article by Milesh Bhana

Throughout the website’s short lifespan, we’ve been talking about saving cash on games. The general consensus has been don’t buy new, get older or second hand games. Most of us here at budgetgamer have been pretty good about that.

Of course, starting 24 October, all of that is going out the window. So much good stuff coming out that we as gamers start losing all sensibility and want the latest games now!

I mean seriously, look at this schedule!
Take A Deep Breath – It all starts on Friday | LazyGamer .:: South African Gaming News ::.

Some awesome gaming, but with the rand crashing we’ve seen games go up by approx R50-R70 and an average price of R750 for PS3/XBOX.

So today I thought I’d put in some general thoughts on how to get through this season.

1. Choose Carefully.
As much as you’d like to believe, not all of these games are going to be awesome. Try not to get them on release day, but rather wait a week for a decent batch of reviews to hit and check the forums for opinions of your peers. While reviewers are often wrong and friends may not have the same opinion as you, you’ll get a decent idea on whether or not to grab that title. Metacritic is a good place to go for game reviews.

Shop On-Line
This may be a problem for some of you without credit cards, but you can always give the cash to your mom/dad/friend and let them buy it for you. Sometimes you’ll get the game a day or two late, but it’s worth it as they are often 20% cheaper than going to the mall and buying your games there.

The best places to shop on-line are

Zaps
Usually have the best prices. Order on-line but decline the delivery charge of R40 and pick up the game yourself. THey’ll also trade some games for in-store credit. Unfortunately, they’re only in JHB, so non-JHB peeps are going to have to pay the delivery charge, which isn’t so bad if you’re buying more than one game.

BGR On-line
A relatively new player on the market, their selection is not as grand as their competitors but their prices are the same, sometimes better than Zaps and often have free delivery on selected titles. (If you order Far Cry 2 before 31 October, delivery is free). They also import some of the harder to find accessories and are definitely worth checking out.

BT Games
They’re a little more expensive than Zaps and BGR, but will often include gifts with pre-orders. If you order Gears of War 2, it’s R30 more than Zaps and BGR, but you get a GoW2 T-Shirt. If you’re not in JHB, BT games has branches nationwide (they even have a branch in PE!), so buying from them and collecting in store will usually be less than buying from a JHB based store and paying the postage.

If you pick up the latest edition of NAG Magazine, there is a supplement filled with BT Games coupons. R100 off a new PS3/PSP/Wii and R50 off an XBOX. Also a few nice gifts when purchasing certain games. You can get an XBOX Accessory bag with your purchase of Lips or Scene It – Box Office Smash.

Kalahari.net
Their prices are similar to BT Games, offer free shipping on purchases over R300 (usually the case with games) and if you’re an FNB Client you can earn more eBucks. If anything, now is a good time to abuse those loyalty/rewards programs. (and yes, i’ll write an aricle on how to abuse rewards programs soon)

3. Watch for Specials
Places like Incredible Connection, Musica, Look and Listen and Hi-Fi Corp do have decent prices. But their specials are generally on big ticket items, so for games, not the best places to shop. However, if you’re looking to get a new console, keep your eyes peeled as they’ll often drop the price or throw in a free game.

4. Know what the prices should be
As I’ve mentioned in a previous article the 360 prices have dropped, but I’ve seen many of the stores in Sandton City still charging old pricing.

5. Please, please, please, DON’T pirate!
Right now, it’s more tempting than ever to do this disgusting thing. Especially if you’re a PC/XBOX owner. I know you can get a leaked copy of Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. I’ve seen people sell copies for as little as R100. The temptation to mod your box and play games for less than the price and before anyone else is tempting. Don’t do it. Less sales in SA means less of the good titles coming this way as distributors see SA as a less than profitable territory. We’ve never had this much choice in SA, let’s keep it that way.

I hope you have found this guide useful. I’ll write another one soon highlighting more specials and tips and tricks for getting through this tough but awesome season.

Review By Warren Ferguson

Give me the Need for Speed.

Need for Speed is a series of games that started as more of a simulator way back in 1994, with each iteration getting more and more towards the casual racing game fan. The games are generally about driving really fast around city streets rather then proper laid out tracks. I thought with the new one, NFS:Undercover, being released soon that I’d review an older Need for Speed title also released on the 360 to see if you can still get a bit of fun (at a decent price, of course) before the new one comes out.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted starts off with you following Mia, the lady interest in this game into Rockport City. You get to hop into a few races in your suped up BMW M3 GTR proving yourself to be an adept and skilled racer. It’s not long before you are noticed by Sergeant Cross, the local Police Department’s answer to street racers. Your early exploits also attracts the attention of a local street racing gang led by a guy named Razor. So the cops on your back and the racing gang are trying to take you down. Basically, (I’m skipping any possible spoilers here) you lose everything, including the uber BMW M3 that you start with.

With the help of Mia, you start from scratch, getting a entry level car and working your way up. You’ll learn about the blacklist which is essentially a chart of rankings of street racers who are ranked not only by the races they win, but also by how notorious they are with the cops. Naturally, our main villain, Razor is at the top of the list with your BMW M3. The aim is to work yourself up the blacklist by first earning the right to challenge a driver, then beating them. There are 15 drivers to beat.

The game itself is your typical arcade racer, you are given a taste of the later game in the beginning when they allow you to race with your BMW and then it is stripped away and you are left with the cheaper cars. There are a fair amount of decent cars to drive, from the Golf GTi (Mk5) to cars from Lamborghini, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Dodge, Lexus and a few others. There are also some modding and cutomisation options. While not as deep as what’s found in NFS:Underground 2, it at least allows you to get a fairly unique ride as well as getting some upgrades to keep you going until you can buy (or win) a better car.

There are a few new and interesting additions that made it into Most Wanted, one of the new features is crash breaker, which when pressed puts the car into a bullet time mode where everything slows down for you to react quicker then your opponent. This is particularly useful for doing a handbrake U-turn and other of the more advanced maneuvers.

A welcomed return is the cops. The police are back and this time they mean business, with a heat rating which is similar to the wanted stars in Grand Theft Auto, the higher the heat level the better the cops.
My favourite part of this game is not actually the racing, I find this too linear and get boring, what I love about this game is the pursuits you start with the cops. You can either jump into a pursuit or one can start by you speeding past a cop, or ramming into a cop/civilian car, the music changes from the EA Trax to more intense chase type music and you begin. I’ve spent a good while playing in pursuit trying to increase my Cost to State and bounty. This is done by trying to get your pursuits to last long and doing as much damage as possible.

There are also “Pursuit Breakers” spread across the city. These are specially marked obstacles that’ll delay the cops. Things like a petrol station, a donut shop sign, or scaffolding at a construction site. Crash into it and you’ll be treated to a brief cutscene of it falling down, giving you a cinematic feel.

What is also different about this NFS is the cutscenes. They are done in an odd CGI method which makes it look closer to the movie “300”. There is also a shallow, but cheesy and entertaining storyline with a definite nod to the Fast and the Furious movies.

The graphics on this are pretty decent, even by today standards. You have bloom effects coming out of tunnels, rain looks good against the windscreen, smoke, dust, leaves and various other debris blow around pretty realistically, the cars are well modeled. I did notice a bit of a frame drop though on certain races and in particular when there is a massive police pursuit happening.

Sound is also really good, you can hear your engine roar all around you, the cars following you sound realistic and in general, the other sounds are good. The soundtrack is a nice mix between some rock and hip hop and compliments the game really well.

The controls are tight, much tighter then later incarnations for some reason, cars of course do not handle anywhere realistically but it lends itself to the feel of the game. With your rear sliding out when you need to, with you drifting in and out of corners with ease, it makes you feel a bit like Paul Walker in the movie as if you can do anything.

The game itself is really fun, I’d recommend this title to a new NFS person or to someone looking for a not to serious racer and something to fill the time. Next time I am going to do a review on Carbon which had some additions and some removals.

Verdict: 3 stars
I am going to give this game a solid 3 out of 5, there are some issues but at the current pricing, you’ll definitely get your moneys worth.

Release Date: 2 December 2005

If you’ve managed to tear yourself from whatever game you’re playing you might have noticed that world markets are crashing, the R/$ is at an all time low. Chances are, everything is going to go up leaving you less money for games, and then games will possibly go up making this even harder.

I did see a few interesting things to cheer up a pessimistic gamer and I thought I share some of it.

Firstly, if you were considering an XBOX360, you’ll be happy to know that they’ve cut the price.

As of this week,
360 Arcade – R1799 (down from R1999)
360 Pro – R2699 (down from R2999 AND the 20GB Hard drive has been upgraded to a 60GB)
360 Elite – R3499 (down from R3999)

Yes, you’ve read correctly, a next-gen console can be had for under R2000!

Also, some of the older 360 games have had their prices cut to R189.

The Darkness
Brian Lara Cricket 2007
Colin Mcrae DiRT
LMA Manager 2007
Overlord
Clive Barker’s Jericho
Moto GP’06
Stuntman 2
Moto GP’07
Ratatouille
Juiced 2
Conan
Cars 2
Dead Rising
Lost Planet
Flatout Ultimate Carnage
Time Shift
Crash of the Titans
F.E.A.R – Files
Spiderwick Chronicles
Virtua Fighter 5

And lastly, I noticed that take2.co.za have introduced a nifty little feature on their website. If you go to the gaming section, they have a Budget Games section where they’ve compiled a list of games that are available at reasonable prices. Convienient if there are some older gems that you can’t find second hand. While their prices are more-or-less the same as other e-tailers, it’s the easiest budget game search (for South Africans anyway that you’ll find on-line)

So yes, things are probably going to get bad, but you can at least take comfort that there are some awesome games going cheap for all consoles.

Review by Milesh Bhana

I’ve always loved futuristic racing games. Invariably, they always have these funked out hovercraft-type things armed to the teeth with destructive weapons. The aim is to win the race by playing dirty. For the past decade, Wipeout has pretty much been the game to play if this is your cuppa tea (or F-Zero for the Nintendo fans).

Last year, a new game decided to take on Wipeout with a few interesting twists on this type of game. The biggest difference between exiting games like this and Fatal Inertia is that the weapons in existing game rely more on destruction while Fatal Inertia relies on using physics to throw your enemies off course.

I’ll have to give Fatal Inertia top marks for its creative arsenal of weapons. The most basic weapons rely on magnets. The magnets will attach to the wing of a craft disrupting the handling slightly. If not removed quickly, the magnet will explode doing a little damage to the craft. Often you’ll have a few magnets at your disposal so you can really mess your opponent around. If you’ve been hit with a magnet, doing a barrel roll will throw them off. If you time this maneuver correctly you’ll actually throw them onto a passing opponent.

All weapons have 2 firing modes, with the magnet weapons one is for firing to the rear, one for firing forward. With rocket type weapons, the rear fire actually attaches the rocket to your own craft giving you a nice boost.

There is also an EMP which will disrupt all opponents in front of you for a few seconds, a time dilator which will slow down time for all opponents.

The most interesting weapon is the grappling hook. It has a few uses; you can attach an opponent to the ground, tie two opponents together or if you’re really accurate with it, attach one end to the ground and slingshot around a corner.

Fatal Inertia looks really good (and it should seeing that it’s running on Unreal Engine 3) There are 5 environments; a frozen wasteland, a swampy forest, a canyon run, an island paradise and a volcanically active area. There are 10 tracks going through each of these environments giving you 50 in total. Each environment looks really good, especially the island one with some nice looking water effects. They all have a few varied weather conditions to give it a unique feel. (Paradise Island at sunset looks breathtaking)

There are a few race types to choose from. Combat Race is a race to win at all costs mode which is pretty much the staple for this type of game. Weapons are usually acquired by flying over pods which will randomly give you a weapon. Magnet Madness is the most interesting as you’re always equipped with magnets and there are no pickups. It’s much more combat intensive and things get a little crazy.

Unfortunately, the crafts themselves don’t handle too well and with the higher speed ones you’ll find yourself hitting the walls more often than not. The track design starts out simplistic but with later levels I found navigating around the track to be a little more difficult than it should have been. Fortunately, there’s a reset button which doesn’t cost you too much in terms of lost time.

As the game progresses you’ll unlock a few newer crafts and a few parts allowing a small amount of customization on the handling as well as a few basic aesthetic options. Doing really well in the tournaments

Starting out, I must say that I really enjoyed the game, but as the more difficult levels unlocked, navigating the tracks became near impossible and could only be done by playing it multiple times and memorizing every corner and shortcut. Also, there are gates scattered around the track that you must fly though. If you miss one you have to turn back and the crafts usually don’t have an easy way to turn around, so missing one of these gates is really costly.

The opponent AI is brutal and they know the tracks really well and will navigate them perfectly and make good use of their weapons. Getting a lead doesn’t last very long as they remain hot on your heels and will gun you down. Now I don’t mind a little bit of a challenge, but I found that the poor handling of the crafts and bad track design really made things a little unfair.

Verdict: 2 stars
Games like this really annoy me. Not because they aren’t good, but more because they really could have been. The first few levels were loads of fun and it’s a pity that the gameplay flaws became so glaring in the later parts of the game. If you’re a PS3 owner, you’re better off picking up Wipeout HD. If you’re an XBOX owner and you’ve really been craving a game like this, then it’s still worth playing, but if I were you, I’d rather rent it.

Release Date: 11 September 2007

Zaps – R299
Take 2 – R245
Approx 2nd hand price on xbox-360.co.za – R200

by Warren Ferguson

In our previous guide we looked at alternatives to surround sound. This time we’re looking at going the whole nine yards. Surround sound for your console is not out of your reach, with this guide we can take a look at how you can afford to step into the world of surround sound.

Firstly, you should look at the type of surround sound your console supports.

The Nintendo Wii uses Dolby Pro-Logic II, which technically isn’t surround sound. It still uses a stereo signal and tries to simulate surround sound and it does a pretty decent job.

Both the XBOX 360 and the Playstation 3 use Dolby Digital which means that the sound signal consists of 6 channels. 2 Front, 2 rear, 1 centre and a low frequency channel. 6 channels, 6 speakers giving you sound that not only surrounds you, but also gives you a good sense of where things are resulting in a gaming experience like none other.

The PS3 also supports DTS (Digital Theatre Surround). It’s really another surround format which many will argue is superior to Dolby Digital. Most modern Dolby Digital receivers will also support DTS, but if it’s DTS you’re looking for, it always helps to read the box. The logos for both are usually clearly displayed.

A Typical Dolby Digital Setup

The Basics

You will need a Dolby Digital receiver. This is the heart of what we are looking at and of course is why I am writing this guide, you will also require this cable in the picture, it is called a TOSLink/Optical cable and it plugs between your console and the receiver, it should come with your speaker system but if it doesn’t, ask at your local audio/visual shop for it.

TOSLINK/Optical cable

Look on the back of the consoles for the optical port that matches the pictures below, it is a smallish square plug. The cable itself is a little more rigid then your normal cables as it is optical so be gentle with it.

XBOX 360 Optical Port

Playstation 3 Optical Port

If you have a XBOX 360 Arcade, you’ll notice that the AV Connector does NOT have an optical port. You’re unfortuntely going to have to fork out R350 to R400 for an HD-AV cable or VGA cable in order to enjoy surround sound.

Headphones

This is by far the cheapest you will find for your move to 5.1. You can use the normal PC surround headsets and a pair should cost you around R1000.

If you’re an XBOX 360 owner who makes use of XBOX Live then this is a little complicated as you’ll require the use of your mic. I’ve only really found one solution in SA that handles both the 5.1 side and having the mic, this is the Triton AX360 Dolby Digital 5.1 Gaming Headset, which sells for just under R1500.

Triton AX360 Gaming Headset

These headsets will give you true Dolby Digital sound via 4 speakers in each cup, both of these will also work on the Wii but only via Pro-logic II. There are many 5.1 headphones available out there but please remember you are looking for one that is Dolby Digital certified as otherwise you are going to be compromising on your sound.

The advantages to headphones is size and of course not blasting your neighbours away. The disadvantages in the case of 5.1 is cables, there are going to be a lot of cables to plug in and they require power.

Also, using headphones for long periods of time can leave you feeling tired and not wanting to play anymore.

PC Speakers

Yes, we advised you too look at them for our previous guide and I’m going to be advising it too. There are many great PC Speaker systems out there that offer 5.1, even a few at a decent price that offer Dolby Digital which is what we are looking for. The only limitation in the PC speaker field is your pocket, I personally have gotten myself a set of Creative GD580s. This set was not too pricey (approx R2000 depending on the shop you go to) it came with all the cables required, a really good sub-woofer, the satellites were a little disappointing but with time I got used to them. The other issue was the length of the rear speakers cables, coming in at 2 meters they were just too short, so I purchased another set of 2 meter long RCA cables, used a female to female jack and connected the back speakers to that, thus extending the speakers range.

Creative GD580

There are also the Logitech Z series of speakers to look at, the wireless set being the Z5450s sits at around R2800 and the Z5500, which are highly rated, sits at around R3500.

Logitech Z5500

There are also some fairly decent offerings from a company called Divoom which is around R1500 to R2000 depending on the feature set, look at the Comet-A1 of this make.

As with everything there are some pros and cons with regards to getting PC Speakers, the main pro is that the sound can be enjoyed by everyone, if correctly setup, you will experience a rich crystal clear sound.

The con is, of course that it can get loud, so your neighbours may not appreciate it as much as you do. You require space and will likely end up with cables running the length of your floors, easy to trip over if you don’t hide your cable nicely.

Also, with PC speakers, the number of inputs is usually substantially less when compared to home theatre systems, it’s not neccessarily a bad thing, it really just depends on how many devices you want to connect to your receiver.

The Creative set i mentioned earlier has 3 inputs, Co-axial, Optical and standard RCA, each one of these has already been filled, my DVD player outputs via the Co-axial which is another form of cable that you can use to output Dolby Digital, my Xbox 360 uses the optical and my DSTV Decoder goes through the normal RCA.

Home Theatre Systems

A home theatre system is similar to the PC speaker sets I’ve mentioned, the big difference is that the amp and the receiver is usually the same device. With the PC speakers, the amp is usually hidden in the sub-woofer and the receiver is a smaller device. These usually have higher outputs and are hence more expensive.

Having a dedicated receiver will also give you more inputs that your typical PC setup and as they are intended for bigger rooms, the rear speaker cables are actually long enough.

They are however, a little pricier, with home theatre sets starting at around R3000. Generally speaking, because the receiver has more features the speakers are smaller when compared to a PC speaker set in the same price range (like the Logitech Z5500), but you can always upgrade the speakers later.

There are many entry level Home Theatre systems from Sony, Panasonic and LG.

The big thing to beware of are the cheaper Home Theatre systems (going for around R1500). These are usually just a DVD player with 6 speakers, where the DVD player does the processing. Always make sure that the set you buy has an optical input port. Yes, they do Dolby Digtal processing, but only for the DVDs, they aren’t equipped to accept a Dolby Digital signal from another device (i.e your console).

Sony DDW880 6.1 Home Theatre System

I switched over to true 5.1 and I was blown away, being able to hear the enemies all around you, thunderstorms that sound and feel real, and of course gun fire and explosions all around you. It really is immersion. My advice for the budget gamer is too look at getting a decent set of PC speakers and get your console working on that, as you will not be disappointed.

Review by Clinton Butler

A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away…

LucasArts brings us Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, a light-hearted action adventure encompassing all six episodes. The basic appeal for this game is that it lets you revisit all the memorable moments from Star Wars with cute little Lego people wielding a light-saber.

There are 36 levels (6 per episode) and over a 160 playable characters; more than enough to keep you entertained. Once you have completed the first level, you have the choice to enter any other level in the game. This is done through the Mos-Eisly Cantina, a lobby system which perfectly integrates all the episodes into one solid game. After ‘strolling’ a Walker, raising complete carnage, you can go straight to pulling off troopers’ arms with a Wookie. Its all up to you.

Multiplayer co-op is the clincher in this game. You can enter and exit instantly without affecting other gamers’ play. This makes it ideal for family and friend play without the hassle of trying to get everyone together at the same time. However, when you do, you can annoy them with tales of how Star Wars affected your childhood. Great.

Online co-op is also added for this edition. It runs well except for rather annoying pausing to sync players.

The gameplay is both frenzied and constantly changing; from deflecting blaster shots with a light saber to the vehicular action available in every episode. The Death Star trench run, waiting for that one magical shot, was my personal favourite.

There are plenty of puzzles to solve, nothing too complicated, but thoroughly enjoyable. Most need the help of another, either the AI or a friend, making them more interactive. Some of the puzzles can only be completed in Free Play (unlocked after finishing a level) with the use of a different character to the original story. This entices you to replay a level, especially if you are an achievement go-getter.

Graphics are exactly what you would expect, nothing exceptional, but more than adequate. After all, it is Lego pieces and nothing more. The game portrays this perfectly as each level seems to be painstakingly built from scratch with shiny Lego blocks. I just might go scratch out my old sets and build my very own pod racer.

Being able to smash and break almost anything on the level adds to the nostalgic appeal of all that is Lego. Visual effects are also well done, but not as to off-set the basic builds of each level.

The story plays the same as the movies, but is done brilliantly. Cut scenes add a humorous and quirky take on all of the famous scenes of the saga without diverting too much from the original plot. You will laugh. I guarantee it.

The levels in the Extra area were a lot of fun. Most are pre-builds of levels in the game, but there is one where you get to play as Darth Vader himself. It’s a pity that there was not more action with the Dark Lord as it would have brought balance to the force.

Verdict: 4.5 stars
Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a must for die-hard fans of the saga and anyone who enjoys an action adventure without the guts and gore of most modern titles. The jump in-jump out co-op makes this title a winner.

Release Date: 9 November 2007

Zaps – R274

Take2 – R270

Approx 2nd hand price on xbox-360.co.za – R120

Editor’s Note:
There are actually 3 Lego Star Wars Titles Available
Lego Star Wars : The Video Game(contains Episodes 1,2 and 3) on XBOX, PS2 and PC
Lego Star Wars II : The Original Trilogy (Episodes 4,5 and 6) on XBOX, XBOX360, PS2 and PC
Lego Star Wars : The Complete Saga (all 6 episodes) on XBOX360, PS3 and Wii.
Naturally, you should try to get “The Complete Saga”, as it will give you the best bang for buck.

Review by Richard Marsh

I want you to take a moment and think of all the things you can do with R200. Maybe it’s a night out at the local watering hole. Maybe even a cheap dinner and movies for you and the significant other. Or maybe, you can spend it on the greatest skateboarding game ever made. EA’s Skate has surpassed the Tony Hawk franchise as the definitive skateboarding game. This coming from someone who:

a) Generally doesn’t like EA games (on high horse principal) and
b) Has been an avid supporter of the Tony Hawk games since Pro Skater 2.

But how exactly does Skate perform this miraculous task you ask? Well, let’s start with the control scheme. Gone are the days of butting mashing to perform tricks. The right analogue stick controls your feet. So if you’d like to perform an ollie, you move the stick down and quickly back up again. Pop-shuvit? Down and half-circle to the right or left. It’s tricky at first and comes with the “easy-to-learn-hard-to-master” badge. But it’s so damn intuitive that not before long, you’ll be doing nollie hardflips to a smithy grind in no time. That is, if you have the patience. You see, what makes this game so great is mastering the tricks at whim. Don’t be surprised if your controller does an aerial route towards the TV. But at the same time, you’ll be truelly rewarded when you do nail that seemingly impossible sequence.

Right, so we know the controls are great and the reason you’ll be sticking with this game for hours, but what about the rest of the package? Well, the camera is a bit awkward in the beginning. The idea behind the camera is that you are being followed by your own personal cameraman who puts your mad skills to film. So the camera is down low and up close, like a real skate video. So at times you aren’t getting the best vantage point, but it’s something you do get use to.

Sound in this game is very authentic as you hit rails, power-slide down roads and perform flip tricks. It’s so good in fact, that you barely notice it if you’ve ever enjoyed skateboarding in real life. The soundtrack, as always with EA, is great and features staple sounds from the skateboard culture. You’ll probable find yourself singing along as your cruise through the open world. The fictional city you find yourself in has some great hidden spots and and is full of opportunity for any creative skater out there. What I really enjoyed was the fact that you could just skate through the world, looking for that great spot. When you find it, you apply your own style and approach. It’s what skateboarding is all about and this game captures that feeling to a tee.

Skate never takes itself too serious and seems to enjoy making fun of both the gaming and skating cultures. The story is enjoyable and serves the player well in advancing through the game. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but the basic gist is that you have to rebuild your career after a very entertaining accident. You’ll hook up with real life pro skaters as you try to get sponsored and earn some street cred. Though there is a lot of sponsored products, I was still yearning for more and would really have appreciated a personalised pro-board later on.

Another small annoyance is that you can’t get off the skateboard at will. So even a small set of stairs can serve up frustration as you cruise around. Luckily, this is being added to Skate 2. But for now, you’ll have to suffer the frustration. The game also sports some bugs, as the game tends to freeze up randomly from time to time. It probable staled 4 times in my 15 hour stint, so it’s not the end of the world. Other bugs include weird collision detection, rocketing you off to space or hanging in limbo.

This doesn’t occur too much, so it shouldn’t detract from the overall experience.

Online features are plentiful and rock solid. You can take snapshots and videos of your avatar in action and upload them to the EA servers. There your peers, friends and who ever can rate your leet skills. Multi-player is fun and can easily act as a time sink. Even with my shoddy 384k line I could enjoy international competition, if there weren’t too many people in the lobby.

Again, I can’t emphasise enough, what a good game this is. It has completely changed what I expect from skateboarding games. Everything about this game screams quality and has the excellent addictiveness we gamers yearn for. Skate 2 will be doing the rounds next year, so I suggest picking up this game and wet your appetite for shredding pavement. For a measly 200 bucks, there really is no reason not to get this game.

Verdict: 4.5 stars

Release Date: 28 September 2007

Take2 – R181

Zaps – R184

Approx 2nd hand price on xbox-360.co.za – R150

by Milesh Bhana

In this generation of consoles, one of the biggest changes we’ve seen has been the improvement of graphical quality. Games like Gears of War, Uncharted:Drake’s Fortune, Metal Gear Solid 4 have shown us what the console’s are capable of graphically.

When seeing these games looking their best, we’re always shown the game, the “way it’s meant to be played” on a flat paneled widescreen High Definition (HD) TV.

As luck would have it, these are substantially more expensive that your standard television set, which natually, is where we come in. For many of you money, or simply not having enough space prevents you from getting an HD display.

A simple and cheap solution is to simply use a PC monitor. While these may not be HD in the strictest sense, the technology is similar enough for you to get the same benefit. The best part about using a PC monitor is that there’s a chance you may already have one.

A 22″ Widescreen LCD can be found for around R2500-R3000, and 19″ Widescreen LCDs start from as little as R1800.

To use a PC Monitor with your console, all you need is the correct cables. In this guide we tell you what you’ll need.

VGA vs DVI
There are two types of inputs on a PC monitor; DVI and VGA. Most new monitors use DVI (a digital signal) and the older ones use VGA (analogue) signal. Older (and sometimes budget) monitors will typically have just a VGA port, newer ones will either have a DVI port, or will have both types of inputs. While you can always get a converter to convert VGA to DVI or vice versa, it does help to know which inputs your monitor has.

The difference between the two is that VGA is an analogue signal and DVI is a digital signal.

A VGA input looks like this :

VGA input

A DVI Input looks like this :

DVI-Input

Playstation 3

The PS3 works with a digital signal, so you’re going to need a DVI compliant monitor. A PS3 needs an HDMI cable to connect to an HD-TV. Fortunately, HDMI is based on DVI, so converting from one to another is simply a matter of using a different cable.

HDMI-DVI Cable

These can be found for around R350.

[Edit : As it turns out, you cannot use any DVI-compliant monitor with a PS3, the monitor must also support HDCP. It's a fairly new standard so older monitors will not have it. If you're buying a monitor for use with a PS3, please take note of this.]

XBOX 360

The 360 supports both digital and analogue signals. The digital way is done the same way as with the PS3 (HDMI-DVI cable). However, the analogue solution works better with the 360 and the Official Microsoft 360 VGA AV Cable is a much better solution.

Microsoft XBOX 360 VGA AV Cable

Wii

With the other two consoles, using a PC monitor gave you the benefit of having a cheap HD display. The Wii is not a HD console, so trying a cheap HD solution is a little bit of a waste when a bigger TV would do the job better and cheaper. Why spend R3000 on a 22” (55cm) LCD when you can spend less on a 74cm TV?

For those of you who still wish to use a PC monitor with a Wii, it can be done. Wii-VGA cables are available but rare. The Wii uses an analogue signal so you’ll need a monitor with a VGA input.

The cable can be obtained from VDigi Electonics. However, there is limited support when using the virtual console to play Gamecube games. You’ll have to import it for around $40. Including the postage, this should set you back around R400.

Wii VGA Cable

This solution is definitely not for everyone. 22″ is a pretty decent size for a PC monitor, but in a typical living room, it’s tiny. If you’re a college student living in a dorm, or perhaps you’ve got your own little gaming nest away from the living room, then using a PC monitor may be the solution you’re looking for.

Review by Luke Paruman

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, was one of the PS3’s best games of 2007. This year it got a new breath of life with a 13mb patch that allowed players to gain trophies. That’s not to say that the game did not already have a host of collectable and unlockable features from behind the scenes features, to medals & treasures that are rendered in 3D and you can view what you have collected, that alone would have required multiple re-plays and I’m glad to say it’s one of those games that I’ll happily play over and over again.

It has also been released in SA as a PS3 Platinum game, so it falls in close to our R300 budget

Uncharted is, at a glance an action adventure game, it’s got lots of action and lots of adventure. Not unlike the Indiana Jones series of movies, it gels its story and action (gameplay) so well that you could actually sit and watch someone play and find it a very enjoyable experience.

The story follows our hero Nathan Drake, the mild mannered, nice guy that always ends up getting the wrong end of the stick, on the trail of the lost treasure of El Dorado, with the help of his ancestor Sir Francis Drake’s diary and his 2 companions. The TV show presenter Elena, who initially does not really like Nathan much and is only following him around to get her big scoop and Nathan’s long time pal Sullie, the old guy who always has lost of advice and stories on hand to share and who also has a nasty past that’s about to catch up with him.

Graphically, the game is excellent with lost of lush detailed environments with some great lighting effect and stunning vista’s. I found myself crawling along the deck of a rusty WWII U-Boat hanging off of the edge of a waterfall, pausing and looking around at the scenery.

The character animations are excellent from the Motion capture to effects like Nathan’s clothing getting dirty and wet when he walks through water. The facial animations are great, a lot of games these days have some good dialogue/ story lines but during the cut scenes the characters look like talking planks, very pretty planks though, not here, they actually show emotion and you will find yourself reacting to them like you would to characters in a movie. One thing to note is that the game designers did not try to go for photo realistic faces but instead, actually used hand painted, textures.

The gameplay is nothing new. In fact, a lot of it has been seen before with the platformer styled jumping gameplay similar to the Prince of Persia / Tomb Raider games and the 3rd person action scenes with a cover mechanic ala Gears of War. It does not do anything special but it does not do anything wrong either.

The puzzles are well thought out and the diary is on hand contains clues to help, should you get stuck. The ledge jumping, wall/vine climbing and tight rope walking platform sections do not require master precision where you have to press the jump button on the 3rd step of your run up or you will miss the ledge. You won’t find yourself getting bogged down for long. There will be times where you won’t necessarily see, right away, where you need to go as the ledge you are looking for really does fit in with the mountain it is part of and does not stand out like it would in other games of the type.

The action sequences are for the most part are you vs a host of bad guys initially pirates, then better equipped and more capable enemies. They usually have a lot of guys shooting at you at once while you hug the cover, then as they are stepping back to reload, you jump out and try to kill a few, then move to the next point of cover. The AI is pretty good, if they can, they will be flanking you while the guy above you with the machine gun/sniper rifle will try to get a better angle on your hiding place and the dude with the shotty just runs at you guns blazing. Your partner AI is also well done, whomever you are with, they will be with you guns blazing, sometimes actually killing the enemy or helping you to take them out and sometimes telling you if you are doing something wrong.

It’s a pretty standard affair, duck, roll, shoot, duck, grab dead guys gun/ammo, throw the odd grenade, and after a while you will get used to the routine and wonder how the hell so many pirates came to be in the same place at the same time, even though they keep talking about how you are killing so many of them, there will be times where you find yourself without ammo and have another host of enemies to fight, but there is a simple close combat system which allows you to string together timed attacks for quick or brutal combos.

Towards the end the game does throw a curve ball at you that really does change the pace of the combat and the way you have to fight, but I’m not going to spoil the story.

Ok, enough raving, time for some ranting, the combat does at times get monotonous and there’s still too many damn pirates who, for the most part, look the same, other than that there’s nothing that will really bug you while playing the game. My biggest gripe with the game is that it’s too short, but in retrospect it’s actually a good length for a game that will be re-played often. I’m also a sucker for a good story and at the end of this one I did find myself smiling, there were a few twists and turns in the tale and not quite the ending I expected, but it was worth it and the good guy got the girl. What more can you ask for?

Verdict : 4.5 Stars

Release Date : 7 December 2007

Take2 – R335

BT Games – R359

Approx 2nd hand price on playstation-3.co.za – R300-R350

Review by Milesh Bhana

prey
n.

1. An animal hunted or caught for food; quarry
2. One that is defenseless, especially in the face of attack; a victim
3. A game about kicking some alien ass

In Prey, you play Tommy, a Cherokee mechanic who (along with his girlfriend and grandfather) gets abducted by aliens. Apart from the first chapter, the entire game takes place on a really massive alien spaceship called “The Sphere”. It’s up to Tommy to embrace his Indian heritage in order to save his girlfriend and eventually, the world.

At a glance, this game looks like Doom 3, which is not surprising seeing that it’s built on the same engine (idTech 4). Compared to Unreal Engine 3, which seems to be powering every other game, it does look a little dated, but you’re not left feeling like you’re playing a previous-gen game.

After being freed by a mysterious man, he begins his adventure and quest to save his girlfriend. The ship is disgustingly beautiful, with most things being a combination of a machine and organic material, including the weapons. As the story moves on, you’re introduced to a few characters, other abductees and the beings behind the control of the ship and your abduction.

Prey is a pretty standard First Person Shooter with one or two twists to keep it interesting. So if you’re an experienced FPS gamer, nothing is really going to surprise you.

The weapons look really cool but when you ignore the funky organic designs you’ll realize that it’s almost a carbon copy of the arsenal found in Unreal Tournament. You’ll get a wide variety of weapons each with two different firing modes. The pistol doubles up as a sniper rifle, the rocket launcher is also a shield and the machine gun has a grenade launcher. Grenades can be used as mines too.

The ship does add some interesting challenges to the mix by its use of portals and gravity. The portals were probably a cool idea at the time but after playing Portal in the Orange Box, you’ll probably not be impressed by the fact that you can’t create your own. The enemies will often use them to sneak up on you. There are a few cases where they are used creatively as a part of puzzle, but more often than not it’s just a cool novelty that doesn’t get used to it’s full potential.

The liberal use of gravity and the puzzles around it are the thing that makes this game really stand out. The are pathways that will run up a wall and along a ceiling that you can walk on and rooms with switches that can change the direction gravity works. This makes for some cool puzzles, but nothing difficult enough to make you scratch your head. A little bit of looking around (hint: always look up when you’re stuck, often the solution to the puzzle will be right above you) and you’ll figure it out. There were times where I felt a little disoriented, wondering which way was up.

Early in the game Tommy’s Cherokee heritage comes into play and he learns the ability to leave his body. This can be particularly useful for sneaking around in spirit form instead of just walking into an ambush. This ability is mostly used for walking through forcefields and switching them off from the other side so your physical body can move on. Again, a cool ability to help with puzzles, but with puzzles that easy, you won’t be stuck too long. They actually leave a symbol to indicate “use spirit walk here”, just in case you don’t figure it out.

This ability also allows you to “death walk”. Basically, when you die, you leave your body to a spirit world for about 20 seconds. In the spirit world you can shoot there wraith-like spirits, the more you shoot the more health you have when you come back. Dying is now a simple mini-game and you respawn exactly where you die. It’s cool to keep you in the game, but you tend to be much more careless in frantic fights.

As for the fights, you’ll encounter a decent variety for enemies, some easy to kill and a few large scary looking aliens where you’ll need to be a little smarter. The enemy AI is pretty rudimentary, they will dodge when needed and throw grenades when they don’t have line of sight, but will seldom try and flank you or do anything particularly clever.

The levels are short and linear, but there is a nice variety of corridor crawls and really big wide open spaces. At some points in the game you’ll get to these really big rooms where you’ll need to use a shuttle to get around. The shuttle is more like a jet pack and it makes a nice break from the run and gun gameplay.

The music and atmosphere of the game comes across very effectively and you feel like you’re a part of some epic saga at some points and a little scared and creeped out at other parts. The sound effects and voice acting are good but not brilliant. The story has a few twists and turns and is interesting enough to keep you through the game, but it’s certainly not memorable.

Prey tried many cool ideas. I’ve seen many of them before, but not all in one game. The mix of puzzles and combat kept the game interesting and fun. It’s a pity that the concepts they introduced were not fleshed out better as it’s really what separates a good game from a brilliant game. Prey was simply good and is not a bad way to waste 10-12 hours to get through the single player campaign.

Prey 2 is currently in development, let’s hope they are able to build on the good ideas in this game and make an excellent one.

Verdict : 3 Stars
Prey was pretty good at the time, but just a little better than average by today’s standards.

Release Date : 14 July 2006

Usually we tell you where you can buy the game cheap here, but retailers don’t appear to be carrying new stock… (Some retailers are still trying to sell this game at the original retail price of R499) but there are plenty of second hand copies floating around.

Zaps (2nd hand) – R169

Approx 2nd hand price on xbox-360.co.za – R80-R120