Sunday Afternoon ShackReviews

Here we go, another update to the ShackReviews database. Nintendo DS owners are finally thrown a bone with the release of Zoo Keeper, which is garnering above average scores. However, this is sad to see.. 51% for Virtua Quest. That game was in development for quite a while; surprised to see this score. As always, if there's a game you want in the database, see if it's already there and if not, request it!

• Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel (PS2)
• The Punisher (PS2, Xbox, PC)
• Virtua Quest (PS2, GCN)
• Zoo Keeper (NDS)

Featured ShackReviews:

• Masem finds no fault with The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (GBA).
• Bob422 says Resident Evil 4 (GCN) is Great with a capital G!
• Uuneter makes a few choice comments about The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (PC).
• E1ghtball says that the home version of Time Crisis 2 (PS2) surpasses the arcade version in quality.

One thing all the sites like to do for the NFL playoffs is run simulations of the match-ups on the console games to predict the winners. Now, I'm not sure if these sites are using adjusted attributes because I've been seeing results where the Patriots win. I loaded Madden NFL 2005 and noticed the Steelers overall rating as a team is rather poor, definitely not indicative of their 15-1 season, so I tinkered with the skill points distributed for the players. With players appropriately categorized, such as higher mobility and accuracy for Roethlisberger and increased stamina and running ability for Bettis, I ran the sim. (I even set it to snow during the game!) Finally, I saw a result that will be an accurate approximation of the score for today's game: Steelers 48, Patriots 17. You heard it here first!