March 2007

GRAW 2 Closed PC Multiplayer Beta Signups Soon

March 23, 2007

News / by Jason Dobson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

While Xbox 360 owners are already enjoying the spoils of Ubisoft’s [i]Ghost Recon: Advanced War Fighter 2[/i], PC players has being made to wait until June. However, Ubisoft has announced that it plans to hold signups for the PC version’s closed multiplayer beta in the coming weeks, with the beta itself set to kick off in early April 2007.

Once again being developed from the ground up by GRIN, Ubisoft notes that the PC version of [i]Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2[/i] is being developed “specifically for the PC and PC gamers.” In the closed multiplayer beta gamers will get their first taste of the map CALAVERA, a map created exclusively for the game’s PC version, as well as the new Recon vs. Assault mode and the return of Team Deathmatch.

Look forward to more information soon.

Arena Football: Road to Glory

March 23, 2007

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Arena Football League is a lot like the NFL’s little brother. While trying to be different, the teams ultimately get the wannabe backups and washed up veterans the NFL doesn’t want.

EA’s first Arena Football game ultimately felt like the best development teams weren’t touching this thing either. Is the second installment any better?

First of all, the graphics are painfully last-gen. EA Tiburon has made a habit of recycling last year’s graphics for the NCAA series, but Road to Glory looks more like Madden 2004 than ’06. The sound, on the other hand, is almost nonexistent. There is no commentary, and during the game all you hear is a muffled stadium announcer. At least the music isn’t bad.

The menu system seems different just for difference’s sake. While EA Sports game menus are often boring and uniform, they are at least intuitive and easy to understand. Arena Football throws this out of the window in favor of a weird, arcade-style feel.

Of course, the most important part of this game: how does it play? The game has all the Arena quirks, for better or worse. For those more familiar with regular football, the positional restrictions can be confusing, but it does add to the game’s authenticity. The simple playbooks are less intimidating but ultimately feel shallow and limited. I could talk about the gameplay itself, but it’s just eight-player Madden– nothing special here. The hits do feel a bit harder, and the post-play animations help somewhat to give the game its “extreme” nature, but it lacks the EA polish.

The multiplayer is adequately engaging, but nothing stands out as special or unique. For most games, to have online play and multi-tap support for 8 players would be something to note, but it seems standard and obvious coming from EA.

Road to Glory retails for $30, but even at this lower price, it feels cheap. The game has advertisements on virtually every menu, and the barebones black-and-white instruction manual reminds you that yes, this is a budget title. But did EA use any cash on making the game better?

The two noticeable additions are the af2 League and a mini-game. The minor league teams do allow fans in those areas to play as their hometown favorite, but there’s little noticeable impact on the gameplay. The mini-game, on the other hand, showcases everyone’s favorite part of arena football: field goal kicking.

Wait, what?

Yes, that’s right: one of the main features of the game is, for the most part, a Training Camp mini-game that’s been in Madden for years. It’s mildly fun, but this isn’t a party game solution by any stretch of the imagination.

One major problem with this release: The Arena Football League has changed its rules for 2007, allowing more one-way players and a more NFL-like experience. This game doesn’t incorporate these new rules, so the one thing it has going for it– an authentic AFL experience– is flawed.

It sounds a bit unfair to compare this game to the behemoth franchises of Madden and Street, but the reality is that there’s almost nothing left after EA snapped up the league licenses, and there really isn’t a large market out there that buys three football games a year. This game is solid, if unspectacular. It’s just that no one really needed this game.

Sure, Road to Glory is a budget title, but it’s not competing with the latest Madden. You can get a more complete football experience with a used copy of last year’s edition, and the “ironman” concept is pulled off much more admirably by the NFL Street team. This game is just for those who want AFL teams and rosters. This series just seems to be made as part of their effort to make sure there are no league licenses left for other companies. Don’t get me wrong: this game’s not bad. It’s just that Tiburon already makes two better ones. Glory? Eh, EA’s not there yet.

NBA Street Homecourt

March 23, 2007

Reviews / Xbox 360 / by Mike Carabajal Make a comment! / Tweet it!

You have to love the good old days when you would go down to the local pizza joint and play some NBA Jam. The game’s over the top nature made the (ouch don’t touch me) game of basketball a fast and frenzied game of half court shots and insane dunks. Although along the way something happened to the series, and it got dull, thus you would see it less and less in the coin op world. Fans didn’t have to worry too long as NBA Street hit consoles in 2001 and once again captured the fun that NBA Jam once had. The series mixed the And 1 street ball style with NBA superstars. Now in its fourth incarnation, powered by Next Gen technology, NBA Street offers up a small slice of NBA heaven.

NBA Street Homecourt‘s brand of basketball is part And 1 show-off fest and part Run DMC music video. Developer EA Sports BIG created a perfect rendition of three on three basketball where your control of the player is matched only by how amazing he looks.

The basketball that is played on the court can look artistic in the hands of someone with a good grasp of the controls. You have the ability to mix your tricks with the use of both shoulder buttons in coordination with the X and Y. The output is a bounce passes off the opponents face as well as killer crossovers. Your teammates will even get on all fours so you can use them as launching pads, then while you are in the air pass off to a teammate who will in turn pass off to another teammate for a triple alley oop slam. Did I mention that if you time the slam right, your player will dunk, grab the ball while holding onto the rim, then dunk again for two points. I would watch the real life Dunk contest if they pulled these tricks off.

Above all tricks and air walking is the new Gamebreaker. By using your tricks and scoring, you can increase your Gamebreaker bar. Once it is filled, you can enter a Gamebreaker mode where the already awesome moves are turned up even more. You can pretty much rain in a shot from anywhere in this mode or perform even more amazing dunks. Although it’s not unstoppable; if you lose the ball, the Gamebreaker becomes the opponents’, and they can use it against you.

I can’t describe how amazing it all comes together; you simply have to see for yourself. It’s EA BIG at its finest.

The game’s graphics are pure Next Gen goodness; the players look very much like their real life counterparts, their jerseys sway like they should, good stuff here. The game’s music is a throwback mix of Motown and hip-hop, and along with the court chatter, the audio really adds to the overall atmosphere. The designs of the game’s menus, loading screens, and other visual elements are amazing. As a designer in real life, I immediately fell in love with its A

God of War II

March 23, 2007

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Roger Helgeson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

When I first approached God of War in 2005, I found myself impressed by many aspects of the game. From its ability to throw a scant but emotionally-impacting story at the player without bogging him down, its epic battles, and its graphics that seemed to push the boundaries of what the PlayStation 2 was capable, to its cinematography and art design, camera-work, and likable but morally ambiguous protagonist Kratos, the game genuinely polished and improved on every element of the action genre. In a word: I was impressed by everything.

I was also left with a longing desire for more. Thankfully, God of War II delivers in every way, with a few features that are a little worse for wear and a few that have been improved on a bit. The game is, again, epic in both scope and narrative. The graphics manage to impress even in this current age of HD and next-generation consoles. Here, players get a real sense of size and scale. The game is, in many ways, Olympian. And rightly so. The only apparent drawback is that the camera is a lot less intuitive than it was the first time around, sometimes leaving the player to his own devices and making leaps of faith to platforms just off the screen.

If there was a shortcoming in God of War, it was its lack of boss battles. The game did have a number of minibosses and a couple of chapter bosses, but overall, it was sparse. Not anymore. Kratos fights everything from demon soldiers to gorgons to Cerberus to Theseus. The game is intent on throwing challenge after challenge at the player, and some of the boss battles are rather elaborate. In the game’s opening sequence, Kratos fights a rampaging statue of the colossus – perhaps the perfect way to get the player’s blood pumping and offer a sense of how impressive a warrior Kratos is.

God of War II is also quite violent, with Kratos unflinchingly decapitating, eviscerating, blinding, and crushing everything and everyone he comes across, cursing out Titans and Gods alike, and merely being a violent whirlwind racing through Olympia toward his goal.

Minigames feed into Kratos’ vices as well: there is, again, a sex minigame which will reward Kratos with an abundance of red orbs if his performance is up to snuff, and another will task Kratos with collecting twenty Cyclops eyes. Watching your character dig the eye out of a Cyclops with his blade is not really for the squeamish.

In the end, though, this is essentially the same game as God of War with more packed in: more carnage, more involved puzzles, new magic and weapons, new extremely beautiful areas, more collectables and unlockable minigames, a Titan Mode difficulty, unlockable costumes, and more bosses and enemies than before. Those who enjoyed the first game will feel right at home without feeling either bored or tricked out of a new experience. Those that haven’t will enjoy it, too. There are a few problems – as said, the camera can be a bit annoying at times, and there have been reports of serious glitches (so do yourself a favor and use multiple save slots), but ultimately none of the flaws are either too game-breaking or detracting to the overall experience which is, in a word, impressive.

Sony Surprises Gamers at London PS3 Launch

March 23, 2007

News / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

With the PS3 launch in Europe and Australia now over, Sony surprised the gamers at the London launch by also giving them a 46″ Bravia HDTV and a taxi ride home. I don’t know about you, but if Sony was handing out HDTVs at the US launch I’d have waited in line for a PS3 too.

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