Looks like the uber bad ass Mr. Fisher is on the lamb. What happened Sam? Why are you robbing banks? Check out this website, kind of a teaser for Splinter Cell 4.
http://www.bewaresamfisher.com/us/
November 2005
Sam Fisher!? Say it aint so!
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[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/battlefront2/cover.jpg[/floatleft]I hate saying I was right-but I was right. When [i]Star Wars: Battlefront[/i] came out a while back, I just knew it was simply one version away from being one hell of a video game. The original game was pretty bland, taking some of the aspects of the popular [i]Battlefield[/i] franchise and placing all things [i]Star Wars[/i] in. Well, now that the second incarnation of this game is out, all things bland have been fixed-not to mention the addition of space combat. ‘Stay on target!’
[heading]No matter how sure I am, I never bet the Fett.[/heading]
First off, you have to be a [i]Star Wars[/i] fanboy to appreciate all the things about this game. I mean, it places you right into the fray, action, and immense battles of the [i]Star Wars[/i] movies. You can control the two eras of the [i]Star Wars[/i] movie franchise. You get to control the Republic or the Confederacy (battle droids); or you can control the Empire or the Rebellion of the original movie trilogy (Episodes IV through VI), complete with soldiers, vehicles, and starships. Many new things are in the game, including awards for how you play the game that give you buffs and special classes that give status effects to your party or the enemy. However, the cream of the crop are the new space battles.
The space battles pit you versus them, with a fleet of star cruisers and fighters in between. You can take control of your side’s vehicles and dogfight it out with controls reminiscent of [i]Crimson Skies[/i] or get a boarding party of marines and launch an attack inside their cruiser. The space battles are very fun, but they take a long while to complete as you have to systematically take down a whole starship and navigate its defenses and the defenses of its accompanying cruisers. The scale of battle is great as you can literally navigate through the crevices of the enormous starships.
[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/battlefront2/ss04_thumb.jpg[/floatright][heading]I have a bad feeling about this.[/heading]
Much like the original [i]Battlefront[/i], the Jedi/Sith are present on the battlefield. This time, you can control them, and they are not all powerful (although Cone claims to have killed Vader in the original). You can get awarded with hero characters, be it actual Jedi or Sith, or even popular characters from the movies (including Boba ‘Freaking’ Fett). Of course, they wreck shop and have their own weapons and abilities (including Force powers for the Jedi). They also have a timer: in order to keep them alive and make your timer go up, you must take down your enemies; if you kill your teammates or get shot, then the timer goes down. So you can imagine to take out a Jedi, you have to gang up on him or her and really focus all you got on them. Of course, in return they can fairly eat your lunch and punch you in the stomach. Might I mention that Darth Maul is quite frankly the coolest thing about this whole game.
[heading]Where are you taking this… thing?[/heading]
The single-player campaign got the beefed-up treatment as well. You can play three modes. Instant action lets you play a game on any map with your rules, be it CTF, Assault, or Conquest. Also available is the Story of the 501st, the most bad-to-the-bone battalion of the Republic’s troopers there is. You get to play their story, narrated via a journal of the Clone Wars all the way to the Galactic Civil War. I love this part of the game. Also available is a strategy-based Galactic Conquest. You pick your side and era, of course, and set out to take over the galaxy, fending off attacks on your planets and launching space battles against their fleets on this board-type game. You also must purchase upgrades and troops. This mode is fun but gets old after a while.
[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/battlefront2/ss08_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]Of course, you cannot have [i]Battlefront[/i] without taking it online via Xbox Live. Again, find a match, and get in there and dominate. It’s fun stuff-if and when you get the chance to be a Jedi or hero character, all eyes will be on you. Consider yourself warned.
[heading]Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.[/heading]
I might have overdone the [i]Star Wars[/i] quotes in this review a bit. That doesn’t take away from the game itself. This game is one hell of a fun game, and that is why we play games. It’s a good time to be had and an even better time to be had by fans of the [i]Star Wars[/i] universe. The production values are all here: great voiceovers, sound, and everything you expect from a game with a budget. The graphics got the upgrade-everything is polished to a sheen and pumped full of steroids. Give this a purchase if you can. You won’t regret it. Get on Xbox Live, and take the fight to your buddies.
The podcasting story will be running tonight. So if you live in the SA area, then make sure to check it out. 9 o’clock news on Fox here in SA. I hope I look good. Wait who am I kidding I always look good.
PS2 Settlement
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I just got word that a website was setup for the class action suit against Sony over the Disc Read Errors. If you believe you are part of this suit, head on over to the [url=http://www.ps2settlement.com]website[/url] and read up on what your options are.
[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/tracememory/cover.jpg[/floatleft]The adventure game genre is a personal favorite of mine. Some of the most creative games of the 1990s were adventure games. Lucasarts and Sierra ruled the PC world for years with their combination of comedy and clever puzzles. As the new millennium approached, adventure games fell out of favor. Recently, however, they are experiencing a revival, and the Nintendo DS seems like the perfect platform. It’s portable, supports beautiful 2D graphics, and has an interface that almost seems designed for the games. [i]Trace Memory[/i] is the first effort on the system as a pure adventure game, and it does the job quite nicely
The first thing I noticed when I booted the game up was the beautiful character graphics. They are well drawn, bright, and make use of the DS’s admirable color depth. The anime style brings a lot of personality to the characters. Most of the game takes place in pre-rendered backgrounds which the player can click around and explore. These, like the character graphics, are extremely attractive. The only shortcoming of the presentation is in the 3D walkaround areas. As you move from place to place, you are given free control of the main character, Ashley, with the D-pad. These sequences are seen from a top-down perspective, with simple character models and ugly textures. This is offset, however, by a really good soundtrack. There are a ton of ambient sounds that give the outdoor areas some life. Overall, these parts are passable but do not detract from the experience too much.
[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/tracememory/ss03_thumb.jpg[/floatright]The interface is extremely clean and easy to use. It makes use of the DS’s touch screen in many ways, like selecting conversation items and navigating the pre-rendered backgrounds. Unfortunately, the game feels like it was not originally designed with the touch screen in mind. A few peculiar design decisions were made, like having to double-click on the touch screen to select things in the areas. There is an arrow on the screen all the time, and it seems unnecessary when using a touch screen. On the other hand, buttons for the touch screen interface are large and easy to navigate. The interface is good, but hopefully future adventure endeavors will go a step further.
The meat and potatoes of any adventure game is the story, and [i]Trace Memory[/i] serves up long dialogue sessions and interesting plot twists in spades. The story revolves around a teenage girl named Ashley who recently learns that her father is not dead like she thought. He invites her to meet him on a secluded island. Ashley soon meets a ghost named D, and through the next few hours of gameplay, you piece together his past, her father’s disappearance, and Ashley’s own past. The conversations can get kind of melodramatic, but not overly so. The main problem I have with the story is how slowly it moves. Some conversations have stupid sequences where Ashley will freak out every other line, and it bogs down the gameplay. Fortunately, the story is good enough in spite of this to make the experience enjoyable.
And an enjoyable experience is the important part, of course, but many players may be turned off by the short length of [i]Trace Memory[/i]. It can be completed in under seven hours by a decently intelligent human being. If you can get past this aspect, [i]Trace Memory[/i] is a good investment. It is an adventure game through and through, and anybody that grew up playing [i]Kings Quest[/i] and [i]Monkey Island[/i] should pick this up. It’s short, it’s sweet, and it hints at great things to come for the Nintendo DS’s adventure library.
