He's on fire!
The top title on the way from Acclaim this year is that old-school, terribly popular basketball game released over ten years ago, NBA Jam 2004. Players will find the game to be, thankfully, exactly the same as before, with a few of the things that made the arcade version great like three-on-three (as opposed to two-on-two) and supposedly over seven hundred motion-captured animations for the high-flying dunks and ankle-breaking crossovers you would expect. The graphics are an applaudable update, but while the 3D effects are flashy, they are only a medium for its in-your-face gameplay. NBA Jam 2004 is on the way to the XBox and PS2 this October.
Gladiator for the PS2 and XBox was interesting to behold. Drawing from different Julius Caesar inspired movies such as Spartacus and Gladiator, Gladiator is based in first-century Rome, and the player has a single objective: fight, kill, and mutilate. Fights in the Colosseum can be very bloody, and skill is measured not only by the amount of kills, but also by the entertainment factor, judged by the amount of 'fatality'- style finishers. With over seventy finishers, the game has incredible potential, but we will just have to see how it's pulled off when it arrives this Fall...
Alias, a game whose production was aided by the creator of the Alias TV series, is a bit less inspiring. Assuming a James Bond style, believe-nothing, assume-nothing environment, Alias is directed toward the sleuth more than the action-oriented. The story is about a CIA double agent babe who is on her last mission, that is, to take out a high-up black-marketeer before the reverse happens. Promising lots of action and high gadgetry, Alias is set for this Fall.
