[image=left]http://www.alternativenation.net/photos/data/500/479dead_or_alive-thumb.jpg[/image] Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore (
PS2). Here we have the sequel to a fairly popular fighter that most played just for the... ahem, more bouncy aspects of the game. Bringing physics to women's breasts in a fighter just isn't enough, and I found the combat to be lacking compared to a more robust fighter such as the Tekken, Soul Calibur, or Mortal Kombat series. The controls are non-intuitive as far as sidestepping and pulling off special moves goes. As it is one of the older games for the PS2 graphics are about on par with Tekken Tag, somewhat oddly shaded characters detracting from what was promised to be a breast-fest. And like most older PlayStation games, the voicework could have been ever so much better. The good comes with the amazing arenas you're able to take part in - not since 2003's Kung Fu Chaos have I seen such expansive and interactive arenas. Previous fighters included multi-level action, but the sheer size of some of these arenas will find most folks playing for a few months and suddenly discovering there was another level down below what they'd thought was ground. A smoothly executed reversal system available to all characters (unlike Tekken where a scant few characters possess the reversal abilities) lets advanced players who can read their opponents' moves bring the pain with often humiliating moves.
The modes available range from story or basic versus matches to tag-teams and survival matches. Standard fighting fare, although the tags happen fast enough to juggle with character one, switch out, and continue the juggle (which yes, for you folks that are interested solely for the breasts physics, does translate as juggle=jiggle).
Burnout 2 (
PS2)
. I'd originally played this previously for the multiplayer 'crash' action, which I found to be pretty damned fun. You start off controlling a car heading for an intersection, rev it up to speed, and try and cause the biggest crash you possibly can by slamming into big money items like long-haul trucks carrying logs, buses, or throwing as many small cars as you can ahead of you into traffic like so much shrapnel. It's a tricky mode, as most racer games you play have you trying to avoid traffic as much as possible. Great fun for a long lazy night.
Other than the crash mode, I haven't found much to interest me in the game itself. You build up to a turbo-boost (otherwise known as a 'burnout') by doing dangerous things. Sliding the car around corners, getting air, driving into oncoming traffic, and narrowly avoiding other cars all contribute to your burnout meter which in turn leads to your easily winning the race. The AI is more reactive in this than Burnout 1 - for example, if you honk your horn (or as the police car sound your siren) while driving with the flow of traffic, cars will start to move out of your way. Similarly, when driving into oncoming traffic cars will swerve out of the way when they see you trying to play chicken. Another improvement from Burnout 1 is the damage spray from your and other cars in the game - bumpers come off, sparks fly, and realistic damage appears on the frame of the car during one of many spectacular crashes you'll find yourself in.
Overall the game is a racer and a unique one in its own way. Definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of the racing genre, or want to try and sneak your non-racer friends into it via Crash mode. I used to be fairly ambivalent towards race games until playing crash mode a few times. Racking up the points and slamming your car into the biggest lorry on the road makes for some good times.
Everquest: Champions of Norrath (
PS2). From the makers of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance I, Snowblind Studios, this game takes the Dark Alliance engine and blends it with Diablo II and the expansive Everquest world in a fun, driving way.
We begin the game with the usual cut scenes detailing what's ailing the world of Norrath. Seems that orcs have bonded with their cousins the goblins and attacking the wood-elf tree-top city of Kelethin. As a former EverQuester with a high-level high-elf wizard, hearing the news was enough to move me to action. I settled in for character selection and was faced with choices that crossed several of the races and preferred character classes from the MMO version of EverQuest, all with familiar faces to greet me. With Barbarian warrior, High-Elf cleric, Erudite wizard, Wood-Elf ranger, or even a Dark-Elf shadowknight (think anti-paladin) to choose from and male/female models for each class, I had plenty of choice.
As I was going to be running this trip through Norrath alone, I wanted to be taking a good blend of melee, magic, beatdown, with some capability to heal myself or keep myself out of harms way. The Warrior excels in fighting, as you'd expect. The cleric can deliver some beatdown with weapons and has healing magic, the Wizard has no abilities whatsoever with weapons but can light up every monster in the room like a toastie, the Ranger has some fantastic long range and close range weapon damage with some light magical skills, and the Shadowknight has great weapons skills with bow or sword as well as magical abilities to heal and harm. I went with the Shadowknight.
I get my starting gear, some more cut scenes, and get told to hunt out the goblins in the city. Combat is essentially the same as BGark Alliance I, a hack and slash and burn affair with loads of monsters rushing you. The controls feel really natural with left-analog controlling movement and right controlling camera zoom, rotation, and map. Shoulder buttons R2 and L2 are used for quick-potions for both health and magic, L1 swaps you from ranged to hand-to-hand weapons and R1 is used for blocking if you've got a shield equipped. The d-pad gives you quick access to your spell library to set them up on the two spell hotkeys. Overall, a very tight and easily accessible control scheme which is a good thing when I'm too busy fighting off a horde of monsters intent on my juicy guts.
The graphics have improved from BGark Alliance and with 3 camera zooms you can get up close and personal with some fantastic backdrops in the EverQuest world, spanning from the original islands of Norrath (Lesser and Greater Faydark make up the first act) to the Planes of Hate and Air later in the game, all rendered with stunning backgrounds. The maps are randomly generated for several areas, giving a little replayability to the game.
The skill trees are borrowed on heavily from Diablo II, although not as complex or deep. Skill points are awarded each with each level up and can then be spent on weapon skills, magic, running faster, hitting harder, etc.
The bad news is that it's not completely perfect. I broke the scripting in a few places around Norrath, usually when facing off against some of the bosses. Using an item that can return you to the safe areas to sell loot and buy more potions, I left a couple of boss fights with the sneaky intent to return - fully loaded with potions. As most of the major fights involve a door slamming shut behind you to trap you in a room with no way whatsoever to reopen it, I'd walk back to the door, try to get back in to finish off the boss, and end up having to restore. In a way, it's broken - yet in another way it may have been a hard decision on the developers end to not allow me to cheat so easily.
www.doa2hc.com (fan site)
www.burnout2.com championsofnorrath.station.sony.com
