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.

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.

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.

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.

Dream Pinball 3D

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

Release Date

August 2006.

Pros

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

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

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

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

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

Cons

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

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

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

Other Points

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

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

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

Biases

Reviewed GOG.com version of the game.

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

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

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

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

DRM

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

Minimum Requirements (as stated on GOG.com)

Windows XP or Windows Vista
1 GHz Processor (1.4GHz recommended)
256MB RAM (512 recommended)
NVidia or ATI 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
Mouse, Keyboard

Computer Played On

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

Handy Tips

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

Zombie Shooter 2

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

Release Date

July 2009.

Pros

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cons

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

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

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

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

Other Points

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

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

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

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

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

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

Biases

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

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

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

I also really liked Zombie Driver HD.

DRM

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

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

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

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

Minimum Requirements (as stated in the Readme.txt)

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

Torchlight

A simple dungeon crawler action-RPG(role-playing game). The mining town of Torchlight is under attack by monsters coming from the mines. It’s your job to clear it out. That is it. Now straight into the action.

Pros

The cartoony graphics are good and colourful. Everything is wonderfully detailed and drives the game well. All things that move are also very well animated.

Lots of monsters, lots of weapons, lots of armour, lots of magic, lots of accessories, lots of customisations, basically lots of everything!

Very low minimum requirements for a game released in 2009. I am guessing the game can even be run on netbooks, because there is an “Netbook mode” option.

When you start the game, there are tips that display every time something new happens. Very helpful for new players like me. You can turn them off if you are a seasoned player. The game is already easy to learn and play, but these tips makes things even easier.

Each time you start a new game, the dungeons are randomly generated. If rampaging through the main dungeon gets too linear, boring or difficult, there are side quests and extra maps that are also randomly generated.

The game is moddable and looks like there are lots of mods to try out. Check out the Runic Games Fansite for mods.

You get a pet that follows you around and helps you fight and carry your loot as well. Your pet can even be sent back to town to sell the loot for you.

There is a fishing mini-game where you try to get… well FISH! You may not like to break away from monster whacking to go fish, but the advantage is you feed fishes to your pets and they turn into different monsters with different abilities. This lasts for a limited amount of time before your pet turns back to normal.

If you have created multiple characters, you can trade items between the characters through the shared stash chest. I noticed that stash can only be shared between characters belonging to the same hardcore mode or non-hardcore mode. ie Characters in hardcore mode and share with each other, characters in non-hardcore mode can share with each other, but characters from hardcore mode cannot share with characters in non-hardcore mode.

Once the main story dungeon has been completed, you can continue playing OR retire your character. A new area called the Shadow Vault becomes available if you decide to continue. This gives the choice of the Shadow Vault or buying more extra maps to explore or one-hitting your way through the low-level monsters of the main dungeon again. On retiring your character, you get to pass down one item to a new character to start the Torchlight adventure again. The item passed down gets a stat boost and the requirements lowered. This descendant character also starts off with one extra fame point to make their journey just that little bit easier.

Cons

Although I do not mind, I am sure some people will not like this. There is no multiplayer.

The characters’ speeches do not sound convincing.

Apart from zoom in and out, you cannot rotate the camera. Although the game and level designs are made in such a way that you can see most things, it still would have been nice to be able to rotate the camera to get a better view.

Other Points

There is no save game or load game as such. You just play and when you want to stop the game, just exit and your progress is automatically saved. Next time when you come back you can pick to continue a game or start a new game.

Along with the no save or load, there is also hardcore mode. Essentially, this is permadeath mode. You only get one shot, if your character dies, there is no reload. He/she is lost forever.

If you are not playing hardcore mode and die in the game, there are four options: Respawn at the current location at the cost of losing experience and fame; Respawn at the entrance to the level at the cost of losing gold; Respawn back in town for free; Or exit to the title screen and lose your progress.

Biases

Reviewed version 1.15.

Although I have seen many of my friends play Diablo, I myself never got around to buying it. This is the first action-RPG I have played on the PC. The closest thing to an action-RPG I have played is Larva Mortus. But that is primarily a top-down shooter. I have played Champions Of Norath on PlayStation2 though and I liked that a lot.

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

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 completed the main story on very hard difficulty using the destroyer. It took me around 30 hours. It was not a straight play through, as I needed to complete many side quests and extra maps to gain enough levels and good enough equipment to reach the end.

Torchlight is one of those rare games where I get to play with full graphics settings.

I tried out all three classes but mainly focused playing with the destroyer.

DRM

I bought the Direct2Drive version of Torchlight and I remember entering an activation key the first time I installed. Now, I installed it for a second time on the same computer, it did not ask for the activation key.

Unfortunately I do not remember upon activation whether Torchlight actually phoned home to say that I have activated my game on this PC. It did not phone home on this second install.

I have read around that the Direct2Drive version of Torchlight uses SecuRom but I cannot verify this.

On the official site, they do say that if you buy from Runic Games directly, an Internet connection is required to activate the game and an activation key is provided which gives ten activations before you have to contact them.

Torchlight is available DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (from the game manual)

CPU: TORCHLIGHT requires an x86-compatible PC with an 800 MHz processor or better. Your computer must have at least 512 MB of system RAM.
Operating System: You must be running Windows 2000 or later to play TORCHLIGHT.
Controls: A keyboard and mouse are required for playing TORCHLIGHT.
Video: TORCHLIGHT requires a video card that is compatible with DirectX. Your video card must have 64MB of addressable memory. Popular examples of compatible video cards include the ATI Radeon 7200, Intel GMA 950, and the NVIDIA GeForce 2.
Sound: TORCHLIGHT works with any DirectX 10 compatible sound card.

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.

Torchlight works great on my Windows 10 PC too.

Recommended Mods

Emberfiend – Adds quite a bit of new stuff like crafting, permanent companions(other than your pet) and new areas. I continued playing my normal character after installing this mod and it seems to run fine.

Total Respec Mod – Adds purchasable potions that allows you to reconfigure the skills and statistics of your character.

Pure Pinball 2 Redux

Three beautiful tables of pinball goodness which is, unfortunately, marred by strange pinball mechanics.

Release Date

February 2005.

Pros

The graphics are very nice. Not as good as The Pinball Arcade, but I do think it is nicer than Dream Pinball 3D.

There are twelve camera angles to choose from. There are no static cameras, but the first two move only slightly. With so many camera angles I am sure every player will find one to suit them.

Although there is no nice animated tour of the tables and how to score points, the manual is quite comprehensive as to how to play each table. The included manual from GOG.com‘s version of the game is missing the diagram of the tables, but they are available in this forum post.

Cons

The music is mostly non-reactive. I say mostly because, I have encountered one time where I triggered an event that actually changed the music. The rest of the time the music sounds like a single track being played from a CD and setting it to repeat infinitely. Even Pinball Fantasies had more reactive music than Pure Pinball 2.

Out of the three tables, only Runaway Train has music which I thought matches the table theme. The other two tables sound like just random music picked from somewhere.

The pinball mechanics feels wrong. The ball motion is okay, but it does not bounce enough off static surfaces. The flippers also feel very weak and sometimes it would propel the ball in an unexpected direction.

The family friendly nature of the pinball tables are ruined by the display of scantily clad women for the loading screens. The images have no relation whatsoever to the pinball tables. Fortunately, a nice person has provided replacement loading images and can be downloaded from this GOG forum post.

Other Points

There are three tables. That is more than Pro Pinball Timeshock, but less than all the other pinball games in recent memory.

The sounds are OK.

Pure Pinball 2 Redux works fine on my Windows 10 PC. The highest resolution I can run it at is 1280 x 960, but the game still looks and plays fine.

Biases

Reviewed the GOG.com version of the game.

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

After reviewing The Pinball Arcade, I found a real pinball table and have been playing that before Pure Pinball 2 Redux.

DRM

Pure Pinball 2 Redux is DRM free from GOG.com.

Minimum Requirements (as stated in the manual)

CPU 450 MHz Pentium® II or equivalent
System RAM 128 MB
Hard Drive 800 MB of free hard drive space
Graphics Display Adapter with T&L hardware and 32 MB of Video RAM (these include NVIDIA GeForce 256/2/3/4/FX series, ATI Radeon series, SiS Xabre, and Matrox Parhelia series)
Sound DirectSound® compatible sound card
CD-ROM 2x CD-ROM (GOG.com‘s version definitely does not need this)

Computer Played On

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

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.

Payday 2

Payday 2 is a cooperative multiplayer-focused first-person shooter RPG where you are part of the Payday gang of heisters completing contracts for various people. Pick your character, train your skills and arm yourself as you see fit. Then go forth and steal artworks with stealth, empty vaults of banks or fight your way through the FBI to steal their server. There are plenty of contracts to complete.

Release Date:

August 2013.

Pros:

John Wick! To be honest, I only bought Payday 2 because of John Wick. Although Keanu Reeves did not provide the voice for the game’s character, he still sounded good. The graphical portrayal of John Wick does look like Keanu Reeves’s Wick though.

John Woo! He is not in the game, but his influential dual-wielding gunplay is. The dual wielding works more like Stranglehold and less like Just Cause 2. That is, you can only dual wield the same type of gun in both hands. Only pistols and sub-machine guns can be dual wielded, but there are enough skills, perks and modifications to make them fun to use. Now, if only they had the slow motion side diving action…

Although the number of maps are limited, every contract has some elements of randomness. Even if you restart a contract, things change and you have to work your strategy differently (if you decide to use any).

There is some good humour in the game. There are funny contracts, funny weapons, funny masks and then there is Jimmy. All of the heisters I have used sound all so serious or maniacal. Jimmy, who is supposed to be a maniac, simply sounds hilarious to me. Some of his speech does sound normal, but I just cannot help chuckling every time I play as him. I am also surprised John Wick has not killed him!

Except for a story, Payday 2 has all the elements of a full-blown RPG. As you complete contracts, you gain experience, level up and improve skills and perks. You also get money from contracts to buy or upgrade weapons. There are also plenty of things to collect for customising your character’s masks.

Even without any DLCs, there are plenty of weapons, upgrades, contracts and perks to choose from. Of course, DLCs do add more variety.

There are tutorial missions that teach about the different things you can do in the game. It does not teach the basics of first-person shooters so if you do not know what is WASD, you may have some trouble at the beginning.

Payday 2 is like the opposite of SWAT 4. I mean opposite in every sense of the word. Not only do you play heisters instead of SWAT, but the realism of SWAT 4 is thrown out the window to give Payday 2 a great blast of simpler shooting fun. There is still enough realism in Payday 2 to make you think, but most of the game works like Hollywood action movies.

The graphics are excellent. Everything from courier packages to weapons look excellent. The animations are also excellent. There are graphical glitches here and there, but most of the time things just look beautiful.

The audio sounds wonderful. The guns sound great. The speech sound great. The only thing that I was a little bit disappointed with is the lack of surround sound coming through my Logitech G35.

The dynamic music is not something I would listen to outside of the game, but it does sound good and enhances the game’s atmosphere. I had to turn down the volume quite a bit as I could not hear the sound of my own guns.

Cons:

I did not get a good impression on first launch. When I first started the game, it asked me if I would like to go to the basic heist mission (tutorial). I clicked yes. Then it asked if I would like to go to the safe house because I have not been there yet. I clicked yes. Then it presented a day 1 screen with Bain’s Safe House with some explanations of what it is and what can be done there. After looking around I clicked ready and NOTHING HAPPENED! I spent ten minutes looking around more trying to figure what I was supposed to do. Eventually, I gave up and went to the options and restarted the game. This time when the Day 1 mission screen appeared, there was speech with whom I assume was Bain talking. When he finished talking, I clicked ready and immediately I was taken to the actual tutorial mission. I really hope they have fixed this in one of the many patches since I started.

During the stealth portions of the game, you have to hide the bodies of people that you have silently whacked. This involves putting them in a body bag and dumping the body somewhere that no one will accidentally discover. Unfortunately, when you are out of body bags, that’s it, you cannot do anything with the body. As professional killers, I do not understand why you cannot drag the body without a bag and hide it anyway. Riddick can do it! OK, there is the question of leaving a blood trail, which leads to another undoable action. Why can’t these professional killers whack a guard from behind silently and without a mess, like Riddick? These lack of actions does make the stealth portions of Payday 2 more challenging, so some players might like it. For me, it is just extra frustration.

Argh! Invisible walls! I was very surprised to find invisible walls in such a new game. Oblivion and Skyrim are the only games in recent memory where I still hit invisible walls. All the others provide some sort of visually obvious object barrier to represent the edge of a map. It is made even worse by the fact that enemies can come from and shoot from beyond the invisible walls. Once I learned the maps, it was a bit better. Before that, though, I would happily run trying to escape and SMACK!

I have been getting quite a lot of random crashes. About one in four games crashed back to the desktop. Sometimes in-game, both single and multiplayer. Sometimes while doing things in the inventory. Once the game even crashed at the main menu when I was not doing anything.

There is no story as such for Payday 2. Some contracts have a mini-plot of sorts and each character has a short biography. That is pretty much the story for Payday 2. Just choose a character, enter Crime.Net and select a contract to participate in. Complete contracts, gain experience and money, then upgrade your character. Then it is just rinse and repeat.

A drawback of being a multiplayer-focused game is that your buddies’ AI are quite poor. On the plus side, they seem to be nearly indestructible and never run out of ammo. They do not interact with anything and just shoot and run around. You can tell them to stay or follow as well as carry stuff, but there are no commands to perform mission critical stuff like picking locks and setting up drills.

Other Points:

To use John Wick you must follow the Payday 2 community in Steam. In fact, quite a lot of stuff requires you to follow the community. Easy enough to do.

The contract selection screen, called Crime.Net, pops up different contracts with different difficulties and you choose which one to accept. You may have to wait a while before your preferred contract and difficulty shows up though. Even with the ability to pick the difficulty level, the game is quite difficult, especially when starting off. With enough money, there is also the option of buying a specific contract. In this case, you can also choose the difficulty level.

Crime.Net also serves as the matchmaking area for multiplayer games. If you pick a contract that already has people in it, you will join their game. If you pick a contract with no one, you host the game that others can join in.

Harder difficulty levels provide tougher opponents, but also higher rewards. As you level up, it is either grind through the lower difficulty contracts or play better at higher difficulty contracts to level up faster.

The SWAT guys are crazy! They do not act like SWAT at all. Instead, they just come barging in disregarding the danger it poses to any hostages you might have. Although they do act like a team, there does not appear to be any SWAT tactics in play.

Where the opposition fails in tactics, it succeeds in throwing what looks like hundreds of troopers at you. The difficulty of the game is based more on how many opponents are thrown at you and how heavily armoured they are. There are also special units like snipers, shield bearers and what looks like Big Daddies from Bioshock!

Being a cooperative multiplayer focused game, it is not surprising that you cannot save the game while on a contract. Depending on the contract type and your skills, the contract could take a while to complete. Some contracts also span several days! I have never completed a contract under nine minutes and I have encountered contracts that last longer than one hour. My average time of completion seems to be around 45 minutes.

The only penalties you suffer for failing a contract are wasted time and loss of money from any asset purchases. Even when the police raid your safe house and you fail because they stole all your bags of cash, the actual funds in your account still stays the same.

A strange thing I noticed while playing online was I did not experience any lag as such. The whole game would either play smoothly or go completely out of sync and disconnect. There were no mixed lag and smooth moments. I have no idea how the matchmaking service works and I could not find the ping times to people, but when the whole thing works, it works well.

Biases:

Payday 2 has updated many times since I started. I did not pay attention to the version number that I started playing on, but at the time of writing this review, I was on version 1.65.0 and/or Update 133.

I really liked John Wick the movie.

I really liked John Woo’s The Killer and Hard Boiled as well as the game Stranglehold.

I also really liked SWAT 4, Just Cause 2 and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

I bought the Humble Starbreeze Bundle: Presents John Wick package, but started playing the game with only the John Wick Weapon Pack DLC enabled. After I got a feel for what the base game (plus John Wick Weapon Pack) was like and what it included, I then enabled the other DLCs to see what new stuff they provided.

DRM:

Steam.

Minimum Requirements (as stated on Steam):

OS:Windows 7
Processor:2 GHz Intel Dual Core Processor
Memory:4 GB RAM
Graphics:Nvidia & AMD (512MB VRAM)
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:31 GB HD space
Sound:DirectX 9.0c compatible

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.