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Category Archives: review

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11

Another year, another Tiger Woods game with much more of the same.  The problem with sports games is that they never really change much because the rules of the game are set in stone so it takes a huge amount of imagination to bring a new sports game with the same rules but something which packs original punch.  Unfortunately, EA Sports year in year out seem quite incapable of using that imagination to give us something refreshing and new and the new Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 is the same old. Granted, you can now play in the Ryder Cup, but that is just another tournament added to the list of tournaments already playable in the tournament mode.

EA Sports have tried to change the game slightly and have added a new “true aim” mode which is supposed to replicate proper golf and which is turned off by default so you have to enable it. Sadly, in their rush to try and bring something new, they forgot to tell us how to use it.  This is exactly what the manual says:

True-aim is an all-new, more authentic way of playing golf in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. Rather than utilising an aiming circle, players using True-aim must use an in-game marker to see the distance ot the target and then adjust their swing accordingly. This results in a more realisitic way of playing and gives players even more control over their swing.

Sounds easy yes?  Except when you switch to True-aim mode you are presented with not an individual marker but about 8-10 different GPS points and there is no explanation at all on how to use them or switch between them.

Another lack of explanation is for the new Focus mode. And this is what they say:

Use the all-new focus feature to take even more control over your game. Your golfer’s focus is displayed as a red meter in the lower left corner of the hud. As you perform advanced maneuvres such as power boost, spin, putt preview or shrinking the aim circle, focus decreases. Once focus is completely depleted, advanced maneuvres are no longer available. As time passes, focus is slowly restored.

This is all pretty self explanatory and on the whole it works very well except I cannot get it to work for boost accuracy in the training section so I keep failing. The instructions are clear to a point but when you exit to take your shot there is no instruction on how to actually apply it to the shot and so my training is failing. Needless to say I exited the training and just played the game as I used to.  Now I am sure some bright spark will come along and explain how to do these, but if something which should be simple requires explaining, then EA Sports have failed.

Let’s talk about the putting. This is one of my biggest gripes of the later Tiger Woods games, it is that I cannot use the putting grid very well. I struggle to read it and understand the speeds and putt accurately. I can manage about a foot either side of the hole but anything greater than that and my putting is a mess.  EA Sports have been criticised by many gamers for this before – not for having a putting grid, but for having no real alternative to read the green for those who hate the grid.  Sure they have the putting line by pressing LB (Xbox 360 version) but this can often be very vague and it is limited in use to how much focus meter you have. The putting line uses up quite a large chunk of focus so there are many times when you can only use it once per putt or even have no chance to use it at all because you have not enough focus, so you are left to using the putting grid – if you know how to use it well.

Gone are the monetary prizes for your skills and now you have the XP system known from RPGs and adventure games.  You get XP points for completing challenges and general play of the game. These can be spent on upgrading your skills or buying items from the club shop. You have to balance out your desire for new kit against upgrading your skills. My personal recommendation is to ignore the pro shop until you start  getting lots of XP and concentrate on upgrading the skills only at first. Certainly there are a few early challenges which require you to have a certain amount of power to pass so power should be an early priority.  Speaking of challenges, there are 48 challenges to play ranging from completing 3 or 4 holes in a certain par or more challenging types of 9 holes. They are a little challenging this time round as not only do you have to beat the par score of the opponent but you also have a minimum amount of greens-in-regulation (GIR) or fairways-in-regulation (FIR) – so as an example one of Retief Goosen’s challenges is that you have to beat his score of -1 under par but also minimum of 7 out of 9 greens in regulation. So its a double challenge as you may pass on one but fail on the other.

Generally I feel the game is an okay upgrade but it seems to lack some punch and something new to the table, those bits which are new are quite poorly explained and the whole game just barely feels like a new game at all. As I said at the beginning it is just the same of golf churned out with a few bells which at a push let out a little ding.

Be wary of buying the game second hand if you wish to play online. EA now have a unique code on each manual which unlocks the online play. If the code is used then you have to pay to unlock the online play. A bit cheeky but I can understand a bit that they want some money from the second hand market although being the largest game developer in the world, they certainly do not need the money and many customers will see it as penny pinching.

I am disappointed with this game, its just another rehash but if you are one who has to buy every iteration of every Tiger Woods game then it is worth buying, just do not expect any groundbreaking new things. I would class it more as an expansion pack, but then that is the way all sports games are nowadays.

GOOD/10 (at a push)

Killzone 2 Review

 

 Over the years, the Killzone name has come under fire for being an underachiever. It has been in the centre of many fanboy flame wars on numerous internet sites and forums. The original was branded a “Halo killer” before the first screen shots were released to the public; this made the anticipation sky rocket and overall expectations sensationally high. For the sequel, the expectations were once again high. But this time, Killzone 2 is worth every ounce of hype and sensational expectation it deserves.

 So let’s start with the story, you play as Sgt. Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko, a new character with a fresh new background. You play through the entire game as Sev, unlike the original Killzone that had you controlling four different members of your team. You are part of Alpha team, a group of soldiers tasked with invading the Helgan capital and taking down Visari. Every cut scene is expertly created and really helps push the action and the story. Although Killzone’s story isn’t the hottest in town, it defiantly engages you and gives you something to fight for. The voice acting is pretty good; there are no overly intelligent sounding marines but a more realistic grunt that really bleeds into the story and makes it come alive.

 Killzone has always been known as a pusher of the Playstation brands graphics, and it’s no different with Killzone 2 offering some of the greatest graphics and screen presence I have ever come across. Some would argue that Crysis for the pc is a much more worthy candidate for best graphics, and although this is true in some areas, Killzone 2 just oozes top notch build quality and amazing effects. Killzone utilizes some very cutting edge technology in a bid to make it the most visceral and entertaining battle experience to grace gamer’s hands. It’s a game that must be played to be fully understood; watching game play videos just doesn’t do the job of conveying a true war experience. Sound, especially if you have 7.1 surround, is a true treat for the ears as every snap, crackle and pop fleshes out the experience even more so. The weight of your character, the kick back from your gun, the rush to cover and the blinding grey scale of your bullet ridden corpse immerses you so much so you truly forget you’re playing a game.

 For AI, this game is no idiot. On higher difficulties the Helgast act as a team, always thinking ahead it seems. It’s a real challenge at times to break through, but when you do it’s so very gratifying. I’m sure it isn’t normal to be tricked into thinking you are playing against human counterparts, especially in multiplayer when you realise after 20minuites of playing the enemy team are all bots. There is the odd, very rare time when the AI does something wrong, but perfection in this area can’t be expected.

 The gameplay coupled with the grand presentation and production values sets this game apart from the rest. The controls for me are spot on, but do come with the chance to change them to suit particular styles of play. So far I have spoken very highly of Killzone 2, but there are some small things that could be improved on. The addition of Co-op would have been great, especially online co-op. Who knows what future updates could give us, maybe whole new singe player experiences. Some parts of the excellent multiplayer could be improved like party support, but overall, the multiplayer feature of Killzone 2 really shines through and is sure to be one of the most immersive online experiences this year. At first it is slow and seemingly hard to get into, but as you play through it the full flavour of the multiplayer starts to kick in as a bevy of options show up. The experience is extensive and easily customisable to suit your needs on the battlefield. Stats and an amazing replay option on the Killzone web site are real advancements in multiplayer, as is the way game modes change on the fly in matches. Killzone 2 can truly be seen as a new bench mark in multiplayer, although not a total evolution, it has plenty to it to define itself from the rest.

 To sum up, Killzone 2 is the FPS the Playstation 3 has been waiting for. This game helps to push the console apart from the competition. If this is a taste of what’s to come this year from Playstation, we are in for a treat. This high quality gaming experience cannot be missed, so grab it now and join the battle!

 Excellent/10

By E-ROLE

Saints Row 2 Review

Sandbox games are quite common nowadays but it is rare that one jumps out at you as being a great game. Some of them, like The Godfather, are pretty mediocre and have you driving from place to place doing the same routine and have nothing special to offer. The most famous sandbox series of course is the Grand Theft Auto series and every sandbox game after that gets compared to the last GTA offered. In this case it is the most recent GTA 5. GTA5 looks so much better than Saints Row 2 graphically, but in many respects Saints Row 2 is the better game because it is much more fun with a lot more to do on the side.

Now that is where my GTA comparison will end because I feel that Saints Row 2 is a game that deserves to stand on it’s own merit. The game is chock full of things to do on the side. Not just your drug courier missions or car collecting for garages but the developer has looked past these tired old missions and given us some great fun things to do. One of the side missions was to drive a truck full of poo and to spray it all over the buildings indicated to cause damage to the buildings. You have to reach a certain amount of damage caused for that level to pass. Another side was racing a mini vehicle dressed in a flameproof suit. You have to get to the checkpoints and at the same time riding over bombs to explode them and cause damage to cars and people around. But my favourite has to be “FUZZ”. You dress as a policeman and drive around attending crimes to stop the criminals – you have a cameraman in tow to collect footage for the reality show “FUZZ”. There is a footage bar to complete and the more crimes you clean up you increase the bar to its fullest. Each level is a little harder and you are requested on different occasions to use certain weapons like an RPG or flamethrower to create the maximum footage. The police are on your side as homies during these fuzz missions so if there is one nearby they will jump in your car and help you out.

The main missions themselves are quite varied and my only gripe with them was that I had to fill up my respect level to play the main missions. This involved doing side missions. Sometimes this involved a long drive to the nearest activity to play the activity and the drive all the way back to the mission point. Now whilst the side missions were fun, they sometimes got int he way of what I wanted to do. Some days I just wanted to drive through the main storyline to get to the end and do the activities when I wanted, but they were forced upon me.

Back from the original game are the strongholds. You takle over a stronghold by beating the goons and then that area of the map becomes yours. There are 45 areas to beat. Your strongholds can be attacked at any time though. In the last game the attacks were very frequent and quite disruptive to the flow of the game, but this time around it was pleasant to have only a few attacks to deal with. I think I had 3 through the entire game from start to finish.

Visually the game is not a stunner like some other recent games but it does look quite good. I had a few framerate issues on a couple of occasions but nothing major. One thing to note, this game is buggy. I had crashing of the console, bugs and glitches people getting stuck, homies not following me, and stupid AI who would stand there and do nothing. But despite all these flaws I kept coming back for more. If this game had not been as much fun as it was then it would have been binned days ago.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the openness of sandbox games.

GREAT/10 – A buggy game but such a lot of fun.

Brothers In Arms Hells Highway

Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway has been receiving fairly good reviews across the board and I was eager to play this game as I have such a love of World War 2 games.  It is a squad based tactical shooter which I am not usually keen on though.  The controls are quite intimidating at first and it is confusing to start off with how to use them effectively, but with perseverance I found that they were really easy to use and I could use the options to good effect. 

It is not a short game by any means, I suppose it took me between 12-14 hours which is an average length game and 3 times the pitiful length of Call of Duty 4. 

The game is a little buggy in places and occasionally members of my team would get stuck in scenery but if you progress they will come running forward.  The AI is very strong and you must use cover properly or face a quick death.  Your team mates will even shout at you to get to cover if you are not doing it properly. There are some sections where the AI are really hard to break through and one level very near the end took me many attempts to complete.  It is vital you use suppressing fire from the front with one or two teams and flank them from the left or right so they are unsuspecting.  Oddly, the game went from easy to hard to easy to hard and so on throughout the game, not a continual increase in difficulty.  The tank sections were really easy though and the tank guns made easy work of the enemy. 

Visually the game looks good but is not a stunner with the likes of Call of Duty 4 or Bioshock for example.  There’s the odd clipping against scenery and occasional framerate dips but on the whole it is good, but not awesome.  Graphics in the cutscenes looked fantastic though and the models of soldiers were impressive.

The best part of the game though has to be the storyline.  WW2 shooters have never had the best storylines to accompany the games but this story was very interesting and I was compelled to watch the cutscenes throughout – something which I rarely do. 

Despite a few bugs here and there and the spikes of difficulty, I have thoroughly enjoyed this game and I would recommend fans of WW2 games to play it.

GREAT/10