2008-08-24 | Pc Game Database

Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm

Gear up and take to the Bering Sea. It's crabbing season.

In the realm of videogames, unusual releases are both highly anticipated and regularly abhorred. Where one gamer sees a unique diamond in the rough, another gamer will see something terrible. Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm can easily be classified as one of those games. Based on the hit Discovery Channel show Deadliest Catch, Alaskan Storm is a true simulation of the experience portrayed throughout the series. For those unfamiliar with the show, Deadliest Catch follows the lives of Alaskan crab fishermen who risk life and limb for the massive amounts of money involved in their industry. And if you think I'm being facetious in my risk comment, keep in mind that crabbing off of Alaska's Aleutian Islands is considered one of the world's deadliest jobs… hence the name of the show and game.

Alaskan Storm is a simulation and strategy game through and through, requiring critical thinking and planning to succeed. If you're not a fan of sims, you should know immediately that this game isn't for you. The experience that it does provide for fans of the show and fans of simulation-style games is a deep and engrossing one, however. Its crossover appeal between fanatics of the show and fans of simulation games in general is immediately evident as soon as you start up a new career, for you can either pick from some of the show's better-known ships (such as the Northwestern) or create your own from thin air. But that only scratches the surface of the game's depth. After choosing your ship, you have to hire a crew, outfit your ship with fuel, buy bait and other crabbing essentials and plot a route before you even leave the harbor.

Hiring your crew is perhaps the most daunting of your early tasks in the game, because there's a lot to balance out and consider. The more desirable crew members, those who have extensive skills and experience, can't provide the makeup of your entire party. They simply cost too much. Instead, you'll have to balance out your party between experienced members and outright novices (called greenhorns) who are completely new to crabbing. You'll also have to keep an eye out for the individual skills of each member of your party so that all five jobs – Deck Boss, Engineer, Medic, Cook and Bait Boy – can be filled out to the best of each member's ability. When you've done that, you then have to carefully balance out your purchased cargo, because no ship can carry the maximum amount of fuel, bait and pots you'll want to have with you. Instead, you'll have to compromise one for the other, over and over again as you play.

If you're not a fan of the television show then you will be introduced to a lot of new terminology while playing the game. For instance, the term "pots" refers to the bait-lined traps crabbers drop into the water to lure in their catch, while a "bait boy" is usually the lowest ranking member of a ship's team who prepares pots for deployment. This can be incredibly confusing, but that's where Captain Sig Hansen comes into play. Captain Sig is the most well-known ship captain from the Discovery Channel show, and he appears in the game time and time again to explain what's going on around you.

These videos offer a real draw to fans of the show, but their importance is much greater than that, because Sig will let you know when you're doing something right or something wrong, especially during the game's lengthy opening tutorial. He'll appear less and less as you start moving through the game's crabbing seasons (usually only when you've done something you haven't done before, such as stacking a pot instead of redeploying it in an area chock-full of crabs), but his appearance certainly ties together the game and the license nicely. Developers Liquid Dragon Studios should certainly be commended for making sure the game absolutely reeks of its license.

While playing through a crabbing career with your chosen vessel, the game is made up of three primary parts. The first is preparation, where you will establish a crew, outfit your ship and create an initial route using the pre-determined and highly-important knowledge found on your particular season's map. This map will tell you where the crabs are found in great numbers, where competing ships are located, and where your pots have already been dropped. The second part is finding a great place to crab, preparing your pots, and subsequently dropping them. This part of the game is perhaps the most time-consuming and monotonous, though it's as true to the actual experience as a game can possibly come.

The third step is definitely the most important to your overall success (or lack thereof) in any given season. After letting your submerged pots "soak" for a while (Captain Sig recommends a soaking of at least forty-eight hours), you'll have to go back to them and bring them to the surface to see how you did. Driving slowly next to each pot as it's brought on deck is the first of two highly rewarding parts of the experience. But it's the decisions you make all the while that are also integral to your success. While your pots soak, will you let time pass by (using the ultra-useful fast time option)? Will you head to another part of the sea to place more pots? Will you go to town to make necessary repairs and refill your inventory? It's this use of time that must be considered if you are to advance through the game. Just remember – once you've brought your well-soaked pots to the surface, be sure to head one of the game's ports to sell your catch. After all, money is the bottom-line. You also need to keep your crew happy and well-rested, so figuring out ways to do that should always be in the back of your mind as well.

There are numerous positives to the game, such as the ultra realistic way your vessel is controlled. But Alaskan Storm isn't without equally-numerous problems. One will immediately notice upon turning the game on that its visuals are decidedly last-gen. With the exception of the water, which looks surprisingly realistic, Alaskan Storm won't impress you with its graphics. In fact, it might be a turn off for some gamers. What's more, the in-game voice acting is irritating, the sounds of your ship and your surrounding environment are grating and monotonous, and the frame rate isn't only choppy, it's downright deplorable. Throw in the fact that the game froze up on us several times during our playthrough (including at one especially inconvenient time when I had just finished a rather successful freshman season), and you'll quickly realize that Alaskan Storm suffers from serious problems. The lengthy load times would suggest that the game would look a lot better than it does, but it just isn't so.

And even though the gameplay is true to the experience, it can be mundane. Alaskan Storm represents a tight simulation, but how exciting can crabbing really be when done ad infinitum? Do our aforementioned three steps above over and over and over again, and you might tire of this game quickly. There's strategy aplenty to be employed, but the game leaves a lot to chance (a la Oregon Trail), which will just frustrate you. Your well-rested Deck Boss just broke his finger. So, he'll need eight hours to rest (what?), which means the rest of your crew can't cast or retrieve pots. Have this happen to you at the most inconvenient times of a season over and over again, and you might find your controller flying across the room. In other words, plan and strategize as you will, random variables will still throw a wrench in your wheels. That's fine, of course, but your ship experiencing random problems during a storm when you're trying to retrieve your pots is only endearing one time. The more you're stymied, the more frustrated you're bound to become.

Alaskan Storm is littered with missions and mini-games that will break up the monotony, but they aren't incredibly well thought-out or compelling. In fact, it's the career mode that's makes up a vast majority of the game, and once you've had your fill of that it's doubtful you'll be back for much more. One major improvement over its earlier-released cousin on Xbox360, however, is that the PC controls are vastly, vastly superior to the console version. This deserves mention, because games like this were made for the PC, not consoles. Those who enjoyed the game on Xbox360 but found it too tedious to control might want to give the game another go on the PC.

Closing Comments
Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm balances the good and the bad, and it manages to fall somewhere just above mediocrity. The delivery of the crabbing experience is as right on as can be, and the fact that this game was made at all can be construed as a step in the right direction for an industry overwhelmed with the same old shooters, RPGs and trite hack-and-slash titles. But the game lacks any polish, and that's certainly a huge negative. What's more, taste aside, can a game about crabbing really be compelling above the novelty that surrounds it? In my opinion -- no, not really. The game has depth, and that counts for something, but it will have absolutely no appeal to people who aren't fans of the show or the genre. And even those who find the game fun for a while will be hard-pressed to find it fun season after season. Unless you're a super fan of the show, or this kind of simulation appeals to you greatly, I recommend renting before you buy.

The latest RPG from Gas Powered Games is a repetitive shoot 'em up that ultimately disappoints.

By: Gerald Villoria

Gas Powered Games' Space Siege is like a worst-case scenario for alien contact. Earth's first bold ventures into space result in an encounter with the hostile alien species known as the Kerak. After a massive attack on Earth, your colony ship is boarded and under siege, setting the scene for one robotics expert's quest to cleanse the decks of this foreign menace. The storyline isn't the only worst-case scenario at work here: Space Siege is a strictly by-the-numbers approach to linear, lifeless, yawn-inducing gameplay.

Set Phasers to Snooze

While Space Siege is technically an action-RPG, the hallmarks of the genre are not explored to their fullest. Deep character customization, a rich storyline, action-packed combat... you'll find little of that here. The game railroads you from dull-gray hall to dull-gray hall, with no real sense of exploration. Rooms are locked and ancillary areas are completely sealed off until you complete the objectives, sending you from Point A to Point B with no room for even the slightest deviation. Each mini-level is a journey from one bland, enemy-filled room to the next, with very few changes in scenery or opposition to mix things up. Even after playing the game for hours, you'll still feel like you're in the first level.

The gameplay is similarly rudimentary. Combat in Space Siege is boiled down to holding down the right mouse button over enemies to shoot, and clicking to the side in order to dodge slow-moving projectiles. You have a defensive dodge move, but that only rolls you forward, often into the projectiles that you were hoping to avoid. You can't move and shoot at the same time, so there's no possibility for exciting run-and-shoot action. Just shoot the explosive crates and barrels that litter the entire ship, blast enemies, and click abilities for extra damage, to toss grenades, or to release drones. It's like this from the start of the game to the very end.

The enemies are remarkably dumb as well. They'll stand and shoot at you, neglecting opportunities to use cover or tactics. Every room can be easily handled by just shooting them in order of proximity. You can manage your robot companion's attacks and abilities, but leaving it to its own devices works just as well. Sometimes Space Siege attempts to strike fear into the player with a scripted encounter, such as having alien critters fall from the ceiling, but one area effect stun move later and then it's business as usual. Gas Powered's Dungeon Siege games were far more challenging and fulfilling.

The choices you'll make on your journey are limited to how you spec out Seth Walker, and these decisions are far from satisfying. There are two skill trees, Combat and Engineering, and they generally only provide bland, under-the-hood changes to your combat abilities. You'll get passive bonuses to your attacks with point allotments, like a 2% increase to attack power, or a 2% increase to your chance to critical, with an occasional new ability thrown in for good measure. There are no levels, no major upgrades to look forward to. You'll just steadily increase your ability to deal damage without any real feeling of ever achieving anything you didn't have when first starting the game.

The most significant way that you'll change your character is by deciding whether or not to implant cybernetic upgrades, like cybernetic legs or a cybernetic brain. These upgrades provide significant bonuses over your fleshy human parts, but they reduce your humanity rating. Only by keeping a humanity rating over 90% can you gain access to a unique ability in the combat or engineering tree. Sadly, these abilities aren't worth holding out for: sure, you can make it so that you only take 50% damage from foes, but wouldn't you rather wield the cybernetic weapons?

Human or Robot: It Doesn't Matter

Despite being one of the main selling points of Space Siege, the humanity versus cybernetics angle isn't played to its fullest potential. Silicon Knights' upcoming Too Human explores the same, but that game offers entirely different skill trees based on whether you choose to stay human or embrace the mechanical side. The possibility was here for some interesting decision-making, but it's woefully unexplored.

Space Siege doesn't even have any loot to speak of. What kind of RPG doesn't have loot? Instead of picking up weapons and armor, every enemy in the game drops nondescript "upgrade materials" which can be used at workbenches to upgrade your character and weaponry. There are ten weapons in the game, but they are unlocked through the storyline, and they're all comparable to each other. The submachine guns, for instance, fire quickly and offer dual shots, while the rocket launcher fires slowly but is able to deal area effect damage.

Don't expect to be attaching fancy scopes or alternate ammunition types to these guns. Every weapon upgrade is the same, allowing you to increase rate of fire, upgrade damage, increase chance to crit, and so on. The melee-based Magblade that you start off with is powerful enough to deal with pretty much anything in the game, so you might as well just upgrade that and any one ranged weapon.

If you're determined to squeeze some fun out of Space Siege, your best bet is to explore the multiplayer component. By logging onto the GPGNet, you can host and join multiplayer scenarios that are short missions that are light on story but heavy on enemies to blow up. They're all remarkably similar to each other, just like the single-player campaign, but at least here you can choose higher-difficulty missions that will at least provide more of a challenge in the form of tougher enemies.

Sadly, with more than one player even the highest-difficulty missions are still woefully easy to clear simply by walking in and mowing down anything in your path. In just a few missions, you'll have earned enough upgrade materials and skill points to create a nearly unstoppable character. You start off the multiplayer game with access to enough points to max out an entire skill tree, so every character ends up pretty much the same, the only difference being what sort of weapon you choose to specialize in.

Space Siege is a game that had a lot of potential, but it feels like it was never fleshed out beyond the very basics. It lacks depth, offers minimal incentive to continue playing past the first hour or two, and doesn't do anything with its online offerings that could convince you to neglect the countless other games that offer far richer multiplayer experiences. There's no reason to pick this one up unless you're desperate for something in the space milieu. If that's enough to make you happy, it may be time for you to raise your standards.

What's worse than bronze? Tin? How about whatever this disc is made of?

By: Steve Butts

As the athletes assemble for tonight's opening ceremonies, you may find yourself regretting that your parents loved you too much to foist you on some manic Russian gymnastics coach, or that they couldn't afford to build a heated Olympic-size pool in the backyard, or that they bought the cheap dinner plates that broke the first time you hurled them across the lawn. And as you ruminate about how your Olympic glories were so unjustly denied, you may find yourself looking to soothe the hurt of those broken dreams by watching real, world-class athletes do what they do best in Beijing. Or you may decide to compete yourself in Sega's latest Olympics game, Beijing 2008.

Don't even bother. Sure, Sega's Olympic cash-in is definitely full of all of your favorite events and it has a reasonably authentic visual style, but the gameplay is shallow and repetitive and the basic setup of the competition is clumsy and unsatisfying.

But let's start with the good points first. Whether you're a fan of the 100m hurdles, the uneven bars, or platform diving, you're bound to find something you like among the game's nearly 40 events. Even slightly more offbeat events, such as kayaking, archery and judo, find a place here. If you've got a favorite track and field or gymnastics event, it's probably in the game somewhere.

The overall presentation of events is equally solid. The judges and the overall setup and the apparatus are all set up in a very convincing manner and, gratuitous replays aside, really help to draw you into the experience. The wide range of locations, from the track to the kayak slalom to the judo mat, all feel convincingly real. Though the crowds can be a bit monotonous, you really get a sense of the enormous scale of the competition. In fact, all that separates this from the real broadcast of the Olympics are those annoying movies that show how each of the athletes overcame some profound personal tragedy to compete in the Olympics.

The actual quality of the graphics is also quite good. The athletes all look very real but there is some unfortunate repetition of character models here and there. We were quite amused to imagine the US shot put champion taking the medal stand only to look over and see his identical twin brother from Poland came in second. Boy, we bet there's a heck of a heartwarming tale of how they overcame adversity to compete together. The animations are very lively and add a lot of interest to the game. You really will be fooled at times that you're watching the real deal here.

Unfortunately, the actual mechanics of most of the events are, at best, a prescription for repetitive stress injuries and, in a few rare cases, nearly uncontrollable. When will developers finally find something to replace the aging Track & Field format? Don't get us wrong; we love the old Konami game just as much as anyone, but the concept of rapidly smashing two buttons to simulate running is, at 25 years, well past its prime. You can also toggle the analog stick on your gamepad to get your speed or power up, but try slamming it back and forth for a full three-and-a-half minutes for cycling or the 1500m track events and see if you ever feel like playing again.

And it appears that you have to use a gamepad with this one. We got our first indication when we opened the manual and saw it filled with discussions of left triggers, right thumbsticks, bumpers and A and B buttons, but our fears were fully confirmed when we went into the game's keyboard configuration options and discovered that there's no option for the gamepad's triggers or bumpers. We suppose we could try to play without these buttons but since they control key actions like launching off the line in a race, jumping, throwing, shooting, diving, lifting, dismounting, and balancing. It didn't seem like we would get very far. Nevermind the events like kayaking or archery that require two analog sticks.

Some of the controls for certain events actually work well, and in most cases it's because the controls are really close to the real world action you're simulating. Using the analog sticks to balance on the rings, or to draw and aim a bow, or to do any of the shooting games, is perfectly natural. Rotating each of the sticks in opposite directions for swimming or weight lifting, or using them to track moving targets in diving, is a little more abstract but it can still work if you're willing to just accept it.

The absolute worst events are kayaking and judo. The kayak is as nimble as a tank and is steered with just as much finesse. Having to negotiate a slalom course using the two analog sticks to control your paddles is nearly impossible. But at least with kayaking the controls have an obvious use. In judo, the game pretty much tells you, and this is not a joke, to try different button combinations and see what works. What's even more ridiculous is that the game also advises players on the defensive to use the same button combo of the move that the opponent it using. We honestly can't believe a description like this made it into the manual and the tutorial. These are supposed to be world-class competitors at the top of their game, right? It's appalling that we're being asked to experiment just to discover the basic functionality of an event.

Nevermind all the other problems--how watching the meters and bars keeps you from appreciating the athlete's motion, or the considerable amount of luck involved in starting off the line in a race, or the randomness of the scheme that results in us getting five fouls and one world record all during the same event. The bottom line is that the control scheme for many of the events frustrates your ability to enjoy the few things that the game gets right.

There are two basic formats for the competition here, the � la carte Competition mode where you and your friends can compete in whatever events you like and the more serious, progressive Olympic mode that includes trials and daily challenges. The competition mode is definitely more attractive because you can just jump right to the events you care about, but it doesn't have a big payoff in the form of a big ceremony. For that you'll need to start your own Olympic game.

In this mode, you'll have to qualify for different events day by day, and if you fail at enough of them, you'll have to reload and start all over. This isn't much of a problem if you get a day full of easy events like table tennis or pistol shooting, but if you find yourself stuck with hurdles and pole-vaulting, you may be fighting again and again just to progress to the next stage. The control scheme has an accomplice here and it's the bizarre role-playing system that lets you upgrade your athletes. Nevermind the fact that these athletes come to the Olympics because they're already the best in the world, but who thought it would be a good idea to have the player's team of athletes start out behind the curve? You spend the first part of the Olympic mode playing catch-up, hoping like crazy that the game doesn't load you with a day's worth of terrible events.

And after all, isn't that what the Olympics are really about?

No.

Closing Comments
They scored big here with the authentic presentation and the great selection of events but then they married it to a series of mini-games with such poorly designed controls that favor luck and calloused fingers over skill and insight. Video games based on the Olympics always seem to rely more on the visibility of the actual games than about delivering inventive gameplay and Beijing 2008 is sadly no exception.

In space, no one can hear you get frustrated by illogical puzzles.

By: Jimmy Thang

The year is 1346 by the New Galactic Calendar and mankind now shares the heavens with several alien life forms. You are Perry Rhodan, an immortal human who helped launch mankind's exodus into the far reaches of outer space. Now enough about your life, let's talk about the game at hand. The Immortals of Terra will take you on a point-and-click sci-fi adventure, featuring the fiction originally established by the German Perry Rhodan series. While the game has enough sci-fi lore to satiate the needs of the geekiest of nerds, the gameplay in The Immortals of Terra falls short. Its illogical puzzles breathe new life into the term "lost in space."

The story begins with your longtime lover being snatched away from your spaceship by a group of alien robots -- so far, so good. As a result, you are put under quarantine and not allowed to leave your ship. While the story has a lot of potential and back story via journals and notes, the game presents everything to you at a snail's pace. You begin your adventure by spending several painful, puzzling hours on your blasted ship. Nothing eventful will happen for a long time, but you'll be stuck in the same corridors for hours.

Adventure games are best when the stories flow naturally and plot elements are revealed through character interactions. While The Immortals of Terra does touch upon these elements, a lot of the time the story is presented when Perry talks to himself, thereby indirectly talking to you to fill you in, e.g. "[insert name] was always so [insert adjective]." It's an old, lazy storytelling trick that is more passive than active.

While I'm a big fan of adventure games, I'll be the first to admit that the genre has flaws. The Immortals of Terra encompasses nearly every problem of the genre. The biggest issues are contained in the puzzles. I know puzzles are supposed to bewilder you, but are they supposed to make you want to hunt down the designers and murder them in their sleep? One of the first terrible puzzles is encountered early on. While you're on your ship, you must gain access to several locked doors by figuring out how to fix a power generator. The puzzle will involve a little memorization, some pixel hunting, and a whole lot of zany. There was one part of the puzzle I couldn't figure out on my initial run through, so I just used a little logic and a lot of guessing to break my way through. Another puzzle half way through had me inserting a random item into a hole to navigate a complicated maze to complete a nonsensical objective. I would say the experience is similar to navigating a maze with a map when you're blindfolded. It's an incredibly painful puzzle. Every time you solve a puzzle, you'll encounter another with no satisfying story element weaved between them. It's sort of like doing math assignments for pleasure; who does that? Oh wait.

Another adventure genre blemish that The Immortals of Terra shares is that Perry will often pick up items no sane person would pick up. In the context of the game you know it will be added to your inventory for later use, and while it's not a huge problem, there is one part in the game where your character literally picks up a steaming pile of crap. Perry even says to himself, "Why am I even taking it up with me, this is disgusting." Yet he proceeds to stick the piece of fecal matter into his pocket.

The Immortals of Terra sometimes runs on a zany logic of its own. There are times when having a good head on your shoulders will hinder you from solving puzzles. When you're stuck, which will happen often, you will feel like you've exhausted all of your options. That is, until you try to think like a loon.

To be fair, even if you're sticking every pipe into every hole, you still might get stuck. For instance, there is a segment that requires you to borrow x-ray glasses from a non-playable character. When you ask for the shades the NPC tells you that he currently needs them and shrugs you off. Only after you complete a series of unrelated events does the game trigger an event that allows you to borrow the much needed goggles. Moments like these, which are many, will have you wasting your time and are impossible to predict. In addition, the game features rare minor glitches. For some reason, when you check your diary, your mouse cursor becomes extremely jerky and seems to move at three frames per second.

While the game does have its fair share of flaws, it does have some unique features. One puzzle forces players to access a security code by correlating musical notes to unlock a door. It's fairly innovative as far as adventure puzzles go, although it might leave tone deaf people up in arms. In addition, one staple that has always plagued the adventure genre is pixel hunting, a gameplay mechanic that forces you to roll your cursor all over the screen until you find a clickable item. The Immortals of Terra attempts to fix this problem by allowing gamers to search the entire area using a room scanner, a device that temporarily highlights clickable items. This is an admirable solution to an old problem that also fits fairly well within the context of the game; however, the system isn't perfect and the problem arises after you scan the room. This causes a three second delay that prevents you from accessing your inventory. While that's not a significant amount of time, it can add up and be annoying when you're constantly scanning new areas. A bigger issue arises when scanned objects appear off screen; which, luckily, only happens on rare occasions. In addition, there are rare times when Perry doesn't do what he's told. One time I made him run to the computer to turn it on, instead, he ran halfway across the room and stared at a wall. It's not a big problem, but it can be annoying.

What wasn't annoying was the game's graphics; which, despite its issues, look cohesive and good overall. The artistic backgrounds will range from adequate to stunning. While the backgrounds are rendered in 2D, the game creates the allusion of the third dimension by positioning the viewpoint at cinematic angles. In addition, little background animations featuring spacecraft flying off in the distance are a nice touch. The character models, while solid, are rendered in 3D and aren't as stellar. While they're not bad, they look a little generic. There's an alien race that looks like it has two stacked pancakes for a head. In addition, the fusion of 2D backgrounds and 3D characters don't gel all that well. Imagine Perry typing on his keyboard, but his hands are situated three feet above the keys; these aren't the cool futuristic air keyboards I'm talking about here. Another area where the game's graphics that needs a little more attention to detail is the cinematics, which look slightly above mediocre. The full motion videos would have looked awesome if they were released 10 years ago, but the terrible attempt at lip synching, awkward animations, and less-than-stellar character models make it look second rate.

The voice acting is also a mixed bag. Some voice actors play their role with conviction, while others make you want to cringe. Luckily the music is at least consistent. It's fitting for a space opera, although it isn't memorable. The biggest problem with the music is that there isn't enough of it. A lot of the time you will only be accompanied by silence or ambient noises. Fortunately, the sound effects are decent, even if they do sound like they were pulled out of the sci-fi sound stock.

Closing Comments
I love adventure games and puzzles just as much as the next guy, but The Immortals of Terra will have you constantly stuck, which isn't a problem if the puzzles made sense. The game sometimes runs on logic of its own and can often throw common sense out of the window. The Immortals of Terra has a good sci-fi premise and a decent story filled with intrigue, betrayal, and mystery at its core, but those elements aren't presented to you in an engaging manner. Luckily, it's not a bad game to look at; unfortunately the rest of the package just doesn't live up to the graphics. This adventure is only recommended for hardcore fans of the genre who don't mind zany logistical puzzles; otherwise, you should beam yourself the hell out of there.

"Scopa!"

By: Emliy Balistrieri

Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice (#18) is not quite as good as the previous entry in the PC adventure game series, but it does have more varied gameplay, which includes the high point, Scopa. Yes, in addition to solving mysteries you learn an Italian card game. You also learn how to speak some Italian, how to be a stealthy thief, and how to dress as a cat and dance in a nightclub. And that wasn't a joke -- it's definitely an adventure.

Nancy joins the GdiF (sort of like the FBI) investigation of a string of art robberies on the surveillance detail, but could one of the people in the Venetian palazzo where she is staying be connected to this operation, even as Nancy spies from the roof on another suspect in a neighboring building? Who is Il Dottore? Remove the Commedia dell'arte mask from this ringleader and close the case.

If you've played any of these Nancy Drew games, you'll know the drill very well. If they couldn't master moving through the spaces and turning in first person -- Click the arrows? Hold the mouse at the edge of the screen? They still don't know -- in #17, I guess there's no reason to expect they'll have changed it for #18, and they didn't. They also added these extremely frustrating pixel-hunting segments where instead of your magnifying glass turning red to indicate something interesting, all you are given is a green arrow. Somewhere in green arrow land there is something that warrants your attention, but good luck spotting it, whether it's the white tracking device pill, or the pigeon with the message tied to its leg. If you click more than four times and miss, you'll have to head to a new location and begin the search anew, so you can't even just desperation-click.

Fortunately, The Phantom of Venice does manage to feature some pretty fun segments, or at least things than you might not expect, in addition to the code breaking and Chinese puzzle box-type activities. I was surprised to find a closet, for instance. It should've had more clothes in it, but you do collect some as you go. Not that there is much excitement to be had mix 'n matching outfits, but the fact that you acquire a black cat costume and can dance for change at a nightclub in town is hilarious. The mini-game itself consists, blandly, of clicking a button for the correct move when you hear the corresponding sound effect and see flashing lights of the also-corresponding color. A little frantic, but not very interesting.

There is one area of the game where it goes all Bomberman-top-down style for a stealth level. Avoiding laser-sighted robots with the arrow keys and powering down security system generators via a memory-testing puzzle is way different than anything experienced in the game to that point, which probably makes it feel artificially more exciting than it really was. The same can be said of the basic Italian vocabulary they thrust upon you.

One thing that was fun for sure was playing Scopa. While having Enrico Tazza refuse to do business with the disguised Nancy until you beat him at a game (on a couple occasions) feels rather too contrived, the card game itself is actually a blast, and would be one almost compelling reason to buy this game. Except then I realized you can play the Scopa for free on Her Interactive's website (at least for now), not to mention that there is a really great (also free!) website where you can play vs. a real person, if someone is around. If UNO and Poker can get in, then Scopa should really be an XBLA title. Just putting that out there.

Closing Comments
While Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice oscillates quite a bit more on the fun meter than the last installment, it does have the exact same graphic and audio quality -- you might even say, “run of the mill,” considering we’re on #18. If you’re up for more mysteries, though, this should do you pretty well. As for me, the biggest take away was that Scopa goes very well with computers. Somebody should get on that.

The PC version also happens to be the best.

By: Charles Onyett

Smashing demons with flashy, extended combo chains has been Devil May Cry's draw since the original came out on Sony's PlayStation 2 back in 2001. For any PC gamers out there, you probably haven't been following along since then. Devil May Cry 3 did come to the PC in 2006, but the game didn't exactly make a smooth transition to the platform. With Devil May Cry 4, which came out on PlayStaion 3 and Xbox 360 this past February, Capcom has done a much better job bringing the franchise's blistering action gameplay to PC with smooth graphical performance, a new difficulty setting, and a turbo mode to speed things up even more.

If you're totally unfamiliar with the series, here's how it works. The game's overall structure isn't all that complicated. You walk into a room, the exits are blocked, and enemies spawn in. Your job is to use all available offensive options to deplete their health bars and snag the orbs that drop once they're vanquished. The higher the difficulty setting, the more damage they can absorb. Stringing together combos without taking damage, completing levels quickly, and snagging as many orbs as possible increases your score at the end of a level, giving you more points with which to buy additional moves and combos.

To break up the standard grunt slaying is the occasional boss fight and some light platforming and puzzle sequences, and not all of these work as well as the standard DMC monster killing action. While the boss encounters are entertaining and can vary depending on difficulty setting, with a few you wind up fighting the same creature three times, and considering they're all behaving according to pre-set patterns, the experience loses its appeal rather quickly.

The puzzle sequences aren't all that complicated, but they are annoying in some cases (fountain maze, disappearing platform section, mist warping in the forest), preventing you for no good reason from engaging in the much more enjoyable combat. And considering the jumping isn't all that precise, some of the hopping sections are even more frustrating.

Those issues take a backseat to the gameplay, though, which works well whether you're playing as series staple Dante or newcomer Nero. Dante retains some of his fighting styles from DMC3, now able to swap between Trickster, Swordmaster, Royal Guard, and Gunslinger on the fly. He's a highly versatile character in this respect, capable of instantly adjusting to whatever types of enemies happen to be assaulting him, giving him better dodging, blocking, sword-swinging, or gun-related abilities. With a few new weapons, like Pandora that transforms into rocket launchers and flying missile platforms depending on when it's used, Dante's gameplay is never boring.

Nero plays quite a bit differently. Like Dante he brings swords and guns to battle, but his most unique feature is Devil Bringer, his glowing blue arm. With this thing he can snatch enemies from afar and perform powerful grab moves which differ depending on the enemy type. Standard scarecrow enemies are simply body-slammed but some, like the game's ice demons, are flung around and smashed into the ground several times, damaging others in the area and acting as a sort of impromptu shield.

Another technique useful for Nero is his sword's charge-up ability, called the Exceed system. By hitting the right button just after a sword swing you can increase the sword's damage output, and with the correct power-up you can even max out the charge. So, theoretically, if you're good enough it's possible to have a fully charged Red Queen for nearly every swing. Good luck getting that timing down, though. It's not easy. If you really get in trouble, you can also activate Devil Trigger mode for added damage and a slow health regeneration effect.

Instead of Dante, Nero's the star of the show this time around. He's wrapped up with the mysterious Order of the Sword, a religious group with suspect intentions, chases after his love, Kyrie, and battles demons for around the first half of the game. Then things transition over to Dante which, given how differently they play, is a little jarring. Once you're no longer able to access the Devil Bringer's reach ability, you're going to have to readjust your combat tactics pretty significantly. To be forced into it right in the middle of the game is a little odd.

What's even stranger is the level design, which basically forces you to retrace your steps in the second half of the game, bringing you back to the beginning. You fight through the exact same arenas twice, which is, in addition to a painful dice game sequence near the end, what accounts for all the repeated boss encounters. Devil May Cry 4's story doesn't feel much like a quest at all in this respect; it's more like a tumultuous shopping trip.

It's also unfortunate that Nero is the focus here, as he's nowhere close to as strong a character as Dante. Whereas Dante's ego dwarfs even the most gargantuan of the demon bosses he so regularly faces, Nero seems just as likely to whine as to jeer at enemies. By the end he comes off more like a kid chasing a stolen juice box than a fearless hero in pursuit of his girlfriend. When Dante steps into the action, he's so endearingly arrogant that he even manages to soothe some of your concern regarding the challenge ahead.

While the story isn't all that thrilling (A furtive order of religious zealots has malicious intentions? No way!), it does have its moments. During one particular sequence where, after being defeated, a mad scientist boss is madly scribbling notes on a clipboard frantically asking Dante for combat tips, I couldn't help thinking of how he's mirroring players who run to game guides for advice. Yet in this case, the scientist is addressing Dante, who is, in essence, you. The game is asking the player for advice on how to better challenge you, and since it can't exactly turn to a guide itself as it's governed by the rules of its AI programming, you can't help but take pity on it, even though it's trying to kill you. Though these kinds of moments aren't common, it's an enjoyable kind of self-awareness you don't always see in action games like this.

And now onto some of the particulars of the PC version. With a game like this so focused on twitch elements, control is a primary issue. With DMC4, you basically have to use a gamepad. There's really no way around it. So while I smashed on Capcom's Resident Evil 4 for PC for not having mouse support, that's different. That game focuses on aiming and shooting, something a mouse is ideal for. Devil May Cry 4 focuses on precise button combos and not as much on accuracy, something I'd much rather control with thumbsticks and face buttons than with keys and a mouse. I was using a wired Xbox 360 controller for the play through and had no issues. It felt quite natural.

PC gamers can also use the turbo toggle to speed up the action and, once unlocked, can play on Legendary Dark Knight mode, which turns out to be pretty difficult. I'm by no means the best DMC player out there; in fact I'm nowhere close, but the sheer number of enemies spawned in this mode ensures that only the best, most dedicated players will be able to make it through. Still, it's nice to know it's there even if you're a more casual player and happen to get sucked in.

DMC4's visual presentation is also fantastic, in higher resolution on the PC and in DX9 or DX10 modes. Even on my home system, which isn't exactly a powerhouse, the game still ran wonderfully smooth with most of the graphics options turned all the way up and in 1920 x 1200 resolution. In addition to the action, you're also treated to some fantastically directed in-game cut-scenes that flesh out the story and show off slick, stylish action sequences.

For sound, you'll mostly hear grunts, item pick-up effects, gun shots and sword clangs during gameplay. Character voice-overs are generally well done, but why oh why does the battle music have to be so awful? With every fight you're assaulted with trashy electro-rock that really just needs to go away.

Closing Comments
So are you going to enjoy Devil May Cry 4? Hardcore actions junkies aren't going to care as much about the wrap-around level progression and repetitive encounters as they'll likely be busy replaying stages for the highest ratings. They're going to love the punishing Legendary Dark Knight mode on Turbo and power through the wonky platforming and puzzle sections. If you're one of those who are just looking for a one-shot action experience, though, you'll probably be more affected by these kinds of flaws.

Regardless of how much weight you put on each category, the action gameplay is accessible and possesses quite a bit of depth if you're willing to put in the time. The higher-resolution graphics on the PC shine and flow smoothly, and the fact that a gamepad is the best way to go shouldn't turn you off. This type of game couldn't really work any other way. So while it's not without flaws, it's still one of the better pure action experiences on the platform.

In the dark, no one can see you weep.

By: Ryan Geddes

Quality survival horror games are woefully hard to come by on consoles these days, and it's easy to understand why. As hardware gets more powerful and gamers' expectations grow, building a big, beautiful world full of mind-bending puzzles, creepy creatures and compelling storylines is an increasingly Herculean task.

But it's a job Atari's Eden Games studio bravely took on with Alone in the Dark, an ambitious adventure game set in and around New York's Central Park. Alone in the Dark (only nominally connected to its genre-spawning predecessors) follows the tale of a paranormal investigator who wakes up in a burning building, unable to remember who he is or how he came to be surrounded by menacing thugs.

He soon learns that he is Edward Carnby, a foul-mouthed tough guy who's mixed up in some devilish doings. As he makes his way out of the crumbling skyscraper he meets up with the feisty Sara, and they flee into Central Park to uncover the mystery of Edward's background and the secret behind a stone with mysterious properties.

I love a good yarn, and I was hoping to find one in Alone in the Dark. Instead I was introduced to yet another amnesiac fighting demons and carrying around a spooky stone. It doesn't help that our hero is challenged in the dialogue department, having been endowed by the game's writers with a nasty blue streak. You can count on hearing the words "f***" or "s***" nearly every time our scarred-up hero opens his mouth, an attempt at gritty realism that comes off as adolescent and trite.

It's a shame that there's not more depth beneath the surface of Alone in the Dark, but it's not just the tired storyline that makes it a disappointment. There are many genuinely inventive ideas at play in Central Park, but few of them work as well as they should and most are failures. As a result, the game feels loosely cobbled together, and the experience ends up being full of inconsistencies, aggravations and contradictions.

It's been a point of pride with the developers of Alone in the Dark that they've implemented realistic fire effects in the game, and they have reason to boast. Flames lick the walls to stunning effect; objects catch fire and can be used against enemies; puzzles, especially near the end of the game, make use of fire's destructive properties; and flames can help light your way in dark corridors. At times, the flames behave so realistically that you forget they're an illusion. Now that's a feat.

The problem is, fire is the only way to kill enemies (inexplicably named "Humanz"), which is interesting at first but quickly becomes tedious. Although, there are many different methods you can use to dispatch your enemies -- lobbing Molotov cocktails, blowing up cars, using makeshift blowtorches, touching monsters with burning furniture -- your gun (you only have a single handgun throughout the entire game) is useless against them. Unless, that is, you pour flammable liquid on your ammunition to create "fire bullets." Even then, you can only kill monsters by hitting them directly in their "fissures," which are glowing fiery scars on their bodies. Most of the time, you'll find access to explosive items severely limited, which means the most effective and consistent way to kill monsters in Alone in the Dark is to touch them with burning chairs. Yawn.

Unlike the Resident Evil series, which scatters storage chests around the game for quick access to your stockpiled items, Alone in the Dark restricts you to only a few slots in your jacket. And each side can only hold a certain category of items. Manipulating items in videogames can be cumbersome enough without having to delve into a jacket and poke around while monsters attack you in real-time. Combining items to make new ones, a central part of the game, is also frustrating. Want to combine a wick with a bottle? You can't select the bottle first -- it has to be the wick. Good luck sorting out inconsistencies like these when "Ratz" and "Batz" are nipping at your heels. What was intended to add tension and challenge instead creates a situation in which you must constantly wander around the game, combing glove compartments and trash cans for disposable weapons. And once in your arsenal, they're deployed inconsistently at best, both against enemies and the environment.

At the beginning of Alone in the Dark, we learn that our jacketed hero can smash in doors with objects found in the world. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. That's partly because the controls are awkward and partly because the collision detection and physics in Alone in the Dark don't work well. Sometimes doors bend and buckle on the first few hits. Other times, they don't budge, leaving you to just blow them up in frustration. But even that method is inconsistent. In the sewers beneath Central Park, I tried to get creative, taping a bottle of explosives to a steel door and stepping back to shoot it. Nothing happened. But when I lobbed the same bottle in the air and shot it in front of the door, it burst into pieces, opening the way before me. Alone in the Dark gives the impression that it rewards creative thinking with inventory items, but after being burned a few times you'll want to stop playing with fire.

Combine this restrictiveness and inconsistency with cumbersome, unintuitive controls and you have a real problem on your hands. Alone in the Dark uses an odd mix of third and first-person views -- the former is tank-like, and the latter is less than smooth. And they're both made more frustrating by the fact that the game forces you to swap between them. Melee combat can only be handled in third-person, but you can only fire your weapon in first-person. Being shoved back and forth between the two while solving puzzles and fighting creatures with Zs at the ends of their names is enough to drive a bloke crazy.

But even without the perspective problem, the combat system would remain more annoyance than entertainment. Pick up a melee weapon, like a shovel or an axe, and you'll use the mouse to swing it. It's a nice idea that ends up feeling clumsy and imprecise. Dispatching evil monsters should be rewarding, but the melee controls in Alone in the Dark offer only frustration. Carnby moves around Central Park like a hung-over convalescent, awkwardly swinging burning baseball bats as if he has two broken arms. He can't even climb a set of stairs without lifting the item he's carrying into the air to avoid getting stuck.

Moving Carnby around Central Park is a frustrating experience, and putting him behind the wheel is equally bad. The cars in Alone in the Dark are not weighted correctly, and as a result they handle strangely and are not fun to drive, which is surprising considering the last game from Eden was Test Drive Unlimited (which is prominently advertised atop every taxi in the game). It should be a blast to jack a ride and rip through Central Park. Unfortunately, there are only three basic car models -- taxi, cop car and something that looks like a 1985 Mercury Cougar -- and they all feel like cardboard boxes. There are three main driving challenges in Alone in the Dark, spaced at the beginning, middle and end of the game. All are cheap trial-and-error affairs full of scripted events which force you to reload the challenge over and over and over again until you've memorized the software routine. Even if the cars handled like a dream, these levels would be a drag.

PC players have the advantage of using either a keyboard/mouse control scheme or a game controller for Alone in the Dark, and all keys can be remapped to your liking. In general, there are a fair number of customization options in the PC version -- including light and shadow, vegetation, resolution and other standbys.

Perhaps anticipating that gamers would want to skip large portions of the game, Alone in the Dark includes a clever DVD-like menu system that allows you to fast-forward, right up to the beginning of the last level, if you like. Doing so brings up a slick recap segment similar to what you might see on an episodic TV drama. While there's nothing particularly episodic about the story structure of Alone in the Dark, it's a cool addition that lets you bypass some of the more troublesome parts of the game. And it's a good thing, too, because there are segments of Alone in the Dark that are so completely unintuitive and frustrating --including a particularly cheap turn of events near the end of the game -- that you'll be lobbing your controller in exasperation.

Some puzzles in Alone in the Dark are reasonably well-designed, but many are either unintuitive, buggy or both. There's one level in which Carnby has to reach a ledge in an underground storehouse with the help of a forklift. This one had several IGN editors gathered around scratching their heads. Once we figured out how to use the lift, we put it in place and prepared to fight the inevitable spawned monster, who is blessed with the uncanny ability to bitch-slap items out of your hands. Once we dispatched it by tapping it with a red-hot kitchen chair, we went back to finish the puzzle, only to find it broken. The forklift was parked inches too close to a wall and we couldn't re-enter it. After trying in vain to jump inside, Carnby was mysteriously crushed to death by the game.

In case you're a glutton for punishment, I won't give away the ending of Alone in the Dark. But I will say that it feels like a slap in the face. After trudging through Central Park for hours on end, clumsily swinging flaming furniture at boring monsters, I was presented with what felt like nothing more than a game-lengthening gimmick. As the story, silly as it was, built to a climax, all efforts at sensible pacing were suddenly thrown out the window in favor of more unsatisfying combat and general drudgery. And at the end of it all, I was treated to one of the more ridiculous endings I've seen in a good, long while, complete with my new favorite videogame quote. And not in a good way.

Closing Comments
Alone in the Dark has some good ideas, but it fails at most because it tries them all. Nice visuals, great fire effects and valiant efforts at innovation don’t make up for boring combat, frustrating controls, poorly designed levels and a hackneyed story. There’s a certain amount of old-school adventure charm in Alone in the Dark, but it shines only as the dimmest of lights, hemmed in by the darkness of its many failures.

A solid adventure for Pixar's little droid.

By: Jeff Haynes

When you have a hit franchise on your hands, you really want to capitalize on it as best you can. In the case of Wall-E, Disney and Pixar's latest film, the titular robot was a star before his movie came out, pulling at kids and adult's heartstrings alike while making them laugh at the same time. But with all the attention focused on the current generation of consoles, particularly their improved visual capabilities that could reasonably approach that of the film, how would the PC version of the game fare? Quite well, actually –- Thanks to a focus on varied gameplay and puzzles within Wall-E's adventure, the PC version is an enjoyable action title that will keep fans of the movie engaged.

For the most part, Wall-E follows the plot of the movie, with Earth's population having evacuated the planet due to overwhelming levels of trash and other waste byproducts of humanity's consumer urge. Left behind are a horde of Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class robots (or Wall-Es), who are tasked with collecting and cleaning the world from top to bottom so that one day, people can live on its surface once again. However, after hundreds of years, only one Wall-E droid remains, lonely carrying out its job as best it can until one day, a ship lands and deploys a robot named Eve, whose task is to search for life on Earth. As Wall-E falls in love with Eve, Eve discovers that he has found what she's been looking for and takes off for space. Following his heart, Wall-E chases her and essentially discovers a life outside of his sheltered world.

Players control Wall-E for most of the game, moving the little robot through various environments solving puzzles and defeating enemies. While the odds may be against him, Wall-E has a number of ways to help him get past these obstacles. Wall-E can transform into a box and charge through objects and boxes. This move gives him a speed boost, which he can further translate into momentum during jumps. This is extremely useful because Wall-E will need to accelerate in half-pipe situations to cross certain gaps or leap up to new areas to collect energy charges. Charges are important because many security doors and areas are protected by doorways that require a certain number of vials before they unlock, so Wall-E will need to look for these in the environment. Many of them will be trapped in boxes, which can be broken apart by cubes that he automatically generates from trash that he rolls over. Incidentally, these cubes can also be thrown into switches, objects or other targets. Wall-E also comes with a laser that he can use to cut through objects, which can only be recharged with laser energy vials.

Apart from these maneuvers, Wall-E has a global map of each stage that can be called up at any time that helps him navigate each area successfully. But sometimes, Wall-E might need some help, particularly once he gets on board the Axiom spaceship. To enlist fellow droids, Wall-E can play a song from "Hello Dolly," charming the other robot and allowing him to use their services, such as flashlights or bouncing platforms to help him reach new sections. But perhaps the most engaging feature is Wall-E's first person view that he'll use to target certain objects, as well as scan the environment. Scanning is important because hidden throughout each one of the 27 stages are lost artifacts from the human race. By identifying where these items are and then picking them up, a small vignette will play that highlights Wall-E's child-like discovery of the item and his interaction with it.

On top of this, Wall-E will have a number of puzzles that he'll have to bypass to move through different environments. Some of these will be environmental, such as vortexes that are powered by energy cubes that will need to be shot with a laser before they disappear. Others are tied to access doors, but test your memory or your pattern matching skills. Depending on the access panel, players will have to remember where certain colors are, trip a specific number of switches or hit a button before time runs out. Including elements like this adds a mild, but engaging challenge to the standard "find switch and open door" mechanic. There are even energy dispensers in the form of slot machines that Wall-E will need to access to gain energy for his laser. Match the proper icon and he'll be rewarded; miss and gain nothing.

This amount of puzzle diversity adds a different dimension to the game that makes it much more than the simplified gameplay you'll find in the current gen version. Players move back and forth between platforming sequences, action moments, shooting gallery sections on rails, puzzle solving sections and even races and chases. There are even homages to Frogger as Wall-E leaps back and forth through heavily trafficked areas. In fact, the transitions between these 27 stages (which, incidentally, is three times that of the current gen) are wisely made according to the moments of the plot, so you expect the timed race sequences during the high paced tension moments.

The largest downside is that some of the most creative segments within the game are too short. Many of the race through environment areas are over in less than two minutes (which counts as a stage). Players only need to make three laps during chases to win, and the laser cutting segments where you aim and fire at specific objects are only included twice and take seconds to complete. Some players will also find that the sentinel robots on the Axiom are a bit tougher to defeat that you'd expect. While they can easily be dispatched by a cube, they can toss cubes back at Wall-E with unerring accuracy and take a lot of shots from Wall-E's laser before they explode. This can be extremely daunting when you're facing a room of six or more, all of whom want to surround and melt Wall-E with their energy blasts. The final issue is that some puzzles won't be readily apparent for some kids, such as puzzle sections that require you to bring one block from an area to another to move forward, or magnet blocks that attract certain cubes in specific pathways. That could get some young gamers stuck for a while and frustrate them.

Now, you do get a chance to play as Eve, Wall-E's object of affection, but these moments are few and far between. Unlike the current gen versions, her levels are restricted primarily to race segments, where she flies through areas and fires her gun at items in her path or explosive boxes scattered along her route. Much of this is practically on rails, so as long as you keep Eve off the walls or running into the floor or ceiling, it's rather easy to complete her sections and move on. Again, her segments suffer from the same issues that Wall-E's races have, but since she's not the focus of the title, it's understandable.

At the end of each level, players receive points for completing these stages, along with any mini-games that they might have unlocked by collecting artifacts or destroying all of the crates on a level. These points can be redeemed for bonus items, such as concept art or additional cheats that change the game. For example, players can substitute the Hello Dolly songs with tracks from The Incredibles. Not only does this provide motivation for players to return to previously completed levels, it gives them an incentive to fully explore every environment they go into. However, when you're playing through these stages for either the first time or a return session, be aware that you'll probably want to play with a 360 game controller attached. The mouse and keyboard combination, while decent, can be a bit more imprecise for some sections where you'll need a lot of tight control.

Surprisingly, what players will find with the PC version of Wall-E is a title that looks better than the other versions of the game, with no frame rate drops and a much better camera. In fact, fighting with the camera is practically non-existent in the game, and the action is well framed and presented for players to accomplish their goals easily. What's more, there is no flicker to be seen, and the amount of screen tearing and clipping is kept down to a minimum. While there are weaker textures here and there along with some bland environments, the PC version of the game is much cleaner than the other versions, with better textural work overall. This is particularly highlighted by the mini-cutscenes, which look like they were transferred from a lower resolution version of Wall-E into the PC version. Audio is extremely good as well, and there's enough variety in the game, particularly during the mini-cutscenes when Wall-E is exploring the use of an item to make you laugh.

Closing Comments
Old dogs can learn new tricks, and in the case of Wall-E, the PC version of the game is one of the most solid film to game adaptations we've seen in a while. Not only is there a lot to do within this action title, it's engaging and varied with its action, making play a lot of fun. If you have a Wall-E fan in your house, check this game out.

This one is for serious Civil War buffs only.

By: William Abner

Do you have a passing interest in the American Civil War? Perhaps you've watched the great Ken Burns documentary... maybe even more than once. Maybe you've even taken a family vacation to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to walk with the ghosts on that hallowed ground. If that's as far as your interest runs, AGEOD's American Civil War is not for you, because you need to be a full-fledged Civil War freak to get the most out of what this game has to offer. But if you do fall into that small niche group, then The Blue and the Gray may be your dream game. It's like playing a detailed Civil War boardgame but without removing any of the minutia, complete with mounds of data and the type of intricacy that only a true grognard can appreciate.

The game is broad in scope; this is an operational-level war game that focuses on the big picture and not individual battles. For example, when armies meet on the map you are presented with a quick sound of clashing soldiers and then the result, no muss no fuss. It's not a game about trying to outflank your opponent or deciding when to charge with your cavalry. It's more about basic army composition, destroying rail lines to disrupt enemy supply, keeping your nation happy and content so it produce quality soldiers for your cause, and destroying the other side's will to fight.

That's not to say there isn't a lot of detail. Regiments alone are rated in various categories of standard stuff like attack and defense, ammo, rate of fire and discipline but also in areas like cohesion, detection, and even "police," which is a unit's ability to quash potential unrest in a city. Some historical gamers eat this sort of stuff up, but for others it's simply going to be too much to worry about. Commanders are also meticulously rated in various categories, and again, this level of detail certainly drives home the notion that Grant was a more efficient general than Burnside, but to what end?

The game's two tutorials do little to give new players any real direction. In fact, all the tutorials do is hammer home the fact that the interface is a bit messy and that the game's level of detail is astonishing. Even when you're done with the tutorials and have read most of the 80-page rulebook, launching one of the game's many scenarios and campaigns leaves you with a feeling, at least at first, of "ok... now what do I do?"

What's interesting, however, is that once you dig and claw your way through the unfriendly interface you're left with a fun operational-level war game. So there is some payoff to learning the system. ACW uses the WEGO system, a simultaneous turn-based design which makes it tougher to get the jump on enemy locations. Thanks to the brilliant use of fog of war, getting as much information about the enemy whereabouts as possible is crucial to success. The AI is rock-solid, rarely leaving an obvious opening. Thanks to the WEGO system, trying to predict or anticipate what an enemy army is going to do next is nerve-wracking... in a good way.

Another aspect is the ability to assign generals to specific chains of command. You can break down every army corps, division... right down the line. The interface really gets in the way here, though, making this a whole lot more difficult than it needs to be because if these generals are unfamiliar to you, figuring out the proper command, rank, etc. is a huge pain. Again, once you get past the curve it works well enough and is actually a pretty nifty feature but there should be a better way to handle it.

The game just can't seem to get out from under its own desire to simulate everything; in the end it's like being shot in the face with numbers, and it's so easy to make a seemingly harmless mistake and have it cost you. Maybe you assigned the wrong general to a division command or you were so worried about some other factor that you forgot something basic like keeping an army in supply. It's information overload for all but the most eager and dedicated gamers.

It does look good -- it's bright, colorful and the period art is great, as is the music -- but it's impossible to recommend for anyone other than the hardest of the hardcore. For those gamers, this is a no-brainer. To the grognard, this level of detail is an absolute must, a requirement in every sense of the word. But to others, even casual fans of history and the Civil War, it's just too much information wrapped inside an impenetrable interface. AGEOD's American Civil War is an intimidating game, one that will overwhelm new players with data while wargaming vets will embrace the PBEM play and level of difficult. Where you fall is a matter of perspective.

Our president has been overthrown and replaced by the benevolent General Krull. All hail Krull and his glorious regime!

By: Steve Butts

As far as life goals go, I'd say that being a dictator who rules with an iron fist and crushes his neighbors underneath the heels of his goose-stepping armies is pretty high on most of our readers' lists. I mean, who doesn't want the opportunity to be absolutely corrupted by absolute power? Just thinking of the narcissistic excesses is enough to make me smile.

Enter Battlegoat's Supreme Ruler 2020. This follow-up to their original game of world conquest, Supreme Ruler 2010, recreates the same near-future geopolitical turmoil that scored such a big success the first time around. Fortunately, the team has included a number of improvements, both in terms of functionality and AI, that make the game easier and more rewarding to play. Unfortunately, many of the first game's problems have also found their way into the sequel.

To begin with, Supreme Ruler 2020 follows a model popularized in Paradox's long-running Europa Universalis series. You take a map of the entire world, fill it up with armies, governments, trade goods, cities, religions, and all the other stuff that makes the world a compelling place to live. Then put players in charge of one of the countries and start the whole thing running in real time and watch as the pressures of competition and cooperation drastically shift the balance of power for or against you. The big difference between Supreme Ruler and games like EU or Hearts of Iron is that Supreme Ruler takes place in the near future of our own world.

There's a basic backstory behind the 2020 setting, and it's worth reading simply because it's well thought out and offers some compelling and chilling hints at the direction things might actually be moving for us in the "real" world. Fortunately, you don't absolutely have to immerse yourself in the backstory to enjoy the game. The small intel briefing you get for your country at the beginning of the campaign should be enough to get you going.

The map of the world here is probably the best global map we've seen in a game. Not only does it make use of NASA satellite imagery to create a high-resolution super-detailed geographical map of the world, but the political aspects are just as accurate. Containing thousands upon thousands of cities (even my hometown -- big points there) and nations from the US and Russia to Jamaica and Luxemburg, Supreme Ruler is impressive at both ends of the scale.

But all this detail takes a toll on the game. Let me say at the start, that players of games like this often take a perverse pleasure in the fact that their games are just too complicated and incomprehensible for most players to appreciate. I count myself in that category. Given the mass-market design that's bleeding over from the consoles to the PC these days, this may not be an unhealthy response. But I think games like Supreme Ruler (and Paradox's other global sim games) can and should do more to streamline the access to controls and information.

Fortunately, Supreme Ruler 2020 takes some satisfying steps in that direction. To begin with, the information that you're given is laid out in a much more intelligible format and you won't have to hunt around for it quite as much as you did previously. For such a stat-heavy game, it helps to be only two or three mouse clicks away from the important numbers you need. There's definitely a lot more that can be done in terms of pop-ups and context menus, but overall, the management of information is refreshingly easy. Well, maybe not easy, but at least more attainable.

In addition to better information presentation, Supreme Ruler 2020 also introduces some refreshingly competent ministers. Since you'll never be able to control everything for a given country (especially the larger ones), you'll need to rely on specific subordinates to manage the day-to-day operations. These ministers have their own political leanings, which will shift their policies to the left or the right, but you can also set specific priorities for them so that their actions don't depart too far from your overall vision for the nation.

You might, for example, find yourself facing a war, so you'll want your production minister to start stockpiling consumer goods and your research minister to stop trading away your technologies. Your finance minister can start to put a hold on inflation, while your state minister begins to seek alliances and your operations minister actively starts trying to steal new technologies. Then you'd simply tell your defense minister to start a discreet military build up and modernize your army. Over the next few months, you'll see things start to shape up along those lines and at any point you can step in to take over full control over any or all of those departments. You can even set priorities for a minister and then lock out certain decisions that you want to make yourself. In all it's a very flexible system that benefits from great AI and tremendous flexibility.

The real disappointment is that Supreme Ruler 2020 does almost nothing to help players learn how to play. Yes, there are a number of tutorials but these are largely passive affairs that merely point out where certain features are on the interface without bothering to explain their relevance. It's like telling you how to activate something without ever telling you how (or why or when) to actually use it. There's a lengthy and helpful section on overall strategy in the game manual, but it speaks more to policy than actual practice. In the absence of any meaningful instruction you're forced to learn how to play the game through trial and error. Do you have access to coal? How do you turn it into a useable resource? Who wants to buy coal and how can you sell it? If you want to take a neighbor's coal, should you declare a military hot spot? These are all questions that the designers feel you'd be better answering on your own.

It's particularly aggravating because the game ships with a number of shorter, more limited scenarios that introduce some of these gameplay concepts in ways that are less intimidating. Playing a smaller mission with a scripted goal that forces you to focus on diplomacy or social welfare is a great way to ease into the main campaign, but the game never really introduces these scenarios appropriately to let players know how to tackle them.

Once you join the scenario things get very intense very quickly. The resource shortage at the heart of the game would be enough to spark a big enough fire. Add in a worldwide economic recession, nuclear powers in the Mid-East, and a number of other political surprises and you have the makings for a first-rate world war. Indeed, within the first few years of our games, the world divides up into two large blocs, ensuring that even an isolated conflict in some far corner of the world will likely drag in all the major players. Within a year of starting our first game China, Vietnam and India had been absorbed by their neighbors. Playing as the Germans, we allied with France and readied our military to march to take the Scandinavian oil reserves, only to find ourselves attacked by our neighbors to the east. Within two years even Switzerland and Luxemburg were getting in on the act.

Yipe.

As you can see from the screens, the game won't win any visual awards. The map is certainly the best of its kind we've ever seen, but there are far too many assets on it for it to be all that readable. When cities and units and explosions start piling up, things can be a real mess, both in terms of visual quality and overall performance. Still, during peace, the map gets the job done in terms of laying out all your cities and industries and giving you a good look at what's where. The sound is also at the level of just getting the job done. The explosions and effects aren't terribly impressive but they do add just a bit of context to what's going on. If nothing else, once you start hearing those explosions, it's a good time to start scrolling around to see who's blowing up your cities this time.

Closing Comments
Supreme Ruler 2020 is designed for a very specific kind of gamer. We can fault the designers somewhat for not making the immense complexity of this game a bit more digestible but the fact is that the tremendous amount of detail and control here can't ever be presented in a format that will make it palatable to the average gamer. As it is, it will take hardcore fans a good couple of hours to finally start to feel like they're in control of what's happening to them in this game. In the meantime they can rely on the tremendously helpful minister system to keep their country on course.

If it's broke, fix it.

By: Jimmy Thang

History has given mankind many great inventors. Alexander Graham Bell revolutionized communication when he invented the telephone. The Wright Brothers paved the way for modern travel with the advent of the airplane. You too will become an engineer with Crazy Machines 2, the new 2D physics puzzler from publisher Viva Media. Unfortunately, much like the game itself, your experiments will often leave you with mixed results.

Crazy Machines 2's gameplay is inspired by Rube Goldberg, an inventor who was fascinated with building complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect ways. The gameplay is nothing new and shares a lot in common with the older Incredible Machine games. Basically, if you've seen the original Back to the Future movie, you might remember the opening scene displaying a wacky and long-winded contraption that, after going through multiple complicated phases, opens up a can of dog food and spills it onto the floor. In Crazy Machines 2, you will be constructing similar devices that will force you to do everything from shooting crossbows at mannequins to frying fish by tuning musical instruments.

Each level starts off by letting you know what to do and gives you items to accomplish your objective. There's usually multiple ways to solve each puzzle. The initial levels are easy, and basically introduce you to the domino effect. As you progress through the game, more items will be added to your inventory, and the puzzles get much more long-winded and challenging. What adds a layer of difficulty to the game is that a lot of the time you will have to manipulate the objects before placing them onto the field. You will have to rotate, mirror, or combine items together in order to accomplish your various tasks. Certain objects will rely on other items to work, i.e. a gas boiler might require connecting pipes to function, a light bulb might need to attach itself to an electrical outlet, and so forth.

Considering Crazy Machines 2 has around 200 items to toy around with, there's a lot to manage. The game doesn't make itself any easier, because much like Goldberg contraptions, some of the puzzles are just too convoluted for their own good. It doesn't help that the puzzle instructions are often poorly worded. The directions manage to say a lot and very little at the same time. Most of the dialogue is worthless back-story that you won't care about, and you'll often be left scratching your head trying to figure out what to do.

Because some of the levels are so confusing, the game gives you the option to use three different kinds of hints. Each level usually gives you two text clues, which generally points you in the right direction. The next cheat allows you to spy on certain sections of the screen, depending on where you click. Finally there's a reveal cheat, otherwise known as the "I give up" button, which allows you to move on to the next stage. You will often be tempted to use these cheats, but using them will lower your laboratory score. However, there are good puzzles in this game, and when you do resist the urge to cheat and beat the level on your own terms, you will feel like a genius.

Even though the gameplay mechanics can get pretty advanced, the presentation is primitive from a design perspective. For whatever reason, the menu takes place in a three dimensionally rendered log cabin; I guess that's where most scientific experiments are conducted? As you boot up the game, you will be introduced to a cartoon inspired Albert Einstein. He will constantly try to have a one-sided conversation with you, but all of his jargon ends up being random and nonsensical. There were some cute ideas with the presentation, but in the end, everything comes off as unpolished and not very cohesive.

The game's graphics are also indicative of good intentions coming up short. Apparently, developer Novitas never heard of the "less is more" approach to design. The game's levels will often feel cluttered and unrefined, which can make things more difficult when you're trying to focus on certain sections. To offset this, the game allows you to zoom in on segments of the levels. However, when you zoom in close, you will notice bad looking textures and horrible aliasing issues. Even with 16x anti-aliasing turned on, the game was extremely jaggy. As you progress through the game you will be treated with different backgrounds. Unfortunately, while the change of scenery was meant to be a good thing, some of 2D backgrounds can be a little distracting. The game would have looked nicer with a cleaner and more pristine aesthetic. As it stands right now, the game looks dated and cheap.

While the game's audio does fair better, it really isn't anything to write about, but since I'm getting paid to write about the game, here it goes: some of the music you hear out of Crazy Machines 2's sounds like something you'd hear out of a theme park. One track sounds a lot like the music featured in Disney's "The Country Bears". There are also cultural tunes for when you "visit" different countries like Russia, China, and Egypt. The way the game uses sound effects are pretty cool. When you zoom in on objects that emit sound, the closer you get to the item, the louder it will become. It's a nice attention to detail that warrants brownie points.

However attention to detail wasn't used when it came to glitches. It's ironic that Crazy Machines 2 is about fixing bugs, because there are some obvious bugs in this game. The retail build would constantly lock up on me. I even tried it on multiple computers. Another problem with Crazy Machines 2 is that it does not allow you to use alt+tab to minimize the game, which is more of an annoyance. While this next gripe isn't actually a glitch, limiting players to only 15 spy cheats and five reveals is a sloppy design choice. Basically if you're stuck and run out of hints, you're going to have to start the game all over again.

While starting the game all over again does add play time, if you like the game, it already has plenty of lasting appeal. Crazy Machines 2's career mode features roughly 150 levels to sink your teeth into and you can also download more maps online. The standard levels will keep you busy because each offers optional challenging side missions. The deal is sweetened with achievements, and a solid foundation for community created content. You can download other people's levels and rate them, or build and share your own. The level builder is surprisingly easy to use. You can create your own experiments in a matter of minutes, but the most fiendish levels will take some time to make.

Closing Comments
If you were one of those weird kids who enjoyed solving geometry or physics puzzles in school then you might dig this game. It's nothing new, but the core gameplay mechanics are solid. However, like the complicated and convoluted contraptions contained in this game, Crazy Machines 2 is at times poorly constructed. Developer Novitas meant well, but there are some odd design choices and flaws that keep me from recommending this game. If you're a player that is patient and likes thinking outside the box, you might be able to look over some of the game's shortcomings, and enjoy it for what it tries to be.

Politics may be too fun to be left to the politicians but it still feels like business as usual to us.

By: Steve Butts

As tired as some of us may be of the tedious and unbalanced political process, particularly during this election year, there are too few games that focus on its wonderful ins and outs. So when a game comes out that gives players a chance to run their own version of the 2008 US presidential campaign, we definitely sit up and take notice. And when that game just happens to come from one of our favorite strategy game developers, well, that's even more cause to celebrate.

While Stardock's The Political Machine 2008 is an enjoyable, and intentionally topical, game, the publisher has taken tremendous pains to point out that it is not a "simulation." The more cynical types among you may take this as a simple marketing maneuver to ensure that the game appeals to a wider base but basically all this distinction means is that the game tries to recreate the political landscape of America without getting too bogged down in primaries and vote count controversies. Along the way you'll have the chance to run against folks from the current crop of candidates along with some notables from our political past. Unfortunately, the current political setting means the overall experience is far too predictable to have much lasting appeal. Even though the twenty-dollar price tag is appealing, only the most committed armchair politicians will find much replayability here.

We don't necessarily think that the game is biased one way or the other (at least, not any more than the country itself is), but it definitely reflects the variety of opinions and political polarization that make up American politics. The game is real enough that, assuming you know something about current events, you can jump in right away and have an idea whether or not your support of gay marriage will go over better in California or West Virginia, and whether or not to attack your opponent on job outsourcing on Michigan radio.

There's less of a sense of familiarity with the game's other campaigns. Our favorite focuses on the presidential election of 1860, and all the territories and issues are adjusted accordingly. It does require a little more research on the part of the player. We, for example, weren't sure whether or not Southern Democrats were supposed to support tariffs. Things are a little less obvious in the ersatz European Union campaign and sometimes incomprehensible (though undeniably hilarious) in the Drengin Empire campaign. Players of Stardock's Gal Civ 2 will definitely appreciate some of the in-jokes here.

No matter which election you play, your candidate starts off in their home state 41 weeks before the election. You can choose to play longer and shorter games but they're not as enjoyable. Each week you can spend your stamina points building infrastructure, giving speeches, and placing ads. Infrastructure can help you develop awareness in key states and gives you the resources to court national endorsements and hire political operatives. Speeches and ads give you the chance to promote your platform to the voters of a particular state or to the nation in general. Of course, a lot of these actions cost money, so you'll also need to save some stamina points for some good old fashioned fund-raising.

The voters of each state have issues that they care about and you'll want to state your position on those issues while keeping in mind whether or not your thoughts on that issue will make voters of either party (or the independents) more likely to support your campaign. You can pay cash to run national TV ads that blanket the whole country with your message, but you'll need to be aware that your views on immigration might be taken very differently in Florida than they are in Minnesota. Thankfully, the game presents you with basic poll numbers that show how the voters of each party feel about each issue, both at the state and the national levels.

When we saw that you could make your own candidates, we instantly set about making ersatz versions of ourselves to launch into the political arena, certain that our moderate and sometimes complicated views could sway the American voters. But in designing candidates, you're limited to a mere hundred points to determine your stance on issues from abortion to the withdrawal from Iraq. A hundred points sounds like a lot, but since each issue is rated on a scale of 100 points either for or against, you can really only take a moderate stand on four or five issues. Goodbye, school voucher program!

We were a little disappointed by this limitation until we realized that you can actually adjust your position on all of these issues during the campaign. You can get a hefty boost towards traditional values, big government, or drilling in ANWR just by courting the endorsement of various religious, business or environmental groups. You can also shift your platform based on the ads that you run and on the answers you give during your TV appearances. In the end, we were actually happier that you couldn't just spec the platform you wanted by spending points, but actually had to earn it through your actions during the campaign. We've even found ourselves crossing over to court voters of the other party whenever we saw that our opponent wasn't responding to a clear preference among voters.

The types of issues you talk about in your TV appearances and political ads can even catapult lesser known issues into the national arena. While everyone's going to be talking about the economy, or health care or the war on terror, you can jump in and start hammering away at an issue your opponent is weak on, like social security reform or gun control. This tactic can be risky though because while you're busy building up marginal issues, your opponent is gaining more and more momentum on the issues that already speak to a wide range of voters.

There are a number of map filters to help you plan out your conquest of the electorate. You can quickly see which states are important by checking the number of electoral votes they have and how wealthy they are overall. A quick check of the liberal vs. conservative voter numbers can also tell you which states are likely to vote for or against you at the beginning. By far the most useful of the map filters is the one that shows polling data. This is a real-time update of the way a state is likely to vote. This can change from red to blue during the course of a turn, even hanging on pink (or possibly gray) when the voters are just too confused to commit.

Players looking for a bit of a challenge will be happy to see that the AI has been improved since the 2004 edition. Your opponents know seem more inclined to go for the bigger states and to use their operatives in response to your own actions. You'll still get the occasional inexplicable fund-raising trip to Wyoming, but the AI plays a much smarter game this time around, particularly in the latter stages of the campaign.

The presentation has been improved a bit as well. Though it won't win any graphics awards, the new 3D engine gives the game a slick, updated feel that puts it a step above most games in this price range. And whether it was intentional or not, the bobble head figures offer a great commentary on politicians in general. The music and sound effects are equally polished, which enhances the experience.

The real problem with the game is the same problem that we have with politics in general. In short, it basically seems to be the same game over and over again no matter how many times you play. The candidates start out with lots of hope and enthusiasm, building up their infrastructure piece by piece, raising cash and giving speeches. Once they get a solid platform built up, they keep shouting the messages that they think will appeal to the largest number of voters, and in the end the only issue that really matters is whether or not the Republicans were able to take California and New York away from the Democrats.

Okay, so there is a bit more subtlety and variety to be found. Sometimes the Republican candidate picks Giuliani as a running mate. Sometimes the Democrats can get lucky and find a million dollar donor and a director who's willing to shoot commercials for half price. Sometimes Texas is undecided right up until the night of the election. But these variations are really just small shifts in the current of this game.

There are a few other small problems here and there. The biggest annoyance is the inability to distinguish between all the ads and political operatives that are bunched together in the states. It's not as a big a deal in places like Texas or California, but when you've got ten or twelve folks in New York sharing space with half a dozen print and TV ads, it can be difficult to know just what's going on. The developers should also include a handy summary screen so you can see all your ads in one place, particularly those running at a national level. We've occasionally found ourselves paying to run duplicate ads just because we weren't sure if we had one running already.

We were also a little disappointed that there's no real use for political clout late in the game. It's an absolutely essential resource during the early part of the campaign in order to pick up those lucrative national endorsements. But once you and your opponent have divided up the handful of eligible organizations, your clout just keeps building and building for no real purpose. It would be nice if there were someway to leverage that once the endorsements are all claimed.

Closing Comments
For twenty bucks, The Political Machine 2008 isn't necessarily a bad deal, but it's a one-note affair that inhabits that misty gray region between comfortable familiarity and dull predictability. As a light-hearted treatment of American politics in 2008, The Political Machine definitely succeeds and we've had a bit of fun roleplaying our own values on the road to the White House. There's no doubt that it's an enjoyable experience, but the main campaign just has you playing out the same battle over and over again. The other campaigns are interesting and introduce some genuinely funny and thought provoking issues but they're not quite as comprehensible or recognizable as the 2008 US campaign.

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