Paintball has now broken into the realm of computer games. Sheridan and Head Games have now released Extreme Paintbrawl 2 bringing paintball to your PC. The only thing that I can say is... lets play.

Using a Doom style 3D environment and Rainbow 6 type scenarios Paintbrawl gives you a healthy dose of action on the screen yet doesn't really simulate paintball. The only guns you can use are VM-68s, PGPs, and a few other Sheridan creations including the (ultimate sniper gun) that features a 32-inch barrel! Now come on as if the 32 Degrees 20 inch Stone Cold II wasn't enough. Yet believable the guns aren't that bad. The realism is quite present in the markers. Pumps have a limited fire rate and so do the semis. You can even watch the paintballs zig and zag as the fire as they sometimes do.

Now let's think about this who rely wants to play tournament speedball on the PC anyway. It would get pretty boring. The continuous action is a bonus. With a different feel than tournament paintball Paintbrawl offers you a little "stress relief" when you can't get to the field. You get to choose players for your team and they improve in skills the more you play. Another reality of paintball that is in the game is the fact that you must play on a limited budget. You only have so much cash to buy gear and balls. You can also choose between instant action or season play. In instant play you simply play a game and it is over. In season mode you play a list of other teams for money and prizes hoping to win the overall season. You will get to play in locations that you wouldn't expect in normal tourney. Such places as and airport terminal and parking structure will be your playing fields instead of Speedball or HypAir Ball.

Sheridan's attempt to make a paintball has proven to be more of a Doom that uses paintguns instead of real guns. Personally I would have like to have seen some Speedball and HypAir Ball fields in the line up giving the game a more tourney feel, but hey its raining or you just can't find anther way to play then you might want to give Paintbrawl 2 a whirl. Oh yea and by the way there are supposedly cheats in the game….I haven't found them yet but they are supposed to be fun!
 

Tony Sasso
MPN Columnist