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America by Data Becker: Real Time Strategy Game Review

By Stilgar | Published: March 16, 2008
Editor's Rating: 3.0/5
America Old RTS Game Screenshot
GD Star Rating
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America RTS Game Overview

Think you know how to win the West better than the historical figures who actually did it? Here’s your chance to prove yourself. America is a game that is very reminiscent of Microsoft’s Age of Empires, but set in a frontier time frame between 1820 and 1890. You control one of four groups of people struggling for domination of the West: Native Americans, Mexicans, Outlaws, and American Settlers. Want to fight the battle of Little Big Horn? What about remembering the Alamo? You can with America.

Sounds like a fun premise, right? Well, don’t get your sights set too high for America…

Posted in Real-Time

AMA Superbike by Motorsims Old Computer Game

By Stilgar | Published: March 16, 2008
Editor's Rating: 3.5/5
Ama Superbike Game Logo
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Game Overview

AMA Superbike by Motorsims is one of the old racing games that stands out for a couple of reasons. Whether these features are a positive or a negative will vary widely however based on your level of patience and your desire for detail in a game/simulation.

As the name of AMA Superbike’s creator suggests, this is a sim through and through. Some considerations have been made as a nod to arcade gamers, but by and large AMA Superbike sets out to recreate the experience of riding one of the most finely tuned, highly charged racing vehicles on the planet.

Superbike largely succeeds in this aspect, although their success is at times very frustrating to a player such as myself who really wants more to experience a high speed, not-so-realistic romp around the track. If you are like me, you will spend a lot more time looking at the walls, trees, grandstands, etc. than zooming around the track. Racing a Superbike, it turns out, is pretty tough and AMA Superbike gets that point across again and again. Personally, I got very little enjoyment out of crashing every five seconds. Had this sim/game had a more forgiving novice/arcade mode, I think it would be a title I could recommend to a much broader segment of the gaming population; as it is, I would say that unless you are truly a hard-core sim fan and/or already a proficient motorcycle racer in real life, I would steer clear of this title — it is weighted far too heavily on the realism side to be much fun for most players.

AMA Superbike is a great racing simulator but not such a fun old game…

Posted in Racing

Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee

By Stilgar | Published: March 10, 2008

Editor's Rating: 4.7/5

Main Character: AbeOverview

You are Abe, an ignorant, happy floor-waxer in Rupturefarms, the most dangerous slaughterhouse in Oddworld. You and the rest of the blue guys are Mudokons. You have been a slave all your life for your boss, Mullock the Glukkon. Mullock represents the Magog Cartel, the meanest bunch of corporate weasels you will ever meet.

You start the game chained up in a cell, awaiting interrogation by Mullock the Glukkon. You have done something that has really made him mad. What have you done? Well, you’ll have to play the old games to answer that. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee is a flashback. In other words, the events leading to your being captured have already happened, but now you are going to play those events again to see what kind of ending there will be. Confused? You should be.

It all starts with Rupturefarms driving Meeches, Scrabs, and Paramites to extinction. The only way to boost profits is to turn Abe and his pals into lunch. You’ve got to escape from Rupturefarms and take as many fellow Mudokons with you as possible.

Once you escape from Rupturefarms, your adventure is just beginning. Now you must complete your destiny by saving all the Mudokons and becoming a Shrykull (which is half-Mudokon, half-God). It is your mission to complete the game and to save your race from extinction.

Oddworld is a very addictive game…

Posted in Adventure

Obsidian by SegaSoft & Rocket Science Games

By Stilgar | Published: February 20, 2008

Obsidian Screenshot 1Overview:

As a veteran game designer, consultant and reviewer, I see an awful lot of software, so it is with considerable pause that I begin by saying that Obsidian is probably the very best game I have ever played of any genre. Frankly, even though I approached the game with high expectations, I was completely blown away by what I encountered. Every aspect of the game is filled with such innovation and polish that it seems to leave all the others in the dust. Some reviewers may be tempted to compare it to Myst, but they really are not even in the same ballpark. Rocket Science, the developer of this game marketed by SegaSoft, clearly has created a classic in the 5-CD game exploring four dream realms.

In the game you are Lilah (yes, a woman!), a scientist who, along with your partner Max, has successfully led the Ceres development team in creating a groundbreaking meteorological satellite. You decide to go camping on vacation in the Olympic Peninsula, and notice a small black crystal growing rapidly until it is a huge monolith extending hundreds of feet into the sky. The game begins when, after getting vital background information from her Personal Digital Assistant, Lilah enters the monolith code-named Obsidian in search of Max.

Once inside Obsidian you are in a realm which is totally and wonderfully disorienting

Posted in Adventure

M.A.X. – Mechanized Assault and Exploration

By Stilgar | Published: February 18, 2008
Editor's Rating: 4.7/5
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Overview

"Dominate the new world … War, famine and pestilence have combined with ecological collapse, genetic manipulation and tectonic disaster to bring about the demise of the world we now know. The aftermath of this destruction has caused mankind to splinter into eight opposing clans and necessitated the construction of huge spaceships to search the galaxy for habitable planets. Once a planet has been deemed habitable, a mechanized commander, a brain in an android body, must be sent down to the planet to survey, colonize and defend the planet for the arrival of the clan.

"M.A.X. features twenty-four different worlds and eight different clans, each with its own advanced artificial intelligence and endless replayability with customizable units, battlefields, scenarios and campaigns. A tutorial and user-friendly interface with pop-up menus detailing individual unit functions and abilities."

This is the setting for M.A.X., the newest entry in the heavily scarred battlefield of action strategy games. You may be wondering: "Does this game have a chance facing off against big players like Red Alert?" To answer your question, Red Alert better run for cover, ’cause the flak’s gonna come raining down from this one. M.A.X. is a very competitive title, filled with enough innovation, customization and destruction to make you one happy general. The game has so many improvements over standard fare in the genre, I was amazed that it was not a sequel. It has a few minor setbacks, but all in all, this is one incredible game.

Continue reading the review of M.A.X. the old game…

Posted in Turn-Based

Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy – 3rd person roleplaying game

By Stilgar | Published: February 18, 2008

Overview

Alone in The Dark – The Trilogy French Commercial

The first adventure in the trilogy sends you on a chilling foray into the macabre mansion of Derceto, shortly after the suicide of Jeremy Hartwood. You have been hired by a local antique dealer to catalogue valuables left within the mansion. As you seek out the mansion’s precious antiques, you are plunged into a nightmare of torturous howls and an evil presence that fills the house. Now you must make your way through this spine-tingling adventure alone … and in the dark.

In the second installment, the notorious One-Eyed Jack has kidnapped poor little Grace Saunders and taken her to his terrifying mansion known as the infamous Hell’s Kitchen. From your initial climb up the slippery sheer cliffs above the raging sea to the horrors inside, only your razor-sharp instincts can save you from the cutthroat gangsters, smugglers and pirates who have a real thirst for blood … yours.

In the final chapter of this trilogy, you travel to the Wild West ghost town of Slaughter Gulch to piece together a dusty puzzle: the mysterious disappearance of Hollywood heroine Emily Hartwood and her film crew. But before you can break the curse that grips the town, you must outwit and out-draw the trigger-happy sharpshooters, deranged prospectors, and bloodthirsty lost souls who lurk there.

Alone in the Dark: The Trilogy brings these three award-winning games together into one package that combines adventure gaming and arcade action.

All three Alone in the Dark games are a lot of fun to play and provide hours of challenging puzzles, but…

Posted in Adventure, Roleplaying

Allegiance Free Space RTS by Microsoft

By Stilgar | Published: January 31, 2008
Allegiance Game Intro

Overview

The year is 2150 and an instant transportation system for moving between solar systems has been discovered making it easier for the warring factions to move from system to system. With your teammates you try to defeat your enemies and fight for dominance. 

Allegiance is an online game found at FreeAllegiance.org. In the free games, which is what I played for this review, there are three powerful factions: the Iron Coalition, the Bios, and the Gigacorp. You must choose which faction to join and then you must defend and expand your territory against the other factions. Each faction has its own strengths and weaknesses. Although there are several similar games on the market, Allegiance puts the best of them together. You have the flying of Descent, the challenge of a flight simulator, the action of real-time strategy and the group cooperation Asheron’s Call.

Teamwork is the name of the game: it is up to your group of online players to work together as a team and defeat the other factions before they get you. Lone wolves need not apply. Patience is a virtue: my first time playing I was still in the single-player frame of mind and I wanted to get in a fighter and attack right off the bat, which was the wrong thing to do because I did not have the training necessary to survive a battle. It takes a while to develop the proper dog-fighting skills (see Gameplay). One of the best things you can do early in learning the game is to get into a turret and be a gunner. You get the fun of targeting and shooting and you do not have to do the flying

Posted in Flight, Real-Time

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Game by EA & American McGee

By Stilgar | Published: January 31, 2008

American McGee's Alice - crossing waterfall bridgeOverview

Wonderland is a place of childish dreams and fanciful memories for Alice. But after failing to save her parents from a fiery death, Alice finds herself in a sanitarium, her already fragile psyche fractured. Lost in her own world, Alice delves back into Wonderland and discovers that due to her ruined state, Wonderland has become a twisted, sick, and dangerous world.

Once there, Alice finds that the Evil Queen is back in power, that some of her former friends are now her enemies and ultimately the only way for her to straighten things out is to find the Queen and basically butcher her. Along the way, the Cheshire Cat assists her with abstract clues, Turtle leads her through the water maze and the Mad Hatter tries to kill her. This is not the Fairy Tale that Walt Disney made into a cartoon so many years ago. This game is by Electronic arts and it’s called American McGee’s Alice.

Match wits and weapons with the denizens of Wonderland, finding strange and cruel devices. Slaughter the card guards, send wraiths into the abyss, and stab the hell out of the ant army with weapons that are as twisted as Alice’s mind. In other words, be prepared to get a bit messy mum, you’ve got a bit of splatter on your dress.

Posted in 3D Shooters, Puzzle

Air Warrior 3 Review: WWII Flight Simulator

By Stilgar | Published: January 31, 2008

Air Warrior 3 flight screenshotOverview

Long-time online pilots should all be aware of the history of Kesmai’s Air Warrior series. Ever since the 1980s, they have been playing Air Warrior on online services such as GEnie, Delphi, America Online and now the Internet. Air Warrior has evolved from an online-only "front end" to a boxed version containing online and single-player missions and campaigns. Enter the latest installment: Air Warrior III. Air Warrior III contains an extremely authentic flight model, many planes to fly, and probably more missions than any other flight simulation money can buy. Air Warrior III is primarily a WWII aircraft simulation. That means no fire and forget missiles, no sophisticated radar systems, and no afterburners. Just plain and simple: head-to-head air combat at its best.

Posted in Flight

Age of Empires II: Age of Kings by Microsoft

By Stilgar | Published: January 25, 2008
Editor's Rating: 4.7/5
CD cover of Age of Empires 2 - Age of Kings
GD Star Rating
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Overview

As Mel Brooks put it in History of the World Part 1, “It’s good to be the King!” Now everyone can grow up to be the king. Watch out, though, because you could also become a lowly trampled serf. Age of Kings is a masterful sequel to Age of Empires.

Age of Kings starts where Age of Empires Expansion: Rise of Rome leaves off. It begins in the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome and progresses through the Feudal Age, Castle Age, and — if you live long enough to spend the resources — Imperial Age. The campaigns are based on historical people and events. There are five campaign levels: The William Wallace learning campaign has seven scenarios. The Joan of Arc, Saladin, Genghis Khan, and Barbarossa campaigns each have six scenarios.

Each of these will give even the most experienced AOE2 – Age of Kings players a run for their money…

Posted in Real-Time

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