Beldaran
10-06-2002, 02:30 PM
I've now rented about 5 or 6 games since I bought my xbox and I though I'd review a couple of them.:) Here we go...
Game Title: Splashdown
Developer: Rainbow Studios
Publisher: Infogrames
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/splashdown/sim-splashdown-0001.jpg
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/splashdown/sim-splashdown-0004.jpg
This is one of the first games I rented for the xbox, and I was not dissappointed by any means. The first thing that struck me was the red hot soundtrack, which featured one of my favorite bands, Sum41, as well as a host of other really cool punk/ska bands. The opening movie was incredible. It played like a real movie and I would have never thought the graphics featured in the opening bit were just recorded scenes from the game, and that the graphics were really that good. I guess I just wasn't use to what a next gen console can do.
So I fire up a game and start racing against the computer. I get my ass kicked; very badly. I didn't understand that the pillars with the pointed flags directed which side of them you were supposed to pass on. My engine kept dying and it was because I was being penalized for not following the course. So once I figure that out, I start tearing through Campaign mode on easy, earning points and nearly getting the trophy for the easy mode. However, when I got to the last race, I simply could not advance. The computer players were just WAY to fast, no matter how flawlessly I raced. I then realized the importance of doing stunts in this game.
This is one of my favorite features of the game. The more stunts you do during a race (and there are many of them. Each racer has 9 stunts) the higher your "performance meter" goes. And the higher your performance meter is, the faster your craft goes, and it handles better too. This way, you are always flipping, flopping, surfing, and grabbing your way to victory. Very cool. Also, there is a button that allows you to view yourself in "TV mode", where you are filmed as though an external camera is filming the stunts. Its very professional looking and very fun to see yourself flying through the air.
By this point in the game I was hooked. I was rocking out to the tunes, blazing past the computer and starting to work my way up the ranks in the more difficult modes. I knew that this was a fun game that I would no doubt be willing to purchase some day.
Graphics: 10 Unbelievable. The water upon which you race is so real as to seem like a digitized recreation of REAL water. I was so dumbstruck by the quality of the graphics. Again, I think this has something to do with my unfamiliarity with next gen consoles. Also, when you beat a campaign, it plays these very entertaining movies, different for every character, that show you winning. They are very humorous and very well done.
Sound: 10 From the characters voices yelling and taunting throughout the race, to the red hot soundtrack, to the roar of the engines, this is a quality sound engineering job if I've ever seen one.
Gameplay: 9 Extremely fun to play, but it takes a while to get used to you. You will suck for a bit because the gameplay is very sensitive. This is very cool once you are good because it opens up aveneus for all kinds of subtle racing strategies.
Overall: 10 This game is designed to be an ultra fun water racer, and it suceeds. It is a great tasting peice of cake with lots of frosting. Yum.:)
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Game Title: Project Gotham Racing
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/projectgothamracing/sim-projectgothamracing-0033.jpg
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/projectgothamracing/sim-projectgothamracing-0020.jpg
Project Gotham Racing is a perfect example of a game that has beautiful graphics, an interesting mode of scoring (explained later), and many cool cars to unlock, but is crippled by its flat, slow, and unenjoyable gameplay.
To score points, you get "Kudos Points", which are based upon your "mad skillz as a driver". You get these points by doing long slides when making hairpin turns (without hitting the sides, otherwise your points don't count), or getting a lot of air on a big jump. This is a very fun method of scoring and it encourages players to not race cautiously.
The cars are gorgeous, and you can pick your paint job, as well as your car, before a race. I only unlocked about four cars before I quit playing. You'll see in a bit just why I quit playing so quickly.
There are many fun, well built courses that wind through the world's most famous cities and monuments. There a couple of death defying turns, but on a whole the courses are a pleasure to race on.
Now we get down to it. The gameplay in Project Gotham Racing is attrocious. All of the beautiful graphics and cool sound are totally negated by the awful control. The cars slide too much, and you are always slamming into walls. Also, the cars are rediculously slow. (except for the computer cars, who always manage to avoid hitting the side and go about 20mph faster than you no matter what.) I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take a Z3 convertable more than 12 seconds to reach 60 mph. I mean, the cars are so slow and unwieldly that I actually found myself getting mad and having to go do something else for a while. (like play Halo.)
So here it is:
Graphics: 10 Great, fantastic, cool, blah, etc.
Sound: 7 Really cool sounds, but the sound track gets annoying. Its a mix of mangled techno rap and rock that didn't quite make it. Also, its supposed to sound like you are listening to the radio, but it isn't as cool as GTA3 because they didn't go a good job with the radio effect. The DJ has like 2 different lines and thats it.
Gameplay: 3 Horrible. The gameplay inspired me to hate this game. I can respect all the work that went into making the graphics REALLY cool and all, the game really is gorgeous, but the gameplay stinks, and because of that, I don't want to play this frustrating game ever again.
Overall: 5 It gets five points for its amazing graphics, but it will never get beyond five because the gameplay is just awful.
So there you are, my fellow gamers. My review of two xbox games.:)
Game Title: Splashdown
Developer: Rainbow Studios
Publisher: Infogrames
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/splashdown/sim-splashdown-0001.jpg
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/splashdown/sim-splashdown-0004.jpg
This is one of the first games I rented for the xbox, and I was not dissappointed by any means. The first thing that struck me was the red hot soundtrack, which featured one of my favorite bands, Sum41, as well as a host of other really cool punk/ska bands. The opening movie was incredible. It played like a real movie and I would have never thought the graphics featured in the opening bit were just recorded scenes from the game, and that the graphics were really that good. I guess I just wasn't use to what a next gen console can do.
So I fire up a game and start racing against the computer. I get my ass kicked; very badly. I didn't understand that the pillars with the pointed flags directed which side of them you were supposed to pass on. My engine kept dying and it was because I was being penalized for not following the course. So once I figure that out, I start tearing through Campaign mode on easy, earning points and nearly getting the trophy for the easy mode. However, when I got to the last race, I simply could not advance. The computer players were just WAY to fast, no matter how flawlessly I raced. I then realized the importance of doing stunts in this game.
This is one of my favorite features of the game. The more stunts you do during a race (and there are many of them. Each racer has 9 stunts) the higher your "performance meter" goes. And the higher your performance meter is, the faster your craft goes, and it handles better too. This way, you are always flipping, flopping, surfing, and grabbing your way to victory. Very cool. Also, there is a button that allows you to view yourself in "TV mode", where you are filmed as though an external camera is filming the stunts. Its very professional looking and very fun to see yourself flying through the air.
By this point in the game I was hooked. I was rocking out to the tunes, blazing past the computer and starting to work my way up the ranks in the more difficult modes. I knew that this was a fun game that I would no doubt be willing to purchase some day.
Graphics: 10 Unbelievable. The water upon which you race is so real as to seem like a digitized recreation of REAL water. I was so dumbstruck by the quality of the graphics. Again, I think this has something to do with my unfamiliarity with next gen consoles. Also, when you beat a campaign, it plays these very entertaining movies, different for every character, that show you winning. They are very humorous and very well done.
Sound: 10 From the characters voices yelling and taunting throughout the race, to the red hot soundtrack, to the roar of the engines, this is a quality sound engineering job if I've ever seen one.
Gameplay: 9 Extremely fun to play, but it takes a while to get used to you. You will suck for a bit because the gameplay is very sensitive. This is very cool once you are good because it opens up aveneus for all kinds of subtle racing strategies.
Overall: 10 This game is designed to be an ultra fun water racer, and it suceeds. It is a great tasting peice of cake with lots of frosting. Yum.:)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Game Title: Project Gotham Racing
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/projectgothamracing/sim-projectgothamracing-0033.jpg
http://www.xbox.com/cms/images/games/projectgothamracing/sim-projectgothamracing-0020.jpg
Project Gotham Racing is a perfect example of a game that has beautiful graphics, an interesting mode of scoring (explained later), and many cool cars to unlock, but is crippled by its flat, slow, and unenjoyable gameplay.
To score points, you get "Kudos Points", which are based upon your "mad skillz as a driver". You get these points by doing long slides when making hairpin turns (without hitting the sides, otherwise your points don't count), or getting a lot of air on a big jump. This is a very fun method of scoring and it encourages players to not race cautiously.
The cars are gorgeous, and you can pick your paint job, as well as your car, before a race. I only unlocked about four cars before I quit playing. You'll see in a bit just why I quit playing so quickly.
There are many fun, well built courses that wind through the world's most famous cities and monuments. There a couple of death defying turns, but on a whole the courses are a pleasure to race on.
Now we get down to it. The gameplay in Project Gotham Racing is attrocious. All of the beautiful graphics and cool sound are totally negated by the awful control. The cars slide too much, and you are always slamming into walls. Also, the cars are rediculously slow. (except for the computer cars, who always manage to avoid hitting the side and go about 20mph faster than you no matter what.) I'm pretty sure that it doesn't take a Z3 convertable more than 12 seconds to reach 60 mph. I mean, the cars are so slow and unwieldly that I actually found myself getting mad and having to go do something else for a while. (like play Halo.)
So here it is:
Graphics: 10 Great, fantastic, cool, blah, etc.
Sound: 7 Really cool sounds, but the sound track gets annoying. Its a mix of mangled techno rap and rock that didn't quite make it. Also, its supposed to sound like you are listening to the radio, but it isn't as cool as GTA3 because they didn't go a good job with the radio effect. The DJ has like 2 different lines and thats it.
Gameplay: 3 Horrible. The gameplay inspired me to hate this game. I can respect all the work that went into making the graphics REALLY cool and all, the game really is gorgeous, but the gameplay stinks, and because of that, I don't want to play this frustrating game ever again.
Overall: 5 It gets five points for its amazing graphics, but it will never get beyond five because the gameplay is just awful.
So there you are, my fellow gamers. My review of two xbox games.:)