This game is the sequel to 2002’s Freedom Force, which is one of the best games inspired by comic books without actually being based on one. The game featured a wide array of characters, RTS-style controls, and a look right out of a 1960s Jack Kirby comic. You fought against an assortment of weird communism-worshiping villains inspired by the Silver Age of comics. The game was also modable, allowing players to add in new characters, missions, and campaigns to the experience. In 2005, Irrational Games released a sequel containing even more comic goodness, and this time, it took gamers to the golden age of comics, and Freedom Force fought against the evil of the Nazis.
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I wanted to give you some first impressions a while ago when the demo hit Xbox Live, but it was too short to fully try out the game’s features. Also, I wasn’t too sure about the new direction EA decided to take with the series, so I decided to wait until I could find it used. For those of you who don’t already know, for reasons known only to themselves, EA decided to hand the Def Jam brand off to EA Chicago, the creators of the Fight Night series. Many players agree that it was just fine with developer AKI, but Kudo Tsunoda had his own ideas for the series, mainly integrating the music into the game engine, and making use of the analog sticks in a manner similar to Fight Night. It’s clearly not gonna be for everyone, and there are a few areas that could use some work, but for the most part, it’s a bold new direction for the series.
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In 1999, Capcom’s Flagship Studios was still riding high off the success of Resident Evil. They were gearing up to release not only the third game in the franchise, but also Dino Crisis, a survival horror game in a similar vein. The game was good, but it’s slow pacing and control scheme basically regulated it to being Resident Evil with Dinosaurs. Taking the criticisms to heart, Capcom released this sequel the following year which not only gave the series its own identity, but made it into a fast paced enjoyable action game for Playstation 1 games not yet ready to make the jump to the next generation. In fact, this game was a lot better than most of the Playstation 2’s launch lineup. After this game, no one would confuse Dino Crisis with Resident Evil again.
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In 2004, there were 3 big first person shooter games; Doom 3, Halo 2, and Valve’s Half Life 2. Of the three, many gamers consider this to be the best, and for good reason. The game is second to few in terms of graphical quality, story telling, gameplay, and capability for modding. Built on a modified version of the Havok physics system, a large part of the game’s appeal is simply picking up objects laying on the ground and throwing them at people. A weapon known as the gravity gun allows players to use the physics system to make anything into a weapon. Players take control of series protagonist Gordon Freeman, as he is awoken from stasis nearly two decades after the end of the original Half Life. He emerges into a world overrun by the combine. Joining up with a resistance group, Freeman has to fight back against all odds, battling head crabs, police officers, and alien creatures with a large variety of weapons.

As mentioned before, another part of this game’s popularity has to do with the modding community. There are several mods ranging from new deathmatch maps to full game conversions. One of the more popular mods, “Gary’s Mod” allows players to simply spawn objects in a sandbox environment just to play around with the physics system. Another mod is an attempt at recreating the popular N64 game GoldenEye. Of course when you’re through with the main game, there is plenty of more material coming to keep fans occupied. Episode 1 was released this year, continuing Gordon Freeman’s quest. This fall will see the release of Episode 2, along with the source engine based Team Fortress 2 and Portal. Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers can grab a special “orange box” containing the main game, as well as all the extras mentioned above. Whichever way you decide to get it, don’t miss out on the chance to play one of the best FPS games ever.

System Requirements
Processor: 1.2 GHZ or better
OS: Windows 98 and higher (including Vista)
Internal Memory: 256 MB RAM
Storage: 4.5 GB
Graphics: DirectX 7 or greater
Internet connection required for verification
DVD-ROM drive (unless obtained from Steam)

Little known fact to everyone who dreamed about being a producer: you don’t need hundreds of dollars worth of studio equipment to make hits. All you need is a Playstation, a little patience, and some skill. This week’s lost classic is one of my favorite games that isn’t really a game. Probably one of the earliest and most thorough music composition tools available on a video gaming system, Codemaster’s MTV Music Generator allows you to make some nice compositions. You simply pick a few of the hundreds of sound samples included, lay them down on the track, adjust the pitch, length, and timing, and there you go. You can even sample tunes off a compact disc, although it takes up a lot of memory. After you are done, you can add a light show to go along with your music. Just take some time to learn the ins and outs of this disc, and you can crank out some nice tunes in minutes. It was way ahead of its time, and its only limitation is the Playstation 1 itself. As stated before, sampling off a cd can easily take up a lot of space on a memory card, and there is no way of exporting an MP3 of your music (which is strange, as the manual states that you are granted royalty-free commercial releases of your creations). Also the collection is geared more toward techno and R&B, so users interested in making hip-hop tunes will have to improvise a little. Even so, this is a nice start for aspiring producers who don’t have a lot of money to spend on expensive equipment. There are two sequels that have been released, and there are several other games (such as the recently released Traxxpad for PSP) that expand on the functionality offered here. With a little more work and functionality on future products (such as say, an MP3 exporter), it could be possible for our Playstations and Xboxes to become vital equipment for up and coming musicians and producers.

Hey, wasn’t this series supposed to end with the third installment? I guess Capcom either forgot, or wasn’t done milking it yet. Either way, I’m not complaining. This is one of the greatest franchises of last generation, and it’s always great to see another installment of Capcom’s demon-killing samurai saga rather than another Street Fighter 2 remake. It also takes the formula and makes some nice changes to it, while still keeping what makes the series so enjoyable to begin with.
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In the early 90s, Final Fight style beat em ups were a dime a dozen. Few managed to separate themselves themselves from the pack. However, there was one that managed to make itself into something classic. Taito’s Sonic Blastman began life in the arcades as a punching game which used two large punch pads and specialized gloves to complete certain minigames. It was bought to Super Nintendo as a beat-em-up. You bashed your way from the city streets to outer space as you fought off hordes of villains. The arcade minigames came to the SNES game as bonus levels. A sequel was released a few years later adding in two extra characters (your prerequisite slow strongman and fast woman, with Sonic Blastman being the balanced team leader) and a two-player simultaneous mode so you and a friend can take on the forces of evil together. Sure there are many beat-em-ups, and many games about superheroes, but there were none like Sonic Blastman. Hopefully we can expect a Virtual Console release sometime in the near future, since Taito already has the not nearly as awesome Legend of Kage available on the service.

With Nintendo’s Wii and DS, the features that make them standout (the stylus and motion sensing control) also turn out to be their biggest liabilities. Developers often feel obligated to make use of them regardless of how well it can be implemented. As a result, we end up with games with mediocre playability due to the fact that the developers shoehorned Wiimote/stylus functionality into what would have worked just as fine (if not better) without it. This is why we should be thankful for games such as Mega Man DX, as it proves that DS and Wii games don’t necessarily have to make extensive use of fancy new features to be good.
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