PlayStation 2

The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee

Good news! Good news! For the folks who have visited Hazzard County on the PSX/PSOne, you’ll be right at home. This time around gits even better though, because Hazzard looks much better and all of the original cast members have lent their voice talents to help drive The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee’s story line.. In fact, they’ve even got cast interviews to watch. If’n you’re a fan of the series, ya better git your copy today. If not, watch yer back. Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane’s got a speed trap waitin’ for ya at Old Mill Road!

Overall this game was above average but could have been improved sound wise. I would recommend this game for an above 25 crowd and then for purchase if you loved the series. The control of the vehicles is tricky to master but possible if you have the patience. As the show always says, “come back y’all” to this game if you enjoyed the TV show.

The basic racing is decent, but the dull missions and lack of polish (there's some really bad collision going on in parts of Hazzard County) make this little more than a "me-too" product designed to sell solely on the appeal of the franchise.

When I was a young kid, and I'm talking about 15+ years ago, I can remember the TV show I used to love the most. Just good ol' boys, never meanin' no harm. In the 1980's there were not a lot of shows cooler than The Dukes of Hazzard. It had everything a growing kid needed in a TV series; cool adventures, cop chases, a sweet fast car, a damn fine female character, and did I mention a sweet and fast car? Well, the show was on from about January 1975 to February 1985. There have been three or four video games based on the show already, and they've been flops. Let's face it, it was another TV show turned into bad game series. I gave up after we got Dukes of Hazzard II - Daisy Duke's It Out for the Playstation by developer Southpeak. But we're going to find out what happens this fall when veteran publisher UbiSoft and developer Ratbag gets their hands on the Dukes. I was really hoping Ubi would bring their expertise to the Duke Boys and give them the proper treatment.

A wise man once spoke of some good ol' boys who never meant no harm. Boys that beat all, and been in trouble with the law since the day they were born. The Dukes of Hazzard remain a timeless piece of American pop culture. Thanks to Ratbag Games and Ubisoft, PlayStation 2 owners can now relive the hijinks of Luke and Bo Duke behind the wheel of the General Lee, the fastest car this side of the Mason-Dixon line.

It has been several years since the last time those good old Duke boys graced a gaming console with their presence. The first two Dukes of Hazzard games attempted to go the logical route with the license, combining mission-based driving gameplay with storylines befitting of the classic Dukes of Hazzard TV show. Unfortunately, both games suffered from a myriad of bugs and other problems that wrecked them both completely. This latest Dukes game, The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee, unfortunately isn't much different. It features a plot worthy of the TV series, a number of the original TV actors reprising their roles...and boring, frequently broken gameplay that absolutely ruins the entire experience. Just like the show's Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, this game is foiled largely by its own ineptitude.

Admittedly, I had never seen or known anyone who has seen an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard--a show that debuted in the early 80s. My only knowledge of the show is the mention of Daisy Dukes, which are really tight blue jeans that are cut into really skimpy shorts, in a talk show but never knew exactly who Daisy Duke was. So before I took to writing a review of The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee, I rented the complete first season of The Dukes of Hazzard on DVD and suddenly found myself completely enthralled by the two cousins that defied the law in every episode. I also found a new love . . . a revved-up Dodge Charger called the General Lee. So how true to the show is The Dukes of Hazzard? Sit down a spell, cousin, and let’s talk about a game that could have been a knee-slapping good time.

"Just a good ole' boy, never meani'n’ no harm, beats all you never saw, been in trouble wit' da law since the day they was borrrrn…" So began each and every episode of the immor(t)al 1970s series "The Dukes of Hazzard," and so begins the video game of the same name, now rolling out of Hazzard County and into your Playstation 2.

If the powers of nostalgia are as strong as can be, then folks will be super excited about the release of The Dukes of Hazzard: Return of the General Lee, a game that delivers on the same promise of quality as the original TV show. Included are some car chases, Daisy Duke, some hilarious hijinks with the law and a few shreds of a game to hold it all together. If you just can't get enough of the duke boys, go ahead and gorge on on the goods here, we won't stop you. For the others who are hoping to catch up with these wacky racers your money is much better spent on the recently released DVD sets of the original show.

After years of being the butt of over two thousand documented tasteless jokes, it�s finally good to be Polish. For untold reasons, Polanders can now sit back and relax as bad comics, drunk uncles and lonely cab drivers the world over focus their efforts on figuring out how many blonde Iraqi terrorists it takes to screw in a light bulb. (the answer, by the way, is four).