Game Reviews by Eduardo Gabrieloff (@Ginbo)

The Good
From the beach landings to the house to house fights in villages and towns, this game is nearly perfect. As with all games, it has its flaws. However, these are mostly outweighed by its qualities. The game comes with several different modes of play, including single battles, multiplay, and extended campaigns. It includes a mission editor, where you can create battles on the plethora of included maps. The game play is RTS, and you control about 12 groups of up to 10 men each. You can give each group of men orders, and (this is what has kept the series unique for all it years among its RTS peers) they follow orders depending on several factors, including morale and enemy presence. They think for themselves, in other words. For example, if you tell a sniper to charge a tank, expect to have a hesitant soldier. He may leave his cover to attempt to follow orders, but as soon as he hears enemy fire, he'll probably find cover once more, if he's not dead. If you order a squad of assault engineers, or even AB infantry, to attack the tank, the same goes, though sometimes you'll find units I would call "heroes," those brave enough to actually get as close as possible to the tank and try to kill those within. However, I also usually call these units "dead," because these feats are usually unsuccessful. There are, of course, units to destroy these tanks, but they are usually quite vunerable to enemy infantry because of their lack of infantry specific weapons. However, if these bazooka or panzershreck units, or any other units, exhaust their ammunition, they will scavenge the surrounding dead bodies for new weapons. The variety of units is not extreme, but it very efficiently gets the job done. There are several types of tanks and other mobile infantry for each side (you can play as both the allies and the Germans). There are snipers, assault engineers, machine gunners, recon, and general infantry troops to use, as well as mortars and anti-tank and anti-infantry guns. These all culminate in intense battles throughout the French countryside. The sounds of each gun are quite good, as are the screams of soldiers being pinned, routed, wounded and killed. You'll always know if troops are about to rout; they'll be screaming in fear. The battles are resolved by either destroying all the enemy troops, or letting time run out. You win by capturing key points on the maps, and these are marked by flags. These can either be important crossroads or buildings, and these buildings, which can either be solitary farm houses or even cathedrals in a sprawling city, can be several stories high, giving snipers and machine gunners great positions on the street fighting going on below. The true fun of this game is putting yourself into the game, imagining your troops running through the streets, imagining the intensity of your recon troops entering a house with a squad of the enemy hiding, setting up ambushes, etc. It is, in a very cliche but true way, like playing "Saving Private Ryan," or more accuratly, "The Longest Day," with your troops running through the streets of a beautiful French town. You can even order air strikes, artillery strikes and battle ship barrages.

The Bad
However, there are a few road bumps on this trip through Normandy. First, if you are getting through the maps quite quickly, sweeping aside the mediocre AI, you'll find yourself a bit bored defending the same maps. You will almost always see the enemy troops trying to break through in the same place, so you'll know how to plan. Of course, an incredible aspect of the game is the way your planning can so quickly be flipped on its head. There are times where your mortars are too incredibly accurate. If you use one to attack an anti-tank gun, expect the first shot to destroy it. Also, it can get extremely hard to keep track of all your troops, though that is expected in war.

The Bottom Line
In summary, this game is stagering. It has simple graphics that get the job done, great sound that lets you know how the battle is going, and a sophisticated way of ordering your units, letting them be humans, with fear, even though that same AI is at times lacking when playing against the computer. However, for a great WWII fix, try this game! It will make you feel like in the intense, terrible battles.

By Eduardo Gabrieloff on September 26, 2002

Galapagos (Windows)

By Eduardo Gabrieloff on July 14, 2002

Grand Theft Auto III (Windows)

I'll mess you the heck up..... and laugh for days about it!

The Good
I'll summarize a story. I was being chased by a cop after doing some sort of crime that did not go over well. I decided to turn into an ally instead of continuing on the road. I realize, too late, that I am entering the territory of the Mafia, who I've angered enough that they open fire whenever they see me. There is a goon at the end of the ally, but there is a huge cop car behind me, so I hit the gas. As I approach the goon, he opens fire, but realizing I am not being swayed, begins to dive out of the way. He does not see the wall there. After he hits the wall face-first, he bounces off. Then, as I begin to pass the goon, his head smacks the side of my car, an falls to the ground where he is run over by the cop chasing me. These are the types of stories you will come away with from this game. You are introduced to a living city, which is a bit rare in a computer game. You can go anywhere and do anything, within limits. The game is truely open ended. The graphics are amazing. The sound of amazing. This game is truely amazing, and you can do the things you want to do in real life, but would feel terrible for doing, like pulling the guy out of the car next to you and beating him to death, then running over his body with his own car.

The Bad
The game has high system requirements, though that is easily forgetable once you start playing. I thought the game ended abrubtly. I wished I could do more, find another 100 missions, even random ones. I didn't like that the game was banned in Australia.

The Bottom Line
The best game I've played in ages, and extremely free-form. You can be as evil or nice as you want, kill more or less people than the next guy, and play chase with the cops. This game is everything you'd expect and more. It is what you WANT to play.

By Eduardo Gabrieloff on July 14, 2002