Review by: Jim Richmond
Published: August 26, 2003

How many people here have played Myst? Okay, put down your hands, I can see that’s everybody. Myst could arguably be one of the most successful computer games of all time. It has sold well over ten million copies on CD, before CD drives were standard on PCs, and transcended genres before genres really got established. It was The Sims of 1994. Being that it embodied a successful formula for adventure puzzle games, it’s natural that it would be used as the boilerplate for titles that followed. Now almost a decade after Myst entered our collective consciousness, RHEM arrives to try to breathe some life back into adventure puzzling by following the legendary blueprint of the classic release. ( read more… )

Review by: Jim Richmond
Published: August 12, 2003

Many people don’t know it, but there’s an underground movement afoot. Lurking in the shadows are thousands of people, maybe even tens of thousands, who engage in a tradition that was first recorded as far back as the early 1800′s. This clandestine society largely goes unnoticed because their aim is not political upheaval or social change, it’s an affinity for playing correspondence chess. Actually, as I researched for this review I was surprised at the sheer number of organizations, teams, leagues, websites, and newsletters that are out there supporting the pastime of correspondence gaming; chess aficionados being by far the largest segment represented. Counted among their numbers are people from all walks of life including personalities like the dearly departed Humphrey Bogart who played correspondence chess with GI’s hospitalized in Europe during World War II. (Bogart was later ordered by the FBI to stop sending letters because they suspected he was passing coded messages to the Germans.) Bringing a taste of this strategy entertainment style to the PC, developer Codo Technologies delivers the email-enabled strategy title, Laser Squad Nemesis.

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Review by: Jim Richmond
Published: July 9, 2003

Buy low and sell high. That’s the basic principal of good investing and it seems simple enough. Why, then, am I not able to do this when I log into Ameritrade? When it comes to playing the markets I have the antithesis of the Midas touch. Every stock I own turns to dookey in my hands. Fortunately, when I apply my acumen for moneymaking to the virtual world, I fare much better. Such is the case with Port Royale, the newest game from developer Ascaron Entertainment and publisher Tri Synergy. ( read more… )

Review by: Jim Richmond
Published: June 30, 2003

One of the great draws to strategy games is the thrill of squashing your adversary and listening to him squeal like a lobster dropped into a pot of boiling water as you chip away at the fabric of his virtual nation. In the evolution of the strategy genre, we found that the screaming and gnashing of teeth generated by a real human opponent is vastly more satisfying to a conquering hero than the digitized whimper of surrender let out by a computerized rival. But once we’ve alienated all of our friends because we keep shouting “Suck it down, monkey boy!” as our forces steamroll their shattered village, where are we to go for good competition? Friendless and challenge-starved, we turn to the Internet, where people just like us will be at the mercy of our Napoleon-esque tactics and Draconian treatment of their presence in our territory. To satisfy our craving for boiled lobster, Nicely Crafted brings to the table the massively multiplayer online strategy game, Time of Defiance.

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Review by: Jim Richmond
Published: June 10, 2003

The marketing tagline for the movie “Alien” was, “In space, no one can hear you scream.” The funny thing was that most of the film actually took place inside claustrophobic tin can hallways. Recently, Digital Anvil showed us a glimpse of how large the universe is in Freelancer, but even then, people groaned that the story was too linear and didn’t give players any reason to explore space once the tale was over. Enter developer Crowd Control Productions and publisher Simon & Schuster with EVE Online: The Second Genesis, a massively multiplayer game that has so many corners of space, a single-player adventure couldn’t hold them all. ( read more… )

Review by: Jim Richmond
Published: May 30, 2003

There’s a short list of turn-based games that have left a truly indelible impression on the hearts and in the minds of gamers. X-Com: UFO Defense was the first one I remember that got it right, and even it couldn’t inspire a decent sequel. A few series have managed to sustain a quality run, like Heroes of Might and Magic, because every new iteration was able to leap forward without losing the spark that made the previous ones good in the first place. Real-time gameplay has been overrunning the strategy and warfare genres for years, and quality turn-based offerings are getting harder to find than original body parts on Joan Rivers. Is there any life left in taking turns with the computer? Mayhem Studios and Summitsoft Entertainment aim to answer that question with the release of Empire of Magic. ( read more… )

Review by: Jim Richmond
Published: May 21, 2003

The UN mission in Somalia during 1993 marked some dark days in the annals of American history. Even though our time there didn’t turn out how anyone expected, American soldiers fought bravely in ugly battles trying to bring order to a fractured nation during Operations Restore Hope and Continue Hope. These hard fought conflicts are the subject of the newest chapter in Novalogic’s Delta Force series – Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. ( read more… )