Review by: Emil Pagliarulo

Ahhh…Europe. Like the United States is so many ways, yet so very, very different. Football, anyone? But if there is one common bond, it is the passion for gaming that reaches across the vast Atlantic and joins our two distinct worlds. Good games have been pouring out of European development companies, and that number just seems to be increasing. Such is the case with WizardWorks’s latest release, Emergency: Fighters for Life, created by German development firm Topware. A game with a distinct European feel, it nonetheless translates well to an American gaming audience, and makes for a pretty fun gaming experience. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a UFO! No wait, it is a plane! Sort of…. In Eidos Interactive’s Joint Strike Fighter, the player takes on the role of a fighter pilot behind the stick of aircraft so advanced, they could be mistaken for alien technology. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: February 6, 1999

I think Redstorm Entertainment’s Rainbow Six pleasantly surprised just about everyone who played it. Maybe it was the timing, or the fact that first-person squad-level combat just hadn’t been done all that well in the past, but the computer game based on Tom Clancy’s hit novel proved that intense 3D action didn’t have to include rocket launchers, powerups, or insanely unrealistic life levels. Indeed, Rainbow Six laughed in the face of the contemporary shooter by offering “one hit, one kill” gameplay, realistic environments, and completely authentic weaponry. It was unheard of…and it worked. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo & Pete Hines
Published: January 23, 1999

In the grand tradition of the old Gold Box AD&D games, Baldur’s Gate (BG) from BioWare/Interplay (Black Isle Studios) attempts to recapture the kind of engrossing, “can’t-stop-playing” RPG experience that entertained so many people in the 80s and early 90s. Playable in either single- or multi-player, you guide a party of up to six characters through an expansive world of mystery and danger. The game is set in the Forgotten Realms’ Sword Coast, and your journey is centered around several burning questions, including: 1.) Why is someone trying so hard to have you killed?; and 2.) What or who is behind the problems with the iron in the Sword Coast region? We’re not going to get into the whole area of AD&D rules and describe the specifics of how the game works (THAC0, dice, etc.), but rather stick more to the way BG plays. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: January 9, 1999

Tell someone you like “sports” games, and you could be referring to anything from Sierra Sports’ Skiing with Picabo Street to Madden 99; tell them you’re a fan of “action” games, and you’ve named a category that could lock in everything from Heretic 2 to Subspace. Not so with the “giant robot” games. As computer gamers, we tend to view this particular genre as quite narrow, encompassing such obvious choices as Mechwarrior 2, Heavy Gear and G-Nome. There are, however, a few exceptions — those giant robot games that, for one reason of another, haven’t quite achieved the “star status” of their more well-known cousins. Such is the case with Simutronics’ Cyberstrike 2, a giant robot simulator in every sense of the word, but one whose release seems to have gotten less fanfare than the unveiling of the Heavy Gear 2 demo — and for many reasons that’s a shame. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: January 2, 1999

The world of Britannia has just become significantly larger — and for Ultima Online fans it’s been a long, sometimes impatient wait. Ultima Online: The Second Age is the online roleplaying game’s first major expansion, adding a new land mass to explore, several new creatures, an enhanced interface and new gameplay features. For the record, it should be known that Ultima Online has actually undergone several updates since its launch, and likely will until the city of Minoc closes its gates forever; indeed, as a massively multiplayer game, it is constantly in need of play-balancing, and as a result will never truly be considered finished. Throughout the game’s relatively short lifespan, players have been witness to a complete revamping of the combat system, new rules for owning houses, schizophrenic periods of monster spawning, and countless other changes. The Second Age is a different kind of update, however: it is Ultima Online’s first retail expansion, and marks the first time the actual gameworld has been expanded beyond the main continent and sub-islands. Of course, the most important question that begs answering is whether or not the add-on is good enough to maintain the game’s appeal, and attract potential subscribers, especially with the much-touted Everquest and Asheron’s Call on their way. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo & Pete Hines
Published: January 1, 1999

When you look up at the heavens, and see the stars, moon, and occasionally a planet, it’s hard not to be filled with a sense of awe-inspiring peace and calm — such is the power of the heavens. In computer game land, however, the complete opposite always proves to be true — it’s just not possible to skip among the stars without annihilating everything in your path, human, alien or otherwise. Case in point: Uprising 2, sequel to the immensely popular and completely innovative Uprising, and a classic battle for galactic domination. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: December 19, 1998

Remember the good old days of gaming, when you could sit down at the computer and get totally immersed for hours and hours on end with the single-player experience, never having to worry about network configurations, connection speed, or deathmatch ranking? For multiplayer fanatics, these might as well have been the Dark Ages, but for many more gamers it was a time of creativity and industry innovation, when there weren’t enough games to warrant any clones and every new release seemed to mark something new and different. It was during that time a small development company known as Looking Glass made its indelible mark on the industry, by creating some of the most immersive computer games ever seen. But now, in 1998, we as gamers have been left to wonder: where have all the Ultima Underworlds and System Shocks gone? ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: December 4, 1998

Gordon Freeman has had one hell of a day. He’s been chastised by his fellow scientists, shot at by the military, terrorized by hideous inter-dimensional monsters, and recruited for a suicide mission to save the planet Earth. Still, the scientist-turned-savior is having the time of his life. Why? Because he’s the lead character in the hottest first-person shooter since Doom, and after this nightmare ends even Lara Croft will be knocking on his door. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: December 2, 1998

While other game companies (most notably Activision’s HeadGames division) have dipped their toes into the hunting sim pond, you’ve got to admit that when it comes to this particular genre, WizardWorks is top dog. It all started with Deer Hunter, and now with Deer Hunter II on shelves and Carnivores on its way, the company has pretty much established itself as the id Software of hunting sims. But it never hurts to have an ace in the hole, and that’s where African Safari Trophy Hunter 3D comes in. Published by WizardWorks but developed by Quantum Axcess — you know, the guys that made Malice for Quake — African Safari Trophy Hunter 3D offers a whole new type of hunting experience, one that more than rivals that of the Deer Hunter games. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: November 19, 1998

“Welcome…to planet FMM UV-32!” Wait a minute…does something here seem vaguely familiar to you? A week ago DreamWorks’ Trespasser was the only dinosaur game in sight, and despite its mixed reception seemed destined to rule the jungle, and gamers’ Holiday wish lists, if for no other reason than the recognizability of the Jurassic Park name. But the computer game industry continues to surprise me, and Speilberg’s Site B could very well be forgotten when Santa and Chanukah Harry come calling next month. Carnivores, published by WizardWorks and developed by Action Forms Ltd., approaches the prehistoric age from a different angle: instead of focusing on exploration and puzzle solving, the game is a true hunting simulation, forcing the player to rely on stealth, aim, and quick reflexes. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever played before, and that really is the center of the game’s appeal. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: November 10, 1998

I’ll never forget the first time I discovered Deer Hunter. It was months before the game was even released, and I was surfing around, visiting game company websites to see what was brewing. There on the Wizardworks site, I saw a screenshot that made my jaw drop: a first-person perspective showed a raised rifle with attached scope, and the crosshairs were centered on…a deer. My God, I thought, they’re actually working on a hunting game. At that time, I thought the concept was, well, genius…from a marketing standpoint anyway. I found myself strangely intrigued by Deer Hunter, and waited patiently for the months to slip by, and the game to hit store shelves. Okay, I have a confession: before I got a review CD from WizardWorks, my wife surprised me with a copy as a Christmas stocking stuffer. I played the game to death, and really loved it, as indicated in my review.
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Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: November 6, 1998

If you’re a Star Trek fan and like computer games, you’re probably ready to throw your PC in the trash. Whether the result of some strange spatial anomaly, evil alien influence, or just plain idiotic design decisions, Star Trek games of the past few years have been notoriously awful. Remember Borg? I didn’t think so. What about Star Trek: Generations or Starfleet Academy? You’ve probably heard of those two, but chances are they’re not on your top ten. ( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: October 30, 1998

“Welcome…to Jurassic Park!” With those words (and Industrial Light and Magic’s special effects wizardry) Stephen Spielberg magically transported millions of filmgoers eons into the past, and millions of dollars into his dinosaur-skin wallet. For America’s most beloved director, the decision to adapt Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel must have been a no-brainer: everybody seems to love dinosaurs, and with the advances in computer rendering technology, ILM would be able to bring these creatures to life with unprecedented realism. That, in a nutshell, is exactly what happened. Despite the corny plotlines and lackluster acting, Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World skyrocketed to the top of the charts, thanks solely to the frightening, completely believable CGI dinosaurs. But that was yesterday.

( read more… )

Review by: Emil Pagliarulo
Published: October 21, 1998

While it’s not the most popular or even most well known period in American history, the French and Indian War of the mid 1700s has reached a certain romanticized status, thanks in large part to the works of James Fennimore Cooper and films like the classic Drums Along the Mohawk and the recently remade Last of the Mohicans. Great books, great movies…great computer game? ( read more… )