The latest in Electronic Arts' Need for Speed series hit game store shelves early last month and like its redecessors the action once again focuses heavily on illegal street racing.
The game comes with several standalone modes like "beat the clock" and "circuit challenge," but players will no doubt spend most of their time in the career mode. Here gamers take on the role of a mysterious driver, whose face we never see, who gets involved with a gang of road racers that goes by the moniker, The Blacklist.
The aim of the game is predictable enough; beat all 15 members of the gang in a series of one-on-one races, take their cars as reward, make one's way to the top of the list and become the game's "most wanted" road racer.
The storyline is stronger and easier to follow than that of previous games in the series, but is let down by the graphics. Instead of simply using computer generated representations of the game's leading characters EA has chosen to use full-motion video cut scenes featuring real actors.
It might sound pretty neat -- and indeed red-blooded males will find some of the characters' real-life "assets" pleasing to the eye -- but on the whole it falls rather flat. It makes the game seem kitsch and even cheap.
While road racing plays a large part in the game it is not the game's biggest draw. The police pursuit segments are much more fun. After all what could be more enjoyable than out-running hoards of cops? If EA focused solely on these police pursuits then they'd certainly be leading the pack in regards vehicular PC/console games. Unfortunately the company didn't and as a result Most Wanted is, in all fairness, little but an average driving simulation game.
Long considered to be one of the best strategy games of all times, Civilization recently got a makeover and is back with a fourth installment that boasts a myriad of exciting new gameplay options and even sharper graphics.
Like previous games in the Civilization series, gamers are tasked with controlling a fictitious world. The game begins in the Stone Age and takes players on a wondrous journey through time to the Space Age. Gamers are political leaders who have special traits that will help or influence their reign.
By automatically being able to opt for a leader who has special organizational skills it cuts down somewhat on the time needed to organize certain aspects of one's fiefdom, thus allowing gamers to concentrate on other more important matters such as war and trade.
While the battle sequences in previous games were often predictable affairs, Civilization IV offers far more realistic battles. You can't send a bunch of ill-trained spearmen out to take on an elite cavalry unit and expect to return home triumphant this time around.
Of course, one of the great things about Civilization is that you don't have to go to war. Diplomacy works well and helps in regard trade and technology. Now gamers are able to pit rival cities against each other, watch as they lay waste to each other and simply move in and take over after they've been wea-kened by war. It's not nice and certainly not sporting, but if you want to win Civilization IV then double-dealings and dodgy diplomacy are a must.
James Bond PC/console games got a new look last year when Electronic Arts finally did away with the annoying first-person shooter mode and allowed armchair Bond wannabe's to take on the role of Pierce Brosnan's Bond in third-person mode.
For its latest installment of the Bond saga Electronic Arts has kept to the third-person format and traveled back in time. Brosnan gamers now get to control the most famous of all Bonds, Sean Connery in what is a very enjoyable, yet slightly flawed shooter/adventure game.
Although based on the 1963 movie adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel, From Russia with Love, the game follows the plot in a pretty loose fashion. The basic story line is correct, but certain parts are missing and, no doubt for legal reasons, Bond and Her Majesty's Secret Service's arch enemy, Spectre has been renamed Octopus.
If you're not a Bond purist, however, then the game is hugely playable. Like any good Bond game, spy gadgets are an important aspect of gameplay and here From Russia with Love doesn't disappoint. Bond, or rather the players get to use the nifty little Q-copter, which although based on "Little Nell" from the bond flick You Only Live Twice is great fun to whiz around in, with a belt that doubles as a rappelling device and a jet-pack that allows Bond to float around and get a better perspective on his environment.
Gameplay is certainly flawed in regards an accurate retelling of the spy tale, but graphically EA has done a marvelous job of recreating the 1960s Bond era. The veteran Scottish actor provides the voice over and employs many of his classic one-liners, the character looks like Connery's Bond and has many of his mannerisms, the most telling of which is shooting from the waist.
Ffed up with being a human character? If so, then you should check out Ubisoft's PC/console version of the recent big screen retelling of the classic King Kong, which gives gamers the chance to take on the role of the world's most famous ape.
The game's story line follows that of the movie almost exactly and after some brief introductory segments the action picks up as the film crew nears the mysterious Skull Island. Gamers begin by seeing the world through the eyes of movie director Carl Denham as voiced by Jack Black.
The fantastic graphics, which make up the island's lush green environments, make sightseeing fun and as this section of the game is non-linear you can roam anywhere. But the fun really starts when gamers get to take on the role of King Kong.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
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Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50