TOP GAMES

Free Games Online

2010-08-25T10:30:00.000-07:00

Need For Speed Undercover Full Download

2008-11-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

OS: Windows XP/VISTA with latest service pack
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) CPU running at 2.8GHz or higher*
Memory: 1GB RAM
Video Card: Geforce 6500, Radeon 9500 or better DirectX compliant video card**
Hard Drive: 5.5 GB required to install game
Optical drive: 8X or faster DVD Drive
Sound card: DirectX compatible sound card
Internet: To play online a network card is required for broadband connectivity

* 3.0GHz if running Windows Vista
** with Pixel shader 2.0 or above (AGP and PCIe only)

Download :

http://rapidshare.com/files/164690507/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part01.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164690570/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part02.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164690822/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part03.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164691357/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part04.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164691569/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part05.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164697901/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part06.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164702483/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part07.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164692134/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part08.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164702625/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part09.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164693188/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part10.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164695640/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part11.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164698163/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part12.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164698037/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part13.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164698218/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part14.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164698268/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part15.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164696401/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part16.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164702409/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part17.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164703819/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part18.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164697421/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part19.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164702769/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part20.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164703233/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part21.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164702652/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part22.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164702998/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part23.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164704177/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part24.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164713677/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part25.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164704390/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part26.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164703674/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part27.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164703787/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part28.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164703855/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part29.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164703925/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part30.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164704297/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part31.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164705513/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part32.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164707704/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part33.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164705924/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part34.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164707645/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part35.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164709699/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part36.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164709805/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part37.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164710413/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part38.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164710469/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part39.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164708139/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part40.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164707943/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part41.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164708161/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part42.rar

http://rapidshare.com/files/164707829/Gonki.pod.prikrytiem_Epidem.ru.part43.rar

The Sims Castaway Stories

2008-07-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

It might not have been clear back in 2000 that The Sims would become the best-selling, multiplatform phenomenon it is today. But the series' unusual formula--which let you control the lives of little computer people as they ate, slept, found work, and formed relationships with other little computer people--launched a lengthy series of games on both the PC and consoles. The console versions of the game never quite captured the zany, unpredictable nature of the original PC versions, which had superior artificial intelligence, but The Sims 2: Castaway comes the closest to presenting a fresh and enjoyable new experience.

To be fair, Castaway has a lot of the same features as The Sims series. You create a custom "sim" character with certain vocational skills and personal needs (such as hunger, fatigue, and social interaction), but this new game takes a creative approach to the use of these features. Rather than build a small group to live the life of a nuclear family in the same house, you create a crew of castaways who end up shipwrecked on a tropical island and must make a new home for themselves a la Swiss Family Robinson. To that end, you'll guide your characters to collect driftwood and other building materials, along with various wild fruits and vegetables to eat (some poisonous, some not). You'll also catch fish with a spear, fashion clothing out of tropical leaves, and build primitive shelters and even rafts to explore the surrounding islands. You'll also fulfill your characters' need for social interaction by either finding the lost members of your crew, or making friends with the local monkeys, who can be bribed with bananas and eventually trained to gather materials or food for you.

Castaway builds on the "mostly open-ended game with some goals" design that previous games in the series followed by also heavily emphasizing collection gameplay. You spend a great deal of time picking up stuff or harvesting supplies (in some cases, to build tools to let you harvest other types of supplies). However, you certainly don't have to pick up everything unless you're an obsessive collector type who has to discover every variety of plant, collect every type of seashell, or catch every species of fish. In many cases, you'll instead be exploring new areas in search of new materials and clues to advance, such as discarded books that contain plans for new items to craft, as well as random messages in bottles that wash up on shore.

If you can tolerate the collection gameplay, which occasionally gets a bit repetitive, the game actually offers a surprisingly varied experience reminiscent of games such as Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, or the Seasons expansion pack for The Sims 2 PC. All of those games were relaxing, leisurely experiences for players of all ages, and they let you interact with a colorful, nonthreatening world to accomplish your goals when you cared to. In Castaway, you'll basically always have at least a few different easy tasks on your plate to accomplish, as well as some slightly longer-term goals for which you'll need to collect a few more resources or make a few more discoveries to complete. Your sims do suffer from their physical needs, but they're generally easy to maintain. Likewise, some of the more advanced crafting recipes require your characters to develop higher skill levels in vocational areas such as body strength and mechanical skills, but these skills develop naturally as you continue to explore, harvest, build, and interact, so they're usually not a burden to deal with.

Castaway also offers a fresh new visual look that features slimmer characters with a more-stylized look. They're not necessarily better than the typically more detailed, more colorful characters from previous games, but they're certainly new, and they still move with the kind of expressive animations you'd expect from a Sims game. The game also offers plenty of brand-new sound samples for the nonsensical "simlish" language the characters speak. Better yet, the game features an all-new musical soundtrack that, unlike previous Sims console games, does not heavily recycle music from the PC versions, but instead uses new tropical-themed songs that are suitably lighthearted and cheerful. That's why it's a shame that the PS2 version of the game suffers from load times that randomly become very long, and that occasionally cause the game to hang indefinitely so that you lose all of your progress.

By offering new graphics, new sounds, new music, and a new way to play The Sims, Castaway offers a lively way to enjoy the series and those little gibberish-speaking characters that have made such a name for themselves--as long as you have enough patience to spend a good chunk of time hunting and gathering.
By Andrew Park, GameSpot
Download the Game:
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591131/rld-tscs.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87590929/rld-tscs.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591050/rld-tscs.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591014/rld-tscs.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591075/rld-tscs.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591029/rld-tscs.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591140/rld-tscs.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591113/rld-tscs.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591046/rld-tscs.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591098/rld-tscs.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591105/rld-tscs.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591102/rld-tscs.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591159/rld-tscs.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591117/rld-tscs.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591183/rld-tscs.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591088/rld-tscs.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591114/rld-tscs.part17.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591132/rld-tscs.part18.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591074/rld-tscs.part19.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591153/rld-tscs.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591145/rld-tscs.part21.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87591151/rld-tscs.part22.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87590989/rld-tscs.part23.rar

PASSWORD

areg

Grand theft auto 4 cheat codes

2008-05-02T21:13:00.000-07:00

Grand theft auto 4 cheat codes part 1

Grand theft auto 4 cheat codes part 2

GTA 4 Grand Theft Auto IV HELICOPTER Cheats Saves + XPLODER

Grant Theft Auto IV GTA 4 Ferrari Cheats Saves from Xploder

Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA4) Cheats - Spawn NRG-900

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV

2008-04-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

GTA IV is structured similarly to previous games in the series. The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person shooter and a driving game, affording the player a large, open environment in which to move around. On foot, the player's character is capable of walking, running, swimming, climbing and jumping, as well as utilizing weapons and basic hand to hand combat. Players can steal and drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, boats, helicopters, and motorcycles.

The open, non-linear environment allows players to explore and choose how they wish to play the game. Although storyline missions are necessary to progress through the game and unlock certain parts of the map and content, they are not required, as players can complete them at their own leisure. When not taking on a storyline mission, players can free-roam. However, creating havoc can attract unwanted and potentially fatal attention from the authorities. The more chaos caused, the stronger the response: police will handle "minor" infractions (attacking people, pointing guns at people, stealing cars, killing a few people, etc.), whereas SWAT teams, the FBI, and the military respond to higher wanted levels.

The player can also partake in a variety of optional side missions.

Grand Theft Auto IV takes place in a redesigned Liberty City consisting of five boroughs, based on four of the boroughs of New York City and New Jersey. Broker is the equivalent of Brooklyn, Queens is Dukes, the Bronx is Bohan and Manhattan is Algonquin, and New Jersey is Alderney (after the Channel Island of the same name). A Staten Island-esque area will not be featured in the game for the reason that Rockstar Games believes it would not be fun to play there. Dan Houser states that there would not be any "dead spots" or "irrelevant space" within Liberty City, such as the wide open deserts in San Andreas.

The total area of the map is smaller than San Andreas, but the new rendition of Liberty City will be far more detailed and is the largest individual city in the Grand Theft Auto series.[24] According to the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine (UK edition), "to get from one side of the new and improved Liberty City to the other will take you at least an hour." Rockstar Games has stated that it is the biggest single city in a Grand Theft Auto game yet, and although smaller than "San Andreas", it is comparable to it in terms of scope when "the level of verticality of the city, the number of buildings you can go into, and the level of detail in those buildings" are taken into account.[25] Eventually, the player will be able to lead Niko to cross the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges and explore.

Screenshots reveal that the Brighton Beach area is renamed as "Hove Beach" from Brighton and Hove, the English city from which the area gets its name; Coney Island is renamed as "Firefly Island"; Central Park is renamed "Middle Park". The "Statue of Happiness" is the game's equivalent of the Statue of Liberty; "Star Junction" is Times Square; "BOABO" (Beneath the Offramp of the Algonquin Bridge Overpass) is DUMBO; the "Thornton Building" is the Flatiron Building; and "Twitchins" is Brooklyn's Domino Sugar Factory; the "GetaLife" building is the MetLife Building; the "Booth Tunnel" is the Lincoln Tunnel (named after Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth). Other structures include the Coney Island Cyclone, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building.

Major characters

Niko Bellic is a fictional character in the Grand Theft Auto video game series. He is the main protagonist and playable character of Grand Theft Auto IV. Niko is revealed to be guilty of previous criminal acts in his life, such as murder and human trafficking. He wishes to begin a new life in Liberty City after being persuaded by his cousin Roman, who claims in his e-mails to Niko to be living the "American Dream." It is later revealed that these are lies to hide Roman's own failures. During the course of the story, Niko is looking for someone who betrayed his old army unit and will stop at nothing to find him, enlisting help from wherever he can. Niko is said to be between 5’11” and 6’2”, is between 28 and 32 years of age, 190-200 lbs and is Eastern European. He has served in the Balkan Peace Keeping Force, and has been imprisoned in a third-world prison, for reasons unknown, at this time.

Roman Bellic is Niko's cousin who has lived in Liberty City for 15 years. Roman claims to be living the "American Dream" and that he has two women, four hot tubs and fifteen sports cars but in reality owns a gritty taxi firm in Broker, Liberty City's version of Brooklyn. He successfully manages to persuade his cousin Niko to move to the city using this deception. Roman is also heavily in debt with various figures around the city, like the Russian mafia in Liberty City. In one of the trailers he seems to be hiding in a garbage can, where Niko comes to meet him.

Elizabeta Torres is a successful small-time drug dealer in Bohan. However, she knows an upcoming drug crackdown is going to make her life very difficult and with her own narcotic use spiraling out of control she’s becoming increasingly paranoid and delusional. She appears in the third trailer and in the promotional artwork for the game. Although earlier renditions of the artwork depict her as much thinner than her final appearance it is shown on advertisment posters made by rockstargames that she is between 5'11-6'2" tall and may weigh between 200-225 pounds. The posters also tells that her age is between 28-32.

Playboy X was introduced to Niko by Elizabeta. He is an African-American gangster, and owns a mansion in the North Algonquin area. He used to do business with a pal called Dwayne Forge, a drug baron and gang leader who was recently released from prison, but Playboy has since moved on without him. He wears a multi-colored hoodie.

"Little" Jacob is a Caribbean arms dealer who lives in Dukes and sells Niko weapons out of the trunk of his car. He and Roman are good friends and he appears on cover-art for the game. It is said that he is Jamaican, may be 5'8"-5'10" of height, and also may weigh between 175 to 185 pounds. It is also said that he may be between age 28 to 32.

"Vlad" Glebov is a Russian loan-shark of the Hove Beach area in Broker. He owns a Bar, called "Comrade's" in his neighbourhood. Vlad tries also to gain respect from more influential gangsters and is sometimes hypocritical about the citizens of Liberty.

Manny Escuela is a Puerto Rican former hoodlum who has apparently changed his ways, and now wants to clean up the streets.In a game trailer it has also hinted that he may be operating from a recreational center in Bohan.He is currently recording a documentary explaining his struggles and problems. His current occupation is a dance instructor.

Brucie is a fitness enthusiast and a loud mouth, who enjoys fine women and cars. He enjoys the attention he gets from being rich. He sports a tattoo of a Chinese character meaning "Me" or "I". Brucie also owns a garage by Roman's Taxi Depot.Once Niko's relationship with him is high enough, he will provide free helicopter rides for him. In one of the missions, he instructs Niko to steal a police car and type an informants name into the car's computer so he can find and assassinate him.

Phil Bell is an half-Irish half-Italian front operator for one of the five Cosa Nostra families in Liberty City. The character bears a resemblance to Tony Soprano.

Patrick McReary is an Irish thug who is also the heir to Liberty City's declining Irish Mob. Youngest of the McReary family, he is related to corrupt police detective Francis McReary, Derrick McReary, Kate McReary and incarcerated ex-IRA member Gerry McReary. He lives with his mother and sister, although he doesn't seem to like them much. Katie McReary, his sister, shows an "interest" in Niko, but he warns him away from her. Those who know him refer to him as "Packie." He is also a close friend of Elizabeta. He is seen at the end of the third trailer with two other unknown Irish-looking gangsters who force Niko to join their gang.

Francis McReary is a corrupt police detective who has "dirt on Niko's past." He threatens to reveal this information unless Niko helps him by obtaining various memory sticks with information about his own corruptions from lawyers and blackmailers alike. In one mission, he meets up with Niko in an area called Castle Gardens which is a coast-side hangout analogous to Battery Park overlooking the Statue of Happiness.[10] He wears a black suit and tie, has a short moustache, and has slicked blonde hair with a strong side parting.

Kate McReary is Packie McReary's sister. She shows a great deal of romantic interest in Niko.

Gerry McReary is an Ex-IRA member who is now incarcerated. He is the brother of Packie and Kate McReary and is known to give orders to the Liberty City Irish Mob from prison through his brother Packie.

Derrick McReary is yet another member of McReary family. He is rumored to have a heroin problem.

Mikhail Faustin is a major figure in Liberty City's Bratva. He is violent, drunk and prone to mood swings.

Dwayne Forge is an associate of Playboy X. He is an old school African-American gangster who was locked up on crack distribution charges in the early 1990s. He was recently released from prison, but is disturbed by the world of bling and excess he's found in an underworld that was all about straight business when he left it over a decade ago.

Gameplay

* After the initial load sequence, there are no loading sequences during gameplay. A Rockstar spokesperson claimed, "you can basically play the game from beginning to end without a single load screen.

* Titles in the GTA series have traditionally been heavily mission based (fixed missions must be completed to progress through each game), but the freedom to explore and play outside of the set missions in GTA IV will now be more relevant to progress through the game, according to comments by a Rockstar spokesperson: "We're really trying to blur the line between on-[mission] and off-mission. So storyline, and what you do outside, and how those two things influence each other.

* Niko will be able to perform a variety of new actions such as climbing telephone poles and fire escapes, pushing people who bump into him, calling women for dates, playing darts and bowling. Niko may become intoxicated, causing him to stumble and the camera to blur and bounce about.

* The player will not be able to fly any fixed-wing aircraft. However, helicopters will be flyable. Francis International Airport (from Grand Theft Auto III) is confirmed to be in the game.
* It is possible to have multiple active missions, due to the fact that some missions will run over the course of several days and will require the player to wait for further instructions, etc.

* The use of the mobile phone has been expanded to perform multiple actions. When selecting the mobile phone, a zoomed-in version of the phone pops up in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and a list of several commands are made available to the player, such as "meet me here," etc. Retrying a failed mission can be performed by accessing the menu. The phone can be used outside of vehicles to listen to one of the 18 radio stations. The player can take photos with the mobile phone and upload them to the police computer. Niko can dial 911 to call the police for them to arrest an enemy/pedestrian that is fighting/shooting at him, or just to trick them into wasting resources on a false alarm. He can also contact the paramedics and the fire station.

* Stealing a parked car can no longer be done simply by opening the door and driving off. Now, it involves Niko approaching the car, breaking the glass, and hotwiring it; only then can he use it. The way Niko enters the car would look different each time depending on where and how he is in relation to the car. There will be several animation variations to sneaking up to a car and breaking its window. Because of the Euphoria engine, the way the character will approach the car will be completely random.

* Players will be able to choose from five different camera views while in a car, including a dashboard view, two outside views near and far from the car, a road view, and a cinematic view.[citation needed] The new chase cam will follow the player but focus the camera direction on a target vehicle.

* All cars feature a standard GPS device while more expensive vehicles have voice-navigation GPS. Car damage physics have been greatly improved.[citation needed] When major collisions on motorbikes occur, the player's helmet is likely to fall off. Niko can lose health if he crashes. Vehicles will not explode if they are flipped over.

* When driving in a car the player will be able to smash the window with his elbow, free-aim, and fire out of the broken window with any weapon in Niko's arsenal.

* The gunfight system has been reworked to feel natural by using a cover system similar to that of Gears of War and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, as the combat system in previous games was awkward and cumbersome. The player can slide to cover, blindfire, and free aim. When locked on, the target's health is indicated by eight purple segments on the target circle. Players can now target individual body parts using a revamped targeting system. Niko's health is represented by a green semi-circle on the left side of the radar, and a right semi-circle represents armour. If Niko gets injured, he can recover health by eating, sleeping or using medical kits. Body armour and actual health will play different roles. Health is more likely to be reduced by falls and going through the windscreen of a car when crashing, Body armour will be damaged more by gunshots and stab wounds.

* Notable weapons in this game other than melee fighting with fists and knives include pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and molotov cocktails.

* Niko will be able to visit comedy clubs and cabarets in the game.

* There will be no jet-packs, bicycles, parachutes or tanks

* There is now an autosave that activates after completing a mission.

* Every street in Liberty City contains a physical sign with a name on it.

* The vehicle GPS systems in Grand Theft Auto IV can be used to display the best route to take on a mission which requires you to travel to a different place. This route is marked on the map.
NPC behaviour

* According to Dan Houser, "virtually none of the characters from the previous games are returning, as a lot of them are dead anyway."

* Police and wanted levels will now operate differently. When the police are in search of Niko, the player will now have to avoid a certain radius marked on the map in which the police will be looking for him. The size of this radius will increase with the player's wanted level (the more stars, the bigger the radius) and re-centres itself on Niko's location if he is spotted by the police. Instead of utilizing the "Pay 'N' Spray" as in previous games, Niko has to realistically disguise himself by clandestinely changing vehicles in empty areas such as parking garages, a feature seen in the video game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. When on foot, police will not shoot at Niko unless he has committed a serious offence. If they catch up to Niko, he will put his hands up and the player will have the option to attempt to escape before the handcuffs are slapped on.Additionally, pedestrians with cellphones can now report crimes.

* Interpersonal relationships are now dynamic; ignoring cell phone calls or refusing help will change the attitude of specific characters towards Niko.

* Pedestrians are much more intelligent, realistic, and diverse, using mobile phones, cash machines, eating snacks, drinking soda, reading newspapers, scratching their noses, coughing, smoking, and interacting with each other through laughter and remarks. Homeless people will be seen in alleys rubbing their hands over a flaming barrel, sitting against walls, asking for spare change, and other expected actions. The flow of pedestrians and traffic will be different depending on the time of day. Pedestrians and motorists will often act as good Samaritans and aid characters that Niko is attacking or carjacking.

Environment

* Niko's outfit can be changed throughout the game. However, it will not be possible to customise his physique or hairstyle as in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as Dan Houser explained: "We want this installment to focus more on interacting with other in-game people other than yourself."

* When Niko goes to the hospital, he has to pay $100 and he will keep his weapons. When Niko gets arrested, he has to pay more than $100 and he will lose his weapons.

* In a police vehicle, Niko can use an in-car computer to access the criminal database and discover information about various criminals in Liberty City, possibly including himself.

* The player can hail a cab in order to travel to any address in the city. When riding, the player has the option of viewing the journey from the inside, or skipping it to arrive at the destination immediately.[citation needed] The player will be able to ask the driver to change the radio station by pressing D-pad left or right.

* Niko will make use of the Internet as a means of communication. Although the exact details of the role of the Internet in the game are being kept secret, it has been revealed that Niko can access the internet from various cyber cafés, one of which is called "TW@" (twat) in order to upload a resume for prospective employers. There are over 100 accessible, fictitious websites within the game. Although TW@ was seen early in Grand Theft Auto III, it did not give the player the option to "surf the internet".

* Every street in the game will have a name; some missions will require the player to go to a specific address.

* A day in Liberty City is forty-eight minutes long (one game hour lasts two minutes in real time), instead of twenty-four minutes as in previous Grand Theft Auto titles.

* Some meetings in the game will take place high in the buildings of skyscrapers, which will subsequently allow Niko to throw people off the buildings. However, Niko will not be able to access all the buildings in the game.

Beowulf The Game

2008-02-27T07:10:00.001-08:00

Download Links:
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954917/pufffff.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954823/pufffff.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955063/pufffff.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954849/pufffff.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954921/pufffff.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954884/pufffff.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954906/pufffff.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954816/pufffff.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954875/pufffff.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954959/pufffff.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954931/pufffff.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954862/pufffff.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954871/pufffff.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954966/pufffff.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955028/pufffff.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955022/pufffff.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954869/pufffff.part17.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954845/pufffff.part18.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954964/pufffff.part19.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955052/pufffff.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954879/pufffff.part21.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954984/pufffff.part22.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954857/pufffff.part23.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954925/pufffff.part24.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954873/pufffff.part25.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954948/pufffff.part26.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954924/pufffff.part27.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954890/pufffff.part28.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955018/pufffff.part29.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954986/pufffff.part30.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954880/pufffff.part31.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954911/pufffff.part32.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954847/pufffff.part33.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954887/pufffff.part34.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954988/pufffff.part35.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955032/pufffff.part36.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954864/pufffff.part37.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954922/pufffff.part38.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954957/pufffff.part39.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954910/pufffff.part40.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955014/pufffff.part41.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954973/pufffff.part42.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955040/pufffff.part43.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954886/pufffff.part44.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954955/pufffff.part45.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955006/pufffff.part46.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954985/pufffff.part47.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954999/pufffff.part48.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954949/pufffff.part49.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954920/pufffff.part50.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954965/pufffff.part51.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955134/pufffff.part52.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71955012/pufffff.part53.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/71954878/pufffff.part54.rar

Password:
Messiah_07

7 Sins

2008-02-25T07:52:00.000-08:00

7 Sins is fast-moving story-based life simulation game in which players are plunged into a city ruled by
sex, wealth and fame. Through a single-player campaign of seven single missions the player will be
confronted with an assortment of risque, funny and dangerous missions. His ability to build his
character and perform in over 20 hysterical mini-games (from the "vodka race" to the "toilet's Mozart")
will be the key ultimately becoming the boss of Apple City.

Genre: Virtual Life
Release Date: May 20, 2005
Players: 1-2 (Game Details)

Code:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WJP520RE
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ITZM0LA7
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WF0ZP8BF
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6B8KFEDV
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FX63N64A
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VFPRFO89

The Sims: Castaway Stories

2008-02-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

The Sims: Castaway Stories
When your Sims find themselves stranded on an unexplored island paradise, you must help them to build a new life.

Install Notes:
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/41654/2004337555756416831_rs.jpg

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/87693732/vty-0152.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87693846/vty-0152.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87693931/vty-0152.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694042/vty-0152.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694129/vty-0152.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694231/vty-0152.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694332/vty-0152.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694447/vty-0152.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694534/vty-0152.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694584/vty-0152.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694690/vty-0152.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694796/vty-0152.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694854/vty-0152.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87694931/vty-0152.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695006/vty-0152.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695104/vty-0152.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695217/vty-0152.part17.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695312/vty-0152.part18.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695385/vty-0152.part19.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695440/vty-0152.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695498/vty-0152.part21.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695581/vty-0152.part22.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695637/vty-0152.part23.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695717/vty-0152.part24.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/87695734/vty-0152.part25.rar

Password:
freshwap.net

Download The Sims 2-Erotic dreams

2007-12-12T08:52:00.001-08:00

Download Links:

Your Ad Here

Download BIOSHOCK

2007-12-12T08:48:00.000-08:00

Here are the update links to Download :
http://rapidshare.com/files/51080422/BS.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51082840/BS.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51082892/BS.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51082975/BS.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51083030/BS.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51083052/BS.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51085757/BS.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51085744/BS.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51085738/BS.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51085882/BS.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51085796/BS.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51087609/BS.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51087627/BS.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51087679/BS.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51087764/BS.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51087734/BS.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51089635/BS.part17.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51089617/BS.part18.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51089666/BS.part19.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51089679/BS.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51089718/BS.part21.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51091780/BS.part22.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51091522/BS.part23.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51091638/BS.part24.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51091919/BS.part25.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51091720/BS.part26.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51093653/BS.part27.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51093554/BS.part28.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51093680/BS.part29.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51093915/BS.part30.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51093615/BS.part31.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51095804/BS.part32.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51095822/BS.part33.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51095815/BS.part34.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51095843/BS.part35.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51095823/BS.part36.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51097437/BS.part37.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51097505/BS.part38.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51097469/BS.part39.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51097490/BS.part40.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51097548/BS.part41.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51099121/BS.part42.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51099095/BS.part43.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51099108/BS.part44.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51099092/BS.part45.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51099260/BS.part46.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51101600/BS.part47.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51101589/BS.part48.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51101650/BS.part49.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51101686/BS.part50.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51101631/BS.part51.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51103293/BS.part52.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51103332/BS.part53.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51103321/BS.part54.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51103363/BS.part55.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51103327/BS.part56.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51104792/BS.part57.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51104789/BS.part58.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51104827/BS.part59.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51104828/BS.part60.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51104846/BS.part61.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51106199/BS.part62.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51106215/BS.part63.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51106206/BS.part64.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/51105277/BS.part65.rar

Use HjSplit to Join

Crysis Review & Download

2007-12-12T08:30:00.000-08:00

From the makers of Far Cry, Crysis offers FPS fans the best-looking, most highly-evolving gameplay, requiring the player to use adaptive tactics and total customization of weapons and armor to survive in dynamic, hostile environments including Zero-G. Earth, 2019. A team of US scientists makes a frightening discovery on an island in the South China Sea. All contact with
the team is lost when the North Korean Government quickly seals off the area.
The United States responds by dispatching an elite team of Delta Force Operators to recon the situation.

* A unique three-act structure forces the player to use real-time armor and
weapons customization to adapt constantly to an ever-changing world.
* Encounter a frightening and totally original alien speciesthey use their
senses intelligently and work together to present the most challenging
enemy yet in an FPS.
* Control of a variety of land, sea, and air vehicles including trucks,
tanks, boats, and helicopters.
* Explore a living, dynamic world where earthquakes, breaking ice,
landslides, and tornados pose an ever-present threat.
* 32-player multiplayer with real-time armor and weapons customization, plus
an all-new multiplayer-mode that combines player modification and tactical
objectives.
* Emergent gameplay means that in-game actions affect future outcomes and
give each player a unique experience.
* Highly robust and easy-to-use mod toolset allows players to create their
own expansive levels for both multiplayer and single-player modes.
* The CryENGINE 2 engine delivers the most realistic environments,
spectacular special effects , physics game engine, lighting system, and
enemy Al.

Install Notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Extract RARs
2. Mount or Burn iso
3. Install
4. Use the keygen from the Razor1911 dir on the disc
5. Copy crack
6. Play and regret that you didnt save money to buy a new pc!
Razor 1911 Greetings

Download:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K9XJCYJY
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BNU7XV4G
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q42EITPE
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SOA0WO54
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PYI5ZVQC
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZZW0127R
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HSZE1FZD
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=M54DJKQ1
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SLK890WD
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2365FUKL
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LV6WJ5DQ
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EXTAE4P2
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G34RKEHR

Rapidshare :

http://rapidshare.com/files/91122105/Crysis-Razor1911.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91122353/Crysis-Razor1911.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91122568/Crysis-Razor1911.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91122817/Crysis-Razor1911.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91123055/Crysis-Razor1911.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91123285/Crysis-Razor1911.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91123497/Crysis-Razor1911.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91123673/Crysis-Razor1911.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91123849/Crysis-Razor1911.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91124024/Crysis-Razor1911.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91125810/Crysis-Razor1911.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91137671/Crysis-Razor1911.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91136372/Crysis-Razor1911.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91136602/Crysis-Razor1911.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91136811/Crysis-Razor1911.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91137007/Crysis-Razor1911.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91137178/Crysis-Razor1911.part17.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91137342/Crysis-Razor1911.part18.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91126072/Crysis-Razor1911.part19.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91126322/Crysis-Razor1911.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91126553/Crysis-Razor1911.part21.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91126788/Crysis-Razor1911.part22.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91127004/Crysis-Razor1911.part23.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91127241/Crysis-Razor1911.part24.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91127446/Crysis-Razor1911.part25.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91127656/Crysis-Razor1911.part26.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91127871/Crysis-Razor1911.part27.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91128053/Crysis-Razor1911.part28.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91128242/Crysis-Razor1911.part29.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91128429/Crysis-Razor1911.part30.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91128616/Crysis-Razor1911.part31.rar http://rapidshare.com/files/91128808/Crysis-Razor1911.part32.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91129004/Crysis-Razor1911.part33.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91129229/Crysis-Razor1911.part34.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91129399/Crysis-Razor1911.part35.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91129632/Crysis-Razor1911.part36.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91129810/Crysis-Razor1911.part37.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91130000/Crysis-Razor1911.part38.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91130244/Crysis-Razor1911.part39.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91130497/Crysis-Razor1911.part40.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91130743/Crysis-Razor1911.part41.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91130934/Crysis-Razor1911.part42.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91131112/Crysis-Razor1911.part43.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91131291/Crysis-Razor1911.part44.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91131496/Crysis-Razor1911.part45.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91131671/Crysis-Razor1911.part46.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91131836/Crysis-Razor1911.part47.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91131983/Crysis-Razor1911.part48.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91132145/Crysis-Razor1911.part49.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91132323/Crysis-Razor1911.part50.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91132491/Crysis-Razor1911.part51.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91132694/Crysis-Razor1911.part52.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91132935/Crysis-Razor1911.part53.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91133130/Crysis-Razor1911.part54.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91133324/Crysis-Razor1911.part55.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91133488/Crysis-Razor1911.part56.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91133699/Crysis-Razor1911.part57.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91133893/Crysis-Razor1911.part58.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91134104/Crysis-Razor1911.part59.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91134275/Crysis-Razor1911.part60.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91134486/Crysis-Razor1911.part61.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/91134623/Crysis-Razor1911.part62.rar

Free Download Fifa Manager 2008

2007-12-05T05:18:00.000-08:00

http://rapidshare.com/files/66351849/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66351743/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66351725/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66352004/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66351722/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354195/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354245/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354422/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354320/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354302/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354259/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354296/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354368/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354370/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354278/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part15.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354419/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part16.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354640/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part17.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354367/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part18.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354361/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part19.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354347/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part20.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354363/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part21.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354332/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part22.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354317/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part23.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354355/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part24.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354343/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part25.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354450/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part26.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354397/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part27.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354522/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part28.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354385/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part29.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354253/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part30.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354407/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part31.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354319/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part32.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354378/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part33.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354386/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part34.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354711/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part35.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354388/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part36.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354392/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part37.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354298/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part38.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354342/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part39.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354315/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part40.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354360/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part41.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66354354/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part42.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/66353965/GazMyas_Epidem.ru.part43.rar

http://letitbit.net/download/3e4915602539/GazMyas-Epidem.ru.part1.rar.html
http://letitbit.net/download/e0293933630/GazMyas-Epidem.ru.part2.rar.html
http://letitbit.net/download/c2d712887670/GazMyas-Epidem.ru.part3.rar.html
http://letitbit.net/download/5e2d2c670016/GazMyas-Epidem.ru.part4.rar.html

FIFA Manager 08 Review

2007-12-05T05:14:00.000-08:00

While the football management genre has hit a peak of depth and realism, there's no doubt that it remains a little daunting for beginners. FIFA Manager 08 aims to fill the gap between the hardcore management simulations and such games as FIFA Soccer 08 with an approachable football management game that has many different features to distinguish it. Most notably, the 3D match engine is more visually engaging than similar features in other management games, plus the official license affords a mountain of team logos and player photos to break up the stats. This year, the game is a deeper experience than ever with revamps of the training, player interaction, and scouting elements. The game struggles to present all the information coherently if you play at the hardest difficulty, but otherwise, it's a decent, glossy alternative to other games in the genre.

FIFA Manager 08 makes an excellent first impression. British gamers, in particular, will feel a warm glow when the theme song from the Grandstand TV show kicks off the welcome screen, and high production values are evident throughout the game. As with any management title, you start by choosing the domestic or international club for which you want to work. If you choose to raise a team from the ranks of the lower divisions, you'll have fewer resources and lower expectations, but if you pick a world-class club, you'll have some very serious board expectations. However, FIFA Manager 08 helps you juggle the demands of whatever club you choose by allowing you to palm off certain aspects of the running to your assistants. If your interest is in finding and cultivating talent rather than wading through spreadsheets of numbers, then your finance team is there to take care of it. Alongside this, FIFA Manager 08 places an emphasis on creating your manager rather than being the manager. You're asked how you want to look, how big you want your family to be, and what sort of hobbies you want to pursue. Learning a foreign language will help you secure a job in another country, while playing golf may enamour you to the board members of another team.

Thankfully though, the developers have concentrated their efforts this year on improving the core game. There's now a greater emphasis on player scouting, training, and motivation to the point that the game feels completely refocussed on the players themselves. Aside from short-term considerations, such as swapping substitutes or allowing talent to flow from your youth team, you also need to cultivate star players by giving them pep talks--and not just during matches.

While FIFA Manager 08 does a great job of easing you in, the interface can get messy very quickly as you activate the more advanced options. While it can go spectacularly in-depth compared to last year's relatively shallow offering, the resulting interface clutter needs to be addressed. There are some useful additions for all players, though, such as the widget system that provides you with access to everything from a notepad to an MP3 player in-game.

Training schedules can now be specified for each individual player and the overall team; thus, making small changes can have a dramatic result on performance. The transfer system now works in a much more realistic manner, with more in-depth negotiation between clubs and players, while the scouting element is a minigame in itself. Foreign player statistics are now hidden by default, and it's only when you send your scout to the region that you can differentiate from one player to the next.

FIFA Manager 08's 3D match engine is something that sets it apart from other games in the genre. Traditionally, matches have often been re-created using a mixture of text-based commentary and a 2D engine to represent the players. This leaves more to the player's imagination while the computer is spared more resources to compute likely scenarios. While FIFA Manager 08's match engine presents a watchable game of football, it doesn't make the job of management any easier. The game does allow you to play as one player on the pitch if you want to, but the lack of overall control means it's more frustrating than helpful.

If you're a football fan, then you'll really get something out of the official licences. They permeate the game, with a customised menu screen depending on the team you play, as well as mountains of up-to-date player photos and stats for the majority of major teams. The licensing even stretches to official newspaper reports from such publications as The Sun, something that really taps into the wider aspects of football. While the number of teams can't touch that of Football Manager, the game still covers the major world clubs. It also now includes more English and Spanish leagues than before.

It's clear that Bright Future has worked hard on updating and expanding its football management sim. While it's not quite in the Premier League yet, there's plenty here for fans to enjoy. It's a tremendously deep game that also manages to be welcoming to the novice while the official licenses and overall polish will delight both types of player. Those playing at the advanced level are unlikely to feel hamstrung by limited options this time around, but the way that all the information is presented could definitely do with some work for next year. Most importantly, the game carves out its own niche in the football management market, and although this time it falls short of greatness, it shows plenty of promise for the future.

Source : GameSpot Uk

Free Download Need for Speed Pro Street

2007-11-16T08:49:00.000-08:00

Silent Hill Origins USA PSP

2007-11-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.looler.com/file/12482/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part1-rar.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12483/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part2-rar.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12484/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part3-rar.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12485/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part4-rar.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12486/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part5-rar.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12487/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part6-rar.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12488/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part7-rar.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12489/Silent-Hill-Origins-USA-PSP-pSyPSP-part8-rar.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/67870071/psy-sho.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/67870247/psy-sho.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/67870427/psy-sho.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/67870610/psy-sho.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/67870805/psy-sho.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/67870984/psy-sho.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/67871213/psy-sho.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/67871299/psy-sho.part8.rar

Free Download Call of Duty 4

2007-11-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.looler.com/file/12575/rzr-cod4-001.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12576/rzr-cod4-002.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12577/rzr-cod4-003.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12578/rzr-cod4-004.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12579/rzr-cod4-005.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12580/rzr-cod4-006.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12581/rzr-cod4-007.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12582/rzr-cod4-008.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12583/rzr-cod4-009.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12584/rzr-cod4-010.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12585/rzr-cod4-011.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12586/rzr-cod4-012.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12587/rzr-cod4-013.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12588/rzr-cod4-014.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12589/rzr-cod4-015.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12590/rzr-cod4-016.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12591/rzr-cod4-017.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12592/rzr-cod4-018.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12593/rzr-cod4-019.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12594/rzr-cod4-020.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12595/rzr-cod4-021.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12596/rzr-cod4-022.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12597/rzr-cod4-023.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12598/rzr-cod4-024.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12599/rzr-cod4-025.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12600/rzr-cod4-026.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12601/rzr-cod4-027.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12602/rzr-cod4-028.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12603/rzr-cod4-029.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12604/rzr-cod4-030.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12605/rzr-cod4-031.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12606/rzr-cod4-032.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12607/rzr-cod4-033.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12608/rzr-cod4-034.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12609/rzr-cod4-035.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12610/rzr-cod4-036.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12611/rzr-cod4-037.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12612/rzr-cod4-038.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12613/rzr-cod4-039.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12614/rzr-cod4-040.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12615/rzr-cod4-041.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12616/rzr-cod4-042.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12617/rzr-cod4-043.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12619/rzr-cod4-044.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12620/rzr-cod4-045.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12621/rzr-cod4-046.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12622/rzr-cod4-047.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12623/rzr-cod4-048.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12624/rzr-cod4-049.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12625/rzr-cod4-050.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12626/rzr-cod4-051.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12627/rzr-cod4-052.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12628/rzr-cod4-053.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12629/rzr-cod4-054.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12630/rzr-cod4-055.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12631/rzr-cod4-056.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12633/rzr-cod4-057.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12634/rzr-cod4-058.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12635/rzr-cod4-059.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12636/rzr-cod4-060.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12637/rzr-cod4-061.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12638/rzr-cod4-062.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12639/rzr-cod4-063.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12640/rzr-cod4-064.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12641/rzr-cod4-065.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12642/rzr-cod4-066.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12643/rzr-cod4-067.html
http://www.looler.com/file/12644/rzr-cod4-068.html

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review

2007-11-13T11:55:00.000-08:00

It took awhile, but Infinity Ward finally got the message that World War II is played out. With modern times and international affairs becoming more and more, shall we say, interesting in recent years, the 1940s just don't carry as much weight as they used to. Perhaps that's why Call of Duty 4 has a new subtitle, Modern Warfare. By bringing things into a fictionalized story that still seems fairly plausible, the developer has made a much heavier game. But COD 4 is more than just an updated setting. It's also an amazing multiplayer first-person shooter and a great but brief single-player campaign with the visual chops to make it a standout shooter in an era filled with seemingly dozens of standout shooters.

The only real catch is that the single-player is almost shockingly short. If you've been keeping up with this style of game, you'll probably shoot your way to the credits in under five hours. While you can raise the difficulty to give yourself more of a challenge, the main thing this does is make the enemies frustratingly deadly, which sort of detracts from the fun.

While it may have a lack of single-player quantity, it makes up for most of it with its quality. The game tells its story from multiple perspectives, and you'll play as a new British SAS operative as well as a US Marine. The campaign takes you from a rainy night out at sea on a boat that's in the process of sinking to a missile silo where it's on you to save millions from an unsavory nuclear-powered death. Along the way, there are plenty of jaw-dropping moments where you'll look around the room for someone to whom you can say, "I can't believe that just happened." In a world filled with war games in which the good guys come out unscathed and the world is left at total peace, Call of Duty 4 will wake you up like a face full of ice water.

The action in the campaign is usually very straightforward. You have a compass at the bottom of your screen, and the direction of your current objective is very plainly marked. But getting from point A to point B is never as simple as running in a straight line, as you'll be conducting full-scale assaults in Middle Eastern countries by moving from house to house, taking out what seems like a never-ending stream of enemy troops along the way. You'll also get an opportunity to raid Russian farmhouses in search of terrorist leaders, disguise yourself as the enemy, and, in one sequence, don a brushlike ghillie suit and crawl through the brush as enemy troops and tanks roll right past you. It's a breathtaking moment in a campaign filled with breathtaking moments. Unfortunately, it's about half as long as the average shooter, and there are plenty of sequences where you wish there were just one or two more hills to take.

Of course, if you're looking for longevity, that's where the multiplayer comes in. Up to 18 players can get online and get into a match on one of 16 different maps. Many of the levels are taken from portions of the single-player and they offer a healthy mix of wide-open, sniper-friendly areas and tight, almost cramped spaces where grenades and shotguns are the order of the day. There are six game modes to choose from. The old standby is team deathmatch, though you can also play in a free-for-all deathmatch, which isn't as much fun as the team modes. The other modes are more objective-oriented, and a couple of those have you lugging bombs across the map to blow up enemy equipment, or preventing the enemy from blowing up your base. Others have you capturing control points. Lastly, you can change up the game rules a bit with a hardcore setting that makes weapons more realistically damaging or an old-school mode that puts weapons on the ground as pickups and generally moves away from the simulation side of things.

In addition to just firing your weapon or tossing grenades, you earn some more interesting tactical moves for skilled play. If you can shoot three opponents without dying, you're able to call in a UAV drone, which basically is an upgraded radar that makes enemy positions show up on your onscreen map for 30 seconds at any time. Normally, enemies blip up onto the map only if they fire their weapon to make their location known. If you can go on a five-kill streak, you can call in an air strike, which brings up a shot of the entire level map and lets you place the air strike wherever you like. When combined with a UAV sweep, this can be really devastating. If you can make it all the way to seven kills--which is actually easier than it sounds--you can call in a helicopter for support. It'll buzz around the map and automatically open fire on enemies, though enemies can shoot it down, too. These additions to the normal first-person shooter gameplay really open up the game a lot and make it superexciting to play.

You'll also always have something to work toward, regardless of mode, because in standard, public matches, you earn experience points for just about everything you do. Capturing control points, getting kills, calling in support, all of these things give you points that go toward your rank. Ranking up unlocks most of the game's multiplayer content.

The class system in Call of Duty 4 is also very interesting. Each class has a different weapon loadout and different traits, called perks. As you rank up, you eventually unlock all five of the preset classes and the ability to create your own class. This lets you pick your own main weapon, your sidearm, attachments for both weapons, what sort of special grenades you want to carry, and three perks. The perks are broken up into three groups to help keep things balanced, and as you continue to level, you'll unlock additional perks. These class traits are one of the game's neatest tricks and, again, really helps to set COD 4 apart from the pack.

Perks in the Perk 1 group are more focused on explosives, letting you get more flashbangs if you like, or letting you lug around a rocket launcher, which is great for taking out enemy choppers. The other two perk groups have traits like juggernaut, which increases your health. There's also last stand, which activates when you are killed by dropping you to the ground and switching you to a pistol, giving you a moment to kill the guy who took you out before he realizes you're still squirming around and finishes the job. Our current favorite is martyrdom, which causes you to drop a live grenade when killed. It adds a healthy dose of mayhem to the proceedings. The perks and other unlockables feel nicely balanced, too, so you probably won't run into situations where one class is just better than the other. As it should be, your ability to point the red dot at the head of your enemy and squeeze the trigger before he does the same is still the deciding factor.

While there are a ton of compelling gameplay reasons to play Call of Duty 4, it also has top-notch presentation. The graphics are fantastic throughout, and they do a great job of rendering wide-open fields, tight buildings or houses, smoke-belching silos, and lots more. Some of the multiplayer maps look like they've already seen a lot of action, with blast craters, destroyed tanks, and other things that you can hide in or behind. It also has terrific lighting, so everything looks as it should. Everything sounds right, too. When you hear a battle raging in the distance, it sounds appropriately muffled, and up close, the crack of an M16 or the full-auto barrage from an AK-47 are appropriately loud and angry sounding. There is also quite a bit of voice work throughout the game, and it's all nicely done. The music, for the most part, is the typical sort of action-movie music you've come to expect from a first-person shooter, except for a rap over the end credits that seems to simultaneously detail the game's story while also acting as a subliminal diss record with some slick talk about how this is the third chapter by Infinity Ward, perhaps lightly inferring that you should ignore Treyarch's contribution to the series, Call of Duty 3. It's great.

COD 4 is available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, and each version holds up admirably. The differences between the two console versions feel mostly negligible. Both systems deliver good frame rates and have good, easy-to-use multiplayer setups that most closely resemble Halo 2 and 3's party system and matchmaking playlists. The PC version of the game uses a more traditional server browser to get you into games. Both systems work just fine on their respective platforms. The PC version has the ability to run in a higher resolution, if you're equipped with a PC that can handle it, but it seems to scale quite well. You can also create servers that allow up to 32 players to play at once on the PC, as opposed to a limit of 18 in the console versions, but given the size of the multiplayer maps, putting 32 players in them makes things a little too crowded. Despite listing 1080p support on the back of the box, COD 4 appears to prefer 720p on the PlayStation 3. The only way to get it to run in 1080p is to tell your PS3 that your TV doesn't support 720p or 1080i, but the difference seems minor. Either way, you'd be hard-pressed to tell it apart from its Xbox 360 counterpart. And all versions control just fine, making the decision over which version to buy totally dependent on which controller you like the most.

It's a shame that the single-player is so brief, but you should only skip out on Call of Duty 4 if you're the sort of person who doesn't appreciate great first-person shooter multiplayer. The quality of the content in the campaign is totally top-shelf, and the multiplayer is some of the best around, making this a truly superb package.

Source : GameSpot

Free Download Age of Empires III The WarChiefs Expansion

2007-08-28T06:45:00.000-07:00

Free Download FIFA MANAGER 2007

2007-08-13T10:04:00.000-07:00

Fifa Manager 2007
FIFA Manager 07 is the second game in EA Sports' football management series, with German outfit Bright Future again handling development. Like other EA Sports titles, FIFA Manager 07 is highly accessible, attractively presented, and boasts a wealth of official team and player data. Because of this, FIFA Manager 07 is a great introduction for newcomers to the genre and is a gentler start than something like Football Manager 2007 might be.

The Darkness Cheat Mode

2007-08-01T08:47:00.001-07:00

Cheat mode

Enter one of the following numbers at any phone to active the corresponding cheat function. If you entered the code correctly, you will hear a message.

2K Darkling

Enter "555-4263" as a number to unlock the 2K Darkling.

Golfer Darkling

Enter "555-5664" as a number to unlock the Golfer Darkling.

Secret phone numbers

The following is a list of all 35 secret phone numbers to enter at any phone. Entering these secret phone numbers will also accomplish the Keeper Of Secrets achievement.

555-6118

555-1847

555-6667

555-4569

555-9985

555-1037

555-1206

555-9528

555-3285

555-5723

555-8024

555-6322

555-9132

555-6893

555-2402

555-6557

555-2309

555-4372

555-9723

555-5289

555-6205

555-7658

555-1233

555-3947

555-9562

555-7934

555-7892

555-8930

555-3243

555-3840

555-2349

555-6325

555-4565

555-9898

555-7613

555-6969

Collectable phone numbers

Enter one of the following phone numbers at any phone to unlock a collectable:

555-4463

555-4525

555-4603

555-4649

555-4676

555-4682

555-4691

555-6418

555-6441

555-6454

555-6503

555-8164

555-6713

555-6799

555-6892

555-8416

555-8766

555-8856

555-8881

555-8896

555-8989

555-1093

555-1228

555-1229

555-1234

555-1266

555-3249

555-3318

555-1917

555-1952

555-3429

555-3440

555-3452

555-3492

555-3495

555-3496

555-3520

555-5197

555-3791

555-3794

555-5211

555-3849

555-5311

555-5327

555-5438

555-5439

555-5465

555-5466

555-5477

555-5549

555-5569

555-5595

555-5619

555-5709

555-7467

555-7526

555-7614

555-7641

555-7642

555-7643

555-7710

555-7761

555-9345

555-9588

555-9868

555-9903

555-9913

555-2575

555-2734

555-2763

555-2764

555-4336

555-2941

Answering machine phone numbers

The following is a list of answering machine phone numbers to enter at any phone:

555-7373: Butcher

555-2284: Jenny

555-7735: Paulie

555-4263: Retailer 1

555-5664: Retailer 2

555-6402: Sarah

555-8672: SBZ

Entire in-game movie

About three hours into the game, after you pass the cold storage part, you will end up in a hallway with a lot of doors you can open. The middle door will have some computers and an enemy that never heard the gunfight because he is watching a television with some headphones. Kill him and the television will be yours to use. The option to change the channel will be given to you. Change the channel and some music videos and cartoons will pass. Wait a few seconds to see what is coming on next. There will be one with some cheesy music and words, and white lines coming out. This is actually a movie from 1955 called The Man With The Golden Arm starring Frank Sinatra. You can watch the entire movie on this television.

Jenny in Chapter 4

When you are about to give up the Darkness guns and extract the Darkness, look at the Demon in the middle. Look behind him in the bright light and you should see Jenny.

Keeping the zombie soldiers dead

When you are in the "Otherworld" (you will go there after you die the first and second time), the Germans soldiers almost always get back up after you kill them. The only way to make sure they remain dead is to devour their hearts.

Defeating the Darkness in the castle

To defeat the Darkness in the castle (after you have blown open the gate), go up to every chair you see in the main room. Each chair will prompt you to activate it. Note: This does give away your Darkness powers for the time being. After the Darkness appears as a red/evil Jackie, put any guns away so that just your hands are out. This will stop his attacks. Then, walk up to him without any guns out, and a prompt should appear to "Accept Him". The fight will then be over.

Easy Bringing People Together achievement

Go to the last level at Paulie's mansion. Once you get to the point where you are inside the mansion, use your Black Holes repeatedly and hide in the darkness to regain your energy. You should get the achievement easily.

Easy Ghandi achievement

When you get to Dutch Oven Harry's place, talk to Roach. Do not shoot at him until he starts shooting.

Easy Romantic achievement

Simply wait until you kiss Jenny during the movie, then look over at her to get the "Get up and leave" option. You do not have to watch the entire movie.

Achievements

Accomplish the indicated achievement to get the corresponding number of Gamerscore points:

Hoodlum (5 points): Be on the winning side in a multiplayer match in any of the multiplayer modes.

Patriot (5 points): Capture a flag in a CTF match.

Murderer (5 points): Claim 20 Killing Streaks in multiplayer.

Hard to Kill (5 points): Take enough damage without dying within a multiplayer match.

Flag Runner (5 points): Capture 20 flags in a CTF match.

Flag Owner (10 points): Capture 50 flags in a CTF match.

Butcher (25 points): Claim 20 Killing Streaks in multiplayer.

Mook (5 points): Be on the winning side in 5 multiplayer matches.

Henchman (15 points): Be on the winning side in 20 multiplayer matches.

Contract Killer (25 points): Be on the winning side in 50 multiplayer matches.

Made Man (35 points): Be on the winning side in 100 multiplayer matches.

The Don (45 points): Be on the winning side in 250 multiplayer matches.

Anti Hero (25 points): Complete game on normal setting.

Legendary Dark (35 points): Complete game on hard setting.

Cannibal (25 points): Devour 300 enemies.

Fashionable (25 points): Collect all the Darkling outfits.

Bringing People Together (5 points): Trap 5 enemies within a Black Hole.

Rogue Killer (15 points): Kill 15 enemies using Creeping Dark.

Void Bringer (15 points): Kill 20 enemies using Black Hole.

Gunner (15 points): Kill 30 enemies using Darkness Guns.

Ripper (15 points): Kill 30 enemies using Demon Arm.

Summoner (5 points): Summon 5 Darklings.

Legendary Summoner (25 points): Summon 50 Darklings.

Darkness Master (100 points): Only for those who are completely in tune with the Darkness.

Roadkill (10 points): Kill the workers in the tunnel.

Ghandi (10 points): Find a peaceful solution. At least momentarily.

Romantic (10 points): Get a kiss from Jenny during the movie.

Heart of Gold (50 points): Help those in need.

Gunslinger (25 points): Kill 7 enemies within 15 seconds.

Anti Air (15 points): Bring down the Chopper.

Take a Look at the Sky (50 points): Take down 6 airplanes.

Knuckle, Meet Face (5 points): Perform a melee kill for the first time.

Up Close and Personal (5 points): Perform an execution move for the first time.

Executioner (10 points): Kill 25 enemies using execution moves.

Picking Up Stuff (5 points): Unlock a collectable for the first time.

Gatherer (5 points): Unlock 25 collectables.

The Collector (10 points): Unlock 50 collectables.

The Obsessive Collector (15 points): Unlock 75 collectable.

Completionist (20 points): Unlock 100 collectables.

Bullet Dodger (20 points): Finish a multiplayer match with less than 5 deaths (minimum of 4 players).

Legendary Executioner (20 points): Kill 50 enemies using execution moves.

Additionally, there are nine secret achievements:

Beginnings (25 points): Complete the first part of the game.

Into The Dark (50 points): Complete the second part of the game.

Crazy For You (25 points): Acquire Black Hole.

Hills (25 points): Acquire Darkness Guns.

No Man's Land (25 points): Acquire Demon Arm.

Happy Birthday (25 points): Acquire Creeping Dark.

Darkling Master (15 points): Acquire all Darkling types.

One With the Dark (25 points): Achieve maximum Darkness level.

Keeper Of Secrets (10 points): Call the secret phone numbers.

Source : Cheat Code Central

The Darkness Review

2007-08-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

System: X360, PS3

Dev: Starbreeze
Pub: 2K Games
Release: June 25, 2007
Players: 1-8
ESRB Rating: Mature

Almost every child and even many adults claim to be afraid of the dark. While this is understandable, it is not actually the darkness that people fear but what the darkness contains. The same logic can be applied to The Darkness for the Xbox 360 and PS3. People may be apprehensive as to whether the game is any good or not but this Darkness' contents are nothing to fear.

The first thing you will notice about this game are its graphics. There is no doubt about it, this game is beautiful. The environments are all very gritty and have a realistic and dark feel. Character models are also fairly impressive. Most characters in the game look realistic but some have an odd mannequin like look that detracts slightly from their appearances. Unfortunately, this also applies to the game's main character. Jackie Estacado's hair moves unrealistically and he often looks like he just got done having a Botox injection. Even so, at times when Jackie was speaking directly to the camera, his face adequately conveyed a good sense of emotion.
The ability for the game's characters to be able to display their emotions is essential to making the game's storyline that much more gripping. The storyline in The Darkness grabs you from the opening scene and doesn't let you go until the credits are rolling. It is a dark tale that follows Jackie after his 21st birthday, when he discovers his mysterious darkness powers after a job for his uncle Paulie goes bad. Paulie then decides that Jackie is a traitor and begins to do his best to knock off his nephew. In this tale of revenge and redemption, you become very involved with the characters and environments that Jackie is exposed to. Each of the game's various characters has a unique personality that further endears them to the player. By the end of the game, you will likely find yourself caring about many of the character's well being.

Caring about the game's characters is even further aided by this game's incredible voice acting talent. The two characters that you will spend the most time listening to in this game are The Darkness and the main character Jackie Estacado. The Darkness is voiced by Mike Patton (Faith No More, Peeping Tom) who does a great job of sounding evil and creepy throughout the game. Kirk Acevedo (Oz, Band of Brothers), who really seems to understand his character, superbly voices Jackie Estacado. I believe that Kirk was a perfect choice to voice this compelling character. Not only is the voice acting well done but the game's soundtrack is very good as well. No matter what is going on during the gameplay, the music fits the action perfectly. If you are in a gunfight trying to stay alive, the music will consist of loud adrenaline-pumping rock that will keep you in the action. At other times in the game, the somber mood is further conveyed with slower, more emotional music that is sure to pluck at the player's heartstrings.
As previously mentioned, Jackie discovers on his 21st birthday that an entity known as The Darkness that resides in his body. The Darkness torments Jackie but it also bestows him with Darkness powers. These are what really make this game unique among first-person shooters. Giant black tentacle like serpents protrude from Jackie that will allow him to whip enemies, move objects, and even slither up walls and through vents to attack enemies and open doors. Add to that the ability to summon black holes and darklings that will quickly dispatch your foes and Jackie becomes an evil one-man army. To make the Darkness emerge from Jackie you will use the left bumper and then to utilize your selected power all you need to do is press the right bumper. All of Jackie's powers are incredibly useful but sometimes it is disorienting and difficult to control the creeping darkness. This is when you get to slither around as a darkness tentacle while dispatching foes and hitting switches. While using this power you will often need to climb walls and squeeze through tiny vents which can often times be almost vomit inducing. The only trick is that to use his plethora of super human powers Jackie must also remain in the darkness to charge up their power. Luckily, Jackie can shoot out just about every light in the game to create his own darkness even if you can't find anywhere dark to hide while regaining these powers.
The darklings in the game, while useful, feel very out of place. There are four different types of darklings, each with a useful ability. Unfortunately though, once summoned, these darklings begin to act in a very irritating and juvenile fashion. In a game that tries to deliver a dark and serious storyline, why would you include characters that randomly pee on enemy corpses and constantly make incoherent jokes about communists? I'm not sure that there is a good answer for this question considering that their antics really detract from an otherwise compelling gameplay experience. The best thing to do is to try and ignore them while making use of their abilities and go on about your business enjoying the rest of the game.
While the single player game is great, it can be completed in less than ten hours, perhaps a few more if you unlock all of the game's bonus content. It then falls upon the game's online multiplayer aspect to keep gamers coming back for more. The Darkness' multiplayer experience includes the modes that you would expect like deathmatch and capture the flag. What makes these modes unique is the ability to transform between human and darkling forms while playing. While in darkling form, you can't use weapons and you are easier to kill but you move a little bit quicker than a human does. While this is an interesting concept, the execution isn't quite there. While playing, it seems like way too much of a disadvantage to chance changing into the darkling form. In most of the matches that I played, I rarely saw players take darkling form for fear that a human opponent would just easily pick them off. If this form changing had been better balanced, I think that it could have been a very interesting variation on the standard first-person shooter's multiplayer offerings.

All in all, the Darkness is a great game. I don't think this game should be missed by anyone who is old enough to play this very mature title. The single player campaign is a completely enjoyable experience and the multiplayer action is competent enough to offer many more hours of fun to this title. The Darkness is truly a brilliant ray of light during this otherwise abysmal summer gaming drought.

By Adam Brown,
Cheat Code Central Freelance Writer

Features:

Varying manifestations of the Darkness allow you to devour, impale, or implode your enemies. Use the Darkness to toss huge objects like cars as though they were toys.
Summon darklings - impish and humorous demons - to do your bidding and eviscerate your foes.
Cannibalize your victims - Slay your enemies and command the Darkness to eat their hearts and increase your strength and power.
The light is your enemy - Extinguish any light in your path while seeking the shadows wherever possible in order to feed and replenish the Darkness.
Insane multiplayer - Shapeshift between darkling and human in online multiplayer games and face other players in traditional as well as all-new innovative multiplayer modes.
Diverse voice talent - An all-star cast adds authenticity to the characters and credibility to the overall cinematic experience, including Kirk Acevedo (Oz, Band of Brothers) as Jackie Estacado, Lauren Ambrose (Six Feet Under) as Jenny Romano, and Mike Patton (Faith No More, Peeping Tom) as the voice of the Darkness.
In-game television - Watch select shows in their entirety, including everything from Nosferatu to Popeye. Players can also tune into breaking news that directly relates to the storyline.
Screen Resolution: Up to 1080p (Full HDTV, Widescreen).

Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific

2007-05-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

Famed designer Sid Meier established and defined the submarine simulation 22 years ago with the classic Silent Service. Although the genre has seen better days, it continues to plug along thanks to Ubisoft's solid Silent Hunter series. 2005's Silent Hunter III was the last release in the series and let you captain a German U-boat in the Atlantic during World War II. Now with Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific, you play as an American submarine skipper battling against Japan. In many ways, Silent Hunter 4 doesn't veer too far from the formula found in Silent Service and is a faithful successor to that seminal game.

Though it doesn't get as much coverage or attention in the popular media as the German U-boat campaign in World War II, the US submarine campaign against Japan was extensive and devastating. Japan, being an island nation, imported much of its food, fuel, and resources from abroad, and US submarines were tasked with cutting that lifeline off. What followed was unrestricted submarine warfare as the US sank more than 5 million tons of Japanese shipping, though at a loss of almost 50 submarines and their crews.

In Silent Hunter 4, you can experience the war in the Pacific a number of ways. There are stand-alone missions that put you in the middle of battles if you just want to dive into the action. Then there are war patrols that let you cruise around looking for trouble. The lengthiest of all the gameplay modes is the career mode, which lets you begin in any year of the war and go out on numerous war patrols. A career can easily occupy days, if not weeks, of evening play time.

Like Silent Hunter III, Wolves of the Pacific puts you in a 3D submarine, surrounded by virtual crewmembers that follow your commands. There are numerous stations that you can go to, such as the conning tower when the submarine is running on the surface, the periscope, the navigation chart, the antiaircraft gun, the deck gun, and more. The amount of control that you're given over your boat (submariner slang for vessels) is impressive and in line with the features found in Silent Hunter III. Each sailor on your submarine is tracked and accounted for, so you can assign your sailors to different compartments and watches. This way, you can optimize the performance of your crew, though it can add a cumbersome amount of micromanagement for common tasks. For example, when under attack, you can assign crewmen from a nonvital compartment to a damage control party and then reassign them once that's done.

However, most of your attention will be taken up with the task of navigating your sub around the Pacific and taking part in battle. You can chart a course on the Pacific and then compress time so that you don't have to spend hours or days getting from one point to another. When your ship encounters unknown or hostile contacts, time automatically reverts to normal, so you can investigate or take action. It's a fairly elegant system, one that hearkens back to the patrol system in Silent Service and lets you conduct a months-long patrol in a fraction of the time. But this isn't a fully dynamic campaign because the game doesn't model a full-scale war all the time. Instead, it has the illusion of a dynamic campaign as it places enemy vessels in logical places, such as shipping lanes or coming in and out of major ports. But it's not perfect, and there are quirks. For example, enemy convoys may appear in places you'd least expect them, such as steaming out of Manila Bay, even though at that point in the campaign, Manila is still in American hands.

All of this is in support of the actual combat part of the simulation, which is very scalable. There's also something here for both diehard and casual fans. For instance, at the most realistic simulation level, targeting a torpedo attack is a meticulous process where you must gather and input various data into the torpedo data computer (a mechanical device, no fancy electronics here) and then cross your fingers. If that takes too much effort, then at the easiest simulation levels, targeting a torpedo is as simple as locking on to the target in the periscope. However, don't expect Silent Hunter 4 to be a fast-paced action game. This is a game where you still have to worry about maneuvering into a good position to attack, evading detection from escorts, and figuring out how to escape and survive after you've announced your presence by sinking a vessel. After all, this is a simulation; a fair amount of patience and thought are required to reap the fruits of your labor. The artificial intelligence is uneven because sometimes enemy vessels don't zigzag when under attack to throw off your firing solution or escorts don't react to your presence. At other times, the AI seems to have an eerie ability to locate you even if you're running silent.

You can only play as an American submarine captain in the game, choosing from a wide variety of historical submarine types throughout the campaign. That's not really much of a loss because the Japanese submarine force played a fairly minimal role during the war. The multiplayer modes in Silent Hunter 4 reinforce this because you can play cooperatively with up to three others on the Internet or seven others on a LAN, working together to sink enemy ships. Then there's the adversarial mode, which has one player control the Japanese surface vessels while the other players control submarines.

Unfortunately, Silent Hunter 4 slipped out of development with more than a few bugs, and there are some significant stability issues that cause the game to crash regularly. There's nothing more frustrating than to spend 30 minutes getting into position to sink a high-value target only to have the game crash on you. Ubisoft has already issued a rather hefty patch that addresses a number of bugs and crash issues, though it's disappointing that the game isn't more stable out of the box.

Silent Hunter 4 looks better than its predecessor thanks mainly to the addition of numerous postprocessing and lighting effects that add grit to the visuals. The best way to describe it is that there's an "oil painting" look to the game now, one that really helps immerse you in the setting. There's nothing quite like watching a sunset in the Pacific. Everything else looks as good as in Silent Hunter III. In particular, it's captivating to watch the way ocean swells wash over your periscope, blurring everything temporarily. The sound effects are also very good, though they'd have to be because submarines rely on sound so much. In the game, you can hear the creaking of your sub's hull under pressure, the thrum of propellers in the distance, the hushed whisperings of your crew relaying your orders, and more. Meanwhile, a bombastic score helps add drama and tension to the many slow moments in the game, though if it's a bit too much, you can shut it off.

Considering that Silent Hunter 4 is a fairly direct sequel to Silent Hunter III, it does an excellent job of building on its predecessor while offering something different. This is a submarine game that both casual and serious fans can enjoy. It also offers plenty of gameplay as you cruise around a virtual Pacific that's brimming with enemy traffic and beautiful vistas.

Source GameSpot

Spider-Man 3

2007-05-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

Spider-Man 3 marks the fourth game from developer Treyarch to feature Marvel's popular web-slinging superhero. So with Spider-Man 3 being the first game in the series to hit the current generation of consoles, you might expect something of a leap forward for the franchise--something to really wow Spider-Man fans and take the series in a new and exciting direction. No such luck, it seems. Spider-Man 3 is a lot like the last couple of Spider-Man games. Sure, it throws in a few new wrinkles to the combat system and adds some crazy God of War-esque contextual actions into the mix, but the core game is functionally the same as previous Spider-Man games, and the changes are a mixture of positive and problematic. Spider-Man 3 isn't altogether bad, but it has enough issues to prevent it from being wholly recommendable.

Spider-Man 3 ties itself into the new Spidey film by including some of the key story arcs from the movie. You'll see Peter Parker get his black suit as well as run into villains like Sandman, New Goblin, and Venom. But much like Spider-Man 2, the roster of villains doesn't end there. Scorpion, Lizard, Kingpin, and others all pop up in spots. While it makes sense for the developers to extend the scope of the story beyond that of the film, trouble arises when you realize that the film's plot is practically glossed over. There are 10 individual storylines to play through, but none of them are paced well, nor do they ever build up or deliver enough of a story to pull it all together into one cohesive plot. It's almost like a hastily cobbled together Spider-Man mixtape. You get all the villains, and none of the story exposition. There's about as much character depth and story perspective here as is in the film's trailer.

If you played any of the recent movie-licensed Spidey games, you'll feel right at home with Spider-Man 3 from the get-go. Like the previous games, Spider-Man 3 presents you with an open-world version of New York City to swing around in to your heart's content. Swinging works much as it did in Spider-Man 2, letting you latch onto nearby buildings and launch quick webs to zip around as you please. Swinging through the city is easily the best aspect of the entire game. The city isn't gigantic, but there's enough familiar scenery around to make you want to explore, and that the city looks excellent is a big plus. Buildings are nicely detailed, the streets are jam-packed with cars and pedestrians, and the game uses some nice lighting effects to give the sky, as well as reflections of the sun off buildings, a rather pretty glow.

As you swing around, you'll find open mission icons scattered throughout the city. Fortunately, you don't have to go hunting for them, as there is a city map that lets you target any mission icon available to you. Though Spider-Man 3 doesn't change its formula much from previous games, the one big change for the better this time around is the game's structure. No longer are you forced to complete random side missions to get new story missions to unlock. The story missions and side missions are treated independently from one another, so you need only beat story missions to unlock more story missions. The story itself is a good 10 to 12 hours long, even if you never engage in any of the side missions, so you're not forced to sit through padded content that just makes the game longer. Side missions are still worth doing if you need a change of pace from the story, and there's still plenty of random crime floating about the city to take care of. The one bummer is that few of these random crimes or side missions deviate very far from the ones found in earlier Spider-Man games, and the few that do don't really fit terribly well. Even some of the new story missions seem weirdly out of place. For example, why is Spider-Man now an expert at disarming bombs?

One other change to the game is the addition of contextual minigames. Clearly inspired by the gameplay of God of War, Spider-Man will now engage in scripted events of acrobatic and combative heroism, and all you have to do is press a few buttons in time with the icons that appear onscreen. One example is Spider-Man having to leap through an impossibly complex series of lasers that will trigger an alarm if hit. Just hit the buttons or analog stick movements that pop up, and you're good to go. These new sequences aren't a bad addition, though they could have been implemented better. There's often very little warning as to when one of these situations is about to pop up, so there tends to be a trial-and-error aspect to them. The icons can occasionally be difficult to discern, as well, specifically if the game is using analog-stick icons. If there's a lot of crazy action happening onscreen, it can be tough to see exactly which direction the game wants you to go, let alone act quickly enough to pull off the move. Fortunately, the game almost never starts you back any further than the beginning of the minigame sequence you just started, so the punishment for failure is minor.

Where Spider-Man 3 starts to lose its way is in combat. The basic combat engine doesn't feel markedly different from earlier games, as it focuses on button-mashing combos that upgrade over time and give you some unique special moves. The main problem stems from the game's overreliance on Spider-Man's bullet-time equivalent. By holding down the left bumper on the Xbox 360, or the L1 button on the PlayStation 3, Spidey goes into a slowed state that lets him automatically dodge incoming attacks. In combat against basic thugs, you only need to use this every once in a while, though when you do use it, you can clear an entire room in just a few seconds because the grunt enemies are so inept at fighting back. But against most bosses, you have to keep this button held down at all times to get much done. Some bosses can be whaled on sans the bullet time, but a few of the later bosses pretty much require it, making those fights a plodding chore. It gets even worse when the game tries to change things up on you. One of the more tedious, protracted boss fights pits you against a giant version of the Lizard, where you first have to toss him into a series of power generators using a clumsy spinning maneuver before you even get down to the dull business of beating him up.

Spider-Man 3's camera system is an even bigger problem. The camera doesn't know how to snap behind you if you have to run around in a circle to avoid enemy attacks, so you constantly have to readjust it. If you happen to readjust it in a tightly enclosed area, the camera freaks out and you lose all perspective of where you are or where the enemy went. It gets even worse during some of the missions that require you to swing around the city. There are multiple missions where you have to swing to a specific area in a certain amount of time, but getting the camera to line up so you have a clear shot of where you next need to swing is an exercise in futility. You'll end up failing far too many missions because of this. And if you're in a situation where you're crawling along a wall or ceiling, make sure you're not easily nauseated. The quick snaps of the camera and constant "Am I up or down?" perspective shifts make these parts vomit inducing.

Despite the fact that Spider-Man 3 is on the Xbox 360 and PS3, the game doesn't look like it's built for this generation of consoles. The city features the most detail, though it also has a few issues with texture popping. Most everything else looks slightly haggard in one way or another. The Spider-Man character model looks great, but all the other people look bug-eyed and mildly deformed. Some of the combat moves look neat, but the animations are jerky and stilted, as if transition animations are missing. You'll also encounter a lot of weird physics glitches as you play, especially during combat. Enemies will get hung up on walls or invisible pieces of the environment, objects don't break properly, and even Spidey sometimes gets stuck in or clips through walls or set pieces. The frame rate doesn't quite hold up, either. Neither version's frame rate is good, exactly, though the PS3 version is a bit chunkier. On the flipside, the PS3 version's character models look a bit smoother and less aliased than the 360's, so it's a matter of give and take.

The game's audio is mostly predictable, though it's decent enough for what the game requires. The biggest draw here is the involvement of the film's cast. Kirsten Dunst is nowhere to be found, but Tobey Maguire, James Franco, Thomas Hayden Church, Topher Grace, and J.K. Simmons all make appearances. Simmons seems to be the only one that's enthusiastic about reprising his role as J. Jonah Jameson. Maguire gives an OK, but generally, sleepy performance as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, and the remaining cast all seem like they'd rather be somewhere else. Bruce Campbell shows up yet again to play the narrator, though he generally comes across as superfluous and out of place. Sound effects and music are both solid, though once again, swinging through the city seems oddly silent. You get some nice whooshes of wind as you swing about, but the soundtrack either cuts out entirely or stays very quiet and understated as you swing. At least the music is good during fights.

In the end, Spider-Man 3 has its moments. Swinging through New York is as fun as it's ever been, and some of the new contextual action sequences are pretty cool. But for everything Spider-Man 3 does well, it does something else poorly. The camera and presentation issues, as well as the clumsy combat, all conspire to drag the experience down significantly. Spider-Man 3 isn't without merit, but unless you're one of those diehard Spider-Man fans that can't get enough of the swinging superhero, there's probably not enough to Spider-Man 3 to make it worth your time.

Source GameSpot

Warhammer: Mark of Chaos

2007-03-02T04:14:00.000-08:00

Orcs and elves have been done so many times at this point that it's easy to be jaded about the arrival of yet another fantasy game. So it's a credit to Warhammer: Mark of Chaos that the game makes you sit up and pay attention when its gloriously detailed 3D units come up onscreen. This strategy game, based on the popular Warhammer Fantasy Battles miniatures game, is a visually impressive affair, though the first chapter in what will probably be a long-lived series doesn't quite live up to its own potential and is saddled with some frustrating technical issues.

With its beautiful real-time 3D battles, it's natural to want to compare Mark of Chaos to the popular Total War games, which have the same sort of epic battles, only with real-world historical units instead of fantasy ones. And, like the Total War games, Mark of Chaos comes with a turn-based campaign to tie those battles together. Unfortunately, the campaign in Mark of Chaos doesn't feature anywhere near the amount of strategic depth or replayability of Total War. There are two campaigns to choose from in Mark of Chaos. One lets you play from the perspective of the mostly human Empire and its elven allies. The other lets you play as the forces of the orc-heavy chaos faction and its skaven allies, which are essentially humanoid rodents of unusual size. Those four factions are the only ones in the game, which doesn't come close to the number in the miniatures game, but at least there are three variants of each faction. Plus, we must admit that there's something almost sinisterly cool about the Empire faction and the Germanic undertones in its reiksguard units and elector count heroes.

Both campaigns are very linear. All you do is move one army along a predetermined path and engage in scripted battle after battle. Along the way, you'll need to assist a besieged city, crush an encampment of enemy forces, and engage in a one-on-one duel against the enemy hero. There's an occasional branch that happens every now and then where you can pursue an optional mission, but for the most part, the campaign map gives you the illusion of control as you move your army to the only place on the map where it can go. It doesn't help that the map itself is incredibly dark and plain, to the point that it's usually just a brown background. Even the story is drably told, as it's conveyed mainly through static dialogue screens with obligatory growling voice acting for the forces of evil and haughty voice acting for the forces of good. This seems like a lost opportunity considering the incredible prerendered movie that opens the game; it's so amazing that you want the designers to stretch it out to a 90-minute movie and put it in theaters.

While you don't have much choice in the direction of the campaign, you do have some bit of strategic-decision making in the composition of your army. You can recruit different types of units in towns and cities and then outfit those troops with better weapons, armor, and siege gear, as well as banners and musicians that help boost troops' morale in battle. Or, you can also get your troops blessed at a temple, which grants them various protections. And when you do arrive at a battle, you have to decide which troops to take into the fight, as you usually have more troops than battle slots. This involves deciding what kind of battle you want to fight. Do you want to rely on ranged weapons such as bows, axes, or muskets, or do you go for a heavier force and rely on swords and spears? On top of this, your troops gain veterancy the more they fight, which means you want to preserve as much of your force as possible in each battle. Veteran units are both tougher and much larger than green units. You can replace losses after a fight by purchasing them in your army camp, and there's usually enough gold salvaged from each victory that you can restore your losses and purchase a few upgrades.

In addition to army units, you'll manage hero units throughout the campaign. Heroes are just that: powerful individuals who lead your armies and engage in one-on-one duels against enemy heroes. Heroes gain experience over time, and those experience points can then be invested into three areas. You can boost a hero's command ability, which means that if you attach a hero to a regiment, the hero can use special skills to boost the fighting abilities of the regiment. These range from a special magical shield that grants protection to each man in the unit to flaming weapons. You could also invest those points in dueling skills, which make the hero more effective in those one-on-one duels. Or, you can invest those points into fighting skills, which make the hero more powerful in general battle.

Heroes can also be equipped with weapons and equipment salvaged from the battlefield, like magical swords, mystical armor, or protective rings. They can also use special one-time potions and scrolls that might restore health or mana (used to power abilities and spells). However, you can't easily trade any equipment between heroes, which can be annoying. For example, your mage might accidentally pick up the heavy armor that your warrior hero could use, but there's no way to readily transfer the armor from one hero's inventory to another.

All of this, of course, builds up to the battles themselves, where the units come to life onscreen and fight. Since it's based mainly on medieval warfare, many of the base tactics remain the same. For instance, spearmen don't do well against swordsmen, but they're handy against cavalry. Archers aren't great in a swordfight, so you stick them in the rear where they can rain their arrows down on the enemy. The Warhammer universe adds to this by introducing lots of really cool and weird units. The Empire has gunpowder units, so you have early riflemen and canons, while the chaos forces have twisted demons and even stranger creatures lumbering around the battlefield. Then there are the aerial units, such as weird harpies, majestic eagles, and more. Mark of Chaos' mix of fantasy and medieval influences makes for a compelling sight.

It isn't just kill or be killed on these battlefields, either. The game models morale, so if you inflict enough damage on a formation, the survivors will break and flee in terror. You can upgrade and bolster your force with various spells, and you have an active role on the battlefield, giving orders to your units and your heroes. Control is fairly simple, as you simply select units and use the context-sensitive menu to issue movement or attack orders. About the only issue we had in terms of control was trying to put a rein on our siege weapons, such as cannons, as they inflicted as much damage on our own forces as they did the enemy.

The battles are certainly the strongest part of Mark of Chaos, and the campaign feels like a tutorial of sorts to the various forces and tactics that you'll use outside of the campaign. You can create skirmish games against the computer (though you have to do so using the multiplayer setup), but the real meat is in the multiplayer mode, which emulates the setup of the miniatures game. You can create your own army formations and even multiple armies conforming to the different "point sizes" in the game. To keep the games balanced, each side has the same number of points to build their armies. The more powerful a unit, the more expensive it is, but even if one player selects an army consisting of a handful of high-powered units, it all balances out because the other player could go for a larger army of weaker units that cost the same amount of points.

Like the miniatures game, Mark of Chaos lets you create and customize armies to your liking. Fans will appreciate that the virtual units in Mark of Chaos are as detailed as the real-world miniatures. And Mark of Chaos avoids the entire "clone" armies that plague some games by giving you a variety of individual looks for each formation. Meanwhile, the army-builder tool will let you customize the colors for all of these units, so you can create your own distinct armies.

In terms of modes, there's the standard deathmatch-style free-for-all, but more interesting are the siege and reinforcements battles, which feature special capture points on the map that let you generate gold, which can be used to purchase fresh units that arrive on the edge of the battlefield. These battles can go on for much longer than a regular fight, since both sides have to maneuver their units to seize and hold points on the battlefield, and the sudden arrival of reinforcements can turn the tide of battle. Multiplayer battles can be intense, nail-biting affairs. Unfortunately, trying to connect to a multiplayer game is an exercise in futility, thanks to various glitches with the login and account system. We still couldn't log in even after we patched the game, and we tried creating new accounts and using existing ones to no avail. Thankfully, the game does support network play over a LAN.

Connection issues will eventually be fixed, but it's disappointing that issues as serious as these made it through development. Once they're addressed, Mark of Chaos should appeal to the sizable Warhammer community, thanks to its battle system and beautiful visuals that capture the essence of the tabletop game. The rest of the game doesn't quite measure up to the quality of the battle systems, but technical issues aside, Mark of Chaos represents a promising first step.

Source:GameSpot

Company of Heroes

2007-03-02T03:12:00.001-08:00

Company of Heroes is a visually stunning real-time strategy game that depicts all the violent chaos of World War II with uncommon intensity. Set during the invasion of Normandy toward the end of the war, Company of Heroes takes its cues from Saving Private Ryan, by portraying both the sheer brutality of the war as well as the humanity of its combatants. Many other recent WWII games have also drawn influence from Steven Spielberg's landmark film, but Company of Heroes is even more graphic. This and the game's highly authentic-looking presentation are its distinguishing features, and it boasts some frantic, well-designed strategic and tactical combat to match. Company of Heroes trades a wide breadth of content for an extremely detailed look at WWII-era ground combat, and its action is so fast paced that it's best suited for the reflexes of an experienced RTS player. So if you're unfazed by any of that, you'll find that this latest real-time strategy game from the developers of Homeworld and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is one of the best, most dramatic and exciting examples in years.

Provided you have a powerful-enough system and graphics card to fully appreciate the visuals in Company of Heroes, you'll quickly be struck by the level of detail depicted in the game. Infantry move in teams, darting from cover to cover. They may be ordered to occupy any building on the map, and you'll see them shutter the doors and take aim out the windows. Vehicles are shown to scale, so tanks and other armored vehicles look big and imposing, and, indeed, they are. Infantry seem almost helpless against tanks, and you'll hear the men screaming as tank shells explode around them, sending bodies flying, while lucky survivors dive out of the way. Yet by attacking a tank's vulnerable sides and rear armor with explosives, it's possible to turn the tables on these lumbering threats...turning one of the most basic confrontations in Company of Heroes into a thrilling cat-and-mouse game, much more than a typical clash between a couple of RTS units. What's more, the battlefields themselves have at least as much character to them as the various infantry squads and vehicles as your disposal. The quaint French towns that are the set pieces of many of the game's skirmishes truly look as if a war was waged there once the battle is done, since buildings will catch fire and collapse, telephone lines will topple, blackened craters will appear in the wake of artillery blasts, and more. These changes aren't just cosmetic, either. Those blast craters provide cover for your infantry, while the ruined husks of blown-up tanks might interfere with a machine gunner's line of fire.

The game focuses on the Allies' invasion of German-occupied Normandy in 1944, specifically on close-quarters skirmishes between infantry and armor. Company of Heroes presents a number of novel twists to real-time strategy conventions, but at heart this game works like other RTS games do, by putting you in charge of base construction, resource gathering, and tactical command of various military forces in an effort to defeat the opposition. The game includes a good-sized single-player campaign spanning more than a dozen missions, in which Able Company lands on Omaha Beach on D-Day, liberates a number of key towns and strategic points, disrupts German supply lines and secret weapons, and finally helps crush the remnants of the Nazi war machine in France. It's an exciting campaign, tied together with cutscenes and mission briefings coming from a variety of voices, which creates a few threads that help tie the missions together. In addition to the campaign, you can play skirmish matches with up to seven computer-controlled players on a series of different maps, and you can also jump online into the proprietary Relic Online service to challenge other players in ranked and unranked matches. The Relic Online service is a cut above most similar offerings, and lets you easily find a ranked match against players of similar skill or host a match with your own custom settings.

Because of its limited scope of the Second World War, Company of Heroes has only the two playable factions, which it calls the Allies and the Axis--but really they're the Americans and the Germans. In the campaign, you always play as forces from Able Company and you're always fighting the Germans. There isn't a separate campaign from the German perspective, though the Axis faction is fully playable in skirmish matches and online, and turns out to be fairly different from the Allies despite the basic similarities between the two sides' weaponry. In fact, in a strange departure from similar games, Company of Heroes always forces you to play Allies versus Axis, even in multiplayer matches. Matches with more than two players are always team-based, with one side as the Allies and the other as the Axis, and so forth. While the game's units and battlefields are unusually detailed, it's hard not to wish for additional playable factions and a greater variety of settings, especially given how well Company of Heroes handles the American and German sides.

The gameplay in Company of Heroes is all about frontline combat, and forces you to quickly explore the map. You typically start out with a headquarters and a squad of engineers, who can build structures and setup defenses. Maps are divided up into territories that all have a resource point in them, and the resources you'll need are manpower, munitions, and fuel. Infantry may capture neutral or enemy resource points, causing them to indefinitely contribute a flow of the given resource to your military efforts while also increasing the total number of units you can have in your army. However, all your territories must be connected for the resource flow to continue unabated; if an enemy takes a key territory, this may cut off your supply lines. All resources are used for building more-advanced structures and vehicles, but you only need manpower for basic infantry, who may use special abilities like hand grenades or armor-piercing machine gun rounds for a one-time cost of munitions. Munitions may also be spent to upgrade individual squads with special weapons, like recoilless rifles useful against enemy armor, or Browning automatic rifles that can suppress opposing squads. Your infantry squads are highly resourceful, acting as single units that can be effective down to the last man. They'll last much longer when attacking from behind cover, such as a row of sandbags or the bell tower of an abandoned church.

If you've played Relic's last real-time strategy game, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, you'll note that many of these conventions were derived and extended from that game. However, Company of Heroes still plays quite differently from Dawn of War because of the nature of its densely packed battlefields and its even greater focus on unit tactics. You have some very interesting options to consider, such as how, when faced with an antitank gun manned by a squad of three, you may attempt to destroy the thing altogether with heavy weapons, or flank the gun and kill its squad, taking the artillery piece for your own. Heavy machine guns and other special weapons work much the same way. One of the great things about Company of Heroes is that, in spite of its somewhat glamorized portrayal of World War II, the game looks and behaves realistically, in how the sorts of tactical maneuvers that are central to the gameplay feel intuitive in practice. For example, you'll naturally want to avoid making your infantry rush a machine gun nest head-on, especially since the withering fire from a German MG42 will force your squad to drop prone, pinned down.

Relic's games have always featured clear step-by-step tutorials introducing you to many aspects of play, and Company of Heroes is no exception. However, you'll still have a lot to learn and much, much more to practice long after you've completed the tutorial and even the campaign. After all, the game gives you a great deal to think about and to manage during any given battle. You have to capture and hold resource points all across the map; build up your base, which doesn't take long since there are only a handful of structures; consider laying defenses like barbed wire, mines, machine gun nests, and roadblocks; micromanage any meaningful exchanges of fire since tactics are so important; and more. Company of Heroes features a cleanly presented interface that puts access to all your squads and production lines at your fingertips, but you'll still constantly feel like you need to be doing something more. Your squads can fend for themselves reasonably well in many cases, though the amount of micromanagement necessary to effectively manage your resources, resource and base defense, production, and combat will surely stretch your abilities thin. As a result, and thanks in part to the quality of the game's presentation, playing Company of Heroes can be a nerve-wracking experience.

In fact, even very experienced RTS players will probably find that the campaign quickly gets rather challenging at the default difficulty setting. Both in the campaign and in skirmishes against the artificial intelligence, the opposition will relentlessly attack and attempt to recapture your resource points, will harass your main base, and will deploy mixed forces to attack your main armies, strategically retreating when necessary. The easy difficulty setting is a must for when you're still learning the ropes, though by teaming up with hard- or expert-level CPU opponents or watching replays of matches, you can start to figure out how the computer is playing so well. You may also issue orders while the game is paused during campaign and skirmish missions, if the game's single, rather fast speed setting feels too hectic.

Company of Heroes has some other interesting nuances, such as the company commander system, which lets you choose one of three different upgrade paths that reinforce your faction's core strengths. For example, the Allies' airborne path lets you send in paratroopers and call for support from P47 thunderbolt fighters high in the sky, while the Axis' blitzkrieg doctrine lets you deploy the Nazi army's fearsome storm troopers and devastating Tiger tanks. Such reinforcements come in quickly, foregoing traditional real-time strategy build times and letting you turn the tables on your opponent in a pinch, as long as you have enough resources. You rack up experience points as you fight, letting you invest in new technologies from whichever commander path you select. While the game prompts you to confirm your selection of a path, it's not like there's any time to reconsider their relative strengths in a fight. Thankfully, the campaign introduces you to the different paths on the Allied side, at least. Overall, the company commander system helps make up for the fact that there are only two factions to play with, since each commander path seems quite useful, and their weapons and upgrades will certainly come into play when you're deciding how to spend your resources. In total, the six paths also underscore different, viable strategies for both the Allies and the Axis, including different combinations of these paths for team battles.

On top of all this, the typical match in Company of Heroes isn't all about simply blowing up the enemy's base, though "annihilation" victory conditions are an option for skirmish and multiplayer matches. However, the default option puts you in a tug-of-war battle to capture and hold a set of victory points. The more points you control, the faster you achieve victory. But victory points tend to be centrally located, and unlike other resource nodes, they can't be fortified with observation posts to defend them against capture. So combat will naturally be concentrated around these locations, though that's not to say the opponent's base won't make a key target of opportunity, either. Essentially, what Company of Heroes' resource model and victory points system does is force you to think about the entire map, not just your base and the enemy's base. This makes battles more interesting but more complicated, and even though a typical skirmish may last close to an hour, the time just seems to fly by since there's so much to do. The victory point system also addresses a common RTS design flaw by offsetting the unlimited supply of resources on each map and therefore virtually eliminating the possibility of a stalemate.

The truly amazing visuals in Company of Heroes demand a top-of-the-line system and a cutting-edge graphics card to get the most out of them. Even on a machine meeting the game's steep recommended system requirements, the action can still bog down in a few spots when explosions and bodies are landing everwhere, and loading times between matches can be about a minute long. Also, a bug in the shipping version of the game caused systems with an SLI video card configuration to experience inordinately poor frame rates, which we resolved simply by unplugging one of our cards. On more-modest systems, you can strip away a lot of the detail to improve the game's performance, but seeing the game in all its glory is truly a sight to behold--especially its various types of explosions that fill the screen with fire, smoke, and debris. The default camera perspective is optimal for gameplay, but you can zoom right in to clearly see each individual soldier and his gear, or how a tank, turning a tight corner through a city street, might take a chunk right out of the side of a building. This level of visual fidelity far exceeds what's previously been done in a strategy game, and is much closer to what you might find in a flashy new first-person shooter. But it's not just for show, since the graphics' realism helps make the gameplay itself more engrossing and intuitive. The game also includes some surprisingly gory displays on occasion; an artillery shell, for instance, can tear men into pieces. However, there isn't nearly as much blood and gore as in something like Saving Private Ryan, so the game's M for Mature rating seems more fitting due to infantry's liberal use of profanity during combat. Unfortunately for those preferring and accustomed to a tamer version of World War II, you can't simply toggle off the strong language.

The audio in Company of Heroes is fantastic, and just about the only less-than-perfect thing about it is how units will cut themselves off repeatedly while trying to acknowledge your orders as you rapidly click around, micromanaging their movement in battle. However, the game makes excellent and subtle use of speech for the most part, such as how your units will acknowledge you in a hushed whisper during nighttime operations, how you can hear the panic in the voices of your tank commanders when their vehicles are badly damaged, or how speech coming from offscreen units sounds like it's coming in over a radio. The sound effects for gunfire, cannons, and other weapons on the battlefield are loud and clear, and the hornet's buzzing of machine gun fire or the thunderous crack of a tank's main gun never cease to be particularly intense. Company of Heroes also features an excellent symphonic score that's filled with foreboding strings and brass, just like you'd expect from a WWII game--or a WWII movie. The way it seamlessly blends with how the action unfolds makes the latter comparison more fitting.

Company of Heroes is technically remarkable and features some novel twists that make it unique among real-time strategy games. Yet while it's easy to get into, it's not just difficult to master but also rather difficult to manage, partly because the game does such a good job of evoking the sheer chaos of frontline WWII battles. The relatively small number of units spread across the two playable factions also means that this game doesn't have the sheer variety you might expect from an RTS, though the units themselves seem much more realistic and interesting than in most such games. In spite of these issues, remarkably, Company of Heroes still stands out from the glut of WWII-themed games released over the years, as well as the glut of real-time strategy games.

Source: GameSpot

Company of Heroes

2007-03-02T03:12:00.000-08:00

Source: GameSpot

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection

2007-03-02T02:46:00.000-08:00

How does $20 sound for a practically arcade-perfect version of Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection? It's a pretty good deal, and it's going on now on the PlayStation 3. The game is now available as a downloadable product, which makes a good deal even better. While the arcade-port-like nature of it means that you won't get any of the weird extra modes you'd expect from Tekken on a home console, you will get a rock-solid fighting game that also looks great.

This is a port of Dark Resurrection, which is the same Tekken 5 expansion that appeared on the PSP last year. That means you'll get Lili and Dragunov, the two all-new characters that made their first appearance in DR, as well as the returning Armor King. As a bonus, you can unlock Jinpachi, the game's final boss, as a playable character in the PS3 version. He's an interesting addition but not the most exciting character to play with. Of course, you also get the rest of the game's large roster, including Paul, Kazuya, Heihachi, Nina, Law, and so on.

While you won't get bowling, volleyball, or a Tekken Force minigame, you will get ghost mode in Dark Resurrection. Unlike the arcade mode, which puts you up against a handful of fighters and then sends you to the boss fight, ghost mode is meant to replicate the experience of taking on multiple challengers in arcades. You'll continually fight different characters that are governed by different artificial intelligence profiles. So you'll encounter beginning-level Baeks that are easy to beat, but the higher-level Baek fighters know how to use his combos properly and even know a few key juggles. This goes a long way to making them feel more like real human beings, since they all fight differently. This variety keeps the game interesting as a single-player game, which many fighting games have trouble with. Of course, it's still no substitute for actually fighting a real person, which you can do locally. Unfortunately, the game doesn't have any online support, but given the budget price tag, that makes sense.

As you play, you'll earn currency that you can spend customizing the characters' different costumes, much like you can in Virtua Fighter 5 and in the last couple of Tekken games. You can purchase new colors for their outfits, new hair styles, or additional little trinkets, like eye patches. You can also spend your money to purchase the ending movies for the new characters or concept art. Interestingly, Namco has kept the file size of the download a little lower than it would be otherwise by not offering these videos and images as part of the main download. When you go into the gallery menu, the game hits a server and returns a list of downloadable items. You pay a chunk of your in-game money, and it downloads the appropriate file. It's a slick idea, though at 500MB-plus, it's hard to call this a "small" download by any metric.

Graphically, the game follows the look of the arcade game, but it's been outfitted to run in 1080p. If you've got a TV capable of that resolution and are running over an HDMI cable, the game looks incredibly sharp--almost too sharp, in spots, as it'll reveal an ugly texture here and there. It's a great-looking game, overall, especially for a downloadable product, but as it's meant to look like the arcade version, you do get the impression that a Tekken game built from the ground up for the PS3 could look quite a bit better. The game also contains all the same sound effects and music from the arcade game. Tekken has always had hard-hitting sound effects, and they still work just fine here.

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection makes a great case for digital distribution. Here's a game that might not be the newest game in town, but by clocking in at a budget price and not coming on a Blu-ray disc, it stands out and delivers on the potential of this sort of game-delivery platform. But forget all that nonsense. The bottom line is that Dark Resurrection is a fantastic fighting game, and it's especially sweet if you have one or more Tekken players nearby that'll get into the versus mode with you.

Source: GameSpot

Call of Duty 3

2007-02-08T03:27:00.000-08:00

World War II may have ended in 1945, but that hasn't stopped the axis and allies from waging war against one another on the video game front. And now there's a new battleground--the PlayStation 3. With Call of Duty 2 developer Infinity Ward having moved on to other projects, the series has been placed in the hands of Treyarch, the developer behind Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. It did not disappoint. Call of Duty 3 on the PlayStation 3 is a great game with thoroughly enjoyable multiplayer, quality presentation, and some mildly-interesting tilt-control support. It is missing a couple of features that its Xbox 360 counterpart contains, and the frame rate is far less reliable in this version, but the overall intensity and playability of Call of Duty 3 remains intact, despite these few issues.

Call of Duty 3 takes place in 1944 during the Normandy Breakout. After landing successfully on the beaches of France, the allied focus was on getting the Germans out of France and liberating Paris, which was under Nazi control at the time. As was the case in the last game, you're placed in the role of several different soldiers and you'll participate in campaigns for America, Britain, Canada, and Poland. Each country's campaign has a unique storyline that is supposed to get you emotionally involved with the characters, but the stories aren't very interesting; there's a soldier with a strong distaste for the French, an overbearing sergeant, and a young radio operator who has been labeled a coward. Though the stories aren't particularly engaging, fighting for four different armies works because it gives you a sense of not only how much effort it took to wrestle control of France from the Germans, but also that it wasn't just the United States that lost men and women in World War II.

The game opens with a brief training mission. Here, you'll learn how to fire weapons and throw grenades, as well as how to move around. The controls offer a lot of variety, yet they're still easy to learn. You can fire your weapon with R1, but this doesn't allow for much accuracy. For precision aiming, you'll want to press L1, which raises your gun to eye level and lets you use the weapon's sight. Here, you're vulnerable during the time it takes to raise your weapon and while you wait for the blurring effect that simulates your eyes focusing to clear up. It's a subtle effect, but it works really well and it's not overdone. You can also perform a melee attack by pressing the right analog stick or by rotating the controller 90 degrees. Clicking the left analog stick brings up your binoculars--an unfortunate button-mapping choice because it's far too easy to accidentally push the stick down when you're scrambling for your life. You can toss smoke grenades to create cover and frag grenades to clear large groups of Wehrmacht. Call of Duty 3 also lets you scoop up grenades thrown by the enemy and toss them back. To prevent your grenades from being returned to sender, you can "cook" a grenade by pressing and holding R2, which lets the grenade get closer to detonating before you throw it. This is an important technique to master--not only because it's useful, but also because screwing it up results in a grenade exploding in your hands. Because there's no health bar in the game, you'll need to watch the screen when you're getting hit. As you get shot, the edges of the screen turn crimson and close in around you the more you get hit. Should you fall victim to a grenade or a bullet and not die, all you have to do is seek shelter to recover your health.

After your training is complete, you hop in the back of a truck and ride into battle. When you get out of the truck, or rather are blown out of the truck by an explosion, you're boosted over the cemetery wall. Here, you'll find yourself in the midst of one of the most impressive firefights in any first-person shooter to date. Everywhere you look, there's carnage. Bullets and grenades whiz through the air while bombs explode all around, leaving soldiers to scramble for whatever cover they can find--be it a bombed-out mausoleum or a grave stone. The bodies of your fallen comrades are strewn about the battlefield--a stark reminder that unless you want to join them, you need to keep moving. A later level sees you making your way across a pasture using a tank (and even the carcasses of dead cows) as cover to shield yourself from the Nazi soldiers who surround the field. Most of the rest of the game's 14 missions aren't quite as intense as these two examples, but there's rarely a dull moment to be found.

Call of Duty 3 isn't a run-and-gun FPS, but it's not as slow-paced as a tactical shooter, either. You'll fight alongside CPU-controlled soldiers, and you'll generally need to stay behind cover, pick off as many soldiers as you can, and then advance to the next safe location. Since you spend so much time behind cover, it would have been nice to have the ability to lean, but you can do pretty well without it. Because the game's artificial intelligence appears "smarter" than a typical FPS, it can be frustrating to be unable to clear a particular section because of cheap tricks like how new enemies will spawn to replace fallen soldiers in outdoor levels (they don't do this indoors). But once you come to grips with the fact that you can't kill them all, it shouldn't bother you much. You still need to be careful not to shoot fellow soldiers, but the game is forgiving--you're not forced to restart when you fire that first bullet into your comrade's chest. Call of Duty 3 isn't a terribly difficult game on the default setting, nor is it particularly lengthy, clocking in at 8 to 10 hours from start to finish. On the default difficulty, enemy soldiers aren't very aggressive and they'll follow the same patterns over and over, so it's easy to sit back and wait for them to show themselves. Series veterans looking for more of a challenge will want to bump up the difficulty to hard or veteran, as doing so results in a vastly different and more intense experience. Enemies are much more aggressive, they're better shots, and your health disappears much quicker.

Mission objectives are varied but don't stray far from what you'd expect from the type of first-person shooter that takes place in World War II. Sometimes you'll simply need to get from point A to point B, while other times you'll need to defend an area from attack, rescue hostages, or plant explosives. You'll also have to use your binoculars to mark targets for air strikes, man stationary guns, and even ride in the back of a jeep and pick off bad guys with the jeep's machine gun. A couple of other scenarios have you behind the controls of a tank and you'll need to eliminate enemy tanks and armored vehicles. The tanks are unwieldy at first, but once you get the hang of them, it's a blast driving around and blowing stuff up. Rather than a single path to success, there are multiple ways to approach missions. Sometimes the game presents you with clear-cut options, while other times you'll have to find them on your own. Each objective is shown as a star on your radar, making them easy to find even in the heat of battle.

The motion-sensing capabilities of the Sixaxis are used in a couple of ways, but none of these add much to the experience. Rather than just hitting a button to plant a bomb and then running away, you'll need to hit a button, rotate the controller a few times to insert the fuse, and then hit a button to arm the bomb. There's also a close-quarters battle mechanic that takes place when you're surprised by an enemy. These scripted events have you rapidly tilting the controller left and right to fight off your attacker and then pressing a face button to finish him off. Some of the scenes look pretty cool, but the mechanics are boring and there are less than 10 of these situations in the entire game, so they're rather worthless. Not all of the game's action takes place with you on foot. There are a few missions that place you in the driver's seat of a jeep, and it's your job to follow the checkpoints and avoid enemy fire while escaping from an area or rescuing hostages. The driving missions aren't particularly exciting, but driving by holding up the Sixaxis and using it as a steering wheel is pretty fun.

Call of Duty 3's online component is more robust on the Xbox 360, but there's still a lot to like on the PlayStation 3. Twenty-four people can play online, but whereas four players per Xbox 360 could go online, just one person can play on a single PS3, and there's no ranked play. Having 24 people in a match makes for some intense action, though it's difficult to make a difference operating as a lone soldier. There are nine different multiplayer maps and six different match types available for play, including team battles, capture the flag, headquarters, and more. If you're looking to play as something other than a basic soldier, there are seven different kits to choose from, including a medic who can revive players and a support soldier that delivers ammo. And you won't have to hoof it all the time, either. Jeeps, tanks, and motorcycles are found throughout the levels, adding even more depth to an already deep multiplayer experience. Playing on prerelease servers, the online action ran smoothly with nary a hint of lag.

It's worth noting that we encountered a handful of bugs in the single-player campaign. None of these prevented the game from being completed, but they did force us to restart levels from previously saved checkpoints. In several instances our soldier got stuck in the floor, and we got temporarily stuck a few times because a computer-controlled soldier had stopped in front of us, while another stopped right behind us. The most annoying glitch was that the CPU can occasionally see and shoot through walls and doors, which lead to many frustrating deaths.

Call of Duty 3's visuals are great, though a problematic frame rate leaves the game looking decidedly less impressive than it does on the Xbox 360. The game, of course, looks best in high definition (the maximum resolution is 720p), but it still looks nice when viewed on a standard television display. The draw distance is excellent, and you'll never notice any buildings or textures suddenly popping into view. Whether it's a farm in the French countryside or a war-torn village, each level is very detailed and looks fantastic. The outdoor environments are particularly impressive, and though you'll run into an invisible wall should you stray too far, smart level design makes them feel larger than they really are. There are plenty of lush bushes, thick grass, and large trees to use as cover, and they all look great. The textures feature a lot of detail and look nice when viewed up close. It's hard to appreciate every little detail when you're trying to escape death, but the cutscenes offer a chance to enjoy the improved presentation without having to worry about getting shot because you stopped to admire the falling rain, planes flying overhead, or a puddle that has collected in a hole left by a grenade. The game's effects are outstanding. Throwing a smoke grenade results in a thick cloud of smoke so dense and so realistic you'll sometimes find yourself squinting in an effort to see better. Explosions from grenades, rockets, and bombs are similarly impressive.

There are a couple of visual issues that mar the otherwise great graphics. Key amongst these is the erratic frame rate. It was fast and mostly smooth on the 360, but the game's extremely choppy on the PlayStation 3. This problem isn't limited to hectic battle sequences either--it'll chug in rooms that are completely empty. It never happened to a soldier that was alive, but after you kill them, dead soldiers will occasionally get stuck in walls and even float in midair. It's also possible to see the sparks from weapons fire through solid walls. Even though most of the textures are quite good, some of them aren't all that impressive and some of the indoor environments, houses in particular, are repetitive.

Call of Duty 3 sounds great, even if you're listening to it through your TV's built-in speakers. But if you've got your PlayStation 3 hooked up to a surround-sound setup, the game sounds phenomenal. You'll hear bullets coming from all directions and explosions will rattle your (and your neighbor's) walls. The chatter from both your fellow soldiers and your enemies not only adds to the atmosphere, but also provides helpful clues as to what you need to do next. Your squadmates will direct you to the next checkpoint or cover, and listening to Nazi soldiers will let you know their tactics as well as if your presence has been detected. Joel Goldsmith (Star Trek: First Contact, Stargate SG-1) has written a gorgeous orchestral soundtrack that elevates the presentation to another level. Performed by the Slovak Symphony Orchestra, the majestic score is on par with that of any major motion picture. It's a shame there's no option to just listen to the music from the game--it's that good.

From start to finish, Call of Duty 3 is an intense experience and a great game. The visuals are mostly excellent and the sound is some of the best in any game to date. However, an inconsistent frame rate and fewer multiplayer options make the PlayStation 3 version slightly inferior to the Xbox 360 version. Ultimately, if the Call of Duty series hasn't won you over previously, Call of Duty 3 isn't going to do much to change your mind. But for anyone who considers themselves a fan of the series, Call of Duty 3 is a must-play.

Source: Gamespot

Europa Universalis III

2007-02-08T03:13:00.000-08:00

Europa Universalis III refers to itself as a "grand strategy game" on the game box, and developer Paradox certainly isn't kidding. It may "only" span just more than 330 years of Renaissance and Reformation history, but it lets you take control of hundreds of nations, using any means at your disposal to expand your borders. It's the kind of thing that historical strategists lap up but that often leaves others in the cold. Yet, if you've been intimidated by similar complex games in the past, it's time to rethink your position. Europa Universalis III is bursting with all the features armchair generals expect while welcoming newcomers with open arms and a friendly, intuitive interface. It improves upon nearly every aspect of its predecessors, and the result is an addictive and appealing experience, even for those who usually shy away from games with screenshots that look like a geography lesson.

At first glance, Europa Universalis III may remind you of a turn-based strategy game, yet it takes place entirely in real time. Still, you aren't apt to get overwhelmed, because you can slow the passage of time down to a crawl and pause when necessary, which is not to say that there isn't a lot to do and consider, regardless of how you adjust the game speed. From the moment you play your first game, you must choose a starting date--somewhere between 1453 and 1792--and a nation to control. And yes, you can choose essentially any nation that existed on the date you begin, from major political players to tiny principalities long forgotten by most. Yet even at the starting moments, which newcomers to the genre would normally find daunting, the game suggests some noteworthy dates as entry points and offers information about the nations at your disposal, including a difficulty rating. It also boasts a decent collection of tutorials, which is a welcome feature sorely needed but often missing in similar games.

Once you've chosen a starting date, it's time to get to work, but what you set out to accomplish is purely up to you. You don't have a specific set of goals, so if you are content to convert your provinces to the official state religion or send settlers to the New World for fame and fortune, you can do so without worrying about world domination. In fact, the series has never been about establishing universal dictatorship--it's about shaping and experiencing history in both subtle and profound ways. Don't expect to take over the globe as you would in Civilization. However, you still have a variety of ways to achieve what you want, no matter how small the scope.

The military route is one of the most obvious ways to achieve your goals, even if not always the most viable. You can build infantry, artillery, or cavalry regiments. Or if you prefer your battles by sea, you've got a variety of ships at your disposal. As you create regiments, you can then further combine and separate them into armies of various components. Armies aren't very effective without a leader, though, so if you want a general, you must first recruit one. Or if you're feeling particularly self-assured, you can even assign your nation's leader to command your troops in battle. Yet even if you build a sizable army, don't expect to send them willy-nilly into battle, at least not without grave consequences. Unless you have a casus belli--a reason for war--you are going to anger your neighbors, cause internal unrest, and disrupt important alliances.

Thus begins the tug of war that forces you to maintain every aspect of your government, should you wish to succeed at even the small goals you set. If you want to attack without provocation, you can do so, but with a major hit to your internal stability. The less stable your nation, the more likely provinces will revolt, which in turn creates unnecessary battles that distract from your major military goals. Other less obvious relationships will also be affected. You can be tied to other nations by royal marriage, mutual alliance, trade agreements, and more. And as the web of diplomacy widens, so too must your grasp of the other options at your disposal, even if you're the fighting type.

Fortunately, you can influence other nations in several ways, and it's as easy as sending someone else to do your dirty work. You can take the underhanded route and conduct espionage, which is a new addition to the Europa Universalis franchise. Spies have a number of ways of disrupting enemies, from inciting unrest to causing troop desertion. Your spy isn't always successful, and even if he is, there's a chance he could get caught, which may disrupt your goals and even give the other nation a casus belli against you. Fortunately, you can send off diplomats to strengthen and repair (or damage, if you prefer) international relationships by offering alliances, issuing trade embargos, or suggesting a vassalization. There are a few diplomatic actions that rather cheaply manufacture a cause for war, though, such as proclaiming a guarantee, which gives you a reason to attack a nation that assaults the one you offered the guarantee to. Because most guarantees have a 100 percent chance of succeeding, it's a simple way of getting some action, but it comes across as a shortcut that lets you generate war without much cause and just seems out of place as a result.

Controlling your economy and government is easy to learn but requires a great deal of consideration as you progress, because a single decision can disturb your direction and have unexpected effects. The system of sliders that controls your government's ideals is one such aspect. Serfdom vs. freedom, centralized vs. decentralized, and many more policies are controlled by a system of sliders. Yet these choices aren't to be taken lightly. You can only adjust a slider a single notch every few years, and in doing so, you should expect a decrease in stability and resulting revolts in multiple provinces. Yet the decision can have other consequences too. For example, as the Ottoman Empire you can nudge your trading slider toward free trade and away from mercantilism to start generating settlers and explore unknown territory. However, in doing so you might fail to choose a national idea that allows exploration of the New World and, as a result, cause major internal unrest without benefits you can immediately use.

Speaking of national ideas, as you throw money into your government, you can establish policies that open up new gameplay possibilities or offer major enhancements to your style of play. If you enjoy converting heathens to your national religion, you might want to grab divine supremacy, which grants you more missionaries. Grand navy allows you to build more ships. Along with the sliders that control your economy, religion, and domestic policies, these ideas let you slowly mold the shape of your nation and increase your international prestige. You can't establish a new national idea all that often, but when you get the opportunity, it's a nail-biting process of balancing the pros and cons of each choice.

Yet as complex as all of this is, Europa Universalis III is easy to learn and get into simply because you don't have to accomplish any one thing. The game's scale is huge, and world events take place all around you with or without your input, so it's easy for newcomers to feel a bit lost. But it's easy to get around the game map and find all the information and options you need, so you don't need to dig through a dozen menus to perform a simple task. Do you want to create a regiment? Click on a province, select the unit you want to build, and you're done. Do you want to see how many merchants, missionaries, and spies you have at your disposal? It's right there on the main display. Do you need to see how far the Holy Roman Empire has spread its ideals? A single click gets you there. There is still room for improvement, specifically when locating nations on the map. You can bring up a list of known nations and your standing with them in your domestic interface, but it would have been nice to be able to click on a nation's listing to immediately go to that nation rather than move to the ledger listing to do it. A set of Civilization-type advisors would have been welcome as well, particularly for those who get lost and need some direction. The game has advisors to be sure, but they function more as research and policy bonuses than anything else, so they don't have any in-game advice to offer.

The complete set of multiplayer options is just more icing on the proverbial cake. You can play against others over a local network and connect via an IP address, and if you register your copy of the game, you can enter the metaserver, which is an in-game match browser. The game supports an incredible 32 players in a single game, although it would be tough to coordinate such a large-scale match. Yet even with just a few others, Europa Universalis III is a blast to play particularly because multiple players can play as the same nation, which adds a level of coordination and flexibility the single-player game can't provide.

Europa Universalis III is no graphical powerhouse, nor are most big strategy games of this type, so you won't watch big armies of two dozen individual units clashing or encounter shiny bump mapping. But in the realm of similar strategy games, the game looks quite nice and is Paradox's first excursion into a fully 3D engine. Both the world map and the menus are colorful and clear, and armies are easy to find. The flowing ocean water is a particularly nice touch. There are also some nice details on the topographical view when you zoom in, and visual cues, such as burning cities that indicate a siege under way, are done well. It also sounds attractive, thanks to a lovely soundtrack that manages to mix a number of tunes together without getting grating, which is no mean feat for an audio design that consists mostly of music. It isn't devoid of sonic cues, though, such as blade effects that indicate clashing armies and factory noises when you build provincial improvements.

Europa Universalis III is the best game in the franchise, thanks to such new gameplay elements as espionage and national ideas, yet what makes it even greater is just how easy it is for almost anyone to enjoy. If sweeping strategy games with multiple layers of complex decisions have turned you off before, this is the perfect opportunity to find out what enthusiasts love about them. It may be a "grand strategy game," but it can be as big or as small as you want. Just be ready to lose dozens upon dozens of hours under its spell.

Source : Gamespot

MotorStorm

2007-01-23T02:39:00.000-08:00

Sony's SCEE-developed MotorStorm is set to hit the PlayStation 3 with a muddy, physics-heavy bang when it comes to the US early next year. The over-the-top racer has been catching attention since it first appeared at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo as a flashy trailer and has been prominently featured at a number of Sony events. Most recently the game has appeared in demo form in the PlayStation 3 online store. Though the demo offers a taste of what to expect from the upcoming game, Sony recently showed off an even more polished work-in-progress version at a press event that featured new tracks as well as a look at how the single-player game is going to work. We had the chance to hit the road with the game and talk to a member of the development team to find out more about this crazy racer.

The version on display at the event showed off the centerpiece of the single-player game: the MotorStorm Festival. The Burning Man-esque festival takes place in a desert setting and appears to be attended by throngs of action junkies looking for a fix. The game's front end contains video of the attendees walking about and is shot in a documentary-style complete with shaky camera. Besides serving as an eye-catching visual, the festival serves as the structure for you to progress through the game. You're essentially cast as an attendee and participate in the festival by entering events. The various events will become available to you as you collect the appropriate tickets. Each ticket will represent a specific event and, from what we saw, will offer anywhere from one to several races for you to engage in. The events appear to range from a typical race wherein everyone is using a similar off-road vehicle, to crazier scenarios wherein you'll be required to use an alternate vehicle, such as a dirt bike, while everyone else is rocking cars. Once you get the hang of such insanity, you'll find that some events don't tie you to a specific vehicle and will let you choose whatever you feel like driving. As you clear the events, more tickets will become available and will send you to different locales to get your race on.

We were limited to the first three tickets in the game, which let us check out several new tracks--with suitably edgy names like The Grizzly, Mud Pool, and Rockhopper--and their events. For the most part, the tracks featured variations on the themes we've seen in the game: high-speed racing on cliffs that rely on well-thought-out, or incredibly lucky, maneuvering and the use of your vehicle's boost. This time we were able to get a better appreciation for the different routes through the various tracks. The routes are highlighted on one of the load screens shown before races and offer you food for thought as you try to figure out just how you're going to use that flimsy motorcycle against a pack of big rigs and take first in a race. The Mud Pool area showed off the gooey challenge of tearing through mud at high speeds.

Control in the game is solid and varies in accordance with what you happen to be driving. The layout on the Sixaxis is intuitive and even offers the option to use the motion sensing functionality to steer your vehicle. The larger big rigs are a challenge to control due to their size and the high speeds you'll be traveling at, whereas the motorcycles are fast-moving rockets that are destined to send you flying off into open space initially until you get used to their quirks. The game's arcade-style sensibilities have kept the solid control and high-speed racing balanced between fun and realism. You'll have to respect the natural order of physics, but it doesn't wind up being so realistic that you can't have some fun.

Sony reps on hand offered up some additional information on what to expect from the game beyond what was on display. First and foremost was the game's artificial intelligence, which, because the tracks we were racing on were taken from the start of the game, was about as nonconfrontational as could be. As you progress deeper in the game, the AI will apparently go from "Care Bear" to "completely hateful," resulting in opponents that will eventually start teaming up on you and actively trying to rub you out during a race. Reps also verified that the copious amounts of damage your car will undergo will not affect its handling, because the team wanted to focus on a fun racing experience that skewed arcade-y (as evidenced by the lack of an onscreen speedometer or map). However, the big question mark for us was MotorStorm's online content, which has been discussed here and there but never properly outlined. While reps weren't able to lay it all out for us yet since the online component is still being worked on, they did offer some solid tidbits. The game is currently being targeted to support a minimum of up to eight players with support for voice chat. The team also intends to offer online ranking you can track via leaderboards, as well as tournament support. Finally, as we've seen demoed before, the game will also support downloadable content in the form of tracks and vehicles, though specifics on what and how much aren't ready just yet.

The visuals in this version of game show off some additional polish, focusing mainly on performance and effects that give the experience a sharper look. The various vehicles looked great, thanks to a high level of detail and a cool, though painful, level of deformation, which is one of the game's selling points. Next to the overall madness of tearing along on cliff edges, seeing your car come apart in various chunks as you slam into objects and opponents is primal pleasure. The new mud track also appeared to be delivering on the promise of the early demos of the game that showed off the messy, gooey physics you'd expect when tearing through a muddy course. As far as speed goes, MotorStorm cruises along at a fairly stable and smooth frame rate. Though the game doesn't have the blistering speed of a 60-frame-per-second racer, the inclusion of various motion blur and particle effects conveys a suitably white-knuckle sense of motion in both the first- and third-person cameras offered. The only rough edge we noticed was some inconsistent texture work, which varied radically from the gorgeous, near-photo-realistic locations and vehicles, to much simpler textures that looked smeared. To be fair, many of the less-attractive textures were in out-of-the-way places we happened upon after careening out of control. Sony was showing the game off in 720p on some epic Bravia televisions via an HDMI cable, which gave the visuals some extra kick.

The audio suits the action perfectly and doesn't differ too much from what we've heard before. The engine noise and collisions are still satisfying and painful, depending on how the race is going. The racing music predictably leans toward loud rock tunes from Slipknot and the like, which is fine, since MotorStorm doesn't exactly lend itself to a catchy pop soundtrack.

Based on what we played, MotorStorm is shaping up to be a tasty PS3 game. It features a solid gameplay foundation that's satisfying, albeit straightforward. The visuals and audio complement the action well and do a good job of holding your attention. The promise of online play and downloadable content (provided we don't get charged an arm and a leg for it) should definitely help the game find an audience. MotorStorm is currently slated to ship in March 2007. Look for more on the game in the coming months, including import impressions of the Japanese version, which is slated for this month.

Source : Gamespot

Neverwinter Nights 2

2007-01-22T04:52:00.000-08:00

To say that the expectations are high for Neverwinter Nights 2 would be a massive understatement. Not only is it the sequel to one of the best role-playing games ever to bear the Dungeons & Dragons license, but it's also been developed by some of the creative talent behind such other revered role-playing games as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. The good news is that Neverwinter Nights 2 lives up to its pedigree by delivering a captivating story full of exciting twists and characters who you'll grow attached to out of fondness or, perhaps even better, complete loathing. It's not without a few frustrating technical shortcomings, but overall Neverwinter Nights 2 is a great role-playing adventure that just about anyone can enjoy.

As great as the story is in Neverwinter Nights 2, it's difficult to convey without spoiling the plot; but suffice it to say that it will keep your interest throughout the entire campaign--which, at around 50 hours long, is no small feat. You begin the game by creating a character. You can choose a race, subrace, appearance, class, moral alignment, and even a voice for your hero. After you create your character, you are taken on a journey that will see you rise from your beginnings as a humble peasant to become one of the most respected and elite heroes of Neverwinter. It's a long journey that involves the awakening of an arcane and unstable evil power that only a chosen savior (guess who?) can banish. As cliché as it sounds, the story reaches far beyond the usual good-versus-evil plot. You'll get a heavy dose of political treachery; shattered, shifting, and solidified alliances; ethereal mysticism; dark secrets; and much, much more. In addition to the main story, the world is full of side stories that you can explore or ignore as you see fit. It all adds up to make this feel like a real world with real history and very real inhabitants, but beyond even that, the game does a great job of making you feel like an integral part of that world, rather than some insular hero who comes out of nowhere to save the day and then disappears.

A large part of what makes the story so interesting is that you play an active role in the way it unfolds. As you talk to all of the characters in the world, you're given several choices in how to respond, and your responses often have a very apparent effect on the progression of the story. When speaking to someone, you might be given the choice to lie, intimidate, or simply ask questions to get the information or response you're looking for. The choices aren't black-and-white, though, and you'll often come across some difficult moral dilemmas that make your part in the conversation much more interesting. Your responses have both immediate and delayed effects. If you tell a goblin chieftain that you're sick of hearing him talk and would rather paint the walls with his blood, you can expect that you'll have an immediate fight on your hands. But sometimes the effects are more subtle. If you are forced to make a decision and one of your party members tries to convince you to take a certain course of action, you can comply or simply tell her to keep quiet. Either way, your influence over that person will be affected. It isn't much of an issue at first, but repeatedly going against an ally's wishes can eventually turn him or her against you. The interactive dialogue is well written and so engaging that you'll probably want to save your game often, so you can reload and repeat conversations just to see what will happen if you choose your words differently.

Even though you create a character who serves as the central hero for the tale, there's a great and varied cast of supporting characters who will join you along the way. You can have up to three supporting characters in your party, in addition to the occasional non-player or special character who will tag along with you. With a quick click you can take direct control over any of your party members at any time (as long as they're conscious), which adds some welcome variety to the single-player experience because you aren't pigeonholed into playing a single class for the entire game. By creating a well-rounded party of casters, fighters, rogues, and rangers, you'll have access to a huge array of skills and abilities.

For the most part you'll use those skills and abilities to combat all kinds of monsters, people, spirits, and animals that always seem to get in your way. The combat takes place in real time, but you have the option to pause the game and assign up to five successive actions to each of your characters. Then it's just a matter of hitting the space bar to unpause the game and watching your characters go to work. The most frequent battles don't usually require that level of management, though, because you'll almost always come out on top by just rushing into a mob of enemies and letting the artificial intelligence do the work. If you do happen to lose all your health you'll be temporarily knocked out (despite the cobwebbed corpse icon that replaces your character portrait). As long as one of your characters survives the battle your party will revive, and then you can use the rest function to fully replenish your health in just a few seconds.

Unfortunately, the AI in Neverwinter Nights 2 isn't always reliable. If you're in an open area you can usually count on your companions to stick by you and back you up in a fight, but when you're exploring the narrow hallways and labyrinthine corridors of the games' numerous, sprawling dungeons, your characters will sometimes get lost or stuck, or will just freeze up for no apparent reason. Needless to say, it's extremely frustrating when you're in the middle of a heated battle and your supporting characters are just standing there watching you get trounced. At least if that happens you can pause the game and assign actions to spur your lifeless cohorts to action, but when you have to struggle just to get your characters to follow you, you'll find your patience wearing thin.

Don't worry, though--all that work fighting mob after mob of nefarious foes does pay off. Primarily you'll be vanquishing evil for the sake of completing quests. There are a ton of quests in the game, most of which you aren't actually required to complete in order to beat the game. The quest design is interesting and usually fits well within the context of the story. There are some quests that just require you to find or deliver a certain item, but the required quests are usually much more involved than that. You'll be asked to do everything from saving damsels in distress to answering riddles and even acting as a trial attorney. By completing quests you earn experience points, and when you have enough experience points your characters will gain a level. By gaining levels you develop basic skills like strength, dexterity, and intelligence, and you also learn new feats and spells. You also gain experience points for defeating enemies, but the vast majority of your experience comes from finishing quests, and all of your characters earn experience simultaneously, whether they're actively in your party or not.

In addition to experience points, you'll collect copious amounts of treasure that you can use or sell for gold. Since your weapons and armor greatly affect your stats and performance in battle, you'll always be on the lookout for new and exotic treasures that will help you squeeze a little bit more damage out of each blow you land on your enemies. There's also an item synthesis system in Neverwinter Nights 2 that lets you collect ingredients and recipes and use them to create new, useful items, as long as your character is at the required skill level to do so. Still, you'll probably end up selling the vast majority of the loot you collect, rather than actually using it.

The joy of looting is slightly diminished by the unnecessarily cumbersome interface. There's no way to sort your items by type, so you'll end up having to sift through four pages of cluttered, often barely distinguishable icons representing all of your items. To examine your items you have to right-click and select the option from a menu, which makes checking the stats on the new bastard sword you just picked up a bit more of a hassle than it should be. Interface issues like these have been addressed in numerous other role-playing games, so it feels a bit dated here.

Neverwinter Nights 2 bears the official Dungeons & Dragons license, which is apparent right from the beginning of the game when you start reading about things like saving throws, will saves, modifiers, armor class, and die rolls. Everything from creatures and items to character classes and abilities are all taken from version 3.5 of Dungeons & Dragons. If you've never rolled a 20-sided die in your life then you might be a bit confused by all the stats and jargon in this game, but if you give it a bit of time you shouldn't have a problem getting a general idea of how everything works. After all, the same principle of "bigger numbers are better" that works in just about every role-playing game still applies here. If you're a D&D veteran, though, you'll feel right at home here, and you aren't likely to find a more accurate and faithful adaptation of the Dungeons & Dragons rule set in any other video game.

Like Dungeons & Dragons, Neverwinter Nights 2 emphasizes multiplayer interaction and creative development. You can play the game online or on a local network with up to three other players. The single-player campaign is available to play cooperatively, although you'll need to start from the beginning because you can't add new players into an existing single-player game. You can set options such as a level cap, item restrictions, and whether or not to allow players to damage each other. The in-game server browser makes it easy to find or set up a game, and although you need a BioWare Community account to log in, it's free and easy to set up, and it just requires an e-mail address. We did notice some slight lag when playing multiplayer on a local network, but not enough to cause any real problems.

If you've had enough of the main story campaign, you can create your own and share them online. Included with Neverwinter Nights 2 is an editor program so robust that it's seemingly limited only by your own imagination. It will take a good deal of time and effort to start building your dream campaign, but the possibilities are there if you're determined and moderately savvy with similar software. Given the large and active community of module creators for the original Neverwinter Nights game, the opportunity is there for the sequel to be just as interminable as its predecessor.

Most of the shortcomings of Neverwinter Nights 2 are technical in nature. First off, the game has some fairly steep system requirements, but that horsepower won't get you much. Even on a system that exceeds the recommended specs, with all of the options maxed out, there are some rough spots that make this game look dated. In some of the dialogue sequences the view switches to a zoomed-in, letterbox perspective. It's a nice effect that makes the cutscenes a bit more dramatic than small text windows, but getting in that close also reveals some blurry, low-resolution textures, jerky character animations, and frequent clipping. The game doesn't look bad by any means, and some of the level designs are genuinely interesting and fun to explore, but at the same time it's reasonable to expect the game to be a bit more pleasing on the eyes given its system requirements. When a character's beard is clipping right through his chest, or when he floats across the floor without moving his legs, the game just looks a little sloppy. That said, some of the spell effects are pretty spectacular, and when you're in a large battle with several casters it's like watching a pyrotechnics show.

The most frustrating part of the presentation in Neverwinter Nights 2 is the camera. There are four different camera modes to choose from, but they all require almost constant adjustment to see what's going on. The camera will get stuck on a building or object or will just start tweaking out for no reason, which is incredibly annoying. The best option is to zoom the camera all the way out for a bird's-eye view. Even then you'll feel like you've found a barely workable solution rather than an ideal viewing angle. You'll eventually come to terms with the camera, but it's unnecessarily awkward.

This game sounds much better than it looks. There's a ton of voiced dialogue in the game, and although some of the voices are annoying, all of the main characters sound great, and their respective voices lend each one a lot of personality. From the sinister-sounding evil wizard to the feisty young demon girl, the voices all sound appropriate and fitting. The music is excellent, with dramatic orchestrated tracks that sound as if they could be taken right from a big-budget Hollywood film. The music does a great job of setting an appropriately grandiose and bombastic backdrop for your adventure, without being overwhelming.

If you're willing to look past a few relatively minor technical issues, you'll have a great time exploring the world of Neverwinter Nights 2. The excellent story, characters, and quests will appeal to your sense of adventure without getting overly convoluted. The many paths you can take through the lengthy single-player campaign are enough to make this game worth your money, but when you factor in the multiplayer and the editing tools you'll find that Neverwinter Nights 2 is a fantastic value and a thoroughly enjoyable game.

Source : Gamespot

Rainbow Six

2007-01-13T23:55:00.000-08:00

Fans of the Rainbow Six games for the PC have had every reason of late to be bitter. The popular tactical shooter franchise originally began on the PC and offered up the first realistic tactical shooting action around. However, over the past few years Rainbow Six fully migrated to the various consoles, and the hardcore, realistic action was watered down quite a bit. So there will be a tendency by PC fans to want to ignore Rainbow Six Vegas, which would be a mistake. Yes, Rainbow Six Vegas is essentially a direct port of an Xbox 360 game, but Ubisoft has done an incredible job of reinvigorating Rainbow Six. The gameplay has been refreshed and reinvented, and Rainbow Six Vegas offers up some of the best tactical shooting action on the PC.

First, the PC version is almost exactly the same as the Xbox 360 version. Instead of taking the path that it used for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, where the PC and Xbox 360 versions featured completely different games, Ubisoft must have figured that it had something special with the Xbox 360 version and wisely decided to deliver that same experience to the PC. Thus, the single-player campaign is exactly the same, and the multiplayer features almost all the functionality of the Xbox 360 version.

In the campaign, you play as Logan Keller, the leader of one of Rainbow's elite three-man counterterrorist assault teams who is called into action after an operation in Mexico goes bad and, for some reason, the terrorists strike the casinos and high-rise hotels of Las Vegas. Your job is to stop them and ascertain their intentions, which involves the standard McGuffin device that will kill millions and a secret military base hidden inside a massive hydroelectric dam. The story borrows a few too many plot twists seen in other Ubisoft games, namely the excellent Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and the lack of a satisfying resolution also makes the plot feel like a paper-thin reason to battle an army of terrorists in Las Vegas, of all places; but we're willing to overlook it, because the combat in Rainbow Six Vegas is simply excellent.

In Rainbow Six Vegas, slabs of concrete are your best friend, along with the edges of doorways, slot machines, the sides of SUVs, and pretty much anything else solid that you can put between yourself and the enemy. The controls translate fairly elegantly to the PC's mouse and keyboard. By moving up to those objects and holding down the right mouse button, you can "hug" the cover and then poke your body out from the sides or the top to shoot at the enemy before ducking down again. Or, if you're under heavy fire, you can poke your rifle around the corner and fire blindly to keep the bad guys at bay. The game seamlessly transitions from first-person to third-person perspective when you do, so you get a very cinematic effect of watching yourself huddle behind cover while bullets impact around you.

You don't fight alone in Rainbow Six Vegas, either; you're usually accompanied by your two teammates. The artificial intelligence does a great job of controlling these agents as they follow you. Pathfinding, for instance, is very rarely a problem, as they can navigate the cluttered environment effectively, and they use cover just as well as you do. Controlling your teammates is simple, too. By simply pointing at a spot on the ground and tapping the space bar, you can tell them to move to that position. Point at a door and hit the space bar, and they'll "stack up" to it, or get into position to clear the room. Tapping on the Alt key tells them to either hold place or fall in behind you. In fact, the controls for the game in general are pretty intuitive and simple, and we found it effortless to do complex tasks such as snaking a flexible camera under a door, calling out the targets inside to our team, and then executing a simultaneous takedown from two different angles.

What also promotes Rainbow Six Vegas over its predecessors is the sensation that you're really playing as an elite commando. In a page or two borrowed from Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher, you can play in a highly mobile and agile manner. You can quickly rope out of a helicopter onto the top floor of a skyscraper, run over to the side, and leap over the edge on a rappel line, all in a few seconds. While on the rappel line you can hang upside down, lower yourself far enough to see into the target room, then call out the location of the terrorists inside. Then, on your command, your team will burst through the window and clear the room. This isn't just a mere gimmick, either, as the levels are designed so that most rooms have multiple points of entry, so you can determine your takedown strategy for each one. Admittedly, one of the contrivances in the game is that bad guys in a neighboring room seem unaware of all the gunfire and explosions going on down the hall, but at least this lets you execute textbook takedown after takedown throughout a level.

On the normal difficulty level, Rainbow Six Vegas is a moderately challenging game, though it's fairly forgiving thanks to the fact that you can absorb a fair amount of damage before you die. Rainbow Six Vegas uses a regenerating health system, so there are no health packs or health meters to worry about. Instead, when you take damage your vision begins to blur, and if you take too much damage you die. However, if you manage to find cover and avoid getting shot for a few seconds, your vision begins to clear and you'll be back at full health. This lowers the frustration level considerably, as you don't have to worry about rationing the health meter like you did in this year's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter.

However, if you ratchet up the difficulty setting to "realistic," Rainbow Six Vegas becomes an incredibly tense and difficult experience--in a good way. In realistic mode, the amount of damage you can absorb before you die is much lower than in normal mode, and this makes you really rely on using real-world tactics and playing a lot more conservatively (and, well, realistically). For instance, instead of charging across an open area like you might on normal difficulty, you'll probably want to pop a smoke grenade to provide concealment; otherwise, you'll get cut down before you get halfway to your destination. Realistic mode will result in you dying a lot, but when you do, you'll realize more often than not that it's because you did something stupid, which means you get to learn from your mistakes and be smarter for it.

Speaking of dying, the game uses a checkpoint save system, so when you do die, you'll get a chance to start back at the latest checkpoint. While you can quickly heal fallen teammates in single-player by injecting them with the magic medical serum if you get to them in time, if you fall your teammates won't be able to save you in the similar manner, so it's back to the checkpoint. Longtime PC shooter fans will likely cry out for a quick save option, but at least the checkpoints are reasonably spaced, and there's usually one before ever major set-piece battle, which is helpful. Most of these larger battles are fairly scripted, but they're pretty intense nonetheless. Bad guys come rappelling down from above, and the AI in general is good about using cover and grenades as effectively as you do. There's nothing quite as eye-opening as seeing a frag grenade land right next to your character, or as frantic as trying to get away and behind cover before it explodes.

The single-player campaign in Rainbow Six Vegas isn't quite as lengthy as in many other realistic shooters, but the game compensates for this by having such interesting and repayable tactical battles. You can go back again and tackle the game in realistic mode, or you can experiment with different approaches. And there's plenty of replay value to be found in the extensive multiplayer suite. The single-player campaign can be played cooperatively, both in story mode and in terrorist hunt, which pits you and your buddies against a bunch of randomly placed terrorists. You can also play with up to four players cooperatively, which is an interesting number since the single-player campaign features only three Rainbow agents at a time. Still, realistic difficulty is tough enough that you can really use effective team tactics to tackle some of the harder missions, and there's something very cool about being able to strategize with your buddies while in the middle of a fight. The only setback to co-op mode is that instead of automatically loading the next level in the chain when playing in story mode, the game recycles the existing map. You have to set up the server ahead of time to advance to the next level in the story, or load it manually.

In addition to co-op, Rainbow Six Vegas features a number of fun competitive modes with support for up to 16 players. Retrieval is a particularly good one, modeling itself after the typical capture the flag-style game and featuring respawns so you don't have to sit out if you get killed. There are a number of modes that feature no respawns, if you want the "authentic" Rainbow Six experience of no second chances. The levels themselves are adapted either from the single-player campaign or created specifically for multiplayer, such as a university library that's alluded to in the story. The action in multiplayer is just as intense as in the single-player game, especially since you can use the same cover tactics that you used in the campaign. Our only major issue with the PC version is that there's a known and nasty bug that causes the entire game to crash if you attempt to search for a game using the default settings. You have to narrow down your search parameters to avoid crashing the game. Also, the PC version lacks the built-in voice support found in the Xbox 360 version, so it's harder to communicate with your teammates in the middle of an intense firefight.

What's also interesting about multiplayer is the persistent character that you can customize over time by unlocking new weapons, armor, and accessories. For instance, you can unlock tougher body armor, though the downside is that it lowers your mobility. Body armor comes in various pieces, such as the torso, shoulder pads, and legs. The weapons in multiplayer are all taken from single-player, and there's a healthy assortment of real-world and prototypical military gear in here, divided into shotguns, submachine guns, light machine guns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles. Each weapon can be customized individually with various scopes or sights, and there are various grenade types that you'd expect, like fragmentation, smoke, and flashbang.

Rainbow Six Vegas sports some excellent graphics, and the PC version looks just as good as the Xbox 360 version--it's even slightly better in some places. The downside is your frame rate will vary depending on your hardware, and you'll obviously need a fairly powerful system to run it at high detail with fast frame rates. Those with older and slower systems should think about upgrading or simply playing the Xbox 360 version. The amount of detail on everything is impressive, but it's almost photo-realistic when it comes to your Rainbow troopers, as you can admire all the high-tech gear these commandos bring into a fight. The beautiful visuals certainly bring the diverse Vegas casinos to life. They're all fictional, of course, as no real-world casino would want to have its virtual counterpart shot up in a game such as this. Perhaps because of this, the game doesn't really make the most of its Las Vegas setting, which is our one lament. Sure, you're fighting it out inside casinos full of slot machines and card tables, but you get the feeling that the game could have been set anywhere else and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. But if you're going to set a game in Las Vegas, then set a game in Las Vegas with an Elvis song or two, or at the very least a Wayne Newton tune. Las Vegas is an over-the-top and surreal experience, which is something that Rainbow Six Vegas doesn't quite capture.

The voice acting in the game varies, with the lead character sounding a lot like an angry version of the executive officer from Star Trek: Enterprise, but for the most part it's all about the evil terrorists making evil threats and the good guys spouting all sorts of hoo-ha. There are helpful voice cues, such as when your teammates yell out that they're swapping magazines, which means you need to provide cover while they're unable to fire. And the bad guys are pretty helpful about yelling out their tactics to one another, though the game's premise has many of them being ex-Special Forces, which is an awfully rookie mistake. The sound of guns firing is pretty authentic, though at this point every realistic shooter has the same level of effects. Still, the game sounds as good as you'd expect.

While Rainbow Six Vegas bears little resemblance to its illustrious PC progenitor, that's no reason to write off this engrossing action game. Rainbow Six Vegas is a highly tactical and dynamic first-person action game that fans of realistic shooters should definitely check out.

Source : Gamespot

War Front

2007-01-13T23:49:00.000-08:00

World War II is a popular theme for real-time strategy games. It's perhaps a bit too popular, as the genre has been flooded with World War II games over the years. War Front: Turning Point, the upcoming World War II real-time strategy game from CDV and developer Digital Reality, hopes to break out of the pack with its unusual take on history. Rather than reenact all the famous battles of World War II, Turning Point takes an alternate-history approach to the war and wonders what would happen if Germany managed to get all of its secret prototype weapons into mass production. In War Front, the result is something that's a bit like World War II meets Command & Conquer, as tanks and infantry will battle alongside power armor and other high-tech weapons.

We recently had the opportunity to play some multiplayer of the work-in-progress version of the game to check out War Front up close. The game features three playable factions in the form of the US and UK forces, the Germans, and the Soviet Union. These aren't your usual World War II factions, though, as each side has, in addition to the expected infantry and tank units, advanced units, such as surface-to-air missile launchers, jet fighters, and exoskeletons, the aforementioned power armor. We played team games, with up to two or three players on a team, which let us mix up the different factions and see many of the unique units in action on the screen.

The game mechanics in War Front are virtually identical to a traditional real-time strategy game. You start off with a single command center and a build unit, and you must work your way up from there. The build tree requires you to put down lots of different buildings in order to create a well-rounded base. In addition to the command center, there are supply depots, electrical generators, barracks, tank factories, radar installations, research labs, bunkers, and more. The key resources in the game are supplies, which are gathered by trucks that deliver them to the supply depot. Supplies are used to purchase units, buy upgrades, and construct buildings. The other key resource is power, provided by the generators.

Once you have the basic infrastructure for unit production down, you can begin to churn out units. At first, you'll be restricted to basic units, such as regular infantry and light tanks, and while these aren't quite world-beaters, they're useful for defending against early rushes and for scouting the map. In order to build heavier units, you not only have to build the appropriate structures, but you also have to increase your "tech level," sort of like going up an age in Age of Empires. There are three tech levels in each match, and the third unlocks the really powerful toys.

As you'd expect, your main job once the base is complete is to churn out as many powerful units as possible and use them to crush enemy assaults, and then hunt down and destroy the enemy base. Balance is usually important, as you want to bring a combined force with you to take care of all eventualities. Tanks kill other tanks, mobile antiaircraft guns take out bombers before they can drop a devastating load of bombs, and artillery makes short work of fixed defenses. Speaking of which, the game does feature a first-person mode that lets you jump into the gunner's seat in many vehicles and gun emplacements, though true real-time strategy gamers will eschew this to stay focused on the bigger picture.

Since we played against fellow human beings, we experienced a seesaw multiplayer battle, as attacks were blunted and then counterattacks were launched to try to exploit the tactical opportunity. In order to break this cycle, we had to quickly ramp up the tech tree, build heavy units, and research all the key upgrades at the research lab. These upgrades may increase the rate of fire for tanks, or bump up their armor. Higher tech levels also unlocked more powerful weapons, such as the V1 rocket launcher, and humongous tanks armed with multiple turrets.

The work-in-progress version that we played still had some issues, most notable in the pathfinding department. Watching your mass of tanks and infantry untangle themselves and do certain tasks, like crossing a bridge, can be a bit painful at times. The visuals were good, even though the frame rate struggled, but the game still might need to be optimized. Still, War Front looks like it will provide the explosions and massed tank battles that we've come to expect from World War II real-time strategy games, though it'll be interesting to see how players take advantage of all the exotic new units in the game. After all, when you think World War II, you don't really think power armor. War Front is scheduled to ship later this year.

Source : Gamespot

Dominion 3

2007-01-13T23:42:00.000-08:00

Don't be fooled by the dated graphics. Dominions 3 is a complex, deep, and incredibly rich strategy game that will reward those willing to invest in it with an almost unlimited variety of play.
The Good: Practically unlimited variety of viable playing strategies; superb multiplayer experience; great 300-page, spiral-bound manual; no two games will play the same.
The Bad: Graphics are decidedly unimpressive; extreme depth equates to high learning curve.

Dominions 3: The Awakening is a test of how much you are willing to invest in a strategy game. If you're the type who scoffs at reading manuals, who revels in state-of-the-art graphics, and who wants to be able to dive in and be successful in a game within minutes of installation, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you are willing to invest the time to dig in and read a thick manual, experiment with more options and variations than you'll ever be able to completely explore in an average lifetime, and patiently learn a complex but well-designed game system, Dominions 3 will reward you with one of the richest strategy-gaming experiences available on the PC today.

A simple perusal of the features hints at the depth and level of options. You are the divine leader of one of more than 50 nations, set in three different eras. The nations span the gamut from Norse-mythological to Roman to Japanese, as well as everything in between. Your choice of nation results in very different options and playing styles. Each era provides a different gaming environment: The Early Era is a world emphasizing magic, the Middle Era blends magic and more conventional arms, and the Late Era represents a time when the magic arts have faded and thus emphasis is on standard (as defined by "standard" in a fantasy environment) military operations. Each era has a distinct feel and requires development of different strategies for success. In addition, there are more than 1,500 types of units, as well as 600-plus spells and 300-plus magic items, and note that these are not merely hundreds of slight variations on the same spell or troop. In the role of a god (here called pretender) attempting to establish yourself as the ultimate deity due to the vacuum left by the previous Big Guy, you get to design just what type of divine being you want to be. The types of creatures that can be used to represent you range from a wide and weird assortment of icons, such as a dragon, a grey-haired wizardlike character, a fountain of blood, and many others. You then decide how to distribute your magic points and your "dominion," which is essentially your divine influence (you win when the entire world worships at your altar).

The range of combinations that you can put together in creating your pretender produces very different results during the game, and thus you can spend a lot of time just experimenting with different types of pretenders. You also decide whether to start the game dormant, for a gain in points, or fully awake and active. Even that relatively simple decision results in strategic debate among Dominions 3 aficionados. Some will argue that not a lot happens in the first couple of dozen turns, so the extra points you gain by starting dormant is the way to go. Others contend that there's a lot you can do with your pretender being active from turn one. And yet others point out that the best decision depends upon whether your rivals start active or dormant, which you won't know when setting up the game. That's the way it is in every aspect of the game. There are an almost infinite number of choices and variations that provide an extreme breadth of approaches to victory.

Once the game starts, your pretender and a couple of heroes are placed in a province on a nice map that looks hand drawn. Dominions 3 includes a number of maps that vary in terms of terrain and number of land and water provinces, and it also includes a random map generator that does a very nice job of creating maps to your detailed specifications. In addition, Dominions 3's mod-friendly nature allows almost any graphic map to be turned into a Dominions map. You've got a lot of options right from turn one, such as deciding which specific military units and heroes to recruit, sending your scout out exploring, and deciding who you want to assign to research, as well as which of the seven magic schools to pursue, and more. Each of these options provides you a myriad of choices, with the choices growing as the game progresses to the point that it can be overwhelming to the Dominions newbie. Enter the exhaustive 300-page manual. The manual includes a tutorial that introduces the basic features and gameplay concepts in a witty, conversational manner. The entire manual is extremely readable, which is good since it is really required reading to be able to effectively play the game. If you're the kind of gamer who does a happy dance when you see a thick, well-written manual chock-full of useful information and tips, you're going to love Dominions 3. If your reaction to a phone-book-sized manual is a groan, this probably isn't the game for you.

A typical turn will have you scouting other provinces, recruiting heroes to lead your armies, assigning units to search a province for magic sites, assigning research into various magic paths to learn selected spells, recruiting military units for your heroes to lead into battle, attacking provinces, building fortresses and temples, checking out mercenaries who may be available for hire, setting taxes and other variables for your provinces, dealing with random events, sending an assassin on a mission, arming up a commander with a variety of powerful items, and much, much more. Battles are fought by armies led by commanders, and while you can set up a myriad of formations (such as putting archers behind infantry and elephants, and mages and heroes even farther back) and assign every unit specific instructions (for example, archers fire at opposing cavalry, infantry attack closest enemy, mage use a specific series of spells, and so on), you don't control the tactical action once the battle begins. You do have the option to watch the battle after it is over, and some of the battles later in the game, which involve huge mixed armies of mages, monsters, dragons, archers, and infantry, can remind you of a heroic Lord of the Rings-inspired clash. The icons and graphics are very simplistic, but you can learn a lot by observing what worked and what didn't during the fight.

Speaking of graphics, they are functional but highly simplistic. Unit icons are small and look like something from a shareware game. Make that a shareware game from 1998. You'll squint trying to differentiate the javelin-armed unit and the sword-armed unit. If that ruins your ability to enjoy the game, Dominions 3 is probably not the game for you. For people who love deep strategy enough to look past a woefully unimpressive presentation, the graphics are perfectly functional. The audio takes a similarly functional approach, with some nice background tunes, but not much else.

Another sign of the hardcore nature of Dominions 3 is the way that turns and saved games are handled. Once you make all of your decisions and hit the end turn button, all other players make their decisions, the turn is resolved simultaneously, and you are presented with the results. There is no going back and changing anything once you hit that end turn button. If you choose to save the game, it saves it at that specific point within the turn, and you can only restore to that point if you have not ended the turn.

The sheer breadth of options and approaches, combined with decent artificial intelligence, makes Dominions 3 a great single-player game. But to truly appreciate the ultimate experience, you need to play online. You'll have no problem finding a multitude of online games that will welcome you, no matter what your level of experience, and an online game with 20 other players, divided into opposing and shifting alliances of nations, can provide an epic feel unmatched by many prettier but shallower games. The wealth of options means that no single strategy or nation is a sure win (as opposed to other multiplayer games, where playing as certain factions and using certain units and tactics can practically guarantee victory), and you are likely to encounter something you've never seen before every game.

Therein lies the beauty of Dominions 3. Whether playing single-player or multiplayer, you can experiment with a practically infinite variety of tactical and strategic choices and never find a "best" one, because your opponent has the same breadth of options. Dominions 3 is a world both deep and ultimately mesmerizing to the strategy fanatic. If you prefer your games fast and flashy, you'll hate Dominions 3. But if you're the kind of strategy gamer who revels in hunkering down with a highly complex and deep game with a phone-book sized manual and a steep learning curve that really makes you pause, ponder, and think, this is definitely the game for you.

Source : Gamespot

Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition First Look

2007-01-13T23:29:00.000-08:00

At this point it should be acknowledged that Menlo Park-based developer Crystal Dynamics brought the Tomb Raider franchise back from the brink. The once-popular series had lost its way after a splashy debut and follow-up that helped usher in the 32-bit console era. Fast-forward to earlier this year, when Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider: Legend hit and reminded everyone that the series was still very viable. To follow up on its success, Crystal Dynamics is going back to the franchise's roots with Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition, a promising retelling of Lara Croft's very first adventure. Though the game was announced earlier this year, the folks at Crystal D hadn't shown off much on it until this week, when we had the chance to have a look at the game in motion.

Before showing off the game, reps from the developer talked about the approach the team is taking with the game. Rather than simply redo the original game with Legend's visuals, the team is taking a more thorough approach to the new game. Citing the method Peter Jackson took for realizing his vision of King Kong--using the original narrative as a framework and retaining the key memorable moments while expanding on them--reps from Crystal Dynamic noted that Anniversary Edition will be much more than a simple update of the original game.

The game will follow the same basic story as the original, so you'll once again be guiding Lara as she's commissioned to retrieve an ancient relic known as a "scion" (no, not the car). As anyone who's played through the original game can tell you, while the gameplay was aces, the story wasn't big on making sense once you started progressing. As a result, Crystal is fleshing out the narrative to offer some clarity on what the heck is going on.

As far as gameplay goes, the level demoed for us showed off the revamped first level of the game, which, as in the original, revolved around a gear puzzle that required you to collect cogs to make an ancient clockwork gear system work. In the new game you'll be doing this in a vast cave made of up of interconnected passages that crisscross each other. More significantly, the rather plain gears that fit into pegs on a wall in the original have been replaced with proper gears carved into a good chunk of the cave wall. The hunt for the cogs also featured the return of familiar animal foes such as wolves, bats, and some Jurassic surprises (more on that later). The cog search also highlighted some very cool retro touches that brought a smile to our faces: Lara's radial inventory wheel is back, as is the simple tune that plays when you discover hidden areas (of which it looks like there will be many). One thing to note about Anniversary Collection's mechanics is that they've been opened up some to include elements introduced in Legend such as the grapple, context-sensitive actions, and the cinematic button-pressing moments.

The demo followed Lara solving the gear puzzle by collecting the missing cogs and using them to activate the different gears. As each one was activated they made it possible to advance deeper into the cave. Once that was sorted, the sassy Brit found herself in the lost valley area that was home to ancient critters such as velociraptors. The sequence in the valley didn't last long--it cut out just at one of the original game's signature moments, the appearance of the T. rex--but it offered enough of a tease to get us very hopeful for where Crystal Dynamics is going with the game.

The visuals in the game share obvious ties to Legend in terms of quality, but there's been a fair amount of work done to Lara's model to ensure she has her classic look from the first game. You'll see the return of her original outfit, complete with dual pistol holsters and blue unitard. Besides her physical appearance, work is being done to marry the fluidity of movement from Legend with some of Lara's signature moves, such as her swan dive. The environments we saw appear to do a fine job of recalling the feel of the original game's significantly more modest locales while offering up a cool cinematic feel and sense of wide-open space. Though we didn't see any human foes, Lara's animal enemies looked considerably more fetching than their 32-bit counterparts. Despite the fact that the PlayStation 2 game demoed for us was still very early in development, the game ran smoothly and looked quite sharp.

The audio in the game takes some getting used to, as one of the key elements of the original game was its solo vibe. As Lara Croft you faced off against the world and often found yourself playing in an oppressive silence, save for a modest assortment of sound effects and occasional pieces of music that would come in during key moments. While Crystal D is attempting to offer those kinds of moments in the experience, it's balancing that with modern expectations, so you can plan on hearing a musical score pop up throughout the adventure. How frequently it will be used is still being sorted out, but it's safe to assume the game won't be as quiet as the original.

Based on what we saw, Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition is shaping up to be a very promising retelling of the original game. As it proved with Legend, Crystal Dynamics seems to get what the series is all about and is once again playing to its strengths. Given how strong Tomb Raider: Legend was, we have high hopes for Crystal Dynamics' second outing with Ms. Croft. Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition is currently slated to ship this spring for the PlayStation Portable, PS2, and PC. While we were shown only the PS2 game, reps mentioned that Anniversary Edition will likely follow the same approach of Legend on the PSP and offer the same content the console game did, as well as some multiplayer features that are still being ironed out. Look for more on the game in the coming weeks.

Source : Gamespot

CES 07: Crysis Hands-On

2007-01-11T04:08:00.000-08:00

At this point, Crysis is the poster child for Games on Windows, Microsoft's big new push to reinforce the PC as a gaming platform. The highly anticipated first-person shooter was featured in the video that Microsoft showed at its keynote address on Sunday, and the game is available to play at the Microsoft booth at the annual Consumer Electronics Show. Senior members of the development team were on hand to help guide us through the demonstration level built for the show.

The demo level sees your US Special Forces character in a battle to seize a village from North Korean forces, and it starts off in the jungle. It's not an exaggeration to say that Crysis is causing many attendees to stop and gawk at the game's incredible graphics, which were being displayed for the first time taking advantage of DirectX 10. The visuals are incredible, and Crysis is certainly going to sell a lot of hardware as gamers upgrade their systems to play the game at maximum detail level. Surprisingly, the systems at the show weren't too unreasonable. We were told the game was running on a single-core high-end CPU with the latest Nvidia graphics card, and the frame rate was smooth for the most part. Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli told us that the game still has plenty of optimization work to go through.

Crysis looks amazing when in motion. The game is stuffed with all sorts of graphical technologies that, when combined together, create the sensation of being in a tropical jungle under fire. In the demo, we stealthily approached the village and used an assault rifle to start picking off North Korean soldiers. With the alarm raised, the battle began in earnest, and we used the environment so that we could lean from cover and cut down enemy troops. Crysis takes place in a near-future setting, so we used our nano suit to switch power to various systems. Dumping energy into speed let us sprint at superhuman speeds over large distances. Directing power to strength let us pick up and toss heavy objects, knock down doors, and leap onto the roofs of village buildings. Diverting energy into armor made us effectively invulnerable to the small arms of the North Koreans. The downside is that using any of these abilities drains the power of the suit, which means you have to ration their use. Energy slowly regenerates if the suit isn't being used.

The most common weapon we used was the assault rifle, which can be modified on the fly with various scopes and attachments, depending on your need. One thing you can also do is divert suit power to strength and pick up enemies by the neck and hurl them 30 feet in the air, effectively killing them. We played hide-and-seek with the North Koreans, leaping onto rooftops and sniping down on them. The artificial intelligence showed some imagination. We saw the enemy soldiers try to use cover, and in one instance a soldier leaped over a fence to try to get out of our line of fire.

While picking off soldiers was fairly easy for our Special Forces operative, things got a lot hairier when the North Koreans brought in a helicopter gunship. Trying to shoot one down with an assault rifle is very difficult, since you'll probably run out of ammunition before you can inflict enough damage. Still, we were able to use location damage to take out various components on the gunship, such as the rocket pods, which crippled the helicopter's firepower. We then engaged in a running battle as the gunship used its weapons to try to kill us, shredding buildings and trees in the village. Fountains of dirt kicked up from near misses all around us as we scrambled for cover. One way to kill the gunship is to leap into a nearby vehicle and use the vehicle-mounted machine gun to shoot down the helicopter. Another way is to find a missile launcher in a building and use it to down the chopper. The problem was that in the demo we played, the designers purposely disabled the missile guidance system, which meant that the gunship could dodge many of the incoming missiles. Still, we were able to eventually score a hit by running beneath the helicopter and shooting up, minimizing the distance and the amount of time the pilot had to avoid the shot. The destruction of the helicopter ended the demo.

Throughout the entire demo all the graphical features of Crysis dazzled us. The use of motion blur and depth of field made any kind of sudden motion seem more realistic. Trying to use the iron sights of a weapon is also cool, as sun glints on the metal and the depth of field blurs objects that aren't in focus. The high dynamic range lighting and extensive shadowing made the level feel sun-drenched. In terms of sheer fidelity, the DirectX 10 version was noticeably better than the DirectX 9 version of the game that we've seen on previous occasions. Both versions look amazing, but DirectX 10 simply looks better.

Source : Gamespot

FIFA MANAGER 2007

2007-01-11T04:02:00.000-08:00

FIFA Manager 07 is the second game in EA Sports' football management series, with German outfit Bright Future again handling development. Like other EA Sports titles, FIFA Manager 07 is highly accessible, attractively presented, and boasts a wealth of official team and player data. Because of this, FIFA Manager 07 is a great introduction for newcomers to the genre and is a gentler start than something like Football Manager 2007 might be.

Like the origins of most football management games, the idea behind FIFA is to start out as the head of a football club and begin a career in the profession from there. Who you choose to manage is up to you, and while many of you are likely to choose the real-life team that you support, some will relish the challenge of taking a struggling side and transforming its fortunes. FIFA Manager 07 offers 52 leagues from 29 countries, covering most of the major European teams and some of the Asian and American ones, too.

While this list should keep most football fans happy, it's by no means as comprehensive as the 116 leagues that feature in Sega's recent Football Manager 2007. FIFA Manager 07 still has an ace up its sleeve, though--access to FIFA resources means that the game boasts an incredible feeling of authenticity. Endowed with an abundance of official imagery, including stadiums, logos, and players, FIFA Manager 07 does a stellar job of making you feel like part of the real footballing profession. Even better, it doesn't feel like a showy gimmick, as FIFA uses the licensing to support the game underneath.

At the beginning of the game, any team in the world will accept your application for the manager's position. Once appointed, you can get down to the nitty-gritty of making a championship-winning squad. If you possess a basic knowledge of football then you'll certainly find it easier to understand the general demands of being a manager. And if you're a fan of the club in question, you should also know a little bit about the individual players in the team. However, you can choose to delegate practically every aspect of the game to your assistant managers, freeing you up to concentrate on key areas such as signing new talent and managing the first team.

Depending on which club you sign to, the board and fans will have different expectations of what you need to achieve during your time there. While it's always tempting to control a top club and have access to world-class players and huge resources, you'll be expected to maintain a high position in the domestic league as well as bring home trophies from continental tournaments. If you're not performing, the fans and the media will be the first to call for your dismissal, and as the confidence of the board dwindles, you may well be sacked or forced to resign. However, you can always apply for other jobs at clubs with vacancies, and you may even be courted out of your current contract by other clubs interested in your management skills.

Just like in real life, in FIFA Manager 07 you'll need to create a team of players that can function together to succeed. On a basic level, you do this by setting training regimens, choosing formations, and adapting tactics to each team you play. On an advanced level, you also need to worry about individual and group morale, resting players, and giving substitutes experience, as well as setting up international training camps. While all this is happening, the future of the club needs to be secured by scouting for new players and encouraging junior players through your youth team. Another new addition, and one that made its first appearance in Football Manager this year, is the ability to set up business partnerships with other clubs to loan players and give them more experience--something that definitely pays off in the long term.

In this respect, FIFA Manager 07 offers a decent amount of depth for those of you who want to sit there and tweak things to death. As well as choosing from the regular formations, such as 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, you can read the opponent reports of your chief scout and adapt the team accordingly. This includes telling individuals how to play in 10 key areas, such as passing and crossing. You can also drag players around to dictate their default playing position on the pitch.

One of the most important things you need to do as manager is find the best players to join your team. FIFA Manager 07 presents players who are available on the transfer market so that you may make a bid, as well as letting you make offers on players not on the market. If you're trying to secure someone not on the transfer list, it helps if you're working for a bigger club, as most unlisted players will only consider a move to somewhere of higher stature. A much more intelligent way to find hot new players is to use scouts, who can investigate domestic and foreign leagues based on a number of search criteria, such as player position and market value. You can also use your scout to get feedback on your next opponents, with the results stored away for future reference.

The final piece of the management puzzle is marketing and facilities, and you need to spend time looking after both the stadium and the fans that fill it. A clever manager will check in with supporters on a regular basis to find out how they feel, and they can try to boost their PR by giving away free tickets or holding an autograph session. You also need to engage in your own bit of PR, talking to the press on match day, both pregame and post, and choosing whether you want to represent yourself as a democratic manager or an autocratic one. Each club has a 3D stadium representation that you can explore and rebuild as needed, and you can sell ad space around the pitch to real-world sponsors such as Barclays and EA Sports. There's also a Sim City-style view of all your facilities, including press centres and physiotherapists, all of which can be expanded once you have the funds.

Boasting all these features means that FIFA Manager 07 can compete with other football management games on the market, but it also brings a couple of other quirky issues to the table. Aside from your life at the club, you need to take care of your social interests such as family, property, and sports. You can choose to live the single life, have a partner or get married and have children. The game is even so modern and politically correct as to offer same-sex marriage and adoption options, but it all feels a bit tacked on in a football management game. Much like a real family, your virtual family just spends your money and gets angry at you when you forget anniversaries and birthdays. At least the game also features some of the better aspects of the football manager lifestyle--you can buy luxury cars and houses and sometimes even make money when you sell them. If you play golf on a regular basis, you can lower your handicap, which will have a positive influence in business relationships.

As with many recent football management games, FIFA Manager 07 offers a full 3D match engine. While it's not the same engine used by FIFA 07, and is consequently a way off that game in terms of graphical quality, it's the best interpretation of a match engine yet. Players don't make the sloppy mistakes that blighted LMA Manager 2007, and while they certainly play an aggressive game, it gives you a good indication of who's performing and who's letting the side down. You can shout commands from the touchline, move a slider to dictate more aggressive or defensive tactics on the fly, or pause the game to switch more advanced options or make substitutions. In another strange design choice, you can use the keyboard to manipulate one single player on the pitch, but he controls so poorly that it's made more or less pointless. Not that you'll want to watch every match in 3D mode, anyway--the instant results or Teletext-style updates are preferable for those who want to plough through the leagues quickly.

Motivation plays a large part in FIFA Manager 07, both in and out of the game. Players who aren't given ample time on the pitch will complain, while those who play too often will become fatigued. You're also given the option to give motivational speeches at halftime, and based upon the ratings for each player, you can choose to praise, criticize, or motivate players on an individual basis. You can also give a speech to the overall team along these same three basic lines, and we generally found that a bit of encouragement yielded better results in the second half.

The audio in the game does a good job of capturing the atmosphere of match day, while the music in the menus lightens up what is effectively a fancy database. In the 3D match mode, the crowd reacts to what's happening in the game, while the excellent commentary is supplied by John Motson and Ally McCoist. The music contains some familiar highlights for sports fans, especially those that have ever watched BBC TV's sports programme Grandstand in the UK. It's a change from the main FIFA series, which usually takes the licensed-pop music approach.

Overall, FIFA Manager 07 is an excellent introduction to the sometimes-overwhelming world of football management games. It's deep without being daunting, generally authentic without feeling glamorous, and with a highly customisable level of difficulty, you can really make it into the game you want. It doesn't come close to offering the realism or global depth that Football Manager 2007 does, and features such as a private life and the ability to control a single player feel like they're tacked on without adding anything to the experience. But for people who find Football Manager's comprehensive nature a little too much to take in, FIFA Manager is a decent alternative.

Source : Gamespot

NOW FREE DOWNLOAD FIFA MANAGER 2007

Need 4 Speed Carbon Reviews

2007-01-02T04:44:00.000-08:00

After rebooting the franchise with Need for Speed Underground, EA has continued to produce some solid street racers under the Need for Speed banner. Last year's Need for Speed Most Wanted, which featured hilariously over-the-top live-action cutscenes and seriously tense police pursuits, proved to be a high watermark for the franchise. Now it's being followed up by Need for Speed Carbon, which downplays the role of the police chases, introduces some simple team-racing mechanics, and occasionally takes the action off the city streets and into the outlying canyons. The new gameplay doesn't always improve the experience, but the racing can still be quite intense and still has a pronounced sense of style.

Carbon continues the story where Most Wanted left off. For those just tuning in, Most Wanted ended with you recovering your stolen car and bailing out of the city of Rockport while the overzealous, anti-street-racing Sgt. Cross continued his pursuit. At the start of Carbon, you're making your way to Palmont City when Cross, now a bounty hunter, catches up with you and totals your car during the chase. Before he can collect his bounty on you, though, your old friend Darius steps in and pays off Cross. You are then put to work, taking over the turf of the other rival street-racing crews in Palmont City. It seems that you've got a history in this town that predates the events in Most Wanted. During the course of the game, you'll learn more about that fateful night you skipped town. Different characters will give their takes on the night you supposedly ran off with a big red duffle bag full of cash. By the end of the game, you'll not only find out what really happened, but you'll have taken over all of the street-racing territory in Palmont City.

Outside of the actual gameplay, one of the more endearing aspects of Most Wanted was the way it used live actors in CG environments for its story sequences. These sequences invariably featured plenty of actor/model types, trying a little too hard to talk tough and failing spectacularly at it. The technique remains the same in Carbon, though there are more story sequences now and a slightly more self-aware tone. The heavy use of flashbacks is an interesting idea, but the story ends up being kind of muddled. None of the villains come off as particularly menacing. Although it's hard to really qualify any of it as sincerely good, it's just over-the-top enough that folks who enjoy stuff like The Fast and the Furious, ironically or otherwise, should get some enjoyment out of it.

Most Wanted had you racing to raise your visibility with the police and take on the most notorious street racers in Rockport. In Carbon, it's all about turf. Palmont City is divided into four major territories, each of which is predominantly controlled by a different street-racing crew. Each territory is then further divided into zones, and within each zone, you'll find starting points for a variety of different race events. Winning at least two events in a zone will put it under your control. And once you've taken over all the zones in a given territory, you can take on the head of that crew. As you continue to extend your reach across Palmont City, rival crews will come back and try to retake territory the same way you took it from them, forcing you to accept their challenge if you want to maintain control. Having to go back and re-race events that you've already won is kind of a pain, but the open world structure is nice and gives you plenty of options to take on races at any given point.

However, you won't be taking on all of these crews by yourself because Carbon lets you bring along a wingman into many of the races. These computer-controlled companions break down into three different behavior types--blockers, drafters, and scouts. Blockers will run interference for you, spinning out opponents at your command. Drafters let you slipstream behind them, giving you some extra speed from the reduced drag, and from there you can pull aside and slingshot your way past them. Scouts have a knack for finding the many alternate routes and shortcuts that can be found in most races, and they have short neon tracers that follow them, making it easier for you to take advantage. You'll definitely find yourself in races where your wingman's influence is the difference between winning and losing. But often, your wingman's presence is either unnecessary or an actual hindrance. Blockers are only really effective in taking out competitors that are behind you, and even then, they're not very reliable. Drafters work as advertised, but the lengthy straightaway needed to set up a proper draft is rare in Palmont City, which limits their usefulness. Scouts are the least useful of the three because the neon tracers don't seem to get longer as the cars you drive go faster, and eventually, there's just not enough time for you to anticipate an alternate route. If you didn't call on your wingman, you might expect him or her to just hang back. But we found ourselves getting bumped into and boxed in by our wingman on several occasions. It's not ruinous to the experience, but sometimes it makes you wish they would just go away.

The game relies on some pretty tried-and-true types of races, but it also throws some curves. You'll find plenty of common stuff, such as lap-based circuit races, point-to-point sprints, and checkpoint races. But there are also some unique races, such as the speed-trap race, where your standing is determined by your cumulative MPH as you race through a series of speed traps. Most races take place on the city streets of Palmont, but there are also drift events, which can take place either on a closed race course or on the winding canyon roads that surround the city. The goal in the drift events is to score points by making clean drifts around corners. The car handling changes completely for the drift events and feels much more slippery than in the rest of the game, which recalls the drift events found in Need for Speed Underground 2.

You'll also face off with the different crew bosses in the canyons, and these events may test your patience. Once you've taken enough turf for a crew boss to challenge you, you'll first race against him in a standard city-street event. If you beat him there, you'll advance to one of the game's canyon courses, which are narrow and undulating. Here it's a two-part race, where you'll first have to chase the boss through a point-to-point race, and then reverse roles for the second part. Your score on the first half is based on how close you stay to your rival; then in the second half, your rival tries to outdo you. These events can be quite challenging because the courses are technically complicated, and the crew bosses tend to be better, more aggressive drivers than the average street racers. There are also a number of ways in which you can instantly fail. If, during the second race, your opponent manages to get ahead of you for more than 10 seconds, you automatically lose. But on the flipside, if you can get ahead of your opponent for more than 10 seconds in the first race, you automatically win both races. Also, each course is absolutely rife with cliffs. This means that if you take a corner at the wrong angle or speed, you can launch your car off of a cliff, immediately ending the race. All of these elements can make for a tough but fair race. However, failure takes you back to the first half of the canyon duel, even if you failed during the second half. It's kind of a minor point, but it's one that can turn a canyon duel into a real chore.

The structure of the canyon duels can be frustrating, but the way Carbon marginalizes the police chases that were so instrumental to the success of Most Wanted is even more disappointing. The cops still play a factor because each zone has its own heat rating that increases the more you race there. The higher the heat, the more likely it is that cops will start coming after you. While Most Wanted had you purposely baiting the cops, as well as attempting to wrack up huge property damages and lengthy pursuits to advance the story, there's little reason in Carbon for you to attract the attention of the law. With the ability to hop directly to any race event through the world map, it's possible and quite easy for you to go through the entire story mode where you can count the number of police encounters on one hand.

Structural imperfections aside, the core driving in Carbon is really solid. There's a great selection of licensed real-world cars that you can purchase throughout the course of the game, which are sorted into three different groups--tuners, muscles, and exotics. And you'll find that each group handles differently. In the tuner group, you'll find a lot of souped-up Japanese sports coups, like the Nissan Skyline, Subaru Impreza WRX, and Toyota Supra. And the strength of these cars tends to be an ability to slide around corners. Muscle cars are all Detroit steel, including new stuff like the Chrysler 300 and the Dodge Challenger Concept. They also include early 1970s classics, like a Chevy Camaro SS and a Plymouth Barracuda. And though they've got great acceleration in a straightaway, they're pretty loose in the corners. The exotics group is probably the most varied, with high-end offerings from Mercedes, Porsche, Alfa Romero, Lamborghini, and more. These cars also tend to demand a higher level of skill to use them correctly.

You can buy cars from dealerships or you can win them from crew bosses. And once you get them, there are all kinds of upgrades that you can apply to them. There are tiered performance upgrades, as well as a rainbow of paint colors, dozens of vinyl stickers, aftermarket rims, spoilers, and body kits. You can also fabricate your own body parts with the game's autosculpt system, which is oddly reminiscent of the Game Face feature in EA Sports' Tiger Woods PGA Tour games. It's a novel idea and great for making some really physically impossible-looking parts. But it takes too much incremental tweaking of settings to get something unique. And there's such a wide variety of prefab aftermarket parts that don't require all that toil, which means only the truly obsessed will get much out of the autosculpting.

If you keep your eye on the prize, you can see the credits roll in Carbon's career mode in well under 10 hours. But if you want to beat every event, as well as unlock every last car and upgrade, you can just as easily spend 20 hours. And there's even more racing to be done outside the career mode. There are 36 increasingly difficult races to take on in the challenge series, and the quick-race option lets you jump into something--no strings attached. Like the Xbox 360 version, Carbon on the PS3 provides a pretty solid online multiplayer component, where up to eight players can participate in all of the race types found in the career mode, as well as multiplayer-exclusive modes, where players get to play as both cops and street racers. The rules in some of these modes aren't explained very well, which can make for some pretty confusing moments. But once you get past the learning curve, you can have some good, team-based fun. We also experienced some minor but pervasive latency issues, even when we were nowhere near the eight player limit, as well as an odd bug where all in-game sound would drop out for the duration of a race. It's kind of flawed, but again, the actual feel of the racing still translates pretty well online. And an online experience system where you can unlock additional cars helps make it a little more interesting.

With Palmont City apparently living in eternal night, the game's feel recalls the Need for Speed Underground games, though the scenery changes in Carbon are much more varied. There's a distinct West Coast feel to Palmont City, and you'll find yourself in districts that recall the more posh parts of Los Angeles and Las Vegas. As different as it feels from the city of Rockport in Need for Speed Most Wanted, keen eyes and ears will notice a lot of recycled elements here. Vehicles, environmental objects, textures, and a lot of the sound elements have been cut and pasted into Carbon, making for some odd déjà vu. In some cases, it's a good thing because the squeal of the tires and the growl of various car engines still sound great. But hearing the same police radio chatter in Palmont City that you did in Rockport is just weird. There's some familiar, dramatic music in Carbon as well. Although it's odd how poorly the game uses what is actually an interesting licensed soundtrack of rock, electro, hip-hop, and grime. You just won't hear much of it because the game seems to prefer its own music most of the time.

Need for Speed Carbon on the PlayStation 3 looks roughly comparable to its Xbox 360 counterpart--which is to say it looks really good, with some heavy-motion blur around the edges of the screen, lots of good-looking bump mapping, and slick lighting and reflection effects. There are a few subtle differences, most of which the PlayStation 3 version comes up on the short end of. The PS3 seems to have more jagged, aliased edges, and a framerate that is a little more stuttery. The soft glow and motion-blur effects do look better on the PS3 version, though there's times that it's laid on a bit too thick.

Ultimately, Need for Speed Carbon doesn't make the best use of some of the strengths from Need for Speed Most Wanted. Many of the changes made to the Most Wanted formula seem to be for the sake of change, but it all still just comes back to the solid driving action, which Need for Speed Carbon puts to good use.

Source : Gamespot

Twilight Princess

2006-12-24T02:35:00.000-08:00

Twilight Princess contains the same expertly designed puzzles and time-tested gameplay that you've come to expect from the series, though parts of its presentation feel stuck in the past.

When game consoles transitioned from offering primarily 2D games to polygonal 3D games about 10 years ago, all of the tricks and gameplay ideas that developers had been relying on for years flew right out the window. During this time, Nintendo quickly found its footing and released masterful takes on its old franchises that retained the fun and feeling of the older games while properly updating them in exciting and impressive new ways. 1998's The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a prime example of this. It featured a more realistic take on the series' fantasy world than ever before, while implementing innovative new controls and offering a good sense of freedom without making the player feel lost. It's one of the greatest games of all time, so it's hard to fault Nintendo for revisiting that same formula. And that's precisely what the latest game in the series, Twilight Princess, does. For the most part, that's a very good thing, because Twilight Princess is a lengthy adventure packed with many well-designed puzzles and some interesting characters. But once you get over the rush of excitement from a big, new Zelda game having finally arrived, it's hard not to feel a tinge of disappointment--there's a very noticeable lack of evolution here, which makes aspects of the game seem more dated than classic. Even so, there isn't much out there that compares to Twilight Princess, except for the Zelda games that have come before it.

Like most other Zelda games, Twilight Princess is a retelling of the same basic tale, though this one is not without its twists. There's a princess named Zelda, a land called Hyrule, and a world that's on the verge of destruction if you don't do something to save it. In this installment, there's a darkness creeping across the land, locking it in the eternal dusk of the twilight realm. You play as Link, a humble, pointy-eared boy who lives in a far-off village and herds goats for a living, yet he ends up getting involved in the conflict. The twilight that's infected the land is an alternate reality of sorts, serving as the game's equivalent of A Link to the Past's dark, alternate world, or in some cases, serving the same purposes as the adult Link/child Link differences in Ocarina. The difference here is that when you're in the twilight, you're transformed into a blue-eyed wolf.

Early on in the game, you meet up with one of the shadow dwellers, an impish little creature named Midna. Midna rides around on your back while you're in wolf form and serves the same purposes as Navi in Ocarina, providing you with the occasional hint. Link's beast form behaves roughly the same as the human form, as far as combat is concerned, but you can't use items. You can, however, access otherwise unreachable areas by following set jump paths that Midna will lead you through. The wolf can also dig and go into a heightened-sense mode that shows off scent trails and other hidden objects. For the first portion of the game, you'll be forced back and forth between forms, but you eventually earn the ability to switch back and forth at will, and some of the game's later puzzles will require you to do just that. You can also ride around on horseback, if you like, but by the time you get to a point when you have large distances to cover, you'll also have the ability to warp around, limiting the horse's usefulness to a couple of combat-oriented sequences.

Many of the early parts of the game take place outside in the game's overworld and in various outdoor areas as you try to clear the darkness from the land. But along the way, you'll also enter various temples and dungeons to collect new items, solve a wide variety of puzzles, and fight bosses. While most of the game's story sequences take place above ground, these temples are the core of the entire game, and they're very well done, even if they cover a lot of the same ground that you may have seen in past Zelda installments. You start out with a forest temple, make your way to a mine under Death Mountain for your fire temple, scratch your head and try to figure out the inner workings of moving water around in the water temple, and so on. That's not to say they're all taken from old blueprints, though, and some of the later temples take you to somewhat more interesting locales, like a sky temple that demands that you make precise use of your grappling hookshot.

For the most part, the puzzles are great and rooted in logic. So if you stare at the map long enough and figure out what each lever-pull does, deducing what's going on in the water temple isn't impossible. And once you get movement-enhancing items like the hookshot, you'll be carefully looking at each wall and ceiling, hoping to see a grapple-friendly target that will move you along. You'll push blocks, you'll move cannonballs from room to room in hopes of finding a cannon and clearing a path, you'll fire arrows at targets that cause blocks to move--it's all pretty standard if you've been keeping up with the Zelda series, but the formula still works quite well. However, with the way the puzzles are designed, it's certainly possible for just about any of them to trip you up and cause you to spend an hour or so just wandering around, staring at everything and trying to figure out what to do next. However, none of the puzzles are especially fiendish, which means that you might catch yourself feeling a little foolish when you finally realize that the solution was staring you in the face the entire time. But really, figuring these puzzles out is where the majority of the fun and sense of reward comes from as you play, because most of it's designed extremely well.

It's good that Twilight Princess' world and puzzle design can carry it, because the combat and boss fights aren't very deep at all. Most enemies just require you to swing your sword at them, which is done by shaking the Wii Remote or shaking the Nunchuk for a spin attack. You can lock onto enemies with the Z trigger and strafe around them, hop back and forth, leap in for a jumping attack, or jump back and out of the way--the same basic moves as past installments. But normally you can just keep on shaking the Wii Remote like a maniac and come out on top against most enemies. There's no finesse to the way the Wii Remote is used, and at times you'll wish that you could just hit a button to swing the sword instead of dealing with all the motion-sensing nonsense. This is especially true in the rare cases that require you to time your sword swings properly, as well as once you start learning a few extra moves, like the shield bash, which is done by shoving the Nunchuk controller forward. Most of the time, performing this move resulted in a spin attack. The combat controls using the Wii Remote may feel somewhat different from past games, but it doesn't draw you into the experience any more than using a standard controller would, and at worst, it's imprecise.

A few enemies require more advanced tactics, like spinning around to get behind them or using one of your items to make them vulnerable. Just about every boss fight in the game requires you to use more than just your sword and shield. Like in every other recent Zelda game, in Twilight Princess you'll find a new item about halfway through a temple, and you can bet that you'll need that item to take on the boss. There are a few tricky parts, but it's certainly feasible that you'll get through the game's 35-to-40-hour story without running out of hearts and dying. That being said, the boss fights make up for some of their ease by being pretty epic. Almost every one pits you against a giant, screen-filling creature that at least looks tough, even if you're just going to grapple your way onto it and stick your sword in its weak spot over and over again, or use your ball and chain to bust it apart, without even breaking a sweat. Even the final confrontation is relatively easy, and if you get stumped going against any boss, you can ask Midna for help and get a fairly good idea about what you're supposed to be doing. If you want to go off the beaten path, you can find a handful of side tasks to take on, like fishing and some other minigames, but aside from the combat-filled Cave of Ordeals, which is a 50 stage area that acts as a sort of survival mode, these aren't too exciting and the rewards you get for completing them aren't especially helpful.

Overall, the game is paced well and it keeps you moving more often than not. At one point you have to move around to various statues that are stashed throughout the world, and this bogs down the action a bit, but it's nowhere near the time sink that the late-game sailing marathon that padded out the back end of Wind Waker was. Your time spent in Twilight Princess involves very little back-tracking, and not too much repetition, keeping the focus squarely on original, interesting stuff.

The Wii was designed with relatively modest graphical capabilities, at least from a technical perspective. So if you spend a lot of time trying to pick apart the visuals of Twilight Princess, you'd notice plenty of low-res textures and jagged edges. But that would be missing the point. Twilight Princess is an excellent-looking game due to some terrific art design. Much has already been said about the art style reverting back to a more mature or realistic look after Wind Waker took the series in a decidedly cartoonlike direction. While there's nothing terribly "mature" about this T-rated game, it looks absolutely great from an artistic perspective. The world itself offers the sort of variety you'd naturally expect from a fantasy game, with everything from lakes to deserts to dungeons, but it's when you start seeing the twilight realm that the game really takes off, visually.

Twilight realm portals that open up do so with an almost Tron-like glowing, computerized look, and when you teleport around or change forms, that same style shows through, breaking your character into cool, tiny black squares and reforming you in a new place or shape. You're also going to fight a lot of crazy-looking dark shadow creatures, and many of the enemies in Twilight Princess look really nice, up to and including those large boss opponents. At the same time, the game gets a lot of little details right, too. You get a lot of close shots of characters' faces in the game's cutscenes, and their faces are often filled with emotion. The eyes, particularly, convey a lot of soul, which really helps make Link's wolf form work, too. It may have its rough edges here and there, but Twilight Princess is the best-looking launch game on the Wii. Like most other Wii games, you can play this one in 480p and widescreen, if you're so equipped. Playing in progressive scan sharpens things up, which makes some objects look better, but it also makes the edges on everything more jagged-looking.

The Legend of Zelda series' symphonic-style music has always been great, dating all the way back to the NES original. That same music keeps getting updated, and more new themes have worked their way into the series and become recurring, as well. You'll hear a lot of classic melodies in Twilight Princess, and those help give the game a nostalgic feel. Much like the graphical portion of the game, the music gets by on the strength of the compositions, but at the same time, all of the music is rendered in the same sort of sample-driven, synthesized style that the series has had since the Nintendo 64 days. While that might also give you a dose of nostalgia, it's also really dated. Given that the Wii is running discs on a greater storage capacity than Nintendo games have had in the past, and advances in standards for video game music, it's disappointing that the series hasn't finally moved to full digital recordings. After all, these songs are worthy of an orchestra. Similarly, it's surprising that the game's story is conveyed through text and text alone. Link has always been that sort of blank-slate character that doesn't speak in games, and he doesn't have any lines in Twilight Princess, either. That's a fine stylistic choice, but there's plenty of dialogue in the game coming from other characters, and in this day and age, for a game whose story is as much a factor as this one's is, it should have all been spoken. At least the dialogue is well-written.

The rest of Twilight Princess' sound is really weird. On one hand, it's using plenty of the same sort of sound effects and battle yelps that the series has relied on, which again will tap into fans' nostalgia for the series. So you'll get the familiar sound of swinging swords, exploding bombs, and all of that. It generally sounds fine, but the game also makes frequent use of the speaker on the Wii Remote, piping a lot of combat noises through it. Unfortunately, this speaker is cheap and tinny, making everything that comes out of it sound distorted and poor. The audio coming through this speaker also chops up fairly frequently, as if it can't maintain a decent connection with the console. Hey, no big deal, right? Just turn the speaker down in the settings menu. That's an option, but some sounds are either only played through the Wii Remote speaker or they're played so quietly on the TV that they lose impact. Having some of the sounds play through this speaker seems like a neat idea, but it doesn't work all that well in practice.

Objectively speaking, it's still a little disappointing that the series hasn't evolved much at all with this latest installment. You'll almost certainly enjoy the game for its terrific puzzles, colorful characters, and compelling story, but at some point the feeling of nostalgia crosses the line and holds this game back from being as unbelievably good as some of its predecessors. So as impressive of a game as it is, Twilight Princess seems like it could have been so much more with a few presentational updates and more effective and interesting uses of the Wii's unique control scheme. But even without those things, Twilight Princess is a great game that stays extremely true to the Zelda franchise's past. That's excellent news for fans of the series, who'll find in Twilight Princess a true-blue Zelda game with updated visuals, some new twists, plenty of challenging puzzles, and a faithful dedication to the series' roots.

Source : Gamespot

Gears of War

2006-12-24T02:22:00.000-08:00

In Gears of War, a slab of concrete is your best friend. And if that slab of concrete isn't around, you can always make do with burned-out cars, piles of metal, huge columns, or even the ever-popular wall next to a doorway. Why are these inanimate objects so friendly? Because if you aren't hiding behind something in Gears of War, you might as well be dead. Microsoft and Epic have teamed up to create this wicked game of hide-and-seek with high-powered future guns, which delivers one of the most heart-pounding and graphically thrilling experiences of the year. If its exciting campaign doesn't rope you in, chances are the team-based multiplayer will--either way, Gears of War is downright amazing.

The game's campaign tells the tale of a man named Marcus Fenix. He, like the other soldiers around him, is an extremely thick dude that very clearly doesn't have time to bleed. The game immediately sets an action movie-like tone, complete with an interesting post-apocalyptic world that's been overrun by a mysterious force called the Locust. Marcus is a former soldier for the Coalition of Organized Governments, or COG. Their soldiers wear ridiculously huge, bulky armor, but can't be bothered to wear helmets. They're just that tough. Or stupid. Either way, Fenix is a former soldier that's been branded a traitor and locked away, but he's busted out of prison at the opening of the game, to help in the fight against the Locust. After a brief tutorial level where you and Dom, the soldier that busted you out, make your way out of the Locust-infested prison and, yes, get to the chopper, you're connected with the other members of Delta Squad and sent out to find Alpha Squad, which is both missing and supposedly in possession of a device that could turn the tide of the war. The game's story isn't very deep, and aside from a very brief mention in the front of the manual, it doesn't really bother to fill you in on the details behind the conflict or the main character's incarceration. The lack of exposition feels like a missed opportunity to make the characters and the setting even more compelling, and there are parts of the game that seem like they were built specifically to make room for some kind of flashback sequence, but the gameplay is so sharp that you probably won't care.

You'll fight a decent variety of enemies in Gears of War. Most of the Locust are humanoids, with minor visual distinctions between the standard troops, ones with shotguns, and so on. Later on, you'll fight some different-looking humanoid-style enemies that are armed with explosive torque bows, and there are plenty of other critters to face--some small, some screen-filling. They all use slightly different tactics, but the same basic rule applies: Wait for them to pop their heads (or other weak points) out and attempt to shoot it off. The enemy response to your actions has its great moments, but it also has its problems. Enemies hiding behind cover tend to not react when they get hit. From time to time, you might catch the back of an enemy peeking just over a piece of cover, and if you start shooting it, he'll usually just sit there and let you drill him to death. But in spite of its few problems, the action is tense and extremely enjoyable.

Gears of War consists of a large series of pitched battles between your squad and the enemy forces. If you leave your fool head popped up for too long, it'll get shot off every single time, so the proper place for you is tucked behind a wall or some other piece of cover. The cover mechanics work very naturally, making it easy to stick to a wall, pop up or around to take shots at the enemy, and get back down safely. Moving between nearby pieces of cover is also very easy to manage.

This isn't the first time that taking cover has been a focus of gameplay--the mechanics work very similarly to a fairly obscure PlayStation 2 game from Namco called kill.switch. But no game has made this sort of gameplay quite so exciting. One of the greatest feelings in this game is that when you pop out to take a shot, you immediately feel like you're taking your life into your own hands, because the enemy is very good at opening fire the second they see you and you'll see those bullets heading your way. This formula remains thrilling from start to finish, though boss fights and a pretty neat vehicle section help to break up the action.

Thankfully, one shot won't kill you, in most cases. The health meter takes the form of a skull and gear icon that appears onscreen in pieces as you take damage. If it's completed, that means you took one hit too many and you're history. But if you can avoid getting shot for a few seconds, the gear fades away and you're restored to full health. It's a much quicker recharge than something like Halo's energy shields, and this helps keep the action moving while reinforcing that you really need to play cautiously.

You'll usually have three other guys in your squad, but they usually aren't much help. They're good for distracting enemies, and they'll take down a few here and there, but they also tend to get dropped a lot. You can revive them, if you can get over to them and hit the X button, but usually it's easier to just finish the fight yourself, which brings them all back without exposing you to the same enemy fire that took them down in the first place.

Gears of War offers two difficulty settings right off the bat, and a third unlocks when you beat the game. The game defaults to the easiest setting, called casual. On this setting, taking cover only becomes important when you're up against heavy odds or later in the game, when the enemies get tougher. The middle setting, hardcore, feels just right at first--you need to take cover, but you can usually pop up and take shots without immediate punishment. But near the tail end of the game, both difficulties ramp up quite a bit. Hardcore starts to get a little unmanageable. Casual gets to be about as hard as the hardcore setting is near the beginning of the game. And once you unlock insane, you'll find that it's aptly named, though not impossible. Overall, the difficulty feels like it could have used a bit more tuning, or another setting that finds the sweet spot between casual and hardcore. But since you can select your difficulty each time you load up your game, it's easy to set it down to casual if you get stuck at a certain checkpoint, then raise it back up once you've made progress. Making your way through the campaign should take most players somewhere from about 10 to 12 hours, depending on the difficulty.

The game has achievements for finishing each of the five acts on each of the three difficulties, and they stack, so if you beat an act on hardcore, you get the casual points, as well. It only seems to keep track of what difficulty setting you're on when you finish the act, so all this switching around won't cause any trouble on that front, either. The game's achievements are pretty good, with a smart mix of points you'll get for simply playing through the game and some more esoteric ones, like points for playing as Dom in co-op, points for perfectly reloading your weapon many times in a row, doing well online, and so on. None of the points seem that far fetched, but you also won't have the full thousand during your first couple of days with the game, either.
While the campaign is fine and good alone, it's even better when you're playing with another player. You can do so via a split-screen or over Xbox Live, and the good news is that you can continue the campaign from where you've played in the single-player, so you can use any mix of single or cooperative play to get through without having to replay missions. The second player takes on the role of Dom, and the game is both more entertaining and significantly easier when playing with a partner. That's because when players die in co-op, they can be revived, provided they haven't been blown to bits or their deaths don't take place during one of the few times when the team splits up, separating the two human players. Online, the co-op behaves quite smoothly, and the graphics in split-screen mode appear to be just as good as they are when you're playing alone. About the only negative aspect of co-op play is that if a player drops out of an online game, the other player is forced to quit back to the main menu. A more seamless drop-in/drop-out setup would have been cool.

A big part of making any shooter memorable is the design of its weapons. Gears of War has some very satisfying weaponry that really make the game stand out. The machine gun you're going to use for most of the game is the Lancer, and in addition to it being a fast-firing death dealer, it also has a unique melee attack in the chainsaw bayonet. Yes, a machine gun with a chainsaw mounted to the bottom of it is just as awesome as it sounds, though since most of the enemies are content to hide behind cover and mow you down if you attempt to get close, you don't get to use it as often as you might like. But when you do, it's a terrific display of great, splashy blood effects. The other weapons in the game aren't quite as flashy, as you'll get a standard sniper rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher, some grenades, and so on. But you'll also get to use something called the Hammer of Dawn, which is an orbital satellite that beams down hot, fiery death from above when you paint a target. But the catch is that the satellites have to be lined up above your position and you have to be outside for it to work, so it's only available in a few very specific situations during the campaign. You can carry four different weapons, but you'll always have slots reserved for a pistol and for grenades, so you have to make choices about which two main weapons you'll carry around with you.

Another really cool facet of the gameplay is that there's a trick to reloading your weapon. By default, reloads take a set amount of time and aren't anything flashy. But if you look just below the gun indicator on the screen, you'll see a line sweeping across a bar with a couple of different colors on it. That's the trick. A button press stops the meter. If you stop it in the gray area, the weapon reloads faster. If you stop it in the tiny white zone, you'll reload and all the bullets you just fed into your weapon will do more damage. But if you miss and hit it in the black, the gun jams and takes even longer to reload. It's a fascinating risk-versus-reward scenario that isn't difficult to master, but when you're under fire in a tense situation, you're still likely to screw it up now and then.

In addition to the single-player and co-op play, Gears of War has a team-based multiplayer mode for up to eight players. The four-on-four action is also round-based with no respawns, though like in the co-op game, you can revive other players when they go down. On the other side, though, that means you need to pump a lot more rounds into your enemies after they go down, just to make sure they stay down. Or, alternately, you can run up on their downed body and hit the X button, which delivers a very satisfying life-ending boot to your foe's head. For as much fun as the weapons are in single-player, they're actually more exciting here. The Hammer of Dawn becomes a pretty hilarious addition to the game, and you'll get to use that chainsaw more frequently against unsuspecting players thanks to the way the maps offer multiple ways to get to the same location. The key to multiplayer is to never work alone so that you can always have someone around to revive you and vice versa. Two players rolling up on one player usually (though certainly not always) results in the single player getting decimated. One of the other players may go down, but that's nothing a revival won't fix. The game's 10 maps offer a good variety, and you can mix the action up a bit by changing out the weapons that appear in the map. You can play in three different modes. Warzone is a standard team deathmatch. Assassination puts one player in the leader role and the other three players must fight as protectors. Execution forces you to kill opposing players yourself--if you let them sit there and bleed, they can hammer the A button to revive themselves. With a good number of maps and exciting action, this game appears to have some longevity to it online. If you like, you can also play over a LAN via system link, or locally--though local multiplayer is limited to two players, which isn't too exciting.

Consider Gears of War to be the game that raised the bar for how console games should look from here on out. The character models are thick and look outstanding. The gray, war-torn environments are nicely varied throughout the game, and the game is full of amazing standout visual moments, such as a train sequence where you see that the sky is full of ink left behind by flying Locust enemies, blocking your view of the stars just enough to prevent you from busting out the Hammer of Dawn. Or, when you get to an underground mine and see a lot of molten, glowing lava all around you. Or, anytime you get to use the chainsaw on anything, ever. Or, the way the camera gets down low and starts shaking like a wartime documentary whenever you start running. It all looks absolutely amazing, from the animation to the game's over-the-top blood effects.

The game also runs at a very steady frame rate during gameplay. The cutscenes, however, are rendered in real time, and when the action really gets heated in some of the sequences, the visuals chop up. The music in Gears of War is appropriately cinematic and really helps carry the action-movie style that the game is shooting for. The dialogue also gives off an action-movie vibe, mainly because most of it is totally meatheaded. The COG soldiers aren't scientists--they're dumb, strong soldier boys that are at home when they're behind the trigger. As a result, almost all of the dialogue is appropriately gruff and filled with the sort of "let's rock!" enthusiasm that you'd expect from a team of hardcore shooters. The weapons are also enhanced by great sound effects. The squish of flesh being ripped apart by the chainsaw, in particular, is outstanding.

Gears of War is a game that capitalizes on all of the promises made by the next generation of gaming. It looks more than a few steps beyond what consoles have been doing to this point, and the gameplay is supremely fulfilling from start to finish in all of its various modes. While there have certainly been plenty of similar shooters before it, the game's great weapons, amazing graphics, and absolutely thrilling action make it stand out from the pack in a big, big way.

Source : Gamespot

Final Fantasy XIII

2006-12-24T02:10:00.000-08:00

The Final Fantasy XIII trailer opened with a sweeping shot of a lush canyon filled with dense vegetation stretching beyond the horizon. The camera then slowly descended into the canyon to follow a speeding futuristic train that seemed to be propelled forward by passing through successive portals of some sort. Just as the train entered a dark cave it struck a barrier on the track and exploded.

The trailer then cut to the interior of the train, where a lithe woman with long grayish-reddish hair and two pistols was engaged in a battle with yellow-clad, futuristic soldiers. The stylish, fast-paced battle sequence showed the woman performing all sorts of acrobatic stunts while deftly dispatching of wave after wave of soldiers. Every so often, a faint blue light would come from her body, which appeared to be some magic discharge or perhaps a shield of some sort.

The scene cut to another train that sped along a winding track suspended high off the ground in a dark, possibly underground area. At this point a massive monster that looked somewhat like a weapon or summon from the previous Final Fantasy games appeared next to the track and began to attack the train.

The video then cut to a shot of hovering cars driving through a tunnel toward the camera before they were destroyed by an explosion. The next shot showed some massive airships flying around a floating cluster of tall, dark spires that appeared to be a city.

At this point we got a glimpse of the combat in the game, which appears to be very action-oriented. The dual-pistol woman once again was fighting wave after wave of soldiers, without breaking a sweat. The camera was pulled out slightly to show about 15 or more enemies surrounding the woman as she performed an inhumanly fast spin move and shot all of the enemies on the screen. As she did, icons popped up above each enemy denoting the number of hits and the word "chain," so it appears that the game will utilize some sort of combo system. In fact, if not for the pulled-back camera angle and numbers and words on screen, it would have been difficult to tell the difference between the cutscenes and the gameplay footage.

After the fight, the camera zoomed in close on the woman as she flicked her wrist and transformed her pistol into a large dagger or small sword, similar to a gunblade from Final Fantasy VIII. The next scene showed her walking through a very dense, green forest with crystalline structures throughout. She walked into the forest as if looking for something, then paused and looked around.

Then it was back to the floating cities as another train sped between buildings. A large flying manta ray type of creature flew down from above, landed on the train, and hijacked it. The creature looked mechanical but moved very fluidly and naturally. The trailer then ended with a line of text that simply stated, "PlayStation 3 Exclusive."

After the trailer Yoshinori Kitase, Final Fantasy XIII producer, took the stage to explain a bit of the history of the development of the game. A year ago, the Final Fantasy X team was working on a version of Final Fantasy XIII for the PlayStation 2. That team was pulled off of the project to create the PlayStation 3 Final Fantasy VII tech demo that was shown at E3 2005. Instead of going back to the unfinished XIII project, the team scrapped the game and began work on XIII for the PlayStation 3.

The XIII team was assembled with specialized developers who focused on building a brand-new game engine, called the White Engine. This engine was developed to integrate graphics rendering, physics, cinematics, sound, and special effects. Square Enix promises that the White Engine will allow Final Fantasy XIII to take full advantage of the PlayStation 3 hardware.

Of course, in any serious battle--and there are a lot of challenging fights in this game--you'll get wiped out if you just sit back and watch. During combat, you can step in to manually issue orders to any party member whenever you wish and may also swap in defeated party members with your alternates (only three of your main characters can fight at a time). In the end, the combat feels highly strategic, because poorly planned gambits will bring disaster. But you can easily change your gambits on the fly or toggle them off for any character if you'd prefer to. You can also adjust the speed at which battles unfold, though the default speed seems ideal. And even if you do find yourself at an impasse with a particular battle, it's usually possible to go off someplace else and come back to it later, after having replenished your supplies, grown stronger, and adjusted your strategy. In the first hours of play, the rather passive combat sequences are somewhat disappointing, since there's really not much to do. But once you've assembled the entire party and the gambit system starts opening up, the combat becomes quite interesting and involved. In short, rather than task you with controlling the specific actions of your different characters, Final Fantasy XII puts you in a more strategic, commanding role.
Ironically, the nature of the underlying combat is the same as ever, which means you'll constantly be trading hits with foes whose own attacks will frequently bring your characters to death's door, just in time for a healing spell to restore them. Many foes will also use status-changing effects in different combinations, like poison or sleep spells, and Final Fantasy players will need to contend with these in familiar ways. You'll also learn special abilities unique to each character and get to summon creatures called espers to temporarily fight for you, elements that will also be familiar to Final Fantasy players. What helps make all the fighting feel meaningful and interesting is Final Fantasy XII's licenses system, another fairly convoluted but ultimately good addition to the game. Your characters all earn license points with each enemy you defeat, and these points are then used to unlock new upgrades and innate abilities for your characters. Much like the combat, the license board gives an odd first impression, because you need a license for literally each and every equipment piece, magic spell, and special ability in the game before you can use them. So you can't equip that crossbow as soon as you find it, and you won't just magically learn the cure spell once you hit a certain level. You need to spend license points on the license.

The license board works kind of like Scrabble. You can only acquire licenses next to other licenses you've already acquired, and the licenses along the edges of the board (farthest from your starting points toward the middle) are often tied to the strongest items, spells, and upgrades. Each character starts off with some basic equipment and ability licenses, and the board is roughly split up so that weapon, armor, accessory, magic, combat, and special ability licenses are all grouped together. Licenses for more-valuable abilities tend to cost more points, and the license board also lets you unlock additional gambit slots for adapting your characters' behavior in combat toward increasingly complex battles.

Much like the combat, the license system introduces some trade-offs. The good news is that the intricacies of this system are far more interesting than annoying, and it gives you an incentive to fight just about everything you encounter, even the weakest creatures that are barely worth any experience points anymore. The bad news is you might find yourself getting hung up on trying to figure out the "best" way to unlock licenses for each character, and since the license board is the same for each character, that means each character is also the same, and it's entirely up to you to define their differences and specializations. This may come as no surprise to those who've been keeping up with Final Fantasy for a while, since recent installments in the series have all done this. But it still seems strange that Basch, the captain of the Dalmascan guard, is inherently no better in a sword fight than pig-tailed Penelo. In fact, you could turn Basch into a pure healer / magic user while developing Penelo as your single toughest fighter. This open-ended system adds sophistication and replay value to Final Fantasy XII, but some sort of "autolevel" system probably would have been a good option.

Source : Gamespot

Medal of Honor Frontline Review

2006-12-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

Medal of Honor Frontline is one of those games that will surprise PlayStation 2 owners by dazzling them with terrific gameplay, visual flair, and some of the best sound yet heard on Sony's console. Indeed, this World War II-themed first-person shooter is on the same level as the recently released and highly acclaimed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for the PC, an outstanding game in its own right. Frontline takes the same cinematic approach that Allied Assault did, with a heavy emphasis on scripted events throughout its epic missions. While Frontline does have a few frustrating points, the game is more than good enough to outshine any shortcomings that it might have. Simply put, it's one of the best first-person shooter experiences available on a console.

The bulk of the game takes place during one of the most daring offensives of World War II: Operation Market Garden, a plan that, had it succeeded, may have ended the European war several months earlier. While Operation Market Garden ultimately failed just short of its final goal, in Frontline, as Lieutenant James Patterson, you'll press on alone, making your way well behind enemy lines using stealth and sabotage as well as heroic force to achieve your own goals. In the important shoes of this American GI, by game's end, you'll have single-handedly prevented the invention of an experimental Nazi jet bomber from turning the tide of the war, and you'll have gone toe-to-toe with a wily Nazi antagonist and his hordes of deadly soldiers.

Frontline teaches you how to swim by throwing you off the boat, literally. The very first mission of the game is the storming of the beach at Normandy, the D-Day battle made infamous most recently by its grisly depiction in Steven Spielberg's film Saving Private Ryan. In the opening sequence, you'll find yourself loaded up in a Higgins boat on approach. This cinematic intro allows you to look around and take in your surroundings in all their glory, as sister boats are torn to pieces by strafing German aircraft. Seconds later, as your boat hits the beach and the door drops, an artillery shell explodes and sends you head over heels into the sea, along with the other infantry accompanying you. You're then treated to a few seconds of submerged chaos, as many in your group are cut down by enemy fire before reaching the shore. Emerging from the water to an intense battlefront, you meet up with your captain, who charges you with rescuing allies under heavy fire. Needless to say, this level is extremely effective in its intentions, which is to get you pumped up right away and showcase the strengths of the game engine. As you fight your way up the beach, there's never a dull moment, as you're constantly trying to avoid machine gun fire, earth-shaking artillery explosions, and the occasional strafing runs of German aircraft. By the time you reach a group of friends taking cover at the seawall, your heart will be pounding, and a real sense of accomplishment will set in. This level is the centerpiece of the game, and it showcases the audio and visual presentation better than any other level.

This is not to say that other levels don't compare, however. The level design is well thought out throughout the game, and while many levels share similar surroundings, each is its own beast. The attention to detail in all of them is outstanding, with city levels that look like they were taken straight from the pages of history. One such example is the level called Arnham Knights, a grueling mission that drops you in the thick of battle, surrounded by German tanks, Panzershrek squads (foot soldiers armed with rocket-propelled grenades), and friendly British infantry. In this level, the terrain is rubble: destroyed urban landscape sectioned off by piles of concrete and destroyed buildings. Making your way through this level can be done a couple of ways. You might take the sniper route by finding high ground in buildings and picking off enemy troops one at a time. Or you might make use of the heavy machine gun you're equipped with to run and gun your way through the narrow streets. In addition to traversing ruined cityscapes, you'll find yourself masquerading as a German officer in a giant mansion, stowing away on a German U-boat, destroying an armored train, riding a runaway mine cart, and more.

The graphics in Medal of Honor Frontline are top notch. Character models are excellent, featuring very expressive faces and detailed uniforms. Their animations are also very well done, complete with a variety of death animations dependent on where and how the enemy was struck. While there isn't any blood in the game--this is purely for rating purposes--some of the death animations can be downright gruesome. You'll see some soldiers clap a hand on the back of their skull when they're shot in the head, look at the nonexistent blood on their palm, then topple over, dead. One of the only less-than-impressive aspects of the graphics is the textures in the game. Like in many PlayStation 2 titles, they're a bit washed out and blurry. And for the most part, they aren't very colorful either. This minor complaint can be overlooked, though, as you probably won't be spending your time examining every wall or road. One other shortcoming of note is that the frame rate can dip on occasion. The game generally moves along at a very smooth frame rate when things are more relaxed, but as explosions start kicking up, the frame rate can start to chug. This, much like the texture quality, is easily forgiven. The visual presentation of the game has such a big-budget appeal to it that minor complaints such as these seem almost nitpicky.
The shortcomings of the game's artificial intelligence are perhaps more of an issue. The enemies aren't the stupidest opponents you'll come across in a game, but they aren't exactly the brightest, either. For every German soldier that takes cover and tries to root you out with stick grenades and good aim, there are two that stand in the street like deer in headlights or run around a corner and right into the muzzle of your trusty M1 Garand. When cornered or caught with an empty clip, they will rush you and try to take you down with their fists or the butt of their rifles, at least. You'll even face some crazed chefs that wield knives in what seems like some sort of demented circus act. The game defaults to an "easy" difficulty setting, and this does directly affect how the enemies will fight and react. On the more-difficult settings, your enemies will seem a bit brighter, but their heightened toughness has more to do with better aim than better reactions or strategies.

If there is one aspect of Medal of Honor Frontline that is absolutely perfect, it's the audio. Frontline has some of the best music and sound effects of any game, on any console, or on any gaming platform for that matter. The Medal of Honor series is already well known for its top-notch audio, and Frontline only adds to that reputation. The masterful score by composer Micheal Giacchino is rousing to say the least, with title music that would be right at home in a Hollywood film. It's very reminiscent of the music found in HBO's Band of Brothers miniseries and underscores the action of the game perfectly. In some levels, it can be a driving force, while in others it can be an ambient backdrop that fits the atmosphere like a comfortable glove. The sound effects are also great. Every gunshot, engine drone, footstep, and scream is crystal clear. The voice acting is also very well done, with good performances all around. If you stop and watch characters as they speak, you'll even see that their lips are almost perfectly in sync with the speech. All of the German soldiers speak in German as well. In a few instances, you can even eavesdrop on full conversations, which are subtitled when spoken in a foreign tongue. The game also supports Dolby Surround sound for those with the appropriate equipment. This game will undoubtedly be a treat for those wanting to show off their expensive home theaters.

Frontline does have some more-technical shortcomings relating to the control, the game length, and the save feature--not necessarily serious issues, but all things you should be aware of. Those hoping for USB mouse and keyboard support will be disappointed, as there isn't any to speak of. No options for this are presented in the menu system, and plugging in our own mouse and keyboard confirmed the lack of support. There are several different control schemes for the Dual Shock 2, however, as well as the ability to map controls for a completely customized setup. The control is pretty good overall--as good as can be expected from a console shooter. The game lasts about 10-15 hours depending on how skillful you are, but Frontline's overall value is boosted somewhat by the extras that can be unlocked. Unfortunately, Frontline is a completely single-player game, which is too bad considering many of the levels would lend themselves well to a co-op mode. As far as the save feature goes, you'll need to complete a level before you're able to save. This can be frustrating at times, as some levels can take up to 40 minutes to complete. Luckily, you're able to absorb inhuman amounts of damage before you die, so this doesn't become a glaring problem.

There are six missions in the game, each of which is composed of up to four levels. There are a total of 19 levels altogether. Completing each level with a 95 percent kill ratio while maintaining 75 percent of your health will net you a gold star. Completing a mission with a gold star in each level will decorate you with a medal and unlock a video reel edited together from old war footage, along with a short "making of" reel that gives you a glimpse of the effort that went into constructing each level.

Extras or no, Medal of Honor Frontline is an excellent game. Broken down into several facets, the game still shines on all fronts. It's visually impressive and aurally incredible, and it essentially is a superb entry in the shooter genre. The attention to historical details further augments the experience, though those who consider themselves fans of shooters would do well to add this game to their collection. Even gamers who harbor only a passing interest in this style of game will probably find it worth their money. In short, Medal of Honor Frontline is a shooter that can stand toe-to-toe with the best the genre has to offer.

Source : Gamespot

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault Review

2006-12-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

Medal of Honor Allied Assault

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the first PC installment of Electronic Arts' WWII-themed shooter series, is superb. However, if the realistic setting has led you to expect a serious combat simulation along the lines of Ghost Recon or Operation Flashpoint, you're going to be surprised and perhaps disappointed. Medal of Honor is first and foremost a run-and-gun shooter--a really, really excellent run-and-gun shooter. A lot of clever scripting and precisely orchestrated mayhem lend it a sustained intensity that more open-ended tactical shooters often lack. Relatively short but very dense, it's like one-half game and one-half amusement park ride.
Medal of Honor isn't very heavy on story. Instead, the game is split into six more or less disconnected missions spread across more than 30 different levels. Rather than focus on creating memorable characters or surprising plot twists, the developers at 2015 have taken an arguably more effective route by constantly introducing memorable set pieces and surprising new gameplay elements. As in Half-Life, you witness everything from the fixed first-person viewpoint of your character. All the "cutscenes" are seamlessly integrated into the ongoing events of the level. Control is never taken away from you. Just as in Half-Life, this technique is incredibly effective for creating a sense of both urgency and of attachment to the game's environments. It's an ongoing mystery as to why developers don't use this uninterrupted viewpoint more often.
Over the last couple of years, 10 to 15 hours appears to have become the standard length for single-player shooters. Medal of Honor doesn't break this trend and should take you slightly longer than 10 hours to complete on the standard difficulty setting. However, it packs a lot of content into those hours. You won't ever have to force yourself through the game. This is mainly due to the wide variety of interesting things and unexpected events that happen on a regular basis. It seems as if the developers have tried to inject every level with some completely new challenge or new combination of elements from previous levels. It's a testament to this variety that to give many specific examples would be to ruin the surprise.

Even so, at least one specific example is in order, just to give a sense of how involving Medal of Honor's missions can be. You begin the first level riding in the back of a truck with four members of your squad. The squad leader informs everyone that you're attempting to infiltrate a Nazi-occupied village. You can see another truck driving behind you. Both vehicles stop at a checkpoint, and a German guard approaches the rear truck and begins talking to the driver. As the conversation drags on, your squad becomes progressively more agitated. Finally, the driver of the rear truck pulls a gun and shoots the guard, at which point alarms sound, gunfire erupts all around you, and the rear truck explodes in a fireball. Your squad jumps out of its truck and you follow. With the leader barking orders, you all advance on the village gates, eventually making your way to a courtyard. There, you're ordered to check a door. As you do, German soldiers appear all across the rooftops and balconies surrounding the small courtyard. You're trapped and chaos ensues, as bullets and grenades rain down on your squad. Eventually, a door is blown open and you're ordered to enter a building, get to the second floor, and commandeer a mounted gun that's currently being used against you. Once you do that, and turn the gun against the Nazis, an ally joins you and tells you he'll cover you from a window while you head to the far end of the courtyard. By the time you make it, the entire rest of the squad is dead, and you're forced to continue to the next level alone.

This isn't the first mission, but rather just the first level. Things continue apace from there. While not all of the following levels are as eventful as the first, virtually every one breaks up the traditional straightforward run-and-gun action with some twist. One level that re-creates the Normandy beach storming scene from Saving Private Ryan is quite likely the most intense and well-executed set piece in shooter history. It's the perfect implementation of Medal of Honor's apparent design philosophy: the heavily scripted level that somehow feels alive and completely spontaneous.In what has become a disclaimer that, at this point, should probably just be left implied in every shooter review, the enemy artificial intelligence is not as good as Half-Life's. However, it's not bad either. The Nazis don't exhibit any real squad-based behavior, and they'll sometimes come running single file around a corner as you shoot each one in turn, but those that don't come sprinting after you tend to use cover well. They also know how to toss grenades and get out of the way of incoming grenades. If fact, you can provide cover for yourself by tossing grenades and then advancing while the Nazis are busy scampering out of the way.

Two things contribute to making the fights especially intense. First, other than snipers who are sometimes frustratingly accurate, the rank-and-file soldiers you'll face aren't perfect shots. Gunfights usually involve bullets spraying all around you, instead of merely straight into you. Second, when you do get hit, you become incapacitated for a brief moment, and your viewpoint is knocked aside accordingly, leaving you open to more hits. This means you can't simply roll toward an enemy while absorbing hits like a tank. Moving from cover to cover becomes an indispensable tactic, which ends up making the fights feel more real, in spite of the fact that you can absorb an unrealistic amount of damage and can instantly replenish your health with med packs.

Medal of Honor uses the Quake III: Team Arena engine, and its graphics are generally excellent. It may not look quite as crisp as Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but it's no slouch. Character animations are especially good, as are more subtle effects such as lightning storms in the distance and trees swaying in the wind. It also features some of the most impressively destructible environments ever created. However, to ensure a teen rating--previous Medal of Honor games for the PlayStation were also rated T--the game is completely bloodless. If that turns you off, think of it this way: Maybe they took out the blood so it wouldn't obscure your view of the death animations, which are gruesome to say the least.

The graphics are very good, but the sound is phenomenal. Every level is thick with ambient sound effects. The voice acting is excellent, and there's plenty of it. Best of all, the Germans actually speak German. A lot. The music is fine and usually appropriate, but the game is smart enough to sometimes forgo music. The soundtrack for the Normandy beach level is nothing but gunfire, waves, screaming, and the overlapping conversations of groups of panicked soldiers, which ends up being much more effective than any score could have been.

Medal of Honor offers a few different multiplayer modes, including deathmatch and objective-based team matches. There's nothing really wrong with them, and the realistic World War II-era weapons are interesting, but there's nothing here that's overly compelling. Nothing like the marginal but significant advances to teamplay offered by Return to Castle Wolfenstein are present in Medal of Honor. Worse, there are some severe implementation issues. Rather than offer a built-in server browser, Medal of Honor relies on the GameSpy program for finding games. Quitting out to a third-party application every time you want to switch servers is a pain to begin with, but the developers have made it even more obtrusive by forcing you to sit through three uninterruptible logo animations every time the game loads. Three! Someone will probably come up with a workaround to this, but a workaround shouldn't be necessary. There's also already a rampant cheating problem. It's possible to enter god mode in multiplayer and become an invincible opponent or, worse yet, an invincible team killer. Complementing this problem is the fact that there's no clear menu-based voting system. Voting exists, but it's only available through console commands, and only then if you check the advanced console setting in the options menu.

So, if you're looking for the next great online game or a deep tactical shooter, Medal of Honor isn't for you. For anyone else, it's hard to recommend it strenuously enough. At a time when shooters seem to be evolving into two distinct kinds of games--either focused on realistic tactics or on arcade action--Medal of Honor represents the absolute best that action-packed, event-driven shooters have to offer.

Source : Gamespot

Download Free Pc Games

2006-11-19T03:02:00.000-08:00

DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE!!!

PUZZLE GAMES
Dynomite

Launch dino eggs to solve the puzzle, but watch out for Mama brontosaurus! If she gets mad, she'll put her foot down on you! This action puzzle challenges you to launch dinosaur eggs into the playfield when 3 or more of the same color stick together, BANG!

Rocket Mania

A new pyrotechnic puzzler is here! Twist and turn the fuses to link a burning match to one or more rockets, then watch the sparks fly! Upgrade your rockets for bigger bangs by collecting coins along the way. But watch out - set off your fireworks by dawn or the show is over. Three play modes for all skill levels. How many rockets can you launch at one time?

Diner Dash

Sick and tired of pushing paper in the dreary world of finance, Flo ditched her desk job and now she's setting out to build her very own empire of high-class, five-star restaurants. Diner Dash blends the best in fast paced-action puzzles with a build-your-restaurant-empire theme. Serve your way from a run-of-the-mill greasy spoon to your dream restaurant that will take your breath away!

Cubis Deluxe

The sequel to the puzzle hit of 2002 is back, and masterfully delivers the next dimension of its classic 3D-esque matching game. Three new game-play cubes featuring the Bomb, Dual, and Ghost Cube, bring exciting twists to every aspect of this addictive puzzle game.With two new game play modes, new difficultly settings, beautiful new cube sets and amazing new level designs...you'll be hooked all over again!

Mountain Puzzle

amusing, easy-to-play puzzle with several levels of difficulty. Easy installation
and rules. The puzzle image can be chosen from various mountains images. Autosave, background music, and help on the puzzleimage during the game

Barman's Life

difficult to work as a barman? Would you like to try? Test your abilities in the game "Barman's life". A famous bar takes on a new barman. Face a challenge of serving the clients who are constantly arriving

Hen House

land there is the Paradise Hen House, where all the honored hens from all over the world live. Every hen is awarded with its own color and is called upon to lay the eggs of this color

Magic Balls

Magic Balls is a new brain-teaser for all puzzle lovers. Your objective is to swap the balls to line up three of the same color. They explode, you score. The gameplay may seem simple at first, but in a couple of minutes it becomes very addictive

Sudoku Puzzle

Sudoku puzzle game and solver for windows. Hint features include scan, markup and reveal cell. You can print
puzzles on paper, save them as an image and solve newspaper puzzles. Sizes from 4x4 to 16x16 and difficulties
from very easy to very hard.

Magic Lines

engaging and cute variation of the beloved Lines game with nice 3D effects! 3 balls per turn are placed on the playing board randomly. You need to line them up by color, and if you get 5 they explode, making more room and giving points.

Nonogram Deluxe

Use your logical thinking to recreate a hidden picture based on the given hints. More than 560 nonogram puzzles.

TangleBee

Bees are humming, the Spidy's coming, untangle quick before they stick! The TangleBees have unfortunately been caught in the tricky spider's web and need your help! Untangle the bees to set them free and bring peace back to TangleWood forest.

Stones of Egypt

Stones of Egypt is a mind boggling puzzle game that will test your forward planning skills to the limit. Suitable for adults and children, the logic required to solve these puzzles will get your mind working like nothing before.

My Free Mahjong

Free Mahjong is a traditional Chinese game for centuries, Mahjong combines elements of skill, strategy, memory, and intuition into a challenging game of patience. My Free Mahjong breaks into reality - it becomes truly 3D!

Hidden Expedition: Titanic

Immerse yourself in a challenging expedition as you search for hidden objects and explore the historic Titanic!

Mystery Case Files: Huntsville

Put the criminals behind bars forever in this one-of-a-kind puzzler!

Atlantis Sky Patrol

Shoot colorful marbles to knock out the doomsday devices and save the world in this stunning sequel to the smash hit Atlantis!

AIT_Trains

Trains is an action puzzle game with simple rules and 175 levels in two modes. This addictive game with enchanting music and beautiful graphics will glue you to the PC for hours together.

STRATEGY GAMES
War on Folvos

War on Folvos is turn-based strategy game with a unique story set on a fictitious future world. You can command an entire army consisting of various military units. Experience many stirring battles, defeat your enemy and become the true Commander

Virtual Villagers

Guide your villagers in learning how to survive and thrive in this real-time simulation game. How will you lead your tribe?

Styrateg

narrative strategy based on the balanced and unique mixture of adventure, action and investigation in a great
RPG adventure with original medieval music. Quests in twenty levels of mysterious blend of action and story.

Atomic Cannon Pocket

The ultimate artillery duel with 85 weapons of mass destruction! You'll have great fun waging war on 25 deformable scenic landscapes. Enjoy the real time smoke trails and fully customizable weapon economy with up to 16 players.

Brutal Wars

No Picture Available

you think you were born to command armies, not to rub your pants through in the office, then Brutal Wars is for you. This turn-based war strategy lets you hone your strategic skills on various battlefields displayed on your Pocket PC. Good luck!

Onimod land

Onimod Land is a RTS-game. The game has a smart artificial intelligence and original way of managing. You may choose the race of savages or space occupants for the game. The game is more oriented to the hard fighting than to the development.

Atomic Cannon Mac

BattleFleet - Pacific War

Naval strategy game, extension to the classic Battleship game where ships/planes/subs can move! Game contains missions, Death-Match and Free Hunt scenarios & campaigns from Pearl Harbor and Midway to the Iwo Jima and Leyte battle

Jack of All Trades

Become a trader, bounty hunter, or even a pirate in Jack of All Trades. Join the rebellion or fly solo while trying to earn enough cash to survive. Visit the shipyard, then outfit your new ship with weapons and other enhancements. Guaranteed fun!

GUNS GIRLS LAWYERS SPIES - Spy Wars Edition

Build your own private intelligence agency. Travel around the world, trade with state secrets, weapon systems, spy codes, hire secretaries, agents, lawyers, helicopters and soldiers, establish agency stations and search for criminals and politicians.

Tower Defence

Hordes of evil monsters are intruding upon your ancient kingdom. You, as the protector of the land, must build a strong defense to protect the people taking refuge in your castle. But are you up to the challenge...?

Age of Kingdoms

Age of Kingdoms is a strategy game,fun play, you are one of the six lords in the land. your dream is take over the entire land. It features over 80 different maps, challenging computer opponents,multiplayer mode, network play

SIMULATION GAMES
Moto Time

The game Moto Time welcomes you to the world of breathtaking motor-cycle races and formidable opponents. Various effects, splendid graphics and many fantastic routes will not leave you indifferent. Are you ready for a race? Go!

DogfightRC

DogfightRC is a fast paced online aerial combat game based on radio control aircraft. Blast or outwit your opponents to gain points and win the game. Online features include pilot name/stats, avatar, medals, hiscores, lobby area and in-game chat

Car Racing Deluxe

Car Racing Deluxe is right what you need if you are so far tired of those numerous Car Racing remakes. In this Game you will have to snatch your life out of the fiery lava mouth and shift from scorching meteorites.

Allods II: Necromancer

Allods II for Pocket PC . Delightful graphics, original gameplay, fascinating combination of role-play game and real-time strategy - this version contains all the features which made the game so popular with computer games fans all over the world!

Pool House - Palm OS

Pool House - snooker, 8-ball, Russian, American Pyramid and other kinds!

Offroad racing

Get a little mud in your face with Off Road Arena, the racing game that will be impossible to stop playing.

Evochron Alliance

Evochron Alliance is an ultimate 3D space combat, mercenary, and trading simulation with a first person perspective and real-time gameplay events. Master freeform gameplay in your quest to achieve wealth and power.

NoLimits Rollercoaster Simulation

NoLimits is the ultimate roller coaster simulation game that lets you experience authentic roller coaster thrills. Focusing on realism and speed, NoLimits lets you ride real existing coasters, or build a roller coaster to your own specifications.

Scream Machines

Scream Machines is a rollercoaster simulator that allows you to build your own track layouts, and then go for a virtual ride. Currently, the game supports 20 different track styles, and 39 different trains, which cover most of the real-world styles

SPORTS GAMES
Minigolf Mania

Minigolf Mania takes you and friends from the traditional Golden Hills to the fiery pools of Lava Islands. Expect the unexpected as special course items threaten to throw your ball off mark. Booster Beams, Super Jumps, Super Grow and more power ups.

Live Billiards

The newest version of the world's leader pool game released. Now you can play with computer and listen to his extraordinary comments as you play... Tuned ball physics, new Ivory ball set and 5 extra cues bring even more attraction to the gameplay.

Tennis Elbow 2006

Tennis Elbow 2006 is the best 2D tennis game, featuring both fun and realistic gameplay.
You can play on 7 grounds: clay, grass, synthetic, 2 hards, 2 indoors.
In world tour, you have 125 tournaments and the Davis Cup to play, against 300 players.

Volley Balley (MacOS)

Amazing simulation of the volleyball outdoor sports game. Two-player mode and play against the computer are possible. Various skill levels, Great graphics, and just fun to play - what else one can desire?! Feel the mood of the Olympics!

Anime Bowling Babes

bowling game with gorgeous babes and realistic physics.Featuring realistic physics, beautifully animated bowling babes. a multitude of unlockable bonuses and a full length soundtrack, you're sure to find a reason to love Anime Bowling Babes.

Universal Boxing Manager (WIN)

UBM is a boxing manager simulation. Manage up to 6 different boxers in 17 weight categories. Choose from a huge database of over 1000 unique boxers. Arrange fights, buy new training tools, and watch the real fight on the ring!

RACING GAME
Arcade Race

Arcade Race - new cool 3D racing game with 3d person perspective that is original for this genre. The purpose of the game is to be the first, of course. Variety of bonuses helps you to attack your rivals and be invulnerable. There are two game modes.

EDUCATIONAL GAME
Bergmans IQ test

The only IQ test with problem types and methods equal to Mensas official IQ test.
This test will help you to train for Mensas official IQ test so you can come closer to your top result the first time you try it.