Resident Evil 5

Residents of Evil.

Review By Matur.

I believe I had a different perspective on how the Resident Evil series should have evolved into. When I first played Resident Evil (the first one on PSOne/PSX) almost 13 years ago, I questioned the fact why couldn't more than 1 character traverse this survival ordeal instead of making it a solo cause. Admittedly I was never good at horror games yet the gameplay was intriguing especially back then when there weren't many games of its kind. I always felt it should have had more action added along with the 'survival' aspect instead of horror.

Not that its a bad thing if it did evolve into a pure horror game, but the series had always gave me the impression that it had more action base potential with all the weapons at your disposal. Added with that, I felt a 2 player (or more) experience would really make things spicier. I'm pretty sure many felt the same seeing that in following years Resident Evil Outbreak made its debut introducing co-op/multiplayer elements to a once solo experience. Though the Outbreak series didn't fair as well as its other counterparts, it still laid the possibility experience of multi-playing.

Then came along Resident Evil 4; an almost totally new experience to how Resident Evil has always been played. Action was a large focus of the game with its new over-shoulder aiming system and gone are the fixed camera angles that plagued most RE gamers and some fans alike. RE4 was and still is a huge success in transition. Extremely bold in taking a solid franchise and giving it new life.

Put the two elements together of co-op and action oriented style gaming and a dream more than a decade ago is realized. Resident Evil 5 comes with tons of mixed reviews but undeniably it is one of the most addictive of its series to date.

Admittedly I was a huge skeptic over RE5. There were tons of complaints about your partner AI in single mode and that it was only worth the co-op experience. Even then little changed from RE4 in terms of combat system and being someone never really good in RE I was afraid the experience would not offer me more than a second round of play. So once I had my wireless connection up and running I decided to download the demo to first hand experience it myself. Was the choice to do so ever so right.

A week or two after playing the demo, I convinced myself based on my friends' testimony (the two already started their co-op venture 2 weeks in advance), the demo, and what I 'feel' would be a really lasting game to invest in (PS3 games are NOT CHEAP over here) and got myself the full game. After beating the game once I must say this game is what I had always wanted RE to be.

GAMEPLAY: I loved RE4 and played it the most out of all the REs. Even better this time around having a useful AI partner throughout the entire game and even more delicious is the co-op 2 player both on and offline feature. Action base over-shoulder view action may not be an evolutionary leap from RE4 but hey; if it ain't broken, why fix it? It could be improved upon (such as moving while shooting) but after playing the game, it is of little concern.

To dispell the greatest issue that plagues this game; the game's AI is actually very good. Responsive and a great aim, admittedly if it weren't for the AI having my back there have been various times I would have died. Ammo does tend to be an issue with the AI, but over time with good aim from your side and farming between chapters you'll soon realize you'll have more than you actually need. Just be sure to watch out for your AI as you would with a human player as your AI is very responsive towards aiding you as much as possible on the go. One of the best AIs to have as a partner even if it isn't perfect.

The game focuses more on the action aspect as compared to puzzles (which are virtually none) and item hunt. Most of the times you're not even required to run very far to search for integral items to proceed further into the game. With the new GPS mapping system you would have already have the new area's map at your disposal once you enter the place and this also not only pinpoint your destination but also story essential items. In return, you would now focus more on planning to take out your enemies and your routes more so than ever. Although it may not seem like it, but you're now given more chances to set up and prepare for ambushes and what not (especially with the newly introduced 'proximity mines').

Also don't be surprised to see yourself playing through this game more than once as the replay value for this game is VERY HIGH from unlocking bonus features, to co-op and the return of Mercenaries (and its ranking this time that even goes online). The greatest highlight this game has to offer is the co-op mode. Blasting through B.O.Ws never feel the same ever again with the aid of a partner, twice the fun and mayhem.

STORY, SOUND & GRAPHICS: Simply beautiful and mood fitting. The various areas you traverse through from start to finish provides fitting soundtracks and a variety of backgrounds as you'll soon come to see throughout the game. All of this accompanied by very good and detailed graphics. The only reason it's not perfect is the little details that games such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Uncharted offer. Even so you'll barely realize this.

Voice acting is really good accompanied by simple yet clear and intriguing dialogs based upon a clear yet partially deep storyline. It's nothing Metal Gear, but the details that accompany it make up more than flowering a simple storyline. Character design and motion are greatly animated as well. Again it may not be THE BEST the world has ever seen, but it is definitely very good and the ambiance and theme that surrounds the entire game not only fits but is astounding as well.

Story perspective, the game does a good job tying in most of the loose ends that many have wondered where the RE series was heading. The game doesn't feel hanging, not overly complex yet at the same time not exactly not without its in-depth.

OVERALL: Theres just so much to love about the game than to hate it. Of course the game is no more in its 'horror' essence any more, but as I have said I never saw the series evolved into a horror game but more action oriented. Great presentation, solid controls and gameplay, combined with high replayability value. Simply a game that is not to be missed by action gaming fans and fans of the series alike. This is one of those games that make you want to play it again over and over from time to time.

On an additional note, this is the first ever Resident Evil that I have played and won without the aid of codes to spice up my gaming value. As I have mentioned I was never really good with RE despite loving the series and what it has to offer. For me to continuously want to achieve more and wanting to play it over and over again shows just how good this game is. A definite buy or at least a rent to see if it suits your taste. For me the saying is very true; I'll never have to face fear alone ever again.

NAME: RESIDENT EVIL 5

SYSTEM: PC, PlayStation 3, XBOX 360

Batman Begins

Not the perfect Batman game, but it sure comes close.

Review By HawkEye.

I'm a huge Batman fan, and was since an early age. It started with the television series that ran during the 1960's (I watched them in the late 70's as reruns), then with the animated show in the 1990's and then with the comic books and the movies (only the first two, the others were very bad). I also played a few video games that had Batman in them, but they weren't that good.

I'm just happy to see the Batman franchise heading into a positive market instead of where it was several years ago. The comics are always great, but the movies and video games were very bad and didn't capture the character very well. This has all changed now with Batman Begins since we now have a great movie and a video game that is close to perfection.

PRESENTATION: The best part of the game is the ability to make your enemies frightened of you. I had so much fun scaring a group of villains and then taking them out and finding that the last criminal to face me was scared ****less and saw Batman as a mutated human/bat creature. Pure sweetness there! This feature is like the executions in “Manhunt” as far as a fun factor is involved, at least to me. I can do this over and over just to see the horror in the faces of the victims who happened to cross my path.

But getting the fear/respect up for Batman takes some work. You have to know how to take out some criminals without them seeing you (using stealth) or you'll use a nearby object to scare them. Plus you can use some gadgets/weapons to add fear to the bad guys or to blind them.

GRAPHICS: The areas are done very well, and seem to have a lot of detail placed into each section. The in game cutscenes are very clean and look almost lifelike. I did experience some problems in a few areas (not too many) where the game froze for about one second and then started again. I also had it slow down in some fights where I had more than three people to attack at once. Other than that, the game ran smoothly. The movie cutscenes ran just like you were watching them on a DVD.

SOUND: The voice acting is great simply because the actors from the movie did them, so it helps to give the game that movie feel. Some games from movies don't realize this and their games usually are not very fun to play or listen to (Blade II is an example). The music in the background is good, and the sound effects are also done properly. The major area for this would be the voice acting, and every time a character talks you can understand them and they don't give a dry, emotionless read of the lines.

GAMEPLAY: There are some good and bad aspects to this area of the review. First the good. The game is very easy to understand since it basically tells you what to do and when to do it. This is an okay feature to have, but it leaves very little freedom in what you can do. Also, you can't do certain things unless the game says, “Okay do this” in the form of an icon appearing on the screen. The driving levels are simply great! I loved driving the Batmobile around at high speeds and taking out enemy cars or even the Cops. Sneaking up on criminals and taking them out was very fun, but I enjoyed this in “Manhunt” much more since you can kill them instead of just knock them out…But this is Batman after all.

Now the bad. Your character doesn't seem to move very fluidly and seems a bit slow and clunky when he moves around. The fighting can be a bit frustrating since Batman will be facing one opponent and then switch to another even though you didn't want him to. Interrogating a criminal gets annoying after a while. I think it would have been better if it had a style similar to “The Punisher” in how you can get information from your victim. Picking locks is also very easy, almost so easy that you have to wonder why it wasn't more of a challenge. The same can be said for hacking computers as well.

OVERALL: The game is quite short, meaning that you can easily finish the game in under ten hours, and that is with dying several times. Most people can probably finish this in less than eight hours, but the game is fun. I'm a big Batman fan, and when I saw that you can use a Dark Knight costume after completing the game, I had started a new game immediately just to see the cool looking costume! Plus you can replay the sweet driving levels, which I thought was awesome since the driving on the game was done exceptionally well. Some might complain about the length of the game, but at least it made some effort for replay value.

NAME: BATMAN BEGINS

SYSTEM: XBOX, Nintendo Game Cube, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 - Soaked!

The first expansion for RCT 3 is also one of the best RCT expansions ever!

Review By Mimi

OK! So we all know how great of a series RCT is, however the expansions for these games are mostly average, with one real standout. Loopy Landscapes, for the original RCT was the best expansion ever, that is until Soaked was released earlier this year for RCT. Why is Soaked the best expansion since Loopy Landscapes. Simple, just like Loopy Landscapes perfected on RCT 's formula, Soaked perfects the formula of RCT 3. While there is another RCT 3 expansion coming out in a few weeks, I don't see it beating this one when it comes to sheer fun.

STORY: The RCT games don't really have a story, hence the 0 rating. If it had a story, I'd rate it, but this is a theme park sim. Do you really need a story?

GAMEPLAY: This is where this game shines. The game play in RCT 3 was pretty much perfect, but this game perfects the game play of RCT 3. We all know that in the RCT games, you're tasked with building and managing an amusement park. However what we've got here is the addition of water parks, the first for an RCT game. While their here have been elements of water parks in past RCT games, they won't really the main focus. However, they are here, and it's done beautifully. 

You got the option of building pools, water slides, and a whole bunch of items for both of them, as well as special stalls designed for this game, such as a Sunscreen Stall. But, when it comes to building pools, you have items such as a Wave Machine, ladders, Hot Tubs, Diving Boards, showers, and a light to place in your pool that glows when the game shifts from day to night. You have loads of other items I didn't even touch since I'll leave them to you to find. There are also various types of Water Slides, which don't have as much items for them, as the pools do. So I'll talk about those in a later section.

SOUND: This is the worst part of the game. There are no good music tracks in mu opinion. All the good music tracks from Soaked were already in RCT 3, which is why I won't mention them. Wait, though, why did I give it a 5 if the new tracks aren't good? A simple answer: custom tracks. As long as you have music on your hard drive, you can put those songs from your har drive on in the game. All you need to do, is do a search, while playing the game, for the songs on your hard drive, or you can transfer the songs from your har drive, into the RCT 3 Soaked folder, while not playing the game. Cool, eh?

GRAPHICS: The graphics were superb in RCT 3, and they're still superb in Soaked. They haven't really changed between the two title, but that's ok! The 3d graphics used in RCT 3 fit perfectly with this kind of game. They're very cartoon-ish, and bright, but not realistic. So don't play this game if you're looking for realistic graphics in games such as Doom 3 or Half Life 2. Cuz, you won't find them. There is one problem with the graphics however, but I don't experience it, since I have a hig end PC. If you have a low end PC, the game play tends to slow down if too much is happening in your park, which is a result of a low end PC, and 3d graphics. So be wary if you have an average PC.'

CONTROLS: Remember how I mentioned that the Water Slides are handled differently in this game earlier in the review. Here's where I'll talk about them. The Water Slides have no items to add to them. It's just a matter of choosing which one to build, and to finally build them. To start, you need to have the entrance of the slide and the exit to connect to the pool. The entrance to the side, the exit, in the pool. 

This controls very weird however, and that's where my 9 score for controls come in. Building a slide is a lot more frustrating than anything else in this game, due to a lot of trial and error while building them. Building them also feels a little clunky, which is part of the reason why they're hard to build. But, everything from the pools to ths slides to the roller coasters are all done using the mouse. You only use the keyboard to name them. It's very simple to learn and use [except the slides, but I think that's more of a design issue, than control issue.] Simply put, everything besides the slides requires no trial and error. The controls are almost flawless.

RIDES: The rides in this game are perfect! From the roller coasters, to the thrill rides, almost every ride is perfect. To add to the rides, you can also ride all of them after you build them. You can't swim in the pool however. And also, some of the gentle rides, such as the Haunted House, would have been hard to implement the player riding them. So, you just sit on the outside of those rides. Bummer, but luckily, this happens to very few rides.

OVERALL: That's it. This is a near perfect expansion pack, and one you should buy if you own RCT 3. You won't be disappointed!

NAME: ROLLER COASTER TYCOON 3 - SOAKED!

SYSTEM: PC

Worms 4 - Mayhem

Can the 4th reach the success of his 2D precursors?

Review By Vakic

There must have been a point ten years ago when worms around the world decided that they had had enough of being the playthings of choice for sadistic toddlers. No longer content with their lives (being split in half doesn't help relationships), they looked for a purpose to go on; a reason to keep living. That reason, rather surprisingly, came in the form of high-powered, high-explosive weapons. How they learnt these commando skills is somewhat of a mystery, but they've been terrorising each other and the odd sheep ever since.

After jumping from publisher to publisher and appearing on almost every gaming platform available in the last ten years, Worms 4: Mayhem (The third 3D version) lands on PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC thanks to Codemasters and Team 17. When the series went 3D many fans felt the game had lost the simplicity that gave it its charm. Worms 4 (how they decided this was the fourth game isn't clear) looks to set right what went wrong in the previous 3D incarnations.

Basic gameplay hasn't changed much since the last 3D Worms game, but a few changes have been made to make the experience more fun. The levels in which the worms fight are a little simpler than before, making journeys across these maps a little easier. This doesn't make them dull though; themes for the levels include construction sites, the Wild West and Camelot. The little guys can now move over small bumps without the need to jump over them, and while worm speed has been increased, their movement is still rather slow and if you aren't used to the rather sedate turn-based gameplay, it will take some time to get used to.

Three camera views (Blimp, first-person and third-person) give you plenty of options to view the action and all your attacks are followed so you see exactly what damage your chosen weapon caused. Firing weapons is very simple, and once you learn how to use the sack-load on offer, it's fair to say that the controls rarely get in the way of your enjoyment. The one problem is jumping. Worms weren't made to jump and it shows. When in wide-open areas this isn't a problem, but when you're attempting to jump up a staircase of boxes, things become a little tricky. You'll often rebound off the box you are trying to jump on top of, and then fall ungraciously to the ground - ruining that turn and sending your worm a few moves away from your previous location.

Game modes on offer for the lone player include a fairly lengthy single-player campaign which even attempts to tell a story via cutscenes. If you haven't got anyone to play with, this mode will provide you with plenty of enjoyment, and the objectives in each of the levels are varied enough to prevent things from becoming repetitive. Having said that, if you can get online or have a few mates to play with locally, you'll spend most of your time playing competitive games. Worms has always excelled when played against real people and Worms 4 is no different. Online play for four players is supported on the Xbox and PC versions of the game and its turn-based gameplay works great in the online environment. There are a number of game types that differ from standard deathmatch, including games that require you to take out your opponent's statues or take over their base, and basic rules can be altered to create new game types.

Worms has always been about the weapons and Worms 4 is no different. While old favourites like the Bazooka and the exploding sheep return, a few new weapons have been added to the mix. As you'd expect, these aren't really weapons that the military are going to use. Of particular note is the Inflatable Scouser (Someone from Liverpool, for our none UK readers). This big haired, moustached, football loving guy wanders around the map until he finds and enemy worm. He then grabs the worm and starts to inflate, eventually soaring into the sky like a helium filled balloon. After a while (or if he hits something) he will pop, sending the poor worm plummeting to the ground. It doesn't end there either. Alien Abductions and exploding cow bombs are among the other new weapons at your disposal. Only the Ratchet and Clank series can boast a weapon selection anywhere near as diverse.

The big addition to Worms 4, however, is the weapon factory. Here you can create your very own weapons of worm destruction. In truth, the scope you have isn't that great, but you can select the weapon type, choose what it looks like from a number of ready made models, customise its strength in a few areas, give it a name and a tinker with a number of other settings. There are plenty of models to choose from, and anybody who wants to create funny sounding weapons will be pleased, just don't expect the kind of customisation you'd find in a game like Forza Motorsport.

Visually, the game has a cartoon-like feel to it, with bold colours and explosion effects straight out of a children's TV show. Detail in the environments is minimal, with most buildings being rather blocky, but any non essential parts of the environment are destructible. The worms themselves are adequately wormy and each of the game's worm groups has a distinct and occasionally funny appearance. These range from moustache wearing '70's worms, to hardcore army corporals. You can even personalise your worms, giving your teams their own individual look and style. The many weapons in the game are also modelled well, not surprising given that they are the real stars of the show.

Audio is pretty basic and can become rather irritating. The worms talk in the most annoying language that is made entirely of "mee" and "meh" noises. Cutscenes that progress the single-player campaign can be particularly annoying, with sentences such as "mee meh, meeee, me me meh, mee mee mee" making you reach for the mute button on the remote control. Thankfully, for those of you that don't speak worm, there are subtitles, so you don't miss out on any vital parts to the story. Oddly, while playing the game, the worms shout out a number of sentences in plain English, making you wonder why they can only make noises during the cutscenes.

Worms 4 is a solid return to form for the series that offers plenty to do for the lone gamer as well as anyone looking for multiplayer fun. The new weapons and weapon building are nice touches, but there are still a few niggles that prevent Worms 4: Mayhem from reaching the dizzy heights of the 2D era. It's a step in the right direction and a good sign for things to come in the series and worms fans should find plenty to enjoy.

NAME: WORMS 4 - MAYHEM
SYSTEM: PlayStation 2, XBOX, PC

Singles 2 - Triple Trouble

Despite its name... you're not going to find that.

Review By BinLadi.

 Yes, I picked this game up knowing what would be the focus of it. Partying and sex! Or at least I thought so... At first I expected Singles 2 : Triple Trouble to be something like The Sims with more of a focus on the aforementioned. That certainly sounds like fun, huh? Now, what I found was what I expected but it just... wasn't that good! Singles 2 : Triple Trouble is basically a clone of The Sims and it focuses on ''dating'' and getting lucky with your dates (although it isn't all that in-depth). In the game there are two modes, an extremely simple story mode and a freeplay mode, I'll talk about the story mode first.

STORY & GAMEPLAY: As you would have guessed, the story isn't that good. In Story mode you can choose either Anna or Josh (it doesn't matter who you pick anyways since the scenario is just flipped for the person) who recently broke up. After breaking up you move to another apartment and your ex coincidentally happens to be staying there... now, guess what the main point of the story is from here? Getting back with your ex! How original is that? You do objectives in order to advance the story, and that's basically that. It's pretty stiff and the only reason you'll probably be going through the story is to unlock the other areas in freeplay mode (which you can unlock with some simple editing).

Now after playing through story mode you'd think that freeplay is going to be exciting, I know I did! But, I was extremely disappointed. In freeplay mode, you choose the area you want to live in, there's the story mode apartment (which is the only one available without completing the story), the backyard (it sounds as bad as the name) and the fabulous penthouse. You choose 3 people (out of about 16 people) who are going to live in the apartment and you can control each of them and do whatever you please.

Both versions have the same gameplay. Like I said before, it's moreoreless a clone of The Sims and the controls are very similar, it'll take you about 3 minutes to get the hang of it. One thing I was really impressed with was how easy the camera was to control, most games that I've played that are like this have the most stubborn camera controls. Anyways, there are needs, just like The Sims. Hunger, Hygiene, etc along with Romance, Friendship and Eroticism. You'd think that managing these would be easy, but it's not. It's not even a slight challenge, it's just hard. Maybe it's just me, but once you full up one bar the others have most likely down already, fill up those and the other one goes down and that's how it works. If you focus on managing these you'll never be able to focus on the main objective of the game. 

It's just ridiculous, apparently some social actions need a certain amount of some of these needs to be at a certain level or the action will ''fail''. Like, in order to have sex, romance, friendship, hygiene, eroticism and some others I can't remember all have to be at least 3/8 full or you'll be ''rejected' which is just plain stupid to me since having sex raises some of these. The worst need though, has to be the ''comfort'' need, some furniture gives out a comfort ''aura'' and you have to be careful of how to place your furniture if you want to maximize this ''aura'' if you don't, your comfort level will be down and then the chaos that I explained before starts happening. That whole comfort thing just seems so unnecessary to me, WHY make one of the more simpler things so complicated? There's also a skill system that I haven't gotten the hang of even up to now. Your character also goes to work just like in The Sims and you can buy furniture too.

The conversation options are pretty shallow too. There's Friendship, Romance, Fun and Eroticism, each one of these subjects raises up the need named after them. When you click on one of these, no more than 6 options are now available (and you need nearly MAX Friendship, Romance or Eroticism with the person in order to do all) to use on the person. Another thing is that your relationships level up incredibly slow. There's this short-term relationship that affects the real, long-term relationship level (this effect becomes visible every 12 hours or something like that). For example, you talk to someone and raise up their short-term relationship to max and in 12 hours the long-term relationship will increase. Again, WHY is this so complicated? I expected this to be more casual and funner than The Sims!

If your main reason to buy/rent this game is for pixel porn, you're going to be disappointed. There's this stupid censor (the game is rated 18+, but there's a censor?) that blocks everything unless you disable it by moving around a file and editing the game's config file, but it's all fairly simple. And after doing that you're rewarded with nudity! :D

For sex, the two characters cover most of their body with a sheet and apart from that, you can't really see anything unless you're watching them shower or something. And I said in this review's title, despite its name, you cannot have threesomes. And for the curious, you can have same-sex relationships but it's really hard to make one unless you edit some of the game's data files (again).

Remember how I said I hoped that this game had partying? Yeeeah, it kinda does have it, but it doesn't at the same time. There's only one area that you can visit which is a half-dead singles bar and that's it (honestly, there's no more than 4 people and the place and it's horribly cramped). If there were more locations, the ability to have a party, a more in-dept, a slightly easier relationship and needs system and a wider selection of singles, this game could have been so much better. After sleeping around with some people, there really isn't much to do, the game itself just isn't that fun.

SOUND: The characters talk in a fictional language which isn't really that bad sounding. The bad thing though, is that every character has the same generic male and female voice and they also say the same phrases alot so it gets irritating fast. The music though, is really good! Although my brother said it was annoying but if you're into a kind of trance/pop you might like it. I honestly really loved that Let's Go Slow song that plays when you have sex (Yes, I'm serious) and it's bar remix.

GRAPHICS: For a small (and fairly dated game), I was impressed with the graphics, nearly everything looks good. Some things I didn't like though, was that the sky was static and there was no transition from daylight to nighttime, just some lag and BAM! It's nighttime!

REPLAYABLE: Unless you want to see someone in the game naked again, you most likely aren't going to want to play this again. After completing the storymode and playing around in freeplay for a few hours, you'll notice how dead and boring this game is.

PROS:

Good music

Good graphics

The concept is kind of unique

CONS:

There is only one area that's accessible other than the apartment

Small selection of datable people

Confusing, difficult and unnecessary gameplay elements

Thin story

NAME: SINGLES 2 - TRIPLE TROUBLE

SYSTEM: PC