• 80 - EuroGamer: "A very, very good videogame: another brilliant evolution of Koei's unique interpretation of the real-time strategy genre..."
• 61 - PSM3 Magazine UK: "A so-so mix of tactics and chaotic combat."
• 60 - PSM Magazine
• 47 - EGM: "With all these hiccups, I'm shocked this war lasted one year, let alone 100." (I see EGM keeps getting wittier and wittier)
  
• 40 - 1UP: "The majority of the environments are quite sparse, with few buildings yet plenty of fog to help hide the fact that the draw distance here isn't that spectacular."

Expect more details as soon as it becomes available.

Teasing gamers to look inside, the magazine's cover displays a handgun and katana, with the sword reflecting an image of the Revolution controller as a subtitle reads: "Ubisoft Breaks The Silence On The Nintendo Revolution."

Played from a first-person perspective, the game is said to take advantage of the Revolution's innovative control scheme in order to blend shooting and swordplay elements. Neither Ubisoft or Nintendo have confirmed the title's release, but this could be good news for Nintendo fans worried about the company's next-gen third-party support. Look for more info soon on Red Steel, as E3 is only a month away.

CDV has announced that their simulation title, Glory of the Roman Empire has gone gold.

The announcement means that the game is set to release as scheduled on June 26th. Glory lets players become Roman city-planners and it is up to you to design the empire's cities while keeping the people happy. Check out more about Glory of the Roman Empire at the official website here.]]> Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:08:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/armored_core_last_raven_goes_gold http://www.gamebump.com/go/armored_core_last_raven_goes_gold http://www.gamebump.com/go/armored_core_last_raven_goes_gold# Agetec has announced that the latest title in the Armored Core series, Armored Core Last Raven has gone gold.

This version of the game takes place six months after the events of Armored Core: Nexus. At this time, the corporations have merged to form a single superpower called the Alliance which is trying to dominate the world. It is up to you, a single Raven with mech powers to save the day.

Armored Core Last Raven is scheduled to ship to retailers June 13th, 2006 for the PlayStation 2.

Players partake in a series of camp events based on episodes from the show. Players will get to relive their favorite TV moments, controlling Jellybean campers Lazlo, Raj and Clam. Fans will also encounter other recognizable characters from the show including Scout Master Lumpus, Edward, Slinkman, the Dung Beetles and more.  The game offers players a wide variety of game types, each unique but similarly simple, fun and easy to master.

As Lazlo, Raj and Clam, three of the camp’s newest and most adventurous members, the player must compete in a variety of local challenges with and against their fellow camp mates to prove their abilities, before earning the right to represent their camp and take on the Squirrel Scouts in a final series of events.

• Play as all three of your favorite characters from the show, Lazlo, Raj, and Clam
• Interact with other characters from the show to get hints and directions in accomplishing game goals
• Experience dynamic and humorous dialog
• Collect hidden items throughout the camp for helpful hints and special bonuses
• Play a variety of entertaining mini-games
• Stage a competition between the Bean Scouts and the Squirrel Scouts
• Explore Camp Kidney in a fully navigable game environment
• Enjoy a variety of unique gameplay styles to enhance and extend the game experience

Since the launch of the Xbox 360 last November, game releases have been few and far between, but one publisher has been getting their product out to the masses. Ubisoft has seen a lot of early success on the next-generation with the release of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and even moderately with their flying shooter Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII. The company has one more shooter on the market this spring in Far Cry Instincts Predator.

In the game, players take on the role of Jack Carver, an ex-Navy commando who charters a boat to a stranded island in the Pacific. Players get two separate campaigns to play. In the first campaign, gamers investigate the island and its inhabitants which include human-animal hybrids. Once you delve deeper into the mysteries, Jack eventually becomes a hybrid and gains fearsome animal powers.

The other campaign is a little shorter than the original, but of course keeps Jack on the island. This time he heads there with a woman named Kade who goes missing. He in turn battles through the jungle, fighting militia, hybrids, and more to find her.

The greatest thing about Far Cry Instincts Predator is the inclusion of both the Predator and Evolution storylines. This essentially is like two games in one and really provides gamers with two completely different, but coherent stories. Sadly the Evolution story isn’t available until you beat Predator. Thankfully though Ubisoft pleased fans by providing a cheat code, “GiveMeItAll”, allowing players to choose which story they’d like to follow first.

Though it almost goes without saying, the gameplay in Far Cry for the 360 is still very much intact. Players have the ability to kill their opponents in a variety of ways including the use of traps, knives and dual wielding weapons. The Evolution campaign does include a few new weapons like a blowgun and pipe bomb. Besides the weapons, players will eventually gain feral abilities that allow you to sprint and attack like a cheetah and even sniff out your opposition. Both Predator and Evolution feature a variety of vehicles throughout the game including boats, ATVs, gliders and more. Other gameplay improvements in the series include more save points, meaning there is less repetition if you die, and slightly larger maps.

The controls in Instincts are very easy for anyone to pick up and play. Moving is as easy as utilizing the analog sticks and the trigger buttons allow you to shoot your opponents. The D-pad is utilized to cycle through weaponry, up to three weapons at a time. You also have the ability to crawl and crouch for stealth.

The sound isn’t exceptional in Predator, but it is decent. The soundtrack is more exciting and engaging when you’re in action, but is hardly memorable. Meanwhile, the other sound effects including environmental noises, voice work, and weapon effects are all pretty good and sound realistic. The environmental sounds are particularly good when you hear insects buzzing by and waterfalls flowing.

One last thing that definitely keeps the game exciting for awhile is the multiplayer experience. Gamers can play with up to four people on split-screen or with 16-players through Xbox Live. The online database features five different game modes including chaos, team chaos, predator, steal the sample, and seek and secure. Chaos is simply Far Cry deathmatch while steal the sample is obviously capture the flag. Predator is a mode where one player is an animal-human hybrid and the others aren’t. Finally, seek and secure is essentially a territories mode. Overall the online experience is a lot of fun and includes 23 total maps that are quite varied and appealing.

If that isn’t enough, players are also able to create their own maps, meaning that there are almost an unlimited number of online gaming options available. Maps are much easier to create than on the original Xbox release and feature more options.

First and foremost, the game’s A.I. is moronic at best. Most of the enemies you’ll face don’t make a habit of heading for cover and instead stand still out in the open, guns blazing. Grenades continue the problems as often times the enemies will literally dive towards the bomb. Though the A.I. improves later in the game with some human-animal hybrids you’ll face, overall the competition is very poor in both campaign modes.

Secondly, the graphics in the game are decent, but hardly worthy of mention on a next-generation console. Though the game in general is pretty and stunning - mostly because of water in the tropical environment - the graphics didn’t see much of an upgrade on the 360. Things like trees, grass and even other characters don’t look well defined and are poorly textured. And sadly most of the enemies look pretty blocky and physically don’t move very well.

Just a couple other problems that presented themselves in the game are vehicle controls and repetitiveness. Overall the vehicle controls are pretty poor and you’ll find yourself hitting way too many bumps as you drive. This probably isn’t helped by the fact that you can’t change out of the first-person view while driving.

The other problem that drags Far Cry down is the fact that Far Cry Instincts Predator is just about the same game as Far Cry Instincts Evolution, which came out last year on the original Xbox. If you’ve played that version before, you are not missing anything now.

Far Cry Instincts Predator is a solid first-person shooter for the Xbox 360 that provides gamers with two games in one by including last year’s instincts mode as well as the evolution campaign. If that isn’t enough, there is a very impressive online option along with a map editor that keeps the action going for hours.

Despite all that, Far Cry falls a little short particularly in relation to the A.I. and graphics since both aren’t quite up to next-generation expectations. Even still, first-person shooter fans should definitely check out Far Cry Instincts Predator since it is one of the best shooters to date on the Xbox 360.

The A.I. isn’t tha great, but the controls and gameplay are still intact from the original.

Far Cry’s graphics are for the 360, but aren’t quite what we expect out of a next-gen title.

The sound effects and voice work is decent, but it is not too memorable.

Overall the game is still comfortable and fun to play both in campaign and multiplayer modes.

With a map editor, evolution campaign and multiplayer options, there’s plenty to keep you busy.

]]> Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:51:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/_zoo_tycoon_2_expansion_goes_gold http://www.gamebump.com/go/_zoo_tycoon_2_expansion_goes_gold http://www.gamebump.com/go/_zoo_tycoon_2_expansion_goes_gold# Gaming Horizon will have a full review soon.

Ubisoft has announced that Far Cry Instincts Predator for the Xbox 360 and Far Cry Instincts Evolution for the Xbox have gone gold.

Evolution gives players a completely new storyline and characters. Meanwhile, Predator features both the Evolution and original Far Cry Instincts game that was released last fall. Both games are scheduled to be in stores on March 30th.]]> Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:15:00 -0600 Shiva Stella http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_savage_2_gameplay_trailer http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_savage_2_gameplay_trailer http://www.gamebump.com/go/new_savage_2_gameplay_trailer# This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

S2 Games has published a new gameplay trailer for its Savage 2: A Tortured Soul on the PC, sequel to Savage: The Battle for Newerth. The game is currently slated for release this fall. Enjoy, and if you're interested you can check out the game's official site, located here.

Download the DivX Browser Plug-In.

]]> Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:09:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_zoo_tycoon_2_endangered_species_pc http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_zoo_tycoon_2_endangered_species_pc http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_zoo_tycoon_2_endangered_species_pc# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Chuck Landry.

Last year I reviewed Gaming Horizon’s copy of Zoo Tycoon 2, which was developer Blue Fang Games’ attempt to add something worthwhile to the burgeoning tycoon genre. In short, it wasn’t impressive (you can see the review here) due to an all-around lack of excitement. About a year later, we have upon us the game’s first expansion pack. Entitled Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species, you can bet it adds a few new animals to the mix. Unfortunately the other additions aren’t substantial enough to change the final verdict by much.

I wasn’t excited about reinstalling Zoo Tycoon 2 just so I could review an expansion pack for it, but to be fair, Zoo Tycoon 2 wasn’t as painful to play as I seem to remember from the first time around (it still isn’t good though). I can at least understand how some eight-year-old child might enjoy it for a few days. At its best, Zoo Tycoon 2 is a simplified management sim. It’s incredibly simple to run a successful zoo, and that’s something that hasn’t changed with Endangered Species. In order to make money, you simply build a fence, place an animal within the confines, and add or modify anything the zookeeper suggests (climate, food, water, shelter, and play toys). Then place an educator outside the fence and a donation box and play the waiting game.

There are around twenty new animals to care for (some more exciting than others). The list includes the Galapagos Tortoise, Orangutan, Javan Rhino, Crested Gibbon, Spanish Lynx, and Komodo Dragon. In addition to the species, there are plenty of new structures, attractions, and the like including fountains, statues, and other displays. In terms of the amount of new items/animals, Endangered Species is worthy of the title “expansion pack.”

There are also some more practical options available to your zoo, which can increase guests’ dispositions (therefore increasing donations). You can now build small bridges to cross small creeks in the park, or to serve as a walkway over an exhibit of, say, alligators. Also available are jeep tours for your guests to zip around the park with a guide, or - even better – sky trams which carry guests above and across the park, giving them an aerial view of the exhibits. These sky trams are one of the only ways guests can enjoy the new conservation areas that you cannot modify.

All said, there are about nine new campaign missions, which feature the new changes, and 11 new challenges. Once again, however, the best way to play the game is in the freeform mode, especially if you want to see everything the expansion pack has to offer.

In the end, everything the expansion pack has to offer somehow still isn’t enough. In terms of quantity, yes, there are plenty of new things to see. The problem is that none of them really change the game enough. A new animal is still handled just like any other animal in Zoo Tycoon 2. Build it a cage, give it a water bowl and food, give it shelter and a toy, and then forget about it for the rest of the game. You can throw all the endangered species you want into the formula – the result doesn’t change.

The same goes for the new buildings and shops. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Some different aesthetics don’t change the way the game feels in the slightest. And don’t even get me started on how the website boasts, “guests with snappy new clothes.” Raise your hand if you’re impressed.

In pure presentation aspect, the expansion fails to make any kind of real advance. New outfits on the guests don’t make the game any prettier (or uglier, thankfully). The same blocky, under-detailed graphics I moaned about in the original are untouched here, as are the sound effects that make it difficult to distinguish the guests from the rest of the animals.

Worst of all, even on a computer that has no trouble running F.E.A.R. and Age of Empires III, ZT2:ES seems to choke and stutter. When a game isn’t that much fun to play in the first place, making players wait 2 – 4 seconds each time they try to make a menu selection to build a fence or hot dog stand is the final nail in the coffin.

Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species is exactly what you’ll find in the box. It’s a CD that adds about 20 endangered animals to your existing game of Zoo Tycoon 2, and that’s about it. Don’t expect the game to be changed from its former state, because although you can build new food stands and put an orangutan behind a fence, the gameplay doesn’t change. Although…you know that photograph mode that I hated in the original game? Now you can take pictures from a sky tram! Sweet!

An extremely infantile challenge level, but it does work for children.

Untouched from their previous hideousness. And now it�s a year later.

Was that an ape grunting or a child screaming? I can�t tell.

It actually held my attention for longer than I can explain. No idea why.

Well, new animals and some new challenges/levels lengthen it a little.

]]> Mon, 09 Jan 2006 16:07:00 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Nippon Ichi is most likely not as familiar to most of you as, say, Square Enix/Squaresoft. They have been churning out RPGs in Japan for years – most of them selling very well. On this side of the Pacific this company is more notable as the brainchild of La Pucelle: Tactics, Disgaea, and Phantom Brave, all of which were received fairly well by the RPG fanbase here in the states. Earlier this summer, we were treated with Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, and a mere month later, NIS America has blessed us with Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome. Following the same vein as their previous strategy RPGs, is Makai Kingdom different enough to stand out amongst them?



Before I get into anything about the graphics or the gameplay, let me get this out of the way – Makai Kingdom is just plain funny. It continues the trend of comedic value that Disgaea and company set. The script is hilarious and wryly written, and the delivery of the lines is spot-on most of the time. However, I will say that it is weird to hear Crispin Freeman, who voices the main protagonist stuck-in-a-book Lord Zetta, hit some of those spots. I’m used to hearing him in much more serious roles (Togusa from Ghost in the Shell: SAC or Regal from last summer’s Tales of Symphonia).

Now you may be asking yourself, “Lord Zetta is stuck in a book?” Indeed he is folks. The absurdity that is the story is another one of Makai’s funny parts. Lord Zetta is an overlord, and is in fact the most powerful overlord in the universe due to his manna power. However, one day he finds the secret tome in his overworld and sees that the tome predicts that Zetta’s foolishness will bring doom to his beloved overworld. Slighted by this comment, Zetta destroys the book, but in doing so he also destroys his overworld, thus fulfilling the tome’s prophecy.

With Zetta stuck as a book, he is dependent on someone else to do the grunt work for him – that is where you come in. With the ability to bind souls to objects, you will be able to create a small little army to do Zetta’s dirty work for him. What object you decide to bind a soul to will affect the created character’s base stats. A rock, for example, will give a +1% bonus to defense which is ideal for a frontline warrior, whereas a weed will create one with a +1% bonus in intelligence but a -1% penalty in attack, which would have you lean towards making a magician or witch. Of course, you don’t have to make them those job classes, but it would be smarter to take advantage of those bonuses or make those penalties less of a weakness.

This leads us to Makai’s main strength – customization. There are only a handful of job classes available at the start, but as you level up in certain ones, you’ll open up a lot more strong jobs, such as archers, the Nippon Ichi staples Prinnies, and the irresistibly cute Hell Kitties.

As complicated as these types of games are, equipment is thankfully simplified; anyone can equip anything and everything. The catch is that some jobs are better with certain weapons and armor, and by equipping them with those armaments, it will grant them bonuses to stats like attack and movement. The game helps you see what items a character excels with by attaching the word “expert” to the end of the item’s name. It’s safe to say that trying to fill up one of your underlings with “expert” weapons is the route to go, though there are times where you will want to keep someone’s hands empty, which I’ll get to later.

For those familiar with Nippon Ichi’s previous strategy RPGs, Makai Kingdom plays almost exactly like those with a few tweaks here and there. For those who aren’t, I’ll outline the basics of Makai’s. At the beginning of the battle, you use Zetta to invite characters into the battlefield. Instead of the usual grid-type movement most associated with Final Fantasy Tactics, we get a sort of free-roaming moving mechanic. A red circle will show the radius in which the character can move, but you can move him/her anywhere within that circle. Attack works almost the same. A red circle just like when moving will show you where you can attack, and then you use a wire grid frame to select what the unit will attack. Area attacks will not distinguish between enemy and friendly units so going all-out during battles isn’t always the best strategy to use.

Makai’s battle system is turn-based, not initiative-based. This means you can do whatever you want and when you’re finally done, you end your turn so that the enemy can do the same to you. This adds another layer of strategy as you can use hit-and-run tactics since your target can’t move until you have finally ended your turn. Of course, this is a double-edged sword and the computer AI isn’t afraid to pull the same kind of tactic. And because you can have all of your characters act in a single turn, the ability to combo on a single enemy becomes another useful strategy. Having multiple units focus on a single enemy will unleash tons of damage upon them.

I mentioned that Makai Kingdom features some new battle mechanics, the first of which is the introduction of facilities and vehicles onto the battlefield. Facilities are just buildings, but if you happen to have a few characters in a building during a battle, they will receive some sort of stat bonus. Hospitals will restore hit points, placing a character in a school will give them 50% more experience per turn, and characters deployed from a shop will earn money bonuses. It is always advantageous to use facilities, but earning new facilities takes massive amounts of manna (which is earned during fights and definitely takes some time to gather); wishing for a new facility may even cost you the life of one of your units. Also, if a building is destroyed while some units are still in it, you will lose those you had in there for the rest of the battle.

Vehicles, which can be bought if you have the right facilities on the home overworld, control just like a regular foot unit, and is in fact controlled by one of them. The vehicles will take damage before the unit controlling it does, so don’t be afraid to let a vehicle take a bruising every now and then. Suffice to say, vehicles easily have the advantage over foot soldiers as they are usually much more powerful and can cover ground a lot quicker. However, you cannot use any of the unit’s personal skills unless you remove them from the vehicle, which isn’t such a big deal considering that turns aren’t based on initiative.

The last innovative mechanic is extensions. In some battles, throwing an item out-of-bounds or destroying a key character/item will open up an extension of the battlefield. Doing so will make the area larger, in some cases doubling and tripling the size of the map. Battles don’t end when all the characters are defeated – instead Makai Kingdom opts for a points system in which you can choose to end the battle if you’ve met the minimum point requirement or to continue fighting. Because of that feature, it’s smart to find these extensions wherever you can as they usually lead to areas with more treasure and much tougher enemies, which almost always equals more experience.



Makai Kingdom is a great game and all, but I had a hard time shaking the “been there, done that” feeling because this really is just Disgaea and Phantom Brave with a new story and some slightly new battle features despite the back cover advertising it as “much more than just Disgaea with a fresh coat of paint.” It’s basically the same game most of us have been playing for years, but fortunately the additions to the gameplay freshen it up enough to at least give some players incentive to try it out.

The story isn’t all the great either, but then again, I don’t think most people will be playing this game for its story. It’s definitely not enough to play through multiple times. However, for the completionists out there, this game is right up their alley as I can see gamers logging in well over 150 hours trying to get every little facility and vehicle and then laughing on gaming forums about how their first apprentice is now level 9999. (Note: yes folks, levels go past the 99/150/255 barrier here. Hell, Lord Zetta starts out at level 2000)

And as complicated as this game is, power leveling can make things a lot easier. Hit a roadblock? Then head on over to the free dungeons where you can beat up on enemies over and over again until you’re at a level at which you’ll overpower everything on the map. This turns progression into a matter of spending time to level rather than using strategy to win a fight.

The graphics aren’t all that great either. They actually look borderline PSone-ish at times. I don’t mind the chibi characters at all, but the entire package screams “outdated graphics.”

The battle maps are quite a challenge to traverse also. Though the movement system isn’t grid-based, the maps look like they were meant for it as you’ll see plenty of sharp corners and blocky rises everywhere. Trying to position a unit in the spot you want can be a battle itself sometimes. Even worse is targeting an attack. There is a radius in which you can aim an attack, but if you reach the limit, sometimes you won’t even know it because the camera will continue on in whatever direction you were pressing while the target cursor remains trapped on the outer radius of the target circle. It would’ve been nice had they cleaned that up a bit.

Lastly, the throw mechanic seems virtually useless. To throw something, you have to throw whatever you have in your hands, like a weapon, away, pick up the item you want to throw, throw that, then pick up the weapon and re-equip. It’s just too much hassle for so little a reward. The main reason why you’d throw something is to open up extensions and most of the time you can just kill the “key” character to do so. Throwing is really just another unnecessary complication that didn’t need to be left in.



Despite Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Ground retreading a lot of ground that Nippon Ichi has already covered, it’s still a pretty darn good game. This isn’t going to attract the casual gamer, as the amount of micromanaging in this game will turn most of them off, and it won’t push the numbers of a Final Fantasy, but it will definitely satisfy the niche market that is the hardcore RPGer. There’s plenty to do with some hefty gameplay elements that ought to keep them busy for hours on end. If you’ve been a fan of NIS for a while, then you won’t be disappointed at all as long as you aren’t looking for an entirely new experience; for everyone else, be warned that if you aren’t willing to invest a chunk of your life into this, you’ll need to look somewhere else on the shelf.

There is so much to do and master. Your heads will spin when you see the customization options.

Love the chibi characters, hate the outdated graphics.

Excellent voiceacting; some tracks will start you whistling, but others seem recycled.

Its overcomplicated nature zaps some of the fun, but not all of it. Game sports awesome humor.

You won’t play it through multiple times, but you will log 100+ hours if you want everything.

]]> Tue, 09 Aug 2005 17:37:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_makai_kingdom_chronicles_of_the_sacred_tome_ps21# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Aaron Thomas.

Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome is the latest RPG from Nippon Ichi Software America, who you may or may not know from games like Disagaea: Hour of Darkness, La Pucelle: Tactics, and Phantom Brave. Makai Kingdom is a turn-based strategy game, with plenty of the style you’d expect from Nippon Ichi. Despite being pushed back before, the current release date is July 27th, and it looks like this date will stick.

In Makai Kingdom, you control Lord Zetta, a former ruler who has now merged with the tome that he destroyed because it predicted his downfall. His kingdom now destroyed, it’s up to you to piece together an army and reclaim his kingdom, or what’s left of it.

Combat is turn-based and takes place from an isometric perspective. Some of the combat is standard fare – you can attack with a katanas, battle-axes, and even modern weapons, but it quickly becomes more involved and more bizarre. Not only do you turn everyday objects – like flowers, rocks, and trees – into warriors by adding a soul to them, but you can customize them into a wide variety of classes.

Makai Kingdom also places emphasis on creating buildings, which like troop creation, has its own twist. Building structures to assist an army isn’t anything new, but summoning weapon factories, hospitals, and dog houses to the battlefield certainly is. You can load troops into the buildings, where their attributes will be increased, and then unleash them onto the battlefield onto your overmatched foe.

The battle maps are randomly generated, ensuring that no battle will ever play out the same way twice. The graphics aren’t anything to write home about, at least from a technical standpoint, but they certainly have a distinctive style to them, and any RPG or strategy fan will quickly point out that great graphics aren’t necessary for a game to be great.



It’s certainly not going out on a limb to say that Makai Kingdom: Chronicles of the Sacred Tome is a game that is going to appeal to a very select group of people. This statement in no way means that it’s going to be a bad game, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anyone’s opinion about the genre. In other words: For hardcore fans only.

For a more complete indication of what you'll be in for on this one, view the included movie file of this game in action by clicking here. Can we say  "Tactics with guns and freaky weapons"?]]> Wed, 06 Jul 2005 22:01:48 -0500 Brian Mohr http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_call_of_duty_2_big_red_one_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_call_of_duty_2_big_red_one_ps21 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_call_of_duty_2_big_red_one_ps21# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

With the success of the first-person shooter Call of Duty it's not surprising Activision is planning another one for consoles this time entitled Call of Duty: Big Red One. The game focuses on the squad from the first infantry who was the first on the ground in World War II. The game puts you in locations like North Africa, Italy and Europe as you battle Germans, Italians and even the French who we surprisingly fought for a bit.

No official word has been given on how many missions are included in the final version, but Activision maintains that it'll be extensive. The game features online play for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and is scheduled to release for the Gamecube too. Instead of doing various missions, this time the developers want you to emotionally connect with your team and understand the feeling of losing one of your men as you move up in rank. The game includes a somewhat free-form style in which you'll have new weaspons, sprinting and even the ability to cook off some of a grenade to better time them because if you throw it too soon the Germans will it them back. The developers are also planning to have sniper and stealth-styled missions for variety.

Graphically the game looks really impressive; there are dozens of troops going into battle and the action literally surrounds you. If you look forward you'll see at least 30 or 40 men running into battle and you can turn around and see the same amount or more following you too. All the scenes were done with motion capture to give it an even more realistic feeling. Beyond this, the action is very realistic as you'll see explosions and bullets flying everywhere. Planes even dive through and drop bombs and despite not seeing buildings take complete damage, Activision maintains it's being worked on. One thing I noticed in the demo was that if you turned after a tank was destroyed it disappeared instead of becoming a part of the landscape; hopefully they'll work to make this sort of stuff more realistic. The player movements at least at E3 seemed a little choppy, but the players moved and covered realistically.

Call of Duty: Big Red One is shaping up to be significantly better than the original console release by giving you the true First Infantry experience. The game looks to add varying mission types and a more open-ended experience, along with better graphics, more characters on screen and more of everything than the first. Truly Big Red One gives players the World War II experience they crave.

]]> Sun, 22 May 2005 14:19:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_red_ninja_end_of_honor_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_red_ninja_end_of_honor_ps2 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_red_ninja_end_of_honor_ps2# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

The fascination with ninjas has gripped societies for hundreds of years. Of course, you use that motivation to sell games and both the Ninja Gaiden and Tenchu series have done just that. The ability to sneak around in the darkness, eliminate soldiers with one silent slash, and just being an overall badass is a fantasy we all want to live. Red Ninja: End of Honor is a new entry into the ninja action genre with some interesting play mechanics involving a weapon you don’t see very often. So, does Red Ninja bring honor to the genre, or is it really the “end of honor”?



I mentioned something earlier about how a weapon in Red Ninja offers up a new twist on action. Well, before I get into that, let me set up the story behind it, and the game itself. It’s the “warring states” period in Japan and two of the larger warlords, Shingen Takeda and Nobunaga Oda are doing whatever they can to gain an advantage over the other. One of Takeda’s engineers designs an automatic gun, but Takeda rules that there is no honor in using this weapon and orders it destroyed. Some time later, a squad of ninjas breaks into the lead engineer’s house and kills him, with his daughter witness to this all. The ninjas grab her and leave her hanging from a tree. Later, an old lady, to her amazement, discovers the little girl barely holding on to life. This little girl is Kurenai, the red ninja of the game’s title, and is trained by the old lady in the ways of the ninja – with the same string she was hung by as her weapon of choice.

This weapon is the tetsugen. With it, Kurenai can throw the dagger head at an enemy and once it is lodged, she can move the unlucky soldier around, or forcefully remove the object from him doing all sorts of damage. Do it two or three more times and the guy will either have a head missing or have his body severed in two, depending on where you aimed the tetsugen. The tetsugen also has two other heads that can be attached. The first is a hook, which will allow Kurenai to swing from certain objects. The other is the Fundo. The Fundo is just an iron weight, but its packs plenty of blunt force. The most effective way to use it, however, is to snare a guard’s feet with it and hang him on a nearby pole, leaving him defenseless as you wail away at him.

What would a ninja game be without stealth attacks? In Red Ninja, the mechanics are the same as other games, such as Tenchu. Sneak up on a victim without him noticing and a kanji symbol will appear above his head to indicate that an attack can be done.

All of that may seem like a lot to deal with control-wise, but it’s not that bad. R1 targets an enemy, and Square is your main attacking button. On-screen indictors will help you with your button timing to do some of these attacks. The rest of the button layout is pretty standard – X jumps, and triangle and circle can be mapped for items, kind of like in the Legend of Zelda series.

Graphically, this game won’t stand head and shoulders above anything else, but it’s solid. The visuals are definitely not ugly, but the environments are a little bland, with nothing to help them stand out or be unique. The Japanese feel is very apparent and in that respect, Red Ninja deserves points.

There is one tangent to hit before we move on – gamers will find that Red Ninja offers plenty of “fan service”. And by “fan service” I mean that there are tons of panty shots of the lovely Kurenai. What would we expect from a ninja wearing nothing more than a glorified red robe with 90% of the bottom cut off?



The camera…ugh, the camera. I’ve played my share of platforming games over the years and I can honestly say that this is in the top five of my “games with the worst camera” category. How fun do you think it is to fight off six soldiers while all the screen shows is the wall behind you? Or what if the fight was blocked off by a bush? A bush?! That’s how frustrating the camera can be. And that’s just during combat sequences. Platforming parts are even worse. It makes jumping to different ledges a chore. The saving grace, however, is that Kurenai will grab on to a ledge on her own if she’s close enough.

Wall-running is another problem. Shinobi did it well; Kurenai doesn’t. Here, wall-running involves running at full speed at a wall. How far she can get depends on the angle at which she hits it and her momentum. At least that’s what the manual says. In reality, it feels so random. Sometimes, I think I’ve got it perfect then Kurenai will just fall off, not even slowing down before doing so as momentum would dictate. And this isn’t even for different walls. Running up the same wall over and over again will never lead to the same result. It’s unfortunate that such a broken play mechanic plays so prominently in the progression of the game.

While I love the tetsugen, it is so over-powered that it renders almost everything else in your inventory useless. You’ll have blow darts and kunai that you can throw to stun and sometimes kill enemies, but when your tetsugen can do the same, but more quickly, why use anything else? And since you’ll be more deadly at range than up close with your small blade, you’ll find yourself trying to position yourself for a shot than getting up close and personal, and that will just cause even more headaches from the camera.

At the beginning of this review, I summarized part of the story to help explain the origin of Kurenai’s weapon. Well, after that, the story is non-existent. The game turns into a bunch of assassination missions with no coherent reasoning behind it all except for revenge. So don’t let the beginning of the game fool you – the story isn’t as deep as those first five minutes.



It’s hard to recommend Red Ninja: End of Honor for anyone other than die-hard ninja action fans. And even then, Tenchu and Ninja Gaiden do it better. While combat with the tetsugen is very fun, the broken camera and platforming elements like wall-running hinder whatever fun you may have had with the game. Had more time been spent on cleaning up the buggy camera, Red Ninja would have had the potential to be one of those under-the-radar awesome games. Instead, it’s one that gets caught sneaking in through the front gate.

Using the tetsugen is fun, though unbalanced. Camera is god-awful.

Environments are bland, but effective in conveying the time and setting.

Music suits the game’s atmosphere. Voiceacting sounds uninspired.

Camera will cause headaches. Wall-running mechanic is broken.

Different difficulty settings, but why play through the mess of a camera all over again?

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