kelvinismyname

It is hard to explain what is wrong with Football Manager as a series so far. The flaws are seemingly small but they completely ruin the experience for me. When I started my first game it was superb, great fun, addictive. However it quickly went down hill, why? Well for a game that trys so hard to be realistic it fails in critical areas and these are the areas that are most important in creating an entertaining and absorbing game. First off there is STILL a lack of outside influence, by that I mean boardroom, media and fan interaction within the game. Buy a player who cost 80k who becomes a superstar, you get no credit, sell him for 20million, no media coment. Buy a player who cost 6 million who is a complete flop...no reaction. There still seems to be little link between your actions and their results. It is very frustrating when you take care to sign the right players and have everything at the club just right then discover it has little impact on the 'game world' because these details are not recognised by the game, in real life they definately are! Also the tactical system seems very hit and miss (like the last version), a tiny variation, just a slight change on a sliding bar can mean the difference between a humiliating defeat or amazing victory. The 'team talk' system seems to have agrravated this problem as so often what you do at half time has an immediate effect, say the wrong thing (which seems impossible to predict) and a 3-0 half time lead can be erased in the first 20 minutes of the second half, or vice versa. Also the data for leagues outside of England is still not complete and the research for Portugal, Spain and Germany is, yet again, horrendous. Youth teams (B teams) in these nations never seem to have the correct player data, even some international players don't have the correct statistical data entered in the database. Using the data editor it is clear to see that a lot of the data for these leagues (Portugal especially) has been left largely to chance (the game randomly generates the player stats), so even the best prospects can often appear in the game as useless no hopers, and a large amount of players have seemingly impossible stats such as 20 pace and 5 acceleration, or central defenders with 1 for strength, it seems to be a coding problem, things that have no relation to a player's 'potential ability' (a theoretical value to cap a virtual player's future development) such as their mental stats (which are totaly unrelated to technical or athletic ability) are effected by these made up values. What makes these glitches worse is that CPU teams still read a player's current and potential ability points, values that are completely made up and invisable to the gamer, instead of the player's actual ability in the form of stats. So they buy players with awful stats just based on the fact they have a high (mythical) stat for 'potential ability' while players who are actually visably good are ignored. These are problems that have been present since SI were making CM in the 90's and they have never been looked at, in essence this is still the same game as CM4 although the software and interface has been vastly improved, the actual guts of the game - the database, the match engine and the game world are virtually the same. Together with the still awful and notorious 'regen' system (the system that creates new youth players to add to the games lifespan) these flaws limit the games overall playabilty once you get into your 3rd season or later. In fact the old regen system from the CM 00/01 and 01/02 games, although not very realistic, provided better results and made for more exciting long term games. Overall it seems SI have taken the last 3 or 4 years just to get back to the same level of playability they managed to achieve way back in the CM series' heyday. Don't get me wrong, FM2006 is still an excellent title that has nothing to really compete against in it's genre, however it is not the huge step from FM2005 that was generally expected. It has become very frustrating to see so little improvement over the years in SI's products, with loyal fans basically paying full price for a yearly update. Hopefully now that SI have been absorbed into SEGA they will get the extra funding to solve the long standing problems with the series.

Having already got Cricket 2002 I was expecting a significantly enhanced version in 2004. So here's how it shapes up:Batting-------The batting has certainly been improved and now requires you to focus a lot more on the type of shot you need to play - this is a big move forward. The new batsman confidence meter is a good idea and works well. Running between the wickets is still a bit suspect. Sometimes you try to cancel a run but it doesn't respond - resulting in a run out! very annoying. Action replays of you hitting a four or a six are fun to watch and the amount of control you have over this is great. Don't get too frustrated if at first you can't hit the ball or keep getting out quickly - it takes time but eventually you'll get the hang of it.Bowling-------From what I can see there is not much of an improvement in this area. It's fairly straightforward and like it's predecessor works well. At first, positioning the ball on the right spot can be difficult - resulting in too many wides being given away. However, a little practise helps a lot with this.Graphics--------Improvement on 2002 but not brilliant. Sure the stadiums are good and the player movements are better but it still leaves me feeling that it could be so much more somehow. I just wish that as much effort would go into this game as goes into the EA soccer games.Commentary----------Yes it's better but it still lacks a basic intelligence of when and when not to say certain things. For example, I'm 47 for 5 after six overs and the commentator says something like "that's a good start to the innings"!! Duh! Yes I've managed to score a lot of runs in just a few overs but I've also lost 5 wickets! It also repeats the same phrases ball after ball. I still leave the commentary on because I think hearing Richie Benaud alone adds to the atmosphere. Other stuff-----------There are lots of statistics and player info etc which I guess is interesting. For me though I'm more into picking up the game for a few hours and having some fun. Can the programmers spend less time on the stats and more on improving the graphics?Conclusion----------The gameplay has definately improved in certain areas especially batting (which after all is what is most important). The overall feel to the game also feels much slicker and well packaged. For me though, it is not a significant improvement over the last version. It is the best cricket game out there and I'm pleased that EA Sports continues to develop it - which is why I give it probably 7 out of 10 stars. Is it worth saving up for if you already have the 2002 version? Probably.... but only just.

Well I bought this along with the Momo race wheel - which is an excellent investment. This is the first racing game Ive bought, but I have played many demos in the past, so have some baring to comment on.First impressions, that playing the game with a wheel is really hard! Although incredibly enjoyable.. I have been frequently saying "OH ****!" as I overjudge a corner and plough straight into a barrier. My heart has been really pumping today, and I feel a bit twitchy after particuarly close races or even on the single rally stages. So im suitably impressed how immersed I feel.. as I come from a FPS, Strat and MMORPG background, and I havent had a buzz like this off any of those types of games in years.I am a car lover, so its great to have such a huge selection of vehicles to play around with. Theres a huge range to choose from, which you have to unlock, but its not a chore, you really enjoy the challenges, and if you dont enjoy a certain class of race, then you dont have to do it.I suspect a strong modding scene will spring up around this game, no guarantees mind, so I think longevity will increase as fans build more cars and tracks to play with. Only time will tell.I am very happy that my investment has brought as much unexpected joy as it has. Bearing in mind that your going to need this game and a wheel if you dont already have one. You can pick up the ultra cheap saitek wheel for around ?15, but I highly recommend you splash out on the Logitech Momo Racing wheel, especially if your a motor head.So 4 stars, as you will have to like racing or cars, to get any kind of enjoyment beyond a week. Goes without saying really, but it is essentially a sim (although you can set it up as an arcade racer.. but wheres the skill in that?) and as such requires a certain amount of dedication

Soar above the rim and leave your mark as NBA Street V3 hits the pavement: 3-on-3, over-the-top, and larger than life. V3 builds on the game-proven, platinum-selling gameplay of the Street series with new tricks and high-flying dunks. All new Trick Stick and interactive Gamebreaker control elevates the game to new heights with unmistakable style and attitude. Featuring today's biggest NBA stars, a collection of the league's all-time greats, and a Hall of Fame cast of past Street characters, V3 is non-stop, fast-paced, action-packed, in-your-face fun. It's as simple as that. NBA Street V3 is packed with highly-detailed authentic street courts, deep player customization options, new Court Creator, and sick online play. Put your rep on the line in the ultimate proving ground: the street courts of NBA Street V3. The best of the series by far, I would be surprised if there's a better arcade sports game released back in 2005. From bouncing the ball off your opponent's noggin to draining a game-winning three, there is just so much opportunity to talk smack, to compete, and best of all, humiliate your friends by dunking on their heads, that I think this is a must-buy for gamers looking for a fun basketball game without having to worry about the differences between a Triangle and a Box formation. Throw in six controllers and go at it in a real three-on-three for even more laughs, more slams, and best of all, more smack. EA doesn't need an exclusive license to be king of the NBA street court. Midway, you may be second-fiddle for the rest of eternity as NBA Street V3 is the best street game of this generation. The only weak point is the sound, but beyond that, every aspect of V3 crackles with energy and imagination. I am a little bummed that EA still hasn't done anything interesting with jump shots (give us a dozen different trick shots, please), making it all about the dunks. The new GameBreaker is a sick and sweet idea and after putting a few dozen games under my belt, I began coming up with my own custom GameBreaker dunks. The inclusion of the Beastie Boys is inspired, the ability to customize your own court and shoes well-executed, and every GameBreaker dunk a furious thunder of street attitude. It's great, go buy it.

I have never had the urge to go skiing, leave the real stuff to the professionals I say! So when I originally tried the demo of this game, it was just that, something to try out and see whether it was any good. And it is! Which is why I bought it!Whether you ski or not, you'll find yourself coming back to this game again and again.It is difficult to start with, but once you gain more experience points you can increase your skill and get better skis. This makes it even more difficult to put down as you constantly try and better your best time. It may be fairly linear in it's approach but with four disciplines, (Downhill, Super G, Slalom and Giant Slalom) there is still a lot to this game.Highly recommended for those who want to ski but keep their bones intact!

I have to say that I've never played the first Tomb Raider games, or any of the sequels, save for this one. And after playing Legend - I've become a Lara Croft addict. I'll admit that the game is short - but I don't really have any issues with that. For those of you who like a little variety in their gaming experiences, then this is good fun. The puzzles are interesting, and once you've got the hang of one, you ought to catch on to the rest. One thing that did amaze me is the fluidity of Lara's movements. I've played a couple games where jumping from one place to another becomes an issue when it shouldn't be - you're not going to have that problem here. You will, however, take a short while to become accustomed to the camera angle (I'm assuming this is only in the PC version), which requires the movement of the mouse to manipulate. The first level where Lara explores a temple in Bolivia allows you to familiarize yourself with her movements. There are instructions that pop up during gameplay, helping you to get from one location to another. Lara comes equipped with a PLS (personal light source), 2 standard handguns, binoculars (which can be turned on to RAD mode, in which you can view which objects can be moved, are flammable, are part of a mechanism to a puzzle or are fragile) and health packs (she can only carry 3 - max). When you kill enemies, you have the option of getting a better weapon in addition to your 2 handguns. You can also carry a maximum of 4 grenades. The graphics are terrific. Installation of the game takes up a lot of memory (even more than SIMS 2!), so be sure you have enough space on your hard drive. The disk space use-up is justified, though. They have paid a lot of attention to detail in each level. The two things that seriously annoy me is that you can only save at certain "checkpoints" and cannot skip previously viewed cutscenes. When playing the game and advancing to different locations, a pop-up appears indicating that you've reached a checkpoint. That way, if you die, you won't have to replay that level from the beginning. It's all well and good, but you cannot save BETWEEN checkpoints. Due to this reason, I cannot find a way to skip cutscenes I've already seen. E.g. Lara meets with a bad guy, they chat, bad guy gets mad and they fight. If Lara dies, you resume the game while playing through the scenario over again. To sum up, if you're a flexible gamer who likes variety and a little challenge (play this game using the HARD difficulty level!), then go for it. If you're the kind of person who's into more of a specific kind of experience, stick to your thing.

Halo 2" is a solid game in almost every respect and certainly stands head and shoulders above most other FPSs out there. That said, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic for the original throughout the game. Bungie has made a few changes to the game in this outing and, unfortunately, most of them were changes that shouldn't have been made. For starters, the dual-wielding capability doesn't add much to the game. With two guns in hand the player, understandably, can't throw grenades. But more frustrating is the fact that using the melee attack with two weapons causes you to toss the left one for no good reason. Furthermore, as other reviewers have posted, the guns really clutter up the screen. Even with only one, it seems to take up far more space than in "Halo: Combat Evolved". When the first game came out, one of the only consistent complaints was that the second half of the game reused level maps a lot. That didn't bother me too much, since the enemies, power-ups and available vehicles changed. In "Halo 2" the player doesn't do nearly so much backtracking, but they might as well have since every level looks just about the same, and most are quite boring. The only exception were the couple of Earth-city levels near the beginning. I was very, VERY disappointed to see the story leaving Earth for alien bases and other such linear environments so early on, especially since each level was so short. (After I'd finished the first three levels, I thought I was still on the first). The game took place in confined spaces and suffered a severe shortage of large-scale battles, open areas, and vehicles. But what made the first game so great was the free, open spaces where the player could tool around in a Warthog with allies or fly over everything and carpet-bomb them in a Banshee. (Also, the ability to hover in the Banshee, probably the most important move it could make, by holding back while pointing your nose to the ground seems to have been omitted in "Halo 2"). Frankly, there was too much of an emphasis on adding lots of new (unnecessary) weapons and vehicles. The first game was perfectly balanced, which is what made it such a phenomenal success. Here there's too much clutter. Much has been written about the multiplayer portion of this game. It must be said that it's a very strong selling point, offering a dizzying variety of options for play. However, the original also boosted most of the same capabilities. The one important addition has been the cooperative mode, which I think should be implemented in absolutely all FPSs developed on a console. Of course, a whole new engine has been developed for the sequel, and it shows. Textures are much more beautiful and character animation is slightly improved. The original game had a bare-bones story, which is appropriate for an FPS of this type, and what it had it told well. "Halo 2" puts perhaps slightly less emphasis on the story, but it's still at an appropriate level. Perhaps the biggest mistake the developers made though was pulling a "Metal Gear Solid 2" in the middle of the game. For multiple long stretches the player takes control of a Covenant Elite. I found that I couldn't wait to get past this part and return to what I considered the 'real' game with the Master Chief. It's not that this portion was poorly implemented- it wasn't. The Elite controls exactly the same and sports a 10-second optic camoflauge ability in lieu of a flashlight. The problem is that I just didn't care about him, his mission, or his part of the story. I wanted to follow the main character's story throughout. "Halo 2" is still a solid gameplay experience. Enemies are much tougher (as in, take more bullets to kill) on Normal Mode here than they were in "Halo: Combat Evolved", which felt a little unbalanced given your weapons' relatively low ammo capacity. However, one thing to be thankful for is the omission of any exceedingly annoying individual levels such as "The Library" from the original game. While the Flood does make an appearance, it's generally in the kind of moderation that allows it to be fun to play against and not the kind of highly-annoying patience-drainer it was the first time around. In truth, there's not a lot wrong with this game. It just seems that there was so much that could have been done in a sequel with the available engine and hardware that wasn't. How the development team chose to use their resources this time around was way off the mark, in my opinion, and I can only hope they re-evaluate the direction of their innovation in the succeeding game(s). "Halo 2" is the way to go if you're looking to buy an FPS for your Xbox and you already own "Halo: Combat Evolved" (at least until "Doom 3" comes out). However, in almost every way I recommend the original game over this one.

Before I start any review that gives this game lots of stars and doesn't address the AI or difficulty of this game is a fake review. Probably from a person who has a load of boxes full of DOA4 lying around like a bad drug. I have had the game for about 2 months now and feel I'm in position to give an honest review Firstly the game looks amazing, great interactive backgrounds, character details, a reasonable number of characters and costumes plus great end movies. All this game needed was reasonable gameplay and it would have been a great game, but Team Ninja or as I like to call them Team Numbskull, have failed and kind of ruined the game. When I first got the game DOA4 was probably the most frustrating unenjoyable game ever! People, who say that this is a good thing, probably pay women in leather to whip them. And that is how I felt when I first started playing the game. I paid �50, which is about $80 and god knows how much yen to get my **bottom** kicked. There is nothing more annoying than a game where the CPU can do things a Player can't do. The CPU can do all these fancy throws and counter throws, while it is near impossible for Players to pull off a simple throw. With a lot of practice you might be about to counter a CPU move once in a blue moon, but it is more down to luck than Judgement. The gameplay also isn't organic. If the CPU player is low on energy the CPU player will pull off a 10 to 15 hit combo out of nowhere to bring your energy down. While that is okay sometimes, when it happens every round it makes the gameplay artificial, predictable and unenjoyable. What makes that worst is the fact that the CPU can counter throw player combos easy, while it is again near impossible for players to block or counter CPU combos. Especial the last boss who can actually throw, not a counter, you while you are punching and it's this unfairness that makes the game unsatisfying. Players are better off just pressing buttons fast because the minute you try to pull off good moves the CPU hits you more. I know a lot of the reviews say it is great that is hard because it sorts out the men from the boys, but I think that kind of gamer elitism is wrong, because if I don't want to fight psychic CPU opponents then there should be an easy option. After a lot of practice I am very good at the game and the game becomes slightly easier. You learn you can't do the same move more than twice in row and with characters (La Mariposa) that have fast combos that hit high and low the game becomes more reasonable. I've finished the game with all the characters, but the game just isn't that fun. Because there is no easy level to experiment and use a range of moves or tactics so the game becomes boring even when you are winning. I play games fun and relax from work. DOA4 just seems like work. The music is mostly Rubbish J-Rock. When will Japanese game companies learn from Grand Theft Auto, we are the Ipod generation, so we want to hear real music in our games, rather than the work of some poor guy in their Music department producing average music. And why the hell do all the characters speak Japanese? I know there are subtitles, but surely given most of the world speaks English it would of made sense to have a game with English voices and Japanese subtitles. There is also something very subversive about the character Zack with I just don't like. I think useless you are some kind of Professional Games Player then I wouldn't get it. It's an expensive that does not deliver in the most important thing gameplay. If Team Ninja for made this way deliberately then I won't be buying anymore of there games. DOA4 is a beautiful game, but I say if you like nice pictures go to a gallery not and don't pay for this game that becomes dull fast. Bring on Tekken 5, where the characters speak English, there is an easy and normal level, the throw moves isn't pointless and the game is fun to play.

When I got my first chance to play Battlefield 2, the pace was significantly more intense and quicker than any of the previous Battlefield Series. It took quite some time to get adjusted, roughly about an hour for me. The server that we played on was a sixty-four player server. During this time I experienced no lag and no framerate drops, the game ran as smoothly as it can come. The first thing I noticed when I spawned was seeing an explosion and fire coming out of the windows of a building, and it looked stunning. The sounds of the game were just simply amazing; it felt as you were actually there as I heard explosions, gunfire going off everywhere, and the sound of a jet engine above me as a plane flew by. The game itself was well balanced as I did not see one class being over used or one weapon dominating. With Battlefield 2 promoting teamwork the squad system and VOIP works really well, as I experienced a whole new level of teamwork. The VOIP server itself can be run on the server box with your game-server or can be run from a different location as it is a separate application and not tied in with the server program. The 3D map for Battlefield 2 only displays the distance from the flag instead of both the distance from the flag and your teammate like BF: Vietnam this option can be turned off by pressing the left ALT button. To deploy a smoke screen for the tanks and flares for jets / helicopters you press the `X' key. The maps for Battlefield 2 now feature various effects such as a moving sky, waterfalls, and various other ambient effects. The reload animation has also significantly improved, depending on what kit you have chosen, you view your soldier throwing his ammo magazine from one hand to another to reload his weapon, as well as if you are idle with the knife in your hand, your soldier will play around with the knife by throwing it up and catching it on its tip. There is now a reload indicator for all vehicles and weapons, this will tell you how long it takes to reload your weapon, and is a great addition. Gameplay: As I previously mentioned the game pace of Battlefield 2 is more intense and faster. Unfortunately one of the things I did not like in Battlefield 2 was the jump height. A few minutes into a round, all I was seeing was the enemy soldier jumping about five feet into the air, shooting, and killing me. So I re-spawn and guess what same thing happens again. On my screen I view an enemy jumping about five feet in the air and while jumping, the enemy is shooting and kills me. Now you'll think to yourself well when in the air, your aim will not be so good. Well I can tell you it's not that hard to stay on your target while jumping. I extremely disliked the jump height and when asked if it will be changed the answer was no but they are working on to fix the bunny hopping. As well as I saw a lot of dolphin diving. This is where you go into prone mode, start shooting at your target and to make it worse they stand right up after going into prone mode. This was virtually an instant kill, and the only way to really defeat this was to shove it back into their faces. So after awhile I started to jump about five feet in the air while shooting them, and started to dolphin dive and got quite a few kills out of it. The sprint feature is a new addition to Battlefield 2 to access this feature you would press the `Shift' key. You can also swim faster in the water by pressing the `Shift' key. One of the first kits I got to test out was the Special Forces kit. The primary weapon for this kit is the M4A1 with a scope and inside the scope a red dot representing the crosshairs. While using this gun I ended up being third on my team with about fifty-six kills. I personally loved this gun as it was accurate and precise. This kit also contains the sticky C4, unfortunately you cannot stick this onto an enemy soldier but you can stick it onto any vehicle. I found this to be very useful and fun, and the remote detonator was pretty quick to access unlike BF Vietnam where you had to wait ages. Another thing I had noticed is that the weapons have a different combination for firing your bullets. One set of combination is a single bullet shot or burst fire. The other combination being burst fire or full automatic. To change these different firing modes you would press the key for that weapon again. For example I would press the `3' key to switch between the firing modes for my main weapon. The way of throwing the grenade has now also changed, to throw a grenade at a farther distance than the original distance throw, you have a range by clicking the right mouse button and holding it. While we are on the subject of the grenades if one is thrown near you, you will experience a shock effect where your screen goes into a shaky mode along with blurriness. This is a new feature added for anything that has an explosion and you are virtually right beside it. The smoke grenades looked absolutely awesome. As you throw one, a gray color cloud comes out of it and covers the target area pretty extensively. Now onto the destructible bridges, bridges can be destroyed. If it is destroyed, it proves to be a great hassle as it essentially changes the gameplay since you now have to find a new way of getting across the river. I remember in one of the map that if the bridge was destroyed and you could not cross the river unless you swam across. Luckily an engineer can repair the bridge so this provides a nice counter-measure for destroying someone's bridge. The primary weapon for the engineer is the shotgun and I can tell you this weapon packs a punch. With about two good shots into a soldier he will either have very low health or will be dead on the ground. I should also mention the Ironsights were beautifully done, and I'm sure a lot of people will enjoy them. The next kit I tried was by far my favorite the medic kit. The defibrillator is the best tool you could possible have in the game as the shock paddle kill will replace the knife kill. While being the medic you are equipped with the M16 rifle but who is really going to use that gun when you have shock paddles. After getting one person with the shock paddles I was addicted to it. I could not use any other kit without thinking about getting people with the shock paddles, unfortunately I was gifted with using it and got about ten or so people with it (including Ben Smith, see screenshot below) and this was my first day using it. With the medic you can put down health packs in which anyone (including the enemy) on the battlefield can run over to heal themselves, and within a certain radius you can heal your teammate without dropping any health packs. While someone is critically wounded and they press their left mouse button a lighting bolt type icon will appear on your screen and minimap. This is where the critically wounded person is located and with the defibrillator you can bring him back to life. The Squad system proved to be very useful as it improves team play and communications with other players on the battlefield. To communicate with your squad you would press the `V' key and to talk to your commander you would press the `B' key. The only issue I have with the squad leader is the mobile-spawn. The new addition to Battlefield 2 radio commands was the Q button; this essentially eliminates using the F-keys for radio commands. This new system takes awhile to get use to, as soon as I hit the Q button you have move your mouse to the location you want to go to use a radio command. Most of the time I had to stop in my tracks, press the Q and move the mouse button to call out a tank in front of me but after awhile of adjusting to it, I got the hang out of but personally I would still like to use the good ole F-keys for radio commands. Vehicles: There are over thirty new vehicles for Battlefield 2 and by setting the map player size to a larger set for example sixty-four you will receive more vehicles on your map. One of the first vehicles I had a chance to try out was the M1A2. The HUD looked pretty impressive with bars showing you how long it takes to reload your weapon along with an indicator showing if there is a missile that is locked on to you. The tank is capable of popping smoke by pressing the `X' button, as this will prevent the anti-tank missile from targeting you (unless you get a lucky shot in). The only issue I had with the tanks was when turning the turret it moved slowly, the only solution to this was to move up the sensitivity for my mouse. The M1A2 main turret gun had a limited supply of ammo (roughly around 50 shots) and took about 5 seconds to reload, while the secondary gun (machine gun) had an unlimited supply of ammo but would overheat quickly. The next vehicle I had an opportunity to try out was the Wessex-Saker - FAAV this vehicle was quick to get you wherever you wanted to go on the Battlefield but it lacked in armor, basically one shot with a tank you'll be blown out of this world. This vehicle is what the DPV for Desert Combat should have felt like. As well as both of the passengers receive a weapon to fight off oncoming traffic. While you are in a vehicle to switch positions it is now the F-key's (F1, etc) this was changed so now you can in between weapons while in a vehicle such as going from a knife to your gun. The helicopters were the next thing I had a chance to try out, unlike Desert Combat, you cannot just get into the vehicle press your throttle key and you are in the air, the helicopter must first reach hundred percent throttle then it waits about three more seconds then you are finally in the air. The AH-1z flew beautifully as I was able to maneuver my way out of certain tight spots and go through certain tight spaces. The AH1-z second position is where you got to control the guided missiles. This process worked by selecting the spot you would like to have your missile fired at, once doing so a TV screen will pop up then you select your target and fire away. The HH-60H Seahawk was hard to handle it felt like a floating concrete box but after awhile of adjusting to it, it served well for its purpose. Both planes and helicopters now can lock onto their target but it is heat sensitive meaning that you can have false lock-on. For example in one of the map you had a burning oil well and on top of it was flames coming out, your plane or helicopter will lock onto it since it attracting heat. The WASP Carrier featured two F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, one HH-60H Seahawk, one anti-air weapon at the back of the ship, and two or four Rib's (Uncertain about number). The F-35 JSF was a fun vehicle to be inside of, to lift off from the WASP you have to press the `S' key for reverse throttle and within a matter of seconds you'll be hover then by pressing the forward key you have transitioned into flying mode. It was easy to go back and forth between these modes. While flying the aircraft you could switch in between the bombs or missiles by pressing the `F' key. This is also for switching between ammo for most of jet planes and helicopter. The dog fighting was pretty interesting, seeing how I'm not a flyboy, it was a little tough to get a handle on your opponent since the elements of flares have been added. After awhile of chasing a bogey I finally got a lock on him and fire the missile off it went to chase him and blew him out of the sky. You can lock onto air targets as well as if you try to lock onto a friendly vehicle the lock on box will appear with an X in it indicating that it is a friendly vehicle. To access the afterburners you would press the Shift key and this will provide you with a little boost when needed. I liked this feature very well. On the map Songhua Stalemate (I believe it was) if you were inside a RIB at the top of the river and starting moving your way down you would have to go in between the little openings for the dams. I can tell you going through these little openings in the dam was fun, since you flew in the air as the water level dropped below you. The menu for Battlefield 2 has been reworked, the whole menu is now completely in flash, so if a mod team wants to rework their menu it must be done in a Flash Editor. The new menus added are BFHQ and Community. Inside of BFHQ is sub-menus called Kit Info, Stats, Leaderboards, and Awards. As the name implies Kit Info is information about your kit for US, MEC, and China. This sub-menu will also display information about your current rank for that specific kit, how far you are from reaching your next rank, information about your weapons/kit, global statistics, and the last three medals you have earned. The Awards sub-menu displays all the awards you have earned on the battlefield. You will be able to see all the Medals, Badges, and Ribbons you have earned and a description about it. The next sub-menu is the Stats section; this is where you can view your overall statistics along with how many points you have earned through the different elements of teamwork. Unlike BF 1942 and Vietnam where you only had the top three players of the round displayed, once the round is finished in Battlefield 2 you can get an in-depth analysis of all the statistics through this stats section. The Leaderboard sub-menu is for displaying the overall leaders in different categories, this is pretty straight forward. Finally, the menu's music sounds like a porno theme. Don't believe me? Well go ask fellow people who have played Battlefield 2 they will agree. There is also a separate menu to configure your helicopter unlike previous Battlefield series games where they were combined with aircraft.

The game is fast and fun, but with some tearing on the PS2 version. Poor PS2, it just can't handle the speed anymore. I can't wait for the PS3. I have a 41" Sony XBR Tube TV and my eyes were bleeding the first night of play. Wow!! My eye doctor gave me a bottle of teardrops for playing these types of games. Your eyes don't get washed by normal blinking and dry out because you're concentrating so much. Get yourself some REFRESH TEARS if you play race games for hours on end. You'll need it here. The graphics are good with nice rain and sunlight effects. The Dolby Pro Logic is some of the best surround I've heard in a game. The thunder coming out of my rear effects speakers was incredible. There's a WIDESCREEN feature. There is an option to mix the 26 songs in the jukebox anyway you like. I don't care for Hip Hop so I turned it all off and put all the Heavy Metal in random order. You can also sample every song to make your choice. If you don't like Heavy Metal or Hip Hop you can turn it ALL off and just listen to the sounds of the engines purring. The MENUS are confusing at first as there are many sub-menus within sub-menus. It took me 15 minutes just to figure out how to get out of CAREER MODE. (You must PAUSE, go to your SAFE HOUSE, and GO BACK two times to find the MAIN MENU.) It's not the most user friendly menu system I've seen.This time NEED FOR SPEED mixes the free roaming city of the UNDERGROUND series with the heavy police presence of THE HOT PURSUIT games. The game has a million tracks and a million things to do.The meat of the game is the CAREER MODE. This is where you acquire the stats in EVENTS, MILESTONE COMPETITIONS, and CHALLENGES to be challenged by the 15 MOST WANTED on THE BLACKLIST and open all the cars and some of the juicier parts for the cars. You'll meet all the characters in FMV which is a little weird, but kind of cool, for a racing game. The acting is good, but you can forward through all of them if you just want to race. Some of the characters will give you hints via messages on the SMS cellphone and email feature which you can manage by either keeping or deleting them. Along with acquiring stats you'll also need to make your presence known to the police and collect needed BOUNTY points so that when you have enough BOUNTY and stats you'll be challenged by a rival on THE BLACKLIST. Your RAP sheet contains all the info about your ALIAS. The funniest stat was for the amount of damage you've caused the State. CAREER MODE is where you FREE ROAM which is really unnecessary because you'll find yourself getting into the BLACKLIST with the press of a button to enter the events you need to be challenged by a rival. Once you enter an EVENT, CHALLENGE, MILESTONE COMPETITION or BOUNTY, it takes you were you need to go. There are also ICONS throughout the city that are also unnecessary for certain EVENTS. Just go into the BLACKLIST MENU to check off the things you need. However, you will need the WORLD MAP display to set the GPS system to show you where the parts SHOPS are. You can't go directly to them from the BLACKLIST or PAUSE MENU. You'll need to drive to them. You can get to the SAFE HOUSE (your garage) by just pressing the PAUSE button. You don't have to drive there. To me the free roaming around the city is rather moot unless you want to get the lay of the city for when the cops are chasing you. I just wing it with the MINI MAP provided in the lower left corner of the screen looking for the SPEEDBREAKER and COOL DOWN spots. The only time you use the whole city, which opens up later with more sections, is when you're running from the cops. The rest of the events are set courses that you must follow to beat.Other MODES are QUICK RACE with QUICK PLAY where the game gives you the car for the track you select. The manual tells you to play this MODE because it will unlock special cars or items you can't unlock in other parts of the game. There's also CUSTOM RACE in QUICK PLAY where you use a separate garage with a limited choice of cars until you open up the rest of the cars in CAREER MODE. You can also set the number of laps and the number of rivals for most events. There's SPLIT SCREEN for head to head racing and THE CHALLENGE SERIES, which was the meat of the game in NEED FOR SPEED HOT PURSUIT 2.RACE TYPES include CIRCUIT, DRAG, LAP KNOCKOUT, SPEEDTRAP, SPRINT, and TOLLBOOTH.The cars are great, but limited, and can be customized. Visual CUSTOMIZATION is rather needless for reasons I mention below. I love the MUSTANG FASTBACK. As a teen in the late 70's and early 8o's, I street raced a '66 MUSTANG with a 289 punched out to a 302, a Holley 4 barrel, a high-speed rearend, a low race cam, turbo flow mufflers, anti-sway bars, and a Cruisematic transmission. That's it!! We didn't use nitrous or computers. And that car was the fastest quarter-miler in the whole San Fernando Valley in SO CAL. The only car that ever came close to beating me was a CORVETTE. That dreaded CORVETTE is in the game too. The FORD GT is a great car and one of my favorites from GRAN TURISMO. I'm glad they included the LAMBORGINIS from HOT PURSUIT, but where are the FERRARIS? Where else can you destroy a $250,000 FERRARI and just go get another one. Bummer. You will be driving the lesser cars for a while until you earn enough money to buy better ones, but even the smaller cars FLY when you get them souped up. VERY NICE!! VERY FAST!!One of the best things about the NEED FOR SPEED series are the car physics. HOT PURSUIT 2 did them a little better, but when you get off the road into the dirt or grass your car spins it's tires a little. When you get back on the pavement you can really feel the car gripping the asphalt. I like them better than the floaty rocket car physics of MIDNIGHT CLUB and BURNOUT. The physics are a combination of simulator and arcade. JUST AWESOME!!WARNING TO REPLAY FANATICS: There is no REPLAY RACE feature in the game to review big events. I've only played the UNDERGROUND series on DEMO, but NEED FOR SPEED HOT PURSUIT 2 (which is my favorite racer of all time) had this feature. As do most other racing games. To me, this is a glaring oversight by EA. Having a racing game without a REPLAY is like not having one of the best features. What's the point of all the visual customization and car damage when you only see your car in the garage and at the start of a race and you're only gonna be looking at it from behind for the rest of the game? A lot of the fun is watching yourself drive after pulling off some ridiculously insane driving techniques or after causing some major damage in a police pursuit. My friends and I love to REPLAY awesome races, critique the driving, and pat ourselves on the back. It's part of the reward for a challenge well done. I mentioned this to a friend and he just groaned. I know it's not a simulator but it should be a STANDARD feature in ALL racing games. Do the race cameras eat up that much memory? I don't think so. EA blew it BIG TIME by not including this feature!! I was really having fun my first night at the game and had taken down 2 of the 15 rivals on THE BLACKLIST in CAREER MODE. But, not having a REPLAY RACE feature almost SINKS this game for me. This game would get a solid 9 from me, but not having a REPLAY brings down my score!! WHAT A DISAPPONITMENT!! I FEEL LIKE SOMEONE HAS CHOPPED OFF MY RIGHT ARM AND I CAN'T SHIFT MY RICE BURNER.I also filled out the game registration at EA's website and have yet to receive the hints and cheat codes they promised by email. Juggleheads!!If you can get past the fact that the game has no REPLAY feature, you're going to have a lot of fun. Me, I just can't get over it. I WANT MY REPLAY CAMERA!! I guess I'll have to turn off all the lights in my house, grab a bottle of Jack, and weep by myself in the corner.ENJOY.

I've enjoyed AOE3, but have found myself very disappointed in the gameplay. Rather than borrow from Rise of Nations and Empire Earth, the gameplay is mostly the same as the previous installments (with the semi-interesting exception of the home world).The home world is a good idea and I enjoy mixing the cards, but the appearance upgrades don't do much. The home city should start out small, and the upgrades should be significant and noticeable, not just "guy walking around", flags, and boxes. I know, I know.... a small home city would be unrealistic..... but the appearance upgrades are just not meaningful otherwise.Disappointments:- no Conquer the World-style strategic game- slow and limited zoom; shoulda made it capable of zooming in and out further, a la Empire Earth- the battles, compared with what we were told during the development stages, are awful from a tactical perspective. They are just mass attacks, everyone moves as slowly as the slowest unit, and formations are practically useless as they are broken upon entering the fray.- selecting an individual unit is not easy. You can't just click on the box of the unit you want, and finding your hero in a mob can be tough.- Battles lack customization. You've basically got two options - regular or death match. Compare this to the myriad of battle types in Rise of Nations and Empire Earth. Or the great map selection/randomization options in Age of Mythology. The game's replayability is seriously wounded by this lack of customization.I have nothing interesting to say about the good aspects of the game because they are the same as the previous two Age installments. So it's entertaining, but not much of a leap forward. Worth it for Age fans, but hard-core RTS fans would be better served by Empire Earth.

I was really surprised the day I heard this long thought dead series was rising from the ashes once again. After playing Xtreme I was hoping for much more, and that's exactly what I got. Grandia III is just like the other Grandia's that come before it. An epic journey where friendships are made and love is found. With a new unique battle system (like an improved Star Ocean 3), you travel with Yuki and friends around the world in a neat plane. I was excited when I found out I could take to the skies... However the skies are limited. Access to new and outside places that aren't on the linear gamepath go nowhere. One of the serious cons of this 2 disc game. Adding an addicting card game does not also cover up the lack of side quests in this game as well. The leveling system however was competely fun for me and a total blast with the new fighting system installed. Definitely tides me over till games other games are hitting the market. I definitely enjoyed the unique background and the chemistry between most of the characters. The dubbing wasn't even that bad. I was pretty surprised overall with how enjoyable this game was. I only gave it a 4 out of 5 due to it's few but minor flaws. I would recommend this to anyone who is out for another quick smash and grab.

The game is fast and fun, but with some tearing on the PS2 version. Poor PS2, it just can't handle the speed anymore. I can't wait for the PS3. I have a 41" Sony XBR Tube TV and my eyes were bleeding the first night of play. Wow!! My eye doctor gave me a bottle of teardrops for playing these types of games. Your eyes don't get washed by normal blinking and dry out because you're concentrating so much. Get yourself some REFRESH TEARS if you play race games for hours on end. You'll need it here. The graphics are good with nice rain and sunlight effects. The Dolby Pro Logic is some of the best surround I've heard in a game. The thunder coming out of my rear effects speakers was incredible. There's a WIDESCREEN feature. There is an option to mix the 26 songs in the jukebox anyway you like. I don't care for Hip Hop so I turned it all off and put all the Heavy Metal in random order. You can also sample every song to make your choice. If you don't like Heavy Metal or Hip Hop you can turn it ALL off and just listen to the sounds of the engines purring. The MENUS are confusing at first as there are many sub-menus within sub-menus. It took me 15 minutes just to figure out how to get out of CAREER MODE. (You must PAUSE, go to your SAFE HOUSE, and GO BACK two times to find the MAIN MENU.) It's not the most user friendly menu system I've seen. This time NEED FOR SPEED mixes the free roaming city of the UNDERGROUND series with the heavy police presence of THE HOT PURSUIT games. The game has a million tracks and a million things to do. The meat of the game is the CAREER MODE. This is where you acquire the stats in EVENTS, MILESTONE COMPETITIONS, and CHALLENGES to be challenged by the 15 MOST WANTED on THE BLACKLIST and open all the cars and some of the juicier parts for the cars. You'll meet all the characters in FMV which is a little weird, but kind of cool, for a racing game. The acting is good, but you can forward through all of them if you just want to race. Some of the characters will give you hints via messages on the SMS cellphone and email feature which you can manage by either keeping or deleting them. Along with acquiring stats you'll also need to make your presence known to the police and collect needed BOUNTY points so that when you have enough BOUNTY and stats you'll be challenged by a rival on THE BLACKLIST. Your RAP sheet contains all the info about your ALIAS. The funniest stat was for the amount of damage you've caused the State. CAREER MODE is where you FREE ROAM which is really unnecessary because you'll find yourself getting into the BLACKLIST with the press of a button to enter the events you need to be challenged by a rival. Once you enter an EVENT, CHALLENGE, MILESTONE COMPETITION or BOUNTY, it takes you were you need to go. There are also ICONS throughout the city that are also unnecessary for certain EVENTS. Just go into the BLACKLIST MENU to check off the things you need. However, you will need the WORLD MAP display to set the GPS system to show you where the parts SHOPS are. You can't go directly to them from the BLACKLIST or PAUSE MENU. You'll need to drive to them. You can get to the SAFE HOUSE (your garage) by just pressing the PAUSE button. You don't have to drive there. To me the free roaming around the city is rather moot unless you want to get the lay of the city for when the cops are chasing you. I just wing it with the MINI MAP provided in the lower left corner of the screen looking for the SPEEDBREAKER and COOL DOWN spots. The only time you use the whole city, which opens up later with more sections, is when you're running from the cops. The rest of the events are set courses that you must follow to beat. Other MODES are QUICK RACE with QUICK PLAY where the game gives you the car for the track you select. The manual tells you to play this MODE because it will unlock special cars or items you can't unlock in other parts of the game. There's also CUSTOM RACE in QUICK PLAY where you use a separate garage with a limited choice of cars until you open up the rest of the cars in CAREER MODE. You can also set the number of laps and the number of rivals for most events. There's SPLIT SCREEN for head to head racing and THE CHALLENGE SERIES, which was the meat of the game in NEED FOR SPEED HOT PURSUIT 2. RACE TYPES include CIRCUIT, DRAG, LAP KNOCKOUT, SPEEDTRAP, SPRINT, and TOLLBOOTH. The cars are great, but limited, and can be customized. Visual CUSTOMIZATION is rather needless for reasons I mention below. I love the MUSTANG FASTBACK. As a teen in the late 70's and early 8o's, I street raced a '66 MUSTANG with a 289 punched out to a 302, a Holley 4 barrel, a high-speed rearend, a low race cam, turbo flow mufflers, anti-sway bars, and a Cruisematic transmission. That's it!! We didn't use nitrous or computers. And that car was the fastest quarter-miler in the whole San Fernando Valley in SO CAL. The only car that ever came close to beating me was a CORVETTE. That dreaded CORVETTE is in the game too. The FORD GT is a great car and one of my favorites from GRAN TURISMO. I'm glad they included the LAMBORGINIS from HOT PURSUIT, but where are the FERRARIS? Where else can you destroy a $250,000 FERRARI and just go get another one. Bummer. You will be driving the lesser cars for a while until you earn enough money to buy better ones, but even the smaller cars FLY when you get them souped up. VERY NICE!! VERY FAST!! One of the best things about the NEED FOR SPEED series are the car physics. HOT PURSUIT 2 did them a little better, but when you get off the road into the dirt or grass your car spins it's tires a little. When you get back on the pavement you can really feel the car gripping the asphalt. I like them better than the floaty rocket car physics of MIDNIGHT CLUB and BURNOUT. The physics are a combination of simulator and arcade. JUST AWESOME!! WARNING TO REPLAY FANATICS: There is no REPLAY RACE feature in the game to review big events. I've only played the UNDERGROUND series on DEMO, but NEED FOR SPEED HOT PURSUIT 2 (which is my favorite racer of all time) had this feature. As do most other racing games. To me, this is a glaring oversight by EA. Having a racing game without a REPLAY is like not having one of the best features. What's the point of all the visual customization and car damage when you only see your car in the garage and at the start of a race and you're only gonna be looking at it from behind for the rest of the game? A lot of the fun is watching yourself drive after pulling off some ridiculously insane driving techniques or after causing some major damage in a police pursuit. My friends and I love to REPLAY awesome races, critique the driving, and pat ourselves on the back. It's part of the reward for a challenge well done. I mentioned this to a friend and he just groaned. I know it's not a simulator but it should be a STANDARD feature in ALL racing games. Do the race cameras eat up that much memory? I don't think so. EA blew it BIG TIME by not including this feature!! I was really having fun my first night at the game and had taken down 2 of the 15 rivals on THE BLACKLIST in CAREER MODE. But, not having a REPLAY RACE feature almost SINKS this game for me. This game would get a solid 9 from me, but not having a REPLAY brings down my score!! WHAT A DISAPPONITMENT!! I FEEL LIKE SOMEONE HAS CHOPPED OFF MY RIGHT ARM AND I CAN'T SHIFT MY RICE BURNER. I also filled out the game registration at EA's website and have yet to receive the hints and cheat codes they promised by email. Juggleheads!! If you can get past the fact that the game has no REPLAY feature, you're going to have a lot of fun. Me, I just can't get over it. I WANT MY REPLAY CAMERA!! I guess I'll have to turn off all the lights in my house, grab a bottle of Jack, and weep by myself in the corner. ENJOY.

Wow. Simply put, Max Payne is one of those games that makes you sit back and thank the heavens for your PC. From the brilliant opening sequence to the dingy corridors of Hell's Kitchen apartments and subway systems, Payne promises a feast of graphic delight, convincing audio, and a wealth of gameplay goodness. The game's depiction of Max's wife being murdered is harrowing, and from there, the story just gets better. Told in snippets of pulp fiction graphic novel, Payne's bent-on-revenge theme works to perfection. The locale of NYC is genuine, down to the ambulance sirens, mailboxes, and subway location signs. But where the game really stands out is its gameplay. Although Max is a conventional shooter, it is anything but. Using the brilliant "shootdodge" and "bullet-time" techniques, Max can essentially slow down the clock and dispatch enemies, despite overwhelming odds. How, you ask? By slowing the enemy's actions (including their bullets), Max remains in real time, essentially letting you squeeze off a few rounds before the bad guys even knew what hit them. When it's all over, you'll see foes somersaulting backwards, bullets and blood their last hurrah. The game's use of Max's heartbeat to slow down the action is unforgettable, and having to use it only in times of trouble is amazing. It never gets overdone. The action sequences are too good to be true. In fact, to believe it, you'll simply have to see it. Action camera angles are done seamlessly, and Max's comments during the game keep the story flowing. Cut scenes are meticulously crafted in grainy comic book action, and the style works, thanks to the story's key elements.With so many cool features and amazing gameplay, the only disappointment with "Max" is its length. Because after 10 to 15 hours of complete immersion, it's over. Still, with the included editor, game geeks from all over the world will be creating mods to further Max's bloodlust. Oh, and one other note: Payne works better on fast machines with updated graphics cards, so be sure you've got a 700 MHz or better unit running with some heavy RAM (128 or above; 256 is clutch) and a GeForce2 or above.So, if have this game you know thatz It's an instant classic and one of the greatest. It's that good.

I picked up my copy of Nightlife a couple of weeks ago along with the sims university.The game is great. With this expansion, your sims have the opportunity to have enhanced social interactions with other sims. You can now see what sims are attracted to your sims. There is a new item in the relationship panel called "chemistry" and the sims with whom your sims have chemistry with are rated with a lightning bolt system - 1 bolt being low, 2 bolts being average and 3 being high. This helps if you're trying to get your sim a good match. You can also ask people about their skill levels, which will be helpful for me because there is nothing worse than picking up a sim who has low skills and thus contributes nothing good to the household. You can now go out with groups of people instead of just one sim. This functions similarly to "throw party" in that the group outing is scored. (FYI-Dates are also scored) You can create and manage groups so whenever you want to go out with groups of people, the group is already preassembled. With a new aspiration reward tool your sims can change aspiration. In the past this could only be done with a young adult sim while they were in college. However if your sim uses this object under the gold range their aspiration will automatically be change to "grilled cheese". They will only want to make, eat and talk about grilled cheese. With respect to objects and building: I haven't used anything yet, however there are now 1/2 walls that you can build to break up a room a little bit, however it does not function in the same way as a full wall does i.e. if your kitchen has rotten food on the counter top and is separated from the dining room by a half wall, the dining room environment score will be affected. There is also a new driveway tool, new doors, windows etc. I don't really like playing with cheats, but there are some new ones: 1 - You can give a newly created family additional funds without having to play with them. In the past you had to buy a house lot or a house, move them in and THEN use the motherlode cheat. So if I wanted to give Don Lothario $10,000 the cheat is "familyfunds Lothario 10000". You can insert a minus sign before the simoleon dollar amount to reduce a family's funds if you want. 2 - Give a family ALL the career reward items with "unlockCareerRewards". 3 - Maximize motives with "maxMotives" This expansion pack is an "enhancement" pack. It takes simming to a whole new level.