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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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Serious Sam
Play as Sam "Serious" Stone, the baddest game character since Duke Nukem! What do you do when 100 enemies are all running towards you, some screaming their lungs out in hopes of making your choke? You bust out your arsenal of weapons and send them on a one way trip to the Monster Cemetery, that's what you do! You are on a quest to save your race from extinction by the ruthless hands of Mental.
Serious Sam is a game that doesn't take itself to seriously which makes the name of the game quite funny. Serious Sam's story isn't one that will make you gasp in awe such as Halo's but it gets the job done. What really sets Serious Sam apart from other First Person Shooters is the 'gun factor'. If it moves, shoot it and kill it. That's basically the whole premise of the game. 36 levels, 4 difficulty levels and intense multiplayer action.
The control is pretty much like all other FPS games on the Xbox. You use the left stick to move forward, back, and sideways while the right stick is used to turn and look up and down. You can configure the sensitivity of the control, turn on/off auto aiming/centering, or invert the axes. The Left trigger is used for jumping, while the Right one is used to shoot. All in all, quite easy to get into. If you've played a different FPS game on Xbox then Serious Sam shouldn't be to hard to control.
The visual side of Serious Sam is quite nice. The menus are easy to navigate and have a fun feel to them. Cut scenes are very well done and to top it off they are hilarious! Serious Sam is well modeled and detailed aswell. If you didn't know, Sam got a new look for the Xbox incarnation of the game which makes him look tougher while still looking like an average Joe out to save the world. For the most part, the frame rate is at 60 frames per second and only drops a bit when there are a lot of enemies on screen. But hey, you won't be worried about the frame rate when you've got 100 different and unique monsters coming towards you with only one thing on their mind, "Kill!" The environments are nicely detailed, although its mostly a desert. Most of the game takes place inside temples and whatnot but you will see some action outside aswell.
The sound in Serious Sam is nothing revolutionary but it gets the job done. Most of the time when you are walking down corridors, etc. the game will be silent. Only when a monster appears does the music start to kick in. A cool monster in the game is this 'guy' who comes running at you, screaming like there is no tomorrow, with 2 bombs in his hands. I guess you can call him a Monster Terrorist (be aware this game was made before the whole 9/11 terrorist attacks). You will hear him coming and trust me on this one, you will get freaked out because you don't know where he is coming from! Average sound for Serious Sam. It would have been nice if you could use a custom soundtrack. Imagine blasting the bad guys to your favorite tunes!
Before I conclude this review, there is one thing that I would like to point out. This game will freeze on you and give you the "Dirty Disc" error more than once. I guess I just got a bad copy and that Gotham Games has replaced the defective discs. So if you get one that causes this, be sure to let Gotham Games know! It was a shame when this started to occur. And no, it is not my Xbox that is messed up, I tried all of my other 19 games and they all worked perfectly. So, come on Gotham! Make some good copies!
Ok, now that my "Dirty Disc" complaint is over, let's finish this review. Serious Sam doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a 'shoot everything' game with hundreds of monsters and cool weapons and some crazy multiplayer. Definitely worth a rental. The purchase is up to you though. Since there are a lot of FPS on the Xbox, the decision will be hard, so choose wisely but if you want a game that is fun and over-the-top, then Serious Sam is your game.
Report Card:
Gameplay = 8
Graphics = 8
Audio = 7
Replay Value = 8
Overall: 8/10
Click here for the Serious Sam screenshots gallery!
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