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This user has reviewed 34 games. Awesome! You can edit your reviews directly on game pages.
American Conquest + Fight Back

The best edition of GSC's Cossacks games

Compared to GSC's Cossacks this follow-on game aimed at the North American market introduces new concepts (morale and occupied buildings) that were absent in Cossacks. And the AI isn't as dumb - but that's partly also because the otherwise painful limitations of Cossacks' almost non-existent enemy AI (such as no proper/large battle formations of units in true co-ordination or tactics) are less apparent in this setting - especially if you play as a colonial power facing a lumpy stream of hordes of Indian tribal warriors trying to dislodge your fledgling community. The graphics are better than the original Cossacks too. It's not up to modern gaming standards (but then nor is the new Cossacks 3) but if you normally like this type of classic RTS, then get it while in a sale and you won't be dissappointed,

16 gamers found this review helpful
Cossacks Anthology

Dated, though maybe 4 stars in it's day

I've got the series on disc. Back in the day this was quite fun in it's way, though I just can't understand all the rave reviews because this is definitely not in any way at all "tabletop wargaming" brought to the PC. There are no tactics or strategy, at least from the AI. It just builds units and sends them in a lumpy stream without proper formations or co-ordination. However, there were at least some naval elements to the fighting (something which elsewhere back then was pretty much non-existent), and at least for raiding ships the lack of a proper battle-AI was much less problematic. And it looked nice and was more than just fighting as you had to build a bit etc. Still, I felt cheated because the pics on the boxes always showed some fantastic formations in huge battles, and that just doesn't happen. If you're interested, I'd suggest you instead start with their American Conquest: Fight Back game, and play as a colonial power, that way the lack of proper or huge enemy combined unit formations or any pretty battlefield manoeuvres really don't matter so much because the tribes didn't really employ them and nor did the colonials employ them as much. Thus the endless stream of skirmishers trying to slowly overwhelm your fledgling colony seems less unrealistic.

9 gamers found this review helpful
The Journeyman Project 3: Legacy of Time

Surprisingly good fun, with caveats

The game is generally good and I'm old enough not to need AA let alone AAA graphics, and I quite like video footage for the NPCs. Considering that you're looking out from inside a full suit you can imagine all that as a limitation of the suit's internal video display if you need to rationalise it... Anyway, I was initially put off by the look of the suit's cartoon-like little AI buddy (you see in the corner of the screen) but actually he's funny, and one of the best things about the game is his comments - perhaps the only thing that kept me playing sometimes - he's a blast, for a 1990s game. Other than that you're faced with a fairly straightforward game of that era/type, with a good story but sadly let down by clunky unforgiving gameplay a couple of times. Trying to explain them without spoilers is difficult but for example there was an inconsequential item in one location that could only be obtained if I'd bothered to go to that location a second time after triggering certain very-indirectly related events, before leaving that time-zone altogether. Much, much later in the game that item turned out to be required but there was no getting it by backtracking - if you didn't get it that one time you're out of luck. And it wasn't even a special thing, it was a simple household item for which any number of other items could fulfill exacly the same job (in fact many other items would've done a better job!) much later on when it turns out you need it for a critical task. So annoying. Get it on sale if you're bored and fancy a laugh or a trip down memory lane to what was 1990s gaming. Enjoy.

12 gamers found this review helpful
Close Combat: The Longest Day

Historical? - more like Hollywood...

I love wargaming but can never get into this series despite a few efforts. This top down view is ok (like a hi-res version of a 1980s' game) but I always want to also see things from all angles, distanced and up-close (like in the Combat Mission series), and that is severely lacking in the Close Combat series. And yes I know there are some mechanic and feature improvements over the previous effort (Invasion Normandy), but historical accuracy (touted as a key effort in the maker's blurb!) is most definitely NOT one of them. For a start Eisenhower wasn't in charge of the Normandy Campaign - it was Britain's Montgomery. A wise choice as Monty had already defeated Rommel before and was good at logistics too. And the British and Commwealth forces made up 3/5ths of the landings, and just over half of the allied forces (and by the way also the majority of the naval and air efforts in this campaign). And Rommel knew he had to throw 2/3rds of his forces (and all of his elite Panzer units) at the veteran British troops, not the (mostly) green Americans. But you'd never know all that from this game, which seems to take it's "history" lesson from Hollywood blockbusters that virtually ignore the Brits and Candians were even there (or merely mention how the British stagnated but omit it was because they faced most of Rommel's heat). No, you play as heroic Amercians or the elite Germans who somehow by dint of Hollywood fantasy now face an almost entirely US operation. Anyway, Monty's plan was to reach Paris by day 90, and that goal was reached a few days early. Enjoy ignoring history - who needs that in a WW2 wargame anyway, right kiddies? - and after all, sadly this isn't the only series to re-write history because of either the American consumer market or the world who today get their "history" from Hollywood fantasies and want to recreate them on PC.

41 gamers found this review helpful
Cossacks 3

Pretty but misleading

By misleading I'm referring to the grandiose battle scenes you see in some preview pics. In practice most battles (certainly all random map ones) are just a mass streaming mush of skirmishing oncoming units with no real AI or any tactical manouvres at all. If you remember the original and enjoyed it (or games just like it) but no longer have them or the Windows XP machine to play them on, then buy it when on sale - the graphics have been brought up to date so it looks prettier than the original. But don't expect any AI or significant gameplay improvements.

10 gamers found this review helpful
IL-2 Sturmovik™: 1946

The best WW2 flight sim

Even today after all these darn years it's still regularly rated in the top 3 of WW2 flight sims and often still best overall/all-time on some site's lists in 2020. And this edition is the whole collection of it. The graphics hold up pretty darn well too and aren't demanding so you can max them out today. Go and watch some youtube reviews. Oh, and buy yourself a joystick.

14 gamers found this review helpful
Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY Edition

WW2 paintball capture-the-flag campaign

If you want multiplayer virtual paintball capture-the-flag games dressed up as WW2 stuff, this game is worth the money. Co-op multiplayer vs computer is the most fun way to play to play this game and I had an enjoyable hour at it with my nephew. And it looks nice too. But it's all arcade candyfloss really. No serious WW2 wargamer would take this seriously. And forget strategy and also forget decent single-player campaigns, depth or replayability. If you want a decent tactical single-player game, time to think every move, and put nerdy levels of history-buff realism over pretty graphics, I'd instead recommend Battlefront's Combat Mission series (Afrika Korps or Barbarossa to Berlin), which can go from platoon up to big battalion-level games, and though it lacks campaigns it does have some extended scenarios, and it's random map generator, map editor, hundreds of community maps, and numerous difficulty settings (and mods, thousands of mods) create endless replayability.

17 gamers found this review helpful
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind GOTY Edition

Mature, but clunky controls, and ugly!

I tried. Really hard - because everyone raves about it and all say it's the most mature Scrolls title in terms of story, and the biggest in terms of world space. I got the GOTY dvd. It installed on Win7 ok, but boy was it old and ugly looking, even to fan of games as old (Medieval Total War) and older (Combat Mission Beyond Overlord, Red Baron 3D, etc). I spent hours researching and carefully following the latest Nexus modding guide for all the code extender, enhancement overhaul and essential graphics improvements. Then spent another half a day figuring out where some that info was flawed or incomplete (still had to disable some supposedly better grass that kept crashing the game)... And ta da! - oh, is that it? Is that all? I mean, ok, it's somewhat better than vanilla, with nicer water too - but, gee, no wow factor. It still looks quite mediocre. As a game of older games, looks don't bother me that much, but the controls and how you move and interact with your environment are still very, very clunky, fairly non-intuitive and seem like an early 1990s game, not a 2002 one! I gave up trying to figure out a lockpick (or pretty much anything else really), conversation menus are like from a 1980s text-only game and not all that logically written either. Menus are cumbersome, and don't flow or always make much sense. And on my very first exploration of the start town I eventually managed to jump over a knee-high wall to take in the scenery - and got literally stuck solid in some grassy slope. Tried another couple of character new-game starts but soon gave up. Shame. I hear the community are rebuilding Morrow and Oblivion using the Skyrim engine - unless Bethesda steps in and makes a "Classic" Morrow edition, that's the only way I'll ever bother again. If you like 1990s-style games with poorly written & designed 1980s-style text, and want to spend two days getting to look at least like an early noughties game should look, then go ahead - and keep taking the pills.

11 gamers found this review helpful
Darkest Hour: A Hearts of Iron Game

"Darkest Hour" is Hearts of Iron 2.5

When comparing HOI editions, no one today compares HOI:2 to 3 or 4 (nor ever talk about HOI:1), but you'll see plenty favourably comparing Darkest Hour to both 3 and 4. That's because at least half consider it the high point, improving on the old HOI:2 and taking it as far as it could go (essentially an HOI:2.5), before later titles got too bogged down in features, tactics & micro-management that were fine but the game's own AI wasn't really up to fighting you on (HOI:3), or that eventual streamlined, graphics-over-gameplay money spinning edition (HOI:4). A not uncommon evolutionary pattern across many gaming series. DH also has one big benefit over 3 & 4 and that's an option to start earlier, i.e. in WW1. Now, the graphics in DH don't compare with later, but fear not for it makes up for it with that other great advantage - mods. And not just graphical mods to minimise the pain, but music, gameplay, scenario and even total conversion mods. The big one is Kaiserreich (Germany won WW1) but there's Victorian and Napoleonic ones too. And it's active - as in these mods are still being progressed in late 2020 - which shows you how well regarded this game is, a decade on. I don't know if I can post the game maker's own forum link, but search for "paradox forum darkest hour" - it's the best place (and also the safest) to get mods for this game and probably their other titles too.

12 gamers found this review helpful
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition

Great graphics, bad 3rd-person & cinema

At least as an older gamer on a non-gaming PC (core2duo e8600, gt1030) and 5:4 monitor, I found the graphics absolutely fantastic. But that's where any liking for the game ends. All available player-view options were really badly applied 3rd-person ones. The two isometric ones are at least familiar but done in a tad unwieldy way, and the OTS (over-the-shoulder) view option is not much better as it's only about as good as the really quite unwieldy 3rd-person OTS view option in Fallout 3 (which almost everyone who plays Fallout 3 eschews in favour of that game's superior 1st-person view). But sadly there is no 1st-person option in Witcher, and the game is far poorer for it. Some say a 1st-person wouldn't work, but that's only because of the way the makers added some things (like opponent indicators) around their 3rd-person view, which could easily be moved. And the Witcher's best view option, the OTS one, clips and chops around like Fallout 3 on a very bad day. A game-breaker frankly. Fight mechanics are ok (if basic), and the story-line bearable (if you like awful tweenage dramas like The Twilight Saga). Yet this is made worse by the (very frequent) cinematic cut-scenes. Am I playing a game or watching a B-movie? Even the tutorial was bad and poorly executed - e.g. I could easily get to the required winch but couldn't interact with it as a far off out-of-sight enemy NPC was still alive and the game didn't even bother to mention this - it was just as if the winch was non-interactive, etc, etc.

4 gamers found this review helpful