 |
Need For Speed - Most Wanted (PS2)
by JoelM
This game was simply my childhood, I played it countless times through and am tempted to play again, very worried about the reboot of this by Criteron but I will pick that up soon for the PS3 and review that!
The game starts with a brief introduction to the game world (Rockport city) where you are in a blacklist race, racing ... #15 on the blacklist. You know nothing of what this means at the present but you will learn. You will go through all the days leading up to the race etc. You lose your prized possession in the race you're car. BMW M3 GTR. You will reclaim this. I won't ruin the story but personally I found it to be a very interesting story and it kept me hooked through the many times I played even when I knew what was happening.
The cut-scenes were quite a new thing at the time they are an acted scene which come at parts of the game (many at start some when you beat someone on the blacklist) Now this is a small spoiler so if you do not want to learn anything about blacklist then do not read this part. The blacklist is a list of the top street racers in and around Rockport. You will have to beat all 15 putting the car you are using on the line each time until you get to 'Razor' who has moved all the way to the top of the blacklist with your car as the tool. Revenge is 15 blacklist spots away, but getting there won't be easy. To get up to a level where you will be considered able to race these pro's you will need to complete challenges, you will need a certain amount notoriety, have beat a certain number of challenges set out to you such as getting up to a speed passing a speed camera, tollbooth races etc. You will also have to compete in normal races with other small racers to earn the right to race a blacklist racer. Once you have beat someone on the blacklist you choose out of 6 random cards some will be free upgrades to cars, parts, money but the one you will want to find it the pink slip to your rivals car, meaning you will get to take their car from them which is very satisfying.
The gameplay itself is good, controls are easy to pick up. The AI does get harder and you will need certain tactics to win races, using the destructible environments to take out your opponents is one nice way to do this but 'battling' with the other cars tends to generally not work you will need to use shortcuts and race tactics to beat them. There are many race modes I will not go into but they are varied and fun. I must warn though for every blacklist racer you will do similar things to get to race them and with continued play time this will get repetitive and boring.
A great aspect to this game is the pursuits. (this is another thing you will have to do to gain enough notoriety to race a blacklist racer) They are fun and challenging. You can choose where to start from a menu and a police cruiser will be after you from the get go or you can drive around recklessly and into a police car if you see one and gain a star so they will chase you. (Police also appear in some street races and can be a pain especially after the race they will continue to chase you, you will have built up a lot of them by the time you finish and if you did not want a chase it can get a bit annoying) But anyway the chase is fun when you feel like it, they will use more advanced tactics to catch you as you go up the notoriety, a sergeant will come at around 2, a helicopter at 3, loads more at 4 and they will use a 'box' technique to stop you and bust you. (If you are stopped and a cruiser is around you a bar will fill if it reaches the end you will be busted, fined and get a mark on your car 3 marks and it will be impounded) you will have to use the destructible environments to defeat them among other things, different tactics work well for different players. Once you have lost the police you will have a cool down meter than needs to fill before they give up looking for you, you have 'cool down' spots in back alleys and similar places that make this bar fill a lot faster. All in all considering gameplay it was very varied, fun and a glitch free experience for me.
There was a customization aspect to the game which was great you could do pretty much whatever you wanted to your car at the shop, you could put decals anywhere, change parts of the car, improve performance such as the engine, nitrous etc. You could also buy new cars from a dealer but to me this didn't really warrant the cost as you can upgrade cars you win in races to be just as fast or in some cases faster, depending on the car. This brought more gameplay hours and an extra little customizable experience which i thoroughly enjoyed.
The multi-player was a great addition also, you would have all the cars you had collected in your career available and all the races available. You did not win anything as such but it was an enjoyable experience. However in July 2011 they shut down the multiplayer servers for most wanted, so a purchase now will not get you the multiplayer experience. This is a disappointment but not a deal breaker.
This is the NFS game I've enjoyed the most by far. Hot pursuit was terrible in my opinion and Underground was fun but did not match up to this. Have to try the reboot and see what that's like. I would suggest buying this the many ways you now can it is available on PC digital copy or physical around somewhere second hand. PS3 is available on the PSN store. And xbox 360 it's available physical and digitally through the marketplace. The price I have seen is from £5-£15 depending on where you go digital download seems to be more expensive in my experience. I would encourage trying this game if you have not already it is great fun and good graphics for it's time! Only downfall is the repetitiveness that can come and the fact the multiplayer is not available anymore.
Read the complete review |
 |
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were Rabbit (PS2)
by julwhite
This review is of the PS2 game "Wallace and Gromit - The Curse of the Were Rabbit", originally released in 2005.
The game is based on the animated characters from Aardman and is quite closely based on the 'Curse of the Were Rabbit' film. It's suitable for all ages, including younger children, and although several ... years old, is still an interesting game.
The style of the game is an open-ended adventure and puzzle game where you can explore the area and attempt to solve problems. Some of these missions and puzzles aren't the most obvious, although I don't claim to be a very good games-player, so younger children might require some assistance in this, but they'll probably enjoy chasing all the rabbits which is a key part of the game.
I like the ability to explore the area, even though sometimes it isn't immediately clear what I should be doing, although this adds to the challenge. It is possible to complete many of the missions in any order by exploring the town, although some sections remain locked until you progress a little further in the game.
It is generally easy to control the character with a bit of practice and there is a short training section at the beginning of the game to explain the controls. You can also play the game with two players, one controlling Wallace and Gromit, and both have different abilities. Alternatively you can play the game alone and just switch between the characters, but two players is good to encourage children to work together!
The game is fun for a good while, but eventually once the missions are worked through it does lose its appeal a little, as much of the game is based around these missions and puzzles. The game is though surprisingly large and it is fun to explore, so it has a reasonable amount of game-play. In many ways it reminds me of Spyro, with lots of areas to explore.
The graphics and sound are perfectly sufficient and were good for a few years ago, but of course look dated compared to the latest games. I do find that the 3D perspective can occasionally be confusing, although moving around tends to ensure that the camera angle is corrected. The concepts behind the game aren't particularly innovative, but as a fun little game, I feel it works well.
At the time of writing second hand copies of the game cost just two pounds including postage from Amazon and eBay, representing very good value for money. The game isn't currently in production and so it may be difficult to find new copies.
Overall this is a recommended purchase, especially for children who don't necessarily want or need the latest games, and is currently available at a very good price.
Read the complete review |
 |
Resident Evil: Dead Aim (PS2)
by bettyboop2002
My partner and I are big fans of the Resident Evil games and I decided to look for some of the older games we had to try while we await the release of the latest game in April.
One such game I bought was this, Resident Evil: Dead Aim for Playstation 2. The cover on my copy is different to that pictured, being white with a red ... eye.
I bought the game online for around £5 for a used copy.
The game has an age rating of 15, it is violent in nature and can be very gory in places and does sometimes make you jump so might be a bit frightening for young children but I think it depends on each person whether it would be suitable or not.
The game is suitable to play with the usual analog controller or also with a gun type controller (G-Con). I played it with the normal controller. You will need an 8MB memory card with 145KB of free space to be able to save the game.
The game was released in 2003, as it's quite old I wasn't expecting a lot in comparison with new games, but a big improvement on the poor graphics of the first, 1996 Resident Evil. The graphics were improved, but were still quite bad.
You can choose to play the game on easy, normal or hard. The harder the option you choose, the less ammunition and health will be available to pick up.
The sound and music wasn't much better, the voices were very cheesy, as was part of the storyline, the story didn't go into as much detail as some other games and had a poor romance building throughout which was predictable and unnecessary. The characters are different to the other games and what you can hear them saying is often different to what is on the screen.
Map
You can find maps on walls and on tables around the game, when you collect them they will be available to view when you press the start button on your controller. You can also pick up files which may give you some clues as to how to kill the bigger enemies in the game.
Weapons
Weapons you can use include a hand gun, shotgun, grenade launcher and others. The hand gun is the one used most often as there is more ammunition to be collected for this.
Energy
Your life is shown by a monitor which can be seen on screen when shooting or when the game is paused. You can pick up herbs and first aid sprays to replenish your health. One improvement on this game is that you can carry plenty of life, unlike the first game where you only have a few slots free for weapons, ammunition, health and keys. Health is stored in a seperate inventory to the weapons and keys.
I completed the game in a few short hours, and that's being generous as that included pausing the game to watch television a couple of times and it was still finished in one afternoon.
Overall there isn't much good to say about this game, the graphics in the first game were terrible but you could almost ignore that as everything else about the game was so interesting.
The game claims to be an 'intense blend of action and puzzle solving coupled with breathtaking graphics and sound'. I'd have to disagree with everything about this. The puzzle aspect was virtually non existent, only having to find the odd item to open a door or a box. The only positives about the game were that the enemies were quite varied and a bit different to other games.
This was disappointing and there are many other Resident Evil games which are much better on the market.
Read the complete review |
