MLB 2K5, Champions, Time of Defiance and more!

Mar 28, 2005 on G4 at 12:00 AM

Summary

On tonight's episode of X-Play, we review Major League Baseball 2K5. When the amazing 2004 baseball season closed, no one knew exactly how intense the off-season would become. Movements in the MLB were mirrored off the field, as game publishers jocke... (more)yed for exclusive deals to ensure their own superiority. When Electronic Arts consummated its deal with ESPN earlier this year, we assumed that this game was finished. But after a simple title change, the new Major League Baseball 2K5 has emerged as the series' best game in years. But will Take-Two's new franchise still be on the field come October? If little Hershey Kisses make big, big chocolate then “little” developer Snowblind Studios, a company that has only four games under its belt, makes big, big action RPGs. The sword has been unsheathed for another swing in Champions: Return to Arms, the follow-up to 2004’s chop-and-drop romp, Champions of Norrath. While the developers have stuck close to the formula that helped make the first Champions and the original Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance hits, Return to Arms is like a finely honed blade--easy to wield and never dull. Those who have loved the genre since the days of Gauntlet will be hard-pressed to turn away, even though the game at times feels like an expansion pack rather than a full-blown sequel. Super Monkey Ball has earned itself quite a reputation as a fun party game with some seriously challenging puzzle stages. There was no original Monkey Ball--this series started out as super. The banana-obsessed monkeys in plastic balls had previously been confined to the Nintendo GameCube, but now the rest of the gaming world has the chance to own both titles and then some with Super Monkey Ball Deluxe. Stay with us at X-Play as we scrape every last bit of monkey-related fun out of the barrel. Well, it’s different, that’s for sure. In the land of massively multiplayer games, there really haven’t been that many real-time strategy romps. In fact, the

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Phantom Dust, Red Ninja, NanoBreaker and more!
Season 3 Episode 29

Mar 29, 2005