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Anarchy Online: The Notum Wars PC game review

THE WAR OF Notum
Once upon a time Rubi-Ka, a rocky planet and semi-desert where the inhabitants they lived in peace. Then one day came the settlers megacorp Omni-Tek, which he had discovered on the planet a very high concentration of mineral rarer universe: Notum. Presenting as benefactors leading technology, Omni-Tek bureaucrats hired cheap local labor and sent to work in the terrible and poisonous Notum mines. It was not long before the miners rebelled and harassed, who joined in clan, waged a war against the invader (using the same weapons that the corporation had brought on the planet).

After years of conflict, some individuals, tired of the constant fighting or simply uninterested in the government of the world, founded the new city: the Clan had nothing to fear from them, and the Corporation had too many problems with the strength to not worry about these God were so born Neutrals.
It is in this setting that takes place Anarchy Online - The Notum Wars.

MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME
AoL is a MMORPG (acronym of the title of this section), which is a role-playing game that takes place entirely OnLine and where our characters meet, will dialogue, will join and / or fight with other players' characters scattered throughout the planet (both in the sense of the earth and in the sense of Rubi-Ka). The division of the territory in the guild city, fields and settlements Clan of the neutrals lays the groundwork for a political situation and sides well defined (in fact, the player can choose which side to start), but of course any plot could evolve as they peregrina for the planet.
Clarified these ingredients, we are going to explore the game in detail.

PERSONALITY, CHARACTERISTICS AND SKILLS '
The first thing to do after you have created an account at the site of the game, will be to give life to a character, choosing him for a race, physical appearance and a profession (or class, if you prefer).
There are four races: in addition to solitus (also known as Norm, almost human) we have the opifex (lean and stealthy, but less robust), Nano (not Nani, attention: these individuals are the manipulators of nanotechnology) and Atrox (big, strong, strong, but clumsy and awkward). For the first three races you can choose a character both male and female, but the Atrox are androgynous.

The physical aspect is limited to the selection of the parameters of height (high, medium or low), body type (slim, normal or overweight) and face (selected from many available).
The available classes are twelve: I'm not here to elencarvele all (by the way I took a picture of their own selection screen) nor to illustrarvele in detail, but be aware that the choice should list only the characteristics and skills that the character will be brought more and more freely will increase with experience, but that will not give any limitation to the way you play, allowing you to grow your character as you wish.

Numerically speaking, the character is characterized by Characteristics and Skills: the former are of generic type attributes (strength, endurance, intelligence, agility, etc.) that tend to affect the most basic aspects of the character, or if we are his natural aptitudes; the latter are specific knowledge in specific fields, such as "use guns," "running speed", "swim", "fighting with two weapons" and so on. Needless to say, in practice it will be the responsibility of a character in a single skill to determine the equipment that will be used and how effectively.

Generation, and every time you level up (ie every time, fighting or doing quests, get enough experience), the player has a certain amount of feed points to distribute among its features and its ability more a value is high and most forward points will be needed to increase it further. It is at this stage that the limitations of the class are being felt: Depending on the chosen profession, in fact, you can increase some skills to a certain maximum number of points per level, some less and others even less, indicating therefore limits.

GAME SYSTEM
The game interface is quite simple: with the arrow keys (or with the keys W, S, A and D) Wander your character around the world, either by means of a visual in first or third person (recommended), while with the mouse interact with their surroundings. The left button has utility only selection in the sense that is used to select the target of abilities, the NanoProgrammi (otherwise known as "spells") or attacks that we want to deliver, used in conjunction with the Shift key (or Shift, whatever you desire), the left button will provide information about the object clicked.

The right button is used to use, collect, and so activate the object that is pointed, including commands from the menu. Yes, because in the game there are a number of drop down menus, selection with icons or shortcuts, representing the equipment, or special skills NanoProgrammi known, missions and so on.
Particular importance, as usual, the combat system, which takes place in a very simple way: once you have selected an enemy, pressing the Q key (or right-clicking on the "Combat Mode") the ingaggerete, and if then let it do the battle will continue until the death of one of the two contenders, of course, any time you can use the fighting skills, specific items of equipment, or simply move in search of a territorial advantage (height, coverage) or a escape if things were to get malino.

To classify enemies based on their strength, the developers have used the pluritestato color system: If the health bar of the enemy will appear grayed out, it will mean that we will provide for the slightest threat, and then on all the other shades passing through the green, yellow (clash recommended), orange, to red (avoid at all).

Much like Dark Age of Camelot, so ... but this fact, although it is not synonymous with innovation, is undoubtedly index of the intention to establish a standard for this kind of MMORPG, which is good, since this system is functional and simple in principle free problems of LAG (intermente clashes take place on server ...), it remains curious about which of the two games have provided inspiration to other ...

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
From the technical point of view, I AoL has fully met: the graphics engine is pleasant, quite detailed, fast, smooth and well-fed special effects. Of course: it's nothing compared to the engines of modern FPS, but after all we are talking about an MMORPG, which is a category of games that the graphics are not the primary requirement, and indeed should be lightened as much as possible not to cause problems LAG between Server and Client.
The park audio is perhaps a bit 'more sparse, with sound effects and music very simple barely mentioned, but also remember that we are here in the field of MultiPlayer ripples, and where you can save on resources is right to do so, so here too the promotion there is all.

Commendable especially the introduction of the PING icon that changes color from green (good) to yellow (acceptable, but with caution) to red (not recommended to do) allows us to see in real time the status of our connection, and therefore decide if it is the case of play or to defer to another time.

THE GAMEPLAY 'AND COMMUNITY
The game system simple and intuitive, especially for those who have had experience in DAoC, immediacy index is very good, and the ability to roam to beat monsters to gain experience in the early stages itself already offers several hours of leisure . In addition, I have to say that the community is very well followed by the Master, who travel often at the departure city and if they find the Newbie in despair (or doubt) will bend over backwards to give them a hand. Maybe a little 'less alert other players, however, probably because the game is very prone, especially in the early stages, the Power-Playing, but certainly veterans have multiple business that I have seen.

The only thing a bit 'boring is that you see for a long time the same area, intimidated by the possibility of going elsewhere ... unless you decide to play from the side (dark) of Omni-Tek will be some time before you see a nice big city (and it's worth it!), but after all Rome was not built in a day, right?

CONCLUSIONS
AoL I liked it and has completely satisfied my claims: leaving aside the difference in environment (which of course goes fishing in a catchment area rather than the fantasy), is superior both technically and as a degree of freedom to the "cousin" DAoC. Try it if you love the genre, because you will not be disappointed.
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Anarchy Online - The Notum Wars MMORPG is a very satisfying, well done technically, rather intuitive (especially for those who have already tried DAoC, whose gameplay is very similar), very popular, followed by the Master and with a setting and a really good background. If you like the cyberpunk genre do not have to be allowed to depart.

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Anachronox PC game review

Anachronox as well as being the name of the planet where good Boots professes his private detective, is the title of the new game developed by Ion Storm for Eidos (remember DeusEx? Behold them!): Needless to say, this union would be futile to expect less than a masterpiece! But let's start from the beginning.

THE US-JAP RPG
That Anachronox is a RPG (role playing game) is beyond doubt: in it, in fact, we will be committed to guiding the various characters (seven of which Boots is only the first and unequivocal character) through the many environments, solving puzzles, arguing fighting, communicating with the people around us, making choices, engaging in mini-games such disparate yet to overcome the many obstacles that separate us from the rest of the plot. But as the most "navigated" gamers certainly know (and others I say) there are two main schools of role-playing video games: American and Japanese. The first has the characteristic of having a graphic as similar as possible to reality (limited to the setting choice, of course) and to keep the action always on the same graphics engine, both this isometric, 3D or else; also, under the -quests are usually designed as completely independent from the main plot, and therefore entirely optional (Daggerfall, and Baldur's Gate, by their sheer size, are typical examples).
The Japanese school, however, as sometimes the graphics related to reality (FinalFantasy8), tends to be full of games "superdeformed" or "Manga", and which were inspired by the comics and the cartoons, and provides for a drastic change of screen in the presence of fighting, the sub-quest also disrupting the characteristic of the structure of the game while remaining an integral part of the main quest, or extend along the whole adventure in extensive research super-fragmented (FinalFantasy7 with Chocobo racing on or the search of MasterMateria is the most obvious example).
Since Ananchronox (finally back to talk to him ...) an American game 100%, it would be logical to think that part of the first line, but the ION Storm have once again demonstrated their genius in devising a game that brings together if characteristics of both strands. So we will always have the same graphics in the games "normal" during the fighting, but during the latter will change the game interface (I come back to later), the characters and environments are so well designed that it seems real, but at the same time so absurd as to seem out of a cartoon than those that are broadcast on Pay-TV at 4 am, the main plot and the management of sub-quests will look like Japanese, but in every situation the setting will be typically Hollywood ...
In short: Anachronox can be defined exclusively (and honor) as the first US-JAP RPG, since successfully combines the characteristics of both philosophies.

SCI-FI OF ALL KINDS
The setting of the game draws heavily from the largest and most acclaimed works of literature and / or the American cinema. Aggirandomi crime in the streets of the planet Anachronox full of drug addicts, policemen and data-terminal armor, I could not help but think back to Gibson, Sterling, Dick and their cyberpunk novels, while discussing on a par with the strangest alien races seemed to be in a bar in Federation Space conceived by Roddenberry for his series StarStrek, and still traveling in hyperspace I was the star of a masterpiece of the "master" Isaac Asimov.
But despite all this, no one takes from the head to which the author most of all story-boarder were inspired by both Douglas Addams: this brilliant English writer and volcanic, unfortunately not too well known in our country, has captured the same references in its cycle of "the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", but added humor and madness in doses that make his novels among the most fun I've ever read. In Anachronox there is all this comedy (after all, the game must maintain a certain seriousness to be really interesting), but be prepared, however, to charge dall'esagerata humorous scenes, and to find more manic that you have ever seen in a video game.

CHARACTERS
The characters of Anachronox are seven, each specializing in the use of only one type of weapon and has special abilities. It can carry around only three at a time (early even less), but depending on the situation you may be forced to overcome an obstacle, to go back to the meeting point and change your Party, since their skills are absolutely unique .
SLY BOOTS is the protagonist of the story, and the first character that you will use (and that you will be forced to use for pretty much the whole story). When not too busy getting drunk is a skilled thief, and in combat uses futuristic guns and rifles. I forgot: looks a bit like '(... a bit' much!) Harrison Ford in the film BladeRunner.
GRUMPOS MATAVASTROS is a research scientist low, sturdy and long hair and beards ... In short: if you say it's a dwarf Fantasy novel you are not totally wrong! His ability to chatter will allow you to distract, confuse and exhausting more pedantic individuals with their own weapons. He fights with a long stick on which mounts spikes and blades of different sizes and malice.
PAL-18 was originally the android toy Boots, but his master did later change so that he could fight with his clawed hands and that he might interface with security systems, in order to be able to obtain information or simply bypass them. At the beginning of the story is in the office of Boots with dead batteries, but will not be long before you have to reactivate it.
RHO BOWMAN is a doctor branded as "heretical" by the scientific community for his revolutionary theories ... in fact his brain and his ability analysis (which used to solve mathematical puzzles typically) do not have equal in the known universe. But I do not think it's a pantofolaia: in case of danger will fight with great experience using the most advanced technology weapons.
THE FIFTH PERSON who will join the group will be a real surprise, and it will be "someone" absolutely unimaginable. The instruction does not mention at all, and also I have already ruined the surprise too: otherwise I will only say that fights with Laser long-range and that will have a tractor beam that can be used to pick up objects otherwise unattainable. Enough: I said too!

ANYWAY STILETTO is a mercenary, an expert in fighting with knives. His ability to "Launch Precise" will be very useful to activate sensors and switches are too far away to be able to put their hands. Once he had a tender relationship with Boots, but it was a long time ago ... When Fatima (see below) was still alive ...
PACO "EL Puno" ESTRELLA Finally, a superhero with tights and red cape fire ... or rather it was before the publisher went bankrupt and its Krapton comics would stop being published. Fighting through "techniques of heroic combat" (a cross between fight and wrestling, I'm afraid) and has the ability to break down the barricades with his "Super Fury". Unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten how to fly ...

FATIMA
Fatima Doohan (the "zeroth" character) was the very efficient secretary Boots, before his young life was cut short in fact is not reported. Boots, at that point, he scanned his brain matrix and had a transplant in Cordicom Lifecursor, ie a kind of arrow-shaped airplane that follows him wherever he goes, giving advice and providing information on things to which it is aimed. Said in earthly language, Fatima is our interface with the game.
Now is therefore the time to talk about what we can do and how.

EXPLORATORY PHASE
It is the phase of the game "typical". In this, we moved our group in the world through a visual semi-subjective. The character chosen as the "leader" will be followed by the camera, at an adjustable distance, while his companions follow him a short distance away and may actually perform a few actions: in addition to running to the right, left, forward and backward and turn on itself (using the mouse) will not have any other commitment. When will we stop running from one side to the other, appear here next to us the true Fatima (or better: the mouse pointer) we can move at the various objects with which we want to interact, such as doors to open, items to collect, people to talk to and so on (move the pointer close to the edge of the screen will still allow you to rotate the picture), activating ciccandovi above. Where in a given juncture bisognasse use a special ability (see below) will be required, once it is set as the leading character with that ability, combined with the pressed CTRL to mouse click by so doing you will enter the sub-game related the possibility of success or failure of the skill. The type of sub-game, of course, will vary from character to character, while its difficulties (normally the time available) will depend on the situation.

FIGHTING
When our road is crossed by a group of mortal enemies, characters and opponents will have in the intersections of a "virtual grid" in the place of the meeting and there will be a fight, while everything around us will continue its racing as if nothing had happened. This takes advantage of the now tested method of "shifts in real time" in essence, each character can perform an action each time TOT, TOT, which will vary depending on its features.

To symbolize the state of "ready" or "not ready", each character will appear around the icon of a ring that gradually fill with red: when it is completely full will turn green (symbolizing the "ready") and simultaneously appear to passage of Fatima, the icons with the possible actions you can perform. Among these we mention the simple attack, the shift to an adjacent node of the grid, the use of an inventory item, the activation of any levers or other mechanisms present in '"Arena" (rather rare event) and finally the 'Using a MysTech (see below) or ability to fight (I still see below).
The flight, in this game, is not covered: so be sure to be able to sustain a fight before wading into the fray: if not, you should take care with appropriate objects or even find a point where you can rest and "recharge".

NRG, SHIELDS AND MYSTECH
The NRG is an energy reserve that each character can be used with shields or MysTech. A shield equipped will provide additional points of damage at the beginning of each fight, but in return it will "lock" a certain amount of NRG (all shields are still adjustable).
Points NRG applied to the shield will be the "battery" we will draw energy to activate the MysTech: These are organisms minerals of unknown origin (apparently come from the future ...) that if sprayed NRG will have the effect that we can safely define "magic". The interesting thing is that NRG can be used both in attack and in defense, for example, the fire will burn MysTech the enemy or extinguish the flames of an ally. CAUTION: beginning of the game you will not find any MysTech, because it will take some (highly unlikely) event before these devices have some utility ...
The amount of NRG consumed for each use of MysTech is lost: it will be necessary to re-establish resting (in hotels, inns, etc ...) or restore it using the Glodents (= Glowing Rodents: Rodent sparkling, for the truth, NRG is right for Neutron-Radiated Glodents ... basically not charging NRG with Glodents, substituting the Glodent connected to the shield or MysTech with a new one ...)

ENABLE 'SPECIAL
Each character, as already said, has its own special ability that can be used in certain junctures. In these skills, however, will simply be "trained", and will not be able to counter the most challenging obstacles until they each find a mentor that will take them to the degree of "Masters". In addition, each character has the ability to "battle", that can only be used during a fight.
These skills (the first of which will be available soon found the character) will have many different effects on enemies, allies and the advantage of not consuming NRG, but it will take a long time to recharge, periods that increase with their effectiveness. New battle skills will be acquired with the increase of the level (see below).

MENU 'AND EQUIPMENT
From the menu of the game, the holographic projection of Fatima will allow us to display the current mission, to examine general information about the various places that will explore and, of course, to manage the equipment of various characters. Each character can use a weapon, a shield, a MysTech and two accessories, which may enhance its features, or giving him special immunity to various forms of attack. From the menu, also, you can examine the various characteristics of the character (attack, dodge, etc.) and experience points needed for the next level. These points (I'm sure you already know) you earn by defeating enemies and completing tasks and missions, to the achievement of certain thresholds, the character will level, improving its features and gaining sometimes new abilities to battle.

GAMES AND SUB-SUB-QUEST
As I have already mentioned, you will sometimes have to face in the game: for example, the simple use of a special ability equivalent to a mini-game, and in almost every bar of the galaxy is some kind of video- game (Sender Station, for example, there is a middle ground between "Pong" and "Arkanoid") to arbitrarily where you can spend all the time you want. Other sub-games will be made obligatory, such as moto water sewers mined or escape from the planet in the shuttle explosion. In all cases, the sub-games will make you forget to any previous interface, explaining how to act from time to time. Be prepared for many different things ...
With regard to the sub-quest, I saw just a little bit, but enough: there are special objects scattered in the universe, if all collected and taken to the right person, we will have new equipment, and this is a push to play with more attention, especially considering that some areas are explored only once, also many secret areas. It must be said also that have not reached the end of the game (... it's LONG!) So I can not say if further the structure of the sub-quest changes, my experience suggests, however, that many areas can be back through at will toward the end of the game.

GRAPHICS
The game uses beyond belief OpenGL support (make sure your graphics card supports these libraries!), Giving us a work meal graphically huge and beautiful. It is simply indescribable beauty of 3D models, maps, textures and effects of light and dark (especially dark ... I'm afraid to properly appreciate some screenshots you need to increase the brightness of your monitor ...).

I only noticed two problems: the first is the choice of only two resolutions, that is 640x480 (I personally find it too poor) and the "Double" 1280x960 (even too: So far I used the maximum 1024x768 ...), which can force a user "medium" (say, a PC than a couple of years) have to choose between dramatically beautiful graphics and smooth ... Fortunately, the fact that the fights are not real-time means that we can boldly opt for the high resolution, the second drawback is some BUG disparate typical graphics engine "new": simply put, once (and A ONCE) I've a character s'incastrasse with another model and then fell into nothingness, planting system ... it happens to the best: nothing is free from defects!

SOUND
The sound effects are top quality, because, very humbly (and slyly) programmers are "recycled" some sound banks of the beautiful DeusEx, and frankly I would not blame them (who played and especially HEARD DeusEx understand why. ..).
The music is typically atmospheric, very well done, relaxing during the exploration and pressing during the fighting. The only problem (again, there is only one ...): every time you load a zone (quite frequently), is also loaded on the sound track, regardless of the possibility that the previous area had the same .. . This causes a feeling of repetition in the ears, but I'd say it's more of an "oversight" of programmers. Sin.

LANGUAGE
The game is completely in English, on the contrary: in American Slang tight. And it is for this reason that it has not been translated, some puns are so "colorful" as to be virtually impossible to translate, or otherwise lose much of their verve if transposed into Italian. While this may not be a problem for the Americans, it will certainly be for those who do not have a firm grasp of the English language, written at least ... grin!
The characters are voiced only during the animated sequences (as in DeusEx no "Movies" but only "Animations"), probably because the dialogues are really a lot and the space requirements of both HD and CD would have increased dramatically, but I can ensure that the voices are nothing short of fantastic! With the help of the subtitle (optional) just seems to "hear with their eyes" what's going on!

GAMEPLAY 'AND LONGEVITY'
There is also need to talk about it? At this point I think he realized that the game is really beautiful from anywhere you turnarounds, and will keep you glued to the screen passionately for several hours.
In addition, there are three difficulty of the game (which only affect the fighting and the ability to save anywhere or less), so that newcomers will appreciate the power without going crazy, while those who want to replay could feel new emotions to the maximum level (and who knows what also does not change anything in the game itself ...).

LATEST dutiful CONSIDERATIONS
DeusEx was the "Game of the Year 2000" ... will this Anachronox aspire to the title of best game of 2001? I must say that the charisms necessary gave them all, but it is also true that there is already stiff competition (such as Black & White), and that before the end of the year are no other large outputs (one on all the colossal Morrowind).
Personally, right now I would vote!
You, meanwhile, buy it! Then will you let me know ...

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A year after the publication of "Game of the Year 2000" DeusEx, the combination Eidos-ION Storm returns to the assault with this new, sensational title. Abandoning the philosophy of Shot'm'Up 3D in favor of an interface that blends in styles if American and Japanese RPG, Anachronox draws on Anglo-American authors such as Asimov, Gibson, Sterling, Roddenberry, Dicks and especially Douglas Addams. The result is a fantastic RPG Offering guests with an excellent plot, surrounded by very interesting ideas and that pinch of Humor which is not bad at all. All at a technical level stunning. Certainly occupy a place among the top three games of 2001: do not miss it for the world!

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Amnesia: The Dark Descent PC game review

"My name is Daniel ..."

When you wake up from a mysterious numbness in a dilapidated room of a castle apparently abandoned and the memories almost zero, cling to the only fragment of memory intact, the only glimmer of reason in a innaturalme and threatening, may already be a starting point. In fact, Daniel does not know it yet, but soon will have to appeal to every bit of their sanity to wait because there will be a descent into the dark heart of an ancient evil and unspeakable, in a journey that will see him face monstrous threats and resurface with pieces of the past that would have been better delivered once and for all to oblivion.

With Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Frictional Games has renewed its partnership with the terror brilliantly inaugurated with the Penumbra trilogy. The Swedish independent software house, good strong feedback obtained from the saga debut back to disturb our sleep with a new survival horror first-person, which the hellish journey where we accompanied Philip passes through the darkest depths of Greenland, promises as the spiritual heir and successor of the determined and innovative philosophy carried out by the development team. Just who is recovering from Penumbra, it does not find it hard to identify in Amnesia some continuity with the past: the new creature of Scandinavian home again from all those ideas that three years ago they did breathe a nice breath of fresh air to a genre (tutt 'today) in the grip of a certain "identity crisis" that is to say the first person view, physics as part of puzzle solving and the gameplay itself, the slow pace at levels deadly and stealth component applied in a anything but simplistic.

In particular, we see at once how the emphasis of the new nightmare weblog Frictional falls primarily on the side "adventure": most of our stay in the spectral Prussian castle, it will be tasked with collection of objects, looking for clues on how to and where to use them, and in fact, to solve the many puzzles which stand in our way. Game environments have a considerable degree of interactivity, much of what we see can be collected and manipulated, so we would do well not to ignore anything the environment around us. As mentioned above, all, or almost all, revolves around the capabilities of the physics engine, even the simplest actions like opening a door or turning a valve is simplified in a single click, we will have to make the physical movement necessary using mouse, get used soon to think about a game world rather than "concrete." We need to jam a mechanism? It will be better to go in search of an object strong enough to throw between gears and lock. Have collapsed the stairs that should bring us back upstairs? Do not panic, some crates stacked it properly can be an effective remedy. This setting only appears to be particularly challenging (thanks to an inspired design that is able to carry out these ideas for the entire duration of the game without that you may feel stale air), but manages to be a solid brick on which to build a healthy involvement who is in front of the monitor, which will hardly feel than ever in the game world.

On the other hand, to be overshadowed nell'ecomonia of Amnesia, are action and combat. Indeed, if we want to be precise, of fighting properly defined there is not one track: Daniel can not cntare of any weapons, conventional or improvised as it is, is a man completely helpless and without any hope of coming out alive from meetings with the horrors in turn, if not giving themselves to flight, and especially hiding in some dark corner. And here comes a speech, something must be a real stroke of genius that the developers have pulled out of the hat: the unfriendly tenants of the castle will prove to be less than willing to put eyes on him, plus keep your eyes focused on the enemies, the greater the possibility that being aware of your presence and whiz on the unfortunate Daniel to make a stew. So, try to imagine the situation: you're huddled in a makeshift hideout, you know that wanders around a monstrous entity, you can even smell his breath getting closer, but you know that you can not afford to turn around to check how close it is or if there has identified. And the bad thing is that the mind of our protagonist tends to make bad jokes on these occasions: as you can to stay safe, you will continue to experience the threat (translated into a sound accompaniment that you will soon learn to recognize and fear) at least until which forsake your refuge and perlustrerete the area to make sure they were - momentarily - for themselves. The everything is exactly as distressing sounds, if not more so.

And with that, it's finally time to talk about the dish of the house: Amnesia is a game truly frightening, indeed, we feel we can say without reservation that a lot has been one of the most terrifying ever tried so far with a video game, stuff would seem any Resident Evil a trip to Disneyland. Well, almost, anyway. To relive suggestions comparable to those experienced with this game, we should probably go back to the chilling Forbidden Siren, which in fact is one of the survival horror more "approachable" in concept to The Dark Descent. Rather than focus on "cheap thrills" cutting film and blazi chair, Frictional Games relies heavily on the construction of a more subtle fear and sharp, specimens of which have their roots in the work of two giants as Poe and Lovecraft, but having a few horror opening more modern and "carnal" in which Clive Barker as a leading exponent. "Voltage" is the watchword, and you can be sure that this time they really did that: there is a moment where you can feel truly safe, Wander every step in complete uncertainty and fear you have of each new room, every corner to turn, each corridor shrouded in darkness where v'imbatterete.

The level of care poured in tricks to put you at ease bordering on sadism encounters enemies are far from common, but unpredictable enough to keep you on your toes, but there is much more, for example, a bit like already seen in Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth or in Haunting Ground, is, next to the canon level of health, an indicator for the sanity of our alter ego, falling below the alert level will lead to side effects as seen clouded, difficulty moving, and in the most critical cases we will fall to the ground gasping (can you imagine if this happens at times when it is better to be snappy or silent ...). You will not need to witness disturbing events-even though you will find in abundance-to trigger this panic reaction, even in the dark-Long stay can undermine the reasoning of Daniel, and here come a couple of new problems. First of all, the light is a limited resource and to be used sparingly: we light candles and torches in the environment using the inventory pistols that from time to time we will pick up, or alternatively, we can take up our lantern, which, however, has dramatically limited autonomy, except for having kept a good supply of oil to spare. Walking to clear a luxury that you can not always afford, and one side is better this way: a surprise visit to a monster near your location, and you will discover on your skin like a brightly lit corridor can be a death trap.

The light, then, is a source of salvation, but it can be both a premature departure from this world. You will end up also wary of the one element that should reassure you, and it is in this that the development team focuses the lens dramatically: In Amnesia you can find yourself wandering for a long time with no action taken, but will not be able to let your guard down even for half a second. Then add a sound design to say the least perfect for it all, and you have one of the most grueling and stressful video games (in a good way!) Ever, that in all likelihood will force you to take a break every so not to wreck the your nerves (an eventuality that programmers seem to encourage, with a rescue system that automatically records your progress whenever you forsake the game, and only in that circumstance). I challenge you to find a survival horror game that has managed to bring so extreme the style of the genre, in the end, even the aforementioned Siren has been able to dare so much.

But really it all works so perfectly? In fact some difettuccio is not hard to see: as far as the graphics, for example, the HPL Engine 2, a direct evolution of the proprietary engine that moved Penumbra, demonstrated its ability to manage with ease key aspects such as lights and shadows, but pays the side of too few bugghettino and an aesthetic that, between polygonal models and textures, proves definitely functional, but that is certainly no miracle, it still forgivable since we are talking about a stand-alone product and with a budget not likely stellar, so how can we turn a blind eye on a location (text) does not always state of the art. Rather, we move a few notes on how narrative, especially related to flashbacks and the notes that we find throughout the castle.

The plot was interesting, but perhaps too nebulous, and assimilation anything but immediate, since we are often so "taken" from the gameplay will not be easy to find the ideal concentration to put together the pieces of plot that gradually reveal.
Another thing that might not appeal to everyone is a degree of challenge rather special, not so much for the longevity itself (the cuin 7-8 hours Estimated representing a value completely satisfactory, especially in relation to the average bond this type and with the price), but the consequences of (not) fighting been wasted. Save in exceptional circumstances, in fact, if you end up under the blows of an enemy, you resume the game a few steps from where you kicked the bucket, with your executioner disappeared completely from circulation. Dying has never been so little detrimental in a survival horror game, though perhaps the explanation may be the desire to set Amnesia purely as an adventure game, with all the challenge entrusted to the exploration and puzzle solving, and where the sequences' action are just a distraction and a device for supplying the atmosphere rather than a key element of the game structure.

However, the overall assessment is very positive, very positive. Quite frankly, even with all the optimism arising from Penumbra good we would have expected a quantum leap so sudden, and instead, with Amnesia: The Dark Descent we can really speak of an indie gem with all the papers in order to deal with production most noble, and if fear what you are looking for the modest sum of 15 € you risk seriously be looking at a new benchmark. That said, we can not renew with pleasure to congratulate Frictional Games (of which we see already time to keep an eye on future projects), and wish you all nightmares gold.

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Amnesia is a wonderful surprise for all fans of survival horror, that they will get their teeth with one of the most terrifying games ever. Add to this a wealth of found and puzzle solving creative and exciting, we feel authorized to speak for half indie masterpiece, that will do you absolutely regret the money spent. The more emotional they should stand aside, for all the others, purchase definitely advisable, to which we add the recommendations made by the developers: expect to arrive the night, spegnate all the lights in the room, plug in headphones and set off down the dark that Frictional Games has in Serbian for you ... Rest assured you will never forget this experience ...

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Amerzone PC game review

Life is like this: one day you're a normal man, and the next day you find yourself to be even a normal man. Does the same. Start talking about Amerzone, the last effort of the Microids. Slap the first of the fourteenth CD into the player, I install everything and launch the game. I see in the distance a postman on a bicycle towards me away from what looks like a lighthouse in a dark autumn day. He approaches and speaks to me. He tells me about the letter that I sent to the lord of the lighthouse, and the precarious state of his health. Then you pedaling away. And so the game begins. Nestled in a clearing in the distance I see the lighthouse, and a beautiful cursorone the center. Move the cursor. Magic: the cursor does not move, is to rotate the landscape! The effect is that which has rotating the observation point, as is done with Quake and similar, only that the definition of the environment is much greater (are all rendered image above) and one can not move if not when it is see the navigation arrow
Interesting, very interesting. The involvement that this method is able to convey is impressive. Continual product research and slowly emerges in front of me what will be my task: to bring the egg white birds to Amerzone, on the slopes of the volcano in the area. This egg was transported to France in 1934 by the professor who now instructs us precisely to make the trip to this remote land. Virgin land, where a group of Indians living in sibiosi with nature and especially with the race of mysterious white birds, narrated in many legends (but where?). The aforementioned professor in fact, after a long Living room area for his work (but also a love blossomed with the inhabitants) decided to take out to prove the existence of this species as the egg, the only egg that these birds lay, and from which arise the later generations. Laughed at by everyone, sir its action lived a solitary life until the museum not returned the relic to many tens of years away. With amazement the professor, the egg was still alive! From this the idea of ??organizing to put the egg where it had taken. But time passes for everyone, and the young scientist who long before had done the deed, it is now an old man of more than ninety years, too weak to undergo a further effort (because the first movement will greet this world)

And here come into play: you will need to complete the mission. Do not worry about what I told you, I have not taken anything to the game as anything you find in the first 2 minutes in which we wander to the lighthouse. As we wander? Good walking. And how do you tell him how to walk? Easy, turning his gaze to one direction, and if the pointer changes to an arrow, with a click you fly to the new location
In fact, the targeting system is slightly different from the ones we are used to, not so much because of the rotation of the screen, as due to its simplistic approach: if you can move an arrow towards something, if you can move or take an object appears a hand if you need to use a tick icon of two gears. Especially the last point made me turn up their noses because in practice there suggerise already going to rummage in your inventory to use an item, or if neither of those work, retrace your steps to find what you are missing. If you think the inventory of the various Monkey Island there would be too many problems as to choose the object among the many crops you must still do not pull their own at random. But here the inventory holds only 8 objects, and if you consider that for a long time many letters and can only be read, understand how the choice is further reduced to a mere passado then systematic attempt everything we have on him (which to do so in Monkey Island, you had to be reached on the brink of despair). However, the puzzles are well structured and very logical (unlike MI where after some time oncoming despair ... how do you think about using the monkey on the pump!?) As a whole. This however does not mean that they are easy to resolve (see the elevator) and often take a long glance as well as a little 'reflection. The graphics and is very well defined, not at the level of Riven, but well-made to show that the graphs of Microid really know what they are doing in this field. A special note for movies. Truly sublime, so much so that in many places do not seem to come out of a modeling software to their complexity and reality (I have heard that it should come out even a DVD version of Amerzone, in which movies could have much more space, will be even more sensational to see, as long as you own a player ...). Finally, the plot is well structured and will bind to the game forcing you to wander and think to solve the enigma that seems impossible: you will also be aided by old friends of the professor who will provide interesting information for the pursuit of adventure. About adventure: this, however, is very different from the kind we're used to: you do not need that much racking their brains to solve the various problems that you come across, as exploring the environment around you, look at every single detail that could be useful with the sequence of events. What to say? Go to comment and get ready for the new and juicy recipe for summer: boiled beans with yogurt.

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American McGee's Alice PC game review

Surely some of you will never be asked in his life, that order has never made the famous protagonist of the story of Alice in Wonderland after returning in the midst of ordinary mortals.
Maybe it will become a successful writer? The imagination is not lacking ... Or will it become a young archaeologist in the footsteps of Lara Croft? Or simply place the 'activities of a maid or a secretary like any normal person?
Thanks to American McGee's Alice, the curiosity surrounding the existence of Alice has now been finally revealed and unfortunately for the young girl, things did not go the best way.
In fact, a terrible fire broke out in the house where Alice lived with their parents has reduced to a heap of ashes the entire building.
Alice is the only remaining survivor (along with his stuffed rabbit), but the shock of the loss of parents was that, now living (so to speak) enclosed in a psychiatric hospital insensible to every stimulus external.
To learn more about the situation "mental" the little sick girl, the elegant packaging, along with two CD-ROMs of the game, there is a small booklet translated into Italian, which contains the medical report of patient-days of Alice hospital and of some enigmatic drawings that often she created in moments of trance.

To awaken the minds of little Alice from his nightmare, we think the white rabbit longtime friend, who will report again in "reassuring" wonderland.
Let's say both "reassuring" world left by Alice long ago, it is now just a memory, the terror and anguish have taken over the joy and happiness of the past and look left accompanies the faces of the various characters populate the imaginary world.
It will, for a change, to an increasingly paranoid Alice Wonderland to bring the happiness of the past and set free the world from the influence of the evil Queen of Hearts.
Begins more or less in this way the new adventure of Alice in Wonderland will have to return on a long journey (consisting of nine main sections, subdivided in several sub-levels, for a total of 34 playable levels), the research evil Queen of Hearts.
Each section of the game reflects a particular aspect of the world was actually created by Lewis Carroll (as the home of the Mad Hatter or the realm of chess, or forest mushrooms), and is full of the same characters that have made this story.
Initially, the characters that Alice meets and that introduce you to the arduous journey that awaits are the white rabbit, which will once again pursue his close friend and Cheshire cat grin from not exactly reassuring.

These will keep you company throughout the entire play adventure with frequent appearances during the moments of the game.
Prodigal of suggestions (even where such aid are sometimes a bit 'cryptic to understand), the cat can be called by the player via a dedicated button each time requiring his presence.
Later you will meet all the other famous characters of the story such as, the aforementioned Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar Caterpillar essential for the continuous adventure and the eclectic Mad Hatter (renamed for the occasion Hatter Sadistic, because of its tendency to make the terrifying experiments of innocent lives as children).
The main feature of this title as some of you have probably already deduced by reading between the lines above, is certainly on the reinterpretation of adult Lewis Carroll.
Rather than attend a dream seems to witness a terrible nightmare born of a sick mind (like the protagonist).

All the environments are characterized by very dark and gothic style that gives the same look and decadent at the same time distorted.
Mind of the whole project is the one that gives the title to the game or American Mcgee's, and for those who wonder why so much importance (to accompany even the title of the game) to know that this person has a track record, being one the best level designers who have collaborated in the past with games like Doom and Quake.
It must be admitted that in this work the skill and class Mcgee are felt.
Indeed, the structure of the levels and among the most complex and most successful we have ever seen so far.
The main skill is McGees yield the best ones are the characteristics of a wonderland, to give life to an arcade adventure exciting and varied.
Speaking in more detail the structure of the game itself, we say that the programmers of the Rogue-Entertaiment have harnessed so much talent in a nice platform game with lots of action and some mystery, scattered among the various levels of play.

Through a camera placed behind the main character (like any game in the third person to Tomb Raider), the player can impart through the mouse-keyboard combination imperative their actions.
The movements, which are the classic Alice can perform such as running, jumping, climbing ropes or cling to any rough edges, etc while strangely can not bow (problems of arthritis?).
In addition, to make it less problematic gameplay, Alice may use a viewfinder useful to frame the target and a convenient indicator (in the shape of the sole of the shoe), useful to understand where you land after a jump .
If we can make some criticism of the control system, however simple, is the possibility sometimes necessary to hang on to a ledge of a platform that really require much accuracy, making the action a little 'frustrating.

With regard to the arsenal available to the game, Alice will initially use a beautiful sharp knife, then move on to some useful bats cards to be launched against the enemy, and finally magical sticks, nuts cursed, explosive boxes etc.
The number of weapons is not very high but definitely well-stocked, shame about the knife, the weapon most fascinating of the game, is also the weakest forcing the player to use magic sticks or swords icy much more "robust".
In addition, each weapon has a dual mode of fire, for example the magic stick can be used primarily as a weapon for shorter distances and in the second place, for the clashes by a certain distance, can be used to launch the fireballs.
We said earlier that the structure of the game is mainly split between platform and gameplay, especially those sections as well as being very demanding are also very different completely changing from one level to another.

For example, in the forest of mushrooms where Alice will be reduced, she will compete against ants or flowers murderers and jump using leaves, vines mushrooms and all that nature has to offer.
While inside the home of the Mad Hatter Alice will compete against terrible mechanical robots, and bring in the gears of the mechanical structures of the building to reach the terrible hat.
All add to the frequent diversions to the structure of the game sometimes brilliant (one of them even copied from the film Indiana Jones) and even more frequent intervals in which it develops the plot of the game (perhaps a bit 'obvious but always better than usual invasion of alien), to have a cocktail potentially explosive.
However, not everything is so positive, particularly with regard to interaction with the environment by the protagonist, and the puzzles present.
In fact, it seems that the programmers have remained little 'too "buttoned up" from this point of view for fear of sacrificing the immediacy of the game and make it too challenging.

For example, Alice can not communicate with the characters of the game if not at times laid down by the programmers and does not have an inventory in which to collect found objects.
As for the puzzles, except for a few exceptions, these are really too simple (at least in my humble opinion), beyond some leverage to lower, in most cases the solution is in the right place at the right time.
While they are to be promoted with flying colors graphics and sound aspects of the game.
All that the graphics engine Quake III has to offer such as curved surfaces, textures in high resolution or a 32-bit color palette, etc., has been fully exploited by programmers to create environments simply fantastic (the urge to move forward in the game only to discover all the wonderful landscapes created).

The various characters including the fabulous bosses are made with great skill and covered with texture of excellent quality.
The graphical effects like smoke, fire or the reflection on the water, are made in an impeccable manner and the great care put into details foresee even less important in those aspects of the game as the options menu (great).
But programmers were not satisfied with what the powerful graphics engine Quake could offer, and added also the mip mapping as in Unreal (the technique which allows you to maintain a very high texture detail also by closer shots) .
The soundtrack and its effects have been treated by a real musician like Chris Vrenna former bassist of Nine Inch Nail.
Never as in this case the choice turned out to be apt, in fact, the music is just creepy (the beauty) and contributes greatly to making the most immersive game environments.
Ultimately, let's say you have to have a lot of patience especially at the beginning (because the first two levels can be considered at best as the sections to make a little 'practice), in fact, after passing the rock of the first two levels of the game "engages" the great showing all its enormous potential.

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The game is based mainly on an original storyline and the fantastic settings.
The graphics have created a small masterpiece "squeezing" the best ones are the potential of graphics engine Quake III.
The result is the creation of landscapes scary, breathtaking in their beauty.
The sound created by the former founder of Nine Inch Nail, turns out to be of the highest quality involving even more the player in the maze of the game.
Despite some small defect such as an interaction with the surrounding landscape a bit 'deficit and perhaps not elaborate puzzles, the game turns out to be one of the most exciting and fun arcade adventure in recent months.

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American Conquest PC game review

The software house Ukrainian GSC Game World has paradoxically most famous for a video game ever released for the many who instead has produced in recent years. If, in fact, STALKER is continuously postponed, the two series have held high the name of GSC Game World We refer, of course, Cossacks and American Conquest. This is real-time strategy that are not certainly the spectacular graphics their strong point, but it can offer great depth in terms purely strategic. Both series use the same graphics engine and certainly more than one feature in common.

American Conquest: Divided Nation is halfway between being a true sequel or a mere expansion. Basically, the new limited addition of new missions and a slightly different scenario. If you have previously, in fact, modeled on the history of the United States of America from the conquest of the New World, we now focuses exclusively on the American Civil War, Civil War or, if you prefer. Do not expect, therefore, great revolutions even within the graphics engine, which is inevitably dated. If this was still forgivable in 2003 (the year in which the first American Conquest was released), now, in the light of the spectacular productions on which we could get my hands recently, it reveals an aspect at least annoying and can keep away from Divided Nation much of the gaming audience more demanding.
As in all RTS-respecting how strong Divided Nation is the campaign. It is divided in 9 sub-campaigns, which allow us to relive the conflict here examined from several different perspectives. Each of the campaigns, in fact, recreates historical battles placing them under the label of the general architect of them. So follow the events of the war occurred in Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. Between the factions with which we align ourselves are the Confederation and the Union of course: they are the protagonists of six campaigns. The last three will be met in the shoes of the soldiers of Texas, seeking independence, or Mexicans, however, are opposed to the first. In total Divided Nation includes more than 50 missions with the distribution we have just described. What we need to emphasize is that different factions do not necessarily different armies but, as we shall see in a moment, the strengths of all persuasions are still the same. Do not change the settings either (except in the case of campaigns with Texas and Mexico) and the graphic style of the game.

But now we come to that certainly concerns us more closely, namely on the game mechanics underlying the component purely strategic Divided Nation. As with its predecessor, the core of the structure of the game lies in managing armies composed of thousands of units in relation to the decisions of the enemy. American Conquest: Divided Nation can, in fact, manage simultaneously on the screen even 30,000 units, which requires great sagacity and precise strategic vision of the events that are happening on the battlefield. Added to this is the fact that the maps are really huge: the soldiers take minutes and minutes to cover the entire portion of land that is the game map. All this makes the product of GSC Game World a game focused on the movement of large masses of men on the roof of the appropriate distances on the deployment of troops available in relation to what the enemy does.
Legions of soldiers on both sides will collide head from time to time and all are busy in point your musket and reload as soon as possible after each shot. Place your army so that it covers the men enemies becomes crucial, as it is around the enemy position. Strategies are very common in American Conquest, for example, those based on point with a battalion of enemies and get around with another in order to attack them from behind. Alternatively, it is always good to engage the enemy with a battalion and to perform a second melee attack, in which case our soldiers abandon their muskets and bayonets will rely exclusively.

A game like American Conquest: Divided Nation can not focus heavily on the multiplayer component. The new product of GSC Game World, in fact, provides the game via the Internet or LAN to deal with their friends with the same characteristics as the single player. There are three different modes: Battlefield, Internet and Game Deathmatch. In the first mode repeat a mission already addressed in one of the campaigns, only instead of the enemy AI run there will be a human opponent. By Internet Game we can find an opponent that suits best to our ability and watch all the other games in progress at the server GSC Game World. Deathmatch instead will allow us to play on skirmish maps and to set a whole series of parameters such as the characteristics and the size of the map, the level of resources available at the beginning of the match, the presence or absence of "fog of war" or "peacetime "victory conditions, and more. A very interesting feature is the possibility of being able to save the current game to be able to continue later.
The result of this is the spread of fire fights and melee combat all over the map resulting in the death of thousands and thousands of people. In these situations, it is inevitable to think of every war atrocity and the uselessness of the loss of those lives.
The placement of troops is, therefore, the key element of the game. To make you understand the importance of this aspect of Divided Nation must say, beyond what we have done so far, that when placed troops want is the same as artificial intelligence of the game that decides when to start shooting and who, precisely because the Our job is another. In all this he deserves a separate discussion the matter relating to training, as can be seen to fundamental in relation to strategies to baste on the battlefield. Basically, we can choose three types of training: one suitable for shootings, one suitable for the defense when it takes close combat and, finally, a suitable gear. It 's very important to choose the right training if we want, for example, cover a certain distance in the shortest possible time or if we want to be effective in a firefight.
Once hired an enemy battalion in a firefight see our soldiers and the enemies shoot each other even for minutes. Each of these comparisons, in fact, has a surprisingly prolonged duration in relation to the duration of the entire battle. Realize who is losing more men is important in order to make changes to the strategy if you feel to be at a disadvantage. The reasons for which a battalion should be disadvantaged in relation to what is in front can be many. The most important part, as we have said, the physical layout of the two troops. In addition, we must pay attention to the shape of the map: an army in a forest or a cultivated field will be greatly benefited as will an army placed on a hill. It becomes, therefore, the primary realize even the geography of the map.

Noted earlier the characteristics of units in each army. Well, be it that of the Union or that of Confederation, of the Mexican or what Texan this difference is based on the presence of three different types of units. We're talking infantry, cavalry and artillery. This is the division that we see in almost every strategic, so proceed quickly on this issue. Let's just say that the former are useful for melee and for those with muskets, the second to disrupt enemy defenses more entrenched, the third to take out multiple enemy units and defenses to destroy walls. One aspect on which, however, it is worth stopping for as long as is related to the game. Unfortunately, from this point of view Divided Nation does not make significant improvements compared to its predecessor, although this aspect is certainly not the most tested of the saga. Indeed, we have found some difficulty in the selection of the troops and their arrangement on the battlefield.

This is because, due to the engine in 2D, the portion of land embraced by the game view is always too stunted. If we select thousands of men occurred within the visual understand well that you are immediately in trouble and that there is a tradeoff with the tracking system of the game. For these reasons, the software provides a minimum resolution of 1024x768, but it is almost essential to play at least at 1280x1024. Add to this the fact that the battalions will always be more than ten resulting in poor efficiency of the system speed dialing and the guys from GSC Game World inexplicably have not used the feature of instant recall of the battalion when you press twice on the corresponding number for understand that the gameplay component is certainly not the happiest in Divided Nation.
There is also a small section dedicated to. This is not always necessarily required, it becomes so only at times when we lose too many units and we have to create new ones. On these occasions we can use our "pioneer" to collect resources (food, wood, minerals), so you can use in the creation of buildings and troops. We may, for example, in order to achieve doctors treat wounded units or replenish our military units able to bring in high spirits. In fact, if one of our battalions lost too many men, those who are still alive will start to get scared and run away from the heart of the conflict: in these situations are important men like those I just mentioned, which are usually equipped with drums or banner of the faction with which we are playing.

Finally, we look at the component graphics and sound. As we said, this is not the most successful aspects of the game, which makes Nation Divided an extremely static and dated in relation to the latest generation of RTS. If, in fact, the ability to manage many units was a novelty when the first American Conquest saw the light, now with the various Rome: Total War Imperial Glory this component loses much of its value. Sprites units in two dimensions appear in fact anachronistic and animations are very rough. The lack of a minimum of real-time physics and graphical effects such as explosions and similar rendering the element on the dynamics. Also from the sound point of view we should not complain because all the sound effects are extremely repetitive and not very realistic. Do you think that it also lacks the response of the unit to our call, a component that has always been present in the RTS for ten years now. The only really positive element from this point of view is that related to music accompaniment, which reveal themselves in relation to the setting that azzeccate American Conquest: Divided Nation intends to trace.

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Let's say that American Conquest: Divided Nation is one of those strategic fit only for those who grew up in strength of bread and Command & Conquer. The subtle game mechanics and precision that requires strategic, in fact, immediately cut out all those players who do not like these aspects. To offset this element are, however, the presence of five levels of difficulty, which makes it not too difficult approach to the game even the less experienced. Remaining among the positive elements, we also the large number of units of each battlefield and the large scale of the maps. On the other hand, this new RTS GSC Game World is once again terribly static and not very pleasant in terms of visual and sound. We also found flaws in the system unit selection and repetition that occurs in the different campaigns going forward. If we also consider the fact that Divided Nation brings few new features compared to its predecessor and is still sold at full price, we can not give it a low rating.
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America PC game review

Polygons or Bitmap?

Useless .... despite the new dimension of RTS, made up of virtual worlds and 3d hybridization between first and third person in the field of battle, the obsolete isometric view continues to be one of the most functional and used. With Starcraft in many decreed the imminent end of the isometric view. In fact, the title of Blizzard seemed the best that could express this dimension in the time of the first triumphs of accelerated cards. But here is that Microsoft is not at all enchanted by the upcoming suggestions polygonal restyling brought a chart like this, populated worlds with its units proportionate to their environment and improved animations. Also inspired by the success of simulation titles like Sim-City, Populous etc. ... the famous software company also improved the management of resources and units, in addition, with the history books in hand graphics programmers and tried to recreate not the most fantastic environments or futuristic populated by orcs and aliens, but credible historical contexts, with their architectural and social, allowing users to intervene, as in the classic "SIM CITY", the intimate social structure of the population.

The result was a new way of playing the RTS, not only closer to the strategies and the narrow concept of war, but also the credibility of the simulation of a well characterized in a precise historical context; Age of empire was born.

Age of West

Passing through ancient Egypt, the Roman Empire, the high and late Middle Ages, the different software houses had fun to offer a product "always different but basically the same" users. Today, Data Becker proposes America!
America is a RTS set in the Wild West of 800. You can find, well blended all the ingredients of the epic American of the 19th century, Indians, Cowboys, Soldiers Blue and Mexican bandits.

Bounty Killer, desperados and gunslingers return to populate the dusty saloon and boundless prairies, and you, with just a few clicks, you can relive the dream of the last frontier! America in fact, at first glance may seem like a boon for those who as a child wanted to revive the feats of Geronimo or General Custer, who, flying with the fantasy, got on a broom and galloped down the hallway of the house with great despair of the mother who had just spread the wax! I said a few simple clicks because actually the GUI, the graphical interface is very simple and intuitive, but proceed with order;
America is not exactly a "AGE OF EMPIRE" set in the wild west and then fans of the genre will find nice the idea of ??controlling whole tribes of Indians, and gunmen without gringos among other extricate more than necessary to understand the dynamics of the game and the management unit. In addition, the graphic impact of America is truly remarkable: although the isometric view and the subsequent use of bitmap, characters and buildings are really well designed and characterized. Only ugliness in graphics, some bug in the Fog of War: the mountains, in fact, as it turns out the map, are the bad "holes blacks" on top, caused by their mismanagement of this function at the end is that you can see "a sort of hole with the mountains around."

The attempt by the developers to remain in a very specific gaming trend is very clear in the painstaking care in the reproduction of the system of play and animation AGE OF EMPIRES: in this game you will drive men and women who will work nell'approviggionamento of wood, care of the fields, farms different (mad cow disease?;-)). Do not hide the fact that I could not help but smile when I saw a perfect replica of the title animations in Microsoft sowing and management fields!

But America still has its own identity, made of saloon and teepees. In this way then, the units appiedate can ride a horse and there is the possibility to cross with ease dense forests, this seems to me an interesting and useful feature, although it can be quite difficult to find in it a few units that regularly gets lost.

4 People, 4 Games

The game then reserve some surprises that whatever you deviate from a simple cloning of the title Microsoft. First, the variety and the different features that make the peoples ... Yeah because America actually tries to break the monotony of the titles that preceded it, where people basically antagonistic changed only in name and design but remained the same in technique and in the upgrade. There are in fact four people with four game modes and graphics are very different and the player will have to adapt to the characteristics of each faction war. When, in the first mission, we will begin to play with indium, we try to accumulate as much wood as possible to build our village, the gold will affect us very little, and we have to produce as much food to increase our tribe and create hordes absurd warriors. In fact, unfortunately, who will buy this title to get back once and for all the Yankees, will come up soon with the dramatic feature of this glorious people: the poor resistance to bullets of the Yankees, Mexicans and bandits, as well as the lack of effectiveness of bows and arrows, make that "the god Manitou" one of the weakest and most vulnerable populations ...

Unfortunately, this imbalance of forces causes in the early missions will attend a real new massacre Indians, perhaps caused by a tiny fortified position, or by four gunmen on a school trip in your camp. In addition, your Indianelli will become Kamikaze before the enemy's guns as in the classic "load movie", where fierce warriors are thrown from their horses in the race Yankee artillery.
The first missions will then be a real purgatory, in fact I noticed that for some unknown reason, programmers have relegated the most difficult missions (including the weakness of units) at the very beginning. Things start to be less frustrating with the Mexicans. Finally, with this people, we immediately guns, plus they are also well characterized, with their white buildings and grannies busy dondolar babies and treat yourself to injury. The gold then begins to have its real importance in the upgrading and construction of units.
The bandits, in my opinion, are the best characterized and most pleasant, although suffering from congenital strabismus (their bullets, in front of a gringo, are not so precise!).

At the base of the food chain of this clan is the liquor, which will be produced in distilleries rickety as in the classic tradition West. You'll have a world to click on these crumbling buildings ..... I assure you;-). In plain view in front of the headquarters of these scoundrels, they proudly displayed two poor hanging from the noose .... in short, are given all the clues to understand the true nature of these missions, made ??of robberies and raids. With the blue jackets the real problem is the chronic shortage of gold, as the more advanced units require large amounts of this mineral. Of course, with the latter faction, the game gives the best of itself, amount and variety of units. Artillery, cavalry, and infantry are your weapons against the bows and arrows of the Indians against the bandits disorganizzatissimi (without a real artillery) and against the most feared Mexicans, perhaps the only ones able to maintain a degree of competitiveness with the "Yankee ".

In my opinion, however, the missions with the U.S. lose in originality with blue blazers you fall in historical canons and film, with a view of the supremacy of justice and Yankees.

A missed opportunity?

Undoubtedly America is a nice game, simple graphics and learning and unpretentious, to recommend to those who love the genre. Unfortunately, in my opinion, lacks credible characters and historical contexts. It would be a good opportunity to take the role of General Custer and Sitting Bull, rebuild epic battles or sieges such as Fort Alamos, in short, have, as in the Age of Empire, the chance to live again, and perhaps to reverse major events historians, whose although young American history has great examples. In addition there is also to say that America has not particularly challenging missions: all that results is a series of missions cold uninteresting and sometimes "very irritating purpose and difficulty" I found it frustrating to reduce it to a simple cowboys and take only a few cows from South to North and suffer the constant raids by bandits.

Certainly a simple mission editor would make the title more durable and attractive, perhaps with missions rescheduled and downloaded directly from the network, but for some unknown reason was not included. The management of the territories is very difficult, in some cases impossible, as there are few systems difesivi (at least for the Indians and for the bandits), then, in most cases fail the "Conquest factor" which is fundamental in the RTS. The AI ??is quite fugitive, especially in the management of the Indian unit, suffering from the usual syndrome "-Pearl Harbour" (Kamikaze). Moreover pursuing the necessary Indian hordes will be very difficult, as you can control just over a dozen units at a time.

One last look

America, after all, has no great pretensions, the goal that had been set up programmers, to create a product that is cute and funny on the success of some RTS was reached. It may not be an innovative title and there will be some gaps, but for those who have spent sleepless nights to play Age of Empire, the old west I think it's a must!

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America, after all, has no great pretensions, the goal that had been set up programmers, to create a product that is cute and funny on the success of some RTS was reached. It may not be an innovative title and there will be some gaps, but for those who have spent sleepless nights to play Age of Empire, the old west I think it's a must!

View other game at http://funnygamemania.blogspot.com

Special Call of Duty Elite

Special Call of Duty Elite
The secret project of Activision finally revealed!

When a short time ago had started chasing rumors of a mysterious project in development at Activision the web was literally going crazy to formulate hypotheses about what could really be this mysterious COD: Elite. There was talk of a free to play and some had even been rumored title of a third person or a spin-off of a particularly charismatic of the series (including the most popular Ghost). In London last the veil of mystery on the title has been discovered, and never surprise was bigger.

COD: Elite simply put is not a game, yes, you read that right. The title in question is a website that will integrate inseparably initially with the current Black Ops Treyarch and in the future with the COD: MW 3 Infinity and Sledgehammer. It is in fact nothing more than a portal where you can view your stats, analyze matches just player, study strategies with the ability to form groups (which results in a full support for the clan) and not least the opportunity to participate in various contests (both individual and group) in order to win over the riconoscenze with virtual medals and succulent prizes from sponsors. But let us analyze in more detail.

Small disclaimer before we get into the explanation: the version visionata was inherent in the English version of the portal, this results in menu items that probably in the final version of the title will be localized names or appellations totally different.

The site structure is quite semplic or practices HTML pages created specifically to highlight the essential contents. The first page that you Parera front is a summary of what is our level in the game's multiplayer. There will be our position and level of experience, the various prestige (if they have been completed) and the various logos of customization we've made (currently only in Black Ops.) Excluding this page, there are 4 main sections with ramifications to their inside.

The first is "Career" in which you can see even more details the personal characteristics of each player, such as: number of kills, deaths, killratio and much more. Also wishing you can compare them to those of another player to understand where you are weakest and the areas in which it excels. This section is more branched and can count on many sub items are self-explanatory for the name they bear, and are: recent match, custom classes, leaderboard, trackers, weapon performance and my teather. That is certainly the most stunning "tracker" since using the link to the game of our profile and the constant refresh of the site, on a reconstruction with a top view of the map where we're playing, all points will be reported in which die or we kills during the match. Tell it in words this feature is not worth the price to see with their own eyes, something truly amazing and probably in the future very useful for clans to prepare and study different strategies on various maps.

The second macro group called "Compete" is certainly more social and allows players to create any type of group (with the name of your clan for example) or by joining a group already established - the event was created such as that of the lakers fans - to be able to share information and comments about the game and maybe talk and exchange views on what is also extra call of duty. The third macro section is perhaps the most delicious and interesting news from all over the portal, called "responsibility" in which you can join various competitions limited duration such as: shoot the best photo, you reach a certain number of kills as quickly as possible rather than perform certain actions in specific types of game. The contest is created by some partners Activision (in our trial were Wrangler, Jeep and Starbucks) that will be won real prizes for anyone who manages to win the competition. Each individual contest will have its own page and a sort of calendar in the top of the main page will scan the beginning and end of each race in order to hold a current gamer.

The last finally classified as "improve" give you the opportunity to enter into more detail of each perk, killstreak of maps and the whole arsenal provided by the title. Every single item will have its own page complete with explanation of each movie, this will serve primarily as "encyclopedia" to thoroughly study every single feature of the object in question and hang for its use or not within our classes customized.
This is roughly what you can do within the site. Obviously we have been assured that everything will be supported massively over the web and the games themselves, including through certain web TV and mobile market.

In addition, it was explained that the majority of the site will contain material free, but however it can be called a subscription PREMIUM which give you the ability to access certain sections of title and above all give you the opportunity to download the packages added to maps that will be released COD on the future.

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Obviously, the questions are many, starting with the type of content and especially the premium subscription price and its durability. For the moment we can say, especially in optical social and clans, that the idea is at least interesting. Waiting for a clarification E3, the draft Activison currently has pleasantly surprised.

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Special Borderlands 2 and Nvidia GTX 670: the winning combination

Special Borderlands 2 and Nvidia GTX 670: the winning combination
Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the popular Borderlands that from 23 October 2009 (European date) ground has millions of fans around the world. The success of Borderlands is related to his being a "not" FPS-style classic, ruscendo to gather inside GDR and free roaming features that make it unique. Even the aesthetic side, however, has been a factor in your success, moving away from the mass shooter on the market, pointing to a graphic "cartoony" through the use of cel shading, captured the hearts of many players with the right amount of humor and vulgarity capable to snatch a smile even in the worst situations.

Gear Box has seriously this time maintaining a high level of a game that has created quite a few expectations and surely, after touching it with his hand, he did not disappoint anyone center. Everything that was good has been improved, from a world more diverse and wide especially detailed, with improved graphics in step with the times but always by maintaining the style "cartoon" and spigendo strong (maybe too much) about being borderline in terms of humor and vulgarity. In addition to what has been revised completely the 4 classes, changing the skill to make them more dynamic and eliminating the Berserker to the detriment of Gunzerker. Not only that, the development team has completely redesigned management interface of the character not to mention a fifth class out a few days ago via DLC and available for free for those who pre-ordered the game, getting access to the Premier Club Despite all these improvements, the most famous of credit goes to the multiplayer segment where we can find a co-op further migliotata that will allow us to fully appreciate the game along with three friends with whom we share the loot even rarer.

Speaking of those who were the defects of the first chapter, we can say that Gear Box has done everything possible to rectify his mistakes starting out, first of all, from creating a simple story like the previous one, but that should not be underestimated because it could to give strong emotions and great twists. The only flaw that can never help but Borderlands is definitely the famous delayed loading of textures linked to intrinsic defects all'Unreal Engine 3, as well as the imprecise management of the physics of "dead bodies" which often they find themselves in absurd positions. At the same time it is also true that Borderlands of kidnaps for his unique style and frantic shooting and not for any small graphic bug that now everyone is accustomed to living.

Among the new features of this chapter are:
A story (finally worthy of the name) is not too complex but at the same time should not be underestimated and it promises strong emotions and sudden turns.
A totally revised and more extensive, varied and completely explorable 4 classes magazines in all their forms with the possibility of having a fifth class via DLC as long as you do not get for free when pre-ordered the game.

A complete reworking of the game interface and the management of character with the addition of brand new hard points that are tokens that can be obtained and therefore can be used after the completion of the challenges (kill 500 Skag, made 50 headshot with the sniper, etc.) that give the ability to unlock any kind of bonus, the speed of reloading the damage grade, and are not at the level of the player's character, but rather encouraging the player to improve more and more every character it uses. An exponentially higher number of weapons due to the unique system used in the game (in the first chapter there were "only" 17'750'000 of different combinations). A variety as more enemies, in the first chapter was a bit 'absent and after the first half of the game began to take its toll

Finally, before moving on to the technical sector by analyzing the Nvidia Physx and its operation on a GTX670, here is a quick list of Pros and Cons of the game. I remind you that for a more thorough and detailed found at this address the full review of the game made by our Luke

Pros:
Detailed graphics in all aspects though still in DX9
Nvidia Physx implementation which greatly increases the detail of the surrounding world and interacting with it notevolemente increasing the realism of the game
Cooperative mode best on the market

Cons:
Difficulties often oriented multiplayer combat so some are quite complicated to complete on their own, but not impossible
Typical graphics bug that door from the first chapter and caused the Unreal Engine 3 or slow loading of textures and corpses often absurd positions that defy the laws of physics, in particular the seriousness
The implementation of PhysX, although the highest level, is not perfect and some elements are often forgotten themselves as banners that are struggling to get drilled by bullets or worse by a body that passes through them as if they were a mirage

Borderlands 2 and Physx
Borderlands 2 uses NVIDIA PhysX to create a more realistic and based on the physics itself. The game has 3 different settings:
Low: all the PhysX effects are disabled
Middle: enable PhysX on items such as Particles, Cloth Simulation Fluid Simulation and limiting the complexity and the number and disabling some effects related cloth and fluids.
High: enables all the effects on the "Middle" by increasing the complexity and number as well as giving full support to cloth and fluids.

What is it and what does the PhysX?
The PhysX engine is a physical, which simulates all the forces to which we are subject, initially developed by Ageia and later acquired by NVIDIA and running solely on its GPU series from 8000 onwards.
It clearly brings benefits to the gameplay and Borderlands 2 is clearly the test. The PhysX effects are used in everything from bullets and weapons with particle animations of killings and simulation of liquids. Below we describe in detail these effects.

effects Particulate
The particles are a key part of the implementation of PhysX in Borderlands 2. Each weapon and interaction with the world creates some kind of particles, particles that are "natural" and "persistent" or that remain on the ground and interagistono with other effects and Particelli. Some particles are created by the enemies when they are deleted or when interagistono themselves with the world.

Simulation of Fluids
The fluid simulation in Borderlands 2 exceeds any standard achieved so far and can be seen in corrosive, poisonous sludge, napalm arsonist, water, and much more. Fluids can be crossed, hit, exploded and influenced by another effect called Force Field and only a few are to be available settings "Medium."

Force Field
In Borderlands 2, via an algorithm, NVIDIA PhysX allows particles, tessuri and liquids to move realistically. Its purpose is to allow an interaction as realistic as possible with the player because it is useless to create something without being able to interact together especially in a game with all these weapons, grenades and explosions.

Simulation of tissue
This is one of the more modern games enigmaci. This is due to the fact that, despite being a single piece, each part can interact with the surrounding environment it is the mantle of a superhero to a sheet supported on a couch while a breeze crosses the room. All this is achieved by simulating huge quantities of tiny springs interacting dramatically increasing the realism.

If we combine all these effects and make them cooperate with each other will get a symphony of realism that only the NVIDIA GTX can offer. The differences between PhysX On and Off are huge for this and when all the effects work in harmony with each other the mix is ??purely explosive as this can prove!

Test Configuration
CPU: Intel i7 2600k@4.2ghz cooled by a Noctua NH-D14
GPU: Asus GTX580 1.5Gb / Nvidia GTX670 2GB with the new driver 306.97 WHQL newly released
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws-X F3-12800CL7D-8GBXH
MOTHERBOARD: Asus Sabertooth P67
PSU: Enermax 800W + Modu87
HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB SATA3
MONITOR: LG W2363D-PF Nvidia 3D Vision Ready 120hz

Graphics Settings
Resolution: 1920x1080
Vsync: Yes
Frequency Video: Max 120 FPS
Filter Antisotropo: 16x
Decal Bullets: High
Distance Foliage: Far
Texture Quality: High
Detail of Game: High
Ambient Occlusion: Yes
Depth of Field: Yes
AAFX: Yes
Visual Distance: Very High
Physx effects: Low / Medium / High

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