IT Lesson

Review:
This could get messy. Were not exactly sure on what planet it is that guardian frogs must protect the spiralling corridors of their temples from an unholy invasion of coloured balls, but we suspect its the same one Bub and Bob visited.

Yes folks, you are now entering ball-bursting territory. Abandon all hope of having normal dreams for several days.

Not content with raining down from the skies above in Bust-A-Move, these evil, merciless, relentless coloured balls are now intent on invading and terrorising the confines of the musty, once-deserted chambers of these eerie old shrines. But a wise old frog knows the weaknesses of the nefarious spherical menace; you could call it a good old fashioned trichotomy: twos company, threes a crowd. Its satisfying in the knowledge that however many hundreds pour through the defenceless temple doors, this ball-spitting frog idol can send them packing back from whence they came... with a satisfying pop.


In case we hadnt rammed home the point enough lately, Xbox Live Arcade on 360 is just about the most instantly entertaining way to get your kicks on a home console these days, and thanks to the complete lack of any definable storylines or premise, we get to completely make them up off the top of our heads. Its a win win, and no mistake.

Zuma Deluxe is another one of those games youll probably be familiar with from the previous Live Arcade, or from the shareware scene it originated from. As with almost everything available for download on the 360, it doesnt look anything worth bothering with from the outset. Sure, its in high definition, but it looks simple, dated, low budget and certainly nothing to get excited about. And then, unexpectedly, six hours later youre hauling yourself off to bed with spiralling eyes and humming that tune forever. Read more

System requirements:
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
Pentium II 350MHz Processor
64MB RAM
DirectX 7
16-bit Video Card
DirectX compatible Sound Card
30MB Hard Disk Space

CD-ROM or DVD-ROM Drive

Screen Shots: click on the image to view large

Review:
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the PC needs no introduction. Not only is this game in many ways better than its amazing predecessor Grand Theft Auto III, but its also technically superior to the original version of Vice City that was released on the PlayStation 2 a number of months ago. Like GTAIII for the PC, Vice City is identical to the original PS2 version in terms of content, so if youve already played that version to death, you wont find the PC version to be much different. However, the PC version of Vice City does offer enhanced visuals and controls, improved loading times, and a few extra frills. More importantly, it offers the same refreshingly open-ended gaming experience, which has occasionally been reviled for its controversial subject matter, but has far more often elicited much-deserved praise. Simply put, if by some chance youve put off playing Vice City up till now, dont wait any longer.

To be clear, Vice City is an extension of Grand Theft Auto III, rather than a completely overhauled sequel. Thats definitely a good thing, because GTAIIIs freestyle gameplay was extremely entertaining and offered tremendous replay value, yet still had more potential. Vice City fulfills a lot of that potential, as it features improved production values (including over eight hours of licensed music and plenty of Hollywood voice actors), new types of drivable vehicles (motorcycles, helicopters, and golf carts), new weapons, better vehicle damage modeling, indoor environments, and more.

Yet the most obvious difference between GTAIII and Vice City is that in the new game, youre in a brand-new setting, a sprawling city styled after Miami, Florida, circa 1986. Laced with neon and featuring miles of beachfront property, Vice City simply looks a lot more pleasant than GTAIIIs oppressive New York City-inspired Liberty City. Nevertheless, like Liberty City, Vice City is actually a den of corruption and evil. And its your playground. Youre free to roam Vice City on foot or in any manner of vehicle you can get your hands on, and you can undertake a wide variety of action-packed missions, explore the town, wreak havoc, or whatever. The games convincing physics and terrific atmosphere make any of the huge variety of activities available in Vice City enjoyable in themselves, and even greater than the sum of their parts when you put them all together. Youd be hard-pressed to find a single-player action game with more variety than this one, and Vice City will more than likely surprise and impress you even if youve already played GTAIII to death.

System requirements:
MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
MINIMUM
Pentium III or AMD Athlon 800MHz Processor or Intel Celeron or AMD Duron 1.2GHz Processor
128MB RAM
8X CD-ROM Drive
915MB Hard Disk Space
32MB DirectX compatible Video Card
DirectX compatible Sound Card
Keyboard
Mouse
DirectX 9.0
RECOMMENDED
Pentium IV or AMD Athlong XP Processor
256MB RAM
16X CD-ROM Drive
1.55MB Hard Disk Space
64MB DirectX compatible Video Card
DirectX compatible Sound Card with Surround Sound
GamePad
Keyboard
Mouse

DirectX 9.0

Screen Shots: Click on the image to view large

Review:
There are two game modes in Road Rash. Thrash mode allows you to select from five skill levels, choose your course, and race. Your progress is not saved, you cannot buy new bikes, nothing. You *can* however race any track at any level and vent your frustration on the other bikers with wanton abandon.

While thrash mode is reasonably cathartic, most people will play most of their games in "Big Game Mode". In this mode, you select which character to play from a list of nearly a dozen "interesting" individuals, each of which has different fighting and racing characteristics, as well as a different model of motorcycle and their own cash reserve. Although most of the rashers are men, there are three female characters available, and my wife had no trouble identifying with at least one of them :-).

You start the "Big Game" on "The Street" in front of "Der Panzer Klub" and "Olleys Skoot-A-Rama". Entering the club allows you to "schmooze" with other rashers who may give you useful information or simply intimidate you. The content of the messages in this area seems to be loosely related to your treatment of your fellow rashers in past races. If you beat up on a particular character, he/she will be hostile. Leaving an individual alone race after race may result in friendlier comments. Pretty cool. I personally got the most enjoyment out of getting Mike and Axel upset, but running Pearl off the road resulted in a particularly nasty surprise as well :-).

From within the club, you can also choose to enter the "Restroom". The restroom is essentially the options menu, allowing you to change the game mode (thrash or big game), select one or two player mode, choose your game level (only in thrash mode), individually turn the engine sounds and in- game music on and off, load and save games, or play with the "jukebox" (more on this in the "sound" section below).

Lastly, you can select the bulletin board to view the available courses and select the one upon which you want to race.

The second major location that you can visit is "Olleys Skoot-A-Rama" cycle shop. Olley has fifteen different bikes from which to choose which are divided into three categories. You can browse all of the bikes to determine prices and set goals for yourself. You can also see stat sheets and a "fly-by" video of each one. The characteristics of each bike are entertaining, if not useful, with adjectives like "blinding" and "orgasmic" used to describe the handling, acceleration, and top speed of each. Judging only from the limited number of cycles that my friends and I have purchased, the variations dramatically affect the gameplay.

There are five courses on which you can race, each of which has different distinguishing characteristics. On one course you race along beaches and through tunnels; on another, you dodge taxis, joggers, and mailboxes; while on yet another, you race through valleys with steep, texture mapped walls. The variety is extremely refreshing. Different levels of the game however, do *not* introduce new tracks, but rather lengthen the same five courses. This results in the first few miles of every area being seen over and over again, although you get to race a few miles farther along each course with each new level. There are several points in the various courses where the road forks into two distinct paths which rejoin before crossing the finish line. Usually, each branch has a different length, number of curves, traffic density, etc. Other racers will sometime suggest a particular branch, although how much you trust them might depend on the number of dents youve made in their skull in previous races :-).

System requirements:
Ram: 16 Mb
Hard: 25 Mb
Cpu:75 Mhz
Windows Xp,Vista

Screen Shots: click on the image to view large