The beauty of Asheron’s Call is difficult to describe. Having been a devoted fan of the reigning champion of online-only games, Origin System’s Ultima Online, for years, I was used to a somewhat lower standard. Play Asheron’s Call just once or twice and you will never want to go back to Ultima. Asheron’s Call was not the first online-only game to use a first-person interface, which until recently was nearly impossible due to bandwidth constraints as well as the difficulty of programming a fully interactive 3D environment. That honor goes to Sony’s EverQuest, which we reviewed just before it went … Continue reading Gamers will answer Asheron’s Call→
The advances in sound technology over the last several years have tried to do one thing – bring the sound closer to the user. One only has to look at an ordinary desk chair to envision the obvious next step. The Intensor LX is a specially designed chair the has speakers placed in strategic locations to give the user a sort of ‘sensaround’ feel. The subwoofer sends its sounds through the base of the chair right into your spine, giving your sound experience that extra punch. The unit that interfaces with your computer’s sound output is a small box that … Continue reading Intensor LX is intense→
Septerra Core arrived at GiN headquarters with a special request: Let Michael Cheek review it. I don’t think this was an example of "Let Mikey review it; he’ll review anything." You see, I’m not the role-playing game reviewer. I look at DVDs and puzzle games for the most part, and Septerra Core is neither. In fact, I’m not that fond of RPGs since many tend to be complex and unforgiving for a methodical player like myself. Moreover, when building characters, I can never get the balance just right between character’s attributes. But I launched into Septerra Core and found I … Continue reading At its core, Septerra Core rocks–leisurely→
When I was first given Touring Car Challenge, one of the first products released in the United States from European-based Codemasters, I figured it had a few strikes against it right off the cricket bat. For one, the product was a simulation of British racing. And like Dr. Who and boiled beef, its not often that British games take off in the fickle U.S. market. But forget all that. Touring Car Challenge is more like The Beatles than Dr. Who. It’s an amazingly beautiful and highly detailed game that has the potential to climb the ranks of racing simulations and … Continue reading Touring Car Challenge doesn’t lose horsepower in translation→
Anyone who has seen the movie Wild Wild West, or been a fan of the television series, can appreciate the wonderful action-packed nature of this game, and how it couples both humor and puzzle solving to make an excellent package. Those of you who are unfamiliar with either the movie or the show can still enjoy this delightful title, but it may take a few scenes – what the game calls chapters – to get a feel for the game world. The setting for Wild, Wild West: The Steel Assassin takes place a few years after the Civil War and … Continue reading Wild, Wild West: The Steel Assassin is on target→
My first experience with Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings went like this. I left work and went home and installed the game then I went to Greg Crowe’s (GiN Features Editor) house warming party. I got home about 10 or so and sat down to play. There I was playing away and really having a great time, next thing I know my alarm is going off. I would have sworn it was at the latest 2 in the morning and it’s 7:30. I admit I did not stop playing at that point, I continued playing until about … Continue reading Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a ruler→
Okay, so ya want to fly a plane without really getting in one? Well Fly! is for you, maybe. Let me first start off by saying that after you install Fly! on a Mac please go back to the CD. Here you will find folders that are very important if you want this game to run on your Mac. I want you to open the QuickDraw and Sprockets folders, and dump all those items into your extensions folder. Now, go to the Fly! folder and grab the three items called TRIRAVE.dll, TRIGlide.dll, and ATI RAVE.dll. Dump these into your extensions … Continue reading Fly! is extremely realistic, highly complex fun→
Being a fan of the horror side of computer games, it was easy to get into the concept of Nocturne, which features a monster hunter named The Stranger who goes around killing werewolves, zombies, vampires and other creatures of the night. One of my favorite games of all time is called Realms of the Haunting, and playing Nocturne reminded me of it a lot. Even though Realms did not enjoy widespread commercial success, it none the less earned mine. Another type of game in the same vein as Nocturne is the entire Alone in the Dark series. All of these … Continue reading Nocturne is so good, it’s scary→
War, uhh, good God y’all. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again. Well, I can’t say it again because without war, I would not have had the privilege of playing Medal of Honor (MOH), which by the way is about as close as I ever want to get to real warfare. MOH is DreamWorks’ (you know the guys who brought us Saving Private Ryan) first foray into the world of gaming. The same level of realism they brought to that movie is clearly evident throughout MOH. While, not a straight shoot-em-all-up ammo-fest and not a stealth dominated … Continue reading Medal of Honor is the Saving Private Ryan” of PlayStation”→
Let me start this review of Quake 3: Arena by saying that comparing this game with Unreal Tournament is inevitable. They are both superior in their own ways. Both involve hard-core deathmatches set on a grand scale, but where UT specializes in both single play and multiplay with all new tweaks, Quake 3: Arena (Q3A) sticks with the classic deathmatch engine, and in essence, this is not a bad idea. Now we know that the Quake series has never been well known for plot, and Q3A is no exception. The manual does explain about an alien race called the Vadrigar … Continue reading Quake 3: Arena is multiplayer mayhem→
