Piloting

Publisher Agetec may want to get away from the "same-old, same-old" reviews the Armored Core series usually receives, but it's going to take more than a little switcheroo in the title to get the job done. Silent Line is the seventh entry in developer Fromsoft's long-running cult series, but there's really very little to differentiate it from the others previously released. This can be viewed as either a good or bad thing depending on your experience with (and love of) the games, but as a seasoned veteran of all seven, I'm more than ready for this franchise to receive a complete and total overhaul.

Game Description: Silent Line: Armored Core starts from where its predecessor left off. A future Earth that has seen the collapse of the machine controlled society and the return of humans to the surface of the planet. You are once again to become a Raven, a mercenary hired by the government to break through the silent line and discover the truth behind the enigma., Expansion to Armored Core 3, with several new enhancements over the previous game; the most compelling of which is the long-awaited analog control.

Game Description: You are a 40-foot tall walking tank known as a BattleMech. MechAssault is a 3rd-person action or shooter, where the environments are your weapons. Choose from a dozen Mechs ranging from quick 30- tonners to huge 100-ton monsters. Customize your Mech and annihilate your opponents. 20 single-player missions keep you hooked and multiplayer mode gives you a fantastic online experience.

A game like MechAssault poses an interesting problem in terms of how it should be reviewed. The problem revolves around the dual nature of the game. MechAssault is a transition point in terms of console gaming, and it's a transition between a mainly single-player existence and the fairly recent addition of multiplayer action via an online connection. PC games have been forcing critics to deal with this question for quite a while, but this is a fairly new experience for console games. The question becomes what balance is given to the two experiences, and whether one or the other goes further in influencing the direction of the review. I've come to the conclusion that I can't worry too much about the balance between the two different modes of play and just try and talk about what makes up the nature of each and how that reflects on the game as a whole.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Blood, Violence

Being in the military, I have had the privilege of viewing multiple weapons demonstrations, not to mention the training and use many of these devices. A few of these include the standard M-16A2 assault rifle, the MK-19 Automatic Grenade Launcher, and even the B2 Stealth Bomber. While many of these weapons and vehicles are true attributes to their designers and modern day technology, none have come close to the ideas dreamed up by some of today's anime or videogame designers. It's quite understandable though, as the power of ones own imagination can often outweigh the power of today's equipment capabilities.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Violence

Game Description: Take charge of the ultimate war machine: the Battle Engine. Whether in walking or flying mode, you will have access to an array of destructive weapons and receive constant direction from base command. Feel the thrill of immediate, frenetic action as you engage in conflict from a first-person perspective and immerse yourself in lush, expansive environments lit up by massive raging battles. You can shape the direction of each battle by choosing where and how you launch your offensive. Strategy comes to the fore as you sniff out the opposition’s weaknesses and deliver crippling blows with the most feared weapon on the battlefield.

It's a sobering thought to remember that our planet is such a small piece of a much larger universe. We're used to seeing outer space in science fiction as an arbitrary void where people conveniently zip around in futuristic machines that utterly evade any tangible sense of the true vastness of space.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Violence