Kuja rates his newest games
Posted: 2003-11-22 01:29am
OK, I picked up two new games this week for PS2: Battlestar Galactica and WH40K: Fire Warrior. Here goes.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA:
STORY: You play as a Viper pilot, Adama before he becoems the commander of the Galactica. The Cylons have been waging war on humanity, and things are getting pretty explosive. The game follows the new BG series, rather than the old one, and most missions are your standard combat-sim stuff: protect this, blow that up, etc. 8/10
GRAPHICS: Nothing terrible, but nothing really special either The game takes no steps up from anything played before, and at times seems pretty tame when compared to something like the graphics of Soul Calibur 2. At times, I'd even say it's a major step down from most PS2 games. 6/10
SOUND FX: More nothing special goes on here. The sound is decent, but that interest wears off very quickly. The voices are finely done, and in fact some of the original BG actors (Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, others) came in to play them. 7/10
CONTROL: The controls are awkward at first, but I mastered them after the first level, so it's nothing to be afraid of. The problem is that at times, buttons serve more than once purpose, so double-taps or holding is needed, and it's easy to forget that in the middle of a dogfight. 6/10
AI: Terrible. The enemies are wildly inconsistant: some loop around firing at nothing while others pursue you like there's no tomorrow and shove missile after missile up your ass. Your wingmen are virtually useless: they either go after small fry and leave you to do anything difficult or end up under somebody's guns and get blown away. The Battlestars aren't much better: they sit around and let Cylons smack them around and wait for you to bail them out. 4/10
OVERALL: It's not a horrible game, but it's one I wish I hadn't gone out of my way to get. It stinks suspiciously of a game cooked up to milk the Galactica name, and at times, you can tell that not much effort was put in.
OVERALL SCORE: 6/10
WARHAMMER 40,000: FIRE WARRIOR
STORY: You are Kais, a young Tau warrior who undergoes a trial by fire when he rescues a member of his leadership from the clutches of the Imperium of Man. From there, the game moves into something even more evil, but I won't give it away here. The fact that you're actually fighting humanity instead of saving it is a twist that I love. 9/10
GRAPHICS: Surprisingly good, actually. The character sprites look somewhat flat, but the levels are absolutley gorgeous. And the cutscenes fucking rock: I nearly shit myself during the opening sequence when I saw Earth for the first time. 9/10
SOUND FX: My dear god, we're in the middle of a war! And it sounds real! Bombs go off, mortars whistle, aircraft fly overhead, guns roar, energy cannons sizzle, ships rumble, the attention to detail is astounding. The voices are nearly as well done, and it actually has a realistic touch: when you turn away from the speaker, their voice quickly fades, and it softens further if you move away. 10/10
CONTROL: You'll master it by halfway through the tutorial, there's nothing too complicated here. The defaults can get annoying, but once I turned off auto-aim and inverted the up-down, everything went smooth. It's simple to control Kais in combat, and he moves fluidly. Mastering the different guns isn't too difficult as long as you realize that Tau weapons are for plinking at foes and human guns are for charging in and spraying gunfire. 9/10
AI: Goddamnit, those humans pop out everywhere! Groups rush you, soldiers wait behind rubble, snipers take potshots at you from behind, and chainsword-wielding leaders make your life a living hell. Your allies actually turn out to be good for something in this game: other Tau tend to slowly approach groups of enemies, firing the whole time and giving you the perfect flanking opportunity. 9/10
OVERALL: Jesus jumped up and shot me in the ass, I love this game. I love the plot, I love the graphics, I love the controls. LONG LIVE THE TAU EMPIRE!
OVERALL SCORE: 9/10
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA:
STORY: You play as a Viper pilot, Adama before he becoems the commander of the Galactica. The Cylons have been waging war on humanity, and things are getting pretty explosive. The game follows the new BG series, rather than the old one, and most missions are your standard combat-sim stuff: protect this, blow that up, etc. 8/10
GRAPHICS: Nothing terrible, but nothing really special either The game takes no steps up from anything played before, and at times seems pretty tame when compared to something like the graphics of Soul Calibur 2. At times, I'd even say it's a major step down from most PS2 games. 6/10
SOUND FX: More nothing special goes on here. The sound is decent, but that interest wears off very quickly. The voices are finely done, and in fact some of the original BG actors (Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, others) came in to play them. 7/10
CONTROL: The controls are awkward at first, but I mastered them after the first level, so it's nothing to be afraid of. The problem is that at times, buttons serve more than once purpose, so double-taps or holding is needed, and it's easy to forget that in the middle of a dogfight. 6/10
AI: Terrible. The enemies are wildly inconsistant: some loop around firing at nothing while others pursue you like there's no tomorrow and shove missile after missile up your ass. Your wingmen are virtually useless: they either go after small fry and leave you to do anything difficult or end up under somebody's guns and get blown away. The Battlestars aren't much better: they sit around and let Cylons smack them around and wait for you to bail them out. 4/10
OVERALL: It's not a horrible game, but it's one I wish I hadn't gone out of my way to get. It stinks suspiciously of a game cooked up to milk the Galactica name, and at times, you can tell that not much effort was put in.
OVERALL SCORE: 6/10
WARHAMMER 40,000: FIRE WARRIOR
STORY: You are Kais, a young Tau warrior who undergoes a trial by fire when he rescues a member of his leadership from the clutches of the Imperium of Man. From there, the game moves into something even more evil, but I won't give it away here. The fact that you're actually fighting humanity instead of saving it is a twist that I love. 9/10
GRAPHICS: Surprisingly good, actually. The character sprites look somewhat flat, but the levels are absolutley gorgeous. And the cutscenes fucking rock: I nearly shit myself during the opening sequence when I saw Earth for the first time. 9/10
SOUND FX: My dear god, we're in the middle of a war! And it sounds real! Bombs go off, mortars whistle, aircraft fly overhead, guns roar, energy cannons sizzle, ships rumble, the attention to detail is astounding. The voices are nearly as well done, and it actually has a realistic touch: when you turn away from the speaker, their voice quickly fades, and it softens further if you move away. 10/10
CONTROL: You'll master it by halfway through the tutorial, there's nothing too complicated here. The defaults can get annoying, but once I turned off auto-aim and inverted the up-down, everything went smooth. It's simple to control Kais in combat, and he moves fluidly. Mastering the different guns isn't too difficult as long as you realize that Tau weapons are for plinking at foes and human guns are for charging in and spraying gunfire. 9/10
AI: Goddamnit, those humans pop out everywhere! Groups rush you, soldiers wait behind rubble, snipers take potshots at you from behind, and chainsword-wielding leaders make your life a living hell. Your allies actually turn out to be good for something in this game: other Tau tend to slowly approach groups of enemies, firing the whole time and giving you the perfect flanking opportunity. 9/10
OVERALL: Jesus jumped up and shot me in the ass, I love this game. I love the plot, I love the graphics, I love the controls. LONG LIVE THE TAU EMPIRE!
OVERALL SCORE: 9/10
