video games
Burnout 3: Takedown
When I picked this game up for review, I wasn't expecting too much. The first Burnoutgame was really terrible so I shied away from the second Burnout. My worries were put to rest, however, as soon as I turned the game on. There are so many different modes of play that you'll rarely find yourself bored even after hours of playing.
Much of the game consists of racing opponents while trying to make them crash into stuff or simply trying to rack up as much monetary damage as possible. All of this is done to unlock different areas of the map (there are three areas: USA, East Asia, and the Far East) and to acquire new vehicles. And though there are no "real" cars in the game, there are quite a few, ranging from coupes, buses, and even ultra-fast circuit racers.
In the first Burnout, the cars handled incredibly sluggishly, making it really hard to enjoy the game. Burnout 3 has definitely fixed that problem as cars control
nicely and fairly realistically. And the crashes are a pretty sight with glass breaking, debris flying all over the place, and cars gracefully flipping through the air. In the bigger crash arenas, cars from every direction will crash into the oncoming traffic causing massive car pile-ups.
Basically, this game is the best arcade racing, car crashing game I have played, and I really don't want to take it back to the rental store. It combines addictive gameplay with awesome crashes and furious racing. This game is not, however, a racing sim by any means. Anybody looking for that would probably be disappointed with the lack of licensed vehicles and arcade like physics, and your best bet is to wait until Gran Turismo 4 comes out. Those who love wanton chaos and destruction should definitely give Burnout 3: Takedown a shot.
Star Wars: Battlefront
Grade:B
Nick Finnegan
Who would have guessed that Storm troopers had it so bad? Sure, you see them in the movies shooting lasers, falling down and getting flung in the air, but there were hundreds more to take their place. The latest in the Star Wars gaming series has you fighting on land, sea and air. Star Wars: Battlefront is an intense war game.
Battlefrontputs you in the action of each Star Wars battle worth mentioning and a few that aren't. You have a different class of soldiers that you can pick from and each with their own kind of weapons and specialties on the battlefield. They work as medics on the field by having the ability to drop health on the battlefield. There are also soldier classes that work well against crowds. For instance, some droids are equipped with radiation cannons that are very useful for taking out organic life forms and vice-versa, some Humanoid soldiers have EMP-equipped cannons capable of taking out droids in a single shot. Each class has strengths & weaknesses and it's up to the players to pick which class of soldier they want to be.
I remember before I played this game, a friend told me that this isn't like Dynasty Warriors where you are a one-man wrecking crew and can kill more than 400 people in a battle. The objective is to ensure the victory of your army. There are multiple ways to win a battle. One of them is to capture all the command posts in a battlefield and maintain them. Command posts are re-spawning areas for your troops. If the enemies have no more command posts, they can't get any more soldiers to fight and victory is yours.
Star Wars: Battlefront lets you take part in the greatest Star Wars battles of all time from both sides, you can ravage the universe as the Galactic Empire, defy them as the Rebels, take part in the Clone Wars as a Clone Trooper or as the Separatist from the prequels.
Grade: C
— Chris Moore