IGN

• PC
• 8.9 / 10
• États-Unis

• PC
• 8.4 / 10
• États-Unis

Freedom Fighters is a game that gets better the more you play it. The challenge increases at the same rate as your skills and abilities so that you're really appreciating the level of control you've got towards the end and the cool action you can create because of it. Obviously an online component would be a wonderful addition but for what it is Freedom Fighters is pretty satisfying. You just wish your running, gunning and commanding skills, once developed, could be applied in other ways against online competitors. This is especially poignant given the game's rather short single player campaign. You can go back and play at higher difficultly levels, but that's only going to keep you entertained for so long. Even fans of super rich tactical simulations will get a kick out of FF's easy interface and well developed AI. It occupies that area between all of the other games in the genre by limiting you to one character to control, offering a 3rd person perspective and using only three basic commands. Even without a fancy license like "Red Dawn" or some other Russo-American themed movie or show, Freedom Fighters works as a change of pace.

• GBA
• 4 / 10
• États-Unis

The attempt to recreate the Xbox's 3D game design on the Game Boy Advance is certainly ambitious, but in all honesty the developers should have just stuck with the tried-and-true 2D Prince of Persia-style of the previous Oddworld games for this conversion. Munch's Oddysee is full of little quirks that add up to a very un-fun GBA game that can't even fall back on technical merits.

• NGC
• PS2
• XBOX
• PC
• 8.8 / 10
• États-Unis

At first I thought NHL 2004 had been unnecessarily tampered with because scoring wasn't as easy as it used to be. But upon further review I realized this videogame mimics the real thing more than ever and therefore the joys of the sport are found in big hits, near misses and brilliant scoring opportunities that barely miss lighting the lamp. If you can get over the fact that scoring is going to be reserved only for those that deserve it. It's an improvement over the last NHL game from EA but definitely a big change in direction for the franchise. There's plenty of room for improvement but it's clear that the effort has been put into NHL 2004 and the most serious hockey fans should get a kick out of it. Casual fans will either become serious hockey fans or break their controllers trying.

• PS2
• XBOX
• PC
• 6.3 / 10
• États-Unis

• XBOX
• NGC
• PS2
• 4.5 / 10
• États-Unis

Well, you get what you pay for, I guess. This is the very definition of a budget racer and I don't mean that in a good way. Basic arcadey track designs mix with stupidly simple controls and poor graphics for an end experience that falls somewhere below the average. Slot Car might be willing to brave some the backward design choices and mechanical defects and find some entertainment here, but most would do well to look elsewhere -- far away, if possible -- for their racing fix.

• XBOX
• 8.6 / 10
• États-Unis

NHL Hitz Pro is all games to all people. It will not disappoint hockey fans, and it shouldn't disappoint those who love Midway Sports. What it boils down to is an action-packed experience that rekindles memories of old Genesis NHL sessions. Addictively fun as a multiplayer game, and tricked-out with enough new modes and Franchise options to make the single player experience enjoyable, Hitz Pro delivers on its promise.

• NGC
• PS2
• 6.1 / 10
• États-Unis

Jimmy Neutron is far from a bad game, but there's not enough substance here to captivate an audience over the age of ten. The puzzles are simplistic, combat is easy, and you're basically led through the entire game simply by the placement of items. However, this was designed with kids in mind, and on that level it succeeds. The challenge is simple enough to not be too hard for a young gamer, but easy enough that there won't be a ton of frustration. They might even have to use their brain on occasion. Also, the pace between wandering around adventure style, platforming, racing, and boss battling is pretty fast. The shift between gameplay styles should be enough to keep younger gamers entertained past their bedtimes. Jet Fusion isn't going to win any awards or display any revolutionary gameplay, there's barely enough here to keep mature gamers conscious, but if you're a fan of Jimmy Neutron or are shopping for a younger audience -- Jimmy Neutron: Jet Fusion is a safe bet -- but a rental is probably wiser than a purchase.

• PC
• 6 / 10
• États-Unis

In an age of recreation rather than innovation, developers struggle to improve on their works from the past. While it may be a worthy cause, they sometimes seem to lose sight on their (or at least player perceived) ultimate goal of creating a game that is fun to play, and doesn't just simply fix things that were wrong with the original game, like a giant $40 dollar patch. Unless you were a diehard fan of the original, I'd say give this one a pass.

• PC
• 3 / 10
• États-Unis

If you're actually looking for a game that plays well, with decent graphics and controls that are easy to learn and use, then put that box back down on the shelf and keep looking. Perhaps if the developers had taken more time to work on the game it'd be better, but as it is the game falls far short of what the box would lead you to expect is inside.

• XBOX
• 8.3 / 10
• États-Unis

We all loved Gauntlet in the arcade and D&D Heroes captures the adventure-filled essence of that classic but with a very clever new control system that can be enhanced and refined in all sorts of interesting ways. It's exclusive to Xbox as well, so it can be a good game to expand your offline multiplayer library. Considering Baldur's Gate on Xbox was a straight port, this is the first new game in the genre available on Xbox and it's just a whole lot of fun when you get a good multiplayer session going. The ability for players to hop in and hop out and any point and pick up the adventure at any point makes D&D super accessible. Waiting for Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 might be the way to go for fans of the franchise, but D&D Heroes is a lot of fun right now.

• GBA
• 9 / 10
• États-Unis

• XBOX
• 8.7 / 10
• États-Unis

Colin McRae Rally 04 is a great value at 19.99, plain and simple. Everyting we've always loved about the series, stunning graphics and marvelous physics, is still there and worth the price of admission. It's not as feature-rich as the upcoming Rallisport Challenge 2, but you're getting a well-made and entertaining game for the price. If you're a long-time fan of the series, then this is a no-brainer. If you're a budding rally racing fan, it might not be a bad idea to get both and get your education off to a flying start. Plus it's one of the few established franchises that Xbox owners are getting exclusively over their PS2 owning cousins. What are bragging rights worth to you?

• 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
• 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".

• 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.

• PS2
• XBOX
• 5.4 / 10
• États-Unis

Starsky and Hutch is an average driving-shooting game at best. It's got a little hook, the TV ratings concept, which works well and gives the game some lift. But after two or three missions, you'll find the range of missions is incredibly small, the gameplay is overly simplistic, and the style of graphics and dialog to be more of an annoyance than a cult bonus. Plus, if you were to get this, it wouldn't be the Xbox version, which doesn't enable players to use the light gun to play in two-player mode. If you were to get this, it would be for the PS2 version. That's a big if, Kimosabe. I suggest you find those old Starsky and Hutch TV episodes and watch them again to jog your memory, cause though they were cool back in the day, they didn't age too well. This game is clearly dedicated to the most diehard Starsky and Hutch fans on the planet, and only them, however many remain. Rent it if you must, but you'd be better off playing World's Scariest Police Chases, it's about as good.