Mr Creosote
Reviews
Balance of Power: The 1990 Edition (Windows 3.x)
The ultimate simulation of the Cold War
The Good
It is a game where you have to AVOID the big war. It is necessary to decide in very difficult situations and every decision is crucial.The advisors help a lot but you cannot trust them blind. Every player can adjust the level of difficulty to his own abilities. In the multipolar level the game is a real SIMULATION of the world. You have to consider a load of facts. There is much background information given about the countries in the game and about how the game works in the manual. The scoring system is genious.
The Bad
Some information has to be gotten from the same menu again and again every turn for every country. That is a lot to do, a bit too much. It would have been better if there had been a screen with all the information every turn, which the player could customize.
The Bottom Line
As one of the two main superpowers of the Cold War you have to gain influence on more parts of the world. There are a lot of different forms of influence, and so there is very much to do. But you have to be careful because if you or your enemy starts a nuclear war you will both loose. The game is a real masterpiece of computer diplomacy.
By Mr Creosote on October 2nd, 2016
Privateer 2: The Darkening (DOS)
A step back regarding game design
The Good
The story is quite fascinating. It is also developed in an interesting way. The acting is not bad for a computer game, although it cannot be compared to real movies. Most of the motivation is caused by wanting to get money for new ships and equipment.
The Bad
The game design is not as good as in Privateer 1. There you were first in a solar system where nothing really bad could happen to you. In Privateer 2 you are in the same area all the time. That means that at the beginning you have to deal with the same amount of pirates as later and at the beginnig they are unbeatable. So you have to save your game everytime you leave a planet and hope you do not encounter any enemies. Another option would be invulnerability but it should be possible to play the game without it. In this game it is not. Always coming to the same planets all through the game also gets a bit boring. The space combat is also quite tiring sometimes. As you can only jump to the next NAV-point when there are no enemies around, you have to kill them all first. But if it takes you too long, more and more of them will arrive and attack you. I sometimes came in a situation I could not escape, because there was an unlimited number of pirates and it was not a mission but just an ordinary flight. I had one of the best ships and killed about 100 of them without being severely wounded, but after fighting this battle more than an hour I was just frustrated and I had to restore the game. And this happened to me several times!
The Bottom Line
The concept has been stolen from Elite and a story was added. It is a game from Origin's Interactive Movie period.
By Mr Creosote on January 2nd, 2000
Last Action Hero (DOS)
Laugh-out-loud funny
The Good
Playing it was fun - once.
The Bad
The second time I tried it, it was not funny anymore. The two parts of the game are both ridiculous. The driving only consists of ramming the opponent from the back. The controls make this quite difficult. Most of the time you just cannot drive because there is something in your way you could not see. The player sprite in the fighting part looks like a monkey. Although there are several different moves, you only need one. Both parts are so easy that I managed to "solve" the game in 20 minutes the first time I played it. I only touched it once since then (for 5 minutes).
The Bottom Line
The designer did not seem to be too enthusiastic about the idea of making a game out of a film. Maybe he just thought: "A Schwarzenegger-movie...let's do something like beating some bad guys up.".
By Mr Creosote on December 30th, 1999