Blast from the past: originally published April 3rd 2001.

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 …

Blast from the past: originally published August 20th 2001.

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 …

Blast from the past: originally published December 30th 2002.
Christmas is almost upon us, so that means our loved ones have to buy us something. They’re looking for dropped hints, circled catalogue pages and the like. For gaming enthusiasts, this is a frightful situation. These best intentioned people will wonder into a computer shop and say “what game should I buy my son/boyfriend/nephew?” And how the salesman will love to dump some piece of crap, assuring the purchaser how every gamer wants this title. Lucky for us Microsoft has launched a major ad campaign this season …

Blast from the past: originally published October 2000.
A game run that has been near and dear to my heart is the City Building series from Impressions. From Caesar II on I have been an avid fan of building a city, meeting the needs of the citizens and watching everything flourish.  Impressions’ unique concept of having the gamer place the buildings and then watching the people emerge and work the streets has kept me coming back each time. After Caesar 3, Pharaoh and Pharaoh: Cleopatra we see the latest work: Zeus, Master Of …

Blast from the past: originally published December 22nd 2000.

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 …

Blast from the past: originally published April 18th 2002.

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 …

Blast from the past: originally published October 19th 2001.

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 .
Let’s get right to it: what does Sudden Strike Forever bring to the table? The biggest items are …

Blast from the past: originally published March 9th 2001.

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 …

Blast from the past: originally published June 17th 2003.

Next up is American Conquest from CDV. Not a big name in North America, but they’ve has a lot of European hits like Sudden Strike and Cossacks. American Conquest is a real time strategy game set in the Americas from the Spaniards arrival to American independence.
This is a big game, with 42 missions and 12 nations or tribes to play. It provides some innovation, albeit slight. It’s a traditional real time strategy: collect resources, build a base, pump out …

Blast from the past: originally published June 17th 2003.

Unreal II is the follow up to the huge first person shooter hit of many years ago from Epic. You run a small ship and get sent on mission killing bad guys. Cut scenes fill in the story, as do refits and mission briefings aboard your ship before each new level. Unreal II is a standard first person shooter: run around shooting things, getting new weapons and solving simple puzzles to advance. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
What’s …

Blast from the past: originally published August 28th 2001.
After a week of furious mouse and keyboard movement I’ve finished Max Payne. If you have any interest in PC gaming, you’ve heard it mentioned. Amazing visuals wrapped around a compelling story and straight forward action. I tried to contain myself, but this title is a sensational asset to any first person shooter’s library. Let me break it down by gameplay, graphics and environment.
You are Max Payne, tough as nails cop who is pursuing the killers of his family. I don’t want …

To create some buzz for the upcoming Red Alert 3 Electronic Arts has released the original Red Alert for free.
Command & Conquer Red Alert

Can’t favor one system over another, so Dungeon Siege: Legends Of Aranna has occupied my free time for the last three weeks. Some may remember the original title from a few years ago: this is a follow up slash expansion, somewhere right in the middle. Legends Of Aranna follows the same game style: a third person point and click fighting game based on a fantasy genre, like Dungeons and Dragons or Diablo. You work your way through the world, fighting monsters, acquiring new weapons, armor and equipment, adding teammates, trying to finish various …

Rome Total War ( RTW ) is the best game I’ve ever played. There, I said it. I could quantify it by saying I love strategy games and this is the best of that genre, but the first statement holds true. Creative Assembly’s last game Medieval Total War also received a glowing review from yours truly. A combination of turn based strategy and real time strategy bridge genres and make a compelling title.
The time is more or less the rise of the Roman empire. You choose one of three houses and receive missions from …

Being a true die hard fan of RTS ( real time strategy ) games, I had to give MechCommander 2 a try. The original had come out a few years ago, but I had missed out on that one and didn’t want to repeat that error. I’m a little behind the rest of the press pack on this review, but I was slow installing it. On the surface MechCommander 2 appears to be a limited RTS title, but just like your mother says it’s what’s inside that counts.
After an uneventful install I fired …

I think most game players are familiar with the two concepts of Medieval: Total War that make it such a compelling and enjoyable title. Take the turn based play of Risk ( or Axis & Allies ) and add real time combat. This simple idea of combining real time strategy with turn based strategy games makes this second title from the Total War series a must have
A few years ago Creative Assembly developed their first title in the series, Shogun: Total War. It was a huge hit and won a ton of awards …

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is an easy win for longest game title of the year. Fortunately it’s also the best first or third person shooter so far this year. This time around is the most immersive game in the Star Wars universe, or more specifically the world of the Jedi.
Any guy after watching a Star Wars film has the overwhelming urge to run through a pack of storm troopers swinging a lightsaber and doing heavy damage. Jedi Academy puts you in the role of a new student under the tutelage of …

This article originally appeared in the March 2003 issue of L.A.I.D. Magazine.  Published online February 28th 2003, edited September 15th 2003.
Counter-strike is one of the true game success stories of the last decade. Two guys wanted to modify Sierra’s Half-Life to make it a terrorist versus counter terrorist. They chose Half-Life because the developers of the game, Valve Software, released tools and information on the net. And so Counter-strike was born, and the term “mod” became common vocabulary for the gaming community. It’s so successful that Valve has taken the …

It’s been a while since I loaded up a first person shooter: I’m a big fan of real time strategy games and haven’t felt the need to rapid hand and eye coordination. Saw a few screenshots of Medal Of Honor Airborne and thought to give it a spin.
The box give the game basics, and in truth you don’t need more. You’re part of the American airborne dropping into six different locations to defeat the Nazi’s. Installation went smooth and I adjusted the configuration to give me maximum graphic details.
You start …

Iron Lore and THQ have finally released an expansion for the hit game Titan Quest. I played through the original twice: you can play it three times, each at a new difficulty level. To be clear, this review is for those who have already played Titan Quest and want to know about this expansion pack, Immortal Throne.
As I said I finished Epic mode in Titan Quest and was anxious to play Immortal Throne. After installation I imported my existing player and started in Normal mode. I …