Dark Mysteries (A Gothic MOD) Review

Platform: PC

Genre: MOD (RPG)

MODs, they are one of the few things (beside fans) that can make a game live longer. Sometimes they give a few extra quests/levels, enhance (or de-enhance) the graphics, optimize the game or they are a total conversion of the game ... changing well... everything. But from to time, from the deepest bowels of creativity, a few people arise

in a golden aura while angels sing lullabyes at their feet. Oh yeah, and roses fall from the sky. THEY, are dudes gathered on the internet or whatever, who share a passion for one game and MODing. Combining theyr forces they will embark on a journey that will ... eat theyr time, nerves, but will make us all happy. These are the people who are able to make a MOD... a long MOD and blend it perfectly with the games story, setting, making you wonder if it's official add-on.

The MOD I'm talking about is Dark Mysteryes. A MOD for Gothic 1 (yeah that old crappy game that gets everyone saying "duuude, really?" when I play it over and over again) which introduces some new camps, a new and interesting secondary-main-plot-which-you-should-play-cuz-it's-absolutely-brilliant-hypen-hypen-hypen.

The setting is the same as Gothic 1, the penal colony, with some new magical caves that appeared out of nowhere... and other parts added, as you go through the story. The new camps added are the Miners Camp (near the Old Mine, you can actually join them), the Fanatic camp, The Smugglers camp, The Bandits Camp (actually it's the Gothic 1 bandit camp, but they don't all attack you on sight and there's actually something to do there) and the Orchunters Camp. The main story (of the MOD of course) consists of you finding out some Dark Misteryes (I'm not gonna spoil it) the only thing I'm gonna say is that you will meet the Primevils.

The zones added are absolutely brilliant, especially the Underground world. Some quests, things from gothic 1 that didn't make any sense got "upgraded". So anything you remember that didn't make sense, like dudes in a cave running away from u on sight... now have a role.

Of course this is just some heaven-descended people's ideas, but I liked them .. and they all fit the Gothic universe/setting, including the steroid-fed-catapult from the mine camp.

There are a lot of new weapons. From normal swords (some with new models) to weird 1 damage special swords and helmets have been included into the game. Besides the scroll and rune magic, now we have crystals (that work just like runes). I can't say much of the new spells, cause, as always, the mage/spelcaster class is the last one I play in a RPG, especially Gothic. Almost forgot, you can learn weapon forging and cooking as well.

Here is a list with all of the extras.

Personally I loved it, and I'm waiting for others.

the bad: some won't play it cause of it has outdated graphics.

the good: (damn it, i should give bad marks to games too) it blends great with the story of Gothic (the first :D )

Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit (1998) Review

Platform: PC
Genre: Racing

Going through my CD's, I found this... I remembered having a lot of fun with it so I reinstalled it.

Well it doesn't have the flashy graphics, or realism, or ... whatever...so practically it sucks !
NOT !!!
I didn't have so much fun in a while with a racing game. Maybe this is not quite factual.... because this is one of those games I played and replayed and rereplayed... for a few years in a row. It was those times when a simple button asigned to lights: on/off made me very happy.

So, reviewing this game....

It's structured into 3 different sections. No career mode. You can choose to do a championship, or a knockout or enter the hot pursuit mode. In championship you get to race on every track. The cars are divided into 3 classes. You choose a car from a class and all the opponents will be from the same class. Same for knockout, only..... obviously knockout rules apply. For those of you who grown up in a cave with no electricity and take Jurassic Park as a documentary, in a knockout race, the last player in a lap is eliminated. Last but not least, hot pursuit mode. You can choose either to finish a race while being pursued by the cops, or to be the cop and catch a whole grid of opponents (meaning 8). The easy part is that you can choose the number of laps a race has. But in this mode a mysterious force enters. For whatever reason you cannot choose Ferrari or Mercedes. Maybe the carmakers thought that their image would be stained by a police chase even in a game. dunno... anyway.

The game has a lot to offer. A large variety of cars (helped by the modder community, that still make cars for the game), challenging well-thought track, an in-car camera ...that worked when I was younger. Not even the Bible could make it work now... or my IQ just dropped in the last years.

I enjoyed the game again, as I used to... It's a tremendous source of fun that i would recommend for anyone.



the bad: Maybe some wouldn't play it for it's outdated graphics, the Ferrari-Mercedes mystery
the good: The fun it offers regardless of age

Mafia Review

Platform: PC

Genre: Action

'Now we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves"

Spring 2003

I was in school, playing GTA 3... with cheats (of course).

Young and restless. One day, a coleague of mine said something to someone I didn't know.

Coleague: Did you finish GTA ?

Dude: Yes, long time ago.

Coleague: Damn it, how did you pass .... (some mission)

Dude: It was easy, you just have to ... (unimportant details)

Dude: But anyway Mafia is way cooler. Just finished it.

Coleague: I know. Wait you finished it ? I'm still trying to get the first mission done.

Me: What ? What's that ?

And so it begun. A beautiful love-story that lasts till the day that is .. today.

Anyway. It is a story-driven sandbox-game. You start as Tommy Angelo, a taxi driver. Soon, you get a offer you can't refuse... and you'll be joining one the Mafia famiglias in Lost Haven.

The cutscenes are well made (at least for that periodic), the faces are really expresive and detailed. There are a few long cutscenes, but i assure you they will never got boring (i've been through the game a LOT of times, and i never had to skip one because i got bored). The camera angle, the voice-acting (with some italian accent) and the scene itself makes you just wanna get them out of the game and watch'em all as a movie.

The city is interesting. It's bigger than GTA 3's Liberty City, it has a train that you can take to move around faster, a lot of pedestrians you can run over, but i wouldn't recommend it and working lift bridges. The police can cause you problems. They will come after

you if you run a red light, crash into another car or go over the speed limit (you can turn on a speed-limiter and not worry about this anymore). If you do one of these, and a cop-car or a cop is in your immediate area, you can just stop, pay the fine and go on. But if they hear gunfire they will take you down. The city has a little minus in variety. You can see the same Pepe's restaurant or other buildings one by the other. But anyway, it's not much of a deal. Also, even if you can drive around the city, in the career mode there's not much too see. No unlockables no nothing. You can enter some buildings and yards and so on but only during the missions. One nice thing is that the city has it's own countryside, where there are no cops... and it sorta looks better. I know that at my crappy computer which I had back then, in the city I was around 12-13 FPS, but in the countryside it ran smoothly ..purrrrfect. You can just walk through the town without bothering of the mission in free-ride mode.

The missions are .....well you just can't get bored ! They all start with a cutscene, than one the members teaches you how to steal a new kind of car (yes you can't just steal any car at the beginning of the game), then you get your gun/guns and of you go. You drive to the mission spot... Carefully... each hit/bump will reduce your HP.. shoot some guyz or something, heal, more shooting, lovely cutscene and come back (sometimes, on the way back you can do a side-mission). You can't save in this game, but it has some automatic checkpoints, and they are not veeery far from each other. At the end of every part of the mission there is one. Also i just have to mention the Fairplay-Race. It is one the hardest things I've done... (and I only got it done at the third playthrough)... till then I used a exploit.

The characters are well-made and you will just love them, or feel very sorry for some of them...The voice-acting is marvelous.. voices like Mike Sorvino or William DeMeo (from the sopranos) give live to the characters.

It looks great, it sounds great (the soundtrack consists only of 1930's jazz).

Oh... i forgot to mention, the game takes place in 1930. :D

The car-models, and any model actually make you really "feel" the era. The producers tried to make it feel very real. So if u shoot the tank of a car, it will run out of fuel ...fast.

You can see all of the cars in the carcyclopedia provided in the menu. Also with the passing of time/missions. Each mission having it's own year/date.. and scripted weather/daytime (yes, it doesn't have a day/night circle) there will appear new and better cars on the street.

After completing the story a new mode (freeride extreme) is unlocked. This one consists of some mission (GTA Style.. you get to walk/drive to them) which will grant you crazy vehicles. These missions vary from shooting three snipers, to following a UFO, or freeing a stripper.... that's gonna be eaten by a sea-beast.

"You know, the world isn't run by the laws written on paper. It's run by people. Some according to laws, others not. It depends on each individual how his world will be, how he makes it. And you also need a whole lot of luck, so that somebody else doesn't make your life hell. And it ain't as simple as they tell you in grade school. But it is good to have strong values and to maintain them. In marriage, in crime, in war, always and everywhere. I messed up. So did Paulie and Sam. We wanted a better life, but in the end we were a lot worse off than most other people. You know, I think it's important to keep a balance in things. Yeah, balance, that's the right word. Because the guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything. Of course, the guy who wants too little from life, might not get anything at all." (Tommy Angelo - Mafia)


the bad: aaaaa.....
the good: It's existence

RACE Driver Grid Review

Platform: PC
Genre: Simulator

Well, here we have it, Codemasters latest masterpiece. I heard a lot of people say that this is the game Dirt should've been, but i don't a

gree cause dirt was fun too. 

Anyway, we were ta

lking about GRID. So the game concentrates on your career as a driver and later on, as a official sponsored team. At first you drive for other teams 

untill you get the money to repair your car and start racing on your own. After that you get a "tree" of races. There are

 European races, American R

aces and Japanese races. Each with their different style and setting, and licenses. In total you get around 51 main events, plus a special event when you win every race in a "license" plus racing the LeMans at the finnish 

of every season. So from the nobody you are at the beginnig, you will get to buy 17.000.000 euro cars. 

The game is also structured in seasons, at the end of a few m

ain events you get to race in the LeMans series, with your team or for other teams. And then you'll be shown on what place your t

eam is, and where are you as a driver, compared to others. From some point on, you can hire a teammate. Each one of them come with their strenghts and weaknesses and are very good at one type of race. So choose someone that can win what you 

can't. Also the opponents Ai is brilliant, they do normal mistakes from time to time, and if you try to take on the leader he will fiercely defent his spot.

When winning a race, you 

unlock 

different sponsors. Ypu can have a major sponsors (who pays double) and other minor sponsors. They have requirements from being on the podium to not crashing your car. 

Keeping on the line that Codemasters are drawing from TOCA 3 till now, there are all sorts of races, openwheel, drifting, touring cars, prototypes, endurance....etc.

Although is a 2007, i still think the game looks awesome, the cars are briliantly modeled. The sound is top of the line. Your "mentor" is telling you on the track on what spot you are, what you hit, and it has a huuuuge database of names and team names it can pronounce. Also your teammate willsometimes tell you his place in the middle of the race. Remembering my last PC, the game is low-res friendly.

Saving the best for last. Did you ever feel frustrated cause at the end of a races you hit something and lost 6 positions. Well Grid is thinking about you (and your keyboard, or whatever you like to hit in those situations). It has a prince-of-persia-time-rewind-feature called flashback. When you total your car or you feel you didn't do something right you can rewind time for a few seconds and continue from where you want. Also ..while rewinding you change the camera or stop so you can admire the crash. The number of Flashbacks is determined by the difficulty you are playing on.

the bad: sorry, can't find any, maybe BAku has some ideas

the good: the graphics, the sounds, the presentation, brilliant AI

The Godfather: Mob Wars Review

Platform: PSP
Genre: Action

"Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." (Peter Clemenza, The Godfather 1972)

This game is game based on a PC-game, based on a movie, based on a book. While the book and Francis Ford Coppola's movie were brilliant, the games aren't. If the PC version was acceptable, the PSP little-brother could be improved... a lot.

The game is divided into two sections, the story-mode and mob wars mode. Let's start with the story mode. You play as the son of one of the Godfathers associates. Your dad is killed and you get Luca Brazi to welcome you to the family. It's the exact same story from the PC version actually, skipping the character customization part. And skipping another non-important part. The free-roam. YES! You are being 'teleported' from one mission to another, you get to do the shoot'em part and then cutscene and then you are in front of another building shooting again. Not to mention that it means no more side-missions (well sort of). What are you shooting at? You are playing the main-missions from it's PC version.

The Mob Wars mode. This is a pretty neat idea. The city is divided between the 5 families (Corleone, Tattaglia, Barzini, Cuneo, Stracci) like the world map in Rise of Nations or the Total War series.... anyway, you got the point.... or like in Civilisation. (Ok, i'll stop). The game is turn-based. At the end of your turn you get to draw a card. These can vary from stealing money to lowering your Vendetta or Heat or to promote your mobsters. When you try to take over a teritory you will get a small action-part (like in story) which usually are the side-missions from the PC-version (I know, I compare them a lot). For those who haven't played the PC version, these consist of going into a shop (owned by another family) killing every mobster inside, put pressure on the owner (by destroying stuff) and he will pay the Corleone's for protection from now on. Also, in the back of some shops there are illegal activities (gambling spots and so on) that you can take over as well. To finish the Mob Wars mode you have to destroy each of the other families compounds (big buildings, lots of mobsters). If your Heat is high, the cops will join the fun and try to shoot your balls off as well. And the higher you Vendetta the more mobsters will wake up and dress up to kill you.

To finish The Godfather: Mob wars, you have to finish both modes. It took me 5 hours. It has no unlockables, no collectibles. Also if you want to finish the Mob Wars mode fast... go for the compounds as fast as you can.

Q: Now what makes the game a bit crappier ?? (saved the best for the end)
A: The bloody camera. IT stays very close behind you, making you think you have to ass-rape your character at some points. You can't rotate it while walking and you can lock-on targets that are in front of your character but you can't see them because the camera is admiring a beautiful light-bulb somewhere and not them. (enough said). Camera-control... BAD !!!

'I want no acts of vengeance.(...) This war stops now.' (Don Corleone, The Godfather 1972)




the bad: The friggin' camera, no free-roam.
the good: The graphics, the characters look just like the actors, marlon Brando's voice, Nino Rota's Godfather theme :D:D