Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: February 19, 2002

Often games are dismissed as mild entertainment, a placebo for the mind and an escapist pastime that accomplishes nothing. To those critics, I would most happily point out that constant negative reinforcement may very well save our entire world. Take, for example, the lesson so often learned and most recently reiterated in the Microsoft-published, Adrenium-developed Azurik: Rise of Perathia. This lesson reads as such: never, under any circumstance whatsoever, even if it seems like a good idea at the time, should you place the elemental balance of your world into a collection of easily stolen artifacts. Obviously, this is an important maxim, and some would argue that the fact that our culture has hit the point where we can support video games technologically is a direct result of our world’s strict no elemental artifact policy. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: February 9, 2002

With the Christmas season behind us, the pressure is off developers to rush their games to store shelves before a specific shopping date, and for most consoles that means an entry into what pundits usually call the second generation of releases. Usually consisting of notably more polish than launch titles and typically demonstrating a lot more comfort with the console’s operating system, this second wave of releases usually begins to give us the first glimpse of the system operating at peak performance. A few weeks ago we were impressed by a limited build of just such a title, and now we’re able to see the finished product in order to determine whether it lives up to expectations. The game in question is the Activision-published, Bunkasha-developed, Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: December 20, 2001

Arguably, SSX managed to bring snowboarding up to par with skateboarding in the extreme sports market. Proving that by going over the top with your gameplay you could put together an amazing package, EA Sports Big drew countless fans to the PS2. Following their efforts, countless other releases have appeared for new-generation consoles, all looking to capture that same magic quality. One of these offspring comes to us for the Xbox under the guise of Dark Summit. While the name initially seems odd, it’s just one of the many ways THQ has tried to carve their own niche in the snowboarding market. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: December 3, 2001

People only remember the spectacular plays and the spectacular screw ups. An NFL quarterback knows this rule all too well, as his skills are constantly under scrutiny and analysis by countless fans, sports casters and so forth. The tempting thing might be to take the middle ground; never risking yourself enough to leave a play fumbled or get sacked, and slowly but surely trying to gain ground. Of course, this sort of behavior will get you benched fast, since you have to push hard in the fierce competition of professional sports no matter what. With this in mind, we turn our attention upon NFL Fever 2002, a game that has both the benefit of being Microsoft published, and the challenge of facing up against EA Sports’ and Sega Sports’ competing series. Surprisingly enough, this first-party game sticks to a middle ground between its competitors, balancing aspects from each that, if done properly, could make for the pinnacle of football simulation. Then again, sticking to the middle is an easy way to get sacked hard, so we’ll have to see just how NFL Fever 2002 fares in this interesting approach. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: November 29, 2001

If there’s one thing the gaming world desires above all others, it’s acceptance. The reasons for this are twofold: First, the current crop of gamers most likely reached maturity in a hostile environment where it was widely-held that spending time with your computer changed you into that most horrible of states — “the nerd.” Second, if you achieve acceptance, all stigma that once applied to gamers is lifted and a mysterious reversal will take place, resulting in the gamer becoming, “cool.” Nintendo knew this when they launched their very popular string of ads for Mario Party 2, which featured a house hosting said title, surrounded by kids and protected by a strict bouncer. Like Nintendo, every system has recognized that they need a “party game,” and responding to this need we have Crash Bash, Sonic Shuffle along with Mario’s successful franchise. Obviously the folks at Microsoft decided that they weren’t missing out on this trend, and as a result of their efforts we have Fuzion Frenzy. What remains to be seen is whether this offering, so brimming with the potential to make its owner host to countless get togethers, will be the life of the party, or just another wallflower. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: November 22, 2001

Larry Niven’s Ringworld series can always lay claim to being one of the best stories ever told about this theoretical construct. Put simply, a ring world is a torus or doughnut shaped structure that has a landscape on the inner curve of its axis. Usually constructed using technologies that even our widest science fiction can’t describe, a ringworld’s surface area would be billions of times that of Earth’s, and all connected by the underlying ring structure. Taking this idea and running with its shape as inspiration, Bungie and Microsoft have teamed up to deliver us Halo for the X-Box. ( read more… )

Review by: Mike Laidlaw
Published: November 20, 2001

To begin with, it should be noted that Project Gotham Racing has absolutely nothing at all to do with Batman, The Joker or any DC trademark at all. Unfortunate naming crossovers aside, this Project is one of the few racing titles available at the X-Box’s launch, though fans looking for Microsoft’s response to Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec will be surprised at the contents of this DVD. Developed by Bizarre Creations and published by the Redmond giant, this racer could be more aptly described as an extreme sports title than a pure racing release. ( read more… )