ProStreet is a game with an identity crisis, and I think a lot of people who buy it are going to be either confused or irritated by this. It's also riddled with annoying bugs, though it is largely playable.
While ProStreet gives the initial impression that it's something to do with street racing, it's not. In fact, ProStreet is all about track racing, albeit production cars. In fact, the name sould probably have been ProTrack, suggesting production track racing. The closest equivalent product, and seemingly the inspiration for much of the content of the actual game is Gran Turismo A-Spec. The 'street' element of this game is almost entirely window dressing. The badly designed, and difficult to use menu system attempts to affect a bit of the US ricer/street-racer culture style, and there is an extremely annoying commentator who attempts to inject a little bit of street colour into proceedings, but make no mistake, this game is substantially different from its aging predecessor "Need For Speed: Underground 2", which was about actual street racing. The 'Pro' part, whether it's supposed to mean professional or production, is suitable enough I suppose, but you can forget the street - many of the tracks are not even substantially urban.
"How can you possible review GTA?" Is probably the first question that occurs to people, and the second is "Why would you possibly review GTA?"
I don't think there's any point in discussing whether this game (series) is successful (it is), whether it's what people want (obviously, they do want it), or making any attempt to "bring it to people's notice", because now, everyone, absolutely everyone knows what GTA is. Most console gamers have probably played a GTA game, and some may even have finished one.
I look at the gap between what people perceive GTA to be, and what it actually is. The gap tells us something about the phenomena of successful games; not just the game of GTA, but the way it has evolved, the machine that made it a massive success, and also how these events relate to game-development and game-design.
Assassin's Creed (AC) is in many ways a successor to the Prince of Persia (PoP) series. It brings a sci-fi twist to the story, and perhaps a hint of modern politics, but I wouldn't say that it's more adult than PoP because of this, as in many ways, despite it's fairytale setting, PoP was quite an adult product. I mean by this that it never felt as if the developers of PoP were talking down to their audience, and reassuringly, the same is true of AC.
The basic experience of playing AC is one that tends to initial interest and excitement as the game introduces itself, followed by a period where repeating various tasks in the game begins to become tedious. However, persistence rewards the player with the skill to trivially execute the more repetitive tasks quite quickly, and they cease to represent a chore. It is only in the latter stage that the game begins to show its true form, and remains satisfyingly engaging until the end.
World of Warcraft topped the sales charts in January with the assistance of its new expansion announcement. EA dominates the chart overall, with Microsoft making a fair showing. The Sims 2 continues to demonstrate the legendary Sims longevity, outselling its Nightlife expansion pack.
Back at the end of 2004 one of the most awaited games for PC ever was finally released. Delayed for a year due to a security breach and early problems with the Steam download and registration system, its arrival was anticipated by gamers for nearly two years. Half Life 2 made almost as big an impact as the original. Read why in the rest of this article.
In a desperate bid to lure in more punters, Sony Online Entertainment have assembled an affordable DVD based software bundle called the Station Access Collection that contains all their current online game products. Keep reading to see if we think this is a good deal...
Valve has frequently released information to fan sites that indicates that the long awaited Half Life 2: Aftermath would be delayed until Feb/March 2006. Now EA have made an official release regarding the eagerly awaited expansion. The rumors that the new expansion would be named 'Episode 1' have also been confirmed, and it will be first in a series of regular content releases for the Half Life 2 game.
A mysterious internal presentation attacking ATI, allegedly produced by NVIDIA, but devoid of honesty, corporate watermarks or author information has been 'showing up' in various places.
ATI have released a new edition of the Catalyst drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista beta. There are various bug-fixes and enhancements. Download new XP drivers from ATI here. We provide a rundown of the changes, the advantages and the drawbacks of the new release.
Bungie have announced that the forthcoming Halo 2 for PC will only run under Windows Vista. Bungie's so called announcement amounts at best to empty sales-speak and a blatant plug for the new Microsoft Operating System, and at worst to an poorly executed attack on anyone that dare question the Bungie corporate posture and an affront to our intelligence. Read more about why we're not impressed by what they have said about this topic.
Once upon a weekend dreary, I chanced upon an MMO weak and weary... err me, not the MMO. How can that be so much clearer in Poe's original...
Auto Assault, "The Fastest, Most Destructive MMO Ever!" as the tagline goes, opened it's doors to all (as long as you read Penny-Arcade) for a long weekend Beta at the end of January. Given my fascination with all things vehicular and the art of blowing shit up, I took this as a good opportunity to combine both in one heady cocktail.
ProStreet is a game with an identity crisis, and I think a lot of people who buy it are going to be either confused or irritated by this. It's also riddled with annoying bugs, though it is largely playable.
"How can you possible review GTA?" Is probably the first question that occurs to people, and the second is "Why would you possibly review GTA?"
Assassin's Creed (AC) is in many ways a successor to the Prince of Persia (PoP) series. It brings a sci-fi twist to the story, and perhaps a hint of modern politics, but I wouldn't say that it's more adult than PoP because of this, as in many ways, despite it's fairytale setting, PoP was quite an adult product. I mean by this that it never felt as if the developers of PoP were talking down to their audience, and reassuringly, the same is true of AC.
ATI have released a new edition of the Catalyst drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista beta. There are various bug-fixes and enhancements. 
Once upon a weekend dreary, I chanced upon an MMO weak and weary... err me, not the MMO. How can that be so much clearer in Poe's original...
