"You’re gonna die, mother f*****!" is probably the last thing you will hear in the grimy, crime filled world of Kingpin. (Note: we added the *’s, expect the full language in the game) Kingpin is a lot more than the average johnny-come-lately shooter. It sports amazing textures, a solid plot and some of the best sound support I’ve ever laid ears upon in a shooter. But of course all anyone is talking about is the violence, the blood and the liberal use of the "F word." So let me get that out of the way first. The first thing you … Continue reading Kingpin is a bite out of crime→
Back in 1993, a game was released on the Sega CD system that was the rage of all RPGers everywhere. It was hailed for its characters, story and gameplay. Unfortunately for myself, Nintendo had successfully indoctrinated me to despise all things Sega and I never got to play the game known as Lunar: The Silver Star. Now, thanks to the wonder that is PlayStation, I can see what was behind the hype oh so many years ago. The first thing you’ll notice about the game is obvious when you buy it. The packaging is the biggest I’ve ever seen. Four … Continue reading Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is a reality panic button→
There has been a certain type of computer brain game that seems to get a small revival every couple of years. The biggest of these was Lemmings. Now, it’s almost the end of the 90’s and it’s time for a new brain-teasing obsession. Gruntz, a game full of protoplasmic goo and infantile humor, provides an entertaining mix of puzzles and action. Set in a cartoonish world not a thing like our own, we become involved in a race of creatures called Gruntz. Gruntz are native to the aptly named land of Groan. Chased into a wormhole by evil Disgruntled creatures, … Continue reading Gruntz brings good goo to games→
You have to love games with a big history. The history of the world spans over five ages. In the first age, the Golden Age, the ferocious overlord Cronos was leader of the immortal gods living on Mt. Olympus. He created the first mortals. But it was in the Silver Age that Zeus rose up among the gods, slaying Cronos, and becoming their leader. However Cronos’s mortals began quarreling among themselves and turned their backs on Olympus. In his anger, Zeus wiped them out leaving the earth empty and ending the Silver Age. The gods then made a new race … Continue reading Ancient Conquest combines historical gameplay and style→
I don’t understand why it seems that every N64 game is being translated over to the PC. While some I have seen some turn out to be pretty good [Turok 2 and Rogue Squadron] there are also those that turn out to be very bad. Two years ago, there was a little known racer for the Nintendo 64 called Top Gear Rally. Back then I considered it to be pretty average, and now in 1999, its PC sibling, now titled Boss Rally, is just as average. First of all, you will notice that the graphics are almost identical to that … Continue reading Boss Rally should have never left the N64→
I think we have finally found our first serious contestant for the GiN strategy game of the year award. Total Annihilation: Kingdoms raises the expectations bar for gamers by giving them an intelligent artificial intelligence coupled with graphics that are truly spellbinding. The first thing you will notice about Total Annihilation: Kingdoms is that the game is completely beautiful. I found myself being overrun by enemies several times when I was just starting out because I was too busy looking at the pretty scenery to concentrate on strategy. I won’t fault Cavedog for using the Total Annihilation name, after all … Continue reading Total Annihilation: Kingdoms takes the strategy game crown→
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Superman! Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a steaming locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I used to love hearing that saying when I was a kid. Superman was my hero. So it’s no doubt I was anxious to try my hand at Titus’s new Superman for the N64. But was Superman 64 all I hoped it would be? Well, the best I can say is that it’s ok. The storyline basically goes like this: Superman’s arch nemesis, Lex Luther along with the help of Brainiac, … Continue reading Superman is fun to play, but lacks needed details→
You wouldn’t understand it, it’s a Polish thing. What the folks at Project 2 Interactive are calling "Riven for everyone," the adventure/puzzle game Reah turns out to be less Myst inspiring and more difficult to understand, furthermore solve. You play an obnoxious journalist who somehow gets transported to a reality full of idiotic characters and puzzles that are either too simplistic or impossible to solve. Reah is another game of excellent environment, but piss-poor plotting. Moreover, since Reah comes from the Polish company L.K. Avalon, all of the actors are poorly Samari-movie-like dubbed by badly voiced Americans speaking childishly written … Continue reading Reah gets lost in the translation→
While Driver has a top notch concept, good gameplay/replay value and other intangibles going for it, its utter failure to deliver on several other fronts leads to only a moderately successful game. In the game your name is Tanner…you carry a badge. That is you do until the fuzz decides they could use your former race car driving skills (yeah, I know lots of former race car drivers that became cops) to infiltrate the feared Castaldi crime family as a driver. Any game where you’re an undercover cop posing as a mobster starts off with a few extra points in … Continue reading Driver brakes just short of a classic game→
Unless you’ve been living on another planet, I’m sure you know that the new Star Wars movie is out. Contrary to what those so-called critics said about it (face it, with the exception of Leonard Maltin and Roger Ebert, critics hate science fiction), I found it to be a wonderful movie, and have already seen it multiple times. And while waiting for the new Star Wars Episode I games to be released, I spent most of my time working on the latest X-Wing game, X-Wing Alliance, and have been enjoying it for what it is. XWA takes place between The … Continue reading X-Wing Alliance is light years ahead of previous combat sims→
