F.E.A.R.
VU Games
PlayStation 3
When F.E.A.R. (First Encounter Assault Recon) was first released for Windows PC back in 2005, it was easily one of the best shooter games of the year — perhaps even the best. Combining a psychological and physical horror story with conventional first-person-shooter game play, along with a modicum of tippy-toe tension and tactical stealth — plus a whole lot of wickedly vicious artificial intelligence (AI) — F.E.A.R. was (and remains) a tour de force. An expansion pack (“Extraction Point”) and a free version of the game’s online multiplayer component (called F.E.A.R. Combat”) has kept “F.E.A.R. at the forefront of the PC’s best shooters.
A year after its PC release, F.E.A.R. came to the Xbox 360 and similarly rose through the ranks of (too) many 360 shooters to sit righteously as one of the 360’s better games, with Xbox Live’s perfunctory multiplayer modes keeping it relevant to this day.
Now new again on the PlayStation 3, F.E.A.R. is naturally similar to the Xbox 360 version of the game — same story, characters, weapons, same freakishly clever enemies (plus some tacked-on content exclusive to the PS3 version), but, oddly and sadly, it’s actually worse in many respects, starting with pokier, hazier visuals, passing through excruciatingly long load times and ending with clunkier controls.
In fact, like the 360’s controller, the SixAxis controller seems ill-suited to the task of maneuvering, swapping out weapons, shooting, kicking into bullet time, etc, because it’s a handful trying to wrap keyboard-and-mouse conventions into a single game controller. It’d be passable, except the SixAxis’ squishy, bulbous shoulder triggers make the hard-boiled gun-blazing feel a little limp, squishy and slippery. Worse still, there’s a noticeable lag between squeezing a SixAxis trigger and actually firing a gun in the game, which is actually a frame-rate issue, but it feels like faulty control.
The previous generation of consoles saw many good PS2 games making a half-hearted transitions to the Xbox. This time, it seems the other way around.
Still, if you only own a PS3, not an Xbox 360 or a decent gaming PC, F.E.A.R. is one of the PS3’s better shooters … not the best, however, and that’s too bad, because, to date, there are only two shooters for the PS3 available.
Tetris Evolution
THQ
Xbox 360
The only thing more remarkable than the longevity of Tetris — the mother of all puzzle games — is the number of its iterations. The latest, Tetris Evolution, does little to change the basic premise of geometrically shaped blocks (two-dimensional tetrominoes comprised of four pixel-like squares) falling downward. You rotate and route them along the way to have them land at the bottom in the hope of creating at least one contiguous line that will then disappear, making room for the unrelenting stream of new blocks coming down.
It’s still addictive as all heck in this Xbox 360 version, but no more so than the various cheapie and freebie versions littering game-store bargain bins and casual-game Web sites around the world — except the visuals are exceptionally striking and there are eight different modes of play, though each offers just a scant twist on the basic block, drop and vanish shtick.
Even the online multiplayer mode does little to change the fundamentals of the game, save for the ability to dump pieces on an opponent. It’s no big thing.
While everyone and their collective dog should certainly own at least one version of Tetris, Tetris Evolution is not it. It’s simply too expensive at US$30. It doesn’t really offer anything better than the innumerable cheap or free versions (and knock-offs) of Tetris already permeating the planet.
Guitar Hero II
Activision
Xbox 360
It now can be said without hyperbole or metaphor: The Xbox 360 rocks! — thanks to Guitar Hero II.
Previously available only on PlayStation 2, Guitar Hero II for Xbox 360 is not a mere lateral move to a new platform, it’s really the next level in guitar-activated action. The essence of gameplay remains the same — mimic guitar riffs on a custom (and stringless), Gibson Explorer-like guitar controller, dubbed the “X-Plorer,” with five color-coded buttons in lieu of frets, a toggle switch where the pickup should be and a little replica whammy bar for bending notes (or just shaking for effect), plus the stock d-pad and menu button recessed in the heel of the body, all used in conjunction in a rather elaborate rhythm game of watch and listen, copy and keep up. It’s similar to the Dance Dance Revolution or even the Donkey Konga rhythm-based games, except much more intimately manipulated.
On the high-powered Xbox 360, there are better audio and visuals, obviously — especially if you’ve got a big sound system and an HDTV setup — but also a wealth of content — 70 songs in which to rock out.
You’ll play classic anthems like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird, power pop such as the Foo Fighters’ Monkey Wrench, and riff rockers like Spinal Tap’s Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight (yes, Spinal Tap — the iconic but fictitious metal band).
You can download more songs (and other related content) via Xbox Live (three-packs cost about US$5), so even if you master the included songs (yeah, right), there are fresh challenges waiting for you.
Guitar Hero II not only lets you fake-shred the guitar solos of such songs, but alternately the underrated rhythm parts or even the bass lines.
It also allows for two-player cooperative or competitive play (an additional guitar controller can be purchased separately and a dual guitar bundle is available), so two players can jam like air-guitar playing fools, only on little plastic replicas instead of air.
Surprisingly, dual-jamming with a buddy does emulate the euphoria felt by real musicians really jamming quite effectively. The intangible bliss of actually creating the more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts music is missing, of course, but otherwise, the arcane camaraderie of musicianship is present, and that’s rather remarkable.
Sadly, the controller is wired rather than cordless, so you’re stuck standing (or sitting) just couple of meters away from the console, which can be awkward depending on where you house your Xbox 360 (or even dangerous if you’re a flamboyant, animated rocker).
As it happens, Guitar Hero III will, in fact, sport wireless guitar controllers — and online multiplayer. But for now, the superlativeness of Guitar Hero II and its replay longevity found in new song packs coming out every month is enough to keep on rockin’ in the free world for a long, long time, maybe even forever.
SingStar Pop
Sony
PlayStation 2
Continuing to chip away at the gigantic market share of Konami’s Karaoke Revolution, Sony’s Singstar Pop delivers a second dose of alternative karaoke gameplay (karaoke that scores you on pitch and cadence) in a sequel to the similarly stupendous SingStar Rocks.
As the title suggests, the 30 songs included are decidedly sugary — some easily forgettable tunes like Ashlee Simpson’s Invisible (bet you’ll lip-synch better than she does) and Avril Lavigne’s Sk8er Boi. However, most — like U2’s Vertigo, Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance with Somebody, Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun — have held up well beyond Billboard’s flavor-of-the-month.
What’s more, SingStar Pop has you singing over the original recordings and videos of each song, not generic knock-offs by a studio cover band and made manifest by computer-generated nobodies.
And further one-upping Konami’s Revolution titles, SingStar Pop is more versatile as it incorporates the Eye Toy camera into gameplay, allowing for cooperative or competitive duets and, best of all, allowing you to pull the songs off the SingStar Rocks game by simply swapping out for the original game’s disc on the fly, effectively doubling your sing-along options for those karaoke house parties.
Obviously, you need to have both an affinity for embarrassing yourself in public and a fondness for pop music to warrant picking up a copy of SingStar Pop. But, if that’s the case, it doesn’t get much better than this.
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