The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians

A first-person, party based, grid-based, real-time, very heavy tactical combat based RPG dungeon crawler that focuses on using each character’s ability in the most effective way. Although it is a real-time game, movement is grid-based and there is an active pause feature that should be used for giving commands to your troops.

Pros

Many aspects of the game’s difficulty can be adjusted. There is the usual how much damage the enemy does or how much health they have. Then there are the helpers with options like enabling auto-mapping before you find the magic map or whether you want auto pause at certain times. I cannot remember another game with this many options for tweaking the difficulty level.

The puzzles in The Fall of The Dungeon Guardians are quite clever. There is no hand-holding or even hints as to what to do. Eagle eye observation is also required for some puzzles. Many times I have passed an area and did not notice that key thing that was required for a puzzle.

In general, I hate puzzles, but I was quite impressed with how they were presented in the game. Most likely I will get stuck and start reading walkthroughs though.

The controls are very easy to use and the whole game can be controlled entirely with the mouse alone. For people like me, there are plenty of shortcut keys and they are fully customisable as well.

The music sounds nice. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of tracks so it does keep repeating. The good thing is, it does not grow annoying with time.

The graphics look very nice. It is not the best, but it still looks very nice. The animations are fluid. The lighting gives a nice dynamic effect to monsters as well as the surroundings. Objects and the environment look well detailed, although the number objects seem a bit sparse.

Cons

There is plenty of loot to collect and upgrade your party with, but there are no shops or people to buy and sell with. It makes sense because you are in a prison dungeon, but also makes the game more boring.

The characters feel very bland. There is banter between them, but they say the same thing over and over again just using different words. Every now and again they will say something useful, but overall their conversations act more like sleeping spells.

Despite the myriad of options to tweak the difficulty of the game, there is no option for monster respawning. The developer did say that they wanted players to think tactically rather than being able to grind their way to higher levels to defeat bosses, but the side effect is, backtracking to explore missed areas becomes very boring. Inspired by Might and Magic, but also more boring than Might and Magic. There are options for so many other things, why not monster respawning?

Other Points

For an RPG, The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians has a reverse difficulty progression. Most RPGs get easier as you level up and so you can explore more areas. The areas you have explored tend to get easier to deal with. In this game, areas already explored become downright boring and new areas are more difficult to get through at your higher level than the previous areas at a lower level. And this is not including boss fights.

Biases

I have never played any of the Legend of Grimrock games. I probably would not have played Fall of the Dungeon Guardians either, but it came in a nice bundle so I thought why not try it out. Maybe one day I will try out Grimrock too.

I am one of those rare RPG players that did NOT like Eye of the Beholder. I found it too difficult when I played it years ago. But I am a big fan of active pause like in Baldur’s Gate and Star Wolves. Sure enough, I think active pause is what made Fall of the Dungeon Guardians more enjoyable than Eye of the Beholder.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum

Build and manage your own theme park in this very extensive theme park simulator. Build your own rollercoasters and see what it is like to ride in it. Manage everything from the price of root beer and how much sauce to put in the food to where to place toilets and handling your staff.

Release Date

November 2006.

Pros

The game is very extensive. There are so many rollercoaster types to build, so many other rides to build, so many shops that sell so many things. You have to manage your staffs’ wages, work zones, tasks and morale. You have to set prices of goods for sale and cost of rides.

Physics plays a big role in coaster design. I am not sure how realistic it is but you must ensure the vehicle has enough speed and momentum to keep it going to the end. This is where the testing phase of the rollercoaster comes in handy.

Almost everything is customisable. You can customise the rollercoaster colours, staff uniforms even the balloons you sell. You can even put custom image billboards which earn you money in the game. You can also use your own music for the themes of different rides.

There are good tutorials that teaches how the game works and how to build your wonderful creations.

The sounds are excellent. The closer the camera is to the ground the more it sounds like a theme park. There is general noise, the sound of cash registers taking in money, people cheering and vomiting, everything you would expect to hear in a theme park. You can also hear people scream and yell from the rides.

The ride cameras are very good. So good that it can give some people motion sickness.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum comes complete with the Soaked! and Wild! expansion packs. Soaked! provides swimming pools, water slides, more water rides and other water park type stuff. Wild! adds animals to your theme park.

The graphics are excellent. Although the polygons are visible for most things, the sheer amount of different things are represented well in the game. And everything is completely 3D and can be viewed from any camera angle.

Sandbox mode allows you to build the theme park of your dreams with unlimited money. You can also set up custom scenarios to your own liking.

Rides and parks can be shared. Check out RCT Grotto. If you are familiar with Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, Australia, I highly recommended looking at this excellent re-creation.

Cons

The business management side of the game seems too easy. Unless you are very reckless with money, it does not look like you can lose. Either this game has a very tame business management model compared to Theme Park, or my business management skills have increased dramatically.

Other Points

You can record video to WMV files. Unfortunately it slows the game down and sound does not get recorded. Here is an example video.

Biases

I really liked Bullfrog’s Theme Park.

I also really liked Sim City 1 to 4.

I have not completed all the scenarios.

DRM

The game is available DRM free from GOG.com.

Patches

I found the Wild! update patch 3 here which is the only one that I could install(because it is a manual copy over), but it does not look like it does anything.

From reading around it sounds like depending on which version you get you must patch the game differently. My experience with the Platinum version of RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 is, no patch is necessary.

Minimum Requirements (as stated in the manual)

Operating System Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (Windows XP recommended)
Processor Pentium III 1 GHz or equivalent (1.3 GHz or higher recommended)
Memory 512 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space 1.2 GB Free
CD-ROM Drive 4X speed or faster (8X recommended)
Video 64 MB Hardware T&L-compatible video card*
Sound Windows 98/ME/2000/XP compatible 16-bit sound card (PC audio solution containing Dolby Digital Live required for Dolby Digital audio)
DirectX DirectX version 9.0c (included) or higher
* Video cards that do not have hardware shader support, such as the GeForce 4 MX or Intel Extreme Graphics, are not 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

If you rename a peep’s name to be “Jonny Watts” you get to view the world from the peep’s point of view. Actually you view the world from above the peep’s head, but the camera basically follows the peep everywhere. This is supposed to be a cheat code, but I reckon it is more of a different experience of your creation.

Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven

Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven combines the best elements of a real-time first-person RPG with a traditional party based RPG.

Release Date

April 1998.

Pros

The manual was written humourously. Other than being informative, it was quite entertaining to read.

Non-player characters(NPC) can be hired with an up front payment plus a percentage of the gold you find through out your travels. They do not fight with you but provide different abilities that you can use while they are travelling with your party.

There is a nice timing factor in the game. Shops are opened at different times. Days of the week and months of the year can have different things happening.

The skills system is quite interesting. First, each character must learn the skills. Then as you gain levels you assign points to the skills to make them better. There are also teachers around that can train the characters to be experts and masters in their skills. There is a large variety of skills to choose from including weapon types, magic types and general helping skills.

The music is very nice. It is not Dark Messiah of Might and Magic but it is still very nice.

The levels/maps designs are varied and good for both indoor and outdoor. You can go to the top of the mountain and look down on the view. Just do not expect it to look like Oblivion.

Like World of Xeen before it and Oblivion, the game is very large with lots of side quests, lots of places to explore and lots of monsters to fight.

At the beginning it is a bit difficult, but once you get past that, the game is very balanced in the difficulty department. Different areas have different levels of monsters. The game is very open so it is very likely you will enter areas where your party will be wiped out in seconds. But there is always an area that is just right or easy for your party to fight through.

Cons

The wandering NPCs really get in the way and you cannot push them.

The number of classes have been reduced since World of Xeen. Notably missing is the robber/ninja class.

As you can see from the screenshots, the graphics look quite old. No suprises for a game this age.

Other Points

The game plays with a first-person perspective, but unlike other first-person RPGs or shooters, the fighting is very much like the old-school roll-a-dice and see if the numbers say you hit. Each party member and the enemies also have a time factor determining when they can attack next.

Like Baldur’s Gate you can switch between real time and turn-based. It is much easier to fight battles in turn-based mode but you cannot move while in turn-based mode. There are no event triggers for mode switching so it is all manual.

There is an Autonotes feature that keeps quest information among other things. Unfortunately the quest information is quite brief and most of the time it does not tell you where to go to complete the quest. Better to take your own notes when the quests are given.

Monsters and loot do respawn but only after a very long time game time.

When you have completed the game, you can still continue playing. If have some unfinished business, you can go and finish them off after completing the main game.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.2. The GOG.com version comes pre-patched to 1.2.

I have completed the game.

I really liked SWTOR, 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.

DRM

Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven 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)
4GB HDD (I am not sure why GOG has this requirement when everything installed is less than 700Mb)
CD/DVD drive (or drive emulation utility)
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

GrayFace MM6 Patch – An unofficial patch that fixes stuff as well as adding new features. Note if you install this over the GOG.com version of the game, you will need to setup the playmp3 feature to get any music. To get the default music, make the new folder Music and copy all the mp3s from the Sounds folder, to the Music folder.

F.E.A.R.

Armacham Technology Corporation. A company that does a lot of defence research including training psychic commanders to control cloned soldiers. That was until one of these commanders went postal and commanded his bunch of soldiers to hunt down people in the company. As part of F.E.A.R., your team is sent in to hunt him down, only to discover something more sinister.

Release Date

October 2005.

Pros

Some of the levels are quite large and there are multiple pathways that can be taken. It reminded me of Bioshock’s level design. The level design is not just there for good looks, it pays to explore around.

There is the nice simulated head movement like in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Chronicles of Riddick. Not as good as Riddick though.

The sounds in general are excellent except for the weapons. I found the weapons sounded a bit weak. Unfortunately the Logitech G35 does not get surround sound from the game.

The game breathes an excellent spooky atmosphere. The combination of the quietness and noise, environment setting, the mysterious visions and the dynamic music really draws you into the game.

The game makes good use of shadows and sound for playing. Although this has been done before in games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I found it very apparent in F.E.A.R.. Surprisingly even more apparent than Chronicles of Riddick. Not sure if this is because of the spooky atmosphere because graphically and sound wise S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Chronicles of Riddick are superior to F.E.A.R..

There is slow motion like Stranglehold. There is also some environmental destruction and although not to the level of Stranglehold, the combination of slow motion and flying debris still looks excellent.

The weapons may sound weak but depending on how you use them they can really create a big mess. This is another way of saying, the game is gory, complete with limbs coming off. It has been a long time since I played Soldier of Fortune II, but from memory I would say F.E.A.R.’s injury model is as good as SOF2.

The story started off a bit slow to me, but it just kept getting better and better right up to the awesome ending. The plot’s awesomeness is right up there with the likes of Bioshock and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl.

The graphics are beautiful. I would even say it has an edge over Quake 4.

Cons

To play multiplayer you must download the F.E.A.R. Combat and get another CD-Key. Very annoying since the F.E.A.R. install already has all the multiplayer files in there. You have to double up on game files taking up more harddisk space just to play multiplayer. F.E.A.R. Combat died with GameSpy, so officially there is no multiplayer. There is this F.E.A.R. Community that seems to be keeping it alive.

Save a few different save files as you progress. The save games can get corrupted and you will not be able to load that save game again. I encountered this problem while on the level named “Interval 06 – Interception: Sayonara, Sucker”. My one manual saved game, the auto-save and the quick save all will not load for that level. Searching around, I have not found any solutions to this problem. Time for me to restart the game from the beginning.

Other Points

Besides good old gunning, you can also gun whack and kick your enemies. What’s more, you can holster your weapons and go fist fighting. When I discovered this, I had a go at running around trying to punch everyone up and for some strange reason it reminded me of 4D Sports Boxing.

The AI is clever in the way that they know how to hide, try to flank whenever possible and they also know how to get around and jump over obstacles. Unfortunately it is also very predictable. Many times you can just wait where you are and they will walk around the corner all ready for you to take them out.

The quality of action in F.E.A.R. is excellent but there are sections of just getting from one place to another. They are not so long that it becomes boring, but it does mean it is not a constant run and gun game.

The GamersGate version comes with the two expansion packs: Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate. For some strange reason the installer only sets up one shortcut to the main game. To play the expansions, you have to create your own shortcuts or run the exe manually from the expansions’ install folder.

Extraction Point expansion continues where the main game finished. Other than more single-player fun, Extraction Point also adds a few new weapons as well as the ability to bash down doors.

Perseus Mandate expansion takes place in parallel to the F.E.A.R. main game. You play the role of another F.E.A.R. operative in another mission. Once again there are new weapons.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.08 of the game.

Years ago I did play multiplayer F.E.A.R. when F.E.A.R. Combat was released for free. I enjoyed it a lot back then. I am too lazy to reinstall now though, so it is just the single-player F.E.A.R. experience this time round. Even though I had played multiplayer F.E.A.R. before, I never knew you could fist fight until now.

I have completed the main game, Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate on extreme difficulty. This makes F.E.A.R. the first and so far the only first-person shooter that I have completed on the highest difficulty level. The slow motion function really made the game manageable on this difficulty.

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

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

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

DRM

The GamersGate version of the game uses SecuROM.

After installation, when you first run the game, an activation serial key must be entered. Then it contacts an activation server(via Internet connection) to activate the game.

F.E.A.R. is avaiable DRM-free on GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated in the manual)

Windows® XP, x64 or 2000 with latest service pack installed
DirectX® 9.0c (August Edition) or higher
Pentium® 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent processor
512 MB of RAM or more
64 MB GeForce 4 Ti or Radeon® 9000 video card
Monitor that can display in 4:3 aspect ratio
5.0 GB free Hard Drive Space for installation
Additional hard drive space for a swap file and saved game files
DVD-ROM drive (Not required if you get the download version like GamersGate)
16-bit DirectX® 9.0 compliant sound card with support for EAX 2.0
Broadband or LAN connection for multiplayer games
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

When you have finished the game, watch the credits right to the end for a special plot line conversation. Although you would have probably already figured out that part of the plot line.

For some strange reason Extraction Point cannot be set to display wide screen. To manually set the resolution I had to edit the file located at C:\Users\Public\Documents\TimeGate Studios\FEARXP\settings.cfg. This folder location is for Windows 7. For more information see this forum thread.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

An ultra-realistic first-person shooter with role-playing elements. You have no memory of who you are or how you ended up there, but you had two things with you, a PDA that said “Kill Strelok” and a tattoo on your arm that said “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.”.

Release Date

March 2007.

Pros

The graphics are absolutely top notch, even with the very low settings I use.

The weapons are very realistic. Each weapon holds a realistic amount of ammunition and it takes time to reload. Accuracy is also affected by movement and whether you are using the iron sights or crouched down. And of course there is different recoil depending on the weapon you are using.

Your health in the game is also very realistic. Depending on where you get injured and how badly, you start to bleed. Minor bleeding will heal with time but major ones will kill you if you do not bandage your wound.

The role-playing element plays in with the inventory system. You can only carry a certain amount of weight and you can only arm yourself with one primary weapon and one secondary weapon. So, no quick changing between seven different weapons. Weight also plays a very important role because you will be carrying things to sell. The extra money can then be used to buy better gear. Weapons also have a condition, so as you use them they degrade until they become unusable. There is no leveling up as per your standard role-playing game, but sometimes you cannot go to a certain place until you have good enough equipment.

There is weather and day/night cycles which gives different lighting depending on the time. As time passes you must also eat or else you will go hungry. All these add to the realism of the game. Time also keeps going when you are looting bodies, checking your inventory and looking at your PDA, so be careful where you do things. A bandit might sneak up on you while you are checking out your inventory.

The AI is excellent. The human enemies know how to run and hide and even try to out flank you. The mutant animals’ AI are also excellent, they do not always attack, sometimes they just run away. Basically the animals act like animals. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has the best AI out of all the first-person shooters I have played.

The game is moddable and there are a lot of mods for it. Check out the external links for some sites with mods.

The story is top notch with multiple endings.

Someone said “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is Oblivion with guns” I totally agree. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has an open gameplay structure just like Oblivion. You can choose to complete the story tasks or complete some side tasks. Some of the side tasks are generic and randomly generated, while others are one off.

The sounds are also amazing. Everything sounds amazing and gives a very good atmosphere to the game. One time I heard thunder in the distance and I thought it was real. Only when I removed my headphones did I realise it was from the game. The voice acting is also good although they do not lip sync the speech.

If you have surround sound, you are in for a bigger treat. This was the fourth game I tried out when I first bought the Logitech G35 headset. The surround sound experience is awesome with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. When playing the game, I could actually locate gun fire, dogs barking and people talking just based on the sounds.

The little multiplayer that I played was very enjoyable. The weapons are just as realistic and death comes just as easily as in single player. Similar to Counter-Strike though you have to buy better weapons with the money you get from scoring.

Cons

The game crashes to desktop every now and then. It has happened to me in single player and multi-player. Seems pretty random. The patches reduce the number of crashes, but they still happen.

Other Points

Because of the realism, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chernobyl is a very difficult game to play. Death comes very quickly when you are not careful.

There are somethings that are not realistic. One is that food and medical kits will restore your health. Luckily the game was implemented this way. It is already difficult enough with bleeding to death when you do not have bandages. The other unrealistic thing is that when you get radiation poisoning you can fix it with vodka or anti-radiation drugs. Once again, this implementation makes it easier to survive in the game.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. involves a lot of walking from point A to point B over vast distances, so the action is not constant. Unless you are in a real hot spot, you will spend most of your time just travelling and only a bit of time in gun fights. There is no fast travel system like in Oblivion. I decided not to consider this a con because S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stresses realism, although it would have been nice to fast travel the boring bits.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.0006 of the game.

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

I also really liked Alien Vs Predator, Soldier of Fortune 2, Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear and Call Of Duty 4.

I also liked Star Wars Battlefront 2.

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

I have only played 1 vs 1 multiplayer and only in artifact hunt mode. Artifact hunt is similar to capture the flag except there is only ONE artifact that appears and it appears on different places on the map.

I have completed the single player story campaign to get three endings.

DRM

CD-Key must be entered on installation.

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

Patches

Make sure to install the patches BEFORE seriously playing the single player campaign as the save games from the old version are not compatible with the new version.

1.0005 – Fixes quite a few bugs including making the Quickload work.

1.0006 – Multiplayer fixes only, bugs and to stop cheating hacks. Save games from 1.0005 will work with 1.0006. This patch must be installed after the 1.0005 patch.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2)/Microsoft Winodws 2000 SP4
Intel Pentium 4 2Ghz/AMD XP 2200+
512 MB RAM
10 GB available hard drive space
128 MB DirectX 9c compatible card/ nVIDIA GeForce 5700/ATI Radeon 9600
DirectX 9 compatible sound card
LAN/ Internet connection with Cable/DSL speeds for multiplayer
Keyboard, Mouse

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

Add -nointro to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. shortcut to skip the THQ/GSC/Asus/nVidia intro videos. NOTE: this also skips the new game story introduction so probably best to only use this after you have seen the story introduction. It does not seem to affect other mid-game cutscenes though.

Add -noprefetch to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. shortcut to make save games load faster. The prefetch method is supposed to stop the game from loading data while you are playing, but the game stutters anyway. Adding this flag does not seem to degrade or improve in game performance.

I found the above tips from TweakGuides.com.

Some of the stash info says the stash is hidden in the cellar of a building. After searching for a very long time, I find the stash in the attic of the building. My understanding of the word cellar is that it is in the basement. Either something got lost in translation, or I really do not know what cellar means.

Recommended Mods

Real Gun Names Mod. Replaces the original game’s gun names with their real life counter parts.

Smart Mod Manager – A nice little application for loading and unloading all your S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods.

Oblivion Lost – An excellent mod that improves a lot on the plain vanilla S.T.A.L.K.E.R. More weapons. More monsters including zombies. More realistic AI. Sneaking up on enemies is easier now as they do not hear or see you as easily if you are hiding. You can also get friendly stalkers to help you out. Night time is now pitch black unless the moon is out. Realism has been increased, food and bandages do not heal you anymore and all wounds must be bandaged or you will bleed to death. It is also more difficult to get money as selling things will not get you as much money. You can also repair weapons and armour. The game is much more difficult with this mod. Oblivion Lost also has real weapon names so the other mod above is not needed.

Make sure you complete the plain unmodded S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl before playing the Oblivion Lost mod, as the mod removes the proper ending to give complete free play.

Priboi Story – An excellent mod with new storyline. It also has a lot of the new stuff like in Oblivion Lost, including real gun names.

Quake 4

Take Doom 3. Enhance everything. Replace the Doom universe with the Quake 2 universe. Result is Quake 4. Another good old fashioned run and gun first-person shooter (FPS) where you are Matthew Kane, a marine joining the fight against the Strogg.

Release Date

October 2005.

Pros

Excellent graphics. Not as good as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl, but it comes very close. Quake 4 graphics basically look like enhanced Doom 3. I guess this is expected since it uses an enhanced Doom 3 engine. Everything from the people to the environment to the effects look like Doom 3 enhanced.

The music is very good. They play at appropriate points and makes the game feel like a movie.

Your team mates in the single player game are done well. No longer are you a lone gunner like in Doom 3. But at the same time they will not do everything for you. It is well balanced to make the game fun without you doing all the work. They even chat to you and each other which makes it feel even more like a movie.

The speech for the characters are excellent.

This is game’s surround sounds as good as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl using the Logitech G35.

Overall the sounds are excellent. The guns have much more boom than that of Doom 3.

The story is a direct sequel to that of Quake 2. Anyone that has played Quake 2 knows that the Strogg experiment on humans and make them part of the Strogg war machine, but Quake 4 with the better graphics and good use of game engine movie sequences, takes this story to a horror movie level. Complete with blood and guts.

There are vehicles to drive, much like Red Faction. And also mounted guns you control for a bout of on-the-rails shooting.

Cons

The game is very linear. There is no path deviation to take from point A to point B. And doors are conveniently locked off until later when the game says ‘now you can go this way’.

Sure you are no longer the lone gunner in the game, but sometimes the AI for your team mates is just plain stupid. Sometimes they like to walk into your line of fire for no reason at all. It is OK in terms of you cannot shoot your team mates, but when you have to protect them, this stops you from taking out the enemies good and proper.

Other Points

This is the first game I have played where you can change the position of the gun on screen. Although it does not bother me, I guess some people would find it useful because it allows for different parts of the screen to be visible when the gun graphic is not placed there. There is also an option to remove the gun graphic completely.

The level designs have improved from Doom 3. They are now varied between open spaces and closed corridors.

Although the game looks like a sci-fi horror movie, it is not scary at all. Doom 3 gave me chills sometimes. Quake 4 just makes me want to go mow down more Strogg.

These days more people play MOHAA multiplayer than Quake 4. As a result I never tried the multiplayer.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.4.2.

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

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

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

DRM

A registration key must be entered when installing the game.

The DVD must be in the drive to play the game. But if you patch the game to 1.4.2 first then the DVD is not required to be in the drive.

Patches

1.4.2 – After installing this patch, you do not need the DVD to be in the drive to play.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on box)

Intel Pentium 4 2.0Ghz or AMD Athlon XP 2000+ processor or higher
512MB RAM
English version of Microsoft Windows 2000/XP
100% DirectX 9.0c compatible 64MB 3D Hardware Accelerator video card required
4X Speed DVD-ROM drive and fastest drivers
2.8GB of uncompressed free hard disk space (plus 400MB for Windows swap file)
100% DirextX 9.0c compatible 16-bit sound card and latest drivers
100% Windows 2000/XP compatible mouse, keyboard and latest drivers
DirectX 9.0c

Computer Played On

Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2Gb RAM
ATI Radeon X1600 256Mb RAM (laptop version)
Logitech G35 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 +disconnect to the shortcut to skip the intro movies. Found at Tweakguides.

To get Quake 4 to give surround sound when using a Logitech G35, you must set the Windows XP Sound audio device speaker setup to 5.1 surround. It does not work if it is set to 7.1. As such, the G35 surround sound does not work in Windows 7, because in Windows 7, the G35 only has the 7.1 setting.

Recommended Mods

Quake 4 HardQore – provides a fun and simple side-scrolling shooter using the Quake 4 engine. I found the controls a bit difficult to get the hang of, but it is a fun little game. Reminds me of Contra. To get the game working, you must get both the “HQ Final for Q4 1.4.2” and the “HQ Patch for Q4 1.4.2” files.

Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum

This is the old, hard as nails, grid and turn-based, first-person RPG that started the Might and Magic series.

Release Date

1986.

Pros

Might and Magic Book One is a very solid dungeon crawler RPG if you can tolerate all the cons listed below. There is plenty to explore, many monsters to fight, complex puzzles to be solve and levels to gain.

Combat is completely text based, but it does have interesting mechanics. Only the front people can melee attack and people behind have to either shoot, cast spells or block. Depending on where you are, different number of people can melee attack. It is also possible for enemies to infiltrate your ranks which means anyone can melee attack.

Cons

The game is simpler to learn than Ultima IV with command keys displayed on screen. The game itself, however, is insanely difficult. Whether I was using the ready-made characters or my own created characters, my party got wiped out very frequently in the beginning. After grinding for a while to level up my characters, I still found the game difficult. I cannot remember if The Bard’s Tale (1985) was this difficult, but Ultima IV definitely is not.

The game is made even more difficult by what I call The-Bard’s-Tale-run-back-to-guild-to-save mechanism. In Might and Magic’s case, it is run to a town inn to save the game. This system can get quite frustrating when you are out adventuring and accomplish something big, but get wiped out on the way back to save the game.

The graphics are old, simple and give a first-person view of the world with different pictures representing things in front of you. Some key things are not indicated in the view though, like towns, entrance/exit doors and ladders up and down.

Might and Magic 3 to 6 all had stories in them. After completing Book One, I still have no idea what the story is! I have seen all the cryptic messages and travelled to all the places, but I still have not got a clue what the game is about. I only keep playing because I like slaying monsters, levelling up and exploring.

Just like Ultima IV the sounds are all PC speaker beeps. The music is limited which gives some queues, but do not play too much to get annoying.

Other Points

The game is turn-based and the movement is grid based.

There is no auto-mapping or gems to be peered to see a map of your surroundings. The manual even has tips on drawing your own maps. If you like this kind of thing then jolly good. For me, I have drawn enough maps with the Bard’s Tale series to give this a pass. I now use this nifty tool called Where Are We?. Apart from auto-mapping there are many options that allow you to “cheat” as little or as much as you want.

If you decide to create your own characters, be prepared to spend the time to roll good attribute values. This is rewarding if you are into these kind of things.

Biases

Reviewed the version from the Might and Magic 6-pack: Limited Edition from GOG.com.

I tried out the ready-made characters, but settled on playing good and proper using my own created characters. I completed the game using my created characters.

I have completed The Bard’s Tale (1985) and The Bard’s Tale II: The Destiny Knight although I cannot remember much about them.

I really liked Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar.

I also really liked Might and Magic 3 to 6, although I have only completed MM6.

DRM

Might and Magic Book One is available DRM free as part of the Might and Magic 6-pack: Limited Edition 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)
4GB HDD
CD/DVD drive (or drive emulation utility)
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

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

The Pinball Arcade

The Pinball Arcade aims to bring real life pinball tables to the PC.

Release Date

November 2013.

Pros

The Pinball Arcade comes with one free table, Tales of the Arabian Nights. It might be free, but it is one awesome table to play.

Even though only one table is free, variety is still a very strong point in The Pinball Arcade. All other tables can be played to a certian score limit. So you can try out all the other tables and decide whether to buy them. Or if you are as bad a player as I am, you might not even reach the score limit. Farsight Studios are still adding tables to the game which means more variety to come.

Every month a new table is set as a free table, so you can play that table without a score limit for that particular month. Effectively that is two free tables for play, one that is permananently free and the other changes each month.

The graphics are very nice indeed. Some tables look better than others though, but that is probably due to the different designs of the tables in real life.

The sounds and music are also very nice. Once again, it depends on which table you play. Some tables just plain sounds better than others. I am not sure how accurate their representations are of the real thing, but the variety is certainly there and some of them sound great.

There are three camera angles to view launching the ball and four camera angles for the normal game play. Although there are not as many camera angles as Dream Pinball 3D for normal game play, it is enough to give different useful views. What is even better, is that each camera angle can be locked so that the view does not scroll.

It has Haunted House! Although I have not played it in over twenty years, Haunted House is one pinball table that is permanently stuck in my head. The table has a three level playing field, eight flippers and one inverted play field and all of this greatness is simulated in The Pinball Arcade. Ah, what great memories.

Each table has animated instructions on how the table works.

On the simulation side, I think The Pinball Arcade is as realistic as Pro Pinball Timeshock. The ball moves as I expect it to.

Cons

I cannot think of a single con for The Pinball Arcade. The game plays very well with one free table and the rest can be played to a score limit.

Other Points

If you are willing to spend extra money, you can buy Pro Packs which adds extra stuff for some of the tables. These extras include pro tips for the table and access to the operators menu. For the simulation enthusiast, even the operator’s menu operates differently between tables, so you have to know what you are doing for each table. It does cost extra so these extras are not for everyone.

After sticking to the free tables for a while, I decided to buy the Season Two Pro Pack during a sale. The strange thing is, the sale price listed on the Steam DLC page was $35.99USD, but the in-game price was $29.99USD. Sure enough I bought the pack in-game for the cheaper price.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.22.7 to 1.26.11 of the game.

I really liked Dream Pinball 3D, Pro Pinball Timeshock and Pinball Fantasies.

I enjoy playing pinball in real life, but I have not touched a pinball table in over twenty years.

DRM

Steam.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on Steam game page)

OS: Windows XP
Processor: Dual Core 1.6 ghz or better.
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card supporting DirectX 9.0c and Shader Model 3.0
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 4 GB available space
Sound Card: Direct Sound capable 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. Or Logitech G35.
Graphics settings are set to whatever I feel comfortable with playing on this PC. They are usually not set to the highest settings. All screenshots are taken with my settings.

Anno 2070

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

Release Date

November 2011.

Pros

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

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

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

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

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

Cons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other Points

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

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

Biases

Reviewed version 2.00.7780 of the game.

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

I really liked Anno 1404.

DRM

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

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

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

Patches

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

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

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

Minimum Requirements (as stated in Readme.txt)

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

Computer Played On

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

Anno 2070 also works fine on my Windows 10 PC.

Defender’s Quest

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

Release Date

October 2012.

Pros

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cons

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

Other Points

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

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

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

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

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

Biases

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

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

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

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

DRM

Defender’s Quest is DRM free.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

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

Computer Played On

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