REVIEW:Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

Reviewer: Craig Gallagher It’s
hard to believe that the last Pirates of the Caribbean film didn’t
have a tie game on any of the major consoles. It seems that Disney
Interactive is making up for the missed opportunity with Pirates of the
Caribbean: At World’s End, which features plot from both Dead
Mans Chest and At Worlds End.

The game does a great job of emulating the look and humour of the
series, if fails somewhat miserably in capturing the frantic and fun
action scenes. The combat is simple and boring as it involves little
more than hitting the action button repeatedly.

The first half of the game is based o the events in Dead Man’s Chest,
specifically Captain Jacks attempts at recovering the chest in which
Davy Jones’s heart resides. The second half as you can no doubt guess
follows At Worlds End, and Jacks attempts at defeating Lord Beckett.
The story is somewhat difficult to follow due to the disjointed cut
scenes which make look pretty but make very little sense at the best of
times. Like most licensed games the story expands on events in the
film. You get to swordfight from Tortuga to Singapore which sounds fun
but is in reality rather dull and ponderous. This is due to the combat
system which is just one button. You run up to your enemy and press the
same button over and over till they expire. Every now and again you
come across a big baddie who can only be defeated with a special move.
To achieve this you must kill a bunch of normal foes till your special
move bar fills up, allowing you to vanquish said bigger baddie. There
are other weapons on hand bar your trusty cutlass. You can use your
fists, feet, guns, grenades and knives. But the combat system remains
the same for all

Most of your time is spent in the guise of Jack Sparrow, though you
also get to play as Will, Elizabeth and couple more characters. There
are times when you get to play as three characters at once, switching
from one to another at the press of the D pad. These parts generally
suck. As the characters you don’t control rarely bother to defend
themselves. These portions of the game are the only which may prove
troublesome. The rest of the game is extremely easy and seems aimed at
children and non gamers.

The rest of the gameplay involves running, climbing and jumping around
the place searching for people and items. None of this is the least bit
interesting to be honest a fact made more apparent by the copious
amount of back tracking required. You have to return to some areas
three or four times in order to progress.

Graphically the game looks rather mundane on the PS3. The frame rame is
choppy, which really drags down the experience. The animation is good
and the characters resemble their big screen counterparts but nice
animation can’t save what is an exceedingly average game.

At the end of the day, At Worlds End is a by the books film based game.
It has all the locations, characters and plot of the films but none of
the fun. While not as terrible as some the overall experience is one of
diminished expectations. Worth a rainy day rent but little more.

PREVIEW: Halo 3 beta impressions

Halo 3 is going to break all sorts of records upon its release later
this year, that much is almost certain. The original game
single-handedly moved Xboxes from shop shelves for the best part of a
year, and its sequel topped the charts both in retail and on Xbox Live.
With the second sequel almost upon us, we’ve taken a look at the
multi-player beta.

The first thing you’ll notice is the familiarity of it all. The weapon
load-out is tweaked here and there, but remains largely unchanged. Your
avatar is still the Master Chief, and he’s still running around the
same rocky, grassy vistas and snowy tundra as in previous games.

Worse, the graphics aren’t the giant leap forward one would expect from
the blockbuster series’ debut on the Xbox 360. There are some nice
environmental effects - grenades fling up dirt, water sloshes around
you and so on - but the textures aren’t sharp, the architecture is
perhaps too sharp, and the rocky plains lack real definition. It’s not
quite last-gen, but it’s a far cry from platform-leading visuals.

For this gamer, however, the biggest bone of contention is the
community. With only the press and those who have access through the
Crackdown promotion currently able to play the beta, it is perhaps too
early to judge accurately, but on current conditions, the community is
not a very welcoming place.

As an American-produced game about a
alien-battling space marine, the audience is understandably populated
by over-enthusiastic, under-sexed teenagers, who endeavor to suck the
fun out of proceedings. Whether it’s a problem with the
matchmaking-system, the community itself or something else is unknown,
but this is a major issue for the casual gamer, and one which will
hopefully be addressed upon release.

Based on the beta, Halo 3 is shaping up to be very much evolution over
revolution. For fans of the series, of which there are many, this will
prove to be enough. For those still on the sidelines, they’re likely to
be underwhelmed, even put off by those fans who insist on taking things
so seriously.

REVIEW: Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 3 is undoubtedly the most anticipated property of 2007,
not only the cinematic incarnation but also the spin off game. It also
marks the series first appearance on next-gen consoles. The 360 version
of Spider-Man is exactly as you would expect. It’s just like the
previous games only bigger and more detailed, but just as fun.

The storyline closely follows the film, but adds a number of elements
the run alongside. Instead of facing just the villains from the film,
you find yourself up against The Scorpion, The Lizard, Mad Bomber and
Kraven, as well as an assortment of petty crooks and crooked cops. The
missions featuring these characters run in conjunction with the plot of
the film.

For a licensed game, the mission structure is unusually non-liner.
Missions go in a set order, which you must beat to unlock others, but
you can complete unlocked missions in any order you so wish. The
variety of missions on offer is vast. You can go from all out boss
fights to chasing down muggers., and sometimes both at one time.

The most noticeable change to gameplay is the use of real time cut
scenes. They require you to press buttons at specific times to
progress. This feels quiet similar to the button sequences in God of
War.

The combat system is basically identical to that in Spiderman 2. You
perform special moves by holding down the right trigger and pressing
one of the face buttons. Individual attacks are accomplished by
pressing the face buttons on their own. The only real addition to the
combat system is the Black Suit, which you gain about half way through
the game. This drastically increases your strength as well as changing
Spidey’s general attitude.

The camera in the game has been a massive problem since the first. In
the subsequent games its only gotten worse. In this game it is
extremely buggy in tight quarters, leading to frustrating situations
where you it rarely focuses on the action. Climbing walls can be a
massively difficult venture due to this at times.

Spider-Man 3 is a fun title, and one of the most enjoyable licenses
yet. Even though the camera is poor the rest of the game more than
compensates for this. In closing it’s a very enjoyable game which fans
and casual gamers will enjoy.

Oh my God! Starcraft 2 is official

Starcraft 2 is official. Ten years of anticipation have driven me into a frenzy and all I can say is Oh my God!

Give me a few hours to control my excitement, catch my breath and
make sure this isn’t some elaborate prank on Blizzard’s part and I’ll
post some concrete news, videos, pictures, and so forth.