Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005
Publisher: EA Sports
Platform: PC, X-Box and PS2
Taiwan release: already available
For five years EA Sport's award-winning Tiger Woods PGA Tour series has ruled the digital fairways of console/PC golf gaming. It's quick-to-master interface, realistic game-play options and excellent graphics have ensured the game's position on the leader board was like that of Woods, untouchable.
While Woods himself has dropped a peg or two recently, EA's Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 is not only bigger and better than ever, but also has plenty of nifty new moves and functions to keep the armchair golfer amused.
The popular "Game Face" mode, which was introduced last year and allows players to customize the appearance of their players has been overhauled. Now dubbed "Game Face II" it gives players the chance to add even more detail to their customized golfers. Along with weird and wacky hair styles and tattoos, players can now add everything from bags under the eyes to laugh lines. Swing styles can now be tweaked to include oddball stance, knee and hand positions. Batty-looking swings can be created at the touch of a button.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 also introduces the new "Tiger Proofing" mode. Here players can alter green and fairway sizes and conditions. As a fully functioning game editor the mode is limited, however, and it doesn't allow players to alter the position of elements such as the rough, water or sand traps on the courses.
The bottom line on the latestTiger Woods is that it is a solid piece of work and guaranteed to keep virtual golfers happy. This is your chance to go up against golfing greats like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros from the comfort of your living room.
Rome: Total War
Publisher: Activision
Platform: PC
Taiwan release: November
The third title in the Total War series, Rome: Total War takes the finest aspects from its predecessors, Shogun and Medieval and adds a heap of fine- tuning and enhanced graphics.
Blending empire-building with a real-time battle engine, Rome allows players to choose their strategies, pick which Mediterranean nations to ally themselves with or invade and choose how regional leaders use their coffers. Of course, it also gives players plenty of opportunity to sit back and watch as thousands of realistic looking 3D graphical images of Roman troops storm the walls of Carthage or attempt to fend off Hannibal's hoards on the banks of the Trebia River.
While the battle scenes are stunning, the real glory of the game is the way in which players manage their affairs.
Players can opt for one of three powerful Roman families, who in turn have to deal, sometimes violently, with the Gauls, Germania, the Greek states and Carthage.
Along with your own agenda, the Roman Senate will, on occasion, task you with performing a service for them. Perform well, and family members gain promotion to the Senate and your riches and influence can lead to glory. Perform badly and your family name will become mud and your wealth and land will be plundered by the troops loyal to the unforgiving Roman Senate.
Far too complex for casual gamers, Rome: Total War will instead appeal to gamers looking for a historically accurate strategy game that both engages and engrosses.
Star Wars: Battlefront
Publisher: Lucas Arts
Platform: PC, X-Box and PS2
Taiwan release: already available
Featuring oodles of high-speed action and a host of characters, vehicles and locations from all five of the Star Wars movies, Lucas Arts' long-awaited addition to its long line of console/PC Star Wars themed games, Star Wars: Battlefront is a must for both fans of the films as well as those who enjoy fast-paced first-person shooter and team-based games.
Graphically brilliant, visually stunning and a joy to play, the game's only drawback is its learning curve. Once this is mastered, however, it enables a player to whip through the scenarios with ease.
Players can choose to be one of five classes of foot soldier from each of the series' five factions and do battle in three modes of play on 16 maps. Along with the vast array of foot soldiers, vehicles also play a big role in Battlefront. From nimble X-wing and TIE fighters to landspeeders and Tauntauns and fearsome AT-STs, the game features just about every Star Wars vehicle ever dreamed up.
What really makes Battlefront such a great game is its "Historical Campaign" mode, which allows players to follow the story lines and re-fight all of the action in the same order that it appeared in all five of the movies. Interspersed with film footage and voice-overs, this package will have true Star Wars buffs transfixed to their consoles/PCs for a very long time.
Game play is enhanced by the inclusion of John Williams' theme music. Crank the volume to the max and allow the Force to be with you as you take this excellent Star Wars game to previously unobtainable levels of playability.
Shellshock: Nam'67
Publisher: Edios Interactive
Platform: PC, X-Box and PS2
Taiwan release: November
Over the past year, Vietnam War-themed console/PC games have become almost as prominent as those set against the backdrop of World War II.
Touted as the most realistic Vietnam War-themed shooter on the market, Shellshock: Nam '67 sets out to provide gamers with a disturbing degree of realism.
Sadly, the level of realism Edios was hoping to create does not translate into the actual game-play mode. What the hype boils down to instead is plenty of foul language, photographs of semi-nude Vietnamese prostitutes, and some pretty gory cut scenes -- the nastiest of which depicts the mutilation of a prostitute by a grunt with an enormous hunting knife. As far as actual game play goes, Nam 67 is little less than basic and at times annoying.
The aim of the game is to take your character from being a green grunt to becoming a hardened Special Forces operative. For nearly all of the game's 13 missions, your character is accompanied by a squad of grunts -- several of whom die horrendous deaths as part of the cut scenes.
The objective of these missions involves destroying equipment or fending off wave after wave of NVA attacks. Needless to say, violent firefights that see large numbers of enemy combatants charging at you while screaming at the tops of their lungs, are the crux of the game.
You can visit a prostitute (the actual sex scenes are not part of the realism and don't appear on the screen), speak frankly with your squad members and kill "Charlie" like there's no tomorrow, but Shellshock: Nam '67 lacks substance, entertains for an hour at most and will not have players eagerly awaiting another tour of duty in the jungles of Edios's Vietnam.
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