Consoles, Games and Emulators.

As usual, it has been difficult find a solid RPG worth playing during the first year of the next generation. For now, it appears to begin and end with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, even though plenty of promising entries in the genre are on the way. But PS3 owners do have a decent option in Enchanted Arms, a game released for the Xbox 360 last year and recently ported to Sony’s new console. While there really isn’t anything all that original here, and despite a decided lack of “next-gen” elements, the game manages to remain both appealing and entertaining for fans of traditional RPGs. The only real question is, does it interest to you? Well, read on to find out, and bear in mind that this title offers at least 40 hours of gameplay, but will also cost you the full $60 price tag.

The graphics consist of a deeply contrasting blend of dull and generic combat detail and some nice environmental design. Too many of the areas are devoid of life, but some of the backdrops can be downright breathtaking; Yokohama has some magnificent views of the bay, for example. But during battle, there are a lot of grays and browns, as the dark colors of the combat grid dominate the presentation and put a serious damper on the overall graphical appeal. And while the towns and cities look great - for the most part - the dungeons and exploration areas tend to pale in comparison. Character design is slightly better than average; RPG veterans will immediately recognize the standard Japanese art design, and while certainly nothing special, the design should satisfy its target audience. Overall, though, the graphics aren’t impressive for the PS3.

The sound is in the same boat. It’s not bad, but it hardly represents the epitome of musical and effects achievement. Among the more significant problems are a mediocre cast of English voice actors, some generic and repetitive battle sayings, and a less-than-inspired soundtrack. But on the other hand, the music consistently fits the atmosphere, and the effects for a few of the bigger combination attacks are pretty cool. There’s a good amount of clarity and sharpness throughout, and despite a basic set of somewhat bland battle effects, there isn’t too much to complain about. But again, there have been far better examples of sound on the PS3 to date, and we certainly would’ve liked to hear a larger selection of tracks for the more intense portions of the game. In general, the sound won’t offend staunch fans of the genre, but it’s hardly remarkable.

The gameplay revolves around traditional linear progression and a strategic combat style that holds much of the game’s attraction. Those familiar with strategy/RPGs know all about the battlefield presented as a grid on which characters move and execute actions, and that format is featured in Enchanted Arms…to some degree. Rather than moving from one large battle grid to the next - ala Final Fantasy Tactics or Front Mission - this one plays out much like a standard RPG. There are random encounters, and when battle starts, you’re immediately brought to this rudimentary grid. You can’t move across to the enemy’s half of the field, and they can’t move onto your half, which is certainly different than any strategy/RPG you may have played. Beyond that, it’s standard stuff: one move and one action per turn, skills hit certain squares on the grid, and you use EP for skills.

You can also use multiple characters for combo attacks, which adds another dimension to the fairly straightforward gameplay. The last feature that enhances things a bit more is the Vitality Points, which decrease with each fight you complete. While HP and EP are completely restored after every battle, your VP will continually decrease until you hit a refill station. If you run out of VP, you will no longer be able to regenerate between battles, which of course increases the difficulty tenfold. But provided you utilize your available characters appropriately, you should be able to conserve your VP throughout the adventure. Some battles do tend to drag on a bit, though, and the longer they take, the more VP you will expend. Therefore, there is a good deal of strategy involved here, but not enough to call it a “strategy/RPG.”

You follow a story, explore dungeons and new towns, and watch the small cast of characters develop as time goes on. It’s a standard RPG format, even though the combat consists of a semi-strategy theme, so we wanted to clarify that. And while we’re on the subject, the story is - like many other aspects of Enchanted Arms - traditional RPG fare. Atsuma is the main character, who is a student at a university that trains Enchanters. Of course, he has a hidden and undiscovered power, and he’s not a very good student (falls asleep in class, skips school, etc.), but he has plenty of ability. He also has the unique skill that lets him nullify an enchantment, which freaks out his fellow classmates, and no professor is willing to offer an explanation. Only when the golems start to go nuts once more does Atsuma begin to realize what’s he’s truly capable of, and that doesn’t happen for at least a few hours.

Yes, golems. The majority of the story focuses on these golems, which are artificial beings once created by magically endowed humans. At first, they did everyone’s bidding, but the golems rebelled and became Devil Golems. Later, during Atsuma’s time, the Devil Golems are a thing of the past, but as you might expect, the battle is far from over. You will encounter these golems - and the humans that control them - during combat, and it’s here where the game shows off a bit more depth: you can “recruit” these golems (after a fashion), and use them in battle. Of course, there are many to find, and if you wish to locate them all, it will significantly up the play time. Each golem has a unique set of statistics and abilities, just like the human characters, so they’re plenty effective during combat. In the PS3 version, there are 30 additional golems to find.

The last feature we need to address is the Sixaxis interactivity, which is a colossal waste of time, unfortunately. You can shake the controller quickly to increase your EX gauge, which is used to execute the more powerful attacks in the game, but this isn’t exactly entertaining. We’d much rather just quickly tap a button like you would do in the 360 version. Both versions suffered from a problematic camera during combat, though; regardless of the version you’re playing, you’ll quickly notice this damaging flaw. There are only a few set camera positions during battles, and sometimes, you can’t even see an enemy until they attack. You’ll soon learn to check all the camera positions before assigning commands, but that’s something we shouldn’t have to do. To sum this up, the motion sensing parts of the game are completely superfluous, and the camera has its drawbacks.

The difficulty rarely reaches a point where it could be considered “challenging,” but at least there are plenty of options during battles. It’s not as deep as you may think, and the balance seems a little out of whack at times, but for the most part, there’s enough here to keep you occupied and entertained. Whether you’re a micromanagement fan and love the idea of collecting all the golems, or you appreciate some great character banter (several lengthy dialogue sequences add a healthy dose of charm), this game does have a lot going for it. The story and battles will drag at times, there isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, and the technicals leave something to be desired, but RPG fans looking for a solid experience may want to consider Enchanted Arms. Just remember, there are plenty of issues, some of which are severe enough to hamper your enjoyment, so take all this into account before making a decision.
We anxiously await the likes of Final Fantasy XIII, Mass Effect, and White Knight Story, because even though Enchanted Arms is an okay effort, it’s just not a “next-gen RPG.”

There’s a reason why the Civilization series is one of the oldest and most beloved strategy game dynasties you can find on computers today. The addictive turn-based games draw on real-world history and offer open-ended gameplay that lets you conquer the world as a warlord, diplomat, or scientist. They also have a disturbing tendency to keep you up late into the night taking “just one more turn.” Civilization IV was an award-winning new chapter in the series in 2005, and last year’s Warlords expansion pack helped make a good thing even better. And now, the Beyond the Sword expansion brings even more improvements to a solid foundation. The new game adds plenty of features that breathe new life into the core Civilization gameplay, and also tosses in lots of new content in the form of new modifications (”mods”) and custom scenarios to play through. Not all of the expansion’s additions are clear-cut improvements, but if you’re a Civ fan, you’ll find that Beyond the Sword will give you plenty of reasons to get hooked all over again.
This great expansion pack brings back The Great Emancipator with new traits and abilities.
The core game of Civilization IV starts you out with a national world leader who possesses a few advantageous “traits” in various specializations (military, scientific, economic, or cultural) and starts you off at a specific era in history to conquer the world through force, science, economy, or culture. Beyond the Sword adds new world leaders to play as, as well as new leader traits that help expand certain strategies, such as the “protective” trait, whose defensive properties aid players who seek to conquer the world using scientific research to win the space race, and the “imperialistic” trait, which greatly speeds the production of “settler” units that can be used to stake new claims in uncharted territory by building new cities.

The expansion also offers new options to create customized games to your liking, such as the handy “advanced game” mode, which starts you in a game about 10 turns in, unmolested. This helps get you into the game’s truly interesting action (beyond just building your first city) faster. You can also opt to use the expansion’s new events system, which randomly triggers various events that take place throughout the game. Many of these events aren’t all that important, but some can have farther-reaching consequences, such as changing your standing with a rival nation. If nothing else, they add some welcome variety to the usual turn-based Civilization pace, and they can be toggled off if you don’t care to use them in a custom game.

Beyond the Sword’s more significant in-game features are espionage and corporations, which are interesting additions that bring even more variety to the game, though they aren’t always practical or all that useful. Corporations essentially act like late-game religions; that is, just like with Civ IV’s original religion system that let you spread religion from city to city, the expansion’s corporations can spread around the world–though in this case, they focus on various economic specialties like cereal mills, mining companies, or even a chain of sushi restaurants. When used properly, they can provide powerful economic advantages, but they’re balanced out by their substantial maintenance costs, even though these can only be accessed much later in the game.

Espionage, on the other hand, doesn’t figure quite as prominently into the average game of Civ IV. This new feature was supposed to give you exciting new options with the new spy units, which can scout out other nations and perform undercover operations like gathering additional info on your rivals or stealing their technologies. Unfortunately, spies don’t provide enough advantages to justify constantly pumping them out and sending them to the four corners of the world, since they frequently get discovered and captured before they can even get to enemy territory. In many cases, you may find yourself just skipping out on the turns it would take you to research espionage improvements to focus on your scientific research or military might. Fortunately, the expansion offers plenty of other accoutrements for the game’s core strategies, including a fistful of new units, new combat tweaks to better balance siege combat, and an expanded space-race game for technophiles that makes a space-race victory not just a matter of who builds a shuttle first, but who builds the best and fastest one.
Among other things, the expansion adds espionage, corporations, and in-game events.
If that weren’t enough, Beyond the Sword also packs in six new one-off scenarios plus five playable mods created by both in-house Firaxis developers and the fan community. Not all of the content is stellar–some, like the futuristic zombie-hunting scenario “Afterworld,” don’t quite hold up, though others, like the epic “Rhye’s and Fall of Civilizations” fan-created mod, are excellent and provide a fresh new coat of paint to the core Civilization gameplay. Even though some of the mod content has been available publicly for some time, it’s definitely convenient to have everything wrapped up in one place, and all the extra content will keep you busy for a good, long while–as you’d probably expect from the second expansion pack to a game that’s infamous for stealing your free time.

Beyond the Sword’s additions are primarily to Civ IV’s core gameplay, so the expansion doesn’t make a huge leap forward in terms of graphics or sound. But that’s just fine, since the game’s thematic, instrumental score continues to work well with the game, and the new graphics (in the form of new mod units and movies, as well as new leaders with new animations) fit into the game without a hitch. Unfortunately, Beyond the Sword doesn’t address the somewhat cluttered interface that Civ IV had; in fact, it adds a bit more clutter with the event system, which pops up windows in the upper-right corner and logs them in a scrolling box at the top-center of your screen. Some of the clutter may still seem intimidating to beginners, but this expansion isn’t necessarily for people who have never played Civ. And if you have, you shouldn’t have many problems picking up the nuances of the interface, and you’ll probably be too busy trying out all the new gameplay features that fundamentally change, and in some cases, revitalize, an already-classic game. Though not all of the additions in the expansion are perfect, there’s plenty of new stuff in Beyond the Sword for Civ fans to play with, and plenty of reasons to dive back into the game and start taking “just one more turn” all over again.

Pirates of the High Seas is a stand-alone expansion pack for The Guild 2 that isn’t big on innovation. This is essentially the exact same game as its 2006 predecessor, with the one not-so-big change to this “medieval Sims with economics” being the addition of sea trading and piracy to the list of occupations used to escape lowly serfdom. Yet while there are real pluses to being able to go all Blackbeard on those Hanseatic League, developer 4Head hasn’t done enough to address the micromanagement issues of its core design, or other preexisting problems like poor pathfinding and demanding system requirements.

Basically, what you’ve got here is a repeat of the original game that’s been cleaned up and enhanced with some skimpy nautical features. Gameplay modes in both single-player and multiplayer are carried over unchanged. You still create a serf with basic RPG characteristics and statistics, pick a profession from the four choices of patron, craftsman, scholar, and rogue, and set out to build a family dynasty through siring lots of serflings and earning loads of gold through various and sundry business activities that involve a lot of crafting. Three new professions–fisherman, medicus, and pirate–are added, although this really amounts just to added depth for some of the existing career paths. The fisherman is just a patron who can construct a shack or hut on the seashore from which to launch fishing vessels, while the pirate is just a nautical rogue who can build pirate havens, nests, and fortresses on the coastline. But that’s about it, aside from new buildings like the pesthouse and watchtower, and the ability to rise all the way up the social ladder to become king. Social interactions seem more fleshed out now, though, in that wenches often slap you for the sleazy pick-up lines that got you a shared bath in the first game.
Even monks need a break from all of that praying and chastity every now and then.
None of the new features are anything to write home about. Focus remains strictly on the nitty-gritty of Middle Ages economics, which means that, whether you ply your trade on the seas or on terra firma, you still spend almost all of your time making and selling goods. No matter which job you pick, you wind up buying and selling. The fisherman must flog his herring and salmon in the market just like any other patron looking to make a few bucks. And the three piratical buildings play similarly to the three thieving headquarters from the original game, only instead of stationing underlings along roadways to rob carts, you pirate merchant vessels in simplistic sea battles and set up prostitution rings. These fitting touches do give you an opportunity to be the “scallywag” described on the back of the box cover, though you’re still more of an accountant with an eye patch that a real scourge of the European seas.

Nevertheless, some of the seafaring additions do make Pirates of the High Seas a better game than its predecessor, even if these improvements are slight. While the three new one-off maps dealing with Britain, the Hanseatic League, and pirates in the North Sea are just revamped takes on maps from the original game with access to oceans, the new campaign is an interesting tale of redemption. It deals with the exiled Wiegbald family of Danzig seeking to right a past wrong and regain good standing with the Hanseatic League. As this organization of medieval traders was best known for its sea trading, the Wiegbalds are deeply involved in the new ability to make a living from the good old H2O. There is a dramatic sweep to the entire campaign, as well, because you start as a fisherman with a tiny shack and a single boat and branch out to full-blown merchant shipping. The basic plot is well told, if a bit melodramatic.

Still, much of the great promise of The Guild 2 remains unfulfilled. Micromanagement is still a real bear. Buildings and workers can be automated to get your goods to market without a lot of messing around, but carts still get hung up along the way by running into other carts or citizens and stopping dead in their tracks. You just can’t trust the artificial intelligence to handle your merchandise properly, which becomes a real problem after you expand your business endeavors and get family members into different professions. Pathfinding is also a problem, due to similar issues with traffic and oddities like a character abandoning his orders after being stopped and given a gift by another citizen. You’re given no notice about events like this, either, so you often have to hunt down your errant traveler. The interface always seems to require an extra couple of clicks to handle routine tasks, also, and the icon menu is really finicky when you’re simply trying to rob somebody or make a baby with your spouse. Again, all of this is awfully frustrating to deal with, especially after you get rolling with a reasonably large business empire. Everything is much improved from the original game, although additional work is needed.
Fishing for herring highlights the new seafaring job opportunities listed at MedievalMonster.com.
Another major unresolved irritation is the visual engine, which along with the music and sound effects has been carried over virtually unchanged from its predecessor. Even though this is an attractive game, with nice looking architecture and a few atmospheric touches like town halls ablaze with light in the evenings, the overall look is reminiscent of something like 2003’s Neverwinter Nights. Yet despite this dated appearance, you need a powerhouse rig with an 8800-class or equivalent video card to avoid regular trips to slide-show town. Even dialing down or turning off frills like shadows does little to speed things up, so those with average machines are stuck enduring choppy animations and bothersome skips and delays when zooming in and out of scenes with a significant number of citizens.

Other fit-and-finish issues further hamper playability. Collision detection is hit-and-miss, so characters frequently walk through walls, and even meld into ladies of the evening when conducting “salacious” business (in reality just a cheesy bump and grind on the streets, by the way, so don’t get worked up over that Teen rating). And trying to influence elections in town halls seems really buggy. Offering up bribes and compliments often sends the game into graphical stutters and sound loops where somebody says “I thank you” a couple of dozen times in a row.

If you’ve already gotten your fill of the original game, or simply didn’t like it in the first place, there is nothing in The Guild 2: Pirates of the High Seas to change your mind. The additions, minor improvements, and overall greater scope make this a better and more fulfilling game than its predecessor, although only marginally.

Role-playing games don’t come much cheaper or generic than Gods: Lands of Infinity. This by-the-numbers RPG isn’t so much awful as it is afflicted by a total lack of innovation by the developers at Cypron Studios and bargain basement production values. With that said, this is still a relatively competent take on the genre that you might enjoy, depending on your tolerance for tedium, as well as some of the goofiest voice acting and dialogue ever committed to an RPG.

As is the case with a lot of these generic fantasy types, the story is sufficiently ridiculous. It may actually be a little dumber than most. The plot relies on the antiquated hero-with-amnesia gimmick. Every character and place has also been stricken with absurd names like Svatopluck or Woda Gdely. You play Vivien, a magical hero created by a fire god named Arsvaargh. Her goal is to end a war of the gods on the world of Bellarion and find the mysterious artifact needed to defeat the god of darkness, Xarax (not to be confused with his older brother Xanax, the god of “please don’t take these with alcohol”). To accomplish this mighty task, Vivien is sent to another world on a quest to contact the different gods there. Of course, she manages to lose all of her Arsvaargh-granted special abilities en route to this new land. So you’re the typical neophyte adventurer, gaining experience points, leveling up, and choosing a career path from fighter, mage, or alchemist options. The only thing that stands out in this insipid saga is Kyla Cole, the 2000 Penthouse pet of the year, as she supplies the face and voice of Vivien. It’s not every day you get a former nude model starring in an RPG–reasonably clothed, at that.
OK, who ordered the generic fantasy non-player characters?
Despite the goal of averting an apocalypse, your mission doesn’t involve a lot of earth-shaking assignments. Almost every job that Vivien accepts has been scarfed from the big book of clichéd RPG quests. She escorts merchants, kills monsters for gold, fetches random junk for unfortunate travelers, and so on. The only somewhat interesting aspect of world construction here is the free market that runs through the different towns. Constant hints are given about merchants who are selling low and about others who are buying high. So if you want to put the time into playing as trader, you can make a fair bit of gold running pottery to beekeepers or buying fish from one merchant on the cheap and hiking across the way to another paying big bucks; that sort of thing.

Needless to say, medieval mercantilism isn’t exactly thrilling. You have to spend a lot of time wandering from one town to the next scrounging up deals, and every single map seems to have been designed so that it takes a minute or more to get from the entrance to the guy with the goodies. Unfortunately, trading is flat-out necessary because of the paltry amount of cash on offer in quests, as well as the high price of such vital goodies as armor and weapons (800 GP for a warhammer?). You’ve got to run a lot of escort missions (which regenerate every few days) and flog a lot of crap to afford much of anything. This even includes a paltry piece of mail to replace the leather halter and miniskirt you wear at the start of the game.

Other aspects of the game can be just as tedious as the traveling salesman stuff. You have to scarf down meals when out in the wild. Swigging from your water bottle and chowing down on fruit or meat is a necessity every day because hunger or thirst prevents you from resting to regain hit points. You’re a weak sister when it comes to carrying capacity too, which makes it tough to haul the crazy amount of food and water you need when on a quest. The game also automatically picks up every item dropped by enemies at the end of each combat, even if doing so makes you so encumbered that you can no longer move.

Speaking of combat, it’s a little on the slow side as well. Battles are waged in a turn-based mode centered on action points, which is similar to the way that scraps were staged in the Fallout games of the late ’90s. Basically, you pick an attack method or choose between casting a spell and quaffing a potion during each turn. Then you complete this action and endure monster attacks. Still, despite a fair bit of repetition, you can’t just fall into a trance and repeatedly hit the max-damage attack option. Action points are doled out in such a way that you’re stuck with no options but defending every third turn or thereabouts, which means that you have to think tactically. Enemies don’t have to take any pauses, so smart choices are a must to avoid getting slaughtered during these down times. Battles can actually be oddly compelling once you start encountering serious opposition. A lot is riding on each decision that you make. It almost feels like you’re solving puzzles during each battle to maximize the damage you’re dealing out and minimize the damage that you’re receiving.

Presentation values don’t get in the way of all the above too much, at least if you’ve got a sense of humor. The biggest issue is with the audio. All of the voice samples seem to have been provided by a handful of people, and typically the same person handles all characters of a specific type. So you’ll encounter lines of guards all voiced by the same guy, merchants all voiced by the same woman, and so on. Cole doesn’t say all that much in her role as Vivien, either, and what she does contribute is spoken in a monotone with all the passion of ordering Chinese takeout. There are also a lot of odd miscues and grammatical mistakes in the dialogue, as well some really funny mangled English. Somebody you’ve just met introduces himself with the supremely bizarre “I’m a man, the lord of procreation.” A warrior in a company of adventurers proclaims that they “wander around the world killing bastards, relieving people of their troubles.” An armorer pitches his wares by telling you that “your handsome body needs to be protected.” Music isn’t quite so humorous. It’s repetitive and often annoyingly flighty, as if a bunch of elves were mincing around just out of your sight with a Casio keyboard. Atmospheric and battle effects are virtually impossible to notice, which is probably a good thing.
Timeless dialogue.
Visuals aren’t quite as in-your-face with their crumminess. Many locations in the game would be downright attractive if this were still 2001. Still, it’s not all bad. There’s a colorful medieval glow to the lushly green outdoor settings, and the first-person camera does a good job of showing off these few graphical highlights. However, there are apparently just a dozen or so character types, so you repeatedly run into the same guys and gals. This can really evoke some déjà vu in combination with hearing the same few actors speaking all of the dialogue. Character animations are universally atrocious too. Humans and humanoids stride about uncomfortably upright, as if they had pool cues shoved down their pantaloons.

Gods: Lands of Infinity shouldn’t be the first game you pick off the shelf. But if you’re jonesing for an RPG in a bad way and have low enough standards, you could find yourself settling for this mostly competent yet deeply clichéd game. Then again, you could also choose from any number of much, much better options as well.

Created by self-confessed statistic nuts, for statistic-nut cricket enthusiasts, International Cricket Captain III (ICC3) gives you the chance to steer your team to victory across several different cricket modes and teams. Players act as the manager of a cricket side, managing a budget and ultimately trying to build the best cricket club they can. ICC3 certainly has its merits as a sports management sim, although some irritations with the gameplay and a hideous graphics engine hamper the experience quite a bit.

There are five gameplay modes available, with the first being a full game mode. This mode lets you control a county cricket side, with a view to moving into captaining an international cricket team. The next mode, county & international, lets you captain both a county and international team of your choice. Here you can help train new talent, and with a keen eye and hard work, turn a virtual unknown into a cricketing legend. If you fancy yourself more of a big hitter and want to manage only proven players, there’s the international career mode, which lets you take control of a side of your choice. The campaign sees you playing all the major cricketing nations, and also covers World Cup matches. The match series mode lets you set up your own custom One Day International (ODI) matches and tests, pitting your team against the strengths and weaknesses of some other nation. The last–which is the one that would best suit newcomers looking to wrap their mind around the sim-management gameplay style–is World Cup. Here you get the chance to relive three classic World Cup matches from 1999, 2003, and 2007, all of which were dominated by Australian teams.
The ball-tracker mode gives you a visual representation of your line and length, letting you adjust it easily.
You don’t actively control your batsmen, bowlers, or fielders on the grass in ICC3, instead taking control of their play style via sliders that let you raise or lower stats like aggressiveness when batting, and ball line and pitch when bowling. When at the crease, you’ll also need to adjust aggression by taking into consideration your players’ comfort levels and form in previous matches. The chance of even your top-order batsmen being bowled or caught on single digits is high if you’re swinging at wild bowling by ramping it too fast without getting your eye in. That said, playing a defensive, over-controlled game will see your team throw away the chance at runs, with maiden overs zipping by. Bowling is much the same as batting; give the batsman a couple of scoring shots, then fire down a pitched-up screamer and try to force them to play back on their stumps. Variation is the aim of the game, and while you don’t have to contend with focus, your bowlers can only bowl so many overs before their stamina depletes. Resting a bowler is usually a worthwhile tactic, and saving one of your sprightly quicks for the tail can get you some decent bowling figures without conceding runs.

As is the case with most sports management sims, this is a game heavily rooted in and primarily focused on statistics and strategies. If that floats your boat, then this title has some redeeming features, graphical mediocrity put aside. ICC3 features updated stats from CricketArchive for the entire roster (accurate to the start of this year), allowing you to plot players’ season and career form. The 2007 version of the game also includes a new ball-tracker tab, giving you a visual heads-up on the swing and pitch of all your deliveries for the over, and allowing you to correct the line to suit the conditions.

We came across a couple of odd niggles with the game in our play, specifically with the odd, questionable LBW decision with the ball pitching outside the line and swinging back. Likewise, you’re able to set various field placements for your bowlers from a set list, but even a fairly tight field is often broken by what looks like only moderately hit shots. By far our biggest concern with the game, graphics aside, is the penalty for not playing matches. While you can train your team and then compete against various others, each game comes with the option to either skip or play the match. Skipping will take you to the next menu with an outright verdict and score, while playing the match gives you the option to swap bowlers in and out, change their line and length, and bat until you reach their posted target or set your enemy a score to chase. The big problem here is that you’re penalized by skipping matches; a large message appears before each skip, warning that by not playing, your team will not perform at its peak. Given that this is, after all, a simulation management title, we were disappointed by the penalty the game imposes on players who choose to not go the last step and control individual players on the field. Training and maintaining the health of your players is paramount to success, and to be put at a severe disadvantage after putting in all the pre-game training if you opt not to take the field is a low blow to the player.

ICC3 includes Internet play, giving players the chance to put their custom teams head-to-head against other online contenders. It’s also the only way to play with someone else because there’s no two-player mode in the career. Here you’ll be able to take to the field and show off the young talent you’ve put through your rigorous offline training. The service had problems: We couldn’t even connect on our first few attempts. When we finally did get on, we were told we needed a saved game with an established county team to be able to play. The error messages pushed us to the official ICC forums, where we didn’t find any answers to our online-play woes.
Relive classic matches, including 2007 World Cup games.
While obviously not a requirement of a simulation title such as this, the graphics in ICC3 are severely underwhelming, even for a game of this sort. Playing the game in windowed mode makes the character models and environments appear sharper and the animations slightly more natural; full screen, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired. The animations are jerky, texture corruption and artifacting is rampant, and unfortunately, the highest-resolution textures in the game appear to be the Taito Legends house-ads dotted around the boundaries of the ovals you’re playing on. Character models are all identical, with only the team uniform, skin tone, and hair differentiating them. The lack of articulation in the mitten-handed models of the umpires means they can’t even convincingly give you the finger (index) when you’re out. Like the 2006 version, in-game audio commentary is provided by former cricketer Jonathan ‘Aggers’ Agnew. There’s a reasonable amount of variety in the audio if you choose to play the matches, although you’ll get over the recycling of clips pretty quickly if you’re playing long test matches.

International Cricket Captain 3 is a reasonable effort, and as a sports simulator, it has all the fundamental components for a good game. The learning curve is about on par with other titles in the genre, although the poor graphics and a few issues with the design of the gameplay tend to hamper what is an otherwise decent effort at a team micromanagement title. Sim aficionados should be right at home with the menu systems, player trading, and training, while the field controls are laid out well and easy to adjust. Previous owners of the series may find this version to be more of the same–either providing them with updated stats for what they love, or disappointing those wanting something a bit more. 

Driver: Parallel Lines isn’t nearly as messed up as the last Driver game. Considering how completely jacked most of Driver 3 was, that’s not really saying much, but it’s still worth saying. Parallel Lines is a mostly competent game that’s probably the most blatant Grand Theft Auto clone to date. Considering that GTAIII was, in many ways, picking up where the first two Driver games left off, maybe this is just a case of turnabout being fair play. Either way, Driver: Parallel Lines isn’t broken, but it’s almost completely uninspired and devoid of the little things that make these sorts of games entertaining. The characters fall flat, the story is uninteresting, and the gameplay controls are often inadequate. When you add to that some drab mission design, you’ve got a game that looks good on paper but simply can’t add up to a game worth playing.
Driver: Parallel Lines has a very Grand Theft Also feel to it.
The action opens in 1978. You, as an 18-year-old named TK, have moved to New York City in search of excitement. You’re pretty good behind the wheel of a car and quickly catch on with a crew of criminals looking to make it big. Because this is the late ’70s, “making it big” eventually turns out to mean “starting a cocaine empire.” But, as these things normally go, stuff doesn’t pan out quite so well for TK, and he gets locked up for 28 years. This fast-forwards the game to present day. TK gets out of the joint in 2006 with revenge on his mind, and the story picks up from there. It’s a potentially interesting premise that falls apart because none of the individual characters are very compelling or likeable in either era.

The gameplay in Driver puts you in a big, open city that’s broken up into three areas by bridges. There are a few side missions, such as races and repo-man jobs, that you can use to earn money, which in turn can be spent on car upgrades. But considering the cars in the game are as disposable as you’d expect from a game like this, spending money on engine upgrades seems like a waste of time, so earning money usually isn’t your goal. Instead, you’ll follow the story path by taking on a variety of missions. Most of them are, as you might expect from a game called “Driver,” focused on operating a motor vehicle. You’ll get into races, collect packages, and even steal a car, which you’ll fit with a bomb then drive back to where you found it so the owner can get an explosive surprise–unless he played GTAIII. If that’s the case, he’ll probably see this five-year-old mission design coming from a mile away. Some missions require you to do things on foot, which forces you to deal with the game’s lackluster targeting system. It’s often skittish and more difficult to manage than necessary. You can target and fire forward out of vehicles too, but this is only useful when you’re chasing someone, which isn’t all that often. Considering you get into some pretty hot spots with lots of bullets flying your way, and most of your enemies are crack shots, fumbling with the targeting gets very annoying.

At least if you fail, you won’t have to retreat very far. When you die or otherwise fail on a mission, you can quickly hit a button to retry the mission. Many of the longer missions also have checkpoints, so you won’t have to do the early parts again and again if you’re having trouble with the final leg of a mission. It’s handy and cuts down on repetition.

There are a few minor police-response systems in the game that stand out because the other games in this genre handle things a little differently. Police cars drive around the world, and you can see them on your minimap, complete with Metal Gear Solid-style vision cones. Doing stuff like speeding, running a red light, or causing a collision while in a cop’s vision cone activates the cops and raises your heat level. You actually have to deal with two different types of heat. Normally, cops just see your car, and the heat meter for your current vehicle rises as you speed away. But if the cops see you get out of that car, the heat is all on you, and they’ll chase you regardless of which vehicle you’re driving. But the cops really aren’t very difficult to avoid, and they aren’t very smart. Usually, turning down an alley in plain view is enough to completely confuse them and cause them to give up the chase. And stopping off at one of your safe havens totally resets your personal heat level too. Cops occasionally turn up in missions to potentially give you a harder time, but just as often, it seems as though you simply can’t find any cops on the streets when in a mission. Overall, the police presence is more of a hassle than anything else because it forces you to drive slowly, stop at stop signs, and do other “realistic” stuff that isn’t entertaining in the least.
It’s better than Driver 3 was, but that’s hardly an achievement.
Visually, Driver’s a lot better on the PC than it was on consoles, but that doesn’t mean overall it looks good. It maintains a smooth frame rate and looks clean enough, but the models and textures were clearly designed for the previous generation of consoles. However, there are some interesting visual tricks here and there. For example, the entire heads-up display will get redesigned and modernized when you switch from ‘78 to ‘06 and TK’s walk animation will change from a ridiculous swaggering strut in ‘78 to a toned-down, more normal-looking walk in the present day. On the sound side, the game doesn’t sound very good. There’s a noticeable audio quality difference between the cutscenes and the in-game action, with the in-game voices just sounding much lower in fidelity. Of course, it isn’t really worth listening to most of the voice acting. Music plays when you’re in a vehicle, and there’s a decent array of licensed tunes here. But as you might expect, the ’70s music is a little more entertaining than the also-ran and out-of-date-sounding stuff you hear in the game’s 2006 setting. As far as sound effects go, the only one that really stands out is the pick-up noise that’s made when you grab things like health kits. It sounds awfully similar (though the pitch is different) to the pick-up noise in GTA: San Andreas.

Driver is a very by-the-numbers GTA clone. While stuff like having to obey speed laws and stop at red lights arguably makes the game more realistic, it certainly doesn’t make it any more entertaining. With unexciting driving physics and lackluster on-foot control, playing Driver: Parallel Lines isn’t very satisfying. The game’s monochromatic storyline isn’t strong enough to make the trip worthwhile either. Sure, it’s better than Driver 3, but that doesn’t make it a success.

Want to single-handedly win World War II ? Then sign up with Attack on Pearl Harbor, a physics-less shoot-’em-up where one Japanese Zero can sink the entire US Sixth Fleet. As you’ve probably guessed, this Legendo Entertainment game is about as true to history as Hot Shots and a long way from the usual hardcore PC flight sim geared to show you how punishing it was to get a P-40 Warhawk into the air, let alone use it to shoot down enemy aircraft. Even though the game’s arcade slant may seem out of place on the PC, its engaging campaigns and fast-flowing action make for a nice, violent snack.
Sinking US destroyers is thrilling at first, then a little dull once you realize how easy it is to do.
Consider this an arcade flight sim by the numbers. You fly a handful of fighter planes from a third-person perspective for either the Americans or the Japanese in the Pacific theater of WWII. There is a quickie dogfight option where you set up mission parameters and take to the skies against enemies either solo or in online multiplayer matches. There are also two separate campaigns where you fly for the Stars and Stripes or the Rising Sun.

Of these game types, only the campaigns really stand out, especially since nobody seems to be playing the online mode despite the game having been out in stores for a while. Missions are a bit formulaic, with just about everything from straight-out dogfighting or dropping bombs on enemy bases to sinking enemy shipping with torpedoes, though it’s all so packed with nonstop shooting that it’s tough to get bored. All of your assignments branch in the old Wing Commander style too, so failure means that you still move on rather than endlessly repeat missions until you get it right. Campaign missions also begin and end with colorful comic book panels that perfectly match up with the arcade gameplay, giving the game added flavor (even if the Japanese sequences are over the top when it comes to Asian stereotyping). Experience points earn you promotions as well, and shooting down enough enemy planes unlocks new planes in your own hangar.

Everything is arcade-friendly, which means you use the spacebar to take off and never have to worry about landing or stalling or any of the other foibles of flight-sim flying. You also have an unlimited supply of ammo, bombs, and torpedoes. You can’t collide with other aircraft in midflight either, so you can wheel and turn with little regard for personal safety. This is actually a good thing because the enemy artificial intelligence is extremely aggressive when it comes to dogfighting. Once combat is joined, opposing fliers are on your tail until you either send them into the drink or they down you. This certainly increases the overall tension, although at times, it seems extremely unrealistic. Enemies lock on to you so unfailingly that it’s as if you’re taking automatic damage unless you’re constantly turning. There isn’t any concept of flying sensibly or stalking a foe. It’s just nonstop scrambling and shooting, with the hope that you can get behind the bad guys long enough to blow them to pieces.
Comic book mission introductions add color to the presentation.
The visual engine keeps up with the pace, at least. The terrain is a bit odd-looking because of a focus effect that makes islands, ships, and buildings at a distance a bit blurry. However, the frame rate flies with all of the bells and whistles turned on, while the planes are quite attractive. The only drawback is a fairly limited number of aircraft types. You never get beyond a handful or so of planes representing each nation, and they all stick to the Zero/Warhawk style. Audio is what you’d expect, meaning lots of rat-a-tat machine-gun sounds and bomb-dropping whistles. There isn’t any radio chatter though, which makes it seem like you’re flying in a vacuum at times.

If you’re looking for depth, look elsewhere. But if you’re up for spending a few moments ripping around the Pacific single-handedly winning WWII, Attack on Pearl Harbor is a good bet.

Back when the Combat Mission series began in 2000, it was a revelation. The Battlefront wargame set during World War II was authentic and unflinching enough to earn the grognard’s seal of approval, yet also so downright approachable that it didn’t scare off newbies looking for something a little more realistic than the run-of-the-mill RTS. Sequels have only built on this greatness, too, which means that expectations rise awfully high whenever a new addition to the family comes along.

So it’s hard not to feel let down by Combat Mission: Shock Force. This is more of a members-only wargame, with an unforgiving interface and so many intricacies that even those familiar with the earlier games in the series will find themselves lost over and over again during the first few hours of play. Even worse, there isn’t much here to reward diehards who struggle through the grueling early going. Artificial intelligence is largely missing in action, scenarios feel gimmicky and prearranged, and just about everything seems rough and unfinished. Battlefront has already shown its willingness to improve the game, having released a version 1.01 patch on the day of the game’s online launch that addresses some issues, but a tremendous amount of work remains.

At least Battlefront started with a good idea. Instead of going back for yet another visit to Adolf and Uncle Joe, CM: Shock Force moves the setting to a near-future battleground in the Middle East. Instead of creeping through French hedgerows or rolling Panzers over farm fields, the campaign, one-off battles, and multiplayer engagements are based on the notion of the US invading Syria in 2009 to topple its leaders. The background story and war depicted here is really a straight copy of what happened with 9/11 and Afghanistan, although you’ve still got to give Battlefront points for trying.

 
Zeroing in on yet another stationary Syrian enemy.
Not that the story and setting really matter much in the end. It’s tough to get deep enough into the game to appreciate what’s going on in the Syrian sands, particularly if you’ve never played the previous Combat Missions. Battlefront has added a training campaign to the game with the 1.01 patch (the launch game had no tutorial whatsoever, so you had to rely on fumbling your way through small-scale missions like Al Huqf Engagement to figure out what was going on), although it isn’t nearly comprehensive enough to address the many ins and outs of modern combat presented here. The manual doesn’t help a great deal, either. While lots of information is stuffed into its 200-plus pages, this PDF tome is laid out like reference material geared solely to answer specific questions. And this is one game that needs a manual to take you by the hand. The interface is jammed with text that’s about the same size as the fine print on auto-rental contracts, along with numerous tiny buttons bereft of context or tool tips. Hotkeys are supported, but you can’t change them without editing a text file in Windows, and they annoyingly change function depending on what you’re doing at the time you hit them. When you move, for example, the “I” key is “Quick,” but when you’re in combat “I” stands for “Target Light.” Good idea, guys. Everything is so clunky and archaic, it’s amazing that Battlefront doesn’t include a code wheel for look-up copy protection.

Gameplay itself doesn’t feel quite right, either. Battlefront has attempted to revamp the combat engine with the option to play in real time, in addition to the familiar turn-based WeGo system from the earlier games in the series. This new feature is very hard to appreciate, however, due to some big glitches. Pathfinding is absolutely awful, albeit improved in the 1.01 patch from the horror show on display in the original build. Soldiers still run into one another constantly and take the long way around buildings. Vehicles slam into each other and swivel in place. Even something really simple, like ordering a bunch of Stryker combat vehicles to move straight ahead, results in a panicky fire drill when they’re in close quarters, with the trucks driving every which way but the one you selected. Similar problems are apparent when playing with WeGo, although it’s easier to adjust to them by using lots of waypoints.

Enemy AI is just as hit-and-miss as the pathfinding. Again, it’s better with the 1.01 patch than it was in the original release (sensing a trend here?), but foes still often hold their positions and fire back only after you’ve initiated an attack. Even in missions where you’re supposed to be competing for an objective, AI troops will sometimes mindlessly hang back and wait for you to move in and slaughter them. It’s almost as if units have little, if any, functioning AI and are responding solely to battlefield triggers.

 
A column of Strykers looks pretty menacing when standing still, but a Keystone Kops routine kicks up as soon as the vehicles start to move.
And this isn’t the only reason that CM: Shock Force combat lacks authenticity. Although the battles here are all about modern asymmetrical warfare such as that currently being waged in Iraq between the US and ragtag local insurgents, the game is still very much a creature of the Second World War. All Battlefront has really done is shoehorn its old approach into very different theater of war where the sides are wildly lopsided, not fairly even like it was in many WW II engagements. Syria’s military isn’t anywhere near that of a superpower right now, so there’s a real credibility gap in having them match up so evenly with US forces.

Also, the gimmick of unconventional forces is used to balance the two sides on occasion. Basically this means that thugs in civvies pop out from the civilian population every now and again to say hello with rocket launchers. This is a great idea that seems pulled from the daily headlines coming out of Iraq. But it’s executed terribly, as civilian populations aren’t depicted in the game. Unconventional enemies are invisible to the Yanks until they either flat-out attack or come so close to units that they apparently become suspicious enough to warrant a closer look. Of course, all you actually see are goons materializing out of nowhere with IEDs at the ready, which makes the whole concept seem like an AI cheat.

Criticisms can also be leveled at the graphics and sound. While nobody expects boutique wargames to be gorgeous, CM: Shock Force is downright hideous. Battle landscapes are grainy and seem to float on top of a backdrop. Every map is dominated by desert terrain, even though the real Syria is actually quite geographically diverse. Weird artifacts clutter up the landscape and flashes regularly make parts of the terrain twinkle and vanish like some Arabian Brigadoon. Yet even though the game was thoroughly clubbed with the ugly stick, it remains a system hog. Technical problems constantly interfere with gameplay, especially in the real-time mode. Constant hitches when zooming in and out and odd delays when rotating the camera angle mean that you regularly have to pause to give orders. Audio seems almost random. Syrians speak in a repetitive, muddled Arabic that sounds like they’re saying “Yella!” (”Come on!”) over and over again. Granted, you do hear this a lot in the Middle East as the word is casually used like “Hey!” is in the US, but here it’s said so much that it sounds like the speakers are stuttering. Weapon effects are better, at least, as are the comments from US troops, which seem pretty well-suited to specific combat situations.

What more can be said? CM: Shock Force is a tremendous disappointment. There is still a great deal of promise here, Battlefront has already started whipping the game into shape through what will no doubt be a long succession of patches, and the diehard fan base will undoubtedly use the included editor to make some impressive battles. Even so, no game should be released in such a rough, incomplete state.

Seven years is a long time. The latest game to remind us of this unfortunate fact is Enemy Engaged 2, a disappointing sequel to GameSpot’s simulation of the year back in 2000, Enemy Engaged: RAH-66 Comanche Versus Ka-52 Hokum. Actually, it’s a stretch to even call this a true sequel because this supposedly “new” game is actually just a revamped version of the original with slightly upgraded graphics and some new bugs. There is still an outstanding simulation of helicopter gunship combat buried in here, although it’s basically a seven-year-old one with equal parts good and bad new additions.
Honestly, it’s not as complicated as it looks.
It’s hard to escape the feeling that this game was developed on the cheap to take advantage of the hardcore Comanche Versus Hokum fan base. Developer Gameyus Interactive has done little to establish this as an independent game, going so far as to reprint the original manual here as part of the on-disc PDF documentation. Aside from the title page, this seems to be a verbatim copy of the seven-year-old manual, right down to calling the game Comanche Versus Hokum all the way through even though the subtitle was dropped from the name of this follow-up. You would think that someone would have spent a few minutes to do a cut-and-paste job that would at least fool buyers into thinking they were getting a brand-new game.

It also would have been nice if someone would have tossed in a proper tutorial, either in the manual or (more preferably) in the game itself. While piloting a chopper into combat isn’t as insanely hard as it would seem, a sim like this is in desperate need of an interactive mission that guides you through all of the ins and outs. The manual actually does a reasonably good job of detailing the steps needed to take off, hover, and run your helicopter through basic flight maneuvers, but it does little to prepare you for combat. You should expect to meet terra firma often during your first few hours with the game.

Still, because the original game was such a great blend of a hardcore flight sim and accessible action, it’s not as if Enemy Engaged 2 is terrible. The three dynamic campaigns remain intense and involving. There is a serious been-there, done-that vibe going on because only the Korean campaign is actually new. But even though the Lebanese and Chinese campaigns seem like straight rehashes from the earlier game, they reward replays because of the dynamic structure that hits you with all sorts of realistic mission offers. These include reconnaissance flights, escorts, probing raids into unknown enemy-held territory, direct attacks on missile sites, and so forth.

The best part of this structure is the fluidity of the battlefields. You might be heading off on a run-of-the-mill escort and spot a couple of SAM batteries ripe for the plucking. Or you might be on a routine patrol and catch sight of an enemy destroyer that looks vulnerable. Best of all, if you go off the reservation to blow up a key enemy target, such as a base or a capital ship, the game recognizes this achievement and structures follow-up missions around it. Constant radio messages also relay that you’re involved in a wide-ranging war because you can’t complete a mission without hearing chatter about tanks being destroyed elsewhere or enemy armor columns being discovered on recon missions to other sections of the front. At any rate, because of the atmosphere of never knowing what you’re going to encounter after you kick off the wheel brakes, it’s easy to get addicted and rip through one mission after another for hours.
Dynamic campaigns really throw you into authentic wars.
Unfortunately, there are some unpleasant surprises here as well. Much of the battlefield terrain is buggy. Objects flash in and out; landscape features, such as rivers and forests, seem to just pop into sight; and choppy frame rates plague you at inopportune times. And on top of those issues, crashes are a fairly common occurrence when loading missions. Audio quality is great, particularly the radio chatter, but it sure seems to be the same sound files that were used in the original game. Artificial intelligence is also a bit wonky. Enemy aircraft make some odd maneuvers, while allied and enemy troops, as well as armor columns, have trouble navigating roads. The menu and configuration systems really need some work because they’re confusing and clunky. It shouldn’t be this hard to set up a joystick or pick a mission during the campaign. The multiplayer mode supports only direct IP connections.

If you’re happy with the original Enemy Engaged, stick with it. It’s cheap, authentic, and can be modified into modernity with the loads of fan-made free content available online. But if you’ve never played the original game in the series, this might not be a bad starting point.

2K Sports’ NHL 2K franchise made its next-generation debut a couple of months back on the Xbox 360 with NHL 2K7. If you want to get technical, NHL 2K6 was on the 360 as well, though that game was a glorified port of that year’s Xbox game. 2K7 finally delivered a game that felt like it belonged on the new generation of consoles, especially in the realm of presentation. Now, 2K7 is on the PlayStation 3, and for all intents and purposes, this game is identical to its 360 counterpart. A couple of amusing Sixaxis control functions are the only real bonus to the package this time around, though they’re certainly not anything special enough to make you consider the game again if you’ve already bought it this year. But for hockey fans that were holding out for the PS3 launch, NHL 2K7 is worth adding to your launch purchase list.
The NHL 2K series makes its PlayStation 3 debut in NHL 2K7.
The biggest, most elaborate change to this year’s game involves the excellent new on-ice presentation system. Titled “cinemotion,” this optional feature strips away the normal game-time TV broadcast setup and audio commentary in favor of a more dramatic interpretation. A rousing orchestral score pipes up from the moment the game begins with the coach delivering his opening pep talk to the team. From there, it moves to the ice, changing distinctly in tone depending on what happens. If you’re well behind in the game, the tone is more somber. If you’re on the comeback, the music kicks in to higher gear. And if you win, you get the sort of happy, inspirational score you’d expect from the end of a good hockey movie.

While the music might sound a touch cheesy, it’s added subtly enough that it never seems over the top. It’s more Miracle than Mighty Ducks in its tone and delivery. In fact, if anything, it could stand to be a little more in-your-face. The default audio levels for the music are rather quiet, and sometimes it’s tough to hear the music over the din of typical on-ice action. It’s not a volume issue so much as understated musical sequences. But when it swells up at the key moments, you notice it, and it’s an interesting and cool change of pace from the typical TV broadcast. It makes the on-ice cutscenes more entertaining, too. If for some reason you really miss the commentary but don’t want to give up the music, you do have the option of turning the commentary back on via the options menu.

On top of the cinemotion feature, 2K7 also includes a new default camera angle that might just be the best one ever put into a hockey game. This parametric camera comes down at more of an angle than the typical top-down camera view, and turns and zooms ever so subtly depending on where you are on the ice, and what’s happening. It’s the sort of thing that casual fans might not even notice or take note of initially, but dedicated players should certainly appreciate this change, since it gets you just that much closer to the action without sacrificing any level of control or visibility.

These are all great changes, but from there, the additions begin to get fewer and further between. On the gameplay front, just about every feature from last year’s game, including the crease control, icon passing, enforcer, and on-the-fly play-calling systems return once more, and they’re all basically the same (save for some PS3-exclusive control options, which we’ll get to momentarily). The few additions to the gameplay engine include a new drop pass button, and the new pressure control scheme. The drop pass is assigned to the R1 button, and by pressing it, you’ll pass the puck back through your legs to a nearby player. With the pressure control system, if you find yourself having particular trouble with on individual opponent, you can order your teammates to pressure them by holding down the L1 button and pressing the right analog stick in the direction of that opponent. You can set the level of pressure via taps of the L1 button. A single tap applies light pressure, a double tap applies more physical pressure, and repeatedly tapping sends your players in for a very hard check. You can cycle through opponents easily enough by simply tapping the right stick around while holding the button.

These new controls, much like many of the previously mentioned gameplay control systems from last year’s game, aren’t exactly amazing by themselves, but when combined with the wealth of other available options, they help make NHL 2K7 one of the smartest games of hockey around, if not the flashiest. The basic gameplay engine hasn’t really changed dramatically in the last couple of years, and those familiar with how 2K hockey plays will find yet another game of 2K hockey in this year’s offering. Of course it’s hard to call that a bad thing, since the depth of play, especially in the defense and core strategies of the game of hockey, is unmatched by any other available hockey title on the market. But when it comes to some of the faster and more exciting aspects of hockey, like scoring, offensive moves, and fighting, little has changed, and these aspects of the game engine are starting to show their age.
The new parametric camera angle is excellent, putting you closer to the on-ice action without creating visibility problems.
If you’re wondering how the PlayStation 3 version of the game differs from its Xbox 360 counterpart, it’s the addition of a couple of Sixaxis functions that give this version a bit of extra oomph. When playing defense, you can shove the PS3 controller forward to check another player. The timing is a bit strange at first, and for the first hour or so of play, you may wonder if it’s even working. The trick is to line up your check very carefully and then time the push forward to lay it in. When it works, it’s satisfying, though it isn’t any more fun or useful than just pushing the check button on the controller. However, the crease controls are considerably more fun. As was the case in NHL 2K6, by pressing down on the R3 button, you can switch to a behind-the-back camera view and take direct control of the goaltender. The same functionality applies in this version, but with the PS3 version, you can move the goalie back and forth and pull off the various goalie moves simply by turning and tilting the controller. Again, it’s not necessarily a better option than the previous analog stick movements, but this does work considerably better than the checking. The movement sensitivity is also just right.
2K7’s feature list is quite familiar. Party mode returns with a familiar roster of hockey-based minigames; mini rink and pond hockey provide similarly goofy yet enjoyable distractions; and the skybox once again houses all sorts of unlockables, statistics, and other fun things. All the usual in-game skybox challenges are still on hand, as well. Franchise mode returns with most of the same great features introduced last year, as well as a few small additions. A hard salary cap has been implemented for all teams in the game, though it’s not detailed in the ways of the NHL collective bargaining agreement. It is still displayed as a basic budget, and there isn’t a realistic contract system in the game with regard to sending players to the minors or letting them go. You can’t sign two-way deals, so you can send a player to the minor leagues or cut him outright, without having to put him through waivers.
Sixaxis tilt controls do a good job of letting you control the goalie, but that’s about it.
On the plus side, the franchise mode still has an excellent rookie scouting system, a solid free-agency interface, and a minor-league roster to keep track of as the season progresses. Trade logic is still solid, if a bit overly frequent in its offers. Though you get plenty of offers right near the trade deadline, you also get a lot of offers throughout the season, perhaps a few more than is realistic. Injuries occur mostly in a realistic fashion, though you’ll sometimes find a proliferation of minor injuries, like broken hands and bruised faces, and they sometimes take overly long to heal.

Other additions include a more-emphasized rivalry system that creates statistical bonuses and takeaways depending on how players play in games against their rival teams. We all know how much the NHL loves its rivalries, and with this system, players are physically affected by how they play in rivalry games. Another addition involves messages from the team owner. Along with receiving the typical day-to-day e-mails, you also have an option called “opportunity knocks.” Here, you’ll get specific bonuses and takeaways for various players based on news delivered to you by the owner via a cell phone call. For instance, if one of your players just got a sponsorship for a new energy drink, his attributes will go up for the next few games. Or, conversely, if one of your players looks ragged and tired, his attributes will go down for a few games. It’s sort of random as to which way a call will go, and the only way to avoid bad ones is to not receive the calls at all. Of course, if you do that, you won’t get the good ones either, so it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth the risk. The bonuses offered are rarely significant enough to make it worthwhile to take time out of your schedule to check the feature.

The online-play setup is very much how it has been the last couple of years. Basic competition is available for two to eight players (four to a console), and you can engage in competitions of varying difficulty levels, with or without the crease control turned on. The party games and minirink modes are also available online. Most importantly, online league play is once again available for tournaments or full seasons and involves anywhere from four to 30 teams. The options for leagues haven’t changed much, though with so many options available for scheduling and stat tracking via the 2K Sports Web site, it’s hard to complain, considering there’s still nothing else like it available in other hockey games for consoles. But it would be nice if in the future some little features could be included, like fantasy drafts, free-agent pools, and the like. As far as how the online modes play, our experiences playing the game online yielded little to no lag. The frame rate definitely dips below the near 60 frames per second that the game typically runs at offline, but for the most part, it still stays steady at around 30.

The PlayStation 3 version of NHL 2K7 looks on par with the Xbox 360 version’s graphics in just about every way. The player models are great, with great-looking faces, body builds, and jerseys. Animations are also excellent, and the skating engine in particular looks fantastic. The flow of the players on the ice is much better than ever before, and they move with more realistic momentum. Some holdover animations, such as dekeing and checking, could stand a similar revamp, but they still look good. However, there are also some clunky-looking animations, specifically some transitional animations that appear missing at times. Players will sometimes go from being doubled over to raising their arms cheering with no in-between transitional movement. Sometimes they’ll instantaneously go from standing to being practically upside down when checked. These aren’t frequent issues, but they’re noticeable. If you’ve got an HDTV, you’ll get the best of the graphical experience. But even on an SDTV, you’ll notice the improvements to the game’s visuals. The player models look just a touch more aliased on the PS3 version when running in HD than they did in the 360 version, but the effect is relatively minor.
Graphically, it’s tough to find much difference between the PS3 version and the 360 version.
Apart from the cinemotion music, NHL 2K7 goes through a lot of the same audio motions as previous games. Bob Cole and Harry Neale are on hand again for commentary duty, and functionally, it seems like much the same commentary as in last year’s game. It’s sometimes informative, but it mostly serves as background fodder. The on-ice effects, however, sound excellent, especially the on-ice dialogue by the players and coaches, shouting to you and other players on the ice as the game goes. The game’s indie-rock-heavy soundtrack is better than the average indie-rock-heavy soundtrack, if only by a small margin. It consists exclusively of bands from the Sub Pop record label and has songs by The Postal Service, Mudhoney, Hot Hot Heat, Band of Horses, Sealter-Kinney, and more. It’s unusual to hear something like Band of Horses or The Postal Service in a hockey game, but you could do worse.

NHL 2K7 delivers an experience on the PlayStation 3 that’s entirely comparable to what it delivered on the Xbox 360 just a couple of months back. From a features standpoint, no concessions have been made here, and the visuals are still great. The new Sixaxis controls, while nothing overly spectacular, are also a neat bonus. If you already bought the game on the 360, there’s nothing here that makes it worth buying a second time. But if you haven’t already made your hockey game purchase for the year and want to get some hockey going on your new PlayStation 3, NHL 2K7 is absolutely worth checking out.