Music Reviews

Civilization 3 Gold is really nothing more than the original Civilization 3 game packaged with the first expansion, Civilization: Play the World. While this may seem like a good deal, you can actually buy the second expansion in the Civilization series, Civilization: Conquests, which is included with the first expansion as well. So if you'd like an even better deal, buy a copy of the original Civilization game (which sells for a VERY cheap price new or used) and then buy the Civilization: Conquests expansion and you'll spend the same amount you would for the Gold Edition, get the expansion Civilization: Play the World as well as new content in Civilization: Conquests. If you'd like to know what the Gold Edition brings to the table, basically the purpose of the Play the World expansion was to enable multiplayer, a feature once originally promised in the original game. Atari probably realized it could make more money holding out multiplayer in an expensive expansion pack but if you never gave in to Atari's demands, now is your chance to try it. Multiplayer is a bit of a disappointment in Civilization. The online community isn't large and it's not the same thing as randomly joining a server in a first person shooter or other poppular online game because of the dedication required for long online games. One reason the community isn't that large is because when Play the World was first released it was a buggy disaster! The online game was full of lag no matter what game mode or connection speed you used. Some of the common problems have been fixed with patches but multiplayer has never been a great success with Civilization. Play the World even introduces a simultaneous turn mode which allows the game to speed up and imitates the mechanics of a real-time strategy game. Unfortunately, Civ 3 really isn't meant to be a real-time strategy game and it doesn't run as smoothly as a Rise of Nations or Warcraft game would. If you have a home LAN, that's probably the best way to play Civilization against others. The most successful method of play is still singleplayer, though, so I recommend you buy the Conquests expansion along with the original Civilization game like I mentioned above because that expansion does a better job adding more features for singleplayer but also comes included with the content in Play the World.

My friend just got this game for christmas andn I we played it at his house.we were on the computer for the whole afternoon. it is so cool!!! the object is to build cities and advance in tecnology, but also to conquer your enamies. it has great multiplayer levels, too. i haven't played the other civilization games, so i can't really compare them, but i don't see how anything could be better than this one.

There has never been a game like Civ III and this Gold Edition proves it. Civ III is so far advanced over Civ II that there is just no comparison. The additions in units, nations, advances, city structures and overall graphics is astounding. What is infuriating is the excessively long waits as one nears the end of the game. I have tried everything - don't show enemy moves, don't show automatic, etc. But nothing seems to work faster except perhaps a more powerful computer.

The spy kids challenger is great! I have more than 1000000 points. I'm serious!!!!!! Its because I played it a long time for more than a year,but its still great. My favorite levels are: Juggler and Magna Racer. If you don't have this game,buy it!!!!!

I loved the movie and this game is pretty good. There are 3 challenges(Juggler,Dragon Flight,Magna Racer).After you finish each challenge you are taken to a tally screen and given points and a ranking. There are 2 different levels to play one starts with 3 lives and the other starts with 3 lives(you get extra lives with points). The graphics are pretty good and the sound and music are great. The one thing I didn't like was that you play the same 3 challenges all the time which gets a little boring.

This game is great! The graphics are really cool and the games are easy to save. There are fun levels with different gadgets to use, I like the juggling machine best. This is one of my favorite GBA games.

This game is great it's sort of challenging at the start when
you have to collect pieces of the solar surfer but I found out a
secret:AT THE START SCREEN,SELECT CONTINUE AND WHEN IT ASKS FOR
A PASSWORD,TYPE APRON TO SKIP TO CRESENTIA SPACEPORT.

This game is pretty easy. But the last part is realy hard. and I HATE THE PART WHEN YOU ARE IN THE JUNGLE.otherwise tis game is pretty good.

The secret of this game still confuses me. But it's a great game. You play as Jim Hawkins with a bubbly dude named Morph who has Morph powers. Here are the ones I've Unlocked: Morph Cam,Morph strength, Morth Vautz ( Higher jump ), Morph leap, Morph smash etc. here is what they do.

Morph cam: Hold down R And you can look all over the room your in.

Morph strength: Hold down R lets you push heavy boxes for Jumping.( use the morph vaultz next)

Morph vaultz: Hold down R and you can jump on boxes, high places, etc.

Morph leap : Press R and you can leap across big gaps.

Morph smash : Hold down R and smash big rocks blocking your way.

Anyway this game rocks. And i've written this at 1:00 A.M. Jan.1,2004. heres what I rated for this games theme

Controls 9/10

Graphics 9/10

Music 10/10

Funnes 8/10

Challengnes 10/10

Yawn Im tired. anyway if you see treasure planet on GBA ( game boy advance duh?)You shall get it and get your thinkin caps on and beat this game. Oh yeah right now my password is FOOTBALL. See ya, Whould want to be ya

Its all sad really. Fallout 1 and 2 were two of the best games ever made, IMO. This new game FO:BOS, has none of the humor, creativity, good plot lines, different choices, etc... It is so linear, characters are flat and game play gets sooooo old. It is instead plays like a hastily thrown together game, on top of a pre-existing (playstation Dark Alliance) game engine, which it is. It is crude, boring, uninspired and repetitive. After 10 + hrs playing I am burned out with it and want it to be over. Although the fan sites dismissed the game before released, they were definately right. Your better off with many other titles.

It's only not consisent with nor anywhere as good as its predecessors, it isn't a very good game at all, even based on its merrit as a console type action game rather than RPG. That combined with the horrible PR job Interplay did, managing to offend and insult their fan base, makes this bungle even more remarkable. I bought both the game and guide book pre-order because I loved the series but I certainly won't make that mistake in the future.

As a fan of the original Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: Tactics series, I'm biased to be inclined to like anything to do with the series. A friend of mine bought Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and though it was a great play for a few hours, it seemed to get old after so long. That's where Fallout: BOS is different.

Instead of the severely modified world of Dungeons and Dragons, you're thrown into the nuclear-blasted wastelands of the 23rd century, where radscorpions, raiders, super mutants, and deathclaws reign supreme. As an initiate in the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization of high-tech warriors who are trying to bring peace and sanity back to human civilization, it will be your job to find a group of your bretheren and to slaughter the threats to the local town.

Many of the Fallout classic weapons, like the Desert Eagle, hunting rifle, and 10mm SMG reappear with deadly new capabilities. Plus, you can play two-player cooperative action, so grab a friend and get killing!

I had a lot of fun playing this game. It's in the spirit of the original fallout, and on the same engine as Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, but it had way more story to it. There's a bit more as far as character interaction, and a ton of vulgarity and tasteless humor. The game also seems to be a bit longer than BG:DA. If you like campy sci-fi and enjoyed either the original Fallout games or BG:DA, you'll like this game.

My sons Gamecube was only 13 months old when after using this accessory for a couple of weeks, his system no longer worked. The people at Nintendo suggested that Action replay could be the culprit. Buyer beware.

The Action Replay does everything it is rumored to do. All the codes work perfectly. However, there is a big downside. If a code is not preset, you must manually set it. This may not seem like a hard task -and for some codes it isn't- but some codes can be up to 30 lines long. Doing this with a control stick can be quite tedious. I find myself deciding not to use the Action Replay sometimes because I don't want to spend the time entering a code. I've heard people say this software is user-friendly, I don't know where they got that from.

To be perfectly honest, I don't own the Action Replay, though I would like to. I am only reviewing to let the uninformed buyer know that they should ignore the two people who gave the Action Replay a bad review.
This 'christina swan' person I can forgive, as she apparently doesn't know much about game systems. I'll tell you now, a cheat system CAN NOT ruin the game system itself. I own a gameshark for the N64, and I know that the dumbest thing you can do with one of those is to put in a bunch of random characters and hope it's a good code, and even then, the worst you could do was ruin the gameshark itself. If you want my opinion, the kid probably left the Gamecube open too long, letting dust or something get on the laser reader, blocking the laser and rendering the Gamecube unable to read discs. That happened to me before, the guy who did the repairs said that happened a lot with laser-disk based game systems like Gamecube and PS2.

As for the I HATE ACTION REPLAY guy, I'm gonna have to come up with a list for you:

-The codes are a bunch of numbers and letters, it takes you over two hours to put in one code.

*These codes are meant to actually change how the Gamecube reads the game, so you can keep the health meter stuck on full and stuff like that. Can you appreciate how much programming code is used to pull off something like that? Feel lucky you only have to put in a few letters and numbers. And as for the two hours, can you say exaggeration!?! I really doubt it would take even the slowest gamer that long to put in codes. Besides, learn to put a little effort into what you do.

-Codes only give you stuff like infinite lives and extra characters, who in their right mind would want that junk on their game?

*Oh, for the love of... It's a CHEAT SYSTEM. You're supposed to *gasp* CHEAT WITH IT!! Who in their right mind would want that on their game, you ask? Everyone but you, apparently.

-The price is too much.... it should be less.

*It's worth how much it cost the company to make it, plus some for profit. If you don't like it, don't whine to everyone on Amazon about it.

-Also it doesn't work on my super nintendo.

*Oh my...I'm sorry, I didn't know you had mental problems. You see, kid, a system that's made for a Gamecube usually works on a Gamecube, not the Super Nintendo. They're completely different systems, you see.

-Datel can't make cheat systems, they should jump off a bridge.

*I hate to stoop to your level, but here goes:
Considering your arguments, I think the world would be done a much better favor if YOU were to jump off a bridge. A high one. That happens to be over a pile of jagged rocks.

Actully, that felt pretty good. Anyway, last one:

-Don't buy this...instead go by the amazing Etch-A-Sketch.

*Why? If a person is looking for a cheat system, how would a toy drawing pad help them? And, no offence to you Etch-A-Sketch fans, but I don't see what's so amazing about it. Please come up with a decent argument next time.

If anyone wants to argue about this some more, feel free to e-mail or something, especially if you happen to be anything like this I HATE ACTION REPLAY guy. I'm here 'til Thursday. ;-)

this is a very, very cool game. its really scary too...wouldn't recommend it for young children. for people that like a good haunt and lots of action, this is the game for them. (great graphics + sound!)

This game is a must for fans of the ride. It is fortunately not based on the movie, but rather the ride itself.

The game captures much of the whimsical "spirit" of the ride with just enough moments of eeriness to keep things interesting. This is primarily a puzzle game with each new room presenting a different problem in order to complete it.

There isn't much in the way of the ride's music except during the credits, but there are plenty of nods to the Disneyland version of the ride.

There are also a few annoying levels that once finished, you are glad you don't have to go through them again. However, the lure of the next room and the next puzzle overrides this.

This game may prove a bit short for highly skilled older gamers, but a pleasant diversion nonetheless.

I have to say that I am a huge fan of Resident Evil, but I have a young son who I play games with. Resident Evil is a little too much for him to say the least, so I saw this game and thought it would be a happy compromise. Like another reviewer states, don't let the Disney name fool you...it's not like Donald Duck is in a vampire costume and comes jumping out at you here. You get some pretty creepy ghosts and a decent level of puzzling games here. The graphics are great, the gameplay is smooth and fun, and unlike other "kiddie" games, this one will take longer than a weekend to beat. I have seen some comparisons here to Luigi's Mansion. I think Haunted Mansion is so much more engrossing on many levels. While I found Luigi's Mansion controls a bit complicated Haunted Mansion's actions were very easy, my 6-year old had them down in no time. There are some truly creepy moments in Haunted Mansion, the Giant Spiders were great, and you have to allow yourself to be webbed and pulled toward their venom dripping fangs in one room in order to win the room! And getting chased through a dark hidden passageway with a Harry Potter-like Dementor on your heels, all while your crystal ball is shouting directions to you made for some great gameplay! Now that this game is below $20, if you have even the slightest interest in playing a horror survival game, check out Haunted Mansion. This is, so far, the best game I have found for Game Cube!

I am a big surfing fan. I live in N.Y so i cant surf, but this game is as close as i can get to surfing. Its an ausome game with amazing grafics! You can choose from 8 diferent surfers and you can surf at all the mondo surfing spots around the globe! There is tuns of tricks you can do and learn. I Think this game is a great game and i guarentee you will think so too, if you get it from amazon!!!!

First off, let me start by saying this is somewhat of an unknown series, obviously overshadowed by the blockbuster Tony Hawk franchise. Too bad. The Kelly Slater games (I've played PS2 and GBA versions) are near flawless video game versions of surfing. Not only are the graphics at the top of the heap, but the controls are smooth and intuitive, once you get the hang of the waves.
Right now the price of this game has dropped quite a bit. One more reason to pick it up, you won't be sorry.

considering its game boy advance you cant get much better than this lots of fun surfing as a world class surfer doing supermans on jaws with 5'11 boards so well work on the realsim but thats part of what makes it fun

Playing this game on the GBA is made so much easier by the left and right buttons at the top of the handheld. If only all game controls were so intuitive. The game is easy to play, easy to understand, hard to give up. It is quite addictive. It has two modes, adventure and competion. With competion, you can play against your buddies on any of the pinball games (if you have unlocked the last one.) This does require passing the gameboy to each other on your turn. In adventure mode you try to beat some pre-determined high score to unlock the next game. I would like to say this is easy, but it's not. It must require at least 80,000,000 pts. The points are not as easy to come by as one would think. Thank heaven for kickbacks and ball savers. Some of the 'quests' aren't as easy to complete as one would think, either. It is still a great game, suitable for kids or adults.

As far as I can tell, this is the same as Muppet Pinball
Mayhem, which I own. I'm 37 years old and have tried all
the pinball games for the GBA, including Hardcore Pinball
and Pinball of the Dead. Cutesey Muppet theme aside, if
the most important factors for you are nice graphics, good
table layout, and realistic ball physics - this is absolutely
the best pinball game released, so far, for the GBA.

THIS GAME IS GREAT. TO PLAY ALONE, OR WE LIKE TO USE IT AT RESTURANTS WHILE WAITING TO GET OUR TABLE. IF YOU LIKE REAL ARCADE PINBALL YOU WILL LOVE THIS!

I played both Monster Rancher Advance I & II. Certainly, it is neat to enter random sequences of letters and numbers to generate new monsters. The story is reasonable strong although slow paces. Unfortunately, I found the game tedious after a while. The challenge of training monsters wears thin after about the 1ooth time. It is particularly frustrating when your monster is forced into retirement just before completing a battle that would advance the story. Also, the time frame is somewhat unrealistic, I figure that my game lasted about 100 years or so (within the game). Each monster lasts roughly 4 years and it took me about 25-30 monsters to complete the game. Although monsters age your character and other characters in the game do not. I played this through to the climatic battle, and while that was cool I'm not sure it was enough pay-off. If you like doing the same thing hundreds of times, this game is for you. If you like a good story and can tolerate doing the same thing over and over, you might enjoy it too.

The agme starts out with good game play, but after a while you lose the needed story line.

I've played Monster Rancher 3 (for Ps2), and I think this game is better because 1. Regenerating monsters is easier, 2. You can go exploring, 3. It's easier to earn sertain monsters (Dragon, Durahan, etc.),and 4. Monsters don't die, they can retire or turn into coaches, so you can train your other monsters more effectively.

On the other hand, on Monster Rancher 3 1. food is cheaper, 2. You can battle your rivals more often,and 3. you can train in different places.

They're both good games, but you don't need to use other games to regenerate monsters on MRA 2, and you can take it anywhere. That's good enough for me.

Very realistic recreation of 500cc GP racing. The drawback, perhaps the ONLY drawback, is the steep learning curve for the gamer. It takes a LOT of practice to master riding these bikes competitively. While acknowledging that this is true in real life as well, I found that my real-life motorcycling skills were relatively useless in learning to keep the bike on the virtual track.

I might have found it easier had I had a motorcycle controller, the way some racing gamers have steering wheels and pedals, but I haven't seen those and likely wouldn't invest in them just for one game. Also, they'd have to incorporate 'countersteering' to make it truly realistic. That would be a challenge -- then again, everything else about this game is truly realistic.

The level of visual, audio and tactile realism that the programmers have put into this game is astounding. I can't imagine a more realistic recreation of those aspects of GP racing. If you can overcome the steep learning curve of controlling the bikes, you will love this game.

I've only owned the PS2, as Gran Turismo is the family video game since the PS1. Being a moto nut, I got Namco's MotoGP2 and 3, and while they're better than nothing, I kept wishing they could've been more like SBK2001 for PC.

I was aware that Moto GP for the Xbox had gotten rave reviews, but there was no way I was going to spend $300 for another console, so I tried to ignore its existence. I couldn't help read the reviews anyway, but they're pretty generic and avoid comparisons between the Xbox and PS2 games (don't want to bite the hands that feed). The few remarks I could find on the net that directly compare the games were brief, and sounded like the usual console partisanship. Anyway, my curiosity (and the $179 price) got the better of me and I finally got an Xbox just for Moto Gp 2.

I realize now why the comparisons are so brief: there's no comparison.

All the best stuff from SBK2001 is there, with better graphics, sound and control. The common thread between Moto GP 2 and SBK2001: Climax developers (THQ is the publisher). There seem to be some serious moto fans in the company, and the result is a real joy to anyone who has any interest in bikes (or an appreciation for apexes). You really have to hand it to Climax--they've managed to create a game that is true to the sport and is also very accessible to the unfamiliar.

At first, I was reluctant to learn a new controller setup for the Xbox game, but I can't imagine playing Namco's game ever again. At identical prices, the Xbox is a steal compared to the PS2, if Climax's Moto GP 2 is any indication of the quality of Xbox titles.

That says a lot since I am not really into motorcycle games. The graphics on this game are absolutely breathtaking and if you are an Xbox apologist then you need to shown this game to all those PS2 philes who think that their console is superior. The fluidity of the graphics and gameplay is really impressive in this game. Try playing this game in the rain and you can see raindrops on the screen that look so real and the water on the track has such a realistic reflection. This game is a winner.