… and I must say that I was rather surprised. I mean, it’s not a normal malfunction that PC users confront in the course of their daily lives. It’s also the kind of thing that defies typical conversations. Imagine the following discussion while hanging around at ones workplace.

“Over the weekend my monitor caught fire.”

“Really? I guess it smelled bad.”

“Yeah. The flames didn’t shoot up very high. I was kind of disappointed.”

“Too bad. Becoming a towering inferno was the least it could do before dying on you.”

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Publisher: ACE Team
Developer: ACE Team
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Vista64, Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, 1 GB RAM, at least 3 GB of free hard drive space, 128 MB video card with shader model 2.0 (ATI 9600, NVidia 6600 or better), DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card, DirectX 9.0c or DirectX 10 (Vista)
Genre: FPS
Release date: Available now

Games focusing on unarmed combat have been one of the staples of the video-game industry since the days of Mike Tyson’s Punchout!! and the original Street Fighter. While the gimmicks mutate over time, such games are invested in giving players an up-close and personal kind of experience, one that mimics the bare-knuckle brawls found in movies. I was thus a bit skeptical about Zeno Clash’s claims to uniqueness. Upon playing, I discovered bizarre settings and a narrative with a central mystery featuring a rough and dirty string of what are essentially gang fights. It’s certainly a surprising combination.

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If it’s one thing I hate, it’s when a laptop refuses to turn on. Generally, the moment a laptop just doesn’t want to turn on anymore, you can be rest assured that you are about to spend big money. In my own case, since it refused to even turn on, the range of potential problems all boiled down to a bad battery, ruined chasis (i.e. ground has gotten loose somehow), or the motherboard was cracked. Given that my laptap was new, this was not encouraging.

So, in some despair, I took my laptop to my local Best Buy. My only goal was to get a diagnosis of the problem before I sent it in for warranty work. To do otherwise is to invite a never ending litany of “we fixed it” “no you didn’t” with HP. I approached the Geek Squad technician and told him that my laptop would not turn on at all. I started to speak at some length about how the power supply still provided power, how the charging indicator would still light up, how I took out and replaced the battery to make sure the contacts were lined up properly, and so on. Rather than listening to my homegrown attempts to diagnose the problem, he calmly took out the battery and pressed the power button a few times. Then he replaced the battery.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Mezmer Games
Minimum Requirements: Windows® XP/Vista, Pentium 4 1.5 GHz or Athlon XP; 1 gb RAM (2 gb recommended); nVidia GeForce 6/7/8/9 series, ATI Radeon 9600/X1xxx, AMD Radeon HD 2xxx series or Matrox Parhelia video card; at least 2 GB of free hard-drive space; DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card; DirectX 9.0
Genre: RTS
Release date: Available Now

Every once in a while, a game comes along that combines great parody with great fun. Dungeon Keeper and its iterations are a good example of such a fusion. In a similar vein, Stalin vs. Martians attempts to parody the RTS genre, combining a ridiculous premise with absurd gameplay elements. Unfortunately, SvM doesn’t give the player gameplay that’s either stimulating or fun.

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Relic
Minimum requirements: Windows XP or Vista; SSE capable processor, 2.0 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent or AMD Athlon XP or equivalent; 512 MB RAM, 1GB MB RAM required for Vista; DirectX 9.0c compatible 64MB video card with Pixel Shader 1.1 support or equivalent and latest manufacturer drivers
Genre: RTS
Release date: Available now

Having missed the original Company of Heroes when it was first released, I was pleased to get a chance to play the newest expansion, Tales of Valor, as the original got such good press. Still set in World War II, it follows the military exploits of both Allied and Axis units in the weeks and months following D-Day. While there are a few new units and gameplay features, the expansion focuses primarily on some new single player missions and multiplayer modes.

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Publisher: Lighthouse Interactive
Developer: Kerberos
Minimum requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista; 1.5 GHz Intel Pentium or comparable AMD Processor; 1 GB RAM; 128 MB RAM DirectX 9x compatible video card; 3 GB hard disk space; DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card; LAN or 56 Kbps Internet connection
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now

It’s been a strategy-filled few weeks for me. I’ve been fortunate enough to have multiple RTS titles come across my virtual desk as I stroll from game to game; it’s no secret that I enjoy empire building. This time around, I had the pleasure of reviewing the 4X strategy game Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection, a turn-based, science-fiction epic set in a universe with star-spanning empires, raging space battles, highly advanced technology and interesting civilizations with which to interact (and annihilate).

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Publisher: Chronic Logic
Developer: Chronic Logic
Minimum requirements: Java and Win98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/OSX/Linux
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now

When you have been involved with playing strategy games as long as I have, including those old school Avalon Hill table top box sets from what seems like the distant past, it is easy to forget that aside from all the bells and whistles you can find in games today, there are some very basic structures and formulas that contribute to a successful game. When you strip away cool graphics, immersive audio and plausible plotlines, strategy gamers are really looking for games that provide a wide range of strategic options. The more complicated and nuanced those options are, the more a gamer can get out of a game. Zatikon is a turn-based strategy game that successfully provides the nuanced strategic gameplay for which gamers are looking.

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Publisher: Strategy First
Developer: KDV Games
Minimum requirements: Windows XP; DirectX 9.0c; Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or Athlon XP 2500+; 512 MB RAM; GeForce 6600 128MB Graphics card; DirectX 9 Compatible Sound Card; 8 GB Hard Drive Space
Genre: RTS
Release date: Available now

Entire genres can go stale over time; so it is with RTS games. It can be a difficult task to create a game that cashes in on the successful aspects of a well entrenched genre while giving gamers enough of something new to stave off boredom. I had these thoughts on my mind as I installed Perimeter II: New Earth, an RTS game from KD Vision Games Development Company. Never having played the original, but having read some reviews of it a few years ago, I came to the game hoping for something new and interesting.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
Minimum requirements: Microsoft Windows XP/2000; 1.9 GHz Intel Pentium or similar AMD; 512MB RAM; Direct X 9.0c compatible video card with at least 128mb & support for pixelshader 2.0
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

When Europa Universalis: Rome was released last year, it represented Paradox’s attempt to use their EU3 engine to cash in on the demand for Roman strategy games. They ended up creating a title that meshed the interaction of individual characters with the destinies of entire countries. Still, it was a game that encouraged players to want even more detail and nuance. Rather than create an expansion filled simply with more military bells and whistles, Paradox instead chose to improve the aspect of the game that made it interesting—internal politics—in Vae Victus.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Akeela Studios
Minimum requirements: Win XP; P4 2.4 Ghz; 128MB RAM; 2.5 GB of free space on HDD; GeForce FX 5700 with 64MB or higher; audio card; 2x DVD-ROM
Genre: Sim
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

Space sims have all but disappeared from the gaming market. The heyday of Wing Commander and its clones, sequels and spin-offs has passed; leaving behind a genre that is but a shadow of its former self. Some gamers might not miss this type of game, but if you’re like me and remember the heady feeling of destroying your enemies while playing such classics as Star Raiders, then you’re in the market for a high-quality space epic that combines great graphics with advancements in user interface and game logic. In an attempt to win gamers looking for such a product, Akeela Studios has developed Dark Horizon.

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Publisher: Atari
Developer: Katauri
Minimum requirements: MS Windows 2000/XP; DirectX 9.0c; 3 GHz Processor; 2 GB RAM; nVidia GeForce 7950GT with 512 MB or equivalent ATI; DirectX-compatible soundcard; DVD-ROM; 5.5 GB free hard disk space; keyboard or mouse
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

King’s Bounty: The Legend is a hybrid tactical combat RPG created by Katauri Interactive that updates King’s Bounty, the 1990 classic by New World Computing. By purchasing the rights to a franchise that was a well-loved precursor to Heroes of Might and Magic, Katauri Interactive has indeed set itself up for a difficult task: to re-create a classic and, at the same time, make it innovative and new.

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While Adrenaline Vault was down, I undertook a minor experiment in memory upgrades: Readyboost. For those unfamilair with Readyboost, you can tell Vista to turn part of your flashdrive into an extension of the PC’s own memory. Because flashdrives access their memory faster than a hardrive, telling Windows to turn a couple of gigbytes of your flashdrive into extra memory  has the potential to speed up your PC.

In my case, I am not suffering any real shortage of memory; however, I had received an 8 gigbyte flashdrive as a gift. Now, since I don’t make a habit of toting 2 or 3 movies with me everywhere I go, I end up with plenty of empty space. Just for fun, I figured I would asee if I could get better performance out of my PC when running memory intensive games, such as LOTRO: Mines of Moria. I spent about a 3 weeks consistently using Readyboost, and in the tradition of Fight Club, I came up with a few rules.

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Publisher: Battlefront.com
Developer: Big Time Software
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Windows XP; Pentium IV 1.8 GHz or equivalent speed AMD processor; GeForce 5200 or Radeon 9200; DirectX 9 compatible Sound Card; 256 Megabytes RAM; 1 Gigabyte of free space on hard drive
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

While I enjoy a good first-person shooter, the one thing they often lack is some of the real, hardcore small-unit tactics often employed in the real world. Multiplayer matches, while entertaining, tend to devolve into frag-fests and silly, suicidal behavior because of seemingly important statistics and the ability to respawn. While it’s fun to grab a good set of realistic contemporary weapons and hunt down your friends on various maps, it’s no substitute for games that emphasize group tactics rather than individual skills. Games covering World War II and its squad-level engagements are quite plentiful, but developer Battlefront has decided to move into the 21st century with the release of Combat Mission: Shock Force – Marines, an expansion to Combat Mission: Shock Force. The original game covers a fictional conflict between the U.S. and Syria, set in the here and now, and the expansion follows the exploits of an MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit) as it takes on missions in this fictional conflict, adding to the U.S. Army-dominated content of the original.

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Publisher: Slitherine Software
Developer: Firepower, The Lordz Games Studios
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP; Intel Pentium 4, 1.4 GHz or fully compatible; 512 MB RAM; 300 MB of free space on hard drive; Java
Genre: Real-Time Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

The Napoleonic Wars seem to be a never-ending source of gaming inspiration. Whether it’s tabletop war games with their cardboard counters or computer games with the latest graphics, it’s hard to go wrong by picking this turbulent period in European history as a basis for strategy gaming. It had been quite some time since I had played a game set in this specific era until Slitherine’s Commander: Napoleon at War came across my virtual desk, and I confess that I looked forward to correcting the historic mistakes made by famous generals.

From the moment the game is installed, Commander: Napoleon at War clearly shows its allegiance to old-school tabletop games. CNW is a turn-based strategy game played on a map of Europe, parts of North America, North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. The game ships with a variety of scenarios, some of which cover individual campaigns such as the invasion of Russia or the Peninsular War, and a mega-campaign that highlights the political situation in Europe from 1805 to 1814. The map is divided into hexes, each of which covers a sizeable amount of land (there are 6 hexes between Paris and Brussels), giving the game a grand scope. Armies feature the kinds of troops you might expect, from light cavalry scouts to siege guns that break down fortifications quickly. However, given the scale of the game, these different kinds of units appear in large divisions rather than in smaller groups. Thus, the Grande Armée that invades Russia in the 1812 campaign includes only 16 individual units. This style of organization keeps the game manageable while giving it the room to encompass so much territory.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Taleworlds
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Pentium 766 MHz or compatible processor; Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista; Direct3D accelerator
Genre: RPG
Release date: September 16, 2008
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

A short time ago, I stumbled across Mount and Blade quite by accident. My editor let me know that I would be previewing the game and sent me the associated materials before I even knew anything about it. Considering that it’s been in development for years, I was surprised that I had never heard of developer Taleworlds and their flagship title. I was unprepared for what awaited me, but I was impressed with what I saw, even under the limited conditions of the preview version. Now I sit at my computer desk with the full version of Mount and Blade installed on my PC. I’ve spent the past two weeks being both a benefactor and a scourge to the land; my weapons have feasted upon many enemies. My mouse is probably as tired as my character’s horse, as they have both had quite a workout.

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