MEMBER PROFILE FOR basic lee
Average Overall Score Given: 9.00000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 0
Reviews
FIFA Soccer 2005
Overall: Every year EA throws out another FIFA game, up until FIFA 2003 it was always basically an updated version of the last game, but since then, it's really began to move on.Alot of people seem to be opting for Pro Evolution these days, and past editions I agree were better than FIFA, but FIFA 2005 is my pick of this years competitors.
Gameplay: FIFA feels more like football than ever, the ball used to be glued to your foot, and it was as simple as get the ball, run the length of the pitch and score, but now, the ball can roll away from you if you're not careful, players collide and the ball runs lose, and things generally just react more realistically.
FIFA 2003 and 2004 were both very solid games, and FIFA 2005 has built on those vastly, playing better than ever.
Create A Player and Tournament are back in, which is good news for all, especially those who have missed these features in the last two incarnations.
Career is a great improvement, more minor trophies included now, and you're forced to start as a poorer team and work your way up.
The addition of online play adds some extra life into the game, long after you tire of career mode and creating tournaments you can beat those around the world on Xbox Live.
Graphics: Visually FIFA has moved on from last year, not vastly, but enough to notice, alot more players are realistically modelled, crowds look outstanding, stadiums are more detailed, and everything is generally improved.
There's still to odd dodgy texture and really awful looking player, but it's slowly improving from previous games.
Audio: Sounds are great as ever, commentary is slightly disapointing, despite being more accurate and entertaining, quite a few lines are repeated from last year, and sadly, it's some of the more annoying lines too.
Crowd chants make the TV experience complete, with individual voices being heard above the general crowd adding to realism, along with some club specific chants.
The sounds of the balls, whistles and whacks are also top notch.
Suggestions: Keep going in the same direction, add a higher level of customisation and better player creation features.
Also, one thing that really annoyed me, is how league bages are textured onto shirts, so you can promote a team to the Premiership but still have Championship badges on the sleeves, same for numbers, promoted teams still have the plain numbers rather than Premier League ones...
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Freestyle MetalX
Overall: Freestyle Metal X isn't particularly realistic, but it is alot of fun, a very accessible game that should appeal to most ages, fans of motorbikes or not. Overall, a decent, fun game, which is well worth a play.Gameplay: This game controls well, you only really need the accelerator and analogue stick and you can have some fun, so even small children can just pick it up and have a great time. The physics are way over the top, and many of the tricks a little too insane to be realistic, but the arcadey style gameplay makes it great fun. There's plenty of fun to be had, with many huge levels, which interestingly, can be jumped between one another with no load times, this is a great feature. There's a stunt mode where you can attempt to jump huge numbers of cars, and human darts which is a great laugh.
Graphics: Visually this game is nice, textures and models are okay, nothing really special, and the graphics don't look particularly crisp, but it's not painful to look at, and gets the job done well.
Audio: There's some cool effects, mostly just the sounds of your bike though, but they're done well. The soundtrack is reasonable, bands like Megadeth give the game a metal feel to match its name, though the choice of tracks isn't particularly inspired. The lack of custom soundtracks lets this game down a little.
Suggestions: I'm not sure there's any room for a sequel, but if there were to be one, just build on what's already there, it's a solid game that plays well, and could be built upon to create an even better game.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Overall: I approached this game disliking Star Wars, comparing it to The Matrix in terms of geeky boredom. But I left respecting the fact Star Wars has grown to be more than a few films, but an entire fictional universe, with some of the greatest storylines I have witnessed. I really got into this game, and it's perhaps the best Xbox game I have played to date.Gameplay: This game plays great, I was skeptical about turn based combat, but it's handled pretty well. Control is responsive, interaction is handled well. It's a fun game to play, you don't end up frustraited, and although the game isn't exceptionally hard, it provides a good challenge. The outstanding story means you'll want to continue playing just to find out what happens more than anything.
Graphics: Not the most outstanding visuals I have seen, but some effects are fantastic, water especially. I'm slightly disapointed at the lack of detail in certain places is slightly disapointing, but the visuals do their job well, and the outstanding gameplay and storyline means you don't care too much about the graphics. Overall, good, but not outstanding, but as long as the lightsabers are done well, which they are, then all is well.
Audio: Sound is handled well, lightsabers and blasters sound exactly as their should, general effects are excellent to match, familar musical interludes are present, but its the amazing amount of dialogue which really is impressive, every conversation is voiced, and considering the amount of characters and possible outcomes, that's alot of time spent in the studio.
Suggestions: For KOTOR II, not that much needs to be done, just futher the story of the first game.
The rest of the game is quite outstanding, just tightening up what's already there would do just fine.
Perhaps some more DLC, but I'm not sure this is even needed...
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Counter-Strike
Overall: Everyone know's Counter Strike, one of the most popular online games of all time. On Xbox, you could say RS3 is the counter-terrorism simulation game, and CS is the more arcade based version, and if you ask me it works alot better.Gameplay: Where should I start? Single player is kind of weak, basically Multiplayer with bots, but I doubt anyone actually bought this game for the single player. Multiplayer is highly addictive, and alot of fun. Having to actually purchase your weapons and armor adds a nice twist to the game at times when you run out of cash and have the face the opposition with just your standard pistol. Hours at a time can be spent online with the well designed maps and fast paced action. Personally I prefer this game to RS3 by a long shot, it's just so much more fun, and takes only seconds to get into.
Graphics: Some maybe be quick to criticise Counter Stike's visuals, but there is simply nothing wrong with them, for a game that's years old it holds up pretty well, graphics are sharp, and textures detailed, the only draw back being that most of the detail on models is textured rather than actually modelled, but it works out pretty nicely, keeping the sharp look and the slightly cartoony yet realistic feel to the game.
Audio: Sound is just fine, guns sound like guns, and so on. Custom soundtracks are a nice addition to almost any game, and they are in this game also. Not alot else I can say about the audio in this game.
Suggestions: More maps, perhaps a little more variation.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
FIFA Soccer 2004
Overall: The best football game I have ever played, far superior the any of the PES series, this game IS football.Gameplay: Great to play, just like the real thing, the players act like real players, my only problem was the way dead ball situations worked, but I soon got used to them. The only thing that brings this game down is the career mode and menu systems, they just don't work too well, career jumps into the transfer system and the such, but just does a poor job of it.
Graphics: Probably the best looking football game of all time, visually pleasing, the only problem being the fact they only focused on star players, even in big teams such as Arsenal or Man Utd, players like Henry look extremely lifelike while players like Gary Neville obviously are just generic players, other than that pitches and stadiums look great with many great little details.
Audio: Sound is great, realistic chants, great commentary, though it can become slightly repetitive, and great sounds such as the ball being kicked. Only problem here is the terrible menu music, I have to turn the sound off until the game itself starts.
Suggestions: Live play, more focus on realism of players, maybe some more stadiums, menus being less cluttered and confusing and definately a return of Create A Player...
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Championship Manager: Season 02-03
Overall: Despite is plain interface, and almost lack of visual appeal, along with sound, this is one of the greatest games I ever played, highly addictive, great replay value, and vast amounts of data and teams stuffed in there.Gameplay: Although originally a PC game, mainly using the mouse for control, this game has made a great transition to Xbox, and the interface works reasonably well with the pad. This game contains thousands of players, hunreds of teams, and tens of leagues, this is the market leader of its genre, hours, and hours of gameplay, even after spending ten seasons on a game, you'll be quite willing to start over.
Graphics: Visually this game reaches a stumbling block, but despite its lack of visual appeal, the visuals do get the job done exceptionally well, and can't really be faulted.
Audio: Again, the sound is lacking, but you don't need ANY sound in this game to play it for hours, and custom soundtracks add to the fun.
Suggestions: Though Eidos own the licence, I hope Si Games will release their new 'Football Manager' game on Xbox when the time comes. Also, it should be Live enabled, even if just to download updates.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Sonic Heroes
Overall: Sonic, one of, if not THE greatest video game characters of all time, an icon that nearly all can recognise. After a break between Megadrive and Dreamcast, where only a fun to play, but not that great racing game,Sonic R , the not actually 3D Sonic 3D, and a handful of cameo appearences in games such as Bug. Sonic made the transition to 3D on Dreamcast, and well, with Sonic Adventure, which added role playing elements.For this game it's all out platform action, with the twist of having 3 characters at your disposal. Sadly, while it's a great idea, its not that fun to play, the graphics are good but plain, and there's not much to come back for.
Gameplay: Plays reasonably well, and easy to control so youngsters can pick it up, but having 3 characters control does little except make the game an effort to play with the constant switching of characters to suit the obstacle. Not much to keep you coming back with repetitive gameplay that should have been left in the early 90s. Features that could have vastly added to the game, such as Sonic Adventure 1 & 2's awesome Chao Gardens, didn't make it into this game, which is a slight letdown.
Graphics: Looks nice enough, but graphics and environments are plain and cartoony, I'd go as far to say as not any better than the visuals of Sonic Adventure, released 5 years ago, and on a console with inferior graphical capabilities. But overall, get the job done.
Audio: Classic jingles and the 'ching'ing of rings bring back memories of Sonics glory days, but the extremely soft rock tunes in the game are just plain annoying.
Suggestions: Either leave Sonic in the past where he ruled the platforming world, or make a game worthy of this great character.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
Project Gotham Racing 2
Overall: After the outstanding Metropolis Street Racer, which changed my view on driving games, and the excellent Project Gotham Racing, Bizare Creations continue the series with vast improvements in all areas, and possibly the best driving game in existance. My only gripe being the choice of cities, I feel the cities from the original game should have been left in along with the new cities.Gameplay: Great fun, Kudos world series provides a great challenge, especially when playing for Silver challenges, or the amazingly difficult Platinum challenges. Cars handle great and playing over Xbox Live is amazingly great fun, as my entire family would tell you, all three of them almost addicted to this game.
Graphics: The graphics in this game are quite simply astounding, cars not only shine and damage realistically, but the entire cities look great, with very few graphical glithes and no slowdown even with large amounts of cars on screen.
Audio: Sounds of cars sound great, adds to the feel of the game, and the custom soundtrack future works well, with the radio option adding presenters between tracks, but sadly to me it doesn't feel to work as nicely as it did in MSR and PGR.
Suggestions: More weather conditions and maybe some more unusual cities.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Tony Hawk's Underground
Overall: As always with the Tony Hawk's series, it's a vast improvement over the last game, but sadly despite improvements, the formula has been over done. The same formula isn't just used for the THPS series, but also Activision's other extreme sports games, and it's just got boring. If you've never before played a Tony Hawk's game, you may get hours of enjoyment from this game, but those who have been there from the beginning will complete it quickly, and not feel the need to go back and play again.Gameplay: Fun to play as ever, but despite new additions such as hip transfers, and the awesome ability to leave your board in favour of running around on foot, the system still feels tired, and despite all the aditions, it's still the same game at heart. Story mode adds a huge amount over the last games, but it's all over too quickly, and despite chosing you're own sponsors and the such, playing a second time, it's still the same thing.I feel with Live the game would have lasted longer, but over XBC connect not alot more is really added to the game.
Graphics: Compared to prevous Hawk games, great improvement, shadows especially look great, but over the cities, things feel a bit too square and overall things feel a bit too PS2. There are some nice touches such as board graphics scratching away, and the graphics get the job done just fine.
Audio: Sounds are fine for the game, the sounds of grinds and wheels match those of their reallife counterparts, and background sounds such as cars and people sound up to par, the soundtrack isn't exceptionally great, but it really depends on your musical tastes, but with the custom soundtracks you can have you're own choice of music making it perfectly suited to your tastes.
Suggestions: Live support would be a huge bonus, and rather than trying to rush out another game for christmas, why not just take a break and care about quality over the money, the system needs to be entirely overhauled, it's just run its course.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
