Χ-Play (2003)

God of War, Tekken 5, Growlanser Generations and more! (3x36)

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On tonight's episode of X-Play, we mere-mortals contemplate the worth of the latest and possibly greatest action game on the PlayStation 2, God of War. Without question, God of War is one of the best games of its kind, but how close does the game come to perfection? At X-Play, we believe anyone can appreciate a good fighting game if you get a controller in their hands and get them to choose that one special character and pull off that one special move that will flip their cerebral power switch. Tekken 5 has hundreds upon hundreds of moves, and it looks fantastic. We can’t guarantee that the game will turn anyone on who touches it--it's certainly geared for fans--but for what it is it’s a damn good fighting game. With Tom Clancy’s various series of games dominating both the tactical shooter market and the stealth action realm, there’s not much room for other techno-thriller authors to carve themselves a niche in the PC gaming world. However, Clancy’s gaming empire has yet to set its sites on real-time strategy, a once hotly contested but recently very stagnant genre. Act of War: Direct Action is set to change all that. With a storyline penned by Dale Brown (a Clancy competitor), some fancy graphics, and production values far beyond anything this genre has seen before, Act of War: Direct Action brings some much needed life to pointing-and-clicking. As a niche publisher, Working Designs has a pretty good gig. They hand-pick Japanese games (mostly RPGs) deemed worthy for our consumption, localize them, and release them to a throng of salivating otaku here in the States. They have always had a knack for picking up interesting games that we might never get to see, and for that we are grateful. But their localization efforts are sometimes groan inducing. X-Play has found that with Growlanser: Generations, Working Designs has come a long way, baby. Klonoa is Namco’s answer to Sonic, and while the two series have a lot of similarities (not the least