Dead or Alive 3
Genre: Fighting
Since Sega created the genre with Virtua Fighter back in 1994, 3D fighting games have come a long way. Surpassing every one of them is Tecmo’s Dead or Alive 3, simply the most gorgeous, raucous, ineffably superior mixed martial-arts game yet made. It’s also a grand showcase of the raw power in Xbox’s nVidia graphics chip. You see, with only a pair of characters to draw – as opposed to swarms of vehicles, squads of militia and hordes of aliens rampaging through the tulips in other games, hogging precious GPU resources all the while – DOA3 developers have been able to maximize the photo-realism and life-like animations of just the two combatants. The environments are likewise super-souped, with glass shattering into detailed shards, and walls and railings splintering noticeably asunder. There’s just so much room to breath in a two-character Xbox game, so might as well jam it full of prettiness, right down to the wispy descent of a leaf jarred from a tree after a particularly devilish collision with some poor sot’s skull. But DOA3 is not just about eye-candy, it’s the “killer app” of fighting games. Fluid and graceful feats of unrelenting brutality from a wide, brutish, often bouncy and buxom array of improbable super-heroic characters. More info at ww.xbox.com/deadoralive3/
Drakan: The Ancients’ Gates
Genres: Action / Adventure / Fantasy
With all the earmarks of a great third-person fantasy game, Drakan: Order of the Flame for Windows PC barely achieved “sleeper” status when it was released back in 1999. Adventuresome, but ultimately flawed, it was not a title that demanded a sequel – though it did represent a fire-breathing mass of untapped potential. Hence, Drakan: The Ancients’ Gates for PlayStation2, which is a re-vamped and fully realized game gleaming like a talisman of redemption on a new and surprisingly appropriate platform. Players assume the role of Rynn, a sword-wielding, arrow-thoking, fist-to-cuffing, spell-throwing she-warrior who also happens to command a fire-breathing dragon named Arokh (gesundheit). Ancients’ Gates is simply one massive, sprawling fantasy-steeped vista after another, allowing for go-anywhere game play: dungeon-crawling and dragon-riding. Throw in murmurs of an ancient empire of mystical proportions and a desperate quest to save civilization, and, this time around, this game simply doesn’t miss. More info at www.scea.com/games/categories/actionadvent/drakan/
Grand Theft Auto 3
Genres: Action / Adventure / Driving
A benchmark example of how video game sequels should be made, Grand Theft Auto III (GTA3) offers not merely a polished retread of its predecessors, but also a revolutionary evolution of the interactive brashness originally brought to the masses through a whole lot of media squawkage and congressional flak. GTA3 is terribly violent and vile (definitely not for the kids), but an amazingly cathartic game of gritty street thugging, of bad guys and even worse guys, of car-jacking and driving, of vehicular and generic mayhem, of shooting, pummelling and cussing the living daylights out of parental controls and censorship. More info at www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto3/
Halo
Genres: Action / Shooter
Halo: Combat Evolved, originally released the same day as the Xbox console on Nov. 15, 2001. It ended up as the best-selling launch title of all time, representing a triumph of future-minded video games. While the squad-based, elite-commando action is not a new concept for PC games, Halo offers a practically perfect take, a polished play where parameters are ever changing, the environment, allies and enemies therein. It’s completely dynamic depending on how you’re playing, where you’re at and who you’re with in the game. Each stage uses a playing field so large and so complex as to seem limitless. Fully realized first person shooter (FPS) games are a rarity in console format. The comparatively sparse controller schemes don’t offer the same versatility as a keyboard and mouse interface afforded PC games. But Halo transcends platform partiality and emerges as the top sci-fi combat action game to date. Better still, it allows for two or more players to co-operatively kick alien butt within the comfort of a single screen – or online, thanks to unofficial online-enabling software by GameSpy. More info at www.xbox.com/halo
IL-2 Sturmovik
Genres: Action / Flight Simulation
UbiSoft’s latest entry into the crowded library of air-combat PC games is IL-2 Sturmovik, a surprisingly effective, top-notch WWII flight sim. The game pays as much attention to historical accuracy as it does the physics of piloting some 31 authentic fighters. It’s absolutely gorgeous to look at, right down to the nitty gritty details, and difficult to play – in a good way – which is sure to satisfy the flight sim adept, but it can also be enjoyed by novice players thanks to an excellent tutorial mode that teaches every flight nuance from the ground up to the stratosphere and all the flak in between. IL-2 Sturmovik offers a variety of campaigns, six genuine and unlimited hypothetical combat scenarios created by the user with a “Mission Builder” feature. It also offers online play for up to 24 people in both co-operative and head-to-head dog-fighting extravaganzas. IL-2 Sturmovik does justice to both history and PC flight sims by being exactly excellent. More info at www.il2sturmovik.com
Max Payne
Genres: Action / Shooter
Originally developed for and best realized on Windows PCs, Max Payne translated very well to the super-console format. It is a game of such innovative vision incarnate that it veritably creates a new video game genre, the “cinematic shooter.” With gritty, melodramatic voice-overs and graphic novel-inspired illustrations, the game smack-dabs players into an unpleasant, filthy world in need of a shot-gun clean-up. However, the real spark here is the delicious use of “Bullet-Time,” which allows players the option of slowing down the action in mid-gunfight, turning this dark shooter into a visual feast on par with The Matrix. Watch Max dive and blast his way into a room in slow motion, dodging clearly visible bullets and taking aim while sliding across the floor in true John Woo swooping-camera form. Max Payne’s got style to burn, “Bullet-Time” is a blast, and on top of all that, the game is challenging and always a joy to play. The game industry needed this title. In fact, we’ve been waiting for it for four years while it was in production. At last, a promise of the next level “cinematic shooter” fully realized. More info at maxpayne.godgames.com
NHL 2002
Genres: Sports / Simulation
One wouldn’t be a real Canadian without owning at least one hockey game. EA Sports’ fantastic NHL franchise has a long-standing reputation as the best of the breed (most often deservedly so). Be sure to pick up NHL 2002. A state-of-the-art game that it is, this latest NHL iteration boasts play modes and modifiers aplenty, from frighteningly-realistic character animations and confoundingly convincing artificial intelligence. A truly authentic bit of Canadiana, right down to the play-by-play and colour commentary by CTV Sportnet’s Jim Hughson and Don Taylor. Of course, for those not keen on the exacting simulation aspect of the coolest game on earth, there’s always Midway’s NHL Hitz 2002 (for NGC, PS2 and XBX), an extravagantly over-the-top “arcade-style” hockey game exploding with improbable play, bone-crunching “hitz” and superhuman versions of real NHL players. More info at www.nhlhitz.com
Onimusha
Genres: Action / Adventure
Originally available on PlayStation2 as Onimusha Warlords, it was then expanded, enhanced and released for Xbox as Genma Onimusha. Both versions of this game represents the pinnacle of the “third-person action/adventure” genre. Play a lone swordsman, Samanosuke, who battles legions of demons and warriors on a quest to rescue his princess. Set in Japan, in a fictional feudal world of darkness and magic, Onimusha unlocks the innate power of both new generation consoles, bringing a level of realism that other game developers must meet if they want to compete. Maximum attention to detail applied here, where even the backdrops “come alive” with wind effects, insects, weather and more, capturing the elusive immersive quality all games aspire to have. More info at www.capcom.com
Silent Hill 2
Genres: Horror / Survival
There is not another game on the planet that can do what Silent Hill 2 does: creep you out, freak you out, give you nightmares and chill you to your bones. Taking a cue from some of Hollywood’s most surreal and horrifying movies, Silent Hill 2 sucks gamers into a bizarre interactive nightmare of the psychologically perilous kind – and supernaturally lethal to boot. Assuming the role of James Sunderland, a common man thrown into impossibly uncommon circumstances, the player is on a mystery-solving visit to Silent Hill, a resort town-turned ghost-town. With an ambience of an incessantly dreadful nature, it’s riddled with unholy resurrections of once beautiful people, steeped in a brooding mood of whispered desperation and saturated with altered states of carnage, this game is delightfully twisted, an unmatched masterpiece of interactive storytelling preying on one’s primal fears. More info at www.konami.com/silenthill2/
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
Genres: Xtreme Sports / Simulation
There are numerous iterations of this glorious skateboard game, with each version (there’s a handful of Ôem) offering enhancements over the last. But at its core, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is the definitive Xtreme sports game. Extending an elemental law of physics to include “what goes up must pull off a Varial before it comes down,” Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater brings all the superlative joyousness and raunchy implied pain of real life “Sk8 or Die” to video game land with a large arsenal of tricks and stunts, as well as vivid skull smacks and magnificent blood spurts should one crash and bail. With numerous play modes and plenty of huge “go-anywhere/grind-anything” environments, all Tony Hawk games are easy to play but hard to master, an addictive quality played to the max within a rewarding “career” mode. Also, Activision O2 offers similar Xtreme Sports superlativeness with the likes of Shaun Palmer’s Pro Snowboarder, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer and Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX. More info at www.tonyhawksproskater.com
Spy Hunter
Genres: Action / Adventure / Driving
It’s a rare game that can provide both nostalgic charm and state-of-the-art razzle-dazzle, but Midway’s new-millennium version of the Ô80s arcade classic Spy Hunter does all that and then some. Originally a coin-operated James Bond-like driving game, players take control of a malicious “concept car” stuffed with mobile nasties like smoke screens, rocket launchers, machine guns and oil slicks, and set about ripping up the roadway and destroying key foes while evading the hapless travelling thugs sent to thwart one’s objective. That rolling roadster of doom also has the uncanny ability to transform into a jet boat on-the-fly at opportune times, leading one though an ever changing landscape – suddenly, deliciously, and usually at full throttle. Boasting rudimentary but legible graphics, this updated and supercharged home version puts players into that same motorized marauder, but swaths the entire environment in gloriously resplendent 3D. Spy Hunter is big booms, fast, furious and HUGE bang for your buck, and was one of the primary reasons many kids became hooked on video games some 20 years ago. Today, the new-generation Spy Hunter game is a primary reason to stay hooked. More info at www.spyhunter.midway.com
Star Wars Rogue Leader
Genres: Combat / Flying / Space
As the second best-selling GameCube title (bested by the cute, cuddly and fathead-fluffy Luigi’s Mansion) Star Wars Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron II is one of the few (the proud) new-generation Nintendo titles to illustrate GameCube’s potential as a system for post-pubescent gamers. It also happens to be, far and away, the coolest, most exciting and complete space combat game out there. Rogue Leader offers fans of the original Star Wars trilogy the chance to jump into famous battle sequences, ride in famous fighter crafts with famous characters in an effort to blast the living Dark Side out of the evil Galactic Empire. No mamby pamby Episode I schlock here, no menacing phantoms of hokey acting and bad make-up days – just flat out, old-school Star Wars buff stuff. You know, like trench-running, snow-speeding and X-winging, a glorious GameCube exclusive. For all the other modern platforms, there’s still Star Wars Starfighter, which is essentially the same type of incredible game as Rogue Leader, but in the less-inspired and more-lucrative setting of recent Star Wars fare, Phantom Menace. Also, watch for Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter due out sometime this spring, and promising play in fighter craft from the upcoming movie Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones. More info at www.lucasarts.com/products/rogueleader/
BEST-SELLING CLASSICS
Of course, there are other sure-fire game experiences – titles that need little introduction simply because they’ve already sold multiple millions and have proven themselves worthy in the court of consumer opinion:
Baldur’s Gate
While the role playing game (RPG) genre is not for everyone, those that are “into it” are into it deeply. No game better personifies the breed than the Baldur’s Gate games. More info at: www.interplay.com
Ultima Online
The godfather of online RPGs whose latest iteration, Lord Blackthorn’s Revenge, has been revolutionized with exotic fantastical creatures from the wonderfully warped mind of Todd McFarlane. More info at: www.origin.ea.com
EverQuest
Also known as EverCrack, this is the original massively addictive multiplayer online RPG – ever expanding and never-ending. More info at: www.everquest.com
Madden NFL 2002
The Madden NFL franchise has been around since the Ô80s. Why? Because it’s the best. However, as of late, it’s been matched (if not bested) by Sega’s NFL2K2. More info at: www.ea.com/easports and www.segasports.com
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Tactical combat action at its finest. More info at: www.konami.com/main/games/mgs2/
SSX Tricky
Superhuman snowboarding at its “Xtreme” best. Actually, everything for the EA Sports BIG brand is supremely big. More info at: www.ea.com/easportsbig
