September 23, 2005

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Now that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is finally back on the shelves, Rockstar Games has just announced another maneuver to pump some more sales out of the GTA franchise.  Coming in mid to late October, gamers will be able to purchase a special trilogy pack for the Xbox, containing Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.  This trilogy should boost the already astronomical number of total GTA sales well above the 45 million mark.  If you've only had the opportunity to play the three most recent GTA games in passing, the trilogy is certainly worth picking up.  Achieving 100% completion on all three games should take quite a while.

Read on for the full press release.

September 21, 2005

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As the release date for Brothers In Arms: Earned In Blood nears, a playable PC demo has been released by Ubisoft.  The demo is available at www.brothersinarmsgame.com, and features a solo map, a skirmish map, and some additional goodies such as historical documents and photos to entice players.  Most of the demo is only playable in single player mode, although the skirmish map can be played co-op, though only through LAN play.

September 14, 2005

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Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is a stealth game.  You creep around, hide in the dark, and sneak up and knife people.  And you know what? It's a lot of fun.   The gameplay is much more open ended than I expected.  You can take the obligatory sneaking around, never killing anyone approach, the hybrid "I'll knife people who look at me funny" approach, the "We are now playing Quake; you are all going down in a shower of gunfire" approach, or a combo of all three.  Being a stealth game, you're obviously rewarded for taking the stealth approach.  Knocking out enemies instead of gutting them like fish raises your rating at the end of the level.  Raise too many alarms and the guards bust out the body armor and start to fortify strategic positions.

September 11, 2005

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For a writer who has always wanted to use the term "swashbuckling good time" in a review, 2K Games' Sid Meier's Pirates! allows that dream to come true.  Although this Xbox version of Pirates is really just a remake of a 1987 classic, there is still much to be said about the quality of the game.  For all of those who have lusted after a chance to live the life of a pirate - sailing the high seas for fame and fortune - the chance is here with Sid Meier's Pirates!

August 28, 2005

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Outlaw Tennis, Hypnotix's latest addition to the “Outlaw” sports series, is an interesting arcade-style tennis title for the PS2 and Xbox platforms.  To fully appreciate Outlaw Tennis, the game must be viewed for what it is, not for what reviewers would like for it to be.  The stick by which all tennis games are measured these days is Virtua Tennis, and  Outlaw Tennis is decidedly dissimilar.  In fact, Outlaw Tennis has more similarities with Mario Tennis, despite the obvious differences in audience targeting.  Although Outlaw Tennis suffers in many areas one would expect an arcade tennis game to suffer, such as having an uninspired A.I., over-the-top physics, and a complete disregard for on-court etiquette, for the price tag ($19.99) you sure are buying yourself a lot of entertainment.

August 23, 2005

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EA just recently announced the full soundtrack for their upcoming title, Burnout Revenge.  Among the bands gracing the music list is Yellowcard, who will be debuting their latest single 'Lights and Sounds' in-game.  Over 40 bands will be featured in the soundtrack for Burnout Revenge, including The Chemical Brothers, Goldfinger, MxPx, Pennywise, and a Remix of The Doors' 'Break on Through.'  The entire soundtrack was selected to throw players into the high-intensity chaotic automotive title, which offers no-holds-barred vehicular racing mayhem.

Read on for the full press release and track list.

July 21, 2005

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Due to the recent "Hot Coffee" modification to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the ESRB has changed the game's rating to the rarely given "AO" (Adults Only).  This rating change comes amidst a backlash from watchdog groups and certain public figures, due to the controversial nature of the Hot Coffee modification.  The mod, created by individuals not associated with Take-Two Interactive or Rockstar games, changes GTA: San Andreas to allow players to unlock a sex mini-game.  Since the announcement of the rating change, Rockstar has halted production of San Andreas, and has started building a patched version which will make the Hot Coffee modification impossible to apply.  Politicians are blasting the ESRB for allowing GTA: SA to obtain less than an Adults Only rating, while Rockstar supporters are claiming that the modification isn't the fault of GTA, but rather the individuals who built the modification.  In further response to the Hot Coffee controversy, the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association issued a statement indicating that members of the IEMA will be pulling GTA: SA from their shelves.

Read on for the official press releases.

July 20, 2005

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Since Midway was unable to put a reasonable bid on the table to obtain NFL licensing rights, the Blitz series has had to remove all references to the NFL and its current teams and players.  However, Midway was able to obtain football hall-of-famer Lawrence Taylor as the cover athlete and voice of Blitz: The League's main character, Quentin Sands.  Midway was even careful enough not to mention any teams that Taylor played for in their press release.  However, with the removal of league censorship, Blitz: The League has room to take football even more over-the-top than previous Blitz titles.  Lets just hope Midway doesn't take the idea too far.

Blitz: The League is expected to hit shelves this October on the Playstation 2 and Xbox platforms.

July 12, 2005

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Leaderboards for more than 1,400 types of competitions have been put up at forzamotorsport.net.  The leaderboards represent stats collected from the more than 150,000 online Forza gamers on Xbox Live, competing in Hotlap, Point-to-Point, Autocross, and Time Trial statistics.  Additionally, leaders can be viewed by car class or track.

With the release of these leaderboards in conjunction with the 700,000+ Forza sales that have accumulated over the past two months, Xbox Live players can expect the competition to heat up online.

July 5, 2005

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Although the latest title in the blockbuster Grand Theft Auto series has been out for months now on the Playstation 2, the PC and Xbox titles hadn’t hit the shelves until just recently.  The latest platform releases differ from the original Playstation 2 version in a few distinct ways, but overall the game remains largely the same.  This particular review will address at the Xbox version of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, first commenting on the game itself and then later discussing some of the differences between the Playstation 2 version and the Xbox offering.