Call of Juarez

Review:
Yes, Polish developer Techland made a number of interesting design choices with Call of Juarez, originally released in Europe on the PC in 2006. While the game does a number of things very well, it does not stand out in any particular area. Still, you'll probably be laughing your way all the way through this cliche-ridden, tongue-in-cheek effort that does its best spaghetti Western impression. If Call of Juarez is the prism through which the world sees our nation's heritage, it's a wonder we ever made it out alive with our leather chaps intact. Either way, you're in for one hell of a ride.
Call of Juarez tells the story of young Billy Candle and the righteous Reverend Ray. Billy has been off searching for the lost gold of Juarez, the same mythical stash that the Aztecs paid Cortez to free their captured leader, Montezuma. It is said that the lost cursed treasure is buried somewhere in Juarez. After searching without luck, Billy returns home to Hope, the small town that is about as hopeless as it gets. Soon after a brief rendezvous with the local prostitute, Billy returns home to his mother and abusive stepfather. There's only one problem -- they're dead. Sucks to be them.
Reverend Ray is a reformed gunman turned preacher. He is also Billy's uncle. When Ray stumbles across Billy standing over the body of his dead brother and dead sister-in-law, Ray takes up arms once more to become God's sword and strike down Billy Candle. And so begins the epic game of cat-and-mouse that will touch upon just about every Western cliche out there, from the wise old Indian sage to the sultry saloon prostitute to a train robbery to a stagecoach chase and, eventually, to the lost gold of Juarez.

Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows 2000, XP, XP64 CPU: P4 2.2Ghz
Athlon 2400+ (Celeron 2.4) or Higher Graphic Card: 128M
DirectX9.0c compatible (nVidia: GeForce 6600 or higher, ATI: Radeo 9800 or higher)
Ram : 512MB (1024MB recommended)
Hard Drive : 2 GB free disk space DVD-Rom Drive: 2X Sound Card
Direct X 9 compatible Multiplayer
56k modem for online play (broadband recommended)

CD Key:
COJ-RKYRT-9FACF-YE9AA-E9XCF-ECF9Y
R3TFY-CPYFW-YY77W-X9A3F-RWPLL
CEKCT-KFKRW-9E79X-3R9EP-XRRER
43333-4444L-73X79-9994R-CCCC3

Thief III : The Deadly Shadow

Review:
One of the many reasons why 1998 was such a groundbreaking year for gaming is Thief: The Dark Project, a game that helped invent what's now commonly referred to as the stealth action genre. Though two other noteworthy stealth action games were released that same year--Metal Gear Solid and Tenchu: Stealth Assassins--Thief's brand of stealth was the most convincing, and it went on to become the most influential. The original developer of Thief and its similar sequel is unfortunately no longer in business, but Eidos and Ion Storm thankfully snatched up the rights and have finally delivered a new chapter in the series that's suitable for longtime Thief fans and newcomers alike. Like its predecessors, the new Thief: Deadly Shadows features a memorable protagonist, a great setting, and some very interesting missions. It also happens to suffer from a variety of miscellaneous, minor flaws. These are unfortunate, since Thief: Deadly Shadows is great game, for the most part.
At its core, Deadly Shadows sticks very closely to the formula of the older Thief games, which are first-person perspective action adventures in which you must carry out a series of high-risk, high-reward missions as Garrett, a self-serving master thief living in a cold, surreal, medieval world. As in previous Thief games, the gameplay in Deadly Shadows primarily revolves around having to retrieve a bunch of special trinkets (and other riches) from assorted heavily guarded establishments--and doing so by hiding in shadows, waiting for unsuspecting guards to turn their backs, and then blackjacking them so that they remain unconscious for the remainder of the mission. You'll have a wide variety of other gadgets to help you, including lock picks, water arrows for dousing torches and other firelight, flashbombs for temporarily blinding opponents, and more. There's always a compass onscreen to help you navigate the sometimes mazelike environments, and you'll also be paying close attention to the onscreen "light gem," which changes color depending on how well-concealed you are. This interface feature has always worked great in the Thief series.

Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows 2000/XP
Processor: 1.5 GHz
Memory: 256 MB
Hard Drive: 3 GB Free
Video Memory: 64 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0
Keyboard & Mouse
CD/DVD Rom Drive

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I.G.I 2:Covert Strike

Review:
Sometimes a mediocre game can seem worse than an outright dud. When you're playing an obviously terrible game, you can usually put it safely aside and move on to something better. But mediocre games like Innerloop Studios' IGI 2: Covert Strike trick you into thinking that there might be something great just around the corner, only to repeatedly disappoint you. The previous game, Project IGI, was an above-average shooter when it was released in 2000, despite some serious shortcomings. But things have changed since then--more-sophisticated and more-stylish action games such as Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, No One Lives Forever 2, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell have raised the bar for action games. Yet Innerloop has slid under it with IGI 2, which is a shooter that might have seemed exciting if it had been released in 2000, but is mostly forgettable now.
IGI 2 does have seem to have some basic mechanics to encourage interesting stealth-based gameplay, but in practice, the stealth elements are often tedious, frustrating, or implemented too obviously. All too often, you'll get the feeling that IGI 2's designers were following some sort some kind of action-game design handbook. You'll find levels where you'll obviously be required to sneak up behind a guard and incapacitate him, or levels in which you're clearly supposed to crouch behind a pile of crates to avoid being spotted by a security camera. In fact, IGI 2 may make you feel like you're jumping through hoops instead of pulling off dramatically daring feats, so you may be tempted to forget stealth and just start shooting things up.

Minimum System Requirements:
* OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
* Processor: Pentium 3 @ 700 MHz
* Memory: 128 MB
* Hard Drive: 1.9 GB Free
* Video Memory: 32 MB
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 8.1
* Keyboard & Mouse
* CD/DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements
* OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
* Processor: Pentium 4 @ 1.4 GHz
* Memory: 512 MB
* Hard Drive: 1.9 GB Free
* Video Memory: 64 MB
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 8.1
* Keyboard & Mouse
* CD/DVD Rom Drive

GTA Sanandreas

Review:

By now, you probably know how this works. The new Grand Theft Auto game comes out in October, but only on the PlayStation 2. Xbox and PC owners have to wait a half a year or so for their versions of the game, and each always has the potential to be better than the original release. That's saying something, because we're already talking about one of the best games of 2004 and the best game in the Grand Theft Auto series. Once again, the wait is over, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is now available on the PC and Xbox. While both versions have aspects that are better than the outstanding PS2 game, visual weirdness on the Xbox and a handful of technical issues on the PC prevent either version from being the clear-cut best of the bunch.

For those of you already familiar with the game, let's quickly discuss the differences between all three versions. The Xbox one has 480p support, but when enabled, the aliasing is out of control. Portions of the environment look so unbelievably jaggy that you'll wonder if your eyesight is failing you. At times it looks like you're playing a 3D game without putting on the glasses. But if you can get past that (it isn't quite as noticeable in standard resolution), the game generally looks great. Loading times on the Xbox don't seem to be much faster than the PlayStation 2 release, and for some weird reason, a loading message occasionally appears onscreen, even in situations where the load times are supposed to be hidden, like when changing your hairstyle. Control in the Xbox version is sharp, and just like the GTA Double Pack, your vehicle gas and brake controls have been moved to the triggers and made analog. This works well, but the flight controls, which have also been remapped to fit on the Xbox controller, are a little weird.

The PC version comes on DVD only and is packaged with a fully bound book that serves as the manual. It's definitely some of the coolest PC game packaging around. This version also has the potential to be the best-looking version of the game by a long shot. Support for higher resolutions makes the textures and characters look sharper and much better than either of the console versions. There's a draw distance slider that, when turned all the way up, almost totally eliminates the draw-in and fogging that's become synonymous with the series. Your Grove Street home looks much more like a run-down South Central neighborhood when you can see more of its surroundings. But all this graphical quality is offset by some serious problems with the sound. Testing on three different machines that exceed the recommended system specs got us three results. On one machine, we didn't experience any audio glitches. On another, the audio simply cut out a lot, leaving you to drive around with only music to keep you company. It's tough to play when you can't hear your mission descriptions. On the third machine, loading up a save game caused a loud grating noise--which sounded like the bike-riding audio mixed with a helicopter--to scream out from the middle of the Grove. We had to hop in a car and drive away from the area to make the noises stop. Also, the cutscenes occasionally desynched from the audio, making the lip movement appear to be way off.

Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows 2000/XP
Processor: Pentium 3 @ 1 GHz
Memory: 256 MB
Hard Drive: 3.6 GB Free
Video Memory: 64 MB (GeForce 3)
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0
Keyboard & Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements:
OS: Windows 2000/XP
Processor: Pentium 4 Processor or Athlon Equivalent
Memory: 384 MB
Hard Drive: 3.6 GB Free
Video Memory: 128 MB (GeForce 4)
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0
Keyboard & Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

Tribes 3: Vengeance

Review:
The Tribes series has had legions of fans since the first Earthsiege title was released over ten years ago. (To stave off hundreds of irate emails from longtime fans, we are aware that some trace the series goes all the way back to the Stellar 7 games but, for us, Tribes starts with Earthsiege.) With the unfortunate dissolution of Dynamix three years ago, gamers were understandably worried about the future of the franchise. Thankfully, Vivendi decided to place their hopes for the future of the Tribes universe in the reliable hands of the folks at Irrational Games.
As the developers of Freedom Force and System Shock 2, it may seem that the choice was somewhat, well, irrational. But that's only until you consider that Vivendi wanted a really good single player experience out of this newest game. Given that the setting and mechanics were already firmly in place, Irrational was the perfect choice to craft a compelling plot for a single player version.
The game takes place hundreds of years before the original Tribes when the Tribal War was first heating up. Players will already be familiar with the Blood Eagles and Phoenix when they appear here and will come to appreciate the ideology and aesthetic of the Imperial faction as well. Though I won't spoil any of the plot points here, I will say that the story has you playing as several different characters on different sides of the conflict. You'll get to experience two idealistic royal princesses, a pair of grizzled Tribals, and a cold, mysterious assassin of uncertain allegiance.

Minimum Requirements:
Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP operating system
ATI® Radeon™ or equivalent DirectX® 9.0c-compliant 32 MB 3D video card with hardware T&L and pixel shader support
1.0 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD® Athlon™ processor or equivalent
256 MB RAM
915MB of uncompressed hard disk space for game files
DirectX® 9.0c (included), DirectX®-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones, Microsoft® compatible mouse and keyboard.

Recommended:
Windows® XP
ATI® Radeon™ 9600 or equivalent DirectX® 9.0c-compliant 128 MB 3D video card with hardware T&L and pixel shader support
2.5 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD® Athlon™ or faster processor
512 MB RAM or more
24X or faster CD-ROM driveCrack:

Harry-Potter:Order of Pheonix

Review:
Welcome, Fifth Years, back to Hogwarts. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, an EA-developed adventure game based on the movie and book of the same name, the Boy Who Lived is growing up. He's just come from the unexpected death of a classmate, a rude battle with Lord Voldemort, and a summer spent writing letters to friends who have for some odd reason gone incommunicado. So as Potter returns to wizardry school for another year of lessons, he's a little peeved. To make matters worse, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge, not only doesn't believe Harry's allegation that Voldemort is on the loose, but she seems to take pleasure in calling him to detention. Ever since he was invited into the underworld of magic so many years ago, the reluctant hero hasn't had a moment to relax, and even though he'd rather spend time with his boyhood infatuation, Cho, he must now teach a secret sect of students calling themselves Dumbledore's Army the defensive spells that Umbridge won't.
We have grown up with Potter through the years, dissecting the books and fighting over the triumphs and failures of the movies, so we can state as real fans that The Order of the Phoenix was our least favorite entry into J.K. Rowling's phenomenally successful franchise. It is uneventful by comparison to the other books and Harry wastes too much time being angry about all matters, trivial or not. Still, it is a testament to the quality of the series that even the low point in the books remains entertaining and, at times, riveting. EA has with its new game capitalized on the fifth-year experience, taking what works and running with it, but also delivering fans a completely contained Hogwarts universe, fully explorable, that exists outside of the Order of the Phoenix storyline. The result is directly opposite the book it's based on; this latest digital exploration of Harry's universe is, although not without its flaws, the most compelling and immersive yet and we're therefore certain that die-hard fans will be hooked by the presentation, the school itself and everything there is to do and see.
Minimum System Requirements:

* OS: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista
* Processor: Pentium 3 @ 933 MHz
* Memory: 256 MB
* Hard Drive: 2 GB Free
* Video Memory: 64 MB (NVIDIA GeForce 3/ATI Radeon 8500)
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive

God-Father II

Review:

If The Godfather II had been a mediocre, mindless action flick, the game of the same name could at least be considered faithful to its source material. As it is, though, Coppola's Mafia-themed masterpiece has been reduced to an uninspired, repetitive open-world action game with out-of-context movie quotes and a handful of recognizable characters sprinkled throughout its forgettable story. To make matters worse, The Godfather II has clearly been released in an unfinished state and is riddled with performance issues and bugs like they've been fired from a Tommy gun.

You play as Dominic, an important member of the Corleone family who somehow managed to make it through the epic movie trilogy without ever wandering into camera shot despite apparently being involved in a number of key scenes. As one of Michael Corleone's most trusted men, you've been groomed to head up your own family, and after a brief introductory sequence set in Cuba, the game proper gets under way in a diminutive New York where you're instructed to set about making a name for yourself. From this point on, much of your time is spent seizing and attempting to retain control of businesses run by rival families in order to make money and, ultimately, force said families to retreat into their compounds where you can eliminate them entirely. Unfortunately, killing rival mafiosi and intimidating business owners gets repetitive quickly and isn't much fun to begin with.

That's largely because the gunplay in The Godfather II is neither challenging nor satisfying. You have an impressive arsenal at your disposal, and weapons like the Magnum and the shotgun really feel like they pack a punch, but the enemies you're using them against rarely seem too interested in self-preservation. Too many of them simply stand their ground or charge at you and, if they somehow manage to get close before you put a couple of bullets in their heads, can easily be grabbed, punched, strangled, or head-butted into the afterlife. With that said, the made men working for rival families are geniuses compared to the clowns you get to recruit into your own family. They have their uses, but even having them do something as simple as walk through a doorway ahead of you or climb into one of the game's many slow but slippery cars with you can take some work. Predictably, things don't get any better when they're put into combat situations or are asked to perform the very specific tasks that they supposedly each specialize in, which include cracking safes, committing arson, and kicking down doors.

The problem isn't that they're unable to perform those tasks; it's that walking from A to B is rarely straightforward for them. When they're not failing to get into cars with you or running rings around one another at superhuman speeds, your guys can often be observed wandering off in the wrong direction or just remaining stationary while appearing to ponder their next step. Doorways are especially problematic, regardless of whether you're leading the way or are trying to send your guys in ahead of you to soak up some enemy fire. When you're in front, it's not uncommon to open a door, step into a room, and encounter the guys that were right behind you already standing around waiting for you in there. Other times they prefer to enter through different doors while running backward, or perhaps crash through a window for an entrance that really gets them noticed. If you turn your back on them, though, they'll be warped instantly to your side, sometimes.

Minimum System Requirements:
* OS: Windows XP SP2/Vista
* Processor: Pentium 4 @ 2.8 GHz/AMD Athlon64 3000+, or any Athlon64 X2/Core Duo processor)
* Memory: 1 GB for XP/2 GB for Vista
* Hard Drive: 9+ GB Free
* Video Memory: 256 MB* (Please Check Below)
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive

Devil May Cry:4

Review:
Devil May Cry fans know what they expect from the action series: they look for fast paced action sequences that require solid timing instead of button mashing. They expect large scale battles with insane bosses and hordes of monsters that barely give the player a second to breath. They also expect characters to take the dangerous settings lightly, with a large dose of sarcasm and a snarky outlook towards the supernatural surroundings they find themselves in. Well, DMC fans, take heart: Devil May Cry 4, the latest chapter in the series and the first true sequel in the Devil May Cry chronology maintains all of these trademarks while showcasing the power of the PS3 fairly well.
That is, for the most part. See, Dante fans may find themselves a bit disappointed in their favorite character's new role within the series: instead of taking over the spotlight as he has in the previous three games, the anti-hero takes on a secondary position to franchise newcomer Nero. DMC4 is really more of his story and his coming of age within the Sparda-influenced universe than a tale that picks up after the events of DMC1. Is this a bad turn of events? No, not really, although some of the hardcore might wonder if the game could've had a different title with a Dante cameo instead of a Devil May Cry chapter.
The story of Devil May Cry 4 is set in and around the coastal town of Fortuna, which has an interesting tale by itself: it's governed by a militant theocracy known as The Order of the Sword, and protected by a group of Holy Knights. The people of the town worship the demon knight Sparda as a god and savior. During a ceremony in honor of their deity, Nero, a young knight, sees Dante crash through a window and slaughter the leader of the Order, as well as many of his friends. While he doesn't know who Dante is or why he's attacking them, Nero wants revenge for Dante's actions. What follows over the course of 20 missions is a quest of revenge and betrayal, as well as salvation and sacrifice, as Nero hunts Dante down across the land.
Apathetic and dismissive of authority, Nero is a younger, more angst-filled character than Dante's older, wiser and more sarcastic outlook on the world. However, he's just as skilled as the Son of Sparda, with a wide range of abilities to support him in combat. The first, and perhaps most obvious element, is the Devil Bringer, his demonically-enhanced right arm that allows him to project an energy arm ahead of him. This allows Nero to grasp distant objects, which he'll use to reach new areas or scale heights, as well as grab, throw and punch opponents. While this can be used to start or extend obvious combos, perhaps one of the most intriguing elements is that the arm responds differently when used against each opponent in the game. For example, players will grip and throw some creatures by their tails, while others may be pulled apart or even used as weapons against their allies. This can be factored into players' plans when using Nero's primary attacks in battle.

Minimum System Requirements:
* OS: Windows XP/Vista
* Processor: Pentium 4 @ 3 GHz
* Memory: 512 MB (1 GB for Vista)
* Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
* Video Memory: 256 MB (nVidia GeForce 6600 SM3 Required)
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements:
* OS: Windows XP/Vista
* Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO
* Memory: 1 GB (2 GB for Vista)
* Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
* Video Memory: 512 MB (nVidia GeForce 8600)
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c or 10
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive
* Game Pad STRONGLY Recommended

Beijing 2008-The Official Game

Review:

Who knew qualifying for the Olympics could be so difficult? Instead of a worldwide competition crafted around ideas that fit in with the modern gaming landscape, this is just an archaic compilation of mostly old, painful gameplay techniques that wore out their welcome decades ago. Not only do many of Beijing's events focus on the sadistic control method of rapidly tapping two buttons until your fingers burn, but the unfathomable difficulty of the early rounds makes the experience almost as grueling as training for the real thing. The few redeeming elements only squirt a few drops of perfume on the overwhelming stench of the rest of this game.

Though all 36 events in Beijing 2008 have some problem, the biggest issue is the ridiculous attributes system you use to level up your team during the qualifying rounds. For some reason, you control a group of athletes who are slow, weak, and embarrassingly out of shape. By winning qualifying events, you can pump points into categories such as power, speed, and stamina. This is in sharp contrast to real life, where competitors show up to the games fully prepared to face off against the best in the world. If you fail to achieve the goal for the day (such as placing in three of the five chosen events), you are branded a failure and have to start that day all over again. Since you are athletically inferior to all of your opponents, you'll find yourself bringing up the rear over and over again.

Every event in Beijing 2008 that involves racing is agonizing. The 11 swimming and running events all require you to repeatedly slam on the buttons to gain speed, which is not only painful but fairly unresponsive as well. Anything that requires pure speed--such as the 100-meter dash--is nearly impossible. After you take your mark, you'll have to anxiously wait for the starter pistol to blast before you can begin. The problem is, there are no audio or visual indicators to tell you when the gun will fire. You have to keep count in your head, which means you will often find yourself starting well after the rest of the pack or suffering a disqualification for jumping too soon. Cycling has the honor of being the worst of the included racing challenges. You have to rotate both analog sticks for more than four consecutive minutes, a technique that is the polar opposite of fun.

Minimum System Requirements:

* OS: Windows XP
* Processor: Pentium 4 @ 2.4 Ghz or Equivalent
* Memory: 1 GB
* Video Memory: 6600 Nvidia graphics card or ATI equivalent with support for Pixel
* hader 3.
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements:

* OS: Windows XP / Vista
* Processor: AMD or Intel Dual Core Processor
* Memory: 1 GB
* Video Memory: 7800 Nvidia graphics card or ATI equivalent.
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive

Far Cry 2

Review:
In Far Cry 2's chaotic world of mercenaries, gunrunners, and armed militias, you'll find yourself dropped into a dizzying web of shady clients and paper-thin alliances. All manner of names and faces are introduced during the course of the storyline, but the real star isn't anyone brandishing a smuggled weapon in search of blood diamonds; it's the daunting and awe-inspiring 50-square kilometers of African landscape that make up the game's open-world setting. Aside from providing the opportunity to soak up an amazing sunset, Far Cry 2's free-roaming terrain brilliantly harmonizes with the first-person combat. The diverse landscape and myriad environmental factors work alongside a wide assortment of weaponry to give you tremendous freedom to approach each mission. Combined with solid multiplayer, Far Cry 2's sheer breadth of action provides you with plenty of reason to stay lost in the African wilderness despite an underwhelming plot and the occasional sense of tedium in navigating from one location to another on the gargantuan map.
Far Cry 2's story is filled with potential. You're a mercenary working for a client who's sent you to an unnamed African nation engulfed in civil war, and your job is to take out a notorious arms dealer known as "The Jackal." He quickly proves to be an elusive figure, so you'll need to begin working for various warring factions that the Jackal has armed so you can trace the supply line back to your target. The two primary organizations at the heart of all this bloodshed are the militaristic UFLL and the revolutionary APR. You'll spend the bulk of the story working for these two groups, getting to know their power structures, and taking on all of the violent tasks they throw your way. Complicating things is the fact that your character has malaria, which means you'll need to occasionally play nice with the more ragtag Underground, the only group with the medical connections necessary to keep your potentially life-threatening symptoms at bay.
Minimum System Requirements:

* OS: Windows XP/Vista
* Processor: Pentium 4 @ 3.2 GHz/Athlon 64 3500+/Pentium D @ 2.66 GHz
* Memory: 1 GB
* Video Memory: 256 MB (nVidia GeForce 6800/ATI Radeon X1650)
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements:

* OS: Windows XP/Vista
* Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+/Intel Core 2 DUO or AMD Phenom
* Memory: 2 GB
* Video Memory: 512 MB (nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS/ATI Radeon X1900)
* Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
* DirectX: 9.0c or 10
* Keyboard & Mouse
* DVD Rom Drive