Max Payne, Sony Playstation

Stop, bullet-time. The hit PC game Max Payne is now available on the PlayStation 2. Max Payne was working as an undercover cop infiltrating the mafia gang that runs the city. One day he returned home to find his wife and child brutally murdered. Worse still, he was framed for the crime. Now he's on the run with both the police and the mob after him, looking for revenge. The story of Max Payne is well scripted and delivered in the style of a graphic adventure. The story is littered with mission objectives that can be reviewed at any point by bringing up the menu. So the scene is set, now it's time to jump into the adventure. Max is presented in a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective, with controls similar to console versions of Quake . This means that looking around and body movement are completely independent of each other, making the game a pleasure to play. One of the coolest features of Max Payne has to be bullet-time. Players can activate Matrix-like action at any time, throwing the game into slow motion. You can leap through the air narrowly dodging incoming fire while lining up your headshots, and how sweet is that? Bullet-time recharges slowly so don't overuse it, because you never know when you're going to get ambused. Max Payne certainly looks the part. Photographs have been digitised to give the game a scarily realistic look. Game animation is smooth, the polygon count is high, and the game is full of stylish special effects. With a good plot, refined controls, new innovations and excellent gameplay, Max Payne is definitely worth a place in your collection.

Buy Max Payne for 7.99 GBP

Shox
With the market for driving games saturated to say the least, once in a while it's nice to see something come around that offers some new ideas. Which is why it's nice to discover Shox. Combining a few novel ideas with an overall simple-yet-effective game mechanic, Shox is a veritable breath of fresh air alongside the wealth of uber-realistic, super simulators we are beginning to take for granted....
The Simpsons Skateboarding
It's a fact that absolutely everyone in the world is in love with The Simpsons, except George Bush Snr who prefers The Waltons. But, as no Waltons Skateboarding game is being released for PlayStation 2, it looks like he backed the wrong horse. It is widely accepted that EA's last Simpsons game, Simpsons Road Rage, was practically a clone of Sega's seminal Crazy Taxi, albeit featuring the colourful...
Samurai Warriors: Xtreme Legends
KOEI have made quite a name for themselves in recent years with their own brand of historically-grounded slash 'em ups. The Dynasty Warriors series, now in its fifth iteration, casts players as heroes participating in actual battles from China's Three Kingdoms period. In these games, featuring colourful, arcade-style, sword-swinging gameplay, would-be heroes of the day must hurry to where they are...
Scaler
Though some may consider the 3D platform genre to have been saturated somewhat since the days of Mario 64 et al, it's true to say that without them, interactive entertainment wouldn't be everything it's cracked up to be. That said, the demand for such games is greater than ever, so without further ado, let us introduce Scaler, the latest in the genre for 2004. Affording players some rather unique ...
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
Released for Xbox in November 2003, the latest instalment in Tom Clancy's long running Rainbow Six series has now made its way over to the PlayStation 2. As is always the case, a serious bout of intense counter-terrorism action is on the cards, as you take command of an elite, multinational squad of special operatives and enter into an assortment of authentic and dangerous real-world scenarios. As...
Ronaldo V-Football
Ronaldo V-Football sets a new standard for PlayStation football games. Building on the success of the top-selling V brand of sports titles (V-Rally, V-Rally 2), it is different to any other football game due to the exclusive Brazilian team licence and of course, Luiz Nazario De Lima, Ronaldo - The Phenomenon. In Ronaldo V-Football, Infogrames delivers a unique and exceptional gaming experience tha...