Music Reviews of Videogames, PS2, XBox, Gamecube
Band Spotlight
Chiodos
Perhaps no one can explain the sheer ferocity and timid quietness it is better than when vocalist Craig Owens says “we don’t want to let the kids down” when discussing the group’s intense vocals live at shows. Well they never let a single kid down with their vicious assault on the ears and grip on the jugular...
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Current Top Ten Chart
Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker
Converge - No Heroes
The Graduate - Anhedonia
Death By Stereo - Death Alive
Comeback Kid - Broadcasting
The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cotton Teeth
Dear and the Headlights - Small Steps, Heavy Hooves
The Geeks - Every Time We Fall
Limbeck - Limbeck
WinterKids - Memoirs
03.09.2007 by J-Sin
Music Reviews of Videogames, PS2, XBox, Gamecube, Dreamcast
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
The latest installment in the wildly popular and successful Grand Theft Auto series is San Andreas, a land eerily similar to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas—indeed their names are changed but the locations and landscape is pretty true to these three cities. What makes this game absolutely essential is the very scope of the game. In it, players can literally interact with practically every object. You can swim, you can climb fences, you can date a girlfriend, you can eat food and get fat or work out and have massive muscles. You can increase your abilities with a variety of skills—weapons, swimming, driving, and sex appeal are just a microcosm of the personal almost-Sims like role play. The game is undeniably massive with huge country and landscape in between the three cities; indeed each city is almost the same size of the last Grand Theft Auto game. Yes it’s that big! Gameplay is predominantly similar to Vice City though there are plenty of new tricks to learn. You can play basketball, gamble, and play dance mini games that remind of Dance Dance Revolution. This game is absolutely essential for any serious gamer or even casual Playstation nut.
- J-Sin
The Political Machine — PC Buy it at Amazon
The Political Machine is a new game for the PC that pits your political savvy against an opponent in the greatest and hardest political battle of them all—the White House. With a wide array of real politicians to choose from on the Democrat and Republican sides, there’s plenty of appeal for the political novice and elite alike. The player gets to give speeches, produce ads (negative and positive), go on television shows like “Barry King” and “60 Seconds”, as well as build campaign headquarters. There’s a ton of different issues that plague the nation and the goal is to win enough electoral votes to grab the White House. But you don’t just have to wage a campaign against the computer; indeed you can also build your own character and even play that character online against real players if you’d like. It’s fun and it gives everyone a chance to learn more about the entire political process. I’m totally addicted.
- J-Sin
Madden 2005 Collector's Edition — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
First as a warning to those of you that have some of the original Playstation 2 systems that were put to market—the 3000 series to be exact—you are guaranteed to have problems with disc read errors with this game and most likely will have problems with most of the new games (especially the EA sports games) in the future. Yes I experienced that and typically try around a dozen times using the old school techniques that got original Nintendo games to work—blowing inside the machine, wiping down the disc, beating on the machine, etc. Anyway if you’re familiar with the Madden series than you’ll be able to jump right in and play. The Collector’s Edition is special because it comes packaged with a massive Madden trivia challenge, older semi-complete Madden games from year’s past, as well as a variety of other nifty add-ons. As in last year, you can play online and get your rosters updated though apparently the online gaming community for ’05 has gotten a facelift to prevent some of the bad online game experiences people had in the past. Also what was disappointing to me was a feature that they removed—the salary cap option in Franchise mode—that’s right folks no more drafting/creating super players to crush the opponents with. Of course I still had no problem creating a team with most of my favorite players. In addition the franchise mode in of itself has gotten a complete overhaul. Now you can read a local newspaper for your team and find out what people (and your own players) are saying in the media as well as a national newspaper. You can also get “e-mails” from your team president, your players, coaches, and even the equipment manager. Also streaming while you make roster updates and franchise maintenance is the “Tony Bruno Show”, a radio show that has a variety of in-depth interviews with actual real coaches. It adds yet another dimension to an immense game. Each year people ponder whether or not it’s worth buying the latest Madden game, and each year EA proves that they will pull all the stops to help make the game more alluring. With the exception of the lame hardware issues, it’s all aces.
- J-Sin
Champions of Norrath: The Realms of Everquest — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
First of all, unfortunately this game has decided that it likes to crash—a lot. In the half-dozen or so first times playing, it crashed not once, not twice, but three times. So make sure you read up on their website about what the hell is going on before you buy it. But after you get over the whole I’ll-crash-when-I-damn-well-please, you’ll absolutely fall in love with this game from the people who’ve brought us the successful Baldur’s Gate games in the past. Not only is it a great role-playing game that features a great storyline and superb graphics but also it’s online (which is why I get crashes I believe—I disabled my Internet card) so you can beat up on your friends err join up with them rather. Lush landscapes, vicariously lived primeval experiences, and cool ambient effects make this game an essential.
- J-Sin
MVP Baseball 2004 — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
First let me start things off by saying that I’m extremely picky when it comes to sports games and baseball in particular. I want good stats that are realistic. I want to be able to draft my own team. I want to be able to simulate a whole season but most especially I want to build my own dynasty. I want good defense by the computer, smart decisions from the computer (let’s bring in another pitcher if you’ve just given up four runs in an inning), intelligent bat control and phenomenal pitching. Well I get all of that and more. What I like the most is the ability to win MVP points which you turn in for old stadiums, retro jerseys, Hall of Fame players, and more. They provided great tuning bars for those of us who can’t seem to hit well or pitch well, or just do it too good. The one downfall is it’s almost impossible for me to hit a home run. The batting system is difficult to hit that great pop fly that just keeps going out despite allowing you to direct your hit. Pitching, while initially a challenge, is relatively easy once you figure out the timing. Oh and you won’t find Barry Bonds in this game or any baseball game this year—his pompous ass asked for more money. But never fear Bonds/Giants fans, there’s a mysterious left fielder named Jim Dowd whose attributes are the same except that he’s white and bats right-handed. Funny little dig at Barry if you ask me. If it’s in the game, it’s in MVP Baseball 2004—let’s hope that the Madden curse doesn’t make its way over to this series otherwise Tony LaRussa will be losing even more hair.
- J-Sin
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
Finally the sequel to the hugely popular computer game Baldur’s Gate is here, which just a couple of years ago made the trek to the console with the first addition to the popular series Dark Alliance. What you liked about the first, you’ll love about the second as the interface is mostly the same. This isn’t just your typical hack-and-slash dungeon raider. You can collect runestones and gems and upgrade your weapons into even more powerful magical items. Not to mention you have more choices for your starting character and can play two-player with experience points being divided 50-50 for monsters but 100% for quests. Fun, addictive, and complete with a great compelling story, there was good reason to wait the extra few months from the original release date while their company was sorting out legal issues regarding the release of this game.
- J-Sin
Madden 2004 — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
Madden 2004 is just another football masterpiece by EA Sports in a long series of Madden masterpieces. They take everything you’d ever want to experience playing football on a console game system to the next level. This year they allow you to be the “owner” where you cannot just set prices, work with a salary cap, develop players and dynasties, but also you can eventually build your own stadium, move your franchise elsewhere if your city can’t support you, hire/fire your coaches, and many other facets of the game that even the players and coaches don’t get to experience. The Madden challenges are back again and some of them have been updated to present new and more challenging skills for the player to master. Everything that was great about 2003 is even better this time around. In fact I stood in line for two and a half hours to get it the night before it was officially released. How’s that for dedication? The sliders always can help make a hard game harder or easier or vice versa. You won’t hear any complaining from me as I give Bill Parcell’s Dallas Cowboy’s the whupping they deserve from the Redskins—let’s just say I beat them 184-0 with a drafted team and a hell-pressed defense. But obviously if you want competition just don’t manipulate the sliders and set it to All-Madden and you’ll be getting the whupping. And this year the Madden curse was on again as Michael Vick who’s on the cover breaks his leg in real life and is out for a good six weeks. If you don’t believe in superstition than talk to Marshall Faulk, Daunte Culpepper, and Eddie George. Great game and great series!
- J-Sin
Tom Clancy`s Ghost Recon — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
Ghost Recon is quickly becoming one of my favorite first-person shooter/action games. It`s almost a simulation of sorts for a special forces group. It takes place in the future and the Soviet Union is slowly reforming and gaining strength. Mission by mission there are increases not only in difficulty but in weapon availability, specialists, and of course complicated missions. It`s not only extraordinarily engrossing but it lets you play war without actually hurting anyone. Maybe we should send a copy to the White House!
- J-Sin
High Heat Major League Baseball 2004 — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
I`ve been searching for quite some time for the perfect console baseball game. I`m a huge fan of the game and I want to be able to have great and realistic stats along with good playability. I`ve found my match. There are perfect tuning systems to make hitting, pitching, fielding--all the elements of the game—easier or more difficult. Personally I hate fielding as I usually find my reaction time isn`t as good as it would be in real life, so I just set that to automatic and let the computer do the damn fielding. You can create your own players, do a draft, play either in season mode or franchise mode, have a home run derby, play exhibitions, do trades, edit players, have batting practice, and play an All-Star game. I find everything about this game to be as close to perfect as I`ve ever played. Sure there are some things that would be nice—more realism in pitching as far as being able to strike out hitters or take a walk easier. But if you simulate a season you`ll find that the computer is very close to real-life.
- J-Sin
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — PS2 Buy it at Amazon
Rockstar comes out with its follow-up to Grand Theft Auto III and while this is not a sequel (you could kind of look at it as a prequel if anything) it continues on the award-winning path of the previous title. The setting is Miami (hence the clever “Vice City”) in the middle of the most greedy and sinful decade—the 1980s. There are several changes in addition to the different setting including your character who is now voiced by non other than Ray Liotta. Other famous voices are present such as Miss Cleo and Lawrence Taylor. There are helicopters, planes, motorcycles, and a variety of new vehicles to jack and drive at breakneck speed as well as a plethora of different weapons such as the chaingun and the katana. The scope of the game is bigger and follows a more detailed storyline. You can buy a variety of properties that ultimately can make you money after you complete missions for that property. But if you need money quick you can drive up to the mall and wander around robbing stores but be careful because they’ll send the SWAT team after you and you don’t want a bunch of cops jumping from helicopters on rope after you. There are really no problems with this game whatsoever and in fact they improve on the minor flaws of the third installment. My major complaint is that when you first start it’s harder to make a lot of money since you no longer get money for every car you bash up. But after you buy properties it’s much easier. The missions also are a bit more difficult quickly in this game but that only makes repeat playability shoot through the roof. Musically this is a far superior game with music right from the pop charts of the 1980s and while some children who don’t remember the 80s may not enjoy the music as much as older children and adults they should be able to follow the inside jokes about Reagan era that can be heard on various stations. All in all a vast crime world at your disposal with literally hundreds of different adventures that will leave even the most casual gamer completely addicted.
- J-Sin
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