Version 4.0B Main Features | 
"Xbox Reviews. Newer then Gamecube, killer graphics, must read reviews partly because I spent more time on them then any other review ." My Reviews Below! Check Em Out! 
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| GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : Neversoft | A.) The best Skate boarding game out there. And it's not just skating. It has a lot of competition that friends can play against | Publisher :Activision | B.) Play as all the "Pro Skaters" | Released sometime in 2002 | C.) Better then Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 | | D.) There are over 100 mini games to play in this game. Some easy, some hard. | Type : Extreme Sports / X-Games on the Street |
This game is the first time I tried a Tony Hawk game since Neversoft put the legendary Tony Hawk Pro Skater on the Sega Dreamcast. I would like to say that Tony Hawk Pro Skater for the Dreamcast was a decent port, but I can't say that now because so much people on the Internet say that they hate the Dreamcast (never would own one even if it was dirt cheap like it is now) Does the new one rock? So far yes in a strange kind of extreme way. I'm not an extreme person. But I know of not so extreme people who played Tony Hawk who liked it. Why else would it be the standard in extreme sports of this generation. Everyone with a half a brain likes Tony Hawk Pro Skater? Every Tony Hawk game sold a million copies since the Playstation debut in 1999, sold even more copies when it went multiplatform. The game is more popular on Playstation then any other console may I might add. I don't ask people how much . It would be impossible for people to describe it without setting down and playing it together. I don't get many visitors so I can't really explain this very well. Fans of the series would have a easier time with this one. They know exactly what they like about in Tony Hawk the game. . The bikes ride the rail forever and the game is so easy that you couldn't even trade it for a cool Tony Hawk game without paying 15 dollars extra. I never even thought I like it until I played it. Neversoft now specializes in extreme sport games. They release a new Tony Hawk game like clock work (every year now since 1999) Since then they've put all games on competitive platforms. If you seen the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater on the 100 Greatest Videogames of all time polls, I promise you that that is just because the control scheme is better then most sport titles on the Playstation 2. When I normally think of the 100 best tiles of videogame history I think of Final Fantasy III and Super Mario Bros or Metal Gear Solid. What I am most interested in is how this game got the Teen Rating? For those who aren't familiar with this game and think "its another one of those dumb mediocre skating title like those BMX titles on Playstation. But then it wouldn't be so legendary, know would it. Know I understand those people who recently picked up a console of this generation and were in the dark since Super Nintendo and just happened to pick on of the best videogames avalible today out of curiousity. Although with the Internet and word of mouth for 5 years that would rarely happen. That happened with me. I got I first videogame in 1997, and it wasn't a Playstation. If I didn't buy a Gamecube or waited so long to get an xbox, I probably would have a Tony Hawk Pro Skater game for N64 This game is good because it is big. You can talk to skaters, listen to the latest rap music, do tricks, find items, out play your friends and play any song that will download to your xbox hard drive. Did I mention that the game is out for the PC? Who plays THPS with a mouse and keyboard? Some games aren't meant to be played on the computer. Why? The console versions are so much cleaner and playable. That about sums it up right there. Did I mention that Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 is a little better then Tony Hawk Pro Skater for Dreamcast. After a while their comes a time where a game can only be very good once. Anything better then the original, anyone else would give it a 10.0 because that game was a mere molopoly and no one could tell that the ultimate conquer was it's own successor. It's true. Look at Metal Gear Solid or Legend of Zelda and how the sequels improved apond the prequels while not taking away from other aspects of the game which made it great to begin with. I'm not a skater, okay. I'm a race car driver. But I bought it anyway because I got it cheap. I was wondering why some reviewers gave this game a 9.0 out of 10, 10 out of 10. I got the good stuff out of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. But it is still extreme skating. You know .... skate ... do tricks ... fail ... draw blood. Repeat this process again and again until you feel light headed. Well the 3D animation is really good, doing the same objectives over and over give me a headache. Be sure to check back in 2 weeks for my Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 review. (article posted Aug 01, 2003 7:00 PM | revised once) Summing up Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 | Graphics | 10.0 | Looks like Pyro on a skateboard in the game Halo! You know when Komani put Snake in a skateboard level in Metal Gear Solid 2 for Xbox / PS2. The only reason that I give this game a perfect score in the graphics department is that I've seen the Playstation 2 screenshots online. Some reason the PS2 version doesn't look washed out in the character models I mean you might have smooth animations, but you don't have a lot of bump mapping and hex shading. In Xbox, the game has all three. How many times can you have a perfect shadow when doing anything. I don't know how a small developer like Nullsoft can push out this much pixel animations on the buildings, shadows on all the ramps, cars, rails and buildings. | Control | 9.0 | The character control is very smoothed out. An example of average control is loose and flimsy while still retaining the stabilization to be able to do tricks. The 100 tricks aren't possible with out some foundation of turing, jumping doing mid air combos. It has to work and it does and has worked since the first Tony Hawk Pro Skater. If it aint' broken why fix it then. The tracks are huge and are filled with a lot of trick zones. While the first Tony Hawk Pro Skater I and II were in doors, THPS 3 and 4 are out doors. One thing they should include in Tony Hawk Pro Skater, which they didn't is the original tracks from the previous games. Like the original had skating arenas from Minneapolis to Miami based on real locations. Neversoft didn't upgrade. They should know that people will always buy the latest Tony Hawk over the last installment. Why don't they just have the same levels and add more levels? They don't and there are plenty of levels to skate around in. Things have sure come a long way since Skate or Die on the Nintendo Entertainment System. | Orginalism | 8.5 | The game is America's favorite extreme sport which airs on ESPN twice a year called the X Games. This show needs no introduction. Anyways, this game has a introduction. A carrier mode, free skate mode, multiplayer mode are all cool. Instead of having one player do narrly tricks, you have two! The next Tony Hawk Pro Skater should have unlockable Nintendo characters on Skateboards. Not multiplatform though. Perhaps since Neversoft did make a Spiderman game they could put Peter Parker on a Skateboard. I think they already have. I'm not sure which number of the Tony Hawk franchise had it. The point is it would be funny to see Mario, Yoshi or Captian Falcon on a skateboard do mid air tricks. Microsoft needs a mascot. I wouldn't want Billionaire Bill Gates himself skate boarding in my game. That would be cruel and unusual. Though I wouldn't mind having some anime girls skating in the next Tony Hawk game as long as they were cute. Xbox has had so much reconizion with Tecmo's Dead or Alive III and Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. | Sound Effects | 10.0 | The music including rap is some popular songs that come with extreme sports. This game feels like a rap game. This game is a very good example of pop culture we have in America! The next Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Tony Hawk Pro Skater Underground is going to be much bigger, have a lot of skater speciality shops and be very street based. | Replayibly | 8.5 | Good. While the replay is almost obvious. How many games have a combo of great replay and pretty good game play mechanics. You can visually look at the game when these guys are doing tricks and memorize the tricks and go out and see the real thing and know what some of the tricks are. They could might as well be perfect because I'm not a extreme skater fan. All I know is the control sceme feels pretty good here in this game. This game has every staker trick known to man, unless Tony Hawk himself creates a new trick. You can decover it from the very beginning. It's good. But I'm mostly into racing and first person shooters. Although some of the good first person shooters and racing titles for xbox are a little slim. |
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| GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : Bethesda Softworks | A.) Being one of xbox's largest games. The first being Shenmue 2. Developed with the best attentions. | Publisher : Bethesda Softworks | B.) Play as any Dungeons and Dragons characters including Elfs, Orcs, Human. | Released sometime in 2002 | C.) One of few first person RPGs seen only in Heroes of Might and Magic, DEUS EX. | | D.) Quest around in a massive world doing favors for people. Although, some of these favors are from evil outlanders who don't look evil at all. For example, all aristocrats in this game are evil because they've got their hearts stolen from evil elves. | Type : "Massive Offline Single Player Role Playing Game" |
Elder Scrolls III Morrowind is the sequel to Daggerfall. There is absolutely no comparison to the two games. Daggerfall was released on DOS in 1996 by Bethesda Softworks. The graphics best compare to Dungeon Keeper or Hexen for the PC. If you want to see what Daggerfall really looked like Click Here. DaggerFall first introduced a huge 3D game with entire lakes, dungeons, lands, towns, roads and country making it up. Much like what Diablo was when it first came out. Expect Diablo franchise from Blizzard didn't improve as much as this franchise. At the time in 1996, Elder Scrolls II was really awe inspiring. Anyway it's really old now and few people play it anymore. Seven years after the release of Elder Scrolls II : Daggerfall; Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind became a state-of-the-art RPG with a huge world to boot. And it wasn't originally released on Xbox. I could of owned the game either way because both my PCs can handle the graphically demanding PC version. I have never played a RPG in first person before except if you count Legend of Zelda 64. Morrowind is also the smash hit PC game. I guess I wasn't the only one looking for an Xbox RPG. Except I waited it out one year after the game was released. I don't have the PC game. But from what I heard the Xbox version look better and I wanted to play a RPG on Xbox. Although I've seen some nice textures on the PC. Regardless, Elder Scrolls III is a huge game. The closest game that comes in comparison is EverQuest. So first in the game, you go through this process. You've just got out of jail and they want you to decide on what character your going to be and then they make you answer a lot of questions just so you have a signed release forum saying you've passed security. Now for the fun part. The part where you get to create quests and take what you want. Much like Dungeon Siege. The bigger / stronger the enemy, the more expensive loot he has on him. So you can loot anyone whom you kill. Except people / alien races aren't dumb in this fantasy world, the minute you steal something, who ever you steal it from will want to kill you. Except the aristocrats are amused and still try to kill you. They are amused only because their heartless fouls who got their hearts stolen from evil elves (the game tells me so...) Which brings me to my next point, the character your playing is wiser then you, so check the journal often. You might even discover what ways you can set apart a good elf from a evil elf. Your job is to kill all the evil elves. The journal is usually right. I almost wonder if this game will be similar to the upcoming World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft stepped aside from war strategy foundation and stepped up into the realm of Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. One thing that the PC has is Patches. This is relatively new to console games. Mech Assault is the only game that allows you to download new patches from the Internet to the hard drive. Even though the game is well designed and has amongst the best graphics on Xbox, it has slowdowns. The game usually goes a long the lines of 30 frames per second. That won't cut it for just any game, but I've been arrange by the size of each level. There just isn't any boundaries in this title. It's a very large world and it loads along the way. Which is OK. This makes me curious how Gas Powered Games managed to make Dungeon Siege a huge game without any loading times. It has something to do with the balance between backgrounds loading when some disappear. Everything in a 200 feet radius loads simutaniously. That's how the game engine works. The infamous example of the half orc in Neverwinter Nights "He may be strong and reckless, but everyone tends to stay away from him because he's not too bright." This fact stays true with Morrowind as well. In the beginning, if your character doesn't have a very good score, that old guy won't say a word, however, if you are lucky to answer most of the questions right, he'll be overly friendly to you. The guard just grinds at you as if nothing seriously happened. But hey what can you do, you have no weapon. There are evil creatures in this game like in all RPGs. In this game, the smart ones pretend to be friendly so they can lure you into a trap so they can kill you or just turn you evil. In this game, you have a choice of being evil or good from the actions you do. Your not evil when you fight back when someone is trying to kill you. The opposite is true. Some creatures are just born evil, while others become evil. This game gives off a whole new meaning of evil I've never encountered in a game before. Yes, there are many ways to die in this game, you can even die evil. An example would be, where a thief hands me a bag full of something expensive. Of course I'll take it! But if it looks like something evil, I'll just leave it. When you evil, there will be people who hunt you down to kill you. It's more trouble then it's worth. Don't think you can out last most of the guards from the beginning because guards are very well armed. Some evil in this world is better equipped with armor and magic then you. Once you have a weapon then you can explore the many towns. Some quests require you to go all the way back to the beginning of the game and explore a town opposite of where you are. Sometimes you'll bring items back and forth from town to town, while other times you'll bring people from location to location. Be careful though, some people will ask you to go one direction and you won't know what they're talking about? So when I offered to help this one person, it took me 45 minutes to find it. To be specific it was a farm near the coast line. The level up system in this RPG is like others, in other words it's average. Most console RPGs have a high standard of it's level up system. In this case the new stats are displayed in text each time you level up. Instead of giving you stats points like in Diablo 2. The more your character uses melee weapons, the stronger he gets. The easiest way to get the weapon you want is to kill someone for it. Becareful who you duel because some guys are very well skilled. I tend to try to duel aliens with out shields. There are ranged weapons in this game, but 9/10 of all weapons used by everyone is melee. Glass type weapons are the most effective. All magical weapons have a green glow. My favorite part is exploring the new world. I wonder if I compares well to Dungeon Siege. That was also a huge game. It had not 1 massive world, but 3 maps roughly the same size. From the beginning with a new gamer, the game looks endless. And the hundreds of quests makes it so you can cover the same ground that makes the game so huge several times. Summing up Elder Scrolls III : Morrowind | Graphics | 10.0 | Elder Scrolls III Morrowind is a good looking game. It renders graphics that surpass any Playstation 2 game. In this case I'm comparing Everquest to Xbox's Elder Scrolls III. The game one Xbox RPG of the Year from Xbox Magazine. Baldur's Gate was it's runner up. Morrowind is huge. It's full of countless characters to Interact with. The character models are average while, the world they live in is eye popping, like the PC version, although I seen some Internet sites say that the Xbox version looks better. The PC and Xbox versions of Morrowind are similar. The trees, plants are all 3D. And they look very high definition. There doesn't look like there's a odd placed pixel in the game. The water effects and reflections are awesome. You can even go swimming in this game if you like. Unlike some games where you just float, in this game, you swim for real! The game doesn't have smooth frame rate, a though its really good 90 percent of the time. Be worn that there is a lock up bug in this game wear the game locks up. But this could also be that Morrowind is way too graphically defined to be simple for Xbox to handle. | Control | 10.0 | The game is easier to control then most first person shooters. At least most console First Person Shooters. The only ones I think that stay par to Morrowind is Unreal Championship, Timesplitters 2, and Halo. The reason why I compare it with a first person shooter is that these games share the same controls. The left thumbpad controls forward movement while the right joystick turns the character left or right. It's simple and effective. The left thumbpad could be the keyboard arrows, while the right thumbpad can be the mouse. The difficulty in this game is medium. Like I said above, you can equip your inventory with stuff you buy or steal. If you steal, you must over power the person who is trying to kill you first. But if someone notices, then there is not 1 but 2 or 3 people trying to kill you. So if your planning to buy this game, it's great fun. But don't get caught killing someone in public. | Orginalism | 10.0 | I can now see how this game can come with high expectations from anyone who plays it. It's perfect and I thinking that Elder Scrolls IV is going to be a whole lot better in this area. The game looks like it been worked on for 3 or more years just by looking at it. The developer, Bethesda, is new to me. I mostly known about Black Isles, Blizzard Entertainment and Gas Powered Games. I'm not much of a Might and Magic fan myself, so I never had a RPG in first person view. | Sound Effects | 8.0 | Morrowind has a less then perfect soundtrack. But the spoken dialog with every person you encounter makes up for the gap! Voice acting in this game is good. | Replayibly | ??? | Don't know yet. It looks fun and I've been playing it for a couple days, spending 3 hours at each setting. Not doubt, it's fun, just that this game is so huge. |
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top | GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : Bungie | A.) great co-operation play | Publisher : Microsoft | B.) A very long game. Your advantage, having a squad of your own. However these guys are only moral and if not careful, they'll die in front of you in the beginning. | Released on November 15, 2001 | C.) many cut scenes describing the story in a lot of detail | | D.) Four species of the Coveniant. The small guys are easy, but there are species that carry shields who are twice as big as you are. | Type : First Person Shooter |
This game will be coming out for the PC in two months and will be Microsoft's giant Multiplayer, amazingly 3D, first person shooter. Only because it is Microsoft's only online first person shooter. Halo is already has some amazing co-operation both by squad members and extra players. This is what the developer, Bungie, hasn't forgot. When you die, the game is never over, you just sent back to the last checkpoint in the game. I find having the television volume up is the best way to stay alive. For example, you can hear your teammates saying commands or taunts over the radio. It's really helpful to hear what they have to say. In a lot of ways this game is a above average military (co-op action genre) game which so happens to be a first person shooter. STORY You and some remaining colonist have just survived the illnilation of a small planet and your ship called "The Pillar of Autumn" want some pay back. Halo isn't any name of a planet or commander of the alien army. Halo is ground zero for your launch of super explosive hardware on a small deserted asteroid belt. The Covenant are keeping you successfully planting a bomb in their mothership on Halo. Anyway these aliens already know where Earth is and want to destroy it so humans don't exist and wind out like many other alien species, extinct like the dinosaurs. And this spawned a trilogy of games, Halo (2001), Halo 2 (2003) and Halo 3 (2005.) The year is 2525 and we've only colonized space for a 100 years. 2001 Game of the Year In the game you pass some awesome scenery. Getting "The Game of the Year" in 2001 would have been already awarded when Halo came out. E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA) holds "The Game of the Year" awards in October. Bungie would of easily stole that award for best action game of 2002 if Nintendo haven't released Metroid Prime. Both games are really good. Ahead of it's time in 2001. Probably the only honor achievement Microsoft had with the Xbox. I heard of this game a year ago and gamers have said that Halo was the game to own on Xbox. One year later I had a chance to played this game. It is good. The military tactics are realistic. Halo is a game that makes Rainbow Six look like a maggot. It has military tactics that the other Tom Clancy's Splitter Cell couldn't easily done. This would be over rating Halo because I've never tried Splitter Cell. Campain Mode and Multiplayer Mode(s) The game also has Multiplayer Modes. Almost all First Person Shooters have a Deathmatch mode. I've never tried Deathmatch. Halo also has Interlink cable where you can play 8 players in Deathmatch on four Xboxs. Halo is no different from other First Person Shooters, except that it has Co-op in the "campaign mode" The Co-op in campaign mode is splitscreen. The same idea Free Radical Design put into Timesplitters. Player 2 has the same armor and guns / ammo as player 1. Both go through the large levels in the game. In level 1 you landed on a deserted planet. Pyro (you) and selected squad members of the United Nations Space Command go towards and warp portal which you beam onto a alien ship. There you are surrounded with aliens who use guerilla tactics against your squad. Then Pyro needs to open doors / activate elevators without lossing teammates in the process. Very Easy is to Somewhat Easy. Easy is to good level. Normal is to hard. Hard is to Very Hard. Now for those of you who liked to drive --- The Jeep! ---- in Halo. The Jeep controls are as good as many driving games. Is it the power that makes you come back? Pyro can loose teammates in the process. However your squad doesn't feel as suicidal as Pyro does so they'll follow the red dots on Radar through out the game. Jeeps have machine guns mounted on top of it. So the right thumbstick controls the gun. It's easier firing at a distance then up close. Squad members don't get to drive Jeeps as much as you do. The point of this paragraph is driving Jeeps in Halo is fun! Which each new level you get new recruits. But like the 3rd level, you get to drive a Jeep, but your recon is lying dead somewhere just because the Covenant forces are to strong. Pyro must do eveything, including destroying the majority of the covenant. In level 4 when you crash into the mothership, but eracusally Pyro survives being rammed against the outshell. Inside is the covesant, and no recon. So it's up to you to go against really tough hunters with shields. Shields pertect them from everything including plasma grenades. Read this article from IGN.com. Summing up Halo | Graphics | 10.0 | Halo has the Xbox hardware down packed. Like I said, this game won the 2001 Game of the Year award at E3. This game has a lot of particle effects to enjoy. Much like what guns look like in Unreal Tournament 2003. There are a lot of good looking enemies. The squad members have clarity in their faces instead of a washed out look that you'll see in games of this kind on Playstation 2 and Gamecube. | Control | 9.5 | I like to say that controls are good. You can easily target the enemy. On the PC you'll get to play this game with a keyboard and mouse. The weapons can easily be sorted with the B button. A is for jumping. And naturally, the left and right triggers are for firing the weapon / tossing out grenades. | Orginalism | 10.0 | Highly original. Bungie got the feel of some of those games that Red Storm Entertainment (developer for Tom Clancy's Splitter Cell, Rainbow 6 Raven Shield and DEUS EX) has. You can even include Perfect Dark and Goldeneye in this category. All are the leading military action games which require stealth a much as teamplay. | Sound Effects | 10.0 | Halo is full of mature taunts and a radio with real military commands. Whether you follow them is your choice. Sometimes if you follow the commands of your squad, you'll see how valuable they are to you. The main point of this game is the weapon fire and the music. Yes, the gun firing sounds like a M-16 assault rifle or a double barrow 20 caliber sniper. The music is good and atmospheric for Halo. The game features futuristic industrial tunes. | Replayibly | 10.0 | The main game is long. But what makes this an ideal xbox title was that it wasn't rushed in the production. The co-op game play was well thought out. The graphics are great. You'll have fun playing with a squad in campaign mode or deathmatch in multiplayer mode because of it's slick control. |
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| GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : Epic Games | A.) good graphics, the return of Unreal Tournament | Publisher : Atari | B.) 14 levels to play with in Deathmatch, however this is small comparison with UT2003's 30 levels with a growing amount of new maps on the Internet. | Released on June 22, 2002 | C.) Smoothed out gameplay. This is a fun game for lan parties. It is one of the first XBOX games that will be broadband able. | | D.) questionable gameplay ???? | Type : First Person Shooter |
I played Unreal Tournament ever since the demo came out in 1999. If you haven't already played this game and seen Unreal Tournament 2003 for the PC, you know that this Xbox game is the exact same thing. Unreal Tournament is the only game that I thought would go through with my buddies and have a blast playing. Besides some old favorites such as Diablo II, or Goldeneye 007 (N64) and Starfox (N64) This holds true with this game, but just enough, because control in this game takes some getting use too. I am really use to be able to have a mouse / keyboard when I play Unreal Tournament. The Dreamcast was set up with one when the prequel came out for it. This didn't stop me from getting the sequel. In the sequel, the graphics have improved. It was in those years that games ran in low and high resolution. In 2003 everything is in high resolution. The game plays average to above average. I have experienced the same problem with the gamecube when you don't have lock-on battle systems, it makes it harder to stay on the other teams position for that Killer shot with the use of the most important crossfire on the screen. One thing that I dislike about the Xbox is that it has 2 buttons, black and white, and in this game they allow you to jump and crotch. Your life depends on jumping. And the annoying enemy can get an extra annoying shot off you if you don't know how to jump !!!! The railgun isn't the most powerful weapon to use. In my opinion the weapon that inflicts the most damage is the machine gun and the flak gun. Both guns shoot random bullets which helps me corner a bot and kill him (her). I can close in for the kill but a lot of the time I will be counter attacked by his friends, and that isn't good. The level design is really good. Some of the same levels are used in UT 2003. They all have good spaces where you do sniping. The guns stay in their spots throughout the game. So everytime you have to go back to get the weapon, hence the word, camping near the best weapon. But there are exclusive Xbox deathmatch levels, and capture the flag levels. The xbox also has this exclusive mode were you go through hoops with the ball. Through it I mean. Haven't tried it out yet. It sounds that it's not that great. While Half-life invented Capture the Flag, Unreal Tournament took it to the next level. The polygons are far superior to the PS2's Unreal Tournament. But with the blazing new faster PCs coming out every month, the UT for PC looks better on those higher priced PCs. The capture the flag is really the most popular team based operation. I personally will play the game in Deathmatch, and such is because the action is there and the solution is simple, shoot down anything in site. If your use to the Playstation controller (those of you who played Unreal Tournament for PS2) know that the xbox controller is big and bulky. It feels like a cheap Gamecube controller. Which makes me wonder if Microsoft just copied the Gamecube controller so it could bring many Nintendo developers to it. While that can't be true, I think the part where the Gamecube controller is probably the worst controller for First Person Shooters simpually because you have to aim one thumbstick to adjust while the other most right thumbstick is to aim. What the console counterpart should be used for is to play with Friends. People are starting to own their second computer. In my house, we have 4 computers ranging from 1 to 3 years old. Only 2 can run UT2003 decently. Team Deathmatch Team deathmatch is my favorite kind of mode (with no mods). In Unreal Tournament this is the absolute way to start your game. You can get skills in this mode to play in story mode (which you defeat bosses along the way with a gun) But Team Deathmatch you can also play with your friends, which is cool. Unreal Championship does not come with as many deathmatch maps as Unreal Tournament 2003. The reason, every map had to be good enough to be put on the Xbox. The maps are dynamic and very colorful. The game runs at 60 FPS so there are not too many slow downs. There are a lot of passageways in these Deathmatches, so you can not easily find the enemy because they do travel as a team. Once you track them down, then all hell breaks loose. The ememy can loop around the back and shoot you in the back as you advance forward and break their line, it's a squad that is lethal and you need to seek and destroy, much like Bombing Run. Bombing Run A new mode found only in Unreal Tournament 2003 and Unreal Championship. Some gamers will argue that this is the best mode of the whole game. On novice setting all your squad does is seek and destroy, much is very straight forward! If you team has a ball, their be this indicator which shows who has the ball. The objective is to get the ball to the other teams place. AI is pretty good. Your the squad leader so it's your choice to either stay back and perfect your zone or go out and attack. I say definably go on Defense. The chances are that the other team is doing the same thing. It's not stealth like in Tom Clancy's Splitter Cell, but is actually the opposite. Summing up Unreal Championship | Graphics | 10.0 | Excellent graphics. This game excels in the graphics department. No game looks better on the Xbox then the Halo franchise, but this game comes in a close second. It has vast environments. The character models are pretty good. However the bitmap textures has been smoothed out a little on the character models. Epic games did an exceptional job on this game in this area. No game besides Halo and a few others are able to stand up to it. | Control | 8.5 | The Xbox has 2 joysticks. One is to turn the character at a 360° angle, the other joystick is suppose to turn the weapon at a 360° angle. Together Epic Games created a decent gameplay experience. I don't like reaching down for the tiny black and white buttons below the diamond shaped button pattern on the xbox controller. It sucks. | Orginalism | 9.0 | Quake, Unreal Tournament and Half-Life are all the same when it comes to multiplayer. They all have Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, the 3 main essentials in a first person shooter. UT Championship is no different from these. The gamer can get health packs, weapon powerups, adrenaline for his fighting fury as he progresses through the levels. First Person Shooters are such a solid concept and aren't dying out, in fact their getting more popular then ever before! | Sound Effects | 9.0 | The mature gamer might not be bothered by the gore in the game, or the extreme Ahhs and getting hammered with a machine gun. But the game does have bad language in it. IF you have this game at a higher volume, which I know most of you probably will, you just don't want teammates or the enemy crying out endless amounts of profanity at you. You can always turn the option "Mature Taunts" | Replayibly | 8.0 | The game in the end is questionable. No doubt that Unreal Tournament is a good franchise to own. But Unreal Tournament came short in maps and playable characters. What you have is well developed. You have plenty of wide open spaces to have 1:1 duels. 2:1 duels, 3:1 duels or purely mass suicide for yourself. And the enemy will outsmart you by running away. Of course a lone player controlled by the computer not wounded enough is going to find their teammates and then I say "Ouch!" Some AI controlled players in this game will stand it out and bring death to himself. |
(article posted June 06, 2003 4:50 PM) | | | |
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| GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : EA Sports | A.) enhanced gameplay over last years version | Publisher : EA Sports | B.) Better soundtrack then last year . | Released on October 10, 2002 | C.) Play (and Unlock) all Winston Cup drivers. Plus play my favorite driver Dale Earnhart, that's right it's like he never died in this game. | | D.) | Type : Racing |
Nascar Thunder 2003 feels different then Nascar Thunder 2002. When your on the track and in your turn, you'll realise that the game is looser then before. I've own Nascar Thunder 2002 for only a short while before I gave it to a videogame dealer for cash. So this is the 2nd Nascar game I've own. The other is Nascar '99 for the N64. And you don't get as much comment and music in Nascar '99 then on laserdisc with Nascar Thunder. However the N64 counterpart was so solid. Both games covered the same features. They both had a involving single player mode. The N64 game was realistic for a N64 title, but cars don't crash then take flight for 3 seconds from a head on collision of another car. Inside you get the more realistic bump and loose control scene in the game. Personally I did not really like Nascar Thunder 2002. It had country music in the title. Although it didn't make me croak, I did seem to like the modified standards EA Sports put in the car before I took it for a test drive at Daytona or Darwin International Speedway. The game gives you the best medications for your Nascar. Like in 2002 it took me 2 tries to go in first place in Rookie mode in Single Player Mode. Everything was set up exactly how it would be if you had a chance to win. Rockie Modes easy. So I tried changing the settings, and since I don't know jack about Nascar medications, I did worst on my runs most of the time. It's a fun game, obviously visually things got better from the N64 game to the Xbox. More effects on screen. It is just to bad that EA Sports had the Nascar Thunder 2003 Edition at it's lowest common denominator. Thus it looks a lot like the PS2 version of the game. Do buy it though, it's the top rated Nascar game ever on a console. Just because it's newer and has flashier graphics by no means mean it's the best in the racing genre. Though Nascar Thunder 2003 runs up there in the one of the best. If I had a choice between F1 2003 and Nascar Thunder 2003, I would pick Nascar Thunder 2003 merely because it is an American Motor Sport and I've been paying attention to Nascar more then World Grand Prix. But then again there is "football" errr Soccer that I really enjoy playing game wise. Summing up Nascar Thunder 2003 | Graphics | 8.5 | Nascar Thunder 2003 looks as if EA Sports took a backstep towards the game that came out in 2001. In the game, you get pixels in the animation which shouldn't of really been their. But it looks like they've added pixels and for scenery onto their game. Example would be the people. they look like small puppets in this game and the other game, but somehow the crowd looks more lively and more realistic. So now your asking me does the game look better or worst then Nascar Thunder 2002. I would have to say worst. When we say that EA Sports taking a back step, I saying it still looks above average still after 2 year gap between the first and second Nascar game for XBOX. I doesn't look as good as Madden football or some exclusive racers for Xbox. | Control | 9.0 | It is easy to control the vehicle. But it's hard to master it. Aka. skidding all over the place is bad. This game features what is called the draft effect. When your directly behind a car you get less resistance between the two, so you become closer. | Orginalism | 9.5 | I haven't seen Nascar games in my home since 1999 so I would like to say that this is ingeniously created franchise is number one in my book. Even more then Project Gotham or Sega GT 2002. | Sound Effects | 10.0 | The engine sounds sound more realistic then any Nascar game I've encounter. In my option the sound effects are perfect. | Replayibly | 8.0 | I'm don't follow Nascar as much, so I become disinterested in this game. The game is cool! But I like the street racing that comes with Sega GT 2002. Seeing cars that go around on a track isn't as interesting as curving, real replicas of Touring car tracks else where. |
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| GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : A2 | A.) Enhanced graphics over Dreamcast's Sega GT Special Edition. The xbox version is a sequel to that game. | Publisher : Sega | B.) Ability to listen to songs off harddrive is cool. | Released on March 20, 2002 | C.) 12 tracks to play around with. Tracks can be mirrored to add to the gameplay experience. | | D.) Sega's only *car* racing game of 2002. Crazy Taxi 3 isn't a racing game. | Type : Racing |
Sega makes one hell of a racing title. So this game is above average. Every game I buy is above average. I don't know Xbox too well so it was a catch 22 to pick the right game. I'm not rich, I can't sample all the Xbox titles at once. This game was made exclusive to Xbox. If you know of Project Gotham and McCollens Rally 3 for Xbox. This is the other high profile racing title. It's been developed by a developer;s house at SEGA. It has Japan written all over it. Although Xbox is made in America. The once popular videogame maker. Eh, getting popular videogame maker. Sega is not out of the race, they are here to stay. They have the money to deliver state-of-the-art videogames. The cars are still very polished. It's hard to deBate which game gets a perfect score of 10 in the graphics department. It'll probably be the upcoming Midnight Club sequel for Xbox. You can tell that the game was developed near the end of 1st generation xbox games. So in English, the game looks better then the latest demos for the Gamecube. The first generation is graphics that the Xbox had when it first came out on September 15, 2001. Microsoft didn't see a direct effect on microsoft sales due to 9.11. It was way better then the PS2 in terms of graphics from the very beginning. Both consoles render differently and Xbox has 4 times the Bus speed in it's cache. Sega created a game that was well compared to Project Gotham, the other game that I have. The background is really cool. It has sun spots that are more realistic then PS2s. However since the Xbox does have extra graphical power (every gamer should know this) and the Xbox does a cleaner job with the sky. As you can see I got the second version. The game disc I own had some bug fixes. So far the control is loose. You have to apply the brakes in all tracks. I like loose control. How fast does your car turn at 200 MPH? Same deal in this game. You can't turn very far at full throddle. Sega GT has all the tracks at the start. Some of these type of racers have locked tracks / cars. This only has unlocked cars. In arcade mode the simulation. There are a lot of cars. Who cares where they come from, I can drive it. If I can drive it, I'll have fun! Somehow, Sega managed to out all of those cars on screen without slowing down. This is stellar as it is right here. The game runs at a blazing 60 frames per second all the time. The soundtracks are purely European. Professional dance remixes. Not exactly trance, but it doesn't sound like rock neither. Not the kind of music that belongs to our pop culture. Some of these songs are even good in a scary way. I am sure that Sega got these songs from somewhere. They be genius' if they would of mixed it themselves. They've must of taken it from the top charts in the UK / Europe and put it all into their game. In English though, it's gran tranismo music. Most songs have a good beat to them. I give the music a 10/10 since you can also put your favorite music and have it play during the game. The game even shuffles the music for you. The music can be in MP3 or WAV format. (article posted on May 25, 2003) Summing up Sega GT 2002 | Graphics | 9.3 | Excellent graphics. I am a new xbox gamer so I'll probably think that all those graphics are really cool regardless. But yes, the difference between xbox and Gamecube is noticeable. This game has a lot of high resolution art on xbox. It hasn't quit reached the 2nd generation type xbox games. (The ones with more effects on screen while still supporting more pixels in the animation) So in English, it looks the same as Gran Tranismo 3 A Spec for the PS2. Ok, so that's great! | Control | 8.5 | It is easy to control the vehicle. But it's hard to master it. Aka. skidding all over the place is bad. This game features what is called the draft effect. When your directly behind a car you get less resistance between the two, so you become closer. | Orginalism | 7.0 | This game is definably a genuine rip of the PS2 game "Gran Tranismo 3 : A Spec". But Sega does an excellent job at it. | Sound Effects | 8.0 | Nice engine sounds. The sounds of the engine are excellent Soundtracks are ok. | Replayibly | 9.0 | Good section of maps and cars. With 25 soundtracks that come with the game alone! It's a good game. Not the best. The best so far is the Dreamcast title Test Drive V Rally. I love that game. But defiantly look at it. The game has been out for a year. The price of this game can always go down. |
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| GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : Climax | A.) 10 exciting, twisted, professional league tracks. | Publisher : THQ | B.) Nice looking graphics that take advantage of xbox hardware | Released on May 22, 2002 | C.) Tight control seen only in NASCAR and grand prix games. | | D.) The entire soundtrack is techno. Lame music. It is in high quality, but it's not the music I would look for in a grand prix game like this one. Not really good techno, but atleast it lets me listen to songs of the harddrive. | Type : Motorcycle Racing |
I never owned a motorcycle racing game before. I've seen professional racing of this type on television. I figured that this game had to be a cross between Formula 1 World Racing and European stock car racing or "the Le Mans series" In MotoGP you get all the racers in the grand prix in 2001. The game features multible texture layers and looks more like the real thing. It hasn't become the ultimate racer for Xbox. But since xbox is low on high-quality racing titles, this game makes it seem all good. Sometimes the Grand Motocycle Championship can alter games to what it feels is morally right. For example, if you drive a motorcycle on slippery conditions and you lean to far to the right on a sharp right corner, it'll throw you off your bike 10 feet infront of it wasting valuable seconds and since your in last place in the championship, you only have 10 seconds to cross start after the leader.(unless your in time trials, then your time getting to start is infinate) gives you even less time when you cross the start lap 2. What I do in this game is on curves coast until I'm 90% finishing with my turn before pressing A to accelerate. Sometimes brakes near the inner corner can save you speed and time just like the real championship races. But never brake too late or you'll overseer your bike which could mean fatal. The training mode and the Grand Prix mode are the hardest modes in MotoGP. In training mode your bike has to swerve to the left (or right) to pass the cone and do a 180 around the last cone in 20 seconds or you repeat the process. This is not easy. In fact I never got pass it yet. It's best to do time trials until you can successfully stay on the pavement for 1 or 2 laps. The tracks, especially the replica of Le Mans, are full of sharp, dangerous, corners. In time trials, the game automatically loads your ghost (ghostly image that repeats the best lap time while you continue to race.) Racing yourself can be fun. When you leave your ghost by quitting, the ghost is saved on xbox's massive 8 GigaByte harddrive automatically. Summing up Moto GP | Graphics | 9.9 | MotoGP has the best graphics I've seen in a racing title for Xbox. I seen Halo so I had to leave a point off ;) This game carries far in this area. It has cloudy days that look very detailed. The bikes themselves have several layers of detail on them. The game doesn't have any odd placed pixel or low resolution or deformed color. None at all! The rain can be really realistic while you race the game's 8 tournament tracks. It's incredible what the xbox can do. The sequel is also out. | Control | 8.5 | The control is loose. You must slow down before each curve to prevent oversteering. But this can easily be avoided in 3 to 4 hour practice in time trials. | Orginalism | 10.0 | This is the only professional motocycle racing game I tried. It comes with a load of options. The dynamic intro is cool. And the menu with the film capture of the real motogp in the background is a nice addition. The grand prix mode is well layed out (other then that it's medium hard) It is possible to tweak your bike to make it faster / slower, turner sharper or brake sooner. It's not as hardcore as BMX, but it is still hardcore racing, European style. | Sound Effects | 8.0 | The game features great engine sounds | Replayibly | 10.0 | I could come back to this game all the time. The time trials are really exciting. It could also be that I own 3 xbox titles and got sick of my dreamcast titles. Being my choice on any xbox game I give this game a perfect 10. |
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| GAME FEATURES |
| Developer : Bizzare Creations | A.) 4 tracks already unlocked. 4 cars to drive and a 6 paint options. See more in the review .... | Publisher : Microsoft | B.) The 4th best looking racing game on Xbox as of today. | Released on Sept 15, 2001 | C.) About the same exact gameplay in SEGA GT | | D.) Poor selection of songs. | Type : Racing |
The good old Dreamcast had some amazing titles on the racing realm. For example, I have Test Drive Le Mans and Test Drive V Rally. V Rally is the best racer I ever played. That's because I liked Mario Kart 64, then I got into Sega Rally 2. For a very short time I was into Tokyo Extreme Racer and now I got into Sega GT 2002. I disagree with the Project Gundam case when the game isn't my favorite. The case says "The best racing game for Xbox" Midnight Club II is around the corner and is looking good. But I like Sega GT 2002 better for Xbox. So what does Sega GT 2002 have that Project Gundam doesn't. More tracks. Better music. A lot of little things such as the lighting effects are exactly the same. SEGA GT 2002 came out 6 months after Project Gundam. I don't find the driving point system annoying. I just have a problem with it. I can average 430 points on this game. The game has obsyicles such as cones that you must avoid. If you don't you use points. If you ram the wall you loose more point. It adds up. I suppose you can ignore it and put in cheat codes. But that is missing the point. I just don't like it as much. It could be that the game is so well designed that I'm missing the whole prospective. I have been in console racing since 1998. Since then I went though 4 more consoles. Summing up Project Gotham | Graphics | 9.5 | Excellent graphics. I've seen the sequel on the Internet so I have to say that these graphics are sub-standard in 2003. Like Sega GT 2002. Fortunely, there hasn't been any slow downs. This game features cone motion. The game is full of them. This is where the cones, when knocked by the race car, spin and turn. It's noticably good when the camera zooms in, it spins, then zooms out. The sun flare is also a enhanced feature that looks very good on the Xbox. This has been done for many years on simulation games. But this game makes it look really good. The Xbox is running at a higher resolution. Which means more animation on screen. In english. Microsoft didn't hold back much when they've created the xbox. Because Microsoft is a monopoly and has a net value of a couple billion. They have the money to spend on big projects like this one which costs 100 million to make. So 50 times 1 million is 1 dollar. So out of 5 the 5 dollars it cost to develop and package the game. Microsoft is getting 15 dollars or more dollars back. So Microsoft puts that into other expensive projects like Project Gundam 2. | Control | 8.5 | The control is loose like Sega GT 2002. | Orginalism | 7.0 | This is the aging concept of street racing. Driving for points gets annoying, but I can ignore it. Its not too annoying. It just tells you how good of driver you really are. The high scores are left blank. So I compete against myself. An advanced gamer could probably be able to play this game without hesitation. | Sound Effects | 10.0 | The engine sounds are great. The sound of the engine skips like a real engine would when you down shift. Plus the Dolby Digital enhancement makes the sound effects live and crystal clear. | Replayibly | 9.0 | Dispite the fact that I don't care much about the point system. The game delievers a awesome slow down and speed up drill that you repeat a lot in the game. It doesn't get boring. Using the hand brake to add points is very cool if it is done correctly. The game has a stuning replay mode which does all kinds of camera angles. Closeups are also equally eye popping. |
(Article posted on May 25, 2003) | | | |
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