Spartan_234 Reviews

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007 Video Game)

The best game ever made, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sets a new standard for future games.

[10/10 · 30 April 2007]

Announced way back in 2002, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. faced numerous delays on its road to finally being released. When you pop the DVD into your computer and start the game up, it isn't hard at all to see why it took so long. It's almost as if Ukrainian developer GSC Game World literally put their blood and sweat into making the game as detailed and realistic as in the real world, while making sure that the game is still fun.

You play as a "stalker", a mercenary that trades for valuable artifacts in the area affected by the radiation of the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 1986 (referred to as "the Zone"). Your goal is to work your way to the Chernobyl power plant and find the secrets that are stored there, and to kill Strelok, your #1 rival in the Zone. "Stalker" stands for "scavengers, tourists, adventurers, loners, killers, explorers, and robbers", the seven rivaling factions of stalkers, and you're one of the "loners". Rival stalkers, as well as mutants and the Ukrainian military, stand in your way of being able to achieve your goal.

Many first-person shooters today, while very fun to play, don't truly give you the sense that you're actually in the game's alternate reality. This is mainly due to things like being able to snipe with chainguns and machineguns, a lack of food and sleep, lackluster character interaction, and following the same linear path every time you play. This is not an issue in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. This is an open-ended game, meaning that it takes place in a large gameworld with lots of things to do and lots of ways to get past situations, rather than a series of linear levels where you do the same things every single time. There are lots of optional missions that you can take from other fellow stalkers, which gives the game a lot of replay value. As mentioned before, there's also many ways to get past situations. Should you engage into combat with your enemies, kill them stealthily, sneak past them, or just take another route? It's all up to you. But since some enemies take a lot of damage, the latter two may be your only options. Since you only take a few shots before dying, and your weapons are inaccurate to start out with, you actually get the feeling that you're in a real firefight. The AI is also superb -- they know just as well as you how to use cover efficiently, which makes battles even more challenging.

Attention to detail is very characteristic of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. You now have to eat food to stay alive and sleep in safe resting spots, which is realistic -- after all, I have to eat and sleep to stay alive in real life. The game alternates between day and night settings, and characters use flashlights when it gets dark. The AI reacts differently to situations depending on different factors like their hunger and whether it's day or night. You can get too exhausted to move if you run for too long, and having too much in your inventory makes you get exhausted quicker. Finally, everything in the game happens in real-time, which makes for a different experience each time you play through the game.

While the game's "X-Ray" graphics engine doesn't really have any new graphical features, it more than makes up for this by having the best detail and lighting that you'll ever see in any game. However, if you want to be able to play with the settings toned all the way up, you'll probably need to have the best PC out there. On my top-of-the-line HP Pavilion, the game ran very slowly unless I toned the graphics down to minimum settings. If you have a fast-enough PC, though, you might have a difficult time distinguishing between the game and reality...

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will become the new obsession of gamers everywhere, and it sets a new standard for future games to follow. My suggestion is to beat every game you haven't finished yet, because S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will make all your other games lose their luster. Really, it's THAT revolutionary! A definite 10 / 10 to this one -- and if IMDb could let me vote for 11 / 10, I'd definitely do so.

Doom (1993 Video Game)

The game that started it all!

[10/10 · 20 December 2006]

Before I start with this review, I must say two things. First, if Doom were never released, video games simply would not be what they are today. Second, if you have never played Doom before, then you are NOT a gamer! You know what those statements mean: Doom is a revolutionary classic and one of the best games of all-time, on any console or computer. It stunned every PC owner with its (at the time) extremely realistic graphics and environments, frightening atmosphere, and fast-paced action. It's so stunning, in fact, that it improves leaps and bounds beyond id Software's already stunning Wolfenstein 3-D. Where Wolfenstein 3-D was limited to running through hallways and rooms that usually looked the same, Doom is a realistic environment with things like stairs, ledges, windows, variable ceiling heights and wall angles, non-repetitive wall and ceiling textures, radioactive slime, lava, floating monsters (such as cacodemons)...the list goes on! It all made for a truly immersive experience that actually felt like real life (at the time, of course). It sucks you in and refuses to spit you out.

Of course, a technologically advanced game is nothing without solid gameplay, and Doom really delivers in the gameplay department. While there isn't much new since Wolfenstein 3-D, it does feel like a new experience because of the extremely immersive gameworld. Considering how fun Wolfenstein 3-D was, you already know that you'll be staying up all night playing Doom...or not getting enough sleep because you can't get Doom off your mind. One of the main reasons why the action is so satisfying in Doom is because of the (at the time) over-the-top violence. There's a lot more blood than in Wolfenstein 3-D, and some enemies explode into bits when shot with the rocket launcher. However, Doom is actually less gory than most first-person shooters today. Weaponry is also more varied than in Wolfenstein 3-D: here, you'll also have a shotgun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle (shoots out beams of electricity), and the BFG-9000 (the ultimate weapon of mass destruction).

Doom is just one of those games that's so incredible that it's hard to describe what makes it so great. It's the very game that did to gaming what The Wizard of Oz did to movies. When you consider how revolutionary Doom was when it came out, it's just hard to imagine the fact that today's games have improved leaps and bounds beyond Doom in nearly every category!

Painkiller (2004 Video Game)

Surgeon General's Warning: Painkiller will significantly increase your heartrate and numb your brain!

[10/10 · 26 September 2006]

First-person shooters have gone through a lot of changes over the past decade. As a result, many gamers consider it a necessity for a modern first-person shooter to have a compelling storyline, realistic gameplay, and tactical combat elements. But when I go back in time to play classic shooters like Doom and Quake, and find them to be just as fun as they ever were, I realize that there's nothing wrong with releasing a throwback shooter in this age. Painkiller is such a throwback shooter. With lightning-fast action, creepy atmosphere and enemies, straightforward but very interesting and varied levels, over-the-top blood and gore, and tremendously satisfying weapons, Painkiller proves to be a perfect alternative to Mountain Dew.

You play as Daniel Garner, a regular guy who gets killed with his wife in a horrible car accident. While your wife spends her afterlife in Heaven, you're trapped in a place between Heaven and Hell called Purgatory, making you wonder why your soul isn't "pure". During a war between Heaven and Hell, you're offered to kill Satan and his minions to spend the rest of your afterlife in Heaven. If you're familiar to first-person shooters, you know what that means...lock, load, and kick some demonic butt! You'll travel through interesting and varied levels like a graveyard, cathedral, prison, military base, an orphanage filled with evil children (my favorite), and more! The enemy variety is equally excellent. Instead of the generic demons that you find in other games that take place in Hell, you get to fight against Nazi zombies, knights, escaped prisoners, prison guards with Tasers, among others. The nearly endless variety in Painkiller, along with the simple gameplay, is what keeps you addicted to the game from beginning to end.

The simple gameplay is mind-numbing, but in a good way. You don't worry about frustrating puzzles or keycard hunts; all you do is kill anything that moves while avoiding getting killed by them. Every single shot from your weapons is utterly satisfying. The primary fire and alt-fire attacks on each weapon are so completely different that you can consider each weapon "two guns in one". For instance, your shotgun's alt-fire freezes your opponents, the nailgun's alt-fire electrocutes your opponents (similar to the Lightning Gun from Quake), the stakegun comes equipped with a grenade launcher, the rocket launcher comes equipped with a chaingun, etc. Enemies drop souls that you can pick up, and every 66 souls you pick up, you turn into an invincible demon that can instantly blow his enemies up. What's more fun than that? Not much, really!

Just because Painkiller's gameplay is a throwback to the good old days doesn't mean that its graphics and sound are. On both the PC and Xbox, Painkiller delivers incredibly detailed environments with plenty of enemies on the screen at once -- all at a silky-smooth framerate. The heavy-metal soundtrack really gets your blood pumping, and the voice acting in the cutscenes is quite decent. Havok-powered physics also allow you to push objects around and destroy parts of the environment, adding a bit of realism to the battles.

Parents, if you do not like your children literally blowing enemies into pieces while watching their body parts flopping around like ragdolls, then don't allow your children to play this game. There's also a character in the cutscenes who uses her long hair to cover her breasts. But if you can handle the game's content, then you're almost guaranteed to have a blood-pumping ride. A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Unreal (1998 Video Game)

A truly "Unreal" experience.

[10/10 · 14 September 2006]

Announced way back in 1994, Unreal was promised to revolutionize first-person shooters with a memorable, story-driven single-player campaign and incredible graphics. But with the release date constantly being delayed, we didn't know if Unreal would ever come out, or if it would actually be a great game when it came out. Fortunately, Unreal proves that great things happen to those who wait.

While Unreal doesn't really do anything new to the genre, what makes it so special is its execution of familiar first-person shooter elements. For instance, you don't find secret areas by finding hidden cracks in the wall or whatever -- your allies will open up secret areas if you're smart enough to keep them alive. The level designs are straightforward but very interesting and well designed, which keeps the player immersed into the game without worrying about frustrating keycard hunts which were standard in first-person shooters at the time. The weapons are also awesome. You'll start out with a "dispersion pistol" that has a recharging ammo supply, finding other familiar weapons like a pistol, chaingun (the Stinger), shotgun (Flak Cannon), and plasma gun, as well as truly unique weapons like the ASMD Shock Rifle, Eightball Rocket Launcher (which charges up multiple rockets if you hold down the fire button), Biosludge Gun (which shoots out powerful green blobs at your enemies), and a sniper rifle. Most importantly, they all have primary and alt-fire attacks that are really satisfying to carry out. You can also use a translator to read alien messages that reveal parts of the storyline, which also keeps the game interesting throughout.

Of course, the gameplay won't be all that Unreal has to offer -- the graphics are simply the best for its time, with incredible environmental detail and relatively high-polygon graphics for the time. The audio is also great, with memorable sound effects that make for an immersive atmosphere, as well as catchy music.

All in all, Unreal shows its four years of development with a game that's arguably better than Doom and Quake ever were. Two thumbs way up!

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (1997 Video Game)

A unique, fun, innovative, and gory shoot-'em-up.

[9/10 · 7 September 2006]

I deducted a point from the overall score due to the annoying technical limitations that were carried over from the Nintendo 64 to the PC. For instance, save points were few and far between, which gets frustrating in more difficult levels. Consolitis aside, however, Turok proves to be a very entertaining shooter for "dinosaur hunters" and first-person shooter fans alike.

The first thing you'll notice when you start playing Turok is the amazingly realistic movement. When you walk, you'll see your first-person view bob in ways that make you feel nauseous for the first few minutes of gameplay, but you'll get used to it pretty quickly. When you swim underwater, you truly feel like you're swimming, thanks to realistic swimming movement (unlike in Duke Nukem 3D and Quake, where you felt like you were "walking" underwater) and a tinted blue screen when you're underwater. The superb graphics further add to the immersion. The gameworld is filled with outstanding detail, and never-before-seen special effects like fog make you feel like you're really in a living, breathing dinosaur world. The sound is also excellent, with footstep sounds, water splashing, birds chirping in the background, and stuff like that.

There's an excellent variety of enemies, from human mercenaries to nasty bugs to evil aliens and, of course, dinosaurs. The variety of weapons is just as awesome (I counted 13 weapons in total -- probably more weapons than in any other first-person shooter at the time), with all of the standard-issue weapons (knife, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, grenade and rocket launchers, plasma gun) as well as totally awesome new ones (explosive crossbow, explosive shotgun, nuclear warheads), and a few other ones I couldn't remember. Coupled with over-the-top, realistic violence and gore, you simply can't go wrong shooting up all the enemies in this game. When you shoot an enemy, blood splatters all over the place (though it unfortunately disappears after a few seconds). The death animations also vary depending on where you shoot them (as opposed to previous 3D shooters that only had one death animation). Neck shots will cause blood to spurt from their neck while they slowly die, leg shots will cause enemies to writhe on the ground in pain, etc. While I think that Acclaim could've done a better job porting the game from the Nintendo 64 to the PC (see above), Turok is a very entertaining shooter that's well worth playing, especially for those who enjoy killing dinosaurs.

Strife (1996 Video Game)

Prepare To Immerse Yourself!

[10/10 · 5 September 2006]

In 1996, gamers played enough uninspired Doom and Duke Nukem 3D clones to the point that they decided to only trust major developers like 3D Realms, id Software, and Raven Software. But if you're like me and have played a lot of first-person shooters at the time, you'll know that not all of the smaller developers just churn out lame Doom clone after lame Doom clone. Strife is an excellent example of this. Developed by newcoming developer Rogue Entertainment, Strife combines Doom-style gameplay with RPG elements to create an utterly absorbing experience.

The combination of both genres really works, too. The action is fast-paced, with innovative weapons for the time (electric crossbow, poison crossbow, grenade launcher, flamethrower) as well as other standard-issue weapons (machinegun, rocket launcher, and a shotgun equivalent called the Mauler), and the RPG-like character interaction system makes you feel like you're really interacting with a living world (as opposed to Doom, where you don't interact with any characters). If this doesn't pull you into the game, then the seamless gameworld, non-linear gameplay, varied environments, and excellent story development should. A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Half-Life (1998 Video Game)

Until Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 came along, this was the best game ever made.

[10/10 · 9 May 2006]

As far as immersion goes, you simply couldn't have done any better than Half-Life. Half-Life pioneered many firsts in the genre when it was released in 1998. The biggest innovation is that the game NEVER shifts away from your perspective of the action. This means that there are no cutscenes, no early explanations of the backstory, and that your character cannot talk (giving you room to talk during the game, if you need to). Half-Life does NOT disappoint when it comes to fooling you into thinking that you're experiencing all of this in real life. Other innovations include seamless level transitions, having to reload your weapon occasionally, and a passable excuse for a heads-up display (since your character is a scientist, he must wear a hazard suit that comes equipped with HUD readers for health, shields, weapons, and ammo). The only thing I can think of that isn't realistic about Half-Life is the fact that you simply walk over objects to pick them up. However, since the game is pretty fast-paced, having to pick up items manually would have been quite frustrating in the heat of battle.

Of course, the gameplay isn't the only thing that Half-Life has to offer. The disturbingly realistic graphics and sound (for the time) also combine with the gameplay to further immerse you into the experience. Half-Life uses a heavily modified version of the already stunning Quake engine, which broke new ground in 1996 for creating realistic environments and characters with polygon-based true 3-D graphics. Half-Life has higher polygon counts, better lighting, and more detailed textures than in Quake, making the graphics that much more believable. To top that all off, a skeletal animation system makes for extremely realistic character animations. Overall, the graphics and animations are just so good, they even make Unreal's graphics look lame. I'm not joking around! This is as good as video games could look and sound at the time!

You've also got an excellent variety of weapons. In fact, there's probably more weapons than any other shooter at the time. You've got a crowbar (for melee combat), pistol, revolver, machinegun, shotgun, crossbow, rocket launcher, particle gun, flamethrower, alien arm (which shoots out lethal "bugs" and has an infinite ammo supply), grenades, pipebombs, laser trip mines, and a cute alien bug that runs up to enemies to bite the crap out of them. What more could you want?

But the most surprising aspect of all is that Half-Life didn't come from a high-profile developer at the time (like 3D Realms, id Software, or Raven Software). This amazing piece of work came from a newcoming developer that we didn't even know about at the time -- Kirkland, Washington-based Valve Software. But even if Valve wasn't a high-profile developer at the time, you could tell from this game that their goal was clearly to create the best game ever. You simply aren't a gamer if you don't at least try Half-Life. A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Quake (1996 Video Game)

The best first-person shooter for its time, and still one of the best today.

[10/10 · 1 May 2006]

Even with other competing shooters like Descent and Duke Nukem 3D around in the mid-90's, Quake lives up to its name: it truly "Quakes" the competition with its fast, non-stop action and excellent level design. Duke Nukem 3D may have had a fully interactive environment, but nothing could match Quake's lightning-fast and tremendously entertaining action. Weapons consist of standard-issued stuff (axe, shotgun, rocket launcher) and innovative weapons for the time, like a nailgun, grenade launcher, and thunderbolt gun (which you shouldn't even think about shooting underwater!) In an attempt to speed up the pace, there aren't any reloading times, and switching from weapon to weapon is very quick.

Along with the gameplay, the graphics are also Quake's biggest strength. Unlike Doom or Duke Nukem 3D, Quake uses a true-3D graphics engine to create detailed and believable environments. Gone are the choppy animations of enemies and their flat-looking appearances. As in Duke Nukem 3D, you can also swim underwater. All of this at a super-smooth frame rate! (At least, if you have a Pentium or higher processor.) In 1996, once I played Quake, I was fighting the urge not to play anything else. If you're looking for a solid piece of nostalgia to play, then this is exactly what you're looking for. It's a classic.

Area 51 (2005 Video Game)

A fast-paced, action-packed, surprise-filled shooter that's a blast to play.

[10/10 · 24 March 2006]

As you have guessed, Area-51 takes place at the military base out in the Nevada desert that was rumored to have aliens, mutants, and secret weapon experiments. In Area-51, you're going to find out that all three of the above are true. In fact, the front of the game's case simply shows an alien on it. And that's not all: There are a whole bunch of other surprises in the game that I really don't want to spoil. You just have to play the game to see it all for yourself.

Evident by the fact that Midway developed and published the game, Area-51 is a remake of the classic arcade game. This isn't just the arcade game with a facelift -- it's infinitely much more, and it's definitely better than a lot of arcade remakes in the past (Frogger, Glover, etc., etc.) In fact, it's probably the best arcade remake ever. This remake isn't nearly as linear as the arcade game, requiring you to look for keycards and the such. Better yet, you can even CONTROL your character! (Speaking of controls, Area-51's controls are easily the best on the Xbox and PS2.) But the best -- and most innovative -- aspect of the game is likely your scanner. While designed to display statistics of an air sample, it will also scan secret documents that you can view when you exit your game session. Since many of these documents are hidden, this means that Area-51 has lots of replay value.

Even the storyline is better (and more interesting) than the arcade game. You play as Ethan Cole, a member of the Army's HAZMAT Team Bravo, voiced by David Duchovny. Contrary to what many reviews have said, David Duchovny is the perfect actor for Ethan Cole. I couldn't really notice anything bad about his voice acting; he sounded really normal. Back to the storyline, HAZMAT's Team Delta went missing when they responded to a distress call coming from Area-51. So, what's going on over there? A virus has broken out at the base, mutating or killing the employees, and everyone has been locked inside. Your team (HAZMAT Team Bravo) is sent into the base to find HAZMAT Team Delta, while shooting the living crap out of every mutant that gets in the way.

Surprisingly good AI, satisfying gamepad vibration effects, an awesome weapons loadout, fast-paced action that never slows down, and a whole bunch of secrets and surprises mean that you will play Area-51 to the very end. Like every game released since Halo 2, it's not a Halo 2-killer, but it's an absolute must-have for people interested in the subject matter, or for PS2 users in desperate need of a fun shooter to play (Both Halo games were never released for the PS2). A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Shadow Warrior (1997 Video Game)

Two words: "a" and "blast". Better than Duke Nukem ever was.

[10/10 · 28 January 2006]

Shadow Warrior offers pretty much everything you'd want from a fast-paced shoot-'em-up. The weapons are awesome -- you start out with a sword and some shurikens and will find a quad-barreled shotgun (with an auto-fire mode), dual Uzis, a rocket launcher (with a heat-seeking mode and a nuke), a grenade launcher, sticky bombs (possibly the most memorable weapon in the game), among others I won't spoil here. Combine that with over-the-top blood and gore for the time, and you have the perfect alternative to adrenaline.

Parents, if you do not want your child to hear off-color humor or see enemies explode, get sliced in half, and blood splattering all over the place, then don't let your child play this. Thankfully, Shadow Warrior takes advantage of a parental lock-out password system.

If you loved Duke Nukem 3D, then go play this game now. 'Nuff said. A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Gerry (2002)

The worst movie I have ever seen. *SPOILERS*

[1/10 · 20 January 2006]

(Note: This review contains some spoilers, but they are only for the purpose of showing how god-awful this movie is. If you still do not want to see these spoilers, then you're excused from reading this review and should just know to avoid Gerry at all costs.)

*SPOILERS AHEAD* The first 15 minutes of this movie simply consisted of the Gerry brothers riding in a car through monotonous desert scenery, with no dialogue. After those first 15 minutes, the Gerry brothers get out of the car to walk through the desert, with no dialogue. 15 more minutes, and they're still walking through the desert, and the scenery doesn't look different at all. I started growing impatient before I finally smacked the fast-forward button to speed up the horrible pace. 15 minutes later, nothing. Rather than forcing myself to watch this monotonous garbage, I finally ejected the DVD out of my DVD player, and started drinking some Mountain Dew to wake myself up.

Since I never really bothered to watch the rest of this movie, I assumed that there was no dialogue whatsoever in this movie, since there wasn't any dialogue for the first 30 minutes. But I found out that this movie was rated R for "language", so I'm like "What?" I did find some dialogue from the movie in the "Memorable Quotes" section, and it's simply atrocious. What the heck is "getting Gerried"? The dialogue is mostly stuff that only a mentally retarded kindergartener could think up. We know that Gus Van Sant isn't a kindergartener, but then again, this movie makes him look like one.

All in all, Gerry is truly the worst movie ever made (unless there are movies I haven't seen that somehow manage to get worse than this). It's just plain garbage.

Overall Score: 0.1 / 10 (Unbearable) (Unfortunately, IMDb won't let us vote below 1 / 10.)

Descent II (1996 Video Game)

More of the same for Descent fans - and if you liked Descent, that's a great thing.

[10/10 · 19 January 2006]

Descent 2 takes an "if it ain't broke, then don't fix it" approach to the classic Descent formula. However, there are some new additions, like new weapons, and cool new gadgets like an afterburner, headlights, and an "energy-to-shields" converter. The game engine and sound effects are mostly recycled from the original Descent, except for the sounds of the new weapons and enemies. However, the graphics are an improvement over Descent's already state-of-the-art graphics. Descent 2's environments and enemies are completely different from those in the original Descent (as opposed to how Doom II recycled most of Doom's environments and enemies), and of course, the levels and storyline are different (of course -- how else would it be a sequel?) If you liked Descent, then you'll love Descent II. If you loved Descent, you'll drool over the sequel's new levels, environments, enemies, and features. Even if you're sick of the same old gameplay, Descent II still has enough new additions to the original Descent formula to make it well worth playing, and it's still a blast to play. Like the original Descent, this sequel gets a 10 / 10.

Descent (1994 Video Game)

Even today, it's one of the best games in gaming history.

[10/10 · 19 January 2006]

Descent is a first-person shooter that plays kind of like a simplified flight simulator, and it's simply a blast to play. You are an employee at the Post-Terran Minerals Corporation (PTMC), a leader in the mining industry that uses robots to dig up minerals on all 9 planets. Unfortunately, the robots are being controlled by some kind of hacker (presumably an evil alien race) bent on using the robots to destroy the planet Earth. PTMC's CEO calls you in for a mission briefing, and you simply do not want to do this job. What job? You're piloting a heavily modified Pyro-GX to destroy the mining robots.

While your ship can only take a shot or two before blowing up, it has shields that allow it to take a lot of damage. Picking up a shield boost will increase your shields by 15%, very similar to med-kits in traditional first-person shooters. You'll start the game with 100% shields, and the maximum is 200% (even the shield boosts will get your shields over 100%!) Considering that the AI in this game is very smart -- as you progress in the game, the robots will observe your playing strategies and start using them themselves -- these shields prove to be very helpful. You have awesome weapons at your disposal, all that use an energy supply (except for the Vulcan Cannon, an extremely accurate weapon that spits out shotgun shells, which uses its own shotgun shells) that starts at 100% and, like your shields, can go up to 200%. Energy boosts increase your energy by 15% up to 200%, just like the shield boosts. You start out with a laser gun and some concussion missiles, and progress to better weapons like a speadfire cannon, homing missiles, and proximity bombs. The rest I'll leave to you to find out.

Unlike traditional flight simulation games, the controls in Descent are relatively simple. You can manually accelerate and reverse your ship, or turn "cruise control" on. As in traditional first-person shooters, you can also slide left and right. Your ship is so well-built as to even slide "up" and "down"! You can also roll to the left and right. And, of course, you can rotate your ship in all directions (what would the game be without being able to rotate?) Using the mouse and the usual WASD control scheme works fine.

Even today, Descent's graphics are amazing. As in Quake, Descent uses true-3D to draw its graphics. With the use of special command line parameters, you can even increase the resolution up to 640x480, but you need a VESA-compatible video card to do that. Most computers manufactured in Descent's day (1995), even the fastest ones, couldn't handle the 640x480 mode, but if you have the horsepower (most computers in the late 90's do) then it's well worth it. The music is also very well done, especially the tune in the sound setup program, which I now have stuck in my head.

I couldn't find anything wrong with the game, at least if you have a computer that's capable of running it. Descent is a DOS-based game, and in Windows XP, the game acts like it's on speed and the sound effects don't work very well. Then again, Descent was never designed to run on that type of computer.

The action is non-stop, the explosions are constant, the graphics are state-of-the-art, the music is catchy, and the controls are slick. What more could you want? A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Halo 2 (2004 Video Game)

One of the best games of all time!

[10/10 · 18 January 2006]

I can't think of a single thing that's wrong with this game. Even Half-Life (both 1 & 2) can't achieve this level of absolute perfection. While the gameplay mechanics have mostly been recycled from the original Halo (and that's a good thing -- after all, it's not a very good choice to try to fix something that isn't broken, only to break it anyways, like many developers have done in the past with sequels), Halo 2 does add some new tricks to the already excellent formula to create perfect gameplay. You are a cyborg named Spartan 117 (AKA The Master Chief) that was one of many Spartan cyborgs that were built by Humanity in an attempt to win a losing battle against an evil alien race known as the Covenant. And I mean "evil" -- these aliens just started a war against the humans because they thought that humanity was an affront to their gods. All the other Spartan cyborgs were blown up by the Covenant while they were being cryogenically frozen. In fact, you are the only Spartan cyborg left, and Humanity's only hope. People who have played first-person shooters for a long time may not notice anything new in Halo 2's storyline, but who cares? There's probably no other storyline to use for a futuristic, sci-fi themed game that takes place in deep space.

Gamers have been sick of always playing as some kind of "tough guy" who can take 40 bullets to the head before dying. Yet, when games like Splinter Cell incorporate a "one-shot, one-kill" rule into the gameplay, they become frustrating for unexperienced players. While Spartan 117 can only take a shot or two before dying, he has shields that protect his body from damage. So, technically, you are another "tough guy" in Halo 2, but there's a realistic-enough excuse for it. Since your shields recharge to 100% a few seconds after you've stopped taking damage, there are no "med-kits" in the game, and there doesn't need to be any med-kits, either, since your shields recharge like that. This is a superb gameplay mechanic -- I haven't been sick of playing as a tough guy, but I've been sick of when you waste a med-kit or other object because, let's say, you had 99% of health and the medkit only restored 1% of health because it didn't want your health to go over 100, but you couldn't use the medkit again to restore 24% more health. What annoys me just as much is when you make a little mistake (like taking damage from a fall) and have to backtrack to find a medkit to restore your health. With the shields system, restoring your shields is as easy as them automatically recharging to 100% a few seconds after you made that mistake, and you also don't have to worry about wasting a medikit just to restore 1% of health.

Adding to the realism, Spartan 117 can only carry two guns at once. They don't have to be a specific kind of gun, they can both be anything you want to carry. If you want to carry another gun and already have two other guns, you must discard one of your weapons to make room for that weapon. I mean, Gordon Freeman from Half-Life can carry over 20 guns at once, a cliché carried over from the earliest days of first-person gaming, and that's just unrealistic. Another cliché that was carried over from the earliest days of first-person gaming concerned melee fighting. You could only use one weapon for melee fighting, which was usually a knife or brass knuckles or a sword, and they packed much less of a punch than in gun-based combat. Did someone not realize that you could swing the guns themselves at opponents, which packs MORE of a punch than in gun-based combat? Apparently, the people at Bungie realize that very well, because that's what you do in Halo 2 for melee combat. And that's realistic. Spartan 117 can't sprint, but since he moves at a fast-enough pace just walking, you don't need to sprint. Grenades are not handled as a separate weapon in Halo 2 -- rather, you store them in your left pocket to throw simply by pressing the left trigger, which is realistic, as opposed to having to switch to a separate weapon to throw grenades (as in Doom 3).

You simply pick objects up by walking over them. While this may be the only thing that's not realistic, it is appropriate for the fast pace of the game, where it would be somewhat frustrating to have to manually pick an object up in the heat of battle. The only exception to this is when you swap one of your weapons for another weapon. After all, nothing is more annoying than having the game automatically swap a weapon when you didn't want to swap it, or if it swapped the weapon you wanted to keep. In Halo 2, you press the action button to swap weapons. This allows you to switch to the weapon you want to swap, and decide if you want to swap that weapon for the new weapon you'll get. The game will tell you via a message at the top of the screen if an object can be used with the action button, so that you know what you're doing.

Such excellent attention to realism means that you will be immersed into Halo 2 for a long, long time. Other excellent features include some of the best graphics, audio, physics, and AI ever in a video game (The graphics are so good, I almost threw up when I started riding an elevator in the game). Only one thing is certain: If you don't play Halo 2, or if you don't like it, then there is something wrong with you. A definite 10 / 10 to this one!

Daikatana (2000 Video Game)

Why does everyone hate this game?

[7/10 · 17 January 2006]

After hearing all of the trash-talk about Daikatana, I must say that it definitely isn't as bad as people make it sound. It's not really a "great" game, but it's a solid FPS that gets the important stuff right, at least, if you have all of the patches to correct some of the serious bugs that were in the first release. You have some awesome weapons like the Ion Blaster (obviously a homage to the game's developer, Ion Storm), a crossbow-type weapon that shoots out green "ion" at your enemies, and a snake that spews venom at your enemies. The graphics and sound effects are well-done, using the Quake II engine for the visual effects, and the interface is easy to use (the menu options such as New Game, Load Game, Options, Multiplayer, etc. are on the right side of the screen, and the screen that it produces is on the left side of the screen, so you don't have to press ESC to return to the main menu, and all that).

Unfortunately, the AI sidekicks that show up later on in the game aren't that smart (due to the Quake II engine's simplistic AI). Like a lot of the other aspects of the game, the sidekick AI isn't as bad as people make it sound, but at least you can enable the cheat codes for them so that you don't have to worry about the game being over because they died.

Despite the fact that Daikatana definitely isn't a bad game, it was still pretty disappointing in a way: it failed to live up to the expectations that designer John Romero set for us. Daikatana is well worth a try, but don't come crying wolf to me if you find it not to be the classic that John Romero promised.

Pariah (2005 Video Game)

One of the best Xbox shooters ever!

[10/10 · 17 December 2005]

The graphics, sound, and physics in Pariah are better than in Doom 3, and most importantly, the gameplay is also very satisfying. The game is an action-packed blast from start to finish. Each and every gunshot from your weapon, whether it's a bulldog (machinegun-type gun), a plasma gun, a frag rifle (shotgun-type gun), or a sniper rifle, is just so utterly satisfying, thanks to realistic weapon sounds and appropriately rough gamepad vibration effects. You can even upgrade your already excellent weaponry by applying "weapon energy cores" to them. These upgrades improve your guns in ways such as increasing the rate of fire, increasing accuracy, increasing strength of the ammunition, you name it. Later on in the game, these weapon upgrades greatly increase your chance of survival.

There are also lots of enemies to unleash that awesome firepower against, and their AI does not disappoint. In addition to shooting you (of course -- how else would they be your enemy?), they constantly circle-strafe, run like hell, and find cover in an attempt to avoid your gunshots. Don't be surprised if you miss a few of your gunshots trying to take these enemies down -- they are certainly great enemy soldiers, but are very possible to take down.

A unique and well-presented storyline fuels the single-player game. Rather than the same old generic "aliens invade the earth and you are a tough guy who must stop them" plot we get in most first-person shooters today (Half-Life included!), Digital Extremes takes a step in the right direction with Pariah's storyline. One, your enemies aren't aliens. Two, you're not some kind of "tough guy". You are actually a perfectly normal doctor named Jack Mason who is transporting a patient infected with a mysterious virus on a spaceship in the year 2520, where Earth is now a nearly uninhabitable place, and space travel has become common. While the spaceship flies over planet Earth, it is shot down by an incoming missile, and you nearly die when the ship crashes onto Earth. After healing your wounds and picking up some weaponry, enemy soldiers (who are humans, by the way) come out of nowhere and you must do whatever it takes to survive. The plot unfolds as you progress through the game, eventually telling the player about everything that led up to the events in Pariah. I won't spoil it here :) Play the game and see it for yourself.

You don't heal your wounds by picking up generic "medikits" or "health boosters" or whatever. Instead, as a doctor, you are equipped with a healing tool that injects you with materials that replenish your health, just so long as you have the energy for it to work. As such, the game interface uses it as a weapon, and it can also be upgraded using weapon energy cores to speed up the injection time and increase the power of the healing tool. Injecting too much of the healing tool at once results in visual blurriness for a few seconds. When you sprint in Pariah, your vision blurs as the wind goes right past you, and after a few seconds of sprinting, you will become tired and cannot sprint anymore. In addition, you cannot wield your gun while sprinting. Such small touches help increase the realism and immersion of Pariah.

An amazing achievement in first-person shooting games, Pariah is one of the best first-person shooters ever made. It might not be Halo 2, but it's right up there, and a definite blast to play. So if you liked the Halo games, you'll still be completely absorbed by Pariah's single-player and multi-player components.

Rise of the Triad: Dark War (1994 Video Game)

"Rise of the Triad: Dark War" is a blast!

[10/10 · 29 July 2005]

"Rise of the Triad: Dark War" is more fun and addictive than Doom. Part of what makes this game so fun is its innovative design that adds to immersion. No other previous game has had fog, thunder with properly delayed lighting, levels with multiple floors, the ability to fall off of a level and die, looking up and down (this is a first for a game using id Software technology, but also appeared in System Shock two months earlier) and even how to set the violence level in case your kids play it! Rise of the Triad has all of the good things that make a first-person shooter tick. State-of-the-art graphics (for the time, of course), realistic sound, catchy music, totally awesome weapons, impressive level design and very detailed textures make your immersion into the game last quite a long time. This game is also funnier than any other first-person-shooter at the time. When you get a "God Mode" powerup, you turn into an invincible ten-foot-tall dude that makes retard sounds and fires out "Godfire" that disintegrates your enemies. "Dog mode" turns you into an invincible two-foot-tall dog that bites your enemies. The "Drunk Missile" weapon fires out five heat-seeking mini-missiles and makes a funny noise.

Did I mention that this game is as violent as hell? It's rated Mature for a good reason. Parents, if you do not like your children playing games where your rocket launcher can blow bad guys up into gory bits, or if you find an eyeball or severed arm flying up to your screen objectionable, this is not the game to buy for your kids. Thankfully, the game takes advantage of a "Parental Lock" that allows you to adjust the amount of blood and gore you see in-game. It can be very easy to exploit, though: all you have to do is delete the game's config file or reinstall the game, and the violence level is set back to its normal gory goodness.

I couldn't find anything wrong with the game, at least, if you have a computer that's capable of running it. This is a DOS-based game, and therefore, it has plenty of difficulty running under Windows NT/2000/XP. If you turn the sound effects off, the game runs fine, but it's just not very fun playing without the sound (unless, for some awkward reason, you found the sound effects to be annoying.) Playing the game under an emulator like DOSBox allows the music/SFX to work correctly, but the game runs slow. The best way to run this game is to run it on any computer with Windows 95/98/ME that meets the system requirements for the game. You don't need to boot into DOS mode, either. For me, the game ran perfectly under Windows 98, but the sound effects froze the computer up under Windows 3.1.

One of the best first-person shooters ever, and the best for its time, Rise of the Triad will please most fans of the genre.

Powerslave (1996 Video Game)

One of the most creative shooters ever!

[10/10 · 29 July 2005]

This game has some of the best level design I've ever seen in any game. When I'm writing treasure maps, I simply cannot get as good as this! Set in and around the village of Karnak, Egypt, these levels are huge, unpredictable, sport very nice artwork, and exploit more tricks than you could ever dream of in a Duke Nukem 3D-style map.

Of course, since Powerslave is a first-person shooter, it fills those creative levels in with non-stop action. The creativity and action combine to make you play at your computer for hours! Powerslave was also one of the first games to have true rooms-above-rooms and dynamic lighting, and they're done to a decent effect (for the time).

My only complaint with the game is that it's missing some features that were in most other shooters at the time, like an "always run" button, mouse look, adjustable difficulty settings, a parental lock (even though it's not as gory as most other shooters at the time), and mid-level save games. But despite coming out a year and a half too late, most first-person shooter fans should be pleased with Powerslave's highly creative level design and intense action.

Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge (2000 Video Game)

Much better than the original Frogger.

[10/10 · 14 July 2005]

In this sequel to Frogger (1997), you'll guide Frogger and his girlfriend Lily through a series of immersive and challenging levels in an attempt to save his baby frogs from the evil crocodile Swampy. It sounds like run-of-the-mill Frogger gameplay at its core, but there's much more of a storyline in this game, and all of the woeful playability problems that made Frogger (1997) such a chore to play have been smoothed out. The controls are much more responsive, there is difficulty adjustment (which controls how many lives you have when you start the game -- the obstacles still remain the same in each difficulty level: Easy - 10 lives, Normal - 5 lives, and Hard - 2 lives), the camera has a much better view of Frogger, that stupid "time limit" was removed, and the obstacles were more intended to challenge than to frustrate.

Just because Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge is a sequel to Frogger (1997) doesn't mean that you need to play that game in order to understand what goes on here. In fact, you're better off just skipping that game (as well as a whole bunch of boredom and frustration) and playing this instead. You'll be glad you did!

Frogger (1997 Video Game)

All pain, no gain! The arcade version was much better.

[3/10 · 13 July 2005]

Fans of '80s arcade games may find the concept of welding a classic arcade game (in this case, the 1981 arcade classic Frogger) with modern 3-D technology, a catchy soundtrack, and more varied levels to be all well and good. Unfortunately, the gameplay that made the arcade Frogger such a classic has been lost in translation. Since gameplay is the most important thing in any game, you know you've got problems.

The game is constantly frustrating, and at times, is unplayable. Frogger puts together many small annoyances to make it a bad game. Instead of putting in whole new gameplay mechanics to make it feel like a computer game, Hasbro kept the old gameplay mechanics in -- most likely to purposely cause frustrations. It goes like this: You start out with 5 lives for your frog, and if you get hurt JUST ONCE, you instantly die (there's no health meter). If you have any extra lives, it takes away a life and you start the level over again. If you don't have any extra lives when you die, however, you get a "Game Over" screen, type your name into the high scores list, and it kicks you out of the game altogether. If you've been playing arcade games for a long time, that might not sound bad at all. But due to the unbalanced nature of the game (there are too many obstacles to overcome), and the fact that there's no difficulty adjustment, it quickly becomes a problem.

However, I might not have been half as frustrated playing Frogger if it weren't for the myriad of bugs that'll make you wonder if Hasbro even have a beta-testing team. Even with the most current v3.0e patch, too many of these bugs still remain. The game's controls are unresponsive, and will have you yelling at the computer "YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!!" every two minutes. In fact, about 60% of all of my deaths in the game were caused by the game's failure to "listen" to commands. There is a time limit to how long you can live before you lose a life (what was Hasbro even thinking?) The camera is also screwed up as well, because certain objects like tree branches can block your view, and if you're in an area heavy with obstacles when this happens, this is a really bad problem. But if that doesn't bother you, the camera's inability to show enough of your surroundings will. There are also some collision detection issues: sometimes, when I'm at least 2 feet away from a car that is going to run over me, I get killed! (And the car didn't even run over me yet!) Sometimes, I even fall through a log into the water and end up getting killed!

Great graphics, audio, and level design are no excuse for frustrating games like Frogger. If Hasbro paid more attention to the playability of the game, then Frogger most likely would've been an addictive, immersive, and challenging 3-D platform game. But as it stands, Frogger is only recommended if you're a masochist or like to laugh at a game's inept gameplay. Everyone else is likely to punch their fist through their monitor in frustration when they get a "Game Over" screen.

Don't play this game! Go to your local arcade and play the original arcade Frogger, or you can pick up the vastly superior sequel "Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge", which has all of the woeful gameplay removed. Or, if you're into visually stunning platform games, pick up "Realms Of Chaos" or "Abuse", which have stunning graphics and features without the frustrating gameplay.

Overall Score: 3 / 10 (Bad)

The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

My all-time favorite movie!

[10/10 · 13 July 2005]

I have seen "The Chronicles Of Riddick", and it was a blast. This movie has the BEST futuristic setting and computer-generated special effects ever. The action is non-stop, and it makes its 2 hours seem like just 30 minutes. Vin Diesel is at his best as the escaped convict Riddick, and Colm Feore is just brilliant as the bad guy Marshall. I just don't see why other people (including critics) were hating on this movie...the PG-13 rating, I guess? (The original Pitch Black was rated R, but that's no excuse to hate this movie.)

Pop it into your DVD player and press Play, and action fans will have an awesome time from beginning to end. If you're not an action fan, however, at least you'll be pleased by the amazing visual effects. A definite 10 / 10 to this one!