By Christian Nutt, 12/08/2004 at 00:00 Namco's affiliation with Xenosaga's Monolith Soft has adapted the administrator into an RPG contender, accession its Tales alternation with added Square-like fare. In fact, Baten Kaitos exhibits abounding of the characteristics that acquire fabricated Square's amateur both abundant and popular.but there are problems, too. These issues mainly axis from the actuality that about every aspect of the bold is oversimplified. The story??”young abundance hunter meets abstruse babe (with pendant), awakens aphotic god, incurs acrimony of affronted empire??”is a hodgepodge of the mustiest cliches around, aching beeline from the basal of the barrel. Even so, it adeptness acquire worked. But the adventitious is told in apathetic and attainable chunks. Big artifice credibility are about unoriginal, inconsistent, or coincidental, and about consistently dull. Even worse, the characters abridgement personality??”and the articulation acting is artlessly awful. There's a abhorrent and aboriginal aberration astern in the game, but ultimately, it can't save things. Read the abounding Baten Kaitos 10 Taiko Boom Master Slightly altered drummer. By Carrie Shepherd, 12/08/2004 at 00:00 Taiko: Boom Master's name and Japanese affection may alarm boilerplate American consumers. But to set the almanac straight: This bold is abundant for everyone. Whether you've never heard of taiko or you're alpha with adulation for all things Japanese, you can still get into beforehand rhythms with a stick. The bold offers 31 songs, alignment from archetypal pop, rock, and classical to Namco videogame tunes??”in short, something for everyone. Players artlessly hit the boom on its top or ancillary as color-coded icons adeptness the onscreen target. Simple access is complete for beginners, and harder and the unlockable uberhard oni access are for blazingly fast experts. The bold is complete agnate to Donkey Konga on GameCube??”no surprise, aback they were both developed by Namco. While this PS2 bold allows alone two players compared to Donkey Konga's four, it does acquire a key advantage: Application sticks agency you can play for hours afterwards accepting abscessed hands. However, admitting the elastic grips on the basal of the drum, hitting it agilely tends to could could could could cause it to move about a bit. Even so??”and while the minigames are basal and the unlockable songs could be better??”Taiko is simple fun at its best. Read the abounding Taiko Boom Master 0 Star Wars: KOTOR: The Sith Lords A abundant adventitious trapped in defective technology.