Frequency & Amplitude for the PS2
Extracts from the Frequency review:
My first clue that Frequency was special was dropped when I first played it at E3 last May. Tucked into a corner of Sony's kiosk for online games were four copies of the game, and a pair of headphones attached to each of them. There was nobody waiting to play the game, so I sauntered over, slipped on the headphones... and promptly lost three hours. I missed appointments, forgot about lunch; nothing existed outside that game. I still didn't realize I was hooked, though, until I did it the next day. And the next. This, my friends, is digital crack in the purest sense.
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If ever there was a game designed to reel in the candy ravers, this is it.
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It's odd, but there's not much to say about the graphics. Sure, they're trippy and entertaining, but largely they're just filler to complement -- gasp -- the gameplay.
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When it comes down to it, this is just an amazingly good game. I haven't met anyone yet that hasn't been completely engrossed within five minutes of picking up the controller and going to town
Extracts from Amplitude review:
SCEA has responded to the game's enthusiastic fans with a deeper, more robust title, a game that is simultaneously hip, underground and aimed right at hardcore gamers, while delivering a broad enough appeal to casual players -- via simple gameplay and tons of popular bands -- to fit perfectly into SCEA's continued marketing efforts to be perceived as cool, hip, urban, the whole shebang. I don't really care how it's perceived to be honest, or how "cool" it is; all I know is that Amplitude is as addictive and compelling as they come, and it's great rocking fun.
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Anyway, my honest opinion is that once you play only 10 minutes of this game, no matter what your musical aptitude is, you'll become addicted, or at the very least, you'll really like the game. I quickly fell in love with the songs because I was able to play them, and their remixes are good. A great example of this argument is David Bowie's contribution. I couldn't care less about it, and I'm a long-standing Bowie fan. But it works extremely well in the game, and I'll play it for hours and enjoy it.
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Frequency is what I like to call pure eye candy. It's not a game that requires a whole lot of visual detail, or even much in the way of graphics at all. In truth, this could easily use straight black and white vector graphics, and it would work just as well. But that's not the case, Amplitude is, in fact, a much prettier game than its predecessor, and it's also presents itself better.
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For anyone who loved the first, this is a no-brainer. For music and rhythm fans, this is a sure bet, and for gamers in general, Amplitude is an incredibly compelling, addictive game. I strongly recommend it.
Both games rock - literally and figuratively.
I picked up Frequency last year after reading a review and was sucked in. Sucked in just like with the Dance Dance Revolution games. The PS2's NIC includes a demo version of Frequency for online play - and if you have the original version you can also play it online after first booting the demo version. I never played Frequency online - whenever I'd try to there wasn't anybody else playing and I eventually gave up trying.
Amplitude is ready out-of-the box for online playing. I've played quite a few games already and really enjoy it. I can already see the need for a USB keyboard though - chatting before/after games is a drag with the onscreen keyboard. My Freq name is dj^2 - the premise of the game is you're a DJ mixing music, and my family calls me DJ - so if you get hooked as well maybe we can jam a game or two :-)