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Conflict - Vietnam (PS2)
by Bullydc1
The conflict series developed with this great instalment- set in vietnam this time and not in operation desert storm- as the title suggests. Its a 3rd person shoot em up form pivotal games the deries developers.
You play a soldier (whom you are allowed to name yourself unusually, but as usual you have 3 other soldiers in your ... squad Ragman, the heavy weapons specialist, Hoss the sargean and Junior (as in the first games, different person though obviously as the engineer/ close quarters specialist. You fight in different campaigns throughout most of the war culminating in the tet offensive
Gameplay
Some things have been made better in this game, you can still play singleplayer or 2 player co-op, (no 2 playr ctahc the flag wars here please). And as always it is better to play with a mate as you control two characters each rathe rthen a squad of four, because you can manage the gameplay allot mor eeffectively. As usual your squads AI is still questionably cr@p...why did the developers do this ...its so pointless because even if there is a tank there and you heal them, they will still stand around , not getting into cover and wil get blown up again. very frustrating. The other thing is on top of that the enemy AI is so much better, they now take cover - and theres loads of it in the jungle. The missions ae harder at least twice you are alone and injured and have to find, release and regroup your squad, your slow and very vulnerable on your own as your soo outnumbered. The controls by todays standards are not complex, but they wil challenge most novice players. when playing you can see your squad, their life and who is issuing orders or asking for assistance. You have a compass and level map and current weapon/ammo and this time you can see where your being attacked from as the screen will have a red arrow hat pops up in each of the four quadrants. Medical packs are also scarcer in the jungle, so you really have to watch how you attack positions.
Graphics
the developers tried harder with this one, it looks like more time has been spent on it, some of the surfaces still look a little too smooth and unblemished, but the jungle and water looks good, enemy soldiers dont look so blocky and blood and guts look much better, more real. The cutscenes are also really though out and much better looking.
The voices though are still very stereotypical, they badly needed new voice actors I think
This games I think, is he hardest in the series, some missions, like the helo crash in the jungle and you have to fight your way out of an ambush in a swamp at night is very difficult as you cant see anything, also the tet offensive missions are difficult as there are many more tanks than other games in the series before, they are smaller t-62`s that fight down small alleys, so they cant be seen as easily, but they can still wipe out your squad with one round.
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XIII (PS2)
by virtua007
I've always been a fan of the FPS genre - my first introduction to it was playing the Half Life Uplink demo on the PC back in 1999. God that was a long time ago! Since then the Halos have appeared, Call of Duty has become a household name and Half Life 2 and two expansion packs have appeared with a third in the works. There are others ... though that deserve credit for being a great addition to the genre, despite being overlooked or overshadows by other titles. System Shock on the PC in the early 90s is one of the earliest examples of the horror FPS genre that Doom and F.E.A.R managed to successfully adapt. XIII on the other hands utilised cel-shaded graphics for the whole game to give a graphic novel feel to proceedings. It sounded different on paper and it definitely looks different!
You play as XIII, one member of the XX, a group that was responsible for assassinating the current Presdient of the USA. Just turns out that you fired the bullet that killed him but due to amensia you don't remember a thing! Assassins chase after you as you try and piece together the events of the past few months that have led to your current predicament and stop a potential hostile takeover of the U.S.A! The story is bsed on the Belgian comic XIII which started out in the late 80s, with this game adapting the first and most famous arc of storyline on the elusive XIII character. Parts of the story have been changed in order to fit closer to the FPS genre but is no less effective for it!
I really have to talk about the cel-shaded look as it's one that appears every so often in a videogame and always turns heads. XIII was one of the first to do it, if not the first and has since been followed by Killer 7 and Borderlands. All of these are action titles but each has put it's own stamp on the label. XIII uses comic strip boxes whenever major events happen to highlight what is going on as well as give you important tips as to what to do. The best use of this though is when you use knives to kill an enemy in the head - a box appears showing the knife hitting along with a satisfying caption in a comic font that makes you feel like you've completed an achievement! The cel shaded look suits the game well and is able to convey the sinister undertones of several locations well, particulairly the New York rooftops and the Insane Asylum. It's a mature look rather than a cutesy approach which serves to be a strength of the game.
Acting-wise, Ubisoft had a trump card up their sleeve with getting David Duchovny to play XIII. Star of The X Files, David gives a tremendous yet understated performence as XIII, giving him a mix of guilt, confusion and determination to his thoughts and emotions. Having said that, he is not the only star performence in this game: Eve gives a strong performence as XIII's ally Jones and Adam West nearly steals the show with his performence as General Carrington. Despite being an avid fan of Family Guy and Adam West, I never realized it was him until I checked the cast list. His performence is incredibly strong and gives the plot the important gritty edge it needs. The music of XIII is also very effective and conveys the experience that XIII is going through well to the player.
The gameplay is incredibly fun and solid which makes everything so much sweeter! The controls are your standard FPS fare which does the game no harm. If it ain't broken don't fix it! There isn't anything particulairly new or innovative here but there isn't anything here that detracts from the experience in any way. There are a couple of handy gadgets that I found to be great to use and made me feel like a spy at heart. The best example if the whinch which allows you to grap onto hooks and scale up or down tall surfaces. If you don't feel like James Bond doing this then you never will! There are several game bosses throughout the missions, although it doesn't get really tough until you square off against The Mongoose in the game's climatic battle. The ability to take hostages is a helpful feature as it allows you to get by enemies without getting shot. I didn't tend to use it often though as I prefer a run and gun approach personally!
Overall XIII is a great FPS that deserved more than what dished out for it. It's a great game that boasts one of the strongests plots for an FPS in the last decade easily. The fact that this game has yet to (and most likely won't) get a sequel is one of the crimes of videogames in my opinion. Copies can be found for a pound easily, making this game more than a worthwhile purchase for any PS2 owner!
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Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (PS2)
by megidolaon
Storyline 8/10 - The main character found himself involved in what is called the conception (the world as we know is destroyed and preparation for it's rebirth). The main character awakens after witnessing the destruction of Tokyo, and the new world is inhabited with demons and incarnation of death. And he also transformed into a demon ... itself. SMT : Nocturne had a great story with many twists and keep you wondering what'll happen next.
Gameplay 9/10 - The game system is a 'turn based system'. You turn depends on how many character in your party. And if you hit an enemy weakness(every demon have it's weak and strong element) you will get an extra turn, and vice versa. You'll lose your turn if you miss or they repel/drain/block your attack. So, you'll need to know what's your enemy weakness before taking a fight, because if you don't, they can sweep all of your party in 15 sec. And another one is Demonic Summoning system, you can combine a lot of demon to get a new demon. Also, you can recruit any demon that you encounter in battle.
Music 10/10 - Music in this game is awesome composed by Shoji Meguro, the atmosphere is very dark, combined from hard rock and techno. 'Boss battle' and 'Final Battle' is one of the best soundtracks I ever heard.
Graphic 9/10 - This game use cell shaded and I think it's very good. Usually, game creator only focusing on main party or something, but not in this game. All of the demon animation is very smooth and fits with the dark story.
Overall 9/10
Information : Dante from 'Devil May Cry' is on this game, he has a major role. And of course, can be obtained as your party.
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