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System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Also available for: Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Reviewer’s rating: **1/2
ESRB rating: Everyone
Game type: Sports
Kind of like: If the Harlem Globetrotters played soccer.
Best feature: Ample opportunities to talk trash.
Worst feature: There’s no player creation tool or career mode to keep you coming back; playing defense is nearly impossible.
The bottom line: If soccer really looked like this, apathetic American sports fans might finally come around. In “FIFA Street 3,” flashy five-a-side games are played in parking lots and on rooftops, with players juggling past defenders, flipping off walls and performing gravity-defying bicycle kicks like it’s no big deal.
Yeah, the game features an international flavor with real-life superstars such as Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry and Wayne Rooney — but that’s pretty much where the realism ends.
While casual fans will probably appreciate the style-over-substance spectacle, purists may cringe at the idea of “the beautiful game” being dolled up like a $20 whore.
The deepest single-player gameplay comes in the challenge mode, where you meet certain objectives to unlock the game’s full roster of 250 characters. In one game you might have five minutes to score as many goals as possible. In another, you could be asked to score five volley or header goals. Unfortunately, there aren’t many variants, and the action gets a bit mundane after a while.
Multiplayer tilts fare a lot better, although our experience with online action was occasionally marred by considerable lag issues. Still, burning your buddy with a nutmeg and then roofing a one-timer is priceless.
System: Sony PlayStation 3
Also available for: Microsoft Xbox 360, Windows PC
Publisher: Sega
Reviewer’s rating: ***
ESRB rating: Mature
Game type: Shooter
Kind of like: “The Running Man”
Best feature: In a nice throwback to the old-school arcade days, your score actually matters.
Worst feature: The multiplayer action is lackluster.
The bottom line: If you think “American Gladiator” is depraved, wait’ll you see this. “The Club” is an exclusive, underground association of the wealthy, powerful and bloodthirsty. Its purpose? To compete in ruthless kill-or-be-killed tournaments, all for a not-so-cheap thrill.
If such a thing doesn’t already exist, it will soon. And the pay-per-view numbers will be through the roof.
As a video game, though, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Playing as one of the game’s eight twisted reprobates, you charge through arenas blasting everything in sight. Sometimes the goal is to find the exit before time runs out. Other times, the goal is merely to survive as waves of enemies relentlessly attack.
But in all the events, what matters most is your score. You earn style points for each kill, based on difficulty and accuracy. Stringing together kills will multiply your score.
The eight arenas look great — they range from a decaying cruise liner to a former asylum for the criminally insane — but they all play the same. Same goes for the characters — some are a bit quicker, others can take a bit more damage, but the differences are negligible.
Adding to the “retro” feel is the fact that there’s no cover system.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Reviewer’s rating: ***
ESRB rating: Teen
Game type: Role-playing game
Kind of like: “Final Fantasy XIII-X”
Best features: Beautifully designed; immersive combat system
Worst features: Derivative plot; lack of originality
The bottom line: As far as Japanese, turn-based role-playing games are concerned, the buck stops with Hironobu Sakaguchi. Here, the creator of the legendary “Final Fantasy” series finally bridges the gap onto the Xbox 360, whose only worthy RPG titles have been action-based games such as “Oblivion” and “Mass Effect.”
“Lost Odyssey” is a safe foray into the often methodical, patient approach required by turn-based games. Chronicling the story of Kaim Argonar, a 1000-year-old immortal, the game follows him as he tries to regain his memories and discover his purpose in this world. Those familiar with “Final Fantasy” from VII onward will feel right at home, from the epic — if nonsensical — plot to the depth of the turn-based combat.
Much of the success of a turn-based RPG has to come from the battles, which must balance the need for patience and planning without putting gamers to sleep. “Lost Odyssey’s” system is surprisingly engaging, despite its simplicity, and boasts a deep skill tree. Having immortals who automatically resurrect after a few turns adds another layer of strategy as well. Like every other Sakaguchi title, there is a tendency toward micromanaging everyone’s skills, but there is that certain appeal in trying to create a powerhouse of a party.
Even if “Lost Odyssey” seems only to build incrementally on what is already a well-worn genre, it’s still a worthy title in a relatively empty playing field.
System: Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Nintendo
Reviewer’s rating: ***
ESRB rating: Everyone
Game type: Exploration/collecting
Kind of like: “Animal Crossing,” in that you can just play around and collect stuff if you want.
Best feature: It feels like there’s a whole world out there waiting for you.
Worst feature: The graphics on the Wii don’t quite keep up with games on the Xbox 360 and PS3.
The bottom line: Looking for a relaxing game?
You can find it under the sea in “Endless Ocean.”
In this game, you’re a scuba diver who gets sent on missions to explore and find sea life.
The action of the game consists primarily of swimming underwater, looking around and touching things.
It’s better than that description probably makes it sound.
“Endless Ocean” really can feel endless. The game is huge, and there’s a tremendous diversity of things to find. Swimming around a huge coral formation and suddenly coming upon a whale really can be exciting when you’re playing. There are sharks, too, but they don’t attack you.
In the game, you have a yacht, which you can anchor wherever you want on the large game map. You can dive just for fun, or you can go into the boat’s cabin and read in-game e-mails to get hired to look for things.
Each type of sea critter that you find gets recorded. You can feed the animals underwater or touch them to unlock more information about them.
Taking on certain tasks advances the overall story of the game. Eventually, you can find treasure and sunken wrecks to explore.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Also available for: Sony PlayStation 3, Windows PC
Publisher: Touchstone
Reviewer’s rating: ***
ESRB rating: Mature
Game type: First-person shooter
Kind of like: “Doom” with dinosaurs
Best feature: The dinosaurs are fast and vicious, and you will hate them in no time.
Worst feature: We’ve played a lot of shooters, and this one doesn’t bring anything new to the table.
The bottom line: “Turok,” the dinosaur-themed franchise that has brought us a few good games over the years, has rebooted with a new offering for the Xbox 360.
The new game is simply named “Turok,” appropriate for restarting the story from ground zero, and in it you are a soldier who crash lands on a lost world filled with dangerous beasts.
A lot of what’s in this game are things we’ve seen before from a lot of shooters. Graphically, though, this game looks really good. Thick clusters of grass and bushes hide horrible raptors and other menaces, ready to jump out and tear you to pieces.
As Turok the soldier, you can use guns to shoot threatening reptiles and enemy soldiers. You also have a combat knife, which can be used from behind to achieve special stealth kills. The deaths are grisly in “Turok,” so this game is not for kids.
One nice touch is that the dinosaurs in “Turok” don’t just stand in front of you when they get close. Raptors will knock you to the ground or spin you around, causing your visuals to go flying. The disorientation makes the dinosaur attacks seem much more real.
As far as level design goes, this game doesn’t wow us as much as “Turok 2” did on the Nintendo 64, and that was two generations ago.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
Reviewer’s rating: *1/2
ESRB rating: Mature
Game type: Action RPG
Kind of like: ”Marvel Ultimate Alliance,” “Diablo”
Best feature: The ability to wield two active and different weapons at a time breaks up the monotony of button mashing.
Worst feature: The dream-world sequences are intrusive and confusing.
The bottom line: Once a strategy game with heavy role-playing elements, the Xbox-exclusive franchise morphs into a straightforward hack-and-slash action game in its fourth incarnation.
Your chosen hero travels linear paths fighting battles against large armies every few hundred yards. Where classic RPGs require serious time commitments to upgrade weapons and powers, “Circle Of Doom” gets the hero leveled up rather quickly.
The levels are broken up by some standard dungeons and less-than-standard dream realms, where side quests are explained and assigned. It’s a good concept, but the dream worlds are confusing to a fault.
A game like this is tailor made for four-player co-op, so it’s a good thing the feature was included. Gather three friends and slash through the game in a couple of hours.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Also available for: Sony PlayStation 3, Windows PC
Publisher: Capcom
Reviewer’s rating: ***
ESRB rating: Mature
Game type: Third-person action
Kind of like: The first three “Devil May Cry” games; “God of War”
Best feature: Seamless combat, epic boss battles
Worst feature: Bad camera angles, no multiplayer mode
The bottom line: The “Devil May Cry” franchise has hardly done anything to shake up its winning formula, now going into its fourth iteration. Each successive title has added a few tweaks here and there, more subtle nuances than anything truly revolutionary. But given the popularity of the stylized action franchise, Capcom’s “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy makes sense.
But fans of Dante will be surprised to see him take a back seat to series newcomer Nero, a rookie demon slayer trying to uncover a plot within his own ranks. Granted, Nero’s still a white-haired smartass with a big sword, but the handoff lets Capcom add another dimension to the gameplay with Nero’s Devil Bringer. Think of a Bionic Commando-style grappling arm… from Hell! The mechanic for the arm works well, letting players feel right at home with Nero in the air as well as on the ground. Dante does become playable for part of the game, but this is more Nero’s story than anything else.
Besides the big character switch, everything fans have come to love about “Devil May Cry” comes back — with better graphics, of course. Epic boss battles, smooth combat, and a humorous and sarcastic outlook from the heroes are all there.
Of course, some of the bad stuff carries through as well: It just wouldn’t be a Capcom action game without crappy camera angles.
System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Reviewer’s rating: ***
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Game type: Turn-based strategy
Kind of like: “Command & Conquer,” except you can take as long as you want to think about what to do next.
Best feature: New units include a cool flare tank that illuminates parts of the battlefield.
Worst feature: They’re still calling it “Advance Wars” even though you can’t play it on your Game Boy Advance.
The bottom line: “Advance Wars” is one of the best handheld franchises Nintendo has ever turned out.
Everything about the newest one, “Advance Wars: Days of Ruin,” is done right.
In this turn-based strategy game, you command an army of infantry, tanks, planes, ships and more in a post-apocalyptic world. Each turn, you order your units to move and fire, and then the enemy takes its turn — or his or her turn if you’re playing against one or more human opponents. The game supports four people, either using four different systems and copies of the game, or using one DS and passing it between turns. You can also battle friends using Nintendo Wi-Fi.
You can create your own maps in “Days of Ruin,” and trade maps with your friends.
In “Advance Wars,” while you’re not shooting at enemy units, you also try to capture cities and factories. Factories enable you to build more units in the heat of battle. Deciding what to build is a big part of the strategy, because different units are stronger or weaker against different enemies. Bazooka troops, for example, are strong against tanks but not so great against motorcycle troops.
System: Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Ubisoft
Reviewer’s rating: **
ESRB rating: Mature
Game type: Third-person action
Kind of like: “Killer 7” with swords instead of guns.
Best feature: A lot of thought seems to have been put into the strange and disturbed bosses you have to fight.
Worst feature: Running around the city of Santa Destroy to earn money ranks pretty low on the list of things we like to do.
The bottom line: “No More Heroes” offers brutal gameplay, gallons of blood and plenty of weird enemies to fight.
As the title suggests, there are no heroes here. The main character, Travis Touchdown, is about as far from seeming heroic as you can get. That is, except for the cool, laserlike “beam katana” he carries. His mission is simply to be known as the best fighter in the land. To do that, he must kill the 10 people currently said to be better than he is.
The good news is that the action, while unbelievably violent, can be pretty fun and intense. Fighting is normally done by pressing the A button on the Wiimote. A successful series of hits will cause an icon to appear on the screen, telling you to swing the Wiimote in a certain direction. If you do, Travis will perform a gory finishing move.
The bad news, however, is that the city of Santa Destroy is really boring. This is no “Grand Theft Auto.” The “between-boss” jobs you might do include minigames involving mowing lawns or carrying coconuts. Perhaps it’s supposed to seem ironic, but it doesn’t work.
As a character, Travis is rude but not funny; detached but not cool. The enemies are much more interesting.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Publisher: Q Entertainment
Reviewer’s rating: ***
ESRB rating: Everyone
Game type: Shooter
Kind of like: The last reel of “2001: A Space Odyssey” on ecstasy.
Best feature: The gameplay achieves a hypnotic synthesis of sound and motion.
Worst feature: Unlike the original, there’s no “trance vibrator” accessory available.
The bottom line: When it was originally released six years ago for the PlayStation 2, “Rez” was little more than a curiosity. A trippy, futuristic shooter that attempted — and occasionally succeeded — to produce mild synesthesia (a merging of the senses), it was praised by critics and ignored by consumers.
Game over? Not quite. Oddly enough, the game slowly attained cult status (our theory: lackadaisical stoners finally got around to sharing it with their friends), and eventually copies of “Rez” were going for big bucks on eBay.
But now you can download it for just $10 on Xbox Live Arcade. Even without the vibrator accessory, the old-school, rail-shooter gameplay is a fun blast of retro-futurism.
You play as a virtual space-age hacker, traveling through a colorful cybernetwork and destroying viruses and firewalls represented by hovering geometric shapes and patterns. It’s not just point-and-shoot; you lock on to as many enemies as you can and destroy them all at once. The game’s pulsating trance music syncs with the action and builds as you progress through each level.
Simple, stylish and spellbinding — even without mind-altering substances.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Also available for: Sony PlayStation 3
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Reviewer’s rating: ***1/2
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Game type: Driving/racing
Kind of like: “Test Drive: Unlimited”
Best feature: Roaring around Paradise City with your friends online is a blast.
Worst feature: We wish we could save films of our most spectacular crashes.
The bottom line: Anyone else getting a little tired of shooters? Sure, we loved “BioShock,” “Halo 3,” “Mass Effect” and “Call of Duty 4,” but to employ a gratuitous automotive reference, it’s time to switch gears.
Apparently “Burnout Paradise” is just what we were jonesing for. Seriously — it was a struggle to put the controller down long enough to write this review.
The popular, arcade-style racing franchise barrel rolls into next-gen territory with stunning visuals, seamless online functionality and a vibrantly detailed setting.
Paradise City, the sprawling metropolis where all the game’s events take place, is perfectly tailored for the “Burnout” experience: There are long straightaways for racing at blinding speeds, winding roads for white-knuckle, tire-squealing exhilaration, sky-scraping cliffs where you can catch huge air and a traffic-clogged downtown that’s ideal for wreaking destructive havoc. (After all, “Burnout” has always been as much about wrecking as racing.)
If you ever get tired of exploring the city’s hidden areas and shortcuts (it’ll take a while), the map is also dotted with events, including “Road Rage” (take out as many opponents as possible), “Marked Man” (survive to the finish line), stunt runs, time trials and good old-fashioned races.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Also available for: Sony Playstations 2 and 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP
Publisher: THQ
Reviewer’s rating: *1/2
ESRB rating: Everyone
Game type: Racing
Kind of like: “Motocross Madness”
Best feature: Variety of vehicles and race types
Worst feature: Squirrelly mechanics; monotonous races
The bottom line: The showdown to determine the ultimate off-road vehicle has been a particular curiosity in certain corners of the racing world. Real-world events like the Baja 1000 and the Dakar Rally have pitted two-wheelers against four-wheelers for decades. The appeal is obvious, but THQ’s latest foray into the genre with “MX vs. ATV: Untamed” fails to capture the differences between vehicle classes that makes these legendary events so great.
Much of the game seems like a retread of every other off-road game in THQ’s repertoire, going all the way back to “Motocross Madness.” But by adopting the purely arcade style, “MX vs. ATV” loses the details and the subtle — and sometimes not-so-subtle — differences between a dirt bike and an all-terrain vehicle. Every man-sized vehicle handles exactly the same and turns on a dime, the sensitivity of the controls causing serious headaches for the uninitiated.
Even with larger off-road vehicles — the trophy truck, dune buggy and monster truck, among others — there isn’t much of a difference in handling.
THQ tried to play it safe, sticking with a formula that has served it well since the mid-’90s. But in its attempt to take the franchise to the next level, it ended up with an uninspiring product whose changes and additions seem superficial at best.
System: Nintendo Wii
Publisher: Sega
Reviewer’s rating: *
ESRB rating: Everyone
Game type: Sports minigames
Kind of like: “Mario Party,” but sports-themed and with far fewer minigames
Best feature: Characters from Sonic’s world and characters from Mario’s world mix it up.
Worst feature: You remove the Nunchuk for some games and reconnect it for others.
The bottom line: It’s a really bad sign when a video game makes you master a new type of control, and you still don’t want to play even when you’ve got it down.
“Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games” has you use the Wiimote in varied ways to defeat different sports challenges.
Even when we started scoring well after having learned some crazy Wiimote movements, we just had no desire to keep going.
To make Mario, Sonic and their friends compete in a running event, for example, you have to alternate moving the Wiimote and the Nunchuk up and down to make your character beat feet. Getting good at it didn’t make it fun.
A trampoline event requires bouncing by moving the Wiimote down and then up, and then pressing different button combinations that appear on the screen to make your character do aerial tricks. You don’t really control your athlete — you just match the button presses or fail.
The event we disliked the least was the skeet shooting, during which you fire at rapidly moving discs on the screen. Pointing and shooting is kinda cool.
System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Yuke’s
Reviewer’s rating: **1/2
ESRB rating: Everyone
Game type: Puzzle
Kind of like: “Picross DS”
Best feature: The game includes tons of puzzles — over 500.
Worst feature: A profound lack of frills makes the game feel kind of dull.
The bottom line: The hand-held Nintendo DS has been the source of a seemingly endless bounty for interactive puzzle buffs, and its digital windfall continues with “Neves.”
“Neves,” which is seven spelled backward, is a video game version of the classic Chinese tangram puzzle. Players must figure out how to create specific shapes using seven provided pieces.
It’s a game that wouldn’t really work on any other system, but using the DS’s touch-screen, it feels elegant and intuitive to move, flip and rotate the pieces.
Shapes start out simple, but as you make progress, there are some real brain-teasers. Fans of logic-based puzzle games like “Picross” or “Sudoku” will probably enjoy putting their spatial reasoning skills to the test. And, like those games, “Neves” is great to pick up and play for a few minutes at a time, especially while you’re on the go or sitting in a waiting room.
It’s not for everyone, though. The game’s timed and competitive modes make it a bit more exciting, but anyone who likes a lot of action in their video games will probably find “Neves” about as interesting as sitting through geometry class.
System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Also available for: Sony PlayStations 2 and 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, Windows PC, Mobile
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Reviewer’s rating: **1/2
ESRB rating: Everyone 10+
Game type: Racing
Kind of like: “Need For Speed Carbon,” “Gran Turismo”
Best feature: Custom car tuning; damage affects performance
Worst feature: Unrealistic driving, handling; beyond cheesy announcer
The bottom line: At times, “Need for Speed ProStreet” seems like two games at the same time. Going back to the franchise’s traditional track-racing roots, “ProStreet” also tries to capitalize on the increasing mainstream popularity of street racing and import culture in a game that doesn’t quite feel like either.
Racing is fairly standard, but most cars drive and handle too similarly to really distinguish them. The fine touch required in hardcore driving simulations like “Gran Turismo” or “Forza” is a non-factor here. How much that matters really depends on the player. There are a variety of race modes—including drifting, an inexact science for sure, and drag racing—which help to break up the monotony of lap-based courses.
The strength of “ProStreet” has to come from its custom tuning options. Although the changes applied are often subtle, they do affect performance enough that it will inspire the gearhead in you. Gear ratios, downforce and cam timing, to name a few, are all adjustable, but the function isn’t so complicated that you’ll need to be a pit crew chief to understand. Damage also affects performance, which will make you think twice before punching that nitrous booster in your 600-horsepower Skyline GT-R.
All the races in “ProStreet” are on set tracks with laps or heats. Everything is handled professionally, like a pro tour format—take a look across the Bay at the St. Pete Grand Prix’s street racing exhibitions to know exactly what we mean. But so many set pieces, complete with barriers and grandstands, creates too artificial of an experience. And it’s because of this traditional, neutered format that “ProStreet” loses the raw edge that should come with a title based on street racing.
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