1 player action/adventure
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Crystal Dynamics, Buzz Monkey Software
Release: June 5, 2007
ESRB: T (mild suggestive themes, violence)

“LIVING IN THE PAST ISN’T USUALLY A GOOD THING”

Unless you happen to be Lara Croft, of course. Lara’s back, reliving her first adventure in celebration of the original game’s ten year anniversary. The folks at Crystal Dynamics threw her one hell of a party too, plucking the best moments from the first game and combining them with some new features spawned over the decade. The result is one impressive combination of nostalgia and innovation, even on a platform that’s been dwindling away in the shadow of its successor.

So how are these two elements balanced in Anniversary? The plot is parallel to the first game: Lara is contacted by Jacqueline Natla to recover one of three pieces that comprise the lost Scion of Atlantis. Lara accepts, prompted by the research she and her father had done on the Scion, and sets off for Peru.

As the story unfolds, Lara travels to the other three original levels; Greece, Egypt and the Lost Island of Atlantis. The sub-levels remain almost identical to the original’s layout, with the only exception being that the Cistern and the Tomb of Tihocan are now merged together in the Greece levels. There are also some very minor changes in the titles of a few of the sub-levels, but it’s doubtful that anyone except the hardcore Tomb Raider fans would notice them.

To get the full scope of how much the game has evolved from its humble beginnings, you don’t need to look much further than the legendary Croft Manor. We saw a stunning overhaul to the Manor in Legend, yet Crystal Dynamics felt the need to do it again for Anniversary.

It’s gone way beyond being just the training level, even though it is advised to give it a quick run-through before diving into the real game. It’s packed with enough puzzles and gymnastic feats to keep the hardened Tomb Raider fan busy for at least an hour. It’s a delightful sneak peek of what’s to come in the game.

And the game does deliver. With the addition of a few new moves, the developers expanded upon the levels in a way we could only dream of while playing the original. Lara can now perch on top of poles, and the grappling hook made a comeback from Legend.

If you wished you could able to swing along a wall with a great view of the Sphinx in 1997, it may have taken a decade, but your dream has come true. The introduction of the adrenaline dodge system is interesting, but takes some getting used to. It’s a fantastic device to use against bosses; however against regular enemies it seems rather pointless.

The levels themselves are shorter than the original’s, but you rarely see games the length of the ones released in the late 90’s anymore. It’s a lot longer than Legend though (a reason for rejoicing for those who felt Legend ripped them off a bit). The most notable levels of the first game—St. Francis’ Folly and Midas’ Palace—were completely revamped, yet still inspire the same breathtaking moments of the original’s.

The best example of this is the fire room in Midas’ Palace. What used to be a room that required well timed jumps on top of igniting pillars has become a truly hellish environment that pushes Lara to the full extent of her physical capabilities. Even though some things were left out for the sake of streamlining gameplay, you’ll be hard pressed to find a level that disappoints.

What the game boasts in content however, it lacks somewhat in visuals. There’s no getting around the fact that the PS2 is a last-gen console, and it’s just not up to what the PS3 or XBOX 360 can do. That being said, the graphics aren’t horrible, it just feels at times that they could be better. Quite often they feel muted, almost as if a slight haze is hanging around.

The camera is also an issue with quite a few people. While the camera angles felt smooth and updated in Legend, it feels as if they have taken a step backwards in Anniversary, feeling shifty at times, and being way to close to Lara at others. It’s nothing that a few seconds of adjustment won’t fix, but you have to stop and wonder why the option to have it fix itself like it would in Legend was left out. Luckily, after a level or two you will have adjusted to it.

People who like nitpicking games might notice that some of the textures and floor and wall tiles are a bit repetitive at times, though it’s doubtful if this will affect anyone’s overall opinion of the game. The one area where graphics have improved without question though is Lara herself.

Ms. Croft has come a long way since we first met our favorite video game heroine, leaving behind her polygonal body in Angel of Darkness and never looking back, and with good reason too; she’s never looked better.

Even though the game isn’t perfect, it’s simultaneously a huge step in the right direction for the Tomb Raider series, as well as a great tribute to its groundbreaking past. People who have played the series since its debut and newcomers alike will enjoy this game for months to come after purchasing it since the levels are so interactive there are many ways to get to point A to point B.

Tomb Raider: Anniversary has given a bit of new life to the aging workhorse that is the Playstation 2, a nice thing for both the series and the console.

Final score: 8.5

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There seems to be a general rule when it comes to video game names: if it is short or paradoxical and straight-to-the-point, it has to be awesome. Thankfully, Heavenly Sword delivers on that rule to many counts. At the time of PS3’s launch, the displays are nothing short of bedazzling, the action fierce, and the story so well acted that it is capable of making you forget that you aren’t watching a movie.

While graphically it’s not the supreme in showing what the PS3 is graphically capable of, that is not to say the game isn’t still a sight to behold. Lush forest settings and very detailed oriental-themed architecture are all abound in this romp, and are well done which makes it very difficult for you to not want to slow things down a bit and admire the visions of scenic beauty normally found in the art of the Far East.

The animations are smooth and captivating until you are forced into a situation where many enemies are flooded on the screen, in which case you may experience a bit of frame-skipping. It’s nothing extremely drastic which will draw away from the game for casual players, but for those who are very keen on picking up a few missed details or minor errors will definitely see this.

The soundtracks and voice acting for the game are simply top-notch, they definitely fit the mood of the game quite well, playing serene and peaceful tracks during moments when you are to take in the game’s aesthetic beauty, and blood-rushing orchestral moments of mayhem pursue when you are in the heat of the action.

Goofy story moments have their goofy musical companions in tandem, and the voiceovers for each character are solid, effectively able to deliver the lines given as well as being able to maintain the true character of the person speaking. And I will have to admit, that ZING of a combo finishing blow is by far one of the most gratifying rings my ears have had the pleasure to hear in a long time.

The story is definitely one of the better ones that I’ve come across for a game most notably dubbed as a hack’n’slasher. Nariko, the protagonist of the story, is dubbed as the wielder and protector of a holy weapon, the Heavenly Sword, a special blade that allows the wielder amazing combat power and prowess at the ultimate cost of her life.

King Bohan, an ambitious and power-hungry ruler, has set his sights on this godly of weapons with no remorse of sending his legions at you to obtain it. The presentation of the storyline comes as a mixture between that “life-flashing-before-my-eyes” idea and Nariko’s introverted conversations with the holy spirit of the sword, which interestingly enough is the view in which the player is forced in.

All the characters in this story have a certain color to them that they bring to the table which contributes wonderfully to the story in the big picture. Also, there are moments in the game where there is a seamless mix of gameplay and story-cutscenes mixed together, which I believe if explored even more deeply can bring about new breakthroughs for gaming narration.

Heavenly Sword shows this idea at times where you can literally still keep control of your character while the cutscene is being displayed in another portion of the screen, and I believe that if this is explored enough in gaming in general, new breakthroughs in gaming narration can be made possible.

Without spoiling the rest of the story, I can safely say that this is one of the games where even those who are more likely to skip over the cutscenes in most games will probably not want to do so, even though the option to do it is present.

The gameplay is also something I’ll have to give highlights to, the control mechanics are simple and very easy to get in the grips of your fingers, while still giving you a nice variety of attacks that can be completely suited to your own playing style.

There are basically two main attack buttons, one intended for swifter-weaker attacks and the other for stronger-slower attacks, and three variations, or stances that represent the general spectrum of players. There is what is known as the Speed Stance which allows for quick, moderate, in-your-face beatdowns, for those who love building combos hit by hit.

Then you have what is known as the Range Stance, attacks that split the swords in ways that is able to attack enemies within a decent radius. Best way to describe this is that it’s quite similar to the way that Kratos attacks with his beloved chains in the God of War series.

And finally you have the Power Stance, which does exactly as the name implies, it uses the sword as bluntly and as heavily as possible, for that satisfying feeling of just smashing through your enemy with a huge sword. Since all of these are available to the player at any time, the seamless transition between these styles allow for combos of all stances to come together and making awe-inspiring attack chains I’ve not seen previously done in most other action games of this type.

There have been some gripes coming from players obsessing about the fact that there is no definite button to block with, but it’s a concept that’s actually not very hard to understand. When you keep your controller neutral, meaning you are not actively pressing anything, your character is always on a defensive stance, ready to block.

The game only requires that you are in the stance in which the attack that is coming your way is represented, and the way the game signifies which stance you need to be in is by the color in which your enemy is flashing before his attack hits you for each color is associated with what type of stance you need to be in to defend against it.

For example, don’t be in a Speed-defending stance if you see that they’re going to try to smash you with a mighty POWERful (hint hint…) overhead slam of an axe, etc.

Another control mechanic I’ve enjoyed thoroughly was the “aftertouch” controls which take advantage of the motion-sensing capabilities that the Sixaxis is known for. Many complaints have been made about this as well, but if you remember for a moment that you’re not playing Wii Tennis and control with a little more delicate touch, you may enjoy this like I have.

Nearly any object your character can pick up (and this can range from a step stool to fallen enemies) and shoot or throw can be guided by keeping your button held down and slightly steering the projectile to whatever you want to hit. This makes shooting arrows with crossbows a little more fun since you can now wind around obstacles with your shots as well.

However much praise there is to give this game, there is pretty much only one thing that somewhat detracts. The replay value is moderate. The story is simple and understandable the first time you play it through, and unless you are a fan of collecting artwork for the game, you aren’t given too much incentive to give it more than two goes.

There is also an extra difficulty mode available once you’ve beaten the game, but it only amounts to having more damage taken when you get hit, so if you’ve fairly mastered the controls on your first go, then you won’t find much of a challenge enough to make a different experience your second time through.

A great story, wonderful controls, and an enjoyable visual delight of the far-eastern variety makes this game worth checking out on your PS3, and here’s hoping that we get to see more ideas from Ninja Theory.

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Even before the game was first released in the middle of October 2006, people around the world were already united in declaring The Bully a serious affront to the sensibilities of descent folk. So much so, that when it was released in the UK two weeks later the name was changed to Canis Canem Edit (which is Latin for ‘Dog eat dog’). Now, I’ll admit that this is not exactly wholesome family entertainment, but I can assure you that, in most cases, this criticism is most decidedly undeserved.

Despite what many have surmised, as is so oft the case, by judging from the cover, The Bully in fact carries quite a strong anti-bullying message. Much the previous Rockstar titles, however, this fact has been overlooked simply because of the name.

Speaking as a parent I, personally, do not feel that The Bully in any way promotes nor condones bullying in any way. Quite the opposite in fact, as a large amount of the multitude of tasks and quests you embark upon throughout the course of the games six chapters involve dealing with one of Bullworth Academy’s various cliques, culminating in a showdown with their respective leaders.

All in an attempt to stop the bullying which is rife when you first arrive. Rather, I would argue that anyone who complains about the negative influence this game may have on children should look a little closer to home before pointing fingers.

Having said that, I would still advise a certain amount of discretion. This is most decidedly not a game for children, as proven by the T rating the title was given in America, and 15 in the UK. However, the fact that now, two years later, the game has been reworked for both the X-Box 360 and Wii should go some way to proving the overall content is perhaps not so harsh as it may first appear.

Censors are a notoriously fickle bunch and are not prone to allowing unsuitable material into the public domain. It must also be considered that, whilst the focus of the game is on ridding Bullworth of its bullies, both student and teacher alike, the necessary tools are still in place to wreak some serious havoc with the other pupils.

This latter issue has been addressed somewhat by the presence of ever vigilant Prefects within the school grounds, and not just Police, but any adult once you are able to leave. However, due to the use of the skateboard, or simply by running for long enough, it is rarely any real threat as you can almost always find some way to evade capture.

Either by hiding in a bin, in a school locker, or just by tiring out your pursuers and causing them to lose interest in catching you. And even should you be caught, you can usually break free by waving the Wii remote back and forth. Though this is not guaranteed, it seems to work more than sixty percent of the time.

I’ll admit, before starting Bully I was apprehensive. Now, in the past I’ve been a staunch support of the Rockstar lable, having played a number of their previous titles and seeing the way that their negative aspects have been highlighted whilst completely missing the underlying theme of the games (Grand Theft Auto anyone?).

However, having been told something about the game by a friend of mine I was beginning to wonder if, this time, the critics were right. Being phoned three or four times a day to have a grown man laughing and telling me “lolz, I got in detention again” seemed like a strong argument for being dubious. Even to the point that when he lent the original Playstation 2 release to me after he had finished with it, I played through only a couple of missions.

Now, however, almost two years later, I decided it was time to give it another try. And was thankfully proven to be correct in my early reticence. As I’ve previously said, Bully is not for children, even though if does revolve around them.

Many of the themes covered in the game are of a decidedly adult nature. Including, but not limited to alcoholism and improprieties between teachers and pupils. But, of course, Jimmy Hopkins, our erstwhile protagonist, is a fifteen year old, hormone fuelled boy.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but sex is an increasingly important part of your life during those years. And whilst I may not be entirely happy with the way Jimmy is allowed to throw his affections around willy nilly, a quick kiss in the school hallways is hardly going to qualify as a major taste and decency faux pas.

Now, to the meat of the issue. Putting aside all the parental concerns, Rockstar have, once again, delivered a strong, expertly written game about the trials and tribulations which are an inevitable part of coming of age. Bullworth is an unforgiving place, with corruption running all the way from the student cliques to the Head Teacher (not Principal interestingly enough, even though the game is set in an American school) himself. Our young Jimmy certainly has his work cut out for him.

The story focuses around Jimmy’s efforts to combat the bullying and clean up the school as a whole. As well as helping an old, drunken hobo find half a dozen transistors so that he c an build a radio to call for an alien spaceship to abduct him. Possibly the most bizarre mission of any Rockstar title to date. The hobo, in return, teaches Jimmy some fighting techniques he learned whilst fighting in the Korean war in the early half of the 1950’s.
I would say that the greatest strength of the game comes in the form of the classroom mini-games. Especially with the four new ones that were added for Scholarship edition (biology, math, music and geography). The most useful of these clearly being geography.

After successfully completing each of the five maps you are awarded with an upgrade to your in game map. Showing the locations of various odds and ends like the rubber band collection and gnomes. None of which have any significant impact on the plot, but are nonetheless a great boon for those of use who are not satisfied until we reach that mythical 100% completion.

Art is another useful class. Each successive lesson enabling young Jimmy to earn greater benefits, in the way of a health increase, from kissing one of the various female pupils you will come into contact with on the school grounds.

And, of course, the bicycles you can earn from shop class are useful for later missions outside of school and for the various bike races dotted throughout the game. On top of all that, each of the lessons is very simple and easy to get to grips with. And you just might learn something along the way as well.

All in all, The Bully was a solid game, that was only enhanced by it’s Next Gen revamp. Each of the unique characters has been given a more fleshed out personality, as well as adding a few new characters and eight new missions.

And as if that wasn’t enough, the script has also been tweaked in some places, there is an entire plethora of new items and clothing to unlock. There’s now a two player aspect which consists of competing against a friend in between three and nine of the in game classes. It doesn’t really add overly much to the game as a whole, but it makes good practice and opens up another set of party games to choose from when you have a few friends round.

It’s a real shame that Bully received such negative press, though I will admit that it’s not entirely without grounding. Don’t let this put you off, however. It takes only a moment to look past the misleading façade and see that there is a real sense of morality to the game which cannot be so easily ignored.

The only real friend that Jimmy has is a small, quite young man named Petey. Who, inspite of some ribbing, Jimmy genuinely seems to care for. Even going so far as to have him elected Head Boy at the end of the game.

In closing, The Bully proves that old adage once again. Looks really can be deceiving.

Graphics 8/10
Gameplay 9/10
Audio/music 9/10
Plot/Scripting 9/10
Overall 8.5/10

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What is this yearning to destroy that we, as humans, have even from a young age? The more pessimistic among us would imply a rebellious or evil nature. I would say that, at least in our childhood purity, we are simply curious.

Sure a child may want to knock over a stack of blocks but once they’re down there’s no joy in the haphazard pile. “I don’t wanna clean that up!” The joy is in the brief moment that those blocks tumble in a somewhat predictable yet always chaotic and colorful way.

The prediction is often close but the chaos always takes over, keeping us on our bare little toes in our hypothetical playpen. Every child is actually a tiny little scientist, whether or not they’ll ever admit it.

The Wii’s unique motion controls compelled Steven Spielberg to create a game based on that visceral childhood instinct that most adults never actually lost. That is the heart and soul behind Boom Blox, the fact that it’s fun to make stuff fall over. It’s even fun in a physics simulation of toy blocks. Thankfully, there’s much more to the game’s design than that-but not so much more that we still have to clean up after ourselves.

The concept of melding what is essentially a physics simulation with motion controls is not as prominent as one may think in Boom Blox. The motion controls are more akin to a mouse pointer with the exception of moving the remote in a throwing motion when throwing objects at blocks.

While the in-game throwing does seem to successfully gauge how hard each “throw” is, this is about where the complexity of the controls ends. Fortunately, the game doesn’t suffer from this simplicity and probably even benefits from it. Bad controls can break a game. These controls may be simple but they work.

Aesthetically, Boom Blox has a charming cartoon style much like the kind of world a child might imagine is around his or her toy blocks. The cute block-shaped animals had me smiling and sometimes laughing out loud with their antics and, yes, even storylines.

The music occasionally got repetitive but it was varied and entertaining enough to have me picking favorite tracks. The sound was just sufficient but, believe it or not, the voice work gave me lots of laughs as I’m sure they intended. Have you heard a baby cow moo approvingly before? You will.

Some have compared Boom Blox to the classic block stacking party game Jenga. While there is a gametype in the game like Jenga, it’s just one of several different gametypes. Most of the gametypes are just refreshingly different enough to keep you coming back for more.

There’s more than one way to knock over a pile of blocks, my friends, and this game will purposefully have you trying several methods attempting to do just that. Other times, you’ll actually be trying to avoid that. The important thing is that you’ll be surprised just how much fun it is.

Thanks to the consistency of the in-game physics you’ll be able to use trial and error on the more difficult stages and strategize your way closer and closer to the solution. The presence of new types of blocks that you never had in your toy box as a kid helps keep things fresh. Vanish blocks, chemical blocks, cloud blocks, bomb blocks, etc.-each has unique traits and reactions that make things much more chaotic, interesting and just plain fun to mess with.

In addition to many single player stages of varying objectives, the game includes multiplayer modes so friends can join in on the destruction either cooperatively or competitively. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, kindergärtner or engineer.

You will find fun in this game, most likely in both singleplayer and multiplayer alike. While I do wish the multiplayer included a bit more reconfigurability as well as four player support for all modes and not just some, the choices available are quite adequate.

Even when playing single player I found it was quite enjoyable to have one person playing while others

expressed what they felt “might work” to complete each stage. As if several gametypes in both single and multiplayer weren’t enough, a complex yet user-friendly edit mode is also included with the game.

Not only can you knock them down but you can build them up. Just don’t try to act like you won’t still wan

t to knock them down again! Boom Blox’s mission is simple but it absolutely succeeds with flying colors and blocks.

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I’ll start with a confession. I don’t tend to like your average RPG. As often heralded as they may be, I just can’t quite bring myself to tolerate yet another clichéd fantasy hero going on yet another clichéd quest; all the while, having the clichéd experience of a lifetime!

I often feel RPGs are more anime than game. This is not a knock at anime. It’s a knock at RPGs for tending to not be as interactive as I feel they should be. Before you complain, I fully concede that there are many great RPGs out there. It’s just yet another genre plagued with oversaturation, as well as not quite being my cup of tea to begin with.

All of that said, while standard RPGs may cause me to shy away, hybrid RPGs (games that combine a genre or genres with RPG elements) can really get me excited. The Boktai series, strategy RPGs, the later Castlevania games-these are all hybrid RPGs that I have a lot of fun with. The list goes on. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords has deservingly added itself to this list.

When I first heard of Puzzle Quest I was quite wary. It’s basically an RPG with gameplay mostly based around a competitive version of the well-known casual puzzle game Bejeweled. In the past, Bejeweled proved itself to be a bit too simplistic for my taste but was just on the border of addictive and fun.

Puzzle Quest puts Bejeweled’s gameplay mechanics well over that border into very addictive and very fun territory. Puzzle Quest’s addition to the gameplay mechanics includes heroes of differing classes, spells, items, mounts, companions and RPG stats with leveling. There’s even multiplayer support via LAN or over the internet using IP addresses.

There’s additional gameplay outside of the gem-matching puzzle battles. You navigate a map visiting various kingdoms, accepting quests, even sieging, running and building your own citadels. Once citadels are properly built up, you can visit them to solve puzzles and pay gold to train your hero.

The citadel puzzles forge items, train captured mounts and teach you spells from captured enemies. Anyone familiar with the Heroes of Might and Magic series will see a lot of similarities in Puzzle Quest. Replace HoMM’s strategic war battles with Puzzle Quest’s puzzle battles and you have a game strikingly similar to Puzzle Quest.

The storyline of the game is a bit hackneyed, as one might fear, but its still fairly well done and interesting. It never gets in the way of the core gameplay and only enhances it. The graphics are well-done with a nice anime style. This style is carried throughout the entire game from the characters to the monsters and locations you visit.

Even the music and sounds are quite well done and fit the games epic fantasy atmosphere well. These are all areas that the developers could have easily slacked on, making the game more of a puzzler with RPG aspects, but they chose to make a full-blown RPG with prominent puzzle gameplay-a daring and definitely successful endeavor. While the gameplay is fairly repetitive there seems to always be a way to switch things up a bit.

Puzzle Quest has been ported to several consoles. I’m personally familiar with the PC and Nintendo DS versions. I’d recommend avoiding the handheld versions. The PSP version has an unfortunate bug rendering companions moot and the NDS version is rather unbalanced.

The presence of cheating AI is questionable in all versions. If it does cheat, I don’t feel it to be very noticeable or a major problem for that matter (at least in the PC version). All things considered, my advice is to grab yourself a patchable version (PC or Xbox 360) just to be safe.

While the PC version is moddable, the Xbox 360 will be receiving a purchasable expansion pack subtitled Revenge of the Plague Lord that has yet to be announced for any other system. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is a great game considering the overall quality and is surprisingly deep for a puzzle game. The relatively low price point doesn’t hurt either.

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