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Reviews
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001)
It's baack...
Return to Castle Wolfenstein is a well-executed update to id's Wolfenstein 3d from 1991. While the storyline is original (though it obviously rips from Raiders of the Lost Ark), there are a few technical issues that my anal-retentive brain just can't leave alone. Fortunately, I won't go into them here.
Once again placing the player into the well-worn boots of BJ Blazkowicz, the game starts you off just as the original did; you were captured and tossed into the dungeon of Castle Wolfenstein, and you just killed your guard. The start even looks about the same; You're looking at the door to your cell, the body of your guard in front of you. However, the original started you with his gun and 8 rounds. Here, you start with your knife (which looks like a Fairbairn-Sykes model), but you don't have to go very far for your first pistol (it's in the doorframe).
As the game travels through the Balkans, occupied Norway, and, of course, Germany itself, you almost feel like those are your hands holding that "borrowed" MP40. In one mission where you must escort a "liberated" Panzer through a town, you feel as though you're walking through a bombed-out city; piles of rubble line the roads, buildings look unsteady, and many of the NPC's you encounter have bandages applied.
My main gripe is that the members of the Wehrmacht you encounter speak in accented English. Sometimes, they'll say something in German (like when they're muttering to themselves, or when it'd be very easy to figure out what they mean), but when it's a miniature cutscene (the second and third people encountered on the Norway mission come readily to mind), the conversation is mostly in English.
Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix (2002)
Great game, when's the movie out?
Soldier of Fortune 2 is one of the best games I've played. A storyline you can actually follow, good graphics, and even (relatively) realistic graphics and effects. The physics system, while not the best in the world, is quite realistic, as are the baddie's reactions when you hit them (well, kinda; sometimes, they don't react at all, which is somewhat annoying, but you get used to it) It's theme of one man against half the Soviet army in the late 80's, a Colombian rebel group, a drug lord/arms dealer from the same country, and a good-sized terrorist group, (wait'll you find out who runs it) all of it centering around a genetically engineered uber-virus, is both intriguing and thought-provoking. (Could this actually happen? Would anyone know about it?) While many people bash the game, and others of its genre, (first-person shooters) due to it's realistic portrayal of violence (for instance, shooting a guy in the head with a shotgun stands a good chance of removing the head entirely), few laud its well-thought-out storyline (for which we can thank the real John F. Mullins, who was a consultant to the developers). I'd like to see this game converted into a movie, but one that actually FOLLOWS THE PLOT OF THE GAME (subtle hint, movie makers!), instead of making up a whole new plot just for the movie.
M*A*S*H (1972)
Finest Kind...
For the uninitiated, read the book and/or watch the movie. Then rent/buy/check out the first season (DVD format) and review it. If you don't have a DVD player, then just watch FX. If you don't have a TV, get one. If you're reading this because you can't afford your own computer, get a job.
And yes, that little bit of humor was inspired by the show. The thing went on almost four times as long as the real Korean war (that works out to about 4 seasons a year, for those of you who have no math skills whatsoever), so you know it's a good show.
Half-Life (1998)
And YOU though FPS games had no storyline...
Half-Life is one on the few FPS (First-Person Shooter) games that has a good storyline, and that's just ONE of the things that makes it a great game. The story is pretty vague (nobody's written definitive anything about it yet, but I'm working on that), but it goes something like this: It was just another day on the job in a top-secret research facility in the New Mexican desert... Until you (Dr. Gordon Freeman) put the sample into the sensor. Then all hell broke loose; aliens "comin' outta th' damn WALLS!" (to quote someone from the addon Opposing Force), a USMC death squad sent in to "contain the situation" (read: Kill everyone and every thing on the base except yourselves), and stuck in the middle of it, you; a 27-year old child prodigy with a cool-looking environmental suit and a gun (which you have to find). To make matters worse, just about everything is trying to kill you.
The AI is excellent; the human soldiers will provide covering fire for each other, will use grenades to flush you out (very effectively, too), and will even refuse to follow you if you deliberately injure them (friendly NPCs exist in the game, which is rare). Realism takes a bit of a back seat to fun, though, but is is somewhat realistic. You have to reload occasionally, your shots will leave marks on the walls and will sometimes ricochet (harmlessly), and you even fire tracers every so often!
Doom (1993)
The Start of an era....
Half-Life. Aliens versus Predator. Duke Nukem 3D. All of these games have a common root: the Doom Series, starting with DOOM itself. Doom was the first good FPS (First Person Shooter) game. With 6 weapons that the player could pick up, as well as four different ammo types, Doom was incredibly advanced for its time, although by today's standards it is low-res, poorly rendered (It uses sprites, like most older FPS games), and a pain in the ass (to get used to the controls, which are very difficult to change). However, it opened the door for modifications, or Mods, because it required multiple files to run properly, so one could modify part of one of the files, and the game would still run, but it would have changed slightly. Unfortunately, the full version of the original Doom is almost impossible to find in a store these days, unless it's a pirated version, in which case, you won't find it in a store...