Friday 31 March 2006
What better place to show off the all-new version of Scarface than the Los Monteros Hotel in sunny Marbella? Well, Miami, the setting of the ultra-violent Brian De Palma film would have been more appropriate but Vivendi's 5-star hospitality recently provided a suitable backdrop to a game that - like its hero Tony Montana - has dragged itself out of the ghetto and truly made good.
It's all about balls in this GTA style driver/shooter and, as Tony says, "he doesn't break them for no one". In fact through stylish play and taunting of enemies he can even make them bigger. Say hello to my leeeeettle 'balls meter'.
As you carve your way through countless waves of Columbian cannon-fodder (the last climactic battle scene of the movie is the first level of the game) you can hit circle, raise your hands aloft and dispatch one of countless taunts. 90% of which are too explicit to type here, suffice to say that 'your mother' features prominently.
So the run-and-gun gameplay becomes a mix of auto-lock instant gratification, free-aiming skill-shots and daring taunts that leave you wide open to a multi-bullet hammering. The more skilled and daringly stupid you are the [cough] bigger your balls.
The meter in the bottom right fills and 'Balls +30' flashes on the screen. Take a cheap shot in the back and it's 'Balls -10'. Max out your 'balls' (are you getting tired of this yet?) and you're rewarded with a Blind Rage first-person mode where you score one hit kills - essential if you're to make it through the swarms of trainee hoodlums stupid enough to get in the way of your cocaine-fuelled rampage.
