Yes, that's right perfect. I'm not one to say that lightly but there's just no downside to this game. It's Free (and I mean truly free, none of that sneaky market place content crap going on here), It's a small download, It's graphically pretty, It's easy to pick up and the mechanics behind the game are rock solid. A great soundtrack that hovers around the 'Dubstep / Drum n bass' area. A built in lobby browser with players in them. Easy offline bot practice set-up. Satisfying and accurate weapons. Honestly there is no down-side. There are alot of people who say that the era of 'Arena Shooters' is over....and guess what...they're right, but this game bucks that trend. To compare it to other free Arena shooters....it's more polished than Open Arena and It's more fun than Xonotic. The cell shading graphics mean that it won't date visually, it'll probably still look great five years from now. To compare it to retail arena shooters....well, there haven't been alot lately. The updated Nexuiz (which is now dead and withdrawn from steam) is nowhere nears as fun as this. Quake live may be free but you have to run it through a web browser. The only retail title that is as fun as this is Unreal Tournament 3. Multiple game modes from 'Death-match' to 'Capture the Flag'. Customisable bot opponents. A huge list of maps and Arenas ready to go. I could go on and on. Just download and play. You won't be disappointed. (Providing you can handle the pace.)
One star might seem harsh but ive also had to post a plea for help in the GoG community section because the game is broken. It requires a 2gb fix patch (that isnt even available on gog yet) because it runs horribly on a high percentage of PCs. I even have a high end gaming rig and ROTT was horribly unplayable on it....terrible frame rate, stuttering audio, horribly over processed. Even after the post processing was removed the game still didnt play smooth at all....maybe underneath its a good game..maybe the massive 2gb fix patch will fix it (if it ever becomes available) I'm screwed either way cause I was given a gog copy by a friend, but because it's not on my actual gog account i cant download the fix even if I want to. To me, a broken game is the worst kind of game regardless of if it can be fixed eventually or not..fact is they shipped it like this knowing that some gamer's PC's will throw a fit at it...if you want proof of that just ask yourself how they could actually release a huge 2gb fix patch right after releasing it....fix patches like that don't get made over-night. So goddamn dissapointed..you have no idea how much i was looking forward to this.
After all of that and through all the years of my love for these games it's only now (in 2013!) that I've come to a really important realisation...Arma 2 is so bug ridden that it's unplayable. Yes it's realistic and immersive and all those things but after patiently spending the day playing through the 'Manhattan' section of the campaign I realised that even after years of opportunity to get it right it's still just broken. To fill you in..Manhatten is a mission that totally breaks from the game structure towards the end of the campaign....hours and hours of sub objectives that continually fail...a painstaking list of tasks that have to be repeated over and over. In my case i had to start again many times because the game bugged out..players frozen..vitally important actions like healing squadmates just breaking down and ceasing to work....and at the end of it all (4 hours of patience) a catastrophic game bug that kills the game or even any chance of finishing it (the Shaftoe is dead bug) Honestly even after all my years of fun with these games this is really a total deal breaker....I really have no interest in playing the Arma Games anymore now. After three or four years of release this game should be bug free...and while im at it the user interface should have been made far simpler years ago...I really love the original operation flashpoint but it was complex even back in 2001 and Arma 2 hasnt refined it one single bit.
I've read some interesting reviews here. I've been a player of this game and all Street Fighter games ever since they first appeared. I also play just about all of the 2d fighter games out there (King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, there are too many to mention). My review is a little different. This is not a review of the game itself. It's an iconic and very famous game that has been played and loved for years so reviewing the game itself is pointless, but I will review this version of SFA2 and how it stacks up to other versions on other platforms. Honestly...it's a pretty damn good version. I've read a few reviews here that said they had problems with controllers and saving settings and play-speed etc. etc. Truthfully I didn't experience any of that. I loaded this game onto a pretty basic, bordering on obsolete laptop and it ran stable and perfect. There were a couple of quirky things. It wouldn't load from the desktop icon so I had to go into the game folder and create a desktop shortcut from there...pretty minor. Also instead of creating a 'program files' folder it created a gog folder on 'C' drive. All pretty minor stuff. I used a very generic USB game pad as a controller (an xbox 360 clone controller for pc). The game recognised the controller with no problems and I was able to reconfigure the buttons easily. One piece of advice, make sure you go into the menu and manually save your new controller settings otherwise it wont remember them next time...again pretty basic stuff that most pc gamers would do automatically anyway. Most people would say that consoles are the true home of 2d fighting games and they are 100% correct but there is another side to 2d fighting games that people don't necessarily talk about. The not strictly legal side. This is where a huge community 2d fighting fans have been playing these games on PCs for years because there was no other way to play them. So for that reason, PCs have just as much claim on fighters as consoles. I'm talking about mame and other arcade emulators. Users would load game roms onto arcade emulators on their pc so they could play arcade games that had been forgotten or left for dead by their makers. (I used to order a lot of Chinese takeaways from my local store and go there to pick it up just because they had the last arcade machine of Marvel vs Capcom 1 left in the area...that was in 2009. I would practice on my mame pc arcade emulator before playing the real arcade machine..good times) While that wasn't strictly legal it kept those games alive for a lot of people. I will admit right here that I played those games on mame. It wasn't because I wanted to break the law, it was because I wanted to play those games I loved but the arcade machines they came out on had long since disappeared. When I had the chance to buy those games on a console I would leap at the chance. Street Fighter Alpha 1, 2, &3 were among those games. I've now been able to buy many of them for consoles and on places like xbla. My point is that playing fighting games on pc (with a game pad or arcade stick set-up) has actually been going on for years..just not in a recognised way because of it's slightly illegal status. This version of SFA2 once set up is stable and smooth. The game pad is responsive and accurate. Executing combos and hyper combos was easy (if a version has poor control issues it can make some combos virtually impossible). The audio and background music is flawless. (I have a version of SFA2 for the ps-one and the audio tends to lag out of sync). I also have the street fighter Alpha anthology for ps2 and It may surprise a lot of people when I say that I found this Gog PC version of SFA2 more responsive and accurate with a game pad. The accuracy and responsiveness of this version is definitely on a par with the Mame emulated version but because it is a standalone retail version you get those extra features like altering graphical quality and difficulty settings. For that reason alone it's worth buying this game (rather than going the free emulation route). So....to sum up I'm going to give this version the maximum score of 5. I'm gonna take it with me on my laptop and plug in a game pad whenever I feel like a street fighter fix. There are still other great fighting games that are lost in the wilderness and can still only be played on arcade emulators. I'm glad to see the capcom are finally releasing Marvel vs Capcom 1 on xbla, but Dark stalkers/vampires Revenge will still keep my emulator busy...I don't see it as breaking the law..but keeping a forgotten game alive until the makers decide to save it. It's the same with many of the King of Fighters, fatal fury and samurai showdowns. So from a fan of these games, buying this game is a solid choice. It's a good stable version of a great game. SFA3 would be a welcome addition (if a retail pc version exists..hell I didn't event know there was a retail PC version of SFA2 till I saw it here on gog and I'm a huge fan of these games!) Another solid 2d fighting game here on gog would be 'Guilty Gear X2 reload'..although the gog version had some quirky menu issues (I had to use control, alt , delete to exit the game) it is still a good pc fighting game. If you are a fan of 2d fighters SFA2 on gog is a no-brainer. For those that say 'why would you buy SFA2 when you could play the latest SF4 turbo or Ultimate Marvel vs Capsom 3?'..well, perhaps they just don't understand. Hell I play all of those latest SF games but there is still something special about having a classic Street fighter session.
Darwinia is a greart genre busting game. What if, let's say hypothetically, you kind of like the idea behind RTS games but they bore you to tears at the same time. What if you were thinking to yourself one morning "Gosh darn it I really like the exciting parts of RTS games but if I have to build one more base or cut down one more tree I'm gonna go postal and go on a bloody rampage at the shopping mall with a jar of vaseline and a cricket bat". Like me I'm sure you have that thought all the time but gladly I can now put down that cricket bat and put that jar of vaseline back in the cupboard. Darwinia is that game...RTS action with an arcade pace and neat retro graphics that actually enhance the game. Tron meets dawn of war meets space invaders. I alrady own multiwinia (the multiplayer version) so im not sure if i need Darwinia but I can truly recommend this game. Yes it's a 40 meg download but theres lots of memorable play for your 40 megs. The only reason though that I seem to be the only one giving this game 4 out of 5 stars is that GOG have gotten the price point wrong...partly becasue it still is a 40 meg download afterall and to be honest this game really is a $5.99 game (multiwinia would be the $9.99 equivalent but its not here on gog)...You need to work out that price point gog..dont forget that back in the day this was a free game before it got picked up....if you spend $9.99 you wont be wasitng your money....you'll still get hours of fun. But wait for the sale....as soon as it comes down in price to $5.99 then buy. buy. buy !
I've owned this game for a long time. I own it on GOG but I also have the original IL2. It's sat on my shelf for years and occasionally i would give it another go only to get frustrated. Just taking off was tricky and I would always spend a while setting up my game pad...after-all...a game pad is pretty much the same as using a joystick right?....HELL NO. For the first time Ive installed this game and shelled out for a joystick which was a big decision for me....I tended to think of a joystick as the ultimate geek purchase. I was concerned that if I bought one id have to give away all my cool stuff and start wearing pocket protectors. I wasn't ready for nerd status....i dont even like Harry Potter. Turns out that a joystick totally trasforms this game....It's pretty much now the most nail biting hard-core game im playing and it's over 10 years old. The combination of Joystick in one hands and mouse (to swivel your head) in the other gives you one of the most realistic feelings you can get in a game. It really does start to blur the line between game and reality. When you look down you see the in-game joystick move exactly in synch with the real one in your hand. Every cockpit dial and lever is realistic and functional. Keeping track of your guages is vital. The game may be a few yeas old but it still looks great and the flight mechanics feel real and substantial. It's a true simulation and a real adrenaline rush when you're in a dog fight with 4 enemy fighters. So...I get it now..I get why it's still the number one combat flight simulator....and yes it's better than Microsoft Combat simulator. So to cut a long story short here's what i suggest you do. First buy the game, trust me, you'll be playing it aq very long time. Second, get a joystick. Seriously....just for this game..it's worth it...but while you're at it you can get 'Freespace 2' as well and use it with that. Honestly..I've played this game many times for years but I never got waht all the hype was about till i used a joystick (a gamepad doesnt cut it in this case)........believe the hype, I'm gonna be playing this game for a long time.
The Conflict series is okay..not great..just okay. Some entries are alot of fun and some are disasters. Conflict Desert Storm was the first. I own or have owned this game on xbox as well as pc. The game isnt abysmal like one review has said but once you're done with it there is nothing thee to keep you playing. I doubt there will be anyone playing this online but maybe now that its on GOG there might be a couple. Mission are okay. There is a sort of 'sandbox' approach to them but really the whole game is pretty linear. You have a basic squad interface and the A.I. of your squad is pretty bad. Movement and overall control of your soldier is acceptable but not exact. The PC version feels very much like a direct port of the console versions so it lacks all those extra little touches that pc gamers have come to expect (afterall thats why people game on pcs) If you look at the GOG page and advertisement for this game it says someting like "One of the most realistic military tactical games".... etc etc. That statement is a blatant lie...shame on you square enix...its the most arcade like tactical game ive ever played. Don't even try to compare it with a game like ArmA cold war assault which actually is the most realistic military tactical game ive ever played. To sum up the series the Conflict Desert Storm games were just okay..fun in parts but linear and shallow. I enjoyed Conflict Veitnam and Global Storm more (but they were still shallow. Conflict Denied Ops goes down in my book as one of the worst current gen games ever. A franchise killer and a total 'Cluster F*ck' of a game.
