By Matthew Scott Hunter
‘Madden NFL 11’ (E)
No need for overtime
****
EA Sports
Xbox 360
Until they upgrade the sport of football in some dramatic fashion, there’s very little “Madden NFL” can do to enhance their annual offerings, aside from the occasional gameplay tweak here and there. “Madden 11” has given us an especially nice tweak in the form of GameFlow — a system that has the CPU picking preferred plays so you don’t have to waste precious game minutes scrolling through the seemingly infinite possibilities. This works beautifully for offense, but apparently the CPU doesn’t know how to play good D. So you’ll be calling a lot of audibles to fix the CPU’s defensive mistakes, but at least that gives EA Sports something to tweak for next year.
Graphics are the highlight of this year’s installment. Running animations are spectacularly realistic, and in the event that the defense catches up to you, tackle animations are so gorgeously varied that they never look quite the same way twice. The window dressing and fanfare is marginally improved over last year. Post-game wrap-up shows are still glaringly generic, but at least a pixilated President Obama appears to congratulate the Superbowl winners. Nothing says victory like a pat on the jersey from the computer-generated Commander-in-Chief.
‘Clash of the Titans’ (T)
*1/2
Namco Bandai Games
Xbox 360
You would hope that a movie tie-in game released months after the corresponding feature film would account for its tardiness by offering more refined gameplay, but in the case of “Clash of the Titans,” the gods have denied us. Occasional boss battles punctuate the tedium of repetitive hacking and slashing, but they’re over all too quickly. You’ll be clashing with the camera more often that you will be with titans, and it doesn’t help that the mythological setting only serves to remind you of what a pale comparison this is to the exploits of a certain Ghost of Sparta.
‘Arc Rise Fantasia’ (T)
**1/2
Ignition Entertainment
Wii
If you’ve played any of the “Tales” games, from “Tales of Symphonia” on, then you’ve already played a more polished version of “Arc Rise.” This JRPG has the same cel-shaded anime style and young-boy-vs.-a-complicated-world plot. While it doesn’t burden us with random encounters, it may as well, since a heck of a lot of grinding is necessary before you tackle each boss. The only saving grace is the turn-based combat system, which forces you to take into account community points, individual points, formation and proximity to enemy. It’s a shame that no enemy is worth the complicated challenge.
‘Despicable Me’ (E10+)
**1/2
D3
PlayStation Portable
Gru, the villainous hero of “Despicable Me,” taunts you as you play, but don’t let his verbal jabs prod you along too fast — the whole game will be over in less than three hours. Gameplay is split between platforming segments with Gru and puzzle portions featuring his yellow-suited minions. Both can be sporadically fun, if a bit challenging for the young target audience. Youngsters have the option to skip tough levels, but that can cut the already short running time down to just about nothing. CV
