Latest Reviews: Mon, May 26 2003 - 4:05 PM by: Lunchbox

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I-Ninja Thursday, December 11 2003 - 6:33 PM by: Lunchbox

PS2

This review is going be a little on the quick side but so is this game.
To start this game is nothing out of the ordinary... except for the the story, a ninja who kills his master by accident who then comes back as a ghost to be your guide you throught the game. So to remain on the quick side here it is:
Positive

Negative

Graphics: 7.5

Controls: 7

Gameplay: 8

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence Thursday, December 4 2003 - 6:27 PM by: Lunchbox

PS2

The first Castlevania game to come out on the PS2,so how was it you ask? Good, bad, ugly... mostly the first but some things about the game drifted over to the latter two.

The second game to make the move to the 3d environment to come out in the last couple months, Megaman X7 being the other one. I have to say that Castlevania is done worlds better then Megaman featuring none of the slow down in combat or frustrating controls that took the stage in Megaman.

The question I am told is the big question that people ask before they pick up this game is "Is it still a Castlevania game?" To this I answer yes, still featuring a Belmont as the main character(Yes I know that Symphony of the Night didn't feature a Belmont but you could unlock him), whip in hand and a vampire to kill. However this time that story is that of the first Belmont to take up the whip. However this ambitious take on the Castlevania legacy leaves me for one a little disappointed in the overall story from start to finish.
In the 2d to 3d most of the time there is a drop in the speed of the game... and I have to say again in Megaman X7 this is far beyond true however there is almost no loss of game pace compared to the other Castlevania titles, but they pick up in my mind the second worse thing about video games right now, the static camera angle in a 3d game. Now I understand that this is done to hide some items just off screen making them "secrets" which is another game piss-off of mine but if you alread have the system of the moving camera implemented in the game would it be that hard to add some user control to it?

Now this game is a little different from the last one(Symphony of the Night)since it loses the experience system they added but manage to keep the large amount of backtracking. For the Castlevania purest the loss of the experience system is a good thing but without it you end up only fighting the creatures that you are forced to as you do your trip through most of the game.

For the most part this review has been positive so I think it is time to throw in some negative thoughts. The controls suck. The default layout is good and everything that you could want to do is there(except change camera angles) but the delay in the controls is terrible, leaving you to do most of the whip jumps several times in frustration.

Graphically this is by far the best game in the series with a decent story that may frustrate people who would have liked a more epic story start but the controls hurt the overall game experience leaving you feeling that you have beat just another game not the epic start of the series they had hoped for.

If you didn't notice until now I have abandoned the old format of grouping my thoughts into something readable, so here is a quick run down.

Graphics: 8

Controls: 6.5

Gameplay: 8

Need for Speed: Underground 04-december-2003 by: VinTZ

The last time I had a really enjoyable racing game was in December of the first year of the PS2 with Gran Turismo 3. That was a long ass time ago. Finally, I've got a solid racing, car modifying, pimping game. Definitely pick up a copy of Need for Speed: Underground.

The true appeal to the game is the boundless mods that you can apply to your car. I've personally chosen the Golf GTI (there are much better cars but this is a personal soft spot) and I must say that it looks hot. You can do just about anything to the car from tinting windows, mixing body kits, vinyls, rims, engine mods, accesories, decals, everything. It truly is a great time. After you are done making your car a thing of beauty, there is a racing game in here too.

Wow. I have to start with the controls. I'm playing on GCN (gamecube) but the controls are all just about the same across the platforms. I love the controls, easy to use, you don't need a surgically altered finger to hit the e-brake while hitting the gas at the same time, it just flows naturally. A fairly realistic physics engine is applied to the game; the car cannot turn on a dime going 100 mph. Great racing, tough competition, and you can choose your difficulty level for each race or challenge.

Manhunt 04-december-2003 by: VinTZ

To start things off, this game seriously is not for peoples under the age of majority. The story is that you are a killer sentenced to death row. Your execution is faked and you are placed into a game of death. While Bruce Lee is nowhere to be found, there are tons of other killers that are looking to kill you. The stage has been set for a game of survival. I'll warn you again, this game gave me the creeps after a couple of kills; it's that bad--but still pretty good.

The game still haunts me a little. You pretty much go around killing innocent people. There isn't much to say about the game so I'll try my best to relay my horrifying experience. You can beat someone with just about anything you find. Stealthy kills earn you a little cut-scene of the kill, so after a couple of these, I was good. As much as I think that it's great to sneak up on someone, watching the guy suffocate from having a plastic bag over his head is a little much. If you should fancy a sharper weapon, you may feel free to shatter a window and grab a glass shard. Yes, that is correct. Now start to cut your opponent while he screams that he is sorry and that you should let him live because he has a family.

Your blood gets colder as you play more of the game, but there are some nice features that warm the heart. That lovely little headset that PS2 offers is used in the game to attract people.The more noise that you make the better to hear you with my dear. So talking into the headset brings them all the closer and able to be caught unawares. The game doesn't support more than two buttons however; it quickly turns into a button mashing, festival of sore thumbs.

Unreal II Monday, November 10 2003 - 6:16 PM by: Genie

Enter The Matrix

Anything with the name “Wachowski” attached to it must be exceptional… and this game is no exception. The directors of the already cult classics teamed up with the original actors to bring you Enter The Matrix, basically the second movie as seen by the people who’re not the One. You play as either Niobe or Ghost, helping to shape the events of the Matrix: Reloaded.

Gameplay: Good, but too good. What that means is that the creators of the game tried to make it feel as close to the actual movie as possible, but in doing so, took the control from the gamer. The story is inevitably linear, so you fight your way from checkpoint to checkpoint through the entire game. Between checkpoints are cinematics, either in CG form, or actual movie form, shot with the same actors and settings. These are definitely the real reasons to play this game, to see parts of the movie that were NOT in the movie. In the actual gameplay, you can either use the large array of weapons available to you, or go Matrix kungfu style. For the most part, the weapons are very accurately depicted in terms of accuracy, rate of fire, reload. However, ammo is very limited in the game, as you only get them if you kill someone with them. So eventually, you have to go kungfu, which is where the fun is at. At this point, I should talk about the “Focus” feature. It is a way for your character to do those laws of physics breaking things, such as running on walls, jumping 30 feet, super moves. You enter into bullet time whenever you use Focus, which uses up your Focus reserve until you go back to normal time, where it’ll recharge. Fighting with it is really cool, as you’ll pull off really awesome looking moves like in the movies. However, this goes back to the first point in this section: you really don’t have control of these moves. The whole time, I randomly jam the punch and kick buttons, and miraculously pull off these moves. It looks great, but over simplified.

Graphics: Great, especially when you have the hardware for it. You got shadows, particle effects, bullets whizzing by you in bullet time, you fight someone and you can knock things off shelves. There’s detail in everything, and did not slow down the game one bit.

Controls: Generally good, except the game doesn’t let you change your mouse speed, which sucks when you want to quickly turn around or fight two people at the same time. It however has a mouse sensitivity adjuster, but it only makes a difference when you’re in sniper mode. (Crank this down)

Sound: Some good music to go with your fighting, like in the movies. It is compatible with Advance HD on an Audigy2, which gives you seamless 360° sound. However, I did notice some sound missing when I fire certain weapons.

Bombastic, at least 'bomb' is in the name to warn you. Thursday, October 2 2003 - 10:27 AM by: Lunchbox

PS2

If you are looking for a puzzle game with little to no actual thinking and a Jpop feeling then this is the game for you.

Graphics: Not up to par. The graphics are your standard cel shaded pictures which is good but doesn't look as good as some of the other cel shaded games on the market right now. Don't get me wrong it's nice to have cel shaded once in a while but during some points in the game it just doesn't look that great. 6.5/10

Controls: Terrible. How do you screw up controls in a puzzle? Well the first thing you do in a game that only uses the direction button is to disable the analog control, to force you to use the d-pad for the entire game. More then once I would have liked to have had the analog stick to use since during some parts, mostly boss battles, being on part of the die is important you are forced to use the cumbersome d-pad. 5/10.

Gameplay: It's a puzzle game with a twist. Not a twist of lime mind you but a twist never the less. The game revolves around you walking on a die from the start of the level to the end. During the course of the level you try to line up the dies to create a matching set to cause them to explode. Sounds like it could be fun but most of the 'puzzles' in the game turn out to be walk this die straight forward and that's the solution. The boss battles are the only real point of interest in the game, they are for the most part tough the first time you play them... or at least for the first minute you play them, after that you have learned their pattern and it just becomes a matter of time to beat them. For a puzzle game Bombastic is incredibly short, 2 hours is all that you will need to finish this game and be back on your way to return it. The game comes off as if it is being marketed to two totally different groups. Kids and adults, the story line is for kids without a doubt, but the game is being pushed as a difficult puzzle game(which it isn't) but leaves you feeling like this games wasn't marketed for you... or at least for me. 6/10

Sound: Nice. An enjoyable little soundtrack is embedded into the game. Sort of a Jpop sound to it, the kind of thing you have come to expect from most of Capcom games now a days. 8/10

Soul Calibur II Monday, September 29 2003 - 8:10 PM by: Lunchbox

PS2

SWWWEEEEETTTTT!!!!!. I'm not sure if that's a real word... I may have put in too many letter what it's too late to change it now. Needless to say this game is the sweet. The long awaited sequal to Soul Calibur which was long considered one of, if not the best fighting game ever made. It's just too bad it only got released on the Dreamcast and Arcade, but if you are a true game fan you would have played it.

Graphics: Good not Great. There are no flaws that I found in the graphics, no cliping, I don't remember anything being out of the ordinary or a let down, but it's not break through. Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing, they were just limited by the hardware to prevent slow down during the fights. 9/10

Controls: Tight. Off the top of my head I don't recall that at any point while I was playing the game that I cursed the controller doing that stupid thing were you look at the it saying out loud "I pressed the f*cking button you son of a b*tch" as the continue screen appears. The only problem I had was more a user problem then a game problem of it taking too long to sidestep attacks, but that could have just been me. 9/10

Gameplay: Fun. This game is just plain fun to play, if you play are just playing to see the ending of the'Arcade' mode it's fun, if you play for the intense fights on the 'Hard' and up difficulties it's fun, if you are a crazy man who enjoys the weapon master mode it's fun(That would be me). The 'Arcade' mode is your standard fight though these 8 matches(The 8th being the 'destined' match a little feature were you character has a lead up to the match with some quick converstation with your opponent), followed by the boss match. Also offered are your standard 'Time Attack', 'Team Battle', 'Survival Mode', several theater modes where you can check the weapons, endings, movies, profiles, art, and weapon demostrations. All that I just listed is good, but the true enjoyment(at least for me) is to be found in the 'Weapon Master' Mode, were you travel the land in search of the soul edge and soul calibur, the story unfolds in this mode(unfortually it's a generic story and doesn't matter who you choose to play with), and most importantly unlock most of the extra modes as well as weapons for the characters. My only comment about the game is that during the 'Weapon Master' mode if you lose a mission you have to go out to the global view then re-enter the mission, go through the load screens again instead of just have a 'retry' option available after the lose. It's not a big thing but becomes huge when you get stuck on some of the harder missons. 10/10 is what I would have given it, but that missing 'retry' thing is killing me right now 9/10.

Sound: I'm not a sound guy but everything seemed to be in order, the music never got on my nerves, and the sound effects never took away from the fight. 9/10.

PN03 Thursday, September 18 2003 - 11:10 PM by: Vinnie

Game Cube

Now that was a game that was made for a certain kind of gamer. In order to enjoy PN03, (Product Number 3--Capcom's latest for the Gamecube) you've got to have a mental dysfunction. A girl that kinda hops to the beat all the time and performs dancing moves while fighting and dodging, all the while wearing a skin tight battle suit that shoots lasers. Okay I'll admit that I just misled you a bit there because now I'd like to give it another try. But I know better. And soon so will you.

Is it considered an art to gain the timing as a gamer, where you need to press a button before you need to press a button? Confused by that sentence? Good. PN03 will do that to you. Shooting and jumping where the only things that were responsive. When I mentioned "fighting" I really meant only shooting. But be careful, if someone decides to shoot you back you really have to see it coming. Dodging stuff is a real pain. It's like you have to get out of the way all the time. You sit there thinking, "Whoa, the bad guy might shoot soon--better press the dodge button so that this girl gets out of the way later." This leads to many deaths that make you feel inadequate.

I think that Capcom was going for a trademark, flashy, upbeat, explosive-filled ride of a game. When that is what you are looking for, Capcom is always a solid choice. But the question still remains. "What the hell was this?" Should they have maybe thought about making a 3-d shooting game, they would have stuck with the Devil May Cry engine. It was awesome. This was not. You don't get to change the camera angles unless you start walking. And turning and walking is hard enough as it is. When you try to incorporate 3-d movement with only one joystick, it ain't going to work worth a shit. And it didn't. I kept trying to turn on the spot to follow the guy that was shooting me in the ass, so naturally I hold the joystick to the left. She hops to the side, out of the cover that I had so now I'm being shot in the face and in the ass (yeah, Lunchbox... Super gay). I recall that I need to be moving in order to turn so I hold back and left on the joystick. This is when little miss hop-around decides to take little hops backwards. Not at any kind of pace, but to the beat because god forbid. Needless to say, this was the reason that I died really fast on the third level. Think of playing a game where your character is one of those remote control cars that has a cord attaching it to the remote, and the idea of the game is to park in a parking spot. Frustrated yet? Me too.

So the control sucked. What is next to suck? Well to be honest, not too much. I think that fans of this genre (not sucky games, but flashy shooters) have been waiting for this so we have to like it. Unfortunately for Capcom, I'm a fan of it and I did not like the game. In fact I'm really upset right now. I was expecting Devil May Cry with lasers, a hot chick, and pretty explosions. Instead, I got PN03. I was going into the game expecting a blowjob, and I got raped in the bum. You may be able to see my disappointment by now.

If Capcom had but another month into this thing, it could have made them some serious money as a sleeper-hit. XBOX has a similar game called, Gun Valkyrie. It was decent so if you want a somewhat awkward shooting experience, check it out instead of PN03. Sorry Capcom, I love you dearly and I'm honestly ecstatic, still, that you and Nintendo are friends again. But there is no excuse for putting me through this. I do expect more from you.

Here's the table...

Graphics	Sound	Control	suck factor	Total from 10000
good	We got beatsbeatsbeats.	2-d controls in a 3-d environment	moderate	5831

So there is your table and I'll see you another time. I have to go and play Dynasty Warriors to get this out of my system...

-vinnie out.

Hunter: Wayward Thursday, September 18 2003 - 11:10 PM by: Vinnie

PS2

Wow. It has been a rather long time since I have posted anything what-so-ever. I guess that it's high time to do it. And what a better way to get back into the saddle than with a little commentary on a video game. Nice and easy just to get the feel for this again.

So I sat down the other day and decided to try out the new Hunter:Wayward for PS2. I had played the first Hunter game and it was a little on the sub-par side, but there had been rumours of improvement. Instead of walking around cars, you may jump over them. Shitty controls would be fixed, camera angles would be adjustable, etc. Basic make-over stuff. I know now that the synonym for rumour is fucking lies.

First item on the list of bullshit from the game is that you need either three hands to play, or eight fingers on each of your two normal hands (three fingers must be opposable). Not off to a good start--not even a little. If I want to strafe left or right, I'm using the L or R buttons whether you like it or not. I'd prefer not to have to use both analog sticks and another button to sidestep myself into a fire-breathing monster just because some jackass programmer thought he was being thoughtful.

Here's another one. Gamers, though we know it is impossible, enjoy the magical jumping abilities. Jumping forward and changing your mind mid-flight is what we want to see. It's fun. It also saves some of us from hating your shitty games because we either jump too far, or straight up.

My psychiatrist says that is isn't good for me to continue bashing poorly made games so I must add in a few good things. I did enjoy the character with the huge ass axe but it did hurt my brain when I put the axe aside for the secondary weapon--12 gauge shotgun and a sub-machine gun. Why the hell was that my second weapon?? Oh wait... It's because I couldn't strafe, forget I said anything. Here is a little table I whipped up for the occasion.

Alter Echo Monday, September 1 2003 - 4:10 PM by: Lunchbox

PS2

Now its been a long time since I have played a platform game let alone a good platform game so picking up Alter Echo was a breath of fresh air for me... or at least a breath of fresh city air.
In Alter Echo you are put in the position of a 'Shaper,' a person with mental abilites that allow them to shape a rare material that is in this future world the most precious material of all. But more to the point you are sent in to take out the greatest 'Shaper' of all time that has gone crazy after creating a new version of this material. The general idea is you hack/slash/shoot your way through the various levels in the game, what makes this game different from others in its genre is that you have three different form that you can use in the levels. This both makes the game different from the others in its genre but also makes it interesting to play.

Graphics: Wow, I mean WOW!!! Just kidding there is nothing graphics wise that you haven't seen before a hundred times in your standard PS2 game. So while Alter Echo does nothing to impress it doesn't do anything that wrong. The FMVs inbetween levels are done well bringing the story to life instead of just an over voice throwing mission objectives at you. I do have to say that I didn't at anytime experience any clipping in the game but at this point in game development its a serious problem in game testing if there is any. Unfortunally I have to point out that the camera like most games in this genre is terrible, most of the time in heated battles it is facing the wrong way leaving you for the most part to guess at the exact location of the enemies you are hacking at are, however the designers have at least tried to combat this problem by including an arrow that points to enemies you are targetting off the screen. I have a few things to say about the targetting feature but I think it would be better to talk about those in the controls section. Another quick problem I had with the grapics is that your characters movement is canned, what I mean by that is it is a static movement cycle so there is no transistion between running the stopping unless you are at the end of the run animation cycle, otherwise your character pauses for a second then is in the standing position without showing the movement to that position. 7/10

Controls: The controls are generally quite responsive during the gameplay with the default setup being the one you will most likely stick with for the course of the game. During the time I played I never experienced any delay in a button press to the action so I have nothing really to say about tthis games controls other then... good... yeah they are good. 8/10.

Gameplay: At this point I'm guessing that you have picked up that I don't really think that is game is anything special but I do have to say that it is pretty fun to play, or at least entertaining to play just do to the game mechanics. You are as I previously stated a Shaper able to alter the environment around you or at least in this game just the suit you wear and the environments at certain 'sync' nodes in the game. During a level you are sometimes forced to use a certain form you are given such as your stealth form to get past a gun or your gun form to get past a wall, but most of the time you will be able to use which ever form you want to defeat the bad guys, the game even provides some combos that benefit you for switching forms mid combat. This shaping ability makes the levels have a different feel for the most part but also some have the feel of use the stealth form now because we haven't forced you to use it in a while. So while the different forms add a nice change to the game they also at times feel like a hinderance because they are at points used for the sole purpose of being used. The game also addes a little bit of AI for the enemy bots by adding a feature that if you use only one move on them they will block it, to counter this you are suppose to change your attack patterns to prevent the one button killer combo being used through the entire game but ends up changing you tactics to using the two button killer combo through the whole game since they won't block that, its a neat feature until you learn to abuse it because they wont' block the two button combo, leaving you feeling that his isn't additional AI added to the game but a cheap AI route taken to save the programmer time on the bots. Change is nice, I hope to see more platform games be different from each other. 8.4/10

Sound: The voice overs in the game are quite well done in the game, providing story between levels and adding some personality to the various side characters in the game and adding the truth to the claim that the big bad is in-fact crazy. Music.... what to say.... well I didn't really notice the music during the game which is both a good and a bad thing, I wasn't impressed by the music, nor was I annoyed so a generic nothing wrong but nothing great 7/10 for music.

Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits Monday, August 11 2003 - 9:15 PM by: Lunchbox

PS2

Whats that you say? You want a RPG that follows the old formula of a teen of the verge of manhood who is destined to save the world from annihilation by a being about to be resurrected. If that in-fact was your question then I have the game for you, it's your typical RPG but I'm not saying that's a bad thing, in fact I think its a good thing.

Graphics: Nothing out the ordinary here. The graphics don't at any point seem amazing nor do they disappoint. They seem to fall right in the middle, they are good, not great, I think I would actually say that they are your ordinary PS2 graphics but that seems to fit too much with this game that really doesn't do anything new. 7/10.

Controls: Excellent but that’s not saying much since it takes a lot to screw up RPG controls. Within the first couple of minutes of the game you become familiar with the controls as if you had been playing for hours, but once again its not saying a lot since its really only a three button system that you are using most of the game, action/cancel/status. 9/10(it’s pretty hard to screw-up RPG controls)

Gameplay: As I said before this game pits you as a teen on the verge of manhood destined to save the world from a coming evil, but the twist to it is that you get to play that game from two different vantage points. First you start the game as Kharg, a human with a strange birth mark on his arm who starts off with minor quests of running errands (which I have to point out is how almost every game with this story starts out) when stuff happens and BAM you are thrown into the mix of saving the human world. The twist of this game and one of the few new things that it does is when you get to play the game from another perspective of Darc a 'deimos wannabe' with a strange birthmark on this arm and get sent on errands before stuff happens and you get thrown into the mix of saving the deimos world. You play both of these stories at the same time, well actually one after the other but in parts which happen at the same time, so you play Kharg part 1 then Darc part 1 then Kharg 2 and Darc 2 and so on and so for the. It may be your typical story but I like it. The game progresses most of the time by moving from one spot on the map to another spot but not in the typical character searching for the next dungeon/city/bridge but from event point to event point on the map. While this ends up making this game extremely linear, at least you know the maximum number of random encounter you will have before you get to the next save point/healer/item shop. The battle system seems to be taken out of breath of fire V but lacks the point system, so for those that haven't played Breath of Fire V or are just confused by my description here we go, the battle system is a turn based battle that is based off of your characters SPD (speed) to determine order that they move. When you character gets to move a move radius will appear around them showing you how far you can move in an attempt to get the enemy into your attack radius (tip of the moment: hitting a character in the back gives more damage and a greater hit chance). Each character has a slightly different attack radius, which helps to add some strategy to the normal hack and slash of most RPG's on the market nowadays. While most of the features can be identified from other games none of them are done wrong and the game ends with a good feeling like a blanket that has been worn-in. On a quick side note, the characters suffer from what I call perfect ending syndrome, this is when characters randomly forgive the bad guy because he says he had the best intentions, 'you mean you just killed hundreds of people because you thought it would help??? How can I be made at you now??? Wait you still killed my family and all my friends, but who the hell am I to judge, lets hug buddy' which tends to make be put down the controller and take a step back due to the sheer stupidity of it. It happens in most games that aim at a younger audience such at Dark Cloud 2 but this game isn't aimed at a young audience or at least I wouldn't suggest it to my little brother due to the amount of death in the game, but maybe I'm wrong. 8/10

Sound: Step one: Tell the reader that sound is just not my bag. So now that you know sound is just not my bag, here is my take on this games music/sound effects. The game has some very generic music that overlaps the battle scenes and town settings, but during the over-map while moving from event point to event point the music sometimes totally disappears leaving you with strange silence that you just don't see in most games. Some would argue that this was done to be different from other games on the market but I call them the marketing division and instead go for my explanation that it was a mistake. The sound effects are good, even great at some points when characters that have voices talk during there special moves/magic, but can really, really get on your nerves when the attack phrase gets used over and over again during the course of the game. Leaving me to do what I expect most people would do, turn the battle voices off during the replay of the game. 6/10.

Tomb Raider: Angle of Darkness Thursday, July 17 2003 - 10:37 AM by: WongFu

PS2
Presentation: 7 Great Intro but the CG could have been better. VERY slow paced. IE: I don't want to have to wait 5 minutes so Lara can tiptoe over to open the cupboard just to pick up an item. This happens even if you are like a centimetre away from the object. :(
Graphics: 7 Your standard polyons nothing to be too impressed about.
Sound: 8 Ambient effects and music sounds good.
Controls: 4 Here's the big one, If you like fighting the controls this game is for you. Don't make a game based on jumping from platform to platform if your going to move the camera around and screw with the controls midflight. Were there even testers for this game?
Gameplay/Replay: 4 Honestly this department I wouldn't know because I gave up after the second area of play.

Kirby: Fountain of Dreams Thursday, July 17 2003 - 10:37 AM by: WongFu

GBA
Presentation: 7 Very similar to all other GB Kirby titles where new doors open up as you beat levels.
Graphics: 8 Though not using too many of GBA's GFX power it still has excellent 2d animation, Very colourful levels with a lot of variety and a plethora of weapon animations
Sound: 8 Reminis the old tunes from original Kirby titles plus new ones. Sound effects are very... cutish but effective nonetheless
Controls: 9.5 It's a 2.5 button game!, A,B and Select. The loss of 0.5 is cause i'm being a little anal, but they could have change pressing the select button to pressing one of the shoulder (L,R) buttons.
GamePlay Replay: 8 Excellent Plethora of Weapons to try out all tailored to everyone's play style. My Favourite is the cyclops eye blaster. For replay, probably going through twice or so. Once for main game, second to get all secrets for 100%. As well as 3 minigames which probably wont hold much attention in the multiplayer department. Other than that you can go multiplayer on the main adventure but just doesn't seem appropriate.

Advance Wars 2 Thursday, July 17 2003 - 10:37 AM by: WongFu

GBA
Presentation: 8 Nice rock and role them to the intro, other than that, cutscenes are in game with dialogue boxes, and Great tutorial in beginning levels.
Graphics: 7 Basic overhead view of the map and action sequence of military vs military. No special effects really used.
Sound: 7 Simple gun sounds and troop movement sounds. Music is a nice touch, making a long game not too mundane.
Controls: 9 Despite it's learning curve it's the best controls you'll get for a strategy game played on a controller. A to select, B to Cancel
GamePlay Replay: 10 Definite 10, Aside from a lengthy campaign mode ie: up to 1hr+ per mission, There is a skirmish mode against the computer, A Link cable mode for multiplayer VS, and get this A 2 player VS mode using 1 GBA! On top of that There's even a map edit mode to create your own maps.
In game is great because each commander you play as has unique powerups that affect troops and as battles are won you earn points to unlocking skirmish maps and character art.

Hegemonia: Legions of Iron Monday, June 16 2003 - 2:19 PM by: Lunchbox

PC

To start off this game looks just like HomeWorld, and if you don't know what I'm talking about close this window, head to your local game store and buy Homeworld which I have to say is one of the best RTS games out there, even if it is 2 years old, its still one of the best out there. Needless to say this game looks just like a clone but hopfully with some clean up to the few interface issues that were present in HomeWorld.

Graphics: Sweet, the background images of the solar system are... pretty... yeah I'm going to stick with pretty. The ships have a good level of detail to them but I was a little disappointed that when you equip your ships with different weapons they don't look any different. Even the map has a good level of detail to the planets and solar system. I'm rather happy with the graphics of this game so I'm going all out with a 8.5/10 for graphics.

Controls: Good but not great. Many a time the zoom doesn't work propery because there is a spec of space dust behind the camera so it can zoom out any farther, or the more frustrating there is something in front of the camera, that you can't see I might add, that prevents you from zooming in to the action. Other then that my only problem lies in tiny issues that come up here and there. 7/10.

Gameplay: Lets just start by saying the research system in the game is sweet, its the main reason to play this game, I want this kind of research system added to every RTS game on the market. For those that have no idea what I'm talking about Legions of Iron has a very rich research system that at the beginning of every level gives you X research points to spend on various inventions. Half of the research ideas are stuff you have to get and the other stuff is broken up into 4 weapon catagories, proton, ion(my personal favorite), quantum, and missle. Since you have only a limited number of research points, its recommended that you only spend your points in one of the weapon areas. I guess this adds some replay to the game but personally I would have liked to have maxed all the weapons out but that is just the way I am. The ship fights are fun to watch but leaves a lot of 'what the hell are you doing?' being yelled at the ships as they miss a stationary target time after time. Since I'm HomeWorld fanactic I have to compare the 2 and for a newer game it lacks some of the very basic features that made HomeWorld fun, first would have been to add some sort of tutorial to the first couple of missions, now the first couple levels in the game play like tutorials in there difficulty level but lack that... here are the controls aspect that is so needed. Secondly most important thing that is missing that made HomeWorld so much was the ship follow camera, its a simple thing to add but gets left out and leaves you most of the time using the mouse in a desperate attempt to follow the action instead of the riding shotgun on a dog fight feeling. 7/10 but while doing the research part 9/10 but then again I'm research nut.

Sound: No problems here but no praise either, for the most part background music just grates on my nerves in everygame if its not perfect. The voice acting is done quite well however but nothing that you won't see in everyother game that doesn't suck these days. 7/10

Unreal II Friday, June 6 2003 - 7:19 PM by: Genie

PC

After months of waiting and speculating, the sequel to the most successful FPS game has finally made its way to the computers of gamers, which usually have way too much processing power displaying at ridiculously high framerates. That’s right… it’s time again to pick up your assault rifle and pump some lead into that nasty looking alien with a really bad temper… Unreal2: The Awakening.

Graphics: Just about the most advance 3D engine you can find. If you’re the lucky few with a GF4 or Radeon9700pro, this game is eye candy from beginning to end. If not, get lucky. The folks at Epic and Atari have really out done themselves.

Controls: Nothing special here… your standard a-s-d-w & mouse, double tap dodging, leaning, the usual FPS layout.

Gameplay: Here’s where we fall back to the old saying, if you’ve shot your 100th alien, do you care? Fortunately, Unreal2: The Awakening is not only about blowing away aliens. Well actually, it is. But, the story line is good enough to keep you shooting to the end, albeit linear and quasi-predictable. The AI does get smarter according to the difficulty of your choice (don’t waste your time in easy… unless your favourite games are Solitaire and Hearts.) Your usual assortment of weapons can be found, hand guns, rifles, energy weapons, grenade launcher, all complete with secondary firing modes, about what you would expect. (Note: there IS a REAL sniper rifle, not that nasty sniper rifle-like thing in UT2003.) Multiplayer is as per usual… but let’s face it… you didn’t buy Unreal2 for multiplayer, UT2003 is just one icon away on your desktop. The only peeve I have is… what’s with the choices when you’re character is talking with someone? It doesn’t change how the game progresses, and it’s a major speed-bump to the pace of the game.

Sound: Excellent. Supports the latest in audio technology, the Audigy2 from CreativeLabs. Epic has really attempted to use music and soundfx to create the right mood at certain parts of the game, and they’ve succeeded.

Overall: What can I say? If you’re reading this, then probably you’ve already decided you want to play this game. If not, then you wouldn’t be reading this anyway. So just get it, and play it already!

Dynasty Warriors 4 Thur, June 5 2003 - 12:19 PM by: Lunchbox

Playstation2

Have you ever wanted to be an officer on the ground during a massive battle with a piece of steel in your hands and arrows soaring overhead? Then this is the game for you.

Graphics: Sweet, sure not XBox sweet but still good considering that you can see the inscription on the side of your weapons during the fight scenes.
Controls: No complants here, normally controls in this type of game lead me to rage but this one proved to be relativly easy to learn and use.
Gameplay: For the most part there are no complaints or at least nothing that becomes apparent right off the bat until you get into the huge battle were you are barly surviving and the camera is facing the wrong way, i mean in some parts of the game the camera just out right sucks.
Fun: Fun, crazy fun, how can you top running around making hundreds of troops your bitch? You can't or at least I can't think of a way.

A bunch of gameboy advance games Wednesday, June 4 2003 - 7:08 PM by: WongFu

WongFu Game Reviews:

GBA: all out of 10

FZero

Presentation: 9 Great simple menus to navigate
Graphics: 8 Top notch mode 7
Sound: 8 Despite an early game, some of the best on GBA
Controls: 9 Tight, you can really feel the diff in the cars
GamePlay/Replay: 8 With 4 levels of play and lots of tracks and cars to unlock and Link mode, it's great.
Rating: %84

Mario Kart

Presentation: 9 Great simple menus to navigate
Graphics: 9 Top notch mode 7 brighter than FZero so better on the old GBA's
Sound: 8 Very mario like and cute
Controls: 7 Would like more variety in characters
GamePlay/Replay: 8 Lots of Tracks and Link cable.
Rating: %82

Jackie Chan Adv
Presentation: 7 A little bland and not as easily navigated
Graphics: 7.5 Not too shabby for a Chan game
Sound: 6 Could use some help, basic punch and level music
Controls: 7 If you liked Double Dragon you'll like these controls
GamePlay/Replay: 6 Nothing more than a straightforward beat-em-ups but can be strangely fun at times
Rating: %67

Super Bust-A-Move

Breath of Fire 2

Yu Gi Oh! EDS

Contra Advance

Super Monkay Ball Jr

Justice League

MegaMan Zero

Metroid Fusion