Developer: Telltale Games
System: PC
Minimum requirements: 1.5 GHz processor; 256 MB RAM; 32 MB 3D accelerated video card; Windows XP
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

Note: Sam and Max Episode 205 is a shorter, episodic game in a larger series. As the game uses the exact same engine as previous installments and seasons, this review will be similar in length to our XBLA reviews.

Following up on their success with Sam and Max Season One, Telltale games has been busy producing their second season of Sam and Max. In television terms, the final episode of Season Two brings the series to a climax. Bosco has died prematurely, and our two heroes must go down to Hell and try to free their friend. But Hell has been updated since Dante took us there in the Divine Comedy, and now Sam and Max must fight Hell LLC, a corporate entity whose CEO, Satan, is interested in efficiency. If this sounds like another wild and zany Sam and Max adventure, that’s because it is. The first season of Sam and Max was known for its crazy humor and absurd plotlines; season two is no different.

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It’s probably not news to those who play, but smart folks who are involved in the counter-terrorism industry are looking at how bio-terrorists in the virtual world operate. It seems like you could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars developing your own computer simulation and model, or pay the current subscription rate and get some time in leveling a character while doing your research. There seem to be enough players who have nothing better to do with their time than spread plagues and curses, so there’s no shortage of stuff to look at.

Blizzard isn’t real keen on having the words “terrorist” and “World of Warcraft” in the same sentence, though, and they’re adamant that World of Warcraft is just a game.  This should come as no surprise, seeing as how, well, it is a game. Of course, who decided to put these curses and plagues into the game? Well, Blizzard did. Whether it’s a complement to their franchise to have this kind of attention or not remains to be seen.

However, an annual “World of Warcraft Counter-Terrorism Symposium” is a long way off.  As Stuart Gottlieb points out, “I wouldn’t base a new counterterrorism strategy on the nuances of a videogame.” That’s probably wise. Just like the Martyrdom perk in Call of Duty 4, it’s an interesting game mechanic, but in real life, you can’t wait 10 seconds and respawn. Nor do your victims, for that matter.

Publisher: 3000AD
Developer: 3000AD
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Pentium IV 3.0 GHz or equivalent; 1 GB RAM; 256 MB video card with pixel and vertex shader 2.0; Windows XP or Vista
Genre: Simulator
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

2007 was big year for first-person shooters, along with the attendant increase in graphics and system requirements; however, it wasn’t a year with any space combat simulators worth mentioning. This was a bit disappointing, as this category of games, much like FPS titles, benefits from high-end machines and the latest DirectX. Indeed, the genre seemed to have been on hiatus until the release of Galactic Command: Echo Squad in March of this year. Coming to us from Derek Smart and the experienced designers at 3000AD, who brought us such classics as Battlecruiser 3000AD, Galactic Command: Echo Squad aims to be the solution to revitalizing this underserved genre.

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So it finally happened a little while ago. My computer, a top of the line custom built rig from four years ago, finally went to the great computer desk in the sky. One too many cords being unplugged and chewed on, and one too many things being dropped on the tower resulted in the death of my computer. I’ll mourn that machine for a long time……….

Okay, mourning time is over.

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Those familiar with my debacle with NetGear Wireless Garbage will no doubt remember the ultimate cause of that technological fiasco and my subsequent invective of discontent: my cat, Iago. Despite his fascination with destroying all cords, all the time, I still love him, much as a parent can love a child who destroys hundreds of dollars in household goods. But I’m not blind to his terrorism of electronic components. He is, after all, the reason for wireless networking, wireless keyboards and wireless mice. If someone would invent a cheap way to rig a monitor as wireless, I’d do that too, although he has some difficulty chewing the monitor cable; it’s a bit thick for his jaws.

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I have a sore spot in my soul for Electronic Arts. Not because of money ill spent or lackluster titles, but because I remember Bullfrog Productions. Bullfrog was the British developer for such ground breaking titles as Populous, Dungeon Keeper, and Syndicate. Those of you who remember will smile as I do when I think back to hours spent sending floods against the worshipers of the opposing deity or of training and disciplining the creatures of my dungeon. The programmers at Bullfrog had a certain synthesis of programming expertise and designing savvy. A generation of gamers on both PC and consoles, whether they know it or not, were influenced by the design decisions of these clever folks.

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Publisher: Activision
Developer: Infinity Ward
System: PC
Minimum requirements: 2.6 GHz Pentium IV or equivalent; 1024 MB RAM; DirectX 9-compliant Shader 3.0 card with 128 MB of DDR Video Memory, AGP 8X or PCI-Express x16; 16-bit DirectX 9-compliant sound card; Windows XP or Vista
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

I’m a skeptical person when it comes to advertising or previews for any product. Long before I became a reviewer for the Adrenaline Vault, I’d find myself furrowing my brow when reading about game features. Unless I played the demo or a respected reviewer gave the game a thumbs up, I was unlikely to purchase it. But my normal skepticism is always doubled anytime I see references to “modern warfare” or “…the most intense and cinematic action experience ever” because of my military background and the general quality of cinema coming out of Hollywood. And so, with a guarded expression, I installed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare onto my computer with its freshly formatted hard drive. Hours later, I found myself still playing and it was well past my bedtime, something I haven’t done with a FPS since I installed AVP in 1998. When the same thing happened the next night, there was no doubt in my mind that this may be one of the best first person shooters, worthy of being ranked alongside Doom.

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Let me preface this blog by thanking MobyGames for all of their high quality screenshots of classic games. Without their hard work and their kind permission to repost the screenshots in question, this post would not have been possible. Thanks a million!

Regulars here at Avault will have recently seen my review of Crysis and the very specific warnings I related about the game’s stiff system requirements. While there’s no denying that trend in PC gaming is always toward programs that utilize more and more processing power, memory and storage space, Crysis bore special mention because its requirements are beyond even those of its contemporaries, in some cases significantly higher. For many hardcore gamers, whose systems easily exceed the minimum requirements for Crysis, I’m betting my warning was merely seen as a justification for their extremely high end systems and then ignored. In fact, I’d be disappointed if anyone with a top of the line Alienware system felt intimidated by my statements.

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Publisher: Crytek
Developer: EA
System: PC
Minimum requirements: 2.8 GHz processor for Windows XP or 3.2 GHz processor for Windows Vista; 1 GB RAM; 256 MB 3D video card; 12 GB hard drive space; DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card; Windows XP or Vista
Genre: First-person shooter
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

While I would love to have said it first, it was Bob Mandel here at Avault who pointed out in November out how rich the holiday season was going to be for FPS titles. Just for the PC, we saw Timeshift and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, but if you add in cross platform games and console-only titles, you have Halo 3, Orange Box, Bioshock and Warhawk. The release of any one of these titles by itself would give any gamer a solid few months of first-person action, but the release of all of them within a few months of each other puts all of us players in a quandary. While most of us can afford some of these games, few of us can afford all of them at the same time. Choosing the right release is difficult, and it’s become even harder now that EA has released Crysis.

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Publisher: Merscom
Developer: Auran Games
System: PC
Minimum requirements: 1.5 GHz processor; 512 MB RAM; 3D Graphics Card with 64 MB RAM; DirectX 9.0; 5 GB free hard disk space; Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista
Genre: Train Simulator
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pirtuzzello

Simulators of all types have come a long way since Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.00 was first licensed for IBM PCs in 1982. Like all other games, some of them have been better than others, but the best of the genre share a few common features: good graphics, realistic physics and complex controls. However, the most important feature of a good simulator is the willingness of designers to fully use the power of the computer to implement the minutest details. The consumers of such titles are looking for the fine points, whether they’re slight changes in wind patterns that would only be observable to a trained pilot or the correct placement of a fully functional fuel gauge on the instrument panel of a Ferrari. To the connoisseur, such details make or break the game. With this in mind, I installed Trainz: Railwayz, the most recent installment in a line of train simulators developed by Auran Games. More specifically, I installed three games spanning two DVDs: Trainz Railroad Simulator as well as Harlem Line Edition and Metropolis Edition. What greeted me were two iterations of the same game engine spanning a generation of development, each with three distinct modes of play coupled with an active online community of enthusiasts and user made content.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Paradox Interactive
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Pentium III 450 MHz processor or equivalent; 128 MB RAM; 600 MB free hard drive space; 4MB DirectX compatible video card; DirectX sound card; DirectX 9.0 or higher; Windows 98 SE, 2000, XP
Genre: Strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

Every once in awhile, a game comes along that’s infuriating because it’s both a blast to play and plagued with problems. Such a game was Crusader Kings. Released in 2004, it offered a different kind of empire building from other strategy titles. Rather than taking the helm of a country, the player took control of a feudal dynasty. Because a dynasty is composed of people rather than just lands and armies, players had to spend half their time playing the game as if it was a CRPG, taking care of their dynasty’s characters and making sure to keep them titled, married and in the good graces of the Church. The frustration came not from the excellent gameplay, but from a buggy engine that suffered from inexplicable CTDs, dead characters who remained titled and in play, and bizarre loopholes in the rules that allowed strange things such as sons being appointed to the Papacy, who in turn inherited their father’s kingdoms. Despite these persistent problems, Crusader Kings enjoyed a small but loyal following, and after it was patched, it became a wonderful game to play.

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As those who have read my bio on Avault might have noticed, I claim to have very little skill in multiplayer. (If you haven’t noticed because you haven’t read my bio on the main blog page, just smile and nod.) While there are probably a thousand reasons why I’m not brilliant at multiplayer, what’s more interesting is that despite my obvious failings when facing humans in mortal combat, I actually do enjoy it. However, I don’t find myself playing against my human friends very often. Instead, we play co-op: two humans, battling together against the forces of [insert currently preferred antagonist here] and triumphing against carefully constructed and measured odds.
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Every once in a while, when problems in the apartment get to be too much, I make rash decisions. And so, it was one fine day, almost a year ago, when my cat Iago was busily chewing on yet another network cable only minutes after he had chewed completely through the mouse cord, that I decided wireless networking was for me. Without checking online for hardware reviews, I jumped in my car, drove to Best Buy and practically ran to the networking section. Much to my delight, NETGEAR products were on sale. For around $100, I walked out of Best Buy with a NETGEAR WGT624SC router and three WPN111 USB wireless networking adapters. It seemed I’d have my apartment networked in about 30 minutes, and this time there would be no cords for Iago to chew upon.

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One of the fascinating things about studying English literature, or any other literature for that matter, is how the literary conventions used by an earlier author are “used and abused” by later writers. Stories of heroic knights in shining armor fighting one another or monsters pervade the Middle Ages; however, by the time Shakespeare writes plays such as 1 Henry IV, characters such as Falstaff denounce such heroism and valor as foolish even as various other characters in the play speak in the language of chivalry. The fact that in the 21st century we gamers find ourselves playing CRPGs which further mutate the tradition of the questing romantic hero indicates that the form and structure of such literature never really goes away. It just gets subverted and used in new ways. I can only imagine what Chaucer or Malory would think of CRPGs such as Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights. The number of magic items even a single character equips would probably flabbergast them.

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Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Developer: Wargaming.net
System: PC
Minimum requirements: Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon 2500, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 6600 with 128 MB VRAM, 2 GB hard drive space, DirectX 8.1 compatible sound card, Windows XP with SP2
Genre: Real-time strategy
Release date: Available now
Review by: Jason Pitruzzello

If you’ve been a gamer long enough, you find there’s a certain feel to various genres. CRPGs can involve a significant amount of time spent not actually playing the game as players spend hours crafting characters and computing the viability of various builds. In contrast, FPS titles involve a unique combination of map memorization and cat-like reflexes. A similar analogy can be found with TBS games and RTS titles. Real-time strategy games are adrenaline-pumping click fests, where the right application of a hotkey can bring victory or defeat. On the other hand, someone playing a turn-based strategy game can often sit back for a moment, sip their favorite beverage, and consider the implications of maneuvering two squads of infantry under cover of darkness to flank the enemy while ordering their artillery to bombard a different area as a distraction. To say that one style of game is better than the other is to miss the real point: depending on your mood and personal preferences, one might suit you better than the other, and which one you prefer might change when the sun rises on a new day. For me, it had been a long time since I’d played a turn-based title, and I was quite ready for one when Galactic Assault: Prisoner of Power arrived.

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