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Games Entertainment

Review: The Incredible Hulk - Ultimate Destruction 157

Posted by Zonk from the SMASH dept.
By default, a game based on a movie has to suck. It's one of the unwritten rules of the industry that movie games are pure profit: Stamp it out quick, screw the gameplay, and we'll make it up to the players with our next genre-buster. Treyarch's "Spider-Man 2" proved that this wasn't the way things needed to be, and Radical Entertainment has carried the torch of playable movie game tie-ins admirably with "The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction." Using the same sort of framework as Treyarch's freeswinging action title, Hulk manages to combine mindless violence and interesting gameplay in a fun-to-play package. Long-term entertainment may be out of reach of this angry goliath, but it's well worth a look if you like action smashups. Read on for my impressions of what it's like to step into Hulk's very big shoes.
  • Title: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction
  • Developer: Radical Entertainment
  • Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games
  • System: Xbox (PS2, Gamecube)
  • Reviewer: Zonk
  • Score: 8/10

Everybody gets angry - Bruce Banner does something about it. Any frustrations you may be feeling when you sit down to "The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction" will quickly melt away. Gaming as therapy, indeed. The premise of this attempt to capture the Hulk experience takes its cue from the last successful superhero console title, "Spider-Man 2." Like Spidey, Hulk is all about putting you in the driver's seat of the comic (anti)hero. There are story missions that move you through the game and bring you to new areas in the gameworld, as well as a plethora of mini-games, but just like in Spider-Man 2 if you want to you can just tool around the game throwing cars around and ticking off local law enforcement.

Indeed, there are as many similarities to Grand Theft Auto as there are to Spider-Man. Just as in GTA there is a lot of fun to be had in finding out exactly how much destruction you can wreak on an urban (or desert, for that matter) environment. The cityscape in Hulk is very destructible, with concrete shattering and trees exploding from even the slightest twitch of the Hulk's impressive physique. Though you can't actually destroy buildings, you can tear them up quite impressively, and almost everything that isn't nailed down can be imploded, exploded, shredded, flattened, or ripped apart. Enough of this sort of activity, and you're bound to attract attention. The screaming citizenry will have long since noticed you, but the forces of the military are a little slower on the uptake. After your second story mission or so, you'll have a funky art deco gauge in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. As you confront humanity with their own transience, the gauge will begin to grow yellow spikes. Once you have enough spikes, the military will send a strike team out to take you down. Typically this will take the form of a couple of attack choppers with machine guns and rockets. In an urban environment, the attack squad is easy pickings, because you have a lot of umm ... ammunition.

By ammunition, I mean cars. And buses. And the burned-out wrecks of already downed helicopters. Tossing around major artifacts of western civilization may sound complicated, but it really isn't. The control schema for Hulk is the best kind: simple with lots of permutations. There's a jump, a punch, a grab, and a "special." Each button can be held down to power-up the move, and easily one of the most satisfying elements of the game is the ability to leap from block to block and building to building like a pissed-off green jackrabbit. In the early game grabbing and throwing objects is one of the most effective tactics, and a powered-up throw can go quite a ways. Movement is just as effortless, with Hulk leaping onto the sides of buildings and scaling them with ease. In fact, the Hulk moves so quickly and decisively that at times he can get a little overenthusiastic. In tight situations the controls can get a little mushy, and with Hulk's power and speed even a slight thumb twitch can result in an unintended leap of a block or more. The developers did a superb job of getting across the Hulk's raw physical energy, but in some cases more forgiving controls would be appreciated.

All of these cool moves and attacks aren't yours to play with at the outset of the game. As you move through the title you'll obtain "smash points," a form of currency. You accrue smash points by destroying stuff (rewarding you for all that urban renewal) and for completing missions. At certain intervals in the title new sets of moves will become available, which you can spend your smash points on to become even more effective at taking out representatives of our nation's military. Some of the moves (like "Air Recovery") are purely functional and serve to improve the Hulk's efficiency in combat. Some of them, though, are pure showmanship. My personal favorites are the hand slap, which creates a violent shockwave that throws your enemies into the air, and the ground slam, which does unfortunate things to any tanks you may be standing on at the time.

Though you do get some points for wrecking stuff, your big source of smash points will be mission completion. Story missions follow the somewhat cookie-cutter tale of Dr. Banner and his colleague as the two of them try to come up with a way to de-Hulk Banner for good. Holed up in a church, hidden way out on the outskirts of a major city, the good doctors are building devices that will aid them in their goals. As the Hulk, your tasks center around two general themes: 1.) steal money, gear, technology, etc. for the ongoing project of reversing your Hulkism, and 2.) disrupt and destroy the military's attempts to develop ever more elaborate anti-Hulk weapons. You'll occasionally get the chance to do something unique, like the occasional fight with arch-foes from Hulk comic canon. The Abomination fights are particularly rewarding (drop buildings on someone and you'd think he'd get the hint). Side missions are your other main source of smash points. Scattered throughout the world maps, side missions are short, fun exercises in Hulkishness that allow you to improve your understanding of the controls and earn some points besides. They vary widely in mood and temperament, and some are predicated on having purchased a particular attack. One desert mission, for example, has Hulk punting cars over a field goal. The city missions are especially varied, with options available to rescue citizens from a burning building, use a large metal girder to slam soldiers falling from a helicopter out across the water like baseballs, races through the city streets, and unfathomable rushes to get large vehicles to perch precariously on the tops of skyscrapers. Depending on how well you do, you can earn a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Each step up offers increasing smash point awards. While to participate in the side missions initially you'll have to stalk the city streets or the desert landscape to find mission markers, once you've gotten a medal of some kind you can access the event through the main options hub at the church, allowing for easy access to fun.

Unfortunately, the storyline isn't all that interesting. It's a stripped down version of the Hulk's tale of woe, spliced together to provide an impetus for your thrilling heroics. Despite this, the voice acting manages to impress. The folks they got to do the main characters do a competent job of expressing the emotion and humor of their various situations, and even manage a couple of funny one-liners. Random Non-Player Character vocalizations are interesting too, with military NPCs being particularly well done. You can tell from auditory clues when they're about to attack, giving you another way to stay on top of things in a frenetic combat situation. In general the audio for the game is well done, with what little musical scoring there is being adequate to the background music task. It's not going to win awards, but it's not distracting either. The sound effects utilized in the title are very satisfying. Every smash, crunch, or crushing blow has that much more impact on the player because of the well done audio environment. Little touches, like the twisting of metal as you pull a car apart to form into gauntlets, or the quickly fading pleas for help as you toss a soldier over the horizon, are what add an extra layer of enjoyment on the experience.

And Hulk is no slouch visually, either. While it's certainly not the most beautiful game released this year, it's far from bad looking. The Hulk himself is well animated, with a large pool of movements to draw from. His shambling gait is well reproduced, and the slightest twitch of his Buick-sized limbs does a good job of demonstrating the power you're given control over. NPCs aren't given nearly as much detail, but other than a vanilla sameness to your opponents, after a while there isn't a lot to complain about. The destructible environment that the engine offers and the timely use of explosions are what really completes the experience. When you toss a car it doesn't just bounce. If you throw it hard enough, it shatters into a maelstrom of flying steel and fire, usually taking out anything unlucky enough to be nearby. Tanks, when destroyed, can be pulled apart for use as two different weapons. The chassis can be used as a shield (assuming you know the correct move) or thrown, and the turret can be used like an oversized club. The little details like that add to the enjoyment factor.

So combat is fun, they give you lots of stuff to do, and even though it is a weak plot, you have a reason to keep playing. Regrettably, like all heroes, the Hulk has a vulnerability. Repetition, in this case, is the downfall of the big green behemoth. While the first few missions are experiences that you really shouldn't deny yourself, after a while the fun inevitably begins to curve downward. Though the first time you leap into the air and toss a firetruck downward at an assaulting military unit you'll grin from ear to ear, after the 50th time that same move has lost its luster. The fun drain is the Achilles heel for any title, but the "Ultimate Destruction" suffers from that fun-drop fairly quickly. Once you get past the tutorial and the first few missions, you quickly realize that you've seen most of what the game has to offer. To be sure, you face down new opponents and situations, stopping a convoy before it reaches a goal, protecting objects from destruction at the hands of the military, etc., but after the 25th time you destroy a tank it's just not novel anymore.

Hulk, then, is a well-made title with highly entertaining gameplay that suffers from a quickly apparent lack of variety. If you enjoy comics or action beat-em'-ups, Hulk is well worth a rental. The first five hours of play will be extremely enjoyable, with some very memorable moments that can only come from the self-determined playstyle becoming so popular nowadays. Over the long term, your entertainment level is likely to drop, and folks seeking a high return of entertainment for their investment might be better suited waiting on Kingdom Hearts 2 or Final Fantasy XII.

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Review: The Incredible Hulk - Ultimate Destruction More

Review: The Incredible Hulk - Ultimate Destruction

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  • A brilliant, entertaining tie-in... (Score:5, Funny)

    by freetipe ( 913682 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:08PM (#13520639)
    ...pity the movie came out two years ago. Still, it's less late than Duke Nukem Forever, so you can't complain too much.
    • The review suggests it's more a tie-in to the comic legend than the recent movie.

      I don't think the movie had enough non-drama material to lend to a game.
    • I think the appeal of a game called The Incredible Hulk--a character which first appeared in 1962--does not depend much upon recent movie buzz.

      This of course, calls into question the whole premise of the review. Perhaps the game is good because Radical Entertainment wanted to make a good Hulk game, not because they somehow managed to produce a good movie game.

    • Re:A brilliant, entertaining tie-in... (Score:4, Informative)

      by cronot ( 530669 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:30PM (#13520886)
      This game is actually a sequel to "The Hulk", released two years ago, and it was the one actually based on the movie. Opinions on it are divided. Most people I know, and a lot of users on the Internet don't find it that amusing, and I share that opinion, but some people like it.

      I have both for the PS2, the first and this new one. The first is heavily story-driven, and can be unnecessarily complicated at times, specially considering it's about the Hulk (you know, it's supposed to be more of a smash'em-up than a story/action/puzzle game). You have alternating levels with Hulk and the sane Bruce Banner. I don't like it.

      I got the new one this week, but still haven't got a chance to play it. Will look into it this weekend.
    • Nothing to do with the movie. That Game came out just before the film. You could almost use the same review. Although you couldnt leap a block at a time or make HULK Gloves out of cars you could smash/weaponize damn near everything.Also it was Cell-shaded I believe. Pretty Good Casual Game, wish it would run under Cedega

      Linky http://movies.about.com/cs/thehulk/a/hulkgame news.htm [about.com]

      This title is more like a Comic Book World version. More Marvel Villains than the previous which stuck pretty close to the eve

    • Games no longer tied to movie dates (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tgibbs ( 83782 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @03:36PM (#13521410)
      While games have often regarded more as promotion for movies than as products in themselves, it is becoming clear that a successful game can be a major source of profit. A positive aspect of this is that game releases are no longer so tightly coupled to major movie releases. The rush to release a game in synchrony with the movie often results in mediocre titles.

      There was indeed a Hulk game released with the movie, but it was rather undistinguished and generic, like so many releases linked to movies. Like the Spiderman 2 game, it finally manages to capture the exciting feeling of "being the character." Unfortunately, like the Spiderman2 game, it also seems to have a rather indifferent story. The "bull in a china shop" sense of controlling the rampaging Hulk in the city is an undeniable thrill, although it is also the source of one of the biggest problems with the plot, which has Doc Samson sending the Hulk on missions in the city. In the course of completing his missions the Hulk inevitably causes incredible destruction, leaving hundreds of police and civilian casualties in his wake. Perhaps wisely, human beings struck by the Hulk discretely vanish, rather than turning into bloody pulp. Still, it is somewhat difficult to imagine Doc Samson encouraging the Hulk to undertake missions with such an inevitably large death toll. Unlike most Hulk comic books stories, which gloss over the human toll of the Hulk's activities, it is hard to be unaware of just how high the body count is as you complete the game's missions. The game really needs a darker plot, more on the level of the Marvel's MAX Hulk miniseries, or the way the Hulk is treated in Marvel's "Ultimates" title.
    • The movie was so horrible that they decided to put some time between the game release and the movie.

      You know - to let the anger cool off for wasting $8 to see it in the theatres. Of course, for stores with a "break it=buy it" policy, it could still have turned out okay. ("Me saw movie! Movie no good! Game be same! ME SMASH GAME!")

    • Re:A brilliant, entertaining tie-in... (Score:5, Informative)

      by alphapartic1e ( 260735 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @04:23PM (#13521766)
      PUNY HUMANS! HULK SMASH!

      RAAAAGHH! HULK MAKE FIRST APPEARANCE IN "INCREDIBLE HULK #1" IN 1962! CREATED BY STAN LEE AND JACK KIRBY! LEE AND KIRBY SMART! BUT LEE AND KIRBY STILL PUNY! HULK BIG AND GREEN! LEE AND KIRBY BASE HULK'S APPEARANCE ON FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER! BAH! HULK SMASH FRANKENSTEIN!

      IN STORY, PUNY BANNER CAUGHT IN GAMMA BOMB BLAST, TURN INTO HULK! HULK IS THE STRONGEST ONE THERE IS! BUT HULK LOOK FUNNY IN FIRST STORIES! HULK GREY, ONLY CHANGE TO HULK AT SUNSET! HULK NOT GET ENOUGH SLEEP, HULK CRANKY! THEN LEE AND KIRBY MAKE HULK GREEN AND MAD! THE MADDER HULK GETS, THE STRONGER HULK GETS! BUT HULK'S COMIC BOOK CANCELLED AFTER JUST SIX ISSUES! HULK SMASH STUPID MARVEL!

      MARVEL GET SMART IN 1964, ADD HULK TO "TALES TO ASTONISH!" HULK HAVE TO SHARE BILL WITH PUNY GIANT MAN FOR TEN ISSUES, THEN SUBMARINER REPLACE GIANT MAN! NAMOR FUNNY! GOT WINGS ON ANKLES BUT SWIM IN WATER! HULK SMASH PUNY NAMOR! HULK FINALLY GET OWN BOOK AGAIN IN 1968! SUMMER OF LOVE? MORE LIKE SUMMER OF SMASH!

      HULK CHASED BY MANY ENEMIES! HULK FIGHT ABOMINATION AND LEADER AND MODOK! BAH! THEY AM ALL PANSIES! HULK SMASH THEM ALL! HULK HUNTED BY ARMY MAN CALLED THUNDERBOLT ROSS! ROSS GOT DAUGHTER, BETTY ROSS! HULK LIKE BETTY ROSS! BETTY ROSS MAKE HULK'S PURPLE PANTS GET TIGHT! HULK GIGGLE AND FEEL SPECIAL!

      BANNER'S PUNY COUSIN GET IN ACCIDENT! BANNER MUST GIVE HER BLOOD TRANSFUSION TO SAVE LIFE! BUT BANNER'S BLOOD CHANGE HER INTO SHE-HULK! SHE-HULK NOT PUNY! SHE-HULK STACKED LIKE BIG GREEN BRICK SHITHOUSE! EVERYONE SEEM TO LIKE GREEN CHICKS WITH BIG HOOHAHS! HULK DUMB AS ROCK, WANT TO MAKE IT WITH COUSIN, BUT SHE-HULK NOT DUMB, DISTRACT HULK WITH BETTY, THEN GO OFF TO GET DRAWN BY JOHN BYRNE!

      DOC SAMSON AM PSYCHIOO-- SYKIA--PSAIKAIAPOO-- HE AM HEAD DOCTOR! HE SPLIT HULK INTO TWO PEOPLE--HULK AND BANNER! HULK HATE BANNER! BANNER PUNY! HULK LAUGH AT BANNER'S MANHOOD!

      BUT SPLIT NOT WORKING, SO BANNER AND HULK GO BACK TOGETHER IN ONE PERSON! NO FUN! BANNER GET MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES! BANNER TURN HULK INTO NEW GREY HULK! GREY HULK SMART AND SNEAKY, CALL SELF "JOE FIXIT", WORK FOR MOB!

      THEN HULK TURN INTO "PROFESSOR"! BUT HULK NOT MAROONED ON ISLAND! HULK BIG AND GREEN, BUT SMART! SMART HULK WEAR SPANDEX SPEEDOS! SPANDEX LOOK TACKY, PINCH HULK'S BOYS! ROB LIEFELD DRAW HULK IN SPANDEX SPEEDOS! WHY PUNY ROB LIEFELD NOT LEAVE HULK ALONE? HULK SMASH ROB LIEFELD!

      SMART HULK GO TO FUTURE, MEET FUTURE HULK! FUTURE HULK SMART AND EVIL! GOT WHITE BEARD AND BALD HEAD! CALLED MAESTRO! MAESTRO CONQUER WHOLE WORLD! BUT SMART HULK BEAT FUTURE HULK! HULK IS THE STRONGEST ONE THERE IS, EVEN STRONGER THAN HULK HIMSELF! LAST SENTENCE MAKE HULK'S HEAD HURT, GO LIE DOWN!

      NO! NO NAPTIME FOR HULK! SMART HULK NOT LAST FOREVER! PUNY MARVEL WANT BIG MONEY, WANT BIG MAD GREEN ANGRY SMASHING HULK! HULK SMASH! WHEEE! UHH, I MEAN, HULK SMASH!

      HULK HAVE TV SHOW FROM 1978-82! BILL BIXBY STARS AS PUNY BANNER! LOU FERRIGNO STARS AS HULK! FERRIGNO NEVER TALK, JUST GROWL! BIXBY WHINE ALL THE TIME! "DON'T MAKE ME ANGRY, YOU WOULDN'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY!" GIVE HULK A BREAK! YOU BET YOU NOT LIKE HULK WHEN HULK ANGRY! THE MADDER HULK GETS, THE STRONGER HULK GETS! HULK BADASS MOFO! HULK NOT CARE ABOUT GENEVA CONVENTION! HULK FART ANYWAY!

      HULK GONNA HAVE BIG MOVIE IN 2003! MOVIE DIRECTED BY ANG LEE! ANG LEE DIRECT "CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON", "ICE STORM", AND "SENSE AND SENSIBILITY"! ANG LEE BETTER NOT MAKE HULK TOO FOOFY! OR HULK SMASH! ERIC BANA SET TO PLAY PUNY BANNER AND HULK! HULK GETS COMPUTER GENERATED! RUMORS SAY HULK NOT TO HAVE PANTS! ANG LEE BETTER NOT TAKE HULK'S PANTS AWAY! HULK SHY! BETTY ROSS TO BE PLAYED BY JENNIFER CONNELLY! JENNIFER CONNELLY? OOOO, HULK LIIIIIKE!

      ADDEN--ABBEN--ADDENDUU--NEW THING: HULK WILL HAVE PANTS IN NEW MOVIE! GOOD OLD PURPLE INDESTRUCTIBLE PANTS! SOON PURPLE PANTS WILL BE BIG FASHION STATEMENT! ALL COOL KIDS WEAR PURPLE PANTS AND SMASH! HULK WILL GET INVITED TO HIP PARTIES!

  • Nice game (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Looks better than the movie and more realistic too.

  • I disagree (Score:5, Funny)

    by ChePibe ( 882378 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:12PM (#13520681)

    "By default, a game based on a movie has to suck."

    Personally, I thought ET [wikipedia.org] was absolutely awesome...

    • Ha, I owned that game as a kid. I remember it being pretty challenging for a 5-6 year old.

    • Re:I disagree (Score:5, Interesting)

      by TheRealMindChild ( 743925 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:30PM (#13520883) Homepage Journal
      This game (E.T. a la Atari2600) has left such a scar on my soul, that I hold back tears just typing this

      E.T. was THE game I regretted throwing out the instruction book for. Let's face it.... in the age of atari and one button joysticks, there is only so much you can do. Instruction books should have NEVER been needed (*ahem* Raiders of the Lost Ark *caugh*). I remember playing that stupid game for hours and hours. I figured I just needed all of the pieces to make the stupid phone... problem was, I could only get three (or was it four) and the damn thing always seemed incomplete.

      Pass about 20 years up until about 2 years ago. I was passing along a flea market and I noticed a boxed version of E.T. for $1. So I bought it. Dug up my old 2600 from the closet, fired up E.T., and took a whole three minutes to read the book... and... literally... four minutes to beat the game.

      Bullet please. Thanks.

      • Re:I disagree (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Afrosheen ( 42464 )
        You must have set some kind of recording for beating that super crappy game. How did you avoid falling into the holes and spending 10 hours wiggling the joystick around to get ET to float out of the hole? Better yet, how did you avoid instantly falling back into the same hole the second you got out?

          Quite possibly THE worst game ever made.
        • Yup. This is exactly my rememberence of the game as well. I couldn't even identify most of the objects on the screen.

          There was one part where you kinda levitated up, and there was this artificial ceiling with a hole the moved along it. You had to somehow exit it. Yet even when you hit the hole, you failed and came back down.

          Not sure how someone beats it in three minutes, unless the secret point of the game was to see how long it took before you pulled it out of your Atari and threw it in the garbage disposa
    • For me, the main criteria for a game, movie or even book, is that it is interesting/challenging/entertaining enough to take my mind of the heavy things in my life.
      Sure I can appreciate a book or game for its artistic merits, but the whole reason I play a game is to be entertained. The game can be something as simple as Tetris or Solitaire (perhaps with those, the word entertain doesn't fit perfectly- maybe distracted)
      Anything that can be played by two people at once os also a bonus- as it lets you be arou
    • "By default, a game based on a movie has to suck."

      Yeah, but what about a game based off a movie that was produced by the game The Movies http://www.lionhead.com/themovies/ [lionhead.com]

      Or a movie based on a game based off a movie created with The Movies game.

      My head hurts.

    • Re:I disagree (Score:3, Insightful)

      by moviepig.com ( 745183 )
      ...a game based on a movie has to suck

      Perhaps he meant a movie based on a game. No, make that 'surely'...

  • Not a movie tie-in at all (Score:5, Interesting)

    by webrunner ( 108849 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:12PM (#13520683) Homepage Journal
    This isn't a movie tie-in whatsoever. THere WAS a tie-in for Incredible Hulk when the movie came out, this one is more a comic book tie in (like Ultimate Spider Man)
  • Not all games that will be eventually made into a movie or vice versa suck. Another example of this is Resident Evil (or Biohazard in Japan). All the games, those before and after the 2 movie productions, are considerably better than the 2 movies that were released. But yes, I have seen *generally speaking* that sometimes movies based off video games tend to be less enjoyable than the other way around.
    • By default, a game based on a movie has to suck.

      That's a pretty bold statement to make. One my all time favorite games is Goldeneye [wikipedia.org]. I think most people would argue that the game exceeded the movie. This is the game that brought multiplayer first person shooters to the TV sets across the US and began the concept of getting a bunch of real (non-virtual) friends to get together and play first person shooters in the same room. This is a big milestone for those of us who enjoy hanging out with friends inst
    • The beginning of the Movie Games Suck tenet was the awful E.T. for Atari 2600. Later, the worst game house of all time, Ocean, cemented that tenet. Crappy game after crappy game, from Robocop to Batman, they just ruined everything they touched yet kept on landing contracts for some unknown reason.
    • I don't know...I can't think of any game=>movies that don't suck. At least, I can't think of any that are considered anything beyond B movies - unless, of course, we include movies that are from game+something else, or concurrent releases where both are designed as one entity (only one that comes to mind there is Tron).

      Here are the ones that come to mind:
      Super Mario Bros
      Mortal Kombat (two movies, somehow)
      Final Fantasy
      Street Fighter
      Double Dragon
      Tomb Raider
      Wing Commander
      Resident Evil

      Can you honestly say t

  • Scary nerds talking about this game (Score:5, Funny)

    by technoextreme ( 885694 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:14PM (#13520706)
    I was in a comic book store a while back and a bunch of middle aged men were talking about this game. Here was the discussion:
    Man 1:Yeah the new Hulk game has so many weapons.
    Man 2:Yeah did you hear that it has this gun. (I forgot which gun it was specifically.)
    Man 1:That gun has amazing stopping power.
    Man 2:Yeah. There is no way that the Hulk would be able to stay up after being shot with that.
    Man 1: I agree. You know [generic game magazine] only gave it an eighty for realism.
    Yeah. The last part scares me a lot. Which magazine actually rates a video game for realism that is about a giant green monster?? What type of people complain that a gun is underpowered when everything else in the game makes little sense?? Comic book nerds scare me.
    • Comic book nerds scare me.

      Worst. Post. Ever. There is no emoticon for how I am feeling. :)
    • How is there fantasy different from yours/ours?

      In my world, we pretend to be doing real work, that our bosses want the company to succeed, and that our SDLC makes sense.
      Don't get me started on our fearless leaders in Washington, and their more frightening fantasies

      Most of us are stuck working in a fantasy just as divorced from reality and just little different from that of the comic book nerds.
      The difference being that comics nerd's is a little more consistent - and the inconsistencies are the subject

    • Re:Scary nerds talking about this game (Score:4, Funny)

      by Pxtl ( 151020 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @03:14PM (#13521227) Homepage
      Nonsense. They're talking about realistic weapons. Comic book nerdery is only part time - you can tell, these are Counterstrike/Tom Clancy nerds.
      • Sometimes it's interesting to follow a comic book nerd debate (e.g. Hulk vs. Juggernaut). The debaters put so much effort and citations into their argument, some even going back decades ("the Hulk lifted a mountain in Secret Wars!"). Ultimately though, no one seems to realize that there is no objective truth in a fictional world, and the outcome of any battle is entirely the whim of the writer. If the writer needs the Hulk to get the tar beaten out of him by the Toad, then it'll happen (depsite furious crie

  • Why such a high rating? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:15PM (#13520717)
    Long-term entertainment may be out of reach of this angry goliath, but it's well worth a look if you like action smashups.

    Score: 8/10

    Did you decide to rate it 8/10 because you haven't tested its long-term enjoyment? Honestly, most games are enjoyable for a couple hours and I felt like I could have had more fun with a dirty hooker for less money.

    So, is 8/10 just its first impression or do you really think it will retain that 8/10 throughout its lifespan? If not, which is what I believe you would say, would you rate it higher than a 5 or 6?

    • >I felt like I could have had more fun with a dirty hooker for less money.

      Common miscalculation. You're leaving out the cost of twenty years of antivirals.

    • I've been playing this game everyday or two since I got it a week and a half ago, and I'm having as much fun now as I did when I first got it.

      The reviewer failed to mention how the difficulty ramps up at a reasonably good pace and how the moves you get to unlock are crazy and hilariously cool.

      I was very pleased to have bought this game, and I don't buy many.

      Plus, the reviewer didn't mention the the xbox version supports 720p (HDTV res) and has awesome 5.1 surround. This is THE game to show off your home the

  • Sounds like fun, but... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:15PM (#13520720) Journal
    "Though the first time you leap into the air and toss a firetruck downward at an assaulting military unit you'll grin from ear to ear, after the 50th time that same move has lost its luster... but after the 25th time you destroy a tank it's just not novel anymore. "

    By the second time in the same paragraph I hear the same thing, it kind of loses it's luster, it's just not novel anymore.

    Although, being a fan of hack 'n' slash dungeon crawlers, I gotta say that I'll be picking up this title as soon as I can pry the cash from my wife's han... I mean, as soon as I leave work.

    • Re:Sounds like fun, but... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Mondoz ( 672060 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:23PM (#13520814)
      Let us know if they explain why his waist never seems to expand to the point where his pants rip completely off.

      ...Not that I want to see a cell-shaded Hulk pee-pee, but you godda wonder after a while what the deal is with those pants.

    • Re:Sounds like fun, but... (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "Though the first time you leap into the air and toss a firetruck downward at an assaulting military unit you'll grin from ear to ear, after the 50th time that same move has lost its luster... but after the 25th time you destroy a tank it's just not novel anymore. "

      Ahh... and they say video games don't desensitize our youth to violence.

  • 8.9 out of 10 on the box cover? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Steve_Jobs_HNIC ( 513769 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:16PM (#13520730) Journal
    I saw a commercial for a Hulk video game the other day.... it had a rather large red and white 8.9 out of 10 rating stamped on the cover of the box.

    What's the point? come on, either create a fake website and post a 10 out of 10 rating, or just leave it off. Who wants an 8.9 game when you can get an "11 out of 10"* game?

    *(no joke, I remember more than a few reviews for the original half-life that rated the game as 11. mmmmmmm..... original half-life
    • Perhaps because 8.9 is a very good score? Game ratings are supposed to be like test scores- a complete failure is rated at 5-6, and you should read the review to see exactly what the reviewer didn't like and whether it would bother you more or less than it did him. If you insist on only playing games that score above, say, a 9.5, then not only will you play very few games but you will be missing out on a whole lot of really good ones. Did you permanently swear off watching movies after Citizen Kane, or read
    • So who was the reviewer who made the remaining .9 rating? A seal?

  • Hmm... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sesshomaru ( 173381 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:21PM (#13520799) Journal
    By default, a game based on a movie has to suck. It's one of the unwritten rules of the industry that movie games are pure profit: Stamp it out quick, screw the gameplay, and we'll make it up to the players with our next genre-buster.
    So this means that there were no good games based on Alien or Star Wars, I suppose.... (oh, and many more, those were just the two that immediately jumped to mind. )

    Still, I'm glad to read that The Hulk is good... though can I trust this reviewer after that quote?

    • Re:Hmm... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:52PM (#13521072) Homepage Journal
      can I trust this reviewer after that quote?

      Games that are movie tie-ins suck 99.999% of the time.

      Games that are related to a movie, but that do not come out at the same time as the movie, are not covered by that rule.

      The reason for that is, when the games comes out with the movie, it's just [generic product] with the name of the movie attached, it doesn't have to be good, because no one will buy it for what it is, but will buy it for what it reminds them of.
      They are rushed in production, given no time for testing, and vomited out of the poor, starving devellopers according to the movie's schedule. Turst me, I've been given insane deadlines for movie-games. Like, one week for testing. One. WEEK!

      Games that come out independantly of the movie, however, have a chance of being given the ressources needed to make a quality product (although, that's not a given).

  • LOTR (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RevRagnarok ( 583910 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:30PM (#13520881) Homepage Journal
    I think the last two LOTR movie tie-in games on the PS2 were quite fun. And one of the few video games that the woman was able to play too.

  • I know this is off topic but... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A game published by vivendi? The same guys who are slamming bnetd in courts? No way I'd buy anything else from them, let alone give them free advertising.

  • ...shocked and appalled!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Psyqlone ( 681556 ) on Friday September 09, 2005 @02:40PM (#13520968)

    In an urban environment, the attack squad is easy pickings, because you have a lot of umm ... ammunition. By ammunition, I mean cars. And buses. And the burned-out wrecks of already downed helicopters. Tossing around major artifacts of western civilization may sound complicated, but it really isn't.

    This "game" as you call it is targeted towards the young and the impressionable who are prone to emulate what they see in violent movies and video games such as this.

    It's true. During the weeks following the nationwide release of "The Karate Kid", enrollment in karate schools increased substantially. When the movie "Top Gun" was showing in the theaters, enlistment in the Navy overwhelmed recruiters.

    Scientific studies suggest that exposure to violence in the media increases aggresive and violent behavior in young people, especially adolescents. Can you imagine what chaos would be wrought by kids throwing around buses and downed helicopters emulating a poor role-model, who clearly has impulse-control issues? Think of the children. Won't someone please think of the children?

    I want to stop typing now.

  • I played this game non-stop (around my work schedule) for the last week and I gotta say, it is the best action game I've ever played, hands down. I was so impressed by every little element of this game. This is a great example of how a game should be built, and an obvious example of what a game could be like when developers aren't rushed. I highly recommend this game to anyone (but don't get it confused with the old Hulk game(s), which sucks major ass)
  • Oooh! I think I'll dash on down to the video store and see if they still have a copy of Super Mario Brothers. Or maybe Street Fighter. Or Wing Commander...
    • Not to put too fine of a point on it, but those were movies based off of games. This appears to be a game based off of a movie.

      I'll give it half a chance, especially since most forget the power, glory and simplicity of the Hulk: HULK SMASH!!!
      • Not to put too fine of a point on it, but those were movies based off of games.

        Well, to put a fine point on it, that's exactly what my point is, which resulted in the Subject of the post. The corollary to the premise that 'games based on movies suck' is that 'movies based on games suck'.

        Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, the list goes on...
        • I can kind of see your point. I think this one might be more appropriate. Look at the part you didn't quote, where the cool thing about the Hulk is SMASH, which is what the game seems mostly about.
          Your beginning of a list is also inadequate. Final Fantasy's movie was good, except it faired poorly because Americans hate to lose a hero, and Tomb Raider was also reasonably translated. I'll definitely give you Super Mario Bros. and Wing Commander, but none of them claimed to be Cecil B. DeMille productions. Whi
    • Might want to pick up House of The Dead [imdb.com], Double Dragon [imdb.com], and Alone In The Dark [imdb.com] as well.

      Why not pick up Doom [imdb.com] and Halo [imdb.com] as well?
    • I'll second that ... except I would hazard a guess that the original Street Figter game would have been a *much* better candidate for a movie if it had been about Terry instead of punks like Ken and Ryu.
  • By default, a game based on a movie has to suck. It's one of the unwritten rules of the industry that movie games are pure profit: Stamp it out quick, screw the gameplay, and we'll make it up to the players with our next genre-buster

    True in almost every case! However, I would almost expect the Fantastic 4 game to have much more potential for entertainment than the movie did.
  • I did see some cinematics;

    Hulk is fighting some large mech warrior thing, he grabs a car in each hand, clenches a fist around the roof of the cars and uses the cars as brass knuckles against the mech warrior. Im sorry but thats bad ass!

  • Good rental, bad buy (Score:2, Informative)

    by atarrri ( 580364 )
    Why is a game review on the front page? I actually bought this game and played all the way through. It is quite fun and somewhat unique gameplay experience, you definitely feel like the Hulk when you play. The game is pretty short though and could easily be beaten in a few days. There is theoretical replay value but I feel that most people wont replay it after they beat it and I recommend a rental. The controls as a whole are above par, there are a wide range of moves and many of them are pretty cool a
  • I think the lession here is pretty clear: Free-roaming games are in, they make just about any game work and there is no excuse not to make a free-roaming game anymore.
  • You can't mention the rule "Video games based on movies must suck" without mentioning the converse... "Movies based on video games must suck."

    I present Exhibit A [imdb.com] and Exhibit B [imdb.com].

  • I think that Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay was an awesome game. And the movie wasn't bad either.
  • Goldeneye N64 is still one of the best movie tie in games..to bad it came out like 3 years after the movie
    • Heck, maybe that's why it was so damn good. Getting a GOOD product out was more important than getting a QUICK one out. I think the imposed time limit is the major reason most movie games suck.
  • Uh, I think you mean Chronicles of Riddick turned the tide against stupid movie tie-in games. At least, it's a hell of a lot better than Spider-Man 2 (and a ton better than the movie Chronicles of Riddick, for that matter.) Not to say that Spider-Man 2 was bad, but Chronicles of Riddick was better and came out earlier.
  • now someone will have to put up a site called 'planethulk.com' just so it is in the same class as unreal or halflife... well maybe not.
  • I always thought the default was: that a movie based on a game must always suck.

    Anybody see Mortal Kombat?
  • ...from the screenshots it looks a LOT like War of the Monsters [playstation.com] that came out for the PS2 a little while back.
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [justadventure.com] (by Lucasarts) was probably the best movie-based adventure game of all time. Similar enough to have me going 'hey, I remember that from the movie!' yet different enough to suprise me now and then. Followed up by the quite enjoyable Fate of Atlantis [ugo.com] (based upon an original work), these two games were a pleasure to play.

    Does anybody make adventure games anymore?
  • "Read on for my impressions of what it's like to step into Hulk's very big shoes. "

    I would imagine that stepping into Hulk's very big shoes would be something like one of the following:

    Trying on the Headless Horseman's hat for size
    Seeing eye-to-eye with the Invisible Woman
    Walking in the footsteps of Professor Xavier

    Get the picture?
  • what it's like to step into Hulk's very big shoes

    Hulk is barefoot. :P
  • There's a few facts mentioned in this article that unfortunately lead me to believe the reviewer didn't complete the game. While I'll admit that's not *necessary* for a review, it generally leads to a more whole and balanced one. As well, it generally makes it less likely you'll make statements that are untrue such as "You cannot destroy buildings." You can. You're just limited to certain ones. There are many buildings throughout the city you can destroy, but it's still a very small percentage. I *think* t
  • ...I'm giving away two copies over on my website [pcweenies.org] as part of a "Roll your own PCW toon" contest.

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