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Game Reviews
'Battlezone' (Sony PSP)
By: Atari
(Sony PSP / ASIN: B000CSULDG / Rated: RP / $29.99)

Features: Arm your Hover Tank from an arsenal of deadly weapons and enter country vs. country battles in destructible, photo-realistic locations from around the globe. Unlock new weapons and tanks and outfit your war machine for speed, defense or all-out destruction. Engage in all-out wireless battles with up to three friends on customizable multiplayer maps.

Description: 'BattleZone' is intense arena-based vehicular combat! Enter a deadly new world of professional motorsports, where man and machine merge to survive in the most competitive and dangerous arenas on the planet.

Verdict: OK, let's get this out there from the start: this game is strictly a vs. game with no story event. Which isn't a bad thing, honestly. Battlezone gets right to the point, dropping you and other hover tanks into arenas for some frantic action. There are other modes of play but they all lead to the same vs. arenas. You can go for single player matches, single player tournaments, or ad-hoc (you and some friends in a room, no internet multi player) multi player. You get basically every game type you've been used to such as death match, capture the flag, etc. The single player tournament mode is where you go to unlock all of the extra upgrades called tweaks for your tanks. This mode also unlocks new tanks, tank weight classes, arenas, and primary weapons. Let me also mention that each country has a different tank and special weapon which is a good reason to try each of the different country's tank. The computer can be relentless at times, putting up a pretty good fight. So, don't expect to unlock everything the game has to offer in a single sitting!

Graphically the game boasts photo realistic backgrounds and some cool effects. Of course this is back of the box material that when actually playing isn't quite the case. The arenas themselves are detailed enough but not distractingly so to where you'll stare off at the sky and think "wow, that's photorealistic!" while getting the ever-living blown out of your tank. Simply put, the graphics are somewhat simple but they get the job done. Weapon effects are nice but again still somewhat generic. I'm actually a fan of the menu interface they give you where you scroll sideways through your choices. Every weapon is represented with an icon/description and each tank has multiple camo schemes which are just different paint jobs to choose from.

So overall the game sounds cool right? Honestly, it is in short bursts. It's not a bad way to kill a few minutes but the action will wear quickly after about 20 minutes of play because of its repetitive nature. If you were a fan of the previous installments of the Battlezone games, or any vehicle based combat game I highly recommend looking into this title. For the casual gamer though, this is a short game with not much to offer except the arena battles.

Reviewed by Michael Watson





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