Medieval II Total War Review

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(More customer reviews)When I first got this installed and running on my middle-of-the-road system I was expecting it to be a chugging, slow mess. I was happily surprised to find that except for battles against larger cities or against thousands of foes, it runs just fine. I have yet to have a crash, something which in this day and age of "shove it out the door broken and patch it later" game releases is to be commended.
The graphics are beautiful but are not the amazing leap forward like occurred from Medieval 1 to Rome. Think of it more as putting an extra coat of shiny polish on your car. The effects of firing flaming arrows and the pageantry of heraldric colors on the knights and other troops are beautiful to watch. The little movies showing events like weddings and your assassins' antics are often genuinely hilarious (until you've seen them all 100 times). But all that is also just eye candy, there's very little NEW here that wasn't in Rome. Also, the medieval setting has now been done to death in this game's predecessor and other games in the last few years and I'm praying that the next title WON'T be a remake of the original Shogun but will move the series squarely into the gunpowder age, culminating with Napoleon. Enough with the primitive and medieval weapons and tactics.
The AI has been improved marginally, but I am still attacked for ridiculously random reasons no matter the difficulty level I play on. As England I had developed into one of the largest powers on the map and Portugal inexplicably attacked me without provocation despite our neutral relations (not "poor" or "abysmal", mind you) and trade rights. Needless to say they were immediately squashed, but why would they even bother? This is not intelligent AI, it's just annoying AI. Alliances seem to be equally meaningless when they are made with the human and are difficult to achieve unless the AI brings it to you. I have yet to ever form one when I initiate the offer even when it would be a massive advantage to the comp.
Battle AI is more clever at using its archers as harassment and has no hesitation in squashing yours if you leave them unguarded. When outnumbered it does tend to sit there passively as one other reviewer wrote. I have nearly obliterated an entire force with archers while they just sat there in the corner before the general turned tail and withdrew.
Overall, it's a small step forward and the Rome engine is certainly beautiful to watch in action. The Total War series still is unparalleled in strategic enjoyment on both levels but the next offering in the series needs to be groundbreaking in both time period and AI complexity.

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Kings Bounty: The Legend Review

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(More customer reviews)King's Bounty is the best turn based strategy game since X-Com came out in 1993.
It works on XP and Vista 32-bit.
There may be problems with Vista 64-bit.
Concept:
King's bounty is a great mix of turn based strategy, adventure, and RPG elements. You explore a world and find items to increase your stats and gather troops for your army. If you encounter enemies, you battle them in turn based combat. You can also cast spells during the battle to heal your troops, increase their stats, weaken enemies, or alter the battleground.
Heroes
You can choose one of 3 Hero types (Warrior, Paladin, Mage) and customize them through a skill tree or equipping items. Your class, skills, stats and items affect the army that you control.
Warriors have more troops and weak magic skills. Paladins are balanced. Mages have the fewest troops but can cast the most powerful spells during the battles.
Attack - Increases the damage that your troops dish out.
Defense - Decreases the damage that your troops take.
Intellect - Increases the power of your spells.
Leadership - Increases the amount of troops you can have in a battle.
Gold - Allows you to buy new troops and items.
Runes - Allow you to buy skills on your skill tree.
Your Army
There are over 90 different types of creatures you can have in your army.
Tanks - knights, giants, dwarves...
Ranged - archers, elves, beholders...
Infantry - soldiers, snakes, spiders, pirates...
Spellcasting - priests, mages, inquisitors...
Special - werewolves, vampires, ghosts...
So, why is this game so great?
You're constantly being rewarded for playing. It seems like every 10 steps, you're getting gold, runes, new units, and leadership banners. New enemies constantly appear and change the strategy of the battles. The game never feels stale. You're always learning new spells and trying to exploit the enemies' weaknesses.
Just when you think you've got the game mastered, you gain access to new lands, new enemies, new spells, and new units.
There are tons of optional side quests, too. If you complete them, you get gold, experience, or special items. You may even make a new alliance which adds new troops to your army.
The box says rated T for Teens, but this game is fun for everyone. The descriptors say:
Drug Reference - I never saw one, although pirates talked about rum.
Language - I didn't see any harsh language.
Mild Fantasy Violence - knight swings sword, hits monster, and a 25 appears above the monster. There's no blood or impaling.
What could be better about this game?
The story is good, but the writing on some of the quests is sub-par. One of my friends had trouble playing it on Vista, but he got it working.
The game is about 40-90 hours long, depending on how you play. It's a must buy if you like turn based strategy games, old school RPG's, or want to kill time while you're waiting for Diablo III.

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The Sims Medieval Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Seems like a lot of people are disappointed having expected something that was never promised. A lot of reviews are giving the game 1 star because "it's not The Sims 3 with medieval objects and clothes." Why would EA release that? That's more of an expansion for The Sims 3, not a standalone game. Heck, you could do it now yourself if you wanted to by downloading third party content for free. Thankfully, EA did not cheat us by simply giving us The Sims 3 with new decorations and clothes. They gave us an entirely new game!
The opening movie once you first start the game is quite amusing, and it's full of win simply because it's narrated by Patrick Stewart. The appropriately themed illustrations along with the narration explain that you're The Watcher, revered by the people. Also, we learn that "people are dumb" (because they're getting eaten by dragons and forest dwelling dire chinchillas), and that you are to give your Heroes gentle nudges to help guide them on the proper path to a glorious new civilization.
This game runs faster and smoother than my full Sims 3 installation, likely for obvious reasons, but even so, the graphics seem updated and quite a bit more detailed. The facial and clothing details in Create A Sim, including the new, sharply detailed eyes, are really a visual treat. When you're choosing your sim's voice, you'll also discover there's a new version of Simlish, sounding a lot more European than your standard Simlish we've all come to know and love.
Once you've made your Monarch for the tutorial (I chose to make a Queen, rather than a King), you're dropped into the game for your first quest. Never fear, the tutorial for your first quest helps explain a lot, but I'd advise not neglecting to do something simply because the tutorial doesn't tell you to. For instance, it never tells you where to go and when to eat. Don't let your sim starve to death. Once the hunger bar is about 75% depleted, head up to the 2nd floor of the throne room and make yourself some gruel in the fireplace cauldron. You'll sit down at the table nearby and eat it with your hand! Other than that, the introductory quest does a fairly good job of teaching you the ropes. This game is quite different from your standard "The Sims" series of games, so you might be a bit frustrated if you skip the tutorial... there are lots of new mechanics. One thing I did find a bit annoying was that the popup info in the upper right portion of the screen sometimes faded out as quickly as it popped up, not allowing me to actually read the flavor text. I missed out on the thoughts of my Monarch's first romance because the overlay was up for only 1/2 a second and disappeared. Hope there is a patch forthcoming.
This game is about Heroes rather than households, and it's quest based rather than freeplay or sandbox. It feels more like an RPG to me than your standard The Sims type game. You're not on a linear rail, though, because depending on the Hero you're playing and your Hero's choices previous to the quest you've currently chosen to do (yes, you are given choices of which quests to complete based on previous quests completed, kingdom status, etc), there are different ways to complete quests with different outcomes.
In a nutshell, I'd call this a medieval-themed, quest-based Sims RPG. And it's really a lot of fun and really nice to look at. EA could have cheated and thrown a themed version of The Sims 3 at us, but they did not, thankfully. It's obvious they wanted something different for this game as evidenced by the new mechanics and, so far, I think it works. I've been having fun ooh'ing and ahh'ing and learning the new game. It's a nice change if I'm a little bored with the standard Sims 3 but still want to Sim instead of playing something else.
Most importantly, don't knock the game because you expected something less. The game's website has been up for quite some time, and if you're disappointed because you expected Medieval Sims 3, you've only yourself to blame... not EA, who's done a fine job injecting some new life into the franchise.

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The Sims Medieval is a brand-new direction for the popular single player Simulation game franchise, as the familiar gameplay mechanics of The Sims are blended with light Role-Playing (RPG) elements in a Medieval European setting. In this new incarnation PC and Mac players must both assure the happiness of their Sims on a day-to-day level, as well as support the aims of the kingdom they build and engage in all manner of quests which Sims can take on singularly and in groups up to three. New features include: a wide range of available Sims hero types associated with buildings constructed, each with a fatal flaw to overcome; a leveling system for characters based in replayable quests; and an overall player-chosen goal for kingdoms.

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