Exhale Star Trek fans. This is not it.
Legacy is certainly an ambitious saga that spans all five TV series (Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise). As expected, the story behind the game's career mode is good and involves the expected Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons and Borg. Voice acting, featuring series stars such as Scott Bakula and William Shatner, also evokes good times. But this Trek is plagued by a universe of problems.
The graphics look outdated; giant space stations explode in large chunks as though cut apart by giant space scissors rather than photon torpedoes. Sometimes phasers fire but can't be seen. The controls are frustrating on the PC because they were designed for a game controller, not a keyboard and mouse. Thus, there are times in the PC version, such as when allocating energy to different ship systems, when controls do not work reliably.
Players are assigned a fleet of ships, which creates even more problems. There is no "follow me" command. In fact, there is no way to assign fleet-wide commands other than to attack. The player has to micromanage each ship because the other captains are too stupid to order repairs. Battles are too long, and the targeting system has glitches. Missions are pretty long, too — up to 45 minutes. Fail a mission, and you are forced to start again from the beginning because there is no Save option.
As Spock would say, the missions are illogical. In one mission, medical ships need a military escort as they fly from planet to planet curing an outbreak of disease.
When a dozen Romulan ships attack, you would expect the medical ships to pause long enough for the warships to clear the way. Instead, they charge ahead to their doom. Multiplayer does not work unless a patch is downloaded and applied. Star Trek is a great franchise, but this is a flawed game.
WWE SmackSown vs. Raw 2007
THQ
Xbox 360, Xbox, Sony PSP, PlayStation 2
This SmackDown update rolls out a few new tricks for its World Wrestling Entertainment stable of stars.
The first noticeable change — other than improved graphics on the series' 360 debut — is the control scheme, which forgoes face buttons in favor of the right analog stick to initiate grapple moves. Once knocked out of the ring, the newfound ability to smack opponents with folding chairs or bash their heads into stairs or tables becomes obvious, too. The ability to fight amid the audience definitely ramps up the immersion factor.
Players enter the "squared circle" as one of dozens of male or female characters, including legends the Rock, Stone Cold or Hulk Hogan. A custom grappler also can be created for a deep Season Mode featuring more than 40 different original story lines. An expanded General Manager Mode allows the creation of a personal stable of bruisers. Wrestlers and arenas look good, but sometimes the animations hiccup. Load times are atrocious, and tag team matches require five interminable waits — four for each wrestler's introduction and one for the actual match.
The artificial intelligence appears buggy at times, with opponents standing immobile waiting for some serious hurt or repeatedly taking an unavoidable beatdown. But the game is at its best when it's mano a mano. Up to four players can beat on one another at the same time in multiplayer. Online play via Xbox Live also provides a bevy of options.
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