MEMBER PROFILE FOR LastMasterChief
Average Overall Score Given: 8.50000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 0
Reviews
NCAA Football 2004
Overall: Last year, while all the attention was on the NFL football games, EA Sports quietly released what many consider the best football game of the year, NCAA 2003. How good was it? Try this - it was so good that Sega didn't even bother with a college game this year, as EA's NCAA franchise is proving too complete and too strong. This year, NCAA 2004 isn't coming quietly - instead, the hype surrounding the game, no matter which console it's on, is just as strong as any Madden NFL game has.For good reason too; NCAA 2004 only improves on the already near-perfect 2003 edition. While it lacks the gimmicky online support that many EA haters have demanded, everything else is fine-tuned to perfection. Fair warning, once you get addicted to the deep and immersive Dynasty, or get in tune with the College Classics, this game will eat hours, days, weeks, even months out of your Xbox playtime. EA's latest college powerhouse is without question the meatiest football game the Xbox has ever seen.Gameplay: NCAA 2004 carries over all the playmodes and features of the 2003 edition - so you'll be able to play single seasons, exhibition games, and of course, the mighty Dynasty mode. New to the series is College Classics - with this, you can relive 20 great college games, right at an important period in the game. Beating these unlock special pennants that open up the classic teams involved for in-game play.The Dynasty is similar to last year - only with a few changes. The biggest thing is the involvement of Sports Illustrated; SI covers track major events during the season - it's cool to see your team in lights on the covers. The coaching and recruiting is tuned even more, thanks to more involved recruiting (read: you can now take an angle with going after a player, be it playing time or the prestige of playing for your school), and a different structure to contracts that make the game more involving.And no, there is no online play included with NCAA 2004 on Xbox - boo hoo. As someone who sees online play as a poor gimmick of meaningless exhibition contests, it hardly affects my enjoyment of NCAA 2004 - the involving dynasty is 50 times better than any possible online competition. While EA putting XBL play would silence some of my fellow Xbox fans, it wouldn't mean jack personally.On the field, the game hasn't changed from the already solid engine, but the tweaks are noticed after extended playtime. The biggest thing is the difficulty ramp - the computer opponent is much smarter with calling a play over and over before stuffing you, and tends to be smarter moving around the field as well, recognizing your plays and stopping them as fast as possible (especially passing, where they tended to be a tad slow on the draw last year). Computer games are very intense, especially when you take control of a poor team and go up against a powerhouse. This, along with the redone playbooks that can throw off a player using the same team year to year (as in last year's NCAA game), but only adds to the challenge of finding new plays that can help you win. While the game isn't a total overhaul, it's good enough and anyone who says it's the exact same game as last year is impossibly clueless. When a game is nearly as perfect as possible, what can be done besides tweaking, anyway?Oh yes, while EA Sports BIO has been passed off as a gimmick, it's actually quite cool and will only get better when more EA games hit later on. There's nothing wrong with rewarding fans, instead of kicking them in the crotch, and the BIO is just that kind of reward.
Graphics: As a PS2 port, NCAA 2004 is slightly improved graphically, but overall lagging behind, as always. And as always, it means little to a real gamer, as it's just good looking enough to not be ugly and take away from the on-field action. There's a smidge of slowdown in some places, and the players could use some more detail, but nothing here is ugly or poor. The stadiums and atmosphere are great - cheerleaders all around firing cannons and running around with flags is repetitive but cool, and the huge stadiums (well, most are pretty big) dwarf the teeny ones. Anyhoo, NCAA 2004 looks fine and is touched up nicely compared to the PS2 game, lacking the rough edges of the original version of the game. It'd be nice to see EA push the Xbox hardware, but it's better to get the game as is instead of not get it at all, correct?
Audio: As usual for an EA Sports game, the audio is perfect, if not similar to last year. The announcers speak almost the same lines as even NCAA 2002, and the lifeless PA announcer is dreadfully boring. However, the booming fight music and excited fans (which vary depending on attendance that day) even things out, creating a great atmosphere for college football. The pageantry is faithfully recreated with this game, making it the most complete collegiate football game on the planet.
Suggestions: It would be very cool if you can create bigger stadiums to house more fans a la Madden 2004 will have - it sucks to be a new powerhouse team playing in a stadium that only houses 15,000 people.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Enter the Matrix
Overall: In terms of movie to game products, Enter the Matrix falls somewhere in the middle on the quality scale. It's a fun game, but technically flawed - this alone is reason to ignore these flaws, since the game gets to be incredibly fun and intense despite itself. Given the rush to get this game out alongside Matrix: Reloaded, I'd say that Shiny did a very good job of making the game worthwhile, it just neededed a bit more fine tuning to be a classic game that beat the movie to game stereotype.Gameplay: Enter the Matrix is, basically, Max Payne in a Matrix universe. Of course, since Max borrowed many of the ideas from the Matrix, this isn't exactly a shock. Anyway, in ETM you can play as either Niobe or Ghost; both characters have adventures that blend in places, but also spin-off into different situations. For instance, Niobe and Ghost team up for some driving levels. In these driving levels, Niobe always takes the wheel while Ghost is the passenger, armed to shoot anything that gets in their way.
The gameplay is definitely varied with hand to hand combat along with gunplay. The gameplay itself isn't really the problem with Enter the Matrix, in fact it would be great if it wasn't for the smaller problems.
Such as ease of play. ETM is incredibly easy. Too easy. Given that this game was created with the mainstream Matrix fan who wouldn't know an Xbox from a Shoebox, this isn't surprising. Adding to the mix is a completely linear game that not only has one single path to follow, there's even an arrow pointing you in the right direction...in case you get lost, apparently. It's these problems that really hurt ETM, though admittedly, the fast action and Matrix-special effects like bullet time (or "Focus" in this case) make the game enjoyable despite these 2 critical gaming flaws. Despite the ease of play, the interesting Matrix side story and mindless action keeps you playing through the different levels.
The "hacking" portion of ETM is nice as well, letting you screw around with a faux-DOS prompt to unlock secrets, tricks, and FMV's from the game. This alone feels more like a game with the game than an extra. It's cool.
Graphics: This game doesn't take advantage of the Xbox hardware, which is unfortunate, but at least it supports 1080i resolution for HDTV's. As is though, the unpolished engine, with mundane texture work and lack of details in spots, along with a usually dark, generic look screams port from the aging PS2 - in places, it wouldn't even tax the defunct Sega DC.
The main characters themselves are the lone bright spots, with solid facial features and good overall design. However, the odd animations for both running and climbing are unintentionally funny and a tad strange. Other characters are limitedly detailed, and in true beat em up fashion, you'll see the same character design over, and over, and over, and over again, whether its an Agent or a standard police officer.
Audio: Enter the Matrix is loaded with booming orchestrated music straight from the movies, along with solid voicework from the actual cast members, most especially for Niobe (who's voiced by Jada Pinkett-Smith, just like the movie) and Ghost. The music is dynamically placed - in fights, the tunes hit a peak and cool off when not in battle.
Other things like sound effects are nice, but ultimately not really anything super special. Since it doesn't offend, it's decent enough to work and blend in with the rest of the excellent audio package.
Suggestions: See if you can convice the Wachowski Brothers to let you do another Matrix game, this time without the deadline of getting it done the same day as a Matrix flick releases. I'd bet you could turn out an honest classic game that was not only exciting, but also challenging and a tad less linear.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
