Holiday 2004 OXB Magazine - Disc Contents
Disc #39
Playable Demos of : Conker - Live and Reloaded Forza Motorsport Starwars Battlefront ESPN NHL 2K5 Outlaw Golf 2 Rock Legends Features : Lord of the Rings Midnight Club 3 Video Showcase Bards Tale KOTOR 2 Punisher Midnight Club 3 Forza was an excellent demo! JJ |
Kindof a slow month? Some of those games are already out. I'm excited to try Forza though and a couple of those videos are interesting... what's the secret hidden easter egg game demo?
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Conker - is this demo hard or is it just me? I finally turned it off as I got sick of dying and not not getting very far. I did not find the re-enactment of Saving Private Ryan to be very funny. I love offensive humor as much as the next person but I did not find it humorous at all. The graphics are outstanding though.
Forza - racing sim. I hate racing sims & prefer arcade so this one did nothing for me. Nice graphics as well. Star Wars Battlefront - played this demo before. Nothing special. Give me Halo 2 anyday. ESPN NHL - did not even try it as I have zero interest. Outlaw Golf 2 - if you played the first one then you have played this one. Graphics are little better but gameplay seemed to be exactly the same. Rocky Legends - another clone (unbelievably exact) of the previous game. The graphics are a little different but the gameplay, character movements...everything is exactly the same. If they had delivered LIVE capabilities for this one, it might be worth a try. As it is now...don't waste your money on this. The only thing on the whole demo disc that got me excited was KOTOR 2! |
I agree the Forza game was more of a real life car simulator than an arcade game.
Starwars was a poor game. Didn't try Conker, don't like those cute games!! Well got NFSU2 and that is an excellent game. How do I find the easter egg demo????? JJ |
Originally posted by brianluvdvd Conker - is this demo hard or is it just me? I finally turned it off as I got sick of dying and not not getting very far. I did not find the re-enactment of Saving Private Ryan to be very funny. I love offensive humor as much as the next person but I did not find it humorous at all. The graphics are outstanding though. |
Originally posted by flashburn Agreed. I couldn't believe they would release such a frustratingly hard demo. I must've tried it 15 times and kept dieing, each time just a bit further up the beach. This is one game I couldn't care less about. I had trouble with this at first too. The trick is to just keep running. There are red smoke signals (well, I *think* it's red). Follow those until you get to the door. |
I was kinda bummed that it was such a weak disc. I haven't popped it in yet but I plan on trying it later tonight. Conker and KOTOR 2 are the only games on that disc that I am even curious about.
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Here are my overall impressions from this month's OXM disc AND last month's.
This month's demos: CONKER LIVE AND UNLOADED: FANTASTIC! Wait, you can't get past the first part? I had trouble with this at first too. The trick is to just keep running. There are red smoke signals (well, I *think* it's red). Follow those. AMAZING game. The graphics are absolutely FANTASTIC. This is seriously some of the best graphics I've EVER seen. The in-game graphics look like cinema cutscenes - it's THAT good. This is basically a shooter with platform elements. The only thing I can nitpick is the lack of interactive backgrounds, but you'll be too busy shooting and smiling at the absurdity of it all to really care about that. VERY challenging demo, BTW. This game seems like it's gonna be HARD, but it's SO MUCH FUN! This demo makes me want to check out the ORIGINAL Conker for N64 (I've never played it). As luck would I have it, I managed to snag myself a new copy of that the other week for only $2 and change. WOLF METAL CHAOS: You have to unlock it with the following code: Hold L and press Left, X, Y, Up, A, B, Up, Down, Down, Y, Right, Right, Right, and Back. WOW, this is is fantastic! The demo takes place in a futuristic China Town, and you control a mech. You can blow up almost anything, and the explosions are huge, loud, and incredibly satisfying. I especially love blowing up the cars, tanks, and neon signs. The only thing you can't blow up are the buildings themselves. I was a bit miffed about that at first because I like total interactivity, but then I realized how that would come across in a post-9/11 world, especially considering that the game is about the President of the United States waging war against the world. (Granted, it's about the President of the United States waging war against the world IN A MECH SUIT - kinda hard to take that seriously, but it works for me.) :P One of the coolest features in the game is that you can string together chains by blowing up several things in rapid succession. It's very cool and deeply satisfying to see your chain count appear on the screen as everything explodes around you. Your two main weapons are a regular gun that is of average power and another gun that will blow most anything up with one shot. There's another rapid fire gun that you can either switch to from the beginning or you get somewhere along the way - I'm not sure which. That one doesn't have too many bullets though. In fact, I ran out of bullets for all of my guns before the end, but not to worry, because you can also jump and crush enemies with your gigantic mech feet. It's nice that there's no one "right way" to defeat the enemies. That gives the game a bit more depth and strategy. Make no mistake though, this is still very much a pure action shooter at its core. Honestly, I don't know how "deep" this game will prove to be overall, but I do know that stringing chains together and blowing up everything in sight is a major blast - literally and figuratively. The background graphics aren't amazing, but they have style. I really can't complain, especially considering how awesome the explosions in the game look and sound. The controls are perfect - not at all heavy or clunky like in some mech games. Having to input a code every time you want to play this is a pain in the ass, but this game is worth the trouble. It's definitely one of the biggest surprises of the year. FORZA MOTORSPORT: Maybe it's just me, but I wasn't overly impressed. I dunno, it's possible that the game is TOO sim-oriented for my tastes. I just think that's a racing game should be a little more intuitive than Forza seems to be. No matter what I did, I couldn't get the hang of the turning. Also, I'm not a graphics whore by any means, but I have seen better on Xbox. The game doesn't look BAD, mind you (far from it), but the graphics didn't blow me away either. Gameplay-wise, I had a lot more fun with the Gran Turismo 4 demo I got earlier this year (believe it or not, that demo is the ONLY Gran Turismo game I've ever played). The graphics there didn't knock my socks off either, but the game was a lot more fun to me than Forza. Part of it could be because the GT4 demo had an awesome Grand Canyon track, which is much more interesting than the bland track showcased in the Forza demo. I'm sure this'll have a rabid hardcore racing fan following, but I walked away disappointed. Ultimately, I suspect this is one of those games where a demo won't tell the whole tale. Unfortunately, I have very little interest in seeking out the final product at this point. ROCKY LEGENDS: I wanted to like the last Rocky game, but it was way too damn hard to get in any offense (at least in the demo). This sequel is still very challenging, but it felt more fair to me, so I ended up having a much better time with it. In the demo, you can fight as Rocky, Clubber Lang, and a British guy that I assume is from the movies. You can't punch with the analog stick like in Victorious Boxers or Fight Night, which is not a big deal IMO, but my fingers DID hurt after mashing buttons for a while. The graphics are excellent. There are two locales in the demo - a major boxing arena and this outdoor area that's either by a dock or a warehouse, I can't remember which now. ;) Nice level of detail in both. It seems that there's no create-a-boxer mode in the game, which is a shame, because I think that would've added depth. Rocky was the ultimate underdog, so it's only appropriate that you get to create your own underdog. Too bad there's no such feature. Not a game I'm going to rush into getting, but definitely something I'll consider when it goes down in price. ESPN NHL 2K5: I already have the full game, and it's the best hockey game I've played in ages. It's only $20, so get it already. OUTLAW GOLF 2: Seems pretty good. The course in the demo is this wacky Halloween course. Nice graphics. The game plays like any other modern golf game, where you use the analog sticks to swing your club. If I needed another golf game, I'd consider this. At only $20, it's a nice deal. STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT: The Xbox version seems to have better graphics than the PS2 version, but I haven't played the PS2 demo in months, so my mind may be playing tricks on me. Seems like a really cool game if you're into Star Wars. Like I said when I commented on the PS2 demo a few months back to a few of my friends, imagine a cross between SOCOM and Star Wars and you have a basic idea of what Battlefront is like. Last month's demos: DOA ULTIMATE: I'm not a fighting game fan, so I won't be rushing out to buy this (at least not right away), but I did have a lot of fun with it and you really can't go wrong since you get DOA 1, 2, and an enhanced version of 3 (I think) all in the same box. The character graphics are great - very fluid - and the background graphics are awesome. Some of the stages have interactive elements where you call fall into another area entirely. Very cool! I always like that you can choose from different outfits for your fighers. It seems that Tecmo really went out of their way to do an amazing job on this game, so if you like fighters, you should definitely get this. PHANTOM DUST: Truthfully, because of the heavy Japanese, I was lost for some of this. However, I REALLY liked what I saw. The graphics have a nice, unique style, and this seems like it could be a really fun game. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be an action-RPG or what. I was lost on what the power orbs were supposed to do, so I didn't know which ones to get or even how to attack enemies half the time. I'd definitely like to see a U.S. release for this though. BTW, to unlock it on your disc, hold L and press A, Up, X, Y, Left, Right, B, B, Down, Down, Y, Left, X, Right, A, Up, Down PRINCE OF PERSIA WARRIOR WITHIN: I didn't think the original PoP demo was all that great, but everyone who has played the actual game says it's amazing (it even won a few "game of the year" awards, I believe). I have a feeling that the same is true of this demo too. The graphics are fantastic, the locales are awesome, and the controls are as fluid as can be, but there was just something missing. I didn't have as much fun with this as I thought I should've. OTHER DEMOS: THE INCREDIBLES is a decent mix of platform and shooter, but it's nothing I'm gonna go crazy over. CONFLICT VIETNAM seems like an okay squad-based FPS. Decent graphics, but nothing that'll make your jaw drop. ESPN NFL 2K5 is probably good, but I can't stand football games. DUKES OF HAZZARD is one of the most boring games I've ever played. I wasn't even sure what I was supposed to be doing. |
Originally posted by MasterofDVD I was kinda bummed that it was such a weak disc. I haven't popped it in yet but I plan on trying it later tonight. Conker and KOTOR 2 are the only games on that disc that I am even curious about. |
Sorry....Conker was crap when I just tried it. The demo helped save me from wasting money on this one. Multiplayer still might be fun but this is certainly a rental since I beat this game way back on the N64.
I'm still excited about KOTOR 2 and I already own NHL 2K5. I didn't even bother with anything else other than the Dodgeball trailer. |
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