Buy if: You want to get into RTS, you want a simple but compelling RTS, you're looking for a good sim game, you're looking for quick pick up games Don't buy if: You absolutely, unequivocally, despise RTS games Stronghold Crusader is a game which is simple enough and properly designed to be very easy to get into. Newcomers to the RTS genre will find much to like in this title, which doesn't obfuscate gameplay with infinite amounts of units or magical powerups which suddenly swing the balance. It feels very much like a castle 'model' in the scientific sense, and this adds a lot to the final experience. The economy is simple and intuitive and you find yourself micromanaging in ways you'd have never thought possible for yourself. Constructions become 'your own'. S:C plays to the nostalgia in its customers, who go back to the days of Lego fortresses. The sandbox options are absolutely stellar. If you tire of having to fight enemies you have the option of simply building a castle in peace, bringing it to its full glory without the bothersome Arab raiders coming to wreck your achievements! Personally, I prefer Crusader over the first Stronghold, if only because of the setting. The Crusader setting is not often used and the isometric graphics are quite simply beautiful, especially in the context in which it's set. The soundtrack accompanies the game well enough to convince you to keep the speakers turned on. Overall, there is little to dislike in Stronghold Crusader. At times, the shortcomings of the isometric camera appear when fiddling with menial construction details, but these punctual and very specific snags do not appear often enough to subtract from the overall brilliant experience.
All of the Unreal Tournaments have in common the basic mechanics and the trigger-happy, reflex testing gameplay that fuels your adrenaline. But the first one has the distinction of being the one that got it right - the balance between an addictive gameplay and the perfect threshold of complications, game concepts which steepen the learning curve. There are just enough game modes, weapons, maps, customisations, modifiers, etc. to provide a varied experience without overwhelming newcomers. It's easy to learn and much harder to master, but it's a fun and balanced experience for all skillsets. The graphics are vastly customisable and will run on any machine while looking good. The flashy graphics of the day have downscaled to sober and functional graphics today which still look very pretty. The adaptive AI is impressive when you're offline but this is best experienced with some friends in the same room - get them to buy it off GOG.com too and you'll wonder why you ever needed DirectX10 - or any other game for that matter.
When Fallout first came out, I was too impatient to sit down and appreciate its complexity at a friend's place. Today, with a blank slate chance to try it out, it has been an experience worth all the way. First-timers must be warned that the learning curve resembles a wall of smooth, polished concrete that's just too high to see over. This is one game that requires you to read the manual - which turns out to be a pleasure! The care put into that document opens up your appetite to see what the game is all about. The introduction opens with a beautifully nostalgic song introducing the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout. You're allowed to create a character or choose one of three pre-made ones. After starting out first off with a pre-made character and dying within minutes I realised that I needed to re-read the manual and make a character myself. You're burdened with an Atlantean task of saving your people and taking the first steps into an unknown world. Fallout starts off being as much a classical hero epic as it is a tale of exploration and rediscovery. Stepping out into the post-nuclear apocalypse of Earth, you're driven with questions on how and why. The gameplay is deceivingly complicated - it becomes almost second nature very quickly, despite one or two interface quirks which do not pose much of a problem. The dialog is surprisingly modern and elegant. Sci-fi has a way of repulsing me with its bizarre and overdetailed stories, walls of text about histories you couldn't care less about. This does not occur in Fallout - the dialog is relevant to the game and does indeed reveal trivia about the Fallout universe, but no one conversation with a character will ever bore you. Certain characters are also supported by very good voice acting, which came as a pleasant surprise. The combat is turn-based, and at first I had to get used to the idea of action points. While daunting at first (it has been a while since I have played a game with action-point based combat), it quickly becomes a limitation which channels your creativity and strategy, forcing you to think ahead in order to plan your attack as best as possible. The graphics are very dated, which can only be expected, but they work very well - they do not look primitive. Quite the contrary, the detail and the care put into the art becomes one of Fallout's charms and stops the game from looking primitively unapproachable. In this 10 year old masterpiece lies the basis for a truly modern and deep game, approachable by anyone despite the 10 year chasm in interface design and truly, an adventure worth living - possibly one of the best games ever written. Highly recommendable. Set apart one or two hours, grab a warm drink and dive in, you will not regret it.
