Category Archives: Reviews

Spec Ops: Covert Assault

Once again, Marxist guerrillas, communist dictatorships, and the mafia are threatening world security, you, and your crack squad of highly skilled rangers is charged with thwarting their twisted plans. This is Spec Ops: Covert Assault, the second Spec Ops game released for the Playstation 1 game console. In Covert Assault, you control two rangers at a time through four different stages executing stealth attacks on enemy strongholds, rescuing hostages, disarming explosives and missiles, and fighting scores of bad guys. The game starts off in Sicily where you battle the mafia whilst trying to recover personnel and top secret documents from … Continue reading Spec Ops: Covert Assault

They Mostly Come at Night

Mostly. Sure PC gamers have been treated to this fun franchise since 1999, but that does not make it any less enjoyable now that Mac-based colonial marines are joining the fight. Aliens vs. Predator is actually three games; each with its own first person shooter protagonist. The first is the Alien, who is defending his temple against shadowy humans. The second is a Colonial Marine, trying to escape an outpost overrun by the omnipresent Aliens. The third is a Predator infiltrating a scientific facility where the humans may be conducting experiments on fellow Predators! The second adventure most follows the … Continue reading They Mostly Come at Night

Halo is One Smooth Ride

Halo is a first person shooter (fps) set on and around a ring world of the same name. A ring world, the concept first mentioned in the Ringworld series by Larry Niven, is a ring band, or thin donut shaped world were the cities and population resides upon the inner surface. The year is 2552 and while earth still exists, overpopulation has forced Earth to colonize distant planets. A keystone to this colonization is the planet Reach. Reach is a massive shipyard, and center of scientific and military activity. Thirty two years ago Earth made disasters first contact with an … Continue reading Halo is One Smooth Ride

Winning the Medal of Honor

Sometimes reviews are just too easy. Such is the case with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Basically I can sum up my feelings and advice in just three words. BUY THIS GAME. Well, perhaps being the resident World War II expert, I should go into a little bit more detail. This is by far the best World War II game and possibly the best shooter ever created. Coming off of a few weeks of Return to Castle Wolfenstein, I thought I had met the ultimate title in this genre. But believe me, Medal of Honor makes Wolfenstein look like Hoyle … Continue reading Winning the Medal of Honor

Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a Long-Awaited Hit

It’s lucky for first-person shooter fans that some things never change. It’s precisely this principle that’s persuaded Activision to release a sequel to the legendary Wolfenstein 3D, the first-person action packed game that many argue put shooter games on the map. Nine years later, Return to Castle Wolfenstein (obviously in 3D) does it again only this time offering multiplayer capabilities of Axis versus Allies and greatly improving on the now feeble graphics of the original Wolfentstein, which at the time were nonetheless cutting edge. The Return’s graphics are like Activision’s other big first person shooter, Soldier of Fortune. RTCW is … Continue reading Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a Long-Awaited Hit

It’s a Diablo II redo

Hey all you Diablo II fans out there! Your wait is over. The Diablo II expansion set is finally out. Well, it’s been out for a few months but I have been too busy playing it to write this review. In order to install the Diablo II expansion set, you must already have the original Diablo II installed on your system. So for all of you who have been chomping-at-the-bit for the expansion set, here are some of the new features and enhancements that you’ll find. The first thing you will notice are the two new character classes: the Druid … Continue reading It’s a Diablo II redo

MGS2: Even Better than the Original

Metal Gear Solid was a masterpiece back in 1998. It was so good, in fact, that I wanted it to be our choice for Game of the Year. Unfortunately, that honor went to, of all things, Heart of Darkness on the PC? What were all the readers smoking that year? Didn’t they glance upon the visual execution that took the PS1 to its limits? What about the superb voice acting, arguably the best ever heard in a video game? Or didn’t they notice the intelligent storyline and perplexing plot twists? In any case, I think MGS was screwed out of … Continue reading MGS2: Even Better than the Original

Shenmue meets the Sopranos

Now that I have completely backed out of my support of Sega (sorry Peter, your apology letter didn’t help either!), I had to look elsewhere to find a title to make up for a decent replacement for Shenmue 2. Never did I realize that it was right in front of me all along. When I first got into Grand Theft Auto 3, I was immediately impressed with the complete freedom I had over the entire environment; even more so than I was when I played Shenmue last year. Granted my freedom was slightly limited by the storyline before, but it … Continue reading Shenmue meets the Sopranos

Blue Shift is half-baked Half-Life

It’s not a special edition or add-on: Blue Shift is the official sequel to Half-Life, the awesome first-person shooter series from Sierra. But is it as good as the original? Is it even worth buying for $50? I guess the answers depend on how much you enjoyed the first one. Although in this sequel players do not necessarily have to know about the original story, it helps. In Blue Shift, players you’re no longer a competent scientist who probably makes enough money to drive home in a luxury car, but rather security guard, Barney Calhoun. Barney is a rather incompetent … Continue reading Blue Shift is half-baked Half-Life

Max Payne is Pure Pleasure

Max Payne had a lot of things going against it when I decided to give it the once-over for review. I, like all other professional writers, try to keep my bias out of reviews. But off the bat, things did not look good. I have seen so many variations on shooters this past year that I doubted I would find anything new with this title. Also, I am not a big fan of third-person shooters, mostly after having been poisoned to them by lackluster – and some very bad – titles like Eradicator (anyone remember this one?) and Soldier (based … Continue reading Max Payne is Pure Pleasure