Description: The FIM Superbike World Championship videogame is coming back! Discover the excitement of the championship in three differents categories (Superstock, WSS, SBK) and challenge the real drivers on their bikes on the official circuits. One of the main goals of SBK®2011 is to overtake the great overall graphics of SBK®X by putting on the best show ever seen on two wheels on console and PC. Now you can really feel the difference, with a larger amount of variety, greater fluidity in the rider animations and a noticeable increase in the polygon models that make up each circuit. Enjoy the latest EmotionFX support, which improves all animations and creates a way to have more eye candy in the movements of the riders! Thanks to this set of development tools, Milestone has managed to perfect every single movement of the rider, creating race situations that are always different and closer to reality. The physics has been revised and refined, and is now supported by over 100 different animations, making for highly realistic rider movements, both while racing and in the now fully revised falls.
Customize the layout of the events by choosing among three different presets: Real, Qualify & Race, Race only. Now you can finally create your own event, defining, step-by-step, the set-up of the qualifying sessions, the tests and the official races. Compete with your friends through the online modes (up to 16 players) and try to raise the ranking to reach the top! You can also create a personal online championship, choosing the number of participants and the order of the races.
System Requirements :
Operating System: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista or Windows 7
Processor: Intel 2.4Ghz or similar
Hard disk space: 3 GB
RAM: 1GB
Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce 7600 or ATI X1600 or higher (it must be able to manage Pixel Shader 3.0) with at least 512MB of display memory
Bagi yang belum mengenal game ini, Operation FlashPoint merupakan sebuah game simulasi tentang tentara militer US dengan pandangan First Person Shooter. Gameplay game ini juga tidak berbeda jauh dengan game FPS lainnya. Namun beberapa aturan di dunia nyata yang diterapkan dalam game ini membuat Operation Flashpoint terlihat sebuah game realistis dan sedikit lebih sulit serta menantang. Langsung saja kita bedah game Operation Flashpoint sekuel terbaru dari Codemaster.
Story
Kali ini cerita fiksi game ini berseting pada tahun 2013, kita akan memerankan sersan Kirby, ketua tim dari Fireteam Bravo yang beranggotakan 3 orang yakni, Balleto, Taylor, dan Soto. yang dikirim oleh pemerintah US ke negara Tajikistan untuk menumpas para pemberontak. Cerita game ini disuguhkan dengan animasi yang keren.
Gameplay
Game ini menawarkan solo campaign yang juga bisa mendukung hingga 4 orang pemain dalam mode permainan kooperatif. Untuk solo campaignnya kita dapat memilih salahsatu dari empat kelas tentara yang akan sangat menentukan cara berperang kita di medan peperangan, diantaranya ada Grenadier, Scout, Rifleman, dan Automatic rifleman. Tiap kelas karakter memiliki keahlian masing-masing, maka itu kerjasama satu tim sangat berpengaruh dalam menyelesaikan misi di game ini, misalnya Scout dipersenjatai senjata jarak jauh atau sniper rifle dan Grenadier memiliki persenjataan berat seperti roket launcher yang dapat menghancurkan sebuah tank. kemudian Automatic Rifleman yang memiliki senjata serbu dapat menyerbu musuh hingga mundur dan tak berkutit, kemudian Rifleman merupakan kelas tentara yang paling stabil dan merupakan ujung tombak dalam tim ini dengan dipersenjatai senjata M16A4 Rifle.
Pada sekuel ini, kita mendapatkan pengalaman bermain yang lebih mendalam dengan adanya sistem level up karakter. Dimana kita akan mendapatkan sejumlah poin Core Skill yang dinilai dari performa tim kita dalam menyelesaikan misi, yang meliputi penilaian Ranking yang didapat, jumlah objektif yang berhasil diselesaikan, dan waktu yang dibutuhkan dalam menyelesaikan misi tersebut. Poin Core Skill yang telah terkumpul dapat digunakan untuk menaikan level pada karakter kita dan 3 anggota tim untuk dapat membuka akses ke jenis persenjataan yang lebih tangguh dan beberapa aksesoris senjata. Disamping itu, kita juga dapat memberikan poin untuk meningkatkan kemampuan karakter juga, seperti dapat berlari lebih cepat walau membawa banyak persenjataan atau akurasi menembak yang lebih tepat. Dengan adanya fitur ini, membuat kita merasakan peningkatan karakter dan anggota tim kita disepanjang permainan, seperti bermain game FPS online saja. Dan fitur baru ini juga yang menjadikan game simulasi militer ini tidak monoton dan tidak mudah membosankan.
Sebagai ketua tim, kita dapat memberikan perintah kepada anggota tim untuk menerapkan taktik dan strategi dalam menyelesaikan berbagai misi, misalnya menyuruh mereka menembaki terus-terusan musuh yang sedang bersembunyi, sementara kita bergerak dari arah samping untuk mendapatkan jarak tembak yang tepat. Atau kita juga dapat menyuruh mereka menyapu bersih musuh yang sedang bersembunyi di dalam sebuah ruangan. Navigasi pemberian perintah pada sekuel ini dinamakan Quick Command Radial dengan desain yang keren dan mudah digunakan jika dibandingkan dengan sekuel sebelumnya. Selain dari memberikan perintah kepada anggota tim, kita juga dapat meminta bantuan serangan udara dan artileri untuk memudahkan kita menerobos pertahanan musuh. Terdapat banyak jenis serangan udara dan artileri yang terdapat dalam game ini dan masing-masing memiliki keunggulan pada daya rusaknya, seperti Howitzer Barrage yang sangat efektif dalam menghancurkan bangunan dan Tank musuh.
Game simulasi tentara militer ini berbeda dengan game FPS lainnya yang kebanyakan dapat menjadikan kita seperti Rambo dengan menembaki beberapa musuh didepan kita sekaligus dan rentetan tembakan musuh yang mengenai kita hanya mengurangi setengah bar darah. Pada game ini, satu atau dua peluru saja yang mengenai kita dapat membuat GameOver seketika. Terkadang juga peluru akan mengenai rompi anti peluru dan hanya melukai kita. Hal ini dapat disembuhkan dengan mengunakan Medkit. Namun kita mesti mencari tempat berlindung terlebihi dahulu sebelum mengunakan Medkit dalam membalut luka, karena tidak seperti game FPS lainnya yang dapat langsung sembuh. Proses membalut luka akan memakan waktu dan jika melakukannya ditempat terbuka, kita bisa menjadi sasaran empuk peluru musuh. Sewaktu terluka, kita juga dapat merasakan efeknya, seperti gerakan karakter menjadi semakin lambat, tingkat akurasi juga semakin berkurang, dan layar permainan menjadi semakin kabur. Bahkan jika tidak segera diobati akan menyebabkan kematian. Selain itu, tingkat AI musuh memang terlihat baik. Mereka terlihat menerapkan taktik perang bergerilya yang lumayan merepotkan kita. Sayangnya, beberapa kali ditemukan AI musuh dalam keadaan stuk atau bengong di posisi yang tidak terlindungi sehingga memudahkan kita untuk menembak mereka. Hal ini tidaklah menjadi masalah besar untuk game ini.
Seperti sekuel terdahulunya, sebagian waktu kita di game ini bakal dihabiskan untuk menjelajah area permainan yang luas dengan berjalan kaki, mulai dari melintasi desa hingga pegunungan. Sebetulnya game ini juga menampilkan beberapa kendaraan perang, seperti Humvee, APC, Tank, dan Helikopter. Namun sayangnya, hanya kendaraan Humvee yang bisa kita kendarai saja. Satu hal lagi, sistem Checkpoint game yang telalu jauh, membuat kita kerepotan untuk mengulang permainan saat kita sudah berjalan jauh. Hal ini sudah dirasakan sejak sekuel Dragon Rising. Semoga saja di sekuel selanjutnya mendapat perhatian untuk masalah ini.
Graphic
Penyempurnaan engine game EGO ke versi 2.0 menyuguhkan tampilan grafis yang bagus dan lebih realistis dibandingkan dengan sekuel Dragon Rising. Lingkungan permainan beserta objek lainnya tampak menyerupai ukuran dunia nyata. Animasi ledakan dan partikel debu terlihat mengagumkan serta efek yang dirasakan saat ledakan didekat kita membuat layar permainan bergoncang. Seolah-olah merasakan berada ditempat kejadian.
Kemudian audio permainan juga sangat mendukung penuh game ini, suara tembakan yang keluar dari tiap senjata semuanya terdengar berbeda-beda dan suara akting dari karakter permainan juga terekpresikan dengan baik.
Overall
Bagi pemain yang telah memainkan Operation FlashPoint Dragon Rising mesti mencoba sekuel ini. Kombinasi simulasi tentara militer yang realistis dan unsur peningkatan karakter disepanjang permainan pada sekuel ini cukup mengesankan. Ditambah lagi grafis dengan engine game EGO versi terbaru membuat game ini sedap dipandang mata.
System Requirements :
Pentium IV 2 GHz or equivalent
1 GB of RAM
256 MB video card with Pixel Shader 2.0
The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2
5,3 GB free hard disk space and at least 1 GB of free space to store
I may be the dumbest genius ever. At least, that’s how I feel after playing Portal 2’s fantastic single-player campaign. Many puzzles in the last third of the eight to 10 hours (perhaps less, depending on how clever you are) of its brain-bending puzzle “test chambers” had me convinced at one point or another that they were completely unsolvable, and that some bug or sadist game designer placed the exit just out of reach. I’d let out exasperated sighs as every attempt met with a dead end. I’d grimace in disapproval as I plummeted to my death for the tenth time. I’d consider surrender.
Then, through either sudden revelation, divine inspiration, or total accident, it would come to me: use the orange Propulsion Gel to reach the energy bridge, then catapult across the chasm and shift my blue portal to the inclined surface (in mid-air, mind you) to launch me up to the ledge, grab the refraction cube and redirect the laser beam to wipe out the turrets and activate the switch! It’s so simple, I can’t believe I didn’t see it until now. One half of Portal 2’s brilliance is making me kick myself for not thinking of the impossible; the other is making me feel immensely satisfied with myself when I finally do, again and again.
That achievement is made possible by the wondrous Portal Gun, the game’s sole piece of equipment. Unchanged from the first game (except for some subtle but slick texture work and portals that can be seen through walls, Left 4 Dead-style) the easy-to-use gun reliably casts one orange portal and one blue portal against certain walls, allowing you to magically, instantaneously pass from one to the other, regardless of distance, obstacles, or line of sight, while preserving momentum. It’s the ultimate non-weapon weapon, a sort of physics-based Judo-bazooka that redirects the strengths of energy and objects in motion toward its user’s goals—including the user herself. Wielding it makes me feel more powerful—and smarter—than nearly any other gun in gaming.
The third half of Portal 2’s brilliance is its story. (Yes, third half. If Valve can disregard the laws of physics in its game, I can disregard the laws of math in my review.) Its chambers are cohabitated by hilariously well-written and acted characters that exude personality, despite none of them being technically people. All three major roles rattle off absurd dark humor and petty insults at every turn. Evil robot GLaDOS is in top politely murderous form right from the moment she appears on screen (spoiler alert: she’s still alive!), but Portal’s show-stealing monotone antagonist is challenged for the spotlight by Wheatley, the bumbling, chattering robot who helps you escape.
Fantastically voiced by British actor Stephen Merchant (basically playing the same mind-bogglingly stupid character from the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras), Wheatley’s a doofus AI who makes you turn around while he hacks doors (he can’t do it while you’re watching). Also in the mix is actor JK Simmons, who lends his fittingly cantankerous voice to the founder of Aperture, Cave Johnson, whose comically sociopathic approach to science is second only to GLaDOS’.
Sure, I saw the plot twists coming, but still looked forward to witnessing exactly how the characters would react. Through death, resurrection, revenge, and reversal of fortune, their charm makes what would otherwise be an empty and lifeless world feel boisterous and alive—and more than makes up for the player character being a faceless mute.
It does all this and more while recycling very few of Portal’s greatest comedy hits—there’s nary a nod to dishonest cake, and the beloved Weighted Companion Cube makes only a cameo appearance. And the finale? Not challenging in the least, but a spectacular and extremely clever finish to the story, with extra points for those who’ve paid close attention to Mr. Johnson.
New dimensions
Without changing the nature of the established and celebrated gameplay, Portal 2’s gentle learning curve begins by reintroducing us to its basic concepts, then keeps on introducing new inventions to use with portals until around three quarters of the way through, and chambers become complex jungles of hazardous obstacles. Lasers emitting from walls combine with moveable Refractor Cubes to create the closest thing Portal 2 has to an offensive weapon—an aimable laser—but more often your job is to focus the beam on trigger switches through portals. Infinitely useful Excursion Funnels (levitation beams) and Light Bridges are more than just here-to-there movers—they can be applied to block or push away turrets, halt a catapulting jump before it throws you into oblivion, or help you climb a sheer wall.
I’m a little less wowed by the three flavors of viscous gel, which flow with a hypnotic globular effect from spouts and coat the environment in bouncy, speedy, or portal-receptive ooze. Unlike most of Portal 2’s other devices, these have only a couple of uses at most, and can be difficult to control. It’s a hassle when you’re trying to paint an orange runway up to a blue bouncing patch that launches you through a portal cast on a white patch, only to have an errant blob of blue splash over everything. That’s not to say that it’s not great when your work of physics-defying impressionistic art comes together, of course.
Behind the science
Locations are amazingly varied, as they must be to support this extended-length puzzle-athon without becoming monotonous. Aperture Science has fallen into disrepair in the indeterminate length of time between the greatly exaggerated “death” of its caretaker overlord and now, and many of its once-spotless test chambers are now rusted, grimy, and overgrown with vegetation. Maps shatter in front of our eyes as Aperture collapses on itself, while GLaDOS’ hundreds of robot arms gradually repair and rearrange the chambers piece by piece. All of this scripted activity animates what would otherwise be still and samey-looking rooms due to Portal’s lack of foes other than stationary turrets.
The Aperture facility is far more vast than we could’ve imagined, and the quest to escape leads through its industrial bowels, a cavernous underground sewer-like area, and a long-forgotten retro 1960s version of Aperture, among others. Some areas are so dramatically different that even the basic button triggers and doors have unique looks to them, and everything is impressively modeled and textured, right down to the Easter-egg graffiti hidden throughout. Fine-brush touches extend to the sound, too, such as the wind wooshing in your ears during long drops, or tingly electric chimes that introduce themselves to the background music when you’re speeding on Propulsion Gel. Between puzzles, Portal 2 is full of thrilling showcase moments, such as a mad-dash escape from an angry intelligence that controls the very walls, followed by a surprising take on the boss battle that, without a shot fired, made me feel dangerously out-classed next to my adversary.
Size matters
Right around that time is when the test chambers become increasingly elaborate and intimidatingly huge—to a fault in some cases. These jumbo puzzles are so immense that, even using the handy camera zoom function, spotting the exit can take a few minutes of exploration. Setting out to solve a puzzle when you don’t know what objective you’re working toward is the wrong kind of challenge, and some will find it frustrating. Later levels have multiple contiguous puzzles that can seem like they might never end, and made me miss the pace of the early game where I’d get a refreshing break between challenges.
I always solved them, though. Even though a couple stumped me in a very serious way for up to a half hour, I couldn’t give up until I made it to the other side. If you like a challenge, it’s impossible to put this game aside until you’ve burned through all of it.
Portal 2’s story doesn’t end with the single-player campaign, however. Read on as my co-op buddy Evan takes you through the entirely separate and equally innovative and interesting multiplayer campaign.
System Requirements :
OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP
Processor: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)
Memory: 1GB XP / 2GB Vista
Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
Video: Video card must be 128 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b (ATI Radeon X800 or higher / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or higher / Intel HD Graphics 2000 or higher).
Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Simbin has released the STCC The Game 2 expansion for RACE07, adding a brand new season of Scandinavian Touring Car Series action to their long-running franchise.
The expansion is the first of four paid packs that will enrich the successful RACE07 series with new content, wrapping up Simbin’s efforts on the title that go back to 2007 when RACE07 was first released.
The initial title was followed up by three sequels (GTR Evolution, STCC – The Game & RACE On), all of which used the RACE07 content as base and introduced new machinery and tracks to the title.
STCC The Game 2 is compatible to both the initial RACE07 and the three sequels, containing 45 cars and six tracks. Unlike the prior titles based on RACE07 that were also available as standalone versions or DVD extensions, STCC The Game 2 is exclusively available online on Steam.
The expansion pack focuses on two Scandinavian series, the STCC and the Scandinavian Touring Car Cup. Most sim racers made first contact with the STCC when Simbin released the first STCC The Game title.
Sweden’s most popular series was an obvious choice not just because Simbin is a Swedish company but because the STCC uses the same Super 2000 touring car regulations the World Touring Car Championship is based on. This ensured a perfect blend into the RACE07 franchise as both series share the same set of cars with the Swedish series offering some more exotic machinery as privateer teams often enter car models that don’t make it to the World Championship.
This results in STCC The Game 2 offering five brand new car models that have never been included in any Simbin title before as the Opel Astra, Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Camaro, Chevrolet Cruze and the Biogas-powered VW Scircocco enrich the grid of the 2010 STCC season.
Combined with the already existing cars from BMW, Alfa, Seat, Chevrolet & Volvo, buyers of STCC The Game 2 get the most comprehensive choice of modern European touring cars available in any title. The new cars blend in perfectly with the established mix, featuring Simbin-typical neat modelling, high-resolution textures and proper sounds.
When it comes to graphics, those expecting any kind of revelation in that department will be disappointed, STCC The Game 2 features the same proven gMotor 2 engine that RACE07 is based on. Even though the old engine will hardly lead to any jawdrops, Simbin has made the most of the proven base with the highlights being the great looking cockpits and detailed tracks.
Speaking of tracks, STCC The Game 2 offers six of them, including a track that will be new even for buyers of STCC The Game – The Danish Jylandsringen. High quality tracks have always been one of Simbin’s strong suits and the Scandinavian venues give the studio plenty of opportunities to show off their talent.
The choice of tracks offer an interesting mix of venues tailor-made for bumper to bumper touring car action, featuring tracks with long straights (Knutstorp), a street circuit (Gothenburg) and the seemingly-edless string of first and second-gear corners that is Jylandsringen.
The virtual versions of these stunning venues are richly detailed with plenty of trackside objects and great textures, making them some of the best tracks Simbin has ever created. Sim racers who appreciate unique & challenging tracks will be getting their money’s worth with the tracks alone as these venues can’t be found in any other simulation on the market.
Sadly, the choice of tracks has been shrinked down compared to STCC The Game as two of the first title’s tracks are no longer included due to schedule changes the Scandianavian series had made over the years.
Aside from new cars and tracks, STCC The Game 2 brings some other changes to the RACE07 platform as well as some series-specific rules are introduced, including mandatory pit stops and a different qualifying format.
So, is STCC The Game 2 worth the 9,99 Euros Simbin charges for the download? For sim racers which have a passion for S2000-style touring car racing and who don’t own STCC The Game, the answer is a big yes as the pack introduces a heap of new content to the title that will keep touring car fans busy for a longer while.
If you look at what other simulations or console titles charge for addon-content, less than ten Euros is an extremely fair price for six tracks, more than a handful of new car models and a full field of new liveries.
This apllies to some extend to owners of STCC The Game as well, even though the amount of new content to them is down to one track, five new models and set of liveries.
All in all, these expansion packs are a very fair way of selling new content as everyone gets exactly what they pay for instead of selling the same content again and again as was the case with past RACE0 sequels that sold new content for a much higher price.
And given that Simbin has some exciting plans for the future, buying these expansion packs does not just give sim racers access to new content but also means supporting one of the few independend simulation studios our community depends on…
System Requirements :
Supported OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home/Pro, Windows Vista
Processor: 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or 100% compatible
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 9 compatible graphics card with 128 MB memory
Sound: DirectX 9 compatible
Direct X Version: 9
Hard Drive: 2.5 GB free space
Input Devices: Keyboard and Mouse
Description: TS12 includes the most exciting new feature in the history of Trainz. The players have asked for it and we have delivered Trainz Multiplayer. Now players from all over the world can build, play and operate railroads together!
Features:
* Feel what its like to put your hands on the controls of powerful locomotives as they steam through towns, cities and rolling countryside
* Design and Build your own railroads with Trainz Surveyor and access hundreds of thousands of assets from the Trainz Download Station
* Share your enthusiasm with other rail fans as your combine your efforts to operate a working rail line in the new Trainz Multiplayer.
* Satellite View – Zoom all the way out and view your railroad from satellite distance
* More realistic trees with new SpeedTree Assets
* Backward compatible with TS2010 content
System Requirements :
* OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Pentium D at 3.4GHz
* RAM: 1 GB
* HDD: 15 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 128 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
It doesn’t take long for another RTS game to be released on the PC. In a holding pattern for what seems like forever ago, studios have been churning out RTS titles, adding twists to the concepts, updating graphics, and attempting to streamline gameplay. While Elements of War has an interesting concept, if you plan on playing it, prepare to feel like you are stepping back in time ten years.
I say Elements of War has an interesting concept because it does -- a great one: in the near, semi-apocalyptic future, technology has enabled the use of weather control to be used as weaponry (part of the reason for the current world-state in the game). Elements of War also give us a few futuristic options as far as vehicles and weapons, and while this is all very cool, at the same time it is also grossly disappointing.
Elements of War is a heavy mix of contemporary military technology with futuristic accompaniments (power armor for example) thrown in willy-nilly. We have some realistic vehicles, weapons, tanks, and marine-talk, and all of this is satisfying, because it would have been awesome to have an RTS so deeply detailed in a marine / military culture, even in a futuristic world. However, it feels as if the designers relied on ‘realistic’ when their imagination ran out on futuristic designs. It feels like they didn’t have a grasp on mixing the two worlds subtly, or started out with one and decided to add in the other.
The biggest plague of Elements of War, is that it simply feels outdated. If you were to find a sales bin of under-par CD-ROM games in 1998, Elements of War might be in there. The graphics are choppy, wonky, and ugly. There are no excuses here – even for an indie studio, the game looks like it came out of a high school 3D animation class. Whether lacking budget or care, the look of the game is insufferable. Along with a camera that jerkily moves across the barely detailed and absolutely blah battleground, there is little to no detail on anything. Action icons are hideous and akin to early 90s adventure game symbols, while the maps look like they might have been pulled from a flight sim from the same era. Particle effects are nearly non-existent and completely flat.
The controls might be almost as bad. Nothing is smooth or easy to do. Selecting army units is frustrating, attacking feels nonsensical and infuriating, as you click madly to get your squad to attack an object. As far as movement, I often found my units running some crazy route instead of a direct way to their target over and over and over again.
Maybe I was missing something… some ingenius, slick way to control my units and get things running smoothly. Unfortunately, no solution was forthcoming, and I wasted too much time just getting annoyed. With a bland, nearly useless opening tutorial mission (that I couldn’t find a way to skip even if I tried), I still learned nothing. Call me impatient, but I am a gamer, and there are much better RTSs out there that are actually worth learning EVERY single intricacy, and this was not one of them.
As far as the gameplay, there are some nice ideas in Elements of War, as it is heavily focused on skirmishes – focusing on playing one or two vehicles instead of having to deal with managing a huge army, and the streamlined resource management was nice. The really cool aspect of the game, however, was the weather control – utilizing weather to your advantage. Unfortunately, it seemed kicking up dust storms and rain only took away from any real strategy. On top of this, they are completely lackluster and feel more like really big special weapons with one purpose each (slowing down troops or causing an area of mass destruction), instead of adding complexity for strategic use. The weaponized weather effects are like that button in bullet-curtain shooter games (like Raiden) that you press when things get bad so that everything on the screen dies at once. It's fun for a while, but it gets boring really fast.
Elements of War includes two modes of play: campaign and online mode. With both modes you get to choose three different factions. Unfortunately, none of these armies have a good or memorable story. Online mode enables players to play a series of PvE missions across 16 maps, but they are only able to choose between USA and Russia for these online missions.
All in all, Elements of War just feels too clunky and outdated, and while the intentions and the main premise were good, you will probably have a hard time finding any kind of entertainment in it.
System Requirements :
Operating System: Windows XP / Vista / 7
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 3000 MHz / Intel Core Quad 2400 MHz / AMD Athlon 64 6400+ or better
RAM: 2 GB or more
HDD: 4 GB or more
Graphics Card: GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD 4700 or better
Description: Built on over 10 years experience, Arma 2 thrusts you into the heart of the most realistic military simulator ever developed, featuring cutting edge technology, vast, detailed environments defined by real geographic data and authentically modeled units and vehicles. Arma 2: Reinforcements brings to the Armaversum two new factions – British Armed Forces (BAF) and Private Military Company (PMC). Play it separately or combine with original Arma 2: Combined Operations for ultimate military combat experience. Join massive online multiplayer battles with up to 50 players and hundreads of AI units!
Features:
Two Single Player Campaings – Investigate Takistan’s abandoned nuclear weapons program with the PMC or join Her Majesty’s forces in large-scale counter-insurgency campaign.
Brand New Factions – Enlarge the mission in Takistan by British Armed Forces and by Private Military Contractors with all new exotic weapons and equipment.
Unique Weapons and Vehicles – Fight using large amount of new personal weapons, civil vehicles as well as British military vehicles.
Improved Gaming Engine – Repair vehicles directly on battlefield as engineer, operate and command artillery and mortar units or enlarge your missions with own playback.
New & Unexplored Areas – Explore the strategically important industrial area Shapur and Facility OKB-754, mysterious abandoned Takistan’s Proving Grounds.
Unparalleled Multiplayer Gaming – Join in the massive multiplayer battles with up to 50 players and hundreds of AI units!
Does not require original ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead
System Requirements :
OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2 2.5 GHz or faster
RAM: 2 GB
HDD: 12 GB free disk space
Graphics: 512 MB Graphics Memory with pixel shader 3.0
Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
DirectX: Version 9.0c
It’s easy to get sneery about lower-budget PC sims, especially if you’re reviewing one while an unplayed copy of, say, L.A. Noire sits on your desk. And yet, despite the circumstances, I have just spent an entire evening playing Wildlife Park 3, and not really regretting it. Join me as I attempt to explain why, and probably get it wrong.
The game casts you as the manager of a wildlife park – shocking, I know – and it’s up to you to keep the punters happy while making some money and, ideally, not letting any animals die. You can play the game either in campaign mode, or free mode. Campaign mode has a series of partially-built parks in different locations all over the world, each with specific rules and objectives designed to teach you the basics and, later on, test your skill in more difficult situations. Free mode, on the other hand, is exactly what it sounds like; pick a location (there are loads), choose which rules you want to use and how much money you want to start with, and away you go. Being given the option to simply choose how ludicrously wealthy you are right off the bat is refreshingly honest of the developers; if you want to play it like a proper management sim, fine. But some of us just want to nob around building parks with loads of lions in, and we shouldn’t have to look on google for a cheat in order to do so.
Keeping animals happy isn’t too difficult, for the most part. This is a good thing, because unhappy animals die. Each animal in the game has a helpful information tab, telling you what they eat, what their favourite ground type is, how much exercise they need every day, and so on. So, you fence an area off and make sure it meets all the animals’ needs before buying them and dropping them in. From there, they will entertain your guests and, if you keep them happy enough, breed with one another to make these: more animals. If you don’t do anything daft, you’ll soon find your animals begin to feel their enclosures are a bit cramped, prompting you to sell off a bunch of them for a tidy profit. Or, just wait until some of them die of old age. You can also name the animals if you really want to, but I wouldn’t recommend this unless you are a fan of emotional turmoil and crying.
That said, you get a special achievement if you name one of your meerkats ‘Aleksandr’. You don’t get any points for it, though; instead, a masked gunman shoots you in the back of the head.
Sadly, having a load of amazing animals to look at isn’t enough for the irritating, malcontent punters that roam around your otherwise lovely park. They moan that there aren’t enough shops, you give them shops, they buy stuff then drop litter and complain that there’s too much litter. People, eh? Luckily, there are ways of dealing with every single one of their complaints, be it with shops, toilets, extra trees, or more giant statues of Jesus. You can never have enough of those.
You’ll also need staff. They come in various flavours, and carry out menial tasks like picking up litter, feeding the animals and making sure the trees don’t die of blight. That last one isn’t a joke. Each member of staff has a set area in which they will tend to their duties, but they can be easily moved around if you catch them doing bugger-all. They also have different skill levels, and their wage alters accordingly. I actually managed to find a litter-picker who was so bad at his job that he cost me nothing at all to hire, which is kind of funny, sad, and offensive at the same time.
The game features some pretty comprehensive landscaping tools, allowing you to make things a bit more interesting by creating hills, cliffs, lakes, and so on. As well as being cosmetic, this also has gameplay applications; for example, some animals like to swim, so you’d better dig them a pond or they will GET SAD and DIE. The landscaping can be fiddly at times, but it’s certainly no worse than we’ve seen in the likes of, say, Spore.
Presentation-wise, the game actually does okay. There are a lot of different species of animal in the game, and they’re mostly pretty fun to watch. I was genuinely moved when I first figured out how to put a pond in my penguin enclosure, and they immediately all started racing towards the water with their wings outstretched in that brilliantly idiotic way penguins do. I’m also pretty sure I caught a gnu mounting his partner at one point, so kudos for the attention to detail there.
There’s little hiding from the fact that the game is poorly-coded, though. You’ll have a pretty long wait every single time you load the game up, and the frame-rate was regularly dropping to around 10-15 frames per second once my park started to get busy. This is on a PC that can shift Crysis 2 at full-whack. Certain elements of the game’s text also appear in German, the developers’ native tongue. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but it does suggest a certain lack of care.
Wildlife Park 3 is actually a half-decent game, though. It does what it sets out to competently, and certainly isn’t difficult to recommend to younger players if they find it for a bit less than the £29.99 RRP (and a quick google search suggests they probably will). It’s just that, for those who’ve played their fair share of management sims, it does nothing new. For a game of this genre to make you regularly think “oh, cool, it’s kind of like Theme Park” – in 2011 – there needs to be a serious lack of envelope-pushing going on.
System Requirements :
CPU: Dual-core CPU (Intel Pentium D, AMD Athlon64 3000+, minimum 3GHz)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT or higher, ATI Radeon HD X1800 or higher (minimum 256MB VRAM, DirectX 9.0c, Shader Model 2.0), RAM: 1 GB
I was late to the party when I played my first turns of Armada 2526, quite late. Droves of Turn-Based Strategy fans had boldly ... whoops! Sorry, that’s a little embarrassing. So... As I was saying, other fans had been playing the game since August 2009 while my review copy did not find my door until July of 2010. My luck fares better this time around. Armada 2526: SuperNova dropped on my doormat last week. The game was released two days ago, a nice head start to get reacquainted.
SuperNova is not a standalone expansion so you will need to dig up your original disc of Armada 2526 to be able to play the game. Once started, the menu screen shows new buttons for the newly added LAN and PBEM multiplayer modes, but other than that it is difficult to see what has been changed.
Changes
I was eager to check out the two new races that have been added to the roster. Starting a sandbox game, the new races aren’t automatically selected so you will have to make some changes to the initial list before you get to see them. While I played both The Florian Diaspora (a plantlike civilization) and the Cancerian Potentate, neither of the two offers a compelling reason to choose them over the original twelve, but they do add to the variety of civilizations that you will encounter playing the game.
Many of the game’s changes take place on and around planets. Numerous planets have more or less unique features, some of which will attract tourists while others can be exported to other planets. New hazards add random events that can cause damage to or even destroy buildings on the planet and ships in orbit. On top of that, many new features such as traces of alien civilizations and psychic plants add bonuses that can really give your research in a particular area a major boost.
Trade and spy rings
The export and import of trade goods can be a lucrative business, even if it is sometimes a little odd to see how trade routes develop. They are set automatically but occasionally a route between two planets just ends without any explanation. An interesting aspect of the new trade mechanic is that it is tied into a newly introduced espionage system. Trade increases traffic between planets, thus allowing ample opportunity for spies to insert themselves into the trade network. Once infiltrated, spies are able to sabotage planet defenses or steal technology. It is entirely feasible to go without doing your own research in favor of maintaining a spy ring.
They will have plenty to do too. The already impressive list of researchable technologies has been extended by 50. Unfortunately, adding new technologies did not turn out to be a good excuse to clean up the confusing research tree and the new technologies are mostly variations on existing ones. The same can be said about the significance of research items. Among such a bewildering amount of technologies, it is easy to find a number that you will gladly use, but the vast majority will never see any practical application beyond selling it to another civilization.
Hold on...
The early realization that the new races aren’t that significant turned out to be something of a trend found in most of the new additions. Obviously an expansion isn’t meant to reinvent a game, but it would have been nice to see the developers spend some time fixing the generic cut-scenes that appear when colonies change hands or are destroyed. Some of the graphics could also have used a tune-up. Replacing the more generic graphics would have gone a long way to add to the uniqueness of the individual races.
Arguably, though, the new multiplayer component will be reason enough for many fans to warrant a purchase of Armada 2526: SuperNova. Being able to take the game online to play with a friend adds a level of depth to the game that an AI player simply cannot compete with. The gameplay lends itself fantastically for Play By E-Mail games, bringing back memories of the old PBEM classic VGA Planets.
With the multiplayer component being the definitive excuse to buy Armada 2526: SuperNova, there is only one concern left: stability. My review copy had a tendency to randomly display error messages which could be ignored and clicked away in most cases. In two cases, however, the ‘next turn’ button stopped working and forcing me to stop playing. Often, loading one of the recent autosaves would not solve the issue. These bugs may not be present in the final version, but if they are, the game will need patching before it is worth the $12 or $15 it sells for. I have to rate the game as I find it, but once patched, it’s well worth your dough.
update
The stability issues mentioned in the article are likely to be caused by using alt-tab to the desktop (or other applications). Refrain from doing so and you will avoid the issues.
System Requirements :
* Armada 2526 ORIGINAL / FIRST VERSION
• OS: Windows XP SP3 / Vista / 7
• Processor: 2,4 GHz Intel Pentium or equivalent AMD
• Memory: 1 GB RAM
• Graphics: 128 MB DirectX 9.0c compatible video card with Pixel / Vertex Shader 2.0 support
• DirectX: DirectX 9.0c
• Hard Drive: 3 GB free harddisk space
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Developed by :DTP Entertainment , Cranberry Production
Genre :Adventure
Release Date : Apr 19, 2011
In a thrilling capper to the dark, haunting Black Mirror series, Cranberry Production has brought forth a fantastic “final chapter” in Black Mirror III. The opening cinematic thrusts you into the midst of an escape from a fiery scene of death, as Darren Michaels is racing through the woods carrying a burning torch. Those familiar with the climactic but abrupt ending of Black Mirror II will know what Darren is racing from. Newcomers should really run out and play the first two games to bone up on the series’ rich history, as anyone who hasn’t will only know that a fire is raging at the Black Mirror Castle. This places them at the same disadvantage as Inspector Spooner, who wants to know what Darren has to do with the blaze, as well as several murders in and around the town of Willow Creek. Either way, all players will be rewarded with a vastly satisfying adventure that spins a fascinating tale that takes us into the mind of someone who may be slowly going insane.
Like its immediate predecessor, you’ll play this game as Darren, an American physics student with dark ties to the castle. Now calling himself Adrian, here he must navigate his way through hounding policemen, secret notes from anonymous benefactors, surly townsfolk, and a tangled, tragic family history. With no tangible link between Adrian and the recent crimes, he is eventually released from custody after someone mysteriously pays for his bail. Seeking to prove his innocence, Adrian explores the sleepy yet sinister town of Willow Creek for evidence that will prove someone else was behind the murders.
Willow Creek is a place that hasn’t really moved forward at all in time, and the history it wallows in is bloody. The town square is still encircled by old timber-framed buildings, with dark swinging wooden signs, but in the three weeks since the finale of the second game, it has undergone a variety of changes, including the opening of an out-of-place modern café, the closing of a town fair, and the addition of a psychotherapist’s office. The village is surrounded by an ominous autumn forest with bare trees arching menacingly over the paths. The neighboring town of Warmhill, which despite its comforting name houses all of the town’s dead in a spooky cemetery, is back from the first game, and you’ll be able to roam the woods and grounds surrounding both towns, as well as a mid-renovation Black Mirror Castle itself. The castle is now ramshackle and burned out, hulking darkly at the top of its hill. It has lost some of its grandeur now, as you’ll notice spent fireworks and used cans left behind by vandals outside the usually imposing front gate. With all of the exploring you do, the interactive map comes in handy, as it allows you to instantly travel to major locations once you’ve discovered them.
Once again, these environs are rendered in a grim and realistic style, with nary a ray of sunshine to be found. In fact, the only real sunlight I can recall is the light streaming through a church’s stained glass window illuminating mourners at a funeral. The prerendered backgrounds can be as unnerving as they are gorgeous, with depth and detail everywhere you look – even when you don’t want to look, like at the decrepit mansion looming in the woods, where hints of hideous human experiments and torture seep through the crevices. The building is home to blood-splashed tile floors with drains for fluids, and in sickening contrast, another level is littered with empty pizza boxes and beer bottles amid the grotesquerie, the sign of a truly callous human being living there. Elsewhere, in a fantastic use of color, Lady Victoria, the ailing Gordon family matriarch, sleeps in her bed illuminated by sickly green lamps, her huge oak bed swathed in blood red covers while red curtains keep the light out from the outside. Every color choice adds to the sick miasma that hangs over the scene.
Small ambient animations set against these 2D backdrops ramp up the creep factor. Many shed light on a character’s psychology or set the mood of a scene: The flickering TV screen in a drifter’s hideaway flashes a sex line phone number, and a Newton’s cradle swings back and forth hypnotically in the psychotherapist’s office. Character animations add realism and interest to each scene as well. Dr. Winterbottom smokes her cigarette as she analyzes Adrian, and Denise, the two-timing waitress at the Willow Creek café, chats with Adrian while her reflection wavers behind her in the modern glass backsplash. There are some shortcuts in the animation, however. For example, when Adrian has to do something complicated with his hands, the screen may go black or he’ll move to a difficult-to-see location. Some of these cutaways are tastefully done: Adrian will thankfully block the player’s view of a torture film as he stands in front of the television watching in horror. Other animations you may wish were hidden from view, such as when Adrian snaps off a corpse’s body part (yes, it’s necessary, and yes, you’ll need it).
The cinematics aren’t cutting-edge, but they are good enough to capture the tortured character of Adrian, his haggard face aged by the soul of Mordred, the ancient Gordon family ancestor who now torments him. The cutscenes are generally short, adding tension and background story where necessary, such as replaying Adrian’s haunting memories with an increasing number of secrets revealed during each playback. Some of these are definitely not for the faint of heart, as violent images spring forth from Adrian’s disturbed mind: a flash of a stabbing pencil or the downward swing of a pillow used to suffocate.
Black Mirror III makes equally great use of sound. Whether it’s the whistling of wind through forest leaves in counterpoint to the sighing of violins, or the grinding of stone upon stone as you push open a sarcophagus, the background effects really add depth to the experience. At times when it seems Adrian is in danger of losing control, you’ll hear the thumping of a heartbeat, which never failed to quicken my own heartbeat as well. The music throughout is subtle and evocative of the overall grim tone of the game, with somber piano tunes and violin strings moaning in the background.
Despite the occasional glimpses of backstory, the amount of background provided is minimal, and new players could find themselves lost in a storyline as deep and involved as this one. How does Adrian relate to the ghoulish Mordred? In the last game he discovered some unsettling secrets about his family history and personal identity that are beneficial for players to already know. The game also relies on established relationships that Adrian now has with many Willow Creek natives, such as Tom, an angry pub owner, and Ralph, a childlike tortured soul. Similarly, certain settings such as a ruined academy and burned-out lighthouse will have a lot more resonance for players familiar with the first two games. However, the story told in Black Mirror III stands well enough on its own, and discovering what Adrian’s true destiny is and what the ancient Gordon curse has to do with him and his current troubles will be interesting to both new and returning players alike.
Much of that is due to the writing, which is full of cynical, dark, and often funny observations. Inspector Spooner comments on a colleague’s bird-brained observation about a murder victim: “Yeah, maybe she was cold and set herself on fire – for god’s sake, am I the only one with a brain around here?” Adrian, exhausted by the town’s fixation on his role in the murders, puts his own special sarcastic twist on a potential venture: “Yeah, right next door is the Black Mirror Special Café with Ritual-Blood cappuccinos and Latte Morbidato.” And the always colorful hotelier Murray notes that he’s a “business man, not a murderer; a small but absolutely fine distinction.”
System Requirements :
Windows XP with 512 MB RAM (Windows Vista x32/x64 with 1GB/2 GB RAM recommended),
Intel Pentium IV or equal processor with 1.4 GHz (Intel Dual-Core or equal processor with 2.0 GHz recommended)
128 MB Graphics card like ATI Radeon 9800 or NVidia GeForce 6800 with Shader 2.0 (256 MB and Shader 3.0 recommended)
DirectX8 compatible sound card (9.0c recommended)
6 GB Hard drive space
DVD-Rom-drive
The best trading simulation 2010 just got better! Patrician 4: Rise of a Dynasty brings a bulging package of improvements and new features most prominently the new coop-mode for up to four players. Finally, you are able to operate your business with your friends helping out. And if you are already master of the seas, why not try and conquer the continent as well. In Rise of a Dynasty, you will find new routes into the heartland and trade with cities like Berlin, Warschau and Nimwegen But of course you have grapple with the territorial rulers first Really wealthy patricians buy parts of the local regions and - by doing so - disempower the snotty noblemen bit by bit. You are still searching for a challenge? Then you should test your skill with the six new scenarios of Patrician 4: Rise of a Dynasty
Features
New land trade feature: Merchandise in heartland cities like Berlin Nimwegen, Warschau and Kaunas and discover an extensive road network
Coop-mode for up to four players: Manage your company alongside three of your friends
New treasure hunt feature: Collect parts of a treasure map in the whole Hanse territory to find the ultimate pirate treasure
Rise to the challenge: Six new scenarios, demanding even for experienced players
Become a big landowner: Buy parts of the regional territories and claim the power
Visual improvements: Revised seemap and city views, portraits for players and questgivers, new animations for citizens and businesses
Loads of AI and gameplay improvements
INSTALL NOTES
1. Unpack the release
2. Mount or burn image
3. Install (read additional notes)
4. Copy all files from the SKIDROW folder to the game installation
5. Play the game
6. Support the companies, which software you actually enjoy!
ADDITIONAL NOTES
You will need Patrician IV Conquest by Trade to install this expansion
Description: The ultimate Painkiller package – a motley collection of crazy guns, levels and enemies – contains the titles “Painkiller”, “Painkiller – Battle out of Hell”, “Painkiller – Overdose”, as well as the latest add-on “Painkiller Resurrection”. Each Painkiller offers unusual, fast-paced shooter fare with extravagant settings and a healthy dose of madness and horror.
Features:
* Innumerous shooter levels and eccentric settings create highly varied gameplay.
* Over 70 hours of perfect Painkiller action with 3 independent story lines and protagonists!
* Adrenalin-laden multiplayer modes are constantly improved by the game‘s fan community
* Over 26 demonically deviant weapons provide you with semi-divine powers!
* Over 120 insane, blood-crazed monster types straight from the Pits of Hell
System Requirements :
OS: Windows 98\ME\2000\XP
CPU: 1.5 GHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon processor
RAM: 384 MB
Hard Drive space: 1.2 GB available
Video: 64 MB DirectX 8.1 compatible video card (NVIDIA GeForce 3 or better)
First impressions of Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops aren't particularly favorable. This third-person stealth action shooter by German developer Black Lion Studios is weighed down by a load of cliches, from its predictable spec ops heroes to its overused "dirty arms dealer" storyline. Things begin to look up though when you're offered a diverse military resource in the form of agents Aron Alvarez and Myra Lee—opposites who, like characters in an unusually violent buddy movie, are forced to work together. Unfortunately, thanks to the game's rigid level design, most of the time they don't.
The background to Aron and Myra's activities is the war-torn nation of Somalia. The two are sent there on separate missions to eliminate Karim Kimosein, an African warlord who's living large and terrorizing Somalian civilians. Aron's a guns-blazing kind of guy whose strength is putting as many holes into Kimosein's men as possible. Myra's talents are more subtle, and she takes a stealthy approach. The two meet in the rubble-filled streets of Mogadishu and decide to join forces, combining Aron's savvy marksmanship and explosives expertise with Myra's hacking skills.
At first this arrangement seems promising. The controls (aside from the game's auto-cover system which is annoyingly awkward) for both are intuitive and fluid, each character's abilities are different enough to keep things from getting repetitive as you quickly switch between the two using the Tab key. Playing as Aron is decent; he's more or less your run-of-the-mill soldier boy. Myra however, is a fairly cool character. Beautiful, deadly and armed with a high-tech crossbow, she's something like Angelina Jolie's badass character in the movie Salt. Stealthing with her can be fun, especially when sneaking up behind guys, putting them in a headlock and taking them out using her special nano-claw.
Despite their varying levels of appeal, as a team Aron and Myra offer interesting options for achieving your objectives, or so it initially seems. Early on you discover what looks like a choice actually isn't, thanks to extremely linear (some might say contrived) level design. Where a more free-form structure would have given you the opportunity to make good use of the two, individual sequences are designed specifically for one character or the other and cannot be approached any other way. It's an odd decision on the part of Black Lion since it disallows players from using the characters' skills creatively or (aside from in a couple of lame mini-cutscenes) in tandem.
More frustrating than this though are the game's difficulty spikes and poorly spaced checkpoints. Many of us, when faced with auto-save-only groan inwardly and Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops reminds us why. Starting with a near-impossible mobile turret sequence followed later by several lengthy sections that alternate between characters, your patience will be tested by a checkpoint system seemingly designed by a team of sadists. Repeatedly, you're forced to hold your breath through overlong levels as you engage in a shootout as Aron, stealth-kill thirty guys and hack a computer as Myra, outrun a giant mech and blow up a bridge as Aron and then just when it's nearly over, get hit by a stray bullet as Myra and have to play the whole thing over again. Adding to this silliness is the game's bizarre artificial intelligence. Throughout the game enemies seem to have no peripheral vision but if one of them does spot you, twenty of his buddies have the preternatural ability to sense and hunt you down from five rooms away. Worst of all, when you fail you're forced to re-watch boring, unskippable cutscenes. It's enough to make you throw up your hands up and stop playing.
These things are bad enough but the game's problems don't end at the mere mechanical, they extend to the sound and visuals as well. While menus and load screens are highly polished, most of the time you're struggling to see what you're doing thanks to environments that are either too dark (even with night vision) or blindingly bright. Then there are the characters, who while well-modeled, are fairly scary when they talk, flapping their jaws expressionlessly like ventriloquist dummies. Adding to this effect is the universally wooden voice acting. While music and sound effects are competently done, no matter how hot things get, Aron comes across like a bored telemarketer and Myra's already-flat delivery is augmented by her unlikely Wisconsin accent. Then again, you're often spared the pain of listening to them by the crummy, non-adjustable audio mix.
System Requirements :
* OS: Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
* CPU: Intel 3.2 GHz or faster
* RAM: 1 GB
* HDD: 8 GB free disk space
* Graphics: 256 MB Graphics Memory
* Sound Card: DirectX 9 Compatible
* DirectX: Version 9.0c
