Electronic Gaming Monthly articles from May 2006

Electronic Gaming Monthly archives from May 2006

Lost Planet & Dead Rising.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Although you might associate Capcom with quality games (Resident Evil 4 stands proudly as EGM's 2005 Game of the Year), you probably don't often utter "Capcom" and "innovative" in the same breath. After all, this is the same publisher...

Choose Your Own Adventure.(Sony PlayStation Portable)(Nintendo DS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Now this is what you call a fight. With year two of the portable war well underway, the Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP are still running neck and neck among U.S. gamers (over in Japan, Nintendo's machine currently has a slight lead). Sure, each...

Rumble Roses XX.(Konami Developer)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... Bryan: Good thing I review games for a living. Otherwise, I don't think I could've explained to my girlfriend why I was playing this silicone-filled grappler. Really, how do you tell your significant other that snapping photos of these...

Driver: Parallel Lines.(Atari Developer)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Fantastic driving physics and atmosphere Bad: Story's still too linear, not enough extra stuff to do Weirdest Feeling: Seeing the Twin Towers in the NYC skyline Greg S: What a difference a sequel makes. Parallel Lines is...

Daxter.(Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. )(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Bright, beautiful graphics, solid action Bad: Repetitive, not as clever as it thinks it is Now Required: A good Clank game Greg S: I usually just assume that a 3D platformer on the PSP is going to be a mess. The system...

Metroid Prime Hunters.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Shane: It's been well over a year since we all tried Hunters' DS pack-in demo, First Hunt, and all that development time has paid off--the full game emerges as an impressive showpiece for the hardware. Developer NST somehow overcame the...

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Easy to pick up and play, lots of planes to unlock Bad: Mission objectives occasionally border on tedious Feels Similar To: Ubisoft's recent Heroes of the Pacific (PS2/XB) Ryan: Given the countless paper airplanes I...

Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: A comforting sense of familiarity, not unlike... Bad:...your daily rush-hour commute, but with more... Bad 5: Xtreme:...ancient Chinese history and less Howard Stern Robert A: Welcome to the Groundhog Day of videogames. It...

The Godfather: the Game.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Robert A: There was a time when storytelling in videogames could be written off as window dressing, something akin to the dialogue in a porn flick (back when they bothered with such things). But when a game tackles a classic drama like The...

Major League Baseball 2K6.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Revamped swinging and hitting systems hit the mark Bad: Fielding and baserunning controls, not so much Dangling Carrot: Earn points to spend on tons of unlockables G. Ford: Though it's not quite a 2004 Yankees-level choke...

Tomb Raider: Legend.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... 1UP.COM--Jeremy: Lara Croft's been in exile for the past three years, driven into hiding by the shame of 2003's double-dud combo of Cradle of Life--that's the movie--and Angel of Darkness. Since then she's gotten herself a new wardrobe, some...

Commandos Strike Force.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Huge levels, cool character switching Bad: PlayStation 1-era graphics, confusing objectives Nothing Like: The Commandos strategy games on PC Crispin: Here's one way to make your dubya-dubya-two game stand out--if not...

NBA Ballers: Phenom.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Huge single-player game Bad: You really can't control your teammate in 2-on-2 games Long: The load times, which are slightly less aggravating on Xbox Bryan: I'm really torn here. On the one hand, this arcadey hoopster shows...

Kingdom Hearts II.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Bryan: Mickey Mouse, Cloud, Simba, Sephiroth--sounds more like a terrifying cosplay session than a winning videogame combination. While the first Kingdom Hearts proved that pairing Disney with Final Fantasy wasn't completely crazy, this...

Suikoden V.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Familiar-feeling but compelling story Bad: Blah graphics, fighting system needs an overhaul Dumbest Name: Georg Greg S: Suikoden V is a hard game to judge. On the one hand, it's got the same ol' story. Everything's...

Warpath.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... G. Ford: If you've been holding on to your Xbox in the hopes that you'll be rewarded with a few more system-specific gems, the mod-feeling, multiplayer-tilted first-person shooter Warpath, made by the creators of the lukewarmly received...

Me & My Katamari.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: We <3 everything Katamari Bad: Well, everything except the PSP control scheme If You've Never Played Katamari: Don't try this one first Jennifer: This may be blasphemy, but I have a feeling Me & My Katamari would have been...

Capcom Classics Collection Remixed.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Bright graphics, classy games Bad: Videogames have come a long way, baby Approximate Price Per Game: $1.36 Kathleen: Talk to any respectable child of the '80s, and it's likely you'll discover they cut their teeth on many of...

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Lots of guns, long campaign mode Bad: Convoluted controls, samey enemies Dark Is Right: Crank up the gamma, use the night vision Demian: The Red Section minion in my crosshairs is having a rough day. Those world-domination...

Splinter Cell Essentials.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Story told via flashbacks Bad: Moving, looking, shooting... N-Gage, GBA, DS...: Handhelds and Splinter Cell just don't mix Shoe: Sam Fisher, superagent extraordinaire, is accused of a few unpatriotic acts against his...

Tetris DS.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Fun to relive the memories of classic puzzling Bad: Only one new mode really uses the touch screen Pandering: The fan service goes a bit overboard Jennifer: If anyone out there can't conjure off the top of their head the...

Tao's Adventure: Curse of the Demon Seal.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Spell-drawing system is actually pretty cool Bad: But it gets lost in the bad game surrounding it Inspired By: Azure Dreams (PS1, 1997) Greg S: When I first fired up Tao and started learning how to cast spells using the...

Reviews Wrap-Up.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion XB360 * 2K Games * ESRB: T We're more than a dozen hours into this mammoth roleplayer, and we haven't made a dent in it. Forget about dents--we haven't even scratched the surface. Or probably even seen...

Alone in the Dark.(Atari Corp.)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Darkness is an incubator for fear. At night it slowly creeps over us like a blanket until, having lost sight of the real and the possible, our minds begin to imagine the unreal and the impossible. In the dark, the dangers of the world are no...

Hitman: Blood Money.(Eidos Interactive Inc.)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... T hese days, Hitman's killer-for-hire has more than just a barcode on the back of his aerodynamic head--he's also got a big ol' target. In Blood Money, the latest installment in Eidos' stealth-action series, Agent 47 must contend with a rival...

Huxley.(Webzen)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... That's a residential area; you'll find clubs and bars there. This central part over here is more like a town square where players will gather. And out here in the outskirts we have ruins--the bad part of town." Producer Kijong Kang swoops the...

Table Tennis.(Rockstar Games Inc.)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... One little Hot Coffee scandal and--BOOM!--you're left making...a Ping-Pong game? For its first next-gen offering, highly controversial publisher Rockstar is temporarily trading prostitution and carjacking for paddles and nut-hugging shorts in...

Bioshock.(Irrational Games)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... No, it's not you. Technically speaking, and thanks to the corporate miracle of "everything-everywhere-every time," we inhabit an era so swollen with ricocheting motifs that even the most steroid-pumped movie-comic-game plots, monsters, and...

God Complex.(Too Human - video game)
May 1, 2006... It's no secret that the Xbox 360 is going to need a lot more games if it's going to stand up against the looming competition of Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Revolution. Multiplatform fare like Madden and Splinter Cell won't be...

Monster Hunter Freedom.(Capcom Company Ltd.)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... The Journey Ahead: Believe it or not, monster hunting requires more than the ability to slay a few dragons. You gotta be domesticated, too, as the best of the best are pros at fishing, gardening, and cooking fine meats (can't go out hacking...

New Super Mario Bros.(Nintendo Company Ltd.)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... The Journey Ahead: It's a good thing we don't judge games based on the creativity of their names. Otherwise, we'd have to give this one a big fat donut. And don't let the "New" in this Super Mario Bros. fool you, either; even with its snazzy...

Mortal Kombat: Unchained.(Midway Home Entertainment Inc.)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2006... The Journey Ahead: Pining for Jax? That shirtless special-forces operative with cyborg arms wasn't in the console version of Mortal Kombat: Deception, but he's en route to a pants pocket near you in Mortal Kombat: Unchained, along with new...

Locoroco.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... The Journey Ahead: Lead Programmer Gregg Tavares knows his game--at least from the onset--isn't very manly. "Yeah, I guess a single LocoRoco is pretty wimpy," he says. "But a 20-weight LocoRoco is huge, and I certainly wouldn't want to get...

More Info for Your Adventures.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Lite It Up Nintendo's dual-screen handheld has gone and gotten itself a makeover. And it's lookin' good. In addition to being lighter and smaller (the screens stay the same size, though), the DS Lite features four brightness settings...

The Outfit.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: Action-packed multiplayer Bad: That "action" is slow, clunky Most Embarrassing Death: Crushed by an air-dropped tank Shoe: Forget about "careful." This World War II shooter emphasizes carnage and raw firepower over tactics...

Top Spin 2.(2K Sports)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2006... Good: the Great, Strategically Deep Career Mode Bad: The browbeating, lopsidedly cruel career mode The Party's Over: Once you fire up the lame "party" games Robert C: I'll never forget the first time I played a Top Spin game. Of...