SOCOM 2: Combined Assault (PS2)

Reviewer Christa Puccio

Title: SOCOM: U.S. NAVY SEALs Combined Assault
System: PlayStation 2
Price: $17.99 USED
Rating: T for Teens
Developer: Zipper Interactive, Inc.
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios

Age Range: 12+

Summary: Lead a squad of four Navy soldiers into battle, using weapons and strategy to complete various missions.

Total hours of play: This game has unlimited game play due to the online gaming capability. Through story mode, the game has over 50 hours of play.

Learning Curve: Training is available in the main menu. Each action is described in the training and after each description the player must pass the training course to continue to the next action to learn. After the training is completed, the player is able to learn the techniques and strategy as they go along in regular game play.

Family Factor: Becuase the player is apart of the US Military as a Navy Seal fighting for their country, the game is filled with violence and weapons of destruction. However, it focuses a lot more on strategy and action rather than violence and gore. It is not too gory but is based on the idea of killing and assassinating, while also capturing and saving innocent civilians. There is not much blood present when killing an opposing player, however, when your character or a team member is shot, they stay lying on the ground and blood is visible on their face, but then the game cuts out to say that the mission was failed.

Buy it? Yes! This tactically challenging game contains hours upon hours of fun. This game engages the player with the diversity of the types of missions and the various difficulty levels available. If the missions ever become dull, the option of playing friends online is available. (requires Internet connection)

Review:
As commander of squad of four Navy soldiers, SOCOM is action packed with missions and battles for hours of game play. A quick briefing is given before each mission explaining the goals and any restrictions to abide by. There are hidden assignments throughout the storyline that can be picked up on while in battle as well. During game play, the only noises are sound effects including shooting, talking, footsteps, explosions and other battle field. Music is only played as an indicator of success or failure. After a goal is accomplished, the game plays rewarding orchestra music as an indicator appears at the top of the screen revealing what assignment was completed. As soon as a mission is completed or failed, music cuts in as well with either cheerful or depressing music accordingly. Besides those exceptions, the game is based on the sounds are according to the battle field.
Each mission varies in what weapons must be used, how they are used and what form of travel is necessary. Navy Seals are capable of battle in all types of conditions, as mission sites vary in climate, weather and/or location. Depending on the mission, the player will travel by foot, boat, or military truck. Both vehicles are equipped with built in weapons to use. Commanding the troops and looking out for the team is essential to the team’s success. The game is online compatible, through broadband only, allowing you to work live with others and not just with computerized characters. Combined Assault demands strategy, stealth and technique to conquer each mission.
The game does take some time getting used to with not only looking out for yourself, but having to take command of an entire team. It is challenging, but consequently addicting. The online side of the game is very exciting to be able to work with live others to compete. It has tons of hours of play and different levels of difficulty to push the player to their utmost limit. The requirement of stealth requires the player to get into character and tests their ability to strategize and problem solve. Some of the computerized characters do sometimes get stuck during game play in various glitches, which does become frustrating if the gamer is required to reset the game or restart the mission because a computerized teammate is stuck and cannot function properly. This rarely happens, but definitely is a noticeable issue.
SOCOM is unique in that it allows for the player to quickly switch views from third party perspective, to over the shoulder, to first person perspective by simply using the up and back buttons. Medal of Honor does not have this capability, only allowing the player to view the game through the first person perspective. SOCOM also allows the player to stand, crouch, and lay down by using the triangle button. While mobile, the player can sprint, jog, or skulk with the analog stick. These different capabilities enhance the player’s accuracy, battle field vision and allow the player to become more agile during game play.

Related games: Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, Call of Duty 3, Medal of Honor.

Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360)

Reviewer: Erich Hiner

Title: Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock

Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Wii, PC, Mac

Price: $89.99 (with guitar controller) or $49.99 (game alone)

ESRB Rating: T for Teen (13+)

Developer: Red Octane/ Neversoft

Publisher: Activision

Age Range: 12+

Buy?
YES. While it suffers from some minor technical problems, the game succeeds in delivering a fun and rewarding musical experience that most gamers will enjoy

Summary:

Having taken up the axe once again, it’s up to you to bring the gift of rock n’ roll to the masses. Several modes of play are present including career mode, quickplay, cooperative, battle and versus. By playing “live shows” the player earns digital cash that can be exchanged for new songs, guitars, characters and outfits. In career mode, the player is responsible for bringing his or her upstart rock band fame, fortune, and, eventually, rock n’ roll salvation.

Difficulty: HIGH

While easy mode still offers simple tunes, hard and expert modes will strain even the most dedicated rocker. It should also be said that this particular iteration of the franchise is much more difficult than its predecessors. Those familiar with Guitar Hero I and II should prepare themselves for a more challenging game.

Learning Curve: HIGH

New players normally experience a sharp learning curve with the Guitar Hero series and Guitar Hero III is no exception. The unique controller takes getting used and it will take several attempts to complete a difficult song for most starting players. Getting a grasp of the notation system is a slow process that eventually becomes second nature. While there’s a lot of fun to be had later on, the first few hours of play will likely be spent acquainting oneself with the unorthodox controller and gameplay.

Family Factor: Guitar Hero III is rated T for Teen for mild language and some suggestive themes. Some of the female characters in the game are scantily clad and hyper-sexualized. While most of the songs are tame, several of the tracks are very heavy and may be deemed inappropriate by some parents. The songs contain no explicit lyrics. Slayer’s “Raining Blood” is just as brutal on the ears as its title suggests. Other songs, such as Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Suck my Kiss” may also be deemed inappropriate due to their somewhat adult-oriented lyrics. Parents should also be warned that a segment of the game involves the player “guitar battling” the devil for one’s soul. The game’s ESRB rating is appropriate for its target audience. Parents are advised to listen to some of the songs in question before buying Guitar Hero III. View a complete songlist here.

Review:

Like the Rolling Stones or the Beatles, Guitar Hero is a rock legend that just refuses to die. Fortunately for the gaming public, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Building on the mistakes and successes of the series’ first two installments, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock explores some new territory while perfecting the rock experience as defined by the first two games. The result is an improved and even more addicting game that allows for greater ease of use and vastly improves replay value.

The graphics, while having been improved since Guitar Hero II, are still very poor. Characters on stage move robotically with only a handful of animations. The crowds are embarrassingly animated and are poorly rendered. In all fairness, it should be said that the graphics are not the main focus of this game. Most players will be too entranced by the constant flurry of notes to notice what their Jimi Hendrix lookalike is doing on stage.

The sound and music of Guitar Hero have both improved by leaps and bounds. With dozens of tracks to choose from, there’s at least one song that everyone will enjoy. The game includes 73 tracks including the bonus songs, up from 64 tracks in Guitar Hero II. The more musically inclined will notice that, unlike Guitar Hero II, every song in the game is actually a recording of the artist and not just a cover band. The quality of the recordings is also better and makes playing familiar songs all the more enjoyable.

Where Guitar Hero III’s main appeal lies is its rich and engrossing gameplay. After the initial learning curve, players will find that the controls are easy to pick up and equally difficult to master. Players will find that they will teach themselves new playing techniques unconsciously through trial and error. Continued play reveals new techniques and new layers of depth to this deceivingly simple game. The hammer-on/ pull-off mechanic, which allows the player to play a note simply by holding a fret button instead of pushing the button and strumming, has been has been drastically improved. This makes speedy solos and licks more accessible and enjoyable. During my time with Guitar Hero III, I found that, like an actual instrument, persistence led to better understanding and more efficient playing styles. Every time one picks up the controller, one increases their skill. Simply put, the game just gets more fun each time. The sense of accomplishment one gets after conquering a tough song is one of GH3’s greatest assets. While it can be challenging at times, Guitar Hero III is fair and outrageously fun.

In addition to satisfying single-player play, GH3 also offers some of the best multiplayer features in the industry. Every track in the game includes a separate part for the bass or rhythm guitar that can be played by another player using a second controller. The entire career mode can be played through cooperatively, making GH3 a great game to play with friends. The game also allows each player to select his or her individual difficulty level, allowing players of differing skill levels to jam in tandem or go head to head. Although few things are more fun than rocking with a friend, parents should be warned that purchasing multiple guitar controllers will be an expensive process. Thrifty gamers will be glad to know that guitar controllers used for Guitar Hero I or II can be used for Guitar Hero III provided that the older controllers are designed for the system on which the third game is being played.

As novel as GH3 can be, several issues keep it from reaching true superstar status. Most noticeably, songs that are played on the lower difficulty settings are often confusing to play. In order to make difficult solos more beginner friendly, the game requires to player to play only every other note. In songs that require one to keep rhythm, this can cause confusion. I found that some songs were actually easier to play on expert than on hard due to the fact that the higher difficulty required that every note be played. Similarly, some of the higher difficulty settings seem to butcher familiar songs just for the sake of making them harder. In the case of The Who’s The Seeker, the notes being played in the recording are in a different time signature than those being played by the player. For a game that is based entirely on music, Guitar Hero III should not have musical issues.

GH3’s career mode, while solid, also suffers from a few blunders. The guitar battle system, where players can pit their skills against computerized in-game characters or a friend, has been touted by GH3’s creators as the most innovative new mode of play. The goal of every guitar battle is to obtain battle stars that cause the other player’s display or control scheme to become somehow distorted. As well intended as the battle system is, it feels broken and tacked on. This mechanic may work well in theory but comes off as shallow and poorly executed. When I play musical game, the last thing I want to do is use powerups to magically make another guitarist’s strings break mid-concert.

Despite the poor graphics and minor technical issues, GH3 is a solid game that many gamers will enjoy. Single player shredding is fun to play and watch while GH3’s cooperative play is some of the best around. Even with some slight blemishes, few games can rival the excitement and pure fun that Guitar Hero III elicits. The track list is fantastic, the music is great and the experience is unlike anything else. Guitar Hero III is a game that everyone should play. In spite of its brief mishaps, it is a game that warrants a look from everyone in the gaming world.

Related Games:

Guitar Hero (PS2), Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (PS2), Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360), Rock Band (Xbox 360)

Total Hours of Play: This will vary for every player. Career mode can be completed in about 3-4 hours on a low difficulty. Nailing the trickier solos on the higher difficulties can literally take days of practice depending on the talent of the player in question. The most difficult songs are so grueling that most players will never technically finish the entire game.

Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

Reviewer: Will Kirschner
Title: Mass Effect
System: Xbox360
Price: $59.99
Rating: M for Mature (17+)
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Microsoft

Summary: You serve as Commander Shepard on the USS Normandy, a prototype space-ship, as which will serve as the central jumping-off point for your mission. The world you live in is full of aliens who look down on humans as a lesser race. Your main goal is to bring Saren, a rogue Spectre (government special from completing his plans to retrieve powerful ancient technology from an extinct race of people called Protheans. You traverse the galaxy completing side-quests and filling in the side stories.

Overall Score: 8.8
Graphics: 10
Story/Concept: 10
Music: 6
Gameplay: 10
Replay value: 8

Difficulty: A solid medium. There are some parts in the game where you will want to throw the controller in disgust, but otherwise a game that will present a medium level of difficulty.

Learning Curve: Two hours tops to master everything but the vehicle controls.

Total hours of play: 20-30 hours depending on the level of side-quest completion you strive for.

Family Factor: This game earns its mature rating with a few exceptionally graphic scenes rather than a game full of adult situations. There are three possible sex scenes in the game , however the most notable would be the lesbian woman and female looking alien sex scene. It isn't any more graphic than a scene out of a pg-13 movie,but it still isn't appropriate for the kids. The two other scenes,though more acceptable in nature, are only a bit more graphic. The scenes were graphic enough to draw the ire of Fox News but nowhere near as graphic as the average episode of Lost. As far as violence there are a few scenes that are rather intense. More than a few times your allies are impaled and turned into enemies in a rather grotesque way. Other than that the violence is minimal, only drawing a T-rating. Overall this game earns its M-rating so don't buy it for your kids.

Review:
This Sci-Fi RPG is the latest to come out of RPG giant Bioware, whose is seen as a strong developer pushing out titles like the award winning Bioshock, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
You start the game by creating your character s role, his or her past, and a highly detailed facial construction. Much like KOTR, this game s strength lies in the intense level of customization that it provides. As you level up, you gain more powers and the different classes are proficient in different things, giving the game a fair level of strategy. The classes include a standard warrior class,a biotic class and a vanguard class which is like the in-between class. The weapons include snipers, shotguns and assault rifles. There are many different types of armor which vary between class and carry the classification of light,medium and heavy.
You will learn to hate the games attempt at vehicle combat, which is a fair part of the exploration of the game. The movement is jumpy and the combat is really not satisfying. You will have the urge to jump out and fight it on foot most of the time, no matter how bad the atmosphere condition gets. While not quite shooting game, not quite RPG feel, it's innovative and interesting.
The game has a very simple shooting reticule that is quite simple but it requires a whole lot of strategy with different powers. The intense story and stunning visuals are why this game was so well received and received so many awards. The voice acting is superb and is played by a well casted group of experienced video-game voice actors plus the amazing talents of Seth Green as Commander Shepard (male). This is a game that you can play many times before seeing out all the storyline possibilities. You won't be sad if you pick this exemplary piece of work.

Related games: If you like RPGs (role-playing games) or space this is totally for you. Incredibly reminiscent of the Knights of the Old Republic series and the Final Fantasy series.