REVIEW:God of War II

Developer: SCEE  | Publisher: SCEE | Format: PS2

Reviewer: Craig Gallagher
God of War was one of the most important events in gamin history. It
took an otherwise tired genre and reinvented it, while at the same time
showing that a five year old console could still hold its head up high
with the new gen.

God of War II is more of the same and finds Kratos at odds with Zeus
and Athena, who are conspiring to stab him in the back and take his
power. Which is somewhat understandable considering the events of GOW.
Thankfully Kratos isn’t a push over and decides to take the fight to
the Gods, with a little help from some of their disenchanted rank.

The gameplay remains the same. Traverse impressively large and detailed
maps dispatching a never ending horde of enemies. The game hasn’t
evolved so much as been refined to perfection. The game hurtles along
like a run away train, stopping only momentarily for narrative before
resuming. It’s the gaming equivalent of a Michael Bay film.

Its hard to believe that this isn’t a PS3 game, as graphically its
superior to many of the titles on the PS3. There is no real ingame
loading time and all in all GOWII really shows how next gen titles
should look and play.

Anyone still reading this should get off their ass, and purchase a copy
of the game. Forget every other title in store, you need only one and
that one is God of War II

REVIEW: F.E.A.R.

Developer: Monolith | Publisher: Vivendi | Format: PS3

Reviewer: Craig Gallagher
This reviewer was eagerly anticipating playing F.E.A.R. on the PS3.
Sure he’d clocked it on the PC and 360 on a number of occasions, but
there was just some appeal to finishing the game on yet another machine.

The good news is that the taut gameplay is still intact and F.E.A.R.
can still hold it’s head up high. A lot of people who play this on the
PS3 will be F.E.A.R. virgins, for the rest of you, you can skip the
next bit. In F.E.A.R. you play as a special forces soldier charged with
hunting down a genetically enhance psychopath by the name of Paxton
Feetel. He has following him a battalion of super soldiers, who follow
his every order. The story concerns it self with government
conspiracies, psychic visions and best of all a creepy little girl
straight out of an Asian horror film.

F.E.A.R. plays like Max Payne on acid. You have the ability to slow
time and engage in some very impressive fire fights. The most ambitious
aspect of the gameplay is the enemy AI, which is absolutely perfect.
Enemies react in an almost realistic manner. Enemies will cooperate to
flush you out of hiding.

The real flaw is evident from the get go. The level design is poor,
maps are badly laid out and you generally spend more time running
around than you do shooting things. Which is rather disappointing given
that this is a FPS. The overtly cinematic tint to proceedings is rather
confusing. The plot is tired and has been done to death in numerous
other productions. Which when considering the superbly implemented
gameplay, really drags the game down.

F.E.A.R. remains a great game, and one which all gamers should try. It
would be an essential purchase if only the developers had concentrated
on the design a bit more.

REVIEW: Metal Slug Anthology

Dev: SNK Playmore | Pub: Ignition Entertaiment | For: Wii

Reviewer: Brendan Tinnelly
Even in 1996, the Metal Slug series was old-skool. For the enthusiast,
they represented videogaming at its purist, polishing up a
tried-and-testing gameplay mechanic until it shone. For the rest of us,
in a time of bump mapping and physics engines, their broadly drawn 2D
visuals and arcane gameplay just seemed dated. Even so, they’ve found a
fan-base, and have graced a multitude of formats over the last decade.
Metal Slug Anthology collects the 7 games released to date on one disc
for the Wii.

The games are almost uniformly solid to play. The artwork is
heavily-stylized, and adds a considerable amount of charm and character
to the games. They offer a definite challenge, but rarely does this
lead to frustration.  They also pack in enough variety - from drivable
vehicles to an array of boss battles - to save repetition ruining the
experience. A 2-player co-op mode rounds off the package.

That said, it is now 2007, and the side-scrolling shooter has been
surpassed in terms of visuals and thrills. If you still enjoy the genre
today, then Metal Slug Anthology offers a great example of it, and
you’ll get a lot of bang for your buck, as none of the seven games on
offer will be strolled through.

Outside fans of the genre, however, it is hard to recommend.
Individually, the games would have worked well as Virtual Console
releases, but at full-price, it’s difficult to recommend what for many
would amount to nothing more than a short dip into times gone by.

Lisa Geiran, UCD; Barry Dolan, Shamrock Rovers FC, Karina Kelly, UCD.

-

Alan Wake - will the hype kill?

Normally we like to focus on gameplay first and shiny graphics second. But we were reminded recently that the graphics on the upcoming Alan Wake (above) are so much of a focus for the studio we’ll be disappointed if the shiny bits don’t live up to the hype.

Microsoft were smart enough to retain an exclusive with Remedy, developer of Max Payne, so the action adventure thriller game staring fictional novelist Wake will be appearing on Xbox 360 and PC, but not PS3. Let’s just hope the graphics on 360 will do, as our PC (or at least my PC) would burn into flames just trying to install the game.

A few impress videos are here, while there are screenshots here and more on a fan site at alanwake.co.uk. Now, all we need is a firm release date: maybe even a release year?

PS3 to Dublin - Is this living?

Since the Irish PlayStation 3 launch, a huge amount of advertisements with the slogan “This is living” have occupied advertisement spaces across Dublin, backed by TV spots — pictured above is a bit of a twist.

On Grafton Street, one of the main shopping areas in Dublin, Sony
asks shoppers and commuters who have just departed the near by Luas
tram, “is this living?”. The advertisement also points to the thisisliving.ie website.

Meanwhile, we never expected an answer to
“what’s the strangest way to make sure journalists will try your
game and enjoy them selves?”

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 publisher Ubisoft answered by
rounding up some journalists and bring them to a paintball arena in the
Wicklow Mountains (pictured below, and more beyond the fold) — there’ll be no escape.

Add to the mix were a few competition winners, Sarin and Jam from the publisher’s ‘Fragdolls‘, and eight Xbox 360s and flat-screen TVs from the Xbox Live Gaming Centre. 

Playing with Xbox 360s in an open shed in the Wicklow Mountains just after paintball, Games Toaster
was thinking it must rank as one of the strangest PR events. Surprising
the staff at centre weren’t that shocked, another publisher had held
a similar event a few years ago.

 

- Last four photographs Ubisoft press images, all others Games Toaster.

Design changes

Please excuse us while we publicly work on some design changes. Comments welcome!

REVIEW: Pac-Man Rally

Developer: Smart Bomb | Pub: Namco Bandai | For: PS2

Reviewer: Brendan Tinnelly Pac-Man, the story goes, was inspired by a tired glance at a
quarter-eaten pizza. The round, open-mouthed character was born, and
the game followed from there. He wasn’t so much a character, as a
single characteristic - a set of big yellow jaws, and the various
Pac-Man arcade games employed him in the only way they really could.
Why, then, is he now mucking about in go-karts and motorbikes?

Pac-Man Rally is a cartoon racing game very much in the vein of
Mario Kart. Various Namco characters compete in a variety of cups by
racing across various stages, collecting weapons, power-ups and so on,
all for reasons best known to themselves. Split-screen 2 player and
battle modes are also present, offering a diversion to the
single-player proceedings. It is very unashamedly Namco Does Mario Kart.

There is an inherent problem with this, however. Whereas Nintendo’s
roster of colourful cartoon characters lends itself well to such a
game, Namco’s catalogue is a little less inspirational. Their most
successful games of recent times have been Tekken and Soul Calibur, and
their back catalogue is full of arcade relics. Someone somewhere along
the line decided that Pac-Man was more child-friendly than Voldo, and
left it at that. The result is a character list boasting blue ghost,
red ghost, pac-man, ms. pac-man and other personality-devoid creations.

And that’s something of a pity, because with more imaginative
characters, the game could be gunning for the top of the podium. The
racing is solid, with innovations in the form of fruit-pickups enabled
short-cuts and a big mechanical Pac-Mobile power-up, and the
multi-player is more than capable. Mario Kart nudges it in terms of
challenge offered, albeit by ‘cheating’ AI, but that’s hardly of
importance in a game so squarely aimed at the younger market.

So when all is said and done, we’re left with a below-par Mario
Kart. it is probably the best option on the PS2 for those looking for
similar thrills, but don’t expect a lasting challenge.

REVIEW: The Godfather: Mob Wars

Developer: EA | Publisher: EA | Format: PSP

Reviewer: Craig Gallagher It
wouldn’t have taken much to produce the most enjoyable adaptation of
the Godfather franchise, which given the quality of past titles isn’t
saying much. Unlucky for PSP gamers it seems that for Godfather: Mob
Wars, the developers decided to streamline proceeding by removing the
free roaming, and replacing it with turn based strategy. The resulting
gameplay is little more than a series of seemingly random missions.

The story remains the same, though this time presented trough rushed
cut scenes, stripped down graphics. And lets not forget the ability to
drive have been removed. One of the games main points was character
customisation, which is completely missing from this incarnation. Your
character, wouldn’t look out of place in Team America World Police.

There is some good to report. The strategy elements are well
implemented and are similar to the classic board games of old. Your
mission is to take control of New York by taking over control of
strategic positions, including brothels, weapons caches, and so on. You
are also able to take control of characters, a shame then that this
always results in you running around trying to complete some seemingly
random task. The poor control lay out and erratic camera don’t exactly
help.

Due to the number of consoles available, gamers have a multitude of
choices on which best to experience the Godfather. The PSP isn’t one of
them.

REVIEW: Crackdown

Anyone familiar with Robocop will feel right at home playing
Crackdown. The city has been over run with gangs, and in a last
desperate bid to return the city to its citizens the police have turned
to a new kind of cop. Genetically enhanced, personality devoid and
entirely replaceable, these new Agents have all it takes to reclaim the
city.

Give the game an hour or two and you’ll be jumping 50 feet in the
air, throwing trucks at enemies, and scaling all sorts of large
buildings. If the developers had thrown in laser beam vision and
invisibility the Crackdown could have been the ultimate superhero game.
Like the GTA series, Crackdown has you completing numerous missions in
a bid to open new areas and take on new gangs. That’s all there is to
proceedings, drive around, kill some people, compete in races and
repeat. Not exactly groundbreaking, yet it’s still a lot of fun.

The designers have created an immense, immersive city that sucks the
player in. during fire fights the city streets are flooded with people,
yet once the fight is over the streets seem to empty. The most
enjoyable aspect of the game is climbing atop buildings and taking it
all in. From the rooftops it looks amazing, yet when you climb back
down the city seems rather bland from street level. There’s no sense of
depth and the whole thing looks generic

Crackdown is an enjoyable game that could have so much more. It had
the potential to be the ultimate superhero game, but unfortunatly ended
up as yet another GTA clone. Don’t misinterprete me it’s
enjoyable, and immensely entertaining, but in a brain dead way.

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