Game Zone reviews

PlayStation 2

My God, this is some game. Although based on the same premise as the past two GTA games, number three is in a different ball park. In fact it's in another city altogether. In beautifully rendered 3-D, you can create havoc on the streets of Liberty City in this free-roaming wonder.
Steal cars, take on missions from the local mob, or wander around looking for good mugging victims (pimps always have a decent wad on them). This is a violent, thoroughly immoral game, but Jesus it's fun.
The care and attention to detail is awesome, too: there's 50 different vehicles to half-inch, and the city is swarming with pedestrians: businessmen uptown, hookers downtown, police, FBI, even the army (if necessary) patrol the city... you get the idea. The various weather conditions and time of day or night all come into play during the game, too.
If you could buy only one game ever for your PS2, Grand Theft Auto III wins, hands down. Steal a copy now. (NP)

LOTUS CHALLENGE

PlayStation 2

Lotus Challenge may at first seem like your usual road-based racing game, but the difference here is that this is brought to life in glorious 128-bit goodness.
While the game may start off as a traditional racer, the player (either an odd looking bloke or a chick, your choice) will be hired to do extra tasks on the site, be it a simple movie stunt or a race to get an injured person to the hospital. There are 40 cars (including concept cars designed by Lotus just for the game), 15 race tracks (including a few well rendered drives around parts of London) and ten stunt tracks, all of which provide ample playing time.
Up to four people can compete in the multiplayer mode and there's a wealth of game options available. It's a full-on adrenaline-pumping, palm-sweating, rubber-burning, high-octane racing challenge. And if you haven't got a nervous twitch by the end, you haven't played it properly. (HM)

Game Zone reviews archive