Editorial Review

Reviews (70)

Could Have bin better
At first, I never herd of James Bond. So Agent Under Fire was my first time seing Bond.

1. Graphics: Good but could have bin better. No faces on the Bad Guys BOOOOO

2. GamePlay: The only thing I like about story mode, is that, well...your bond.

3. Sound: Great just Great. If you have 5.1 in your house, then the sound on this game will rock your world!!!

In short, It is not the best but still cinda good.

An insult to the world of bond.
I thought this game would be good. I was very wrong. It is terrible. It is the worst game i have ever played. It is a shame EA had to make this abysmal game. We have yet to invent a word or phrase in the english language to describe how painfully horribly terrible this game is.

Graphics: 0 out of 5

The graphics are extremely bad. It looks like a bad cartoon. Bond is NOT a cartoon! The guns look horrible. Every single one is automatic firing! Even the pistol fires like a machinegun! You also see lines of light go towards the people when you fire. The reloadings are quick and pointless. The PPK reloading is 3/4 of a second long. This game looks like a cheap imitation of a 1970s arcade game.

Gameplay: 1 out of 5

Extremely linear gameplay. You go forward in a strait line. Your objectives go along the path. There is absolutely no exploring to be done. The guards, when shot, go flying backwards like it's a bad steve seagal action movie. The controls are extremely hard and terrible. This game is not fun at all.

Sound: 1 out of 5

A baby with a rattle could make better sounds than what is in this game. The deutshe d5k sounds like a bad laser gun from outer space. All of the other sounds are muffled so you can't hear them and they all sound alike. The voice acting is okay, although there is almost no voice acting. You mainly here the grunts of baddies when shot. The only reason i'm giving sound a 1 out of 5 instead of a 0 out of 5 is because it actually has sound.

Multiplayer: 0 out of 5

It is so terrible that this game would've been better if they left it out. The movement and action is quick and stupid, and the maps and levels are small, linear, and painfully terrible. The horrible control scheme just makes it worse.

Lengthitivety: 0 out of 5

This game is so terrible that you will quit playing it before you are even half done with the first level.

Overall score: .4 out of 5

Wow. Four-tenths out of 5. That is pitiful.

Rent or Buy?

You shouldn't even waste your money to rent this game! It is so horrible. The reason EA probably made this game is just to make a few easy bucks. I will consider anyone who doesn't play this game to be a hero of the world.

This game is horrible. As I said earlier, we have yet to invent a word or phrase in the english language to describe how painfully horribly terrible this game is. If you want to play a good bond game, play goldeneye or nightfire. Those games are fantastic. The world is not enough is also good. But do yourself a huge favor and stay far away from this game. It is very bad. This game isn't bond. It is nothing to me.

Editorial Review

Crash Bandicoot, the famous marsupial video-game icon, comes spinning into yet another solid action platform game in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. This is the first true platform game for the Xbox, and is suitable for cartoon-action lovin' fans of all ages.

Evil is at an all-time decline, so Crash's arch-nemesis Dr. Neo Cortex is designing the ultimate weapon: Crunch, the extra-evil-bio-engineered-super-bandicoot! In order to complete Crunch, the good doctor needs more power--the kind of power that only evil, renegade voodoo masks can provide. Enter the Elementals.

Set free by the evil voodoo mask Uka Uka, the Elementals control various aspects of the environment. They are so powerful, and so dangerous, that they almost destroyed the Earth once, and were sealed in special crystals to protect the Earth from certain doom. Uka Uka believes that by harnessing the power of these evil masks, Dr. Cortex will have all the power he needs to complete Crunch, and finally finish off Crash.

So once again Crash returns to his crystal-collecting, box-bashing, bad guy-spinning ways. Can he stop the masks? Will he defeat Crunch? Only time, and your weary game-playing hands, will tell.

The Wrath of Cortex is the hardest game in the series' history. There are 30 levels, seven different vehicles, bonus levels, and a time-trial mode. As you progress through the game, you fight five bosses. Each time you defeat a boss, you unlock a new move (double jump, bazooka, tiptoe, Crash dash, and death tornado). Although the coolest feature is that you get to play as Crash's sister Coco on some levels.

The game is good, but is it perfect? The graphics are solid, but not much of an improvement over the PlayStation2 version--the game definitely doesn't take full advantage of the Xbox's hardware. Also, the long load times for levels can be annoying. Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex was not developed by Naughty Dog, the company that started the series. The game, while faithfully following the traditional feel of the series, misses some of the polished quirkiness that Naughty Dog is known for.

Bottom line: The Wrath of Cortex is a great game for all ages, and will give you 40 or more hours of solid gameplay. --Bryan Karsh

Pros:

• Play as Coco
• Seven vehicles
• Fun new moves

• New developer, new feel--it needs a little getting used to
• Long load times
• Good, but not great graphics--doesn't really look like an Xbox game

Editorial Review

Spider-Man: The Movie brings your friendly neighborhood web slinger to life with engrossing realism, proving that a superhero game of such complex nature can be achieved with nearly flawless and nonintrusive gameplay. Be it wandering the city's environs in search of villains, or just checking out your surroundings by web-swinging high above them, you truly can do whatever Spider-Man can. It's all here: high-flying aerial battles, the ability to web up and yank your enemies close for pummeling, and the capacity for crawling or web-zipping up, down, and over any surface--and that's just for starters. All in all, this is one involved game that does not fail to live up to the hype.

The game parallels the motion picture's story line, steering you through a progression of challenges that begins with the hunt for Uncle Ben's murderer and ends with a final showdown with the Green Goblin. You begin as Peter Parker dressed in his wrestling costume and must defeat a variety of thugs throughout each level before advancing to the next set of challenges. The game gets progressively tougher as you encounter, in turn, Shocker, the Vulture, Scorpion, and, of course, the Green Goblin.

Visually, Spider-Man is a treat: cityscapes unfold in realistic detail and are enhanced by sunlight shining between buildings; cutscenes offer seamless animation; interiors are painstakingly re-created; and Spider-Man and his enemies are well rendered, moving about the screen in clean fashion. As an added bonus, most characters are voiced by their movie counterparts, and the training mode features the sarcastic wit of Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell. --Larry White

Pros:

• Detailed controls bring Spider-Man to life
• Challenging gameplay enhanced by numerous fight styles
• Stunning visuals at every level

• Camera angles slow to respond at times
• Some interiors too dark
• Repetitive one-liners

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

Reviews (45)

Say goodbye to your controller
I cannot recommend this game to anybody (unless I want to see that person throw a fit). The only thing this game has going for it is its visuals. That's why I gave it a 2 instead of 1. The music is lousy and was so repetitive I had to turn the music volume way down just to keep from getting a headache. The story is as wierd as any other Japaneese anime of late. This game had the worst controls I have ever come across for the XBOX and that includes "Grabbed by the Ghoules". Even if only properly used the controllers took a lot of physical abuse in this game. This is because an often used move (thrust) essential to the game's play has been assigned to the left stick depression with no possibility of remapping. The problem with the thrust being were it is is that it HAS to be combined with a directional move to even work. Directions are also controlled with the left stick. So for example a basic move would be; push left stick in, hold it down, and move forward. That would give a forward thrust (rather than just a forward walk). Sounds simple enough on paper, but when you are forced to moved about the game like this for hours on end (thrusting quickly takes over walking) it gets to your thumbs as well as your controller I am sure. I would fail a thrust move often just becasuse it is physically awkward to perform (not just because I run out of thrust fuel). During those times I would fail to push in the stick hard enough to initiate that thrust. To add insult to injury this game doesn't end with just basic thrusts. To invoke more powerful moves from your character series of thrust moves have to be performed one after another without any break in combinations. One mistake and you start all over. To achive a "heightened" state from within your character 25 uninterrupted thrust moves have to be performed. Uninterrupted means that you cannot get hit by enemy shots or touch the ground. This is really hard to do in game considering the small amount of thrust fuel at your disposal. Throw in the aformentioned controls and it borders on impossible.

'one of the better action games I've played.
I had never heard of GUNVALKYRIE (which I'll refer to as GV) before seeing it as a reccomendation here on Amazon when I got my Xbox. I read all the reviews, most of which complained like sissies over how the controls were confusing, or how the game got harder in the later parts. Well, don't listen to them. There's nothing hard or frustrating about GV, it's just a different game, and definately not for everyone. If the left trigger acting as 'jump' bugs you, then tough luck. I guess I can see how they annoy people since there isn't any other game that controls like GV, but it didn't bother me.

The plot doesn't really matter- most of your missions consist of clearing out all the enemies in a given area, or reaching an item at the end of the stage. But what's going on is a comet has passed the atmosphere, and causing havock. 'not that original, but this is an action game, so story isn't a priority. If you've seen Starship Troopers, or played Jet Force Gemini on the Nintendo 64, that's what GV is kind of like. But I use that comparison loosely. It's up to you to go through wave after wave of bugs. While shooting up your enemies, you'll be flying through the air doing flips and rolls to raise technique points which boost your score at the end. It's not necessary, but it adds to replay in getting an 'S' rank in every level.

You can also pick between two characters: Kelly and Saburouta. Kelly of course, is the faster of the two and more agile. She can fire her gun faster, but it's not as powerful as Sab's. Not at first anyway. She has access to more upgrades, and is the one that most first time players are going to use going through the game. Sab is the working horse, carrying a missile launcher which disposes of enemies with just one shot most of the time. Though it says that he's a "steel-nerved samurai" on the back of the box, he doesn't use his sword except during the animation of his special attack. If he did use his sword though, that would make for a cool challenge since he'd have to engage in very close combat. The game says he's better for experts, but that's not really true. He's just more clunky to use. Pick whoever you want though, since you can pick either one in just about every mission unless noted otherwise.

GV has a strange little customization deal going on. At the end of each level, you'll get a given number of points to buy upgrades for you weapons, armor, special attack gague, etc. But the thing is, they don't really matter. You can go through the game easily without upgrading once. One upgrade is to lock-on to more enemies, yet a lot of people who've played the game still don't get how to lock-on. You're better off spending your points on reserve energy, so if your health gets depleted, it'll refill completely so you can get back to capping everything.

The graphics are pretty sweet. The colors and textures are beautiful, and sometimes you'll stop just to see how well designed the levels are. Even simple things like small rooms in a shaft are full of detail. Leave it to Smilebit to put so much work into the graphics. I'm not disappointed one bit here. And loading times can't be more than 2 seconds. You go from the menu to game type select, to the mission, to your character, to the mission outline and *poof* there you are.

The music and sound effects are equally as great as the graphics. I got the soundtrack because the music was that good. Some levels have techno tracks, one has an ambient-jazz track, others have rock, and the final fight has one of the best last boss tracks I've ever heard. It was worth getting the soundtrack for that alone. The voice acting, for what little bits there were, was average. Not good, not bad. It's not laughable like the first Resident Evil on PSone, but sometimes lines are delivered blandly. But that doesn't matter, you only hear them in the beginning cutscene and the end for the most part.

There isn't a whole lot of replay value. You can easily go through the game in one sitting if you don't look for all the Halley Cores in the levels. But getting all the Halley Cores is fun, and unlocks Kelly's third costume. Hoo boy is that third costume something. It pretty much renders Saburouta useless. She can practically fly, lock on to tons of enemies, gets a stronger gun, and more. Plus the costume's kinda cool looking too. After beating the game once, a challenge mode is unlocked. This is where most of the replay is- you can go through any level with Sab or any form of Kelly. So the bosses that you had to use Kelly during the story mode can now be taken out with Sab. It's kinda sick how fast he can take some of them out with just a few lock-on missiles.

GV's faults? Looking around with the right thumbstick is sort of pointless because of how sensitive it is. You're better off just turning around completely most of the time. And like I already said, the game can be completed in one sitting. But the biggest thing is that if you're a casual gamer, you're more than likely going to hate GV. I'm not trying to sound biased toward the company, but this is probably best played by Sega fans, who know the company and what they've done in the past. That shouldn't stop you though, it'd be good to try a game as creative as this. Plus you just have to hear some of the music. I can't stress it enough.

You're better off getting GV elsewhere. I haven't seen it for more than $20 at any game store, and the Used & New prices here are pretty fair. Don't get this for your son or daughter if they're 14 or younger. They're likely to throw a fit over the controls not being familiar. Is GV for the "hardcore" gamer? Not really. It's just not for the casual gamer that spends most of their gaming time with Grand Theft Autos or Final Fantasy games. It's an action/shooter, plain and simple.

Porcupines and Butterflies
Originally slated by Sega for release on the Dreamcast (and to have used a controller in conjunction with a light gun!), GunValkyrie is the type of game that is becoming rare these days: a skill-based, challenging, unique experience.But it adds superb graphics and sound, and some of the best videogame art found in the current generation.

It wasn't Halo that sold me on the Xbox (although it's a fantastic game in its own right), but Sega's steampunk bug-shooter with the bizarre and perfect control setup.

It's intentionally ironic, I think, that the "A" button - often the primary button for most games - has no game-based function in GunValkyrie.Smilebit (the Sega team that developed GV) has introduced an ingenious control scheme that's one of the best things to happen in the 128-bit era.Simple, yet demanding, especially when combined with the devious level designs of the planet Tir na Nog.Contrary to what others may say, GV's controls are NOT terrible.They do exactly what they're supposed to do, with no lag between input and execution.What the doomsayers mean is that the controls are UNFAMILIAR.Smilebit throws you into the middle of hordes of enemies, with tiny platforms to navigate, daring you to complete the obstacles.Much like MDK2, GV starts tough and quickly gets tougher, but in doing so, it causes you to adapt and grow, to the point where you are regularly maxing the boost combo meter without even thinking about it, rarely touching the ground.That is the sign of inspired game design.With dedication and patience, anyone can learn the controls, and the payoff is an "in-the-zone" feeling, along with a dazzling midair ballet as you deal matchlock cannon and drive-gun death to the insectoid minions.

And what visuals there are.The animation for all characters is astounding, and the boss creatures are awe-inspiring, horrific, and memorable.Small details, like how your character absorbs the recoil of gunfire, are everywhere.The best part of the graphics, however, are the levels themselves.The Valley levels teem with organic, pulsating life, uplifting air currents, and remarkable skylines.The Civilian Base halls sport alien, yet familiar architecture, with huge gears and semi-transparent doors.The real winner is Naglfar's Pit, a mile-high acid-filled gorge with drifting lights, multiple platforms, and an odd, almost underwater ripple effect to everything, along with a haunting music-box soundtrack and insane ramblings from...well, I'll leave that to you to discover.

GunValkyrie combines the best aspects of the shooting, platforming, and adventure genres into one incredible experience, adds a heavy dose of much-needed innovation, and tops it off with a perfectly realized, surreal atmosphere, polishing everything to a hypnotic shine.Some may argue that once you learn the controls, the game becomes simple, and while that's true in part, the joy is in the journey, not necessarily the destination.Getting "S" rankings on all missions will take some time as well!Sega is one of the gaming industry's last real pioneers, and it's good to know that they're still around.Microsoft also gets a nod for taking a chance on this kind of title on a relatively new console.