For Beginner

Review:
In addition to the racing modes included in the previous Underground game (Circuit, Sprint, Drag and Drift races), four new variations of races have been provided in Underground 2. One racing mode was dropped, this being the Knockout competitions. Still, a Lap Knockout option is available when racing Circuit in non-career races. Underground 2 is unique among the games in the Need For Speed series in that it requires players to drive to a certain place in the city in order to begin a race (other games allow the player to select a race from a menu). Most races are marked on the in-game radar, but some are hidden and the player must search for them, should he decide to play them.
A circuit race is a standard race that involves up to four cars driving around a track that loops back to the start line of itself. A circuit race is typically a maximum of four laps and minimum of 2 laps. A sprint race is just like a circuit race except that the track does not loop back to the start line. Its a race from A to B involving a maximum of four vehicles, and because of the track design there is only one lap. Street X races are similar to Circuit races, but they take place on closed courses similar to Drift races.
Drifting is one of the easier types of racing (depending on difficulty level) in Need for Speed Underground 2. One difference to the drifting mode compared to the original Need for Speed Underground is that the player drifts with the other competitors at the same time. Players race against a maximum of three competitors. Points are awarded when the player successfully slide the car and finishes the drift without hitting any walls. Like the Street X mode, no nitrous oxide is allowed. There are also some special downhill drift races where the player starts at the top of a hill and has to slide down from top to bottom, a drifting equivalent of a sprint race (from point A to point B). In these races, there are no other racers, however there is normal city traffic. Players increase their points by sliding past city cars. Drag racing is a point-to-point race that forces players to use a manual transmission. Steering in this mode is simplified to simply allow for lane changes, while the game handles the steering along the lanes, and the player focuses more on maintaining an optimum speed for the car. The Nitrous Oxide meter is enlarged and displayed on the left side of the screen.
The Underground Racing League (URL) is a set of tournaments which takes place in a specific set of closed tracks outside city streets - either actual racing circuits or airport runways. URL tournaments typically consist of one to three races, with the player racing against five opponents. In tournaments with two or more races, a points system is used. At the end of each race, drivers receive a specific amount of points according to their standing in a race. The total score at the end of these races determines the winner of the tournament.

While cruising around the city, players can challenge other cruising opponents in a one-on-one race(these are called "Outrun Races"). The leader is given the freedom to pick his/her racing route, and must attempt to outrun the opponent and distance itself from him/her to as much as 300 metres (980 feet) to win. This racing formula is similar to that of Tokyo Xtreme Racer and Wangan Midnight video games, which uses health bars instead of distance to determine the winner. Once a certain amount of victories have been won by player in certain levels, the player is awarded a unique part free of charge by another racer. These parts are necessary to achieve 100% completion of the game. Read more

System requirements:
MINIMUM PC REQUIREMENTS
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
933MHz Processor
256MB RAM
8X CD-ROM Drive
2GB Hard Disk Space
32MB DirectX compatible ATi Radeon 7500 or nVidia GeForce2 Class Video Card
DirectX compatible Sound Card
DirectX compatible Controller or Keyboard
DirectX 9.0c
MULTIPLAYER SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Broadband Internet Connection

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Review:
There are few sure things in life, but one of them is that if Microsoft puts out a racing game with "Madness" in the title, you might as well grab it as soon as it hits store shelves. Midtown Madness 2 is no exception to this rule. It doesnt matter whether youre a hard-core simulation fan or you simply crave speed, destruction, and mayhem in your games - if you want to play a very fun racing game, then Midtown Madness 2 is for you.

But thats not to say that Midtown Madness 2 is ideal. In fact, it seems as though it could have used a couple more weeks in testing. On several occasions the game completely locked up on a fairly standard system (Celeron 450MHz, 256MB RAM, TNT2 video card with the latest drivers), and only through uninstalling and reinstalling did the problem finally seem to go away. As in some other racing games, the brakes dont truly function as real-life brakes when both pedals are configured to use the y-axis: Slamming on the pedal doesnt lock the wheels but merely decelerates your car more quickly. An attempt to correct this by configuring the pedals to use two axes revealed a bug - the brakes worked in reverse, forcing you to keep the pedal down for no brakes and releasing it to stop. Your only true braking option is the hand brake, which tends to cause unpredictable slides when all you really want to do is slow down in a hurry. Also, at the beginning of one race, my car was positioned facing in the opposite direction of the other cars, and stepping on the gas sent me hurtling backward along with them even though I was in first gear. Fortunately, none of these problems were persistent or detrimental to how enjoyable the game turns out to be.

You can actually work your way around most of these issues, and in fact you might never experience a game crash yourself. But theres no getting past the games rather pathetic engine noises. When you see a 68 Mustang Fastback tearing through downtown San Francisco, you want to hear a mighty rumbling sound thatll make bystanders think the big earthquakes finally happening. Instead, the cars in Midtown Madness 2 give off a little purr that barely changes in tone even when youre redlining the tachometer. Even in an arcade-style racing game such as this, its good to be able to hear when you should change gears, rather than constantly have to check the tachometer.

The occasional bugs and the weak sound effects are the only low points in Midtown Madness 2, because otherwise, the game is a blast. Midtown Madness players whove grown used to screaming through Chicago will be happy to find two new venues featured in the sequel: San Francisco and London. As in the original game, both cities have been meticulously modeled to include many notable landscapes. In San Fran, youll see Coit Tower, the Palace of Fine Arts, and of course the Golden Gate Bridge; in London, you can tool around Trafalgar Square and even ram through the gates of Buckingham Palace and do a few donuts on the well-manicured lawn. Read more

System requirements:
CPU Type: Pentium II
CPU Speed in MHz: 266MHz
RAM: 32MB, 64MB (Windows 2000)
Hard Drive Space: 250MB
Sound Card: DrectSound Compatible
CD Drive Speed: 4X
Graphics Type: SVGA
Graphics Resolution(s): 800x600
Compatible Devices:
Software (DirectX 5.0, etc.): DirectX 7.0a

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Review:
Bloody Roar II is a 3D versus fighter where 1 or 2 players can play as a variety of fighters who can transform into larger Beast forms. Each fighter is a Zoanthrope, a human who can transform into a large animal-human hybrid, a combination of the character and their token animal. This second form grants additional power to a player for as long as that power can be sustained. Rock solid graphics and fierce involved fighting are hallmarks of the Bloody Roar series. Some new features in the game since the previous one are: new story modes, 7 new characters, addition to the beast drive, more than 90 drawings in the game, and new cheats, including small head and big head.

Like Bloody Roar, the game was acclaimed for stunning graphics and special effects on the PSone. Both characters could transform and revert from a second form with no loading. Arenas were rendered in full 3D with destructible walls that would wear from collisions. It had directional lighting and shadow. It was also one of the few game to run at a smooth 60 frames per second and ,640x480 resolution on the PSone hardware.  

Most charming of all, was the "player model" feature which made a return form BR1. With it the scale of character models can be changed. "Big Head" mode inflates the size of characters heads while "Kid" mode shrinks characters bodies two half their original size while their head and hands remain the same. Matches are not hampered by this mode and the technical game stays the same.

Gameplay is primarily based on taking advantage of the beast form which make fighters stronger, faster and feature special moves. To regulate a fighters beast form there is a power bar placed in the corner for each player. Players are always given the power to transform at the start of a match however when the bar is blue the character can only fight as a human. Taking and giving damage, both build the blue bar till it begins a yellow bar that overlapping the blue bar. With just a sliver of yellow in their power bar, fighters can transform into their beast form. However the yellow bar indicates how much damage the beast form can take before it depletes and reverts the character to their human form. So player would prefer to build this yellow gauge before transforming.  The yellow bar does not increase while supporting the beast form. Building up the yellow bar without taking too much damage is the balance players consider as they compete.  Read more

System requirements:
Cpu: 700Mhz
Ram:256 Mb
Video Memory:32 Mb

Windows Xp,7,Vista,8

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