[ Front Page | Home | About Us | Charts | Cheats | Games | Hardware | Music |N64 | News | Playstation | Software ]
GAME PREVIEWED: Actua Ice Hockey 2 (PSX)
RELEASED BY: Gremlin
PRICE: £44.99
PREVIEWED BY: Cheezy Knob
PREVIEW: -
Well here we go again, I heard the editor say, as he found yet another ice hockey game in the ‘to preview or review’ box the office junior has set up. Basically it is to make more time for him to slack off because instead of distributing the games, information and screenshots etc, he just leaves them in the box and we all have to "take our pick" which is the phrase commonly used by the less mentally stable of us in the office. The junior tell us that it is a streamlining device whatever that is. So in order to actually make us do some work instead of playing Half-Life or Delta Force the editor has decided to hand them out himself. So here he is doing his daily rounds, dishing out the games and info and he comes across Actua Ice Hockey 2. So immediately everyone becomes extremely busy and unable to take on anything else. Unfortunately for me I had just cleaned my desk so it looked like I wasn’t busy at all, but in fact I was, very busy as a matter of fact. This of course is the reason I am going on like this and this is turning more into a day at the office passage than a preview so I will stop the chat and start the preview now. I was just pointing out that I did not pick this preview to do in the first place, OK!
Anyway from what I can gather Actua Ice Hockey 2 is just another twist on an already crowded genre of ice hockey games, but if you like that sort of game you should love this because this game promises to be a serious improvement on the last version in almost every way.
For a start the graphics in this game should be absolutely stunning as it is using an all new engine. The player likeness should be great as you could beat up your least favourite player using one of yours! The players movements have all been modelled on the Sheffield Steelers team and they have also leant a hand in the strategy area. The teams promise to be a lot more realistic in attack and defence tactics than in the last game as these have also been modelled on the real thing.
The best thing about this game though, the one thing that would make me go out and buy it is the fights. According to the press releases there should be a lot of very good fight scenes shown in the TV format which should be a lot of fun. These should be proper broken nose gloves off affairs that should have you at the edge of your chair.
Another good thing about this game should be the networked games. The game promises very low latency 2-4 player network games. This is probably, after thinking about it another reason why I should buy this game for these alone.
This game will appeal to a lot of people and I am sure will do well but, to me it lacks originality and that little bit of flare that a really good game needs.
LINKS: www.gremlin.com