Game Reviews

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike Publisher: Ubisoft Platform: X-Box Taiwan Release: Early September

If you're after an intense hybrid shooter with an original plot and some great twists and turns, then you can't go wrong with Capcom's excellent Darkwatch.

Set the Wild West, players take on the role of Jericho Cross, a train robber who inadvertently releases the tormented soul of Satan's son and for his sins is turned into a pistol-packin' vampire.

Having Cross into a blood-sucking creature of the night, Satan's son goes on to unleash multitudes of the undead onto humanity. With the help of a secret organization, known as the Darkwatch Cross, he sets out to exterminate the zombie hordes.

The game not only gives players the chance to blast, bash and smash away at a smorgasbord of ornery bad guys, but it also has the added bonus of allowing gamers to choose how the main character develops during the game, thanks to an inventive "reputation building" system. If Cross devours innocent victims of zombie mayhem he is considered to be a bad guy and if he chooses to cleanse their souls he becomes a good guy.

Codename Panzers [Phase Two] Publisher: CDV Software Platform: PC Taiwan Release: September/October

The action is full-on from the get-go. And while cut-screens allow gamers to follow the plot and chart Cross's progress they don't detract or distract from the over all blood soaked mayhem that drives Darkwatch.

As in any good shooter, players have a whole enchilada of weaponry at their disposal. Cross can slay zombies at close range with his trusty Redeemer or choose to take them out from a distance with a Range Rifle. If players feel the need to take out more than one zombie at a time or wish to blow off heads and limbs then a whole heap of heavier weaponry such as the mortar-like Rail Rocket or the high-powered Gatling Turret can be employed.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Publisher: Global Star Platform: PS2, X-box and PC Taiwan Release: September

Along manmade weapons Cross also has vampire powers and can execute gravity defying maneuvers and employ his "Blood Shield," which deflects bullets. Although the action is nonstop and players really don't get much time to think let alone pop off to make a cup of tea, game play is relatively easy. Players should master the controls within 20 minutes.

Darkwatch Publisher: Capcom Platform: PS2 amd X-Box Taiwan Release: Mid/Early September

Graphically game is superb. Cross, his allies and the zombie hordes are all frighteningly real and the environments in which the run and gun action takes place are truly magnificent

Summit Strike is the latest in the popular Ghost Recon series and while technically an expansion pack for Ghost Recon 2 it still makes for a great standalone game. For those who enjoy realistic tactical shooters it is an addictive and absorbing game.

Once again players are tasked with leading the Ghost Squad as it undertakes a series of special missions in hot spots around the world. This time around the fight is taken to Kazakhstan, where the squad has the unenviable task of rounding up a terrorist cell led by Pakistani terror kingpin Asad Rahil.

There are a total of 11 missions and whether it's close quarter house-to-house combat or search and destroy missions in the wilderness, each mission poses its own unique problems. Simple orders can be given to individual squad members, but they act on their own initiative at times and will lay down covering fire or assault the enemy without being told.

While makes it a lot easier for gamers to get to grips with the game it can prove rather annoying, especially when confronted with multiple enemy combatants. When it does get frenetic, if players lose concentration for even a second, then it's pretty difficult to figure out who is shooting at whom and what is going on.

As with previous Ghost games the quality of the enemy AI is outstanding. Clear a road or a house and return there later and instead of finding nothing but the bodies of slain enemy troops, chances are players will find instead that a new terror team has moved in and is awaiting the return of Ghost Squad.

Along the squad-based missions there are also a couple of solo jobs which players undertake on their own. These are quite fun and as you don't have weapon toting Ghost Squad members backing you up, artillery can, when the need arises be called in to obliterate the terrorists.

While recent remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starring Johnny Depp is still doing well at the box office, the same cannot be said of Global Star's move tie-in game. It's a disaster from the start. It will bore the children and will leave experienced gamers wondering why they bothered.

The crux of the game, like the movie and Roald Dahl's original novel, revolves around the misadventures of young Charlie Bucket who wins a trip to the wondrous chocolate factory owned by the eccentric Willy Wonka. Unlike the book and movie, however, Charlie is tasked with helping to save the other winning ticket children as they are punished for their

wrongdoings.

Controlling Charlie as he explores the factory, interacts with dwarf-like Oompa-Loompas and sets out to save his fellow children from the river of chocolate, is at times annoying and at times just impossible.

Game is not only awkward, but is frustrating beyond the point of politeness. The game's hero, Charlie floats through the air instead of walking and can even disappear right in front of the gamers' eyes. The graphics are so awful that they even make Pac Man look cutting edge.

Camera are equally odd and if gamers bother to play this game for more than five minutes they'll surely get an headache. All in all Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a complete dud and a game that shouldn't be purchased, borrowed or even stolen under any circumstances whatsoever.

Codename Panzers recently returned to the market place with a second installment of its popular 3D real-time strategy game that allows gamers to relive all the action of World War II as it happens from the comfort of their apartments.

It's certainly not the best war game on the market and gamers used to more logistically realistic and less graphically pleasing war games might find it rather annoying, but newcomers to the war gaming front should find the game both challenging and graphically pleasing.

Like first edition Codename Panzers [Phase Two] it is a purely tactical war game that doesn't concern itself with anything but total warfare. There's no need to build factories and no need to concentrate on producing weapons and building up one's forces.

This time around gamers can opt to play as the Americans in Italy, the Italians in North Africa, and for the first time Yugoslav partisans as they attempt to drive the Nazi hordes from their homeland.

With the exception of the Yugoslavian campaign much of the action is tank based, which, while making for great viewing, especially in the wide-open deserts of North Africa also means players need to be fully aware of the need for maneuverability.

The game's over reliance on the use of tanks does unfortunately make it somewhat unrealistic, as mass infantry movement is always a great feature of any war game. It is still, however, entertaining to watch a set piece tank battle take place on one's monitor, however, without anyone actually getting killed. -- Gavin Phipps