XRATED

The most exciting aspect of video game development is the forging of virgin ground; crafting original gameplay paradigms, birthing new genres, and inspiring evolutionary approaches to the manner in which we interact with the images on our screen.

Development is also, however, a forum in which to refine the art of killing the sh*t out of like six billion zombies, trampling their corpses, and staining your skin with their blackened blood. Enter Hunter: The Reckoning.

From its gruesome opening moments to its savage final boss, Hunter is sheer, unadulterated, cathartic violence. It harkens back to the days when we’d spend entire days dropping quarters into the local Gauntlet coin-op machine, and entire nights beating Golden Axe six times over on our Sega Genesis. It unabashedly foregoes trivial details such as “a coherent story” and “varied forms of gameplay” in favor of turning lots of undead zombies into lots of dead undead zombies with the help of your trusty boomstick. And it does so with the sort of graceful control and visual panache that we haven’t seen since the 16-bit era.

What makes Hunter so compelling is the tactile simplicity of its hack ‘n’ slash (‘n’ shoot) gameplay. Puzzles are few and far between, and those that do crop up are mostly of the “find a key/use it to open a door’’ variety. What the game boils down to is a series of unreasonably lopsided battles between you and endless hordes of bloodthirsty monsters. The variety of moves (and the bounty of enemies upon which to employ them) provides the game’s depth; cutting a zombie’s arms and head off with a machete, and then blowing a shotgun hole directly through its armless/headless corpse while cartwheeling out of its path never grows tiresome. Freedom of movement is another key; characters are able to move and fire in independent directions using the dual analog sticks, a la Smash TV. Quite simply, this is a more organic approach to the genre than constrained turn/shoot/turn/shoot monotony.

While it’s not pushing any technical boundaries, Hunter was designed for the Xbox hardware-and it shows. Character models are sharp and defined, impressive environmental effects permeate the well-drawn locales, and dozens of enemies simultaneously fill the screen without slowdown. The context-sensitive music elegantly swells from provocative ambient soundscapes to cinematic crescendos, and enemies are both varied and suitably nasty. Aesthetically, Hunter succeeds on nearly every level.

Often, however, the game’s concessions to realism feel random and contrived. Small touches are nice (like animations for your character sheathing his sword, then reaching back and pulling out a shotgun), but preventing the player from accessing certain areas via “invisible walls” is lamer than jock itch. Multiplayer mode presents its share of problems as well; the difficulties inherent in a fully 3D camera quickly become apparent, and you’ll find yourself doing the running man up against the edge of the screen quite regularly.

But these are minor flaws. Despite its rough edges, Hunter is an early contender for dark horse of the year. Its difficulty curve progresses gracefully, its atmosphere is immersive, and its visceral punch is straight to the gut.

Evan Shamoon

Excelsior! Translated from the Latin, the word means “still higher,” and has become the catch phrase for what’s now accepted as the Mighty Marvel Universe. It’s also the philosophy driving Activision and its development arm Treyarch to create bigger and better games featuring supermen in super-tight longjohns.

On a spider’s web the 3D adventure Spider-Man soars still higher. It’s the most ambitious Spider-Man game to date, taking the wall-crawler across gorgeous New York skylines, and pitting him against a collection of black-hearted knaves straight from the comic books. As with any heroic tale, there’s some stumbling along the way as well as a few reversals that serve to gum the engine—but in the end Spider-Man, as rendered by Treyarch, really does whatever a spider can. And that’s a quite a feat.

Spider-Man uses the plot of the Spider-Man movie as its launching pad. Players take the role of hero Peter Parker as he dons the tights to become Spider-Man and attempts to squash the villainy of the Green Goblin; the story is fleshed out by the addition of such costumed cruds as Kraven the Hunter, the Vulture, the Shocker, and the Scorpion. Actors Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe provide the voices for Spider-Man and the Goblin, respectively, and Bruce Campbell (he of Evil Dead fame) pitches in as the game’s smarmy narrator.

With all of Spider-Man’s powers intact, players are afforded a great deal of freedom as to how to tackle most of the game’s missions. Old web-head can crawl on walls, creep across ceilings, and take a flying leap off a building, plummeting for a bit before firing off a web line to swing on. Spider-Man can also use his tremendous agility to perform special kick-and-punch combinations on hapless enemies, or paralyze foes by wrapping them up in webbing. While attached to a ceiling, our hero can drop directly onto an enemy’s head and administer a bit of strict justice while the stricken sap dashes about in a panic.

A brand-new feature allows Spider-Man to fight while web-swinging, and the levels featuring Spidey duking it out with the Vulture and the Green Goblin are simply superb. A lock-on feature, which is equal parts curse and cure-all, allows players to select an airborne enemy at will; once chosen, the camera shifts to (hopefully) show both Spider-Man and his prey. Though it’s initially hard to determine what’s going on during the game’s aerial fights, the stunning vistas and jackhammer adrenaline rushes elicited by these scenes more than make up for any deficiencies.

A temperamental camera flips and jumps with great frequency, and helps to sink some of the game’s indoor-based levels. Simply, the camera is not very good at choosing where to go when Spider-Man attaches himself to a wall or ceiling and this, coupled with a rather unforgiving difficulty level, turns frantic moments into frustrating, punch-the-wall extravaganzas. While storming a rickety bell tower that the Vulture’s claimed as his hideout, players will be treated to a stomach-turning series of camera jerks; as the Vulture hurls endless waves of grenades and Spider-Man is mercilessly pursued by various explosive devices, the camera itself functions as a de facto enemy—and possibly the deadliest one of all.

Greg Orlando

In my five-plus years as a baseball writer, I have covered, oh, 20 or so games at Tropicana Field, home of the putrid Tampa Bay Devil Rays. With its greenish-gray backdrop and half-empty stands, Florida’s largest dome is, in a word, horrific. Some call the stadium baseball’s largest tuna fish can. I call it unregulated indoor crap. To watch the Rays in Tampa is to induce oneself into a Legends Of The Fall-sized coma.

This, alas, is my number one reason World Series Baseball is the best sports video game of all time. Despite its kickin’ graphics, vast pitch selections, and endless buffet of batting stances, I still got bored playing at the (virtual) Trop. It is a sucky building in real life, and in the gaming world it bites even more. Bravo.

If realism is the ultimate goal of the game maker, then World Series Baseball is the Mona Lisa of games. In the sixth inning of a Rangers-Reds contest, a bird flies above second base. Not for any real reason—just because birds tend to do such things. Nestled behind the outfield wall of Comerica Park are the buildings of downtown Detroit (stumbling crackheads not included). As he waits for the pitch to arrive, Padres outfielder Ray Lankford’s knee twitches and his bat twirls. At the plate, Boston’s Jason Varitek wears a shin protector on his right leg. San Francisco righthander Livan Hernandez throws a nasty sinker that eats righthanded hitters up, Detroit righthander Steve Sparks’ knuckleball is as unpredictable as a WWF Storyline, and Pedro Martinez’ fastball shakes and jumps like Emmanuel Lewis after three beers. It is, at 97 mph, unhittable.

Best of all, the game plays beautifully and with conviction. Roger Cedeno gets good jumps and steals bases with relative ease. Jason Giambi does not. Roger Clemens’ fastball hums at 95 mph with pinpoint accuracy. Brian Mohler is a bum. Righthanded hitters fare better off lefthanded pitches (and vice versa). Stick Orioles catcher Brook Fordyce behind the plate and he’s rock solid. Move him to shortstop, and the Es never stop.

I was happy to find that World Series Baseball hardly requires a Master’s Degree in Hand-Held Controller Robotics. Everything is very simple and clean, and with the click of the “Start” button—lest one forgets—there’s an on-screen diagram explaining which button does what. Indeed, despite our limited IQs, after no more than 10 minutes of goofing around my wife and I found ourselves locked in one of those epic clashes you’ll be reading about 50 years from now. I was the Royals. She was the Cubs. The stadium was the Metrodome. The final score: 12-3. She, uh, won.

Complaints? Only a couple. There is a team of Hall of Famers who look nothing like Hall of Famers (unless Yogi Berra was once tall, with Clark Gable features). A pitcher can plunk 856 batters in a row and receive nary a warning. The instant replays are ridiculously awkward. And Florida rightfielder Kevin Millar is nowhere to be found.

But fret not. World Series Baseball kicks ass. Just stay away from domes.

Jeff Pearlman

The original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain was atmospheric and neatly crafted, getting by as much on style as substance. It was, arguably, the most interesting 2D game the PlayStation ever offered. The years since have seen the Soul Reaver spin-offs, but Blood Omen 2 brings the vampire hero Kain himself into the three-dimensional 21st century. It’s a safe bet that if you enjoyed the previous games you’ll like this one too. Others may need a little convincing.

Taking place 200 years after Blood Omen, Omen 2 finds Kain waking up from a vampire coma. The powerful Sarafan Lord has stolen Kain’s empire and his fabled sword, the Soul Reaver, and vampires are being systematically hunted down by the Sarafan’s minions. However, a small rebel group has revived Kain in an effort to fight back—and Kain, of course, has his sights set on ruling the world again.

Gameplay is a mix of beat-’em-up action and puzzle solving, and the graphics are a cut above average—much better than in the PlayStation 2 version, at any rate. It’s generally atmospheric, with nicely varied level designs and a few gory surprises. It looks, in fact, almost exactly like the original rendered in 3D; even Kain’s trademark “projectile blood suck,” which enables him to drain victims from a surprising distance, has been retained. Overall, however, it must be said that the game is good looking without really being anything spectacular.

The control is fairly crisp and responsive; in combat each different weapon Kain picks up has a different set of attack moves, and blocks actually follow the strikes of each combo. This doesn’t exactly keep the fighting from getting repetitive, but that’s been a problem with every beat-’em-up since Double Dragon, so you can’t really find much fault there.

Over the course of the game Kain earns a number of Dark Gifts, from blending into the mists to setting opponents on fire with his mind. These powers are (mostly) pretty cool, but BO2 is not big on exploration. The levels are completely linear, and every puzzle has exactly one way to solve it—to the point where, on occasion, a Dark Gift simply won’t work if it’s not the one you’re supposed to use. Still, this also means it’s impossible to get lost, and in general it’s just challenging enough to keep you interested without becoming frustrating. In fact, the only real problem with the design is that continue points are either placed pointlessly close together or maddeningly far apart—a small knock, but a significant one.

However, as with the original, BO2 gets by as much on style as it does on substance. The storyline rambles a bit, but takes a lot of twists and turns, and the characters are engaging. The dialogue is, admittedly, rife with cliches, and at one or two points it’s just shy of eye-rolling. On the upside, the voice acting is uniformly excellent, and so in spite of the dialogue you buy into it anyway—although Kain’s “Flaye Victus!” battle cry is conspicuously missing.

Blood Omen 2 is definitely not for the squeamish, but if you’re looking for a cold, ruthless, and literally bloodthirsty antihero to keep you occupied for 15-20 hours, Kain definitely fits the bill.

Jeff Lundrigan

If Rallisport Challenge found itself in the unlikely position of sharing an arcade with Sega Rally, it would probably cough up just a few coins at days end, while Sega’s mud-covered classic gently tipped to one side, eventually spilling quarters all over the floor like a fresh haul of shrimp. And then the shrimp would play Sega Rally too.

It’s not the most glowing introduction, but then Rallisport Challenge doesn’t give you one either. With a nod to real-world rallying, RC has you driving solo on long tracks in Hill Climb and traditional Rally modes, competing against your opponent’s time rather than his car. It’s uninspiring at first, but eventually you begin reading the little gauge in the top left of your screen. It splits the course up into blocks and matter-of-factly turns them red or green as you pass checkpoints, indicating whether you exceeded or fell short of your opponent’s “ghost” time. The tension mounts when you’re three blocks into a course, they’re all red, and you have just three to go—you’d better not James Dean that next bend. Out of nowhere, what seemed like a passionless toil becomes a red-hot race—and what seemed like just another average rally game grows wings and takes off.

There’s more traditional head-to-head racing too, in the Rallycross and Ice Racing championships (and multiplayer split-screen if you’re in the mood), and the cleverly programmed Al cars are always just tough enough to give you a decent workout.

If Rallisport fails on any level at all, it’s the personality test. Overly long and unimaginative tracks punctuate the wide selection of courses and it’s impossible to know them all well enough to become fond of their individual traits.

It’s all right, though, because even if you can’t remember every bend and jump in every course, you’ll be happy enough just staring—shrimp-like—out of the window as you pass. Rallisport comes within a hairsbreadth of photorealism, and on your first go round on the Mediterranean tracks you’ll throw a couple of races by pulling over on the edge of a mountain pass to stare at the Kodak-moment sunsets.

Digital Illusion’s mix of arcade power-slide-physics and realistic courses means that it will take more than a few races before you warm to its many charms. What begins as an object lesson in patience pays progressively bigger dividends as you conquer each championship—not just with new cars (though there are enough) and tracks (there are 45 of them), but with something far better: pride. It comes from building a career in the game over many days and nights where the races get tougher and the margin for error shrinks to nothing before eventually demanding a next-level commitment that you have to dig deep to supply.

Simon Cox

Out of nowhere, what seems like a passionless toil becomes a red-hot race …

All-Star Baseball has one thing going for it, but that one thing is golden: You can seriously maim people. In three innings against the Cleveland Indians, I hit 15 players in the head with 95-mph fastballs. Nine suffered broken ribs (admittedly, an odd reaction to a ball in the noggin). The other six just limped over to first. Four pitchers were ejected. Now that’s catharsis.

That Acclaim has produced some of the best sports software on the market makes one wonder what yutz approved ASB, what with its choppy movements, mediocre graphics, and limited control options. You can play in a multitude of stadiums, but unlike the best games on the market (World Series Baseball is a prime example), none of the arenas here have character. Yankee Stadium might be the House That Ruth Built, but to ASB it’s just backdrop. It affects gameplay not one iota.

ASB lacks the simple things that make great baseball games, well, great. Except for the three-second span when hitters approach the plate and we are granted a close-up, all of the action is miles away. The fans are a blur. The players seem to have emerged straight out of the Atari 2600. There is no minibox in the corner to show where runners are located. There is no diagram pertaining to a hitter’s hot and cold spots. Although Randy Johnson owns four Cy Young awards and Dave Burba is a perennial punching bag, in ASB their pitch velocity and movement is identical. How did that happen?

Jeff Pearlman

Over the years, basketball games have proven to be a lot like first dates: usually fun, but rarely—if ever—ultimately satisfying. Konami’s most recent hoops attempt is certainly competent; but on a platform which lays claim to three of the finest polygonal renditions of the sport ever created, there is simply nor room for mere competence.

From the initial loading screen to the end-game celebrations, ESPN NBA 2Night is rough around the edges. Navigating through the various menus is a headache-inducing endeavor, and in-game graphical bells and whistles are kept to a minimum. Player models are inconsistent at best; low-resolution textures and sloppy construction make for unconvincing close-ups. Animation is spotty as well, with altogether too many awkward movements and jerky collisions. Rebounding is not realized very well, and the passing game is flawed.

That said, there are certain areas in which 2Night excels. Mid-move transitions, in particular, are executed with surprising grace and fluidity, and the “fake” button allows for some subtle hesitation and ill-nasty breaks. The ball has a nice weight to it, and netting a triple feels (and looks) quite accurate. Playing this game is not unenjoyable.

Stuart Scott provides mildly entertaining commentary and it’s got all the requisite play modes but, at the end of the day, 2Night simply falls a bit flat. It’s a huge leap past the original Dreamcast version, but this simply can’t compete with the true ballers.

Evan Shamoon

For those old enough to remember when Must-See TV consisted of The Cosby Show and Family Ties, the original Spy Hunter represents a pinnacle of arcade gaming.

The new Spy Hunter—a PlayStation 2 port—doesn’t really represent a pinnacle of anything, but it does feature a remake of the Peter Gunn theme by nu-metal outfit Saliva, who contributed the puzzling chorus “Come on and let the Hunt be the Hunted/Get in my way and I’ll be blowing up something.”

Sadly, “blowing up something” isn’t quite as much fun as it should be, thanks primarily to some muddy graphics. Spy Hunter is incredibly dark—a problem made worse when damaged vehicles ahead of you spew plumes of smoke in your direction.

The camera puts you behind the G-6155 Interceptor, which transforms into a boat and motorcycle when appropriate, as you blast your way through 14 levels while taking on the vaguely evil and presumably spy-oriented Nostra International. The Interceptor sports weapons that harken back to the Reagan-era game—machine guns, missiles, etc.—but the levels place too much emphasis on lame secondary missions like tagging boats with tracker units. What’s more, these levels are all too brief, checking in at five to seven minutes apiece. You do the math-this game is short. And not so sweet.

There are some nice bonus features, including a hidden version of the original game, but it’s simply not enough.

Dan DiGiacomo

Yarrgh! Legend has it that if ye put two mediocre games together on one disc, ye can beguile the witless into thinking ye’ve got one good piece of swag. Shiver me timbers, but it just ain’t so.

Pirates: the Legend of Black Kat comes highly recommended, but only if you’re inclined to randomly blurt out the following phrases, loudly and in a pirate’s voice while playing: “Yeargh! It’s the broadsides for you!” and “Grog and plunderin’ keeps me warm at night!” As buccaneer Katarina de Leon, you run around a series of bland island environments performing mind-shriveling fetch quests for characters who, quite frankly, should be collecting their own flowers and such; engaging in simplistic sword battles; and digging up buried treasure that’s revealed when the Xbox controller decides to shake and spasm with force enough to crack pavement.

Traveling between islands on a cannon-packed ship stands as the better half of Pirates. Thrilling sea battles are fought arcade-style, complete with special weapons and instant ship repairs. A loony camera eliminates the possibility of catching these battles in all their glory (glory in Pirates, of course, being a relative term), and the game’s odd predilection for nighttime levels ensures that players will be doing double duty fighting and squinting.

Though neither portion of Pirates can be considered horrid, the shoehorning of two lackluster games makes for a legend best forgotten, and a treasure to be buried. Deep.

Greg Orlando

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex knows where its bread is buttered and, make no bones about it, it’s from someone else’s crock. If there’s a good idea out there, rest assured Crash has swiped it. If there’s a mediocre idea to be had, chances are Crash has burgled it, too. The game pilfers some tenrible ideas as well, with the rationale being that thinking up something new might be time consuming.

Crash marches the parade straight down Cliche Boulevard. The manic bandicoot collects fruit, jewels, and other trinkets; smashes crates galore; and engages in all sorts of kooky platform-based action. It’s a slow level when some huge beast doesn’t smash through the walls and chase Crash ad nauseam and an even slower level that doesn’t feature some wacky vehicle that wants piloting. In the laziest move of all, even the game’s boss characters are based on the four elements.

Yet Crash reeks of solid workmanship. The Xbox version contains graphics worth staring at and load times that have been shortened appreciably from those seen on the PlayStation 2. The chase scenes are just harrying enough to quicken anyone’s pulse, and the game does an excellent job of switching gears to stave off any boredom that might ensue. In the colorful lingo of the streets, this bandicoot has game—and the fact that it’s someone else’s game (actually multiple someones) shouldn’t deter anyone from taking this marsupial for a spin. Or two.

Greg Orlando

Imagine taking everything that was good about Crazy Taxi and San Francisco Rush, and putting it all together in one game. Now, imagine doing the exact opposite of that. The result would look and play an awful lot like Smashing Drive.

Actually, Smashing Wreck would be a more appropriate title; in many ways this is a blueprint for making a game as annoying as possible. The idea is to race a rival taxi driver through the streets of New York (although since you never pick up a single passenger, it’s unclear why being in a taxi is even relevant). One or two bits of business here show smudges of creativity—like driving through burning buildings or chasing King Kong up a skyscraper—but mostly you’re reduced to hitting very mundane ramps and grabbing largely uninteresting powerups. Your computer-controlled opponent glides through traffic, never slowing down or making a single mistake, so the challenge mostly consists of finding the one or two magic shortcuts on every level that can put you ahead-find them, you win. Miss them, you lose. Period.

There are a total of nine levels through four different sections of the city, plus a few pointless bonus areas, but for all the frustration of its trial-and-error gameplay, Smashing Drive can still be beaten in a few hours. However, it’s recommended you turn off the soundtrack after the first 10 minutes, or risk nausea and headaches the likes of which haven’t experienced since that Pokemon seizure incident. Awful.

Jeff Lundrigan

With only two play modes—World Cup Tournament (a seven-game series) and Friendly, FIFA World Cup 2002 is about one thing and one thing only: fun.

While other soccer games aim to satisfy all of your simulated soccer needs (from drafting teams and managing a squad’s front office), FIFA seems only concerned with gameplay. Setup is about is quick and easy; within a few clicks of the “A” button, you and your boys are on the pitch and ready to go.

Those familiar with the series will welcome commentary by John Motsen and Andy Gray, as well as the familiar interface; however, playing the game with the Xbox controller will take some getting used to. Also, it seems that every year EA likes to muck around with the game’s pace and various controls, and this year’s version is no exception. In an attempt to make the game play more like watching a televised one, the developers have slowed things down a bit. In other words, at the Professional level, don’t think that the road to victory will be as simple as giving the rock to star Eddie Pope and just guiding him through the defense. Some of the passing schemes have changed as well, such that finding open men for those all-too-important crosses won’t be as easy as it’s been in the past.

Criticisms aside, EA has put together a game that you ‘ll enjoy p laying by yourself or with up to three of your buddies. While it may not be the deepest around, FIFA is just plain fun. And in the final analysis, that goes a long way.

Wil O’Neal

Based on its pedigree, we had very high hopes for this one; ESPN MLS Extreme 2002 comes from the creators of the glorious ISS series on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64. Sadly, our hopes were dashed the minute we loaded the game.

MLS Extreme 2002 sports more than 100 teams, including real Major League Soccer and national squads. Konami’s even built in a deep general manager mode for those who prefer to toil away in the back office. Replete with a wealth of animations and commentary from Jack Edwards and Luis Tapia (the “Goal! “ guy from Telemundo), MLS 2002 looks great on paper. Unfortunately, the game is virtually unplayable.

An unwieldy interface, endemic to most of Konami’s sports titles, stands as an obstacle between the player and the ever-elusive “fun.” The menus and options become excessive at some point—and MLS simply doesn’t know when to quit. Competent yet uninspired graphics dominate and, adding insult to injury, it typically took about two whole losing matches to figure out how to effectively control the players, switch players, pass, or shoot. From a purely organic control standpoint, this game is light years behind ISS 64…and that is, quite simply, inexcusable.

Konami should be lauded for the attempt. MLS Extreme 2002 has some modes that, were the game more playable, would be gaming time well spent. Instead, difficult controls and a confusing interface make MLS Extreme 2002 an exercise in extreme frustration.

Wil O’Neal

Electronic Arts’ inbred monarchy Knockout Kings doles out shiny fighters who appear to have been dipped in Turtle Wax and whose connected blows sound exactly like gunshots; there are more phantom punches to be found here than in a rumble between Casper and Hamlet’s old man. It’s boxing gone surreal, complete with referee Mills Lane whose countenance seems to have been melted on a hot stove, and cornermen whose sage advice consists of gems such as “Relax. You’re doing good. Keep working the combos.”

Forget the whole notion of Knockout Kings existing as a boxing simulation; any such pretense is shattered with this year’s go-round. Brawls eschew any sort of skill and are won by the pugilist who lands the most punches in the least amount of time. Blocking, a very useful tool in real-world boxing, has been trimmed in Kings to the point where a fighter will raise his guard for a period of time equal to or less than one full second before dropping it. To the point: punches can only be blocked one at a time, a farcical proposition considering even the lowliest pug in this game can hurl six or so punches in three seconds.

Beautiful and over-the-top knockout replays as well as a terrific force-feed back system that thumps the Xbox controller in tune to a fatigued fighter’s heartbeat, help steer Kings toward competency…and the sheer thrill of pounding the opposition to paste with some fanciful fisticuffs can’ t be easily discounted.

Greg Orlando

We’d feel rather safe in saying the 365-day period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 wouldn’t rightly be a year if, during that period, Midway didn’t release a new iteration of its classic smashmouth football game Blitz. In fact, Blitz (along with death, taxes, and Dick Clark) is one of the universe’s great constants.

Blitz 20-02 breaks away from the Blitz tradition a bit in that it’s not last year’s model reheated and with four hours’ worth of graphical improvements. This year, the brutality is augmented by eight-man teams and the addition of a special “impact player” for every squad. Th is special player can be assigned to different tasks, be it blocking, blitzing, or running a receiving route, and the addition of a wild card of sorts to each play adds new depth to the title. This impact player does little to offset the imbalance between the overemphasized pass game and the rather limp running offense, but it’s a nice idea nonetheless.

Sharp and smart, Blitz 20-02 burns the NFL’s rulebook and allows for unparalleled arcade-style mayhem. It’s great fun to mug a receiver before the ball reaches his hand, or bodyslam a hapless quarterback to the cold, cruel Earth; after a play, the recently tackled can be leg dropped, elbowed or similarly molested. Goofy commentary accompanies the on-screen action, and the developers have put in their requisite time to beautify the graphics so they’re worthy of the Xbox. Put a hearty seven up on the board for Midway.

Greg Orlando

Many still see Rare’s GoldenEye as the undisputed champion of console first- person shooters. Now, as EA makes its latest attempt to revitalize the sagging James Bond license, we find the veteran developer still struggling to reclaim that old FPS magic.

Agent Under Fire features an original storyline not borrowed from any of the James Bond films. It includes all the spy doo-dads fans expect—renegade submarines, chemical warfare, and super-hot kung fu babes. But upon closer inspection, we find little more than a paint-by-numbers first-person shooter with a few driving and shooting gallery segments thrown in for variety’s sake. Though the game’s visuals are solid (especially on the framerate-friendly Xbox), the action lacks both variety and challenge. An oppressive auto-aim system, weak enemy Al, and simplistic puzzles keep gameplay straightforward and repetitive. Players are encouraged to find special “ Bond Moves” within the levels to rack up bonus points …in turn unlocking skins, weapons, and multiplayer maps. Unfortunately, most of these are painfully obvious, and the unlockable bonuses less than gratifying. Multiplayer is one of the game’s stronger points, featuring Deathmatch with optional computer-controlled bots, Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill.

But there’s not enough originality here to keep us away from Halo for long. AUFs Bond license may be enough to satisfy serious fans, but others will be balk at its shallow gameplay.

Matt Sammons

Flawed but solidly fun, deep as a dime, and airy as a zeppelin, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy provides the sort of cerebrum- free action that fairly screams to be enjoyed in 20-minute intervals.

For those unfortunate souls who happened to be asleep or dead for Gauntlet’s previous iterations, the game puts players in the role of a medieval hero thrust into a series of environments where many strange and exotic monsters demand killing with various melee and projectile weaponry. It’s all standard fare, with a few role-playing game elements tossed in for good measure.

The usual criticisms involved with quick-and-dirty Xbox translations apply. Legacy has been poorly ported, so much so we expect the programmers left the job to lower primates, perhaps gibbons or macaques. The game features 30 graphics, as well as an isometric view that tends to show off ugly character and creature models. Players will find the in-game camera positioned down too close to the action—this enhances the view of the shoddy characters while simultaneously reducing a player’s ability to see a lot of Dark Legacy’s worlds.

In the face of these sizable bumps in the road, Legacy manages to uphold its predecessors’ fine tradition of hectic, kill-’em-all, gameplay, and emerges as a game that’s more magic than it is muck. Just don’t bother going solo here; Gauntlet has always emphasized the shared experience and Midway’s dungeons are best crawled with friends.

Greg Orlando

If Acclaim’s Burnout seems to come up a hair short, bear in mind the company it keeps; in any other era, this would be top of the line. From Gran Turismo to the free-wheeling of San Francisco Rush and Crazy Taxi, we’re living in a veritable Golden Age for console racing games

Burnout is a terrific-looking game, recreating both the lush green of mountain highways and the cramped cobblestones of roadside villages with aplomb. You get a heady sense of speed here, the control is responsive and suitably arcade-y, and while challenging , the learning curve isn’t all that steep. The Al of opposing drivers is sharp, as they deliberately attempt to push you off the road or into other cars.

Burnout’s main point of hype is its rather spectacular crashes. Roadways are swarming with civilian vehicles, and plowing into one earns a frighteningly realistic wreck. It’s cool eye candy, complete with a handy readout telling you exactly how much insurance money it’s gonna take to fix the damage.

But Burnout also suffers from small, if numerous shortcomings. The monetary damage doesn’t mean squat, and has no real effect on gameplay. Being completely blindsided at an intersection is frustrating as hell, and while the selection of tracks (14 in all) is pretty healthy, the choice of cars is dismal—they may look sorta different, but they break down into three basic categories that all handle about the same.

Burnout is a solid competitor—fast and fun and oddly addictive.

Jeff Lundrigan

While we’ve played more than our share of console racing games, there haven’t been many good ones of late featuring our two-wheeled pal the motorcycle.

Moto GP, which features 10 tracks modeled on real life venues and the likenesses of more than 30 pro bikers, bucks that trend. In fact, the game provides a unique feeling of authenticity and a depth of gameplay to a genre all but buried in a glut of car-based racers.

Newbies to bike racing will be pleased with the game’s gentle but deep learning curve and veterans will marvel at its fancy graphical touches. Even with bump-mapped terrain and up to 20 high-poly bikes on screen at once, the game never drops below 60 frames per second. The high framerate adds amazingly to the game’s sense of speed, and the Xbox’ springy analog sticks provide plenty of control. The controls are simple—one stick is used for turning and the other for gas and brake. Advanced users will also want to master the independent front and rear wheel brakes, and eventually the elusive wheelie. Luckily, there’s a comprehensive training mode to help with the finer points.

Throw in solid arcade and simulation modes and a ton of unlockable bonuses, and we’re left with little to pick on. Even the multiplayer modes, including a system link option, show plenty of polish. Essentially, Moto GP is a game that has the potential to satisfy both gearheads and a good chunk of wannabe bikers alike.

Matt Sammons