Hardware: Online Arena (PS2)

There's no real storyline here and no frills and sparkly bits to get in the way of the gameplay. A couple of button clicks, log into the online service and you're off, thundering around a half dozen combat zones with a vehicle selected from the tanks and armoured personnel carriers on offer.

Online Arena is a very functional title, eschewing presentation in favour of what it does best, which is to present arcade-style blasting action without letting real-world physics get in the way of a good time. It has to be said that vehicle handling is straight out of the cartoons, with tanks developing the ability the race off of cliffs and buildings and soar through the air before bouncing like a space hopper when they finally touch bare earth--strange but oddly satisfying.

It's possible to communicate with other players using a USB headset (not included), which adds massively to the playing experience and paves the way for creative taunting as you blast total strangers into little pieces. It also helps mask the ghastly in-game tunes that are horribly bland and totally dull. Graphically too, the game is very middle-of-the-road, managing neither to sparkle nor to totally let down. The vehicle models do their job, but there's not a lot you can see about eight trucks and tanks that are all decorated in camouflage colours.

The game provides six modes including Death Match and King of the Hill modes, which should be enough to keep the dedicated warmonger happy for quite some time. Online Arena is distinctly average in many areas yet still manages to be incredibly good fun. --Chris Russell

In game voice is great fun also!


HARDWARE   September 27, 2003
I played this at the playstation experience at the end of august and I just kept on coming back to it because it was so fun. Yu can choose from 8 different vehicles - 4 are light weight buggy jeep things and 4 are heavy armoured tanks and also you can download more when the ps2 hard drive comes out! 3 of the 5 levels were there and they are all pretty massive and detailed nicely. there is no lag in the online matches which is great(since there can be 16 players at once). this game definately beats destruction derby arenas because that is just boring and it just steals it over socom i think. So you should GET THIS GAME.


HARDWARE: ONLINE ARENA   August 30, 2003
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

HARDWARE:ONLINE ARENA is a great multiplayer game. Choose either a jeep or a tank and go to war. Drive around and pickup powerups for your secondary weapon. If you have your ps2 online, this is a great game.


Quality Game!   August 26, 2003
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is a great game, much better than twisted meta black online and a refreshing change to stealth in Socom. The game features 5 levels; Quarry, Area 51, Mayan City, Arctic and Ruins. There are 4 game modes; Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, King on the Hill and Team king of the hill.

The game is throughly enjoyable and once you start, you cant stop ;)