Anno 2070

Bigger, better and in the future. Like Anno 1404, Anno 2070 is a real-time strategy(RTS) game that focuses more on people and economy management and less on the fighting.

Release Date

November 2011.

Pros

Just like Anno 1404, the music for Anno 2070 is excellent.

Although an Internet connection is not required for single-player games, being connected does provide extra things like, daily missions and boosts to your single-player games.

The game maybe very large and complex, but everything is well explained in the single player campaign. It is pretty much a giant tutorial with a fairly interesting story to follow. If you are brave you can also start with a continuous game and there are prompts to help you learn the game. There is also plenty of information in the game’s data log which you can access any time to learn specific things. All of these factors makes Anno 2070 much easier to learn than Anno 1404.

Anno 2070 adds more depth to the Anno game style literally. Going underwater plays a big role in Anno 2070. There are structures to be built and resources to be gathered. Of course you have to unlock the submarine technology first and there is the extra element of managing your underwater facilities to cooperate with your surface facilities.

Anno 2070 is not only better, but also bigger than Anno 1404. There is more of everything that made Anno 1404 so good.

Cons

You cannot play Anno 2070 without a Uplay account. So even if you do not want to play online you must still create a Uplay account just to play the game offline.

When you first start the game, you have to create a new profile and the profile name cannot be changed once set.

There is so much information to read and yet the fonts are so very small. Whether playing on a screen with a resolution of 1366×768 or 1920×1080, the fonts always appear small. There is no way to change the font size and playing on a lower than native screen resolution does not help either.

Every time you start the game, the game does not start. No, it launches Uplay and then you have to click play to start the game. Annoying!

Uplay has to get updates quite often, but after one update around November 2014, Uplay kept crashing on start up. I could not play Anno 2070 for quite a while thanks to Uplay. There was an error message that said I can try reinstalling the game, but that was too annoying. At least Anno 1404 does not have this Uplay rubbish.

The autopatcher does not work properly if you have the Deep Ocean expansion. I encountered this problem when installing the game from Uplay. When Anno 2070 starts up, it says an addon was activated and it needs to reboot to update. The only choice is to click the reboot button. On clicking reboot, the game exits and the autopatcher runs. When the game starts up again, the same message appears. It keeps failing and repeating.

Luckily, this solution from Ubisoft works. Just download the offline patch, disconnect from the Internet and install the patch with administrator rights. Then reconnect to the Internet and start the game. It will give the same message about rebooting and updating again, but this time the reboot and update will work and the restart will actually get into the game good and proper. Note that my anti-virus flagged the patch as malware, but only after it installed.

Other Points

There are three factions, but you can only choose from two of them. The third factions tacks on to your side once you have satisfied certain conditions. This is similar to how the Orient side tacks on to your Occident side in Anno 1404.

Same like Anno 1404, the game moves very slowly. Apart from the campaign missions, other missions can take a very long time to complete. You choose goal(s) for continuous games which affects how long the game can take.

Biases

Reviewed version 2.00.7780 of the game.

I have not played any multiplayer games. I have completed the standard single player campaign and played a few continuous games. Still lots of content to get through with the Deep Ocean expansion, daily missions and bonus missions.

I really liked Anno 1404.

DRM

This was stated on the GameFly website:
This video game is protected by the digital rights management software SOLIDSHIELD from TAGES S.A.S which limits the amount of concurrent installations of the game. During the installation and/or the first launch, an online connection is required to unlock the game. HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS AND A VALID UPLAY ACCOUNT ARE REQUIRED TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES, PLAY ONLINE OR UNLOCK EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. SUCH CONTENT MAY ONLY BE UNLOCKED ONE SINGLE TIME WITH A UNIQUE KEY. YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 13 TO CREATE A UPLAY ACCOUNT WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT. UBISOFT MAY CANCEL ACCESS TO ONE OR MORE SPECIFIC ONLINE FEATURES UPON A 30-DAY PRIOR NOTICE PUBLISHED AT www.anno.ubi.com.

On first launch, a serial number must be entered. Then the game phones home to activate.

You must have a UPlay account regardless of whether you want to play online or not. After I created a Uplay account and actually got the game started, it asked for my activation key again in-game. This time it said it will link the game to the UPlay account.

Patches

Every time you start the game, it launches the autopatcher. The game does not start unless it is fully up to date.

The autopatcher download speed is quite slow, so better to download the patches manually via the web.

Offline Patcher 2.00 – I installed this patch first. After installing, the game still ran the autopatcher to download several patches to update the game and the Uplay program. After each patch, it would restart itself to get the next patch.

Minimum Requirements (as stated in Readme.txt)

Supported OS : Windows® XP SP3 / Windows Vista® SP2 /Windows 7® SP1
Processor: Intel Core®2 Duo E4400 @ 2.0 Ghz or AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ @ 2.0GHZ
RAM: 2 GB Windows XP® – Vista® – Windows 7®
Video Card: 512 MB DirectX® 9.0compliant card with Shader Model 4.0 or higher (Radeon HD2600XT / GeForce 8800GT or better)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 compliant sound card
DirectX Version: DirectX® June2010 or newer (libraries included on disc)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space:
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Anno 2070 also works fine on my Windows 10 PC.

Defender’s Quest

Tower defense and RPG hybrid. Placing your defense people is one part. Deciding whether to buy new equipment, hire more people and how to upgrade your people is the other part.

Release Date

October 2012.

Pros

The tutorial is excellent. The game has got quite a lot of things and even though this was the first tower defense game I played, the tutorial explained everything so well, it was very easy to learn everything.

The music is quite good. Some tracks get played a lot more often than others, but it is still nice to listen to for the given situation.

Everything in the game has good descriptions. Hovering the mouse over things or clicking on some things will show information about that thing whether it be monster stats, character attributes, what skills do what or what does this and that button do.

The graphics are simple and yet detailed enough to be entertaining. Each type of character and monster has their own simple, but good animations that show what they are doing.

There is a lot of variety to the game. There are plenty of battle maps, lots of equipment for your troopers, lots of skills for troopers, six classes of troopers and six spells for the main character.

When you have finished the standard game, you can start a new game+ or continue with the standard game and complete all the more difficult challenges. The game+ basically is the same game, but at a higher difficulty and with some new stuff.

There is a very good demo of the game at the official site. Try it out and see if you like it.

Cons

I cannot think of a single con for Defender’s Quest. Every time I play it, I find it enjoyable.

Other Points

As you hire more characters to your party, you can also customise their look for easy identification on the field. You can also rename them if you so desire.

The story is progressed with comic cutscenes. Nothing fancy but does get the job done. There is some good humour in it too.

Each battle has different difficulty levels. You can choose to go through the whole story campaign quickly on normal or even casual difficulty, or you can re-fight old battles at higher difficulties to get better rewards.

The game is moddable and there is even an example mod included in the GOG.com version of the game. The example mod is very similar to the original game though.

At higher levels, the battles can get quite hectic. More than a few times I was not watching the battles properly and my troopers got mowed down very quickly.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version 1.0.73 to 1.1.00 of the game.

Defender’s Quest was the first tower defense game I played.

As I was playing through the game, I replayed a lot of completed battles to try to get the special rewards.

I have completed the standard game on normal difficulty and currently going through all the challenges and the game+.

DRM

Defender’s Quest is DRM free.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP / Windows Vista / Windows 7
1.8 GHz Processor
512MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c
2GB HDD (The game only took up about 160MB on my HDD)
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

The Pandora Directive

Tex Murphy returns for another interactive movie adventure game. Just like Under a Killing Moon, The Pandora Directive puts you in Murphy’s shoes to explore the world in first-person view as well as watching full motion video sequences.

Release Date

July 1996.

Pros

The tutorial is wonderful. It does a very good job of teaching how to do things in the game’s Virtual World Engine. There is also a full text, topic based help system to learn specific things.

Just like previous Tex Murphy games, The Pandora Directive has good humour. Not the crazy humour you find in Monkey Island or Sam and Max, but more like seeing the the bad luck happenings of our favourite P.I. and the sarcastic comments he makes about the surroundings.

According to the manual there are three paths and seven different endings. The three paths are determined by the choices you make which are to be selfish, to be kind, or to be neutral. I have not completed the game yet so I cannot comment on the endings, but I will put this as a pro point for the fact that there are seven different endings.

There are a few real puzzles like figure this pattern or build a jigsaw puzzle. I am not keen on real puzzles, but I do admit they do give some extra variety to the game. I was very glad that so far they have not been too difficult.

Just like Under a Killing Moon before it, The Pandora Directive is a rock solid detective adventure game. The story flows well and has been excellent so far. How the puzzles fit together also makes good sense.

The inbuilt hint system available in “Entertainment” level is a very good optional help mechanism for those that tear their hair out when they get stuck. It is only available in “Entertainment” level which has less game content than “Game Players” level. The good thing is you can start playing in “Game Players” level and only drop down to “Entertainment” level when you are ready to give up.

Cons

The first-person 3D graphics engine is quite old. Although I usually do not have a problem with old graphics, there were some warping graphics as I moved and looked around and it made me feel a bit nausea at times.

Other Points

If you play the “Game Players” level, you are really left out in the open right from the start. It is up to you to figure out what the first step is and then all the steps after that.

The first-person movement controls are a bit clunky, but it does work once you are used to it.

Just like most adventure games, good observation skills are required. Unlike some adventure games though, pixel hunting is not required in The Pandora Directive. The 3D view gives the player enough control to see things in good view. You just need to adjust yourself to the correct place and angle.

Although most of the game can be played without any time critical actions, there are parts that do need quick movements and good timing.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game.

I thoroughly enjoyed Martian Memorandum and Under a Killing Moon before The Pandora Directive.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Monkey Island 1-4 and Sam and Max Hit the Road.

I played on “Game Players” level and got stuck on Day Five. Then I restarted the game on “Entertainment” level and played a bit just to see how different it is. I have decided to take a break and see if I can figure out the Day Five problems without using the hint system or reading walkthroughs.

DRM

The Pandora Directive is available DRM free from GOG.com

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows: Windows XP or Windows Vista
1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended)
256MB RAM (512 recommended)
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 8.1 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Rise of Nations Gold Edition

A real-time strategy(RTS) game where you wage war over land, sea and air from the ancient age to current day information age. Lead one of 24 nations to conquer the world.

Release Date

October 2004.

Pros

There are five Conquer The World(CTW) campaigns and they are very good. The Conquer The World mode adds an extra element of turn-based strategy to the game. The turn-based section can heavily influence how easy it is to play the real-time battle.

Your units’ AI are very good. Citizens can be set to automatically gather resources nearby or help with building things nearby.

The nuclear missile super weapon is REALLY a SUPER WEAPON. But the game has a limit of how many nuclear missiles can be fired before ARMAGEDDON!

There is a very good tutorial that teaches basic real-time strategy concepts as well as things specific to Rise Of Nations. Very beginner player friendly.

The game is moddable. Check out Rise of Nations Heaven to get mods and maps.

For some Conquer The World campaign battles, the battle map is actually generated based on the main CTW campaign map. So when you attack from one area to another, the battle map generated looks like the zoomed in area of the CTW campaign map. This is very innovative as you can create your own CTW campaign and all the battle maps will be generated for you when you play your campaign.

Cons

There are no cons for Rise Of Nations. It is simply a great game.

Other Points

There are 24 nations to play in the Gold Edition. But each side is very similar except for a few unique units and a few beneficial perks. Some of these perks are, faster gather rate of a certain resource, or build certain units faster or cheaper units.

The graphics are OK considering how old the game is. It would have been nice if it was full 3D like in The Moon Project.

Biases

Reviewed version 03.02.12.0800 of the game.

I really liked Dune 2, Command And Conquer, C&C Tiberian Sun and The Moon Project.

I also liked Warcraft 1 and 2, Dark Reign and Total Annihilation.

I have completed the Entire World, Napoleon and Alexander campaigns. In fact I have completed Entire World campaign many times, I just keep coming back for more!

I have not played any multiplayer games.

DRM

A product key must be entered when installing the game.

The disc must be in the drive to play the game.

Patches

To get patches you must use the game’s autopatcher. There is no place where you can just download the file to keep for later use.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

Windows: XP/2000/ME/98 – 128 MB RAM
processor: 500 MHz
hard drive: 1.6 GB
video card: 16 MB/3D
other: audio board with speakers/headphones
online/multiplayer requirements: 5.6kbps or better for internet play

Computer Played On

Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2Gb RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM
Win XP Pro
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

When adding custom CTW maps, you might need to delete the %appdata%\Microsoft Games\Rise of Nations\conquest\temp folder to pick up the correct map graphic when starting the new CTW game.

Recommended Mods

Times of War Unofficial Expansion v2.2 – Increases the number of territories for CTW: Entire World. Also has quite a lot of other changes.

My Creations

Conquer The World campaign map of Australia .

Larva Mortus

A simple top-down shooter with RPG elements and a horror theme. You work for a secret “Agency” that hunts down evil things. The Agency gets reports of nasties happening some where and it is your job to fix it. Usually by mowing down loads of undead and other monsters. The main story of the game is, a mysterious person contacts the Agency saying an ancient artifact has been stolen. You must retrieve this artifact because it is very evil.

Release Date

March 2009.

Pros

The graphics are very good with nice, smooth 2d animations. The whole game has the comic/cartoony look to it and it is nicely done.

The music is excellent and matches the whole horror theme very well.

Similar to RIP 3 The Last Hero, as you kill the monsters, you get experience and you can upgrade your character in different ways.

Randomly generated normal missions. Normal missions are not related to the story of the game but are there so that you can fight through and gain experience to level up. They include killing all monsters in the area, rescue lost souls, destroy champion monsters and lifting the curse of the area(ie. destroy the evil symbol in the area).

There are many monster types and they are well done. There are the usual zombies, skeletons, giant spiders, bats and demons just to name a few. They are also quite detailed. Zombies can have their heads shot off, and they just roam around headless. Somtimes you can see just legs walking around. Gargantuan spiders lay eggs which explode into smaller spiders, and werewolves can pounce at you.

Cons

Even though it has randomly generated maps, it is still a simple top-down shooter and does get repetitive.

Other Points

There is an option to turn off gore.

There are power ups and new weapons to pick up, but the number of weapons and power ups are less than that of RIP 3 The Last Hero. Unlike RIP 3 though, you have limited ammunition and must find more as you go. If you completely run out of ammo it is to the trusty two-handed sword you go. There are only eight weapons and six power ups in Larva Mortus.

The action takes place from room to room. Each time you enter a room, there are monsters for you to clear. Once you have completely cleared a room the monsters do not return. However you can choose to leave a room without clearing it, which means if you return, the monsters will spawn again. As the tutorial says, this is one tactic to try and get more ammo.

The game automatically saves your progress each time you complete a mission. You cannot save the game mid-mission which means some mission can take a while, depending on how many rooms were generated and placed for that mission.

Each mission map is randomly generated. So if you died during a mission, doing the same mission again can give you a different map. Unfortunately there seems to be only a handly of combinations. After playing for a while I started noticing maps being repeated.

After completing the campaign, you can continue playing the random missions.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.02.

I really liked RIP 3 The Last Hero.

I have completed the game.

DRM

I cannot remember if the game has DRM.

Minimum Requirements (from the official site)

Windows XP/Vista or Mac OSX 10.3+, 1.2GHz, 256MB RAM, OpenGL support (recomended)

Computer Played On

Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2Gb RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM (laptop version)
Realtek HD Audio(no idea what model) with Altec Lansing ACS41 speakers or Logitech ClearChat Premium PC Headset.
Win XP Pro
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Astro Avenger 2

Bigger and better sequel to Astro Avenger. Bring your mouse back to scroller shooter duty and blow up more beautiful 3D space ships.

Release Date

March 2008.

Pros

The graphics have improved from the first game.

The level design is more varied now. It does not feel as same same as Astro Avenger.

The music is very good.

The variety of enemies have also increased since the first game, which is good. Those that have played the first game will be familiar with some of the enemies.

Apart from gun upgrades and missiles, you can now also purchase droid sidekicks to help you out. Unlike other games though, the sidekicks do take damage and can die.

Cons

It is still a simple scroller shooter, so it does get repetitive.

Other Points

Although in general there is more variety than the first Astro Avenger, there is still not as much stuff as in Tyrian 2000.

The guns are pretty much the same as the first Astro Avenger. There is one gun that is different from the first game and another extra secret gun that you have to collect parts to assemble. The regular gun types have upgrades as usual. I have not got the secret gun yet so I know nothing about it.

Because you can use the mouse to move the ship so fast, it is actually possible to fly in front of the bullets you just fired. It does not damage your ship or anything but just looks funny to me.

Biases

Reviewed version 2.0.9.

I really liked Tyrian 2000, Xenon 2: Megablast and Raptor: Call of the Shadows.

I also liked Astro Avenger.

I also really liked RIP 3 The Last Hero and liked Theseus – Return of the Hero and Larva Mortus. They are not scroller shooters, but they are simple action shooters.

I have not completed the game.

DRM

There is a registration key you must enter to play the full version.

Minimum Requirements (from Readme.txt)

Windows 98/2000/XP/ME/Vista
Pentium 700MHz or better
Direct3D compatable video card
RAM: 256Mb
35 megs free hard drive space
Sound card (optional)
DirectX 8.0 or higher
I am not sure if it is a typo but it does say DirectX 8. The previous Astro Avenger had DirectX 9 as a requirement.

Computer Played On

Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2Gb RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM (laptop version)
Logitech G35 headset and/or Realtek HD Audio(no idea what model) with Altec Lansing ACS41 speakers or Logitech ClearChat Premium PC Headset.
Win XP Pro
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Stargunner

A horizontal scroller shooter that combines R-Type with Tyrian 2000 and available for free!

Release Date

November 1996.

Pros

Stargunner is a simple, fast and action packed horizontal scrolling shooter.

It is free! Get it now from GOG.com.

The music sounds pretty good, even though it is the old MIDI type sound.

There are four episodes with I don’t know how many levels each, filled with plenty of enemies. Plenty of shoot’em up goodness to be had.

Much like Tyrian 2000, you can pick up power-ups and buy upgrades between missions. There is not as much variety as in Tyrian 2000 though.

Cons

Like all simple scroller shooters, Stargunner does get repetitive.

The game is very difficult. Not as difficult as R-Type, but difficult enough that on the easiest setting, I cannot complete any episodes.

Other Points

There is a story although I did not care much for it after seeing the intro of each episode once. Standard strike the bad guys before they attack us scenario.

Biases

Reviewed the GOG.com version of the game.

I am sure I have played quite a few horizontal scroller shooters, but the only one that I can remember is R-Type and I enjoyed that a lot despite it being insanely difficult.

In the vertical scroller shooter arena, I do really like Tyrian 2000.

DRM

Stargunner is free and DRM free.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8
1 GHz Processor (1.4 GHz recommended)
512 RAM (1 GB recommended)
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1GB RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Star Wolves

Baldur’s Gate in space! It is not as polished as Baldur’s Gate, but Star Wolves is still a very enjoyable sci-fi RPG.

Release Date

November 2005.

Pros

The game is played in real time with intelligent or manual pausing. The intelligent pausing is optional and is as good as Baldur’s Gate except for one missing pause when get hit option.

There are plenty of ships to to buy or loot and plenty of weapons and systems to upgrade your ships including your main mother ship.

There are different characters that can join your party, each with their own set of skills. Some skills are passive skills like gun proficiency and others are limited use power up skills like lucky for thirty seconds. As your characters gain experience, you will also need to think hard on how to upgrade their skills.

Although not to the level of Empire at War or Sins of a Solar Empire, Star Wolves does look very good. The explosions are satisfying, the ships are well detailed with different gun types firing different types of ammunition.

The camera and movement controls are quite easy to use. This not only makes the game easy to control, but also allows you to get the best views for the space combat.

The story was quite interesting. Just do not expect a Baldur’s Gate level of story telling.

There is very good dynamic music. It does not sound as good as Empire at War or Sins of a Solar Empire, but it is still very good and matches the game events very well.

Cons

The speech sounds really bad. Either that or the people are just super calm, even under life and death situations.

There were some text problems in the manual and in the game. Some parts were difficult to understand and Sometimes the description is of something that is different to the item that is present.

Star Wolves has the worst tutorial I have ever played. The descriptions were vague and I actually got stuck. There is a “Next Step” button which skips that part of the tutorial, so there is a choice to move on to the next step.

The enemy AI is OK. The AI that controls your pilots are OK sometimes and other times they become really stupid and fly into stationary objects damaging themselves. I have not seen the enemy AI do this, just my own pilots.

There is a bug where sometimes your ships will just get stuck randomly in space and cannot move. It does not happen often, but when it happens while you are in a fight, it is reloading time.

You can trade equipment and loot, but only in the intermission phase. During a mission you will fly to different space stations, but you cannot trade unless there is a scripted event.

Other Points

Movement is in full 3D much like Homeworld. So you can move ships on the X, Y and Z axis. Once you are use to the controls, it is quite easy to perform too.

The game progresses one mission at a time so it feels quite linear at times. The good thing is there are decisions to be made within a mission and when extra missions pop-up. The choices you make also affects how the game progresses which takes a bit of the linearity out of it.

Space combat must be played in a similar way to Baldur’s Gate. You have a party of characters(only two at the start). You have to arm your characters, in this case with ships and weapons. Then in combat you have to use clever tactics and give orders to your characters based on their strengths.

The game was very difficult, or maybe my space combat tactics were really bad. I had to play on easy difficulty just to get past the first few missions. After about fifteen missions, I was finding it difficult to survive the missions even on easy.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.1 of the game.

Star Wolves was the first space combat RPG I have played.

I really liked Baldur’s Gate 1, 2 plus expansions.

I really liked Empire at War and Sins of a Solar Empire.

I did not like Homeworld, because I found it too difficult.

I have completed Star Wolves once on easy. I have to say I enjoyed the game a lot, despite its flaws.

DRM

Star Wolves is DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP or Windows Vista
1.8 GHz Processor
256 RAM (512 MB recommended)
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
2GB HDD
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Handy Tips

To play the game in native resolution on my PC, I had to edit the file default.cfg. I modified the line with gr_init_resolution and set the resolution to my monitor’s resolution. For more information see the Widescreen Gaming Forum where I found this information.

If you would like to listen to the nice music outside of the game it is possible to extract them in ogg format:

1. Go to the Star Wolves install folder.
2. Go to the data folder.
3. Make a copy of the file Data.data.
4. Rename the copied file to blah.zip.
5. Open the zip file and you can go to the data/music folder to get the music files.

Zombie Shooter

Alien Shooter, but with zombies!

Release Date

December 2007.

Pros

Maybe it is just me, but I find that zombies splat better than aliens. So, even though Alien Shooter – Revisited has got better graphics in general, Zombie Shooter has got better splats.

The music is better than Alien Shooter – Revisited and sounds fitting to the game.

This is another zombie game where a horde really is a horde. Not really surprising after playing Alien Shooter – Revisited, but aliens are aliens and these are zombies!

The level designs are more varied than Alien Shooter – Revisited. There are wide open spaces as well as very tight corridors. You can also hide behind some fences or go to a higher platform to shoot zombies without them being able to reach you.

All the weapons are pretty much the same as Alien Shooter – Revisited, except for one. There is a disk launcher which is pretty fun to use.

Cons

On my PC, the game kept crashing on start up. After two weeks of email tennis with Sigma Team support, they stopped replying. Lucky for me I got a Steam key with my purchase, because the game works fine via Steam. I guess the crash is caused by the SecuROM DRM. So, if you plan on getting Zombie Shooter, better get the Steam version as the other version may not work on your PC. GOG.com also offers Zombie Shooter DRM free so it is more likely to work, unlike the SecuROM one. 19 October 2015 – I reinstalled the SecuROM version of Zombie Shooter after a long time of not playing and uninstalling the game from Steam. This time the game works. Something must have updated somewhere to fix the problem.

Quite a few times I got stuck in walls or objects and could not move. Quite frustrating because I had to restart the level.

You cannot play missions that you have passed without restarting the game from scratch. This is one advantage Alien Shooter – Revisited has over Zombie Shooter.

Same like Theseus and Alien Shooter – Revisited, it is very repetitive.

Gun stand mode is pretty boring compared to Alien Shooter – Revisited. It is missing the upgrade ability between waves.

Other Points

The sounds are better than Theseus – Return of the Hero, but not as good as Alien Shooter – Revisited.

Instead of buying upgrades for your character like Alien Shooter – Revisited, you have to collect experience points to level up your character and then select what attributes to add points to. More or less the same as buying upgrades though.

Money is still used to buy equipment and also to upgrade weapons.

There is night vision mode, but I find it actually makes it more difficult to see than normal mode without the flash light. So, quite pointless.

Same like Theseus and Alien Shooter – Revisited, each mission must be played to completion and the game is automatically saved at the end of each mission.

If you are unsure whether Zombie Shooter is your kind of game, download Theseus – Return of the Hero for free from Sigma Team and try that out first. It is very similar to Zombie Shooter.

There are two characters to choose from, which does not seem to matter much. How you upgrade your character though, does mattter. If you do not upgrade your character to suit your style of play, it can be very difficult in later missions. This is most noticeable on hard difficulty.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.2 and 1.3 of the game.

I really liked Theseus – Return of the Hero and Alien Shooter – Revisited.

On the zombie side of things, I liked Fort Zombie. Although a much slower and less action oriented game, Fort Zombie also does present the horde of zombies as a real horde.

I have completed the game on hard difficulty. I also managed to capture the final battle on video while testing Bandicam. Warning! Being the final mission, this video could be considered to be a spoiler.

DRM

Uses SecuROM or Steam. Also available DRM free from GOG.com.

I got an activation key plus a Steam code when I got Zombie Shooter from GamersGate. I am not sure if this is standard practise as I got Zombie Shooter as part of a bundle.

Steam code must be entered in the Steam client for the game to install.

For the SecuROM version, an activation key must be entered the first time the game is started. The game will then phone home to activate the game.

Patches

1.3 – There are two map files that replaces the installed files. The level 7 map file actually fixes a common crash on level 7. This patch applies to both the GamersGate and Steam versions of the game. I do not know what the level 1 map file does.

Minimum Requirements (as stated in the readme)

Pentium III 800 MHz processor
Direct3D compatible 3D graphics card with 32 MB
256 MB RAM
DirectSound compatible sound card
Mouse compatible device

Computer Played On

Windows 7 64 bit.
Intel Core i5 2.3GHz
4Gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M 1Gb RAM
Conexant SmartAudio with egg speakers or earphones. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Empire Earth 2 and The Art of Supremacy

A real-time strategy(RTS) game that takes land, sea and air combat from the stone age all the way to a rendition of the future… with Hercs!

Release Date

April 2005.

Pros

Very pretty. Looks better than Rise of Nations. Probably because it is newer.

Sounds good too. Even better if you have the Doc Matthews Sound Pack.

Has random map generator.

The Tug-Of-War mode in The Art Of Supremacy is very interesting. You fight over several maps. Completion on one map takes the fight to another map where the winner gets slightly disadvantaged but you get to take heroes from the previous map to the new map. And anything you have researched carries over as well.

Lots of mods and maps to try. Just look at Empire Earth 2 Heaven.

Cons

The AI controlling your units seems a bit stupid at times. Sometimes they attack well, other times they just stand there or keep running to and fro and get shot.

There is a citizen manager screen where you can assign them to gather different types of resources, but I did not like it as much as Rise of Nations auto build and gather function.

The nuke doesn’t feel like a superweapon.

Biases

I only played single player.

I really liked Dune 2, Command And Conquer, C&C Tiberian Sun, and The Moon Project.

I also really liked Rise of Nations.

I also liked Warcraft 1 and 2, Dark Reign and Total Annihilation.

I did not like Homeworld.

I never played the original Empire Earth.

DRM

I do not own the game any more and I cannot what DRM it had.

It is available DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP or Windows Vista
2.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon or faster processor
512 MB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 4 or DirectX 9.0c-compliant 128 MB 3D video card with hardware T&L and pixel shader support, minimum screen resolution of 800×600
DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2Gb RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM
Win XP Pro
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screen shots are taken with my settings.