I picked up Outlaw Volleyball to try out this weekend and keep me occupied while I lay around recovering from a respiratory infection. Since I couldn't speak without coughing like a ninety-year-old chain smoker I couldn't really play effectively on Live, so I dove in to the single player game. Overall it's pretty good, with a few notable exceptions. The controls are tight, simple, and intuitive. The graphics are good, although nothing mind-blowingly amazing. The characters are very well done as well. I never played Outlaw Golf, but I assume they're all pretty similar. There are several modes of play in the game. In "Hot Potato," the ball explodes after a certain (varying) amount of time, losing the volley to whomever has it on their side of the court. There are also bombs that are planted whenever the ball hits the turf that explode after a certain amount of time. You can also will see side out (only the serving team scores) and rally (anyone can score) scoring, as well as games with different score and time limits. There's a lot of variety, and it keeps things pretty interesting. However, this is where I get to the main problem with the game. The AI is absolutely infuriating. When you're playing certain game types, you have to adjust your strategy quite a bit to compete. For example, in Hot Potato, you have to watch the timer and make sure you get the ball on the other side of the net when it's about to go off. However, your computer-driven partner doesn't seem to know this, and will invariably knock a ball over too soon (when he should have set it to you) or bump it to you when he should have hit it over. You also play a few matches with a team timer, where each team has a certain amount of time total for the game, and if it runs out, you lose regardless of the score. It's almost impossible to beat the computer in this situation because the other team seems to know to knock it straight back over on the first hit every time, and your CPU teammate doesn't! He'll bump it over to you almost every time, wasting valuable seconds on the team timer. The other frustration with the computer players is that they just don't miss. They will return 100 out of 100 shots directed at them regardless of speed/angle/whatever. The only way to win points later in the game is to draw them out of position and spike it in the gap, which isn't terribly easy to do. All of these things are ticking me off, I think, but imagine how much fun it'll be online with actual human opponents. With the voice chat you could tell someone to hit it over when the time is running out, call for the ball, and discuss strategy. To say the least, I was very excited to try it out. So online I go (gamertag: SlackerCS btw). I do the "quickmatch" to see what games are open, and get a "No Games Found" response. Not a good sign, but the game is new. I decide to host one and see if someone will join up. I look at the hosting options. Wow, the list is short. I can choose how many points and the number of games in the match. I can choose the locale. That's pretty much it. No Hot Potato. No bombs. No anything that set the game apart and made it interesting. And as if that's not bad enough, IT ONLY SUPPORTS TWO PLAYERS, so I STILL get to play with the freaking AI!!! I played one fifteen point match with some roboty bastard that was about the most boring twenty minutes of my life. The official word on the hypnotix messageboard about the online game is that they couldn't integrate the extra features or a 4 four player mode without lagging the game up. I have bad news for 'em - it's laggy anyway. I noticed about a dozen times when the ball seemed to hit the ground only to fly back into the air because it had actually been bumped. This is a pathetic first attempt at an online game. Heck, "My Street" on the PS2 performed better, and you can play that over an analog modem. Anyway, as you can tell, I'm quite disappointed. This could have been a great Xobx Live game. Instead it's going back to the store on Monday. Summary: Single Player: Fun, but frustrating. Local Multiplayer: Should be a blast if you can get four good players. Xbox Live Play: Completely Useless.
After having made its festival with the golf, TDK is caught some with the volleyball and seasons it with its Outlaw sauce.Barred environment and gameplay arcade pure and hard, the attempt is creditable, with the proviso... Read Full Review
The game looked really exciting with all the various hot bodies on the cover, but was I in for a disappointing time. There are practice levels and you can learn more control and finesse there. Some are extremely difficul... Read Full Review
