VIDEO GAME REVIEWS
On this page I will give you my true opinions of the things which seem to take away vast amounts of our time and our money. You know 'em. You love 'em. They are video games.
These are games that I have either bought for myself or have been given as gifts. All the games I have listed have been played on a 400Mhz. Pentium II with a 16MB Voodoo Banshee and a 200Mhz Pentium MMX with a 12MB Voodoo Banshee. How these games play on other machines is my guess so keep this in mind please and don't stomp on my head if your machine does not like the games. I am not into technical service advice. All names, brands, etc. are the property of their respective companies. My tastes in games are rather limited so don't expect to see to much RPG based games, driving games, or strategy.
I have listed graphics, sound, and playability with a four-star rating just because I know people love them so much. **** is excellent, *** is good, ** passable but seen better, * is poor, L is this game is the pits…
Now that that is said here they are…
(until I buy something new):Resident Evil 2: Platinum by Capcom (7/25/1999)
FLIGHT SIMS:
Apache Long Bow by Electronic Artists
Combat Flight Simulator: WWII Europe Series by Microsoft Corporation
European Air War by Microprose
Red Baron 3D by Sierra
Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer II by Sierra
FIRST PERSON SHOOTERS:
Delta Force by Novalogic
Doom/ Doom II by Id Software
Quake by Id Software
Quake II by Id Software
DRIVING GAMES:
Test Drive 5 by Accolade
WAR SIMS:
Panzer '44 by Interactive Magic
Resident Evil 2: Platinum by Capcom
Graphics: **** Sound: *** (see review) Playability: ***1/2 (see review)
This is a great game. Let me rephrase that. This is an awesome game. A sequel to Resident Evil (which I never have played L ) you are immersed in a nightmare world where the inhabitants of a small town are infected by a bio-weapon and are turned into the living dead on a quest to have a human buffet.
The game is interesting. The views are sort of like watching a movie or following the character along a string of security cameras set at various angles. The mood is dark. The background music is enough to wear your nerves down and rises and falls as if you are in a movie cueing moments of extreme peril at times. The sounds for the zombies are creepy though a little annoying after awhile (they are the same for the most part for each situation). Play is intense in places where you are surrounded by the living dead and have to fight or flight. The lack of ammo for your weapons makes for tense situations when you try to weigh the odds on your survival of a firefight or a run for your life…If you do decide to fight, it often takes a few hits to finish your opponents which burns up valuable ammo. When you do dispatch one of the nightmares, depending on the weapon, it can result in a rather grotesque rearrangement of body parts.
The weapons are quite interesting. Submachine guns, shotguns, magnums and a few others make up the arsenal you can collect. As well as trying to improve your chances of survival by finding the weapons you must find clues to puzzles that aren't exactly challenging but prove to be more intuitive and fun than those offered in other games. Game play is interspersed with animated cinema sequences that add to the feeling that you are in some sort of a movie.
There are a ton of sites about this game. Most are for the Playstation version but I believe that the PC version is almost a direct copy so any hints should be relevant for both. However, let me warn you not to go through the walkthroughs that many sites offer until you have played this game for awhile. It is sort of like reading the script before you see the movie. However the hints sections of many sites are very nice since there are some control issues not covered in the game instructions such as throwing zombies away from you and then stomping them while they are on the ground.
Also let me say that this game is not for youngsters. It is very graphic and violent and could give some people the willies for the night.
As for some issues I have with the game they are few. Make sure you click on the video-card option on the menu that pops up before the game loads and look at your resolution options. If you do not have the game detect your card you will miss out on some pretty good graphics. The sound for the background, monsters and movie clips is hard to hear but the sound for your guns comes in VERY loud if you have adjusted the volume to hear the ambient sounds. The camera angles are cool and everything but there are times when you stumble blind into something bad because it does not pan quickly enough to the next frame. The weapon's aiming is a little erratic. Enemies that are at your feet or above you are hard to hit because the game has a sort of all or nothing aiming feature. Also when you are shooting there is no moving from the spot you are in. This makes running firefights or attempting to cover an escape and impossibility.
All in all I am impressed with this game and am looking forward to a sequel and trying to locate the first issue of this series also.
Need to visit? www.capcom.com
Apache Long Bow by Electronic Artists
Graphics: ** Sound: ** Playability: ***
Combat Flight Simulator: WWII Europe Series by Microsoft Corporation
Graphics: **** Sound: **** Playability: ****/ *** (see review)
This is a game that I waited to come out for many a breathless day. When it did come out I didn't have the money…(I am a college student after all). So, like many college students I then had to wait until Christmas for this one to come my way. Christmas is spent at my folks house which is not where I live so therefore my computer was not anywhere near this game. It was a long wait if you are catching on. When I finally got back home I climbed over the top of my wife and kid and lunged for the CD-ROM drive and plugged this baby in. After an agonizingly slow download time I was up and running. I was not disappointed.
The graphics on this game are great. The landscapes, though a little devoid of 3D objects other games toss in, are breathtaking when you are up high. The cockpits are almost like a photograph. The chase views of the planes, though hard to pan around, look great. Objects are probably the most solid looking that I have seen in any sim. Flames, smoke and debris are rendered well on your plane and when you are shooting your enemy full of holes.
The sound is great too. Of course I have a Boston sound system with a sub-woofer which probably helps as well as a 64bit SoundBlaster but it sounded nice on my bargain basement PC with the 16bit Esoniq and who knows what kind of speakers. The cannons have a nice low thud and the machine guns sound pretty close to what I think a machine gun on a plane should sound like. The engine noise is nice and when you take damage it sounds like someone is pounding a piece of sheet metal with a hammer right by your head.
The various setup control menus are easy to follow and will have you running in short order. The flight models are pretty good. I would suggest that unless you are a pro at flying sims go for medium. The hard setting gives you more stalls and overspeeds than you can shake a stick at. Since stalling is a pretty tactile situation and you are not really in a plane it is hard to tell when you are approaching this situation and it just becomes really aggravating.
Multiplayer on this game is great. I play through the MS Game Zone (www.zone.com) and have always gotten a good ping time. When my friends and I play head-to-head it is easy to hook up using our Ethernet cards and play is supported for modem which I find rare these days.
All said this is a Class A game and is worth the money if you want to buy it. I also think the price has gone down a fair amount also. However, as with all things there are some issues to address.
First I would like to point out this is a Microsoft product. There is nothing wrong with that in itself. They make some very nice stuff. However, they also have their own line of controls. To play this game fully I have found it is best with a Sidewinder of some sort. I have a Logitech as well as a Sidewinder and as far as this game is concerned the Sidewinder is the better choice. The rudder control is nice and the fact the game is already set to work with the Sidewinder helps too. I guess this is not really a problem just an observation.
However, here are some problems. There is not that big of a variety of planes. There were some biggies that should be put into a WWII sim and they just are not there. The P-38 Lightning, the Messerschmit Me-262, the Hawker Tempest/Typhoon, and some various others are absent. The planes that are in it were the major players such as the Hurricane, Mustang, Fw-190, Bf-109, two Spitfires and the Thunderbolt but they get a little old. Also, the planes that are in the game have some flight models I do not agree with. The German planes are horrid when you are playing multiplayer. The Fw-190 which from all accounts could maneuver through the roll better than a Spitfire can't in this game. For the most part it is a sitting duck. The Bf-109 is more maneuverable than the Fw-190 but is constantly stalling or worse yet going into overspeeds that are quite fatal. The Thunderbolt flies well against the German planes but is totally outclassed by the Allied planes in a multiplayer scenario. The Mustang is supposed to be fast and nimble but isn't really all that hot in the acceleration department. The Spitfires are good but are outclassed by all things the Hurricane. Now keep in mind that all the planes are good when you are playing the computer in a mission but even the Sopwith that was thrown in for fun is good against the AI. Not that the AI is bad but it can be read it after awhile as with any game. It is just the limitations of these planes come out when you go against a human opponent. The shining star of the lot is the Hurricane. It is a little slow and the weapons are weak but it can move around like no other plane in the game and with a good pilot it is hard to shake off. That is why for playability I gave the split rating. You vs. the Computer is good and multiplayer is sort of limited to a few good planes.
Another problem is the AI of this game. Your opponents are easy to read unless you are on the highest level of the AI and even then it is just a matter of time before you bag them too. It is a challenge but the AI could be a little better.
Lastly, the damage you receive from an opponent's attack is a little frustrating. Every hit that is made on your plane hits something that is REALLY important. It could be a hit on the fuselage and your plane is crippled up. I realize that a plane has a lot of stuff crammed into it but it gets ridiculous that every hit must make contact with something vital. If you get hit on the wing forget it, you are crippled because it always manages to hit a tip or a control surface. Also, in the reverse, I have been pounded with cannon rounds until the plane was not flyable and not blow to bits. I just think the damage should be a little bit more realistic.
As a side note there are a ton of sites out there that have extras for this game. There are mission editors and pre-mades and add on planes. The missions are nice (as well as the ones on the game itself) but I have yet to find an add on plane that is really flyable. Someone told me Microsoft may be coming out with an add on pack for planes and I am waiting it out to see if it ever comes because it is a very nice game and worth the money even though it is far from perfect.
Need to check out the official site? Here it is: www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs
European Air War by Microprose
Graphics: *** Sound: *** (see review) Playability: *** (see review)
I am an old fan of Microprose. I still have my old Commodore 64 with Gunship and Airborne Ranger and for their time they were the best games out there. The tradition was continued with this one as far as a basic game to provide entertainment.
This is a pretty solid game that I bought after Combat Flight Simulator to fill in the gaps left by CFS' lack of certain planes. The graphics for the cockpit are not as nice and are a little hard to read at times but because of a simpler flight model are often unneeded for play except for altitude and speed. The lockdown views are nice and the fact you can pan around the virtual cockpit with the mouse is a nice touch too. As I stated the flight model is pretty simple and even a beginner to flight sims will have no problem with this one. The sound is adequate though not as nice as CFS. The radio chatter is nice in this game and accents and languages are realistic. Exterior views are excellent and the variety of views such as seeing your enemy's exterior view is quite interesting as well as bomb/target views make for some neat moments. One of my favorite things to do is play the Germans and fly through a massive formation of American bombers. You often don't survive it for long but the view is amazing.
The true beauty of this game is the AI. Your opponents try to put you in maneuvers besides the traditional circle attack where you just try to get on the others tail. It makes for some interesting situations that keep you on your toes. The single missions are nice because you can call the shots as to how many opponents, what kind and what sort of mission there is going to be. The career mode isn't bad either since the computer keeps track of what has happened before. Things that were toasted in a previous mission stay dead so to speak. It is really a nice touch. Another interesting touch is that you can be blown to smithereens in midair which is lacking in CFS as well as if you jump out to low you make a long plunge and you get to see your little pilot splat on the ground. Also, battles can contain dozens and dozens of planes that provides a massive challenge to keep track of.
However there is a huge drawback to this game and that is the tracking mode. The virtual cockpit mode of the plane is hard to use effectively. Maybe it is just me but I cannot get it to track enemies very well. When you are being shot and hit from behind and use the threat tracking it will lock onto something that is not actually a threat such as an enemy that is way in front of you instead of the guy peppering you full of holes. Fortunately, not every hit is as critical in this game as it is in CFS so it is just annoying instead of making the game unplayable.
The last issue I would like to address before I wind this up is that I have found multiplayer does not work well. I haven't investigated why at this time but I think if the machines used are of vastly different speeds they get out of sync and the things crashes. There may be a patch out there to fix it but I am not sure at this time. The site for Microprose is www.microprose.com
All in all a pretty good game to add to your collection if you like flight sims.
Graphics: ** Sound: ** (see review) Playability: *** (see review)
This was my first flight sim. Actually, Red Baron II was my first flight sim. That was before someone outside of a gold mine owner could afford a 3D card and most games didn't support it. This was also the first game that I had that supported a 3D card. I loved this game. This game was my favorite and still sort of is though it is a big pain in the butt and lacks the slickness of newer sims.
Even when this game went 3D it was already behind. The graphics for a 2D game were good though a little hard on the eyes. When it went 3D it got better, such as being able to see the gauges in slewable mode, but it is still sort of rough. The cockpits are nice but the exteriors are this side of a cartoon. The landscapes are interesting and detailed enough to give you a sense of awareness while flying which is about all you can ask for.
The sound is all right. It doesn't work well with my SoundBlaster and I had to cut the acceleration back a bit on the card or else the sound would be delayed about half a second after the fact and that drove me nuts. In cutting back on the card it cut back on the sound quality and it sounds a bit poor but this is probably just me. I must say though that when I e-mailed support about it they got back to me the NEXT DAY. I almost fell over with a heart attack.
Anyway, as I said, I love this game and hate it at the same time. I love the individual missions, quick combat, and multiplayer (The actual 3D version off CD does not support any multiplayer except for the wons.network which I don't care for but the original upgraded to 3D with the patch supports modem, IPX, etc.). I hate the campaign mode. If you like sitting around for hours on end trying to fly in formation in crates from WWI enjoy. If you are like me and don't like the prospect of flying for up to two hours without running into ANYTHING then you understand what I am saying. The full autopilot and time acceleration are nice but sometimes combat situations come up (encounters on the way to missions are randomly generated to add a little spice to the game) and the computer fights it out for you in accelerated time before switching over to you. This would be ok if the computer was a competent pilot but it is not. Also the missions become dragging unless you start towards the end of the war. I made the mistake of starting in the summer of 1916 and slugged it out every other day until November 11, 1918 when the war ended. I must have flown close to 300+ missions before I got some sort of closure to it. My kills were around 440 something and I feel that is sort of an absurd amount.
The flight model is tricky. I can appreciate this because after all it is for WWI machines. Stick with the realistic flight model because it is actually easier to maneuver with it than the simple one. Damage is pretty realistic when you are using limited ammo. If you are using unlimited ammo you will find that you have to drill your opponent over and over before the damage becomes severe enough to ground them. Your plane is highly effected by damage to it and wings, rudders, wheels, etc. can be shot off to add to your woes. The greatest threats in this game though are direct hits on the pilots and fire. Fire can happen with one good hit to you or your opponent. If it is your opponent it is nice to know that they are done for good. If it is you be assured you will not walk out of the plane intact, if at all. Direct hits on the pilots are a nice yet morbid touch. There were few flyers that did not aim for the pilots in the days before armor plate and bulletproof glass. If you are patient you will be able to get the hang of making direct kills on pilots and observer/gunners alike and it will make your life easier.
Some of the battles can include dozens of planes and another dozen AA guns shooting at you. It can be quite intense. The shining star of this game however is the slewable views. Threat lock and target views are done with the push of a button without having to switch to a virtual cockpit first or messing with a bunch of keys. Though the game is not the best I think other games could learn alot from the targeting done in this game.
The AI for this game is average. Some pilots fly straight and level and can be knocked from the air no problem. The rest are a fair mixture between. The German opponents in the Fokker Dr.1 provide the biggest challenge for the most part but they can be taken with a Nieuport 27 with a bit of skill and luck.
Outside of flight times for missions being overly realistic trying to catch your opponent is frustrating. The German planes are tops until about late 1917 when the SE-5A and the Spad rear their heads. Both planes are fast compared to the Fokker Dr.1 and the Albatross D.IV that you will be stuck using FOREVER until the Fokker Dr.VII comes out and then you can whoop some butt. Of course it is still not as fast as the allied planes, which always RUN and then you have to somehow catch them and that takes forever. If you play the Allies on the other hand all of your planes have some pretty bad quirks about them. The Sopwiths are unstable and drop like rocks in a stall, the Spad is fast but does not turn well, the Nieuports are the best combination of speed and agility but are fragile and prone to fire. The SE-5A is fast and maneuverable in the hands of the computer but not in yours, it is just fast. These things effect game play during campaign mode and really detract from something that could have been a really good game. If you are like me then you are a WWI aviation nut and the game is really cool no matter what the shortcomings. If you are just looking for a good flight sim you may want to pass this one by.
As a side note this game has almost a cultish following. To find out more go to the Sierra web site. www.sierra.com
Silent Thunder: A-10 Tank Killer II by Sierra
Graphics: ** Sound: ** (see review) Playability: ***(see review)