SPEEKERBOXX

Game Reviews

Gran Turismo 4

 This installment of Gran Turismo brings more cars and tracks, better graphics, improved game play, and the closest experience to racing.  We thought Polyphony couldn’t improve much after Gran Turismo 3, but we were wrong.GT4 is split up into two game play modes: arcade and simulation.  The arcade mode is just as it was in past installments, except with more tracks and cars.  The simulation mode is what the GT series is built upon.  In this mode you buy cars, race, receive prizes, and upgrade your ride.  The player starts with 10,000 credits and has to pass licenses before he/she can race. As you begin to win races, you will unlock more tracks, cars, and basically, more opportunities.  There are a wide variety of cars including consumer vehicles, trucks, exotics, classics, race cars, concepts, muscle cars, some oddball cars, and the return of used cars (which were absent from GT3).  The new Gran Turismo has an amazing 700 cars and 50 tracks. However a couple of problems still remain.  The AI is somewhat smarter but still follows a line and rarely makes mistakes.  The cars still receive no damage; bumping around the track and into other cars is still one of the best strategies to win and the number of Asian cars completely overshadows the number of European and North American cars. Gran Turismo 4 has had many upgrades and additions but it really does not feel that much more different than GT3.  This is the racing simulation on the PS2 and is a step closer to perfection.  A good purchase. 

New Look Playstation

  Sony’s new-look Playstation 2 has been revealed and it’s 75% smaller.  Sony announced that the new-look Playstation will be released in the UK on the 1^st of November and will replace the current SCPH-50000 version of the console.

As with the PSone, it offers a similar size reduction with the original Playstation.  The machine noise has been reduced by 75% and the weight has been halved.  The new PS2 will have an ethernet port for online gaming.  The new machine will cost about the same as the old PS2.

  Grand Turismo 4

If driving your dream cars on amazing tracks takes your fancy, this is the game for you. Over 500 cars, old and new, over 50 tracks in real locations (famous locations such as Assisi, New York and The Grand Canyon looking so good that you'll stop to enjoy the view) and the stunning realistic new physics engine combine to offer the most rewarding video game experience for gamers and car lovers the world over. For the first time ever, GT comes complete with a new stunning photo mode with the ability to print out amazing images of your favourite cars in stunning locations. The best has just got better. 

FIFA Football 2005

The new game has an all new animation system which now makes every button you press react in a responsive and realistic speed.  The gamer is now able to play one touch soccer as the professionals do.  It becomes a great advantage for players to break quickly on the opposing team.  The game has more than 350 official teams and league licenses from around the world with more than 12,000 officially licensed players.  It also contains an enhanced Career Mode and EA Sports on-line play for extra entertainment. FIFA Soccer 2005 is one of the most realistic and responsive soccer games to date. 

Def Jam: Fight For New York

The last Def Jam, Vendetta, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It had a great cast of superstars, good graphics and hard-hitting moves, but there was a lack of moves, which took from the game play of the game. 

  In the new game Def Jam: Fighting For New York it still falls short on important areas.  In heated bouts the character seems to become slow and unresponsive, the CPU then has an advantage over you.  The game has many unlockable, which include new characters; new moves and a cooperative multiplayer function.

  On the PS2, loading becomes painfully slow while all versions have camera issues in a few tight spots in crowded arenas, when the camera zooms in, crowds get in the way.

  The new Def Jam game is a good fighting game but could do with fixing up rough areas instead of programming so many styles of Sean John jumpers.  But if you’re looking for a bare knuckle fighting game, this is it!

Colin McRae Rally 2005

Colin Mac Rae 2005 is a fantastic 5^th release of this leading rally game brand.  With it’s all new Career Challenge, featuring an incredible 23 individual rally events and a staggering 300 stages, you can drive almost any car from 4 wheel drive cars, 2 wheel drive cars, 4 wheel drive classics and 4x4 classics.  Colin Mac Rae is set to be complete and exciting rally games of the year.

Grand Theft Auto "San Andreas"

The latest instalment Grand Theft Auto takes place in 1992 in the West Coast-themed state of San Andreas. San Andreas is an island containing three cities.  Between each city there is countryside.  San Andres compared to Vice City is much larger, with things to do both in and out of town. You'll begin the game in the city of Los Santos, which is based roughly on Los Angeles and consists of a mixture of ritzy downtown areas and the gangland ghettos of South Central. San Fierro is based on San Francisco, reproducing the real city's hilly terrain and ever-present fog. The game's third city is Las Venturas, which is a great take on early-'90s Las Vegas. You are Carl Johnson, “CJ”, who has returned home from Liberty City because his mum was killed.  Not soon after CJ has his feet on the ground than some crooked cops pick him up and throw him back into the life he left, on the streets.

Grove Street Families, your gang has lost all its respect while CJ has been away.  Your first thing to do is to put your gang back on the map.  To regain some of the territory you lost you set out on spray-painting other gangs tags, you move onto drive-by shootings and other gangster acts. However when you’re getting used to the gang acts of terror things turn sour BUT I’m not going to give the plot away!!The game does tie in nicely with the series as some of the previous characters appear.  As in Vice City you can’t travel freely between cities until you have completed so many mission but its not long before you unlock the other areas.  Rockstar have failed to disappoint with San Andreas and has taken the gameplay and expanded it considerably from Vice City!!

FIA World Rally Championship 4

WRC the official game of the FIA World Rally Championship is back and in top form. As we've come to expect from the only official game of the biggest event in the rallying calendar, all of 2004's cars and drivers are present and correct, including two models that have never before been seen in a video game - the Peugeot 307 WRC and the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 04. Once again, the main game mode will see you tackling all 16 WRC locations spanning five continents, including the new rallies in Mexico and Japan. To make your mark in the Championship, you'll need to prove your rallying worth over 100 different stages comprised of Point to Point, Super Special, Shakedown and Sprint Stages. As well as all that, WRC 4 now gives you the chance to complete on the world stage thanks to the inclusion of network play. The top 100 drivers on each stage can upload their times onto the web. The online play is blistering fast and boasts exactly the same photo realistic graphics as offline. As you plough around the courses, your car sustains damage, gets covered in mud and dust and you would swear you were watching it live.