favorite albums of 2006

It wouldn't be fair to assess the year's best releases in gaming, having missed the most crucial part of the year. But if I had to make a choice in my small sample set, I'd easily select Battle for Middle Earth II for its pronounced improvements over the original (such as its near flawless implementation of scale) and its back-to-rts-basics style of play. While it may not have made any significant contributions to the genre, I can't help but think back and remember how many hours I spent just playing skirmish mode versus the computer.

As was the case last year, I listened to a lot of music with the assistance of my MP3 player. After the baby was born, that's pretty much all I did in my spare moments, because it didn't require any hands. Indeed, there were many Sunday afternoons where the baby and I would nap to Lush or The Clientele or Benoît Pioulard. Naturally, if I felt like rocking out to Forward, Russia! I had to break out the headphones.

The following list is in no particular order. Despite there being a surplus of good music last year, there was no one record that stood above the rest that I found myself listening to over and over again. Though if you ask anyone I know they would probably say it was Kill Hannah, but I'm never going to admit to that.

JPod: the review

"When you read a book, you're totally lost in your own private world, and society says that's a good and wonderful thing. But if you play a game by yourself, it's this weird, fucked-up, socially damaging activity. What sort of narrow-minded moron propagates this lie? When your grandfather plays solitaire, is he isolating himself? Get a grip, people." - Douglas Coupland, JPod

My first warning should have been the tagline inside the dust jacket: "Douglas Coupland updates Microserfs for the Google generation." Is there even a Google generation? I assume that the search engine is so ubiquitous that it makes capturing a particular demographic irrelevant. More accurately, JPod reads like Coupland was using Google to surf for every meme to circulate the Internet in the years since writing Microserfs, and tried to transcribe it to paper. Where Microserfs was comfortable to tell a story at the beginning of the "new economy" wave, JPod desperately tries to catch up with it.

Prey: don't fear the reaper

But make no mistake, Prey is a long way off. "Sometime in '98" were the exact words of the developers. - from Gamespot's 1997 preview

Prey is late, but the gaming press has been oddly forgiving. Originally announced in 1995 and intended to be 3D Realms' follow-up to Duke Nukem 3D, it has seen a very troubled development cycle. It may not have promised to make us its bitch, but I would have expected a lot more than an overly-simplistic shooter that lets you turn into a ghost to walk through forcefields and takes less than eight hours to complete. The reviews may not be outright favorable, but the game receives a passing grade because it may just be the only big-ticket title released at a time when new games are a rare occurence. It also manages to make the most of the Doom 3 engine, even though the end result bears more than a passing resemblance to the other two games to use the engine. I expected a lot more analysis of a game that's taken over 10 years to materialize.

Note: this review tells you what happens in the game. If that doesn't bother you, go ahead and keep reading.

Yoshi's Island

I never played Yoshi's Island for the SNES. The sequel to Super Mario World, one of my favorite games for that platform, was largely forgotten in those transitory years that eventually made me pursue PC gaming exclusively. Games at that time had to compete with the likes of Ultima VIII (which I had convinced myself was being ripped off by Blizzard for Diablo), Command and Conquer, and Dark Forces for my attention. But from what I've read, I don't think I was the only one that was distracted. It seems that the crayon-and-markers art style made some gamers avoid this title, when compared to what was capable with Donkey Kong Country only a year before, despite the critical acclaim that followed. Am I only kidding myself, or was Yoshi's Island really that overlooked?

Titan Quest: it is massive

Apparently I was wrong about Dungeon Siege II; there are still studios out there willing to shamelessly crib from Blizzard's Diablo II design documents. This makes Titan Quest an easy target for criticism. And as much as I enjoy criticizing failed attempts at recapturing Diablo II, I really think Titan Quest has finally done it. There is a suitable storyline that is not overbearing. There are piles of unique looking monsters and a variety of magic weapons to kill them with. There is the unstoppable desire to click on things. Titan Quest appears to get everything right. If only Iron Lore had similarly aspired to attain Blizzard's level of polish, it might have been one of the best games of the year.

Harmony of Dissonance

The Gameboy Advance saw three Castlevania adventures in as many years after its release: Circle of the Moon (2001), Harmony of Dissonance (2002), and Aria of Sorrow (2003). Aria of Sorrow was my first experience with the remodeled portable Castlevania series, and still remains the finest (excluding last year's fantastic Dawn of Sorrow on the DS, of course). At the time of Harmony of Dissonance's release, the step up in visuals combined with a simpler brand of gameplay made it stand out as a worthy successor to the two-dimensional masterpiece Symphony of the Night. The RPG/Castleroid adventure style it adopted and familiar main character made for an easy comparison; whether it deserved the subsequent praise it received is debatable.

X-Men: The Official Game: The Review

X-Men: The Official Game makes an attempt at tying together the events after X-Men United and The Last Stand where you actually get to find out what happens to Nightcrawler. I was fully prepared to write an overbearing examination of why multiplatform games frustratingly insist on low-res menus and keyboard-only input for their PC counterparts. I was going to complain about how after 10 years of 3D platforming there are still a bunch of assclowns out there who can't get a camera right. I would have been sure to demean the bad art in the still cutscenes that only work in a game like Thief that has style to match. I usually take pleasure in disassembling such disposable entertainment as this, but the inadequate collection of moves spread across three playable characters combined with the infuriating controls serve as an excruciating reminder that it's nothing more than a movie tie-in.

New Super Mario Bros.: it's all relative

Did the New Super Mario Bros. have to be made for the DS? After all the thought that went into the handheld's features, is a simplistic, side scrolling platformer really what it needs? Short answer: yes.

Now it's time for the long answer.

the last stand, indeed

If we can expect a sequel after the funeral pyre that was X-Men: The Last Stand, it can be considered a turning point for the series. Similar to what happened to Batman with Batman Forever, the previous two films by the same director had successfully established a universe (despite its liberties with the comic books), created characters out of familiar icons and weaved an adequate storyline that can be enjoyed by comic purists and casual moviegoers alike. With the third installment, we have a new director who clearly wanted to make his mark on the series and added his own "creative vision" to the franchise. The work had already been done for him up to this point, and yet coming on to a project of such popularity and magnitude would probably feel overwhelming for someone still trying to make a name for themselves. Joel Schumacher at least had a track record before picking up the Batman franchise with Batman Forever. He selected two popular actors at the time to play the villains (to this day I have no idea why each Batman film requires two villains - at least Batman Begins handled this tactfully) threw a few cans of neon paint at Tim Burton's world of perpetual darkness and called it a day. Three Batman actors and two directors later, the series seems to be back on track after the serious, grounded-in-reality Batman Begins.

Assuming the X-Men can continue their momentum after the latest installment, can we presume the same treatment of the series?

The Battle for Middle Earth II: Return of the Kings of RTS

I'm tempted to call The Battle for Middle Earth II the best game I've played so far this year. I have yet to experience a game that has gripped me past completing the satisfying single-player campaigns to the point where I look forward to settling down into a nice skirmish, if only to build a fortress and assemble a glorious army. Or perhaps it was the incredible War of the Ring mode, which allows players to wage war on the entirety of Middle Earth and change the outcome of the Third Age. The Battle for Middle Earth II captures the spirit of The Lord of the Rings the way the original game did not. As much style as The Battle for Middle Earth had, it felt like you were given the means to engage in a massive campaign, but the world beyond the borders of the film's story were blocked by glass walls. It was frustratingly limited, but in its own way still managed to contribute to the genre. The Battle for Middle Earth II is the game its predecessor should have been. It has built upon the first game's foundations and created classic real time strategy, rendered to compliment Peter Jackson's celebrated films and the literary work that inspired them.

the stetchkov syndicate

The third mission in SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate is a perfectly clear example what the game is all about: decision making under pressure. The mission puts you in charge of defusing a hostage situation involving a group of armed maniacs that stormed an auditorium intent on ridding the world of devil-worshipping rock stars. I had approached the stage from the rear with Blue Team backing me up, only to see that one of the perpetrators had taken a band member by gunpoint. I had Red Team come through another entrance to gas the backstage area, but this had no effect. On a catwalk above the stage, another gunman who spotted the standoff opened fire on me and my team. Blue Team returned the fire, killing him - this startled the man with the hostage. My team and I urged the man to surrender. Clearly aggravated, he turned to what he felt was his only option: he shot his hostage and ran offstage. An innocent dies, and a mission fails. SWAT 4 puts a lot of power in your hands as the player. The control of two fire teams to assist in neutralizing hostiles and the arsenal of high-powered automatic weapons to do it with; the ability to preserve life and the power to take it.

the hunted

Is Metroid Prime: Hunters really the best first person shooter for a handheld? More than likely, even though it's probably the only one in the eyes of the average gamer. Some people seem to forget that both Doom and Doom 2 were released on the GBA just a couple of years ago, not to mention the countless number of homebrewed Doom and Quake ports on portable devices. As a finely tuned FPS, Metroid Prime: Hunters certainly delivers what you would expect, carrying over elements from the Gamecube versions that made them some of the best games I've ever played. The controls are suprisingly easy to get used to, but the lack of custom configurations is limiting for those that aren't huge fans of the touch screen and default button assignments for Right and Left handed players. The aiming and "mouselook" with the Thumb-strap felt completely natural as someone who plays FPS on the PC regularly, and I'm impressed how easily this control scheme has been adapted for the DS. As a result, the multiplayer feels fast and action-heavy, and a lot like playing Quake III Arena. The race for the big weapons and bunny hopping to dodge rockets is usually most players' default strategy. The fact that it plays so well without me realizing I'm using a handheld is evidence enough that Hunters has managed to make full use of the DS' abilities. But that's where some reviews seem to end. What about the game?

choose your fate

When people get excited for a game like Oblivion, it gives me hope. It's a single-player RPG released during a period of RPG development where if it's not massively multiplayer, it's not important. It'd be like a step backwards, right? Last year wasn't a great year for games overall, but it was also pretty poor for RPGs. Even I spent most of 2005 binging on World of Warcraft, dragging myself away from it long enough to play through Dungeon Siege II. Which incidentally, has been named best (only?) RPG of 2005 by many media outlets. What struck me as noteworthy was that Wild Tangent's FATE was named runner-up to PC Gamer's RPG of the Year. The same year where the genre was obliterated by a single MMORPG kept out of the running only because it was released in 2004. Granted it's quite the feat to receive that much attention as an independently published title, but that doesn't mean it's a good game.

After playing the three dungeon level demo last year, I wrote FATE off as a clone of Darkstone rather than lazily comparing it to Diablo. The distinction being that it was a clone of a clone, boiling out everything that made its inspiration interesting. My initial impressions were correct after adventuring through seventeen more levels, though now I have more to say about it.

Resident Evil 4: the most overrated game of 2005

"You are Dead," Resident Evil 4 tells me as my avatar gets fried for the fourth time by the trap with erratically moving laser beams. It's this type of hamfisted advice that seems to be the undercurrent of the entire experience. The game isn't content to set up a rustic, chilling atmosphere for you to cautiously explore, and instead offers you many, many reasons on why you should be killing the things on screen, as if the player couldn't figure it out for themselves. If Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer had made a game, I'm pretty sure this is how it would turn out. Only with less plot.

Call of Duty 2: Scripting the Battlefields of World War II

As someone who did everything short of rubbing myself with the box for Call of Duty, my opinions about about what the war shooter genre should be aiming for were dramatically changed after playing Brothers in Arms: The Road to Hill 30 last year. With sequels to both games hitting stores at around the same time last Fall, I made a point of checking out Call of Duty 2 to see if Infinity Ward was adding anything to their award-winning formula. Regrettably, I got the distinct feeling that it was a step backwards when contrasted against my experiences with Brothers in Arms. Or perhaps more accurately, Call of Duty 2 is simply running on the spot.

Day of Defeat

So I finally got to play Day of Defeat after almost 5 years.

I never really got into the mod scene for Half Life when it was out - Counter Strike was as far as I ventured into that territory, and after experiencing that for a while it was almost enough to turn me off of multiplayer FPS forever. You had to keep playing to maintain your skills; it was impossible to keep up.

The long overdue update to the original Day of Defeat mod came out late last year to very little fanfare. I think the launch of Half Life 2 Deathmatch (a free multiplayer add-on) got more attention because of the ability to use the Gravity Gun. This past weekend, Valve opened up Day of Defeat: Source to try for free. I think this pissed off a lot of veteran DoD players.

"Yay, we lost again."
"Fucking freebies…"
"teh awsum!!!1"
"Stop saying that!"
"noob!"
"omg this sucks."
[Disconnected by user]

Colorful community aside, Day of Defeat: Source offers a well planned selection of maps, including noticeably different tactical options in each. Matches are won by the team who is in possession of all the control points on a map, which are represented by flags. The U.S. Army and Wehrmacht have six classes, each fairly well balanced and serving a necessary role on each team. The Machine-Gunner, for example, would never run around firing their weapon, but instead sets up near control points to act as a defense that does greater amounts of damage. One thing I noticed is Valve's attention to realism on this game: you cannot run around a fire a weapon at the same time and expect to maintain any kind of accuracy. You must kneel, go prone, or run the risk of dying when you run into a room with your Thompson or MP40 blazing. In that sense, Day of Defeat imparts a framework for those willing to develop careful strategies for offense and defense. Though in my 8 hours with the game I never once saw this happen; there was more running after frag counts or stepping into an obvious line of fire, undoubtedly a result of the overbearing ratio of new players to experienced ones.

It's only $19.95 US to buy, but for an online-only game that doesn't offer much else than standard deathmatching - well, deathmatching with the capture of control points - I'm hard pressed to think of any reason why I'd keep playing. Both the original Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2 and of course Battlefield 1942 offer the same type of play - albeit in a lighter, fluffier arcade style - and they all have the lonely option of playing with…yourself. It's something that's sorely lacking from a fast paced game such as this, where practice can make all the difference between fun and unbridled frustration.

game of the year 2005: SWAT 4

SWAT 4 is a masterpiece of the tactical first-person shooter genre. It is also the best game that was released in 2005.

auto assault: traversing irradiated highways

In the future, there are cars with guns. Lots of guns. There are vast, unending reaches of post-apocolyptic wasteland to explore, in varying shades of brown and grey. And sometimes it rains, making the polluted atmosphere almost tangible as your headlights attempt to penetrate the gloom. Then the mutants come, the pallor of their tainted skins reflected in your high-beams. You mow them down with machine gun fire, one by one, running over a few for good measure. But they don't die. The machine gun only does 1-2 damage. The mutants rise again after your 2 tonne vehicle just ran headlong into a crowd of them. Something isn't right here.

Welcome to Auto Assault.

Civilization IV: standing the test of time

I am always drawn to the endless ebb and flow of creation and destruction in grand strategy games. Whether it's on a single battlefield, amongst the spires of a bustling metropolis, or across an entire planet, seeing something grow before my eyes that has been built because I commanded it to be done, is an exhilarating feeling. Civilization IV only serves to fortify my affections for the series, and the genre as a whole.

castlevania: dawn of sorrow

I find Castlevania in its current form irresistible.

As much as I love to complain about a lack of exciting new concepts in games, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow continues to refine the formula that makes the portable version of this series so appealing. When you aren't mentally replacing the main character with one that wears bionic armour, the gameplay remains gripping. The need to collect better armour, weapons and more powerful spells (the souls that first appeared in Aria of Sorrow) drives the game forward. Ever since Symphony of the Night, Castlevania has turned into a kind of "Castleroid", adopting the exploration to acquire new power to unlock new areas methodology. Though what Castlevania adds is experience points. It gives purpose to repeatedly visiting the same rooms during those long sessions of trying to figure out where to go next. Except this is not really an RPG, because the player has no control over the main character's stat progression. And yet somehow the entire system manages to work.

mario kart DS

It's hard to imagine a Nintendo console without a version of Mario Kart. Ever since the mold was cast on the SNES, there have been numerous imitations. Even Nintendo's own following iterations didn't seem to capture the same charm as the original. This time Mario Kart DS provides the entire package, borrowing only those components from its ancestors that worked well and created one of the best games I played last year.

top 5 albums of 2005

Getting an ipod mini has enabled me to appreciate music again, even though in the span of roughly 8 months it has become another New Relic. It's all too easy to expose myself to new music when I have the capacity to browse multiple records at once. Coupled with my iTrip I never had to listen to the radio again.

But first, a preamble to the year of music that was 2005: If I hear of one more band with the word "fire" in their name, I will scream. I am serious about this - I will scream and you will hear me, wherever the fuck you are viewing this hypertext from. And as for Wolf Parade making their way onto year end lists left and right - I say again that copying someone else makes you unoriginal. You might as well be listening to Funeral again you pretentious twats.

How the fuck did I get so off track? This is supposed to be a best of list, not my intense hatred of Pitchfork Media made flesh. The following albums are the best things I listened to all year. And I force fed myself a lot of polished turds based on some of these.

gunstar super heroes

I've decided to share a few words about Gunstar Super Heroes, the recently released follow-up to the Genesis classic, because it has me completely turned around.

My initial skepticism was rightfully deserved, as the wounds of disappointment I sustained while playing Guardian Heroes Advance continue to bleed to this day. That games are still being published for the GBA is a revelation in itself; the fact that an excellent 2D side scrolling shooter has been made available at this point in its lifespan is doubly surprising.

What initially gripped me was the game's speed. Gunstar Super Heroes runs smooth. Actually, forget that - the game runs as smooth as my fondest memories of Gunstar Heroes. It made me remember the days where we convinced ourselves the term "blast processing" actually possessed technical weight. Compared with my experiences with Guardian Heroes Advance - a game that single-handedly made me question the existence of a special hell for gamers - this was reason enough to embrace the game immediately. But.

Similar to Metal Slug Advance, the game is limited by its number of levels. Someone proficient in the 2D side scrolling shooter arts will likely surpass the game's extremely diverse levels within an afternoon. Once you complete the first mission, the four following missions are available to be completed in any order, though it does completely obliterate the game's forgettable storyline. A "final" stage and giant boss battle are encountered at the end of these four missions. Once again Treasure has produced some legitimately challenging bosses, complete with their over-the-top appearances and attacks. In a bid to prolong the game, you're dumped to the menu screen every time you die, forcing you to continue from the beginning of the level. As usual, pattern recognition becomes the only gameplay strategy.

Disappointing was the lack of cooperative multiplayer, which is how I got most of my enjoyment out of the original Gunstar Heroes. The game lets you begin as either Red or Blue, offering a different selection of starting weapons and moves and a slightly different perspective on the same story, but it's no replacement.

I was bothered by the need for Treasure to lead off every level with some kind of "vehicle" or "flying" sequence, where you're on a jet or flying a helicopter over a cityscape replete with skyscrapers. Because each sequence is so different, they require a brief learning period to adapt to the change in controls and environment. Still, when it got down to the actual running and shooting, I was appeased. All the weapon power-ups from the original Gunstar Heroes - including some new ones - are available, and for a few moments it felt like I was playing the same game, familiarity clouding my ability to judge quality. Nevertheless, I remained most impressed with the style of gameplay that was so effortlessly maintained throughout the game.

As the DS continues to gain momentum in the portable gaming market with its many holiday releases, it's heartening to see that simple affairs like Gunstar Super Heroes are still worth pursuing by developers. While I can understand the need to supply games for the GBA given that Nintendo's official position on the DS is that it is not the follow-up to the GBA, the release of Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow and Lunar: Dragon Song has shown that traditional 2D titles can offer something more than a pushbutton experience. That being said, a game like Gunstar Super Heroes would almost certainly fail in any context other than the GBA. As the shift towards graphical prowess permeates the handheld market, it becomes harder to determine who plans to sustain this genre.

I found that essence rare

review: age of empires III

Next to Brothers in Arms, Age of Empires III was one of my most anticipated titles of 2005. After seeing the preview videos that exhibited its beautiful graphics and incredible use of physics, I was expecting an RTS game to dethrone Rise of Nations. This was not the case. Instead, the game's pedigree is undermined by an incredibly trite single-player campaign that teaches you more about brute force tactics than its historical content. My full review is over at Clickable Culture.

the intense clicking of evil

The more I played Dungeon Siege II, the more I came to terms with its shoddily constructed story, infuriating party limitations and repetitive clicking. Don't let that be some kind of disclaimer, however - I'll be god damned if this isn't the best time I've had with a single player action RPG in recent memory. Opinions on its quality have changed very little since my impressions of the demo; seeing the full version has only galvanized my belief that this game truly is the successor to Diablo II. You can find my full review over at Clickable Culture.

meteos: not quite tetris

Comparisons have been made between the release of the PSP and its flagship Lumines and the original Game Boy that allude it's some measure of the platform's success. These comparisons would be entirely valid, too, except for the fact that Lumines is a separate purchase from its already overpriced do-all platform. Tetris came with the Game Boy, and for some people that's all they ever played. Reviews claim that Lumines is the only game you will need for the PSP. Let's contrast the DS. Released four months previous, the standout launch title was Super Mario 64 DS. An excellent port, but it doesn't promote the short game sessions portable gaming should be striving for. It's also not a title that embodies the unique gameplay opportunities gestating within the DS.

Polarium was a puzzler released for the DS earlier this year to noncommittal reviews: it used the stylus, to be sure, but the gameplay was dreadfully uninspired. The color scheme was equally boring, and the game wouldn't seem out of place on a cellphone. DS owners were left feeling cold. Until some colorful blocks started falling from the blackness of space.

fire emblem: the sacred stones

One of the stranger things about Fire Emblem (GBA) was that your character was outside of the game. Specifically, you were identified as the "tactician", and instead of fielding each battle with an avatar you would be commanding the characters in your party. It was a bit odd during the cutscenes when the characters started talking to you, because it's not like you had a choice as to how the story was directed - a feature that may have made the whole tactician aspect a little more valuable. You didn't even get to pick and choose who got to join the group as the outcome of those scenes was predetermined.

Intelligent Systems has returned this year with another Fire Emblem, entitled The Sacred Stones. Dropping the tactician approach, the game follows the main characters, Prince Ephraim and Princess Eirika, who have been ousted from their homeland by a treacherous neighboring kingdom and must gather an army to take it back. It's your typical adventure story where a ragtag bunch must come together and fight the forces of evil, and there's nothing wrong with that. What I don't like, however, is the lack of any new features. Everything is exactly the same.

You could accuse this of the Golden Sun series as well: after all, The Lost Age was just the same game following the adventures of a different set of characters. Though as an RPG/Adventure, Golden Sun allowed the player to participate in the story as it happened, whereas Fire Emblem is unfortunately limited to telling you the story through cutscenes with talking heads. While the art may be very appealing, the dialogue is as campy as ever and rarely was I surprised about what transpired. This is nothing against the gameplay itself, however, as it remains a highly competent turn based strategy game (and vastly different from the previously mentioned Golden Sun). You're just looking at the same tilesets, character avatars, and battle animations. Since the battles are the core of the game, they should at least appear fresh and interesting. What would have made this outing of Fire Emblem a little more palatable is the inclusion of a map editor, something that Intelligent Systems put into Advance Wars 2.

The storyline, then, should be the one aspect of this game that makes you want to continue playing. For me, though, it wasn't. The enormous cast of characters lends itself well to some interesting situations, and a wide spectrum of personalities that eventually make up your army. You may even grow to love certain characters, playing the game to see what happens to them and ensuring they survive. The permanent death of your characters was one of the best features of the Fire Emblem series, because it made you value each character's contribution to the campaign. Pegasus Knights may be weak, but they are usually the only ones able to rescue another character from immediate danger - an ability that allows you to save your most powerful troops. Despite all this, the big picture is lost amidst the story arcs and flashbacks in some kind of fantasy soap opera, and I began to get agitated waiting for each cutscene to be able to play through the next map.

Fire Emblem is certainly one of the best turn based strategy games I've played, coming close to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance in terms of its addictive qualities. However The Sacred Stones feels more like an expansion, not a sequel. This should be great news for fans of its predecessor, but it doesn't really offer much except more of the same. It makes me wonder why this game was even made, given the DS will be seeing Advance Wars DS this August. Why not just make a version of Fire Emblem for the DS, introducing the use of the touch screen that we've heard so much about? I find it hard to accept that Nintendo is trying to extend the life of the GBA when their latest handheld is capable of so much more. The Sacred Stones may have a different ending, but if getting there requires viewing all-too familiar scenery it hardly makes the voyage worth travelling.

I believe I can see the future

Revenge of the Sith: closing the circle

Short answer: I loved it. This movie was woven from the same fabric of the Star Wars I remembered. It tied everything together, and left nothing to criticize except minutiae that can only be dreamt up by fanboys such as myself. Which is largely going to be the content of this review, if I can even call it that. The usual warning against spoilers applies, but I'm sure the only people reading this are the ones who have seen it anyway.

trial of the isle

I never thought I would see the day where a company like SOE would issue a completely stand-alone demo of an MMORPG that's only been out for four months. That's what you get in Everquest II: Trial of the Isle, a 16 MB client and close to 24 hours worth of updates. Now that World of Warcraft has reached 1.5 millions users worldwide, Everquest II is looking pretty meek in comparison - even next to its predecessor. It's also quite telling that Everquest II is now selling for about $39.99 CDN, while World of Warcraft is still at its launch price of $59.99-69.99. I thought I would give Everquest II the benefit of the doubt with this seven day trial, and try and get an idea about what it was offering. In a couple of words: not much.

been there, Saw that

"I fell asleep in my shithole apartment and wake up in an actual shithole." - Adam

So begins Saw, a modern horror/thriller that tried so hard to be Seven, but ends up being diversionary entertainment. The premise is mysterious: two men wake up on opposites sides of a dingy bathroom with their legs cuffed to pipes while a blood-drenched body lies motionless in the middle of the room, quickly setting the tone for the entire film. Like Seven, dingy setpieces and rumpled characters are the norm. Adam (Leigh Whannell, the screenwriter) is an angst filled twentysomething that appears to be innocent. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) is a self absorbed doctor that has an idea who might have put them there. They each receive a hacksaw, obviously too dull to saw through the heavy chains. The mind begins wandering into dark places.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

The first thing I noticed when I started playing The Minish Cap were the graphics. It's easy to be distracted by them when the only other Zelda game available for the GBA was simply a faithful remake of a game that came out 13 years prior. The Minish Cap blends visual elements from the GBA multiplayer adventure The Four Swords, and the storybook charm of The Wind Waker. Though the game will introduce you to a few new magic items, everything about it feels comfortably familiar. You've seen these puzzles before, and the entire meta-concept of searching multiple dungeons to complete a set of trinkets to make things right again is nothing new for the Zelda universe.

The Minish Cap begins with Link and Princess Zelda taking a leisurely walk through Hyrule Town. Events transpire, and once again Zelda is held captive by being turned into stone and it's up to you to rescue her. You might recognize the evil wizard Vaati from previous Zelda adventures, but the Minish Cap is set during Link's younger years and so it is assumed that this is your first encounter with him.

Link's age is actually an important part of the story. See, The Minish or "Picori" are a race of tiny people who used to have an alliance with the residents of Hyrule. Things went sour, and now only children can see them. In fact, it got to the point where everyone thought the Picori were just a fairy tale. But after Zelda's unfortunate curse the King requires the help of the Picori, for only a Minish smith is able to re-forge the Picori blade with the Four Elements and free Zelda from her stony prison. So it's up to Link to enlist the assistance of the Picori, in the process gaining a talking hat that bestows the ability to become small, unlocking an entirely different world.

The first dungeon makes you appreciate this microscopic aspect of Hyrule, because the dungeon's boss is simply a common monster you would find in your normal size. Some of the areas you wander through - such as a forest floor where you walk under leaves, or a mountain top where you're dodging rain droplets further these impressions. Solutions to many of the game's puzzles also require you to shrink yourself, revealing some of its most creatively designed environments.

To further spite those that thought multiple Links running around in The Four Swords (GBA) and Four Swords Adventures was simply a gameplay contrivance, The Minish Cap goes out of its way to enforce the reasoning behind why Link can clone himself to complete particularly challenging pushing or lifting exercises. With each new element you forge into your sword, you will gain the ability to create a ghostly version of yourself to aid you in completing some of the puzzles.

The Minish Cap makes an amusing addition to the Zelda gameplay oeuvre with kinstones: pieces of medallions scattered across the land. As expected, Kinstones are very lucky indeed, and "fusing" them with the game's many NPCs will unlock secret areas where rupees or pieces of heart are held, but mostly just more kinstones. It's actually pretty useless in the game's overall scheme, because it's not like the developers can predict who you'll fuse with or which kinstones you'll uncover. One dungeon requires you to fuse kinstones with guardian rocks to open the entrance - but those can be found within the dungeon area. It's not like they pull a Metroid Prime 2 and make you wander the fucking planet.

The Minish Cap's definitive triumph lies in the presentation. It takes elements of Link's previous adventures and makes the entire concept feel fresh and exciting, to the point where it possesses your waking thoughts. Probably the only valid complaint I've heard is the game's length. By comparison A Link to the Past is epic, and playing only the first third of the re-release of Ocarina of Time on the Gamecube shows no end in sight. Though like Link in the Minish Cap, there's something to be said about a pint sized adventure in such a beautifully rendered world.

let the travel begin

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

It's hard to get a grasp on the storyline in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, because I haven't played Kingdom Hearts. It's intended to bridge the gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, but doesn't do much to bring the player up to speed. Instead, most of the story in the game is focused on Sora retrieving his memories, and finding his friend Riku who I'm assuming was a character in the original game. You meet up with a lot of familiar faces from both the Final Fantasy and Disney universes, but in terms of motivation I felt none; instead my playing was intently focused on Chain of Memories' card-based battle system.

The premise behind Chain of Memories is that you are trying to recover lost memories, taken away by the shadowy figure seen in the opening cutscene. The path to your objective lies in the ominous looking Castle Oblivion, a place where nothing is what it seems, and everything revolves around cards. Each room in the castle, your party members, and every one of your special abilities is represented by a card. I was fascinated by this concept, because the way the rooms are generated is simply using one of the many cards you find on your journey. My mind tried to comprehend the infinite replayability this game would have.

Castle Oblivion is set up as a series of levels, going up. Before each level, you have the option of using one of your "World" cards based on Disney's films such as Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin or Hercules. Square even included Halloween Town from The Nightmare Before Christmas, which was a lot of fun to play. After you've established what will be contained in your current level of the castle, you now have the ability to create the actual rooms of the level. When you reach a doorway, you will use one of your "Map" cards to create the room beyond it. This method is used until you've created an entire floor. The story is picked up with a series of special map cards, with the doors you will use them on being pretty obvious. You will get more "story" map cards after completing each story room, and because the location of each of these special rooms is random, it keeps players from skipping through the level prematurely. This would probably be a stupid tactic anyway given what usually waits for you at the end of each level.

A casual review from a friend told me how great the original Kingdom Hearts was at creating unique worlds based on each of Disney's beloved films. However, while each world in Chain of Memories is clearly inspired by the source material, they look more like a series of tiles with randomized doorways. The castle feels like a patchwork; there is no real flow to each level. The concept seemed sound in theory, but I suppose the unpredictable method by which game content is created is at fault. It would be next to impossible to create a seamless game world when the player is left to make decisions about its arrangement. I can forgive the level design's transgressions when the card system is really intended for combat.

When you start the game, you are given a rudimentary deck containing a few melee moves and a healing spell. You also start with a set number of "Card Points" (read: mana) that put a limit on how many cards in your deck you can have and the potency of each. You can add the cards of spells or passive abilities to your deck gained from killing enemies. You also earn special attacks after killing the game's many "boss" characters, like Hades from Hercules or Jafar from Aladdin. Again, this seemed like a great concept in theory, but when it came time to actually use this system in fast paced combat it became more irritating than novelty.

Like Tales of Symphonia, you see wandering monsters on each map that can be avoided if necessary. Battles consist of Sora or the opposing monster using cards to perform attacks. Cards with higher value will win of course, but a zero card can cause what is called a "Card Break". Card Breaks are important to combat, because as the name implies, they nullify ("break") the attack or series of attacks your opponent was performing and allow you to move in with a spell or powerful combination. After a certain number of cards have been played, you must "shuffle" your deck, which leaves you vulnerable. Depending on how many cards you've put in your deck, you will start to lose cards after each shuffle, though they are restored once combat is finished. Once you've slain all the enemies on screen, who sometimes even respawn a few times, you are awarded with a map card.

Now if combat had been turn based this probably would have been a lot easier, though presumably less of a challenge. When you start fighting the more powerful enemies and boss characters, however, you'll find your deck just doesn't stack up. As a result, combat in Chain of Memories becomes less interesting and more about loading your deck with zero cards, healing spells and high-numbered melee attacks. Real time combat just doesn't suit this method of play, because it allows no flexibility to flip through your deck to find the right cards or card combinations when you're faced with multiple enemies at once. In the more difficult boss battles you may even run out of cards (yes, this does happen).

Another point that made this system frustrating is the way it handled party members. From the beginning of the game, Donald Duck and Goofy are your companions. Though they don't wander the game world with you, they're delegated to cards in your deck. The same goes for people you meet along the way, such as Aladdin or Jack Skellington, each bringing a special attack into the fray. But these cards aren't intrinsically part of your deck, you have to earn them. See, while all the action is going on around you, the cards representing your party members are dropped randomly onto the battlefield. And they don't stick around forever, either - you have to chase after them. Moreover, taking a page right out of my "I Hate Experience Orbs" book with Fable and Advance Guardian Heroes, Chain of Memories makes you run after those as well. Oh, the humanity.

Once you proceed to a new level in Castle Oblivion, the entire preceding level is "erased" and will have to be "built" again with new cards. I guess this is good for people that want to build up their character with experience. Even though the rooms don't differ that much, there's no shortage of enemy encounters. The game does its best to push things forward, though, and I think that players intent on building a high-powered deck, or more than one deck, would gain a lot from going back through the castle and replaying areas.

Once you finish the game, you have the option of replaying as Riku, the friend you're looking for during the game. You also unlock a vs. mode that you can link up and challenge friends to card battles with, and I guess see who's deck is stacked with the most zero cards.

I don't like Disney cartoons. I find them repetitive and uninteresting. Young outcast searches for their place in the world, finds love and/or true friendship, insert Oscar-nominated song, etc. Give me more cartoons like Secret of Nimh and I'd be happy. Anyway, the point is that I wasn't dry-heaving while playing this game; it was actually very amusing to interact with all the characters and Disney-inspired worlds for a while. But the entire game is centralized around Sora's memories. Are the characters real? Are they imagined? Why is Sora forced to do battle with the Heartless again, meeting up with old friends from Final Fantasy that don't even remember that they fought together before? I couldn't help but feel Chain of Memories was meant to be filler; Kingdom Hearts 2 has already been delayed and from the developer's standpoint perhaps they didn't want this GBA title to mess with the storyline. So instead of providing an interesting story to offset the imbalanced combat, you have a game that basically lays a trap door under your feet, giving the story the option of completely turning on you with "Whoops! It was all a dream...". I hate that. The card concept in Chain of Memories feels like the beginning of a new lineage of games to use this feature, and as such I can give it some credit. But considered as an RPG it feels only half-realized, and in the end, falls short of an unreserved recommendation.

like memories they have disappeared

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Edited January 14, 2005

Appearances can be deceiving. A central theme in Vamipre The Masquerade: Bloodlines, what the world chooses to believe has great effect on what they see. The principle behind White Wolf's World of Darkness is that an entire universe lies in the shadows of our world, hidden by the denial of beliefs deemed superstitious or the machinations of an unseen hand. And what lies beneath Bloodlines' rough exterior is one of the best RPGs I've played in a long time.

As a finished product Bloodlines should be an embarrassment. The first developers to use Valve's brand new Source engine can't even put together decent looking textures, and barely comes close to imitating the amazing lip-synching that went into the characters of Half Life 2. There are obvious typos in the dialog options, graphical slowdowns, and the same sound stuttering that became such a problem with Half Life 2 before it was patched. Watching my Tremere neonate prance around the screen and dance wildly at bars while attempting to seduce people for my next meal felt shameful. To be honest, I thought I had made a mistake picking up this game. But to take Bloodlines at face value is to set yourself up for disappointment. I've dismissed games with fewer bugs than this, and if there is one game that deserves a second chance it's this one. Bloodlines' ultimate undoing is that you have to dig deep to truly enjoy the story presented in its immersive world.

full spectrum warrior

Earlier this year I had some pretty heavy comments for the 60th anniversary of D-Day, where I started to question my interest in realistic, war-based games. I think everyone should, to be honest, because there comes a time where you have to draw the line between entertainment and out-and-out morbid fascination, or at least realize there's a difference. War themed shooters are becoming increasingly realistic, and although realism is something these games should strive for, I'm not sure gamers should be accepting it so unconditionally.

When I initially heard about Full Spectrum Warrior, it was advertised as an officially sanctioned product from the U.S. Army and so I mentally filed it alongside the existing cleverly designed training simulator of America's Army. Having the support of the organization you're trying to emulate lends a truckload of credibility, but the screens made it look too close to reality. Indeed, you could say that about any war-based game, but with the war ongoing in Iraq my conscience couldn't take the perception of guilt for participating in a pantomime of current events. Nevertheless, reviews stating the unconventional approach to playing the game eventually won my interest, and I was curious just to see what Full Spectrum Warrior was all about.

metal slug advance

After Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Metal Slug Advance was to be the next major event on the Gameboy Advance for me. Its first delay from a summer release gave me the excuse to pick up the thumb-numbingly good Astro Boy: Omega Factor, which I killed time with while travelling around Hong Kong. Also a side scrolling action game, Omega Factor reminded me why 2D platformers aren't dead, and in fact can still feel fresh and interesting while dipping into fond memories of gaming's collective subconcious. Metal Slug Advance is not one of these games.

You can't expect much of a story going into a game like Metal Slug, and so it comes as no surprise that there isn't one in this incarnation. At the beginning of the game you choose from two new characters to the series: Walter or Tyra. Though it makes little difference, unless you've been waiting all these years to play Metal Slug as a woman. Why not make this a co-operative multiplayer affair? Two players blasting away on-screen would certainly lower the difficulty later on, but at that point the game would need at least another five levels.

Still firmly baked in the mold of past efforts, Metal Slug drops you into a series of familiar-feeling levels, gun in hand, and politely asks you to destroy everything in sight. You'll have various power-ups at your disposal - whether found in crates or given out by rescued hostages, as well as the series' namesake, a sturdy tank with a sizable complement of weapons. The difficulty that the series is known for is also here, and though the first two levels lull you into sense of security, it only gets harder from there. What annoyed me the most were the respawning enemies - no matter who you cut down in your path, changing screens will redraw those enemies and you'll have to kill them again. This essentially makes the strategy "run and gun" in the purest sense - you really can't stop without taking damage. One thing I would have liked is the ability to shoot diagonally, like in the Metroid series. While you can run and shoot upwards, it's impossible to shoot at someone on higher ground on the opposite side of a chasm or long drop.

The seemingly random distribution of weapon power-ups echo the feel of whenever you stumbled upon a power-up in Contra; the excitement of getting spray fire knew no bounds. But as soon as you died, you lost it and were reverted back to the basic rifle. Problem is, power-ups in Metal Slug Advance are finite - and you can thank the addition of the health bar for that. Instead of the "one shot death" traditional to Metal Slug, you have hit points. When a weapon power up runs out of ammo, you revert back to the basic pistol regardless of how many hits you've taken. Forcing you to use a power-up until its gone seems wasteful - especially when there are much tougher and bigger enemies that you could be saving them for. CT Special Forces, a game mostly dismissed as a Metal Slug knockoff, has an equally varied arsenal that you can switch between as needed.

Aside from the addition of a health bar for your character, Metal Slug Advance's unique feature is a series of 100 cards found throughout the levels that can enhance your abilities, or in some cases unlock some hidden "dungeon" areas within a level. The catch is that you have to finish each level with them in your possession, because that's the only time your progress will be saved and you can use the benefits of the cards in later levels. Any death and subsequent restart of an area will negate any card-collecting you've done up to that point. As it was with Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, the addition of a card system to a port of an old game achieves minimal results.

The levels certainly appear to be part of the Metal Slug lineage, and since the game takes place on a nondescript tropical island you don't expect much in the way of varied terrain. From beach fronts to ancient underground ruins, though, the game still suprises in some respects. Metal Slug Advance has five levels in total, each increasing in size and difficulty. The levels are in turn broken up into smaller sections, allowing you to continue from those points if you die. It isn't the same as a save point, though - for that you have to finish the entire level. This becomes a problem later in the game when the boss battles become longer and drawn out. I turned my GBA off in frustration after many failed attempts at beating the game's bosses, and for doing that you have to start the entire level over again.

It's probably unfair to call it a rail shooter - I mean it is a side scrolling action game after all. I just felt like I was on a conveyor belt with my thumb constantly pressing the "Fire" button. And with the amount of enemies on-screen at any given time, that's basically the way you've got to play it. You only have to look as far as the "Options" menu - there is a choice to turn on Auto-fire or you'll find yourself repeatedly tapping the fire button. I can't help but contrast this against CT Special Forces, which coaxes you along, but you still feel like you're exploring the levels. There are occasional obstacles that require backtracking, or the scaling of a mountain cliff only to parachute to safety below. Not to mention the inclusion of a few top-down helicopter flying missions reminiscent of Desert Strike. The gameplay felt more varied, instead of the obvious repetition and course memorization that you're subjected to in Metal Slug Advance.

In the fall, SNK Playmore announced it would be taking Metal Slug to 3D on the PS2. Though they aren't the only one - Hip Games revealed that CT Special Forces would be given the same treatment in a behind-the-shoulder 3D action game. While it may seem like a good idea to push these franchises into the third dimension, I've said in the past that this does not always result in a successful game. Why the Gameboy Advance has been delegated the position of holding fast the traditions of 2D gaming is a wonder; I honestly believe that extrapolating the success of Viewtiful Joe should be pursued by other developers.

Like Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Metal Slug Advance is visually a faithful recreation. Any fan of the series would be hard pressed to argue that. But in terms of new gameplay additions, I wouldn't classify this game as anything other than a cash-in on a well known franchise. The game length is artificial, extended through the difficult, enemy-packed areas and no mid-level saves. And once you're done, the bitter taste of the heart rending boss battles will make you cringe at the thought of picking it up again. Metal Slug Advance's card system may provide some extended play for obsessive completists, but I'm reluctant to recommend it for anyone's holiday playlist.

he slept through half the show

the thousand year door

The amount of new games released in the past two months is absolutely staggering. I was hoping to have played most of the big name releases by now, but I am so far behind I might as well wait until the Christmas rush is over. This is partially due to my current adventures in Bloodlines' carefully crafted World of Darkness, and the possibility of injecting the final version World of Warcraft into my playlist. Publishers are going to wonder once again why nobody buys their obscure yet critically lauded games, and we will see another round of sequels. A vicious cycle.

So I sat down with Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door a few weeks ago, in a halfhearted attempt to balance the amount of violence in the games I was playing. If I had to summarize the experience in a word, it would be "cute". Never nauseatingly cute, but then again it might not be the best choice of words for anyone that's looking at this game seriously. Paper Mario certainly provides a pleasant, innoffensive adventure, but in terms of lasting enjoyment I can think of better ways to spend my gaming time than reading an endless torrent of dialogue bubbles.

I never played Paper Mario, so my only real basis for comparison to the gameplay is Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, something I played almost non-stop on the plane ride home from Hong Kong. The storyline feels like an amalgamation of past Mario adventures: we have the mysterious island from Sunshine, the seven stars from the Super Mario RPG and the otherwordly door from Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins.

I imagine The Thousand Year Door was primarily aimed at kids; or at least that's what it feels like. The bright, colorful graphics, the excellent character design, the simplistic, coordination-driven combat system and accessible storyline would make this a title any fledgling gamer could pick up and enjoy. But I think where the game falters is its delivery - there are just way too many dialogue trees to sift through to gather the important information for your quests, and I found the game's difficulty increased a lot faster than I anticipated.

In combat, timing is everything. And for attacks, this is not a problem. However defending is, as for most monsters it won't be entirely obvious how to defend against them. In Mario and Luigi, every monster has a little action they do to let you know how they are attacking, and you are able to prepare a defense, or possible counter-attack. I found that no matter how well I thought I timed everything, the best I could do was dodge. There is also an "audience" during the combat sequences combat, and depending on how well you're doing you draw in new viewers who contribute to your "Star Points", which in turn enable you to perform power moves or combos with party members. This is kind of a play off of Mario's fame within the game world; it seems everyone you talk to is extremely honored to meet you and enthralled with your many exploits.

You gain party members as the game progresses, and their special abilities will enable you to visit previously inaccessible areas. Paper Mario can also learn his own share of abilities: he can fold up into a paper airplane and fly over chasms, or a boat to cross a raging river. The Zelda-MetroVania approach has been done countless times, but in order to keep me interested there has to be some really cool abilities in sight, an exciting meta-goal that will keep me picking up the game. But there wasn't any of that, and after a while the game stops being fun. Though I was impressed by a boss battle that I felt would be a typical attack, dodge, repeat type of affair; instead, the boss I was supposed to fight turned into a game show host that offered me a set of questions I had to answer correctly to claim the item he was holding. I answered them all right, and he begrudgingly gave me my reward amidst a stream of (clean) curses. Like I said, cute.

Something that bothered me about party management is that you can only have two party members in battle or visible in the game world at any time. Party members are selected much like items in an inventory, and it just didn't feel right. In Mario and Luigi this was expected; you were only ever supposed to control the two brothers through their adventure. But The Thousand Year Door is hard, and not having the extra bit of help can make the difference between winning and game over. See, as soon as one of your party member dies, that's it - game over. Unlike Mario and Luigi, where a 1-up mushroom can be used to revive a fallen brother in combat.

It's unfortunate that The Thousand Year Door was released in the holiday rush, because to be quite honest there really is nothing wrong with the game; I just can't see myself playing it when there are much better distractions vying for my attention. And from what I've read, there isn't a whole lot that distinguishes this game from its N64 predecessor, besides the storyline. If you're looking for light hearted adventure on the Gamecube, you may be better off looking at the recently discounted Zelda: The Wind Waker.

he whistles then he runs

X-Men Legends

X-Men for the Sega Genesis was one of my favorite games for that system. Considering the obvious influences of Contra and Altered Beast, it seemed like a natural evolution of cooperative play. Of course, you could sometimes die if you couldn't keep up with your impatient teammate, but that just forced you to stick together. Wielding the mutant powers of a handful of X-Men was always loads of fun, and what other game required you to actually reset your console as part of a mission?

X-Men Legends awoke fond memories of that game, which allows up to four players to simultaneously control their favorite X-Man through the game's 20-odd missions. And because Legends adopts the format of the standard stat-building RPG, you earn experience for killing enemies that in turn allow you to purchase skill upgrades and mutant abilities for each character. You can also find equipment to outfit the members of your team, boosting attributes like defense, agility or attacks.

Although not as forced as the multiplayer combat in Tales of Symphonia, X-Men Legends still requires in-between single player wanderings before you move on to the next mission, delivering a kind of intermittent multiplayer experience. But if you compare Symphonia's bite-sized monster encounters versus X-Men's sprawling maps to explore, it becomes fairly obvious what the second, third and fourth players will find more acceptable. Though for pure multiplayer RPG action on the Gamecube you'll still have to turn to Crystal Chronicles.

X-Men Legends begins with the rescue of a new mutant, codenamed "Magma". Pursued by the Brotherhood of Evil mutants for her catastrophic powers, Professor X sends his X-Men in to save the day. You end up adopting Magma as your own avatar for the "adventuring" part of the game in between the missions. The X-Mansion is the launchpad for most missions, as the Danger Room was for X-Men on the Genesis. The X-Mansion is fully explorable, complete with a fully functional Danger Room that you can use to improve your skills while not in a mission, as well as spar with other X-Men to test out your moves. This opens potential for a combat mini game, and although mostly serves as a diversion, the fact that it was included at all adds more to the package. The scenarios you can unlock in the Danger Room depend on "Danger Room Discs" you find hidden throughout the game's missions.

Various bonus content is also hidden throughout the X-Mansion and the missions, such as viewable comic covers, bios for the X-Men and enemies you encounter, and concept art. Even a trivia game can be accessed, which is pure fan service - but I loved it. The experience bonuses you gain for each correct answer make it worth playing.

Combat is in real time, and enemy rush tactics make the game feel like a beat 'em up similar to Captain Commando or the original X-Men arcade game. You can execute special attacks in sequence to make combos with each member of the party, dealing extra damage or in some cases creating an area effect. There really isn't much strategy to it, and the game becomes more about who kills the most enemies and garners the associated XP. You also get "X-credits" from killing enemies, which can be used to purchase equipment or resurrect fallen comrades.

But it's not like the game doesn't provide a challenge. The amount of enemies on screen can be overwhelming, and although health and mutant power potions are abundant, there never seems to be enough to go around to prevent your party members from dying. The maps are pretty linear, with invisible walls and "placed" debris telling you where to go. There are also hot spots requiring the use of one of your mutant's special powers, something that should go without saying when you're presented with a seemingly impassable chasm and Iceman in your party's ranks. Most objects such as walls and debris can be destroyed to clear paths or just for the sake of demolition. Although there were obvious areas where you needed to destroy a wall to continue, having the option to destroy everything in sight seemed like an end in itself and weirdly amusing while controlling characters like Wolverine and Colossus. Objects like boxes and exploding oil drums can also be picked up and flung at enemies.

Interspersed throughout each level are "X-traction points" (clever, that) which allow you to save your progress, purchase new equipment or change up your squad as the need arises. Additional X-Men are gained as you progress through the game; the full roster can be seen here.

Call me biased, but the Gamecube controller is probably the best of the big three consoles. And I find that every multiplatform release with the possible exception of Soul Calibur II has used the button layout in the most convenient and ergonomic of ways. Though not my preferred way of playing the missions because of the difficulty, controlling your party solo is made extremely easy in this regard. Like Tales of Symphonia, you can also set AI behaviours for each character, making sure they aren't using their most powerful mutant abilities carelessly while you're in control of the main character.

Every third person console action game usually suffers from the same ailment of a poorly designed camera system. The camera is almost always at the mercy of the game designers, and as such your playing experience can quickly become frustrating. Put simply, the default angle in Legends sucks: it's not quite isometric and it's not the traditional "behind the shoulder" view of the main character in the party. The limited camera movements you are entitled to are more of an insult than an act of kindness. If the party is separated for any reason, it becomes difficult to group up again if a player gets stuck in a view-blocking obstacle (such as under stairs, or under a bridge). Additionally, some physical obstacles such as chasms or high cliffs are unviewable from the angle you're given, and upon exploration you will more than likely fall to your death.

The graphics are decent, rendering some impressive and appropriately comic-bookish environments. However the character models are faceless and have flippers for hands, which is most noticable in the game's cutscenes. Outlined/cel shaded polygons have been done before - and a lot better - in Tales of Symphonia. The artwork for loading screens in between major mission areas is pretty terrible, and was clearly commissioned for use with this game. This is a real shame for a game based on such a huge property with countless sources for artwork. I'm also not a fan of the X-Men's new look. Although timely (it's just based on the current X-Men comics), the mid-90s X-men would have been better, but that's just a personal preference.

As a licensed product, X-Men Legends does its namesake well. As a game, there are a few things that prevent me from recommending it unconditionally. Legends doesn't drift too far from the conventions set by games like Dark Alliance and other console action/RPGs, and as a result will be little more than a distraction for most multi-platform gamers in this season's tidal wave of releases. And though the multiplayer makes it a fun game to pick up with friends, being at the mercy of the camera can make most missions a chore to complete. I'm thankful that X-Men Legends manages to provide a decent experience on the Gamecube, but I think it will find most of its audience in fans of the source material - not those looking for an RPG.

matching clothes for all of our live shows

Half Life 2: The Enemy is Instinct

With PC gaming in its current state, I didn't think a game like Half Life 2 was possible. The FPS genre had become stagnated, and aside from my occasionally burdensome fascination with war-themed shooters, I didn't see the genre on the PC heading in a very healthy direction. As much as I enjoyed Far Cry, easily the underdog release of the year, it was fairly conventional in its execution. And Doom 3, another game touting a technically superior engine, produced a truly disappointing experience. But over the past week, I have seen the future.

Forget everything you ever thought was a convention of first person shooters. Then purchase and install Half Life 2. And then prepare to have your expectations of what an interactive gaming experience should be permanently raised.

Note: As this review is essentially a diary of my adventures in the world of Half Life 2, it is rife with spoilers. Anyone who hasn't finished the game and wants to keep the magic alive should stop reading at once.

Jump to Lightspeed impressions

Soon after I joined Star Wars Galaxies, I enlisted myself in the Beta program for Jump to Lightspeed. Being a fresh recruit into the Galaxies fold, I envisioned this expansion as being the game's saving grace. How could SOE/Lucasarts make a better Star Wars MMORPG experience? Easy. Add in the spacecraft and dogfighting that made the movies so fun to watch and you've got yourself an instant hit. And for a good portion of the beta, I almost believed it. But after signing off the day before the expansion's official release last week, it hit me: Jump to Lightspeed is just a clever distraction.

Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC)

The expansion pack has developed into a quandary for PC gamers over the years. While at first they were made to extend the life of a game, they quickly degenerated into a way for the publisher to capitalize on the original game's success while expending a minimal amount of effort. The expansions for FPS are infamously short, sometimes even adding in features that should have been in the original game. Disappointed in the inconsistent efforts of EA for the Medal of Honor expansions, I expected a lot from Grey Matter for the expansion to the similarly high profile Call of Duty. I'm happy to report that United Offensive delivers a substantial payload.

a dark alliance

On a whim I decided to check out Dark Alliance for the Gameboy Advance, more because it was just there than actually wanting to play another game underneath a pile of new releases. I suppose overwhelming frustration surrounding my playthrough of Guardian Heroes Advance made me want to occupy myself with something more palatable on my portable game system, while not breaking the bank. Not to mention that there are only so many clever variations on the word "fuck" you can put in a review. Dark Alliance has recently evolved into a boilerplate for North American developed console action RPGs, and with the first game being cross platform I didn't expect much from its GBA counterpart, like the releases of Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell. In any case, I gave Dark Alliance a fair shake but there's probably some things you should know before tackling this one yourself.

1. Contrary to popular belief, the city of Baldur's Gate is really, really small. Consisting of the Elfsong Tavern, a Weapons/Armour dealer, a cemetery, and, most surprisingly, a shitload of sewers.
2. Barrels in civilized parts of the city cannot be broken. Perhaps this is from some enchantment put on them to keep the city free of debris, or to maintain the integrity of all storage repositories. Step into a dungeon, though, and you can smash barrels until you're blue in the face.
3. You can't carry more than two duplicate items at a time. Don't even try. I guess the vendors are worried about you flooding the market.
4. There will be an unavoidable bug at the end of the first act that prevents you from finishing the game. If you do not complete the quest in a particular fashion, charted by some unknown satanic ritual, you will break your save game and must begin again. Did I mention you get only one save slot?

Along with the faceless, unchanging character models, the indistinguishable monsters, and the completely bland environments that should embarrass the beautifully hand-painted backgrounds of Baldur's Gate, it was reason enough to go back and play Link to the Past again. At least there I can kick some god damned chickens.

I don't remember saying

the triumphant return of RTS

The last RTS game that really engaged me to the point of massive time loss was Rise of Nations. In the past few weeks, two exceptional games have been released: Rome: Total War and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. At this point in the season it's easy to get lost in a crowded schedule of releases. I must admit of the two the only one I was really anticipating to any degree was Rome: Total War, based solely on my experiences with Medieval: Total War and the first 15 minutes of Gladiator. I also recently got my hands on Age of Mythology Gold, and lazily grouped it in to avoid multiple posts. Luckily, all three titles have provided solid gameplay and a clear direction to where the RTS genre is going.

Starcraft was an excellent game. It was extremely well designed and balanced, and until now is the standard by which subsequent RTS games were judged. Still, I found that resource collection and management has always been the weak point of most RTS games. With the exception of the Myth and Total War series (and more recently Blitzkrieg and Soldiers: Heroes of WWII), there has always been some form of finding the raw resource and collecting it to build bases and produce units. But there was always so much more to RTS than sending paeons to mine for materials and racing through technology trees. You can only develop so many variations on the theme: like the World War II shooter genre, at some point the concept has to buckle under the weight of mediocrity.

Both Rome: Total War and Dawn of War show us that you can invigorate a tired genre. Granted, the Total War series has been more about epic strategy, but when you can't be bothered with micromanagement and are more interested in large-scale manuevering, Rome: Total War delivers an outstanding experience.

The units and battlefield are detailed and smoothly animated, using a brand new engine - right down to the mighty cheers your army lets loose when entering battle. The clash of swords can be heard over a pleasant panoramic view over the battlefield, or you can zoom in to unit on unit action, hearing the warriors scream as each are cut down mercilessly. Keeping track of your own routed regiments is annoying, as they will have to be explicitly commanded to re-enter the battle, so it is important to watch their energy level (fresh, winded, exhausted) and their opposition - if your men are getting slaughtered they are more prone to retreat. Routed enemy soldiers are equally time-consuming, because they will generally flee to all corners of the map to try and escape. You can attempt to run them down, but at this point they are usually outnumbered and you will get the option to end the battle. The game's speed controls also make this easier - you can slow or hasten the battle as much as needed.

Ironically, I've only played the demo for Rome: Total War, and it was Dawn of War that ended up on my playlist. As a fan of Medieval, I'm aware that there are many more options for political maneuverings, territory acquisition and army managment behind the scenes, but the demo does nothing to address them. This might lose prospective players that think it's nothing more than a large-scale version of Myth. Rome has been getting great reviews that claim it's the best in the series and a landmark in epic real time strategy, which may help to counter these impressions. The fact that it was used in an episode of the History Channel's "Decisive Battles" series lends some historical credibility as well, but to be honest I think these games have always aimed for that and succeeded.

As for Dawn of War, I certainly have had a lot of fun with this game, but whether it has any lasting value will be included in my final review. Probably the most inventive feature of Dawn of War are control points - strategic locations throughout a map that become your currency for fortifying a base and creating new units. Securing these points requires the use of an entire squad - who can defend themselves while they're at it - but it still ties up possible reinforcements, creating some tense front-line battles for these points on the map. In an equally innovative move, all Space Marine units and structures are launched from space, hitting your base like meteorites - buildings are simply landing pads to accept these pods.

I think I'm hooked on the simplicity of Dawn of War's battle mechanics themselves, because the single-player campaign feels too easy and straightforward to be of any significant value. Zooming in on the battlefield is not as exhilarating as RTW, but still provides some extremely visceral images. Watching your squad open up on an unsuspecting orc patrol is quite satisfying indeed. In fact, I think Relic may have captured what it would be like if Game Workshop's tabletop models came to life. All voiceovers and command confirmations sound like they belong in this universe. The graphics do the job, but upon close inspection washed out, strechy textures and blocky models can be seen. Still, it does nothing to lessen the experience.

For most players, tactics in RTS have typically revolved around the "Tank Rush": a race to obtain the most powerful unit, build gobs of them, and swarm your opponent's base. I blame Command & Conquer, Warcraft II, and by extension Starcraft, for making this extremely easy. The single player campaigns for each game had missions that almost demanded this approach, as there was really no other way to overpower the enemy. From this perspective, both Dawn of War and Age of Mythology don't offer anything beyond this precept.

The Total War series, known for their epic battlefields, actually requires you to apply simple strategic concepts to each conflict. Unsurprisingly, it will do you no good to send a squad of archers to take on a cavalry, or to send a cavalry into a phalanx of spearmen. Using your troops to this advantage, you can create visible choke points on the map, or draw the opponent closer to the heart of your army. Though this doesn't mean that you can't send squads of calvary to take out the general of the opposing force, breaking the will of their troops.

Both Rome: Total War and Dawn of War use morale very effectively, which is an addition badly needed. Speaking realistically, is there really a chance your sole Marine will stand his ground after seeing his entire squad demolished right in front of him? Although only troop effectiveness is depleted in Dawn of War, RTW causes your regiments to actually break up and flee, opening up front lines and destabilizing your entire strategy. It's marvelous to watch, especially when it happens to your opponent because at that point there's a pretty good chance you're winning.

Easily the most conventional of these three games is Age of Mythology, but that doesn't mean it isn't a well-polished strategy title. Indeed, resource collection is the central method of creating units, but the most entertaining aspect of advancing your civilization is the worship of Gods. Your race will start off worshipping one Greater Deity: for example, Poseidon is the chosen god of the Atlanteans. As you further develop your civilization, Lesser Deities will become available that you can choose to give your civilization bonuses. These include mythical creatures like cyclops and centaurs, special weapon upgrades for your units, or area effect spells that can be used to wreak havok on your opponent's base. In this respect Mythology gives the genre something unique, because opening up these abilities will depend on the number of "God points" you collect (which are earned by worhipping townsfolk). The closest game I could compare this feature to is Rise of Nations, except in that game scholars are kept inside Universities. You have the option in Mythology to take villagers away from a temple and reallocate them.

The game plays very similar overall to Rise of Nations, so I felt right at home. Advancing your civilization into different ages is essential, and the primary method of unlocking new units and Lesser Deities. Fans of Age of Empires II were entertained by this title, but it mostly only served as a way to incite their desire for a true sequel, and I can see why. Where AOE II was more focused on historical engagements in a traditional RTS setting, so far AOM is taking a more story-based approach, centralized on each civilization's main playable heroes.

After a binge of first person shooters, gameboy advance and being swallowed back up into Star Wars Galaxies, these games were a welcome change. As gaming time becomes even harder to obtain, it's difficult for me to sit down and truly enjoy what this genre has to offer. Though outstanding titles like these definitely make the time well spent.

up goes the ceiling of routine

Star Wars week

My agenda when I got home from purchasing the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD consisted of mainly one item: to make myself a liar. I wanted to believe in my heart of fanboy hearts that there is no way Uncle George would ever go through with modifying the Original Trilogy to suit his needs of justifying the Prequel Trilogy. But there it was, Luke staring knowingly into the darkness of the Ewok village outskirts, looking upon the ghosts of his former masters: Obi-Wan, Yoda and his father...Hayden Christiansen. I guess it's not like Sebastian Shaw can put up a fight, him being dead and all, but was it really necessary?

After The Wife picked me up off the floor, tears streaming down my cheeks, I skimmed briefly through the discs checking over some of the key scenes that I had heard received a bit of a touch up. I half expected to see Jabba re-replaced with Declan McCullaugh in A New Hope, but instead I saw a more freckly Jabba that had obviously been remodelled to look less like inserted CG than it did in 1997. Fair enough. All of the lightsabers look a lot brighter, and I was really suprised at how clean the film-to-DVD transfer was. In an even longer celebration sequence at the end of Return of the Jedi was a brief shot of the celebration on Naboo, which I suppose was inevitable now that we know it's part of the Alliance.

I kept looking at the DVD covers with a sneer on my face, thinking about how Lucasfilm took extra special care in trying to awkwardly place clearly old pictures to mimic the covers from the Prequel Trilogy. I decided to toss in the Bonus Materials disc, not defeated, but definitely feeling a bit demoralized. I watched the exclusive preview for Episode III, and I was a jellyfish again.

The Duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin, the fight this entire Prequel trilogy has been cultivating, will be the mantlepiece for the entire film. Watching McGregor and Christiansen rehearse against the blue screen, you can only imagine what environment is around them. Observing the extremely talented artists in Lucasfilm's costume studio create a more "modern looking" Vader suit, I got goosebumps. It wasn't until one of the sculptors working on Vader's facemask said something that made you realize just how 70s the original Vader helmet looks. It's not like they gave him glowing eyes or a platinum grill or anything, they just made some subtle changes to the entire outfit so it would seem appropriate on Christiansen's obviously smaller frame. When he walked on set in it for the first time, the entire crew cheered - fuck, I cheered - and I was ready to jump up and wait in line for this stupid movie.

There are also three featurettes on the disc, one of them being about the evolution of the Lightsaber. I mean everyone knows the story about sound man Ben Burtt's quest to search for what would be come one of the most famous sound effects in movie history, but there was a playful, even mythical quality to the whole thing that made you look at the Lightsaber as not just a prop or special effect, but a cornerstone of the entire series. I really doubt Star Wars would have gone anywhere if the effects crew decided to keep the rods wrapped in highly reflective tape.

The highlight of the bonus disc though is the amazingly detailed two and a half hour documentary that shows everything from Star Wars the concept and Lucas' merchandising foresight, to the fan reaction at the release of the prequels. Anyone that's seen From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga knows that it was more of a promotional tool for Jedi's theatrical release. Empire of Dreams is the story behind the Star Wars saga proper, something desperately needed to ground everyone's expectations about this series. Indeed, things have gotten a bit out of hand with people like me acting as if Lucas himself pillaged our childhood memories, but the series still remains a great concept and a monumental influence on modern Hollywood cinema, despite Lucas' efforts to distance himself from the Hollywood machine. The whole thing had a very VH1-feel to it, but I suppose we're better off without Mark Hamill's narration and the talking puppets in Star Wars to Jedi.

The release of Star Wars: Battlefront this week was met with average reviews, and much to my disappointment the demo released with the DVD set is for XBox only (and apparently overwrites your dashboard - modders beware!). Fortunately, my local electronics superstore had an outright buffet of Star Wars media to consume, the foremost being a tricked out PC with Battlefront on it. Pandemic's engine looked very hazy and surreal, apparently sharing this behaviour with Full Spectrum Warrior. The Naboo battlefield was presented quite nicely, and this haziness served as a kind of fog that wouldn't be out of place on this planet. The controls were standard, as were the basic gameplay objectives. I didn't play it long enough to justify an instant buy; then again, I also can't name too many people that wouldn't want to aim a blaster rifle at a Gungan's head.

I also checked out Apprentice of the Force, something I thought would end up as a "Star Wars" emblazoned turd. The animations are suprisingly smooth, and reminiscent of the acrobatics found in The Sands of Time (GBA). However the sprites remain undetailed, the backgrounds lack substance and are overall presented quite shabbily - right down to the pixellated movieframe cutscenes. You traverse the entire trilogy, faced with battles along the way for the most menial of tasks. I don't remember Luke having to fend off a legion of Stormtroopers just to sell his damnable landspeeder, but I guess you have to gain experience for your future Force abilities somehow. The level design is uninspired and excruciatingly repetitive, and incredibly easy to play through. It's a decent action game for serious SW fans only. And when I say serious, I'm talking about the same kind that shelled out $60 CDN on Tuesday for Hayden Christiansen's ghost. But I'm not bitter or anything.

another slow train to the coast

the brief life of a World of Warcraft stress tester

Next to the mass hysteria surrounding the release of Star Wars Galaxies, the MMORPG scene could never have anticipated the reaction to Blizzard's first foray into this growing marketplace. The difference being that most of the people waiting to play a space faring smuggler or bounty hunter were Star Wars fans that just happened to be gamers; this time around, existing MMORPG gamers and neophytes alike are eagerly awaiting the chance to try out what could potentially become the Everquest slayer.

Standard game commentary hyperbole aside, after spending five days and just shy of 20 hours with World of Warcraft I can say that this description is more than adequate. The easiest comparison I can make is to Blizzard's own Diablo II, which transplanted the simple "kill-reward" system into a decent looking game where the goal is not just to complete quests, but to get better equipment and level up as many times as possible. Along with a free online component, all of these things created a theoretically endless game. And deftly executing this simple design concept is where World of Warcraft succeeds. The level grind in MMORPGs is a design contrivance that will never go away, unfortunately. But in World of Warcraft, it doesn't have to feel that way.

I have a bad feeling about this...

Considered as a media event alone, Doom 3 is a veritable blockbuster. It could easily be the most highly anticipated computer game of all time. I'm hearing about Doom 3 from people who don't even play games. This makes it very uncomfortable for me, because how are you supposed to reply to that? Getting passionate about comptuer games with someone who can barely discern the difference between pixel shading and bump-mapping would be a waste of time and energy. The release of Doom 3 was talked about on the radio, television and in newspapers - just like the opening of Episode I or Fellowship of the Ring. The mainstream news media once again looked upon the hardcore lined up to be the first to get it with morbid fascination. I imagine this will be the same when Valve decides that Half Life 2 is ready to go gold, but when that will be is anyone's guess.

I'll admit I have a soft spot for the shooter that spawned an entire genre, but I doubt anyone bought Doom 3 for nostalgic purposes. Doom 3 is a new benchmark, the game you will play in front of your friends to show off your rig. The visual proficiency of the graphics engine will remain unmatched for some time - finally seeing this engine in action while secretly dreaming of what other developers will do with it was worth the price of admission. Despite my two year old computer specs, I was pleased beyond belief to learn that I didn't need a new video card to run the game with medium textures, all details turned on and at 1280x1024. Clothing and surfaces look amazing, and there is a realistic sheen to the metal throughout the Mars base. What I really have to comment on are the skin textures, whether it be on the human characters like Bertruger shown in the cutscenes or the Pinky demons crying out for your flesh. It seemed to move and stretch, even though I knew it was just a two-dimensional tile covering a bunch of polygons. This made the monsters especially creepy, but unfortunately they didn't explode the way I thought they would. Instead, in a very feeble spraying of blood the bodies kind of just disappear with a wisp of hellfire. The limited palette for the environment was also a little disappointing. Drab tones may have worked for Doom II and Quake, but after a while it becomes monotonous. Indeed, feeling like you've been somewhere before can be claustrophobic and inspire a real sense of panic, but when you get to the game's later switch hunts it quickly develops into an annoyance.

When I first started playing I was immediately taken in by the atmosphere; It truly flows from this game. It's like seeing the trailers for a scary movie: you know something bad is going to happen, it just becomes a matter of when. And when it does happen, you're suddenly in the middle of something terrifying, running for your life. When I encountered the zombies and demons for the first time, I have to admit I was scared. Again, the skin - just watching the creatures move made me cringe and want to get out of there in a hurry. There was something unsettling about seeing the zombies shamble towards me. I knew I could kill them, but it was more a feeling of inevitability that creeps up, telling you that you'd eventually die by being outnumbered - not from lack of firepower. Coupled with the ambient banging of metal grates and screaming radio chatter, I felt I was part of an event much larger than the genre - this was a groundbreaking game and Doom 3 deserved every high score.

These feelings of elation were quickly replaced after a few more encounters, as I realized that in small numbers the monsters don't do much damage on Normal difficulty. The first time you're attacked by a demon jumping from a concealed corner, it can be pants-soilingly scary - but it's not like Far Cry. In Far Cry, if you let the mutants get too close you're more than likely going to die. After being attacked by Doom 3's demons a few times, you get to see how much damage can be done and getting hit becomes more of a nuisance. If you know you're going to walk away alive, what use is there to fear for your virtual life?

The use of darkness and shadow is on par with the Splinter Cell series and Thief: Deadly Shadows. Though moody to the extreme, it's used as a cheap tactic more often as the game progresses, a result of the asinine decision to make the flashlight an entirely separate item. The flashlight is indispensable given the game's enveloping darkness, and you're expected to whip it out for every dark corner, having to switch to a weapon if you stumble upon a demon or wandering zombie. Luckily in the days since release, someone has already solved this problem with the Duct Tape Mod, which works great. Without the sticky-light I suppose fending off demons could be more terrifying, but when you're being attacked from all sides having no point of reference except sets of glowing eyes and no real hope of defence it's clear the challenge is artificial.

Another unfortunate design decision is the use of "monster closets", or small mini-areas that are opened after walking over hot spots or picking up items. These are tactics used in the id games of old: Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake. Worse still, monsters will occasionally spawn behind you after you've cleared a room. Again: at first this is kind of scary, because you have no idea where your enemies are coming from. But after being ambushed like this repeatedly, it just becomes another hasty design decision that makes the game appear scripted, and your presence in the gameworld irrelevant.

Using the same tactics as games such as System Shock 2 and Tron 2.0, the plot that isn't delivered through the meager cutscenes can be found in bits of documentation you find in PDAs spread throughout the facility. Listening to the voice journals or reading emails isn't essential to the game, so the PDAs become more or less a supply of access codes you can use to open up the locked doors and supply lockers on your jaunt through the base. I'd say the computer and object interface screens have reached a new level or realism in Doom 3: instead of a zoomed-in view or a separate screen, the aiming reticle becomes a cursor with which you interface with the objects directly in your field of view. After such a massive disaster, there is a surprising abundance of weapons, ammo, armour and health packs strewn about the ruins of the base. While some doors malfunction, every single airlock is in perfect working order. These criticisms probably seem nitpicky, but it's obvious that id were going for some sort of realism in the retelling of their FPS classic and this is just inconsistent with the intended feel of the game.

The on-weapon ammo display is a big deal to some reviewers, but I remember seeing this type of weapon readout in Unreal Tournament. That doesn't mean it isn't useful, it's just one of many features grafted onto this game from a previous title. Considering this, I found it especially strange that none of the weapons had a secondary fire mode. I mean if you're going to copy a game, fucking copy it. The sounds from the weapons are also less than encouraging. I'm supposed to fight demonic hordes with a shotgun that is put to shame by the original Doom? The weapons, like their sounds, feel weak and insubstantial - I found the only reliable weapon in the game without insane load times was probably the chainsaw. At first I thought it was as tiring as the spam emails you find, but it's surprisingly effective against many of the large enemies as long as you can afford to let them get close. This lack of a decent arsenal made me think back to FarCry, and how incredibly realistic the weapons felt and sounded - I mean those made my desk shake. I also found it a little peculiar that I could recognize some item pickup sounds lifted straight from Quake III such as the armour shards and health packs.

I like the fact that there isn't much of a musical score to this game, as it would seem a bit stupid if you were sending zombies and demons back to hell to some arbitrary nu-rock theme. The whispering of otherworldly voices, the clanging of bulkheads, and the sound of your own footsteps are more than adequate enough to set the mood. At one point, fending off the spider sentries in one of the many darkened rooms with my machine gun, the only light coming from my gun and the ammo readout made me feel like I was in Aliens. The enemies kept coming and I was running out of bullets fast, evoking a real sense of last-stand desperation. I listened for the clicking of the spiders as they traversed the ducts, just waiting for them to pop out and attack. It was a great moment, but one of the game's few.

For the first bunch of objectives, it was fun to be constantly scared, frantically reloading and not knowing what to expect next. But after a while other feelings set in. Not quite apathy, but closer to boredom. At this point I had a Matrix-like revelation where I could strip away the beautiful graphics and be left playing a 10 year old game, which depressed the hell out of me. At the elevator at the end of each level, I half expected to see my score, number of kills and secret area tally pop up. From people I've talked to that have finished the game, I'm about halfway through, having just entered the Communications Tower Area. So far the game isn't much of a challenge, and it's unfortunate. The linearity is painfully obvious, and although the narrow corridors and passageways serve a purpose in establishing atmosphere, over time it felt like a rail shooter, as if each new hallway was simply a conveyor to the next room of demons and undead to kill.

I dutifully read the PC Gamer review after finding out they gave it a 94%. I figured this would be the gaming event of the summer, possibly even the year. It's funny that I began this post with mention of The Phantom Menace, because I could easily equate the release of this game to that movie. My anticipation for both was extremely high. I was euphoric after experiencing each for the first time, but as I had a chance to reflect the shortcomings made themselves agonizingly known. I hate being so negative, because it seems like such a contemptuous thing to do when all PC gamers have been waiting for this moment whether they've played the original or not. But the way I see it, the hype was bound to backfire on four years worth of lofty expectations. I just cannot give this game the praise that others deem it worthy, and I would hardly call it a "masterpiece of the artform". The engine may make me want to mount my computer screen in the most unnatural of ways, but the frustratingly uninspired level design, artificial scares and the lack of any substantial gameplay make Doom 3 a chore at times to blast through. My hope is that someone else can put this amazing technology to good use.

burn it backwards

the legend of zelda: four swords adventures

I was looking forward to Four Swords Adventures as soon as I found out it would be using the same type of controls as Crystal Chronicles. Any game that takes advantage of the Gamecube/GBA connectivity beyond the bonus unlocks of Metroid Prime or peripheral gameplay of Wind Waker should be encouraged, despite what the general opinion is. The GBA-as-controller is not a problem as long as the game itself can justify it; sadly with Four Swords Adventures this is not the case.

With Four Swords Adventures, the question begs to be asked: how many times can Nintendo repackage an old Link adventure? The graphics are incredibly dated, and no matter how pretty the effects are they still look like they've been taped onto the sprites and pixelated backgrounds. This is probably the most outstanding fault against the game: it feels old. For instance, I knew where to find every secret passage and most puzzles were easily solvable based on past Zelda games.

The theme of "the four who are one" continues from the Four Swords game included in A Link to the Past for the GBA, except this time you have to save six maidens and Princess Zelda from the evil Vaati, which I suppose is reason enough for adventuring through seven areas of three dungeons each. This is the essence of the Hyrulean Adventure, which can be played by one to four people.

Regardless of the number of human players that start an adventure, there will always be four Links on screen. This is because every puzzle in the game requires the action of four players, heavily stressing the cooperation aspect of the game. The surplus Links simply become companions, who follow the human player's character. You can perform formations with the group, which becomes handy in both object push/pull/lift and combat situations. You can also throw your teammates to get across chasms, which I found especially amusing.

The primary currency of Four Swords Adventures is Force Gems: collecting entire sackfuls is imperative. The object of each dungeon is to collect enough to power the Four Sword, and only then will you be able to face the Boss in the final dungeon of each area. They also become a kind of performance metric, because at the end of each dungeon stats are tallied and one player is declared the "winner", an event that could only be considered ironic. As long as you have collected Force Fairies and enough gems, you can be instantly resurrected with a Gem deduction penalty. Naturally this takes away from the Four Sword's power. Curiously, the Force Gem tally for each player is shown on the main TV screen, but not each player's life meter. The perceptive player could see this as being a subtle hint toward's the game's true purpose.

Each player is only allowed to carry one special/magic item at a time, and you can't carry them over into other dungeons. Similarly, any new heart containers you gain will also be removed upon entering a new dungeon. Four Swords Adventures is very much like Crystal Chronicles in this respect, as every dungeon seems like a discrete instance in time. Perhaps this is a limitation when using the GBA as a controller; it's very possible that player-specific data can't be stored anywhere and so it is reset for every new dungeon. But I find that very hard to believe.

I found it pretty distracting to have gameplay switch constantly between GBA and the TV. It's almost like constant validation of the use of the GBA as a controller, because if you take away the indoor views, there's really no point to it. Indeed, the group will have to split up to perform certain tasks, but you still can't go beyond the borders of the current screen without collecting the party. If a player is still inside a building or cave, and another tries to leave the area, a small window will pop up on the TV screen showing a GBA-view of the player that's still inside. The odd thing is that in single player mode, this also happens when you go inside, whether you're using the standard controller or GBA.

Depending on who initiates conversations with NPCs, it only appears on their GBA, even though most times the information is valuable to all players. Certain cutscenes will show dialogue on-screen, but it's more for story advancement and not clues for solving quests. A big problem I had was that if a GBA is disconnected (whether by pulling out the cable or batteries dying) the game will automatically quit to the main title screen, even during play. No graceful exits like in Crystal Chronicles, where the game would wait for the GBA to reset and allow players to continue with the dungeon.

For experienced players, this game isn't much of a challenge. All the traditional clues for secret passageways and puzzles are self-evident. A veteran group of Zelda gamers could get through the whole game in a weekend without really trying. Now mind you, the controls and objectives set up by the game are a lot easier to grasp for new players. I played this game with The Wife, who enjoyed the cute characters and simple gameplay a lot better than the occasionally complicated controls and snap tactics during boss battles in Crystal Chronicles. I agree, although they are both essentially hack and slash cooperative adventures - one of them just happens to be infinitely more pleasing to the eye.

Some other additional features of the game include Tingle's Tower, a bonus area that you gain access to in each new set of dungeons. This holds unlockable bonus games, whose sole purpose is to put Force Gems into your pockets. This is especially useful before venturing into the Boss dungeon, because without your sword fully powered up you won't be able to proceed. The Shadow Battle available from the game's main menu is a two to four player Zelda deathmatch, which was about as interesting as the battle mode from Mario Kart: Double Dash. This may be fun for some, but after a few rounds it's clear that the Hyrulean Adventure is the core of the game.

If you can somehow cut out all the shortcomings of this game, you'd have yourself a pretty addictive co-operative adventure. But playing parts of the game on my GBA felt a lot more natural than looking at the TV screen, where the same graphics are a lot bigger. In that sense, I'd much rather be playing A Link to the Past: Four Swords with a link cable.

As a cooperative game, Four Swords Adventures has its definite benefits: it's not a hard game to get into, and the puzzles are for the most part easy to get past. But we've all played this game so many times, and as nice as it is to go through it with a friend, I can't justify the cost. Maybe if this game came out before Crystal Chronicles I'd possibly be a bit more lenient in my judgement, as it would be the first game to exploit the GBA as a controller. But when you're basically looking at a 13 year old game that's been overly stylized for 2004, I'd sooner lump this in with the NES Classics and Shining Force. If anything, Four Swords Adventures has made me appreciate the multiplayer brilliance of Crystal Chronicles even more.

in static pallor

a journey into Star Wars Galaxies

After playing Guild Wars I have to admit my interest in MMORPGs was made tangible. In order to drum up interest in the Jump to Lightspeed expansion for Star Wars Galaxies, Fileplanet offered up a free 14-day trial of the game a couple of weeks ago. Despite my previous inclinations to avoid this game altogether, curiosity got the better of me and I jumped into a queue. At 1.9 GB, I figure there was about 3 CDs worth of data to be downloaded. I would never have guessed that at the end of it all I would be trying to convince myself of reasons not to buy the game, or its expansion due in October.

a shining in the darkness

So here I am in my local EB and this guy is talking to me about the copy of Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon I bring to the counter.

"Have you played the original?"
"Would I be buying this if I hadn't? Look at the fucking cover."
"Yeah, it's pretty hideous isn't it. This is more than just a port, though - some of the battles have been tweaked to make them easier, and there's this new card bonus system..."

I stopped him before he could continue. After all, I've pretty much been waiting for this game since I got my GBA. I figured I would ask him about Four Swords Adventures while I was there, because the price tag seemed a bit steep (I guess from the "free" GBA-GCN link cable included in the box). He had not played, but we got on the subject of the Gamecube. The only thing worse than a non-gamecube owner is a reformed Gamecube owner. "Oh, I sold mine. There aren't any games for it." I'll skip over that and move along to the next part of the conversation, because frankly it made me want to punch him in the face. Like any true game geek, opinions are worn on sleeves, and so he proceeded to give the thumbs down to both Wind Waker and Metroid Prime. Now Wind Waker I can understand to some degree - the makeover wasn't for everyone, and the storyline may have added to the perceived childishness of the title. But Metroid Prime? I asked why (politely of course), stating that I was a devout PC gamer and it made me even question the validity of most FPSes post-1999. The guy claimed it was "unexciting", complained about unwieldy controls, and an overall sense apathy towards the title. Slightly perturbed, I left the store with my new purchase trying to focus on why Shining Force is so fucking awesome.

I can't help but reiterate the disgrace of the cover - I really wasn't kidding. Any new gamers that didn't have the opportunity to play the original will be immediately turned off if they happen to see it while browsing. This deeply troubles me, because these same people might not even look at reviews after this initial visual assault.

The most noticable difference to players of the original game will be the graphics. Back in its day, the Genesis was pretty hot, but they definitely needed an update. The world and battle maps still smack of tilesets, but on the smaller screen the poor quality isn't as noticable. The character portraits have also been redrawn, giving them a distinct anime feel, instead of the saturday morning cartoons of the original. The close-up battle character models were also redone, looking softer and more three-dimensional, kind of like the battles in Golden Sun. A few of the game's battles were tweaked a little, as some may remember them getting excessively hard after only the second chapter. What comes to mind is the battle with the Laser Eye superweapon at the crux of the Runefaust army - I remember having to replay the mission constantly, because no matter how much I strategized as soon as I got near the Eye itself my forces would be annihilated with one blast.

The turn based combat system is elegant in its simplicity: surround your enemies and attack, repeat as required. The menu interface is straightforward to navigate, and it's clear where Camelot's influences were when they designed Golden Sun's. Very little effort was spent detailing the weapons and equipment part of the game; most of the time character skill improvements alone will make all the difference in battle. Every 100 experience points a character earns they level up. However the most experience is gained when killing a monster. Like in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, it becomes apparent very quickly who your strong characters are, as the gap between your seasoned squad and backup characters grows wider. You can upgrade a character's class every 10 levels by Promoting them, which brings with it increased attributes, attack and defense bonuses. I will remember not to promote Zylo, though, as he is much more useful in his untamed state. I learned that the hard way when I first played Shining Force; upon being promoted Zylo gained this really lackluster magic attack that didn't do nearly as much damage.

What some players might find useful is a new card system, that uses cards you can find scattered in dungeons or town buildings. They will either have a specific action or a member of Shining Force on them. This new system is controlled by Mawlock, one of the game's new characters that does not start in the party. Instead, chapter epilogues contain a parallel storyline with Mawlock and Princess Narsha of Runefaust, who eventually join up with the Shining Force halfway through the game. Only then can he actually use the cards that you've been finding up until that time in battle. Each card can either provide Mawlock with a character's ability (using their respective card), create a clone of that character to fight on the battlefield, or give temporary power-ups to a character. In theory this should balance the field later in the game, because most of the end battles are still pretty hard. With that said, I still feel that the new system and characters feel forced into the original game's flow, kind of like seeing the new material in A New Hope: Special Edition.

With all the noise everyone is making about the NES "classics" being re-released on the GBA, Shining Force should recieve as much, if not more, criticism. The game is essentially the same as the original. Which is fine for me, because as soon as I started playing my strategies of the past gently bubbled to the surface, allowing me to get through a good portion of the game before I stopped for the day. I suppose there's a bit of nostalgia at work here as well, as I was able to look past many of the game's faults. Yes it is a remake of a game that was great in its day, but with the new subtitle I expected a bit more, at least enough to justify the cost of the game. I suppose that's Metroid: Zero Mission talking again, but it's true. Nintendo has set the standard.

I couldn't help comparing Shining Force with FFTA, because without Shining Force I doubt the genre would exist in its current form. But when you're faced with the choice of a game that is based on a deep character upgrades system, and combat mechanics that make me want to bathe in their complexity, it's hard to accept Shining Force as analagous. The graphics are dated, the combat is simplistic (I kept trying to approach enemies from behind for better attacks) and the theme music is extremely limited. If you want this game to rekindle fond memories of the Genesis version, by all means get Resurrection of the Dark Dragon because it's a fine port. And anyone who hasn't played Shining Force, but considers themselves a fan of the genre, might be interested in this bit of gaming history. Otherwise, you'd be better off spending your money on Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre. I may have been waiting for Shining Force on the GBA, but I can't say it was worth my own hype.

welcome to paradise

(Updated May 19, 2004)

At a time when everyone's just about had enough of Valve's not-so-subtle marketing doublespeak, PC Gamer decides to slap their "World Exclusive Playtest" of Half Life 2 on the front cover of their June issue. Gabe Newell's flighty responses to fan questions leaves the release date up in the air, all the while comparisons to Duke Nukem Forever riccochet off of bulletin boards with head spinning frequencies. After poring through an article cleverly designed to make you soil your pants in anticipation coupled with some more E3 gameplay footage, I quickly put all thoughts aside of whatever I had planned on doing for the summer, and will begin a lineup for Half-Life 2 at my local software retailer. Anyone who's up for it can contact me.

The euphoria left me before it even had a chance to make itself comfortable deep in my chest because there's more in this issue that caught my attention. Specifically, a very glowing review of Far Cry. When I first played the demo, I was definitely amazed at the capabilities of the engine, the infuriating tactics of the AI and the overall scope of the game world. The painstakingly detailed island paradise was big, and the inclusion of vehicles would be something a developer would suggest in a preliminary design document, but not necessarily know how to implement them. Naturally these things get cut and you're stuck with a scripted vehicle sequence like the MOHAA games, Call of Duty and Enter the Matrix. But Crytek managed to pull it off - and although the controls are really, really sloppy you're still afforded the freedom to travel wherever you please whether by boat or by buggy. Anyone who's tried the multiplayer will tell you that it needs work - and UbiSoft hopes to address this with a patch - but with such a strong single-player component it seems there's no reason to turn to the fairly standard frag contests.

So did I submit to overwhelmingly positive reviews despite my nocommittal first impressions? Well if you count that box on my desk that says Far Cry then yes, I think I did.

review: Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

It's hard to believe that Splinter Cell only came out a year ago. When it first arrived on the scene I thought that the Tom Clancy license was being spread around too eagerly. The previous year saw two expansions for Ghost Recon, and a new Rainbow Six game was in the works for an early 2003 release. As a result I really didn't understand the place for this multiplatform title, or even how well the series would be accepted by gamers. When I heard about Pandora Tomorrow I feared the worst - with little over a year for development I didn't think many improvements could be made. I was glad to be proven wrong in some respects, though, as the multiplayer component has shown us what will work in future games to take on this theme.

showdown at the house of blue leaves

From an accountant's viewpoint, Miramax timed the release of Kill Bill Volume 1 on DVD and Volume 2 in theatres perfectly. The people that were able to sit through Volume 1 without walking out in disgust or confusion can then run to their local theatre to see the conclusion. Given that it was Miramax's decision to hastily cut down Taratino's latest film, I'm sure this was their intention all along. Nevertheless, I still felt cheated at the abrupt ending - this film does not stand on its own.

the matrix revulsion

The in-laws are currently stationed in Hong Kong, and aside from the huge culture shock they seem to be enjoying it very much. They have fantastic weather all year round, and access to a lot of unfamiliar things that make their daily lives more interesting. As a result, we tend to get a lot of stuff "imported" via courier that they have purchased such as VCDs (completely legal of course), magazines, and an amazing variety of snack foods. Last week we got a copy of The Matrix Revolutions, and decided to check it out. Leaving the theatre crestfallen after weathering the massive hype of Reloaded, I expected great things from a movie that is supposed to tie everything together. A few reviews from friends when it was in theatres assured me that it was better, and so when we finally sat down to watch it I was ready to be vindicated after Reloaded's mis-steps.

The Matrix Revolutions is the insult to Reloaded's injury. Trying not to degrade into clever combinations of foul langauge, I still can only say that it is absolutely fucking awful. Overdramatic in its delivery, convoluted in plot and in its action scenes, and completely pointless as a sequel.

The completely eye-rolling final battle involving giant exoskeletons a little too reminiscent of the power loaders from Aliens ended (for the most part) with an EMP blast from a ship barely making it inside Zion's docks. What was the point of the final power loader stand if there was always this "last ditch effort"? How did bullets actually manage to stay the crushing blow of highly agile robots that probably number in the billions? Neo's final confrontation with the machine's hive mind regarding their common enemy was an interesting way of cleaning things up, but not enough to save this disaster of a movie from collapsing on itself.

The convoluted explanation on why The Oracle actress changed was also extremely frustrating to listen to. Indeed, it was sad that Gloria Foster died during filming, but there's not a whole lot you can do except continue as planned. Just look back at The Crow, which saw the death of its star, and could still be salvaged (the makeup helped, of course). I'd like to think that audiences can accept these unfortunate circumstances without having to slog through rhetoric and double-speak that confuses the issue. Taking a cue Microsoft's idea of security the Wachowskis plan on making their story so obscure it's impossible to tell if it's actually doing the job or not. The only sequence I enjoyed in this movie was the assault on Merovingian's club - but even that was a "re-imagining" of the famous lobby scene from the first film. The climax is a Woo-like standoff that's so over the top that it was cool by default.

With Revolutions the Wachowskis have given the entire franchise a viking funeral. The very concept of both sequels was incredibly indulgent and expecting the masses to choke down this insipid, lazy mess without complaining was cavalier at best. As far as I'm concerned there's only one Matrix film, and I will happily continue to watch it for years to come. The sequels were pointless and told me absolutely nothing except how incredibly vain and contemptuous the creators are.

don't play truth or dare

of Hellboy and secret windows

A movie like Hellboy almost never gets made - theoretically, the core audience is incredibly limited. I've only read a few of the early books; Dark Horse is one of those publishers that ensnared me with their Aliens, Predator and Star Wars licenses, and I rarely drifted far from that comfortable triumvirate. The first time I saw Mike Mignola's Hellboy on the racks in my local comic shop, I reacted with the typical disdain shown towards trendy books, having seen Jae Lee's Hellshock released a short time before and every other comic's current storyline seemed to be based around Hell, demons or some form of the occult underworld. I blame Toddy McFarlane and Image comics for this trend.

Mignola's artwork was murky, gritty and blocky; luckily, Guillermo Del Toro manages to capture these sentiments and put them to film in one of the most accurate comic book universe adaptations in recent memory. You can tell that Del Toro is extremely fond of the source material - he is a confessed fan of Mignola's character - but this ends up being detrimental to the overall experience. Having only rudimentary background information, I still felt left out when trying to understand the relationship between Liz and Hellboy deeper than the clichéd on-screen romance.

I found that the film was very tongue-in-cheek throughout, and reminiscent of the comedic take on the occult of Ghostbusters. Ron Perlman's Hellboy was fantastic, and had some laugh-oud-loud one-liners in the true spirit of the character. I think a lot of the good reviews are really referring to this performance, and maybe because it was developed from a comic and really did suprise people as I originally suspected.

If you've seen Del Toro's Blade II, you can expect action scenes of a similar quality. I was thoroughly unimpressed by the fighting onscreen in Hellboy - Kroenen's blades and Hellboy's Samaritan were oozing with cool-factor, but they hardly had a chance to be shown off. Rick Baker's amazing makeup effects do well to compensate for this lack of visual stimulation. Still, I think H.P. Lovecraft called and wants his demons back. I also felt that Sammael was not very threatening - or was is that I felt safe knowing that I was protected by a 7-foot tall demon-man who files his horns? The story was well executed, and Del Toro has crafted an extremely enjoyable film that is worth seeing whether you're a fan of comic books or not.

As an aside, check out Drew Struzan's limited edition poster - it's terrific, but strangely familiar. This poster never saw release in theatres, though it can easily be purchased online.

Hellboy was one of three movies we saw this past weekend at the local drive-in. We also managed to sit through Secret Window and 50 First Dates despite the sub-zero temperatures in my unheated car (no headlights allowed, you see). I'll try to make this as painless as possible: Johnny Depp proves once again his skills as an actor, pulling a superb performance out of an extremely tired plot contrivance. David Koepp is not a very original director - he should stick to writing. You might recognize his name from the Spider-Man credits, as he handled scripting duties for both the original and the upcoming sequel. I've never read the short story it was based on in Stephen King's Four Past Midnight, but I hear the story is constructed a lot better without giving away the resolution too early, and leaves less of a vacuous feeling in your head when the credits roll.

As for Sandler's latest attempt at romantic comedy, I felt like I was watching every other Sandler character: the cute smugness was slathered onto every scene, with Rob Schneider providing the predictable comic relief. I consider myself a fan, though, since I honestly believe that Happy Gilmore is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Regardless, I still couldn't help feeling that I've watched this all before, as The Wedding Singer had the same on-screen coupling and campy 80s soundtrack (50 First Dates' being that of the modern, crappily remixed variety). For $24 admission though, I call it a bargain. Laying down $28 for one movie and kicks in the back while having to listen to the snide remarks of vapid trendsters is hardly worth the price these days.

the black ink fuels our notions

The Twin Snakes

I remember getting to play Metal Gear Solid and Thief: The Dark Project around the same time, and falling hard for this new style of stealth-based gameplay. Why not reward players for avoiding fights, instead of starting them? Coming up with cunning ways to trick and outwit your opponents without the use of force seemed like a high concept, something the PC needed desperately to rejuvenate a tired genre. I only spent a couple of late evenings with MGS on a friend's Playstation back in University, but the challenges of Garrett's adventure kept me up nights (the best time to play it) as soon as I got my hands on the full version. Incidentally, both Metal Gear Solid and its sequel were ported to PC - but there's really no need to go further, as they were mediocre console ports with gargantuan install sizes and ridiculous system requirements.

So what would possess Nintendo and Konami, with the help of Silicon Knights, to team up and create a remake of a game that's barely 6 years old? The Metal Gear franchise had been gladly taken up by the Playstation, and given the hype surrounding Snake Eater and the series' rabid fan following, I would hardly think a remake would have been necessary to increase awareness. Perhaps this is me being overly optimistic, but I see this as a way of Konami testing the waters (so to speak) before committing to any future projects on the Gamecube as I explained in my earlier post about Castlevania. In simplest terms, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes is a graphical and usability upgrade to a classic game.

What I remember most vividly about the original is the number, length, and depth of the cutscenes throughout the game. Indeed, I recall asking the first time I played, "Do you actually get to play in this game?" Metal Gear Solid was equally about creating an engrossing game, as it was about creating a believable and solid story. Alas, if you've played the original, The Twin Snakes adds no new surprises - all story elements are left untouched. Thus, the magic of playing through this incarnation would be to see the spectacular graphics if anything else. Curiously the original was contained on two CD-ROMs; this version, too, takes up two Gamecube discs. The effort that went into the sounds, voice acting and amazing score makes itself known as early as the beautifully scripted opening scenes - I was already captivated by the time the new "The Twin Snakes" title came across the screen, in the same manner as a well produced Hollywood film. Even the game's menu screen, cold and dark with snakes emulating a DNA chain - as trivial as this sounds - evokes the same type of stylish design as Metroid Prime's.

In the face of these excellent cutscenes, the game still uses talking "sketches" of the main supporting characters when you use your codec radio transmitter in game. I hate to nitpick on this small detail, but this was something that bothered me when I played the original. Why not have 3D animated busts, or add further realism to the codec tuning interface and show nothing at all? It would certainly add to the game's atmosphere of mystery and intrigue.

One thing I like about MGS is the difficulty level - it remains consistently challenging. With very little interaction around the cutscenes, every game sequence was made to count. Save points aren't an issue, as you can pretty much beat every new area in a few tries and autosaving takes care of the rest. I'd be careful to call it seamless, but the game does a pretty good job of convincing you that you're the one moving the action along in your favorite espionage thriller. Due to these bursts of strenuous and calculatingly paced gameplay, it seemed that much more rewarding to watch the cutscene that followed. The AI has improved: the guards are very sharp, and ruthless in their tactics. In most stealth action games a stray bullet in a closed room wouldn't make a difference. In The Twin Snakes, I was in one room early on in the game while well hidden and no guards in sight, and accidentally let a shot loose from my pistol. This caused the alarm to go off and a host of support guards quickly found my hiding spot, and made extremely short work of Solid Snake. Until you get your hands on the heavier weapons you have no chance against the guards unless you take them out individually, and the radar comes in quite handy for this. When attacking multiple targets, the new first person view (I hear this was cribbed from Sons of Liberty) makes this really easy. The top down view during combat in the original Metal Gear Solid was extremely unwieldy even with the laser sights.

To be fair, after playing Zero Mission I'm starting to expect a lot from remakes, as I'm sure many other people are. But it still would have been nice to insert some additional content into the game, maybe a "lost level" or two that bridged the familiar ones. Perhaps the story lies in too delicate a balance for this kind of manipulation, though, and I can respect the developers for that. On the whole I'd call it a great package if you haven't played the original. Minus some minor tweaks this is essentially the same game, so don't expect anything new here. If anything, this Gamecube port conveniently gives me an excuse to add it to my collection. Having never owned a Playstation, I kind of missed out on getting to know those revolutionary first-generation titles that have formed the genres of today.

good luck doesn't last forever

Sonic Heroes (GCN)

Sonic Heroes is a game I wanted to like. After playing the demo I was almost positive that this would be a return to form for Sonic and Friends, going back to what made the original Sonic adventures so incredibly fast paced and fun. I think my expectations may have been a bit misguided, though, because Sonic Heroes does not live up to its incredible potential.

The game's intro is like watching the beginning of your favorite Saturday morning cartoon - the music is awesome, and gets you into the spirit of the game. The cutscenes, although nicely animated, cannot make up for the spartan plotlines for each team. The game's story was clearly an afterthought; but I was more interested in getting to the action. The water surrounding the first few Team Sonic levels is like awakening a gamer's collective subconscious - you would swear you had returned to the Green Hill Zone. But this feeling doesn't last long.

On Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

The Wife purchased Super Mario Bros. 3 for the GBA a couple weekends ago, and I keep meaning to talk about it. It got a lot of good reviews - and deservedly so - because it perfectly recreates the Super Mario 3 experience as seen in Super Mario All-Stars with a few minor improvements. The most notable being the remixing and addition of a few new sounds, like Mario's voice, which we all most definitely could do without. Another thing I noticed is that all the Mario Advance titles - even Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga - contain a separately playable update to the original Mario Brothers, which can be enjoyed by two players if you have the means to link up. It's a small thing, but a nice gesture nonetheless. As Super Mario 3 is hailed by many as being the greatest Mario game ever made (looking back at the hype it's hard to believe anything else) and the best selling video game of all time, I would call this latest manifestation a grand accomplishment. If we're comparing remakes though, Zero Mission still has it beat.

review: Metroid Reloaded

I was left feeling cold by Metroid Fusion, chastising it for being a sneaky remake of Super Metroid that was tweaked out and put into a different package. It's one of the better titles for the GBA, though, so actually investing in that purchase would not be a mistake. This time around I can't use that excuse, because Nintendo has made it clear we are seeing a massive redesign of Samus Aran's first encounter with Metroids. But what players didn't know was the extent of the surprise at the end of the game. And I plan on divulging, so beware of the spoilers interspersed in this review.

Metroid: Zero Mission is a retelling of Samus Aran's mission to planet Zebes, which first appeared as Metroid on the NES in 1986. And as I've noted before, it's very similar to the facelift that the original NES Mario Brothers games underwent for Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES. The same exaggerated, cartoonish styling was transplanted onto Metroid to yield Zero Mission. The visuals are definitely the strong point of this game, followed very closely by the much improved soundtrack. Where Sword of Mana seems like Secret of Mana with a few minor changes, Zero Mission is a completely refreshing take on a classic adventure.

Like any Metroid game, you start with nothing and are driven by an unseen force to acquire new powerups and weapons. The simple formula has been repeated time and again in this series (and others like it), yet gamers never complain. I suppose the simple act of getting and replacing your suit's many upgrades is reward enough. And the moderate level of difficulty lends itself well to marathon sessions where you've obtained about 10 new missile tanks and wonder where the fuck the time has gone.

Some of the weapon and power suit upgrades are actually carry-overs from Metroid sequels, like the Speed Booster from Super Metroid and the "Power Grip" that first appeared in Metroid Fusion, which allows Samus to hang off of ledges. Adding these new abilities provides a different experience from the original, and each of the game's areas were redesigned to suit.

Zero Mission tends to feel more free-form than Fusion, because sequence breaking is a lot easier. You are no longer limited by locked elevator accesses and different "sectors". It essentially starts once you get bombs and can bomb jump your way to unreachable corridors or Power Tanks. After a while it becomes very obvious where you're supposed to go, however, and there is always a way out.

My game clocked in at just under four hours, and this was played over the course of a week or so. Sure there were some challenges, but I think my largest complaint with the game is that it was too easy. When you have the Automap to fall back on, it's very difficult to get lost, and you occasionally get clues as to where to head next. All powerups are revealed in this manner as well (as they were in Fusion) and it's just a matter of blasting your way to them. Unlike the original Metroid, where part of the game was actually remembering where you were (this is where graph paper came in handy). Even Ridley - traditionally one of the hardest bosses - was a pushover. Kraid was the only boss that presented a real challenge. Mother Brain was easy to defeat as long as you had a sufficient missile loadout.

If you're even slightly into this game, by now you've heard about the additional mission that takes place after the destruction of Mother Brain. The "suitless Samus" sequence, while fun for awhile, quickly became annoying due to your lack of a power suit and no real way to defend yourself. I almost felt like I was playing a 32-bit version of Starcraft: Ghost.

Playing through Metroid Prime revealed some interesting information about the origins of Samus' Power Suit and the Chozo civilization, but Zero Mission takes it a step further. At the end of the game, you see a close up of some scribbled graffiti on the mural that you fought previously to gain your fully powered Armour back. It shows a young Samus holding hands with some Chozo elders, which fully canonizes some information about Samus' heritage that was mostly made up of fan speculation and snippets from game instruction manuals. There was also a short animated sequence you saw after destroying Mother Brain where you see the same situation. If you don't mind looking at pictures (unless you can read Japanese), there is a e-manga Shockwave cartoon that goes into a little more detail on this subject. From what I understand, as a child Samus was the survivor of a Space Pirate attack on her home planet that was led by Ridley. She was taken into custody by the Chozo and grew become the fearless bounty hunter we know today. As far as I can tell the comic is officially sanctioned material.

I could easily recommend this game above Metroid Fusion, because Zero Mission truly captures the feel of the only two fully original games in the series: Metroid and Metroid 2: The Return of Samus. Metroid Prime was a departure in many ways, but the more I think about it the more I can compare it to Zero Mission and its quasi-openness and automap directives. If you want a highly addictive side scrolling adventure, you cannot go wrong with Zero Mission - in fact it's impossible. Nintendo could have easily gone the lazy route and just prettied up the graphics on the 1986 classic. But they did more than give the game a comic-like style - they included familiar powers that have been introduced into the series since its debut, as well as added a novel end sequence where you can play as Samus sans power armour. And to be able to unlock the original 8-bit Metroid and two galleries (Fusion and Zero Mission) make this an excellent package. I'd hate to see this series devlove into incestuous remakes, but I think Nintendo had to get Zero Mission out of its system. Another original Metroid game for the GBA and the Gamecube (like Metroid Prime 2 for example) would be a more welcome addition to the series.

those evil-natured robots

impressions: Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles

Crystal Chronicles is a game that most gamers were watching with great interest, whether they wanted to play it or not. Since jumping ship to create Final Fantasy games for the Playstation, Square has been reluctant to develop for Nintendo's home console. And Crystal Chronicles was to be a very large undertaking, with its departure from the traditional turn-based combat system, asking players to make a significant investment for the controls, and all the while promising an engaging multiplayer adventure. And with many reviewers crying foul after seeing their own hype backfiring in their face, is the game actually worth playing?

I'm going to delay delivering my assessment to recount a bit of an anecdote surrounding recent Valentimes [sic] Day. That's when we picked up our reserved copy of Crystal Chronicles, you see. Ever since The Wife gained access to my GBA after I moved in, she occasionally played Metroid Fusion or WarioWare. She became interested in the idea of actually owning her own, and with Crystal Chronicles on the way I happily obliged knowing the multiplayer requirements. What better way to celebrate Valentimes [sic] Day, than with a Fire Red GBA-SP and Crystal Chronicles?

After connecting our respective Gameboys and starting a multiplayer adventure, I figured it would all be fairly straightforward, because seriously, who reads the instruction manual any more? Console games are usually self-revealing. After a solid half-hour getting used to the GBA/GC interface controls, we were on our way. Crystal Chronicles features some of the most beautiful visuals I've ever seen in a game. Leave it to the Gamecube, though, because that's exactly what I said about Metroid Prime. The Game Designers Studio has managed to convince me once again why I own this console. The music, put simply, is moving. I was emotionally stirred after viewing the opening movie, which served as ample introduction to the adventure to come.

During the first half hour of actual play I was absolutely livid, because I was almost certain that I had a terrible game on my hands. The controls felt awkward, the action lists were too complicated to modify while under attack, and the Crystal Chalice did not make me feel like we were in control of the action. But after our first boss battle I realized the truth. Wielding devastating spell combo attacks, coordinating our healing efforts and eventually killing the first boss monster brought me back to the days of Diablo, where only a coordinated assault guarantees victory. The Multiplayer adventure is where this game's design really shines, and should be the only reason you purchase this game.

I know exactly why reviewers had such a hard time with Crystal Chronicles. It forces you to stick together, share inventory items and spells and explicitly binds you by teamwork. What these people failed to understand – and Tycho nailed on the head – is that the game isn't meant to be convenient. Teamwork is an essential – nay, mandatory - component of gameplay. If you're expecting to breeze through it on single player and enjoy the same experience, you're absolutely wrong. You need to play this with other people; to fully understand the concepts behind the game it is essential. The single player option was thrown in so that players wouldn't feel obligated to buy a GBA, and is completely devoid of excitement. So you get a moogle companion to carry the Chalice - big deal. The game becomes little more than a more polished version of something like Dark Alliance.

Inventory management is completely discrete – it's all contained on the many pages of information accessed on the GBA. There's no need to pause the whole game just so someone can put on their Ruby Earrings. Randomized map, treasure, and enemy radars forces communication between players, as does the mandatory carrying of the Crystal Chalice. The game took a lot of flak for the Chalice concept, but I didn't find it annoying at all. In fact I found that whoever had the map was the best person to carry it, and even if you're attacked you automatically drop it.

The game may not share the turn-based combat of previous Final Fantasy games, but the environment and characters are saturated with it. The real-time combat is one of the main things that turned players away from this game; it didn't "feel" like a Final Fantasy adventure. I would love for more Final Fantasy games to share this visual style, though. I am more at home with the soft looking, child-like characters of FFTA and FFCC than the androgynized brooding male leads of recent Final Fantasy games. It's getting ridiculous, and I think having these characters present in Crystal Chronicles helps evoke the atmosphere of innocence and wonder, instead of making you feel uncomfortable playing a male who spends as much time in front of the mirror as his female counterpart.

I found the GBA-GCN connector cable was a little flaky at times, as we had to restart our GBAs more than once during play because they would freeze up. Luckily this wouldn't affect the game, though – Crystal Chronicles just waits to reconnect with the GBA. Unfortunately if you're in the middle of a boss battle and all players are resetting their GBAs you'll probably die before the link is restored.

After every dungeon you return to the world map and have the option to save your progress. There aren't many spots where it autosaves, so rather than making dangerous assumptions that it might save after a pivotal cutscene you're better off saving right off the main map. As many of the critics have noted, you lose your spells and magical abilities every time you leave a dungeon, only having to re-collect spell spheres when you enter a new one. You also must go right through to the end – there's no clearing an area, exiting and saving like we tried. Once you beat the area's boss then it's safe to save your progress and move on. There are multiple slots that will store different characters, so theoretically you could jump into an existing multiplayer adventure with newly created characters. As an added bonus, you can bring your memory card and GBA over to a friend's place and load up your existing character for an adventure.

Crystal Chronicles is not a conventional console game. It marks Square's triumphant return to Nintendo's home console lineup, and reminds us that going online is not necessarily the solution for a truly captivating multiplayer experience. I wouldn't call the game's execution perfect; the story is a loosely bound explanation for leaving your home village, and the mysterious miasma enveloping the land is not beyond reproach as the sole reason for the party to stay together (why not because they like each other?). You may still be thinking to yourself that this is a clever marketing strategy to get people to spend more money on Nintendo products, and in some respects you might be right. But I honestly can't see this game working in any other fashion. The combination of beautiful visuals, a superb soundtrack, and completely practical control scheme make me think that it was worth the wait. Maybe it's not a spectacular RPG, but it will at least be remembered for its willingness to see past the perceived boundaries of multiplayer console gaming.

review: The Return of the King

What starts with the origins of Gollum and is the ending to one of the most epic and courageous cinematic endeavors of all time, should probably be entitled to an award of some kind. I'd even be happy if the so-called "Academy" made one up specifically for this purpose, because they always seem to snub fantasy and science-fiction films as if they are lacking some sort of dramatic or heart-rending component. I assure you Return of the King is missing none of these, and if it does not get recognized for Best Picture and Best Director the entertainment world is as hopeless as I had believed.

I imagine many people in Hollywood told Peter Jackson he was probably signing his own death certificate when he started work on the LOTR Trilogy back in 1999. If he failed it would probably end his career on the spot, not to mention let his name live forever in infamy as the man who attempted to bring Tolkien's classic saga to the big screen. Yet Jackson managed to take New Zealand's awe-inspiring scenery, place several well-known actors in exquisitely made costumes, give them tight, believable dialogue and immediately convince us we were in Middle-Earth. Success is hardly the word to describe this.

Where The Two Towers was spent following the journey of Frodo and Sam, Return of the King focuses on the ascent of Aragorn to Gondor's throne. Frodo and Sam do have prominent roles in the film as they journey closer to Mount Doom, but this movie is a climax on multiple levels, and I found that Aragorn's character progressed quite naturally in this installment.

The city of Minas Tirith is completely breathtaking. When Gandalf and Pippin first arrive and ride through its rising concentric circles, I could not believe what I was witnessing. It eventually serves as the centerpiece of one of the most well executed and beautifully directed battle sequences in recent memory. During the siege of Minas Tirith, we see catapults launching debris the size of city walls, easily crushing its ramparts and the attackers below. It is here that we truly get a sense of the battle's scale, because the pace does not let up for a second during the action that follows.

The scene where Legolas takes out an Easterling war elephant (including its crew) by himself is gives way to a well-timed one-liner from Gimli, when spirits should have been low in the face of their innumerable enemies. In another jaw-dropping scene, after Eowyn disobeys her father and rides into battle, she single-handedly decapitates a Nazgul's mount. She is then met with a truly fearsome adversary - The Witch King. When the camera revealed the length and size of his morningstar, I mentally crapped my pants. She then dispatches him with ease and another memorable one-liner. Aragorn's rallying of the Army of the Dead prompted a nice clean finish to the battle that drifted a bit into the realm of Hollywood deus ex machina, but it was still incredible to watch them devour the orc hordes.

I'll be honest and say that I would rather Liv Tyler just disappear and never get in front of the camera again. When I found out she would be supplying the role of Arwen in the Lord of the Rings, and that her part was significantly changed for these films, I feared the worst. However I am happy to report that the romance of Arwen and Aragorn is most tastefully dealt with and does not hinder the conclusion of the series.

In hindsight this seems like a frivolous point, but I found the character of Lord Denethor, Steward of Gondor and father of Boromir and Faramir to be fairly useless. Indeed he was a short-sighted and selfish man, but when Pippin sings a very sad song over Denthor's opulent and sloppily eaten dinner while intercut with Faramir's certain death in his charge on Osgiliath is one of those typical Hollywood over-the-top moments that I couldn't ignore. Honestly!

However the film clearly shows us we have made an emotional investment in these characters when Frodo and Sam are climbing the final steps of Mount Doom. Sam speaks a most unforgettable line: "I may not be able to carry your load Mr. Frodo, but I can carry you." It resonates on the same wavelength as Boromir's speech before dying in Aragorn's arms, a scene that still puts a lump in my throat every time I think about it. Sean Astin was a fucking giant in this movie, and should at the very least receive some formal recognition for this performance.

Another weighty sequence begins when the four hobbits return home to Hobbiton, greeted by a Hobbit with the same grumpy scowl as the beginning of the trilogy, even though every one of them were clothed in unconventional hobbit garments and had been gone for over a year. Nothing had changed; the troublemakers had simply returned home. However the enormity of their quest really hits home when they sit down for a drink later that night at the Green Dragon. It wasn't a drink on a typical night for the four friends, regardless of the festivities going on around them. It is the end of a journey, the culmination of all the things they have seen, all the things we have experienced with them as an audience. Tears were almost flowing at this point, and when they raised their flagons in silent appreciation of one another, we were shown a real, tangible bond between them.

Walking out of Return of the King left me feeling very satisfied, however, I can't help but think back to Fellowship. It still remains the most solid film in the trilogy for me, and I know that we were really watching the end of a 9+ hour movie with Return of the King, but for some reason to it felt excessively long. This could be the multiple "endings" that did their best to wind down this massive tale, although only the last one should have remained on the cutting room floor.

A timeless and epic story, a visual masterpiece and a saga that will be remembered forever ends with Return of the King. I admit that it makes me a bit sad that I can't look forward to next December with the same excitement - but I suppose the extended DVD will suit just fine. Peter Jackson has delivered in full force, and I'm pretty sure in a New Line boardroom somewhere they have just given the go-ahead for him to make The Hobbit.

a sleepless malice

the sands of time

Free time is definitely at a premium this time of year, but I somehow managed to scrape out a weekend of gaming. There's something about braving the malls on a Saturday afternoon that completely saps the lifeforce out of me. Pleading guilty by reason of near-insanity, we headed to the local video shop where I rented Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for the Gamecube. I am well aware that is available for the PC, and believe me when I walked away with my rental copy I felt like a cheap whore. But as always the Xmas season tends to put a moratorium on self-shopping (and a huge dent in your savings account) so I'll take what I can get.

But enough about real life™, I absolutely must talk about Prince of Persia. The Prince of Persia lineage began as a low-tech side-scrolling adventure that was inhumanly difficult at some points. When Prince of Persia 3D came out in 1999, there was a huge ad campaign announcing its arrival that was a bit out of touch, but old fans welcomed it with open arms regardless. Then came the reviews, which brushed it aside as being another 3rd person actioner not worthy of the franchise. Luckily I tried the demo first, where I was disappointed with the poor controls and lackluster graphics, and thus promptly uninstalled that steaming pile.

Enter the latter half of 2003 and the release of The Sands of Time for all platforms. I think for the first 10 minutes of playing, I could only utter expletives for fear of letting my lower jaw fall off from inactivity. The graphics - although on a TV - look astounding; the world of medieval Persia was created lovingly by the wizards at UbiSoft Montreal. That's the same people who made Splinter Cell, for those that are keeping track.

The first time I entered combat, my hands flew over the controls as the Prince avoided the deadly slash of an opponent's weapon by running up their body, ending in a perfectly executed flip and return slash to the lower back. To the best of my knowledge this game does not come with safety goggles; my eyes were almost removed from my head. The acrobatics that the PoP games became known for - even in its two dimensional state - are here in full swing (ahem), with the Prince's fluid movements permeating every part of this game. Does it even matter that all you're given to defend yourself is a Scimitar and a mystical dagger? Not in my humble opinion.

Ah yes. The dagger. The magical time-altering dagger that you find in one of the greatest opening levels of a game. A tutorial cleverly disguised as an archeological adventure that feels as much like an Indiana Jones game. Once you get the dagger you gain the ability to control time. At first I thought that this was no different than getting multiple lives. If you can replay the last 10 seconds that caused your early demise, what makes this any more unique than putting another avatar before that perilous chasm? But this game is littered with traps and obstacles that require crackerjack timing, and some you will never get on the first try. You are now able to rewind to that split second, the one where the whirling blade probably should have severed your right leg but they didn't exactly code limb removal, so it just kind of kills you. It's an important asset to have, but not as important as the sand that powers it.

The story is quite simple: you are a young prince thirsty for glory, and see the ancient dagger as the ultimate prize to honour your father. But when stealing the dagger sets in motion a chain of events that results in the general populous turning into bloodthristy undead, well you've suddenly got a few problems. Naturally revenge is the order of the day - revenge on the treacherous sorcerer that is most likely the ultimate cause of the darkness that has befallen the land. The sand you need for your dagger is held within these walking dead, like the glow you saw when David Lo Pan got pissed. Knocking them down will do you no good, you've got to stab them with your magical dagger, sapping the lifeforce held within the remaining cloud. Kind of like Soul Reaver, except the game never gets boring.

I could easily go on about the wall running, the gymnastics, and amazingly elegant combat techniques. But I think it's far too early to assess this game's operating parameters. Throwing around words like "perfect gaming experience" and "one of the year's best" can be dangerous when I haven't even finished the game. Seeing the combination of movements that can be performed by the Prince in simple combat, depending not on focus but on sheer mastery of buttons, it made me ask "What Enter the Matrix?" The latter game being incredibly sloppy and ill-produced in comparison.

Save points are not even close to being acceptable in games on any platform. Hardware is at a point where you should not have to rely on the whims of game developers to save your progress. Some games are exception to this rule, such as Metroid Prime, whose exquisite beauty quietly offsets the frustrations wrought by the lack of a save anywhere feature. The Sands of Time is also one of these games - saving at the designated points produces an onrush of "visions" that essentially shows you what lies ahead, including traps, monsters fought and even solutions to the many puzzles. After saving you "wake up" on the floor and continue, roused from your premonitions. This even makes it believable when you save, and then start playing again a few hours later, insignificant as it may sound.

Unfortunately, the game's few shortcomings lie in the AI. It is infuriatingly inconsistent. You will be fighting off multiple assailants with amazing combinations for one battle, while in another skirmish each enemy will wait their turn to have their asses handed to them. And thanks to that handy dagger there are very few situations where you're actually down for the count. The fatal step that left you vulnerable to the final cut from a zombie's axe can be replayed anew, where the outcome is victory.

The Gamecube reviews seem to be pretty lofty, but looking at all platforms everyone seems to be in agreement: this game has diverged from the classic rushed holiday title syndrome. I stand here a man convinced that a 3rd person console game can be fun, and I'm inclined to recommend The Sands of Time. I doubt you'd be disappointed by getting this game for your preferred platform.

overcome and completely silent now

review: Call of Duty (PC)

I waited like a slavering, starving dog for the intense WWII action of Call of Duty. I picked it up last Friday night along with a rental copy of the magnificent Soul Calibur II, but I'll leave that for another post. On the way home I listened to the pre-order exclusive soundtrack CD to get myself in the spirit. Being Halloween and all we had to put up with the snotlings that insisted on coming to our door begging for candy, so installation was delayed until Saturday. The install went pretty smoothly - that is, until I actually tried to start the game.

adventure has a name

Today marked the DVD release of one of the greatest movie trilogies ever to grace the screen. Ol' Uncle George has always tended to keep his properties locked tightly away to be released according to some mysterious schedule. Just look at the surprise of fans when Episode I came out on DVD only a year after its theatrical release. Now we're just waiting for the original trilogy.

Today, however, we celebrate Indiana Jones being transferred from old film stock to digitally remastered, THX certified home-theatre goodness. Given what Lucasfilm had to work with, and after browsing all three flims, I consider the transfer to be very good, and the specially included fourth disc with the boxed set contains a very satisfying amount of bonus material.

The bonus disc contains a set of four featurettes detailing the stunts, sound, music and special effects of the trilogy. Although not known for it's work on this movie, ILM still managed to pull off a memorable sequence with the "Opening of the Ark" and it was cool to see how it was done. It also has some of the original theatrical trailers for each of the films, and some "unlockable" content that can be viewed at the official site. You need one of the DVDs in your computer and that stupid Interactual player installed to be able to get it though. Beyond some concept art and behind the scenes photos, there isn't much at the DVD-exlusive site worth checking out. Where the Special Features really shine are the individual documentaries on each of the films, kind of like what Lucas did for the THX remastered VHS release of the original Star Wars trilogy in 1996. We all knew Tom Selleck was originally up for the role of Indy, but to see a screen test of him and Sean Young (as Marion Ravenwood) was something else. All of the Documentaries and featurettes include various retrospective segments from Lucas, Spielberg, Ford and the rest of the behind-the-scenes crew, who recounted on how they helped create one of the most memorable movie heroes of modern cinema.

It shows that Uncle George and Steven Spielberg really took the extra effort to dig into the archives to give fans material that has never been seen before to make this an excellent package. And along with the remastered DVDs of the trilogy I can't say I'm disappointed.

review: Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Breakthrough

While waiting for EB to give me The Call (of Duty), I decided to get MoHAA: Breakthrough to pass the time in a similar WWII fashion. A minor annoyance is that EA released a battlechest earlier this summer with only the first expansion, and they'll probably do the same in couple months with the entire set. As if EA needed any more cash. Don't get me wrong though - I love the series and I'll probably get the new battlechest regardless.

One thing for sure is that it's much longer than Spearhead, so you at least get your money's worth. But judging from some of the initial reviews, I wasn't sure what to expect. After being thrown into a sandstorm in the Battle of Kasserine Pass (the first Tunisian mission) I was ready to partake in some cinematic styled WWII action. And for a second I actually believed this. But after playing through the 12 sub-missions spanning the deserts of North Africa to the heart of Italy, my initial hopes were quickly dashed.

legacy of the crusader

Are the people responsible for this mess the same ones that brought us such classics as Fallout, Baldur's Gate and fucking Planescape? I have been playing this game since the weekend, and depressingly I am not that far into it because of the glaring technical and design issues that are in the way of what should have been a fantastic RPG.

I hadn't heard much about this game until the hype machine started up before it's release a couple weeks ago. Strangely enough, Interplay never showed this game at E3. Foreshadowing events to come? You bet your ass.

review: Metroid Fusion (GBA)

After the GBA:SP came to me in a vision pleading me to buy it, I learned very quickly that it came sans gamepak. So I ultimately had to decide which title would be my first taste of console gaming in a long time. Obviously, I chose Aria of Sorrow, and the rest is history. But I did consider purchasing Metroid Fusion. You see, back when I had my monochromalicious Game Boy, there were three games on that device that made me praise the work of Nintendo's developers: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Super Mario Land 2: The Six Golden Coins, and of course Metroid II: The Return of Samus. I am still in posession of only two out of the three, due to an unfortunate incident involving a former friend's brother who decided to sell my game after I lent it to them. But I'm not bitter or anything. And we're talking about the new Metroid game here. Which happns to kick a lot of ass in its own right.

pretty comfortable

I figure I'd write a little bit on my impressions of Sloan's new CD. Ever since Navy Blues, they've been steadily cranking out albums every two years. They've changed their sound a lot since their early days, in fact I'd say the turning point was the excellent One Chord to Another. I'm not selling their CDs or anything. If you haven't heard anything by these guys, but do enjoy such works by the bands The Ataris, Good Charlotte, or Dashboard Confessional, I'd recommend getting the fuck off this website. If you're still here, I ask you, why do you have such fickle tastes in music? Go and check out Sloan. One thing I can say with certainty is that Sloan has remained true to their fans and their music over the years with a sound that won't go out of style as quick as your power-pop-punk-asscaptain band du jour. Now on to the album.

this post may be infected

I stopped playing Golden Sun this weekend long enough to get in a movie - this time it was 28 Days Later. I consider myself a huge fan of Danny Boyle, but after seeing this latest film I'm beginning to think success has made him lazy. It's got his style, that's for sure - but the story is extremely weak in some points. Most of all, though, it just wasn't scary. For something that's quoted as being "the scariest movie you'll see all summer" I was kind of disappointed. Both the violence and the "infected" were almost comical. The reviews have been extremely favourable, however I'm not so sure they're legitimate. Perhaps these so-called critics are afraid of looking uncool by slagging the latest film from the maker of Trainspotting, a milestone in modern cinema.

The film is clearly divided in half. I enjoyed the first act; it was extremely creepy when Jim wakes up to find nobody around. The soundtrack definitely added to this sequence. I found when Jim came across the message board was equally disturbing. However his first encounters with the Infected are pretty standard, and from then on it becomes kind of a convention of action and suspense movies. Some have even made comparisons to Resident Evil, but I don't really see it. Well, except that both of these films were terribly executed.

Once everyone gets to the military compound, it takes a huge turn for the worse. Every new character introduced is not fleshed out or becomes a parody. And for some reason Boyle loves his attics, and Jim is almost like David in Shallow Grave at the end of the movie, including the way each of the soldiers are dispatched. Is it considered an homage when you rip off your own material?

That being said, I still have to give Boyle credit for filming it entirely on digital video - it was a bold move and should be considered by all directors, in my opinion. It eliminates a lot of the glossy and expensive Hollywood-style post-production that can compromise the atmosphere of a film. I hope to see Cillian Murphy in a few more films now that this one has him as a lead in a prominent film. The guy has potential. This movie, on the other hand, was pretty shyte.

review: castlevania - aria of sorrow (GBA)

Working title: Symphonic Aria of Dissonant Sorrows (A Nocturne)

I honestly think Konami has to start coming up with some more imaginative titles. Every Castlevania game after the critical and commercial success of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night has been similar sounding. Nothing against the games themselves, but the naming scheme is becoming a bit tired. Not to mention of course the Final Fantasy-eque unisexing of the main hero - I mean looking at the box for Aria of Sorrow I could have sworn it was a girl, but apparently that's your character. Yeah, he's supposed to be male. And where do they come up with the names? Honestly...Soma Cruz? I thought I would die laughing. I guess something was lost in the translation. But I am reviewing a game here, not the foibles of Japanese game developers.

The story behind this adventure takes place in 2035, and apparently Dracula's castle is inside a solar eclipse. You mysteriously find yourself at the castle gates after visiting an ancient shrine. Other than that the plot kind of fades into the background. I'll be honest here and say that I skipped most of the dialogue because it was pretty boring and so god awfully scripted. For example:

Very Bad Guy: "I was born on the very day that Dracula was destroyed...So, in short, that means I AM Dracula!"
Soma Cruz: "That can't be right?! You've been so kind and friendly to me!"

...and so on. The game itself is basically just wandering around a giant castle killing monsters and finding new equipment. The RPG elements are pretty hands-off. The more levels you have, the more HP you get and the more damage you do. Traditionally, though, that's the way these games always were and I suppose it's just my PC gaming background that expects a bit more. I'd compare this style of play with something like the Metroid series, as there are areas that are "locked" until you gain certain powers (eg. a platform that is too high until you get the double-jump ability). The castle design is quite good, though, so there isn't much backtracking involved. Save points, as much as I hate them, are well placed and do not prove to be too much of a hassle. The "sleep" feature I appreciated, which allows you to save anywhere, but once you restore from that point the savegame is deleted. It's a great feature that allows you to play at your own pace.

The graphics in this game are excellent. The sprite animations are fluid and the spell/soul power effects blew me away. For example, the soul of the Manticore changes you into this enourmous devil beast, where you can cut across the room leaving bloodshed in your wake. There is also a good variety of powerful and unique weapons and items, and most of them can be found in the Castle's many secret areas. The different sub-levels within the Castle were a bit clichè, but never uninteresting. My favorites were the Clock Tower and of course the Top Floor that leads to the final battle. However, there were only a few things that actually hinted at it being set in the future. Otherwise it looked just like any other Castlevania setting. So much for this being "futuristic". The sounds and music are very well done, and were a joy to listen to in full stereo sound. There are even little voice clips that Soma may utter when he does a particular type of attack or is damaged. They were subtle touches but made the game that much more interesting to play.

The soul powers system, which is unique to this installment of the Castlevania series, is fun. Every time you kill a monster there is a chance you can "steal" their soul, which can then be used for special abilities. This means that every single monster in the game has the potential to give up their soul for a new power. This leads to ultimate replayabiltity. In fact, even though there is no multiplayer you can link up with a friend to trade souls, which is a great idea. I think co-op multiplayer would have been nice, but I guess that's too much to ask.

I finished this game after playing it for roughly 20 hours. My saved game timer actually clocks it in at around 9 hours, but I know there were a few tougher areas that took more than one try to beat (Death was the toughest boss in the game). It was a bit short, and I was a little sad to see it end. Once you beat the game though you can start a new game on the "Hard" setting, or, the developers put Julius Belmont in as a playable character. You can start again and play as him, but you won't get any of Soma's Soul stealing abilities.

I consider myself a pretty big fan of the Castlevania series, and I was extremely pleased with this adventure. I haven't played any of the previous GBA adventures, but I have a feeling they won't really compare. Some people have even called this game the true sequel to Symphony of the Night. Whether you're a fan of the series or not, I'd highly recommend this game to any owner of the GBA. It's fun as hell.

Reloaded: IMAX style

I think the planets must have aligned or something this past weekend because I've finally seen The Matrix Reloaded. Naturally I am writing about it because a million other fanboys have already posted their opinions on the web, so why not add to the pile? I don't know if I'm giving this movie more credit than it deserves, but I've actually had to let it simmer for a while before writing. I find though that I'm not thinking in the same way as after I saw The Matrix, in fact, I'm actually questioning my fandom. By all rights, I should have thouroughly enjoyed every aspect of this movie. Especially after playing the video game and watching The Animatrix to get the whole story. Despite all that, I left the theatre unsatisfied and with a head full of unanswered questions. Blame it on the cheap cliffhanger ending, I guess.

The story in The Matrix Reloaded was weak. So weak, that it had to depend on exposition from its enourmous cast of characters. The dialogue in The Matrix was well-written and very memorable. It conveyed the story through more than one character without explanation. Reloaded has the Oracle, Merovingian, Morpheus, and The Architect all guilty of long-winded and tedious speeches in some form or another. In fact, I found a lot of the dialogue to be tedious and purposefully cryptic. In some places it felt like it had been written by The Sphinx from Mystery Men.

The effects were passable, and it is no longer the groundbreaking material that was presented in The Matrix. The CG work on Neo in the courtyard battle with the clones of Agent Smith was pretty lackluster.

This is all ground that has been trampled long before, so instead of overanalyzing the movie, I'm going to summarize my assessment in terms of "cool" and "pointless".

Cool

• Neo
  
• Morpheus - freeway scene, anyone?
  
• Niobe - ok, so she's just attractive.
  
• Link - nice bit of comic relief
  
• Agent Smith - xcopy in the flesh
  
• Seraph - coolest setup/fight scene in the movie
  

Pointless

• "the Twins" - basically glossed over henchmen. they were more annoying than useful. and what's with the switchblades?
  
• Merovingian - he offered up his house for a fight scene. Oh yeah, and he swore en Français.
  
• Persephone - plot contrivance.
  
• the Kid - I saw the Animatrix short. I still think he's pointless.
  

I wanted to add the Keymaker and The Architect to the second list, but they did serve a purpose somewhat. Still, it felt kind of like they were characters out of a videogame. Trinity seemed overly pathetic in the movie, and it was pretty obvious that Neo would have to save her in the end somehow. The ending where the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar is outside of the ship confirmed for me the "matrix within a matrix" theory, especially when taken alongside the Architect's many revelations in his snore fest of a speech.

I don't usually browse movie message boards, but I came across an interesting bunch of posts at IMDB regarding the different themes presented in the movie, as well as ideas about the upcoming The Matrix Revolutions. Be prepared for bad grammar and spelling, but worth skimming for some additional perspectives.

Seeing The Matrix Reloaded in IMAX definitely was an experience; the sound system and enourmous screen are unmatched. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you want to see the movie again. I don't doubt the Wachowskis' intentions of creating an innovative and accessible science-fiction universe with the Matrix series of movies. However I can't help but feel that there was so much potential for Reloaded that was lost in a poorly written screenplay. I can only hope that The Matrix Revolutions doesn't disappoint, or this could turn into another Star Wars fiasco.

review: game boy advance SP

Gaming has never been a hobby with me; it's been a way of life. In the past, I've always spurned the likes of most consoles. Maybe it was because the hardware depreciates a lot faster than PCs, the limited graphics capabilities, the controllers, or even the games to some point. To this end, I have no idea what possessed me to even think of purchasing the GBA SP. After playing the hell out of it this past weekend though I honestly believe that portable game systems should be a part of every gamer's lifestyle.

Let's start at the beginning. Firstly, the retail package is very small - both in size and in content. All you get are the GBA SP unit itself, and the AC adapter for the rechargeable battery. That's it. The old Game Boy came with headphones, the game link cable, and of course, Tetris. Sure, Tetris was a puzzle game - but at least you could play with your Game Boy right when you got it.

The GBA is a 32-bit system, and as a result the quality of the visuals in most of its current games has increased significantly over its green-and-yellow predecessor. In fact, as I said before, one of the reasons I wanted to get this system was for the re-release of all the SNES games I played and loved in the past. Now that I've been thrust into the world of GBA gaming I see that there are outstanding original titles to be played.

The overall design of the unit is pretty slick. I really like the fact that the screen is protected when not in use; the clamshell design was a great idea. Scratches on the screen are all too common on portable game systems. The screen is as large as the original GBA, and is extremely crisp. The backlight, which was not standard issue with the original release of the GBA, definitely makes a difference here. The fact that it can be turned off to save on power is nice too. Not like power would be an issue, though, since the GBA SP comes with its own built-in rechargeable battery pack. You can get roughly eight to ten hours of real-world gameplay out of one full charge if you have the backlight on the whole time. The entire unit is extremely light and compact, and I can totally see myself tossing this in my pocket for when I'm bored or need a quick fix of gaming.

All is not super lucky fun in GBA land though. Two key items are missing: the headphone jack, and the uplink cable. To make a consumer have to purchase these things separately is a crime, in my opinion. The add-on port is also in a really awkward place behind the screen, which makes plugging in headphones into the adapter little strange. I have to admit the design of the original Game Boy, and even the original GBA for that matter, was better in this respect.

The controls are adequate, but due to the compact size of the unit I can see them being fairly awkward to use if you have large hands. After a couple hours of play I grew accustomed to the controls, but I do have to question the button layout a bit. Why not four buttons near the D-pad similar to the XYAB buttons on the SNES controller? There's enough room, and even though I find the L and R shoulder buttons convenient fighting games would be a lot easier to pick up with two more buttons.

Playing classic Game Boy games on the GBA is pretty much the same as if you played them on a Game Boy Color. By default, they are at the original Game Boy resolution and look fairly clean. If you want you can expand the resolution to fit the new screen size, although it looks like crap. GBA carts are about half of the length of old school Game Boy carts, so the old carts will tend to stick out a bit. Annoying, if nothing else; I appreciate the fact that they are playable at all.

As expected, the GBA SP is pretty expensive because of the backlight and built-in battery pack. If you already own a GBA, though, don't kick yourself. The excellent Afterburner lighting kit is available, and works quite well from what I have read. That's if you don't mind cracking open your GBA and installing it yourself. And since all Game Boy games are compatible with both GBA systems, there really is no compelling reason to get an SP if you already own GBA Classic. However if you're looking for a slick, compact and well-established portable gaming platform, this is definitely the one to buy.