Civilization 4

Basics: Developed by Firaxis Games, Published by 2K. Released only for PC (hooray!). Rated E 10+ for violence. It is a turn based strategy game.

Civilization is yet another huge franchise and in fact is one of the oldest, the first game dating back to the early nineties. Civilization 4 is an excellent and entertaining game that has kept me busy for hours. Anyone who is familiar with this game now that it is basically a big souped up board game (as a side note there is also an actual board game based on civilization, I have played it and it is also very good)

The game spans from around 3000 B.C. (when man began settling down and “Civilizing”) to the near future 2050 A.D. The game features 18 different civilizations to be and 26 different leaders, each offering there own advantages to the game.

Many things have been upgraded from civilization 3. There are more than triple the buildings, there are four new kinds of great people and, of course the extra leaders.

The AI is excellent. I really enjoyed learning how to deal with the different personalities (don’t get an open borders pact with Genghis Kahn :D). Yep it would really be an awesome game if it didn’t crash me to the Blue Screen Of Death! Yes the game ever so often decides to critical error and force me to reboot (I have it fully updated as of this post). Granted, it got a little better after I updated my video drivers, but the game still occasionally bugs out pretty bad.

One thing of note that I wouldn’t usually mention is of all things, the soundtrack. I found it very pleasant and varied, one can really tell that there was extra effort put into it and I pays off.

All in all Civilization 4 is a good game that could just use a few more patches

6.9/10

Battlefield 2

Basics: Developed by DICE, publisher EA. It is a first person shooter. It is rated Teen for violence.

The Battlefield franchise is another one that has taken the gaming world by storm. Its original gameplay is the main reason for this although it has decent graphics as well. It is also important to know that in all the games (three with this release not counting expansion packs) multiplayer is the focus and the single player is mostly for practice(the Artificial intelligence is horrible). The game works on a simple concept, two teams fight for control of the map by capturing crucial control points. In addition to allowing killed players to “respawn” at a captured point, whatever team has the most begins draining the opponents tickets. Whichever team runs out of tickets first is the loser. The only other way to drain tickets is every time a person o a team dies they lose one ticket. There are a few variations but this is the core concept of the game.

Battlefield 2 is a mostly solid but somehow disappointing addition to the series. It offers a new commander player who is elected by the other players who gets an overview of the entire field and in addition to being able to give orders to squad leaders can also call in things like artillery strikes and supply drops. This is a great concept but unfortunately most people on the public servers I went to were just doing there own thing and not listening to the commander.

Another new feature is promotions, awards and weapon unlocks. Basically after you get enough points in game you get a promotion and after you get enough promotions you get to unlock a new weapon. Awards are given for performing a certain feat such as blowing up 200 tanks or reviving 100 wounded teammates.

I think I may have just been disappointed in the same way I was with AOEIII, It’s a good game, I was just expecting more. Anyway Battlefield 2 is a good game that is mostly solid and would be a great game to get to get started into the series with.

7.5/10

Age of Empires 3

Basics: AOEIII is a game by Ensemble Studios, Publisher Microsoft Games. Rated Teen for blood and violence. It is a Real-Time Simulation.

Before I say anything I should say that this game has some mighty big army boots to fill. The original age games shook the RTS gaming world, and arguably laid the foundation for almost every RTS game since. So now we have Age of empires 3 the long anticipated next installment in the series. Well, it certainly is a solid game with undeniably good graphics and a few new touches. But when it comes down to it just feels like age of mythology with a new coat of paint slapped on, Havoc physics, and a couple new features. Don’t get me wrong its an excellent game, but it really is a bit of a let down.

So about the home city feature. Your home city represents the base of your civilization across the Atlantic (the entire game is based in the new world from its discovery to around when America became independent). The home city system works a little like a character in a Role Playing Game. At the start of the game you select a home city of one of 8 (you can have more then one home city at once). As you go along in the game playing skirmishes and things like that. You get experience for pretty much every action from gathering resources to building to eliminating enemy soldiers. Each time you home city levels up you can buy a new shipment card which are things you can use during a game like extra soldiers or technologies.

As note on the physics engine. Its fairly realistic, buildings explode convincingly and soldiers hit by cannons fly about realistically but I have yet to have had an experience a situation where this affected game play.

Another thing of note is the Native American settlements. There are many different settlements like this of many different types on each map. Building a trade post next to them gives you special technologies and soldiers. This is fairly innovative and offers for some exciting gameplay.

The singleplayer campaign is fairly good. It consists of 3 different time periods all following members of the fictional black family and revolving around the search for the “fountain of youth”. It is a good campaign and will keep you busy for a while.

The multiplayer is good enough it doesn’t offer a lot of new innovations either although the home city feature does carry over to it.

All in all AOEIII is a decent game that doesn’t quite live up to its predecessors.

6.8/10

Swat 4

Okay my first review…

Basics: Swat 4 is a game by Irrational games, publisher Sierra. Its rating is m for mature for blood intense violence and strong language (what do you expect criminals to say when you cuff them???? Nutty fudgekins????). It is a First person shooter.

Swat 4 is a very original game that is pulled off very well. Most games just follow the same fps mold with just a small twist, or even none at all. Well not completely smashing the fps mold Swat 4 manages to bring refreshing game play to a unreflecting genre. The idea of the game itself is fairly simple, you lead a swat team into a situation (psycho hiding in his moms house takes somebody hostage, bank robbery, failed convenience store heist….e.t.c.) and try to Bring Order to Chaos. The means pretty much handcuffing everyone in the area (including hostages so they don’t go running off into the middle of the fight).Sometimes this is easy, you yell for compliance and the suspect will drop there weapon and surrender. Sometimes they will refuse. The latter situation requires quick thinking, you can simply shoot them and at the end of the game have a lower score, or try to use one of the many non lethal weapons at your disposal. Of course using a non lethal weapon means letting your guard down for a split second. Long enough for the suspect to shoot you dead.

Of course your not alone, you have a squad a very capable Swat members always ready to help you out. The command system for ordering them around is quick and easy to use.

The graphics in the game are fairly good, not the best but there enough to give a good atmosphere. Which brings us to my only real complaint about the game. Many of levels, mainly the ones dealing with psychos give you some truly disturbing levels. Of course real SWAT officer have to deal with this but it was still a major downer to have to worry about accidentally loading a horrifying level. Of course it is considered a good thing that irrational games was able to give this such great atmosphere and so I am only telling about these levels so that you can know about them when deciding if this game is worth buying.

As a brief note on the multiplayer mode. It is very well done with orginal modes of play including co-op which substitutes your AI teammates with your fellow players.

In short SWAT 4 is a very good game and I recommend it to anyone who is sick of the same old FPS mold.

8/10

Introduction

Hi there! Latley I've been getting frustrated with PC game magazines, they have so many advertisments its hard to find the actual game info! So I'm starting my own PC game information blog. I will review the games, then give them a score on a scale of one to ten. I will also probably be commenting on other things going on in the game industry...

So hang around for my first review...Swat 4

p.s. In no way am i ever going to review console games. Ever.