I think I shall make this one brief. As most of you know, I don't review PC games. The reason for this is simple: money (and my computer!) Put simply, I am pretty much unwilling to put the money into a true gaming PC capable of running Half Life 2 or Crysis. There was a time when I was going to go that path, but think about it, having to reinvest in the same thing about every year to keep up with the games, not to mention new operating systems. Whatever, waste of money, that's all I'm saying. I am quite contempt console gaming and its steady flow of games without having to upgrade at all save for a bigger hard drive perhaps.
Anyways, I do buy a computer game every once in a while, that is to say that I do have a few. There are games for the computer that I absolutely love and are timeless to me. When you have a game you can play for a while. Hang it up, uninstall, put in a box, then after some time passes look at it and say, "Man, I could go for some of that right about now," that to me says something. Rounding out that list of short games that I play time and time again, Age of Empires (mainly the first one, the wife and I play that networked for some fun times) Starcraft, X Beyond the Frontier (Just recently got the expansion for that looking forward to it) Dungeon Keeper, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. I do have more games, but those are the ones I have played time and time again. Luckily they run on almost anything.
What is the point to all this you ask? Well aside from getting totally sidetracked back there I have been playing a game that I can't help but put comments on. Freelancer has been out for quite some time now but more recently you can pick it up at the attractive 10 dollar price point. After reading this review here (gosh who doesn't miss Greg?) for it, I figured it was worth a moment of my time. Since I don't review computer games I will simply use the Kotaku form of reviewing. So pending further sidetracking I give you my impressions of Freelancer.
Freelancer (2003) developed by Digital Anvil (Born 1996, Died 2006)
The Good:
*The systems you fly around in are beautiful for their time and all of this is virtually load free.
*Not much of a mouse and Keyboard person, but even for a lack of game pad support, this game does surprisingly well with overall controls
*The ability to upgrade your ship is a big plus for the title. Upgrading shields, weapons, etc are fine and all, but upgrading a ship, now that where it's at.
*Okay, so the story isn't fantastic, but in games like these, it is important to have an at least interesting story, so there you go.
*The environmental sound is also nice. Not overbearing to the point of annoyance, but there enough to make it feel more lifelike.
The Bad:
*Horrible voice acting. Some people do all right but in the whole package, I just can't stand it.
*This game is pretty much X-Beyond the Frontier (1999) just redone. Now that isn't to say that that's really a bad thing in itself, I just like the way X did it better.
*Game difficulty starts out a bit steep. The enemies just seem to always have a slight advantage.
*Repetitive Gameplay. Sure its great to have a bunch of different stuff to do, but you can only do the, "Go here kill these guys," so many times before its just old
*I know I said the controls are good, and they are, but to not support the use of a game pad all together, I mean why would you do that?
Well there you have it. Those are just some thoughts I had on it while playing through it. There is no rating given here because I can't fairly judge it based on my crummy PC it was running on. Though aside from some choppy-ness from too much action on screen, it ran pretty smooth. I will say this much for it, if you are a true fan of X, then you won't have a problem getting into this game. I also here there is some craziness going on over at this site. Apparently some people love this game and go all insane in mods for it (they're up to 2.7 now!). Hey, anything to bring life back into a game that's a bit used huh? Well I totally support their work and just to show them that, I shall plug their mod again here. Till next time peoples.
UPDATE: Along with spacing issues, it would appear that Microsoft Word doesn't transfer Hyperlinks well. Atleast not ones pertaining to GameSpot content.