Ideas

Play to win

October 18 - 25, 2006
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Gulf Weekly Play to win

FIFA 07
PS2
EA Sports
   
****

The Good
Looks great; sounds superb; plays an enjoyable, fast-paced game of soccer; interactive leagues are a great new way to play online.
The Bad
Defensive players are a bit lazy; noticeable slowdown when there are lots of players onscreen.
The Verdict
FIFA 07 plays a fast-paced and realistic game of soccer and boasts plenty of gameplay options for solo and social players alike.

Scarface: The World is Yours
PC
Vivendi Games
   
***

The Good
If you hit the talk button when no one is around, Tony starts cursing at no one; decent targeting system makes shooting easy.
The Bad
Boring missions; flat dialogue and storyline; rewrites one of the most iconic scenes in film history to justify its existence; poorly adapted to the PC platform.     
The Verdict
Once you get over the whole rewriting-the-end-of-the-movie thing, Scarface: The World Is Yours is a competent but usually uninteresting action game.

Neverend
PC
Dreamcatcher Interactive

The Good
Once you get past the suffering, you’ll have a lot of laughs (at the game’s expense).
The Bad
Visuals straight out of a late-’90s golf game; unbalanced monster encounters; dated, ineffective turn-based combat engine; ludicrous dialogue and voice acting.   
The Verdict
Thankfully, this RPG only feels like it never ends.

Mage Knight Apocalypse
PC
Namco Bandai Games America
   
*

The Good
Some of the characters and environments look good.
The Bad
The free camera requires constant adjustment; the endless death and revival cycle is tiresome; user interface is clumsy and frustrating; terrible artificial intelligence; at best the multi-player is barely functional.   
The Verdict
Mage Knight Apocalypse is a sloppy attempt to adapt the collectible tabletop miniatures game to a dungeon-crawler format.







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