"1080 Avalanche" Nintendo For GameCube
Like all extreme sport games on the shelves today, "1080" is doomed to suffer endless comparisons to the "Tony Hawk" series of skateboarding games. This, however, is a snowboarding game, and although it does not have the backing of playable celebrity characters and recognizable sponsorship, "1080" still has much to offer.
The first noticeable thing about this game is the meticulous manner the developers have taken to make the game complex but accessible. There are several modes of play, including two multiplayer modes, a freestyle trick mode and a time trial mode. New features can be unlocked by winning the various different challenges, and there's even a jukebox that allows you to select songs to play during levels. So what separates "1080" from its competitors?
The key word here is speed. This is a racing game disguised as an extreme sports game. When it comes to the feeling of speed, "1080" towers above its competitors.
There are technical glitches in the game that get annoying, but one quickly gets used to them and learns to overlook them. The trick system is no comparison to the orgy of points one can rack up playing "SSX Tricky" and there isn't the precision of technique found in "Amped," two other snowboarding games.
This game offers precious little innovation, and the single-player won't keep you interested for long after you complete the challenges. The multiplayer mode is also of little interest after a while, and is limited to only a handful of race situations.
This is a racing game above all else, but for a racing game, it doesn't have enough raw depth to keep it from being banished to the back of the shelf after a couple of weeks. But "1080 Avalanche" is definitely worth a rent and is a step in the right direction for the series.
- AHMED NZIBO
"Savage: The Battle for Newerth" iGames/S2 Games For Windows, Linux
Hey, you've got a computer and a speedy Internet connection, so why not try "Savage," a multiplayer-only team-based action game with an injection of real-time strategy?
As the commander of your team, "Savage" resembles an unremarkable RTS (real-time strategy) game. You send your units off to kill, build and mine resources while upgrading your technology tree, with victory coming when the other side's base is destroyed.
Ah, but here's where "Savage" shows its true colors. Almost all the units you direct are other players! For them, the game is a multiplayer action game like "Battlefield 1942" or the "Unreal Tournament" series. But unlike those games, "Savage" lets the commander tell the players what to do. This system of action and commands works quite well, and players will need to depend on their commander and vice versa for success.
The two sides (humans and beasts) are very distinct, with different structures, units and attacks. While both sides start with primitive weapons and units, advancing through the tech tree allows the sides to rediscover long-lost methods of war, like guns and explosives for humans and magic for beasts.
The maps, while sparse, look decent enough, and have features like waterfalls, vegetation and day-night cycles. Units and structures are fairly detailed and well modeled; witnessing a behemoth lumbering to battle is impressive indeed.
There are minor irritants, like the multitude of railgun-like weapons that require precise aim to be effective. Also, while each team can have up to 32 players, there can only be one commander, and an unskilled commander can doom the whole team. Luckily, players can vote to boot the commander. Finally, the melee system, in which you engage in claw-to-axe combat, takes some getting used to.
"Savage" has been available for a while, but S2 Games recently released a 2.00 update that adds three new maps, a healing/buff unit for both sides and tons of general fixes and optimizations.
- ALEX WANG
