Terminator 3: War of the Machines PC Review

Anyone can review a Half Life game. Nothing special about that.
But it takes a special kind of a writer to write something about a game like Terminator 3: War of the Machines.
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Ok, so at this point, I spent 10 minutes thinking about what I should write and all I can think of is – nonsense! Rubbish! Garbage! What the…!

Well, I guess I am not so special after all. Don't play this game. You might give this game as a gift to someone you hate, but apart from that I can't think of any good reason for you to buy or even pirate this game.

But since I have to write some facts about the game, here goes: it tries to be Battlefield, but it isn't.

Remember, I played it, so you don't have to.

- Bad visuals
- Bad gameplay
- Ridiculous system requirements
- Premise was good, execution was wrong

Verdict - Leave this one alone.

The Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth

I spite the unsuccessful attempts to make an action game out of this franchise, I still felt an RTS was an unusual choice for this series; perhaps this is because of my relative inexperience in RTS; Age of Empires is the only RTS game I played.

This game follows the entire story of The Lord of the Rings, not just one part. It does take liberties with the story, for example, Boromir can live through the entire campaign and even fight in Mordor depending on how you play the game. That is not necessarily a bad thing, its a lot of fun to have all your main characters fight in the ultimate battle. It is a huge game in terms of longevity and scales of battle with beautiful graphics and two long campaigns - good and evil. I felt it captured the epic sense of scale as the movies did.

You change history as either the forces of good or the forces of evil. The gameplay is a combination of turn-based campaign and real-time strategy missions. It allows you to pick your fights in the order you chose, to a certain extent. The player can control forces of good or evil and march across the Middle-Earth conquering maps along the way.

Each province has different bonus resources; one map might give you power points which can be used to power up the abilities and another might give you command points. The 3D map of Middle-Earth is very well rendered, it looks beautiful with Nazgûl flying over Mordor and such.

One feature that almost compels you to conserve your troops is that they are persistent throughout the campaign, i.e the troops you have at the end of one mission will be carried over to the next one. At times, you get to call in your allies; its a great feeling to see a huge bunch of troops coming to your rescue in missions like Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith. Preserving your troops also means that your heroes can level up, which is very crucial for victory.

I got the feeling that the some hero units are a little redundant – for example, I never used the hobbits in battle, unless I had to. I would always send them to one corner of the map and have Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimili, Faramir, Boromir do the fighting for me. Having said that, I am glad that there are as many hero units as there are.

Graphics and sound are top notch, although I missed the support for widescreen monitors. Its not a huge hindrance, but I would have liked to have it given that I have a 24 inch screen running at 1920x1200. Instead I have to run the game at 1600x1200, so the image appears a little stretched. Voice acting and sound effects are great. I believe that Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee reprised their roles. The soundtrack of the movie makes the experience so much better.

This is a fantastic game, and it somehow seems overlooked. RTS fans should definitely play this. The good campaign itself lasts over 25 hours and that’s only half the game. I definitely recommend this great game.

This review refers to only the good campaign; I never played the evil campaign.

+ Long campaign
+ Lots of hero units
+ Soundtrack
+ Voice acting
+ Combination of RTS and Turn Based gameplay
+ Huge battles (Helm’s Deep!)
+ Graphics

- Lack of widescreen support

Verdict: Must play

Quake 3: Arena Review

id software were once regarded as the top developers of FPS games on the PC. They are responsible for some of the biggest names in FPS such as Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake. Quake III: Arena took a different route to the previous Quake games. Quake and Quake II were primarily single player games with a strong multiplayer base. For the first time in the series, id software made a game that focused almost exclusively on multiplayer. Several issues of the previous games are addressed and they made a game that is going strong even after 10 years of its release.

New generation of gamers who didn't learn their history lesson, Quake III is the ultimate deathmatch experience. I have played several games with deathmatch modes - Halo, Quake 4, Doom 3, Unreal Tournament - but they are just not as good as Quake III. There is something about this game that is hard to pinpoint, its so much fun when playing on LAN with a group of friends.

The graphics engine used in Quake 3 was one of the most widely used. Call of Duty, the series that so popular on consoles now, owes its success to the id Tech 3 engine. Quake 3 was used as a benchmark for PCs for the longest time, like we would use Crysis right now. Also, the engine is extremely scalable. I first played this game in 2000 on a Pentium 3 machine with all graphics settings low at 800x600. Nine years later, on a different continent, I am playing the same game on a Intel Quad Core, GeForce 260GTX at 1920x1200. THAT is not something we find often. Diablo and Diablo II are still widely played, but they are not scalable. Quake III stands almost as if it carved in stone.

The gameplay is rudimentary, in a very good way. Imagine Pac-Man, you always go back to it. Quake III is the same for me. It is possible to play skirmish matches against the bots and I've been playing 3 minute deathmatch rounds for years now. Its the perfect game for me when I want to take a short break and get some gaming done. Its a classic PC game.

Apart from deathmatch, there is Capture The Flag and Team Deathmatch as well.

The source code for Quake III is available on id Software's FTP site, and this ensures the longevity of the game – it is still played online, there are several servers to chose from. Also, there are hundreds of mods and maps available. This game is a must for any LAN party.

If I have to pick the best game ever, it would have to be a toss up between Deus Ex and Quake III: Arena.

Every FPS gamer on the PC should own a copy of this game, and for the price that it is available, there is no reason to not buy it.

+ Fast deathmatch
+ Excellent graphics
+ Scalable
+ Music

Verdict – One of the best games ever

Deus Ex Review

An unfortunate event that occurred in PC gaming is the decline of certain genres and franchises which deserved to be recognized but somehow became underrated and made a quiet exit. When I think of such franchises, Deus Ex comes to mind.

Websites all over the internet have only great things to say about this game. And yet, it hasn't become popular like other mainstream titles. This game has a target audience in mind, it's certainly not for the casual weekend gamer, nor is it for someone who is enjoys run and gun sort of gameplay.

With all this in mind, I set out to see what the game is all about.

Never having played a RPG game before this, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't think much about the game when I first started playing. I wasn't impressed with the visuals and I almost gave up playing. However I got a little curious about the RPG elements, so I decided to play a little longer.

The game was visually very unappealing and it's hard to ignore mediocre graphics. Graphics have evolved so much that we are not impressed with anything less than spectacular.The graphics in the game are just that – mediocre. They are not particularly ugly, but they are not very pretty either. The entire game takes place in night time; the atmosphere for most part is very gloomy. You either find yourself out in the open under street lights with plenty of dark shadowy regions or you are inside buildings with florescent lights. The monotony is broken a few times during the game when you enter inside some buildings which are truly breathtaking. Character models are decent, but nothing like they are now.

Having said that, the game isn't meant to be played for its graphics anyway, they serve the purpose, but nothing more. This is one of those games where the gameplay is so good that you will soon forget about the visuals. As I played the game, I got used to the dull settings, I found myself caught in the riveting gameplay.

You play as JC Denton, a human cyborg working for the UNACTO in the counter terrorism unit. The game is set in the future where the world is in turmoil. There is a deadly plague epidemic and the only cure for this disease is Ambrosia – a concoction synthesized from rare chemicals.

It does appear like a routine story where the world is chaos and in need of a savior but all is not as it seems. You will soon realize that the conspiracy runs a lot deeper and unwittingly you become the center of plot and the fate of the world actually rests on your actions. I cannot give away too much, but rest assured that the game has one of the best storylines ever. I especially like the way the story unfolded.

One of the interesting aspects of this game (like most RPG games) is that impact that your actions have on the way the game is played. In most FPS games, you play along a predetermined path and perform actions exactly the way they were meant to be performed in order to make progress. The path is very linear and there is hardly any room for freedom. In Deus Ex, there are a number of ways a certain task or level can be completed. Your earlier actions determine the way the game is played. Almost everything that you do will make a difference.

As you keep playing, you will accumulate skill points, which can be used to increase skill levels in a lot of areas, such as Pistols, Rifles, Melee attack, Medicine etc. You will play the game differently based on different upgrades. If you upgrade your Rifle skill, you can afford to attack more, if you increase your Melee skill level, then you will be able to use stealth to your advantage and be very quiet and deadly. Most of the times, you will need a combination of your skills to get through the game.

The game has to be played to grasp the significance of this concept. Having certain skills will make certain tasks easier but there will always be a compromise. So you are never a master at all the skills. There is always a balance and this determines how the game is the played.

However, you don't get skill points for using a certain skill; rather you accumulate skill points for discovering hidden areas, accomplishing goals etc, which can be used to upgrade skill to different levels. But that makes sense; the protagonist in the game isn't completely human, so skills aren't developed the traditional way. There are also several augmentations available throughout the game which will give you special abilities, like speed, vision etc. These can be upgraded throughout the game.

As a player, you have a greater role in the game than to just kill enemies and complete levels. You get to decide your own path in solving the tasks at hand. The skills that you have upgraded as well as the augmentations play a vital role in how the game progresses. Since a grouping of these factors is responsible for the gameplay, it's possible to play the game in very different ways using different styles.

NPCs play a very vital role throughout the game. Interaction with them is important and you get access codes, secondary quests, items and useful snippets of information. Although sometimes it's not mandatory, it usually helps in either understanding the game better or gathering some information that makes solving tasks a whole lot easier.

A lot of work has been put into the sound. Every location has distinct sounds, like techno music in a nightclub, eerie music when going through cemetery etc. The soundtrack is excellent and I enjoyed listening to it. It is very solid and adds to the atmosphere a great deal.

Playing Deus Ex is by far one of the most satisfying experiences in gaming. The game builds up gradually to a superb conclusion. It's a pity that we don't get to play games like these anymore. After having playing countless FPS games over the years, sometimes I long for a game that is very profound and thought provoking.

Once finished, you will carry along that feeling of having been on a remarkable journey and wonder why Deus Ex did not do well in spite of being so ground-breaking.

+ Excellent level design
+ Story
+ Music
+ Freedom to chose the type of gameplay
+ Multiple endings
+ Twist in the tale

- Visuals are not its strength

Verdict - Must play