What starts in the city is settled in the canyons as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you into the world's most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing. You and your crew must race in an all-out war for the city, risking everything to take over your rivals' neighborhoods one block at a time. As the police turn up the heat, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve. Need for Speed Carbon delivers the next generation of customization giving you the power to design and tweak your crew's cars in every way using the ground-breaking new Autosculpt technology. Represent your car class, your crew, and your turf in Need for Speed Carbon, the next revolution in racing games.
The story this time around is unfortunately washed out and disappointing in this year's rendition of the NFS series. Following from the events surrounding the end of last year's Need for Speed: Most Wanted, you return as the unnamed/unidentified racer who has wandered his way back into a city where he obviously has some bad history and isn't very well liked. Right into the story, you find a returning character from Rockport (the city in Most Wanted) who helps add some familiarity to the title for those who played the last one, but also unfortunately adds little to the story development and progression. It's surprising that players will span almost the entire length of the Career mode without knowing what's clearly going on in the game's seemingly non-existent plot. In other titles in the series, EA has managed to fill in a decent storyline to compliment a genre where it's often hard to do so, but this time came up short. Fans of Most Wanted will find it a turn off this time around as the narrative is much less engaging and appears to be more than an afterthought.
Also returning from last year's rendition are the FMV-based cutscenes that drive the story. This year's belle is played by Emmanuelle Vaugier, who adds a surprisingly more down to earth face, but unfortunately falls victim to shallow character design and story. The FMV sequences themselves remain beautifully crafted and characters are much less stereotypical and "cheesey" this time around, but odd dialog and a storyline villan that lacks flair and tenacity of last year's fan favorite Razor. The dialog is much slower this time around and leaves a bland taste in your mouth, and remains barely enough to help drive the narrative.
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Need for Speed Carbon
Need for Speed Undercover
Need for Speed Undercover has players racing through speedways, dodging cops and chasing rivals as they go deep undercover to take down an International crime syndicate. The game heralds the return of high-intensity police chases and introduces the all-new 'Heroic Driving Engine' -- a unique technology that generates incredible high-performance moves at 180 miles per hour during breathtaking highway battles. A mix of computer graphics and live-action movies immerses gamers in the rich world of the Tri-City Bay Area.
The city's open-world environment features over 80 miles of roads, including an enormous highway system that sets the stage for highway battles. These high-speed, high-stake chase sequences push players to the limit as they fight off cops and opponents while whipping through traffic at 180 miles per hour. An intelligent new A.I. mechanic delivers a realistic and high-energy action driving experience.
Going back to the franchise's roots, Need for Speed Undercover features more aggressive and intelligent cops whose sole purpose is to take down the player quickly and by any means necessary. Need for Speed Undercover also features the series' signature car customization, real-world damage and realistic driving physics. The game includes some of the hottest licensed cars such as the Audi R8, BMW M6 and Lexus IS-F.
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Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge
The original Red Alert 2, was probably the first game that truly peaked my interest in PC games. I have always been a huge fan of the real time strategy genre and was a huge fan of the Command and Conquer series on consoles such as the PS1 and Saturn. Red Alert 2 however drew me in unlike any of the previous Command and Conquer titles. It did so much right and so little wrong. Many people cried it was too similar to the first game, and that it wasn't much of a sequel. Well, those people obviously haven't invested the time that I have into the 2 titles.
Ultimately Red Alert 2 not only became my favorite PC game of all time, but I also considered it to be one of the greatest games ever made. Naturally I was as gitty as a school girl, when I first heard about the new expansion for RA2 called Yuri's Revenge. Still I wondered how they can make an already A + title any better. Well, I realized just how much when I got Yuri's Revenge when it was released.
Ok so what exactly does Yuri's Revenge add to the original RA2 that's so good? First and foremost a whole new faction to play as has been added. Yuri, who was a major character in RA2 now has his own side, along with an entire new arsenal of toys to use and buildings to build. He is also not only completely unique from the Soviet or Allied sides, but feels nothing like any other faction I have ever used in a RTS game. Yuri's main focus for play doesn't rely on brute strength and heavily armored vehicles, but rather a mix of heavy strategy and a little bit of cheapness.
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Commandos 2: Men of Courage
From the deepest bunkers and artillery posts of the Third Reich to the bulkhead of an aircraft carrier at sea, Commandos 2 plunges you into realistic war environments. Lead an elite platoon deep into enemy territory, while taking advantage of each soldier's unique abilities. This time, your team members can carry and exchange weapons, and they can swim and drive. An array of new vehicles and weapons, including jeeps, tanks, trucks, ships, bazookas, and flamethrowers make for faster-paced gameplay and intense shoot-outs.
The Second World War was not a fun time to be around, but Commandos 2 could convince you otherwise. It's a top-down adventure game that combines combat and stealth so skilfully that even today there are few games that can rival it for excitement, challenge and depth. There's little in the way of story (though some of the missions do follow on form one another), just a series of missions that require the talents of the eponymous gang of oddball agents to accomplish.
The Commandos themselves are a team of eight elite soldiers – and a dog. Each one specialises in a different field, such as combat, hijacking, demolition and more. The commandos and their world are brought to life with some truly aesthetically pleasing graphics. The various missions are set in different areas of wartime Europe and Asia, and they're all beautifully detailed and bursting with vibrant colour. From the battle-scarred streets of France to idyllic Pacific islands, Commandos 2 superbly depicts the battlegrounds of the Second World War. The squad themselves and the various enemy personnel they encounter are smoothly animated and full of personality. The audio side also shines, with a truly epic and grand soundtrack and the humorous remarks made by the commandos themselves. Ambient sound and the various booms and bangs of war are also well depicted, though enemy comments are limited and thus become somewhat repetitive by the end of the game. Missions are preceded and followed by a combination of archive footage and CGI movies that do a good job of setting the scene.
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Stronghold
A lot of great RTS games have already been released, namely Red Alert series, Warcraft series, Starcraft, and much much more. The main reason people play them is because it's plainly fun, well-known, VERY well-known, has great sounds, and are eye candies. I myself have played and liked the mentioned games. However, one thing is missing from those series: realism. No, realism not graphics-wise, but gameplay-wise. But if you want to play a game that not's only realistic, but also excels in the field of sounds, graphics, lifespan and especially gameplay then Stronghold is definitely the game for you.
The graphics are very-well detailed for a 2D RTS game. Idle peasants have a variety and working peasants can be easily distinguished from each other. The military units look great. All of the sprites, trees, plants etc. were animated nicely and smoothly. The only thing that needs a bit more work for the graphics department is the background. At the first glance, the iron ores look like gored colorish meat. The crenelated walls could use some attention too. They look messed up when built horizontally/vertically instead of diagonally.
In the Military game, you can choose Campaign, Invasion or Siege. The Campaign mode is the story mode. You play a series of battles with a story, where after every battle you gain new stuff like new units or buildings. This game isn't titled "Stronghold" for nothing. The Campaign mode mainly focuses on defense. The story isn't complex, just right for an RTS game.
Invasion mode is the best part of Stronghold, in my opinion. In this mode, you must build a base of course, but it's not that simple. Stronghold is a mixture of RTS and simulation. Which means there's more to than just build, train, kill. The cycle goes like this: the first thing you should do is to set up a keep, where your king will hide during enemy siege. Then place a granary, where all your food would be stored. You can't just build structures, you'll need people to use and run them properly, so you must build hovels so that peasants will start moving in to your kingdom. Don't worry, you have more than enough materials to start a camp. Peasants will automatically fill in the empty posts of buildings so you don't have to point them on what to do.
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