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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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Ultimate Beach Soccer
"Get ready to hit the beach! The first Beach Soccer video game designed especially for fans of soccer and extreme sports! Discover all the excitement of this new sport which is taking soccer's greatest stars by storm! Set in unique and exotic locations spanning the globe to include: Rio, France, Japan and Venice Beach, California, Ultimate Beach Soccer's got it all. Awesome players, spectacular moves, laser shows, DJs spinnin' phat original tunes… and of course you can't forget the ladies!"
That is how DreamCatcher Games describes UBS. Now let me tell you what is misleading about that description. Fans of extreme sports like skateboarding, BMX, etc -- not soccer. -- I don’t know what is unique of the cities when all of the arenas look pretty much the same. Average players with decent moves is a better way of describing the players. Laser shows, DJ with "phat" beats and ladies? More like the same intro for each match that gets so repetitive you wish you could permanently turn it off in the options menu .
Ok, so now onto the review. When you think soccer you think huge stadiums full of screaming fans. You think of the huge grass field and the announcer screaming "Gooooooooooooooool!" - You probably don’t think about a beach and sand. Well turns out there is ac actual federation of professional Beach Soccer. I guess the saying "You learn something new everyday" comes into play here. Well after I let the shock/confusion pass me. I loaded up the game and starting kicking ass.
My biggest surprise was that I actually enjoyed it. I am more of a EA Sports’ FIFA games fan but actually found this variation of soccer quite enjoyable. Although the game mechanics themselves aren’t as fine-tuned as they should be UBS is a good first step.
There are five men per team. Four on the ‘field’ and one goalie. Beach Soccer works pretty much the same as "real" soccer. You pass the ball back and forth and try to score a goal. Simple enough. While soccer game controls haven’t always been the easiest to map out on a controller, UBS’ controls are good enough.
The Left Thumbstick is used to move your player. The Right Trigger is used to run, while the Left Trigger is used dribble the ball or select the player closest to the ball. The A is used to pass or to perform a standing tackle. X is used to take a shot at the ball or to perform a sliding tackle. B is used to perform moves such as bouncing the ball on your knee. Last but not least the Y button is used to bring up the pass icons (A, B, X, Y) -- after you press Y once, you press the button that corresponds to the player that you want to pass the ball to.
The game is responsive about 80% of the time. The other 20% is when the AI of your team mates seems to banish. On occasion they will have the ball right in front of them and they will just stand there, doing nothing. This becomes a pain at times. The game is based on soccer, a team sport, so you would think your team would be more responsive.
Visually, Ultimate Beach Soccer is not much of a looker. The overall look
of the game is that of a low-budget game. Textures are bland, character detail is sparse, and overall fluidness is non-existent. While the game won’t win any awards for visuals, it isn’t as terrible as you might imagine. For a low-budget $30 game, the visual quality is good enough.
Sound pretty much goes down the drain after the first time you play. DJ music becomes annoying and repetitive. Commentary is down-right horrible. Repetitive, repetitive, and did I mention repetitive? As far as other sounds go, crowd cheers are crowd cheers and balls being kicked sound like balls being kicked. Not enough to save the sound though. Custom soundtrack would have been nice. Or how about no music at all? Because really, does anyone consider DJ sounds music?
Overall, Ultimate Beach Soccer is a game that could have been so much better if some more time was spent on improving the graphics and replacing the music with actual good music, not to mention a commentator that sounds like a human! If you turn off the commentary and music though, UBS becomes an enjoyable rental. Even at $30 I can’t recommend a purchase. If you want a real soccer game then buy FIFA 2004. If you want something different then rent UBS. It will keep you intrigued for a few days if nothing more.
Report Card:
Gameplay = 7
Graphics = 6
Audio = 5
Replay Value = 7
Overall: 6/10
Click here for the Ultimate Beach Soccer screenshots gallery!
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