Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant/Wizardry Gold (1992)

Way back when I was in high school, my cousin introduced me to a game.  He had played it and offered me a chance to play it myself.  The game was Wizardry’s Crusaders of the Dark Savant.  Back then, it was playable on DOS, meaning I had to exit Windows to play it.  I never quite beat the game.  I eventually upgraded Windows to a version where I couldn’t figure out how to get to DOS, so my crusading days were over  That is until I found the Windows version.  In 1996, the game was re-released as Wizardry Gold.  Here, it was on a single CD-ROM instead of two floppies.  I could play the game once again.

For purposes of this review, the actual game doesn’t vary much from the DOS version to the Windows version.  Almost all of it, from what I recall, is cosmetic.  The controls are different.  The graphics are better.  However, the storyline and whatnot are the same.  If you’re looking to buy the game, you’ll probably have to look for the Windows version anyway.

The game is actually the middle part of a trilogy.  It began with Wizardry VI, which I never had a chance to play.  Those that have can import their saved games.  If you haven’t, either, don’t worry.  You can start a new game as if you’re entering the game universe for the first time.  You’ll have to create a party of up to six characters, selecting race and class.

The object is to find something called the Astral Dominae.  It has the power to control the universe.  If it falls in to the wrong hands, it could be bad news.  There are several other parties, like the Umpani and the T’Rang, that are interested in it.  You can form alliances (or not) as the game progresses.  There are side missions you can go on (or not) to pass the time.

The game is similar to many of the RPGs of the time.  Movement is tile based, meaning you move from one square to the next.  If you explore the area you wake up in before entering the city, you’ll find a map kit.  In the Windows version, there’s a square that stays open showing your immediate area.  (If you don’t find it, you’ll be able to buy one much later in the game.)  Combat is turn based, meaning you’ll choose what you want to do, then everyone attacks in a random order.

I’ve almost always played with the sound off for several reasons.  First, the sound slows down the combat significantly.  Second, the sound isn’t that great.  (Think grunts and MIDI files.)  Third, I like to listen to music or watch TV while playing.  The only down side is that I have to turn off the sound each time I start the game.

Each character has three bars.  Each can be restored by fountains, potions, sleeping or magic.  Red indicates hit points. If the character runs out of hit points, they die.  (You can get around this by resurrecting the character or reloading the game.)  Yellow indicates stamina.  When the yellow bar runs out, they fall asleep.  If the character is swimming at the time, this also means death.  You can restore stamina easily by sleeping.  Blue indicates magic ability, which is divided into six categories for those who use it.  If you run out of points for a category, you can’t cast in that category any more.

Each class has a different set of spells.  Mages can get nuclear blast, which is good for attacking several groups of enemies at once.  They also get astral gate, which is good for demons and the like.  Priests, on the other hand, can heal wounds and identify items, both of which are useful.  Fighters and thieves can’t cast spells, but also have their uses.  You’ll want at least one thief in your party to disarm traps and pick locks.  You’ll also want at least one mage and one priest.  I’ve beaten the game with no fighters, but I had to pass on a lot of useful items.

Most magic users will start with two spells when you create the character.  You’ll be able to level up as you progress in the game.  When you do so, you’ll be able to spend points on various abilities.  For all characters, start with swimming until you get to 10, then add to climbing until you reach 10.  Every 10 points you assign to swimming allow you to swim one space at a time.  You earn points by swimming for each space you swim, so you can practice along a shoreline to build up to 100.  (Having 100 points allows you to get about 6-8 spaces, depending on various factors.)  You’ll also want to add points to mapping for whoever carries the map.  Getting to ten allows you to see walls.  I think when you get to about 20, you get to see doors.  After this, more points don’t really do much more.  Getting to around 70 lets you see stairs and stuff, which isn’t that important.  For magic users, you’ll need to add points to their magic stat.  This is what allows you to get better spells later on.

One thing to consider is that different classes can’t use certain items.  It seems that only fighters can use the good armor and weapons.  When in New City, which is the first town you’ll come across, you’ll find three places that sell stuff:  Paluke’s, Belcanzor’s Magic Emporium and Arms of Argus.  Paluke’s sold crappy clothing that may be cursed.  I’ve gotten a few good caps and hats in the beginning of the game, but that’s it.  Arms of Argus had proven useful.  Rossarian will occasionally have good stuff like bows and arrows, although not always.  (If you need arrows on a reliable basis, you’ll have to wait until you find the Rattkin Ruins.)  Everyone should be able to find something to fight with.  Belcanzor’s sold mostly magic stuff.  You may find some useful stuff there, but he’s only in New City at night.

The biggest drawback I found to having to buy stuff was that those NPCs that were in a fixed location would only sell you one item (or batch of items) at a time.   Willow arrows, for instance, come in packs of 100.  If Rossarian has one quiver available, you have to buy that one, then exit and come back in to buy another.  It tends to get a bit tedious if you’re trying to equip four of your characters with arrows.  If you want to buy a dozen of a potion, but the guy sells it one at a time, you have to go in a dozen times to get them all, then merge them all together.  It would have been much easier to be able to buy in multiples.

When you fight, you have to equip the stuff you’re using.  Some swords require one while others require two.  If you’re using a bow, both the bow and arrows have to be equipped.  There are other items, like whips, that can be used single handed.  Not everyone can use every weapon. Also, character position determines if they can fight.  Your party is arranged in two columns, three on each side of the main screen.   The top left is position 1, top right is position 2 and so on.  The first three positions can fight, if armed, regardless of what they’re using.  If your character is using certain weapons, like bows or whips, they can fight from any position.  Also, thieves can attack while hiding, potentially allowing them to attack every other turn.

You’re not going to see people attack you until they occupy the same square as you.  This is also true of NPCs.  You’ll be walking along and suddenly find yourself in battle.  Some squares will always have a battle the first time you enter that square.  A few squares will always have a battle for you.  Most of your battles, though, will be random.  If you don’t want to do battle at the moment, you can quit and reload the game at your last save point.

On that note, you can save at any point in the game.  This allows you to save right before a major required battle or trapped chest.  If someone dies, you can reload.  I do recommend keeping one means of resurrection, at least until two of your characters get the spell.  Some battles are tough.  You may have a character die at the very last round of a battle.  I’ve also had cases where a character was turned to stone or I saved before checking if everyone was alive.  It pays to have options.

Beating the game is somewhat difficult.  There are several parchments, called maps, which usually give vital clues to solving the puzzle.  One is meant to mislead you and one is part of a physical puzzle.  The game seems to start with the maps scattered around the game world.  You’ll be able to find some during the game while others will be taken by NPCs.  You’ll have to find them by talking to NPCs,  but luck will factor into it.

One interesting thing about the maps I should mention is that all but one can be bought and sold  for 10,000 GP.  There are a few characters that you have to kill during the game and one that can be killed without any apparent consequences.  This means that if you have any of these maps and find yourself in a position to kill one of those characters, your last interaction with them (before killing them) could be to sell them the maps for 10,000 GP each.  When you kill them, you can take the maps back and get a nice amount of money in the process.  (For some reason, NPCs have unlimited funds to buy stuff.)

Back when I was playing the DOS version, there was a toll number you could call for hints.  I never used this, as it cost more than I was willing to spend, but I was able to make good progress in the game regardless.  Upon finding the Windows version, I needed a little help recalling some of the solutions, so I referred to a walkthrough.  If you need help, they are available.  There’s even an interactive map.  For those that don’t want the walkthrough, someone managed to stitch together a map of the full world.  You can use it for reference with minimal spoilers.  (You’ll mostly be getting the location of treasure chests and whatnot.)  I am in awe of the effort that this must have taken.

I imagine that most of the people that would play the game would do so for the nostalgia.  (The same is probably true of anyone reading this review.)  People that grew up in the age of MMORPGs might find this game laughable, but it had a solid storyline and game play.  If you visit the aforementioned map, you’ll see that there’s a lot to explore.  It fascinated me that someone actually took the time to put a somewhat-circular path in the Myrmideon Forest.  From what I’ve read, there was actually supposed to be a Devil Falls, but time constraints forced it’s removal.  It would be interesting to see what the original programmers and writers would have come up with if they had the time and money to do everything they wanted.

Now that I’ve beaten the game, I’ll probably be revisiting it every few months.  It’s always fun to revisit an old game like this.  It’s a shame that the company that made it went out of business.  It does make finding new copies somewhat difficult.  I checked Amazon recently and there did appear to be a few copies.  You may be able to find a few copies on eBay.  I’d like to try Wizardry VIII, but I don’t know how easy that will be to find.

For those of you that are visiting this review for the nostalgia, please feel free to leave a comment and share it with your friends.  I’m always looking for other people who have played and enjoyed the game.  We can still remember all the good times.  Right?


Wikipedia page

SimTower: The Vertical Empire (1994)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Many, many years ago, this game called SimCity came out. It was this revolutionary game that allowed people to design and run a city. By todays standards, the graphics would be considered cheap, but it started a whole line of products, including SimTower. I first came across this game about ten years ago. (Yeah, it’s that old.) A friend had gotten permission to install it on a lab computer or two, so that everyone could play it. I eventually ended up getting it for myself so that I could play at home.

For those that aren’t familiar with the Sim concept, each of the Sim games basically simulates something. SimCity simulates a city. There’s SimFarm, which simulates a farm. I think you can see the pattern here. With SimTower, you’re given a tower to run. Unfortunately, it’s in only two dimensions, so it’s not that complicated. You start out with a one-star rating. This means that you can start out by building a lobby, a basic elevator and a few basic rooms like a condo or an office. You can also put in restaurants and movie theaters. Hotel rooms come in different sizes (single occupancy, double occupancy and suite) and require room service, which is a separate unit that cannot be removed once placed. (Room service also requires special elevators to get to other floors.)

As you accomplish different things, you get more stars. I believe that a population of 300 is all that is needed for a second star. (You can’t lose stars, so if you hit 300 and fall below it shortly thereafter, you won’t go back down to one.) With a second star comes more things you can build. Eventually, you get things like apartments, service elevators, recycling centers and even a subway. There’s a guide within the game that explains exactly what is necessary to progress to each level. In some cases, like with recycling centers, you simply need to have enough for the capacity of your building to progress. When you’ve met all of the criteria, you become a five-star establishment. (I’m told that there is a way to ‘win’ the game eventually, but I’ve never been able to do that.)

The first floor has to be only a lobby and the width of the tower is based on that. (Each floor can be no wider than the floor below it.) Above that, you get an additional 104 levels. Aside from the first floor lobbies can go on every fifteenth floor, starting with the fifteenth floor. You can also have ten basement levels, which is where parking has to go. Also, the subway has to go on the lowest of the basement floors. (You’ll find that there are certain units that can only go either above or below ground while others can go anywhere.) You’ll eventually get express elevators, which go to the first floor and all of the basement floors as well as every fifteenth floor. (I don’t know if you have to have a lobby there for it to be effective.) You can also use escalators and stairs to alleviate elevator traffic, but people are only willing to walk up or down a certain number of flights.

You need to pay attention to the budget. Condos tend to generate a lot of money, but hotel rooms may not all be used and may drain your budget. Room service and recycling also tend to be a drain, even though they are necessary. You have to find the appropriate balance. You also have to keep people happy. For instance, people living in condos and hotel rooms don’t like to be placed too close to an office unit. Office workers will eventually demand parking. No one likes to have to walk too far to the elevator or stairs, so you have to space them properly. (You can tell when someone’s mad by the color of their icon. To see a person’s icon, either see them while they’re waiting at the elevator or click on a unit.)

There’s not too much to the graphics; it looks like each type of unit has maybe six different panels that it rotates through to show motion. The building has phases such as night and day and the different seasons. It may seem simple, but it’s very easy to lose money in this game. If you’re balance goes too far into negative territory, you have to start over.

The interface is very simple. You have the window with the tower in it and two control bars. One control bar has the different units you can install and also has the pause button. The other shows your balance, the number of stars you have and the time that’s progressed, as expressed in number of years, seasons and days from the start. When I go to maximize the screen, it doesn’t take up the full screen. (I think it was designed for a smaller screen.) However, I can at least move the bars so that they don’t block my view of the tower.

The game has run on all of the computers that I’ve had over the years, regardless of the version of Windows that I’ve been using. That’s probably because there’s nothing fancy like multiplayer or anything. There really hasn’t been any updating as we’ve seen with the SimCity series. So far as I know, there’s just SimTower.

If you’re looking for a good way to kill a few hours, this is your game. It’s average in many respects. 

IMDb page

Railroad Tycoon 3 (2003)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I don’t usually buy video games, and when I do, it’s usually one of the GTA games or something along those lines. I also have this interest in railroads and trains. I came across Railroad Tycoon, which is a railroad simulation. It looked interesting. You lay track, plan routes, buy farms and stuff. Being that it was something like $10, I decided to give it a try.

Ok, it’s not really that simple. There are all sorts of different scenarios you can play. Each scenario has three sets of stated goals. It might be to connect a certain number of cities or to connect two particular cities within a given time frame. You can get bronze, silver or gold, each representing one of the sets of goals. (As you might expect, bronze will be the easiest where gold will require the most skill and/or effort.)

Laying track is pretty easy. You select either single or double track and put it where you want it. Sometimes, you can’t always get it exactly where you want it to go. It may have to be done in several stretches or you simply can’t get it to go through a dip in the land. I’ve also noticed that if you’re in a scenario where you’re using electric track, it will randomly switch back to non-electric. I haven’t been able to figure this out, but it’s not that hard to make it electric later on.

You also have to connect cities, which is officially done with a train station. Stations come in three sizes, each being able to cover a different amount of surrounding area. When you have two connected cities on the same track, you can run a train between those two cities. You even get to choose between several different models that vary in cost. You do have to accommodate mountains, rivers and other land features, which isn’t that hard once you start playing.

Some scenarios have restrictions. It might be that you can only lay track that’s connected to existing track or maybe you can only lay a certain number of miles every year. (A year in game time can pass in a few minutes, depending on which speed you have it on.) In some cases, these restrictions make it kind of difficult. I generally avoid certain scenarios based on the restrictions.

You start with some money, which varies based on the scenario you’re playing, but you can add to that by selling stock in your company or floating a bond. (Some scenarios don’t allow for one or both features.) You’re probably going to fail altogether pretty quickly if you run out of money, since you do need money to maintain tracks and trains, so be sure not to spend everything. It’s also easy to spend a lot of money on tracks only to realize that you need to buy stations or put up maintenance depots.

If you don’t like the scenarios, there are also campaigns, which is nothing more than a different set of scenarios that can be strung together. I’ve never been able to get the campaigns to save properly, meaning that when I reload, the scenarios that I’ve beaten don’t seem to have been saved. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong or if I’m just missing something. Again, there are campaign scenarios that I avoid based on the restrictions and I don’t usually play the campaign because I feel no need to.

If you can’t get used to game play during one of the campaigns or scenarios, there’s even a sandbox mode that just lets you lay track and build stuff without having to worry about money or any restrictions. I recommend playing this just to get used to the game.

The one big complaint that I have is that there are only a certain number of maps, which can get boring. There are user-generated maps, but I can’t seem to get those to work with my version. I used to have the retail version, but I lost the discs and I think that’s the version that I need. I’ve since replaced it with a different version, which doesn’t seem to support the user-generated maps. Again, maybe I’m missing something. You can make your own maps, but I don’t have the patience for that.

The physics can also seem a little unrealistic. I’ve laid track that’s had an unusual grade, almost going straight up at times, and the trains will still make it. I’ve never had a train not make it up any grade. It is sometimes hard to lay the track, though, and this doesn’t seem to be based on grade or anything else. Sometimes, it’s something obvious like a house. Other times, I just have to keep moving the mouse around to find a position that’s agreeable with the computer. It’s frustrating when you want to have a track go a certain way.

It is a somewhat addictive game. I’ll play for a while and love it, then get bored with it only to come back to it a few weeks later. One of my favorite things to do is to have computer players start companies and eventually acquire them. I don’t know why this is. Maybe it’s having the computer do some of the work or maybe it’s the challenge of acquiring enough capital to actually acquire them. There are still a few aspects I haven’t tried, like the Internet and LAN play. (Being that I only have the one version currently, it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing LAN any time soon.)

I give the game four stars. The controls are easy to use, but like I said, it would probably be best to play the sandbox mode, even for a few minutes. You can change your view from close up to far away, and this might be distracting at first. The only thing I’d really add to the game is a random scenario generator. I know it may get a bit distracting to have Berlin, Tokyo and Houston close together, but it can get boring playing the same set of maps over and over again. 

IMDb page

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Many years ago, a game called Grand Theft Auto came out. I didn’t remember hearing much about it, but it was successful enough to warrant a sequel, aptly called GTA 2. Then game GTA 3. GTA 3 was the one that got all of the attention. There was violence, sex, crime, prostitution, gang warfare and all sorts of stuff that conservatives didn’t like. The game got a lot of publicity, which generated more sales. Had it not been for this publicity, I probably never would even heard of the game; instead of never knowing about it, I got a copy.

You’d think that with all of the negative publicity, that would have been the end of it, but there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Rockstar games came out with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, set in a fictionalized version of Miami, Florida. Tommy Vercetti has been released from prison in Liberty City and is sent down to Vice City, Florida, to take part in a drug deal for the Forelli crime family. Things go horribly wrong and Vercetti loses both the money and the drugs. To boot, he has a paranoid lawyer named Ken Rosenberg as his contact in Vice City. Both of them go back to the lawyer’s place to sort things out. Vercetti is set up with a place to stay while in town. Vercetti calls back north to explain what happened. He swears vengeance on those that did this.

That’s where you come in; you are Vercetti. You start out helping the lawyer with various things. (You intimidate jurors, for instance.) Eventually, you star meeting other people, such as Avery Carrington, who’s in the construction business. You eventually meet Lance Vance, who also wants vengeance; his brother was killed in the deal that went bad. You’ll meet several major characters that will have missions for you. The characters are represented on the map by either a letter or an icon on a minimap located at the bottom of your screen. Usually, you’ll have more than one at a time, allowing you to alternate if you get bored easily.

As with GTA 3, you can’t save while on a mission. While on a mission, you’ll be given instructions as you go along. If you die or get caught by the police, you’ll fail and have to start over. (You can try as many times as you need to.) As with After you complete a mission, you’ll get a reward. (Remember that the game takes place in the 80’s. You’re being rewarded in 80’s money.) When a person has run out of things for you to do, that icon will disappear.

There are two main islands with three smaller islands. As with GTA 3, you have to unlock certain parts of the map, but this is done much more quickly. Also, the overall area is much bigger. You won’t find yourself running out of places to go any time soon. Also, the number of random people has increased. There are even several types of prostitutes. (Yes, they’re back, but they don’t seem to do much for your health this time.)

You can also buy properties. (Each of the available properties will have a circle with a house in it. You stand in this circle and press tab.) Some of them will have a set of missions similar to the ones that the major characters give you. (Kaufman Cab Company has several taxi-related missions. The Moneyworks location has you getting things like plates so that you can counterfeit money.) Those that have missions will usually generate money once you’ve completed all of your missions. You have to collect this money every day, or else it will max out. Eventually, this gets to be a nuisance. You’ll eventually have so much money that you’ll find that you won’t bother. It would be nice if you could collect all of the money at Vercetti Estates or something.

So far as I know, the Malibu Night Club and Moneyworks are the only ones that are necessary for you to buy. If there’s any mission location that still has necessary missions for you to do, the icon for that location will be present on your minimap at all times. Otherwise, it will only be visible when you approach it. All of the locations that you buy will also serve as a save point and some will even allow you to park cars there. (Once you purchase a property, it will be indicated by a cassette, just like your first property except for those that have missions, such as the Malibu Night Club.) Once you buy a property, it’s yours. I recommend buying as many as you can find. You’ll need as many save points you can get.

As in GTA 3, there are also side missions you can do, such as getting a police car and doing vigilante missions, getting an ambulance and bringing injured people to the hospital or getting a taxi and finding fares. There’s also delivering pizzas, which wasn’t available to you in GTA 3. If that wasn’t enough, there are still rampages hidden throughout the map. Look for the circle with a skull in it and you’re given a weapon (or told to find one) and kill a certain number of a certain type of person. For instance, you may be told to find a car and run over 25 gang members. You may be given a katana and told to kill 20 pedestrians. This point raised even more controversy than GTA 3 because you’re told which gang to kill. (The two main gangs are the Cubans and the Haitians.)

Most of the missions are more than just following the instructions. You’ll be told what you have to do, but you’ll find that the obvious strategy doesn’t always work. You may have to try two or three times to get it right.

To get around Vice City, you always have the option of walking. If you get tired of walking, as I often did, you have the option of stealing a car. There is a huge variety to choose from. (Everything about Vice City is much better than GTA 3.) You have full-sized cars, motorcycles, emergency vehicles and three types of cab to choose from. (Be careful using the motorcycles. If you run into something, you go flying off and get hurt.) Each car has its advantages and disadvantages. (Some are great at acceleration while others handle better.)

There are also helicopters and boats if you are so inclined. I have to warn you that helicopters are difficult to master. However, you will want to get used to flying the helicopter. (What they don’t tell you in the instructions is that you have to use the keypad to go forward. It took me a while to figure this out.) Although the skill isn’t necessary to beat the game, it does help. There are also several side missions that require the use of a helicopter.

While I’m on the subject of cars, you have a better radio selection, including two talk stations. Rockstar games was able to use a lot of 80’s music for the game, including “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson and the German version of 㧏 Red Balloons”. Again, PC users have an advantage over the PS2 users in that we can have an MP3 station. I’d suggest listening to all of the radio stations. The credits listed a lot of people involved into putting the stations together and they did a great job. I hope that they’re reading this because I’d like to be able to tell them how many hours of enjoyment I got out of the stations. (Actually, everyone involved with this game did a great job. Players that pay attention to details will get a lot of enjoyment out of Vice City.)

Your selection of weapons has improved, also. You now have several blades to select from. The down side is that you can only have one of each type of weapon. For instance, the baseball bat, chain saw and blades are included in one type. If you want to change that type of weapon, you stand on the new weapon in that category and hit tab. (I liked it better the old way, too.) To scroll through your weapons, you can use the mouse wheel.

Speaking of weapons, Vice City, like Liberty City, has hidden packages. As the name would indicate, they’re hidden. For every ten packages that you get, a weapon will appear in one of three locations: Your original save point, one of the buildings that you buy and Vercetti Estates. (The property that you buy is the one with roof access. As for Vercetti Estates, you get that later in the game.) This is another area that the helicopter comes in useful. Some of the packages require a helicopter to access. I highly recommend getting at least 70 of the hidden packages. (The last 30 lead to vehicles.) The first ten, if I’m not mistake, leads to body armor. The next set of ten leads to a chainsaw. After that, you get other weapons like guns.

There are also weapons scattered throughout the map. You’ll come to learn where these are. In any mission that you do, you will be given access to weapons if you need them. There are also stores like Ammu-Nation, where you can buy weapons if you want. I absolutely loved the katana, which was only available in one location. Unfortunately, I had to give up access to it in one of the missions. (Oh, well. It’s just a game.)

As you play, you’ll learn different things that you need to play the game. The wanted level is one of the first things you learn about. You have anywhere from zero to six stars, indicating your wanted level. With one star, police will only chase you if you happen to come across them. With six, the army comes after you. There are three ways to get rid of stars. You’ll see circles with a police badge in side. This is referred to as a cop bribe and will reduce your wanted level by one. (Learn where these are.) If you have either one or two stars, you can get a change of clothes to get rid of your wanted level. These are indicated by circles with a blue shirt inside. Finally, any level can be made to go away by visiting a Pay-And-Spray, which gives you a new coat of paint and a new engine. The disadvantage is that you can’t use certain cars, such as police cars. The alternative is either getting busted or dying, either of which will cost some money and you’ll lose all of your weapons.

The graphics and interface are very similar to GTA 3. Those that have played it will take to this game very quickly. If not, you might want to mess around at first to get used to the controls. You don’t have to have played GTA 3 to play this one nor will playing this one ruin GTA 3 for you, should you decide to try it. (Actually, having played Vice City first, GTA 3 might look like a stripped-down version of Vice City.) My only major complaint is that there’s still no multiplayer. I’m hoping that San Andreas has this problem solved in the PC version. I really want a multiplayer version of GTA.

I would suggest watching “Scarface” before you play. You’ll be amazed at how many similarities there are. Everyone that I know of that’s played this game and watched “Scarface” agrees that the makers of this game must have been a fan. (Those that have played GTA 3 and seen “Scarface” will notice a marked similarity between the soundtracks.)

Now, you may be wondering exactly how similar Vice City is to Miami. After all, I’ve spent most of my life here. I have to say that I’m impressed. I even recognize a few of the landmarks. Washington Mall is similar to Bayside Marketplace. North Point Mall, with its cheesy muzak, reminds me of Aventura Mall. If you’re willing to take a boat out, you can find Stiltsville near the marina. (For those that don’t know, Stiltsville is the name given to a collection of houses that were built out in the water. They’re propped up by wooden stilts. They gained notoriety a few years ago because the city wanted to condemn them and tear them down. I highly recommend that you visit this area.)

Another point of interest is Sunshine Autos. If you go behind and below the showroom, you’ll find a place to bring stolen cars. You’ll be given a list of six cars at a time. There are four lists, which you can either get from friends or find online. If you find a car on a list you’re not on yet, you can use the garage to save them, assuming you’ve purchased the property. You’ll also find drag races that you can enter. This is great practice for one of the missions that I found extremely difficult. Towards the end, you have to race someone so that they’ll be your getaway driver during a bank robbery. Despite all of the advice and tips, they only way to win this race is to simply win it. No amount of trickery or cheating seems to help.

I hope that I covered enough. I couldn’t possibly do the game justice with words, even though this review contains over 2,000 of them. As I indicated before, it pays to pay attention to the details. There are a lot of jokes dealing with the 80’s and with Miami. There are all sorts of scooters, which are still popular on Miami Beach. In the intro, you’ll also see a screen that resembles the Commodore 64. Also look for stores like Gash. The real fun of the game is in such details. You can go through the missions and that may be enough for you, but you’re missing half of the fun. All I can say in closing is that you shouldn’t buy into the negative hype. After all, it’s just a game.

IMDb page

Rise of Nations for PC

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

For years, I’ve played Age of Empires. I won’t go into the details of Age of Empires here since this is a review of Rise of Nations except to say that the two games are very similar. If you have Age of Empires, you’re probably asking why you should buy this game. Is it really worth spending all of that money just to get a better game? Yes.

I want to warn you that this review is going to seem like it rambles. That’s because there’s so much information that I want to convey that it’s extremely difficult to organize. I’ve left out a few things and there are a lot of things that I’m still discovering about the game. The game itself is very easy to learn, especially if you’ve played other similar games.

Before I get into the technical details of why Rise of Nations is better that the others, it would help to explain what the game is. There are a variety of different games, but the basic idea is to take over a given map. (It’s sort of like the board game Risk.) There are tutorials, which have a slightly different spin and are designed to familiarize you with game play, but even then, you’re still working towards world domination. You get to choose from 18 different races. Each has it’s own advantage. Maybe you gather resources more quickly or you have a higher population limit. The attraction depends on how you like to play.

There are a variety of ways you can play, but I find that most people tend to stick to one type. I usually play what’s called a Quick Battle. It’s very similar to the multiplayer mode, which I play when I can. (That’s one of the advantages of having a home network.) There are various ways to win. You can have a strict conquest, which is where you try to eliminate enemies through war. You can also do it where you build wonders. I think you can even do it on a strict point basis. It’s up to you. (I’d recommend starting with a conquest until you get used to the game.) You can also choose the terrain type or have the computer choose a random variety. You can have it select from all of the map types or chose from the land maps, the water maps, etc. The computer will generate a random map based on what you want.

You start with one city, one library, one scout, a lumber mill, three farms, and several workers. From there, you build and expand. (Some races have bonuses that allow them to start with more, though.) With the library, you progress through ages. Farms are used for food and lumber mills, which have to be built near forests, are used for gathering wood. You have to build mines to gather metal and you have to build lumber camps to gather wood. These building set limits on how many units can gather each resource; if you want to gather more, you have to obtain more of these buildings. Each type of building has an auxiliary building. For instance, mines have smelting plants. The auxiliary buildings help out the workers by allowing them to gather resources more efficiently, sometimes doubling or even tripling output. One thing that you’ll like sometimes and hate at other times is the way idle workers will automatically go to work if there’s a vacant slot nearby. This is great if you want to create citizens and set them to work, but not if you want them to build things.

Also, there’s a display that shows you how many slots are available for each task. That helps, but there’s no easy way to tell where the available slots are. Every building has a hot key. For instance, X will rotate among the missile silos; C rotates between city centers; TAB rotates among buildings that have upgrades available. It would just be nice to have available workers go to any open slot regardless of proximity.

You can only build within your territory, which is marked by your color. (There’s a minimap that shows where you are.) If you’re near the border and you build something that expands your territory, there’s a border that actually moves. If you’re neighboring another nation, their border retreats accordingly. (Or advances when they build something.)

You have a limit on the number of towns you can build and there are other buildings, like farms and universities, which have limits based on the number of towns you have set up. (Usually, it’s five farms and one university per town.) Others, like oil rigs, have to be set up on certain spots. (When you go to set up an oil rig, you’re automatically taken to the nearest oil field. It took me a while to figure out what was going on.)

As you progress through the ages at the library, you’ll get access to better buildings and troops. Military research, for instance, is one of the ways to get certain types of new buildings. It also increases the population limit. Civic research allows for more cities to be built. With enough research, you can do all sorts of things. Around the sixth age, you gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

You can allow for anywhere up to 200 to be your maximum population, but some races will allow for more and you can even build wonders, which might increase the cap. (There are many ‘wonders’ including a pyramid, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower. Unlike Age of Empires, the wonders in Rise of Nations do something. In some cases, they allow for limits to be bumped up. Others generate free units or expand borders.) As for the units, Rise of Nations is a little better than other games I’ve played.

There are other types of games. I don’t really have the patience for a lot of them, but it’s only fair to at least mention them. In some games, you can take over the world in a manner similar to Risk. You have to take over one country at a time until you control the world. There are also tutorials and, as I said, multiplayer. (The only option available for multiplayer is similar to the quick battle.) There are also scenarios similar to Warcraft. For single player, there’s one difficulty for all of your opponents; for multiplayer, you can have a different difficulty setting for each computerized opponent.

The ‘moderate’ setting seems to be where it starts to get challenging. Usually on the ‘easy’ setting, I can beat four opponents. (There’s also an ‘easiest’ setting.) I’d recommend playing a game on easy or easiest to get the feel of the game. Moderate will probably be too difficult for someone that’s still getting the feel of the game. I’ve been playing for a few weeks now and I’m still discovering things about it.

Using the sound is bearable, which is something I couldn’t say for Warcraft. The music was all right, but the repetitious nature of the monologue annoyed me. Most characters had no more than about three lines they said when you clicked on them, and there were a few that you clicked on a lot. “All right,” gets annoying after the 1,000th time. Rise of Nations did away with that, which is a big improvement.

What did get on my nerves were these dialogue boxes that kept popping up to announce major events, like someone advancing to the next age. I still haven’t figured out how to turn this off. Also, you can’t change your capital. (That gets fixed in the upgrade, but that’s for another review.)

The one thing that I absolutely want to warn you about is the amount of resources you’ll need on your computer. I have a relatively new Dell Dimension 2400. It has a 74.4 GB hard drive, a 2.4 GHz Pentium? 4 processor and 256 MB of RAM. The game stalls quite a bit. When I play multiplayer over a LAN, it’s usually my computer that’s the weakest link. I put SETI@home so that it’s not always processing, but that doesn’t usually help much. My brother’s computer seems to be able to handle it. If you have a really good computer, go for it IF not, wait to upgrade. I’m looking into doubling my RAM.

Barrow Hill for PC

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

I got Barrow Hill a long time ago.  I was in the market to get something different.  It looked interesting enough.  You have to uncover the secrets of a small town.  Little did I know that it was a puzzle game that was pretty much impossible to solve without serious help.

The game begins with you driving a car through an area called Barrow Hill.  Your car suddenly stalls and you can’t walk back to where you came from.  This means that you have to walk into town where you find a gas station/restaurant/hotel.  When you approach it, you find a running car, but no people around.  When you go into the lobby of the restaurant/gas station, you find someone hiding in the office.  He’ll only open the window for a minute or two and tell you something, sometimes vital to continue, sometimes not.

There are other areas to the game, such as a broken-down jeep and another building, but you have to find a lantern and a book of matches first.  The guy in the office says that he has the lantern, but doesn’t open up to give it to you; you have to figure out that the lantern is in another room next to an empty matchbox.  (You have to go elsewhere to actually find matches.)

There are plenty of things to look at from pamphlets and brochures to cupcakes.  The pamphlets, brochures, notebooks and other written material often have useful information, but there’s no way to tell what’s what.  It’s like those word problems you got in high school where they’d give you five sentences, but only four were necessary to solve the problem.  Here, you’re given maybe 20 pages of stuff, but only two or three sentences may be necessary.

For instance, there are phone numbers on some brochures.  When you finally get a cell phone to use, you can call the numbers only to get answering machines.  What’s frustrating is that you can’t take any of the written material with you.  You have to either write down large quantities of information and hope that some of it is useful or hope that you remember where you left the necessary information.

I ended up quitting only because I kept having to use a walkthrough to get to the next stage.  It was so frustrating to have to quit the game, go online and jot down the next few steps only to realize that I was stuck again.  There are no in-game clues and the guy in the office was rarely helpful.  There was one instance where he gave me a code for one of the hotel rooms.  Beyond that, he would go into paranoid rants about how something was out to get him.  (If you didn’t do anything new, it was often the same rant as before, making it very repetitive.)

There were also several radios that had to be tuned to a certain station for you to get important information, but you couldn’t take any radios with you and the information also tended to be repetitive until you were able to progress in the game.  (I found that not being able to take important items with me made the game very difficult.)

Progressing through the game was hindered by the fact that you’re playing the game at night, so everything is dark.  You need to get the lamp working to be able to progress to several new areas.  Every time you go to one of these areas, the game doesn’t automatically take out the lamp for you.  You have to open up your inventory again.  Also, since it’s dark, you can’t always make everything out.  There were several times that I knew something was in a certain area, but I had to move the mouse over the entire screen to find the item or I realized that I was looking in the wrong area or facing the wrong direction.

The game is what’s called point and click, which means that you have a series of images that you move through.  You can usually rotate 90 degrees at a time by clicking the cursor on the left or right.  To move up or down, you sometimes have to zoom in on something to be able to get to the appropriate screen, which made movement awkward.  One thing that I found especially awkward was that you can’t step backwards.  This means that you have to turn around 180 degrees to go back where you came from.

The rendering definitely could have been better, especially where the guy in the room was concerned.  When you dealt with him, he was represented by a few still images that changed to give the impression of him moving around.  It was very choppy and exaggerated.  (So far as I know, you never get to see yourself, so there was just the one character you had to look at.)

The buildings and other objects weren’t that bad.  Many of the items looked realistic, but the scenery was often dark and it was hard to tell if there was a pathway outside or if it was just too dark to see anything.  When I was inside, I was could often see everything.  At least, I thought so.  I don’t know if I was missing anything important.

The reason I quit was that the game was difficult on pretty much every level.  The lack of characters to interact with means that you’re on your own.  There’s no one to give you important information.  There’s no one to care about.  I sort of figured out that you have to hunt for an archaeological team which seems to have disappeared, but may have just fun off with everyone else unless they disappeared, too.

The game is a little creepy, but not very much.  There was one moment when a bird flew out of nowhere and startled me.  Other than that, leaves were rustling and wind was blowing.  That was about as scary as it got.  Overall, there was no emotional investment.

This was the second game I’ve played recently where everyone disappeared, but I didn’t really care what happened to the people of Barrow Hill.  I bought the game for $20 and I have to say that it was pretty much a waste.  I can’t seem to find any stores that will let me sell it to them.  I’m hoping that I can at least get some of the money back by writing a review here. 

Official Site

Trailer

Keepsake for PC

Note:  This review was originally posted on Epinions.  It has been modified slightly here

Many years ago, while shopping in EBX at the mall, I was looking for some video games for the PC.  I ended up buying two games, one of which was Keepsake.  It looked pretty interesting.  For $20, it looked like it might be worth it.

The story goes that Lydia (the character that you play as) is going to Dragonvale Academy to study magic.  She’s expecting to be greeted by Celeste, her best friend since childhood.  As soon as you start, you’re greeted by Mustavio, a merchant that tells you how the controls work and what all the icons mean.

When you arrive at Dragonvale, you find the place deserted.  This is odd, considering that there should be hundreds of people there.  There’s no sign of Celeste or anyone else.  Upon looking around, you meet Zak.  He appears to be a dog, but he claims that he is, or rather was, a dragon.  He was tricked into drinking a potion that made appear as he does now.  Upon letting him out, he follows you around and serves as someone to talk to throughout the story.

This isn’t so much a video game as it is an interactive story.  Lydia and Zak have to go around and figure out what happened, doing a series of tasks and solving a bunch of puzzles.   Along the way, you have to interact with a few characters that you meet.  You do get to interact with Mustavio a few times as well as the ghost of the academy’s founder.  Interaction comes in the form of predetermined questions that you click on to ask.  (Think back to older video games that had no AI, but rather used the same manner of interaction.)

Occasionally, you’ll have some random in-game dialogue with Zak or a hallucination that furthers the story.  With the dialogue, it’s usually Zak providing useful information about an area or Lydia wondering where everyone is.  The hallucinations are memories of Celeste that give some back story, but not much.

I found the game lacking throughout most of the story.  What little dialogue there was came across as kind of corny and not well thought out.  Mustavio, for instance, was kind of like Mario when he talked and kept wondering where the students were.  Also, Zak’s voice varied in volume.  Several points in the game, I was reading the text rather than listening to what he was saying because I couldn’t hear him.

One big issue I had was that the camera angle was always fixed.  This meant that you couldn’t look around and enjoy the scenery or get a sense of where you were.  This proved to be a problem because I would often not have a good sense of where I was.  Had I been able to look up or down, I might have realized sooner that there was a quicker way to get to where I needed to be.

Yes, there’s a map, but it’s more for general reference than to let you know specifically where you are.  When you’re in a room, the game will show you which section of rooms you’re in.  It’s up to you to orient yourself and figure out which way you have to go.  As someone that doesn’t have a good sense of direction, this meant having to run around more than necessary.

This leads me to another issue.  The academy is big.  There are a lot of rooms and you often had to go across the whole area to get to the next puzzle.  I realize that lining everything up in a row makes for an unimaginative game, but there’s no option to click on something and just go there.

In the second part of the game, you have teleportation platforms, but they’re paired off, meaning that A leads to B and B leads back to A.  I’d often have to go through several to get where you’re going.  It would have been easier to have platforms that could take you to any other room.

Also, the video quality varied greatly.  The characters didn’t look that good.  It looked like technology from 20 years ago.  The backgrounds were almost photographic in quality at times and blurry at others.  I don’t want to say that the designers could have done better because it does work towards a certain effect, but the characters could have at least been better.

As for the difficulty of the puzzles, that varied, also.  The first puzzle was fairly easy.  It was apparently designed to get you accustomed to using the game interface.  From there, they vary from somewhat easy to pretty much impossible.

Each puzzle gives you three clues which you can access with a question mark at the bottom left corner of the screen.  The first clue tells you what you’re supposed to be doing.  The second one usually tells you something more, like how the controls work.  The third will tell you a good part of what you need to do.  If that doesn’t work, you have the option of having the game just do the puzzle for you.  Out of a dozen or so puzzles, I had to use this option two or three times.

The entire story was difficult.  There was usually little or no indication what you were supposed to do.  I did fund out that if you click the question mark during game play, the game will tell you where you’re supposed to be next.  I had to use this a lot.  I’d probably have gotten as far as finding Zak and quit the game in frustration.  Because of this, I was able to finish the game in about a week.  (You’re looking at maybe 6-10 hours of actual game play, but it’s hard to say.  It depends mostly on how difficult you find the puzzles.)

The story wasn’t that compelling.  At first, you’re wondering where everyone is and you’re hoping to find someone other than Mustavio and Zak.  You get a ghost.  That’s it.  It gets boring after a while.  After an hour or two of game play, I was really playing just to find out what happened to everyone.  When I did find out, it was short and kind of sad.  (I mean sad in a tear-jerking kind of way.  I won’t ruin it for you if you want to play the whole thing.)

The game just ended.  For those that have played games like GTA, you’re usually allowed to continue playing in a sandbox mode.  With Keepsake, Zak tells you the epilogue.  This takes about two minutes.  Then, you get the credits (which you can’t escape out of, apparently) and you’re back to the main menu.

I’d recommend this only under two conditions.  One, if you can find it for less than $10.  Two, you should expect to play it as a distraction rather than as a main game.  I can’t say that I regret playing it, but I can’t say that it was great.  It definitely had potential.  This is one of those cases where a remake would be in order.


Keepsake PC Game Trailer

Grand Theft Auto = Daft Rate Nought

Note:  This is a review I posted on Epinions on 8/2/2005. A few appropriate modifications have been made.



The first Grand Theft Auto game I played was GTA 3, and I have to say that I was hooked. I went and got Vice City, which was even better. Shortly before the PC release of San Andreas, I went and got this package of the three original GTA games: GTA, GTA: London and GTA 2. I knew that the original GTA was a low-budget game, but I was overwhelmed with nostalgia. I had to have this game.

The game is even lower budget than I remember. (Actually, I realized that I was remembering GTA 2.) It’s a very simple game. You go over to a bank of four payphones to get set of missions. As you complete each mission, you get money. If you complete a set of missions, you get a multiplier bonus, so when you kill someone or steal a car, the score that you’d normally get is multiplied. (Rewards for missions aren’t affected.) When you complete all four of those missions, new banks of payphones open up. As I mentioned, you can also get money by doing things like killing and stealing and wreaking havoc. Once you get $1,000,000, you get to move on to the next city.

I never got to see one of those other cities. The problem is that the game isn’t that interesting. The main problem is that you can’t save. I don’t know why the game was designed like this, but it was. Other reviewers on Epinions have complained that the game is repetitive after a while. It gets really repetitive when you have to play the same four missions over and over again. It gets really frustrating when you get up to 890,000 points and die for the last time. (You get four lives, but you can get extra lives throughout the city.)

You can get arrested as many times as you want. As you kill and steal, you’ll get a wanted level. The higher your wanted level, the more aggressive the police get. The only way to get the police off your tail is with an auto shop, and those are difficult to find. (It’s either that or getting killed.) If you are arrested, you lose any guns you’ve picked up and your multiplier is cut in half, rounding down.

It also took me a while to figure out how to get guns and stuff. When I first played, all I knew was that I was getting these guns. I eventually figured out that they were in these crates. Also in the crates were get-out-of-jail-free cards, extra lives and kill frenzies. (With a kill frenzy, you’ve given a certain amount of time to kill a certain number of people or destroy a certain number of vehicles.)

I can’t recommend buying this game unless you’re a die-hard GTA fan. The graphics are extremely bad by today’s standards. The view is from above; if you pass under something, all you get is an arrow indicating which direction you’re going in. Also, the only thing to really do is go around doing the missions. Yeah, I know that I said that you could do the kill frenzies and stuff, but that’s not going to get you to the next city. The game gets very boring after a while.

I give it three stars. It was a great distraction when I first got it, but I’ve already moved on. I had hoped to be able to play GTA: London, but it’s actually an expansion for this game. I’m not even going to bother with it. I’ve already started with Grand Theft Auto 2.