Star Wars Battlefront II

Ever wondered what it was like to be an ordinary grunt soldier in the Star Wars movies? Star Wars Battlefront II makes it so. Battle on foot, in AT-ATs, in X-Wings and more.

Release Date

November 2005.

Pros

You get to drive AT-ATs and it is every bit as powerful as in Empire Strikes Back and also has the same weaknesses.

Play through the great battles of the movies and even execute the same manoeuvres as in the movies. Yes, tow cables work on AT-ATs, but you have to be good to pull it off and get a friend to co-pilot the speeder.

When there are enough people (or AI), it looks, sounds and feels like those battles in the movies. Of course if you have real people, it is more believable than the strange behaving AI.

It has been a very long time since I played multiplayer, but I remembered it was excellent. It needs quite a lot of people though. Five on each team is OK but the real fun starts when you have ten on each side.

The graphics and sound are great! Although not as good as SWTOR or even Empire at War.

For a multiplayer focused game, Star Wars Battlefront II has got a good single player experience complete with a single player story campaign. In Rise of the Empire, you are a grunt in the 501st Legion starting as a Clone Trooper and ending as a Galactic Empire’s stormtrooper.

Galactic Conquest is another nice addition to the single player experience of the game. It is a strategy-lite mode where you start of with only one soldier type and you have to conquer planets, gain credits and upgrade your arsenal. When combat is initiated, you play the FPS mode of the game.

The game is easy to learn and play. There are hint boxes that popup and they can be turned off for the seasoned player. There is also a very nice tutorial which doubles as an intro to the single player campaign.

When you meet certain conditions you can play as Vader, Chewbacca or one of many other heroes, complete with force powers. The special powers are not as comprehensive as other Star Wars games, but it is still great fun to Force Choke someone or throw your sabre into a crowd. There is also an all out heroes battle mode on Mos Eisley where it is just all heroes fighting.

Cons

The instant action options are not saved. Very annoying if you do not like the default options.

The AI is pretty dumb, but at the same time they seem to be all crack shots! They move around pretty chaotically and sometimes behave strangely, like circling a dead body shooting at it. Once they notice me though, it seems they take me down with 100% accuracy most of the time.

Other Points

The space battles are quite clever. You can fly ships and fight in space or you can land in the enemy’s capital ship and wreak havoc on foot. The idea is fantastic, unfortunately the interior of the capital ships are too small with only five rooms. There should be at least a few corridors to run around in.

The flying in space battles is very arcadey. It is still good fun, just do not expect it to be like X-Wing Alliance.

The game is clearly a multiplayer focused game with some single player fun. Other Star Wars games provide a much stronger single player experience including SWTOR, even though SWTOR is also a multiplayer focused game.

There is support for joystick, but there is no force feedback.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.1 of the game.

The game plays very similar to Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2. I only played the demo for BF2 though. Overall I enjoyed SWBF2 more than the two old Battlefield games.

I really liked Serious Sam, all the Doom games, Quake 4 and Quake 2.

I also really liked F.E.A.R, Chronicles of Riddick, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, SWAT 4, Red Faction, Bioshock, Alien Vs Predator, Soldier of Fortune 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Call Of Duty 4.

I also liked Red Faction 2 and Painkiller Overdose.

I also liked Battlefield 1942, Delta Force and Spec Ops 2.

I have not completed the single player campaign.

DRM

A CD key must be entered during installation.

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

Patches

1.1 – No comments.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

  • Computer: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible computer required.
  • Operating System: Windows 2000/XP required.
  • CPU: Intel P4 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ or faster required.
  • Memory: 256 MB RAM or higher required.
  • Graphics Card: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability
  • Sound Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible Sound Card required.
  • CD-ROM: 8X Speed CD-ROM drive or faster required.
  • Input Device: Keyboard and mouse required, Joystick or gamepad supported.
  • Connectivity Requirements: DSL, Cable or faster connection required for Multiplayer.
  • DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 9.0c is included on this DVD.
  • Note: DirectX may require the “latest” drivers for your particular hardware.
  • Installation: 4.3 GB of free hard drive space required. We recommend that you have an additional 200 MB of free space available after installation.
  • SUPPORTED CHIPSETS:
    • ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9200 familyt
    • ATI Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 family
    • ATI Radeon X300/X600/X700/X800/X850 family
    • NVIDIA GeForce3 family
    • NVIDIA GeForce4 family excluding the GeForce4 MX
    • NVIDIA GeForce FX family
    • NVIDIA GeForce 6 family
    • NVIDIA GeForce 7 family

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 skip the introduction logos create a shortcut to BattlefrontII.exe and add the parameter -nointro. The file BattlefrontII.exe is in the GameData folder.

SWAT 4 Gold

A tactical first-person shooter(FPS) where you play the role of SWAT(Special Weapons And Tactics) in various law enforcement situations.

Release Date

SWAT 4: April 2005.
SWAT 4: The Stetchkov Syndicate: March 2006.

Pros

Very realistic game. You are part of the police and you are not allowed to use deadly force except as the last resort. The mission score depends on your using force appropriately.

The weapons are as realistic as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl. Except for one thing, when you reload your weapon, the unused bullets in your old magazine does not carry over to the next magazine.

Excellent AI. Your team mates act as a team and really help you out. The enemy and civilian AI are also excellent and act very believable. They walk around, run, hide, attack and sometimes even given themselves up willingly. The one minor problem with your team mates though, is that they do not know how to subdue suspects if they refuse to drop their guns. You have to subdue all suspects yourself, until they drop their guns. If your friends have non-lethal weapons, what can happen is, they shoot the suspect, the suspect croaks for a bit but still holding on to the weapon. After a short time the suspect recovers and kills your friend.

Each time you play the same mission, some people are randomly placed. They also walk around so even though the map and mission is the same, you must take extra care at every corner because there might be an enemy right there. This really adds to the replay value.

There is a quick mission builder which allows you to take missions you have completed and change the conditions of the mission for you to play. Essentially you are making a new mission for the same map. There are many conditions to change like number of civilians, number of suspects, what mission objectives and even how high the morale of the people are. This adds to the replay value of SWAT 4.

The graphics are beautiful and the environments are very detailed. The only thing missing is environmental destructibility (Stranglehold anyone?).

The sounds are excellent. Everything from ambient sounds, speech and weapons to the action music really adds to the atmosphere of the game.

The Stetchkov Syndicate expansion allows you to play all the original missions with all the new weapons, new equipment and the new hold command functionality. This is on top of the new missions that comes with it.

Team members’ viewports. Look through the eyes of your mates by activating a picture-in-picture viewport. From there you can also give them orders as to what to do. You also get to use sniper viewports to watch or shoot suspects through windows.

Cons

The game takes a very long time to load, and half the time there is no harddisk activity. In fact a few times I accidentally started the game and didn’t even know it because the splash screen failed to show. I proceeded to load another game and then SWAT 4 shows up! The game took 3 minutes 16 seconds to load up when I timed it.

Each menu option also takes a long time to load.

Each mission also takes A long time to load. The first mission took 1 minute and 8 seconds to load! A relief though is that reloading the same mission takes a bit shorter time.

The scoring is a bit unfair. If you incapacitate or kill a suspect, even though it was done correctly (eg the suspect was shooting at you), your score still gets penalised. You do not get a negative score, just that you will not score as highly as if you arrested the suspect.

Other Points

You cannot save your game mid mission. This means you must go from start to end without being incapacitated or failing one of the mission objectives. This is exactly like in Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear except in SWAT 4 you can only control one character. So if your one person gets incapacitated, it is mission over instead of control switching to one of your buddies. Makes the game quite tense at times.

The accuracy of your weapon works the same as in Rainbow Six. It depends on whether you start moving and how fast you are moving. The accuracy is indicated by how far apart the crosshairs are and when you stop moving or are moving at a constant speed, the crosshairs slowly converge to show higher accuracy. Unlike S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Call Of Duty 4, you cannot use the iron sights to increase accuracy in an instant. You must slowly wait for the crosshairs to converge. Different weapons’ accuracy increase at different rates though, eg a pistol becomes accurate much faster than the M4 Carbine.

There is no story for the single-player campaign. It is a series of unrelated missions but have a full briefing on what the situation is. There are 13 missions in the standard SWAT 4. The expansion adds 7 extra missions with a loose plot about a gang called (surpise, surprise) The Stetchkov Syndicate.

Night vision goggles (NVGs) is one of the new pieces of equipment in The Stetchkov Syndicate. Unfortunately your buddies are too stupid to use it. It still comes in handy for weapons that do not have a flash light though, like the grenade launcher.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.1 of SWAT 4.

Reviewed version 1.0 of SWAT 4 The Stetchkov Syndicate.

I really liked Serious Sam, all the Doom games and Quake 2.

I also really liked Red Faction, Bioshock, Alien Vs Predator, Soldier of Fortune 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky, Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Call Of Duty 4.

I also liked Red Faction 2, Painkiller Overdose and Star Wars Battlefront 2.

I also liked Battlefield 1942, Delta Force and Spec Ops 2.

There is multipler cooperative and team-based versus modes but I only played the single-player mode.

DRM

The game needs an Internet connection to activate on first start up.

A serial key must also be entered.

I bought SWAT 4 Gold from Direct2Drive and now they have been taken over by Gamefly. Since the take over around January 2012, I cannot play the game because Gamefly still has not provided a new license and activation for the game. Another wonderful story about DRM punishing customers.

SWAT 4 Gold is available DRM-free from GOG.com

Patches

The 1.1 patch is available here for non-Direct2Drive versions of the game.

Minimum Requirements (To Be Advised)

I will find out this info after Gamefly makes the game playable.

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 laptop 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.

Handy Tips

Add -nointro to the SWAT 4 shortcut to skip the company intro videos.

Recommended Mods

Global Swat Force has got custom built maps and some of them are very good. Just follow the instructions on their site to install the maps. To open a custom map, load up SWAT 4 as normal. At the menu screen, press ` (backtick) to bring up the console. Then type
open <map name>
where <map name> is the name of the file WITHOUT the .s4m extension.

SWAT 4 Quick Mission Maker Map Pack. Eight game levels created by members of the SWAT 4 QA Team using the quick mission maker. No new maps, just modified missions on existing maps.

My Creations

My lone wolf and original missions packs for The Stetchkov Syndicate. The lone wolf mission pack contains all the original plus expansion missions configured for lone wolf play. The original missions pack is just all the original missions configured to play with the SWAT 4 Expansion, so you get to use the new weapons and command. Download swat4lwoldm.zip .

Dream Pinball 3D

Pinball simulation brought to life with wonderful graphics and atmosphere. Choose from six tables, four difficulty levels and get different types of balls during play.

Release Date

August 2006.

Pros

The graphics are beautiful. There is glass reflection which looks realistic, but makes the table more difficult to see. The ball and everything else in the table also looks great with nice lighting and animations.

The sounds are also excellent. Dream Pinball 3D is the first pinball game I played that has ambient sounds. It gives the atmosphere that you are in real place playing pinball with other people around.

There are six tables to choose from. Not as many as Pinball Gold Pack but much better than the single table of Pro Pinball Timeshock.

There are seven camera angles to choose from. Only one of them is the all viewing static camera though. The other cameras range from sticking your head right up against the glass and following the ball very closely, to viewing most of the table with only slight movement. The close camera views really show off the beautiful graphics of the game, but it is a bit difficult to play.

While playing, you can get balls made of different material which have different weights and give different scores. I have never seen a real pinball table that changes ball type during play, so I do not think this is realistic. It sure gives an extra challenge for a computer game though.

Cons

On my Windows 10 PC, the maximum resolution the game would allow me to set is 1280 x 1024. Unfortuantely, it is not playable on this resolution. For some strange reason the game keeps minimizing, sometimes at the main menu and sometimes when I start a table. For the game to be playable I have to set the resolution to 1280 x 960 or lower.

There are sparkles that pop out from the places where the ball scores points. Yes, it shows where points can be scored but it looks out of place and there is no option to turn it off.

The tables do not feel as balanced as Pinball Fantasies or Pro Pinball Timeshock. Some of the targets seem impossible to hit, but sometimes the ball will just hit that target after randomly deflecting from something else.

Other Points

There is speech and music for the pinball tables, but they do not sound anywhere near as good as Pro Pinball Timeshock.

There are four difficulty levels which determine how many balls you get as well as a few other things.

If you are feeling competitive, you can submit your high score to the official site and see how you fare against other players. Only the Flash version of the page displays high scores.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game.

I really like pinball in real life, although I have not touched a pinball table in over 20 years.

On computer I really liked Raster Blaster, Night Mission and Pinball Construction Set on the Apple II.

On the PC I liked Epic Pinball and really liked Pro Pinball Timeshock and Pinball Fantasies.

I also really liked Space Cadet, the pinball game that came with Windows XP.

DRM

Dream Pinball 3D is DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

  • Windows XP or Windows Vista
  • 1 GHz Processor (1.4GHz recommended)
  • 256MB RAM (512 recommended)
  • NVidia or ATI 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. 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

If you have the GOG.com version of the game and want to submit high scores to the official site, you can get an activation code by contacting GOG support.

Heroes of Might and Magic V

A turn-based strategy and role-playing game hybrid. Reinforce your town, build armies and level up your heroes to wage war against other heroes.

Release Date

October 2007.

Pros

The music is good and suits the game.

There is a good learn as you play tutorial during the first few missions of the single player campaign. It is quite beginner friendly.

The heroes can now attack. This is an improvement from Heroes of Might and Magic III, where they cannot. I do not know if this feature was in Heroes of Might and Magic IV as I have not played that game.

The game is now in 3D and it looks very good. You can zoom in, out and turn the camera to get better view of things. The tactical battle view can also be zoomed and turned. There are also close ups of the animations sometimes.

There are six factions, seven resource types and loads of monsters, spells and artifacts. Variety is a big strong point for HOMM5.

To help you get a grasp of all the many different things , there is in game information for everything. With a bit of reading you will know exactly how to best use your paladins or which spells to cast when.

The Heroes of Might and Magic series have the best blend of a role-playing game and a turn-based strategy game. HOMM5 continues this great hybrid gameplay. Strategy and a strong army are important, but levelling up your hero also plays a big part in the game.

The game comes with a map editor and there are lots of custom maps out there. There is a nice collection at maps4heroes.

There are also mods for the game. Check out Age of Heroes and Celestial Heavens.

There are six single player campaigns, one campaign for each faction. The whole story is quite good and flows from one faction to the next. As such, it is important to play the campaigns in order to follow the plot. If you want to try out the different factions quickly, you must get the mod that enables all the missions for all the campaigns without completing them in order. Or play a single scenario where you can choose your faction.

Cons

Wide screen is not supported properly. Everything looks fat.

Other Points

Heroes of Might and Magic V is pretty much Heroes of Might and Magic III with better graphics, better sound, better music and a few new features. Anyone familiar with HOMM3 will be right at home with HOMM5. I have never played HOMM4 so I do not know how that compares to these other two.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.60 for HOMM5.

I really liked Heroes Of Might And Magic II and III, Jagged Alliance, UFO: Enemy Unknown and XCOM: Terror From the Deep.

I have not played Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

I have only completed two out of the six campaigns and have only tried out three out of the six factions.

DRM

The game appears to be DRM free. It is strange as the manual has got serial keys in it but I have not been asked to enter it. The disc is not required in the drive to play either.

It is possible that the serial keys are required for installing the expansion packs or for playing online. Both I have not done.

Heroes of Might and Magic V is available DRM free from GOG.com.

Patches

1.60 – I am not sure why but the file is named heroes_might_magic_5_1.06_eu.exe. In the game it clearly says 1.60.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

  • Operation System: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
  • Processor: 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 or similare processor
  • Memory: 1GB RAM
  • Video Card: DirectX 9.0c compliant, 128 MB DirectX-compliant, Shader 2.0-enabled
  • Direct X: DirectX 9.0c (included on disc)
  • DVD-ROM Drive
  • Hard Drive: 6GB
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
  • Peripherals: Mouse, keyboard
  • *Supported Video Cards at Time of Release (This part taken from the readme file as it was too difficult to read the tiny print of video cards)
    Desktop
    NVIDIA: (SE/GE/GS/GT/GTS/GTO/GTX/GTX+/GX2)
    NVIDIA GeForce FX 59×0
    NVIDIA GeForce 6100/6150/6200/6250/6500/6600/6610/6700/6800
    NVIDIA GeForce 7100/7200/7300/7350/7500/7600/7650/7800/7900/7950
    NVIDIA GeForce 8200/8300/8400/8500/8600/8800
    NVIDIA GeForce 9200/9300/9400/9500/9600/9800
    NVIDIA GeForce 120/130/140
    NVIDIA GeForce 250/260/275/280/285/295ATI Radeon:
    ATI Radeon 9600/9700/9800
    ATI Radeon X300/X550/X600/X700/X800/X850
    ATI Radeon X1050/X1300/X1550/X1600/X1650/X1800/X1900/X1950
    ATI Radeon HD2400/HD2600/HD2900
    ATI Radeon HD3400/HD3450/HD3650/HD3600/HD3850/HD3870
    ATI Radeon HD4300/HD4350/HD4550/HD4500/HD4600/HD4650/HD4830/HD4850/HD4870/HD4890Mobile:
    NVIDIA: (SE/G/GE/GS/GT/GTS/GTX)
    GeForce Go 7950/Go 7900/Go 7800/Go 7700/Go 7600/Go 7400/Go 7300/Go 7200/7150M/7000M
    GeForce 8800M/8700M/8600M/8400M/8200M
    GeForce 9800M/9700M/9650M/9600M/9500M/9400M/9300M/9300M/9200M/9100M
    GeForce 160M/130M/120M/110M/107M/105M/103M/102M
    GeForce 260M/280M

    Radeon:
    Mobility Radeon 9600/9700/9800
    Mobility Radeon X300/X600/X700/X800
    Mobility Radeon X1300/X1350/X1400/X1450/X1600/X1700/X1800/X1900
    Mobility Radeon X2300/HD2300/HD2400/HD2600
    Mobility Radeon X3100/X3200

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.

Blade Runner

A classic point-and-click adventure game based on the movie Blade Runner but with a different storyline to the movie. You are Ray McCoy a rookie blade runner that has just been assigned an animal murder case. Suspected replicants are involved, so time to earn your keep.

Release Date

November 1997.

Pros

A solid detective type adventure game with an excellent storyline. You have to be very observant and pickup every little clue. Although very good, I think Tex Murphy’s “Under A Killing Moon” is better.

Scenery and locations are very faithful to the movie.

The sounds are very good and also faithful to the movie. Gives the game the movie atmosphere. The speech is also excellent.

The whole game is presented like a movie with transitions between locations all with beautiful Blade Runner scenery. The transitions do get boring after a while but you can skip them which is good. You could say this game is an interactive movie… except without the video footage.

If you install using the maximum install, you do not need to swap or even put the CDs in to play the game.

There are many different ways to get through the game and different things happen depending on what you say(or what conversation setting you use), what you do, how quick you react and even whether you draw your gun or not.

Starting a new game each time, assigns different agendas to different characters, so each time you play the game, things can be different.

Cons

Because of the use of Voxels, some times things get quite pixelated. But I guess that is the price to get a game running on a very low end computer of the times.

There are action parts in the game where you have to use your gun to shoot. You use the mouse cursor to point at the target and click to shoot and to simulate recoil, the mouse cursor will move and you have to re-aim. I actually found these action bits more annoying than entertaining and wish that I could skip it.

Other Points

The only place that I am aware of where you can get Blade Runner is GOG.com.

There is some Vangelis-ish music in the game but not a lot.

Biases

I really liked The Secret Of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, Borrowed Time and Under A Killing Moon.

I also liked Martian Memorandum, Curse of Monkey Island, Escape From Monkey Island, Indiana Jones And the Fate Of Atlantis and Simon The Sorcerer.

I did not like Dark Seed.

I really liked the Blade Runner movies. I watched the original version first followed by the director’s cut version. Both versions blew me away.

I have completed the game twice. Although I cannot remember the ending from my first play through, I do remember some things happening differently between the two play throughs.

DRM

Blade Runner is DRM free. As stated above, if you choose the maximum install, you do not need the disc in the drive to play.

Patches

There is a patch but I could not install it. It kept crashing when I tried.

I do remember playing through the whole game without a patch though.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

  • Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 (with service pack 3.0 or higher)
  • IBM or 100% compatible Pentium 90 MHz CPU
  • 16 MB RAM
  • 16-bit SVGA graphics card w/2 MB video RAM
  • hard drive with 175 MB available
  • 4x CD-ROM drive
  • Microsoft compatible Mouse and mouse driver

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.

Handy Tips

A fast PC(including my specs) causes problems in two areas of the game. First is, no targets appear in the shooting range. Second is, there is one point in the game where you need to run away from a bomb, but it is impossible to do so with a fast PC. I managed to get around this by slowing down the PC using CPU Eat ‘n’ Cool.

I found this solution at BRmovie.com, but the Turbo application mentioned on that site did not work for me.

If you have FRAPS or another program that shows frames per second of the game, I noticed that the shooting range worked fine when the frame rate was averaging below 200 FPS in the first stage of the shooting range. Without CPU Eat ‘n’ Cool my game was averaging 600 FPS in the first stage of the shooting range. Even at 200 FPS I had to wait 48 seconds before the first target appeared, but at least it appeared.

Another application you can try to slow down the game is Slow. This tool worked for me as well, but I liked CPU Eat ‘n’ Cool better because it reduced the heat on my laptop.

There is a how to install Blade Runner on Vista 64 instructions here. I have not tried it so I do not know if it works on Windows 7 64 bit as well.

 

T.F.X.

If you are after the T.F.X. soundtrack, it is here.

The review section of this page is done completely from memory. I have not played the game in over a decade but I think T.F.X. deserves a page on my site because the soundtrack is absolutely awesome. It is so awesome that back in the day, I hooked up two PCs to record the soundtrack.

So what is T.F.X.? T.F.X. stands for Tactical Fighter Experimental and was one of the best flight sims of the 1990s. Fly for the U.N. in the EF2000, F-22 and the F-117 Nighthawk over various fictional hot-spots around the world.

Release Date

1993.

Pros

Very realistic flight sim except for guns and fuel.

The graphics were top-notch for the time and each plane looked very good, inside and outside.

It was the first flight sim to introduce the external fly-by camera and it looked very good.

It had a very good virtual cockpit view. I don’t think you could see the instruments properly but the whole pilot head movement when the plane moves just looked great.

Best soundtrack from a flight sim EVER! Along with Command & Conquer, T.F.X. had the best game soundtrack during the 90s.

Cons

The fuel was un-realistic and I found that flying the EF-2000, I always ran out of fuel.

The guns fired too slow for jet fighters.

Other Points

Box art picture was taken from DJ :: OldGames with permission.

I was so crazy about T.F.X. back in the day that I even tried to draw the EF2000 on my folder divider.

Biases

I really liked Falcon 3.0, Gunship 2000 and Knights Of The Sky.

Computer Played On

  • 486
  • Soundblaster 16
  • That is all I remember!

T.F.X.: The Soundtrack

The absolutely awesome T.F.X. soundtrack was composed by Barry Leitch. I contacted Mr. Leitch seeking permission to provide the soundtrack for public download. He replied that unfortunately Ocean Software are the copyright owners of T.F.X. including the soundtrack and so he cannot grant the permission.

In my research I found that Ocean Software was acquired by Infogrames and later Infogrames acquired Atari and after that they changed their name from Infogrames to Atari Inc. I contacted Atari Inc’s legal department asking for permission for T.F.X.’s soundtrack. They replied:

We do not own the rights to “T.F.X.” Although we acquired Ocean Software, from our records we only got the rights to the “OCEAN” marks. Because the purchase was so long ago and was done the UK, we do not have any contact that we can forward on to you.

So it looks like T.F.X. is in ownership limbo. As such, I have decided to provide all the recordings I made years ago, to the public. Some of the music is already available on YouTube, but I am too lazy to generate a video to put up on YouTube.

If you are the owner of the copyright to T.F.X. please contact me.

The names of the tracks are the names I gave them when I recorded them. I do not know what their real names are.

The recordings on this site are of the Soundblaster version of the music.

If you download this soundtrack, there is one thing that I ask of you, KEEP THE MUSIC ALIVE. The T.F.X. soundtrack is too good to be kept in the basement of oblivion never to see the light of day.

Download T.F.X. Soundtrack zip .

Styrateg

A simple turn-based fantasy role-playing game(RPG).

Release Date

June 2006.

Pros

There is a nice tutorial that teaches how to play the game.

It is DRM free. At least I think it is DRM free. It has not tried to contact home and it just plays after installing.

Cons

There are some shortcut keys to make life easier but not enough. You cannot even press ENTER to make a screen go away, you must move the pointer to OK and click on it. Using the mouse to do everything may be OK for some people but for me with experience with Heroes of Might and Magic, shortcut keys are very important.

The music sounds suitable at first, but after a while I found it annoying. There seems to be only 3 or 4 tracks, which does not help.

I am so glad I got this game for free. Because it is sure not worth $9.95 that RakeinGrass are asking. For $0.04 extra you can get Heroes of Might and Magic 3 from GOG.com. And Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is better in every way except for simplicity. Styrateg is simpler to learn and to play.

Other Points

There are two modes to play the game, strategy and RPG. The only difference is, in strategy mode you only get a limited number of turns to complete the current mission.

The game plays like Heroes of Might and Magic but there are no armies. You start of with one character and as you progress, you collect more people to control. There are no towns, no mines to generate resources and no armies to build or control. You could say that they stripped out the strategy part of Heroes of Might and Magic to give Styrateg a heavier RPG feeling.

Styrateg comes with a map editor, but so does Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

Biases

Reviewed version UNKNOWN.

I really liked Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3.

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

I also liked Lands of Lore 3, Might and Magic 3, 4 and 5.

I have not completed the campaign.

DRM

I think it is DRM free. Not quite sure.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on the official website)

  • Windows 98/2000/XP
  • PC 500Mhz
  • 128 MB RAM
  • 3D Video Card

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.

Anno 1404

Take SimCity, expand it to be several islands large, fix it in the 15th Century, add warfare and a C-5 Galaxy load full of different resource types, and you get Anno 1404, also known as Dawn of Discovery. This large and complex real-time strategy(RTS) game focuses more on keeping your people happy and trading rather than fighting all the time. Don’t relax too much though as there are battles to be fought.

Release Date

June 2009.

Pros

The graphics are very nice. The landscapes look nice, the buildings are well detailed and you can also see people walking around and carts and caravans transporting goods.

The music is excellent. Not something I would listen to out of the game, but very suitable for the game.

There are so many different types of resources to manage. How you acquire some of these resources can get complex, but it also adds to the fun of the game. Not all the necessary resources are available in any one location so there is a big focus on trading and logistics.

There is some rare but well placed humour in the game. I won’t say what they are, but they gave me a chuckle when they occurred.

You can get custom built scenarios from Gateway to the World.

There is a Where’s Wally type mini game where you have to find certain people roaming among the citizens in your settlement. It is not as difficult as the Where’s Wally books, but it is still a fun break from the rest of the game.

Cons

For such a detailed and complex game, the manual is grossly inadequate. I had to explore the controls myself and read the tool tips to try and figure out most of the things. The in-game information boxes help a little bit, but some things are not mentioned.

You can zoom quite far in and quite far out. Unfortunately when you zoom in, it zooms to the centre of the screen rather than where the mouse cursor is. This annoyed me a bit as the close up view was not what I expected. I find that I have to zoom in and scroll to where I want the view to be.

For a game that has a large focus on trading, it has an inadequate trading route planner. You can add ports, ships and what goods to trade where, but you cannot insert a port destination in between already existing routes. It will always add a port last on the list. So if you don’t build your trade route perfectly from the start, you have to remove ports and goods and reinsert them again. Quite annoying.

There is no multiplayer in plain Anno 1404. The expansion pack Venice adds multiplayer to the game among other things. I do not have the expansion so I will not comment any further on that.

As can be seen in the screen shots, on a screen resolution of 1280×800, the text is generally small, but still easy enough to read. When I played the game on a screen with 1366×768 resolution, the text became too small and quite difficult to read.

Other Points

When you start the game, it first checks for updates and automatically downloads updates without asking. This is annoying, but luckily you can cancel the update and the game will start.

Anno 1404 is a real-time strategy game but has a much larger focus on building and running your settlement. There is so much involved that, playing the main campaign does not introduce you to battles until the fourth mission. It reminded me of SimCity, but with fights.

Anno 1404 is complex and slow to play. If you are after an action packed RTS, try C&C3 Tiberium Wars, Act of War or Dawn of War instead.

There are no different sides like Nod vs GDI. All teams have the same units and buildings.

Although there is no multiplayer mode, there are three other game modes other than the single-player campaign. Continuous game lets you set options such as how much resources are available and what the winning conditions are. There are lots of options to set. Once you are happy with the options, a map is randomly generated for you to play. Scenarios mode has six fixed scenarios for you to go through. Finally, custom scenarios allows you to play custom built scenarios.

I found the pacing of the game to be quite slow. Slower than Sins of a Solar Empire even. But at the same time I found it very interesting as there is always something to do. And if you really are waiting for more resources or a ship to reach its destination, you can hit the fast forward key.

There is this thing called “Gateway to the world” where you can share all your achievements, screenshots and other player profile information with the world. Registration, a special online profile and connection to the Internet are required for this. I did not try this out as I thought it was quite pointless. Luckily you can download custom scenarios without an account.

Anno 1404 is the most peaceful and relaxing RTS I have played so far. The choice is there to raise the difficulty though.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.03.3650.

I really liked Star Wars Empire at War, Act of War, Sins of a Solar Empire, Dune 2, Command And Conquer, C&C Tiberian Sun, C&C3 Tiberium Wars, Rise Of Nations and The Moon Project.

I also liked Kingmania, Empire Earth 2, Dark Reign, Warcraft 1 and 2, Supreme Commander and Total Annihilation.

I did not like Homeworld.

I have completed the campaign.

I have not played any of the Anno games before this one.

Although I compare SimCity with Anno 1404, I think that SimCity is more a simulation where as Anno 1404 is definitely a real-time strategy game.

DRM

Anno 1404 uses TAGES for DRM. At least the Australian version does. Not sure about the rest of the world.

Apparently the DRM is removed with the 1.1 patch. I have not verfied this.

The game DVD does not need to be in the drive to play the game. YAY! This was the case even before I patched the game.

It does need an internet connection to phone home and activate the game. I am not sure if this happens once the patch has been installed.

Patches

1.1 – You must upgrade to this patch before going to 1.2. Apparently it removes the DRM, but I have not verified this.

1.2 – No comments.

pre-patch2 – After installing patch 1.1 and 1.2, when I start the game it still downloads another patch. This time it is the Ubisoft patcher application update to be able to get more automatic updates.

1.3 – Then when I ran the game again, it gets this patch.

The autopatcher says what file is being downloaded and where it is being downloaded from. I cancelled the autopatcher downloader and downloaded and installed the file manually. Much faster this way.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

  • Operation System: Windows 2000/XP/Vista
  • Processor: 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 or similare processor
  • Memory: 1GB RAM
  • Video Card: DirectX 9.0c compliant, 128 MB DirectX-compliant, Shader 2.0-enabled
  • Direct X: DirectX 9.0c (included on disc)
  • DVD-ROM Drive
  • Hard Drive: 6GB
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
  • Peripherals: Mouse, keyboard
  • *Supported Video Cards at Time of Release (This part taken from the readme file as it was too difficult to read the tiny print of video cards)
    Desktop
    NVIDIA: (SE/GE/GS/GT/GTS/GTO/GTX/GTX+/GX2)
    NVIDIA GeForce FX 59×0
    NVIDIA GeForce 6100/6150/6200/6250/6500/6600/6610/6700/6800
    NVIDIA GeForce 7100/7200/7300/7350/7500/7600/7650/7800/7900/7950
    NVIDIA GeForce 8200/8300/8400/8500/8600/8800
    NVIDIA GeForce 9200/9300/9400/9500/9600/9800
    NVIDIA GeForce 120/130/140
    NVIDIA GeForce 250/260/275/280/285/295ATI Radeon:
    ATI Radeon 9600/9700/9800
    ATI Radeon X300/X550/X600/X700/X800/X850
    ATI Radeon X1050/X1300/X1550/X1600/X1650/X1800/X1900/X1950
    ATI Radeon HD2400/HD2600/HD2900
    ATI Radeon HD3400/HD3450/HD3650/HD3600/HD3850/HD3870
    ATI Radeon HD4300/HD4350/HD4550/HD4500/HD4600/HD4650/HD4830/HD4850/HD4870/HD4890Mobile:
    NVIDIA: (SE/G/GE/GS/GT/GTS/GTX)
    GeForce Go 7950/Go 7900/Go 7800/Go 7700/Go 7600/Go 7400/Go 7300/Go 7200/7150M/7000M
    GeForce 8800M/8700M/8600M/8400M/8200M
    GeForce 9800M/9700M/9650M/9600M/9500M/9400M/9300M/9300M/9200M/9100M
    GeForce 160M/130M/120M/110M/107M/105M/103M/102M
    GeForce 260M/280M

    Radeon:
    Mobility Radeon 9600/9700/9800
    Mobility Radeon X300/X600/X700/X800
    Mobility Radeon X1300/X1350/X1400/X1450/X1600/X1700/X1800/X1900
    Mobility Radeon X2300/HD2300/HD2400/HD2600
    Mobility Radeon X3100/X3200

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.

Handy Tips

If you download custom scenarios, you must put the files in my document\anno 1404\scenarios folder. If the folder does not exist, you must create it manually.

With plain Anno 1404 the only custom scenarios that can be played are version 1 scenarios. Version 2 requires the Venice expansion pack.

 

Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000

As a Xenomorph, eliminate your enemies silently, swiftly and from any direction. As a marine, pick up whatever weapons you can find and take down your foes. Or, be a Predator and hunt with your specialist equipment. Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000 is the first first-person shooter that allows you to play as all three entities from the Alien and Predator movies.

Release Date

April 1999.

Pros

The game is just as I remembered it back in 2000, except this time I get to play multiplayer and it works very well with GOG Galaxy. Not many people play it, but the odd game here and there is fun.

The sounds in the game sound just like the movies. Everything from the motion tracker beeps to the predator’s snarl (or whatever that clickity-clackity sound it makes) sound just like the movies.

The graphics look old by today’s standards, but it is good enough to give the game the awesome movie atmosphere.

After all these years the face hugger still freaks me out.

The music is very well done. It does not always play, but it does play at the right time, adding to the great atmosphere.

Variety is a very strong point for Aliens vs Predator Classic 2000. You get to play as an alien, a marine, and a predator. Each species has different abilities, their own single player episodes and plays very differently.

Cons

There is no LAN option for multiplayer.

Cooperative multiplayer involves you and your mates running around as marines or predators, trying to mow down an endless horde of aliens. There are no special cooperative maps with end points and you cannot cycle maps either. It gets boring very quick and seems completely pointless as a game mode.

Other Points

The game moves very fast, both in single player and multiplayer. This also means that marines and aliens tend to die very quickly, just like in the movies! Unlike the movies, the predator also dies pretty quickly. Well, the predator dies quickly when I use it.

I am not sure whether it is just me, but I get lost a lot. Maybe the game is too dark, but I seem to go around in circles quite a lot and other times I miss the switch that needed activation. The objectives are not clearly highlighted either. When they say destroy this, I had to really look at what kind of stuff can be destroyed. Despite getting lost a lot, I do think the levels are very well designed.

There are three difficulty levels: training, realistic and director’s cut. If you play realistic or director’s cut, there are target objectives that if met, will provide you with cheat options. The developers called them cheat options, but all they do is allow you to play certain completed levels with some “cheat” type abilities. For example, a predator with unlimited ammo for the spear gun and shoots like a shotgun.

According to the manual, when you finish the standard levels, bonus levels are unlocked. The higher difficulty of standard levels completed also means more bonus levels unlocked.

The difficulty levels also determine how many times you can save the game on each level. For those that like unlimited saves, the save limits can be turned off quite easily.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game.

I played this when it was still called Aliens Versus Predator. This was way back in 2000. Never completed it though.

I really liked Aliens Versus Predator Classic 2000 many years ago and I still like the game today.

I also like Alien, Aliens and Predator movies. The rest were a bit of a let down.

This is the only AvP game I have played so far… except for the arcade beat’em up.

I have not completed all the standard episodes yet.

DRM

The GOG.com version of the game is DRM free, but if you want to play multiplayer then you must login with a GOG Galaxy account.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

  • Windows: Windows XP (XP 64bit is NOT supported) / Vista / 7 / 8
  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent
  • Memory: 4 GB
  • Graphics: DirectX compatible graphics card
  • DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
  • Hard Drive:500MB
  • Sound: DirectX compatible sound card

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.

Handy Tips

To enable unlimited save games, create a shortcut for the file AvP_Classic.exe and add the parameter -unlimitedsaves.

Zombie Shooter 2

Mow down more zombies with more weapons, more character choices and more ways to upgrade. Everything that was good about Zombie Shooter is back with more of everything that is good for decimating hordes and hordes of zombies.

Release Date

July 2009.

Pros

An improvement on the first Zombie Shooter, there are now characters that tell you what you should be doing in the game. All the conversations are one-sided, but at least the speech sound OK. This essentially meant that there is a better story, but I was too busy mowing down zombies to pay attention to what it was all about.

You get to drive vehicles in some missions. It is not as good as the likes of Zombie Driver HD, but it still does give the game more variety. There are also a couple of missions where you are in a vehicle but only aim and fire. Kind of like a moving gun stand.

There are a lot more weapons in Zombie Shooter 2 than in the first game. They are categorised into types like pistols, machine guns and shotguns etc. Each individual model has its own characteristics, though, so pick your favourites to get the job done.

With the addition of an inventory system and being able to sell stuff, Zombie Shooter 2 feels even more like an RPG than its predecessor.

The level designs are more detailed and varied. It allows for more tactical combat rather than straight run and gun. Don’t expect Rainbow Six level of tactical flexibility though.

Gun stand! This is the good gun stand almost identical to the one in Alien Shooter – Revisited. That is, you get to upgrade your gun emplacement in between waves of zombies.

The dark parts of the game are almost completely black, so investment in a good flashlight or night vision goggles are a must.

Cons

Text does not display properly. Not sure if this is a Windows 10 issue. Running the Windows 10 compatibility troubleshooter did not fix it. Setting the Windows text display scaling to 100% also did not fix it.

There are more music tracks in Zombie Shooter 2, but other than the introduction/menu music, which is identical to Zombie Shooter, the rest of the music did not sound as good as the first game.

Same like the other shooters, a mission can take quite a long time and you cannot save in the middle of a mission. The longest mission took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to complete and the game’s recording time said that it took me 9 hours and 41 minutes to complete the whole thing on hard difficulty. Be advised that this time did not take into account repeated play of some levels.

Despite the improvements from the older games, Zombie Shooter 2 is still a “shooter”, which means it is still very repetitive.

Other Points

Around the 18th of December 2019, the Steam version of Zombie Shooter 2 received an update to support full HD resolution.  The GOG.com version has not been updated and there is no patch for the GamersGate SecuROM version.   So, if full HD is a requirement, Steam is the way to go.

Even though there are a lot of weapons, there are only three slots to arm them. The slots are for small, medium and large weapons. As such, you can only change quickly between one and three as opposed to one and nine in the first Zombie Shooter. Each slot does cycle through all your available weapons for that slot though, so you can still use all the weapons you are carrying. It just takes a little bit more time to swap.

For those that like to tweak their atmosphere, there are options to play the game in black and white and have the grainy film effect. Personally, I find both settings annoying, but they are there for those who want them. I have taken screenshots of all the different combination of modes for this review.

Just like the first Zombie Shooter, you get experience and when you level up, you can choose which attributes to boost. There are also more attributes to choose from.

Zombie Shooter 2 does have survival mode, but I did not play it much.

I probably will not be playing the first Zombie Shooter anymore. Zombie Shooter 2 is better than the first game in every way.

Biases

Most of this review is based on the GamersGate SecuROM version of the game.  More recently, I have been playing the Steam and GOG.com versions of the game.

I have completed the main campaign once on hard difficulty. I also played a lot of gun stand.

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

I also really liked Zombie Driver HD.

DRM

For my GamersGate version, the first time starting the game after installation, the message popped up

“This software must be activated prior usage. For activation a valid SERIAL is essential. Please enter your SERIAL in the supplied text area and press ACTIVATE to unlock. Press CANCEL to abort. “

After inserting the serial and clicking activate, the game phoned home to activate.

Zombie Shooter 2 is available DRM-free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated in the Readme.txt)

  • Operating System: Windows® 98/ME/2000/XP
  • Processor: 1.7 GHz CPU
  • Memory: 256 MB RAM
  • Hard Disk Space: 2.5 GB available
  • Video: nVidia GeForce2 / ATI Radeon 8500 or better video card with 32MB video memory
  • Sound: DirectX 9.0c or better compatible sound card
  • Input: Windows Compatible Keyboard and Mouse
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