Arts Anime Nick Hogg Game Guy What’s Hot Right Now What can I say about Gravion? Well, Giant combining super robots, lets go to the check list: chéck; mysterious dude in a mask, check; castle full of maids, check; with check; plot, umm, plot where are your Okay it’s not that bad, but it’s girls breasts, enormous & Entertainment rather episodic, and the plot is slightly cookie cutter. Now Gravion is not too be confused with God Gandar, because it’s in God Gandar where the girls’ breasts get bigger when the robots combine—in Gravion breast size remains constant. What’s Going to be Hot Gundam Speed, yes it is almost upon us, and I’m already looking into the routes it’s being shipped on, to uh, acquire a copy by per- fectly legal means—just a little bit sooner. Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Fdition—sute you probably bought this on VHS, Laser Disc, DVD), the director’s cut DVD, but August 2004 this is platinum, man, it’s better than all those other ones you’ve got sitting on the shelf combined. Nevertheless this is still an out- standing, albeit older, series. It’s a must-have for anime fans or peo- ple who like weird, existential stuff that ties in the Dead Seas Scrolls, and tries to make sense of them. Also, if you pick this up, I suggest hitting the local liquor store and picking up a bottle of favourite, because it’s the only way your this series will even begin to make sense. Front Mission 4 Nick Hogg Game Guy Much like how a certain candy bar combines peanut butter and chocolate into a great snack, Front Mission 4 combines turn-based strategy RPG with giant robots. But does it live up to the previous snacks (I mean games)? nately this isn’t going to be one of my ut answers. FM¢4 has a lot of things ‘it, but some of these things are exe- cuted very poorly, and like most recent games of this ‘ature, the strategy guide isn’t an First off, let’s delve into the audio/visual por- tion of the game, since it’s the first thing to make an impression. The soundtrack, while manage to set the appropriate mood. I would have preferred, however, if there were more metal techno songs for some of the more important battles. And, as for the sound effects themselves, I can only assume that’s what giant robots blowing up should sound like. For the visuals, they are a little less than impressive. All of the cut scenes are amazing and rival most blockbuster action flick’s CG, but the actual game-play graphics, while clear, are not highly detailed. Plus, you are always zoomed out at a considerable distance, so there are not a lot of robot details to be had during battle. It still is a step above the graph- ics in FM3, but being this far in the life of the PS2, the graphics should be a lot better than they are now. Much like its predecessor, there are two sto- rylines to be played, except in FM# they do it in a confused, disjointed way. You have two completely unrelated stories occurring simulta- neously, each taking place on opposite ends of the earth. Now this wouldn’t be a problem if you were just given the option to play either the Europe story or the South American story, but no choice is ever given, You play approxi- mately four missions on each story, then switch. This makes each and every story extremely disjointed, and it’s rather hard to fol- low the complexities of the lot when you're being thrown back and forth between stories. From an entirely storytelling point of view this is the worst possible way they could have pre- sented FM4—it becomes extremely frustrating when you reach a critical moment in one story and then it switches. And since natalia this tends to be very com- monplace, you start to lose interest in what was an other- wise interesting plotline. The core game play here is where it’s such a toss up. The setup menus are not laid out very efficiently, and cause you to continually switch back and forth from a buying menu to an equipping menu. And, in both of these menus, stats are not displayed very efficiently and will cause you a few headaches in the form of checking and re-checking to see which equipment is optimal. Also, before each mission there is absolutely no briefing of the layout, or as to what enemy forces you will encounter, so you go into every fight blind and uninformed. Now, I mentioned the guide earlier, and this will remedy both of these problems, although it does basically add an additional $20 to the PlayStation.2 ul NE 5 cost of the game. But if you want to avoid time-wasting and strategic headaches, this is your only option. Once you’ve got the robots all set up and into battle, you are now at the meat and potatoes of the game, and it’s fun. You've got a good assortment of weapons and skills, which liven up the battles, as well as a new feature of linked attacks. These attacks allow you to call up support fire from ally units in both offensive and defensive situations. With that in mind, your troop movement is extremely important. If not properly placed you could hinder your effectiveness. Also, FM4 has a heavier emphasis on repairing units than previous Front Mission games, but this is a double-edged sword in this case. It’s great to he | be able to easily bring back j that destroyed arm from a lucky missile shot, but with | the heavy advent of healing, some missions take upwards of 70 turns. And when you can't even rattle off a simula- tor mission in less than half an hour, it makes the game rather unwieldy to play. Nevertheless, it’s still a good strategic RPG title. Even with its menu flaws, — (which can be fixed with a guide, but it ultimately makes this a more cost- ly purchase) FM4 seems like a real toss up. At its core it’s got a great battle system, with lots of depth and customization. Now,s whether this title is for you or not is another matter, since it requires a large investment of both time and money. But if you’ve got the time and can overcome the disjointed storytelling process, FM4 is still worth a look. 22 | OtherPress