The International House of Mojo

Another review has poured in!

http://www.gamespy.com/reviews/february03/indianajonesxbox/index.shtml
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The Slayer engine does a fantastic job of dealing out great combat physics, excellent animation, and nonstop action to the player. Indy's trademark "brawler" combat technique is perfectly reproduced and sees him beating the crap out his opponents in true slugger style. Indy's not capable of much fancy stuff, relying mainly on solid-fist combos. There's tons of control over combat and fast-paced fisticuffs, and throwing and groin kicking are all easy to perform...

ans of the Indiana Jones movies and fans of great action beat-'em-up video games should absolutely take Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb for a spin. It might be some time until the Xbox sees another adventure that's this enjoyable again.

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One of these days I'll learn the markup codes for this comment system. Maybe I'll make it my 2004 New Years Resolution.

I just checked out the full review at IGN and...
this is probably the second most un-professional game review I've read this year! The reviewer makes very frequent comparison to another game (Buffy), makes incorrect use of programming terms such as "Clipping-heavy", often points out flaws without backing'em up with a valid example, uses many laughable phrases like "Indy Skills" and "ratta-tat-tat of a Tommygun", and says "cool" too many times!
I wouldn't be surprised if this review was written by an intoxicated highschool student at 4AM.

Edit: not to mention ludicrous claims without any proof, like Indy's punch animation and weapon models taken straight from Buffy's.

Indy uses the Buffy game engine. That's why they can make those comparisons. Those phrases aren't that bad, it keeps the writing from being dull and dry.

But Buffy's mentioned at least a dozen times throughout the review, and instead of limiting the comparison to technical aspects of the engine, it reaches beyond the gameplay (which wouldn't be so bad, if both games were targeted toward the same audience).

This reads like a review for the Buffy fans, not the fans of the series.

I'm not sure I can trust reviews from the people who gave 9.2 rating to Xtreme Beach Volleyball.

The game's actually pretty good if you're not ignorant enough to just take it at face value. There's much more to the game than retarded sex stuff that wears off on you after about 2 minutes of play. The casino and dating sim/partner relations element are just as fun as the simple, yet deep, volleyball. Don't be fooled by the commercial.

But in all honesty, it's more like an 8 or 8.5.

that's a shocker!
The commercial indeed makes it seem worse than it probably is.

*whine*
There are no puzzles! It's 3D! It sucks!
*end standard form naive-fan-boy-who-still expects-LucasArts-to-actually-make-original-games whine*

:)

according to the press release, its 33% action, 33% puzzles and 33% snogging ladies and being indy.

personally i thikn it is one of the best lec games in the last 5 years.

2003-5=1998

hmmm yes 1998 being the year of Grim Fandango :)

but then I think Jedi Outcast was pretty good too...

u jest...?

so, u think it is a worthwhile purchase (from an lec perspective...)

btw dont forgot X-box get the release of indy exclusively of other systems (probably in a deal with lucasarts), it'd be silly to give a bad rating to the game

Well, i wouldn't exactly call it "exclusive" seeing as it's appearing on the PC and PS2 and, eventually (as with Infernal Machine) probably Gamecube...

Exclusivity is few and far between in this day and age of gaming. I mean, look at Sega whoring itself to every man, woman and child under the sun...

If u want exclusivity, Lucasarts isn't the place to be really... They are going for the greatest possible income from their licenses, sometimes at the expense of graphics and gameplay (damn u PS2!). But, then again, I don't really expect anything else in this day and age.

Cynical...? Yes, but what can you expect in a computer games world on crack! :o) G

i call it an exclusive release when there's about a month between releases of platforms

xbox: 25 february
pc: 18 march
ps2: release date not even announced

NO puzzles ?! Oh gee, i knewed they was going to do this... infact the screens and the trailer were a bunch of socks and kicks. bad bad bad.

Ask to your self: do you prefer the three trials before the holy grail, or the brawl into the club ?
Honestly, the first is what I think when i say "Indy"

They did the right choice with music and manual, because these are the only reasons I'm probably going to buy it. I'm very disappointed.

Says spaff (who seems to only be on level 3): "ign are talking shite... the puzzles are good, they are fairly easy, so you dont get stuck and pissed off like in tomb raider, but also engaging enough to make you think a bit."

There's a playable demo of Indy in the new Xbox Magazine. Fun fisticuffs, but the whip swinging animation is atrocious. Jury's still out.

Fun fact. It would appear that the kanji in the print ad translates (roughly) to "body attacking hunter guy". Although the last 3 kanji are most certainly correct, the first one is either obscure or an edit. It appears to be a simplified version of the kanji for attack, which would make sense because it would look really squished and uglier if they didn't. Plus it kind of makes sense with the rest of the line.

Without being able to read the whole review, it does seem like the reviewer is giving the game a low score on the wrong pretenses. I look forward to playing the game as a pure, crazy action game, not a sucky Tomb Raider/Infernal Machine push-the-blocks kinda game. The Team Xbox review seems like a better read and more of an accurate review to me.

Yeah, from the get-go, this Indy game's been marketed and pushed as "all action!" instead of "all bad puzzles!" so I don't know where the IGN reviewer was getting that assumption from. Also, the "first half is puzzles and exploring, second half is action" pacing doesn't seem that far off from the overall structure of the Indy movies really.

The Team XBox review seems maybe a little too gushing about the games awesomeness, but sounds closer to my expectations (fun action game, good atmosphere, nothing "amazing" but still really enjoyable) than the IGN one. I'm not expecting supreme greatness with Emperor's Tomb, but I'm looking forward to playing it and enjoying myself at least, and that's worth more than 6.1/10 :).

Having read the IGN review, I'd say it wasn't really a fair score. He seems pretty negative and hard-set on how "bad" the graphics are.

He talks about how the AI is spotty sometimes, but it's a game based on a series where everyone opposed to Indy gets his ass kicked hard, so yeah. I'd say it's a good recreation of the way the movie plays.

The demo was nice enough, I thought.

in the movie its what makes Indy great that he isnt invincible and he gets his ass kicked just as much (big Thuggee in ToD, mechanic in Raiders)

but i agree, IGN's to rough

Alternate viewpoint here;

http://www.teamxbox.com/view_reviews.php?id=445

It seems like forever since gamers have had the chance to crack Indiana?s whip in a game that is actually fun. This time, LucasArts has come through with flying colors shooting Indiana Jones to the top of my list of best action games ever made. Read on to find out how Indiana Jones and the Emperor?s Tomb does almost everything right and ends up being one hell of a game.



etc...

hmmmmmmmm
we shall see.