Reader Reviews
Bumper edition: Shadow Hearts, FFVII, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Max Payne 2, OpFlash, Hardware and Fire Warrior!
Hardware: Online Arena (PS2)
by Virgil Scott
I guess you could say there are two categories of great games. Those that are great because of their ingenious creativity and innovation, when the developers have come up with a wonderful original concept, as though they had never heard the words 'me too' or 'derivative'. Then you get those games that shamelessly draw from other titles or aim to fit snugly into a particular category. Shamelessly but adeptly, they refine the familiar, drawing out and expanding on the good qualities. In truth there are probably very few games that would fit perfectly into either category, but Hardware tries very hard to fit into the latter.
Perhaps I'm predisposed to liking this sort of thing but it's actually a lot of fun. The light-footed feel of the physics combined with some nippy little jeeps means you can have a real blast just screeching over the landscapes and drawing circles around the lumbering tanks. Although the weapons may not be so impressive you can add insult to your injured adversaries through the voice chat - making fun of your opponents when they screw up in front of you is almost as amusing as killing them.
If you can get the hang of the rotational turret control scheme, it'll give you a real edge over all the guys that stick to the simplified defaults. Whilst they will have to point their entire vehicle at their target, you can control your turret as a separate entity - shoot in one direction, drive in another. And even if most of the weapons are fairly average, there's one that stands out and can give rise to some very entertaining scenarios.
Someone's just started the Airstrike timer; in 20 seconds everyone left out in the open will be destroyed. As soon as people see the timer they tend to scramble towards the shelter all at once, but you, the sneaky bastard that you are, take a detour to pick up a Drive EMP. It locks onto some poor guy who hasn't quite made it into the shelter yet and 'POW!' he can't move any more - you cruise into the relative safety of the shelter and watch with enthusiasm as he gets blown to bits.
Unfortunately, though it can be marvellous, the quality of play rests mostly on who happens to be in the server you join. All too often this means you can kiss goodbye your fun as you join in on a game with a bunch of bad-mouthed kids.