William Shawn McDonie
Reviews
Jane's Combat Simulations: USAF - United States Air Force (Windows)
By William Shawn McDonie on July 18, 2001
Star Trek: Starfleet Command (Windows)
Great mission editor but poor campaign mode.
The Good
Starfleet Command has great graphics (especially during starship explosions) and a wonderful mission editor. Sound is decent and it really does feel like the Star Trek universe. (Unlike other games)
The campaign mode is just ok. I like it but I will talk about its faults later.
One Starfleet's strengths is the multi-race ability. Once you get bored with playing Starfleet, there is Gorn, Romulan, and many others.
The Bad
Well first of all the campaign mode is totally uninspired. its way too short and way to scripted. It seems that no matter what sector you are in you gets the same type of missions. So other than the possibility of upgrading officers and ships there would be no reason to leave your sector. Plus there just wasn’t enough gameplay in the campaign mode. You have a short section on Orion pirates and then one with the "mirror - mirror" episodes and that's it! Overall the mission difficulty wasn’t the problem, the content was.
Without the mission editor I would probably never play the game again. Thanks to a versatile and fun editor I can enjoy this title. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the campaign missions its just that if this was all I had then I would have been ticked.
Next time they need more flexibility in the game, and deeper (or original) missions
The Bottom Line
Don’t get too excited about the campaign mode before you start and maybe the let down won't be too bad. It would have helped me.
By William Shawn McDonie on July 18, 2001
Reach for the Stars (Windows)
A solid C+ effort
The Good
First I would say that RFTS is a great concept. The potential of this type of game is tremendous. All you have to do is look at the Master of Orion series to see how much fun a game like this can be. Oh, and since I brought up the MOO subject I would like to say that there is enough original material and thought that RFTS does look and feel different (Translation: its not a MOO clone).
RFTS often times will begin to impress you with something (graphics, sound, gameplay) but then it will simply not deliver. A good example of this can be found in the cool opening sequence, the graphics in it and in the first few screens that you play are outstanding. But as you continue your play you begin to see that other more important areas of the game (I.e. the battle screens) were left unpolished. In the combat screens it is simplified to the max and very little time was spent (it seems anyway) in making this an interesting place to play. (Bad considering you spend most of your time there)
I think probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of RFTS is in some of the mechanics of the game. A good deal of attention and thought went into the tech trees and species. And I even prefer the look of the human ships in this game as opposed to MOO 2. I think overall the "guts" of the game are outstanding. (Gameplay, writing, ect)
The Bad
As I hinted to above RFTS major problem is a lack of polish. The game itself is what I would say is about 75% to 85% complete. Now don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean it has bugs and is unplayable, that is just not the case. The problem is that RFTS needs a little here and a little there to make this game a classic. What it needs is some extra features and some more flashy graphics in key areas to keep everyone’s attention. It could also use a second or even third campaign set.
One major gripe that I have is that in the middle of the big campaign I have to switch to another species. Now this isn’t too bad as long as when I go back to my old game that nothing has changed. Unfortunately a great deal has changed. In the campaign I played I lost 2 colonies and an untold amount of ships that were in a system that simply dropped off the map when I returned to the controls of the humans. Not to mention It is nearly impossible to defeat the horde of advanced enemy’s that attack you.
The Bottom Line
Don’t get me wrong about this game, it does have enjoyable parts and can be quite fun at times. The problem is that RFTS has the potential to be a game as good as Civilization and Master of Orion. Its unfortunate that more time and thought didn’t go in to this one.
By William Shawn McDonie on July 15, 2001
Extreme Paintbrawl (Windows)
By William Shawn McDonie on July 8, 2001
Shogun: Total War (Windows)
Truly a wonderfull surprise!
The Good
I remember the days of KOEI games and highs of PTO and the lows of Operation Europe. KOEI also make several horrible asian games that would try your patience. So when I first saw this title in stores I overlooked it. When I saw it in the used game section with a hint book for 15$ I gave it a chance. (only because there was nothing else to choose from) When I got home and first saw the intro I was totaly hooked. Just the campain alone was enough for me but then I tried to command the soldiers directly. WOW!! I loved the background and the easy controls. I took me a while but when I became the undesputed shogun WOW!! again. The ending movie was great. Now time to take my armies ON-LINE.
The Bad
Overall the problems of this game in no way detract from the game. They are only just possible ways the game could have been even better.
1.better use of diplomacy
2.more options on throne room
3.A way to elimate poor talent generals
The Bottom Line
This is a great stratigy game. If you loved the age of empires series then give this a try.
By William Shawn McDonie on July 6, 2001
Blade Runner (Windows)
Another game that didn't live up to its potential.
The Good
Blade Runner was one of the most beautiful games I have seen in a while. I was shocked how good it was when I viewed the first crime scene. Plot was terrific, and most of the game had me at the edge of my seat wanting to see more. Overall the music was great and the puzzles had just the right difficulty. Voice acting could have been a little better, but I think that the people that did the acting did the best that they could. (I.E. it would have been better to have well known acting talent do the voiceovers.)
The Bad
....After saying all that what could be wrong? Well the problem is that once you bring up my excitement you have to be able to end the game in a way that leaves me feeling good, Blade Runner didn't do that. At the end the possible outcomes didn't please me at all.
I haven’t seen all the endings yet but the ones that I saw were shocking. I cant really explain why I was shocked without giving away the ending. needless to say I didn't like it. If you know of a few different ways to end the game email me, I would like to know what the other endings were like.
The Bottom Line
Great game, but it never lived up to my expectations.
By William Shawn McDonie on June 19, 2001
Tropico (Windows)
Game Rating 71%
The Good
I loved the setting for the game. Your a Latin American dictator and its all up to you. Music was outstanding and really boosted the score that I gave it.
I really wanted to like tropico, the Latin music, a refreshing concept, great graphics, and generally lots of potential. However.......
The Bad
....Well if the music had been cheesy then this would have to be rated at about 52%. Tropico just gets old very fast. Once I played a couple of the scenerios, and tried to design my own island I quickly ran out of challenges. Really there isnt much difference between the scenarios and the regular game. After a very short time Tropico just goes flat. There was so much potential to this game its a shame that did use its license better.
Another example of what I mean is that I downloaded the demo of this game from the net. After playing a few hours, I felt that if this was half the game, then tropico would be fantastic. The only problem was that there is almost no difference between the demo and the full game! Only a couple of options are excluded and frankly you can live with out them. So it was a surprise when I started playing the full version and found almost no difference at all! I hoped that in the full version that there would be more options and lots more fun. However much to my sadness there wasn't. <br><br>**The Bottom Line**<br>Save yourself 40 bucks download the demo. The demo is just as enjoyable as the full version. Plus you can save your money and buy something else.
By William Shawn McDonie on June 19, 2001
The Operational Art of War II: Modern Battles 1956-2000 (Windows)
By William Shawn McDonie on June 15, 2001
Under a Killing Moon (DOS)
Best adventure gaming around!
The Good
First and foremost. When you buy a Tex Murphy game you get the hint book inside the game. In the sub menu you can choose to cheat and get hints for a cut in your score. For those who are pureists (not me) then this option is useless if not insulting. But for the other 99.9% of us that get stuck and want to finsh NOW! then this is the jem of all jems. Good clean fun WOW! No bad language minimual violence maximum gaming goodness. One of the other great things about this game is its length. Killing Moon is a long game but not in a bad way. When you finish the game you feel like you really accomplished something. I know that when it was all over I could not believe how much fun I had. As soon as I was done I RAN to get the next one in the series. This series just continues to preform. A lot of younger gamers will find the idea of a game without violence and topless women boring. But if you can look past that for a moment and try one of these classics you just might begin to see what good PC games really are. When your mind is stimulated not just your... well you know.. then you get to experience what PC have to offer. Thank you I will now get off my soapbox.
The Bad
Nothing. This was one of the infiately few games that had no flaw that I could determine.
...well I take that back. When this first came out it required a system that most people did not have untill years later. It took a while for this game to catch on. But I didnt play it untill years after it came out. So that did not bother me.
The Bottom Line
Everyone should be required to play this game.
By William Shawn McDonie on June 14, 2001
SimCity 3000 (Windows)
Great intro, great gameplay, wonderfull design, Poor replayability
The Good
This title in many ways was a serious upgrade from its famous two brothers. Much better graphics, TERRIFIC SOUND, Excellent use of facilities, and system tools.
I cant say enough about the music in this game. The music never ever got dull or old. For me this was hands down the best music in a PC game EVER! I loved building the entire town before turing on the time. That way you could build everything that a town needed and even zone everything before any time had passed. There was so many good aspects to this game EVEN MY WIFE LOVES IT!
The Bad
The only real problem with this game is that when you do get your city to a certain level, there just isnt anything left to do. Sure you can cause fires, tornados and other accidents to happen and clean up the mess but that only goes so far. Even if you have the tax rates at 0 at some point you will outgrow that tax rate. (ie citizens will complain that tax rates are too high) The game just doesnt have a proper way to extend gameplay. Thus I come to my main problem. Once you have taken Sim City to the extreme, there is just no use to play again. The replayability (i.e. the ability for a gamer to play again and again) is just not long enough.
The Bottom Line
Terrific game with outstanding music, graphics , humor, and many other small pearls of terrific gaming. But dont plan playing this game for more than a month.
By William Shawn McDonie on June 11, 2001