Category Archives: Reviews

Game Review - Ultimate Beach Soccer

Beach Bums

If the Better Business Bureau were ever to do a seminar on how to identify false advertising, Ultimate Beach Soccer should be their centerpiece. With the word "beach" in the title and a cover adorned by two bikini-clad women you would think Ultimate Beach Soccer was just another title trying to capitalize on the popularity of other hormone-enraging titles such as DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball or Outlaw Volleyball. Unfortunately, like those games the gameplay absolutely sucks in UBV, but there isn’t a single digital gal to give at least the guys some relief. What we’re left with instead is a … Continue reading Beach Bums →

Game Review - Backyard Wrestling

Violent, Demented Fun

Backyard Wrestling is not something for the kiddies. Though a very fascinating American subculture, the Backyard Wrestling videos contain everything you wouldn’t want your little brother seeing. Backyard Wrestlers aren’t just athletes – they’re machines. Immune to pain, backyard wrestlers do everything from stab each other with bottles, hit each other with barbed wire enwrapped bats, and even fall three stories through tables engulfed in flames. It’s sick, it’s demented, and unbelievably entertaining to anyone who doesn’t have a weak stomach. So, when Eidos announced half a year or so ago that they would be release a game based on … Continue reading Violent, Demented Fun →

Game Review - NFL Street

Takin' it to the Street

Let me take you to a place where there are no "Mile High Stadiums" or "Lombardi Fields." No camera crews or sellout crowds. No big commercial deals or million dollar contracts and no playoff berths or Superbowl appearances. Just a place where serious ballers go to live their dreams, play for bragging rights, defend their honor and their turf and of course do a little trash-talking. Any true baller knows that the origin of all football began in a backyard, or in a wide-open field, on the blacktop of an abandoned parking lot, in the alleyways of a Slum, or … Continue reading Takin' it to the Street →

Game Review - ESPN NHL Hockey

GiN 2004 Hockey Report

Last years virtual NHL season saw a new champion emerge in the form of Sega Sports’ NHL 2K3, whose realistic gameplay and newly acquired ESPN presentation was able to overcome the shadow created by EA Sports. EA’s NHL 2003 fell below expectations with gameplay that felt way too arcade-like, and the addition of the "Gamebreaker" feature (used mainly in the NBA Street series) didn’t help much for NHL purists, which was sad considering how I considered the previous NHL 2002 to be a vast improvement on the series. What Madden used to suffer with an "odd year curse" seems to … Continue reading GiN 2004 Hockey Report →

Game Review - ESPN NFL Football

Ready for Some Football!

Football season is here at last. And what a first week it was! Once again, Houston wins their first game of the season (at the expense of poor Miami, who already put coach Dave Wannstedt on the hot seat), Former Patriots Drew Bledsoe and Lawyer Milloy deliver a big "in your face" to their former team in a 31-0 Bills Blowout, Brett Favre throws a record tying four picks in a loss, and best of all, the 49ers defense nukes the Bears in head coach Dennis Erickson’s debut. At the time of this writing I know we are heading into … Continue reading Ready for Some Football! →

Game Review - Rocky

Rocky Wins by Knock-Out

There are few series that ended as terribly as the Rocky series. Bad acting, Sly not even fighting, and a Don King look-alike? Sylvester Stallone said he was thinking of making a Rocky VI, but I don’t know how he could top the crap he showed me in the series’ 5th outing. The series one blunder and my jokes about it aside, the Rocky movies were some pretty good stuff. Though on the surface it looked like just showcases of some intense boxing action, in moments of the movies excellence they could unbelievably raw views of the human spirit at … Continue reading Rocky Wins by Knock-Out →