Koei's Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends is a standalone expansion for a game with very close ties to the company's Dynasty Warriors series. In fact, the two franchises are almost identical except for a change in scenery,
with Koei abandoning ancient China in favor of bringing its outlandish characters and simplistic mechanics to feudal Japan. This expansion follows last year's release of Samurai Warriors 2: Empires, which added a welcome layer of strategy to the the series tired formula, but it lacks even Empire's depth. The real problem with the game is that it does almost nothing worthwhile that its predecessors haven't done before it.
Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends continues the fight in feudal Japan during the country's Sengoku ("warring states") era, casting you as one of six new characters with unique fighting styles. Consequently, you'll probably find at least one character you can tolerate, such as the talented but childish Toshiie or the inquisitive Gracia. As anyone familiar with the series might expect, there's little in the way of an overarching theme or objective to tie the characters together except for Koei's loose interpretation of Sengoku history, which serves as a vague backdrop for the game's action.
Some content is new, but you're still killing baddies in bland environs with a primitive map in the corner.
The majority of the 36 new scenarios are available in the typical story mode, which features five stages for each character. Just as in previous games, you slaughter hundreds if not thousands of enemies as you work your way through a mission, the goal of which is usually to kill the opposing commander. To keep things a little more lively, the game features musou special attacks that you charge up by mowing down opponents, as well as devastating (if simple) combos with plenty of graphical spark. You also get a loyal bodyguard who, in addition to following you everywhere, never hesitates to join in on your musou specials when in synch with your character. As usual, enemy officers drop stat-modifying bonuses that make your character a killing machine in a sea of color-coded bad guys. You're also awarded skills and combos any time you level up, but there's no innovation here, given that most of the combos involve hitting the same button additional times.
Though the story mode is functional, the bulk of the game's content is in its mercenary mode. There you'll spend time completing cliche mission objectives such as defeating bandits and rescuing princesses. Successful missions result in gems that can be exchanged for secret missions, mercenary levels, and levels for your officer-guards, who share their abilities with you when you have them join the fray. If you consistently assist the same commander, then you'll get invited to his clan, which will let you partake in invasion and siege missions for sorely needed variety. The mode is then completed by reuniting all of Japan under your banner or by collecting 10 precious swords, which triggers a final battle that'll test your button-mashing prowess against an onslaught of rival officers. Although mercenary mode is somewhat interesting, it feels very disjointed and cheaply thrown together; all sense of progression occurs via mission posting and reward storyboards in which you receive a graphic of a character either asking for your help or giving you gems. Additionally, you'll face off against the same foes in the same battlefields with only minor mission changes, which gets tiresome fast.
For those who'd rather engage in basic combat without restrictive rules, Koei included the usual free mode, in which you can select from characters spanning both this expansion and Samurai Warriors 2. Like story mode, free mode supports two-player sessions and lets you share character growth between all three modes.
Just as with other expansions for both the Samurai and Dynasty Warriors franchises, Koei increased the difficulty range for Xtreme Legends, offering six difficulty modes from novice to expert. The options can up the difficulty just enough that you'll occasionally die due to officer cheap-shot musou attacks, though even on expert, your opponents tend to stand there as you swing at them. Harder settings result in higher drop rates for special weapons, orbs, skills, and gold, so the option is worth investigating, mostly because gold is used to buy skills, horses, and weapon upgrades from the game's shop feature.
The voice acting is about the caliber you'd expect from the franchise or its parent series: It's melodramatic and irritating, and given that most dialogue occurs during battles, it can be very disruptive when you're fending off dozens of foes while interpreting mission goals. To worsen matters, Xtreme Legends lacks a Japanese voice-over option, which means that you're stuck with the crummy English voice acting unless you turn off the speech altogether.
Get ready to mash those attack buttons until your fingers bleed.
Xtreme Legends' bland battlegrounds boast the same poor texturing and twitchy camera angles that those familiar with the series know all too well. About the only impressive graphical feat is the game's ability to maintain a steady frame rate despite the countless baddies engulfing the battlefield, but given that its visuals are indistinguishable from earlier Dynasty Warriors games, this is hardly an accomplishment.
Xtreme Legends does let you import data from Samurai Warriors 2 for its "remix" feature, but you'll still require both SW2 and Xtreme Legends to do so because you're forced to insert the SW2 disc in the import process. After import, you'll be able to select stages from SW2, level all characters to 70, obtain new weapons, learn new charge attacks, and engage in a bout of survival or samurai monopoly with characters from both games.
Of course, the real question is whether or not you'll want to do so. Neither the Dynasty Warriors nor Samurai Warriors franchises have evolved much since their inception, and the latter focuses on the same extremely outdated button-pounding that its parent series introduced all those many years ago. Even if hacking your way through a horde of opponents still sounds charming, you're going to need Samurai Warriors 2 to access all of the expansion's features. As such, if you've been eyeing Xtreme Legends but haven't yet picked up SW2, then you might as well purchase both. Those of you tired of the franchise's repetitive button-mashing gameplay, stale features, and dated presentation have plenty of better action games to choose.
Source:PS2 Game
Samurai Warriors 2: Xtreme Legends
SBK-08 Superbike World Championship Updated Hands-On
Last year's official SBK game was a successful outing for developer Milestone, and a game that managed to cater to both the simulation and arcade markets. This year's title makes the jump to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on June 1, and we got our hands on a preview copy for the latter format. The racer provides customisation options, allowing for varying levels of realism and difficulty between arcade and simulation play. It will also include 12 real-life tracks including the well-known Phillip Island, Valencia, Monza, Donington, and Magny-Cours.
Go head-to-head with SBK champions including Troy Bayliss and Max Biaggi.
As SBK-08 Superbike World Championship is a fairly realistic game, it's beneficial to spend time in the five tutorials to help bring you up to speed. They involve challenges such as passing through a series of checkpoints at certain speeds, or completing a lap in the wet within a given time frame. Unfortunately, the tuition style proved more autocratic than we'd have liked, and veering even slightly off the track resulted in us being kicked back to the beginning of the lesson.
The menu system is quite similar to that of TOCA Race Driver, with the game's various options presented through a virtual garage. In addition to the usual game modes such as Quick Race, Time Attack, and Championship, SBK-08 will offer bonus content including pictures of races, trophies, and umbrella girls. There's also an online multiplayer mode for up to 16 racers, although we were unable to access this on our preview build.
In addition to the racing season, there are 20 challenges such as reaching a checkpoint within a limited time period, overtaking the race leader on the final lap, or making your rear tyre skid at a certain point. Successfully completing a challenge will earn you a virtual gold medal--not quite an oversized bottle of Mumm champagne, but a reward nonetheless.
Racing in SBK-08 is challenging and rewarding, and there are plenty of options to tweak on each bike should you find it too easy with traction control, braking assistance, or other such aids turned on. If that's not enough of a challenge, there are also four levels of opponent AI ranging from rookie to legend. While we've never hurtled around a grand prix track at breakneck speed, the game offers a good sense of speed, especially given the motion blur effects. The controls are solid and not overly sensitive, but you'll still require quick reflexes if you want to brake sharply at the end of a straight and avoid flying off into the gravel pit.
Source:PS2 Game
Persona 3: FES
There was a time when RPGs evoked emotion. Serious emotion, the kind that fueled blogs, magazines, and message boards. Grown gamers openly weeping, while today’s RPGs make me wish I was sleeping. It’s been a big change that no doubt stems from the reduction of developers (Working Designs is no more, Square and Enix became one entity, etc.).
Persona 3 was one of the few games that captured the essence of the PSone style of RPG development – story first, gameplay second. The semi-automatic battle system brought it down a few notches, but the character-driven storyline and above average voice acting set the stage for something great. Usually that something has to wait for a sequel. But you won’t have to wait for Persona 4 to find out what happens next. Persona 3: FES, an upgraded version of the original, comes packed with an all-new journey that continues the last game’s gripping saga.
Because of the last game’s history, the emotional impact of the new quest (titled “The Answer”) is immediately apparent. Each character is dealing with a terrible loss, the identity of which will not be revealed in this review. If you played through the first quest (re-titled “The Journey” in this upgrade), then the outcome is no secret. Those of you who have yet to get your personified fix, however, should be aware that any part of this review could you lead you to the game’s revelations. The Answer features a new lead character, and in mentioning her and some of the other cast members, you will likely figure out who’s missing from the second chapter.
Source:PS2 Gamezone
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3
If anything, Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for the Xbox 360 spoiled fans of the young ninja in the orange jumpsuit. It was just one of those games that truly did justice to the source material whether it’s the Shonen Jump manga or Viz Media’s long-running anime series. It’s not that Namco Bandai Games hasn’t tried to bring us good Naruto games but seldom did they really push the fighting genre to new heights or give us better reasons to go back for more. That is, of course, until Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 for the PlayStation 2.
An improvement over the first two Ultimate Ninja releases, this third outing might not be as near perfect as Rise of a Ninja but it’s a very good step in the right direction. In fact, Naruto fans will be absolutely pleased with the number of improvements and gameplay elements that Ultimate Ninja 3 brings to PS2 gamers. Even the fighting styles show some improvement to make battles seem just as grand as they do on the Cartoon Network show or on the pages of the manga. Even the game modes show an improvement … although the controls and weak opponent AI make a comeback.
Ultimate Ninja 3’s theme revolves around a major storylines that involves fellow Hidden Leaf ninja Sasuke Uchiha and his Anakin Skywalker-like fall from grace. Boot up the PS2 disc and you’ll even be treated to one of the more dramatic moments from the show and manga that has Naruto Uzumaki going up against his old comrade who has become more powerful. In Hero’s History mode, we follow young Naruto through key moments of his life including his first day of training with Kakashi-sensei to the search for the Fifth Hokage and finally the “Sasuke Retrieval” story arch that pits friend against friend.
Source:PS2 Gamezone
SingStar Summer Party
Roll on summer - the weather’s good, the nights are long, it’s the perfect time to get everyone together for a party - and SingStar’s going to be right there with you. SingStar Summer Party for PlayStation 2 is arriving this April with 30 great tracks that are just perfect for those hot summer nights. We’re talking about classic songs and videos that just capture that summer feeling: tracks from Blondie, Rihanna, David Bowie, Klaxons and Peter Andre to name just a few.
Source:PS2 Gamezone
SNK ARCADE CLASSICS Volume 1
In a bar in a dangerous district in Tokyo, a muscular man steps into a bar filled with gang members and proceeds to break a bottle over the heads of anyone dumb enough to attack him. Half way across the world in Brazil, an attractive and very busty young woman is locked in battle with a mercenary that wishes to win the underground fighting competition. Deep in an unknown jungle, a lone soldier fights off waves of enemy soldiers with but a handful of grenades and a machine gun while in space a fighter ship helps defend our planet. These scenarios are but a small taste of what you’ll expect from the compilation of classic games found in SNK Arcade Classics Vol. 1 for the PlayStation 2.
Anyone who has spent a great deal of time plunking down quarters into a Neo-Geo arcade cabinet will easily remember most of these classics while a few others that have long been forgotten will bring back some fond (as well as not-so fond) memories. The original Metal Slug will be one of these games you will remember fondly and it’s followed closely by the fighting game classic, The King of Fighters ‘94 as well as Fatal Fury. There are also a few games that have finally resurfaces such as Top Hunter, Shock Troopers and the forgotten King of the Monsters. Whether you like a fighting game, a shooter or even a sports game, this collection delivers the goods … 16 to be exact.
Source:PS2 Gamezone
