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MAD DOG McCREE
WHO SHOT JOHNNY ROCK?
Digital Leisure Inc.
Xbox-compatible video games, $29.95 each
Mad Dog McCree is a game that takes place in the Old West where a townÕs mayor and his daughter have been kidnapped. The kidnapper, Mad Dog McCree, along with his band of nasty hombres, has taken the victims to his secret hideout. You are a gunslinger who must take down the wrongdoers with your Colt .44 in order to save the day. Who Shot Johnny Rock? is a game that takes place in the backstreets of old Chicago. Singer/performer Johnny Rock has been murdered and you are a private detective hired to look into the case. There are four prime suspects and multiple clues to wade through if this murder is to be successfully solved and the killer brought to justice.
Both Mad Dog McCree and Who Shot Johnny Rock? are DVD-video games that are compatible with the Xbox console gaming system and its DVD movie playback kit. They are arcade shooting games that use the directional and ÔEnterÕ keys on the XboxÕs DVD remote control unit to aim and fire your weapon.
The games are presented in fullscreen versions (4:3 aspect ratio) that are not enhanced for 16x9 monitors. The overall video quality for both is very good. The live action images are crisp and well detailed. Colors are bright and accurate with saturated hues. While contrast is a little on the soft side, black levels remain dark. There were no major flaws or digital compression artifacts that we could detect.
Video Rating: 8 out of 10
The following audio options are available for these two games: English Dolby Digital 2.0. (Our reference A/V receiver, as do many other receivers, decodes this audio signal into Dolby Pro-Logic surround). Character dialogue is clean and natural sounding. The surround channels are used exclusively for ambience. We observed a handful of discrete channel effects, usually in the form of character voices emanating from a left or right front channel. The LFE channel is used sparingly with the purpose of bolstering the depth of gunshots, adding thump to when bad guys tumble to the ground, etc.
Audio Rating: 5 out of 10
Overall, the tactile sound effects for these two titles are average. The only type of tactile effect that can be experienced is a light impact. As one might surmise, the best tactile effects are felt in the resonance of gunshots and in the rumbling of explosions.