Contributions > Descriptions by Charles Lippert (642)

This is an early compilation of the Wing Commander series that includes the following games:

• Wing Commander
• Wing Commander: The Secret Missions
• Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2 - Crusade
• Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
• Wing Commander II: Speech Accessory Pack
• Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 1
• Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi - Special Operations 2

Many of the features that players have come to expect in a baseball game are featured in this early edition of the Triple Play series.

A manager mode that allows players to be traded just like in real baseball is included. Since the game is licensed by the MLB and players associations, it has all the teams and players of the 1997 season.

Game modes include exhibition, series play, all-star playoffs, and full and partial season play - in which players also sustain injuries and go on hot and cold streaks. The Home Run Derby is an additional feature.

In this fighting style game, the player assumes the personas of various character types from the Ravenloft setting of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons universe. The goal (besides winning each battle) involves a quest for artifacts that will determine whether the "ranks of Chaos" or the "Lords of Law" are triumphant.

Unique to this fighting game (at least at the time) was the introduction of cooperative campaign play for two players at once.

Time Warp is the sequel to the original Dragon's Lair arcade game. Players once again play Dirk the Daring, the brave and dashing knight, who, with a little bit of skill and a lot of luck, must once again rescue his princess, Daphne. This time, Daphne has been kidnapped through a "wrinkle in time" by the evil wizard Mordroc and it's up to Dirk to rescue her before she is forced into marriage.

The PlayStation 3 and the iPhone version have an original game mode as well as a Director’s Cut with a different ending that was not featured in the original arcade version. The Macintosh version also contains the Director's Cut ending. In the Watch Game mode the entire game can be viewed in full as a movie without input from the player.

ESPN NHL Hockey is the latest addition in Sega's NHL 2K series of games that just happens to add an ESPN license to the graphics and title.

As in the previous version (NHL 2K3), you can once again perform checks into the benches, pin opponents on the boards, and design penalty killing and power-play strategies.

ESPN NHL Hockey adds a revamped franchise mode. This year's franchise mode includes an e-mail system that sends you notices about team injuries, current playoff statuses, and trade deadlines. Even simple words of encouragement are emailed from the team owner.

The skybox mode acts as a hub for the game's unlockables, stat tracking, and other random features. There are two new gameplay modes in this year's game: skills and mini-games. Skills mode is a re-creation of the exhibition competitions held during the NHL All-Star weekend. You find a number of different competitions, including the hardest-shot competition, a shoot-out relay, a puck-control challenge, a fastest-skater competition, and a shooting-accuracy challenge. The roster of mini-games include pond hockey, mini-rink, shootout, and super-speed hockey.

ESPN NHL Hockey has plenty of unlockables, including classic jerseys, teams, and goalie masks. There are even a couple of unlockable mini-games.

National Hockey Night includes the gameplay options that are standard for hockey games. There is exhibition mode for up to two players, season mode, create-a-player mode, and a playoffs mode. The seasons can be 29 or 82 games long. Statistics are tracked in 10 categories, and players get on hot or cold streaks as the season wears on. The create-a-player option allows you to max out a player's abilities in six different categories, choose from four different facial patterns, and adjust the player's height and weight. All 30 NHL teams are included.

The graphics represent an ESPN NHL broadcast. The team of Steve Levy and Gary Thorne handles the announcing duties for the games ESPN-style announcing.

This year's edition has many new features that include tournaments, built-in message boards, virtual e-mail, and a voice recognition option.

NFL GameDay 2004 also showcases the standards in mode selection. There are preseason, season, general manager, tournament, practice, and franchise management options. The general manager mode functions as the game's franchise mode in which you can take a team through numerous seasons in hopes of winning a Super Bowl, or, building a dynasty. The general manager mode lets you perform actions like trading players, signing free agents, drafting new players, managing playbooks, and viewing statistics to get a glimpse at the top players.

Also featured is online play. There are message boards where you talk with other players and also e-mail other players by using your online nickname, and 989 Sports can even give you feedback on the game. The online mode also offers tournaments as well as stat tracking.

The commentary team is headed up by Dick Enberg and Dan Fouts.

In this beat-em up side scroller, you have a choice between five characters from the popular Marvel comics series: the Human Torch, Thing, Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, and She-Hulk. Each player has four special moves, one of which can only be executed when you collect enough force energy.

One aspect of the game is that you can change between characters at any time. If you can't get past a boss with Mr. Fantastic's stretchy moves, you can switch to the Human Torch and set them on fire.

While the title of this game boasts the ESPN license, this is actually the next game in Sega's NFL 2K series.

ESPN NFL Football has many gameplay modes that include quick game, franchise, season, tournament, practice, first-person football, and online play. The most extensive mode in the game is the franchise mode. This mode allows you to play one season after another and comes complete with a draft and off-season player dealings, like signing and releasing players, governed by the real rules of the NFL, where trade deadlines and salary caps are standard.

Another new feature in ESPN NFL Football is a virtual apartment called 'The Crib.' The Crib serves as a showcase for all of the bonus items and awards you win by completing objectives. The objectives range from simple accomplishments, like looking at certain things in the game's menu, playing for one hour, and playing for five hours, to big play accomplishments, like returning a punt or kick for 99 yards or completing a game without dropping any passes. With every completed objective, you earn a trophy or item that you can use to decorate your crib. The items range from different-looking furniture, like couches and bar stools, to bobble heads and in-game cheats. You can also find hidden free agents, like Michael Irvin, and posters and soundtracks from old Sega games, like Jet Set Radio and previous NFL 2K games.

Another feature added to this game is first-person football. This setup was created to give you a virtual experience of what it's like playing on the field.

Chris Berman again adds ESPN style commentary for the audio track.

ESPN NFL Primetime 2002 is the first football game to combine the NFL license with the ESPN license. This NFL adaptation boasts a comprehensive franchise mode that introduces some innovations in this standard mode. One of these is a draft ticker, which puts your team on the clock each time it selects a player in the draft. With the draft ticker on, it is important to scout college players beforehand and analyze draft positions and team needs in order to preselect your team's draft candidates. In simulated games, NFL Primetime gives a variety of coach options. Here you can customize your team's aggressiveness level in offense and blitz tendencies and even set spies on more mobile quarterbacks for simulated games. Naturally, there are also obvious franchise mode options such as the ability to draft, trade, and sign/release free agents over multiple seasons.

The game also provides the standard football modes of exhibition and season play.

The cutscenes between plays give the game a TV-style presentation, which borrows graphics from the ESPN Primetime show.

Chris Berman and his Primetime sidekick, Tom Jackson, provide the commentary during games.

Disney's Treasure Planet is a 3D action game based on the animated Disney movie of the same name. The game follows the adventures of Jim Hawkins, a young boy on a quest to locate a mythical planet called Treasure Planet. To find the planet he needs to travel to many locations throughout the universe and complete tasks before he finds the ultimate prize. The tasks range from finding a certain number of items to catching runaway animals to flipping a series of switches. Completing the tasks lights a beacon, and when a set number of these beacons are lit, the next level is then available.

Jim is also able to ask for help from his "pet," Morph, to get him past areas that pose a challenge. Morph can change his shape into a helpful item like giant robotic arms or a jetpack. Another adaptation from the movie is solar surfing. During the surfing missions Jim pilots a futuristic surfboard to complete the mission objectives.

For the PlayStation, a different 3D game was released. The Game Boy Advance also received a different 2D game.

ECW Hardcore Revolution is a wrestling title developed by Acclaim based on the wrestling promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling. Players can use up to 33 ECW wrestlers including Rob Van Dam, Tazz, Sandman, and many others.

The game itself runs on a modified WWF Attitude engine and includes several game modes including Tag Matches, Death Match, Barbed Wire Ring Match, and others. Up to 4 players can play simultaneously.

WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth features an updated roster with even more World Wrestling Entertainment superstars, including Hollywood Hulk Hogan, Stacy Keble, DDP, Ric Flair, and many more.

The revamped season mode allows the player to take an untested wrestler through the ranks of the WWE while reliving moments that have happened in the past year of the WWE, such as the co-ownership storyline between Vince McMahon, Ric Flair and the reintroduction of the NWO. Also added is a create-a-wrestler mode that allows the player to customize nearly every physical aspect of their wrestler, including animations.

In a combination of a horror game and light-gun game, Resident Evil: Dead Aim puts you on a cruise ship infested with zombies. You start off as Bruce McGivern, a US government agent sent to stop Morpheus D. Duvall from spreading the zombie T-virus any further. Along the way you'll run into Fongling, a Chinese government agent who is aboard the cruise ship for the same reason, and you'll also end up playing as her. All you really need to know is that there are zombies and you have to kill them.

You'll pick up several different guns through the course of the game, including a magnum, a shotgun, and an assault rifle, but like in other Resident Evil games, zombies are difficult to put down permanently, and ammo can be very scarce.

This game uses the same three-on-three style that debuted in Hitz 2002. The 2003 installment has larger rinks, bigger crowds, a referee, and animated coaches. All 30 NHL teams are represented with motion-capture animation, and you can build your own players with the Create-Player option. The game's Season mode now allows for trades, stat tracking, and player awards.

Up to four players can play each other in exhibition mode. Season mode puts you into a standard NHL schedule, but you can change to a shorter season if you want. There is also a small numer of hockey-related minigames, such as keep-away. Franchise mode is where you pick and name your team, name your players, and play against other teams to earn experience points. Those points can be used to upgrade your players in categories such as toughness, speed, passing, and agility. After beating all the lesser teams in a tier, you can move on to battle a "boss team" for that region. Beating that team nets you some new equipment for your players, which also improves their stats.

NHL FaceOff 2003 allows you to play the role of General Manager for an NHL team. Players can build a team using drafts, free agency, trades, and signings. Other modes of play include skating in single elimination Tournament Mode as either an NHL or international team, going one-on-one with the goalkeepers in Shootout Mode, or Practice Mode.

There are also three difficulty settings for the different modes of play: rookie, normal, and veteran.

New presentations in the gameplay include watching the players walk through the tunnel before the game, pre-game warm-ups, player shoves after the whistle, jibes from the penalty box, and post-game celebrations.

This year's edition allows you to compete against legendary players including Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Phil Esposito, and Marcel Dionne. New Jersey Devils announcers Mike Emrick & Darren Pang call the games.

There is an exhibition mode for up to eight players with the Multitap, a season mode for multiple players, playoff mode, tournament mode, a practice option, and shoot-out mode, that helps to sharpen your breakaway and deke moves.

Also new this year are the updated rosters of all NHL teams including expansion teams Columbus BlueJackets and Minnesota Wild.

Red Wings Coach Scotty Bowman helped improve NHL FaceOff 2000. More than 150 motion captured animations. Mike Emrick and Darren Pang do commentary. The new puck halo also improves gameplay.

This has all the features you would expect from a licensed hockey game. It gives you all of the authentic NHL teams and players including the expansion teams. You can trade and release players, create your own players, and sign free agents. The ice can be viewed from five camera angles, allowing you to watch the game play out in a variety of different ways. Up to eight human players can play via the multitap.

In this edition, you can trade players, release players, create a player, and sign free agents. The modes of play include the usual season, exhibition, and quick start. One new feature is multi-team play, which lets more than one user play within the same season.

The first in the NHL FaceOff series. You'll find one-timers, a wide selection of checks, slap shots, drop passes, every NHL player and team, and statistics.

Also found in FaceOff includes pretty good AI for the time of the game's release. In terms of sound, FaceOff really tries to recreate an in the arena hockey sound, with the announcer's voice echoing combined with organ music and cheering from the crowd.

There are also multiple camera angles that can put you in the middle of the ice.

This year's edition features many different modes of gameplay for the NHL enthusiast. Players can start the game right away in play now mode, play an international game, play through a playoff series, or start a franchise. The franchise mode puts you in charge of a team for a 10-year legacy. You can either play every game during a season or simulate each game and take a manager role. After each season, you have the option to play around with the roster in anticipation of next season. You can draft new players, sign free agents, make trades with other teams, and retire old players. Statistics are kept throughout the life of a franchise in several categories.

Also new this year is the use of the right analog stick to execute manual dekes and slip the puck past the goalkeeper.

This is the eighth installment of the Quarterback Club series. This edition features all of the teams and players of the current NFL ranks and allows the player to unlock legendary passers such as John Elway, Dan Marino, and Steve Young. Kevin Harlan and Bill Maas provide commentary.

The game features a total of four primary modes of play: season, exhibition, playoffs, and pro bowl. Also featured in QB Club 2002 is the quarterback challenge mode, which allows the player to take favorite NFL quarterbacks through a competition focusing on four different skill sets: speed and mobility, accuracy throw, read and recognition, and long distance throw.

Another game in NFL Quarterback series. Every team from the 1996 NFL season is shown here, with real player numbers and stats. 32 offensive plays and 16 defensive plays are available as you play. Options include setting quarter lengths, from one to 15 minutes, and selecting your mode of play: Preseason, Playoffs, or a full Season, in which you play 18 games towards the goal of the Super Bowl.

Play a full season with your favorite team or try the franchise mode and build a legacy. You can even create teams and players.

In general manager mode, when you go into the off-season, several different things happen. First, you'll see a list of players who have retired from your team and the reasons they've left, which are usually related to injuries or diminishing skills. If you lose some key players, then you'll need to make every effort to ensure that those positions are filled by free agents with similar skills or rookies who have solid potential. You're frequently stuck with trying your luck in the draft, where you can select a rookie based on how you finished the season, like in the real NFL draft. GameDay has a feature that gives you a breakdown on the draft and provides you with an overall rating for each rookie. Following the draft, you have to sign your rookies with whatever cap money you've set aside for that purpose. When you're all done, it's time to start the next season.

There's also a tournament mode where you can select up to 16 teams. There's also a regular season mode, similar to the franchise mode, except it lacks the off-season part.

GameDay's best new feature is online play support. You can view your online stats, and see who the best players are online to challenge.

This year's edition features motion-capture animation and commentary by Dan Fouts and Dick Enberg.

There are four primary modes of play, including season, arcade, franchise, and exhibition. The franchise mode keeps track of full individual player and team statistics over multiple seasons. Players will be drafted, improve throughout the course of their career, and retire into the game's hall of fame. The franchise mode also keeps track of statistics for the coach and the franchise. Career win/loss records, playoff appearances, and Super Bowl wins are tracked. Season mode allows players to compete for one individual season, while exhibition mode allows for a single game to be played. Arcade mode features simplified controls for those players looking to simply mix it up.