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 for it’s latest PC title, Age Of Mythology.

In case you’ve just slipped out from under your rock, this is the third in a series of real time strategy games developed by Ensemble Studios. Defining real time strategy (RTS)games is simple: you collect material, build a base, pump out troops and massacre your opponent. Troops break down into a rock-paper-scissors scenario, with each unit able to slaughter something, but can also be slaughtered by something else. In the end it’s all about balance. Of course that’s a very simplistic definition, but we do have to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

I’m sure if you play PC games you’ve run across other RTS titles like Age of Empires, Warcraft, Starcraft, Command and Conquer or Dune II. Each one a great game, giving us the same basics but in different settings and backdrops. Whether it’s barbarians, Greeks, orcs or Fremen, there’s nothing like managing your group of people into a fighting force and smashing all who dare oppose you.

Which brings us, finally, to Age Of Mythology (www.ageofmythology.com), or AoM. This time around you’ll command ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Norse to battle an ancient evil and save the world. The single player game weaves a fairly compelling story through 36 missions, progressing through in-game cinematics before and after each mission. It was nice and explained why you as the player was moving around the globe. Of course people play to fight, not to save the world.

AoM differentiates itself from the pack by involving the pantheon of gods that each of these civilizations was known for. During each mission you progress to four different ages, allowing for new units, technologies and powers. To make each player unique you choose of one two different gods for each age. These gods grant unique powers and myth units; mythological creatures that are costly but powerful. A nice twist and definitely a standout feature.

Another “new” item in the RTS field this year is the hero, a very powerful unit that is regenerated on the battlefield ad infinitum. Not enough to sway the game, but helpful early on when you’re getting your butt kicked.

Graphically AoM is very nice. Ensemble Studios has created the game using a 3D engine, allowing for a lot of eye candy. Seaweed moves with the waves, trees look natural, and of course units stand out nicely. Some items are a tad blocky, but that comes from the small sizes and detail required. It didn’t take away from the game at all.

Moving use along to gameplay. Each civilization has completely different units, doing mostly the same thing. Greeks have archers, Egyptians have slingers and Norse have axe men. All of them are a projectile unit, but are varied enough to flesh out the game. The unit balance is great, forcing you to have a variety of troops to counter your opponents. Not like the old days when you built one über mensch and flooded the enemy, a.k.a. the “tank rush”. You know who you are. When you finish the single player game, move on to internet opponents or design your own levels via the mission editor. It’s the game that never ends.

A few problems. The RTS genre really hasn’t changed from Dune II ten years ago. Of course the same could be said for first person shooters like Wolfenstein 3D to Unreal II. I played using Windows XP Professional and my ATI Radeon 8500 video card. Even with the latest drivers I was getting video lockups at random intervals. Annoying, but frequent saves allowed me to finish the title without throwing something.

Let me sum it up: Age Of Mythology is a great game if you like real time strategy titles. Nice graphics, smooth gameplay and enough new items to make it fresh. Don’t take my word for it: download a trial version from the link listed above.

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 Olympus.

What makes Zeus any different from the others?  The obvious choice is the setting of ancient Greece, with direct involvement from the pantheon of Greek gods.  For those not familiar with the series let me elaborate on the basic premises.

You start each level with a goal; so much housing, goods or accomplishments met to complete.  You then move on to the map; early levels are landscape requiring you to build everything.  You start by building houses, roads, water supplies, food production, distribution, maintenance, culture, etc.  Buildings work in two ways; housing draws settlers in, and all other buildings send out a representative to the community.  For housing to develop and draw more people, it has to be passed by various representatives providing goods and services to that house.  For example: the base housing requires food, water, oil, culture, fleece to evolve to it’s highest standing.  But if it’s close to undesirable buildings such as farms, industrial or trading centers then it won’t fully develop.  You make money by trading goods with other cities, so you have to produce excess goods to trade.  This requires more workers, which you’ll get by improving housing.  Housing is improved by goods and services, requiring more industry and trade.  And so the circle of life goes on, presenting many challenges and a lot of fun.

This is the same for all of Impression’s Building series, so if you like to sound of it pick up some of the older titles in the bargain bins.  Zeus expands upon the genre by having direct involvement with the gods; you must build temples to the gods, and then they come to walk the city streets. They then provide benefits; Ares goes with you to war, Aphrodite increases housing.  Hero halls are also built to summon Hercules or Jason to slay creatures on your map.  Both of these buildings require a lot of resources which must be stockpiled before you can summon your chosen deity.

Another addition is the ability to keep other cities as vassals and receive annual tribute.  The world map shows various city states that you trade with; you can spy, send an army or wrangle tribute from your neighbours.

Restrictions on housing evolution have been loosened as well; now two classes of housing are available, base and upper class.  This provides two benefits; each class of housing now doesn’t have to take so long to reach their peak, and can’t fall so fast when things get rocky in the city. I’ve found that each successive game from Impressions has relaxed the rules of placement, distribution and evolution of structures to give more enjoyment to the gamer.

Along with farms and fishing wharves, sheep and goat herding is provided as a food source.  The animation has a more cartoony feel, and everything about the game is more light hearted.  The sounds of city life are excellent, and the music stays in the background.

A winning strategy for improving the series, but I get the feel as I play through it that Impressions’ run on building empires should come to an end.  Even with the boatload of changes, you’re still going through the same motions of build, monitor and advance.

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 troops and defeat your opponents. You have to mine wood, gold, iron, coal and stone to construct buildings and troops. There’s no real population limit, so pump out as many workers as possible and bring in the resources.

Fighting has been tweaked to provide more realism: troop formations including officers, standard bearers and drummers give a structured feel to the game. Morale plays a huge role, as the enemy bears down on you and your weaker troops break and run away. Even better is the ever used resource system: the more shots your troops use, the more iron is consumed. When you run out of iron your troops can’t shoot anymore. Bigger units require more resources, comparing cannons to muskets.

American Conquest is a game on a grand scale, and as such requires a lot of management. Computer opponents turn out troops at a ridiculous rate, flooding you in opposition. I think my mouse is worn out from all the clicking I did to build troops. I threw several thousand troops at an enemy base and still didn’t come close to any sort of victory. I stopped playing simply because the game required too much time and energy: I like a challenge but this is too much.

Multiplayer is another story completely. I love this period of history and became engrossed in the options available in the game. Human opponents are the best, and build troops and gather resources at a…human pace.

A demo is available at www.americanconquest.de, so grab a copy and see for yourself. American Conquest is an engaging real time strategy, but illustrates why other games put a cap on units and resources.

This article originally appeared in L.A.I.D. Magazine May 2003 issue.

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 brought to the table this time around? Stunning graphics and an immersive environment. I should say that I tested this with my main system, an AMD Athlon 2400+, 2 GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. High end components, but that’s what’s needed to play with all the eye candy jacked to max.

From the get go you see how beautiful this game is. Wide open levels, smooth animations, naturalistic environments. Flames have to be seen to be believed and appreciated. Sounds effects add to the overall “immersion” and do their job, as does the music.

Like most first person shooters, Unreal II is best appreciated at night in a dark room. Unfortunately this one is too much like all the rest; nothing really innovating or new to advance the genre. There’s no demo, but check out the website at www.unreal2.com and have a look see.

This article originally appeared in L.A.I.D. Magazine May 2003 issue.

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 reveal too much of the story, but you can get that much from the web site. Two aspects give this title compelling gameplay: a real storyline and “bullet time”.

After playing so many shooters with a threadbare story, I was completely drawn into this new and exciting style. The story is portrayed two ways; via graphic novel style stills and in game animation. Max narrates the story and through comic book panels reveals pieces of the story. This occurs as new pieces of information or character involvement come to light. The in game animation is done with the game engine and normally places you in a difficult situation, such as meeting a key enemy and being surrounded by goons. You become involved in the plot twists and are driven to see what new development will occur. The story isn’t an afterthought; it’s part and parcel with the action.

A shiny new feature to the third person shooter genre is bullet time, a John Woo style slow motion action sequence you control. Bullet time takes the game into slow motion, allowing you to aim your shots and give yourself an edge when there’s no way you could normally win. A small hourglass shows how much bullet time you have; it’s accumulated by killing enemies, but is used up quickly. Two ways to take advantage of it; you can use a small portion by using a bullet time dive, or you can activate bullet time and move through the scenario. The dives are useful for an enemy in a tough location, but it’s only good for one or two shots. For a room with three or four goons, you engage it and hope you kill everyone before your hourglass runs out. Either way it’s great to use and very helpful in difficult situations.

Gameplay, aside from bullet time, is like all other third person shooters. The camera hovers over your right shoulder as you run, crouch, jump and shoot your way through a multitude of enemies. It’s a proven formula and works here as well. A short tutorial gives you the basics needed to play, and you’re off. A fairly large selection of real world weapons, ranging from pistols though shotguns and rifles to grenades and Molotov cocktails. Some puzzles are mixed in, but nothing too tricky to distract from the “elimination” of the enemy.

Graphics are top notch; one look at the screenshots and you know quality abounds. Faces have been carefully modeled and really add to the overall experience. I found the bodies to be a bit blocky, but it didn’t detract. Drifting snow, flames, bullet riddled walls, everywhere you turn a beautiful environment to run amok. Lots of graphic options available to scale with the power of your computer; I played through at 1024x768x32 with trilinear filtering. The only problem is the fast pace of the game doesn’t give you time to stop and admire the virtual world.

Which leads up to environment, or how sound and vision come together to give us a sense of immersion. Sound in the game is excellent, from chatting guards to explosions and gunshots. I played with a four speaker set up and found the ambient sounds really put me into the game. Max Payne’s gritty monologue throughout was great, as were the other characters. There are two levels where you’ve been drugged and must face your nightmares; the weird graphics and screams spooked me completely. That’ll teach me to play at night.

This brings me to the weak points. Max Payne is played through one night, so the environment is dark; so dark I couldn’t play during the day. I didn’t mind playing at night since it added to the ambiance, but it does detract. There has been a lot of talk on the net regarding the short play time, but I found it took around 20 hours to go at a reasonable pace and get the full effect. Once you finish the game two different modes are revealed: New York Minute and Hard Boiled. New York minute gives a time limit per level, while Hard Boiled makes the enemies more difficult. I don’t want to instantly replay the game, but in a few weeks I’ll go back and try these on for size. Of course there’s no multiplayer option, since Max Payne is driven by the story and wouldn’t fit with net play ala Counter Strike.  Wait and see where Remedy next uses the engine.

All in all an excellent shooter with a fantastic story and thrilling environment. Run, don’t walk, and buy this game.  Those less trusting can check out the demo and see for themselves.

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 quests assigned as you and your party progress.

Play begins by defining a character’s physical traits and getting the introductory quest and story. As you go along characters are encountered that offer to join your party: you can have a total of eight, including pack animals. Characters fall into four groups and are defined by their area of expertise: melee combat, ranged combat, nature magic and combat magic. These traits rise and they are employed, so a fighter will finish the game at around level 30 melee combat. Three traits define your character’s ability to use weapons, armor and spells: strength, dexterity and intelligence. These rise with usage as well, but go along with your area of expertise. A melee combat fighter will see their strength steadily rise, their dexterity and intelligence crawling up.

In the end it’s all about killing creatures and getting goodies. Your team can be managed according to their abilities: the melee fighters can be set to attack enemies at will, while nature magicians can stay at the back casting spells and engaging in combat only to defend themselves. That’s why a healthy mix of party members guarantees winning every fight.

Multiplayer is well handled, allowing you to import a single player character and use them over the internet or via LAN play. As well you can import a player from the original Dungeon Siege. It’s not rehashed maps: the multiplayer world is an extension of the single player, and doubles the playability.

Dungeon Siege: Legends Of Aranna is the best of the hack and slash PC games. It allows for varied resolutions and the ability to zoom into the action or pan out for the big picture. Graphically it’s very immersive and smooth, bringing you into the virtual world. Sound was good overall, but the players used canned phrases at the strangest times. The story is important as it defines why you have to meet the various quests, and a sense of accomplishment is felt at the end of the adventure. In the end it’s an excellent value for your time and money.

Check it out at www.dungeonsiege.com: download a demo and see for yourself.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published January 9th 2004.

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 the Roman senate. They’re basically the same, but each goes in a different direction: red goes north, blue goes south east, green goes south west. You will face the various empires of the time: Carthage, Egypt, Greece, Macedon, Gaul, Britannia, etc. As the game progresses the Roman empire has some upheaval and you’re forced to unite the three houses under yourself and conquer the known world, or fifty provinces ( territories ) in the game and hold Rome. As you crush empires, conquering all their territories, they become available to play should you like to play again and again as I seem addicted to doing.

The game is made of two parts: a map turn based portion and a real time strategy battlefield. You administer your territories, build units and new buildings, upgrade and such from the map and then as you move armies into conflict you go to the battlefield and command.

The strategy map shows all territories and is colour coded based on empire and what is visible. That’s right, fog of war covers everything you don’t have troops close to. From this map you lay out your conquering, build troops and buildings, assign governors and collect taxes. As well family members are born and come of age to join you, marriages are proposed, treaties and demands from other empires received, and the list goes on. Each round you receive a list of items that occurred and must be dealt with.

As you expand into new territories the day to day dealings really start to add up, but they’re important to the game. Each territory has a city that must be captured to take control and add that territory to your empire. You can have “advisors”, i.e. the computer, handle these for you and just do the battles, or you can handle everything yourself and let the computer handle the battles for you, or be the complete do it yourself kind of person.

This leads us to the battle map, and the rich graphics shown in our screen shots above. Yes, they are screen shots: you can zoom all the way in to get amazing detail and then pull back to get a total battlefield handle on your troops. Your troops are broken into regiments ( squads ), size depending on troop type and empire you’re playing. Each squad is represented by a banner along the bottom of your screen. Click on the units themselves or their banner to move them and give orders. If you’ve played a RTS before you’ll be right at home here, with easy direction and grouping for your army. When you hit the battle map troops can be arranged and then it’s go time; luckily you don’t need frantic mouse clicks to win. I found myself zoomed out most of the time covering the entire battlefield, but the lush graphics beg for zooming in to see details up close and personal.

In the early game resources are tight and every troop is needed, so it’s imperative to command the battles yourself. Later on let the computer handle your battles if you want the game to move at a decent pace; I found myself dedicating sixty to eighty hours to win the game per empire. Needless to say replayability is very high.

Since the objective is to conquer, you need money and troops. The way to get more of each is to keep upgrading your towns and cities, getting better units and bringing in more cash with trade and production. Trade is key and comes about through your own empire or by signing a trade deal with other empires. This is a great boost but you can get the big hurt if your trading partners declare war and you lose that revenue stream.

This brings us to another facet of RTW: the sea. Every territory bordering water can build a dock and produce ships. Sea trade is available to all territories you are trading with, but the farther they are away the less money you’ll bring in. Trading vessels aren’t needed and can’t be built. This gives warships two purposes; keeping your own ports clear of enemies and dominating their economy by blockading their ports. Unfortunately you can’t fight naval battles and must let the computer handle them.

The other half of total victory is troops. As you develop cities you get better units falling into four categories: melee, ranged, cavalry, artillery. These vary greatly by empire, and around the half way mark of the game you’re at the elite units and building the best you have. Troops that survive encounters gain experience and fight better; this is the incentive for you to bring troops back to cities and retrain your regiments, filling in the dead with new recruits. Plus it’s a lot cheaper to retrain a regiment than building a new one.

A few tips for new players. Cities must be sieged, and this takes up to eleven turns based on it’s size. If you attack with artillery you can enter the city that same turn; it costs you in troops but you immediately can get that territory. To build troops and buildings in cities where you don’t have a governor uncheck the manage buttons for that city.

I loved this game and recommend it to anyone looking for an enjoyable PC war game. It transcends genres and deserves a look by all PC gamers.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published July 15th 2005.

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 up the game and was greeted by a standard load menu. Two single player options available; training or Carver V. It seems the game is set up to handle additional missions, but that must be at a later date. I chose the training and became acquainted with the controls and functions of the game. After four easily followed tutorials I was ready to command a group of Mechs.

Starting the Carver V campaign forced me to watch a group of FMV ( full motion video ) sequences giving me the gist of the story. Carver V was a planet that was to be the battleground for three Houses, mercenaries led by me and local resistance. For a better introduction to the Battletech universe check out the MechCommander 2 website. From there I proceeded through 23 missions to a victorious conquest of the planet.

You are a mercenary Mech Commander that leads a group of pilots through planned objectives. Each mission you pick which pilots will man what Battle Mech, your constraints being tonnage allowed. As usual, you start with a small pool of each and gain access to better equipment as the game progresses. Some unique aspects include experience and skills for your pilots, plus battlefield acquisition.

At the end of each mission surviving pilots gain experience that improves their abilities, plus moves them towards specialized skills that you pick from a list. Skills vary and aid missions, but I found overall experience made the biggest impact.

Recovering fallen Battle Mechs from the battlefield is a nice feature; anything you lost or defeated can be purchased for a discount and deployed or sold. Money comes into play by purchasing new Mechs or modifying existing designs. Again new weapons are added as you progress, so new Mechs and new modifications abound.

Let’s look at gameplay. The screens is fairly free of clutter, with information such as objectives and Mech specs available as overlays. Once the mission starts you can group your Mechs by using CTRL plus numbers 1-9, as in all RTS games. Mechs are broken down into short, medium and long range so this helps when attacking your targets. Move in the long range Mechs, start the attack and meet resistance with medium Mechs first followed by short range bruisers. Battles go as you’d expect: select your units, furiously click to attack and move on.

Resource points, collected by capturing enemy warehouses and supply trucks, can be used to call down support vehicles such as repair trucks, stationary cannons or new pilots. This is the best way to take fallen Mechs, as resource points cost nothing and can get you a fighting unit quickly. You can’t get more Mechs from your group during a mission, so manning fallen Mechs can really turn the tide.

Graphics are top notch, with various resolutions and colour depths available. Take a look at the screen shots and judge for yourself. I played at 1024×768 at 32 bit colour depth, as I do with every game. With a lot of activity on the screen I found everything getting a bit jerky, which is surprising with my main system. Sound got the job done, but it wasn’t surround which we’ve all become used to. Why don’t RTS games support surround sound? Hearing enemy Mechs moving in behind me could have helped, but probably not much.

Multiplayer is handled, surprise, on the Microsoft Zone. Find some competitors, start a game and choose a colour. Same great gameplay with up to eight players in head to head action. I didn’t get into it too deep, but it’s what you’d expect.

All in all a nice diversion from the standard RTS fair. Don’t take my word for it: grab the demo and see for yourself. Prepare to be surprised and entertained.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published October 19th 2001.

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 for melding the two genres. Shogun focused on feudal Japan and was great fun, spawning an excellent expansion pack. I just saw it at Costco this week for $20; if you haven’t played it grab a copy.

Late last year Activision released Medieval: Total War. This time around you’re one of twelve rulers of medieval Europe, western Asia or North Africa. Basically the known world at that time, to the Europeans anyway. The game’s timeline is 1095 to 1453, broken into three periods. You choose an empire to play and a starting age, then get to it. You can play a regular campaign with you as ruler, or play an historical campaign such and you play someone like Joan of Arc or Genghis Khan. The regular campaign leaves a lot of room for preference, and the historical let you relive some great history. A word of caution: I find myself spending 30-40 hours on a campaign, so be prepared. If you want something fast, you can play a single battle.

Medieval: Total War is all about balance. To succeed you must balance economy, diplomacy and military. Everything has to work together for you to get anywhere. A great tutorial walks you through the basics of the game, enough for you to get comfortable.

Most of your time will be spent on the strategy map. This looks a lot like a Risk board, where you position and move your armies, ambassadors and emissaries. Each province has to generate income and troops: to do so you construct buildings such as gold mines, troop training, forts and castles, farms, sea ports, etc. Without income, troops can’t be trained and no construction can take place. You can establish treaties and temporary peace with your neighbours to limit fighting on more than one front, through diplomacy, marriage, bribes or threats. Nothing like marrying off your daughters to buy some time.

Eventually diplomatic means will be exhausted and you will need to fight. You’re presented with two options: let the computer resolve the battle or take command on the battlefield yourself. Even though I enjoyed the battles, I let the computer resolve most of them for me to save time. To win you’ll need an even balance of troop types: foot soldiers, missile weapons, cavalry and assault troops. You’ve been lulled until now into thinking building a ton of crack troops can kick ass anywhere, a la Age of Empires or Command and Conquer. That just won’t work here or on a real battlefield.

Once you take control yourself and hit the field, you control squads of men, not individual troops. This is pretty straightforward and easy to get the hang of. Play a few practice battles in the tutorial and you’ll be ready. You begin by placing your formations and then starting. The graphics here are top notch, and you can zoom in and out to examine the detail or pull back to see all the action. Sounds are good, enough to give you a sense of immersion but not distracting.

I’ve only skimmed the surface of this great title. It’s been available a few months now, and I’ve been behind the curve here. Medieval: Total War is well worth the price of admission, if you’re a strategy fan. Don’t take my word for it: grab a demo and try it yourself.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published January 17th 2003.

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 Luke Skywalker at the, surprise, Jedi Academy. You uncover a big conspiracy and battle those who would use the power of the “dark side”, some years after Return Of The Jedi. Same plot as the rest, but the important thing is you get to become a Jedi Knight and kick serious ass with a lightsaber.

The game is basically broken into three parts, each with seven missions and big double sized mission in between. Levels range from frozen landscapes to city rooftops to ancient temples. Varied and fun. I blasted through the game in about twenty hours total, so I found it fulfilling but short.

You begin as a new student and choose your lightsaber handle and blade colour. As you finish each mission you’re given a force point to put into one of eight additional force powers: four light powers and four dark powers. I say additional because eight core force powers advance as you develop in the game. Core powers include push, pull, lightsaber throw, that kind of thing. The additional powers are where the funs lies: I maxed out heal, lightning and choke. If you spend too many points of dark powers you get a talking to from Luke, as the Jedi Academy is concerned you maintain a balance. Eventually you become a Jedi Knight and get to choose one of three lightsaber types: standard with three attack styles, dual lightsabers or the Dark Maul lightsaber staff. I chose the staff and never looked back. Well, I did look back by replaying that mission and trying all three types but found my first choice was the best.

Jedi Academy is all about action, and it delivers in spades. While you can use ranged weapons and explosives, you never have to leave the lightsaber. I used it throughout the game and fared quite well. When combined with force powers you can’t go wrong. Classic uses are force lightning when facing groups of enemies, as it fries them all. Facing enemies with force powers or lightsabers I used force choke on them for a little softening up, then moved in for the lightsaber kill. Of course you can’t forget about the lightsaber throw, a truly classic move.

Combat is smooth and easy with the lightsaber: combinations of movement and keys give special attacks which do big damage but leave you open. The enemies vary from useless to truly challenging: at least two battles lasted more than five minutes. That’s a lot of slashing, healing, choking, etc.

This leads us to graphics and sound, or the game environment as a whole. I enjoyed the environment, as the levels were well designed and gave a decent sense of immersion. The action kept you moving so there wasn’t a lot of staring at walls, except for the various puzzles that I hate but people must enjoy since they keep show up.

Let’s sum up: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is a must play for any and all Star Wars fans. Check it out at www.lucasarts.com and grab a demo.

Editors note: this review was migrated from the old eBabble.net site and the photos updated. Originally published September 5th 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 helm and is working on the title in house.

It’s a success for two reasons: it’s a free mod that basically gives you a new game from your existing Half-Life install, and it’s multiplayer only online or on a network. New versions roll out a few times a year, fixing bugs and adding new maps and features. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Counter-strike is a counter terrorist versus terrorist game. There are a variety of maps available, with three game types. Counter terrorist rescues hostages, terrorists plant a bomb, or counter terrorists escort a target. Each side begins at opposite sides of the map and rush towards each other. Missions last five minutes or less, and the action is fast and furious.

Once you find a server and log in, you pick a side. When the mission begins you can buy your equipment, consisting of firearms, grenades and body armor. You earn money by your performance the previous mission and your teams performance. Firearms available are varied: pistols, sub machine guns, rifles, machine guns, shotguns. The firearms and ballistics are modeled fairly well, and there is a good balance overall.

To describe a typical mission is easy: you run around trying to kill the enemy before they get you. Knowledge of each level is key, so you know the choke points and sniping hiding spots. When you first start playing try out all the weapons and get a feel for what’s going on, run around the maps and understand the game and what takes place.

To be good you’ll need “skillz”, quick reflexes and the ability to drop your opponent with one shot. Easy weapons are the auto shotgun and MP5K sub machine gun; lots of spraying power to hit your enemy with at least some of your spent ammunition. As you progress the really good players can drop you with a single shot from a pistol.

Of course Counter-strike is about one side versus the other; if the enemy is moving and playing as a group and your team’s scattered all over then it’s an easy win for them.   That’s the beauty of it all; team play enhances the game immensely, but you can go it alone and still win. And since it’s a five minute mission, you can do better next time. For more information on gameplay check out www.ebabble.net/html/counter-strike.html.

Early 2003 saw the release of Steam 2.0 and the Counter-strike 1.6 beta. It was available officially for two days before Valve closed the beta and withdrew the download. A Google search will get you the steaminstall.zip file, which gets you in the door. Some controversy there, but it is a beta and not a final product.

Editor’s Update: Counter Strike 1.6 has been released and is out of beta. You’re required to download a new steam client at www.steampowered.com, register your email address again and enter a Half-Life our retail Counter Strike CD Key. Once that’s done you’re in business, after the 350 MB download that is.

Previously the mod was available for download and you installed it overtop of Half-Life. Now you had to use Steam to play 1.6, which is a double edged sword. I tried Steam 1.0 last year, and it was alright. Steam is a delivery system from Valve Software that allows you to play games without having to own the game. Counter-strike and other mods were available free; you signed up and selected the titles you wanted. Then Steam downloaded the necessary files and you were good to go, no Half-Life required. It was on the wall that one day you were going to have to pay for this luxury, just not yet.

Steam 2.0 has been greatly improved, as has the Counter-strike frame. I say “frame” because the gameplay is the same, but how you log in and find your server is a tenfold improvement. Starting up Counter-strike 1.6 brings you to a very nice interface that allows you to find a server, look for friends online, chat, and a whole lot more. It’s a window to the Counter-strike community, and the day is sunny indeed. If you don’t think it’s great load up Counter-strike 1.5 and do a quick comparison.

Not much is new for gameplay; one new rifle per side and a tactical shield for counter terrorists. A few map changes, and a new map. It’s not new features that bring players; it’s the quick action and desire to prove yourself against others. Leave it for a few months and come back; the skillz are still there, just a little rusty.

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 the game with some basic training, but I found it a bit confusing, as you have to attempt three parachute drops and land on your feet without any real instruction. Each mission has a briefing with target details, and you’re allowed to choose your weapons: as you pick up and encounter new weapons they’re made available to you at this stage. Once that gets rolling you’re on to the first mission and first drop into a combat zone. You can control where you’ll land somewhat, and safe areas are billowing coloured smoke. It’s nice to get an aerial view of the battlefield as you go in.

On the ground the real game begins. It’s a standard first person shooter with World War Two weapons available. Left click fires from the hip, right clicking you aim down the weapons sights or through the scope. I’m going through the level taking down the enemy when the screen slows and I’m shown a weapon upgrade for my M1: a graphic of your weapon sits on the right side of the screen, slowly filling as you hit more enemies. When the weapon fills you get an upgrade, with three upgrades available for every weapon. They’re usually adding accuracy via a muzzle suppressor or stock, ammo capacity via an enlarged clip, and a scope or bayonet. I was blown away by this concept: rewarding the player as he gets more proficient with his weapon. Awesome!

Graphics were top notch for the genre, with a full immersive feel. The settings and tile sets were perfect for each level: I never thought it didn’t fit into the game. Sounds were well done: bullets and explosions but also enemy chatter and interaction with your comrades.

Gameplay was what I expected. You’re rarely alone in the game, with support coming from other airborne troops. Enemy and friendly AI performed well: I played through single player on hard difficulty and found the game challenging. You can’t save but must reach save points, which are pretty well spaced out. If you die a lot at the beginning of a mission (like level five) you’ll quickly get tired of parachuting into a hail of gunfire.

Once you’ve completed the game you can go back and replay any mission: I redid a few of them so I could get every upgrade on all the game’s weapons. Yes, I enjoyed this new feature that much. Unfortunately I was only able to get through the single player game: I installed Company Of Heroes Opposing Fronts and Medal Of Honor Airborne stopped working. I uninstalled both and reinstalled but still no luck. With that in mind please enjoy the stock screenshots.

Medal Of Honor Airborne is a solid first person shooter. It adds enough to keep it interesting and a stand out from the rest of the crowd.

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 saw immediately my character was far too powerful so I quit, deleted my import and re-imported my character. This time I started in Epic mode and had no trouble. This in itself was a great experience for an expansion pack: the developers actually looked at where players would be in the game!

This time around, since you’ve cleaned up practically the entire ancient world, your character is sent to Hades to deal with stuff there. New monsters, levels and more equipment keep you interested.

Immortal Throne has a bunch of new features: let’s look at them one at a time. Biggest thing is the auto sort in your storage; click to arrange items automatically. Simple and available in like-minded titles. Next up is the artifact, a new item that is created by an Enchanter in big cities. You get an arcane formula, unique item(s) and completed relics or charms all together plus a ton of money and the Enchanter makes an artifact for you. Three levels of artifacts give increasing bonuses and skills. I played through the entire expansion and was able to complete one lesser artifact; the big problem is locating any of these unique items. A new spot on the bottom left of your character screen equipment layout is the place to put your artifact, if you can make one. Also new is the caravan, an extra storage space in major cities that allows you to stash extra equipment you want to keep but not carry around. I put all the set pieces in the caravan; after playing through Titan Quest twice and Immortal Throne once I still never completed an armour/weapon set. The tombstone is nice and appears when you die; run your character back to it and reclaim some of those lost experience points. Spell scrolls are found along the way and do some impressive damage. There’s also a new Dream mastery that the game suggests is used as a secondary mastery, but since I had Warfare and Defender already it was a moot point.

This screenshot shows what was for me the hardest creature in the game, Cerberus. You get locked in a room at the end of a level with him and he has three attacks that killed me about fourty times until by luck I finished him off.

I find playing this sort of quest RTS game gets me doing one thing: looking for new items to equipment my character with. I kill the monsters and enjoy the challenges, especially the boss monsters, but it’s getting new weapons and armor that keeps me going. Titan Quest and Immortal Throne deliver on this, and I very rarely got bored. It’s only when your character is too powerful that you feel it’s a waste of time: Immortal Throne kept me going, a few hours every night until it was completed. If you enjoyed Titan Quest then grab this expansion pack.