June 11, 2008 - Do casual games all feel like the same to you? That's the question that independent developer blurredVision poses on its web site in an attempt to bring something unique and innovative to the table. Chaos Theory, available via Steam, combines puzzle and arcade elements into one game. It almost resembles an open field pinball machine, except that you have control over the environment so that you can guide your particle (pinball) to where it needs to go. It's an interesting concept spanning over 50 different levels with every few levels introducing a new twist.The objective in Chaos Theory is to get your magnetically charged red and green particles to their respective "collectors." You're playing on a hovering square board in space, with objects that stick up like bumpers in a pinball machine and particles pop out of these red and green machines and then float around. The game automatically gives you a three-quarters view, but if you prefer an overhead view you can press the spacebar to change it. Unfortunately you need to adjust the view for each level as it resets. Looking at the game from the side ups the coolness factor but it's not the optimal way to play the game since you can't see everything clearly or estimate the paths easily. From the overhead view it just looks like green and red marbles that bounce around--not very exciting.
Strategically placed on the board are objects (random items placed on a stick) that do various things that will help you guide your particles home. When you begin, most of the time you're using specific objects to shoot your particles into the collectors, but there are levels where you rotate bars or turn on a gravitron and hope physics work the same way as it did in your head. As you come across these new objects you are given a level that serves as a tutorial. The tutorial is extremely helpful as it gives you an idea of what the new item does. The magnetic core is a pole that will attract red or green particles depending on which mouse button you click. Left clicking changes the ring color to green, which therefore attracts red particles and repels the green. Right clicking works the same way except that the colors are reversed. There will be times when your particles will rotate around these poles, making it so that you also need to work on your timing along with figuring out what kind of path you need to take. When the particle is attached, clicking the mouse button again will fire it into the direction that the particle is facing. A distributor works the same way as a magnetic pole except that it attracts all particles and the number of rings on the distributor determines how many particles you need attached before you can fire them off. For example a distributor with three rings will need to have three particles on it before it can fire the particles in the direction that they're facing (this is when it helps to view from top down). However, red and green balls do not like to be together so that's something else to take into account. Once your red particles are in the collector, if you happen to fire a green particle into it, you will lose your red particles and have to do it again. Depending on the level you don't need to restart, but sometimes it's just easier.Portals, bars and multipliers are introduced a little further to make things harder. Some of the levels are littered with portals so it takes a few tries to see which portal actually gets your particle closer to the collector. Bars are barriers that you can sometimes rotate to guide your particle in the right direction. These levels are more engaging because you're dealing with the physics of where the particle is going to bounce to. The levels that involve rotating particles and timing can be frustrating because sometimes the particles rotate really quickly. This is fine if you can get the timing down, but when the goal is to get multiple particles into their collectors and if you slip up on the last one you need to do the entire level from the beginning. Also if you don't change the view to overhead, you need to pay close attention and click the top of the object instead of the base, otherwise it won't do anything. When feeling a little lost, the title of the level is usually a good hint of what you need to do like, "Never Let the Red Ball Break Through" or "Rotate the Bars!" It wasn't until more than halfway through the game before you find yourself thinking and planning out your strategy ahead of time with a few trial runs because it's a mix of manipulating the items as well as timing.
When you're finished, you can go to blurredVision's web site and download additional levels for free, made by the developers themselves or fans. With the game comes a level editor which you can pull up using CTRL + F1. This automatically brings up a blank board for you to place your objects on and you can set the perimeters on the left hand side and test it out when you're done. This is a nice feature for those who like creating their own mind-bending challenges. Chaos Theory might look and seem a bit complicated at first, but once you realize how the particles react to the different objects it's not too difficult, at least not until you hit the levels in the high 40s. Visually this game isn't pushing boundaries as everything is quite drab with its various shades of gray. Ambient sound and the repetitive noises of particles bouncing around are the only things you'll ever hear. It's not the type of game that will draw an audience as you're playing, but it's targeted toward the casual audience who like puzzles with innovative new gameplay that isn't based around match three and constant clicking.
Closing Comments
While not necessarily the most stunning visually, Chaos Theory does change things up a bit with this puzzle game set in outer space with magnetic particles. The dull environment doesn't help draw a player in and user interface could have been improved. The unique gameplay is worth checking out along with the level editor but depending on what type of casual games you're into, the timing challenges may not be as appealing as the puzzle aspects.
6.5
PresentationIt's an indie game so it's cheap and it's not exactly polished. Need to dig through Steam folders for the manual.
6.0
GraphicsFrom the side the different objects look interesting however you are playing on a board that is as thin as aluminum foil.
5.0
SoundAmbient sounds do the job, but the whooshes and ticking of the particles going by are grating after awhile.
7.0
GameplayIt's different and new, worth checking out to see if it's your cup of tea.
6.5
Lasting AppealLevel editor gives fans a chance to create their own levels of magnetically charged goodness.
6.5Passable
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Trials 2: Second Edition
June 11, 2008 - Some people revel at the thought of pain. To some, it's a turn on. I used to think these masochistic folk were crazy, but Trials 2: Second Edition, developer Redlynx's brutal motorcycle racer, shows us pain can be fun. Unlike most racing games, there are no on-screen opponents in Trials 2. Your goal is simple: maneuver through dangerous obstacles to reach the end of the level. Although the game initially looks like a shallow stunt game, it's actually one of the more challenging physics-based puzzlers today. You're going to die a lot, and you're going to have fun doing it. Kids, DO try this at home. (The game, not suicide.)There are a lot of punishing videogames throughout history (Ninja Gaiden, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Shaq Fu--the last one painful in its own sadistic way), but nothing in recent memory has managed to kill me as many times as Trials 2. Beelzebub himself would not be able to conjure up some of the game's devilish levels. Each track has multiple checkpoints. When you break bones or die you will continue from the last checkpoint, but your time trial score suffers as your death toll increases. Trying to finish some of these levels is difficult in its own right. Factoring time into the equation only makes it more challenging. The game features multiple camera angles, including a first-person mode, but is most easily played from a 2D perspective.
Trials 2 has a steep learning curve, but amazingly, there is no turning in this racer and there are only four major buttons to push. Press up to accelerate. Press down to stop and go backwards. Press right to lean forwards, and press left to lean backwards. The default controls are fine with the keyboard, but you can also use a game controller if you would like. Despite the seemingly primitive controls, the game offers heaps of depth. Heaps, I say!With only four buttons to press, how hard can this game be? Over accelerating will cause you to accidentally pop a wheelie, in turn, forcing you to wipe out. Leaning forward to rebalance yourself can make you dive headfirst into the concrete. These small growing pains are miniscule compared to the crazy and gnarly deaths possible in Trials 2. The levels get progressively harder, and soon you will encounter monster loops and fiery rings of death that serve as the game's puzzles. There's almost an infinite number of ways to die. If it was possible to die from second hand smoking in a stunt racer, Redlynx would have found a way. The control's depth presents itself by allowing you to preload your jumps. Sit back on the bike to fly high or lean forward to shoot downwards. You can also angle your motorcycle in midair to ensure your vehicle is parallel to the ground when it lands. Even though the controls aren't pressure sensitive, I found myself pressing down on the keys really hard for mental reassurance. At first you will heavily rely on the courses' checkpoints just to complete each course. As you keep playing you will get better and your mentality changes from survival to mastery. The good thing about the game is that even though it's challenging, it never feels cheap.In hopes of not sounding like the philosophical Mr. Miyagi, Trials 2 Second Edition's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. Many will be turned off by the game's learning curve. It's simply not for everybody. A lot of people will be frustrated by how much patience is required, and a lot of people will not care for the concept altogether. For those willing to master Trials 2, it becomes extremely rewarding. You can save your replays and compare yourself to the world's top players via an in-game online ranking system. Watching the replay of the number-one ranked player on any hard track can be a ridiculous sight to behold.
Speaking of beholding sights, the graphics don't look too shabby. The game's graphics won't take your breath away; it is more than suitable, considering the first version of Trials worked well as a Flash game. The graphics more than satisfy with its realistic depth of field, ambient lighting, bloom effects, motion blur, and volumetric particles. Your motorcycle engine billows smoke. Sparks fly high. Basically, it looks good overall, although you will encounter several graphical twitches here and there. Sometimes your rider will smash into an object and fuse with it in a glitchy manner. Also, for a game that has fairly realistic physics, when your character gets knocked out, he will occasionally flop and flail about on the floor like he's having seizures. These are minor flaws, but they're definitely noticeable.Unfortunately the game's presentation does not go unnoticed. While the dark and grey environments look fine, it would be nice to see different environments with more varied colors. The menus on the other hand are flat out terrible. Although the navigation is functional, it looks cheap, unprofessional, and uses a horrible looking font. The art in general looks very generic and bargain bin.The game's sound mechanics fair a little better than the presentation. When accelerating, the bike's engine appropriately roars and calms as you bring the vehicle to a halt. The music on the other hand isn't so sound, but that's mostly due to the game having only two songs; one for the menu and one for the actual racing. Even though the one hard-rock track you hear when you play the game isn't bad, would it kill the developer to hire a DJ?There's a good chance you'll hear that one song a lot because Trails 2 has a good amount of replayability. There are currently 51 tracks with more being added sporadically. If you're good you can complete all of the levels in a handful of hours; but it's really about mastering the tracks quickly and efficiently, which will take you time. Unfortunately the game doesn't have a track editor, though due to the nature of the focus-tested tracks it would admittedly be buggy as hell in the wrong hands. Thankfully Trials 2 does offer other time trial modes. There's a Flip mode that rewards you for completing the track with the most flips. There's a Wheelie mode that promotes hanging on to your wheelie as much as possible. Finally there's a Dynamic mode that forces you to interact with the unstable environment. Even though these modes are a nice addition, each mode only offers three or four tracks each. Luckily, the game has included 25 unlockable achievements to expand the game a little more. I'd wish you good luck on getting the every-bone-broken achievement, but my hunch is that you won't need it.
Closing Comments
Gamers who enjoy physics based puzzle games like Portal and challenging old-school 2D games will get a kick out of Trials 2. This game has been tailor made to meet the demands of competitive gamers. However, this game isn't for everyone. The learning curve will be too much for some. Overall this game achieves what it sets out to do with flying colors. It's calculated mayhem at its best. The game runs for $9.99 on Valve's Steam service. For that price it will give you a bloody good time.
IGN Ratings for Trials 2 Second Edition (PC)
4.0
PresentationTerrible presentation. Generic cover art. Bargain bin menus. Bad font choice, but at least it's functional.
8.0
GraphicsThe graphics will not blow you away, but it does look prettier than it needs to be.
6.0
SoundThe game has essentially one decent hard-rock track played over and over. Sound effects are solid.
8.0
GameplayThe game is challenging but at the same time very rewarding. The game is real fun once you get into the swing of things.
7.5
Lasting AppealYou can finish all 51 tracks in a few hours, but this game's replayablity comes from topping the online community's scores, which is pretty impossible.
8.0Impressive
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Trials 2 has a steep learning curve, but amazingly, there is no turning in this racer and there are only four major buttons to push. Press up to accelerate. Press down to stop and go backwards. Press right to lean forwards, and press left to lean backwards. The default controls are fine with the keyboard, but you can also use a game controller if you would like. Despite the seemingly primitive controls, the game offers heaps of depth. Heaps, I say!With only four buttons to press, how hard can this game be? Over accelerating will cause you to accidentally pop a wheelie, in turn, forcing you to wipe out. Leaning forward to rebalance yourself can make you dive headfirst into the concrete. These small growing pains are miniscule compared to the crazy and gnarly deaths possible in Trials 2. The levels get progressively harder, and soon you will encounter monster loops and fiery rings of death that serve as the game's puzzles. There's almost an infinite number of ways to die. If it was possible to die from second hand smoking in a stunt racer, Redlynx would have found a way. The control's depth presents itself by allowing you to preload your jumps. Sit back on the bike to fly high or lean forward to shoot downwards. You can also angle your motorcycle in midair to ensure your vehicle is parallel to the ground when it lands. Even though the controls aren't pressure sensitive, I found myself pressing down on the keys really hard for mental reassurance. At first you will heavily rely on the courses' checkpoints just to complete each course. As you keep playing you will get better and your mentality changes from survival to mastery. The good thing about the game is that even though it's challenging, it never feels cheap.In hopes of not sounding like the philosophical Mr. Miyagi, Trials 2 Second Edition's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. Many will be turned off by the game's learning curve. It's simply not for everybody. A lot of people will be frustrated by how much patience is required, and a lot of people will not care for the concept altogether. For those willing to master Trials 2, it becomes extremely rewarding. You can save your replays and compare yourself to the world's top players via an in-game online ranking system. Watching the replay of the number-one ranked player on any hard track can be a ridiculous sight to behold.
Speaking of beholding sights, the graphics don't look too shabby. The game's graphics won't take your breath away; it is more than suitable, considering the first version of Trials worked well as a Flash game. The graphics more than satisfy with its realistic depth of field, ambient lighting, bloom effects, motion blur, and volumetric particles. Your motorcycle engine billows smoke. Sparks fly high. Basically, it looks good overall, although you will encounter several graphical twitches here and there. Sometimes your rider will smash into an object and fuse with it in a glitchy manner. Also, for a game that has fairly realistic physics, when your character gets knocked out, he will occasionally flop and flail about on the floor like he's having seizures. These are minor flaws, but they're definitely noticeable.Unfortunately the game's presentation does not go unnoticed. While the dark and grey environments look fine, it would be nice to see different environments with more varied colors. The menus on the other hand are flat out terrible. Although the navigation is functional, it looks cheap, unprofessional, and uses a horrible looking font. The art in general looks very generic and bargain bin.The game's sound mechanics fair a little better than the presentation. When accelerating, the bike's engine appropriately roars and calms as you bring the vehicle to a halt. The music on the other hand isn't so sound, but that's mostly due to the game having only two songs; one for the menu and one for the actual racing. Even though the one hard-rock track you hear when you play the game isn't bad, would it kill the developer to hire a DJ?There's a good chance you'll hear that one song a lot because Trails 2 has a good amount of replayability. There are currently 51 tracks with more being added sporadically. If you're good you can complete all of the levels in a handful of hours; but it's really about mastering the tracks quickly and efficiently, which will take you time. Unfortunately the game doesn't have a track editor, though due to the nature of the focus-tested tracks it would admittedly be buggy as hell in the wrong hands. Thankfully Trials 2 does offer other time trial modes. There's a Flip mode that rewards you for completing the track with the most flips. There's a Wheelie mode that promotes hanging on to your wheelie as much as possible. Finally there's a Dynamic mode that forces you to interact with the unstable environment. Even though these modes are a nice addition, each mode only offers three or four tracks each. Luckily, the game has included 25 unlockable achievements to expand the game a little more. I'd wish you good luck on getting the every-bone-broken achievement, but my hunch is that you won't need it.
Closing Comments
Gamers who enjoy physics based puzzle games like Portal and challenging old-school 2D games will get a kick out of Trials 2. This game has been tailor made to meet the demands of competitive gamers. However, this game isn't for everyone. The learning curve will be too much for some. Overall this game achieves what it sets out to do with flying colors. It's calculated mayhem at its best. The game runs for $9.99 on Valve's Steam service. For that price it will give you a bloody good time.
IGN Ratings for Trials 2 Second Edition (PC)
4.0
PresentationTerrible presentation. Generic cover art. Bargain bin menus. Bad font choice, but at least it's functional.
8.0
GraphicsThe graphics will not blow you away, but it does look prettier than it needs to be.
6.0
SoundThe game has essentially one decent hard-rock track played over and over. Sound effects are solid.
8.0
GameplayThe game is challenging but at the same time very rewarding. The game is real fun once you get into the swing of things.
7.5
Lasting AppealYou can finish all 51 tracks in a few hours, but this game's replayablity comes from topping the online community's scores, which is pretty impossible.
8.0Impressive
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition -- Colonies Edition
June 13, 2008 -
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition was released in 2007 for Xbox 360 and PC and then later ported to PS3. The release fest continues with Colonies Edition, a greatest hits package for PC and Xbox 360 that adds new content and comes with a wallet friendly suggested retail price tag of $29.99 in the US. The core game remains the same, so we'll focus this review on the new modes, maps and other assorted bonuses. If you missed the original, catch up by reading our past reviews for Xbox 360 here. If you're a fan of the Akrid-mashing fest that the frozen action game delivered, you might be wondering if this new release brings enough to the party to make it worth another look. The answer is yes…and no.I'll start with the good news. Colonies Edition contains the full campaign mode and online features that the original did along with a whole lot more. The visuals look the same to my eyes, which is still quite impressive all these months later even if it still is plagued by screen tearing. If you haven't played Lost Planet and are considering it, this is the definitive release. It doesn't end with the campaign either thanks to new modes and more. You can even try the game from the first person, if you like (I don't).
In addition to the original campaign, Capcom has added three new single-player modes by repurposing the base content. There's a Score Attack game which allows you to play through single stages and string together high combos in hopes of reaching the tops of the leaderboards. This mode is a great addition and adds to the underlying thermal energy gameplay mechanic that keeps pushing you forward into more action. Along with shooting enemies, blasting the destructible environment chains your combo, encouraging you to lay into everything with your arsenal. There's also a Trial Battle mode that pits you against one massive boss after another. It's pretty self explanatory and offers a decent distraction. The last new single player mode is called Off Limit. This mode is essentially Lost Planet on speed. It's faster, awards you unlimited ammo and offers more powerful weapons. It's a kick in the pants, but if you're like me and have played Lost Planet a lot in the past, by the time you get to it you'll have had enough of playing this game and won't really care to run through the stages again.There's more to like in the online game as well. In addition to new character models, weapons, and maps, there are a number of new modes. The crown jewel of these is Akrid Hunter. Here a few players take up control of the massive bugs themselves to take on the remaining humans. The Akrid are a bit overpowered, but it's still a great deal of fun. The other modes are takes on classic multiplayer battles with Lost Planet twists; Akrid eggs instead of flags or VS mechs as the players that must be attacked and defended. With new weapons, even the old modes feel different. My personal favorite of the 10 new weapons (split between VS and human varieties) is the Rocket Pod that launches four rockets simultaneously to carpet an area.
The big problem with Colonies Edition is that it is completely distinct from the original release last year. That means that if you played Lost Planet: Extreme Condition already, none of your saves will work here. Your online rankings won't be carried over either. This is a pretty big bummer for those that invested a lot of time in the original, but it gets worse. The online game is separate too, so those that pick up Colonies Edition can't play online against those who own the original Lost Planet. Rather than releasing Colonies Edition to reinvigorate the online community, Capcom has split it. The upside to this is that all of the achievements are new, so you can earn an extra 1000 with Colonies Edition, and PC and Xbox 360 players can now face off online in a cross-platform match-up. That's a small consolation to the hundreds of thousands of people that bought Lost Planet in 2007 who are now being told to buy the game again. So much of this could have been made available as downloadable add-ons that the move to make it retail only and totally distinct from the original release feels a bit money grubby for my taste. And there's the fact that this move will cause the game to not have as robust of an online community as it could have. While there are enough people online to find a game now, the number of people playing at any given time isn't very big. Who knows how long you'll be able to easily find a game to play?These issues feel magnified in light of what is considered the norm on the PC. If you don't have a Gold Windows Live account, which requires a subscription fee, you can't play in the cross platform matches. That essentially means that you can't play online as we only found one poor soul looking to play online with PCs only. If you don't want to pay for a Live account, don't buy this game. Lost Planet: Colonies Edition is crippled without it. But hey, at least the game runs online which is more than you could say about Lost Planet when it was first released on PC.
Closing CommentsIf
you fell in love with Lost Planet in its previous iteration, you'll find a lot to like here. If you haven't given it a try, this is the version to pick up and have a go with. The new single player modes are fun, but they are just a repackaging of old content. If you felt full after Lost Planet, this release won't do anything for you. With new weapons, modes and maps, the online game is more substantial and intriguing than ever. Just remember that while you can now play cross platform between PC and 360, none of Colonies Edition is compatible with the previous release and so you're dealing with a significantly smaller potential online community and all of your old saves won't work. On the PC, a Gold Windows Live account is essentially necessary to play online. The PC only community just isn't there.
6.5
PresentationMany cool modes are added here, but the move to make this separate from the last Lost Planet release was a poor decision.
8.5
GraphicsIt still looks good over a year later.
8.0
SoundNothing substantially new here, but it's still a decent soundtrack and the effects are quite good.
8.0
GameplayThe gameplay will feel tired for those that have already tried the game and aren't diehard. Newcomers will find a fun action game.
6.0
Lasting AppealVeterans will only last a few hours trying out the new single player modes. You can only find people online in cross platform play.
7.5Good
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition was released in 2007 for Xbox 360 and PC and then later ported to PS3. The release fest continues with Colonies Edition, a greatest hits package for PC and Xbox 360 that adds new content and comes with a wallet friendly suggested retail price tag of $29.99 in the US. The core game remains the same, so we'll focus this review on the new modes, maps and other assorted bonuses. If you missed the original, catch up by reading our past reviews for Xbox 360 here. If you're a fan of the Akrid-mashing fest that the frozen action game delivered, you might be wondering if this new release brings enough to the party to make it worth another look. The answer is yes…and no.I'll start with the good news. Colonies Edition contains the full campaign mode and online features that the original did along with a whole lot more. The visuals look the same to my eyes, which is still quite impressive all these months later even if it still is plagued by screen tearing. If you haven't played Lost Planet and are considering it, this is the definitive release. It doesn't end with the campaign either thanks to new modes and more. You can even try the game from the first person, if you like (I don't).
In addition to the original campaign, Capcom has added three new single-player modes by repurposing the base content. There's a Score Attack game which allows you to play through single stages and string together high combos in hopes of reaching the tops of the leaderboards. This mode is a great addition and adds to the underlying thermal energy gameplay mechanic that keeps pushing you forward into more action. Along with shooting enemies, blasting the destructible environment chains your combo, encouraging you to lay into everything with your arsenal. There's also a Trial Battle mode that pits you against one massive boss after another. It's pretty self explanatory and offers a decent distraction. The last new single player mode is called Off Limit. This mode is essentially Lost Planet on speed. It's faster, awards you unlimited ammo and offers more powerful weapons. It's a kick in the pants, but if you're like me and have played Lost Planet a lot in the past, by the time you get to it you'll have had enough of playing this game and won't really care to run through the stages again.There's more to like in the online game as well. In addition to new character models, weapons, and maps, there are a number of new modes. The crown jewel of these is Akrid Hunter. Here a few players take up control of the massive bugs themselves to take on the remaining humans. The Akrid are a bit overpowered, but it's still a great deal of fun. The other modes are takes on classic multiplayer battles with Lost Planet twists; Akrid eggs instead of flags or VS mechs as the players that must be attacked and defended. With new weapons, even the old modes feel different. My personal favorite of the 10 new weapons (split between VS and human varieties) is the Rocket Pod that launches four rockets simultaneously to carpet an area.
The big problem with Colonies Edition is that it is completely distinct from the original release last year. That means that if you played Lost Planet: Extreme Condition already, none of your saves will work here. Your online rankings won't be carried over either. This is a pretty big bummer for those that invested a lot of time in the original, but it gets worse. The online game is separate too, so those that pick up Colonies Edition can't play online against those who own the original Lost Planet. Rather than releasing Colonies Edition to reinvigorate the online community, Capcom has split it. The upside to this is that all of the achievements are new, so you can earn an extra 1000 with Colonies Edition, and PC and Xbox 360 players can now face off online in a cross-platform match-up. That's a small consolation to the hundreds of thousands of people that bought Lost Planet in 2007 who are now being told to buy the game again. So much of this could have been made available as downloadable add-ons that the move to make it retail only and totally distinct from the original release feels a bit money grubby for my taste. And there's the fact that this move will cause the game to not have as robust of an online community as it could have. While there are enough people online to find a game now, the number of people playing at any given time isn't very big. Who knows how long you'll be able to easily find a game to play?These issues feel magnified in light of what is considered the norm on the PC. If you don't have a Gold Windows Live account, which requires a subscription fee, you can't play in the cross platform matches. That essentially means that you can't play online as we only found one poor soul looking to play online with PCs only. If you don't want to pay for a Live account, don't buy this game. Lost Planet: Colonies Edition is crippled without it. But hey, at least the game runs online which is more than you could say about Lost Planet when it was first released on PC.
Closing CommentsIf
you fell in love with Lost Planet in its previous iteration, you'll find a lot to like here. If you haven't given it a try, this is the version to pick up and have a go with. The new single player modes are fun, but they are just a repackaging of old content. If you felt full after Lost Planet, this release won't do anything for you. With new weapons, modes and maps, the online game is more substantial and intriguing than ever. Just remember that while you can now play cross platform between PC and 360, none of Colonies Edition is compatible with the previous release and so you're dealing with a significantly smaller potential online community and all of your old saves won't work. On the PC, a Gold Windows Live account is essentially necessary to play online. The PC only community just isn't there.
6.5
PresentationMany cool modes are added here, but the move to make this separate from the last Lost Planet release was a poor decision.
8.5
GraphicsIt still looks good over a year later.
8.0
SoundNothing substantially new here, but it's still a decent soundtrack and the effects are quite good.
8.0
GameplayThe gameplay will feel tired for those that have already tried the game and aren't diehard. Newcomers will find a fun action game.
6.0
Lasting AppealVeterans will only last a few hours trying out the new single player modes. You can only find people online in cross platform play.
7.5Good
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
The Political Machine 2008
June 18, 2008 - As tired as some of us may be of the tedious and unbalanced political process, particularly during this election year, there are too few games that focus on its wonderful ins and outs. So when a game comes out that gives players a chance to run their own version of the 2008 US presidential campaign, we definitely sit up and take notice. And when that game just happens to come from one of our favorite strategy game developers, well, that's even more cause to celebrate.
While Stardock's The Political Machine 2008 is an enjoyable, and intentionally topical, game, the publisher has taken tremendous pains to point out that it is not a "simulation." The more cynical types among you may take this as a simple marketing maneuver to ensure that the game appeals to a wider base but basically all this distinction means is that the game tries to recreate the political landscape of America without getting too bogged down in primaries and vote count controversies. Along the way you'll have the chance to run against folks from the current crop of candidates along with some notables from our political past. Unfortunately, the current political setting means the overall experience is far too predictable to have much lasting appeal. Even though the twenty-dollar price tag is appealing, only the most committed armchair politicians will find much replayability here.
We don't necessarily think that the game is biased one way or the other (at least, not any more than the country itself is), but it definitely reflects the variety of opinions and political polarization that make up American politics. The game is real enough that, assuming you know something about current events, you can jump in right away and have an idea whether or not your support of gay marriage will go over better in California or West Virginia, and whether or not to attack your opponent on job outsourcing on Michigan radio.
There's less of a sense of familiarity with the game's other campaigns. Our favorite focuses on the presidential election of 1860, and all the territories and issues are adjusted accordingly. It does require a little more research on the part of the player. We, for example, weren't sure whether or not Southern Democrats were supposed to support tariffs. Things are a little less obvious in the ersatz European Union campaign and sometimes incomprehensible (though undeniably hilarious) in the Drengin Empire campaign. Players of Stardock's Gal Civ 2 will definitely appreciate some of the in-jokes here.
No matter which election you play, your candidate starts off in their home state 41 weeks before the election. You can choose to play longer and shorter games but they're not as enjoyable. Each week you can spend your stamina points building infrastructure, giving speeches, and placing ads. Infrastructure can help you develop awareness in key states and gives you the resources to court national endorsements and hire political operatives. Speeches and ads give you the chance to promote your platform to the voters of a particular state or to the nation in general. Of course, a lot of these actions cost money, so you'll also need to save some stamina points for some good old fashioned fund-raising.
The voters of each state have issues that they care about and you'll want to state your position on those issues while keeping in mind whether or not your thoughts on that issue will make voters of either party (or the independents) more likely to support your campaign. You can pay cash to run national TV ads that blanket the whole country with your message, but you'll need to be aware that your views on immigration might be taken very differently in Florida than they are in Minnesota. Thankfully, the game presents you with basic poll numbers that show how the voters of each party feel about each issue, both at the state and the national levels.
When we saw that you could make your own candidates, we instantly set about making ersatz versions of ourselves to launch into the political arena, certain that our moderate and sometimes complicated views could sway the American voters. But in designing candidates, you're limited to a mere hundred points to determine your stance on issues from abortion to the withdrawal from Iraq. A hundred points sounds like a lot, but since each issue is rated on a scale of 100 points either for or against, you can really only take a moderate stand on four or five issues. Goodbye, school voucher program!
We were a little disappointed by this limitation until we realized that you can actually adjust your position on all of these issues during the campaign. You can get a hefty boost towards traditional values, big government, or drilling in ANWR just by courting the endorsement of various religious, business or environmental groups. You can also shift your platform based on the ads that you run and on the answers you give during your TV appearances. In the end, we were actually happier that you couldn't just spec the platform you wanted by spending points, but actually had to earn it through your actions during the campaign. We've even found ourselves crossing over to court voters of the other party whenever we saw that our opponent wasn't responding to a clear preference among voters.
The types of issues you talk about in your TV appearances and political ads can even catapult lesser known issues into the national arena. While everyone's going to be talking about the economy, or health care or the war on terror, you can jump in and start hammering away at an issue your opponent is weak on, like social security reform or gun control. This tactic can be risky though because while you're busy building up marginal issues, your opponent is gaining more and more momentum on the issues that already speak to a wide range of voters.
There are a number of map filters to help you plan out your conquest of the electorate. You can quickly see which states are important by checking the number of electoral votes they have and how wealthy they are overall. A quick check of the liberal vs. conservative voter numbers can also tell you which states are likely to vote for or against you at the beginning. By far the most useful of the map filters is the one that shows polling data. This is a real-time update of the way a state is likely to vote. This can change from red to blue during the course of a turn, even hanging on pink (or possibly gray) when the voters are just too confused to commit.
Players looking for a bit of a challenge will be happy to see that the AI has been improved since the 2004 edition. Your opponents know seem more inclined to go for the bigger states and to use their operatives in response to your own actions. You'll still get the occasional inexplicable fund-raising trip to Wyoming, but the AI plays a much smarter game this time around, particularly in the latter stages of the campaign.
The presentation has been improved a bit as well. Though it won't win any graphics awards, the new 3D engine gives the game a slick, updated feel that puts it a step above most games in this price range. And whether it was intentional or not, the bobble head figures offer a great commentary on politicians in general. The music and sound effects are equally polished, which enhances the experience.
The real problem with the game is the same problem that we have with politics in general. In short, it basically seems to be the same game over and over again no matter how many times you play. The candidates start out with lots of hope and enthusiasm, building up their infrastructure piece by piece, raising cash and giving speeches. Once they get a solid platform built up, they keep shouting the messages that they think will appeal to the largest number of voters, and in the end the only issue that really matters is whether or not the Republicans were able to take California and New York away from the Democrats.
Okay, so there is a bit more subtlety and variety to be found. Sometimes the Republican candidate picks Giuliani as a running mate. Sometimes the Democrats can get lucky and find a million dollar donor and a director who's willing to shoot commercials for half price. Sometimes Texas is undecided right up until the night of the election. But these variations are really just small shifts in the current of this game.
There are a few other small problems here and there. The biggest annoyance is the inability to distinguish between all the ads and political operatives that are bunched together in the states. It's not as a big a deal in places like Texas or California, but when you've got ten or twelve folks in New York sharing space with half a dozen print and TV ads, it can be difficult to know just what's going on. The developers should also include a handy summary screen so you can see all your ads in one place, particularly those running at a national level. We've occasionally found ourselves paying to run duplicate ads just because we weren't sure if we had one running already.
We were also a little disappointed that there's no real use for political clout late in the game. It's an absolutely essential resource during the early part of the campaign in order to pick up those lucrative national endorsements. But once you and your opponent have divided up the handful of eligible organizations, your clout just keeps building and building for no real purpose. It would be nice if there were someway to leverage that once the endorsements are all claimed.
Closing Comments
For twenty bucks, The Political Machine 2008 isn't necessarily a bad deal, but it's a one-note affair that inhabits that misty gray region between comfortable familiarity and dull predictability. As a light-hearted treatment of American politics in 2008, The Political Machine definitely succeeds and we've had a bit of fun roleplaying our own values on the road to the White House. There's no doubt that it's an enjoyable experience, but the main campaign just has you playing out the same battle over and over again. The other campaigns are interesting and introduce some genuinely funny and thought provoking issues but they're not quite as comprehensible or recognizable as the 2008 US campaign.
7.5
PresentationA reasonably attractive model of contemporary campaigning but there's not enough variety here.
7.0
GraphicsWe like the slick presentation but the map can be very hard to read when things get crowded.
7.0
SoundGood music and effects that compliment the experience.
8.0
GameplayThere are some good ideas here and plenty of smart interface decisions. Things tend to play out the same way from game to game.
6.0
Lasting AppealIt benefits from some speculative campaigns but doesn't hold much appeal beyond its relationship to current events.
7.3Decent
OVERALL
While Stardock's The Political Machine 2008 is an enjoyable, and intentionally topical, game, the publisher has taken tremendous pains to point out that it is not a "simulation." The more cynical types among you may take this as a simple marketing maneuver to ensure that the game appeals to a wider base but basically all this distinction means is that the game tries to recreate the political landscape of America without getting too bogged down in primaries and vote count controversies. Along the way you'll have the chance to run against folks from the current crop of candidates along with some notables from our political past. Unfortunately, the current political setting means the overall experience is far too predictable to have much lasting appeal. Even though the twenty-dollar price tag is appealing, only the most committed armchair politicians will find much replayability here.
We don't necessarily think that the game is biased one way or the other (at least, not any more than the country itself is), but it definitely reflects the variety of opinions and political polarization that make up American politics. The game is real enough that, assuming you know something about current events, you can jump in right away and have an idea whether or not your support of gay marriage will go over better in California or West Virginia, and whether or not to attack your opponent on job outsourcing on Michigan radio.
There's less of a sense of familiarity with the game's other campaigns. Our favorite focuses on the presidential election of 1860, and all the territories and issues are adjusted accordingly. It does require a little more research on the part of the player. We, for example, weren't sure whether or not Southern Democrats were supposed to support tariffs. Things are a little less obvious in the ersatz European Union campaign and sometimes incomprehensible (though undeniably hilarious) in the Drengin Empire campaign. Players of Stardock's Gal Civ 2 will definitely appreciate some of the in-jokes here.
No matter which election you play, your candidate starts off in their home state 41 weeks before the election. You can choose to play longer and shorter games but they're not as enjoyable. Each week you can spend your stamina points building infrastructure, giving speeches, and placing ads. Infrastructure can help you develop awareness in key states and gives you the resources to court national endorsements and hire political operatives. Speeches and ads give you the chance to promote your platform to the voters of a particular state or to the nation in general. Of course, a lot of these actions cost money, so you'll also need to save some stamina points for some good old fashioned fund-raising.
The voters of each state have issues that they care about and you'll want to state your position on those issues while keeping in mind whether or not your thoughts on that issue will make voters of either party (or the independents) more likely to support your campaign. You can pay cash to run national TV ads that blanket the whole country with your message, but you'll need to be aware that your views on immigration might be taken very differently in Florida than they are in Minnesota. Thankfully, the game presents you with basic poll numbers that show how the voters of each party feel about each issue, both at the state and the national levels.
When we saw that you could make your own candidates, we instantly set about making ersatz versions of ourselves to launch into the political arena, certain that our moderate and sometimes complicated views could sway the American voters. But in designing candidates, you're limited to a mere hundred points to determine your stance on issues from abortion to the withdrawal from Iraq. A hundred points sounds like a lot, but since each issue is rated on a scale of 100 points either for or against, you can really only take a moderate stand on four or five issues. Goodbye, school voucher program!
We were a little disappointed by this limitation until we realized that you can actually adjust your position on all of these issues during the campaign. You can get a hefty boost towards traditional values, big government, or drilling in ANWR just by courting the endorsement of various religious, business or environmental groups. You can also shift your platform based on the ads that you run and on the answers you give during your TV appearances. In the end, we were actually happier that you couldn't just spec the platform you wanted by spending points, but actually had to earn it through your actions during the campaign. We've even found ourselves crossing over to court voters of the other party whenever we saw that our opponent wasn't responding to a clear preference among voters.
The types of issues you talk about in your TV appearances and political ads can even catapult lesser known issues into the national arena. While everyone's going to be talking about the economy, or health care or the war on terror, you can jump in and start hammering away at an issue your opponent is weak on, like social security reform or gun control. This tactic can be risky though because while you're busy building up marginal issues, your opponent is gaining more and more momentum on the issues that already speak to a wide range of voters.
There are a number of map filters to help you plan out your conquest of the electorate. You can quickly see which states are important by checking the number of electoral votes they have and how wealthy they are overall. A quick check of the liberal vs. conservative voter numbers can also tell you which states are likely to vote for or against you at the beginning. By far the most useful of the map filters is the one that shows polling data. This is a real-time update of the way a state is likely to vote. This can change from red to blue during the course of a turn, even hanging on pink (or possibly gray) when the voters are just too confused to commit.
Players looking for a bit of a challenge will be happy to see that the AI has been improved since the 2004 edition. Your opponents know seem more inclined to go for the bigger states and to use their operatives in response to your own actions. You'll still get the occasional inexplicable fund-raising trip to Wyoming, but the AI plays a much smarter game this time around, particularly in the latter stages of the campaign.
The presentation has been improved a bit as well. Though it won't win any graphics awards, the new 3D engine gives the game a slick, updated feel that puts it a step above most games in this price range. And whether it was intentional or not, the bobble head figures offer a great commentary on politicians in general. The music and sound effects are equally polished, which enhances the experience.
The real problem with the game is the same problem that we have with politics in general. In short, it basically seems to be the same game over and over again no matter how many times you play. The candidates start out with lots of hope and enthusiasm, building up their infrastructure piece by piece, raising cash and giving speeches. Once they get a solid platform built up, they keep shouting the messages that they think will appeal to the largest number of voters, and in the end the only issue that really matters is whether or not the Republicans were able to take California and New York away from the Democrats.
Okay, so there is a bit more subtlety and variety to be found. Sometimes the Republican candidate picks Giuliani as a running mate. Sometimes the Democrats can get lucky and find a million dollar donor and a director who's willing to shoot commercials for half price. Sometimes Texas is undecided right up until the night of the election. But these variations are really just small shifts in the current of this game.
There are a few other small problems here and there. The biggest annoyance is the inability to distinguish between all the ads and political operatives that are bunched together in the states. It's not as a big a deal in places like Texas or California, but when you've got ten or twelve folks in New York sharing space with half a dozen print and TV ads, it can be difficult to know just what's going on. The developers should also include a handy summary screen so you can see all your ads in one place, particularly those running at a national level. We've occasionally found ourselves paying to run duplicate ads just because we weren't sure if we had one running already.
We were also a little disappointed that there's no real use for political clout late in the game. It's an absolutely essential resource during the early part of the campaign in order to pick up those lucrative national endorsements. But once you and your opponent have divided up the handful of eligible organizations, your clout just keeps building and building for no real purpose. It would be nice if there were someway to leverage that once the endorsements are all claimed.
Closing Comments
For twenty bucks, The Political Machine 2008 isn't necessarily a bad deal, but it's a one-note affair that inhabits that misty gray region between comfortable familiarity and dull predictability. As a light-hearted treatment of American politics in 2008, The Political Machine definitely succeeds and we've had a bit of fun roleplaying our own values on the road to the White House. There's no doubt that it's an enjoyable experience, but the main campaign just has you playing out the same battle over and over again. The other campaigns are interesting and introduce some genuinely funny and thought provoking issues but they're not quite as comprehensible or recognizable as the 2008 US campaign.
7.5
PresentationA reasonably attractive model of contemporary campaigning but there's not enough variety here.
7.0
GraphicsWe like the slick presentation but the map can be very hard to read when things get crowded.
7.0
SoundGood music and effects that compliment the experience.
8.0
GameplayThere are some good ideas here and plenty of smart interface decisions. Things tend to play out the same way from game to game.
6.0
Lasting AppealIt benefits from some speculative campaigns but doesn't hold much appeal beyond its relationship to current events.
7.3Decent
OVERALL
Belief & Betrayal
June 19, 2008 - Everybody likes mysteries surrounding the Vatican and Christian relics, right? That's just what Italian developer Artematica delivers with Belief & Betrayal, a traditional point and click adventure title that might be a little too traditional for many gamers out there.The North American release has been pushed back multiple times, and hopefully nobody was waiting too patiently for it. Things start out with journalist Jonathan Danter being mysteriously whisked away from his luxurious flat to Scotland Yard in London. It seems Danter's in danger as his uncle, presumed dead for a decade, suddenly turned up newly murdered.What follows is a tale of moderate interest as relics like the Shroud of Turin, the Holy Grail, and the Philosopher's Stone are brought up in conversation, though more seemingly to distract the player from some of the game's more mundane and frustrating aspects. Some of them do actually tie into the plot, but it feels like Artematica was name dropping Christian relics to serve as fireworks rather than bothering to work them into the story and characters' motivations more meaningfully.
Though not much is done with character (Danter is a curious guy with an edge of sexism), such things can be forgiven with an interesting puzzle system. It's always sort of one way or the other with adventure games. Either you stick around for strong characterization, quality of writing, and interesting game world (Dreamfall) or eek past awkward conversation scenes to get into some engaging puzzle mechanics (The Lost Crown's ghost hunting). The rare games (Grim Fandango) possess all those positive qualities. Belief & Betrayal possesses none of them.The gameplay format here should be familiar to any adventure fan. You control a mouse cursor, click on objects of interest to have the on-screen character inspect and interact with them, pick up random objects, fit them together, and try to figure out how to use them to advance the plot. Thankfully the game doesn't force you to scour every inch of the screen to find items, as hitting the space bar will reveal all the things onscreen that can be interacted with.That doesn't help all that much, though, since sometimes it's necessary to inspect them multiple times to get the character to realize they need to interact with something. Then there's the additional "use" function, separate from inspect, which occasionally reveals something more. So essentially you're best off clicking on each object you find three times to ensure you're not missing anything. In this day and age, it's tiresome and unnecessary. On top of that you'll have to mix notes characters have made in a journal with inventory items, which adds to the irritation in the way it's set up. You can sometimes only successfully solve some puzzles by matching the note to the item, but not the item to the note. Why doesn't this work both ways?One of the game's brighter spots involves its use of multiple characters simultaneously. The overall plot is broken into chapters, and in some of the chapters you're put in control of characters other than Danter. In these parts you can freely switch between, and in some cases have to discover clues with some characters that have to be transmitted to others for things to progress. It's a good idea, though here it's not pulled off with any real sort of finesse or elegance. It's all very straightforward and dull.
It's pretty much the same deal with the game's puzzles. Though a few work to liven things up and add more of a dimension of personality, some of their designs start to feel repetitive. For example, in one instance you have to solve a puzzle to get a drunkard to move out of your way. In another you have hunt around to get a guard to move out of your way. In yet another you have to get a cleaning lady to move out of your way. The pattern continues in another when you have to get a librarian to move out of your way and in another when you screw up a researcher's tools to get her to move out of your way.A few prove to be a little more interesting, like one puzzle involving tomato sauce and ancient inscriptions, if only because they're so bizarre. In all the game isn't that complicated, it's just a matter of negotiating the awkward user interface. Things make "adventure game sense" in Belief & Betrayal, just not always real world sense.Overlaying the adventuring is a serviceable soundtrack, meant to evoke a sense of ancient mystery with string plucks, piano plinks, and soaring strings. Voice acting is mixed. Danter, for instance, is played with enthusiasm, whether he's insulting the French World Cup team, cracking condom jokes, or expressing his love of pencils, you have to admire his attitude considering the surrounding circumstances. Less important characters, however, are mechanically voiced, and the horrible French and Italian accents of some can be off-putting.Also we should point out we couldn't get the game to run properly using Windows Vista 32-bit. The graphics regularly glitched out and the entire game frequently crashed until we tried it on an XP machine, where it ran fine. Once everything's working, you're not treated to any particularly memorable scenes. Video customization options are sorely lacking, character models and animations are stiff and unnatural, and many of the static camera angles come off as more conventional than imaginative.
Closing Comments
Even hardcore adventure fans might have a hard time digesting this one. With precious few progressive elements and a tedious system for inspection and item interaction, Artematica's Belief & Betrayal is too often an exercise in frustration. The plot, a twisting tale that intersects with myriad Christian relics and the occasional brutal murder, is enough to potentially keep you interested, but considering the generally weak characters, arduous collection and bland puzzle designs, it's not enough to warrant a purchase.
4.0
PresentationClunky inventory and communicator device interface, strange music loop bugs on loading screens, delays between inputs and actions.
4.0
GraphicsWe couldn't get this thing to work in Vista. Some interesting environments, but overall this game is ugly and generally boring to look at. Doesn't do much with camera perspective.
6.0
SoundDecent environmental music, Danter has a few good lines. Otherwise, it's a mess of mediocrity.
5.5
GameplayIt's a traditional adventure game with unreasonably convoluted item collection mechanics, repetitive puzzles, and very little we haven't seen before.
4.0
Lasting AppealIt's not all that long, probably around seven hours depending on how acclimated you are to traditional adventure games. A very straightforward game with little replay value.
5.4Mediocre
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Though not much is done with character (Danter is a curious guy with an edge of sexism), such things can be forgiven with an interesting puzzle system. It's always sort of one way or the other with adventure games. Either you stick around for strong characterization, quality of writing, and interesting game world (Dreamfall) or eek past awkward conversation scenes to get into some engaging puzzle mechanics (The Lost Crown's ghost hunting). The rare games (Grim Fandango) possess all those positive qualities. Belief & Betrayal possesses none of them.The gameplay format here should be familiar to any adventure fan. You control a mouse cursor, click on objects of interest to have the on-screen character inspect and interact with them, pick up random objects, fit them together, and try to figure out how to use them to advance the plot. Thankfully the game doesn't force you to scour every inch of the screen to find items, as hitting the space bar will reveal all the things onscreen that can be interacted with.That doesn't help all that much, though, since sometimes it's necessary to inspect them multiple times to get the character to realize they need to interact with something. Then there's the additional "use" function, separate from inspect, which occasionally reveals something more. So essentially you're best off clicking on each object you find three times to ensure you're not missing anything. In this day and age, it's tiresome and unnecessary. On top of that you'll have to mix notes characters have made in a journal with inventory items, which adds to the irritation in the way it's set up. You can sometimes only successfully solve some puzzles by matching the note to the item, but not the item to the note. Why doesn't this work both ways?One of the game's brighter spots involves its use of multiple characters simultaneously. The overall plot is broken into chapters, and in some of the chapters you're put in control of characters other than Danter. In these parts you can freely switch between, and in some cases have to discover clues with some characters that have to be transmitted to others for things to progress. It's a good idea, though here it's not pulled off with any real sort of finesse or elegance. It's all very straightforward and dull.
It's pretty much the same deal with the game's puzzles. Though a few work to liven things up and add more of a dimension of personality, some of their designs start to feel repetitive. For example, in one instance you have to solve a puzzle to get a drunkard to move out of your way. In another you have hunt around to get a guard to move out of your way. In yet another you have to get a cleaning lady to move out of your way. The pattern continues in another when you have to get a librarian to move out of your way and in another when you screw up a researcher's tools to get her to move out of your way.A few prove to be a little more interesting, like one puzzle involving tomato sauce and ancient inscriptions, if only because they're so bizarre. In all the game isn't that complicated, it's just a matter of negotiating the awkward user interface. Things make "adventure game sense" in Belief & Betrayal, just not always real world sense.Overlaying the adventuring is a serviceable soundtrack, meant to evoke a sense of ancient mystery with string plucks, piano plinks, and soaring strings. Voice acting is mixed. Danter, for instance, is played with enthusiasm, whether he's insulting the French World Cup team, cracking condom jokes, or expressing his love of pencils, you have to admire his attitude considering the surrounding circumstances. Less important characters, however, are mechanically voiced, and the horrible French and Italian accents of some can be off-putting.Also we should point out we couldn't get the game to run properly using Windows Vista 32-bit. The graphics regularly glitched out and the entire game frequently crashed until we tried it on an XP machine, where it ran fine. Once everything's working, you're not treated to any particularly memorable scenes. Video customization options are sorely lacking, character models and animations are stiff and unnatural, and many of the static camera angles come off as more conventional than imaginative.
Closing Comments
Even hardcore adventure fans might have a hard time digesting this one. With precious few progressive elements and a tedious system for inspection and item interaction, Artematica's Belief & Betrayal is too often an exercise in frustration. The plot, a twisting tale that intersects with myriad Christian relics and the occasional brutal murder, is enough to potentially keep you interested, but considering the generally weak characters, arduous collection and bland puzzle designs, it's not enough to warrant a purchase.
4.0
PresentationClunky inventory and communicator device interface, strange music loop bugs on loading screens, delays between inputs and actions.
4.0
GraphicsWe couldn't get this thing to work in Vista. Some interesting environments, but overall this game is ugly and generally boring to look at. Doesn't do much with camera perspective.
6.0
SoundDecent environmental music, Danter has a few good lines. Otherwise, it's a mess of mediocrity.
5.5
GameplayIt's a traditional adventure game with unreasonably convoluted item collection mechanics, repetitive puzzles, and very little we haven't seen before.
4.0
Lasting AppealIt's not all that long, probably around seven hours depending on how acclimated you are to traditional adventure games. A very straightforward game with little replay value.
5.4Mediocre
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Great War Nations: The Spartans
April 29, 2008 - First things first: Great War Nations: The Spartans is a terrible name, particularly since one of the two campaigns is actually about Alexander of Macedon who basically had nothing whatsoever to do with any Spartans. Nevertheless, The Spartans do manage to shine in the first campaign and there's a sincere attempt here to provide a convincing historical framework for the characters and missions. Whatever the case, we're still a bit confused by the name. The title is apparently the sequel to Ancient Wars: Sparta but I guess More Ancient Wars: Sparta didn't go over at the marketing meeting. The game was released in Europe as Fate of Hellas, which makes slightly more sense given Alexander's inclusion, but for whatever reason they've decided to call it Great War Nations: The Spartans, let's just get on with the review.
In this game you'll take charge of either the Spartan or Macedonian armies in one of two campaigns set during the bloody days of the Bronze Age. Each campaign progresses through a series of standard RTS missions where the main goal seems to be the destruction of the enemy base. Along the way you'll have to build farms and research new technologies, and even bribe allies and set fire to forests but let's be clear at the start, this game is about giving a guy a spear and having him go stab another guy. Perhaps one of the poorer aspects of the campaign design is that certain abilities and items that were available to you in previous missions are disabled in later ones purely to enforce arbitrary limitations on your strategies. For instance, you might be asked to use ladders to scale a wall in one mission only to find that they're simply not available in the next mission.
One of the more interesting aspects of Great War Nations is the way you create your troops. Rather than just coming pre-loaded with specific troop types, The Spartans gives you several blank slots that you can use to edit your own units. Once you pick a basic soldier type, you can then choose to equip them with any weapons you've researched (or collected from enemies). This means that you can start pumping out warriors armed with simple clubs and shields right away, or wait a bit and equip them with spears or swords and even tougher shields. And since you can actually equip multiple weapons, you can even have design troops that have three weapons -- one for fighting infantry, one for fighting cavalry and one for fighting at range. Of course, the more you pack onto a soldier, the more expensive they are to produce and the longer it takes them to train.
Of course, you have to manually switch weapons on the battlefield, which can be a bit confusing. Having to tell each of your soldiers to switch to their bows when attacking enemies they can't reach in melee seems a little unnecessary to us. Still, switching from one weapon to another, even for large groups of troops is relatively painless. There's a similarly involved mechanic for getting your troops on and off their mounts, which are treated as separate units.
It's much more difficult to loot the weapons from your enemies. The game seems to suggest that if you simply march a villager into the battlefield and give them a command to gather arms, that they'll happily march around picking up spare shields and swords and slings before bringing them back to your base either to be used to equip your forces or sold for cash. And while it ought to work that way, that's not been our experience. Instead, you'll have to hand select each and every item you want a villager to collect. It's not such a big deal with the giant shields, but it's incredibly hard to spot the tiny spears, a problem made particularly difficult by a camera system that requires you to use the keyboard and the mouse simultaneously if you want to rotate the view.
There are some other small problems with the basic interface as well. Some triggers are terribly difficult to set off, while that might require a bit of input from the player go off automatically. Additionally, the pathfinding can sometimes be downright atrocious. It's bad enough when units in the middle of your larger formations can't get out to the edges without you clearing a path for them manually, but the ships in the game just seem to float around as if they're on ice. Getting them into a reasonable formation, or even to move to a specific destination is an exercise in frustration. Losing ships to a smarter, better-prepared enemy is one thing, but losing them to bad steering is enough to send you digging around for your receipt.
When the formations work they provide a convenient way to keep your troops organized and oriented towards the enemy It's a simply system that gives you a fair bit of control over how you place troops. But for some reason, the formations only apply to troops at rest on the parade ground. Once you start moving or fighting, the whole concept of formations is completely meaningless. It's not that we don't expect units to mix it up a little once the battle is joined, but far too often units on the edges of your formation will break off to attack nearby enemies without any regard for your original dispositions.
Graphically, The Spartans is a rather attractive game. It certainly won't push the limits of your video card but the hundred-unit battles will still chop a bit even on higher end systems. The units are all highly detailed, from the transverse crests on their helmets to their red cloaks to the lambda on their shields. The units look great up close and from afar and their animations are realistic and dynamic. The environments are also nicely detailed, with a sort of Battle Realms style of atmosphere but lacking a bit of the life and animation found in that earlier title.
There are plenty of small touches here and there, however. Like the smiths coming out and testing the tips of the spears in the workshop or the ranged units heading out the practice range during training. These small signs of life don't amount to much individually but taken as a whole, they provide a solid feeling of energy to the game's setting. Throw in a few effects, like rockslides and burning trees, and you've got a game that compares favorably to many of the other RTS titles in this same setting.
The sound is also reasonably good. The effects of battle are satisfying and meaty and definitely help to support the on screen action. The martial music is equally thrilling and puts you right in the mood for some serious Bronze Age stabbings. Some may find the voice work a little exaggerated but I thought it struck the right tone overall, not too serious, but not played for laughs either.
Closing Comments
Terrible name aside, Great War Nations: The Spartans offers pretty much what we saw in Ancient Wars: Sparta. It has a unique troop creation system that lets players build exactly the types of armies they want and it doesn't look that bad either. But the pathing problems and the lack of excitement at the tactical level don't provide a strong enough framework for the good parts of the game to really shine through. If you're interested in ancient history you'll appreciate the attention to detail. Just don't expect the gameplay to be as captivating.
5.0
PresentationNot much of an update to last year's Ancient Wars. What is Alexander doing in a game about Sparta?
8.0
GraphicsNice detailing on the units with plenty of interesting animations back at the base. The world could use a bit more life.
7.0
SoundGood battle sounds and music. The voices are good but might be a bit broad for some tastes.
6.5
GameplayTroop creation is definitely fun but once the battle is joined things quickly degenerate into a predictable mush.
5.5
Lasting AppealTwo short campaigns seem to repeat the same types of encounters.
6.0Passable
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
In this game you'll take charge of either the Spartan or Macedonian armies in one of two campaigns set during the bloody days of the Bronze Age. Each campaign progresses through a series of standard RTS missions where the main goal seems to be the destruction of the enemy base. Along the way you'll have to build farms and research new technologies, and even bribe allies and set fire to forests but let's be clear at the start, this game is about giving a guy a spear and having him go stab another guy. Perhaps one of the poorer aspects of the campaign design is that certain abilities and items that were available to you in previous missions are disabled in later ones purely to enforce arbitrary limitations on your strategies. For instance, you might be asked to use ladders to scale a wall in one mission only to find that they're simply not available in the next mission.
One of the more interesting aspects of Great War Nations is the way you create your troops. Rather than just coming pre-loaded with specific troop types, The Spartans gives you several blank slots that you can use to edit your own units. Once you pick a basic soldier type, you can then choose to equip them with any weapons you've researched (or collected from enemies). This means that you can start pumping out warriors armed with simple clubs and shields right away, or wait a bit and equip them with spears or swords and even tougher shields. And since you can actually equip multiple weapons, you can even have design troops that have three weapons -- one for fighting infantry, one for fighting cavalry and one for fighting at range. Of course, the more you pack onto a soldier, the more expensive they are to produce and the longer it takes them to train.
Of course, you have to manually switch weapons on the battlefield, which can be a bit confusing. Having to tell each of your soldiers to switch to their bows when attacking enemies they can't reach in melee seems a little unnecessary to us. Still, switching from one weapon to another, even for large groups of troops is relatively painless. There's a similarly involved mechanic for getting your troops on and off their mounts, which are treated as separate units.
It's much more difficult to loot the weapons from your enemies. The game seems to suggest that if you simply march a villager into the battlefield and give them a command to gather arms, that they'll happily march around picking up spare shields and swords and slings before bringing them back to your base either to be used to equip your forces or sold for cash. And while it ought to work that way, that's not been our experience. Instead, you'll have to hand select each and every item you want a villager to collect. It's not such a big deal with the giant shields, but it's incredibly hard to spot the tiny spears, a problem made particularly difficult by a camera system that requires you to use the keyboard and the mouse simultaneously if you want to rotate the view.
There are some other small problems with the basic interface as well. Some triggers are terribly difficult to set off, while that might require a bit of input from the player go off automatically. Additionally, the pathfinding can sometimes be downright atrocious. It's bad enough when units in the middle of your larger formations can't get out to the edges without you clearing a path for them manually, but the ships in the game just seem to float around as if they're on ice. Getting them into a reasonable formation, or even to move to a specific destination is an exercise in frustration. Losing ships to a smarter, better-prepared enemy is one thing, but losing them to bad steering is enough to send you digging around for your receipt.
When the formations work they provide a convenient way to keep your troops organized and oriented towards the enemy It's a simply system that gives you a fair bit of control over how you place troops. But for some reason, the formations only apply to troops at rest on the parade ground. Once you start moving or fighting, the whole concept of formations is completely meaningless. It's not that we don't expect units to mix it up a little once the battle is joined, but far too often units on the edges of your formation will break off to attack nearby enemies without any regard for your original dispositions.
Graphically, The Spartans is a rather attractive game. It certainly won't push the limits of your video card but the hundred-unit battles will still chop a bit even on higher end systems. The units are all highly detailed, from the transverse crests on their helmets to their red cloaks to the lambda on their shields. The units look great up close and from afar and their animations are realistic and dynamic. The environments are also nicely detailed, with a sort of Battle Realms style of atmosphere but lacking a bit of the life and animation found in that earlier title.
There are plenty of small touches here and there, however. Like the smiths coming out and testing the tips of the spears in the workshop or the ranged units heading out the practice range during training. These small signs of life don't amount to much individually but taken as a whole, they provide a solid feeling of energy to the game's setting. Throw in a few effects, like rockslides and burning trees, and you've got a game that compares favorably to many of the other RTS titles in this same setting.
The sound is also reasonably good. The effects of battle are satisfying and meaty and definitely help to support the on screen action. The martial music is equally thrilling and puts you right in the mood for some serious Bronze Age stabbings. Some may find the voice work a little exaggerated but I thought it struck the right tone overall, not too serious, but not played for laughs either.
Closing Comments
Terrible name aside, Great War Nations: The Spartans offers pretty much what we saw in Ancient Wars: Sparta. It has a unique troop creation system that lets players build exactly the types of armies they want and it doesn't look that bad either. But the pathing problems and the lack of excitement at the tactical level don't provide a strong enough framework for the good parts of the game to really shine through. If you're interested in ancient history you'll appreciate the attention to detail. Just don't expect the gameplay to be as captivating.
5.0
PresentationNot much of an update to last year's Ancient Wars. What is Alexander doing in a game about Sparta?
8.0
GraphicsNice detailing on the units with plenty of interesting animations back at the base. The world could use a bit more life.
7.0
SoundGood battle sounds and music. The voices are good but might be a bit broad for some tastes.
6.5
GameplayTroop creation is definitely fun but once the battle is joined things quickly degenerate into a predictable mush.
5.5
Lasting AppealTwo short campaigns seem to repeat the same types of encounters.
6.0Passable
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Jack Keane
April 28, 2008 - A traditional adventure game wouldn't be complete if it didn't have the brave hero, feisty love interest, wannabe pirates, sinister bad guy (complete with perfectly manicured moustache), and, of course, monkeys. Deck13, the developer of Ankh, return with an entertaining and charming adventure inspired by the classic Monkey Island from LucasArts. And while Jack Keane is no Guybrush Threepwood, he has his own endearing personality, a strong chin, and tousled hair.Keane's adventure begins in 19th century London, strapped to a chair in the Big Ben clock tower to be exact. Two thugs have been sent as debt collectors and they are very insistent on getting the money back. Keane manages to escape from the thugs and immediately accepts an assignment to help the Queen (her tea is at stake) because of a favorable reward at the end. Since Keane's ship, the "Charming Princess," is the fastest ship on the London-India route, Keane is asked to pick up one of the Queen's secret agents in Cape Town and transport him safely to mysterious Tooth Island. At Cape Town, Keane comes across a lovely woman named Amanda, who happens to also be on her way to Tooth Island, so together they set off with secret agent Montgomery. The shenanigans really begin once they've reached the island and the story delves deeper as we learn more about the evil Doctor T and Keane. The entire mood of the game remains light-hearted and fun, with humorous dialogue and wacky characters. It's not very original or exceedingly clever but just because it isn't genre changing doesn't mean it's not worth playing. The game also makes quite a bit of references to pop culture where you might see an Indiana Jones outfit or a side comment about those accursed numbers from the television show Lost. You can't help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all, especially when you come across a man who has lost everything to the Nigerian letter scam. There are some parts where the dialogue makes you go, "Huh?" Keep in mind that the game was originally in German, which might explain how some jokes were simply lost in translation. There are some genuinely funny moments in the game, but there were a lot of misses too.
Jack Keane's gameplay is very easy to pick up. There aren't any confusing menus to navigate through, a simple left click of the mouse will look at items and right click will allow you interact with objects and people. Double clicking will make Jack run and your inventory items are all stored at the top of your screen for easy use. Amanda is also playable later on in the game. Items are generally used once before they disappear, however Jack and Amanda carry a knife and rifle respectively which can be used multiple times. The puzzles are really the meat of the adventure, and depending on the type of player you are, you may not find Jack Keane to be the most complicated or challenging of adventure games. It's not meant to be; it's supposed to be silly and fun, although there are some puzzles that will have you scratching your head and revisiting every area and talking to every person. Who knew that with an empty jam jar, a red sock, and a candle you would have a new taillight for an elephant? If the puzzles aren't painfully obvious, then randomly combining items in the inventory might do the trick until you create something that can be of use. Thorough scouring of the environments is crucial, as everything you pick up will be of use to you later. The mouse cursor will change to indicate when something can be taken but loose objects stand out enough to catch your eye. As hard as you may try, there is no way to get yourself killed as you navigate through the wild jungle even if things start to get a little hairy.There are bonus puzzles to solve throughout the game to unlock additional content. They usually involve collecting items that aren't related to the storyline so if you happen to miss them the first time around, you can always go back and play again. Visually the game is incredibly vibrant and colorful, to the point of looking slightly radioactive. It looks cartoonish and kid-friendly, minus the part where you'll have to see a certain someone in leopard underwear which is not suitable for children or anyone for that matter. Tooth Island is beautiful and luscious and there is a good amount of variety in the different locales to keep things fresh and interesting. The animation is decent; there are moments when movements are a bit clunky and stiff but the cut scenes are enjoyable to watch. There is a large cast of characters that inhabit Tooth Island, each with their own quirks and bug-eyed expressions.
The voice acting is hit or miss. The fake accents are funny at first, but some of the voices are a little more irritating than others, like Dr. T's high-pitched squeals. Keane didn't have a British accent, despite growing up in London, which was a bit odd since every other character had variations of British and Indian accents. In some instances the dialogue would cut off abruptly at the end of a sentence making the conversation between two characters awkward and choppy. It didn't help that often times the characters seemed to be reciting their lines to no one in particular, creating inflections that don't seem to fit in with the conversation--another reason why some of the jokes didn't quite work out. The music complemented the game very well, cuing in at the right moments to provide a bit of gusto to the action on screen. In general, the soundtrack remained subtle and unobtrusive keeping the mood and atmosphere of the game.A few flaws to note include an error message that kept popping up in one area, but as long as I hit the Windows close button instead of clicking anything else the game would keep going without any issues, otherwise it would kick me out of the game. I also crashed once which could have been a fluke. The game does not support alt tab because that is guaranteed to crash your game. There were a few places where the controls were a little wonky and it was difficult to get Jack where I wanted him to go but it didn't come up often enough to hinder gameplay.
Closing Comments
Other than the few issues that were previously mentioned, Jack Keane is a wonderful adventure experience that should bring back fond memories of old school adventure games. The artwork and design is great for this type of game and the music blended in well to keep the action going. A majority of the puzzles may seem too easy at first, but the difficulty does ramp up later in the game to provide a decent challenge for puzzle solvers. Voice acting can be a little grating at times and the jokes could have been better, but this light-hearted adventure can be fun for those who aren't interested in a serious mystery. It would be fantastic to see what else Deck13 can come up for those of us who enjoy a good romp through the jungle. Be sure to stay until the end of the credits for some amusing outtakes.
7.5
PresentationA solid effort by Deck13; there are a few flaws but overall the style works and the game is fun and easy to play.
7.0
GraphicsBright, colorful environments and enjoyable cut-scenes, but there are awkward animations at times.
7.0
SoundVoice acting is okay, some poorly recited lines. Music is good and fits in with the atmosphere.
8.0
GameplayEasy to learn and fun to play, a well put-together game that brings back old school adventure gaming with style.
7.5
Lasting AppealBonus content and multiple ways to solve some puzzles might make people go another round. Twelve chapters of story-driven adventure and at least 10 hours of gameplay.
7.5Good
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Jack Keane's gameplay is very easy to pick up. There aren't any confusing menus to navigate through, a simple left click of the mouse will look at items and right click will allow you interact with objects and people. Double clicking will make Jack run and your inventory items are all stored at the top of your screen for easy use. Amanda is also playable later on in the game. Items are generally used once before they disappear, however Jack and Amanda carry a knife and rifle respectively which can be used multiple times. The puzzles are really the meat of the adventure, and depending on the type of player you are, you may not find Jack Keane to be the most complicated or challenging of adventure games. It's not meant to be; it's supposed to be silly and fun, although there are some puzzles that will have you scratching your head and revisiting every area and talking to every person. Who knew that with an empty jam jar, a red sock, and a candle you would have a new taillight for an elephant? If the puzzles aren't painfully obvious, then randomly combining items in the inventory might do the trick until you create something that can be of use. Thorough scouring of the environments is crucial, as everything you pick up will be of use to you later. The mouse cursor will change to indicate when something can be taken but loose objects stand out enough to catch your eye. As hard as you may try, there is no way to get yourself killed as you navigate through the wild jungle even if things start to get a little hairy.There are bonus puzzles to solve throughout the game to unlock additional content. They usually involve collecting items that aren't related to the storyline so if you happen to miss them the first time around, you can always go back and play again. Visually the game is incredibly vibrant and colorful, to the point of looking slightly radioactive. It looks cartoonish and kid-friendly, minus the part where you'll have to see a certain someone in leopard underwear which is not suitable for children or anyone for that matter. Tooth Island is beautiful and luscious and there is a good amount of variety in the different locales to keep things fresh and interesting. The animation is decent; there are moments when movements are a bit clunky and stiff but the cut scenes are enjoyable to watch. There is a large cast of characters that inhabit Tooth Island, each with their own quirks and bug-eyed expressions.
The voice acting is hit or miss. The fake accents are funny at first, but some of the voices are a little more irritating than others, like Dr. T's high-pitched squeals. Keane didn't have a British accent, despite growing up in London, which was a bit odd since every other character had variations of British and Indian accents. In some instances the dialogue would cut off abruptly at the end of a sentence making the conversation between two characters awkward and choppy. It didn't help that often times the characters seemed to be reciting their lines to no one in particular, creating inflections that don't seem to fit in with the conversation--another reason why some of the jokes didn't quite work out. The music complemented the game very well, cuing in at the right moments to provide a bit of gusto to the action on screen. In general, the soundtrack remained subtle and unobtrusive keeping the mood and atmosphere of the game.A few flaws to note include an error message that kept popping up in one area, but as long as I hit the Windows close button instead of clicking anything else the game would keep going without any issues, otherwise it would kick me out of the game. I also crashed once which could have been a fluke. The game does not support alt tab because that is guaranteed to crash your game. There were a few places where the controls were a little wonky and it was difficult to get Jack where I wanted him to go but it didn't come up often enough to hinder gameplay.
Closing Comments
Other than the few issues that were previously mentioned, Jack Keane is a wonderful adventure experience that should bring back fond memories of old school adventure games. The artwork and design is great for this type of game and the music blended in well to keep the action going. A majority of the puzzles may seem too easy at first, but the difficulty does ramp up later in the game to provide a decent challenge for puzzle solvers. Voice acting can be a little grating at times and the jokes could have been better, but this light-hearted adventure can be fun for those who aren't interested in a serious mystery. It would be fantastic to see what else Deck13 can come up for those of us who enjoy a good romp through the jungle. Be sure to stay until the end of the credits for some amusing outtakes.
7.5
PresentationA solid effort by Deck13; there are a few flaws but overall the style works and the game is fun and easy to play.
7.0
GraphicsBright, colorful environments and enjoyable cut-scenes, but there are awkward animations at times.
7.0
SoundVoice acting is okay, some poorly recited lines. Music is good and fits in with the atmosphere.
8.0
GameplayEasy to learn and fun to play, a well put-together game that brings back old school adventure gaming with style.
7.5
Lasting AppealBonus content and multiple ways to solve some puzzles might make people go another round. Twelve chapters of story-driven adventure and at least 10 hours of gameplay.
7.5Good
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Turok
April 24, 2008 -
Two months ago, raptors were revived in Turok on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Rather than ravage the videogame landscape and devour any and all comers, the beasts and their title were met with stiff reviews but commendable sales.Now, the dinos are ready to try their claws at the PC market.A re-imagining of the Nintendo 64 classic, Turok -- the latest project from Touchstone and Propaganda Games -- places you behind the bow and arrow of Joseph Turok and teams you with the ragtag members of Whiskey Company. Seems Turok used to be a member of a ruthless group of mercenaries known as Wolfpack but bailed when the whole baby-killing thing didn't mesh with his conscience. Now an adopted member of Whiskey Co., Turok and the boys are on the trail of his old mentor -- Roland Kane. The leader of Wolfpack has holed himself up on a remote planet, and as our boys approach, they're shot down. Whiskey Company begins to explore the planet, and the mission quickly switches from capturing Kane to making it past the dinosaurs, armed guards as well as mutated scorpions and getting home.
For the most part, Turok plays like every other first-person shooter out there. You switch weapons with the d-pad/mouse wheel, jump, crouch and blast your way through jungle environments, Wolfpack outposts and more. But what makes Turok stand out from the glut of recent FPSs is how you can kill -- such as sneaking up behind a guard, dropping him with a kick to the knee and burying your knife in the top of his head.Now, don't get me wrong; COD4 and BioShock were great times, but as a gamer I always found myself trying to balance my ballistics with reality. In COD, I was trying to save my grenades for those seemingly impossible hallways filled with terrorists, and in BioShock, I was hesitant to waste my Adam in fear that I'd need a powered-up plasmid for a Big Daddy or boss. For most of those games, I felt like I needed to play defensively.That doesn't happen here. Turok takes your reins off.No, the ammo isn't unlimited, but you are fully encouraged to use whatever weapon you want however you want. There'd be times when I'd enter a new section of jungle and find a makeshift guard base with stacks of weapons all over the place. I'd arm the chaingun, run out and blast some dinosaurs, get tired of the gun and backtrack to find something more to my liking. Once I settled on an instrument of destruction -- such as my favorite, the sticky bomb gun -- I could truck back out confident that there was more ammo behind me and plenty of spots to switch to something different ahead.
Secondary fire is a big part of gunplay in Turok. The sticky bomb gun is my favorite because of its standard fire mode -- pull the trigger to launch a bomb that sticks to whatever it touches and pull the trigger again to detonate the device -- but the secondary option of a mini minefield is a brilliant touch -- the same can be said for the shotgun's flare launcher and the SMG's silencer.Towards the end of the game, I was making a solo attack on one of Kane's bases, and the weapon gods were good to me once again. Able to infiltrate the front door undetected, I drew back on my bow and iced two guards before they knew Turok was on the scene. If you haven't caught our videos of this game, the bow is a sick silent killer. You draw back the arrow and then line up your shot with the crosshairs. The longer you hold the trigger down, the harder Turok's pulling on the string. If you let it go with enough force, the arrow will basically staple the bad guy to the nearest wall. Nice.Anyway, with the two chumps down, I moved deeper into the fortress and came across a staircase to the next level and a soldier staking out the top. I switched to the sticky bomb gun, tagged the bad man's leg and blew him to kingdom come. This tipped off the whole establishment that Whiskey Co. was there, and I began mining the hell out of the staircase and surrounding area. Clueless troops would come down the stairs and go boom. When the sticky bomb gun was on empty, I grabbed a nearby chaingun and -- utilizing its secondary fire -- set it up on the ground as a turret. It obliterated anyone able to come down the stairs.
Adding more options to your four weapons slots -- you'll always have the bow and knife but be able to swap out your other two gun slots -- is the fact that you can dual-wield just about every combination of guns. SMG/shotgun, dual pistols, sticky bomb/shotgun -- the world's your oyster. Believe me, there's nothing quite like packing two shoguns and working your way through a hoard of enemies. Add in the fact that you have stealth knife attacks -- forget about guards, you can sneak up on dinosaurs with your knife drawn, follow a button prompt and watch as Turok buries his blade into the beast's head or jumps on its back before slitting its throat -- and parts of this game are sure to get your blood pumping.In a lot of ways, this is first-person Contra -- lots of weapons, jungle, etc. -- but that isn't always a good thing.
Yes, here's the inevitable part of the review where I drop the "But …" and tell you all the reasons that Turok didn't get a 10, but my complaints really aren't all that severe. There isn't a portion of Turok that's horribly broken or annoying -- this isn't a bad game, but in the same respect, it's just not all that impressive.To begin with, the weapons I've spent so many words lauding are cool on the options side but disappointing on the firepower front. If I didn't get a headshot on an enemy, it took a seemingly endless stream of bullets to bring them down no matter what gun I seemed to be packing. When you're in one-on-one combat, that's not too big of a problem, but when enemies are swarming on you -- one instance where Slade and Turok were trying to make it over a tree bridge springs to mind -- the remedial damage your weapons give off is pretty annoying.What makes the annoyance worse is the fact that getting killed by these soldiers is pretty embarrassing seeing as how they're idiots. If we ever know the IGN offices have an intruder in them and I come across Game Scoop's Daemon Hatfield pinned to the wall by an arrow, I'm not going to stand in the exact same spot he was two seconds ago and scan the area -- nor if I see a guy with a machine gun am I going to organize the team to run in a straight line at him.Kane's men don't share this common sense.
Next up in my drawbacks section is the fact that Turok starts off like it's going to have a strong story -- there are flashbacks to Turok's induction into Wolfpack and the mission that made him drop out as well as a building, present-day tension between him and Whiskey Company -- but it eventually falls by the wayside. Once the group realizes they're in over their heads, the mission for Kane is abandoned and they focus on getting home. That's fine, but Kane and his bald-headed crony pop up a few times to say hi to Turok but never to advance the story. This all leads to a boss fight at the end that has no emotional impact because I don't care about catching Kane or even know who he is -- why's he on this planet, why's he so wanted, and why's he screwing with this planet's ecosystem in a way that creates dinosaurs?Turok isn't exempt from my wrath either. I know I talked about the weapon options being cool, but the lack of a run button (Ã la Call of Duty 4) is pretty upsetting. Our main character is trained to survive in the jungle, kill people with his bare hands and leap from sniper towers, but he can't hoof-it from enemies? There are plenty of times when the dinos swarm, your screen begins to turn red and escaping to take a breath is your only option. There's nothing more frustrating than only being able to speed walk away from certain death.
Beyond AI and controls, what's going to be a sticking point for lots of folks is that the visuals just aren't up to snuff. The graphics in Turok are by no means bad, but you're going to walk up to ledges and trees that have really sharp edges and boring texture patterns -- seeing the seams takes you out of the experience. Beyond things at a standstill looking ho-hum, there are troubles in motion as well. Characters in cutscenes occasionally have an aura of shine around them -- they all look like the light of the Lord is being emitted from their bodies
For the most part, Turok will be a walk in the park for anyone who enlisted in the '07 crop of first-person shooters. You'll head out from a given point, press a button to get an arrow that points at your objective, battle the beasts that appear on the horizon and then accomplish the object to enact the cut scene. However, there are points in Turok that are so frustrating that I found myself cursing the screen and prepared to hurl my precious controller. At one point I was pinned down by a dude rocking an RPG that seemed to have a constant read on me, another stall had me trying to figure out a way past a ginourmous spider tank that didn't end with me going boom, and another time I spent the ten or so continues trying to bring down a pissed off T-Rex. Now, I don't raise these as complaints because I hate being challenged -- I raise these issues because I like being challenged intelligently. Let me ruin the spider tank part for you. This huge tank with arachnid-like limbs lumbers onto the scene, and I stopped moving to see where it would go. Eventually the thing perches itself on a mountain and begins scanning the area. There are a few hollowed out logs and half-walls separating me from RPG ammo, and I figure I need to keep to the shadows. I no sooner step out, this thing's got a read on me, and I'm dead. The game loads, I let it sit, I jump in the log and it starts firing. I wait for a reloading pause or some kind of break, but it never comes. Finally, I make a break for it and end up getting blown up.This trial and error stuff went on for awhile before I figured out that if I just booked as soon as the tank showed up, I could make it to the ammo, slide back and forth from behind cover, and bring the cool tank down in the most anticlimactic way.
Here's my problem with this battle -- it's the definition of linear. Turok's given me all this freedom as to what I can do with my weapons, but in this one instance, I have to run at a specific time and shoot with a specific gun. In real life, my first reaction to seeing this beast wouldn't be to run out and let it see me, but thinking logically derails the experience and left me stalled.Speaking of linear, remember that Contra comparison I made a second ago? Sure, that applies to the fun of blasting the bad guys but it also references how straightforward Turok's levels are. As you cross the plains, you'll find plenty of opposition but not one environment that interacts with you. You're just running across set pieces.Although multiplayer wasn't amazing on the consoles, it's actually even less impressive on the PC. There are seven maps, the weapons from the single-player campaign, dinosaurs, the multiplayer staples such as deathmatch and capture the flag, but there's no way to customize your game unless you host a LAN party. If you choose the quick match option, you'll just get thrown into whatever game is ready to go. If you choose the custom match option, you only get to choose what type of match -- small free for all, large free for all, small team game, large team game, or one of three co-op missions -- you want to go to. You can't choose weapons or maps, which you can do on the console versions of Turok.Oh, and on a love it or hate it note, when you get attacked by a dino or knocked down by a grenade, you'll see your feet get knocked up in the air. When you climb back to your feet, you'll find yourself facing a different direction than before. On one hand, it's a neat drawback to getting hurt, but on the other, it sucks if you're on your last legs and it's suddenly that much harder to speed walk to safety.
Closing Comments
There's no doubt that Turok can be fun, but ultimately, the feeling of satisfaction that comes with slitting a raptor's throat or pulling off a headshot with your bow is lost in the shuffle of swarming enemies, less than stellar visuals and a story that disappears. Do I recommend Turok for folks just looking for a game to run through with two shotguns in hand? Yes, but I wouldn't expect to walk away from playing with your mind blown
8.0
PresentationFrom the heavy bass solo at the main menu to the awesome knife kills and raptor screeches, you're engulfed in this game. Little problems pull you back, but the experience is still solid.
7.0
GraphicsSome of the corners are jaggy, the textures are muted and the guys are shiny, but the majority of the time things look decent enough.
8.0
SoundThe score for Turok is great -- big instrumental pieces accompany big moments. When you're out on the prowl, you'll need to listen for roars to get reads on raptors.
7.0
GameplayIt's a no-brainer that running around blowing up dinos and wielding two shotguns at once is fun, but redundant enemies, linear levels and a lack of firepower weaken the shot of adrenaline.
6.5
Lasting AppealThe single-player isn't super-long but feels right, co-op is cool but could use more missions, and multiplayer hindered by the lack of customization.
7.0Decent
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Two months ago, raptors were revived in Turok on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Rather than ravage the videogame landscape and devour any and all comers, the beasts and their title were met with stiff reviews but commendable sales.Now, the dinos are ready to try their claws at the PC market.A re-imagining of the Nintendo 64 classic, Turok -- the latest project from Touchstone and Propaganda Games -- places you behind the bow and arrow of Joseph Turok and teams you with the ragtag members of Whiskey Company. Seems Turok used to be a member of a ruthless group of mercenaries known as Wolfpack but bailed when the whole baby-killing thing didn't mesh with his conscience. Now an adopted member of Whiskey Co., Turok and the boys are on the trail of his old mentor -- Roland Kane. The leader of Wolfpack has holed himself up on a remote planet, and as our boys approach, they're shot down. Whiskey Company begins to explore the planet, and the mission quickly switches from capturing Kane to making it past the dinosaurs, armed guards as well as mutated scorpions and getting home.
For the most part, Turok plays like every other first-person shooter out there. You switch weapons with the d-pad/mouse wheel, jump, crouch and blast your way through jungle environments, Wolfpack outposts and more. But what makes Turok stand out from the glut of recent FPSs is how you can kill -- such as sneaking up behind a guard, dropping him with a kick to the knee and burying your knife in the top of his head.Now, don't get me wrong; COD4 and BioShock were great times, but as a gamer I always found myself trying to balance my ballistics with reality. In COD, I was trying to save my grenades for those seemingly impossible hallways filled with terrorists, and in BioShock, I was hesitant to waste my Adam in fear that I'd need a powered-up plasmid for a Big Daddy or boss. For most of those games, I felt like I needed to play defensively.That doesn't happen here. Turok takes your reins off.No, the ammo isn't unlimited, but you are fully encouraged to use whatever weapon you want however you want. There'd be times when I'd enter a new section of jungle and find a makeshift guard base with stacks of weapons all over the place. I'd arm the chaingun, run out and blast some dinosaurs, get tired of the gun and backtrack to find something more to my liking. Once I settled on an instrument of destruction -- such as my favorite, the sticky bomb gun -- I could truck back out confident that there was more ammo behind me and plenty of spots to switch to something different ahead.
Secondary fire is a big part of gunplay in Turok. The sticky bomb gun is my favorite because of its standard fire mode -- pull the trigger to launch a bomb that sticks to whatever it touches and pull the trigger again to detonate the device -- but the secondary option of a mini minefield is a brilliant touch -- the same can be said for the shotgun's flare launcher and the SMG's silencer.Towards the end of the game, I was making a solo attack on one of Kane's bases, and the weapon gods were good to me once again. Able to infiltrate the front door undetected, I drew back on my bow and iced two guards before they knew Turok was on the scene. If you haven't caught our videos of this game, the bow is a sick silent killer. You draw back the arrow and then line up your shot with the crosshairs. The longer you hold the trigger down, the harder Turok's pulling on the string. If you let it go with enough force, the arrow will basically staple the bad guy to the nearest wall. Nice.Anyway, with the two chumps down, I moved deeper into the fortress and came across a staircase to the next level and a soldier staking out the top. I switched to the sticky bomb gun, tagged the bad man's leg and blew him to kingdom come. This tipped off the whole establishment that Whiskey Co. was there, and I began mining the hell out of the staircase and surrounding area. Clueless troops would come down the stairs and go boom. When the sticky bomb gun was on empty, I grabbed a nearby chaingun and -- utilizing its secondary fire -- set it up on the ground as a turret. It obliterated anyone able to come down the stairs.
Adding more options to your four weapons slots -- you'll always have the bow and knife but be able to swap out your other two gun slots -- is the fact that you can dual-wield just about every combination of guns. SMG/shotgun, dual pistols, sticky bomb/shotgun -- the world's your oyster. Believe me, there's nothing quite like packing two shoguns and working your way through a hoard of enemies. Add in the fact that you have stealth knife attacks -- forget about guards, you can sneak up on dinosaurs with your knife drawn, follow a button prompt and watch as Turok buries his blade into the beast's head or jumps on its back before slitting its throat -- and parts of this game are sure to get your blood pumping.In a lot of ways, this is first-person Contra -- lots of weapons, jungle, etc. -- but that isn't always a good thing.
Yes, here's the inevitable part of the review where I drop the "But …" and tell you all the reasons that Turok didn't get a 10, but my complaints really aren't all that severe. There isn't a portion of Turok that's horribly broken or annoying -- this isn't a bad game, but in the same respect, it's just not all that impressive.To begin with, the weapons I've spent so many words lauding are cool on the options side but disappointing on the firepower front. If I didn't get a headshot on an enemy, it took a seemingly endless stream of bullets to bring them down no matter what gun I seemed to be packing. When you're in one-on-one combat, that's not too big of a problem, but when enemies are swarming on you -- one instance where Slade and Turok were trying to make it over a tree bridge springs to mind -- the remedial damage your weapons give off is pretty annoying.What makes the annoyance worse is the fact that getting killed by these soldiers is pretty embarrassing seeing as how they're idiots. If we ever know the IGN offices have an intruder in them and I come across Game Scoop's Daemon Hatfield pinned to the wall by an arrow, I'm not going to stand in the exact same spot he was two seconds ago and scan the area -- nor if I see a guy with a machine gun am I going to organize the team to run in a straight line at him.Kane's men don't share this common sense.
Next up in my drawbacks section is the fact that Turok starts off like it's going to have a strong story -- there are flashbacks to Turok's induction into Wolfpack and the mission that made him drop out as well as a building, present-day tension between him and Whiskey Company -- but it eventually falls by the wayside. Once the group realizes they're in over their heads, the mission for Kane is abandoned and they focus on getting home. That's fine, but Kane and his bald-headed crony pop up a few times to say hi to Turok but never to advance the story. This all leads to a boss fight at the end that has no emotional impact because I don't care about catching Kane or even know who he is -- why's he on this planet, why's he so wanted, and why's he screwing with this planet's ecosystem in a way that creates dinosaurs?Turok isn't exempt from my wrath either. I know I talked about the weapon options being cool, but the lack of a run button (Ã la Call of Duty 4) is pretty upsetting. Our main character is trained to survive in the jungle, kill people with his bare hands and leap from sniper towers, but he can't hoof-it from enemies? There are plenty of times when the dinos swarm, your screen begins to turn red and escaping to take a breath is your only option. There's nothing more frustrating than only being able to speed walk away from certain death.
Beyond AI and controls, what's going to be a sticking point for lots of folks is that the visuals just aren't up to snuff. The graphics in Turok are by no means bad, but you're going to walk up to ledges and trees that have really sharp edges and boring texture patterns -- seeing the seams takes you out of the experience. Beyond things at a standstill looking ho-hum, there are troubles in motion as well. Characters in cutscenes occasionally have an aura of shine around them -- they all look like the light of the Lord is being emitted from their bodies
For the most part, Turok will be a walk in the park for anyone who enlisted in the '07 crop of first-person shooters. You'll head out from a given point, press a button to get an arrow that points at your objective, battle the beasts that appear on the horizon and then accomplish the object to enact the cut scene. However, there are points in Turok that are so frustrating that I found myself cursing the screen and prepared to hurl my precious controller. At one point I was pinned down by a dude rocking an RPG that seemed to have a constant read on me, another stall had me trying to figure out a way past a ginourmous spider tank that didn't end with me going boom, and another time I spent the ten or so continues trying to bring down a pissed off T-Rex. Now, I don't raise these as complaints because I hate being challenged -- I raise these issues because I like being challenged intelligently. Let me ruin the spider tank part for you. This huge tank with arachnid-like limbs lumbers onto the scene, and I stopped moving to see where it would go. Eventually the thing perches itself on a mountain and begins scanning the area. There are a few hollowed out logs and half-walls separating me from RPG ammo, and I figure I need to keep to the shadows. I no sooner step out, this thing's got a read on me, and I'm dead. The game loads, I let it sit, I jump in the log and it starts firing. I wait for a reloading pause or some kind of break, but it never comes. Finally, I make a break for it and end up getting blown up.This trial and error stuff went on for awhile before I figured out that if I just booked as soon as the tank showed up, I could make it to the ammo, slide back and forth from behind cover, and bring the cool tank down in the most anticlimactic way.
Here's my problem with this battle -- it's the definition of linear. Turok's given me all this freedom as to what I can do with my weapons, but in this one instance, I have to run at a specific time and shoot with a specific gun. In real life, my first reaction to seeing this beast wouldn't be to run out and let it see me, but thinking logically derails the experience and left me stalled.Speaking of linear, remember that Contra comparison I made a second ago? Sure, that applies to the fun of blasting the bad guys but it also references how straightforward Turok's levels are. As you cross the plains, you'll find plenty of opposition but not one environment that interacts with you. You're just running across set pieces.Although multiplayer wasn't amazing on the consoles, it's actually even less impressive on the PC. There are seven maps, the weapons from the single-player campaign, dinosaurs, the multiplayer staples such as deathmatch and capture the flag, but there's no way to customize your game unless you host a LAN party. If you choose the quick match option, you'll just get thrown into whatever game is ready to go. If you choose the custom match option, you only get to choose what type of match -- small free for all, large free for all, small team game, large team game, or one of three co-op missions -- you want to go to. You can't choose weapons or maps, which you can do on the console versions of Turok.Oh, and on a love it or hate it note, when you get attacked by a dino or knocked down by a grenade, you'll see your feet get knocked up in the air. When you climb back to your feet, you'll find yourself facing a different direction than before. On one hand, it's a neat drawback to getting hurt, but on the other, it sucks if you're on your last legs and it's suddenly that much harder to speed walk to safety.
Closing Comments
There's no doubt that Turok can be fun, but ultimately, the feeling of satisfaction that comes with slitting a raptor's throat or pulling off a headshot with your bow is lost in the shuffle of swarming enemies, less than stellar visuals and a story that disappears. Do I recommend Turok for folks just looking for a game to run through with two shotguns in hand? Yes, but I wouldn't expect to walk away from playing with your mind blown
8.0
PresentationFrom the heavy bass solo at the main menu to the awesome knife kills and raptor screeches, you're engulfed in this game. Little problems pull you back, but the experience is still solid.
7.0
GraphicsSome of the corners are jaggy, the textures are muted and the guys are shiny, but the majority of the time things look decent enough.
8.0
SoundThe score for Turok is great -- big instrumental pieces accompany big moments. When you're out on the prowl, you'll need to listen for roars to get reads on raptors.
7.0
GameplayIt's a no-brainer that running around blowing up dinos and wielding two shotguns at once is fun, but redundant enemies, linear levels and a lack of firepower weaken the shot of adrenaline.
6.5
Lasting AppealThe single-player isn't super-long but feels right, co-op is cool but could use more missions, and multiplayer hindered by the lack of customization.
7.0Decent
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Panzer Command: Kharkov
April 23, 2008 - When it comes to gigantic land battles, nothing even comes close to Operation Barbarossa, the codename for the German invasion of Russia during the Second World War. Having become master of Europe, Hitler launched a massive surprise attack on his former Soviet allies that, over the course of a couple of years, would spawn several of history's largest battles. The action around the Ukranian city of Kharkov, known for its tank factories, was particularly dramatic, with the city changing hands several times as it was captured and recaptured again and again.
That historic series of battles is recreated in Koios Works' latest wargame, Panzer Command: Kharkov. Built on the foundation of 2006's Panzer Command: Operation Wintersun, and borrowing heavily from battlefront.com's landmark Combat Mission series, Panzer Command: Kharkov presents a thoroughly detailed simulation of combat on the Eastern Front but is nevertheless marred by some frequent interface problems.
The game is played at the tactical level with the player leading platoons of infantry and individual vehicles and benefiting from off-map resources like artillery and air support. Unit experience and morale rankings along with full ballistics and armor penetration models make Kharkov much more detailed than your average World War II strategy game and, fortunately, everything is laid out in a ridiculously detailed but well organized PDF manual. The only downside here is that the tutorial is a read-along affair, so you'll constantly be alt-tabbing back and forth to figure out just what's going on.
Each battle takes place on a sizeable 3D battlefield and the player is free to adjust the camera to get as close to or as far from the action as they'd like. It can actually be quite fun to follow a specific unit around and check out the battle from their limited perspective. Selecting a unit calls up a variety of stats and status indicators at the bottom of the screen, so you'll always know just how your boys are doing. We definitely would have liked to see some tool tips here and there, though, because some of the icons aren't as intuitive as the designers might have hoped.
Kharkov plays out in a format that's commonly called WEGO. Basically, the game is paused every forty seconds while both sides issue orders to their troops. Then the game resumes and plays out the next forty seconds in real time with no way for the players to influence the action. Then it pauses again and players can adjust their strategies based on how things progressed. While it's an admittedly artificial system, it's a nice way to merge the cerebral nature of turn-based strategy with the pants-wetting intensity of real-time games. The only problem here is that Koios has added some limitations that emphasize how arbitrary this system really is. In the case of Kharkov, every second turn is designated a "reaction" phase during which your choice of orders is severely limited. i've tried to think of a reason why you might be limited in your commands during one turn and not in another but it still doesn't make sense to me.
There are four campaigns here (five if you count the boot camp series of training missions), each of which offers a look at one of the major phases of the War around Kharkov. Ranging from just a few missions to a lengthy eight-mission run, the campaigns give you a chance to get attached to your units as they follow you from one battle to the next. While the idea of unit persistence is nice enough by itself, the promotions and medals they earn for successful action and the bonuses those confer in battle are really what make the experience particularly sweet. Trying to get a unit's bonus working during a battle while also trying not to put it into too much danger is one of the great balancing acts required by the campaign.
If a full campaign is too much to handle, each of the missions (and a few more besides) are available individually as separate battles. Most of the battles reflect the nature of the war, which means that assaults are much more common than meeting engagements. Nevertheless, there's a nice range of objectives and maps here and the variety is sure to increase thanks to the inclusion of several editors and generators that ship with the game. Any of these individual battles are available in Play-By-EMail form as well.
But for all that, Kharkov definitely stumbles a bit along the way. And it's all the more perplexing because they fail to address some key needs of the genre. To begin with, the "engage" command is a wonderful one-size-fits-all type of order but when you want to get specific about how you want your units to navigate the battlefield, you're in serious trouble.
We can deal with the fact that the infantry have to "mount" houses (even if it still sometimes doesn't seem to work) but there's no excuse for not including a way to plot waypoints for your units. Trying to tell your tanks to do something as simple as going around the left side of a house and then about face to back into a treeline is impossible unless you're willing to issue each step as a separate order between turns. Even in the case of house "mounting," the mount command can't be queued after a "rush" command so there's no way to order troops to run up to a house and go right in.
We'd also wish that the designers had more distinctly separated moving the movement of the entire platoon and its leader. The way the current system is, every order you give to your platoon leader is immediately followed by all of the units he's leading. That means every time you give a platoon leader an order that you don't want the rest of the platoon to carry out, you have to change their moves individually.
The game also fails to provide adequate battlefield awareness. Sure, you can pop little icons up over the units' heads, but it's still hard to take in the big picture without losing the ability to distinguish between your mortar and machine gun teams. It's easy enough to keep it in your head for the smaller battles, but it can really get out of control once the forces start piling up.
We love the true line-of-sight and spotting rules in the game. No wargame worthy of the name would be without them. But as the overall battlefield commander, I'm not crazy about my own line of sight limited by which unit I have selected. In Kharkov only the enemies that the currently selected unit can see are displayed on the map regardless of whether or not there are other friendly units that can see them. I appreciate the intent behind this design but it's really taking things much too far and limiting my own ability to make a sound battle plan based on the information from all of my units.
There's a similar lack of information in terms of path plots and target designations. While you can see the movement and fire orders of your currently selected unit (and even platoon, if you can find the shortcut key), there's no way in between turns to see all the plots and targets at once. This makes synchronizing movements much more difficult than it needs to be and limits your ability to predict how the battle's going to progress over the next few turns.
Games of this type aren't often known for having great visuals and Kharkov proudly continues that tradition. It isn't, of course, that we're expecting the same types of graphics we saw in Company of Heroes; games like Kharkov just don't put that kind of focus on their visual presentation. That doesn't mean that we necessarily excuse flat textures and boxy unit models but there's just so much else going on in the engine (line of sight, ballistics, spotting, etc.) that the concept of whether or not it actually looks pretty seems to have been largely ignored. It's true that the unit designs are realistic (in details if not appearance) but the explosions and smoke effects would've looked old five years ago.
The environments are equally simplistic, with cross-poly trees and big flat textures that tile all the way across the map. There are some nice touches here, like the shadows and the impressive sky boxes, but after playing Theatre of War, we just can't go back to games that don't even bother to hide the seams between the playing area and the flat, featureless horizon. We've also noticed that some of the projectiles seem to garble the textures a bit, and the result makes it look like the soldiers are shooting green laser bolts at each other.
Sound is another area where wargames developers aren't particularly diligent. The sound effects here are fairly thin and few in number, so they grow tiresome rather quickly. The endless symphony of p-tows, rrrrrs, and chukka-chukas will have you muting the game within the first few hours, which is a shame considering the music is actually fairly well done.
Closing Comments
The shadow of Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin looms very large over Koios' latest effort. Not only does it cover exactly the same theater (and more besides) but it also doesn't suffer from some of the more infuriating interface problems that we kept running into in this game. Barbarossa to Berlin also happens to be a bit less expensive than Panzer Command: Kharkov as well.
But based purely on its own merits, Kharkov is actually a very thorough and detailed simulation of Eastern Front warfare. The unit details, the combat modeling, and the missions themselves are more than enough to please more hardcore wargamers. It's just a shame that controlling your units and reading the battlefield require so much more effort from the player.
7.5
PresentationA satisfying choice of theater and lots of thorough documentation. Still, it doesn't go out of its way to make it convenient to play.
5.5
GraphicsLooking good isn't one of the game's goals. Chunky models and muddy textures abound. Good attention to detail on the units.
5.0
SoundP-tow! P-tow! The excellent music is buried beneath a suite of terrible sound effects.
7.5
GameplayBrilliant combat modeling but hampered by a lack of situational awareness and more sophisticated controls.
7.5
Lasting AppealThe battles are definitely enjoyable and the editors and generator give it long legs. Still, the overall enjoyment wanes thin too soon.
6.7Passable
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
That historic series of battles is recreated in Koios Works' latest wargame, Panzer Command: Kharkov. Built on the foundation of 2006's Panzer Command: Operation Wintersun, and borrowing heavily from battlefront.com's landmark Combat Mission series, Panzer Command: Kharkov presents a thoroughly detailed simulation of combat on the Eastern Front but is nevertheless marred by some frequent interface problems.
The game is played at the tactical level with the player leading platoons of infantry and individual vehicles and benefiting from off-map resources like artillery and air support. Unit experience and morale rankings along with full ballistics and armor penetration models make Kharkov much more detailed than your average World War II strategy game and, fortunately, everything is laid out in a ridiculously detailed but well organized PDF manual. The only downside here is that the tutorial is a read-along affair, so you'll constantly be alt-tabbing back and forth to figure out just what's going on.
Each battle takes place on a sizeable 3D battlefield and the player is free to adjust the camera to get as close to or as far from the action as they'd like. It can actually be quite fun to follow a specific unit around and check out the battle from their limited perspective. Selecting a unit calls up a variety of stats and status indicators at the bottom of the screen, so you'll always know just how your boys are doing. We definitely would have liked to see some tool tips here and there, though, because some of the icons aren't as intuitive as the designers might have hoped.
Kharkov plays out in a format that's commonly called WEGO. Basically, the game is paused every forty seconds while both sides issue orders to their troops. Then the game resumes and plays out the next forty seconds in real time with no way for the players to influence the action. Then it pauses again and players can adjust their strategies based on how things progressed. While it's an admittedly artificial system, it's a nice way to merge the cerebral nature of turn-based strategy with the pants-wetting intensity of real-time games. The only problem here is that Koios has added some limitations that emphasize how arbitrary this system really is. In the case of Kharkov, every second turn is designated a "reaction" phase during which your choice of orders is severely limited. i've tried to think of a reason why you might be limited in your commands during one turn and not in another but it still doesn't make sense to me.
There are four campaigns here (five if you count the boot camp series of training missions), each of which offers a look at one of the major phases of the War around Kharkov. Ranging from just a few missions to a lengthy eight-mission run, the campaigns give you a chance to get attached to your units as they follow you from one battle to the next. While the idea of unit persistence is nice enough by itself, the promotions and medals they earn for successful action and the bonuses those confer in battle are really what make the experience particularly sweet. Trying to get a unit's bonus working during a battle while also trying not to put it into too much danger is one of the great balancing acts required by the campaign.
If a full campaign is too much to handle, each of the missions (and a few more besides) are available individually as separate battles. Most of the battles reflect the nature of the war, which means that assaults are much more common than meeting engagements. Nevertheless, there's a nice range of objectives and maps here and the variety is sure to increase thanks to the inclusion of several editors and generators that ship with the game. Any of these individual battles are available in Play-By-EMail form as well.
But for all that, Kharkov definitely stumbles a bit along the way. And it's all the more perplexing because they fail to address some key needs of the genre. To begin with, the "engage" command is a wonderful one-size-fits-all type of order but when you want to get specific about how you want your units to navigate the battlefield, you're in serious trouble.
We can deal with the fact that the infantry have to "mount" houses (even if it still sometimes doesn't seem to work) but there's no excuse for not including a way to plot waypoints for your units. Trying to tell your tanks to do something as simple as going around the left side of a house and then about face to back into a treeline is impossible unless you're willing to issue each step as a separate order between turns. Even in the case of house "mounting," the mount command can't be queued after a "rush" command so there's no way to order troops to run up to a house and go right in.
We'd also wish that the designers had more distinctly separated moving the movement of the entire platoon and its leader. The way the current system is, every order you give to your platoon leader is immediately followed by all of the units he's leading. That means every time you give a platoon leader an order that you don't want the rest of the platoon to carry out, you have to change their moves individually.
The game also fails to provide adequate battlefield awareness. Sure, you can pop little icons up over the units' heads, but it's still hard to take in the big picture without losing the ability to distinguish between your mortar and machine gun teams. It's easy enough to keep it in your head for the smaller battles, but it can really get out of control once the forces start piling up.
We love the true line-of-sight and spotting rules in the game. No wargame worthy of the name would be without them. But as the overall battlefield commander, I'm not crazy about my own line of sight limited by which unit I have selected. In Kharkov only the enemies that the currently selected unit can see are displayed on the map regardless of whether or not there are other friendly units that can see them. I appreciate the intent behind this design but it's really taking things much too far and limiting my own ability to make a sound battle plan based on the information from all of my units.
There's a similar lack of information in terms of path plots and target designations. While you can see the movement and fire orders of your currently selected unit (and even platoon, if you can find the shortcut key), there's no way in between turns to see all the plots and targets at once. This makes synchronizing movements much more difficult than it needs to be and limits your ability to predict how the battle's going to progress over the next few turns.
Games of this type aren't often known for having great visuals and Kharkov proudly continues that tradition. It isn't, of course, that we're expecting the same types of graphics we saw in Company of Heroes; games like Kharkov just don't put that kind of focus on their visual presentation. That doesn't mean that we necessarily excuse flat textures and boxy unit models but there's just so much else going on in the engine (line of sight, ballistics, spotting, etc.) that the concept of whether or not it actually looks pretty seems to have been largely ignored. It's true that the unit designs are realistic (in details if not appearance) but the explosions and smoke effects would've looked old five years ago.
The environments are equally simplistic, with cross-poly trees and big flat textures that tile all the way across the map. There are some nice touches here, like the shadows and the impressive sky boxes, but after playing Theatre of War, we just can't go back to games that don't even bother to hide the seams between the playing area and the flat, featureless horizon. We've also noticed that some of the projectiles seem to garble the textures a bit, and the result makes it look like the soldiers are shooting green laser bolts at each other.
Sound is another area where wargames developers aren't particularly diligent. The sound effects here are fairly thin and few in number, so they grow tiresome rather quickly. The endless symphony of p-tows, rrrrrs, and chukka-chukas will have you muting the game within the first few hours, which is a shame considering the music is actually fairly well done.
Closing Comments
The shadow of Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin looms very large over Koios' latest effort. Not only does it cover exactly the same theater (and more besides) but it also doesn't suffer from some of the more infuriating interface problems that we kept running into in this game. Barbarossa to Berlin also happens to be a bit less expensive than Panzer Command: Kharkov as well.
But based purely on its own merits, Kharkov is actually a very thorough and detailed simulation of Eastern Front warfare. The unit details, the combat modeling, and the missions themselves are more than enough to please more hardcore wargamers. It's just a shame that controlling your units and reading the battlefield require so much more effort from the player.
7.5
PresentationA satisfying choice of theater and lots of thorough documentation. Still, it doesn't go out of its way to make it convenient to play.
5.5
GraphicsLooking good isn't one of the game's goals. Chunky models and muddy textures abound. Good attention to detail on the units.
5.0
SoundP-tow! P-tow! The excellent music is buried beneath a suite of terrible sound effects.
7.5
GameplayBrilliant combat modeling but hampered by a lack of situational awareness and more sophisticated controls.
7.5
Lasting AppealThe battles are definitely enjoyable and the editors and generator give it long legs. Still, the overall enjoyment wanes thin too soon.
6.7Passable
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb
April 23, 2008 - Whether Cleopatra was a hotty or not in real life has been pretty much ignored in entertainment for centuries, so it's no surprise that she comes out looking pretty good in the new PC adventure game bearing her name, Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb. Actually, although you meet her a couple times, she has less to do with the plot than the astrologer's apprentice she's counting on. When Akkad the astrologer and his daughter Iris--gotta have a love interest!-- are kidnapped by men trying to prevent him from essentially deciding the fate of the Ptolemaic dynasty by making an important prophesy, Thomas, apprentice/puzzle master is sent after them. Obviously, though, you are the puzzle master, which sort of makes you wish Thomas would work with you a little more as an ambassador of Ancient Egyptian culture (and Greek, since the game takes place in Alexandria, 48 BCE). The milieu is pretty air-tight, and a minimum of background is given. Do you know what an ushabti is? I could figure it out by context, but then I was something of a wanna-be Egyptologist as a kid. Wikipedia can help, and maybe for some this will be a fun part of the experience.
In addition to kilning clay figurines, you'll also unravel Greek codes, and use simple machine science (for example, to operate a catapult). There are a couple sections where you need to identify chemical agents and mix them correctly to make potions, too. Actually, the variety of puzzles is one of the best features of the game, even if you sometimes need to make very precise leaps of logic (e.g. remember keywords from little slips or paper) to find your next move.Taking a look at the inventory screen, it's clear that some of the systems work and some are obnoxious. Imagine an Egyptian backpack with one big pocket and a bunch of smaller, single-object compartments. Every time you pick something up, it goes straight into a heap in the big pocket. You can't even see what you have, because everything stacks together in one place until you either hit the auto-placement button (which I fully expected to be a toggle and was very disappointed to find out otherwise) or manually drag each item to a separate slot. Note that something being in your hand is totally different than being in this pocket, so it's not even like an equipped state; it's just an obnoxious intermediate storage area that we could've done without. You can enable manual sorting of the inventory without this extra step.The text field for reading documents, once you realize that the first couple of papyrus strips you get aren't meant to be read that way until you solve a puzzle, falls on the handier side of things, as does the map, since you can just click a location to return to it rather than haul yourself all over. Even hauling yourself is much less tedious than it could be because Riddle of the Tomb takes a first-person route. Rather than just flashing statically ahead, like in the classic, Myst, you're capable of taking in a panoramic mouse-look view of your surroundings, which is useful for finding bits of things on the ground. Your context sensitive cursor will even tell you the difference between a usable object you can use right away or one for which a specific tool is required.
While the graphics take a simpler route, by not having a third-person protagonist except during cut-scenes, for example, the end effect feels very polished. There are so many games where characters are pouring invisible liquid into a cup, or making weird little motions with their hands to imply putting two objects together. In Riddle of the Tomb, when you indicate to pour water in a basin, you're just given the empty bowl back, and that is fine. The experience is more immersive because you don't feel like the characters are playing pretend.Refreshingly, Riddle of the Tomb is an adventure game that manages to work in some replay value beyond just counting on players having bad memories. When you first start, before even leaving the main menu (done up lavishly like Cleopatra's chambers) you'll select a zodiac sign. Sometimes your horoscope looks good and things will happen as much in your favor as is possible in a game designed to hang you up on puzzles. Other times the gods think you're a jerk and try to make your life harder by adding extra challenges. The different may not be huge, but it's definitely enough that you'll notice and have to think your way around it.
Closing CommentsHigh quality visuals, appropriate atmosphere, and puzzles that go beyond finding keys (even to open doors!) all combine to make a good adventure game. Obviously the genre isn’t for everyone, and for this one you’ll probably want to have at least some curiosity about the post-Alexander Ancient Egypt as well, since the tasks are not usually just shoe-horned into the context. Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb can’t just be chopped in half like the Gordian knot, but these puzzles are pretty satisfying to unravel.
7.0
PresentationThe manual is put together well until you get to the inventory page. You figure everything out after a while, anyhow. Immersive opening menu in the form of Cleopatra’s pad.
8.0
GraphicsStill some disparity between cut scenes and normal interaction, but they have the sense to not animate something that won’t look good instead of miming it, like some adventure games do.
7.5
SoundMood music, birds chirping, decent voice acting. It sets the right tone.
7.5
GameplayA wide variety of puzzle solving activities to engage in, from mixing potions to code busting. Sometimes the ancient setting can lead to contextual frustrations.
6.5
Lasting AppealZodiac system with luck makes the game have extra puzzles if your sign is out of favor at certain junctures.
7.7Good
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
In addition to kilning clay figurines, you'll also unravel Greek codes, and use simple machine science (for example, to operate a catapult). There are a couple sections where you need to identify chemical agents and mix them correctly to make potions, too. Actually, the variety of puzzles is one of the best features of the game, even if you sometimes need to make very precise leaps of logic (e.g. remember keywords from little slips or paper) to find your next move.Taking a look at the inventory screen, it's clear that some of the systems work and some are obnoxious. Imagine an Egyptian backpack with one big pocket and a bunch of smaller, single-object compartments. Every time you pick something up, it goes straight into a heap in the big pocket. You can't even see what you have, because everything stacks together in one place until you either hit the auto-placement button (which I fully expected to be a toggle and was very disappointed to find out otherwise) or manually drag each item to a separate slot. Note that something being in your hand is totally different than being in this pocket, so it's not even like an equipped state; it's just an obnoxious intermediate storage area that we could've done without. You can enable manual sorting of the inventory without this extra step.The text field for reading documents, once you realize that the first couple of papyrus strips you get aren't meant to be read that way until you solve a puzzle, falls on the handier side of things, as does the map, since you can just click a location to return to it rather than haul yourself all over. Even hauling yourself is much less tedious than it could be because Riddle of the Tomb takes a first-person route. Rather than just flashing statically ahead, like in the classic, Myst, you're capable of taking in a panoramic mouse-look view of your surroundings, which is useful for finding bits of things on the ground. Your context sensitive cursor will even tell you the difference between a usable object you can use right away or one for which a specific tool is required.
While the graphics take a simpler route, by not having a third-person protagonist except during cut-scenes, for example, the end effect feels very polished. There are so many games where characters are pouring invisible liquid into a cup, or making weird little motions with their hands to imply putting two objects together. In Riddle of the Tomb, when you indicate to pour water in a basin, you're just given the empty bowl back, and that is fine. The experience is more immersive because you don't feel like the characters are playing pretend.Refreshingly, Riddle of the Tomb is an adventure game that manages to work in some replay value beyond just counting on players having bad memories. When you first start, before even leaving the main menu (done up lavishly like Cleopatra's chambers) you'll select a zodiac sign. Sometimes your horoscope looks good and things will happen as much in your favor as is possible in a game designed to hang you up on puzzles. Other times the gods think you're a jerk and try to make your life harder by adding extra challenges. The different may not be huge, but it's definitely enough that you'll notice and have to think your way around it.
Closing CommentsHigh quality visuals, appropriate atmosphere, and puzzles that go beyond finding keys (even to open doors!) all combine to make a good adventure game. Obviously the genre isn’t for everyone, and for this one you’ll probably want to have at least some curiosity about the post-Alexander Ancient Egypt as well, since the tasks are not usually just shoe-horned into the context. Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb can’t just be chopped in half like the Gordian knot, but these puzzles are pretty satisfying to unravel.
7.0
PresentationThe manual is put together well until you get to the inventory page. You figure everything out after a while, anyhow. Immersive opening menu in the form of Cleopatra’s pad.
8.0
GraphicsStill some disparity between cut scenes and normal interaction, but they have the sense to not animate something that won’t look good instead of miming it, like some adventure games do.
7.5
SoundMood music, birds chirping, decent voice acting. It sets the right tone.
7.5
GameplayA wide variety of puzzle solving activities to engage in, from mixing potions to code busting. Sometimes the ancient setting can lead to contextual frustrations.
6.5
Lasting AppealZodiac system with luck makes the game have extra puzzles if your sign is out of favor at certain junctures.
7.7Good
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Europa Universalis III: In Nomine
June 13, 2008 - The Europa Universalis games have always embraced a level of organization and open-ended gameplay that is, without a doubt, a rare and acquired taste. Controlling the political, economic, religious, military, and technological direction of an entire nation over hundreds of years of real history is no easy task, and while things have been streamlined a bit as the series has evolved, it's still a daunting task. When developing expansions, Paradox Interactive has to walk a fine line between introducing new features that complicate the situation and smoothing out some of the micromanagement that bogs players down.
The latest expansion, In Nomine, succeeds quite well. It offers some substantial changes to the core game that tend to limit the momentum of wars and colonial expansion. More vigorous rebels make war exhaustion and distant armies tough to handle, while new colony rules encourage the growth of substantial fleets while also reducing the micromanagement required to maintain them. Mission and decision options give the game a much more focused feel that shifts the game out of the sandbox and into a more historical setting.
Though there are plenty of big additions here, nothing comes close to the new rebel system in terms of how it affects gameplay. Rebels show up much more often now and they're harder to root out in many cases. What makes them such a compelling new element is that the rebels have their own unique objectives and can behave like sovereign nations.
Each rebel group that appears comes with a specific agenda. Some might want to break free and join another empire, others, particularly towards the end of the game, might want to establish their own country. Some rebels just want tax relief, or religious reform. How you handle each type of rebel depends on what they want. Naturally, you can just march in and crush them with your armies, but these new rebels typically have high morale and, in too many cases, unrealistically powerful generals.
When the war exhaustion starts to take its toll on your national morale (and increases the number of rebellions you experience), you might be better off trying to negotiate with the rebels. This is an entirely new option and it's one that you'll seriously need to consider. Unfortunately, some of the rebels actually want you to cede entire regions for them to live in as sovereign nations. But even those rebels who merely want a little tax relief will still cost you a tremendous amount of prestige and bump your centralization slider a bit towards the less appealing end. You'll want to be careful how you spend your prestige though, because it has much more of an effect on your overall morale, stability and income.
There are lots more pirates as well and they can significantly impact your trade and colonies. This means that players who want to have substantial overseas empires will really have to work hard to build up a large enough fleet to discourage piracy. To make things easy, you can actually toggle a patrol order on each of your fleets to reduce the risk of pirates appearing nearby. The patrol option isn't good if there are enemy fleets nearby though, so you'll need to balance the needs of trade and colonial security with your overall war aims. Best of all, Paradox has removed the attrition that friendly fleets suffer in friendly waters close to home, so you're not going to have to keep refitting your fleets every year.
Players will notice that they don't get as many colonists now, but they won't have to send them again and again just to establish a colony. Now individual colonists will slowly create their own cities at a speed based on your new colonial maintenance slider. This definitely reduces the micromanagement required to get overseas possessions up and running. Colonies don't produce tax or production for home empires anymore. This time around, they generate tariffs that make their way across the sea to the home empire. Without a strong fleet patrolling the waters between the colony and the capital, the tariffs are likely to be seized by pirates. Another interesting change is that you won't know what trade goods a province produces until you actually colonize it. This might aggravate some players who wind up losing out on some good commodities but it's a great way to prevent players from exploiting the map and only grabbing colonies that produce the most appealing goods.
Unfortunately, Spain and Portugal's early access to the Quest for the New World and the location of the Azores still gives those countries a significant advantage in colonizing the Americas. Still, focused players can definitely compete with them leading one of the other colonizing powers. Even if your rivals have grabbed lots of territory near your colonies, there's a much easier system now to convert other provinces to your own culture. It makes things a bit more secure for you, but it can also work against you if your rivals start to actively try to assimilate your own provinces.
Missionaries have also changed to work more like the new colonists now. Instead of just sending single missionaries off for a one-time bump, you'll now station missionaries permanently in a province and then adjust a new maintenance slider to determine how well they're funded. The missionaries will stay in place until they've converted the province to your faith but you'll be running an increased revolt risk in any province that you've stationed a missionary. Since this is all proportionate to the level of missionary maintenance, you can adapt to changing situations relatively quickly, while also ensuring that your missionaries are making steady progress towards converting provinces to your faith.
There are a few other notable changes to the religion system. First, there's no stability hit now for going to war with nations of different faiths. This makes holy wars a much more common event. The Pope can also excommunicate Catholic rulers now, so there's no guarantee that you'll stay at peace with your Catholic neighbors. There are also no longer individual sliders for tolerance, so you'll just relate to different faiths in large groups and fine tune your acceptance with a number of national ideas.
Beyond the basic complexities of the mechanics, some players have been turned off of the Europa Universalis series simply because there are no scripted goals. While In Nomine still allows players to define and pursue their own agenda while playing, it also includes new missions and decisions that can give players specific objective that come with their own rewards. The missions are generated randomly but seem to fit whatever the circumstances you're in at the time. The appearance of nearby pirates, for instance, might trigger a mission to boost your navy. A small handful of the missions for the bigger powers have a more specific flavor that help to drive that nation in the general direction that they historically went. While the missions are interesting and offer some nice small rewards, players are completely free to ignore them and go after alternate goals. The only problem is that it costs 5 prestige to cancel a mission outright, which is the only way you can sidestep a mission you don't want to achieve.
Decisions are a little different. These are big policy choices that you'll be asked to make, at either the national or province level. The national decisions include big things like your overall religious tolerance, or the creation of a larger political empire. The province decisions are much more local offering, for instance, the chance to improve shipbuilding or commerce in a particular area. When you're running a more important nation, you'll find that the decisions take some of the randomness and guesswork out of the original game's historical events. Now, instead of waiting until you reach the conditions required to launch the Spanish Inquisition, you can just check your decision tab to see what pre-requisites you have to fill. Even when you get things in line, you'll still have the option to hold off launching a decision until it's most advantageous to you. It gives you so much more control over your empire.
There are plenty of other changes and additions to the game, from new tech levels and playable nations, to new advisor types and national ideas. The economic models in the game have also been changed with new supply and demand rules and improved trading options. When fighting, players can use a scorched earth policy when their own armies retreat within their borders, or detach armies that are besieging enemy towns. The best thing about the new expansion is that armies on the march will maintain their current progress if a change in orders takes them through the same province.
In Nomine does away with all the stability hits for slider adjustments, which means you can be a lot more flexible in terms of how your nation adapts to changing circumstances. Of course, the amount of time you have to wait between changing sliders is going to be limited by the size of your empire and your current government. That makes it actually more enjoyable to play some of the minor nations in the game because you can be a bit more flexible.
Closing CommentsThere are plenty of worthwhile features in In Nomine and they definitely help to add a bit more focus and fun to the whole experience. While the new rebels are an undeniable pain to deal with, their presence helps to limit the outrageous imperial ambitions of the bigger players. I think they're still a bit too strong but they serve as a nice check. New colony rules reduce micromanagement while also giving players a compelling reason to protect the seas. The missions are a really nice touch, but they're more fun (and varied) when playing as one of the larger powers in the game. In Nomine's definitely a good buy for any fan of the original game, and while the streamlining is nice, it's still not quite enough to make the game appealing to everyone.
8.0
PresentationNicely streamlined in some key areas but the rebels are a bit unbalanced.
7.0
GraphicsNot much more exciting than the original. Would be great to differentiate between rebel types.
6.0
SoundGood music overall but the sound effects are still weak and uninspired.
8.5
GameplayGreat new gameplay additions that make the game more sophisticated without making it more complicated.
9.0
Lasting AppealMore time to play, more nations and more options all around.
8.0Impressive
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
The latest expansion, In Nomine, succeeds quite well. It offers some substantial changes to the core game that tend to limit the momentum of wars and colonial expansion. More vigorous rebels make war exhaustion and distant armies tough to handle, while new colony rules encourage the growth of substantial fleets while also reducing the micromanagement required to maintain them. Mission and decision options give the game a much more focused feel that shifts the game out of the sandbox and into a more historical setting.
Though there are plenty of big additions here, nothing comes close to the new rebel system in terms of how it affects gameplay. Rebels show up much more often now and they're harder to root out in many cases. What makes them such a compelling new element is that the rebels have their own unique objectives and can behave like sovereign nations.
Each rebel group that appears comes with a specific agenda. Some might want to break free and join another empire, others, particularly towards the end of the game, might want to establish their own country. Some rebels just want tax relief, or religious reform. How you handle each type of rebel depends on what they want. Naturally, you can just march in and crush them with your armies, but these new rebels typically have high morale and, in too many cases, unrealistically powerful generals.
When the war exhaustion starts to take its toll on your national morale (and increases the number of rebellions you experience), you might be better off trying to negotiate with the rebels. This is an entirely new option and it's one that you'll seriously need to consider. Unfortunately, some of the rebels actually want you to cede entire regions for them to live in as sovereign nations. But even those rebels who merely want a little tax relief will still cost you a tremendous amount of prestige and bump your centralization slider a bit towards the less appealing end. You'll want to be careful how you spend your prestige though, because it has much more of an effect on your overall morale, stability and income.
There are lots more pirates as well and they can significantly impact your trade and colonies. This means that players who want to have substantial overseas empires will really have to work hard to build up a large enough fleet to discourage piracy. To make things easy, you can actually toggle a patrol order on each of your fleets to reduce the risk of pirates appearing nearby. The patrol option isn't good if there are enemy fleets nearby though, so you'll need to balance the needs of trade and colonial security with your overall war aims. Best of all, Paradox has removed the attrition that friendly fleets suffer in friendly waters close to home, so you're not going to have to keep refitting your fleets every year.
Players will notice that they don't get as many colonists now, but they won't have to send them again and again just to establish a colony. Now individual colonists will slowly create their own cities at a speed based on your new colonial maintenance slider. This definitely reduces the micromanagement required to get overseas possessions up and running. Colonies don't produce tax or production for home empires anymore. This time around, they generate tariffs that make their way across the sea to the home empire. Without a strong fleet patrolling the waters between the colony and the capital, the tariffs are likely to be seized by pirates. Another interesting change is that you won't know what trade goods a province produces until you actually colonize it. This might aggravate some players who wind up losing out on some good commodities but it's a great way to prevent players from exploiting the map and only grabbing colonies that produce the most appealing goods.
Unfortunately, Spain and Portugal's early access to the Quest for the New World and the location of the Azores still gives those countries a significant advantage in colonizing the Americas. Still, focused players can definitely compete with them leading one of the other colonizing powers. Even if your rivals have grabbed lots of territory near your colonies, there's a much easier system now to convert other provinces to your own culture. It makes things a bit more secure for you, but it can also work against you if your rivals start to actively try to assimilate your own provinces.
Missionaries have also changed to work more like the new colonists now. Instead of just sending single missionaries off for a one-time bump, you'll now station missionaries permanently in a province and then adjust a new maintenance slider to determine how well they're funded. The missionaries will stay in place until they've converted the province to your faith but you'll be running an increased revolt risk in any province that you've stationed a missionary. Since this is all proportionate to the level of missionary maintenance, you can adapt to changing situations relatively quickly, while also ensuring that your missionaries are making steady progress towards converting provinces to your faith.
There are a few other notable changes to the religion system. First, there's no stability hit now for going to war with nations of different faiths. This makes holy wars a much more common event. The Pope can also excommunicate Catholic rulers now, so there's no guarantee that you'll stay at peace with your Catholic neighbors. There are also no longer individual sliders for tolerance, so you'll just relate to different faiths in large groups and fine tune your acceptance with a number of national ideas.
Beyond the basic complexities of the mechanics, some players have been turned off of the Europa Universalis series simply because there are no scripted goals. While In Nomine still allows players to define and pursue their own agenda while playing, it also includes new missions and decisions that can give players specific objective that come with their own rewards. The missions are generated randomly but seem to fit whatever the circumstances you're in at the time. The appearance of nearby pirates, for instance, might trigger a mission to boost your navy. A small handful of the missions for the bigger powers have a more specific flavor that help to drive that nation in the general direction that they historically went. While the missions are interesting and offer some nice small rewards, players are completely free to ignore them and go after alternate goals. The only problem is that it costs 5 prestige to cancel a mission outright, which is the only way you can sidestep a mission you don't want to achieve.
Decisions are a little different. These are big policy choices that you'll be asked to make, at either the national or province level. The national decisions include big things like your overall religious tolerance, or the creation of a larger political empire. The province decisions are much more local offering, for instance, the chance to improve shipbuilding or commerce in a particular area. When you're running a more important nation, you'll find that the decisions take some of the randomness and guesswork out of the original game's historical events. Now, instead of waiting until you reach the conditions required to launch the Spanish Inquisition, you can just check your decision tab to see what pre-requisites you have to fill. Even when you get things in line, you'll still have the option to hold off launching a decision until it's most advantageous to you. It gives you so much more control over your empire.
There are plenty of other changes and additions to the game, from new tech levels and playable nations, to new advisor types and national ideas. The economic models in the game have also been changed with new supply and demand rules and improved trading options. When fighting, players can use a scorched earth policy when their own armies retreat within their borders, or detach armies that are besieging enemy towns. The best thing about the new expansion is that armies on the march will maintain their current progress if a change in orders takes them through the same province.
In Nomine does away with all the stability hits for slider adjustments, which means you can be a lot more flexible in terms of how your nation adapts to changing circumstances. Of course, the amount of time you have to wait between changing sliders is going to be limited by the size of your empire and your current government. That makes it actually more enjoyable to play some of the minor nations in the game because you can be a bit more flexible.
Closing CommentsThere are plenty of worthwhile features in In Nomine and they definitely help to add a bit more focus and fun to the whole experience. While the new rebels are an undeniable pain to deal with, their presence helps to limit the outrageous imperial ambitions of the bigger players. I think they're still a bit too strong but they serve as a nice check. New colony rules reduce micromanagement while also giving players a compelling reason to protect the seas. The missions are a really nice touch, but they're more fun (and varied) when playing as one of the larger powers in the game. In Nomine's definitely a good buy for any fan of the original game, and while the streamlining is nice, it's still not quite enough to make the game appealing to everyone.
8.0
PresentationNicely streamlined in some key areas but the rebels are a bit unbalanced.
7.0
GraphicsNot much more exciting than the original. Would be great to differentiate between rebel types.
6.0
SoundGood music overall but the sound effects are still weak and uninspired.
8.5
GameplayGreat new gameplay additions that make the game more sophisticated without making it more complicated.
9.0
Lasting AppealMore time to play, more nations and more options all around.
8.0Impressive
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
Grid
June 5, 2008 -
If you have even the slightest interest in driving virtual vehicles, you have plenty of options. For strict simulation buffs, there's GTR; fans of arcade racers can look forward to Burnout Paradise; and off-road fans have DiRT.The team behind the latter, Codemasters Racing Studio, thought there was room in the already crowded videogame racing market for yet another entry, a game that deftly straddles the line between arcade racer and hardcore simulation all wrapped up in a glitzy high-gloss package.So they dusted off the DiRT's groundbreaking engine, renamed it Ego and used it as the framework for an entirely new project: Grid, an unabashedly racing-focused game that takes the skeleton of Codemasters' old TOCA/Pro Race Driver series, slips it into a high-tech skin and imbues it with a modern soul.
The result is an intense, highly focused experience that offers nearly everything a road racing game should – speed, drama, precision, competition, and a sense of hard-won progression. And it does it all with impeccable style.From the opening montage, Grid sets a slick cinematic tone, and it's a theme that carries over strongly into the game itself. In addition to the standard driving views – cockpit, hood, bumper and two third-person – Grid has a full replay system that lets you pause, rewind, fast-forward and change views of your performance. Its best component is a cinematic replay camera that gives you an incomparable sense of the speed, sound and action on the racetrack. Whether you smoke the competition in a flawless GT1 race or crash magnificently in the streets of Shibuya, Grid's replay cam captures it all with intimacy and flair. If you've never been one to view replays of your races in videogames, Grid's cam may just convert you. Although you can review your race as many times as you like immediately after it's over, it's gone forever once you exit the race. With such a great tool at my disposal, I found it disappointing that I could not save my races to my hard drive – not because I wanted to show off my driving skills, but rather because some of my wipeouts were so spectacular that I wanted to share them.
Codemasters paid close attention to the camera in Grid, and not just in replay. The in-game cam works consistently well, whether you're zooming along a straightaway with a cockpit view or drifting around a hairpin in third-person. Even in the menus, Grid is never quite static. You'll always see movement in the background, and titles shift slightly on-screen. In Grid, as in DiRT, choosing an option feels like you're setting something in motion rather than simply clicking a button. Forward momentum is what Grid is all about. Once you create your character and give him or her a name and country of origin, the poor sap gets dumped directly on the track for a virgin race. There's no tutorial. You don't flip through a menu of cars and tracks. It's into a Dodge Viper and up to 100 mph. Finish that race and you're officially a freelance driver, hiring yourself out to the highest bidder in an effort to raise €60,000 toward a car of your own.
A few races later, you have the resources to create your own team, name it, brand it and choose your official colors and design, which will be applied to every car you acquire throughout the game. If you've grown accustomed to the detailed livery creation system in Forza 2, you'll be underwhelmed by the design customization options in Grid. For me, Grid includes just enough visual tweaking. To keep the races somewhat realistic looking, Codemasters had to limit the looks of the cars. You'll probably never see a Master Chief-themed car at Le Mans, and you won't see it in Grid. What Grid lacks in visual customization it makes up for in audio personalization. After you enter your full name, the game asks you to choose a first name from a preset list. If you're lucky enough to have common name, pick your support staff will call you by that name throughout the game, praising you when you best the competition and expressing their disapproval when you slam your million-dollar prototype car into a guardrail. If your parents hated you and gave you an odd name like, say, Talmadge, you're still in luck because Grid includes a list of nicknames you can choose instead. Want your crew to call you "Dumptruck"? How about "Dude"? I went with the former for a few rounds, and it was funny every time I heard it.
Pre-recorded dialogue is a big part of the Grid experience. Your business manager, spotter and teammate (who you'll hire later in the game) are constantly chattering at you, which at first makes for an immersive experience that gives the illusion of a real working race team. If there's an accident on the track, your spotter will alert you over the radio, saying something like, "Whoa, someone spun out up ahead. I think it's Ross Meadows."I was able to recount that line from memory because I heard it hundreds of times. The problem with pre-recorded software speech is that it can get stale pretty quickly with prolonged exposure. A real race spotter might say it just a tad bit different every time, but in Grid, your computerized team members are limited to a few lines of canned conversation, and it begins to grate. And it's not just in-race. Back in the garage, your business manager never tires of telling you (in the same language each time) about the benefits of racing for other teams to make more money, regardless of your preferences. As you spend more time with the game, the dialogue flips from being a cool feature to a bit of an annoyance.It would be more tolerable if your spotter was spot-on every time. Unfortunately, I found his track record to be spotty at best. He'd frequently call crashes ahead of me that never materialized or warn me late of spin-outs that already passed. That's not to say he was wrong every time – just inconsistent. Overall, the voices and audio calls in the game are a plus that add to the experience. But they're certainly not perfect, and they edge toward distraction as the game progresses.
But Grid's core racing experience makes up for its shortcomings. There are three racing regions in Grid – USA, Europe and Japan – and they're all open to you from the second you earn your racing license. As the seasons tick by and you earn more reputation points, higher tiers of competition open up within each area. The more you race and the better you perform in each region, the sooner you'll unlock the next tier there. Winning events nets you trophies, cash payouts and brand-name sponsorship opportunities.Grid is a survey of modern racing styles and manages to include something for almost everyone. There are track races, mountain road runs, street competitions, endurance races and more. All are a blast to race and have unique thrills, drawbacks and specialties.
Want to go extremely fast for extended periods of time? Run a Le Mans 24-hour race, in which each hour is represented by a minute. Day will turn to night and back again as you rush to beat the other cars in your class to the finish line. If you're more into drifting, there are downhill, freestyle and grand prix events to tackle. Touge, tuner, touring, open wheel are all here, too, and each are specifically designed to highlight the special attributes of each class of car in Grid. In its marketing push for Grid, Codemasters has been using the tagline "It's all about the race," a clever attempt to deflect inevitable criticism. Namely that, compared to some of its competitors, Grid's garage is a bit on the small side. There are 45 cars in Grid. And although they're all top-of-the-line racing powerhouses, their number feels limited at times. Some events have only one car choice, which can be a real downer when your only option is a Chevy Lacetti. You also can't tune your cars in the slightest, so if you crave mode understeer from your Honda NSX-R, you'll have to switch to a Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune instead.I did find myself wishing there were more cars in Grid, but I don't have many complaints (Lacetti aside) about the vehicles Codemasters chose to include. From the classic but staid BMW 320 SI to the blistering and exotic Audi R10 TDi, Grid features some of racing's modern icons. You can even get behind the wheel of the Mazda 787B, whose rotary engine earned it both fame and infamy in the 1991 Le Mans. Each car class and individual vehicle in Grid handles differently, and driving in general takes some getting used to. The learning curve is steep but brief, which means you'll crash a lot for your first couple of races and then even out soon after. That is, until you switch to open wheel cars, which will start the curve o' learnin' all over again.
But failing a race in Grid can be almost as much fun as winning thanks to an excellent damage system that's capable of crumpling your car into a rolling mass of bustedness. Using the damage modeling developed for DiRT, Codemasters has created the most dramatic racing crash effects we've ever seen in a videogame. Bumpers fall off when tapped too hard, Le Mans prototypes lose their wings and stock cars lose their doors after spectacular rolls.Take a car into a Jersey barrier at 200 mph. and you'll be treated to a slow-mo cinematic camera effect that captures the impact and makes you feel the crunch in your gut. If you survive a collision but lose a fender, your detritus will remain on the road to harass other drivers until the end of the race. If you're lucky, your car will still function properly, but tough hits will damage your wheels, steering, engine and suspension, affecting your car's handling and performance.To be clear, Grid is not a racing simulation. Although cars look and often feel realistic, the crashes are over-the top and handling tends more toward the arcade end of the spectrum. Take what TOCA used to be and blend it with DiRT's accessibility and you'll have a good idea of what Grid is trying to accomplish. Depending on the track and car you're racing, you'll glance off walls that would total your ride in a sim. Car pulling to the left after a particularly nasty crash? If you're playing the game in standard mode, you can use Grid's Flashback function, an instant-replay system that allows you to pause the race, rewind for a brief period and resume the action from that point. It's effectively a time machine that lets you erase your mistakes a limited number of times each race, depending on your difficulty level. But I also found it to be a learning tool that taught me how to take dangerous turns. Flub a curve, rewind using a Flashback, take it again and emerge all the wiser.
For those concerned about the Flashback tool breaking the integrity of the game, have no fear. Racing in Pro mode eliminates the Flashback option entirely, and it's the only way to upload lap times to the online leaderboards. So if you want to set records using Flashbacks, you'll be doing so in a vacuum. Get serious in Pro mode, and you'll be glad you did once you dip your toe into the multiplayer. With 12 cars online, full damage optional and (from what we've played) smooth no-lag races, things get very intense very quickly online.All regions are open online, and there are several events – including drift, Le Mans, and demolition derby – available to race. There's a full lobby system with matchmaking built in, and hosts can choose to turn both damage and catch-up on and off. The networking code is also split between all the racers in the game but will be distributed on the fly if lag rears its ugly head. Of the three versions of Grid we tested, the PC looked the best. Codemasters gives PC gamers a considerable amount of control over the game's performance with several customization menus. From the level of grass detail to depth of crowd rendering, you can endlessly tweak Grid to your liking on the PC. Grid also fully supports force-feedback racing wheels and allows plenty of customization there as well.
Closing CommentsThere are plenty of other racing games on the market, but Grid captures the soul of the track like none other. The crashes are insane, the races are intense, the cars are coated with style and the overall presentation is just plain sexy. Although its car count is low, customization is limited and the repetitive dialogue grates a bit, Grid's stands out as a stylish but serious alternative to both hardcore driving simulations and over-the-top arcade racers.
8.5
PresentationThe glossy, dynamic DiRT-style menus are back, but without the long load times. Grid is wrapped in a superior package, but the low car count is a bit disappointing.
9.5
GraphicsBeautiful lighting, full damage modeling, great-looking tracks and lovingly-rendered cars, all running smoothly at top speeds? Yes, please.
8.5
SoundThe menu music is great, and the cars purr and scream appropriately, even changing tone with each camera view. But the recorded dialogue gets repetitive too quickly.
9.0
GameplayGrid gets racing right. The tracks are intense, the crashes are spectacular to behold and the cars are a blast to drive.
8.0
Lasting AppealIt will take you a good long while to reach the top of the rankings in Grid's single-player mode, and there's full multiplayer as well.
8.7Great
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
If you have even the slightest interest in driving virtual vehicles, you have plenty of options. For strict simulation buffs, there's GTR; fans of arcade racers can look forward to Burnout Paradise; and off-road fans have DiRT.The team behind the latter, Codemasters Racing Studio, thought there was room in the already crowded videogame racing market for yet another entry, a game that deftly straddles the line between arcade racer and hardcore simulation all wrapped up in a glitzy high-gloss package.So they dusted off the DiRT's groundbreaking engine, renamed it Ego and used it as the framework for an entirely new project: Grid, an unabashedly racing-focused game that takes the skeleton of Codemasters' old TOCA/Pro Race Driver series, slips it into a high-tech skin and imbues it with a modern soul.
The result is an intense, highly focused experience that offers nearly everything a road racing game should – speed, drama, precision, competition, and a sense of hard-won progression. And it does it all with impeccable style.From the opening montage, Grid sets a slick cinematic tone, and it's a theme that carries over strongly into the game itself. In addition to the standard driving views – cockpit, hood, bumper and two third-person – Grid has a full replay system that lets you pause, rewind, fast-forward and change views of your performance. Its best component is a cinematic replay camera that gives you an incomparable sense of the speed, sound and action on the racetrack. Whether you smoke the competition in a flawless GT1 race or crash magnificently in the streets of Shibuya, Grid's replay cam captures it all with intimacy and flair. If you've never been one to view replays of your races in videogames, Grid's cam may just convert you. Although you can review your race as many times as you like immediately after it's over, it's gone forever once you exit the race. With such a great tool at my disposal, I found it disappointing that I could not save my races to my hard drive – not because I wanted to show off my driving skills, but rather because some of my wipeouts were so spectacular that I wanted to share them.
Codemasters paid close attention to the camera in Grid, and not just in replay. The in-game cam works consistently well, whether you're zooming along a straightaway with a cockpit view or drifting around a hairpin in third-person. Even in the menus, Grid is never quite static. You'll always see movement in the background, and titles shift slightly on-screen. In Grid, as in DiRT, choosing an option feels like you're setting something in motion rather than simply clicking a button. Forward momentum is what Grid is all about. Once you create your character and give him or her a name and country of origin, the poor sap gets dumped directly on the track for a virgin race. There's no tutorial. You don't flip through a menu of cars and tracks. It's into a Dodge Viper and up to 100 mph. Finish that race and you're officially a freelance driver, hiring yourself out to the highest bidder in an effort to raise €60,000 toward a car of your own.
A few races later, you have the resources to create your own team, name it, brand it and choose your official colors and design, which will be applied to every car you acquire throughout the game. If you've grown accustomed to the detailed livery creation system in Forza 2, you'll be underwhelmed by the design customization options in Grid. For me, Grid includes just enough visual tweaking. To keep the races somewhat realistic looking, Codemasters had to limit the looks of the cars. You'll probably never see a Master Chief-themed car at Le Mans, and you won't see it in Grid. What Grid lacks in visual customization it makes up for in audio personalization. After you enter your full name, the game asks you to choose a first name from a preset list. If you're lucky enough to have common name, pick your support staff will call you by that name throughout the game, praising you when you best the competition and expressing their disapproval when you slam your million-dollar prototype car into a guardrail. If your parents hated you and gave you an odd name like, say, Talmadge, you're still in luck because Grid includes a list of nicknames you can choose instead. Want your crew to call you "Dumptruck"? How about "Dude"? I went with the former for a few rounds, and it was funny every time I heard it.
Pre-recorded dialogue is a big part of the Grid experience. Your business manager, spotter and teammate (who you'll hire later in the game) are constantly chattering at you, which at first makes for an immersive experience that gives the illusion of a real working race team. If there's an accident on the track, your spotter will alert you over the radio, saying something like, "Whoa, someone spun out up ahead. I think it's Ross Meadows."I was able to recount that line from memory because I heard it hundreds of times. The problem with pre-recorded software speech is that it can get stale pretty quickly with prolonged exposure. A real race spotter might say it just a tad bit different every time, but in Grid, your computerized team members are limited to a few lines of canned conversation, and it begins to grate. And it's not just in-race. Back in the garage, your business manager never tires of telling you (in the same language each time) about the benefits of racing for other teams to make more money, regardless of your preferences. As you spend more time with the game, the dialogue flips from being a cool feature to a bit of an annoyance.It would be more tolerable if your spotter was spot-on every time. Unfortunately, I found his track record to be spotty at best. He'd frequently call crashes ahead of me that never materialized or warn me late of spin-outs that already passed. That's not to say he was wrong every time – just inconsistent. Overall, the voices and audio calls in the game are a plus that add to the experience. But they're certainly not perfect, and they edge toward distraction as the game progresses.
But Grid's core racing experience makes up for its shortcomings. There are three racing regions in Grid – USA, Europe and Japan – and they're all open to you from the second you earn your racing license. As the seasons tick by and you earn more reputation points, higher tiers of competition open up within each area. The more you race and the better you perform in each region, the sooner you'll unlock the next tier there. Winning events nets you trophies, cash payouts and brand-name sponsorship opportunities.Grid is a survey of modern racing styles and manages to include something for almost everyone. There are track races, mountain road runs, street competitions, endurance races and more. All are a blast to race and have unique thrills, drawbacks and specialties.
Want to go extremely fast for extended periods of time? Run a Le Mans 24-hour race, in which each hour is represented by a minute. Day will turn to night and back again as you rush to beat the other cars in your class to the finish line. If you're more into drifting, there are downhill, freestyle and grand prix events to tackle. Touge, tuner, touring, open wheel are all here, too, and each are specifically designed to highlight the special attributes of each class of car in Grid. In its marketing push for Grid, Codemasters has been using the tagline "It's all about the race," a clever attempt to deflect inevitable criticism. Namely that, compared to some of its competitors, Grid's garage is a bit on the small side. There are 45 cars in Grid. And although they're all top-of-the-line racing powerhouses, their number feels limited at times. Some events have only one car choice, which can be a real downer when your only option is a Chevy Lacetti. You also can't tune your cars in the slightest, so if you crave mode understeer from your Honda NSX-R, you'll have to switch to a Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune instead.I did find myself wishing there were more cars in Grid, but I don't have many complaints (Lacetti aside) about the vehicles Codemasters chose to include. From the classic but staid BMW 320 SI to the blistering and exotic Audi R10 TDi, Grid features some of racing's modern icons. You can even get behind the wheel of the Mazda 787B, whose rotary engine earned it both fame and infamy in the 1991 Le Mans. Each car class and individual vehicle in Grid handles differently, and driving in general takes some getting used to. The learning curve is steep but brief, which means you'll crash a lot for your first couple of races and then even out soon after. That is, until you switch to open wheel cars, which will start the curve o' learnin' all over again.
But failing a race in Grid can be almost as much fun as winning thanks to an excellent damage system that's capable of crumpling your car into a rolling mass of bustedness. Using the damage modeling developed for DiRT, Codemasters has created the most dramatic racing crash effects we've ever seen in a videogame. Bumpers fall off when tapped too hard, Le Mans prototypes lose their wings and stock cars lose their doors after spectacular rolls.Take a car into a Jersey barrier at 200 mph. and you'll be treated to a slow-mo cinematic camera effect that captures the impact and makes you feel the crunch in your gut. If you survive a collision but lose a fender, your detritus will remain on the road to harass other drivers until the end of the race. If you're lucky, your car will still function properly, but tough hits will damage your wheels, steering, engine and suspension, affecting your car's handling and performance.To be clear, Grid is not a racing simulation. Although cars look and often feel realistic, the crashes are over-the top and handling tends more toward the arcade end of the spectrum. Take what TOCA used to be and blend it with DiRT's accessibility and you'll have a good idea of what Grid is trying to accomplish. Depending on the track and car you're racing, you'll glance off walls that would total your ride in a sim. Car pulling to the left after a particularly nasty crash? If you're playing the game in standard mode, you can use Grid's Flashback function, an instant-replay system that allows you to pause the race, rewind for a brief period and resume the action from that point. It's effectively a time machine that lets you erase your mistakes a limited number of times each race, depending on your difficulty level. But I also found it to be a learning tool that taught me how to take dangerous turns. Flub a curve, rewind using a Flashback, take it again and emerge all the wiser.
For those concerned about the Flashback tool breaking the integrity of the game, have no fear. Racing in Pro mode eliminates the Flashback option entirely, and it's the only way to upload lap times to the online leaderboards. So if you want to set records using Flashbacks, you'll be doing so in a vacuum. Get serious in Pro mode, and you'll be glad you did once you dip your toe into the multiplayer. With 12 cars online, full damage optional and (from what we've played) smooth no-lag races, things get very intense very quickly online.All regions are open online, and there are several events – including drift, Le Mans, and demolition derby – available to race. There's a full lobby system with matchmaking built in, and hosts can choose to turn both damage and catch-up on and off. The networking code is also split between all the racers in the game but will be distributed on the fly if lag rears its ugly head. Of the three versions of Grid we tested, the PC looked the best. Codemasters gives PC gamers a considerable amount of control over the game's performance with several customization menus. From the level of grass detail to depth of crowd rendering, you can endlessly tweak Grid to your liking on the PC. Grid also fully supports force-feedback racing wheels and allows plenty of customization there as well.
Closing CommentsThere are plenty of other racing games on the market, but Grid captures the soul of the track like none other. The crashes are insane, the races are intense, the cars are coated with style and the overall presentation is just plain sexy. Although its car count is low, customization is limited and the repetitive dialogue grates a bit, Grid's stands out as a stylish but serious alternative to both hardcore driving simulations and over-the-top arcade racers.
8.5
PresentationThe glossy, dynamic DiRT-style menus are back, but without the long load times. Grid is wrapped in a superior package, but the low car count is a bit disappointing.
9.5
GraphicsBeautiful lighting, full damage modeling, great-looking tracks and lovingly-rendered cars, all running smoothly at top speeds? Yes, please.
8.5
SoundThe menu music is great, and the cars purr and scream appropriately, even changing tone with each camera view. But the recorded dialogue gets repetitive too quickly.
9.0
GameplayGrid gets racing right. The tracks are intense, the crashes are spectacular to behold and the cars are a blast to drive.
8.0
Lasting AppealIt will take you a good long while to reach the top of the rankings in Grid's single-player mode, and there's full multiplayer as well.
8.7Great
OVERALL(out of 10 / not an average)
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