Ultima Online

Title: Ultima Online
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: September 30, 1997
Date Played: 2004, 2011
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 3/5



Opinion:

Ultima Online, the pioneer of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games.

To be honest, a part of me wishes I had Internet and knew of MMOs back in 1997 when UO first came out. From all of the stories I have heard about it, it seems like it was one hell of an MMO. It went beyond the limitations that even today's MMOs share (player housing/building etc). It seems like Ultima Online was one of the best sandbox MMOs out there, and a part of me wishes I was there to experience it. Alas I did not find out about Ultima Online until a few years later, and after spending an ungodly amount of hours playing EverQuest it was too late. EverQuest had a much more immersive world, with much better graphics and controls. Compared to EverQuest (the MMO Juggernaut of the time) Ultima Online felt like an outdated game.

Nevertheless I have attempted to get into UO on several occasions... unsuccessfully. The free for all sandbox gameplay of Ultima Online is very appealing to me, but I could never get past the interface and control issues. The isometric camera angle always seemed weird to me. It is positioned a bit too low, to the point where it looks like you are on a wall. The game mechanics are not explained very well either, and therefore the barrier to entry is a huge learning cliff. All in all it just feels like a game you had to be playing from the very beginning.
 
I ran around Ultima Online for several hours, killing some creatures and exploring the lands of Britania, the sandbox mechanics is what kept me comming back; but every time I was turned off of it by its crude presentation and gameplay. UO's idea excites me, but this idea is much grander than the actual game is.
 
Ultima Online has seen about a dozen expansions and revisions. It went through several engine changes which made it look a lot better than it did back in 1997, nevertheless the controls still remain a challenge, and the weird isometric view persists.
 
I am confident that I will try UO again some day. Perhaps it will grab a hold of me then, but so far the much better looking and playing MMOs out there have managed to successfully pull me away from it. Until we meet again Ultima Online!

Updated Engine

Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos

Title: Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: July 3, 2002
Date Played: Summer 2002
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
I remember going to an internet cafe with some friends to play some Counter Strike, and seeing that basically every single computer there had the Warcraft 3 beta running. There definitely was excitement in the gaming community for the next chapter in this legendary franchise. Having spent countless hours playing Warcraft 2 I too was pretty excited to see the next iteration.

Warcraft 3 is the first Blizzard game to make a transition to a 3d engine, and although great looking it is not as detailed as drawn sprites we have seen so far. Less detail is a well worth trade off through when you see the camera views and perspective changes that having a 3d engine allows. Now instead of looking at things from the traditional top-down perspective the camera can zoom in on character faces or key events during gameplay. It also allows for dramatic camera sweeps and in-game in-engine cenematic sequences, which in turn cuts down on production costs, which in turn allows Blizzard to have a lot more of them in the game, which in turn makes for a much more epic story... wow thats a lot of turns in-turns...

Speaking of story, Warcraft 3 features one of the most epic and interesting stories in any strategy game, even by today's standards, and it has been over 10 years since it's release. Granted if you examine the story it is nothing more than the Anakin story in Star Wars, but then again its not like that was an original idea either. Nevertheless I cant think of anything Blizzard could have done better with Warcraft 3's story. Everything about it is perfect, the setting, the characters, the voice acting and cinematic. It has a decent amount of plot twists and epic moments, all of which lead to an amazingly epic ending.

The Warcraft franchise yet again took the reigns and pushed the real time strategy genre forward. It raised storytelling to a new high, and introduced a hero mechanic. Now in addition to grunts you have heroes (named characters), you can level them up and get them gear in order to make them more powerful. This was something new in the RTS genre. The new engine allowed users to create intersting and creative mods, some of which went on to be as popular as the game itself (similar occurrence with Counter Strike and Half Life 1). One of these mods is DOTA (Defense of the Ancients). It is played by thousands every day and went on to spawn DOTA2 from Valve and a new DOTA game from Blizzard (due out sometime within the next year or two).

Warcraft 3 and its expansion are a must have in any serious video game player's collection. Even for those that are not fans of the RTS genre the story will be interesting to play through. Warcraft 3 holds up very well a decade after its relase and is still one of the best real time strategy games out there. If you have never played it, I would recommend checking it out. You can pick it up from the Blizzard online store for $20. Not only is it great on its own, it also sets up the events leading to the World of Warcraft, so for the WOW players out there its a cool little prequel.

Warcraft 2 - Tides of Darkness

Title: Warcraft 2 - Tides of Darkness
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: December 9, 1995
Date Played: 1999-2000
Time Played: 100+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5





Opinion:
This writeup is actullay about all 3 parts of Warcraft 2, the original game (Tides of Darkness), the expansion pack (Beyond the Dark Portal), and the combined Battle.net edition. Most of my time was actually spent playing the Battle.net edition as it combined the game and the expansion into one, and added Battle.net support for multiplayer (along with a myriad of other improvements such as hotkeys and support for Windows (as opposed the original DOS client).

I was first introduced to Warcraft 2 (and the whole franchise) while attending 9th grade in High School. We had a tournament form around this game that was played out in the computer lab over the lunch period . Although our fun didnt last for more than a few months since the school severely limited our ability to install games on the lab's computers when they found out about it. Not to say that we didnt figure out creative workarounds. This tiny classroom turned computer lab was where the gamer in me came into the form that he is today. This is where the name Duxa came from, and with it my competitive multiplayer spirit was born. I remember myself being pretty good at the game and having good enough kill to death ratio that everyone wanted to be my partner.

My only frame of reference when playing Warcraft 2 was Red Alert and Dune 2, it was not until years later that I played the original Warcraft. When compared to the original though, even though released a few years later Warcraft 2 came a long way. The addition of hotkeys, higher resolution, and doubling (if not tripling) the unit variety make it a much more tactically and visually interesting game. More emphasis is put on the story. There are quite a few cut-scenes and custom tailored missions to progress the narrative.

Warcraft 2 (especially Battle.net edition) runs at a much higher resolution than the original did and therefore the graphics are more vibrant and detailed. The whole game from units to buildings to background has a lot more detail and by the 1995 standards amazing graphics. Warcraft 2's cartoony graphics allow it to look good years (even decades) after its release.

As masters of outshining everyone (including themselves) Blizzard added more unit types, more building types and more voices for the said units. And just like in the first game clicking multiple times on the same unit would make them say funny things such as "Stop Poking Me!" and other phrases that have become a part of almost every gamer's lexicon such as "Work Complete" (said in a funny accent). This time around there were a lot more unit responses for everyone to enjoy and giggle about.  While most other developers would reuse the engine, add a few units and missions and release the game as a sequel, Blizzard is too good for that kind of thing. They are too good now, and as you can see they were then. They wrote a whole new engine for Warcraft 2. A new engine that would allow them to push the boundaries of the genre even further both graphically and mechanically.

Warcraft 2 took it's predecessor's genre defining qualities and improved upon them, further defining the real time strategy genre. Warcraft 2 is a pioneer of the mid 90's through early 2000's. If you have never played it, you kind of missed the boat. However as a legacy gaming venture it aged well and is very much playable today. It is not as rich in narrative, nor is it as forgiving as some of the more modern RTS games are; however it is still enjoyable and the fact that there are people that still play Warcraft 2 every day nearly two decades since its release has to say something about how good of a game it is.

Entropia Universe

Title: Entropia Universe
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: January 30, 2003
Date Played: April 2012
Time Played: 10 hours
Completed (Y/N): N/A
Score: 3/5


Opinion:
Someone spent 2.5 million real life, hard earn US dollars in a video game you say? How is that possible?? Why would anyone spend hard earned real life 2.5 million dollars on a virtual good? A sum very few are privileged to possess at any point in their life.

Whether a marketing scheme or a true story Entropia Universe made headlines and thus peaked my curiosity. The game is free to play, so why not try this crazy MMO Ive never heard of before?

First of I was very impressed by the graphics. Entropia Universe utilizes CryEngine2, from the creators of Crysis (one of the best looking games ever made). The landscape goes as far as the eye can see with surprising amount of detail and variability. The graphics engine actually scales pretty well and the game can be played with equally high FPS both on a 5 year old laptop and a brand new top of the line desktop. The newer the machine the better it will look.

You start Entropia with a fairly robust character creator akin to Sims 3. After a few short quests you are teleported to one of (at this time) five planets varying by theme.  Each planet is hundreds of square kilometers and without using any vehicles it will literally take you many months real time to make it across just one of them.

Another fascinating aspect of Entropia Universe is the fact that the world really does feel like a sandbox simulation of a real world. It is not limitless, but large enough to feel that way, and while most games have a skybox that will prevent you from flying too high, in Entropia Universe you keep going and going until you reach space, and there you can go to other planets. This aspect alone makes this MMO revolutionary, and I am in utter disbilief that I have not heard about EU in 11 years of its existence until this 2.5 million dollar article.

The single most important, scary and intriguing thing about Entropia Universe is the fact that the in game currency (think of it as Gold in WOW, or any other MMO) is directly correlated with US dollar. You can hook up you bank account to the game and either transfer money from the game into your bank account or the other way around at 10:1 ratio (10 PED is 1 US dollar). This is a great concept as everything you do has a monetary value. Every bullet you shoot (think arrows in WOW), every item you craft or destroy costs real life money.

General gameplay in EU cosists of professions closely resembling how they would work in real life. You can be a hunter, killing creatures and selling what they drop to other players. You can be a miner, exploring the world and collecting riches of the planet and selling them to other players. You can be a merchant buying up all of the hunter and miner's stuff and reselling it for profit, or be a crafter and craft with those raw materials and then sell the finished products. You can be a pilot, charging people for rides between places or planets. It would take a while to list all of the things you can do in EU. Overall there are 88 skills that dictate your profession. You get better at them by simply performing the tasks. So the more you mine the better you will be at mining, so your returns will be better.

In chat there are constant automated popups broadcasting record finds or crafting endeavors. Messages such as "-player so and so- crafted a gun valued at 1800PED", yup thats a 180$ gun that he or she can sell and put that 180 dollars right into their real life bank account. I read an article while researching Entropia Universe that said that Entropia Universe sees about 1.25 Million real life US dollars worth of transactions daily.

Now lets go back a bit, I mentioned a player spending 2.5 million dollars on some stuff in this game. Why would they do that. Well you see, just like in real life investments pay off in Entropia Universe. This particular purchase was for a lot of land, which can be taxed and utilized for profits. It is estimated that this player will be seeing around a 30% interest paid out to him, which amounts to about $12500 dollars a month. Sure it will take him a few years to make up the 2.5 million that he invested, but after that (assuming the game is still well and alive, and seeing that it has been for 11 years already I dont see it going anywhere) that player can safely retire and live on a $12,500 paycheck a month. Thats an amount a $150,000 job would pay, and all for doing nothing.  Pretty fascinating isnt it? This is an extreme Guiness World Record example, there are plenty of similar example of people making 10 to 20 thousand dollars a year in Entropia Universe. Pretty crazy isnt it?

The gameplay itself focuses largely around doing a job within the game and becoming better and better at it as I described above. Combat consists of shooting guns and fighting with swords (even light sabers). And what sci-fi game would be without space ships, space armor and mechs? All of these things are in Entropia Universe, and overall it feels like a fairly well flushed out world with solid mechanics that are geared towards everything being worth real life money.

Entropia Universe is certainly a unique and interesting MMO, but the truth of it is that for someone to make $20,000 someone else had to loose that money either willingly or stupidly. While I was playing I had a chance to speak to several people that have been playing for more than seven years, all of them did make profit, but not nearly as much as the newspaper articles write about, maybe several thousand dollars overall. While others constantly invest 15 to 50 dollars a month in order to have fun within the game and not worry about making money. To them it is worth it and they view it as paying a subscription. I personally did not invest any money at all, and was actually given about 100PED ($10 worth of stuff) to get me started by a mentor whom I met through the built in mentoring system.

Truth is, it is very hard (but possible) to start out and play Entropia Universe without putting in a dime. Imagine trying to make 20 dollars in real life without anything to work with. It would be pretty hard. But if you had $20 it would be much easier to make $40, because you could buy something for those $20 and resell for $40 (girl-scout cookies anyone?). There are two ways to earn money without investing anything. Roaming the world looking for fruits and precious rocks, and collecting animal sweat. Both with a return of about 20 cents (2PED) per several hours of running around doing them. Not very fun.. and that is how you fall into the trap of asking yourself.. whats a dollar? Ill put in a dollar, thats 10PED, it would take 20+ hours of grinding out sweat to earn that much. Needless to say most players recommend putting in at least $5 to start out with, from then on if you are smart (and have some luck) you can be the next person to buy a 2.5 million dollar plot of land without putting in anymore money.

All of these things make Entropia Universe a very interesting game. A lot is at stake, every shot you fire, every mining probe you use, every item you repair costs real life tangible cash. At the same time everything you sell, earn or acquire bring real life tangible cash to you. Entropia Universe receives a 3/5 from me because I feel that it is extremely hard for a brand new player as you can not really do much without putting cash into the game. Overall there is a lot of room for improvement in the tutorial system and giving resources to newcomers to be able to do more things than collect rocks, fruit and sweat. It can become a job and stop being enjoyable, and I am sure it is the single source of income for some people out there. At the same time, you can treat it as any other MMO and simply put your $15 a month into it and enjoy it, and perhaps grow a fortune.

It is as I said scary, interesting and intriguing. It is free, and you do not have to commit to anything, so I feel like there is no reason not to check it out, even if only to marvel at its beautiful graphics and absolutely ginormous world. Go download the client and give it a shot, maybe this is how you will make your first million dollars!

Warcraft - Orcs and Humans

Title: Warcraft - Orcs and Humans
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: November 1994
Date Played: 1999, 2005, 2007
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5





Opinion:
Winter 1994, I was 9 years old and a pro at Doom and Prince of Persia. Meanwhile in the unknown to me Southern California, an unknown to rest of the world company Blizzard Entertainment was forging a franchise that would go on to change the world of gaming forever.

Although Warcraft - Orcs and Humans was the game that birthed this legendary franchise (Warcraft) it was not the first Warcraft game I played. I was introduced to Warcraft 2 in the computer lab during lunch in High School. It was years later that I wanted to explore the roots of the series and therefore played this game... Orcs and Humans.

Going backwards from Warcraft 2 was a pretty big jump, as a lot of the improvements that I was accustomed to were no longer there. The controls were a bit weird, the speed and unit variety was lacking; however I understood that Warcraft was one of the pioneers of the genre, and that it was made before there were standards that I was so used to in the RTS genre. In fact it helped create these standards, and so none of these things bothered me much. The pixel art had its own charm and looked great when put in perspective.

The story is sparse, basically humans lived happily then the orcs invaded. The series did not flatter itself with a lot of back story prior to Warcraft 3, Blizzard put in just enough story to give you a reason for why the humans and orcs were fighting. 99% of the story is told through scrolling text in between missions which is actually pretty well written, and most importantly voiced over. Yup you heard me right. This may not be surprising to someone that didnt get into gaming until late 90's or early 2000's, but to have a game with more than 10 seconds of combined dialogue was unheard of in the early 90's. And so it by itself made the game amazing! Not only that, but units when clicked on multiple times in a row would shout random funny phrases, which made Warcraft a freaking cool game.

To be honest Warcraft - Orcs and Humans was a tad too slow for my taste, everything was slow, units, battles, missions. There was not nearly as much variety as in the sequel. (Yes I know thats an unfair comparison, but I have to look at it that way since that is how I experienced it.) But I still played through it and did enjoy the history that shaped the battleground for the sequels and later World of Warcraft.

Every gamer has heard of the Warcraft franchise, and it is interesting to go back and see where it started. By today's standards Orcs and Humans is a slow, and limited RTS, so unless playing for legacy (story) reasons, I would not really recommend it. It is however a great piece of gaming history.

X - Beyond The Frontier

Title: X - Beyond The Frontier
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: July 1, 1999
Date Played: March-April 2012
Time Played: 81 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5


Opinion:

Logo I Used For My Corporation

I have acquired the whole X series while it was on sale on Steam over Christmas 2009; however I did not sit down to play it until spring 2012.

In March 2012, I got bored of SWTOR, and got a burning itch to give EVE Online another go. It has been years since my 2009 dabbling with EVE, and I was curious to see how it evolved. Then I saw that I had the entire X series sitting in my Steam library, and remembered that someone told me that it was basically single player Eve Online. Awesome! Perhaps I could scratch the EVE itch without paying a monthly fee and taking things at my own pace, and best of all (also the worst thing) is that there will be an end to it. It will not go on forever like an MMO does. It will have goals that I can actually accomplish and prepare myself for EVE. And so I installed the 344MB X-Beyond the Frontier. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The game has a very interesting premise akin to the Matrix and Battlestar Galactica. After a brief tutorial you end up in an unknown galaxy with a broken ship and near death. A Teladi spaceship comes to your rescue and repairs your shields as well as uploads some information about the universe to your on-board computer. For this help you owe him 3500 credits.  This is where the game really starts, you are free to go anywhere and do whatever you want, you have only two goals. To pay out the 3500 credit loan, and find your way back to Earth.

Docking at Teladianium Factory

XBTF does not hold your hand, it drops you into the cold and harsh space, in the middle of nowhere and leaves the rest up to you to figure out. You can screw everyone and become a pirate, or start a war, or you can just follow the plot like I did. The progress of events for me went something like this. For the first 5 hours or so I explored the Seizewell (where you start) sector and made small trades taking flowers to oil refineries, and then oil to manufacturing plants, amassing capital little by little in order to be able to afford my own space stations. Then I spent hours 5 through 20 building ore and silicon mines, power station and several factories, hauling their supplies and getting their production going so that I can focus on exploration and domination while they earn the money needed for my ship upgrades.

Once I upgraded my ship's shields and weapon I spent several dozen hours exploring other sectors and expanding the reach of my corporation by building space stations in the "capital" sectors of the other races. Most of my stations (around 11) were located in Seizewell, I only built a few in the other Shipyard sectors. By the time I would make my way back to Seizewell from exploration missions I would have several million credits from my factories waiting for me.

Sector Map and My Exploration Route
(click to zoom)

The actual plot of the game is fairly short and simple. If broken down into short quests it would consist of less than 10 parts however to even start on the plot you need to have some decent upgrades and cash flow, which takes dozens of hours. I finished the game at 81 hour mark, which actually would have taken me 112 hours were I not to use SETA (a device that speeds up travel, and time 10 times). The ending was a bit disappointing, it was not very epic, there was no ending screen, there was no triumphant music or cinematics, in fact there was no credits. The game ended yet nothing really changed. It just keeps going... You can keep going to infinity, trading, and expanding your empire. You could start a war with one of the factions, or wipe everyone out. You could even say that the plot is there to give you at least some sort of guidance while you are learning the mechanics, and once you finish the plot that is when the game actually starts. If this was 1999 I would probably keep playing XBTF; however with 5 more in depth and more polished games already out, there is no reason for me to keep playing it beyond the 81 hours I have alreayd put into it. I will hold on to my saves, and perhaps revisit XBTF universe once in a while. My sights are now on X-Tension, the sequel released in the summer 2000.

Teladi

I do have  a few criticisms about XBTF. The keyboard mappings are pretty bad, and you are unable to remap anything. Mouse compatibility seems to be a little whack, and so I was forced to steer with the arrow keys on the keyboard. It actually ended up being not so bad, but Id love to be able to remap the keys. The plot is a little loose, and the voice acting is absolutely atrocious, not only is it hard to understand what is being said through a terrible audio filter Egosoft (developer) used, there is no option for subtitles, and any action will interrupt the audio with no way to replay it. So for example at the very end when you defeat the mothership, the guys that were helping you start talking to you, but their speech gets interrupted 1 second in because the on-board computer says something about a missile. I will never know what those guys wanted to say. The graphics are actually pretty good, although they could have done a better job with the seams and added more planet variety, I swear I saw the same Earth looking blue/cloudy planet in at least 10 different sectors. AI leaves a lot to be desired, instead of engaging into a decent dogfight they simply ram your ship, and at that point whoever has more shields wins.

Overall I really enjoyed X-Beyond the Frontier, although only covering one aspect of EVE Online (trading) and lightly brushing combat it did manage to scratch the itch. Although I still want to jump into EVE,  and probably will. XBTF was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and I am looking forward to playing the sequel.

My Finishing Stats
(click to zoom)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Title: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: August 23, 2011
Date Played: March-April 2012
Time Played: 30 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5




Opinion:
Deus Ex: Human Revolution had a lot to live up to. The fans were hoping for it to be as good as the first one, but were afraid of it failing with the fundamentals like the second entry in the series did.

Human Revolution starts 25 years before the first title in Deus Ex series. You are Adam Jensen, a perfectly normal human being. Pretty, and bad ass... sure.. but not augmented in any way. Action picks up pretty quickly and you find yourself transformed into basically a Robocop. From there you go on various missions throughout the world in attempt to direct the humanity in its augmentation use and research.

Human Revolution is the first time other than strategy games (that I remember) thinking to myself that a game would control much better on the PC than on the console. The aiming felt sluggish and I had a real hard time pulling off precise shots at the moments when they mattered the most. However as I progressed through the story I became more and more used to the way it controlled and by 10 hours in I felt completely comfortable with it. It also helped that the acquired gear and upgrades helped make certain maneuvers easier to pull off.

Weird controls coupled with brutal difficulty for a modern "shooter" (yes this is not a shooter, but most would compare it to one) made me feel iffy about Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The point where I finally "got it" and started really enjoying the game was when I found a silencer and laser upgrades for my pistol. From that point forth I simply couldn't get enough of it. The laser pointer allowed me to effectively snipe and get 1 shot kills and the silencer allowed me to do so without alerting the whole base to my presence. The game truly made me feel like a badass, a creeping, stalking ninja, with a gun and lethal kung-fu.

I found myself playing with run and gun style for about the first 1/3 of the game, and once I found the silencer I started sneaking around more, even finishing the "panic room" level without alerting anyone. And for the last several hours of the 30 hour adventure I found myself sneaking around and meleeing everyone (for the achievement, and because it was so easy with all the upgrades I have gotten).

Props go out to the developer for not falling into the trap of creating bigger and bigger bullet sponges as the game progresses. The fact that every single person (except the bosses) can be taken down with one well placed shot or karate-chop made the game so much more enjoyable. It is easy to die in Deus Ex, and its easy to kill. This game is not just about killing, it is about doing so professionally and effectively. I am glad that the developers get that.

I have to also give them props for the level design. True to the first two games (more-so the first one) there are several ways to approach each and every situation. It is quite impressive. I found myself using the ventilation ducts a lot in order to get the drop on the enemies.

The hacking system is quite interesting, and I really appreciate Eidos not plugging in some sort of pipe dream or Tetris clone in there. They made their own system, which actually is not explained as well as it could have, but it works well within the context of the game.

Human Revolution would have been a perfect game, however it has absolutely ridiculous boss fights that are not liked by anyone. For whatever reason in a game where stealth and tactics are emphasized more than anything else the developers decided to add bosses that run straight at you with Gatling guns or explosives. The first boss fight (against Barret) took me over a dozen times simply because in order to defeat him you had to do exactly the opposite of what the game has been telling you to do up to that point. Luckily there are only 4 boss fights and 2 of them are fairly easy.

Other than the boss fights, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a worthy sequel-prequel in the series. I rarely feel that I could replay a game in a completely different style, and this game is one of those rare ones. Not only can you approach every situation differently; moreover there are half a dozen story-line decisions that impact your relationship with other characters. It is an excellent tactical shooter that is fairly unique in today's marketplace. I hope we will see another one in a few years. Great job Eidos on reviving this franchise!

PS - There are 4 endings and I picked the ending to let the world know of the Illuminati and all of what happened which results in ban of augmentations.
 

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

Title: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: October 28, 2008
Date Played: November-December 2008
Time Played: 20 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 3/5



Opinion:
I had a great deal of anticipation for Red Alert 3. Is is not only one of my favorite franchises, but my friend Gavin worked on this title.

Being an achievement (gardening tool) I picked up a copy of Red Alert 3 for the Xbox 360. The game looked and controlled reasonably well and I didnt have much trouble using the controller instead of the mouse and keyboard.

I will admit that Red Alert 3 is a pretty game, but thats about the only thing that is actually good about it.

Red Alert universe was always about the Soviets, who in this parallel universe replaced the Nazis by the means of time travel trickery. And the Allies, the free people of the world who rallied up to stop the Soviet aggression. For whatever reason EA decided to add a 3rd faction to the mix, Japan. Not only did I have zero interest in playing as Japan, I found that their involvement was a constant 3rd wheel attached to what was actually an interesting Soviet/Allied conflict. So every time Japan played a role I found myself bored and rushing through that content. I had zero interest and wish that the developers would have spent more development time on the Soviet/Allied campaigns instead.

In Command and Conquer tradition the story is told through FMV cutscenes; however unlike its predecessors RA3 features overly sexualized characters and cringe evoking acting. Its great that EA is keeping with the tradition and sticking to the FMV format, but did they really need to hire porn stars with zero talent to do it? In a porn movie I may find them attractive.. here through.. it just makes me sad as I see them butcher one of my favorite franchises.

Several other design decisions are simply dumbfounding. For instance one of the coolest parts of the Command and Conquer games is building refineries and sending out your harvesters and protecting them while they collect gold and ore. This whole aspect was completely eliminated from the game. You now build the refinery on a source similar to Warcraft 3's night elves. That is a bummer, but to top it all of you have a harvester moving 3 feet between the mine and the refinery back and forth, which just looks silly.

A lot of the units are now amphibious, so importance of water was greatly diminished since it now basically is land. This change cut out a lot of positioning strategies out of the game.

While pretty and great to look at, the overall aesthetic of the units has a futuristic look. I much rather preferred the World War 2 style gritty design that Red Alert 1 and 2 had. The futuristic style in Red Alert 3 makes it look very similar to Tiberium Wars (C&C3), yes both share the engine, but previous games in the series didnt have this problem, and they too shared the engine.

Overall Red Alert 3 is a decent game, but as a fan of a series I would be lying if I said that it did not dissapoint me. I feel that Red Alert 3 is the lowest point in the series, as the only thing that it has going for it are the graphics. I would much rather sit down for a game of Red Alert 2, which still looks fairly good with its detailed sprite based graphics. Red Alert 3 feels like a skin on top of Command and Conquer 3, it does not have the charm or art design that made the series so great. So unless you want to get the story I would recommend to play C&C3 instead, or go back and play Red Alert 2. RA3 was a poor attempt and I hope that RA4 will return to the roots that made the series so great.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2

Title: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: October 21, 2000
Date Played: October - November 2000
Time Played: 20+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5



Opinion:
The original Command and Conquer Red Alert is one of my most beloved video games. I consider it to be one of the defining founders of the RTS genre, it maybe didn't evolve it, but it sure as hell solidified its definition.

I was very excited to find out about the release of RA2. It was the game I had to play right away, and so I borrowed a copy from my high school friend and fired it up as soon as I got home. Right away I was impressed by the installer, it was the first time Ive seen it do something else other than show a progress bar. Here in RA2 it told an engaging story of the events that lead up to the first mission, basically it ensured that I was as pumped as I could ever be by the time I actually clicked the shortcut on my desktop.

Everything about Red Alert 2 was stunning. It was a perfect product. From the controversial box art (post 9/11/01) to incredible intro depicting the Soviet invasion to the in engine graphics featuring highly detailed sprites.

The story assumed Allied victory in the first game and portrays second attempt from the Soviets to take over the world. It is very akin to World War 2, if you consider RA1 to be World War 1.

Just like the first game it comes on two discs, Soviet disc and Allied disc, so again, in essence two separate campaigns. The story is again presented with full motion video cut scenes, much better CG and higher resolution than the original game. It does appear to be more corny, but that plays to the strengths of the game. Most of everyone's favorite units make a comeback (like Tesla Coils) redrawn with higher fidelity, and look better than ever in RA2; however Westwood did add new units and buildings as well.

Red Alert 2 is an excellent iteration on the series. Westwood improved on everything I loved about the first game, and tweaked things to make the game better (such as difficulty and escort missions). New mechanics like garrisoning units in civilian buildings and bigger and more bad ass units (like Tesla Tank) make Red Alert 2 the definitive version in the series. I love it!

Command and Conquer: Red Alert

Title: Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Platform Played On: PC
Release Date: October 31, 1996
Date Played: Summer 1998
Time Played: 20+ hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 5/5





Opinion:
Red Alert was one of the first 20 or so PC video games I have ever played, and it was the second RTS that I have ever played (following Dune 2).

I picked up a copy of Red Alert at Target in 1998. At 13 years old and no internet (that came about 2 years later with AOL dial up) I had no idea what Red Alert was like, I just knew it had a cool cover and back of the box screenshots looked similar to my beloved Dune 2: Battle for Arrakis. I actually had no idea that both games were developed by the same company (Westwood) in not so distant Irvine, CA.

Right away I was amazed by Red Alert's premise, graphics and gameplay. Even though built very similarly to Dune 2 it was a huge improvement. The units moved fluidly and didnt look like they were moving along an invisible grid, there was more detail in a more isometric view of buildings and units, and of course the FMV cut scenes really pulled me into the game. I think the fact that Red Alert's UI was so similar to Dune 2 it felt like I was at home. I understood how to build things, how to earn money, and generally what the objective was right away.

Red Alert was not only an amazing game, it was 2 different games. It came on two CDs, Allied disc and Soviet disc, which allowed you to play through the campaign from two different perspectives. While most units overlap for the two factions each had its own special units and buildings, such as my beloved Soviet Tesla Coil. The story bits were told through excellently acted out (by video game standards of the time) FMV films between each mission featuring people like Stalin and the US president.

The 1990's was a different time for games, and by that I mean they were freaking brutal! I remember struggling with several missions in Red Alert, especially the ones where you had to repel enemy waves or take a squad of soldiers through a base.

One thing that was pretty groundbreaking for me is that several missions allowed you to keep structures from the previous ones, I thought this was the coolest thing ever. It was one of the first times I have seen any sort of persistence in video games (if you dont count keeping guns/ammo from level to level in shooters).

Overall Red Alert was a great game that helped shape the real time strategy genre. Despite its difficulty I have many fond memories of it; however now over 15 years later the game is almost unplayable due to compatibility issues with modern CPUs and operating systems, and there have been a lot of better RTS games released since (such as Red Alert 2 and Star Craft 2). At the time though, Red Alert was as good as it gets.