Unless you want to shell out an extra $10 for the PSP version, this is a good deal. It’s the same thing as the PSP game which was released a few months ago after all. Like Liberty City Stories before it, this game is a spin off which doesn’t add a whole lot that we haven’t seen in any of the past entries. Graphical and control problems almost make this a step below them. The larger screen size makes the graphical problems more apparent than they were on the PSP, while the targeting system is one of the most problematic seen in the series so far.

However, the real draw of this game is the story, atmosphere, and of course the violence. Taking place 3 years before Vice City, the game follows the ill-fated Vic Vance as he is forced to leave the army after being betrayed by his commanding officer. From then, he gets caught up in a world of drug dealers, kingpins, and other seedy figures. The story takes a darker tone than other entries with it’s casts of racists, woman-abusers, drug addicts, and people who are just jerks in general. However GTA’s trademark humor is still in place, largely in part due to the radio stations that play a selection of classic tunes from the 1980s. The empire building makes a return, as you can take over gang-owned businesses and complete assets for them to increase the money they make.

Even though it’s badly in need of a shot in the arm, GTA:VCS is still an excellent game. It might not be revolutionary of groundbreaking as it’s predecessors, but it’s a fun way to pass the time until GTA IV hits this fall.

Long before merging with Squaresoft, Enix released this launch window SNES title which bought together Castlevania-caliber action and Sim-City style level building. Playing as “The master” (or God, as he was known in the Japanese release) you awaken from a sleep of hundreds of years to take down “The Evil One” (or Satan, as he was called in Japan). First however, you have to restore your powers by restoring the people’s faith in you by helping re-develop their land in simulation-style segments and by destroying the Evil One’s minions via side scrolling action segments. By preforming certain tasks during the simulation levels, the Master will unlock new powers and magic. For those who didn’t care much for the simulation levels, a hidden professional mode was available which featured a high difficulty and maxed out attributes for the main character. A sequel was released a few years later which left out the simulation levels altogether, although it was still every bit as enjoyable as the first. Actraiser has already been re-released on the Japanese and European Virtual Console, so I have no doubt that it will be arriving here shortly.

A little trivia on this game: Although the game was heavy on Judeo-Christian themes, Nintendo of America policy strictly forbade content which could remotely be deemed offensive (i.e. gore and religious themes). This same policy caused the spells ‘holy’ and ‘death’ from the American SNES versions of Final Fantasy 4 and 6 to be renamed ‘pearl’ and ‘doom’.

ID is to first person shooters what Capcom and SNK are to fighting games. Not only have they practically invented the genre, their games have introduced several conventions that we take for granted today. Doom, Wolfenstein 3-d, and Quake were the top three shooter franchises for the company. While Quake didn’t have the impact on the genre that the other two games had, it still became a favorite among players, due to the fact that it’s open source code made it able to produce modifications and conversions for the game. Also, it was one of the first games to include multiplayer over the internet, and full 3-d movement. It was followed up by a sequel that eschewed the first game’s gothic textures for a more sci-fi plot, and again by a sequel that focused strictly on multiplayer combat. After reviving Doom 3 and Wolfenstein 3-d, ID dicided to bring back Quake as well, just in time for the next generation of console systems.
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Just my quick kneejerk reactions to the newly released maps to Halo 2. They went up for purchase in the content downloader this morning for $4. Note this is the Halo 2 content downloader, not Xbox Live Marketplace.

This first thing that strikes me about these maps is some of the weapon choices. Tombstone’s default start is the Battle Rifle, and with good reason as its too big to use SMG or Plasma weapons to start. The Sentinel Beam also makes a return appearance in Desolation. 2 Halo mainstays are completely missing from the weapon set: Plasma pistol and Sniper Rifle. This can be changed easily in a custom game, and I’m sure Tombstone will become a popular sniper map, but its kinda odd for them to be missing. Neither map supports vehicles or turrets from what I can tell, which further narrows the gameplay. I think the designers were trying really hard to bring orignal Halo multiplayer into Halo 2

Also, neither map feels like Halo 2. While any of the original maps felt like they were plucked from the single player campaign, these look more like arena maps more common to Quake. Tombstone in particular has lots of hallways and ramps everywhere, and it doesn’t have the organic feel of Halo 2. It is a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved’s “Hang ‘Em High” map, and its still really fun to play capture the flah, oddball, and King Of The Hill, but the geometric nature and screwy structure choices seperate it from a map like “Turf” where the art style kept you within the Halo universe even in the free for all multiplayer games.

Ultimately the maps appear well worth the money as they will add some new life to the game and its been a good 2 years since I’ve grabbed a flag and had no idea where to take it and thats a fun feeling. Just don’t expect a new classic like Lockout, Terminal, or Relic. The best way to play these maps will be with friends, so send a friend request on Xbox Live to me, and we’ll get in some games in the upcoming Powet.TV Game Night for Halo 2 on April 28-29!

So what do you think of the new maps? Was a throwback to Halo: CE welcome in the last days of Halo 2? Leave a comment below!

In 1994, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise was waning in popularity. As it would soon go dormant for a while, Konami decided to make one last attempt to cash in on the franchise by releasing a trio of fighting games for the SNES, Genesis, and NES. In an era where the difference between multiplatform releases meant more than simple graphical upgrades, the three games were vastly different.
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In 2001, the last thing anyone would imagine is Final Fantasy characters running around with Disney characters. Then Square’s Kingdom Hearts came, and it’s action RPG gameplay, deep plot, and high production values made it an instant classic amongst gamers. When the game concluded however, there were many questions that had been left unanswered, and even more were left over from the Game Boy Advance spin-off, “Chain of Memories”. Of course like any good series, this merely left players anticipating this eagerly awaited sequel even more.
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Finally with this third issue of the Gargoyles comic we get our first new story.

This is actually the second game in what is know in Japan as the “Rushing Beat” series. It’s the sequel to what is known over here as “Rival Turf” and the predecessor to what is known over here as the Peacekeepers. Lousy names aside, the Rushing Beat games added their own small but innovative spin to the side-scrolling brawler formula popularized in games such as Final Fight. Rival Turf featured a secret code that allowed players to rename the game’s characters and enemies while Peacekeepers would feature exploration elements. Brawl Brothers little quirk was that at the start of the game, you selected two characters to start with. The main villain Dieter would kidnap the other three, clone them, and force you to rescue them throughout the game’s 4 levels. They tried to work in some exploration elements, but players would find themselves stuck if they didn’t follow the right path. Other than that, nothing stood out in the game, but there was no glaring weakness either. Just a nice game which you can play with a friend. their is also a one on one versus mode for when players wanted a diversion from the main game.

Oh yeah, as an added bonus, the original Japanese version is hidden on the cart as well, accessible by a code (repeatedly press BAXY in that order before the Jaleco logo appears) It removes the exploration elements, changes the character names, and adds in a new Time Attack multiplayer mode. This is probably one of the nicer easter eggs hidden in the game.