Fans of the Xbox will tell you this console has a lot of strengths. On paper, that would appear to be true. It’s powerful PC processor & graphics unit should make sure that seamless scaling & fluid motion would be a given. One way to quickly test a console’s ability to impress is to pop in a racing game and see how it performs. Effective racing games must provide the gamer with a sense of speed as they move from standstill to 150+ mph in less than a minute. One of the Xbox’s launch titles, “Project Gotham Racing” was certainly intended to be a technical showcase and it did a great job of giving Xbox owners that “wow” factor. The sequel, “Project Gotham Racing 2” is more of the same eye candy and does what a good sequel should do by improving on the original and offering more cars and more tracks to keep any racing fan busy and most importantly, happy with their purchase. “Forza Motorsport” is also a top notch simulation racing game and is a great alternative to the street racing approach of “PGR”. “Forza” allows a player to play between arcade and career modes, as many racing sims offer while taking the races to a number of different environments such as real tracks, dragstrips & even street races. The sheer number (230+) of cars in “Forza” is a bit intimidating while also being very impressive. “Forza” does a lot of things right and both this title or either of the “PGR” games are worth owning if you’re a fan of the genre.
College football remains my favorite sport to buy video games for ever since EA mastered the format with games offered on PS2, Gamecube and of course Xbox. I love the simulation of taking a team to the national championship game, winning awards, breaking records, recruiting, then trying to do it all again with a mixture of newcomers and upper classmen. Which is pretty much why I love college football in general! The Xbox versions of these stellar mid 2000s EA offerings don’t really do anything differently or better than what the Gamecube or PS2 versions do, so really its a matter of preference for the controller setups on each of those consoles.
Cartridge Corner 