> Microsoft Xbox Games

Platforms: Xbox, ESRB Rating: Teen

Platforms: Xbox, ESRB Rating: Mature

Enclave is an exhilarating but difficult first-person role- ... Read more

Enclave is an exhilarating but difficult first-person role-playing game--a gritty, up-close-and-personal Diablo meets Halo experience. The basic action of the game takes place in a dark and chaotic landscape ripped apart by the "rift"--a bottomless crevasse magically created to surround the lone city of Celenheim, and keep it protected from the dark Outlanders preparing to invade. Your first mission, the Mission of Light, will be to make sure that the Outlanders do not succeed in their attempts. As a very fun side note, when you win the game for Celenheim, you can turn around and play the game as an Outlander. You start the game as a knight and as the levels progress, you acquire various other characters that play pivotal roles in your ability to get through each level alive. In true Dungeons and Dragons style, you prep for each level by gearing up your character and purchasing the items you think will help you stay alive. Character selection is very important since each mission has unique challenges, tends to be pretty long and is usually impossible to save in progress. This brings me to the game's only major downfall--unless you are a patient and skilled gamer, there's a good possibility that you will get frustrated by not being able to get past difficult levels within a try or two. Many of the levels need to be attempted half a dozen times or more using different character and equipment combinations to get through. It's an enjoyable challenge, but may be too much like hard work for everyone. --Sung Nicholas Kim Minimize

Platforms: Xbox

Set around the events of 1991's head-to-head with the Iraqi ... Read more

Set around the events of 1991's head-to-head with the Iraqis, Conflict: Desert Storm presents a stylised view of the confrontation, allowing players to see the war unfold through the eyes of either Delta Force or the SAS. Combining first and third-person perspectives with a thoroughly well-designed, team-based model, the game manages to pull off the almost unthinkable double for a console by being both engaging and easy to manage--not something that comes easily when you have a limited number of controller buttons. The plotline is standard military sim fare--strategic targets must be blown up, prisoners rescued and bullets expended by the thousand--but the extra edge provided by the ability to drive vehicles and to creep around undetected by the excitable Iraqi guards makes this a must-have rather than a nice-to-have. The maximum squad size for any given mission is four team members, each soldier having a special ability ranging from marksmanship to explosives use. In theory, handling four troops simultaneously sounds like a tall order but developers Pivotal have done a great job of creating a control system that works well, even in the heat of battle. Desert Storm is not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination and the learning curve can be quite steep; stick with it, though, and there's much to recommend it. For the cautious player there's an excellent training mode which gives thorough instruction on how to perform all of the basic functions guaranteed to turn you into a killing machine. --Chris Russell This review refers to the PlayStation 2 version. Minimize

Platforms: Xbox

Platforms: Xbox, ESRB Rating: Teen