New reviews
Posted by @ 4:50 PM, EST
Gaming Age kicked up a review of the first-person shooter TimSplitters:

Once players beat the story mode once, there is also a Challenge mode that opens up, making way for more secrets to come through. Each challenge presents a set of goals that have to be completed, and when Free Radical named them “challenges”, they meant it; these are hard. I spent over an hour and a half with the first challenge alone (it puts you in the mansion level with a shotgun, and gives the goal of lobbing off 50 zombie heads in two minutes) before finally completing it, and you’ll no doubt be slamming your first on the floor many times if you attempt to give Challenge a go. I will say, however, that they are good at improving your skills in a number of areas.

The play control in Wild Wild Racing tries hard to simulate racing in loose gravel, dirt and other assorted rough surfaces. Even vehicles with supposedly better handling characteristics seem to under steer horribly, which as a result, usually sends you sliding into the track barriers, which then in turn, hangs you up. Annoying, especially when those CPU vehicles seem to adhere to a somewhat different level of physics, and just zip around the courses without problems. Overall, the control isn't all that bad really, but there are plenty of other racers that play much better.

What a game. A lightgun game without the lightgun, Silent Scope's challenge is to use the PS2's pad to eliminate evil and protect the public. You control the scope; holding down R1 will lift it momentarily to allow you to speed it to another point of the screen, releasing it will pop it back up for the accuracy necessary to make those crucial headshots. Once you've taken down enough criminals, your character moves to set up shot somewhere else. Buchaaaaaa, buchaaaaaa, buchaaaaaa, and so on, until you finally reach the end of area boss. A few bosses, a thousand more headshots, and it's all over.

As far as playing goes, the Gungriffon Blaze experience is an enjoyable one. First, the point of view is set from within the mech - a distinctly FPS-style presentation. This makes for a more realistic feel while giving you a good look at your surroundings. Secondly, the control system, though it makes use of every single button and stick on the PS2's controller, is well suited to the game. The analog sticks control directional movement across the X- and Y-axes, as well as multidirectional FPS-style aiming. For weapons control, the right shoulder buttons toggle weapons and firing, while the left buttons allow for jumping and fine movement control. There's also a sniper mode that can be activated with the triangle button.