Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution

Civilization Revolution is an excellent, streamlined console version of the popular PC strategy series.

The Good
Engrossing strategic depth
Many ways to claim victory
Fantastic visual presentation
Wealth of interesting historical knowledge
Meets high standard of the Civilization series.

The Bad
Multiplayer moves at a slow pace
Diplomacy is a bit limited.

Ever since its inception in the early 1990s, Sid Meier's critically acclaimed Civilization series has challenged players to "build an empire to stand the test of time." Civilization Revolution is the newest scion of the series, and like its predecessors, it's a turn-based strategy game in which you take charge of a notable historical civilization and lead them from humble beginnings to world domination. Faced with the great challenge of preserving the strategic breadth of the series while streamlining the experience for consoles, developer Firaxis games has succeeded admirably. The result is a distilled version of Civilization that will please series veterans and newcomers alike.


Before the game begins, you must make an important choice: Which of the 16 civilizations will you command? Each has a starting bonus and four era bonuses that you'll gain as you progress through the ages, bonuses that will aid you in some way on your path to victory. There are four types of victory in Civilization Revolution: cultural, economic, technology, and domination. Each has particular victory conditions, and civilization-specific bonuses are a good way to start down the road toward meeting those conditions. Those seeking a cultural victory will appreciate that the Egyptians start with an ancient wonder, whereas military-minded players might choose the Germans and their veteran warriors. Trying the different civilizations on for size is great fun, as you adapt your unique strengths to grow your empire and deal with your opponents.
Once you've chosen your civilization, the game begins in earnest. As you set down your first city, you'll see icons on the surrounding squares indicating how much food, production, or trade each produces. Food grows your population, production builds units and buildings, and trade furthers scientific research or fills your coffers with gold. Being aware of these resources is the key to your civilization's prosperity. As your city grows larger and encompasses more squares, you'll have the option of telling your workers to prioritize one resource over the others, or to work certain squares instead of others. Unlike in previous Civilization games, individual squares cannot be improved, and workers now exist only within the confines of the city menu screen. Despite the worker's reduced role, the bulk of its strategic relevance has been preserved. Now certain buildings and technologies will increase your resource yield, so the challenge lies in choosing what to research and what to build to optimize your city's production. This interweaving of strategic considerations is engrossing and spurs you to constantly refine the myriad facets of your grand plan.

With your first city up and running, you begin to go about the business of expanding your realm. You build warriors to defend your city and explore the surrounding area. Barbarians will threaten you early on, and destroying them will grant you gold, or perhaps a bonus unit. There are also friendly villages that will offer similar bonuses, and sometimes even grant you a new technology. Discovering impressive natural wonders, such as a great forest or a vast desert, will also garner you a gold bonus and the gratifying right to stamp a name on it that will last throughout history. There are also a few ancient artifacts, such as the Lost City of Atlantis, that grant substantial boons to the civilization that discovers them. Although it's already a thrill to explore uncharted lands, these bonus incentives add more urgency to your wanderings and encourage you to keep up a brisk pace.

As you explore, create units, and settle new cities, you'll soon discover that you're not alone. Leaders of other civilizations will contact you with offers of peace, but don't expect these truces to last. Depending on your difficulty level, you may have a few leaders asking to trade techs, or they all may try to bully you out of hearth and home. You can do some bullying of your own from the diplomacy panel, as well as make peace, trade techs, or even pay a leader to wage war on another civilization. However, long-term trade agreements are gone, and previously marketable resources like wine, iron, and silk now merely provide resource bonuses to nearby cities. Degrees of peace, like non-agression pacts and open borders, are also gone, the latter of which is particularly missed during online games, when passing through an ally's territory will cause a declaration of war. The controls for navigating diplomacy are easy, but it does feel a bit limited.


If you refuse another civilization's demands for tribute, or want to pursue a domination victory, you'll declare war on your enemies and march your legions off to battle. Every combat unit has a separate attack and defense rating, and it's important to play to their strengths. For example, in the early going, archers are twice as powerful on defense than offense, so leaving them to defend your cities while your more powerful attackers advance to the front may be a good move. Positioning yourself advantageously is rewarding, not only because of terrain bonuses, but also because of the satisfaction you get from winning a carefully executed encounter. Cutting through your opponent's forces and taking their cities is immensely gratifying, though large invasion forces can get cumbersome since you can no longer combine diverse units into a manageable stack.

Actual combat is merely a matter of sending your unit onto an enemy unit's square and seeing how things play out. Victorious units will gain experience and can earn special abilities, such as improved city defense. Combat has been streamlined, too, and the number of units available throughout the ages has been pared down. Ships can no longer bombard land squares, but positioning them on the coast adjacent to your warring armies will give your land troops a boost in combat. Without square improvements to destroy, siege warfare is limited to parking your forces on squares to prevent a city from working them. Furthermore, even the smallest ship can transport a huge number of units, so sending armies by sea is feasible in any age. Thankfully, these changes don't feel like omissions because the strategies that the lost elements supported are still present and can make or break your martial campaigns.

There's a lot of information to take into account when playing Civilization Revolution, and fortunately there are a number of built-in tools to help you. You have a cadre of advisors who pop up to consult you in the city and tech screens, and they, like the leaders of other civilizations, are large, animated characters who react to your decisions and push each other out of the way amusingly as you switch your focus. They do make some repetitive noises and their gibberish speak can get annoying, but they are quite helpful in the early going and once you're in the rhythm of the game, you'll likely tune them out. Other audio effects and background music are more appropriate, and the dramatic flourishes of victory or wonder creation are quite invigorating.

One of the highlights of the game is the robust civilopedia, which is accessible from almost any screen with the press of a button. All of the pertinent game information is here, as well as a wealth of multimedia knowledge for those curious to know the biographies of the great people who appear in their cities, or to see a video clip of a galley at sea. It's a fantastic addition that you'll find yourself consulting often as you refine your game strategy. Though it does take a few seconds to load, it's well worth it to make sure that you choose the right wonder to build or tech to research.

Tying it all together is the vivid, clean presentation and simple control scheme. You can scroll around the map with either analog stick, though the right one is required to issue movement commands. Cycling through units with the directional pad is a breeze. The left shoulder button zooms out, though not as far as you might like, and the right shoulder button gives you a quick look at your tech, culture, and treasury growth. City and diplomacy menus are a mere click away. This accessibility is complemented by the vibrant unit designs and animations, as well as the eye-catching city representations. The ocean looks lovely as waves lap at the shore and fish frolic in the clear water, and mountains, forests, and rivers are equally beautiful. Scroll around a busy map and you'll experience some choppiness, but not so much that it's detrimental to the gameplay.

Single-player games are rich and varied, but you can mix things up further by playing the included scenarios or taking on the Game of the Week and seeing how you rank against other Civ players. You can also test your skills head-to-head online. Each match has five civilizations but a max of four human players. You can face off one-on-one, join up with a teammate against human or AI players, or cut loose in a free-for-all. A headset lets you conspire with your fellow players, but be careful to use the private chat feature lest you alert your enemies to your plan. Be sure to block out a few hours for these matches, which can sometimes last quite a while. You can limit the turn time to speed things up, but with four human players and one AI civilization, there's a lot to do. Online matches do have a strange pace to them that's not quite a sequential flow, and they move more slowly than solo games. Nevertheless, if you've got the patience, there's nothing quite like matching wits with another human player.


Played against human or AI opponents, Civilization Revolution is an excellent game that will let you plumb different strategic depths each time you play. It's incredibly easy to get engrossed in the rhythm of expansion and evolution, and you can happily lose hours and hours at a time. Sid Meier and Firaxis Games have done a fantastic job of streamlining many of the key game mechanics, and they've cut out some of the micromanagement without gutting the strategic options. If you enjoyed Civilization on the PC and are worried that this version might feel stripped down, fear not. Although it does seem simpler at first, you'll soon realize that it's the same signature gameplay you know and love. If you haven't played a Civilization game before, you should get your hands on this worthy new entry in the Civilization canon.

Madden NFL 09

The Good
Cris Collinsworth's commentary is superb
Backtrack feature breaks down exactly why a play failed and rewinding lets you try again
Formation audibles allow you to change plays without tipping your hand
Vastly improved visuals
Tight controls and varied player animations.

The Bad
Quirks and glitches hamper otherwise solid gameplay
Superstar and Franchise modes have received almost no attention
Madden IQ feature isn't as helpful as it claims to be
Tom Hammond and John Madden's voice work is poor
Online leagues are a huge letdown.

When John Madden Football was released in 1988, no one had any idea that it was the beginning of one of the best-selling series of all time. But after 20 years, tens of millions of copies sold, countless tournaments, and even a TV show, Madden is a global phenomenon. When you purchase a Madden game, you know you're going to be the beneficiary of 20 years of experience. Fine-tuned gameplay, top-notch player animation, extraordinarily detailed playbooks, and competitive multiplayer are all series staples. This year's Madden is just what you'd expect: It doesn't take a whole lot of chances with the formula that has proven so successful in the past. Improvements such as the additions of Cris Collinsworth as a commentator and a backtrack feature that points out and helps correct your mistakes make for a great football experience. However, there are quite a few issues that keep Madden 09 from reaching its full potential, such as disappointing online leagues and mostly unchanged Franchise and Superstar modes.


Madden 09 has a number of features designed to address the steep learning curve associated with the series. This year’s game is clearly one of the most user-friendly versions in recent years, but unfortunately, beginners will still probably have a tough time learning the ropes, in spite of these new features. If you throw an interception or take a bad sack, Cris Collinsworth will break down the play for you and explain not only what you did wrong, but what you should have done instead. Collinsworth's analysis during these backtrack segments is startlingly accurate and useful--it's just a shame these moments occur at random. It would have been nice to call them up at any time. Another useful yet controversial addition is the ability to rewind plays and try them again. This is a great way to help you learn from your mistakes and it's nice to have a do-over if you get cheesed by the CPU, but it takes self-control not to rewind anytime you make a bad play. Rewinding a buddy's touchdown is also a surefire way to prematurely end your friendship.
When you first boot the game, a virtual Madden that looks just like R2-D2's projection of Princess Leia in Star Wars appears onscreen to administer a Madden IQ test. This test takes place in a VR simulator and consists of running, passing, tackling, and pass-coverage drills. The game will adjust its difficulty based on the results of this test. This process is a good idea in theory, but it doesn't work. The offensive drills are so easy that it's possible for first-timers to score well enough that the test results indicate they should play a mixture of all-pro and all-Madden difficulties. The defensive drills are a little more accurate, but this only serves to highlight how difficult it is to play defense in the game. Your IQ will fluctuate based on your performance during games, but it takes so long to balance out your IQ that you're better off manually setting the difficulty to rookie and using the simplified playbooks if you're a beginner. The simple playbooks combined with Collinsworth's backtrack analysis are a step in the right direction when it comes to making Madden more accessible to casual players, but more work needs to be done before these newcomers truly feel welcome. A manual or in-game documentation that explains all of the game's features would be great, as would some sort of in-game glossary. How many people who don't watch football every week know what a "cover 2" is anyway?
There are a number of gameplay enhancements that make Madden 09 play better than 08. The ability to bluff plays from the line of scrimmage lets you view your play and then display fake routes to mislead your opponent. You can also quickly call audibles without changing your formation and inadvertently tipping off the other player. Another excellent addition is that you can now tell individual receivers to run smart routes on third down. This will ensure that they don't stop their routes short of the first-down marker. It would be nice if receivers were smart enough to adjust on their own, but at least the smart-route option is available. On the defensive side of the ball, you can spotlight a receiver. This puts an extra player on a receiver to ensure double coverage on the play. By no means does it render that receiver a nonfactor, but it's now a great way of slowing down an opponent who passes to the same guy over and over again. The only problem with the number of pre-snap adjustments is that it's near impossible to perform many of them when you're on defense due to the short amount of time between when you come out of the play-calling screen and when the ball is snapped. Sure, there are Madden savants out there who can call an audible, shift the line, highlight a receiver, tell the left outside linebacker to spy on the QB, and fake a blitz in five seconds, but most people can't.
Just as there are plenty of good things to talk about with regard to 09's gameplay, there are some problems worth mentioning. Slants and crossing routes are exceedingly difficult to defend against. The linebackers who could snag almost any ball out of thin air last year were annoying, but so is watching a lousy QB and below-average tight end pick you apart like they're Peyton Manning and Dallas Clark. It's not all fun and games for QBs and receivers though. Quarterbacks will frequently overthrow passes in the flat so that they lead receivers right out of bounds or receivers will get stuck in an animation and, head to the sidelines, lose yards, or run right into a tackler. This is a huge problem in Superstar mode when running screen plays. The more you play the more you'll notice the sometimes questionable AI. CPU-controlled teams might not opt for an onsides kick when they're down by a few points with no time-outs and less than two minutes on the clock. Officiating is also hit or miss. Referees typically ignore holding and are often inaccurate when spotting the ball, and booth reviews are a total crapshoot--you never know what the ruling is going to be. Other nagging issues include sometimes horrific tackling, occasionally inept blocking, unstoppable quarterback sneaks, and play-action's utter lack of effectiveness against the CPU.


Series fans have been clamoring for online leagues for years, and this is the first year the mode has been included. Well, sort of. Yes, you and up to 31 other players can form a league and play against one other whenever you like, regardless of how many games other participants have played. In that sense there are online leagues; it's just that they aren't any good. You can't fill out the league with CPU-controlled teams, so if you've got only three friends to play with, you're left with a four-person league. There is a draft, but it's an autodraft that selects players based on your predraft rankings. Again, having just a handful of players hampers the experience because everyone in the league will get awesome players. There aren't a whole lot of weaknesses a defense can focus on when the opposition's fifth-best receiver is Pro-Bowler Anquan Boldin. The default settings don't even allow for player statistics to be tracked (stat-tracking is curiously tied to the unexplained "unique rosters" setting). When you consider how full-featured Electronic Arts' own NCAA Football 09's online dynasty is (although it has its own problems), it's puzzling that Madden's online leagues are so lacking. At least online gameplay generally performs well. We had some frustrating problems with the kick meter not recognizing our input, but for the most part, the action was extremely smooth and lag was never an issue.

Longtime fans of the series will recognize the "all new" Madden Challenge feature. These challenges, which have appeared in some form or another in some earlier Madden games, let you try your hand at reliving some of the more dramatic moments of the 2007 NFL season. This is a good way of quickly placing yourself in a variety of different high-pressure situations, but the sometimes punishingly difficult/cheap AI, combined with the repetitive nature of many of the challenges, ensure that the fun is short-lived.. One final new mode lets you use your console to track fantasy football teams created (for free) on the EA Sports Web site. At the time of this review the NFL season hadn't yet started, so we were unable to see the stat-tracking mode in action. It's not going to make up for the game's lousy online leagues, but its inclusion will likely please those looking to manage their Madden and fantasy football addictions at the same time.


The rest of the game modes are holdovers from last year. Franchise mode is solid. The simulated statistics seem to be fairly accurate, and it's certainly fun to take the reins of a franchise, but the mode has received only cursory attention since last year, and you can still sign overpriced free agents and package them into deals for draft picks and star players. That's more than can be said for Superstar mode, which is virtually indistinguishable from its 08 incarnation. If you've never tried to take a created player or rookie from his first training camp to the Hall of Fame, there's some fun to be had here, but if you've previously put up with the lame training events, obnoxious agents, and inane e-mails from your in-game mom, there's nothing here that warrants another look.
Madden 09 is easily the best-looking Madden to date. The presentation now features more dynamic camera angles, and player emotion is a bigger part of the game than ever thanks to new touchdown celebrations. By running to a highlighted area of the end zone and pressing a button after a score you can dunk the ball over the goalpost, climb up the wall to bask in the admiration of the fans, and more. The dunks often don't work and they look kind of terrible, but the rest of the celebrations are cool--especially when you steal another player's move. You can do Chad Johnson's River Dance or Steve McNair's hands-to-the-helmet pose, or you can taunt Denver fans with the Mile High salute. Other player animations are top-notch, and if you play enough you'll notice some great little touches, such as kickers tackling just as awkwardly as they do in real life. You'll see some odd transitions and quirky moves upon close inspection of replays (which can be uploaded and shared online), but you'd be hard pressed to notice most of these instances during gameplay.
Stadiums aren't blurry anymore, and they feature more detail than ever--they look great. Snow and rain effects have been cranked up to where it feels as if you're playing in a blizzard or monsoon. By the end of a game in the rain, players' uniforms will be absolutely filthy. You'd have been grounded for a week if you had come home that dirty when you were a kid. The only knock against the weather is that field conditions don't seem to degrade as the game progresses. It's odd to have players caked in mud when the grass looks like the fairways at Augusta. You may notice some stuttering before and after plays, but when the ball's in play, the frame rate is as fast and smooth as you could hope for.
Cris Collinsworth is easily the highlight of Madden 09's audio. His commentary is timely, accurate, and insightful, and it sounds perfectly natural. Imagine having one of the best commentators in the league standing next to you talking about your grudge match against your little brother like it's a real-life showdown in the playoffs--that's how good Cris is here. On the other side of the coin is play-by-play announcer Tom Hammond's performance. It's bad enough that he'll remind you that the game is "brought to you by EA Sports" several times per game, but his choppy, vague, and monotone play calling will almost make you miss the radio-style announcer from previous years. Almost. John Madden might be one of the greatest announcers of all time, but you'd never know it by listening to the game that bears his name. His vaunted "return" to the franchise is limited to brief pregame introductions as well as one or two sentences at halftime and the end of the game. He barely even talks during "ask Madden" plays; occasionally he'll explain why he's suggesting a play, but a vast majority of the time he doesn't say a thing.


The Madden series has been so good for so long that the bar for each yearly release is extremely high. And it's because standards are so high that, while it's still great, Madden 09 could have been better. For every addition, like the backtrack feature, Collinsworth, or improved visuals, there's a problem that rears its ugly head, like the unchanged Superstar mode, poor pass coverage in the middle of the field, or underwhelming online leagues. Newcomers will still face a steep learning curve, but if you're a football fan or series veteran, you can't go wrong with Madden 09.

Siren: New Translation

Features
-Complex story spread across 12 dramatic separate episodes with

seven playable characters in all
- Sight jack system lets you see exactly what your enemies see
- Sneak past the deadly Shibito or take them head on with over 50 kinds of weapons,

each with unique fatal finishing move animations
- Archive system lets player unlock a variety of story clues and important

background information
- Contains all 12 epiodes on one Blu-ray disc release
- Full English language edition (including English subtitles!)



Description
An American TV crew has arrived in Japan to film an expose on the legend of the “vanished village.” Controlling seven different playable characters, the player must uncover the mystery behind the curse that grips the eerie village of Hanuda. The unique “sight jack” system allows the player to see from the point of view of the Shibito, or living dead, to avoid their detection or watch as they close in on the player and companions. Intense graphics, realistic character animation, and a gritty film-like graphical presentation add to the horror of Siren: Blood Curse.


Reviews:



by syaoran-tc1

Bleeding Amazing The best survival horror game i have ever played. It is really innovative.

Give it sometime and you'll love it.

Accessibility: 10

Graphics: 10

Gameplay: 10

Longevity: 10

Replay value: 10

what else do you want? Asian version contain english and japanese language.



by justinlockyer

BUY THIS GAMEif you have played siren and siren 2 on the playstation 2 you will be familar with the intense atmosphic erie gameplay the siren series is. the third game delivers more this would have to be the best horror game on the ps3 to date, GO BUY THIS GAME it is worth buying a playstation just to play









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