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Dead to Rights: Reckoning
(PSP)
Namco (Rebellion)
Price: ~$15
(used) |
 On the
one hand, you can actually wield two sawed-off shotguns
at once--a feat which I'm sure would probably dislocate
your shoulders in real life. On the other hand,
the game is fairly boilerplate (think Max Payne if he
had a dog), the ending makes less sense than the final
act of Metal Gear Solid 2 (And not in the "everything
just got a whole lot weirder" sense either--which is a
shame, as MGS2 showed that something could be salvaged
from that sort of thing), and at one point, the game
red-screened with an "out of memory error"--something
that simply should not be happening on a
console.
Dead Head Fred (PSP)
D3 Publisher
(Vicious)
Price: $15
(new) |
 The game has you as a
detective who is a body with a brain in a jar for a
head. (Or a skull for a head, or a zombie head for
a head, or a mannequin head for a head...) Most of
the heads are useful for particular situations, certain
heads being more useful against given enemies than
others (particularly, in countering the attacks of the
enemies; so think God of War meets Mega Man and you'll
"get" this particular aspect of the game.) Plus,
it's got more John C. McGinley for your money than
a boxset of Scrubs.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
(PSP)
Konami (Hideo Kojima)
Price: $20
(new) |
The Metal Gear series was a bit different from
the typical contemporary fare--it emphasized sneaking
around rather than shooting, blowing up, or stabbing
everyone in sight (and the occasional off-screen
goon). After a (roughly) decade-long hiatus, a PS1
game came out to some fanfare. Then, a sequel came
out and completely changed the game in a way that was
mostly like the first one with a new set of
characters...okay, it was pretty much EXACTLY like the
first MGS with a new set of characters. Also, the
last half-hour or so made no real sense. Then,
they made a prequel to the game, putting The Artist Not
Yet Known As Big Boss in the Russian jungle, pitting him
against his former mentor and the wild.
This game
is a sequel to Snake Eater, with everyone's favorite
gravel-throated-superspy-voiced-by-a-screenwriter
forming a band of abandoned Russian soldiers while
trying to stop global thermonuclear war. Also, you
can use Wi-Fi hotspots to recruit new soldiers (probably
one of the more creative ways to use this
feature). It's probably one of the best sneaking
games you'll see on a portable console (and this is
against two Syphon Filter games and a Splinter Cell
game, so it's not exactly "wins by default"
here). |
