Rez (PS2)

The videogames industry suffers from a proliferation of souless, badly made, profit driven catastrophes. The cycle generally starts with a decent game (GTA, Doom, Civilisation etc). After these games are seen to be successful, partly because of their originality, the corporate suits sit round in a huddle with under-imaginitive games developers and discuss future projects. Presumably at this points one of them says 'hey look at that game, it made alot of money last year' and the others all nod in agreement. One short leap of imagination later and they all decide to make a cheap nasty clone of aforementioned successful game. In short the reason for this is ...  Read the complete review

Now, with Sega developing this game would make a lot of people be thankful that Sega had gone onto developing games for other consoles. Okay, so this game is on Dreamcast. But the fact that it’s much more likely to be more popular on the good ol’ PS2, what with the more powerful graphics engine. But… there you go. Now you know that Sega has developed this game. The more you know! Yeah. Okay, first off. I’m very glad Sega has gone onto developing for other consoles. Like the PS2. Because otherwise I wouldn’t be playing this game and enjoying it so much. So, you should be more appreciative too. Heh. Now to start off, ...  Read the complete review

Beautiful and hypnotic are not words used to describe video games very often, but they describe Rez perfectly. Pure cyber waffle is how best to describe the plot though, but it at least gives Rez the freedom to create a game world that doesn't kowtow to the games industry's current obsession: ever more "realistic" game worlds, often at the expense of playability. The story is something about the far future and an enormous computer network that you must infiltrate. The computer has become burdened by the sheer volume of information that exists in the network - it has an identity crisis caused by the inability to understand human ...  Read the complete review

Experience synesthesia, so the sales pitch goes. The experience of senses literally meshing together to create visible sounds and touchable colours is a grand claim for Rez, another member of Sega?s increasingly eclectic multi-format release schedule. But for all it?s pretensions (being dedicated to the artist Kandinsky for one) codeshop UGA have crafted a magnificently original take on the 'Space Harrier' ilk of three-dimensional shooters and may have just gone and made the best PS2 game this year. The game mechanics are simple enough. A craft travels through 3d space on a fixed path whilst the analogue stick or d-pad moves a cursor around the screen ...  Read the complete review

This "game" is just so original it is difficult to compare it to anything else out there. I suppose that it could be classed as a "shoot em up" but that would be to do it a great injustice. Originally released on the Sega Dreamcast it came to PS2 when Sega finally withdrew from the console market. I bought my copy for a fiver off ebay, it came in a plastic sleeve without instructions but to be honest you don't really need them. It is difficult top put into words how the game plays but basically your character floats along in what appears to be some kind of computer sysytem and as "enemies" come towards you, you have to ...  Read the complete review