“fantasy pack” sweepstakes - Hardcore Gamer

Publisher : Ubisoft
Developer : Ubisoft Romania
Release Date : 03/06
Rating : “T” for Teen
4 of 5
Review by 4thletter
Genre(s) : Aerial Combat
Category : World War II
# of players : 1-16
World War II has been pretty effectively strip-mined, thanks
almost entirely to the FPS genre. There are still a few more fronts
to experience, and Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII is here to
blaze trails.
Take the fast-paced ground combat
of your average WWII game
and shift it thirty thousand
feet into the air. That’s the
basic conceit behind Blazing
Angels. It’s fairly easy-going
up to and until the point that
you realize you’ve got roughly thirty
seconds left before London is razed and
there’s two bogies on your tail, with no apparent
way out.
Blazing Angels is quite linear. You’ll be shuffled
through its eighteen stages with no room for deviation,
but this doesn’t prevent the game from putting
you into some impressive and intense situations. A cynic
might say that all the missions consist of “Shoot these
guys down, wait, bomb this, then shoot some more,” but
that’s just scratching the surface. You’re going to be pitted against
everything from other airplanes to AA guns to Nazi convoys. Missions
range from the usual run-n-gun, to protecting an area or group of
infantry, to photographing shots of Rommel’s army in North Africa.
The actual engine of the game is tight and responsive, allowing you to
pull off a number of neat, death-defying stunts in order to maneuver
behind someone and blow them out of the sky. It isn’t as easy as it
sounds. Your foes are smart and have every skill that you do. You can
issue commands to your wingmen to back you up, but you are the star
of this game. You’re going to have to outwit and outgun the Nazis
before they take you down. It’s fun, and you’ll
be short of breath before you know it.
Beyond the Campaign mode, there’s
a decent variety of minigames and
bonuses. There’s over forty planes
for you to tool around in,
plus Bombing runs and
Dogfight duels. Your
performance on each
stage of Campaign mode
is graded, and you’re
given a rank based on your
performance when you’re done. Your
wingmen and enemies chatter often, and
while there are a few repeats, it’s interesting
and informative enough to be fairly cool. Each
wingman has a distinct personality, even if they fall a
little too easily into familiar stereotypes.
The graphics are good, no matter which version of the game you play.
You can fly in low to the ground or skim the top of the water all you
want to with nary a hitch in sight. Each town is well-detailed, and the
damage models on certain constructs are very cool.
Blazing Angels is simply well-crafted and tons of fun. There’s plenty
of missions to keep you busy, and challenging AI to keep you interested.
It’s well worth a look.
Rating : 4 of 5
2nd opinion by Roger Danish • Alternate Rating : 4 of 5
Even with a few stutters here and there, Ubisoft continues to surprise and delight.
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII is a great aerial combat game that plays as good as it looks.
66_REVIEW_BLAZING ANGELS: SQUADRONS OF WWII HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 11_GIRL POWER
Imagine being the brother of the kid everyone loved in your
family. You didn’t make the straight As, you didn’t have the prom
queen girlfriend (and later, wife), and you definitely didn’t have
the extremely detailed, incredibly lit graphics like your older
brother. Now you know how the vanilla Xbox version of Ghost
Recon Advanced Warfighter feels. If you have the option to play
the Xbox 360 version, do so. If not, let’s chat.
Hype kills. This is gospel truth. Do not come into this version of the
game expecting the same graphics that you’ve seen on display since
E3 last year. Those were all 360 hype videos. The basic underlying
ideas behind the newest iteration in the Ghost Recon series are still
in effect, and the Cross-Com has made the transition to current gen
mostly intact. The sweet picture-in-picture display has been scaled
back, though. The resolution and framerate on it has been limited
so as to not bog the Xbox down. You can still command your crew
via the Cross-Com, but the drone functionality has been limited. It’s
much more automated now, and you can’t exactly send it willy-nilly
all over the tactical map any more.
There’s a few more things that are worrying. You’re locked in first
person, you only have one (slightly stupid) AI teammate, ducking has
been awkwardly added to the Cover button, the framerate tends to
chug, sniping is a chore thanks in part to the lack of a prone stance,
and the textures are pretty much disappointing in general.
It’s tough to fairly judge the graphics after the Xbox 360 version has
been thrown at us for nearly a year straight now, but it just doesn’t
2nd opinion by Shoegazer • Alternate Rating : 2.5 of 5
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 1_ISSUE 11_GIRL POWER
Review by 4thletter
work. The graphics are bland. Riding in the chopper over the streets
of Mexico City wasn’t awe-inspiring the way it should be. It just
looks... blah. There’s tons of buildings, but they’re all brownish
and dry-looking. If it’s not visually interesting, then you’re going
to be bored as you run down alleys and streets that don’t keep you
engaged. You’ll just be chasing around drab, prescient enemies
through similarly drab streets.
The enemy AI is very eagle-eyed. You can pop someone with the
sniper rifle (assuming you can adjust for aim drift) from a distance
and they’ll still zero in on you with a quickness. This apparently
psychic ability is mitigated by the fact that they’ll eagerly run into
your gunfire and fall down dead without firing a shot. Just for an
easy demonstration, check out the first enemy contact you have
once you get your squadmate. The baddies will run in circles and
into each other like Three Stooges extras while you shoot them full
of holes.
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has big shoes to fill and doesn’t
quite fit the bill. It isn’t terrible, per
se, but it also isn’t much better
than Ghost Recon 2. A strong
case could even
be made for
GR2 being the
better game
overall.
Rating : 2.5 of 5
This has most of the functionality of its next-gen cousin, with none of the panache. The series,
once again, relies on its multiplayer options to give you any bang for your buck.
Publisher : UbiSoft
Genre(s) : Third-Person Action
Developer : UbiSoft Shanghai Category : Tactical
Release Date : 3/8/2006
# of players : 1-16
Rating : TEEN; Blood, Mild Language, Violence
2.5 of 5
GHOST RECON ADVANCED WARFIGHTER_REVIEW_67