Also this issue:

Heir to the Air
Is the next great paranormal radio show broadcasting from a basement in the Northeast?
-Patrick Rapa

Firstlook
Buffalo Billiards
-A.D. Amorosi

Icepack
-A.D. Amorosi

October 31-November 6, 2002

naked city

Got Gore?

Blood and gore come in festive hoilday colors; such as green and red.

Just in time for Hallloween Sega delivers a Gore de Force in House of the Dead III, but is it a trick or a treat?

Sega
Xbox
Rated M for Mucho Violence, Blood and Gore
MSRP 49.95

Halloween is a special holiday each year when the grotesque and the macabre are celebrated with wild abandonment. Against this holiday backdrop Sega has added a third chapter to the House of the Dead series. Although the first two chapters of the HOD saga originated on the ill-fated Dreamcast, this is the first sighting of the undead on another platform. Additionally, this is the first game released for the Xbox which enables the use of an optional light gun.

Descriptive photos and taglines adorn the package, such as "Pump the Undead full of lead" and "House of the Dead III's storyline has you wading through a flood of blood & gore." Sounds like a testostorone-packed adventure filled with hemoglobin and carnage -- in short, my kind of game.

With pre-slaughterfest glee I plugged the light gun in and poped the HOD III game into my Xbox. Before setting out on my rampage I had to calibrate my light gun, which proved to be more challenging than the game itself. The game moves at a ballistic pace and if you're not careful you might just miss it; I was able to finish in about a half an hour. Upon completetion of the game the original House of the Dead II for the Dreamcast becomes unlocked and playable. This serves to add only moderate replay value to what is a lackluster title. This is a treat only for true HOD-Heads -- for the rest of us it's a trick.

—Chris Newborg