Ghostbusters: The Video Game

If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood. Who you gonna call? YOU of course, plus the other four guys. As the new recruit of the Ghostbusters, you get to go around catching ghosts, experiment with brand new potentially dangerous, untested equipment and go on a tour of some of the locations in the movies.

Release Date

June 2009.

Pros

The game is easy to learn with the start of the game being a tutorial as well. You can also access a training screen in-game which describes how to do different things.

The AI is excellent. The other Ghostbusters (Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddemore) do actually catch ghosts on their own. At the same time they do not do all the work giving you a game to play. The ghosts act like ghosts, well at least slimer acts just like slimer.

The graphics are excellent. All the environments look excellent, all the people and ghosts look excellent and the proton stream and trapping effects also look excellent.

The different locations are very well fleshed out. Each location has its own look and feel and the amazing attention to detail really makes each place feel different from other places.

The sounds and music are Ghostbusters authentic and sound excellent. It sounds like the original film scores are mixed with some new music in the game.

With the original people playing as the Ghostbusters and scripting the story for the game, it is no surprise that the game’s speech and story is top notch. It is like playing through the sequel to the Ghostbusters II movie.

For the full Ghostbusters atmosphere, all the HUD indicators can be turned off. This includes the targeting reticule. Most of the important information are displayed on your proton pack anyway so you do not miss out on much. Of course, playing with out a targeting reticule is extra challenging.

It just wouldn’t be Ghostbusters if you could not destroy stuff. Good thing Ghostbusters: The Video Game has got wonderful destructible environments. From all the games I have played so far, the only game with better destructible environments is Stranglehold. Just like Stranglehold too, Ghostbusters has a tally of how much damage you have caused.

Cons

There are no save games, only checkpoints with the option to replay completed checkpoints. I usually would not put this as a con, but there is only one profile which means only one person can play through the game in sequence without searching for which checkpoint they left off. If one computer has different user profiles, only one user can play the game, because the DRM asks for a new activation code for a different user.

I am not sure why, but during the final battle, the frame rate would sometimes drop to around 5fps for about thirty seconds, then return back to normal. This only happened during the final battle.

Other Points

Surround sound is evident when using the Logitech G35, but position of the sounds are difficult to place most of the time.

The game is very linear, but some areas are reasonably big and it pays to explore around.

As a Ghostbuster your primary and only weapon is the proton pack. Unlike the movies though, there are four different, uhhhh, thingies attached to your proton pack and each thingy has two firing modes. So, effectively it is like saying the game has eight weapon types. It may not be a lot compared to other games, but they do work differently and does give good variety to the game rather than just trapping ghosts.

The GamersGate version of the game does not come with a manual. It is not necessary though, because there is more than enough information within the game itself. For those that still want to read the manual, it can be downloaded from replacementdocs.

The Ghostbusters song by Ray Parker Jr. does not get played in full.

The story ties in heavily to the first Ghostbusters movie, but very little to the second movie.

Biases:

I like the Ghostbusters movies and the cartoon series.

I have completed the game once on casual difficulty. I started playing at the hardest difficulty of professional, but had to decrease down to the easiest difficulty of casual because I got stuck on two battles.

DRM

Only one user profile of the computer can play the game. Each user that tries to play the game on the same computer, the game will ask for a new activation code.

Uses Securom. Directly from the horses mouth, below is the first thing you see when you first start the game after installation.

This software must be authenticated online prior to use. For activation a valid SERIAL and an active Internet connection is required.

Minimum Requirements

OS: Windows® XPCPU: Dual-core Intel®, AMD®
RAM: 2 GB
Video: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400, ATI®Radeon® X1300, Pixel shader 3.0
VideoRAM: 512 MB
Sound: DirectX® 9.0c compatible
Hard Drive: 9 GB
Input: Keyboard, Mouse or Xbox 360® compatible controller
DirectX: DirectX® 9.0c

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.

RIP 3 The Last Hero

A very simple and very fun top down shooter. Pick a character and go blasting. Use the keyboard to move and the mouse to aim.

Release Date

2007.

Pros

Very easy to learn to play.

Plenty of different weapons to blast around with. According to the main website there are 25 different weapons. And each weapon has two fire modes.

You get to drive vehicles including tanks and helicopters and use turrets.

As you shoot enemies you gain experience and levels. With each level you can level up your character with a special power

There are six characters to choose from and each has their own powers.

When you complete the game, you get to pick one secret weapon and start all over again with your souped up character. Unfortunately, your secret weapon does get replaced, if you happen to pick up a weapon that takes its weapon slot.

Cons

The game is repetitive. But like a good top down shooter, it really doesn’t matter.

Other Points

There is cooperation mode where two players can play on one PC. But I have not tried this out.

There is a LAN option. I have not tried this out either.

There is flower mode where instead of blood splats you see flowers. I’m guessing this is for parents that want to allow their kids to play the game but do not want them to see the blood.

Biases

I do enjoy simple and fun top down shooters every now and again.

I have completed all 100 levels of the game.

DRM

RIP 3 The Last Hero is DRM free.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GamersGate)

Windows Vista/XP/2000
1 GHz Processor
256 MB RAM
128 MB 3D Video Card
Directx 9.0c
50 MB of available Hard Disk Space

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.

Will Fight for Food

The down and out fighter returns to his home city, only to find that things have changed a lot. Explore the city and talk to old tournament opponents and friends, or just beat them up because you are angry. Find out what is happening in any way you see fit.

Release Date

April 2012.

Pros

It is a small game and is very quick to load.

The game is very simple to play. With the help screens that explains the interface and the signs in game that tell you how to play, you should be on your way very quickly. Also you can talk to one of the guys at the beginning who gives a sort of tutorial.

Will Fight for Food has some interesting humour. It is not Monkey Island, but I still found it quite funny.

Talk about freedom and flexibility, you can play the game through with minimum fighting or beat up almost everyone in the game. It reminded me of Fallout, although Will Fight for Food makes it very easy to go both ways.

If you care to explore the different ways of playing, there is actually a pretty deep story. So far, from multiple play throughs, I have found three different significant endings and this is not including the different outcomes of each character in the game.

Cons

The music is annoying. Some might say it is because it is old PC MIDI/Adlib sounding, but I have heard good sounding MIDI music before. Will Fight for Food’s music just sounds bad.

Moving around can be annoying. You get stuck quite often and it is difficult to tell where you can move off screen to another screen.

There is a bug where the talk indicator appears, but you cannot talk to that person.

The game length is extremely short. There is only a handful of locations to visit and people to talk to. I did not time myself, but I estimate the longest it took me go from start to finish was around two hours. The shortest time was around 30 minutes. Being such a short game I do not think their asking price of $5 is justified. $1 to $2 feels more appropriate. Lucky for me I got Will Fight for Food as part of a bundle.

Other Points

As you can see from the screen shots, the graphics are very simple, but does get the job done.

The game developer describes the game as “Will Fight for Food is a Role Playing Brawler where you control Jared, a wrestler whose career took a nosedive after losing the biggest match of his life.“. Firstly, do not expect Final Fight or Double Dragon. It is more like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Except Fate of Atlantis looks better. Secondly, after playing the game for a while, the game felt more like an adventure game with the option to beat up anyone. Thirdly, when they said “Role Playing” I hope they are not trying to pass the game off as an RPG. Sure you can collect a handful of items that can modify your fighting stats, but it is no more an RPG than Fate of Atlantis is an RPG.

Despite all the cons, I did actually enjoy the game. The story was interesting enough to make me want to explore the different endings and the whole concept of how the game plays made me wish there was more. I wish they had a longer overall story or just many different short stories.

Biases

Reviewed GamersGate version of the game.

I enjoy brawler games like Double Dragon and Final Fight. Unfortunately I have not played any brawler games on the PC.

On the adventure side, I really liked Beneath a Steel Sky, Dragonsphere, Blade Runner, 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 have completed the game several times, experimenting with different paths as I played.

DRM

Will Fight for Food used to be DRM free on GamersGate. Now it requires Steam.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GamersGate)

1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB RAM
150 MB Hard drive space

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.

Pinball Gold Pack

20 tables of pinball simulation from the 90s.

Release Date

1996.

Pros

It is simple pinball which makes it very easy to learn.

A great variety with 20 tables to choose from.

Pinball Fantasies! This set of four tables was the reason I bought this pack. It was amazingly fun years ago when it was first released, and it is still amazingly fun now. The table designs are very well balanced. All ramps and targets can be reached and yet it is not too easy.

The music for Pinball Fantasies is one of the best game music ever produced. They are very well suited to their corresponding table themes.

Cons

The sound is slightly delayed. This may be a DosBox compatibility issue, but then again this is the only game on DosBox that I noticed this delay.

Apart from Pinball Fantasies, which is excellent and Pinball Illusions which is OK, all the other tables including the Mania tables are a bit frustrating. There are some targets or ramps that are almost impossible to reach.

The GOG version of the game does not come with any manuals. Luckily the games are very easy to play with only the shift(or ctrl depending on mapperfile setting) keys, space bar, enter and the down arrow key being used.

Other Points

Pinball Illusions is the only game in the pack that has multiball.

Pinball Illusions can be set to 800×600 resolution where most of the table is visible. There is still a little bit of scrolling, but it is much easier to see than with standard resolution view.

Biases

Reviewed GOG version.

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 before Pinball Fantasies came along and blew me away.

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

DRM

The Pinball Gold Pack is DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP or Windows Vista
1.8 GHz Processor
512MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
2GB HDD – I am not sure why GOG has 2GB for the requirements when it only takes up around 30Mb on my hard disk.
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

The GOG version of the game has the shift and ctrl keys swapped for some reason. To change them back to normal, edit the files dosboxDREAMS1.conf, dosboxDREAMS2.conf, dosboxPFD.conf and dosboxILLUSIONS.conf and remove the line mapperfile=mapper.txt.

Fix Act of War to Work on Newer PCs

I use these steps to get Act of War: Direct Action and High Treason to run on my Windows 7 64 bit PC with 4Gb RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce GT 525m 1Gb VRAM. The original information for the fixes are in the links at the end.

Install the game as normal.
Install the latest patch.
Download the Proper Windows 7 Fix for Act of War.
copy the d3d9.dll file from the Proper_AoW_proxy.1.zip to the game installation folder.
Download CFF Explorer from here.
Run CFF Explorer and open ActOfWar.exe or ActOfWar_HighTreason.exe in the games’ installation folder. Make sure to backup those files before modifying.
Select Nt Headers -> File Header on the left column and click on the Click here on the row with Characteristics.
Check the box that says App can handle >2gb address space. Click OK. If this box was already checked, then there is nothing to do and you can skip this whole CFF Explorer section.
Save the modified file.
Set the compatibility mode for ActOfWar.exe or ActOfWar_HighTreason.exe to be Windows Vista (Service Pack 1). Also set the file to run as administrator.
Inside the game installation folder there is a folder EugLoadingBar. Inside this folder set the file EugLoadingBar.exe to run as administrator and have compatibility mode of Windows XP (Service Pack 2).

An error message does pop up when starting Direct Action, but when you click OK, the game loads as normal.

Sometimes Direct Action will still crash on start up. Rebooting the PC seems to fix this nicely. Annoying but at least I still get to see this:

I needed to get a different version of ActOfWar_HighTreason.exe and fixed it to get the game running.

Thank you to the nice person at Proper Windows 7 Fix for Act of War for making the good fix file for the games. There are instructions in the zip file too.

Thank you to the nice person at Permenant fix for AOW – High Treason runtime error at start and having to set mem lim for sharing the fix.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

You were on a blimp that got shot down by aeroplanes. Yes, aeroplanes, blimps and other technologies are in this world of magic. Grab your sword or your gun and travel the world of Arcanum to find out why people want you dead.

Release Date

August 2001.

Pros

As you level up and get character points to upgrade your character, you can choose to upgrade by yourself, like Fallout, or choose one of the auto-level schemes. The auto-level scheme is pretty much setting a character class that you want your character to grow good at and the game will upgrade your character accordingly.

Also similar to Fallout is the big sense of freedom. Almost everyting has choices including how to talk to people and how to solve quests. In the beginning your choices are quite limited though, because a lot of them just leads to a quick death.

In combat there is the targeted attack similar to Fallout where you can choose to attack the head, arms or legs. Not quite as many options as Fallout but still good.

What little speech there is in the game sounds very good.

Variety is a strong point with Arcanum. The whole technology mixed with magic gives more stuff to play with and in an interesting way.

Cons

The stylised font and some very small font text makes the game difficult to read. There is a High Resolution Patch which can fix some of the fonts, but there are still other parts that remain difficult to read.

There are not enough shortcut keys. Sure there are some but there aren’t even keys to turn the pages of the journal, which you need to do a lot.

The game has got complex mechanics and takes quite a while to learn. If you increase the wrong stats or pick the wrong class, it can make the game very difficult in the beginning. It took me four restarts before I could get out of the first town. Even after that I was dying quite frequently from tough encounters. I restarted again setting the difficulty to easy and it was still difficult.

There is a bug where all of a sudden you cannot loot anything. Unfortunately for me, even when I loaded an old game I still could not loot anything, so time to start a new game again! Before starting again I installed the Unofficial Patch.

There is another bug where sometimes after you load a game, the sound disappears for a while.

There are some treasures that look like loot to be sold, but they were required to progress the game. I sold all found loot except things I could use, so I sold off these important treasures. Dungeons do not respawn monsters and loot so I was stuck. Although this may not be a con in other people’s eyes, it annoyed me so much I stopped playing the game.

Other Points

Like Fallout, there is a limit to how far you can scroll the main screen away from your character. So if you want to look at something far away, you must move your character nearby.

The journal records quests for you, but like Might and Magic VI, it does not record enough information. You might want to take your own notes.

Combat can be fought in real-time or turn based. Arcanum does not have the flexibility of Baldur’s Gate to trigger turn based mode automatically though.

The main story is OK, but definitely not as good as Fallout. Due to the difficulty of the game I find that the story flows more like Might and Magic VI, where you have to complete quite a lot of side quests before you can continue the main story quests. As such, I tend to lose track of the main story.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game followed by the Unofficial Arcanum Patch v091225. I installed the patch and restarted the game after I hit the cannot loot bug.

Screen shots were taken with the High Resolution Patch in place, but using the original game resolution of 800×600. I could not stand the difficult reading.

I really liked Fallout, SWTOR, Might and Magic VI, Torchlight, Oblivion, and Baldur’s Gate 1, 2 plus expansions.

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

I did not like Styrateg.

I have not completed the game.

DRM

The game is DRM free from GOG.com

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

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

Recommended Mods

High Resolution Patch – Allows to setup the game to different resolutions and also improves some of the text so it is easier to read.

Unofficial Patch – Fixes a whole bunch of stuff. Not sure if it fixes the cannot loot bug, but I am hoping so.

Act of War

A real-time strategy(RTS) game with modern day and futuristic weaponry. Take Task Force Talon around the world to engage a mysterious but well armed group known only as the Consortium. The Gold Edition comes complete with Act of War: Direct Action and the expansion pack Act of War: High Treason.

Release Date

Act of War: Direct Action – March 2005.
Act of War: High Treason – April 2006.

Pros

Excellent story line for the Direct Action single player campaign. Just like how Rainbow Six had Tom Clancy to work the story for it, Act of War: Direct Action had Dale Brown to do the story. And it shows! Dale Brown also released the book Act of War which unfortunately the story is not as good as the game! I would even go as far as saying Act of War has the best story of all the real-time strategy games I have played.

The story is very well presented through in-game cinematics, full screen CGI cinematics AND full motion video footage. As you complete different objectives, there are audio and video to drive the story.

The full motion videos are excellent. Better than Command & Conquer 1-3 and as good as Wing Commander IV and Under a Killing Moon in quality. It plays like an interactive movie. The acting might not be as good as C&C but the action sequences are definitely better.

Garrisoning of men in buildings is taken to a whole new level. Not only can you clear out a whole building with some units, but you can also get troops to enter the building and do battle inside, without damaging the building. Snipers can also snipe at the windows. You can also drop off troops on the roof for roof entry.

The graphics are excellent. It does not look as nice as C&C3 Tiberium Wars, but it is still excellent and the animations are very nice. The explosions look particularly good to me.

The sounds are excellent. Everything from the smallest rifle fire to the blast from the Abrams tank sounds very authentic. And of course you get good feedback from your troops as well.

There are three ways to get money. The first method is refining oil and therefore fighting over it. The second method is to have troops occupy a bank building to receive funds. But the third method is the most interesting: prisoners of war. Your troops can capture heavily wounded enemies which grants you money. Further more, if you have a prison camp, the POWs will continually generate money for you. You must decide whether to attempt to capture the enemy, or just kill them. This also means you have to make sure your own troops get rescued rather than get captured.

For the modern day weapon systems, this is the most realistic RTS I have ever played. Most of the vehicles and troops perform as expected. Snipers kill infantry in one shot. A Humvee(called Fat-vee in the game) with a machine gun can mow down troops but one direct hit from a rocket and it is doomed. Your troops can hide behind buildings or in bushes to ambush the enemy doing double damage. Be careful though, as vehicles can run over your troops quite easily too. There are a few exceptions to the realism though. An example is the Apache seems to have appalling weapons range. And the air strike pilots don’t know how to dodge SAMs.

The three sides are very different.

The super weapons are really super weapons!

Act of War: High Treason adds new units, upgrades and changes the behaviour of some units. You can even hire mercenaries to fight for your cause. It also comes with a new single-player campaign that has another brilliant storyline. Unfortunately there is no full motion video sequences to tell the story this time round.

High Treason is moddable. Check out this GOG forum post for mods and custom maps.

Cons

The campaign for Direct Action is too easy. I played it on the highest difficulty setting and it feels like playing normal difficulty on other RTS’s. The good thing is, the AI is more difficult when playing skirmishes.

The campaign for Direct Action focuses on Task Force Talon and the U.S. Army. You NEVER get to play the Consortium in the campaign and there is only one mission where you get to use some Consortium units.

The campaign for High Treason is too difficult. And there are only a handful of missions that involve base building with lots of resources. Most of the missions limit your resources or what you can build.

You can zoom up very close to view the action, but you cannot zoom out far enough to see a good view of the field.

The game does not run on PCs with Vista or Windows 7 that have more that 3GBs of RAM. Seriously take this into consideration if you would like to play Act of War on these systems. There are fixes for this problem though. Here is a summary. I have not tried out the GOG.com version of the game to check if this problem has been fixed.

Other Points

Direct Action does not support wide screen resolutions but High Treason does when patched up, or at least it supports wide screen up to my resolution of 1280*800. I cannot tell if it goes higher.

High Treason introduces naval warfare, but it is only playable in the campaign unless you get the Navy Invaders Mod. The mod gives a new way to play skirmish but I do not like it because it does not have base building.

Healing is different for the Consortium and the U.S. Army sides between the two games. In Direct Action, you had a helicopter or a medivac vehicle come pick up the wounded and go back to hospital. But in High Treason they are now healed on the spot and it takes time before the heal function can be used again. I am guessing this is to improve team balancing because that is how the third team Task Force Talon works.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.06-3 of Direct Action.

Reviewed version 1.1.7 of High Treason.

I really liked Dune 2, Command And Conquer, C&C Tiberian Sun, C&C3 Tiberium Wars, Rise of Nations and The Moon Project.

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

I did not like Homeworld.

I have completed both the Direct Action and High Treason campaigns.

I have played a few multiplayer games.

DRM

A serial key must be entered during installation.

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

Act of War: Gold Edition is available DRM-free from GOG.com

Patches

Install the patch before playing seriously as the save games of old versions are not compatible with the new version of the game.

Act of War: Direct Action Patch v1.06.

Act of War: High Treason Patch 1b. This patches the game up to version 1.1.7.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

Operating System: Windows 2000/XP
Processor: 1.5 GHz or superior
Memory 256 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 7 GB free
DVD-ROM Drive: 4X Speed or faster
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX: DirectX version 9.0c (included) or higher
Video: ATI RADEON 8500 or NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 video card or greater
(GeForce 4 MX or Intel Extreme Graphics Family are not supported)
Multiplayer: Internet (TCP/IP) and LAN (TCP/IP) play supported.

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

To play custom maps, the map files must be placed in the
<HighTreasonInstallFolder>\AOW\CustomMaps
folder. If CustomMaps folder does not exist, you must create it manually.

Recommended Mods

ActOfWar.info mod. This mod adds new units to skirmish, allows you to zoom out a lot more and adds a few other things as well.

Star Wars: Dark Forces

Dark Forces was the first game to bring Star Wars to the world of first-person shooters. Play as Kyle Katarn, an Imperial Officer turned mercenary, as he fights his way through an Imperial base, mine, robot factory, Coruscant and even The Executor.

Release Date

February 1995.

Pros

The story is quite interesting. Kyle Katarn steals the Death Star plans in the first mission. After the destruction of the first Death Star, he finds himself on the trail of another secret Imperial project to build Dark Troopers. As good as the story about Kyle Katarn is, we now know that it is only a “legend” and all this never really happened.

The level designs are fantastic. Not only do they have the look and feel of the Star Wars universe, they also require you to think how to progress through. Looking at the automap is essential for getting through the levels. There is also enough jumping and ducking sections that make the game interesting without turning it into a Mario game. Despite all this, there is also plenty of shooting to go around.

I do not remember this from long time ago but Dark Forces proves that there are toilets in the Star Wars universe!

The speech is quite good. In game speech sound good even if they do get repeated quite a bit. Cutscene speech is even better and Darth Vader sounds good too.

Although the audio is not as high quality as in newer Star Wars games, Dark Forces does have the authentic Star Wars sound through out. Everything from blasters to doors sound like Star Wars.

The variety of weapons is good with ten to choose from. This includes the I-am-all-out-of-ammo fist, stormtrooper rifle, thermal detonator and I.M. Mine. Each has different characteristics which determine their effectiveness for different situations.

Cons

The music is the old MIDI Adlib sound. The Star Wars themes can be clearly heard but there is no denying that the whole music system sounds old.

There is no saving while on a mission. You do have lives which allow you to respawn at certain checkpoints. The checkpoint locations are a bit of mystery though and checkpoint progresses are not saved if you exit the game. Depending on how good you are at solving puzzles, the level could take a long time to complete. Some of the later levels took me over an hour to complete.

The AI is terrible. When the enemy are aware you are around they tend to wander around aimlessly and slowly make their way towards you if there is a possible path. I guess this is just sign of the times. If they are not aware of your presence, they just seem to stand still doing nothing.

Other Points

The game is so old, FPS’s did not have mouselook yet. This means most of the game can be played with keyboard only. You can use the mouse to move forwards/backwards and turn left/right, but it just did not feel right. Doom keys plus a few extras are the way to go when playing Dark Forces.

Dark Forces is a difficult game. In this second play through on easy, I found the game quite difficult from the half way mark to the last mission. Stormtroopers may not be able to shoot to save their lives, but there are enough of them plus other more dangerous enemies to make the game challenging.

Dark Forces is the only game in the series that does not involve force powers or lightsabers. If you want to use the force or get some saber action, start with Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.

For the brave or those that have completed Dark Forces and want something new, there is DarkXL. DarkXL uses the XL Engine which is being developed for games like Dark Forces to update it for modern systems. At the time of writing, DarkXL is still in alpha state, so some things are missing and some things do not work. It is still playable and has improved graphics and audio plus mouselook.

There is no denying that the graphics look old, but it is good enough to give the Star Wars look. This combined with the level designs and authentic audio makes the whole atmosphere feel very much like Star Wars.

Biases

Reviewed Steam version of the game.

I completed Dark Forces way back in 1996. Other than good fun I actually do not remember anything about it until playing again this round.

I like Star Wars a lot! Sometimes I would install a Star Wars game after watching one of the DVDs. In the case of Dark Forces though, I installed it after watching The Force Awakens. Many, many years apart, but still good fun all round.

Before Dark Forces, I played Doom and Doom II a lot. I really liked the early Doom games and keyboard only first-person shooters are not foreign to me.

DRM

There does not appear to be any DRM even for the Steam version. Dark Forces now runs from DOSBox and appears to be completely portable. You just need to set up the DOSBox configuration file properly.

If you do not trust Steam, you can also get it DRM free from GOG.com, which as far as I am aware, also uses DOSBox.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
1.8 GHz Processor
1 GB RAM
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
Mouse
Keyboard

Computer Played On

Windows 10 Home Edition
Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.6GHz
8GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2GB RAM
Conexant SmartAudio HD with built-in 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.

IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946

Fly Hitler’s Stealth Fighter in this World War II flight sim. OK, if you want to fly planes that actually fought in World War II, IL-2 Sturmovik:1946 also has a CV-6 load full of planes to try.

Pros

The sun glare is very blinding. This is the first sim I noticed that the sun blinds the pilot from seeing the instruments. First Eagles has got a sun glare effect but not as blinding as in IL-2.

There is surround sound when using the Logitech G35 and it sounds good too. Make sure to set Speaker Type to Surround in the game setup.

The game comes with the Pacific Fighters manual PDF. Unless you are already well versed with Pacific Fighters, it is a must to read. Although it is only 70 odd pages, it is filled with very useful information about playing the game. To follow up, make sure to read the readme files that came with the game and for each patch you install. Each is a follow up with new information on the new stuff that each patch introduces.

The game does not come with any in-flight music, but you can set up your own. The instructions are in the manual. The music files play in order which differs from what the manual says. The music playback sometimes stutters.

Lots and lots of planes. Even when you exclude variants of the same plane, there are still lots of planes. There are fighters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, naval aircraft with carrier operations, early jets, rocket aircraft, prototypes and planes that were planned but never got built.

Each plane is noticeably different. They handle differently and have different cockpits. It really helps to learn about the plane you wish to fly before flying it.

If you decide to fly the bombers, you can swap seats to gunner positions and also to the bomber guy and use the bombing sights for level flight bombing. In multiplayer you can assign a player to each position on the same plane too.

Sounds and speech are excellent in IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946. Different planes sound different, different guns sound different and each nation speaks their corresponding language… I think. The only languages that I can verify are correct are English, German and Japanese and only because I ask friends that know the languages.

There is time acceleration and like First Eagles, there is a skip to next event also. It is not quite as quick as that of First Eagles though. According to the manual the skip to next event only turns off the graphics of the game and turns on autopilot. Everything else in the game is still calculated and so the speed is dependent on the CPU.

For ultra-realists, the game can be set to full realistic mode. In this mode you cannot view outside the plane, and you must read the instruments to determine your speed, altitude and any other information you need. The map is really just a map and does not indicate your position. Strange, but the compass heading is still visible as a HUD readout in full realistic mode. Everything else like gun effectiveness, flight model and take-offs and landings are also made highly realistic. Of course what do I know since I have never flown a real World War II plane before. I guess it is realistic because it makes the game insanely difficult.

The damage model is incredibly detailed. Not only can part of your wing or tail get chopped off, but you can get holes in the plane as well. Depending on where and the extent of the damage, your flight controls are affected accordingly.

The graphics for IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 are excellent and surpasses that of Falcon 4.0. Not only are the planes and the damage to the planes well detailed, the clouds, the ground and weapon effects all look great too. Now if they can just fix the forests, then everything would be excellent.

There is a very good replay feature where you can record your flight and play it back later and change the views and playback speed. It is quite flexible, and you can also record a replay of the replay with new camera angles. There are many machinima videos already out there made with IL-2.

Online flying with IL-2 is excellent as long as you can put up with the wait 5 minutes to get into the combat zone. Even with my average 300ms ping I can get a victory. I have not played online since 2009, so I don’t know how many people still play 1946 online. It looks like Hyperlobby is still active and there are counters on their page for those that are interested.

If you are feeling artistic, you can paint your own planes, just like First Eagles.

There is good force feedback. Works well with my Wingman Force 3D. The feedback is also quite varied where firing machine guns is lighter than firing cannons and different strength of feedback depending on how bad your plane got hit.

There are several ways to play the game. Dynamic Campaigns generate missions as you go. Static Campaigns are more story oriented fixed campaigns with a little bit of variation. It is possible to get different missions at certain stages, but all missions are pre-built. Single missions are very much just that. Then there is the quick mission builder where you can set some parameters and get flying very quickly.

There is a comprehensive full mission builder that you can use to build single missions. You can also string together all the single missions you have built into your own custom static campaign. It is all explained in the manual.

Cons

Why is it that trains sometimes travel off-tracks? This happened in a stock dynamic campaign.

With realism comes a steep learning curve and difficulty. IL-2 is a very difficult game. Even when playing on the easiest settings(except for invulnerability) I found it difficult. It cannot be the arcade flyer that First Eagles can be set to.

There is no global career profile that stores all the pilot’s statistics. Each campaign has its own statistics for the pilot. When a campaign is completed, that is the end of one career. The ranks, medals and kill scores do not get carried to the next campaign. Sure this is realistic, but I do wish there was a global statistics store as well.

I am not sure what is it with flight sims and trees, but this is another game where you cannot crash into individual trees. Buildings, vehicles and forests you can, just not individual trees.

Other Points

On my game DVD, Setup.exe does not run under Windows 7 64 bit. I did manage to install the game by running a.exe though.

If you set unlimited ammo to be on, it includes all guns, rockets and bombs as well. This could make the game more difficult if you are playing with realistic flight model, because the bombs reduce manoeuvrability. The other issue it can cause is, some fighters that carry different types of bombs, must finish dropping one type of bomb before it can drop the other type.

IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 is available DRM free from GOG.com.

Patches

There are a lot of patches for IL-2 1946. Here is a nice list of patches.

4.12.2m Mega Patch – One patch to rule them all and sets the game to be ready for B.A.T. mod(see below). The Mega patch is on that nice list of patches too.

Handy Tips

If your screen is not one of the standard resolutions that the game allows you to choose, there is a way to force the game to use your screen’s resolution. In the game install folder edit the file conf.ini. under the [window] section, set width= and height= to your screen’s resolution and also set SaveAspect=0. Make sure you back up the file before editing it.

Get ND’s Aircraft reference guide from Mission4Today. It has better information about the planes than the standard Aircraft Guide that comes with the game.

Recommended Mods

IL-2 Dynamic Campaign Generator. The DCG is a very flexible tool that lets you change lots of parameters for a custom dynamically generated campaign. Want to fly a Gotha Go-229 for the RAAF over Italy? You can do that with DCG. It is possible to run DCG as the main campaign generator for IL-2 or to run it along side the main campaign generator that came with the game.

B.A.T. mod. This is a huge modpack that adds new planes, maps, campaigns and even functionality. There is a lot of information on everything, but I found it quite easy to install and run. I only installed up to V3.1 Operation Sealion, because I only wanted to play a Battle of Britain campaign. V3.1 comes included with a few static Battle of Britain campaigns. The mod also comes with the very convenient level stabilizer. Autopilot not taking you to where you want to go? Just point your plane in that direction and activate the level stabilizer. Then you can set your throttle and time accelerate without worrying about keeping your plane steady. A real time saver for those that lead busy lives, but still want to play flight sims.

DCG Battle of Britain V1.3 BAT. This mod makes use of the above two mods to create a dynamic Battle of Britain campaign. It works very well.

Biases

I started playing with version 4.11m. More recently I have been playing with version 4.12 and with B.A.T. mod V3.1

I like to play with full realism except for unlimited ammo, HUD plane indicators, HUD instrument readings, external views, padlock view, no cockpit view and autopilot.

I mainly play air-to-air missions. I tried some ground-attack missions as well, but do not like it that much. I was too lazy to learn up the big bombers level bombing techniques.

I really liked First Eagles, Falcon 4.0, Gunship 2000 including Islands and Ice, Falcon 3.0, Knights of the Sky, T.F.X., Fleet Defender, F-15 Strike Eagle 3 and Jane’s Fighters Anthology.

I also liked LHX Attack Chopper and Harrier Jump Jet.

Falcon 4.0

From the golden age of flight simulation, the king of flight sims lives on in the form of FreeFalcon 5. Learn to fly the F-16 Fighting Falcon with your PC and now available for free.

Pros

Most realistic F-16 Fighting Falcon flight simulator I have ever played on the PC. There are settings to dumb it down, but it is still difficult, just not as difficult as with full realism settings. As expected, the learning curve is very steep.

FreeFalcon 5 added ramp start to the realism. Learn the proper procedures to start the engine and set things up. Note that this also involves waiting for the navigation systems to initialise and waiting for take-off clearance from air traffic control(ATC). When I timed the sequence for one instance, it took me five minutes real time to complete the navigation initialisation. Then it took another three minutes real time before the ATC gave clearance for me to take-off. I was number two in the queue. So, a total of eight minutes before getting into the air and this included using 4x time acceleration when I was waiting around doing nothing. But if you do not like all this start up stuff, you can skip straight to take-off time.

Although Falcon 4.0 was an F-16 only sim, the FreeFalcon group have added other planes into the sim, complete with cockpits. I think the different planes use the F-16 avionics though. Once I learned up one aspect of the F-16’s avionics, I found that they work the same way in other planes. It feels like Jane’s Fighters Anthology, but with less planes and higher realism.

Falcon 4.0 came with the mother of all game manuals. 500+ pages of F-16 goodness. If that was not enough, the FreeFalcon group having added more stuff to the game, also added 1000+ pages of reading material to complement the Falcon 4.0 manual. The FreeFalcon documents are in PDFs only though. And I am not about to print them out either.

Falcon 4.0 in the form of FreeFalcon 5 was available for free, but the project has been shut down. You may still be able to download it from the Free Falcon Wiki though.

Clickable cockpits! If you cannot remember some of the keys, you may be able to find the corresponding switch, knob or button on the cockpit and click it with your mouse.

The graphics in general are beautiful. All the planes look great, complete with moving control surfaces. The cockpits also look great in 2D and 3D. The landscape also looks great, but only when you are high up in the sky. When flying at low altitudes, the ground looks very flat.

The airports are realistically busy. You can see F-16s, B-2s, C-5s and other planes taking off and landing at the airports. A very good reason to listen to the ATC.

The radio chatter is the most realistic I have heard in any sim. You can hear chatter from many flight groups, not just your own. This gives a deeper atmosphere as it sounds like there are others fighting in this war too. This also means you must pay attention just in case the chatter is directed at you.

The dynamic campaign engine is definitely dynamic and gives different missions depending on what is happening and what plane you have chosen to fly. I do not know how good it is as a full blown war simulator though as I have not played enough of one campaign to see how it turns out.

Cons

The Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation(ACMI) does not work. Everytime I try to view a recorded flight, the whole thing freezes after several seconds. I have to invoke task manager to kill the process manually and restart the game.

There are random problems with the game ranging from not being able to get into flying mode, to full blown crash to desktops. These random problems seem to automatically get fixed after a game restart though. Luckily these problems do not happen too often. I have managed to fly a few missions continuosly without issues.

During flight there is no music at all. Sure this is realistic and all, but after playing T.F.X., I want good music with all my flight sims. They could have made it an option so people can turn off the music for ultra-realism. The original Falcon 4.0 had excellent music at the front menu section, but this has been replaced in FreeFalcon 5.

Although there is an option for ForceFeedback, it does not seem to do anything. Unless it is not compatible with my Wingman Force 3D.

Other Points

There were options for screen resolutions but I had to set it to the max and native res of my monitor. I found that setting it lower caused the multi-function display(MFD) text to be difficult to read. As a result the 2D cockpits all looked fat on my 1280×800 resolution.

The general sounds are standard flight sim sounds to me.There is the sidewinder growl, various radar beeps, lock and missile sirens, gun fire and missile launches and low-key explosions from either your jet or something else being hit. The only sounds that I thought was very well done are the roaring engines and the canopy opening and closing.

Here is a list of non-F-16 flyable planes I found that can be played in a campaign and have 2D and 3D cockpits: A-10 Thunderbolt II, F-4 Phantom II, B-52 Stratofortress, Mig-29 Fulcrum, AV-8B Harrier, F-14 Tomcat, Su-33 Flanker-D, F-22 Raptor, Mirage 2000, JAS-39 Gripen, AJS-37 Viggen and F-105D Thunderchief.

For those that still have the original Falcon 4.0 disc, Benchmark Sims(BMS) has a mod to improve Falcon 4.0. I have not tried it out so I do not know how good it is.

GOG.com has released a Falcon Collection which includes Falcon 4.0 v1.08 as a bonus. I have not tried it out personally, but the GOG team has confirmed that their release does work with BMS.

Biases

Reviewed version FreeFalcon 5.5.5. The original Falcon 4.0 plus the 1.08 patch just refused to work on my PC.

Since FreeFalcon 5 added lots of new stuff, I tried them out as well. As a result, this page contains information that was not featured in the original Falcon 4.0.

I really liked Gunship 2000 including Islands and Ice, Falcon 3.0, Knights of the Sky, T.F.X., Fleet Defender, F-15 Strike Eagle 3 and Jane’s Fighters Anthology.

I also liked LHX Attack Chopper and Harrier Jump Jet.

I played with a mixed bag of realism settings. As I am reading the manuals and learning the accurate avionics and flight model, I played on the easier modes just to get some action happening.

I play with the easiest enemy AI settings, as the game is already difficult enough without smart enemy AI.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon was(and still is) my favourite plane, even before I played Falcon 3.0.

I like air-to-air missions more than air-to-ground missions.

I have not completed even the first 24 hours of one campaign. I have been playing many different campaigns to try out different planes.

I have not tried out the AGMs, GBUs, rockets and mid-air refuelling.

Although it is not realistic to do so, I frequently use external and full screen views as my situational awareness is not the best.

DRM

The original Falcon 4.0 was DRM free and FreeFalcon 5 is the same.

Minimum Requirements

I cannot find the minimum requirements for FreeFalcon 5. And since it has been improved so much from Falcon 4.0, I do not think the original minimum requirements are relevant anymore.

One thing is for sure, joystick required!

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
Logitech Wingman Force 3D.
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 original Falcon 4.0 game, you can replace the FreeFalcon 5 menu music files with the original Falcon 4.0 music files.