Back in April 2004 Hardware Fusion reviewed Plantronics CS60 headset unit. The CS60 was mainly marketed as an office based system that introduced secure wireless freedom to business landline calls. The beneficial factors of wireless telephone communication has since enabled businesses to provide a more efficient solution for dealing with client and customer calls. However, the CS60 wasn’t entirely perfect and lacked a few fundamental components, which prevented it from being a fully compatible product. Its main purpose was to answer calls remotely, but with the lack of an included handset lifter it failed to do even that. It also lacked the ability to dial calls remotely and was ultimately limited to one device and one function. In comparison to today’s standards the product also lacked style and practicality.

Plantronics release of the Voyager 510SL system introduces a more complete product with multi-functional support, greater compatibility, practicality and style! As a more complete product the 510SL system includes out of the box support for almost all landline phones, Bluetooth devices and VOIP communication. Its smaller, sleeker design makes it more practical for use within the home, office and on the move. At its present price tag it hardly makes it an idealistic product for use within a large workforce and idealistically would be seen used by specialist agencies and the professional businessperson, such as in PR, advertising or design. Plantronics seem keen to market the 510SL as a business product, rather than a product suitable for the home user. This could have something to do with its price or perhaps lack of consumer demand for such technology in the home. We now see that the growing age of wireless technology, mainly thanks to the reduced costs of wireless appliances, has recently seen greater consumer demand for similar products, particularly with wireless mobile phone headsets. As a cheaper alternative to the Voyager system Plantronics have also marketed the 510S headset as a separate product, for use with Bluetooth enabled mobile phones.

The headset itself incorporates 6 hours of talk time, 100 hours of standby time and has a range of up to 33 feet (10 meters). The Voyager 510 headset is significantly smaller than the design of the CS60 headset and features a more practical, lightweight design for mobile use, which is greatly made possible by the tiny re-chargeable lithium polymer battery. The flexible design enables you to fold the headset easily in your pocket and can be converted to either left or right ear. Additionally the unit features noise cancelling technology inbuilt into the microphone, which makes it suitable for use in noisy offices or on the move in busy public areas. This technology appears to work variably well. In some cases the user at the other end of the line reported cutting out of sound and in other cases the quality was overall good.

The available controls include volume up and down settings, mute, call answer, call holding, voice dialling and on/off switching. The on/off button was frequently quite difficult to press, which is largely due to its tiny size. I also found that the volume up and down controls were at first a little inaccessible to use, at least until I got used to where they were located. The receiving sound quality is excellent. I found the user’s voice to come through loud and clear through the headsets earpiece.

With today’s growing capacity for data storage, increased ISP downstream, and advances in multimedia PC technology, the demand for a single serving multimedia platform has increased significantly within the past few years. Many consumers are now aware that PC’s can do pretty much anything, whether that may be television, radio, music, film or communication. The expansion of content on the Internet and more affordable high-speed ISP solutions has significantly aided the growth and accessibility of entertainment within the home.

Consumers are unlikely to use their PC’s as part of their living room entertainment system, as most PC’s are unsightly and noisy. Therefore, buyers tend to opt for alternative products, such as Hard Drive Recorders, DVD Recorders and DVD Players. However, these products are often limited in functionality and built to perform specific tasks.

With the introduction of the Media PC, consumers are now able to enjoy the functionality of their PC, whilst introducing an aesthetically pleasing look and relatively quite solution to their living room. Media PC’s are essentially your standard PC but come with reduced specifications and are incorporated with IR remote hardware and a user-friendly software interface. Media PC’s can get away with lower specifications as their main purpose is to display multimedia content. This means that most Media PC’s can be incorporated with quieter cooling solutions, such as reduced airflow fans or even water cooling.

Most of the big named manufacturers have introduced their own pre-built versions of Media PC’s, which are available at a price tag of around £1000 (excluding display). This price will usually get you a P4 3.0Ghz machine with TV tuner, 250GB Hard Drive, CD Rom Drive and 512MB of RAM. In essence, this hardware configuration would be quite cheap to reproduce. However, manufactures tend to get away with charging high retail costs, which is partly due to the aesthetic looks of their product, as well as the software they use. In fact, most manufacturers tend to use Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Centre Edition, which is simply Windows XP Pro SP2 with a few additional add-ons.

In the next section of this article, we will be looking at how to build your own Media PC, whilst incorporating greater specifications, better looks and providing it all at a slightly cheaper price tag.

Steven Carruthers

Publisher: Vivendi Universal | Developer: Valve | ETA: Out Now (Online) | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

Once upon a time there was a game mod called Counter-Strike, which took the world of online gaming by storm. Over the past few years it’s become even more popular than the game it was based on (namely Half-Life) and is arguably the most played online shooter in history. With the sequel to Half-Life in the making, Counter-Strike’s developers at Valve decided to remake the aging classic for the modern technological age, taking advantage of its big brother’s brand spanking new “Source” game engine.

Gameplay

After a good few years of being popular, most games just get old and are filed away in the good memories archive. Not Counter-Strike though. Despite its out-of-date graphics, physics and sound, good old Counter-Strike is still huge, with a massive fan-base all over the world. It’s fairly safe to say that this monstrous popularity is down to one thing, something which never gets outdated. Gameplay.

It seems that Valve have very wisely opted to change as little as possible concerning the way in which the game actually plays, avoiding causing upset amongst the ranks of the game’s die hard fans. A lot of people have been playing CS for years and if stripped of the ability to jump, or being allowed to pickup health packs scattered about the level could possibly lead to a surge of phone calls to the Samaritans. As the old saying goes “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”.

The game works just as the original did; players are split into two teams (terrorists and counter-terrorists) who then face off against each other. Objectives include saving/guarding hostages and planting/diffusing bombs, but in most cases it seems that killing each other is the main goal. There are no deathmatch, capture the flag or other standard game types which may be a daunting prospect for new players. CS has retained its fast paced, almost arcade style of play in this remake, and each match usually only lasts a matter of minutes. This could be reduced to only a few seconds if your team does not cooperate. Counter-Strike has always encouraged team-work and communication over singular acts of heroism, and CS: Source is no different. You need to use the voice commands (controlled via the keyboard) or a headset to ensure that your team follows orders and adheres to strategic plans.

One of the main differences between this game (along with the original) and other multiplayer shooters is that players earn money each round depending on how well their team performs. These funds can then be used to purchase items such as weapons, ammunition and even armour at the beginning of a round. This quite original style of play works well, but can sometimes lead to one team having a huge advantage in terms of equipment should they win a few rounds in succession. This system is difficult to get to grips with initially but long-time players swear by it.

Despite the fundamental gameplay of the first game being painstakingly recreated in this version, there are a few interesting new features bolted on, none of which have any significant impact on the way in which the game actually plays. Firstly, thanks to the new “Havok” physics engine, items such as barrels, filing cabinets and even drinks machines can be pushed over or rolled down slopes. They even react realistically to bullet impacts and explosions. The Havok engine is being used to great extent in Half-Life 2 but in CS: Source it plays a far more cosmetic role. It’s certainly interesting to roll barrels down a hill and pray that one of them will hit an unsuspecting member of the opposition, but it bears no real relevance to the game and can’t be used to any great advantage (believe me, I’ve tried). This area of the new physics system is simply a novelty (albeit it a welcome one) and I for one am pleased that Valve haven’t let it interfere with how this classic game is played.

Allan Hamilton

Developer: Elixir | Publisher: VU Games | Genre: Strategy | ESRB: Teen | ETA: Out Now!

Republic: The Revolution was in my opinion an underrated game, well I never actually played it, but I was told it was. Elixir Studios, the creators of that unplayed gem have been working hard on their next release, the aptly titled, Evil Genius!

Similar to Bullfrogs very successful game, Dungeon Keeper 2, you play as the title suggests an evil genius. From the beginning you're taught the idea "Its Good to Be Bad" and that never lets up. In short you ultimate goal is to create a huge underground lair, train henchmen and take on the world. Not forgetting those big baddie clichés of a doomsday device and top 007 type agents trying to stop you. This time however you must make sure they don't succeed.

Gameplay

Before you fully begin you will need to create your very own evil Genius. This is done by using a preset choice of 3 preset geniuses’. There is no actually difference in the 3 apart from with henchmen you start with. Like most games of this type, you're given a nice tutorial level which smoothly guides you, and makes that all important learning curve less Steep. Once you've completed that easy bit, the game really starts and once the tutorial is out of the way, you're pretty much on your own. This isn’t a bad thing as the pace this game runs at means its best to Think for yourself rather than follow more tutorial orders.

Construction of your base is pretty similar to Dungeon Keeper 2 in Fact, as you need to dig out walls to create rooms (as it’s all underground). This is done with some grace as you don't have scores of Minions digging with shovels. A small animated scaffold framework appears around the land you want dug out and your minions do their stuff. The scaffold disappears to reveal a beautifully polish empty room to work on. Orders are issued in a different way than that of other games. Instead of simply clicking on rocks to dig or rooms to build, you issue little tagged orders. When you instruct a room to be dug out, a small "dog tag" floats above it. This is your command panel and can control what you want to happen to anything. You can apply these tags to people, objects or walls and each has its own effect. You can pause/resume work, destroy objects or issue kill orders (explained later).

The ordering and placement of items for your lair is also different. In previous games you would select what you would like, a chair perhaps and place it real time in your base. Here you place an order but a "ghost" of your desired object appears first with the tag. Your minions (your basic workers, like DK2's imps) will first fetch money in briefcases, take it to the store, buy the item, carry it back in a box then unpack. This realistic(ish) approach is quite a fresh look at an old system. You now have to think "if I buy that now I will have to wait for x amount of time and use x amount of minions" it all adds up. Each purchase takes minions away from other tasks, however more often than not, your minions are bored and once you've build or ordered something, they just stroll around like lost sheep. So you will need to take care of their needs. This is done via the rest room or mess hall. If you have bought yourself an armoury you can get minions to arm themselves with basic pistols, in case of agent attack! Early on you’re told that your minions will only attack an enemy if tagged, I found this somewhat annoying as I had to find the enemy tag them then hope some minion sees them, as you can’t control individual minions. You can place security cameras to spot these intruders but all seems too easy. You an evil genius with a big powerful lair and the enemy can just stroll in undetected. You are given 3 alerts states, Green, yellow and red. As you can imagine, green is calm/stand down, yellow is arm yourselves and red is PANICK, shoot anything that moves. You not only must you keep your base in tip top condition but you become your own bodyguard in the process. I found most of the time I left my base in red alert so all enemy intruders would be attacked. You can also as mentioned earlier select kill tags. These tags force your minions or bodyguards to attack the tagged person. Even if its one of your own men. You can issue a few sub orders. Kill, knock out or a mind control, used later in the game.

Depending on which evil genius you choose, you can have access to various bodyguards or a henchman as the game calls it. These are like those characters you see in various 007 movies, odd job characters such as, Jaws etc… that hold special abilities. Although they can die they have a number of extra lives but they are pretty tough and have a few special powers to help them kill your enemies. You star with basic minions who just work but with training and the proper trainer they can become anything you like. Mercenaries, soldiers, scientists etc… But in order to train them you need a trainer with that particular skill and you acquire that person by doing missions. These allow you to send minions into the big wide world and steal money or plot. You can also kidnap these trainers and use them to train up your own men.

If you buy a firing range you can train up your basic minions to more powerful soldiers. These carry powerful rifles and are much tougher, but these too can't spot enemies even if they bump into them. Time to hit red alert again! Although people may say “its part of the game to issue tags” it still doesn’t stop it from being irritating.

Although this all sounds wonderfully interesting I did find myself getting bored pretty quick with the same types of missions and conclusions. In the end it felt like I was playing the same level over and over. Not saying it wasn't fun repeating, I just felt there should have been more to it. In fact I got bored quicker with this game than any other I have played in a while.

Developer: Nevrax | Publisher: VU Games | ETA: Out Now! | Price: £29.99 inc. VAT

Games Fusion reviews Nevrax’s MMORPG title, The Sega or Ryzom. Nevrax is a Paris based online game and software development company that specializes in the creation of massively multiplayer online games. To date The Saga of Ryzom is the only title under the Paris based company’s belt. During the games beta stage, which ended September 14th, the game received close to 170,000 sign ups and was deemed 2004’s “Best MMOG of E3” by WarCry Network.

The game is based on a SCI-Fi adventure storyline, which mixes the usual elements of a SCI-Fi adventure, that isn’t set in space, including sorcery, war and tradecraft. What else could there be!? Three generations ago a civilization called ‘Atys’ perished when they were savaged by a flock of kitins. So let’s get this straight in the rock ‘n role 70’s a bunch of kittens (possibly!?) obliterated an entire civilization? Well not exactly! Kitins are in fact a type of beast, which look surprisingly similar to the bugs seen in the Starship Troopers movie and now roam the land of Saga. And it doesn’t actually say what period the game takes place in, but we know for sure that it isn’t set on Earth. It’s now your role to join forces with thousands of others, master the arts of sorcery, war and tradecraft and re-claim what was once yours.

As this game is a MMORPG you are, of course required to pay a monthly subscription fee, in addition to the retail price of £29.99 in order to play it. The Saga of Ryzom comes with an out-of-box one month free trial, but still requires you to enter your credit card details before you play. At the end of that month you will be charged a fee of £8.49 per month, which will rebill until you cancel. If you were to buy and play this game for a year it would cost you a total of £131.87, which for many is too much to pay for a game. There is no single player mode which means unless you sign up you can’t play the game and if you don’t like it you can’t return it either. This is the problem, which I am sure many gamers and publications have touched upon in the past. A couple of questions which often arises are “Why do we have to pay the full price for something which we have to pay to play?” And “Why can’t I return it if I don’t like it?” The answer to the first question is that the price of the game and the price of the subscription have got completely nothing to do with the other. The price you pay for the game goes towards the developers and the subscription fee goes towards maintaining the server, which includes bandwidth costs, support and hardware etc... However, the answer to the second question is a little more complicated since I feel gamers ‘should’ be able to return a game of this particular genre.

One of the main reasons why retailers stopped buyers from returning games was due to illegal copying. Gamers would often buy a game, copy it, return it and then get their money back and in the end software retailers were loosing a great deal of money. The difference between predominantly off-line games and MMOG’s is that the honest gamer out there can’t play the game, should he or she decide to cancel his subscription. The way forward seems to be what Valve has done with their content distribution system, ‘Steam’. However, it will take some time before ISP’s catch up to allow a majority of consumers to buy and return their games online.

Gameplay

After you are done entering your credit card details and logging into the system you will be presented with the character selection screen. There are four civilizations to choose from, which include the Fyros, Matis, Tryker and the Zorat. For this review I chose the Tryker, who evidently look the most human. Building your character can actually be quite fun! And you can spend a good hour doing it. As well as being able to choose the sex of your character you can also edit its proportions, including its height, torso, arms, legs and bust. You also have the ability to edit the characters face, including its haircut, hair colour, eye colour and even add tattoos. Additionally you can modify the shape of the eye’s, nose, mouth, ears and chin. It’s all great fun! Probably the most important phase of the character selection screen is providing your character with its actions. You have the ability to select three action packs, which will provide you with the necessary skills to perform tasks within the game. These action packs include fighting, magic, forage and craft.

Once in the game those who are not so familiar with the whole RPG genre might have a bit of trouble navigating. There is a help box bellow but I was a bit disappointed by the lack of an interactive tutorial. The heads-up-display is set out with various windows, which include details on your character, your available weapons, tools and spells etc… There is also a multiple desktop feature, similar to that seen on a Linux OS, which enables you to cycle through windows quickly and easily.

The world is built up with various outposts spread across the map, which have already been captured and are under guard by different civilisations or ‘Primitive Tribes’. To get to these outposts you need to travel on foot from one area to another, on your way you will come across different beasts that will try to stop you on your travels. It’s actually harder than it sounds to get from A-B, especially when you are new to the game and don’t know how to attack yet! My first attempt was being chased for about 15 minutes by something which looked like a giant crab (that would be the kitins). Needless to say I never reached point B and surprisingly there wasn’t a Starbucks or Mc Donald’s in sight either! The good thing about Saga is if you are new to the game you can always team up with a player and they will hopefully fend off the beasts for you until you get to grips with the controls. You don’t even need to be at your PC to follow players, as the game has a neat little auto-pilot feature that enables you to select any mobile object and follow it.

The game is based on a task and reward system where you can choose to undertake tasks for different characters within the game and in return receive money or ‘points’. This is important to be able to build up skills in the training area, which requires points for each training session you do. You may also trade items at trading centres for weapons, magic, clothing and other items.

Ryzom's RAID Engine introduces a completely dynamic and non-linier experience to gameplay. If territories are left unguarded or unchecked for long periods of time monsters will try to reclaim different outposts, territories and entire regions. Intense battles between vast gatherings of monsters and civilisations can also take place. Monsters will often send for reinforcements should they feel areas are threatened by opposing forces. The RAID Engine is an excellent feature of the game, which helps to build up tension and maintain the excitement of the game.

Adam Hall

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios | Developer: DICE | ETA: Out Now | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

Cars. Aren’t they a wonderfully useful invention? Don’t they just brighten up our world with their toxic fumes and pollute the systems of pregnant women and consequently populating the world with excessive numbers of retarded people? The person who invented them must’ve been one lazy bastard to create something that gets you from one place to another with minimal effort. Of course like every invention in the world, someone, somewhere will find another use for it, be it a weapon, a cooking implement or a baseball bat, in this case, it’s modding them to the bollocks with reinforcements, tuning their engines to the limits then tearing ‘em round dirty, mud infested excuses for tracks equipped with pant-filling jumps and corners so tight, you’d think they’re still virgins!

Game Play

From the onset, hell, from looking at the back of the game box it’s pretty obvious what this game’s going to consist of; racing to be frank. But as you start playing you’ll soon realize it sports much more potential than a bog-standard racing game. Oh yes, with some nifty additions and awe-inspiring visuals, Rallisport 2 is undoubtedly one of the best rally driving games I’ve played in my entire life.

Sporting a massive 90+ tracks for you to rag your selection of over 40 cars on, RS2 is pretty bulked out. With Amateur, Pro, Champion and Super Rally, you’ve got a wide selection of difficulty levels but a word of advice, I wouldn’t trying Super Rally on your first try because… Let’s just say it’s ralli, ralli hard!
Working my way up the leagues I realised that this game is most definitely not for those with short attention spans. You need the dedication of a chicken to a chalk line to get anywhere in this game, any less and you’ll be kicked to the curb with the force of, well, a car hitting you! Some of the cars you’ll obtain in later parts of game are so fast they’re barely controllable. It’s tremendously exciting.

So the game begins, you’re primed, fingers twitching with anticipation and stomach doing back flips with nerves. You navigate the simple Graphical User Interface and within a matter of seconds you’ve chosen your car, set up what track you’re going to play and you’re sitting at the starting line waiting for the longest 2 seconds of your life to conclude. You pull back the right trigger and the speedometer hand propels itself to the opposite side of the dial and your engine noise sears through your ears like a blade of solid audio. Enough pretentious tales, let’s get on to what you want to hear.

Initially, Rallisport 2 seems like a kind game with a very progressive learning curve so those unfamiliar with driving games can make their way to the top. Then, before you know it, after 2 races in it smacks you in the face, calls you names and throws you into a selection of tracks each with more vindictive qualities. This game is not easy, far from it, but once you’ve learnt how to deal with the cars, it’s one of the most rewarding games you’ll play. Plus, during your learning period, if you do crash, the absolutely phenomenal damaging scaling system within RS2 will realistically display doors bending, wheels flying off and hitting crowd members in the face, and windows smashing as you hit a side barrier too hard. You can totally massacre your car in this game, and it’s so much fun you wouldn’t believe!

RS2 holds many wondrous little additions that, although aren’t that revolutionary, make the whole experience that much more enjoyable. For those of you who’ve played some sort of racing game, I’d be willing to bet that you’re familiar with the annoying sense of disarray once you’ve un-paused the game during play. Being thrown back into high-speed navigation is just too confusing; you need progression to regain your bearings. RS2 combats this issue with a simple, yet astonishingly affective 1.5/2 second still-screen after you un-pause the game so you can rebuild your composure. Not that amazing, I know, but you’d seriously appreciate it if you were the one playing the game.

RS2 comes with very little problems as far as racing games go. It’s all totally comprehensive and all totally awesome to play. My only real complaint is the loading times; they’re not on par with Deus Ex, but they’re not exactly quick enough for you to take a sip of your tea and look back to find it complete. You may find yourself staring at the screen for quite some time before you actually get to play, and in my opinion, if you’re actually aware of how long it’s taking, it’s taking too long!

Jesse Lardies

Publisher: Electronic Arts | ETA: Out Now | Price: £29.99 Inc VAT.

Battlefield: 1942 was, and is a staple in the PC online gaming community. With its large roster of vehicles, varied weapons and team based tactics, it's always a favourite for those seeking multiplayer Nirvana. Now the question is; does EA stick to the game-play that worked so well for the series? Or, do they try and improve on an all ready successful formula? EA is known for letting some of its other known game franchise’s fall into a somewhat bland state, as far as expansion packs and sequels are concerned. Medal of Honour: Rising Sun comes to mind immediately! The graphics in Battlefield: Vietnam is improved over Battlefield: 1942 and sport a more polished look. It is apparent that they have spent some money in the development of this game. EA, and developer Digital Illusions CE. have sought to bring you away from the beaches of Normandy with this latest instalment, and has, for the most part, delivered in spades. As before, up to 64 players can battle it out, this time choosing either the Allied or US forces, or Vietcong and Vietnamese allies.

Adam Hall

Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios | ETA: Out Now | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

I’ve always considered being grabbed by the ghoulies a very personal thing so you can imagine my dismay when a video game arrived on my doorstep that uses that very obscenity as its title and main focal point! Disgusting! Of course it then turned out to be about GHOULS as in Zombies! Not your GHOULIES as in… Yeah!

Rare’s latest zombie romp, Grabbed By The Ghoulies, sees you running around a haunted house being tormented by, what appears to be, a disturbed ghost/zombie pilot in an attempt to rescue your female companion who’s been kidnapped by the baddies!

GBTG is, from the onset, predominantly a child’s game. It doesn’t sport complex story lines or have a control system that takes weeks to grasp, it’s just a simple, cool-looking little adventure, and despite its target audience, you just might get more enjoyment out of this than you’d expect!

Gameplay
Although many critics may frown upon GTBG for being overly simplistic and juvenile, I personally think it’s a breath of fresh air. Not because I’m a simple man, despite popular belief, but because the amount of pretentious video games that get released these days is reaching a phenomenally offensive level and although games like GBTG by all means don’t re-invent the video game, they at least rekindle the long-lost simplicity that games once proudly paraded.

GBTG is told in a very Max Payne esque storyboard like manner that although isn’t as excellently executed as our gun-toting friend’s adventure, combined with the “voice acting”, it makes for a very transfixing form of entertainment.

As soon as you drop into the main gameplay you’ll find yourself kicking and punching little ghoulies with a combat system that, initially, feels quite satisfying, but descends into a monotonous repetition of events that has as much diversity as a broken record quicker than you can say “Ow me ghoulies!” On top of that, I couldn’t help but find the whole experience somewhat stressful; at some points there are many enemies at one time, some of them a lot smaller than you. If you don’t run to them, they’ll eventually crowd around you and trying to boot all of them before one attacks is just very traumatic! Now you know why I could never complete System Shock 2!

Despite the stress, though, GBTG makes up for it not only in loading times that are just astounding, but also in the fact that in between rearranging the faces of Zombies and increasing the surface area of spiders, you can smash up pretty much everything you see. On TOP of that, you can pick up a lot of objects to use them against enemies. I found it somewhat ironic beating the crap out of a skeleton with a book titled ‘Spooky Tales’.

Adam Hall

Publisher: EA | Developer: EA | ETA: Out Now | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

I hate sports. The most physical activity I do every week is pushing the keys consecutively on my keyboard for short bursts, and even that leaves me gasping for air as I a lower myself to the ground with the intent of ensuing a painless black-out!
So naturally, a rage against sports games is intertwined with my very essence since anything that reminds me of all the pain and anguish you have to endure to get anywhere near an ‘adequate’ performance is undoubtedly a bad thing!

With such a tainted opinion, I went into playing NHL2004 expecting to be horribly disappointed, slam my Xbox controller into the floor and walk away thinking about how right I am that sport games suck! But did that happen? Well it did actually! No I’m joking, it actually didn’t!

After that insightful demonstration of my vast comic intellect, I should probably get around to reviewing this bastard of a game, and by ‘bastard’ I mean awesome, enthralling, tantalising lovely sex!

GAMEPLAY
Firstly, I’d just like to make a note directed at the other sport game haters out there (and believe me, there’s a few); don’t overlook this game just because it’s a sport. It’s packing more appeal than the NSPCC and I’d be willing to bet it’s got something for even the most close-minded gamers.
The main premise of NHL is, strangely enough, to play as much damned ice hockey as you can possibly handle and although this may sound like it would get repetitive, no two games are the same. You can always improve your shooting technique, or your passing ability. There’s forever something to advance and the best thing is, you’ve got an immense league of over 70 games to hone your skills.
Of course if the management elements of NHL appeal to you about as much as jumping off the Eiffel tower and landing on a seat-less bicycle, the game comes with an ‘Instant Rivalry’ function that throws you straight into the action alongside some randomly chosen players pitted against a randomly chosen team! This serves a ‘pick-up-and-play’ purpose for the game, but if the reason you get games is to play and COMPLETE them, you’re going to have to endure the league tables because Instant Rivalry will get you nowhere.

The only predominant cause of erroneous circumstances within NHL is the camera and how it can sometimes become extremely annoying. When I play such an attention demanding video game I can’t help but find it infinitely useful to actually be able to SEE the character I’m controlling and I don’t know if EA have some revolutionary alternative, but us old-school people like to stick to tradition but the camera in NHL2004 doesn’t seem to understand this logic and instead plants itself behind barriers and similarly awkward locations and can quite drastically hinder your ability to control your player. This is a rarity, however, so it shouldn’t be a deterrent!

I was quite surprised when I first played NHL to learn that it sports quite a steep learning curve. It’s somewhat strange to be honest; you can read the manual 17 times and feel like you’ve memorised the buttons, but when you actually start playing you’ll forget everything and resort to panic mashing where upon you’ll realise you probably should’ve started by playing the ‘Open Ice’ option that gives you a little stress-free practice and on-the-fly gameplay hints. In saying that, however, playing the real game is still a quattuordecillion times more intense and even if you play the practice mode religiously for a few days, you’ll undoubtedly still require a certain amount of warming.

GRAPHICS
Now NHL2004 could be, in my opinion, susceptible to underestimation. The camera angle that you play through 90% of the time is located at a fair distance from the players, of course, to allow you maximum vision whilst retaining an adequate level of detail, but the problem with this is that you can’t really see the finer details that those wonderfully talented people at EA have established like nice reflections on the barrier glass as the hockey players hop over the sides to enter the rink and the comical, yet wide range of range of facial expressions.
Now by no means does NHL2004 push the Xbox to its limits, it probably wouldn’t get even get entered for one of the best looking games on the console, but the point is they are aesthetically pleasing and forget what people say, good graphics DO make a game just that much better!

Adam Hall

Publisher: SEGA | Developer: SEGA | ETA: Out Now | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

I’ve always been aware of the first Shenmue title, but due to a lack of time/money/effort, I never felt obliged to play it despite its apparent depth and amazement being shot into my face at least four times a day! I always thought I had better things to do, but now I’ve got the sequel in my Xbox, I’ve realised what a horrible, horrible person I’ve been!
The quest for the deepest, most involving game has been an adventure often proposed by gamers worldwide and although we have things like GTA, it still doesn’t conform to our idea of a totally free roaming game because the basic notion of it is to kill and destroy. Although Shenmue 2 doesn’t quite fill out this expectation either, it’s the closest thing yet and believe me, it’s nothing short of stunning.

Gameplay
Shenmue 2 is a lot like CS in absolutely no aspects whatsoever except the fact that you have to prepare yourself good and proper before you get onto playing the main game. By this I mean, S2 is probably the most progressive game I’ve ever played and although it makes for a nice long adventure, it isn’t for the restless by all means. This game relies purely on dedication if you have any intention of getting even half way through, but once you’re there, you’ll realise what a fantastic game this is.

Shenmue (and 2) is a story of revenge. One day, a long time ago, you return home to find your Dad battling a stranger in a red robe. He brutalises him to death and leaves with a precious artefact know as The Dragon Mirror. After you recover from the shock of seeing your Dad have a mysterious mans foot installed in his arse, you swear to avenge his death and go on a magical, mystical and spiritual journey complete with clenched fists branded with rage!
The fact that I managed to get the fundamentals of the storyline into 4 lines of text would imply that this game has little to no substance, but Sega have taken the ‘scraping at the bottom of the barrel’ phrase to previously inconceivable levels and made a phenomenally large game out of, what would appear to be, very little essence indeed! Also, if you feel a bit left out in terms of story, S2 comes packaged with a DVD filled with a movie that tells you all you need to know. How’s that for convenience?!

Fortunately, the length and depth of the game doesn’t get too monotonous. Shenmue2 is bulging to the brim with features; you can touch, hold, and use practically anything you see. Ranging from getting a can of drink to arm wrestling the locals, this game strives to achieve unparalleled levels of freedom.
It’s not all a walk in the park though, Shenmue2 comes bundled with its fair share of problems and although they’re not that destructive or compromising, they do result in the failure of some tasks and the odd swearword emanating from your mouth every hour or so.
One of the most annoying, yet infinitesimal, problems that S2 flaunts is the lack of running direction whenever you move the camera round. I’ve always found such a feature excessively useful because you don’t have too little sensitivity resulting in you using a wall to shimmy your way around a right-angled corner, but not too much in that you run into everyone and everything at the slight touch of the control stick. It’s a nice balance, complete control. Definitely a missed opportunity if I’ve ever seen one!

Talking of missing things, or not in this case, the NPCs of S2 are somewhat of a disappointment. They’re the only things that really bring you back to reality and remind you that you’re only playing a game. Some tasks within the game see you following people around and along their journey of guidance, they collide with just about every object possible (slight exaggeration). I admit, the game’s not the newest of titles, but such a problem threatens continuity with realism with the rest of the game.

Another minor flaw in S2 is I couldn’t help but feel elements of repetition coming through. “Repetition?” you say, “In a game that practically re-invents diversity?” Well, yeah, I never seemed to climb out of the idea that all I was doing was ‘fight, get some money, walk around a bit, follow someone’. In addition to that, everything seemed annoyingly disjointed but maybe that’s a problem that clears itself up towards the latter parts of the game, it’s pretty big ya’know!

Adam Hall

Publisher: Microsoft | Developer: Valve Software | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

Counter-Strike, Camper-Strike, Hacker-Strike, AWPer-Strike, whatever you want to call it, CS is undeniably, and rather inexplicably, the best online team-based shooter Half-life modification you can play. Combining a tantalising array of maps with a breathtaking assortment of weapons that would have Rambo throwing his teddy in the corner of the room, the game of Terrorist verses Counter-Terrorist is an unprecedented and intensely spiritual experience that’s been dominating the online games sections of magazines, websites and forums for god knows how long!
The only problem with it though, is that you have to have a PC and (preferably) a broadband Internet connection to play it. Well, at least you used to!
The boundaries have finally been broken and Counter-Strike has made the once unthinkable leap to another platform, but the true element of mystery here is does the game play as well as the PC version? Unfortunately, such an element is of minimal predictability. So it looks like those who are interested will have to conform to the old method and read the review. Preferably this one!

Gameplay
If you’ve played the PC version of CS you’ll be aware of how it works, but for those less fortunate individuals, here’s a quick run-down. There’s a map. A terrain. A habitat. A level that you have to play within. There are two teams, Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, each of who have to induce the demise of the opposite team to win outright, but there’s other ways of reigning supreme. For CTs your main objective is to either defuse the bomb or rescue the hostages from a specific location in the map and in opposite
When you initially start the game you’ll have nothing but a knife, a handgun and 800 dollars to buy whatever you want with that you think will keep your arse void of holes or critical wounds. As the game progresses, depending on which team wins; your money will increase massively (or slightly) opening a world of wonderful and deadly weapons at your disposal. Repeat until bored.

The PC version is hectic at times to say the least. Grenades fly, people die followed by the obligatory ‘WTF?’ (What the f***?) and bullets whistle past your ears as you unload your clip into some punk who was trying to bust you from behind with a sniper rifle. The excitement flows plentifully from every orifice in your body as you control your little digital representation, and although this element is still present in the Xbox conversion, it’s substantially toned down. The concept is easily grasped, but the game itself is by no means easy to play on higher difficulty levels.

Before I start on the denouncements, though, let’s have a little praise.
Keeping it simple, the single player bots in CSX are very impressive. Focusing on a lone bot running around trying to complete the required task, some very simple, but ‘taken for granted’ moves are executed and integrated seamlessly. Things like checking camp spots is something that, if seen on the internet, would be ignored as the player goes and makes tea, but for artificial intelligence to implement such spatial awareness is friggin’ exciting and makes the single player game that much more enjoyable. It makes the player a lot more comfortable to know that if there’s bullets drilling their way into their chest, a team mate will do something about it if they’re around rather than running around aimlessly into walls and shooting everything but the opposing force.

Adam Hall

Publisher: Microsoft | Developer: Just Add Monsters | ETA: Out Now | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

Being a Ninja must rule. Not only do you get to wear the coolest clothes ever, but also, working in collaboration with the mystifying darkness, you get to kill people with swords leaving no trace but your victim’s body slumping to the floor as fresh blood arches brutally from their wound. Kung Fu Chaos has somewhat encroached on my magical view of these warriors of the night. No longer are Ninjas cool, they’re nothing but worryingly disproportioned weirdoes with eyebrows so vast, Busted are chewing on their manufactured punk-pop hearts as we speak. United with a lack of moves and the subtlety of a floodlight, these guys would have trouble taking on a scarecrow with a flame-thrower!

Based around a film set, Kung Fu Chaos places you as the protagonist of a whole new kung fu action movie directed by the world renowned Shao Ting, who, strangely enough, ends most of his FMV sequences Shao-Ting his head off! (I’m really sorry for that one)!

Gameplay
KFC is a party game for all who can grip the cosmically sized Xbox controller, and although it lacks depth and a real amount of intelligence, it is pretty fun in short bursts. Nevertheless, for us less socially dependant individuals, the game does come packaged with a single player campaign that sees you fighting off hordes of lethal ninjas with fire in their eyes running around lobbing death stars emblazoned with your name until either, the scene ends, or your decrepit hands crumble under the strain of hitting several buttons at one time, something that is oh-so necessary to survive in later parts of the game.
In comparison to the splendid ‘Power Stone’, of Dreamcast fame, KFC is a bit bland. Coupled with only a small amount of interaction with the environment, as opposed to PS’s brutal surrounding domination, KFC is rather lacklustre when it comes to variety of moves. During gameplay I found myself repeating the same move over and over again with surprisingly pleasing results which, by the way, weren’t just a one off thing, if you’re good at button bashing, you could probably complete this game in one burst.
On top of that, the moves that ARE present in KFC just aren’t satisfying; it’s nothing like the stunning fulfilment that DoA, so plentifully, delivered, it’s more like the tantalising splendours of Myst! It’s complete crap, in other words!

Another major flaw that KFC sports is that it’s intrinsically repetitive. You stand on a basic platform fighting off horde after horde of Ninjas until the scene ends and you get your stars (3’s the minimum to pass most levels). Stronger Ninjas with shields come in after a while, but they’re easily disposed of with the, apparently, unblockable throw moves.
Even the sections that are supposed to add diversity to the game do exactly the opposite and instead of maintaining your interest, they defecate on it, tape it to your head and set it alight. Take the “pole jumping” scene, this basically consists of all four characters standing on stumps that stick out of the watery surroundings with the task of either jumping over this long spinney wooden beam, or attacking it so it spins the other way. Not only is this not fun, it’s frustrating to intergalactic levels of insanity! It’s the type of game that’s only good if you’re winning and as a result of this, the entire game lacks depth, it’s nothing more than shallow mini games mixed with a couple of “diversities” that secretly and fundamentally, the same thing! It’s all a façade!

Graphics
As for visuals, KFC reigns supreme. Whilst delivering the obligatory charms of cartoons, KFC still manages to uphold an element of sincerity. Agreed, the characters are disproportioned AND all do have an extremely powerful special-move that involves lots of flashing things and blood whilst the director orgasms at your performance, but nevertheless, the scenes in which you deal out the pain are extensively eye-catching. Sharp, elegant, and with no frame rate loss even through intense battles of strength and wisdom!

Adam Hall



Publisher: Microsoft | Developer: Beep Industries | ETA: Out Now | Price: £39.99 Inc VAT.

After years and years of First Person Shooters and Real Time Strategies, I started to get a bit suspicious when the ol’ ‘Platformers’ section of the games industry began to run somewhat dry and void of inspiration. Where did they all go? For a good few years when videogames were first introduced to society, platformers were one of the most abundant videogame genres around. Not only did they encompass the pinnacle of graphical excellence, but they actually required skill whilst being simple at the same time! It was a concoction proven to be successful to cosmic levels, yet when N64 and Playstation consoles were made, the platformer seemed to die out. They were still being played on handhelds, but they weren’t at the forefront of the industry anymore, they weren’t as mainstream as they should’ve been.
The same applies to next-gen consoles like Xbox, Gamecube and Playstation 2, we’ve had a few attempts like Jak ‘n’ Dakster, but as far as quality platforming goes, the newest consoles around deliver very little indeed… Until now!

Voodoo Vince is the future. With a mixture of voluptuous visuals, groovy gameplay and stupendous sound, this is platforming at its best. If you’ve had a platform-shaped hole in your heart I suggest you bag yourself a copy of this bad-boy because it is unprecedented, unimaginable and unbelievable entertainment.

A magical, numinous and strangely depilated woman going by the name of Madam Charmaine owns a Voodoo shop from which she helps those in need, overlooking the safety of her district. She holds great power and is skilled in the arts of voodoo magic including the construction of voodoo dolls. After receiving a vast quantity of, what’s called, ‘Zombie Dust’, Mrs.C got kidnapped by the henchmen of Kosmo. But, before she was removed from the scene, her 3rd best Voodoo doll, Vince, came to life and dedicated his existence to finding Mrs.C. What a brave little guy he is!

Gameplay
I’ve got so much to say about Voodoo Vince on gameplay alone, I don’t know where to start. This game is amazing is probably a good one, I’ll go from there!
For anyone who’s never played a platformer (curse you), the basic premise is to jump from platform to platform performing other tasks depending on the difficulty of the game. That’s quite a generalised view, but I did say ‘basic premise’!
Voodoo Vince is a quintessential example of how platformers should be made, although it does get a bit repetitive at points during the game, such a feeling hastily exhausts itself and you get back into the mind blowing action when the game diversifies into something like jet-plane flying! One thing that I find most appealing about Voodoo Vince is that it’s a reversal of all things normally associated with platformers (bar the platforming and puzzles); in order to stay alive, you have to hurt yourself! The entire theme of the game is so god damn innovative, and works so god damn well, I’m just in awe every time I play it and I’m sure that’s evident from how energized I’m writing!
In opposition to the excessive praise I made apparent above, it’s time for some denouncements. Now, as I’m sure all game veterans will be aware of, there’s a fine line between interestingly hard and frustrating, and to be honest, Voodoo Vince is most definitely in the latter. The game’s by no means taxing at the start, but as you progress through the game, it gets harder and harder and the main culprit for this is, one of the most annoying things in any game, Bottomless pits. I despise bottomless pits, and Voodoo Vince has ‘em plastered over a large percentage of its levels. It’s bad enough falling off a ledge after trying 327 times to get to where you want to, but to fall into a pit that seals your doom better than the sun rising seals the arrival of the day, just pisses me right off! Then again, I suppose knowing that such annoyances are going to occur; you may be overly meticulous and do everything as slow and accurate as possible. However, being so blinded by rage and trying TOO hard will almost definitely bring about your demise anyway, and so you’re back at the start!
Working in unison alongside frustration, quite comfortably, is repetition. Like I mentioned earlier, Voodoo Vince does show sign of replication in tasks, but as soon as your eyebrows start to drop in disappointment, they raise once again faster than a speeding… eyebrow as the game fronts one of the mini games that have been ever-so nicely incorporated into the gameplay and add the most refreshing multiplicity in any game I’ve played recently. Many smiles entailed those babies!

Voodoo powers aren’t the only method Vince has of disposing of his foes; he can punch, head-slam and also perform a Crash Bandicoot style spin attack that’s also useful in gaining some extra distance when trying to get to a certain platform. The problem with the standard combat, though, is that it’s somewhat hit and miss. When you go into contest with an adversary using nothing but punch, the only thing you can do is slam the button repeatedly until the opposition is dead and what’s the problem with that? Well, You have no control over getting hit or not. I’m not saying I expect Dead or Alive style combat whenever you’re not using Voodoo powers, but there should at least be some sort of way of stopping your opponent from harming you because as it stands, you have no say in the matter, which could result in your death by no fault of your own. Nevertheless, hand-to-hand combat nicely breaks up the Voodoo power usage and adequately stops it from becoming an object of tedium, something you need desperately in a game that’s entire gimmick is based around it.
Finally, something I think is absolutely fantastic and should be in all games that could possibly incorporate it, when you die – as in, run out of lives – after you return back to the scene you died at, everything you’ve done will still be there. This means if you’re fighting a boss and you die halfway through yet you’ve weaken it substantially, it’ll still be that way when you return. Beautiful!

Adam Hall

Publisher: Microsoft | Developer: Tecmo | ETA: Out Now | Price: £17.99 Inc VAT.

In all of the 18 years I’ve been alive, I’ve never got into a fight, been close to it, I admit, but never really had the pleasure of getting my face beaten to the other side of my head or indeed casting such abominations upon someone else. Despite this, I’ve always found the idea of fighting quite exciting (and I use that term in the loosest sense possible) especially if it’s with someone in a big novelty suit normally worn by sport team mascots as they prance around like fools trying to impress the audience.
DOA3 has made my interest in fighting a possibility, not only do I not get hurt even after taking a multi-hit combo, I get to sit down in a comfortable chair to witness it all, it’s magical!
Now although DOA3 doesn’t include novelty costumes for the characters to wear while I’m beating the living crap out of them, it does have some mighty fine ladies and I’m sure you’d agree that they’re an adequate substitute! DOA3 has become somewhat notorious as a result of having scantily clad women cavorting their way around the screen in an almost seductive manner, and games like DOA: Extreme Beach Volley Ball use such materialist interests that so many men have as the main selling point of the game. This makes for a heavily pretentious, but strangely arousing experience! DOA3 fronts no such pretension and tries, and succeeds to a certain extent, to make itself out to be a game of relative sincerity. Nevertheless, it’s all about the fighting and fortunately; it’s done quite well indeed!

Gameplay
When I first put DOA3 into my Xbox, I must admit, I wasn’t expecting much. “It’ll probably be fun, I’ll be entertained for a few hours” I thought, but when I looked at my clock and then my hands to realise many more than a few hours had passed and the Xbox controller was still in my grubby mitts, it put a smile on my face. I love DOA3, it’s one of the most compelling fighting games I’ve played in a long time and will definitely remain on my shelf for many years to come if I can help it.
Of course, though, like every other game in existence, DOA3 doesn’t come without its fair share of problems. The most definitive probably being the fact that it’s heavily button-bash friendly, you’d be surprised how far you can get without really knowing any combos or moves a fraction more complicated than a standard punch or kick. Now although this makes for the shallowest learning curve ever to grace a video game, it does mean you can still lose regularly even if you’re a pro. With Tekken – DOA’s archenemy – this element of inanity is obsolete and a gamer that’s well experienced with the game will no doubt prosper. DOA3 comes across as more of a child’s fighting game (despite sexual connotations!) whereas Tekken stands in for the real men! Don’t let this dishearten you, though, DOA is still a damn good game.
The loading times in DOA3 are worthy of a mention too, not because they’re amazingly fast and hardly noticeable, but because they’re so blatant they might as well be slapping you in the face with a cold fish and because the music playing over the top seems to jitter for a second or two. When I first heard the jitter I was a bit confused as to whether is was in fact an error, it sounded like a feeble attempt at change in pace in the song to add diversity, but the more I heard it, I realised it was out of time with the rest of the song. It’s definitely a jitter, as if the game’s concentrating too much of loading the game than playing the music properly, how reckless!

DOA3 is also quite fast, you’ve only got split second gaps sometimes before your foe starts to pound on you and although this may sound exciting, it makes the game feel somewhat disjointed in that there’s no fluidity between moves. It lacks the elegance that Tekken is popular for and portrays a far more brutal experience despite appearing rather dainty upon first impressions.
Despite this, the DOA trademark is still present in this little beast; you can still knock people through specific walls and off HUGE drops that this time around, cause far more damage than past titles of the franchise. Not only is this an excellent element of diversity when the repetition of standard fighting starts to get mundane, it gives you an upper hand AND looks so god damn cool! Pretty much every level has something you can fall off, but the ones that don’t normally have electric fences or some other form of hazardous outer rim that if smacked into, detonates in a shower of sparks and bright light.