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Reviews
SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle (1999)
Strap yourself in the Kevlar...
SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle is in my opinion, one of the definitive tactical shooters. The story that ties the action together is that in the near-future, Los Angeles has been chosen to host the signing of the United Nations Nucluer Abolishment Treaty, which will require all nations to abolish weapons of mass destruction. Sounds noble enough, but on the week before the signing, LA will be a target ripe for terrorism and violent crime. Your mission, as an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) unit, will be to lead your team against the forces that could prevent this momentous event from occurring. Over the span of 16 levels (even more with the Elite Edition and Tactical Game of the Year Edition, or via the Internet), you will rescue hostages, protect the innocent, serve high-risk warrants, raids, utilizing authentic SWAT gear and tactics to get the job done. The settings in this game are all highly realistic and meticulously detailed (with some real-world locations, such as the UCLA sewer system, Mann's Chinese Theater, the LAX control tower, and more). SWAT 3 also features situations that you would not find in most games-barricaded suspects, robberies, riots, gangs, etc., all types of situations that police SWAT teams deal with in reality. However, perhaps SWAT 3's most distinctive feature is it's police theme. Unlike other shooters, your main goal is to preserve life, not rack up body counts. Using deadly force is the last resort to dealing with criminals. You also must combat crime with strategy. Charging into gun battles will most likely end up in you going to the big precinct in the sky. You will need to exercise your grey matter a bit, and use authentic tactics to succeed. At your disposal in the game are actual police-issue weapons and tactics. There are no rocket launchers or chain-guns, but only a few weapons-the MP5 sub-machine gun,(available as standard-issue or silenced), the M1 shotgun, M4A1 rifle and M1911 handgun, as well as CS gas, flash-bang grenades, and more. You can also employ more weaponry in Elite Edition and Tactical Game of the Year Edition, as well as downloading weapons via the Internet. Making SWAT 3 even more impressive is the superb artificial intelligence. The SWAT officers under your command will follow your commands efficiently, and sometimes even act better than you can. The bad guys will ambush you, investigate bullet holes, bloodstains, etc. Just as well, each time you play the game, characters are located in different locations, and react differently. The thug that gave himself up without a fight last time may just blow your head off the next time, making for extremely-tense action. In conclusion, if you want a different sort of tactical shooter, than SWAT 3: Close Quarters Battle is a novel choice. Make sure you get Elite Edition or Tactical Game of the Year Edition, which add more levels, multi-player action, modification tools, and more weapons and uniforms for your operations. Both "editions" are available either commercially or can be downloaded for free from the Internet.
Roundhay Garden Scene (1888)
The very dawn of a new form of art and entertainment
It is impossible to judge this film, seeing as it was made in 1888 and involves two seconds of people walking around in a yard. Louis Le Prince never would have known, that by filming a family in their yard, that he was creating a new form of art and entertainment, the most important form of entertainment of our time. This is indeed the most important movie ever made, as it is the first movie ever made. This should be shown in all history classes and to anyone interested in film or history, it is an extremely under-recognized landmark in the progress of art. The only way this film exists now is on an Internet web site (featured here on the Video Clips page). By all means, watch this, as it is the most important two seconds in all of cinema. Lastly, this is proof that from small things, comes great things (or something around those lines).
SWAT 4 (2005)
A great addition to the long-dormant "SWAT" series
This is one great tactical shooter. In SWAT 4, you play as an element leader (team leader) of a police SWAT team in an unnamed metropolis. There is no real "story" to the game, just crimes that occur that need to be stopped by the law enforcement's most elite officers-SWAT. The most unique thing with the game is that unlike many other tactical-action games, you do not simply "shoot to kill". You act like a real policeman, using authentic police-issue weapons and equipment (ranging from tasers, CS gas, and lethal firepower like MP5 submachine guns.) to try and apprehend the thugs and save lives, only using lethal force when necessary. The AI in this game is good for the most part, criminals pull out all the stops to avoid capture, and everyone is simply described as "unpredictable". Your fellow officers have some flaws, but get the job done. One of the things that make this game all the more interesting are how the situations are designed. You first see a narrated briefing, and can even listen in some cases to a '911' (American emergency hot-line) call. The missions are often set in gritty, trashy, urban hellholes. Some of these missions, like busting a serial killer/kidnapper/rapist/all around scumbag or stopping a maniac cult from committing an explosive "human sacrifice" are genuinely creepy, and even rather disturbing. This game is quite challenging, and the action here is brutal and realistic, you might even break a sweat. This is one unique action game that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in SWAT teams or tactical shooters-this is almost more like an experience than a game.