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 :-