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Games: Dark Forces X-Wing/Tie Fighter Rebellion Earthsiege 2 Starsiege Ghost Recon KOTOR Halo (PC) Mechwarrior 4: Mercs
Star Wars: Dark Forces Top
Developer: Lucasarts
Category: First-Person Shooter
Platform: DOS

Review: Dark Forces is a truly excellent game, despite its age. It was released shortly after Doom and before any of the other big DOS FPS hits (Quake, Duke Nukem, Doom II). It is an incredible accomplishment for its time. Developed from scratch, Dark Forces had a multitude of new breakthrough features. For the first time, players could jump, duck, and look up and down. Dark forces also had the first quality voices, the first cutscenes, and was the first game to offer objectives more complex than find the end level switch/elevator. Although the graphics (2D sprites in a 3D environment, like Doom) and sound are badly dated, they are still acceptable. The game truly immerses you in the Star Wars universe, and keeps you enthralled right up to the end.


Star Wars: X-Wing/Star Wars: Tie Fighter Top
Developer: Lucasarts
Category: Flight simulator
Platform: DOS/Windows 95

Review: X-Wing and Tie Fighter are two terrific flight simulators set in the Star Wars universe. These games are both included in the same review because they utilize the same engine and are similar in gameplay in most respects. X-Wing was developed first, as a DOS game, and after its immense popularity, both a Windows 95 version of X-Wing and a new Windows 95 game called Tie Fighter were released. The Windows version of X-Wing boasted better graphics and enhanced resolution, and Tie Fighter also took advantage of these upgrades to the rendering engine.

In X-Wing, you are a pilot for the Rebel Alliance. There are several campaigns that you must fly for the Alliance, each divided into many seperate missions. There is a seperate story and purpose behind each campaign, and each mission tells a piece of the story. As a Rebel pilot, you have access to the A-Wing, B-Wing, X-Wing, and Y-Wing starfighters. Different missions call for different fighters, and on a rare negative note, you do not have a choice over what you fly. Tie Fighter sports the same campaign/mission formula, but has you flying for the Galactic Empire. In Tie Fighter you have access to the Tie Fighter, Tie Interceptor, Tie Bomber, Tie Advanced, Tie Defender, Gunboat, and Missileboat. In addition to the greater selection of craft, there are new weapons and new enemies.

Both of these flight simulators excel above the Rogue Squadron series of action flyers. Unlike Rogue Squadron, which has a pitifully low number of options, X-Wing and Tie Fighter allow you to issue orders to your wingmates, inspect enemy craft through a detailed Heads Up Display, change how your weapons are linked, and adjust the amount of power given to your engines, shields, and cannons. Systems can become damaged, and you can tell your computer what order to repair them in, as well as check to see how much time it will take for the repairs to complete. All of these elements make X-Wing and Tie Fighter true flight similators, and consequently make them far better than Rogue Squadron.


Star Wars: Rebellion (Supremacy in Europe) Top
Developer: Lucasarts
Category: Real-Time Strategy/Tactical/Management
Platform: All versions of Windows

Review: An astounding and creative game that sadly died in obscurity, Star Wars: Rebellion contains so many gameplay elements that it can almost be classified into two different games! The first and most prominant part of gameplay is galactic control and management. As the leader of either the Empire (don't be mislead by the game's name, and yes, you get to tell The Emperor what to do!) or the Rebellion, you control all of the resources, facilites, planets, ships, and troops at your side's disposal. In essence, you have a galactic army at your fingertips. You can build facilities on different planets, send key personel on diplomatic missions, sabatoge missions, espionage missions, abduction missions, and espionage missions, train troop regiments, build starships, and amass fleets. You can take total control of the galaxy through force, or you can attempt to gain loyalty through diplomacy. All of this is accomplished through a simple and intuitive galactic display. The graphics in this area are two-dimensional but this does not affect gameplay.

A second and entirely different form of play occurs when one of your fleets enters a system that contains an enemy fleet, or vice-versa. At ths point, you are given the option to either computerize the battle, or take control of the action yourself. If you choose the latter option, you are suddenly immersed in a three dimensional square of space in which your fleets will do battle. From this view, you can move the camera in any way you wish, and issues orders to all of the ships and fighters in your fleet. Any craft under your control can be ordered to attack specific enemy ships, preform specific maneuvers, or defend one of your own ships. You also have control over formation. Commands can either be issued in real time, or you may pause the battle to issue them if you wish. The only negative side of this is that the graphics are badly outdated, with poor resolution textures and models with the bare minimum of faces. This, however, does not detract at all from the exciting gameplay, and actually has its own benefits (Rebellion will run on nearly anything!)


Earthsiege 2 Top
Developer: Dynamix (extinct branch of Sierra)
Category: Mecha simulator
Platform: Windows 95

Review: Despite being badly aged, Earthsiege 2 remains the best mecha simulator in existence. Earthsiege 2 is the sequel to Earthsiege (incredibly hard to come by and therefore not reviewed), and is part of a story line so incredibly popular it has spawned no less than twelve games (including Earthsiege, Earthsiege 2, Starsiege, Cyberstorm, Cyberstorm 2, Starsiege: Tribes, Tribes 2, and the upcoming Tribes: Vengeance). The graphics in ES2 are outdated, but they are still somewhat decent. The main reason why this game is so incredible, however, is its dazzling gameplay. In ES2, you are a pilot for the Terra Defense Force, a small group of humans defended earth from a massive army of artificially intelligent war machines of the humans own creation. You have many Hercs (similar to Mechs) and a plethora of weapons at your disposal. Through a series of campaigns each containing many individual missions, you must fight off the Cybrid Hercs and defend the remaining shreds of humanity from extinction. As you progress, you will collect salvage from your dead foes, which you can use to contruct new vehicles and weapons back at your base. You can have up to three squadmates, each in their own Herc that you can customize to your specifications. Once you leave the base and enter a mission, you can issue orders to these squadmates or leave them to their own devices. In the field, you must also manage weapon firing chains and ammunition, and monitor your Herc's damage and components. The gameplay is immersive and unforgettable, and constantly leaves you craving more. And more it delivers; even experienced gamers will find that Earthsiege 2 takes more than 20 hours to complete and offers a thrilling and fresh experience.


Starsiege Top
Developer: Dynamix (extinct branch of Sierra)
Category: Mecha simulator
Platform: Windows 95/98/NT/ME/XP (2000 with patch)

Review: The sequel to Earthsiege 2 and surpassed in quality only by it's predecessor, Starsiege is an unforgettable game. Hundreds of years after you drove the Cybrids off of Earth and the moon in the second Earthsiege, you play as a pilot for a rebellion beginning on Mars. The Emperor back on Earth has decided that all of the resources of the colonies (Luna, Mars, Venus, Titan, Io) must be dedicated to fortifying Earth against a future invasion by the robotic war machines. However, a rebellion has begun, as colonists start to fight against the tyrannical rule of the Emperor (sound like Star Wars? it really isn't). First you must defeat the local police forces, and then Earth's elite warriors, sent to stop the rebellion once and for all.

Once again, your primary weapon of war is the Herc, a massive bipedal war machine packed with weapons, armor, and shields. However, tanks are now offered as vehicles as well. Because it takes place so far after Earthsiege 2, Starsiege offers a huge array of new Hercs and vehicles (while keeping the Apocalypse, the favorite Herc of Earthsiege 2) and more advanced weapons. Gameplay has been greatly improved in some aspects; the action is faster and more frequent, although not always as fierce. Starsiege features a spiffy new holographic Heads-Up Display (although I liked the solid one in ES2 better) and greatly improved (though still outdated) graphics. You are also given more control over customizing your Herc, with the ability to install the engine, reactor, armor, shields, sensors, computer, and weapons of your choice. However, these new features do not quite make up for the loss of features from Earthsiege 2.

You can no longer construct Hercs or weapons whenever you wish. You are stuck with what you find or are graciously provided. This means it is often possible to run low on a critical type of weapon. Another feature lost from the Windows 95 classic is torso-twist; in ES2 you could swivel the torso of your Herc, but in Starsiege you cannot, greatly reducing your line of fire and the strategic movements available to you. Another problem is that many of the weapons and items in the game are thoroughly worthless, whereas in ES2 everything was useful at any given point in the game, regardless of the progression of enemy technology. Furthermore, some of the classic and immensely popular weapons from Earthsiege 2 have been 'Nerfed' - changed into worthless chunks of metal. Starsiege does have huge amounts of written background, history, and documentation, however, making it more immersive if slightly less fun to play.

Starsiege is survived by a respectable number of loyal fans who have pestered Sierra into making a sequel. After 6 years of dreaming, another SS is finally on the way! You can see some of the hard work and dedication of the fans in Starsiege Survivors, a recent website created by some of the game's loyal fans.

Obviously, a game that is so popular so long after its originally release is a must buy. Aquiring a copy will be difficult; Sierra has long pulled all support on the game. But you must find and purchase a copy anyway! Do it, damn you!


Ghost Recon Top
Developer: Red Storm
Category: First Person Shooter
Platform: Windows 98-Windows XP, some consoles

Review: This game puts you in a Green Beret division called the Ghosts in 2008. I haven't been paying much attention to the plot but it involves Russia invading some small country I think. Anyway, this is another Tom Clancy game from Red Storm, and has much of the feel of Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear. The graphics in GR are excellent; everything is highly detailed and the terrain is amazing. It's also impressive how many frikkin' trees can be rendered at one time. The sounds are excellent too (I think they won an award for best sound?).

Gameplay is just as good. The game is challenging but not excrutiatingly so. Everything is supposed to be as realistic as possible; therefore, guns actually have recoil, people can become injured and fatigued, you can't be a one man army, etc. All of the weapons are from real life, although I don't think the OICW is combat ready in real life yet. The level of realism makes the game complex but in the end makes the experience far more enjoyable than the typical run-and-gun one-man-army games.

One feature I find particularly enthralling is the skill system. In a semi-rpg style, soldiers earn one experience point after each level, which you can use to increase their accuracy, endurace (health and stamina), stealth, or leadership. Soldiers start with between one and three points in each of these areas and you can upgrade them to up to eight points per skill. Another feature semi-related to this is the specialists: by completing extra objectives in each mission you can earn specialists with new weapons and items. THe specialists also generally start with more skill points. Earning the specialists is not a necessity, but it is nice to have the option to deviate from the current standard army weapons. Standard troopers carry either an M16 (rifleman), M4 (demoman), M249 (support), or M40A1 (sniper). Specialist weapons include the SA-80, MP5, MP5-SD, OICW, Dragunov SVD, and something a lot like an AWP (forgot the designation).

This is a great game, and if you can run it you should definitly get it!


Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Top
Developer: Bioware
Category: Third Person RPG
Platform: XBox

This is the best game ever. If you have an XBox, you should get it. If you don't have an XBox, go buy an XBox and then get it.

Knights of the Old Republic takes place about 4000 years before the movies, just after the Mandalorian wars. The two jedi heroes of the Mandalorian wars have fallen to the dark side and have already recruited thousands of other force sensitive people as well as millions of everday soldiers. They are producing ships and droids at an impossible rate, and the Republic seems doomed.

After choosing your class (scoundrel, scout, or soldier), skills, abilities, and so on, you begin the game onboard a Republic ship under attack by the sith. Your only companion is some guy whos name I forgot. Anyway, he joins your party, walks you through a few things, and then you get to engage in some light combat.

Blah blah blah, eventually you end up crash landed on a planet with Carth Onasi, a famous Republic soldier who has fought in many battles (the other guy is dead). You are stuck on the planet because it is under sith quarentine so they can find the Republic soldiers who landed there (i.e. you, Carth, and a Jedi named Bastilla). You have to rescue Bastilla and then find a way of the planet.

I don't get off on video game characters, but Nathan says Bastilla is hot. She certainly isn't ugly. And if you don't put any clothes or armor on her she walks around in her underwear (actually, all the characters are like that, and hey, blame the developers, not me!). So yeah, that was a random side note.

In the game, you can equip yourself with numerous kinds of... equipment. In addition to basic weapons (you can have one one-handed weapon, two one-handed weapons, or one two-handed weapon), you can equip belts, headbands, gauntlets, armor, implants, and shoulder thingies (personal shielding). The various belts, implants, and headbands are mostly performance boosters, enhancing strength, dexterity, constitution, or whatever. Gauntlets often enhance skills such as security or demolition (although some headbands increase skills as well). There are hundreds or perhaps even over a thousand different items available in the game. The further you progress, the more you can protect and upgrade your characters.

Since this is an RPG, you have multiple party members you can control, and each individual is given stats and abilities in the form of something I forgot the name of (intelligence, dexterity, strength, constitution, etc), skills (things you can do and how well, such as security cracking, computer hacking, demolitions, persuasion, stealth, etc), feats (extra abilities such as better usage of two handed or dual weapons, the ability to accept implants, increased damage with different types of weapons, etc etc etc), and force powers once you become a jedi (heal, force jump, force lightning, force armor, force persuasion, etc). You can customize each character to your own whims, giving them the stats and abilities you see fitand tailoring them for your style of play. Each time a character gains enough experience to level up, you can upgrade some or all of their stats.

The voice acting in the game is phenomonally good, easily movie quality, and better than many movie actors. The expression and emotion in the voices is excellent, far better than I've ever seen in a game before. The plot of the game is unbelievably good also, worthy of the silver screen easily. Playing the game is like watching a movie almost, except you control the characters, their actions and abilities and conversations. Certainly KOTOR is better than the new Star Wars movies. Lucas could take a lesson from Bioware.

I've been rambling, haven't I? Well, I'm entitled to ramble, dammit! ...I'm not sure why, but I am. Anyway, KOTOR kicks ass, rocks, and does every other thing that is good, so play it today! Now! Go buy it dammit!


Halo: Combat Evolved (for PC) Top
Developer: Microsoft/Bungie
Category: First Person Shooter
Platform: PC

Honestly, I'm not quite sure how to review this game. What criteria goes into judging the quality of a product? Traditionally games are judged on how they behave before being patched, but what about if the problems you have require tech support, but not a patch? I'd never thought about this but Halo: Combat Evolved certainly makes me wonder. Perhaps the best way to review it is to first explain the horrors of getting it running.

The game installed fine. Thank God for small favors. Everything went to crap after that, however. The game always crashed immediatly following the Bungie, Gearbox, and Microsoft logos. Skipping the logos would still cause it to crash. I tinkered with my video card settings for about an hour with no results. Finally I checked the Halo for PC website and dug through the multitude of troubleshooting documents to find a fix.

If Halo crashes on you, before you even get into the menu, go into DirectX settings (a la "dxdiag" in the Run window), into display, and disable texture acceleration. This is extremely assanine but it seems to be important. Why the hell Microsoft made a game that doesn't work properly with DirectX (a MICROSOFT PRODUCT) until you change a setting I will never understand.

Finally, the game is installed, and running. I set up my player through the simple (but cool looking) menu and got right to the campaign. Then the bugs started coming. And I don't mean insects.

The first problem I noticed was a rendering glitch on the marine who opens up your cryo-tube. His hands had turned into spikes that impaled his left shoulder and went all the way through the wall behind him to disappear into who knows where. Another thing I noticed was that my sensitivity was way too low (I like having my mouse set up so twitching it sends me spinning). I raised the sensetivity in the settings from the default 3 to 4. No noticible change. So I raised it to 5. Well, there's a little difference, but not enough. All the way to 8. Suddenly the mouse became totally unweildy in the menu. I tediously moved the cursor to 'okay' and returned to the game. My movement was perfect at this point, but the menu was all fucked up. Adjusting the sensitivty affects the sensitivity in the menu too!

Two problems and I was still inside the damn tube.

Once I got out and stretched my legs, however, I quickly forgot about the problems. Halo looks SWEET on the PC, because you're right up there close to the screen instead of sitting ten feet away with a controller. Movement is also much easier on the computer, thanks to our beloved keyboard and mouse.

Once I got past the intro stuff and into the fighting I noticed several things. First, the guns look amazing. Second, everything else looks amazing. Third, the controls SUCK (but what are you going to do, they had to optimize them for a little 12 button controller). Also, the decals weren't displaying correctly, so I turned them off.

Splattering the Covenant invaders all over the bulkheads was great fun from the start, but I noticed the framerate dropping in a few particularly large fights (my Radeon 9100 isn't quite top of the line but it gives a better indication of how games will go for everday semi-hardcore gamers without money for 128mb Radeon 9800 Pros). I went into the settings to change the resolution. It was at the default 800*600, so I dropped it down to 640*480. When I closed the menu, the computer restarted.

I kicked the desk and then waited for my beloved PC to finish booting. When it did, I promptly loaded up Halo and made a mental note not ever adjust the resolution again.

After that, everything went smoothly until I finished the first level. The computer restarted while the second level was loading.

Piece of shit! Reboot, load, and this time it actually gets into the next level. It never restarted during a transition again although it has randomly rebooted the computer several times for no apparent reason.

To save space, here are some additional problems I encountered: scopes do not display correctly, AI characters will sometimes get stuck inside each other, causing them to stop moving or responding at all, more hand-rendering glitches, etc.

Gameplay is much the same as on the XBox - the campaign is fun until you get about half way through and it is reduced to throwing hundreds of enemies on you in a seemingly never ending slaughter. This quickly gets boring and irritating.

What about multiplayer? This is where Halo is supposed to shine. Sadly, it does not. Internet gaming is laggy. The online partion must not be coded well, because Halo has some of the worst lag I've ever seen. And unlike many games which just temporarily 'pause' during lag, Halo continues without giving you any indication that there is a problem and then suddenly you are warped to a new location as the data is updated properly. Shitty. The new weapons and vehicle (rocket launcher warthog!) are very cool, but they don't make up for Halo's multitude of problems.

Score: 0% (because it didn't work!)
If it had worked score: 40%
Summary: A port that just isn't worth playing.


Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries
Developer: Microsoft
Category: Mecha Simulator
Platform: PC

The latest (excluding MechAssault) and greatest Battletech-universe mecha simulator! MechWarrior 4: Mercs is the standalone sequel to Mechwarrior 4, and is a helluva lot better in many ways.

In MW4:M, you play a mercenary who goes by the call sign Spectre (it's better than Viper and Solid~Snake and all that other crap!) After choosing a sponsor at the very beginning of the game (different sponsors have different benefits, a la Cyberstorm 2, which you haven't played anyway), you are launched right into the money-making world of a Mechwarrior Mercenary (that's an intentional alliteration). You start out with five crappy 'Mechs and three other Mechwarriors, who will be your lancemates until you can afford to hire new ones (although the originals should last you through the entire game, you can eventually start a second lance with four more pilots.) You have a withering array of four missions (two on each of two planets) available, but beating missions unlocks more as you gain fame and more people are willing to hire you.

You'll be making 'C-Bills' (money, which I will henceforth call money because 'C-Bills' sounds stupid) right away, and soon you'll be able to afford new, decent 'Mechs. The whole game revolves around making money, which you can spend on 'Mechs, pilots, weapons, repairs, interplanetary travel (by the end of the game you'll have unlocked ten? planets), and landing fees. The earnings start out somewhat slow, so that you can only afford to buy a new 'Mech for yourself, but you can salvage enemy 'Mechs to give to your squadmates or sell for more money. It doesn't take long to be well off, and at the end you have more than you'll ever need (I could afford completely refitting both of my lances if I somehow lost all my 'Mechs).

The main missions are well put together and a lot of fun. As I said, there are about ten planets, with an average of five missions each (note that certain carreer choices you make can restrict missions to you, i.e. Steiner won't hire you if you blatently support Davion, and vis-versa) Although most of the levels are short, they are quite varied in terrain and objectives and whatnot, and the fighting is intense. The overall story is difficult to follow because it's scattered across the planets on different newsposts that are too boring to read, but it hardly matters anyway. There is some plot around the missions for each planet.

But one of the most fun things about Mercs is the Solaris arenas. Solaris is the entertainment capital of wherever the hell you are, and there you can take part in gladiatorial deathmatches for precious money. The arena matches are extremely fun, as you maneuver around a small arena with eight or so other 'Mechs, all against each other. There is a small entry fee, but there are cash prizes for first, second, and third. In the heavier matches, first place prize (around $3,000,000) won't pay for your post-match repairs... but that's business (in the light matches, the low $1,500,000 prize still easily covers the negligible $200,000ish cost of repairing a light mech). As you win more and more matches, you advance through the different weight classes (the lighter classes still remain available). If you want to get to the Grand Championship and achieve mega-cash and fame, you'll have to win at every level in all three arenas. You'll definitly want to, because the matches are just awesome. Oh yeah, there's an announcer too, and he's funny and actually not annoying to listen to.

Overall, this is a great mecha sim, easily the best of the entire Mechwarrior series, and buy it now or you suck.