'MLB Power Pros' a hit, 'Hand of God' a miss

ShareThis

MLB Power Pros 2008Platform: WiiGenre: SportsPublisher: 2K SportsESRB Rating: E for EveryoneGrade: 3.5 starsMixing a blend of anime visuals with the feel (intentional or not) of Nintendo's classic "RBI Baseball,'' "MLB Power Pros 2008'' has much in common with last year's edition of the game. Casual gamers not looking for an intense game of baseball will find a happy refuge here, because everything is simplified to the extent that older gamers that remember the first baseball game on consoles won't be overwhelmed and can just sit back and have fun.There are also several avenues to this fun. You can play either as the GM of a team in Season mode, or take on the persona of an up-and-comer in the Success mode. Both are equally fulfilling, it really comes down to what you are wanting to achieve, though playing both is enjoyable considering how easy it is to play this game.This ease of play is a good thing -- most of the time. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk make fielding, pitching and hitting a breeze. There's no complicated sim-style mechanics here. Between the easy controls and the visual style of short, fat, big-headed players, visions of "RBI Baseball'' were dancing in my head and instantly I was having a much better time playing the game. The controls don't work 100 percent of the time, but the mistakes and bad plays in the outfield are random enough and hardly cause much harm.There is nothing overwhelmingly awesome about "Power Pros 2008,'' but then again, you don't pick up a game like this as a "must-own game of the year.'' What you do get, however, is a wonderfully entertaining baseball game that will not bog you down with the minutiae of everyday baseball life and instead allow you, your friends and some younger gamers a chance to enjoy a day at the ballpark -- minus the obligation of sacrificing eight hours straight to feel like you've accomplished something.Legend: Hand of GodPlatform: PCGenre: Role-playingPublisher: THQESRB Rating: M for MatureGrade: 0 starsThis may be one of the easiest reviews to write. This is not because "Legend: Hand of God'' was a breakaway hit or an outright failure. What makes it such an easy review is that I could not even get the game started. Yes, that's right, the game would never load. It's not like I took the disc, set it on the table and stared at it, hoping it would load itself. Simply trying to load it onto my PC was an absolute failure on many levels, and it's all because for some reason Nvidia's PhysX software -- installed separately to make the game work -- always crashes my system and this rendered the game inoperable.Failing to lose hope, I tried installing it on the machines of several friends and co-workers, figuring maybe it was just running into a bug since I test games all the time on my PC, so lord knows how many weird files are lurking in my hard drive. But this same failure occurred on five other machines, so I figured something was up. Even with an entirely new disc (yes, I was not silly enough to think my disc could just be corrupted somehow), the problem persisted. At this point, I turned to the almighty Google and came across several message boards where a band of others were sharing my pain. Some even found a workaround, but by that point I was nearly too frustrated to care. I did finally get the bloody game to start, but I was so annoyed after nearly 10 days of failures that nothing the game offered made all the effort feel worthwhile.I checked around and it sounds like you play in a fantasy world as this guy Targon. Sounds like a Periodic Table element, until I found out it's actually a mouthwash for smokers. Wow, maybe the universe does make sense after all.My advice? Avoid this game, it'll leave a nasty taste in your mouth.(E-mail Chris Campbell at game_on_games(at)mac.com)