Vice City Stories improves upon some of the flaws found in the first game, not the least of which is improved length and direction, as well as a great deal more personality. The story's still pretty subpar, though, and as much as this is very much Grand Theft Auto, certain conventions of the series are starting to feel a bit antiquated.

Additionally, much as was the case with Liberty City Stories' transition to the PS2, Vice City Stories loses a lot of its appeal when played on a console versus the PSP. Still, it's only $20, and if you don't own a PSP or just never got around to playing it upon its original release, this isn't a bad way to go if you absolutely, positively must get your GTA fix.

Vice City Stories returns to the pastel- and neon-colored excesses of the 1980s and Vice City. Modeled after '80s-era Miami, GTA: Vice City told a Scarface -inspired tale of Tommy Vercetti, a shunned mobster who found himself sifting through the aftermath of a cocaine deal gone wrong, and subsequently ended up building a major criminal empire throughout the city.

It was a bizarre, convoluted, and completely entertaining tale, filled with ridiculous and profane characters, as well as lots of biting satire on the most superficial of decades. Vice City Stories is, again, a prequel, taking place a couple of years prior to the original game.

You play as Vic Vance, the brother of central Vice City character Lance Vance. Vic's a strange fellow.

When the game begins, he's just joined the army, and he gets off the transport truck at a military base in Vice City. Upon meeting his commanding officer--a borderline psychotic named Jerry Martinez--things start going wrong.

We find out that Vic has joined the military to make some money to support his family, specifically his sick brother. But within the first few minutes of the game, you'll find yourself inexplicably picking up drugs for Martinez, killing Mexican gang members, and chauffeuring prostitutes.

Of course, any veteran of this series won't be shocked one bit by missions like these. The trouble here is that the setup for getting Vic into this mess is beyond flimsy.

From the get-go, Vic talks about how uncomfortable he is with illegal activities, and yet he does every single illicit thing Martinez asks him to do. If you're someone who doesn't want to do anything illegal, and your boss starts asking you to pick up hookers and hide drugs for him, are you going to just gripe about it and then do it anyway? Not to mention that Vic seems completely willing to run into an apartment complex and start wasting Mexicans without even being ordered specifically to do so.

He just says, ""I'll go get it"" (referring to owed money stashed inside one of the apartments) and goes in guns blazing. GTA heroes are never heroes, exactly, but the trick in the past has been that there's been no attempt to play those characters up as sympathetic.

They weren't boy scouts--they were gangsters, killers, and dope dealers. Vice City Stories tries to present Vic as a guy who doesn't want to get into that stuff, yet he freely and frequently does throughout the entire game.

He mostly comes off as a hypocritical idiot. For what it's worth, though, once you get through about the first hour of the game, you'll probably be inclined to stop questioning why Vic is doing what he's doing and just go with it.

As time passes, the game settles into the typical progression of GTA missions and oddball characters. While Liberty City Stories was almost devoid of memorable characters, Vice City Stories digs up a few favorites from the original Vice City, and introduces a couple of new ones as well.

Vic's mildly crazy brother Lance, the alcoholic gun nut Phil Cassidy, the balls-obsessed Cuban gang leader Umberto Robina, and the foul-mouthed Ricardo Diaz (voiced by Phillip Michael Thomas, Gary Busey, Danny Trejo, and Luis Guzman, respectively) are all back. Lance plays a huge role in the story, but the others aren't quite as prominently featured as they were in the first game.

Still, you get a good chunk of time with each of them. Functionally, Vice City Stories plays very much as Liberty City Stories did on the PS2, return of the right analog stick camera control and all.

When running around and shooting people, you simply press the R1 button to lock onto an enemy. Occasionally the game will lock onto random civilians, as opposed to the guy with the submachine gun blowing a hole in your head, but usually it's pretty good about identifying exactly whom you should be killing.

Mostly, though, the combat is quite fun. Running around causing mayhem and blasting away at the masses is just as enjoyable as it's ever been, and there's a good variety of guns and other instruments of destruction to play with.

The one part that isn't so good, unfortunately, is the melee combat. Basic fisticuffs and blunt-object beatings are merely a bit clunky, but if you try to get yourself into a fight while holding a gun at close range to someone punching you in the face, you'll lose every time, unless you run a good distance away, turn back, and start firing.

For some reason, the game just can't deal with aiming mechanics while you're face-to-face with an enemy; you're basically hosed. Vice City is a sizable open-world environment and driving around it can be a bit overwhelming at first.

Odds are that unless you've had the original Vice City regularly inserted in your PS2 for the last couple of years, you won't remember too much of the city's layout. But even though it'll take a while to figure out all the roads and side streets, there's plenty of familiar scenery and landmarks that appear just about where you remember them.

The game's minimap is about as useful as it's ever been in depicting where you are, and there is a larger map to check on in the pause menu. Still, it feels a bit antiquated, especially considering evolutions we've seen in recent games of this type, where the best possible paths for a mission are highlighted on the map.

Heck, even an arrow pointer telling you where to turn would be nice. Driving in the game is pretty much as it's been for years now.

The vehicle physics are perhaps a bit more exaggerated than they were in Liberty City Stories, and that's both a blessing and a curse. It's extremely easy to spin out while taking turns in many of the game's cars, trucks, and motorcycles, but at the same time, some of the jumps and ridiculous crashes you can have make those wacked-out physics worthwhile.

You will run into weird physics glitches from time to time, and you'll sometimes get stuck in pieces of the scenery. These issues aren't exactly new to the series, but they're as annoying as ever.

In addition to cars and bikes, helicopters make their return in Vice City Stories, and they're among some of the most enjoyable vehicles in the game. The flying controls are easy to handle, and flying around the city is often much quicker than trying to drive it (less)

Boasting multiple single-player, multiplayer and online crash and race modes, Burnout 3 offers players the opportunity to race through busy city streets and be rewarded for taking risks that result in heart-pounding action and electrifying crashes (less)

In this respect, Commandos 2 is quite a bit like its predecessor, the innovative 1998 real-time tactical combat game that mixed elements of stealth, action, and puzzle solving. Spanish developer Pyro Studios' sequel, originally released for the PC last year, took the core gameplay of the original and added plenty of great new ideas, ultimately creating a highly challenging, sophisticated experience that was even better than the first.

The new PlayStation 2 version is largely the same. But since the PS2 version loses the crispness of the original's graphics and some of the game's other fine touches in translation, it can't be recommended over the PC version, let alone wholly recommended in its own right, except to those looking for an extremely tough PS2 action strategy game.

In Commandos 2, you'll have to do such things as rescue Allied soldiers, sabotage powerful sea vessels, assassinate key enemy officials, get your hands on important documents, and much more. The objectives are plentiful and varied, and the game will take you to a wide variety of real-world settings, but the overall number of missions in Commandos 2 seems small--there are only 10 main missions.

You must play through them all sequentially, even though they aren't necessarily related to one another, and the relative length and difficulty of each mission doesn't necessarily increase from one mission to the next. Make no mistake, though.

By any standards, all these missions are huge, and you'll typically spend many hours trying to accomplish the laundry list of objectives in each one. There's also decent incentive to replay each mission, since a number of smaller bonus levels can be unlocked if you thoroughly explore the main missions.

Additionally, the game's two higher difficulty settings noticeably affect the way enemy guards react, requiring you to take different paths to success. But before you can get into the main missions, you must first get through two ""training"" levels.

These smaller missions drop you straight into enemy territory, forcing you to learn the intricacies of Commandos 2's complex gameplay the hard way. Unlike the original PC version, the PlayStation 2 version of Commandos 2 does offer a supplemental step-by-step tutorial that consists of a great many lessons that explain all the dozens of different types of actions available in the game.

The tutorial takes a while to finish and still doesn't guarantee you'll have an easy time getting started with the actual game, but it's better than nothing. The PC version of Commandos 2 features razor-sharp high-resolution graphics that look spectacular.

The PlayStation 2 version looks good, but the lower resolution and washed-out colors really hurt the game, not just aesthetically but also in terms of the gameplay. The characters are fully 3D and well animated, but they're tiny, so you might get frustrated at not being able to spot all the guards in an area at a glance.

A marginally useful zoom feature doesn't solve the problem, as it just takes away your ability to see enough of your surroundings. The prerendered mission maps are very big, but important details such as lockboxes or sniper posts can be difficult to spot.

Some technical issues also cropped up in the translation--the game will sometimes pause briefly but annoyingly as you execute different commands. At any rate, you'll appreciate the way everything is to scale.

Gigantic Japanese bombers, aircraft carriers, Allied submarines, and German castles are just some of the many things you'll get to see. The sound in Commandos 2 is about as good as the visuals.

Your characters' responses are limited and will quickly grow old, but otherwise, the game's ambient effects are well done and its musical score is outstanding--it sounds like it's straight out of an action film. It's intense at times and suspenseful at times, and it helps set the tone for each individual mission.

The colorful cast of characters at your disposal comes mostly from the previous Commandos games and includes a powerful Green Beret, a deadly marine, a spy capable of disguising himself as the enemy, a sapper (demolitions expert), a mechanic who can commandeer enemy vehicles, a master sniper, and a seductive secret agent. New additions to the roster include a fleet-footed thief and a bull terrier whose barking can distract your foes.

You'll also join forces with Allied troops who you can control in many of the missions. Each character is versatile and has a wide variety of skills.

This gives you many strategic options during play and, for better or worse, eliminates much of the puzzlelike feel of the original game's missions. The game's sole remaining puzzle element lies in the fact that you can't choose which commandos or starting equipment you'll bring into the missions--you'll just have to make do with what you get.

The gameplay demands extreme precision. As you approach each mission objective, you'll have to take note of all the enemy guards standing between you and victory.

You can spend lots of time just examining every square inch of the map from your godlike isometric vantage point, observing enemy patrols and looking for openings or weaknesses. Mission objectives generally aren't time-sensitive, so you can afford to strategize at your leisure.

And though you can take missions at your own pace, the situations always get very tense whenever you're preparing to strike. This constant buildup and release of tension is well maintained throughout the game (less)

Its current-events context notwithstanding, the first Conflict just wasn't very good. Scarcely a year later, we're receiving a direct sequel titled Conflict: Desert Storm II.

The hasty release of a follow-up was no doubt spurred by the political and military events of the last year. However, the new Conflict is quite an improvement over the extremely shaky first game.

Though there's been a more recent conflict in Iraq, and military action in the region is, in fact, ongoing, Conflict: Desert Storm II again places you in the thick of the 1991 campaign against Saddam Hussein's regime. There's not a whole lot of story to speak of in the game.

You get a linear progression of 10 missions, each of which has its own setting and unique mission objectives and some of which are revealed in-game as you progress. You command a squad of four specialists in each mission, and, at the beginning of a new game, you can choose either American Delta Force or British SAS personnel.

Your selection here slightly affects stats, appearance, and voice acting. Each of your team members is equipped with a weapon that gives him a unique function.

There's the assault rifle-wielding team leader, the sniper, the demolitions expert, and the heavy machine gunner. The team members do have actual names and unique appearances, so you've got at least a little more attachment to them than if they were just faceless drones.

The core squad and combat mechanics in Desert Storm II are a little awkward at the outset, but with some practice you can get fairly proficient at playing the game. In the main single-player game, you can switch between your four teammates by hitting up and down on the D pad.

Each of the four (whichever one is active) squad members can issue individual or group orders to the others by using a number of button combinations. You can tell your teammates to hold position or form up behind you, hit the dirt, advance on the enemy and fire at will, and so on.

As long as you keep tabs on your teammates' health and actively switch between them regularly, you can progress through the game's missions without worrying too much about suffering casualties. Leaving three of your buddies in the care of the game's squad AI isn't the best idea, though they'll be proactive about fighting enemies.

They'll fire at their enemies, but will often get themselves killed in the process. Of course, you can issue orders to bring them back behind cover, but that can be difficult when you're in the middle of a firefight and are worrying about saving your own skin.

Overall, it would have been nice if the teammate AI was a little more adaptive when left to its own devices. The actual fighting in Conflict: Desert Storm II is somewhat hit-and-miss.

At times, it feels pretty solid, thanks in large part to a built-in auto-aim feature that makes it quite easy to target hostile forces. In fact, sometimes it's a little too easy--the game will sometimes line up an enemy in your sights before you even realize he's there.

Other times, though, it seems suspiciously difficult to score a hit on enemies, particularly with the sniper rifle. It's possible to hit the deck, steady your crosshairs directly over an enemy's head, and then see no effect after pulling the trigger.

It's frustrating, to be sure, but, for the most part, the combat is reasonably well balanced and entertaining. You can even engage in vehicular combat with a jeep or tank in some missions, which does break up the flow of things a little.

The vehicles feel a little awkward and can be slow to respond to your controller movements, though. Graphically, Conflict: Desert Storm II gets the job done, but does it in a no-frills sort of way.

The backgrounds are fairly devoid of detail, and the enemy character models look pretty simple. Your own squad models, however, are decent looking.

The game appears surprisingly similar on both platforms, with a slight nod going to the Xbox for less aliasing and a higher frame rate. The audio portion of the game is dominated by a lot of yelling, gunfire, and explosions, though all of these are rendered pretty well.

The music tends to fade into the background, though, since you're intent on finishing your missions. Finally, as in last year's game, the voice acting for the training mode's drill instructor is a poor attempt at sounding like Full Metal Jacket 's tough-as-nails drill instructor, and it comes across as pretty awful.

In the final analysis, Conflict: Desert Storm II isn't without problems, but it's not the worst squad-based game you'll ever play, and it's decidedly improved over last year's game. If the game does float your boat, there's unfortunately not a lot of replay value.

You can play through the game again--cooperatively--with two players on the PS2 and four on the Xbox, but there's no competitive multiplayer component to speak of. If you're really into squad-based military action games, Desert Storm II might be worth a look to tide you over until something else comes along (less)

The 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio is standard for universal to high-definition digital television. A native 16:9 aspect ratio means video display without bars at top and bottom of the picture and without the quality loss than comes from scaling, altering an image to fit on a different screen size.

Built-in stereo speakers: The stereo speaks provide quality sound and allow you to listen freely. Enjoy music anytime, anywhere, with built-in stereo speakers that allow the convenience and enjoyment of music playback simply by unplugging the headphone MP3-CD, CD and CD-RW playback: MP3 is a revolutionary compression technology by which large digital music files can be made up to 10 times smaller without radically degrading their audio quality.

A singe CD can store up to 10 hours of music View JPEG images from picture disc: Play JPEG photos that are saved on your disc. Relive your favorite moments with family and friends anytime you want DVD, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, (S)VCD, CD compatible: The Philips Portable DVD player is compatible with most DVD and CD discs available in the market.

DVD, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, (S)VCD, and CD – all of them can play on the DVD player. DVD+/-R is a shorthand term for a DVD drive that can accept both of the common recordable DVD formats.

Likewise, DVD+/-RW handles both common rewritable disc types Car adaptor included: This player comes with convenient in-car accessory to enhance your movie enjoyment on the road. This car adaptor allows you to power your player using the cigarette charger.

Setting up a portable player has never been easier. Full Resume on Power Loss: The DVD-Video player remembers where you stop watching last time when it is powered off directly or when the power supply discontinued.

If you did not switch to play another disc, your player will resume play where you have stopped the movie last time just by reloading the disc. Making your life a lot easier DivX Certified for standard DivX video playback: With DivX support, you are able to enjoy DivX encoded videos and movies from the Internet, including purchased Hollywood films.

The DivX media format is an MPEG-4 based video compression technology that enables you to save large files like movies, trailers and music videos on media like CD-R/RW and DVD recordable discs, USB storage and other memory cards for playback on your DivX Certified Philips device Enjoy up to 3 hours playback with a built-in battery: This Philips player comes with a compact built-in rechargeable battery for long-lasting power. Up to 3 hours of continuous movie, photo and music playback enjoyment can be achieved on a single charge.

Just plug in the power cable to recharge the player - it's that simple USB connection for video, photo and music playback: Simply plug in your portable USB device to the USB connector on your Philips portable DVD player and playback your digital videos, music or photos directly. Now you can share your favorite moments with family and friends Technical specifications: Product dimensions: Width: 19,5 cm Height: 3,75 cm Depth: 15,4 cm Weight: 0,624 kg Packaging dimensions: Width: 23 cm Height: 25,5 cm Depth: 7 cm Nett weight: 0,964 kg Gross weight: 1,185 kg Tare weight: 0,221 kg EAN: 87 12581 59579 1 Number of products included: 1 Packaging type: Dummy Type of shelf placement: Dummy Outer Carton: Length: 24 cm Width: 22,5 cm Height: 27 cm Nett weight: 2,892 kg Gross weight: 3,783 kg Tare weight: 0,891 kg Number of consumer packagings: 3 Picture/Display: Diagonal screen size (inch): 7 inch Diagonal screen size (metric): 18 cm Resolution: 480(w)x234(H)x3(RGB) Display screen type: LCD TFT Sound: Output Power: 250mW RMS(built-in speakers) Output power (RMS): 5mW RMS(earphone) Signal to noise ratio: >80dB(line out), >76dB(earphone), >62dB(built-in speakers) Video Playback: Playback Media: DVD, Picture CD, SVCD, Video CD, DVD-R/-RW, MP3-CD, CD-R/CD-RW, DVD+R/+RW, CD Disc Playback Modes: Disc Menu, Fast Backward, Fast Forward, OSD, Repeat, Zoom, Resume Playback from Stop Video disc playback system: PAL, NTSC Compression formats: Divx, MPEG4 Audio Playback: MP3 bit rates: 32 - 320 kbps Compression format: Dolby Digital, MP3 Playback Media: CD, CD-RW, MP3-CD, CD-R File systems supported: ISO-9660, Jolliet Connectivity: DC in: 9V, 0.

8A Headphone jack: 3.5mm Stereo Headphone AV output: Composite (CVBS) x1 USB: Yes Convenience: Battery charging indication: Yes Shock proof: Yes Accessories: AC/DC Adaptor: DC 9V, 0.

8A, 110-240v, 50/60Hz User Manual: Multi Langauges Car kit: cigarette outlet adaptor, 12vDC Power: Battery Type: Built-in battery Battery lifetime: Up to 3hrs* Dimensions: Master carton width: 225 mm Master carton depth: 240 mm Master carton height: 270 mm Master carton quantity: 3 Master carton weight: 3.95 kg Packaging Width: 230 mm Packaging Depth: 70 mm Packaging Height: 255 mm Product width: 195 mm Product depth: 153 mm Product height: 38 mm Product weight: 0.

71 kg Packaging type: D-box (less)

Plays DivX, MP3, WMA and JPEG digital camera photos Play virtually any media format you want - whether they be DivX, MP3s, WMA or JPEGs. Experience the unbeatable convenience of great playability, and the luxury of sharing media files on your TV or home theater system - in the comfort of your living room.

Progressive Scan component video for optimized image quality Progressive Scan doubles the vertical resolution of the image resulting in a noticeably sharper picture. Instead of sending a field comprising the odd lines to the screen first, followed by the field with the even lines, both fields are written at one time.

A full image is created instantaneously, using the maximum resolution. At such a speed, your eye perceives a sharper picture with no line structure 12-bit/108MHz video processing for sharp and natural images 12-bit Video DAC is a superior Digital-to-Analogue-Converter that preserves every detail of the authentic picture quality.

It shows subtle shades and smoother graduation of colors, resulting in a more vibrant and natural picture. The limitation of the usual 10bit DAC become in particular apparent while using large screens and projectors DivX Certified for standard playback of DivX videos With DivX support, you are able to enjoy DivX encoded videos in the comfort of your living room.

The DivX media format is an MPEG4-based video compression technology that enables you to save large files like movies, trailers and music videos on media like CD-R/RW, and DVD recordable discs One-touch MP3 creation directly from CDs onto USB sticks Convert the contents of your favorite CDs to MP3 files on your Philips product, and store it directly on a thumbdrive or on your portable media player through a USB cable. Enjoy the convenience of creating MP3 files right in your living room, without a PC, and even while the CD is playing Hi-Speed USB 2.

0 Link plays video/music from USB flash drive The Universal Serial Bus or USB is a protocol standard that is conveniently used to link PCs, peripherals and consumer electronic equuipment. Hi-Speed USB devices have a data transfer rate of up to 480 Mbps - up from the 12 Mbps in original USB ones.

With Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Link, all you have to do is plug in your USB device, select the movie, music or photo and play away.

Media Copy transfers photos & music to USB flash drives Share your photos and music with family and friends in your living room – and elsewhere. Simply copy the files onto your USB thumb drive and carry your favorites with you wherever you go.

Screen Fit for optimal viewing every time Whatever you’re watching, and on any TV, Screen Fit ensures that the picture fills the whole screen. Annoying black bars on the top and bottom are eliminated, without any tedious manual adjustments to make.

Simply press the Screen Fit button, choose the format and enjoy your movie in full-screen FM tuning for station presets FM radio offers you additional music options to your music collection on your Philips player. Simply tune into the station that you want to preset, press and hold the preset button to memorize the frequency.

With preset radio stations that can be stored, you can quickly access your favorite radio station without having to manually tune the frequencies each time. Specification: Picture/Display D/A converter:12 bit, 108 MHz Picture enhancement:Progressive scan, Video upsampling Sound D/A converter:24 bit, 192 kHz Frequency response:30-20000 Hz Signal to noise ratio:> 90 Distortion and Noise (1kHz):> 65 dB Crosstalk (1kHz):> 70 dB Dynamic Range (1kHz):> 80 dB Sound System:Dolby Digital Video Playback Playback Media:CD, CD-R/CD-RW, Video CD/SVCD, DVD, DivX, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, DVD-Video Compression formats:MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX 3.

11, DivX 4.x, DivX 5.

x, DivX 6.0 Video disc playback system:PAL, NTSC Audio Playback Playback Media:CD, MP3-CD, MP3-DVD, WMA-CD, CD-R/RW, Audio CD Compression format:MP3, Dolby Digital, PCM, WMA MP3 bit rates:32 - 320 kbps Still Picture Playback Playback Media:DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD-R/RW, Picture CD, Kodak Picture CD Picture Compression Format:JPEG Picture Enhancement:Flip photos, Rotate, Zoom, Slideshow, Slideshow with MP3 playback Multimedia Applications Multimedia connections:USB memory class device Playback Formats:DivX, JPEG Still pictures, MP3 Connectivity Rear Connections:Digital coaxial out, Composite video (CVBS) output, ComponentVideo out Progressive, Analog audio Multi-channel out Front / Side connections:USB Convenience Child Protection:Child Lock, Parental Control On-Screen Display languages:English, Hindi Power Power supply:110-240V, 50/60 Hz Power consumption:< 10 W Standby power consumption:< 1W Accessories Included accessories:Audio/Video cable, 2 x AAA Batteries, Remote Control, World Wide Warranty leaflet, User Manual Dimensions Set Width:360 mm Set Height:37 mm Set Depth:210 mm Packaging Width:415 mm Packaging Height:82 mm Packaging Depth:282 mm (less)