So much has been made of Windows XP product activation, with every major PC magazine carrying a feature article and countless online rants, that I felt it was covered to death. The information had been presented to me at the product launch held by Microsoft that covered all there was to be said, but I had encountered a number of variables.

Here and there I had read that product activation was required, but you could upgrade pieces of hardware without reactivating. I was told seven hardware items could be upgraded, or four if one was a network card. Then later at a TechNet session I heard the number increased to nine, then down to five in a Microsoft press release. Here’s the straight goods from Microsoft:

WPA works by associating a machine’s PID (which is derived from the product key) to the hardware configuration. It does this by creating an installation ID. The installation ID comprises the PID and a “hardware hash,” which is derived from a number of elements that characterize the machine. It also includes a random component that is generated each time it is requested.

In order to activate the machine, the installation ID is sent to a Microsoft license clearinghouse, which validates it. The clearinghouse returns a corresponding confirmation ID that is then used to activate the machine. After Windows XP has been activated, reactivation should only be necessary if the operating system is completely reinstalled, or if machine’s hardware is substantially changed.

Users must activate Windows XP with their unique product keys within the defined grace period. For the released product, this is 30 days from the time the system is installed—MSDN versions have 60 days. After expiration, Windows will disallow interactive logons until the system is activated.

And another page:

If you overhaul your computer by replacing a substantial number of hardware components, it may appear to be a different PC. You may have to reactivate Windows XP. If this should occur, you can call the telephone number displayed on the activation screen to reactivate the software.

No mention of how many devices can be changed, but “substantial number” sounds like more than a handful, doesn’t it? Let’s take one last look at Microsoft on their “technical details”:

What components of the PC are used to create the hardware hash?
For security reasons, Microsoft does not disclose the exact components or number of components used to create the hardware hash.

How many components of the PC must change before I am required to reactivate? Are the changes cumulative?
Common changes to hardware such as upgrading a video card, adding a second hard disk drive, adding RAM or upgrading a CD-ROM device will not require the system to be reactivated. The changes are cumulative; however, if a user is asked to reactivate, the hardware profile is reset to that new configuration.

Well, that’s all the information one could want about product activation. But where is this going? I recently upgraded my main system’s motherboard from a Gigabyte GA7VTXE to a Gigabyte GA7VTXE+; I did it because the opportunity arose to sell the old and get the new for the same price. The only difference between the boards is the South Bridge chipset which allows ATA133, and a few cosmetic changes.

I swapped out the old board and installed the new. Since the IRQ layout was the same for both boards, I installed the cards in the same slots. Upon reboot everything was the same; no new hardware was found since it was all the same except for a small piece of the motherboard.

Just as Windows XP Professional came up fully, I was confronted with a message indicating my copy of Windows needed to be reactivated. There were two options: reactivate or cancel; choosing cancel brought me to the shutdown dialog box. I rebooted but got the same options, so I chose reactivate. I could do this over the internet or telephone; I tried the internet but it told me I had to call. I chose my home country and dialed the toll free.

Once connected I was led through a maze of telephone options culminating in my entering the 26 number product ID; I did this via the touch pad on the phone and was then sent to a live operator. He was friendly and courteous as he asked me for the product ID; I asked him why he didn’t have it from me entering it on the phone, but didn’t get an answer. I explained my motherboard upgrade situation and asked a few questions; he couldn’t provide any answers but was always polite. I read off the product ID and he read me an activation number that I entered. Two more clicks and I was working again.

The moral of the story; make sure you have a legitimate copy of Windows XP if you like to upgrade your hardware. And even if you have to call for reactivation, it’s not so bad after all.

I’m a big fan of Windows Update; one easy place to find all the updates needed for your system. I’ve found it works with Windows 95 up and long as your version of Internet Explorer is 4.0 or greater. With versions 5 and 6, you go to Tools, Windows Update. With version 4, go to Tools, Product Updates. Either way you’re brought to the Windows Update page, with lots of information available.

Products updates is my frequent destination for the latest operating system patches. It’s neatly organized into categories: critical updates, recommended updates, additional Windows features, and finally device drivers. It’s the last category that’s interested me the most; your hardware driver versions are compared to the WHQL ( Windows hardware quality labs ) hardware compatibility list. If a newer version is available Windows Update offers to install it for you. Sounds good, doesn’t it? No need to hunt down drivers from every manufacturer, just click and install.

Somehow this always sounded too easy to me. Plus the fact most manufacturers are slow to release their WHQL drivers, instead putting the latest and greatest features into their regular updates. I do have some systems at work that use boring business hardware, and have seen Windows Update offer to get the latest drivers. The offer has come up for the ATI Rage Pro, ATI Rage XL and Via Technologies Sound.

In a flash of stupidity I agreed to download the ATI Rage Pro drivers. Everything went smooth until I was prompted for a *.hlp or *.hl_ file. It listed the directory Windows Update had placed the install files, but no such beast. I did notice a large group of *.hlx files, which seemed to fit the bill.  I renamed them to *.hlp and the install finished just fine. Weird and not too user friendly for the kind of folks that would take advantage of this easy to use feature.

Curiosity had me in it’s grip as I moved on to a machine with an ATI Rage XL video card. Windows Update showed the driver update, so I went ahead. Same thing as the ATI Rage Pro drivers, *.hlx files instead of *.hlp files. Renaming got the job done.

My last test didn’t work out quite as well. The machines all used Gigabyte GA7ZM motherboards with AC97 sound, so I tried the Windows Update. Installation went smooth, but upon reboot I had, you guessed it, no sound. Device Manager showed some warnings, so I uninstalled the drivers and grabbed the latest from the Gigabyte website. Installed those and sound was back.

All in all a mixed and unpleasant experience. My advice is to avoid the Windows Update device drivers and instead bookmark the pages on your hardware manufacturers websites. Check them monthly and get the latest and greatest from the source.

Once you have a small business up and running with a handful of computers you have to look at a serious backup strategy. Programs can be reinstalled, updates downloaded again, but the data generated by yourself and those around you is unique and should be protected. The best way to protect that information is to store it centrally and perform regular backups. To accomplish our goal we’ll look at both ends of the process; setting up the server and setting up the clients.

Let’s take a step back and look at the server. Every business with multiple users, big or small, should have a dedicated server. A separate machine that shares files, printers, internet access, email, intranet pages, etc. The two most common operating systems for a server are Linux and Windows NT or 2000. Our process here is generic and will work with either. As well all machines, server and clients, should have anti-virus software and the latest virus signature updates.

Our first step is to set up a bunch of folders ( directories ) on the server; one common folder with access for all users and individual user folders with restricted access. Every user on your network should have their own login and password, so permissions can be set on folders to limit access on the network. All users on your network ( remove “everyone” access if there ) have access to a common folder, so documents can be shared and worked on collaboratively. I usually call the folder common or company, and share the folder on the network with the same name.

Each user has a folder created for them as well, with access restricted to that user and the administrator. That way a level of privacy and security can be maintained for the individuals documents. This folder can be named the same as the users login, typically first initial and last name, and shared with the same name followed by a $ sign. Adding the $ at the end of the share lets the server know to hide this share, so those browsing the network through Network Neighborhood won’t see them.

To make sure these two shares are available to users at all times you can run a batch file when they log in. This option is found under the user’s properties. Here’s a typical instruction for Windows PCs:

@echo off
net use X: \\server\common
net use Y: \\server\user$

Use Notepad or any text editor to enter the save it as a *.bat file. The net command has been built into every Windows version since 3.11 so this will work. It tells the operating system to map the common folder to drive X and the user’s private folder to drive Y. Simple and straightforward. Through this file you can also copy over virus signatures, flash messages and perform general PC “housekeeping”.

Moving on to the client PCs, we want to set them up to use only their network drive for saving files. If we keep all data on the server and back it up nightly, everything is safe.

This is a two step process: make the software use the network drive as the default location and keep reminding the users to only save software on their “personal and private” drives. Since Windows 98 you have been able to specify the location of the My Documents folder. Right click on My Documents, select properties and under Target enter the drive letter of the users private share. This will take care of all applications that are certified for the OS, such as Microsoft Office. For others you’ll have to set the default directory through the application’s options or preferences menu. This will also have to be done for every application if you’re still using Windows 95. Microsoft Office users can take advantage of the Office Profile Wizard to backup all their customizations of the office suite.

This takes care of most files, but doesn’t include email applications. Microsoft Outlook is the most common email application and saves everything into one *.pst file. The location of the file varies by operating system, but can be found by searching for it. The safest option is to move the user’s *.pst file to their network share. This method varies on every version of Outlook, but can be found by hunting in the Options menu or by right clicking on Personal Folders and selecting Properties. A surefire method is to locate the *.pst file and copy it to the network share. When Outlook is opened the next time it will indicate the pst file cannot be located; you then browse for the file and everything’s good to go.

Other email applications vary in how they store files, generally spreading them across multiple files. For Outlook Express backup and restore check out this excellent site.

What do you do when your ISP goes out of business, or changes it’s name? Both events have occurred in the Hamilton, Ontario area recently where I live, and have affected a large number of people. Everyone know about the demise of @Home, so local cable operators have changed their service to a rogers.ca or cogeco.ca naming. As well Hamilton’s Icom suddenly closed up shop. They’ve been around since 1991 when I set up my first dial up account. Now a slew of people have email addresses that go nowhere and websites that give the dreaded “404 not found” error.

Unfortunately hindsight is 20/20 and it’s too late for those people, but with an ounce of prevention we can make sure the same thing never happens again. Let’s look at how we can make sure our email address and website stay with us for the long haul.

The proliferation of email as a means of communication is staggering. Almost everyone has an email address, and give it out on a regular basis. We’ll look at two ways to keep a “mostly” permanent address: email and web forwarding and domain registration and hosting.

Email forwarding is a great service provided by quite a few web email providers. We’re all familiar with Hotmail and Yahoo, the two largest web based email providers. You sign onto their website from anywhere in the world and have instant access to your email. This is great, but I find that my Hotmail and to a lesser extent my Yahoo account fill up with junk mail at an alarming rate. Email forwarding takes the concept of web mail one step farther by allowing you to give a forwarding address and have all mail sent there automatically. My two favourite services are www.email.com and www.canada.com; both were dead easy to set up and had my forwarding working instantly. An example may be in order: you sign up online for free with a new account at email.com and pick buddy@email.com as your email. Your home email address is buddy@rogers.ca, so you set buddy@rogers.ca as your forwarding address. Any piece of email that’s sent to buddy@email.com is automatically forwarded to you at buddy@rogers.ca. Say you move in a year and there’s no Rogers at the new place, only Cogeco cable. Your email address at your new house is buddy@cogeco.ca, so you go to www.email.com and change the forwarding address to buddy@cogeco.ca. There’s no interruption for you and no one has to change their address book.

Probably the best method of ensuring a lasting email and web address is to register the URL. Once you’ve registered a name you select a web hosting company to handle your web site and email forwarding. Both tasks can be done by www.lynxcanada.com and www.easyhosting.com. The only drawbacks are getting a good name and then paying for it and web hosting every year. Let me illustrate; I’ve registered the URL ebabble.net. I wanted ebabble.com, but it was taken. Now I pay annually to keep the name ebabble.net registered. As well my web site is hosted at Lynx Canada, so I’m provided space and mail forwarding. My email address is @ebabble.net, but anything send there gets forwarded to my account with my ISP. Of course since I am the registrar of ebabble.net, I can move it to any provider I want, and the address stays with me. There are free web hosting and forwarding companies available, but since nothing in life is free they do different things to your site.

An alternative to paying for a web hosting service is signing up with a dynamic DNS service. This is best for users who have high speed internet access and want to run a server at home but don’t have a permanent IP address. DNS stands for domain name service and represents the backbone of the internet. When you sign up for a URL, you list the DNS servers where your URL will be found. Lynx Canada’s DNS server lists www.ebabble.net and the IP address they assigned it to. That DNS information is shared with other public DNS servers around the world. Every URL you type has an IP address associated with it. To see for yourself, open the Command Prompt and type: ping Microsoft.com; the result shows the name and IP address. Since high speed users IP addresses change, you need a service that can handle the changes for you. One great choice is www.dyndns.org, which offers free and paid service. You sign up with them, then load a small utility on you PC. When your IP changes, the utility sends the change to dyndns.org and their DNS server is updated.

You could easily set up a home web and email server for free by using an old computer. Sign up for a free account with dyndns.org; free accounts use the URL xxx.dyndns.org, where xxx is the name you want. Download and install Mitel SME Server 5, which is a free full featured Linux server and takes advantage of dyndns.org. Set up email accounts and a web site for you and everyone in your family. Now you’re responsible for a web site and email without paying a dime. To make this set up complete, register a URL and pay dyndns.org a one time fee for handling it. Check out the different web sites for detailed FAQs ( frequently asked questions ) and how-to’s. Of course this is against most ISP regulations, so proceed at your own risk.

Lots of options available from the simple web based email forwarding to running your own mail server. A little time is all it takes.

There’s only one way to describe Counter Strike; a PC phenomenon.  For those few who haven’t heard of it, here’s a short history.  Half Life, a first person shooter with an excellent plot and gameplay, was released some two years ago.  With it came the ability to make modifications to the game and make new graphics, sounds and environments, collectively titled “mods” by the gaming community.  The most famous of Half Life’s mods is called Counter Strike, and is a strictly multiplayer game of terrorists versus counter terrorists.  It has become popular enough for Sierra to release a retail version of the game, and at any given time has thousands of players logged into the servers.  I had read about it here and there, but didn’t bother installing my copy until two weeks ago.  Big mistake; now I’m hooked and spend all my free time taking down terrorists with extreme prejudice.

What’s enthralling is that this a complete modification of Half Life; everything from characters, weapons and animation to maps and structures has been changed.  The two main designers have essentially made a new game using free tools.  Using an existing game engine is common, but normally involves licensing and fees; by using the freely available mod tools and putting in a lot of work the “normal” route was circumvented.

The gameplay concept is so simple as to be completely addictive.  Logging into a server gives you a choice of terrorist or counter terrorist, and one of four groups within those.  These are really just to give a variety of looks for the two groups and doesn’t affect gameplay; it’s good guys versus bad guys.  Once in the game and depending on the map there are two possible goals; terrorists plant a bomb and detonate or counter terrorists rescue hostages.  That’s about it; go through the game killing the enemy and accomplishing your goal.

There is a choice of equipment available, divided into five groups: pistols, sub machine guns, rifles, machine guns and equipment.  Firing Squad has recently posted an excellent guide to the weapons of Counter Strike, and I advise to give that a good read.  Items are purchased from money acquired by completing missions and getting kills; if you keep getting killed early every time you won’t build up any cash.  Each weapon has advantages and disadvantages, so you’ll find yourself trying all of them out and then sticking with one or two. I find myself using the Colt 5.56mm automatic rifle with silencer most of the time, as I enjoy the muffled shots and stealth aspect of it.

Aside from the stunning graphics and rapid gameplay, the appeal of Counter Strike is the brevity of missions and the ability to jump right in.  Missions last around four minutes each, or until everyone is dead. If you’ve got 20 minutes to kill you log in, play five games and leave.  The entire game is about fast action and quick reflexes; it gets you going.

There are two ways to get Counter Strike; buy the retail version or buy a copy of Half Life and download the Counter Strike mod.  Either way it’s a great investment and a great waste of time.

Whenever a game comes along with a new spin, you just have to check it out. Just such a title appeared: Tropico from Gathering Of Developers. You are a dictator of a small Caribbean island, and it’s your job to make it what you will. Tropico follows in the vein of “God” games, where you control the infrastructure and watch how it plays out with the inhabitants. The best of this genre has been the Impression’s series, of which Pharaoh was a personal favourite. How does Tropico stack up to the competition? Rather than ramble off the features, here’s the scoop direct from the developer, web site.

On a tiny island nation in an all but uncharted corner of the Caribbean, your destiny awaits as newly installed dictator of a small island nation. Welcome to Tropico. You must build a path of progress for a country mired in poverty, civil unrest and infighting. After all, from where else will you skim to build your personal fortune?

Tropico provides you over 85 unique structures, from hotels and spas to stimulate the tourist trade, to rum distilleries and cigar factories to keep the trade deficit in check. You’ll have to keep your quest for personal wealth under control to keep the citizens content with their daily lives. Fail to make them happy and they’ll storm your palace grounds and hang you out to dry with the tobacco leaves!

PopTop Software has created a graphically stunning building game flavoured with the spice of Latin American political intrigue. Tropico is a challenging gaming experience that will keep you coming back for more. It’s good to be a dictator!

Now let’s discuss how well it plays out, looking at graphics, sound and gameplay.

Gameplay is fairly straight forward and follows the genre to the letter. A series of pre-scripted missions can be played or you can determine the map by selecting the environment you want, such as area, difficulties, etc. You place buildings and the inhabitants do their thing; citizens must live close to a building to work there. A bit of a spin there, as buildings don’t produce “walkers” that roam the map, but citizens move from work to home to entertainment, etc. You have a friendly advisor that keeps popping up with important needs that have to be addressed. What I missed was watching building development; once a building is placed and construction completed, it doesn’t change. I enjoyed the construction aspect, but would have liked to see residents decorate their houses or businesses change the exterior a bit.

Your goal in general is to bring a level of development and prosperity to your island. Beginning with a small budget, you develop commerce and trade to finance tourism, expansion and infrastructure. Each piece needs the other to grow, and it’s up to you to keep things meshed. The citizens demand types of lifestyle choices ( diversions ) like entertainment and religion; if it’s not provided you face the consequences. Your advisor lets you know when something is needed.

To make your mark as ruler, key “political” options are made available. You can be benevolent, brutal or somewhere in between. Parks and national holidays or citizens vanishing in the night. Ties with the U.S. or Russia produce their own bonuses and negatives, as do trade negotiations and bribes. Lots of options available to “dictate” as one sees fit.

Graphically, the game is right in line with the genre, equaling Caesar III and Pharaoh.  Detailed buildings and characters make for visual appeal; since the map can be rotated and zoomed, you get a full four sided view of everything on the island with minute detail. The animations are smooth and suit the genre accordingly.

Sound is key in this type of game, as the clatter of citizens and commerce give you a sense of “being there”. Tropico doesn’t disappoint, and made me feel a part of the island. Sound is general as you move across the map, but focused when you select a building.

Bringing it all together we get a well rounded and playable “God” game. While this genre is beginning to feel stale and long in the tooth, Tropico brings enough variety and humour to the table to make it unique. Don’t take my word for it; grab the demo and see for yourself. If you purchase the game, be sure and download the patch immediately.

Tropico provided courtesy of Gathering Of Developers

Zeus: Master Of Olympus provided courtesy of Sierra.

Lately there hasn’t been much time for game playing, but during those scant free minutes I managed to finish Rune. In case you haven’t heard of it, Rune is a third person hack ‘n slash about Ragnar, a Viking youth sent against the forces of evil to save the world from Ragnarok.  To aid on the journey All Father Odin appears with long monologues to move through the story.  Now that we have some background let’s get into the meat of the game.

Based on the Unreal 3D engine, Rune is just beautiful to look at.  Take a look at the screenshots and judge for yourself.  Fortunately you don’t get much time to stand around as you’re too busy killing everything in site with your assortment of fifteen melee weapons.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The game is made up of various settings as you fight through the land, from the pits of Hell to dwarven mountains to your own village.  Each setting is accurately modeled and detailed in a lush and naturalistic way, from flowing waterfalls to blazing pools of lava.

On your journey through these lands you encounter a good mixture of enemies.  Giant beetles, undead warriors, Vikings, dwarves and a few more fight on your every turn.  While the creatures were well done in terms of visual appeal, there wasn’t enough variety. In total there are about ten different enemies to face, and I didn’t like the fact that I faced those beetles at the beginning and all through the game.  The best creatures were the Wendols: an abominable snowman like cat-beast that was tough to face.

Weapons are highly detailed, as is the entire game.  Three categories to work with: swords, axes and hammers, with five weapons per category. You get better weapons as you work through the game, but keep in mind certain weapons do better damage to certain situations.  Each weapon in the hierarchy does more damage but is heavier and slower to use; trade offs have to be made.  I found myself using the three headed or tri-mace for a lot of the game because it had a good balance and the forward attack was an upswing that did the deed.

Combat is handled simply and effectively; one attack button and four movements allow for a variety of swings and swipes.  Moving forward and attacking with the mace has an upward swing while moving left is a side slash.  Circle strafing is easy to do once you get the hang of the system, and will be needed to finish the game.

Gameplay is straightforward and effective.  You move through the levels killing everything and trying to find your way out. Puzzles abound, but none are too difficult.  All in all a killing fest with a story line to move you along.  Stress relief at it’s finest.

Two enhancements are available to aid you: Rune stones and Berserker rage.  You collect Rune stones throughout the game, and activate your Rune power to get special damage with the weapons.  Each weapon has a different special effect, like invisibility with the hand axe and a blazing fire ring with the tri-mace.  The better the weapon the more Rune power it takes to get the special attack, so judge carefully and use only when necessary. Berserker rage is built up from each blow you strike an enemy; after your red bar hits the end you experience a frenzied attack that does massive damage.  Comes in very handy.

Two nice side features; torches and limbs.  You can use torches to light your way through the dark tunnels, and if they extinguish just place them in a fire to relight. You can also use them to light enemies on fire and watch them scream and run around.  When you hack limbs or heads off of enemies, you can pick them up and throw them or use them for attacks.  There’s nothing like clubbing a ghoul with it’s own severed arm. Which brings up a good point: there is a bit of gore, so keep this one out of the kiddie’s hands.

Rune from Gathering Of Developers and Human Head Studios is a great third person melee game.  Go to here to grab a demo and see for yourself.

Rune provided courtesy of Gathering Of Developers.

I’ve just finished the single player game of Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault ( MOHAA ) and all I can say is “wow”. Like most I’ve grown tired of the first person shooter single player game and sought out online action in Counter Strike and Day of Defeat. How many times can you move through levels killing everything in your path, meeting so-so AI ( artificial intelligence ) and flicking switches. After playing MOHAA it seems worth doing one more time.

Here’s the background story: it’s World War Two and you’re an officer in the OSS ( Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA ). Over the course of six missions and twenty levels you’re all over Europe accomplishing a wide variety of missions. You’ll move from standard hunt down and eliminate to tank driving to sniping to all out assaults. MOHAA keeps the missions fresh enough to maintain interest the entire way.

Gameplay is exciting, challenging and engrossing; everything a game should be.  MOHAA is based on the Quake III engine and delivers stunning graphics through the interactive environment and quality character modeling. Lighting and sound play a huge part, drawing you into every level. There are some straightforward shoot and run levels at the beginning, but as you progress stealth and skill take the foreground.

The best levels involve your character skulking around with a bolt action sniper rifle and a single shot silenced pistol. You need to get up close and personal to kill with the pistol, but it must be cocked after each shot so it has to be “one shot one kill”. The sniper rifle is beautifully used throughout the second half of the game, combining slow and patient movements with lightening reflexes when your opportunity for a shot comes. Excuse me for gushing, but until MOHAA I’ve never been drawn into a game environment so completely.

Along with those two there are a bevy of World War Two weapons, American and German. Some unusual choices include a bazooka for one on ones with tanks and a shotgun for hallway encounters. Nothing out of place, but enough choice to satisfy.

Each level has a series of objectives that must be completed. To help you find your objectives a compass sits in the top left corner, with an arrow that points your way. As you get closer to the objective two balls on either side of the arrow move closer together. Of course going straight to the goal usually brings you into the heaviest opposition and certain death, but it guides the way quite nicely.

Enemy AI isn’t too bad for a shooter, with the usual charge and shoot. A few new features include the enemy sticking their weapon around a corner and firing, or peaking over the edge of a crate and sniping. With so much sniper action in the game it’s quite frustrating at times being killed a bunch of times before you even figure out where the shots are coming from.

Let me share two great experiences. You’re in a landing craft hitting the Normandy beach. Bullets are whizzing around you as the door drops and those in front get cut down. You tumble into the water and head for protection. All around you shells are exploding, bullets flying and fellow soldiers screaming. It’s a fantastic recreation of the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. A few levels away you have to clear a town of enemy snipers, building by building. Creeping along the walls you keep switching to scope trying to find the enemies. No sound but your footsteps. Pop your head out and take a quick look. I could cut the tension with a knife. A fantastic homage to Enemy At The Gates.

Requirements to get MOHAA at full detail are daunting, but everything can be scaled down until you’re happy. My main system ran fine at 1280×1024 with every detail set to maximum. I tried a few levels at 800×600 with minimum detail and I was still drawn in completely, but it’s hard to go back once you’ve seen full textures on the buildings, sky and characters.

It took me the better part of three weeks worth of nights to finish the game, which is pretty good by today’s standards. I couldn’t get the multiplayer working; you have to use Gamespy arcade and it never let me connect to a game. I’m told it’s better than Day Of Defeat, but I’ll have to see for myself.

I’d like to take a moment and mention the packaging. Electronic Arts is now using a small box format for it’s titles; basically a cardboard box the size of a DVD case but three times as thick. This is a great step towards ideal packaging, with a DVD case only being the best. CDV is doing this now, as has Firaxis games in the past.

If you enjoy the genre and want a fantastic experience then pick up a copy of Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault. Of course don’t take my word for it: single player and multiplayer demos are available.

I love the expansion pack. Take a game I’ve spent hours enjoying, add more to it and let me enjoy it for a more hours. Not much new to learn, just more of the same good times with more added. I had laboured for countless hours playing Sudden Strike, a RTS ( real time strategy ) title set in World War Two. For a full rundown check out my review.

Let’s get right to it: what does Sudden Strike Forever bring to the table? The biggest items are difficulty levels, a ton of new units and new map types. Also of note are new multiplayer games and maps, the separation of Allies into Britain and United States, movement types and better experience handling.

As I played through the original, I found myself reaching a map with each side where no matter what I couldn’t win. Now the option of selecting difficulty allows some latitude, choosing between easy, medium and hard. Truth be told, I’m still having trouble on the easy setting. Sudden Strike requires a commitment from it’s players; you can’t expect to proceed through the game without learning it’s secrets.

If you thought the number of units was dizzying before, prepare yourself. More than 30 new units have been added, balancing out the sides and providing unique items to each force. Along with the new weapons is the ability for vehicles to back up, which was a real pain in the original. Now you can reverse and fire on oncoming enemies.

The new map types give some variety to the terrain. Battles take place on deserts, plus summer, winter and autumn. A small thing but it breaks up the maps.

As with any expansion pack, new missions have been added. Twelve single player and twenty multiplayer bring some new challenges. Multiplayer maps had been about capturing zeppelins to gain reinforcements; now you can play with a set number of troops and not worry about dashing around the map with empty supply trucks trying to hold every zeppelin.

Previously officers added better line of sight to units; now they add experience to any troops close to them. As well officers can use their binoculars for determining field of view.

Something many will appreciate is a map editor. While I don’t enjoy tinkering much, the number of maps available on the internet indicate I’m a minority. Customize to your hearts content; a ton of options available here make designing custom maps each to do.

To bottom line Sudden Strike Forever is to say it adds more of what you enjoyed in the original. If you had a good time before, get this title.

Sudden Strike Forever provided courtesy of CDV.

Quite a few games from Europe have caused a stir in North America, but none as much as Sudden Strike.  This real time strategy cleaned up the awards from the European gaming community last year and has finally hit our shores.

Sudden Strike wowed me from the get go for it’s straight forward gameplay and excellent graphics. I say this in the face of quite a few negative reviews I’ve read, all of which seem to miss the point of this title.

This is a real time strategy game set in World War II.  Playing allies, Germans or Russians ( should be Soviets ) you start each mission with an excellent briefing outlining objectives and opportunities.  You’re assigned a set number of troops and must complete the mission with what you’ve got.  If you’re lucky reinforcements, supplies or air support are provided to assist in meetings your goals.  There’s no building, harvesting resources or training involved: you’ve got what your given and that’s it.

A variety of units are at your disposal, but fall into four categories; troops, armour, artillery and support.  Each category has a variety of units available, and all four categories must be used together to finish the missions.  Officers have the best sighting, and should be used with artillery that have the best range but poor sighting.  Infantry and tanks must advance together or you’ll loose.  While the variety is plentiful it gets hard to distinguish units at the highest resolution of 1024×768; I separate my units into groups and use them like that to keep things organized.

The key to the game is managing what you have effectively, repairing your units, retreating if necessary. We’ve become so used to just building a fleet of whatever the best unit is and swarming the enemy.  Rushing the enemy just doesn’t work, because you’ll be crushed by artillery before you know what happened.

Gameplay is smooth but slow.  Since you’ve got to really plan each advance and attack a mission might take 3 or 4 hours.  To ease this a bit you can pause the game, issue orders and then resume.  The graphics are simply gorgeous, with rich details and smooth operation.  Sound is a so-so affair, with some language problems and muddled dialogue.  The entire map can be destroyed, from houses and bridges to trees and shrubs.  By the end of a mission black craters cover the landscape from your artillery and tank shells.

Controlling units is straight forward: click on a unit and a square with 9 boxes appears at the bottom. Depending on the unit some or all of the boxes will be used providing options like assault, cover, stop, attack, repair.  Dragging a box around a group selects them all, and double clicking a unit selects all of that type currently on the screen.  Assign groups to hotkeys, same as all the other real time strategy titles.

Multiplayer is handle much differently than others.  You pick a map, team and nationality and the game launches.  Scattered around the map are zeppelins; capture them all and eliminate the opponents to win.  If you don’t have a zeppelin you loose in 5 minutes.  Capture enemy zeppelins to receive precious reinforcements.  At first I didn’t like this at all, but it seems to be the only fair way to do it.  If one side had to capture and one defend, then the defenders would have an undue advantage.  How else could you fairly give reinforcements, but by taking ground from the enemy?

The game’s not perfect, but the faults are few.  I keep having trouble with trucks getting stuck in the woods and not being able to get out.  As well the sound is buggy, and the infantry units are quite small.  In the grand scheme small problems indeed for such and excellent game.

Don’t take my word for it: grab a copy of the demo and see for yourself.

Sudden Strike provided courtesy of Strategy First.