May 26th, 2004

Trying to get into the habit of writing reviews as soon as I can. As such, I will be reviewing this month's XBox mag's demo disc.

First off, I had one hell of a time just finding this mag. What's up with that? The only place I could find it was Chapters. I looked at half a dozen other places first. But all the seraching was worth it. This is probably the best demo disc yet. Every demo is great. Even Rogue Ops. Okay, maybe not great.

Chronicles of Riddck - doesn't look as great as I was expecting it to. Not by a long shot. It has a weird look to it. All the edges of everythng look rough and chunky. And the rag doll animations seem slow and strobe-y. But, be all that as it may, the demo is still great. The graphics are good (not mind blowing), the animation(other than what I mentioned) is good, the level design is nice. Riddick looks like Riddick. He sounds like Riddick. There's all sorts of swearing. The sneaking is nice, and snapping people's necks is very satisfying. I just wish Riddick could see in the dark. I'm guessing it's an upgrade you get later in the game.

Psi-Ops - Lots of god damn fun. Light an enemy on fire and then throw him into his buddies. Brain jack a guy and run him off a bridge. Levitate a guy and keep shooting him, spinning him around like a top and then throw him into a wall, leaving a satisfying splatter of blood. You can be so horrible in this game, it's fantastic.

Rogue Ops - Meh. The graphics are serviceable. The cut scenes are atrocious. The voice acting is laughable. But it plays alright. The QTE-esgue stealth kills are a nice touch, but hard to get off in time. Nothing great, but it passes the time.

Metal Slug 3 - Aw HELLS ya!! Old school hand drawn shmup perfection. So much love is in this game, man. It drips, oozes and bleeds character. Fantastic. In this one short level, you have access to all sorts of cool weapons, and a tank, a submarine, a mech, you can eat too much and get fat, and you can free a gun toting monkey. Supoib!

Plus there's a bunch a cool movies and trailers and what not. This is a great disc. A steal of a deal. Go gits it.

- Tyler