PlayStation 2

SOCOM: US Navy SEALS

May 21, 2003

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Marco Ortega Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Before I purchased SOCOM: U.S. NAVY SEALS I had read reviews from
both sides of the spectrum. The only game that I had played that
was similar to SOCOM was Ghost Recon on the Xbox, which I really
enjoyed playing. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I got the
guts to purchase SOCOM.

The game begins as you are dropped into enemy territory to eliminate
a terrorist compound. You will be leading two teams, Able Element
and Bravo Element. Your two teams are equipped with state of the
art covert weaponry and equipment. Depending on your mission your
teams are set up automatically to default with weather gear and
weapons gear. You are also allowed to customize your team with certain
weapons and gear if you feel comfortable with your skills. Once
you have finally equipped your team accordingly you are now ready
for deployment. Let me warn you ahead of time the combat management
for your team is quite difficult. In order to execute your mission
with a successful score you will need to learn how to follow every
order and give commands. The game scores you on performance of stealth,
time, teamwork, and special or regular objectives accomplished.
Every small detail matters in all your missions. Prior to deploying
you are briefed on your mission and the objectives. You are given
a map to study as well as specific points of attack and special
routes to take in your mission.

The controls in this game are far more complex than other combat
games I have played before. It took me quite a while to get used
to managing of both your teams along with yourself during a mission.
Your regular movements such as running forward and other directions
are executed by using the analogs sticks. Your directional pad is
used for zooming with your weapons, binoculars, night vision and
peeking around corners. While zooming you can also switch from third
person mode to first person mode. All your special actions like
busting out your weapon or cycling through them is done with the
L1 and L2 buttons. Changing body positions such as crouching, proning,
and standing are done by using the triangle button. You can also
customize your controller in the options menu to your personal likings.

The game screen helps you out tremendously during your missions.
The top right of your screen is a mini map spotting your location,
objectives, and danger zones. This mini map took me awhile to understand.
Icons pop up during mission play that give options to pick up a
body and hide it, pilfer a new weapon along with ammo, take someone
out from behind, and many other special moves. On the bottom of

your screen you will have the status of your team and their health.
So you’re asking your self…”What about the freaking headset?”
Well the headset is what SOCOM is known for. Using the headset in
this game makes executing commands a little easier for you. Now
if you don’t want to use your headset during single player mode,
that’s cool. You are still able to execute commands with just your
controller. By pressing the circle button a series of submenus appear
on your screen. First thing you need to do is give orders to someone,
Able or Bravo element. Next is what you need them to do, a series
of actions appear that you can choose. Finally, you will need them
to execute these actions at a certain location. On your map it gives
locations, and those locations are symbolized with letters of the
military alphabet. Your command screen will display the locations,
and once you have chosen your location, your team will move. In
order to use the headset effectively you have to say the correct
commands. You just can’t say something like “Move your ass
soldier and kill those commies!!” That just won’t work. Whatever
commands pop up on your submenus are the ones you have to say clearly.

Allow me to proceed on SOCOM’s AI and graphics. There are times
where the environments are a bit sluggish and some that are really
sharp. The missions in the mountains are sharp and with very little
visibility. Considering the amount of snow that is falling you will
not be able to see very far. Once you start zooming in on distant
objects things become pixilated. Rain forest missions are just real
nasty. The game does really good job dealing with the rain forest
environment. Dense fog, nasty ground and sluggish trees in the graphics
are pretty good. Although I still have a problem with visibility
in this game. The further you look the more pixilated the background
gets.

The AI in SOCOM is a little slow at times. Reaction time for your
team after an order has been given sometimes feels like years to
be executed. At times when storming a compound my partner will take
his sweet time pulling the trigger or reloading while I’m getting
shot up from every direction. Another example is when I am diffusing
a bomb, my partners will just sit there and switch weapons while
letting me get lit up with bullets. Many times have I given orders
to follow my lead, when I turn around they are still in the same
place where I started. Many times my teammate will block the only
exit out of a building while ten guys are blasting away at us. I
believe the AI in SOCOM is what effects the games overall performance.
Its many flaws in the AI category keep the smoothness of the action
from flowing.

SOCOM carries a well-detailed sound environment. Many of the different
missions are accentuated by the natural sounds that it provides.
You hear many sounds like your feet dragging through the snow, and

the mosquitoes and wildlife in the rain forest. The little details
that the sound provides in each mission give this game a real good
sense of reality.

Overall SOCOM is a great realistic military shooter. It has the
feel of Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon where stealth is a major factor.
If you don’t use stealth, you and your team will get slaughtered.
Using the headset for command execution brings an all-new flavor
to the military shooter genre. The levels are intense and elaborate
with something different to accomplish every time. SOCOM also has
a multiplayer mode only when using the network adapter for online
use. I personally have no desire to play this game online, the only
reason I bought this game was for the single player mode. If you
like games such as Ghost Recon and the such, then I suggest giving
SOCOM a try.

Dynasty Warriors 4

April 11, 2003

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Shane Quast Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/dw4/cover.jpg[/floatleft]If I had to describe Dynasty Warriors 4 in one word, it would definatly be “fun.” There’s something to be a said about a good hack A

Def Jam Vendetta

April 7, 2003

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Shane Quast Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/defjam/cover.jpg[/floatleft]Long have I awaited the return of the AKI wrestling engine. Ever since THQ ran off with the WWE license every wrestling game that they tried to put out has sucked. I figured that since WWE wasn’t dishing out any new licenses, and the thought of THQ and AKI joining up to do another game seemed pretty far fetched that video game wrestling’s glory days had come and gone. License? We don’t need no stinkin’ license. AKI’s engine is just to damn good to let die, and thank god that EA had the sense to realize this. EA Sports Big, which is known for it’s over-the-top presentation style, and AKI teamed up for the development on Def Jam Vendetta. Fans of the NWO vs. WCW series have been anxiously awaiting the release of Def Jam Vendetta, but with that comes some pretty high expectations. Will the engine port well to next-gen consoles? Will the substitution of rappers for wrestlers be a success? Why on earth didn’t they make this for the Xbox? Hopefully I’ll be able to get to all this questions and more in this review.

First of all I would like to discuss the graphics. Here is where the difficulty lies in reviewing this game. Do I base my opinion of the graphics on what they are like compared to the N64 games with this engine, or do I judge it compared to other PS2 games? Something that always bothered me was the polygonal appearance and the EXTREME amount of clipping that took place on the character models in the N64 games. Def Jam Vendetta actually did a pretty nice job on the character models. The characters look pretty smooth without looking strange like the models in THQ’s Smackdown do. Of course, EA Sports Big did make the characters look gigantic and flashy, which they are known to do. For some reason though they made all the character’s hands enormous; if you pay attention to the hands for a few minutes while playing you’ll start to notice how funny they look. The movements of the characters are very natural and smooth looking. Overall clipping of the fighters wasn’t a problem, but there was a couple of times when I caught someone’s foot going through someone else; it hardly enough to be noticeable though. The worst part of the character models is that the lip-sync is terrible. None of the character’s lip movements ever look like they are saying what they are supposed to be saying, it’s pretty bad. Another part of the N64 games that was just god-awful was the crowds and backgrounds. Def Jam Vendetta’s developers did a really great job on the backgrounds in the game. One level in particular that I remember well had a couple of girls dancing in the background and every time they caught your eye’s attention their movements were really fluid and created a cool environment for battle’s to be raged in. All in all I feel good about the graphics in Def Jam Vendetta. I think the developers did a good job, there are some areas that I would like to see improved, but hey, this is the PS2 I’m talking about.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/defjam/ss02_thumb.jpg[/floatright]Since this game bore the name of a Rap label, I figured beforehand that sound would be its strong point. Instead it turned out to be the most irritating, skull cracking part of Def Jam Vendetta. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I don’t like Rap music or the tracks they selected for the soundtrack. Imagine with me if you will a 15 second loop of “DMX – X Gonna Gonna Give It to Ya” over and over and over and over. It’s not even a good loop either; you can hear where they looped it. That’s basically what you have to deal with every single time you fight a match. After a few hours you want to beat your head up against the screen or mute the game. The sound effects aren’t bad; they are almost exactly the same as the N64 games. This game is better played on mute than anything else.

The controls in Def Jam Vendetta are exactly what you will remember from the N64 series. Anyone who spent a significant amount of time playing any of those games will have the controls mastered seconds after picking up Def Jam Vendetta. Surprisingly enough the PS2 control actually is pretty easy to use. I was a little bit leery about how the shift from the N64 controller to the PS2 controller would be, but all the buttons are where you would expect them to be. What I never realized is how hard the controls would be to master for someone who had never played any of the N64 games. I had a friend over for a few hours and it was really difficult to explain to him the strike, grapple, and move progression. For him it turned into a button mashing fest, so much so that his thumb got so sore he had to quit playing. It was frustrating for me to watch because I’ve played this type of game for so long that I know exactly what to do and when and he had no clue. After awhile he was able to master some aspects of the controls, but there is so much you can do with every single move and reversals that it would take a long time for him to totally get the hang of it. For you AKI engine veterans you’ll find the controls very responsive and you feel like you’re in complete control of you character.

It’s tough to decide how to rate how challenging this game is. Def Jam Vendetta is designed to be a one-player game and the game’s main feature is the story mode. I played through most of it in one night, and it does a pretty decent job of progressive difficulty, as you get further into the story. Having played past AKI games as much as I have makes this game extremely easy to me. I played it with the difficulty set at medium and I was tearing through the matches like butter. My friend who had never played before could barely beat anyone. I would say that the most challenging part for any newcomer would just be mastering the controls. Once you have that down you can pretty much sail through this game. Def Jam Vendetta also has a “Survival” game mode, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. The only problem is that I think I’m too good at this game and it just gets boring. I beat about 6 guys in 15 minutes and got bored and turned it off. I’m defiantly going to have to jack the difficulty up a bit. Personally my favorite part of the games using this series was the multiplayer, so I can’t get myself too worked up about the difficulty of this game.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/defjam/ss05_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]When thinking about the fun factor and replay ability of Def Jam Vendetta it’s impossible to separate my feelings for the N64 games. There are so many things that I wish they would have included that were some of my favorite parts of the old games. My favorite feature was always the Royal Rumble. We used to have 10-15 people crammed in Pickle’s tiny room all fighting over who gets to be the next character that runs in. The multiplayer was so much fun, I don’t understand why they would stray from that and make it primarily a single player game. There are some multiplayer aspects in the game, but that is pretty difficult to deal with. The camera angle is a little bit low and when you get involved in a tag-team match or any type of match with four people you spend a lot of time complaining about not being able to see anything that’s going on. The other thing that’s frustrating is that the story is very linear. In No Mercy the story would branch out a lot and you’d have people running smack and run-ins. It was great. But no matter what character you play with in Vendetta you always progress from match a to b to c, with the same cinematics every time. Speaking of character selection, this games big draw is that you can be these cool ass rappers. Strangely enough you can’t use any of them in the story mode though. Most of the guys you would want to play as don’t even start as being unlocked. All I wanted was to be Redman; I spent 3 hours trying to unlock him only to find out that I couldn’t use him in story mode. And why no create-a-fighter?

The previous paragraph is mainly for people who have played AKI wrestling games before. For those of you who never have, the AKI wrestling engine is like Mecca. All other wrestling games are nothing compared to the greatness that this engine is. If you are just getting started playing you are soon going to find yourself spending hours trying to memorize and master ever single move with every single wrestler, and than you’re going to want to get yourself a tag-team partner and master all the tag-teams moves. Pickle and I are a dominant tag-team; we used to do some of the coolest things in Revenge. If you are a fan of wrestling or fighting games at all you need to check this game out.

Although I have some complaints, it is so good to see the AKI engine back in action. Maybe I’ll have to wait for Ultimate Muscle: Legends Vs. New Generation to get some of the features back that I used to enjoy so much, but Def Jam Vendetta is defiantly something that can hold me over for now. If you have played the N64 games before than I would probably recommend renting this game prior to buying. It’s defiantly worth playing, but odds are you are going to be too good at it if you are a veteran to get the replay ability out of it you are looking for. I actually purchased Def Jam Vendetta instead of renting because I want to support AKI and I hope their engine never goes away.

-Soda Out

High Heat Baseball 2004

March 24, 2003

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Shane Quast Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/highheat/cover.jpg[/floatleft]It seems that baseball games have started to get worse and worse as times goes on. Back in the glory days of the NES it seemed like every game broke new ground. Personally I invested many hours of my youth into games like Baseball Stars, Baseball and Basewars. Then came the Genesis. Great baseball games were plentiful. Games like RBI Baseball ’94 and the first induction in the Triple Play Baseball series were my obsession during this time. To a lesser extent I enjoyed the Triple Play Baseball games on the PSOne. So then we enter the present. Both Triple Play games on the PS2 have been total crap. Instead of building on the foundation that EA had built with the PSOne series they half-assed their way through two games. The games were so bad that it eventually led to EA scrapping the series and starting over with MVP Baseball. The All Star Baseball series on PS2 had a lot of potential, but the downside outweighed the upside way too much. For the past few years I’ve been left without a baseball game that I considered adequate and it’s been a big frustration in my life. Sadly I’ll admit that this is the first time I have given any of the games in the High Heat series a chance. In the past I’ve never really been impressed with anything that 3DO has done. Finally Pickle got me to cave one day and give this game a chance.

The first thing I noticed about the graphics on High Heat was that they actually weren’t bad. That’s right a PS2 game with graphics that aren’t half bad! The player movements were pretty smooth and realistic; the batting stances looked pretty nice, players weren’t running through each other, all in all not too shabby. The areas I felt that lacked the most were the menus which were extremely hard to navigate and the end game victory celebration were it looked like the players played leap frog on the field from a blimp view; very bizarre. The lack of a more extravagant home run celebration was a little disappointing, but I can do without that. 3DO did such a good job with the graphics in this game that even the bean balls looked realistic. Afterwards the batter would get up and shake his fist at the pitcher; which immediately got me worked up into a frenzy hoping that he would charge the mound. Wouldn’t that be cool if they made a game where if you beaned a guy twice he would charge the mound? Damn that would be sweet.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/highheat/ss01_thumb.jpg[/floatright]Sometimes in a video game the phrase “Less is more” can be applied. The developers at 3DO really took this seriously when they programmed the sound for High Heat. The announcer’s commentary is actually pretty good, and they don’t go off on tangents like they used to in the Triple Play games. They keep it short and to the point, no complaints from me. Other than the announcers and some crowd chatter the game is pretty quiet. The music in this game is so off that I almost want to say it’s a glitch. Maybe one out of every ten batters that walk to the plate will get music played before their at bat, and it usually lasts about four seconds. On top of that, the menu music will mysteriously vanish for 20-30 minutes at a time. It’s not that the music is bad; it’s just never there. It leaves you scratching your head as to why they even put it in at all if it was going to be like that.

The control in High Heat Baseball is a bit simplistic. Instead of trying to line up a cursor with a pitch location indicator, like most baseball games have been doing lately, you just have to hit the button to swing and time it right. This works pretty well when you’re a video game baseball rookie and you just want to knock the crap out of the ball, but it gets frustrating in late inning clutch situations when you want to hit a sac fly or something like that, because you really have no idea where the ball is going. It’s also a bit difficult to pitch because you have no cursor either. You just have to hold down the directional pad and hope to god that the ball is going to go where you want it to, and not hang over the plate giving up a ninth inning, three run homer to Jim Edmonds sending the game into extra innings. That’s the other thing, the damn Cardinals in this game are the bane of my existence. For the life of me I can’t freaking beat them. The one time I actually had a lead on them they teed off on me in the ninth like I was throwing beach balls down the middle of the plate. But back to the topic at hand, even though the batting/pitching controls are a bit basic, they are still good enough to where you can get some enjoyment playing this game. The controls in the field are a bit more difficult to get the hang of. The buttons on the PS2 controller are arranged in a diamond pattern, and each button corresponds to the base you want to throw the ball to. If you want to hit the cut-off man you hit the R1 button. It gets a bit confusing sometimes and you’ll end up throwing the ball to the wrong base a lot in the beginning. On top of this, every runner in the base is as fast as a bullet, making it nearly impossible to turn a double play on the computer. Once again I reiterate that although the controls take a bit to master, it is well worth and you’ll be enjoying playing High Heat before you know it.

I made reference in the last paragraph to my on-going feud with the Cardinals. It’s that kind of challenge that makes this game fun. 3DO did an excellent job of adding realism into the game play. One time you’ll play and your pitcher will be off and you’ll have a 12-10 game. The next time you play you’ll win a 2-1 pitching duel. On the rookie mode the game turns into a home run derby, but so far the next level up has been perfect for me as far as challenge goes. Even if I get better I still have two more levels of difficultly on top of that. I really can’t say enough good things about the challenge on this game. I’ve had problems in the past where I get too good at a baseball game and it gets to be no fun anymore, but I don’t really see that happening with High Heat 2004.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/highheat/ss06_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]High Heat 2004 is fun, really fun. The graphics are good, the controls are decent and the challenge level is perfect. Those three together are a good formula for a fun game of almost any genre. Those of you who follow the forums here know how Pickle and I have been begging and pleading for a quality franchise mode in a baseball game. I personally feel that building a franchise is one of the most fun parts of any sports game. I wasn’t quite expecting the depth that High Heat included in their franchise system. You have to manage your major league, AAA, AA and A rosters. On top of that you have to work within a budget that corresponds to what market your team is, manage injuries, draft rookies, negotiate with free agents. It really is a lot of work. Great job 3DO, but it really takes a die hard to have to patience to manage this one.

If you’re a fan of video game baseball I highly recommended making High Heat Baseball 2004 your next purchase. It is by far the best baseball game that I have played in a long while. Like I said earlier, the challenge and the franchise system are good enough to keep you coming back for more. This game defiantly has the replay value to make it a permanent part of you collection. Much props to 3DO for a job well done.

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven

March 12, 2003

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Mike Carabajal Make a comment! / Tweet it!

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/tenchu/cover.jpg[/floatleft]I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of Tenchu (which from this point will be referred to as the “Chu”). When March hit and the flood of anticipated games began pouring in; ‘Chu was at the top of my list to pick up. Having played the previous two versions of the game, I really wanted to see how the game would transfer to the next-gen consoles and the new opportunities that technology may have opened up for this sneaker.

I apologize in advance if I repeatedly compare this game to the previous games in the series; you will find out why here if you keep reading. The graphics in this game are on par with any PS2 game. What I mean by that is the character models and scenery are modeled nicely; however the textures on just about everything look terrible. The game takes place at night so the darkness covers up the textures nicely. A great deal of clipping occurs in the game. As you sneak near walls your arm will go through it and when you perform your stealth kills you will often thrust your entire forearm into a person. I am a huge stickler for presentation and ‘Chu does deliver overall, however with the technology that the developers are allowed to toy with; you would think that these issues would be solved or at least not happen as much as they do in this game.

Here we go with the comparisons. The sound in ‘Chu is taken EXACTLY from the original game. The soundtrack sounds almost exactly like Tenchu Stealth Assassins. I didn’t really notice at first, but even when you meet the first boss he breaks out with “Looks like you picked the wrong party to crash” right before you kick his ass. I shook my head in disbelief at this. The developers could have done it because they wanted to touch on some nostalgia from the original Tenchu, but when the whole fucking game mimics Tenchu 1, then it gets fucking lazy…dammit.

[floatright]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/tenchu/ss04_thumb.jpg[/floatright]Control for the new ‘Chu was really the only aspect of the game that improved. As far as the fighting control you are now able to lock onto an enemy and circle him. In this mode you can block, attack, as well as dodge his attacks with a well placed sidestep. You will need this mode for the bosses. For some reason your character always walks up to the boss of a level and fights him head on, as opposed to killing him stealth-like as he did with the guards…I guess ninjas like challenges?

The best overall control aspect was the changes with the camera. If you leave the camera at default with out screwing with it you will become frustrated with the camera demons that do appear. There are a few annoying situations when it comes to the camera. For instance, when you come to a ledge the camera will default to a down angle to let you look what’s under the ledge. This can be a problem when you need to make a gap jump or want to scout an area via rooftop. Another issue is with cornering. Do not get cornered into a wall or the camera will freak when it tries to get behind you and has no room.

The challenge in Tenchu has always been tough. This remains true as the levels themselves are set up to make you really scout. Each level has three different layouts to master, each of course, getting progressively harder with more enemies in more strategic positions. That may be the only hard thing in the game; the bosses do not require much effort if you use the combos you acquire throughout the game. The guards couldn’t be freaking stupider. The AI is mind-boggling! A guard can sit and watch a fellow guard killed horribly then after about two seconds give up on finding who did it. Personally I think he should call for help or sound an alarm.

[floatleft]http://www.snackbar-games.com/images/reviews/tenchu/ss05_thumb.jpg[/floatleft]I personally owned this game for less than a week. I think the developers dropped the ball severely in the series and took a step backwards. They negated all the cool things you could do in Tenchu 2 such as drag bodies and stay underwater. Additionally the “power of the PS2” is put to the test when multiple enemies attack. The game will slow to almost a stop. Tenchu 3 is really an exact copy of Tenchu 1 only with better graphics. To be honest I would recommend picking this up as a rental if you have never played any of the Tenchu games because they are very cool games. However if you have played previous installments or hate sneakers then don’t even bother as it brings absolutely nothing new to the table other than frustration and loading times.

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