MotoGP 07 is built for the hardcore motorcycle racing gamer. Even though it advertised an easier approach to playing compared to last year’s MotoGP 06 on the Xbox 360, the playing is more frustrating than rewarding. Add to that the half-hearted feel of the entire game and you can almost hear the developers heave a collective A
Paul Bishop
MotoGP 07
PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by
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What’s the last Lombax in the universe to do when a pint-size tyrant wants to eradicate your species? Grab your wacky guns and wrench to battle the hoards of robots, while hopping from planet to planet. Along the way you stumble across the long lost Lombax secret, but will it help you in your quest or will it hurt the universe instead?
Picking up on the wildly popular Ratchet and Clank series, Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction successfully jumps the next generation console gap adding more fun and destruction, while fully utilizing the enhanced SIXAXIS control scheme of the PS3. Everything looks and plays better on the PS3 and even though the plot isn’t the most engaging the cast of characters and situations help elevate this to one of the best games available on the system. Right from the get-go you are introduced to the action and level of humor used as a basis for RACF: TOD that will undoubtedly make this game a classic.
The Ratchet and Clank series has always been about the guns and this entry is no different; from the tornado gun to the energy whip to the penguinator there is no lacking of a wacky arsenal to choose from. Add to that the version increases from V1 to V5 as you use the weapons and the buyable upgrades and you have a plethora of killing options available to you. Devices also return as you buy or find them, including the wildly popular disco ball which causes all of your enemies to burst in to dance. This is worth it just to randomly throw it out there to see how different enemies react including your major bosses. Even the Clank solo missions use a new Zoni interface to manipulate puzzles and slow down time to accomplish the areas Ratchet can’t go to.
Using the SIXAXIS was a high point of RACF: TOD. Whether it was used to steer thrown obstacles as you drop through the sky, flying through the level or guiding your tornado from your tornado gun, the uses seem intuitive and natural opposed to other PS3 games which attempted to use them just because they have to. Flying even seemed to be improved over Lair, which suffered from sensitivity issues. And while the ship levels don’t use the SIXAXIS they still remain fun separately aiming and flying at the same time.
Another thing that RACF: TOD excels at is the extra content and achievables that are rewarded from faithful exploration. Harder to find golden bolts make their return where you must search every corner to pick them up, and turn them in for different skins. By completing certain objectives in the game such as collect every device or land on the head of every dinosaur you can acquire skill points which go towards even crazier extras like having a super-sized head on your character. Overall these add to the replaying of levels and are a welcome diversion from the standard plot line path.
Graphics and sound are beautifully rendered on the PS3. The cartoony environments look plush and full of color, and different levels achieve contrasting feels superbly. Voice work is top notch with awesome details being placed in the background as secondary characters are given great lines during arena matches or over the security system. The production quality was not spared during the development forming a nice well-balanced package.
Overall RACF: TOD is a well-crafted and highly entertaining experience that fully utilizes everything the PS3 has to offer. Some might say that the additional mechanics detract from the core gaming presented, but I say it helps break up any sort of monotony the game veers towards. Ratchet and Clank Future is bound to be a classic and it is only a matter of time as to when you play it.
When a predator ship containing alien facehuggers crash lands near a sleepy Colorado town, you are sent in as an Elite predator to destroy all traces of the alien outbreak while avoiding the locals.
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem is essentially an exploration action game. To aid you in your task you have three predator vision modes beyond your normal eyesight: Tech, alien and thermal. You will use these modes of vision in to find and destroy bits of predator technology and alien facehugger husks left along the way. By eliminating these pieces of evidence and destroying the aliens you come across, you gain honor which unlocks more powerful weapons for you to use.
Each mission offers little variation of the same theme with the added attempts to save locals from being eaten by hungry aliens. Maps tend to be too dark and hard to see, and the repeated necessity of going to alien vision mode to get hard to find alien artifacts begins to wear on the player. Fighting becomes banal after the first level as it becomes a rinse repeat process of locking on to oncoming foes and blasting them with your shoulder cannon or melee attacking them if they happen to sneak up behind you. The only moments the game gets interesting is when multiple enemies attack you at once, causing you to use a little bit of caution lining the enemies up in such a way so that they don’t flank you.
The game is ridiculously easy, and the fights barely worth it, and the score system is based on “honor points”. These honor points are supposed to allow you to upgrade your weapons, but there is no choice involved, nor any clear indication as to when you are close to said upgrades, they are just randomly given as you progress the story. Tagging aliens is supposed to give more honor, and letting humans get killed subtracts, but neither matters as the addition and subtraction of points doesn’t really affect the honor score greatly.
The graphics are not so great on the PSP; the predator and alien models are decent but the terrain is blocky and the lighting is horrendous. Most of the time the camera works in your favor, but when engaged in a fight, it quickly devolves as you can’t lock on to a flanked enemy chewing on you from behind. And while the vision modes do offer a good effect for the game, they are equally as hard to maneuver in causing frequent changing of modes and general frustration.
Beyond the story mode there is a timed attack mini-game that lets you wander a game map while killing as many aliens as you can for five minutes. Once again there is a score that must mean something to someone, but since it is not saved, it just happens to be some sort of metric. Multiplayer uses the same mode with both PSP’s fighting as one of four predator characters, while each kill aliens and get a score at the end. Each PSP doesn’t even register the other score so if there is some kind of cooperation or competition element I still haven’t been able to figure out exactly what it is.
Overall AVP:R is a ho-hum game that delivers little action and less thrills, and while I wouldn’t call it a horrible game, it has enough poor qualities to it that I would only be able to recommend it for die-hard AVP fans who have the capability to rent it.
When a deranged scientist takes the Alpha prototype time suit to change the world, you are left with seconds to chase after him with the Beta version. Landing in an alternate past where your world is controlled by his fascist regime, you must help the resistance turn the tide and track down the other suit to help heal the time rift. Armed with powers to slow, stop and reverse time you must fight your way past hordes of enemies and traps where no mere human could go.
For the majority of the game you get this feeling like the potential was lost to really take the game further and explore different opportunities. The story is no exception to this rule, as there is this really great setup which literally goes nowhere. Beyond the initial and closing scenes, reasons are barely given for going to a new zone and even at the end there is little to no new information about the protagonist, he just stays the A
When a deranged scientist takes the Alpha prototype time suit to change the world, you are left with seconds to chase after him with the Beta version. Landing in an alternate past where your world is controlled by his fascist regime, you must help the resistance turn the tide and track down the other suit to help heal the time rift. Armed with powers to slow, stop and reverse time you must fight your way past hordes of enemies and traps where no mere human could go.
For the majority of the game you get this feeling like the potential was lost to really take the game further and explore different opportunities. The story is no exception to this rule, as there is this really great setup which literally goes nowhere. Beyond the initial and closing scenes, reasons are barely given for going to a new zone and even at the end there is little to no new information about the protagonist, he just stays the A
