The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate destruction Review

December 11, 2006

Hulk rages out on the Gamecube

Graphics 8.8/10
Gameplay 9.3/10
Sound 9.2/10
Lastability 9.0/10
Overall 9.2/10

Being a gamer in the know I approached Hulk with a fair bit of caution due to its license and the tendency that license games are poor quality that rely on the license to sell. But to put it straight I am very impressed with this new Hulk game.It’s a sequel to the movie based Hulk game made by the same studio. The game follows a similar vein to the original although this time around the developers have given the control to the gamers. This is what makes Hulk so much fun. Instead of forcing you to follow the rules set by the developers you are given the freedom to explore 2 main areas. One of which is dense city and the other an open desert. There’s also a few boss battles to break the game up from the mission based structure. There are two types of mission, the story ones in which need to be completed to progress through the story and the extra missions in which earn extra unlockables. There is plenty unlockable content as well; developer videos, comic book covers, game cheats and more moves for the Hulk.

All of the games freedom would be pointless if the Hulk didn’t play right and luckily for us he is fine tuned to perfection. Personally I think that he can jump too high and too far in fact he could probably traverse a city quicker than Spidey. Also when jumping and running up buildings the camera and Hulk himself becomes somewhat difficult and turn in crazy directions that put you in the wrong direction. This becomes frustraing in missions that require you to get from A to be in a tight time limit. Hulk can punch, kick, do combos of both, smash down on the ground etc. As you progress through the game you unlock points for creating destruction that can be spent on buying new moves for out green friend. Theres a lot to do with Hulk. It’s not what Hulk can do that makes playing around with him enjoyable, its how he can interact with the environment. You can rip trees out of the ground and use it as a bat to smack pedestrians into the sea, tear cars into boxing gloves, surf the streets on a truck there’s just so much that you can do with the environment around you.

In between missions you can go around and do whatever. You can move between the church(main hub for the game) to the city and badlands(desert). Although the church links the main areas the city is where you’ll be spending most of your time.

Presentation wise Hulk is rather nice. FMVs accompany the main game which contain professional voice actors. Hulk of which is done by the voice actor doing the voice in the new cartoon series. The main menu looks nice enough but is a bit tacky. Another element that that makes this game a Hulk fans dream is the story line which much like the voice acting is made by people already working on the Hulk franchise. The story itself is one of twists and turns and is quite typical of most superhero plots not in a bad way though.

Graphically Hulk looks very solid, the grity art style that the developers have opted for works a treat and fits into the Hulk universe. The characters are all very well animated and use motion capture that gives it a realistic feel. The draw distance in the game is rather impressive. From the city level you can see most of what is in the background scaled down to a realistic view. Since Hulk is all about destroying things the explosions are done very well. They are very flexible and don’t look bad when your up close.

Just like the graphics and presentation further time and effort was put into creating realistic sound effects. Any form of destruction leads to some sort of realistic sound effect. From buildings crashing to throwing someone into a wall. All characters in the game contain full voice acting and as mentioned before are very well done. There’s plenty of variety in sounds that come out of Hulk. So he never sounds repetitive and annoying.

The whole Hulk game engine is very diverse an is made so well. There are a few glitches and the ocassional bad camera angle but for the most part it works lovely. I was amazed that some things in the game occurred. It is something that I’d expect from an upcoming gen title. When you think something isn’t covered it probably is.

Closing comments

The depth of the game, freedom that is given to the player and the load of unloackables make this game one of the best action games for the Gamecube of the year. The effort that has been put into this title shows, despite a few common flaws Hulk is a must have title for any super hero fan.

Posted in Video Games | Comments (0)

Project Rub Review

Beat the mini games to win the girlÂ
Nintendo DS

Graphics 7.8/10
Gameplay 8.3/10
Sound 8.0/10
Lastability 8.2/10
Overall 8.2/10

Need some help at getting the girl of your dreams? This game probably won’t help but its pretty fun in any case.Project Rub is a mini game based game that follows the story of a guy that wants to be with this girl. To do so he joins a zany group of performers called the Rub rabbits. This begins the guys journey into a mass of mini game madness.

The game is broken up into chapters. Each chapter begins with its own cut scene and then comic scene. Depending on the type of chapter it is the player can select from just one or up to three games to complete. Once a mini game is completed a set amount of love is filled in the heart bar. This determines how many games you need to finish until the chapter is complete. You can repeat the same mini game until it fills up the whole bar. Once the heart bar is filled you move onto the next chapter.

The games themselves range from average to very good. Nothing stands out too much and there are few duds. Most of them require using the touch screen to move, hit or direct something. There’s a few microphone and blowing games as well. Not a heap of variety just different ways to do the same thing. Most game concepts are made out of ridiculous situations such as the main character being eaten by a snake or hitting the scorpions off your girls back. There not meant to make sense there meant to make use of the DS touch screen. My favourite games are the cleverly designed ones, for example you and the girl are on an island and your clothes are wet, you need to dry her clothes by letting the fire continue burning and also undo her buttons at the same time, neato. Similar to a few DS games that have been released Project Rub doesn’t use the regular buttons at all and relies on the touch screen to do everything.

There are close to 30 mini games in the overall game. Not to forget unlockable content and harder difficulty levels. One of my favourite extras is that you can buy clothes for your girl. There is a range of 3 items, hair, torso and legs. The range is nice, you get different hair colours, bras, mini skirts and boots. Very kool.

The sounds effects accompany the overall quirky theme to the game. With weird tunes and interesting voices from the cast. The music is sometimes a bit hard on the ears and clashes which will prompt you to turn the sound down. Most of the time its bearable, but not for everyones tastes. The voice acting is in english but is done by Japanese people, so most of the time the voice acting is strange and a bit out there.The groovy sounds flow nicely with the art direction. Its simple but it is rather effective. It makes the game feel more like a package. In game graphics aren’t bad for a DS launch title but have some noticeable flaws. Textures aren’t the greatest and are often pixelated. There is also a limitation on the amount of 3D used, since too many of the mini games are in 2D which is quite disappointing. Something that really impressed me was the opening cut scene which is really sexy. Animation in the mini games is a bit sudden but everything else is animated relatively well. The mini game graphics aren’t much but the cut scenes do look nice.

Closing comments

Sonic team have created a new and unique franchise to add to their stable. Project Rub is an interesting title that plays quite well. Its got a few flaws but plays well enough to enjoy for a while. A nice addition to the DS library.

Posted in Video Games | Comments (0)

I Want to Take You for Granted

November 26, 2006

The first week of the Christmas break is over and I have set up a good foundation of the labour to come. Infact this last week feels like an eternity, I have accomplished so much and yet I feel as though I have wasted so much time. There are still a few things bugging me that I need Chris to fix which I’ve been waiting for weeks for him to do, being:

set up my new email account(2 weeks)
code the new PrimeScape(4+ weeks)
remove the Ubuntu partition on my hard drive
fix up the wireless network so that I can listen to the latest podcasts(1 week)

I’m starting to get really fed up of this.

I’ve also had to work both days this past weekend. It was actually quite enjoyable, I spent the whole weekend with Aaron whom use to work with Chris this time last year. The best part about working is dealing with the digital cameras. I love talking to customers about which camera would be right for them. Trying to suggest something ideal for their tastes and also explaining the features of the respective cameras. I get a sense that they are really appreciative of me taking the time out to help them. I not only talk about the cameras, I base what I say around the audience. So if I was dealing with a new camera user then I would explain things simpler and also provide a few tips on how to overcome most of the difficulties that new users have with the digital camera. I really enjoy it.

Something else thats been on my mind is gaming as a culture. Watching Pure Pwnage during the week got me thinking about the types of people who play games, people loosing interest in games and the culture of gaming. One question that I asked myself was: Can someone’s social life be totally based on video games?

When I say this question I should also mention that I mean a significant social life. Significant being (at least) above the norm for the age group of well anyone. So I then thought of all of the social events that would be classed as game based that would make up a social life:

LANs
playing games with your friends
game expos
game torunaments
online discussion of video games(forum, IM, Skype, IRC, etc.)
game events/parties(eg. Launch parties, DDR/Singstar party(???))

Thinking about it, I reckon that it would most definitely be possible. The difficulty would also be based on where you live as well as here in South Australia we don’t get many expos, tournaments or launch events and also less LANs. But in an area where this is so I think that it would definitely be possible.

Saying all of this probably makes me look like I want to get into this and well I’m too honest to lie to you folks. So I think that it would be nice to have a social life based on games alone. But my interests extend beyond games so that isn’t the case and most people(me included) aren’t that game crazy to only do social activities that are game related.

I think that all I really just need more competitive gaming sessions. I haven’t entered a tournament at all this year or had a LAN. Now lets not even start on expo’s here.

On a final note, when I mention online activity I mean one that doesn’t override the normal social life.

Whenever Chris gets this PrimeScape template coded I shall have a series of indepth entries up, I might do one on gaming as a culture. I have a few finished so far. I also want to do 2 on digital cameras.

-DP

Posted in Video Games | Comments (0)

« Previous Page — Next Page »