Addictive Bouncing Fun (Now With Its AddOn)

Peggle Nights his is the most successful cross between Patchinko and Pinball! It will have you laughing and shouting at the damn bouncing ball...

At every level there is a number of colored pegs that have to be hit in order to clear the level. They are amongst generic pegs that is OK to hit yet will hinder your access to the colored ones you have to clear - and you have only a limited number of shooting balls.

Every time you shoot a ball it gets used - unless you are lucky to fall into an oscillating bucket and gets recycled. There are also special pegs that give you special abilities for a limited time.

I am afraid I am not doing justice to the game - if it sounds complicated it is not. You pick it up in a minute and it is great fun!

This is a perfect example of what has come to be known as Casual Gaming. It would be a good idea to download the 60-min trial version from a site, such as Reflexive, and decide for yourself whether this is indeed your cup of tea.

Anybody can make a good game that will run only on a super-computer. This is an example of pure programming genius!

If you already own Peggle keep in mind that this version only extends the original with some extra levels and a new "superpower". It is not its sequel - so decide accordingly.

Street Racing: The ...Jerry Bruckheimer Version

A combination made in heaven. This was like when I watched the movie Snakes on a Plane, my reaction was: of course, why did no one ever think of this before?!

There is a great number of driving and racing games, some better than others. There is even a number of shooting&driving games. However, Split/Second is a breed on its own.

When was the last time you had to race a collapsing overpass, dodge the load of an out-of-control crane or a wrecking ball, drive under a crash-landing cargo plane, survive a missile-firing helicopter attack, drift in an exploding airport hangar, or survive a Terminator-2 canal race?

Drifting (no wall-slamming penalty!), drafting, sling-shooting, close-calling crashes and General-Leeing your car will fill your Power Bar. Once it is full you can unleash PowerPlay attacks onto your AI opponents. And, trust me, you will hate them! From start to finish they will be scrapping your tailpipe - and you only need to slip for a split second to total your car. You can leave paint all over the walls but the moment your grill touches that central pillar or dumpster you are totaled. The good news is that respawning only takes a second - no time for the adrenaline to subside.

Choose the best car for the track and handling it will be no problem. Nevertheless, this is not an easy game - and, frankly, I missed those. Nowadays everything seems designed to be breezed through and quickly move on to the next game. Not this baby. Random events (not to mention unexplored shortcuts) make racing the same track feel like a new experience so memorizing the tracks will not be of much help. You will have to really hone your skills in order to advance. Quick advice: remap the PowerPlay buttons to something convenient as timing your attacks is essential.

Fallen behind and only half a lap to go? Well, drive your A-game - and make sure to... drop a burning bus on the opponents you could not overtake.Careful though: this knife cuts both ways. First, you must learn to avoid the attacks you triggered yourself and then you must be ready to speed around the ones your opponents spring on you. Split-second decisions are required throughout.

You are not a passenger so stop gawking at the scenery. Strap in and drive for your life!

The visuals will keep you at the edge of your seat and the screeching and explosion sounds will make the hairs at the back of your neck stand up every time. This is like actually being in a Hollywood summer action-blockbuster. My only gripe is that there are no licensed cars (what we drive is always sleek and gorgeous but, sorry, no Gallardos, no DB9s, no R8s, no Shelbies...) whereas customizing our rides is kept to a minimum. That would have taken the experience to a whole new level!

Split/Second, obviously, is more of a well-made arcade than a simulation game. And it is great FUN!

I had initially awarded the game 4 stars but any game that brings you home early to experience it again deserves full marks.

A 20/20 Blur

2010 seemed to be a racing season. A great number of new racing games were released, most trying their hand on novel approaches to the genre. But not all GTs are created equal.

Just before Blur I was playing Split/Second so now the comparison is fresh and easy to make. Since both games are more Arcade-racers than Simulators, I decided to do a side-by-side review.

What Blur has over Split/Second:

- Licensed cars. Fantasy cars look great but it is always more satisfying to drive real supercars. Yes, that means you have to start with the obligatory stupid compacts - but good ones get unlocked soon.

- Much better music. Disney simply dropped the ball here, Split/Second is in dire need for some epic music to go with the blockbuster mentality.

- You have a map that shows both your and your opponents' positions, something I would have liked in Split/Second.

- More realistic damage (keyword: "more"). Split/Second crashes are realistically spectacular but you can body-slam anything forever and the only thing that shows are some...scratches. Blur is no simulator but it is more realistic (for a game that offers power-up repairs that is) - unless you dislike driving a car with its rear spoiler hanging out.

- You get a usable rear-view mirror (for as long as you can keep it from cracking). In Split/Second you have to use the NUM-2 to sneak a peak back - and risk crashing since you cannot look both ways.

- No rubber-band AI. You earn a margin, you get to keep it. It may be less thrilling all the time but it saves you the aggravation of driving your heart out only to loose the No.1 position by a cheap pass at the very last second.

On the other hand, this is where I found Split/Second to be better than Blur:

- Much more spectacular driving. Drifting, drafting, jumping and, of course, exploding things is simply so much better than activating a white shield or firing some feeble electric charges.

- Better designed and larger tracks that can even be modified during a race.

- Less complicated. In Split/Second you just drive, drop an exploding truck (or an entire...freeway) onto your opponents and avoid the same happening to you. In Blur you have to choose and pick up power-ups (max of 3), select the next one, aim and fire at your target; you have to pick up and use the repair power-up to maintain the health of your car; you have to drive through a number of yellow gates to win over fans in order to unlock more cars; and then you have to earn lights to advance (I guess it had to be something, but ..."lights"?).

- Customizable controls. Come on Activision, this is not 1995, why do we have to use both ends of the keyboard to drive a car in Blur? Turn left and right with the L/R arrows yet accelerate and brake with the Q- and A-keys? And someone thought this to be such a good idea that there is no customization option? Well, now you know what must be included in the next patch.

Different gamers have, of course, different preferences, so some of the above mentioned aspects may weight differently to everyone. Both games harbor SecuROM disk-checks, so their DRM scheme is comparable.

Nevertheless, in the end, where I think Blur clearly lags behind Split/Second is the pure fun factor. I know this is subjective but I enjoyed Split/Second much more than I did Blur.

I would never though the day would come that I would be recommending a ...Disney game over an Activision one. But life is nothing but full of surprises.