THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Bethesda Game Studios

Publisher : Bethesda SoftWorks / ZeniMax And Ubisoft

Engine : Gamebryo

Genre : First Person Role-Playing

Release Date : May 1 , 2002

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 98 / Windows 2000

CPU : AMD Athlon Classic K75 / Intel Pentium III Processor

Memory (RAM) : 128 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 8.1 Compatible Video Card with Memory 32 MB

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

Hard Disk Space : 1 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

The central quests of Morrowind concern the evil Dagoth Ur, housed within the volcanic Red Mountain. Ur has used the Heart of Lorkhan, a large, heart-like artifact of great power, to make himself immortal, and now seeks to drive the Imperial occupiers from Morrowind using his network of spies, as well as an enormous golem, powered by the Heart of Lorkhan, a dwarven artifact the lord had originally been tasked to guard. In his stratagem for power, he blights the land of Vvardenfell and corrupts the minds of the weak by sending them dreams. The player begins fresh off a boat from the mainland in a town called Seyda Neen, freed from imprisonment by the string pulling of a distant and obscure emperor. At this point the player is under no obligation to follow through with the main quest, and may instead choose to take part in regional politics, to explore or adventure, or to pursue minor side quests. As with previous entries in the series, a particular emphasis in the design and execution of the game lays upon the freedom of the player. The plot soon reveals that the player is possibly the "Nerevarine", the re-incarnation of Nerevar, an ancient Dunmer hero. As the player moves through the main storyline, he/she begins to take on characteristics of the Nerevarine, all the while learning more of the tumultuous past of Vivec, Nerevar, and Dagoth Ur. The third test is to find the Moon-and-Star, the ring worn by Nerevar, which would instantly kill any other. The player finds the ring. After receiving the support and being declared "Hortator" of the Great Houses and "Nerevarine" of the nomadic Ashlander tribes, the player comes to be officially called "Nerevarine" by the "Tribunal Temple", who normally persecute anyone who claims to be the "Nerevarine" and sentence them to death. Thereafter, the player plots an assault on Dagoth Ur with the help of Vivec, one of the three living gods that was able to partially resist corruption when they used the Heart of Lorkhan, who presents the player with the artifact gauntlet Wraithguard. He then tasks the player to recover the artifacts Sunder and Keening, the implements necessary to destroy the Heart of Lorkhan. Now facing Lord Dagoth, the player breaks the Heart of Lorkhan with Kagrenac's tools (Sunder and Keening), destroying the source of Dagoth's power and killing Dagoth Ur in the process. Red Mountain is cleared of blight, House Dagoth falls, and the player is congratulated for his/her efforts by the Daedric Lord Azura.

In Morrowind, if you play as a thief, then you gain levels by thieving. If you play as a magic user, you gain levels by using magic, and so on. This is a clever system that makes perfect sense. Even early on, and sometimes surprisingly so, you can get your hands on some powerful weapons, armor, and artifacts that will last you for many hours' worth of gameplay. Throughout the game, your character will be only as good as his or her items, or his or her magic, which must be bought, rather than discovered or learned from experience. Actually, the game not only allows you to buy spells, but it also allows you to make them. In addition, you can create your own enchanted items and make your own potions from reagents you can actually go scavenging for out in the wilderness. Then you just use gadgets called probes over and over until you successfully disarm the device. A low skill in "security" means your chances of success are slim, but there's a zero-percent chance of triggering the trap by accident. Locks are dealt with in exactly the same fashion, only using picks instead of probes. Unlike locks, traps are supposed to be dangerous and difficult to detect. As another example, most of Morrowind's shopkeepers have little money on hand. The environments themselves are what steal the show. Extremely impressive effects, ranging from torrential rains and raging sandstorms to bodies of water that look so real they'll make you thirsty, all help make the world seem alive. Soft ambient lighting and atmospheric hazing is also put to excellent use. You'll always look forward to seeing the next of Morrowind's numerous, imaginative, beautiful areas. Morrowind offers some of best value for the money of any single-player game currently available, and it ranks up there in terms of size, scope, and quality with some of the best games the role-playing genre has ever had to offer. Morrowind does have numerous drawbacks, as well as some bugs. But they're all generally minor enough that most anyone should be able to look past them, especially if they're aware of them going into the game. It's a beautiful, sprawling, and open-ended game that lets you play pretty much however you like as long as you're willing to fill in a few blanks using your imagination.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Trailer :-

SIMCITY 4

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Maxis

Publisher : Electronic Arts And Aspyr Media

Engine : Custom

Genre : Modern City-Building And Construction Simulation

Release Date : January 12 , 2003

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 98 / Windows 2000

CPU : Intel Pentium III Processor / AMD Athlon Classic K75

Memory (RAM) : 256 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 7.0 Compatible Video Card with Memory 32 MB

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

Hard Disk Space : 1 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

SimCity was challenging and plausibly realistic and even had a surprising amount of humor, especially for a game with a seemingly mundane subject. About 15 years have passed since the original SimCity was first released, and while the classic SimCity series is still well known among PC gamers, it has only reached its fourth full installment. And SimCity 4 for the most part isn't a huge departure from its predecessors, either, not that it really needs to be. One of the biggest changes to the gameplay of SimCity 4 is evident from the start. Immediately as you begin the game, you're presented with a view of SimNation, though it's not much of a nation at first. SimNation is divided up into numerous smaller square segments, yet each of these in fact can hold an entire city of your making. These cities can even interact to some extent, exchanging surplus energy, water, and such for cash. At any rate, getting started is as easy as clicking on any SimNation square, naming your city, and appointing yourself as mayor, and you're off. But before you begin, you may wish to take the step-by-step tutorials of the game's mayor mode—the heart of SimCity 4—and the god mode, where you can terraform the land to your heart's content, making the terrain as flat, as hilly, as undulating, or as improbably strange as you like. It's easy to use the terrain-morphing tools found in this mode, and while it's perfectly viable to just pick one of the ready-made territories to start your city in, it's tempting and straightforward to custom-tailor your own. You'll start by plopping down a power plant, preferably one that doesn't create too much pollution, and then laying down some residential, industrial, and commercial zones, then giving them some time to incubate. Laying out zones is as easy as dragging rectangles using your mouse, but SimCity 4 tries to make things even easier on you by automatically inserting streets, giving larger zones a gridlike pattern. This is a mixed blessing, since these auto-built streets often don't line up as you try to construct adjacent zones, leaving your city with bits of wasted space here and there, at least until you get used to dealing with this feature. And since city maps in SimCity 4 are smaller overall than in previous SimCity games—probably a necessary limitation due to the fine level of detail you'll see down to individual houses and sims—that wasted space could be a big missed opportunity for your city. Plus all the extra roads can really hose your budget early on. The auto-roads feature really should have been optional. Having to contend with the constantly shifting demand for the three zone types while continuously adding better services and transportation options for your population and while also keeping an eagle eye on your monthly budget adds up to some involving gameplay. SimCity 4, like its predecessors, succeeds at being an active, hands-on game where there's usually something interesting you can be doing. Even if you're waiting to rake in a certain amount of funds, you can use that time as an opportunity to scrutinize the many different statistics and charts available to you or to correspond with your various advisors on how to proceed. Or you can use the handy query tool to click around your city, gleaning all kinds of information, including a few amusingly pointless statistics.

SimCity 4 also lets you spring up a volcano in the middle of your downtown, for all it cares. Like previous games in the series, disasters are very much a part of SimCity 4 and are liable to strike at any time, especially some of the more plausible ones like fires and riots. Unfortunately there's no option to disable random disasters from happening, so expect your big cities to catch fire often, even if you have lots of fire departments in place. Instigating these terrible events yourself is also possible via a handy disaster menu. The game also promises cooperative multiplayer support, but this isn't actually ready yet. Experienced SimCity players might also go in expecting to have numerous prebuilt cities available from the get-go, as well as stand-alone scenario options, but none of this is present in the game. The game does include regions modeled after real-world locations like San Francisco, New York, and Berlin, yet these are almost entirely barren landscapes--you'll need to build the actual cities yourself. SimCity 4 offers only the standard free-form game mode. You'll of course be able to download plenty of player-created cities, but it's somewhat disappointing that the game itself seems rather bare-bones. SimCity 4 really does look impressive otherwise, and there's a lot of variety and a lot of funny little details to be seen. The game also sports a lot of really great audio that gets more and more detailed the closer you zoom in to street level, while a surprisingly good soundtrack consisting of a variety of jazz-inspired tunes plays in the background. Though not as polished as it could have been, SimCity 4 is still a complex and detailed strategy game that can entertain you for hours on end.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

SimCity 4 Trailer :-

FABLE: THE LOST CHAPTERS

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Lionhead Studios, Big Blue Box And Robosoft Technologies

Publisher : Microsoft Game Studios And Feral Interactive

Engine : RenderWare

Genre : Action Role-Playing

Release Date : September 20 , 2005

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP

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

Memory (RAM) : 256 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 64 MB

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

Hard Disk Space : 3 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

When the Hero is a child, his village, Oakvale, is raided and destroyed by bandits on his sister's birthday; it seems the Hero's entire family perishes. An old hero named Maze arrives on the scene, rescues the Hero, and convinces him to join the Heroes' Guild to be trained to become a champion; Maze sees great potential in the boy. The Hero then embarks on a journey to discover the reason behind his village's destruction, discovering his destiny, and the true fate of his family along the way. After a time, and after honing his skills, Maze informs the Hero of a blind seeress living among a bandit camp near Oakvale, and advises the Hero to infiltrate the bandit camp. To the Hero's surprise, the blind seeress is actually his older sister who was taken in by Twinblade, a former Hero and the present Bandit King. After a showdown with Twinblade, the Hero is given the choice of killing or sparing Twinblade. Later on in the Hero's life, after he has gained more recognition among the people of Albion, he is invited to fight in the Arena, where he meets the legendary Hero named Jack of Blades, who is running the arena battles and, as a final show, issues a challenge against the Hero and his rival and friend Whisper. When the Hero defeats her, he is given the choice kill her or to spare her life. It eventually becomes clear that it was Jack of Blades himself who hired the Hero's mentor Maze to destroy the Hero's home. Aided by his blind sister, the Hero makes it his mission to defeat Jack of Blades one way or another, either through good or evil. The Hero tracks down his mother, and attempts to rescue her from Bargate Prison, where Jack has kept her since the day of the Oakvale raid. However, the Hero is captured and spends a year or more in the prison. When he finally escapes with his mother, the Hero attempts to track down Jack. Maze, however, turns against the hero and kidnaps his sister. After defeating Maze, the Hero is led into a final confrontation with Jack where his mother is killed. After defeating him, the hero must choose whether to keep the Sword of Aeons that Jack sought by killing his sister, or cast it away forever into a portal created by Jack of Blades' death. Depending on the Hero's alignment and the player's choice of using or destroying the sword, there are a total of four different endings. Once the ending credits roll, players can resume their games.

In The Lost Chapters special edition, the story continues. The Hero must find passage to the Northern Wastes to aid a legendary hero named Scythe in stopping a great evil from returning. He must then defeat Jack of Blades a second time, as he has returned from the dead in the form of a dragon. Fable's combat has a pretty good, solid feel to it as you wallop your foes with swords, axes, maces, crossbows, and more. But the combat isn't really a challenge once you inevitably figure out a few key tricks. Items that quickly or instantly restore your health will be available in copious supply, letting you recover your energies in a pinch, even in the midst of battle. Fable's world is sprinkled with little hidden secrets--collectible special keys, talking demon doors challenging you to open them up in some obscure fashion, concealed treasure chests, and so forth--and these give the game some additional lasting value. Ironically, though, there isn't a clear incentive to play through the entire game over from scratch once you've finished it the first time. Yet, however you choose to spend your time with the game, you should be able to squeeze a good 20 to 30 hours out of it when all is said and done. The game does have multiple endings, depending on your morality and the ultimate decisions you make, but each version of the epilogue is very brief, and it's fairly easy to see the numerous different alternatives without having to play through the game from the beginning. This is partly because your character's morality can be reversed just by visiting one of two different locations in the game, respectively devoted to a good and an evil god. Basically, you'll get to improve your character's various abilities within three different pools: strength, skill, and will. Strength abilities influence your melee power, toughness, and maximum health. Skill abilities affect your speed, archery, the prices you get from merchants, and your ability to sneak. The game's various environments, which include your standard fantasy trappings like forests, swamps, caverns, and graveyards, are dense with color and little atmospheric touches. Weather effects look very real, and other effects for spells and such are also great. But the best-looking aspect of the game is certainly the hero himself and his gradual metamorphosis into whatever you're trying to turn him into. Ambient sound effects match or even surpass the richness of the graphics. The game's voice acting is of very high quality overall, and there's a ton of spoken dialogue to be heard. You'll occasionally hear some repeated lines as you wander through towns, and this is really the only strike against a game whose sound is amazingly well done. Fable is an imaginative game that's got enough remarkable, unique moments in it to make it shine.

GAME REVIEW :-

8.5/10

Fable: The Lost Chapters Trailer :-

RACE 07- THE WTCC GAME

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : SimBin Studios

Publisher : SimBin Studios

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : GT / Sim Racing

Release Date : October 9 , 2007

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : AMD Athlon 64 3000+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 1 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 256 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 7600 Series
ATI : Radeon X1600 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 3 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

SimBin's racer returns for a new season, adding brand new vehicle classes to the already excellent touring car series. Despite the addition of new racing classes and vehicles, RACE 07 still maintains its WTCC branding and subtitle. As a result, the focus is definitely on the touring car leagues, if only because the majority of tracks in the game are taken from current and previous WTC championships. Newcomers to the series should be pleased to see that the 2006 series is still included. This means that tracks that were dropped between seasons, such as Magny-Cours, Puebla, and Istanbul, are still in as part of the 2006 season, while replacements such as Zandvoort, Anderstorp, and Pau make it as part of the 2007 lineup. You can play the full championship from both seasons, which includes practice, qualifying, warm-up, and two races for each of the 10-11 meets. This means that getting through a full season is no mean feat; although, you can skip the prerace buildup if you like. As with real touring cars, drivers who consistently finish in the top rankings have weight added to their vehicles to balance things out. The game can be tailored to create the experience you want, with numerous driving assists that can be disabled to make the game more difficult. Antilock brakes, traction control, and stability assists can be turned off at any time during the race, but disabling them makes cornering all the more difficult. You can also make the game harder by choosing from the preset racing levels at the beginning of each race. On the novice setting, the damage level of each crash is limited to 30 percent of the real-world effect, while mechanical failure is turned off to prevent your car from ever breaking completely. On the pro level, damage affects your car more both technically and aesthetically, meaning that each bump has a noticeable effect on performance.

While touring cars is still very much the focus for RACE 07, there is also a host of new racing classes on offer for the first time. Formula 3000, Radical, Formula BMW, Caterham, and Mini series vehicles are now also available, in addition to classic touring cars from the 1987 series. The speed and weight of the Formula 3000 cars make them a completely different prospect from the touring cars, while the Minis are more forgiving than other vehicles, which makes them attractive to novice drivers wanting to get into the game. All these new racing classes definitely feel like they have a place in RACE 07, and racing enthusiasts will find that they add depth to a game that already had plenty of longevity. The game theoretically supports up to 24 players simultaneously over both LAN and the Internet. The host is given the option to select the car type, track, and number of laps. The host can also enforce rules, such as car damage, weather, and opponent AI level. Aside from the main championships and online offerings, there are quick-race options that are more suitable for shorter games. Single race, time attack, and practice modes allow you to take on any of the tracks from the 2006/2007 series in any racing type/vehicle class combination. As you should expect from a racing game these days, the replay mode allows you to frame your greatest victories and most spectacular crashes from pretty much any angle. We like the authentic Eurosport branding and the resulting TV-like presentation, but the lack of a photograph mode is a bit of a shame. At least online leaderboards are available if you want to show off to your friends. Basic ground textures and some particularly nasty pixelated grass give the game the look of a previous-generation racing game, while the onlookers are the static cardboard cutout variety of a few years ago. At least, the vehicles make some amends and the in-car views really show off the modelling work. In the Formula 3000 cars, this even extends to seeing the view from inside the driver's helmet, which is another nice touch. There are also some other background details that add to the authenticity of the experience, such as the trackside officials waving coloured flags after collisions. There are only a couple of weather effects in RACE 07, and while their visual impact is limited, their effect on the driving experience is tangible. Light rain causes a small amount of sheen on the track, while heavy rain makes even the most gradual of corners a challenging exercise. RACE 07 is a charming racing game that won't fail to appeal to enthusiasts. You have to applaud the effort that's gone into making the game authentic but also accessible, and at any level, it is always a joy to play. While there's no getting away from the fact that it looks dated and could certainly do with an engine overhaul, the new classes and vehicles make this an attractive addition to the franchise.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

Race 07- The WTCC Game Trailer :-

PURE

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Black Rock Studio

Publisher : Disney Interactive Studios

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Racing / Off-Road

Release Date : September 23 , 2008

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows XP / Windows Vista

CPU : AMD Athlon64 X2 3600+ / Intel Pentium Dual Core Processor

Memory (RAM) : 2 GB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 256 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce 7600 Series
ATI : Radeon X1800 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 5.5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

All-terrain vehicles are something of a niche interest, but you don't need to care about them in the least to enjoy Pure. All you need is an appreciation for breathtaking environments and intense racing action. At the heart of Pure is a system that rewards you for pulling off spectacular tricks with the ability to boost. Performing tricks is simple--you just push a button and a direction on the thumbstick as you soar through the air--but the built-in risk-versus-reward aspect keeps things interesting. Pulling off longer, more complex trick combinations nets you more boost, and you can tweak your tricks with a shoulder button or simultaneously flip your ATV forward or backward to dramatically increase the payoff. But if you don't finish the trick before you touch ground again, you'll wipe out and lose boost, not to mention valuable seconds. There are three event types on offer. Sprints are the most technical: These short races around small, tight tracks provide scant opportunity for pulling tricks. The focus on maintaining your speed and sticking to a smart racing line keep sprints fast-paced and fun. In freestyle events, tricks are all that matter. The tracks are decked out with ramps to provide more opportunities for catching big air, and power-ups are liberally scattered around that refill your gas tank, add a multiplier to your score, or instantly hook you up with the ability to perform a special trick. Freestyle events are the weakest of the bunch because the trick system--while robust enough for the race modes--isn't as compelling when you remove it from that context and make it stand on its own. Standard races are the most interesting events because they balance the finish-line focus of the sprints with the need to pull tricks and earn boost. And, you'll need to make some important decisions on the fly. As your boost meter builds up, you earn access to more complex trick types, which, in turn, earn you more boost, so there's constantly a trade-off at work. Boosting is often necessary to pull ahead of your opponents, but draining the boost bar costs you the ability to pull off the more advanced tricks. It creates a surprisingly complex dilemma. Special tricks are the most outrageous in the game, involving physically impossible stunts, such as standing on the seat of an ATV and doing a backflip as it soars through the air. Pulling off one of these tricks will refill your entire boost bar, but they take several seconds to complete, so you'll need to catch some serious air. Landing one of these tricks at a critical point in a race can make all the difference, so it's fitting that they're neither easy to earn nor to perform.

Pure's main mode is the World Tour. Here, you'll start off competing on ATVs with relatively weak, D-class engines, and these early events can be a tad too easy, but the competition gradually heats up as you rise through the ranks. The later stages, which find you racing faster models against more aggressive opponents, are also consistently thrilling. You choose from one of six riders, but there's no functional difference among them. It's all about the ATVs, and as you complete events, you'll constantly unlock new parts for your ride, which you can put together, piece by piece, in the game's garage. Armchair grease monkeys will appreciate the number of customization options Pure offers, while others might find it almost silly--many of the parts have no effect on performance, and your opponents aren't going to take the time to admire your taste in radiator scoops or handle-bar guards. And the online play, which supports up to 16 players in an event, is outstanding. Even in races with 16 people on the track, the action stays fast and smooth. Again, though, you'll need to unlock performance parts for your ATVs in the World Tour mode to access them in online ATVs, which makes jumping right into online games a recipe for defeat. The tracks offer an excellent amount of variety, both visually and structurally--the hairpin turns through the airplane graveyard at Ocotillo Wells in California provide a sharp contrast to the gentle curves that take you through the lush coastal landscape of Kosa Phi Island in Thailand. Pure's visuals are nothing short of breathtaking. Every detail, large and small, contributes to bringing the environments to life, from the grass and flowers right underneath your wheels to the roaring rivers you might see frighteningly far below. Your ride also realistically kicks up dirt, splashes through puddles, and leaves tracks in its wake. The game's sound is great as well. The raucous rock songs on the soundtrack by such artists as Jeff Beck, Wolfmother, and The Futureheads seem to have been chosen with care to create a cohesive backdrop for the action. The whine of the ATVs is authentic, and there's a sickening sinking sound that makes the game's insane jumps that much more likely to induce vertigo.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

Pure Trailer :-