Since I’ve been lapsing in my reviews I’ve decided to do all 4 of the games I recently picked up (2 X-box, 2 Gamecube).

Advent Rising: Interesting looking game, the story seemed deep and original. Unfortunately it’s marred by bugs and general problems. First off is its VERY buggy, the cinematic cut-scenes all skip and have sound glitches. The game crashes at random (even during minor area transitions) couple this with irregular save points and you find yourself doing things over not because you screwed up, but because the game screwed up. The ‘original’ idea of flick targeting sounded good, in play it’s incredibly annoying, often you ‘miss flick’ against close range targets, and the targeting leaves no room for leading a target, or firing at exposed portions of enemies behind partial cover. You always fire at center mass, even if just the head is exposed behind cover, this forces you to charge every enemy using cover like a rabid suicide bomber. I’d definitely recommend passing on this dud, it’s going in my return pile, and I very rarely return games.

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance: Another dud (I’m 0 for 2 on X-box games this month), I figured this would be a Diabloesque game, and it is, at least a really crappy Diablo clone and I’m not even a big Diablo fan. D&D players will find the game is so unlike D&D Wizards of the Coast should sue (but then they ruined the franchise to begin with). Most of your money will be spent on healing potions and arrows (or mana potions for the sorceress) since melee combat is a death wish, most opponents can reduce you to a corpse in 3 hits or less (several are one hit wonders). You can outrun maybe 2 creatures in the game, mostly you run for a minute or so (provided you have room to) and eventually the critter gets bored and wanders off. Your vision range is about 10 feet in front of you, making the idea of an archer character (one of 3 classes to choose from) a joke, barring the fact that actual melee is even less viable.

Now to the Gamecube games:

Marvel Heroes:Rise of the Imperfects: I have to admit, I was pulled in just for the variety of heroes this game offers. The single player ‘campaign’ is about as deep as a puddle but still delivers on some good ole button mashing fun. The head to head fighting while not being a Tekken3, or Mortal Kombat is still pretty fun, and where else could Electra have a chance at taking down the Thing? I wouldn’t recommend this one unless you are a comic fan, since that’s its biggest draw (over depth/skill) but hey, its better than the 2 X-Box bombs above.

X-men Legends: Rise of Apocalypse: Finally a truly good game, it doesn’t stray far from its predecessor and that’s a good thing. If you liked the original, this one is more of the same bash and smash with even more characters to choose from (they added the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to the already vast group of X-men). The story is interesting, and without that annoying Magma character. The group you choose can be used through the entire game, so no more unwanted substitutions that annoyed me in the first game. The fact that you can tailor the heroes skills/powers is really nice, allow for all sorts of combinations.

There you have it, 2 bombs, a decent rental, and a keeper. Hopefully the next batch will be better….

Oh and excuse the previous post, damn post password……