Fort Zombie

Choose your fort. Find survivors, weapons and supplies while trying to survive the masses of zombies that want your brains. Prepare your fort for the ultimate show down against the great zombie horde.

Release Date

Pros

Fort Zombie puts the “apocalypse” in zombie apocalypse. This is the first zombie game, I have played where a horde of zombies really is a horde! I lost count how many have appeared during the final show down, but I am guessing more than 100.

Fort Zombie is not just about getting guns and ammo and mowing down zombies. There are different weapon types and different guns need different ammo. You need to find weapons and ammo first. Then you have to decide who best to give those weapons to.

There are different zombie types with different abilities. For instance, the jogger zombie is faster than the rest, the police zombie shoots you and the doctor zombie puts other zombies back together.

The RPG component of the game is quite good. Stats and skills controls pretty much how good a character can do certain things. If the character has no pistol skills, shooting at close range will miss often. So if you are looking to gun down zombies nicely, you will need to skill up the guns skills. There are no experience points and levels either. Skills are improved by using them.

Strategy also plays a big role in Fort Zombie. Basically, you have twelve days to find survivors, find supplies and find weapons to build up your fort ready for the big zombie horde. Then you have to manage the people to help you get stuff, build barricades for your fort and heal others. Time is always ticking away and every choice can make the final show down impossible or just insanely difficult.

Health management is very detailed in the game. Not only is there body component damage, but they affect your performance too. You cannot run if your leg is injured badly. You cannot aim properly if your arm is injured badly. Once your health is down, doing first aid is not going to bring your health up much. You have to get proper medical treatment and rest to heal nicely. The whole health system reminds me of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but even more realistic.

The survivors, supplies, weapons and locations are all randomly generated which gives some replay value. You will notice the same buildings appear over and over again, but where they are placed relative to each other is different.

Cons

I do not know if this is a problem with the Direct2Drive version only, but when I tried to install the game on a drive that is not C: drive, it kept complaining that C: drive did not have enough space. Yes, C: drive did not have enough space, but I selected my other drive which had plenty of space.

The tutorial is too basic to learn to play, especially being a difficult game to play.

The AI for the survivors is terrible. Sure they can help you out by looting and attacking zombies, but trying to lead them is a real chore. They get stuck at so many places which means you have to back track and try to lead them slowly or through another way. They even get stuck behind low fences that zombies are smart enough to climb over. Sometimes they can also get into a place and permanently get stuck.

The first time I installed it, when I tried to start the game, it just crashed on start up and keeps doing so with no messages. After reading around, I installed Microsoft XNA Framework Redistributable 3.0 and it started up fine. Why did they not check that the framework is there and give a message, rather than just crash.

Apart from the main menu, the game is completely devoid of music. Sure this means you can listen for zombies better, but it also makes the game feel more boring.

The graphics were quite bad. It was nice that the zombies limbs and heads come off and can also be put back together, but the whole game looked worse than Red Faction.

The sounds were also quite bad. Other than a few zombie sounds, everything else sounded weak.

The volume control does not work properly. When you are in the game and you adjust the volume it is fine, but when you restart the game, the play back of sound is back to default even though the volume slider shows as adjusted.

You are supposed to run and hide from zombies when a fight is not necessary, but it is quite hard to do so when zombies with guns can see and shoot through walls. This is an annoying bug that happens half the time.

Other Points

For anyone that has not reached this conclusion yet, I will state it plain and simply right here. Fort Zombie is not an action game. The game stresses heavily on survival and even the manual says that running away is always an option. If you like to fight more than run, you will die.

If I could pick only one genre for the game I would say it is an RPG. Overall I would say it is a RPG/strategy/survival game.

The story is minimal and the completion time is quite short at twelve days before the zombie horde attacks. Bear in mind though, Fort Zombie’s focus is on whether you can take different character types and build up your chosen fort to be able to withstand the zombie horde.

The game difficulty ranges from impossible to insanely difficult. Even the first stage of getting to the fort took me twenty goes before I got there. Then the game starts good and proper. Whether it is the first stage, the middle of the game or the final show down, you will die and die a lot, which also means a lot of reloading.

The controls take a bit of getting used to, but once you do, it works out quite good.

There are random events like zombies attacking your fort before the final show down and being ambushed when going on a mission. Other than wasting your ammo and threatening you life, they do not add anything to the game.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.0.7

I have never played any game similar to Fort Zombie. The only games that came to mind while I was playing are Alone in the Dark and Resident Evil. They have zombies but they play nothing like Fort Zombie.

I have completed the game a few times, but only on the easiest level of the police station.

DRM

Fort Zombie is DRM free.

Minimum Requirements (from the manual)

• OS: Windows® XP SP2 / Vista / 7
• CPU: Intel® Core2® Duo 6600 or equivalent processor
• RAM: 2 GB
• Video: DirectX 9.0c SM2 compliant graphics card with 512M of RAM (SM3 compliant graphics card with 1G of RAM preferred)
• Drive: 4X PC DVD-ROM
• Sound: DirectX® 9.0c compatible sound card
• Available Hard Disk Space: Approx. 1 GB
• 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.

Handy Tips

It is a very good idea to read the manual and understand how the game works.

Red Faction

Futuristic first-person shooter. You are a miner on Mars working for a bad bad company called Ultor. One day the miners decide to revolt against the company and that’s when you pick up your first pistol and start fighting your way out of the Ultor mines.

Release Date

Pros

There is a nice tutorial that takes you through how to play the game. But it does assume that you know basics of first person shooter games like WASD for movement.

The Geo-Mod game engine allows for some environmental destructibility. The destruction is nowhere near the amount of Crysis or Stranglehold but it is still cool how you can blow away the wall when the door is locked.

There is a good assortment of weapons including the usual, shotgun, rifle and rocket launcher. But also has other unusual weapons like riot shield and tazer baton. The weapons are quite realistic. Just because you have the crosshair on the bad guy, it does not mean that your shot will hit. And also do not expect to hit anything at range with the shotgun.

You get to drive vehicles like submarines and jeeps and also get to use turrets! There is also a floating fighter type aircraft where you fly through tunnels like Descent.

The level designs vary from combat in wide open spaces to corridor shoot outs.

The story starts out slow and boring but then picks up as you go deeper into the game. It is actually quite interesting. Not as good as Bioshock but is better than Doom3 and Painkiller Overdose.

The AI is pretty good but not the best I have seen. Red Faction’s AI is actually quite similar to Bioshock’s AI in that they will try to hide if under fire and then come out again after a while. Just like Bioshock though it is quite predictable sometimes. They will hide, then come running around the same corner again if you wait long enough. This doesn’t happen all the time but it does happen.

There are mods for Red Faction. Check out Red Faction View.

The multiplayer component is also excellent. The Geo-Mod engine really adds to the fun and variety of the game. Each map starts out pristine but soon enough there will be holes in the ground and walls have disappeared and you cannot hide behind there anymore.

Cons

Although the main scripted speeches are voiced alright, the generic comments made by the generic people sound quite poor.

I find the music weird. Maybe they were trying to capture the atmosphere on Mars but it was just too weird for me.

Other Points

This is one of those rare games where I actually have the graphics set to maximum. That is because it is quite old (2001). An old but good game.

This is not a simple run and gun game. The weapons are realistic and the AI knows how to use them. Sometimes you have no choice but to run and gun and other times doing that will get you killed very fast. there are also stealth sections of the game where you have to keep your silenced pistol hidden and try and sneak around. You can use the the pistol if necessary but then you will have to hide the body and turn off the alarm (or wait till the alarm switches off).

The multiplayer component is quite fast paced and the realism of the weapons means that you either kill or be killed very easily.

Unfortunately at the time of writing this, not many people play online anymore.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.20.

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

I also really liked Bioshock, Alien Vs Predator, Soldier of Fortune 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and Call Of Duty 4.

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

I have completed the single player story campaign.

DRM

I do not think there is any DRM. The disc is not required in the drive to play and there is no serial key to enter.

Patches

1.20 – No comment.

Pure Faction 3.0 – a community made patch which adds a lot of good functionality to Red Faction including automatic map downloads for multiplayer, larger resolution settings and server creation assistance. Highly recommended. This patch is also required if you want to play on Windows 7 64 bit.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on the box)

• Windows 95/98/ME compatible computer system with DirectX 8
• 500 MHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon Processor
• DirectX 8.1 (included on disc)
• DirectX 8.1 compatible 3D Hardware Accelerated 16MB NVIDIA TNT1 or ATI Rage 128 video card
• 128 MB RAM
• 8x CD or DVD drive
• 2 Gb of Free Hard Disc Space
• DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card
• 100% Microsoft compatible mouse and keyboard

Computer Played On

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

Handy Tips

There is a bug where you have to press a button to lower a submarine into the water. But if you play with a newer PC (including my specs) the submarine will explode instead of going into the water. A solution is to enable VSync in the Video Setup. I normally play with VSync off, but after I hit this bug, I turned it on and left it on.

Red Faction works on Windows 7 64 bit, but you need the Pure Faction patch to play it.

Recommended Mods

HIVE – This is a weapon mod that modifies all the standard Red Faction weapons. The single player campaign can be played right through with this mod. It also comes with an awesome minigun! To play the HIVE mod on Windows 7 64 bit, you must first install the Pure Faction patch. Then backup the file RF.exe. Make a copy of the file PF.exe and rename the copy to RF.exe.

Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar

A 1985 RPG where you travel the world of Britannia on a quest to be the Ultimate Good Guy. Now available for free.

Release Date

Pros

There is an interesting conversation system where you have to type in keywords to progress. Quite similar to text adveture games of old like Borrowed Time and Tass Times in Tone Town. Although the vocabulary in Ultima IV is not as much as text adveture games.

It is a very big world to explore. I am not sure whether it is bigger or smaller than games like Oblivion or Might and Magic VI, but it is still very big.

Even though the game’s presentation is old and clunky, there is a very strong story in the game. Your main quest is to be the Ultimate Good Guy, but how you get there is the challenge and the story of the game.

Replaying Ultima IV after games like Fallout and Arcanum made me realise that even so long ago, Ultima IV provided immense freedom in RPGs. You can go any where as long as you can survive and you can do pretty much anything. Of course since the main quest is to be the Ultimate Good Guy, doing nasty things will not lead to completion of the game.

Cons

The graphics are very old and it shows. Most of the game is represented by low resolution icons. After playing a while, you will learn what each icon represents, but it cannot hide the fact that it is a very old game.

Like a flight simulator, you have to memorise the whole keyboard. Until you remember it all, the reference card will come in very handy.

The game is quite difficult to learn to play, with no tutorials or help on how to play. You basically need to read the manual and the reference card to learn how to play.

Make sure to take your own notes for everything. There is no journal record of any kind.

The sounds are all old PC speaker beeps. There are games that sound good even with PC speaker(Xenon 2 Megablast), but Ultima IV is not one of them.

There are lots of random monster encounters which means lots of combat. Unfortunately the combat sequences are not that interesting and gets boring and repetitive.

Other Points

Screen shots have been taken with the unmodified version of the game and with the Ultima IV Upgrade patch.

Although the game is played in turn based mode, the moon phases shift in real time. The phases of the moon determine where quick travel moon gates appear and where the destination is.

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game with and without the graphics upgrade patch.

Ultima IV was the first RPG I played. Playing it again sure brings back memories. Not all of it is good since I like a lot of the improvements that come with modern RPGs.

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 Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Styrateg.

I have never completed Ultima IV. I have completed Ultima V and VI and played Ultima VII.

DRM

The game is available for 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
• Mouse, Keyboard
• Notes from myself – The game runs on DOSBox so I am unsure about the absolute requirements of the 3D graphics card. The game’s installer is 28 MB and the installed game takes up 23MB, so I do not understand what the 2GB HDD requirement is all about.

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

• Ultima IV Upgrade – Upgrades the graphics and adds MIDI music to the game. There are extra instructions at The Ultima Codex on how to install for the GOG.com version of the game.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Marvel Heroes

Marvel Heroes died on the 27th of November 2017. I have not played it since 2016 and it still ranks as my second most played game on Steam (Payday 2 has the top spot). Except for cosmetic changes, my review will be here, left untouched for historical reading.

Battle through the Marvel Universe with your favourite heroes in this free to play action packed massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Release Date

Pros

Marvel Heroes is free to play, get it from the official game site or Steam.

The game is very easy to pick-up and play. The prologue mission also doubles as a tutorial and is played in single-player mode only.

There are random events that you can participate in. It is pretty much an excuse to do some extra villain bashing, but is still something different.

Like all good RPGs, there is plenty of loot and also lots of different types of upgrades for the equipment. There is also a good crafting system where you can improve your stuff or make new stuff. Come to think of it the whole game feels and plays like an enhanced version of Torchlight with super heroes.

The action is great. There are plenty of low level goons to beat up and the super villains put up a great fight. If your character is high enough level, you can take on the super villains solo, but generally it is a better idea to team up with other players.

The maps are well designed and big enough to make exploration fun and yet not so big that it is tedious to get from place to place. Sometimes I replay a level/map and I still find it fun.

It is nice to see other super heroes running around, sometimes helping out and sometimes doing their own thing.

When you are defeated, you can wait for others to come and revive you. In turn you can revive others that have fallen. A nice touch to the game I reckon. It is your choice whether to accept a revival and if there is no one around you can either wait a certain amount of time or manually select to return to the last waypoint.

The player vs environment campaign is large enough with eight-plus chapters, each with multiple areas to get through. When this main campaign is completed, special group, daily and survival missions are unlocked along with player vs player functionality.

The post campaign group, daily and survival missions are a lot of fun in their own right. There is no plot as such for them and the locations are the same as the main story campaign, but all the enemies are higher level including the super villains and it is simply great fun to beat up loads of bad guys.

The different heroes are very different. Even heroes of the same class are different enough to make the game interesting. Before, I thought Dare Devil would play roughly the same as Captain America, being the agile fighter type. After playing both characters, it was clear they play very differently. This adds to the variety even when you are playing through the same story.

Gazillion Entertainment have done a great job adding new stuff and improving the game. There are periods of time where I stopped playing Marvel Heroes. Each time I return to the game, I find Gazillion have added a lot more content including a new chapter for the campaign, more challenges, new loot and also more heroes. To make things even better, bugs get fixed along side the adding of new stuff.

Player vs player is still in beta, but it is good fun. Two teams duke it out to overrun the other’s base and at the end you get rewards for your efforts. The heroes’ powers work slightly differently in PvP than in PvE, but it is still good fun.

You can trial all starter heroes to level ten. Then you can choose one to uncap the level to progress further. It looks like Gazillion Entertainment swap the starter heroes now and then so different people may get different heroes to trial. For the latest information, check out the Marvel Heroes Forum.

The ‘w’ key can be used to move. Basically it works like left clicking to move, but does not attack if your cursor is on an enemy. I like this a lot since it means I do not have to keep left clicking every where or hold down the mouse button.

Cons

Except for the introduction, the rest of the cutscenes are presented as a “motion comic”. If they were presented as still comic images, it would have been great. If they were presented as a fully animated cartoon, it would have been great also. I have never seen a motion comic before and this first experience makes me feel like they wanted to do an animation, but were too cheap to go through with it properly. It just looked wrong to me.

If you do not have Steam then you have to use the horrible BitRaider Web Client to download and play the game. I was installing Marvel Heroes on a friend’s PC and encountered two problems. First the download was abysmally slow averaging around 60Kb/s. On Steam I was getting 400Kb/s. Second problem was part way, the download just plain stopped and would not continue. I had to uninstall everything and reinstall from scratch and start the slow download again. After about thirty-six hours of downloading the play button became green and I could actually start the game even though it was only about 25% downloaded.

The BitRaider Web Client is just as slow when downloading patches which means more waiting, because patches are released regularly.

Other Points

There are only two ways to get new heroes after your first selection. One way is to collect Eternity Splinters from defeated enemies and use them to get heroes. The cheapest purchase is the Random Hero Unlock at 175 Splinters with specific hero choices costing more. On average I get three Eternity Splinters in one hour of play, but there are so many special events and bonuses that collecting Splinters is faster than expected. Of course there is the second way of getting a hero which is to fork out real money and buy one. Much quicker if you are willing to pay for it.

Heroes are not the only thing you can buy with real money though. There are also costumes, pet/follower type entities, extra stash storage and special items. Also all these items are not bought directly with real money. You have to purchase Gs and use Gs to buy the items.

Due to my slow ping of 350-700ms, some of the actions I perform gets a delayed reaction from the enemies in the game. It spoils the good action animations of the game, but at the same time I found it amusing. No point complaining since there is nothing I can do about the slow ping times.

The slow ping time also causes jumps and freezes about half the time. The other half plays quite smoothly with other players’ actions moving nicely.

The sounds sound good and the music sounds OK, but they are nothing special. There is some humorous chit-chat between heroes, but once again, nothing special.

In general the frame rate of the game has been good on my PC averaging around 35 FPS, but when there are too many super heroes on the same screen doing their stuff, the FPS drops real fast to about 12 FPS. This always happens during a super villain fight. This is with graphics set to the absolute minimum.

When you get a new hero, they always start at level one and the story progression also starts from the prologue. Each hero has their own story progression tracking, so there is no need to remember where you left off.

Apart from the usual MMO functionality of being able to chat and invite people to form a party, there is also an optional auto join party functionality when you enter certain areas.

The story is standard super hero fare. Doctor Doom has stolen a super duper item that can help him rule the world(or maybe universe) so it’s up to the super heroes to stop him. Of course they do not know what has happened yet, so they have to find out first. I did not pay that much attention to the story because I was too busy beating up the bad guys, and loving it!

Biases

Reviewed versions 1.10.1.14 to 1.30.0.92 of the game.

I have never played any of the Diablo games, but I do like Torchlight tremendously.

Playing Marvel Heroes also brought back good memories of Marvel Ultimate Alliance which I played on PS2. I chose Thing as my initial character because I enjoyed using Thing in Marvel Ultimate Allinace. He was a much better fighter back then than in Marvel Heroes though.

I downloaded and played the game through Steam. I also got to try out the BitRaider Web Client which is required to download and play the game if Steam is not installed.

The screen shots are with graphics set to absolute minimum.

Although I have not read any Marvel comics, I do enjoy watching the cartoons like X-Men and Ultimate Avengers and also most of the movies like X-Men, Iron Man and The Avengers.

I have completed the player vs environment campaign using Thing.

I have also been playing using Dare Devil and Captain America.

DRM

It is a MMORPG. An email address is required for an account and of course a constant connection to the Internet is required to play. I am not sure if this is classified as DRM since it is free to play any way.

Patches

Patches are downloaded automatically.

Patches are released regularly to add new stuff as well as fix existing bugs and balancing issues.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on official game site)

• CPU: Core 2 DUO 2.1 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.1 GHZ or better
• Graphics Card: DirectX10 Compatible Graphics Card with 512 MB VRAM or higher
• System RAM: 2Gb or higher
• Hard Disk Space: 10Gb or higher
• OS: Windows XP 32 bit or higher

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

my Winamp causes Marvel Heroes to crash on start up. Nothing needs to be playing in Winamp, as long as it is running, Marvel Heroes just keeps crashing. I am not sure if all versions of Winamp causes this crash or just mine.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault + Spearhead + Breakthrough

The game version of Saving Private Ryan but with a much better storyline. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is a World War II action first-person shooter.

Release Date:

Pros:

The tutorial is excellent. It teaches not just the features of the game but also the basics of how to play first-person shooters. For anyone that has not played a first-person shooter before, this is an excellent game to learn with.

The speech is excellent. The acting sounds very convincing and contributes to the game feeling like a movie.

The music is also excellent. Appropriate music is played at the right times to set the mood of the game giving it an even better movie feel.

The stories for the game are also excellent and presented well through the mission introductions and in game events. This combined with the good speech and music makes MOHAA feel like you are playing a movie.

Omaha Beach.

The enemy AI is good. Some know how to hide and run around and others are stupid and come charging forward. You can also sneak up on them. The AI is pretty much on par with Red Faction.

There is a good mix of close quarters battle and open space gun fights. There are also a few stealth missions where you have to get a disguise and not alert any enemies. Much like Red Faction.

There are mods, custom maps and bots available. Check out the external links list.

You get to drive vehicles and use fixed guns.

Cons:

There is an option for surround sound but it does not work with the Logitech G35. Reading around, it looks like surround sound was not implemented properly for MOHAA. Apparently some people managed to hack around to get surround sound working, but I could not get it working.

Your team mates AI are very stupid. Sure they know how to shoot the enemy now and then, but they like to stand out in the open and get shot. Sometimes they also come and stand right in front of you while you are trying to shoot the enemy.

Other Points:

Besides the story being better than Saving Private Ryan, MOHAA also does not have the blood and guts of the movie. Some people will not like this, but I personally did not mind. There are mods to add blood to the game. Check out Filefront if you are interested.

In plain Allied Assault, you can only gun whack with the pistol even though your enemies can whack you with their rifles and sub-machine guns. Spearhead and Breakthrough fixes this so you can gun whack with other guns too.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault has six missions with a few stages for each mission. Spearhead adds an extra three missions plus some new weapons and Breathrough adds another three missions plus some new weapons. The expansions also add a couple of new multiplayer modes and new multiplayer maps.

Surprisingly, there are still people that play MOHAA multiplayer(2011). I managed to squeeze in a few games and yes it is still fun. Not as good as Battlefield 1942, Star Wars Battlefront 2 or Call of Duty 4 but still fun enough to play. I did not get to play Spearhead and Breathrough on multiplayer though.

Biases:

Reviewed version 1.11 of plain MOHAA, version 2.15 of Spearhead and version 2.40.

I played Medal of Honor: Allied Assault back when it was first released. I do not remember much about it though. When I saw the 10th Anniversary box in the store only one thought came to mind, “Hey that’s the game with Omaha Beach.”.

Replaying MOHAA was good fun. It also reminded me of another WWII FPS – Call of Duty. I remember enjoying Call of Duty although I do not actually remember what the game was like. MOHAA stuck in my head because of Omaha Beach.

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

I also really liked 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:

Serial numbers must be entered when installing the games.

The appropriate CD must be in the drive to play the games.

There is a DRM free version available on GOG.com

Patches:

Spearhead 2.11 patch – Updates Spearhead to version 2.11.

Spearhead 2.15 patch – Updates Spearhead from 2.11 to 2.15.

Breakthrough 2.40 patch – Updates Breakthrough to version 2.40.

Minimum Requirements (from Readme.txt of Breakthrough):

• Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98, or Windows 95 (Windows NT is not supported)
• 733 MHz Intel Pentium III or 700 MHz AMD Athlon processor
• 128 MB RAM
• 8x CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drive
• 800 MB free hard disk space plus space for saved games (additional space required for Windows swap-file and DirectX 8.0 installation)
• 16 MB OpenGL capable video card using an NVIDIA GeForce, ATI Radeon, NVIDIA Riva TNT2, ATI Rage 128 or PowerVR3 Kyro II chipset with OpenGL and DirectX 8.0 compatible driver
• DirectX 8.0 compatible sound card
• 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 my egg 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 +set cl_playintro 0 to the game’s shortcut properties target to bypass the introduction movies and go straight to the main menu. This works for Spearhead and Breakthrough as well.

Recommended Mods:

Mod Editor. A nice little tool to enable/disable mods(raw pk3 files). It only works with MOHAA so files must be manually enabled/disabled for Spearhead and Breakthrough.

City Nights Final. Brings modern day weaponary to MOHAA. Not just that though, it also has two single-player maps and a few multiplayer maps. The mod seems to work OK with the MOHAA campaign although there are some sounds missing. I have not played through the whole MOHAA campaign with the mod.

EagleAR bots. A nice package that adds bots to some default maps of MOHAA, Spearhead and Breakthrough.

If you are looking for something different in bots, try The Complete Mod v3.1. The mod adds an easy interface to control bots and also a working scoreboard. It also adds other stuff, but I have not tried them out. You will still need to download the jv_bot mod separately or get it as part of the EagleAR bots pacakge. Using The Complete Mod with the EagleAR bots package seems to cause some crash to desktops.

For more single-player goodness try VC Addon (v1.1). This is pretty much a mini campaign made up of a few large maps. The objectives and compass may not always be accurate so a little bit of exploration is required. A part from that it is a very well done single-player addon.