PC Reviews
PC game and hardware reviews
Asheron's Call 2
Written by IRS on 08/03/2003
Asheron's Call 2 is the most intimidating and beautiful MMORPG out to date.
Final Score 87%
The Good: Beautiful graphics. The patron system is unique and intuitive. Complexity of combat. Complexity of character development.
The Bad:To run this game well you need a really excellent video card. My room mate tried it and quit because of fps/choppiness, and he was using a mx440 64ddr geforce4. I even experienced poor performance if there were enough people in one area. Some of the people I played with had to reboot their machines regularly. Good thing u can try it w/o spending any money.
Reviewers Tilt: A solid mmorpg, so long as you have a very solid machine.
Reviewers system specs: AMD Athlon XP 2600, 896 mb DDR RAM, and an ATI 9500 PRO video card.
The first thing that you will notice about AC2 is that you do not need to buy any software. You can download the game and start playing right away without spending a dime. There is a 2 week free trial period and after that subscription fees are 12$/month.
Character creation allows for a good amount of customization across 3 races, and unlike most mmorpg’s, you do not choose your skill path at the start. After you create your character you go on to a tutorial and introduction to the world of AC2. You receive less and less guidance until you are pretty much off on your own questing and mobbing as you see fit.
AC2 has many innovative features that I feel positively effect the game play. For example that is a patron system which encourages higher level characters to assist and teach lower level ones. When I played, I had 6 vassals who swore their allegiance to me. I would check on them every time I logged on, answering questions, power leveling, and helping them to complete quests. Good patrons tend to accumulate vassals while bad patrons loose their best and brightest vassals. "Guilds" are formed by networks of allegiances that are built like pyramids. This is intuitive, and generally leads to the most amiable helpful players being the leaders of Allegiances (guilds/clans in AC2 lingo). Needless to say, this system is a real breath of fresh air, and encourages players to help each other. AC2 has a very friendly atmosphere.
Another positive thing you will notice about AC2 is the artistic creativity. The landscapes are beautiful. The dungeons are dark and full of atmosphere. There are places so beautiful in AC2 that you will be in complete awe. Every bridge and river is a real masterpiece. The player models look great. The items look great. The only thing i felt was lacking were some of the mid level mobs. If you want a game to test the power of your video card, AC2 is the one.
Before I talk about the game play itself, let me first warn the reader that I do not last long on any single MMORPG. I generally get bored very quickly.
Now onto the game play experience.
My first character was a mêlée based Lugian, and got boring pretty darn fast. Also I must say, I got tired of looking at him. My second and primary character was a human archer. This character was much more fun and I didn’t mind looking at him. Too bad there weren't any good looking female characters, because I do prefer to the female form as it is easier on the eye.
Here is how combat against tough mobs typically went for me:
I'd aggro the mob with a fire, or poison arrow which does damage over time. I would spam it with my regular attacks until it met my pet, a sort of hound companion. Then I would start using special attacks as it was fairly easy to hit, being bogged down with my pet, and I thought, a good use of my mana. At this point I could choose whether to heal my pet or let it die. Generally I'd let it die and summon another right in the nick of time then I could pull back and continue my missile attacks. If the mob was particularly tough or fast I would need to use a bluff attack which would send it running.
To me, this was some of the most interesting combat I've ever experienced in an MMORPG. It can get really interesting with large groups of mobs and players. Dungeons are particularly interesting and enjoyable.
The experienced gamer should fly through the lower level content rapidly and get into the more interesting higher level content. This is not to say that you can max out easily or quickly. The model for leveling is a parabola, where you level quickly at the bottom and slowly toward the top.
The game also includes the obligatory trade skills, which are extremely useful, but difficult to develop at high levels. For example, all my armor was crafted by players until level 31. In fact i crafted my own armor (and my vassals too), until level 29. Trade skills are supposed to take place at workshops. However, as my patron showed me, it took such a huge amount of fuel to get, say, a forge, going that you might as well practice your crafts near the mines for the resources you need. Having a wealthy patron donate gold to your crafting is especially helpful ;).
In summary, this is a real piece of eye candy with some innovative and successful features, nub friendly atmosphere, and higher level content for real fans. Monthly updates and integrated story line put this game ahead of most in immersion and developer follow-through.
Civilization IV
The newest Sid Meier's Civilization retains the formula of the previous titles. It is still a turn-based empire building simulation. Players who are familiar with both older Civ titles, Alpha Centauri, or Colonization should feel right at home. In the default game type Civilization begins at 4000BC with up to eighteen civilizations and goes from there. You build cities, roads, armies while developing your culture and diplomatic ties with other civilizations. The game can be won in several different ways: a military victory (conquering all the other civilizations), a cultural victory (increasing the 'culture' rating of 3 cities to legendary), a diplomatic victory (gaining enough UN votes to be declared 'leader'), a space race victory (developing space travel and landing a ship on Alpha Centauri), or a simple score victory (player with the most 'points' by 2050 AD). Any of these options can be pursued and you are free to change your goal at any time. This alone gives the title quite a bit of replay value.
Players are not only limited to the default game time. Civilization IV comes with a variety of scenarios and allows you to mold the rules. The famously diverse mod community that has built up around Civ games appears to be taken care of here. The game ships with an editor in addition to the basic custom game options. Mod support is also included in the game.
Wonders make a return in 4. These provide (usually temporary) benefits to your civilization. You can construct the pyramids or develop the internet. However only one of each wonder can be built, so it is a bit of a race between civilizations to get the most powerful ones completed. The overall benefit of wonders is still potent, but they aren't quite the show stoppers they were in previous titles. All hope is not lost if you miss out on a few of the bigger ones.
New to Civilization IV are 'great people'. These are famous historial figures that can be born in cities throughout the world. If one is born in a city you control they can provide a variety of benefits. A merchant, for example can bring in gold, while a great scientist can be used to further advance research. Artists can be instructed to craft a great work that will increase cultural output. This can be used to swipe territory from another civilization by slowly converting the population or simply to advance towards a cultural victory. Multiple great people can be combined to start a golden age for a civilization which grants various benefits depending on the type combined. Another new feature in 4 is more advanced barbarians. Before these mysterious raiders would sometimes appear and cause a bit of trouble, but didn't do much else. They still do this in IV, but now they will also construct and defend their own cities named after their tribe.
The combat in civilization has changed a bit. While the core mechanics are mostly the same (units have a rating, this can be modified by fortification and terrain but usually the highest rating will win) the multipliers have been changed in 4. No longer should ancient units be capable of regularly destroying modern weaponry with a few defensive multipliers.
One area where I did feel let down was the diplomatic relationships with other civilizations. Don't get me wrong, they aren't broken in any way. However they are still very basic. Nothing much has been changed on this front since the original Civ. You are mostly just bartering. Be it trade, technology, or information, you are usually buying friendship. It is nice that other societies don't like you being friends with their enemies, I really feel like this could be expanded with some additional dialog and options. This doesn't make or break the game, but it is something I had hoped to see more of.
On the sound front, Civ 4 is quite solid. The soundtrack isn't the most expansive, but it does include enough variety to keep you from getting bored. The title song in particular is quite good. The audio narration by Leonard Nimoy is excellent as one would imagine. Visually the game is equally solid. Nothing too flashy, but it looks good and fits with the gameplay. I personally rather liked the stylistic Civilization leaders, though I have seen some complaints about the "cartoon" appearance.
Overall I had a great time with Civilization IV. I hope to see a bit more new features added in the next title / expansion, but there is plenty here to keep you coming back. If you are a fan of strategy games go pick this one up. I doubly endorse IV if you missed 3.
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
The gameplay you ask, well it great... Some might call it same old, same old, but with the new units and terrain features I see nothing same old about it. In fact, the gameplay is one of the highlights of Tiberian Sun. Units like the Jumpjet Infantry, the ultimate all-around soldier, throw something new into the mix. And of course the now classic C&C interface is back (if something isn't broke, why fix it?) and brings its ease of use and familiar look to the scene.
Personally, outside of action games, graphics don't really mean that much to me. As long as it looks like they put enough time into it, then I am fine with it. I still play my copy of the original WarCraft. However I know that overall such things are important. TS's graphics overall are an improvement over the past installments of C&C. The terran is amazing, the best I have seen in a RTS. The same goes for buildings, and other terran add-ins. The units leave a little to be desired, however. Especially when compared to the unit graphics in games like StarCraft. The lower quality of the units also seems to clash with the beauty of the terrain. An effort to disguise this with a stroke outline around some units (infantry in particular) only seems to make it more disjointed it. Still, it is not an ugly game.
Sonically? Well the music is great as in previous C&C games. However the unit sounds in Tiberian Sun are not really up to par withe the rest of the game. They give you the feeling you are playing a game some of your friends whipped up during their spare time, or that of an unfinished game mod. In fact, the unit responce messages border on annoying after about 30 minutes of play. They aren't really so bad that they detract from the games overall feel, but they sure don't help it.
The single player campaign in Tiberian sun is a bit different at first, but once you get used to it, its great! The new mission briefing and the dynamic campaign (that means you can change the outcome) are really something that other RTS games would do well to imitate. The AI is also much improved from Red Alert and now the computer will format its strat and defense to your playing style. Play balance was a major problem in Red Alert.. The Soviet's had a HUGE advantage of the Allies. However, this is not the case in Tiberian Sun. The game is well balanced. The only flaws I could find were: Nod needs something to counter Jump Jet Infantry, in multiplayer GDI needs a weed eater, and the Stealth Generator needs to be more resistant to random fire. All of these problems can be easily fixed in a patch.
Although its no Battle.Net, Tiberian Suns multiplayer is a major improvement from all the past C&C games... The chat interface is a little slow and the login is very buggy but patches should soon remedy that. The battle clan thing is a great idea! It has features like automatically modifying your character when you join a clan, clan ladders, and an official clan list on their site. Impressive improvements that even the most dedicated StarCraft player would envy.
Overall, I would have to say, if you even remotely like RTS games you should be sure to get yourself a copy of Tiberian Sun. The drawbacks (aside from the absence of a map editor and the slow load time) are so small that you hardly notice them once you get into the game.
Cossacks: European Wars
| Cossacks: European Wars Review |
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Written by MattyC |
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| Wednesday, 16 May 2001 | |
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Final Score 88% The Good: Great graphics for a non-full-3d RTS, intuative interface, and unique battles. The Bad: Minimal unit sounds, pathfinding AI is iffy, the building capture mechanic can be frustrating. Reviewers Tilt: Cossacks is not without issues, but if you want massive battles in a historical setting, this is the game for you. Avid Gamer Recommended System: 233 MHz processor or higher, with 128 MB RAM, and a video card with 4mb VRAM or greater.
There is very little that can prepare you for the experience of Cossacks. The sheer size of the battles is mind boggling! In most RTS games (with the C&C series being the only exception that comes to mind) you only need around 20 workers. Not the case with Cossacks. In one of this behemoth's typical matches you will need around 200 resource gathering units. That's right, around 200 little peasants running around chopping timber, gathering stone, and mining gold, iron, and coal. This would put you near or over the unit limit of AOE, but in Cossacks you have a unit limit of 8000 so it shouldn't be a problem. Almost every aspect of EW is of massive size. Their are 16 different playable nations, 6 different resources, 300 upgrades spanning two time periods, and of course the before mentioned 8000 unit battles. All of the 16 different nations have not only special units on their side, but they also have completely different buildings!
You would think that the mammoth size of this game would make it a micromanagement nightmare, not so. The game is very well structured so as to minimize micromanagement. The peasants, once assigned a task, rarely if ever need additional orders. When grouped with some of the games variety of drummers and officers your men will remain in formation and won't be captured (EWs equivalent to AOE's conversion). Farms automatically renew themselves without player intervention and the games mines and forest provide an almost limitless supply of resources at or near the players base. All these things help fuel the 8000 man battles. In the single player portion of Cossacks your play through campaigns (one for each of the major states included in the game) and although these missions can be quite difficult they are extremely rewarding and addictive. Cossacks is the first time since Red Alert 2 that I have looked up at the clock and seen it was three or four in the morning and not known where the time went. You are drawn into the game from the moment you start playing it and you won't want to come back out for some time. The multiplayer aspect proves to be a great deal of fun. Whether you use the 8 person LAN option or you play over the net via GameSpy Cossacks is as fun online as it is off - and that's saying a lot. I noticed no lag when playing over my home LAN even with 8 people. Speed was more of a problem when playing over the net, but it wasn't worse than any other big name RTS. Though Cossacks has arrived with little fanfare and has been for the most part ignored by the gaming press I think those who stick with it past its initial awkwardness will be truly rewarded with a great game. It is really nice to see a title that actually EXCEEDS the hype surrounding it. I can wholeheartedly recommend this title to any core game and most all casual gamers. |
Doom 3 Review
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Written by Slip |
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| Saturday, 31 July 2004 | |
id Software's highly anticipated DOOM 3 marks a turning point in 3D games and game engines. It's a first person shooter that’s chocked full of features such as fully-dynamic lighting with no predetermined light maps. I've been waiting for a game like this for some time now...and it's finally here, after four years
The Storyline is a stand-alone story, so if you never played the original DOOM or DOOM 2, don’t worry, it starts fresh. Even if it was a follow up it still wouldn't make much of a difference whether or not you've played the previous DOOMs, DOOM 3 wasn’t made for the story. You play as a regular U.S. Marine that is sent to the UAC (United Aerospace Corporation) to help replace some of the marines put on leave for psychological disorders because of strange things at the base. Once there, its not long before hell breaks loose and its a dark, scary, frag fest to the end. Since DOOM 3's story is a retelling of the original its not to surprising that the original ideas stay true. You are one marine with big guns going from section A to section B blasting away a whole lot of zombies and demons along the way. You do have a big, and i might say VERY big, reason to continue on...thats if you have a x800 pro (if you know what i mean). If you bought this game you got it for mainly one BIG reason...THE GRAPHICS!! and there, my friend, the game delivers... it delivers hard. If you have the hardware to play the game as it was meant to be played (forget about those minimum system requirements) then you will be in awe of the level of detail in this game. It is amazing. Bump mapping galore, and as for the aspect of detail, there is an amazing amount crammed into the game. For example, id wrote thousands of lines of code just for the interactive computer screens throughout the game alone! The game is said to favor nVidia graphics cards a little more then ATI, being that nVidia has greater OpenGL support and ATI having better Direct3D support. I played the game on a raddy 9700 pro and it ran fine considering its no 6800 Ultra or anything of the sort. Theres also been a tweak by "Humus" and driver Hotfix released from ATI which is said to boost ATI's performance in DOOM 3 by up to 40%. You can find out more information on this by doing a search in google for "doom 3 humus tweak". If you liked the gameplay of the original Dooms than your going to love DOOM 3, walk around and have something jump out at you then...after you change your pants...you shoot it up...proceeding to find the next in a series on PDA clues (E-Mails and voice recordings) left behind from dead UAC workers and scientists hinting at where to go next. This may sound a little on the boring side, but you have to remember you have freaky sounds and genuinely scary monsters lurking within every shadow to keep your attention. The weapons are reminiscent of the previous games...you got your pistol, shotgun, machine gun, chain gun, rocket launcher, ect.. with the exception of the BFG or "Big F$%*ing Gun" which is a blast to use I might add, and the "Soul Cube" (youre gonna have to play the game to find out what these are all about). The weapon modeling is outstanding, as well as their designs. Each one, with the exception of the pistol, is fun to use in their own ways. Now if you have played the game then you've probably noticed how dark the game is. Its really dark I mean dark, dark, dark. You'll be screaming "It's year 2145 and this guy can't find some ducktape to attach the flashlight to the shotgun!" But I must say, it might get a little annoying as you get further into the game, but if makes it MUCH scarier. You don't know whats gonna jump out at you or when, and I love it! If you are a DOOM head that likes that run around, shoot things, and then procede to the next level only to run and gun some more, then you'll probably love this game. If you like to take your time playing and engaging in the storyline and looking for a good gameplay experience, you might have found DOOM 3 to have fallen a little short. The big talk is that DOOM 3 is really nothing more then a Tech Demo from id. I agree and disagree with that, it does mainly just showcase a new engine and better graphics then we've seen, but it was a fun game to play as well. Early on, the scare factor in this game is incredible. I found the hair on my arms standing up on many occasions. For me it was mostly like a really really good Haunted House...but see I love that, I can't get enough of good scary games. We'll just have to see how it holds up to the other next-generation games out this year....cough*half life 2*cough. The game has great graphics, physics, sound, and a decent gameplay experience. Be sure to check out the second opinion on the right...
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in the making. Was it worth the wait though? Some people say yes, others no. I'd like to refer to a article in the latest GMR magazine that said, "Anyone who expects it to be a technical masterpiece will assuredly come away impressed. But anyone who expects it to be equally amazing in the gameplay department might well wonder where the last four years went."Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project
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Written by MattyC |
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| Monday, 03 June 2002 | |
Ah, remember the good ol’ days of gaming, when side scrollers like Contra, Super Contra, Sunset Riders, and the Golden Axe series helped pass the time? None of the old school side scrollers were ever incredibly technical. Nor did any of them ever feature an enthralling storyline or revolution game play. But, their was something... addictively fun about them. ARUSH’s newest title, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, attempts to capture player’s attentions though this same method of simple-fun style of play. And they have succeeded! Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, while far from innovative, is very refreshing. Too many of today’s shooters are nothing more graphical updates of existing games. Developers simply follow the formulas of existing and successful games without deviating in any way. This style of developing results in a lot of the games that are basically the same thing with some graphical tweaks. For example, if I see one more of those poorly written counter terrorism games, I am pretty sure I am going to hunting certain game developers (and you know who you are)! But I regress; ARUSH has made its title into a breath of fresh air by deviating from this cycle. DNMP is neither serious nor technical, as most current shooters are, but instead is comical and fun. The game’s politically incorrect billboards, pop culture allusions, and Duke’s sayings will keep you laughing for the duration of the game. The premise for the game is basically unchanged from the other Duke titles. Your goal is to save your fair city/planet (well, the babes on it anyway) from alien invaders (in this case your arch rival is Mech Morphix). You do this by finding babes in each level and defusing the bombs attached to them. All this must be done while dispatching of baddies of course. Duke’s arsenal in Manhattan Project is also similar to most of the past Duke titles. Albeit, that is not really a bad thing as the past Duke games had quite a diverse selection of arms. In DNMP you have everything from an assault rifle to a pulse cannon! The vast array of weaponry is needed too, as the game’s enemies are equally diverse. You face everything from the traditional pig cops to Mech Morphix in an attack chopper! Manhattan Project is spread across 8 superbly designed levels rendered in good (though not quite great) 3d. The game supports resolutions of up to 1024x768 in 32-bit color. My homebuilt 1.3GHz Athlon with 768mb RAM ran at this setting with all effects maxed without any slowdowns. I would have liked a few higher resolutions to be available for those of us with beefier machines (I think the game would have looked much better), but this is not a big problem as the graphics are definatly far from sub par at any available setting. I used my Logitech Wingman Rumble Pad Pro in the game with few problems. The game detected my game pad without any problem and all the default controls seamed to be exactly where I wanted them. The only problem I had was, while the game identified my pad as having rumble support, it would not allow me to turn the rumble option on. However, this is a minor detail. If you are planning on getting DNMP (and I would plan on doing so as it is an excellent game) you should really look into a good game pad. A game pad seams to work really well with the title’s console like game mechanics. It was honestly rather hard to find problems with Manhattan Project. One of the only real problems I could see with Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is the, in true old-school style, it has brought back the familiar find the key style of play that many gamers detest. I personally did not find this to be a problem as most of the levels are a blast and you rarely, if ever, spent time backtracking for a keycard. However, if you absolutely hate find the key game play, DNMP is not for you. Another thing that may bother some gamers is the lack of story and innovation. A big story and huge is not typical in side-scrollers, shooters in general, or any Duke Nukem game so this should only be a minor issue. Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is overall an excellent title that, while it contains nothing really new, is an absolute blast. This game is pure addictive fun. I actually had to physically pry AG’s own Musashi off of my computer when I let him test this game out. Basically, if you are in the market for a good shooter, do yourself a favor and pick this title up instead of Counter-Strike Rip VII. You’ll be glad you did! |
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Half-Life Blue Shift
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Written by MattyC |
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| Saturday, 09 June 2001 | |
Gearbox has added another chapter to the opus that is Half-Life. The new version features tweaked graphics, improved AI, and the uber cool ability to see the world of Black Mesa from a different perspective. However, the question remains... Are the new features enough to justify plunking down 20 to 30 of your hard earned green ones on Blue Strife? Half-Life Blue Streak is the latest, and probably the last, installment to the Half-Life series that will run on the original Half-Life engine. Thinking realistically, it is now 2001. The game Half-Life was released 3 years ago in 1998 and was built using Quake engine technology that dates back to 1996. The game is getting dated by any standards. While the great game play that has been a hallmark of Half-Life titles is still holding out, eventually its fan base will fade away to newer titles which have great game play and new graphics/features. Bottom line: In order to remain competitive the Half-Life engine needed a makeover. The game gurus at Gearbox realized this and after hours of endless toil they have the Half-Life HD pack. The HD pack is the meat and potatoes of Blue Shift and is almost worth the price of the pack by itself. It features new models and textures for all the Half-Life titles: Half-Life, Opposing Force, and obviously Blue Shift. Don't get me wrong - these are just minor improvements. Your Black Mesa sessions aren't going to be mistaken for Unreal Tournament or Quake III matches by anyone, but the improvements are noticeable and welcome. The weapons and environments look much better and the player models are drastically improved. On the bad side Half-Life Blue Shift doesn't include much in the way of new features. In fact, other than what is included in Opposing Force, their are not any new features. Nothing, not even for multi-player (which is a real shame). The voices also sound a little on the 'gritty' side to me. While none of these problems are killers they don't help Blue Shift's case. So now you are thinking, "Wow, a $20 graphics upgrade. So basically the suits are just trying to milk the last drops of the Half-Life franchise." Well, not entirely. Their is a little more to Blue Shift. The AI and the level design are noticeably improved. Also, those of you who don't own the excellent Opposing Force will no longer be forced to suffer as it is included. Then their is the fact that you get to 'play Barney' and see what little you missed of Black Mesa in the first packs. In fact, the single player campaign is probably the strongest part of Blue Shift. Though you are still doing the same old stuff that you did in the last two HL titles it remains fun. I mean, who does not want to play more Half-Life? Blue Shift contains the same time tried set of weapons and perfect blend of monsters that made Half-Life a classic - aged to perfection in some of the finest levels ever conceived. What more would you want? All things considered Half-Life Blue Streak may not bee the most revolutionary packs around but it is well worth the asking price for true Half-Life junkies and for anyone who hasn't picked up Opposing Force. When this bad boy is released on the 12th I highly recommend picking it up!
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| Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 October 2007 ) |
Max Payne Review
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Written by Bushel |
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| Friday, 17 August 2001 | |
 
I am sure you have all heard of this monster of a game that has recently hit the stores. And I, being the curious consumer that I am, bought it. There are many things to be said about Max Payne. First off, after installing it onto my computer, I had beaten the game two days later and then again on the next difficulty level by the fourth day. Dead on arrival, the hard setting, was beaten a total of six days after i bought it (although, I must admit I cheated this for this setting; some of the replay value had been lost and I could not help but beat it one more time). The fact that I beat it 3 times in the course of less than a week speaks two different things to me. One: "Damn! This is one fun fuckin game!" And two: "Well damn, this fun fuckin game is not very long." As entertaining as it is, I would give it a total of 8 hours gameplay. Second, I would like to discuss the bugs in Max Payne, and there were a few. None of them were major glitches that delete your hard drive, but rather, small inconsistencies that just piss you off every now and then. I really did not notice any problems until my second time through the game. Near the beginning (and you will have to have played the game to really know what I mean so just bare with me) the pictures during the graphic novel - where a story is told in pictures and captions - the pictures were white. This continued until i restarted the game. Another bug (pictured) causes bad guys to roam around headless with their face at their feet. One or two times so far, I have been kicked back into Windows while the next level was loading - like I said, things that just piss you off. But more than just a couple times while exiting the game, the screen became distorted and my computer locked up. The 1.01 patch was supposed to fix this, but to my experience has not. This is the one bug that is very successful is pissing me off royally. How many of these bugs are attributed to the worthless Windows ME, though, and not Max Payne, I do not know. Also, I might add, Max Payne has no multiplayer support with nothing promised as of yet. Enough pessimism, now on to the finer aspects of Max Payne! I have just acquired a brand new Pentium III 933 MHz with 384 MB RAM and a GeForce II GTS 32 MB. It looks amazing! This was the first game that actually gave this thing a run for its money. The detail level on the guns, people, and environment is mind-numbing - especially the guns. Prepare to test your computer, because this game will do just that like none other. How long has Max Payne been out? Maybe 3 weeks or so and already there are tons of mods. I have not seen for myself yet, but the makers have surely made it easy to modify the game. Even better than that, Max Payne makes it incredibly easy to add and play mods. After placing a single file (.mpm) into your Max Payne directory, you start Max Payne and select the mod from an options box before actually running Max Payne. It could not get any easier. The only problem is that once you select a mod and run the game, you cannot change mods from inside the game, you have to restart Max Payne. The gameplay factor leaves almost no room for improvement. The ideas that were implemented simply amaze me. First and foremost, of course, is bullettime. Bullettime is when you choose to slow down time, without affecting the cursor, so that Max can jump in, and take out a number of guys in a couple of milliseconds. Only, you have to take out so many bad guys in regular time to refill your bullettime. This proves to make Max Payne a one-of-a-kind shooter. As if it was not fun enough without bullettime... :) Another cool creative idea was the fact that the camera follows the bullet as it is shot out of the sniper rifle (only if the shot comes reasonably close to hitting its target). The AI can make it pretty hard at times. They are not so stupid as to blindly run around shooting. Ohh no... They will make it hard for you, ducking behind cars and barrels or even jumping and rolling around just like you can. The story is also very well done. There is even a little tongue-in-cheek humor added that makes it even better, in my opinion. It is the kind of story you can really get into, and there is not much more to say about it than that without giving anything away. All in all, Max Payne ranks pretty high among my all-time favorite games. I would have to say that it excels in virtually every aspect of a game that matters to me. My advice (for fast computers): If you like shooters, you owe it to yourself to at least try this game once. |
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StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
This is one of those games I have been waiting for. Like really waiting for. Others were Team Fortress 2 and I certainly waited a long time for Tiberian Sun. Often a lengthly wait can lead to the hype machine kicking in. Wishful thinking and visions of gaming bliss to be override logic and reasonable expectations. You feel let down when you finally play the game you lusted after for so long. If you were also not-so-patiently waiting for SC2, fear not! Blizzard has crafted a worthy successor to its 1998 RTS hit.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty takes place four years after the events of Brood War. You one again take up the role of Jim Raynor. Your former partner in rebellion, Arcturus Mengsk, has now taken control and now rules the Terran Dominion. Mengsk rules the Dominion with an iron fist and has used his considerable media influence to portray Raynor as a terrorist. The game starts with Raynor preparing his Raynor's Raiders to overthrow Arcturus. Without giving anything away, the story is given more depth this time around. You still have the CG movies, the mission briefing style story bits, and the in-mission ‘talking heads’ in Wings of Liberty. The story isn’t limited to those however. You are presented with point and click ‘rooms’ where you can talk to other characters, watch news casts and inspect items. These vary from parts of Raynor’s battlecruser Hyperion to camps in Zerg territory. It is a nice touch and reminds me of the Wing Commander games and (to a lesser degree) European Air War’s game rooms.
In addition to the excellent CG shorts that Blizzard is famous for, the game uses some game generated storytelling for conversations and some scenes. While it won’t be mistaken for the CG work it still top notch stuff and adds to the overall immersion.
Team Fortress 2
Graphically Team Fortress 2 really is a beautiful game. If your only contact with the art is some compressed trailers and low res screenshots then this might come as a surprise, but it is true. The game strays far from its realistic early teasers and instead delivers the player an over-the-top cartoonish style that is something along the lines of WoW meets Thirteen. With the market full of top notch and gorgeous but often similarly styled shooters, the change is welcome. Instead of the gritty and natural world of say an Unreal 3 engine game, players get dropped into a colorful and eccentric battlefield. It looks and flows great at max settings and 1920x1200. The animation work is also excellent.
From a gameplay perspective the game is not radically different from TFC, but certainly has its own characteristics. The medic class is bit more of ... well... a medic this time around. They can still take you down, but they are hardly the offensive threat they could be in TFC. In exchange for the lost offensive power the class gets to become a real healer. The medics heal gun pumps up targets to 150% health and builds up a change. When full the medic and release this charge and ‘bubble’ himself and his target for a brief while. A carefully timed ‘bubble run’ can prove incredibly deadly to the opposition. The Spy has also gained a few new tricks. He now has the ability to stealth for a short time in addition to his previous ability to disguise himself as a member of the opposite team.
The default map selection is one of TF2’s few weak points, but it isn’t much of one. The game lacks a large official map library, but the ones you will find are quality levels and more are in the works. Before the end of the open beta you could already find several quality user made maps on server rotations, so I don’t think map variety will be much of an issue to most players.
Overall Team Fortress 2 was well worth the wait and one of the best online experiences I have had in a while. The class balance also feels somewhat off, though time will have to be the final judge on that. For the most part it feels balanced enough for the average online pickup game, but I feel that certain classes (heavy, pyro) are a tad weak and others (demo for example) are a bit strong for competitive play. Again, these are hardly game breaking balance issues, but I just can’t see some of the classes getting much use in a match setting.
Even with the plethora of solid shooters out right now, I can fully recommend TF2. The game delivers solid fun and truely was worth the wait; and with how long Team Fortress 2 was in the works that really says something.