Mate Bors

Activision’s E3 Lineup

May 8, 2006

Another “what will this company have at the E3?” thread, this time with Activision’s games.

[b]Spider-Man 3[/b]- (Next-gen systems, coming summer 2007). – Based on the third Spiderman movie coming in the summer of 2007.
[b]Call of Duty 3[/b]- (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Xbox, PS2, coming fall 2006). – The followup to one of the most popular World War II FPS games, coming not only for next-gen machines (including the Wii), but the Xbox and PS2.
[b]Marvel: Ultimate Alliance[/b] (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, Xbox, PSP, GBA – coming 2006 fall). – An action RPG, similar to the popular X-Men Legends games, starring Marvel’s most popular heroes.
[b]Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam[/b]- (Wii, NDS, GBA, coming 2006 fall) – A Tony Hawk game, exclusive to Nintendo’s system. A reason to this may be is because the Wii and the DS could use unique capabilities, exlusive to those systems, such as the touch pad and the Wii’s controller.
[b]Tony Hawk’s Project 8[/b]- (PS3, Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, PSP – coming 2006) – Another member of the popular Tony Hawk franchise, most likely different than the Nintendo exclusive Downhill Jam.
[b]Over the Hedge[/b]- (PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA, NDS – coming May 2006) – The game based on the animated movie coming soon.
[b]X-Men 3: The Official Game[/b]- (Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, GC, NDS, GBA – coming May 2006) – Game based on the third installment to the X-men movies, coming later in May.
[b]World Series of Poker: Tournament of Champions[/b]- (Xbox 360, PS2, PSP, coming 2006) – Another Poker, most likely not too different than it’s predecessors.
[b]Enemy Territory: Quake Wars[/b]- (PC, TBA 2006) – An FPS looking to be one of the best this year, set in the future. Keep your eyes on this one.
[b]The Movies: Stunts & Effects[/b]- (PC, coming summer 2006) – Expansion to the Sims like game, where you make your own movies.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

May 7, 2006

PSP / Reviews / by Mate Bors /

I had never played a [i]Syphon Filter[/i] game before, on any console. On the PS1, I was not interested in these types of games, and on the PS2 games such as [i]Splinter Cell[/i] and [i]Metal Gear Solid[/i] kept me occupied. However, [i]Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror[/i] being a PSP exclusive which received excellent reviews, and considering it looked like what [i]Splinter Cell Essentials[/i] could’ve/should’ve been, I decided to get it.

The game has the best graphics I have ever seen on the PSP. Stunning cut scenes, FMVs that look better than most games on the big consoles (for example, [i]Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones[/i]), and in game graphics are excellent too. Locations are varied, as well as the times of day to make the game more interesting. Visual orgasm at its best!

No complaints in the sound department either. Voice acting is solid, music is good when used. Weapons sound good quite too.

Speaking of weapons, [i]Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror[/i] boasts a great variety of weapons. Selecting them may seem complicated at first, but it is actually really simple. You press and hold right on your D-pad, and while holding you press the triangle to select the “assault” weapons (such as shotguns, snipers, rocket launchers, machine guns), the square for pistols, circle for SMGs, and X for your rifle that has multiple firing modes. While in this menu, you can press R for melee weapons, such as your bare hands, a trusty knife, and an EDT, which if you hold down long enough, will set the victim on fire. Awesome huh? The L button is for grenades.

Much like [i]Splinter Cell[/i], [i]Syphon Filter[/i] also has a variety of vision modes. You access these and use them like weapons, but press and hold left on the D-pad. There is the infra mode for seeking heat signatures, the night vision mode for seeing in the dark, a flashlight, and the EDSU goggles, which is for searching for bombs and such.

You move around with the analog stick, and use the circle, triangle, X and square buttons to look around. It may be confusing at first, but you adjust very quickly as it is quite comfortable.

The story revolves primarily around Gabe Logan, the protagonist of the previous [i]Syphon Filter[/i] games. He is sent into a variety of places to get rid of some naughty terrorists. Lucky for Gabe and the player, there seems to be a big link between all the bad guys and this “Project Dark Mirror”. A few familiar faces show up as well to complicate the situation even more than it is.

The single player campaign will take you quite some time. There are a number of unlockables to go back for, even in the training missions! Once you are done with that, online play is available as well to spend countless hours on.

[i]Syphon Filter[/i] is one of, if not the, best games on the PSP. Developer Sony Bend managed to bring the complexity and the awesomeness of a console game right to the palm of your hands, and it was achieved beautifully, unlike many other companies’ efforts. After seeing how a third person shooter really can work in [i]SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo[/i], and now [i]Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror[/i], it truly makes you wonder how a [b]real[/b] [i]Metal Gear[/i] game could work on the PSP. Until that happens, [i]Syphon Filter[/i] should be an excellent alternative.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Critical Hour

April 26, 2006

Reviews / Xbox / by Mate Bors /

It is an Ubisoft trend to release expansion packs for the Xbox shortly after the main game was released, as you can see in recent titles such as [i]Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike[/i], [i]Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow[/i], [i]Farcry: Instincts: Evolution[/i], and now [i]Rainbow Six: Critical Hour[/i]. Although the last [i]Rainbow Six[/i] game that was released was Lockdown (underrated by critics and disliked by fans alike), [i]Critical Hour[/i] isn’t exactly an expansion to it.

[i]Rainbow Six: Critical Hour[/i] is a “Best of” the [i]Rainbow Six[/i] games, selected by the developers at Ubisoft and fans as well. There isn’t really a story, other than John Clark retiring, and placing Ding Chavez in charge. John Clark presents future recruits to Rainbow, seven of the most intense missions that Team Rainbow has been through. These missions are taken from the first [i]Rainbow Six[/i] game, and [i]Rogue Spear[/i]. For those that never played these, this collection will be brand new, full of surprises and excitement.

Of course, all of this has been redone in today’s technology. The graphics were fixed up in every aspect. They aren’t as impressive, or jaw-dropping as in Farcry: Instincts, however, they still look better than the majority of Xbox games currently out there.

The sound is pretty good. Music is tense when it needs to be, dramatic when it needs to be so, and triumphant when you completed your mission. Weapons sound quite good, pretty realistic as far as I could tell. Voice acting, when there is any, is typical, mainly from John Clark. Of course, people from various countries (say Weber, who is from Germany), have their own accents, which adds to the uniqueness.

[i]Critical Hour[/i] is a return to more slow paced, tactical oriented game play that [i]Rainbow Six[/i] games have been known for. You can set up what you want your team to do in a very user friendly format. Just click A for your team to perform the action, or hold down A for more advanced selections.

The game features a save option that let’s you save anywhere, which is incredibly useful, since you never know when and where you will be ambushed.

The game isn’t very long, but considering this isn’t really a new game, but a stand alone “best of”, it is acceptable. You will probably spend about half and hour or so on every mission, because of messing up or dying. To increase replay value, you can always jump on Xbox live for a game.

An online portion is presented in the game, but I have not been able to try that out, due to the lack of Xbox Live.

If you like tactical shooters, like the [i]Rainbow Six[/i] series, and you have thirty dollars, then I can safely recommend this game for you. Even if you aren’t terribly into tactical shooters, or [i]Rainbow Six[/i], [i]Critical Hour[/i] will definitely provide you with a few hours of entertainment. Your thirty dollars will be well spent.

SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy Seals

April 23, 2006

PlayStation 2 / Reviews / by Mate Bors /

[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 /

[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.

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