Barbarian
July 31, 2002
Barbarian is the story of a game that tries to be more than it actually is. Dressed in fine graphics and combat arenas and talking an elegant story, characters, and combat system, at its heart–Barbarian is only a button-smashing anger-fest. You enter a world controlled by evil as either a good or bad Barbarian, and, as you follow each individual story, face-off against a variety of opponents in combat arenas placed throughout the land called Barbaria. The most basic fighter elements are present, but Barbarian falls miles short of its destination with serious gameplay issues, an uninteresting stories, and poor characters. Read more
Neverwinter Nights
July 29, 2002
PC gaming is dead… or so I thought. However, the first half of 2002 has changed my mind completely. For the first time in a long time, I am playing PC games whenever I have free time. What have I been busy playing? Three things: Dungeon Siege, WarCraft III, and now Neverwinter Nights. To have all three of these games come out in the first half of 2002 is very overwhelming. I must admit–I have had a hard time dividing up my gaming time between these three titles. Each one is a possible candidate for our Game of the Year Bernie. However, there is just something magical about Neverwinter Nights… Read more
Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
July 29, 2002
Name of the game is to pick up customers fast, drop them off faster, and drive as crazy as you can. The first of the Crazy Taxis to come to the Xbox features new drivers and a new course through Vegas called Glitter Oasis. Both West Coast and Small Apple from the previous two Crazy Taxi games are here, and they have been expanded and graphically tweaked. Unfortunately that is where most of the new craziness ends. With old music tracks and repetitive mini-games, Sega’s Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller barely gets squealing its wheels before it lands a flat. Read more
The Universal Console
July 26, 2002
PC gamers have always played games on a universal platform, the PC. Although many different companies make computers, the system is still universal. Why can’t there be a universal home console? Everything would be so much simpler. There would then only be two basic platforms, the PC, and the home console, which for convenience’s sake we’ll call it the ì•®iConî®? Read more
Let FREEDOM Reign!!
July 26, 2002
Early Friday Afternoon, I was checking out the selections that Blockbuster had in the Games Section. I wanted something new to play through this weekend. Maybe I’d even get a review up next week! Alas, they didn’t have NCAA Football 2003 out yet (review next week), so I had to settle for renting Pikmin, hoping to finally finish it. Read more
Legion: The Legend of Excalibur
July 25, 2002
Midway, once known for their shallow arcade games, has been working hard to change the image of the company. While they still release the same shallow arcade games on the consoles (come on, you know you love to play Blitz and Hitz), they have also resurrected old classic titles and brought them to a new generation. Titles like SpyHunter and the new Gauntlet titles have been very fun games that are definitely worth a spot in your gaming library. However, when I first heard about Legion: The Legend of Excalibur at E3 2001, I started to get very excited. Finally, Midway was branching out to create some awesome new franchises. Teaming up with developer Seven Studios, Legion missed its original ship date of the 2001 Holiday season. When Legion missed its ship date, I wondered if Midway had canceled it. But then I saw it at E3 2002 and it appeared that all of the extra development time paid off. Nothing could be further from the truth. Legion: Legend of Excalibur is a disappointing action “hack ‘n slash” that will leave you frustrated and disgusted. Read more
Stuart Little 2
July 25, 2002
By now you probably have noticed that the little “cute and furry” Stuart Little has returned to theatres in his second dance on the “big screen.” This time, he isn’t alone. While the main characters from the original cast are back, a new addition to the cast, Margalo, joins our rodent in his quest to find stolen jewelry from all over Manhattan and defeat the evil Falcon in the process. Read more
Stuntman
July 25, 2002
Where would movies be without the stuntmen? Movies like James Bond and Battlefield Earth would be horribly unexciting. Wait, scratch Battlefield Earth. While the stars of the movie are off complaining about their contracts, the hard-working Hollywood stuntman films the scenes that put our butts in the seats. The car chases, wrecks, and explosions are what the people want to see. That’s the idea behind this newest game from developer Reflections. You step in as the stuntman and work your way through the movies, leaving piles of wrecked cars wherever you go. Read more
Sky Gunner
July 24, 2002
The town of Rive is hosting an expo where the Eternal Engine (an engine that can run forever without an external power supply) will be unveiled, but the criminal genius, Ventre, is out to claim it for his own. Ciel and Copain (best friends and well-known Gunners in Rive) have been asked by the chief of police, Hardi, to assist in guarding the expo. They are soon joined by a female Gunner, Femme, who arrives from a nearby town, Neju. Only these talented Gunners (pilots of specialized aircraft) can foil Ventre’s plan in this aerial combat adventure. Read more
WWE Wrestlemania X8
July 24, 2002
Why must THQ be run by a group of highly unintelligent chimpanzees? Instead of leaving the license with the wrestling game aficionados at AKI, it has been given to the highly undeserving Yuke’s. The greatness of games like WCW/NWO Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania, and WWF No Mercy (all for Nintendo 64) did not seem to matter to the geniuses at THQ. Nintendo’s wrestling games now officially suck. They used to beat the pants off of the Smackdown series, but no longer! Hopefully, THQ will realize its mistake and correct it, but they probably won’t legally be able to. Where is the career mode? Every game, no matter what genre, has some sort of career (or story, or what have you) mode, but not in Wrestlemania X8! Read more