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 …