William Shawn McDonie
Reviews
Freelancer (Windows)
Good game, Just wish they could have done more
The Good
First of all I was a big fan of the old Privateer games so when I heard this game was supposed to be a Privateer remake I was pumped. If you haven’t played Privateer it’s basically a game where you can go anywhere do anything and be anybody. The storyline only progressed as you wanted it to so you (the player) had complete control. That kind of freedom of gameplay coupled with excellent controls, hard hitting gameplay, and a decent plot made Privateer one of the greatest games of all time..
Like Privateer this game has the same type of elements and potential, you can try running cargo, being a merc or just following the storyline. (a bit more on this later) Basically the core of this game is just like Privateer. Your fun comes from earning new weapons, ships and seeing new sights.
Speaking of sights, the visuals in some parts of the game were jaw dropping. A few times I just stopped playing to feast my eyes on some of the greatest visuals ever. The vastness of space is fairly well represented but only to the point where you begin to notice it. At that point the jump gates, wormholes speed up the travel portion so it doesn’t interfere with game flow.
Battles are fun and enjoyable and easy to learn using a mouse which was unique for a traditional flight sim.
The storyline is what I would say is good not great but decent. I think I have to wait for the bad area to explain more.
Replayability is fair to good, with some mods you can really expand the game a lot so I would say you get your money's worth after the plot is finished.
The Bad
With out a doubt this game falls into the category of "should have could have but didn’t". I know from reading a few articles about the game that the designers had much more intended for this game but were overruled to create a game where more casual gamers could enjoy. In my opinion this is evident in many areas of the game and it in my eyes takes a potential hall of fame game to an ok forgettable game.
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Economics - The designers had intended to make this dynamic so that a player who wanted to be a merchant instead of a killer had a very in-depth game element. Instead Microsoft dumbed it down and made it very basic.
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People interactions - This one is huge and takes so much fun out of this game. When designed the game was supposed to have hundreds of interactive folks you would deal with in game. They were supposed to be able to enhance the ambiance of the setting and change as your rep changed. They were also supposed to have original dialog and different voices. Instead all the characters on all the planets and stations say basically the same exact things, sound all-alike and look all alike. You heard one person talk to you on one planet you have heard them all. A total waste of a great possibility, in privateer the ambiance of each town and station made it unique and interesting. You WANTED to visit it just to see it, in this game the only reason you go anywhere is for the money making or plot advancement purposes. Had this one area been allowed to be completed it would have in my opinion raised the score of the game by 20 points.
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Dude someone stole my flight controller. - So you design a hard-core space flight game and then say you want to encourage casual gamers by having mouse control. Ok I can live with that, but what in heck was Microsoft thinking not even supporting a flight stick! It’s all part of the experience; you use a flight stick so you feel like you are really a pilot. Somehow the mouse doesn’t quite make it feel that way. What a total joke and rip off, what makes this even worse is it comes from the very same company that sells the force feedback flight sticks for over 100 bucks and then doesn’t support it in a major flight title!
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Freedom from the plot - Remember what I said about Privateer being a free game where you could follow the plot when you choose to?. Well in this game that just isn’t so, you are purposely limited to small areas of the game world during each part of the game. This is determined by the plot, which you are basically forced to follow. The same freedom you had in privateer just isn't the same in this game. Way too linear.
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Lack of depth - Once you eliminate the story line and a few small areas of the game its basically rather boring. What made the privateer world interesting was its diversity in people, places, missions, and challenges. While on the surface Freelancer has all the trappings of this diversity in practice it doesn’t. Because of the dialog issues with characters and the lack of interesting side story’s it makes your non story line missions get boring after the first few missions.
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Expandability - The game is in a serious need of an expansion pack. More systems, more ships, more challenges and for heavens sake better dialog for characters.
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Plot - Frankly in some ways this game had a better plot or I should say a larger plot than privateer. However it isn't enough to carry this game alone. The whole idea of a "freelancer" is to be free and have complete control. Tying down the plot and forcing you to play it kind of kills the whole concept and makes you resent the plot instead of enjoying it.
The Bottom Line
Now that 4 years have passed clearly you aren’t going to pay 49.99 for this title now. For 10 bucks this game is definitely worth the price. Just keep in mind it never lived up to its promise and remember to go look for player made mods to make it fun after you beat it.
By William Shawn McDonie on August 30, 2008
Post Mortem (Windows)
Would of, Could of, But Wasn't
The Good
Well I have been playing adventures for a very long time (cut my teeth on late 80's sierra stuff). I have had a hankering for an adventure with todays tech and finally found one I could get into.
Post Mortem has all the great stuff a Dark Adventure trip needs. Murder, a tough smart detective, scary moments, deep plots. Like about a million books before it Post Mortem uses the out of work police detective that was shamed\fired\ect. The feel of the game was great, the designers did a great job making sure everything was dark and deep.
The Bad
Unfortunately Post Mortem suffers from some fatal problems.
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Character animation is just terrible. The trouble is not in the graphics themselves but in the way the characters move and act during conversation. I would never in a million years think real people would act that way. (well unless they were on some sort of drug, perhaps)
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Voice acting. This problem isnt as bad as I have read some reviewers say. Yes there are some places that the lines are drop down bad (some horrible writing) and even more instances of terrible performance of lines (especially the women). But overall I think its ok.
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Your character knows things he shouldnt.
There were some moments that the character had found something out (in what way I never understood) that wasnt revealed in a note or object that was found. He would just blurt it out. There was some real problems with story maping in this game. -
Overall Game feel This game just felt incomplete, it was like someone designed a A++ game but then didnt do the basic QA needed to polish it up to the same level he designed it for.
The Bottom Line
Overall I think the game had great potential but just failed to pull it all together. If I was on the QA team for this game I would have purchased a copy of a Tex Murphy Game and gave it to the writers and designers. That way they could see a better example of how to pull together an excellent story.
Overall I give it a rating of a C Could have easily been A++, but they dropped the ball
By William Shawn McDonie on April 13, 2004
Master of Orion 3 (Windows)
Why exactly did they do with the extra year of production?
The Good
Well MOO3 did have a really interesting story in the manual, it was a little hard to follow sometimes but overall not too bad. Oh. wait you wanted to know about the game.... well I guess nothing.
The Bad
Seriously there is next to nothing good about MOO3. The interface is one of the most difficult un-editied pieces of crap to ever hit the PC world. It took nearly 300 turns of gameplay to figure out half of the controls. Oh, and the controls there really isnt any. Basicly MOO3 is the first game in the history of PC gaming that doesnt require a person to play it. I'am not kiddding folks! This game basicly holds back many of the normal controls that a person is used to doing on their own. And with no off button to be found, its a big pain in the butt. About the only functions you control in this game is the "general" and I do mean general direction of the game. You tell the computer in what range you like someting and the PC decides what to do. The only real control you do have is with two buttons, the next turn button and the exit button. The graphics are not just bad they are a disgrace. I have read many a review where a person will use that word to decribe a game, but never have I thought it really true. However for MOO3 the title sticks. The main control screen graphics are ok but not flashy. But where MOO3 really lets down the game buyer, is in the ship combat screen. No joke MOO2 has at least 3 generations of advancement of ship graphics on MOO3. My wife who has only played a few PC games (Sim city 3000, Rollercoaster Tycoon) described the look of the Ship combat screen as very similar to Atari, and she is right. They really are just like the old Atari 2600 games.
Now I just love the Master of Orion series, so when I was confronted with this game I would not accept that it was crap. I played I think around 500 turns on my first game. And was starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnell, when the game declared another race the winner because they controled the council. Now that civ was the only member of the council so it was a no brainer that they would head it up. On my next 3 games I tried all I could to find out what I was doing wrong. I was sure if I just changed this or tried that, the game would work. I even wondered if there was a missing menu of options that I simply had not found that would save the day. Sadly no menu was found nor tatic work. I felt like Ponce De Leon searching for the fountain of youth. Or the other spaniards looking for the 7 cities of gold. Lots of labor and love for squat.
The Bottom Line
Sadly, the wost game I have ever played in the 15+ years of my gaming history. Not did it just fail to live up to my hopes, it didnt even come close to being a bad game. Collect it for its place in gaming history, cause I doubt they can make another one this bad anytime soon. I seriously wonder if that was their intention all along
By William Shawn McDonie on March 11, 2004
Paperboy (Nintendo 64)
What? Thats it?
The Good
First I loved the orginal paperboy game from the 8-bit system. So I was curious what the 64 version was like. What I found was some very "toon" like graphics, but still the same old game. Which was a good thing considering how fun the first game was. The sound was good, but not exciting. Controls were easy to moderate. It only took about 20 minutes to really get the hang of the different controls. Like I said before the graphics were a little strange, but I found them to be excellent and actually added quite a bit to the fun.
But what makes this game fun is still the same, hitting everything with rolled up newspapers. Nothing like smacking a irate customer with the daily news.
The Bad
All the good things said, paperboy took about 2 hours to beat. Considering I havent purchased a new console since the super-nintendo (I just got the 64 this week) its idoiticly easy. This means for the experienced players it will be a snap, and its done. Its done so quick for two very bad reasons. First you only get about 5 levels and one end boss. Two, the gameplay is dirt easy. Basicly the few levels you do get only differ with scenery. The challenge really doesnt change at all. And the end boss is probably the easiest end boss I have every seen. Not just did I get him on the first try, but it wasnt even close. When the game ended I was totaly shocked that the game ended. There is no final "end movie" it just tells you to try to play the same few levels at a different difficulity level. If I had paid 50 bucks for this when it came out I would have been hot.
The Bottom Line
Its ok to borrow, or to buy under 5 bucks. Past that, it is simply too little for too much.
By William Shawn McDonie on April 14, 2003
Star Trek: Starfleet Command Volume II - Empires at War (Windows)
Better than the first.....well maybe?
The Good
I think Interplay did a good job on this sequal. They tried to stay as close to the orginial as possible, while improving enough that it would justify the game and possibly another sequal. :-) On several fronts Interplay suceeded.
1. Graphics
The in game graphics were already some of the most awesome graphics around but somehow they managed to make it crisper and more detailed.
2. Game Map
This is probably the one area that actually made this game. In the orginial the map was small and not really believable. In this one the size of the map and the layout make it feel more realistic. I loved choosing one race and making it my mission to take every sector I could from them. Frankly it was a small change that made a big difference.
3. Missiles
In the orginial missiles were the top dog weapon. Without a doubt if you didnt have missiles you were not going far in that game. Here missiles have been seriously downplayed and photon torps are much more important. (and phazers for that matter)
4. Big and little ships
Ships feel more rounded, and it is much harder for DD's and FF's (small ships) to destroy Heavy Crusers and other large vessels.
5. Editor
In the editor, where you can create a one time battle there has been noticeable improvement. I love the fact that I can choose the enemys ships or have them come randomly.
The Bad
Well I think they still have the game too linear. If they would make the story missions OPTIONAL then this game would be much better. Also they elimated some of the options on the editior. (asterioids, planets, black holes) But the big complaint I have is that if you have been so lucky to get a fleet of large ships, then almost every system you travel into has, guess what.... 3-6 ships of similar class. Now once and a while I would believe that, but EVERY time? How many dreadnaughts do they have? After you destroy 8-10 of them you begin to wonder.
The Bottom Line
In the sequal Interplay decided to stick to the orginial game's mechanics and just try to improve each part and make the game more interesting overall. In this they succeeded. However the game is not as good as it should be, buy but buy for cheep.
By William Shawn McDonie on January 23, 2003
American Civil War: From Sumter to Appomattox (Windows)
By William Shawn McDonie on December 31, 2002