The "Xbox Games" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Just bought Issue 7 of OXM, which was released yesterday. Here's a quick summary:
Reviews:
Conflict: Desert Storm - 8.1 Game of the Month
Aggressive Inline - 7.7
Splashdown - 8.1
Pro Tennis WTA Tour - 1.9
Barbarian - 7.4
Antz Extreme Racing - 5.0
This months feature is on Surround Sound setups.
Indepth looks at Racing Evoluzione and Reign of Fire.
On the disc: Playables of Conflict: Desert Storm, Enclave and Street Hoops. Videos of GP4, Project Ego, XIII, Splinter Cell, LEgends of Wrestling, Mike Tyosn Boxing and a couple of non-game videos as well.
Reviews:
Conflict: Desert Storm - 8.1 Game of the Month
Aggressive Inline - 7.7
Splashdown - 8.1
Pro Tennis WTA Tour - 1.9
Barbarian - 7.4
Antz Extreme Racing - 5.0
This months feature is on Surround Sound setups.
Indepth looks at Racing Evoluzione and Reign of Fire.
On the disc: Playables of Conflict: Desert Storm, Enclave and Street Hoops. Videos of GP4, Project Ego, XIII, Splinter Cell, LEgends of Wrestling, Mike Tyosn Boxing and a couple of non-game videos as well.
Page:
The demo does in places look like a PS2 game which is dissapointing. But the developer said the demo was when the game was in its very early stages and has been graphcily improved since the demo.
Just found some info over at www.teamxbox.com: -
"The concept behind RE is generally recognized as being one of the more intriguing concepts seen in a racing simulation. Rather than racing in order to purchase and upgrade licensed vehicles like every other game on the market, the objective in RE is to create your own successful brand of new cars and pit them against the world's automotive leaders. The way it works is thus: you begin the game with a relatively modest garage and a mechanic to build your cars. As you prove the calibre of your cars in competition your company will grow in stature and include a research and development team, automotive technicians, a production manager and a sexy secretary. This staff will provide new concepts for sports cars relative to your direction and specifications. These new models can then be taken into more competitions, hopefully winning and gaining even more acclaim for your brand within the industry. Once people become aware of your brand, the orders will start rolling in, first by individual consumers looking for their next hot car, then by larger parties with larger orders. At one point you may even be contacted to give a demonstration to the police, who are considering using your car for their new highway patrol vehicles. Soon, if you play well, you will have a full roster of clients, sponsors, and more business than you can handle. Your brand will blossom into a full line of cars, you'll add new lines to your range, and you can expand your factory. You will ultimately become the leader of the automotive industry, joining the sports car legends.
However, your success will depend on more than just your competitive driving skills. You must also keep in close contact with your team of experts. Your R&D manager will propose new concepts with different designs and driving characteristics. Some concepts will be more suitable for certain tracks than others, so the choice of car to develop will influence your ability to perform well in the championships. The production manager will give you feedback on how your driving is influencing sales and the expansion of your factory. This is part of the original and innovative reward system that has been designed for RE. Finally your secretary will inform you of in-coming opportunities that, if successful, will get your brand into the headlines of the press.
Throughout the game you are in direct competition with automotive giants from around the world. Infogrames has licensed the real brands of 40 of today's cars for you to race against. In some cases you will even get an exclusive look at future cars, such as the Dodge Viper RT10, which will not be on the market until 2003. The prototype designs for your dream cars were created by students at leading automotive design schools around the world, giving the player the possibility to build a total of 45 cars that are both unique and gorgeous. Each car is rendered with around 10,000 polygons and will take visible damage. Essentially, the automobile and racing physics have been inspired by the best racing products on the market and the experience of Infogrames and Milestone in this field is a guarantee of a solid racing experience. The AI will also push the limits and create opponents who make snap judgments based on the race at hand as well as mistakes. The sounds for the cars have also been handled with the same attention to detail and, as with real world sports cars, just the engine sound will be an experience on its own.
The different championships will take you all over the world. There are several variations in track style, with some taking place in cities, some in the mountains, some on racetracks and others in stadiums. There are over fifty courses in all, each with its own feel, while the type of track you are on will greatly affect the handling of your car. These tracks have been created with special attention to the architectural feel of each location and an astounding feel of realism. Up to half a million polygon sceneries have breathtaking depth, with moving billboards, trees with individually rendered branches and trunks, moving traffic on secondary roads, huge mountains to drive up, etc. The game engine, specially designed for the Xbox, will be the first to fully exploit the console's technology in a racing game.
The main mode will deliver over 30 hours of gameplay with arcade and multiplayer modes added for replay value.
Racing Evoluzione is THE next generation racing game"
Cool heh?
"The concept behind RE is generally recognized as being one of the more intriguing concepts seen in a racing simulation. Rather than racing in order to purchase and upgrade licensed vehicles like every other game on the market, the objective in RE is to create your own successful brand of new cars and pit them against the world's automotive leaders. The way it works is thus: you begin the game with a relatively modest garage and a mechanic to build your cars. As you prove the calibre of your cars in competition your company will grow in stature and include a research and development team, automotive technicians, a production manager and a sexy secretary. This staff will provide new concepts for sports cars relative to your direction and specifications. These new models can then be taken into more competitions, hopefully winning and gaining even more acclaim for your brand within the industry. Once people become aware of your brand, the orders will start rolling in, first by individual consumers looking for their next hot car, then by larger parties with larger orders. At one point you may even be contacted to give a demonstration to the police, who are considering using your car for their new highway patrol vehicles. Soon, if you play well, you will have a full roster of clients, sponsors, and more business than you can handle. Your brand will blossom into a full line of cars, you'll add new lines to your range, and you can expand your factory. You will ultimately become the leader of the automotive industry, joining the sports car legends.
However, your success will depend on more than just your competitive driving skills. You must also keep in close contact with your team of experts. Your R&D manager will propose new concepts with different designs and driving characteristics. Some concepts will be more suitable for certain tracks than others, so the choice of car to develop will influence your ability to perform well in the championships. The production manager will give you feedback on how your driving is influencing sales and the expansion of your factory. This is part of the original and innovative reward system that has been designed for RE. Finally your secretary will inform you of in-coming opportunities that, if successful, will get your brand into the headlines of the press.
Throughout the game you are in direct competition with automotive giants from around the world. Infogrames has licensed the real brands of 40 of today's cars for you to race against. In some cases you will even get an exclusive look at future cars, such as the Dodge Viper RT10, which will not be on the market until 2003. The prototype designs for your dream cars were created by students at leading automotive design schools around the world, giving the player the possibility to build a total of 45 cars that are both unique and gorgeous. Each car is rendered with around 10,000 polygons and will take visible damage. Essentially, the automobile and racing physics have been inspired by the best racing products on the market and the experience of Infogrames and Milestone in this field is a guarantee of a solid racing experience. The AI will also push the limits and create opponents who make snap judgments based on the race at hand as well as mistakes. The sounds for the cars have also been handled with the same attention to detail and, as with real world sports cars, just the engine sound will be an experience on its own.
The different championships will take you all over the world. There are several variations in track style, with some taking place in cities, some in the mountains, some on racetracks and others in stadiums. There are over fifty courses in all, each with its own feel, while the type of track you are on will greatly affect the handling of your car. These tracks have been created with special attention to the architectural feel of each location and an astounding feel of realism. Up to half a million polygon sceneries have breathtaking depth, with moving billboards, trees with individually rendered branches and trunks, moving traffic on secondary roads, huge mountains to drive up, etc. The game engine, specially designed for the Xbox, will be the first to fully exploit the console's technology in a racing game.
The main mode will deliver over 30 hours of gameplay with arcade and multiplayer modes added for replay value.
Racing Evoluzione is THE next generation racing game"
Cool heh?
Your Honour wrote:
> Racing Evoluzione is looking fantastic!
Yup, i think that too!
> The game seems very abimtious, and it could go horribly wrong if the
> balance between management and racing is not quite right. However,
> after reading the preview I feel very sure that this game is one to
> keep an eye on.
I don't think it'd go wrong, the game is very close to completion i think, and looking at the preview it looks awesome.
> Racing Evoluzione is looking fantastic!
Yup, i think that too!
> The game seems very abimtious, and it could go horribly wrong if the
> balance between management and racing is not quite right. However,
> after reading the preview I feel very sure that this game is one to
> keep an eye on.
I don't think it'd go wrong, the game is very close to completion i think, and looking at the preview it looks awesome.
Racing Evoluzione is looking fantastic!
The screenshots are looking so good it's untrue, but that's not the end of the story.
The game lets players build championship winning cars from scratch. IT seems the developer is trying to mix a management game with a driving game. You start off with a tiny garage and you make money by building cars and using them to win races.
As you get more money and stuff, you upgrade to bigger premises, better equipment etc and you can make bigger and faster cars. Which you race to get more money to design better cars to race to .... and so it goes on.
The piece in the magazine says that the player will spend about 80% of the time racing the cars. The main part of the game, the Dream Mode, is where the business side of things happen.
Once your first car has been designed and built, you're then allowed to enter races. The idea is that as you progress your company builds up a better and better reputation.
The game seems very abimtious, and it could go horribly wrong if the balance between management and racing is not quite right. However, after reading the preview I feel very sure that this game is one to keep an eye on.
The screenshots are looking so good it's untrue, but that's not the end of the story.
The game lets players build championship winning cars from scratch. IT seems the developer is trying to mix a management game with a driving game. You start off with a tiny garage and you make money by building cars and using them to win races.
As you get more money and stuff, you upgrade to bigger premises, better equipment etc and you can make bigger and faster cars. Which you race to get more money to design better cars to race to .... and so it goes on.
The piece in the magazine says that the player will spend about 80% of the time racing the cars. The main part of the game, the Dream Mode, is where the business side of things happen.
Once your first car has been designed and built, you're then allowed to enter races. The idea is that as you progress your company builds up a better and better reputation.
The game seems very abimtious, and it could go horribly wrong if the balance between management and racing is not quite right. However, after reading the preview I feel very sure that this game is one to keep an eye on.
I have'nt actually read this months article yet, but screenshots of it looks absolutely awesome.
Does Racing Evoluzione sound really good, i read the small thing in issue 6 and i thought that it sounded amazing. Does it live up to that anyone?
MR.COATES wrote:
> BTW - if you want any Xbox 5.1 surround advice, let me know - I've had
> a DD/DTS 5.1 setup for ages and may be able to help you out.
Cheer mate, but Tom already beat you to it. I am going over to my local Miller Brothers becuase they are going to order me in a Yamaha TSS Surround sound system. Thanks very much for the offer though but I think I have found the system for me. Check it out at:
http:// www.millerbros.co.uk/cgi-bin /m?i=crJlZ0Qurcr1&bg=225&bp=s1b&v=9
(Remove space after http:// and cgi-bin)
Tell me what you think, it looks very good to me! Cheers!
> BTW - if you want any Xbox 5.1 surround advice, let me know - I've had
> a DD/DTS 5.1 setup for ages and may be able to help you out.
Cheer mate, but Tom already beat you to it. I am going over to my local Miller Brothers becuase they are going to order me in a Yamaha TSS Surround sound system. Thanks very much for the offer though but I think I have found the system for me. Check it out at:
http:// www.millerbros.co.uk/cgi-bin /m?i=crJlZ0Qurcr1&bg=225&bp=s1b&v=9
(Remove space after http:// and cgi-bin)
Tell me what you think, it looks very good to me! Cheers!
I haven't quite got into Conflict Desert Storm yet as the game is very hard, but so far it looks amazing! I would rate the game higher than 8.1 of what I have played so far but I am yet to play the main game fully. Street Hoops is OK but I think the animations aren't quite up to scratch with the PS2's NBA Street. I don't like Enclave, I find it boring and very repetitive, I will try to finish of the demo version but I might skip it!
Splinter Cell is looking amazing as ever, after reading the mag with Splinter Cell update and watching the video demo I think I can safely say that this is my most anticipated game for this year! The frame-rate did drop in the video but the mag said that they had all been resolved and the game will run at a very high frame-rate for the release.
As many of you may know Driver 3 is coming to the Xbox, that is due out hopefully towards the end of next year. There was a Shenmue 2 update which explins the various upgrades which the Xbox version will have, don't miss out on that game!
There is an article which claims that the Xbox is *ON* Target for sales nd in fact it is doing better than they thought it would. There are a few developers discussing the power of the Xbox and what it enables them to do, there is also a video-interview with the Oddworld producer, in the interview he explians why they left Sony and moved onto Microsoft and how the Xbox enables them to do a lot more with a game.
There is a topic on how the Xbox has so far managed to create the best Multi-platform games, there is an independant developer who chips in along with the Xbox marketing director and the magazines producer.
There is an Unreal Championship update which discusses the game and shows off some very nice Screen-Shots. Along with an update on Unreal Championship the magazine also discusses the following games:
Grand Prix 4 (Video on Demo Disc)
Project Ego (Video on Demo Disc)
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (now for release in October)
Lotus Challenge (nice screen-shots)
Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer (looks great so far)
The Thing (2 page spread on how this game is shaping up)
Rally Fusion (Only half complete but looking great)
Splinter Cell (Has to be witnessed to believe)
Blade 2 (I am highly anticipating this game)
WWE Raw (nice screen-shots and info on UK update)
Raven Shield (another great looking Tom Clancy game that promises a lot)
Baldur's Gate: Dar Alliance (update on game, nearly finished)
Falcone: Into the Maelstrom (Looks fantastic, possible Halo challenger)
Steel Battalion (2 page spread, pic of Jostick and great screen-shots)
+ A lot more inside previews of Xbox games
As Your Honour said, there is a big guide to 5.1 on the Xbox (I have really enjoyed reading as I am getting my system next month), the guide discusses avordable options for Xbox sound and how to maximise the capabilities of your Xbox.
The reviews include the great Conflict Desert Storm and al the others Your Honour Listed. The demo disc includes a playable CDS along with Street Hoops and Encalve. The video demos include:
Splinter Cell
XIII
Mike Tyson Boxing
Halo 16 player battle
Legends of Wrestling
Interview with Oddworld producer
Video of Game-On exhibition
Project Ego (Looks awesome so far)
Grand Prix 4 (Looks very good)
That is this months magazine in a bit more detail, but remember to pick up this months Issue just to play CDS and watch the Splinter Cell video, it is worth it for that alone!
Splinter Cell is looking amazing as ever, after reading the mag with Splinter Cell update and watching the video demo I think I can safely say that this is my most anticipated game for this year! The frame-rate did drop in the video but the mag said that they had all been resolved and the game will run at a very high frame-rate for the release.
As many of you may know Driver 3 is coming to the Xbox, that is due out hopefully towards the end of next year. There was a Shenmue 2 update which explins the various upgrades which the Xbox version will have, don't miss out on that game!
There is an article which claims that the Xbox is *ON* Target for sales nd in fact it is doing better than they thought it would. There are a few developers discussing the power of the Xbox and what it enables them to do, there is also a video-interview with the Oddworld producer, in the interview he explians why they left Sony and moved onto Microsoft and how the Xbox enables them to do a lot more with a game.
There is a topic on how the Xbox has so far managed to create the best Multi-platform games, there is an independant developer who chips in along with the Xbox marketing director and the magazines producer.
There is an Unreal Championship update which discusses the game and shows off some very nice Screen-Shots. Along with an update on Unreal Championship the magazine also discusses the following games:
Grand Prix 4 (Video on Demo Disc)
Project Ego (Video on Demo Disc)
The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind (now for release in October)
Lotus Challenge (nice screen-shots)
Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer (looks great so far)
The Thing (2 page spread on how this game is shaping up)
Rally Fusion (Only half complete but looking great)
Splinter Cell (Has to be witnessed to believe)
Blade 2 (I am highly anticipating this game)
WWE Raw (nice screen-shots and info on UK update)
Raven Shield (another great looking Tom Clancy game that promises a lot)
Baldur's Gate: Dar Alliance (update on game, nearly finished)
Falcone: Into the Maelstrom (Looks fantastic, possible Halo challenger)
Steel Battalion (2 page spread, pic of Jostick and great screen-shots)
+ A lot more inside previews of Xbox games
As Your Honour said, there is a big guide to 5.1 on the Xbox (I have really enjoyed reading as I am getting my system next month), the guide discusses avordable options for Xbox sound and how to maximise the capabilities of your Xbox.
The reviews include the great Conflict Desert Storm and al the others Your Honour Listed. The demo disc includes a playable CDS along with Street Hoops and Encalve. The video demos include:
Splinter Cell
XIII
Mike Tyson Boxing
Halo 16 player battle
Legends of Wrestling
Interview with Oddworld producer
Video of Game-On exhibition
Project Ego (Looks awesome so far)
Grand Prix 4 (Looks very good)
That is this months magazine in a bit more detail, but remember to pick up this months Issue just to play CDS and watch the Splinter Cell video, it is worth it for that alone!
Page: