Peter Jackson's King Kong: the Official Game of the Movie

List Price: $49.99 Discount Price: $0.10

Features:

• Intense and climactic battles will challenge players' nerves and skills in fighting the savage beasts.
• Survive as Jack in a world crawling with predators and live the legend as Kong.
• Use weapons, traps, and your team wisely to survive in first-person as Jack.
• Break jaws, slam enemies, and throw massive objects in Kong's colossal third-person battles.
• Alternating gameplay with 3rd-person action as Jack Driscoll, featuring a unique resource management system for controlling your expedition team.

Accessories:

PC Gamer (1-year)

Customer Reviews:

Thanks for the alert about Starforce on this game! [Posted on 2006-06-27]
I appreciate everyone letting the public know this game installs Starforce on your PC. I'm sure not everyone is experiencing the problems some have reported with this - that it slows down your drive speed when attempting to burn a CD/DVD, or possibly leaves you vulnerable to a virus or trojan that knows how to exploit the installation of this driver.

However, there ARE a couple of things that may potentially affect everyone. First, uninstalling the game will NOT uninstall Starforce. Second, and most importantly, it has been discovered that Starforce is NOT compatible with Windows Vista. So if you upgrade your PC with Microsoft's new operating system coming early 2007, you will no longer be able to play this game! That alone is enough to make me never buy this in its current state.

There is also a high resolution version of this game available only by download. I considered purchasing that one, then discovered that even gamers with high-end computers are reporting it to be very slow and buggy on their machines. Even more disappointing is how the high resolution version doesn't even support SLI! (Talk about lazy code writing.)

Man - I would LOVE to play this game, but even the DEMO installs Starforce! Come on, Ubisoft. Release a patch that fixes these issues with either the retail version or the high resolution version so I can gladly give you my money. Until then, I'll have to join in with the boycott.

Great achievement, deeply flawed [Posted on 2006-10-17]
I am here to blow off a little steam. I should say that during most of this game I really enjoyed it, even though it's very linear/scripted, and the limited difficulty is almost entirely artificial. This game doesn't excel as an action title - it doesn't have the physics, speed or responsive controls for that. And as an adventure game it really just presents the same easy puzzles over and over again. However, it is really is groundbreaking as an interactive, cinematic experience. The game is rich with atmosphere and free of conventional video game HUD elements, and the little vignettes that comprise the story are enough to keep you engaged. Hence the generous overall rating. If you'd asked me yesterday, I might have rated the game 4 stars of "fun" rather than 2.

So today I come to the bad news - some dramatic battle between Kong and... well I won't spoil it... big enemies. Which do you hate more, your mouse, or the tendons in your wrists? Either way you're in store for a treat. Controlling Kong in battle essentially amounts to the worst button mash I've ever seen in PC gaming - and maybe the least fun I've ever had. This scheme might work with an XBox or PS2 controller, but with a mouse button - and especially the mouse WHEEL button, it's weird, ineffective, and no fun. Also, for whatever reason (for me, did I miss something huge in the instruction manual?) impossible.

So I'll be uninstalling this game, trying not to think about any additional pretty content I've missed, and putting ice on my wrist. I've already ordered a new mouse.

Beautiful-Linear-Short [Posted on 2006-11-06]
There's actually not much of a game in this one. It's basically a play-through-story in a lot of cases, and the entire game feels like it's on a rail. This is especially true of the kong levels..which are pretty much just narrow lanes to jump through with a small boss arena at the end.

This almost gives the game an arcade feeling--with the camera scripted to react differently almost every single second of a kong level.

The Jack levels are a lot better, and in most cases are actually fun. The game is still linear, but the game does fall back on open-spaces-then-chokepoint-then-another-openspace design principles, which can get old.

Still, there's a real nice beauty about kong. If you've seen the movie, you know how 'moody' Jackson strove to make Skull island--the gray wall, the dense jungle, the thick swarms of insects--it all translates VERY well. Constant rainstorms, the roll of thunder, the maze of corridors atop the wall, the alley of dinosaurs to dodge and run through, the bleak, dense, and dangerous swamps...though it's a linear ride, it's a very very pretty one--worth the budget price even in my opinion.

Despite All Its Reported Problems I Gave It A Try... [Posted on 2006-11-18]
I found a copy of this game at a brick & mortal store going for $10 and since I have a spare computer system which I could install and play it on without having to worry about the "StarForce" malware, I gave this game a try. Given all the negative feedback of the past year, and UBISOFT's agreeing not to use the 'StarForce' malware copy protection sceme going forward, I was surprised that they still haven't released a patch to resolve the problem for this game. In fact it looks like UBISOFT has abandonned any ongoing support of this game.

As for game play? It sucks. Not only are the graphics cutting edge for the end of the 20th century, the game play is very linear and if that weren't bad enough other characters in the game are constantly telling you what to do anyhow. Further, appearing as a 1st person shooter, the game has some sections that can only be completed as 3rd person and parts of the game have continuous strobing type flashes which aren't safe for some people with seizure disorders.

I was originally interested in this game because of UBISOFT's FarCry release. But after dealing with this game, it's clear that CryTek is soley responcible for FarCry's excellence. Hopefully, CryTek will find a new distributor for their 'Crysis' upcoming release...

cool, but annoying [Posted on 2007-01-20]
for some reason the creators of the game decided to follow a completely differant storyline than the movie, so i dont know why its called the official game.
this game is highly addictive but one downside is, kong suck. i know, i know how could i say kong sucks, its not him its the way the gamemakers made his controls and graphics, thats why he sucks.
all in all, great game, but dread becoming kong.

Click here for more details and discount information...