PlayStation Network: Beats / Flow / Syphon Filter: Combat Ops [Power Pack Collection]

As stated in other reviews, there are 3 games in this pack. Beats, a rythmn game. Flow, an evolution game (?!) And Syphon Filter: Combat Ops (an FPS game)

Flow is a bizarre little game. You control a little aquatic cell-like organism. You eat others, you get bigger. Others try to eat you. Graphically its lacking. Unless you get a kick out of watching cellular organisms evolve, you'll probably play it for five minutes and get bored.

Beats is the highlight of the package. Its a rythmn game in the style of Dance Dance Revolution etc. Tap the buttons in the right order in time to the music. It comes with several tracks, which are all good fun. But the best feature of this game is that it can use tracks from your PSPs MP3 collection! A rythmn game with any soundtrack you like :) Not enough Iron Maiden in Dance Dance Revolution? No problem, get this! Is there a distinct lack of Lady Gaga in your Guitar Hero? Sorted, get this!

Another great benefit of this is that this game can never get out of date! If you download the latest songs, then all you have to do is put the mp3 file on your psp and your rythmn game has the latest tracks! The game is a great deal of fun, and has a great deal of expandability. At the price you can get this UMD for now, this game is worth the price alone.

The last game in the pack is Syphon Filter: Combat Ops. Before I say anything else about this game, I have to warn everybody that this game is ONLINE MULTIPLAYER ONLY. If you do not have a broadband connection & wireless router this game will probably be absolutely useless to you!

If, like me, you're a fan of online FPSs then this game will not dissapoint. It has a lovely selection of weapons. It has lots of interactive scenery and "special forces" type moves that are the fashion in modern FPSs (jumping through windows, leaning against cover, peeking over walls to shoot etc). And the gameplay is thoroughly enjoyable

One impressive feature of this game is the map design feature. I haven't tried this yet, but you can design levels, add different spawnpoints, structures, weapons, etc. And after you've uploaded the maps for other people to try, they can then rate your map. I think this is an excellent feature and while I haven't created any maps myself, I have played other maps made by the community and have been very impressed.

The community is where the game may struggle. When I've tried the game, there have only been a small pocket of die-hard fans online. Around 10 at the most. This is usually enough to get an enjoyable game going, but it is slightly worrying that a game that focuses so heavily on the online community seems to be slightly lacking in community. It could be that I only game between 7 and 10pm UK time. Maybe there's a flood of players as soon as America gets home from work. To be honest, with a nifty map design feature like this I'm surprised that Syphon Filter fans dont play this more. But there seems to always be someone on line to have it out with.

Beats is worth the price of the disc alone. Combat Ops is a very impressive and enjoyable FPS, and is a very worthy addition to any shooter lover's collection and I hope others buy this game so there are more players to support it

UPDATE: 07/03/11 - It seems that there is a small flaw which has stopped me playing Combat Ops. It does not allow wifi power save mode, which makes the wifi adaptor run hotter. And if you own an old "phat" psp-1000 (as I do) the amount of wifi traffic the game uses repeatedly makes the console overheat and shut down !! Apparently this problem is solved in newer psps such as the psp-2000 and psp-3000. But if you have an original psp-1000 I would definitely not suggest buying this UMD for Combat Ops !

In the Power Pack thier is three games, Flow, Beats and Syphon Filter Combat Ops.
When the title screen has loaded up, you can choose from any of the three games, however once you have chosen the game, (i.e Beats) you cannot go back and pick another game (i.e Flow) without quitting the game completley, or taking the umd out.

Anyway I will review the games

Beats:
This game is fun! it uses your memory card to search for song's on it, and then allows you to play it in game
you can use this to your advantge, as the aim of the game is to press the right button as its moving into the hole, there is three holes, For example if the circle button was moving to the left hole, you have to press the left button and the circle button at the same time, so if you want to have a easy game download a slow paced song as the buttons move slower, on the otherhand you can make the game harder by puttin a fast rock song on.
The Game reminds me of rockband
8/10

Flow
Well There is no point to this game, you seem to control three rings and collect things which look like sperm. They add to your ring. the game is truly pointless, however the art design is pretty good
5/10

Syphon Filter Combat Ops
Now this is brilliant, although its online only (Infrastrutre and Ad-Hoc). this game reminds me of socom, its a third person shooter, which has the normal game modes (Team Deathmatch ect) and co opreative missions.
The Customisation is brillant, you choose what guns, attachments,armor ect that you want to use in the pre game lobby, however in game you cant change items. Microphone/Headset is supported, which is brilliant for talking tatic, however sometimes it may take time to find a match.
The graphics are top notch, beats most psp games by a mile
9/10

When I got this game the first game I went on was beats as the other 2 aren't up to much.

Beats Review
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What you have to do on Beats is match the buttons on screen in a little grey box , which is ok on easy mode but any level more is to hard for me.

if you want a high score aim to find a song under 10 minutes
personaly I would go with a song that doesn't have a fast beat as the button input is much harder.

Flow Review
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Flow is ok but there isn't a point to this game.

The thrid game is only online so no review for that game.