Shooting

Game Description: Playing MDK2 is like riding a roller coaster or watching a good action movie. In fact, fighting aliens has never been this much fun. You begin the adventure as Kurt, a human in a Batman-like suit equipped with some loopy but lethal accessories. Kurt packs a powerful chain gun and a built-in parachute for gliding around levels. Kurt also has access to a simple-to-use sniper mode that allows you to smoothly zoom between multiple magnification levels (1x to 75x) for long-range kills.

 From the comic-book style cut scenes to even its darkest moments, MDK2 sustains an enjoyable tongue-in-cheek atmosphere that provides a refreshing break from the many somber action titles that populate store shelves. The result is a refreshing, unique gaming experience no gamer should pass up.

I liked the idea of sniping, shooting and thinking in a one game, but here it's done in three different games. MDK2 is essentially split up into three alternating parts—Kurt's adventure, Max's adventure and Dr. Fluke's adventure. Because each character's missions are built around their various abilities, each part plays completely different, and there's not much to hold everything together to make it feels like one game. MDK2 is a beautiful 3-D action game, and it's pretty fun, but there are problems in the game's basic concept that keep it from being really fun.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood, Animated Violence

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence

The Dreamcast port of Quake III has for the most part stayed true to its PC cousin.

I'm pretty much in agreement with Mike on this one. Quake III Arena is fast, violent and addictive—so much so that I found myself glued to the game without a care in the world for what I was doing, where I was or how I got there. I became so addicted to the game that my brain would liquefy and go on auto pilot for hours at a time—totally desensitized to all of the lightening-quick violence and utterly oblivious to the online opponents I was mercilessly fragging.

For such a young genre, it has quickly gained a feeling of "been there, done that" in the few years since its explosion onto the scene. In fact, looking back at the list of games that qualify as survival horror, I'd pick only three as being the best representatives of what this type of game has to offer: Resident Evil for starting off the craze, Silent Hill for making things truly chilling and Dino Crisis 2 for putting an entirely different spin on how the game can be played.

My feeling on Dino Crisis 2 is that it's too little, too late. I have a good respect for the original because it tried to do a few things differently then most survival-horror titles, and while it wasn't anything earth-shattering, I still appreciated the effort.

Game Description: Dino Crisis 2 picks up where the original left off. While continuing Dr. Kirk’s research into Third Energy, the government has opened a rift in time. Now, an elite team of operatives must travel back in time and rescue any survivors and recover the Third Energy device. You take control of Regina and Dylan as they use their special talents and maybe a weapon or two to get through the mission. Along the way, they will encounter 10 species of dinosaurs that are looking for a human snack. It’s up to you to save the Third Energy device and return home safely in Dino Crisis 2.