So I wanted to play Darkstone again to reacquaint myself with the game after all the time I’ve spent on Ever Quest lately. Sure, spend maybe an hour or two romping through the dungeons, busting a few monster heads and generally remembering all the ins and outs. Problem: those couple of hours turned into a couple of days and I thought to myself, "Hey…didn’t I have a review to write?" Aw, nuts… I remember back when I first started playing Darkstone that I was slightly disappointed. "Great," I thought, "a Diablo clone." Sure, Darkstone plays a helluva lot like Diablo, … Continue reading Darkstone is Diablo’s Happier Twin→
Jigsaw puzzles never had an equivalent on the PC until Pandora’s Box. With an understated environment and compelling puzzles, Pandora’s Box might be nirvana for those with obsessions for visual brainteasers. In Pandora’s Box, seven mythical tricksters have escaped to wreck havoc on the world. The player must capture the seven one at a time by solving many of the 350-plus puzzles. Puzzles fall into ten different types, each somehow shuffling or screwing up photos, paintings, sculptures or other miscellaneous art. Ultimately, your job is to put the art right. It occurred to me that this may just be another … Continue reading Pandora’s addictive box is worth opening→
With a street price of around 50 dollars, proprietary digital circuitry, solid construction, a hair-pin trigger and 17 programmable buttons, this baby is sweet. My first impression was that the Panther DX is a big stick. After I opened the box, I immediately wanted to take it out for a spin to see what this baby could do. From opening the box, it took only a couple minutes to get things moving. I quickly plugged it into my USB port [requires Windows 98 or NT 5] and installed the software. Then I installed Red Barron 3D, by Sierra, which comes … Continue reading Panther DX is one mean stick→
Lucas Learning Ltd. has developed an Episode One inspired title for young Jedis-in-training ages 6 to 8. Yoda’s Challenge Activity Center has the player join Yoda in the Jedi Council Chamber. Yoda invites the player to choose from six different missions to work on mastering. Interestingly enough, each mission teach valuable skills. Once the player is in the Council Chamber he or she can choose to start on any one of the six missions represented by holographic images on the screen. If help is needed during a mission, the player only needs to click on the Yoda picture on the … Continue reading Yoda’s Challenge will sharpen young minds→
Microsoft has its good and bad points. Both in the gaming world and throughout the rest of computing, the behemoth can’t help but have an impact — ask any federal judge if this is true. With that power comes responsibility, which in the case of Links Extreme, the company evidently chose to ignore. Flat out, I can’t imagine what was going through the collective minds of those wacky Redmondians when they released this game. Built on the Links LS game engine, Links Extreme is an enigma. While Links LS and the latest Microsoft Golf are fine golf games, Links Extreme … Continue reading Links Extreme is below par→
A standard refrain in any industry is that "everything old is new again." Old movies get remade, old songs get covered by new bands, and old cars always have a chance at a comeback. This year a classic was re-released. Still using the same familiar lines as the old model, the new version is peppier, cooler looking, has bright new colors, and lots of little extras. No, I’m not talking about the new Volkswagen Beetle, I’m talking about Populous: The Beginning. Oh, the hours I used to waste playing the original of this game! Back before StarCraft, Civilization, and Alpha-Centauri … Continue reading Populous: The Beginning is a devine rebirth→
Too often, adventure games compare themselves to the reigning God, Myst. And too often, new games perform far below Myst — far worse in fact. Some might be inclined to declare Amerzone a good game in the Myst vein. I’ll go one step further. Amerzone takes first-person adventure gaming to the next level and could — no, Amerzone should — become Myst’s successor on the throne of adventure games. Amerzone’s captivating graphics, compelling characters, complex, but solvable, puzzles and an excellent plot kept me playing for hours on end–nothing that any other adventure game has done since…well…Myst. (Sorry fans, but … Continue reading Amerzone usurps the ultimate adventure game→
Jagged Alliance 2 gives armchair mercenaries the ability to travel to exciting places, meet new and fascinating people, and kill them. Jagged Alliance 2 is actually the third in the mercenary-for-hire series on the PC, and by far is the best one yet. I love turn based combat games, especially the ones where you can maneuver in real time till the shooting starts. This gives you the ability to wander around and explore without having to worry about your characters annoyingly running out of action points. It was this type of interface that was missing from the second game in … Continue reading Jagged Alliance 2 is locked, loaded and ready for action→
When I first picked up the box I was not sure how I was going to like Lands of Lore 3. The original Lands of Lore rates as one of my all time favorites, but LoL2, while not bad, did not measure up to the original. My first impression of LoL3 was good. The box was visually impressive and based on the pictures, the graphics looked awesome to say the least. A quick look at the box told me that there were the four standard guilds or classes to choose from, and something new — a guild familiar for each … Continue reading Lands of Lore III is a worthy sequel→
I so wanted Final Fantasy VIII to be the be-all-end-all of gaming experiences. I so wanted to be able to say that this was the greastest game I’ve ever played. Unfortunately, after all the hype, all the hope, and almost 60 hours of playing and completing Square’s latest offering in the signature series of RPG’s, I’m almost heartbroken to say that the game doesn’t bring home the goods. To be fair, I, much like the rest of the gaming world, had enormous expectations. I half expected the characters in the game to jump out of my television and finish doing … Continue reading Final Fantasy VIII is good, but not great→
