planes. Unhappy planes = no money. It can get hectic when every possible place has a plane parked and a few more are circling overhead waiting to land. Luckily the planes themselves are excellent at avoiding collisions as they taxi around the airport. There were a few close calls where I screamed out, "OH MY GOD, NO!!!!" but to my relief no crashes took place.

There are many different types of planes, from puddlejumpers to jetliners, and every one of them has a color. If you can send back-to-back planes of the same color to the same gate, you'll get 2x, 3x, and 4x bonus multipliers. Likewise, you're awarded multipliers if two or more planes use the same runway within a few seconds of each other. As you make more money for your airport, you're able to buy upgrades like additional gates, gate upgrades, a short range radar device that lets you know what colored planes are about to enter your airspace, and the most useful upgrade of all: a special layover space that allows you to repaint planes while they wait (and there's nothing these adorable, cuddly planes like better than being repainted).

Earlier I mentioned inflight movies. You can buy inflight movies to keep circling planes happy even when there's no open runway. This flies in the face of everything I have come to know about air travel.

Airport Mania is an excellent time management game - one of the best and cutest I've ever played. And I've played many. The more advanced airports are challenging indeed. If you like games like Sally's Salon or Cake Mania 2, you'll be right at home in Airport Mania. Airplanes hum, whistle, and grrr to let you know their feelings. I especially like the "WTF" sound they make when you ask them to move (needlessly and uselessly) from one layover space to another. The pastelicious graphics are beautiful and vector curvtastic (hint: click everywhere on the wonderfully animated backgrounds). Isaac Shepard's light, lounge-inspired music doesn't get old no matter how long you play, which is rare for a game like this.

The only problem I experienced while playing was accidentally clicking on one airplane when I meant to click on another. Planes express their wishes via word or thought balloon, and sometimes those cover up nearby aircraft in a busy airport. Occasionally when I wanted to click on a plane, I clicked on another plane's word balloon, selecting the second plane instead of my intended target. That can really mess you up when the Airport Mania pace kicks into high gear!

Every time a helicopter flies over your airport, you can click on it and it will drop great big bags of cash. Click again on any falling moneybags and the $cash is all yours!

Download from Google Android Play Store Now.

Shadows of Reality Review - First Look

Cyberpunk RPG?

We've had a few non-fantasy (as in no dragons, wizards etc) RPG's over the last couple of years and some could easily be called "Cyberpunk RPG's" but none would deserve the title as much as Nevolution's upcoming game Shadows of Reality. Taking place in the year 2087, the developers have dedicated themselves to a cyber look and feel that can only slightly be compared to System Shock but maybe has a closer resemblance to Blade Runner. With this background, the mood is set for a very interesting and equally intriguing 3D RPG that promises to change the way we look at gaming.

We have heard similar statements before but Nevolution is very persistent in this so it's time to see if their boldness is justified. Of course we can't be sure until the game is released but based on what information is available now, we could definitely take a peek into the future.

Massively multiplayer?

Originally, Nevolution set out to create a massively multiplayer online game but they felt it would be easier to secure a publisher if they would focus on a single player game first and perhaps use their technology for an online game as a future project. For now, they concentrate on building a good single player experience.

The game is set in a new city called North Cal which recently arose from what was left of San Francisco. North Cal, like any other large city in the world, is controlled by several mega corporations. No longer do governments rule the world, commerce has taken over and all these incredibly large corporations think about is how to increase their power.

You've recently been recruited by the YAR Corporation as just another "Joe Bob" that's doing his job to help the company thrive. One way or another, things don't work out the way you, or they, had planned. You quickly become involved in a conspiracy that soon grows way above your head. As you learn more about what's happening, you become increasingly intrigued with everything and decide to go to the bottom of things. What you discover then isn't exactly pretty and maybe it's a little bit more than you had bargained for as well.

Shadows of Reality Gameplay

At the start of the game, players will define their own character in a rather unusual way although the effect remains the same. Instead of assigning points to particular skills or answering a set of questions to define your character, future technology has enabled you to add parts to your body or learn a completely new occupation within a matter of minutes. Special simulators will virtually inject knowledge into your brain while all kinds of technologies can be surgically implanted into your head or maybe even other parts of your body. Quite handy indeed as adding new skills becomes a matter of money and availability rather than time and ability.

Later in the game, new skills are added in the same way but you'll have to wait for the opportunity to do so rather than have the whole shebang being readily available at your fingertips. Once you're on your way, you'll find yourself in the city of North Cal, a detailed and fully 3D environment where you're free to roam around and go wherever you want, whenever you want. You can stop and gaze at the scenery but don't forget about your self imposed mission to see who is behind all the strange things happening around you.

During your investigation, you will encounter many people that will be able to help although some will have their own agenda's and may be leading you to believe they're helping you. As in real life, there are good guys and bad guys but sometimes, it's not that obvious. The storyline isn't quite linear. According to Nevolution the storyline will have many branching plots and a "dizzying array of subquests and world information". Occasionally the game will push you back on the right track as losing your objective out of sight is quite easily done in a game as big as this. ;-) That doesn't mean that there is only one ending though. The game can be finished in many different ways which of course does a lot for replayability.

Let us know in comments what you think, and like about Shadows of Reality Video Game.

Final Fantasy VIII Review To the Point

The opening full-motion video sequence may not reveal very much about the plot of Final Fantasy VIII, or even what in the world is going on in the video itself, but it sure draws you in. The combination of intense music and fast-paced scenes shows that at least in the area of movies, SquareSoft knows what they're doing.

The introductory movie does become understandable as the game goes on, but at the beginning of the game all it really does is explain how Squall (the main character) and Seifer (his rival) end up with matching facial scars. Getting your face nearly sliced in two can't be a fun way to start the day.

Twists even a pretzel can't beat.

For the first few hours of the game, the plot is fairly straightforward. Squall is attempting to pass his final exam to become a member of SeeD, an elite mercenary force. The final exam in this case involves helping to put down an invasion in progress... and I thought calculus exams were tough!

As has become pretty much a trademark of the series, FF8 has plot twists waiting on a regular basis. Some of them may be pretty obvious and easy to see coming, but once in a while they really do manage to catch you by surprise. There was one plot twist that I found entirely unnecessary and more than a little forced. Since it occurs fairly late in the game, I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say this: There's a reason that mass memory loss isn't a frequently used plot device. One character that doesn't remember his past is acceptable, but six is really a bit much.

For the most part, the plot is pretty solid, although in a couple of places things are not quite as well explained as I would have liked, possibly the result of an incomplete translation from the original Japanese.

Don't forget to study kids!

Final Fantasy 8 introduces a brand new magic and summoning system called 'junctioning'. The system revolves around creatures called Guardian Forces, powerful beings like Ifrit, Shiva, and Quezacotl who can grant abilities to whichever character they are 'junctioned' with. Just like your characters, your Guardian Forces gain levels and become more powerful, granting new abilities and doing more damage when summoned.

Hardcore RPG players will likely be thrown off a bit by Final Fantasy 8. If you're used to spending a lot of time increasing your levels in order to become more powerful than your opponents, you'll end up wasting a lot of time here. Your opponents gain levels at the same rate that you do, keeping up with you every step of the way, and actually getting powerful faster than you. Luckily, there's another way to gain power besides leveling up.

In order to increase a character's power, magic has to be junctioned to particular abilities. The exact abilities that can be junctioned depend on the Guardian Forces being used. For example, Ifrit concentrates mainly on strength, so being junctioned to him allows a character to connect magic to strength and hit points. The more powerful the magic being used, and the more of it a character has, the bigger the boost will be. Magic can also be junctioned to elemental attack or defense, letting the character increase his/her defenses or attack power with a particular element such as fire or ice. It can also be junctioned to status attack or defense, meaning that a character can, for example, defend himself against sleep magic or turn monsters to stone when he attacks.

If that wasn't enough to cause confusion, the method of getting magic is new and original as well. All magic must be 'drawn' from opponents in combat or at special locations called 'draw points'. Magic is essentially sucked out of the opponent and put into the character's private stash. There is a limited amount of space to hold magic, so here's a useful feature that the manuals fail to mention: Pressing the 'A' key when a particular magic has been selected in the menu will let you drop it, tremendously useful if your stock is nearly full.

Let us know in comments, how you like Final Fantasy VIII.

Daxter PSP Review

Daxter makes his PSP debut in one of the handheld's best titles.

If there’s one thing you can say thing about Daxter is that it’s polished. In fact it’s so ridiculously polished you would think the PSP had been out five years at the time of game release, such is how superbly developer Ready At Dawn exploit the capabilities of the machine. However, as anyone who has played a poor EA licence will testify, polish does not a great game make.

In the case of Daxter, though, it helps turn what could have been a very run of the mill platformer into one the PSP’s best titles.

In many respects Daxter is another derivative and unoriginal platformer. But, crucially, it’s brilliantly made derivative and unoriginal platformer with charm to spare. And of course *adopting a Hannibal lecture tone* ooooodles of polish.

Its quality is evident from the very first cut-scene. Well produced and exquisitely animated, it’s the first indication of the care that has gone into making Daxter a fully fledged PSP game rather than a half-hearted port or cash-cow spin off.

This attention to detail is followed through into the game proper. The opening couple of levels are well paced, introducing Daxter - a nimble, ferret-like creature - and his various abilities. As well as the obligatory double jump, Daxter is also armed with an electric squatter used to splatter bugs that infest the games locations.

Spray It, Don’t Say It

A couple of levels in Daxter is also given a bug spray which can be used both to stun enemies and as a makeshift jet pack, boosting Daxter across platforms and onto higher ground. Okay, so we’ve seen similar concepts in platformers like Mario Sunshine, but it’s well implemented and utilised very effectively. Many of the games best moments involve making well timed boots over gaping chasms, giving you just enough juice to make it to safety.

Later on in the game Daxter gains access to a flamethrower attachment, which as well as launching him higher and further than before, can be used for other obvious flame-grilled fun, and sonic blaster which, err, blasts things sonically.

City Boy

Daxter is set in the futuristic Hive city - a location that will be familiar to fans of PS2 games in the series – which acts as a hub to various locations Daxter explores. The PSP’s power and beautiful screen are used to great effect; levels are colourful, lively and well designed, almost always coming to an end before they wear out their welcome.

What’s more, exploring Hive made is a seamless thanks to streaming technology that removes the need for jarring loading screens. As well as being an impressive technical feat, considering how long you have to wait for the PSP to load up a UMD in other lesser looking titles, this also gives the game a magnificent flow as you are whisked from location to location without cumbersome pauses.

Okay, so Hive city’s streets can feel a little bare on occasion, since they serve little purpose other than to get you from A to B, but it’s an acceptable price to pay for less piecemeal platforming.

Besides once you get to your location, there are also some wonderful platforming set pieces to enjoy. Highlights include leaping from train to train while avoiding electrical pylons, or boosting yourself from across a series of platforms as a giant chamber gradually fills with lava. It’s not anything frighteningly original but it’s all solidly done and pitched at well-judged difficulty level.

Controlling Daxter is as precise as the PSP’s nub will allow and the camera is generally well behaved, with generous check-pointing preventing any needless frustration when you slip up.

Dream a Little Dream

Just when all this platforming threatens to become monotonous, Daxter has a number of tricks at hand to mix things up a bit. These include some gentle puzzles, the occasional boss battle and some rhythm-action style mini-games.

The most enjoyable of these are movie-themed dream sequences Daxter can play to win new moves and extra health bars. They may simply be matter of matching directional movements or number presses to the on screen action, but they are compulsively enjoyable diversions that that are very are well implemented and animated.

There are also a fair few vehicle sections. Handling is light but responsive, allowing for some weaving chases through city streets and winding caves. It’s pretty easy stuff but most enjoyable; another string to Daxter’s bow rather than being frivolous padding.

The only aspect of the game that feels slightly unwieldy is combat. Pressing the attack button a few times in succession launches Daxter into a combo that flings him about, which can be troublesome to direct and downright risky when fighting bugs on a small platform. Still, it’s a minor complaint when compared to the quality displayed elsewhere.

Platform Perfection?

While it's certainly not the longest game in the world, especially when compared with the epic Jax II, Daxter offers plenty of platforming thrills with out feeling needlessly drawn-out. While levels can be raced through as quickly as possible if that’s your inclination, each one is bursting of collectables to be scooped up by the adventurous and persistent. While only the platforming diehards are likely to want to get a 100 per cent completion score, it’s often tempting to make a tricky jump to pick up a few precursor orbs and open up a new bonus game.

Although it seems a little late in the hour to start criticising Daxter in this review, especially in light of it’s many accomplishments, it does have one flaw that prevents it from achieving greatness.

If Daxter can be accused of anything it’s playing it too safe. It’s a title never feels anything less than solid, but outside the impeccable presentation Daxter is rarely inspired; it’s enjoyable rather than exhilarating. Maybe we have been spoilt with too many 3D platformers, but there always a sense of “been there, done that”. Daxter is a very good game and one that's a worthy contender of any home console platformer, but while it may be polished it lacks the spark and spunk that could have made it truly great.

SiN Episode 1: Emergence review

SiN Episode 1: Emergence review

Lost is a very popular TV show. Not least because of its attractive cast, fantastic setting and claim to having the most expensive pilot episode in television history. I stumbled upon it by chance, without hearing any of the hype, and expecting not a lot. Where most of us that got addicted lost our chance of retaining our Tuesday nights got caught is the fact that unlike most TV shows, it is essential to view every single episode, because of the ongoing mythology and single storyline traversing two (currently) seasons. It works because of the regular weekly content, (although watch the US throw up a fuss when there is a month break) and cliffhangers demanding you find out what happens next.

SiN Episode 1: Emergence review

In a sense, video games have always been closer to films or one off dramas, being unable to draw you in and keep you hooked for multiple episodes any more than a film, and you’re just as likely to find sequels because of how long they take to produce. Now, SiN Episodes has emerged (sorry) to change all that. 9 episodes of content, each containing 3-6 hours of content, purchased separately for a smaller amount than a full game. But the question of whether to purchase is more often than not about the actual game itself.

Original SiN

As a special treat, purchasing SiN Episodes: Emergence in the past gives you a copy of the first SiN game; a welcome inclusion, especially since there is a lot of content within to play through. It may entertain you for a while (and if you have the time and patience is worth it to catch up on the story), but to be honest, is hardly worth going into detail about as a freebee. SiN Episodes takes place four years after the original, with SiNTEK still dabbling in mutating chemicals and general naughtiness.

Elexis SiNclaire, the original excuse for a bit of eye candy is back and causing further problems (as of the end of this episode, her full plan is not clear), so Blade (you), JC and a new recruit, Jessica, must take on the might of the corporation that the legal system couldn’t deal with, and battle a hoard of enemies in the process. The first thing that strikes you about the game is the use of the Source (Half-Life 2) engine. As beautiful as it was when HL2 first came out, it has lost a small part of its charm, purely because the same level of detail doesn’t seem to have been put into Emergence’s graphics. They are still fantastic to look at, but certain elements seem to stand out such as certain repeating textures and some of the character models’ detail. Admittedly the level design is top notch and while navigating around the levels is relatively linear (but consistently interesting), the enemy placement remains predictable and often over the top.

Murder is a SiN

The majority of your enemies will be a seemingly endless number of SiNTEK employees, each wielding powerful weapons that stack the odds well against you. As a pretty good FPS gamer, I found myself being challenged quite severely from early on, because of the ease of which a single soldier can sneak up on you, and decimate your health from behind. It is this that gives the game very much a quick-save/quick-load gameplay style.

Admittedly, the team over at Ritual has been parading around its ‘Personal Challenge System’ which is meant to adapt the game depending on how well or badly you are playing, to keep it fun and appropriate to your skill. I was never aware of this taking place (although plenty of statistics are freely available mid-game), and found that the difficulty very rarely let up, and implied that you had to perform almost perfectly to achieve any progression; again, not as much of a problem if you keep quick-saving, but ultimately I felt that having to resort to such techniques to proceed in the game after every enemy or two shows poor difficulty balance.

Bad to the Bone

Despite the unforgiving difficulty, I still very much enjoyed playing through. The variety of environments is laudable, especially since another eight episodes are meant to be rolling out soon, and fortunately a selection of different enemies (including a few boss characters) pose a different challenge to keep the player interested. Interestingly I found the new enemies revealed around half way through to be a walkover compared to the soldiers with guns.

The few weapons you get to play with have great alternate firing systems, and even your first weapon packs a mean punch that you will be using right to the final moments, and the physics engine undeniably present within Source are put to good visual use. A great selection of music, underscores most of the games events effectively bringing a remarkably interactive sense of mood to whatever is happening at the time, even with a nice emotive song recorded for the title screen to welcome you back into the SiN universe. The voice acting is also plentiful and effective, especially with a few outtakes hidden after the end credits for a bit of extra fun.

Twists and Cliffhangers

With much less content than a full game (barely a third if I am honest), spoiling any exciting events that take place would be especially discourteous in this review, but suffice to say you will be climbing up tall buildings, riding in a car, experiencing blatant excuses to show scantily clad women (not that I minded) and even discovering a nice twist on the overused slow-motion gameplay dynamics.

Speaking of twists, we are promised many within the full story arc of SiN Episodes, but as Emergence serves to (re)introduce the series, they are kept to a minimum in this incarnation. As for the ending, I did feel satisfied with the overall feel of the episode, drawing to a strong conclusion and entertaining (if repetitive) boss battle and a final plot development to rope everyone in to buying the next episode. Just when you think it is all over, in what can only be described as a throwback to the television style that SiN borrows from, the end credits are preceded by a great little montage of ‘Next Time on SiN Episodes’. I’m already raring to find out what happens.

Sting in the Tail

Being delivered through Steam, Valve Software’s rather clever internet distribution system (as well as at your local game store if you prefer physical packaging) means that it takes very little effort to get hold of this and future episodes, and I was playing within a few hours of requesting the files, all at a cheaper rate than it would cost to buy the game locally, although come the 26th you’ll be able to get it both ways, so the choice is yours.

But that’s how they get you really, isn’t it? Providing an incomplete experience but promising more, much like Lost on TV, means that you forgive anything missing from an episode because you are expecting it in the next one. Cliffhangers almost demand you watch or play the next instalment. The question remains whether or not Lost or indeed any episodic TV show would work if you had to buy each episode separately before you could watch them. I fear I am locked into buying each of the nine episodes of SiN now, each at around half of the price of a full game, with no indication of when I will next be able to satiate my lust for more content. Should you buy it? Only if you’re willing to buy another 8 more somewhere down the line.

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?

F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon Review

F.E.A.R. Review

Have no fear, this game really delivers...

F.E.A.R. or First Encounter Assault Recon takes you into one badly lit office building after another, while shooting a seemingly never ending onslaught of like-minded enemies with a relatively scarce selection of weapons.

This is a game that will make outrageous demands of your old war-torn PC. Oh, and not to forget; this is also one of the most intense, nail-biting, super-spooky games ever made. Let me tell you why.

Who’s afraid of the big bad…little girl?

It all starts with a guy named Paxton Fettel. He’s an insane military commander who has taken over an army of clones with which he is somehow mysteriously telepathically connected. Fettel and his so-called Replica soldiers have gone berserk in an unnamed American town where they’ve taken over an office complex belonging to the Armachem. Apparently they are looking for something and have taken hostages but not made any demands and the whole situation is very unstable. The government dispatches a team to investigate, but communication is interrupted by a mysterious signal and the team is wiped out.

Now you have to go in – along with your fellow Delta Force soldiers in the F.E.A.R. team and find out what happened and uncover the source of the unknown signal. Luckily, you possess supernatural quick reflexes that seem to slow down time thereby enabling you to get the better of your enemies. But you are not the only one with supernatural powers in the Armachem building; Fettel himself isn’t exactly what you’d call normal and there’s also a little girl wandering around the building creating chaos. What’s going on? What’s Fettel’s purpose? Who’s the girl? And from where do you get your own powers? F.E.A.R. is very much a journey into unknown territory.

Intensity

The filmic inspiration is very obvious. As in the Matrix you have a bullet-time option and it works very similar to Max Payne only here it’s seen in the first-person perspective and it looks much better. The colours change and blend into each other, motion blur is used and every time a shot is fired you’ll see its trail in the air. It all looks amazing. The bullet-time ability enables you to hit your enemies with great precision, gives you time to use medpacks, throw grenades and at the same time avoid the opponents’ shots.

You’ll need this ability – constantly. The enemies in this game are tough as nails and they behave in a relatively intelligent way, often taking cover or ambushing you when you least expect it and in these situations it’s always nice to be able to go into slow motion. Your bullet time ability isn’t infinite and needs to recharge, so you need to be somewhat strategic in your approach.

Another source of inspiration is Japanese horror films. Anybody who has seen the little girls in for example The Ring or Dark Water will know what I’m talking about here – though you’ll not know all. The girl in F.E.A.R. looks a lot like her Japanese, ahem, role models but she hides other secrets. All in all the game makes good use of the distinguished Japanese style of horror; after some weird events in the beginning of the game things get quiet for a while and the atmosphere gets more foreboding and eerie and you never know from where the next scare will come.

There are not many BOO! scares of the more western traditional horror type – rather the game gets under your skin as the Japanese films to which it plays homage. This kind of slow creeping horror combined with rampant action is not something I would have thought worked but it turns out that I have been proven wrong.

After a hectic firefight the ensuing silence works to great effect and the satisfaction from dishing out a can of whoop-ass after having crawled around dark hallways with your heart beating loudly cannot be downplayed.

Know your arsenal

In the game you can only carry three weapons at a time, so you need to make some choices as to which weapons you wish to part with when you find new ones. You can also only carry three types of grenades and only five of each. These vary from regular hand grenades, prox-mines that explode when enemies get too close to remote bombs that stick on objects and can be detonated at a distance.

You need to figure out which weapons are best suited for your current situation; some rifles are equipped with scopes but are no good at close range, the shotgun is nasty up close and personal but enemies do tend to run away, the small machine gun is great against enemies with no armour etc.

Last but not least you must remember to pick up medpacks, which you can carry ten of at a time and don’t forget the boosters that increase your lifebar and bullet-time bar permanently. You also carry a flashlight which battery constantly runs out and needs to recharge – a cheap horror trick to be sure but at least you can use your flashlight along with your weapons as opposed to certain other games…

Tech-talk

While F.E.A.R. makes ample use of all the latest graphics achievements it doesn’t look as good as Half-Life 2 or DOOM 3. The level design in F.E.A.R. even appears to be simpler by comparison. Still it seems that F.E.A:R. is the most impressive of the three games mentioned. Try throwing a prox-mine after a group of enemies standing next to an object that can explode or break, go into bullet-time and place a shot in the middle of the mine. Insane pyrotechnics await.

All this doesn’t change the fact that the game suffers from some basic problems such as the weird corner-lag (yup, that’s a neat new expression). Every time I turned around a corner the game got choppy to some degree and it didn’t matter how much I tweaked the graphics settings.

Most of the time the game ran smoothly even in intense situations but occasionally I had experienced these annoying choppy sequences when the video game was first released usually when something exciting was about to happen. I’ve been told that the 512 MB RAM I have in my system is not quite enough but my neighbour experienced the same and he has 1 GB RAM in his system.

I was using a Radeon X800 XT PE and he has a Radeon X800 Pro, so I went to the game’s website which had info on some problems with ATi’s streaming technology supposedly being the reason for the lag. This smells of the game being optimized to run on Nvidia’s cards all over since its logo is both on the box and in the game; The Way It’s Meant To Be Played they say. That’s very good thank you but we Radeon owners would like to get a piece of the cake too.

Another point of note is the sound. It’s almost as if the different sound effects were recorded at various input volumes. A shot from my machine gun ought to be louder than the noise it makes when I tip a can off a shelf right? Sometimes you get a shock when you’re walking around a room alone and suddenly hear a loud noise as a result of walking into a phone or a cardboard box. But maybe it’s meant to be that way.

Interactive film revisited

It’s an old cliché but this game really delivers an experience with production values reminiscent of Hollywood. The firefights of the game can make John Woo jealous and there are plenty of grotesque details such as bodies torn in half and objects that are smashed, torn, burnt, cracked and splintered.

But Monolith knows that this no movie, so you will not be bothered by weird changes of camera angles and there are no specific cutscenes besides the ones in the beginning and at the end of the game. The mysterious protagonist of the game never speaks which may seem a bit odd but at the same time it gives you the impression that it’s the player that plays the main part. It’s you that are in the centre of the fights, it’s you the F.E.A.R. team communicates with over comlink and though you can’t answer there is an understated feeling that you tell the team about everything that is going on.

The game manages to get very personal just like Half-Life 2, but since the experience is much scarier and intense it strikes a deeper emotional nerve than Valve’s masterpiece, and therefore you can forgive it for the faults it has. The story is primarily told through flashbacks and a lot of phone messages and laptop files scattered around the game. But this aspect isn’t the game’s strongest asset even though the voice acting is convincing. The phone messages are plentiful and it can be hard to maintain the interest it takes to listen to them all. Overall, the story isn’t as tight as in Half-Life 2 but the intense gameplay more than compensates for that.

F.E.A.R. gets its high grade from the insane combat and intense atmosphere that borrows a lot from Asian horror movies. The game isn’t so scary that it should keep easily spooked people from playing it – it does help that you play a tough guy with heavy firearms and supernatural reflexes and not some defenceless single mother or what the victims are in all those movies. The game is scarier than Resident Evil and as adrenaline fuelled as Alien vs. Predator when playing as marine but not as diabolically evil as Silent Hill. But make no mistake: the blood, scares and foul language makes it deserve its 18+ rating.

The multiplayer component of the game was somewhat redundant in my opinion. There are the classic game modes such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Elimination and Capture the Flag and then there are the SlowMo modes. In the latter you search for a reflex booster powerup which yields points when you have it. If you manage to hold on to it long enough you can activate bullet-time. This applies to all players but the one holding the booster moves twice as fast as the opponents. If you’re killed carrying the booster you drop it for others to pick up. In SlowMo Team DM your entire team gets the ability. It works quite well but not as good as in singleplayer.

This game might not be remembered the same way Half-Life 2. But it’s some of the best you can feed your PC if your nerves (and PC) can take it. Remember to check out if your machine matches the minimum specs or else you’ll get disappointed. Which certainly is not a big problem right now because no one have Pentium 3 or old mac's in there homes anymore.

007 Agent Under Fire Review

007 Agent Under Fire Review

Electronic Arts’ "Agent Under Fire" is exactly what a James Bond video game should be — slick, sexy and jam-packed with action — but this adventure is short with limited playability over time, except perhaps for its multiplayer modes.

The game begins with the roar of the MGM lion, a familiar Bond film-style introductory movie and the instrumental theme song that accompanies every 007 film. Without giving away too much of the story line and its plot twists, the missions revolve around Bond as he tries to stop Malprave, a criminal mastermind who is planning to take over the world with cloning technology. The first few levels involve attempts to retrieve Malprave’s briefcase with the cloning plans and blood samples.

On foot, in vehicle

Primarily, "Agent Under Fire" is played on foot, and from a first-person perspective, but a few of the missions require the player to drive vehicles. On one of the most visually appealing levels, players must race through the streets of Hong Kong — first as a passenger armed with weapons to destroy helicopters, barricades and enemy cars — and then drive a BMW Z8 to stop — but not destroy — a van with secret weapons inside.

Naturally, there are all kinds of weapons to use throughout the game, ranging from pistols, sniper rifles, dart guns, grenades and missiles, and some of the missions will call for blazing guns while others require more stealth (Bond’s style, of course). Plus, there are a handful of cool gadgets right out of Q’s lab such as a laser to burn through locks and a claw to scale buildings.

Despite the weapons, vehicles and high-tech gizmos, the single-player game play is disappointing because it’s too easy and quite short. Experienced gamers should be able to finish the first five of 12 missions at medium difficulty in less than an hour. Fortunately, the action gets a bit tougher later in the game, but it’s still an eight-hour title at best. Also, the enemies aren’t the smartest, so it’s easy to pluck them off and continue on with the mission objectives.

Graphically, "Agent Under Fire" looks great and its visuals easily are the game’s greatest asset. The player models are highly detailed, especially the key female characters such as Zoe Nightshade. Plus, the indoor and outdoor environments are gorgeous, be it an underwater oil rig, a city street or a large house.

The level design, on the other hand, is somewhat linear and predictable for the most part, especially compared to the more imaginable and interactive levels found in similar 3-D shooters such as "Red Faction", "Half-Life" and "No One Lives Forever".

Split-screen play

The multiplayer options were fun, supporting up to four players with the addition of a PlayStation 2 multi-tap peripheral. There were four game modes such as "death match" and "capture the flag," plus many characters and weapons from which to choose. The split-screen visuals that are part of the multiplayer mode proved to be a welcome addition to the otherwise short game play of the single-player game. Multiplayer video frame rates remained relatively smooth, maxing out at about 30 frames per second, though they can be up to twice as fast in singe-player mode.

To wrap up, "Agent Under Fire" is a good — but not great — game that could be better with more depth and challenging game play. The game is certainly a fun and polished joyride while it lasts, but players was undoubtedly sticked to the multiplayer modes at that time rather than run through the solo adventure a second time.

Quake 4 Review

Quake 4 Review

They call it a format breaker: something that turns the status quo upside down. In television it’s one off specials of our favourite shows (Like the live episodes of The Bill in the UK or Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Once More With Feeling).

In music it’s the concept album (The Street’s A Grand Don’t Come For Free having each song form one part of a grand narrative structure), and in film it’s things like Richard Linklater’s TAPE (Three actors, one room, feature-length run time).

Quake 4 is not a format breaker – however, this review is. In order to justify my feelings on the wreckage that is Raven’s shooter, I feel I must tackle the review a little different. So I have separated the review into sub-sections, starting with...

1. The Concept

Quake 4 doesn’t have a story - it has an excuse. Sometimes an excuse is not necessarily a bad thing (take the PC version of FarCry for example), but in Quake 4 it is. The premise behind the entire game is this: what happened in Quake 2 is still happening… boot up, soldier.

The first several minutes would make you believe otherwise. We open in space with a scene reminiscent of Starship Troopers as decapitated bodies drift through space and we pan to a full-scale war on a nearby planet. Orders are barked at you – Matthew Kane – in your dropship as you approach the war torn planet of Strogg.

Your ship is blown to pieces and you crash. Waking several moments later you find yourself right in the middle of a battle. You climb from the wreckage of your ship, grab a nearby pistol and follow a soldier straight into a large room where the first Strogg enemy dives unremarkably in front of you.

Within a minute of the game beginning you are shooting at something. Several somethings.

2. The Strogg

There are dozens of enemy types in Quake 4 – all of them unremarkable. Despite what you thought of Doom 3 you cannot deny how diverse the enemies were. Each of them forced you to re-assess combat and tackle them differently. And when several differently kinds attacked you at once it was hectic.

In Quake 4 there are lots of enemies and each attack in different ways. But every single one of them is pathetic in their attack methods. You can guarantee that if you happen upon a long corridor with enemies stationed at the far end, there will be no struggle in conflict.

But what is truly bothersome is that even in most close-quarters scenarios there isn’t much struggle in conflict, either. You know you have a game with problems on your hands when the best criticism you can level at the opposition is that they can side step your gunfire.

3. The Level Design

Or more specifically, the lack thereof. There is a great sense of nose-ringing in Quake 4. That is, the sense that you are being dragged through each location rather than working the way out for yourself. The level design is so basic that locations just whip past with nary a thought spent on how good they looked.

Sure, Quake 4 looks stunning – and it’s pleasing that it is much easier to run on lower end specs than Doom 3 was – but the game’s preposterously linear design means you cannot explore any aspect of the locations.

Worse is the amount of backtracking in the game. Raven’s decision to have the player re-visit levels is both annoying and boring, and its inclusion serves little more than to make me think it did it to add length to the game. You see, there are countless times when an objective is reached but needs re-powering or a switch elsewhere needs to be flicked on.

The player then has to backtrack through the level to a door that was previously locked, do the deed, and then work their way all the way back again. It’s a slap in the face of the player the first couple times it happens. It’s practically a kick in the nuts the twentieth time, however.

This is the exact same structure throughout the game. Because you’re a lowly grunt you constantly have orders barked at you from above. Kane, go here and do this! Kane, go there and do that! And all this and that ever amounts to is turn this on or turn that off.

There is not a single aspect of this game that goes against the grain. Not even the widely talked about Stroggification.


4. The Stroggification

About a third of the way through the game Kane is captured by the Strogg and turned into one of them. As fate – or bad writing – would have it, you aren’t really a Strogg until a chip is turned on inside your head. Kane is rescued before his is activated, meaning he now has the best of both worlds.

Except, well, he doesn’t. As soon as you step from the tank you were suspended in you realise you can move a little faster, your heart and shield rate has been extended and – most interesting of all – you can now fully understand the Strogg.

But the idea is never taken anywhere at all. You never run into cutscenes where two Strogg are talking, or happen upon documents pertaining to the Strogg’s past. In what could have been a unique touch – and what could have allowed Raven to truly develop the Strogg as a race – we instead have nothing to show for it.

This is first-person shooter of the most basic nature. There is no use key, no squad control, there are no physics beyond the odd box that tumbles over, no story to stand on, no character development (except for the one attempt mid-way – but even that is ripped straight out of HALO) and ultimately no sense of fun.

So why have I given the game a five out of ten and not lower? Well, let’s examine what there is in Quake 4 worth talking about.

5. The Good

Peter Stormare. Mainstream cinemagoers will know him as Satan from Constantine, while the rest of us remember him as the blonde psychopath in Fargo (or the nutty Russian in Armageddon). He provides the voice for the only noteworthy character in the whole game: Strauss.

The graphics truly are amazing and as mentioned earlier you don’t need a high-end PC to get the better of them. I managed the whole game in High settings and a resolution of 1024x768. As far as Quake 4 is concerned graphically it is one of the best-looking games on the PC.

The sense of war in Quake 4 is also one of its best features. Regardless of what you feel as you shoot the next dumb enemy you really get the sense you are one man in a full-scale conflict.

And finally, the absolute best criticism I can say about the whole game is that you feel compelled to play straight through to the end. That isn’t because it’s fun – it’s actually rather dull. It’s because things move by so fast the sense of speed captures you. As linear as it as and in spite of how much it drags you through the game you step into a rhythm and just have to keep playing.

But those aspects truly are the only good things in this game. The Quake 4 we have is ultimately not the Quake 4 that was born of four years worth of development. There is just no way in hell. And from a developer this kind of game is appalling.

Ratchet: Gladiator Playstation 2 Review

Ratchet Gladiator Playstation 2 Review

The story behind Ratchet: Gladiator is simple enough – Ratchet and Clank find themselves captured by a mad TV producer (Vox – an intergalactic version of Robert Murdoch) who is running the gladiator like TV program Deadlock – fighting to the death is a ratings winner and if you are good enough you might just earn your freedom. In short order and with doomed resolve, Ratchet is suited up and paired with a couple of bots who, with their complaining and absent mindedness, hardly inspire confidence in our hapless hero.

The main focus of the game is on Ratchet and the bots as they battle through the various scenarios. Clank, rather than being in the thick of the action, plays the part of his coach, sitting at a terminal and keeping an eye on events and giving advice via intercom – he is certainly a sideline player here.

Ratchet’s battlefields are mostly stadium like and with an ever increasing assortment of weaponry (including his devastating wrench) he must chew his way through attack bots of all shapes and sizes. His companions do their fair share as well and often the scene is a hail of bombs, laser cannon fire and exploding pellets. Adding to the confusion are the lumps of gold that zoom in Ratchet’s direction after each kill. This gold comes in handy between fights to upgrade armor, guns and his companion bots (they come to him in less that average condition). Once the required number of kills has been reached force fields allow Ratchet to go through to the next area – inching Ratchet closer to the enviable show down with the current champion.

All of this action would be frustrating and the appeal of the game would last about as long as a Federal election TV Ad if the graphics were poor and the control sluggish but thankfully this is not the case. Graphics are sharp and game play smooth and fast. No sooner have you fired than your enemy explodes, Ratchet’s weapons fire as rapidly as you care to thumb the control. Another Godsend, considering the manic pace of the game, is that scenes load quickly and if you’re unlucky enough to die you spawn again in very short order.

The production value of this game is very high without losing sight of its light hearted and comical roots but hard core fans will notice some differences. No more open ended scenarios or puzzle solving, this is just a shoot-em-up – make no mistake. Imagine if they made a first person version of Tomb Raider – same premise, different experience. The humor and characterisations too are again first class with some definite adult humor hidden behind double meaning and well placed ‘beeps’.

If I had to gripe about something it would be the design of the HUD and, now that I mention it, the default button config doesn’t seem as friendly as they good be. Running out of ammo isn’t very obvious, in fact the only clue I got while playing was a ‘click’ and this was easily lost amongst the bombs and cannon fire. Once you have cottoned on that your gun is no longer working, changing the gun is a little unsure. It should be R1 and yet I am sure that this only changed my weapon half the time. Most of the time I just stayed with one gun and used my wrench until I found more ammo.

With all this aside though, the bottom line is this game is fast, furious and a lot of fun. If the non-stop destruction doesn’t get you, the humor will.

Rugby League 2 Review

Rugby League 2 Review

A few years ago HES put itself on the map with the first NRL game in a long time. After taking the license from EA, HES enlisted Sidhe, a New Zealand developer to get the game done. The result was a quality title that showed so much potential if Sidhe was given more time and more money to develop a second title. That second title is now here and Sidhe is now a much bigger developer. Rugby League 2 gives fans exactly what they want but still has a few issues to contend with before jumping to the next generation of consoles.

As with the original game, most of the game modes revolve around the NRL Telstra Premiership. You can play a season or exhibition match for a quick play but for the true die-hard NRL fans, franchise will be the order of the day. The franchise mode is new for Rugby League 2 and mimics that of many higher profile sport titles such as Madden.

The default camera is top/down but Sidhe have really worked on the TV style presentation and we found the dynamic camera to look the best while remaining playable. Aside from that really Rugby League 2 is a graphical update of the original game which to be honest is a little disappointing. Sidhe had two years to build this game, and decided the animation engine they used for the original was enough. Don’t be surprised if you feel a little too familiar with the game when you first start playing if you have played the original game.

With that said, the guys have worked very hard on getting this year’s game right. The AI has been reworked and generally offers a much better challenge to gamers this time around. The days of passing five or six times and sprinting to the try line is over. They have also heavily worked on the presentation but on the PS2 version this becomes more an annoyance than anything as it greatly increases the load time between plays. We found ourselves turning this off within the first match as the game flows much better without it.

In terms of animation, it appears not much has changed. The tackles seem all the same and this was one of our biggest disappointments with the game. It is obvious Sidhe has worked on many aspects but this is not one of them. However there are also many positives to the game. The franchise mode has given Sidhe the option to add recruitment and long term injuries to the game as well as the judiciary. The game only comes up with a ticker to indicate the amount of suspension. It would be nice to have the option to watch a replay and decide whether to contest it or not in the next edition of the game.

In terms of licensing, Sidhe does not disappoint. The game includes both the Telstra Premiership and English Super League and the grounds that make those competitions up and like the last game the representative teams are all here with the Blues and Maroons, International Teams and even City vs Country. The difference is with the franchise mode, this like the real world can affect your ability to play due to injuries or suspensions incurred while on rep duty,

The actual grounds have been updated once again and again appear be the real standout feature. Sidhe has put a huge level of detail into each structure right down to the advertising boards and surrounding areas of the stadiums. Even so, this also adds a little disappointment as we expected Sidhe to really re-work the graphics engine. It’s not a bad engine, but it’s also not that much better than the original. The game is also on console exclusive to Playstation so this obviously has limited the work that could be done to improve the graphics.

Rugby League 2 is hopefully a stop gap until a better game for the next gen. The addition of franchise is what makes this game probably worth buying for NRL fans but for those who can wait and have the original, it’s almost as good and the upgrade is not worth the money in our opinion.

NintendoDS Mario Kart DS Idea

NintendoDS Mario Kart DS Idea

One of the games which Nintendo fans look forward to when the giant company makes a new system is Mario Kart. Whoever at Nintendo decided little characters in karts would make a great game was so right, and we’ve seen so many quality titles in the franchise that it’s hard to see how Nintendo could have improved it. However they have and Mario Kart DS is by far the best in the series so far.

The game has a sense of familiarity when you first switch it on but Nintendo has completely built this one from the ground up. They could have ported N64′s Mario Kart, but to their credit they decided not to do that and have created a fantastic game. As you would expect there is a only few options to choose from including Single and Multiplayer with the main crux of the game being the tournament modes.

As with other Mario Kart titles the game is a racing title and the aim is obviously to finish first. However there has been a few changes to the game to keep it fresh. Most of the game remains the same. There are eight tournaments to choose from with only two unlocked initially. As you progress through you will discover the special cup and after completing that the retro cups are unlocked which are actually the tracks from the very first Mario Kart game.

The other familiar aspect is the three speed levels to choose from; 50, 100 and 150cc. Obviously, the more powerful the kart, the harder it is to control and therefore the harder the game is to play. Honestly however, 50cc really is for those who may have never played this game before and even then most will find it just not enough of a challenge to be even worth it. 100 and 150cc is where the gaming action is.

Although most of the game will feel familiar, there are few changes. First being one of the new powerups which turns you into a bullet traveling at high speed taking out competitors. When we discovered this powerup we weren’t expecting it but it works so well in the game that it should be kept for future games. Other changes are a bit less obvious other than the new tracks and karts. This is a game where many of the tracks have been built from scratch as opposed to inspired by previous games and the tracks are enjoyable to play.

You will find a bevy of characters to choose from but one of the coolest new aspects is the multiple karts. You can drive a kart from the latest game or choose to use a more old fashioned kart from the previous games. Each character has their own kart and statistics. Some are slow and easy to control while others are fast and harder to steer well. Choosing the right character can affect whether you win or lose.

Visually the game is a surprise. It is much better then i were expecting and when the DS produces graphics like this paired with this gameplay it can be easy to forget about the PSP. The game runs very smooth and seems to use a voxel style graphics engine for the 3D effect. Either way it looks brilliant with high levels of detail and most of all it compliments the racing and gameplay very well. The sound effects are typical with music and stupid character voices the order of the day.

Mario Kart DS is a must have game for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo have really managed to put together an extremely fun game and with the online options, the Nintendo DS really does house the best Mario Kart game ever.

Namco Battle Collection for PSP

Namco Battle Collection for PSP

When the PSP was first announced most would have expected high quality, graphically intense games and for the most part that’s what we’ve got. However, there is also a market out there for older games that are perfect for short trips. Namco Battle Collection focuses on this by bringing some of the most famous games in the world to the handheld unit, and this is no cash in. In fact this is one of the most perfect games for the PSP released yet.

Namco’s collection is made up of some games which truly defined gaming in the eighties and still have quite a following today. Ranging from Pacman through to Galaga, even the younger generation of gamers will find something to like here. Especially considering some of the games have been remixed in an ‘arranged’ format combining old school gaming with modern gaming and culture, a popular option with budding DJ’s of today.

Pacman

This game continues to innovate and be synonymous with old school and modern gaming even today. Basically you control a little yellow face (pac man) and have to pick up pellets while avoiding enemies. The tables can be turned if you eat a power pellet and you can then eat the enemies. In terms of changes for the PSP the original is here in all its glory if you wish to play it, but there is also an arranged version which changes some of the game options and rules. For instance in the third level speed arrows are added and moving through these can help you kill enemies without eating pellets. Overall the game is still as fun as it was when it first came out and will be one of the more popular in this compilation.

Galaga

Galaga is an interesting one as it seems to be a sort of pseudo 1942-Space invaders combination. You fly through space shooting craft but these craft join together to make them tougher making it feel a bit like space invaders. The arranged version has improved the graphics giving it a sort of 3D feel but other then that not much has changed.

Rally X, New Rally

Rally X is a sort of pacman clone in that you drive a small car being chased by a car while having to pick up flags. However it is a heck of a lot of fun to play. The arranged version has improved the graphics somewhat and there is two versions of the classic edition included, Rally X and New Rally X. The arranged version is based on New Rally X. The controls can be annoying with this one until you realise the DPAD is a lot easier to use than the stick.

Dig Dug

Dig Dug is a game which tasks you with moving a little man around digging holes and dropping rocks on to enemies. However it does require some strategy because the rocks drop basically as soon as the dirt is removed around them. Running out of rocks is not an option as the entire aim of the game is to beat the enemies to move on to the next stage. The arranged version hasn’t changed much other than the graphics but the new character looks rather cool so it’s worth playing.

King Balloon

There is no arranged version of King Balloon. In the classic you are tasked with shooting balloons which are coming down to steal the king in a very space invaders like way. The difference is that if the King is caught you can shoot the balloon to rescue him. It’s quite fun to play but the more famous classics will probably get more play time.

Bosconian

Boscnian is pretty much asteroids with a space ship that can shoot front and rear and you have to aim the ship to hit the asteroids and ships coming into hit it. Again it’s probably a game that will be forgotten because of the other classic games.

Xevious

We really liked Xevious even if it doesn’t have an arranged edition (but should have) because of one cool feature and that is the ability to have both air and land combat. You fly a small ship but you can drop bombs on land structures shooting at you. It was probably one of the first games to introduce this mechanic and it works extremely well.

Mappy

This is a very strange game and is hard to play. You take the role of a mouse trying to steal items from the cats of the neighborhood such as TV’s. To do this you enter the house which has trampolines and doors to slam in cats faces. It’s interesting but again not one of the game’s best titles.

The Tower of Druaga

Think of a very early version of Gauntlet and you have the right idea. Taking control of a little barbarian man, you have to work you way through a maze, find the key, kill the enemies, and unlock the door all in a set period of time. Fun to play but the guy just moves too slowly to have you interested for any period of time.

Dragon buster

As the name implies you kill dragons in this one. Despite its simplicity I really liked this game. You travel from kingdom to kingdom, entering dungeons and killing enemies for the king. You basically do this by moving left and right and slashing. Now this may sound boring but the cartoon graphics and simplicity makes it one of the better games.

Grobda

Grobda is an unknown but extremely fun game to play. It reminds me a lot of the Tank Commmodore 64 games where you had to drive around shooting each other. You’re placed in a small area with a number of tanks and have to eliminate them without being shot. It’s a shame there is no multiplayer options for this one.

Motos

In this game a small craft and a number of balls are placed on a plane in space. You have to push the balls off the edge without being pushed off yourself which is harder than it sounds as the game progressively adds more obstacles and balls as you progress through.

Rolling Thunder

This game is again simplistic but again I really like it. You take the role of a human with guns having to shoot enemies in colourful outfits. Basically you move from left to right shooting enemies and gaining weapons. Simplistic yet it works very well. Namco Battle Collection does have its problems (like the perspective of some of the games, top down, with borders) but overall fans of Namco arcade games from the eighties will really get into this, especially the arranged versions. It’s also a title that allows you to pick up the PSP, play two minutes, and turn it off without losing too much progress.