European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 24, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                              June 2007 stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 7 a games bulk up the brain t after a few runs through the Metal obstacle i could Tell my brain was getting i could actually see that my mental muscle had increased by 100 Grams in just a few minutes at least according to big brain Academy Wii by Winten the game for the Wii console is a spinoff of big brain Academy for the Nintendo is hand held it involves a number of mini games that test a players abilities to quickly compute and for the memorization category involves a sort of Shell game involving identifying children who Buzz past the screen and recalling games in other categories involve whacking laying Railroad track and pop Ping numbered balloons quickly and in the right each game uses a simple poin Tandlick so theres not the wild twisting and jabbing of the Remote that necessary for most Wii although the games Are rather it takes some Metal agility to beat them As a they can become Addic especially for those who enjoy Puzzle in the single player gamers can test their skill in All of the categories the test scores reveal the size and shape of the players in other the scores Are Given in Grams and a graph shows How a player performed in each players can improve their scores by increasing their accuracy and this can be accomplished by training in the practice the multiplayer Mode allows up to eight gamers to participate in three different although its inter Esting to compare brain size based on the test this is where the real fun although the multiplayer Mode introduces a few new mini the big Gest change is the Overall there Are three different each of which can be played in Microsoft cd 03 g go o a human and a Dwarf Check each other out in the new video game crossing boundaries Shadow run is the first title from Microsoft that lets gamers on both sides of the systems Fence Battle each other but there Are some serious technological Trade offs in letting Box 360 console owners Square off against their windows Vista toting perhaps my Geek credentials should be but id never even heard of Shadow run until this rated title was its based on an older Penan paper role playing a la dungeons and that set in a future where magic is real and tech Sawy humans Arent the Only ones roaming the sly hulking trolls and Pugna Cious dwarfs now vie for yet this potentially interesting premise feels barely fleshed out As the game is essentially a bar Bones first person shooter with some genuinely but ultimately frustrate role playing you can go through some practice Levels to get a sense for the varying abilities of the different races and then play online against real human opponents on Box live or against compute controlled foes called theres no real no linear just some straight up online fighting with Shadow run on a rather measly selection of nine different maps and just two online some of the most successful such As have been but they offered far More diverse and Complex Shadow run is sometimes especially once you grasp the magical and technological abilities at your for i was Able to Teleport through Walls and Fly Long distances with the glider Abili and even summon a magical tree to regenerate the visuals Are generally solid aside from a very bizarre graphical oversight where characters appear to be climbing ladders while standing straight As i the lure of pitting Box 360 players against Vista pc gamers was enticing and one of the main reasons i wanted to test this in order to keep things we get dumb Eddon controls that Arent very precise or gun Battles Are supposed to be the adrenaline fuelled highlight of a shooting game the guns Here Are very weak and insanely this blending of genres role playing and firs person shooter was an ambitious undertaking for the develop ers at fast ends up diluting the game styles too leaving players with an experience that reels forced and platforms Box pc on the web teams or Solo against another players Academy in players race to see who can be the first to accomplish a Given number of in each player continues until a mistake is and brain quiz is sort of like with players selecting squares on a Board and receiving Points for the number of times they can accomplish the Academy int As wild As Wario Ware smooth which brought a new level of wackiness to party its More challenging and satisfying since winning requires More than Quick platform Wii on the web very mortal theres nothing wrong with making an infamously violent fighting series such As mortal combat available on the family Friendly Wii the Wii could be the Best machine yet for appealing to All types of including players who like the Boodan guts but there is a huge problem with making a Wii enhanced up cd version of a game in this mid ways jus released update of mortal combat armageddon that Doest work Well enough to justify spending five cents on it or five minutes with the Remote activated motion controls Are g simple such As making a Hal Circle motion with the main Wii re Are supposed to initiate characters super moves a flying bicycle for but the gestures Only Register some of the or Register As a different move than was you cant engage in a fight with any Confidence of being Able to attack so whats the Point of playing you also can use a game cube or Wii classic but that throws aside the Basic reason for playing on the to some the motion recognition May depend on How precisely each move is explaining Why the controls will seem More or less reliable to different but anything less than 99 percent a pen debility is disastrous for this Type of platform also on playstation 2 and Box on the webs com Mike Jose Mercury news