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Summary

When I first bought my PS2 in 2000 I was desperate for a fun game that wasn't a PSOne title running on backwards compatibility. Sky Odyssey was one of the few that I got my hands on, and it is the single oldest PS2 title I still have in my library. Six and a half years later I can safely write this review saying it was, and still is, one of my favourite PS2 games of all time. But why, you ask?

Fair enough. By today's standards, Sky Odyssey offers technically weak graphics, limited sound quality, and a menu system not much easier to maneuver through than Windows 3.1 (ok.. that was unnecessarily harsh), and yet it remains far more than the sum of its parts. Weather you're flying through vicious weather, narrow canyons, or just enjoying a relaxing free-flight over the ocean, Sky Odyssey captures a certain artistic quality that is too abstract to put into words. Simply put, the experience as a whole far outclasses the individual parts of the game.

Sky Odyssey is quite challenging, offers a decent variety of aircraft and unlockables, and a satisfying, multiple-path quest mode as well as several smaller game modes. You won't find any explosions keeping you on your toes in this game, as it is an arcade-style flying simulator and not a combat action game. Nevertheless, the realistic feel of the flight physics, be they your aircraft's handling or the effects of wind, coupled with the tricky maps you're expected to navigate, offer more than enough edge-of-seat excitement to last you many an evening.

It's lasted me many an evening for almost seven years now.

Summary

This expansion pack is totally underestimate! If you are or have been a hardcore Q3 player like I've been, you can't miss this explosive great expansion!

I used to played Team Arena a lot on LAN with my friends, and somethimes on internet (But it was very poor, because the servers was often empty, very strange.) -I can't understand that because this expansion have it all:

*More weapons (like the classic nailgun from Quake 1)

*Some more real funny gameplays, like for one example an another different form of "capture the flag", -how is even funnier than the usual capture the flag!

*It has a lot of more powerful things to pick up, that you will keep until you die, like the speed burst, double damage etc, and you can only use one thing of them! (So a good team pick ups different things, to be more powerful.)

*it also more likely a "strategi form of FPS", -where you not only jump around "dit and dat" and shoot everything, it's more seek and hide. -But ofcourse, it's Quake so when it's a real battle you know how it looks like:)

*Only the name "TEAM arena" means exactly that, it's more strategi now, it's more teamplay. If you wanna play usual Deathmatch, how is a lot of fun to, you must play the original Q3, but when it comes to team aganst team this is the best thing to play!

*The maps are so wonderful and different, (same wonderful graphic that Q3 has, but a little more upgraded) Everything from a cool space map to a real huge green landscape, how takes atleast 2 minutes to come to the enemies empire (if you not have the speed boost, and is lucky to not been killed on the way). But here comes the teamplay again, it's fun and smart to place out a sniperguard (the best thing for the sniper is that he should have the dubbel damage with the railgun, one shot, one kill!)

*Ofcourse it's jump around and kill, but also on some maps, is good to have som hide defense somewhere who defends whatever you need to defend.

This expansion is great! It couldn't been better! 10/10!

Summary

i think of this game as a knock off of Unreal its just made out to be what it is its so stupid a copy cat and its a reture if you alreay have it. The sound and graphics were ok but could have been better they really should have spent more time in makeing this game i didnt even finish it there were also a lot of bugs with you being able to go into walls and being or shooting someone and killing them with out hitting them its just not whats its cut out to be ill stay with Unreal

Summary

Quake III: Team Arena is the first of the two Quake III Arena expansions. This one being the better of the two. This takes the gameplay of Quake III Arena bases it on team play. If you think this means, "Crap, now I can Only play ctf and team dm," well you're wrong! There are new game types for this team based deathmatch experience! They are rather creative I might add. Overload is a game type in which you must quickly attack an Enemy's core until it explodes. Thieves is a game where you must kill an opponent, grab his or her skull, and take it to the center power vessel for the entire map. The new character models look fantastic. Sort of giving them a royal theme. Quite peculiar. The new maps are even better! Large, detailed, and full of ways to actually use strategy rather than the prancing and shooting of the original Quake III. The graphics haven't improved much however. There are added voices to bot players which are somewhat cheesy. Remember when bots would say corny threatening lines when you killed them in Quake III: Arena? Well this time, you actually hear it, and though the sound quality is good, there's no denial this is some corny corn. Turn it off! Music is the same, oh well! 3 new weapons spark our interests! The mine gun, and the return of the nail gun and chain guns! YIPPEEE! Overall, Quake III: Team Arena adds a whole round of fun to the already phenomenal Quake III experience.

Summary

We've all heard of it, quake 3 arena is a great death match experience. But the expansion pack called team arena just isn't perfect.

Graphics:
Back in its day, quake 3 looked absolutely amazing. if you crank the settings to maximum (need a good shader vertex to do this) it looks very good. The only issue i had with the graphics are that the gibs (blown up bodies) have no physics, they always are the exact same size and shape and in the same place. Fortunetly you just wont have time to be paying attention to the gibs when the gameplay is so fast. Even by todays standards the graphics are well done, so the graphics get a 9/10.

Gameplay:
Here comes the bulk of this review, and what makes and breaks team arena. Team arena comes packed with new weapons, powerups, and maps. While this seems like the best thing for quake 3 arena, it truly isnt. The god mode powerup is just way to crazy to be a good idea. if you have a god mode powerup near you, you could just get it, and camp with a railgun without worrying about getting killed. it completely destroys some parts of multiplayer and makes things feel really broken. However the new powerups and weapons are not all bad, not at all. The proximity mine launcher is a great addition to this game. allows mines to be placed ANYWHERE on a map, or other players. However if a skilled railgun shooter comes across a guy with a proximity mine launcher, the guy with a mine launcher will get ripped. The new weapons are balanced good additions to the game. As anyone who has played quake 3 would know, the machine gun was really sucky. it did very little damage and pro players would rather not even have it in their arsenal. The new minigun and nail gun are 3x as powerful, but not effective at long range. These additions make medium ranged gameplay very fun, and even more fierce. Some new power-ups make the gameplay even more fun by adding more gun power and ammo regen. These powerups help the gameplay by making subtle additions that dont change the entire mold of how the game is played. These changes are nice, but seem more like a simple mod instead of an expansion. The fact that this game costs as much as it does and offers so little makes the value plummet.
7/10
Sound:
The sound in quake 3 team arena is nothing stellar. the new sound effects added to the weapons and powerups seem old, and like youve heard them before. The voice acting is just atrocious, all the dialouge in the game is cliched and nothing all too special. The weapon effects are slightly redone, but just dont sound realistic what-so-ever. another problem that was also in quake 3 is that every time you jump, the character makes a very annoying UGH noise. As you become good at the game, bunnyhopping (jumping repedetively to go faster, also makes you harder to hit) is a requirement. 5/10

Overall:
Quake 3 team arena is nice if your looking for small additions to a great game, but dont expect stunning new features. The sound and value of this expantion take a hard beating, but the gameplay is still as fun as ever.
7.0/10