Hitting the Sweet Spot

He’s a bald geezer with a barcode tattooed onto the back of his burly neck, but somehow he still manages to walk in the shadows and dispose of his targets with deadly efficiency. I am of course talking about Codename 47, who has returned to dish out some harsh justice in Hitman 2: The Silent Assassin. Step into the genetically engineered shoes of uber hitman 47 for some stealth and sinister underbelly of society type shenanigans. When the game begins, 47 has hung up his silencer and retreated to the confines of a Sicilian monastery. But local mobsters have discovered … Continue reading Hitting the Sweet Spot

The Great Escapes

To me Prisoner of War was marketed as a cross between the movie Stalag 17 and the TV show Hogan’s Heroes for the computer. As a fan of both, when I saw that it was coming out, I ran to my editor and begged to be the reviewer. He is also a fan of the show and the movie, so we worked out a compromise, he agreed to take a look at the PC version, and the Xbox version was all mine. I figured it was a fair trade and I was not disappointed. The game is set during World … Continue reading The Great Escapes

Russian Fairy Tales

Sometimes a puzzle game will come out where the entire purpose is to solve puzzles. While I could be perfectly happy solving puzzles all day long, I crave some atmosphere and story and characterization intermingled with good puzzles. Fortunately for me, there are games like Jazz & Faust. Jazz & Faust is a puzzle/adventure game set in a fantasy environment with medieval and Arabian Nights -style elements. In it you play one of the two title characters as you try to unravel a mystery and achieve an ancient treasure. The trick is, once you have solved one of the character’s … Continue reading Russian Fairy Tales

Commandos 2 Die For

Real-Time Strategy games rarely appear on consoles. Though the games are huge successes on PC’s, the genre has never really successfully crossed over to the console format. Attempts have been made of course, but the only one that ever really sold well was Starcraft for the N64. Despite all of this, companies still periodically make attempts to bring RTS’ to the console format, as is the case Eidos’ latest offering, Commandos 2. The game, developed by Pyro Studios, is a great entry in the RTS genre, although it is plagued by many of the same things that have held console … Continue reading Commandos 2 Die For

Battlegrounds Makes Combat Fun

Ever play a Real Time Strategy game? Red Alert? Empire Earth? Age of Empires? Starcraft? Warcraft? GOOD! Then you are ready to take controls of Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds – Lucas Arts’ new real time strategy game based in the world of Star Wars. If not then you will need to go through the whole tutorial before you are ready rather than just the last few missions. Is it a ground breaking new game? Not in the least. Does that really matter? Not to me in the slightest. If a game is fun to play I will play it no … Continue reading Battlegrounds Makes Combat Fun

It’s WWII, Woo Style

After months of incessantly playing Medal of Honor, it seemed like nothing would break the spell that game had over the local LAN. With interest in World War II at a recent high with the release of Band of Brothers on DVD, it seemed that anything that would topple MoH would have to be WWII themed. When Battlefield 1942 arrived, the battle was pretty much over. Battlefield 1942 is at its heart a multiplayer game. There is not much of a single player game to speak of, so don’t expect a rich storyline or complex mission goals like in MoH. … Continue reading It’s WWII, Woo Style

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

In the week that Pro Evolution Soccer makes a welcome return to every soccer-loving gamer’s console, I review the latest offering from Lego. Let’s go have a kick about in Lego Land. The premise here is a soccer (oh, for goodness sake, I’m gonna call it "football", so just deal with it), a football game comprising Lego men. Well, I thought to myself, this could be quite cute and with Lego’s reputation for good quality games, my hopes were high. Just for thoroughness I tested both the PC and the GBA versions. Both games run along the same lines, so … Continue reading Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Breeching the walls, again

One of the greatest things about being a reviewer is that sometimes people actually listen to you. Stronghold: Crusader is the follow-up title to the original Stronghold game reviewed by GiN about a year ago. Anyhow, just about everything that I said needed fixed from the original title has been improved here. Of course I am sure I was not the only reviewer who brought up some missing features, but at least I was among the crowd calling for change. The Stronghold series bills itself as a castle-building simulation. While this is a good description, it is worth noting that … Continue reading Breeching the walls, again

Watchmaker's Clockwork Mystery

The Watchmaker is the latest offering from Got Game Entertainment, and while it has a great deal of potential, it only lives up to part of it. You play two characters: Victoria Conroy (lawyer) and Darrel Boone (paranormal expert), who meet at 3:00 in a London law office, where you are briefed on the mission. Apparently an item of potentially dangerous power, a pendulum, has been stolen, and the castle you are about to go to is one of the suspected hiding places. Of course, your mission is to find out what you can, and hopefully recover the pendulum. The … Continue reading Watchmaker's Clockwork Mystery

Icewind Dale II is Cool Combat

Normally I review the so-called hardcore RPG games. You know, the ones where you have about 30 different quests going on at the same time, have to concentrate on party interaction, follow main, romance and side quests and generally take a lot of notes. I never got into the Icewind Dale series because I was told they were hack and slash titles, with lots of combat but not much role-playing. Another staff member told me that they were actually pretty good and wanted to know if I wanted to try my hand at reviewing it. He assured me that I … Continue reading Icewind Dale II is Cool Combat