MEMBER PROFILE FOR Maverickman
Average Overall Score Given: 8.00000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 0
Reviews
WWE Raw 2
Overall: When it comes to RAW 2 I got 2 words for you. MASSIVE IMPROVEMENT! Ok, so anything would be a step up from perhaps the worst wrestling game ever made titled RAW but still, Massive improvements all around.Gameplay: The Game play is MUCH MUCH better then the previous offer. Although a tad slow, THQ listened and made it so you didn't have to have a BA in Wrestling to play the game. Plenty of Match types, plenty of arenas, plenty of everything. The Season mode (although I am barely into it) looks not only to be on line with Smackdown but better then the last SD offer. The Create a wrestler mode is DEEEEEEEEP. So much so that you can make your own video, your own intro music, and even customize it so the ring announcer says just about anything in the book. I have to give the boys at THQ MAJOR props for the improvements. Also of note, The custmizing of the ramp, Tititantron and so on. Very nice with the ablity to layer some effects which makes for some intresting pyro dispalys. (Now, if the title belts just fit right around your wrestlers waist I'll be in heaven....I just need to win one to find out). Also of note, they pulled a few "Smackdown favorites" and imported them to RAW 2 including the ability to form your own tag team or 3 man stable.
Graphics: Stunning is the only word to describe it. Gone is the "Walking like you have a corn cob stuck up your butt" movement of the first game. The arena's are as acurate as possible as are the wrestlers....Including Triple H. The game has good flow and Movement although as I said above the action is still a bit slow....but hey I can accept that. Sure, some will review this game and nitpick but after the first offering from THQ I'm not complaining.
Audio: I'd say typical if it wasn't so cool to see your wrestlers coming out to downloaded music. Not only can your rip your own tracks for your creations, you can edit the music of the superstars in the game. For Example, The Dudley boys and RVD don't have thier current music in game.....but they do now! As for the rest of the sound, Typical wrestling game sounds with nothing standing out to much. All in all it's pretty good.
Suggestions: Speed up the gameplay a tad. That's about the only thing I could say at this point. I'll try to post another review in a couple days after I've had a chance to really feel it out. Props to the guys at THQ for listening to thier customers.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
RLH: Run Like Hell
Overall: If your into games like Resident Evil or the survivial Horror Genre....you NEED this game. This is by far the most underrated game for Xbox....ever. You play the lead role as Captain Conners. You're stationed on a space station somewhere in deep space. All is well till these creatures called "The Race" (Think organic version of the Borg for you trekkies) get on the station and kill dam* near everyone. This living organism begins to....well....if you want to know the rest you'll have to buy the game.Gameplay: Unlike The RE series, The action is fast and furious in this one. It has plenty of action, puzzles, and random scares to keep you playing for hours on end. The controls are smooth with the ability to move the camera around as you move around yourself. All in all very solid.
Graphics: One word, Stunning. The best way to describe it is an interactive movie....it's that polished. Characters look great and the aliens look even more stellar. Am I high on this game? You bet!
Audio: Overall sound is pretty good and it has an excellent soundtrack. The part that could use adjusting is the Sound effects and character voices. I found myself having to adjust these things in game quite often and even at times turning up my TV to hear....other then that...still soild. Add in the Hollywood voice acting which includes Lance Henrickson(Aliens) Kate Mulgrew(Capt Janeway From Star Trek Voyager), Clancy Brown (Highlander) and Brad Dourif(Alien Resurrection), Michael Ironside(Splinter Cell), and a cast of others makes this a hell of a production.
Suggestions: My only suggestion is to...PLEASE...For the Love of GOD....make another one!! This version left me salivating for more!! Oh, and maybe just fix the sound a tad.....Hell, screw the sound....Just make another one!! Seriously though, Most underrated game....EVER! Buy it, rent it....trust me...if you like survivial horror....You'll fall in love with this game inside of 10 minutes.
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
Legends of Wrestling 2
Overall: Do you like Old School Wrestling?It doesn't matter because Legends Of Wrestling II is a must have for any wrestling fan. This is just a fun game to play. I've spent several hours playing the game and creating superstars of today and tommorrow.
Gameplay: Perhaps one of the easiest wrestling games I've ever seen move wise. Moves are easy to pull off and linked/reverse moves are even easier. Matches are done with the typical health meter system but don't let that fool you, Although arcadish in nature, when you up the difficulty level matches can take awhile to finish. Frame rate is good, Collision detection is good, and the wrestlers look larger then life....and well they should, after all, these are legends we're talking about. Game Modes include Standard Vs Match, 3 way dance, 4 way dance, Rumble, Cage, and Ladder match. Tag team matches include Standard tag, 3 way tag, 4 way tag, 6 man tag, and 8 man tag. Ladder and Cage matches are pretty good although during the ladder match the ladder itself suffers from some collision problems. The steel cage is great....It's much higher then a real cage and so it should be to accomdate these legends.
It also has a MUCH improved Career mode over Legends Of Wrestling I. In career mode you start out as Joe Jabroni(a wrestler you create or one of the legends in the game.) You start by picking one of 5 regions in the US. Once you pick a region, A storyline screen pops up. Moving at random, You stop the highlight square(Much like a bingo card) and you get that storyline. In other words it's possible to run a career several times as each region has up to 12 different storylines or more.
This gives the game high reply Value. Once you've become champion of a region you move to another region and once again get to select a storyline for that region. Once you've become champion of each region you're awarded the US title. From here you go to the World Region and a shot to become World Champion.
You also have tournament mode which can be done in three ways, Single, Tag, and Tag Title. Once you've won the tag team titles you can defend them in exhibition mode.
3 diffuclty levels can make for some fun but don't think playing on easy(Jobber level) is a push over. Even on easy, the game gets progressivly harder. (I ran one storyline where I had to have the promoters nephew as my tag partner....but I wasn't allowed to let him fight....I had to fight a tag team by myself....How's that for fun?) Once you win the US and World belts, You can defend them in exhibition mode aginst the computer or your freinds. Speaking of freinds, Up to 4 people can play for some real mat mayhem. Other things worthy of a mention, In 8 man tag team matches, all 8 men are on the apron....Impressive considering up till now you could usually only have 4 at any one time.
As for Create A Wrestler, Again this feature is much improved from the original but it is not without it's flaws. You're choice of hair for your wrestler is severally limited. Tattoos do not appear where they should on a human body...(for instance some arm tattoos look as if they are under the wrestlers arm.
You do have a good choice of options to dress you wrestler for success and there is even a store where you can unlock more clothing options. When it comes to giving your wrestlers moves you can hand pick every move you do or pick a legend set and modifiy it. When it comes to your wrestlers persona, you have so many options for names that you can easily make any legends or current superstar that you like. It has so many options for name, Nickname, hometown, and the like that you can make just about anyone you can dream up....and the best part, If you use available names and cities, during your ring entrance the announcer will say them.
The only real bad thing I can mention is that they took away the ability to rip your own intro music(Xbox Only)....and the intro music provided is mostly mediocre.
Graphics: Ok, we're not talking the best graphics ever but still the game is done well. Wrestlers appear to be blown up to giant size and why not....they're legends. Arena's are done very well. Each arena looks great including the Gym arena's you wrestle in during your regional days.
Although Not all about Visual appeal, The extras in the game need to be mnetioned somewhere. This has, hands down one for the best extras I've ever seen. Legend Interviews that make use of the DVD player inside the Xbox and PS2. Some of the bigget names in the sport where interviewed for the game and let me tell you, I've spent alot of time watching them. Each segement of interview is about 5 minutes long with almost ever wrestler having a bonus interview segment. If you really love old school wrestling or you want to know more about the legends of the sport....watch this and learn.
Another extra is the shop option that allows you to buy new outfits, wrestlers, arenas, cheats, stats, and concept art of some of the legends. The way it works is, after you finish any match type of win a region in career mode, you get green coins. (A few for basic matches, a little more for things like ladder, cage, and 8 man tags, and alot for winning regional and world titles.) Once you have these coins can you go shopping? Not yet. You have three coin types...Green which are given to you, then Blue and red coins which you must gamble for. How does that work? Simple, You trade in a certain number of green coins for a chance at blue coins, and more green coins for red coins. When you gamble, you get another bingo like card. You place your bets on the bingo card and then squares start to highlight red. You must stop the moving highlight on a sqaure you placed a bet on to win. Once you've earned enough coins you can start unlocking all kinds of stuff.
Audio: The typical slaps of the mat and crowd noise here. One thing that will catch your attention on the sound front is the wonderful clang of a shot with a steel chair. Weapons sounds are probaly some of the best sounds in the game. The soundtrack isn't too bad either with a bunch of up and coming bands getting some play time. The big bad however is Saliva which supplies &q for the opening of the game.....drawback, these kickass songs are not available as intro music and that is a shame.
Suggestions: What Would I change? Bring back the ability to rip your own intro music. Include all music on the game soundtrack for intro music.
Fix the Tattoo, Create a wrestler faces, and hair issues. They need work.
Allow a champion to wear the belt he's won.
Female Legends.
Tag team entrances
Create A Tag team so that you can put your guys together and have them enter together.
How about a create a title option....I'd like to be able to create an NWA World title or a WCCW World title for that real feel of history....or better yet....base the regions on real regionals that used to exist.
Play by Play and Color man would be nice.
Until Legends Of Wrestling 3....see ya.
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
The Thing
Overall: For those of you who where as heartbroke as I was when Capcom pissed away the Resident Evil Franchinse to that crappy little Gamecube.....It is time to Rejoice! Who need's RE when you have....THE THING! Scary, Pulse racing, Paranoia, Mucho Action! It's all here and then some.Gameplay: The first thing that caught my eye was the ability you have to interact with the world around you. From punching up passwords on a computer to using a closed circuit TV system, it's all in here. The weaponary provided to fight the nasty beasties is quite impressive not to mention some of the cool equipment you can pick up. Remember in RE when you came across a fire you had to find another way around(Most of the time)? Not in this game, Pick up a fire extinguisher and put that bad boy out. Paranoid one of your teammates might be infected....Give them a blood test and feel the tension as you wait for the results. You're teammates freaking out? You got stuff to cure that too! Finally, Are you the type of person who always wanted to kill your own teammates for no real reason? You can do that in this game!!(expect for the 1st two levels.) One last thing, Roasting A Beastie with your flamethrower is SO MUCH FUN! Bring plenty of marshmellows.
Graphics: Character's are nicely detailed to include 5 O'clock shadow on some of the poor souls you meet. The buildings and faculities you go to are done very nicely. The Things are.....well....Creepy! From the small little cute things to the really large nasty, repulsive, FUGLY monster. Now others may say Graphically this game could do a tad bit better....But it looks !&%$@#* fine to me.
Audio: Why I give sound such a high score? I'm in a building with many corridors(I won't say where as not to spoil it for other people)...when I hear this clicking noise and a gutteral roar. Now....I don't know about you...But my heart was up in my throat as I wandered around looking for whatever was making that noise.
The creature sounds are great..(watch the Movie and you'll see what I mean). The Voiceovers are very well done and lack the corny sometimes cheesy dialogue of the RE series which is good.
The only reason I didn't score this a 5? Weapon sounds. Flamethrowers sound awesome as does the Shotgun, Everything else could use a tune up.
Suggestions: 2 suggestions.
1. Tweak the sound
2. Make The Thing 2 Quickly!
Overall Score: 10.0 / 10
NCAA Football 2003
Overall: Well Obviously, The Guy who rated this below me can't do so without Bais towards Sega....But I'll try to. This is a Great College Football game. Gameplay: The gameplay is smooth and flows nicely. Cutbacks on a run look very realistic. The passing system is much improved over the last version of NCAA. The Run game is solid as always. Dynasty Mode is chalk full of options. My NCAA is a nice addition to the game including the trophy room. It is also VERY Cool that after your seniors Graduate....You can import them over to Maddon 2003 and Draft them. That by far is one of the best options in the game.
Graphics: Players look and play realistically. They cut, Leap, swat, Avoid tackles just like thier real world counterparts. Although I'll give Sega boy his dues....2D crowds suck. Other then that...The game looks and plays very nice.
Audio: School Music, The Roar Of the Crowd, and a Three man broadcast team that actually stays current with what's going on in the game. It can get a bit repeatitive but it's better then it used to be. The Crowd drowing out snap counts and the announcers is pretty cool too.
Suggestions: 3D crowd would be nice.....and a little more variation in the playbooks might be nice. Other then that....I can't complain. It's a great football game for College fans........GO IRISH! *Cheap Plug*
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Test Drive
Overall: Overall Appeal? This has none, Zero, Nada, Nothing. Don't get me wrong, It's a great concept for a game but it leaves you hanging bigtime. Gameplay: The Gameplay can be best described as CRAP. The cars handle sluggish, Turns are almost impossible to make, The Collision detection is horrid and no matter how much of a lead you may get on the other racers, they're always right on your back when you come close to a finish. The Manual is very UNhelpful in that it tells you nothing more then what buttons do what. It gives you no advice on how to do anything. It's lack of a difficulty option leaves you upset and frustrated as this game seems to be set on Expert. Now in all fairness, If you have enough patience (Which I do not)...after several, several hours of palying it may become fun. I just don't have the desire to sit there and get frustrated waiting for that to happen.
Graphics: Visually you can't deny that Test Drive LOOKS great. The cars look awesome as does everything else in the game....However, The lack of any damage done to your car when you wreck leaves you wishing it was more like Burnout. It would also be nice if wrecks slowed down your opponents a bit. Visually it looks awesome...but looks ain't everything. Visuals get a 4....Damage during wrecks would have got a 5.
Audio: I don't need to say much on this...the soundtrack is great and the fact you can use your own soundtrack is always fun too. Sound FX's could be better.
Suggestions: Better Collision detection, Less Sluggish cars, A better Manual on how to play the game, Damage from wrecks, Wrecks causing slow downs to your opponents....and the abilty to actually put some space between you and your opponents would be nice.
Overall Score: 3.0 / 10
Legends of Wrestling
Overall: If you're a diehard wrestling fan like me you want to get your grubby paws on just about anything. RAW was a disappointment. Legends Of Wrestling isn't outstanding, but it does more then RAW and at this moment that's good enough for me. Although the gameplay is lacking, Diehard fans will get a kick out of it. If you love wrestling, Buy it. If you're a casual fan then rent it.Gameplay: The gameplay is lacking and the manual that comes with the book doesn't give you all the info you need to play this game properly. After 3 hours of playing it by myself in 2 player mode I started to figure out how this thing works. It does have a very interesting Combo/Reversal system that is pretty easy to use once you figure out how it works. Like RAW, Unless you know the finisher of your wrestler, you'll have a hard time pulling it off. Legends Of Wrestling does have a rather interesting career mode with plenty of chances to win titles. It's lacking storyline wise but in the 70's and 80's who cared about storylines? Coolest in game feature is the ref. When you knock him out you get a "ref Bump" bonus. You can play as the ref and have all kinds of fun. I must admit that the cheating option is pretty nice too. You can have your manager distract the ref or call in a tag team partner. The only drawback, You can use weapons at any time even in front of the ref. If the cheating option worked correctly it would make using weapons and distracting the ref more fun. Gameplay modes include Vs Matches, 2,6,& 8 man tag team matches, Tourney Mode, Tag Team Title Tourney Mode, and Career Mode. You can choose from up to 42 Legends and as far as I can tell, there is no limit to the amount of wrestlers you can create. One big downside to gameplay is the arcadish nature of the game. The game speed is way to fast. When you run across the ring it's as if you have a jet engine strapped to your back. It makes running moves diffcult to pull off if you're even a tad bit slow on the buttons.
Graphics: Visually, Don't look for the wrestlers of Legends Of Wrestling to look super detailed like thier real time counterparts. Much like they where in the 70's and 80's, The wrestlers appear larger then life. Even blown up they don't look bad. The ring's and the arena's look pretty good and you do have a wide variety to choose from. One sweet Visual is the optional Blood mode. You can turn it on and let the bloodbath begin. You can even see blood dripping from the foreheads of the busted open wrestlers. In the Create a Legend deapartment, you can make just about anyone from Junkyard Dog to Kurt Angle. The mode is a tad bit deeper then RAW and it has a Stencil System so you can make your own logos. tattoos, and patterns.
Audio: Let me explain why I gave this such a high rating. The provided soundtrack that comes with Legends Of Wrestling is in two words, GOD AWFUL! The Ring announcer sounds like a reject from a Boxing promotion. It's Bad. The FX Sounds are the typical bumps and groans of most wrestling games. HOWEVER, You can use your own downloaded soundtracks with the game. You can even use them for your wrestlers music including the 42 superstars already in the game. When you go to the Creation screen you can pick Legends. It will load them and from there you can edit them. For instance, with the help of a few old WWF CD's I have Hulk Hogan come out to "Real American". Bret Hart comes out to his old WWF Music. I even created Kurt Angle. He comes out to hsi own current WWF music. Also in the sound department, when you create a wrestler, you can choose a first name, last name, nickname, and hometown all from a premade list. If you use premade names, the ring announcer actuall says them. The big suprise is that with the large variety of names, you can actually make Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and even Junkyard Dog. That and the edition of using your own soundtracks is what leads to me giving sound such a high score.
Suggestions: My suggestion for Acclaim as they work on Legends 2. Add a choice of faces to the create a legend feature. Also add more hair styles, more color, MORE boots (as the current selection kinda sucks), Add more everything! One more thing that could use a tweak in this department, Allow for placement of stencils you make or the stencils already preload. It would be nice if you can move the logos where you wanted them. Also, Move the tattoos on arms up to the shoulder and move the wrist options down to the wrist...not the forearm. As for gameplay, Slow it down a bit and take some of the arcade feel out of it. Wrestling fans want wrestling, Not DOA 3 Fighting.
Overall Score: 6.0 / 10
