Playsttion 3 Highlights - December 2006 (Month #2)
This time around, we don't have that many games to consider for the month. Instead of highlighting a few and blurbing on the rest, I'll just talk about each one individually. We get to box, fly, and race a little with this month's releases, so let's see what the PS3 brought us in it's second month.
Full Auto 2 - Battlelines : Another racing game this month, but this ones a bit different. While last month's two racing titles focused just on racing, this time a little destruction gets mixed in. Full Auto 2 : Battlelines comes off as a bit of a mix between Ridge Racer 7, and a Twisted Metal game. Instead of being placed in giant arenas like in TM, you get tracks to run, although there are a few arena-type events too. The game supplies you with the cars, and the weapons which you can mount on them (a maximum of two at a time), all you have to do is race and shoot. While driving, you have the ability to aim your primary weapon, but it's extremely difficult to do. You'll be steering with the left joystick, trying to aim with the right, and use the button interface to shoot. You're better off just steering your car over the road to line up who you want to shoot at directly in front of you. For race modes, you get circuit tracks and point-to-point sprints, some of these focusing on just the racing aspect while others are more combat heavy.
Hit or Miss? This one lands in the middle. The racing controls are slightly better than last month's games, but they're not the greatest either (which is understandable still this early in the console life cycle). However, boring tracks and sub-par vehicle combat are what kills this game. For a game that has machine guns mounted on the hoods of all the cars, it's not as exciting as it should be. It's enjoyable, but not incredible.
Value : $5
Blazing Angles : Squadrons of World War II - This one sounds a bit silly before you pop it in, because if you look into the, what you learn is it takes place during World War II (real war) but you play as a squadron (fake) of plane fighters on a series of missions (semi-real, but semi-fictionalized as well). Why they didn't just base it on a real squadron in WWII beats me. Now, on to the game itself, the flight controls in this one are beautiful. You can control your plane from behind or within the cockpit, with somewhat different flight controls depending on which view you use. The game brings you from place to place, and all you have to do is the mission, and you're supplied with whatever ammo you need, whether it's your machine gun and some missiles for destruction, or a camera for surveillance. Missions aren't all that diverse, you're really only required to destroy things, sometimes you have a time limit and others you can take as long as you need. While you're not the only one in your squad, your partners don't really hold their weight until you specifically call on them for help.
Hit or Miss? Blazing Angels is definitely a hit. By the order of release, this is the first PS3 game that I feel is just good all around. The controls are fantastic, the game is challenging but not too much so, and while the story isn't the greatest video game story out there, it's still strong. The only issue I had playing this one was with the aiming reticle. It isn't defined enough, it's just this off color hazy gray, and while you're in the opening levels in London, this thing completely disappears on the backdrop of the sky. It's a minimal issue, and it's not predominant in any other mission, it's just that stereotypical rainy/overcast London sky. Definitely an enjoyable game for fans of aerial combat games, and even if you're not you should still check this one out. It's easy to pick and again, a lot of fun. One thing to be aware of though is the difficulty curve does come out of nowhere about half a dozen missions in. You'll be tasked with protecting a fleet of bombers, but by the time you can even make into their vicinity, a third of them are already gone.
Value : $6
Fight Night Round 3- EA's third installment in their newer boxing series was actually my introduction to it, and it was on the Xbox 360 (I had bought a console online from someone and they threw in the games they had with it as well). Never before would I have considered playing this series, as I'm not a big boxing fan. But since I got it included with the console, I threw it in and was instantly hooked. Fight Night allows you to create your own boxer, in whichever weight class you'd prefer to be in, and kick off your boxing career. You'll start off in a training gym, and eventually (hopefully) work your way up to the big theaters and arenas. The controls in this one are really a lot of fun, as all your punches are controlled with the right stick. Different angled movements will do jabs/hooks/haymakers/uppercuts, and you can determine which hand throws the punch by maneuvering the stick in that direction. A huge plus for big boxing fans is the inclusion of some old school legends. Ever want to square off against the great Muhammad Ali? Here's your chance, along with a few other historical boxers. There's also a few mini games in this title, but they're focused in career mode. The way career works is you sign a contract for a fight, you get a training session, and then you fight. Rinse and repeat until you're on top of the world. The training is where the mini games are located, and there's only three of them. You can lift weights, throw combos at a punch dummy, or swing hard into a heavy bag. Each training session will slightly boost a few of your stats, while the rest will drop by 1%. However, the fights themselves is where this game really shines. Everything looks so crisp and good, all the fight controls are smooth, and this game is so good at sucking you into the environment that you'll actually feel a real sense of pride when you make it to the big scene.
Value : $10
What's Worth It?
There's not much to choose from, but Blazing Angels and Fight Night both offer a promising spot in your collection if you choose to add them. For me personally, both are genres of games that I never would have wanted to play before. Yet, they were extremely difficult for me to put down, and are honestly the reason why this post took so long in getting up. Which is ironic too because they both are pretty simple and straightforward : fly around and shoot stuff, or punch the other person. Yet it's these simple forms that leave you mesmerized by everything around you. While you're dropping bombs on tanks from the sky, you can enjoy all the scenery around you. Or while you wind up a strong haymaker, your eyes might be peeled away by the flash bulbs popping off all around you. What's even better with these two in particular is there's so many opportunities for replayability. Blazing Angels has medals you can achieve in the missions for finishing under a certain time and number of enemies you take out, while Fight Night has the different weight classes. For under $20, you can add two great games to your library that will give you hours on hours of gameplay.
What Misses?
The only one left : Full Auto 2 : Battlelines. At a first glance, this one looked promising. There's a whole lot of epic going on on the cover of this game. Once you get inside though, it's not everything that it promised to be. You can race, you can shoot other cars, but with really short races and inconsistent AI, you get a lot more out of throwing in Twisted Metal on PS1. What's more, is Full Auto suffers from the same clunky driving controls that Need For Speed Carbon and Ridge Racer 7 did in the previous month. This one brought two main focuses of gameplay, and they both fall short. Hopefully the consoles next racing simulator will be a bit more driveable.
So, that wraps it up for month #2 of the PS3 releases. My next post in this Highlights series will actually be covering two month's worth of games. January 2007 (yay we made it to the new year!) only saw the release of Sonic The Hedgehog, while February brings us Virtua Fighter and MLB Baseball 2K7, so I'll be lumping all three together in a single post. For now, hope you all enjoyed this month's games and I'll see you next time.
Game On!
HG
Full Auto 2 - Battlelines : Another racing game this month, but this ones a bit different. While last month's two racing titles focused just on racing, this time a little destruction gets mixed in. Full Auto 2 : Battlelines comes off as a bit of a mix between Ridge Racer 7, and a Twisted Metal game. Instead of being placed in giant arenas like in TM, you get tracks to run, although there are a few arena-type events too. The game supplies you with the cars, and the weapons which you can mount on them (a maximum of two at a time), all you have to do is race and shoot. While driving, you have the ability to aim your primary weapon, but it's extremely difficult to do. You'll be steering with the left joystick, trying to aim with the right, and use the button interface to shoot. You're better off just steering your car over the road to line up who you want to shoot at directly in front of you. For race modes, you get circuit tracks and point-to-point sprints, some of these focusing on just the racing aspect while others are more combat heavy.
Hit or Miss? This one lands in the middle. The racing controls are slightly better than last month's games, but they're not the greatest either (which is understandable still this early in the console life cycle). However, boring tracks and sub-par vehicle combat are what kills this game. For a game that has machine guns mounted on the hoods of all the cars, it's not as exciting as it should be. It's enjoyable, but not incredible.
Value : $5
Blazing Angles : Squadrons of World War II - This one sounds a bit silly before you pop it in, because if you look into the, what you learn is it takes place during World War II (real war) but you play as a squadron (fake) of plane fighters on a series of missions (semi-real, but semi-fictionalized as well). Why they didn't just base it on a real squadron in WWII beats me. Now, on to the game itself, the flight controls in this one are beautiful. You can control your plane from behind or within the cockpit, with somewhat different flight controls depending on which view you use. The game brings you from place to place, and all you have to do is the mission, and you're supplied with whatever ammo you need, whether it's your machine gun and some missiles for destruction, or a camera for surveillance. Missions aren't all that diverse, you're really only required to destroy things, sometimes you have a time limit and others you can take as long as you need. While you're not the only one in your squad, your partners don't really hold their weight until you specifically call on them for help.
Hit or Miss? Blazing Angels is definitely a hit. By the order of release, this is the first PS3 game that I feel is just good all around. The controls are fantastic, the game is challenging but not too much so, and while the story isn't the greatest video game story out there, it's still strong. The only issue I had playing this one was with the aiming reticle. It isn't defined enough, it's just this off color hazy gray, and while you're in the opening levels in London, this thing completely disappears on the backdrop of the sky. It's a minimal issue, and it's not predominant in any other mission, it's just that stereotypical rainy/overcast London sky. Definitely an enjoyable game for fans of aerial combat games, and even if you're not you should still check this one out. It's easy to pick and again, a lot of fun. One thing to be aware of though is the difficulty curve does come out of nowhere about half a dozen missions in. You'll be tasked with protecting a fleet of bombers, but by the time you can even make into their vicinity, a third of them are already gone.
Value : $6
Fight Night Round 3- EA's third installment in their newer boxing series was actually my introduction to it, and it was on the Xbox 360 (I had bought a console online from someone and they threw in the games they had with it as well). Never before would I have considered playing this series, as I'm not a big boxing fan. But since I got it included with the console, I threw it in and was instantly hooked. Fight Night allows you to create your own boxer, in whichever weight class you'd prefer to be in, and kick off your boxing career. You'll start off in a training gym, and eventually (hopefully) work your way up to the big theaters and arenas. The controls in this one are really a lot of fun, as all your punches are controlled with the right stick. Different angled movements will do jabs/hooks/haymakers/uppercuts, and you can determine which hand throws the punch by maneuvering the stick in that direction. A huge plus for big boxing fans is the inclusion of some old school legends. Ever want to square off against the great Muhammad Ali? Here's your chance, along with a few other historical boxers. There's also a few mini games in this title, but they're focused in career mode. The way career works is you sign a contract for a fight, you get a training session, and then you fight. Rinse and repeat until you're on top of the world. The training is where the mini games are located, and there's only three of them. You can lift weights, throw combos at a punch dummy, or swing hard into a heavy bag. Each training session will slightly boost a few of your stats, while the rest will drop by 1%. However, the fights themselves is where this game really shines. Everything looks so crisp and good, all the fight controls are smooth, and this game is so good at sucking you into the environment that you'll actually feel a real sense of pride when you make it to the big scene.
Value : $10
What's Worth It?
There's not much to choose from, but Blazing Angels and Fight Night both offer a promising spot in your collection if you choose to add them. For me personally, both are genres of games that I never would have wanted to play before. Yet, they were extremely difficult for me to put down, and are honestly the reason why this post took so long in getting up. Which is ironic too because they both are pretty simple and straightforward : fly around and shoot stuff, or punch the other person. Yet it's these simple forms that leave you mesmerized by everything around you. While you're dropping bombs on tanks from the sky, you can enjoy all the scenery around you. Or while you wind up a strong haymaker, your eyes might be peeled away by the flash bulbs popping off all around you. What's even better with these two in particular is there's so many opportunities for replayability. Blazing Angels has medals you can achieve in the missions for finishing under a certain time and number of enemies you take out, while Fight Night has the different weight classes. For under $20, you can add two great games to your library that will give you hours on hours of gameplay.
What Misses?
The only one left : Full Auto 2 : Battlelines. At a first glance, this one looked promising. There's a whole lot of epic going on on the cover of this game. Once you get inside though, it's not everything that it promised to be. You can race, you can shoot other cars, but with really short races and inconsistent AI, you get a lot more out of throwing in Twisted Metal on PS1. What's more, is Full Auto suffers from the same clunky driving controls that Need For Speed Carbon and Ridge Racer 7 did in the previous month. This one brought two main focuses of gameplay, and they both fall short. Hopefully the consoles next racing simulator will be a bit more driveable.
So, that wraps it up for month #2 of the PS3 releases. My next post in this Highlights series will actually be covering two month's worth of games. January 2007 (yay we made it to the new year!) only saw the release of Sonic The Hedgehog, while February brings us Virtua Fighter and MLB Baseball 2K7, so I'll be lumping all three together in a single post. For now, hope you all enjoyed this month's games and I'll see you next time.
Game On!
HG
