Xbox

Indiana Jones and the Emperors Tomb

September 30, 2003

Movies that are based upon games are generally terrible. The same thing is generally true with movies turned game. This is due in part to the short amount of time you have to experience a movie as they generally don’t span more than about 2 hours. Most video games, on the other hand, tend to last significantly longer than that with a rare few hitting the 50-100 hour mark. With that in mind a developer named “The Collective” brought out a game titled Buffy the Vampire Slayer that did very well and was praised for its incredible 3rd person adventure engine. Lucas Arts must have been paying attention because they called on The Collective and that same engine to power their Xbox Indiana Jones game.

As a side note, I will admit that I never got to spend any time playing Buffy so I can’t judge how close the two are in terms of game play and graphics. I did spend quite a bit of time playing as Indy though. I also noticed that the general consensus of the review sites was that Buffy was a much better game than Indiana Jones. That being said, playing Buffy may or may not have influenced their take on Indy.

Most action/adventure games have similar controls that require only a minor learning curve. Indy was no exception, although even after extended play time I still kept goofing up the camera controls. I didn’t feel like the controls or Indy’s movements were flawless by any stretch of the imagination, but they are a definite improvement over most adventure games. My biggest annoyance in this regard was the camera (big surprise there). I felt like I couldn’t move the camera fast enough and it just didn’t seem intuitive to me. One last minor thing was that Indy’s jump annoyed me to no end. He can jump so far in the movie yet we have a pansy Indy that can barely make a 3 foot jump.

Individually, the graphics and sound of the game are nothing to write home about, but the overall “feel” of the game, in terms of how well the graphics and music blended together to create an Indy-esque environment, was great. They did a super job of capturing the essence of the Indy films. The fact that Indy can lose his hat while fighting was a great addition that didn’t go un-noticed. I was also pleasantly surprised that I could use my whip as a weapon. It is oh so gratifying to whip someone to death with Indy’s famous whip.

While I enjoyed playing Indiana Jones from the aspect of a big fan of the movies, as a gamer it just wasn’t enough. The game was better than a lot of action/adventure games and it actually made the transition from movie to game rather nicely, but it was still missing something. I would say part of it was a very uninteresting story compared to other games out there. The other part that the game was lacking was a feel of excitement. When I am Indy, I want to feel like there is a race going on to uncover a lost artifact or something along those lines. What I don’t want to do is wander around and beat up a few guys here and maybe 1 or 2 the
re
. I needed to feel like you did the first time Indy ran from the giant boulder, and the game just couldn’t deliver. But there was a slight problem there as well, Indy can’t run; he just walks fast.

As a whole, the game wasn’t bad. The game had some great things that have been missing in movie games in the past, but it seemed to greatly lack other key elements that would have made it a good or even great game. Lucas Arts has been doing games for a while now and it has been pretty hit or miss. This one I would file somewhere between hit and miss, but for the Indiana Jones fan, I would say this is a game you owe it to yourself to try out.

ESPN NFL Football

September 22, 2003

Reviews / Xbox / by Mike Carabajal /

*Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelch*

Football season is here and I am geeked up for Sundays. Football is by far my favorite sport and I keep up with it religiously, especially the Cowboys. Of course when football season starts an onslaught of football games get released. Leading the bunch of course is EA’s juggernaut Madden, and following close second is Sega Sport’s own title. This year Sega Sports took a different approach and got an ESPN license. They decided since cant beat Madden in gameplay (and no they cant) they will out present them in only the way ESPN can.

Great run!

This game shines in its animations and graphics. The character models are realistic and equipment, character heads, turf, audience, everything is modeled beautifully. The player mechanics are captured so well watching replays looks as close to real life as I have seen a video game get. Fights for yardage, fan reactions, player reactions are all represented. The game itself has helmet less players on the sidelines reacting to the happenings on field. The game has featured mouth movements as well and I swear you can make out players saying, A

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Island Thunder

September 19, 2003

Reviews / Xbox / by Marco Ortega /

What is it about FPS military games that just grab my attention? I mean really, is it the graphics? Is it the excitement seeing myself in the shoes of that character? Quite simply it’s both. If you have been here at Snackbar since the beginning, then you would know I’m the biggest FPS fan in the world. My judgment of FPS games, are strictly based on several different levels of reality. In the case of Ghost Recon series, you should know that I did the review on the first Ghost Recon release for the Xbox. That was actually one of the first times I have ever been exposed to the whole FPS squad management type genre. And as you can tell from the first review, I really enjoyed playing it. Now since this is my second time around with Ghost Recon, I expected many improvements since it’s first release on the Xbox. With average graphics, fun game play, great A.I., and really outstanding sound, I just could not think of way how Ubi Soft could top the first one.

Each Ghost Recon has a setting and a story to it. The first Ghost Recon on the Xbox took place in Moscow in the year 2008. The story behind this conflict was Ultranationalists were seizing power in Moscow to restore the old Soviet Empire. The Ghost, a special elite squad of Green Berets, were sent in to Moscow to restore order before a global war erupted. In the next installation to the Ghost Recon series, called Island Thunder. The story begins in the year 2010 in Havana, Cuba. Castro is dead and his heirs have not been able to maintain the Communist regime. A small hope for a democracy rises as the interim President promises free elections, and asks for international aid to protect the elections from being destroyed. Many factions in Cuba do not want to see a democracy, therefore rising and creating mass chaos to overthrow the interim President. The Ghost, have been dispatched once again to suppress any rise against the Cuba elections. I thought it to be very interesting to know that both stories deal with the rise of Communism.

Your platoon is divided into two squads of three, Alpha and Bravo. It is up to you to equip your team with the proper personnel and gear to successfully complete each mission. If you don’t know what to choose, then usually the computer will give you an indication whether or not you’re missing something before entering a mission. You have the option of picking from rifleman, demolition experts, snipers, and support. Each can be custom equipped with a light or heavy arsenal. If you’re like me, then you will equip all your men with everything you can. That’s just me; I like causing mass destruction in every mission. For each mission that you complete, you unlock better soldiers and better weapons. I personally hate to lose a man during a campaign, so I find myself restarting missions just to keep all my men alive. Although, I do allow them to sustain wounds, which is ok considering they’ll be awarded a purple heart after the mission. The only flaw is you have to sit them out for a mission, in order for them to regain full health again. The menu options to set up your squads can be a little difficult to function to begin with, but it gets easier as you progress. Once you begin a campaign you are thrown straight into the fire. Something notable that Ubi Soft did this time around was increasing the level of difficulty by a significant amount. Mind you, I am a pretty good FPS squad based player. I mean it literally took
m
e hours to complete the first of four missions. With that in mind, in order to not overwhelm you with such difficulty they decided to add better weapons and flexible movements per squad. What I mean by that is, if your like me and would rather split your squads up in a mission you really want your men to be able to execute those commands as accurate as possible. Whether you want your squads to recon, assault, or suppress an area those options are given to you under command mode. I find this function to be very helpful when you want to cover great deals of territory in each mission.

Let me transition to Island Thunders controlling mechanics. In order to be a successful FPS squad based player like myself, you must be efficient and patient with your squads. I like taking my time in order not to get my men killed. I really take each mission seriously, as if I was in combat myself. Shooting is very basic with the right trigger, and switching weapon mods, night vision, and reloading all can be done with your X, Y, A and B buttons. Crouching is simple with your directional pad, and zooming is done by pressing down on your right toggle stick. Now comes the difficult part to the game. Commanding your troops within a mission can be a pain if you are not careful. One good thing about this game is that it gives you a training level that talks you through how to command your troops within a mission. This can be tricky especially if both your squads are under attack. It’s obvious, the more you play the game the more you tend to use the command function in a mission. Using this function helps me so much during a mission, I can’t imagine not having it. This allows me to split my squads up and do more damage on opposite sides of the map, along with accomplishing my objectives much faster.

Game play is a huge factor that I take into account in a game. The first Ghost Recon had repetitive objectives to accomplish mission after mission. Island Thunder mixes its objectives around like defending a voting house, taking over command posts, finding intelligence, finding and protecting hostages. Island Thunder really made things difficult with not allowing you to have one friendly casualty in your squad or outside your squad. That really can get annoying sometimes. The game really draws you in with being able to out strategize the enemy. You start asking questions like: What will happen if I flank him to the right? Or should I hold this position until the other squad gets over the hill? I mean, real questions that can make or break your mission. Then of course comes the fun and exciting part of just plain blood shed. These guys drop like a sack of potatoes when you snipe them from afar, or when you get point blank on them. Either way they all lay in a pool of blood when you’re finished with them. Their bodies actually stay there throughout the entire mission. The bodies don’t disappear like they do in other games.

Island Thunders A.I. improved drastically this time around. The enemy is way more responsive to your movements and tactics. They don’t stand there for hours just to return fire. Most of the time, if they hear something in your direction they just start unloading. If they see you before you see them, they call for reinforcements. And let me tell you, you don’t want that. These guys have gone mobile with machine gun mounted trucks pouring out with squads of men. Stealth is a must if you want to keep your men alive. Your men can take care of themselves with out your help of course. I have gone missions where I have not gotten one kill because my men do all the killing. I find that hard to g

rasp, but its true. The A.I. is much more responsive with a shorter reaction times and better accuracy. I was really impressed with the improvements this time around in Ghost Recon. Unfortunately, it still frustrates me to know that when my men get shot and call for a medic, I can’t help them. In the next Ghost Recon they should include medics to go with the squads. Another unfortunate aspect of the game was the environment. I like games where the environment changes in weather and scenery. If I happen to be launching a grenade to some commies in a building, then I expect the building to have a huge gapping whole by the time I’m done with it. Only several times did I see bullet holes on surfaces after shooting at them. I did shoot out a few tires, which I thought was the only cool destructive thing I did besides kill commies. My word to Ubi Soft is to make destructive environments, more interactive objectives, and add some medics and vehicles to boot.

The graphics dynamics sure did not change from the first Ghost Recon. The environment still had invisible walls you would run into when trying to go up a hill. Grass, mountains, and water were flat and edgy with no detail and definition. The surfaces of all those areas looked like plywood or cardboard. Although the colors were much more colorful considering that it was in the tropical jungle. Buildings, soldiers, and men were much more detailed. The soldiers and civilians had detailed features with better face contours and a variety of looks. I personally like rounded environments with better lighting and detailed surfaces. Most of the missions were in foggy, humid areas which I thought looked great but you couldn’t see five feet in front of you. Island Thunder had very little night missions, so I could not judge the lighting and shadows. But it did have improved thunder and lightning effects. In addition to the graphical improvements, Island Thunder raised the bar from the first Ghost Recon with improved sound. Small detailed sounds such as crickets, wind, plants swaying, and drops of water falling on your head. Thunder and lightning was timed a lot better with different intervals and sounds, better dialogue, weapon sounds, echoes, whispers and city sounds. All was improved with a variety of sounds and noises in their given environment. Island Thunder does give the option of gaming in Dolby Digital, if you like playing at insanely high volumes.

Overall, this game was a great buy for me. I anticipated this game to be much better than the first Ghost Recon and it was. I was able to play Live a few times, and it was just as entertaining as the first was on Live except different maps and weapons. I really enjoyed playing hours and hours of Island Thunder because it gave me the reality of combat through tactics and management. And of course it’s an FPS so what do you expect. If you really enjoy playing squad based management games, then this will really do it for you. If you hate that kind of thing then at least try the Live game play where you can just go all out without the responsibility of managing your troops. Truly a keeper for me, I suggest trying it out. Cheers!

Otogi: Myth of Demons

September 9, 2003

Reviews / Xbox / by Chris Rasco /

Otogi is about a skilled warrior named Raikoh who is trapped between the world of the living and the dead. He is tasked with purging the world of demons to cleanse his soul from his past misdeeds. To understand the storyline any further might require the study of classic Japanese mythology. Lets be real here, I don’t have time to do that and most people probably don’t really care that much. The important part that you do need to know is that Raikoh is a bad to the bone warrior and he is out for blood. This is where you come in.

The first thing you will notice about Otogi is the very Japanese feel the game has. Everything from the menus to the loading screen and the music just screams traditional Japanese setting. This is obviously due to the origins of the game’s story.

As you begin your journey, you will want to become familiar with the game menu as you have the ability to purchase new weapons, magic, and accessories that affect your levels of magic, attack, and defense. You also have the ability to repair weapons you already own. This repair will restore the vitality of the weapon, which allows you to do better combos.

The entire buy/sell/repair aspect of the game adds a nice RPG feel, not to mention that you level up as you go along. I am a big sucker for games that have mild amounts of RPG in them as I enjoy the leveling up aspect as you feel like you are growing with your character as you play. I do not, however, enjoy full on turn based RPGs. So Otogi is a nice mix of RPG and hack and slash much like Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4 only in a much different setting.

The actual combat system allows you to lock on to enemies or just freely attack. You have a heavy and light attack as well as magic that can be used to build some devastating combos. Another interesting thing is that all weapons have a weight. This weight directly affects the power of your attacks. Light weapons boost your light attack and allow you to jump higher. Heavy weapons give a boost to your heavy attacks but put a slight damper on your jumping ability.

The entire concept of Otogi is that you are trapped in this sort of netherworld between life and death and the developers did an absolutely fantastic job of making you feel that way while playing the game. The soft lighting that is present in the game makes it feel as though you are battling demons in a dreamworld. I can safely say that I have not played a game that made extensive use of this kind of lighting and I was highly impressed.

The music in the game just seemed to add to the dreamworld effect. A nice feature to boot is the in game Dolby Digital sound (which I am still unable to utilize at this point).

One more thing I must emphasize about Otogi is the difficulty. I have played the game for a good couple of hours already and I am only on the 7th level. This game is not a walk
in
the park. There is a good reason you are allowed to replay levels in their current state, because you will not get 100% on them the first time around. The game actually borders on frustrating during some levels.

Let me sum it up for you… Otogi is a 3rd person hack and slash game with nice RPG elements in the form of a level and weapon system. It has beautiful graphics and sound that accompanies the game perfectly. It can get very frustrating, but it is not unbearably hard. While the story line is a tad bit hard to follow in my eyes, I think it’s a superb game that took a lot of people by surprise. If you are reading this then you probably don’t have a copy of the game and you might want to start hunting one down as most of the game stores that I know of only got 2-3 copies of the game. Even EBGames.com has Otogi on backorder. All in all, I have been extremely happy with Otogi and the $39.99 retail price is a nice change from the $50 we are used to paying.

The Great Escape

August 29, 2003

Reviews / Xbox / by Chris Rasco /

The Great Escape is based on the 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen. According to the IMDB the plot of the movie is:

Several hundred Allied POWs plan a mass escape from a German POW camp.

In the game, it’s you and a couple other guys. No biggie. It would have been difficult and annoying to have a “couple hundred” NPCs just hanging around being in the way anyway.

As a general rule, I have high hopes for most games that end up in my lap. I am fully aware that crappy games do come out and in fact outnumber the quality ones, but I am an optimist so I like to give games the benefit of the doubt. I try to give them a chance to prove to me that they can be good before I write them off as Bargain Bin games. Unfortunately for The Great Escape, that challenge seemed a little too daunting.

I don’t want to spend the entire review ripping on the game because you and I both know that this is a fully subjective topic and somewhere out there is a huge Steve McQueen fan that has been dying for a game based on this very movie. This review might have carried a more positive tone if that person had been me, but it wasn’t.

The beginning of the game is where you are captured by the Germans and placed in the POW camp. You start out in a plane where you have to fight off enemy planes with a mounted machine gun. Quite frankly, my frustration started this early in the game. It was almost immediately that I noticed the controls just seemed “sluggish”. Everyone has had one of those dreams where you don’t feel like you can run fast enough to get away from the “bad guy”. Yeah, the controls feel like that. I felt like I was in slow motion and it got very annoying.

My frustration was extended to the fact that I had to play that intro part a whopping 4 times before I found the stupid parachute and got to move on to the next level.

The game itself is very linear. As your progress thru each mission you basically run around talking to different people to complete tasks. Once you complete one task, you are given the next task. For what I played of the game, you never have more than one active task at a time; hence what I feel is a very guided and linear story. Some people prefer very linear gameplay, but I don’t personally care for it.

I may have some big problems with the game, but I can’t rip on the graphics too much. They weren’t awe inspiring, and I felt they were on par with what I had expected. However, the music in the game was just awful. I felt like I was listening to some generic 30 second track repeated over and over again.

To make matters worse, I got a hold of this game in the middle of my Knights of the Old Republic addiction. I set aside some time to pla
y
it hoping I would get into the story but it just didn’t happen. I got bored with the game after a very short time and just couldn’t play anymore.

I don’t know what kind of hand Gotham Games had in Serious Sam, but that game was loads of fun so I know they are capable of good material. The Great Escape just fell short in several key areas and fun happened to be one of them. It doesn’t happen very often, but I have to recommend that you let The Great Escape do exactly that.. escape right off the shelf and into the bargain bin.

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