God from a machine.

With it's first person shooter gameplay, deep story, RPG style stat level ups, and it's open level design is it any wonder why people have a hard time classifying Deus Ex within the bounds of a genre.

Located in the near future you are JC Denton, a nano augmented agent of the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition or UNATCO for short. You start out on JC's first mission which is to retrieve a hijacked shipment of ambrosia (the cure to the current deadly plague epidemic known as the "Gray Death") from the National Secessionist Force (NSF)who has barricaded themselves into what's left of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in NYC. From there the story proceeds to take you on a roller coaster ride of conspiracy theories, and secret societies which takes you around the world and back.

Deus Ex is a game of free choice. The levels are riddled with multiple and hidden paths and which one you take is completely up to you. Do you go in guns blazing against you enemies with lethal force, do you find an air duct and sneak around your enemies keeping your non lethal tranquilizer darts handy in case you're spotted, or do you hack a computer terminal and turn their own turret against them and walk over their corpses after it's finished desposing of them? Those are just a few examples of the kind of choices the games gives you. You'll never play through the game the same way twice. Whether it's your first time through or your fifth, you'll constantly be finding new routes and new ways to deal or avoid a problem with. You also have the choice to kill anyone you see, just be ready to deal with the consequences of your choices.

One of the most unique features that sets DX apart is it's completly customizable to your style of play via skills, nano augmentations and weapons modification. The game gives you skill points throughout the game for completing objectives or finding new areas with which you use to level up a variety of personal stats like lock picking, computer hacking, or even how long you can hold your breath onder water. The Nano augs give you super human powers like super strength or life regeneration, and the wepons mods let you improve stuff like the accuracy, and reload times. If you want to pick a door lock while healing your wounds, and holding you silenced shotgun then go ahead.

Bottom line:Deus Ex is a perfect blend of FPS action, deep storyline, and RPG stat leveling that no one should do without. Go buy it, and go buy it now.

short but sweet

In an industry where game makers are afraid to innovate Pikmin shows game makers what can happen when you try something new. You play as Captain Olimar who is a space traveler that crash lands on a strange planet after his space ship collides with a meteor. Olimar has thirty days to recover thirty missing pieces of his ship. However he won't have to find them alone. He is aided by little plant-like creatures that he discovers and names Pikmin. The Pikmin do a great many things that range from carrying pieces of Olimar's ship that are spread across each area to killing large predators. This would mean nothing if controlling the Pikmin wasn't such a breeze. You move Olimar with the analog stick and the Pikmin with the C-stick. The game in itself consists of beautiful environments that have some of the best water effects ever in a game and soothing music that fits in prefectly with the natural surroundings. Despite all the game has going for it, it does have it's few annoyances. Any time I went near water my little Pikmin always seemed to find a way to drown themselves and will sometimes stop to do things without you telling them to which can make it hard to keep track of them all. Plus the days go by way too fast which ends up making the game go by too fast. Overall, Pikmin is short but sweet and should be at least a weakend rental for anyone who owns a Gamecube.

Good

Resident Evil for the Gamecube is a beautiful sight to behold. It combines gorgeous prerendered backgrounds with great looking character models, and the lighting effects are truly excellent. However when it comes to sound the sound effects are good, but the music is rarely ever there. If you've ever played the original you'll know how much the music helped create the overall freaky mood. Just like the other RE games, they made it into more of a game with cheap scares then a game where the surrounding atmosphere is enough to scare the hell out of you. The game has some other nuisances like having to set the zombies on fire to get rid of them. This means you need to carry around your lighter and your fuel can which take up precious space in your inventory. Despite some flaws Resident Evil turns out to be a very good game over all, and I would suggest it to any Gamecube owner to play through. That goes for newbies to the series and with the new graphics and some new areas to explore veterens too (though you'll get a been there done that feeling).

excellent

Virtua Fighter4 is a perfect example of brains and good looks. It combines stunning graphics with excellent gameplay. Yu Suzuki's work on the highly detailed Shenmmue has helped him create some of the most graphicly stunning character models and environments in a fighting game ever. While graphics will only get a game so far, this game would be nothing without its extremely addictive gameplay. I was addicted to the Kumite mode after the first fight, and the A.I. mode is a fresh Idea that lets you see if you are good enough to train the computer how to kick some butt. All in all Virtua Fighter4 is an excellent game for VF veterens and due to the extensive training mode its also an excellent game for newbies. It has great graphics, gameplay, and control. Don't miss this one or you'll be missing out on a awesome gaming experience.