New fighting games offer plenty of fun with guns
This holiday season is going to be a bloodbath, more than usual. Three of the biggest video game releases will be the kill-y "Resistance 2," "Gears of War 2" and "Call of Duty: World at War." But for now, we already have three more new notable games of guns and swords in the run-up to the shopping season.
FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE "GRAND THEFT AUTO": "Saints Row 2" is a "sandbox" game where you play as an escaped prisoner who must hijack cars, kill cops and other people, go to strip clubs, blow up helicopters, snap people's necks and complete violent missions.
You can even hold homeless people in front of you, like human shields, then toss them at their cardboard hang-outs -- thereby killing the homeless people while also destroying their "homes."
Yes, this is insanely callous (both offline and online), but I would expect many "GTA" fans might enjoy "Saints Row 2" more than they liked the last "Grand Theft Auto IV," because "GTA IV" was rich in narrative and slower with violence. And there are many "GTA" fans who prefer gore to fancy story lines.
Yes, story lines exist in "Saints Row 2." But it's all about the blood. When you blow off someone's head, the head explodes, blood splatters everywhere, and you hear a sound akin to a watermelon being sledge-hammered. It's nasty and gruesome, but it's also right up many people's alleys.
FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE ONLINE MILITARY KILLING: "SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation" is basic. You choose your weapons: shotguns, rifles, machine guns, etc. Then you go online (it's an online-only game). You join an existing team of soldiers (among thousands already online), or start a team.
Then you get to the killing. The battlefields are basically little towns of buildings and ruins. Playing it sort of feels like playing football on a huge field obscured with hiding places. If you run cavalierly down a street, you likely will get shot by rival soldiers running down the same street. This is often a madhouse of pain.
There's no plot, no characters per se -- none of that. But if you're a military gamer, you'll love how smoothly you run, hide and fire good weaponry. And it's a fairly realistic-looking war zone.
It's $40, but you can also buy a $60 box that comes with a Sony, wireless earpiece -- to chat with other gamers -- and you can use it in other online games, obviously.
FOR FIGHT-GAME FREAKS: "Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels" is simply a fighting game, but instead of throwing punches and kicks, you swing a lightsaber.
So, essentially, it's a series of one-on-one battles between you, portraying male and female Jedis, fighting Empire bigwigs. If you play multiplayer, you can go head-to-head against other gamers, naturally.
Since this is "Star Wars," you use a few Force powers to wear down villains. You use telekinesis-style Force to throw boulders at rivals. You push Force-powered wing gusts to knock them off their feet. You add Force power to your lightsaber to make it temporarily deadlier.
The only problem with "Clone Wars" is, at base, it's a well-crafted but run-of-the-mill fighting game. You fight, you fight some more, the end. It is neither an evolutionary nor a revolutionary fighting game. But it's cool enough, and "Star Wars" fans ought to dig it.
("Saints Row 2" by THQ retails for $60 for Xbox 360 and PS 3 -- Plays fun as a sandbox shooting adventure. Looks great. Moderately challenging. Rated "M" for blood, gore, intense violence, strong language, use of drugs, sexual content. Four stars out of four.)
("SOCOM: U.S. Navy Seals Confrontation" by Sony retails for $40, $60 with wireless earpiece, for PS 3 -- Plays fun as a basic, well-executed online shooter. Looks great. Challenging. Rated "M" for blood, strong language, violence. Three and one-half stars.)
("Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels" by LucasArts retails for $50 for Wii -- Plays fun, like a standard fight game but with lightsabers instead of fists. Looks good. Challenging. Rated "T" for fantasy violence. Three stars.)
Contact Doug Elfman at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal. com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.
NEW IN STORES
"Call of Duty: World at War" is the kind of World War II game that might keep you playing for up to a year. Offline, it is another impressive "Call of Duty" war shooting adventure, with richly detailed battlefields, cinematic cut scenes, and goals and missions. This time, you are set in the Pacific. And this time, you can play cooperative multiplayer, not just team or individual. Weaponry is upgraded with Molotov cocktails and an awesome sawed-off shotgun. The game retails for $60 for PS 3 and Xbox 360; $50 for Wii; $40 for PS 2; $30 for DS. It's rated "M" for blood, gore, intense violence, strong language.
"Mirror's Edge" is one of the most unusual titles of the year. You play as a woman on the run from police. But instead of killing them, your mission is to run from them by using Jackie Chan/parcour moves to evade them. So you shimmy up walls by running up them realistically, jump across rooftops, and pull off other extreme moves using (almost) only your physical intelligence. The game retails for $60 for PS 3 and Xbox 360. It's rated "T" for blood, language, violence.
-- By DOUG ELFMAN
