News, PC, PC Reviews, Reviews - by Lumwoz - November 19, 2009 - 19:26 UTC - 1 Comment
With Football Manager 2009 being voted the greatest football game of all time, Sports Interactive had their work cut out for them as the new season closed in.
Last year’s effort was hugely hyped as the popular football manager simulator had a big makeover but the focus of FM 2010 seems to be much more of a “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. All the appeal of previous games has been retained while the most notable change has been the overhaul of the navigation system which seems alien at first but you will soon become used to it after the first few hours of game play. The navigation sidebar that fans have become accustomed to has made way for a tab system which makes moving around clearer, less cluttered and is far less intimidating for newcomers.
The mind boggling depth that FM is famed for often takes time for a new comer to get to grips with. But the new navigation system coupled with the new tactics creator seems to be taking strides towards opening up the franchise to a more mainstream audience. The tactics creator previously was a array of sliders which left the player struggling to see how alterations were affecting things on the pitch but now managers can pick their formations but then also decide how each player plays in that role. For example, a central midfielder can either play defensively, push up to attack, support the strikers, hold the ball up and the list goes on. When organising your team as a whole you can select an overall philosophy and style of play such as counter attacking, overload, controlled or all-out-attack along with others.
During matches there is now the nifty options to shout instructions to your team from the dugout such as shoot on sight, keep position or defend better which can be toggled on or off as you wish. Also on match days there is a better, more accessible performance feedback system to let you know how your team is doing through match statistics and assistant manager feedback to show you what your team is doing well and where your tactics may require some tweaking.
In terms of visuals the menus have been refined and the 3D match engine has been made smoother, while it is far from breath taking it does not need to be.
Final Thoughts
While Football manager 2010 is not a revolutionary step forward for the series it is an updated version of a massively successful title and is not to be sniffed at. It will please fans and is showing signs of furthering its appeal to a wider audience. The same engine backed by the dazzling depth of the database still beats at the heart of this game and will satisfy a season’s worth of FM cravings until next year.
Featured Articles, News, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Lumwoz - November 2, 2009 - 22:41 UTC - Be first to Comment!
On the consoles DiRT 2 is a welcome addition to a prestigious franchise, however on the PSP it is a very different story.
While the gameplay is not the best on offer from PSP racing sims it does at least present a challenge, although this challenge is a battle against the game engine. The car’s handling, while being workable, is poor and corners cannot be taken well at any speed and those who dare try try to drift will inevitably spin out.
There seems to be little if no variation in performance on different terrain. The terrain itself is hit in miss quite literally, as cars may pass through some scenery and others, despite size, will stop you dead in your tracks. Some rocks and trees’ positioning means that, accompanied with the poor driving engine, you will hit them on most laps forcing you to reverse or use the reset vehicle option while the other cars zoom past you.
Having the whole field race past you never means you should give up hope as the AI uses elastic band tactics, by which I mean that when they are in front of you they slow down to allow you to catch up while only when behind you will they begin to race with something resembling aggression. A race in which other drivers adapt to give you an advantage, does not necessarily become easy but does mean regaining ground on the opposition is not a necessarily product of your work or test of your skill.
The career mode has little sense of progression. You make your way through a list of races and cups at different levels. There is no system of currency to purchase cars would be expected nor do you really. Cars, kits and competitions locked at the start are unlocked at random as you go through but you have no idea what you will unlock at what stage.
The challenge mode puts you on tracks doing laps to beat a set airtime or powerslides. This itself is flawed as you will find yourself doing a U-turn on the best section of the course to beat the record rather than doing laps.
The visuals are a strong aspect of the console versions, while the capabilities of the PSP must be taken into consideration, it is still a poor showing. Some surroundings are so dull and similar it is almost like the background of a Scooby-Doo chase scene.
The cars look very poor, however they do take on a coat of snow or dust as the race goes on which rescues a bit of realism. I felt that the road circuits were the best looking and most real but in the desert or snow it got a bit samey and sometimes it was not clear where the track was.
Upto this point it must be said that I didn’t dislike the game but its flaws were becoming more apparent and frustrating for me.
The straw that broke the camels back was the sound. All cars sound virtually the same and when they bounce around the track it sounds like someone searching through a metal tool box. My one massive sound bugbear was the sound the braking made which was slightly altered on the different surfaces but was ultimately the same strange shuffling noise played over and over again. The in game sounds are poor but the game sports a decent soundtrack in the menus.
The 4 car field is small but for the ad-hoc play with friends and is just right and adds a nice little extra. As well as the game sharing option which is often overlooked.
I can’t imagine rushing to play DiRT 2 again but perhaps the game sharing ad-hoc may merit a few plays with friends.
When playing DiRT 2 it is difficult not to be critical as its flaws are obvious and frustrating. It has the air of an unfinished title about it. However, Once getting to grips with its obscure engine it did present a brief challenge but considering other PSP racers available such as Wipeout or Ridge Racer it becomes apparent that this title just cannot compete.
Featured Articles, News, PSP, PSP Reviews, Reviews - by Lumwoz - March 27, 2009 - 23:27 UTC - Be first to Comment!
Right of the bat I’ll admit my experience and knowledge of fighters is at best, from a casual level, so the prospect of player and reviewing “The King of Fighters Collection – The Orochi Saga” was somewhat daunting. None the less I have persevered and played all of the games included on the UMD and to my surprise I had a good time doing so.
While technically you have five games rolled into one neat little package here, in reality it is more the same game five times over with minor adjustments and additions after each version, although this is not a bad thing, there is no major difference between K.O.F. ‘94 and ‘98 aside from the backgrounds becoming busier and a wider selection of characters. However, SNK have stuck to a formula that worked throughout the series and fair play to them for it. Aforementioned formula is thus, King of Fighters involves matches played by teams of three combatants, you pick the order in which you wish them to appear and they fight one-on-one until one team has no fighters remaining (kind of like a Pokemon battle, but without the switching). Like any fighter you’ll start off button mashing until greater difficulties force you to employ more sophisticated tactics and there is a sense of reward from laying down some combos and overcoming a team that’s bin troubling you in the past. I love the retro-arcady air about it, mainly because it is retro and arcady but it’s not something your really see anymore so when this effect is pulled off well on any modern platform it feels good. I can picture as I play it the old school controls on a KOF machine and can see how well they have been emulated by the PSP. As I played the series through I noticed that there are several distinct styles and strategies that a player can use and over time you adapt to which one is your favourite, I noticed that I preferred the more athletic and speedy style to dodge and weave between my opponents attack and hit them at the right moment. Of course different characters offer themselves better to different styles of fighting, for example one from the very diverse selection of characters is a very tall very fat man who carries a wrecking ball with him to use against his opponents, although very slow he is perfect if you are the sort of person who will try to bludgeon his opponents with infrequent but devastating attacks. The game play itself is very accessible, my one reservation was that I would not be able to engage with it as I am not a huge fan of fighting games but this was not the case at all, When I first starting playing it; it was in fairly long bursts of maybe 30-40 minutes. After this I would play just in any spare moment of time I had to kill, just pick 3 of my favourite characters and try and get as far through the arcade mode as I could with my favourite three fighters. It is for this reason that I highly rate KOF on a handheld as, for me, it fulfilled the very function of the handheld gaming genre. It is a game that when a spare few minutes arises that you can pick it up and play it for a bit. The controls work quite smoothly with the face and shoulders buttons assigned different types of attack while the control stick handles movement, jumping and crouching, it’s a simple system that work very well without a fault really. One gripe would be that on the loading screens combo’s are shown to the player that involve diagonal arrows and a “K” and “P” button, I was left absolutely stumped as to how this could be performed by the face buttons. OK so they almost certainly will be mapped to the PSP somehow but would it not have been to much effort just to change it when it was ported?
As a very retro arcade title KOF is not going to be visually ground-braking but does offer a nice consistent cartoon style, without trying to be at all flash even up to the ‘98 version. on screen the visuals appear fairly sharp as you would expect being ported to a smaller screen, making KOF very well suited to the PSP. The visuals are a big part of the retro arcady feel to the game that it carried throughout. The slow-motion K.O. Sequences are great and if you can keep your eye up to pace with the action there are some little treats, streaks of blood flying and obscure faces being pulled when characters are hit. Although minor I believed it is essential to mention that throughout the series there is the stereotypical female characters with massive breasts that a team has worked tirelessly on to ensure that her assets bounce beautifully along with her in perfect harmony according to the laws of physics. Although crude it is a very good example of the quality of the graphics of KOF.
The sound is also very retro and fits in perfectly with the other aspects of the game as that subtle reminder of a simpler time. Again, similarly to the visuals, very well executed by the PSP although very annoying to others in the room, although a title that you would think you could just play on mute I found myself preferring to use headphones to enjoy the full experience. The effects are fun too, plenty of groaning, screeching and body dropping effects to satisfy even the most hardy of fighter fans.
The games can be played online but on the hand full of attempts I had I could never find any active network game or anyone waiting in the lobby for a game so gave up on that endeavor. I do think that the multi-player is a good addition to the series especially one that is so easy to pick and play for almost anyone. However the non-existence of lobbies was a bit discouraging I could just be trying at the wrong times, but sadly I have not had the time to keep trying for as long as I’d like. I’m not sure if the multi-player aspect, while it is a good one, would necessarily keep people playing KOF. I do however, think that the game itself is extremely playable and as I previously mentioned, is an ideal hand held title as it is the very definition of a pick-up-and-play title that can you can just keep coming back to as and when you please due to a learning curve which is almost endless keeping it fresh for a very long time. One last gripe is that sometimes the loading screens are longer then you would expect and there was some very occasional brief freeze-ups but this was only a very minor issue.
Overall I think that King of Fighters is a real hidden gem amongst the PSP titles as it is a textbook example of a game that can be picked up every so often to kill time while you’re on the move. As a retro title it’s practically immune from naysayers over visuals and sound but I find them a charming addition to the overall style. I think that it’s slight downfall is the lack of multi-player active online, the confusingly ported combo descriptions, the very occasional slowness of loading and freezing in game. One last point I have not mentioned that throughout playing I had a niggling feeling that this game was thoroughly average however I kept playing and coming back to it so it can’t be all bad. However, I cannot comment on how it fairs in comparison to other fighters on the PSP but I can assure you that this is a solid title that is worth looking at if your PSP collection lacks that 10 minute pick and play kind of title, a function that King of Fighters pulls off very well.
