Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 26th, 2004
Links has been the most successful golf game on the PC, now Microsoft has ported it over the X-Box with tremendous success.
Graphics
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 5th, 2004
When the PS2 and Xbox were released both promised to be full home entertainment units. No questions that they both shined with the cutting edge graphics and sound as well as performing admirably as DVD players with both Dolby Digital and DTS decoders built in. This year both systems have tried to push another venue into home entertainment : Karaoke. Love it or hate it Karaoke looks like it’s here to stay. Earlier this year, X-Box had the X-Box Music Mixer which provided karaoke features – with mixed results. Could th... PS2’s Karaoke Revolution outdo it’s X-Box rival?
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 3rd, 2004
X-Box’s first venture into the racing genre gave us Project Gotham. A great looking title with its own unique charms but also had a fair number of shortcomings. Would the sequel address these shortcomings and live up to the hype? In a word: YES.
Graphics
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on December 30th, 2003
NHL Rivals is Microsoft's first effort into the hockey market, and you can easily tell this once you start to play this game. NHL Rivals had to battle with three other hockey titles (Ea Sport's NHL 2004, ESPN's NHL 2k4, and NHL hitz pro) and Rivals was also the last of the games to be released. Hockey fans are very pick about there hockey games, with most fans either going with EA's effort and ESPN's game. Microsoft would have to do something real different to win over the hockey gamer. Unfortunately they faile... in this area and hockey gamers are better to look elsewhere this season for their hockey gaming.
Graphics
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on December 12th, 2003
While out on a romantic walk with your girlfriend, she's grabbed by a group of ghoulies. Now you've got to rescue her, not the most original storyline out there but it works for the type of game that this is. On your search-and-rescue mission, you take the role of a young boy named Cooper who needs to go to Ghoulhaven Hall, a haunted house to rescue the fair damsel. Pretty simple stuff.
Graphics
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on November 24th, 2003
The X-Box Music Mixer is undoubtedly one of the most innovative ideas that has come out in the last few years. The emphasis is to turn your X-Box into a multimedia machine that will allow you to turn your living room into a dance club, karaoke bar or a homey environment in which flipping through traditional photo albums is passé because you can display all of your digital photos on your TV accompanied with music of your choosing to set the mood.
It comes packaged with a microphone to allow you to have a tr...e Karaoke experience. The disc itself has 15 Karaoke tracks that range from standard Karaoke fare – Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York to current classics – Lifehouse’s Hanging By A Moment and Len’s Steal My Sunshine. The microphone takes some getting used to as you have to hold it quite close to your mouth to get any sound out of it. That being said, once you get the hang of it, it works really well. The lyrics are displayed on the screen and light up in time to indicate when you are to start demonstrating your vocal expertise. To make the experience better, you can ever record your performances and share them with your fans. You can also import your favorite songs and remove the vocals so that you can improve on the original – but you have to provide your own lyrics. The problem is the vocals really aren’t removed but rather some of the dynamic range is removed to tone down the vocals. However, this also changes the sound of the song itself. To get the true Karaoke experience you can download new songs, at a price, from the Internet. I tried to browse what was offered through X-Box live but consistently got a message that stated “No new content available.” That might be because I’m in Canada and there may be copyright laws or something which precludes me from downloading from the Internet (this is apparently the reason why one can’t download songs from the popular iTunes store from Apple). So I checked out the website – www.xboxkaraoke.com and found to my surprise a huge amount of songs to download. However, be aware that it will cost $2 per song download. As far as karaoke goes despite these setbacks it is still pretty fun.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on November 23rd, 2003
Crimson Skies had a previous incarnation as a cult favorite PC game of the same name and was in development for a port to the X-Box that was being rushed for release 1 year ago. Thank goodness that they waited because you know what they say…”Good things come to those who wait.” And man, was this game worth the wait! The original version was a toned down, arcade style shooter that would have no lasting appeal. This final version is anything but toned down.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on November 3rd, 2003
The most popular skateboarding series ever to grace the realm of video games returns with Activation’s yearly installment of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Tony Hawk 4 continues to improve upon last year’s incarnation, tweaking in-game elements, changing the career mode and adding a new multiplayer mode.
Graphics
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on October 22nd, 2003
Tenchu 3: Wrath of Heaven continues the adventures of Rikimaru, and his ongoing battle with the evil sorcerer Tenrai, taking place one year after the original Tenchu. This time there is 3 playable characters, Rikimaru along with Ayame, and Tesshu (doctor by day, assassin by night). Fans of the first 2 original Tenchu games have nothing to worry about as developer K2 has improved upon every aspect of the game.
Graphics
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on October 22nd, 2003
K-1 is a nice change from the wrestling and tekken type fighting games. Once you learn the technique and how to pace yourself you will be knocking out opponents in no time, but by that time you really won't want to play this game much longer either.
Along the lines of UfC and Pride there is another promotion, K-1, which is actually quite different then the other two. K-1 has more rules, and is mostly restricted to one fighting style… kick-boxing. Fighters also wear gloves, and there is no grappling, subm...ssions. K-1 Grand Prix let's you take control of any 20 fighters and try and become the Grand-prix champion of the world.
