Saturday, October 12, 2002

Review of Red Dragon     That crazy cannibal Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins) is at it again (technically for the first time in this film since it’s a remake of the original Lecter movie, Manhunter).  Will Graham (Edward Norton), a retired FBI agent is helping out on a special case involving a serial called the “Tooth Fairy”, and he’s getting Lecter’s help to get inside the killer’s mind to try and stop him.  But their relationship is a unique one, because Graham’s not only the man who caught him, but he was Lecter’s protégé, and Lecter permanently scarred him emotionally and physically in the events leading up to his capture.  But Graham must deal with his fears and must deal with one sociopath in order to catch another one.     As I previously stated, this is a remake of the first movie in the Hannibal trilogy, and it just seems to me to be totally unnecessary (yes, so are most remakes and sequels, but this one seems more so than most).  First off, Hannibal has been made into a lovable villain.  He’s not painted as some maliciously evil figure anymore; he’s suddenly a refined man who has to deal with an ass of warden (yeah, how dare the warden be mean to a guy who killed and ate people, gee).  He is just no longer scary; he has been in fact made quite campy.  And the movie itself seems to be timid of true suspense and horror, as there is no gruesome detail or real suspense, or even surprises.  Norton as usual, does a great job in portraying a very haunted retired agent, but Hannibal seems almost like a gimmick to draw in crowds, he’s completely unnecessary and actually takes away from the movie’s main plot.  Lecter has become a sideshow, and a comedic one at that.  It’s a perfectly mindless potboiler thriller, but it’s missing any real thrill because it seems to be too timid about it’s subject matter (although that’s better than Hannibal where it was way too embracing of the subject matter). Final Grade: C 11:20:42 PM    comment []

Review of Legaia 2: Duel Saga for PS2     Publisher: Fresh Games     Developer: Eidos     Genre: RPG     # Of Players: 1     Hey it’s a sequel to a run-of-the-mill RPG! YEAH!!!  In all seriousness, the original Legend of Legaia for the PS one was a very average RPG with one hook to it: You used fighting game style button combos to pull off combos (sort of making it a turn-based fighter).  So, to try and fix any problems from the previous one, they have thrown in new characters, a new world, and done a little revamping to the battle engine.  You play as Lang, a rookie militia member with a mysterious mark on his chest.  When a powerful man steals the aqualith, a magic stone that provides endless amounts of water for Lang’s village, Lang vows to travel to the ends of the Earth if he has to in order to get the aqualith back in order to save his town (and of course, he’ll end up saving the world in the process).  This game reminds me a lot of my review of the latest Turok game, because while it’s perfectly decent, that’s not enough when there are plenty of big RPGs on the way (Wild Arms 3 and Suikoden 3 come to mind, and Kingdom Hearts just came out a couple of weeks ago). Graphics: Ok, these are reminiscent of a PS2 game two years ago.  Nothing looks impressive, there no great little details, pixels literally bleed into each other occasionally; animation is very stiff and general (i.e. Lang swings his sword, and it’s difficult to tell how and which direction he’s actually swinging half the time).  And even though the graphic detail is this low, there is occasional slowdown and breaking down of frame rate. Sound: No real voice acting in cinemas, but the voices in battle while perfectly ok, are repeated ad nauseam.  Sound effects are ok, but nothing noteworthy there.  The music is completely forgettable. Just do yourself a favor and put on a CD while playing. Gameplay: Ok, this is the same basic battle system you saw in this previous one, where you learn combination attacks and use them to defeat your enemies, but there is good improvement because now you can link combos, using the last button of one move as the start of another.  And as soon as you learn a new combo, you don’t need to remember the combination of buttons, as you can just select it from a menu.  But this significantly reduces the challenge of the original.  This guarantees you will get a major hit in every single time.  They also have a pretty good combination feature (which was pretty much stolen from Chrono Cross, but long as they did it well, I don’t care) for you to use with items, armor, and weapons.  The minigames however, are just horribly executed ideas that were bad to begin with.  One example: all you do is literally jump left to right more than your opponent does.  Sure, it’s a tad more complex, but not much more, who the heck thought this would be fun?!? Features: Just the extreme basics here.  I guess they could’ve included an option to just play the minigames, but they wisely decided against it. Funfactor: I know it sounds like I didn’t enjoy this game, but I actually did.  But I am a hardcore RPGer, if an RPG is even decent it will pretty much satisfy me, and honestly, there is really nothing wrong with this game.  But there is nothing about this game that stands out or makes it a better choice than any current RPGs or any of the ones coming out soon.  If your are a fan of the first one or a hardcore RPG player like myself, this is a perfectly fine choice, just don’t expect it to be one of those great ones like FFX or Kingdom Hearts. --Final Scores— Graphics: 4.5-Yikes, I thought I had gone back in time two years with how dated this looks. Sound: 5.0-Voices are decent, but repeated too much.  Music is completely forgettable. Gameplay: 7.0-I like some improvements, but the one-button combos make it too simple and the minigames just suck.   Features: 5.0-Just the basics for your normal RPG. Funfactor: 6.5-Again, I actually enjoyed this personally, but being completely fair and honest, I can only recommend it for hardcore RPGers as there are better ones out there and hopefully the ones coming out soon are much better than this, because it’ll be a slow winter for RPG gamers otherwise. 9:10:12 AM    comment []

Review of Run Like Hell for PS2     Publisher: Interplay     Developer: Digital Mayhem     Genre: Shooter     # Of Players: 1     Run Like Hell is a game title that may sound familiar to some gamers, and that’s because it was supposed to come out last year.  Interplay supposedly took a lot of extra development time with this title before they finally let it loose.  In it, you play a semi-retired army captain in a space station that now does cargo runs.  You come back from one to find the station a wreck and most of the crew dead, with a weird and obviously hostile alien species hot on your trail.  Your only option is to well… run like hell. Unfortunately, you don’t do much running and the gameplay is some of the most slow-paced I’ve ever played. Graphics: Well, I like the designs of the aliens, but the station itself looks horrible (there’s no variety, everything is very poor resolution and animation, and the effects barely qualify as belonging on a PS2.  Plus, everything is lit wrong.  I get that they tried to make it scary by making it dark, but there’s a difference between scary dark and so dark I’m annoyed cause I can’t see the damn door! Sound: The alien sounds are somewhat generic, as are the effects.  The voice acting is actually really solid.  The music kind of fits the atmosphere, but doesn’t get the blood pumping like it should. Gameplay: First off, there are too many ways this game slows itself down.  You think the object of a game like this would be sort of like the Resident Evil game where you choose carefully what you shoot and run from everything else, but this game is extremely bogged down by numerous annoying puzzles and cut scenes.  And the biggest problem is unlimited ammo on all the guns, so literally all you have to do is pick a corner and shoot, shoot, and shoot some more.  It’s fun but about an hour, but after that, you get bored extremely quickly. Features: Well, you can choose difficulty, but other than that, it’s just the basics. Funfactor: It’s really surprising that a game with such a simple idea executes it so poorly.  If pretty much all you did in this game was run, run, and run some more from some nasty aliens, it might’ve been a lot of fun, instead they obviously tried to change direction (because otherwise the title really doesn’t make sense) and ending up wrecking the game horribly. --Final Scores— Graphics: 5.0-I like the alien designs, but they (and the characters) are marred by the low textures and frame rate.  And why is it so friggin dark? Sound: 6.0-Voice acting is good, and music is decent, but effects are really lacking. Gameplay: 3.0-Just extremely boring and slow.  Find code, find switch, shoot with unlimited ammo, yawn. Features: 5.5-You can choose difficulty, but just the basics other than that. Funfactor: 4.5-Run like hell away from this game (sorry, I couldn’t resist). 9:02:58 AM    comment []

Review of Hitman 2: Silent Assassin for PS2     Publisher: Eidos     Developer: Io Interactive     Genre: Shooter     # Of Players: 1     Hitman 2 picks up where the original left off.  47, being left for dead, has reformed and now lives and works at a church in Sicily, trying to atone for his sins.  That is until a Sicilian mob boss abducts a pastor friend of his.  And now he’s employed again so he can get his friend back and put a bullet in the head of the people behind this.     Hitman 2 is kind of an interesting title because you can pick what kind of shooter you want it to be.  You want a stealthy game where you sneak up on guys or take them out without even being within 10 feet of them, you can do that.  But if you want to go Max Payne style guns blazing, you can do that too.  Many games attempt to go both ways and can’t really do it, but Hitman 2 does a fairly good job of trying to be both. Graphics: The locations look great and very realistic.  Guards walk around and do normal things like talk and look around.  They are nice little details all over the place, and enemies react very realistically.  And the whole game has a very dark and stylish attitude to it with great lighting that really helps set the mood of the game.  My only complaint would be that the animation on 47 is a tad stiff. Sound: The voice acting in this game is great.  The sound effects are also amazing, as you can really hear just about everything (including stuff you might not want to…).  The music fits the mood very well and is extremely stylish as well.  Nothing is really fantastic, but everything fits very well. Gameplay: Ok, the control works a lot like Halo, using one analog to move and one to look, but honestly it’s a little clunkier than Halo.  Not that it doesn’t work; but not quite as smooth as Halo.  The sneaking elements are done extremely well, as you need to hide bodies, act normally, but still move quickly.  And again, enemies aren’t stupid.  They can easily spot you if you are the slightest bit careless, and they react accordingly.  And if you want, you can go in there like the terminator, and the game has pretty good balance for it, but I do have a couple of complaints.  There is no roll/quick dodge button, which would’ve helped out a lot in close, intense firefights, and it does take a little long to actually draw your gun, and you really are a sitting duck waiting for the 2-3 seconds it takes to actually take out your gun.  Maybe it’s realistic, but I don’t want that much realism in a videogame! Features: You can choose difficulty, but other than that, this game is extremely lacking in the normal stuff you would see in a shooter.  Sure it’s one player, but how about hidden characters or costumes or something (maybe a co-op mode?). Funfactor: While not perfect, this is just an excellently realized game that doesn’t betray its nature and really pulls off every one of its concepts very well.  It’s not a quick cash cow; it’s a true sequel that warrants playing even if you didn’t like the first one.  This is arguably the best one-player shooter currently on PS2 (and I think it’s also on Xbox) and simply one of the stronger titles this year on PS2. --Final Scores— Graphics: 9.0-Everything has a very stylized and detailed look to it, but the animation on 47 is stiff. Sound: 8.5-Voices are solid, effects are excellent, and music is fitting of the atmosphere of the game. Gameplay: 8.0-Sneaking elements are done very well; and have a great balance with straight gunplay, but your guns come out to slow and where the heck is the roll/quick dodge button? Features: 5.0-You can choose difficulty, but it’s missing a lot of the extra features of a lot of shooters. Funfactor: 8.5-Arguably the best one-player shooter on PS2 this year. 8:58:16 AM    comment []