Having a Paint-Ball of a Time...

By Thomas Machuca

Let me begin by saying that Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball Max’d is the #1 Action Sports Shooter Franchise. That being said, can you recall many other action sports shooter franchises? I’m not saying that it’s not a great game… actually I am, but it’s still a good game and anyone looking for the best paintball experience on the Xbox should look no further.

The first thought running through my head when I got this game was “A gun game where you don’t kill anyone? Blasphemy!” But then I realised when playing the game that the creators have gone to great lengths to present paintball as a legitimate sport, with its own rules, culture, products, and players, rather than a dumbed-down imitation of a first-person shooter. 

So if you are an avid paintball fan you sure are going to love this game, and if you’re not, there’s no better way than on the Xbox to experience the lightning-quick sport of tournament paintball.

If you didn’t know already, Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball Max’d is a sequel to the 2004 game – same title minus the fabricated word – and with this sequel comes all new max’d out features, hence the name. 

This game is bursting with game modes including a new longer Single player Career, Co-op play in Career mode, Exhibition mode for up to four players in split screen, the ability to control your team, a field editor where you can design and play your own custom fields in single player, new locations, gear, soundtrack and everyone’s favourite (or at least my favourite), online play via Xbox Live.

This game is, in essence, a squad-based first-person shooter. Your squad is made up of three, five or seven members and you must complete an objective before your opposition can. There are three different game types: Elimination, Capture the Flag and Centre Flag. They play almost exactly the same as the best way to complete any is to eliminate all the opposition.

In Career mode you start as a Rookie and move forward in your career from Rookie to Novice to Amateur and to Professional by competing in tournaments. As you progress you will earn credits and experience points that you can use to purchase gear and improve your character's skills and eventually get to face off against the 14 professionals including Greg Hastings, Keely Watson, and Rocky Cagnoni. The downside of the career mode is that all the different arenas are basically the same. It’s a rectangular field littered with various sized obstacles to provide cover. This makes the game feel repetitive and quickly you will be looking elsewhere for enjoyment.

That other place you may want to look is on Xbox Live. Max’d’s multiplayer component is definitely the game’s strongest point. It's a great way to experience this game and fully put to the test all the different movement and shooting tactics available. After playing online you will find it hard to go back to single player and I don’t see why you would since playing online is where most of your replay value is going to come from.

An excellent component of Max’d is the controls. The whole system is quite tight, and works very well. It uses the dual thumbsticks approach for movement and you are able to move in three postures; standing, crouched and prone. Pulling the right trigger fires your marker (gun, for those not down with paintball lingo) and to refill your hopper (or ammo clip… more lingo) with a pod of paint you press the black button. 

Pressing the ‘Y’ button enables turbo which allows you to run quickly while standing. Pulling the left trigger makes you snap (lean… I think they’re making words up now) out from behind a bunker. Pressing the ‘X’ button switches the marker to your other hand so that you can snap to the other side and pressing the directional pad up or down changes your stance. Pressing the ‘A’ button switches between horizontal and vertical snap modes and pressing the ‘B’ button sends you into a controlled dive. Hitting the directional pad left or right gives the capability of glancing around without affecting your aim. And finally, by pressing the white button you are able to perform callouts, which are similar to play calling in football video game titles.

A nice little feature in the game is the ability to cheat. A timed mini game pops up on the screen when you get splattered and you'll need to stop a moving cursor at a specific point in order to have the hit be counted as a miss. Stop it in the wrong place however and you will be eliminated and sometimes also get your teammates eliminated.

The AI here is also surprisingly good, for both your team and the opposition. They hide well behind cover, attempt to flank you, and often pin you down. They even surprise you with tactics you wouldn’t think they would be capable of knowing or even implementing.

And for all you paintballers out there, they’ve got over 160 pieces of authentic, officially-licensed gear like gun barrels, shirts and other assorted paintball paraphernalia looking just like the real thing.

The games graphics seem to have a rather first-generation look to them. There are some decent textures on some of the bunkers, but for the most part they are overly bland and everything looks washed out and muddy. It does have however, a few flashy lighting effects and a smooth frame rate. Character models aren’t overly detailed and don’t have a huge range of animation (they are stiff and tend to go from a crouched position to standing up somewhat awkwardly) to say the least. Gun models, too, aren't very detailed, but they have some nice reflections in them and the different parts you have equipped are represented onscreen when you change components.

The sound? Average like Will Barker's cooking. The markers sound good enough when firing paintballs, but everything else sounds cheap. The soundtrack is comprised of generic rock tracks from actual recording artists, like Puddles of Mud and Static-X, that accompanies the game play appropriately. A good thing is that they also allow custom soundtracks for those who don’t really like rock and would prefer to get themselves fired up with some other style of music. 

Less impressive is the game's announcer. Sure he’s fun to listen to at first, but after hearing him repeat his overly extreme voice and trying-too-hard phrases over and over again it can get quite annoying. Having said that, Pauly Shore based his career around annoying catchphrases, so I can't be too judgemental.

Max’d effectively captures the mix of intensity and excitement, and properly using cover in arena paintball, and in the end it’s only limited by the confines of the sport itself. It can be a blast in multiplayer and especially online provided the game develops a solid fan base. However, the release of the Xbox 360 means that this is potentially unlikely. It isn’t really different enough from the first game to encourage a re-buy, either. This game is worth renting and worthy of a purchase if you are a hardcore paintballer, especially seeing as it’s sold at a reasonably budget price.

Game: Greg Hastings’ Tournament Paintball Max’d
System: Xbox
Players: 1-Multi
Online: Yes
Developer: WXP Inc.
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 65%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)