Old PC games vs. the new ones

Elasto Mania (a.k.a. ELMA)

2007-03-16T19:53:00.000+01:00

In this game, you ride a bike, and you need to pick up apples. I know, it sounds weird, but it's very funny! Your only enemy is physics. There are many levels, and you can create your own with level editor that comes with game. Graphic isn't anything special, but that's not important with this kind of games. Only bad thing is that the game is shareware. Good thing: it's not limited. You have about 18 levels. But it's not expensive, only 9$. I heard some rumors that game become free, so I'll check this. If it's true, I'll upload full version soon.

Size: 1.08 MB
Rate: 9.5/10

Download it HERE.

Pirates: Battle for the Caribbean

2007-03-12T22:06:00.000+01:00

I heard about this game about one month ago, and madness lasted for about two weeks. You choose between British and pirate captain. Then a fortress is given to you, from where you need to destroy enemy ships. Type of missions will vary from destroying all enemy ships, destroying marked enemy ships and saving friendly ships. Very interesting is upgrading your fortress. You can speed up your cannon balls, increase damage, add more health...
When you complete campaigns, you can try "Survival mode". Name says all...
Anyway, this game is certainly worth playing. At least you will have fun for a couple of days.
One more plus: Game is free ;)

Size: About 9 MB
To download, click HERE

Important note

2007-03-04T23:06:00.000+01:00

Soon I will upload some freeware and abandonware games, which are my favorites, to this blog!

8. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault vs. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault

2007-03-02T15:51:00.000+01:00

a) MoH: Allied Assault

Allied Assault is originally ported from PS, which promises no good. But fear not, noble gamers! This game is almost the best FPS ever made for PC (ported, I mean, but who cares), except Call of Duty, maybe, but that’s other story...

Your first mission is in Africa, when you need to retake one town from Germans. Almost all missions are designed in same way, and they are linear and scripted. For example, your teammates will die when the game says so, and you can’t save them (how undemocratic...). Exception is third mission, Omaha beach. You, like many others, need to charge upon enemy bunkers and kill all Nazi’s. You even can feel small part of chaos that was present there... wow...

One more flaw is that your soldiers (teammates) will always die, leaving you to kill hordes of Germans. Where is reality here? O, shit...

Rate: 8/10

b) MoH: Pacific Assault

Pacific Assault is made in 2004, and it was horribly demanding game, but didn’t bring any revolutionary and new with it. Only some fancy effects. Battlefield is now on pacific islands, and there is one bad thing with it: boring exteriors. Green. Green. Wherever you turn, only GREEN. Man, I went insane in these jungles...

Combat system is pretty bad. It’s somewhat boring (with exceptions), soldiers are to immune to ammunition and ammo is spent unusually quickly. Weird...

Most interesting missions are in the beginning , when you control a boat, and somewhere in the middle of the game, when you control a plane. Rest is boring.

Rate: 6/10

7. Tropico vs. Tropico 2: Pirate Cove

2007-03-02T14:25:00.000+01:00

a) Tropico

Most of us think it’s easy to be a president. But when you start playing Tropico, you will certainly change your mind. Regardless of any other stated victory condition, the main goal of Tropico is to stay in power–if the island's populace disapprove of the player's actions, they may vote their leader out of office, or even stage a coup d'état (revolt). On the other side, if USA or SSSR don’t like the way you control your banana republic, they will launch an invasion on your island.

You are given absolute control of your island. To earn money, you can base you economy on tourism, industry or raw materials export (wood, coal...). You can manipulate your population as you want (imprison, eliminate, etc...) through edicts. Edicts can affect your population positively or negatively, depends on which edict you use.

That’s it. Now excuse me, I’m going to cry, because my CD is destroyed...

Rate: 9.5/10

b) Tropico 2: Pirate Cove

In Tropico, you controlled banana republic. Instead of it, in Tropico 2 you are given control of pirate nest! Earning money is now completely different. Now you need to raid settlements with your ship(s), to earn your profit. But micromanagement from Tropico is still present. You must make weapons for your pirates and keep them happy. There are two types of habitants on your island: pirates, who you need for raids and guarding, and captives, who you need for laboring. Each of them are essential, so you need to carefully balance their happiness. You use two factors to make them happy: anarchy, that makes pirates happy but doesn’t affect good on captives, and order, that makes captives happy, but make pirates nervous.

The game is pretty harder than Tropico, and it is rather complicated to successfully raise your island

Rate: 9/10

6. Blitzkrieg versus Blitzkrieg 2

2007-03-01T19:30:00.000+01:00

a) Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg is a Real-Time strategy game, happening in WW2. You can choose three sides to fight with: Germans, Allies and Soviets. There are 20 historical battles to fight, and several secondary battles. In each mission you are given specific number of troops, which you must use to defeat the enemy. There aren’t any barracks or base buildings to make a cannon fodder, so you must plan each move carefully! I believe that’s the best part of game. Reinforcements may com from time to time, but taking risks isn’t a very good idea. Each mistake is paid dearly, so take care of your troops! It’s the key to success.

There are many massive battles, so it’s great pleasure to watch a fireworks across the battlefield. You must try it, to believe it!

Rate: 9.5/10

b) Blitzkrieg 2

This is pretty good game, but only if you don’t have original Blitzkrieg installed. The game is classic RTS WW2 game with fancy graphic (but I don’t like it), new interface and that’s it. There are about 3x more missions than in Blitzkrieg, and that’s positive side. Negative side is that all of them are somewhat same. You must conquer something, or defend something, and that’s it. Another negative side is that corpses are disappearing. WTF? They are DISAPPEARING? In BLITZKRIEG? That means that few minutes after battle, no signs of it will left. Just craters in ground, but that’s not it! That and soldiers are moving somewhat weird...

Rate: 7/10

5. Black & White versus Black & White 2

2007-02-28T20:00:00.000+01:00

a) Black & White

This is really interesting and innovative PC game. You are a god, and your task is to bring down evil god, Nemesis, who wants to take control over the universe. There are five worlds. Each of them consist of bunch of villages, which you need to conquer, neither good or evil way. I personally favor evil way, because it’s easier and more cool than good way, which is really boring. Best way is to find some rocks, and start practicing marksmanship... There is no better feeling...

Rate: 9/10

b) Black & White 2

Ehm... You know the drill. Pixel Shaders, fancy graphics... And bingo! They ruined the game. I really don’t get it. First game was great. Second sucks. Why? Why does every game need Pixel Shaders? Are they really necessary? This game become just like any other RTS. Except you have a hand instead of pointer... Some things are pointless. Why do God need an army of mortals? Why do God need walls? To protect himself? From who? He is IMMORTAL! To protect his people? He’s a GOD, dammit, real God doesn’t need a wall to protect something. When I played first B&W, sometimes I really thought I am a god. The gameplay was so... specific. And this junk... It’s not B&W. It’s a crap.

Rate: 6/10

4. Stronghold versus Stronghold 2

2007-02-27T20:53:00.000+01:00

It’s the first RTS I’ve played that focused more on micromanagement, than fight. And it had the most interesting micromanagement I ever seen. For Example, to have bread, you need to build wheat farm, from where you will get wheat. Then, you need Windmill, to make flavor. Finally, you must build Bakery, to make bread from flavor. Nice, isn’t it? I was amazed by ability to place troops on walls. That was reality! Even now, after almost a year, I can see hundreds of Rat’s troops charging on my castle, and hundreds of my archers defending castle... Man, that was a battle!

Your opponents are a scum with funny names:

- The Rat

Real name: Duc de Puce

Biography: The Rat was raised as an only child in lands belonging to the Puce family. The duke showed his mother favour ensuring that she never paid taxes and always had enough to get by.

One day a messenger came to the door with some very surprising news. It was revealed that his father was the same Duc de Puce who his mother had once worked for as a serving wench. Due to an unfortunate accident the entire Puce family had been lost at sea whilst returning from holiday leaving the Rat as next in line to inherit the title of duke.

Lacking an education, he turned to Duc Beauregard, who governed a neighbouring province, for advice on how to best manage his lands. More than happy to advise the poor fool, Duc Beauregard sent over a handful of his most loyal staff to assist and thanks to this aid the Rat now runs a respectful, if impoverished, kingdom.

- The Snake

Real Name: Duc Beauregard

Biography: The Snake was once made governor to some of the richest provinces in the homeland where he made an extremely fruitful but less than honourable living from under declaring the taxes collected from his people.

The king was eventually made aware of this and decided to have him exiled to Britain in order to keep him at arms length whilst still making use of his talents. Execution was, unfortunately, out of the question as killing such a popular leader with his own hand could well have sparked a revolution.

During one of his first military encounters in Britain he went up against your father, losing an eye to him in a skirmish. On that day the Snake swore he would not rest until the decapitated heads of your entire family were lined-up on spikes outside of his keep.

Already back to his old tricks, the Snake has his greasy hands in the Rats back pocket, draining his coffers with help from the corrupt tax officials initially sent over to give him aid.

- The Pig

Real name: Duc Truffe

Biography: When the Pig was born it is rumored he looked so hideous that his parents abandoned him in the street.

Whatever the case, it is known that he was taken in by a group of traveling bandits who raided small towns and villages throughout the homeland. Whilst growing-up with this small army of rogues he was vastly underfed, however after developing a crude understanding of basic military tactics and being nominated as their leader, the Pig made sure that he had first call on the best foods after each raid and has overcompensated ever since.

After one of the Pigs successful raids, the Wolf paid a visit to his encampment saying he was in search of a leader to command an army and after seeing the long scar on the Pigs left arm the Wolf became insistent that he was the right man for the job.

To this day it is still unclear why the Wolf thought the Pig was the best choice or why the king himself agreed with the Wolfs proposition to grant the Pig dukedom but however this came to be, the Pig now runs an effective if over populated kingdom.

- The Wolf

Real name: Duc Volpe

Biography: The Wolfs' past is shrouded with mystery and what is known of his history is mainly patched together from stories and unreliable rumours alone. This aside, it is believed that both of his parents died from natural causes in close succession shortly after his eighteenth birthday.

After receiving his dukedom, the Wolf took it upon himself to go travelling, stating he needed some time to think things through, leaving his loyal serfs to manage the lands for him. Nobody knows for certain where he went but he returned a year later with a new companion calling himself the Pig.

After a visit to the king of the homeland himself, he began to instigate his invasion plans of Britain with the Pig in tow as his right hand man.

There have also been wild accusations flying around the kings' court that the Wolf has somehow become involved with the "Order of Black Knights", however there is only unsubstantiated and anecdotal evidence to support these claims.

Rate: 9.5/10

b) Stronghold 2

Now, this is a misery! Stronghold, that great game, shameless ruined by this junk! The game is now 3D, and probably 10x slower than Stronghold. And it’s not optimized, too. It works bad on Athlon 3000+, GF 6600GT and 1GB RAM. Pretty bad, isn’t it? And the story is somewhat stupid.

Oh, I almost forgot. Voice acting. When I heard folks talk, I had nightmares for one week. And graphic is much, much worse than in Stronghold.

Sad.

Rate: 4/10

3. Worms 2D (World Party, because I played them mostly) vs. Worms 3D (All made in 3D)

2007-02-26T00:35:00.000+01:00

We have a small evolution here. Famous Worms became 3D by the end of 2003. Is that good move? Yes and no. Let’s see!

a) Worms World Party

Is there any person in the world that hasn’t heard about this legend? No? I knew that. Worms World Party are made in 2001. I have spent thousand of hours playing them with my friends. And I’m not sorry for that.

This game is art. Who doesn’t enjoy watching cute, little worms hitting each other with bazooka, mortar, war axe, minigun, giant donkey, etc. My favorite is Holy Hand Grenade (HALLELUJAH! KA-BOOOM!!!). The game is like a opium. You can’t stop when YOU want, but when GAME want it. That is the reason I stopped playing it. I saved my life... hehe. The game is so simple that, no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t succeeded in finding its flaws.

Rate: 9.5/10

b) Worms made in 3D

First 3D worms are made in 2003, named Worms 3D (oh, my, how innovative...). And it was pretty good, but it had (then and now) one big problem: camera’s angle. It was hard to climb on anything, because of it. Like WWP, this game don’t have any serious flaws (except 3D, maybe...), but when crossed in third dimension, game lost some of it atmosphere... I don’t know why.

Rate: 8/10

2. Age of Empires II vs. Age of Empires III

2007-02-25T00:37:00.000+01:00

There is no real gamer who didn’t played at least one “Age of Empires” game. Those games are product of a genius. First one was revolution, second and it’s expansion was great. Third is just a RTS without soul

a) Age of Empires II

This game was made 1999. It was pretty like first AoE, with just enough changes to make it stand-alone game. Battlefield is now moved to medieval era, instead of ancient times (first game). Graphic quality is increased, so don’t expect from house to be larger than a soldier...

But graphic is on second place. Most important is GAMEPLAY. There are 13 civilizations: Britons, Byzantines, Franks, Mongols, Turks, Saracens, Celts, Vikings, Persians, Teutons, Goths, Chinese and Japanese.

In campaigns, you can free Scotland from English invaders (first campaign with William Wallace), fight with Joan of Arc against English invaders (second campaign, poor Britons...), battle crusaders in infernally middle-eastern deserts (third, Saladin’s campaign), try to conquer whole world (fourth, Genghis Kahn’s campaign), or try to reincarnate Roman Empire (last, Frederick Barbarossa’s campaign). Campaigns are interesting, with historical lessons between missions. One, and maybe only flaw is poor diplomatic options. There are only several: be ally, neutral or enemy, and send tribute. With more options, game would certainly become a legend. That’s it about AoE II.

Rate: 8.5/10

b) Age of Empires III

Sad part of the story. I don’t know, game is... just a ordinary RTS. To be honest, it’s totally OK, but it’s just... not AoE. Campaign is not historically correct, and story is somewhat stupid. If I remember, it’s about searching for something powerful magic item or location in South America. WTF? Magic? No, this can’t be! It’s a NIGHTMARE! MUUUUUUUM!!! HELP!

Graphic is good, it’s a fact. But another bad thing is Major City, and its improvements, which are almost useless. Crate with 300 food? Why the hell I need that? To build one soldier? Don’t make me laugh...

Rate: 7/10

1.TES III: Morrowind vs. TES IV: Oblivion

2007-02-24T00:38:00.000+01:00

a) Morrowind

So, the famous game from the

Bethesda team, made in 2002. Excellent RPG game, although with confusing

Journal. It was really huge game, that only the bravest men could face (well, Daggerfall was bigger, but that was really insanely huge game). Certainly, the game has its flaws, like not-so-smart AI, bugs, confusing Journal (said before), etc.

Rate: 9/10

b) Oblivion

Ah, the newest Bethesda game. Made 2006. A lot of hype made about it. Fantastic story, breath-taking graphic, intelligent NPC-s, huge world to explore... Yeah, right. On a paper, it looks perfect, but realization is problem:

- Fantastic story: I don’t think so. It’s a classic fairytale.

Good guy (Emperor) had a vision: Invasion of Tamriel by forces of darkness. His sons are killed, and he is running away from assassins through the Imperial prison. There, he finds YOU, rotting in cell (stole an apple, I guess). Strange, he stops and enjoy in chat with you, while assassins are right behind him. Little strange, but OK. I mean, he’s an emperor, he can do whatever he wants. When he told you enough about astrology, you continue through the secret passage in your cell. After killing a bunch of goblins and terrorists, your dear emperor die. Before he died, he gave you an amulet, and told you what to do with it. He gave whole fate of Tamriel in criminal’s hands. Strange, eh? But OK. Let’s go on. When you exit the sewers, you need to go to the Weynon Priory. There you must find one priest. He send you to Kvatch, where you must find emperor’s heir, Martin (he doesn’t know he’s an emperor – poor guy, whole life working for a mediocre priest’s salary, instead of enjoining, like his brothers... ccc.). You entered Kvatch, and – what a surprise! It’s burned to the ground. Look’s like a Panzer division was here, but no! Satan (Dagon) himself, and his minions, was here! You must free the town with a bunch of soldiers, and get Martin to Weynon Priory. You get there with him, and – guess! It’s attacked! Wow. You kill terrorists, find that priest from the beginning of the story (he tells you that silly amulet is taken) and get to the only safe place on Earth – Cloud Ruler Temple. From there you must get some weird stuff for Martin to recover silly amulet, which is taken by terrorist’s mastermind into his realm. When you recover the amulet, you go to the Imperial City Temple district to use the amulet to stop evil forces from invading Tamriel. When you reach Temple district, guess what! It’s attacked! How unpredictable! You and Martin rush into temple and Martin transforms himself into a dragon, using the amulet, and defeat Satan (Mehrunes Dagon), but he dies too. How noble. And there ends the main quest. What cliché.

- Fantastic gameplay: Just one thing to say:

This is Call of Duty with medieval weapons and some magic.

- Breath – taking graphic and physic: Well, I can’t comply about this. Only one thing to say: Well done, Bethesda!

Rate: 7.5/10

Old PC games vs. The new one’s

2007-02-17T00:39:00.000+01:00

Introduction

Hello! This is my first blog, so forgive me for some eventual mistakes. In this blog, I will write about the problem that bother many gamers. Or least I think so...

Now, the problem is (fanfare, please…) lack of ideas and innovation in PC games. You certainly noticed that all the games of the specific genre are practically SAME. For example, look at Medal of Honor and Call of Duty (1 or 2, whatever). There certainly are some improvements, like AI, graphic and some minor things, but did you noticed ANY radical changes in gameplay? No? What a surprise! Their mechanic is almost same like mechanics in Wolfenstein 3D, for exmaple.

In this blog, I will compare some new games (2005-2007), with their older brothers. This is just the beginning. There will be more games. I think I will add one comparing by a day (or two), so don’t worry, there will be plenty to read!

*Note: All that is written here is my personal opinion. All games that are here are OK, but mostly, their “old brothers” are better.