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Champions of Norrath Review

If you want an object lesson in how badly the loss of Black Isle Studios has been (and will be) felt in the computer role-playing game industry, rent Dark Alliance II and Champions of Norrath one weekend and compare the two. Both are based on Snowblind's Dark Alliance Engine and both offer addictive fast-action hack and slash gameplay, but experiencing both together illustrates how much more effort Black Isle took toward improving gameplay and offering a better experience than the original.

Maybe that's a harsh way to start out a review for the Snowblind-developed CoN, which is actually a pretty fun game, but by releasing CoN a month after BG:DA2 and offering mainly cosmetic improvements, Snowblind doomed its title to live in Black Isle's shadow from the start. I will say that by the end of the game, I was able to enjoy Champions of Norrath for its own merits, but the comparison never really left me, either.

You start off Champions of Norrath by choosing a character from among several familiar classes and one that may be new to you. There's Barbarian, Ranger, Cleric, Wizard, and Shadow Knight. The first four are probably self-explanatory, but (not having played Everquest) I was unfamiliar with the Shadow Knight class. Sort of like a dark cleric, the Shadow Knight is a melee fighter that also has some disease and summon undead spells. When choosing your character you get to be either male or female, but you don't get to pick your race. You can customize your character by giving him or her a new hairstyle, hair color, and skin tone, which is kind of fun, but also kind of useless with the bird's eye camera angle and all.

After you've made your character, you'll endure a lengthy speech about why you are in Norrath, written in the pulp fantasy style that screams "this is a fantasy story because it has place names like Faydwer". Then it's off to kill some orcs and goblins and take their loot. I don't think I could accurately tell you what the full story is about. I had a very good time getting better at smacking the bad guys around, but story-wise there are so many betrayals and characters that show up for no adequately explained reason that I got lost trying to figure how the main plotline goes.

That's ok, though, because these games aren't really about plot; they're about hacking and slashing your way to better loot. And CoN keeps the hack and slash fun of the core Dark Alliance gameplay intact. There are some differences, of course, including using gate scrolls instead of potions of recall and not being able to jump anymore. Yes, it means there are no jumping puzzles, but it still means you can't jump up on a rock or table and fire arrows from higher ground.

And while we're on the subject of archery, let me just state that the main beef I had with the game was that no changes were made to the ranged weapon system. One of the best things about DA2 was that you didn't have to spend your hard-earned money on arrows. To make up for the imbalance, the bosses were much tougher to bring down with ranged weapons, which I though was a fair trade-off.

For some reason, though, Snowblind went the opposite direction, making you constantly pay to refill your arrow supply and delegate a decent amount of your weight allowance to it. These annoyances are balanced out by the fact that eventually you get to a point where there's really nothing to buy except more arrows and the fact that just about all of the bosses are easily taken out with bows as you can run to a point where they hit the end of their patrol route and snipe at them as they lumber around trying to find a path that leads back toward you.
I know that CoN is Snowblind's sophomore effort, but it seems odd that they would design a game that lets you exploit programming to beat bosses so often and gets easier the closer you get to the end. Having said that, I did find it harder than DA2, though. I had to spend a fair amount of the early game standing around waiting for my health to refill and lost many a battle by not remembering the better part of valor from time to time. Aside from these gripes, I do think that Snowblind did a better job than Black Isle with the item upgrading system.

Similar to DA2, CoN allows you to upgrade weapons with certain jewels and items found out in the field. In DA2, though, you had to take your item back to a weapon smith and pay to have it attached to your weapon, often without knowing exactly what would happen. CoN lets you add the item right on the spot, out in the field and lets you know exactly what will happen when you put it in a weapon or a piece of armor. The major drawback is that you can't remove an upgrade item once it's in a weapon, so you may find yourself hoarding jewels until you're ready for the last fight. Still, I found myself using this option much more in CoN than in DA2 because it didn't distract from the tasks at hand.

As far as the complimentary elements go, I've already mentioned that CoN's writing and story are pretty subtastic. The same goes for the voice acting, much of which is done by industry veteran Cameron Clarke, whom I can now spot no matter how he tries to change his voice. It's not that he's bad at what he does, it's just that he's overused. Every character he voices starts to seem like they're part of the same family. I was kind of amused the first time my Ranger entered a dungeon and said "I hope the monster to treasure ratio is in my favor this time", but the phrase quickly wore out its welcome.

The graphics are pretty good for a PS2 game running on an older engine. Snowblind made good use of the engine's much-lauded water-effects, even creating a lake of lava that your character gets to drive across on a kind of lava-tractor. They took the game out of the dungeon often, with quests that take you to a set of islands, a desert, and an icy ship's graveyard. They even allowed you to zoom the camera in further, if you wanted to admire the scenery. And there was one particular boss whose look and cut-scene was cooler than anything I saw in either Dark Alliance game.

I liked the music in some places, especially the early portions of the game where you're running around in the forest. It sounded like it was straight from Hollywood, and really created atmosphere. In other places, though, it either wasn't around, or didn't do enough for me. In fact, toward the end of the game during my second time through, I actually played much of the game with the radio on and the TV turned down.

While the music won't provide much replay value, though, there are some good incentives to go back through. You can, if you have the patience (or cheat), take your character up to level 50, playing on three difficulty settings. Also, the separate classes have skill trees differing enough that you would have to use different strategies depending on which class you were playing. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, CoN is the only Dark Alliance-based game out now that allows you to play online. I didn't take advantage of this option, so I can't really say how much it changes the game experience, but it is there for you if that's the kind of thing you look for in a game.

Despite my many minor gripes, Champions of Norrath is actually fun to play once you get into it. Some of its elements reflect better decisions on the part of Snowblind, but as a total experience I don't think it measures up to Black Isle's take on the Dark Alliance engine. Unless you really love these kinds of games, I'd say that if you bought Dark Alliance 2 when it came out, don't run out and buy Champions of Norrath, but definitely rent it.
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Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II Review

Having recenty reviewed both the original Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, I was a little concerned that my review of Dark Alliance II might become biased due to Dark Alliance Engine Burnout. Luckily, with Dark Alliance II, the wizards at Black Isle were able to tweak the engine just enough to keep things fresh, but not so much as to lose the flavor of the highly successful original game.

Dark Alliance II is the game that Dark Alliance should have been. It's not so much a sequel as it is a version 2.0 a polished revision of a pretty good first draft. The story is set shortly after the events of the first and involves the rescue of its three heros from a vampire named Mordoc. Truthfully, though, the elements from the earlier story could have been left out entirely, as the plot is pretty much the same: an evil person threatens Baldur's Gate with a tower that can create doors to other planes and you have to stop that person and destroy the tower. You'll go about doing this pretty much the same way you went about it in Dark Alliance, except this time you won't have to buy arrows.

Although the hack and slash mentality of the original game was left intact, Black Isle did made some good attempts at offering a broader RPG experience this time around. The game is still largely linear in nature, but there are chances for each playable character there are five in the sequel to branch off from the main path and take on personal quests. In addition, players can now create their own unique weapons, armor, and jewelry by enhacing exceptional items with gems found out in the field at a workshop.

For those who didn't play the original Dark Alliance, gameplay goes something like this: talk to someone until you get a quest, go to the quest location and kill everything that tries to kill you, go back and get your reward, use your reward to buy new weapons or upgrade the ones you already have. It gets repetitive at times, especially toward the end of the game, but fighting new monsters in each area keeps things fresh and there are some surprises, mostly in the early levels, that prevent your quests from becoming mundane.

Those who played the original Dark Alliance will be happy to know that there are no jumping puzzles and that the tweaked ranged combat system now makes archery a worthwile way to fight. You can now hold in the right trigger button when equipped with a ranged weapon and keep your target line up as long as you want. Since you don't have to buy arrows, you can often mitigate the weaknesses of the static camera by firing off screen to catch enemies unawares. In fact, I used a bow I had upgraded almost exclusively in the early part of the game, until I was able to max out the Unarmed Combat ranks of my dark elf monk.

As far as graphics and sound go, they were both pretty good, but I felt that both had lost something, perhaps because so much concentration was placed on improving gameplay. The graphics were generally strong although the water and fire effects were used more conservatively. I wasn't bothered by that as much as the fact that in some of the landscapes the grass looked like carpet. I also didn't care for the character model of the dark elf, whose portrait made her look like an old woman, or the bizarre way they made her walk when moving through a level.

The music was also generally good, but maybe I've just become so accustomed to it that it fails to register, though sometimes it didn't register for a reason. As with the original Dark Alliance, there are places where the music drops out for a while, which serves to bring a bit of reality to a game about exploring dark caves alone. If it doesn't pick up again before you start fighting, though, it makes the skirmish less cinematic and therefore less purposeful. Along the same lines, the voice acting was pretty strong, but the absence of John Rhys-Davies as Jherek left that character seeming a little flat.

In the end, though, I have to recommend Dark Alliance II, expecially to those who haven't played the original. It manages to make up for almost all of the weaknesses of the former title and offers much more in the way of replay value. In addition to the personal quests that encourage you to play through the game as each character class, you can unlock both Drizzt do'Urden and Artemis Entreri. You can also take all of the playable characters to level 40 and max out their spells and feats along the way. If Dark Alliance was a potential renter, DAII is definitely a keeper and a good example of how console RPGs could begin to offer some of the same role-playing experiences that computer RPGs have been offering for years.
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Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance Review

OK, so I'm reviewing Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance a little late in the day. The game has been out for two years and has spawned two games based on its engine, both of which came out this month. But since we were planning on giving Dark Alliance II full coverage, we felt the original deserved the same.

Dark Alliance originally came out on the Playstation 2 in 2001, likely as an experiment to see if the popular Baldur's Gate CRPG series could succeed in the world of console gaming. The experiment was apparently a success, because a year later Dark Alliance came out for the Xbox and Gamecube systems and Dark Alliance II went into production. Dark Alliance's publisher, the financially listing Interplay, abandoned Fallout 3 (the next game in the highly acclaimed CRPG franchise) because it hoped that revenues from Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, a console title set in the Fallout universe and based on the Dark Alliance engine, would keep the company afloat.

Role-playing gamers enjoyed Dark Alliance as a change of pace from thinky PC RPGs and an opportunity to enjoy a different kind of console RPG experience than that found in the Final Fantasy franchise and its imitators. Gamers who had shied away from RPGs in the past found the fast-paced combat addictive and the RPG elements non-intrusive, giving Dark Alliance a much broader fanbase that its CRPG titles.

So now you're saying, "Thanks for the history lesson. Is Dark Alliance any fun?". Seasoned gamers should already know at this point whether Dark Alliance sounds like something they'd enjoy. For them it's a matter of deciding where they fall in the PC versus console debate and how much role-playing they need to have in a game to enjoy it. Because while Dark Alliance is fun, it's basically a hack and slash game that has enough RPG elements to keep things from getting boring, but not enough to qualify as a true role-playing experience.

For those without much experience with RPGs, Dark Alliance is a good way to get your feet wet. Those who enjoy RPGs, but wouldn't mind a little button-mashing fun when it comes to combat should enjoy it as well. Basically, the gameplay consists of running through dungeons, or hallways, or swamps, and beating the crap out of whatever gets in your way. Because the ranged weapon system leaves something to be desired, combat mainly involves running in circles with your opponent as you try to hit him in the back without allowing him to hit you.

Once you do knock your opponent off, you grab his stuff. Lather, rinse, and repeat until you can't carry anymore and have to teleport back to the local merchant to sell what you've collected. That's pretty much all there is to it, except that sometimes during the killing and looting you level up. That's where the RPG elements come in, as you mold your character by choosing either to augment his defensive or offensive abilites, or allow him the use of special attacks. As there's precious little use for diplomacy, you'll mainly want to make him or her more efficient at delivering and receiving the pain.

Now, if that sounds repetitive, it is. I have to admit that I got bogged down on some of the later levels because they just seemed to be huge monster repositories. For the most part, though, dealing with the various different kinds of monsters and exploring the beautifully rendered environments keeps the repetitive nature of the gameplay from becoming boring. Although I found myself only vaguely caring about completing the quests or whether my actions were helping the people of Baldur's Gate or not, I did get to a point where I was acitvely interested in what there was to loot, as I was always trying to come up with the scratch to buy better weapons and armor.

The other elements of the game the music, voice acting, and graphics also help to keep it interesting throughout. The graphics on the Xbox are especially good, with amazing water effects and impressive animations. The NPCs you meet have wonderfully expressive facial features and the enemies you fight die in different and entertaining ways. Although the fact that you can't change the angle of the camera hinders the effect of the lovely visuals at times, the detail of the evironments is still striking and adds much to the experience.

The music is appropriately moody and lends a sense of purpose to your dungeon delving. The voice acting is also great, and helps to bring the story a greater sense of realism. You may not think about the quest you're on while you're hacking away in the field, but you do get pretty interested in what John Rhys-Davies will have to say about it once you're ready to report back to his character, Jherek.

All of these elements come together to make a game that's very enjoyable to play while it lasts. You can finish the game in about twelve hours and may or may not be interested in going back through again. The two main bones the developers toss you for replay are a two-player cooperative mode and the ability to unlock a beloved Forgotten Realms character, Drizzt Do'Urden. Drizzt isn't a particularly beloved character of mine, so I wasn't immediately eager to go back through with him. I haven't played through with a friend yet, though, but it's obvious that such coop play would add a whole new level of enjoyment.

All in all, though, I have to say that I highly recommend playing this game, even if just as a rental. It's an enjoyable way to unwind for an hour and a good value if you can find a used copy in a bargain bin. It's also a very good example of how to keep a bash-em-up game from becoming stale. Definitely rent it before you play Dark Alliance II, just to see how much the engine has improved.
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Final Fantasy XI Online Review

Chapter XI of the Final Fantasy phenomenon hit North America a couple months ago like a stampede of frenzied chocobos. And yes, to answer the avid fan's most dire question, you can ride chocobos. With that said, the world of Vana'diel is now Online and equipped to take on the MMORPG juggernauts we have spent all too much time playing but enjoying every minute. Square made huge headway with the release of FFXI nearly two years ago in Asia; naturally they could not resist dishing up a plate for the finicky palette of the Americans and they have delivered. With such a delayed release to the States and our neighbors, one calls into question if a game that has been on the market for two years can actually hold a candle to what is out today.

First off, judging a book by its cover offers some promise. Any fan of Final Fantasy will be drawn to this title like a Taru Taru to a picnic. Taru Taru you say? Well, FFXI offers five races to choose from each having their own advantages and disadvantages. We have the Hume, basically a human, average in just about every field. The Elvaan, elf to the majority of us, masters of the sword and average magic users. Taru Taru, a child like race that excels in the realm of magic but lacks in the ability to take physical punishment. The Mithra, a female-only bipedal feline race that has amazing dexterity and quickness. Last, the Galka, a male-only race of what looks like hairy giants chiseled out of stone. They have tremendous strength and can bring down the pain as well as they can take it.

From a gamer's standpoint, the graphics are actually quite good for being an older game. Vana'diel immerses its population in an almost anime cartoon style universe that is a pretty refreshing change. The animated emotions of the characters are overly cute but nevertheless well done. The spells are attractive and Summoner pets are definitely impressive to look at. Another definite plus is that it doesn't require a beefy system to be surrounded by a well-designed atmosphere. The graphic engine is not top of the line but gets the job done, simply, without bogging down your system performance. I think a lot of gamers will appreciate that it doesn't require investing into a beefier system to surround oneself in a decent atmosphere.

Getting down to the crux of the game play Square has remained true to the Final Fantasy universe. FFXI boasts a variety of classes from Monks to Red Mages and Dragoons to Ninjas. However, as a piece of discretionary advice before tackling the playing aspects of FFXI one must discern the potential game play predicament. Take a moment and cease from weaning yourself on the standard keyboard and mouse game play you are accustomed to. There are two ways to play FFXI and the mouse has little to do with either. The keyboard style of play (the way I played the game) is probably awkward for about 75% of the gaming population. The controlling and accessing of your character windows and menus revolve around your Num Pad. That's right, that cube of keys most gamers have never touched before will be your new console. It takes getting used to but is actually fairly efficient. Let it be known, in my profession I use the Num Pad quite often so I think my learning curve is dwarfed in comparison to a good portion of gamers. Your second option, the route just about all of my friends took, is to purchase a game pad. Think PS2 controller coming out of the back of your computer. Supposedly, this makes the game play a breeze. My qualm with it is setting down your game pad every time you want to communicate via the keyboard; however, from person to person that could only be a minor setback.

The prime rib au jus of the FFXI dish (Tofurkey and organic greens to the vegans) is definitely the character possibilities; ironically called (jobs.) The gazpacho appetizer is furrowing your brow and trying to digest what exactly building a character entails. No offense to fans of cold soup, but the time one will invest to build a character the irony of (jobs) becomes all too real.

First off, the player chooses one of the five races. There is a basic character builder with about a half a dozen faces/hair styles and colors to choose from in order to differentiate oneself from the rest of Vana'diel. Unfortunately, one will discover a number of virtual twins upon playing the game. You then choose your job: Warrior (master of armor and most weapons), Thief (stealing, backstabbing and feint attack), Monk (vicious damage dealers with very little armor), White Mage (healing and defensive magic), Black Mage (offensive and support magic) and Red Mage (jack of all trades, master of none). All fairly explanatory unless you are unfamiliar with Final Fantasy magic users; Black Mages are damage dealing wizards; White Mages, read as cleric; Red Mages are a hybrid between the two other mage classes and offering a bit of skill with melee weapons and armor. Pretty interesting and more importantly is a decent sense of balance between starting jobs. You can also pick your height, three different sizes and lastly your starting city, which have detailed explanations in game.

One thing any MMORPGer will notice is that there is no server selection screen. Yup, if you wanted to start the game playing on the same server as your friends I would like to introduce you to my friend Random Luck. Before you burn brain cells contemplating why Square would do such a thing, know that there is something you can do besides, Create/Delete, Create/Delete to finally land on your server of choice. There is a purchasable item in towns called World Passes. They give a number sequence that can be given to your friends so they can type in the Server name and number upon character creation. Still, this feature is fairly draconian and should have been strategically left out of the first course salad like firm avocados.
Now push the salad aside and tuck your napkin into your neckline. A great feature in FFXI is that your character can switch jobs to whatever you want from town. To clarify, one can play a Warrior for the day, gain a few levels, then switch over to playing a White Mage. Finally! A game that doesn't lock you into a (gimped) character class or punish you for wanting a change of pace. Each level you gain is stored on your character, so you can theoretically be Level 20 in all possible jobs but you can only choose from one of the jobs to play. You are your own twink if that happens to be your cup of tea. Point of interest, your skills carry over from job to job so if you were good with knives as a Warrior you will be good with a knife as a Thief and vice versa. Downside, you will not be able to wear the armor you would as a White Mage that you have accumulated as a Warrior. The majority of items are job specific so money and bank inventory will limit you quite a bit.

The other end of the spectrum is probably asking, Why would I want to build up a job and waste my time leveling up another? I told you, gazpacho. At level 18 you will have a quest that allows you to have a (Sub Job.) Basically turn your character into a hybrid of any of the six starting (jobs.) It is every advantage for you to have a Sub Job. An example of a Sub Job is a Warrior/Thief of White Mage/Black Mage. You will get the bonuses and skills of your Sub Job so thinking that a straight Warrior is better than a Warrior/Monk would be wrong. Monks have damage modifiers that would make your Warrior more deadly. The downside of this is that you will have to start at Level 1 whether you want to or not, unless you want to (gimp) your character. The way this works is that your Sub Job Level cannot be more than Half of your Main Job Level. For example, you have done what I mentioned before and are Level 20 in all of your jobs. Whatever Main Job you choose to play your Sub Job will only be Level 10. As I said before, you will get all the bonuses and spells of your Sub Job added to your character. Making some sense?

It's not over yet. At level 30 you will have access to quests that will reward you with Advanced Jobs. The Advanced Jobs in FFXI are: Bard (music and support extraordinaire), Beast Master (tamer of animals to help in fights), Dark Knight (Scythe wielding, insane damage and tanking like a wet paper bag is the name of the game), Dragoon (Spear users with wyvern pets to aid in combat and the popular Jump Attack from previous FF's), Ninja (dual wielding and a line of Ninja Magic), Paladin (the titan of tanks but mediocre in killing potential), Ranger (long range and most lethal killer in the game that needs coffers of gold to maintain an ammo supply), Samurai (avid swordsman and specializes in gaining Tactical Points to unleash special attacks) and last, the Summoner (conjurer of Elementals and Beasts to deal heavy damage). These Advanced Jobs again can be used as Sub Jobs, which doesn't make much sense but can have a Main Job subbed underneath them. For example, Samurai/Warrior or Black Mage/Summoner. Each one you achieve you will start over from Level 1 and a good deal of new weapons, items and spells will keep things interesting for you.

Now what is FFXI in a nutshell? In my opinion, FFXI is a good addition to the MMORPG line of titles grappling for supremacy. The music at times is annoying but that can be turned off. The camera can take some time to get used to if you like to play in the third person. The graphics are good and being the world of Vana'diel is an even bigger plus to Final Fantasy fans. The character development and possibilities are what a lot of hardcore gamers are looking for. There are hundreds of quests to participate in, just about everything you will do in FFXI will revolve around a quest; items jobs and even ranks in society. There are tons of dungeons and zones all with different themes to them to mix things up. You will never find yourself with lack of something to do.

Given all this, FFXI is a time-consuming venture, depending on your will power of course. There are both long and short term senses of accomplishment. Hardcore gamers will find it difficult to quench their need to attain the highest levels and best items. The occasional gamer will find it entertaining because just about every level or two there are new weapons and items to strive for or buy. Starting from Level 1 several times does tend to smack a coat of glaze on your eyes when you find yourself jumping through the same hoops easier than previously to churn out the levels for things to start getting interesting again.

The community makes the game interesting, as there is an Auction House where all your wares are bought and sold creating a capitalistic player driven society, definitely cool. If you are starving for a new spin on an Everquest-style MMORPG in a more popular gaming universe this worth giving a try. If you are looking for PvP or exploration, look elsewhere. There are no new American servers so you will find yourself surrounded by Level 70s that have been there and done that. Anything you do has already been done, a pretty big drawback at times. The bottom line is that FFXI is an above average MMORPG that should, at the least, make for a fun game to play while waiting for highly anticipated games like World of Warcraft or EverQuest II.
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Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel Review

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel has been out for almost a week now and has received mixed reviews. Having just finished playing it myself, I must admit that it seems a strange basket for Interplay to have put all its eggs into. I feel like I want to recommend the game, but I'm not quite sure to whom.

Probably the best way to judge whether you will enjoy BOS is to ask yourself how much you enjoyed Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. The feel of the two games is very similar, although F:BOS made great improvements on the Dark Alliance engine, in my opinion. In BOS, you can use height to your advantage, meaning you can jump onto barrels to stay safely out of the range of enemies equipped with melee weapons while you pick them off with ranged weapons. Also, you won't become encumbered by the loot you gather, which relieves you of the tedious chore of schlepping back to the local merchant to sell your wares.

Does the lack of encumbrance hurt the realism of the game? Yes. Does it help gameplay? Immensely. And here's where the die-hard CRPG fans bow out. On almost every decision between realism and gameplay, the developers came down on the side of gameplay. Such is the world of console gaming.

So, you have to decide if you are a "glass half full" role-playing gamer. If you are, then you can really enjoy this game for what it is, an action game that gives you some control of how your character develops over the course of the game. There are a bunch of skills that you can use to tweak you character, but you'll mostly want to use them to make him or her more effective at giving beat-downs. If you are dead against the trend of genre blending in today's games (or feel that the release of this title was the final nail in Fallout 3's coffin), stick with the PC versions of Fallout.

From what I've seen, many Fallout fans have decided to do just that. But I consider myself a fan of the original games (and of CRPGs in general) and I really enjoyed BOS. It's kind of like the Phantom Menace of the Fallout franchise (the Raider Matron gets my vote as the Jar-Jar Binks of BOS). BOS looks the same, and sometimes feels the same, but it's definitely a step down from the quality and scope of the original source.

Which isn't to say that it's not fun. My only major gripe as far as adherence to the original titles is that there were no geckos to hunt. You may recall from my optimistic preview that I was willing to give Interplay slack on a lot of things for the chance to blow away some radioactive geckos in real time. Aside from the absence of geckos, you get to take on radscorpions, ghouls, mutants, huge rats, raiders, and most of the other enemies from the original Fallout titles.

The missions are similar to a few that you may have taken on in the original Fallout RPGs. For instance, you get to deliver a mail bomb, fight in gladiatorial combat, and retrieve a hooker's dead cat. You almost always have the option to spew vitriol on the people you converse with and sometimes doing so will get you discounts from merchants. Just a warning - swearing is prevalent throughout the game, so those who are bothered by it need not apply.
The design of the levels is pretty good, and is a definite step up from Dark Alliance. Even when a level is linear, there are plenty of out-of-the-way side areas to comb for loot. There are some key and switch hunts, but there weren't very many places where I had to hunt too hard for a key or wander around trying to figure out what to do next. Nor did I feel like the monsters on each level were only there to give me more experience points (as I often did in Dark Alliance).

I played BOS on an Xbox, so the graphics were very good. The Fallout environment is a big part of the franchise's popularity and BOS lives up to its predecessors in graphic atmosphere. It falls short in the area of sound if you aren't a fan of thrash metal, and the absence of music on many levels is either a curse or a blessing for the same reason. The song that plays over the main menu is pleasantly reminiscent of the earlier RPGs, but is definitely more tongue in cheek.

While BOS lacks the coolness factor of having a Tony Shaloub or Richard Dean Anderson, the voice acting is pretty good in parts, though pretty bad in others. A couple of the voice actors from the children's program Clifford, the Big Red Dog (I have a toddler) turn out to do something for the grownups and Dean Wormer himself (John Vernon) lends his voice to Rhombus and one of the ghouls.

As far as lasting value goes, it took me about seventeen hours to get through the whole thing on normal mode (and I was writing a walkthrough at the same time), so you may just want to rent it. There are three extra characters that you can unlock when you beat the game (or by doing certain things within it I'm not sure just yet), and one of them is the Vaultdweller of the original Fallout game. There is also the option to play in two-player co-op mode with a friend and there are a couple of areas you can only access if you play this way. None of these options really knocked me over, but I felt like the gameplay was enough to get me to go back through at least a couple more times.

All in all, there is much evidence the the team did what they could to translate the Fallout universe into a console action title without sacrificing too much of its flavor. The result is a game that's enjoyable to play, especially if you like fast-paced action RPGs, but need a change from the world of sword and sorcery. It's foul-mouthed, violent, and testosterone driven, even when you're playing the girl.

The bottom line? It's not Fallout 3, but I suppose it'll do for now.
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Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark Review

As expansion packs go, I think it's safe to say that Shadows of Undrentide surpassed most of our expectations. Yes, we expected a new narrative and new monsters. Of course we figured we'd see new feats and classes. But BioWare pushed the envelope a little by giving us control of our henchmen's inventories and training, not to mention making it even easier for us to make mods by including new toolset wizards.

Even so, the more curmudgeonly of us (Ok, I) groused that the story was too linear and not epic enough. We also felt we should have been able to pass level 20. Why should we have to sacrifice higher levels to get the benefits of a prestige class, we wondered? Well, the good folks at BioWare heard our cries and responded with Hordes of the Underdark, an expansion pack with so many bells and whistles that I still haven't experienced them all as of this writing.

In almost every aspect, Hordes of the Underdark brings a change to the Neverwinter Nights experience that's expected, then goes one step further. First of all, setting the story in the Underdark obviously meant new tilesets for the Drow, Illithid, and Beholder communities and new monster models for their denizens. You could already give your character the skin and hair color of a Drow, but the designers went ahead and upgraded the clothing models so they could preserve the Drow leather fetish, even going so far as to include new texture packs for robes. The tilesets, models, and robes all look great and you can use them all in your mods.

In addition to cosmetics, we knew that gameplay would be enhanced by the ability to play as new prestige classes. After the relatively tame prestige classes in Shadows, I was astounded by the imagination put into the prestige class offerings in Hordes. Instead of getting more bonuses in the feats already present, several of the new classes come with completely new abilities.

It seems that the designers really want players to branch out and try other classes, but they know that to get someone who doesn't like playing a sorcerer to try it, they need to offer a way to mitigate the sorcerer's weaknesses. So, in HotU, you can have your sorcerer become a red dragon disciple, giving him better defense (dragon skin increases natural AC), access to the dragon breath weapon, and eventually even wings. The incentive for playing as a druid may even be better than the latter, since an epic shifter (a prestige class only available to druids) can eventually polymorph entirely into a dragon.

On the subject of red dragon disciples, I have to switch gears a bit here and talk about the enhancements given to a familiar NPC from Shadows of Undrentide. I'm sure that most gamers either love or hate the little guy known as Deekin, and those that fall into the former category will be very excited about his expanded role. Not only has Deekin become a high level bard, he's also become a red dragon disciple, allowing him to hold his own in most fights. This may not be enough incentive to keep him around for those players that find his character or voice set to be annoying, since he has random interactions almost constantly. But even the most anti-Deekin player should not overlook his impressive lore abilities and the efficacy of his bard song.

I have to admit that Deekin grew on me, partly because the designers took greater care to make sure your henchman is someone you want hanging around. When I went through both Neverwinter Nights and Shadows of Undrentide, I basically brought henchmen along to make up for deficiencies. Tomi Undergallows was funny, and useful for disabling traps, but if he died I didn't feel any strong urge to immediately get him back. I felt that the henchmen in Hordes, on the other hand, really helped to flesh out the story and I found myself reviving Nathyrra just because I wanted to know what would happen to her when the story was over.

The story in Hordes is much more fleshed out than the one in Shadows, as well. You start out as the hero of that story, having just returned to Toril from an extended jaunt on the Plane of Shadow to find that the city of Waterdeep is under attack by creatures from the Underdark. The keeper of an inn that sits upon the famous dungeon of Undermountain has called all adventurers to come help him plug the leak that's allowing all the Drow and other denizens to come through. You, of course, respond (as do many of the henchmen from the two earlier games) to stop the Drow empress (the Valsharess) from leading her armies to conquer the surface world.

Thankfully, there are three distinct acts to the story, and the obstacles between you and your goals within them don't feel like they were thrown in (as the desert interlude and the golem hunt in Shadows seemed to me). Even though the first chapter is a pure dungeon hack, it seems to make sense that the creatures of the Underdark haven't come to the surface before because they weren't able to hack the huge dungeon. The third act, while drastically removing you from the environs of the first two, makes sense as well, and reinvigorates you with puzzles, creatures, and item functionalities that you haven't seen in the first two acts. So the game isn't just about dungeon hacking with a new set of tricks up your sleeve, and it's also not just about experiencing a new (and much better written) story with the same old engine.
To allow players to take full advantage of the new prestige abilities, the experience cap has been raised so that characters can now reach level 40. Of course, you won't be able to do that within the regular game (unless you cheat, you naughty monkey), which is only a 20 hour adventure. Starting at level 12 I was able to get to about level 25 (I missed out on the Beholder quest somehow, though), but importing a level 20 character should allow you to max out a regular class and a prestige class before getting into the epic levels. The designers see this as extra incentive to go online, where you can max out your character and experience all of the epic feats in the multiplayer environment.

In another attempt to give HotU's multiplayer aspect the feel of a MMORPG, your character is now able to craft weapons, armor, wands and potions from odds and ends you find lying around. Once you get to the Underdark, you can use your surplus gold to enhance the weapons you make at Rizolvir's smithy. I have to admit that I didn't really take advantage of this aspect the first time through, especially potion brewing and wand crafting. Each time you use these skills, you have to give up xp, which is something that I'm very stingy with. Crafting weapons and armor only takes gold, though, and I love that there's a whole new facet of the game I haven't explored yet.

Part of the reason I didn't craft weapons is that I enjoyed weilding Enserric the Longsword. In the tradition of Lilarcor (the talking sword from Baldur's Gate II), you can find an intelligent sword in the first chapter that will make pithy comments like "I love the taste of elf blood in the morning. Oh yes!" If you found Lilarcor annoying, you won't want to pick up Enserric. I thought the idea of an effete mage trapped in a sword was funny, though, and I especially liked his +5 vampiric regeneration enhancement. Whether or not you like that kind of humor, Enserric is yet another example of the pains BioWare has taken to enhance your experience by making the game environment that much more interactive.

I'm not as big into sound and graphics as some gamers are, but I found both to be of the same quality as NwN and SoU. As mentioned, the new tilesets and clothing textures look good, and great pains seem to have been taken to make sure the characters appear very lifelike (such as the Valsharess' voluptuous figure and fluid movements). The music and voice acting are still solid and much of the goofy humor that came out in the voice packs of Baldurs Gate II has returned. At one point you can actually overhear Deekin singing the theme song to Fame, which to me was one of the funniest sound bites I'd ever heard in a game.

Seeing that kind of humor, I felt like the designers had more fun making Hordes of the Underdark than they did making Shadows of Undrentide, which made Hordes much more fun to play as a result. If you have Neverwinter Nights, owning Hordes is a must as it will greatly enhance the replay value of the original title as well. Where will the franchise go from here? The end of Hordes still leaves things open for further expansions, so Torm only knows where the adventure will really end. If the designers continue to put this much effort into expanding an already great game, though, I'm not sure I want it to.
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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic PC Review

Flashback to E3 2002, Los Angeles. BioWare had set up a preview booth that I would pass by each morning, just after the escalator up to the aircraft-hangar-huge main hall. On their monitor was a looping video of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and a few employees leisurely manning the booth. That first morning of E3, I stood and watched the video--and came away confused, wondering exactly what it was I was viewing at and what type of RPG they were shooting for. Stuttery with an average framerate at best, it looked for all intents and purposes like another hybrid 3D action/RPG, and my thoughts turned elsewhere. That is, until last spring, when the Xbox version was released.

Funny how first impressions can often be so right, and then again in the end. . . .

It's not because I'm a Star Wars fan that I adore the game. That's a misconceived rumor surrounding every major Star Wars game released--that you must already enjoy Star Wars to be a fan of the product. Or worse, to even understand. The great thing about the Star Wars universe is that at its base lay the struggle between "good" and "evil," and that's something we all can understand. The same applies to KotOR.

The game envelopes you in its overall evil dictator plot, so simple that small children will pick it right up. Then it re-emphasizes the good vs. evil approach by allowing you, at all points in the game up to the very end, to choose (mostly through conversation) which point on that continuum you rest. Where you are on that light/dark continuum influences not only non-player characters' (NPC) reactions toward you, but your own party members' reactions, and the magical abilities known as force powers, all throughout the game. It's that consistent freedom to choose that is the foundation for the gameplay found in Knights of the Old Republic.

Gameplay

For those with little previous role-playing experience, the d20 ruleset--a system using only a single 20 sided dice for chance rolls--the game is based upon may at first seem a little daunting. Thankfully, KotOR does a commendable job at catering to both experienced role-players and those who are new to the genre by providing mouse-over text help at any time, and adds the very useful Auto Level Up and Recommended buttons for those who care less or are at first intimidated by stats. In other words, it attempts to cover all its bases and in general, succeeds brilliantly.

To begin the game, you're taken to a screen with three choices each of male and female character templates: the rogue-like Scoundrel, who's more dependent on diplomatic conversation choices and ranged weaponry at the beginning than on a melee weapon; the Soldier, who is built with more fortitude and less finesse; and the Scout, somewhere in between the two. All that's required is that you choose a template, portrait and name (with a nice random generator included), and you're set to begin your adventure. For those who wish to tailor every aspect of their character, the game provides this experience as well; simply choose the custom option and you'll be able to allocate all of your primary stats and assign feats and skills. It should be mentioned that at every subsequent level up you're always given the auto level up and manual options, a thoughtful way of handling it. Throughout the game, several NPC characters will join your party and level up along with your main character, and the auto level up button can be occasionally useful.

The tutorial intro sequence is well done--KotOR takes into consideration the recent design paradigm of throwing players right into a hand-held piece of the action to start the game. It is exciting for the new player with just the right light touch of danger, and provides an opportunity to completely learn the ropes without attempting to cram it all in at once. By the time you've finished, you'll be ready to explore the first of the many vast worlds that are included in KotOR. Thanks to the spaceship, the Ebon Hawk, you're able to travel to several of them during the course of the game, and not all are initially available. With the interior of the ship open to you and your party, the FMVs between worlds and the short space battle sequences, these factors lend an appropriately grand and epic feel to the game, which compliments the overall good vs. evil, fight for humanity story nicely.
BioWare did an admirable job with the Xbox version of the interface, and have thankfully taken advantage of some of the PC's strengths, only improving upon the design for the PC version. On the plus side, PC users get to enjoy re-mappable hotkeys for nearly all of the functions (though they could have been slightly more generous), a completely different cosmetic look than the console version making efficient use of screen real estate, and one that works with the middle-mouse button for scrolling through inventory. The only downsides to the new interface come merely in the area of neglect; though it would have meant more programming, a quick weapon-switch hotkey for at least two weapon configurations would have been extremely helpful. This is something I also wished of the Xbox version, as many times throughout the game, you'll be switching from Lightsabers to normal melee vibroblades, and again to ranged weapons. That said, I still prefer the PC version of the interface for its speed, use of the mouse, adaptable configurations and sleeker, more efficient look.

Through conversation, narrative and dramatic events, Knights of the Old Republic brings us it's epic story, usually one of the hallmarks of a good RPG. From the escape sequence at the beginning to numerous plot twists by the end of the game, the story in KotOR does its best to live up to the original Star Wars films. In many ways, though, the worlds contain enough lore, good writing, dialogue and believable plot twists to surpass even Mr. Lucas's vision. It's that good. The characters you meet all have their own past and you'll establish a certain rapport eith each of them, taking the relationship in some cases as far as you'd want. When you're finally finished with this long game, you'll probably feel like you finished another great book in your favorite series.

It is rare for a game to hit upon the right balance of freedom of exploration and guidance, but Knights of the Old Republic nails this aspect. There is never a time when you will lose a grip on your direction, thanks to the consistently updated and helpful journal. And yet at all times there will be so many options for you, worlds to explore, quests to cash in on, mini-games to play, that you'll likely be glued to your chair far longer than you initially sat down for. In fact, once you've chosen a general direction down the dark path or light path, it's almost inevitable that you'll actively seek out those opportunities to add or subtract to your place on the continuum, and excitedly check your character's profile to see their new standing each time you see the words "Light or Dark Side points gained."

One of the best aspects to KotOR is that nearly every encounter presents a way to earn these so-called Light Side and Dark Side points. Thankfully, the ways in which you earn Light Side points is not always obvious and takes some amount of figuring out. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for earning Dark Side points, as the appropriate answers during conversations are perhaps a little too obvious, too often. It would have been nice if they would have made subtler approaches to playing on the Dark Side, rather than the frequent personal affronts and physical attacks. To the game's merit though, the countless ways to achieve points in both directions leads to almost limitless gameplay in this area of character development.

Length is another area where the developers did not skimp. This is an RPG, and BioWare has lived up to their reputation of providing solid gameplay throughout countless hours of gaming. My first time through the game, I spent over 17 hours on the first planet alone, with over five more worlds remaining, though admittedly not all worlds are equally as long. As a bonus, the PC version of the game includes a new location--a small space station orbiting around the planet Yavin, not currently found in the Xbox version, complete with a merchant who restocks his high-quality inventory at various times throughout the game. Take all of this and add two mini-games that add even more gameplay: a moderately complex Blackjack-like collectable card game, and the mostly optional Swoop Bike racing. During a game of such scope, both in length and story, it would have been a tremendous disservice if the graphics weren't able pull their weight.
Graphics

Fortunately, they do.

How much exactly does anisotropic filtering and 4x multi-sampling really mean to graphics? To the overall effect, thankfully, only so much. It's the artistic vision that lends a game most of its graphic punch, and 100x anti-aliasing can do little for bad art. To its credit, the PC version of the game (and to a lesser extent the Xbox version) actually makes use of those phonetically-awkward technogeek graphic capabilities, but it's the art on the screen that captivates, and the diversity of art and expression seen in this game is nearly unparalleled. Every world has distinctly different architecture reminiscent of Bethesda's game Morrowind, but tops that well-done RPG to include other-worldly terrain, organic and non-organic enemies, and alien NPCs in its repertoire. It's both exciting and visually stunning to touch down on a new planet and exit the Ebon Hawk's gang plank for the first time.

There is one point later in the game where you might be wondering, as I did, just how much imagination the game could possibly have left to throw at you. Then, suddenly, you'll find yourself on a new world with completely different terrain, shake your head a couple times, and then nod, because the game has just reaffirmed your choice to give up 50+ hours of your life to it. Here's an incomplete list of environments to provide a glimpse of the diversity of locals featured in the game: cantinas, deserts, foggy deep forest, treetop villages, underwater sea stations, spaceports, caves, dungeons, tombs, schools and wide open grasslands with wild beasts.

In the Xbox version, there were several times I found myself seeking better views of the gorgeous vistas on several of the worlds, and it only gets better on the PC version. Details that at first weren't evident to me on the console, are fleshed out in striking contrast thanks to the higher resolution, more detailed textures, and especially the draw distance. Either they have increased it for the PC, or distant details were simply a blur in the console. At a respectable 1024x768 resolution on the PC, it was like I put on glasses for the first time and could read the writing on the far wall. Take a look at the screenshots to see what I mean.

Another striking difference between the console and PC version are in the facial details. Apart from the higher resolution in the PC, you can now make out wrinkles, laugh lines and facial hair on many of the NPCs, and the veins and vivid color for Dark Side characters are more defined as well. I made it a point to use the same portrait for the PC that I picked during my first time on the Xbox version, and the differences were comforting: more realistic facial features and less like paper mache, which was one of the minor complaints I had against the Xbox version.

Sound & Music

Yes, they got it right. I'm referring to the two most important sounds in a Star Wars game: the sizzling hiss zang sound of powering up the lightsaber followed by the sub-sonic vibrating hum, and the musical score. It's all just like in the movies but better; by pressing the X key, you can take out your lightsabers and twirl them around until you pass out. The interesting thing about the music in KotOR is that it actually takes a back seat to the sound and voice acting. That's right, finally a Star Wars game where the developers do not use the music as a crutch to lift up the sagging gameplay. In fact, it's so subtle and atmospheric sometimes that it becomes refreshing to hear when it does stand out, such as in the Ebon Hawk cinematics while zipping around space-time.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the game, graphics, gameplay and all, is that every word of dialogue in the entire game is voice acted. As far as I know, in a game as long as this, it is a first. Be prepared to free up 3.5 Gigabytes of space on your hard drive mainly due to this fact. But that's not all. It's also exceptionally done. All of it is, truly a monumental feat. Even the aliens sound authentic, though a large portion of the total dialogue is probably from alien speech and won't make much sense to English-speaking people; but that's when the subtitles come in handy.

The quality sound effects you'd expect from a Star Wars game are also present and accounted for. Authentic-sounding blaster shots, character echos when in cavernous areas, the familiar beeps and whirls of droids, and the list goes on.
Lasting Value

With just three classes to choose from at the beginning, it may appear that the replayability in the game is potentially lacking. As I found out in my short viewing of KotOR at E3, first impressions can be misleading. During the course of the game, you'll choose to become one of three new classes of Jedi, each substantially different from each other in abilities and force power point consumption. Now take into consideration the freedom to choose between the well-balanced Light & Dark paths, each with their own unique arsenal of force powers. Then tack on nine NPC party members throughout the game, including two droids. Each of them has their own storyline, quests (well, most of them), and unique leveling options. Finally, consider the length of the game, and that nearly all quests and encounters have both a light and dark solution, and you'll see that there is much room for replayability.

That's really just the half of it, though. Through the combat in the game and manipulation of the game world, both in persuasion and espionage, you'll really get a sense of how your choices in character progression are playing themselves out. This is especially true in combat. Each new force power and feat you choose has usually a dramatic effect on how you play. Watching your characters in battle is just plain satisfying and fun. By the end of the game, you'll likely be curious enough about the other force powers you missed during this play through, and especially at how the other side of the force will play out during the major quests to warrant another play through. If that's not enough, you'll get one very different satisfying ending for each the light and dark side. To tell the truth, this is one of the few RPGs I have replayed several times. It's that fun.

Bugs, Issues & Documentation

Thankfully, many of the Xbox-related bugs and issues have been worked out, but some still remain, and of course a few other issues related to the PC have surfaced, though only two to my knowledge affected me in my play through. The transitioning between FMV movies was too long for my tastes, much longer than in the Xbox version, and I have a fairly fast computer, well above the recommended specs. The load times in general, though, were immensely better than on the console. I have also experienced some random graphic stuttering, which both came and went sporadically throughout the game. Overall, apart from the occasional stuttering with my 2.4Ghz Ti4600, 512mb RAM machine, the framerate was silky smooth in most places, with 2x anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and all other options checked. Of all the places, I would say outside in Taris, your first major location in the game, was the worst for stuttering. I would give it some time to smooth out if this happens to you.

Additional changes I would have recommended the PC version implement would have been a quick weapon switch function, an intelligent interface that remembers your last feat used or the one used most often during combat, and defaults to that, instead of requiring the user cycle through to the appropriate one much of the time, and re-mappable mouse buttons. The manual that comes with the PC version is spiral bound, well laid out, and includes many useful charts for character progression and alignment at the back that weren't included in the Xbox manual, a definite plus.

Conclusion

It's very rare for a game to be strong in as many ways as BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and refreshing to play one that has found its own style and succeeds. From the brilliantly executed Light vs. Dark approach, to the superb voice acting and rich, immersive worlds, KotOR feels like a tour on a pleasure cruise from start to finish, visiting foreign ports and finding adventure. It is an RPG that now stands with my very favorites, for its own unique reasons. One does not have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy it, and I would eagerly recommend it to anyone looking for a gaming adventure. It's as much that as it is an RPG, combining the right mix of storytelling, danger and RPG elements. The bottom line: there is enough game here to justify the purchase of the gaming rig that plays it.
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Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna Review

When first being asked if I would be interested in reviewing the new Dungeon Siege expansion, Legends of Aranna, I was somewhat hesitant. Since the advent of Blizzard's Diablo series, role-playing games have begun to take a fairly large step toward a hack-and-slash type of game play, which for me has resulted in sore wrists, simplistic game play, and lack luster storylines. As far as I knew, Dungeon Siege offered nothing different aside from a three dimensional world, updated graphics, and slightly more efficient AI. Thus, at the time of its release, I didn't even think twice about passing it by. But, I am also one who enjoys expanding my collection further, so I decided to try out Legends of Aranna with somewhat mixed reservations.

Dungeon Siege was initially released during a wave of other CRPGs, including some of the most critically acclaimed for some time - Morrowind and Neverwinter Nights. Each title offered something different to gamers, and each boasted separate benefits. Dungeon Siege, of the three, was the more straightforward hack and slasher of the three, leaving much to be desired by the hardcore RPG crowd. Even though it had the linear story and repetitive game play, it did happen to have some of the most stunning visuals ever presented in a game, regardless of genre. But, its step up on other such RPGs was that fact that Dungeon Siege appealed to a larger crowd and was capable of grabbing and ensnaring more game players. With the success of Dungeon Siege, it wasn't long before the development of its expansion, Legends of Aranna, went underway.

One of the most fascinating features of Dungeon Siege (and the expansion) is its graphics engine. The lands of Aranna are beautifully rendered in three dimensions, creating an immersive environment which is pleasant to the eye, as well as fitting for the game. The paths in the game are clearly laid out for the player, without a whole lot of point and click and searching for hidden entries. Also, because the game loads the entire land for you before you begin playing, there is never any wait time between entering some underground mines or a vacant house. The way in which Legends of Aranna handles local transitions is also a pleasant method, in that the game engine simply removes the higher leveled graphics, often the roof or ceiling, of whatever it may be that you're stepping into. After the somewhat mediocre graphics from Neverwinter Nights' Aurora Engine, DS: LoA was definitely a fantastic environment to play in.

The music and sound effects in the expansion left something to be desired for me, though. At first, the background music was pleasant to listen to, but eventually, it became somewhat repetitive and dull, and eventually annoyed me to a point in which I simply turned it off. The same was true of the voice text, unfortunately. While it is enjoyable to find games these days that voice every bit of text, that option is somewhat of a double-edged sword. If a developer decides to make that call, then they must make sure they use talented voice actors that can fit the character they're talking for. It didn't take long for the petty whining of each individual town's person, NPC, and enemy for me to simply turn the voices off as well. On the plus side, though, the ambient sound effects weren't overbearing, and they fit the mood very well, so I left them on.

This brings me to my next point; I was pleasantly surprised to find that the combat was more than just a non-stop clickfest! As I had not played the original Dungeon Siege at its release, I was expecting to find such a combat scenario in the same tradition as the Diablo games. After a couple minutes of clicking madly on an enemy, I stopped a moment, only to see my PC smart enough to continue to attack without my supervision. Also, the combat animations, along with the rest of the graphics, are very well done. There is enough variety in attack motions, with several different weapons, that it isn't the same static attack each time. We're getting somewhere now. With the way combat looked, I was looking forward to the magic casting system. While not horrible, the spell affects did leave me somewhat upset. I was expecting a higher polygon count, or at least a little more flashy then what was given, but in the time given to review this game I wasn't able to tinker with the more 'explosive' spells. That's not to say the spell effects I saw were bad, they were just a little basic when compared to other RPG titles.
Because it's an expansion, the game assumes the player already knows the basics of the game, which effectively left me high and dry for the first twenty minutes or so. Fortunately, the game itself has a very easy learning curve, which most likely helped in its success. I caught on quickly enough, with the help of the six beginning tool tips that popped up when the particular instance arrived. After a short while, I was using the interface like a pro, and have had few complications since. While I seem to have mastered my end, it seems AI is still something that developers are having trouble with. Even though you're given a simple party AI interface, I find it is one of those options that can be a boon or a bane. At times, the AI (which I had set to defensive combat) would only act for the one NPC. In other words, a party of three could be side by side, with one being beaten to a small greasy pulp, and the other two could hardly care.

I didn't encounter much in the way of glitches and bugs, but that is more than likely due to the fact that Legends of Aranna is an expansion, and any major bugs have previously been sorted out with its predecessor. That was a huge plus for me, though, as there are few things more frustrating then being excited to play a game, only to discover a wave of bugs that impede the process.

Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna is indeed a worthwhile title for its expansion price, having the original title included along with it. The most effort has obviously been placed in the visual side of the game, but LoA expands on several other areas as well. It has a few other issues that will, sadly, never be addressed without much complaint from the community, but they can easily be ignored with the flick of a switch. It is definitely a title that is good for a good dungeon romp and stress relief due to the mindless combat, but if you're looking for something with a bit more substance, then I would recommend you look elsewhere. Dungeon Siege to me has always appeared as a one trick pony, and in this case, the graphics are its one trick. While stunning, they aren't enough to warrant long-term game play for the more hardcore group of RPGers.
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The Temple of Elemental Evil Review

I'll say this outright. I've played many computerized and PnP RPGs over the years, but it's seldom I've encountered one whose good and bad qualities were as distinctive as TOEE. Depending upon what aspects of RPG gaming are individually rated the most significant, it's likely that this title will attract extreme reactions from players, Please bear this in mind while I attempt to explain what I find positive and negative about the game. You may come away with completely different conclusions than I have about any aspect of TOEE. But I hope you will extend me the courtesy of belief when I say that I've thoroughly played it, and without preconceptions concerning its quality. I have my own standards for what I expect from a computerized RPG, but I didn't approach this product either with guns blazing, or in an effort to sing the pre-printed praise of public relations.

TOEE belongs to that family of RPGs that lets you create an entire party, rather than focusing on one character and acquiring others as you travel. The creation screens let you design and maintain a raft of individual characters, rather than a single party with fixed members. You can use the point buy system for ability stats (the usual Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma), or roll up a character. The latter offers an excellent chance of getting more stat points and higher scores, which you can distribute at will among your different abilities. Eleven classes (including monks) are available, and seven races (including half-orcs): no surprises, there. Feats, skills, spells, portraits: again, these are all basically familiar, if you've played recent RPGs such as Icewind Dale 2. If you haven't, however, you'll want to consider carefully what feats you give your party members, since they can only reach 10th level in TOEE. It's an understandable limitation in the game, designed to properly scale combat and keep godlike parties from developing, but it does put those few feats some of your characters get at premium value.

Alignment is also important during TOEE's character creation. It limits the selection of characters you can have in your party; so that a Neutral Good group can only contain that alignment and adjacent ones: Lawful and Chaotic Good, and True Neutral. This determines where your party starts up and the selection of quests you receive. In all honesty, though, some of the changes were merely cosmetic, a matter of being sent to the same area and fighting the same monsters for different reasons. Some quests are only available to some alignments, however, and the game length could vary widely, as a result. Once in the TOEE module, alignment has no effect, at all. You aren't faced with moral dilemmas and dialog/action choices whose outcomes can shift this factor.

TOEE employs a hybrid system of 2D backgrounds and 3D foreground figures. The backgrounds resemble many other third party RPGs over the recent years, in particular the IWD and BG series: they're pleasantly drawn without stirring much enthusiasm. As much can be said for the portraits that appear when you speak with NPCs, though I'm glad these were added to the game. Troika's last title, Arcanum, lacked portraits save for you and your followers.

It's those foreground party figures that are so much more appealing. You can actually watch smaller races peddle those little legs faster to keep up; and unless it's my imagination, they actually take longer to arrive at any destination you choose. (The location marker you plant on the background, signaling a movement to your party, also takes the form of six circles, sized according to your respective party members: a small but nice touch.) Animation of all figures, your party members in particular, is excellent, while animation of magical effects in general is spectacular. It's safe to say that after seeing the way Magic Missiles arch along their extended trajectories in TOEE, you'll never be able to accept the way they've appeared in any previous game, again. Not everybody in the RPG development community wants to go the complete 3D route for multiple character parties, as Bioware did in KotoR; and for them, TOEE points to a viable, attractive alternative. It may just extend the life of the 2D RPG engine for a few more years.

Praise is due as well for the ability to give each party member up to four different configurations of weapons, armor and items, which are stored in memory. Character images are linked to their paper dolls, so changes you make to a character's appearance are accurately reflected in the game world.

On the downside, the game looks dark with my current card, an admittedly ancient (by current standards) ATI Radeon. This is especially so with interiors. If your video card lacks a gamma/brightness control, you're out of luck, at least, for now, since game options include no way to brighten the product. One would think Troika ought to know enough to include this. After all, it was in the initial release of their last title, Arcanum.

In addition, for all its wealth of animated detail, TOEE actually contains far less background that's interactive than several other recent RPG releases, such as Divine Divinity or Icewind Dale 2. It's so much like wallpaper, in fact, that it's easy to miss the very occasional times when an object (such as a cabinet) truly functions as a container.
There's a been a lot of arcane discussion on various boards about the new 3.5 D&D rules, and their partial implementation. Partial it may be in TOEE, but it adds a level of combat detail that's unparalleled in PC RPGs, at least since Origin Systems' GURPS-based Knights of Legend (1989). There are an array of feats, and a host of defensive and offensive actions that make any battle seem so much more extensive than a simple (cast/hit and kill/die) of the past. Attacks of Opportunity, charges, feints, trigger actions, the Coup de Grace, and aiding another party member (which involves giving them a +2 to their attack rolls) are just some of the examples of what TOEE has to offer. I can't emphasize this point enough, particularly given the heavy emphasis on hack-and-slash in TOEE.. For some players, it may just make the difference, and be sufficient to gain their commitment to the title whatever other reservations exist.

Troika at one point considered implementing prestige classes, but that was dropped before the game appeared. However, you can select from a host of gods for your clerics to worship, providing them with domain as well as generic clerical spells. (Other NPCs you create can select gods, too, but in my play time I noticed no advantage to doing this.) Spells in some cases require ingredients: each cast of Identify requires 100 gp, while a paladin's Bless Water uses five pounds of powdered silver (worth 25 gp). Fortunately, the game world offers plenty of opportunities to make money, and your party starts out life with a goodly sum. Unfortunately, the game doesn't inform you when a spell uses something you have on hand. In my first few sessions, I conveniently forgot about the new Identify cost, merrily sleeping and casting on various unknown inventory items until a dark red message flashed too briefly to be read and my spell fizzled. After trying it half-a-dozen more times, I finally realized I'd just spent 400 gp, the entire contents of my party's purse. My fault, no doubt about it; but still, couldn't TOEE have managed the simple task of letting me know when an item money, in this case was vanishing from my party, through my own actions?

This brings up the matter of that which hinders or aids your interacting with TOEE's world: the interface. With its radial menus that shoot out spokes and sub-spokes for party member activities, I can't claim it's particularly pretty; and it's certainly more clunky than BG2's efficiently grouped rows of spell and activity icons. I'm not quite sure why those colorful, well chosen icons were ignored in favor of text, or why you weren't given the opportunity to chose between text and icons, or perhaps both. (Options in TOEE are extremely limited.) Our brains, such as they are, recognize images far more swiftly than we interpret language. As a result, it's much quicker to note and click on spell icons for your mage to learn, than it is to read through a list of spell names for the ones you want. It's also more pleasing to the eye.

But it has to be said that the text-based radial menus are both thorough, and effective unless you forget that you can right-click to bring up a radial menu for any PC in the middle of the screen, and call one up at the edge near a character. Then, the spokes shoot out of view. Why this wasn't automatically compensated for before release must remain a mystery.

TOEE's quests are uninspiring, to put it mildly. The succession of quests you receive in Hommlet and Nulb may be extensive, but they're simple and mindless, involving no more decision-making than asking B to do something for A. Far worse, still, is the fact that in Hommlet's case they're almost all linked together in a daisy-chain. Not only are you asking B to do something for A, but B requires something from C, who in turn needs something first from D, who can't do it until she receives an object from E, etc. More than a half-a-dozen quests are joined in this fashion. It might almost rank as parody, if it wasn't done so half-heartedly. There's no personality to the various individuals you encounter as you slog over the pretty terrain and no running or waypoints you can set in TOEE to make travel that much quicker.

Difficulty-wise, Troika's quests are ever-protective of our low intelligence. One character says he can't perform a quest-based action, for example, despite having a scroll in the very same room where he remains that can do what is required. You find it, use it; boom: instead success! Quest completed: what a genius! Another character promises to religiously convert (a quest goal, as if you didn't know) when he sees a (miracle,) and does so after you heal a relative of his with a scroll as though he'd lived all his life in a town that lacked mages, clerics, monsters, potions, wands, etc. While these are some of the worst examples, they are not atypical of quest plotting in TOEE. They represent an imaginative void, a complete absence of ideas, and suggests that Troika put all their development time and resources elsewhere. The results are a game whose visuals and combat system draw me into their illusory world, and whose writing then kicks me out with complete disbelief.

Linearity is another issue, at least, for some of us. Of course, all RPGs, whether pen-and-paper or computerized, are ultimately linear, but some games (and some DMs) do a great job at disguising that fact. Wizardry 8, Morrowind, and Troika's own Arcanum offer enormous lands to explore, revealing key, plot-advancing quests only when you employ specific triggers. Others titles, like BG2, cleverly hit you with a large variety of carefully gradated quests as soon as you leave the relatively linear trainer dungeon, all of them beautifully justified in context. However, TOEE is based on an extremely linear module, and Troika did next to nothing to hide that fact. In this respect, it's like the Icewind Dale series, though some of the Icewind Dale characters leap out at you from the game, as potent in their flavor as the endless, well-structured battles.
And speaking of characters and story, TOEE is very ordinary. There are no distinctive personal touches that remain in the mind afterwards, like passion-dead Irenicus (from BG2) trying to recall the emotion with which he loved his long-dead wife, through keeping her old bedroom exactly as it was when she last used it. A very occasional follower adds personal interest such as Zaxis, the bard who sings every comment he makes, whether looting or expressing his cowardice. But by and large, the inhabitants of Hommlet, Nulb, the Temple and the surrounding areas, come across as either markers for quests, merchants, or stock villains for the killing: vanilla-flavored, regardless.

I'm a veteran and avid fans of Microprose's Darklands, which took eight patches before it was fully playable; and remember Ultima IX? So I'm familiar with bugs, and even rather blasé about their appearance. I expect a certain amount of bugs in any new release, given current product complexity. But I have never before seen an RPG which had as many playable bugs as TOEE. Leaving aside its fine share of game-crashers, it simply amazes me that a title was pushed onto the market in this state. Quite a few spells, like Entangle, don't work as they should. Other spells don't work at all, or can't be memorized, or vanish suddenly from memorization. Weapons have the wrong reach, wands weigh ten times as much as they should, and some skill and spell checks aren't made. Feats are inaccurately described, or don't perform correctly. Combat mechanics are mishandled in numerous respects. Even some ostensible (features,) such as the overlooting by followers you can hire that renders them heavily encumbered, sound pretty much like exasperating bugs. None of this prevents TOEE from being playable, at least much of the time, and on most computers, but the sheer massiveness of the bug load is awe-inspiring. A couple of personal friends with far too much time on their hands have already compiled a bug list I've seen. It's more than three pages long.

Any reasonable quality checking department, given sufficient time, could have reduced these problems to a manageable level. The obvious inference is that Q&A didn't get the product, or didn't get it long enough, or performed poorly. The result is just not suitable for primetime, in my opinion. A patch is in the works, according to Atari, but Troika has unabashedly stated that it's collecting data for the patch from player reports. We apparently paid our money for the game (and yes, I bought my copy) for the privilege of being a developer's baseline beta testers. Makes you feel warm all over, doesn't it?

In short, even if you passionately like the kind of RPG described above, I would suggest holding off the purchase of TOEE until the patch is released and check forum websites like GameBanshee to make sure it addresses all the problems.
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Graal Online Review

{loadposition content_adsense250} Graal Online has taken up twelve hours out of the past week of my life. It originated from Zelda (remember the SNES version?) and the makers of Graal Online have taken it online. For those of you who remember old Graal Online, you'll like to hear that although the sound is weak, the visuals have improved greatly since its earliest construction. Regardless, these aren't the selling points of the MMORPG; lets get down to gameplay. If you're looking for a game with lots of craftables, this is what you'll want to get into. All of your equipment must be made from scratch unless you can manage to strike up a deal with another player - NPC vendors don't sell equipment. This means you'll need to go mining for ore so you can make a sword, cut down trees to craft a bow and set of arrows, and finally skin some animals to make boots so you can kick ass with style.

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