The small, third-world country of Arulco is being terrorized by a ruthless dictator named Diedranna. The former leader of Arulco, Enrico Chivaldori, thwarted an assassination attempt and escaped the country when Diedranna, his wife, framed him for his fathers murder. Ten years have passed, and Diedranna's rule has turned the country into a desolate, poverty-stricken nation. She takes money away from all public services and spends it on lavish possessions for herself and leves the populace destitute. Her army is substantial, crimes are determined at the whim of Diedranna, and the punishment is almost always death. Now, Enrico has enlisted you to hire and lead a squad of mercenaries through Arulco to dethrone Diedranna once and for all and bring peace and prosperity back to Arulco.
<b>GAMEPLAY</b>
JA2 mixes so many genres together that it defies description. In a way, it's part RPG, as each of your mercenaries have skills (such as marksmanship, medical, explosive, strength, experience, and wisdom) that can be improved upon and made more useful to the team. It's also real-time AND turn-based strategy, as you lead your mercenary team into battle against Diedranna's forces. When no enemies are in view, or in the sector at all, the game moves in real time, though when battling the enemy, the game shifts to turn-based. Then, the individual mercenaries skill points give them an number of "action points" to spend during their turn. A certain number to move, to shoot, to heal, to reload, how you spend each turn must be managed carefully to ensure all your men and women get out alive.
Hiring your mercenaries can go many different ways. You're given the opportunity to create your own custom mercenary, with their own skills and personality. Beyond that, you can visit the recruitment sites of The Association of International Mercenaries (A.I.M.) or the More Economical Recruitment Center (M.E.R.C.). While A.I.M. offers the best talent in the business, they're pricey. On the other hand, M.E.R.C. offers cheaply priced but low skilled mercenaries. Furthermore, you'll find plenty of people in Arulco willing to join your cause, some for a daily price, some for free. All methods used together to create a balanced team is a recipe for victory.
The game has an excellent curve. As you start, you have a small team, so you face smaller groups of enemies in towns like Drassen and Chitzena, but as you move into larger towns like Balime and Grumm, the difficulty gets higher to accomodate your probably larger and more skilled team By the time you're busting down the Queens door in Meduna, your team is probably very strong and can even take down the feared Elite Forces.
<b>Sound</b>
JA2 does not skimp on the voice acting. Every mercenary and major character has a voice and several lines of dialogue, some of which can be very entertaining. While some voices obviously come from the same person, everyone you meet has their own distinct voice and personality, which makes it easy to relate to your mercenaries and try to see them through.
The sounds of war are here and they sound great. Guns fire off with differing sounds depending on the firearm, soldiers yell in pain when shot, bullets ricochet off of walls, explosions rock your speakers, and footsteps nearby can alert you to nearby enemies.
<b>Graphics</b>
Graphicallt the game does not disappoint, but it does not greatly impress either. All characters share the same general body types with swapped color shirts and pants, and aside from hair and skin color, all enemies look identical. Environments are detailed, but not stunning. All in all, average.
<b>Replayability</b>
Immense. It's impossible to get the full scope of the game on one play through. So many mercenaries you have yet to hire, lots of side quests, and lots of Arulco to explore. Plenty to keep you busy in Arulco, even after the game is over.
As PC games go, Jagged Alliance is probably the most critically acclaimed sleeper hit series ever. It's gotten numerous awards and lots of praise, but almost nobody I know has even heard of it, it's such a shame, because it's such a great game to experience. I rate Jagged Alliance 2 a 9.5, and highly, highly recommend you try to hunt down a copy. It's a relatively old game, so you should be able to find it on the cheap used or in a bargain bin.
I mean, I knew that the 360 is more Mac-ish hardware, with that IBM CPU, and the dev systems were mac-based, but it's just as funny now as it was then... Microsoft makes a console. ... and they run it on Mac hardware.
...
Yeah, this makes sense... I mean, I'm not a Mac fan by any means... why? IBM made them a better offer than Intel for the CPUs?
<i>Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door</i> (henceforth simply "Paper Mario") is the spiritual successor to the SNES Super Mario RPG, GBA's Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, and of course the original N64 Paper Mario. Princess Peach has found a strange map that she believes will lead to treasure, and she writes to Mario so he can come and help her look. Mario then sets out for the dreary port town of Rogueport, where he runs into plenty of trouble, but no sign of Princess Peach. After meeting a spunky young Goomba named Goombella, Mario discovers the map is the legendary "Magical Map" which will point the way to the seven Crystal Stars, which will open the Thousand-Year Door, hidden deep below Rogueport. What lies behind it? Nobody can say for sure, but there are many who wish to find out. Mario soon learns the mysterious X-Nauts are behind it, and he races to find the Crystal Stars before they do, because who knows what they could be planning.
This game also has one other great feature: it's hilarious. The same quirky humor found in Super Mario RPG and Superstar Saga is alive and well in this game. Whether you're watching Princess Peach try to teach a supercomputer the meaning of love, watching Bowser and his cronies try hopelessly to find the Crystal Stars themselves, hearing Luigi tell you about the equally bizarre journey of his own, or watching the incredibly inept X-Naut lackeys fail time and time again, this game will keep you laughing from beginning to end.
<b>GRAPHICS</b>
One of the features that makes Paper Mario so endearing is it's unique graphic style. While the 3D environments and worlds are big and vibrant, all the characters, enemies, and anything else that moves are all paper thin. An unusual style, to be sure, but Nintendo pulls it off flawlessly. The characters and environments mesh together well, and the game never looks odd. Also, since the sprites take so little processing power, there can be hundereds of them moving around on the screen (and sometimes there are!) without a problem. The game also takes advantage of Mario and gangs thinness by allowing Mario to turn himself sideways to squeeze through tight spots, roll into a tube to roll into small areas, and into paper airplane so he can glide to faraway ledges.
The worlds themselves are detailed and look incredible. From the dreary and dirty Rogueport, to the surreal Boggly Woods, to the flashy and bright stadium town of Glitzville, to the creepy Twilight Town, the graphics never fail to impress.
<b>SOUND</b>
You'll hear plenty of familiar Mario sounds here, the jump, the stomp, the shell kick. Nothing new there, however the music is almost all brand new and very well done. Each stages music fits in well with all of the worlds.
<b>GAMEPLAY</b>
Mario meets many colorful characters in his journey, and he finds many willing to join him. To proceed through the game, you'll need all of their skills. Shy Koopa Troopa Koops can shoot out his shell to press faraway switches and grab items. Wind Goddess Madame Flurrie can use her powerful breath to blow away obstacles. You can ride newly hatched Baby Yoshi (and you can name him anything you want) can make you move faster and hover over short distances. You'll meet other characters too, all of which have their own skills to help Mario on his quest.
Stages and situations vary greatly from stage to stage. One requires Mario to sign up for a fighting competition, and fight his way through the ranks, during this time his manager assigns him a new name to fight by (I won't tell you, it'll be funnier if you see it for yourself), competitors try to bribe and poison Mario before his fights, and other such instances. Another stage is set completely on a moving train, where you have three days to solve a mystery and find who is behind some dastardly deeds on the train. Yet another results in a doppelganger stealing Mario's appearance and posing as him, while Mario must attempt to reveal him for who he is to get his body back. The stages are always fun and a joy to complete.
Battles themselves have a unqiue and interesting twist added to them as well. Every battle Mario and party faces is set on a stage with spectators in the audience. This may sound cheesy, but it works really well. The more people in the audience, the faster you can fill your "Star Power" guage and unleash powerful combo attacks. Additionally, depending on your performance, the audience can throw you items like coins, health refills, mushrooms, and ton of other useful items. Conversely, if you're not doing well the audience may throw hammers, rocks, and such at you. In this case, you have to watch the audience for anyone wishing you ill will and kicking them out of the audience before they get a chance to throw. Kick out a fan who was trying to help you, though, and your audience will diminish. Furthermore, the stage itself can be your enemy. Props and backgrounds can fall down if the stage is rocked, lights can fall from the rafters onto Mario, his ally, an enemy, or into the crowd. No two battles are alike, and there is no predictability, and in this way, even the most mundane and repetitive of battles feels fresh and fun right till the end.
<b>REPLAYABILITY</b>
Once you've beaten the game, there's not much left. You could try to go back and find more badges, star pieces, or try to beat the optional 100-level dungeon, but for the most part, one play through is all it's really good for.
All things considered, Paper Mario is still an entertaining, funny, and worthwhile adventure, and I would definitely recommend checking it out. I rate the game 9.0 out of 10.
I think we all need to have a talk about certain goings-on at TC, some of us anyway. I would like to have a group discussion on MSN with as many of our major posters as possible. OB1, GR, ABF definitely, and anyone else who wants in as well. It's kinda important.
If we could do this around midnight tonight, that would be wonderful.
Quote:One major surprise is that some copies of Metroid Prime Pinball on the show floor featured rumble capability. Yes, rumble as in force feedback like Pokemon Pinball. This obviously couldn't be built into the tiny DS packs, so I had a look underneath the DS playing the game and it had a GBA cartridge plugged in as well. I figured that the GBA cartridge was the one doing the rumbling, and this was later confirmed by PGC chum Chris Kohler. Apparently Chris saw someone booting up a DS with Metroid Prime Pinball in it, and the initial selection screen said that there was a "GBA Option Pak" in the GBA cartridge slot. I'm not sure whether or not Nintendo will sell this standalone Rumble Pak for use with rumble-enabled games, but it definitely exists. Hopefully it will be a pack-in when Metroid Prime Pinball is released, because it works like a charm.
And some new game announcements... PC ports. Let's see how they go... Age of Empires II has been changed almost beyond recognition in being ported to the GBA (or is it DS?), so who knows about these...
Anyway, it's Europa Universalis II, Disciples II, and Jagged Alliance II.
Quote:Europa Universalis II gets some company.
Pocket PC Studios, who specialize in Palm/WinCE games, announced two projects more for the Nintendo DS. If you recall, they already announced Europa Universalis II, which seems to be a proper port of the strategy game. Well now you can add Disciples II: Dark Prophecy and Jagged Aliance 2: Gold Pack to their DS list.
Jagged Alliance 2: Gold Pack
The small country of Arulco has been taken over by a merciless dictator – and only you can loosen the iron grip! Jagged Alliance 2: Gold Pack features the wildly popular strategy title Jagged Alliance 2 and its mini-sequel, Unfinished Business for hours and hours of gameplay. Featuring an enhanced version of Jagged Alliance 2, Jagged Alliance 2: Gold Pack immerses you into an elaborate role-playing universe where you will interact with more than 150 characters, recruit your own band of soldiers and create your own custom mercenary to win back Arulco – not once, but twice! The perfect blend of strategy, role playing and tactical combat!
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy returns gamers to the magical realm of the Sacred Lands where four races - the Empire, the Mountain Clans, the Legions of the Damned and the Undead Hordes - continue the battle for the destiny of their Gods. A decade after the First Great War, the final prophecy continues to unfold. Deep within the crevices of the Sacred Lands, the Chosen One has emerged, fated to bring salvation to some and destruction to others. Braced with renewed faith and newfound conviction, each race must once again take up the sword for the sake of their people and the glory of their God.
Quote:In an interesting conversation with GameSpot, Pachter talks about a scenario where the "faster kids may lose" the next-gen battle. Why? Well, "instead of seeing our normal 200 games each console after a couple of years, we're going to see fewer. And mostly because of development costs."
So does this mean Nintendo overall will have more games next-gen? Especially with the download service that's been unveiled? "Nintendo has a deep library ... and has good relationships with Japan, so they'll probably get some support from third-party Japanese publishers."
Probably the most interesting quote is one that will calm fears from some Nintendo fans over lack of third party support for Revolution: "I talked to Nintendo and their strategy is to try to ensure that all the big games that are made for 360 and PS3 are also made for Revolution. If they succeed at that, they're going to do very well."
The full article can be read here, and makes for interesting reading.
Always when market analysts would predict doom for Nintendo they ended up doing at least okay, so what does THIS mean?
I'm new to the forum, so I hope that I am welcome here. :)
I'm a pretty big gamer and some of my favorite titles are Dragon Warrior, The Legend of Zelda, and of course Super Mario. I found out about this place through a random google search, and I've been lurking in some of the forums for a while. Hopefully I will stay here for a while.:D
I don't believe that all of these have been converted... though most of the non-converted ones are by members who either don't post anymore or don't bother with stuff like reviews anymore, so I don't see them being posted here soon unless someone else does it and says who the actual author was.
Released in late 2004, Half-Life 2 is the direct sequel to one of the most well-known, and loved, first-person shooter of all time.
Graphics:
Depending on your computer, games can look very different, so accurately scoring graphics can be a bit tricky at times. However, from what I've been able to see on my computer [a mid-ranger] Half-Life 2 looks really good. Everything has a lot of detail, and all the objects in the game from dune buggies to glowy-eyed Civil Protectors there's a ton of polygons going everywhere. Add onto that some high-res textures and an art style that accurately captures the feel of a world that is crumbling and derelict.
Sound:
For the most part, Half-Life 2 doesn't have ANY music [something which I think is actually a good thing], though there are some parts that have a short burst of music which does sound pretty good. Most of the time you're listening to the ambient sounds of what's around you, sometimes its nothing, and sometimes it might be the ominous sound of gunfire in the distance of the dull sounds of footsteps right around the corner. Having an excessive amount of music would only drown all that out. The guns sound much like you would expect them too, though some sound a bit weak. HL2 has some pretty good voice-acting, which adds a sense of realism to the game.
Story:
Set just a few years after the incident at Black Mesa [as seen in Half-Life 1], nerdy scientist Gordon Freeman is brought back to Earth, but quite a few things have changed. For one thing, the former administrator of Black Mesa is now the leader of the world, though it seems the oppressive Combine are more in charge than him. Also, everything is in a quite a state of disrepair and the few remaining pockets of humanity are crammed into the cities and constantly monitered and occasionaly imprisioned. It's up to you, Anti-Citizen One, and you're trusty crowbar of alien-bashing justice to aid the resistance movement and make sure the Combine go back to their own world. The ever-creepy G-Man is never very far away.
Controls:
It's an FPS on the PC, you probably know how it controls just from that information, but since there are several vehicles in the game I talk about them. Both the dune buggie and the hovercraft are controlled by applying forward acceleration with the W button and steered with the A and D buttons. They take a bit to get used too, and are still somewhat hard to maneuver, but it just means you have to pay attention to what you're doing.
Gameplay:
There's rarely a dull moment in Half-Life 2 and even during the games few "cut-scenes" you still have full control of your character. An old scientists saying something boring? Well, run around the room and look at stuff while he's talking, no more sitting back and letting the scene play out. There are very few times when something isn't happening, so be ready to head again into the gunfire and head crab-infested streets, sewers, caves, and spooky villages of the future. There are about 12 different levels and each one feels unique, there's very little repitition at all in this game. There are even some levels that are very creapy, like Ravenholme [which is full of crab-head guys and other nasties] and the old cave. The developers obviously put a lot of effort into designing this game and there efforts paid off in a big way here, unlike other FPSs I could name.
Conclusion:
Half-Life 2 does just about everything right and very few things wrong and anythings that's wrong is only minor. It excels in every area and is a great gaming experience. About the only person who wouldn't like this game is one that absolutely HATES first-person shooters of all kinds, or just hates good games in general.
