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.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not