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Air Warrior 2 by Interactive Magic & Kesmai Studios

By Stilgar | Published: November 17, 2007

Overview

Air Warrior II cockpitOn the off-chance that you weren’t paying attention when your 8th grade history class went over World War II, here’s your chance to redeem yourself — literally. Well, OK, only sort of. The good news is, this time the only books involved are the ones that tell you how to pull your ripcord after a Messerschmitt has just opened up your P-51 like the tin can it is.

Now if you’ve never played the original Air Warrior (the granddaddy of all online games), or if you’ve never given Air Warrior 2 or combat flight sims in general much more than a casual glance as you stop by the Comp-u-Mart to pick up Killer Doom Wads Vol. 29, you really owe it to yourself to take a look at this one, or the newer version of the series, Air Warrior 3. I prefer this one better though.

Here’s why: 1) Unlike the majority of the flight combat sims on the market today, you can actually fly your plane in Air Warrior 2 without all those expensive pre-flight training classes down at the local airport practicing with real airplanes. 2) Air Warrior 2 lets you go online and fight with (and against) over 100 other live human pilots, all at the same time, all with a butter-smooth response rate. 3) The aircraft art and the flight model are without equal in the gaming world. 4) If you get bored of flying, you can choose to get out and drive a jeep or a tank or sign on as somebody’s gunner.

There has quite simply never been another game or sim that so closely approximates a real-world scenario. If you miss out on this one, you are missing out on a look at what the future of all multiplayer gaming holds — imagine knowing that every other plane you see, every tank on the ground is controlled by someone else somewhere in the world. Imagine giving your wingman an order to attack an enemy plane and having a real person answer back. Imagine hitting the hat switch on your joystick and being able to look back at a squad of seven P-17s rising off the ground and heading out over the Pacific at dawn. That’s what this game delivers, and it is awe-inspiring in terms of the possibilities it brings into being.

If you are into flight sims, this one is golden

Posted in Flight

Air Blocks: Lego Computer Game by Piranha Interactive

By Stilgar | Published: November 17, 2007

Overview

Air Blocks Piranha Interactive Air Blocks is essentially a virtual Lego set. It allows you to build with a wide variety of different shapes of blocks. There are prefab buildings that you can modify or you can start from scratch. There is also a rather cute, but challenging, maze game where you must strategically place blocks to direct a car to the finish line.

Gameplay

Air Blocks installed flawlessly in about 30 seconds. The game is very easy to control in most respects. My 5-year-old son could easily navigate the controls for just about everything except changing the perspective, which even I had problems with. However, even a non-reader will be able to figure out what each control does.

While you can do a lot of fun things with this program, it is no substitute for a real set of Legos…

Posted in Puzzle

Addiction Pinball by Microprose & Team 17 Software

By Stilgar | Published: November 17, 2007

Overview

Addiction Pinball GameThere you stand, eye-to-LED-display with all those pretty, flashing lights taunting you, calling you to the flippers, sounding the siren song, trying to coax you into inserting another 75 cents. You know you’re good, you can beat it, but you’re onto the pinball’s wily charms and last time you checked there was no coin slot. That’s because this pinball is on your computer. Addiction Pinball is just that: addictive. This game is about as real as a computer pinball game can possibly get. In fact, it is so realistic, even the Pinball Owners Association has given its endorsement.

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Try your skill and luck at two different tables based on two of Team17′s other games: Worms (which is a silly war-style game with worms) and World Rally Fever (which is a racing-style game). The controls are simple and just like a real pinball machine: two flipper buttons and a launch button (sorry, no pulling back the spring on these tables). You can also nudge the Pinball machine up, left and right, but don’t overdo it or you’ll end up tilting

Posted in Puzzle

Amok by GT Interactive

By Stilgar | Published: November 14, 2007

The story behind Amok:

Amok Gameplay

Gert Staun’s the name. The Bureau has hired me and my Slambird battle walker to stir things up on the planet Amok and destroy the recently signed peace treaty. My bosses profited heavily from the 47-year Corporation War and aren’t prepared to accept the slim pickings of peacetime. A lot of architecture is gonna blow up and a lot of people are gonna die. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Being the good guy isn’t important to most retro computer gamers as long as the gameplay is solid and challenging. And Amok, a first-person, 3D action game from GT Interactive, is a challenge for even the most skilled Doomer, Duker, or Quaker.

Employing a MechWarrior-like battle walker (that conveniently transforms into a submarine for certain jobs), the game is divided into a chronological series of nine missions. Most involve two phases that must be completed before you can advance (by way of a password) to the next level. Some mission phases are flat-out sprints against time, while others permit you to linger around the battlescape and blow up everything in sight while searching out secret areas.

Not as pretty as the Duke Nukem

Posted in 3D Shooters

Alien Trilogy The Game by Acclaim

By Stilgar | Published: November 14, 2007
Alien Trilogy Gameplay

While no one can hear you scream in space, Acclaim must have heard me howling in anguish over this Doom wanna-be piece of schlock.

The graphics in Alien Trilogy lag way behind the competition of 3D-shooters at it’s time, looking more like a Doom clone (and a poor one at that) than the 16-bit color wonder-game it’s supposed to be. Everything is bit-mapped and there are way too few poses for each dark and blocky critter, which creates the feeling that they are floating toward you rather than moving naturally.

Why Alien Trilogy Game sucks!

Posted in 3D Shooters

The Need for Speed 2 by Electronic Arts. NFS 2 Download and Review

By Stilgar | Published: November 5, 2007

Download Need for Speed 2

This game is not abandonware but I've managed to find some rapidshare links where you can get NFS2 for free:

http://rapidshare.com/files/233674364/NeedForSpeed2.zip.001

http://rapidshare.com/files/233698496/NeedForSpeed2.zip.002

http://rapidshare.com/files/233722002/NeedForSpeed2.zip.003

http://rapidshare.com/files/233742064/NeedForSpeed2.zip.004

http://rapidshare.com/files/233762025/NeedForSpeed2.zip.005

If this doesn’t work you can also try the download mirror below.

Mirror 1 – (41.96 Mb)

The Need For Speed 2 Intro Video

Overview

The Need for Speed 2 is the follow-up to perhaps the best arcade racing game to come along in several years. In order to fully understand this review, you must separate in your mind arcade racers like this one from racing simulations. Racing sims are aiming to provide the most realistic driving experience imaginable. Some — like Papyrus' NASCAR 2 — are so detailed that you may spend as much time configuring your car as racing. Not so with the Need for Speed games. The main point here is to drive … and win. The true test of this sequel, then, will be a direct comparison to its predecessor. And trying to improve upon great old games is a daunting task indeed.

Download and read the review of Need For Speed 2

Posted in Racing

Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome – Review

By Stilgar | Published: October 3, 2007

Overview

AOE Screenshot 1So, you think you know how to play Age of Empires? This addition changes all you know. Rome is back and stronger than ever. This could also be titled "Take the Best Overall Old Game of 1997 and Make It Better." There are 19 new campaigns and four new civilizations: Carthaginian, Macedonian, Palmyran and Roman. Carthaginian transports are 30 percent faster, fire galley (New Unit) are +25 percent attack, and academy units and all elephants units are +25 percent hit points. Macedonian academy units have +2 piercing armor, hand-to-hand +2 line of sight, siege workshop units cost 50 percent less, and units are four times more resistant to conversion. The Palmyran civilization has free tribute, double gold per trade trip, villagers have armor, and work 20 percent faster (but cost 50 percent more), and camel riders (New Unit) are 25 percent faster. Roman buildings cost 15 percent less (except towers, walls and wonders), towers cost 50 percent less, and swordsmen attack 33 percent faster.

Read the whole review of AOE: Rise of Rome

Posted in Real-Time

Ace Ventura by 7th Level Interactive Download

By Stilgar | Published: October 3, 2007

Download Ace Ventura

This old game can be downloaded via BitTorrent from Mininova.org. Details of Ace Ventura download:

  • Added on: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 21:25:03 +0100
  • Last updated: Fri, 02 Mar 2007 10:03:27 +0100
  • Contents of download:  Ace.ventura.rar (267.47 megabyte)

Overview

Ace Ventura Gameplay

Ace Ventura touts itself in the old adventure games from 7th Level Interactive. Unfortunately, as anyone who plays this title for even a short time will discover, there isn’t much here that could be described as new and there isn’t much that’s fun in this game.

The game is presented in the second-person perspective — you see Ace and his sidekick, Spike the Monkey, on your screen at all times and you steer them through the puzzles they encounter. A number of elements in the game combine to make it more like the movie. This is the first of them. You may be in control of where Ace moves within a particular scene, but the fact remains that it’s still a scene, scripted; the outcome is non-negotiable. Unlike many adventure games wherein your choices throughout can take the game in any one of several possible directions, in Ace Ventura there is generally only one right answer and until you find it the game grinds to a boring halt.

Continue reading the review of the Ace Ventura Game

Posted in Adventure

A-10 Cuba! by Activision Review

By Stilgar | Published: October 3, 2007

Download

A-10 Cuba can still be bought from Amazon for $10, thus it’s not abandonware. You can download the demo version from Download.com. I am so happy to announce that I have found a working version of the full A-10 Cuba game you can download for free. Download A-10 Cuba!. Enter:
Username: gamegoldies
Password: gamegoldies
in the login form on the right. Please send us feedback if this is not working for you. Enjoy!

Overview

This Activision spot from 1996 shows off the flight sim A-10 Cuba.

The good news is, if the aliens ever really attack like they did in Independence Day, there will be a whole bunch of old computer gamers with the requisite flying skills to pilot the mothership-destroying F-16s. The bad news is, they will have these skills only because they have been forced to acquire them to get any enjoyment out of the ever-more-realistic flight combat sims on the market today.

Now maybe you’re the type who really honest-to-God wants to know what it’s like to fly an A-10 Warthog and don’t want to bother with joining the Air Force, going through all the haircuts, funny hazing pranks, etc. If so, go to your nearest computer software retailer posthaste and pick up a copy of A-10 Cuba! you will not be disappointed.

If, on the other hand, you’re like me and you don’t want to repeatedly get killed because you forget to put your flaps up, or because you didn’t quite make a four-point landing, even though you managed to kill 4 enemy planes, then you’ll find A-10 Cuba! a lot on the technical side. Remember: it is billed as an "ultra-realistic flight simulation."

Read the whole review of A-10 Cuba!

Posted in Flight

Fallout by Interplay. Post Apocalyptic Review

By Stilgar | Published: October 1, 2007
Fallout Intro

Overview

World War Three has come and gone with the attendant nuclear holocaust, and life is rough. Stop me if you've heard this before … anyway, a generation or two has passed with everyone living in underground vaults when a crisis strikes your particular vault; the water purification system has broken down and they need someone — nudge, nudge — to go find a replacement. Assuming that the radioactive world outside your door does not contain a friendly Wal-Mart, you pack up a gun, a knife, some flares, and head out to Mad Max your way to finding salvation for your friends and family back in Vault #13.

While good old Fallout certainly offers almost nothing novel in terms of storyline, it does have some interesting points. Unfortunately, being turn-based and rather short, it falls somewhere in the "OK, but nothing to write home about" category. It fails to live up to the graphical sophistication of the Crusader series, which predates Fallout by two years, and it fails to capture the excitement of Diablo 's real-time combat, or Ultima Online's role playing possibilities.

Read Fallout’s review or download the game

Posted in Roleplaying

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