Pc Game Database

Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason

A chilling take on the first-person shooter that ultimately leaves us frozen.

For all the strategy games I've been reviewing since the beginning of the year, I was excited to dig into Aspyr and 1C to Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason. Despite the absolutely ridiculous title, I was excited by the idea of taking on this horror-themed shooter for themselves. And the impression the game is very tense atmosphere of concern and the health of the drive, but eventually lost to the superficial story-telling, re-level, and for me at least one game-destroying bug that stopped us in our tracks about two thirds - of the way in.

It is a fine balance to be in media res approach to storytelling and Cryostasis misses the mark on the ambiguity of holding too long. We played the game for several hours and still can not really tell what it's all. We know, however, that the player starts on the massive Russian icebreaker, which struck an iceberg and was stranded for a long time. There are flashbacks of dogsled accident right at the beginning, and eventually you have to start re-experience events from the ship's past. There is no friction in the chain of command, flooding disaster, the spread of disease and infestation by certain types of ice mutants. Opening suited to the Russian fairy tale about a little strain, which disappeared in the woods, and was transformed to something.

First is the unpredictable nature of the story, including story-telling, is a charming and encouraging players to dig deeper into the mystery and start putting pieces together. The problem is that things are really coming together quickly to maintain the secrecy of interest. Even after playing for several hours, no more, we note what is happening. We heard that the final solution to manage the majority of elements linked together in neat little package, but because we hit a massive no-clip error-about two thirds of the way, whether it is a great end, or not, is kind of a moot point. In any case, it is necessary to have the game to solve at least some of the mysteries than we gave up on it.

The only thing that manages to keep you is that many of the flashbacks are interactive and provide support to the disaster, and even give a chance to rescue crew members from their terrible fate, or at least postpone it. Distributed throughout the ship, whose crew are dead red, pulsating heart suggests the possibility to intervene in the past and save their lives. Just enable these bodies to be taken back in time to stop floods, ship repair systems or kill mutants. In all cases, you will need to succeed in these last moments of life, in order to progress to the next area of the ship. The puzzles are not difficult, but if you fail, you will need to repeat until you get it right.

Horror games extremely rely on their atmosphere and Cryostasis manage to get several major achievements in this field. First, it's terrible sense of loneliness as you explore the ship is destroyed and a lot of chances to play detective as you try to compile past events, depending on the current state of its surroundings. There is also a huge visual style with lots of moody lighting and cramped industrial areas. Unfortunately, the sense of isolation is spoiled a bit on a possible onslaught of mutants welders, Beetle-winged guys in parks and ax-swinging ice creature. Worse still, some of your enemies spawn from thin air, which feels more than a little artificial. Environments tend to be a bit repetitive as well, given the endless series of frozen gray halls and cramped quarters. The overall level design is very linear, but all the rooms look so much alike that it is easy to get confused when you are forced to return.

As you progress through the game, you face a relatively narrow range of enemies, some of which can be quite intimidating for the right circumstances. But knowledge breeds contempt, as they say, and ultimately insane welders and flying mutants are just an excuse to take in a little target practice. Munice Cryostasis is somewhat limited but still a lot of bullets for each enemy we encountered. Award for the biggest gun is ridiculous-toss the flare gun and scoped rifle. The former has no shame and neither seem to disperse your enemies, while the other is completely useless, in such a cramped environment where enemies are never more than on the other side of the room. The real enemy in Cryostasis is cold, and it is a concept that leads to one of the most creative game conceits. Where most games you are wandering around picking up health kits, Cryostasis you like trying out a heat source. The environment itself slowly saps your heat and when it's gone, you die. Before that happens, you will need to find a cooler, torch, or even light a lamp to help stave off a cold. Different sources have different limits on the amount of heat to the right, which helps to propel you from room to room in search of warmth.

The only part of the system that violates the rules of proportionality is that the enemy attacks also damaged by heat. So you may find yourself smacked in the head with the ax, and turning to a campfire as a therapeutic agent. It sounds a little silly, but most players will be willing to suspend their disbelief enough to still enjoy the creativity. Of course, once you realize that you can become virtually immortal when standing next to the fan hot enough, things start to seem a little less believable.

Cryostasis has several visualization, which is really impressive to bring home the feeling of cold in many subtle ways. Yes, the dead sailors are blue, but there are also ice crystals on the walls and the snow drifting through the halls. You can even see your character in the breath in more extreme areas. Few outside the sequences are indeed blizzards, completely in the driving snow and whiteouts. You can play this game, and not feeling cold. Enemies and environments are well designed and highly detailed, with complex equipment in the machinist trade and plenty of sophisticated details on the clothes of your enemies. (Seamen, for the most part, it seems that lost their shirts.) There are a few downsides to the visual presentation, however, as the game is running poorly and suffer from some tears and trimming in the environment.

Sounds are as effective as in creating attractions chilling atmosphere. The slightest sound of ice cracking and tinkling in the next room is enough to cause you to time and the sounds of your enemies will have you play with light. The voice is surprisingly good for the game translated, which is added to the treatment.

Finally, it's a bug that stopped us in our giant track. Only after the prisoners returned from the outside, I realized I was already constrained by the laws of gravity or a collision. Free fly through the air and very counter to the ship, I found myself unable to root back in the real world of physics, even after trying several reloaded. I tried to play this way for several minutes, but it was too frustrating to continue. Forums for the game indicate that this is a common problem, but then again there were quite a few other bugs have been discussed, that we have not been found.

Closing Comments
Cryostasis benefits from the development of creative projects and has some very interesting elements. The setting is spooky, time-travel bits are attractive, and the overall atmosphere of big scores in the traditional part of the horror. On the other hand, does not solve the mystery quickly enough to the players and the overall course of the game is restrictively linear. Quibbles about the relative temperature of incandescent lamps and campfires party, the heat element of the game is very creative idea, which adds tension and tone of the game.

© 2009-04-24, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved

There's a great multiplayer game here... when it works

There is a dilemma when reviewing PC games that will appear broken for some reason or another. Yes, it would be nice to give the publisher and developer time to rectify the matter. But on the other hand, consumers are asked to be their hard-earned money now, and our job is to inform them. This is what makes demigod so unbearable. If you have not heard, this latest game from Stardock and Gas Powered Games sent earlier this week in essence broken multiplayer, which is particularly worrying problem, as it's multiplayer-oriented real-time strategy games. Stardock and Gas Powered have been working nonstop to repair these issues, and within a few days to implement key repair, as well as set up more servers. Say that we can say that it's pretty darn good game in the demigod, but ongoing problems in the network means that the tests that can often be excruciating and frustrating.

Demigod, is part of a new breed of RTS games. It is not a traditional real-time strategy games like StarCraft or Command & Conquer. Instead, the inspiration of Defense older, popular Warcraft III mod, which is essentially equivalent to RTS Counter-Strike. Demigod is a multiplayer arena combat game, there is a single-player campaign or story. On the contrary, it's all about selecting one of eight different characters (demigods) and the team does battle on one of the eight tactically different arenas. What little story the game is mentioned in the introductory film, and written back stories for the demigods. In essence, this place in the upper pantheon gods appeared, and demigods (which are smaller gods) must battle each other to determine who gets a big promotion. There is little in the way of presentation, but it's a game that does not need it.

Now, if you are the type of RTS player who is convinced that this is not real-time strategy game, where to campaign, or story, the demigod of course is not for you. The game has a single-player component that allows you to dogfight against surprisingly challenging artificial intelligence, as well as participation in the single-player of the tournament against the same AI. It is ideal for picking up the basics and practice for the online realm. It is also the closest thing to instructions for this game. This does not mean that a single-player is a good tutorial. You just have to start playing and all this for themselves. Fortunately, the basics are simple, with the right mouse button is used to issuing orders to move and attack, and most of the game there. However, you will need to play two or three games before you start to gain a sense of the overall game mechanics, and even then some of the finer nuances remain a mystery, if you dig into the manual. As someone who feels bored out of my mind most RTS tutorials (covering the most mundane things, and usually assume that you barbarian who never seen a computer before), I admire the decision demigod, but should be more transparent matter. In my war is the top ranking, I have no idea why it did so. Some explanation of the text, or even tool tips would be helpful.

Eight demigods are basically divided into two camps: the killers, and generals. The former are excellent fighters, while the latter are capable of summoning minions and head on the battlefield. Generals can dish out damage, but in a one-on-one against the assassin, that would be a problem. There is no mistaking demigods from each other, either. Each of them is significantly different in both appearance and ability to cover a wide range of styles to play. If you want to treat demigod rather an action game, then select a murderer and level up combat capabilities. If you are the type of player who likes to play a supporting role, then select one of the generals and let heal units in the battle or summon creatures to the fray.

Now it's considered a real-time strategy game, although there is no base building or military proceedings. This is because beauty is a demigod, that your time is the most important resource. How would you spend your time can determine victory. If your demigod damaging, you retreat back to your health to heal the crystal? Could you in the fight for a while, especially if you play as one of the slow, noisy tower as demigods. If you capture a particular flag to get a special bonus, or fall back into the fortress to upgrade to? The most important is that you can not be in two places at once, so you have to decide which parts of the battlefield can make the most difference. There are dozens of options that in the game that could turn the tide of victory, the battle defeat.

There is also an incredible amount of depth, especially with the level and item systems. As you play you gain experience points that level up your demigod upgrading certain skills and abilities. This is how we specialize in the battlefield. I liked to play as Oak, general demigod some amazing capabilities. Favorites are those who plant the special characters on the battlefield that resurrect fallen minions as ghosts to battle him, as well as other skills that distributes to all affected sites close allies for each kill, he does. However, I could go another way and make it more powerful support character that can provide temporary immunity to a different unit. Whatever you choose, of course, your demigods become extremely powerful as the game continues, escalating the fight. You can also expand your demigod buying potions and items in shops on the map, some of which should be to capture the flag adjacent to the shop. n the thick of battle, demigod feel action game with a lot of strategy in it, especially if you are against other people. There is a drain-and-flow in the fighting, with the possibility to create stalemates that forces both sides to try breaking the deadlock when he came with a new tactic, or entering a critical upgrade. You can also play elegantly. Charging headfirst into the crowd, it seems fine, but if you die you are only helping the enemy, that their demigods gain valuable experience points and gold, which they and their faction level up. Yet there is also Respawn timer, so you'll have to wait 15 or 20 seconds before you Respawn and when they returned to the match you are back to their fortress, which means that it is necessary to return to the first line. Such a long absence could give the enemy enough time to destroy or capture the structure of the critical key flag.

Eight arenas offer their own rich tactical tasks. Some are small and centralized in order to obtain demigods in action against each other quickly. Others are huge and maze-like, which means that more strategy is needed because demigods are spread. Each map is full of defensive structures, which must be knocked down, as well as symptoms that can be captured. Each flag has its own special bonus associated with it, so it is very important for the acquisition and possession of the flag or controls portal spits of soldiers, which floods the battlefield. There are different victory objectives, which also affect the flow of the game. In one, you must destroy the enemy's fortress to win, which means slugging it to the heart of the enemy base. In another, you need to put together 10 kills demigod first, which is suddenly playing more conservatively.

This action also comes to life thanks to strong visuals. As Gas Powered older game Supreme Commander, there is a nice level of zoom, which lets you download and look at the entire level, and then zoom down very close to seeing the carnage coming. At high graphic settings the game is very playable with the 8800GTX, and it looks fantastic. There is something almost awe inspiring to see the giant tower wade into battle, arrows and boulders raining down from the tower and shot Trebuchet on his head and shoulders. Audio exists but it's really hard to recall any of the music. On the contrary, a significant proportion of the sound, which protrudes, is the result of the Unreal Tournament-as well as the anchorman who utters phrases like "First Blood" to the first decline demigod. It looks like Christopher Lee and it's quite dramatic.

When it works, demigod is a fantastic online games, and to dig. During the last week, we've tried repeatedly and often to connect to multiplayer games and skirmishes own Pantheon, which is a persistent online tournament. Almost every time we are stymied by netcode issues. The onetime pre-patch, that we were able to connect to a game was almost a miracle, and it was an exciting two-on-one match (I'm getting AI teammate). Post patch, it is possible to connect their own game, which has a password, but there are still considerable problems trying to connect to a random game or the Pantheon. On the same day-and-age where seamless multiplayer matchmaking is reflected in the game like Left 4 Dead or services such as Xbox Live, the online experience of the demigod, is a nightmare.

The game is to rely on peer-to-peer networking solutions, instead of the classic client-server, the settings used in most games. Stardock says it is necessary for the game as a demigod, but also bring considerable complexity, because each player has to connect to all other players, and if only one person has a problem connecting to one other person, then everyone else is trouble. The patch now allows anyone who opened the game with kick player connection problems, but there are still problems.

Closing Comments
Now it's said that Stardock and Gas Powered eventually get a handle on all these issues plaguing the network game. However, in its current state to demigod netcode is almost like shooting dice at a time if you know people who play and can set your own game with them, you will have good luck to play multiplayer. We need to review the game in its current state, and we've given Gas Powered and Stardock time to implement some improvements. And if there are any corrections, there is also much more that needs to be done, you play to an acceptable level multiplayer. This is a pity, because a great multiplayer experience, which are located in the demigod, if it works. So if you are a glutton for punishment, that you wait for the best, while for developers to get things working before you dive into the demigod.

© 2009-04-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved

Try to avert a magical disaster, one turn at a time.

Turn-based strategy games often work hexes on the map, factions in the neighborhood and attack enemies with overwhelming force and a healthy dose of the base and capture the city. But they require a much more successful with the whole experience. Paradox Interactive and 1C: ino-Co tried to put a different spin on the strategy with the format Elven Legacy is a fantasy based strategy game filled with elves, Orcs and other magical beings. Although the game quite well, is the difficulty of challenging games, along with some minor balancing issues and some technical issues, it's a good game that will probably appeal only to hardcore strategy fan.

A precondition for Elven Legacy is based around the dangers of magic in Illis. A human sorcerer breaks the evil fortress and learn forbidden magic locked away for thousands of years, which could destroy the entire world. Worse, it avoids capture and disappear into the wilderness, which would give it ability to learn magic for the other dangerous, which is also wreaking havoc. The elves, because they fear that the threat has been unleashed in the world is once again sending two of their biggest heroes follow the rogue before the magician can enjoy its power. However, their search to them through land held by people, Dwarfs, Orcs and other creatures, immediately sparking a war that could be dangerous as well as magic itself.

Initially, you choose the mission of the campaign map, and after receiving training and selection of one of the three difficulty levels, you can deploy your forces in the area. Each map has a special department of the CAP, and you'll be able to field up to the maximum number of soldiers, you can add that calling an external force or the discovery of magic with the troops that are loyal to your cause. Each unit has a limited range of motion and one attack that can perform per turn, and you try to move their forces from your current location within the area marked on the map to your destination. However, it's easier said than done, you will have to fight your way groups of enemies that stand in the way. Of course, that your units have different types of attacks available to them based on their unit type: Mages archers and ranged units and a strike from a greater distance (about two or more hexes away), while melee fighters to stand next to enemy units and airmen attack from above.

Like most strategy games, Elven Legacy takes several factors in calculating the effectiveness of success of attacks, such as terrain bonuses. However, it is possible to choose different skills that will enable the units to maximize their effectiveness in specific areas, which is even more deadly. For example, some units get more defense bonuses, when you are in the woods, while others earn extra attacking power whenever they're within the city walls. Since you'll be able to specialize, each one with its own abilities, no two units will have to be at the same level, and you can create a unique combatants. What's more, most of your basic units, it is also possible to upgrade to a new class, acquire new capabilities, while maintaining all the capabilities of their previous occupation.

It is clear that you want to track their soldiers to determine when the best time to upgrade, but you also need to pay attention to their health to see when they need to retreat from the front lines. Each unit (except the hero) has a set number of troops, which inevitably take damage from attacks and fending of strikes. Depending on how strong the enemy is that your unit may get injured or even lose their team members. While you can always recover wounded soldiers in the field, is the only way to replace the fallen soldiers and units to restore its full strength, it is closer to the nearby cities that you have captured and recruit new soldiers (assuming you have enough money in your treasury to pay for other forces). This is very important because if your units killed (except for heroes, again) that they are lost forever - there is no chance to resurrect these soldiers, so you will need to be careful to make sure you do not have is the damage to the way a weakened state. A significant part is just the essential elements of a fighting game, and to a much greater depth in the game, which is a big plus in terms of replayability. In fact, when it managed to complete the Elven campaign will also be in the field of human ORC and the campaign is waiting for you, you totally different take on the battle raging around Illis. In addition, players can get bonus missions, as well as magical artifacts to complete the mission to victory gold rating, one of the three standards that are assessed on your game based on how quickly you achieve your goals. If you do not like the way you have completed the mission, you can always replay the mission to start a single game or play against people multiplayer via LAN, Internet or the Hot Seat play on one computer to build your skills. If you're looking for multiplayer route may be appropriate for the collection of some friends and play on your own computer, because nobody seems to be playing this title on the Internet.

But while the game is large amounts of depth and replayability is also comes with some important issues. For one thing, the time the mission structure is too rigid for strategy titles. If you are not able to meet your goals before the end of the Bronze rating window, you do not move to the point where you are able to earn extra money, goods or other bonuses. Instead, the mission will end in failure, which means that you have to make sure that every step, every attack and every decision which orders to your destination. This means that not necessarily go your way you try to view a map, because you get so far as to put the focus on destroying its enemies. However, because they can not earn money from fallen enemies (as it is only thanks to capturing the city), you may find that the amount of reinforcements, which they call on your side can fall precipitously during the pitched battle.

Speaking of battles, balance of power, which will face off against radically skewed in favor computer. Not only that it is possible to stumble into groups of three or more enemies that are hidden in the fog of war, you will often find that your soldiers are outnumbered at least 2:1 odds on the map. If you are trying to make a path to the goal (which has a limited number of rounds before the failure of the mission), but you'll have to wade through hordes of soldiers and hope that your forces are successful in the fight to give you another chance to complete on time, you have quite unbalanced title. The worst example that I was once a play session at the end of one campaign, and I spent more than three hours playing a turn of the mission. Neither the mission, mind you - one round. I found myself stuck in a situation where virtually every step, which would result in most of my army to get destroyed, or how to kill the key units that would reset the entire operation. Needless to say, the newcomers and casual players will not be welcome here. Even some hardcore fans will be somewhat frustrated after a while, because while the job is here, it will definitely wear them.

This may be surprising, given the nature of visually accessible title. Animate the model rather well, thanks to the ability to quickly zoom in from the top down to the ground, players can immediately check the details about armor, weapons and other items. It is also very pleasant to touch, see the camera zoom in to show some instinctively attacks enemies, so you do not always have the feeling that you just watch the results pop of hidden dice rolls. There are also many nice particle effects you've noticed, some of the magic in the game, and you will definitely want to up your resolution and image quality as high as presets to be used for work and textural details in the game. Although not any performance hits, which turned up with the visuals, Elven Legacy, however, are relatively frequent accidents, regardless of the settings on the machines I played on. While the beginning of a few speed automatically for the player to immediately jump back into the game when it is again, it's somewhat annoying to constantly reload, because some unstable code. You'll also notice that some organic objects such as trees in the forests and structures, rather suddenly pop into view as you scroll the camera with them, which is rather distracting.

Sound in the Elven Legacy is in order. Music is exactly what you expect from a fantasy title Battle sound effects and pretty good. Indeed, it is rather strong as you hear the arrows strike armor or swords clash in the middle of the battle. However, the voice is not nearly so great. Shipping lines feel stilted or blandly read, so will not be impressed by the actors in this game. Worse, many of the lines seem to jump over each other during certain moments, which is impossible to understand what was said. There are also segments of the tutorial missions, which take place only in the original Russian. If there is provided a translation, that we can not understand what is the intention of the developers during those sections.

Closing Comments
Elven Legacy is one of those titles, which takes place under the hardest of the hardcore strategy fan: the depth and replayability of the game, is striking, and you find that the modernization of your soldiers, trying to unlock bonus levels and you can use any map you busy for a very long period. However, the time limit for each mission, the vast numbers that you face, and technical issues will have a majority of people, unless they completely gone.

© 2009-04-15, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved

Why, Vin? Why?

I do not think that my expectations were too high for the cyclist. As someone who has the occasional lousy action movie, I came into biker expect Vin Diesel cheesy dialogue, unbelievable story and a lot of explosions. What I have been a whole lot more - and it was not too good. Sure, there's a lot of cheesy dialogue and Vin Diesel fiery moments, but also a complete lack of story of the mentally disabled enemies, repeating the city and some lame missions.

In a nutshell, is to Quickly interactive and The Furious. This saddens me.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty details on this game, I feel I should point out why this review is late at IGN PC. You know, we have a game where the intervention of store shelves, but kept crashing the computer here in the office. We tried to run on two Alienwares (Core 2 Quad, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia 8800GTX, Vista 32-bit, and all the fixins), and either freeze up during installation or a blue screen when the game started. Fortunately Ocampo finally got a new rig (Core I7 920, 6 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 4850 and Vista 64-bit) and this could actually play the game. We checked the message boards and other people with similar problems.

Cyclist, it is clear spy mission in Barcelona, the main role of Vin Diesel. I say "apparent" because the story is pretty much never explained except for a short cutscene at the beginning of the game. Vin meets just some dude from the agency, which hands him the info and ill-states world-end, as in Spain. From that you Vin Undercover Milo persona, no-nonsense driver for all kinds of bad people. Throughout the game, you'll tear through the streets of Barcelona chasing paper in a tube, a man named Felipe, and more, but you have no idea why the hell are you doing this thanks to non-existent story of this game packages.

Seriously - I am a secret agent, but I have no idea what I was working with the group. I understand the profiles of the characters RAI between missions, but I said caused some dude I worked for the CIA at one point. Who am I really working? Who knows! Why would the CIA came to Barcelona? Who cares! All I know is that there are three fractions of poor people in the city, and I need to work with them all to find a great thing. That's it. These are large enough narrative shortcomings.

On the basis of this sense of detachment even worse is the fact that a botched take on open-world environment. See you can get through the so-called biker story about eight hours, but it is designed to be a sandbox world of Grand Theft Auto. OK, this is a lie, it seems like this game is designed for a direct knockoff of GTA. When you pull on the world map in your PDA, you'll see a green icon of story-based missions and then a series of colored icons for the seven categories of side missions - such as driving people to certain places in a taxi, having regard to your opponents in the rampage, and escape your pursuers in the Fugitive.

What is this feeling disconnected, is the fact that these things just pop without any reason or rhyme. If you decide to do the taxi driver mission, simply teleport to the car, which already has a passenger. Why are you smashing into other cars? Just because you want to, I think. Yeah, that mission you can upgrade and such, but how it makes sense in this world? There is no in-game economy, so you're not earning money for these tasks, you just do to them and get the best location. You do not have the feeling that you are part of the city. It's just a few random instances of Sundays Spanish-bathed city.

One of the greatest things about each of GTAs is conjunction with the city you are living in - with the knowledge, shortcuts, tight turns, or where people live. Never to the cyclist, because you can just jump into any mission you feel like. You pull out the PDA, select the mission you want, and that the warp spot. You do not have to drive there, you travel in space and time. This leads to you know, or care for the city, but honestly, there's nothing to know, or care. Barcelona is a colorful and bright, but it's completely forgettable. Every street looks like the one before are several important monuments, and some in-game advertising here (FYI: The Spirit is coming to DVD soon). Just about everything destroyable, which is a nice touch because you will be smashing through a variety of crap, but nothing that looks good. In fact, when I was tearing through a patch of dirt, mud kicked my rear tire in the square was so that I would have sworn was pulled from the PlayStation 2 game. Yeah, that PC is more accurate and more detailed than the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but to not say, it looks great.

Nevertheless, the cyclist is not a complete failure - there are fun parts to accept when there is no story, and the city is dead. What game is going to be quite a few over-the-top unrealistic elements involving his vehicle. When Milo barreling down the street and came on the car, you can hold Airjack and watch the red arrow appears above the vehicle in front of you. When the triangle turns green, you Release the button and Milo will jump on your journey to a new car in slow motion. That is true - it is a leap forward in speed car into another vehicle, which it will be slower. Either on impact or (special), after it jumped out the window, you will see some glass shattering and Milo will be at the wheel. It's absolutely incredible, and it looks hilarious, but this is the kind of goofball crap I expect the cyclist. This is really funny.

Another absurd idea of the game but in fact employs is fine, as collision of vehicles. Here, the right joystick (or mouse or keyboard), serves as your car in the affected staff. If you are rolling down the street, you can pull the stick left, forward, or the right to check the body in this direction, it's your car wheels are turned 90 degrees and you have a driver's side. Sure, it could never happen in real life, but for the video game starring Vin Diesel, I'm behind the steps. If you wear down the car, you can get a shot when the camera will be followed by rolling a ball of fire, which is used to your enemy.

Sadly, the AI will go up against the cyclist quickly drain the fun of those nifty moves.

You see, all in Barcelona, is mentally challenged. Let us look at a simple example: I decided that I want my wishes to run up to five-star mark (yes, stole the old system and achieve the type of the GTA) and see how long it might take. When I first started my quest to get to, I would shoot the civilian as well as to get my level up (you can not kill the innocent or the police in this game) and start running when the police gave chase. My first few times, cops caught up to me and took my journey in the hail of gunfire (special is that there never Airjack the car you need to be one of those situations.).

Then I remembered that I was against the idiots and trying to get out of the car and run from them. This strategy worked for a few minutes, because every time the cops get close to me, I climb out of their cars to chase me on foot, but the animation gave me enough time to sufficiently far away that I would climb back to his car to I chase and repeat the process. Finally, I am cocky and tried backtracking and shot me. The attempt, which worked best, I went in a circle around the courtyard. That is true, I have my level I wanted to go in the same circle around the fountain Barcelona, and the game's AI can not think of a way to stop me.
This idiocy bleeding through corny on-foot combat as well. Yeah, Milo can get out of the car if he wants to and he will have done a lot to see how tons biker mission is "to drive the objectives, get out of the car, fighting dozens of poor people to obtain objective, the fight back to base." These are types of mechanics grate on my nerves. It's not that these tasks are difficult, it's that you are so damn boring. To get started in the alley entrance, crouch in a few boxes and pop up to shoot. When you have cleared all the red dots your radar, you move forward and at the same time several new dots materialize a way before you. It's your job to just mow down wave after wave of these dudes, and it is not difficult.

Health regeneration is in biker, Milo is pistol ammunition is unlimited and there are several secondary weapons, for example, can pick up a shotgun assault rifle. Comedy, Milo'll warehouse secondary weapon on your back, but there is no strap or something to hold it in place. It's just inexplicably stuck to the small back, as it has a double-sided tape back. I think that this should not surprise, because I saw Milo to make a series of flat-out amazing things in this game - he takes phone calls in his head without holding or owning a Bluetooth phone, tell him when to jump from a moving car, his head disappears over sidewalk when you see a car that you want to distance you hit the button and Milo telepathically stopped the car and the shocks are over Jack's, and he walked in the get away car and gets hit by a half bent to the point where his heels touched the back of his head .

When the bad guys get in the car, the action is not much better. Each mission is almost against my gang in the circular building and I needed to have is the leader in five minutes. However, after the leader and his cronies climbed into their vehicles, but only went in a circle around the place. It was not until five minutes were up that the bad guys were trying to leave the page. Why have the feeling that they would toy with Milo for five minutes, which could take off the outside of me, but I do not think that AI think that any of their plans in this game. Keep in mind that you will work on three different gangs of bikers, so you can ... uh ... get info on this "device", or whatever. I guess.

Incidentally, you are helping to kill a party of another gang, and then immediately turns around and helps one gang just hurts. During the cutscene where a gang leader called Milo on this fact, the cyclist brushed him that was a mere driver. Satisfied that the leader, but I am confident that this is not how it works in real life. This boss, which operates the casino, or know that I worked with other gangs - even after I had a lone attack on the casinos, which killed tens of years old boss' men. Did you think that there was another American who is running as if it were a bald trousers worn-out killing people in the streets of Barcelona?

For a lot of missions, you'll be after a car, or trying to get away from the group. This means that you are in the game with a handful of other vehicles and you'll need to clean your clock with your vehicle melee skills as well as some super-moves through your turbo meter. As you pull off moves such as "speed" and "hand turn," a track in the lower left corner becomes complete, you can use this power to strengthen or carry out two types of trick shots. The first activity slows, coats the screen in black and white, and gives you in the driver's seat, so you can shoot 180 degrees. Rings appear on enemy vehicles during these moments, so you can download some instant explosions and the results can be quite convenient.

The second thrust is doing everything I wrote about it, except that one vehicle rotates 180 degrees so that you are now face-to-face with the slow-mo enemies coming directly to you. This is great for the adoption of the bad people who have got a little lead on. Usually ends with you kick back on the front of the car and crashing into some obstacles that popped up in front of you, but can be cool ... except the time the vehicle exploded in front of my bullets even got to gas tanks.

The problem is, you do not have that many leads as the game continues. For some reason, if you enter your support, it always seems to hit their enemies as well. This means that you rarely get a chance to get way from the pack, and tackle some damage. Hell, in the final mission, you just spammed with enemies. You will be the route to the collection of these gang leaders, who are holed into one vehicle, but if you have the slightest chance of popping the boss, three fricking underlings will T-bone you or hit you your bike. It's infuriating.

Closing Comments
I do not know how I will score the game until I sit down and write a review. After reading the preceding paragraphs of this one, it's clear, I am not a cyclist. When Vin Diesel, is attached to the project - whether it is a movie, or game - you can expect that it will have to suspend your disbelief and settle in some unbelievable shenanigans. Unfortunately, the cyclist pushes the idea too far past the point of no return. Sure, sometimes hip-check of the sedan is great, but it is not no story to keep you going (why would gangs accept his bullshit?), Is a chore Fight (Oh, another swarm of poor people to block my path? Fun.) And the game does not seem that good (Cars are just general boxes.).

I was the cyclist guilty pleasure, as well as 50 Cent: Blood on the sand, but it is only guilty of that a bad game.

© 2009-04-14, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved

What have we done to them that EA should show us such disrespect?

Sonny Corleone was a hothead who shot first and never bothered to ask questions. His intentions were good, but his execution sucked. His brother, Michael, on the other hand, was a man who thought everything through and attention to detail. He has never pulled a gun, unless he needed it, and when he did, he hit what he aimed at. So Michael ended up as Godfather and Sonny ended up in a pool of blood on the New Jersey Turnpike. As Michael himself might say, "Ideas are good but the execution is everything." That brings us to the Godfather II, a game built around a very good idea that ends up being more than Sonny Michael.

The Godfather II loosely follows the story of the classic Francis Ford Coppola crime drama. Beginning in the late 1950s, the player assumes the role of Dominic, under boss of the New York branch of the Corleone crime family. The tutorial segment follows Michael and Hyman Roth's attempt to ally with the Batista government in Cuba, which is shortened by Castro's revolution. In the process, boss of the New York family is gunned down while the player as the new Don. From here it is for the player to rebuild Corleone interests in New York, Miami and eventually Cuba in an effort to put Corleone back on top of the underworld.

Story summary also outlines Godfather II's best idea - to put the player in the shoes of Don and let them run their crime families as they want. By means of a "Don's View", a sort of pseudo-strategic overview of the game's three cities players can get a complete overview of what kind of rackets, crime rings and businesses are available, who owns them, how well they are protected by guards and more. The player who Don can hire and fire guards, assign defenders from his own crew of "Made" guys to stop hostile takeovers, or send them the same guys on their own to take over the enemy's operations. This position also tracks "favors" such as contract hits, break, beat downs and the like, the player may make an application for special abilities such as calling off the COPS, or rebuild a bombed-out company. The game's narrative is mostly used as a guide for the player to build their empire.

In between managing the family business, the player spends most of their time running around on foot and in cars in the classic Grand Theft Auto style of doing things like knocking over banks, threatening shopkeepers taking over rackets, burglarizing government offices and kill a rival family members. This part of the game is once again fine in theory. There is an undeniably fun element to the first couple of New York missions when you are learning what it takes to be a Don. Hit a crime racket and uses a series of fun weapons, ranging from one, 357 Magnum with a Molotov-cocktail to kill the site's guards. Then use Black Hand mêlée combat system to scare the owner to cut you any further by finding their weak points. Some will be vulnerable to punches, rapier, threatened by tossing off the roof, or simply damage. Just after I took my first crime ring was amazing and I thought I had finally found the strategy gamers' GTA clone.

It does not take too long after the first few missions, though, to realize that there are several holes in Godfather II gameplay than there was in Sonny Corleone's body. To start, the game is just too bloody easy. The decision to give Dominic and his friends, regenerating health makes each match a simple exercise to let your friends act as meat shields while you pick off bad guys with ridiculous ease. While there is a cover system, there is never a reason to use it for anything other than single brand of oh-so-stupid enemies. The rest of the time I found myself happily around four fights gennemvædning up bullets. The development team did a good job of translating the Xbox 360 controls for mouse and keyboard, but the more precise level of control weaken the game by doing what was easy at 360 even easier on the PC. In contrast to my experience on the 360, which was rarely a situation I could not handle solo. It freed up my done guys to hit other targets, and made the game feel like it was playing itself most of the time.

Worse than the Godfather II binds one of the greatest sins of all sandbox-style games: to be a boring and ugly sandbox. From an artistic standpoint, New York, Miami and Cuba is bland, low-poly worlds filled with cookie-cutter design elements. These include the ever popular white walls, boarded-up windows, walls, the player can not climb over arbitrarily locked or undestroyable doors and windows, and areas that are just window dressing. I knew that the game was in trouble when I first decided to go around in the backyard of the Corleone compound and found myself facing an empty backyard and a wall. Where was the infamous garden where Vito Corleone died of a heart attack chasing his grandson? I understand that Grand Theft Auto IV's Liberty City is a hard act to follow when it comes to making a city visually interesting, but Godfather II's blah Burg come out to resemble the test levels devs put together using a spare engine from the PS2 era. This is even more pronounced on the PC where the maximum resolution only points blocky, jaggy nature of the world.

For a supposedly "open world" game, the game is not open. One of my most frustrating moments were to realize that many of the "fronts" the player has to take over the strings in square rooms filled with generic junk plundered from Doom Mars base with corridors to block the player's movement through a two-foot tall barrier to Dominic inexplicably can not Vault. There may be indestructible box or a magic door that is apparently immune to explosives, but can take off a bruiser's fist. The latter makes any takeover attempt an annoying game of "hunt the owner" through areas not look like mazes but. Too often I found myself fruitlessly running through the same place again and again because I had forgotten the one door that resembles any other door in an area with almost no landmarks. The fun I'd had during the first few missions was replaced by a determination to never enter another building site in this game.

Even the "strategic" part of the game comes out so well conceived but poorly executed. Owner all firms in a "crime ring" (all gun runners or brothels, diamond smugglers, drug runners and the like) gives the family a special bonus. Owner all adult entertainment and facilities for examples that will give you cheaper guards while having all CHOP stores will provide armored cars. Had it worked, this may have some sort of urgency to the gameplay. The game tells you that bombing a company will take it out of service for some time, thus eliminating the bonus of an enemy family, which may make certain attacks easier takeover and makes some companies more important than others because of how valuable the bonus. The idea seemed to be forcing Don to stretch his limited resources while protecting turf and attacking enemies while picking off weakly defended areas, or take advantage of rival families attack each other.

In practice it is all window dressing. Most of the bonuses are pointless. Armored cars to own all the stores CHOP would be nice if there was ever needed. Cheaper guards are nice but there is so much money in the world, it is really easy to keep your business fully staffed with guards. Worse, they seem to have any influence on how easy it is to kill enemies. Bullet-proof vests at the enemy families - are not. Larger ammunition clip is meaningless when every enemy seems to have unlimited ammunition. What I had hoped would let me enjoy my inner Michael Corleone was thwarted by strategic AI that runs every enemy of the family as if they were Fredo,

Ultimately, The Godfather II comes out as a project whose scope goes beyond its reach. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the game in concept, and done properly, it would easily have established it as a classic in line with the movies, where it is based. Instead, we get brilliant concepts ham-hand executed. All I could think of after game was poor Fredo standing in the house in Nevada whining, "I'm smart! Not as everyone says ... like dumb ... I'm smart and I want respect!" Respect must be earned, and The Godfather II does not even come close.

© 2009-04-09, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
gamespy

By: Allen Rausch

The standalone expansion for Company of Heroes offers some interesting novelties but nothing like a complete package.

Relic's Dawn of War II was a great departure from what fans of the original game expected. Rather than just make a bigger game with better graphics, the development team decided to go a completely different direction with success - albeit controversial - findings. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor clearly demonstrates that its bug to "reinvent" the franchise's signature is not limited to the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The latest standalone expansion for the relic's Company of Heroes is a radical departure, turning relic's amazing World War II RTS in an entirely different action-oriented animals. Unfortunately, the results were not nearly as successful as in the previous re-do of Dawn of War.

Tales of Valor is structured around two sections. The single-player portion of the game consists of nine missions split into three mini-campaigns, which tells three personal "Tales of Valor" from the Second World War. In them, the game takes a page from World in Conflict and offers control of one or a few units and challenges players to use their special abilities to fight their way through a variety of interesting strategic scenarios. Each of these is fun in its own way (protection 10 Panzer tanks from an Allied attack in "Swatting Flies" Mission was my particular favorite), but they do not particularly keen on Company of Heroes. Indeed, it often feels like the developers try to shoehorn a classic RTS game in the sort of quick-hit action experience to download from Xbox Live Arcade.

Multiplayer features on the other hand, is considerably more successful, but even these have some questions. The best feature of the new package is easily the new series of multiplayer modes. "Assault" is a World War II-theme "Defense of the old-style battle between the two entrenched forces. Players control a" whole "unit, and try to support their AI-controlled brethren to push through the lines and destroy a specific target." Stonewall "is a co-op mode, where up to four players in the middle of the map to try to ward off 16 waves of increasingly difficult enemy assaults. Finally," Panzerkreig "is an updated version of the classic Atari 2600 game Combat. All have a single tank and trying to blow the heck out of their opponent's tank.

Company of Heroes was one of the first RTS games to really understand the beauty of cooperative activities to play and that experience really shows through in these conditions. Each of the tank heroes "in" Panzerkrieg, "for example, have different skills and capabilities that work together very well in supporting each other, making the teams that really communicate with each other and combine skills undefeatable. More than that, while it is slightly different from the classic game, the strategic depth does not prevent it from being a blast as a game. More traditional RTS stalwarts like myself will really appreciate the "Stonewall". This mode gives the player access to game the entire arsenal in a frantic last stand defense against overwhelming odds. Again, team coordination is key, and when the mode is really clicking it's just awesome.

There are also a number of new units in each of the games' four armies, and true to form they're a blast to play with. My personal favorite is easily the American M-18 Hellcat tank that replaces the M10 Tank Destroyer. This zippy Little Turtle of a tank abandon some firepower for more speed and heavier armor. This has been a godsend in the game against the Panzer Elite. It still does not allow American player to keep with them in terms of maneuverability but it does close the gap, and it becomes a very nasty surprise, when used as a rescue force for the stack infantry. On the other hand, I've learned to hate the Schwimmwagen 128 when it was used against me. This replaces the German motorcycle unit and the reverse-driving capabilities, making it even harder to catch when it is gunning down mining engineers.

The problem with these units are connected with the word "replace". The eight new units (two per army) does not add to a player's arsenal. To use them, the player must decide before the game starts to lose the other two elements. One of the hallmarks of a good Expansion Pack is it not "expand" and elaborates on core gameplay without undue obstruction of the works and make it more complex than it has to be. Tales of Valor fail to do so. As enjoyable as each of the single and multiplayer additions (and they are quite good), the whole package comes off as a collection of matched developers tool costs were around with their leisure time. The original game is as great as it always has been, and Tales of Valor certainly not take away from it, but ultimately this "expansion" pack comes out as a modestly enjoyable diversion.

© 2009-04-09, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

By: Allen Rausch

Straddling the thin line between competent and insane.

Mix one part Unreal Tournament with a portion of the fast and furious and get something like Death Track Resurrection, a mix of racing and driving routes fighting game is actually based on an old 1989 Activision game, Death Track. Dynamix, the deceased design house that gave us Star Siege Tribes and other classic games, made it the first game. This new Death Track comes to us from Russian developer Sky Fallen, courtesy of 1C and Aspyr. That brings some obvious translation issues, but the big question is that this game allow for the line between being firm and completely unpredictable.

In some strange future where big, muscular guys wear clothes that are a mixture of street whore and the Village People, Death Track Resurrection is about a popular gladiatorial racing circuit, which takes place in the "purified" cities in the world. It turns out that there was a great war, turning places such as London, Tokyo and San Diego in major racing venues of all things. Yes, it is strange and does not give much sense, but then again, it is an idea with roots in the original game.

Sky Fallen provide the game with a strange kind of presentation. There are some full-motion video cutscenes that feature a slim Russian woman dressed in some retro-futuristic clothes and makeup and serves as a sort of news ads. But the poorly dubbed voice over does not even come close to matching her mouth movements. Then there are a range of CG cutscenes, which show a gargantuan orchestra mob boss things "accidents" to happen at different drivers on the circuit. Some of these accidents are directly hilarious, but at the same time, it all seems almost absurd. This is not a future that you can relate to. It is almost silly, and I imagine that this game is probably far more satirical in its original language.

Once you get past the confusing narrative, you are single-player races with different modes. There is no multiplayer component in the game, so you are limited to just racing against the computer. There are a number of race types, such as scenario (which is story-driven) and drag race. In addition, there are several racing modes. The modern breed, you and your opponents respawn back in action if you are knocked out. The classic race does not allow you to respawn so you start a race with a large pool of drivers and see the numbers, cutting down as players are eliminated. A rally mode eliminates weapons altogether. And then there is a special mode where you can adjust the settings.

To the game's credit, the basic mechanics are sound. The controls are pretty tight and responsive, and you race around even large maps, which is full of all sorts of obstacles and challenges, and different power ups. It is kind of like Mario Kart on steroids. The problem is that in some modes, the game is a chaotic mess that is essentially out of your control. Skill has no place here, it's just pure luck that you win at times.

What happens is that while you're busy racing, you'll be getting shot at, shoot back, dodging mines, get sideswiped and much more. On some tracks that are even robots flying over the racetrack firing at you. It will be to the point that if you're headed, it's almost not worth it because it just means that the back of your vehicle is exposed to all behind you and makes you a big goals. Slow down and you're still the middle of a dogfight in which the slightest mistake can send you slamming into a wall. You can not even make a mistake, but suddenly a car will respawn in front of you without warning, and you smash into it.

If your car health reaches zero, you explode. This happens quite a bit, but you end up respawning a second or later. Still, you lose precious time because it takes time to get back up to speed. In the meantime, it feels almost impossible to get any separation between you and the pack, so it is precisely this Nonstop cycle to get killed, respawning, trying to take the guys in front of you to regain the lead, then killed again.

Ironically, things become easier in the last parts of the scenario as the number of drivers drops due to "accidents" the mob boss is the orchestra thing. (It's kind of hilarious how all these drivers are really dying in suspicious circumstances, but all other Shrug them as accidents.) This reduces the amount of chaos at the racetrack significantly, so you can focus more on racing. In the later stages, you also had a chance to upgrade your car with better armor, engines and weapons, which makes you more respected. The upgrade system is fairly typical if you've played any kind of racing game before, it's just a matter of accumulating enough cash to equip your car with better tools, or buy a second car design completely.

The visual is a bit of a mixed bag. The game has a colorful look with detailed environments, but the cars is that well-known problem that they do not feel like they're riding on the ground, but floating above it at times. Minimum frame rate manages to remain high, even in some of the worst carnage. The sound has a thrumming metal soundtrack in the background, along with a bombastic race ads that sounds like he is cousins with the guy from Unreal Tournament. The bot masters have their own voice so well and they like to hurl insults at you when they pass. It all feels very Unreal Tournament, really. On the other hand, you do not get much of a sensation of engine noise, especially if your opponent comes up behind you.

Concluding remarks
Parts of Death Track Resurrection feel intense and challenging as you would expect from any racing game. With the race to the line error is so small that if you manage to win, it is exciting, but if you lose, you can point out the mistake you made at a critical time. But other parts of this game will feel so crazy and random that you wonder what all this is that it does not matter how good a driver or a Combatant vessels you are, if events are almost completely out of your hands. As a result, this is a game that has a real Jekyll and Hyde personality who does not make it a horrible game, but it does not make it a great one, either.

© 2009-04-08, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

ign

By: Jason Ocampo

reviews, previews, cheats, walkthroughs, screenshots, wallpapers, videos

Why bring this game to the PC?

When I predicted Storm Rise, a new real-time strategy title from Creative Assembly, I was hopeful. The game, which is set in a dystopian future with a lot of destroyed towns and stormy skies to enjoy, was designed from scratch for consoles. Play preview build, I was fascinated by Whip Select control system (which I will explain in detail later) and battlefield camera, but a number of bugs and frame rate jitters kept me from enjoying the full experience. Unfortunately, these issues were not limited to the preview build. Storm Rise has a lot of good ideas and is a truly valiant attempt to make RTS work without a keyboard and mouse, but the game's technical problems, combined with some really frustrating control constraints ultimately makes Storm Rise a disappointing entry in the genre at best.

And then, of course, I found out the game was coming to the PC, so I put this very important question: why? This game was designed for consoles. We already know that RTS games work on PC - it is here that they have always worked. But still, Storm Rise awkwardly waddles into the PC universe and somehow manage to become an even more embarrassing disaster than it was on consoles.

If my thoughts written above does not scare you away, I will expand on the game site. Rise Storm will take place in a world torn apart by massive fire storms. After a disastrous technological event known only as the event, pockets of humanity was forced underground in cryogenic sleep in a desperate attempt to survive. The people remaining on the surface began to evolve over the many years thanks to their exposure to the storms, and they ultimately were powerful creatures known as Sai. Now that the initial threads of humanity - Echelon - has awakened from their deep slumber, the two forces have begun to collide. You fill the shoes of Commander Aiden Geary, manager of Echelon Special Forces and a strange player in these troubled times.

After a somewhat complex but still powerful opening cinematic, the story of Storm Rise suddenly taking a dive as characters are strongly established, plot points are loosely chained together and the whole affair becomes almost incomprehensible. It really is a shame that the game could not have kept its wits about it from start to finish, because I am all about the post-apocalyptic scene.

With regard to gameplay, Rise Storm is far from a traditional RTS. It is not so much about building a base and overview armies as it is to jump from node to node with small groups of soldiers. All the action takes place down on the battlefield, as opposed to from a bird's eye view. When you are in control of a device, the camera sits just above your head and you can move your cursor around from his perspective. This way you can tell it where to go and what to attack. To select another device you use console-specific Whip Choose system to jump from one device to another. By holding the right mouse button and move the mouse in a certain direction, you can highlight a single icon on the screen and let go of the button to switch to that unit's perspective.

This leads one of the biggest problems I will continue to repeat this entire article. Storm Rise does not work on a PC. Whip Select was developed using a control stick in the mind, then use a mouse instead is a joke.

Besides controls your second obligation Storm Rise to manage predefined resource nodes on each card to be captured first and then converted into shielded turrets and refineries. The main strategic element in Storm Rise is figure out how to go about holding these nodes as they are an important aspect of resource gathering and some can even be used as spawn points for new units. But besides node control, oversight entities are, what you do most of the Storm Rise.

But you do not need to command a unit at a time, of course. You can group up to three units together and you can also issue Indirect commands by moving the cursor over a friendly unit's icon, press a button and drag the resulting pointer to a new destination. These techniques, along with the Whip Select system is great in theory for a console game, but just does not make sense for the PC.

Verification of a massive army against impossible Storm Rise. Sometimes you need large forces overwhelm the enemy but try to stick between groups difficult. Although the mapping of various groups to the number keys do little to alleviate the frustration. By the time you have built up an army, the screen is completely littered with icons and keep accurate track of your units is a disaster. Storm Rise works much better when you work with fewer conflicts. These limitations are exacerbated by the unit AI, path and plain ol 'mistake. When units fight each other in Storm Rise, things rarely think of the screen. I saw as many soldiers in my command would suddenly drop dead when no visible enemy fire was incoming or they will just run in the opposite direction and get stuck in the environmental objects (or themselves). At one point, I commanded a sniper unit to take out an enemy turret. My thoughts: "These snipers have better range than the assault cannon tower. They should be able to take it out, no problem." Reality: the snipers joyfully bounded directly to turret and got completely destroyed. Awesome.

Another good example is when I had my group of control animals (heavy weapons Gunners) digging in to defend my own node. They suddenly became caught in an animation loop, they set up their guns, then decided against it and put them away ... only to put them up again. Later in the war, when I tried to put them back in a neutral position so that they could move to a new location, I found that they were stuck in place and could not unstick it. Score another for crazy errors.

Then of course there is the fact that the game runs poorly on PS3, 360 and above PC. The frame rate suffers terrible and the game can often handle many units on screen at once without Stutt ring. When your forces collide with the enemy in an epic confrontation, expecting that the game actually froze for a moment before picking back up where it left off. Or maybe it'll just crash completely, which is what happened to me once on the PS3 version. If you have the graphics settings turned up on the PC version, expect to see a slideshow. Honestly.

Finally, if you're interested in checking some multiplayer action, not hold your breath. As I write this article, only about 10 players have been officially ranked the online Leaderboards. There will be many people to play against and who has an RTS without the community behind it just is not good. Multiplayer will not be a realistic option in PC Storm Rise soil.

Concluding remarks
It is a shame that Storm Rise may suffer from so many issues, including ineffective controls group and poor unit AI. Choose the whip system was a good idea for consoles and the basic premise behind Rise Storm's gameplay is appetizing, but the whole project just does not come together. But really, why would you bring this game over to the PC landscape and not even let players use a 360 pad? There are so many incredible RTS game on PC - Storm Rise is not one of them. Avoid it at all costs.

© 2009-04-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

ign

By: Ryan Clements

reviews, previews, cheats, walkthroughs, screenshots, wallpapers, videos

An intriguing idea that's less than the sum of its parts.

As far as genre-blending titles go, you should be hard-pressed to find such an ambitious and attractive BattleForge. EA's new game combines social and competitive aspects of online multiplayer games with the flexibility and occupation of collectible card games and packages them in a gorgeous real-time strategy experience that is chock full of wyrms, were wolves and witches. And although the concept is undeniably exciting, BattleForge suffer the fate of many titles that are trying to blend oil popular genres in that the individual elements are not strong enough to stand on their own and the synergy between those who are missing.

The story of the game are the same problems. Players are flush Word, immortal inhabitants of a floating fortress called Forge. This is probably the staging site for all your adventures in the game, and it is also the central hub where you interact with players and test your tires. There is something happening on the world below you and you and your fellow Flush Word will have to intervene to ... yes, I am not really sure why you anticipate, and that is the problem of history.

The actual story is only one piece during the loading screens before your mission. Although I know there is a curse of some sort, a collection Twilight, and although I have helped a man named Rogan and a giant named Jorn (fighting sometimes, but still seems to be on the same page you are ), I'm not really aware of what is happening. It is a pity, because the snippets you get before each mission contains some interesting elements, but the story seems completely random to the action.

After a short tutorial introduces you to the basics of the game, you will find yourself in the practice area of the Forge. Here you can test your basic starting deck against a variety of enemy types. But the most important thing to do here at the start is to click the tab for the online store and spend your points to get some additional booster packs. If you use all your points here, you will have around 150 cards you can use to create your own unique deck.

Each card is linked to one of four elements - Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow - and the individual aspects represent a general tactical strength. Rating, for example, has plenty of healing spells with some crowd control abilities while Shadow focuses more on sacrificing its own units to deal lots of damage to the enemy. There are lots of fun trying to find out which cards work well together. You can combine a Healing Gardens shrine, which promotes the regeneration power of your creatures with a regenerative magic like regrowth and regenerating creatures like Werebeasts. Throw in a couple of Shaman who can heal your damaged units and you've made your low Werebeasts unable to cope with much stronger opponents.

To play every card in the missions, you need two things. First you need to manage a mana tower and associate it with the aspect of the card you want to play. Each successive ORB you capture requires a greater power costs, but gives you access to your stronger cards. The remaining revenue is power. You gain power by taking control of special towers scattered across the map and it feeds slowly into a pool, you'll need playing cards and maintains more towers and orbs. To play a card, you must have a sufficient amount of orbs and then using the power costs.

As you complete missions in PVE and beat opponents in PVP arenas, you will gain access to special upgrades that you can use for your card. Some may give a slight boost to a certain effect, while others simply beef up the card's core abilities. You can even use your duplicate cards to increase the number of times you can use an ability or call a creature before having to wait for it to recharge. The upgrading system is fun, but the rewards are random, so it is likely that you have plenty of upgrade options for the cards you never use.

One of the disappointments here is that there is little appeal in the deck is built around more than one aspect. While some other card game invites players to combine the powers of various aspects of their tires, BattleForge seems to be designed around more focused deck. It is true that the continuous casting some cards require a specific color ORB and then further orbs of any type, but the lower units are not attractive enough to encourage players to share their orbs between two powers. While you may be tempted to combine damage dealing power with four defensive strength Frost, divide your focus does not seem to offer many direct rewards.

The biggest disappointment in connection with the short system is the terrible auction system. Since there is no advantage to have multiples of a card in a deck, it is worth considering to sell off the cards that you do not need upgrades later. Puts them on sale, is easy enough, but browsing maps, track your bids and even collect money from your sales is tiring and awkward. For one thing, you have to manually collect money from each sale you have completed (not that there is no other option), and the system did not even tell you what card is that you just sold. Furthermore, there is no way to sort your cards by duplicate or rarity. The game did not even tell you how to tell which cards are rare and are not. Fortunately, players can turn BattleForge Wiki for information on the game should have given.

The last point in design is the controversial relationship between your cash and your ownership of these digital maps. EA's decided to use an in-game currency to buy these boosters and that the fund can only be increased through auctions and trade with your existing card or via cash injections. It is true that you get well over a hundred cards at just $ 50 to buy the retail version of the game, but if you want to add to your options, you pay through a series of microtransactions. And given the random distribution of cards in each booster, it may take a while before you find the card you want. Of course, it's hard for me to talk about the overall balance, because I can only judge based on the maps I have in my collection, but this system seems designed to balance problems with PVP. Players who are willing to dump a lot of extra money into the game will find themselves with many more strategic options than other players have. BattleForge multiplayer has a clear focus, while the few single player missions offered in the game must be played in the online world. The basic interface and overall presentation to find games and tinkering with your tire is flat. There are a couple of tabs at the top of the screen so you can access all the tools and information you need. It is true that the chat windows is a bit cramped, but they get the job done. (For some reason, there are a lot of German players on the server so that cooperation during missions and product distribution in between are not always easy.)

Once you clear a deck, you'll want to open up the world map to see what tasks are available. There are about fifty missions in the game, and there is a very clear system here, which shows you how each task will take place, how many players it takes and how many open groups that are looking for players. The path to the missions themselves are scripted, but you generally have a few routes open to you at the same time, so you will not find you even turn your head against a wall because you're on a mission. Even after you complete a mission, go back through it again at a higher difficulty to get better rewards.

Once you've had enough experience under your belt, you can even participate in the massive 12-player cooperative activities struggles, there is plenty of fun on the rare occasions that your allies are not leaving in the first five minutes of the game. The coolest aspect of the 12-player games is that they are divided into three four-player maps. Each map will have its own unique goals that can actually affect the difficultly of the other cards. And when you do not know how your allies on the other two cards do, it creates a wonderful sense of expectation when you are waiting to see if they're going to close down some enemy gate, or send you some reinforcements.

There is also a PVP area, where you can go to test your deck, head to head against other players. The matching system here seems pretty fast, but we are not sure how the game can rank players based on their win ratings without regard to what types of maps and upgrades they have in their deck. In any event, PVP offers the opportunity to upgrade rewards that can not be achieved during solo or cooperative missions.

Unfortunately, the communication system is not great. Talks dealt with in a small window that has spammed by lots of other match updates, so you might miss an important message from your allies, particularly if there is a colorful and explosive battle on. There are some flags you can escape to the other players' attention and the strategies needed to win has never been so complex that you need more than that.

The RTS missions are fun enough, but they tend to get repetitive, despite the different goals. Whether you take out several targets, escorting Treasure ships or break the siege, the overall strategy never varies. Make your starting force, grab some orbs and towers, build a larger force, grab multiple orbs and towers, build your super units and then just throw them against the enemy until you win. There are a few time-bound targets that make you sweat a little more, but they just challenge you to go through the same steps faster.

Without any real formations and no rules of engagement, what BattleForge boils down to ultimately a giant whirl where all your units are crammed together and attack whatever target you need to destroy. This is especially ridiculous in the four player missions, where all players have built a lot of their biggest and best units and are all clumped around or whatever giant fell God is what they are supposed to kill. (It is even more confusing, the designers have opted for blue, green, light blue and light green color as the player.) I realize that the interaction or synergy between the units can be as important as their tactical formations, but the game does not offer any individual unit stats interval, so you can see which parts of your army is out of balance.

The good news on the RTS front is that the creatures and spells are incredibly varied and imaginative, both in terms of their general competence and their physical presence on the battlefield. You can turn promotes an army of harmless pigs or rain down a massive, screen-burning meteor storm. You can order frost resistant bitten cavalry to trample the enemy units while giants pound enemy fortresses with their bare hands. The range of units and abilities are simply spectacular.

What is even more impressive is that the engine handles it all with elegant ease. Sure there are some frequent freezes here and there, but at least they seemed to be due to latency. When the data started flowing again, the engine would play out the action nicely. The magic effects are vivid and the animation is convincing at all levels in this game.

The sounds are doing a good job of supporting the effort, but is not likely to stand out on their own. The music is appropriately warlike and adds a small measure of excitement, while the sound effects help to bring a bit of realism and power struggles. The few bits of dialogue in the game helping to tell the story in the loading screens, but not doing much else.

Concluding remarks
BattleForge acts as a very good idea and in reality it contains many seeds of greatness in it. The visual style of the world and the huge variety of creatures and powers are clearly the strengths here. But to see these games in action will give you an inflated sense of fun you can get here. The embassies themselves repeating the same formula over and over again, which severely undercuts the point of having such variety and flexibility of the card system. When you add in the auction interface awkward and the extra money needed to collect the cards you really want, it makes it so much harder to see the value in the few things that BattleForge get right.

© 2009-04-01, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved

ign

By: Steve Butts

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