Review: Prince Of Persia: The Two Thrones

Rock The Casbah
Ubisoft / Playstation 2 Xbox Gamecube PC / Mature

It’s no secret that Ubisoft has been cranking out the sequels at a breakneck pace lately. From their valuable Tom Clancy licenses to the Prince of Persia series a new sequel seems to, and generally does, come about once a year. As anyone who has ever played more than one Madden or Tony Hawk game over the years knows, this can lead to a loss of originality and a general boredom with a series that is admittedly still good but lacks the newness to keep gamers coming back. The aforementioned Prince of Persia series showed signs of the sequel syndrome with the release of Warrior Within last year and now the syndrome may have developed further in the trilogy capping The Two Thrones.

The story follows the unnamed Prince as he returns to Babylon to find it conquered by the evil Vizier, who he was pretty gosh darn sure he killed. The Vizier has found the Dagger of Time and uses it to turn himself into some sort of gold, hovering, monster thingy. The Sands of Time that caused the Vizier’s transformation also changed our hero. The explanation given is that the Sands of Time the Prince had been fiddling with infected the wound around a chain imbedded in his arm causing him to periodically become the Dark Prince pictured on half the box.

The major gameplay remains intact with the same jumping puzzles that fans fell in love with. For the experienced runners and jumpers there a greater emphasis is placed on stealth kills. A new speed kill system puts together well-timed button presses make up a killing sequence that quickly dispatches enemies. The inclusion of these speed kills means that nearly every combat situation in the game can be avoided and provides new challenge to play out the puzzles correctly.

The inclusion of the Dark Prince segments makes for the most noticeable change. The Dark Prince has some new moves too that the Light Price can’t use. Our anti-hero uses the imbedded chain to attack enemies and grab onto various switches and fixtures to swing on. A stipulation of these segments is that the Dark Prince’s health energy constantly depletes and he must collect Sands of Time from fallen enemies to replenish it. This condition is thankfully countered by the fact that the chain is much more effective in combat than the usual dagger. The worst change the personality split brings is an independent inner voice of the prince’s untapped potential. To counter the prince’s do-gooder personality this generally whiny and sadistic inner voice will constantly pop up to voice his opinions on whether or not to help the wounded Babylonians and where Princess Farah, the Prince’s ally, can shove it. The inner voice only occasionally overwhelms the Prince’s personality in the cutscenes, though.

Speaking of the cutscenes, the visual bugs and glitches that caused complaints in Warrior Within have increased nearly twofold. In addition to the fact that the game doesn’t look very good to begin with there are a multitude of visible seams and clipping issues in both the cutscenes and the actual game. While not actually affecting the function of the gameplay, these glitches and poor visual quality take away from a game previously praised for its aesthetic.

But, there are improvements over the last game too. The inclusion of the Dark Prince segments, and new moves like sliding down chutes and hopping off spring-loaded shutters at a 45 degree angle, add variety and keep the beloved formula from getting stale. Presentation wise, Two Thrones falls somewhere between Sands of Time and Warrior Within with a heavily gold aura across the environments that would make Mr. T squint. The music has also been changed back to the cinematic Persian-style orchestral music of the first game and the rock vibe that put so many on edge in Warrior Within has been mercifully ditched.

Despite the visual letdowns, Two Thrones proves itself a worthy sequel that simply falls short of expectations in terms of polish. The controls are tight as ever and the puzzles still clever and challenging. The great quality that has made the series so beloved and has survived the sequel syndrome is that the game can make the player feel more clever than he/she actually is. The Two Thrones continues this tradition and marks a satisfying end to the current-generation trilogy.

8.5/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: SSX: On Tour

Run To The Hills
EA Sports Big / Playstation 2 Xbox Gamecube / Everyone 10+

Since the first game burst onto the sparse winter sports market in 2000, the SSX series has thrived off a frenetic pace of snowboarding and a danceable techno vibe that set it apart from all the competition. Its trademark craziness of characters and tricks has allowed it to outlast all other entries into the genre, including one made with the Tony Hawk template. Having already hit its third game high the series is making a large stylistic change, abandoning its techno roots for a hand drawn metal design that may or may not push away some fans.

As with almost all extreme sports games, the story mode is simply a means to string together progressively harder challenges. Compared to the competition, though, On Tour’s tour mode seems especially bare bones. Players complete challenges to earn money for various unlockables including accessories, boards, skis, and characters. None of this is especially bad, but genre contemporaries have evolved from this most basic style of career mode.

The traditional SSX gameplay is intact from SSX 3 and provides a great amount of the game’s appeal. The series has always excelled at coupling the unrealistically gravity defying moves with a natural flow This has set it apart from the Tony Hawk style, and On Tour is no exception. The addition of skis fits nicely into the game and provides a full move set along with the new dynamic of landing forward or backward. A problem arises with a lack of a tutorial to teach the deep and complex move system, but those who take the time to learn will find hundreds of tricks to pull with a setup that spans the entire controller.

As introduced in SSX3, the gameplay takes place on one giant mountain that is fully shreddable. One of the greatest joys in gaming is to simply snowboard or ski down the vast expanses of the mountain. Action flows effortlessly from area to area, and different parts of the mountain provide contrast between the competition areas, which are full of jumps and rails, and the more natural areas which are prettier to look at and whose large amounts of trees provide players with ample opportunities to Sunny Bono themselves.

The only hitch that may turn some fans off is the large shift in style. What was once a colorful techno-meets-snow vibe is now a hand-drawn black-and-white metal experience. The style is arresting, to be sure. Freaky imagery starts quickly with an intro that features a guitar playing unicorn, a roadie with a backhoe for an arm, and his 26-wheeler, all set to the beat of Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills. The style change even extends to the gameplay, as the “uber” moves of the previous games have been renamed “monster” moves.

There is an added bonus for Gamecube owners to distract from some controller related issues, as in NBA Street V3, Mario, Luigi, and the improperly attired Princess
Peach, are available in all their cross-promotional glory to shred the mountain.

Despite trying it’s best to distract with the style shift, SSX has started to suffer from the lack of innovation known as sequel syndrome. The tour mode is painfully bland and the joy of free riding down the mountain only lasts so long. It will be interesting to see how such series as SSX can use the jump into the next generation to climb out of the rut they have fallen into. On Tour provides the SSX experience with a metal twist. This is by no means bad, but it could have definitely been more.

8/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: X-Men Legends II

Cell-Shaded Spandex
Raven Software / All Platforms / Teen

It’s hard to go wrong when combining super heroes and games (though so many do). Super powers tend to translate well to a game and players have proven their love for flying around as their favorite heroes time after time. It’s even better to play superhero with your friend and superhero co-op games, especially X-Men ones, have a history of popularity from the old X-Men arcade game to the most recent X-Men Legends. After a modest first outing marked by potential and problems, everyone’s favorite bald, telepathic, wheelchair-bound professor, and his X-Men return in Rise Of Apocalypse.

For X-men Legends II, the X-men and Magneto’s Evil brotherhood are forced to team up to fight the evil Apocalypse, who has taken over the city of Genosha. This is just as much a story point as a gameplay point for this merger means that gamers now have a number of villains, such as Juggernaut, Toad, and Magneto himself, to use and control alongside the X-Men. Missions consist of various tasks that must be accomplished to get into the city and bring down Apocalypse. Along the way players will encounter a number of other familiar mutants that will provide missions and help in various forms.

The sheer number of heroes present here makes XML2 a Marvel fan paradise. Pretty much every mutant character ever introduced in the X-Men universe is present in some form, and sixteen are playable with all their classic powers. Other fan service can be found in various unlockables, a trivia game, and the story itself, which packs in enough superhero intrigue to fill a library of comic books.

Despite all the action makings, XML2 is, at heart, a real-time RPG. Damage is doled out in hit points, and characters will periodically level up. As they do this, gain new powers to be assigned to a menu of special moves. The leveling up process is similar to Knights Of The Old Republic with skill points being spent on ability and stat upgrades. In similar RPG form all characters can be equipped with three different types of gear that are found around the levels and boost various character statistics. The leveling up, equipment, and item management is kept simple, so it should be familiar to most RPG buffs and any newcomers will get the hang of the management quickly.

The main draw of the gameplay here is co-operative gameplay. The co-op stays fun and clever with one, two, or four people. There are even a few puzzles that require a certain character’s abilities (for example: Storm can put out fires, and Magneto can fly) so teams can be changed on the fly at various save points. The biggest addition to the co-op is online multiplayer. Gamers miles away can now put together a team of their favorite heroes and work together. The only hitch in this is that there is no friendly fire option.

The biggest stumble the game makes is in the voice acting. All the characters (except Professor Xavier who is voiced by his movie incarnation Patrick Stewart) are grating, especially the ones faking accents. To be fair the material the actors are given isn’t exactly up to Hollywood standards, but other games have done better with less. Adding to the problem is the fact that the character interaction is about as deep as the average pro-wrestling storyline.

Another problem is the level design, which tends to be repetitive, dark, and cramped. While the levels are nicely destructible, there is little value in destroying a stalagmite, or a wall that doesn’t lead anywhere. Enemies are equally repetitive and their assigned skill level, no matter how large, is insufficient to overwhelm the numbers advantage players will carry for most of the game (this applies to the bosses, as well).

As for the graphics, the results are mixed. The characters show a mix of their classic and new styles and the cell shading is visually appealing. The levels, on the other hand don’t show the same colorful style. While this makes sense as a background to the bright characters, the dullness of the environments is a bit of a letdown.

Despite the annoyances this game can be fun for both the normally separate Marvel and RPG fans. The XML series successfully continues the legacy of KOTOR in combining action with role-playing. The co-op is loads of fun and the ability to control so many beloved heroes has broad appeal. This is one of the wonderful things that can happen when designers get creative with a popular license.

8/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: Ultimate Spider-Man

Swinger Baby!
Treyarch / All Platforms / Teen

In recent years comic book artists have been reviving old and beloved comic characters with a modern style. A prime example of this revitalization is the Ultimate Spider-Man series, which introduces a sharp artistic style, modern issues, and a variety of characters normally found in other stories. Now that Ultimate Spidy universe is being converted to game form with, of course, Ultimate Spider-Man.

The story of Peter Parker is the same as it has always been. He is bit by a radioactive spider and given various spider powers like web slinging, wall crawling, and an ever-tingling Spidy sense. What will be new here to many spider-fans is the story of Venom. Venom was Peter’s friend, Eddie Brock, before he became involved with an experimental weapon suit his father, as well as Peter’s father, helped design. Eventually the suit consumes him and he becomes the super-strong, super-aggressive Venom. This story is distinctly different from the mainstream Venom, and is straight from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic books. All of the story comes straight from the Ultimate comic books and provides a fresh look at Spidy as well as a large bunch of cameos including the Fantastic 4’s Johnny Storm, and X-Men’s Wolverine.

The ultimate story, as well as the various catchphrases Spidy will blurt while swinging around, helps to develop the character more. It allows gamers to see Peter Parker’s cocky side as he taunts his assorted rivals and nemeses. The re-imagined villains are will also be of interest to fans. For instance Rhino is no longer a huge guy in a tight, gray suit. He is now a huge, gray, cyborg. Also, the Green Goblin has been changed to resemble another large, buff, and green Marvel character with various spiky protrusions.

Gameplay wise Ultimate Spider-Man plays very similarly to the Spider-Man 2 game. The basis is an open-ended approach where players can either play through the story missions, do the side quests, or just swing around Manhattan. The Venom portions are generally repetitive beat-em-up sessions. The twist is that Venom must constantly suck energy from opponents. This twist finishes the job the redundancy started and pigeon holes the power of Venom into the occasional, cramped, diversion. There are some new moves for our hero, such as stringing criminals up on light posts, plus some various collect-a-thon side quests but this is basically Spider-Man 2 with a new story and a funky graphical style.

Not that this is a bad thing. The newness the graphical style lends will be of interest to the Spider-Man fans. But there is a tradeoff. There is a distracting amount of graphical pop-up in the cityscape and when players get up on the taller buildings the view isn’t exactly pretty.

One of the other problems is that a certain amount of the side quests must be completed for the story to advance. Seeing how these consist mostly of boring races, saving civilians or stopping the same bozo bank robber over and over this isn’t exactly the best way to extend the gameplay.

Essentially, this is the Spider-Man game for the more hardcore Spider-fans. The comic book style and story twists are meant to be best enjoyed by the devoted fans. For everyone else this will be just another swing around the more brightly colored city with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

7.5/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: Burnout Revenge

The Sadistic Driving Simulator
Criterion / Xbox Playstation 2 / Everyone 10+

It’s odd how some of the biggest franchises in gaming started as mediocre before having their opus and being thrust into limelight. Series like Hitman, Hot Shots Golf, and even Grand Theft Auto started as flawed first tries and eventually lived up to their great potential in one of their sequels. Burnout is a perfect example of this phenomenon. After it became a huge hit with the third game in the series: Takedown. The hardest thing for these series is living up to expectations after their breakout game. The key is solid if not spectacular and that perfectly describes Burnout: Revenge.

In terms of story things haven’t changed since Takedown. Go around the world and destroy things with your car; all the while being egged on by an annoying sadist on your radio. The only difference in that aspect is that now the annoying sadist is a woman and is slightly less annoying. What is truly different in the one-player portion of the game is the structure of the Burnout World Tour. Now the events go in levels and, the levels range in difficulty based on your rank. Ranks are from 1(harmless) to 11(Elite). There is also a better mix of events on the world tour now; whereas in Takedown, crash mode ruled the tour.

Aside from the new cars and world tour changes, the main differences between Takedown and Revenge lie in the gameplay itself. All the changes are outlined in the opening video and, while they may not be revolutionary, they do add to the depth of the game modes and racing. First, drivers now have the ability to “check” traffic. This means that as long as they don’t hit vehicles: head-on, from the side, or that are too large, drivers can bounce pesky cars out of the way, and into the paths of rivals, without crashing themselves. This new mechanic is even the focus of it’s own gameplay mode. In Traffic Attack, drivers must check as many cars as they can in a certain time to rack up damage money and earn more time, a fun diversion.

By far the biggest gameplay changes have been made to the fan-favorite crash mode. Now each crash “junction”, as they’re called, has multiple vehicles to choose from. You can go with the heavy trucks for more damage or the speedier race-type cars for more air and momentum. There is also a power bar at the beginning to determine how fast your start will be and a target car that gives extra points if it’s crashed into. What’s more, the “crashbreakers” that explode your car after accumulating so much wreckage must now be charged up for a larger blast radius. Last but not least the junctions themselves have been expanded to larger areas and multiple levels, making them more challenging and fun.

Other changes have been made to sophisticate the previously unremarkable pure racing modes. Every track is littered with shortcuts, alternate routes, and big air opportunities, all making for more cerebral racing. Also, in the theme of the game, anyone who takes you down is marked with red and revenge is truly sweet as more points are awarded for taking down that person.

All these changes are intended to fix the few complaints people had with Takedown and they do accomplish that. The only problem is that they unfortunately, made the game less accessible in the process. It is not nearly as easy to pick up and play anymore and some of the changes take serious time to master. Compounding this problem is the fact that modes like Crash and Road Rage can no longer be played only with the CPU or one’s self. They require either a friend or online play and, cut down on the pick-up-and-play factor that has served Burnout so well in the past.

Revenge can’t take the world by storm as Takedown did, and game of the year nominations will not be forthcoming. Sadly, the renown also took Burnout away from its focus on the casual gamer. They will need to find that focus again before they can truly perfect their series. Revenge is, at the same time, both one step forward and one step back.

8.5/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland

Tony Hawk’s Cash Cow
Neversoft / Gamecube Xbox Playstation 2 Xbox 360 / Teen

In the grand tradition of the many Tony Hawk games, when one gimmick gets stale a new one must emerge to keep the franchise fresh. The put yourself in the game appeal of the Underground series has worn off and it’s time for something new. In comes American Wasteland, which promises a continuous skatable city to keep fans of the most popular extreme sports series ever happy.

In THAW gamers play as some random skate rat who, fresh off the bus to Los Angeles, meets a suspiciously well-connected punk princess who promises to lead him along the path to skating superstardom. Along this well-worn path are various challenges designed to build a reputation, get sponsorships, and rocket oneself to the top of the L.A. skating scene. Seeing as this is pretty much the plot of every Tony Hawk game it’s up to the gameplay to provide something fresh

The main thing that’s new this time around is that all the game areas are connected. The game does make good on it’s promise of no load screens between levels but the levels are connected by long, drab, hallways that really don’t add to the skate experience. What does provide some worthwhile improvements are several new moves such as Bert Slides (riding with a hand on the ground), Nata Spins (spinning on poles), and Grind stalls (stalling on rails).

Despite what the ads say the biggest draw THAW has to offer is the BMX bike. Since the Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX spin-off was abandoned several Tony Hawk’s ago this is the first time in a while that gamers have been able to ride a BMX bike in a game that wasn’t horrible and offensive (BMX XXX). Gamers can switch to a bike at any time in the story mode and the bike has it’s own (smaller) move set and story challenges. The icing on this extreme cake is that the Condor himself (Hoffman) can be unlocked as a playable character.

The list of playable skaters has undergone its most drastic changes in any Hawk game. The list is intended to showcase newer talent and some L.A. legends alongside Tony Hawk, professional parent tormenter Bam Margera and some other familiar faces. These, as well as some story characters, will be the people who provide challenges and make cameos in the story mode. The story is less about the pros and more about a customized shredder that, rather than being created from scratch like in the Underground series, starts as one of five basic templates and is clothed to a player’s liking.

Beneath all these features and veneer the mechanics are as solid as they’ve always been. There is, as there has always been, a solid and fun skating experience to be had and the game engine consistently shows why this franchise has held such a tight grip over the skateboarding genre for so long. It’s just that there is not much to warrant a purchase for those who bought the last game.

When one looks at THAW as a hole, the game makes very little changes from previous iterations. The promise of no load screens allows no room for graphical improvements and the story and dialogue seem a bit canned at times. This counts as the fifth Tony Hawk for this generation of consoles, and at this point, Neversoft may be running out of ideas on how to keep its hit franchise fresh. That’s sad because all the Tony Hawk games have held a special place in gamers’ hearts, this reviewer included. Unless the developers find a way to freshen the franchise as THUG 1 did, it may be a downhill ride from here for a franchise that has always shunned the use of helmets.

8/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves

Putting A Fuzzy Face On Crime
Sucker Punch / Playstation 2 / Everyone 10+

Traditionally, within Sony’s big platforming trio, Sly gets less recognition compared to Jak and Ratchet. It seems that people prefer the big guns and dark stories of the others to Sly’s bright colors and less-violent approach. Now that Jak and Ratchet have moved towards racing and arena combat, respectively, it is Sly’s turn to shine alone on the PS2 platforming stage. Shine, indeed, he does in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves.

Sly 3 opens with big changes having been made to Sly’s thieving crew. Bentley, the brainy turtle, was injured at the end of the last game. He is now confined, if you can call it that, to his super high-tech wheelchair. This means that Bentley, while retaining and adding some high tech abilities, loses some speed and jumping ability. In the meantime hippo Murray, the brawn of the operation, has blamed himself for Bentley’s accident and has wandered off to Australia where he is learning from the Aboriginal koala known as the Guru. In the meantime Sly discovers that his family has a secret vault hidden on a remote island and that it has been turned into a fortress by the evil Dr. M, who is trying to break in. In short, Sly must unite his gang while bringing in new specialist talent for the job.

Clearly there’s more than meets the eye here. The story may seem like a kiddy romp but there is a good deal that the adults can enjoy too. Women’s rights, the power of friendship, the plight of Venice, all come up at some point during the story and provide interest for the older set wrapped around the base story. Add to that some truly funny dialogue and wonderfully colorful visual style, and gamers young and old will actually end up enjoying the cutscenes.

There is also a good deal beneath the surface gameplay wise. The addition of five new playable characters, some truly creative mini-games, and new moves for the three main characters makes an already varied experience even more so. As for the main characters, Bentley has gained an ability to “fly” using afterburners on his wheelchair. Murray can use the “aboriginal ball form” to roll and bounce around, and Sly has learned to use disguises and will receive three different ones to use for different missions. The new playable characters include a mix of new and familiar. The new are the Guru who can possess and control guards, and Penelope, a RC expert who caught Bentley’s attention in an online chat room. The familiar are two old villains: the Panda King from Sly 1 who is a demolitions expert, and Dimitri from Sly 2 who is the team frogman (aquatic operator) Bringing back Dimitri also adds a lot of the game’s best comedic moments, as his hilarious misuses of American slang made him a fan favorite in the last game. There are also small bits playing as Inspector Carmelita Fox who is, as always attempting to bring Sly to justice. It is a bit disappointing that not all of the characters are playable in open-ended adventure, or have a completely fleshed-out move set, but their missions provide welcome interludes between main character missions.

While most of the missions involve using the characters to accomplish a goal towards the final, multi-part jobs, there are several mini-games including computer hacking, biplane flying, and even a conversation game where players must flatter, insult, and threaten to get information or help. Even the more basic missions seem new and unique because of their setup within the larger job.

A much-hyped portion of the Sly 3 experience is the inclusion of 3-D levels. The game even comes packed with a pair of cardboard 3-D glasses that have the amazing power to transform whoever wears them into a dork. It turns out that the 3-D doesn’t really enhance the experience of the compatible levels. Instead most gamers will opt to skip the 3-D as it grays out the backgrounds and makes eyes hurt after more than five minutes.

Thankfully, big additions have been made to increase the replay value that has been a problem in the previous games. After completing a chapter gamers can go back and engage in a “Master Thief Challenge” which involves playing a previous mission, reworked with a time limit or limited health. Also, all the missions from a chapter become replayable after completion, some with newly unlocked 3-D capability.

Once again Sucker Punch has managed to craft the perfect game for parents to play with their kids. The gameplay is challenging enough for adults and forgiving enough for kids. The story also provides something for everyone. A bonus is that the game addresses several real-life issues that parents can explain to their kids, the prevailing one being the moral ambiguity of playing and glorifying thievery. Hopefully the latest Sly will make the PS2 platforming crowd stand and take notice. If they don’t they will be missing out on a wonderful experience.

9/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: The Matrix: Path Of Neo

Atari Knows Kung Fu?
Shiny / Playstation 2 Xbox PC / Teen

At the height of series popularity in 2003, Atari attempted to cash in on its high potential Matrix license with Enter the Matrix, which has since become a prime example of hype over substance. The game became a greatest hit on Xbox and PS2 on the pure force of marketing, despite an evident lack of quality, and abysmal reviews. After Enter the Matrix gamers swore they would not be taken again. Though two cliché driven movie sequels and a mediocre MMORPG have cooled the series considerably, Path of Neo still has the geeky goods to test gamers collective resolve once again.

As Enter the Matrix should have done, Path of Neo follows The One from his initial pill choice through the entire movie trilogy. Rather than giving a cohesive narrative, the game assumes that anyone who plays will be intimately familiar with the events of the movies. Clips from the movie are shown in frenetic montages that, while designed to introduce the next set of missions, will do little more than make the fanboys stand and cheer. The catch is that, since the whole story is told from Neo’s perspective, some of the most exiting moments of the trilogy like the car chase in Reloaded and the battle for Zion in Revolutions are not to be found in game form here.

While playing the trilogy’s story is better then the Niobe/Ghost spin-off, the gameplay is what shows the clearest improvement from Enter the Matrix. Guns can now be holstered at any time and the hand-to-hand combat is much more impressive and easy to use. As before gamers can, with the push of a button, enter into focus mode, which allows them to pull of super-human feats of agility such as the expected running on walls and dodging bullets. The controls for these feats have been tweaked to allow a more fluid string of runs, jumps, and attacks that can be exceedingly deadly in the hands of a skilled thumb twitcher. While recharging focus is to be expected, the choice to automatically replenish health and still provide health pickups is an odd one that cuts out a good chunk of the game’s challenge. Also removing challenge, but in a good way, is an improved targeting system which is much more responsive this time around. Also, multi-directional combat works as well as in any genre contemporary. All this results in a control scheme that is very complex and difficult to master. The complexity is rarely a major issue, and only causes problems with the gunplay, where gamers must hold a button at all times to keep their guns unholstered.

Even with such sweeping gameplay improvements, the action can get repetitive at times. There are really only two buttons for attacks, and the unadept will find themselves using the same combos ad nauseum. So as to shorten the already lengthy tutorial missions, many special moves and combos could (and possibly should) have been available from the beginning are instead unlocked throughout the game and posted in a menu that resembles an old Tempest level.

Despite the improvements, the technical aspects of the game scream the same lack of polish that they did in Enter the Matrix. The music is nice but the voice performances from Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Mr. Whoa are clearly phoned in. While this lack of acting is to be expected from Keanu, and production of the films stopped years ago, the in game voices are a sad contrast to the movie clips. As for graphics, the game attempt to show all the dazzling effects from the trilogy in game form. While the bullet and other effects are impressive, the visuals take a toll on the framerate, which constantly stutters and slows. The character models aren’t even that well done, and everything has a fuzzy look, despite the movies’ crisp visual presentation.

Much like the second and third movies in the trilogy, the trio of Matrix games has never lived up to their tremendous potential. All the effects, acrobatics, and oozing coolness of the first movie could not be lived up to by both its virtual and real successors. Whether or not to take another stab at a Matrix game is up to Atari, but their attempts up to now have been unimpressive. It was hard not to improve on the last try, but Path of Neo as compared to Enter the Matrix, is half better, half the same, but all disappointing.

6.5/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: LA Rush

Driving While Mediocre
Midway / Playstation 2 Xbox PC / Teen

With so many developers jumping on the street racing bandwagon it was only a matter of time before a powerhouse like Midway jumped on board. What is surprising is that they dug out their venerable LA Rush arcade franchise to be their street racer. The thing about the street-racing genre is that a game must defeat one of the reigning two champions (Midnight Club 3 or Need For Speed Underground) in at least one aspect to carve out a piece of the market. While LA Rush is decent, it fails to accomplish this goal. As a result it is left to toil in mediocrity while staining its proud arcade lineage.

The game quickly gets out to a bad start by committing the first deadly sin of racing games: trying to add a story. You play as Trikz, a corn-rowed white boy who crafts himself a large street racing empire before having all his stuff repossessed because he ticked off a rival with connections. The rival Tidell (Bill Bellamy) leaves Trikz his old Nissan 240SX and our pasty hero must work his way back up the street racing rankings and regain his sizable garage of “tricked-out whips”. Their words, not mine. Along the way Trikz gets help his loyal partner Ty (Orlando Jones) and from the grease monkeys from West Cost Customs (of Pimp My Ride fame) who voice much cooler versions of themselves.

The gameplay is exactly the same as it has always been within this sub genre. Race, earn money, make car look cooler, repeat. What separates the men from the boys here is the execution and LA rush manages to fall in its late teens. While the racing portions are component they fail to capture a sense of weight or speed of the car. This means that gamers are able to throw themselves through traffic and around corners without losing control. Also, while the motion blur effects are good for covering up framerate stutters they don’t convey and great sense of speed. This makes for many an incredulous glance at the speedometer.

There is a great amount of inconsistency in the gameplay as well. Gamers are able to ram head-on into the ubiquitous palm trees without a significant crash while merely glancing another car will trigger a debilitating pileup. Another inconsistency is in the AI, while opponents can be easily passed up and fail to take shortcuts; the police have superhuman driving ability. The fuzz won’t even relent once players have crashed.

So many other aspects of the game just seem low rent. There aren’t nearly as many shortcuts and ways through the city as in Midnight Club. While car damage is present, it never extends beyond the superficial and Trikz is never in real danger of having the frame compress around his ugly, circular, cornrows. Also, the game manages to commit deadly racing sin #4. While the box may say Xbox Live there is no actual online play, only downloadable content. Worst of all, instead of allowing actual customization, each of the cars has a preset “pimped” version that one must pay a prix fix at West Cost Customs to get. This is unacceptable.

Truth be told, the game does make some improvements over the competition. The Los Angeles environment is massive, beautiful, and highly destructible. The game even plays off the Hollywood theme and has various multi-step movie stunts one can perform across the city. Helpfully, because the city is so massive, one can mark their destination on the game map and have a path appear on the in game map to lead them Mapquest style.

Despite the features the game simply fails where it counts. It goes down the road of so many street racers before and fails to secure a recommendation in the face of superior games. It’s worth a rental for those who want to virtually tool around LA but gamers would be better off sticking to the aforementioned kings of the genre.

5/10
By Zack Rovinsky

Review: The Warriors

Come Out And Play
Rockstar Toronto / PlayStation 2 Xbox / Mature

When it was released in 1979, The Warriors the movie quickly gained a cult following that still holds to this day. The gritty picture of a gang-run New York City reflected timeless issues, and contrasted nicely with a lighthearted side featuring an inner-city romance and ridiculously dressed gangs. Rockstar wanted to do a faithful adaptation of the classic and the result is not an average movie game.

The movie shares the story of a New York City gang that is framed for the murder of a powerful gang leader and must make their way back to their home turf of Coney Island, while, at the same time, clearing their name. While the movie involves the Warriors mostly running away from the other gangs out for revenge, Rockstar has taken up the challenge of crafting half of the game’s story from scratch. The game starts several months before the events of the movie and shows the workings of the gang: recruiting, getting revenge on other gangs, and taking Coney Island as their turf.

The core gameplay, beating the snot out of people, is familiar and competent. The brawling consists of both light and heavy attacks, as well as grapples, throws, and various weapons. Pretty much anything loose on the street is available as a weapon, from trashcans, to beer bottles, to the indispensable board with a nail through it. While the police are not much of a factor in the missions, in the free city mode they will be jump on players like Tom Cruise on Oprah’s couch.

True to Rockstar form the game takes an open-ended approach, with players using the Warriors’ hideout as a base for training, talking to other gang members, and setting out on story missions. Outside the hideout players can pass the time with a variety of activities. These include, but are not limited to: mugging people, stealing car radios, breaking into stores, taking drugs, spraying tags and resisting arrest. Each of these activities is achieved with clever, easy-to-use mini-games that fit well within the game environment.

Those environments are straight out of the movie. NYC in the seventies was clearly not a pretty place and the game is gritty and dark to the core. The streets are littered with pestering bums and apathetic policemen who set a bleak picture of the times. As the main place of action in the game is Coney Island, the carnival elements provide a central landmark and the looming Wonder Wheel is always a welcome sign of home. That is, if you can see it.

The biggest flaw with the game is, most definitely, the camera. Views range from too high to too low and the camera never finds a good middle view on it’s own. It must be constantly babied and the brawling portions of the game would be nightmares without the capable targeting system.

The AI is another thing that saves the game from its camera. Police are eagle eyed, rival gangs run in numbers, and average citizens will run to the nearest payphone to report any crime they may have witnessed. Ally AI is even more important with the team command options. Colorful fellow gang members will follow, stay put, and swarm enemies with a simple command, though once they start beating some fool they won’t want to stop. They even pick up and bring along weapons on their own, and one must only ask to use a fellow’s lead pipe.

Overall, the game provides a fun romp through a cult favorite. The brawling and stealing is fun for a good amount of time and the camera that would have ruined a lesser game thankfully doesn’t. The greatest contribution made by The Warriors is that it provides a hopeful tone for the new trend of old movies being made into new games. It’s easy to forget what a horror Fight Club was when playing The Warriors. Opportunistic movie executives should take heed; the old movie game genre is on the rise.

7.5/10
By Zack Rovinsky