It is not often that a game comes along that faithfully captures the spirit of a T.V. show. Games like James Cameron’s Dark Angel and the Dukes of Hazard simply throw together a bunch of boring clichA
Xbox
It’s rare that we see games take chances, so in that vein I have to give Outrage and THQ some credit with Alter Echo. They took some risks, especially in terms of game design, and while not flawless, it does sometimes work out for the best. Still, it all comes out of the wash as another action platformer in a sea of similar tiles. There are enough bells and whistles to make Alter Echo appeal to some, such as the title’s unique combo system that serves to make combat quite entertaining. Sadly, however, the game is far too short to be considered anything other than a weekend rental. Alter Echo takes place on a world where certain individuals, called Shapers, are able to use something called plast to shape and form nearly anything at will. The greatest of these individuals, Paavo, has managed to create a new, more powerful form of plast, called echoplast. Paavo quickly is enraptured with the newfound power afforded to him by the new substance. That is where you come in. As a young shaper named Nevin, you must seek out and prevent Paavo from using this power to destroy humanity.
Donning a suit made entirely of echoplast, Nevin begins the adventure to stop Paavo. This suit is sentient, and also quite powerful in its own right. While it begins as just a normal melee suit of armor and a sword, it soon gains the ability to change into two other completely different forms. The stealth form looks much like a lizard, and allows Nevin to become invisible, and attack with much more speed and agility at close range. This form can also walk up some walls ala-Gex, which is both useful and cool. The other form, the gun form, is a lumbering hulk with substantial firepower. This firepower is upgraded through the course of the game as well. The ability to attack from a distance comes in very handy, as you can no doubt imagine.
So what this all boils down to is the aforementioned combat. Alter Echo is an action/adventure title in name, but the action is what makes this title work. Through the game’s Time Dilation technology, players can slow time down so Nevin can attack the enemy without them being able to react. This allows Nevin to target multiple enemies at once, and to string together a combination of attacks. This is played out in a separate mode called TD mode. Players must string together attacks by pressing buttons within a A
Madden Football is one of the most anxiously awaited games every
year. Gamers everywhere spend hours drooling over the display boxes
in their local video game stores for weeks on end prior to Madden’s
release. Sadly enough the Madden series has been on a slow and steady
decline over the past few seasons. Madden 2002 was hardly any improvement
over 2001, and 2003 was extremely disappointing. The hype surround
Madden 2004 has been huge however, and the fact that it’s following
so closely behind the shot heard round the video game world from
NCAA Football 2004 have this reviewer’s video game sense tingling.
New This Year
This year’s edition of Madden boasts, among other things, the new
“Playmaker” offense and defense. To be honest, the Playmaker
controls only complicate things. I have a hard enough time trying
to find a hole in the defense, let alone guide my blocker to pick
up a defender. Good idea, bad implementation.
One of the best features of Madden has always been the “Franchise
Mode.” In addition to the “Franchise Mode,” this
year has a new “Owner Mode.” The “Owner Mode”
gives you the ability to set ticket prices, set concession prices,
spend money on advertising, build or renovate stadiums, among many
other options. I found this mode to be too in depth. I like running
a franchise, but I have trouble caring about how much big foam fingers
cost at my stadium.
The best thing that EA added this year was the tackling animations.
Defenders will lunge to shove ball carriers out of bounds, drag
a runner down from behind, and even gang up to bring down a running
back. In addition to the new defensive animations the new running
animations are extremely smooth. Stiff arms actually look like stiff
arms and your back will even fight to get extra yardage after a
collision with a defender.
Like a Snail
The most noticeable difference I found this year was that the game
absolutely crawled. It’s an agonizing task just trying to play a
game from start to finish. Your offense crawls to the line, your
defense crawls into their formation and then you have to make two
or three adjustments on every play.
Madden and Michaels only magnify how boring playing the actual
game is. Their commentary is slow and dead; it drowns out the crowd,
which sounds like they couldn’t care at all about what’s happening
in the game. Amazingly enough the home crowds cheers for the visiting
team when they score. Sitting and watching paint dry is about as
exciting as playing a game of Madden 2004.
Running Into A Wall
There are two things I have found extremely difficult in Madden
thus far. One is running the ball. Gaining a hundred yards with
your running back seems like an impossible quest, gaining twenty
yards seems like a more realistic goal. You should be proud of yourself
if your back manages to average two yards a carry for the season.
The second thing that I am incapable of doing is defending against
the pass. The worst pass offense in the league can throw it downfield
all over my secondary. Fortunately I can do the same thing to the
computer’s defense. Basically what you end up with is a final score
of sixty something to fifty something with each team running about
400 plus passing yards. It’s a bit ridiculous.
Another Year, Another Disappointment
I couldn’t be more pissed off that I shelled out fifty of my hard
earned dollars for this piece of crap. It’s not that Madden is a
bad game; it’s just that I am sick of playing the same damn game
every year. It’s almost coming to the point where EA needs to do
the same thing with Madden that they did with the Triple Play series,
scrap it and start over. The worst part is I know their not, and
I know that next year I’m going to forget how much I hated 2004
and get all pumped up about 2005 and be disappointed all over again.
In a perfect world I’d like EA to refund the money I spent on this
game, and refund the gas money it’s going to take me to drive my
ass over to EB Games and trade it in for something that I will actually
enjoy. Do yourself a favor and keep Madden 2003 if you have it,
don’t waste your money.
May the force be with me
A few things are synonymous with Star Wars: Geeks, light sabers, and crappy games. This is the unfortunate truth because Lucas Arts seems to love to put out games that use the Star Wars title just to sell a few copies. Unfortunate as it is, the low standard has become accepted, as it was set by all the previous Star Wars games. Sure, some good ones have come out, but nothing that lived up to the standard that the movies set or filled the potential that the movies provided. In steps, Bioware, (a personal favorite of mine) who is most known for the Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate series, improved in large strides the genre of the Star Wars game. Bioware is the originator of the Aurora Engine that lets turn based actions proceed in real time by doing all the calculations unseen and extremely rapidly. They have focused their biggest efforts on the world of Dungeons and Dragons, with the engine made specifically to bring the tried and true method of dice rolling into a game. With this engine being so brilliantly done, Bioware was contracted to develop the newest Star Wars game. Much acclaim was given to the decision of Bioware being the developer, seeing how Bioware itself has many fans. This combined with the multitude of Star Wars fanatics, this game was sure to please.
Dungeons and Dragons Meets Star Wars
Sounds like the biggest mark fest for geeks across the world, however Bioware was able to meld the two together to bring a truly fascinating RPG. The base rules are the same, your character upon creation gets a certain number of points to add to his or her attributes. They are all present and accounted for: Dexterity, Strength, Charisma, Constitution, Wisdom, and Intelligence. Same base rules of DnD apply including saving throws to avoid side effects as well as item and character powerups you can equip. Those familiar with the system will feel right at home. Those not familiar with the DnD system will find it to be extremely well thought out and customizable. Of course your character gets more points with leveling up as well as Feats they can use to learn more skills such as two weapon fighting and sniper shots. While the Feats are a bit different then those in DnD they have been modified to fit the Star Wars universe. This makes for extremely customizable characters. I found myself already planning my support characters and from the get go I wanted my main character to wield two short lightsabers. For character creation junkies this will be appreciated.
Tasks at hand
This game is an RPG though and though. You will be required to partake in certain tasks to advance the main storyline as well as your characters. The side quests are quick and challenging and allow many opportunities to gain experience. Often times you will run into one of the fun puzzles that end quests. For those familiar with Neverwinter Nights, you will find them very entertaining and challenging puzzles. Some puzzles extremely creative such as solving murders, computer hacking, and memory games. There are very few dull moments in questing. The main storyline itself is done brilliantly. As your character develops over time you will be giving decisions to make regarding the storyline. Your decisions affect your character greatly. You can either have your character go light or darkside of the force. Your decisions will constantly shift moving your more light or darkside and as such the look of your character will even cha
ng
e.
Two swords or one?
Star Wars is well represented in the look and feel of the game. Character modeling, item modeling, and over all design is well done. The game’s lighting and animations are top notch, as well as every item that is equipable is represented on your character. Personally I am an item junkie. I will find myself running around in my favorite looking armor regardless of defense rating, I am all about the look of my character. I would say the only flaw in the game would be that the crisp graphics in no way shape or form stay crisp when close ups are involved. Unfortunately there are plenty of close ups where textures get significantly ugly.
Grab it where you can
This is one of the best games I have played in quite some time. Like I said before, this is an RPG through and through. Quest junkies, Hack and Slashers, and of course Star Wars fans will all find it appealing. I love many aspects of this game and hate none, and that is impressive if you know me. I can find very few faults in this game and I recommend everyone getting it. It is fun, replayable, and hell… its Star Wars! Being a Jedi kicks ass no matter what it is. In this game you can be multiple Jedi, enough reason to spend your money. A Pickle favorite easy.
Being the FPS fan that I am, I had to get my hands on Soldier of Fortune 2 when it came out. The only thing that I had ever heard about SOF was the famous magazine, which bears the same name. Since I have not played the first SOF on PC, I was really excited to see what the next installment had to offer, especially since it was released on the Xbox.
Needless to say I look for several things in any FPS. There are different aspects in a FPS game that I look for. They are: graphics, weapons, AI, sound, and environmental destruction. I was eager to see what this game had to offer as an FPS compared to the recent release of other games in the same genre.
When the game begins you are playing the character of John Mullins, a respected combat veteran turned professional consultant. A private organization called “The Shop” contracts you for covert operations around the world to combat terrorism. The Shop has gathered intelligence that a worldwide terrorist group has developed a deadly virus, and is planning to spread the virus around the world without mercy. You have been called to eliminate the threat at all cost. The missions are in different environments such as jungles, urban locations, frozen tundra, deserts, and many more locations around the world. Each mission that you encounter is actually very long and drawn out. There are very few to zero objectives in each mission. The objectives can vary from rescuing a hostage, collecting intelligence, or just eliminating an entire army of terrorists. But 98% of the time you are just mowing people down. You literally have to destroy huge regimes of terrorists, which is actually quite funny. Honestly, the game is not very involved beyond eliminating mass numbers of terrorists. Because SOF fails to draw you into the game, the diversity of the game play does not go beyond massacring people and blowing things up. Just in case you get a little bored of slaughtering people in small numbers then you can up your difficulty in the settings menu, which by the way, will only increase the number of terrorists in a mission.
Activision, the creators of the SOF games, is known for helping gamers out during game play, for example in the earlier released hit Return to Castle Wolfenstein. In SOF’s case, hint icons will appear at certain times to inform you that you can operate or interact with an object. Right below your hint icons is your health and armor status bar, and on the bottom right of your screen is your weapon and ammo status bar. One thing I love about first person shooters is the amount of weapons you can carry at one time. SOF allows you to carry up to 10 weapons, and before each mission you can customize your arsenal to your likings. I personally enjoy playing any FPS that allows you to carry a weapon in each hand at one time. SOF gives you that freedom to carry two pistols, Uzi’s, or whatever else you can get your hands on. This aspect of the game really makes it a tad bit more fun.
The controls in SOF are very similar to the controls of RTCW. Your directional pad helps you scroll through your weapons and lean to peak around a corner. You also have a quick grenade button, just in case you feel like causing more damage. Basic movem
en
ts are done by using the toggle sticks forward, backward, and strafe, which can be inverted if you prefer. Both triggers are used to fire and zoom with scoped weapons. You have the option of changing the mode on certain weapons with the white button. For stealth purposes you can press down on the toggle buttons for crouching and proning. As a side note, stealth does not help you in any way, shape, or form in this game. You can also customize your controller to your personal preference of gaming. The responsiveness of your controller is very quick, sometimes reloading can be a pain but it’s done automatically when you forget.
This will then lead me to the games A.I. and its graphics. I have not been able to experience a FPS hat will allow me to continue to dismember a corpse once I have killed it. SOF will allow you to riddle the corpse with bullets or completely decapitate its head with your assault rifle. Very gruesome I might add. It’s fun to watch as you kill your enemy, and then proceed to see parts of his head come off as you shoot him at point blank range. And yes folks, blood will flow like a river in this game. Just to add a little bit more of knit-picking, all the characters wear the same outfits and they all look identical. This really annoys me because I believe that variety in a game is a must. It seems that the graphics engine used in this game was similar to that of RTCW. The games color is very cloudy and dark with very little detail given to the objects. The lighting effects in this game caused it many times to clip continuously, especially as I walked down a hall. Overall the lighting effects in this game are horrendous. Another quality of graphics and game play that I search for is environmental destruction. SOF
limits you to destroying several things in the environment, which I think is lame. The environment was also not smoothed out properly and not given enough detail.
As you get closer to walls and trees, they become exaggeratingly pixilated and lose even more detail. On the other hand, the weapons look absolutely realistic and very fine. Each weapon has its own slick style and finish that make it look very appealing.
SOF’s AI is not very satisfying at all. The enemy will run at you, screaming who knows what, with a huge cannon in their hands and once they are in point blank range they will crouch and proceed to fire at your knees. That’s just horrible AI in my book. After sniping an enemy from afar, another guy will run to the exact same spot where you sniped the last guy, only to meet the same fate. Thus killing about 10-15 guys in a matter of seconds. This process happens on every mission countless amounts of times – again the game’s AI is very annoying and very unsatisfying. It will take an enemy anywhere from 3-5 seconds to fire upon you once you have fired at them during a mission. It was obvious that Activision did not spend a lot of time on the game’s AI, maybe didn’t spend time on the game at all.
Double helix also fails to bring great sound effects to the mix. The music is rarely heard, the dialogue is extremely pointless and flat, while the ambient noise is dead. SOF was obviously not mastered properly and poorly mixed all around. Although, the only good aspect to the games sound is the weapons being fired. Every weapon being fired sounds like you are sitting next to a .50 caliber machine gun. I mean you literally have to turn down your television every time you shoot your weapon.
Soldier of Fortune 2: Double Helix failed to satisfy me overall wit
h a lack of involvement. Activision decided to rush into this game and leave out many elements of involvement including creativity, graphics, and a descent challenge. Since I have purchased SOF I have not seen a single soul on LIVE playing SOF. To make matters worse, the game is not multiplayer capable unless you system link. This then brings me to my conclusion; just stay away from the game, unless you are bored and have nothing else to play, but even still it will only add to your boredom. On the other hand, if you like first person shooters then by all means rent it and give a shot. Overall, I would have to say that SOF 2 was most certainly a big disappointment in my book.
