Gamez Impact

Resident Evil 5

2009-05-21T03:09:00.000-07:00

Capcom's beloved survival horror series gets an extreme makeover.March 6, 2009 - Change can be a painful process. Just ask one of the unfortunate citizens of Kijuju, the fictional region of Africa that serves as the setting of Resident Evil 5, the latest entry in Capcom's ongoing zombie videogame saga. A power-mad corporation's evolutionary manipulations have caused a biological disaster that turns people into mindless hosts for a military-grade parasitic infection. And you thought the Bird Flu was nasty.
The citizens of Kijuju are going through some ugly changes, many of which involve tentacles, oozing eyeballs and heretofore unexplored bloodlust. And, as is the custom in a Resident Evil game, you drop into the situation woefully underprepared for what awaits. The resulting experience is an intense, action-packed adventure replete with satisfying combat, tight gameplay and gorgeous, well-crafted environments. Resident Evil 5 offers all those things and then some, but it doesn't do many of the things longtime fans of the series expect. It won't scare you. It won't fill you with creeping desperation. It won't have you collecting and counting bullets like they're precious stones. It won't, in essence, make you feel like you're playing a traditional Resident Evil game.

Like the story it's trying to tell, Resident Evil 5 is all about evolution. Capcom has gone out on a limb with the latest numbered sequel in its long-running survival horror franchise, and although one of your goals as a player is to survive the horrors around you, this entry in the series is a radical departure from the genre Capcom helped create near Raccoon City more than a decade ago.
You'll start out the game as Chris Redfield, who fans will remember as one of the co-stars of the original Resident Evil. But Chris is no lone wolf. Joining him on his mission is Sheva Alomar, an African national and bioweapons expert. Both Chris and Sheva are members of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, a global outfit tasked with preventing the proliferation of "biological organic weapons."

And to date, the group has done a pretty poor job of it. From the incident at the Arklay Mansion (RE1) to the outbreak in Raccoon City (RE2) and the Las Plagas infestation in Spain (RE4), the B.S.A.A. and its predecessors such as the S.T.A.R.S. team have been one step behind the Umbrella Corporation and its mysterious backers. When we last left the story of Chris Redfield in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, he and fellow former S.T.A.R.S. member Jill Valentine were battling through Umbrella's Russian base. So why isn't Jill at Chris's side in RE5? It's a good question, and one you'll have to play the game to answer.

This time around, it's Sheva who has Chris's back, and she'll be with you every step of the way, whether you go it alone or recruit a friend to play along. On your first playthrough you're stuck with the beefy Chris, whose bulging biceps and gigantic torso make Street Fighter IV's Ken look like a stick figure. Once you complete the game, you unlock the ability to play single-player as the more compact Sheva, who can handle herself and just about everything else.
There are several scenes in RE5 where the more acrobatic Sheva will need to part ways with Chris to reach hard-to-access areas. It's a cool nod to the co-op nature of the game, but I felt Capcom could have gone farther with the concept. There are no moments when you truly feel separated from your partner, which could have upped the fear factor significantly. Part of the horror of past RE games lay in the cramped isolation of knowing you were all alone in a dark corridor. But here, you're never truly on your own, as Sheva is always at your side.

When Sheva is controlled by the game, she does a pretty fair job of staying out of your line of fire, watching your back for enemies and healing or reviving you when you take damage. But just like any partner, she does have her annoyances. In RE5, as in other games in the series, each character is limited to a set number of inventory slots, and making the best use of that space is one of the keys to doing well in the game. In single-player mode, you have access to both characters' inventories, and you can swap items back and forth between them as you see fit.

Jagged Alliance 3 Impressions - First Look

2009-05-21T03:00:00.000-07:00

We finally get an up-close look at Jagged Alliance 3, the sequel to the cult-classic strategy game.

We'll gladly come in out of the warm summer sun in Santa Monica for a look at Jagged Alliance 3, the long-awaited sequel to the beloved cult-classic 1999 strategy game from retired Canadian studio Sir-Tech. What we saw was extremely early, pre-alpha code that was definitely rough around the edges, but still showed hints of potential that we really, really hope will be realized. We hope.

Jagged Alliance fans are already familiar with the series' unique combination of deep turn-based tactics, role-playing-style character advancement, contemporary military fiction, and an unforgettable cast of hard-bitten, loud-mouthed mercenaries who don't always get along. Apparently, the sequel will take place in a fictitious South American country during a modern-day conflict that will require you to once again commission the services of the Association of International Mercenaries (A.I.M.) and hire a team of mercs for a new tour of duty.

We watched a brief demonstration level with a small team of mercs, though for the purposes of the demonstration, cheat codes had been enabled to boost each character's abilities well beyond what they'll actually be in the game. If the early demonstration is any indication, we can expect to see the return of at least three familiar mercenary faces: knife expert Jean-Pierre "La Malice" Viau, covert ops expert Kyle "Shadow" Simmons, and expert sniper Sheila "Scope" Sterling. The team infiltrated a small installation which was apparently the headquarters of a local drug lord with the purpose of assassinating him. According to an Akella representative, the game will have an overarching story, but like previous installments in the series, it will be largely open-ended and will feature side missions you can take on.

The game's interface seemed a lot like what you'd expect from a game like 3D Jagged Alliance. At the bottom of the screen, as ever, was the mercenary interface with each merc's photo, health and status bars, and statistics, including old favorites like leadership, marksmanship, strength, and speed. When an individual merc is selected, a new interface appears, packed with additional iconic buttons for every available action, such as changing the firing mode on your weapon if you have an automatic or using a first-aid kit if you have one.

In Jagged Alliance 3, you still give move orders to your teammates to send them along through the areas, and once you've sighted hostiles, the game still switches to a fully turn-based battle that lets your team and your enemies move and act only as long as they have "action points" they haven't spent yet. The turns in the battles still switch between your teammates and the enemies, who, when out of sight, are represented by glowing red polygonal silhouettes. The game will still have "interrupt" phases for alert characters who still have remaining action points that let the characters react to enemies who have blundered into line of sight. Interestingly, the new game will have some measure of destructible objects, so that you can shoot through doors, for instance, though we didn't see this have any significant effect on gameplay so far; we watched Scope blast through wooden door to get at an enemy soldier who had run into sight, though we were still unable to draw a bead on an enemy who was just around the corner from the shattered entrance.

Then again, Jagged Alliance 3 isn't very far along yet, or so we're told. The game's 3D graphics seem like they could definitely improve. The environments, though populated with plenty of appropriate objects like swaying palm trees on the beach and cluttered furniture inside the houses, have a rough feel to them that could benefit greatly from some antialiasing, more-detailed textures to bring out the lived-in feel that the game is clearly shooting for, and extensive lighting effects to help differentiate different parts of the environment and add atmosphere. Still, we're told that Russian developer F3 is providing production work with design feedback from the original Sir-Tech Canada team, which is encouraging news indeed. The game itself won't be out for some time--most likely near the end of 2008--and we hope the development teams will take all that time to make sure the game ends up being highly polished and as playable as the previous games in the series.

Overlord 2

2009-05-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

Overlord 2 (PC)
Also On: PS3, 360

Release Date: 12/15/2009
ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
Genre: Action
Publisher: Code Master
Developer: Triumph

Previews:

Just when the sheep thought it was safe, the Overlord is back with his band of evil minions in Overlord 2.
Over the last few years there have been a lot of games that have encouraged players to choose their own direction on a moral compass. Most recently, Fable 2 forced people to make a choice between good versus evil and pure versus corrupt. In Overlord, though, the choice was more fine-tuned. You could be evil...or you could be really evil. That fine tradition continues in Overlord 2, the follow-up to that cult hit from 2007.

In Overlord 2, you'll actually be playing as the descendant of the "hero" from the first game. Having been smuggled into hiding to avoid the previous Overlord's wrath, you're actually raised by minions to become a brand new force of evil in the world. Speaking of evil, while the first game had some pretty devious moments (slaughtering sheep, hobbits and elves by the truckload), the developers felt that the evil could've been more pronounced. This time around you'll still be making choices to determine how you complete each quest, but the choice is now between domination and annihilation.

The example given is when you'll have to determine the fate of a town. You can either enslave the lot of the inhabitants, or blow the place to smithereens. What you choose will determine how your powers will progress throughout the game. But it's not just you on this evil journey, you've also got your minions along for the ride. It's still the same four types of minions from the first game (brown, green, blue and red), but all of the minions have been enhanced for maximum evil. They can now ride mounts, like wolves and spiders, to deal extra damage and access hard-to-reach spots. You're also likely to become more attached to your minions this time around, as you can now name them and have them wear silly costumes from your adventures. Named minions can still die, but you'll be able to resurrect them in your home castle if the pain is just too great.

Overlord 2 is definitely more of an evolutionary step for the series, keeping the basics pretty much the same while adding in new features and more sheep torture. The game is scheduled to release this summer on the PS3, 360 and PC. PETA members need not apply.

Detective Agency

2009-05-21T02:29:00.000-07:00

Detective Agency is a new hidden object release from Far Mills Game Studios and GFI. In Detective Agency, James is a private eye whose "daily proceedings revision" is interrupted by a call from his pal Bill at the "Editorial" who gives him a lead on a theft that's just been committed. He decides to "turn to this case."

In between levels you'll play a variety of mini-games, all of which are enjoyable though standard variations on familiar themes (connect the electrical tubes to close the circuit, match pairs of cards, decipher the secret message, and so on).

The story itself is a maddening series of visits to various buildings where no one will help you until you perform a mundane task for them first, like fixing a radio, turning on the lights, or – the most absurd – putting a man's pearl necklace back together.

And then inevitably they just tell you that they can't help you anyway, and to try a different location instead.

The levels aren't timed, but too much random clicking will result in your cursor being frozen for a few seconds. There are ample hints to be had, which are replenished by finding and clicking on tiny magnifying glasses hidden in the scenes.

Unfortunately, the hint system itself is annoying. Instead of just highlighting an item, you have to move a magnifying glass around the screen while it clicks and flashes confusingly until it suddenly begins beeping very quickly to signify that you're close to an item.

You have to find items either from a list or by silhouette, with the odd spot-the-difference challenge thrown in for good measure. The silhouette puzzles are far easier to deal with, since many of the items have been mis-labelled or are simply too vague.

Does "hat" refer to the beanie or the fedora? And "piece" could refer to half the objects in the scene. A "cell" is actually a birdcage, a "plate" is actually a bowl of rice, and "map" looks more like a paying card.

Detective Agency is another one of those games that could have used more guidance and localization before it was released to the general public.

Battlefield Bad Company Review

2009-05-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

The rules of first-person shooters are changing. Videogames that engage the player in acts of war have always promised one thing; cover. During times of extreme duress the player has always had the option of retreating behind a wall or group of immovable sandbags in order to escape their assailants. Battlefield: Bad Company, the latest from the Sweden-based Digital Illusions CE (DICE), changes all that.

No longer is the inside of a house a safe haven for fleeing soldiers. Walls, sandbags, fences, and other formerly indestructible objects can now be torn down with a blast from a grenade or rocket launcher. Bad Company, while not perfect by any means, changes the formulaic gameplay of war-based first-person shooters enough to warrant the attention of the many fans of the genre.

The Battlefield series has always been a PC-oriented franchise. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat was the first to make the jump to consoles during the twilight of the Xbox and the infancy of the 360. While it was enjoyed by some, the immense praise that the series was accustomed to was missing. Bad Company not only represents the first story-based game in the series, but it's also the first product to utilize the all-new Frostbite engine which is responsible for all of the luscious destruction that I just mentioned.
Bad Company follows one Private Preston Marlow, a new recruit to a division of the army known simply as Bad Company, or B-Company for short. It's a group of misfit soldiers -- complimenting Marlow are Sarge, Haggard and the love struck Sweetwater -- each with his own personality and quippy dialogue. Though the missions in the campaign begin innocently enough with standard seek and destroy objectives, the team's motivations quickly take a turn once the promise of personal wealth enters the equation.

It's interesting to see how DICE dances around the politically charged climate of present day. Especially when you consider that your group of soldiers is essentially abandoned by United States military command fairly early on. DICE could have taken a more politically slanted approach but Bad Company does a good job of keeping things light-hearted and fun throughout the action.

Sadly it's that same light-hearted appeal that hurts the action in BF: BC a bit. War is intense yet the characters in Bad Company are constantly joking around and making fun of one another during battle. The comedy bit just doesn't quite fit in with the incredible level of action on screen.
That having been said, it's clear that Battlefield: Bad Company isn't necessarily trying to be as hard-edged as the drama-charged Call of Duty 4. This is evidenced -- beyond the over-the-top personas -- by both the health and respawn systems. When Marlow begins his adventure he is immediately introduced to his trusty health injector. Players can whip that sucker out, slam it into Preston's chest and his health is instantly restored. While you'll need to wait a handful of seconds before repeating the process, there are moments when you'll feel like all you're doing is running around and sticking yourself with that precious needle. Not exactly something you'd see on CNN war footage.
Next up is the respawn system which will remind many of the cryo chambers found in BioShock. When you die in most single-player games the world resets to the point of your last saved checkpoint. Not so in Bad Company. Instead you'll essentially respawn back onto the field of battle with any damage that you may have caused in your previous life still intact and any downed enemies still deader than a doornail. I can't help but feel like that system detracts from the strategy and overall intensity of the battles. Each life carried very little significance for me as I could charge in, take out a few blokes and trust that they'd still be gone when Preston returned to the living.

Where the gameplay of Bad Company positively separates itself from the throng of other war-based releases is the destructibility. At this point it sounds almost clich? but the Frostbite engine does indeed change the way you play. Hiding behind walls is no longer safe for you or your enemies. I can't tell you how many times my dwindling health sent me retreating into a house, only to have the walls shredded by an onslaught of tank shells.
There's no doubt that the destruction wouldn't have such a profound impact if it didn't look and sound so damn good. Bad Company isn't a graphical masterpiece by any means, but launching a grenade into the side of a wall and watching the debris and smoke spew out of the formerly whole structure is a sight to see. DICE also did a good job of placing plenty of explosive barrels, crates and gasoline tanks around the environment so there's never of shortage of things that go boom.

However, the visuals are not without issues. The lack of vertical sync shows its ugly face fairly often, particularly in the first level. There's also an odd film grain that, while I found it endearing to the overall style, might be lamented by some. There are also moments of wonky physics and other oddities, but nothing that overly hurts the experience.

Throw in some of the best audio effects I've ever heard in a videogame and Bad Company becomes more a treat for the ears than the eyes. The High Dynamic Range Audio (HDR Audio) creates different audio effects for gunfire, explosions and pretty much every other sound effect you can imagine. Want a real audio treat? Stand inside a house and blow out one of the walls with Preston's grenade launcher then stop and listen to the sound reverberate as the debris comes raining down. Other impressive auditory delights include the sound of a tank shell whizzing by your head and launching a fleet of missiles from an airborne helicopter. While the dialogue from the characters might be a bit too cheeseball for some, the sound effects, classic Battlefield theme music and overall audio design more than pick up the slack.
The story that's told through in-game and in-engine cutscenes is serviceable but nothing award-winning. The dialogue is slightly cheesy and over-the-top and none of the characters are all that inspiring. Marlow is sort of a shell of a hero and is more "along for the ride" than anything else. The main villain, the one who's keeping the quartet of militants from their riches, looks mean but never really comes across as the frightening hard ass as intended.
A big problem that most will have with Bad Company's campaign is that it can't be played cooperatively. With four soldiers built in to the storyline one would think that the developers would have implemented four-player co-op, yet there's none to be found. In this day and age it's pretty much inexcusable to not have cooperative play when it makes so much sense with the core game design.

Thankfully, where the single-player stumbles, the multiplayer shines. The Battlefield franchise is known more for its online matches than its solo play and Bad Company is no different. Twenty-four players can join up in ranked or unranked matches across eight maps, each with different vehicle placements and strategies needed to be successful. Players choose from five well-balanced classes, each containing its own set of armaments and tools. Though the single-player introduces you to tools like the laser guided missile and the remote mortar strike, it's while playing multiplayer that you'll need to make use of every weapon the game has to offer.
Unlike playing alone where you'll find collectible guns scattered throughout the battlefield, the multiplayer in Bad Company features a progressive unlock system that has you tallying experience points while still ascending up the standard ranks. The health injector, an item that Marlow begins the game with and carries throughout, needs to be unlocked in multi. The same can be said for the mortar and missile strike as well as a host of other death dealers. There are also awards that will pop up for things like marksmanship, double kills and other accomplishments, but at the end of the day they feel a bit inconsequential when compared to the other multiplayer trinkets.

Vehicles are another staple of the Battlefield franchise that makes a triumphant return in Bad Company. Hummers, boats, buggies, helicopters, light and heavy tanks, and other modes of transport can be used both in single-player and while playing with others. The vehicles work fantastically well when battling with people online, but using them when playing solo can leave a bit to be desired. The AI of your mates isn't fantastic and occasionally you'll wish that it was a living person manning the turret on the back of your boat.

The computer-controlled players follow a similar path with regard to their intelligence. There are moments when they'll be oblivious to your presence despite the fact that you're aiming at their head from five feet away, and others when they'll form solid attack groups and use their surroundings to their advantage. It's a bit of a mixed bag.
Luckily doing battle with the AI-controlled soldiers is never frustrating because of poorly designed controls. DICE made an interesting decision with regard to how players navigate their short list of weapons (you can carry four at one time). Essentially your weapons are tethered to both shoulder buttons. The right shoulder button is for your primary and secondary weapon -- typically a grenade launcher -- and the left shoulder button is used for tools, one of which is always your health injector while playing the campaign. Rotating between weapons is quick and easy once you get the hang of it and it's much more conducive to quick gameplay than the traditional radial menu or d-pad selection.

Closing Comments

Battlefield: Bad Company is the perfect answer for the hot summer months that most will spend in doors in search of entertainment. It?s loud, it?s pretty and it lets you blow big-ass holes in buildings. There are plenty of flaws that FPS gurus will be able to nitpick about, but Bad Company delivers a fun-filled single-player campaign with a multiplayer component that can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best in our industry.

Battlefield 2 Review

2009-05-12T11:50:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that it's a sequel, Battlefield 2 is a thrilling action game that immerses you in the chaos of combat like never before.

The Good

Thrilling online gameplay that's revolutionary at times
Built-in voice support is the next best thing to Xbox Live
The new squad and commander functions elevate the gameplay
Beautiful graphics and insane sound effects immerse you
The best military action game yet made.

The Bad

Steep hardware requirements, long load times
No way to keep track of buddies
Clumsy server browser
No cooperative gameplay mode
Rebinding controls can be frustrating.

There will be doubters and naysayers who will claim that Battlefield 2 is just an incremental upgrade from its famous predecessors, or that it only offers a marginal improvement over the popular Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942. Ignore them, because they couldn't be more wrong. EA and Digital Illusions' cutting-edge and highly awaited sequel is everything that it's supposed to be and more. Battlefield 2 is a thrilling testament to how great PC gaming can be. It packs unmatched gameplay, impressive visuals, and endless replayability in one exquisite package. And it's, by far, the most fun that we've had with a PC game this year.

Contrary to its name, Battlefield 2 is actually the third game in the Battlefield series, and, on the surface, it sticks closely to the formula established in the previous two games. In it, two teams of up to 32 players each battle it out for supremacy on huge virtual battlefields, taking the fight to one another on foot, in a vehicle, on sea, and in the air. This time around, though, you'll have the opportunity to take modern weapons and equipment into the fray, as the game is based in a near-future, hypothetical conflict that pits the forces of the United States, China, and the fictional Middle Eastern Coalition in mortal combat with one another.

Strangely enough, Battlefield 2 ships with just one gameplay mode, but the conquest mode is what made Battlefield what is today. Conquest is essentially a sprawling, king-of-the-hill-style game with multiple control points (doubling as spawn points) scattered on the map. Each team gets a limited number of tickets, or spawns, to draw upon in the battle for control of these points. The winner is the side that can either capture all the control points and eliminate the opposing team entirely, or whittle down the opposing team's tickets to zero. It's a fairly simple formula, but it sets the stage for the wild and memorable virtual battles that take place.

The beauty of Battlefield 2 is the fact that, like its predecessors, it has a totally unpredictable nature to it. It's completely unscripted and chaotic, but in an awesome way. There are simply so many insane, over-the-top moments that can happen in a single game that you quickly lose track. In any given match, you can have a dozen desperate firefights, countless moments when a rocket or bullet whizzes by your head, and the proud sense of accomplishment when you and your squad overcome the odds and achieve your objective. You'll see feats of audacious daring as someone flies a helicopter through a city's streets or runs up to plant explosives on an enemy tank that's mowing down your colleagues. You'll experience the hellish shelling of artillery, see the desperate revival of wounded colleagues, and be killed a dozen grisly ways. And yet, through it all, you'll find yourself coming back for more.

What makes Battlefield 2 better than its predecessors, though, is that there's much more of an attempt to instill some method to this madness. Battlefield 2 is full of excellent new features designed to make coordinating your efforts a lot easier. First up is the new voice-over IP system, which means that real-time voice capability is built into every single copy of the game. There simply is no excuse not to get a headset and start talking with your buddies, because even though Battlefield 2 does offer an improved keyboard-based communications system, nothing beats the power of being able to instantly and effortlessly communicate with your teammates. The voice system in Battlefield 2 is simple to set up and use, and you no longer have to fiddle around with conflicting third-party solutions.

More critically, it's the voice-chat system in Battlefield 2 that's important. Rather than have 64 players swamp a single channel with nonstop chatter and taunts, the voice system is instead integrated heavily into the concept of a commander and squads, which are both new features in the game. In earlier Battlefield games, you simply ran around as part of an unorganized mob, with little coordination between players. Battlefield 2 solves this by letting you organize into squads that come under the leadership of a single commander. In other words, a team of 32 players could split up to potentially form five or six squads consisting of five to six players each, with one player coordinating all the efforts as a commander. This fundamentally changes the nature of the game from having a bunch of lone wolves running around to having coordinated combat teams working together to get the job done.

Here's how it works. Armed with a real-time, top-down view of the battlefield, along with a number of powerful abilities, the commander can keep an eye on the big picture. The commander can scan the battlefield for enemy forces, deploy spy drones on the map that transmit data to all the members of the team, air-drop supply crates that rearm and heal adjacent units, and drop powerful artillery barrages onto enemy positions. The commander also issues orders to squad leaders, who have the job of carrying the orders out. The squad is much more than a handful of players, thanks to the potent squad abilities. Since you can spawn on your squad leader (so long as he is alive), the ability to create a sort of roving, self-supporting combat team is possible, especially if a team has a medic or two to keep the squad on its feet. The voice-chat system automatically filters all communication, so if you're in a squad, you can only talk with your fellow squad members. Squad leaders can talk to their squad on one channel and use another channel to communicate with the commander. And the commander can only talk to squad leaders. Thus, orders have a way of trickling down the chain of command, while requests go up the chain from the squad leader to the commander (like they do in real-life militaries).

When this system is clicking, it makes Battlefield 2 simply a transcendent experience unlike anything we've experienced before. While other games have incorporated concepts such as squads and commanders, none have combined them in such a brilliantly designed and executed way. The ability to only chat with your squadmates can create a sort of instant personal camaraderie, even when the sound of bullets, explosions, and artillery surrounds you. At times, you'll find yourself yelling for a medic, telling a buddy to cover you while you sprint across an open patch, or quickly organizing an impromptu assault on an enemy. It's so easy and tempting to fall into role-playing mode when playing this game. We found moments when, as squad leader, we requested permission from the commander to go after an enemy target. Or, when we were attacking an enemy control point, we screamed, "Go, go, go," and the squad rushed in just moments after an artillery barrage softened the objective, the dust from the explosions still thick in the air. The sensation that you're actually fighting as a unit is simply immersive and gripping. In fact, the only thing missing is the ability to keep some kind of friends or buddies list. This is something that you'll desperately want once you've played with a great squad and want to play alongside them in future battles.

It's fair to note, however, that your online experience with Battlefield 2 is completely dependent on the nature of your fellow players. And yes, it can be frustrating if you find yourself on a team that doesn't organize into squads or doesn't work together. This frustration is doubled if you find yourself facing a team that is organized and coordinated. With the powerful team tools in the game, it's quite easy for a completely outnumbered but coordinated team to defeat a far larger and unorganized force. The game does come with tools designed to get you familiar with the controls, but you still rely on the willingness of your teammates to work together. If anything, we wish for some kind of option that requires you to join a squad when you enter a game, and if you fail to do this you'll be kicked off, since players who play outside the command and squad system remain outside the loop. (The game could use a better auto-balancing system, as well, as far too many matches become lopsided affairs because one team has twice as many players as the other.)

Of course, all it takes are a handful of anarchic team killers to throw a wrench into your experience, as well. In that case, you can try to vote someone off a server if he or she proves annoying enough, or the server can boot players who team-kill too often. In addition, Battlefield 2 introduces the concept of persistent identity. When you log onto Battlefield 2 for the first time, you'll create a unique account that will follow you throughout your online adventures, keeping track of your rank, your statistics, and much more. The better you play, the higher in rank you will rise, and you can eventually unlock alternate weapons. A higher rank also means that you will be given higher priority to assume the commander role in a match, so hopefully this will let the serious players gain control of such a potent position.

We should note that Battlefield 2 keeps track of an astonishing number of statistics, such as the number of kills you make with each weapon, your favorite kit, the map you play the most on, and more. You can also collect dozens of different types of medals by doing certain tasks. Medics are rewarded for reviving fallen soldiers, engineers are rewarded for repairing vehicles, and so on. Collecting these medals proves to be a reward in and of itself. However, as much as we like this system, we must admit that the game's main menu/server browser, where you access your personal statistics, feels needlessly confusing at times. The server browser itself is slow and clunky, which makes it annoying at times when you're trying to find a game. Since this is the third Battlefield game, you'd expect that the designers would have figured out how to create a decent server browser by now. Meanwhile, trying to rebind the many different keyboard settings can be like pulling teeth at times, as you have to sort through different pages to unbind a key before you can bind it to another command.

If you're not feeling like playing with fellow humans, the good news is that the much-maligned bots from Battlefields 1942 and Vietnam are history. In those games, the computer-controlled bots were just a hair better than brain-dead, but not by much (they literally ran in circles most of the time). The new bots in Battlefield 2 are relative Einsteins compared to the old ones, and while they still make a few stupid errors every now and then, they can be downright ruthless and cunning. We've seen bots do things that we wish human players would do. In one case, a bot in a tank actually waited for infantry support before entering the crowded confines of an enemy village. In another, the bots threw grenades onto the rooftop we were sniping from to flush us out. These bots will also go after objectives with a vengeance. It's ironic that DICE nixed the cooperative gameplay mode featured in earlier Battlefield games just when it finally developed decent bots. To be fair, the bots can get confused, and we suspect that some maps may be too complex for their pathfinding, as they tend to do better on maps with fewer natural choke points, such as bridges and rivers.

Battlefield 2 ships with 12 levels, and while that seems like a small number, the fact that each level comes in three different sizes adds some variety. The nature of the game can change dramatically depending on the size of the map and the number of players involved. Small, 16-player games on the smallest map offer a Counter-Strike-like atmosphere, with a limited number of control points and a few vehicles. The 32- and 64-player maps are downright huge in comparison, and they offer plenty of room to maneuver around. The level design itself has evolved quite a bit from earlier games, as the designers have eliminated the huge distances that separated control points. These new levels are an interesting mix of different settings, including cities, mountains, valleys, and swamps. They're also packed with all sorts of specific, distinct areas, such as villages, hotels, construction areas, oil refineries, and more.

There are seven different kits, or basically character class types, to play as in Battlefield 2, and these kits are essentially identical across all three nations. There aren't the weird variations that occurred in Battlefield Vietnam, where the US engineer kit would get completely different weapon types from the North Vietnamese engineer kit. And for the most part, the kits are fairly well balanced. There's no superkit (like the M-60/LAW combination in Vietnam) this time around. And while there will be advocates for and against certain kits, the balance on a whole is excellent right out of the gate for Battlefield 2. For example, the support kit seems a bit overpowering at first, since it gets a light machine gun capable of firing long bursts from huge magazines, but it is tempered by the fact that it's only suitable at short and medium ranges. Try to engage anyone from a long distance, and they'll simply drop down and snipe you with carefully aimed shots. The sniper kit, usually the most overpowering weapon in these kinds of games, no longer features a one-shot, one-kill capability. However, this relegates snipers to their proper (and accurate) role of supporting the infantry and reporting the location of enemy units and vehicles.

There's a definite rock-paper-scissors nature to the different kits. The special forces kit is ideal for planting plastic explosive charges and destroying enemy infrastructure, from bridge crossings to radar stations that allow enemy commanders to conduct satellite scans of the battlefield. In fact, for balancing purposes, it's the only kit able to really do so effectively. Blow up enemy artillery, and the enemy commander can't drop artillery barrages on your team's head until the guns are repaired. The engineer kit can repair such damage and patch up vehicles, and so engineers are worth their weight in gold. Meanwhile, the engineer and medic kits are even more powerful than ever by being able to project an area-of-affect radius around them if they're riding in a vehicle, which is a big incentive for players to take up support roles in a game.

That same sort of rock-paper-scissors balancing is also evident in the vehicles. The general rule in Battlefield 2 is that every weapon has a counter weapon, and the balance, once again, feels about right. However, it can be argued that some vehicles may be more powerful than others, so therefore much is dependent on the skill of the players involved. Sure, a skilled player in an attack helicopter can take over a game, but there are answers for that situation if you know how to take advantage of them. For example, as potent as tanks and other vehicles are, they can be slaughtered by other vehicles, helicopters, planes, and infantry antitank missiles. Helicopters can fall prey to jets or antiaircraft weapons, while jets themselves can fall prey to other jets or missiles.

Many of the vehicles are modern-day versions of those found in Battlefields 1942 and Vietnam, so they will undoubtedly feel familiar to veterans of those games. There are a few neat features to play with, though. Tanks can now pop smoke grenades, which can throw off the aim of an incoming missile. Helicopters and jets can fire guided missiles, allowing them to kill multiple targets on a single pass. Once again, you'll probably want to get a joystick for optimal control of aircraft, but it's definitely worth it. Helicopters are a bit easier to fly than those in Vietnam, it seems, but it's always interesting to note that for all the arcadelike action in the game, the helicopter controls are still fairly realistic. Once you get the hang of the controls, there's no rush quite like the one you experience when you fly a chopper through trees, or pop up over a ridge and unleash a fiery barrage on a passing convoy.

Battlefield 2 is a step up from its predecessors graphically, as well. The new graphics engine is a wonder to behold, and it plays a lot smoother than earlier versions, especially when it comes to infantry combat, which was always jerky and awkward in the first two games. This is just a beautiful game overall, especially when everything around you is in motion. Tanks and vehicles are rendered with astonishing detail, such as swaying antennas, while the environments themselves--save for the somewhat crudely rendered grass--are simply beautiful. There are so many tiny details at work, from the concussive effects of nearby blasts blurring your vision to the clouds of dust that appear when tank cannons fire to the tiny fountains of dirt that kick up when rounds land next to you. It's so pretty that it almost becomes counterproductive, in a way. For example, except for a few road signs that you can knock over and bridges that you can destroy, the environment itself is barely destructible, and you feel that buildings should collapse into heaps of rubble after artillery smashes into them. Also, the instantaneous teleporting in and out of vehicles, a staple from the first game, feels more and more out of place as the series becomes more graphically immersive. You almost wish for some kind of transition animation to show your character climbing in and out of the driver's seat (it would also be more realistic, as well). Though our biggest concern with the graphics comes with the close draw in that occurs when you're flying a fast-moving jet, as it only gives you a second or two to identify and line up your target before you overshoot it.

Battlefield 2 is an excellent audio experience also, as there's nothing quite like hearing the scream of artillery overhead, the crack of various rifles, the squeal of tank treads and the sound of their engines roaring in the distance, the thump of whirling helicopter blades, and more. The only thing missing really is the memorable music of the first two games, especially the iconic soundtrack that shipped with Battlefield Vietnam. To be fair, it's asking a bit much of EA to identify the signature songs of the near future, but even then, the only music in the game is the bland Asian and Middle Eastern themes that you listen to during the very long load times. And yes, the load times are one of the biggest gripes that we have, as you'll spend quite a bit of time waiting for a game to start up, even on high-end machines. Battlefield 2 is also a bit demanding in the hardware department, since you'll need a modern 3D card to run it (anything older than two years is iffy), as well as a fair bit of memory and a somewhat powerful CPU. The good news is that the game scales well within that hardware, and it can play at high detail on even relatively midrange machines. But this is definitely a game worth upgrading for, because it easily holds countless hours of gameplay, especially once players get over the learning curve and start to work together. It shouldn't be long before the quality of Battlefield matches is raised to a whole new level. It will also help that you evaluate your performance using Battlefield TV, a built-in recording system that keeps track of all the events during a match. With Battlefield TV, you can go back and see what tactics the best players used, where the best sniping positions are, and more.

The best thing that we can say about Battlefield 2 is that even when it's at its worst, it can still be as much fun as its illustrious predecessors. However, when you experience Battlefield 2 like it's meant to be played, with everyone working together and using real-time voice chat, the game quickly becomes unlike anything else that you've played before. When it's at its best, Battlefield 2 elevates online gaming to whole new heights. Put simply, this is a thrilling and revolutionary game that just has to be played to be believed.

Battlefield Heroes First Impression

2009-05-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

It's Battlefield. It's also totally free. Get a first look at Battlefield Heroes.

EA caused a bit of a stir recently when it announced that the next PC game in its popular Battlefield franchise is going to be a free-to-play Web-based title. We were curious, too; thankfully we finally got our first look at Battlefield Heroes at the recent Game Developers Conference. Here's what we learned: While it has and will undoubtedly continue to draw comparisons to last year's Team Fortress 2 for its cartoon look, the developers at DICE say that it's also the deepest Battlefield game that they've ever made.

To hammer in the point that this is supposed to be fun and crazy, the demonstration started with a somber trailer full of World War II images. Just when you might think that you're watching another video for another World War II game, the trailer busts open with a zany montage of cartoon violence, with soldiers running around a colorful battlefield, riding on the wings of fighter planes, zipping around in tanks as if they were sports cars, and the like.

Though the game has vehicles and weapons and uniforms that are obviously inspired by World War II counterparts, this is not set in World War II. It's not even really set on Earth as we know it. The guys in grey and black aren't Nazis or Germans, but rather members of the National Army. The fellows in green and tan aren't British or Americans. Instead, they're members of the Royal Army. Even the conflict itself is a bit silly to fit into the game's humor: The Royals and the Nationals are battling over a quarrel regarding the Olympic games. This isn't about a titanic clash of totalitarianism versus democracy.

So here's the deal. The game is indeed free to play. All you'll have to do is go to the game's Web site and click on the brightly colored play button, and that will launch the installer. The system requirements are low enough to support most integrated graphics chipsets found in budget computers. (The other requirements right now are a 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM.) When you install the game, you also create a login and a password for your profile. It will not ask for you a credit card number. Once the game is installed, you just go back to the Web site, hit play, log in, and the game launches. The entire process is designed to very similar to registering for an Internet forum or social site such as MySpace.

Free sounds like a great deal to the consumer, but not for businesses. EA plans to make money mainly through advertising. For instance, whenever the game is loading, you'll see ads. We saw two big banner ads for EA games that were released last year (keep in mind we saw the in-development version of Battlefield Heroes, so those were placeholders). EA says that there will not be any in-game advertising in the game itself, so you will not see any billboards or posters for the latest Hollywood movie or Detroit car while dodging bullets. A secondary source of income is microtransactions that are entirely optional, though EA didn't really go into depth about what types of things you'll be able to purchase.

Heroes will distill the Battlefield experience into a more intimate package online. Like with other Battlefield games, there's just one mode in Heroes, and it is sort of a mix of team deathmatch and the classic Battlefield conquest mode. Each team has 50 tickets, or respawns, at its disposal. When a player dies, he uses up a ticket to respawn back into the game. The goal is to be the last team standing. There will be control points that can be captured, and they will confer a modifier to whichever team controls them. For instance, controlling all flags might result in your team being awarded two kills for every one that you make. The maximum player limit per match is 16; in comparison, Battlefield 2 tops out at 64.

There are three classes that you can play as: soldier, gunner, and commando. You select a class at the beginning of the match and you can't switch in midmatch. The commando is the light class; capable of being completely invisible at a distance and semitransparent up close. He's armed with a knife and a sniper rifle, each of which takes a couple of whacks to kill with. That is to soften the frustration felt in other Battlefield games, where you're suddenly killed with a single shot of a sniper rifle. In Battlefield Heroes, the first hit you receive is a warning and a chance for you to do something to survive. Next up is the soldier, which is a medium class, a good mix of speed and firepower. The gunner is the heaviest class, but also the slowest. He's armed with a machine gun and a bazooka. It's key to keep in mind that while the bazooka might be ideal for killing vehicles, all classes will be equipped with sticky mines so that they have an antivehicle weapon.

The action takes place entirely in third-person, save for one moment, which we suspect is probably when you zoom through the scopes of a sniper rifle. Part of the reason is because DICE wants the game to be as friendly as possible to people who have never, ever played a Battlefield game before, and third-person is apparently more accessible and less intimidating and more casual than first-person. The other reason for third-person is so you can see your custom character and all the cool stuff that you'll unlock. Character creation is a bit like an online role-playing game in that you can select different hairstyles, colors, and other physical features. Since the game is played entirely online, it'll also keep a permanent record of your performance. As you advance through the rank system, you'll access new items that you can equip, such as clothing and accessories. The buttoned-up uniform shirt might make way to the unbuttoned-at-the-top shirt, goggles might appear on the helmet, and so on.

Like with all Battlefield games, the action is a mix of infantry and vehicle combat. The difference in Heroes is that everything is meant to be as user-friendly and colorful as possible. Hit a guy with a rifle and you'll see numbers flash above his head indicating how much damage he's taking, just like in a role-playing game. The respawn timer is set to five seconds, so if you're killed, you'll get back in the action quickly. The physics and violence are somewhat cartoonish, from the tanks that can scream through a street and run someone over to the way a pilot can jump out of a plane right before it hits the ground and land on his feet safely.

The developer also says that Battlefield Heroes is the deepest Battlefield game yet. That's because there are special abilities that you can equip before a match that let you do all sorts of things. For instance, you can equip incendiary bullets so you cause burning damage on someone. Another ability is a wall hack that lets you detect enemy soldiers behind solid objects. A health burst will heal not only you, but those around you.

Battlefield Heroes is going to be a very interesting experiment, because this is a game that is designed to appeal not only to Battlefield fans, but also to the vast, untapped masses out there who don't play games because they're too expensive or their computers aren't powerful enough. It's basically Battlefield for the people. Fans of Battlefield 2, though, should also keep note that while no future Battlefield games have been announced, the developer did insist that DICE is working on projects that it can't talk about quite yet. Battlefield Heroes will go live later this year.

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare Review

2009-05-12T11:39:00.000-07:00

The single-player campaign is over in a flash, but the high quality of that campaign and its terrific multiplayer options make Call of Duty 4 a fantastic package.

The Good

High-quality story mode packs in a lot of thrilling and unexpected moments
Well-designed multiplayer progression gives you something to shoot for online
Terrific audiovisual presentation.

The Bad

Campaign mode is much shorter than those of the average shooter.

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.

BioShock Review

2009-05-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

In spite of some technical issues, BioShock creates an amazing world that you'll want to explore and a compelling mystery that slowly comes together as you play.

The Good

Absolutely amazing atmosphere and visual design
Lots of character customization options to play around with
Great voice cast really sells the storyline.

The Bad

Suffers from some fairly nasty technical issues on some PCs, up to and including a total lack of in-game audio
Lack of death penalty keeps things fun, but also keeps things a little too easy.

While on the surface it might look like little more than a very pretty first-person shooter, BioShock is much, much more than that. Sure, the action is fine, but its primary focus is its story, a sci-fi mystery that manages to feel retro and futuristic at the same time, and its characters, who convey most of the story via radio transmissions and audio logs that you're constantly stumbling upon as you wander around. All of it blends together to form a rich, interesting world that sucks you in right away and won't let go until you've figured out what, exactly, is going on in the undersea city of Rapture.

BioShock opens with a bang, but the overall plot focuses more on making an emotional impact than an explosive one. The year is 1960, and you're flying over the Atlantic Ocean. One mysterious plane crash later, you're floating in the water, apparently the lone survivor, surrounded by the flaming wreckage of the aircraft. But there's a lighthouse on a tiny island just at the edge of your view. Who in their right mind would put a lighthouse this far out? You swim closer and discover a small submersible called a bathysphere waiting to take you underwater. After catching a breathtaking view of what's below, you're sent into the secret underwater city of Rapture. Masterminded by a somewhat megalomaniacal businessman named Andrew Ryan, this city is driven by its own idea of total freedom, with capitalism completely unhindered by governmental meddling and science unhinged from the pesky morals of organized religion. Sounds like the perfect society, right? Well, even before you step out of your bathysphere and into the city, it becomes obvious that everything has gone horribly wrong down here. The city is trashed, and genetic freaks called splicers roam around, attacking anything that gets in front of them. At the heart of the matter is a powerful, corrupting substance called ADAM, which makes all this genetic tinkering possible and allows you to get your first plasmid power, the ability to shoot lightning out of your fingertips.

Character customization is a key trait in BioShock. You have a limited but increasable number of spaces in various customization categories, and you can totally reconfigure all of your different plasmids and tonics at will, at no charge, at specific locations in-game. Plasmids are the active, weaponlike genetic enhancement. Many of these are very straightforward. Incinerate lets you burn things and melt ice. Telekinesis lets you use your left hand as if it were Half-Life 2's gravity gun. But others are a little more subversive. Security bullseye is a little ball you can toss at enemies, causing any nearby security cameras, turrets, or sentry bots to point in his direction. Enrage can cause enemies to fight one another. Insect swarm causes your arm to shoot bees at your enemies, which unfortunately is far less cool-looking than it sounds. You can also place decoys, plant swirling wind traps for enemies, and so on. While it's fun to mess around with a lot of the indirect attacks, facing your enemies head-on with the more direct plasmids feels a bit more effective.

Tonics are skills that are slotted just like plasmids, but they have passive effects, like sportboost, which increases your movement and melee attack speed, or natural camouflage, which makes you turn invisible if you stand still for a few seconds. So if you want to make your swinging wrench attacks more powerful, you can slot up things like wrench jockey and wrench lurker, which increase your wrench damage on all attacks and when catching opponents off-guard, respectively. Add bloodlust, which gives you some health back every time you club someone with your wrench, and you're a melee master with health and plasmid energy (called EVE) to spare. You can also slot some defensive stuff, like static field, which zaps anyone who touches you with a electric radius effect, and armored shell, which reduces the damage you take from physical attacks. There are more than 50 tonics to collect, giving you plenty of options to play around with.

Most of those plasmids and tonics will have to be purchased using the raw ADAM that you collect from harvesting vessels called little sisters. They're little girls with a big needle that they use to collect the sought-after stuff from dead bodies, and they're protected by the baddest enemies in the entire game, hulking armored monsters called big daddies. This is where the game makes you decide to be selfless or selfish. If you harvest the girls, they die, but you get 160 ADAM from them. If you free them and return them to normal, you get only 80 ADAM. There are a limited number of girls to deal with in the entire game, making it very possible that you won't be able to collect every single purchasable plasmid and tonic, so choose wisely. Either route has benefits and consequences, and there are story considerations as well.

Before you start thinking this is some kind of role-playing game or something, let's stop right here and say that in addition to all the toys that plasmids and tonics for you to play around with, you're also going to be carrying around some more conventional firepower. Your melee weapon is a wrench, and you quickly collect a pistol and machine gun. Being that this is 1960 filtered through the isolation of an undersea world that has the art deco style of the first half of the century, the weapons aren't nearly as high-tech as the genetic code in your body. The machine gun is your basic tommy gun, and the grenade launcher appears to have been cobbled together from coffee cans and other spare parts. You'll also get a shotgun, a crossbow, and so on. You can also collect different types of ammunition, such as exploding buckshot for your shotgun or missiles for your grenade launcher, and upgrades that increase damage, speed up reloads, and so on. The weapons are functional and the upgrades are pretty good, but the firing action isn't nearly as exciting as a combat-focused first-person shooter would be. The weapons are loud but don't feel especially right, and seeing shotgun blasts not even do 50 percent damage to an unarmored human target (on the default difficulty setting) just feels wrong. But that might also say something about the general lack of enemy variety.

There are five types of splicers to deal with, and these are your primary enemies. The splicers are humans who have messed around with ADAM too much and have essentially lost their minds. Now they wander around the city like junkies in need of a fix. The only real difference among them is what they're carrying. Leadheads have guns, thugs have blunt objects, nitros toss explosives, Houdini splicers can teleport and shoot fireballs, and spider splicers can crawl on ceilings and toss hooks at you. As you go through the game, they get tougher to kill, but there's no real visual indicator as to why that's so, leading to some of the weapons feeling a bit weak. Headshots simply shift from killing enemies immediately to not killing enemies immediately. This makes smart use of a combination of plasmids and conventional weapons the best tactic, though even those tactics don't involve much. The same one-two punch of shocking enemies to stun them and following up with a whack with the wrench is a perfectly viable tactic throughout the entire game, depending on how you've placed your tonics.

You'll find more important human characters at certain points in the story, and though these are set up like boss fights, these guys are just more powerful and resilient versions of existing splicers. You'll also have to deal with security robots, turrets, and cameras, though these can all be hacked via a neat little hacking minigame to bring them over to your side, allowing for more indirect combat options.

Then there's the big daddy, which comes in two configurations. The bouncer has a huge drill arm that is used to, you know, drill into people. The rosie likes to launch explosives in your general direction. Both of them are fairly nasty, because they move quickly and dish out a lot of damage while not taking very much from most of your attacks. They protect the little sisters, who are invulnerable to your attacks and can only be dealt with once their protecting big daddy is dead. The big daddy is hardly unbeatable, though you may die a few times while facing your first few. Death in BioShock is barely even a setback. When you die, you're reconstituted at the nearest vita-chamber and sent on your way with your inventory intact and most of your health.

This isn't a reload, so everything is as you left it, even the damage that you've already done to any surviving enemies. So you can wear down a big daddy by just running at it again and again with little or no care for your health. That can get tedious, of course, but having that possibility is a blessing--and a curse. On one hand, you're free to try out new things, like plasmid and tonic combinations, with no penalty if you equip some bum techniques. On the other, there aren't any real gameplay consequences, so playing with skill isn't rewarded. You could fumble your way through the 15 or 20 hours it'll probably take to properly explore Rapture and still see everything there is to see. This, along with three selectable difficulty settings, leaves you with the impression that the game was made to cater to a wide audience, but the hard difficulty setting doesn't actually impact things like artificial intelligence or force you to play any more skillfully to succeed. The enemies still mostly run at you mindlessly while attacking, occasionally getting into scraps with one another or breaking off to find a healing machine, but they take longer to kill and hurt you more when they hit.

While the world of Rapture is rich and filled with interesting little tidbits, the game does a tight job of keeping you on track. Aside from two cases where you must collect a certain amount of specific items in order to proceed, you always know exactly what to do and where to go to do it, thanks to a handy map screen and an onscreen arrow that points you directly at the next objective. These helping hands feel almost a little too helpful, but in the event that you get really stuck, you'll appreciate the additional hint system that very plainly explains what you need to do and where you need to go to move forward.

You won't miss a ton of locations by sticking to exactly where the arrow points you, but the story fills out a lot more when you find and listen to as many audio diaries as possible. Hearing various characters talk about the problems leading up to Rapture's current disheveled state really fills in the blanks nicely and should be considered mandatory if you intend to play the game. Hearing the voices of these wide-eyed idealists as their world falls apart makes the whole game feel more human. Playing through without listening to any of these optional audio clips would make the game quiet and, actually, fairly confusing, as you'd be proceeding with no sense of backstory about Andrew Ryan, fish magnate Frank Fontaine, and the bit characters who comment on their increasingly hostile struggle.

It certainly helps that the environments you find throughout the game look amazing and practically beg to be explored. For something as potentially dingy as an underwater city, you sure do get a lot of different looks as you move along, from the boiler rooms and workshops of the city's core to the forest that helps keep the entire thing oxygenated. You'll also get a lot of great views of the sea through windows. In addition to a terrific artistic design that ties the visuals together, the game has a very strong technical side, provided you have a machine that's built enough to handle it. Unreal Engine 3 is under the hood, and all the requisite bells and whistles are along for the ride. If there's one thing you need to know about BioShock's graphics, it's that the water looks perfect. As an underwater city that's slowly falling apart, it's no surprise that you'll find plenty of leaks. Whether it's standing water on the floor or sea water rushing in after an explosion, it'll blow you away every time you see it.

But BioShock isn't without flaw. The game has been released with a host of technical issues, ranging from a total lack of audio on some machines to issues with the SecuROM online activation, which under normal circumstances is designed to prevent you from activating a retail copy on more than two machines. The game is also available through Steam, though all of the same audio stuttering and other issues that some players are experiencing in the disc-based version carry over to the digital version as well. While it's a sad truth that no game is ever released in a completely bug-free state for 100 percent of its users, these issues appear to be pretty widespread, and if you're at all skittish about waiting for a patch after you've purchased something, you might want to wait until at least one patch is released before buying BioShock. In our experience, we got the game running with some minor audio stuttering on a Windows XP PC, and can't get any audio at all on our Vista test machine. All of this makes the Xbox 360 version's stuttering issues (which seem to only happen on some consoles) pale in comparison.

Aside from having different technical problems, the differences between the Xbox 360 and PC versions of BioShock are fairly minor. The mouse and keyboard support works exactly as you'd expect, and using a mouse makes the combat a touch easier, since aiming for the head is usually easier with a mouse than with a gamepad. But if you're after that console-style gamepad experience, BioShock has full support for the wired Xbox 360 controller. If you're at a loss for which version to purchase, it comes down to the quality of your PC. If you're running a high-end DirectX 10 machine, the game looks better on the PC. It also has DirectX 9 support, and even running this way, it's possible for some facets of BioShock, like texture quality, to look sharper than the 360 version if your machine can handle it. But when you factor in the current bug list for each version, or if your PC isn't especially recent, the Xbox 360 version is a safer bet.

In addition to some nice period music that plays from jukeboxes or record players, you'll get some terrific music that helps set the creepy, uncertain mood. The weapons sound good and loud, and everything else just sounds right. The voice acting, which you'll hear plenty of throughout the game from both living characters and their posthumous audio recordings, really brings the story together and helps give it all an emotional impact that most games lack. You'll also hear splicers mumbling, humming, and singing to themselves as they scavenge the environment, which helps give the game a creepy vibe. The quality and depth of things like this are what set BioShock apart from other games and make it something really special overall.

If you're the kind of player who just wants yet another action-packed shooter, BioShock probably isn't for you. Its weak link is its unsatisfying no-skill-required combat, which might aim this one just over the head of the average Halo fan. But if you want to get a little fancy, there's a lot of fun to be had with some of the game's more indirect fighting methods. It builds an amazing atmosphere by using terrific graphics and sound to set a creepy mood. But BioShock's real strengths are as a compelling work of interactive fiction, and as a unique ride through a warped world with some great payoff built into its mysterious plot. If that description has you even the least bit interested, you'll definitely find BioShock worth playing--but you still might want to hold off for a patch or two, just in case.

Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 Review

2009-05-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

Red Alert 3 is a raucously fun strategy game that overcomes its issues with both style and substance.

The Good

The story and cutscenes are wonderfully corny
Fully cooperative campaign gives standard missions new life
Each faction is fun to play thanks to cool, balanced units
Vibrant visual design and smooth performance.

The Bad

Problematic pathfinding and other glitches
Clunky co-op invite system.

Where else but in the Red Alert universe could you pit transforming mechs against bears, or decide the fate of your mission by attacking floating fortresses with intelligent dolphins outfitted with sonic disruptors? Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 doesn't take itself seriously, but that's what makes it so much fun to play. This is the most rambunctiously over-the-top strategy game to reach store shelves in years, filled to the brim with laugh-out-loud cheesiness and a cheerful disregard for political correctness. Underneath that kookiness is a fairly standard RTS with some noticeable flaws, but it's a great one nevertheless, thanks to entertaining units, a strong multiplayer component, and support for an online, fully cooperative campaign--a first for the genre.

So here's the setup, told in a hysterically overacted cutscene that could have been ripped directly from a bad sci-fi flick: Russian leaders, including the premier (played by a heavily accented, wonderfully hammy Tim Curry) travel back in time to kill Albert Einstein. The theory is that doing so will change the course of history, causing the Soviet Union to dominate as a world power. Instead, this bit of time tampering gives rise to a new threat, the Empire of the Rising Sun--and, of course, more broadly played histrionics. The whole thing is a live-action riot: JK Simmons as US President Ackerman is all anticommie swagger, and George Takei scrunches his face into superserious knots as the Emperor. Then there is Jenny McCarthy as Tanya, stroking an enormous toy gun in one scene, holding a sexy pose but still prepared to slit a man's throat in another. Skimpy, ill-fitting costumes, blatant computer-generated graphics, and bad accents--it's all quite wonderful, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

All three factions--Soviets, Allies, and Empire--are fun to play, and though not dramatically different from each other, they’re distinct enough to make each of them feel fresh. For instance, Allied structures can be placed only after fully completed within the build queue (a standard C&C mechanic), whereas Soviet refineries can be placed immediately and assembled afterward. The new faction for the franchise, Empire of the Rising Sun, is even more flexible in this regard, but it also requires a bit of micromanagement. In this case, you queue up movable vehicular pods called cores that then unfurl into the appropriate structure. Additionally, most Empire structures (with the exception of defensive turrets) can be placed anywhere without the fetters of a nearby base, which makes them the easy choice for players who like to establish an early presence across the entire map. Of course, these differences extend to ore refineries, but in all cases, resource collection is more measured than in prior C&C games. Gem fields are gone, which makes ore mines your only source of income. The method of implementation is a departure for the Red Alert franchise, given that it generally means a one-to-one ratio of ore collectors to refineries and a resulting slower pace.

Nevertheless, a slower economy doesn't make for less explosive gameplay, and each faction boasts a number of awesome units to throw into the fray. Some of them, such as attack dogs and flak troopers, are carryovers from previous games. But no matter whether you're using familiar units or new ones, clashes are fiery and tense, especially when you've grasped the nuances of each unit's secondary mode. This is particularly true when playing as the Empire, considering that most of its units are more than meets the eye; they transform between two distinct states with differing strengths. For example, the mecha tengu can attack infantry from the ground or do antiair duty in the skies. This flexibility translates to most Empire units, making them fun to use as long as your finger is hovering near the F key on your keyboard, which toggles between unit abilities.

This isn't to say that Soviet and Allied units aren't equally entertaining to use. All factions use ground, air, and sea units, with many of them doing double duty in water and on land. For example, the ever-helpful Soviet bullfrog can transport troops across land and water (and can amusingly spew infantry a good distance with its man-cannon). Late-game skirmishes bring the best and most fun-to-use units, such as the Allied aircraft carrier, which sends a squadron of drones into the fray and is one of Red Alert 3's most autonomous naval units. The campaign introduces these units with style, and the size to which some of its maps expand will often keep you busy across the entire map, particularly during the frantic final missions.

The gameplay twist within the campaign is the addition of a co-commander. If you play on your own, this position will be granted to an AI player of a fair level of competence, and you'll be able to issue basic one-click commands, such as "hold this spot" or "attack this structure." There are also some contextual commands when mission objectives get more intricate and require very specific actions, such as destroying a reactor or capturing a building. This addition makes the largest campaign missions feel wonderfully dramatic, with engagements scattered across the map involving not just your own units but friendly ones as well. It also adds a bit more oomph to the light puzzle-solving missions so common to the genre ("take these three units and follow these specific instructions"), because it requires the assistance of your compatriot. On the other hand, it makes the campaign easier than you would expect, seeing as how your AI comrade will usually buy you enough time to rebuild if you make a costly mistake.

But as with most games, it's better to add a real friend than deal with the occasional questionable decisions of an artificial teammate, and Red Alert 3's greatest asset is its cooperative campaign, a first for the genre. Should you go this route, your online partner (co-op play is unavailable on a local network) will take the role that the AI otherwise would, making the specific objectives mentioned above even more satisfying. It's a treat to play this way, and as you can imagine, completing a mission with a real-life counterpart is more compelling; it's a wonder that strategy games haven't attempted this sort of venture before. Unfortunately, getting another player into the match is a bit cumbersome. You must choose the mission and then enter the online lobby to issue the invitation, and when you invite the player, the game offers no feedback to let you know that the invite has been sent. The invited player does receive a notification pop-up and an invite notice, though there are times when the invitee won't receive an issued invitation, for no discernible reason.

Although the single-player/co-op campaign is great, multiplayer should give Red Alert 3 the same longevity that Tiberium Wars and Kane's Wrath have enjoyed. This is where the strengths and weaknesses of each unit become clear, and where distinct faction differences are even more palpable. For example, should you play Empire, you'll find that the lack of early-game antiair units makes you extremely vulnerable to Allied air attacks. As a result, immediate base harassment is all but necessary, unless you want your ore collectors and refineries to face early retirement while you spend funds on tech that will unlock the necessary units. Compared to previous Command & Conquer games, Red Alert 3 matches are more measured, thanks to the slower economy. This means fewer early rushes and greater emphasis on scouting, as well as a better chance to get the most interesting units into the mix. The big game-changer here are special powers, which can be terribly devastating and can dramatically turn the tide of the match.

There are 28 maps on which to play, an impressive number indeed. The best of these, such as Secret Shrine and the cleverly named Reef Madness, pleasantly mix land, sea, and air combat thanks to varied terrain that encourages entertaining mixes of units. All in all, Red Alert 3 is, with a few exceptions, relatively well balanced and thus an obvious choice for competitive strategists who wish to showcase their battle prowess online. Ladder and clan matches are available and function much the same way as they did in Command & Conquer 3, and as before, the in-game BattleCast option lets you broadcast your game to others, even allowing for someone to provide on-the-fly commentary. Like C&C3, it even comes with telestrator tools that let you draw directly over the match in progress like a sports commentator giving a play-by-play. If you need offline practice, you can skirmish against the AI, though the short live-action video intros that obscure the minimap when you encounter an opponent were a bad idea here. These portraits are a fun feature of the campaign but are annoying during stand-alone skirmishes when the need for a functioning minimap far supersedes any amusement that these scenes provide.

The overall Red Alert 3 experience is a raucous one, but it lacks the technical tightness featured in the last few Command & Conquer games. Pathfinding is probably the most noticeable and annoying issue, particularly when amphibious units are involved. Units get stuck jogging in place against a wall or stopping at the edge of a plateau, and the addition of water to the terrain seems to confuse them even more. We also ran into a number of glitches: Units clipped into bridges and got stuck, performed incorrect animations (for example, units would swim across land), and in several skirmish games, we could pull the camera out indefinitely until the screen went black.

Red Alert 3's visuals pop right off of the screen. The colors are bright and vivacious, and therefore perfectly suited to the game's in-your-face mirth. Tropical maps are drenched in golden light, and multicolored beach umbrellas dot the shores, both contributing to and contrasting with the visual splendor of exploding hammer tanks. They also feature possibly the finest water effects yet seen in an RTS game, and the sunlight dances pleasantly on the turquoise waves. Electrical effects such as those emitted by Tesla coils also deserve particular mention for the flashiness of their violent zaps. Units are detailed and the most unusual ones look really cool, so though Red Alert 3 doesn't push a lot of polygons, its lovely design brings a modern look to an older franchise while running smoothly on a variety of systems. One interesting graphical feature is the yellow outline that surrounds selected units, which is a neat choice but a double-edged sword. On one hand, it lets you easily identify your own selection on the screen and can be a welcome visual cue. On the other, the outline is a bit too thick, which makes it difficult to identify which type of units you've selected. It also makes it easy to get confused if a competitor chooses yellow as his or her unit color in a multiplayer match.

Along with buoyant visuals comes an upbeat soundtrack featuring a fun mix of ambient music and rocking battle cues, not to mention an array of boisterous explosions. Although much of it is unremarkable, there are some real standouts used during the campaign, such as a flowing new-age track used in Soviet missions, and some jolly Asian-inspired themes that set the mood during the Empire campaign. And what would a Command & Conquer game be without fun unit responses? When special unit Natasha asks if you like her scope in that thick, fake Russian accent, it's hard not to let out a guffaw.

A few problems aside, Red Alert 3's cooperative campaign and cool new faction offer plenty of enjoyment for players who don't mind a little cheese with their meat. This isn't exactly the genre's next step forward, but it's a slick and entertaining evolution of a classic franchise that's hard to dislike. Rest assured, that quirky exterior masks a strong campaign and an equally substantial multiplayer component that will keep you and your dolphins busy well into 2009.

Command and Conquer 3 Kane's Wrath Review

2009-05-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

It's more of a good thing, but a second-rate campaign and an underwhelming new gameplay mode keep this expansion from soaring.

The Good

Some fun new units to play around with
A ton of new maps
New subfactions add variety.

The Bad

Disappointing, disjointed campaign
New Global Conquest mode isn't very compelling
Some of the new units and subfactions are underwhelming.

Last year's Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars featured a horde of freaky alien units, hammy acting, and lots and lots of explosions. With Kane's Wrath, Electronic Arts provides freakier aliens, hammier acting, and bigger explosions, and mixes them into an expansion pack that doesn't improve the core game in any meaningful way. Of course, it gives us more ways to experience the terrific gameplay, and for that we can be grateful. Nevertheless, Kane's Wrath misses the mark in many ways and comes across as a wasted opportunity.

The story, such as it is, fills a number of gaps in Command & Conquer history, jumping around like a jackrabbit on speed. For example, the first act takes place between the second and third Tiberium Wars, whereas the second act jumps to events that took place during C&C3. As a result, when Kane and other characters address you during the live-action cutscenes, you're not even the same character each time. Joe Kucan as Kane, God bless him, almost saves this scattershot structure with his usual superb mix of spittled monologues and ominous glares. As Alexa, though, actress Natasha Henstridge misses the whole point by misunderstanding the difference between histrionics and plain bad acting. Her bouncy hairdo is more energetic than she is. We expect cheese in a Command & Conquer campaign, but its taste is altogether overpowering here. With the third act, Kane's Wrath starts hitting the right notes and then comes to a halt, leaving the promise of yet another expansion...the same promise Tiberium Wars left with us. Let's hope that the inevitable second expansion pack makes good on it.

Once you take command of the battlefield, things pick up, but not in the ways you might expect from an expansion pack. You play as the Nod faction through the whole of the 13-mission campaign, which is fine, but it fails to capitalize on the pitifully brief Scrin campaign of Tiberium Wars. Nevertheless, this is at heart the same gameplay that made last year's game such a success. It's fast-paced, fun, and eminently playable. When the game emphasizes these strengths, such as in a mission where you have to capture a GDI researcher, the gameplay soars. Other missions just speak to overlooked possibilities. For instance, in one scenario, you're teased with the possibility of experiencing one of Tiberium Wars' best missions from the perspective of a different commander. But rather than delivering on the promise of a heart-pounding battle, the game whips the rug out from under you, and you get stuck using a commando and saboteur--and then a dinky attack bike. Talk about an anticlimax.

Thankfully, all of the issues that the campaign presents are mostly offset by the variety of new toys available. Many of them come courtesy of the subfactions in Kane's Wrath. You can still play skirmishes against other players and the AI as the standard GDI, Nod, and Scrin factions, and they've seen some minor changes. However, you should check out the subfactions if you want access to the best goodies. For the most part, the subfactions aren't radically different from their vanilla counterparts, but they bring some subtle and interesting additions and changes to the battlefield nonetheless. For example, the Nod subfaction called the Black Hand replaces the avatar warmech with a flame-spewing monstrosity called the purifier. The Black Hand has no flying units, though, so this isn't the faction for you if you like to spam venoms. Other tweaks have very little impact, such as the addition of shields to harvesters of the Reaper-17 Scrin subfaction, though such small changes undoubtedly have effects on the overall balance.

Some of the new units are available to the main faction and subfactions alike. For example, all GDI players get the hammerhead helicopter, which is invaluable for troop transport and can stay aloft for a while without having to refuel. The Scrin mechapede is a particular (and slightly overpowered) favorite, given that you can extend its length by adding pods to it, and there are four different types of pods you can use. This flexibility makes the mechapede one of the most versatile units in the game, but in the spirit of the Scrin, it requires a healthy amount of micromanagement. The most superficially dramatic units are the new epic units. Each faction and its subfactions get access to a new powerful unit: the MARV tank in the case of the GDI, the redeemer for the Nod, and the eradicator hexapod for the Scrin. How important they are to your strategy depends on how long your matches draw out, which is always a crapshoot in the rush-heavy Command & Conquer. However, should you get to the point where you can create one, you'll enjoy the additional help it provides on the battlefield. They have powerful attacks (even more powerful if infantry is garrisoned inside), but their other abilities can be helpful as well. For example, if you need extra credits, just drive your MARV over some Tiberium, and it will be added to your coffers instantly.

And in a sign that Electronic Arts kept throwing different things at Command & Conquer 3 to see what would stick, they've introduced Global Conquest, which is a Risk-inspired turn-based mode similar to the ones in Rise of Nations or Dawn of War. In it, you create strike forces that let you expand across the globe to crush your enemies while exerting influence on cities. It's an interesting diversion, but it's esoteric without having the depth to match. Not only is the gameplay diluted compared to other turn-based games, but the world map isn't separated into distinct areas, which diminishes the thrill of expansion. It feels as if you're trying to take over vast tracts of empty land, and without the geographic and visual divisions you'd expect, you never get that "just...one...more...turn..." compulsion.

There are more than 25 new maps to skirmish on, too, against either other players or the AI. All these additions--new units, a new mode, and so on--add more ways to play, but they don't add up to an essential expansion pack. It all makes for a broader package, but not necessarily a better one. Sure, the new subfactions give you more variety, but not every addition is significant, and in some cases, they're underwhelming (Steel Talon subfaction, this means you). Throw in a competent campaign, and you have a good expansion that should have been much, much better.

Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars Review

2009-05-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

Tiberium Wars is Command & Conquer at its best, and an absolute blast for series fans and newcomers alike.

The Good

Exciting campaign features a ton of quality full-motion video
Fast-paced gameplay is fun and exhilarating
Scrin race is a fantastic, balanced addition to the C&C universe
BattleCast turns the thrilling multiplayer into a spectator sport.

The Bad

Game is picky with structure placement.

If you're a fan of the Command & Conquer series, three small words are bound to get you excited: Kane is back. Indeed, so are a good number of beloved series hallmarks, like a huge amount of full-motion video and intense strategic combat. But Tiberium Wars is a lot more than just lip service to franchise enthusiasts, and you don't need the rose-hued glasses of nostalgia to appreciate its polish and intensity. It's simply a superb game that's fun and exciting to play both online and off.

No matter which of the two main campaigns you start off with, you're rewarded with a whole lot of live-action video in between missions, featuring familiar actors getting hammy in near-future command centers. There's never been anything subtle about C&C's full-motion video, and, true to form, the campaigns are loaded with wonderfully overblown sequences filled with intrigue and suspense. Yes, Joe Kucan has returned as Nod figurehead Kane, and he's as irresistibly creepy as ever. He and other familiar actors serve up a heap of extravagant solemnity against a backdrop of flashing lights and important-looking video screens.

If you think it sounds over the top, you'd be right--but it's cheesy in the good way, and it won't take you long to get involved in the story and the characters that drive it. The narrative is structured well, with the Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod campaigns telling the same story from opposing viewpoints. There's also a new player in the mix: the alien Scrin race. At this stage in the series, the mineral tiberium has propagated over most of the Earth, but it's more than just an environmental plight--it's a key to future technology. It'll take you a couple dozen hours to get through the campaigns, and just when you think you've finished, there are a few surprise missions in store, and they are well worth the time it takes to unlock them. There are also plenty of reasons to return to the campaign once you're done, since the game rewards you with medals based on your performance and tracks a good number of statistics for you to chew on.

The missions themselves are incredibly varied and involve a lot more than destroying an enemy base or defending a particular structure. You'll have to do these things, of course, but you have both primary and secondary objectives to complete, which include using engineers to capture certain buildings, amassing beam cannons to take out defenses, or teaming up with your sworn enemy to defend against alien attack. You'll be doing it all in a variety of real-world theaters, such as Washington, DC, downtown Sydney, and the eerily dry Amazon basin. The near-future take on familiar locales makes the intense battles feel even more thrilling, because the settings are recognizable and meaningful.

That's not to say the combat isn't gripping on its own. If you're usually content to turtle up in real-time strategy games, you're in for a surprise: Battles are intense and focused, and they give you little time to prepare. Like any RTS, you still need to build up resources, but it's a quick process of plopping down a bunch of tiberium refineries and power generators and finding the action, because if you don't, the action will quickly find you. Once you get past the first two acts of each campaign, you'll discover that Tiberium Wars' artificial intelligence is aggressive and resourceful, and it will take advantage of your strategic flaws. Don't expect to put your trust in one or two favored units, because even the most powerful units have noticeable weaknesses.

It's a rusher's paradise, but you shouldn't take it to mean that technological advancement and thoughtful strategy don't have their places. You won't need to deal with long, complex tech trees, and it makes Tiberium Wars feel somewhat limited in this aspect next to advancement-focused strategy games like Supreme Commander. However, you do have multiple powers and upgrades to earn by building various structures. The powers run the gamut from GDI's powerful ion strike to Nod's vapor bomb, and they fit each faction perfectly. As you use units they level up, making them more effective in battle, and in some cases you improve units by more unconventional means. For example, you can use a Nod warmech to destroy your own flame tank, and the mech will then spew fire in addition to its own native attack.

How differently each faction plays is impressive, especially with the new Scrin faction added to the mix. GDI units tend to be straightforward and powerful, and a huge force of mammoth tanks and juggernauts is a challenge to counter. Nod relies on sneakiness and smart use of unique abilities, and a small force of stealth tanks and viper bombers can cripple an enemy's economy. But playing as the Scrin is Tiberium Wars' greatest delight and challenge, since the alien faction is so different from the others. Your first encounters with the Scrin in the campaign are breathtaking, since even low-level units like buzzers look interesting and intimidating. In fact, the most threatening sight within the game is a fleet of Scrin assault carriers and their accompanying fighters. Yet while the Scrin have some potent units and other advantages, such as the ability to collect endless tiberium without building silos, they require a lot of micromanagement and intimate knowledge of each unit and structure.

Series fans will take to the new interface quickly, though others may need to make a few adjustments. In a departure from 2003's Command & Conquer: Generals, Tiberium Wars uses a throwback C&C interface with a few modern tweaks. The side bar has returned, along with the ability to queue up units and structures no matter where you are focused on the battlefield. At first you can build only a single structure at a time in the production tab, but that can be quickly upgraded. Unlike with most RTS games, including Generals, you never need worry about creating worker units, and once a structure is created, you can place it immediately at your base. Placing structures is often a pain, though, since the game is picky about where you can put them. Positioning something as simple as a turret or a power plant can take multiple tries, and it's never clear exactly why you can't put certain buildings in certain places, particularly when the terrain is smooth and the area is totally free of nearby obstructions.

C&C3 continues to shine in its excellent multiplayer mode, and it's obvious that Electronic Arts has devoted a lot of attention to it. There aren't a whole lot of options when you host an online game, aside from game speed and whether you want to scatter random crates on the battlefield. But no strategy game in recent memory has been more tailored to competitive play, thanks to fully featured leaderboards and clan support, as well as an original feature called BattleCast. You may broadcast your game in real time to anyone who downloads the free BattleCast client, and a commentator can provide real-time commentary while using the built-in telestrator. But if you're just in it to play, you'll find that skirmishing with others is even more fun than it is against the AI. There are close to two dozen maps for up to eight players, and the pitch-perfect placement of garrison-friendly buildings and central tiberium nodes will get you right into the action.

It helps that Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is terrific to look at, and the unit design is the most impressive part of its visuals. Scrin annihilator tripods lumber about with a commanding attitude, GDI orca bombers circle in believable formations, and Nod avatar warmechs advance with heft. Their stature and fantastical nature fit perfectly with the over-the-top nature of the action, as do the titanic nuclear explosions and lightning strikes. In the most extreme battles, your screen will fill with mighty blasts and streams of lasers, as if you were the main player in a sci-fi action film. Amazingly, the game's performance never suffers, with few noticeable drops in frame rate and brief loading times. Some of the maps and textures are somewhat bland, but you aren't bound to care for long.

Bad unit voice-overs are a common annoyance in strategy games, but they're all done well in Tiberium Wars. Again, EA pinpointed just the right amount of extravagance to lavish on the sound design, from mission voice-overs to the eclectic soundtrack, which is alternately tinged with orchestral fanfare and heavy metal grinding. While many of the sound effects are what you would expect from standard artillery and tanks, others, particularly those of the Scrin units, are ominous and appropriately alien.

Regardless of your history with Kane and his cohorts, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is one of the finest real-time strategy games in years. It's also a triumphant return to form for the series, because it's more than just a graphical update--it's an exciting, well-tuned experience with enough that's old and enough that's new to thrill old-timers and newcomers alike. Suffice it to say, you should play this game, and expect to be playing it for a long time to come.

Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Review

2009-05-12T10:55:00.000-07:00

Zero Hour fundamentally improves the core game, and it should ensure that Command & Conquer: Generals continues to be popular well into the next year.

It's only been eight months since the release of Command & Conquer: Generals, the latest installment in this extremely popular real-time strategy series. Though Generals was the first C&C that did not bear the name of Westwood Studios (the series' original developer), it was still every bit as action-packed and fast-paced as the series has ever been. It represented a great combination of the over-the-top pyrotechnics the series is known for, along with some of the gameplay elements perfected by Blizzard's competing RTS franchises. However, the game clearly left some room for additional content, so, while it's no surprise that Generals went on to get its own expansion pack--as pretty much every Command & Conquer game gets at least one--the newly released Zero Hour was put together surprisingly quickly. You wouldn't know it just from playing this fully featured expansion pack, since it makes plenty of meaningful and interesting changes to the original game. Additionally, it packs in a lot of great tweaks and improvements to those aspects of Generals that could have used more polish. The result is a great expansion that's a must for anyone who enjoyed Generals. It fundamentally improves the core game, it and should ensure that C&C Generals continues to be popular well into the next year.

Zero Hour does what any good real-time strategy expansion pack should do: it adds appreciable amounts of content and depth to the original product. It introduces various new units, technologies, and "generals powers" to each of the three factions from Generals--the high-tech USA military, the powerful forces of China, and the terrorist conglomerate called the GLA. It also introduces a completely new single-player mode: the generals challenge. Zero Hour also features follow-up campaigns for each of the factions, consisting of five good-sized missions apiece. The core game, too, has undergone a number of little tweaks and enhancements that make it play a bit better overall. These tweaks and enhancements address issues that players may have encountered in the original, either through its interface or its multiplayer. However, perhaps the most interesting addition to Zero Hour is the inclusion of nine new subfactions.

These subfactions are referred to by their respective commanders, lending Zero Hour a refreshing bit of personality that was curiously absent from Generals. These commanders include the likes of General Malcolm "Ace" Granger, a specialist with the USA's air force; General "Anvil" Shin Fai, a Chinese infantry leader; and Prince Hassad, a GLA master of camouflage. Just as it could be said that C&C Generals was influenced by some of Blizzard Entertainment's real-time strategy games, so too can it be said that Zero Hour is influenced by the real-time strategy games of Ensemble Studios, like last year's Age of Mythology or Age of Empires II. That's because Zero Hour's subfactions, while not completely different from the core factions they're based on, do play quite differently from one another, do have a few unique units and technologies, and do give the game considerably more variety than what the three core factions offer alone. So, as with the different civilizations in Age of Empires II, the new subfactions in Zero Hour differ enough from one other to offer a distinctive playing experience. Furthermore, since these subfactions are inspired by popular playing styles, chances are, at least a couple of these are going to naturally appeal to you.

Essentially, Zero Hour contains a total of 12 different playable factions, up from just three. In skirmish and multiplayer modes, you may choose to play as either the "vanilla" factions from C&C Generals (though with their new units and upgrades), or you may choose to play as one of the specialist general's armies. Since the specialized armies have disadvantages that offset their relative strengths, you intuitively have a sense of what your opponent is going to throw at you in a multiplayer match. This is particularly true if, say, he chooses General Ta Hun Kwai, the Chinese tank commander, rather than just picking the standard Chinese army. Fortunately, in the skirmish and multiplayer modes, if the opponent chooses a random faction, you won't know which of the 12 different armies you're up against until you do some early-game recon.

These character-driven subfactions are also the focus of the new generals challenge mode. Actually, it's structured a lot like Mortal Kombat or other fighting games. You choose your character--one of the nine specialist generals featured in Zero Hour--and then you proceed to fight against each of the other generals on his or her own turf. These can be some pretty tough battles, especially since the default level of difficulty in Zero Hour, thankfully, provides a much more significant challenge than the cakewalk that was Generals' default difficulty. Since you take on these rival generals in environments that specifically benefit their unique abilities, you have a tough time overcoming their defenses. In so doing, you either learn or practice some key strategies that can help make you more competitive online. One very nice touch in the generals challenge is that each general has his or her own voice, and you'll hear these characters gabbing at you during the course of a match. While they do repeat their lines occasionally, they have lots of contextual dialogue. For example, they might chastise you for doing an inadequate job of countering their armies, or they may curse when you knock out one of their key facilities. Not only is this dialogue pretty amusing, but it can provide some helpful hints. The generals' propensities toward giving you fair warnings before attacks tend to be their undoing.

The generals challenge is its own unique single-player campaign. Zero Hour's other campaigns are shorter and more conventional but continue the very loose storylines established in the original. Actually, Zero Hour's campaign missions are more elaborately produced than those of Generals. Like all other Command & Conquer real-time strategy games, other than Generals, Zero Hour sports some full-motion video cutscenes; they feature embedded journalists reporting from each faction's perspective, like some fake CNN newscast. These little videos play during the fairly lengthy loading times between campaign missions. While the videos aren't spectacular, they're nicely done and, for better or worse, confirm that Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour is cashing in on current events. See how many instances of the expression "weapons of mass destruction" you can count during the cutscenes! The campaign missions' in-engine cutscenes are quite impressive as well, thanks to the game's outstanding 3D graphics. Unfortunately, as nice as these are, it would have been nicer if they could have been skipped--you need to sit through them again whenever you restart a mission.

The campaign missions, in a manner similar to the generals challenge ones, feature contextual dialogue that informs you about some of the new units and abilities available to each side. Specifically, each of the main factions gains three new units, a new type of building, a number of new upgrades, and a couple of new generals powers in Zero Hour. Many of the new units are quite interesting, though they mostly fill supporting roles. The USA's microwave tank can fry enemy infantry garrisoned in buildings, and its beam weapon can also disable structures--including defensive emplacements. China gains the impressive Helix helicopter, a flying fortress that can drop massive bombs. Like the Chinese emperor tank, it is so huge that you can build a Gatling gun, a propaganda tower, or an infantry bunker on it. The GLA gets an incredibly fast-moving combat cycle, which is basically a motocross bike that can be mounted by any GLA infantry unit. It then gains that unit's powers. The new units generally look great and are fun to play with.

The new buildings include the fire base for the USA, a powerful defensive structure; the Internet center for China, from which hackers can quickly gain resources to fund the Chinese war effort; and fake structures to mislead its foes for the GLA. The GLA may optionally upgrade these façades into the real thing if need be. The new generals powers also play to the themes of each respective side. Generals players will recall that generals powers are the special abilities gained by each side as it destroys enemy units and structures. Collectively, these new technologies expand the options available to each side, though they do not necessarily disrupt existing strategies honed by experienced players. After all, Generals is still about very quickly building up a base, marshalling a powerful force, and demolishing the opponent. The heavy-hitting units and superweapons of the original Generals will still be doing most of the damage in Zero Hour.

Those who remember Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 and its expansion pack will notice that most of the cool ideas from these games that didn't make it into Generals, have now made it in Zero Hour (though unfortunately there is still no real naval combat to speak of). Again, in addition to the core changes made to each faction, the specialist generals' subfactions have their own unique characteristics. General "Pinpoint" Townes, for example, specializes in laser weaponry. He cannot build the USA's tomahawk missile, crusader tank, or paladin tank, but he has unique access to a powerful laser defense turret and a similarly equipped laser tank. He can also build avengers, new antiair units that also increase the rate of fire of other nearby units using a laser targeting system, at a cheaper-than-normal rate. As you might expect, playing as some of the individual specialist characters can start to feel limiting after a while. Yet there are so many cleverly designed and interesting units and so many viable and devious strategies available in Zero Hour, overall, that the game has no shortage of lasting appeal.

The gameplay in Zero Hour has technically improved, though some of these enhancements were introduced in the v1.06 patch released for Generals this past summer. Unit balance has been fine-tuned, ensuring that the core factions and all their units are as competitive as possible. There's an option to use the right mouse button for issuing orders, unlike Generals, which required you to use the left mouse button both for selecting units and for issuing orders. Some players found this frustrating. The interface has changed cosmetically, in some ways, as well. Hot buttons are available for your superweapons and generals powers, letting you better use these important abilities in a pinch. There's also a toggle that causes your units to counterattack any foes, regardless of whether you order them to or not.

Zero Hour's gameplay is still very fast paced, especially if you set it faster than the default (and opt to start with more resources than the default) in a skirmish or multiplayer match. Juggling unit production, sending out and repelling attack waves, and establishing a base defense can be a real handful. A consequence of the Blizzard-style interface in Generals is that your unit-building is not a permanent part of the interface. You must consciously and constantly select your barracks, factories, and airstrips so that they can build more forces as you fight. The lack of formations and some pathfinding issues with larger units still make the combat feel more chaotic than controlled. As such, those who felt overwhelmed by Generals' arcadelike pacing aren't going to find a fundamental change in that regard here--not that pacing presents a problem. Still, the interface enhancements may be just the ticket for players who are "on the fence" about their like or dislike of Generals.

Generals looked and sounded superb when it was released, and the same can be said of Zero Hour. The game engine has been optimized, leading to more consistent frame rates and a better look for all of the impressive explosions and special effects that made Generals look so fantastic. New graphics elements, such as some very impressive full-scale ships and other vehicles, add plenty of eye-candy to some of the maps, as if the great-looking, fluidly animated units themselves weren't enough. Vehicles that have been damaged look noticeably in bad shape, which speaks to the game's remarkable visual detail. The game's music remains fantastic, with its hard-hitting bass riffs and Middle Eastern and Oriental motifs, and helps intensify the action a few more notches. Eight months can be a long time in the world of PC gaming, but the graphics and sound of this game just haven't aged a bit and remain some of the most impressive that this style of gaming has ever seen.

One might easily think that Zero Hour is what Command & Conquer: Generals should have been in the first place, since this great expansion pack seemingly arrives on the heels of the original. It makes Generals a deeper, better game overall--and one with more challenge, more variety, and more personality both in its single-player and multiplayer modes. It even sports a manual that offers helpful tips on how to play competitively online and how to use the game's powerful (and enhanced) world builder utility. Fans of Generals must get it, because, once they do, they will never look back. Even those who gave Generals a try, but maybe didn't warm up to it because of the nuts and bolts of the execution, should consider Zero Hour. Clearly, this is the result of a careful analysis of what sorts of things could have made Generals an even better game.

Command and Conquer Generals Review

2009-05-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

Generals is easily one of the best Command & Conquer games yet.

Though it wasn't the first game of its type, Command & Conquer became synonymous with real-time strategy gaming when the very first game in the series was released in 1995. Along with Blizzard's Warcraft II, Command & Conquer helped build the foundation for one of PC gaming's most beloved genres, defining many of the real-time strategy conventions that are used today. And though Command & Conquer has seen its highs and lows over the years, the series' quirky, politically incorrect, comic-book-like take on modern warfare has remained intact all throughout, and it is upheld in the latest entry in the series, Command & Conquer: Generals. More importantly, Generals is easily one of the best Command & Conquer games yet, with the impressive visuals and highly refined and accessible gameplay that have come to characterize the best entries in this genre. Die-hard fans of Command & Conquer may lament a few of the departures Generals makes from the series' roots, and the game does have a few rough edges, but Generals is still one of the best real-time strategy games around.

Generals' fictional premise puts the USA, China, and a terrorist group called the Global Liberation Army (GLA) at odds sometime in the near future. You can play as any one of these factions in its own brief single-player campaign, in skirmishes with computer opponents, or against other players over a LAN or using the game's online player-matching service. Those who played the previous two Command & Conquer RTS games, Red Alert 2 and its expansion pack, Yuri's Revenge, will note that Generals is highly reminiscent of those games, despite its much improved appearance and its seemingly more conventional array of infantry, tanks, and aircraft. Like in Red Alert 2, battles in Generals are often quick and decisive, largely due to the immense power of many of the game's units, the presence of devastating super weapons on each side, and the generally fast pace. Also, while each faction has a good variety of units at its disposal, you'll likely get the impression that the number of unit types per faction was limited so that each unit type could play an important role in most any fight--and also to leave room for an expansion pack. The lack of seafaring units in the game is a disappointing omission, given the importance of ships in most previous Command & Conquer games (not to mention in actual modern warfare), but the designers have still done an excellent job of imaginatively differentiating the game's three sides.

Despite the fact that the game's central conflict involves the USA and an obviously Middle Eastern terrorist group, the action in Generals is either over-the-top enough or abstract enough that, for better or worse, it shouldn't offend anyone's sensibilities. In fact, as if to drive home the sense that "Hey, it's just a game," there's really no story at all to Generals. The motivations of the respective factions aren't made clear, and their arsenals are far enough removed from reality that Generals seems much less inspired by current events and much more so by the current fascination with war in our popular culture. Movies like The Rock and Black Hawk Down certainly played a bigger part in inspiring the game's look and style than anything on the nightly news. It bears mentioning that almost all the mainstays of the Command & Conquer milieu can nevertheless be found in Generals--fans will be glad to see huge, double-barreled tanks, crack-shot commandos, nuclear missile silos, flamethrower tanks, and other such C&C mainstays back and looking better than ever. Many of the twists added to Red Alert 2 remain intact as well, such as the ability to garrison infantry in civilian buildings and the ability of units to gain experience levels by defeating foes.

Other aspects of this new Command & Conquer are decidedly different. C&C fans may not notice right away, but Generals lacks a few of the series' signature elements. For instance, Command & Conquer games always did a nice job with their installation programs, many of which put you in the mood of the games even before you could begin playing. But Generals has a boring install program, just like every other game. Also, previous Command & Conquer games made prodigious use of full-motion video cutscenes to move their stories along. Featuring recognizable actors, hammy performances, and surprisingly good production values, the full-motion video sequences of Command & Conquer have always been a distinguishing feature of the series--but the FMV is out of the picture now, too. These complaints hardly bear mentioning, but considering Generals' heritage, they're not irrelevant.

Not all the game's departures are cosmetic. Debates used to rage on the Internet as to whether Command & Conquer or Warcraft II had the better interface, and as if to settle the score once and for all, Generals retreats away from some of the C&C standards in favor of the Blizzard school of thought. The signature right-hand interface from previous C&C games is replaced by the signature Blizzard-style interface situated at the bottom of the screen. The signature C&C fog of war, which provides you with unlimited line of sight as soon as you explore the map, has been replaced by the signature Blizzard fog of war, which limits your ability to see enemy positions outside of your forces' field of view. The signature C&C base building, which allows you to erect new structures almost instantly but forces you to place them adjacent to your other structures, has been replaced by the signature Blizzard base building, which allows your worker unit to build new structures pretty much anywhere. These are all sensible decisions that make Command & Conquer: Generals more strategic and ultimately more entertaining, but it's still odd to see the series have a change of heart after all this time. One aspect of Command & Conquer's traditional control scheme that does remain intact is that mouse controls revolve entirely around the left mouse button, which is used both to select units and to issue attack orders. The right mouse button is only for de-selecting things, and those accustomed to recent games that use the right mouse button for move and attack orders may find that this scheme takes a bit of getting used to.

The gameplay itself is what you'd expect from a Command & Conquer game--it's fast, responsive, and filled with lots of great explosions. There's no dillydallying about, just a quick-and-dirty setup process where you slap down a few key structures and then move on to cranking out a good, mixed group of forces. Numerous, unique upgrades are also available to each faction, competing for your resources. Resource gathering, while slightly different for each faction, is fully automated like in Red Alert 2. The US helicopters, Chinese supply trucks, and GLA workers will all make a beeline for the closest batch of "supply," which is basically a big stockpile of valuables just sitting there and waiting to be collected. As in all Command & Conquer games, a viable strategy in Generals is to attack the enemy's all-important gatherers, though the buildings in the game can't withstand much damage, either. You can't build walls, base defenses are pretty flimsy, and a lot of the buildings are quite large and vulnerable--so the game definitely favors an aggressive style of play. Overly defensive play will merely land you front-row seats to the fiery destruction of your own base.

Regardless, a few interface issues may get in the way of your efforts. While you can manually set formations for your forces, unit formations aren't handled nearly as well here as in some other recent real-time strategy games, resulting in battles that are often very chaotic. Your forces may frequently drift away from each other, so you'll often have trouble focusing your fire on individual targets. The pathfinding for your units is generally good--they'll conveniently move out of each other's way, but sometimes you'll see a unit of yours sustaining damage without returning fire, or maneuvering weirdly around buildings or other obstacles. The game's menu screens look rushed when compared with the polished in-game graphics. None of these are major problems, but they're noticeable, and they might give you the sense that they could have been fixed with just a bit more time.

One of the game's new features is the "generals" ability system, which is basically an experience system that lets you unlock new units, technologies, and powers as you rack up kills. Much like the experience system used for heroes in Warcraft III, the experience element featured in Generals lets you spend points earned in successive victories on new abilities for your faction. It's a good system that adds to the number of viable strategic options in the game, letting you concentrate on some of your faction's key strengths or gain an ace up your sleeve in the form of an artillery attack or bombing run.

The three factions themselves are about as different as can be. The USA has the costliest but most technologically advanced units, plus the most diverse and powerful air force. China has strength in numbers, and the nation's relatively slow but powerful forces gain additional bonuses when attacking in hordes. The GLA has no air force at all, and its ramshackle units seem worse than those of the other two factions, but these units can upgrade themselves using the scrap left behind by their fallen foes, and the GLA's units are also the quickest and stealthiest of the three factions, able to swarm around the battlefield using tunnel networks. Each faction has some really interesting options. The USA's ground vehicles can build support drones for scouting or combat, and its rangers have flash-bang grenades that can devastate enemy troops. China's overlord tanks are so enormous that you can build defensive structures on their topsides, and its hackers can steal additional funds or dismantle enemy structures. The GLA's terrorists can capture civilian vehicles and use them to swiftly deliver deadly explosive charges, and their tanks can be outfitted with radioactive shells to better deal with enemy infantry. There are many more such examples for each side. You could easily make a case for any of the game's factions as the strongest, the coolest, or both.

The three campaigns in Generals are short and disjointed, though the game's single-player missions are all quite good on their own terms. Rarely is the goal merely to wipe out the opposing forces, at least not without performing some other interesting tasks first. Most real-time strategy fans will find Generals to be a cakewalk at the default "normal" difficulty setting. The "hard" and "brutal" settings will provide more of a challenge, though even at these higher levels of difficulty, you may still find the computer mindlessly sending its forces into your kill zones. It should still make for a worthy opponent, however, due to its ability to quickly muster its forces and its tendency to occasionally surprise you. Of course, online play is really where the action is, and Generals lets you easily get into an online match and start racking up wins. A quick-play feature lets you jump into a match against similarly ranked opponents, though the game unfortunately forces you to play in 800x600 resolution to use this option. You can still set up or join a custom match, and the game includes a good number of maps for two to eight players that are suitable both for skirmish and multiplayer. Plus, there's a "world builder" utility available for making your own maps, though it's undocumented and allegedly still in beta.

Generals looks really, really good, though you'll need a system that meets or exceeds the game's recommended requirements to get it to run smoothly. White-hot pyrotechnics and outstanding particle effects make for what are probably the best explosions of any real-time strategy game to date, and you'll see no shortage of explosions during the typical Generals match. The other effects and animations are also great, such as when a pack of unlucky infantry is sent flying like so many rag dolls by a nearby blast. The game's terrain graphics are superb, and all in all, it's easy to forget that this is the first-ever fully 3D Command & Conquer RTS, since it looks so good. Those without recent systems will probably have to tone down the graphics options to keep the frame rate from chugging, but even so, they'll be treated to the best-looking C&C game yet.

Meanwhile, the game's audio is a suitably remarkable counterpart to its graphics. In another departure for C&C, Generals is the first game in the series to feature musical themes exclusive to the playable factions. Previous C&C games have used a catchy techno score regardless of who was doing the fighting. In Generals, the USA's campaign is accompanied by a number of triumphant military marches, while China and the GLA have musical themes that establish their respective Eastern and Middle Eastern origins, yet also come off sounding grand and cinematic. Otherwise, you'll mostly just hear countless types of booming explosions while playing the game. The three factions' units all speak in English, though the Chinese and GLA units have stereotypical accents that fit well with the game's less-than-serious sensibility.

It may not take itself seriously, but Command & Conquer: Generals is still a very well-designed real-time strategy game, and it's unquestionably one of the strongest entries in the series yet. It's totally first-rate from a technical standpoint, and it's an all-around fun game to play on top of that, with excellent pacing, great explosions, clever strategic twists, a variety of units, and a fair amount of humor. It takes a few liberties with some of the franchise's conventions, but the core gameplay of Generals is still very much in the spirit of Command & Conquer, and that's truly the best thing about it.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 Review

2009-05-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

There isn't a single hardcore gamer out there that didn't get goosebumps when Nintendo unveiled the Wii remote. Once the concept of how the system's unique controller would be used was revealed, players went crazy with the thought of how Nintendo's system would change the way gamers were played. One of the biggest genres in our minds was the first-person shooter, as the ability to aim at the screen and have true pixel-perfect accuracy was all but guaranteed. The launch games released, however, and we quickly saw that Nintendo's Wii would have its work cut out for it in the control refinement category. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption then raised the bar, and now Medal of Honor Heroes 2 -- a seemingly unimpressive "Wii-make" title brought over from PSP as a pocket developer's premiere console effort - again pushes the genre to its limits, as EA's latest WWII FPS has easily become the most responsive and customizable FPS experience on Wii.

We've been covering Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for months now, so rather than throwing down thousands of words of recap at you, we'll launch right into what works, and what doesn't. If you want more on the basics of the game, check out our previous hands-on coverage. Essentially the game is a return to the series roots, as you'll take the role of an OSS agent who is dropped behind enemy lines in the heart of the Nazi force. It's just you and them out there, with the occasional help of a few US troopers.
First things first. Medal of Honor Heroes 2 isn't a perfect game; far from it. It has its moments of greatness, particularly those dealing with customization and pure FPS control on Wii, but it also shows some amateurish inklings as well, many the result of being the developer's premiere effort on the system. Others become apparent when looking at the limitations of the PSP system, which was of course considered during the team's multi-system development. This isn't a PSP game though, not by a long shot. Textures look great, the framerate locks at a steady 60 for the majority of time (small hiccups do occur), and it's a generally beautiful experience on Wii, easily trumping the previous Medal of Honor title and Call of Duty as the best looking first-person experience under Prime.

What it is, however, is the best controlling, most entertaining first-person shooter on Wii, and a no-brainer for hardcore gamers. Everything from IR sensitivity, horizontal and vertical look sensitivity, and dead zone (the amount of space the IR can move without beginning to push the screen) is fully customizable, allowing for near-perfect control via the Wii remote. With a few minutes of tweaking, most players will find their sweet spot, though with the options always on-hand we ended up making fine-tune changes throughout our entire first playthrough of the game right up until the review. Now that we've found exactly the right feeling though, we're deadly, and it was well, well worth the time it took to tweak it; online results are proof enough of that.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is packed with content as well. Some of it is, of course, more polished than others though, and what it really boils down to is figuring out exactly what you want in an FPS, and deciding if MOH provides it. As far as control options go, players can use either the Wii/nunchuk controller or Zapper configuration. Rather than beating around the bush with the topic of Zapper control we'll just come right out and state that it could be gone tomorrow and we'd never shed a tear, and that goes for any game out there that supports it. It's not a knock on Heroes, it's a knock on the peripheral itself, as it only proves to slow down your aim (twitch control is best done with the flick of the wrist, not by pivoting a huge chunk of plastic) and poorly simulates a light-gun experience. We get it, the Wii is our weapon; no need for the shell itself. Some casual gamers may get a kick out of using it, but for us - hardcore gamers that we are - we just don't see the appeal.
As part of the Zapper support, however, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 has not only included a control scheme for online and main gameplay, but also created an entire light gun experience in "Arcade" mode. Arcade mode is a fun addition to the main game and online play, but it essentially works as a remixed mode of play based on the already-made levels in single player campaign. Akin to games like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Ghost Squad, players aim a cursor and let the game do the rest, as you'll be expected to gun down hoards of troops. Our only complaint to an otherwise entertaining (and surprisingly long, at a few hours total) bonus mode is the zoom function, which zooms the screen from its center point rather than from where your cursor is. This means that you'll be aiming at a Nazi trooper in the upper right of your screen, need a bit of extra zoom to tag him, hit the button, and have the screen zoom to the center point, cropping out your view of the target. For enemies inside the 70% of the screen that is still seen after zooming, this control works fine. For the outer-ring targets, however, it's a bit frustrating. All in all, however, arcade mode is a fun addition to the main game, and is certainly worth factoring in to the overall value of the game. Most teams struggle to create a single experience on Wii, but Team Fusion essentially made a game and a half with Heroes 2.
The campaign will of course be the bulk of the experience for most gamers, and it's pretty rewarding overall. Enemies can be extremely tough at times, forcing you to really hunker down and play using strategy, and the game's impressive controls allow you to do just that, as precision shots can be made from literally anywhere on the map. There's some definite optimization going on that helps keep the game running at 60 fps though, so you'll notice that killing enemies from farther away will result in a lower-frame death animation, rather than a fully animated one. It's all part of the smoke and mirrors that make up a high-frame game, so as long as players take these situations - like the disappearing bodies post-kill - as necessary drawbacks, it'll prove itself to be the right choice, as the game looks good, and runs extremely well.

Rather than just creating a run-and-gun experience, Team Fusion included a ton of event gameplay as well. It never gets as crazy as vehicle driving or para drops - things we've seen in previous Wii FPS games - but it is seamless with the rest of the gameplay experience as well. You'll blow up targets with a bazooka, destroy objects with rail guns, snipe enemy squads with the Springfield sniper rifle, man .50 Cal turrets, and rain fire down on enemies with mortar blasts. Each of these situations is motion-based and entertaining, though in a few situations they do run a little long. The .50 Cal MG nests, for example, often trigger upwards of 35 enemies spawning off-screen for an attack. This means a ton of stationary shooting. These events add some much-needed diversity to the world, though, and are great fun to play with the motion controls.
As the final portion of the MOH trifecta, online is an impressive first effort on Wii. The game runs with 32 players online and does so with very little interruption. With the option of playing deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag, players will have a decent list of options to work with, resulting in easily the best pure online gameplay on the system thus far. Simply log on to EA Nation, create an account (used instead of friend codes), find a lobby, and start playing. At any time you can initiate a vote to kick players or change the map, as well as outfit your soldier with different weaponry or change control style, making the experience extremely seamless for Wii's first online FPS. Since EA Nation also supports friend lists and quick-chat commands, MOH also allows for these options, so when logging on you'll instantly be able to tell which friends are playing where.

A huge annoyance for us - one that couldn't be avoided, it seems - is the lack of online voice chat. It seems as though Nintendo isn't ready to allow gamers the option to interact with friends or random players, so the experience remains generally void of player-to-player interaction. A few quick commands can be issued, but you'll need to hit the 1 button to do it, which often takes too much time to pull off, and is far from comparable to other online communication systems. If voice chat isn't in the game's future, we'd at least suggest a command wheel or faster way of getting commands to players, as the current method is too slow to be effective. As another downside to the Wii online experience, the general "chat" function included in the PSP version of Heroes 2 online - basically a quick in-game chat system that lets you type custom messages - was removed since you're interacting with non-friend players. Typing on PSP is a bit slow anyways, but with Wii's on-screen keyboard and IR typing messages could have been quick and easy. Instead, it was pulled due to the threat of potty-mouth online gamers; that's a shame.

Commandos 3: Destination Berlin Review

2009-05-11T02:47:00.000-07:00

If any game offers the chance to understand just how impossible the heroic events of war movies would be to accomplish, Commandos 3 is it.

You'd expect larger-than-life adventures from a squad of superhuman World War II commandos, and Commandos 3 delivers: Central Berlin, a bombed-out Stalingrad, a train packed with stolen art masterpieces, and the beaches of Normandy are all on the menu. There's nothing pedestrian about such assignments, and all 10 mission locations are as tough as they are memorable. Given that you can't adjust the level of difficulty, getting through even a single mission can require as much patience and judicious use of quicksaves as it does stealth and tactical forethought. Unfortunately, Commandos 3 hasn't gained much ground on its predecessors, and those new to the series may have trouble getting past the interface, the locked 800x600 resolution, or the many moments of frustration that every player is bound to experience. Nevertheless, the game's high level of challenge can lead to some proportionally satisfying victories against all odds.

In total contrast with what lies ahead, Commandos 3 starts out easy enough. The two tutorial missions are--with a single exception--a smart introduction to the key members of the commando squad and their highly specialized abilities. As in Commandos 2, the interiors of buildings are fully 3D, and it's possible to smoothly rotate the camera with the mousewheel. While the 3D segment isn't the best-looking part of the game, this extra control makes it fairly convenient to navigate the cramped rooms. The starter scenario gently walks you through the basics of the interface, which differs significantly in style from those in typical strategy or action games. Except when manually set to provide cover fire, the commandos don't act without explicit commands. Moving one character at a time is simple enough, though the lack of hotkeys for specific weapons or abilities becomes a challenge in tight spots. The tutorial's one notable failing is that it doesn't mention that the abilities menu hides choices until it's clicked on, like the one for weapons, which confused more than one of us when looking for the spy's "distract" ability.

The prologue is a taste of how, with one mouse click, the Green Beret's speed and deadly knife strike can be overwhelming in close quarters. And within the span of 15 minutes or so, you'll meet the other core commando members (whose ranks have been distilled from Commandos 2 to the core group): The sniper has the longest range of any friendly unit, the sapper is an expert with bombs and heavy weapons, the spy can disguise himself with the uniforms of German soldiers and officers, and the thief is fast and capable of climbing up walls and other objects. The sixth member, the diver, appears only once, in the third campaign. One advantage of having the number of commandos pared down from the previous game is that there's no getting confused about what each one is for, and if you ever get really stumped in a mission, solving the situation can be just a matter of stepping back and thinking about the special abilities of the commandos assigned to a specific scenario.

This is a World War II game, and it's presumed that you know the odds the Allies are up against and have seen the character types in war movies, so don't expect a drawn-out story. The three campaigns kick off with a summary voice-over briefing, and most missions feature a little character banter in in-engine shots, but otherwise, it's time for the action. Fortunately, the missions themselves are quite distinct, and there are a couple of unexpected events over the course of the first two campaigns. While most maps require you to complete just one set of objectives, the two very large maps in the first campaign are broken up into a series of segments. One of the game's several cinematics occurs after the first short sniper-hunting mission: An intense round of bombing levels several buildings, then waves of paratroopers descend near your location. These flashy sequences are impressive and set the stakes, but it's typical of the game's uneven pacing that all this flash precedes a stretch of slow going and that some of the best parts are buried in the middle of the campaigns, where impatient gamers may not see them.

While there's more than enough opportunity to show off your stealth skills, Commandos 3 has more than a few situations where the object is simply to kill all the enemies on the map. This isn't as simple or as straightforward as it might sound, though, given that the interface isn't designed to let your men run and gun. Without much ado, the second mission offers some do-or-die training on the combat system, sending handfuls of assault-rifle-toting Germans at you in waves. To the game's credit, there's rarely just one way through a combat situation, and there's the chance to get some really heavy firepower. The beefy Green Beret can pick up an emplaced machine gun and walk around mowing down enemies within a medium-range cone, and it's even possible to use an artillery piece. For some reason, the commandos usually only pack their specialized weapons, but looting downed Germans provides the opportunity to get some decent small arms and set up ambushes.

Although nearly half the missions are combat heavy, Commandos 3's interface is better suited for stealth than combat. Only with cover mode turned on will a unit fire by itself, so defensive ambushes are really all that the unit AI can manage unattended. Even then it's essential to be quite careful in lying prone behind cover, since the enemy generally gets a huge range advantage with the same weapons, so if you're spotted, you're dead. It is possible to move a group forward with the cover mode on, but changing facing is unwieldy. Sometimes the best bet is to use just one commando at a time, keeping the others out of sight where they can't get killed and automatically end the mission. This doesn't do anything to reinforce the sense that you're commanding an elite force. Nonetheless, once you grasp the interface's strengths and limitations, there are some tremendous battles in store, including one that pits the Green Beret against a whole enemy encampment--with a 15-minute clock ticking down.

In the stealth missions, which often pair the thief or spy with a heavy hitter, it's easier to appreciate how a pair of characters can work together. Stealth is the series' trademark, and these missions are intricately designed to reward patience, as you watch the enemies' patrol routes, check their vision cones, and crawl carefully around crowded areas. In addition to special abilities, like the spy's distract, there are packs of cigarettes, noisemakers, and gas grenades to distract or disable enemies that simply don't leave an opening. There's perhaps just one instance where there's a single puzzle-like solution to a problem, but the overall level of challenge is extremely high, and getting to the next mission in the linear campaign sequence might mean stepping back and thinking about a completely different approach or trying one of the other campaigns, which thankfully can be played out of sequence.

For as hard as Commandos 3 can be, it's not all that long, with 10 maps divided up into campaigns of unequal length. Some missions may take several hours, particularly if you're still learning the game or get stuck in the wrong approach. Others are much shorter, including one that's little more than a 30-minute continuation of the previous mission. Barring any mishaps, most of the missions after the first campaign can be finished in about an hour each. You'd think that mishaps would be limited to being spotted or having a bomb go off in your face, but, in fact, just saving at the wrong moment could force you to restart a mission. Quicksaving is an essential lesson that's drilled into you from the first minute of the tutorial, but there's just one quicksave slot, and it's not hard to hit the quicksave key without realizing you'll be spotted a few moments later. Even using manual save slots can't stave off all problems, as we found out when our save games were corrupted not once, but twice.

The scenarios are challenging enough to warrant subsequent play-throughs, but Commandos 3's new competitive multiplayer mode doesn't add much lasting value. Instead of including the option to play single-player missions cooperatively, as in Commandos 2, the multiplayer options are limited to deathmatch and collect-the-flags modes. First, the challenge is to get things working, as the game doesn't offer a built-in server browser, and connecting via GameSpy Arcade worked only when we connected directly to a home broadband connection, removing an installed router. And even when facing players with low pings in small games, we experienced noticeable lag. Given that a single grenade can take out your entire force or that an ordinary rifleman set up for cover fire can take out a commando before you can react, the outcome of multiplayer battles can seem more like a matter of chance than skill. The multiplayer is clearly inspired by conventional real-time strategy games, but the game's design isn't well suited to straight combat.

Commandos 3 looks just as good as the previous game, which is saying something. The environments are artistically rendered, and there are decent snow and rain effects to underscore the changing seasons and theaters of war. But the engine hasn't undergone visual improvements, and it's locked at a resolution of 800x600, which is low by today's standards. The exterior camera can be rotated in just four directions, and this limitation can be an issue in the corners of the map, where it can be tough to see where you're going. Rotating the camera can also cause a few seconds of delay, something you can ill afford in combat just trying to draw a bead on an enemy. The audio is similarly solid, if familiar, largely bringing over the same character voices and underscoring the events with a resounding military-themed score. The real letdown is when you come to the end of a campaign. After all that effort, the reward is simply the "mission completed" message and a trip back to the main menu.

If any game offers the chance to understand just how impossible the heroic events of war movies would be to accomplish, Commandos 3 is it. Achieving objectives against all odds takes planning, timing, lots of luck, and saved games. For all that it can be rough going and unevenly paced, Commandos 3 offers some truly memorable moments, and each mission stands on its own as a unique challenge. Commandos 2 fans should find plenty of satisfying material, though this isn't the game that's going to get newcomers into the series.

Commandos 2: Men of Courage Review

2009-05-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

It can be a difficult game, especially at first, but Commandos 2 truly evokes the intensity of World War II that you've probably seen in film or on television.

The direct approach isn't always the best approach--this concept lies at the heart of Commandos 2 just as it did with its predecessor, the innovative 1998 real-time tactical combat game that mixed elements of stealth, action, and even puzzle-solving in a World War II setting. Spanish developer Pyro Studios' visually stunning sequel takes the core gameplay of the original, adds some of the features from the 1999 stand-alone expansion pack along with plenty of great new ideas, and ultimately provides a highly challenging, sophisticated experience that's even better than the first. But be warned--Commandos 2 can be as intimidating as its premise makes it sound: You'll command a small group of elite Allied operatives deep behind enemy lines to perform a series of important clandestine missions. At every turn, your commandos will be avoiding the patrols of German or Japanese forces. It can be a difficult game, especially at first, but Commandos 2 truly evokes the intensity of the harrowing depictions of World War II that you've probably seen in film or on television.

Actually, the game clearly alludes to the movies that inspired it--even the manual admits that the game has more in common with fictional accounts of the war than with factual ones. If you're familiar with classic World War II movies such as The Guns of Navarone, Bridge on the River Kwai, or even the more recent Saving Private Ryan, then you'll easily catch the references to these films in the game's various missions. As in these and other epic World War II movies, in Commandos 2 you'll have to do such things as rescue Allied soldiers, sabotage powerful sea vessels, assassinate key enemy officials, get your hands on important documents, and much more. The objectives are plentiful and varied and the game will take you to a wide variety of real-world settings, but the overall number of missions in Commandos 2 seems small: There are only 10 main missions in the game. You must play through them all sequentially, even though they aren't necessarily related to one another. In fact, the relative length and difficulty of each mission doesn't necessarily increase from one mission to the next, either.

Make no mistake, though--by any standards, all these missions are huge, and you'll typically spend many hours trying to accomplish the laundry list of objectives in each one. There's also good incentive to replay each mission, since a number of smaller bonus levels can be unlocked if you thoroughly explore the main missions. And the game's two higher difficulty settings noticeably affect the way enemy guards react, requiring you to take different paths to success. But before you can get into the main missions, you must first get through two "tutorial" levels, which have to be the most difficult tutorials ever put into a game. These smaller missions provide very little actual tutorial--instead, they take a sink-or-swim approach by dropping you straight into enemy territory, leaving you to learn the hard way about the intricacies of the complex gameplay of Commandos 2. This can make the first hours of play unnecessarily frustrating, so much so that some players may be quickly turned off to the game. That's too bad, because Commandos 2 is well worth the effort it takes to learn.

The colorful, memorable cast of characters at your disposal comes mostly from the previous Commandos games and includes a powerful Green Beret; a deadly marine; a spy capable of disguising himself as the enemy; a sapper, your demolitions expert; a mechanic who can commandeer enemy vehicles; a master sniper; and even a seductive secret agent. New additions to the roster include a fleet-footed thief and an unlikely bull terrier whose barking can distract your foes. You'll also join forces with Allied troops whom you can control in many of the missions.

In the original Commandos game, each character had a limited, very specific set of skills--for example, only the Green Beret and the spy could actually move enemy victims' bodies so that other guards wouldn't see them, which made these two the key players in most missions. In Commandos 2, for the most part, each character has a wider variety of skills and is much more versatile--for example, most everyone can now move bodies out of sight. This gives you many more strategic options during play and, for better or worse, eliminates much of the puzzlelike feel of the original game's missions. The game's sole remaining puzzle element lies in the fact that you can't choose which commandos to bring into a mission and can't choose their starting equipment--you'll just have to make do with what you get.

Though Commandos 2 has fewer situations requiring very specific solutions compared with the first game, the gameplay itself is basically similar. As you approach each mission objective, you'll have to take note of all the enemy guards standing between you and victory. There's no fog of war--you can spend lots of time just examining every square inch of the map from your godlike isometric vantage point, observing enemy patrols and looking for openings or weaknesses. Mission objectives generally aren't time sensitive, so you can afford to strategize at your leisure. And though you can take missions at your own pace, the situations always get very tense whenever you're preparing to strike. This constant buildup and release of tension is superbly maintained throughout the game, making it addictive and often exhilarating to play.

The key to finishing the missions lies in staying hidden while secretly eliminating guards that bar your passage. You'll see enemy guards' line of sight represented with a sweeping colored cone--using the Tab key, you can either check the line of sight of one guard at a time or place a marker anywhere on the map that will show you whether or not that point is visible to any guards. When possible, you can run, walk, and crawl about, as well as swim and drive vehicles. You can climb ladders and ledges. The thief can scale walls, the marine can remain underwater indefinitely, the sniper can take aim from telephone poles, and the Green Beret can climb hand over hand across wires. All characters can hug walls, which makes them less noticeable. You can eliminate guards in a variety of ways--the Green Beret's still adept at knifing them up close, while the marine has perfected throwing his blade, making him perhaps the most lethal of his comrades. Most characters can now punch out guards, who'll come to their senses later--good thing you can tie them up, too. This more-humane approach is rewarded at the end of each mission, where you'll be ranked in various categories based on your performance.

You can't always just maneuver behind unassuming guards and whack them. Characters like the spy come into play when there are far too many guards to handle. The spy and the seductress can divert guards by making conversation--but high-ranking officials may see through their disguises. All characters can use any cigarette packs or wine bottles they find to bait their enemies into sheepishly leaving their posts. Anyone can relieve an incapacitated guard of his firearm and any other goods he might have on him, including the shirt off his back. You'll have even more tricks at your disposal. For example, the sapper uses a wide variety of explosives, along with handy tools such as a wire cutter and a mine detector. The marine has a grappling hook and his trusty portable boat aside from his diving gear. The Green Beret still has his noise-making decoy device from Commandos and can still dig himself underground, out of sight. The thief has some lock picks and an amazing pet rat. All these characters can transfer their equipment amongst themselves, but some equipment--for instance, explosives--can be used only by a particular specialist. Still, a character like the thief might have a much easier time getting his hands on some so that the sapper can put it to good use. All of this means you'll usually have a lot of options on how to proceed, although some courses of action will be easier or more suitable than others.

Sneaking around isn't easy--expect to be detected often. Since one wrong move or one loud noise can mean you've blown your cover, loading saved games thus becomes a regular occurrence. Fortunately, loading times are pretty fast--probably in exchange for the program's whopping 2GB minimum install size. Also, it's important to note that Commandos 2, at least on the normal difficulty level, is more forgiving than the original game. For example, if one of your commandos loses all his health, one of his friends can revive him with a medical kit. And enemies usually won't recognize you as their foe right away if they happen to spot you from far off. You'll see them draw a bead on you and you'll have a few moments to duck out of sight, which makes the game considerably less frustrating and reduces how often you'll have to load saved games.

If you're identified as a foe, the alarm will usually sound and guards will swarm in, making success virtually impossible. Perhaps not entirely impossible, though--a brute-force approach can be fun and even effective, as the enemies' own weapons are even deadlier in your commandos' hands. It's a bit disappointing that guards won't fight back very intelligently and will walk straight into kill zones in droves--but the sheer number of guards you'll typically be up against means fighting head-on simply isn't viable most of the time. Even when they're not shooting at you, the guards can be fairly predictable and not altogether intelligent. This isn't really an issue--being able to roughly anticipate the outcome of your actions and the enemy's response is what makes Commandos 2 a strategy game rather than a crapshoot.

The overall difficulty of Commandos 2 is welcome--the missions are as daunting as they should be--but unfortunately, the game's learning curve is very steep, thanks to the sadistic tutorial and the sometimes awkward controls. Seemingly every keyboard key corresponds to a different action in the game. The mouse cursor is conveniently context sensitive, and there are helpful options for highlighting all enemies and objects of interest onscreen, but you'll still need to learn to use different keys for searching bodies vs. picking them up or equipping one type of gun instead of another. Exchanging items between characters is also cumbersome, although thankfully, the game pauses when you access your inventory, at least in the single-player mode.

These interface issues aren't too serious--it just takes a while to come to grips with them. The game does offer clearly labeled clickable icons so that you can alternately use the mouse to choose your actions, but the keyboard is necessary if you're to be efficient. Fortunately, moving your commandos is simple--double-clicking makes them run somewhere instead of walk, and the space bar makes them lie prone. Pathfinding is pretty much perfect--they'll move where you tell them to, though you can't set waypoints, a missing feature that might have let you coordinate simultaneous actions. As it is, you'll find yourself micromanaging one character at a time, though you can move your team all at once.

As you traverse each area, you'll notice one of Commandos 2's impressive features--you can view the main mission area from four different angles, 90 degrees apart. Transitions between angles are instant, and having a choice of perspective is generally convenient but sometimes necessary, as tall buildings and other such objects can obstruct your view. But unfortunately, since there's no compass or any indicator that lets you reorient yourself, switching view angles can be very jarring, and this really takes a while to get used to. Another part of the reason it can be hard to play Commandos 2 is that the mission briefings can be pretty obtuse. Objectives are quickly mentioned in dialogue between the characters, and once the conversation's over, you can only recap by looking at a checklist that gives you a terse description of each objective and that objective's relative location on the map. Again, you'll eventually get used to this system--it's just not as straightforward or clear as it could have been, and the checklists are often convoluted and don't always register your accomplishments correctly. The game would also crash to desktop from time to time, especially while loading saved games.

One thing's for sure: Commandos 2 looks incredible. The fully 3D characters are animated beautifully--everything they do looks great, and it's striking how realistically they move about. The huge prerendered mission maps are incredibly detailed. Everything is to scale--gigantic Japanese bombers, incredible aircraft carriers, impressive Allied submarines, and foreboding castles are just some of the many fascinating things you'll get to see. You can even enter into pretty much any building or other large space, where the game switches to a fully 3D depiction of the interior area. Here, you can rotate smoothly to get the perfect angle on the action, and your characters can even peek into and out of windows and doorways to find out what's ahead. The only problem with the graphics is in the zoom feature--you can get a closer look at the action if you like, but then everything becomes horribly pixelated, so the feature's not worth using. The sound in Commandos 2 is nearly as good as the visuals, except for the fact that your characters' very limited responses will quickly grow old. Otherwise, the game's ambient effects are excellent, and its musical score is simply outstanding--it sounds like it's straight out of an action film. It's intense at times and suspenseful at times, and it helps set the tone for each individual mission.

Commandos 2's multiplayer mode lets you attempt all the missions cooperatively, though the host player has to have beaten them in single-player mode first. This option lends even more replay value to a game that will take you many dozens of hours to finish on your own--thus, the GameSpy Arcade program is provided to let you easily find allies to play with.

Like its predecessor, Commandos 2 is a distinctive game with a great design and a lot of impressive features. Yet Commandos 2 is even better than the first--its design is much more focused, the missions are more involved, and the expanded options for your commandos are all excellent. As a result, the game will certainly appeal to most anyone who likes a challenge for both the mind and the reflexes. And what a challenge--you'll feel a real sense of reward and relief after finishing each of the epic missions in Commandos 2.

Sins of a Solar Empire Review

2009-05-06T03:13:00.000-07:00

This was not just the first great strategy game of 2008. It's also an absolute must-have if you love space strategy.

The Good

Dangerously addictive and enjoyable space strategy
Real-time gameplay feels original and fresh
Epic feel with titanic battles
Excellent single- and multiplayer gameplay.

The Bad

Games can take a very long time to resolve
You won't get a lot of sleep.

There's a blissful nirvana strategy gamers yearn for, even though experiencing it usually involves a considerable loss of sleep along with a steep drop in productivity for days on end. Sins of a Solar Empire is one of those rare games that can deliver an incredibly addictive experience that devours a healthy chunk of your life, and you won't mind a bit. Not bad for a debut game from a relatively small developer. Ironclad and publisher Stardock should be proud, because they've delivered one of the most original, compelling strategy games in recent years.

Let's get this clear: Sins isn't anything like a typical turn-based space strategy game such as Galactic Civilizations or the granddaddy of the genre, Master of Orion. Instead, this is a real-time game--but don't let that make you think that it's Command & Conquer in space. Though it's in real time, Sins unfolds at such a leisurely pace and can happen on such a gigantic scale that you'll easily manage five or six gigantic fleets at a time as you battle across multiple star systems that contain dozens of worlds.

The game is set in a distant future where the Trader Emergency Coalition--an alliance of various human worlds--bands together in the face of two threats. The first is the Advent, an offshoot of humanity that has embraced an alien philosophy and has come looking to spread the word by force. Even direr is the Vasari, a mysterious alien race that seeks the annihilation of both factions. Sins lets you play from the perspective of any of the three factions, which are approximate mirrors of one another.

Like many space strategy games, the action begins with you in control of a single planet, and from there you must explore the rest of the system worlds, locating planets to colonize, as well as resources that you can exploit to fuel your research and ship-building needs. Sins isn't as ambitious as other space strategy games that task you with taking over a galaxy; instead, the action is limited to a maximum of five local stars, each with a network of planets around it. Travel among planets is limited via strict space lanes, so some planets are natural choke points. Planets themselves come in four varieties. Terran and desert planets can be colonized easily, but to settle ice and volcano planets you must research the appropriate technology first. Asteroids can also be colonized, but they're so small that they can support only tiny populations, making them ideal for outposts.

To support your expansion, you'll have to build a plethora of vessels. Scouts explore the planetary systems, locating ideal worlds to colonize with colony ships, as well as providing advance warning on incoming enemy fleets. Warships come in three classes. The smallest are frigates, and they include frontline combatants, siege vessels that can pummel planets with nuclear weapons, and missile platforms. Then there are larger cruiser-class vessels, such as escort carriers that can deploy squadrons of fighters and bombers to heavier warships. The crème de la crème, though, are the capital ships, which you can build only a handful of. Capital ships are huge, expensive, and powerful, but they're also like the characters in a role-playing game in that they can level up as they gain experience, making them more powerful and unlocking unique and potent abilities. The ability to gain experience creates a powerful dynamic, as you want to get your capital ships into fights so they can level up, but you also want to protect them from danger, because the loss of them can be devastating. However, if you get a task force of high-level capital ships and smaller vessels together, you'll have a force to be reckoned with.

Good strategy games force you to constantly make decisions about where to allocate your resources, and Sins does an exceptional job of this, mainly because you'll usually find yourself having to juggle where to invest your precious resources. There are three resources in the game: money, metal, and crystal. Money is generated by having large planetary populations or by building trade stations. Metal and crystal can only be harvested on small asteroids. Building warships or structures, making planetary improvements, and conducting research consumes large amounts of these resources, and usually you'll have a shortage of at least one of them, which forces you to make some difficult decisions.

It's also possible to engage in a bit of diplomacy, though Sins takes a different tack than a lot of other strategy games. You can do the standard diplomatic maneuvers like declaring a nonaggression pact or forming an alliance with someone, but to do so, you've got to prove your worth to that faction by pursuing missions it puts toward you. For example, one faction might task you with destroying a certain number of defensive structures of another faction. Successfully completing the mission will earn you favor, though not completing the mission will earn disfavor. In order to form an alliance with any faction, you'll have to complete several missions for it.

Then there's the pirate system, which is a brilliant way of waging war by proxy. The pirates are third-party raiders who launch attacks periodically. You can influence whom they attack by raising the bounty on one of your opponent's heads. However, this creates an eBay-like bidding war, where factions are trying to either get the bounties off of their heads or put them on opponents they really need attacked. The danger is that when you bid, you actually put money into the pot that you can't withdraw, even if you lose. That means that if you get into an astronomical bidding war and win, the bad news is that in the next round, the opponent already has a mountain of money in the auction that you have to overcome. The other danger is that the more money there is in the bidding, the bigger the pirate attack will be. It's a pretty slick system, though its one flaw is that it requires you to babysit each auction when it happens, a process that takes a minute or two. Given that attacks happen every 10 or 15 minutes, this is an activity that takes away from the overall pace of the game.

All of this sounds like it might be a handful to handle in real time, but Sins unfolds at a stately, almost leisurely, pace. The action is fast enough that you're constantly busy making decisions, but it's rarely frenetic to the point where you're overwhelmed. To help you manage a huge empire, there's an innovative empire tree on the side of the screen that gives you an outline of all of your planets, fleets, and factories. Let's say you have a fleet battling in a distant system and taking losses. Without zooming away from the battle, you can select a nearby shipyard and start ordering up replacement ships that can automatically join the fleet. With the empire tree, it's relatively easy to manage multiple fleets consisting of dozens of warships each.

If Sins has a downside, it's that larger-scale games will easily take hours upon hours to resolve. Medium-size maps will chew up six to eight hours, often to the point where you will be looking at the clock and wondering just how effective you're going to be the next day on about three or four hours of sleep. Larger games can take even longer at the default speed settings. Things would end a lot faster if there were alternate victory conditions or if the artificial intelligence would surrender after it clearly has no chance of winning. Instead, you have to pulverize each enemy position before the game ends, a process that can take a while. One thing that you can do while you're finishing someone off, though, is to work on accomplishing achievements. The game has its own achievement system that rewards you for remarkable performance, such as wiping out a certain number of enemy capital ships or settling a pirate base. One dastardly achievement challenges you to win without researching a single military technology.

The game features random maps and scenarios, but one thing that's missing is a campaign. Still, Sins of a Solar Empire is an excellent single-player game and one that translates well into the multiplayer realm, especially since it's a lot harder to beat a human opponent than it is a machine. The built-in server browser connects to Ironclad Online, where it's easy to create a multiplayer game or join up with others. The one thing to keep in mind is that, for the sake of brevity, it's usually best to go with small maps in order for the game to resolve in one sitting. Though it's possible to save a multiplayer game, it will take a considerable amount of dedication and scheduling by all parties involved to tackle a huge game.

Finally, the game's visual presentation is excellent. It's not a graphically flashy game, but it works on many levels. The ship designs look cool up close, and watching fleets slug it out is always fun. Pull the camera back, and ships and squadrons are replaced by distinctive icons, giving you the big picture even when you've zoomed out and are looking at a solar system as a whole. The interface is also quite elegant, and it scales nicely to a wide variety of display sizes. The audio and sound effects aren't quite as distinctive, and the music provides some decent sonic wallpaper.

In sum, Sins of a Solar Empire is an absolute must-have if you enjoy strategy games. It's an addictive, deep game that elevates space strategy to new levels. At the same time, it provides a fresh, original take on one of the oldest and most revered subgenres in all of strategy gaming.

Stalin vs. Martians Review

2009-05-06T03:01:00.000-07:00

Do not play, look at, or even think about this mangled wreck of a strategy game.

The Good

Dancing Stalin.

The Bad

It isn't fun, and it isn't funny
No strategy involved
Frustrating, broken missions
Excruciating sound design
Loads of technical problems.

Don't be offended by Stalin vs. Martians' subject matter. The genocidal communist leader may figure heavily in this budget-priced real-time strategy game, but it's hard to be outraged when he's gyrating his hips to the beat of Russian dance pop, or signing off his written missives with "xxooxx." No, be offended because Stalin vs. Martians is an abysmal game that represents the dregs of game design. It isn't strategic, it isn't fun, and as hard as it tries, it isn't even remotely funny. This is perhaps the worst RTS game ever created, worth neither the 1s and 0s that were used to program it nor the mental exertions expended on this creatively bankrupt waste of hard-drive space.

Actually, calling Stalin vs. Martians a strategy game is a bit of a stretch, though to its credit, you do control units in real time, so at least it gets that part right. You start each of the 12 missions with a given supply of units, and you generally move them all en masse across the map, killing a bunch of aliens while completing the oft-broken mission objectives. When Martians die, they frequently drop gold and power-ups; you spend gold on reinforcements or on special powers, whereas power-ups enhance a unit's armor or attack damage, or perhaps replenish the unit's health. It sounds like an interesting idea designed to keep the action moving. In actuality, it's an absolute mess. Power-ups disappear if you don't maneuver a unit over them, but moving forward toward a sorely needed gold drop may bring you closer to a deadly, goo-spewing greenie. Poor enemy placement and bad pathfinding make the whole process a lame, frustrating war of attrition as you slowly whittle enemy numbers down while summoning replacements for your lost units. And just as the "S" is missing from "RTS," there is no "I" in the AI; your foes either wait for your attack in their assigned position or follow scripted paths, but in no way do they ever require you to think strategically.

Premission briefings from Stalin give context to the proceedings: Martians are invading 1940s Siberia! The concept had potential, but the missions themselves are a complete disaster. A few are so easy and straightforward that you can complete them within 10 minutes or so. Others drag on endlessly, forcing you to move your sluggish tanks from one corner of the map to the other. It's anyone's guess why they move so slowly when you issue a move order but develop a sense of urgency when you issue an attack order. But even when you manage to get your units to their destination, you'll be banging your head on your computer desk out of pure frustration. In one mission, you can lose if Martian units invade a village. The final objective in the same mission involves killing a roaming, buglike alien, which might be near the village center when the objective is triggered, and thus can count as an invasion. This abysmal mission structure can lead to a loss not based on your actions, but rather on thoughtless game design.

Similar issues plague several missions, such as those in which units clip into level geometry and jitter around trying to extricate themselves, but even the functional ones are beyond irritating. Poor balancing and cheap attacks lead to numerous annoyances, such as in one mission in which you must use only infantry units to destroy enemy artillery that can wipe away almost all of your soldiers in one hit. This leads to a lot of trial and error, forcing reloads of your saved games until you know exactly what the game expects of you. But mission design aside, Stalin vs. Martians doesn't even get the basics right. Trying to drag a selection box around units can be nigh impossible if the mouse pointer is near the edge of the screen; the absence of significant visual and audio feedback makes it hard to tell if you've activated a special power, or whether you're actually firing at an enemy; and infantry units will go wandering off in some direction other than where you commanded the control group to go.

A few ear-splitting musical videos break up the putrid gameplay, and they offer the only seconds of so-bad-it's-good amusement that Stalin vs. Martians provides. You won't be inclined to laugh at scenes of zombified communists and be-bopping aliens, though, as much as you'll stare with your mouth agape. The game clearly aims for broad satire. Three-eyed Martians are ripped directly from Pixar's classic animated film Toy Story, and swarms of tiny ETs resemble the charming creatures from the acclaimed Pikmin games. Selected units bleat out such gems as "I am like Bolshevik on bicycle!" and the apparently homoerotic "My name's Ivan, I like you." But every lame grab for chuckles falls totally flat. (What image is a Bolshevik on a bicycle meant to convey anyway?) The forced humor lacks charm and wit, and though it aims for the tragically ludicrous mentality of a camp classic, it's just plain tragic.

The production values struggle with similar attempts at energy, but their exertions will exhaust both you and your system. The sound design deserves special mention for its limited selection of awful house music and tinny array of Martian bloops and beeps. Some onscreen activities don't even produce noise, which is a rather welcome glitch, given that your ears will need a break from the excruciatingly aggressive soundtrack and overlapping, nonsensical chatter of selected units. The environmental visuals are at least colorful, though all of the maps look the same until you reach the final missions. Some of the Martians are cute, though the art design displays absolutely no creativity; for a game featuring alien lizards and Russian tanks on the same battlefield, Stalin vs. Martians looks completely generic. That's a shame, considering that a clever visual slant could have helped veil the decrepit technology powering this dud. There are no graphics options whatsoever in the game menus--no antialiasing or anisotropic filtering, not even an option to change the resolution. How unusual, then, that the frame rate takes occasional dips, and that the game crashed multiple times on multiple systems during our testing. The mouse pointer disappeared after every musical interlude, forcing a restart each time. Changing the "Do you like cats?" menu option from "yes" to "no" had no apparent effects on these issues.

You can play only as the communist forces, and there is no multiplayer, but why on Earth, or on Mars for that matter, would you want to extend an experience like this? Don't play Stalin vs. Martians, even if you are a big fan of communism or Martians--or even both.

Velvet Assassin Review

2009-05-06T02:55:00.000-07:00

A realistic war-zone atmosphere and rewarding stealth action make this an intense look at World War II, despite some problems.

The Good

Tense atmosphere and moody music
Satisfying stealth combat
Believable characters.

The Bad

Lousy gunplay
Stupid enemies.

Velvet Assassin makes heavy use of darkness to bring to light the events of World War II. As an espionage agent fighting behind enemy lines, you slip in and out of shadows, silently stalking through dimly lit streets and grimy prisons as you attempt to sabotage the Nazi war effort. But the darkness in Velvet Assassin is more than just a cover for satisfying stealth play. The grim realities of war are also present, giving added weight to your objectives and a moral backbone to your killings. As you slink through burning Parisian villages and witness innocent civilians being executed for no reason, the chilling brutality of war becomes clear. The unsettling atmosphere drives you ever deeper into this ravaged land, but a few gameplay problems hinder the suspension of disbelief. Sluggish gunplay and nonexistent enemy intelligence make your actions feel artificial at times, lessening the impact of these atrocities. However, Velvet Assassin is largely able to rise above these issues and present a powerful, unnerving look at one of history's darkest periods.

You assume the role of Violette Summer, a British assassin sent alone to slow down the German war machine. When the game begins, you see yourself from above, lying in a hospital bed after a mission gone terribly wrong. There are morphine syringes scattered across your bed, and the influx of drugs in your system creates a series of dreams that let you recount your past missions. As your efforts in the war play out, Violet begins to question the events around her, making her character empathetic and believable. Interspersed with these flashbacks are quick looks at the present, in which two Allied soldiers stand above your hospital bed, trying to decide your fate. The story is told in brief snippets, which makes it initially difficult to follow what's going on. But as the plot becomes clearer, the moral decision looming overhead becomes more powerful, casting all of your actions in a new light.

The 12 missions have you fighting single-handedly against the German forces, assassinating a war criminal, destroying a fuel depot, and other objectives typical for the setting. For the most part, you must rely on stealth to meet your goals. The levels are blanketed in darkness, providing ample cover for you to weave through the disturbing setting. Troops patrol all around you, and if you can silently sneak behind them, you trigger a brief execution scene. The absolute patience needed to stalk through these missions is tense and rewarding, mixing the fear of being spotted with the relief of creeping through a particularly dangerous situation unseen. The levels are often linear, providing only the odd alternate route that leads to a hidden supply of weapons or armor, but there is still plenty of creativity needed to achieve success. Figuring out how to reach your goal in the most efficient way is hugely satisfying because no two situations play out in the exact same way.

In addition to stealth attacks, there are a few other ways to kill your enemies. You can release toxic gas from a barrel to suffocate them, pull the pin off of the grenade of an oblivious soldier, and send a current of electricity surging through a puddle of water on the floor. These different attack abilities add a layer of depth and cunning to your adventure, which makes you carefully plan the best way to kill the German forces. The strangest way to dispatch your foes is by using morphine. You can use the drug to enter a dreamlike, invulnerable state in which you can easily take out one enemy before you snap back to reality. The amount of morphine available in a level is extremely limited, so you can't rely on this supermove as a crutch, but it still clashes with the ultrarealistic setting.

You can also kill your foes using a traditional firearm. Like the morphine, ammunition is limited, so you can't rely on your guns too often. However, the aiming controls are too sluggish to provide satisfying deaths. It's easy enough to line up a headshot when you aren't moving, given that you have the element of surprise on your side, but when troops have spotted you and are moving in fast, the gun is too erratic to be effective. For the majority of the game, the lousy gunplay won't hamper your enjoyment. The levels are designed for stealth kills, and using the gun as a last resort serves as an adequate line of defense. But there are a few poorly designed instances in the game in which you must shoot down a number of fast-approaching troops, and the sloppy mechanics are simply not up to the task. It's frustrating and unrewarding, and you'll rely more on luck than skill when you finally shoot down the last soldier.

The solid though unspectacular stealth action gives rise to thrilling moments, but it is the chilling atmosphere that makes Velvet Assassin so engrossing. The lighting is particularly impressive. From the orange hues of a level that plays out during sunset to a blue cloud enveloping a dock at night, the levels are all unique and realistic. But it's the feeling that these levels call forth that is even more startling. In one, you slink through a Gestapo prison that is punctuated by cries for help followed by nerve-rattling gunshot blasts. In another, you creep through a burning Parisian village. As you crouch down behind walls, you will be face to face with slaughtered civilians. The levels are grim and disturbing, continually thrusting unsettling imagery to the forefront, never letting you forget what is happening all around you. The music sets the perfect mood perfectly, using pounding beats to make you anxious and unnerved. The atmosphere creates a feeling of claustrophobia, as if there is no way out, surrounded by violent forces everywhere you look.

Unfortunately, just like the wonky gunplay's tendency to partially undermine the combat, the artificial intelligence often breaks the feeling that you are in a desolate war zone. The enemies are extremely robotic, walking determinately along a preset path; outside stimuli rarely distract them from their orders. Soldiers will often not react to shadows being cast on the wall or fuse boxes being blown. The inhuman dedication to marching feels out of place in the realistic setting, taking away the surprise that a more adaptable AI would have injected. Although the German troops are predictable to a fault, it doesn't completely destroy the immersion. Sections play out like a methodical puzzle game, making you carefully plan your route lest you be found by a foe. The game is able to stay tense throughout because the penalty for being spotted is high, but it's impossible to overlook the stupidity of your enemies.

Even though your enemies are as dumb as wood, they still create a feeling of empathy not present in many war games. As you sneak around bases, you can eavesdrop on conversations that give your attackers personality. For instance, in one level, two soldiers quarrel over a stolen bar of chocolate, and in another, they reminisce about the women and wine they enjoyed in France. But these conversations are not merely superfluous looks at the yearnings of a soldier. Sometimes they reveal their darker side, which makes it more rewarding to kill them off. In one level, a soldier explains in meticulous detail how best to burn bodies that have been dumped in a ditch. In the prison level, a soldier proposes a game of rabbit hunt: a disgusting activity that involves shooting prisoners as they try to run free. There are also letters scattered throughout the levels that show the desperation that some of these troops felt. One soldier writes a heartfelt letter to his wife, telling her how miserable and suffocating military life is. These emotional moments paint the soldiers as real people and add a lot of weight to your actions.

The desolate atmosphere and empathetic look at your enemies make Velvet Assassin a powerful war game. It's bleak and grim, making the horrors of war come to life in disturbing fashion. The lousy gunplay and moronic AI dilute some of the intense realism on display here, but the game is able to stand out despite these problems. Creeping slowly through the shadows is tense and believable, and pulling off these seemingly impossible objectives is deeply satisfying. Velvet Assassin offers a brutal depiction of war, creating an experience that is horrific but still rewarding.

Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason Review

2009-05-06T02:26:00.000-07:00

Flashes of frozen brilliance help this cold-blooded horror game overcome its technological flaws.

The Good

Terrific, creepy storytelling
Innovative flashback mechanic enhances the tale
Highly atmospheric sound and art design
Enemy encounters are tense and rewarding.

The Bad

Some performance and stability issues
Gets off to a slow start.

The best horror games can make you shiver, but few elicit chills as well as Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason. This is partially due to the tense atmosphere that slowly thickens as you play, inspiring a general unease that eventually escalates into full-blown panic. But it's also due to its icy Arctic setting, where the freezing air can choke your lungs and heat is the most valuable of commodities. The unforgiving blizzards of the North Pole inspire Cryostasis on multiple levels, from a heavy, deliberate pace akin to wading through drifts of snow, to multiple gameplay mechanics that keep you forever at odds with the cold. This innovative first-person adventure is not for everyone; its slow tempo will numb players seeking instant gratification, and occasional performance and stability issues may frustrate. But Cryostasis has a way of keeping you in its thrall, pushing you forward to see what frosty secrets lie ahead.

The game doesn't give you much in the way of exposition, ushering you into the frozen tundra by way of a seemingly unrelated voice-over about a tribe of forest dwellers seeking refuge within the wildwood. This tale evolves during the game through a series of scattered parchments, though its meanings and metaphors are slow to unfold--much like the main narrative. It's not immediately clear as you start your initial explorations where you are and why you're there, though the raging blizzard and lifeless bodies strewn around indicate that you aren't apt to encounter many friendly faces. Eventually the framework becomes more apparent: You are on a nuclear-powered icebreaker whose crew has befallen an unusual tragedy, though the glacial crash that seems the most likely cause is only one piece in an increasingly complex puzzle. It's a great mystery, and the gradual flow of information will keep you guessing--and keep you tethered to your screen.

The story is uncovered in flashbacks, but these recollections aren't just plot morsels that exist outside of the gameplay. Rather, you relive key moments as you encounter the scattered corpses of crew members. When you discover bodies, you're transported back in time to witness important events that eventually coalesce into a meaningful narrative, and you do so through the eyes of the poor soul you've discovered. However, you aren't always just a powerless witness; in many cases, you must actively change the circumstances of the past to affect the present. This mechanic manifests itself in different ways and leads to some of the game's most memorable moments. For example, by piloting an undersea vessel through some murky waters within one sinister flashback, you conduct repairs that then remove obstacles in the present. In another case, you'll make a quick jump before icy waters plunge into the room and wash you away.

In fact, many of these "mental echoes" involve saving the victim's life, and often require a bit of trial and error as you jump into the past and figure out which actions lead to success. Try-and-try-again gameplay can be an annoyance in other games, but in Cryostasis, these conundrums take on a classic adventure-game feel with successful results. The puzzles involved aren't overly difficult, but you may need to make a few attempts to complete them without succumbing to environmental hazards, like suffocating smoke and rising water levels. Should you fail, you're transported to the present without penalty. Should you succeed, your surroundings change and usher you toward more mystery.

However, Cryostasis isn't always so forgiving. You may find a lurching fiend awaiting you when you return to the present, and the best way to communicate with such flesh demons is with an axe to the head or a shotgun blast to the belly. These enemies aren't the smartest bunch, but they can inflict a lot of damage, so every shot you fire must count. This is partially because your weapons aren't built for speed; like every facet of the game, slaying your lumbering enemy is a measured affair. The axe, your close-combat mainstay, feels remarkably heavy, and the camera sways forcibly when you swing as if to reinforce that notion. Ranged weapons can be just as ponderous, often devastatingly so. Reload times are incredibly long, and the camera bob that signifies recoil with some weapons is dramatic. The sense of impact doesn't always match up with these effects, which can make combat cross the line from "heavy" to "needlessly clunky." Nevertheless, pelting a blowtorch-wielding brute with flares and watching it panic as it burns to death is satisfying. On the other hand, trying to use the Mosin rifle and its infuriatingly blurry scope won't lead to similar glee.

The occasionally awkward combat doesn't thaw the frigid tension, thankfully, and scare attempts hit more often than they miss. Some encounters are predictable, such as those that follow your haunting visits to the past. However, most of them still manage to shock, thanks to clever uses of slamming doors, scurrying beasts, and good old-fashioned surprise appearances, complete with flickering lights and high-pitched ambient chords. Far-off clatters, your character's heavy breathing and occasional wheezing, and the churning, clanging machinery juxtapose well and generate tension on a broad scale. Frequent silences make the excellent sound design even more effective by making it unpredictable, just as the tense lulls between enemy attacks make those encounters seem all the more vicious. Cryostasis is legitimately scary, because death's cold embrace seems perpetually close at hand.

There is limited solace to be had in the various heat sources found on the vessel. Burning torches, flaming debris, and even desk lamps not only provide visual warmth, but also let you replenish your health reserves. Your health meter is dynamic, given that it is affected both by taking damage in combat and by the chill that permeates the Arctic. Although the standard levels of cold won't kill you, they will keep your health meter practically empty, and a few short jaunts through superchilled fogs can easily be fatal. This mechanic is not only a cool idea on its own, but also enhances the tension and general sense of chilled danger, because the effects of the cold directly impact gameplay. The only drawback to this system is that every so often, it foreshadows enemy encounters, which sometimes occur shortly after you discover heating elements.

As you crawl through the tight corridors, you may occasionally experience a sense of deja vu, but that's a product of the setting rather than of uncreative design. In fact, as the tale evolves, so too do the environments that you explore. Just as the frosty hallways start to wear down your resolve, Cryostasis will introduce a new area, often via a grainy mental echo that recounts the eerie events of the past before you explore the same now-decrepit environs in the present. Some of these locales are constructed well, such as a room with a large reactor that looks far different in the present than it does when you first explore it via flashback episode. But no matter which region of the ship you're traversing, you'll feel perpetually frostbitten. Flakes of frost waft down from above, undulating sheets of ice crystals cover walls and machinery, and when you're exposed to full blasts of the arctic tempest, the roar of the wind will deafen you whilst the rush of snow and ice blinds you.

The water and ice effects are quite good, as are the lighting and shadows. Flickering lights and icy reflections set up the scares, but these touches aren't used so often that they lose their edge. Additionally, though not always perfectly smooth, good animations bring characters to life, human and nonhuman alike. Yet though the graphics engine projects the right mood, it is somewhat dated. Textures are greatly lacking in detail, and some jagged edges and blocky geometry make Cryostasis look uneven. Despite that, the graphics technology has a difficult time keeping up. The game is prone to major fits of slowdown, even on machines that greatly exceed its minimum requirements, which is a head-scratcher in a game that clearly doesn't push the limits of modern technology. We also experienced a couple of crashes, though the experience was otherwise mostly bug-free. The frame-rate difficulties usually lead to only minor annoyances, though they can be a bit more frustrating when they occur in the midst of combat.

These visual issues aside, Cryostasis's measured exploration and sense of frigid tension make it an experience unlike any other. Additionally, the flashback and health-replenishment mechanics aren't just interesting on their own, but also enhance the atmosphere and give weight to the enigmatic tale as it slowly unfolds. If you need the constant stimulation of flying bullets and sprays of blood, Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason likely won't inspire you. But if you appreciate slow-burning suspense, this adventure will keep you glued to the monitor to uncover the secrets buried deep within the inhospitable tundra of the Arctic circle.

Demigod Review

2009-05-06T02:20:00.000-07:00

Online connection issues and a dearth of content keep this fun hybrid game from reigning supreme.

The Good

Deceptively deep, addictive fun
Different demigods have interesting, unique abilities
Great music and sound effects.

The Bad

Major online connectivity problems
No tutorial or story-based campaign
Only eight arenas.

Demigod is an action role-playing/real-time strategy hybrid that is notable for both what it does--and what it doesn't do. It does offers an addictive, click-happy gameplay model that combines elements of two genres into an appealing, competition-focused package. As one of eight demigods, you join either the forces of light or the forces of darkness and exert your hammer-swinging, spellcasting prowess, all while streams of AI-controlled reinforcements rush at each other on predetermined paths. If you're familiar with the popular Warcraft III modification Defense of the Ancients, you'll have an idea of what to expect here, even if the details and nuances don't correlate perfectly. Demigod doesn't offer what you would expect from a full retail product. Without any story-based single-player campaign, the intriguing backstory and heaven-gone-haywire atmosphere go disappointingly unexplored. Worse yet, online connection issues may alienate the game's target audience of competitive tacticians. It's too bad, because Demigod is a good-looking, great-sounding game that has all the right ingredients; it just can't quite combine them into a complete meal.

On the surface, Demigod plays simply: you choose from one of eight hero characters called demigods, and you and your fellow deities (either other players or the generally smart artificial intelligence) attack the opposition in a mouse-centric scheme reminiscent of action RPGs like Diablo. Additionally, you might cast elemental attack spells, perform healing buffs, summon minions to do your bidding, swipe at enemies with your sharp demon claws, and more, all depending on which demigod you select. There are two types of demigods. Assassins are solo warriors, geared toward direct damage, while generals can summon troops to aid them in their cause. Because you manage only one unit, playing as an assassin is akin to playing an action RPG, though each assassin plays quite differently from the others and offers even more variety within its own skill tree. For example, Unclean Beast specializes not only in fast melee damage, but also in damage over time, spitting poisonous goo on foes or emanating an ooze that diseases nearby foes--but reduces his own health as well. The Beast's skill tree opens up a number of possibilities, and as you level up during the match (a quick progression, as befits the generally quick matches), you'll choose from several paths. If you like spitting poison, you can focus in that area, but you could potentially disregard that range of spells entirely and focus instead on your frenzy skill, which unleashes melee mayhem for a limited period of time. Or, of course, you can combine them in ways that befit your play style and benefit your team's needs.

Playing as a general requires a bit more battlefield strategy, allowing you to summon minions to aid your cause. This entails more micromanagement (but not much), and it also makes these demigods more flexible. To summon minions, you equip idols, though you can possess only three at a time. There are multiple idols (and therefore companion types) available, so you can choose which minions will accompany you in battle. As with assassins, each general brings various nuances to the battlefield, which in turn leads to more variety than you might perceive at first glance. The paladin called Oak can place a flag on the battlefield that summons the ghosts of defeated reinforcements in its radius to rise and fight, while the healer Sedna can conjure trolls. The gameplay requires a bit more finesse when you're playing as an assassin, but it's still satisfyingly addictive.

Your upgrades aren't limited to spell trees, however. At your team's base, you can purchase a variety of gear and items that let you further tailor your strengths or assuage your weaknesses--and even apply universal upgrades that benefit your entire team. As you play, you earn gold by killing other demigods and capturing flags that control nearby gold nodes. In turn, you purchase equipment that improves armor stats, health regeneration, movement speed, and so on; consumables like teleport scrolls and health items; more expensive damage and buff items called artifacts; and fortress upgrades that, for example, increase the amount of experience team members receive or that improve the amount of damage defensive towers do.

This sounds complex, but the options come in a pleasing trickle, so they aren't as overwhelming as they sound. As matches progress, you'll return to base from time to time (either by foot travel, teleport, or, sadly, death), make a few purchases, and return to the fray. Nevertheless, you'll need to make tactical decisions based on how you prefer to play and to make up for potential weaknesses. Perhaps those speed-enhancing boots aren't your first choice of gear, but if crossbow master Regulus is on your heels, you may appreciate the boost. And you can't discount the strategic value of the AI-controlled reinforcements that flow from the portals on the map. These grunt armies make the battles feel even more epic, for when enemy grunts meet, chaos often follows--as do more possibilities for the warring demigods. Not only are they the best source of experience points, but they even have great value as damage-doers if you take advantage of their predetermined routes. It's a pleasant balance: simple, addicting, and flashy fantasy battles in one corner, and flexible, strategic progression in the other.

This mix provides an excellent, if not quite original, basis for some enjoyably anarchic battles. Demigod is tailored for competitive play, and online battles should, in theory, provide an unending tug of war between the forces of light and darkness. A semipersistent multiplayer mode called The Pantheon lets you earn favor points for your faction, and you can participate in one-off skirmishes with others. The big problem? Online play was barely functional at the game's launch, apparently due to the peer-to-peer networking mechanism that drives it. Connecting to other players takes an inordinately long time, if it happens at all. A connection dialogue window indicates which player is connected to whom, and there are invariably multiple players who cannot connect to others. As a result, the larger the match, the less likely you are to actually play. Furthermore, the game client may hang should you try to exit while the game attempts to connect players, leading to an unhandled exception error dialogue (and a game reboot). Connection issues are widespread, which is a disastrous blow in a game that requires online play to be of much value.

If you look for solace in Demigod's single-player offering, be aware that there is no story campaign to get lost in, only skirmishes and a tournament mode, which is essentially a series of ranked matches against the AI. Granted, the gameplay is intrinsically fun, the various demigods offer variety, and the number of options you can tweak help keep offline battles fresh. Yet with only eight maps to explore, you will soon long for a real campaign to flesh out the game's god-versus-god mythology, which is absolutely brimming with possibilities. The colorful visuals and fantastic sound effects merge wonderfully and make the battles between minor deities seem oddly authentic. The pounding of drums, the calls of wood flutes, and even the strum you hear when mousing over the game menus contribute to the atmosphere of polytheistic bloodlust. Leaving this rich milieu unexplored by a true narrative is an unfortunate oversight, particularly in a game this light on features. And while Demigod is relatively easy to learn, the lack of a tutorial of any kind will further leave newcomers cold and makes the game seem even more stripped.

In Demigod, the moment-to-moment gameplay is relatively simple. However, the varying play styles of each demigod, as well as the numerous tactical upgrades and items, offer fulfilling strategic breadth. Nevertheless, this is an overly streamlined package that doesn't hit all of the marks it should. Newcomers to this type of gameplay will bemoan its limited single-player options; competition-focused tacticians will be frustrated by crippling connection difficulties and will long for more arenas. It's a shame that these flaws are so conspicuous, because Demigod has an addictive and rewarding foundation that should have had more (and more-functional) features built upon it.

World of Goo Review

2009-05-05T09:52:00.000-07:00

World of Goo may ship in a plain-Jane box that makes it look exactly like the usual third-rate dreck that takes up space on a back shelf in your neighborhood department store, but this physics-based puzzler is one of the most innovative and addictive games to hit the PC in years. Independent developer 2D Boy has hit the jackpot, turning what appears to be a simple building game into what could just be the next casual-gaming obsession right up there with classics such as Tetris and Lemmings.

Goo balls and balloons are a winning combination.Actually, World of Goo's concept owes a big debt to Lemmings, the early '90s sensation that involved guiding suicidal green-haired goons across 2D levels loaded with hazards. The objective here is rather similar, although instead of guiding lemmings to an exit in each level, you're leading globs of goo across similarly dangerous terrain to pipes that suck them up. This rather odd task is accomplished by selecting the cute, gibberish-spouting blobs and turning them into nodules in framework buildings that reach for the sky and stretch across yawning pits like sticky scaffolding. When your wobbly structure is close enough to the level exit pipe, all of the goo balls that haven't been used as makeshift building blocks then roll over their former buddies to freedom.

Well, at least to as much freedom as can ever be offered by getting slurped into PVC plumbing. Each level requires you to "save" a set number of goo balls to succeed and move on, so you have to be economical in the amount of goo used as construction material. If you pass enough goo balls through the exit pipe to the glass beaker waiting at the other end, you win to gather goo another day. If you fall short of the required number, you do it all over again, trying to get your goo to safety in a more ecfficient fashion. Final scores are based both on the number of goo balls rescued and the amount of time you spent in the level.

Real physics and the demands of gravity always have to be taken into account, which makes this one of those easy-to-play, hard-to-master puzzle games that gradually takes over your entire life. Goo towers need to be carefully balanced so they don't become top-heavy and collapse into a pile of slime, whereas bridges have to be carefully reinforced underneath so they don't come tumbling down. At times you even need to use special items such as balloon goo to help compensate for the height or length of a structure and keep it standing. This is a lot harder than it sounds. Considering that you're dealing with, well, goo, buildings in the game are inherently unstable and tend to jiggle pretty much constantly. To compensate for this, you need to build by degrees, carefully balancing one side against the other to prevent the whole wobbly contraption from teetering over. Exit pipes are typically a long way from the beginning point of levels, requiring you to really think before you start erecting ridiculously tall skyscrapers or long, arching bridges. Knowing that your entire building could collapse at any moment adds an incredible amount of tension. The feeling is a lot like building a house of cards or playing Jenga. By the time you get within a few meters of the pipe, you're often a nervous wreck.

Goo placement is extremely tricky to handle, especially as you move farther into the 48 missions that make up the game's four chapters and epilogue. (Goo collected here is also transferred over to the World of Goo Corporation sandbox mode of play, in which you build the tallest structure you can.) Many levels are incredibly devious. Goo-killing giant windmills and machine gears have to be avoided or built around. Froggy swamps await bridges that aren't balanced properly. Spike pits lining the tops and bottoms of levels lie in wait to kill goo balls tumbling from a collapsing structure. Some tasks are quite surreal, such as the one in which you have to help goo escape from a stomach by scaling a throat and then using eyeball balloons to float away. Just about every challenge here is much tougher than it looks. You typically start a level thinking that it won't be that bad, then spend 20 minutes or more figuring out how to get past the various hidden pitfalls without either causing a structure to fall or using up too many goo balls. That said, you can succeed without being perfect. Clicking on the limited number of time bugs that flit around most levels turns back the clock on your last move, giving you a second chance if you want to reverse something disastrous.

Perhaps not surprisingly, goo balls aren't all that fond of giant spikes.
A handful of different types of goo have special abilities, all of which have to be carefully used. For example, black goo is rigid and cannot be moved after being placed. On the other hand, green goo can be moved around after initial placement, so you can rearrange structures on the fly. White goo hangs down like long water drips. Red goo can be deployed to act as helium balloons to help keep long bridges in the air over treacherous pits. Yellow goo can stick to vertical surfaces while Skull goo is impervious to being popped by spikes, for example. New goo is introduced early on in each chapter, and subsequent missions progressively ramp up the challenge and force you to put it to good use. This, along with wildly varied levels, keeps play feeling fresh throughout the entire game, even though you're always repeating the same basic task of guiding goo to exits.

Just a couple of minor flaws interfere with the gelatinous goodness on offer here. Controls can be a problem on some levels in which speed is of the essence. The basic drag-and-drop mechanics often aren't nimble enough to handle those occasional moments when you need to quickly move goo into place to prevent a collapse or some other horrible catastrophe. Given that the goo all bounce around together, it's way too easy to grab the wrong ball when time is of the essence and consequently cause a structure to crumple. It's also too easy to accidentally click on a time bug, seeing as how they tend to buzz around awfully close to your structures. There is no multiplayer, which is a shame because real-time goo building against an opponent could be great fun. At least the game does have something of an online presence, courtesy of the ability to post scores online at the end of every level and see how high other players have built towers in World of Goo Corporation mode. (Clouds float around with the names and nationalities of other players currently online.)

Visuals are a little blah for such a light-hearted, cartoony game. There are a lot of dark, dreary colors, and enough black that the hue actually gets in the way and prevents you from seeing black goo on some levels. Brighter, cheerier graphics would have added atmosphere and been a better fit for the surreal Dr. Seuss-like art style. More colors would also have better suited the peppy soundtrack, which does a fantastic job of blending jazz and pop. This music is switched up with every level, as well, further ensuring that you never get bored by lending each level its own distinct personality.

All in all, World of Goo plays like you're messing around with a slimy, virtual erector set loaded up with real physics and gravity. Don't miss one of the most original and addictive gaming experiences to come along in years.

Dead Space Review

2009-05-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

The survival horror genre is rife with games in which you are isolated in a hostile environment full of monsters, and Dead Space is no exception. But from the moment you're thrown into the middle of the fray in the heart-pounding introduction until the bone-chilling conclusion, it's clear that this is something quite unique. With its disturbingly twisted visuals, its deeply engrossing story, and innovative strategic dismemberment combat system, Dead Space is a best-in-its-class game that surpasses other entries in its venerable genre in nearly every way and will be the standard by which they are judged for years to come.

When the Concordance Extraction Corporation loses radio contact with its Planet Cracker-class mining ship, the USG Ishimura, engineer Isaac Clarke is dispatched on a routine mission to repair its communications array. However, Clarke is also on a mission of his own, having recently received a cryptic message from Nicole Brennan, a medical officer serving aboard the Ishimura. While on board he intends to reunite with her and learn the meaning behind her strange broadcast. Unfortunately, the moment you set foot on the derelict ship, it's obvious that something terrible has happened.

Meet the Necromorph. This is one lady you don't want to dance with.
As Isaac, you are separated almost immediately from the rest of your team by the former crew of the Ishimura, which has been transformed into horrifying monsters called Necromorphs. Forced to fight for his survival, Isaac makes do with the tools at hand to defend himself with, which are for the most part repurposed mining instruments like plasma welding guns or buzz saws. These improvised weapons are put to graphic, gruesome work as bodily damage and even severe head trauma isn't enough to kill a Necromorph--only by severing their limbs can you put them down for good. This nuance, referred to as strategic dismemberment, vastly alters the way combat is approached in Dead Space from the typical "aim for the head"-style gameplay seen in most action games and zombie apocalypse scenarios.

Every class of Necromorph requires a different strategy to handle, and knowing how to combat multiple types simultaneously is an essential skill if you want to survive for long. Though dismemberment is ultimately the key to victory, failing to finish off a monster properly will only send it into a berserker rage and force it to adapt to its new, partially appendageless situation so that it can continue trying to eat your face. Even more alarming than their ghastly appearances and uncouth manners is the fact that they are quite intelligent. Necromorphs attack in packs using loose team tactics, and are capable of traversing the ship's extensive ventilation system to sneak around for outflanking or ambushing. They feign death among the corpses of their peers to rise up and attack when you least expect it, and they often come in waves, leaving you wondering if it's truly over or if they're simply toying with you.

The most basic Necromorphs are humanoid monsters that attack in a frenzy. Horribly mutated undead babies also make an appearance, and they run along the walls and ceilings sprouting tentacles from their backs capable of throwing organic projectiles. Others still are heavily armored but vulnerable from behind, are bloated with dozens of spiderlike parasites that are released upon their host's death, or shriek madly as they carry explosive pods toward you in a suicidal charge. In one fully interactive gameplay sequence that comprises some of the more amazing moments to be experienced in Dead Space, you're assaulted by the gigantic tentacle of an even larger, unseen beast that drags you to a gruesome and bloody death as you struggle to shoot yourself free.

Finally, at several key points in the story, Isaac stumbles upon some of the most incredible and truly terrifying boss monsters to be seen in the survival horror genre. Though revealing the circumstances around which you confront these nightmares would do much to spoil them, it is safe to say that these epic encounters are easily some of the most remarkable seen in years.

Having all the traditional HUD elements built into your suit makes grisly scenes like this that much more immersive.

One of the first things to notice in Dead Space is that it features a complete lack of a traditional heads-up display; instead, pertinent information is integrated directly into Isaac's RIG uniform. To see his current health you need only glance at the iridescent meter built into the RIG's spine (or pay attention to his physical cues), and to see how much ammo is left in your current weapon, simply check the display readout visible whenever you raise it into the ready position. If you ever find yourself wondering where you need to be next, you need only press a key for Isaac's RIG to temporarily trace a beam of light on the ground toward your next objective. When called up, menus are holographically projected ahead of you in real time, producing a sense of urgency as you remain vulnerable to attack. These simple yet ingenious systems ensure that you remain firmly within the realm of the gameworld at all times, preserving the horror experience.

Your ultimate goal aboard the Ishimura is to escape from it, hopefully along with Nicole; but to get to that point you must first accomplish a series of dependent tasks. Guided remotely or in person by the remaining survivors of your doomed repair operation, your missions take you from deck to deck in a logical chain of events. For example, early on you discover that the ship's orbit is decaying because its engines are offline, so you must travel to engineering to refuel and restore them. Once they're back online and the Ishimura begins to correct its course, you realize that you're about to pass through an asteroid belt and that the automated defense systems are down, so it's off to do something about that.

Each deck is a self-contained environment in which you run around putting out fires while moving closer to escape, and while your team will remain in frequent contact, you are almost always alone--and most of the few survivors you do encounter have been driven insane by their ordeals. This sense of isolation in such a hostile environment, coupled with bloody visuals and a brilliant sound design, has you constantly questioning your own sanity and wondering when the next attack is coming. Further enhancing this effect are the bone-chilling logs you find left behind by the crew in which their final thoughts and moments are recorded. Though audio logs are nothing new to this type of game and are in fact often used to flesh out the backstory, these are exceptionally well done, and are accompanied by full video logs and text reports, which all together make for a much more compelling narrative.

As you explore the many decks of the Ishimura, you will come across two utilities that will prove to be of endless use: stasis and kinesis. Stasis, a finite resource that must be replenished at recharge stations across the ship or with booster packs, allows you to temporarily slow down fast-moving objects, while kinesis gives you the ability to lift, move, and throw objects in the environment at no cost. Each can be used independently or in tandem to solve puzzles or navigate the ship, and each has useful battle applications as well. For instance, stasis can be used to virtually stop incredibly fast-moving Necromorphs and give you the time to tear them limb from limb, and kinesis can be used to throw explosive canisters or even severed extremities to conserve ammunition.

Space babies like to hug your face and stab your back. They are not very lovable.
During your travels, you will find a number of areas that do not have functional gravity. In these situations, Isaac's magnetic boots will keep him grounded and allow you to perform zero-gravity jumps and attach to nearly any surface. Suddenly having a full 360-degree range of movement is a mind-bending experience, but once you get the hang of it, few experiences are as enjoyable as leaping from the floor to the ceiling to dodge an attack and then finishing off your assailant, sending its body, blood, and limbs floating off in different directions realistically. Many of these zero-g situations are also performed within a vacuum, making oxygen, in addition to your health, a scarce commodity.

Between searching for Nicole, trying to escape, and fighting for your survival, you've got your hands pretty full, but this is not to say that there aren't other things for Isaac to do. As the monsters you are killing were once people, they will occasionally drop credits that can be spent in the automated stores you will come across. RIG upgrades, health items, new weapons, and additional ammunition can all be purchased, and if you happen to find a new item schematic and take it to a store, you'll be able to buy that as well. Inventory management is a key element as you can only carry around so many medical kits or plasma cartridges. In the event that you find yourself overburdened, you can sell off your unneeded goods or toss them into the safe for pickup later at any other store location, but you may also find yourself constantly low or out of ammo if you simply go into every enemy encounter guns blazing--sometimes it's better to run and conserve ammo.

As an engineer, Isaac can make use of the numerous nanotech workbenches onboard the Ishimura to upgrade his weapons and equipment. Each upgradeable item has a circuit board arranged like a skill tree, and by soldering in power nodes (typically found in fuse boxes or purchased at the store) down a set of branching paths, functionality can be greatly increased. For example, weapons can have their damage and clip size upped, and Isaac can even increase his RIG's maximum health or the duration of his stasis ability. Fuses can also be used to override certain optional door locks, though, so if you want to be ready for potential secret-item caches, make sure you don't use up all of your power nodes.

Strategic dismemberment works both ways. Don't let this happen to you.
From engineering to hydroponics and beyond, Dead Space never fails to impress with its visuals. Whether you're watching the torrential rainfall of asteroids across the hull of the Ishimura from the bridge atrium or witnessing the way a corpse spins serenely in a zero-g vacuum, the haunting yet beautiful graphics of Dead Space have a way of sticking in your mind long after you've quit playing. Semi-interactive cutscenes such as the one in which your team's rescue ship explodes within the Ishimura docking bay simply must be seen firsthand, and the tremendous lighting and environmental effects lay the groundwork for an intense horror adventure. VSync is enabled by default, which prevents some really nasty visual tearing but adds about a half a second of lag into mouse movements. This can be compensated for by adjusting mouse sensitivity, so make sure you tweak your control settings for an optimal experience.

What really rounds out the entire experience, however, is the incredible sound design. Throughout the halls of the Ishimura, you are stalked mercilessly by the Necromorphs, and while you can't always see them, you are constantly surrounded by the menacing noises they produce or the eerie pitter-patter they make as they crawl through the ventilation shafts. You'll occasionally hear the distant screams of Necromorph victims or the creepy singing of a mentally unbalanced survivor, and environmental effects such as those generated by the sudden release of a burst of steam will keep you on the edge of your seat. Perhaps the most impressive use of audio in Dead Space takes place in a vacuum: any sounds that originate outside of Isaac's helmet are muffled and barely audible, while those from the inside, including his breathing and grunts of pain, are amplified.

Dead Space is a remarkable game from a well-tread genre that manages to stand out from its competitors in almost every way, from visual presentation to engaging story, innovative combat mechanics to fright factor. Whether you're looking for a terrifying horror experience or a deeply story-driven adventure that will keep you engaged for 15-20 hours, Dead Space is a fantastic game that you should not pass on.

Crysis Warhead Review

2009-05-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

All of the claims you may have heard that Crysis could only run on nuclear-powered supermachines were greatly exaggerated. But if for some reason you worry that this stand-alone companion to the ultragorgeous first-person shooter will bring your PC to its knees, you should know that it's highly scalable and ran smoothly on a number of machines during our testing. It also looks better, with clear attention given to the game's artistic sensibilities and the lusher, denser environments. But rest assured, developer Crytek has enhanced more than just the graphics engine. Vehicles are more fun to drive, firefights are more intense and focused, and aliens do more than just float around you. More emphasis on the open-ended environments would have been welcome, but a more exciting (though shorter) campaign, a new multiplayer mode, and a whole bunch of new maps make Crysis Warhead an excellent expansion to one of last year's best shooters.

These big boys are back, and will still give you a chill. Literally.
If you didn't play Crysis, Warhead's story may be initially confusing, given that you hit the ground running with little exposition. You play as Sergeant "Psycho" Sykes, the brash Brit who was a bit player in the original game. Psycho tends to play by his own rules, always willing to ignore orders and jump into the fray if that's what the situation requires. The story runs parallel to the events of Crysis, though his strident attitude--and a dramatic cutscene near the end of the game--definitely make this Psycho's tale, even if the actual plot remains the same. In any case, you and your US Special Forces team are investigating a tropical island besieged by North Korean invaders. However, your greatest menace comes in the form of aggressive aliens that turn the luxuriant jungles and glowing beaches into a frozen wasteland. You and your teammates, clad in nanosuits that grant you special abilities such as super strength, temporary cloaking, super speed, and additional armor, confront both threats across a variety of large environments.

Psycho's brazen confidence does more than just establish a gutsy protagonist: It sets the stage for a more focused and intense series of battles that keep the pace moving more smoothly than before. Warhead still offers some of the same kind of sandbox levels, but thoughtful enemy placement and map bottlenecks keep downtime to a minimum. You can approach assaults on beachfronts and Korean encampments in a number of ways, so if you're a stealth enthusiast, you can employ your suit's cloak setting and sneak in, or attach a silencer to your sniper rifle and take out your human foes from a distance. If you would rather employ hit-and-run tactics, you can jump into the heat of battle, cause a ruckus, and use your suit's speed function to zoom away. However, Warhead is clearly focused on the guns-blazing approach, gently nudging you into full-on encounters with its mission objectives, character dialogue, and level design. When you reach primary and secondary destinations, you'll get besieged by large numbers of enemies, both human and (later on) alien. Given that human foes also don nanosuits, they're not necessarily quick to fall; as a result, these sequences are exciting and challenging, and you'll need to use your suit abilities and cover opportunities to your advantage. The easily triggered explosions of enemy vehicles and hazardous barrels further intensify these pockets of activity.

A number of set-piece battles confirm this slight shift toward action-packed mayhem. Your first encounter with a hulking alien war machine may not have the same impact as a similar one in Crysis, but it happens earlier than you'd expect, and it establishes the alien presence with adrenaline-fueled drama. That battle is a wonder, as is a later defensive mission that has you fending off a series of aliens, and requires you to shift focus frequently and use every weapon in your inventory. Another great sequence is a train level that, at first, seems much like similar sequences in a number of other shooters. You can stay on the train and use turrets to gun down the opposition, as expected--but you can also jump off and engage the opposition at any time, giving even this near-cliche sequence plenty of replay value. A linear journey through an underground mine is the obvious misstep in regard to level design, given that it never so much as hints at the open-ended action that makes Warhead a superb shooter.

Better vehicle handling makes for better action.
If you played only that level, you also wouldn't see the host of improvements that power the action, particularly the improvements to alien artificial intelligence. The general design means that these robotic rivals will occasionally still be floating around above you, but they have more obvious smarts now, and they find ways to pummel you with ice pellets while remaining just out of sight, staying on the move, and using cover more often. Human enemies also seem more aware of their surroundings, flank you more often, and activate their nanosuits' armor to minimize damage. They also use the limited visibility that the jungle affords them quite well, hiding in brush to stay just out of sight. There are some remaining problems, particularly if you take potshots from a distance. Occasionally, the AI won't react when you snipe at an enemy, and foes using turrets will sometimes let you walk right up behind them. On the whole, however, Warhead makes clear improvements over the original in this regard, which in turn makes for better combat overall.

Vehicles feel sturdy, which is just as well, because you'll be driving them often, either to cover ground more quickly, or just to take pleasure in mowing down enemies with your mounted weapons. You can have a good deal of fun blazing a trail through the jungle while showering your foes with steel death, and the destructible environments further exaggerate the devastation. A scene in which you speed across the tundra in a hovercraft is done particularly well, offering a good sense of speed but pushing you into enemy hotbeds, giving you the chance to stop and fight or zip away with a quick glimpse of Koreans riddling aliens with bullets.

The improved vehicle handling is also noticeable on one of the new multiplayer maps, on which two teams battle in--and out of--the tanks and helicopters scattered about. This is good stuff, and it showcases Warhead's new Team Instant Action mode, a mode noticeably missing from the original Crysis. It's just good old Team Deathmatch, but it's done well, and the maps are improvements on those of the original. Snipers are still a threat, but the size of the maps are better suited to deathmatch battles, and more thought and care seem to have gone into small but important factors, such as weapon-cache placements and player spawns. The Instant Action and Power Struggle modes are still accounted for, and many of the original maps return, offering a large suite of online options that make online Warhead combat more appealing than its predecessor. Note that unlike Crysis, the expansion requires the online component to be installed separately, and isn't accessible from the single-player game.

Here they come! And this time, they don't just aimlessly float above you.
Both online and off, Warhead is a beauty. As mentioned before, the game looks better than Crysis, and it runs better too. A test machine that struggled a bit to run the original at high settings ran Warhead smoothly with the same settings. Yet as much as you may have heard about Crysis' technical prowess, you'll still be impressed when you feast your eyes on the swaying vegetation, surging water, and expressive animations. Don't overlook the improved art design, though, which surpasses the original's oft-sterile look thanks to several striking vistas, such as one featuring an icy naval vessel stranded in the frozen tundra. The audio is almost as terrific. Various creaks and groans make heading down a narrow glacial pathway all the more harrowing, and weapons sound appropriately powerful. The voice acting is strong, and the understated soundtrack sets the right tone without ever getting in the way.

Warhead's single-player campaign should take you no more than six hours or so to complete, but not only does it invite multiple play-throughs, it costs only $30--and doesn't require you to own the original. In other words, there is no reason why anyone with a capable PC shouldn't play Crysis Warhead. It's more focused, it's more intense, and though it doesn't provide as much of the sandbox feel as Crysis veterans would wish for, it still delivers on every other front. Play this game.

Empire: Total War Review

2009-05-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Like diving into a murky lake from the rocky cliffs looming above, plunging into Empire: Total War is an intimidating prospect but an exhilarating experience. As with previous games in this strategy franchise, there's an overwhelming amount of content to unearth, though now the clock has been spun forward hundreds of years. Technological advances have made bows and arrows weapons obsolete, the British colonies strive for independence, and major empires approach their inevitable collapse. These historical waters are deep, but also a bit turbulent. Empire is the biggest and broadest Total War yet, and like an aging historical parchment, it's brilliantly ambitious in scope but somewhat tattered at the edges. Nevertheless, the game's historical breadth, turn-based tugs-of-war, and enjoyable real-time battles (both on land and at sea) will transfix series fans and newcomers alike.

The grand campaign is the meat of Empire: Total War, and it's there where you're likely to spend the most amount of time. The game stretches across the 18th century and lets you choose from a number of world powers, from Great Britain and Russia to fallen domains such as the Maratha Confederacy and the Ottoman Empire. Once you choose an empire, you can select from a few different campaign types that determine victory conditions and campaign length. Whichever you decide, be prepared: Even a short, 50-year campaign can take a good amount of time to complete, given that each turn requires strategic thinking on multiple fronts. Battles usually determine how regions are won and lost, but diplomatic relations, economic strangleholds, assassinations, and many other subtleties must be tweaked and considered at each turn, and they have noticeable impact as the years progress. If this sounds overwhelming, or if you're an American history buff, you'll want to check out the Road to Independence campaign before jumping into the grand one. This is essentially a long American tutorial that slowly introduces you to the basics and culminates in a grand campaign of its own.

The factors you must consider run the gamut, starting with an important new feature: the technology tree. Three areas of research and multiple subtrees let you improve your military, industry, and philosophy; in turn, your choices may benefit your economy or your success in battle. The benefits may seem minor at first, but as the campaign wears on, their effects are more noticeable, and your choices within these trees must be informed by the strengths and weaknesses of your particular empire. Do you concentrate on industry and use sheer numbers of troops to overwhelm your enemies, or do you focus on naval improvements and reap the ensuing benefits of successful trade-route blockades? As your campaign wears on, your needs may shift, whether because enemy blockades require a stronger navy, because you are spreading quickly across land, or because your economy is unable to sustain your growing army. Technology is also a limited diplomatic option, given that it's a commodity that you can not only trade during negotiations but also steal from foes. Additionally, it's not easy to convince a friendly nation to offer technology. Even when offered multiple technologies or monetary compensation, your closest allies rarely accept a request to share even a single technology, which makes it a limited political tool. In Empire: Total War, knowledge is more easily stolen than shared.

In fact, your more successful political dealings are the underhanded ones. Your agents may differ between nations (for example, gentlemen and rakes for the British, scholars and hashishin for the Ottomans), but the tasks are similar: covertly disrupt the affairs of your enemies and potential enemies. Religious agents such as missionaries will slowly but surely convert the populace, staving off potential rebellion in newly captured regions. On the other hand, the impact of religion is not as deep or impactful as in the Europa Universalis series, in which social and diplomatic events are more fully explored. Regardless, it's great fun to cripple whole economies, especially when your strategies work in tandem with each other. Sending in a naval fleet to seize enemy trade supplies, sending another directly into an enemy's port (and therefore obstructing incoming goods), and dispatching an agent to sabotage commercial ports can have profound effects. In cases like these, an angry, resource-deprived public and cash-strapped armies then ease the way for a quick triumph.

Nevertheless, this is Total War, and though assassinations and sabotage lighten your wartime load, there are no diplomatic, religious, or technological victories. Might is right, and as such, your armies and navies drive the quick spread of your domain--and if you want to meet the campaign's success requirements, you'll want to be aggressive, right from the start. The artificial intelligence doesn't always take sensible steps; smaller countries may declare war, only to be quickly steamrolled, whereas major foes can seem almost oblivious to your spread across their regions. However, campaign AI is good enough to keep you occupied across multiple theaters, and minor nations and rebels can often keep your hands full, leaving room for major foes to invade. You will review every fleet and army at every turn, and now that army recruitment, resource production, and other aspects of play are spread across multiple locales within a region, mobility (and therefore, roads) is an important strategic asset.

Unlike with most turn-based historical games, battles can be played out in real time, and though the autoresolve option may look tempting, you should, at least on land, manage any battle in which you have a reasonable chance of winning. The most obvious reason is that they're enjoyable to command and enjoyable to watch. Thousands of units clash in a dizzying mass of artillery and bullets, camels and swordsmen, and as in prior Total War games, it's more about position, formation, and geography than about unit micromanagement. Garrisoning musketeers, and taking heat off of cavalry by keeping enemy gunmen occupied with melee infantry, are just a few of many possibilities to consider. Once armies clash, these prebattle decisions generally have far more impact than any midskirmish choice, and it's as enjoyable as ever to zoom in close to your troops and watch them engage. The landscapes are on the bland side, but soldier animations and the general amount of model detail make for a wonderful visual treat.

The other reason you'll want to play out most battles in real time is that the real-time AI is weak and can be exploited to your advantage. Enemy troops often fail to engage you, even when under direct fire. It isn't uncommon for your AI opponent to use only a few units at any given time and let you get an early upper hand, particularly when you have taken care with your formations during the deployment phase. This is especially true on settlement maps, in which narrow paths must be taken into account and buildings can be used for garrisoning. The AI is often confused by garrisoned troops, letting cavalry get pummeled by gunfire without taking any steps to reposition, even at higher difficulty settings. And at times the artificial intelligence is outright broken. On multiple occasions, we watched units refuse to engage or respond to attack commands, our own troops and the enemy troops milling among each other as if they were at a cocktail party rather than in the midst of battle. Other battle quirks--such as rare moments when movement across the map occurs in slow motion, as if troops are moving through mud instead of a grassy field--may also crop up.

Real-time naval battles are another new feature, and they are the most impressive visual offering here. The water is absolutely stunning and the ships are incredibly detailed, down to the movement of sails and oars, as well as the movement of troops on the decks. As ships take damage, debris falls from the hull and litters the water, all while fireships may be volleying flames into the air. It's the best-looking naval combat in any game, and it is compelling when in top form. Like land battles, naval warfare benefits from smart positioning, and you can further micromanage by choosing different ammo types, firing your cannons manually, and even by grappling and boarding another ship. But as with land warfare, the AI seems incapable of managing the battle with much success on normal and hard difficulties. In dozens upon dozens of naval battles, the enemy deployed ships in the same exact manner and always focused on doing hull damage, but never on alternate strategies such as using grape shot to whittle down a crew and then initiating boarding. In a stand-alone naval skirmish using default deployments on normal AI settings, we won a battle after issuing a whopping two commands during the entire match; if you want a challenge in one-off naval battles, crank up the difficulty level to expert.

As problematic as the AI can be, both types of battles are fun to play, and the addition of oceanic combat fleshes out the package well, making for multifaceted gameplay that encompasses a lot more than it could be expected to. This includes a number of multiplayer options, both over a local area network and online. You can battle both on land and at sea in a one-off skirmish for up to eight players; take part in a one-on-one siege in which one player defends a fortress while the other attacks; or engage in a historical scenario, such as the battle of Brandywine Creek. Sadly, a full multiplayer campaign like the impressive 32-player extravaganza featured in Europa Universalis III is not yet part of this package, though developer Creative Assembly has announced that a multiplayer campaign mode will be added later.

The strengths of the core gameplay are far more apparent when you're playing against real people. As with prior Total War games, you get finite resources to spend on units of your choice, you can customize weather, and you can narrow unit selections to early or late 18th century. Without the bizarre AI behavior, you can concentrate on real battlefield tactics and not on exploitation, and matches can be an absolute blast. The measured approach and attempts to flank, the intimidating presence of a rocket troop, the final standoff of two fatigued units: These moments make Empire: Total War's multiplayer options worth returning to again and again. Naval battles are also much more fun when facing a human opponent, who will be likelier to slow your frigates by using chain shot, and to take advantage of tactical positioning and effective deployment.

However, you may very well need to turn down your graphics options when entering an online match, lest the frame rate drop to a crawl under the weight of the game's ambitions. Indeed, Empire: Total War requires a lot of horsepower to run, and it's prone to peculiar behavior, even on systems that exceed recommended requirements. We experienced a few crashes on several machines, and the game tends to slow the longer that it has been running. On two test systems, the soft haze applied to distant objects also blurred out some ship geometry and the onscreen compass, and various other graphical bugs cropped up from time to time. At least within battle, however, it seems that this power is being put to mostly good use; hundreds if not thousands of individually animated troops can be onscreen at any given time. Pleasant weather effects, the din of clashing swords, the pop of gunfire--all of these elements make for an enjoyable audiovisual experience during battles.

It's impossible to condense an experience as broad and as rich as Empire: Total War to a few thousand words. Its complex amalgam of turn-based empire building and real-time skirmishing is exciting and involving, and it's both fuller and more streamlined than its predecessors. But like those predecessors, it inspires that compulsion to accomplish just one last turn, even when your eyes are bleary and your body longs for sleep. Although some rough edges are in serious need of sanding, this is a complex and rewarding game that will keep strategy fanatics tied to their keyboards for months at a time.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Review

2009-05-05T09:24:00.000-07:00

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is a fun and fascinating game with a bit of an identity crisis. In one corner you have an explosively intense multiplayer real-time strategy experience, brimming with savagely satisfying competition. In the other, you have an odd and somewhat enjoyable single-player campaign that plays more like an action role-playing game than an RTS. The relationship between these two disparate entities is superficial; the structure and gameplay of the campaign has little in common with that of your skirmishes against other players or the computer. It's a bizarre dichotomy that doesn't always work, but online play is so deeply rewarding that the scattered campaign missteps are easily forgiven.

Slugga boyz are no match for the gigantic carnifex.
The first question that you might ask yourself as you play Dawn of War II's lengthy campaign may very well be: Where does the strategy come in? It's certainly not your typical RTS experience, putting you in control of up to four squads of Space Marines (and only Space Marines) and sending you off to exterminate your Ork, Eldar, and Tyranid foes. You won't be building a base or churning out units, but rather maneuvering your few commander-led squads around the map (likely as a single group) and beating up the beasties that stand between you and your mission objectives. Your goals may entail capturing a particular structure, recovering a stolen object, or even defeating an end-level boss(!). How's that for defying genre conventions?

This relatively simple gameplay is not what you'd expect from a strategy game, and strategy fans, including those who adored Dawn of War II's illustrious predecessor, will be disappointed that the "S" is missing from "RTS" in this instance. That's because the campaign is more akin to an action RPG, and if you look at it from this perspective, you're more likely to enjoy the journey. The game isn't going to dissuade you from that approach; the elements of a role-playing game are all accounted for. You will level up your squads and earn new abilities and bonuses, collect items and loot on the battlefield, and spend time between battles equipping your commanders with the various armor sets and weapons that you earn. With these RPG mechanics come the usual addictive loot-hoarding and unit personalization, what with various skill paths from which to choose and usable items that your commanders can equip.

Thus, Dawn of War II's single-player campaign isn't really strategic at all, but you will make tactical decisions that move beyond simple mouse clicking. In a mechanic pulled from the developer's own Company of Heroes, some squads can lay down suppressive fire, which slows your targets and hinders them from a quick escape. Units can be garrisoned or take cover behind certain objects, a mechanic easy to implement thanks to a slick interface and simple but effective visual feedback. However, the most important facet of a successful battle is your familiarity with each commander's unique abilities. Whether it is one's rally cry or another's jump-pack-powered stomp, effective use of skills (along with items such as grenades and satchel charges) is not only your key to victory, but also a visual and sonic delight. Seeing a dreadnought squash a ripper swarm, or a lictor alpha yank a powerless assault marine with its lethal flesh hooks, is enjoyably violent and makes battles fun to watch.

The campaign may be limited to one race, but it sends you to three different planets, including Typhon Primaris.

It takes a while for the campaign to rev up, but even once it is in full swing, some tedium will eventually set in. You'll visit the same maps many times and fight the same enemies, and though the prospect of loot and new abilities will keep you pushing forward and trying out new options, you'll long for some more traditional RTS gameplay to mix things up. You'll also wish for a stronger tale to glue it all together, but in a surprising move by a developer known for great storytelling, the yarn unravels one or two interesting threads (including the surprising origins of your dreadnought commander) but is little more than a reason to throw a bunch of Warhammer 40K units together and watch them tear each other to bits.

For a different approach, you can invite a friend to play campaign missions cooperatively, and though this option is welcome, its implementation could have used some tweaking. Dawn of War II provides no co-op matchmaking option, so you'll need to know the Windows Live ID of your prospective companion to explore that possibility. Also bear in mind that though the game's host will reap the persistent experience and loot rewards, the guest will leave everything behind when returning to his or her own campaign. It's fun to play with a friend, though. You split command duties with your partner, so the moment-to-moment gameplay requires less micromanagement but gives you more leeway to play around with tactical options.

Dawn of War II's multiplayer component couldn't be more different from its single-player campaign. For those interested in the joys of online competition, you'll find an exciting, brutal, and highly competitive strategy experience awaiting you online. It's more traditionally structured than the campaign, in the sense that you will manage some resources and churn out some units of your own choosing from a base structure. It's also more strategic, as is obvious from the moment you enter the multiplayer menus. You have four races to choose from: Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Tyranid. Once you've selected a race, you choose from one of three commanders, each with a particular role to play in battle. A Tyranid ravener alpha can dig tunnels, granting your units quick travel when you most need it; an Eldar warlock will embolden the front lines with its powerful spells. Not only does each race come with its own strengths and weaknesses, but your choice of commander (and the accompanying abilities) will further determine the appropriate play style. There are a lot of different ways to play, and many of the different strategies make themselves obvious in just a few hours of play.

The hive tyrant's halitosis is even more pungent when you equip seismic roar.
Those strategies are incredibly important, because Dawn of War II strips away the base building of traditional RTSs and puts the burden of success directly on how well you manage your units and how efficiently you exert control over the moment-to-moment proceedings of the match. You'll still queue up your units at a home structure, but resource gathering is inextricably tied to the action, given that you must capture control nodes scattered around the map to generate power and requisition. Actually, you might say that there are three resources: to activate certain global powers, you must fill a gauge by slaying enemy units.

This structure forces you immediately into the thick of action, and you might even encounter your foe in the first minute of play, should you both rush for the same node. Knowing the strengths of your squads is the only way to survive. A shielded hive tyrant and ripper swarm can soak up a lot of damage, so it might be best to capture the node first before assaulting units jockeying for the same position. On the other hand, Eldar enthusiasts may want to off the enemy with a few fire prisms before attempting capture. Throw in equippable skills and items for your commander and squads, and you've got a recipe for intense action spread across the entire map. Indeed, Dawn of War II's multiplayer matches are insanely fun even when you're on the losing side because you're constantly engaged with every facet of gameplay at any given moment.

This is especially true in the game's awesome six-player team battles because triumph comes by way of Dawn of War II's victory nodes, which must be captured in addition to those that contain resources. Like in the Battlefield series of first-person shooters, capturing one of these positions causes the opposing team's point total to diminish. The more victory points you hold, the faster your foe's points bleed away, and you win the match by stripping them down to zero. A closely fought match retains its powerful vigor for the duration, and the longer you fight, the more likely you'll see some of the game's most impressive units and abilities. A lumbering carnifex sporting a venom cannon is a sight to behold in the fury of battle, and the looming sight of a looted tank covered in makeshift spikes is both imposing and amusing. The well-designed maps are the perfect size for these skirmishes, though the small number of maps--seven in all--is disappointing. Likewise, there aren't any large-scale free-for-alls: At release, Dawn of War II's multiplayer maps support only one-versus-one and three-versus-three matches. Fortunately, the unpredictable nature of the gameplay keeps the maps feeling fresh, as does the keen artificial intelligence, should you limit your fight to computer-controlled commanders.

You can paint your online army. Remember: The Tyranids prefer color coordination.
Dawn of War II's impressive production values enhance the intensity of your encounters. The game looks great across the board, from its outstanding destructible environments, to shimmering ambient lighting, to remarkable unit animations that make every battle look as though the entire war hinges on it. Although zooming in close to units isn't very helpful from a gameplay perspective, doing so reveals a wealth of terrific details, such as the rusted plating on dreadnoughts or a hormagaunt's chillingly sharp talons. Explosions, warp blasts, and other special effects not only look great, but also sound absolutely phenomenal. A barrage of intense battle sounds will burst from your speakers, but individual touches such as the way Orks call out "dakka dakka dakka" as they fire their weapons emerge with clarity. Assisted by a cinematic orchestral soundtrack that swells with drama without overreaching, the sound design provides a constant stream of audio feedback that puts you in the thick of the action without crossing the lines of good taste.

How you approach Dawn of War II depends on what you're looking for in a real-time strategy game. If you're looking for an incredibly fun and intense multiplayer and single-player skirmish experience, few RTSs provide combat this exciting and dynamic. If you were hoping for a similarly dynamic campaign mode, you'll find that the strategy has been mostly stripped away in favor of role-playing elements. This divide may help the game appeal to a wider audience, but it also leads to an identity crisis that Dawn of War II never comes to grips with. Regardless, this is a game that real-time strategy lovers should play, if not for the loot-happy leveling of the campaign, then certainly for the constantly enjoyable online component that will keep you glued to the screen for hours at a time.

Left 4 Dead Review

2009-05-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

The zombie apocalypse. Be honest: You've thought about it. When most humans have been turned into shambling, flesh-hungry monsters, how will you fare? Whether you fancy yourself an intrepid survivor or an infected savage, Left 4 Dead is the game for you. Battling your way through the grim, desolate world is always tense and challenging, thanks to the unpredictable, relentless enemies. It's equally thrilling to play as one of the zombies (aka the infected), coordinating deadly ambushes as you try to kill the survivors. Nevertheless, Left 4 Dead's well-crafted gameplay simply must be experienced in multiplayer. Human teammates (or enemies) make each play-through dynamic, mitigating the game's two hang-ups: limited map selection and uninspired friendly AI. Despite these hitches, Left 4 Dead is a remarkably fun, excitingly tense game that will make you want to revisit the apocalypse again and again.

The zombie electrician's union won't be happy about this one.
There are four campaigns in Left 4 Dead, each spanning five levels. The first four levels end in safe houses (places to heal and rearm free of the zombie menace), and the final level ends in a desperate stand as you wait for your rescue vehicle to arrive. You'll travel through urban, suburban, and rural areas, each one grim, desolate, and littered with evidence of the apocalyptic event. You never learn exactly what happened, but the rich environments and thoughtful graffiti set the stage expertly. One campaign on normal difficulty (the second of four tiers) takes about an hour to complete, so you'll soon become familiar with each set of maps. Although the limited selection and grim, overcast color palette can sometimes feel a bit repetitious, the dynamic enemies, varying weapon and ammo spawns, and ever-changing human factor combine to make each play-through feel surprisingly unique.

Left 4 Dead stars four charismatic survivors whose appearances and personalities add an immersive element to the game. They each banter in appropriate, often amusing ways when healthy, and they become more subdued and anxious when injured. The character models are top-notch, and there's nothing quite like looking at the macho biker when he is injured and seeing fear creep across his face as he begins to doubt that he'll survive. Seeing the relief on his face when you heal him is almost as satisfying as the relief you'll feel when your AI allies heal you. Their team spirit doesn't stop there: they'll shout out when the find ammo or health, and, crucially, will pick you up when you've been incapacitated by an enemy.

For all of their good qualities, you'll definitely appreciate your fellow survivors more when there's human controlling them. AI teammates are definitely competent when it comes to killing the infected, rescuing you from the enemy's clutches, and reviving you when you're down. However, they aren't particularly keen on using explosives or defending strategically, so while you choose to camp out on an elevated platform to better defend against the horde, they generally won't be inclined to join you. Though you can certainly end up with equally uncooperative human teammates, you can at least communicate your strategy to them or, in a pinch, call an on-the-fly vote to boot them from the game.

The hunting rifle is particularly deadly with a keyboard and mouse.
When you play with one or more competent teammates, Left 4 Dead is an absolute blast. Even if you've played every level many times, you'll still find the infected are distributed in different, unpredictable patterns. They may be milling around in a parking lot, half-oblivious to your passing, or they may come screaming at you from around a corner or over a building. They look nasty, run fast, scream hideously, claw viciously, and, best of all, they die in a wide variety of superbly animated ways (often with explosive decapitations or flying limbs). You might get jumped in a hallway, stairwell, both, or neither. Each area of the level becomes a potential battleground, so you have to be constantly vigilant, ready to make a defensive stand or rescue a teammate at a moment's notice.

The difficulty changes as you play. The game throws tougher, more numerous foes at dominant survivors and offers periods of respite or more frequent resupply to beleaguered teams. You carry one primary weapon, like a shotgun or assault rifle, as well as one (or two) pistols with unlimited ammunition. You can also pick up pipe bombs and molotov cocktails, which are each fantastically deadly in their own unique ways. These powerful explosives, along with primary weapon ammo and health boosts, are vital to your survival. However, supplies are often hidden in rooms that are slightly off the beaten path, and slowing down to explore more areas will put you at higher risk for a zombie attack. This risk-reward element adds another strategic consideration, which further ramps up the tension. There are so many ways that your journey could go awry, from human error to strategic miscalculation to flat-out zombie inundation, that you'll have to be constantly on your toes to adapt if you hope to survive. It is this tension that keeps each campaign uniquely challenging and makes survival so fantastically rewarding.

Of course, your goal isn't always survival. When you play Versus mode, it is often the exact opposite. Two teams of up to four players each compete for points in this mode. Survivors earn points by progressing through the campaigns, though only two of the four are playable in this mode. The infected earn points by damaging and killing survivors, and the teams switch sides at the end of each level. Furthermore, the infected players spawn as zombies with special powers. Boomers vomit on survivors, marking them as targets for the ravenous horde of normal zombies; smokers lasso survivors with a long, froglike tongue; hunters pounce and viciously tear survivors apart; and the rare tank just smashes everyone with his massive bulk. It's frightening enough to encounter these uniquely deadly enemies in the campaign mode, dealing with their disgusting sounds and vicious attacks that seem to come at the worst times. It's a whole different level of horror when you know it's your friend who has pinned you down and is clawing out your guts.

'Tis better to gut than to be gutted.
For survivors, Versus mode is a faster-paced game because the longer you take, the more opportunities the infected have to ambush you. For the infected, it's a whole different Left 4 Dead experience. Instead of fighting your way through an endless, nebulous enemy force as you drive toward your objective, you have to plan and execute targeted strikes on a small, mobile group. The areas you once plotted to defend now become grounds for ambush. There are even certain walls that the infected can climb or break through, creating entirely new routes for moving through each level. Zombie players have to be careful because they are much weaker than survivors and can easily fall victim to bullets from any of the game's well-tuned weapons. However, they will continue to spawn until the survivors die or reach safety, so they have multiple opportunities to spring attacks throughout the level. It's very satisfying to vomit on your survivor friends, summoning the horde to devour them. It's a whole different level of awesomeness to drag them out of the resulting chaos and slowly choke them to death as they desperately call for help.

Between the tense campaign and the frenetic Versus mode, Left 4 Dead offers two distinct flavors of multiplayer action that are equally delicious when enjoyed with friends. The single-player experience (and the marginally better but somewhat sluggish split-screen mode) isn't as tasty, simply because the friendly AI can't compare to a human teammate. Between play sessions, you may find yourself craving more maps, but once you're in the game, you'll be so consumed by your quest to survive that you'll likely be grateful for your knowledge of the terrain. It's a tricky proposition for a game to serve up such seemingly meager variety, but Left 4 Dead does so with panache, and gamers will likely be enjoying this recipe for a long time.

Far Cry 2 Review

2009-05-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

In Far Cry 2's chaotic world of mercenaries, gunrunners, and armed militias, you'll find yourself dropped into a dizzying web of shady clients and paper-thin alliances. All manner of names and faces are introduced during the course of the storyline, but the real star isn't anyone brandishing a smuggled weapon in search of blood diamonds; it's the daunting and awe-inspiring 50-square kilometers of African landscape that make up the game's open-world setting. Aside from providing the opportunity to soak up an amazing sunset, Far Cry 2's free-roaming terrain brilliantly harmonizes with the first-person combat. The diverse landscape and myriad environmental factors work alongside a wide assortment of weaponry to give you tremendous freedom to approach each mission. Combined with solid multiplayer, Far Cry 2's sheer breadth of action provides you with plenty of reason to stay lost in the African wilderness despite an underwhelming plot and the occasional sense of tedium in navigating from one location to another on the gargantuan map.

Far Cry 2 is quite the looker.

Far Cry 2's story is filled with potential. You're a mercenary working for a client who's sent you to an unnamed African nation engulfed in civil war, and your job is to take out a notorious arms dealer known as "The Jackal." He quickly proves to be an elusive figure, so you'll need to begin working for various warring factions that the Jackal has armed so you can trace the supply line back to your target. The two primary organizations at the heart of all this bloodshed are the militaristic UFLL and the revolutionary APR. You'll spend the bulk of the story working for these two groups, getting to know their power structures, and taking on all of the violent tasks they throw your way. Complicating things is the fact that your character has malaria, which means you'll need to occasionally play nice with the more ragtag Underground, the only group with the medical connections necessary to keep your potentially life-threatening symptoms at bay.

Each story mission can be played in multiple ways. There are 12 potential buddies randomly scattered throughout the storyline who you can befriend (nine of whom are available to choose as your silent protagonist), and they're often keen to tack on their own interests to the quests handed out by the UFLL and APR. Instead of just taking out a target, you have the option to earn extra reputation points by working alongside your buddy to first squeeze any remaining assets from the soon-to-be-deceased. This also earns you the ability to increase your level of companionship with that buddy. It's a neat reward, but it doesn't shed much light on their backgrounds. But that's par for the course; the main story is delivered in such a rushed, quick-and-dirty way that you never feel very involved in the game's overarching conflicts. The plot is less Blood Diamond than it is early Grand Theft Auto, a long roster of changing faces that scroll by far too quickly to capitalize on the politically charged setting.

Although disappointing for a single-player campaign that could easily drain more than 30 hours of your time, any shortcomings in the plot are mostly forgivable thanks to Far Cry 2's overall structure. The game is organized in a way that provides a daunting amount of freedom to explore, earn currency, and wreak havoc on the game's landscape and its denizens. It's all laid out in a manner typical of sandbox action games. Pulling out your map reveals a collection of icons that signify available missions and points of interest that you can meander toward at your own leisure. Among these are dozens of side missions that you can take on, with various forms of rewards. Delivering transit papers to trapped refugees earns you malaria medication, destroying rival convoys for gun merchants unlocks new weapons for purchase, and performing assassinations for mysterious voices at the other end of your cell phone rewards you with diamonds. You can also rough up militias stationed in small camps and turn their dwellings into your own safe houses. The side missions can feel a bit repetitive when played through in rapid succession, but they offer a great change of tempo when sprinkled throughout the main narrative. But what's most clever is how their differing rewards intermingle so wonderfully with your needs in progressing through the story: Malaria pills keep your HP and stamina up, diamonds buy you new weapons and ability upgrades, and safe houses provide temporary shelter to stock up and save your game.

With so much ground to cover, you'll be spending a lot of time driving, boating, running, and swimming.

The freedom of choice that goes with selecting which mission you want to perform carries over to how you execute them, and that's where Far Cry 2 really shines. There are a variety of factors that affect the way you approach each mission, from the number of people you need to kill, to the landscape, to the weather and time of day. If your job is to take out a key figure hidden deep within a militia camp in the jungle, you'll do well to take a nap at your safe house until nightfall and silently stalk your prey under the cover of darkness. If it's a windy day and you need to take out a bandit outpost in the dry plains, you can start a fire from far away with a flare gun and let the breeze and arid conditions collude to spread the flames toward their camp, finishing off the survivors with a sniper rifle. Need to clear out a bunch of scattered guards? Why not shoot an oil drum near an ammo stockpile and watch as the bullets erupt in every direction like deadly pieces of popcorn? Of course, you can also get up close and personal with pistols and machine guns, but the moments in which elaborately planned assaults succeed are some of the most gratifying points in the game. The whole process of staging an attack only becomes more intricate and rewarding as you slowly upgrade your safe house into a full-blown armory and unlock new weapon and vehicle abilities--all done through the gun shops.

The sheer variety of weapons plays a big role in your ability to craft a personalized approach to each mission. For every situation, there's a weapon ideally suited to delivering mercenary justice. From the AK-47 to the Molotov cocktail and the remote-detonated improvised explosive device, they all feel like weapons that could easily be plucked from the civil wars of Africa. Furthermore, your weapons will cycle through an authentic level of wear and tear, particularly those picked up from ragtag militiamen; secondhand weapons will show dirt, frequently jam, and eventually break, which means that it's best to buy them from the shop. All of the above makes for a uniquely desperate and makeshift style of combat compared to other first-person shooters.

Fire is often your best friend, but not when it's raining or a mission takes you to a dense jungle.

If there's one drawback to the combat, it's that it tends to be a little too forgiving after the first few hours of the game. Your health is divided into several individually regenerative bars like Resistance: Fall of Man, but once it gets low, you can inject yourself with a syrette for added health (though if it's really low, you'll first need to perform a slick self-heal such as yanking bullet shells out of your leg or snapping a broken arm back into place). You can eventually upgrade the amount of ammo and health you have to further tip the odds in your favor, and even have a buddy rescue you whenever you die (though you need to keep an eye on him because he can be permanently killed in a scuffle). Most of the challenge arrives when you're looking at your map in search of the next mission and then get surprised by a bunch of roadside bandits while you're driving one of the game's numerous run-down SUVs or river boats (which exist alongside hang-gliders, trucks, licensed Jeeps, and dune buggies as the types of vehicles you can operate). However, there are still very few moments when you don't feel like an everyman caught in a nasty situation, and that sort of improvised payback is what makes Far Cry 2's combat so engrossing.

Visually, Far Cry 2 is a stunner. Though not as technically amazing as the jungles of Crysis, Far Cry 2's depiction of the sprawling African wilderness makes up for it with environmental diversity and intimidating scale. Several landscapes are represented here: dense forests, rolling plains, arid deserts, craggy badlands, and even shantytowns and hut villages. You'll see trees swaying, the charred remains of a brush fire, and several forms of wildlife running around. It all looks incredible in the transitional period of the day-night cycle when the sun is falling or rising through the horizon and everything is cast in a warm glow. The game also sounds great, with tribal music accompanying you at all times, from a relaxing ambience in calm situations to a rapidly escalating roar of drums in battle. The voice acting during mission briefings feels strangely hurried (as if it's some trick to squeeze more dialogue onto the disc), but that's largely offset by excellent enemy banter during combat.

Adding to Far Cry 2's value is the 16-person online multiplayer. The gameplay modes on display are nothing terribly special (you'll see variations of Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, and Territories), but the fighting captures a lot of the appeal of single-player, including vehicles, fire-based weaponry, and a great sense of scale in each map. But what sets the multiplayer apart is that you don't need to settle for the included maps; each version of the game comes with a deep but intuitive map editor capable of letting you create everything from dense urban locales to sprawling forests. And downloading new maps is simply a matter of seeking out featured selections or hitting "download" when a Quick Match search lets you know that you don't have that one yet. Such uninspired gameplay modes are certainly a letdown, but the map editor has great potential to inject loads of lasting appeal into Far Cry 2's online component.

The map editor is easy to use, but capable of making great maps.
Although the original Far Cry was available only on the PC for the first year and a half of its existence, Far Cry 2 will see an expanded audience with the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions all available out of the gate. However, its roots are clearly on display when taking in the differences between the three platforms. Far Cry 2 looks best running on a PC, with clearer textures, better foliage, and less pop-in. The console versions also suffer from the occasional loading hitch when you're driving into a highly populated city. Another key difference is that the PC version lets you save anywhere you want, whereas the 360 and PS3 games only let you use predefined save points. However, the latter difference isn't quite as lopsided as the graphical disparity; saving anywhere gives you more room for experimentation in approaching your missions, but the console versions provide a more clearly defined sense of consequence that adds extra tension to the combat. You'll definitely want to go with the PC version if you've got a system capable of approaching the hardware requirements, but the differences aren't so great that you won't have a blast with either console version (which are virtually indistinguishable from one another).

Overall, Far Cry 2 is a game in which you can quite literally get lost for hours at a time. But that feeling of exploration is precisely what makes the game so much fun; your creativity never feels stifled when approaching a mission, and the game's overall structure of side tasks, friends, rewards, and upgrades is a diverse ecosystem rivaling the landscape itself. No matter whether you're a PC fan whose played through the similarly structured Crysis or a console owner new to the world of open-ended first-person shooters, you won't be disappointed by Far Cry 2.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Review

2009-05-05T08:51:00.000-07:00

The first two games in the Brothers in Arms series distinguished themselves among the crowd of WWII shooters on the strength of their smoothly integrated first-person squad control and gritty, moving portrayal of a band of Allied soldiers. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway sticks to these strengths, and commanding your squads through Nazi-occupied territory is more thrilling than ever thanks to the vibrant, beautiful scenery and the brutal, exhilarating action. Sergeant Baker (your character) and his squad are all nuanced, sympathetic characters, though the story doesn't quite live up to the promise of its protagonists. Despite a few irregular beats, Hell's Highway is an exciting, intense shooter that is sure to quicken your pulse.

This go-around finds Sergeant Matt Baker and his crew carrying the memories of their fallen brothers and welcoming replacements into the fold. As they get set to drop into Holland as a part of the ambitious but doomed Operation Market-Garden, you meet the men whose lives you will be responsible for. The story isn't so much a narrative as it is an exploration of the relationships between soldiers; it's a mature look at the way bonds can be forged and broken in the emotional furnace of war. Through engaging cutscenes and lively battlefield communication, you'll find yourself developing an attachment to these characters. Many great moments, both comic and tragic, resonate with an admirable emotional clarity that unflinchingly evokes the turbid reality of war, where triumph and tragedy walk hand in hand.

Destructible elements add to the realistic flavor.
Unfortunately, some of these potentially great moments will fall flat if you're not well acquainted with old characters like Leggett, Allen, and Garnett. Hell's Highway often tries to lean on emotional pillars created by traumas from the first two games (both released in 2005), but the "previously on Brothers in Arms" segment isn't solid enough to support these references, and the framework crumbles a bit as a result. As the game progresses you'll gain the knowledge needed to prop up these references; this makes a second play-through more appealing, but it's a shame this understanding isn't established earlier.

Once on the battlefield, your comrades become potent weapons at your command. Hell's Highway offers a tutorial on the proper way to manage your squads, and you'd best pay attention, since going it alone will get you into trouble in a hurry. Strategy boils down to firing on German positions to keep them suppressed, then flanking around to a better angle and finishing them off. Your men are capable soldiers and will shout advice at you if you seem to be stagnating. They will also do their fair share of killing but are still occasionally liable to run on the wrong side of a wall when ordered to a different position. It hurts to lose one of your men in battle, regardless of the fact that he'll be patched up at your next checkpoint. You are their commander and they are entrusting their lives to you, a weight expertly transferred to your shoulders by Sgt. Baker's cutscenes and voice-overs. Hell's Highway motivates you strategically and emotionally to be a smart leader, and it's surprisingly engaging to focus on something other than yourself in a first-person shooter.

Battles become even more complex as you take more squads under your command and incorporate machine gun and bazooka units. The former is excellent at suppressing enemies, while the latter can destroy sandbag barriers and elevated enemy positions in houses and towers (particularly awesome). As you get the hang of squad command, you'll begin wielding your men as extensions of yourself and moving through battlefields as an elite, coordinated unit. Taking apart and dispatching a field full of entrenched German units is immensely satisfying, and this feeling of power is what makes Brothers in Arms so rewarding.

Despite the focus on squad combat, Hell's Highway demands a strong individual performance from you. Oftentimes you'll be the lone flanking unit, and you'll have to shoot accurately and make smart use of cover to survive. There are also sections where you go it alone, and you'll have to be nimble to both suppress and flank the Nazis yourself. Fortunately, you are a crack shot and can hit half-exposed German helmets from a substantial distance if you can find enough time to pop your head out and aim down your sights. When you score a particularly impressive shot or throw a well-aimed grenade, the action camera will kick in to highlight your success. The camera will zoom in on the Germans and the action will slow down dramatically, treating you to a gory display of flying limbs, severed torsos, or burst skulls. It's a bit overblown, but you'll probably be too busy roaring triumphantly to care.

The action camera is definitely excessive, whether you revel in it or disable it is up to you.

Realism is abundant throughout the game, though, thanks to the excellent audio and visual design. Each gun has a variety of unique sounds, and nearby explosions cause your ears to ring, drowning out all other battlefield noise. Bullets smack into cover you've hidden behind and whistle by your head disconcertingly, while tables and fences splinter and break in ways that both sound and look realistic. Your comrades are also quite detailed, though occasionally their facial textures will load a bit late, leaving you with a blurry, expressionless facsimile that can vitiate any emotional involvement you may feel. As you venture through the Dutch countryside and into more-populated zones, the landscape will change, but the superb level of detail will be constant throughout, only periodically marred by a lackluster texture or two. The different landscapes do have a certain sameness to them, as each tries to allow for squad-based tactics, but on the whole these battlefields provide fantastic arenas for combat.

There are a number of multiplayer maps as well, and each supports up to 20 combatants. Two teams face off in successive standard capture-the-territory contests, respawning only at the beginning of each round. The twist is that each squad member has a certain role, from squad leader to weapons specialist to tank operator. Squad leaders can call in aerial recon, while weapon specialists travel with protective squads and deal their own unique brand of destruction. Well populated matches are lively and intense, as fully-manned teams work together to stay alive, back each other up, and thwart their opponents. Add in a vocal squad leader, and there is ample potential for exciting battles. However, there are still plenty of lone wolves roaming about, and whether players will fully embrace the squad mentality remains to be seen.

What is certain now is that Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is another rousing entry in a great series. The beautiful landscapes complement the gritty combat, and thoughtful cinematic techniques breathe life into the engaging characters. Despite the somewhat spotty story and sundry oddities, Hell's Highway is a game you should consider playing twice. The unlockable "authentic" difficulty mode removes all the heads-up display elements and really allows the visual design to shine. The story resonates more powerfully because you know the characters well, and the renewed challenge ratchets up the intensity. With so many exciting elements, Hell's Highway provides ample motivation to don the Allied uniform once more.

Spore Review

2009-05-05T06:04:00.000-07:00

Spore merges multiple run-of-the-mill building blocks into a big, entertaining game.

The Good

Intuitive and comprehensive customization tools
Oozes charm at every turn
Impressively broad scope
Great audio and art design.

The Bad

Individual gameplay elements are extremely simple
Early stages aren't very engaging.

Spore is an enjoyable game that pulls off an interesting balancing act. On one hand, it lets you create a creature and guide its maturation from a single cell to a galactic civilization through an unusual process of evolutionary development. Because the tools used to create and revise this creature are so robust and amusing, and each creation's charms are so irresistible, it's hard not to get attached to your digital alter ego. On the other hand, this intimacy is abandoned in the long, later portions of the game, when you lead your full-grown civilization in its quest for universal domination. The idea sounds ambitious, though Spore isn't as much a deep game as it is a broad one, culling elements from multiple genres and stripping them down to their simplest forms. By themselves, these elements aren't very remarkable; but within the context of a single, sprawling journey, they complement each other nicely and deliver a myriad of delights.

Spore's greatest asset, by far, is its intuitive set of creation tools. If you've played the separate Creature Creator, released earlier this year, you're only seeing a small piece of the puzzle. At various stages, you'll construct, for example, town halls, land vehicles sporting cannons, and aircraft that spout religious propaganda. The creatures are the true stars though, and you can mix and match legs, arms, mouths, wings, and lots of other parts into a beautiful work of art--or a hideous monstrosity. Each part of your creation can be turned, resized, and twisted, so whether you wish to re-create a favorite cartoon character or develop an original concept, you'll probably find what you need in here. You don't need to be a budding Pablo Picasso to make an interesting creature, however; just slapping a bunch of random parts together can result in a truly hysterical beast. Yet even if your onscreen buddy is a three-armed ogre with scales running up his belly, you'll be spending some time getting to know him in the first few hours of gameplay, and you'll probably develop some affection for him in spite of his hideousness.

You will need to put some creative energy into Spore, but if you aren't the artistic type or don't find the building- and vehicle-creation tools as interesting as those for your creature, you can use premade designs that ship with the game. Even better, you can utilize Spore's extensive community tools, inserting other players' innovations into your own game in progress. It's actually a lot of fun to sift through others' creations, if only to marvel at the remarkable amount of imagination on display. And you can do this from within the game proper using an online database called the Sporepedia. In Spore, community and gameplay come together in a fresh and user-friendly manner. In fact, to get the most out of the game, you should be online whenever you play. Not only will doing so give you access to the Sporepedia, but most of the other creatures, vehicles, and even entire planets you encounter will have been created by other players. The early release of the Creature Creator has already proven that community involvement is a core aspect of the Spore experience, and the sharing factor is poised to give the game remarkable longevity.

In a game of Spore proper, however, you won't start off by molding the creature of your dreams. The game is split into five stages, starting with the cell stage. (However, once you unlock a stage, you can start a new game there and bypass any stage that comes before it). The creation tools at this stage are simple, limited to a 2D cell and a few odds and ends, like flagella and spikes. The accompanying gameplay is similarly minimal, and if you've played Flow for the PlayStation 3 or PSP, you will have a good idea of how it works. You choose the path of a carnivore or an herbivore at the outset, which determines what sort of food bits you can munch on. From here, you maneuver your cell about the screen using the keyboard or mouse, avoiding creatures that are looking to you for their next meal while grabbing a bite or two yourself. If you're an herbivore, you seek out the green algae; if you're a carnivore, you need meat, which means waiting for a fish fight to break out and gobbling up the remains, or starting the fight yourself.

You'll also uncover new parts as you swim about, and can then attach them to your organism. To enter the cell creator, you send out a mating call, which lets you get romantic with another member of your species. Then, you add a few bits that make you swim faster or jab harder, and jump back into the gene pool. However, it is all ultrasimple: You swim around eating so you can get bigger, and avoid being eaten. If you do fall victim to a sharp-toothed protozoan, you'll rehatch with no real punishment. All in all, the cell stage may last you 20 or 25 minutes, which is just as well, since it's not very interesting and wears out its welcome quickly.

Soon enough, you'll leave the environs of the sea, add some legs, and lumber into the creature stage. You'll still find new parts scattered about, this time hidden within the skeletal remains of other beasts. Again, the gameplay itself is pretty simple: You wander around exploring for other creatures and advance through the stage by either befriending other nests or conquering them. If you want to go the aggressive route, you should equip sharp claws, tusks, and spitters; if you want to make friends with the local duck-billed orangutans, you'll go with parts that let you charm, sing, dance, and pose. Should you decide on violence, the encounter plays out much like a very plain online RPG, in which you click on your target and use one of your four special abilities to do damage. If you want to make friends by singing and dancing, you'll play a little game of Simon Says, mimicking the actions of your hopeful buddies. As you progress through the stage, you build up a little pack of followers, and they will join you in your battles--and your posing routines.

The gameplay in the creature stage may be simple, but it's here that you start to see what can make playing Spore such a special and rewarding experience. Seeing your creature slowly evolve from a flat cell to an awkward, gangly land dweller is fun, particularly if he doesn't look as though such a beast in real life would be able to walk, much less bounce around the forest. This is where your relationship with the creature is most prominent, and that connection is what makes the exploration of the creature stage so interesting. When you encounter a towering six-legged atrocity charging at the locals, you'll hightail it out of there--yet still be in awe, just as if you were the little guy himself. It's more about the gawking than the playing, but whether you're joining a pack of polka-dotted parakeets in chorus or catching a glimpse of an overhead UFO, there are some legitimately appealing moments to be had.

Once you reach the tribal stage, you will lose some of that connection with your creation. You will no longer be playing as an individual, but rather controlling a tribe, and the stage plays like a slimmed down real-time strategy game. It's disappointing that you can no longer make adjustments to your tribe's main features past this point; you can, however, adorn the creatures with different clothing items for the duration. Fortunately, the charm and personality of the creature stage is still very much evident, and you'll still have the same thrills as you encounter excellent and unusual creatures as you order about your small group of wacky travelers. Conceptually, the tribal stage is similar to the creature stage, only now you focus the violence on an entire village, including structures. If you like that sort of thing, you can go so far as to equip tribe members with torches and set the enemy village ablaze. If you'd rather woo your neighbors with the sweet, soothing sounds of song, there are a few instruments at your disposal.

Spore then pulls an about-face when you reach the civilization stage. Gone are your creature-controlling days; your beloved brutes, once the jewels of your eye, will now populate the cities, and you will instead create fleets of land, sea, and air vehicles. Now you don't have just a tribe--you have an entire society to handle, though you shouldn't let the name of the stage lead you to think that you'll find the complexity of Sid Meier's classic series here. The creation tools are just as easy to use--and just as comprehensive--as those of the creature creator. Designing a mass of metal may not have the same charm as molding a living being from scratch, but the tools give you more control over patterns and colors, so expect to lose more hours of your life tinkering with the possibilities. You'll also create a town hall, a house, a factory, and an entertainment venue, and placing these in your cities has an effect on the happiness of your residents. However, the happiness mechanic is so simple that most players should be able to beat the stage on even the highest difficulty setting without giving it much thought.

The stage plays out like an even broader version of the tribal stage, though you will be dealing with some light resource gathering. However, the main strategic element comes from the three different ways you can conquer your foes: economic, religious, or military. Each city is limited to one of these three brands based on how you choose to play, though the process plays out remarkably the same, regardless. For example, if you go for military victory, you send your attack units toward your enemy cities in standard RTS fashion. To convert the same city, you send religious vehicles over to broadcast a holographic image that preaches to the citizens. It's neat to watch the transparent creature spouting the word over the opposing city--it's just too bad that the gameplay is so limited. Each city can produce only one type of land vehicle, one type of air vehicle, and one type of sea vehicle. If you go for a pure military victory, for example, you will see only three units in the stage. It's breezy and enjoyable, for sure--it's just not deep or challenging.

And in its final transformation, Spore enters the space stage, where many of the previous gameplay elements coalesce. As a result, this stage feels like an actual destination, and while it's not nearly as complex as the space exploration games it cribs from, it does exhibit the great charms of the early stages that are missing from the civilization stage. This is partially because it harks back to the creature stage, putting you in control of a single spacecraft (one you build using the wonderful creation tools, of course), and sending you off to explore the great black beyond. The scope of this stage is suitably massive. You travel from star to star, exploring newly discovered planets and searching for your galactic neighbors, and you can skim the terrain of a planet--or pull the camera light-years away to see the entire galaxy at a glance.

This stage is somewhat reminiscent of 2002's terrific Space Rangers and its sequel, and even exhibits some of that game's wacky humor. You travel from system to system, grabbing missions from the local civilizations who will crack jokes about everything from cake to umbrellas. Most of these missions are quick and to the point: abduct this creature and bring it back, eliminate a bunch of sick animals on this planet, eliminate all of our enemy's turrets on a neighboring world, and so on. Just as in the creature stage, you will eventually pick up some AI companions, further allowing you to expand across the galactic map.

To expand, you can't just plop down a colony and watch it evolve. The economy moves much more slowly in this stage than in previous ones, so you need to be careful about how you spend funds based on how you wish to play. Nor can you just choose any planet. Some worlds are simply incapable of supporting life, while others need to have the environment altered to allow for expansion and population. This is where the terraforming tools come in. Not only may you need to drop items onto the terrain to increase the density of the atmosphere or make the air hotter, but you'll need to jump-start the ecology by throwing in plants and creatures abducted from other worlds. These tools don't just limit you to gameplay necessities, however. You can terraform entire swaths of land, putting craters and plateaus where you see fit, or even dyeing the water purple. In space stage there is, for the first time in Spore, a lot to do. At times, you are shooting lasers at enemy saucers, like a 3D action game; at others, you're outfitting colonies with turrets; at still others, you're negotiating trade routes with your allies. It's a pleasant and accessible mix.

Unsurprisingly, none of these elements are as deep as you would expect in a deep space strategy game, but the real joys come from swooping onto a planet and skimming its surface to see your own creations--and those of others--populating them, and in various stages of advancement. The stylized, colorful visuals keep your eyes constantly engaged, from big, bulbous trees to herds of tentacled younglings frolicking about. The animations are top-notch, so while it's hard to imagine what a bowlegged, long-necked crane with four toes on each foot would actually look like as it ambled about, Spore makes such sights look goofily authentic. It isn't a technical powerhouse; there is a good bit of geometry pop-in, and the game does not appear to support antialiasing. Its charming, exaggerated look more than makes up for it though, and on three separate machines of various specifications, Spore ran smoothly at the highest settings without a single crash.

Spore's sound design shines from beginning to end. The creatures themselves sound terrific, and are the source of much of the game's overflowing charm. The creature and tribal stages sound enchanting, from the thumping beat of the drums when you order tribal units to the squawks and squeaks of your creations. The subsequent stages are of similarly high quality. Of particular note is the customizable ambient music introduced in the civilization stage, and the hysterical incomprehensible Simlish spoken by the various galactic leaders.

Spore keeps a timeline of events, pinpointing every decision you've made and assigning you into broad categories based on your overall behavior (social, adaptable, and so on), so there's plenty of reason to try a different approach. Not that these varied approaches make for drastically different gameplay, but they do give you a reason to revisit the amusing moments that make Spore unique. Taken on their own, its pieces are nothing special. As parts of a singular ambitious vision, they work far better. Throw in the best customization tools seen in years and an enthusiastic community brimming with creativity, and you have a legitimately great game that will deliver hours of quality entertainment.

World of Warcraft: Battle Chest Reviews

2009-05-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for an immersive online experience, then you've come to the right place. As I'm sure many will tell you, World of Warcraft is not only very fun, but highly addictive, so be prepared to lose hours of you life to this game.

The graphics aren't amazing, but that's understandable considering the age and scope of the game. Having said that, the graphics do their job, and they can still hold up compared to modern most MMOs. Frame-rate is fairly solid as long as you have at least 1 GB of RAM on your computer. I'd also recommend a video card equal to or more powerful than a ATI Radeon 9600 or Nvidia 6200. You could get away with less, but expect raids to be very laggy if you run them with hardware any weaker than what I mentioned. Also, prepare to devote lots of Hard Drive space to this game, its patches and expansions really add up. Now that we're done talking about the technical aspect, we can talk about visual design. This is what holds the game's look together and allows it to still hold up to current MMOs. If you've played a Warcraft RTS before its exactly like that, but from the perspective of one lowly character. Some may favor a more realistic look, but I enjoy the one Blizzard has created. The original continents, Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms from the original game, have a look of familiarity to them, but at the same time are very diverse and beautiful looking. My favorite zones from the original game are Tanaris, Un'Goro Crater, and Stranglethorn Vale. The areas in The Burning Crusade expansion pack are much more other worldly in their looks, some of my favorites from Outland are Nagrand, Zangarmarsh, and Terokkar Forest.

The sound is perfect for this game. Its the traditional epic soundtrack of Warcraft games past but much more diverse and particular to the cultures of whatever zone you happen to be in. It can be very epic and tense during boss fights during raids, but also relaxing while you're gazing out at The Great Sea or traveling across the sands of Tanaris, either way it immerses you fully into the world.

Now for the all important game-play. I'll start with the basics. In past Warcraft games you have been the controller of mighty armies, well, its a bit different now. Now, you are but one of the many players online, fighting to get to the top of the food chain. You play from a third person perspective, and the combat is fairly simple. You target your enemy, and then you merely click on the attack or spell that you would like to use from your action bar. The beginning tutorial missions do a good job of explains how to play, and how the game works in general. Of course to get good at the game you will learn about timing, strafing, which spells and attacks to use, and most importantly cooperation and teamwork. While there is plenty of solo work to do in this game, most of the end content for both the original game and the expansion requires good teamwork. So if you don't get along well with others, this is probably not the game for you. Something related to this, one of the things that I think makes this game so great, is that the game makes you feel important like a hero or something, but you still are only a small piece of the pie, you must still work with other to accomplish your goals.

Ok, so now that I've explained the basics I'll explain the differences between the original game and the expansion pack, but first I'll explain what experience I have with both so you know how far into the content I have dealt with. In the original game I cleared MC, ZG, Onyxia's Lair, up to Buru The Gorger in AQ 20, and up to Broodlord Lashlayer in Blackwing Layer. As for the Burning Crusade I cleared Karazhan, Magtheridon's Lair, Doom Lord Kazzak, and up to High Astromancer Solarion in Tempest Keep. Now, having said all that, I guess now is a good a time as ever to tell you I stopped raiding in September of 2007, and stopped playing altogether in Febuary of 2008. Even WoW gets boring after a while, and I didn't like what The Burning Crusade was turning the game into. I loved the original game, everything you did felt important and epics were genuinely special and hard to come by. Now everyone and their mother can have whatever gear they want, and there's no more attunements or anything, nothing is special or sacred anymore. Lets move beyond my feelings of the expansion, and talk about how it built on the original game. There's a whole new continent, two new races, several new raids, the horde got Paladins and the alliance got Shamans, and there's a whole new profession called jewelcrafting along with a socketing system. Lets not forget about my favorite additon, flying mounts. Riding on my Cobalt Netherdrake was really cool, and just about as fast as a flight path. Technically the expansion was a large improvement, but it just felt like it lacked the heart and soul that made the original so special.

I loved this game, but everything gets old at some point. If you're looking for a solid, never ending online experience I'd highly recommend it, although you may never see the light of day again.

NOTE: This game is only playable online, and requires a monthly fee, see Blizzard for details. Parents be warned, there's some people in this game you may not want your children to meet. children to meet.

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures Review

2009-05-05T05:50:00.000-07:00

Technical issues notwithstanding, the violently rewarding Age of Conan is one of the finest online RPGs available.

The Good

Mature, brilliantly imagined game world is a pleasure to explore
Exciting combat keeps you constantly involved
Many quests are powerfully written and have emotional impact
Varied classes make both team and solo play equally viable
You can tear a man's heart out of his chest and eat it.

The Bad

A large number of server- and client-side bugs
Lacks noncombat activities that would help mix things up
Various pacing issues and other minor flaws.

As imagined by developer Funcom, the land of Cimmeria's lush green landscapes are dotted with impaled corpses upon which crows roost and flap their wings, apparently pleased with both the height of their perch and the scent of death. Thus the stage is set for one of the finest online role-playing games in years, one in which fertile fields and arid deserts contrast with the blood spilled by hundreds of sharp-toothed warthogs and hulking mantises. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is an explorer's paradise, offering rich, grisly surprises in the crevasses of its bustling cities and green meadows. Whether it's a looming pyramid hiding deadly secrets or a spider's lair nestled within the rocky hills, the sights are impressive and striking, and the vivid backstory that supports this sprawling paradise is mature and, appropriately enough, barbaric.

But this is a flawed paradise. Funcom has been quick to handle the most egregious blemishes since the launch of its massively multiplayer online game, but a number of frustrating bugs remain. The most minor ones have little to no impact on the game proper, like placeholder text and a minimap that occasionally goes blank (among other interface glitches). Others are more significant, such as broken quests and memory leaks that lead to the occasional crash. Launch imperfections are common enough in the genre, but while Age of Conan's release was hardly disastrous, it has been less stable than we should expect. Many bugs have already been fixed, but the game's edges are still somewhat jagged, and the software can buckle under the sheer weight of its own ambition.

You'd do well to look past these imperfections, though, because Age of Conan is the most brutal and immediately satisfying MMOG on the market, thanks to its unique slant on combat, resonant quest writing, and uncompromising maturity. It's also paced much differently than its competition, ushering you into Hyboria slowly by juxtaposing a story-driven, single-player quest against the more standard team-oriented exploration and traditional questing. During your time in Tortage, the initial lower-level city, missions are bestowed with in-engine scenes and full voice acting, which draw you into the world and weave narrative threads that continue even after you've left the pirate port for the wild beyond. It's unfortunate that most post-Tortage quests lack the voice-over, but the tasks themselves are superbly written. While it's true that the majority of them are genre standards--kill these enemies, collect these items, and so on--they're assigned by interesting characters with stories to tell. You'll meet a young woman hiding her pregnancy (and the unsavory circumstance behind it) from her overbearing father, rescue a princess that turns out to be a bit different than expected, and interrogate murder suspects. Don't skip past quest intros without reading them in Age of Conan; if you do, you'll be missing some of the game's finest moments.

Of course, before you begin your explorations, you must customize your avatar and choose a race and class. The cosmetic side of character creation is delightfully robust, letting you tweak nose length, pick tattoos, and play with a host of other options. Your new virtual self can hail from Stygia, Aquilonia, or Conan's own homeland, Cimmeria, and from there, you pick one of 12 varied classes--though not every class is available to every race. Each class falls into one of four different archetypes, so whether you prefer to keep to the shadows, melt your foes with the heat of supernatural flames, or (literally) rip a frost giant's heart from its chest and gobble it down, you will find a class that suits your play style. As of this writing, most classes and races are well represented, so you're bound to encounter demonologists and the dark servants that scurry along with them, or see a Tempest of Set's electrical spells streak across the horizon.

Battles are not the typical click-and-wait affairs you may be accustomed to in other MMOGs. Swinging a melee weapon or shooting a bow involves more than just clicking your mouse; rather, it requires you to press the number keys (and at upper levels, the Q and E keys as well) to swing or aim in the corresponding direction. Assuming you're fighting enemies around your own level, you can't just indiscriminately tap the keys and expect that growling yeti to fall. Monsters can actively shield themselves from your strikes, so you must focus your attack on the unprotected sides, where you'll do the most damage. You have your own shielding arcs, and you can adjust them during battle, though you'll probably ignore the option, simply because any potential defensive benefit is too small to make futzing with the control and numeric keys worth the trouble.

The higher your level, the more active you must remain within combat, especially when you wish to string combos together. Combo strikes and spells don't require a single key tap, but rather a succession of them--and the higher the level of the combo, the more button presses required. It's pretty simple to perform a two-step combo, but when you're tasked with four keystrokes in a row, you'll realize that you simply must pay attention to the onscreen prompts. Combos, when timed right, can also result in deadly killing blows that look and sound gruesome, and never lose their macabre and satisfying edge. Even when no fatality is involved, a combo may involve plunging your claymore directly into a soldier's chest or knocking a Vanir spellcaster a few feet backward with a stun spell.

The combat impressively remains gripping enough to push you forward, even when you're pursuing tasks that could qualify as grinding. Much of this has to do with the various roles a single class can play within an adventuring group--even classes that are seemingly dedicated to healing and support. A Herald of Xotli may be an offensive powerhouse, but the healing blood pit he occasionally drops can be a major boon to a party close to defeat. A Bear Shaman is handy to have around for his buffs and healing spells, but he's more effective using his melee combos in the midst of chaos than he is tiptoeing in the sidelines. These varied abilities mean that not only do group dynamics feel fresher than in most other online RPGs, but that the majority of classes offer highly successful solo play.

The single-player questing offered within the first 20 levels isn't the only pacing adjustment Age of Conan introduces, though not every adjustment is as successful as others. For example, you can only learn crafting skills once you hit level 40. While the focus on combat is deliberate, crafting activities would have been a welcome way to mix up the early levels, especially given that you can gather resources before you can craft. The prospect of new loot, often a major reason to push forward, isn't as exciting as you'd hope, either. As you level, you'll find that few looted items are helpful, and the limited inventory space (even after buying an extra bag) can make dropped items more of a nuisance than a pleasure. The flow of new abilities is also inconsistent, since rather than bringing brand-new spells, new levels more often reward you with more powerful versions of existing spells and combos. Fortunately, the feat points you begin to earn at level 10 can be spent on new abilities and upgrades from one of three specialization trees.

Nevertheless, it really is about the combat, whether you prefer to beat up tarantulas or other players. Should you choose to play on a free-for-all player-versus-player server, be prepared for frustration. On those servers, you will be killed--often--by archers camping spawn points and "griefers" who get their jollies from punishing new players. But if you'd rather avoid the unfriendliness of such realms, you still have options. Instanced PVP battles are the most immediate outlet for your spellcasting prowess, and you can play a team deathmatch or capture-the-flag variant against others simply by adding yourself to the match queue. Once enough interested players have joined up, you're whisked away to the map for a vicious and enjoyable clash that can result in the best kind of controlled chaos. It's a shame that there aren't more maps available for these games, but the flexibility of Age of Conan's classes and the sheer bloody violence of the matches mean that every visit is a unique, and occasionally breathless, experience.

At this point, it's unclear how well the game's most touted PVP component, guild siege battles, will function. They certainly have potential, though the largest battles will be the private realm of the biggest guilds, and we've yet to experience one of these events. It is clear, however, that to build a keep and maintain it, a guild has to have a large amount of manpower and wealth. At any given time, you'll have plenty of cash for your standard needs: weapons, armor, potions, and so on. Building up a keep is incredibly expensive, though--which is a great way of ensuring that big siege battles remain the domain of the elite, but if you're hoping to start a fledgling guild, be warned that the prospect of building and defending an expansive battlekeep is a daunting one. If you'd rather continue your travels at later levels than invest in siege battle, you'll unfortunately find that the flow of new content gets noticeably slower as you progress toward the maximum level of 80.

But even in light of the noted flaws, Age of Conan is a gratifying and entertaining game that, more than any other online RPG in recent memory, possesses a strong sense of place. There is certainly plenty of variety to the scenery and the dungeons, but even in the brightest areas, you can't escape the sense of oppression. You'll see it as you approach Thoth-Amon's tower and hear it in the buzz of mosquitoes, and you can practically feel the humidity in Purple Lotus Swamp. Battles are a natural presence in these places, as if the heavy dread hanging in the air needs to be released through the ripping of daggers through flesh. The combat is mechanically sound and great fun, but within the rich context of Hyboria, it's even more inspiring.

The art design is the keystone for this success. Tortage, your first haunt, makes a solid first impression, but it can't compete with the dense Tarantia skyline or the sight of rushing waterfalls in the Cimmerian knolls. The game engine renders these areas with incredible detail, using ornate textures and luxuriant lighting to great effect. Age of Conan is the most attractive and technically impressive MMOG now on the market, though it requires a rather beefy system to see Hyboria at its most splendid, and even then it is prone to weirdness. There are pixel shader glitches, various clipping issues, and other noticeable blights. The frame rate also takes a major hit in populated areas, so a visit to the port city of Khemi may be a little more frustrating than your trek through the less busy Khopshef Province. Additonally, as of this writing, DirectX 10 support has yet to be implemented. Assuming you have a rig that is up to the task, however, you will be constantly admiring the view.

The sound design is essentially flawless. The soundtrack isn't as omnipresent as with Funcom's previous MMOG, Anarchy Online, but it is just as marvelous, featuring pounding bass drums when combat gets dramatic and the atmospheric calls of flutes as you explore the idyllic Conall's Valley. Of particular note is the beautiful, serene vocal composition you hear in the border kingdoms. The grunts, clangs, and thuds of combat perfectly match the bloodiness of the accompanying blood splatter, and even small touches, such as the authentic sound of your footsteps as you march through snow, are spot-on. The voice acting, though limited mostly to the first 20 levels, is equally excellent.

Age of Conan has plenty of room to grow and a number of issues that need fixing, but even now, it offers a rewarding adventure abundant with character and fascinating backstory. The combat system perfectly suits the adult nature of the quests, and is the finest one yet seen in an online RPG. In spite of its current bugs and glitches, Age of Conan is a remarkably entertaining journey through a dark and mature world of beasts and brutality.