The Force Strikes Back

With the pending release of Star Wars Episode III, Star Wars fans the world over have been whipped into a veritable frenzy with the promise of further adventures and merchandise based on that famous Galaxy far, far away. With great anticipation, I like many other gamers awaited the release of the new game Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy from the creative minds at Raven Software and Lucasarts. The game is a 3D shooter that is set ten years after "Return of the Jedi" when the New Republic is being menaced by the evil remnant of the Empire that seeks to reclaim … Continue reading The Force Strikes Back

Lionheart Has Lots of Heart

Depending on your point of view, Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader is either a thinking-man’s Diablo, or an action gamer’s version of Baldur’s Gate. Lionheart is an RPG that places you in Europe in 1588. Historically speaking, many things look as they should in Barcelona, where you spend much of this single-player adventure. Even the Spanish Armada is getting ready to invade England out in the harbor. But the coolest aspect of this RPG is that it is an alternate history setting, so lots of things are different too. The main difference between the Lionheart world of 1588 and the … Continue reading Lionheart Has Lots of Heart

Touch the Sky

It’s 1903, do you know where your airplane is? It’s hard to believe, but just 100 years ago there was only one airplane in the entire world. We have come a long way in a short period of time, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight celebrates the centennial by letting users cruise around in some of the most historic airplanes ever built. Flight simulators are nothing new, but computers have finally advanced to the point where the flight not only looks realistic, but the planes handle very much like the real thing. Assuming you have a good … Continue reading Touch the Sky

F-ing Amazing, but Challenging

Not since Metroid Prime have I been able to enjoy a GameCube title as much as I enjoy F-Zero GX, and yes that even includes Zelda: the Wind Waker. F-Zero was always one of my favorite Super Nintendo titles, even if back then it was basically a showcase of the system’s Mode 7 scaling engine. Nonetheless, it was a very enjoyable racer for its time and I still go back to it on my emulators on occasion. Sad to say I never had the opportunity to play the N64 sequel, so I cannot really comment on it, and the GBA … Continue reading F-ing Amazing, but Challenging

The Battles Continue!

Many were worried when Electronic Arts became the owner of the Command & Conquer franchise, but worry no more, as the latest Command & Conquer release – Command & Conquer Generals – has stayed true to the system we all know and love. Right down to the left click to target your units, left click to target their position to move to, it’s the same interface. And this is despite the current trend among Real Time Strategy (RTS) games to use left click to target units and right click to target location to move to. Command & Conquer Generals will … Continue reading The Battles Continue!

Dark Fall Doesn’t Fail

Dark Fall takes you to a sleepy little west-England town, where the train hasn’t gone for over fifty years. It was at that time that the staff and all of the guests of the station hotel vanished mysteriously. No bodies were ever found, and since then, from time to time, various ghost sightings have been reported, and others have turned up missing. Please make yourself"comfortable. You came here because of your brother’s answering machine message, in which he said he needed your help. He is an architect in charge of the renovation of the hotel and station, and his message … Continue reading Dark Fall Doesn’t Fail

Fritz 8 is Brains and Beauty

The Fritz 8 chess game is a powerful teacher of chess, and also a powerful opponent. Many times during my tests I felt like a grandmaster was sitting the room with me, analyzing my every move. I can safely say that I am a better chess player because of my experience with Fritz 8. When you load up Fritz 8, you can instantly begin playing. But before you do, you probably want to set up the levels of skill that best match your playing style. I found that in automatic matching mode, Fritz did a good job of keeping up … Continue reading Fritz 8 is Brains and Beauty

Greetings Again, Program

What many people might not realize is that when the original Tron movie came out in 1982, deep within its glitzy (for the time) computer graphics and backlit settings simulating a video game world, it was all just another gladiator movie. It was Spartacus of the digital age, where "programs" are portrayed as slaves forced to fight to the death in gladiatorial combat on the Game Grid under the watchdog eyes of the Master Control Program. Only a devout religious belief of their gods, a.k.a. "Users," can bring a sign of hope. Tron’s visuals were state of the art for … Continue reading Greetings Again, Program

Pirates is Ships and Swordplay

As movie sequels go, Pirates of the Caribbean is not too bad. I played it on the PC and despite little flaws, managed to have a pretty good time. My review will be based solely on my PC experience. However, I want to put up front that the Xbox version of the game is nowhere near as good. It was pretty buggy, with disappearing quests and crashes during FMV sequences. In fact, our Xbox review console broke while playing the game. We won’t blame Pirates for this, but the combination of an old Xbox and a disc-intensive game was apparently … Continue reading Pirates is Ships and Swordplay

Hungry like the wolf

So there I am"a superhero. I always wanted to be one"ever since I was little. I wanted superpowers, an adolescent power fantasy, the works. Picture me in junior high thinking ‘Man, if I were the Hulk I’d just stomp that bully.’ But I never pictured that I’d have such a casual disregard for human life"and that I’d like it so. Yes, folks, I’m playing Wolverine’s Revenge by Activision. And I’m really enjoying it. I’m usually a bluenose about gratuitous violence in games (to the point where the GiN editors were all ‘are you SURE you want this one"we can find … Continue reading Hungry like the wolf