PC & Mac Reviews

Hola amigos! Est?° bien? Bueno, y bienvenidos Tropico! Tropico, a new game from Pop Top software is, when you get right down to itm a traditional city-building sim, in the same vein as Caesar, but the action is stylishly displayed in a political shell and a Carribean flavor. This game has heart and this is what ultimately is Tropico's greatest achievements.

The Dark Age of Camelot universe has expanded once again with their third retail expansion. While the previous two packs added new, exotic lands to explore, this pack focuses on the dungeon crawl experience; it even adds new life to the old game world. Throw in 5 new classes and instanced dungeons, and you get a slick addition to an already robust game.

Well, finally Mother Nature has decided to let me play Mythic's "Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs." Upon receiving the "Catacombs" expansion, I quickly installed it only to not be able to play because of work. Well, as soon as I sit down for a long day of playing, Mother Nature has to start in and just kill my excitement. We have an ice storm that knocks out power, cable and internet for FIVE days. Talk about torture. Of course, power is the first thing restored. Cable and internet came a day later. So, it was off to the races to play, and let me tell you, I was impressed.

When I get my hands on a new MMOG, I can usually sit there and play for months and months without getting bored. However after a few months of play, I will eventually run out of things to do or get tired of the normal level grinding. Most Massively Multiplayer Online Games offer very little to do other than kill monsters, gain experience, repair items, buy new equipment, and do the same thing over and over again. Sure these games can be fun but normally only if you are playing with a bunch of people you know. However, Blizzard sought out to do something a bit different with World of WarCraft. Not since 1997's Ultima Online have I been this much in love with a MMOG.

Valve continues to hold their long-standing reputation for publishing quality games, and Counter-Strike: Source is no exception. With the recent gold status of Half-Life 2, Valve has decided to release this ever-so popular mod to their impatient community. Without a doubt, Source builds upon the successes that made the original Counter-Strike mod one of the most played first-person shooters of its time. For those familiar with Counter-Strike on the old and horribly outdated Half-Life 1 engine, you will be in for a great surprise! The masterminds behind Source have created a new engine with superb graphics, sound, and even the beloved rag doll physics. Of course, no game is perfect when it is first released, and Source did and still does have some bugs and performance issues that require fixing. Within this review I'm going to tackle the main points that every game should be graded on, those which include: graphics, game play, sound, fun factor, etc?Ķ

At E3 2004, one of the quiet little titles that really caught our eye was Missing: Since January. This is a PC adventure game that attempts to give the genre a shot in the arm. Anyone who keeps up with the status of the Adventure genre will tell you that it is filled with numerous Myst clones and rarely bring anything new to the table. However, this is not the case with Missing: Since January. While it isn't the best adventure game every developed, it is worth picking up due to the cleverness of the title and the low retail price point of $19.99.

Right now, most of the hoopla around star publisher UbiSoft seems to revolve around their fantastic new title Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. However, the company has also recently published another high quality title that may be somewhat overshadowed by the Splinter Cell name. The game is FarCry, a PC first person shooter developed by Crytek. In this case, the team at Crytek did a fantastic job and hit virtually every aspect of the game dead on.

Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 is a sim that's dedicated to one thing, and one thing only. Trains. No budgeting, no competition with other industries, no crazy balancing of interests. The guys at Auran are interested in only one thing, and that is those crazy trains. Be sure and count how many times I use that word in this review, because I imagine it's going to be a lot.

One of the big things that Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) has going for it is the ingenious way that it handles player against player combat. Instead of always worrying that someone is going to walk up behind you and start beating you down with a big stick, you only have those types of worries when you go out in the realm-versus-realm (RvR) zones. Keeping player combat and monster combat (PvE or player-versus-environment) separate allows players the luxury of picking what they feel like doing. To paraphrase the Almond Joy jingle: "Sometimes you feeling like smacking players, sometimes you don't."

When World War two games are brought up, immediately Medal of Honor springs to mind. Medal of Honor has made a name for itself across all platforms. However, the folks at Activision have teamed up with the same developers who brought you Medal of Honor to deliver an even better World War two game.