Xbox Addict

Now keeping in mind that no one expected it to be as good as it turned out, my doubts were running high for the sequel. The hype behind it was starting to vaguely remind me of the hype behind Matrix: Reloaded after The Matrix movies' initial success... and we all know how that one turned out. So when I got a copy of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 to review my hopes were high, but I was also ready for the worst. A long story short, I was not disappointed!

For those not familiar with the Baldur's Gate style of gameplay, imagine the fun hack and slash world of Blizzard's Diablo series and mix in a much deeper roleplaying element. It ends up being a real time action game with some great RPG elements stirred into the mix. To start out with you have 5 classes to select from, a warrior, wizard, cleric monk or a rogue. Each character will start out with different physical attributes as well as a few different innate skills that can be used in and out of combat. As you venture through the world you will gain experience from killing all the baddies and level your character up. Each time you level you are rewarded with skill points that you can spend on a vast array of skills, character improvements and spells. When I say vast I am not kidding as it took me a good 10 minutes just to flip through them all and see what they did before I finally decided what I wanted to start spending my points on.

It is quite apparent that strategy guides for this game will be sought out as there is a lot of different things you can do with a character. My first character was a warrior and I was faced with a lot of decisions right off the bat. Did I want to specialize in one handed weapons or two? What's more important, total hit points or hit point regeneration speed? Should I invest in more defensive abilities or go stronger attack abilities to kill things faster? Most likely the configuration I am playing isn't the best one and there are many better ways of doing it. On the other hand even with my less than perfect configuration this game is still a blast to play. Three difficulty settings give this game a lot of replay value as well as provide a very easy learning curve for people new to the game series. Finding the Easy mode to be a walk-through? Go ahead and start over on the Normal mode and go to town!


Along with the depth of the normal game Black Island Studios decided to add a feature that is booming in the RPG genre: item creation. When Diablo 2 was released it brought with it the grand idea of customizing weapons by placing runes in the hilt for different attributes. Soon other games like Everquest had tradeskills allowing you to create items from scratch. Baldurr's Gate has followed suit by allowing you to create items in game with pieces of stuff you collect. In the pre-release manual there is already a big list of all the gems and runes that are available, what attributes they will provide and what different kinds of armors there are along with armor class and damage modifiers. While not something that was imperative to making the new Baldur's Gate a good game, it definitely helps add even more life to the gameplay and gives players a little something extra to try if they are so inclined.

One thing about Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 that makes it such a pleasure to play is the amazing graphics. There really isn't anything new and innovative to the graphical setup; it is a standard 3/4 overhead view which is becoming the set standard for games of this type. Where the greatness comes is the attention to detail. Beautiful textures, smooth framerate and fluid graphical effects give this game a smooth polished shine. There is a wide variety of levels from forests, to indoor mansions, pretty much anywhere you could ever think to swing an axe or cast a spell is in this game.

The actual stylings of the graphics themselves are quite akin to what we have seen in other 3/4 overhead games such as Hunter: The Reckoning. Since there is no scenery flying by you there was a lot more work put into the overall ambience of the atmosphere. Cool little nuances here and there, such as light filtering in through a window, water rippling as you step through it and more really give this game a splendid touch.

One other problem that was overcome is the fact that games like this can often have bad camera problems as items and enemies are obscured around corners until it is too late. It didn't take much to fix this, all they did was give full camera control to the player. The right analog stick now lets you swing the camera around to the desired position, allowing you to check every nook and cranny of a level for whatever you happen to need. The only minor complaint I have is that the zoom system is an all or nothing deal: either you are zoomed out for a bird's eye shot or you are zoomed and can only see about 15 ft. in front of you. There were many times where I was wishing there was a median as I wanted to see further, but still needed to be able to scope stuff out in detail.

The one aspect of the game that kind of let me down was the music. It definitely wasn't bad, but it didn't match up to the rest of the game. Now maybe I have been spoiled by movies and what not, but I was seriously hoping for some epic music that really set the monster bashing mood. Instead I received some mediocre, short orchestral pieces that were recycled over and over again. Now while music usually isn't enough to ruin a game for me, it will certainly add a lot to it... but unfortunately the music in Baldur's Gate didn't do that. Custom soundtracks might have helped by allowing me to play my Lord of the Rings soundtrack as I ravaged some orc looking creatures, but I didn't even get that much.

The voice acting thankfully made up for some of what the sound left out. While not as grand of an implementation as you would see in series such as Legacy of Kain, the voice acting was pulled off rather well and all of the voices fit the characters. The only voice that seemed to be a little off was your actual character's voice when you were in town and tried to do something you weren't supposed to, like kill a villager (I kahn't doo thaht here...) Aside from that the voice acting really helps to further the plot as you quest through Baldur's Gate.

All in all the game is rock solid. It is a blast to play through by yourself and even more fun when you team up with a friend to take down the evil around Baldur's Gate as a rampaging duo. The game is decently long as well, I've been playing it for close to 10 hours and have just completed the first of 4 acts which means there will be enough baddy slaying to keep you occupied for quite a while. If you are an RPG fan you need to pick this up. If you liked the gameplay in Hunter: The Reckoning you need to pick this up. If you like both of the prior then you DEFINATELY need to pick this up. Everyone else should probably pick this game up as well, as it is a solid addition to anyone's game library!


Overall Score: 9.4 / 10 Legacy of Kain: Defiance

It is obviously the season for high-profile media franchises to tie up all the loose knots and come to a halt. Already the Matrix finale has come and gone, Lord of the Rings is soon to reach its climax and now the long running Legacy of Kain gaming franchise is about to end. The series has been around for longer than a lot of gamers who might actually play this game. The original game, Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen, made its appearance on the PC long ago as an overhead 2d game which introduced us to Kain and his quest to rule the world of Nosgoth. Soon the popularity of the game brought sequels appearing on Playstation, Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube and Xbox. With the arrival of Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver we were introduced to Kain?s undead lieutenant Raziel.

If you haven?t played the Legacy of Kain games, you are missing out on a lot. In a day and age when plots run thin and gameplay rules all, the Legacy of Kain series will surprise you with its in-depth story and intriguing plot twists that will compel you through one game and build your anticipation for the next in the series. In the previous four games you alternated between playing as Kain in one game and as Raziel in the next. As many of us have found out by this point Kain and Raziel are for the most part mortal (well, actually immortal) enemies? and for good reason. Raziel was one of Kain?s best Lieutenants, but when Raziel evolved faster than Kain, Kain became jealous and had Raziel murdered. Raziel was then resurrected by the god of their world to take the role of a devourer of souls. Of course this existence isn?t what Raziel wanted; he was more interested in taking his revenge on Kain.

Around this base plot there is interwoven another grander plot involving a race of creatures called the Sarafan, but by explaining them I would be ruining a lot of plot for this game? so if you are interested, then go out and play some of the previous Legacy of Kain games. The main focus of this final game though is Kain and Raziel. Finally after numerous installments the battle between the two will come to an end in one of the most epic video game adventures since some past game that was fairly epic.


The gameplay has taken a drastic turn away from the focus of previous Legacy of Kain games. In most of the previous games (excluding the first 2D Kain game) the biggest focus was placed on environmental puzzles. To progress through the levels you had to solve series of puzzles involving crate pushing, switch flipping and other various acts to open doors and allow further progression. Even the bosses were beat not by beating the un-living crap out of them, but rather by finding the secret of how to beat them that usually involved using the surrounding environment and your vampiric powers. Well for this Legacy of Kain game, the developers obviously said ?to hell!? with that idea and instead decided to focus on the fighting system.

In past games there was an emphasis on ?smart? fighting. This involved sneaking around, using stealth kills and employing your powers to defeat enemies without ever having to touch them. LOK: Defiance has taken a slightly different approach which makes it feel less like a Splinter Cell type of game and more like a ?Streets of Rage? filled with vampires. While it is nice to see a change, it is not all for the better. On the plus side, there is now a massive combo system where you could possibly rack up dozens of hits on an enemy without him even touching you. This is cool and all, but what it means is that the fighting is going to get uber-repetitive rather quickly.

They tried to balance the gameplay out by adding ?sword powers? which let you cast devastating spells after charging up a meter. This meter is filled by beating up enemies. The problem is, by the time you?ve defeated enough enemies to fill it, there are only going to be 1 or 2 in the group making it practically worthless? and after you charge your sword it will empty if not used relatively quickly. What this means is that the whole super-cool sword-spell casting system doesn?t really matter until the latter levels of the game where enemies are plentiful. Of course a plentiful amount of enemies doesn?t mean you?ll have fun killing them. Defiance really seems to skimp on the total amount of monsters there are available to kill, and after slaughtering your 10,000th Sarafan demon you will quickly grow tired of fighting and opt to run right by them instead.

The bosses can be described much like the enemies. Except for a select few bosses, most of them seem ridiculously similar. Not only that, but all you have to do is usually run towards them and beat them up. As I mentioned a few select bosses hearken back to the olden days of Kain where defeating someone required you to identify their weakness and exploit it. Unfortunately for this game, the weakness you need to exploit is usually not too obvious at all. There were many times I about gave up even trying to defeat a boss until I stumbled across the solution. This is hardly rewarding though, as I didn?t think of the solution myself and just happened upon it.


Speaking of not rewarding, did I mention that there is no sense of accomplishment when finishing a lot of game areas? This is because many of the areas are recycled versions of others. By the end of the game you will be so sick of being in the two story vampire cathedral that it won?t be funny. This is a really bad flaw for a few reasons: One reason is because it makes progressing through certain areas of the game incredibly dull to the point of not being worth it. The other disadvantage is that certain textures are so overused that you will frequently get lost and have no idea where to go because everything you see looks like everything else. This would have been an easy problem to solve just by adding some more textures? as I bet there is plenty of room left on that big ol? DVD.

Visually the game looks great? for a Legacy of Kain game. If you?ve played Blood Omen 2 for the Xbox you will know about what to expect. Legacy of Kain games don?t look to redefine the realm of graphics, but they put enough work into them to keep the game flowing and add to the atmosphere. You will come across vivid texturing, decent shadowing and some great visual and environmental effects. It is up to Crimson Skies standards? Not even close? but it does look better than Blood Omen 2 and won?t have you cursing the art team that worked on it.

The one area of the game that was noticeably off was the voice synching during cut scenes. Nowadays the idea of a CG movie in a game is getting to be more and more of a moot point. Game systems have the power to generate good movies on the fly, so why waste the space and money to create some encoded video for a game? Of course, if you are going to do cut scenes in a game with the graphics engine you might want to make sure that their lips match up to the words. Saving money is one thing, but you need to keep the quality up at the same time.

For a game that had a simultaneous release across all three consoles the game looks fine. After a bit of playing you will notice that the Xbox version didn?t seem to get any extra loving, but as most people will play this game for the story line it really doesn?t matter that much. Of course with some high profile games around the corner such as Deus Ex, let us hope that Eidos isn?t going to be making a habit of this and realizes that the Xbox is capable of a little more than they are throwing at it.


Now usually I hate writing about game sound issues because for one it is boring, two it is usually difficult to totally screw up, and three, there isn?t a whole lot of writing that can be done about it. Of course Legacy of Kain: Defiance is the first game I?ve played in a long while that really shines here. The greatest feature of Defiance is hands down the voice acting. I?ve always loved Kain games for this reason, but Defiance goes above and beyond to deliver believable dialogue that actually adheres to the character?s personas and dispositions. There was more than one time when I could actually feel how upset a character was just by the way that they spoke. Kudos to the entire voice acting team for a wonderful performance. Oh, and make sure to check out the unlockable voice acting outtakes in the bonus features section!

So all in all it stacks up to be a decent game. For Kain fans out there this game has been a long time in the making and has finally been delivered to us. If you played any previous Legacy of Kain games, then this is one you will have to pick up. For anyone else out there, if you are looking for an action game that is easy to get into and has a compelling plot, this isn?t a bad one to try out. Eidos, thank you for finally delivering on this. Though it isn?t the greatest game out there, it finally lays to rest my questions about the fate of Kain and Raziel. I can now sleep a content man!


Overall Score: 7.2 / 10 Counter-Strike


The game is old, there is no denying that. In a day and age where computer parts are outdated in half a year and we see blockbuster after blockbuster roll through the gaming world, is there any room for a rehash of a game that has been around for much longer than the Xbox itself? Microsoft seems to think so as they commissioned VALVe studios to port Counter-strike over to the Xbox game console. The story behind Counter-strike has been quite an amazing one thus far. It originally started as a mod for the hit pc game Half-Life and was created by a bunch of guys in college who figured it would be a cool thing to do. Soon it started rising in popularity and quickly surpassed the original Half-Life in terms of popularity. It was at this point VALVe took quite an interest in this mod and the people who made it and decided to hire a bunch of the guys who worked on it for their own team.

Get your butts working on HL2! And don't forget about us Xbox owners who would gladly give select body parts to see it end up on our system... Most of us would likely give even more body parts to see it as an Xbox exclusive :) Of course we could just pay you money for it like most normal people do.

Now before I begin this review of the soon to be released blockbuster I should probably warn you that I am a flying junkie. Ever since the days of yore I have played any type of flight sim I could get my hands on from the olden days of Commodore64 Apache games to the latest and greatest F-22 flight sim. I was a bit skeptical of Crimson back in the day for the fact that it looked less like a flight sim and more like a glitzy arcade game. But then again, Sega's Afterburner was an arcade game and it rocked, so I made sure to keep an eye on Crimson. Then came the moment of truth when I played the demo at this years' E3 and to keep a long story short I was totally floored by it. Screw Halo 2, Rare, booth babes and anything else going on, Crimson Skies was definitely the highlight of my trip. Booth babes were definitely up there too, but Crimson ruled all. Ever since then I have been anxiously awaiting a chance to play the whole package and when the chance finally came I nearly crapped myself in happiness. Luckily I own 3 different pairs of underwear in case this happened!

So enough about my lack of clean underwear! Onto what you all are reading this for: the actual game! So here is the quick and dirty of Crimson Skies: You fly a plane (duh) in what Microsoft Gaming Studios calls an 'alternate reality where commerce took to the air after the depression'. This alternate reality looks more like the set from The Rocketeer, but that's fine because as far as I'm concerned that was a great movie. The very beginning of the game throws you into a fun movie sequence where your character (Nathan) wakes up in bed next to a naked woman (good) and notices a guy standing over him with a gun pointed to his head (bad). The man then informs you that you lost your plane and your zeppelin in a bet last night. So right off the bat we know the main character is a boozing, gambling, womanizing flyboy who is quite frankly someone high up on my list of people I would like to hang out with. assuming they were real. Of course it also turns out that you are someone who doesn't honor your bets, as you manage to steal your plane back, steal your zeppelin back and then steal the plane of the guy who had the audacity to call you on your bet! With a great main character like Nathan you know the plot is going to be great which means that for the first time ever we will have an Xbox Live game that is fun to play in single player mode.

The actual gameplay itself is a perfect mix of exploratory flying and linear missions. There are times when the game will push you into a direction and give you a certain task to accomplish. Other times you will just be flying around exploring and looking for stuff to do. Of course the exploration isn't just a boring 'fly around and look at the pretty scenery' situation; there are plenty of bonuses to be found from cash to upgrade tokens tucked away in spots that will test your abilities as a pilot. Once you are done exploring you can look for work to do to make money which range from people asking you to do escort missions to requests such as taking down groups of bandits which have been causing havoc in the area.

On top of this there are certain points in the game where you encounter 'boss characters' that need to be dealt with. These range from armor plated zeppelins to giant mechanical creatures a 'la Wild Wild West. At these points you will find that shooting down everything in site isn't going to get you any further and you actually have to start looking for weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the target. This adds a little more depth to the single player game and really keeps it from becoming a monotonous shooter. Then you can also add to the list of goodness that this game is adequately long to be worth the purchase to someone who doesn't have Live. I've been playing crimson for a good 15 hours and have barely scratched the surface of what is available for the single player game.

Then we have the feature that many of us have been drooling for: Xbox Live gameplay. Crimson Skies will be our first aerial shooter available for online play and even before it is release I can assure you it is going to be a hit. It has everything going for it: 16 player support means there will be tons of action going on. There are 6 game modes including standard dogfighting, team dogfights, capture the flag, keep away, team keep away and a crazy spin off of capture the flag called 'chicken'. With a great game and all these game modes this will add unending replay value until we (hopefully) see Crimson Skies 2 grace our Xboxes.

Now here is the one part of the game that is going to either make people fall in love with it or turn away from it: the controls. For those of you who are looking for a true to life flight sim, look elsewhere. While this game does give you the ability to do control your pitch and roll, there is no yaw control and both pitch and roll are controlled by one stick. This means if you move your stick to the right your plane will automatically roll and pitch up to turn. There is no way to change it so the player is stuck with the more 'arcade' setup. Of course you still have the abilities to pull off true-to-live aerial maneuvers from immelmans to Cuban eights, but there is no point since there is a more 'arcade' way to do that as well. With the use of both analog stick you can cause your plane to automatically pull of precise maneuvers which happen much faster than just doing them manually. This means that anyone can play this game and effortlessly pull off split S's, barrel rolls, snap rolls and immelmans without having ever taken a flight class. Even with the arcade style setup, though, this game is a ton of fun to play once you get the hang of it.

Graphically Crimson Skies is a solid performer. It is by no means the prettiest game out there, but it is definitely one of the better looking games available for Xbox. The frame rate is constant, the movie sequences are well polished and presentable and the explosions are great. Nothing is quite as cool as watching a zeppelin explode into a huge fireball and fall out of the sky while you imagine the captain sitting there saying "I KNEW we shouldn't have filled this with hydrogen!" Then you get to watch the zeppelin crash into the beautiful landscape. No detail was missed when creating the different flying environments. You'll get to weave your plane through desert canyons, lush coastal regions, huge industrial cities and more. These levels are a bit exaggerated looking more like a real life rendition of comic book sets, they are still visually pleasing to the eye and offer plenty of nooks and crannies to navigate through and test out your elite piloting skills.


Even the subtle effects play quite nicely. For instance, you are flying close to the water and someone starts shooting at you from behind. You will not only see the bullet splashes in the water but some of the water will come up and hit your screen then bead off as you continue flying. It is things like that which let the gamer know that the developer cares about their game and took the time to tweak everything out!

There is one beef that I do have with this game, but it is a minor one. I am of the opinion that every game should have custom soundtracks, whether or not the in-game music is good. If you don't want to give us control over the in-game music, at least let us listen to our favorite tracks when we are gunning it out in multiplayer. But I suppose this is only a minor problem since the soundtrack really lends to the atmosphere of the game. Remember my reference earlier to the Rocketeer? Well this reference is still valid when it comes to the music. You will be subject to a lot of orchestrated 30's music which is far from what we like to call 'exciting'. but is good enough not to be a nuisance and doesn't interfere with the ability to enjoy Crimson Skies.

The rest of the sound department shines as well. Sounds is a place where most games tend to fail in as the music becomes repetitious, sound effects are monotonous and thrown and commentary is bland to say the least. Crimson doesn't suffer from these ailments. Your plane engine happens to sound like a plane engine, bullets whiz by in a realistic fashion and hearing people complain as you shoot them out of the sky never gets old. Nathan has a steady stream of one lines he will deliver every once in a while as you bag another kill as well.

So the final verdict on the whole project? Well, you have great graphics, great sound, 10 different planes which are almost all upgradeable, you have 6 different multiplayer modes, you have the ability to jump out of your plane and man anti-aircraft guns, there are explosions, vendettas, online play. This game has it all. Ladies and Gentlemen, say hello to the first game which has successfully pulled off an amazing online and offline game in the same package. Yeah, and you thought you would have to wait until Halo 2 for something like that! Needless to say I wish we had more 'total package' games like this and my hat is off to Microsoft for putting this game on the market. Crimson Skies was definitely worth the wait and on October 21st your wait is over. Go buy this game!


Suggestions: I do realize there was no such thing as radar in the 1930's, but a way to lock on to people would have been nice for tailing a target. Aside from that this game is immaculate and I am sure you will be hearing that comment for a long time to come! Now get to work on Crimson Skies 2!

Overall Score: 9.6 / 10 Otogi: Myth of Demons

I kid you not. This game is more Japanese than Japan is now. I?m not talking about a nice plate of Japanese food at a Japanese restaurant; I am talking about 1000 A.D. chilling out in a Japanese temple with the Emperor of Japan while drinking sake type of Japanese experience. Of course as Otogi was originally released in Japan over half a year ago this is not too surprising.



So a majority of you are probably thinking ?so what?? at this point. Well, now that the Xbox is finally getting some great RPG?s in its library, the only place it is still lacking is in the Japanese inspired gaming genre? and let?s face it, there are a lot of gamers out there who love those types of games.



Of course not everyone is a fan of Japanese games, so I?m sure the rest of you are wondering if this title is for you. Well here are a few questions you will need to ask yourself to find out. Do I enjoy collection big friggin swords and whooping demons with them? Am I entranced by pretty colors and cool magical spells? To I like to demolish anything that isn?t made by nature? and even some things that are? Does Diet Dr. Pepper taste more like the original Dr. Pepper? Ok, that last one won?t help you that much? but if you answered yes to any of the questions prior to that then you might want to take a look at Otogi.



To some it up in one long sentence using as many commas as possible, Otogi is a glitzy, colorful, Japanese, demon bashing, sword wielding, magic using tool of mass destruction which actively encourages you to smash, bash, demolish, destroy, kill and maim anything that moves, or doesn?t move for that matter. If that wasn?t enough commas for you, here are some extras. ,,,,,,

One of Otogi?s biggest downfalls is that it is a relatively short game. Sega estimates that the game can normally be finished in less than 15 hours. Of course this is only if you play the game straight through from start to finish. You have the option of going back to any of the 25 levels you have previously beaten and attempting to collect all of the items if you happened to miss anything the first time through. You?ll find yourself doing this periodically to scrape together a little more money to buy that cool sword set you were looking to get.



That?s right, Otogi has a little bit of an RPG element with the fact you can buy stuff for your character. Of course don?t expect to be offered hundreds of different options: usually you have the choice between 3 or 4 different weapons, spells and accessories between each level. These selections do change every once in a while when you advance though, so there is a bit of variety. Each weapon and accessory changes your attack, defense and magic rating, so picking the right weapon for your playing style becomes crucial later on in the game.



As I have already states, this game involves a lot of breaking stuff. Your first goal is to break demons. Well, destroy them actually. Destroying demons releases energy which will fill your magic and health. You will notice that while you play your magic will slowly deplete even if you aren?t using any of your mystical powers. This is because you are a creature of magic, so you slowly consume your reserves just to stay alive. Once your magic runs out you slowly lose health until you die. This creates a rudimentary time limit that can be lengthened by killing every bad guy that crosses your path. Aside from destroying the demons you are encouraged to destroy everything else too; from houses, to brick walls and even trees. This is because there are souls trapped in various objects, and releasing these souls is what earns you some major cash to upgrade your gear.



Otogi?s controls seem very much like one of their previous games: Gunvalkyrie. If you have played Gunvalkyrie before then don?t let this comment scare you off. A lot of people don?t like Gunvalkyrie due to the fact it is so freaking hard and they tend to blame it on the controls. Luckily Otogi is a much more forgiving game and doesn?t require complete mastery of ultra-complex combos to get through a level. This means that the games difficulty is still hard, but rewarding instead of frustrating. Basically you have the ability to jump, double jump, dash, use a regular attack, a power attack and cast magic. While this doesn?t sound like a lot of control you will soon find out that massive midair combos can be linked together making you look like a genuine magical Japanese Samurai. Once you get the hang of it you will be able to impress your friends and pick up girls at game stores with Otogi on display!

You can really see that Otogi drew a lot of influence from other games Sega has produced. This is obvious in the graphics area if you played Panzer Dragoon Orta last year, as its Japanese styling very closely resembles that of Otogi. Of course this is great news because Panzer Dragoon was a beautiful game and a pleasure to watch. For those of you who haven?t played Otogi or Panzer Dragoon, they both incorporate very lush and vivid colors for the atmospheres and have a strong emphasis on magical attacks and explosions. This adds to the fun of mass destruction as things look really cool when you tear them apart.



Otogi also manages to keep a very decent frame rate even with the carnage taking place. Most games with explosions and destructible levels have nasty stutters in the frame rate when things are falling apart. The only time I really noticed any slowdown with Otogi, though, was when I was simultaneously destroying a building while be assaulted by multiple demons at ones. Even then it wasn?t a severe drop and would hardly be noticeable unless you were looking for it. That means you can also add ?smooth playing? to the list of reasons why Otogi is such a great action game.


By this point I am really getting tired of saying the word ?Japanese?? and this is probably one of the few times anyone has ever seen the words ?Japanese?, ?Xbox? and ?great game? all in one article. But since I still have to discuss the sound section I will have to say it one more time: the soundtrack holds true to the Japanese theme. You can?t expect to have custom soundtracks to a game like this, as bashing demons through temples just doesn?t mix with 50 cent or any other music that is out there right now. You don?t have to worry though as the soundtrack is varied enough that it actually compliments the gameplay and can really get you even more involved with the story.



The sound effects do a great job of holding their own too. Well rendered grunts, smashes, sword swooshes and screaming demons add to the experience. The only place where the sound suffered was some of the repetitive audio clips when you are fighting bosses. Each boss seemed to have about 4 lines that they would repeat over and over. Now when it takes you 2 or 3 attempts to defeat a boss it tends to get old in quite a hurry. Sega should have either recorded more sound or shut them up. Of course this does bring up the great point that we are lucky to have English sound at all. Otogi was originally released in Japan so all the voices had to be re-dubbed. The new English voices are great to say the least, and shows that Sega is aiming to please anyone on Earth who wishes to play this game.



To summarize, this is a wonder addition to the action/platform genre from Sega, and in my honest opinion is one of the best action games to date for the Xbox. Of course some might be worried that 15 hours is a little short: my advice to you is to rent it and try it out... chances are good that you will end up buying it anyways. Oh, and if you didn?t get to read ?Japanese? enough or see enough commas, then here are a few more to satisfy you! Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese, Japanese.


Suggestions: Woohoo! Otogi 2 has been announced! Make sure we see this in the US, Sega. And possibly make it a little longer, as that seems to be the complaint heard the most on our site.

Overall Score: 9.0 / 10 Pro Cast Sports Fishing

Now I am going to be completely honest with you up front: I am not a huge fishing enthusiast. I do go fishing a few times a year and manage to snag some decent size bass and crappie, but it is definitely not a forte that bleeds over into my video game life. In fact, I can only remember one fishing game that has kept me truly interested in it, and that was Blue Marlin for the NES. I will attempt to remain impartial in this review, but in my eyes fishing isn?t nearly as cool unless you are actually there with a six-pack and some sunscreen.

One big plus this game has is that it is the only fishing game out for the Xbox at this time. Obviously there are people who are different from me and like this type of game, otherwise they wouldn?t sell and there would be no demand? so this review might be something worth looking through if you delight in digital angling. As for the rest of you? eh, read this anyways as I took the time to write it and at the very least it could possibly improve your literacy and reading skills!

Overall as a fishing game Pro Cast Sports Fishing is a solid entry into the field with no totally hindering flaws that will drive people away from it. It does have its quirks and some minor annoyances, but they aren?t detrimental to the game experience. One thing that was really irritating to me right off the bat was the menu that was used. To be total blunt, it took too long to navigate through them, as each menu screen usually had only 2 or 3 options. This could have been consolidated into one main menu screen which would have worked a lot better. Also, the character selection was quite limited and included the stereotypical middle-aged bearded guy with a pot belly, the 24 year old college guy, and the girls in her twenties who was probably thrown in there to appease the demographics watchers.

The game does find a way to breath some interesting gameplay into itself with an awesome simulation mode which turns out to be more of a fishing RPG though, so maybe that alone will be enough to justify the buy to all you fishermen and women out there!

Gameplay is where this game will make it or break it. When I first started playing this game it was just like real fishing. That is, I would sit out on the water for a good half an hour before getting so much as a nibble. It is at this point that I would usually turn a game off any yell ?next!? Well, I really wouldn?t yell next, but I?d put a different game in the Xbox? Of course since I am reviewing this game I really wasn?t about to ditch it after ? an hour and say it sucks, as the nice people over at Capcom probably wouldn?t appreciate that. After a bit I started noticing I was getting the hang of it a bit, as fish were actually being attracted to my lure. Of course at first all I got were the retarded fish who think lures are fun to watch but by no means fun to eat, so at various points I would have 3 or 4 fish chasing my lure going ?huh, interesting.? (Once again, they didn?t really say anything, as fish can?t actually talk? fool.) After a bit more work they actually started biting at my lure! Of course as in real fishing just them biting it won?t snag them on your line, you have to gently caress the rod until the lure is placed?. THEN YANK THE HELL OUT OF IT! With any luck you?ll snag him and get to reel him in.

There is obviously more to this game than just casting and reeling, casting and reeling, and perhaps some more casting and reeling. On top of all that you have this to look forward to also: casting and reeling! No, I?m just kidding, there are also other game modes that add some depth to the gameplay. When you look at the menu you will find there are three game modes. One is the simulation, which is probably the coolest part of this game. As I said before, this is a fishing RPG for the lack of a better term. As you enter more tourneys and catch more fish, you can buy new stuff such as new rods, lures and boats. Much like in real life, the acquisition of new sporting goods materials is one of the greatest joys known to most men.

Arcade and free fishing are decent, but rather limited. Arcade involves giving you a set time to catch a fish, and then comparing you to all the computer players who were fishing also. Of course since you are restricted to a small point on a lake, you don?t ever see these guys. The ?beat the clock? thing is fun a few times but kinda loses its luster fairly quickly. On the other hand, free fishing loses it?s luster immediately. Why even bother playing the game if you aren?t achieving something? My opinion: stick with the simulation mode. It might sound daunting but it is definitely the most fun.

One last word about the gameplay: this game is not very in depth when compared to other games out there. You aren?t going to be making lures from scratch or fine tuning your drag or many of the other crazy things other games let you do. This game is easy to pick up and play without reading through a ridiculously long manual. This may be a turn-off to some, but hopefully it will be appealing to others.

The games visuals are? ok. There really isn?t a better way to put it. While the graphics in no way detract from its value, it is definitely not taking any advantage of the Xbox hardware and could be easily reproduced on any other system available? Dreamcast included. Of course, don?t let the fact that the graphics aren?t top-of-the-line quality wean you away from this title. Even with the general oldness of the graphics, it pulls off environmental effects nicely, including waves on the water, a nice fog rolling in the morning and others.

One thing that was fairly tedious and trying was the camera though. It totally has a mind of it?s own and there didn?t seem to be any way to control it. What was really frustrating is when your lure went below a foot of water, the camera snapped from an aerial view to underwater. So what if you have your lure bobbing at around a foot of water? The camera is constantly snapping back and forth in a rather sickening motion. After a while though you learn to avoid that one-foot mark and the camera can actually become an advantage. This happens when you figure out that the camera angle usually shifts when a fish takes interest in your lure. This means all you have to do is cast and start steadily reeling it in until the camera view shifts. At this point you get to stop reeling and start whipping out all your best asty-lure? moves!

The audio is really what you would expect from a fishing game: some decent background music in the menu?s, decent sound effect on the water when fishing? Nothing too above and beyond, but hey? it?s a fishing game. How ?above and beyond? can you actually get? As for me, I am happy that the reel sounds like a reel, and when I cast there is a satisfying ?ploop? when the lure hits the water. If you want custom soundtracks, use a pair of headphones. You?d have to use headphones on a lake anyways, so consider it a fine addition to the realism of this title. Nothing about the implemented sound is obtrusive, and nothing stands out. This, in the end, is a good thing as it means the sound doesn?t get in the way of the gameplay.

Excellent first entry Capcom! I think a lot of fishing fans will be wishing for a little more customization, but this is a solid title for the price it is being sold at.