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News: Tom Morello stars in Guitar Hero III
Activision has announced that Tom Morello, from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, will guest star as a boss character in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Click here to read the article.
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars
LucasArts is known for delivering high quality products. After all they do have the backing of one of the best directors ever to grace this earth, Mr. George Lucas. LucasArts games have always been of the highest quality in the gameplay, visual, and sound. The Clone Wars is not an exception to the current streak of hits that LucasArts has been churning out. A company that has truly embraced the Xbox and is spoiling us with awesome games delivers once again with their newest title, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
In The Clone Wars, you play as Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu, and Obi-Wan Kenobi as you progress through sixteen levels each consisting of many different objectives. You take over where the movie, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, ends as you fight through battles of the Clone Wars. You lead the Republic army into battle against the Seperatists who are reassembling an ancient Sith weapon capable of annihilating an entire planet!
The controls in The Clone Wars is pretty easy to learn. The Left Thumbstick is used for movement while the Right Thumbstick is used to rotate the camera around the player or vehicle. The D-Pad is used for issuing commands to your squad-mates. Up issues the command to attack the target. Left issues your team to break away and attack at their own will. Right issues them to hold thier position while Down issues the command to return to formation and follow your vehicle. A is used for your primary fire. X is used for your secondary fire. The B button is used to engage a special ability that varies depending on what vehicle you are in. For example, if you are in the Tank it functions as a Turbo button. Y is used to zoom, although you probably won't be using this one too much. Don't like 3rd person action? Want to feel like you are in the game? Well then press the White button to switch to a 1st person view. The Left and Right Triggers are used to strafe. Pretty simple right?
Gameplay varies greatly in The Clone Wars thanks to the ability to commandeer a variety of vehicles. In one mission you'll be speeding along on a Speeder Bike chasing down the enemy while in other missions you'll be mounted on top of a Maru (a creature the looks like a dinosaur). You won't always be using an aircraft of land vehicle though. In some missions you will be on the ground. It's just you, your light-saber, and the force. Ground combat is done well but not perfect. The Clone Wars is meant to be a vehicle game and it shows when you are set loose on the ground. It seems as though ground, hand to hand combat was a little added bonus just thrown in for the sake of gameplay variety. While ground combat is nice, a better fighting system would have made it truly a 'force' to be reckoned with. Vehicles handle great in The Clone Wars. Each has its own speed and its own weapons which really make you think about your assault plan. For example, the AT-XT Assault Walker is incredibly powerful but it is slow making you a walking target. This great combination of unique vehicles make for a great experience. I was a bit dissapointed that the game was only sixteen levels. After I passed the game I was left wanting more! Few games make me feel this way so you know The Clone Wars is pretty darn good.
After you are done with the single player campaign you can dive into the multiplayer modes. The Clone Wars has the following modes of multiplayer gameplay. Duel, Control Zone, Academy, and Conquest all of which can be played on of offline. Xbox Live gameplay supports up to 8 players. Multiplayer is fun and addictive and will provide lots of replay value.
Visually, The Clone Wars isn't going to win any awards for visual achievement. While they are by no means bad what-so-ever, they aren't incredible. They are good though. My biggest complaint is with the in-game cinematics. Most of them, at some point, showed slow down which is something that should not happen! This is after all the Xbox, a mighty powerful machine and for the cinematics to stutter... something's not right with that. Another thing with the cinematics is they are too plain. A few mountains here and some effects there aren't enough. While the in-game cinematics aren't all that good, the CGI cinematics are awesome! As far as actual game graphics, The Clone Wars delivers. Levels are nicely detailed and populated with many enemies without any slow down. Vehicles and enemies are unique in design and highly detailed. As far as characters go, they are modeled and animated enough to sit in the average section. And what's up with the way the characters run!? You'll see when you play the game, it is quite funny.
The place where the game shines is in the sound department. No surprise as to why it is amazing because the sound was infact handled by Skywalker Sound! If you've seen the Star Wars movies (if you haven't seen atleast one of them then please stab yourself in the foot...no really, stab yourself!) then you know that the music and sound shines. In fact it shines so much it glows! Well guess what? All the authentic Star Wars music and sound effects are in the game. There is nothing quite like hearing the Star Wars theme in surround sound. Sound effects are awesome. Nothing like a long battle with the Seperatists with explosions all over the place and weapons being fired all around you.
Overall, The Clone Wars is a great game with awesome sound, nice visuals, and great multiplayer that should be checked out by every Star Wars fan. Even if you are not a fan of Star Wars you will enjoy the game. Highly recommended by us here at Xbox Hardcore.
Report Card:
Gameplay = 8.5
Graphics = 8
Audio = 9
Replay Value = 9
Overall: 8.7/10
Click here for the Clone Wars screenshots gallery!
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