Tag Archives: Sports

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Fight Night Round 4

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It’s no secret that EA’s Fight Night revolutionised boxing games. Moving the control scheme away from the buttons to the control sticks was a genius move, and has allowed EA to pretty much dominate the genre since first coming out with it. However, with Fight Night Round 4, it’s apparent the franchise needs something special to continue being held in such high regard. It’s not that Fight Night Round 4 is bad in any way, it just lacks the punch (pardon the pun) of the previous entries.

All the good stuff of Fight Night Round 3 is here – the awesome graphics, improved with much more realistic levels of sweat, and fantastic lighting of rings and boxers; the great sound giving the visceral realism the game is renowned for a bigger impact; and the robust fighter creator which creates eerily similar facsimiles of those with XboxLive Cameras.

For the actual in-ring gameplay, the punching system has been revamped with a new physics engine, and each punch landed feels more solid and powerful than previous titles. Some punches have changed – the haymaker is now mapped to a button press and a hook movement with the joystick, which means players aren’t accidentally throwing them at opponents so much. Likewise, body punches are no longer modified by a button, but instead mapped to the normal punch controls, promoting their importance and use against opponents. Parrying has become a solid block, and there isn’t a momentary opening from blocking – you’ve literally have to fight for openings. Now more so than ever, you need to time your punches when in the ring, get into a rhythm of punching, dodging and counterpunching.

Counterpunching is the key, and the camera will alter slightly and a sound will play, indicating if you can land a punch, it will be more powerful than a normal punch. Landing the punch is often harder than expected, because the opponent will know as well, and can get a good block up in time. This of course can work against you, as an opponent can counter a counter, so you’ve got to be forceful yet tactical when you fight.

Career mode, called Legacy, is where you’ll spend the most of you time. You can choose a boxer or build your own, and build up your stats through fights and training, winning bouts and series and belts until you’re the Champion. Whilst it’s a pretty solid game mode, there are some issues with it. Firstly is its length. I found it simply too long to maintain my interest. I like games to progress quickly, so found the way you win round after round against the early nobodies, and then suddenly hit a brick wall of toughness that is impassable seemingly no matter what you try to do. The amount of time I’ve been stuck at 30, and knocked out with seemingly weak punches and cheap shots is annoying at best.

I realise the trick is to fight lower ranked boxers to build up stats, but I’m far too impatient for that, and I think many other gamers are too. It just feels unnecessary, like a way to prolong the career mode rather than to actually give more substance to it. To make matters worse, the minigames which improve your stats are often overly difficult. Each different type of game gives you a range of stats, but none give you a change to raise all your stats. To get the full range of stats, you need to do very well in the minigame, and some of them feel impossible to achieve more than a mediocre score. Skipping gives you half the bonus, but when it’s only +5 or +6 a stat per mini game, your stats are going to take way too long to raise in such a manner.

So you might choose the bag to rise your heart and chin stats one time, and even though you string moving to 10 zones together in a row, still come out with a grade of “bum”, which gives you half points. And as you can only train once between fights, and fights need at least a month of recovery, you simply fly through the years and it feels like you’re not developing quickly enough. I realise I may be judging this too harshly, but to me games are all about achieving something. If I’m punching above my weight, I should be rewarded, not punished with cheap shots and hard minigames.

There’s also a fight mode, where you can play against the computer with your favourite real life boxers, or two player which is still as much fun as ever. The hits and bruises are as hardcore as ever, and if you have a bunch of mates around watching, you’ll get the same oohs and ahhs as if you’re watching a real boxing match on TV. It’s not quite the party game Rockband is, although it in nearly just as fun playing as it is watching. Online the game is as good as its predecessor, with little lag. Boxing games seem to attract a hardcore crowd online, so prepare for some smacktalk.

Sound was mentioned briefly before, and it’s still great, with impact sounds sounding heavy and forceful. Additionally, there has been some great work integrating the soundtrack into the whole game.Whilst being full of the usual EA tracks, spanning multiple genres such as hiphop, funk, and rock, with some being good and others not so good, during loading screens the tune that was playing in the menu is cut back and looped, and later continues with a different effects process depending on if you’re in a ring, a stadium, or the gym. It’s a subtle but clever way of making you feel as part of the game or story, and not just jumping from menu to menu.

Conclusion:
Fight Night Round 4 is a solid game, different enough from its predecessor to warrant a play through, but I’m not completely convinced there’s enough of a change to make someone who loves Fight Night Round 3 to change. The changes appear more subtle, and whilst technically it’s a better game, I didn’t get as much fun out of it this as I did Fight Night 3.

Pros:
Great boxing action, refined for a more tactical style of game
Great to play two player
Fantastic visuals.
Awesome use of sound

Cons:
Minigames too difficult
Feels like they’ve made things deliberately too hard to prolong gameplay in Legacy mode.

80/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

PES 09

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When I played Pro Evolution Soccer for the first time about 3 years, I was instantly sold on it. Sure, the game had funny names for teams and players, and the presentation was poor, but none of that mattered because the gameplay on the pitch was so good. It was the first time I felt like I was playing a game of soccer that closely replicated the actual physical game. The player’s skill numbers actually felt like they meant something, the team play was terrific, and the game felt responsive and fun.

But oh my, how the mighty fall. PES 09 doesn’t feel like the same series I fell in love with 3 years ago. Although there have been some improvements in getting real teams and players and adding some new modes, the actual game itself seems to have suffered as a result. Although it’s on the same engine as it has been for the last 3 years, there is an enormous gap of quality between PES 6 and PES 09.

The first thing I noticed which has changed for the worse is the team play. I can’t understand why it has changed, but players seem to flock around the ball rather than play the field. They’re often out of position or worse, get in one another’s way. This is particularly true of defence, and it means the opposition will find holes in your defence more often than they should. Players no longer make decent runs, or will run straight into opposition players instead of seeking out open space.

Passing has changed so now you hold the A button for longer passes. This is a good idea on paper, but let down by poor implementation. Often a player will run to the ball, but it will suddenly decide it can’t get their and stop their run. And I mean stop to a complete standstill while another player gets the ball, or to simply watch the ball go out of bounds. PES has always played along the 8 directions of the joypad, but now it seems if the ball and player aren’t lined up completely, the game gives the ball up.

Worse still is the physics. The ball now simply doesn’t feel right. The ball feels ultra heavy – it will stop dead far sooner than it’s meant to, meaning through balls feel wasted most of the time. And although PES has always had a problem with the ball bouncing off players, now it seems even worse. Players scramble over the balls, with the ball bouncing off players like a pinball.

Then there’s the issue PES always has had that still haven’t been addressed. Like throw-ins, where the opposition has an exclusion zone preventing the player from positioning and pressuring during the throw. FIFA 09 allows players to jostle during thrown balls, and this artifice of PES makes it seem really outdated. Also trying to score from free kicks still feels as pointless as ever. Yes, you can score, but the ability to get it right still feels like luck instead of skill. And turning kicks at goals still fly over the bar every time, no matter how much or how little power you apply.

It’s not all bad, and you will still experience some of the brilliance of the former games. Although crosses seem a little weaker, volleys still look and feel awesome when they smash into the back of the net. The pace is brisker than FIFA, yet measured. Results are still far more realistic. Although 5-nil games aren’t unheard of in PES, the occurrence isn’t nearly as frequent as FIFA, even when playing on the easier settings.

PES 09 has secured the rights of the UEFA Championship League, which is quite the coup. You can choose to play this league right off the main menu, and like previous titles, the league mode is as great as ever. You will get sick of hearing the UEFA music though. And PES still has the better manager mode, and once you get into it, the deep gameplay will have you rapt. The player improvement and transfers and all the other things which make this mode great are still in place. And now even the menu system is slightly less convoluted as before! PES also has the better method of displaying of team and player stats, meaning you can tell how good a team is and where a player’s strength lies just by looking at the skill pentagram. This is far better than FIFAs 100 points system.

A new mode to tackle FIFA Be A Pro, introduced in last years FIFA, is Become A Legend. Like FIFA, you control one player and run them through their career. Unlike FIFA, you’re not limited by their seasons, but by their age, which means you can play your pro until retirement at age 35. However, it is the much poorer cousin to FIFA’s excellent offering. You will play many squad v squad matches in order to get to you main team, and these are just on the training pitch with no crowd and no commentary. Realistic, probably, but quite boring in actuality. You can skip these, but then you don’t get XP to expand the player.

You’re rewarded for the way you play like FIFA, but there’s absolutely no feedback on the pitch. It assumes you know the sport. Of course if you have poor positioning like offsides, slide too much and get carded you, you will get a bad rating, but if you don’t know much about soccer, you’re going to get a little lost. To help, holding the left bumper makes player go into position, but some sort of onscreen direction would be preferable.
The online system is sort of weird. You sign into servers which show how many people are playing, then from there look for a quick game or ranked match. It feels a little awkward. Unfortunately I’ve only managed to have one game against a friend, although it was much better than PES 08, being smoother with far less lag, it was no where near the quality of FIFA 09’s online connections.

The game looks and sounds like PES has for the last 3 years. Menus are a little cleaner and more intuitive, but not by much. The players look a little better, but I think the player animations on field have gotten worse. I’ve seen players animate for a big kick even though I simply moved the joystick left or right. I’ve also seen the ball pass through a players legs, and it looked like all the animations played at once with the player spazzing out. However, other animations look cool, like when players automatically spin past other players.

Sound wise the music once again is what the Japanese developers think is “cool” amongst soccer fans at the moment. None of it is by any recognisable group, and although it’s not completely terrible, it’s not fantastic by any means. Commentary is almost exactly the same as last year. There is a little more banter played at the end of the game and after goals and goal chances, but it gets repetitive really quickly.

Conclusion:
PES has always been the little game that could. It’s faced the might of EA and delivered a soccer game that has been superior for most of its lifetime. However, lately EA seem to have suddenly “got” what players want, and have dished up a mighty fine game in FIFA 09. On the other hand Konami have seemed to rest on their laurels, and for possibly the first time have dropped the ball and seen FIFA take the win.

PROS
– UEFA Champions League mode
– The usual deep Manager Mode
– Still a good game of soccer
– Less lag than previous PES titles.

CONS
– Team play, ball physics and passing seem to have gotten worse
– Become a Legend mode doesn’t show any on screen help during play
– No other real improvements to the game
– Commentary gets repetitive really quickly

79/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

FIFA 09

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Last year, when I reviewed PES 08, I mentioned that FIFA wasn’t in the same league as PES, explaining “People don’t play FIFA because it’s the superior soccer game; they play it because it’s got all the teams and players’ people love, straight out of the box”. Although I only jumped on the PES bandwagon 3 years ago, I can see that PES has consistently been the better soccer game. Me and some mates still play PES 08 on a weekly basis (albeit on a far inferior console) whereas my copy of FIFA 08 actually has a fine layer of dust on it.

But when people rest on their laurels, as Konami has done a little with the last few PES games, a competitor can get the edge. And when that competitor is EA, the biggest publisher in the world, it gets very, very interesting. Because, if Konami don’t address the issues of that last couple of PES games, then I think FIFA will be the better game this year.

First thing you’ll notice is the fluid and organic player animation. Beautifully rendered, you’ll see them flow naturally from one move to the next as they move down the pitch. This is true of the overhead cams, and the closer third person perspective of be-a-pro mode. It’s also functional – you’ll notice a tired player leaning over with hands on knees. A player wanting a pass will throw their hand up. And a scoring player can now be made to do celebratory moves like the robot and belly slide.

AI is vastly improved, with players running into position and dealing intelligently with the ball. A player will trap a ball if it comes to them, or chest the ball to their feet, or leap over a sliding tackle and regain control over the ball. Players will run onto the ball, spring the offside trap intelligently, and call for passes when they’re in the clear. It’s not completely perfect – I’ve seen an opposition goal keeper kick the ball as my player was running past, and my player stopped the ball and scored. There are also the errant passes that go straight instead of to the side, but these feel far less frequent than other soccer games of the past.

The ball and the players have a real physical presence, as in past years and other games, but usually this hasn’t been implemented that well, with the ball bouncing off players at wrong angles and generally not feeling right. This time it feels almost perfect. Balls will die in open space, creating opportunities for faster pace men on your team. Get a strong player running with the ball, and they’ll athletically jostle for the ball, knocking a running player off their line and allowing you to tackle without resorting to a slide and invariably a free kick.

Speaking of free kicks, FIFA 09 is far more forgiving with play ons, with the Referee allowing play to continue. Once the ball goes out of play then cards are given, which can seem a little silly, but it’s better than the game stopping and starting. It’s still harsh with the Offside, giving it in situations that no linesman or ref ever could in real life, but it works both ways and has saved me as many times as hurt me.

As always, FIFA is packed with features. Manager mode is still here, and whilst it’s marginally better than last year and still relatively easy to use and understand, it still is not as deep as PES’ offering. With the copious number of teams and leagues to choose from, it’s a great long term game play option, especially if you begin in the lower leagues. Some people have issues with the AI controlled teams not trading players in and out, but to me that’s a minor gripe. Similarly Tournament mode has had some small tweaks, but feels as solid as last year. Some criticism last year were directed at the mode for not being realistic enough in terms of dates and calendars – I wouldn’t know if that has been fixed, as again, I’m not that much of a “real life” soccer nut nor that nit picky.

The Be-A-Pro mode returns, and this time around gets the most love. Offering you the choice to create your own player, his position, and play through four seasons from reserves to major, all the whilst improving the player, it’s another deep and interesting addition to the FIFA game. I made a player for Adelaide United in the A-League, and it was so satisfying whomping the ball into the net against Melbourne Victory, and then being called up for the reserves match to play for Australia against Slovenia. This year the feedback given on where you are meant to be is more direct and helpful, but it’s still difficult to play the back line well.

But where Be A Pro mode really shines is online. You can now play 10 on 10 in the BAP online, and with up to 10 people playing in a set position during a match, it’s probably the closest you’ll get to play the beautiful game for real. There is no lack of people playing, so you can always pick up a match. It’s a rush to nominate for the best positions, but the old adage is true – every player has their part to play. Sure, sometimes it feels like playing with a bunch of abusive under 5 year olds who’ll run off the field as soon as the icecream man drives past, but with a serious bunch of people the matches are just as intense as a real league game. Furthermore lag hasn’t been a problem in any of the game I’ve played, a considerable feat seeing as I had people from the UK, Canada, Australia and Spain in my games.

To aid in playing as a team on online games, FIFA introduces a Club mode, which is analogous to Clans. You have a bunch of people in the club, and these people can arrange matches against other clubs. On top of the online leagues and ranked matches, there is now almost as many options in Live as in single player, a real impressive feat.

One thing that really impressed me are the Achievements. Usually soccer games give you achievements for winning this league or that derby or completing the modes. In FIFA 09 they’re based on what you do in the actual matches, and this in turn helps you become a better player. For example, there’s an achievement for scoring a goal from a bicycle kick, and I’ve decided I want to get it, so I’ve been trying to perfect the bicycle kick. It’s helping me learn and play the game better.

I’ve already mentioned the fluid player animation, and the good looks don’t stop there. The stadiums look amazing, and player likeness is nearly spot on. The BAP player creator is robust and you can create good renditions of yourself, but they didn’t include a Tiger Woods import a photo option for your player, which is a little disappointing. Also disappointing are the menus – they’ve been standardised across all EA sports games and work a bit like the Xbox menu blades, but I’m still not sold on the whole idea.

Sound wise the game is equally impressive, with the thud off the ball sounding spot on, and crowds chanting your clubs’ name as you play, spurring you on. The commentary by Andy Gray and Martin Tyler can sometimes they fall behind the play and become a bit repetitive, but that’s the nature of sports commentary really.

Conclusion:
We’ll just have to wait and see if PES 09 delivers the goods to match this year, but EA have finally delivered a decent competitor in FIFA 09. The marketing team says there are over 250 changes to this year, and I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know this game is a vastly superior product to past FIFA games, and is a superb game. If you’re a FIFA fan, you will be impressed by the changes, especially online, and will count this as one of the best.

If you’re a past FIFA player who hasn’t liked the direction the game has been going, or feel its just the same old same old, pick it up and I guarantee you’ll be impressed with the depth and the way the game plays. I appreciate there are people who just won’t play FIFA because it’s Electronic Arts, or they only play PES Master League because it’s deeper, but I honestly think these people will be missing out on one of the greatest soccer games of this generation.

Pros:
Amazingly fluid and organic player animations
Excellent ball and player physics
Incredible amount of options and modes
Fantastic online play in Be A Pro Online

Cons:
Menus can be annoying
Manager Mode still lacks depth of other sports games

90/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

PES 2008

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The Pro Evolution Soccer series has survived because of one thing – it simulates the game of soccer really, really well. Although there was a bit of a hiccup with PES 6, with Konami leaving out half the leagues and the ability to edit teams, players and strips, it still outshone its competitors last year.

This year I want to compare PES 2008 with its main competitor, and it’s not FIFA 2008. What made me think this was a friend’s younger son who is soccer mad and absolutely loves Adelaide United (Go You Reds!). He is so excited about being able to play the A-League that even though I tried to tell him PES was a superior game, he just wouldn’t have it. To him it wasn’t better because it didn’t have the A-League. Sure, you can edit player and team names and stats, scan in team badges, and so on, but that’s “too much messing around”. And he’s right. People don’t play FIFA because it’s the superior soccer game; they play it because it’s got all the teams and players’ people love, straight out of the box.

So, to me PES 2008 biggest competitor is actually PES 6. Because PES has superior gameplay, as long as they don’t tinker with the game what is there to encourage you to buy the latest version? Well thankfully a lot. PES 2008 addresses nearly all my issues with the previous incarnation of the game. Yet there are still a number of issues to be found here, making it far from perfect.

As always, PES truly shines in its Master League. This year is no exception. With more teams and leagues on offer than the previous year, the depth is even more remarkable. You can jump in with the ‘default’ team, and this will provide quite the challenge. You’ll really have to pay attention to the way the team works together, and take advantage of transfers to bolster your side else you simply won’t progress far.

Selecting a good team makes the season easier, but it’s still no walk in the park. Even with a team like Barcelona it’s still a very challenging game.
Part of the reason is the new adaptive AI called ‘TeamVision’. Apparently designed for PES 2008, the AI team will learn your plays and adapt to your tactics, and does so pretty admirably. I found that if I was constantly attacking down the left wing, my players would be shut down. This in turn makes you adjust your style of play. I tend to always counter attack hard down the wings, but found myself playing the middle and controlling the ball, drawing fouls and slowing down the pace. It’s nice when you realise you’re learning from a game.

If anything has changed, it’s the amount of scoring that occurs. In PES 6 I had a string of nil-all draws. PES 2008 has a higher score line, but it’s never unrealistic. And given the score lines in real matches in the EPL this year, I have to take my hat off to Konami for being so accurate. This doesn’t make the game easier to beat either; working to score a goal, and preventing the AI score in return, is still as difficult as ever. It’s just you’ll tend to have 1-all draws instead of nil-all draws.

One addition that raised eyebrows when announced is diving and shirt pulling. Some people see this as a travesty; I see it as a more accurate representation of the game, as sad as that is. However, it doesn’t have a great impact on the gameplay itself. I’ve only managed it a few times as the button combo isn’t the easiest to pull off, and only seen the AI do it a few times. Plus it’s funny to take a dive, especially in the penalty area.
Graphically the game is good up to a point. Playing the game is fine, with the players looking good, crowds looking adequate, and the interface is much slicker than previous years. Gone are the unlabelled, obscure menu icons, replaced with simple descriptive words. Saving is done by highlighting “Save”. However, there is a real problem with replays. When watching the replay action after getting a foul or scoring a goal the frame rate takes a big dive and looks like slow motion. Playing back recorded replays is fine, and it’s unnoticeable if you skip the replays, but the fact it’s there is troubling.

Sound wise the game is a massive improvement over last year. There’s a variety of music now, some of it even quite enjoyable, although I think most of it was created especially for the game. They don’t even tell you the artist of the track, just the genre, which range from rock to drum and bass, but they’re pretty loose definitions of those genres. The game sound like being at a soccer stadium, but the commentary does tend to repeat itself far too often.

I mentioned Team and Player editing earlier, and it’s found its way back into the game. You can edit everything from the position of the badge on the strip, amount of colours on the team strip, position of numbers on the shorts, and everything in between. You can use the Xbox Live Vision cam to take shots of your favourite teams logo and make them more true to life. You can even import your own face, although the lack of editing tools and low quality of the camera make that more trouble than it’s really worth. If you plan on doing this, make sure you’ve got good lighting.

You can share your options with a friend if you have a memory card, though missing is the ability to share these over Xbox Live. Lacking the patience to do this myself, I would have loved the option of sharing another’s option file. I understand why this was left out though – I don’t think Konami would like to have their name sullied because some childish soccer hooligan decided to remake Chelsea with penises on the foreheads.

Speaking of Live, avoid playing this online. I’ve played a couple of games and the lag was terrible. Admittedly I’m on a slower connection now, but I’ve played other fact action games without a hiccup. This was unplayable – players warping around, goals missed as the lag tried to catch up, it was just a horrible, horrible experience. I prefer playing PES against someone in the same room, and it’s great for getting a bunch of buddies around, but avoid online play until there’s a patch.

Conclusion:
The simple fact of the matter is Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 should have been released last year. PES 6 for Xbox 360 was a gimped version of PES 6 for Playstation 2. This year we get the full game, and it’s still PES, but that works for and against it. Yes, it’s still got the awesome soccer feel. Yes, it’s controller breakingly frustrating to play at times. Yes, it’s got the ability to edit teams and players now.

But still, it feels a bit like we’re getting the same game over and over. Like the Tony Hawk series, it’s beginning to feel stale. There’s nothing extraordinarily different in terms of the actual gameplay despite the ‘TeamVision’, and he flaws it does have – the slow down in replays, the terrible online play, indicate that maybe Konami are starting to rest on their laurels slightly.

Pros:
Excellent simulation of the beautiful game
Scoring goals takes is easier, but overall play is still challenging.
Long and deep Master League.
Create your own leagues.
Ability to edit teams, players and strips is great for the fans of real clubs.
Greatly improved music.

Cons
Steep learning curve could put off players of other sports games.
Extremely laggy when playing online.
Should have allowed sharing of edited teams over Xbox Live.
Commentary gets repetitive.

85/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Pro Evolution Soccer 6

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Ok, I’ll fess up – Until Pro Evolution Soccer 6 I hadn’t really played any of Konami’s soccer games. Sure, I had seen them in action, and had a kick around with a mate, but never really explored it at any great length. FIFA was my soccer game of choice, mainly because it was pretty, had players and locations I could identify, and was easy to pick up and play. But FIFA has its faults and I was always left unsatisfied, hoping that the next game would improve on the fact that the game always seemed like a poor simulation of the Beautiful Game.

Case in point – Apart from FIFA 2006 (for original Xbox) I’ve pretty much sold or traded my past copies of FIFA because I can’t see myself playing them beyond a few months. But there must be something about the number 6, as I won’t be trading my copy of Pro Evolution Soccer 6 any time soon, well at least until PES 7 comes out. Because when I play this game, I feel as I am really playing a game of soccer. It’s like every gripe I’ve ever had about any soccer game has been addressed and fixed. There are still some flaws though, which is of course to be expected, but call me a convert.

What strikes me most about this game is how it seems like a real soccer game. My major annoyance with other soccer games is you can punt the ball forward, but there never seems anyone to be in place. Even with complex team and individual placement organisation appearing in the very latest games, I always felt my team wasn’t up to the task of getting in position when plays were made. I used to think it could be because I tend to pick lower ranked teams (go Villa!), but even when picking Brazil or Arsenal team AI seemed to be lacking.

In PES, players actually take runs to get into position, they run on the ball, and the game never seems to lag behind the play of the ball. I can’t pinpoint for sure if it’s the fact that passes to teammates are tighter, or if their on field positioning is better, or even if the controls are more precise, but I’ve found myself much more able to do exactly what I want my team to do. I never felt I was wrestling with the player as if they were determined to do their own thing, like bolt down the pitch, even though the ball was behind him.

Players seem to respond quickly and more realistically to what’s happening around them. FIFA introduced the trick stick, but players in PES 6 automatically turn the ball away from an opposing player, or tap in through their legs to another teammate, and it’s all so smooth and natural, it’s beautiful. It’s the fact that it all seems so easy and seamless that makes it a truly better game. And, unlike so often in other soccer games, I never felt a mistake was anything but my fault… well, most of the time. If I shot the ball and it went wide, it was generally because I wasn’t in a good position, or was being pressured by the opposition so lost my cool, or held the button too long to shoot the ball. Frees and Cards given felt like the result of me tackling from behind, or slide tackling when an opponent was off the ball, not some arbitrary decision on the game’s behalf. If the opposition got through my defence, it was because of a mistake I made somewhere, either in having my defence too far forward, or by not concentrating on the play.

The main thrust of the PES 6 is the long and involved Master league, in which you select a team and work your way up through the various league divisions. This is quite in depth, and the ability to refine your team’s playing ability is quite daunting. From being able to choose not only formations, but variations within formations – so you might have a 4-4-3 formation but choose to drop the main striker back a little to provide more midfield support – to being able to determine individual runs, to determining forms of attack and defence, the serious soccer gamer can tweak to their hearts delight. And this does have an impact on how the game is played. A change in formation can be the difference between a win and a draw.

Because EA owns the rights to most of the teams with an exclusive deal with FIFA, many team and player names have to be substituted for others, which is a shame. Long time PES players may be used to this, but for someone new to the series it can be a little off-putting. However, given that PES has a lot more leagues and teams than FIFA 07’s pitiful line up, fans should be a lot more happier and be able to find their team here. There are 4 licensed leagues; Eredivisie, Spain La Liga, France Ligue 1 and Italy Serie A, plus 11 licensed international teams, including Australia, plus a further 15 licensed teams including Arsenal, Celtic and Juventus. One interesting omission is the ability to change team and player names. In the past everything was editable, so even though Aston Villa is called West Midlands Village, you used to be able to edit the team names, player names, and the kits to a much better approximation of the real team. This is absent from the Xbox360 version for some unfathomable reason.

PES 6 looks great too. Sure, it’s not truly next-gen as the game engine is the same one used in the past, but the player models look great, and their likeness is even better than FIFA, which to me is pretty strange given EA’s advanced technology in this area. The animations are smooth and quite varied, and the stadiums feel exciting. Having a ref on field jumping away from the ball as well as lines men who follow the play and signal with flags adds even more authenticity. Unfortunately I found other areas of presentation to be less than ideal. The icons are confusing and small, menus require far too many button presses, and the whole feel is positively archaic compared to other soccer games.

Audio wise the game is good, with the usual crowd cheers and players calling for the ball, but the commentary of Peter Brackley and Sir Trevor Brooking can be a little repetitive, and they lack the enthusiasm of other soccer game commentators. It is funny how they use fake player names though. The music on the menus sounds like something you’d hear in an old soccer review show from the 90s – it’s kind of European techno-ish, but it too sounds outdated.

Online the game plays OK. The set up and connection is fine, but the game suffers from terrible lag, especially when playing people from other countries. The rules and penalties for pausing and disconnecting are a welcome addition, although as in many online games there are a few people who use exploits and ruin the fun for everyone. And if you disconnect because of the bad lag, you get a negative mark against your name, but if it’s unplayable then that seems a little unfair too.

Conclusion:
PES 6 is one of the finest soccer games I have played. Everything when playing a match feels fantastic. Scoring goals takes hard work, and when you do you feel as though you really have earned it. You feel in total control over what happens, and although sometimes luck plays a part, it feels more like the luck you find in a real life soccer match, rather than a fault or glitch of the game. The presentation lets the game down however, and lack of ability to edit team names and kits is a feature sorely missed.

Pros:
Excellent simulation of the beautiful game
Long and deep Master League
Scoring goals takes work and patient, but the pay off feels great
Excellent range of teams and leagues to choose from compared to other xbox360 soccer games

Cons
Steep learning curve could put off players of other sports games.
Poor presentation in menus
Lack of team editing a real shame, given the lack of real life teams available
Very laggy when playing online.

88/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland

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Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland (simply THAW from now on) sees the series return to the more recognisable pastures of the Tony Hawk series. Gone is the MTV inspired craziness of THUG2 (XBW: 82). Gone are the vehicles of THUG (XBW: 88). And in its place we have a few more new moves, BMX biking ala Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX, and whilst all elements of the entire series are still retained, the biggest addition for Xbox gamers is Xbox Live! online play.


The series has always been known for it’s great presentation, but this time it’s been upped a notch by the inclusion of art by famous Santa Cruz artist Jimbo Philips. The name might not be familiar to those who live their lives on the Xbox, but those of us with even a passing interest in skating, surfing and the associated scene will be very familiar with Jimbo’s wacky designs and intense yet funny artwork. Jimbo’s art shows up in cut scenes, and the cut scenes tell the story of a young country boy (you) who makes his way to LA to make it big on the skate circuit. Once he arrives, he’s robbed by some skate thugs, but befriended by punk chick Mindy, who helps him get his stuff back. In return, the skater boy promises to help Mindy get her skate ‘zine ‘American Wasteland’ published. Along the way you get to help a bunch of misfits build a skate park, and impress the pro scene skaters.

The gameplay of THAW hasn’t altered too much from the paradigm set up in THUG. You skate up to people with Stars over their head, and they will give you goals to achieve in order to progress the story. Most of these involve tricking off certain items in the map to proceed to the next goal. All the old tricks are available, and if you know the series you won’t have any problems performing them. The key to most goals is to perform the tricks called out, or gets the highest possible score in a combo. New tricks include rolls, off the board skills, and old skate tricks pioneered by the Dog Town Z Boys. Rolls are where you spin your entire body when in the air, and they look cool although they’re quite difficult to pull off. The off-the board skills involve wall climbing and flipping off walls. The old school moves include the Natas spin which is spinning on a pivot, and the Bert Slide, which is where you put your hand on the ground and pivot on your hand, much like how surfers touch the wave when surfing.

Once you unlock the skate park, usually the goal will involve tricking off something in the environment causing it to crash or smash, and then the item will be transported to the skate park, where you’re encouraged to make a big score off of it in some way. This is a little different to the THUG series where the goal was just to cause destruction and open up new areas of the maps. This does happen in THAW, although not to such a great extent. Something that is different is that you can now skate from one side of world to the other without seeing any loading screens. This makes the game world seem much more cohesive, and it’s a lot of fun skating and tricking from one area of LA to another. For example, it’s possible to skate from Hollywood to East LA via the subway. There’s a bit of slowdown in the connecting areas, but it’s barely noticeable.

The BMX is a new feature and replaces the vehicles found in THUG. Whilst the controls are similar to the skateboard, the bike does have different physics and some different tricks. For example, you use the triggers as the front and rear breaks. And yes, you can flip the bike by applying too much pressure to the front break at too high a speed. Tricks are pulled off using the same face buttons as skateboarding, as well as the Right Joystick to do further BMX specific moves, such as tail whips and crank tricks. The bike isn’t used a great deal in the story, but is a lot of fun to ride – much better than the vehicles in the previous series, and by finding the guy with the bike icon above his head and performing certain tricks, you can make money to customise your skater.

Classic mode returns with classic maps from the entire Tony Hawk series, and like in THUG, this is a welcome addition to the game, as it extends the gameplay greatly. This time Co-operative Mode on classic allows two players to try and achieve the goals in the two-minute time limit together. In addition to these modes, all the usual Multiplayer of the Tony Hawk game are included such as Trick Attack, Score Challenge, Slap!, Combo Mambo, Firefight, and a new one called Pot ‘o Gold, – the person who is “it” scores points until they are hit by another player, who then becomes “it”. And also the Create-A- modes make a welcome return, allowing you to customise your online skater, create tricks, new graffiti tags, and skateparks. Unfortunately you can’t take your parks online, which is a shame.

Xbox Live play makes a welcome entry into THAW. There are three extra modes available on Live and they are Elimiskate, Goal Attack and Capture the Flag. Elimiskate is like trick attack, but the person with the lowest score at the end of the round is eliminated. This seems to be the most popular game on Live, and playing it I experienced a little bit of lag, but never enough to really cause concern. Sometimes the lag will cause you to do utterly weird things, like change direction in mid air, but it never seemed to actually interrupt the flow of the game. Goal Attack is like playing classic mode against other people – the person to score the most goals like collect the Videos, or find the letters SKATE – wins. Not knowing the maps makes this mode a little more difficult for n00bs, so practice in Classic mode first. Capture the Flag is fun, but I have difficulty finding players. Overall the Live experience is just like playing in with a friend, and is great fun, and a great break from all the shooters and driving games.

Apart from the cool artwork of Jimbo Philips, THAW doesn’t really boggle the mind with its graphics. The levels are colourful, but the detail is lacking in the skater models. There are certain times where graphic and animation glitches occur, especially when on the bike and you end up in an unusual position the animation will freak out and you’ll see your skater spin or jump around in place, but these occur fairly infrequently. There are some cool animations though, and the breakdance move is classic, especially when you do it in the alien costume.

The music is, as always, top notch. The game kicks off with Dead Kennedy’s Holiday in Cambodia, which made me rate the game highly right from the beginning. The soundtrack is full of old and new punk, hiphop and rock, and of course you can have your own soundtracks, but there was never I moment when I thought the music was repetitive or boring. The dialogue is a little less top notch, with some scenes the game pausing a little too long when loading the next line, making it seem very much like the lines were read rather than acted. There doesn’t seem to be too much emotion in the readings either, but it’s never enough so you want to mute the game.

Conclusion:
THAW shows that the series isn’t quite dead, but like THUG2 it’s really hard to see what they can do with the series in the future. The addition of Xbox Live means fans can finally compete and rank themselves against each other online, and it’s more than worth the price for that. But if you’ve played THUG and THUG2, then THAW isn’t all that different. The return to more trick based gameplay is welcome, but there doesn’t seem to be much more they can do with the series. Then again, I said that at the end of my THUG2 review, and Neversoft have delivered an enjoyable gameplay experience once again.

Pros:
A welcome return to trick based gameplay
BMX is really fun to ride
New tricks and animations that look cool.
Finally Xbox live enabled, with fun, relatively lag free skating to be had.
No loading screens between areas.

Cons:
Some graphical glitches
Voice acting not that great
No real improvement to gameplay (but that’s only because it’s so good to begin with)

87/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

FIFA 2006

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EA get a fair bit of flack from their policy of releasing new revisions of their franchise games every 12 months or so and charging full price for seemingly small changes. Sometimes this is warranted, and other times it is not. The problem with the FIFA series is that football is such a well-loved sport, and EA has tried to buy the sport through exclusive licensing deals, that people often slag EA off before giving the games a really good chance. I couldn’t say I’m a football fanatic, but I do enjoy the sport, did play in my youth, and I have played all the FIFA series of games on Xbox, and it’s my opinion that FIFA 2006 is the best to date.

One of the primary causes of concern amongst football fans about FIFA was the scorelines. People on forums constantly whinged about how in “real football” there are no 4-4 draws, or 6-3 wins, and said that the FIFA game should reflect more realistic scores. I’m not going to enter a debate about how boring a nil all draw can be to watch, but for me this arcade score line made the game extremely fun. I come from a background of playing games like Sensible Soccer and Microprose’s International Soccer, which were lots of fun, had crazy scorelines and realism wasn’t the entire point. I’m of the opinion if you want “realism” in a soccer game, go play a game like Championship Manager – they’re made for geeks in glasses who obsess over numbers and statistics.

However, FIFA 2006 has indeed addressed this complaint, and it’s quite tough going to score at all in FIFA. This is both a blessing and a curse. For someone used to scoring high in matches, it can seriously put a dent in your ego to win by only a goal or two, and to have more draws than wins. However, at the same time that makes it one of the most intense FIFA games to date. Every strike has to be on target, every loose ball has to be won, and every time the opposition gets close to your goal square the anxiety levels rise.

Part of this is the result of smarter AI. It’s a subtle change over the previous release, but after prolonged play it becomes more apparent. The AI is tougher, sticks to the player, and plays much more aggressively. They’ll play advantage, but they’ll also play towards the sidelines when in defence when you’re in a threatening position. Speaking of playing advantage, I was shocked the first time the commentator said, “the Ref has given advantage” after a bad tackle. The ball was held up in play, the whistle blew and I was awarded a free kick. This could be in other games, but this was the first time I noticed it, and the first time it was an accurate reflection of how the play-on rule works.

Another reason the game seems tighter are the physics of the ball are a lot more realistic than previous FIFA titles. The theme song of this years release is Jamiroquai’s “feels just like it should”, and sums up the ball physics perfectly. It actually moves like a ball on a pitch, rather than a sprite in a game. When it rains the ball becomes slippery and heavier. When a kick is reflected off the gaol post it’s reflected in a real direction. And in addition, this year the player stats do actually seem to mean something. Fast players will be able to outrun slower players, tougher players will be able to force players off the ball with their body, and the strong kickers will be able to kick the ball more accurately.

However, there are some major problems with the game, holding it back from being a truly great football game. When the ball is kicked into midfield, the game suffers a quite noticeable framerate drop. It seems that having so many players in the midfield cause the game to stutter and slow down, which is really unfortunate. When there doesn’t seem to be much going on in the terms of onscreen action, especially compared to a shooter or racing game for example, it really does seem like an inexplicable problem. And it is enough to make a player have second thoughts about playing it. You do become accustomed to it, but I was ready to stop playing and give a dismissive review the first few times I played.

Another issue is the Team Management section. Even though I’m not a great fan of team management games, finding the statistic crunching to be rather dull, I am prepared to admit they usually do impact on a game. FIFA 2006 has attempted to bring in some form of team management, but it fails because it doesn’t seem to have too much an impact on your team, but enough to simply annoy you. This year, instead of gaining points for winning and spending it on certain coaches, you earn money from home ground ticket sales and sponsors. You then use the money to improve your coaching field, improve your grounds and pay your players.

However, choose the wrong sponsor and you could find yourself losing money every match, especially if you’re not getting wins every game. This makes it hard to improve your coaching line up, which in turn means your players don’t play as well, and their team and individual morale drops. This in turn affects team chemistry, that unquantifiable quality that means certain teams play better together, which is sadly given a score that you have to try to improve on. When your team is not playing well, crowd attendance will be down, meaning you lose more money, and sacking players doesn’t help team moral much either.

On top of that, you get wildcards, as per the Sims, where a scenario presents itself, such as “Management has heard rumours of dissention in your team” and you have to answer appropriately from a choice of three. Sometimes answering the question appropriately doesn’t seem to give a satisfactory result. It does all seem rather light, and there’s no option to turn it off in the main Manager mode. It only mildly impacts on your teams’ on-field performance, and makes transfers and recovery of players more difficult than perhaps it should be. EA should go all out with this mode and give a rich and deep transfer and management market, and give players the option to simply turn it off.

For those who like playing with mates, FIFA2006 has you well covered. Not only is there Xbox Live functionality with the ability to play in online leagues and track your wins and losses, but there’s also FIFA Lounge, which allows you to create a local league of mates on your xbox and rank you against each other. Lounge allows you to play a round-robin knockout game, or a full tournament, and also allows you to get “Cheap Shots” like issue Yellow Cards at the start of a match to really piss your mates off. Xbox Live games were fairly free of lag, but I had fairly regular server disconnections from the EA severs. Admittedly I didn’t do any of the set up things suggested when I first signed in, like opening ports and so forth, but then again I shouldn’t have to when most other games work fine. And that information should be in the handbook, not on a screen that can be quickly skipped.

Graphics problems mentioned above aside, the game does look quite impressive, with players looking much like their real life counterparts. The stadiums look great, and the shadowing on the pitch is very impressive. The crowd looks a little like 2D cardboard cutouts though, although the crowd roars and stadium ambience is excellent. When you’ve got the ball and the crowd are chanting out the teams name, it really does strive you on to excellence. As with any sports game the commentary can get a little repetitive, but this year the dropping of Ally McCoist and John Motson inclusion of Clive Tydsley and Andy Gray mean that there’s less inane chatter and much more action orientated discussion, which is very much welcome. The music that plays on the menu pages is quite a good selection of world beats, being mostly free of crap rap and rnb.

Closing:
Playing FIFA 2006 was a really good experience after I got over the initial disappointment of the framerate drop when the ball enters midfield. The game is a real challenge and a real improvement over last years’ release. The AI is especially tough, but never so much so that it becomes frustrating, and unlike previous FIFA games I never felt that the AI scored against me by using cheap shots or cheating. Likewise, online play is equally challenging, but again I never felt that a better player overwhelmed me. The Team Management section just doesn’t seem robust enough to me, which indicates that it will be seen as wasteful by the hardcore football fans, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Pros:
Overall improvement in realism from player representations to scorelines
Excellent and challenging AI
Great Ball Physics
The aftertouch plays are still a great inclusion
FIFA Lounge is fun – especially the ‘cheap shots’

Cons:
Heinous framerate drops in midfield
Team Management not robust enough
Bland stadium crowd animations
Frequent disconnection from EA Servers

82/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Outlaw Tennis

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I’ll probably burn in hell for saying this, being that Australia is a nation that loves it’s sports, but many sporting activities are really, really boring to watch. If there’s no physical contact between players, it becomes simply a matter of skill, and quite frankly I get bored of watching people hit little balls around. Golf, Cricket and Tennis are the main culprits of interminable drudgery, taking up hours if not days of valuable TV screen retail space that could be better served by showing re-runs of The Simpsons.

This is why ‘extreme’ sports developed – people were bored of watching pros do nothing to make millions, so they started extreme sports where people could get hurt or killed… now that’s entertainment! The Outlaw series of games’ goal is to take these dull sports and catapult them into the extreme. Outlaw Tennis’s focus is of the very noble pursuit of tennis, a sport of skill, concentration and endurance, which of course is boring as hell. It has some wacky scoring procedure that makes a joke of mathematics, an Umpire who is raised above the action like a demigod, and the crowd aren’t even allowed to cheer or shout out during the game!

Whilst tennis has had it’s colourful characters, from the tantrums of John McEnroe to the grunting of Maria Sharapova (who’s grunts are about the same volume as small aircraft landing), nothing matches the Outlaw series of misfits. A stripper, an ex-con, a dominatrix and a Spaniard of dubious sexual orientation are available at the start of the game, and a further 12 are unlocked as you play the game, including a ninja, a white boy rapper, and a disco diva. These colourful characters each have similar skills at the beginning of the game that can be upgraded during drills – essentially mini games where you’ve got to beat a number of objectives, not unlike training in Top Spin (XBW: 90) – and each unlocked new character has better skills again.

But far more interesting than the characters are the available match modes. Tour Mode takes up the bulk of the game, which take each character though 5 games then the finals. The four starting players begin with a usual game of tennis with the usual game rules. This plays much like Top Spin, with a few differences. The A button is a flat shot, the B button is Top Spin, X button is slice / drop shot, and Y is lob. Holding the left trigger gives extra spin to the top spin and slice, and the Right Trigger gives you a boost when serving, returning or running for the ball. Serving is done using a power meter – you hold A, X or Y and release it when you get the meter full. The meter rises and falls, so holding the button too long will result in a bad serve. Holding the Right Trigger gives a power serve, but you need to get exactly 100 on the meter to pull one off.

Like the other Outlaw series, the “star” of the game is the humour and the fighting. I was hoping for a simple fighting mechanism like in NHL Rivals (XBW: 84), but unfortunately the fighting is simply button mashing. The upside of fighting is it gives you unlimited turbo for 30 seconds, which becomes very handy. The humour in the game is quite childish and grows tired rather quickly. Admittedly some of the stuff is funny at first, but when you hear the commentator say, “that serve was bad like this hotdog, is that a toe nail?” for the 10th time, it loses it charm. The reactions to points won or lost are also funny at first, but it cheekily alters the script on a few of the animations, so for one animation there may be up to 4 scripts. However, even with this variance, it still gets old quickly.

In the second game of the Tour of the default characters, the match modes become available, and these offer interesting variations to the usual rules of Tennis. Hot Potato takes standard tennis rules, but puts a countdown timer on the ball, blowing up when striking zero, taking out whoever has the ball on their side of the court. It becomes a game of strategy and timing, returning the ball to the other side as quickly as possible. Casino adds money to a cash pool each time the ball is hit, and each point won gives you the pool. Standard tennis rules apply, but the winner is the person who has the most money at the end of the match. Even though you can win the match, there is a chance you might not have a great deal of money, and lose. Pinball places bumpers on the court, and hitting these bumpers gives a score. You have a number of turns; only get score points when serving, and lose score points when you lose a game point. At the end of the turns, the person with the most points wins. It sounds complicated, but it’s not when in action, and is quite fun as the goal is to force long rallies rather than beat the other player.

Then there are the sports rules. These are the rules of Ping Pong, Baseball, American Football applied to Tennis. There’s Ping Pong, which takes the scoring of ping-pong – one point equals one point, and it’s the first to 11 to win. Baseball relies on long rallies too, as the more the ball is hit over the net, the more bases you get, to a maximum of 3. Aces count as home runs, so if you have 3 bases full, and get an ace, you will score 4 points. Losing a point is an ‘out’; 3 outs and you switch servers. There are a number of innings, and the person with the most points at the end of the innings wins. Football uses gridiron rules – the server has the ball, and has to get it to the other end of the field to score. There’s four quarters of a minute each, and scoring points increases the yardage, with the longer the rally the more yards gained. An ace counts as a 35 yard sprint. Losing a point is a turnover, and the winner is the person with the most touchdowns at the end of the four quarters.

As if this wasn’t interesting enough, there are a variety of options that can be applied to the matches. These include timebombs that are placed wherever a point is won, and blow up knocking the opponent on his or her ass. This usually results in you winning a point, but not always. There’s a match timer which counts down whenever the ball is in play, and the person with the most points when it gets to zero wins, whilst the team match timer counts down whenever it’s your return, and stops when you’re in control of the ball. Then there’s the Blocker, which moves along the net, and hitting the blocker means you lose the point in whatever game mode you are playing. Hot Potato with a blocker becomes an incredibly tense battle of timing and wits!

Graphically the game is ok, but offers nothing too exciting. The courts are quite interesting from the usual tennis game fare, being set in a drug runner’s mansion, in Antarctica, in an old castle, even in Hell! Each character is well animated both in game and during the reaction scenes, and there’s a variety of clothing that can be unlocked for each character. The sound is the usual thwock of balls, the inane commentary, but surprisingly good soundtrack. Some of the rock tunes will have you headbanging along, whilst the drum and bass style tunes could be played in clubs to an appreciative crowd. Of course, there’s always the option to use your own playlists too.

The many variations make for exciting and challenging play, and there can be some epic battles in single, doubles and online play. However, these battles are often let down by cheating AI. Unless you max out your scores via the drills the game seems unfairly to the favour the AI. They always seem to return aces and powershots, and always seem to be able to make a comeback. Even on Amateur, the easiest setting, I found the games to become exercises in controller throwing frustration. Online play is also reasonable, but there are some parts when the game lags badly, especially on serve returns. But like most xbox games, the set up is easy, and being able to play online doubles is cool. In the single player game you can play Canadian doubles – 2 against one – and this would have been really cool over live, but you can only play against another two people on a console.

Conclusion:
Outlaw Tennis offers enough variety to keep most players busy for quite some time, but it suffers from cheating AI and annoying humour. Fortunately the humour can be cut out of the game in the options menu, but this removes the whole Outlaw aspect, and just gives you ‘Tennis With A Bit More Variety Than Usual’, which isn’t a very catchy game title. Online play extends the title, but finding players can be a little tricky.

Pros:
Fantastic additions to the normal rules of tennis.
Wide variety of gameplay options for both single and online play
Lots of unlockable characters, clothes, songs and courts
Nice soundtrack with a range of genres.

Cons:
Humour gets old really quickly
The AI seems to cheat, especially against the default characters
Online play can get a little laggy
Not many online players

77/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Fight Night 2004

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Fighting games haven’t really changed since they first appeared in arcades oh so many years ago. Generally there’s a number of buttons, and by hitting these buttons in different combinations, you cause damage to the other player. Fight Night 2004 from EA Games seeks to address this by introducing a concept called “total punch control”. This new concept is certainly inventive as well as being a lot of fun; the rest of the game is a bit of a let down.

First things first, let us look as Total Punch Control. This innovation takes the form of taking the buttons out of the equation and using the second joystick to control your punches. You might not think that’s too clever, especially when a game like Grabbed by the Goulies uses a similar fighting tactic, but total punch control takes it to another level. Using the right joystick readies your boxer for a punch. Pushing forward and left does a left jab, and pushing forward and right does a right jab. Moving the joystick left or right, then pushing forward swings the boxers arm out for a hook. Moving the joystick toward back left or right, then pushing forward performs uppercuts.

Along with this, squeezing the right trigger and moving the right joystick allows for blocks. Using the left trigger, you can also wave and bob out of the way of incoming punches. Holding the left trigger and punching with the right joystick performs a body punch. Finally, the black button performs the signature move, and white performs the illegal headbutt or groin jab. It sounds very complicated, and whilst at first it feels a little awkward, it’s meant to simulate the actions of real boxers.

After a while you find the action becomes quite natural, and you can work up quite a rhythm punching and blocking. When all of these manoeuvres are used in conjunction, it amounts to quite an impressive, flowing battle. Timing has always been everything in boxing games, and this is no exception. Duck an incoming blow, throw a left hook to the body, followed by a right hook to the head, and throw in a left uppercut for good measure. Block a punch right, and you can throw a mean follow-up counterpunch. It does work very well, but for those totally uncoordinated there’s the option to use the face buttons for punching, but Total Punch Control is always available even in this mode.

Furthermore, the game is enhanced by its realistic health system. Throw too many punches, and your stamina decreases, and the power of your punches decreases. Getting hit in the head does more damage than being hit in the body, although a kidney punch does more damage than a blow to the arm. This brings a much more authentic feel to the game, making it less of a button masher and more of a realistic representation of boxing, without the weight training and black eyes. More realism comes in the form of cuts and bruises, flying blood, and a wealth of real life fighters from today and yesterday, such as Erik Morales, Roy Jones Jr., Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Joe Frazier, Rocky Marciano and Muhammad Ali. All of these are available during Career Mode, so you might get Ali facing Jones for example. Not exactly true to life, more of a “fantasy draft” if you will.

If your favourite boxer isn’t featured, the create-a-boxer feature is more than good enough to get you the fighter you’re after. Choosing weight, height, fighting stance, facial features and even tattoos will allow you to craft nearly any boxer you can think of (apart from foxy boxers… sorry, this is a boys only club!) There’s also rag doll physics, which kick in with the knockout punch. The one who is knocked out literally goes weak at the knees and wobbly falls to the floor. More often than not you can keep hitting your opponent as they slide to the floor, and it’s especially brutal if you’ve got them in the corner or on the ropes, as you can almost feel every bang of the ropes on their broken heads.

However, the game is let down by a poor career mode, average graphics and a terrible, terrible soundtrack. The single player Career mode is almost a joke. You earn money and unlock certain things, but they’re all irrelevant. Clothing, gloves and protective devices are mostly the same, just different colours, and the signature moves and taunts are rarely used, and not at all if the face buttons are configured to punch. Most of the other unlockables are for the entrance animation, such as your entourage (chicks in bikinis), music and effects. After you’ve seen it for the first few times, you want to get into the fight and simply skip it by pressing a button. There are also only six arenas to unlock too. And in a weird move by EA Sports, you’re forced to retire at the age of 40. What ever happened to the geriatric featherweight division?

Choosing anything but heavy weight causes matches to be long and drawn out, becoming a battle of stamina and wit rather than brute force, much like real life. Whilst this may be more realistic, it turns into a battle of YOUR stamina, as matches in career mode consist of 3-minute rounds and can last for 15 rounds… 45 minutes in one fight is a cheap way of extending gameplay in my mind, and there’s hardly any knockouts in the lighter divisions. This is made even more apparent in two-player mode, where battles can last as long as you set the timer and rounds for.

The graphics of the boxers and the six different arenas are quite good. Light reflects off the canvas, and some of the later arena’s look quite pretty. But these don’t really tax the Xbox at all, and compared to something like DOA3 it looks nearly second rate. The real time blood, cuts and bruises look great, but we’ve seen it before in Mortal Kombat and Tao Feng. The crowd, although rendered in 3D, has the same looped animations and they look to suffer from a bad frame rate, although the action in the ring itself remains steady.

Another let down graphics wise are the fighters themselves. Although they all look different, due to the robust fighter creation system, they’re all essentially the same model with the same moves. For example, watch Ali or Frazier fight in real life, and you can see they’re totally different sorts of fighters who move differently, hold their weight differently, and punch differently. In the game, the only differences between fighters are the stance and the fact that some fighters (Ali for instance) move faster.

Sound wise, the fighters are again quite well done, and the sound of the harder hits will make you wince. The sickening thud of the knockout blow is very satisfying, especially as you near the top position in your career. However, the commentating gets quite repetitive and boring. Sure, it’s boxing, and how much can you really say about a punch, but listen to classic boxing commentators like Howard Cosell or Col. Bob Sheridan or even Larry Merchant, all who have got an excellent range and make boxing exciting. Luckily the commentating fades out as you or your opponent get closer to being knocked out, replaced by a thumping heartbeat that amps up the tension dramatically. In Fight Night 2004, you’ve got a “street” mentality as you work your way from owning nothing and fighting at the Apollo Gym, and this is reflected in the “ghetto” style music, and quite frankly it sucks. P-diddy, Nelly, and a heap of wannabes do awful “rap”, and it makes me think the custom soundtrack feature should be legally REQUIRED in all future EA games. What’s even worse is there’s only about 10 tracks, so you’ll hear them again and again and again.

Conclusion:
It appears as all the effort of Fight Night 2004 went into the boxing controls, and everything else was added as an afterthought. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing: boxing is all about hitting the other guy hard, and any realistic representation that seeks to move away from the plain old button mashing so common to boxing games should be applauded. But the unlockables aren’t really worth it, adding nothing at all to the gameplay, and unless you’re a hardcore player who likes to get 100% of everything then I don’t see many people playing beyond a season, apart from the multi-player.

Pros:
+ Outstanding and innovative representation of boxing moves
+ Fantastic realistic damage. Feel, hear and see the bumps, bruises and blood
+ Excellent range of boxers to fight as or against, and a robust create-a-boxer

Cons:
– Career Mode feels rather empty, with unlockables that add nothing to gameplay and forced retirement at age 40.
– Lightweight divisions take too long to play through.
– Average graphics on the crowd.
– Awful soundtrack and very repetitive commentary.

Score: 78/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

NHL Rivals 2004

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I’m the first to admit I don’t have a sporting bone in my body. Sure, I did PE at school, and I never excelled at anything mainly because I have two left feet and throw like a girl. Truth be known I’d rather have been reading or playing video games.

Having said this, I love sports games. I love sports games precisely because I’m not great at sports. There’s a twisted sense of triumphant justice knowing that even if you are the worlds most uncoordinated fool on the field, you can take your team to the top in a video game. One of my favourite games to play is (Ice) Hockey, mainly because it’s quite an enigma to me, being from Australia where the concept of ice-skating is a novelty, not a major pass time nor sport.

But a game has to be easy to pick up and play, and that is where NHL Rivals shines. Someone with little or no knowledge of the world of Hockey can pick this game up and play. Part of this could be that Microsoft has adopted the controls standard to other Hockey games, which are also quite common to sports games in general. When in control of the puck, the left joystick moves the player, shoot is the X and pass is the A button respectively. B does a deke (aka fake) move, and Y flips the puck into the air. When not in control of the puck, A switches player, B does a body check (a tackle), X does a stick check (a tackle using the stick) and Y does a dive or a block. In either mode the right trigger is a speed boost whilst the left is pivot. In a nice touch, the right Joystick is used to pass the puck in the direction chosen when in control of the puck.

Another nice addition to this game is the use of Roles. Various players have a little symbol next to their name, and this designates whether they are Enforcers, Agitators, Snipers or Balanced players. Each role has a different special move for when in control and not in control of the puck that’s accessed by holding the B button. Enforcers are the “big men” of the league, and preform the “Bump and Go” move which knocks opponents out the way whilst keeping control of the puck, on the “Can Opener” which pounds the opposition player. The Agitator are those who get in the face of the other team, with moves such as the “Protect the Puck” when in control, and “Face Wash” which lands their glove into the face of the opponent player. Snipers shoot for goals, and do a “Spin Around” move that disorientates the keeper, and “Stick Clip” which is used to whack the shots out of the opposing team out the way. Balanced players are simply all-rounders and use the move “protect the puck”.

The way face-offs are represented is quite novel. In hockey, whenever there’s a stop in play there’s a face-off, a chance for your team to gain possession. In other games, timing has represented this, but NHL Rivals presents a rock, paper, scissors type play where you press the X, B or A button to win the puck. The move the other player is often represented, so you can sometimes out-guess them. Whilst this adds an element of luck rather than skill, it seems totally fair compared to other games.

Another addition to the gameplay is the all-important fighting. Fighting is an integral part of hockey, and the old adage “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out” is beautifully represented in this game. Although the fighting engine is not exactly up to par with “Rocky” – it’s just two guys standing punching each other and reminiscent of old boxing games – it is rather fun. There’s not much to it, just hit the face buttons and use the triggers to block and stick to weave.

Along with these basic player controls, you have the D-pad that is used for On-the-Fly coaching. This allows you to alter the teams’ aggression, set up team plays, and allows the changing your lines. The AI can also control these coaching moves and it does a decent job at it, but it’s nice to have that extra degree of control at your fingertips. For the total control freak, Team Plays can be managed by through pausing the game, and selecting Team Options. This allows better control over the action, such as setting a 2 on 2 penalty kill. This lifts the action into simulation just a little, but not too much to make the game over complicated.

Although it seems like a lot to remember, it really flows together nicely. You’ll find yourself utilising most of the features second-naturedly, and become quite involved in the game quite easily. However, one disappointment in the game is the AI of your teammates is rather haphazard. When not in control they seem fine, checking opposition players and generally protecting the puck and goal. However, when in control and on a break, they tend to be a little less aggressive on the puck. I’ve had a player pass to an AI with an open shot at goal, and instead of simply shooting he’s held onto the puck until I’ve taken control of him, thus losing the advantage. If the AI is one-on-one with the keeper, it seems natural that it should take a shot. Having said that, the AI of the keepers, both of the player team and the opposing team, is excellent, and even with a team that far outmatches another scoring is difficult but not impossible.

The game modes are the standard fare; Open Ice allows you to practice against a goalie of another team. Single game and Instant Rivalry play once off games, the difference being Instant Rivalry pits two rival teams together and ensures an explosive game. There are also Season, Play Off and Tournament modes, where you can trade players and play through a year of hockey with one or more teams. Whilst the trading and making teams and players is OK, it’s not too in depth and may make the hardcore hockey fans a little disappointed, but it is fine for the average player who just wants to play a game of hockey. The addition of Live! makes this game truly come alive, and in the few games I’ve played I’ve had no lag and the gameplay is exactly the same as the single player experience. As far as sports titles go, I would say this is one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of playing online, and it is certainly the better of the hockey games available. The use of XSN with seasons and tournaments gives it a greater edge over the other titles in creating a community of players.

Graphically this game looks fantastic. Player’s reflections can be seen in the ice and in the windows surrounding the stadiums, which are themselves beautifully rendered. Some of the angles in replays look like you’ve just switched to a game on TV they’re that realistic, although replays from within the net are a little pointless as you rarely see the 80mile-an-hour shots. The close ups on the players during fights are a little less than impressive, but it’s not that distracting. Crowd noise and music during the game recreates the ambience of a real match, and the commentary is very good, being humorous and rarely becoming repetitive.

Custom playlists can be played over the menu sections of the game, which replaces the hard rock score, but you’re seldom in the menus for more than a few minutes, so it’s really a much of a muchness. It would be nice if snippets of your playlist played during the game though, but again, this is no major gripe.

Conclusion:
Whilst this is Microsoft’s first venture onto the ice, it does quite a respectable job at recreating the action, speed and excitement of the game of hockey. It’s hard not to compare it to the other two NHL games, both of which have a few years of development over NHL Rivals, but for a first effort Microsoft have done themselves proud. It’s not a sim style game, and doesn’t have as much depth as the other Hockey offerings, but if you want to jump right in and play, especially online, then this is for you.

Pros
+ Great graphics, especially the players reflections in the ice
+ Xbox Live games are just like playing the computer.
+ Fairly intuitive with a reasonable level of difficulty and skill.
+ You can initiate and participate in fights

Cons
– Player animations sometimes a little off during fights.
– Team AI is lacking in some respects.
– Not great for those fully into Simulation type games

84/100