European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 17, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                              June 2007 stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 7a games Laras i i i cd c c i g q a n 0 c 8 u eleven years after its Lara Crofts original Tomb Raider adventure is a getting a nifty just before Tomb Raider anniversary for playstation 2 and pc hit the the games stopped by my office to allow an Early peek at the reinvention of the landmark anniversary is More of an homage than an exact replica of the original All of the greatest moments the Rex Battle included Are gussied up with modern graphics and it was to see Vintage video of the original Tomb Raider Side by Side with the upgraded while i remembered Tomb Raider being a visual my next Gen eyes were nearly sliced open by the jagged Blocky charac Flat surfaces and lowres background it Burns Given How bad the original Tomb Raider now the improvements in anniversary on the ps2 Are even More waterfalls look like honest Good Ness flowing you can see More than 15 feet ahead of your character before everything turns to a dark and Lara has actual rather than boxy the amazing thing is that anniversary int running on an he console like the but on the Plain of that the console that immediately followed the original where Tomb Raider was so you  expect the graphical leap in anniversary to be so but its obvious that there is some truth to the argument that developers can milk much greater performance out of a console after Treyve had several years to learn its tricks and after when Tomb Raider was released in the playstation was still a fairly new Anniversar arrives at the end of the ps2s life and developers know now How to squeeze every last drop of Power from the i would have preferred to see anniversary on the Avail Able in full he Resolution and testing the boundaries of the new but the publisher of Anniversar clearly wanted to take advantage of the fact that far More people own a ps2 than a ps3 right As they pointed god of War 2 just came and that ps2 game has been a and during their the folks from Eidos said that future Tomb Raider games will Proba Bly focus on the newer anniversary looks like a great companion piece for anyone who played and enjoyed the original Tomb if the demo is any indication of the Quality of the final it could signal that Lara has finally climbed out of the pit of mediocrity that doomed most of the sequels to the classic platforms playstation and soon on playstation portable on the web com Mario party 8 serious fun its becoming easy to extol the Virtues of Nintendo Success Ful Wii the systems interactive controls have Given Many of us Good reason to get our Butts off the sofa and into some animated flailing with the wins Remote so its no Surprise that Mario party 8 the first in the Mario party series of frantically Short snippets to be re leased on the Wii is another family Friendly excuse to play video like its its an Excel whimsical title that Best played with up to four in playing with others is the Only Way to the bigger the Audi ence you can gather around the to the you can play alone against the but that might be a sign that youve already spent too much time inside and need to go out and make some so is the Point of this title Mario party 8 delivers whats Best described As a Board game gone insanely youll get to choose from a cast of characters like Mario or Princess then youll Advance through the boards with a series of fast paced games that will test your Wii Mote such As banging the controller to Hammer nails into a Board or moving it in a sawing motion to Cut a there Are frequent Good uses of the q q cd cd Nintendo of America Mario party 8 features Mario and All of this friends competing in a frantic series of motion sensitive but Many min games also Harken Back to earlier titles in the series by requiring some Standar Issue Button on a negative the graphics in Mario party 8 were fuzzy and lacked the cartoonish vibrancy i was especially on a widescreen i noticed a general Lack of visual polish for a bran new i guess the target audience wont mind too and in this game is All about accurate reflexes and publicly jiving with your not the Mario party 8 is More than just some technological showcase of the wins and few games Are going to Appeal to As wide an Audi ence As this if youre looking for some truly inter Active entertainment and can Overlook the graphical its hard to go wrong with Mario party platform Wii on the web news bytes beam me Down in the six months since its Nintendo Wii has been breaking records and racing past milestones at a breathtaking this weeks achievement the 100th game offered for Down loading from Nintendo online Virtu Al console game 100 is 1988s Zelda ii the adventure of link one of the weaker legend of Zelda if youre going to Down Load a Zelda make it ocarina of Nintendo says 40 percent of Wii owners Are connected to virtual and Treyve Down loaded More than million but How do Nintendo online offerings match up with those from its competitors right Sony play station network has about 30 games for Sale Microsoft Box live Arcade has More than but a Good portion of Box lives games like my current the Boardgames adaptation Catan Are originals rather than revivals of classic until Nintendo and Sony catch up in that Microsoft will retain its reputation As the online gaming unfired Nintendo other machine the portable is also has some Nice numbers going for Nintendo says that since the products launch in november More than 5 million players have challenged each other Over the is wifi those the company have racked up More than 200 million wifi game ses and what Are is users playing Over wifi you could probably guess four of the top five games Mario Karf metro id prime pokemon Diamond and pokemon and then theres animal Cross ing wild dont get me wrong i love Tom Slider and the whole beastly but i had no idea there were so Many a maniacs out Tourn madness one event that been gathering plenty of inter net Buzz is Wimbledon that a double copy billed As Brooklyn first Wii Tennis Tournai its scheduled for june Al though the location has yet to be keep an Eye on Wimble better Start your own a More prestigious the world series of video has gotten so big that lbs sports is covering the network will be covering four events in this years beginning june 21 in Louis then editing them Down to on hour segments of lbs sports the games involved in this years world series Are guitar hero world of War Craft the burning quake 4 and fight night round Lou