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reviews
GAME
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi PS2
☆
What in the world happened? What has happened to Dragon Ball Z? I thought this was going to be another good game in the Budokai.
As always, you get to place yourself in the shoes of the greatest fighters ever to be seen in this highly popular anime game. But after playing only a few minutes of it, I quickly wanted to get out of them. The main things that I
series, but all I have is disappointment. The game's three predecessors were fun to play. This one was something else — and not something good.
The main things that I
have a problem with are the controls. Now you have to press extra buttons to fly and to launch special moves. In the first three games, it was so easy. You could launch your favorite moves such as the Kamehameha Wave and the Gallic Gun after a combo. You could even launch it by itself. In Budokai Tenkaichi, you have to hold down a shoulder button, press on a direction on the D-Pad and then hit the Ki blast button. That's
just too much work for a game like this. The game reminds me of the old Dragon Ball Z Legends game. However.
this one is in 3-D and you don't have three fighters fighting simultaneously on the same screen.
The lock-on feature for Budokai Tenkaichi is another problem. Losing sight of your opponent in any game is always a bad thing. Why is it there? With things like that, it makes it seem less like a fighting game.
I will say that the graphics for this game are perhaps the best so far in
the series. It actually shows the damage your character sustains, with hunching over, bleeding and clothes ripping. That looked very well done.
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi is not a game I would recommend for a fan of the first three games. I didn't even want to try and make it past the Saiyan Saga. I couldn't stand it.
- Chris Moore
GAME
Call of Duty 2
X-Box 360
☆☆☆☆
Call of Duty 2, a direct port of the PC game, provides one of the best firstperson experiences available on any
console. With its intense single player experience and its plethora of multiplayer modes, it serves as a great demonstration of what the X-Box 360 is capable.
The game's single player mode takes place over the course of three campaigns featuring the Russians, the British and the Americans respectively. Each puts you in the role of a different soldier on the front lines and gives you a wide
variety of mission objectives in several historical battles including Stalingrad and the D-Day invasion.
Combat in the game reaches a new level of intense. Players will barely have a second to rest, with waves upon waves of enemies flanking them and driving them out of cover using their advanced AI (artificial intelligence), which is admittedly pretty smart.
The game presents all of this chaos with some of the prettiest graphics ever seen. Everything looks great, with detailed character models, huge environments and a fast frame rate. Even when the fighting is at its most chaotic, the game runs without a hiccup.
Players with the right setup will enjoy the game even more. On a high-definition television and with 5.1 surround sound, the game experience is about as close to the front lines as most gamers will ever care to be.
Even without an expensive setup, Call of Duty 2 is definitely worth checking out for anyone with an X-Box 360 and stands as arguably the best launch title for the system.
Andrew Campbell