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The "Tekken" series would be in the first class of the fighting game hall of fame if such a thing existed. In the mid '90s you couldn't walk into an arcade and not see a Tekken machine. Now almost 14 years after the first, "Tekken 6" (Xbox 360, PS3; $59.99; Rated T for Teen) has arrived, and may gamers rejoice.
"Tekken 6" sports excellent next generation graphics and an impressive 40-character roster. Fans of earlier installments will recognize 34 returning characters, many of whom have the same special moves.
The game bucks the trend of having only a fraction of the playable characters unlocked at the start. All 40 characters are ready to fight out of the starting gate online. This practice should be adopted by all games in the genre; too often gamers have had to jump through hoops to unlock their favorite characters.
With the great character roster there are also customizations you can make to each fighter, including different costumes, hair and accessories. This enhances the online play since no two characters look alike.
What sets "Tekken 6" apart from its predecessors is that gamers finally will be able to go head to head without being in the same room. Online play can be shaky, but developers Namco Bandai have put in place a great matchmaking system. You will experience some lag if you're playing someone with a less than adequate Internet connection, but matches are flawless between two fighters with good connections.
Flaws appear only when the game tries to do too much. The single-player scenario mode borders on terrible. This mode involves controlling a character through linear levels, battling numerous baddies along the way. Think of it as a Tekken version of "Double Dragon." The graphics are degraded to resemble the Tekkens of the Playstation2. Little effort was put into a control scheme that makes it virtually impossible to target specific enemies. It's unfortunate that gamers are forced to play this mode in order to earn in-game money for your fighters.
This imperfection aside, "Tekken 6" is still a great fighter. It polishes the concept and sets the bar for future fighting games.
-- Max Parker, The Game Guy at the PG+ site, plus.sites.post-gazette.com.
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"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," almost certain to be the year's best-selling video game, has also become its most notorious. That's because of a prerelease leak showing a terrorist raid on an airport -- exactly the sort of thing that's guaranteed to rile up anti-violence watchdogs and generate free publicity.
Now that I've played "Modern Warfare 2" (Activision, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99), I can report that the airport massacre is absolutely essential to its story. The rationale behind your character's participation in the assault, however, is idiotic: You're really a good guy who has infiltrated the terrorist cell. So fire away.
The remainder of "MW2" deals with the repercussions from the terrorist attack, which causes escalating global tensions to explode into all-out war. Tanks rumble through the Virginia suburbs, helicopters circle the Washington Monument and millions die -- all because of an awesomely ill-conceived plan to get intel on a terrorist.
I'm not giving anything away that you haven't already seen in Activision's TV ads. The sight of D.C. in flames is spectacular, and it's a terrific setting for virtual combat. "MW2" is filled with such mind-blowing set pieces, from the slums of Rio de Janeiro to the snowy mountains of Russia.
It's in getting from one set piece to the next that developer Infinity Ward stumbles. The overarching story concerns a special forces team's efforts to bring down Vladimir Makarov, the terrorist mastermind who engineered the airport attack. But it's easy to lose sight of that goal when the White House is under siege.
Most players won't give much thought to the story, given the frenetic, headlong action. The controls are tight, giving you an intuitive feel for even the most exotic weapons. Combat varies nicely between levels: Sometimes you need to be sneaky, sometimes you need to be destructive, and sometimes you just need to run like hell. Occasionally it's difficult to figure out what your goal is, but such confusion isn't entirely out of place in the fog of combat.
-- Lou Kesten, The Associated Press
Doug Oster writes a blog, "Growing With Doug," exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.
