Gamer's corner

“Turok: Evolution” Developer: Acclaim
Systems: GameCube, Xbox, Playstation 2 2 Paws
Unfortunately, the Turok franchise has been hemorrhaging ever since
the first wonderful installment appeared on Nintendo 64 five years
ago. Apart from a host of traditional flaws, “Turok:
Evolution” also suffers from a case of poor nomenclature.
Based on the quality of development, enemy AI, graphics (relative
to other current games) and gameplay, “Turok:
Retrograde” would be a more appropriate name. Having annexed
“Turok: Evolution’s” original developer Iguana,
Acclaim has attempted to stay true to the franchise’s
original formula of hunting down dinosaurs and humanoids with
exotic weapons such as the “cerebral bore.” In fact,
the weaponry of “Turok: Evolution” may be its sole
saving grace. The first thing that will stand out in “Turok:
Evolution” is the control scheme. Acclaim has chosen to make
use of both analogue sticks on the PS2 to disastrous effect. One
stick moves the player forward while the other looks up and down or
left and right. This scheme is clearly modeled after PC
first-person shooters like “Unreal Tournament” and
“Quake 3.” Controlling two analogue sticks, however, is
much more awkward than using the mouse/keyboard combo on your
computer. Enemy AI is all but absent in “Turok:
Evolution,” a fact both sad and utterly unacceptable.
Humanoid enemies are almost as dumb as dinosaur ones. While the
dinos will simply stand motionless as you hack at their legs,
humanoids will actually attempt to dodge fire, although sometimes
they dodge into danger instead of away from it.  Worst of all,
this game is just boring. After killing everything on the first
level of the game, players have to scour over a few acres of dense
forest brush to locate a key to the next level. In fact, more than
half of the time, you may find yourself just wandering around
desolate environments aimlessly looking for a way out. Simply put,
do not buy this game unless you are a sucker for torture. The
game may warrant a rental, but only if there are people around to
take advantage of the multiplayer portion of the it. Even then, the
game’s poor graphics, including poor frame rates and brush
that pops up only meters in front of the foreground may be
exacerbated by requiring the game engine to draw four separate game
windows (two, in the case of the PS2 version). -Robert Esposito

“Superman: Shadow of Apokolips” Developer:
Sheffield House System: Playstation 2 1 Paw Ugh, what a
waste of time. “Superman: Shadow of Apokolips” is not a
good game. It is the ultimate boring of the boring. What keeps
players from ripping their PS2s from the wall sockets and smashing
them repeatedly against their heads is a mystery. The son of
Krypton has his own video game in which players can make him fly,
blow wind, lift things, throw things and use his eye lasers. The
enemies are mostly a whole bunch of robots with occasional villains
that aren’t very difficult. The controls are very
straightforward and can be grasped easily. The only good thing that
stands out about this game is the that it’s modeled after the
“Superman” cartoon on the WB. The visuals are
transformed into a 3-D, third-person view, which makes the
graphics, which the PS2 handles effortlessly, look like a 3-D
cartoon, which is still pretty cool. However, this appearance is a
double-edged sword. The same simplicity that the cartoon boasts
makes for a very bland backdrop to a video game. When Superman is
flying around, it’s like playing flight simulator on a really
crappy computer and all the player has is a joystick. For all those
that don’t play computer games, imagine driving a car to San
Francisco from 100 miles north of Los Angeles on the I-5. Yeah,
kind of like that. Don’t buy “Superman: Shadow of
Apokolips.” Don’t play “Superman: Shadow of
Apokolips.” Save money and time and take up basket weaving or
something ““ it’ll probably be more fun. -Kenny
Chang

“NFL Fever 2003″ Developer: Microsoft
System: Xbox 2.5 Paws The idea of playing a multi-player
football game is good. In fact, it’s a great idea. But that
great idea is ruined when the football game itself has some serious
issues. Granted, “NFL Fever 2003″ is still a football
game at heart ““ it’s got all the basic plays down
““ and players can play normal football. But during gameplay,
there’s all kinds of stuff that just bugs. The biggest
problem is the ease of plays. Any passing play, when playing this,
is a guaranteed completion. In fact, a certain cheater roommate of
mine would play the same play over and over and over (upsetting me
to no end) yet still rock me. Sports games should not allow
glitches like that. As for the detail in the graphics, there are
some problems too. For one thing, all the tackles look the same.
When anyone gets tackled, it looks like the creators of the game
animated four tackles and just showed them all from different
angles ““ it really bugs, especially when a wide receiver that
gets tackled in the air looks the same as the quarterback getting
sacked from a blitz. It really, really bugs. The announcers Kevin
Colabro and Ron Pitts are OK, but having been playing “Madden
2003″ for a while, Madden’s whimsical criticisms are
definitely missed. “NFL Fever 2003″ is the kind of game
that a kid’s parents who don’t know anything about
video games gets them. The kind of game that people will play if
it’s there, but would rather not have. There are definitely
better football games on the market ““ “NFL 2K3,”
as well as “Madden 2003″ ““ and with those two
already out there, it just leaves “NFL Fever 2003″ out
with no particular purpose. – Kenny Chang