Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 & 1942: Joint Strike Reviews

Commando was not one of my favourite games to play back in the 80`s, for some reason I just couldn't get into it and disliked it, yes it was a solid game and looked and played great but the game kept kicking my ass. As a result I avoided playing it at the Arcade and the Spectrum version got thrown into a pile of games that I did not play unless 1) I was extremely bored or 2) one of my friends came round to play it.

Fast forward a few years later and I was in a ten pin bowling alley with a bunch of friends and as usual I wandered over to the Arcade machines. (Yup even when I go out to take a break from playing games I still want to play games) There in a corner was a game called MERCS, I thought that looks a bit familiar so pumped some money into it to have a quick go. This game was great, I was really enjoying playing it despite getting shouted at as everyone was waiting for me to bowl. The game allowed you and two others to play in co-op mode taking on a horde of soldiers, helicopters and tanks, just like another game I could not remember for the life of me. It turned out that this game was the follow up to Commando but instead of loathing it, I really enjoyed playing every moment of it even though the game was equally as tough as its predecessor.



So when I heard that Commando 3 was going to be appearing on the 360 I began to worry, was this going to be a case of like or loathe. Well I guess there is only one way to find out so here we go.

Commando 3: Wolf of the Battlefield while being the follow up to the Commando and Mercs was developed by Backbone entertainment instead of Capcom. Just like MERCS you can play three player co-op however this time you can choose from three which all have different stats to each other in the Speed,Health and Grenade departments. The characters look as you imagine with Wolf and Coyote being big brutes of men with large muscles and even bigger guns, Joining them however is the rather petite looking female named Fox as you would expect she is the fastest one of the three.



The visuals for the game are good if you like cartoon style graphics, but if you dont then it sucks to be you. (Its not exactly Cel-Shading, but its close enough) The game on a whole is pretty challenging with you using the right analog stick to fire in a certain direction. During the game there are a few weapon pickups available to you like the Dual Shot which fires in a straight line, a Triple shot that fires as you would expect in three directions, a flame thrower which is the weakest weapon in the game and should be avoided at all costs (it really is that bad killing an enemy with it can take 2-3 seconds and in this type of game its not worth it) and lastly the rocket launcher. The rocket launcher while slow firing just destroys everything in its path as you would expect. As well as these you also get grenades and a kill all enemies on screen move called a MERC Strike or something. (shoot me I forgot the name of it)



The enemies just keep coming from everywhere in this game so as you would expect your finger is never off the trigger. (Yeh I know but analogue stick doesn't sound right) As you would expect from the previous games vehicles are made available to you in the levels such as a Jeep and a Tank which gives you the option of just staying and shooting enemies slowly or plowing through them and running the enemy over as you try to complete the stage. One thing I didn't like is when you exit a vehicle you can end up anywhere, so if you hop out to pick up a medal for more points you can end up on the other side to it and get killed by the enemies that have just spawned on that side.

The first boss fight sees you taking on a tank and is pretty much what you would expect from this game as a boss. However what you don't expect is the other bosses later on in the game, to say they are pretty lack lustre could be an understatement. This doesn't really spoil the fun of the game though, it just makes you a bit disappointed by what you actually see on the screen.



The game is not without it's problems though, with slow down appearing every so often, not enough to totally ruin the game as it only lasts a second or so here and there, but it is enough that it will annoy you. Another problem could be that the gameplay is to linear for a lot of people, I know what your gonna say "What game is'nt linear" but there is linear in a good way where little things change to keep you playing and linear in a bad way which leaves you a bit bored of it all. Unfortuantely this is in the bad way, at least it felt that way to me. I am sure some people will like this game and it will be a lot more fun with one or two other people playing the game with you, but playing through on your own you reach stage 3 - 4 and think jeez I hope this is nearly over. Saying that though its not a bad game, it is just one you should not play on your own, although it will stop squabbling about who gets which power up.

Overall for 800 points though you get what you pay for, and at the price although the game is pretty short (5 stages in total) but its worth a look at, if you don't like what you see in the first level trial then, you wont like the game. If you do however then great its pretty much the same all the way through but with the bosses as well.








In 1981 the world of the SHMUP (Shoot 'em up) was about to be redifined when Namco decided to redifine the genre with the first vertical scrolling SHMUP, a little game known as Xevious. The impact of this on the SHMUP genre was huge with many Arcade fanatics being amazed at what they saw back then, so it was with little surprise that other game companies were inspired and many copies and interpretations started to appear in the arcades.

Way back in the mid 80`s Capcom were renowned for making fantastic Arcade games such as Bionic Commando, Commando, Gun Smoke and Ghost's n`Goblin's to name but a few of the classic games they made. All of these games had one thing in common they were all solid games of a high standard and recieved ports on numerous systems. So it was of little surprise that when they decided to make a vertical scrolling SHMUP the game was going to be worth playing, as everyone expected from Capcom 1942 turned out to be a great game, this was a time when Capcom could do no wrong and everything they touched turned to gold.

The 1942 series has a earned its place in history spawning 7 titles in total including this one, how many other game series do you know that have had 6 follow up games released? I can't think of any that can match or exceed that except for the Final Fantasy and Resident Evil series of games, so personally I think that speaks volumes for the series. (Yup I know there is the Madden and Fifa games as well but they are just cash cows, which I am sure I will get complaints about saying, but hey it's true.)



So just what is 1942: Joint Strike? It is not really a remake of the original 1942 game as some people think it is, it is more of a mix and match of the best bits from the other games in the series while also retaining its own touch of originality. This is still everything you would expect from the 1942 name though just with a bit more under the hood to enhance the experience. When you first start the game you have the choice of 3 different planes to choose from with different attributes to each other in the Health,Speed, Power and Missile stats.
The graphics are crisp enough allthough you won't really be paying to much attention as you try to save you skin from the various enemies you encounter during the game. There is about 10+ different types of enemies you will encounter during different levels not including the bosses from the standard enemy plane to turrets, boats and tanks to name a few.

As you would expect in any SHMUP there are power ups for you to pick up while playing, you obtain these by shooting down a squadron of red fighter planes, shooting them all will result in a different power up being dropped which can provide anything from a different primary weapon such to bombs, health or medals and occasionally an overpowered weapon thats available for a limited time only.




Another cool feature is that shooting enemies will provide you with missiles that you can use by tapping either the X or B button, these can seriously save your skin when you want to save your Bombs until you reach the Boss at the end of the stage, and believe me you will want to use them then.

One thing that the 1942 series of games has always had is big mechanical bosses that fill the screen, and will keep you on your toes as they spray shots everywhere , luckily unlike in the very first 1942 game you now have a health bar so one shot no longer kills you straight away. This game is tough and unforgiving where you have to rely on quick skills to avoid enemy fire, but you wouldn't have it any other way though really. If you have played any of the 1942 games you are sure to see a few familiar bosses make a return.



A new feature in this game is the aptly named Joint Strike, where while in local multi-player mode or over xbox live instead of having missiles you can do a joint attack instead which sees you using a lightning net between both planes to destroy the enemy hordes.

While this game can be looked at as just another shooter, news flash what did you really expect. Ok the game does not really do anything to change the landscape, but at the same time it doesn't do anything bad at the same time. You get solid gameplay, responsive controls and a game that does exactly what you would expect from it. All in all its a pretty good game that will keep you entertained and certainely falls into the catergory of XBLA games that are worth playing. Also good luck as the game is pretty tough to say the least, I still haven't managed to finish it yet, a true sign of old school gaming the games tough.

Soul Calibur IV Review

Way back in 1996 I got a chance to play an all new arcade game at my local Laser Quest. With quite a large group of people gathered around it I knew it had to be something good. Had they finally got the brand new shiny Tekken 2 that I wanted to play, or even better the much anticipated Virtua Fighter 3? Alas the answer was no. It ended up being a little game called Soul Edge, or as we called it Tekken with swords. And with the game coming from the same team as Tekken it was easy to see why the comparison was made, and being compared to such a classic wasn't a bad thing. The graphics were great and the game played fantastic, even better shortly after playing the game I found out it was due for release on the PlayStation. My love affair with the Soul series had its first seeds planted.

Fast forward to sometime in 1999. I was bored of fighting games now and just started to swap between different gaming genres. The fighting games around just seemed to be updates with a few extra characters and very little changing from one title to the next. This all changed though when I decided to pick up Soul Calibur for my Dreamcast after going round a friend's house and being stunned by what I saw. The game I had forgotten about long ago now had a new name, and looked so much better while playing like a dream. Even the roster had now been changed with the inclusion of Yoshimitsu from the Tekken series and several other new faces. I had found a reason to play fighting games again and that reason was Soul Calibur, a game that is still considered one of the best fighting games of all time. With the inclusion of Mission Mode, gamers finally had a reason to keep on playing the game after beating the Arcade Mode, aside from pulling it off the shelf when your mate popped round to get his ass kicked.

Since then I have played each of the Soul Calibur games in the series even going as far as to buy all 3 versions of Soul Calibur II just so I could play as each one of the unique characters released on each system the game was released on. (Gamecube got Link from Zelda; The PlayStation 2 got Heiachi from Tekken and the Xbox got McFarlane's creation Spawn)



So when Soul Calibur IV was announced it was with little surprise that I was excited to play the game. Even more excited than that fateful morning I woke up early and sat around in my underpants waiting to download Soul Calibur on the XBLA, only to realize that it was 6am and I still had hours left to wait before I could get my hands on it. Yes, the same Soul Calibur game that has sat 10 feet away from me on a shelf for the Dreamcast that I haven't been interested in playing for so long.

So when Soul Calibur IV popped through the letterbox of the Console Heroes UK offices, it was with very little hesitation that I switched the phones off, drew the curtains, and grabbed some snacks before putting the disk in my 360. Who should I play as first, my old favorite Sueng Mina? Or should I go for Mitsurugi or maybe some random character? I ended up picking Yoda. Yes, the same little old green hermit from Star Wars. I will admit I was quite worried about how Yoda would fit in within the Soul Calibur world, and my worst fears were proved to be right. Everyone likes the little green guy, and with good reason as he is a great character in the Star Wars universe, however he should have stayed there and sent Obi-Wan Kenobi or some other hero instead. To say the character just doesn't fit in could be seen as harsh but its true, you will notice this more when you fight against him and all your attacks are sailing over his head, while your low attacks hardly seem to damage him. Heck, shove one of the guys from the films that lives for 2 seconds into the game instead as long as they aren't 2 feet tall and play like crap we won't mind. Sorry to say, but as guest stars in the Soul Calibur series go, this is probably the worst.

The good news is though that one bad Jedi doesn't have the power to ruin the game though even though you have to play through Arcade mode with them to get your hands on the real bad guy. That bad guy is Jacob Nion aka StarKiller, Darth Vader’s Sith Apprentice from the upcoming Star Wars: Force Unleashed game. Well as you all know Jacob is Vader’s secret apprentice, but you probably don't know how it all came about. We all remember the events of Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith when Order 66 was put in effect and the extermination of the Jedi began. During these events, Darth Vader traveled to the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk to seek out any Jedi taking refuge there. He hit the jackpot when he stumbled upon Kento Nion and a fight quickly broke out between the two, which resulted in Vader using the Force to choke Kento. Seeing this unfold, Jacob used the force to take Vader's lightsaber. Sensing the potential of the young boy he quickly finished off Kento and killed a group of Imperial Soldiers that had witnessed the events and whisked Jacob away to train in secret as his apprentice to carry out Order 66 and ultimately stand with him to kill Vader's master Darth Sidious.



But how does he play? The character may not be your usual Soul Calibur fighter, but he slots in okay as opposed to being another character just wedged in that isn't needed. Both Yoda and StarKiller both use Force powers in the game as well as the standard moves. The Force has a separate small bar underneath the screen, which depletes when the powers are used and refills over time as you'd expect. Some of StarKiller's really cool moves include a throw that if positioned on the edge of the ring facing the middle ends up with your opponent getting flung over the edge. You also have force pulls to drag your opponents closer and lightning to hurl from your fingertips while you’re in mid air. We all know that the inclusion of the Star Wars characters is nothing more than a marketing deal for both Soul Calibur IV and The Force Unleashed to get more attention, but it is great to see that at least with StarKiller they got it right and he fits right in with the Soul Calibur world.

Now that all the Star Wars stuff is out of the way we can get onto the real meat of the game. In this iteration of the game you get everything you would expect to see and a whole lot more. From the Menu screen you see there is a whole host of options to choose from. In the singleplayer tab we have the Story mode which will see your character fight over five stages as they try to get their hands on or destroy Soul Edge or Soul Blade, and also give you the chance to unlock some characters along the way.

Then we have Tower of Lost Souls, which will see you tearing your hair out as you fight to ascend to the top of the tower, unlocking items and weapons along the way. Essentially these are split into groups of 3 stages or so that will require you to meet certain conditions to unlock items and weapons taking breaks in between a set amount of floors to change characters or to just to take a break. Once you have completed the first twenty floors however, the Descend the Tower option will now be open to you. This is basically the survival mode; you get to pick 2 characters and battle your way through as many stages as possible with your health not replenishing. Tower Of Lost Souls is everything you would expect from the mission mode in a Soul Calibur game. In other words challenging, frustrating and fun all at the same time.

There is also the usual Arcade and Training modes, with Arcade seeing you pit your wits and test your reflexes in battle over 8 Stages in the best of two battles. Training is training, as you would expect to see in any other game. You can spend time in training to practice combos and get a better feel for each character against enemies who will perform only the actions you set them to. This can help a lot when you're trying to figure out which combos and attacks are best under specific circumstances.



Returning to the main menu, you'll see the usual Versus modes, where you can choose to compete in Standard or Special Versus, the difference being that Special includes Weapon and Equipment effects. Sadly there is no Team Battle mode which would have been a nice inclusion, but I guess we can't have everything, and you will probably only play this when someone turns up at your door for a game.

The same versus options are available in the Xbox Live section of the menu screen, with the only difference being able to play the games Ranked or in a Player Match. So how is the online side of things? Well depending on whom you ask it’s either really laggy or its fine. I have had mixed experiences with it. My first game against some guy in China was a bit laggy for one round, then it was fine for the next two. The next game I played against someone in America was nearly unplayable and suffered from terrible lag, yet the American I played after that suffered no lag at all. To combat this you should just play with people that have good connections. The best way to find out how good their connection is is to look at the bars at the side of their names when you browse for games. If its a 4 you should have no trouble; even with 3 you will probably be ok. Just avoid the poor connections with 2 bars or lower and your gaming experience should be lag-free. You can also view the usual leaderboards as well and see how your mates are getting on with the game in Arcade and Online as well as viewing their Online fight history. The game will see the usual one move wonders though as all fighting games seem to get, where your opponent will just do the same move over and over again to get a cheap win. That’s not the game's fault though, it's down to the crap gamer you're playing against.

Next up is Character Creation, where you can purchase characters, give new weapons and items to the ones currently available, or create your own character. Your created characters do have to have one of the normal character's move sets so you can't mix your favorite moves. There is more than enough options to modify your character though to make them stand out from others you will see on Xbox Live, especially since different items have different effects on weapons, and you can also set up different skills to use in battle. The only way to get gold to pay for the items is to play the game, and lets face it that is what you got the game for in the first place, so if you don't have enough money for that eye patch you always wanted keep playing. One thing you can't do is customize Star Killer or Yoda apart from giving them a gem and a different Light Saber that looks exactly the same, this is a missed opportunity but Lucas Arts didn't want people making their own Jedi for some reason.

Next up we have Museum, and let me just start by saying that it's great to see how much work has gone into this. First up we have the Chain of Souls which contains Character Profiles, relationships between characters, and also who is after which sword. The character profiles are pretty detailed to say the least and a lot of thought has gone into them that you will want to read half of them at least.



Then we have the Art Gallery which contains everything from Illustrations, Character art, Promo Items and more. You can view any items you purchase in a slide show as well, but you will probably be saving all that gold for the Eye Patch mentioned earlier rather than dropping it on some concept art.

Next up is the Event Theater, which shows all the Opening and Ending movies for any character's story you have finished. Along with a few other bits and bats thrown in for good measure.

Lastly we have Battle Records, which is just a fancy way of saying "Achievements you have unlocked", as there is nothing more than that under this tab. It would have been nice to see a list of your wins and losses and a few other details but they are all missing unfortunately, but this was probably tacked on for the Playstation 3 players so they can compare what they have done with their 360 owning mates.

Well that’s all the boring crap out of the way, now its time to tell you how this thing plays. To put it simply, friggin' excellent. I put the game in and ended up just playing through the game until about 3am when I finally realized what time it was, while trying to avoid things like eating, bathroom breaks, and all the other things I should have been doing instead of playing this game. Some characters could do with a bit more balancing, as some are a lot stronger than they need to be, while others seem to have been slowed down a touch and had the damage they do reduced.

The sword and armor effects work great, with some characters playing much better with the right set up, and can make a weaker player more balanced against an opponent on live or against the CPU. With over 30 characters to mess about with and customize, the only thing stopping you is the amount of items you have unlocked and the gold you have in the game. The characters for the most part play differently to each other with only a few being similar to each other. It would have been nice to see some of the old characters that were dropped from previous games make a return, but there is still a character for everyone to play as. From the speedy Sueng Mina, to the weird Voldo, to the brute power of Astaroth, there will be ones that you loathe and like, just as you would expect in any fighting game. It's all about finding which character is best for you and the most fun to play as.

The gameplay is tight, the controls are great, and this is what you expect and want to see in a Soul Calibur game. Heck it's what you want to see in any game. The story mode is pretty short with only 5 stages, but when you consider that you are sometimes fighting against 4 enemies per stage then you can understand why there are only 5 stages.

A lot of people in the past have said can you imagine what Mortal Kombat would be like if the game play was as good as the fatalities. Well imagine no longer as in Soul Calibur IV you get to see Namco’s take on fatalities called Critical Finishes. In this game you get to do something called a Soul Crush by repeatedly attacking and having your attack blocked. Sort of like the armor break system but on a more spiritual level. Eventually you will hear a crack sound which will leave your opponent open for a moment when this happens you just tap your LB button and you will initiate a Critical Finish. Unlike in Mortal Kombat you won't see any blood and guts but they are still pretty entertaining to say the least but without the 20 million button inputs.

So to wrap things up Yoda was a bad idea, but other than that the gameplay is everything you would expect. The graphics are as shiny as you would expect them to be, the sound is great and there is more than enough here to keep you entertained for quite sometime. Am I a bit biased towards Soul Calibur? Maybe, maybe not. I like good games and this is one of them, and it's worth a try at least even if you’re only a bit of a fighting game fan. Take the gamble, you will be glad you did.

The Bourne Conspiracy Review

Who doesn't like the Bourne series of films starring Matt Damon? When you mention the Bourne series everyone thinks Matt Damon, so why in the heck did he turn down the chance to be in the game? Your going to love this, apparently he turned down the role because of the violence in it, Yep that’s right he turned down the game because it was going to contain violence. The Bourne films that he starred in featured absolutely no violence at all in them, oh wait they did and that’s why people like the films as its not violence for the sake of violence its story driven violence that without it would make the films shit. Just like if your going to make a game of a film like the Bourne series and just have the lock picking and driving the car, Who the heck wants to just drive somewhere and pick a lock.



I was dreading playing this game after receiving a demo of the game in the post from Sierra along with a note saying this demo is not for review purposes, So don't review the game based on this. I made my mind up playing the demo that the game would be cack and not worth picking up to play. Well I don't know what they did between the demo and the final release but the game just seems so much better now than it did before. Heck I even enjoyed the game and I'm a miserable sod. The demo suffered from camera issues which have thankfully been improved, there are still some times that you will be annoyed by them, but its very rare now and as a result the game now feels a lot better for it.

One thing that I hated about the demo was the car driving level that sees you driving round the streets of Paris, it just seemed to be wedged in when it wasn't really needed. In the final version of the game I still don't like it, but the good news is that’s the only level in the game that sees you behind the wheel of the mini, and thankfully its pretty short as well.



So what is the game all about, the game is about Jason Bourne as you would expect, but rather than just following the films it also sees you taking up a couple more missions from his past just to pad the game out a bit more. One good thing is this isn't your usual game based on a movie dross, as it tends to lean towards the books, and as a result adds that bit more to the characters past.

The game starts off with you trying to kill another assassin called O'Conner who has been hired by the former African dictator Nykwana Wombosiafter after receiving a tip off that you are trying to assassinate him. So its with little surprise that you need to get your would be assassin before he gets you. There's just one problem he has his own men that are trying to stop you getting to him, so the chase is on through the streets of some town in France as you follow his trail to a back street then into a bar where you get to try your hand at some hand to hand combat.



The controls for hand to hand fighting are really simple to use, with X and Y being your attack buttons and A enabling you to block. So just three buttons then? Nope the B button gives you a special finishing move called a takedown that can see you using the objects around you to quickly defeat your enemy if you have enough adrenaline in your meter. (You get adrenaline by fighting and getting headshots with a weapon)That’s not all though, say you have 2 or 3 enemies around you and your adrenaline meter is full, a little tap of the B button starts a quick time event that will flash a button on the screen for you to press for each enemy, dispatching the lot of them in one go. Failure however will see you lose all the adrenaline you would have used to dispatch them.

The shooting in the games not to bad either with you also being able to get behind cover and pop up and shoot, one thing though is you can only see where your aiming when you aren't in cover so its not like Rainbow Six where you can aim a reticule before you pop out, its all down to guess work. One section later in the game will have you screaming at your TV because of it, but if you use the cover wisely and guess where your going to shoot before you pop from behind cover you wont really have any trouble. Again like in the hand-to-hand combat you can also use the adrenaline gauge to dispatch enemies with little fuss at all. The only difference is you will get a quick time event when dispatching a solo enemy when using the adrenaline shot.



One thing that I wasn't keen on was sometimes while fighting an enemy in hand to hand combat you would rarely get another enemy with a gun shooting you from distance, but you can just move backwards to fight round a corner so the bullets don't hit you. It is annoying none the less though and could have been fixed by the programmers so it doesn't happen before the game was actually released, like I said though its just a minor issue and a rare occurrence.

You also have something called the Bourne Instinct, which allows you to see things that are of interest to you, from guns and ammo crates, to enemies and passports. Why people have left passports stood up like birthday cards around the level is a bit strange, either way High Moon Studios put them in to collect for all the gamers that like to track everything in the game down. When you find them all on a level you unlock an extra which you can access from the start screen.



The game spans over 11 levels in total which will take you around 6-7 hours at a guess, which just seems to fit the game just right. (I played the game over 2 days so cant be exact sorry) So it was a nice surprise from the usual to short or to long that it bores you to tears annoyance that we sometimes see with games.

I would have to give the game a thumbs up though, its a good way to waste away a day or two, and worth a try at least. As game companies normally put that a demo may not match the finished article, this is certainly the case with this game. So if you have tried the demo and you have made your mind up about the game then that’s a shame, your missing out on a good game.

Rating Box Stolen from Console Heroes

Fifa Street 3 Review

You can find an Achievement Guide for this game Here

Info on the game and screenshots are located Here





Fifa Street was born in the olden days and was made as an alternative to the hoop and stick game that was all the rage at the time.(Yes it was even more popular than marbles)Bursting onto the scene as a school yard/Back street football simulator of sorts,adding fun elements like no refs,no offside,and non stop play,with Football Superstars being there in place of Fatty Fairclough,Goggles and Smelly Tramp.
There was a few things missing though,llike your mum calling you in for you Dinner,jumpers for goal posts,the retriveal of the ball from your neighbours garden and smashing windows by accident and running off.
(The last one i still enjoy doing today)

Fifa Street was quite a fun game to play and sold so well that they made a sequel,imaginatively titled as Fifa Street 2.
This game however was a pile of cack released with akward arenas to play in which resulted in less fun being had.It felt like some of the things that made the 1st game fun was lost,it was the Matrix Reloaded all over again,which was pretty strange as the film wasnt even out then and has nothing to do with the game.


(if the last statement about the Matrix Reloaded not being released is untrue,then whoops i told a fib)

So after the poor display by Fifa Street 2 they decided the series was done with, and would never release another game in the series unless it was Fifa Street 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10.
So it came as a big shock when EA announced that Fifa Street 3 would be released.
So lets talk about Fifa Street 3 and everything involved with the game.

From the title screen you have the usual play now mode,where you get to play the game straight away where you can jump straight in and play with the street teams you have unlocked in challenge mode or national teams.
You can choose a number of match types in this mode like Score difference where you have to lead by a set number of goals to win,Score which is a first to so many goals,Timed where you play for a set period of time,Game Breaker where only gamebreaker goals count,Five a side where its timed but without Gamebreakers and my favourite of all and a game most people in the UK have played at one time in their youth,yes people its Headers and Volleys.
(There is always some sod that used to hoof the ball onto a neighbours roof or through a window while playing Headers and Volleys in the real world)

As per normal you probably wont bother much with the exhibition mode,Sorry i forgot its Play Now so its more hip.

So what else do we have in here,well next up is the Fifa Challenge mode.

In this mode you select from the unlocked challenges for which team you will play against in a few games where you have to meet certain conditions to win,such as win by 5 goals,Headers and Volleys and other such games.

After you have picked which team to play you then pick from one of the Two teams available at the start.
Stocky which is a team of larger players featuring Gattuso,Rooney and Viduka,
or the Urchins which features a team of unknown players like the Canadian player Wu Hong and Chinese super star Zhang Hui.

Each time you beat all of a teams challenges you unlock them to play as in any of the game modes.
There are also side challenges involved called Challenge Targets where you have to win a set number of games,score so many goals and game breaker goals and headers and volleys.


You proceed through the challenge mode until you reach the end,which should take you around a few hours depending on your skill at the game,although you shouldnt really have any trouble with the default difficulty level.If you are stuggling though you can always adjust it to easy or cheeky.
(Yes i said cheeky,its EA and there child hood humour,i guess they are down with the kids of the 80`s........The 1880`s that is,i mean come on ive not heard that term in ages and when i have it normally has a word similar to Barsteward on the end)

So thats challenge mode done and dusted so with the main part of the game out of the way whats left?
Well we have the Head To Head mode.
(No not the GamerScore League a different Head To Head)

Head To Head is just the variations of games that you played in challenge mode,such as Timed,Gamebreakers and Headers and Volleys.
This mode is made for you and a friend to play only,its a shame as this would have been nice to play against the CPU,but you can do all these in Play Now against it.
(I guess there is a use for play now after all,i really feel bad for dismissing it like i did,im sorry play now mode will you please forgive me)

So 3 modes down and still more to choose from,next up is Playground Picks,which is another holla back to school day football.
(Did i say holla back? whats next lady bump?)
Playground Picks is another 2 player only mode,where one player picks a team,which the players then take it in turn to pick team members from,with Goggles being picked last due to him having asthma and passing to the other team as he cant see 2 feet in front of his face.
Again you can flick between the various game modes mentioned earlier on including Headers and Volleys.
(I friggin love Headers and Volleys can you tell or as we used to call it 60 seconds,You had to score a header or volley in that time,if you did it then changed to 50 then 40.After 10 it then goes to 2 goals in 60 Seconds,if you failed last person to touch the ball goes in goal)

After this there is the practice mode,which i dont think anyone will ever need to use and doesnt really need an explanation at all.
(Well if you want one here it is,you practice in this mode,happy you asked for it?)

After all that we then have the Xbox live mode,which is filled with all the variations of the games you have already played earlier if you have worked your way down the modes,if you have not done this however welcome to the world of wonder and mystery.
The games play the same as the other modes, but you also get to play a complete stranger who quits after you have scored 4 goals in the 1st minute of play.

Lastly is the Options mode with the usual tweaks and options,such as having the abilty to turn the Urban music off,a feature i am truly thankfull that they have included in the game as its not my cup of tea.

So whats missing from the game?

Nothing really its a pretty fun game,a few more tricks would have been nice though.
A penalty shoot out mode also would have been pretty cool,but its no biggie that its not included.

The only problem i would say the game has is the tackling,it doesnt seem to want to work some of the time,but its a minor issue at best.




AUDIO – 8
The in game sound effects are pretty good as well with people calling for the ball,not really much they could do with these but they still did a good job on them.

Graphics – 7
The graphics are pretty good for a football game and not as cartoony as some of the screenshots would have you believe,there is 7 arenas that are all the same size and shape with the difference only cosmetic,but still a quite good selection,and the characters look pretty good as well with them all looking similar to the real life counter parts.


Game play – 7
Easy to pick up and play,and enjoyable,the only problem i had was with the tackling occasionaly,but other than that i cant really fault the game,its nice to see its more like the first game than the second.

Lifespan – 6
Once you have finished the offline modes which will only take roughly 5-8 hours depending on your skill,there is only the online and occasional friends dropping by for a game to keep it going.
Personally i cant see much time being spent by me playing this on live,but if you like it you may stick with it online a lot longer.

Bottom Line – 7.5
Overall its an entertaining game and one that is easlily accessible from start to finish.
Probably the most fun Football game on the 360 at the moment and until Fifa Street 4 comes out.
(I would like to say i hate Peter Crouch,so thanks a lot EA for making me have to score 3 goals with the useless sod)

Jumper 360 Review

With most movies based films being nothing short of a cash cow and a failure in the eyes of gamers, most of the time not reflecting the film story line or just being really bad games in general with no imagination. There are some games that do break the mold though and turn out to be good games like Batman on the commodore 64 back in the day, or quite enjoyable like Surfs Up. This brings us to the new movie based game Jumper: Griffins story, which side of the fence does this game sit on, or is it neither as it balances itself teetering between the excrement and the enjoyable.

Upon loading the game you have only one selection available and that is New Game, no options for this game, its begging you to just get straight in there. So the game starts with some of the story being told via voice acting and still cartoon style frames, a story I hasten to add I want to avoid as I really want to watch the film. The voice acting is very poor to say the least and sounds like the guy recording it was really pissed off and didn’t want to be there.

The plot lines now out of the way so it’s on to the 1st level.(I say plot but I’m confuddled as it doesn’t make much sense, either that or I’m not paying attention to it) The 1st level starts and your standing in what I can only imagine is a totally different place to the one you saw a minute before. To say the graphics aren’t the best looking maybe an understatement, but we all know that graphics aren’t everything so let’s move on.

The controls are pretty easy to use; it appears this game is going to be a button basher from start to finish. They are a bit similar to the Night Crawler levels in the X-Men 3 game, but with a few changes thrown in for good measure, does it work I’m not to sure yet as I’m on the 1st level at this point, as I like to play the game as I write taking breaks to fill in the blanks, so only time will tell.

The first few sections are basically the training for the game with menus popping up every so often telling you what to do and what not to do, such as don’t attack on the red side or your head will explode or something similar to that.

All the enemy characters so far look to be the same 3 variations of characters, and the fighting system seems ok, not to bad but not exactly great either, one problem I’ve found is your view can get blocked by the scenery while fighting which causes you to lose a bit of health.

For some reason every so often it will transport you and an enemy to another area and something will happen, either an explosion or something similar in which time you will be transported to where you were before, while the enemy gets the full force of the blast or whatever happens in the drop zone you have left them at.

So far the game isn’t that impressive but I have played a lot worse, yes I am looking at you NBA Live how I hate you with a passion, the 1st level clocks in at around 10 minutes or so-so its pretty short, hopefully all the other levels aren’t this short otherwise there is going to be a lot of people gutted they bought a game they can complete in a couple of hours.

Next up its the second level, your on some mountain pass with little rooms offset from the path, its not looking to good so far as I am just doing the same thing over and over again, with no change apart from one enemy threw a grenade or something, hooray its not the same after all after about 3 rooms you enter a massive courtyard where you get to fight roughly 5 enemies at a time as they come out of the building at the end.
So I have beaten the first five what’s next I hear you ask well there is another 5 to defeat, then another and another.(Do these guys not realise if they all come at me at once they could probably kick my ass?) A short easy boss fight and its onto the next level, one good thing about this level is it took about 1 minute more than the previous one. So if you have bought this game instead of renting it then things are looking up as the last level may last a whole hour if there are about 30 levels.
(Please don’t let there be 30 levels, I am not sure id be able to cope)

I’m still unsure how to get the drop zone features to come on and keep doing it by accident, they really should explain how to do it, maybe they did and I skipped it in my attempt to play the game.

Level 3 sees me in some pyramids for reasons I am not sure of, maybe I am looking for pirate treasure, and you know how sneaky those guys can be. I’m chasing some bad guy while enemies keep blocking my way and closing doors that magically open once they have been defeated just like in real life. Surprise, surprise its exactly the same as the last few levels only this time you fight against two guys at the end instead of the one, this level is actually slightly harder than the last two with the bosses being a bit of a pain in the ass.

Level 4 and in terms of gameplay nothing has changed just more generic button mashing. I am really struggling to remain open minded now, as it’s just the same thing over and over again, but not in an enjoyable way, this is now getting tedious. The teleportation doesn’t come into play at all in the game apart from places where you have to do it to proceed, this is looking a rental at best four levels in and I have not got anything to say.

There is nothing much to say about level 5 either as its just more of the same, the only exception this time the boss seems to have way to much energy, and you can’t actually beat him, which seems stupid but there you go, you also visit levels you have already played on as well, I guess they were saving the budget for a decent game.

Now onto level 6, at least I think its level 6 I stopped counting as it just all seems to blur into one large pile of nonsense, this sees you inside the building in the courtyard from earlier on in the game, you just hack your way up until the boss, who I may as well add is a lot easier to beat than the previous one, then that’s your lot. Once beaten you can replay the entire game from the continue option on the main screen with the last weapon in the game if you picked it up, if you wish to, all though you will probably fight the urge to unless you want the full 1000 achievement points.

AUDIO – 5
The voice acting was bad,the music was ok and the sound effects were of your average standard.

Graphics – 4
Seen worse,but also seen a lot better 2 years ago,Looks a lot like an original xbox game with a bit of a polish.

Game play –6
The controls while working ok,sometimes seem down to luck and i still not know how the drop zone thing actually works.
Very linear to say the least and not much to keep you playing apart from wanting to get the game finished.

Lifespan – 5
Once you have played it once,there isnt really much reason to go back through it and play it again.
If your going to get this rent it,not worth buying in my honest opinion,in my lying opinion buy 15 copies of it as its awesome.

Bottom Line – 5
I really tried to like this game and be as impartial as i could,but this is your usual lackluster game of a movie and it just doesn`t cut the mustard.
If you want to play i stress again rent it,buying it would be a rather large mistake.