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GAME ON!
By Ian Bonds
November 11th, 2005
Well kids, you’d never thought you’d see it happen, did you? Well, here it is, the red-letter day. I, Ian Bonds, am reviewing an honest-to-God SPORTS game. Not just ANY Sports game, either, but a FOOTBALL game. What is this world coming to? Hell, there’re some other physical activity games here as well, though they tend to lean towards the more “extreme” side of things. Get your gear on and meet me in the gym, it’s game time…
A LEAGUE OF IT’S OWN
So, as I’m sure many of you know, EA Sports acquired the exclusive right to the NFL license for the next five years, thusly eliminating any competition from other football games. Or, that was the plan, anyway. However, not having the license was the best thing that could have happened to Midway’s BLITZ series, as the restrictions set by the No Fun League have now been lifted, allowing for some serious changes to the traditional football game. BLITZ: THE LEAGUE, out now for PS2 and Xbox, is sort of a combination of arcade football action and the kind of plotlines you’d see on ESPN’S PLAYMAKERS series.
You take an 8-on-8-football game, throw in some dirty hits and arcade style power-ups, add a touch of drug use and cheap tactics by players, and the end result is actually a good bit of fun. I’ll be the first to admit, I am not a football fan by any stretch of the imagination. However, I have been having a blast with this title. From the first kickoff to the last touchdown in overtime, BLITZ has enough bells and whistles to make traditional football fans say “Madden who?” and cross over.
It begins with the season campaign. Your created team just isn’t getting the fans the way it used to, and is now dropped into Division Three. Your manager, a crooked wheelin’ and dealin’ sort, finds just the right combination of key players and coaches to get this team back on it’s feet. Now you have to raise your team out of the ranks of suckage all the way to the top of the league. To do so, you’ll have to incorporate some not-so-sportsmanlike tactics.
Take a typical tackle. Now, throw in just wanting to hurt the guy, just cause you’ve had a bad week. Pulling the left trigger prepares you to execute a dirty hit, knocking some sense into your target, and possibly sending him off the field with an injury. Bones break, ligaments tear, and general pain and chaos runs rampant across the field. Hit them hard enough, and you’re treated to a quick cut-away x-ray shot of the bones snapping. As the player is rushed off the field, you can choose to have the doctor tend to the
injured player, possibly costing him so play time, or go for the quick fix of “juice”; a performance enhancing drug to quell the pain and keep barreling through the game. It’s these sorts of tactics you’ll never see in a licensed game, and it offers up a fine diversion from your typical sports genre.
If on the offensive, the left trigger becomes a sort of focus meter, called “Clash”. The more yards you gain, the more Clash you have. Pulling the left trigger allows time to slow a bit, so you can maneuver around the field, straight-arming would-be tacklers, or juking with precision. Build up enough Clash and you’ll enter “Unleashed” mode, where a well-timed trigger pull can allow for some serious damage or game winning passes and blocks.
Sure, it’s arcade-y, but it’s damn fun. It’s not perfect however, as some cut-scenes just don’t seem finished, with repeated animations, and voicework with no lip synch animated. There also seem to be the occasional gameplay bug, as I had several instances of floating across the screen while trying to make a pass, and even cases where my Clash didn’t kick in, despite my meter being full. Still, it wasn’t often enough to be a huge problem, and so far, my team is still undefeated.
There’s still room for improvement. The graphics are a bit uneven in the game, and some of thew voicework could be improved, but overall, it’s definitely one gridiron fans will want to pick up, if the same hum-drum of normal football is getting them down. It’s good clean fun, just without the clean.
One Gamer’s Opinion:
IT’S ONLY T.H. WASTELAND
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Well, another year, another Tony Hawk game. In the Birdman’s seventh video game iteration, we’re breaking new ground…sort of, with a trip to Los Angeles. In TONY HAWK’S AMERICAN WASTELAND, out now for PS2, Gamecube and Xbox, and due next week for Xbox 360, you play a country poser who wishes to move to the big city and become a skating legend. Along the way, you’ll meet like-minded thrashers who take you in, and together you attempt to build the world’s greatest skate park. Yeah, no one buys these games for plot.
Still, the main game makes a large claim. A huge, free-roaming representation of Los Angeles with no loading times as you pass from one part of town to the next. And while the game is really huge in scope, the claim isn’t exactly true. As you pass from one point of the game to the next (say, from Hollywood to Beverly Hills) the game stops and stutters a bit (maybe about a second or two) as you travel through a connecting tunnel or throughway to the next area. It’s minor, but noticeable. However, the game’s hamfisted plot and minor load hiccups aside, there’s still the same solid skate gameplay to be found. As a noob, you’ll have to re-learn all the tricks you’ve picked up from previous titles (you don’t even get a wallride or a manual to start) and there’s even a few new things to add to your ever building catalogue. The DOGTOWN inspired Bert Slide, wallruns and flips, as well as some new moves for last year’s Natas Spin maneuver add a bit of flair to the already bursting move-set. They've even added BMX bikes to the mix to spice things up a bit.
The game’s free-roaming form even incorporates the normal character building attributes directly in in-game menus. Wanna change your gear/hair/clothes/spray tag? Go to a skate shop, barber, boutique or meet up with a street bomber and adjust accordingly. You can’t put in a completely tailor made skater into
the main story as before (you choose from one of five pre-made bumpkins, whom you can alter at will in game). Still, there’s room for that kind of self-crafting fixation for the game’s robust Classic, 2-Player and Online modes. And, for the first time, Tony and company are on Xbox Live.
Honestly, as much fun as it was to do a kickflip over Ben Whofleck, or gather wood and awnings for the skate park, I found more joy in the game’s Classic mode, achieving minimalist (and seemingly easier than before) goals in a two-minute timed game. The graphics finally received an upgrade, but the gameplay seems to take a step back in Story mode with your character having to learn these tricks they’ve become familiar with from previous titles. It doesn’t take long, but you can’t bust a 1,000,000-point line just starting out, unless you’re playing Classic.
While it may not be the best Hawk, it’s still the same fun as before, and there’s enough new tricks and features to have fans back again. The free-roaming city is a blast once you open it up, and the load times, as I said, are barely a second or two as you pass through to the next area. The bikes are a nice change of pace, and actually handle completely differently than the skateboards, which is a nice change of pace. As for the actual story though, Tony may want to take next year off.
One Gamer’s Opinion:
CRAPTACULAR GAME OF THE WEEK
There are some games that I just don’t get. For a while, I didn’t understand sports games. Why sit on your couch and play football instead of going outside and doing it for real? Are you THAT afraid of sweat? Then, it dawned on me that most folks do it as an escape…the ability to take on the role of their favorite star athlete and get them to win the Superbowl they never could in reality. Fine. But what about fishing games? Hunting games? Unless there’s some sort of score tally, these are just pointless to me. Go out and do it for real, you’ll probably spend the same amount on lures, ammo and beer that you spent on the game itself. Which brings me to this week’s Craptacular game. GREG HASTING’S TOURNAMENT PAINTBALL: MAX’D is just another genre I flat don’t get. To me, Paintball ALREADY is a video game. Most folks can’t go out and shoot friends and co-workers without some serious legal ramifications, so they either do it in a video game, or they get suited up and get that adrenaline rush in a paintball arena. Making a video game of paintball just seems superfluous. If it’s a thrill in reality, boy is it sure ever dull on my TV. Oh, I shot you with paint. You’re not dead, but tag, you’re out! Now I’ve been hit with paint. I’m imagining the annoyance of my dumb luck, and visualizing the welt on my arm. There’s even a feature in the game to “cheat” by WIPING OFF THE PAINT WHERE YOU GOT SHOT BEFORE AN OFFICIAL SEES IT! What the crap is that? Maybe I’m just missing the point, but I still think the game sucks.
One Gamer’s Opinion:
Next week, I have another crap-ton of games to review, and my GTA and CASTLEVANIA features are still forth coming. My computer just died this week, so I either have to rescue them off my hard drive, or write them over again, hence the delay. Plus, now I can’t play QUAKE 4 until it comes out for 360. See you all next week.
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