World of Goo Review

Description:

World of Goo may ship in a plain-Jane box that makes it look exactly like the usual third-rate dreck that takes up space on a back shelf in your neighborhood department store, but this physics-based puzzler is one of the most innovative and addictive games to hit the PC in years. Independent developer 2D Boy has hit the jackpot, turning what appears to be a simple building game into what could just be the next casual-gaming obsession right up there with classics such as Tetris and Lemmings.

Actually, World of Goo's concept owes a big debt to Lemmings, the early '90s sensation that involved guiding suicidal green-haired goons across 2D levels loaded with hazards. The objective here is rather similar, although instead of guiding lemmings to an exit in each level, you're leading globs of goo across similarly dangerous terrain to pipes that suck them up. This rather odd task is accomplished by selecting the cute, gibberish-spouting blobs and turning them into nodules in framework buildings that reach for the sky and stretch across yawning pits like sticky scaffolding. When your wobbly structure is close enough to the level exit pipe, all of the goo balls that haven't been used as makeshift building blocks then roll over their former buddies to freedom.

Well, at least to as much freedom as can ever be offered by getting slurped into PVC plumbing. Each level requires you to "save" a set number of goo balls to succeed and move on, so you have to be economical in the amount of goo used as construction material. If you pass enough goo balls through the exit pipe to the glass beaker waiting at the other end, you win to gather goo another day. If you fall short of the required number, you do it all over again, trying to get your goo to safety in a more ecfficient fashion. Final scores are based both on the number of goo balls rescued and the amount of time you spent in the level.


The Good

* Brilliant design loaded with gameplay depth
* Varied levels sporting wide-ranging objectives and different types of goo
* Quirky, surreal sense of humor
* Fantastic, atmospheric soundtrack.


The Bad

* The controls can't always keep up with the action
* Visuals aren't as vibrant as they could be given the cartoony premise.


System Requirements

Minimum:
o Supported OS: Windows® XP or Vista
o Processor: 1GHz or faster
o Memory: 512+MB RAM
o Video: Any 3D graphics accelerator less than 5 years old
o DirectX® Version: 9.0c
o Hard Drive: 100MB

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Dead Space Review

Description :

The survival horror genre is rife with games in which you are isolated in a hostile environment full of monsters, and Dead Space is no exception. But from the moment you're thrown into the middle of the fray in the heart-pounding introduction until the bone-chilling conclusion, it's clear that this is something quite unique. With its disturbingly twisted visuals, its deeply engrossing story, and innovative strategic dismemberment combat system, Dead Space is a best-in-its-class game that surpasses other entries in its venerable genre in nearly every way and will be the standard by which they are judged for years to come.

When the Concordance Extraction Corporation loses radio contact with its Planet Cracker-class mining ship, the USG Ishimura, engineer Isaac Clarke is dispatched on a routine mission to repair its communications array. However, Clarke is also on a mission of his own, having recently received a cryptic message from Nicole Brennan, a medical officer serving aboard the Ishimura. While on board he intends to reunite with her and learn the meaning behind her strange broadcast. Unfortunately, the moment you set foot on the derelict ship, it's obvious that something terrible has happened.

As Isaac, you are separated almost immediately from the rest of your team by the former crew of the Ishimura, which has been transformed into horrifying monsters called Necromorphs. Forced to fight for his survival, Isaac makes do with the tools at hand to defend himself with, which are for the most part repurposed mining instruments like plasma welding guns or buzz saws. These improvised weapons are put to graphic, gruesome work as bodily damage and even severe head trauma isn't enough to kill a Necromorph--only by severing their limbs can you put them down for good. This nuance, referred to as strategic dismemberment, vastly alters the way combat is approached in Dead Space from the typical "aim for the head"-style gameplay seen in most action games and zombie apocalypse scenarios.

Every class of Necromorph requires a different strategy to handle, and knowing how to combat multiple types simultaneously is an essential skill if you want to survive for long. Though dismemberment is ultimately the key to victory, failing to finish off a monster properly will only send it into a berserker rage and force it to adapt to its new, partially appendageless situation so that it can continue trying to eat your face. Even more alarming than their ghastly appearances and uncouth manners is the fact that they are quite intelligent. Necromorphs attack in packs using loose team tactics, and are capable of traversing the ship's extensive ventilation system to sneak around for outflanking or ambushing. They feign death among the corpses of their peers to rise up and attack when you least expect it, and they often come in waves, leaving you wondering if it's truly over or if they're simply toying with you.

The most basic Necromorphs are humanoid monsters that attack in a frenzy. Horribly mutated undead babies also make an appearance, and they run along the walls and ceilings sprouting tentacles from their backs capable of throwing organic projectiles. Others still are heavily armored but vulnerable from behind, are bloated with dozens of spiderlike parasites that are released upon their host's death, or shriek madly as they carry explosive pods toward you in a suicidal charge. In one fully interactive gameplay sequence that comprises some of the more amazing moments to be experienced in Dead Space, you're assaulted by the gigantic tentacle of an even larger, unseen beast that drags you to a gruesome and bloody death as you struggle to shoot yourself free.

Finally, at several key points in the story, Isaac stumbles upon some of the most incredible and truly terrifying boss monsters to be seen in the survival horror genre. Though revealing the circumstances around which you confront these nightmares would do much to spoil them, it is safe to say that these epic encounters are easily some of the most remarkable seen in years.


The Good

* Deeply engrossing story
* Breathtaking visuals and nerve-wracking audio
* Strategic dismemberment adds an entirely new, satisfying dimension to combat
* Complete lack of a traditional heads-up display immerses you into the experience
* Truly terrifying gameplay keeps you on the edge of your seat.


The Bad

* Repetitive mission objectives
* Close-quarters combat is troublesome.


System Requirement

Processor: Pentium 4 2.8Ghz or Equivalent
Display Card!: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 256MB ATI Radeon X1300 XT
Memory: 1024MB
Free Disk Space: 13GB
Operating System: Windows XP / Vista

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King's Bounty: The Legend Review

Description :

King's Bounty: The Legend is a Real-time / Turn-based Strategy with RPG elements. In a fairy tale fantasy world of fearless knights, evil mages, wise kings and beautiful princesses the player controls a hero. Leading their character through the game world, exploring it, commanding armies in battle and accomplishing various quests can mean great reward or huge defeats.

Actually, about the only fair negative comment you could make about King's Bounty is that there isn't really anything new here. Just about everything feels like a rip-off of Heroes of Might and Magic. As with that long-lived Ubisoft franchise, the core of this game is all about taking on the role of a hero in a solo campaign (there is no multiplayer option) and guiding parties of mercenaries across a real-time map to fight turn-based battles on hex grids. A strong RPG flavor is granted through character creation, which allows you to choose from warrior, paladin, and mage classes and then trick out your avatar with skills, artifacts, weapons, armor, spells, and assorted other Gygaxian accoutrements. You then explore the huge medieval fantasy world of Darion in the service of King Mark the Wise, plying the trade of a treasure hunter. A story slowly develops regarding the king's older brother and the standard evil threat to the continued existence of, well, everything, although you don't have to pay much attention to it. Essentially, you just wander around doing good deeds, guiding an icon of your hero through the usual D&D-inspired landscape to slay monsters, loot treasure, scoop up skill runes, mana crystals, and leadership banners, and solve quests handed out by your king and various passersby.

Despite that description, this isn't a hack-and-slasher. Instead of whaling on monsters with a small party of adventurers as in the typical RPG, you wage tactical battles with veritable armies of troops on turn-based battlefields. Mages, priests, knights, archers, monsters, and the like are hired at special buildings such as the king's castle for use as shock troops in your hero's party. You start off with a paltry handful of these goons, but soon wind up at the head of a tremendous force of killer Renaissance fair refugees. Stuff enough gold into your pantaloons and increase your hero's leadership skill as you increase in level and you'll be able to afford the services of loads of hirelings. The scale of battles always remains manageable, however, as each unit type is depicted by just a single character model on the battlefield no matter how many of those units you actually command. This keeps the focus on pure tactics and allows you to whip through battles lickety-split, while still letting you make use of each unit's special abilities. As just about every unit comes with some sort of skill involving spells or bonus attacks, cutting to the chase without dealing with hordes of units is vital to keeping the game straightforward and simple.

Difficulty is also scaled well. Starting off on easy knocks down monster hit points to something quite manageable, and cranks up the amount of gold awarded so that you never seem to run out of the coin needed to hire reinforcements. It's gratifying to see newbies getting let in on the action like this; too many games of this ilk seem to want to punish players, or at least present such a grueling level of difficulty that only veterans of the genre need apply. With that said, moving to normal difficulty is one heck of a leap. Enemy hit points take a huge jump and your gold gets slashed to practically nothing, turning what was a pretty fast-moving game into what can be a grueling slog through battles of attrition.


The Good

* Solid gameplay based on a traditional tactical RPG formula
* Good turn-based tactical depth
* Strong RPG flavor and storyline
* Colorful graphics evocative of old-time role-playing.


The Bad

* Not much in the way of innovation
* No multiplayer.


System Requirement

Minimum system requirement:

* OS:Windows XP/Windows Vista
* Processor:Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz
* RAM:1GB
* Graphic Card:Nvidia GeFirce 6800/ATI Radeon X800
* VRAM:256MB
* Free Hard Disk Space:5.5GB
* DirectX version:9


Recommended system requirement:

* OS:Windows XP/Windows Vista
* Processor:Intel Pentium 4 3GHz
* RAM:2GB
* Graphic Card:GeForce 7900/ATI Radeon X1900
* VRAM:512MB
* Free Hard Disk Space:5.5GB
* DirectX version:9

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Microsoft Flight Simulator X Review

Description :

Microsoft Flight Simulator X is an incredible piece of software, providing almost unbelievable capabilities for a consumer product. Unfortunately, on most systems at anything other than the lowest of the game's graphics settings, the simulation has significant performance issues. How much these issues hinder your enjoyment of the game will depend upon what kind of frame rates you need to enjoy a civilian flight sim.

All of the features hardcore simmers have come to expect in the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise are here in spades, such as the entire world being modeled in exquisite detail; simulations of everything from ultralights to gliders to Cessnas to commercial airliners to helicopters; realism that makes the sim a great trainer for those seeking a real pilot's license; and more. But Flight Simulator X also adds significant features tailored to the player who would be bored to tears by simply flying from Akron to San Francisco in real time, most notably a series of goal-oriented missions (and an editor that will surely result in a huge number of add-on scenarios). These include well-done tutorials and many missions with compelling goals and surprising midflight twists. Some are lighthearted fun, such as playing the role of a stunt pilot (complete with announcer) trying to land on a moving bus or racing a jet-powered truck. Others are intense--for example, trying to fly a chopper to an exploding ocean oil rig and rescue stranded workers. Even simple missions have a compelling nature to them, particularly search and rescue scenarios where you may be seeking a capsized sail boat or a lost camper in snowy mountains. You collect rewards and souvenirs, which is a nice touch that adds an extra incentive to complete the tasks. Even hardcore simmers will find themselves sucked into these missions, wanting to find out just what's behind that clandestine mission flying into Area 51 or what is going to happen on your flight to pick up a famous movie star.

There are about 50 missions in the deluxe version of FSX and about 30 in the standard version. The deluxe version comes with 24 airplanes, versus 18 in the Standard version; more high-detail airports, 45 versus 40; more high-detail cities, 38 versus 28; the advanced Garmin G1000 glass cockpit; and the new tower controller module. This last feature lets you step into the control tower and take the role of the air traffic controller in multiplayer mode. While it probably won't keep you out of the cockpit for long, it is an interesting (and stressful) option. And for the record, if you're interested enough to purchase Flight Simulator X, you should go ahead and purchase the Deluxe version. All of the additional content makes it worth the added costs.

In addition to the missions, free flight mode provides practically unlimited options. You can select from any of the included aircraft (or add-ons that you may download or purchase) and fly to or from any of 24,000 airports around the world. Not only is it pretty much guaranteed that any significant airport that you'd like to fly in or out of is in the sim, but the odds are also good that your local neighborhood grass airstrip is in there, too. The new high-detail airports show off Microsoft's new "living world" emphasis in FSX. Now when you taxi into one of these featured airports, you'll see fuel trucks realistically dashing from gate to gate, luggage carts driving out to aircraft, Jetways extending to connect with your parked airliner, and more. The new active world extends beyond the airports, as you now can look down while in flight and see moving automobiles and trucks on the roads below. You'll also see a variety of boat and ship traffic while flying over water (buzzing a cruise ship with your 747 provides a special thrill!) and an assortment of wildlife, depending upon your location. While it sounds like a small touch, it does make a significant impact on the feeling that you're flying in a real-world environment.


The Good

* An incredible amount of content
* realistic enough to be used for real-life flight training
* missions are a fun challenge for casual gamers and serious simmers alike
* the entire world simulated in amazing detail.


The Bad

* Low frame rates on most current-day PCs.


System Requirements

* Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2 / Vista
* PC with 1 GHz equivalent or higher processor
* 256 MB of system RAM for Windows XP SP2 / 512 MB Vista
* 14 GB available hard disk space
* DVD-ROM drive
* 32 MB DirectX 9 compatible video card required
* Sound card, speakers or headphones required for audio
* Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
* 56.6 Kbps or better modem for online play

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