Same old, same old. Another TES title, bethesda first person fantasy sandbox rpg-sim game. On paper this one has the least going for (The first one started the whole series, the second one has the biggest wolrd, the third one takes place in the beautifully weird morrowind, and the fifth one has dragons and a distinct gameworld again). Cyrodill is not the most original of fantasy settings. Combat's still not all than engaging, npc's look deader than ever, dungeons tend to look very similar to each other (same goes to ruins), the main quest is very repetitive, a way the world levels up with you makes progress somewhat unsatisfying... And yet it all clicks. All that said above, this is the one TES game I played the most. The gameplay is much faster than ever before (morrowing didn't really have fast travel for example), and despite all the bugs, the game experience is rather smooth. Also, the Imperial city is a very large place with a lot of things going on in close vicinity to each other, again, speeding up the game. But the most important part, again is the modding community. Maybe it has something to do with broadband internet connections becoming commonplace, but this was the first in the series that could've been modded into insane length very shortly after it came out. Don't like the interface, graphics, controls, quests, sounds, models, npc's, equipment, gameplay, etc? You can replace and tweak EVERY litttle thing about this game. I think I spent two whole days just setting this beast up - a decade ago. Since then, the number of mods increased to ridiculous amounts. I think this might be the most customizable and fastest of the TES games - maybe exactly because it seems so "meh" on paper. This is one you play whatever way you feel like. Strongly recommended (be sure to look through the mods)!
Same old, same old. Another TES title, bethesda first person fantasy sandbox rpg-sim game. On paper this one has the least going for (The first one started the whole series, the second one has the biggest wolrd, the third one takes place in the beautifully weird morrowind, and the fifth one has dragons and a distinct gameworld again). Cyrodill is not the most original of fantasy settings. Combat's still not all than engaging, npc's look deader than ever, dungeons tend to look very similar to each other (same goes to ruins), the main quest is very repetitive, a way the world levels up with you makes progress somewhat unsatisfying... And yet it all clicks. All that said above, this is the one TES game I played the most. The gameplay is much faster than ever before (morrowing didn't really have fast travel for example), and despite all the bugs, the game experience is rather smooth. Also, the Imperial city is a very large place with a lot of things going on in close vicinity to each other, again, speeding up the game. But the most important part, again is the modding community. Maybe it has something to do with broadband internet connections becoming commonplace, but this was the first in the series that could've been modded into insane length very shortly after it came out. Don't like the interface, graphics, controls, quests, sounds, models, npc's, equipment, gameplay, etc? You can replace and tweak EVERY litttle thing about this game. I think I spent two whole days just setting this beast up - a decade ago. Since then, the number of mods increased to ridiculous amounts. I think this might be the most customizable and fastest of the TES games - maybe exactly because it seems so "meh" on paper. This is one you play whatever way you feel like. Strongly recommended (be sure to look through the mods)!
Please refer to my Samurai Showdown review for details, but here's the case in a nutshell: These SNK games now run through a terribly rigid, uncustomizable frontend, Where you cannot even change the button layout. The only thing I'd like to add, that this makes local multiplayer practically impossible. That's one more reason to ignore this version.
Just bought the SNK fighting game bundle, and I already regret it. As you would imagine, this is not a true port, but basically emulation. Nothing's wrong with that, that means it brings you closer to the original, arcade experience, right? Well it all depends on the emulator. Which, in this case: sucks. It's bare bones: you don't have any graphic filters and you cannot even customize your control layout. I don't know what rock SNK is living under, but especially the latter one is just unacceptable at this day and age. The only feature of the frontend which I haven't seen before with NeoGeo emulators is a save feature. You have one whole slot. Wow. Why even bother (It's maybe just me, but I also felt like there's a little delay with the keypresses). Look, when pirating a rom and playing it with a FREE emulator is not only cheaper, but also an all-around better gaming experience than the legal version... thenwe have a very serious problem. I did buy this for less than two bucks, yet (for the first time after buying nearly 700 games from gog ) I'm thinking about asking for a refund.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha... Nope.
The company name Monolith used to a staple of high quality (or at least competence) on fps games around the turn of the century. Youngsters may recall the FEAR series, older users might have fond memories of No One Lives Forever. I don't want to commit sacrilege, but I have to say, this game, sandwiched between the two big series, is probably their best effort. Tron 2.O. is an FPS chock full of action, simple yet well constructed puzzles, visuals that aged surprisingly well, a really enjoyable story, fun characters, never before seen weapons and equipment - all in a brilliantly realized environment with it's very own rules and inner workings (though the interface and gameplay is way simpler then for example system shock 2, the tutorial level for this game is about as expansive). Oh, and the puns. Humor is ever-preset throughout this one, and has a certain style, that may or may not drive you up the wall. It mostly consists of tech-related puns, and radically nerdy dad-jokes. If the constant glow effects don't melt your face, these jokes will. Even storywise, Tron 2.0 is a better follow up to Tron than Legacy, when it comes to gameplay (there was an official movie game), the two doesn't even compare. All in all, Tron 2.0 is a class A fps game from on of the all time greats, which still holds up surprisingly well. Highly recommended!
I recently dug up this game again after two decades - and wouldn't you know it, it just became available on GOG! I'm only telling you this, because I have serious nostalgia for this title. Trying it out again after such a long time however, made me realize, that this might aged the best. Space Rogue tries to be a lot of different things. Mainly a top-down RPG, a 3D space sim, and at some point, an arcade game as well. But for the most part, it is an Rpg. The whole story, the main and addition quests, the people and the environment you get to know throughout the game come via the rpg parts. As Origin states, they create worlds, and they do it quite well in this case too. The space sim parts seem mostly a "tacked on" addition. As opposed to wing commander's arcade-ish action, this seems more complicated and way more difficult - on the other hand, when I finally got the hang of it again, I felt really accomplished. I guess that's a good thing, but still - this aspect just doesn't really hold up anymore. Unfortunately space battles are mandatory at times. I don't know if the short arcade-y parts are really worth mentioning, but shooting giant space-ant/mantis things is quite fun. All in all, a charming, original sci-fi rpg from times that were more simple and more complicated at the same time. The more traditonal parts hold up quite well, the more experimental aspects do fail sometimes. But that's to be expected about experiments. Worth a try if you like old CRPG's. This one does a few things differently. 3,5/5 points in my opinion. (PS: Check out the crpg addict blog, for a full rundown of the game if you'd like to know more...)
More of a large expansion or total conversion than a true sequel. It's on the same engine, it has the same gameplay, the content, however is mostly new (also, it's from a different studio). Let's call it a spinoff. This time, you play as... honestly, who cares? Painkiller is about fast past, non-stop fps action, and on that front, Overdose definitely delivers. Still, the originial is miles ahead of this. It had better level design, architecture, modelling, and overall better gameplay. Even if it was quite unbalanced, when it came to difficulty - Overdose, however is all Over the place in that aspect (the final bossfight is the most ridiculous thing I've ever encountered). The first step in turning Painkiller into a repetitive arena-shooter was Battle out of hell, this is the second step. Thankfully, It's still a long way until Recurring evil (which was just garbage), but the Painkiller games were slowly but surely losing their edge at this point. I had no idea how perfect the original Painkiller was, until i played this spinoff. Up until then it felt like a dumb, simple, but fun game. Compared to Overdose, it's brilliance truly shines through. By no means Overdose is a bad game, but it is a disappointing continuation of the Painkiller games.
Please refer to my review on either the core game, or the "deluxier" (what fun) edition. Just steer clear of this game in general.
Space rangers 2 is one of my favorite games of all time. It was a big step up from the first installment: it was a blend of several different types of games - text adventure, trading, turn based space-combat, RTS stages, delivery jobs, RPG, and so on. Years later "A War Apart" came out. It was basically the same game but now in HD, with some updated content and a lot more bugs. I Wasn't crazy about it. I was waiting for the next true SR game. One that will be another step up from SR2. "Quest" is not the game I was waiting for. I'd call it "Space Rangers Lite", for it is a bare bones version of the game: it's all about text adventures. They cut all other aspects that made previous titles great, and ever worse, they removed what made SR truly great: a living, breathing universe, with miriads of other pilots flying all across the systems, going on about their business (which the program took note of, just as your progress). Essentially, this is a cellphone game, and yes, it came out on cellphones as well (the only difference I can see between them at the moment is that the android version has fewer music tracks). Even the combat is text based, and there doesn't seem to be any trading whatsoever (why am I able to chose being a merchant then). All you can see during the whole game is your own ship - it feels very lonely and dull (it's in 3D and you can fly around it for no reason). Saving your game is weird: it happens automatically, which is good, but you can save manually as well between quests- to 1 save slot... The Text quest themselves are okay, they're funny, and quite challenging (some of them in somewhat broken English). As with old text based games, you should keep a notebook handy, it'll help out a lot. So far this game seems to be letdown for me. I hvae to repeat what I said in my "Knights of pen and paper" review: there are better options on PC. If you haven't played any of the space ranger games, "A War Apart" should be your pick.
