Notes de presse

• PC
• 8 / 10
• Allemagne

• PS2
• 7.4 / 10
• États-Unis

• XBOX
• 8.4 / 10
• Italie

• XBOX
• 8.8 / 10
• Italie

• NGC
• 69%
• Allemagne

• PC
• 12 / 20
• France

Grosse déception que ce Rugby 2004. Avec une quasi absence de concurrence dans le domaine, EA Sports avait clairement une carte à jouer. L'essai n'est pas transformé, et nous on attend le titre qui nous fera vraiment partager les sensations du ballon ovale.

• PS2
• PC
• 6 / 20
• France

• XBOX
• 5.4 / 10
• États-Unis

• PC
• 8.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Now about that Papyrus game that we still have out there...Did EA finally produce a product worth shelving that game for? I won't go that far. Not yet. It's definitely better in almost every way than it was last year, but there are still AI issues to work out, the need to support large fields online, including AI drivers where desired, better force feedback and a re-vamped audio. All that said, the actual driving is getting quite good and believable, and dicing with the other cars feels just right. I would say that if EA can patch some of the AI holes and get the spotter calling the race in real-time, it becomes a photo finish on the track. Online will probably require another year or two. EA does have another magic bullet, of course, which is the degree of customization that ISI's games allow. The third party community has already turned the F1 title into an incredibly realistic and beautiful GT sportscar simulation and I'm told that all the customizability of that title is also in the NASCAR titles. EA has given us not only a fine racing simulation, but a racing construction set, so the game we are all playing in a few months might end up to be a perfected version of what EA shipped. Who knows? I should mention that EA had me out to see their work first hand at their Florida Tiburon facility, and put me in a behind the wheel of a "Richard Petty Driving Experience" EA Sports car for a few laps of "go fast, turn left" in real life. It's definitely a mark of bravery and confidence for EA to put an often critical racing reviewer behind the seat of a real car, with full knowledge that he would be in a better position to be critical of their title afterwards. Throughout my visit, the team listened carefully to my suggestions and gripes from last year's titles, and showed me exactly how they were setting out to address them, refreshingly avoiding "marketing spin", instead concentrating on the meat and potatoes of what makes a racing sim work. Although EA is having to fill big shoes in replacing Papyrus as the auto-racing simulator superpower, I definitely left feeling that they take this responsibility quite seriously, and it shows in the steady improvement in their PC sims from one year to the next.

• PC
• 61%
• Allemagne

• PC
• 8 / 10
• France

• XBOX
• 9.1 / 10
• États-Unis

Raw 2 is a ton of fun when you play it with friends and damn solid if you're buddyless and still want to have some grappling fun. The new moves you get with the cage, cell, tables, ladders and chairs does take things a step beyond what the all-powerful No Mercy showed us. The gameplay and create-a-wrestler elements of the game are outstanding and make Raw 2 worth the price of admission for wrestling fans. Presentation-wise, however, the lack of text and/or voice in the Season mode, or anywhere else for that matter just sticks out like a glaring weakness. Every other part of the game is so strong that it makes big shortcomings like this all the more obvious. While Raw 2 is the best wrestler on the system, it still may not be for everybody. Casual fans will likely miss out on the depth of features once they've dropped a few Rock Bottoms and Stone Cold Stunners. But fans of the WWE will be fans of WWE Raw 2 because they pretty much have to be.

• PC
• 8.8 / 10
• États-Unis

For the 15 or so hours that it lasted, I thoroughly enjoyed Jedi Academy. Still, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that Jedi Outcast was more satisfying in terms of my involvement with the story. Jedi Academy dishes out more action sooner but fails to put it in as solid a context as the previous game. For some gamers, this won't be a problem at all. All they want is a great action game with the Star Wars stamp on it. Jedi Academy is this. But those who really found themselves drawn more to the story than the skirmishing will find that Jedi Academy isn't quite as fulfilling as its predecessor. But that's nitpicking, isn't it? The real test is that I wanted to finish the game and put off other projects just to spend a bit more time going back and tackling the new challenges. The new saber styles and the big either/or moral question add some variety to the game and give us hope that, in a few months time, we'll want to come back and try to make it through using a different approach. The simple version is this: if you like Star Wars and think flipping around chopping up Stormtroopers and flinging Dark Jedi off of conveniently placed precipices is fun, then this game is definitely for you. Just don't expect your battles with your inner demons to be as compelling.

• XBOX
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

Having played through the Japanese version and the U.S. version (yeah, I went through this sucker twice!), I can't get over how close Capcom came to a winner. The level design is great, the bosses are cool, the cut-scenes are stunning, and the puzzles are inventive. The lack of unique "grunt" dinos makes combat get a bit too redundant and the camera is horrid. I can actually live with not seeing my enemies, but simply trying to gauge perspective and jump across a small gap should not be an impossible task -- Certainly not when it makes up half the gameplay! After the Japanese release (and subsequent dissatisfaction by those who played the game), Capcom had time to go in and at least try and repair some of the problems. Instead they spent half a year, apparently, on text translation only, because that's about the only thing that's changed. What Capcom has is a failed game that offers more frustration than joy and the only true satisfaction after playing through the eight hour quest is that fact that you survived. Finishing the game should earn you t-shirt that reads, "I survived Dino Crisis 3 and all I got was The Worst Camera Ever".

• PC
• 8.7 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS2
• 8.8 / 10
• États-Unis

• PS2
• XBOX
• 8 / 10
• États-Unis

• XBOX
• 7.2 / 10
• États-Unis

• XBOX
• 5 / 10
• France

• NGC
• 8.3 / 10
• États-Unis

• PC
• 8 / 10
• France

• PC
• 12 / 20
• France

En attendant de voir ce que donnera un Pool Paradise des plus estivaux, World Championship Pool 2004 est une alternative assez moyenne à un World Championship Snooker, et ce même si nous trouvons beaucoup de similitudes entre les deux jeux puisque provenant des mêmes studios. Le soft est néanmoins maniable et constitue une expérience aussi bien pour le joueur qui désire découvrir cet univers que pour les professionnels qui voudront opter pour un petit entraînement virtuel via le Online.

• PC
• 76%
• Royaume-Uni

• PC
• 6.7 / 10
• États-Unis