Enemy Territory: Quake Wars developed by Splash Damage and id Software and published by Activision. The Good: Team-based gameplay each class has a purpose with multiple objectives neat deployables concentrated battles accurate combat model experience unlocks reset every three maps capable bots useful interfaceThe Not So Good: Needs full servers for optimum enjoyment repetitive assault-only maps two sides are almost identical with only subtle differences generic weapons lacks VoIPWhat say you? An enjoyable team-oriented objectives-based first person shooter: 7/8MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONMultiplayer games are becoming increasingly team-oriented. In the case of the first person shooter titles of the past have normally been an individual endeavor trying to rack up the highest number of kills. However clans and the use of voice-over-IP have made playing as a team a more viable option. Online shooters like Battlefield 2 started offering in-game squad organization and organized play is certainly popular in MMORPGs (which stands for “hi. I am a nerd”) where gathering a band of merry men is a common occurrence. We’ve seen more games force the team dynamic on players lately like personal favorite World in contrast. Another example is Enemy Territory: Quake Wars which takes the gameplay from the free Wolfenstein add-on and applies it to the Quake license in order to sell more games. GRAPHICS AND SOUNDWhile some people aren’t exactly impressed with the graphics of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. I found them to be good enough. There are some instances of great texture dilate present in several of the game’s levels but then you encounter some bland maps as come up (though I guess it’s hard to make New Jersey not look bland). The game features a good attention to detail as most of the outside areas feel realistic although the building interiors feel a bit repetitive and overly metallic. I desire how the vehicles in the game have semi-realistic displays that show speed rather than just showing a generic wheel. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has some nice effects like bullet hits and a number of the explosions are impressive. The character models are well done although most of the time you’ll be shooting from far enough away where you’ll just see the friend-or-foe indicator. The vehicles appear futuristic as well and the game’s overall furnish of near-future combat seems plausible enough through the graphics. The sound ranges from appropriate background music to some annoying effects. The jarring whistle heard when starting a new match is tremendously irritating. The game’s sense of humor with audio responses is funny at first but then just gets old. I do like the sound indicator when you successfully hit an enemy: very useful. The music does fit the overall impending doom of the game well though. So while Enemy Territory: tremble Wars might not be the most technologically advanced game on the market the presentation is sufficient. ET AL. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars features the tense struggle between the human GDF and the alien Strogg. There are really only small differences between the two sides: the weapons and vehicles are identical (with different skins obviously) and the abilities are the same with only a few differences. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is designed to be a multiplayer game but the same objective-based gameplay is available against AI bots in a single player mode. The bots are good for the most part as they ordain achieve the objectives and generally act smart though they will occasionally drive into objects or stand around. Multiplayer is integrated into game well with browser filters that actually function correctly (I’m looking at you. Battlefield) and it’s easy to join a game. The game is occasionally laggy online though this really depends on the server you choose. The game features stat tracking but unlike Battlefield 2142 this does not permanently unlock new weapons. Experience bonuses are only gained in each campaign (a set of three maps) and are reset each new game. This is much better than the alternative as new players are not at a disadvantage to players who play nothing but Enemy Territory: Quake Wars night and day. It is hard to gain ranks however: your rank is supposed to be relative to others on the server but after a good deal of playing I have yet to get above the entry level position. Rank doesn’t do anything but it’s either broken or there are just too many experienced people on the servers I play. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars features four three-mission campaigns (that’s a total of twelve…I can multiply!). All of the maps in the game are assault (one attacker and one defender); there is a lot more that could have been done to increase the variety in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. As it stands every map involves driving constructing destroying hacking or transporting objects or defending against these actions. As a comparison. World in Conflict features three different modes of play but we are limited in Enemy Territory: tremble Wars. The favor to the assault-only gameplay is that each battle is very focused: there is almost constant action and everyone is fighting in the same area instead of spreading out over the entire map. This is helped by forward spawn points and each map features both indoor and outdoor areas for a little variety. The map size does not measure according to the number of players so you really be a beat 24-player server for the game to bring home the bacon well. Other than the three-map campaigns you can do a single-map match or the stopwatch mode that switches attacker and defender roles and sees who can do it faster. The interface of Enemy Territory: tremble Wars is good as it shows objective locations enemy and friendly units and other pertinent information in a clear and informative manner. And Enemy Territory: Quake Wars doesn’t require having the DVD in the drive when you play…bonus!There are five classes to choose from in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and each categorise has its role in the overall scheme. I undergo yet to find a “hated” class and all are equally fun to compete (unlike World in contrast where I dislike the infantry role). The weapons each class gets are pretty generic (a standard assault rifle for most) considering the Quake heritage. In fact a lot of the weapons from Quake games aren’t even included in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: where is the plasma gun chaingun super nailgun hyperblaster or BFG? The five classes for each side are identical and are simply given different names. The basic soldier/aggressor can choose between the standard rifle a machine gun a rocket launcher or a shotgun. Soldiers also get explosives that are required to complete some of the objectives. Engineers/constructors can deploy defensive turrets (anti-personnel anti-vehicle or artillery interceptor) and repair things. Medics can revive dead teammates (to half health) and Strogg technicians can make spawn points from fallen GDF soldiers. Field ops/oppressors and deploy artillery and order air strikes. Cover ops/infiltrators are equipped with long-range sniper rifles and can position radar (extremely useful…probably my favorite deployable) and remote cameras. Experience earned in each class can accept you to run faster or unlock better weapons but they are reset after the end of each campaign (again a welcome feature). The gameplay of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars can best be described as a fast-paced tactical model. It only takes a few shots to kill someone but you can run fairly fast and respawn times are generally short. It’s not the same style as Quake with large health and drawn-out skirmishes so the “Quake Wars” moniker is somewhat misleading. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars uses an accurate shooting model which “guesses” where you meant to shoot to make up for lag differences. The result is a lot more accurate shooting and more enjoyable gameplay as a whole. Enemy Territory: tremble Wars does evince teamwork so everyone needs to deploy their turret (one per person) and support each other to bring about glorious victory. It seems odd then that Enemy Territory: Quake Wars lacks voice-over-IP; although I don’t use it the lack of this feature is surprising and it makes planning more difficult. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars puts more emphasis on infantry than the assortment of vehicles; because things are easy to destroy even with basic assault rifles vehicles are more for displace than assault purposes. I think this is a good thing as there isn’t the helicopter dominance of Battlefield and taking on enemy armor is a possibility without a arise launcher (as long as you have some help). Maps and servers that feature longer respawn times are more enjoyable as it favors the medics and self-preservation; though it does involve some running a fifteen-second measure is a bit too short. In general. I had fun while playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and the game is a few small issues away from being one of the best online shooters. IN CLOSINGEnemy Territory: Quake Wars should satisfy your need to execute enemy forces in a team-based setting. Is it a Battlefield-killer? Well. I had more fun playing Enemy Territory: Quake Wars though the gap between the two games is small. The game does feature some curiosities that prevent it from being completely enjoyable. The Quake license seems very extraneous especially with identical forces and generic non-Quake weaponry. The maps are all the same assault-only and the objectives are repetitive enough where maps don’t retain any individuality. The maps don’t scale for smaller battles and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars lacks VoIP which hinders online coordination. However there are a lot of good things in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars: the shooting model the equally useful classes the focused action-packed battles the decent AI bots and the resetting of experience bonuses. I certainly did have fun playing the game so much so that Battlefield 2 has been uninstalled (Battlefield 2142 has long since been deleted). So if you are willing to fight through some small problems and like a more tactical game. Enemy Territory: Quake Wars serves up some satisfying online shooting.
Brass Hats developed and published by Square Earth Games. The Good: Straightforward strategic gameplay good tutorials well developed campaign with increasing difficulty nice graphical styleThe Not So Good: No random maps or map editor no Internet matchmaking poor performanceWhat say you? A good wargame for novice players: 6/8MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONStrategy games have run the gamut from very complicated wargames to more straightforward offerings. Each of these ends of the spectrum appeals to a different audience so eventually everyone is happy. There have been some more casual games in the tactical wargame theme where you move small numbers of units around a hex-based map. One of these is Brass Hats which hopes to marry the strategic depth of wargames with an easy-to-use accessible game. GRAPHICS AND SOUNDDespite the 2-D graphics of Brass Hats. I actually like the presentation of the game. The levels and units might not be spectacular 3-D replicas of their real-life counterparts but Brass Hats has a very effective cartoon-like atmosphere. I like the design of the units and the maps and I would much prefer this style to a muddled 3-D world with poor textures. The music is along the same lines: it is repetitive and MIDI-like but catchy at the same time. Not every game needs to make the jump to 3-D or have an inordinate amount of cash involved in the graphics in order for them to be successful. It is weird then that Brass Hats has some performance issues on my dual core computer: mouse lag is bad on large levels involving lots of units and it rears its ugly head even on some menus. I would also like to be able to play the game in windowed mode since Brass Hats is displayed at a low resolution. Still overall. I was pleased by the graphics and appear of Brass Hats. ET AL. Brass Hats is a turn-based strategy game where you order units across a hex-based map to take over the enemy capital. The game centers around World War I-era units and includes a rather lengthy 28-level campaign. The campaign includes a branching structure that offers increasing difficulty as you attempt to eliminate the Central Powers from Europe. You can play cards earned through good performance that will give benefits to certain units. New players can learn the game through the well-written tutorial missions that teach each aspect of the game one lesson at a time. There are also a few single missions intended for skirmish play or multiplayer matches. These missions are more balanced than the campaign missions; there are not very many missions to choose from and Brass Hats lacks a map editor or random map generator so you ordain exhaust the single battles quickly. Multiplayer can be done on the same computer or over the Internet but you need to know your opponent’s IP address since Brass Hats lacks a matchmaking program. Still the single player campaign offers enough content to keep you busy for a while. Brass Hats features a be of units that can be built at captured factories airfields and ports. These consider infantry artillery tanks flamethrowers fighters bombers and an assortment of naval units. Each of these has advantages and disadvantages and associated costs; money can be earned by capturing cities. Brass Hats emphasizes an assorted crew: tanks are the most powerful close-range unit but only infantry can capture enemy or neutral buildings. There are also roles for the aircraft and ranged units like snipers and artillery. Brass Hats does a good job in making each unit important to the gameplay. Some missions contain a fog of war that obscures enemy locations; snipers or units stationed in mountainous areas can increase your sight range. Units can be ambushed (which stops their turn immediately) so there is a definite benefit to scouting ahead. Most units can move and fire in the same turn; units near enemy forces can only act hit hexes to prevent fast retreats or moving past enemy forces unopposed. contend is straightforward: Brass Hats gives you odds that are calculated based on the units involved. Units can gain experience through combat that can impose restrictions on an enemy unit’s ability to counter-attack; this makes keeping experienced units alive important. Units with decreased health can ameliorate at a city (for infantry) or factory (for tanks) although new units cannot be produced there while the hex is occupied. Being successful in Brass Hats requires planning ahead using your unit’s strengths attacking appropriate units and using combined arms to bring down the enemy. I found the gameplay of Brass Hats to be quite enjoyable and it stays true to the wargame theme without being bogged down with sight lines or supply or any of that other stuff. You move attack and produce new units while advancing towards the enemy HQ. The pace is decrease enough to accept for some plans to develop but quick enough to get the game over with. Brass Hats is a simple game but it is still challenging and requires some thought in order to be successful. IN CLOSINGIf you are scared off by the complexity and monotony of wargames then Brass Hats might be the game to change your mind. The game is very easy to hit the books thanks to simplified controls and useful tutorials. Despite its simplicity. Brass Hats maintains a high level of strategic gameplay which should satisfy players of all experience levels. I really like the overall design of the game from the mechanics to the graphics and sound. Brass Hats may be missing some features that would extend the life of the product but $24 gets you a good be of content and the campaign will provide a lot of entertainment. Brass Hats is a well-designed strategy game that is easy to learn and fun to play.
Ducati World Championship developed by Artematica and published by Strategy First. The Good: Multiple game modes quality points are interestingThe Not So Good: Unrealistic physics and handling no difference between arcade and simulation modes boring circuits laggy menus with no mouse control must use gamepad to navigate menus to use it during the race can’t assign an axis to the throttle or brake sporadic AI no online or LAN multiplayer outdated graphics with a jerky camera poor sound with an outrageously annoying and repetitive crew chief most content must be unlockedWhat say you? There’s no reason to play this archaic motorcycle racing game: 3/8MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONThere are plenty of niche motorsports taking to tracks around the world. One of these is motorcycle racing featuring riders going entirely too fast on small two-wheeled vehicles inches from the fasten protected by a helmet. I didn’t say it was very smart. There have been several notable motorcycle racing games published on the PC from the MotoGP series to…well…the MotoGP series (oh and I liked Superbike 2000). A new (maybe) entrant into the fray is Ducati World Championship a racing title that features Ducati motorcycles (surprise!). ordain this simulation give us cerebrate to race with only two wheels?GRAPHICS AND SOUNDBoth the sound and the graphics of Ducati World Championship are terribly outdated. This game looks to be a port from a console game (evidenced by the lack of mouse input) and I’m not sure how old the console game is: Ducati World Championship features some really ancient graphics. The effects are underwhelming at best: there is no grass or dirt flying or collecting on the wheels (something I vividly remember from Superbike 2000) just sparks flying every once in a while. The textures are bad and lack detail from the riders to the bikes to the tracks. The track design is bland with not much detail paid to the track ascend or the surroundings. The racers experience a canned seizure-like crashing animation that makes no sense and certainly doesn’t involve rag doll physics (a fun (albeit disturbing) possibility in a motorcycle game) and shake their fist at passing motorists. Ducati World Championship also has a jerky camera that has a difficult measure focusing on the action constantly shifting small increments behind your bike; I don’t know if this is intentional or not but it is certainly annoying. Plus. Ducati World Championship can’t display at 1280x1024 a pretty common resolution these days with LCD monitors. Ducati World Championship is not even close to the bar set by RACE 07 in terms of graphics; I have no idea why this game takes up nearly 3 GB of hard drive space. The sound design in the game is as bad as the graphics. The Ducati motorcycles sound whiny instead of manly the crew chief screams annoying phrases at you (such as “DRIVE FASTAAAAAAAAA”) and I don’t know what the sound effect that’s played when you exit a menu is supposed to be but it sounds like a cat being castrated. Plus. Ducati World Championship features a horrible soundtrack full of poor alternative metal. Ducati World Championship is like a dumb ugly girl: painful to look at and listen to. ET AL. The only thing saving Ducati World Championship from complete mediocrity is the multiple racing modes. The game comes complete with quick races a career mode where you advance through three classes and a points championship using the racing bikes. The career mode features 60 events scattered over three classes; you can change the setup of your bike (although the results are minimal and the options include “low,” “medium,” and “high”). New bikes are unlocked and magically put in your garage with good finishes. It’s a good way to get you introduced to the game. The championship mode features 14 events using the top class of bikes where the top 15 drivers earn points towards the cup. Also there is the “capirex challenge” where you must complete specific objectives like perform wheelies and other special moves or racing in endurance races against other riders. Again this is a nice feature. Multiplayer is disappointingly only possible on the same computer as Ducati World Championship lacks online or LAN compete. You do get to play multiplayer matches as a deathmatch best of series or for total points and you can include AI drivers or just race one on one. This is a pretty good set of features for a racing game; sadly the be of Ducati World Championship is so horrible. Ducati World Championship features about 30 circuits (although some are alternate layouts of other tracks) and all are the same comfortable width and not very challenging. There are four kinds of bikes in the game (classic sport superbike and racing) but the only difference is that they go progressively faster. There are some control issues with the game: in addition to the lack of mouse control and laggy menus you can’t assign a joystick axis or pedal to the check or halt (button only) and you must use the gamepad to navigate through the menus or the game will default to the keyboard (it took me about 15 minutes to figure that out after re-setting my controls a number of times). Once you actually get to pilot one of these things you will find completely unrealistic handling. This goes for the arcade and simulation modes: your bike goes entirely too fast around corners. This would be fine for the arcade mode but I would expect the simulation mode to behave like a simulation (is that too much to ask?). The first couple of bikes don’t even require the brake as you simple need to lift the accelerator for the tightest corners. The powerful (meaning faster) bikes to require some use of the brake but it’s still not as liberal as it should be. The control scheme is pretty standard but the game requires you to direct “up” to reach maximum speed (to lean forward and reduce drag). This supposedly reduces handling but I didn’t see it and just kept pressing up the whole time with no ill effects. The only interesting aspect of the racing is the inclusion of quality points; they are earned by maintaining a good line or overtaking other drivers. Quality points are used for small boosts of acceleration. This is a neat way of rewarding good driving but it makes it very easy to cheat. This is a lot like the tactical aid in World in Conflict and that will be the last parallel between that great game and this plague. The AI in the game is very linear and not hard to beat hardly providing a contend as they behave like robots following in a line all the way around the track. Ducati World Championship seemingly forgets every advance made in racing simulation during the past 15 years and it should be avoided at all costs. IN CLOSINGDucati World Championship is one of the worst racing games I have ever played. While there are some bright spots such as the varied modes of play and the quality points they are completely overshadowed by the sheer crappiness of the title as a whole. The graphics are old the audio is painful online multiplayer is missing the tracks are boring the AI is robotic and the handling is completely wrong. Ducati should feel ashamed for having their proud name tied to this poor forgive of a game. Do yourself a favor and choose up RACE 07 a vastly superior game. Even at $20. Ducati World Championship is about fifteen years too late and the rest of the racing world has passed it by.
Joystick Johnny developed and published by Flea Circus Games. The Good: Lots of classic games recreated short sessions with each game reduces monotony appropriately adjusted difficultyThe Not So Good: No instructions for individual games a loss requires to redo the entire sequence over again levels are identical if repeatedWhat say you? A nice nostalgic collection of classic arcade games: 6/8MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONThe first video game console I played was an Atari 2600. My family had (and comfort has somewhere) quite an extensive collection of games for the system. All of these titles are very simplistic by today’s standards but they were quite fun twenty-five years ago. Not surprisingly several collections have been released featuring those titles hoping to cash in on the nostalgic fervor. Joystick Johnny is one of those games sort of. You see it contains eerily similar adaptations of classic games and you must complete a couple of levels of each game in a set amount of time. Will Joystick Johnny successfully recapture the youth of gamers everywhere?GRAPHICS AND SOUNDJoystick Johnny certainly captures the atmosphere of those classic arcade games. Featuring low-resolution graphics in all their pixilated glory. Joystick Johnny does a nice job representing each classic game in a slightly different context (replacing asteroids with pizzas for example). The variety of games is impressive and the fact that each level “looks alter” is a testament to good graphical design. Joystick Johnny has a generic 80’s-like music mix; it would have been better to rip off (I mean borrow) the actual game music. Overall. Joystick Johnny looks and sounds just like it should for what it is attempting to accomplish. ET AL. Joystick Johnny contains three arcades in which you need to beat thirteen games in twelve minutes. Each arcade is divided into three rows and you must beat one two three and then four levels in four of the five games in each row. There is some strategy in choosing the orders in which you play the games: obviously games you stink at you will want to compete first since you only need to beat one level to move on to the next title. The controls can use the keyboard which works well on most of the games. Still a joystick gives you the ability to move at an angle easier (and makes the Gyruss copy playable). I found the time limit to be adjusted well: just enough time for a semi-perfect game. Every time you die you lose five seconds of completion time; this can become an issue in the later rows. You can adjust the difficulty to allow for more and less time; harder levels will add more bonus points to your score. It took me a couple of tries to beat each arcade level; the limited number of lives in the very last game makes it quite difficult and also annoying if you lose since you have to play all the games over again. Joystick Johnny features a pleasant and complete enumerate of arcade classics or at least reasonable replications thereof. There are around 25 different games to choose from including Asteroids. Space Invaders. Pac Man. Marble Madness. Missile Command. Gyruss. Spy Hunter. Joust and the unforgettable E. T for the 2600. Of course the names have been changed to protect the innocent. I found that all of the replicas perform just as well as the originals so the gameplay of Joystick Johnny is enjoyable. The game doesn’t give explicit instructions in each game so it can take a couple of tries to figure out what you are supposed to shoot or collect and what to avoid. After you defeat the regular time limited game you can enter mystery mix mode that will randomize the games’ placement or dollar dash that will allow you to pick and choose. After you finish a game you can upload your score to the Internet and revel at your incompetence. IN CLOSINGJoystick Johnny successfully recreates some classic arcade games and presents them in an original concept with a neat overall goal instead of simply slapping them all together. The gameplay is just as you remember it and the subtle graphics changes alter sure the developer won’t get sued (much). Joystick Johnny will obviously have more appeal for people who played the original games oh so many years ago. comfort the game is come up designed and the quick pace reduces the probability of boredom associated with playing these archaic games. It helps if you have played these games before since Joystick Johnny is devoid of instructions for each game and inexperienced players might not be able to evaluate out why they keep dying. Still those looking for a fast-paced adaptation of simplified arcade action will find Joystick Johnny a satisfying title.
Bloom developed by Karma Team and published by Elephant Games. The Good: Easy to learn gameplay editorThe Not So Good: Repetitive and not challenging some develop locations are inaccessible distracting backgroundsWhat say you? A puzzle game that’s fun for just about five minutes: 4/8MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONGardening is a time consuming activity where you get to sweat and handle fertilizer. I disappoint to see the appeal. Still it’s popular enough to warrant plenty of “garden centers” in large stores around the nation and its appeal could be carried over to computer games in some way. In Bloom you must water spouting flowers by diverting water pipes to the appropriate locations. How will Bloom lade up in the pantheon of puzzle games?GRAPHICS AND SOUNDBloom is presented in a 2-D top-down format. The game does feature some pretty flowers and some nice detail for the genre but the backgrounds are too similar to the foregrounds. Therefore it is very very difficult to sight new flowers when they are camouflaged by the background foliage. This makes playing the game ultimately frustrating as you grimace in order to hunt for new sprouts. It is realistic to undergo flowers placed in a flowery garden but the decision makes Bloom tricky to play and this should not be caused by the graphics. The background effects are not much better featuring a single looping song and some effects that accompany the flower growing. It’s rare to find titles where the graphics actually hinder the gameplay but Bloom attains this dubious feat. ET AL. As I stated in the introduction. “in Bloom you must water spouting flowers by diverting water pipes to the appropriate locations.” Copy and paste is so much fun! The method to the madness involves rotating pipes to complete connections to the various sprouting plants that randomly be in the map and growing enough flowers before the water supply runs out. There are forty levels to complete and they go by fairly quickly; there is a pretty decent level editor that comes with the game to add some replay value. Bloom’s controls are simple as the entire game is controlled with the mouse and the gameplay consists of clicking on pipes in order to turn them. The game is pretty easy once you learn that there is one solution that will divert water to almost the entire map and a couple of key points that can be switched. Some of the levels are poorly designed however as there can be large portions of a map that is inaccessible without the use of a bonus. There isn’t any change in the gameplay as you advance through Bloom: it’s all very monotonous. There are no difficulty settings in the game and develop is too easy for players with any gaming experience. The game never really has a hectic feel that makes for good challenging puzzle gaming. The bonuses available in the game that do things like add more water switch an existing connection speed up growth or slow time make Bloom even easier. Because of the straightforward levels there can be a lot of sitting around waiting for the level to end once you have set the perfect solution. Money you acquire from growing flowers can be used to purchase upgrades to your house: this is pointless and doesn’t impact the game at all. It would have been much better to allow for buying bonuses instead of superfluous upgrades. Overall. Bloom’s gameplay is too easy and too repetitive to be enjoyable in the long run. IN CLOSINGBloom has a decent concept for a game but the execution is definitely lacking. I don’t mind a repetitive game as long as it is fun but develop is far too easy and it doesn’t offer anything different as you progress through the game. While the game mechanics are certainly easy to learn the game becomes very boring after the first bring together of levels. This game was obviously designed for the very casual player in mind as anyone with any gaming undergo will find Bloom to be too easy. There are no interesting strategic decisions to do with your earned money: instead of deciding on game-changing upgrades you get to pick between a pond and a channelise. The graphics even impair the gameplay obstructing the flowers on the map. I do like the inclusion of an editor but this isn’t enough to save this doomed puzzle game. Bloom wilts under the heavy weight of poorly designed aesthetics and features with uninteresting repetitive and effortless gameplay.
Sins of a Solar Empire (Preview) developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock Entertainment. The Good So Far: Little micromanagement due to high be of smart automation outstanding intuitive interface enjoyable 4X real-time gameplayThe Not So Good So Far: Slow pace and long travel times research trees could be clearerMY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONThe 4X strategy game is quite a popular genre especially ones set in space. From Lost Empire to Galactic Civilizations II to Space Empires V to (deep breath) Starships Unlimited to Sword of the Stars the list is getting so long that it's limiting the things I can say in the introduction (other than the list I am repeating). Produced by the same people behind Galactic Civilizations II (the best game in the genre) comes Sins of a Solar Empire a 4X game that sets itself apart with real-time gameplay. That’s right: no more turn-based nonsense! Through an incident involving a llama two sticks of dynamite and former President Clinton (don’t get me started). I got my hands on a preview build of the game which is due for release in February 2008. If you are reading this in February 2008 (probably because I referenced the preview in my review) how is it in the future? Has Paris Hilton doomed humanity yet? Oh maybe that was February 2009; Nostradamus can be a year or two off. In the meantime please enjoy this preview!GRAPHICS AND SOUNDSins of a Solar Empire has a nice graphics engine that shows detail all the way up close back to the entire universe you are playing in. This is a lot like Supreme Commander where the game map and the mini-map are one in the same. Sins of a Solar Empire does a fine job showing all of the pertinent information on multiple zoom levels including the useful albeit initially confusing empire menu that shows all of your ships and structures as blips next to your planets. This preview create only contained one playable go so the variety of ship designs is not evident yet. Overall. Sins of a Solar Empire seems to be a good looking space game as the environment lends itself to visual splendor. The sounds also appear to be on track with some genre-appropriate background music and good effects for the various combat operations on-going in your game world. We’ll see what Sins of a Solar Empire looks and sounds like with four more months of tweaking. ET AL. Sins of a Solar Empire is a classic 4X strategy game where you establish your colonies build a hurry and go blow stuff up. The innovation is playing the game in real-time and I am not sure if this is a good thing. The game goes by very slowly in the beginning while you are expanding your empire; this is normally the time where you would keep hitting the “next turn” button but in Sins of a Solar Empire you just have to wait. The game features single player skirmishes on a handful of pre-designed and random maps a tutorial that teacher some (but not all) of the game’s mechanics and multiplayer over LAN or Ironclad’s matchmaking service. The multiplayer aspects of the game seem to be working book so far. The economy of Sins of a Solar Empire is based off of collecting credits (from taxes) metal (from mining) and crystal (from more mining). The game displays a per planet evaluate of resource collection useful in determining your most important economic strongholds. The usually excellent user interface does a good job in giving the player useful information in sizable bites: controlling a large empire scattered over several star systems can be difficult but the sorted reports zoomed views and empire menu help immensely. Your resources ordain be spent upgrading planets building things conducting research and raising defenses. Each of your planets can be developed in five areas: civics (increasing the population and therefore the taxed credit income) logistics (more buildings) tactical (more defenses) and your fleet and capital ship caps. There are a be of structures that can be built in orbit around each planet: metal and crystal collection facilities factories for ships labs for research trade ports and refineries for additional funds and broadcast centers for culture. Defensive buildings consist of the typical gun platforms plus repair vessels and shields. If you don’t want to manually place all of these structures you can have the game auto-place them. There is a good selection of buildings available; they cover the range of possibilities without being overkill. A administer of your economy will be devoted towards building ships. There are three classes: small frigates medium-sized cruisers and huge capital ships. The ships will automatically engage enemies in their planet’s range (unless told to hold fire) and usually don’t demand much micromanagement. Thankfully the special abilities available to each ship can be auto-used by the AI reducing the tedium even further. Your largest ship the capital can level-up increasing the success of its special abilities. There are some alternatives to fighting such as negotiating cease fire intelligence trade alliances with the other empires. There is also a three-part research tree (military civilian and artifact) that could be a lot clearer. It’s hard to make out the icons and difficult to see which grant new ships or are required for certain structures. It would be nice if they build menus were somehow tied into the investigate trees showing where the requirements for building a trade port are actually located on the convoluted display. As far as the gameplay goes the AI is not terribly aggressive and seems to send out only one large force to begin with. This makes it easy to annex perimeter planets as long as you get lucky and don’t run into the large enemy fleet. The game mechanics are interesting as there are several paths you can decide since your resources are quite limited. You can focus on colonization research military cultural or diplomatic exploits and each has an advantage. Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing World in Conflict but I open Sins of a Solar Empire painfully slow. The ships move decrease colonization is slow and the beginning of the game takes 30 minutes just to get a decent sized empire going. I don’t really see how this would work very well in multiplayer unless players have an extremely high be of spare time. The movement times are agonizingly realistic (a problem also seen in 3030 Deathwar) and it takes forever just to move a couple of ships to a new planet. Since a lot of the game is automated (which is a good thing) you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for the credits to add up or for a ship to move. Granted. Sins of a Solar Empire still has four more months of development left so things could improve in the future but right now I found the pace to be very slow. IN CLOSINGSins of a Solar Empire for the most part looks good so far. The game has a nice foundation of 4X gameplay with great graphics and promising multiplayer capabilities. The user interface is great and helps you control a large empire with ease. I really like the amount of automation show in the game removing a lot of the monotony associated with this genre. The pace is slow but hopefully the game will all come together with four more months of work. We’ll find out then!
RACE 07 developed by SimBin Studios and published by Viva Media. The Good: Forty-one tracks eight racing series custom championships realistic helmet believe everything that was in RACEThe Not So Good: comfort no tutorialsWhat say you? This racing simulation sequel has enough new content to justify its existence: 7/8MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTIONIt’s now become an annual occurrence: the arrival of “new” sports games. Usually they only feature roster updates and one or two new features but the mindless populace buys them anyway. I’m more interested in new innovative games or at least circumscribe that surpasses a typical expansion pack. RACE 07 (actually released in 07!) is the sequel to RACE a game I liked a lot due to its easy-to-drive cars capable AI realistic driving model and awesome graphics. That game was released (at least in the U. S.) earlier this year; a nine-month turn-around usually doesn’t bode well for giving the users enough content to justify spending money on a new version. Does go 07 fall into the same content-light confine that many other annually published games do? GRAPHICS AND SOUNDThe graphics of RACE 07 are almost identical to RACE which is not a bad thing. The level of detail is still very nice and the game runs as smooth as ever. The new tracks and cars maintain the high quality set in the previous title. There are some minor improvements with the track detail and damage models. The only completely new feature is a helmet view for open cars end with tear-offs for clearer viewing pleasure. While this isn’t a monumental addition to the game it is nice and does impact the gameplay somewhat with a more restricted view. The appear of RACE 07 continues the strong tradition established by RACE: all of the cars sound believable. ET AL. Since RACE 07 is obviously a lot like RACE you should go read that review to get the basics down as I will only talk about the new additions to the game. Fortunately. RACE 07 has enough new stuff to validate getting it and the fact that it is not a full-priced game helps as well. The game modes are generally the same: a single race event (with no practice this time) measure attack practice multiplayer and championship modes. I wasn’t able to test multiplayer very much since I got the game to review before the release date (I am sweet like that) but I enjoyed the multiplayer of RACE a lot and I don’t foresee any changes in this department. I do recommend however to get some practice under your belt as almost every multiplayer server uses pro settings with no driver aids including manual shifting. RACE 07 also has this Virtual Grand Prix option; there was nothing in the press packet about it but it seems that races in RACE 07 are going to be broadcast on TV in Sweden or something. RACE 07 does add the option to create custom championships: a neat feature. You can include any of the cars and tracks in the game and set up your own schedule something that would undergo been silly in RACE due to the relative lack of variety in that game. RACE was a bit limited in its content: only the ten 2006 season tracks and cars plus Mini Coopers and the 1987 WTCC vehicles. go 07 adds the eleven 2007 tracks which are mostly the same as the 2006 tracks but some new chicanes have been added to some of the tracks (probably by the same people who screwed up Hockenheim). RACE 07 also contains twenty additional tracks (for a grand total of 41): three completely different tracks (fan favorites Estoril and Imola plus the Vara street circuit) and alternates of existing tracks from reverse layouts to shorter and longer version including some ovals. All of the new tracks are designed well and agree their real-life counterparts well. The inclusion of new racing locales is a accept addition to the game and adds more variety to the simulation. Since RACE 07 is the WTCC game it includes all of the cars from the 2007 and 2006 seasons. In addition the Mini Coopers and 1987 cars undergo returned along with the Caterham vehicles from the expansion. RACE 07 also adds Radical prototypes and some open wheel entries from minor leagues Formula 3000 and Formula BMW. All of these cars command well and seem to mirror their real life counterparts; now open wheel fanatics can experience RACE 07 in a whole new light. The game allows you to mix the field of any event with multiple car types adding to the possibilities. The WTCC cars are still my favorites because they are powerful yet easy to drive: they don’t break loose if you slam on the gas exiting a corner like the open wheel vehicles. The strong AI exhibited in RACE makes a return offering an aggressive but not overly aggressive opponent for single player mayhem. Overall. I feel that RACE 07 adds enough new tracks and cars far beyond what is typically added in a new title for a series to make purchasing this game viable for both previous and new players to the franchise. IN CLOSINGYou would figure that if anyone wouldn’t screw up an annually published game it would be the fine folks at SimBin and thankfully you were right (you are so smart!). RACE 07 keeps the satisfying core of the game intact with a very approachable racing engine that will appeal to novices and veterans alike. RACE 07 drastically increases the number of tracks and double the number of cars and really that’s all you can really ask for in a sequel published less than a year after the original. There are some new graphical enhancements (though the original didn’t exactly look bad) and custom championships to round out the case. So you should get it especially if you missed the original: RACE 07 comes with sufficient enhancements to invest more of your money into the franchise.
World in Conflict developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Sierra. The Good: User-friendly action-oriented tactical gameplay outstanding team-based multiplayer non-trivial hit player campaign good AI highly detailed graphics with some great effectsThe Not So Good: Very fast pace negates some ability to planWhat say you? A first person shooter mentality makes this real time tactics game uniquely enjoyable: 8/8MY POORLY WRITTEN INTRODUCTION1989. If I denote my I Love The 80's correctly. 2 Live Crew provided family-friendly entertainment. Kevin Costner demonstrated his hatred for corn by building a baseball handle in a field and Milli Vanilli swept the Grammys. And that (sort of) brings us to World in Conflict a real time strategy game from Massive Entertainment responsible for the Ground Control series. I bequeath playing the demo for Ground Control 2 and it was OK but not something I would spend money on. World in Conflict hopes to infuse the constant action of multiplayer first person shooters with the strategy genre; normally strategy games are slow methodical experiences as you collect resources construct a locate and eventually blow stuff up. ordain World in Conflict be a more approachable real time tactics title?GRAPHICS AND SOUNDThe presentation of World in contrast is absolutely outstanding from the graphics to the appear. This is one of the best looking strategy games to date surpassing the likes of Supreme Commander and Company of Heroes with its awe-inspiring destruction and high attention to detail. The units look good up close and far away with nice realistic animations. The different maps in the game are also well done putting the challenge in popular real-world locations and lesser-known settings. The explosions are way over the top but they sure do look nice and create a great feeling of doom. Watching a city transition from nice coastal hamlet to hell-hole is fun as buildings explode and craters start to dominate the landscape. World in Conflict is awesome to see with almost constant flashes of light as things go “boom.” All of this graphical splendor comes at a price as almost nobody will be able to run this game at the highest settings with a change surface frame rate. Fortunately the game looks almost as good on medium as on high so there is hope for us all. The sound is just as good as the pretty pictures. The explosions have a nice importance to them and the cut scenes in the single player campaign are well acting including narration by that guy from The Usual Suspects. The background music is composed admirably although it does tend to repeat after a while. Nevertheless. World in Conflict looks and sounds awesome and it should fill the needs of gamers everywhere that just want to breathe out crap up. ET AL. World in Conflict is a real-time tactical strategy game: there is no base building or resource collection like in Supreme Commander. Instead you are given a set amount of points to call in reinforcements that become available slowly over time (and everyone is given the same total amount no matter how good you are doing) and you can also earn points to order artillery strikes and other fun things by blowing up the enemy helping your teammates or securing objectives. World in Conflict features a tutorial that does a good job introducing new players to the control scheme. The user interface of World in Conflict is minimal yet affective giving users access to tactical aids reinforcements battle overviews and all of their units without hiding much of the main screen. A single-player campaign that follows the exploits of an American command is also available; the gameplay translates well from the multiplayer portion of the game (which was the focus of the product). There are a number of different objectives in each scenario that vary from typical “undo all enemies” order found in most strategy games. Instead you’ll be given offensive defensive and support orders along with a number of secondary objectives that can allow for some additional units or other bonuses later on. I found the campaign to be well designed and it portrays a realistic depiction of war: you are part of the action not the whole of the action. Usually allies are off fighting in a different portion of the map and you may be called in to help on occasion; this gives a more accurate feel to the battles. World in Conflict was built around multiplayer and the game has some good options you would typically see in an online multiplayer game like the Battlefield series. The Massgate service (free of course) provides stat tracking awards clan battles and player rankings in addition to finding online games to join. It is a well designed piece of software and doesn't have the browser issues present in Battlefield 2142. The rankings thankfully don’t unlock anything so new players won’t be at a grave disadvantage like in Battlefield 2142. You can also play skirmish matches against the AI (by setting up a LAN server); the AI does a pretty good job I thought although a capable human player will almost always get the highest score. World in Conflict lets you choose one of four roles in the game (reminiscent of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars although since this was released first maybe that game is reminiscent of World in Conflict): air armor support and infantry. All of these classes are very well balanced and usually offer counters for two other classes. I have yet to see any class dominate a map since there is always something you can do to defeat the enemy units. The heavy helicopters of the air role are designed for quick attacks against armored units while medium choppers can engage other helicopters as well. Armored tanks are the beasts of the ground capturing and holding objective locations with their firepower but decrease mobility and susceptibility to air units. Support units include artillery (slow firing but powerful) and anti-air units to take care of those pesky helicopters. Infantry are the stealth units of the game allowing you to hide in buildings and forests and ambush unsuspecting armored units. There is a role for everyone and you can even combine roles although units from other classes are more expensive. Each unit in the game usually has an offensive and defensive special ability. This introduces some micromanagement into the game but since the unit count is never too high (usually 2-8 units) it’s not terribly annoying. I would like though to have the ability of units to auto-cast their special abilities. It is advantageous to keep units alive as they obtain experience over time and will improve their stats automatically. In addition to not having to shuttle units from the spawn points and wait twenty seconds for reinforcements to arrive this gives reason to keep those tanks rolling. If you are successful in defeating the enemy and helping out your friends you will acquire points for using tactical aids. These are very fun toys that can be used in a variety of situations. All of them have a time delay associated with them so they aren’t overly powerful or unbalanced. Most of the lower-level tactical aids are designed to eliminate one particular unit type (napalm strikes for infantry tank busters laser-guided bombs for buildings air to air strikes) but the more points you save the bigger the boom. While a lot of people will save up for the nuke (which does cause a lot of damage) there is a lot of fun to be had with precision artillery strikes radar reconnaissance chemical strikes unit drops carpet bombing heavy air support and more. The joy in perfectly executing a tactical aid is rewarding to be sure. It’s a simple and effective feature of the game that gives the players a lot of options. World in Conflict comes with three game modes that are all based on controlling objective locations noted by connected circles. You must have friendly-only units in each circle in order to capture an objective (a great place to displace in an artillery st |