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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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Kill.Switch
Kill.Switch is an all-out 3rd person action game. The most time you'll have of peace and quiet is 5 seconds. The premise of Kill.Switch is to move through the game area under intense fire from your enemies. There are objects placed in the levels that are there for you to take cover. Cars, poles, sofas, etc. Use them wisely and move to the next cover are carefully. I like to call Kill.Switch a "Duck-N-Shoot" game. The great thing about this type of game is that it is extremely fun and addictive.
Of course, the main reason why kill.switch is such as fun game is due in large part to the responsive control. You never feel hindered by the control layout and flow of things. Another reason why it is so fun is due to an incredibly cool feature called Blindfire. This feature allows you to shoot at enemies without having to stand up or peek around corners. It basically allows you to shoot without looking. Imagine yourself taking cover behind an abandoned car and there are enemies everywhere. Now raise your weapon over your head and start shooting! Pray that the bullets will hit the enemies. Luckily you don’t have to worry about the bullets hitting their target or not in kill.switch. You can eventually kill all the enemies using Blindfire but it will take longer than actually standing up and shooting. I’d recommend a combination of both.
The control layout is as follows: The Left Thumbstick is used to move while the Right Thumbstick is used to Aim and Look. The Left Trigger is used to crouch and take cover against objects in the play area while the Right Trigger is used to fire your selected weapon. The D-Pad has two functions. Press right or left to cycle through weapons or press up or down to cycle through your different grenade types. The A button is used to dive, the B button is used to bash your enemies with the butt of your weapon, the X button allows you to throw a grenade, and last but not least the Y button is the button used to interact with objects, such as doors. Finally, the Black button is used to reload your weapon and the White button is used to cycle your weapons.
Speaking of weapons. You get to choose from ten different weapons and four different grenades. For all you gun fanatics out there that visit the site, the weapons are as follows: M4, M203, AK47, AKU, AKUG, HK5A3, HK5SD5, M1, MCRT 300, and M249. The four grenade types are: Grenade, Mini Grenade, Sticky Grenade, Flash Grenade. All the weapons are very cool and fun to use… in the game, of course.
Visually, kill.switch won’t win any awards. The graphics scream PS2, which is a shame considering the incredible amount of power the Xbox has. Don’t get me wrong though, the visuals aren’t complete crap, they just could have used some beefing-up for all us Xbox gamers that are used to Halo/Splinter Cell quality visuals, that’s all. Levels vary from a desert level to a naval base. Animation is average at best. The biggest complaint in the animation area comes from the enemies -- they seem too "stiff" at times. Overall, though, the visuals get the job done. Extra point for cool head-shots though!
Sound is where kill.switch shines the least. Sure the fire fights sound great but that’s not the only thing a game can have going for it in the sound department. Voice acting is bad, like all other video games…. What’s up with that? You’d figure they use the budget for the voice acting instead of using some horrible actors that seem to have been paid in peanuts.
Overall though, kill.switch shines due to the sheer fun that comes from playing it. It is highly enjoyable and unique… something that we don’t see often in games nowadays. Only thing that might draw people away is the lack of multiplayer (online and offline) and the length of the game, it is a bit short a la Max Payne. Complaints aside, kill.switch is a nice surprise for 2003, and I like surprises.
Report Card:
Gameplay = 8.5
Graphics = 7.5
Audio = 7
Replay Value = 7
Overall: 8/10
Click here for the Kill.Switch screenshots gallery!
Click here for the official Kill.Switch site!
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