Archive for December 16th, 2007
Judging from reports about the number of labor hours lost due to March Madness tournament pools, College Hoops 2K8 should gather a load of interest as we enter the college basketball season.
With some nice additions to last year’s model, hoop fans will find plenty to keep them busy.
One aspect taken from 2K7 is the 6th Man Advantage and it still needs some work. Crowd reaction seems random when one score elicits thunderous applause and the next score does not raise crowd noise at all.
The biggest improvement is the Play Designer function that allows the more knowledgeable and adventurous among us to make our own play sets and defensive alignments. This creates so much more variety that College Hoops 2K8 takes on a complexity not seen before in a sports games.
By supplying a Tutorial mode, the publisher helps you work on some of the fundamental controller moves and helps you focus on skills you might otherwise ignore.
The All-American Challenge comprises fourteen drills that are designed to test you skill level and thereby improve your stats and you players’ games.
College Hoops 2K8 offers decent graphics but the action is not always as smooth as you would like. On the audio end, the music fits well but the commentary timing seems off and rather generic.
The title is a good addition to the dedicated gamer/hoop fan who merely wants to get psyched for the upcoming tournament. Online tournament play is available and promises more competition.
December 16th, 2007
Robert E. Howard created Conan seventy or more years ago, not knowing that his barbarian would lend himself so well to future generations’ need for diversion.
Well, perhaps he hoped that the literary arena would find interest but he would be pleased that the computer age has taken on Conan and done so with panache.
After a short exposition concerning an evil wizard and a combative warrior queen, Conan’s jaunt through dank, musty caves, white-capped mountains, and rubble-strewn cities begins in earnest. As Conan meets squads of enemies, his single sword gets proliferates as he skewers more and more opponents. Weaponry accrues to him as he works his way through a thoroughly convincing world that Howard would readily recognize.
The fighting makes up the strength of this game as Conan’s skills grow and diversify. You will need to change your approach as the enemies learn to parry your moves as you repeat a particular maneuver. The big difference is the level of gore. Conan pulls arrows right out of his body and continues to disembowel and otherwise disfigure the onslaught of warriors sent at him. Very impressive.
You will have some issues with the repetitive audio track, although the music fits the action nicely. The actor, Ron Perlman (Hellboy), voices Conan but sounds a bit too cultured to be a barbarian. Some of the gratuitous flesh will make you wince but overall, Conan is a worthwhile investment, even if the adventure times in on the short side.
December 16th, 2007
You are prepared for the noted filmmaker’s trademark gore and inventive killing methods with this title and your blood thirst is satisfied.
However, the game play does not stray far from the standard first person shooter, straight ahead movement, sitting duck targets you can find in many games.
Armed with an impressive panoramic march through time and space, Clive Barker’s Jericho comes equipped with what could be a compelling story about the Firstborn, God’s failed prototype for Man, and the vengeance it seeks for being banished to the Abyss. Jericho is a squad of seven, dispatched to a Middle Eastern city to block the release of the Firstborn into the world, and their back stories, if a bit hackneyed, at least inject a little interest into the game. Each of the seven has distinctive strengths and weaknesses, some paranormal and some physical. All of these qualities can be used to combat enemies who crop up everywhere but who don’t have enough mobility to get out of the way of an elderly bulldozer. The squad can split up into two sections but this doesn’t help in achieving the objective. Just aim and plunk away on your own.
An inordinate amount of time is spent resuscitating your comrades as they inevitably get wasted. If this is supposed to be a point and shoot game, why should you bother to keep bringing your squad members back to action?
Heads, guts, and limbs all splattered over the hallways and walls of the fight locations are enough to satisfy the visceral need for gore but Clive Barker’s Jericho needs more difficult game play to truly be a winner.
December 16th, 2007
Medal of Honor Airborne is published by Electronic Arts and is available for the price of $59.99 for a new games. Here is a review of the game and if it is good use of your holiday money.
This game is a first person shooter set in the World War 2 (frankly I have lost count of how many are there). However, even if you have played many such games, this game can still regale you if WW2 FPS games are your thing.
The game starts out with you parachuting into the action. There are axis soldiers to kill, a world to save and a lot of the responsibility rests on your shoulders. Green smoke indicates safe landing areas and if you do not land in a safe zone, you stand a good chance of getting killed.
Once you land you have to face Nazi’s through six levels of this game. For the average person, this game would last about seven to nine hours. You have different missions from detonating explosives to destroying enemy tanks, guns and more.
As you go through the levels, you might find the first three levels boring. The action picks up in the next three though and that in itself increases the overall enjoyment of this game.
The game has issues with the frame rate on the PS3. This con is made up by the last three levels- a real reward after you wade through the first three. The online multiplayer gameplay is pretty intense as well. If you like action games from the WW2 era, this game comes highly recommended.
December 16th, 2007