PlayStation 2

Psychonauts

June 11, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Hybridial Make a comment! / Tweet it!

What would you get if the designer of some of the greatest point and click adventures of all time in Tim Schafer decided to make a 3D platformer? [i]Psychonauts[/i] is pretty much your answer. [i]Psychonauts[/i] is a humorous, delightful, and stirring tale about a young boy’s dreams of grandeur and his attempts at fulfilling them. This is not an unusual story concept, but one that I don’t think we see often enough in videogames. [i]Psychonauts[/i] delivers a rather quaint and visually strange view of the world where special agents with Psychic powers fight against evil doers, and it just so happens this agency, known as the [i]Psychonauts[/i] oddly enough, recruit from a training camp in the middle of nowhere. The game begins with all the students being given an introduction speech by Coach Oleander, head of the [i]Psychonauts[/i] training camp, and a runaway named Rasputin crashing the party somewhat. Though it is Rasputin’s dearest wish to become a Psychonaut, the fact that he didn’t go through the proper channels or do the right paperwork of course means that technically he couldn’t stay to learn, so he is given a bunk for the night whilst the heads of the camp try to contact his parents.

Of course, it wouldn’t be much of a game if that’s all there was to it. Through a bit of luck and the presence of some obvious Psychic talent, Raz, as he prefers to be called, manages to talk his way into taking the basic “braining” course, with the agreement that should he pass, he could then study for as long as he is at the camp. And so, Raz’s journey begins. And his journey quickly becomes an urgent one when mysterious persons seem to be stealing the brains of all his fellow students! The game has a very surprising twist half way through, and the plot, though pretty standard stuff, is fun to see unfold as almost every new segment of the game introduces a wonderful new character or location.

The basis of [i]Psychonauts[/i]’ structure is quite simple and set up by the very first 3D platformer, Super Mario 64, with the basic idea of there being a hub world and then worlds that are interconnected through portals. [i]Psychonauts[/i] does employ the rather excellent idea of making these other worlds the minds of some of the game’s characters. This means of course that the game escapes form the clichA

Guitar Hero

June 11, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Tim Canty Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Have you ever rocked out on an air guitar? Have you ever wished you could rock out on a real guitar, but found that pesky lack of talent getting in the way? Well, now you can rock out on a miniature Gibson SG plastic guitar, courtesy of Red Octane. This game proves that rhythm can still be fun, and it just may be the best of its genre, ever.

If you’ve ever played a rhythm game before, you’ll know what to expect here: a board, covered in 5 different coloured blobs, scrolls towards the screen. As they hit the bottom of the screen, you hit the corresponding key on your controller. What separates [i]Guitar Hero[/i] from the rest of the crowd is that you’re given an actual guitar to do this with, as opposed to the standard PS2 controller. Though the Dual Shock does function with the game, it’s barely worth a glance; the guitar controller is where it’s at. The specialist controller is also the cause of the game’s elevated price tag (Up to $15 more than most games).

The controller has 5 ‘fret’ buttons, a strum pedal and a Whammy bar. To hit a note successfully, you must hold down a fret button, then strum. Often, notes have a streak of colour following on after them- these are power chords, which are activated by strumming, like any other note, but then leaving the fret button held down. While a power chord is being played out, you can wiggle the whammy bar in and out, to bend the note, earning you more points.

The guitar also has a motion sensor, to detect when you tilt the guitar up. This activates Star Power (which is accumulated by hitting a streak of Star shaped notes, or using the whammy bar on a Star shaped power chord) where you’ll earn more points. At the end of each song, you’ll receive a review, and will receive 3 to 5 stars, depending on how many points you earned.

The meat of the game is in the Career mode, where you progress through the ranks of rock stardom. You start out playing simple songs in someone’s basement, and finish up playing legendary rock anthems at a massive amphitheatre. Completion of songs (and getting 5 star reviews) earns you cash, which can be used to purchase new guitars, characters and songs. Though this arguably ruins the game’s ‘arcade’ style nature, it does add a lot of depth, and makes it easy to keep track of which songs you’ve ‘5-starred’.

There’s the basic Quick Play mode, where you pick a song and a difficulty, and the game arranges the rest for you (Chooses the character, guitar, venue etc.) and you play simply to beat your highest score. This mode is fun, accessible, and very easy to pick up and play.

Possibly the greatest gameplay mode however, is Multiplayer. Here, you get to duel, head to head, as two players can attempt to out rock each other. And, in accordance with this, the sound from each guitar riff plays through the speakers separately on your TV, so that Player 1’s music comes through the left, and Player 2’s through the right. This makes for some very interesting sounds, and only serves to underline how good (or not) each of the players is.

The selection of music available is nothing short of astounding. There’s not a bad song in sight, with contributions from legends like Black Sabbath, ZZ Top, Motorhead, Blue Oyster Cult…the list goes on. There’s also a large selection of unsigned bands, including the remarkable Graveyard BBQ whose song, “Cheat on the Church” appears on the list.

This game is outstanding in everyway, with the only flaws being graphical. With the PS2 this close to the end of it’s era, we should be seeing better stuff than this. That aside, there’s a broad range of characters, venues, songs… everything has been done right. This has knocked [i]Donkey Konga[/i] off the top of the rhythm game pecking order, and is unlikely to be trumped by anything less than [i]Guitar Hero II[/i]. There’s no two ways about it – go buy [i]Guitar Hero[/i].

Kingdom Hearts 2

June 11, 2006

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

[i]Kingdom Hearts 2[/i] is probably my most anticipated game of the last 3 years. Since I completed the original Kingdom Hearts I have been patiently waiting for a game to grab my attention and keep it. [i]Kingdom Hearts 2[/i] was that game, almost. Let me explain.

The original [i]KH[/i] thrust you into a game with a very interesting story from the get go and despite a little time spent laying the groundwork (the time on the island) and a very nice CGI intro the game started up rather quickly. [i]KH2[/i] really deviated from this concept and really went in a direction that just couldn’t keep my attention. The story for [i]KH2[/i] is incredibly confusing from the get go which isn’t really a problem since it makes you want to know what is happening. The problem as I see it is that it takes roughly 3 hours of gameplay before you hit the title screen and really get into the bulk of the game. After playing for several nights and falling asleep while playing 3 or 4 times I finally got into the game and I am really enjoying all the new aspects of it.

The first major change is that you don’t start out playing as Sora. Instead you start out as Roxas. Roxas has recurring dreams involving Sora and his adventures. You complete several trivial missions in Twilight Town as Roxas before he disappears and Sora and crew emerge from a Rip Van Winkle light slumber. This is where the new journey begins.

From a gameplay standpoint [i]KH2[/i] is incredible and the camera issues that were overwhelmingly present in [i]KH[/i] are no longer there. The camera behaves like it should and allows you to really focus on the gameplay and the story. Combat is virtually identical with the addition of a Drive Gauge. Drive allows Sora to “fuse” with party members to become much more powerful. 3 of the 5 total Forms that Sora can change into allow you to equip a 2nd Keyblade and dual wield them. The Drive Gauge also powers the Summon spell this time around instead of the MP meter. The 4 character Summons this time around are: Chicken Little, Genie, Stitch, and Peter Pan. Having dual wielded Keyblades I can safely say the combat in [i]KH2[/i] has gone to a new level.

The command menu in [i]KH2[/i] also got a makeover. Instead of a plain menu each world has a themed menu. You do have the option of reverting this back to the plain menu in your game options. The command menu also got a functional change as well. The normal command menu is used for attacks, magic, items, and entering the drive forms. A secondary menu is used for attacks, summons, to switch party members, and perform combo attacks. This might sound cumbersome, but it was hardly noticeable while in combat.

My least favorite part of [i]KH[/i] was the dreaded Gummi Ship. Being forced to play a mediocre mini-game in just to change levels was probably the 2nd dumbest idea in recent gaming history, the first being the idea to bring it back in [i]KH2[/i]. While the Gummi Ship gameplay is revamped, it is still lame and not worth your time. I would suggest to Disney/SE that should they decide to bring this concept back in future games that they go the route of a side scrolling shooter. I could see that being a heck of a lot more fun than the current bland version. That being said, you only have to unlock routes to new worlds one time so time wasted on Gummi Shipping is minimal.

Probably the most interesting item to note in the [i]KH[/i] games are the incredible worlds that you get to visit. Here is a list of the Disney worlds that you get to experience this time around:

[list]
[*]The Land of Dragons (Mulan)
[*]Beast’s Castle (Beauty and the Beast)
[*]Olympus Coliseum (Hercules)
[*]Timeless River (Steamboat Willie)
[*]100 Acre Wood (Winnie the Pooh)
[*]Atlantica (The Little Mermaid)
[*]Port Royal (Pirates of the Caribbean)
[*]Agrabah (Aladdin)
[*]Halloween Town (The Nightmare Before Christmas)
[*]Pride Land (The Lion King)
[*]Space Paranoids (Tron)
[/list]

I will admit that the initial 3 hours of the game left a sour taste in my mouth and has slowed the pace at which I am playing [i]KH2[/i], but make no mistake about it, this game is stellar. The improvements over the original game and the engaging environments make it one of the top games of the year and definitely a must have for fans of Disney and the Action RPG genre.

SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy Seals

April 23, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Mate Bors Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[i]Socom 3[/i] is the follow-up to the most popular online PS2 game ever. The game continues on the well treaded path of its predecessors, with some new and welcomed additions. How did it work out?

On the graphics department, [i]Socom 3[/i] is rather poor. Not much improvement has been made from [i]Socom 2[/i], and to be quite honest, [i]Socom: Fireteam Bravo[/i] looks almost as good as this game, which is rather embarrassing. Framerate isn’t the best, and visibility is also pretty low. The environments are basically “interaction proof” and the levels are somewhat linear. This is extremely odd, since Fireteam Bravo excelled in these categories. The game often lags (in single player!), only when about seven (!) characters are on the screen. This is rather disappointing, as games that came out over a year before (such as [i]Metal Gear Solid 3[/i], or [i]God of War[/i]) never suffered from these problems. Effects such as fire and explosions are mediocre at best.

The sound department is quite good. The music played in the menus, is great and makes you want to kill some terrorists, just as in [i]FTB[/i]. Weapon sounds are alright, but nothing extraordinary.

The story pretty much follows the same route as [i]FTB[/i] on the PSP. You play in different locations, Morocco, Poland and Bangladesh. In each location there are different threats that the world and the USA have to deal with. Of course, the Navy Seals go in, and take care of all the baddies.

There are a few game play improvements, which I think are very welcome. For example, there are now ingame save/check points. I found it extremely annoying, and was the reason I never beat a console [i]Socom[/i] game, was that if I screwed up, I would have to start all over again, which I think is very lame. After completing an objective, you reach a checkpoint and can save there. Another new addition is vehicles. They are a pretty cool addition, as they are useful in combat and transportation alike.

AI is still clunky. You can tell your team mates this and that, but that doesn’t mean they will do it. Sometimes they will just sit around like a bunch of morons, other times they will attempt to do it.

Another thing I found odd is that [i]Socom 3[/i] was lacking of secondary and bonus objectives. While in this game there were about two or three, Fireteam Bravo had about four or five per level. The lack of these hurt the replay value of this game even more.

Of course, [i]Socom[/i] games are famous for the multiplayer aspect. Thanks to the current system Sony is using, I do not have online on my PS2, and I was not able to test it. However, according to people who have played it, it’s a really good multiplayer game.

While [i]Socom 3[/i] might not be a GOTY winner, but it is the best military/tactical shooter on the PS2 (if that is saying much). [i]Socom 3[/i] obliterates competition, such as the Ghost Recons and Rainbow Six games by Ubisoft.

While [i]Socom 3[/i] isn’t the Xbox 360 version of [i]Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter[/i], it’s still a decent game. However, unless you are planning to spend time mainly playing multiplayer, there is simply no reason to buy this game, as single player lacks replay value, and isn’t too lengthy (about 10 hours or so). I hope Zipper will do a much better job on the PS3 follow up.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced WarFighter

April 23, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Mate Bors Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[i]GRAW[/i] is the latest addition to the rapidly growing [i]Ghost Recon[/i] series. Ubisoft, like most companies, decided to make the game for every system with online play (except the poor Gamecube). However, considering the Xbox 360 is the new hot stuff in town, Ubisoft focused on that version a lot more, as opposed to the “old generation”. The result of that is obvious.

The only good thing this version of [i]GRAW[/i] shares with its Xbox 360 counterpart is the name and story. You are Captain Scott Mitchell once again and you are thrown into action. This time you are in Mexico where some evil terrorists captured the US and Mexican president and killed the Canadian one. But wait! There are supposed to be four Ghosts in a team, right? Well, in this game, it is you and your mentally handicapped partner, Ramirez. Bravo team (the other two guys) will sometimes come and help, but they aren’t a lot more intelligent.

Let’s take a look at the graphics. They are, to be quite frank, unacceptable. The buildings are un-interactive, and bland looking. Character animation is a joke. Imagine this: you are playing [i]Doom 1[/i] and [i]Wolfenstein 3D[/i] in the [b]early 90s[/b], and you see those characters that move rather unrealistically. Let me ask a question: how on Earth could Ubisoft make [i]GRAW[/i]’s characters move in such a way, in the year [b]2006[/b]? Given, the figures aren’t sprites, but in 3D, but their movement scarily enough resembles these two classics. Watch a video, and you will know what I mean. Fire and explosion effects are poor too, but I am not surprised. The game starts lagging when there are only a few people on screen. It’s quite hard to see what’s on the screen, because there are just so many things on the HUD. A mini TV screen where you can see people, map, weapon that you are using, team mate’s life, and some more. Not to mention the [i]Rainbow Six[/i]-ish helmet that is also a distraction. The game is permanently in first person, which makes you wonder why Ubi included selection of skins before you start the game, since [i]you will never freaking see it anyways[/i]. Not to mention it seems even more of a [i]Rainbow Six[/i] rip-off.

The sound department is alright. Weapons sound good, the music is not bad either, and voice acting is great too. Too bad that these don’t make up for the lame visuals department.

The game requires no strategy. Seriously, all you need to do is duck (oh yeah you can’t go prone), cover and fire away. Thankfully, weapons are accurate so you can shoot the enemy rather fast.

To extend the life of this game, there is online, but seriously, why would anyone bother? It is a limited and small “thingy” compared to not only the 360 version, but any other game.

I can’t tell you guys how long the game is, since I haven’t beaten it, or plan on doing so. Sorry, but I just don’t want to waste my time on a game I think is garbage, and turn me off the 360 version more and more. Missions aren’t very long (about ten to twenty minutes), and aren’t hard at all. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if you would quit after a few minutes (!!!) of playing, and return the game to the store you got it from. [i]GRAW[/i] is horrible, and it seems Ubi did not learn from the mistakes of the second game. Whether there is an awesome 360 version or not, [i]GRAW[/i] for the PS2 is a terrible game, that should have been aborted. It’s not even worth it if you get it for free. Don’t bother even looking at the cover of the game.

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →