PC News and Game Reviews

A company called Viewsonic have released what many gamers would deem their dream display, it is a 19″ flat panel LCD display with a 3ms response time! Check out the full details here

Check out this review of Black and white 2 click here

Just to let you all know that the lan group in Drogheda is still running , the site is down and its been decided that we are going to buy a few hosty things (im really very technical) anyway , the club is steadily growing with lan gamers and theres a 10 player lan on this coming friday (29th i think) anyway post up or mail me if your interested… its 7pm till 1 or 2 am… Lots of JOPS , COD , UT2k4 and maybe some big games of new DOW , about 5 of us bought it , so a big game would be fun.
Anyway feel free to rant back at me for poor spelling or lan ideas!
CHeers

I feel it is not fair for my damning comments about Dawn of War: Winter Assault to be my final word on the recent add on from Thq.

Having battled my way through (in about 2-3 feckin hours!!!!) the campaign mode, I was horribly disappointed with the conclusion: A big steel mongo lying in the snow, shooting laser beams out of his arm pits. For a moment I thought the Titan was going to move….but that would have been good.

So on to the skirmish mode/online play. I have not dared play the Imperial Guard online yet, so i’ve been skirmishing with them. Apart for the Baneblade, which it must be said is an outstanding addition to the game. Its very well animated and takes an awful lot of punishment. I found some of the new maps silly. Some have annoying bottlenecks that channel all your troops into a headlong dash straight into the enemy. Perhaps this was the idea of the level designers I hear you say? The problem is my retarded orc computer decided to build 10 million Waggggh banners right in the centre of this coke point….stranding me on one side and ultimately bringing about his own downfall. When you see AI like this you really do wonder if we have come along way since Pacman. At least the ghosts had the sense to run away when Pacman got the power to eat them…..unfortunately the same cant be said as I watch a computer player destroy itself.

All in all, its the same same but slightly different. Too expensive…far too expensive. Anyone played online yet??

As an old fan of the boardgame Axis & Allies I like to think I have an decent eye for good Strategy Games, and World War Era sims at that. Thankfully Hasbro Interactive gave us Axis & Allies again on the PC an exact replica of the anicent boardgame reproduced on the computer with all the same units and rules. For those of you who have played Axis & Allies you will have an idea what I’m talking about. For those that haven’t (or don’t)….read on!

(Just think of little plastic tanks and men!! - Ed)

Axis & Allies was simple but good, very good. But it just slightly missed cutting the proverbial mustard. I felt blessed then when Paradox Interactive gave us Hearts of Iron for the PC Platform. An A&A feel but with oodles of extras! I read some reviews and heard some bad news about it so I felt I should hold off. Then Hearts of Iron 2 came along and the world was a garden of roses once more.

It’s a super simulation to put it lightly. You can start a scenario from as early as 1936, so aptly named “The Road to War” But in this game it will be “The Road to (an alternate) War” For once you take command of one of the 170 odd countries(From Albania to Venezuela) you can change the course of history!

Think of the world in front of you…flat as a pancake! With about a thousand provinces and counties. All ripe with Energy, Oil, Metal, Rare Ore, and Manpower, ready to be put to good use. The aforementioned sundries that you, as the next ‘insane dictator’, will so desperately need!

You stock up, supply, design, build, upgrade and mobilise your armies in a massive spectrum of war. You have an input to all aspects of the war, from researching to mobilising it’s all there. Units march and invade at your will, your mighty Air wing conduct sorties over your neighbours, and the vast oceans are patrolled by your unstoppable flotillas!

It all sounds very nice in a poetic sense, but trying to master this game will be more then just an evening’s worth of gameplay. After reading/playing through the tutorials (which is highly recommended and required!) I managed to grasp the basics of the game in a couple of hours, I then spent close to Eons perfecting my strategies and trying to get ‘mine enemies on the backfoot!’

It’s for all you wanna-be Dictators out there! The Mega-lo-maniacs amongst you. It’s War World 2 Strategy and Resource management rolled into one package bursting at the seams!

The World is on the brink of war and you are called upon to lead your country to victory!

Excellent Game 9/10

For more info go here

A typical screenshot here