Four out of five stars is probably the lowest rating this game will get. Gran Turismo 4 is the most realistic racing sim ever created. Yet, I admire it far more than I enjoy it.
Slight graphic improvements have the cars looking so real, you can almost smell the new interior leather, and the tracks are equally photo-realistic. But the reality of it all is both GT4's greatest strength and weakness. Realistically, I know I have to take a 90-degree corner at 25 mph or I'll spin out, and it'll be impossible to catch up to the pack. But I'd rather take the corner at 200 mph, crash into a ridiculously sturdy guardrail, and then guide the airborne, flaming carcass of my car into my competitors before they can pass me, like I can in Burnout 3.
GT4 is a finesse racer, geared more toward auto-aficionados—something I clearly am not (if you asked me what my friends drive, I would say, "cars"). Fans of the series who have waited four years for this sequel will need an additional four just to try all of the game's 700 cars on its 50 tracks, so GT4 won't disappoint.
NBA Street V3 (E) (4.5 stars)
EA Sports
PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube
With their cartoonish styles and AI-controlled game-breakers, the previous NBA Streets almost felt like animated spoofs of real basketball. But V3 takes the series in a thrilling new direction, where beautifully realistic NBA athletes perform those same zany tricks and dunks according to the player's intuitive control.
Tenchu: Fatal Shadows (M) (2 stars)
Sega
PlayStation 2
The latest Tenchu frequently reminds one of an old ninja proverb: "Why play Tenchu when you can play Thief?" Fatal Shadows, like its stealth predecessors, is inferior in every way to Thief: Deadly Shadows. In fact, the only quality it has that Thief doesn't is stylized ninja kills, which would be far more satisfying if they were used on whoever's responsible for the awkward camera control.
Chicago Enforcer (M) (1 star)
Kemco
Xbox
At the risk of Kemco ordering a hit on me, I'm gonna sing about this mob-themed, first-person shooter atrocity like a canary. It simply feels broken. I realize it takes place in the '30s, but even then, it didn't take guns two seconds to fire after you pulled the trigger. Even for a budget title, this game is untouchable.
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].