S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Blade of Darkness (2001)

Need for Speed Most Wanted

Will Rock

Street Fighter IV (Collector's Edition)

Quake 4 (Special Edition)

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos

Test Drive Unlimited

Madden NFL 2005

Star Wolves

Heroes of Might and Magic III

Heroes of Might and Magic IV

Warriors Orochi

Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade

Drakensang: The Dark Eye

Star Wolves 2

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Freelancer

Test Drive Unlimited

Freedom! And cars! All kinds of cars!

I have played my share of driving and racing games, and this gem goes on the short list of all-time favorites, right up there with the original Motocross Madness, which was also amazing for its time -- and quite hilariou... Read Full Review

Fantasy Wars

This well executed turn-based strategy game puts a heavy emphasis on tactics, and is thoroughly satisfying.

Fantasy Wars seems to me a turn-based version of what Warcraft 3 should have been. The premise is simple: take your units out, point and click where you want them to go and where to attack; you choose in what order. It's... Read Full Review

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir

Gets on your nerves quite often. But still, it does help fix the D&D/RPG jones.

Before I get into my criticisms, I will say that SoZ is not bad. It delivers the fix for your D&D craving, as I said above in the deck; and there is the potential for many, many hours of game play through a full range of... Read Full Review

Gothic 3

I had to edit my review to account for the huge 1.7 Community Patch which now makes the game reasonably playable.

OK, here's a quick "new" review which accounts for the excellent 1.7 Community Patch (1.7 CP) which was released several days before this edit. My earlier review ("Broken") is pasted below in brackets, for posterity's sa... Read Full Review

Neverwinter Nights 2 (CD-ROM)

Gameplay is WEAK. Nevertheless, it's D&D "fleshed out," and there's something compelling in that alone.

OK, I am all the way to Chapter 3 in the original campaign, and have decided that this game is 1) insultingly easy; and 2) insultingly linear. In fact, NWN2 sort of shares many of the flaws that made KOTOR 2 less than... Read Full Review

Unreal (Best of)

Totally F R E A k i n awesome. One of the all-time greatest first-person-shooters.

Man, this game brings back memories. When it was released, some pre-built desktops were still being sold with, like, 4 MB graphics cards with 2D capability only. This game was at the forefront of the 3D graphics tidal wa... Read Full Review

Warriors Orochi

Combat is over-the-top button-mashing pap, but you gotta love Warriors Orochi for all the nifty bells and whistles.

Get out your game pad and get ready to hammer on that poor bugger. Yes, Warriors Orochi is a button-mashing fiesta. However, there are some things which make it rather fascinating and addicting, in spite of its frenetic,... Read Full Review

WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos

Please, can someone -- anyone -- tell me how this game gets a "superb" rating. I'm beggin ya! Explain it to me

It had been some time since I played an RTS, and the mood suddenly struck me. This was one of those titles with amazing reviews, for the most part, that I had neglected to pick up when it first came out. Long story short... Read Full Review

Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade

A very fun game that could have been great if some common-sense features had been implemented.

First of all, the free camera, the "save only at checkpoints" feature, and some of the gameplay mechanics are very reminiscent of another game I had tried playing: that is, "Prince of Persia: Warrior Within." I had poste... Read Full Review

Drakensang: The Dark Eye

Starts off easy and somewhat monotonous, but if you stay with it, you'll be rewarded by a fascinating, challenging RPG.

For awhile I was on the verge of quitting the game and putting it on the "discarded" shelf. The beautiful graphics held me somewhat, though, and the thought that a game with such a complex character/stat system just *had... Read Full Review

Star Wolves 2

This sequel takes the superb Star Wolves RPG/RTS core and applies it to a poor campaign with weak overall production.

Star Wolves contains a slick gaming formula, and even this mess of a sequel somehow manages to be fun, although on a limited scale. The main reason I gave as high a score as I did, is because I find the core concepts and... Read Full Review

Mount & Blade

Despite many glaring flaws and shortcomings, M&B is EASILY the best RPG of the year--hell, of the last 6 or 8 years.

Note to Gamespot reviewer: it's about the gameplay, stupid. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's official: Gamespot is out of it. I have amassed stacks and stacks of "barely played" games. Plenty of these were, incident... Read Full Review

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

I want my money back....

So some developers are still making games where you cannot save regularly. Like this one, you have to suffer through an interminably long intro movie, fight a bunch of pansy pirates, then get through the first boss (who ... Read Full Review

Severance: Blade of Darkness

A total blast. Superb!

I bought this game when it first came out and my system at the time had diffuculty keeping up with it, and there were some bugs that needed working out, but I still had fun with it. A lot of fun. I pulled this title back... Read Full Review

Gothic II: Gold Edition

Learn it. Play it. Gothic I & II are worth a gamer's time. Action RPG's with actual quests, challenges, and storylin

(Most of the text portion of review applies to both Gothic I and Gothic II Gold.) If you do not force yourself to adapt to the interfacial idiosyncracies of Gothic I and Gothic II, you are missing out bigtime. It take... Read Full Review

Gothic

Learn it. Play it. Gothic I & II are worth a gamer's time. Action RPG's with actual quests, challenges, and storylin

(Text portion of review applies to both Gothic I and Gothic II Gold.) If you do not force yourself to adapt to the interfacial idiosyncracies of Gothic I and Gothic II, you are missing out bigtime. It takes about an h... Read Full Review

Star Wolves 3: Civil War

More Star Wolves, without frills or apology. Either you 'get it' or you don't. But, CAREFUL with the difficulty setting.

Star Wolves 3 (SW3) gives you a bellyful of outer space and tactical challenges. There's nothing earth-shattering here. The mildly interesting story is plainly presented, and the campaign (especially early on) develop... Read Full Review

Wizardry 8

Taken in its "totalitarianism" (with thanks to Pat Healy), it might be the best RPG I have ever played...

...although Planescape: Torment would certainly be in the running, if only for the unparalleled storyline that game offered. Wizardry 8 has all the elements that make for good RPG: pure, old-school RPG system, good in... Read Full Review

Madden NFL 2005

It's highly addictive, and often feels just like real football, but there are also some seriously frustrating downsides.

I like this game, in fact it's hard to stop playing. But when it is loaded and running, I sometimes feel the need to drive my fist through my computer monitor. I also find myself cussing out loud and having arguments wit... Read Full Review

Torchlight

The slightly simple character/role system is offset by fun equipment, nice 3rd-person action, and fascinating visuals.

I never played Diablo but Torchlight very much reminds me of an old third-person dungeon-crawler called Nox. The action and even the three-class limitation mimic Nox, mimic it more than a little. I liked Nox. I like Torc... Read Full Review

Hard Truck: Apocalypse

Actually quite compelling and addicting, and very well-balanced. Clearly FAR better than the GameSpot score shows.

It's unbelievable that a fairly polished, highly addicting game such as this is so completely lost on the "professional" reviewers. One might suppose that they tried it for all of half an hour before hacking out their cr... Read Full Review