MEMBER PROFILE FOR sk8er
Average Overall Score Given: 8.50000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 0
Reviews
NFL Fever 2003
Overall: This game is great, it's such an improvement over last year's game in the every aspect. Although graphics are only changed minutely, the kicking, passing, running and defensive games are totally revamped and allow you more control over what you do. The sound is of coarse, superb, and the announcer's seem better together this year, and the announcing isn't so choppy. The only real beef that I had with this game is that sometimes passing is too easy and a 35-50 yard gain in one pass is something that happens frequently on lower difficulty's.Gameplay: The game is really solid, except for the small passing problem mentioned above. Running is easy and inituitive, defense seems to be amped up to provide a more solid line, and besides on lower difficulties, it's sometimes (SOMETIMES) **** near impossible to get past them. Passing is great, and on higher difficulties throwing long bomb's come few and far between, but are still acomplishable with a little effort. Flipping over, onto defense, the line seem's to actually think this year, I've had times where I would run towards an opening just to see a guy running towards me from across the field.
Graphics: What can I say?? Just like last year, this game's graphic's are some of the greatest I've seen on the console to date. Each player is textured, and you can pick out some of the higher profile character's just from looking at them. Grass stain's appear on the clothing and everything. Overall, fantastic.
Audio: The sound's in this game are really great, from the announcer to the crowd, but the on field grunt's and groans could've been better. The announcer's seem to be capable of actual conversation this year, and instead of the chopped up word's in last years game, full sound byte's are used and it flow's really well.
Suggestions: Keep up the great work, maybe tweak the passing play's so that even in rookie they aren't so easy to complete across field bomb's from your 20 for a touchdown, and maybe just give a broader variety of what announcer's can say.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
WWF Raw
Overall: This game is just stunning. The graphics glisten with realism, right from the entrances throughout the entire match. Only a few sketchy character faces ruin it (HHH anyone??). The sound is on par with the graphics, from each grunt and groan, but the generic rock tunes is something to be done without. The controls are fairly accurate, using a type of control similar to that of WWF No Mercy. Only problem is so many things to do is assigned to the B button (pick up items, climb in/out of ring, get on turnbuckle, taunt) that sometimes when you want to leave the ring you just taunt, or pick up a weapon. The wrestling system is pretty good, too much emphasis on punching and kicking but when you get into doing grapples, its a winner. The Momentum bar at the bottom of the screen needs ALOT of tweaking, you could have almost the whole bar to yourself and your opponant does one taunt or punches you and you lose most of it, and taunts usually give you more than mixing up moves, which is a really big dissappointment.Gameplay: The gameplay is fairly straightforward, certain buttons do certain things (with the exception of the B button), and everything is set in a very thoughtout fashion, you can do whatever you want, when you want (again, excluding the god forsaken B button). Alot of emphasis is placed on punching and kicking, which is different than games that I'm used to playing (i.e. WWF No Mercy, or ANY THQ and AKI made wrestling game) but it's a refreshing change of pace. When you grapple, you have a plethorea of moves you can perform, pressing either A or X and then up, down, left or right and its fun watching a move being performed from one of the different camera angles they give...unless a sign is in the way. Weapons can no longer be grabbed from the crowd, boxes that sit outside the ring and near the entrance, so the weapon use is limited. Sadly, you cannot climb ladders that you set up, and its a pain to try and slam someone through a table set up in the ring or the announcers table (which, by the way, there is no announcers). The AI is simply marginal, they can be pretty stupid, and usually resort to punching and kicking you. You can easily get away from them by getting them hung up on the stairs on the side of the ring, or any other object you can put between both of you.
Graphics: The graphics are simply stunning, each wrestler is spot on with their real life counterparts (excluding the one or two funny looking ones, like HHH and Chris Benoit). Their walking is kind of robotic but with some wrestlers it just suits them. There is very little clipping, and only a few collision detection problems, but they can be easily missed while trying to take in the rest of whats going on. Some screens, with the camera angles that are used, actually look real, like when Big Show comes out and bends down make it out of the entrence, or when Undertaker rides his bike around the ring and the camera is near the announcers. The lighting is totally incredible, everything that can shine from the light does, and anything that can't...well it doesn't. During real matches, wrestlers sweat, so why should it be overlooked here? Well it's not, and during the whole match little droplets of sweat will be hit off your wrestler, or run off, and litter the mat, making some spots darker, and it's really noticable. The whole time I have played, I haven't found anything that really turns me off from the graphics (HHH's face is a bit messed, n some wrestlers do a REALLY goofy smile during entrances).
Audio: The sound, in one word, good. Each grunt and groan from the wrestlers fits into the match perfectly and makes the whole experience, that much better. The one downfall is the generic rock tunes that play during the menu's and during the matches, they have absolutely nothing to do with it and it kinda dulls the moment, but thats something that ThQ is known for is there crappy rock during the game. The one thing missing from this, and it is a fairly big thing, is the ability to rip your own tracks to use as entrance music, or during the matches. This would have been a great addition, imagine being able to update each wrestler's entrance music as it happens, or using your favorite tune as your CAW's entrance (create a wresler). But the sound, overly, is pretty good, adding extra realism to the game, dispite the minor flaws with the rock tunes and no ripping of music, it's a great sound package.
Suggestions: Try losing the generic rock tunes, try getting announcers to announce the match (or not, if Smackdown is any indication of how the announcing will be done). Definately add the ability to rip your own tunes, and fix some of the wrestlers faces. Tweak the momentum meter (or whatever you named it, the bar at the bottom) and actually have the wrestlers stay down for a bit longer, like say, after a special move. Finally, smarten up the AI and have less emphasis on punching.
Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
