Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Awesome Soccer Review

Sports | Posted by Zeke
Jan 06 2010

Awesome Soccer 3
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Is soccer your game? Well then, Awesome Soccer is a Mac game for you. This game has realistic moves and plays to make you feel like a soccer star like Beckham, Donovan or Messi. Can you hear the roar of the crowd and the thrill of victory? This sports game will take you to the stadium.

Awesome Soccer 4The play is realistic with several ways to control the movements. The action is amazing with bending and swerving the ball in both directions. There are penalty shots, fouls, offsides, yellow and red cards and even shoot outs. In the upper left corner of the screen is an overview of the field and the players while you are playing on the ground.

There are 12 preset competitions from around the world with appropriate team uniforms to choose from and with realistic graphics. Not Awesome Socceronly are there pre-set games, but you can create custom leagues as well. In addition players can collect “Golden Balls” for different achievements throughout your play. Another great feature of Awesome Soccer is the slow motion replays. This is similar to watching your TV set with the match highlights.

Some of the negatives of this game are the 2D artwork although well done, it’s still flat, you have to get used to the directional keys plus 1 action button, the pass and shoot are the same keys, and there’s no multiplayer option. You can play against one person on the same computer. Most of these factors can be handled with time and practice. The others can be on our wish list.

With that said, Awesome Soccer is a fun game for those who know how soccer is played and enjoy the game. If you know nothing about soccer, it would be difficult to pick up the knowledge in this game. Of course, if you’ve grown up in the US and around the world, almost every child, both boys and girls, have been on a soccer rec team at one point of their childhood. This Mac game is for hardcore gamers who know and love the sport of soccer.

Features of Awesome Soccer:
-Realistic Play
-Great Sound Effects
-Slow Motion Replays

Rating: ★★★½☆

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Smashing Tennis Review

Action, Sports | Posted by Meg
Dec 20 2009

smashing-tennis
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Practice, practice, practice, that was my tennis coach’s daily drill. I spent many hours hitting the ball against the wall, throwing it up to serve, and volleying back and forth with a partner. No one got better unless you put in the time. Smashing Tennis is the same for me. In tennis, I used 2 hands only for my backhand. I used my feet for running back and forth, not the arrow keys. So I practiced, practiced and practiced Smashing Tennis and got better.

Smashing Tennis with its simple 2D graphics and accurate sound effects is a challenging action game you must practice to have any fun with it, but once you hear the “pong” of the hit ball, you are hooked. To serve the ball you use the space bar once to throw the ball up and again to hit it. The Practice mode will show you when to hit the serve. The arrow keys moves your player around the court. For the beginner you can limit the arrows to the right and left ones moving the character side to side until you are comfortable with the play. When you are ready, you may choose the advanced mode using all the arrows for a multidirectional play.

Smashing Tennis2It is very important to choose the correct ability of yours and your opponent’s skill level. This must be done carefully or your play will not be fun. You can adjust the skill, speed, strength and precision of each player. In addition, you can choose different court surfaces (grass, clay and decoturf). I’ve played on grass (fast) and clay (slow) courts but I have Smashing Tennisnever come across a decoturf court in real life.

The different strokes were amazing. I could actually see the drop shot. How do they do that? At this posting I have not mastered the lob or hitting the ball hard so I’m waiting to see the visual on it. Also the 2 player mode is still in the future for me, but it will be intriguing to see how everything works with 2 people playing on 1 computer. The tournament challenge is still out of my reach but for all those advanced players it should be quite entertaining.

I guess there are 2 negatives for me regarding Smashing Tennis. One is that it is difficult for casual players (I’ve watched gamers pick it up and play right away) unless you practice, and also there are no girl tennis players represented. What about adding the Serena Williams, Dinara Safinas and Justine Henins of the tennis world? The simple graphics did not bother me since being an avid tennis player and fan concentrating on hitting the ball back is what captivates my attention. It would be fun to be able to design your players. I also am familiar with the thrill of hearing the ball hit the sweet spot and beating your opponent. You have all this with Smashing Tennis so try it out and don’t forget to practice.

Features of Smashing Tennis:
-For all ages
-1 or 2 player mode
-Difficulty Options
-Adjustable Skill Levels
-Tournament Play

Rating: ★★★½☆

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Smashing Tennis Review

Action, Arcade, Sports | Posted by trackbum
Oct 18 2009

smash-tennis
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Hit the grass courts and fire off an ace in a high speed match of Smashing Tennis. The game is clear: win sets to win matches. Now all you have to do put your own skills to the test and see if tennis is indeed your sport of choice. The key to this sports game in particular is skill.

Smashing Tennis requires skills with the use of two hands on different keys of the computer. If a gamer fails to play well on their first try and decides to just give up and complain about it on other people’s blogs, then they missed the whole concept of Smashing Tennis in the first place. Smashing Tennis is not supposed to be mastered when someone presses start, it evokes a determination to evolve in skill level as players and tournaments are conquered one by one. To rise to the top of the International Tennis Association, it takes a lot more than scrolling and clicking a mouse.

Tennis is personally not my favorite sport. However arcade games of tennis  are always amusing and tons of fun. Smashing Tennis in particular is pretty entertaining as it reminds me of a 2D version of Mario Tennis. Overall I would give Smashing Tennis a 4 out of 5 stars.

Rating: ★★★★☆

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GL Golf Review

Action, Sports | Posted by musicaltrack
Sep 08 2009

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Fore! You don’t hear it too often, and thank goodness you don’t, because if you do, there’s a hard golf ball coming your way and you need to duck. However, it’s good to hear because then you are on a course playing golf, but if you can’t be on the greens, you can play GL Golf either on your ipod, iphone or Apple computer. GL Golf is a great golf game to pass the time no matter what mode of equipment you use to play it.

I’m reviewing the Mac game version of GL Golf. First and foremost this game has a lot of options to choose from to make your play as realistic as possible. You can choose the course, what kind of club to use, different color balls, and more. You can play from the different types of tees depending on your level of expertise. The white tee is regular, the blue is expert and red is ladies. Hey, where are the gold tees for seniors? Some of the choices are a little weird like which season you would like to play, because all those who do not live in a cold weather area like the northeast US, you wouldn’t know that all the courses close down during the winter months. I think some diehard golfers would like to be out there on the courses in the snow, but it would ruin the greens. Also who wants to play in the dark? The ball is hard enough to see as it is so your best bet is to play in daylight. In addition, real golfers will never take unlimited mulligans. I don’t think they would take even 1, but hey, if you are practicing or new to golf, it’s a good thing.

The play is simple after making all your decisions. You click on the space bar once (watch the swing gage so as not to go past the line and hit the ball at the strength you want) and then again to make contact with the ball. The distance is given to you like on the scorecards or now the new gps gadgets for golf courses. Tapping the golf ball into the hole feels realistic since I always putt too hard and it goes past the hole, and the same happened in this game. After a few tries, you get the hang of it and you’ll be able to master this action easily. Also the undulating greens are represented so you know to hit it to the right or left. You get all the data needed to make a good shot: the overview of the hole, wind velocity, yardage, etc.

Whether you go to the driving range (practice mode) or play the tournament mode, you’ll enjoy this game almost as much as going golfing itself. It’s easier to play than going out and dragging your bags out to the golf course, and has a lot of the bells and whistles of the real play minus the exercise. The music is a little too laid back with a lounge type 70’s sound (is the song called More?), and could use an upbeat tune to relax and improve your game.

This Mac game is not your Tiger Woods’ PS3, X-box, WII play, and it doesn’t represent itself as such, but it is still well made and good fun. GL Golf is what it is, a plain, retro play for when you are not traipsing through the rough or sand traps, and want to spend a pleasant afternoon hitting some golf balls.

Features of GL Golf:
-More than 22 Courses
-Driving Range or Tournament
-Lots of Options

Rating: ★★★★☆

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