NEED FOR SPEED: SHIFT

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Slightly Mad Studios

Publisher : Electronic Arts

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : GT / Street Racing

Release Date : September 15 , 2009

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo / AMD Phenom II Processor

Memory (RAM) : 2 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card with 256 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 7800 Series
ATI : Radeon X 1800 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 6 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Need for Speed: Shift is a racing game that tries to do a lot of things, and the good news is that it does most of them well. The racing, the car and track selections, the vehicle customization and damage modeling, the career mode, the online play, the opponent AI--all of these things are good, but none of them are great. Like a simulation game, Shift encourages you to brake early for corners, punishes you for straying too far from the racing line, and, at least by default, presents you with a steering setup that's extremely sensitive. But, like an arcade racer, Shift rewards you for sliding around corners, for "trading paint" with opponents, and even for forcing those same opponents into a spin or off the track. It's an awkward middle ground that you might never feel comfortable with. The Career mode amounts to little more than 150-plus of these events, set up as themed competitions between cars of certain classes or from certain countries and then arranged into a tier system that matches the one used for cars. You start out as a tier 1 driver with a tier 1 car, and as you progress you move into tiers 2 through 4 before unlocking the anticlimactic 10-race World Tour, which marks the pinnacle of your career. Getting involved in a big crash or straying too far from the track toward the end of an event can be disastrous, and feeling the need to restart a 10-lap endurance race because an overzealous opponent forced you into a tire wall is no fun. However, if the race still has plenty of laps left to run, you shouldn't be too quick to give up. Online options include a Driver Duel tournament mode, in which a series of head-to-head races pit you and an opponent against each other in randomly selected identical cars, and ranked and unranked races for up to eight players. The variables that you can play around with when setting up an online race are the same as those that you get in the single-player Quick Race mode. Once you're with a group of players in a lobby, you have plenty of time to see what the next race is going to be and to choose a car either from your own Career mode garage or from a selection of stock vehicles.

In addition to races, this jack-of-all-trades game incorporates drift events into both its Career and online modes. Only 11 of the cars that appear in the game can be used for drifting, and finding one that you feel comfortable with is even more difficult than finding one for racing. These cars are automatically tuned to slide so easily that pressing down on the accelerator even a fraction more than you absolutely need to can send your car straight into a donut. With practice it's certainly possible to perform some satisfying drifts around corners, and because the events aren't timed, you can win them by employing some cheap tactics and just swinging from side to side on the straights. Another of Shift's features that doesn't realize its full potential is car customization. There are around 55 cars to collect in Shift, though you never have enough spots in your garage for even half of that number. These cars can be painted, you can apply a handful of different racing liveries to them, and some of the performance upgrades you can purchase for them include cool-looking bodykits, but the custom livery designer is awful. Vinyls at your disposal include the usual assortment of primitive shapes, logos, flames, and tribal designs, as well as plenty of creative groups that you unlock as your career progresses--including badges that show off some of your accomplishments. On some tracks, those same corners can be made even trickier by opponents who make a mess of them in front of you, because they kick up great-looking clouds of sand and dust in the process that partially obscure your vision. Shopping for cars should be fun in a game like Shift, but it's actually a bit of a chore because the models take a second or two to appear as you scroll through the list, and for some reason you don't get to move the camera around them yourself. You also don't get control of the camera when you come to put new bodykits on your cars, so you have to wait for them to do a full rotation before you can check out both the new front and rear wings. Shift's audio fares better on the track than it does off it. Some of the cars' engine noises are a real treat, and they change as you upgrade your cars with new exhausts, turbo systems, and the like. The sequences of sound effects and radio chatter that play while you're navigating menus are bizarre, though, and anytime you think they're going to transition into something resembling a tune, you're wrong. Shift is neither an arcade racer nor a simulation; it's stuck somewhere between the two, and while there's plenty of good racing to be had here, it's unlikely to completely satisfy fans of either.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

Need For Speed: Shift Trailer :-

TROPICO

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : PopTop Software

Publisher : Gathering Of Developers

Engine : S3D

Genre : Real-Time Strategy

Release Date : April 23 , 2001

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 98 / Windows 2000

CPU : AMD Athlon Classic K7 / Intel Pentium II Processor

Memory (RAM) : 32 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 7.0 Compliant Card with 4 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 2 MX Series
ATI : Radeon 7500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 820 MB

GAME FEATURES :-

Tropico is just another city-building simulation that's reminiscent of many others before it. But the political wrapper that PopTop has built around the core of the game is sophisticated enough to appeal to all types of strategy game players. The game also has enough heart, soul, humor, and humanity to make it unique. Most games of Tropico start with a few people scratching out a living on a small Caribbean island. You step in as their new presidente, with the background of your choice to give you a set of game-twisting traits. For instance, if you come from a moneyed background, you'll have an advantage in industry. Armed with your distinctive set of traits and your new bank account, you drop buildings onto the island: housing, farms, cattle ranches, churches, medical clinics, pubs, police stations, bauxite mines, fishing wharves, and cigar factories. Later on, there are power plants, casinos, cathedrals, and TV stations. And there are always the little landscaping touches, such as flower beds, trees, fountains, and the occasional statue to remind everyone who's in charge. You might be the presidente, but there are a hundred or more folks who drive the action on the island. For instance, to make money from rum, you just drop a sugar farm and a rum distillery. Your construction crews show up and erect the actual structures. Then immigrants or citizens are hired as farmers and factory workers. The farmers plant sugar cane, which grows over the course of the year and is eventually harvested. Teamsters pick up the sugar and carry it to the distillery, where the factory workers convert it into rum. Then the teamsters carry it to the docks, where the dockworkers load it onto freighters. Only then do you finally get paid. When amenities aren't available, they're unhappy and less likely to support you. Different people have different priorities. Some people are concerned with crime, others with liberty. Some just want a nice house or a high-paying job. If they get upset enough, they'll vote against you in elections, publicly protest, flee to join the rebels, or maybe even take part in an uprising against your palace. In Tropico, money ultimately takes a backseat to people.

Tropico also has a broad range of appeal, thanks in part to its various difficulty levels, which range from a sandbox mode to sadistic realism. You can select different victory conditions for different styles of games. Tropico can also be played at any number of speeds, and you can interact completely with the game while it's paused. Casual players can crank down the political and economic factors and just doodle around with impunity, dropping buildings and watching the island grow. Although the game's random-scenario generator has a lot of flexibility, the eight scenarios that ship with Tropico are particularly disappointing for their lack of interesting scripting. Also, since there's no included scenario or map editor, Tropico's longevity relies exclusively on its random scenarios. However, the random scenarios would have been more satisfying had they given a better sense of accomplishment after playing. As it is, you get a verbal briefing of your performance and a high score on a list. There's no record of what sort of scenario it was, who your dictator was, or how your people felt about you when it was all over. All the information available in Tropico about your economy, your citizens, and your society as a whole is a welcome change from games that insist on running things under the hood. The thorough documentation leaves very few questions unanswered. The political wrapper that PopTop has built around the core of the game is sophisticated enough to appeal to all types of strategy game players.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Tropico Trailer :-

TRAINZ

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Auran

Publisher : Strategy First

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Simulation

Release Date : February 10 , 2002

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon T-Bird B-models / Intel Pentium III Processor

Memory (RAM) : 128 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0 Compliant Card with 16 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 2 MX Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 500 MB

GAME FEATURES :-

Trainz is a modular system that ships with three components: My Collection, Surveyor, and Driver. These modules let you examine your collected engines and rolling stock (railroad cars), create railroad layouts, and drive trains across them. Trainz developer Auran (the Australian developer responsible for the great 1997 real-time strategy game Dark Reign) plans to release expansion modules that will let you simulate complex switching and dispatching operations or handle the financial end of running your railroad. Auran also plans to release various locomotive and rolling stock packs to add to your collection. You can already download a number of free engines and structures created by either Auran or fans using 3D modeling programs, one of which is included with Trainz. You can sort them by country of origin or railroad company, as well as view real-world background information on each engine or car. For rolling stock, you'll get boxcars, refrigerator cars, hoppers, a variety of passenger cars, and more. Engines include the F7 and SD40-2 diesels of North America, the Class 340 of Spain's Renfe line, and Sweden's Rc4 electric, among others. Sadly, you don't get any steam engines, which will surely disappoint the countless rail fans who love the "golden age of steam." First, you'll assemble your train by simply dragging and dropping engines and cars from a list to a little window at the bottom of the screen in the order you like. Then you choose the weather (cloudy, rainy, snowy, and so on) and how often it can change. You can also set the time of day and choose a time compression factor, if any. You can also decide whether or not trains can derail. Then you choose starting positions for your trains from a number of preset locations on the game's three sample layouts set in North America, Britain, and Australia. All the layouts are interesting, but it would have been better if the game had included more.

Navigating the layouts is fairly trouble-free thanks to a track map and easily changed track switches. Coupling and uncoupling cars is a simple point-and-click affair, but since the game doesn't offer any scenarios, you'll have to rely wholly on your imagination in planning your operations. You can watch the action from multiple camera views, including one inside the engine cab. The camera is very easy to zoom and pan, though it's unfortunate that you can't position it anywhere you want--you have to rely on preset layout-specific positions or follow the train directly. It would have been nice to get a truly free bird's-eye view. Trainz's graphics beautifully bring the layouts to life. The engines are nicely detailed, with working headlights and exhaust billowing in the breeze, though not all of the cab interiors properly match the exteriors. The trackside scenery is also impressive, with varied buildings, working track signals, and moving automobiles. Laying track is equally simple, though you're currently limited to standard gauge track. Between that and the lack of steam engines, there's presently no way to create, say, a classic Colorado or Maine narrow-gauge line out of the box. You're also currently limited to textures and objects geared toward layouts set in Australia, Britain, and North America. That's really a fairly minor quibble, considering Trainz's many great strengths. By letting you so easily create so much, Trainz is one of those programs you can return to again and again. Since it's currently more a construction program than a simulator or game, imagination is required, but that's a good thing. If you're already an ardent model railroader or rail fan, you owe it to yourself to give Trainz a try.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Trainz Trailer :-

MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2004: A CENTURY OF FLIGHT

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Microsoft Game Studios

Publisher : Microsoft Game Studios

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Flight Simulation

Release Date : July 29 , 2003

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon T-Bird B-models / Intel Pentium III Processor

Memory (RAM) : 128 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0 Compliant Card with 16 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 3 Ti Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 1.8 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight commemorates double anniversary by offering more planes, better graphics, and more options than ever before right out of the box, but the game will likely reach its full potential only if it receives great support from its player community. It's easier to access game options, and each option is actually explained by the game. There's also an excellent interactive flight school hosted by aviation veteran Rod Machado that serves as a surprisingly deep training tool. There is enough written material included about the planes, the history of flight, and flying tips to fill an encyclopedia. As such, Flight Simulator 2004 represents one of the rare instances in which online documentation is wholly superior to a printed manual. The documentation includes articles that are supplemented with Web-page-style hyperlinks, which lead to more detailed information about a particular topic. Some even whisk you directly into the cockpit so you can actually re-create the particular flight discussed in the article. If you plan to fly any of the vintage aircraft, be sure to invest in some good controller peripherals, specifically rudder pedals or a joystick with a twist handle. It's impossible to take off and land in taildraggers like the Piper J3 Cub and Curtiss Jenny without a lot of dancing on the rudders. And once they're airborne, ponderous antiques like the Vickers Vimy biplane can barely turn unless you stomp on the pedals. Rudder controls also are a must for flying the two helicopters modeled in the game, which include the familiar Bell JetRanger and the new Robison R22 Beta. Aside from the historical aircraft, Flight Simulator 2004's big news this time around is its weather effects. You can set up in-flight weather any way you like or go for the ultimate in realism by having the game automatically download real-world weather reports from the Jeppesen database every 15 minutes. Even if you don't choose to use the real-world weather option, the game can dynamically change its weather conditions so that a flight that begins in clear blue skies might end up in pure instrument conditions as you try to feel your way down to the runway in a violent thunderstorm. The addition of true 3D clouds that drift through the sky and merge into one another as weather conditions change adds a realistic touch to the game that static screenshots simply can't convey.

The game's interactive virtual cockpits are a great new feature, since the ability to control most switches, knobs, and dials with the mouse when the 3D cockpit is enabled adds some much-needed functionality to that view. Unfortunately, the textures used in the virtual cockpits are low resolution and very ugly--hopefully this is something that inventive computer artists among the Flight Simulator fan community will address. Almost a thousand new airports have been added to the game's world database, providing more than 24,000 places to land ranging from quaint grass strips to bustling international airports complete with signage. The game also features an improved air traffic control (ATC) that works well for the most part. At controlled airports, ground control provides taxi clearances and instructions, and it is possible to follow the taxiway signs to your destination or turn on a handy overlay that visually displays your assigned route. Another new feature in the game is the use of modeled Garmin GPS products--these can be helpful when interacting with ATC and planning approaches. They aren't easy for beginners to grasp, because they use the same buttons and knobs as their real-world counterparts, but a training video is included, and once you get the hang of it, the GPS becomes an indispensable tool for finding your way around Flight Simulator's vast world. The core flight model and terrain graphics engine remain more or less untouched, and on the whole, the new game seems very similar to its predecessor. The new game's multiplayer is still rudimentary and allows only for basic formation flights and air races, though you can't expect much more from a noncombat sim. You could say that Flight Simulator 2004 is still a straightforward simulation, but if you have even a passing interest in flying, you'll definitely get your money's worth from it.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century Of Flight Trailer :-

GTR FIA RACING

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : SimBin

Publisher : 10tacle, Atari And THQ

Engine : Customized ISI Engine

Genre : GT / Street Racing

Release Date : May 3 , 2005

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : Intel Pentium 4 Processor / AMD Athlon XP 1800+

Memory (RAM) : 384 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card with 64 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce FX 5500 Series
ATI : Radeon X600 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 1 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

GTR keys on the FIA GT Championship, a European-based series featuring high-end, high-level sports cars adapted for racing conditions. One of the many nifty perks of this approach is the inherent variety. The game sports nearly 20 unique drivable racecars, including a wide assortment of Porsches, Vipers, Ferraris, and Lotuses. Some are considerably faster than others, and that's why both the real-life series and its fully licensed digital peer offer different classes. Players that select "arcade" from the main menu are presented with a stripped-down and simplified version of the game that abolishes nuisances, such as garage modifications, qualification runs, race lengths, and other event parameter decisions. Arcade mode is further subcategorized into four distinct classes, each of which delivers a slightly more authentic experience than the one before it. The racing is a bit faster and far more forgiving than you'll find in the game's semipro and simulation modes, though even at its most simplistic, arcade still manages to showcase 10tacle's glorious, road-clawing physics model. 10tacle does, however, enforce an engine limiter throughout arcade mode that keeps you from running away from the field. The only way to rid yourself of that limiter is to leave the arcade appetizer behind and begin sampling GTR's meat and potatoes. Rough pavement, wet-weather handling, braking, accelerating--it's all infused with so much intricate physics that most drivers will have a tough time even coming to grips. Indeed, the GTR physics model is so good that many may feel they need to experience the actual tactile sensations of g-forces just to be successful. This can't happen of course, so the best approach is a smooth, unerring driving style, along with total and complete concentration, particularly during the first few opening laps when your tires are cold. The game's multiplayer mode permits up to 56 drivers to compete via LAN or Internet, theoretically anyway. In practice, we found stuttering and other frame rate problems when a dozen or more cars were on the track simultaneously, particularly when grouped together.

If you create an accident or merely come to a stop anywhere on an oval (or a road course, for that matter), you can clearly see a gaggle of confused competitors slow to a crawl or stop right along with you, waiting patiently for you to extricate yourself, even though there's plenty of room to squeeze by. On a more positive note, oval racing in the Semi-Pro or Simulation levels with driver aids off can deliver some addictive bumper-to-bumper action. GTR audio is far from pretty. And in a game that professes to be "the most realistic racing simulation ever," it's a very good thing. Road noise is particularly extraordinary, barking and rumbling and effectively translating the struggle of rubber as it fights to hold your car to the track. Tire scrub is deadly authentic--varying from moment to moment and always keeping you informed. Engine notes and gearshifts are both exclusive to the type of car you're currently driving, and they're utterly convincing. Downshifts in particular have a wonderfully grating, mechanical sound, especially in some of the more esoteric vehicles. In a graphical sense, the game delivers a mix of goodies and is generally not a quantum leap forward from other recent top-level sims. That's not necessarily a condemnation, because other recent top-level sims have been pretty darn credible, but one of GTR's most conspicuous troubles is its hunger for computing horsepower. Watching day turn into night and night turn into day is an equally striking event, particularly as 10tacle has effectively captured all the associated nuances. One moment you're heading west facing the gorgeous orangey hues of a setting sun, and the next you're driving into a considerably darker eastern sky. The subtle variations along the way are simply beautiful. Drivers who appreciate racing's inherent violence will enjoy the game's approach to breakable cars. GTR cars shed parts, and those parts then bounce about the track and react with other automobiles. This is a rarity in racing games, where detached hunks of car generally lose their physical properties or harmlessly disappear. Granted, those parts break off along predetermined seams, but that's a petty complaint. Otherwise, crashes produce enough view-obscuring thick, black smoke and bright orange flames to be truly frightening. Despite its blemishes, GTR is the breath of fresh air this genre so badly needed.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

GTR FIA Racing Trailer :-

NEED FOR SPEED: PORSCHE UNLEASHED

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : EA Canada

Publisher : Electronic Arts

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Racing

Release Date : March 28 , 2000

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 95 / Windows 98

CPU : AMD Athlon Classic K75 / Intel Pentium III Processor

Memory (RAM) : 32 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 7.0 Compliant Card with 4 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 2 MX Series
ATI : Radeon 7500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 150 MB

GAME FEATURES :-

Porsche Unleashed features automobiles exclusively from one manufacturer. The game has a more detailed, more realistic driving and physics model than its predecessors, though the game's realism is scalable. Porsche Unleashed looks good enough to do justice to its prestigious German sponsor. The game includes many dozens of different Porsche models from the manufacturer's 50-year product line, and each one bears the unmistakable curvature of a Porsche. The 3D car models are highly detailed: The cars all have working turn signals, brake lights, and headlights, and when you look at them in the garage, you can even check the engine under the hood, pop the trunk, or view the car's interior. The cars shine in the sunlight and reflect street lamps at nighttime, and they can also get noticeably damaged. You can clearly see their independent suspension at work as they corner, thanks to the game's realistic four-point physics model, and you can even see their drivers turning the wheel and shifting gears. You can drive the cars from a 3D cockpit view, from which you get a great sense of speed, but the cockpit view's limited visibility and slower frame rate - as well as the muffled engine noise - make the cutaway first-person view preferable, though you can also select from two external perspectives. The various courses in Porsche Unleashed look even better than the cars do. Porsche Unleashed is the first Need for Speed since the original to feature extended open-road courses in addition to closed-circuit tracks. The lush natural scenery and subtle lighting effects give you a good sense of where you're driving, whether high up in the mountains at morning or down low by the docks at night. Some tracks offer alternate routes to take, and all of them have plenty of peripheral detail that you'll only start to notice after you've already raced along that stretch of road a half-dozen times. Put it all together, and Porsche Unleashed looks fabulous. The car detail and the great sense of speed you get from behind the wheel, in addition to the quaint backwater European courses and even the game's stylish front-end menus make Porsche Unleashed very classy, much like its namesake.

You'll get to drive the very first Porsches all the way up through its fastest contemporary designs in Porsche Unleashed's evolution mode. The evolution mode begins in 1950 and lets you compete in a series of tournaments to earn cash. Each tournament takes place some years after the previous one, so you can use your earnings to buy new Porsche models as they became available. The evolution mode can be played as a serious simulation: You can tweak your cars' shocks for ride height, stiffness, and travel, just as you can adjust downforce, brake balance, and tire pressure, all to suit the road conditions. Porsche Unleashed is easy to play with automatic transmission in beginner mode, but expert mode can be a real challenge, as even the best Porsche is liable to slide out of control off a sharp corner unless you're ready to brake and downshift around each bend. If you just want to get behind the wheel of the fastest car Porsche has ever made, then you'll prefer the innovative factory-driver mode, in which you assume the role of a test-driver for the manufacturer. You'll get assignments from various Porsche personalities, including an executive, the chief tester, and even a rival test-driver, and you'll need to complete each of these to advance to the next. There are around three-dozen missions in all, and they range from standard test-driver challenges that test your cornering and acceleration, to more unusual scenarios in which you need to deliver your vehicle for shipment quickly and without damaging it, to rally races, and more. Porsche Unleashed lets you run a quick race against up to seven opponents, and it also includes a knockout mode that's an endurance match in which the last car around the track is eliminated each lap, until one car wins. The quick-race mode lets you choose from the cars that you've made available in the evolution mode in addition to a few select stock models, which means that you'll need to spend a lot of time racing through the ages before you'll have a wide selection of cars. Porsche Unleashed also includes a history of Porsche that has photographs and even some video advertisements of many of its famous cars. Porsche Unleashed is a beautiful, comprehensive, and highly enjoyable racing sim that's suitable for just about any driving enthusiast. It makes no false claims about the limits of its extensive features, so although it'll give you a chance to experience what it's like to drive all the different types of Porsches from over the years, it won't let you race those cars against their competition from other exotic-automobile manufacturers.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed Trailer :-

MAX PAYNE 2: THE FALL OF MAX PAYNE

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Remedy Entertainment, 3D Realms And Rockstar Vienna

Publisher : Rockstar Games

Engine : MAX-FX 2.0

Genre : Modern Shooter

Release Date : October 14 , 2003

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 98 / Windows 2000

CPU : AMD Athlon XP 1500+ / Intel Pentium III Processor

Memory (RAM) : 256 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0 Compliant Card with 64 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 3 Ti Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 1.3 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Two years after the events of the first game, Max Payne is an NYPD detective. While investigating a series of murders by a group of contract killers called the Cleaners, Max encounters Mona Sax, who was assumed dead at the end of the previous game. Wanted for the murder of Senator Gates and, despite Max's protests, Mona is arrested and taken to the police station. While at the station, Max overhears his new partner, Valerie Winterson, talking on the phone about Mona. Suddenly, the station is attacked by the Cleaners, who are looking for Mona. Before they reach her, Mona breaks out of her cell and vanishes into the night. After Max meets her again at her residence, where they fight off the Cleaners who followed Max to her place, they begin hunting down the people responsible for the attack. Their search leads them to a construction site, where Max and Mona defend themselves against the Cleaners. After their foes flee, Detective Winterson arrives and holds Mona at gunpoint. Mona claims that Winterson is there to kill her while Winterson claims that she is simply trying to arrest a fleeing fugitive. After several moments of consideration, Max shoots Winterson, allowing Mona to escape. Before she dies, Winterson shoots Max, leading to his hospitalization. After Max leaves the hospital, he begins looking for answers. When Max is kidnapped by Vladimir Lem, head of the Russian Mafia, he learns that the Cleaners work for Lem, who uses them to eliminate the competition to his businesses. Max then learns that Lem is part of the secretive Inner Circle, led by Senator Alfred Woden, who had ensured that the charges against Max were dropped at the end of the previous game. Lem plans to kill Woden and gain control of the Inner Circle. Max also learns that Mona is a hired gun for Woden, with orders to kill Lem and Max. After Lem reveals that Detective Winterson was his mistress, he shoots Max, and leaves him for dead in a burning building. Mona rescues Max, and together they go to Woden's mansion to save him from Lem. At the mansion, Mona knocks Max to the ground in an attempt to follow her orders to kill him, but discovers that her feelings for him keep her from doing so. Lem shoots Mona after realizing that she will not kill Max. Woden then appears in a wheelchair, and lunges at Lem; Woden is killed during the ensuing struggle. Max and Lem then begin to fight, until Lem triggers a bomb that he planted in the mansion. After they both drop to the floor below, Max pursues Lem through the mansion. Max faces Lem in a firefight, and eventually destabilizes the platform below Lem, causing it to fall to the floor below and killing Lem. Max returns to Mona's side as the police arrive, and she dies in his arms. If the game is completed at its highest difficulty level, Mona survives.

The souped-up bullet time of Max Payne 2 enables you to take on much larger groups of foes than you could in the first game. The body count here is very high, particularly in some of the later sequences which have Max taking on small armies by himself or, sometimes, with a helping hand or two. One of the touted new features of Max Payne 2 is that Max can sometimes fight alongside other characters. This works as expected. The supporting characters follow Max's lead and lend a helping hand, though their assistance isn't all that valuable. Max's arsenal of weapons hasn't changed much from the first game. He largely uses the same types of pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, and shotguns that he used extensively in the past. The main addition here is the MP5 submachine gun, a mainstay in any shooter with real-world weapons. An AK-47 and a Dragunov sniper rifle are also available, but, by and large, the weapons in Max Payne 2 are just what you'd expect if you played the first game. Max now has the ability to use any of his weapons as a bludgeon, though this is a throwaway feature that's useless and lousy-looking. Two higher difficulty settings are available, which become unlocked after you finish the game at the previous difficulty setting. The highest setting limits the number of times you can save in a level, as an added challenge. Also, once you've finished the game, you can go back and replay any of the individual levels that compose the storyline. The first game's "New York minute" mode is back, but now it's just a simple time trial. You no longer lose if you aren't fast enough in a level, though, implicitly, you're trying to get through as quickly as possible. A new mode, called "dead man walking," has been added, and, in it, you're trapped in any number of the game's more spread-out environments as enemies start spawning in. It's a question of how long you can last until they finally gun you down, and it can be quite fun. Since Max Payne 2 is, nevertheless, a short, single-player-only game, perhaps it's little wonder that the developers have been very encouraging of the game's mod community. It's the razor-sharp, photorealistic texture maps, the excellent special effects and animation, and the incredibly detailed environments that are the stars. The bullet time effects look great too. Bullet time now causes the game world to go into a sepia tone, and you can still make out individual bullets or shotgun pellets whizzing through the air when time's slowed down. There's plenty of blood during the firefights and plenty of debris from background objects that are struck. All in all, Max Payne 2 looks simply outstanding. Max Payne 2 is just a remarkable production, and what it lacks in length or volume it more than makes up for in quality and density.

GAME REVIEW :-

9/10

Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne Trailer :-

CIVILIZATION IV

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Firaxis Games

Publisher : 2K Games & Aspyr

Engine : Gamebryo

Genre : Historic Turn-Based Strategy

Release Date : October 25 , 2005

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon 2500+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 256 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card with 64 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 4 Ti Series
ATI : Radeon 8500 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 1.7 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

The series gives you plenty of ways to do this, such as conquering your neighbors, researching advanced technology, or, in Civilization III (and IV), creating the most cultured society on the planet. It's this great variety that helps give Civilization IV the same alarmingly addictive quality its predecessors carried. And thanks to its many improvements, major and minor, and its greater emphasis on strategy over bean-counting, Civilization IV isn't just as good as Civilization has ever been...it's better. Your political leader has two special traits that will influence his or her reign, though all the game's traits are new, such as "organized," which cuts down on maintenance costs, or "expansive," which generates bonus health in cities and helps hasten growth and expansion. And Civilization IV fundamentally offers the same goals, but in a much more evolved, more strategic, and ultimately more rewarding manner. And each of these goals comes with many more options, which should open the game up to players with busy schedules...even if it may still seem overwhelming to beginners. You can attempt to influence your neighbors to make war or peace with other neighbors, and you can even fence everyone out of your backyard using the game's new "open borders" system. In previous games, neighboring nations could send their city-building settlers and their soldiers wandering across your nation, free to declare war on your vulnerable home cities and worker civilians unless you complained strenuously. In Civilization IV, the new border system means that no units from any other country can enter yours unless you have agreed to open borders with that particular country...or unless you're at war with that particular country. This is a godsend for defensive players who prefer to hang back to develop an economic, scientific, or cultural infrastructure without fear of ambush. The new great people system is an interesting and useful addition that will probably be especially appreciated by experts. Great people can be expended in exchange for a number of powerful abilities. In response to fan requests to adjust the pace of the game, developer Firaxis has added three speeds: the surprisingly fast normal speed, the even-faster quick speed, and the slower-paced epic speed. While epic speed seems better suited to purists who prefer to take their time, the quick and the normal speed are conducive to much faster play. In fact, in quick speed it can actually take as little as an hour or two to take over the world. And even normal speed moves at a brisk pace.

Multiplayer also seems to work quite well, and thanks to the game's faster pace, it seems much, much more realistic to actually finish multiplayer games, especially on the "quick" speed setting. And as you might expect from any good turn-based game, Civilization IV also supports play-by-e-mail and hotseat multiplayer, along with LAN and Internet play. The game even ships with additional custom scenarios and three fan-made modifications that offer new play modes. The game ships with a playable tutorial narrated by Sid Meier himself, but the tutorial only covers about half the game's key concepts. In addition, the late game can still end up being rather messy, as you have dozens of worker units across your sprawling empire working on various improvements, even though you'll only want to focus on a few different major developments. The most intriguing aspect of Civilization IV's audio is the narration you'll hear at the beginning of every new game and each time you research a new technology--narration that's provided by none other than Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. Nimoy's scholarly delivery of his lines adds a touch of class to the game, though you may grow too familiar with them over time, since the same lines are repeated for the same techs. And despite the lengthy rendered animation that introduces the game the first time it's loaded, Mr. Nimoy's dulcet voice is unfortunately squandered at the beginning of each new game session, as his profound "In the beginning..." speech accompanies a disappointing series of concept art sketches. This intro is an homage to the first Civilization, but considering the animated opening sequence, an equally impressive animated sequence, or at least a cleaner-looking presentation of those images seems like it should've been used here. Beginners will find Civilization IV to be a complex strategy game with something of a learning curve, but with worthwhile rewards waiting for them once they start figuring things out. Experts will find Civilization IV to be the proverbial better mousetrap: adjusted, tweaked, and sometimes completely changed. But it's still a Civilization game, and with Civilization IV, the series is even more engaging and addictive than ever.

GAME REVIEW :-

9.5/10

Civilization IV Trailer :-

HEARTS OF IRON III

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Paradox Interactive

Publisher : Paradox Interactive

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Historic Real-Time Strategy

Release Date : August 11 , 2009

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : AMD Athlon 3500+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 2 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card with 128 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 6800 Series
ATI : Radeon X850 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 2 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

Hearts of Iron III remains a serious real-time strategy game that is as intricate as the design of a Persian rug. Like its cousins Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron III isn't a game that you will figure out, let alone master, in a couple of hours. The basic structure of the game is stock standard when it comes to Paradox's grand strategy lineup. The design blends the first two releases in the Hearts of Iron series with the 3D map and revamped interface of 2007's Europa Universalis III. So even though you get to look at a newfangled world map with 3D soldiers, tanks, ships, and planes moving about, the core of the game is still centered on taking control of a nation during the WWII era. Matches can be played solo or multiplayer over a LAN or the Net if you've got a lot of patience for the time it can take to finish such an undertaking. There are seven default starting dates that stretch from the nervous peace of 1936 to the beginning of the end in 1944. This lets you run through the whole 12-plus years of global insanity or pick your spot and replay history from such key moments as the German invasion of Poland or the aftermath of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Success is achieved by outlasting foes and accumulating the most victory points by the time the clock runs out and the war era comes to a close. Nations are fully stocked with leaders, including cabinet ministers and generals, all with their own skills and personalities. Laws are passed and national priorities are set that can mirror history or send things off on wild tangents. Some 15,000 provinces are ready for you to micromanage, with their traits being modeled right down to such natural resources as food and oil, as well as economic builders, such as factories, that contribute to industrial capacity. Armies, navies, and air forces are built from the ground up, then sent into battle at your command. Technology is researched to build better military hardware and improve economic production at home. Spies steal information from rivals and indulge in sabotage. Even weather fronts now roll across the continents, affecting military moves and economic production. Going into battle has been streamlined the most. Military matters are now sensibly structured via layers of headquarters. This enables you to take control of field-level HQs and direct battles manually or move up steps and give orders for specific battle theaters that direct all troops under this command to do your bidding. For example, in the early stages of the war in 1939 and early 1940, you can order Rommel's HQ to take Paris. This essentially mobilizes the entire Western front into action because all of the units under his command will then start pushing forward. No muss, no fuss.

You can take direct control of army groups when necessary, of course, although the artificial intelligence seems to do a superb job of smartly carrying out your directives. The only oddity here has to do with battle casualties; they sometimes seem impossibly low, with two people dying in a showdown among 20,000 infantry. There is also more back-and-forth with your underlings. When you issue an order, the HQ in question immediately kicks back a request for units it thinks are needed to accomplish the task, allowing you to tailor production accordingly. Tech research and production are similar, providing feedback to your efforts via bonuses that accrue the more you specialize. If you research and then crank out a lot of armor, you soon find that everything speeds up as your men gain greater experience and expertise. Only tech and production remain daunting because the menu screens for each are so loaded with numbers that you soon feel like a junior accountant at tax time. Yet even with this problem, you get the feeling that this is what Hearts of Iron was supposed to be all along. Now, you're actually in control of the game, not a slave to it. As a result, it's tough to stop playing because it's so easy to experiment with different approaches and muck up history. It's a blast to run through campaigns simply to see the many fascinating ways that they diverge from what happened in real life. One game might stick to the script with the single exception of the Netherlands signing on with the UK in 1938 to present a more united front against Hitler. Yet, the next might see something wacky, like Argentina battling the US in Central America, the French holding along the Maginot Line, or Switzerland joining the Allies and going on the offensive. Because Hearts of Iron III isn't a twitch arcade game, this generally means that you just wind up scrolling the map too far and end up in Canada instead of the UK. But it's still frustrating. Slowdowns are accentuated when playing with 3D troop models, forcing you to switch to wargame counters for a smoother experience. Again, this isn't a big deal because the game has a strong wargame vibe anyways, though it still underlines the need for a patch. Another niggling issue is front and center when you start up the game. The tuition text is strewn with typos and translation errors, which makes it hard to sit through the otherwise amusing walk-through of the game's features by Hitler. Reduced micromanagement and streamlined automation make Hearts of Iron III an absorbing game of grand strategy.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Hearts Of Iron III Trailer :-

WOLFENSTEIN

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Raven Software, id Software, Pi Studios And Endrant Studios

Publisher : Activision

Engine : id Tech 4 ( Heavily Modified )

Genre : Historic First-Person Shooter

Release Date : August 18 , 2009

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : AMD Athlon64 3400+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 1 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card with 256 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 6800 Series
ATI : Radeon X850 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 8 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

It is the year 1943 in the fictional town of Isenstadt. The Second World War is at its height. While Allied forces have stalled the expansion of Hitler's Third Reich, the Nazi war machine still has its boot on the throat of mainland Europe. Enter Heinrich Himmler's feared SS and its plan to master an occult force known as the Black Sun. With this mysterious power source at its disposal, no army on Earth could stand in the Reich's path. No army but the man who had single-handedly shut down Colonel Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse's Übersoldat program and thwarted the resurrection of ancient superhuman King Heinrich I, that is. Once again, the world requires the particular talents of special agent B.J. Blazkowicz. During an operation on Nazi battleship, B.J. obtains a powerful medallion that allows him to "shift" to another subdimension, that dimension is called the "Veil", or Black Sun dimnesion. This dimension has no shadows, and is bathed in an eerie greenish-blue glow. Some objects like special magic doors that are present in the Veil are absent in the normal world, and using the medallion enables B.J. to walk through these doors. Later the medallion gets more power, like slowing time, shield that stops all incoming bullets, and megadamage that multiplies the offensive capabilities of B.J.'s weapons. This medallion is the only key to win the fight with Nazi's Black Sun creations. With the help of local resistance and soviet scientists, B.J. fights through Isenstadt, hunting for General Zetta, the SS paranormal devision member who is in charge of the operation. Upon killing him, however, B.J. is forced to fight his old nemesis, Wilhelm "Deathshead" Strasse in order to put an end to Nazi Black Sun operation. The game culminates with B.J. defeating Hans Grosse, Strasse's second-in-command, who uses Veil powers similar to B.J.'s and a heavy armor complete with two chainguns. Even though the Black Sun operation is aborted, Wilhelm Strasse manages to escape.

You will quickly grow fond of the Tesla gun, which fires electric streams in various directions at once, and the Leichenfaust 44, which is a heavy weapon that instantly vaporizes standard enemies. As you explore Isenstadt and complete missions, you'll earn money and find bags of coins. You can then spend these spoils on upgrades for your weapons, such as diminished recoil or greater damage. While some weapons are better in certain circumstances than others, there's really no weak banana in this bunch. These long, noisy battles make a big impression, yet a number of small flaws eventually add up to make impressions of their own. Wolfenstein displays a noticeable lack of refinement that manifests itself in a number of ways. The levels are highly varied; you'll trudge through sewers and battle aboard a colossal zeppelin, but the color palette and general artistic vision remain consistent throughout. The visual effect upon entering The Veil is slick; it's as if the real world is being peeled away to reveal the hidden dimension beneath. Wolfenstein's class-based online multiplayer was wholly inspired by its predecessor's terrific multiplayer modes. There are three modes total: Team Deathmatch, Objective, and Stopwatch. Objective and Stopwatch modes provide the core online entertainment, assigning the resistance team to a series of objectives that the Axis team must thwart. The main difference between these two modes is that in Stopwatch, players take turns on each team to see which can earn the fastest completion times. Regardless of which mode you choose, you'll play as a soldier, a medic, or an ever-helpful engineer. Each class also gets a Veil power of its own, though these don't mirror the campaign's Veil powers. Soldiers perform an explosive Veil strike, medics possess an area-of-effect heal, and engineers can run really fast. Wolfenstein proves that even as first-person shooters progress, there is still plenty of room for traditional shooting unhindered by modern frills. Big bosses, crazy weapons, and exciting scripted firefights are the focal point of this nutty tale. It's also an ample one if you take on all the side missions and scour environments for intelligence, hidden tomes, and secret money stashes. Yet while it's pleasingly old-fashioned, the unimpressive AI, aging technology, and general lack of refinement make this sequel feel like a missed opportunity.

GAME REVIEW :-

7.5/10

Wolfenstein Trailer :-

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Rocksteady Studios

Publisher : Eidos Interactive, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Engine : Unreal Engine 3.5 with PhysX

Genre : Fantasy Action Adventure

Release Date : September 15 , 2009

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ / Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor

Memory (RAM) : 2 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card with 512 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 7900 Series
ATI : Radeon X1300 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 9 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

The Joker attacks Gotham City's Mayor's office, but is foiled by Batman, who escorts him for incarceration at Arkham Asylum. The same night, a mysterious fire at Gotham City's Blackgate Prison has caused several hundred prisoners to be temporarily relocated to Arkham, many of whom were among the Joker's most recent crew. As Batman escorts the guards taking the Joker inside, the asylum's security is overridden by Harley Quinn and the Joker is able to escape and take control of the facility, enlisting the Blackgate prisoners in addition to other rogue characters imprisoned at the asylum. Batman quickly realizes that this has been part of Joker's plan including the Blackgate fire, having double-crossed a security guard to help him escape. The Joker threatens to blow up bombs scattered around Gotham City should anyone attempt to enter Arkham, forcing Batman to work alone; however, Batman is able to rely on Commissioner Gordon and other loyal guards, after Batman is able to free them, to help secure prisoners he has defeated, and Oracle is able to guide him through the Asylum over the radio. Batman is able to gain access to an adjunct of the Batcave he had set up years ago on the island, and is able to use his sleuthing skills to learn of Joker's plan. It is eventually revealed that the Joker is seeking a chemical called Titan that is produced in the asylum, which is based on the same chemical that Bane uses to become super-powerful, though the Titan formula is much more potent. Not only does the Joker plan to use it on the various Blackgate inmates to create an unstoppable army, he plans to dump the waste product into Gotham's water supply, which could have disastrous effects on the city. This also has the side effect of causing Poison Ivy's plants to mutate and take over the island. Batman, after defeating several of his archenemies, is able to return to the Batcave to create an antidote to Titan, and uses it to destroy the mutated plant life and put a stop to Joker's army. With all of his henchmen defeated, the Joker invites Batman to his "party", where Batman sees Joker holding and manipulating Scarface and sitting upon a throne of mannequins. Joker then reveals that he has recaptured Gordon and attempts to shoot Gordon with a Titan-filled dart. Batman jumps in front of it, taking the injection himself. With Batman attempting to resist the change, Joker feels defeated. He shoots himself with the Titan gun and becomes a massive monster. Joker proudly displays himself to news choppers before Batman defeats him in a final battle. As he transforms back to normal and is taken back to his cell, the staff regains control of the asylum. Batman then hears that Two-Face is robbing the Second National Bank of Gotham. Batman summons the Batwing, and flies away towards Gotham. Following the credits a box stamped with the word Titan is seen floating in the water, upon which a hand rises from the water and grabs the box.

The combat in Arkham Asylum never gets overly complicated, though the number of moves and attacks at your disposal increases quite dramatically as you progress through the Story mode, earn experience points, and subsequently spend those points on acquiring new combo moves and gadgets. Throws, takedowns, and even batarang attacks can be incorporated into your combos this way, but you never need to press more than two buttons simultaneously, and the timing of your moves doesn't have to be particularly precise. Fighting against mobs of up to a dozen enemies or so is a blast, and while they're not smart enough to all just jump on you at once, they're not stupid either. Given half a chance, thugs will pull pipes from walls to attack you with, pick up boxes to throw at you, and recover weapons from fallen colleagues. One character that you definitely want to listen to carefully is Edward Nigma, also known as Riddler. That's because there are no fewer than 240 "riddles" for you to solve on Arkham Island, and doing so not only earns you a good number of experience points but is also the only way to unlock character bios, character trophies, and Challenge mode maps. The riddles come in a number of different flavors, many of which don't involve riddles at all, and the one thing that they all have in common is that they're rewarding to solve. The best of the proper riddles are those that lead you to photograph question marks painted around the island, which doesn't sound very interesting until you realize that these question marks can only be seen using detective vision from very specific locations. That's because these elusive punctuation marks are painted in two parts at different locations that are often quite far apart, so the solution requires you to find both parts and then figure out where to take the photo from so that they line up perfectly. It's clever and compelling stuff, though it does encourage you to spend more time than you'd probably like in detective vision mode.

More significant unlockable content comes in the form of eight challenge maps, which come in regular and extreme difficulties for a total of 16. The maps are based on areas that you visit in the Story mode, and the challenges are split 50/50 between purely combat-oriented sequences and stealth-based "Predator" gameplay. In the former, you're pitted against four increasingly tough waves of enemies and score points for performing combos, avoiding taking damage, executing ring outs, and using a variety of different moves. In the latter, you're dropped into a level where every enemy has a gun and your goal is to take them all down as quickly as possible. The twist is that to earn a respectable position on the online leaderboards in the Challenge mode, you also have to earn medals, and in order to do that, you have to deal with some of your enemies in very specific ways. Regardless of whether you're getting sucked into the Story mode or competing for high scores in the Challenge mode, Batman: Arkham Asylum does an outstanding job of letting you be Batman. Everything about this game--the impressive visuals, stirring soundtrack, superb voice acting, fiendish puzzles, hard-hitting combat--feels like it has been lovingly crafted by a development team that's both knowledgeable and passionate about the source material. Miss out on this one and the joke's on you and you don't need to be a fan of Batman to enjoy this excellent third-person action game.

GAME REVIEW :-

9/10

Batman: Arkham Asylum Trailer :-

SECTION 8

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : TimeGate Studios

Publisher : SouthPeak Interactive

Engine : Unreal Engine 3

Genre : Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter

Release Date : September 4 , 2009

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : AMD Athlon64 X2 4000+ / Intel Core 2 Duo Processor

Memory (RAM) : 2 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compliant Card with 512 MB Ram

[NVIDIA : GeForce 8600 Series
ATI : Radeon HD 2900 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 6 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

The name "Section 8" derives from an old United States military discharge regulation for reason of being mentally unfit for service, and also refers to the 8th Armored Infantry in the game. Section 8 takes place in the future after the human race has discovered interstellar travel and has colonized across the galaxy. At the time of the game, a group called the ARM of Orion, has begun to 'disconnect' the outermost frontier planets from the main governing body, taking them over while keeping their presence hidden from the government. As space travel is slow, it often takes weeks to communicate with or travel to a frontier world, affording the ARM with enough time to seize worlds and build their base of power, ultimately preparing an ambush for the government forces that will eventually respond. The government then discovers the ARM of Orion, and sends in the 8th Armored Infantry, including Alex Corde (the player), on a mission to investigate, and presumably fight, the ARM invasion. The story surrounding your feats is entirely forgettable, but the levels themselves are generally well designed, offering a fun alternative to the online warfare. The maps in the campaign are the same as in the online mode, but they're structured differently, and their vast size mimics a real-life siege as you slowly gain ground, complete objectives, and push the enemy further and further back. Whereas the multiplayer versions of these maps are completely open as soon as matches begin, the single-player offerings have walled-off areas that open only once you reach certain checkpoints. The only match type in Section 8 is called Conquest. Here, two teams strive to earn victory points by killing other players, capturing control points, and completing dynamic combat missions (DCM). There is no way to choose just team deathmatch or a capture-the-flag variant, but the different objective types are all rolled into this mode, making for an ever-changing, unpredictable experience. To capture a control point, you have to find either a neutral or enemy-owned computer and hack it by tapping a button. Once it's in your possession, you earn the accompanying turrets and other defensive structures, making it difficult for the other team to steal them back. Every few minutes, teams earn points for the number of control stations they possess, and victory is awarded to the team that reaches the designated number of victory points first.

There are six different mission types that can be initiated, and these diverse objectives add a lot of excitement to the matches. You have only a limited amount of time to complete these, so it makes for frantic action as you try to beat the clock while your opponents attempt to halt your progress. Not only do you get more victory points for successfully passing these missions, but you earn other bonuses that make victory easier to achieve. There are six guns and seven gadgets to choose from, though you can carry only two of each at a time. It's not easy to switch your gear midbattle, so you'll have to choose your loadout wisely depending on which objectives you want to go after during your life. The guns are entirely standard, and include the requisite fast-shooting automatics, a slow but powerful shotgun, and an ultraprecise sniper rifle. They each excel in specific circumstances, so you can't rely on just one gun throughout. The missile launcher, for instance, has such unpredictable splash damage that it's virtually worthless against another human, but it can destroy a turret with just a few blasts. The gadgets are just as diverse, including a wrench that can repair structures and heal fellow soldiers, remote-controlled mines, and a knife that gives you a melee attack. As you complete objectives, you earn money, with which you can purchase turrets and vehicles. The turrets are especially helpful, letting you set up minigun-wielding or rocket-spewing units to defend your control points while you go off to complete a dynamic combat mission. The vehicles, on the other hand, are quite lame. You can summon either a mech or a tank, but both are extremely disappointing. The tank is just as ineffective, getting stuck on every divot and pebble along these rocky roads. It's a shame the vehicles are so utterly pointless because the battles could have used a dose of variety. With only six different weapon types, battles can unfold in only so many ways, and the worthless vehicles don't add any much-needed spice. With a few more weapon types and vehicles that actually worked, Section 8 could have been a lot more exciting. As it is, this is a satisfying take on the genre that makes up in fun what it lacks in innovation.

GAME REVIEW :-

7/10

Section 8 Trailer :-