Bet on Soldier - Blood Sport

In this 3D shooter, the most important thing is CASH!

Review By BOSS

First person shooters are not easy games to make. The genre has been around for a while and it seems like the chances of a developer coming out with a new smash hit grow smaller every year. The balance between gameplay and graphics is one reason for this problem. There are FPS games with beautiful graphics, but suffering from average to substandard gameplay. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are FPS games with great gameplay but lackluster graphics. To really hit it big, the developer has to put both together. Bet on Soldier: Bloodsport tries to make this happen, but sadly falls short of greatness because of small annoyances and basic problems.

The graphics in BoS: Bloodsport end up looking pretty choice on the optimal settings. This is a bonus for the developer Kylotonn because you, as a typical gamer, should be able to run the game at its optimal settings because it only calls for a Geforce 6 and an Intel 3.0GHz or AMD equivalent. For some gamers this distinction may be important, especially considering other FPS games like Quake 4 can take far more than a Geforce 6 to run at optimal settings. The environmental detail in BoS is on par with the best games out there. During combat the fire, light bloom, hallucination, and dizziness are all pretty smooth. Overall the game plays pretty smooth with the occasional hang or stutter upon encountering a BoS competitor. 

The character detail is average, the players seem to glow from sweat constantly, and they look a little like plastic action figures at times. The maps themselves are pretty expansive but still very linear. Additionally the objects around the map are plentiful and done well, but your level of interaction is next to zero. This basic problem of object interactivity is a good example of how BoS falls short of the mark from a small annoyance and basic problem. Forget picking up a box, you can hit the use key repeatedly in a weak attempt to nudge the box, but even this basic object interaction is missing.

The story behind the game is pretty simple and it sounds similar to both The Running Man and Bloodsport. In BoS: Bloodsport you play as Nolan Daneworth, a mercenary fighting in the Bet on Soldier televised competitions. You live in a world controlled by two multinational corporations that specialize in nothing but defense equipment and weaponry. Everyone in this world works for the war machine somehow. BoS is a creation of the corporations to appease the people similar to the movie The Running Man. Since you enter into competition with other soldiers, each with a various skillset in the hopes of becoming champion, the game also parallels the Jean Claude Van Damme classic, Bloodsport. 

Somewhere in there is a quest to uncover the mystery of your wife’s death at the hands of BoS competitors. Don’t bother yourself with these minor details though…  As you progress through the game various cutscenes move the story along. At the conclusion of the cutscene you are brought to a world map where you can choose your next mission. After choosing your mission you choose your BoS opponents, weapons, and fellow mercenaries. The actual Bet on Soldier action comes during the missions at various points along the way. The game will stop and introduce your opponent, countdown from 10, and then competition will begin. 

This storyline and features feed directly into the gameplay discussion. BoS is a typical first person shooter with some fairly common weapons. Each weapon though, and all its ammo cost money, so you better be at your best when taking on the BoS competitors. Win more money, and you buy the best of the weapons and plenty of ammo. Movement and control is simple, almost too simple. Compared to the movement in Quake 4 or Half Life 2, BoS looks pretty clunky. Again bringing up the simple problems, movement up and down a ladder or on stairs is a problem. The character seems to move OK, but the movement is clunky, often awkward and it doesn’t seem to have the same smoothness as the other FPS games currently on the market. 

Additionally the gameplay is rather linear, yet still slightly confusing. You pick your mission, your team, and your weapons and you are given objectives. As you move through the mission you must be prepared for interruption and sudden combat with other BoS competitors. The competition pretty much comes without warning, though it will always occur at the same point on the map. It seems disjointed and confusing to have the game play in this fashion. 

It almost seems like it might have been a better idea to organize the game in such a way that the BoS portions occur separately from the mission, either before or after, as some sort of addition, furthering the storyline or increasing your character. The game tries to interweave the missions and BoS competitions with some dialogue and text, but if you’re like me, you skip all that and go straight for the action anyway. You may also find yourself becoming a little bored moving through the maps because the game plays on a fairly straight line. There is only one correct path, it isn’t that difficult to find, and most of the time it’s your only choice.

There are some aspects of the game that really do standout and add a unique twist though. For one, the mercenary aspect of the game where each bullet costs money and how you kill an enemy determines how much money you earn can be enjoyable. Working toward killing the enemies with headshots will earn you a ton of cash, and the headshot box is pretty big. It’s pretty easy to tag most of the enemies on the fly with just about any weapon. If you’re lucky enough to sport the Sniper Rifle (hint: buy the sniper rifle more than you might normally in an FPS, it’s really handy and not that cumbersome) with zoom and even double zoom you should easily be able to pop the enemies, even behind their shields and other objects. 

Another aspect of the game that is different than some FPS games is that after you choose your weapons you are stuck with them for the entire level. You can’t pick up the enemies' weapons, and you won’t find a weapon on the map to use. Taking this even further there really are no health packs. You occasionally will run into refill stations for ammo, armor, and grenades but they won’t increase your health. A good tactic during the game is to get a mercenary engineer at the start because they can fix your damaged armor during the game and save you some cash. 

BoS does bring some unique twists to the typical FPS game by adding the Hollywood flair from the movies. However the game falls short, as so many FPS games do, when examining the gameplay and graphics. It really is not easy to balance the two and create a winning combination. Although BoS shows some promise, it will need to work on the small stuff and basic issues before it can try and stand among the greats.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 75%.  Bet on Soldier: Bloodsport borrows from the Hollywood movies The Running Man and Bloodsport and then blends them with the characteristics of a traditional first person shooter. The result is a bit like most Hollywood movies, fair to good at best.

NAME: BET ON SOLDIER - BLOOD SPORT

SYSTEM: PC

Starship Troopers

Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review By Kael

Starship Troopers is an FPS based on the original film and was developed by Strangelite. I've red the book, I've hated its totalitarian and militaristic views, I've seen the movie but luckily I had popcorn with me to handle the boredom so when I learned about the game I was a bit prejudiced about it. Fortunately it turned out to be quite an enjoying ride with one BIG problem only, it's one of those been-there-done-that kind of games.

STORY: You are an unnamed marine, or to be more precise an elite Marauder and you battle against the bugs in their planet five years after the events of the original movie. I can't say that the story was something to die for, there is some sort of mystery in the first hour of the game but after a while you see that nothing spectacular will happen. The plot is very simple and I would've given it a lower score if the game was based in its storyline but it isn't. Also the game does a very good job in creating a very good atmosphere that draws you in the game.

GRAPHICS: Although not topnotch compared to other games, Starship Troopers have a quite decent graphic quality making you feel as if you are actually in the original movie. The most notable aspect of the graphic engine is the tricks it uses to bring forth an enormous amount of enemies in your screen. You see in this game you'll be killing bugs by the dozens so the game actually renders only the closest ones to you at top quality and all the distant ones are rendered with lower polygons and overall quality and for the FAR distant ones I think that the game uses 2D images, (like in old FPS games). 

Also battles are quite dirty with all that green alien blood and bug parts scattered around. Levels have very good design and range from mysterious dunes and abandoned human-built structures to the strange and dangerous alien nests. Special effects like explosions and such are very well done with the nuclear explosion being the most fascinating one. The human characters are too simple and their faces are a bit too ape-like but that's not a problem since 99.9% of the game is about bugs, bugs that range from the simple ones to the big armored cockroaches!!! The one major problem is the fact that the game needs more than it delivers. I'm playing F.E.A.R., Doom 3 and Far Cry without problems while in the same machine I have some unacceptable frame drop rates while playing Starship Troopers. 

SOUND: Nothing worth mentioning, music that will come and go and ok sound effects that create the right atmosphere making you feel as if you are watching the actual movie.

GAMEPLAY: Overall Starship Troopers is your typical old school FPS, all you do is shoot, shoot and shoot! But unlike some games all these shooting in here is quite fun. First of all your weapons although are the typical machine guns and shotguns are very balanced and have their weaknesses and strengths forcing you to use them cleverly. The only problem here is your main weapon, which conveniently recharges its ammo and is quite fast but will be used a LOT because the ammo for the other guns is quite scarce for a game with so much enemies. Get ready for a lot of shooting with bugs appearing from all possible direction, surrounding you and overwhelm you with their large number. The main bugs apart from being quite cool don't go down so easily for 2 reasons, first the fact that you have to shoot them in their hard to aim eyes and the fact that even with a leg or two off they are still dangerous, (and fast).

Here is a typical level in starship troopers. You start along with some allied forces that I gotta say that they are quite stupid due to bad friendly AI and start running towards a certain area, some bugs appear, you kill them, you reach an area, for example your base defend it from bug swarms and then go out on your own and enter caves and pits killing even more bugs. This is what Starship Troopers is all about making the gaming extremely linear and repetitive!

OVERALL: If you don't like fast paced FPS games with lots and lots of shooting avoid this game but even if you do like it don't expect from it to become your all-time favorite. It is one of these games that you'll only play once and then let it collect dust…

NAME: STARSHIP TROOPERS

SYSTEM: PC

7 Sins

And I thought being a bad guy was cool.

Review By Satan

7 Sins is a Virtual Life\Adventure game developed by Monte Cristo. What this little thing here tries to do is to mix the addictive gameplay of The Sims and the adult humor of the Leisure Suit Larry games. Is it good at it? In one word no, in two HELL NO!!! For more words read below…

STORY: You are a stereotypical male “pig”, a man at his 20-30s, cynical, 100% cretin and care only about your own loving self. What do you want for yourself? Money, sex, POWER! How? By using the 7 sins available to achieve everything you need in order to gain more money, more sex and of course more power… So far so good but is there an actual story besides all these. Nope, there isn't, the whole game is full of mini games and the characters involved are just people you interact with in order to start this games or trigger a specific event. No dialogue, no character development, no nothing! Of course a game like this doesn't actually depend on its plot so instead of a simple zero I gave this section one point of mercy…

1/10

GRAPHICS: Probably the only thing worth mentioning about this game is that it actually has good graphics. All character models have good design and there is a nice variety of them, their animation thought is a bit stiff, moves that are supposed to be full of emotion like sexuality and anger and up being bad acting from robots. The scenery is also quite good, levels range from shops and gyms to grand restaurants and S&M clubs. All areas are well lit and have some good effects like reflections on the floor. The only problem is the simplicity. Simple textures, simple objects and rooms that are decorated with some tables and chairs, some paintings, some lights and that's it.

7/10

SOUND: The sound section of 7 Sins can be divided between 2 parts ambient sound and voice acting. The ambient sounds are nothing special and just get the job done, for example when in a shop you hear some low tempo music, people talking, etc. when in a disco you hear music and so on… Voice acting is a lame attempt of avoiding actual dialogue since it uses the same technique like in the Sims, which means that characters mumble a fictional language that is more annoying than funny or at least good for showing emotion. Your main character talks only in cutscenes and once again instead of humor you get annoyance.

4/10

GAMEPLAY: Now, on to the main dish. Your mission is to rise up socially by using all you can when interacting with the characters you meet. You'll have to make people give you money, help you to gain something or just get laid. When interacting with people in this game you select an action from a list when having a conversation with them. Your choices affect your relationship level with each character and a higher level means that people are more eager to help you, (give you money, let you grab their… assets, etc). 

Most things you make affect your lust, anxiety and anger meters, for example if you see a lad shaking her sexy body your lust meter goes up and when your boss behaves badly to you your anger meter goes up. If these meters are full you go crazy and run like hell out of the current level destroying your relationship with the people. In order to lower these meters you can do various stuff, for example in order to lower your anxiety you nap while at work, or punch some mannequins in order to feel less angry. The main attraction though is the 7 sins. 

In your HUD there are 7 slots that mark how many bad deeds connected to the 7 sins have you done. Grab some booty, one bad deed from lust, grab some money, one bad deed from greed and so on… if you fill up all slots you once again loose all so in order to remain away from the fiery pits of hell you have to do some good deeds, hear complains, lend money and generally be good, something that of course affects the 3 meters mentioned before. 

Finally the game is full of mini games. For example in order to lower your lust you gaze upon some nice cleavage in a game where you have to keep your cursor in the center of your love interest's funbags while she moves or press the directional buttons in the right order when trying to go to the bathroom before throwing up the things you've drunk. 

All these may seem fun but they are not and if you somehow manage to like it you'll soon get bored of it after the 1000th time. If you steal money you gain a bad deed, you loose the bad deed with doing something good, but then you get angry, so you have to beat up somebody but then you gain another bad deed and so on and so on… The game goes in BIG circles and gets so boring you'll want to kill yourself…

0/10

Positives:
-Nice graphics

Negatives:
-Boring as hell and repetitive gameplay
-Bad and annoying voice acting

NAME: 7 SINS
SYSTEM:  PC, PlayStation 2

Gears of War

If you've been looking for a definitive Xbox 360 game, this is it.

Review By Duke.

A true blockbuster is universal—no matter your preference in genre, for a game to achieve legendary status it must transcend genres and appeal to everybody. Few games have achieved this: Zelda, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, and Halo spring to mind. There is no longer a universally beloved platformer (my genre of choice) save for perhaps Mario (although the near perfect Sunshine was flogged by many) and until now, in my estimation, there wasn't a third-person shooter—let alone a tactical one—that even came close. You can scream Tom Clancy all you want, but that's people killing people and thereby limited to players who find that entertaining to the tune of “legendary”. You can now add Gears of War to that illustrious and short list; Microsoft's second brand worthy of its own day.

Blending unmatched twitch-action with an incomparably oppressive atmosphere and multiplayer that will monopolize your broadband for months, Gears of War is the game the 360 was designed to play. Talked up for months in a marketing campaign whose cost undoubtedly dwarfs the gross national product of most third-world nations, we can safely announce that Gears of War delivers on the promises developer Epic has made. Here's how it suckered us... Gears of War zigs when you expect it to zag - where you'd imagine a guitar-heavy, thrash metal-laced soundtrack, Gears of War belts out a hard-hitting symphony packed with fanfares and themes that get your blood pumping far more than any generic electric guitar could.

This theme of surprise is carried over into the gameplay as well. Gears of War doesn't just focus on your standard running and gunning, but rather delves into some fantastic twists on the tired shooter genre. The first time you run up against a blind Berserker (who can only be killed outside using the lasers of orbiting satellites - which you can call down using a pointer called the Hammer of Dawn), you'll understand the drastic departure Gears of War has taken - a swerve which fulfills the promise of next-gen like no other title yet. When you try to guide hero Marcus Fenix over a rotted-out wooden floor without dropping him into a nest of bloodthirsty Locusts, you'll know the definition of innovation.

That is, if you can get past the graphics. Huge, muscular combatants move like giant men wearing heavy gear, fine details are everywhere, and splattering blood never looked so beautiful - and we mean that in an uncreepy, non-Hannibal Lecter kind of way. It just looks incredible.

Set in a bleak future on a planet named Sera, a dark figure sits in a jail cell. The figure is disgraced COG soldier Marcus Fenix -- who just happens to be harder than a coffin nail soaked in titanium. Things are not going too well on the planet's surface. After the human colonies were assaulted by a force of subterranean beasts known as the Locust, a raging war broke out and the humans pretty much had to destroy their entire civilization to stop the rampaging Locust. Fast forward some four years, and we find Fenix's COG partner, Dom, knocking on the jail cell door.

Gears of War accomplishes this by providing a rich suite of contextual actions that are fairly easy to grasp, but incredibly challenging to master. Shucking and jiving around the map, making sure you're always under protective cover is easy enough, but getting the hang of the highly-touted chainsaw bayonet takes some serious dedication. Add to that the expansive arsenal of weapons at your command and the deeply nuanced tactical options, and you've got a game that may never get old.

Gears of War blends tactical action with survival horror and thrusts gamers into a deep and harrowing story of humankind's epic battle for survival against the Locust Horde, a nightmarish race of creatures that surface from the bowels of the planet. Lead war hero Marcus Fenix and his fire team as they face the onslaught of merciless warrior fiends. A revolutionary tactical combat system and breathtaking, high-definition visuals from the Unreal Engine 3 immerse you in a horrifying story of war and survival. A.I. teammates are indiscernable from human players. Voice recognition and real-time lip synching heighten the experience. The battlefield is a lethal place. To survive, suppress your enemy with blindfire, take cover in interactive environments, or use weapons and teammates to outwit your foes. [Microsoft]

Before I get into the gameplay it must be said that whether you agree with my views or not there is no denying that this is one of, if not the most well constructed games ever. There was a limited edition book a while back called “Destroyed Beauty” which, although filled with gorgeous concept art, I didn't grasp until now. That name says it all. The world in Gears of War is demolished, but at the same time utterly beautiful because it doesn't look fabricated. It looks like our world would if it fell under such an attack. The detail is absolutely absurd. It's painfully evident that EPIC poured their hearts into every staircase, floor, ravaged ceiling, obliterated structure, clogged artery, vehicle, puddle, and cavern in the game. 

Every inch has detail. But this is only the facade on which the game resides. No matter how beautiful, so many other elements need to click; and here, they bellow. The cinematography, pacing, script, and AI, all do their parts respectively. The single-player campaign certainly begins as superb duck ‘n cover, but duck ‘n cover alone a great game does not make. EPIC elevate theirs by allowing the player a diverse move set from cover, but soon evolve beyond the norm via weapons technology (I'm trying to do this without spoiling the game) and level interaction that elevates the action from a tactical shooter to so much more. In one area in particular they use a rickety wood floor to great effect. 

Things go from manic, to eerily quiet, to horrific, to pant-wetting…and the dialogue supports it all in stride, as does the in-game cinematography, and the cut-scenes. You live this game; you care about your squad and when you're offered a choice of routes you think long and hard about what awaits you depending on the lay of the land. Tight corridors and open streets both pose formidable yet different challenges. You will die in Gears and have to use head to overcome certain situations. If you find yourself plugging away but dying repeatedly, look around. EPIC has built a non-linear world into a linear adventure. They utilize not only day and night cycles but the world in a way I've never experienced. I've seen multiple paths and evolving gameplay before, just never at this level.

Gears of War is truly a breakthrough: The absolute finest game of its kind. The bar has definitely been raised. What Halo did for first-person shooters, Gears does for third person—it's that good. If this is where this genre is heading my repertoire will be growing, but I'm not holding my breath. There's stuff in here that will stay with you long after the shooting stops.

In terms of length; again, not to spoil anything, this greatly relies on your skill level, but I will say that like Symphony of the Night, when you think it's over—just as you're about to say “my god, that was intense but I want more damnit!”—that's exactly what you get, and I'll leave it at that. There's also going back through on the two ladder settings, and of course the extensive Live features; somewhere I don't go. I live for the single-player experience and I'd gladly pay 60 dollars for the campaign alone. I can't believe the level of entertainment 60 dollars can still buy. 

Video games truly are in a class by themselves when it comes to the entertainment dollar, especially when they are of this exalted nature. I know that sounds arrogant from someone who gets comp games but I'll buy Gears for many a holiday gift (well, maybe not mom) and likely give my comp copy to a deserving staffer and buy my own, as I often do. I still love buying games, ecpecially when I know I'm supporting a developer that has gone to such extraordinary lengths to entertain on every level: Speaking of which the soundtrack and sound effects are on par with everything else. 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Gears of War is the best-looking game I have ever played. It's a truly stunning achievement in terms of visuals, presentation and sound. Never before have I been given so much to look and marvel at while actually playing an adrenalized shooter. It's a fantastic achievement, and it's also easily the best reason to own an Xbox 360 to date. Now that that's out of the way, I also need to hammer home that while the single-player game is a good amount of fun, Gears' real hook is the superb multiplayer game. You'll be all done with the main story after eight or so hours, and even though there are three difficulty levels to play through, the legs of Gears is certainly in abusing foes online.

Pros:
Deep and frantic multiplayer
Innovative gameplay and surprises
Three words: sawing through people 

Cons
Shortness of the single-player campaign
Steep learning curve of multiplayer
Two words: Eating saw

NAME: GEARS OF WAR

SYSTEM: PC, XBOX 360