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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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The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Xbox)
by AverageJoseph
The appealing theme of freedom in a video game had never really been implemented before the likes of the Elder Scrolls series, with almost every single game requiring players to undergo tasks and practically do as you're told. Morrowind takes a different stance in that you can follow the intended main quest, participate in sub quests or ... simply go about doing whatever comes to mind: Explore the land, go on a murderous rampage, become a notorious thief - the prospect of ignoring the storyline however seems to lead to a life of crime. Its open world is not scaled like so many other titles (such its 2 predecessors Oblivion & Skyrim) so if you should wander off into unknown territory, you run the risk of being killed in one hit but also gain the chance to find valuable items that are far superior to anything you may have come across since. A bonus of being available to play on the Xbox 360 makes it even more worth the effort to play so you don't have to dust off the old x-brick out of the attic.. although the screen will get cropped should you play in anything close to high definition (so no 1080p).
"Each event is proceeded by prophecy. But without the hero, there is no event." (Storyline)
The origins of Morrowind is mysteriously sketchy at best, as during the '3rd era of Tamriel' you take control of a prisoner "born on a certain day to uncertain parents". Travelling on a small ship with your dark elf chum Jiub enquiring of your name and that's about it as a guard tells you to get the hell off his vessel. You go ashore and customise your character, picking from a select choice of races, altering hair, faces and switching gender. After acquiring your papers (which are gained by answering a cryptic old mans questions of morality or filled out yourself) you have a chat with a soldier and stroll out into the open, a small swampy port town known as Seyda Neen. Your previous conversation indicates you need to report to a man known as Caius Cosades in Balmora. This is your chance to do as you wish: travel on foot to find the mystery man, hop on the 'Silt Rider' (instant transport) or literally go anywhere else. The general plot is around the exploits of the Blades - the eyes and ears of the emperor - discovering that the evil forces ravaging the plains of Vvardenfell are the servants of the sixth house leader Dagoth Ur. The six houses consist of varying folk with specific skills much like the guilds (fighters, mages and thieves). Encouraged to join a great house or guild for work and experience, you gain spells, gold and attributes to aid you in your journey to unite the warring houses and take up arms against the immortal Lord. Underneath all the fantasy titles, is a pretty basic, tried and true plot that takes players on an expedition across a continent, exploring towns, cities, tombs and diseased wilderness.
"We're watching you...... SCUM!" (Gameplay)
There are 3 bars on screen, your health, magicka and stamina. Straight away you'll find a glaring flaw in Morrowind's gameplay - the fighting. Whether you throw a punch or swing an axe, in the beginning, it will glide through the air and miss your opponent who's 2 inches away from your nose. 27 skills with a maximum stat of 100, you have to keep training with individual weapons, armour and spells to increase their number and in doing so, their success rate. The skills come under 3 specialisation's (combat, magic & stealth) and under 8 governing attributes (strength, intelligence, agility, endurance, speed, willpower, personality and luck. All of these make for varying ways to create characters. Due to its large size, most people have several lines of dialogue which are spoken, whilst also having loads of paragraphs to go into when in conversation. A good start to the game is to find a suitable house (occupied or abandoned) to store all your loot and possessions. You can sleep to pass the time to make use of the time of day or weather (which is has rain, cloudy, sunshine, sandstorms, thunder & lightning). A pleasant inclusion is the level of customisation involved. For example, you can create your own class by cherrypicking your favourite (or most interested) skills for quicker levelling up and a more enjoyable gaming experience.
Combat
Provides efficient use of medium/heavy weapons/armour. Also aids in blocking and the athletics skill for running, swimming and making the most of your stamina. With the focus on the power you put behind swinging your weapon, you'll finish your foes quicker and thanks to the increase in physical stamina, you'll be able to swipe any tasty goods residing on their bloodied corpse. Needless to say it is an essential area to improve on should you prefer your basic sword and shield combatant.
Magic
Essentially the opposite of the combat section. Useful in almost any situation, you can learn offensive magic like the classic fireball, conjure weapons, armour or in game minions to do your bidding, mix ingredients together for potions, heal wounds and diseases, enchant your items with customised abilities, create illusions to fool enemies, or alter your surroundings to suit your needs - mimic jesus' feat of walking on water. Possibly the hardest to get into but the most rewarding section in later levels.
Stealth
This section is more of a luxury than a way of life in Morrowind, especially since its abilities can be similarly obtained via different methods (lock-picking vs. an 'open' spell). Because of its light heartedness, it also has quick fighting styles like short blade, marksmen and hand to hand. Its acrobatics skill is one of the fastest levelling skills in the game as it aids in jumping and landing. Then there is speech-craft and mercantile - one for persuading people to dish the dirt, taunt people into blind furies and the other for a handy discount in shops.
"Speak quickly outlander, I haven't much time" (Environments)
A strong reason alone to consider the game, Morrowind's surroundings are diverse and richly thought out. The game comes with its own A3 sized map to display on your wall as you make your way through the gigantic province of Vvardenfell. With the elder scrolls games all having definitive climates (skyrim is like a constant winter etc) Morrowind is a combination of searing wind shaped mountain regions and rainy fields of flowers and trees. There are several small villages and towns where gold is scarce and spirits are low, but also a couple of large cities and one major place, Vivec which has 8 cantons related to the great houses previously mentioned plus a 'foreign quarter' for refugees and a temple. It all appears quite dark and grim though as there is usually very little light besides the flickering of a candle or glow of a lantern. Of course being from the early years of the Xbox (2002) its graphics haven't aged too well with blocky NPC's, recycled details and being stuck between objects and doors.. the camera and movement are very smooth though. Which brings me onto the view type - Morrowind offers both first person view and 3rd, something not many games did back then, let alone do now. Of course, with the decrepit visuals, its best to save 3rd person for checking out how your character looks in his new robe and helmet :) Of all the memories the game has been responsible for, traversing dungeons, breaking into vaults full of treasure, battling demons in underground sanctuaries, the one that stands out is...
'Tukushapal' - one of the many miscellaneous quests to undergo
This place is initially heard by a drunk in a tavern, who tells you the story (and gives you the key) if you buy him a pint. When you find the well hidden, doorway in the middle of no where, you'll find a massive stone maze, filled with scimitar wielding skeletons - already you get the feeling they're guarding something goooood.. and if that isn't clear, the level 90 locked doors will certainly peak your interest. Experienced or resourceful enough to enter, you'll bear witness to the holiest of holies in terms of treasure, greater than a pharaoh beneath his pyramid... A viking outlaw king Olmgerd, decked out ceremoniously in an his battle armour with his legendary axe Stormkiss, in Tukushapal's sepulcher featuring sulfurous steaming rocks, stalactites and oh yes, the mans very own viking ship - awesome. His corpse strewn with various precious materials and wealth, it is one of hundreds of stunning scenes just waiting to be found.
Its a shame that the battle system has been a stumbling block for so many gamers, with its no doubt frustrating way of combat. Should anyone stick with it long enough, they'll find a vivid and imaginative fantasy world full of little secrets for you to unravel. Its definitely nerdy in all aspects, like the enchanting (and naming) of weapons, the thought process in even contemplating a new voyage (weight plays a big part too as you can only hold so many essentials). KOTOR composer Jeremy Soule has made a handful of tracks for Morrowind (all fantastic orchestral magic) however since there aren't too many, you're bound to hear the same themes several hundred times... which surprisingly isn't as repetitious as it sounds because they aren't loud, brash songs but subtle atmospheric tunes that match the mood. The game has its own wiki page that continuously gets updated with more details - surely this is a good indication of the scale of the game... and lets not forget how it has raised the bar for both Oblivion and Skyrim.
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Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (Xbox)
by Thebaker50
Hey all
This is my review of MK, deadly alliance. THis is a platform style fighting game, similar to tekken, and soul calibre on original xbox.
To begin with, its probably worth mentioning historically MK has suceeded simply by making its game controversially gorey. The phase FINISH HIM orignates from this game, where ... you would kill your oponent in some grutesque way, such as chopping there head off, and so on.
So, the good:
First thing up is that this game has a nice number of characters that are unlockable, which feels great. From a robotic ninja, to a thunder god, its all there. My personally favourite is scorpion, the undead ninja!
Secondly, as each character has 2 different martial art skill sets and a weapon, each character feels vastly different. Furthermore, it gets even more awesome when you realise most of the moves are based on real life moves! So it does add that little something that most other games do not have.
Thirdly, the guts. Oh yes this is a game not for the faint hearted. It just feels so awesome to cut up your oponenet with a sword, or whack them with a pair of nunchucks! There are a variety of finish him moves (but see later on) which when excuted, can play some pretty cool cut scenes.
So im summary of the good stuff, its a good game, feels authentic, and is a good one to sort of laugh at the finishing moves.
The bad:
Gameplay dynamics: Unlike DOA, or tekken, this game feels very "chunky", and the characters do not interact naturally. It feels like they are pre-programmed to do a certain move once your press the button, and thats the end of it. This sorta makes the game feel unnatural, and its a bit unerving.
The combos:
This game has STUPID combos. For example, what is kick on one character, is punch on the other. And you can't simply aim with the cursor arrows, no, pressing down square with one fighter might do an uppercut, but on another hero does a low kick? This makes playing the game really annoying, as you need to put in a silly amount of time learning combos. Which is not easy. And once you do, you need to learn them again... for each character... 3 times! It just isn't very approachable for a new player at all! This is made worse by the finish him combos. It takes ages to find out what they are, and even when you do, it doesn't always work, and are tricky to do. So one of the best features of the game is so hard to access, to this day I do not know why they didnt just make it more natural. Especially when games like DOA do it so well... This really ruins any notion of playing the game 2p.
The loading times: For some reason, for me this game was very prone to freeze and take ages to load. Considering it didn't really have amazing graphics, it just doesn't feel worth a 2 minute wait for a 2 minute round.
Ridiculously overpowered computer? Because of all the combos, the computer just automatically shoots them all off, making the game feel ridiculously in the computers favour.
In summary, this game could of been awesome, well and truely. Sadly the makers made the game just too hard for a casual player. Which is a shame because in this day and age, platform fighters need to be casual, as one of the best games for multiplayer games are platform fighters. No new players will want to play vs seasoned pros at a game where you win by just pressing silly combos. I mean, why did they swap square ot be kick on some heroes, but punch on others? And its just really silly coding in the combos that seriously ruins this game. This is made worse by the clunky nature of the way people move, and it just doesn't flow properly. It feels more like a game of who can press combos... which as I hate learning combos, I just kept losing. Its really sad that so much effort went into making the weapons, styles, maps etc, to be ruined by the gameplay.
In summary, I would go DOA or tekken instead.
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