Chris Massey

Transformers

February 5, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Fans of the [i]Transformers[/i] series have wanted a game released in the U.S. for a while now, and Atari has finally delivered with [i]Transformers[/i]. [i]Transformers[/i], for the PS2 console, takes place in the [i]Transformers[/i]: Armada universe, rather than the old [i]Transformers[/i] people might remember from the 1980’s. While the emphasis is still on vehicles that transform into gigantic robots waging war against one another, in [i]Transformers[/i], the goal is to retrieve the tiny Mini-cons before the Decepticons can do so themselves. [i]Transformers[/i] is, surprisingly, a very rewarding game, with intense combat, great controls, and overall, great game play.

In [i]Transformers[/i], the main conflict is between the Autobots and the Decepticons, both trying to get all the Mini-cons to enhance their powers by linking with them. You play as the Autobots, who have followed the Decepticons to Earth after the Mini-cons, who crash-landed millions of years ago, were activated. Optimus Prime, Hotshot, and Red Alert make up the three selectable characters in the game, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. You will progress through a number of levels set in different parts of the world, including the Amazonian jungle, a research base in Antarctica, the middle of the Atlantic, and more in search of the tiny bots.

[i]Transformers[/i] is essentially a third-person shooter. You go through the game battling Megatron’s “Decepticlones,” which are endless masses of robots sent to battle the Autobots. You eventually come across higher ranked characters like Starscream and Cyclonus, usually at the end of a level, which act as boss fights. As you take damage, your life, or Energon as the Autobots call it, will drain and begin to make a rather annoying beeping noise when it is about to run completely out. You find life by destroying enemies, and it can be a little hard to find life if you are taking on a large squadron.

You start out with a simple blaster, but soon you will inherit new abilities through the Mini-cons. One of the interesting parts of [i]Transformers[/i] is the Mini-con system, which lets you set Mini-cons to the different shoulder buttons. Each Mini-con you find can be linked onto your character to give them weapons, defensive, or other upgrades. Many include missile and grenade launchers, while others include defensive shields. Some have special abilities, like Mini-cons who can activate Energon vision (which is essentially what we Earth people call thermal vision), or ones that let you glide through the air. This allows the player to customize his character with different abilities, and adds to the uniqueness of the game. You can only hold four Mini-cons at a time though, so it can be hard to decide what bots you want to attach to yourself. There are bonuses to collecting and placing Mini-cons onto your character though. For instance, if you color-code the Mini-cons just right, you can receive health and other bonuses.

Mini-cons can be found throughout each level in [i]Transformers[/i]. There are a set amount of Mini-cons to be found, and if you happen to miss one, don’t worry. You can go back to the level whenever you want after completion to retrieve them. You can also find Data-cons, which really don’t help your game, but they do add special features into the game. Data-cons usually contain nostalgic things like comic book scans, pictures of [i]Transformers[/i] action figures, the instruction booklet for those toys, art, and much more. Like the Mini-cons, you find these throughout the levels, and the game also displays how many of these you’ve captured on a level.

Of course, what would a [i]Transformers[/i] game be if you couldn’t transform into vehicles, and [i]Transformers[/i] doesn’t disappoint. Each Autobot can transform into different types of vehicles. Optimus Prime transforms into a slower but powerful truck, and Hotshot goes into a fast coupe while Red Alert transforms into a police SUV. Surprisingly, the driving physics are actually quite nice, not like many games that simply throw in a rehashed, hard to maneuver driving system. Transforming doesn’t play a very huge part in [i]Transformers[/i], and most of the time, you’ll probably be in robot mode shooting enemies since you can’t fire in vehicle mode, but it is a nice feature, and it’s good to see that it is used properly.

Eventually, you will receive a Mini-con partner, who will follow you around and fire at enemies. These partners aren’t to be confused with the Mini-cons you equip to your character. While they can be linked to you, these Mini-cons have much different effects. If you press the power link button, the Mini-con partner will link to you, and cause you to go into a sort of Matrix-like slow down. In this state, you can move around and shoot enemies long before they can react, as well as deal more damage in doing so. The only problem with the power linking is that it uses up Energon, and if you’re not careful, your Energon will slowly deplete before you even realize it.

The visuals in [i]Transformers[/i] are very nice, but are also lackluster in some way. The Autobots look nice, and are fairly shiny for the most part. The levels are a little on the bland side though, although they aren’t horrible by any means. The voice acting sounds decent, but some characters are much better than others. Optimus Prime has his old, wise-sounding voice that he’s had for years, and characters like Cyclonus, Megatron, and Hotshot retain their voices from the Armada series. Red Alert’s voice seems to sound like his Armada counterpart, but it sounds real deadpan and he seems more bored than anything, and Starscream’s voice is completely different.

The storyline in [i]Transformers[/i] is a little loosely tied together, and sometimes seems a little convoluted. The game doesn’t follow the Armada series storyline, although that isn’t too big of a problem since the story in that focuses more on a band of pre-teens than it does on the [i]Transformers[/i] themselves. What is a problem is that [i]Transformers[/i] seems to take the story from Armada and alter it, and in the process, make it seem a little confusing. You will usually get a cut scene before entering a level or before and after fighting a boss. You can usually understand what is happening, but sometimes you’ll wonder why they Autobots trek all the way to Antarctica just to go back to the Amazon where they had just come from.

One big problem with [i]Transformers[/i] is that you will often receive some massive slow-downs. The frame-rate drops drastically in some areas, specifically when taking on legions of enemies at once. You can also receive it when fighting bosses and when you get into areas with a lot of water splashing around. It probably also happens in other places as well and is probably the biggest problem with [i]Transformers[/i].

The boss fights in [i]Transformers[/i] are probably one of the best parts of the game. Usually you will fight familiar character like Starscream or Megatron. Sometimes boss fights will only have you fighting a single Decepticlone, which is fairly easy to beat. The best boss fight of the game though would have to be in the Pacific Ocean. The game even takes a neat twist with the fight, by having you infiltrate a Decepticon battleship to disable it, only to have it transform into the one hundred story tall Tidal Wave. All the boss fights are fairly challenging, and add to the quality of the game.

All things considered, [i]Transformers[/i] is the game that fans have been waiting for. Fans will no doubt want to pick this game up, because of the Transforming goodness within. But [i]Transformers[/i] is such a good third-person shooter, that even a person who isn’t into the [i]Transformers[/i] television shows will like it. The Mini-con system adds a great feature into [i]Transformers[/i], and Transformer fans will love the nostalgia found in the Data-cons, but even without those two features, [i]Transformers[/i] is a title well worth recommending to any third-person shooter fan.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes

February 5, 2006

GameCube / Reviews / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[i]Metal Gear Solid[/i], released in 1998 on the Playstation, is praised for revolutionizing the stealth action series, not to mention the excellent storyline it had. The graphics were superb, although now they are extremely dated. In fact, after playing [i]Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty[/i], you might think they are downright ugly in this day and age.

Enter [i]Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes[/i] for the Gamecube. [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] is, in all truth, the same exact game we all played around six years ago. Although at the same time, it’s almost like a completely new game. Silicon Knights, a developer known for games such as [i]Eternal Darkness[/i] for the Gamecube, has teamed up with Konami to bring back Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i], in the way we have all wanted to play since we first saw [i]Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty[/i].

The graphics are the biggest draw in [i]Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes[/i]. They resemble the graphics its sequel, [i]Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty[/i], showed off on the Playstation 2 in 2001. Actually, since the Gamecube has more graphical power than the Playstation 2, the graphics may actually be slightly better, although any change would be near unnoticeable. Of course, the graphics really only fuel the already incredible storyline in the form of brand new cutscenes.

It would probably be best for novice players to know little of [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i]’s storyline. The game series is known for its conspiracy and epic turns in the storyline. In fact, you play through most of the game knowing little of what is actually going on. To be frank, if you were to read the story from the manual or watch the opening cutscene, then you would be surprised when you enter latter parts of the game’s story at how much the story has changed. There’s also the fact that if anyone who hasn’t played the original were to hear any part of the game’s later story, it would probably wear some of the surprises out of the game.

But it is fairly safe to reveal at least some of [i]Metal Gear[/i]’s storyline. You play as the famous Solid Snake, the hero of the [i]Metal Gear[/i] series. You were once with the organization known as Foxhound, but since, Snake has moved to Alaska to lead a quiet, peaceful life. One day though, you are kidnapped, and brought to a submarine underwater in the Bering Sea, and informed of a national crisis. It seems Foxhound, the very organization you used to belong to, has captured a facility on the island Shadow Moses, and is now threatening to launch a nuclear missile if their demands are not met. So now it’s up to Snake to infiltrate the base and stop the terrorists from going through with the launch, as well as rescue hostages being held at the facility.

People who have played the original [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i] will know exactly what’s going on, and will know every twist and turn the ever-changing storyline takes. That’s where one of [i]The Twin Snake[/i]’s first problems comes into play. The fact is, almost everything about this game is the same, save for updated graphics, cutscenes, and a few other newer game mechanics. While most of the game’s cutscenes look amazing, you have to play through the game again just to see them. Although that may not be a problem, as many people who have played the original MGS for the first time have played it over and over again on the Playstation, solely because the gameplay and story are so satisfying. As long as you don’t expect huge changes in the game, and want to experience [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i] in a new way, then you should have no problem with [i]The Twin Snakes[/i].

Of course, you might also have to look at [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] from the viewpoint of one who has never played [i]Metal Gear Solid[i/]. If you have never played the original, then this will be a completely new game experience for you. In fact, while the game gets a lowered score for being the same game from 1998, for a person who has never experienced [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i], this game would get much higher marks. Not only will you get to play the gameplay of the original for the first time, but you will also be in for many unexpected surprises from the storyline.

While mentioned earlier that [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] game is, for the most part, the exact game from 1998, there are some changes besides the graphics and cutscenes. In fact, [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] takes many mechanics from its sequel (or perhaps prequel in some ways), [i]Sons of Liberty[/i]. While in the original [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i], a soldier’s body would disappear after death, [i]Sons of Liberty[/i] eliminated that, requiring you to hide a dead body to prevent other soldiers from finding it. This has been added into [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] as well. Another thing taken from [i]Sons of Liberty[/i] is the first person viewpoint, where you can press Z to get a first-hand perspective of your surroundings, as well as aim your weapons to get in a headshot, which kills guards instantly and deals heavy damage to bosses, as well as disable cameras.

Snake’s arsenal hasn’t really seen much change. You have a SOCOM handgun, as well as stinger missiles, guided Nikita missiles, C4 explosives, and more. You also have items like rations which restore health, and mine detectors. Along with that, you have items which help you sneak up on enemies or avoid detection. For instance, if you find a book which pictures of women in it, you can lay it on the ground and wait for solders to take notice, and while they are looking at the book, you can take the opportunity to sneak up and attack. There are also boxes that you can hide in to avoid guards. There are two new additions to Snake’s arsenal; both which appeared in [i]Sons of Liberty[/i]. The M9 tranquilizer gun, which can put guards to sleep, and the PSG1-T sniper rifle are both found in the game.

The guard’s A.I. has been upped to the quality of the A.I. in [i]Sons of Liberty[/i]. A lot of newer detection methods have been placed in the game. There are several times in [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] when you have to keep in mind that killing a guard could lead to you being detected. For instance, like mentioned earlier, since the bodies of soldiers don’t disappear, if a guard finds a dead body lying around, he will raise the alert and more guards will be sent into the area. Some guards also radio in to guards who are not in the area. If you kill one of these guards and the unseen guard radios in and gets no response, he will send troops in to investigate. Even so, the guard’s A.I. isn’t on par with that of an actual human being. Even though the A.I. is good for a video game, it seems strange that you can walk right by an enemy or be right on the other side of the room without them noticing. Still, this doesn’t mean the A.I. is horrible by any means; just don’t expect a perfect transition of real life intelligence to a video game in [i]The Twin Snakes[/i].

[i]The Twin Snakes[/i] also brings back the faithful Codec device. In fact, the Codec takes over a good part of [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i] and [i]The Twin Snakes[/i]’ storyline, by having characters speak to each other through text with pictures of each character talking. These aren’t graphically impressive, and the still Codec images are still from the old MGS (versus MGS2’s 3-D avatars), but they help to fuel the story along. The Codec also provides you with helpful hints, by contacting people who will give you advice on the given situation. The radar also makes its return appearance, although you can have the option of having it off (which makes things MUCH harder). The radar will show the enemies in an area, as well as their field of vision. Of course, it has its flaws, and won’t work in tight areas and gets jammed just as easily as any other kind of radar. Still, it’s a helpful asset to the mission.

The voiceovers in [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i] were great. For the most part, all of the voices for each character return in [i]The Twin Snakes[/i]. David Hayter still voices Solid Snake, so hardcore fans can rest easy. Some characters though have suffered a bit in the transition, but for the most part, all the voices in the game are enjoyable in their own merit.

In it’s entirety, if you watch every cutscene (which you should, at least the first time through), you will probably spend a lot of time with your controller on the ground. Be aware that there is probably just as much movie as there is game to [i]The Twin Snakes[/i], but thanks to the enjoyable storyline, most will enjoy the sometimes long-winded cutscenes. Speaking of the cutscenes, they are probably the things that make [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] great enough to play through again. You’ll most likely drop your jaw at certain cutscenes with a certain cyber ninja, and most of the cutscenes just look downright amazing. Of course, it was inevitable that with the creation of [i]The Matrix[/i], many movie and game companies would use the bullet time effect. [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] doesn’t disappoint, and in the end, it really uses it a little too much. Most of the bullet time scenes are ridiculous as well, with Snake dodging seemingly impossible to dodge bullets while strafing at times. Still, they look really nice, even if they are way too over the top.

In the end, [i]The Twin Snakes[/i] is just a rehash of [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i] with a few new features and much better looking graphics and cutscenes, but considering that many people played through the original over and over again, this is a welcome update. If you don’t want to shell out the money to play the same game from 1998, at least give it a rent or borrow. If you have no problem with playing through again, and realize that there is no significant change in the gameplay, then by all means get [i]The Twin Snakes[/i]. Just be sure to note that what you’re playing is essentially what you might have played years ago.

Bloody Roar 4

January 29, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The [i]Bloody Roar[/i] series has seen six games, most of them being on the Playstation consoles. The Gamecube and Xbox have both seen separate titles, although both were mostly ports of [i]Bloody Roar 3[/i] for the Playstation 2. [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] brings the series back to the Playstation brand of consoles, bringing with it new characters and game play tweaks. It should be noted though that the [i]Bloody Roar[/i] series has never really done anything to stand out in the crowd of greater fighters like [i]Dead or Alive 3[/i] or [i]Virtua Fighter 4[/i], and [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] does little to change that.

When you first look at [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i], you may think it looks just like all the other fighters. The graphics are certainly as nice as those seen in fighters like [i]Virtua Fighter 4[/i]. If anything, they may be better. It’s when you begin to play the game where things go sour, as you will soon find out that the game play is pretty simplistic. The triangle performs kicks while the square performs punches, and the X button guards. To add to the simplicity, it is very easy to button mash you way through matches. In fact, you can have it on the highest difficulty and still mash buttons while being successful.

The [i]Bloody Roar[/i] series does have a trait that makes it stand out against other high caliber fighters. The twist in [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] is that each character can turn into a humanoid animal at the press of the circle button. There’s everything from a werewolf to a were-rabbit. After the transformation, a special move button replaces the transformation button. One of the new features in the game is that your beast meter now doubles as an alternative life bar, whereas in previous installments, it slowly depleted until you were transformed back into a human. Your actual life bar can only be touched while in your human form, whereas the beast life runs out while in beast mode. You can transform at anytime as long as you have some juice left in your beast meter, which creates a problem.

A player can simply enter their beast form at the start of a match, since the meter is already charged up. The other player will then have to reduce his beast meter, then his human meter, then his beast meter before he can finish him off. It doesn’t help that every time an opponent strikes you in human form, your beast meter increases a couple notches. In short, a player could easily just keep transforming over and over again, adding to the other players frustration. While this may make for longer matches, it also doesn’t help that a lot of characters are much stronger than others. It is very easy for a player to transform and assault the other player, ripping a huge chunk of his life away even before five seconds have passed. Another problem is that while the beast forms are supposed to make [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] stand out from your everyday fighter, while in their beast form the characters really don’t do anything that they couldn’t do in human form. The only thing that’s different is that your attacks are more powerful, but aside from that, all you really see is more punches and kicks.

The characters in [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] look more suited to a midnight rave rather than fighting as animals in disguise. Veterans of the [i]Bloody Roar[/i] series will remember many faces. Alice the were-rabbit, Rakuryu the were-mole, and the rest of the old crew make their reappearance. The new characters, which are the most obvious of the updates, are nice, but they show the developers are running out of ideas. Reiji transforms into a crow, while Ryoho doesn’t even transform at all, but rather his child companion Mana transforms into a fox that does little damage. Nagi though doesn’t even transform into an animal, but rather some sort of succubus. It’s not really known why they chose a non-animal form for her, seeing as how there are dozens of animals left in the animal kingdom to turn into humanoid form. It could just be that they are trying to add sexuality to the series with her bizarre sword infatuation and revealing outfit, although Jenny seems to have completed that objective with her prostitute-ish appearance.

[i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] contains all the modes you would come to find in any other fighter of its kind. There’s arcade, where you play through ten stages with a few short cut scenes which have very horrid voice acting, survival mode which pits you against and endless mass of fighters with only one bar of life, and the other standard modes. The new mode, called “career mode,” is rather strange, and at the same time, a little convoluted. After choosing a character, you play through a series of grid-like maps. Each circle is a random fight with a character, which is really no different from the arcade mode, the only difference being that most of the fights are only one round. As you win fights, the game rewards you with DNA points, as well as new attacks, speed, power, beast, and other power-ups. This lets you add them onto your character, and creates a sort-of custom character, which you can use in any other mode. The problem with this is that you can easily over power your character, taking out enemies in a few punches. Not that it matters, since it is just as easy to assault them with the default characters anyway, so there is really no incentive to play through career mode, especially since it seems like an endless connection of circular grid-lines.

[i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] does have its good points though. Graphically, the game looks great. Animations are done very well and it looks like a pretty decent fighter graphics-wise. The concept of morphing into animals is rather intriguing; however, the feeling wears off fast once you figure out that you can easily button mash your way through the game. Strangely, the developers have added in a gushing blood effect, where when you hit an opponent (or vice-versa), blood will flood out by the gallon. This obviously gives the game its Mature rating, but in reality, [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] doesn’t really do anything that Teen rated games don’t do already. If anything, [i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] is tamer than most Teen rated games on the market. If you look past the gushing blood, the game is actually pretty clean.

The sounds and music are fairly mediocre, like the title itself. The music is really nothing special. The main menu music sounds like heavy metal, while most of the levels have calmer sounding music. The voice acting, as mentioned above, is completely atrocious. Most of the characters sound like they have no life in them whatsoever, and usually when someone tries to be clever, it just sounds awkward. Sometimes you may not be able to understand what a person says, while other times their voices come off as a little creepy. To add to that, the English is dubbed over the Japanese lip sync, so not only does the character’s dialogue not fit their lips, but there will usually be long pauses after something is said in order for the Japanese lip sync to catch up.

[i]Bloody Roar 4[/i] is a pretty simple fighter that, unsurprisingly, doesn’t do anything to break the mediocre streak the series is known for. The excessive button mashing really hurts the game to the point where even unskilled players can complete the entire game easily. The A.I. is pretty faulty, and even on higher difficulties it can be easy to beat, although it tends to block way too much. The idea of people transforming into killer animals with razor sharp claws, long horns, and swords for arms sounds like a good concept, but the makers of the [i]Bloody Roar[/i] series just can’t seem to blend it into a quality title.

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