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Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Xbox)
by DooYou
To some, Buffy the Vampire slayer is simply Friends with some vampires in it. Think about it: Xander-Chandler and Phoebe-Willow and er Ross-Giles. However we all know that Rachael would never be able to fight the undead like Buffy can, though like Ms Summers, she does perform well with some solid wood in her hand.
Innuendo, ... you have to agree that the Buffy universe is fairly diverse and the series has a lot of characters and scenarios from which to base a game upon. Well this is indeed the case and in this excellent "action adventure" Spike (if you've seen the show you'll know who this is) returns to Sunnydale with a plan for Buffy: to Master bait her, by reforming his cult, and in so doing lead her into a confrontation with this ultimate of bad boys.
Someone once said that you should always "know thy enemy" and this is something that you'll have no trouble in doing (Buffy even knows one of the main "bad guy" Vampires rather intimately). The oh so familiar locations in Sunnydale are nicely rendered and populated with the supporting cast of allies and evildoers. The voice acting is superb as all the main cast lend their voices to their digital counterparts apart from one. Buffy.
The game involves the exploration of the key locations in Sunnydale, which are partly interactive, as the plot unfolds and dispatching Vampires, Zombies and other foul Hell spawn, back to Hell presumably (which seems pointless but there you go). I say partly interactive as you can often use the environment to your advantage; grasp hold of the vampire assaulting you and toss him off into the nearby and conveniently placed spiky wall ornament or brassier of hot coals. Combat is a combination of beating the Vampires off until they are in a position to receive some Buffy justice (a quick stake through the face perhaps) or taking them out in a manner similar to the aforementioned, throwing then into or onto something nasty.
As Buffy is a slayer, she understandably has some devastating moves at her disposal; you learn these moves every so often when being briefed by Giles in the library and each move requires some of your limited slayer power. The better and more deadly moves use more slayer power. Luckily you can top this up in a variety of ways, chiefly by killing the undead, so you're always likely to be able to pull off a few impressive moves even when surrounded by suck heads and in desperate need for some relief from the situation at hand.
I've only got one gripe worth mentioning. Sometimes you'll be fighting an enemy who just won't die (or die again) and you'll often only find out that you should have "run off down the corridor, with it chasing to trigger the stairs to collapse" in frustration.
That aside, this game is fun and you can even batter Zombies with a shovel, knocking their limbs off. Therefore this classic game comes highly recommended.
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Full Spectrum Warrior (Xbox)
by DooYou
Full Spectrum Warrior. Hardly the name which screams 'innovation', is it? When you hear it, it brings back memories of all the generic shooters that this generation of consoles has seen. Thankfully, though, we don't have to suffer another Turok Evolution with Full Spectrum. In fact, it isn't a first person shooter in any sense of the ... phrase. Also, you don't even have direct control over the soldiers. Sounds crazy, yes? What's even crazier is the fact that it works extremely well.
Based on a piece of training software by the US army, you take control of 2 (and, ocassionally 3) teams of men, all highly trained and supremely skilled in the art of war. Taking an almost advisory role in the game, you tell your team where to go, what cover to use, where they should be firing and a whole host of other things. Whilst sounding like one of the simplest and most disinteresting concepts ever to grace the XBOX, Pandemic have managed to make this Real Time Strategy-esque game one of the most enthralling and exciting on the box to date.
The games sense of atmosphere is amazing, and what helps to draw you into the game. From the opening movie to the final credits, it's filled with little touches that make it feel as real as possible. Panic is one of the feelings you'll experience the most throughout your playtime with Full Spectrum. The noises of war are so shockingly life-like that you can almost feel the bullets grazing your face as they fly by. Soldiers scream as they're hit, and the sense of danger is only enhanced as your men start shouting worried expletives about their situation.
Full Spectrum Warrior sees you take control of your men for, as the game puts it, 'the first 12 hours of the ground war'. Featuring AI with bags of patience and many, many rounds of ammo, it'll take all of your grey matter to skillfully and painlessly take out any resistance. With grenades and ammo scarce, Full Spectrum requires wits and quick thinking at all times if you want to stay alive. Military techniques and heavy cover are essential for success, and, often, the only means of taking out an enemy is to distract him with one team and take him out with the other.
XBOX Live is a feature which will keep this game alive for many months more, and, although co-op is the only option, it is a feature that is welcomed, and forces a lot more teamwork and structure to a mission and depends a lot more on trust between the players. Thankfully, though, this is a unique experience that anyone with a gamertag should try.
Full Spectrum Warrior offers everything that you'd want in a game - innovation, reward, tension and a sense, throughout the game, that this could actually be real. In an industry filled with sub-standard, over hyped games and generic first person shooters, it's nice to see that some developers actually still care about giving the gamer something new and something challenging. Overall, a magnificent game, and one that any XBOX is naked without.
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XIII (Xbox)
by DooYou
For the uninitiated, XIII is a Belgian graphic novel by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance. When we say 'the uninitiated' we mean practically everyone, as the book has never actually been translated into English. Anyway, it charts the story of a man who washes up on a beach, lacking a memory or any possessions. The only clue he has to his ... identity is the 'XIII' he has on his chest. Thus far there have been fifteen books charting this mysterious man's investigation into the assassination of the President and his own murky past.
The developers of the game have wisely kept the distinctive visual style that made XIII such a hit right across Europe. A world of heavy outlines and cel-shaded graphics await you, along with Batman-style, comic book-friendly phonetically-displayed sound effects marking explosions and gunfire. We particularly like the huge 'BAOOOM' displayed when you unleash a rocket - it's all very cool.
Along with all the high-octane first-person shooter-action, there are Metal Gear inspired stealth sequences, and you can also make use of a grappling hook to propel you to hitherto unreachable areas. You can hide dead bodies, stop sentries from setting off alarms and grab enemies for use as a human shield. Bad guys dive for cover when out-gunned and the death animations are spectacular. It seems although every good idea in an FPS in the last few years has been given a polish and incorporated into the XIII engine.
As you would expect, XIII's quest to find out who killed JFK (or indeed, if it was him who did the dastardly deed), is rich and compelling and the gameplay is continually engaging. The excellent use of comic-style panels and visual effects maintain the overall tone throughout and great features like the screen blurring when you are within the blast radius of a grenade and being able to choose between sneaking around and going in all guns blazing make the game a joy to play.
XIII is way more than just another FPS with a gimmick. It does have a gimmick - a mighty fine one at that - but the gameplay is more than strong enough to elevate the game above the norm.
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