Chaos Theory is, as expected, greatness. The first level seems a lot more open-ended and inventive than what we saw in Pandora, and the elimination of the Mission Failure after a single alarm gives you free reign to be a little more ballsy in your approach. The new moves are a lot of fun (using your thermal vision and hunting knife to slice your way inside a guard's tent while his back is turned was especially nice), and the demo is packing some of the most incredible graphics the Xbox has ever pumped out; it's damn near photorealistic at times. The score is similarly great, and the whole thing is just a blast to play. The only downside is that the 45-minute demo doesn't have ANY save points. Fuck up near the end and watch as the better part of an hour is washed away with a few quick shots to the head.
It's not like this game wasn't a must buy anyways, but it's nice to see them going above and beyond the call of duty. The magazine has a really nice write-up on the game as well, and it confirms that five Pandora maps will return for the versus mode, including Deftech, Museum, Warehouse (yay!), Bank, and Riverside Mall (yay! yay!). So there's that.
Unreal Championship 2...I'm still not sold on it. It certainly looks fantastic and the gameplay is suitably hectic, but the entire thing was kind of baffling to this Unreal novice. I couldn't get the hang of switching between 1st and 3rd person perspectives, and the melee combat just kind of annoyed me. I'll give it another chance, but right now I kind of wish they had just stuck with a first person perspective throughout.
The only other big demo is the same Conker levels from a few issues ago. I guess the multiplayer demo fell through? That's crap if it's the case. I really would have liked to test drive this one before plunking down fifty bucks.
Oh, and the 14 Xbox Live Arcade games advertised on the front of the magazine and the disc case? Not included on the disc itself. Way to fuck up, morons...
It's not like this game wasn't a must buy anyways, but it's nice to see them going above and beyond the call of duty. The magazine has a really nice write-up on the game as well, and it confirms that five Pandora maps will return for the versus mode, including Deftech, Museum, Warehouse (yay!), Bank, and Riverside Mall (yay! yay!). So there's that.
Unreal Championship 2...I'm still not sold on it. It certainly looks fantastic and the gameplay is suitably hectic, but the entire thing was kind of baffling to this Unreal novice. I couldn't get the hang of switching between 1st and 3rd person perspectives, and the melee combat just kind of annoyed me. I'll give it another chance, but right now I kind of wish they had just stuck with a first person perspective throughout.
The only other big demo is the same Conker levels from a few issues ago. I guess the multiplayer demo fell through? That's crap if it's the case. I really would have liked to test drive this one before plunking down fifty bucks.
Oh, and the 14 Xbox Live Arcade games advertised on the front of the magazine and the disc case? Not included on the disc itself. Way to fuck up, morons...
