Rake in Grass has just launched an expansion pack for their great game, Jets’n'Guns!!

More of a “ok, the game’s as it should’ve been now” than a “hey, new stuff!” package, the so-called Gold Edition brings new features (well, duh ^_^’) like:

1. the game now supports 800×600 resolution, which means more baddies on the screen, more items onscreen in the shop, etc.;
2. More weapons, more foes, more ships, twice as long story mode and more music from the norse gods Machinae Supremacy (among others)!

If you like side-scrolling, R-type-like shooters with very nice graphics, excellent gameplay and are known to have the occasional bit of spare time on your hands, make your way to the game’s website and indulge yourself on an early holiday gift.

Consider this though: if you already own the “not gold” version of Jets’n'Guns, the Gold Version will cost you $9,95. If you do not (and shame on you if you don’t!), then it’s $29,95.

(Should you find yourself thinking “Weren’t the ads supposed to be on the right?”, I apologize: it’s my fault. I just saw this and made it my immediate priority to share it with the world in the appropriate medium, this blog.

My next posts will be much better, believe me )

[it was already quite good, but... you forgot the link. Here it is: Jets'n'Guns. - Dehumanizer]

Possibly related posts:

1. Now playing: Jets ‘n’ Guns

No related posts.

As you may remember, the first Medieval: Total War is one of the “Games of my Life”, and, IMO, one of the best strategy games of all time. A second version of it (it’s Creative Assembly’s first sequel ever) should be really amazing.

Here is the MTW2 official page, with lots of great screenshots. Unfortunately, they still insist on showing only battle images, and I’m even more interested in the campaign – which sounds amazing, from the description, but I’d like to see some of it. It’s probably not coded yet, I guess.

The bad news: it should be even more demanding than Rome: Total War, which my puny PC already can’t handle decently. I really must get around to getting rich.

Possibly related posts:

1. Medieval: Total War (PC, 2002)
2. New games: first impressions
3. New games ordered

This weekend, though, I finally had some time, and divided my time between 3 games:

• Jets ‘n’ Guns (PC)
• Advance Wars (GBA)
• Disciples 2 (PC)

So, 2 strategy games, and a shoot ‘em up. Not bad.

I really wish I had more time, though…

Possibly related posts:

1. Now playing: Jets ‘n’ Guns
2. Now Playing: Fire Emblem
3. Jets ‘n’ Guns: Gold Edition

It’s a mix between R-Type and Tyrian, being closer to the latter. Technically, it’s certainly the best I’ve seen, with fantastic graphics, sound, music (by Machinae Supremacy), and never slowing down in the slightest. It’s also extremely varied, with lots of different scenarios, levels, enemies, mission objectives, weapons, ship upgrades, and so on.

If you like shoot’em ups, you owe it to yourself to at least download the shareware version, from the official site. Me, I bought it in a second ($20), and I have zero regrets.

Possibly related posts:

1. Second impressions: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
2. Jets ‘n’ Guns: Gold Edition
3. Now playing: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Beyond Good and Evil

Maybe it’s because it’s the only MMORPG where progress doesn’t depend mainly on time invested, but on skills.

Or the only one where almost everyone plays “in character”. Avast, ye landlubbers! Shiver me timbers! Yarrr!

What’s odd is that I don’t really like puzzle games (such as Tetris, Bejeweled, etc.) that much…

Possibly related posts:

1. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
2. Sonic Heroes: first impressions

Since I created this blog, U7 was always supposed to be one of the “Games of my Life”; however, I haven’t played the game since I finished it, which was more than 10 years ago. The fact that I still remember a lot of the game speaks volumes about how good it is; on the other hand, I’d still like to have a “fresher” memory about it, before writing its real entry here.

I’ll tell you this, though: even though Planescape: Torment is still my no. 1 RPG of all time, Ultima VII is probably my second favorite… and in its particular genre, there’s nothing like it. Torment’s strength is its characters, story and atmosphere; U7, on the other hand, gives you a world to explore and live in, like probably no other game. And the story is brilliant, too.

Too bad they ruined it in Ultimas VIII and IX…

Meanwhile, as I said, I’ve finally finished Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance. I think I’ll tackle Beyond Good and Evil next.

Possibly related posts:

1. Now playing: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Beyond Good and Evil
2. Second impressions: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
3. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: continuing impressions

First, let me say that this is my first Sonic game since the original ones for the Megadrive (I have the 2 Sonic Adventures ordered, but one of them is back-ordered and so they haven’t arrived yet). This means that it’s also my first Sonic in 3D.

From what I’ve played so far: the graphics are good. Not great, but good. Voice acting is… OK. The levels themselves look very, very nice, and the sense of speed is absolutely amazing. The camera, however, is quite poor – quite often you have to use your memory about what you’ve seen earlier, because you’re not seeing where you’re going – the camera takes too long to turn.

Even though the game is fully 3D, it plays (at least, so far – I’ve just got past the first boss) much like the old 2D games, in the sense that it’s quite linear – it’s always obvious where you have to go, and there’s not really any exploration, except to look for hidden areas and items. In other words, instead of free exploration like, say, Mario 64 or the 3D Zeldas, Sonic Heroes plays more like an “obstacle course”. A beautiful and varied one, though.

As you’ll know if you’ve read any (p)review or seen any ad for the game, you don’t just play one character, but a team of 3. There are 4 different teams, with slightly different storylines, goals, game styles and difficulty levels. Basically, however, each team has one “Speed” character, one “Power” character and one “Flight” character (for instance, in Team Sonic, they’re Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, respectively). In many parts of the game, you have to use a specific kind of character, though many challenges can be overcome with different characters, and sometimes you even get to choose paths, such as one which requires Power and one which requires Flight.

So far, I’m enjoying it, and thanks to its being a Player’s Choice game, it was quite cheap, too.

Possibly related posts:

1. Sonic games ordered
2. Now playing: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Beyond Good and Evil
3. Tennis Critters (PC, 2003)

In no particular order:

• Sonic Adventure / Sonic Adventure 2: Battle / Sonic Heroes / Shadow the Hedgehog (GameCube): I haven’t played a Sonic game since the first 2D ones on the Megadrive, and I miss the blue guy. I think I’ll start with the first two, which are already Player’s Choice games, and can be bought cheaply.
• Doom 3 (PC): I’ve only tried the demo, some months ago, and my PC is too slow to play it properly. But I’d like to play it in full when I get new hardware, a couple of months from now. I know a lot of people were disappointed with the game, as they were expecting a rocket-fest such as multi-player Quake, and Doom 3 is more of a horror game – but I’m curious about it.
• X-Men Legends 2 (GameCube): loved the first one – the 4-player mode was great! I want more of it.
• Mario Superstar Baseball (GameCube): one more for the post-lunch gaming sessions at home.
• more tactical RPGs (several systems): after “discovering” Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, I want more. Most of them are for the GBA, it seems…
• an RTS (PC): probably Age of Empires III, but, again, I need to upgrade my puny PC first…

Looking at that list, I realize an interesting fact: that after being a computer (8-bit, 16-bit, PC) gamer for most of my life, my tastes have slowly been turning to consoles more and more. I still play and enjoy PC games, but most of them are older ones – and, except for Civ 4 and the R:TW expansion, I haven’t bought any recently. I guess that would change if I had a more powerful PC, but… I don’t know. Not only do console games not have compatibility problems or hardware requirements that cost an arm and a leg to fulfill, but they’re… different. And they still feel “fresh” to me, while PC games increasing feel like what I’ve been playing all my life. Maybe I simply needed a change.

But it’s a fact that, for the past few months, I’ve been spending much more time on the GameCube than on the PC.

Possibly related posts:

1. Sonic games ordered
2. Sonic Heroes: first impressions
3. More games ordered

The first of them is Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, on the GameCube, which I’ve already mentioned a couple of times here. It keeps getting better and better – good story, interesting characters, more decisions to make, and, best of all, the need for different strategies in every level – not simply “advance and kill everyone in your path”. It’s really a joy to play.

The second one is a bit older: Beyond Good and Evil, also on the Cube (this isn’t an exclusive, though, it’s also available for PC, PS2 and Xbox). I’ve had this game for about a year, but for some reason had never got around to play it… until now. And it’s brilliant.

IGN’s review, quoted on the back of the box, describes it as “Zelda for grown-ups”. While I don’t think that it’s a perfect description – among other reasons, because the Zelda games aren’t really for kids – it’s certainly a quick way to explain to people what the game looks and plays like. It’s an action/adventure game, with a great story (involving control of the media by the government – guess that’s where the “for grown-ups” bit comes from), and absolutely endearing characters. For instance, one of your “party members” is Pey’j, a pig-like humanoid – whose personality, voice acting and mannerisms make him more “human” and lovable than more than 95% of video game characters. Jade herself, the character you control, is one of the few female characters that is feminine without looking as if she’s just there for making male teens drool.

BG&E has been called “the best game nobody played”, as, while every review out there described it as brilliant, it almost didn’t sell. But you can probably still buy it, and cheaply, too. If you like the 3D Zeldas (Ocarina, Majora, Wind Waker), go buy it immediately; if not, or if you don’t know them, at least take a look at it; rent it, or something. It’s a work of art – so much that Peter Jackson recently contacted the main author, Michael Ancel, to create the game version of his next movie, King Kong.

Possibly related posts:

1. Second impressions: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
2. Finished Path of Radiance; now playing…
3. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance: continuing impressions

But in 2002, 14 years after Laser Squad, Julian created one of the best play-by-email games ever, Laser Squad Nemesis.

If you try out this game, it’ll seem overly complicated at first – so many options, so many buttons, and, truth be said, the game could really use some decent tutorials, and a help system. Not to mention better graphics and sound. Those weren’t the priority, obviously, but one thing doesn’t prevent the other.

Oh well… what remains is still a fascinating game, especially because you’re playing against other, living people (unless they’re dead, but then again, zombies can’t play games). Basically, each player has several points to “buy” the members of a team, choosing from 4 different races: the Marines (standard humans, mobile but fragile, need a lot of teamwork to survive), the Machina (slower but tougher, with a lot of ranged firepower), the Spawn (think the Zerg from Starcraft) and the Grey (Roswell-style aliens, with mind control, shields, etc., but very fragile). Then, each player must defeat the other one – either by killing the other entire team, by having more kills than the other if they reach the previously set turn limit, or by destroying some special Headquarters units in HQ games.

As I said, the game is turn-based and played by email (though there’s an optional web interface which allows playing without an email account) – you download a small file, open it (which fires up the game), see what happened in the previous turn, then set new orders, and send a newly created file to the server (which is an option in the game client, no need to do it by hand). When the other player does the same, both receive new turn files. Rinse and repeat.

A very interesting feature of the game is that, unlike in the original Laser Squad, or most similar games, in LSN every turn happens simultaneously. That is, you send your orders, the other player does the same, and then both happen at the same time – each turn consists of 10 seconds, and everything happens as the players ordered – though, of course, they don’t control what the other player does.

Try it. The game is subscription-based (very cheap, too), but you can try out some missions before paying. Here’s the link: Laser Squad Nemesis official site.

Possibly related posts:

1. Laser Squad (ZX Spectrum / Commodore 64, 1988)
2. Medieval: Total War (PC, 2002)
3. Sonic Heroes: first impressions

In the early 90s, as more powerful computers became available, the genre shifted a bit, to graphical adventures. Many of them were from Sierra (Police Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, etc.) and from LucasArts (then LucasFilm Games) (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Monkey Island, etc.). These were much more successful, as players no longer had to do that scary thing called “reading”, or that even scarier thing called “imagining”. One of the best ones, which I’ve mentioned here before, is Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers.

But in the late 90s, adventure games mostly vanished off the face of the earth. People, it seemed, wanted only first person shooters, and endless revisions of sports games. Thinking, solving puzzles and interacting with other characters were, apparently, out of fashion.

Then, in 1999, there came two amazing adventure games which, while not making adventure games highly successful, at least were a blast to play, and sold very well for adventure games. One of them is Gabriel Knight 3, which I’ll talk about in the future (hint: “The Da Vinci Code” is but a watered-down version of it). The other is Funcom’s The Longest Journey.

And what a magical game it was.

In TLJ, you play as April Ryan, an 18-year old art student, living in a world much like our own, though in the near future. However, strange things begin to happen – strange, magical things. As April investigates it – while going on with her life, with all the worries, fears and dreams of an 18-year old girl -, she learns that there’s a world in parallel to her own – a world with magic, not technology. And she is special, she is a shifter, one who has the power to travel between the two worlds.

In the technological world, which is in fact called Stark, she already has a circle of friends; in the magical world, Arcadia, she will make new ones – one of the most interesting being Crow, a bird with a great sense of humor – and great voice acting, too. In fact, everyone in the game has great voice acting – much better than many games today.

Hmm, I must play this game again, soon. So many games, such little time…

Really, try it out, if you haven’t played it yet. It should be cheap, as most old games are. And take a look at the official site, too.

Possibly related posts:

1. Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (PC, 1999)
2. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (PC, 1993)
3. Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999)

Civilization IV

I love the new interface, presentation and music. And the new technologies narration by Leonard Nimoy is fantastic. However, I haven’t had much time to dwell into the game itself. Most of what I know about it is from reviews.

Civics come from Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, though it was called “Social Engineering” there.

Religion is a new concept in the Civ series, and it basically works these way: the first civilization to get to each of 7 particular technologies (e.g. Meditation for Buddhism, Polytheism for Hinduism, and so on) has one of its cities become a “holy site” for that religion (think Mecca or Jerusalem). The religion then spreads through trade routes, including to other civilizations. Cities can have citizens of several faiths, and you can build temples. You can also build missionaries to influence other cities (especially those of other players) more directly.

Both civics and religion are used in diplomacy – civs tend to like other civs with the same state religion, or using the same civics, more – and the other way around. They may even suggest changes to yours – such as Mao asking you to change to State Property. And you can also suggest changes to them.

Religions are, in game terms, the same. Political correctness and all that. Not like Europa Universalis 2, where each religion had particular bonuses and penalties…

Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion

Looks extremely promising, but my puny PC can’t really handle R:TW decently. Although load times are better than Medieval’s, the battles are much less smooth. And I have to lower the detail a lot for it to be playable – which, oddly enough, makes it look worse than M:TW (with maximum detail).

One to “devour” when I get a newer PC. Must… get… rich…

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Only played through the first 2 missions (including the training one), so I have seen virtually nothing of the game. It’s like Final Fantasy Tactics / Shining Force – either a tactical RPG, or a tactical strategy game with heavy RPG elements. Lots and lots of classes, weapons and so on, with a nice story, and turn-based. Looks great, but I’ll only have anything to “report” after I spend some more time with it. Work, work, work…

Possibly related posts:

1. Second impressions: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
2. First impressions: Lost in Blue
3. Some games I want

Too intellectual, I’d guess. Or too original. People, unfortunately, do seem to want more and more of the same.

Darklands was a computer role-playing game. “Ah, another Tolkien rip-off with elves and orcs and dwarves, where you do quests and, mostly, kill monsters for experience points (XP), which make you level up, then be able to kill bigger monsters, which give even more XP, and so on”, you may think.

And you’d be right for, well, almost any other CRPG (the exceptions are those which aren’t medieval, but futuristic, for instance – and the rest of the description still applies).

But not Darklands.

It was a medieval RPG, yes. In the Holy Roman Empire (think the territory of today’s Germany, but larger), in fact. And you certainly created characters, and had adventures with them – which included fighting. But…

• Character creation was, basically, choosing who your father and mother were, what you did as a kid, what apprenticeship(s) you had as a teenager, and so on. You could then begin the game then and there, or say that you had a job for the next 5 years. Then you had the same choice. If you began the game young, your skills would be minimal, but it would still be decades before you started to feel the weight of age. On the other hand, you could start older and more experienced, but, of course, with a shorter game ahead. A typical party (of 4 men) would be to have two young characters for fighting, and two older ones as priests or alchemists.
• The game was “historical fantasy” – which meant that everything was as people believed at the time things were. A lot of dangers were simply people or wild animals; some, however, were the things people in medieval times were… afraid of. Not Tolkienesque / D&D-esque monsters, but the things men feared.
• The game didn’t had any “real” magic, but characters with high faith could pray to saints (there was a huge list of them – real ones, not invented for the game) and things would be subtly affected – such as an NPC liking you more, or enemies fighting less well, or being protected from something for a while.
• There were no levels. Skills got better with use.
• Weapons and armor had weight, and your character got tired more quickly when using heavier ones. In other words, often it was a good idea to wear lighter armor, because otherwise your character would be exhausted if fighting a large group of enemies.
• Hit points didn’t go up in a ridiculous way like in most games. Even a “top” character could be killed by a sword blow or two. He would, however, be much more proficient with his weapon, defend himself much better, and probably have better weapons and armor than a beginning character.
• At that time, the Church was all-powerful, and everyone lived in fear of damnation. This means your characters, too. If a village was burning someone as a witch, it was possible she was, indeed, one. A town where everyone acted strange could be a den of Satan-worshippers. And not buying an indulgence from an obviously corrupt bishop was a bad idea, unless one of your characters could convince the bishop that he was already “saintly”.
• You didn’t have to play as a good guy. It was perfectly possible for you to steal, break the law, fight the guards, and escape – or be arrested.
• The game was open-ended, and quests were mostly randomized – even though after a while you began to see the same quests again, there would always be surprises.
• Fame and reputation were a big part of the game. It affected how everyone reacted to you, what happened, what quests you could get, and so on. In fact, the main goal of the game is to be famous, not to defeat any “final boss”.

No, the game wasn’t perfect. It was very buggy (though that was mostly solved by several patches), and some parts were clearly unfinished or “empty”. But it was a completely absorbing game, hard to put down. You just had to had one more adventure, solve one more village’s problems, defeat one more robber knight, or investigate a little further the corruption of the Knights Templar (remember, I said that what people believed at the time to be true, is true in the game – the Templars were falsely accused of heresy, dark rituals and worshipping the demon Baphomet, so, in the game, they naturally do so.)

You can get the game at Home of the Underdogs.

Possibly related posts:

1. Star Control 2 (PC, 1992)
2. Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999)

Written by Jane Jensen, whose games I’ve never missed after this one, GK is a mature adventure game, set in New Orleans. The main character, Gabriel, is a horror novelist who begins to investigate a recent succession of apparently Voodoo-related murders, in order to get inspiration for the plot of his new book. Little does he know that he will get much more personally involved with them than he ever thought possible… or desired.

What made the game so good? To begin with, atmosphere. The city felt more “alive” and mysterious than in almost every other game – especially when you start to unravel some of the game’s mysteries, everything suddenly begins to be seen differently – even the most commonplace things.

The writing, itself, was very, very good. While Jensen would get even better in later games (and books), she was already great at this time. The characters were wonderfully designed, with personalities, flaws, personal histories, and great voice acting – including Tim Curry, Mark Hamill (a.k.a. Luke Skywalker) and Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek). The puzzles were original – at the time, many graphic adventure games still had simple pixel hunts, “fedex” quests, or “use this object on that object then use the combined object on that object”. Here… nah, I won’t spoil you.

It was also educational – in a good way. Most of what I know about New Orleans and Voodoo, I learned from that game – including a bit of the history of both.

An amazing soundtrack, too. Tribal drums, piano, lots of jazz, even some classical music, not to mention “classic” movie music. The soundtrack is still great to listen to, today – doesn’t sound “dated” at all.

You can probably get the CD version (yes, there was a multi-floppy version, too. Remember floppy disks?) quite cheaply, these days, and there exist some unofficial patches to make GK work in Windows 2000 / XP. It’s a brilliant game, along with its two sequels – which will be also appear in this blog soon.

Possibly related posts:

1. Sango Fighter (PC, 1993)
2. The Longest Journey (PC, 1999)

That’s the problem. In almost every other respect, Medieval: Total War is virtually perfect.

M:TW, like its predecessor Shogun: Total War and its successor Rome: Total War, is a historical turn-based strategy game with fantastic real-time battles. These are really wonderful – no other game, except perhaps Close Combat, simulates a battle so well – and that one was squad-based. This one, though, can have armies of 10.000 men. On each side. And they all move, shout, fight and, possibly, die.

This engine is so advanced that people have used it to re-create real medieval battles. And it can be played against another person, on the Net.

Yet, M:TW is also more than fancy battles. The full strategic game is also great – especially if you like history. Many historical events happen, or can happen if all the requirements are met, at the proper times – such as the Inquisition, or the coming of the Golden Horde (which, historically, would have conquered most of Europe if it hadn’t been called back due to its Khan having drunk himself to death. Thank alcohol for not having a Mongol Europe! ).

And there are so many ways to play. Want to control the Spanish and launch crusades to the Holy Land? You can. Want to play as the French or the English and fight the Hundred Years War? Or play as the Almohads (who we called “Moors” some centuries ago) and stop the Iberian Reconquista? Want to change the fate of the Byzantine Empire, which was in fact the eastern part of the Roman Empire, centuries after the best known Western part had fallen? Or build a trading empire as Italy (except the Papal States – and beware the Pope in this game, believe me)?

Just writing this makes me want to play it some more.

And what about the expansion pack, The Viking Invasion? Not only does it add some more units and playable factions to the main game, it also adds a completely new campaign, set in about 900 A.D., set in the British Isles… but before there was such a thing as Britain, or even England. Technology is less advanced, most of the territory is still forest, there are small states such as the Scots, the Irish, the Welsh, the Mercians and the Saxons, and, of course, there’s the threat that gives the expansion its name: the Vikings! Which, again, play in a different way – while other factions must defend their territories, improve the infrastructure in them, deal with a few attacks while they get powerful enough, and them slowly expand… the Vikings, on the other hand, earn most of their money by pillaging other territories – invading, crushing any defenses, they demolishing any remaining fortifications and buildings for money… and then leaving, and attacking again, somewhere else!

Just yesterday I, with a 900-man Viking army, defeated an army of more than 4000 Irishmen. And I still remember some parts of that battle. They sure didn’t bother me again for a while…

Possibly related posts:

1. Medieval: Total War 2
2. New games: first impressions
3. New games ordered

• Civilization IV (PC)
• Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion (expansion for R:TW) (PC)
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (GameCube)

Yes, I’m in a strategy mood.
They should be here next week or so…

Possibly related posts:

1. New games: first impressions
2. Now Playing: Fire Emblem
3. Finished Path of Radiance; now playing…

SC2 , while technically a sequel, doesn’t follow in the genre of the first Star Control, which was a simple strategy game with 1-on-1 arcade battles (very playable, though – so much that most people ignored the strategy game and just played the “Melee” mode, choosing a fleet of ships and fighting another player, one ship on each side at a time, until one fleet was eliminated).

But this sequel was different – and, when I got it in 1992 and started playing it, I was quickly able to see that this game was unique.

Why? Let’s see:

• A brilliant, original, gripping story. The simple premise – humanity and its allies have lost the war against the Ur-Quan Hierarchy while you were stranded on a planet; now you’ve come back, what do you do? – soon expands itself to much, much more.
• More than a story, there was a back story. Each of the races had a past, a reason for being what they were. Some races were extinct at the time of the game, yet you could find out things about their history, which often would prove important. And why do the Ur-Quan act the way they do?
• The game included action, adventure, space exploration, diplomacy, resource-gathering… yet managed to be quite easy to learn, thanks to a good interface.
• At a time when most game soundtracks were little more than a couple of electronic-sounding MIDI tunes, and before the age of the CD-ROM, SC2 included an all-digital soundtrack, by many different artists, which was so memorable that, to this day, people are still composing remakes of those tunes.
• Some of the dialogues were possibly the funniest ever to appear in a computer game. One word: Fwiffo. One longer word: Zoq-Fot-Pik. Not to mention the VUX, the Umgah, the Pkunk, the Melnorme, or the Thraddash. Or the Ilwrath: “Even our house pets are rather evil.”
• Still, the game was able to be quite creepy at times. Pay attention when you investigate the former planet of the Androsynth…
• The space battles were a lot of fun, too – again, the Melee mode was a pleasure to play on its own, though here, unlike with the first game, you’d be missing out on a masterpiece.
• Besides the action and the adventure, there was strategy, too. Where to look for minerals? What upgrades to buy first? Which ship to use to fight those? Can I risk a trip there, or should I save the fuel and just mine the planets nearby?

And now, for the best part. Some time ago, the source code for this game was released by its authors, and a community has grown around this game, improving its technical aspects (such as making it run on several modern operating systems (and Windows, too ), adding the voices from the 3DO version, allowing higher resolutions, better sound quality, even remaking some of the music (but the original versions are still available, of course)). Due to copyright, this version is called “The Ur-Quan Masters”, but it’s exactly the same game – only better. They also have one of the most pleasant forums on the Web – for some reason, fans of this game tend to be exceptionally nice. Um… except me, of course.

So, head to The Ur-Quan Masters official site, and download it. Then, if you enjoy games of this kind and have never played it before, warn friends, relatives and co-workers that they probably won’t see you for a couple of weeks.

Possibly related posts:

1. Darklands (PC, 1992)

One of his earliest games was Gridrunner, originally for the VIC-20, later ported to other systems. It looked like a Centipede (a really old arcade game) clone, but it had a character of its own – for instance, the game ensured that you couldn’t simply stay in a “safe” place and just shoot enemies as they passed in front of you.

About 20 years later, Jeff created the ultimate version of his classic: Gridrunner++.

Looks weird, doesn’t it? But it’s a shooter, played with the mouse (and that simple fact makes it one of the most playable shooters ever – you’ll never feel comfortable playing one with a gamepad, keyboard or joystick again). There are enemies (quite strange ones, too, such as plush toys, soccer balls and such) to shoot, and sheep to catch (they increase your firepower, just like in real life ).

What makes it so great? First, it’s really fast. Fast like you’ve never seen before – yet, as you get better at it, you still feel in control (due to using the mouse, as I mentioned). It’s also quite psychadelic, which you’ll either hate or love. The sounds are humourous, the gameplay never becomes boring, there are some levels that will make you want to destroy your PC… the game really feels like a labor of love, done by just one guy (except for the enemies’ sprites, which were contributed by fans).

And it’s ridiculously cheap. Just 5 pounds. Some of the best money I’ve ever spent. There’s a trial version with just 5 levels, too.

If you like shoot’em ups, play this game. There’s no other like it.

One warning, though: this game isn’t for everyone. I’ve seen people who simply can’t handle so much action on the screen – and I’m talking about actual gamers. GR++ really needs a lot of concentration, reflexes and eyesight, and the ability to spot and react to movement almost unconsciously.

Link: mirror of the original GR++ page, GR++ page on www.llamasoft.co.uk. The first one gives you a much better idea of the game.

Possibly related posts:

1. Now playing: Jets ‘n’ Guns
2. Medieval: Total War (PC, 2002)
3. Laser Squad Nemesis (PC, 2002)

If I had to label it, I’d say it is an adventure game with some action parts. But I could also say that it’s an interactive movie. No, don’t go away yet – it’s nothing like the “interactive movies” of the 90s! Those were simply grainy cut scenes with bad actors, and you watched more than you played – there’s a reason those games aren’t made any more (though Gabriel Knight 2 was actually very good).

Fahrenheit is nothing like those. I’m sure you’ll agree when (and if) you play it – the game isn’t perfect, and it certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s innovative, unique, with a great story (although it loses some focus near the end) and fantastic presentation. I’ve played the PC version, but from what I’ve seen, the PS2 and Xbox versions are exactly the same.

Now, I don’t want to spoil the game for you, but I want to describe the game’s first scene. It’s the one included in the demo, which you can download from the official site, so you can see it for yourself today, if you want to.

You start by playing a 30-ish guy, who’s sitting in a toilet in a diner’s restroom. Then you get up, walk in an odd way to an older guy who is washing his hands, and stab him with a knife. Several times. The guy is dead. Then you regain control of your senses. The victim is a complete stranger. You have blood on your hands. There was a cop eating in the diner, and he slowly gets up and walks to the restroom. What do you do?

No, there’s not just one solution. You can panic and run (and get caught or not). You can try to hide the traces of what you’ve done – hiding the body, for instance, although with all that blood on the floor… You can phone your brother. You can get out without paying your bill, or not. You can walk out the door, or run.

Many options. And in the next part of the game, you play the two detectives who are assigned to investigate the murder. What you did in the first part affects the second. Did you leave obvious clues? Did people notice you as you were leaving? Are there any way for the detectives to re-trace your steps? Can they have a suspect soon?

And this is just the beginning of the game.

What got into you to make you kill a total stranger, by the way?

Possibly related posts:

1. Max Payne 2 (PC /PS2 / Xbox, 2003)
2. Resident Evil 4 for PS2 is out
3. The Xbox 360

Torment is a computer role playing game (CRPG), and possibly the one which most deserves the “R”. The story is mature (and I’m not talking about sex or violence, although it has those, too – but described, not shown), thought-provoking, and deals with concepts never seen or even mentioned in a computer game. You play an amnesiac immortal who wakes up in a slab, inside a mortuary, with no memory of how he got there. His first companion is a wisecracking floating skull. He is in Sigil, the City of Doors, a city with portals to every plane of existence in the multi-verse, a place where belief shapes reality.

Many things make this game unique. For instance (some possible spoilers):

• since you’re an immortal who has lived for eons, as you become more powerful, you aren’t really learning new skills, but remembering them. In other words, instead of gaining experience and skills by fighting monsters, like in most CRPGs, you learn by doing actions – or hearing things – that jog your memory.
• just because you don’t remember your past, it doesn’t mean that your past doesn’t remember you. You have affected many people in your past “lives”… and you weren’t exactly a nice guy.
• this time, however, you can choose what you will be like. And you don’t select your alignment at the start of the game, like in other games – instead, it’s affected by your actions. Lie and become chaotic, help others and become good… and so on.
• your companions have personalities and stories like you’ve never seen in any other game. Baldur’s Gate 2 or KOTOR are nothing compared to this one in this respect.
• at a point in the game, you find out that you, in the past, left something for your present self – hidden among your intestines!
• in this world, belief has power. For instance, if you lie to several people that you are someone else (whom you’ve just made up), that made-up person later actually shows up…
• have you ever heard of a chaste succubus? A pregnant street? Improving your powers using tattoos? A “Brothel of Intellectual Lusts”? A museum of memories?

The game also features some well-known voice actors, including Sheena Easton (yes, the singer, and she speaks with an awesome accent), Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson!) and John de Lancie (Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation). The graphics are amazing and varied, even at 640×480.

Really, if you like brililant, intriguing stories, or if you need convincing that “games aren’t just for kids”, you must play this game. It’s probably ridiculously cheap, too.

Links: Mirror of the original official site (which no longer exists)

Possibly related posts:

1. Darklands (PC, 1992)
2. The Longest Journey (PC, 1999)
3. Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri (PC, 1999)

What’s there to say? It’s a tennis game, but with chipmunks (and a penguin). It plays very well with one player on the keyboard and three using gamepads. There’s not a lot of customization (the chipmunks only differ in colors, they don’t have different characteristics), there are only two courts…

But it plays great. It’s fast, tough, and unforgiving, but when you begin to get good at it, the joy of beating another player, or, even better, of you and your teammate beating the other team, is a wonderful experience.

As I said, it’s not perfect – we haven’t played it any more since I bought Mario Power Tennis on the GameCube, since that one’s even faster, more involving, and, for a change, highly customizable, and the characters are actually different. But it’s still (along with Super Sprint, which I’ll write about in the near future, hopefully) possibly the multi-player game I’ve played the most.

Link: Official site.

Possibly related posts:

1. Sonic Heroes: first impressions
2. Max Payne 2 (PC /PS2 / Xbox, 2003)
3. Some games I want

SMAC, as the game is affectionately called, is still a very popular game these days among strategy fans, and for good reason. In my opinion, it’s still the best Civ-style game, and I doubt even Civilization 4 (which I can’t wait to have) is as good, in some respects. Unfortunately, it didn’t sell as well as it should have, because people these days lack imagination, and it’s much easier to understand what you get by inventing “The Wheel” or “The Alphabet” than what “Bioadaptive Resonance” or “Controlled Singularity” even are. In short, it scared many Civ fans, which was a shame.

But it has some things no other game of its kind has:

• style – the spartan interface, the voices, the graphics, the sounds, the descriptions, the movies. Unforgettable.
• characters with personality – Civ 3’s leaders, even though they’re supposed to be real life ones, have no personality. SMAC’s had. Who can forget Chairman Yang, Lady Deirdre, Sister Miriam, or CEO Morgan? They actually have different goals in mind, and act towards them. They all speak in their own way. And they all have great quotes.
• a story – yes, a strategy game with one. Really. And it doesn’t always end the same way (and I don’t mean just because you lose the game in the middle).

As I said… still my favorite game of its kind, after 6 years. You can probably buy the Planetary Pack (the game plus the expansion pack on a single CD) very cheaply, these days. And you really should.

Links: Wikipedia entry, Official site.

P.S. – did you know that this game has inspired 3 novels, a comic book and a GURPS book? Not bad for a turn-based strategy game…

Possibly related posts:

1. New games: first impressions
2. Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999)
3. The Longest Journey (PC, 1999)

Since the game is Chinese, and not originally intended to be distributed in the West, it’s… well, exotic. The fighters don’t look angry, they look ceremonial, and painting-like epic. Their looks… let’s say me and my friends gave most of them nicknames, such as “the bearded guy” or “the barkeep”. Their battle cries… How heroic does “oyyyy!” sound? And you have to see some of the winning poses to believe them…

But it played great.

It was a game where you always felt you could become a little better – and not, like in more recent games, by memorizing and practicing a 12-button combo, but by using about 5 special moves per character (other than the basic ones). No matter how fast the other guy was, there was always a way to move faster and counter his move – not out of cheapness, but because you really could perform the counter-move faster. When we got good, we were really good – our matches became epic, as we countered move with counter-move with counter-counter-move. Wheels within wheels within wheels, and other Dune quotes.

This is the fighting game I’ve played the most in my life, with the second one being the PC port of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. And I still have fond memories of it. Current fighting games seem to be either graphical show-offs, button mashers, or simply combo memorizing games… not Sango Fighter.

No related posts.

Natuk is a shareware role-playing game, of the “customizing characters, then exploring and fighting a lot” kind. Nothing new there, right? But the game had two qualities that made it take up weeks and weeks of my life.

The first was that it was, in a way, original, because you play “the bad guys” – or at least the guys who are always stereotyped as being bad. It’s a fantasy game, but you can’t create humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. – instead, your characters will be orcs, goblins, trolls, giants and so on! The game has the so-called “good races”, but they’re among the many enemies you’ll face (of course, you’ll also fight enemies among your races… they’re not nice or united, after all).

The second quality was this: it was brilliantly designed. Many fights seemed impossible, yet when you managed to win, they would have been battles to remember. The combat system was great – turn-based, but with so many options, yet they all made sense. Want to try to cut one of the foe’s legs so you can run back a little and catch your breath? You can. Want to blind him? You can. Cut off an arm? You can.

Of course, so could they do the same to you. Unlike most other games, after a while, your battle-scarred characters were really “battle-scarred”!

After hours of playing, you’d end up really knowing your characters, optimizing them into an almost perfect fighting force, greater than the sum of its parts. And you’d also begin to care about them. Combats were so epic that, even with some losses, you’d rarely want to reload – which made you really try to keep all of your guys alive… and with all their original limbs.

Other than Spiderweb Software, nobody makes games like this anymore – and even these aren’t, IMO, as good as Natuk.

Possibly related posts:

1. Now Playing: Fire Emblem
2. Second impressions: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
3. Darklands (PC, 1992)

Now, it wasn’t certainly as innovative as the first Max Payne – technically, other than improved graphics and sound, the only major novelty was the Havok ragdoll physics engine (it was one of the first games to use it, and it was certainly impressive). But it was also an improvement in other, subtler ways. Basically, it was the first Max Payne done right.

It had a much better story, and better writing (makes the first game sound like an amateurish Raymond Chandler imitation), although I miss the “The sun went down with practiced bravado” line. It used real actors, this time. The dream sequences were creepy instead of annoying. The sniper rifles were done right. Playing as Mona Sax was actually a different experience. The “reloading during bullet time” effects were out of this world. The “Address Unknown” theme park was a brilliant level. Even the TV shows inside the game were a pleasure to watch.

One of my favorite action games of all time, and one I am currently re-playing.

Official site: www.maxpayne2.com.

Possibly related posts:

1. Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy (PC / PS2 / Xbox, 2005)
2. Tennis Critters (PC, 2003)
3. Resident Evil 4 for PS2 is out