Last year's The Suffering was basically Hellraiser in a prison. But now that our morally ambiguous hero has made his exodus from Abbott Penitentiary, what's the new hook? Well, The Suffering 2 is Hellraiser in a ghetto. Unfortunately, since the demons who plague Torque reflect atrocities in their environment, they're not quite as frightening this time. Demon representing death by firing squad—scary. Demon representing fiscal inequality—not so much.
However, many of the previous game's horrors reappear under different titles. The death-by-lethal-injection demon is now the heroin-addict demon, which I suppose is the same thing. But it doesn't matter a whole lot what the creatures look like since you'll be frantically blowing them into bloody chunks. Just don't expect much more than that, or you'll be the one suffering.
FAR CRY INSTINCTS (M) (4.5 stars)
Ubisoft
Xbox
Aside from the awesome single-player campaign and nifty level-editing feature, what's really impressive about this action-packed romp through paradise are the graphics. They were astonishingly realistic on PC and now they're just as real on Xbox. Seriously, I sat in front of the TV and played the beach level for 20 minutes and walked away with a suntan.
TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 06 (E) (3.5 stars)
EA Sports
Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube
For a couple of years, Tiger was in a rut, but he's recently returned to form and proven he deserves that Nike swoosh on all of his clothes. His videogame, however, is in the same rut. It's still an excellent game, but so was last year's, and last year's version won't cost you $50.
MARVEL NEMESIS: RISE OF THE IMPERFECTS (T) (3 stars)
Electronic Arts
Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube
Marvel's finest have seldom looked better than they do in this fanboy-dreamt-up beat-'em-up. From Spider-Man to Magneto, the designs and animations are perfect. Too bad the bland urban backgrounds and repetitive enemy drones make these superheroes look like diamonds in a landfill.
NBA 2K6 (E) (4 stars)
2K Sports
Xbox, PlayStation 2
The only thing the NBA 2K series seems to have lost with its ESPN license is the annoying commentary of Bill Fitzgerald. Between that and the addition of the intuitive new shot stick, someone at 2K Sports deserves to have some congratulatory Gatorade poured on his head.
Matthew Scott Hunter has been known to mumble, "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start" in his sleep. E-mail him at
[email protected].