Aaron’s Thoughts

Developer: Rockstar Games
Players: Single player story mode (up to 16 via xbox live)
Difficulty: Moderate
Genre: Free-roam Action/Adventure

Story

After years of waiting, the next installment of the famed Grand Theft Auto is here. GTA IV is one of the most anticipated games in history with over a million pre-ordered copies sold. Fortunately, GTA IV lives up to the hype in every aspect.

You play as Niko Bellic, an illegal immigrant from Serbia. Niko was persuaded by his cousin Roman to ‘jump the boat’ to Liberty City (a parody of New York City) in order to live a high profile life in the land of opportunity. It doesn’t take long before Niko realizes that life in Liberty City is not all it’s cracked up to be. Before you know it, Niko is involved in gang wars, love triangles, and murder.

After a few missions, it is revealed that Niko is looking for someone in Liberty City. After doing terrible things for the Serbian army, Niko has skeletons in his closet that he needs to take care of. There are many other twists in the game, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

There are many upgrades to the core game play in GTA IV. The biggest addition is the use of a cell phone. Instead of waiting for jobs to present themselves to you like in previous games, you now have the option to call any one of your contacts to see if they have work for you. The phone also functions as a camera and date book. You don’t just use your phone for jobs: you use it for hanging out with friends. Calling your friends to shoot some pool, go bowling, shoot darts, go drinking, or even go to a strip club are a few of the activities you can participate in. The games are fully functional and fun to play. The cabaret club, which features big name comedic stars (Kat Williams), is truly funny and realistic.The strip club is absolutely hilarious. Let’s just say that the strippers say some very interesting things while giving Niko a lap-dance. Drinking is also fun. After you get drunk, the camera floats all over the screen and Niko stumbles all over the place. It is almost impossible to walk, and even harder to drive. It’s also interesting that your friend or girlfriend will be much more open to you when they are drunk. There are a lot of small details that make a big difference.

The way that cops chase you has also been updated. The six-star wanted level system is still used, but this time around, cops use a pac-man chase style. To lose your wanted level, you must get out of the search radius that the cops set up. As long as you are in the circle, cops will be able to find you. If you get out of the circle long enough, your wanted level will go away and you’ll be free to go. The system works fine, but it’s a little to easy to ditch the police.

Hanging out with friends has benefits, too. The more a friend likes you, the more they can do to help you. Little Jacob is a friend who can eventually sell you weapons if you hang out with him enough. There are many other examples of this, and each person you meet has a unique benefit. One of the most useful friends you have is your cousin Roman. He is the owner of a taxi service, and can send a cab your way whenever you wish.

Taxi cabs are a great addition to the franchise. Whenever you see a cab, simply whistle at it, and jump in. You can pick any destination and be driven there at either a normal speed, a rushed speed, or just skip the trip all together (you pay the cabby a bigger fair). It’s a great concept and is extremely convenient.

One of the most impressive aspects of the game is the use of a fictitious Internet and television. Accessing the Internet allows you to view the news, a ring-tone site, e-mail, and even a dating site. There are many more pages on the net, but there are just too many to list. It is an absolutely amazing feature and is extremely entertaining. You can literally spend hours surfing the net. There is also a few television programs that you can watch.

As you can see, there is a lot to do in Liberty City. The story takes about 30 hours to complete, but with the side missions and entertainment, you could easily spend 70 hours playing the game.

Story rating: 10

Combat

Combat in GTA IV has taken gigantic steps since previous GTA titles. The lock on system is easy to use and very intuitive. Depressing the left trigger half way allows you to free aim, while depressing it all the way lets you lock on to enemies. Flicking the tricker in any direction locks on to different parts of the enemies body. It gives a high feeling of control.

Another addition to combat is the use of a cover system. Pressing the right bumper allows you to take cover behind any object in the game, and it works surprisingly well. Objects will start to break up as they take fire, and you can slide from cover to cover. You can also blind-fire, which works well in times of distress.

The weapons are typical of most games: fists, pistols, SMG’s, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and a RPG. There are different levels of guns, but all of them are powerful enough to use throughout the game.

Combat rating: 9.5

Graphics

The graphics in GTA IV are not the best that I’ve seen, but given the scope of the game, they are by no means disappointing. For the first time in the series, characters have five fingers!!! The city is absolutely huge, with every area of the city being taken up by skyscrapers and pedestrians. The city is just like New York. The details in the game make up for any cosmetic faults. The city really feels alive. Pedestrians appear to live real lives. They take out umbrellas when it rains, answer cell phones, carry out conversations with each other, and even fight. Keeping true to the GTA comedy, there are hilarious parody’s all over the city. The voice-acting is top notch. The game is more like a movie in terms of the story and the way the actors make the characters come alive. This is by far the best sounding GTA game. It’s hard to explain just how amazing the game looks and feels.

Graphics rating: 9.75

Pros and Cons

GTA IV pushes the world of gaming far and beyond anything we’ve seen before. The combination of the great story, side missions, and graphics make it an almost unreal experience. It’s hard to put down the controller, and you feel like you are a part of the city. It’s not very realistic to say that there are no weaknesses in the game, but I honestly can’t say that there are any. I have to admit that I was a skeptic and was planning for a huge letdown, but let me be bold and say that this is arguably one of the best games ever, on any platform. You simply cannot miss the experience of playing GTA IV.

Grand Theft Auto IV earns a score of 10

Developer: Sega
Players: Single Player
Difficulty: Moderate
Genre: Action/Adventure

Story

In Viking: Battle for Asgard, you play as Skarin, a noble warrior who wields a sword and axe. The goddess Freya asks that you help defeat Hel, goddess of the underworld. Hel’s forces are pillaging settlements all around Asgard in order to take over the earth. To stop this from happening, you must take over enemy encampments, free fellow vikings, and find dragon gems. There is a lot of potential for a great story, but the game fails to reach this potential. The cut-scenes are brief and do a poor job of story-telling.

Story rating: 6.75

Combat

The combat in Viking is actually very satisfying. The ‘A’ button performs a fast but weak attack, and the ‘X’ button performs a slow and powerful attack. Different combinations of the two buttons make for interesting animations, all of which are fun to watch. When an enemy is near death, a small ‘x’ symbol will appear over his head. When you press ‘X’ near him, the camera zooms in and goes into slow motion, allowing you to fully enjoy the gory execution of your foe. These executions usually involve some sort of dismemberment.

Learning new moves is an intelligent way to mix up combat, but isn’t really executed well. There is one area of each map that is designated as a fighting arena. As you gather money throughout your journey, you are able to purchase new moves at the arena. The moves are almost useless because any enemy can be defeated with the default moves. The only move that is effected is the sneaking combo, which allows you to sneak up on unsuspecting bad guys and, with the touch of a button, defeat them.

Boss battles are not nearly as difficult as they should be. The only differences between bosses and regular baddies is that they are bigger and have cooler finishing moves.

The toughest battles are called Stronghold Battles. After you have recruited enough vikings for your army, you can march to the enemies main stronghold to battle it out. The game does a nice job of handleing litereally hundreds of characters on screen at one time. The battles, however, are short and repetetive. You can avoid fighting anybody if you summon your dragon right away. This makes all of the hard work you did seem unrewarded.

strong>Combat rating: 7.5

Graphics

Sega did a great job with the graphics in Viking. This is probably the closest any game has come to Oblivion in recent memory. The world of Asgard is large and well detailed, but unfortunately there is no incentive to explore the land. Animations are fluid and realistic, with rare clipping issues. The water effects are the best of any game on any platform. You would think that a character as badass as Skarin could swim, but apparently that wasn’t on his ‘to-do’ list as a child.

Frame-rate is never a problem, and you can see distant objects clearly and colorfully.

Graphics rating: 9

Pros and Cons

Viking has great graphics and a gory combat mechanic. The large battles are fun to watch and are something rarely seen in video games.

The huge land that you have access to is pointless to explore. Combat gets repetitive and turns into a button-mashing brawl. The story is vague and you never feel connected to Skarin.

Viking: Battle for Asgard earns a score of 7.25

Developer: Electronic Arts
Players: Single Player
Difficulty:Moderate
Genre: Ice Hockey Simulation

Game play

With the Stanley Cup playoffs underway, a review of a hockey game seemed appropriate. NHL ‘08 takes advantage of its updated game engine and slick controls with this years game.

Skating is performed by moving the left joystick in the direction you wish to move. If you hold it in one direction, your skater will accelerate to full speed. The right tricker is used for passing, “A” is used for hooking, and the right joystick is used for shooting and checking. When you push up on the joystick, your player will perform a wrist shot. When you pull down and then push up, your player will perform a slap-shot. While shooting, you aim with the left joystick (down and right aims to the lower right corner, etc.). On defense, the right joystick is used for checking, which is really fun to do. The flow of games are fast paced and exciting, but not overwhelming. The opposing team’s defense will adjust to your style of play, so repetition is not beneficial. Along with the intelligent A.I., each team plays like it’s real life counterpart. Detroit plays fast paced and has good defense, while the Rangers play a little on the dirty side (they always have a lot of penalties).

Game play Rating: 8.5

Game modes

There aren’t a lot of game modes in NHL ‘08, but there is still plenty available to keep you entertained. You can set up a custom tournament, play an international tournament, or play the franchise mode. The franchise mode has been reworked since last year, and has fixed a lot of its problems. The contract negotiation system is much more in-depth and works a lot better than last year. Players will decline offers if they don’t think they will get many minutes, or accept offers because they know someone on the team. There are many other reasons for accepting or declining offers, and each one seems realistic. You can also send coaches to scout rookies, train your current team, create plays, and hold practices. The practice mode is the deepest of any sports game on the market. You can increase speed and agility by completing skating drills, or increase shooting attributes by completing shooting drills. In goalie practice, you have to stop breakaways, penalty kills, and any other situation you wish you put yourself in.

You can also play as each NHL team’s AHL affiliate. The rosters are accurate and complete, which adds a ton of depth to the game. If a certain player is playing particularly well, he will be promoted to the NHL.

The franchise mode keeps track of your teams statistics, and awards all of the typical awards at the end of the season.

Game mode Rating: 8.0

Graphics

The graphics in NHL ‘08 are the best of any sports game to date. Players look just like they do in real life, and the animations of every action are spot-on. The frame rate holds at 60 fps throughout every mode, which is impressive. The announcers do a great job and add another dimension to games. They call the game using the proper lingo, and also tell you what you are doing wrong and what you are doing right.

Graphics Rating: 8.5

Pros and Cons

NHL ‘08 is easily the years best hockey game due to its impressive graphics and fun game play. The announcers do a great job of moving games along with a realistic, emotional tone. The franchise mode improves over last years game by leaps and bounds.

Online play is laggy and it is hard to get connected to a game. The fighting mechanic is poorly executed and seems purposely unrealistic.

NHL ‘08 earns a rating of 8.5

Developer: Electronic Arts
Players: Single player (Up to 8 via XBOX Live)
Difficulty: Moderate
Genre: Racing

Game play

Burnout: Paradise is the latest entry to the popular racing franchise. Not much has changed from previous entries, with the exception of online play and graphics. The game starts you in the middle of Paradise city (yes, that is also the theme song) with a low end car. The world of Paradise is huge, to say the least. It takes about five minutes to drive from one end of the city to the other. From there, you are basically left to figure out how to play on your own. This, however, works very well and is completely natural.

The controls are very simple, which is typical of a racing game. The right trigger accelerates, the ‘X’ button is the hand-brake, and the ‘A’ button is for boosting. Simple, but effective seems to be a good formula for racing games.

There are three car classes: speed, stunt, and aggressive. Speed cars are the fastest of the three, but are also very weak and can be taken down fairly quickly. Stunt cars have the best handling, but are even weaker than the speed cars. Aggressive cars are the slowest and have terrible handling, but can take tons of damage and take down other cars the fastest.

Game play Rating: 8.5

Game Modes

You begin with an class E license, and must complete different mission types to earn a new license. These missions are found at each and every stop-and-go light in the city (there are literally hundreds of lights). You can do stunt missions, survival missions (other cars try to take you down), take-down missions (you take other cars down), or just a straight up race. Each time you complete a mission you take a another step towards earning the next license type. Completing missions and gaining new licenses earn you different cars, which is extremely addicting.

There are tons of side-missions in the game. Every shortcut you find has barricades that can be broken down, billboards that can be smashed, and ramps that can be jumped. Also, every street has a “show-time” score, which is the amount of money a crash totaled on that road. When you enter show-time mode, your car enters a violent crash scene that you are in complete control of. You press ‘A’ to keep your car flipping down the road, trying to hit as many other cars as possible. It is an awesome feature that is wildly entertaining.

Game Mode Rating: 8.0

Graphics

The graphics in Paradise are absolutely flawless. I have never seen a game world as realistic as this one. Every nook and cranny is expertly detailed and full of life. Crashes are hands down the best part of the game. When you get into a crash, the game slows down and zooms in on your car. This is a breathtaking moment and it never gets old. Every piece of metal that should bend and twist does, and every piece of glass that should shatter does. It looks amazing.

Graphics Rating: 10

Pros and Cons

Burnout: Paradise is a game with a huge upside. The graphics are among the best in any game ever made, and the game play is fun, fresh, and exciting. Races are difficult, but not frustrating.

A flaw of the game is the audio. The soundtrack is fine, but the DJ that gives instructions is annoying and repetitive.

Burnout: Paradise earns a score of 9.25

Developer: 2K Sports
Players: 1-2 Players
Difficulty: Moderate
Genre: Sports Simulation

Game play

Since baseball doesn’t really have a story, I’m just going to talk about the way MLB 2K8 plays. The folks at 2K8 have added an interesting new twist to this years entry: total-control pitching and fielding. This basically assigns all pitching and fielding controls to the right joystick. Each pitch has a specific motion that must be acted out with the right stick, and is extremely picky. Fastballs and change ups are the easiest to throw. Pitches with motion are tricky. A curve ball, for example, is executed by pulling the stick back at an angle, waiting for the second stage of the pitchers motion, and curling the stick in the direction you want the pitch to curve. It doesn’t sound very tricky, but when you add a accuracy meter to the equation, it makes it really tough. If you don’t angle the stick perfectly, the pitch will move weird. Another possibility is that the game doesn’t recognize what type of pitch you tried to throw, and therefore chucks a “meatball”, which is a slow, straight pitch down the center of the plate. That pretty much equals a big hit. After two games of trying to figure out how to use the new system, I switched back to last year’s style and enjoyed it much more than the new one.

Fielding works nicely with the right stick control. You aim the stick to the base you wish to throw too, and wait for a meter to turn green before you release the stick. If you release it too soon, the throw will be weak. If you release it too late, the throw is fast but inaccurate. To perform dives and jumps, you simply press the right trigger. As far as fielding goes, 2K8 improves slightly over last year’s control scheme, which designated each base to the four lettered buttons.

Batting is tough, but rightfully so. It also requires the shortest explanation, because you simply pull back the stick to start your swing, and push it forward to complete it. If you time it right, you will probably make contact, which will either lead to a hit, a foul ball, or an out. One thing that is frustrating is that the outfielders seem to make every catch, even if it’s a behind the back, over the shoulder, between the legs, eyes closed catch. That is an exaggeration, but I can’t say that I would be surprised if one of those catches happened.

Game play Rating: 7.5

Game Modes

MLB 2K7 has the typical game modes that you would expect from a baseball game, but nothing extra, with the exception of the card collection book. You can play a single game, and an all-star game, a situation (you can set up any situation), or a manager showdown (you just manage a game). The most attractive game mode is the Franchise mode. You start as the manager for a team, and must complete a series of tasks, which may include trading an overpaid player, winning a certain amount of games in a row, or winning the world series.

The most fun I had with the franchise mode was editing players on my team. You can edit any players skills to make them the best player in the league, or the worst player in the league, as well as their ages and appearance. Adjustments can also be made to ticket prices, line-ups, and game play settings.

Game Mode Rating: 8.0

Graphics

The graphics in MLB 2K8 are fairly decent. I actually thought that players looked much better in last year’s game, but they still look realistic. Each batter and pitcher has his signature release and stance, so it gives hardcore fans something to be proud of. One major problem is frame-rate. It is very low, and it looks like it skips two or three frames. It is very annoying and hard to ignore. Player animations are amazing and realistic, and ballparks look fantastic as well. Fans seem to be well done compared to most sporting games, but still sort of plain. The announcers and sound effects are top notch, and provide information and comments that are both smart and deep.

Graphics Rating: 8.0

Pros and Cons

The strengths of MLB 2K8 are in its voice-acting and player animations. Each category is done with superb style and uniqueness, and they bring a genuine “baseball” feel to the game. The franchise mode is also very enjoyable.

The weaknesses of the game are found in its frame-rate and lack of next-gen features. MLB ‘08 for the PS3 has a mode that lets you follow the career of one player, and you control every aspect of that player’s career. That would have been a welcome addition to MLB 2K8.

MLB 2K8 earns a score of 7.75