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"OXM Scores"

Ths month's issue came out today and to be honest it seems to have a few quality titles which I have never seen before which could be sleeper hits, also there is a little section saying that the Unreal Champ team are working on a new game not based on the Unreal game, sounds quite interesting, a few other games have caught my eye such as Star Wars Battlefront, Mercenaries (looks pretty nice, graphically, it's team combat which hopefully will be excellent revolving around 52 missions, obviously Full Spectrum Warrior is looking mighty fine and they expect to have a review next month!

Star Wars republic commando also looks pretty good and hopefully will be a great game, the graphics and lighting effects look good, let's hope LucasArts don't mess it up. Also another game which has caught my attention is "Mashed", it looks like a cross between burnout/vigilante 8 and micro machines where you all race around "well designed" tracks smashing each other to bits, it does look pretty cool but no Live play could hurt the game.

Next is the big game: Ghost Recon 2, now I thought the first two games on Xbox were pretty pants, graphically lacking, boring gameplay and just no fun at all. But Ghost Recon 2 looks amazing, you can now order air strikes, the graphics look amazing (especially the character models) and it promises to improve on the original game in every way, I am watching this one closely, if Ubi get this right it could nab Rainbows crown as best Live title, you can even shoot down aircraft, can't wait for this, the images show just how good it's going to be.

Another game which has caught my attention is Area 51, the graphics look pretty decent for this FPS and it also has Live play, could be a sleeper hit, too many games I have missed out on, so there seems to be plenty we can look forward to over the coming months.

Anyway this months Review scores are:

Ninja Gaiden: 9.2
Toca 2: 9.1
(on the demo disc which you can play online, I am getting the game as the demo impressed me quite a bit!)
Steel Battalion: LOC 9.0
MTX Mototrax: 8.1
Fight Night 2004: 8.5
Conan: 7.7 (supposed to have a half decent Live mode!)
PowerDrome: 8.0
UEFA Euro 2004: 8.4
England International Football: 8.2
(may have to get this for Live play!)
Hitman: Contracts 6.6 (diappointed by this!)
The Suffering: 8.0
Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair: 5.3

ÂLŠ†ÂÎR wrote:
> Icaruss wrote:
> Hitman 3 is nothing but a rehash on Hitmans 1 and 2. Even some of
> the
> levels are ripped from the original and revamped a bit. On top of
> that, absolutely no significant changes to the game engine and just
> a
> gentle rejig of the user interface and the words "shameless
> cash
> in" spring to mind.
>
> Er... no. If it isn't broken then why fix it?
I never said fix it. Improvements on the other hand would be nice.

The engine is awesome
> despite the fact that some of the videos I have seen are taken from
> the first game which was strange.

Ahaha, my point exactly

It annoys me when people say that the a sequel is 'nothing new' - if I wanted something new, then I'd get a different game.

Icaruss wrote:
> Hitman 3 is nothing but a rehash on Hitmans 1 and 2. Even some of the
> levels are ripped from the original and revamped a bit. On top of
> that, absolutely no significant changes to the game engine and just a
> gentle rejig of the user interface and the words "shameless cash
> in" spring to mind.

Er... no. If it isn't broken then why fix it? The engine is awesome despite the fact that some of the videos I have seen are taken from the first game which was strange. It will still be a quality game.

TOCA Race Driver 2 is a mint game, I think the cars handle pretty well and the online play is quality with 12 people racing!

Still, they're starting to include LIVE demos on the disc, ToCa Race Driver 2 this month and Rainbow Six 3 next month (almost completely pointless, I'm pretty sure 99% of people who have Live have Rainbow Six 3)

Hitman 3 is nothing but a rehash on Hitmans 1 and 2. Even some of the levels are ripped from the original and revamped a bit. On top of that, absolutely no significant changes to the game engine and just a gentle rejig of the user interface and the words "shameless cash in" spring to mind.

ÂLŠ†ÂÎR wrote:
> Erm, how many mentally ill people can one magazine employ?!
>
> Granted I haven't played Hitman Contracts yet but having complteed
> and played the first two extensively I think I can put a safe bet on
> it being better than anything other than Ninja Gaiden over the next
> couple of months.

True.

Erm, how many mentally ill people can one magazine employ?!

Granted I haven't played Hitman Contracts yet but having completed and played the first two extensively I think I can put a safe bet on it being better than anything other than Ninja Gaiden over the next couple of months.

I shall force myself to do the following:

- Ignore English International Football, pretend its worse than Fifa 2004.

- Wait (painfully) for the one and only PES4.

- Get to level 1 on SCPT to shut Bullett and Creepy up.

:D

OXM wouldn't know a good game if it jumped up and punched them in the face. Conan better than Hitman Contracts? yeah, okay, just like Blinx is innovative and really makes bold steps forward in the platform genre.

Whoever employs these monkeys should be dragged out into the street and castrated.