Reviews and News » Game Reviews

CitiesXL: Lots Of Promise, But An Incomplete Game

Noel Kuhlman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:43:34 +0000

While CitiesXL makes a bunch of glorified promises, much of it remains an unrealized possibility. In fact, it looks more like a standard city builder this side of SimCity with a lot of potential for revolutionizing the genre – in the future, that is.

Like other city building simulations, you take the role of a near-omnipotent city mayor, fashioning infrastructure and other city elements. Construction efforts on the game centers around zoning, so a well-planned layout should prove best.

Gameplay, for the most part, is geared towards those inexperienced in city building games. Single player mode centers around 25 sandbox cities in five different regions, scattered all over the globe. Rather than having specific goals (like achieving certain levels of prosperity, etc.), the focus is all about laying out your cities and making them as successful as you can. Everything is unlocked from the onset, too.

The cities themselves look quite realistic, but the overall effect is rather bland, largely because there’s absolutely no life to be seen – no traffic, no pedestrians and absolutely nothing going on. Game UI is well-laid out and quite intuitive, but the lack of any real challenges (it takes time to prosper, but you’ll eventually get there) kind of makes it all feel pointless.

CitiesXL’s biggest innovation is the online component, which lets you situate your city in a huge online world. At the moment, though, it’s just like solo play – there’s nothing to do beyond build cities and explore them. There is no relationship between mayors, for instance, beyond swapping the occasional token. Developer Monte Cristo promises a lot of added components for the future, though – but it simply isn’t that enticing at its current state.

Overall, it’s a decent city builder if you like the actual construction aspect of the game. If you’re looking for more varied gameplay components, though, you best just move along – there’s nothing to see here.

NBA 2K10: Frenetic Pace, No Strategy, Interesting My Player Mode

Noel Kuhlman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:35:39 +0000

I’ve long been a big fan of the NBA 2K series’ better realism compared to EA’s NBA Live. Despite our love of picks, screens and buckling down on defense (well, some of us), the overwhelming majority are just not into that. As such, NBA 2K10, the latest title from the franchise, sacrifices much of that strategy in favor of a frenetic offensive game.

That’s my first beef with 2K10 – one that most gamers aren’t likely to share, so I can’t really hold it against the game. With realistic strategy out the window, the only thing really left is to enjoy it. Touting a fast pace and plenty of high-flying antics, that part is rather easy.

A new feature for this year’s game is My Player mode, which lets you create a character that you can bring into the NBA. The creation tools are quite in-depth, allowing for plenty of customizations, including some very specific personality traits. Once your character is made, you can then bring him to camp and compete for a chance to get into the league.

While I haven’t played Live 2010, those who have say strategy is now given greater weight. I’ll admit that I haven’t touched Live since 2006, so I wouldn’t know. Given how much of 2K10 now relies on just plain driving in the paint and attacking the basket, I might actually give EA’s basketball game a try.

Mini-Ninjas For The PC: Stealth-Attack Gets Painfully Cute And Fun

Noel Kuhlman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:16:51 +0000

Mini-Ninjas is a cute but fun combat title from developer IO Interactive, who are best known for their Hitman series of games. Despite hitmen and ninjas being somewhat related, this one is a decidedly different adventure, though.

Clad in a vibrant and charming art style, the game follows the Hiro and his sidekick Futo. The duo embark on a journey, trying to find their four missing ninja friends putting an end to the evil samurai warlord’s plans of taking over the world. The narrative (however brief) is funny and entertaining, the cinematics are beautifully made and the graphics are just plain adorable.

While the game proceeds in a linear manner, the design of each level allows for plenty of exploration, making it feel less structured than it normally would have been. There are always a variety of ways to get from one point to another, along with several options of waging battles.

Each character will have various attacks, as well as special moves that are unique to their weapons and personalities. You can unlock spells, use various objects within the world and purchase new weapons to bring plenty of variety to the stealth-attack combat ninjas are usually more inclined to do. Do note that most “effective” fighting techniques you will find are limited and, as such, can feel repetitive as the game furthers on.

AI is pretty good, with your enemies attacking in swarms and fighting more stealthily as they thin out. The graphics style sometimes makes it hard to notice enemies, which, I guess, plays into the fact that they’re covert “mini-ninjas”. Controls are awesome and silku smooth, flowing like butter from one to the other, although the camera view can be a pain in the ass (you’ll need to adjust it regularly).

Overall, Mini-Ninjas is a fun game with plenty of promise. Sure, this first title has some drawbacks. Once those are ironed out, though, I have no doubt this can turn into a franchise and an excellent one at that.

Guitar Hero 5 Review: Better Than Ever, Eclectic Song Choices

Noel Kuhlman — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:17:47 +0000

I have to admit. Guitar Hero has long lost its place as a staple on my gaming shelf ever since Rock Band 2 came out. However, the franchise’s latest iteration, Guitar Hero 5, offers exactly what the title needs to win itself back in my favor.

Guitar Hero 5, for all intents and purposes, seems like a title that makes the game simple again. As such, it’s probably the most approachable release of the series, which you can enjoy fully the moment you pop it into your console.

Every single song in the game, for one, is available via Quickplay mode – no need to punch in unlock codes or accomplish numerous hurdles. In Career mode, you can easily switch between instruments without having to restart the game. The drop-in, drop-out Party Play Mode is simply brilliant, allowing you to jump into any song playing in the background. Overall, it’s just a less-complicated game to manage, allowing you to do what you want without wading through levels of menus.

Multiplayer is also much improved. The retarded Boss Battles and attack options have been shelved, in favor of more play-worthy competitive modes. You can also have multiple players on the same instrument, which solves a problem when everyone wants to play the freaking guitar part. Star Power meters are also individual now, which means your retarded bandmates no longer have to mess up your game.

The game comes with 85 songs, which is nice. However, the wide variety means you’ll find a lot of songs you really don’t like. As such, you will likely settle into a few ditties that you’d like to play over and over – a proposition that should get boring after a while.

Regardless of the song choices, I’m excited for the future of the franchise. Guitar Hero 5 has “remastered” the game into a simpler, more accessible one, making it better than ever.

3rd Space FPS Vest Review: Better Gaming Realism, Poor Compatibility

Noel Kuhlman — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:01:00 +0000

We like the 3rd Space FPS Vest. In fact, it’s one of the most creative ideas in gaming we’ve heard of in a while. Unfortunately, it works with such a small number of titles that it’s barely usable.

What exactly is it? The 3rd Space FPS Vest is a wearable peripheral designed for first-person shooters, designed to mimic the feel of actually being hit during the thick of battle. It interfaces with the game via USB, while the air is pumped inside by an attached compressor, connected to the vest with an air hose. The compressor is small, so it doesn’t take any undue space.

The 3rd Space vest packs eight “active zones,” each of which fires compressed air whenever you get shot. Six of the spots are in front while the other two are in the back. It’s not exactly the most realistic simulation available, but it works well enough.

Used with the games it’s compatible with, the accessory works really good. Shot in the chest? Bang, you’ll feel it hard. Standing in the middle of a grenade explosion? You’ll rattle a bit as all eight zones let you feel the hurt.

The real problem with the vest is the narrow range of compatible games. At present, it only works with the PC, which immediately rules out a good slice of the FPS-gaming piece. It gets worse. Even on the PC, it only works with COD II (yes, great game, but freaking old), Quake 3 and 4 (requires patch), Doom 3 (requires patch) and 3rd Space: Incursion (the company’s own game). That’s a very thin list to pick from and makes the peripheral less useful than it really should be.

As of now, the 3rd Space FPS Vest is a great idea with very poor implementation. This thing could have been a serious bestseller if they only kept it in the lab while working to support more games. As it is now, it’s largely a cool peripheral that won’t likely get used more than a couple of times.

GI Joe: Rise Of Cobra Review – Another Movie Tie-In, Another Bad Game

Noel Kuhlman — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:14:44 +0000

Video games with movie tie-ins aren’t exactly the type of releases that make me giddy. In fact, hearing about new ones make me groan. There wasn’t any reason to expect G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra to be any different and, well, it really isn’t.

Not that the game featuring America’s highly-trained special missions force is all bad. The action gameplay is fun (especially in two-player team mode), there are plenty of features for the franchise’s longtime fans (from the original cartoon theme to unlockable PSAs to secret characters) and excellent character diversity (Double Helix created four groups, namely Commando, Combat Soldiers, and Heavy Weapons).

While the action is fun, holding down the fire button as your character goes around in circles can get tiring after a few levels. Occasionally, the monotony gets broken with a vehicle level (with ridiculous driving physics) and a couple of mini-games, but it’s really just a never-ending shoot-em-all that goes over and over across three (yes, just three) different environments. To top it all off, the graphics were poor PS2-level (I played with the Xbox 360 on an HDTV) and voice acting was borderline ridiculous.

Will you have fun playing it? For a few levels, especially with a partner, it is enjoyable. At the price of a full game, though, there are probably a couple hundred titles you’d rather spend money on. Hell, many downloadable games from Xbox Live even play better.

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Real Tennis 2009 For The iPhone: Beautiful Graphics, Challenging Gameplay, Extremely Fun

Noel Kuhlman — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:44:20 +0000

Real Tennis 2009 is gorgeous for an iPhone game. While it doesn’t offer the most exciting gameplay, it is extremely fun and offers quite the visual delight.

First up, this is not an easy game to play. If you think you can handle video game tennis, Real Tennis 2009 will probably change your mind, as it’s not easy at all. In fact, I’d say this offers one of the steepest learning curves among action and sports titles on the platform. Once you get the hang of it, though, it can lead to an entertaining, while not overly-addicting, time.

You can play singles or doubles, with the CPU playing your partner during the latter. In Singles mode, the game can be pretty unforgiving, making you work really hard to get into position for shots. In Double mode, this problem is remedied greatly, allowing you to focus a bit more on strategy and swings. Even better, the AI-controlled teammate usually plays great – a true testament to how advanced game AI on a whittled-down processor like a mobile phone can be, if you pay enough attention to it.

Gameplay is facilitated by an onscreen controller, where you get your choice of a D-Pad or joystick, along with buttons. It’s basically as you would imagine playing a sports game on a DS or a PSP to be, except it’s on an iPhone, which is pretty neat. On the downside, the virtual controllers can sometimes end up blocking the action.

Real Tennis 2009 offers a good deal of options, including characters, playing surfaces, difficulty levels, multi-player support (up to four participants) and different play modes (Instant Play, Championship and Tournament). It’s a complete tennis game, with impeccable graphics, fun gameplay and enough challenge to keep things interesting.

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EA Sports NCAA Football 10 Review: Streamlined, Feels Like A New Game

Noel Kuhlman — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:58:31 +0000

NCAA Football 10 is easily the best version of the game. With a refined AI and the most detailed sports simulation around (for real, it beats out every other GM mode in any game), it feels completely like a new game, unlike many follow-ups for sports titles that come out year after year.

The fantasy aspect of NCAA Football 10 is easily the biggest aspect of the game. Whether it’s being a hot young prospect in Road to Glory, managing an entire season in Dynasty Mode or building your own roster in the unbelievably robust Teambuilder, the game offers a level of immersion that both new and longtime fans can appreciate.

The new Teambuilder absolutely over-delivers, literally getting you to spend hours upon hours putting together your own teams, in a way no other game before it appears to have made possible. Add in your obscure small-town college and it won’t look out of place the least bit. Similarly, the recruiting simulation in the game has been beefed up, creating more entertaining opportunities to sway prospects in your direction.

With the actual gameplay, two new features stand out: improved AI and the addition of set-up plays. EA hyped up the counter-intelligence when they were promoting the game and, for the most part, wonderfully delivered. Not only does it add challenge, but it makes the whole game more realistic. The set-up plays are a great innovation, allowing you to mislead the opposing team into thinking you’re setting up one play, all while executing another.

The rest of the game flows much like the previous iteration in the series – a hell of a lot of fun. EA Sports NCAA Football 10 is available now for $60.

‘Splosion Man: Fast-Paced Action, Tons Of Explosions

Noel Kuhlman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:08:52 +0000

The concept behind Twisted Pixel’s new platformer for Xbox Live is pretty simple: you play the role of ‘Splosion Man, the product of a lab experiment who can “explode” whenever he wants to. Each explosion is able to hurl the character up in the air, which allows him both expedited travel and a cannon-like attack.

As fun as the main protagonist’s exploding powers are, it’s really just an attention-grabbing way of leaping into the air. As such, the novelty of that gets tired after a while. What does make this platformer such a great game, instead, are the brilliantly-designed levels, filled with challenging jumps and plenty of exciting hazards, coupled with the fast-paced, non-stop action.

Each level offers enough variance to keep it fresh. Some will require you to use walls to bounce off of, others will require you to employ scattered gunpowder to give your explosion an extra boost and others simply force you to avoid deadly obstacles. This all happens in a never-ending stream of pulling off combo after combo.

The whole game mechanics are pretty kooky, which keeps it fun even to jaded, old gamers like myself. I generally avoid platformers and these types of arcades, in general, but this is one title I’m glad I bothered with. In fact, I won’t be surprised if this eventually turns into a full-fledged title.

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BattleField Heroes: Fun, Competitive And Free

Noel Kuhlman — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:16:42 +0000

On first glance, Battlefield Heroes looks like a TF2 clone, as many have alleged. While the claim isn’t unwarranted, a closer inspection will yield a game that has a look all its own, despite the obvious cartoon-like characters and general environment.

Visually, the game is a stunner. The graphics are charming, the style wholly original and everything is downright gorgeous to stare at.

Battlefield Heroes is all about jumping right into the action, pitting you in the midst of battle as soon as you hit that giant yellow “PLAY NOW” button. Gameplay is fun and fast-paced (love the vehicular controls), with enough restraint to keep it competitive most of the time. There’s no one-shot kill here (unless you get run over by a vehicle), which is a very welcome dynamic (unless you’re a sniper). Respawning takes no more than eight seconds (often as quick as three or four seconds) which keeps you right in the thick of things.

The title is EA’s first foray into a “free-to-play” format, which means you can enjoy the game at absolutely no costs (with a little front-end advertising to balance things out). There are various things you can spend money on, however, such as avatar clothing and various special upgrades to help you level up faster. Other than those, you get a pretty level playing field, whether you choose to line EA’s pockets or not. Pretty awesome, if you ask me.

Class warfare is not as good as you’ll get in titles such TF2 (since you can’t respawn as a different class to balance things out), although the strategic elements are pretty effective. Overall, this is a very accessible, extremely fun game that just clicks. It won’t be a surprise if this turns out to be a sleeper hit for EA.

Reviews and News » Game Reviews

CitiesXL: Lots Of Promise, But An Incomplete Game

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NBA 2K10: Frenetic Pace, No Strategy, Interesting My Player Mode

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Mini-Ninjas For The PC: Stealth-Attack Gets Painfully Cute And Fun

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Guitar Hero 5 Review: Better Than Ever, Eclectic Song Choices

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3rd Space FPS Vest Review: Better Gaming Realism, Poor Compatibility

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GI Joe: Rise Of Cobra Review – Another Movie Tie-In, Another Bad Game

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‘Splosion Man: Fast-Paced Action, Tons Of Explosions

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