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22 December 2023
Player One: Staff Member #716
Okay, since I\'ve already mentioned this first part in a couple columns before, I\'ll be brief: I just can\'t seem to play first-person shooter games with a PlayStation 2 controller. Sure, on PC games where I can use a mouse to aim, like Battlefield 1942 or Jedi Academy, I totally r0xx0rz teh b0xx0rz (or whatever the current obnoxious Internet slang for \"do well\" might be). But set me down with a PS2 controller and a shooter game-- Project: Snowblind, for instance-- and I display a level of coordination similar to that of a circus bear trying to ride a unicycle for the first time.
So am I really qualified to judge whether or not Project: Snowblind is a good game? The graphics are certainly above par, with cool weapon effects and gorgeous architecture. And there\'s plenty of cool stuff to do, like drive vehicles, man gun turrets, or hack into and take control of enemy robots. But I don’t think my opinions of the game are valid due to my control handicaps, so I\'ll just keep my mouth shut about how frustrating it was for me. Instead, the rest of my half of this review will be all about throwing barrels.
See, for whatever reason, the game allows you to pick up and throw certain items: boxes, crates, the odd wheelchair, but mostly chemical barrels. And this function serves no purpose. It has never come in handy. I’ve never once said, \"Golly, it sure was a good thing I could throw that barrel!\" And yet, I throw everything I come across-- out windows, over ledges, across the room. Maybe it\'s because I see barrel-throwing as a poor man\'s version of the Gravity Gun from Half-Life 2 (a game I could only dream about playing on my rapidly-aging PC). Whatever. I have no idea what my fascination with it is, but I’ve thrown more barrels than Donkey Kong in this game. I\'m obsessed.
It’s rare, but every now and then I’ll come around a corner, barrel in hand, to find myself face-to-face with an enemy soldier. Sure, I could just as easily take him out with some well-played gunfire, but trust me, it’s nowhere near as entertaining as watching a bad guy shout in alarm, raise his gun, then get popped in the face with a big metal container. Which has brought me to the realization of my ultimate goal in Project: Snowblind. Screw rescuing prisoners. Screw saving the world. Come hell or high water, I will throw a chemical barrel into a crowd of enemies and blow it up with my machine gun before it hits the ground.
Player Two: Das Bork
I have been searching for an online game to take over my SOCOM 2 obsession. Can Project: Snowblind (PSB) satisfy my desire to murder the world? Well, that\'s what I asked TLC staffer Das Bork to find out.
Thanks, Das. Well, PSB has a lot to offer online. You have to select between different weapons classes, all with cool, superhuman abilities. When you kill someone, you gain all of their class weapons and the abilities that come with them (hmmm... kinda like Highlander). The powers to choose from are invisibility, ballistic shielding, reflex boost, shock blast, and heat vision. Playing online is very fast-paced, and you need to use these abilities well if you expect to survive.
What I love most is the fact that you can hop into a mech and pilot it into your metallic fury of death and destruction for all mankind!!! Ha ha ha... ahem. Banana, please. Thank you.
Online play also offers plenty of well-designed and gorgeous levels.
I enjoyed PSB a lot. Does it stack up to SOCOM? Well, almost. SOCOM is still undefeated... to my knowledge, at least. This game is well worth it for online play. (Heck, its a hundred times better than Killzone!)
artid
3051
Old Image
7_8_nowplaying.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 08 (apr 2005)
section
entertainmental