Product Description

You don't have to spend countless hours on a leveling treadmill to get to the interesting parts of the game, because combat is designed to be strategically interesting and challenging right from the beginning. You don't have to spend hours running around the world to prepare for a quest, because Guild Wars allows you to instantly travel to the beginning of any quest that you've previously unlocked. You'll never spend days playing only to discover that choices you made early on have left you with ... Read more

Features

• Built for Competition - After learning the game and building up your first character, you may choose to test your skills in head-to-head competition or guild warfare. The game is designed to reward player skill and teamwork, not time spent playing, so you won't need to spend hundreds of hours leveling up your character to compete.
• The game includes integrated support for guilds, with guild banners and halls, chat rooms and forums. Guilds can challenge other guilds to battle, compete for control of key parts of the world, and be ranked on a worldwide ladder.
• Unique Streaming Technology - ArenaNet's unique streaming technology forever eliminates the concept of patching a game. You don't have to wait a month for the next big patch to experience new content. Instead, the game constantly and intelligently streams new content to your computer in the background while you play. The world can change continually. This allows us to build a much more dynamic game world than any thathas existed before.

Reviews (53)

Guild wars got it RIGHT
My experience with mmorpg's include DAOC, SWG, PS, EQ II and WOW...yes I am a geek. Guild wars got it right

MISSIONS & TRAVELING:
There are missions to do if you choose to, missions basically lead a player from one town to another. The missions use waypoints to make it easy. You can choose to group with henchmen (AI) or other players. It does not take long to form groups, longest I have waited is 3 minutes (no kidding). Traveling from city to city that you have been to is as easy as opening up the map and clicking (no more time sinks).

LOOT:
Loot drops are automatically assigned to each player of a group. There are 3 different types of quality loot: white (least rarest), blue, purple, yellow (most rarest). I am level 15/20 and I have only seen yellow loot drop twice, super sweet stuff. I love searching for loot drops fun :)

PVP:
2 types of pvp arena and capture the flag. Capture the flag is played in groups of 8, 6 teams and is for the level 20s. If you don't want to level a character, just make a level 20, the game allows you to do this to play capture the flag only. U.S, Europe and Korea compete in capture the flag and the winners are announced in system messages. Arena is AWESOME. No need to find a group, just click join and you are randomly grouped with others for a 4-on-4 battle, fun because it is so balanced. Skill is the only thing that matters, did I say super balanced :) I often find myself in 2 hour sessions saying just one more battle and you get experience.

EXTRA:
There is NO monthly fee. The load times of this game are fastest I have ever seen, 1 sec for me. No more time sinks. I should have bought this a long time ago. If your going to buy 1 game for rest of 2005, it should be guild wars.

Game is not for All MMO players
this game is a good game but its not for all MMO playersits mainly for those that get board easily hehe who are low income and also for those that whine about kill steals

I like this game as it is set to where you can do most things solo at a early lvl and later on when you are established in a guild you can play for the higher lvls or just look around for a group granted there is some that rush through and some that dont know what they are doing there are always people like this in games but it is rewarding when you find a group that knows what to do and dont leave anyone behind if possible

i have a lvl 10 elementalist ranger at the moment and i have solowed for the most part with myself or 1 person in game or npc groupof 3 others with myselfthe group max is 4 now i believe i havent done any pvp yet but from the reviews ive read i doubpt i want to there are some invisable walls but you arnt lead down a path all the time you can cut crossed country in alot of areas

Economy is like all other games can be high in areas as people are greedy most of the stuff is found and sold on a auction channel of sorts but most basic thigns are bough from npc's

the avatars in my opinion as a female very beautiful atleast the elementalist but yes as in all games you have scruffy looking fellows too

The bottom line here is what one man's or woman's opinion of a game is not always the opinion you would give a game my advice is try it if ya dont like it sell it used or something like that or see if there is a trial or spend all your time reserching it and let somone else dictate rather you will or wont like a game you will never know till you play it for yourself.

Julie

Beware: MMO-Lite..All that glitter is not Gold
I frankly just burned my $50 bucks with this game. This game is Bad with a Capital 'B'. There is something seriously missing from this game(if you are a Star Wars fan..'the force is unusally weak with this one'). I find it hard to fanthom how so many people are claiming this game to be the next best thing since sliced bread. Trust me its not.
This game doesn't feel like an mmo its mostly a persistent single player online game. One of the main attraction of an mmo is to be able to see other people running around in a persistent world. You can wave them, help them out, have a chit-chat or maybe even duke it out if they are hostile to you. There is no such aspect to this game. Every mission is 'instanced'; its just you or your guild or AI henchman(AI lacks and they feel like 'npc's too). You dont get to see anyone else.
They are invisible walls in this game everywhere. Unlike many other mmo's you just can't walk over to where you please like in a real persistent world. Instead you are forced to follow and play along a path chosen for you. For e.g...you are going on the road and there is a nice water-fall you see some distance away. So you decide to walk down the hill and check it out. Surprise...there is a invisible wall blocking your way. You have to stay on the road..it was all just a illusion or some cosmetic matte painting. This cuts down the real virtual world factor right there and than. Your only chance of seeing a group of people is in the cities and the way the game is setup you wont be spending much time in cities anyway.The city further lack the community feeling with no inns, housing or gathering places everyone just stands in the middle of the town.
As far as rpg element is concerned, the classes and their powers are poorly setup. Only 8 of your skills can be used at any time. I want to be able to use more than 8 skills sometimes. Combining two clases is a good idea but the 8 skills limitation further cuts down the charm of this aspect.
There is no player run economy as to speak...you sell stuff to npc's ho hum. Player run economy is an absolute must in my view for an mmo to get some sense of realism.
PVP is where this game really falls apart. This mmo strong point was its 'pvp aspect'; however this is where it fails the most. Instead of providing a real war like feeling that is so well done in 'World of warcraft' this game throws you in team based instanced arenas. Just imagine playing a online fps like 'Unreal tournament' or 'Counter-strike' with fantasty characters as well as weapons and you will get the complete picture. Dont expect to be the ubber champ if you haven't first played the pve aspect of the game lvl 20 + and unlocked specials skills. Because you get the standard Lvl 20 template for those classes if you decide to just go pvp but not the special skills that you can unlock if you had tried the pve aspect first. Some of those pve learned special skills are clearly superior to the standard pvp template and players already know this aspect and have learned to exploit it. So it means that whether you want to do pve or not you will have to if you want to be really good in pvp and reaching to lvl 20 is still a time-intensive pve grind. Now i come to my biggest complaint when it comes to pvp. So many people are touting strategy and true skill-based pvp in this game. Well the truth is far from it. Unless you have established guild with people you know you will be thrown into random 4 man teams with each player specilizing in certain skills like 1 is ranger, 1 is tank etc.. You are forced to group to pvp whether you like it or not, forget about any sniper or solo support role. Not to my surprise this random team of unknown people falls apart rather quickly. Most of the teams i have played in like to just rush in or charge without any ryhme or reason and resulting mayhem causes utter confusion with the victor being a warior or someone who can mash buttons the fastest. Or everyone just go into different directions once they get into arena and you are pretty much on your own and good luck here if you a pure ranger. There is no strategy atall that i have seen any team discuss or even apply so far. Another huge pitfall is those invisible walls blocking you from striking at the opposing player. If say you are on a hill and you see the opposing players down below. Well you think that you have a strategic advantage here dont you escpecially if you are a full fledge Ranger/elementalist. Surprise...you just cant attack them in most cases because of those invisible cost-cutting walls and have to run down the long winding preset path to get them and in the meantime giving your position away. So forget about launching a surprise attack on anyone in most cases which is one of the major forte of true pvp. You will see many more pitfalls especially the feeling that there is no real war going on in this game. There is really no gain or charm from pvp except just for the thrill of doing pvp. You character dont gain anything. PVP should be a integral part of the game rpg aspect not some side wrestling match.
Last but not least, the character creation is worst of any recent mmo's I have played so far. Some of characters look like misfits out of a bad Gothic heavy metal group...just have a look at the game 'Necromancer'. Others look like drag queens(sorry not to offend anyone its just a quip). Ontop of it you just have few templates and cosmetic choices to apply. As a result most people end up looking much the same with a real bad wadrobe case. And dont get me started at the Warior template. Supposedly the warrior is the start all and end all class. What we get is an over-weight and bald extra reject from the Gladiator movie.
This is the end of my rant. If you look at my other reviews I give credit where its due and discredit where it is also due. This game is far from what some people are making it to be. There is a reason this game is not charging you a monthly fee and it shows. Read all the reviews and make a educated guess its just that there are far better 'real mmo's' out there too. Dont let fanboy's or overly exicited people mislead you. This game tries to do a lot of things all at the same time while cutting costs but in the end ends up doing nothing well. No-monthly fee here is a double-edged sword here. I for one will throw this game into my garbage can and they can forget me ever getting buying their other expansions. I got suckered once because of all hoop laa that surrounds this game...but no more.

Some aspects are very good, others need some work.
The first thing that should be stated forthright about this game is that it shouldn't be classified as a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game.Much of the game takes place in private zones that approximately 8 people can access at a single time.There are towns and outposts that can harbor many more players, but these are merely gathering areas to form groups for your private instanced area; the vast majority of this game takes place in very small groups that do not interact with anybody else.In nearly all other MMO games, you're interacting with a large number of people all the time.I suppose there are perks to having your own private area to share with a few other people, but I found much of the playable areas depressingly lonely since there is little, if any player-player interaction.

The game is divided up into two spheres: Player-Versus-Environment, and Player-Versus-Player, with specialized characters devoted to each.Player-versus-environment characters can explore the world AND engage in player-versus-player combat, but player-versus-player characters are restricted to just that: player-versus-player combat.As you progress through the main storyline and other side-quests with your player-versus-environment characters, the skills and items that you discover will be unlocked for any future player-versus-player character you create.If you haven't unlocked any items and skills and would still like to enjoy player-versus-player combat right off the bat, the game comes with several pre-made characters you can use solely for player-versus-player combat.There are six classes of players: warriors, rangers, monks, mesmers, necromancers, and elementalists.Each character has a primary profession and a secondary profession, allowing for interesting combinations of characters such as a player that is primarily a necromancer, but can swing a sword almost as good as a warrior.Some skill combinations don't really work too well, but the fact that there are a potential of 30 different classes combinations is pretty refreshing.In addition, even if you're the same primary and secondary profession as another character, you most likely have a different set of skills, of which you're only allowed to have 8 equipped at one time).This also aids in helping your character feel truly unique.

The main storyline is very good, and I enjoyed progressing through each quest as more of the main story was revealed.When you play through the main storyline, your character and whoever you're partnering up with, be it other human players or computer controlled "bots", are the focus of the quest, and your actions in the storyline make it seem like you're actually doing super-human deeds instead of some trivial task like delivering a package.It is your character that saves entire cities from certain doom, it is your character that holds off armies of undead as they march towards your location; nothing you do is trivial.

But once the main storyline is over, all you're left with is player-versus-player combat, which I personally did not enjoy.There are many strong strategies that people have already figured out for player-versus-player combat, so some battles are more luck than skill.Whenever I played in the player-versus-player arenas, I got the feeling that I was just playing some glorified first person shooter like Unreal Tournament, but with swords and spells.You can go back and try to unlock more items and spells, but this gets very boring and tedious quickly.I tried to play through the main storyline with a different type of character, but didn't find it as enjoyable or engaging as the first run through.

However the main thing makes this game unbearable isn't so much the game mechanics as it is the people who play Guild Wars.There is no community, and you will never see the same person more than one time.Also, in a game that requires a lot of team play and coordination, there is an overabundance of people who simply don't care for tactics and are bound to get your character killed with their carelessness.

The best part of Guild Wars is the fact that there is no monthly fee, and the steaming content that updates as you play.I'm sure ArenaNet will be able to do some interesting things with their streaming content system, but there really wasn't enough substance in the game to keep me hooked for long after I finished the main quest.The player-versus-player combat did not appeal to me, however if you believe that you'll like it, you'll most likely enjoy Guild Wars.If you're going to try this game, I strongly recommend you do so with a group of people that you already know, as there is no player community to speak of.

Better than any MMO EVER!
I've played almost every mmo out there and this game is definately a step above. I thought since there was no monthly fee that there would be a huge lack of content but boy was I wrong!!! I have played it since release and there is so much to do and so many styles of play that I feel I will never grow tired of it. I've cancelled all my monthly fee games to play this one and I haven't regreted it since! ... Read more

Features

• Increase rank and unlock awards; voice-over IP (VOIP) supported
• War simulation, online multiplayer action with 64 players on the PC
• Battle as U.S., Chinese, or Middle East Coalition troops
• 30+ land, sea, and air vehicles; choose from a variety of solider classes
• New state-of-the-art weapon systems, including heat seeking missiles

Features

• Increase rank and unlock awards; voice-over IP (VOIP) supported
• War simulation, online multiplayer action with 64 players on the PC
• Battle as U.S., Chinese, or Middle East Coalition troops
• 30+ land, sea, and air vehicles; choose from a variety of solider classes
• New state-of-the-art weapon systems, including heat seeking missiles

Product Description

Join a New Generation of Online Role-Playing! Guild Wars takes the best elements of today's massively multiplayer online games and combines them with a new mission-based design that eliminates the tedium of those games. You can meet new friends in towns or outposts, form a party, and then go tackle a quest together. Your party always has its own unique copy of the quest map, so camping, kill-stealing, and long lines to complete quests are all things of the past. Within a quest you have unprecede ... Read more

Features

• Competitive online role-playing game with head-to-head guild battles
• Explore fantasy world while pursuing professions and acquiring skills
• Open battlegrounds where victory determined by skill and teamwork
• Fully integrated support for guilds; streaming technology
• Cooperative group combat; single player missions

Reviews (53)

Guild wars got it RIGHT
My experience with mmorpg's include DAOC, SWG, PS, EQ II and WOW...yes I am a geek. Guild wars got it right

MISSIONS & TRAVELING:
There are missions to do if you choose to, missions basically lead a player from one town to another. The missions use waypoints to make it easy. You can choose to group with henchmen (AI) or other players. It does not take long to form groups, longest I have waited is 3 minutes (no kidding). Traveling from city to city that you have been to is as easy as opening up the map and clicking (no more time sinks).

LOOT:
Loot drops are automatically assigned to each player of a group. There are 3 different types of quality loot: white (least rarest), blue, purple, yellow (most rarest). I am level 15/20 and I have only seen yellow loot drop twice, super sweet stuff. I love searching for loot drops fun :)

PVP:
2 types of pvp arena and capture the flag. Capture the flag is played in groups of 8, 6 teams and is for the level 20s. If you don't want to level a character, just make a level 20, the game allows you to do this to play capture the flag only. U.S, Europe and Korea compete in capture the flag and the winners are announced in system messages. Arena is AWESOME. No need to find a group, just click join and you are randomly grouped with others for a 4-on-4 battle, fun because it is so balanced. Skill is the only thing that matters, did I say super balanced :) I often find myself in 2 hour sessions saying just one more battle and you get experience.

EXTRA:
There is NO monthly fee. The load times of this game are fastest I have ever seen, 1 sec for me. No more time sinks. I should have bought this a long time ago. If your going to buy 1 game for rest of 2005, it should be guild wars.

Game is not for All MMO players
this game is a good game but its not for all MMO playersits mainly for those that get board easily hehe who are low income and also for those that whine about kill steals

I like this game as it is set to where you can do most things solo at a early lvl and later on when you are established in a guild you can play for the higher lvls or just look around for a group granted there is some that rush through and some that dont know what they are doing there are always people like this in games but it is rewarding when you find a group that knows what to do and dont leave anyone behind if possible

i have a lvl 10 elementalist ranger at the moment and i have solowed for the most part with myself or 1 person in game or npc groupof 3 others with myselfthe group max is 4 now i believe i havent done any pvp yet but from the reviews ive read i doubpt i want to there are some invisable walls but you arnt lead down a path all the time you can cut crossed country in alot of areas

Economy is like all other games can be high in areas as people are greedy most of the stuff is found and sold on a auction channel of sorts but most basic thigns are bough from npc's

the avatars in my opinion as a female very beautiful atleast the elementalist but yes as in all games you have scruffy looking fellows too

The bottom line here is what one man's or woman's opinion of a game is not always the opinion you would give a game my advice is try it if ya dont like it sell it used or something like that or see if there is a trial or spend all your time reserching it and let somone else dictate rather you will or wont like a game you will never know till you play it for yourself.

Julie

Beware: MMO-Lite..All that glitter is not Gold
I frankly just burned my $50 bucks with this game. This game is Bad with a Capital 'B'. There is something seriously missing from this game(if you are a Star Wars fan..'the force is unusally weak with this one'). I find it hard to fanthom how so many people are claiming this game to be the next best thing since sliced bread. Trust me its not.
This game doesn't feel like an mmo its mostly a persistent single player online game. One of the main attraction of an mmo is to be able to see other people running around in a persistent world. You can wave them, help them out, have a chit-chat or maybe even duke it out if they are hostile to you. There is no such aspect to this game. Every mission is 'instanced'; its just you or your guild or AI henchman(AI lacks and they feel like 'npc's too). You dont get to see anyone else.
They are invisible walls in this game everywhere. Unlike many other mmo's you just can't walk over to where you please like in a real persistent world. Instead you are forced to follow and play along a path chosen for you. For e.g...you are going on the road and there is a nice water-fall you see some distance away. So you decide to walk down the hill and check it out. Surprise...there is a invisible wall blocking your way. You have to stay on the road..it was all just a illusion or some cosmetic matte painting. This cuts down the real virtual world factor right there and than. Your only chance of seeing a group of people is in the cities and the way the game is setup you wont be spending much time in cities anyway.The city further lack the community feeling with no inns, housing or gathering places everyone just stands in the middle of the town.
As far as rpg element is concerned, the classes and their powers are poorly setup. Only 8 of your skills can be used at any time. I want to be able to use more than 8 skills sometimes. Combining two clases is a good idea but the 8 skills limitation further cuts down the charm of this aspect.
There is no player run economy as to speak...you sell stuff to npc's ho hum. Player run economy is an absolute must in my view for an mmo to get some sense of realism.
PVP is where this game really falls apart. This mmo strong point was its 'pvp aspect'; however this is where it fails the most. Instead of providing a real war like feeling that is so well done in 'World of warcraft' this game throws you in team based instanced arenas. Just imagine playing a online fps like 'Unreal tournament' or 'Counter-strike' with fantasty characters as well as weapons and you will get the complete picture. Dont expect to be the ubber champ if you haven't first played the pve aspect of the game lvl 20 + and unlocked specials skills. Because you get the standard Lvl 20 template for those classes if you decide to just go pvp but not the special skills that you can unlock if you had tried the pve aspect first. Some of those pve learned special skills are clearly superior to the standard pvp template and players already know this aspect and have learned to exploit it. So it means that whether you want to do pve or not you will have to if you want to be really good in pvp and reaching to lvl 20 is still a time-intensive pve grind. Now i come to my biggest complaint when it comes to pvp. So many people are touting strategy and true skill-based pvp in this game. Well the truth is far from it. Unless you have established guild with people you know you will be thrown into random 4 man teams with each player specilizing in certain skills like 1 is ranger, 1 is tank etc.. You are forced to group to pvp whether you like it or not, forget about any sniper or solo support role. Not to my surprise this random team of unknown people falls apart rather quickly. Most of the teams i have played in like to just rush in or charge without any ryhme or reason and resulting mayhem causes utter confusion with the victor being a warior or someone who can mash buttons the fastest. Or everyone just go into different directions once they get into arena and you are pretty much on your own and good luck here if you a pure ranger. There is no strategy atall that i have seen any team discuss or even apply so far. Another huge pitfall is those invisible walls blocking you from striking at the opposing player. If say you are on a hill and you see the opposing players down below. Well you think that you have a strategic advantage here dont you escpecially if you are a full fledge Ranger/elementalist. Surprise...you just cant attack them in most cases because of those invisible cost-cutting walls and have to run down the long winding preset path to get them and in the meantime giving your position away. So forget about launching a surprise attack on anyone in most cases which is one of the major forte of true pvp. You will see many more pitfalls especially the feeling that there is no real war going on in this game. There is really no gain or charm from pvp except just for the thrill of doing pvp. You character dont gain anything. PVP should be a integral part of the game rpg aspect not some side wrestling match.
Last but not least, the character creation is worst of any recent mmo's I have played so far. Some of characters look like misfits out of a bad Gothic heavy metal group...just have a look at the game 'Necromancer'. Others look like drag queens(sorry not to offend anyone its just a quip). Ontop of it you just have few templates and cosmetic choices to apply. As a result most people end up looking much the same with a real bad wadrobe case. And dont get me started at the Warior template. Supposedly the warrior is the start all and end all class. What we get is an over-weight and bald extra reject from the Gladiator movie.
This is the end of my rant. If you look at my other reviews I give credit where its due and discredit where it is also due. This game is far from what some people are making it to be. There is a reason this game is not charging you a monthly fee and it shows. Read all the reviews and make a educated guess its just that there are far better 'real mmo's' out there too. Dont let fanboy's or overly exicited people mislead you. This game tries to do a lot of things all at the same time while cutting costs but in the end ends up doing nothing well. No-monthly fee here is a double-edged sword here. I for one will throw this game into my garbage can and they can forget me ever getting buying their other expansions. I got suckered once because of all hoop laa that surrounds this game...but no more.

Some aspects are very good, others need some work.
The first thing that should be stated forthright about this game is that it shouldn't be classified as a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game.Much of the game takes place in private zones that approximately 8 people can access at a single time.There are towns and outposts that can harbor many more players, but these are merely gathering areas to form groups for your private instanced area; the vast majority of this game takes place in very small groups that do not interact with anybody else.In nearly all other MMO games, you're interacting with a large number of people all the time.I suppose there are perks to having your own private area to share with a few other people, but I found much of the playable areas depressingly lonely since there is little, if any player-player interaction.

The game is divided up into two spheres: Player-Versus-Environment, and Player-Versus-Player, with specialized characters devoted to each.Player-versus-environment characters can explore the world AND engage in player-versus-player combat, but player-versus-player characters are restricted to just that: player-versus-player combat.As you progress through the main storyline and other side-quests with your player-versus-environment characters, the skills and items that you discover will be unlocked for any future player-versus-player character you create.If you haven't unlocked any items and skills and would still like to enjoy player-versus-player combat right off the bat, the game comes with several pre-made characters you can use solely for player-versus-player combat.There are six classes of players: warriors, rangers, monks, mesmers, necromancers, and elementalists.Each character has a primary profession and a secondary profession, allowing for interesting combinations of characters such as a player that is primarily a necromancer, but can swing a sword almost as good as a warrior.Some skill combinations don't really work too well, but the fact that there are a potential of 30 different classes combinations is pretty refreshing.In addition, even if you're the same primary and secondary profession as another character, you most likely have a different set of skills, of which you're only allowed to have 8 equipped at one time).This also aids in helping your character feel truly unique.

The main storyline is very good, and I enjoyed progressing through each quest as more of the main story was revealed.When you play through the main storyline, your character and whoever you're partnering up with, be it other human players or computer controlled "bots", are the focus of the quest, and your actions in the storyline make it seem like you're actually doing super-human deeds instead of some trivial task like delivering a package.It is your character that saves entire cities from certain doom, it is your character that holds off armies of undead as they march towards your location; nothing you do is trivial.

But once the main storyline is over, all you're left with is player-versus-player combat, which I personally did not enjoy.There are many strong strategies that people have already figured out for player-versus-player combat, so some battles are more luck than skill.Whenever I played in the player-versus-player arenas, I got the feeling that I was just playing some glorified first person shooter like Unreal Tournament, but with swords and spells.You can go back and try to unlock more items and spells, but this gets very boring and tedious quickly.I tried to play through the main storyline with a different type of character, but didn't find it as enjoyable or engaging as the first run through.

However the main thing makes this game unbearable isn't so much the game mechanics as it is the people who play Guild Wars.There is no community, and you will never see the same person more than one time.Also, in a game that requires a lot of team play and coordination, there is an overabundance of people who simply don't care for tactics and are bound to get your character killed with their carelessness.

The best part of Guild Wars is the fact that there is no monthly fee, and the steaming content that updates as you play.I'm sure ArenaNet will be able to do some interesting things with their streaming content system, but there really wasn't enough substance in the game to keep me hooked for long after I finished the main quest.The player-versus-player combat did not appeal to me, however if you believe that you'll like it, you'll most likely enjoy Guild Wars.If you're going to try this game, I strongly recommend you do so with a group of people that you already know, as there is no player community to speak of.

Better than any MMO EVER!
I've played almost every mmo out there and this game is definately a step above. I thought since there was no monthly fee that there would be a huge lack of content but boy was I wrong!!! I have played it since release and there is so much to do and so many styles of play that I feel I will never grow tired of it. I've cancelled all my monthly fee games to play this one and I haven't regreted it since! ... Read more

Product Description

DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil continues the terrifying, intense action of DOOM 3, the fastest selling 1st person PC shooter ever, with an all new storyline featuring new missions, characters and weapons, including the return of the id signature double-barreled shotgun.Supported Video Cards:ATI Radeon 8500 ATI Radeon 9700 ATI Radeon 9800 ATI Radeon 9500 ATI Radeon 9600 ATI Radeon 9000 All Nvidia GeForce 3/Ti series All Nvidia GeForce 4/MX series All Nvidia GeForce 4/Ti series All ... Read more

Features

• Single- and multi-player action for ages 17 or older
• Fight back against a demonic invasion of a Mars research facility
• First-person shooter game with real-time dynamic lighting and shadows
• Realistic physics; revolutionary new 3D graphics engine
• Cinema-quality visuals; surround sound; ever-changing environment

Reviews (13)

Not good.
What the hell are you guys talking about? This expansion is terrible. Firstly in the first game you were in a never-ending maze of pitch black corridors that all looked alike. Here, you are in a never-ending maze of pitch black caves that all look alike. But caves are even more boring than metallic corridors. I mean at least the Id guys had to use some textures in the first game. But the guys who did this must have said "I know, lets make it easy on ourselves and only use 1 texture - ReddishBrown to simulate Martian sandstone." Secondly, in the first game you were constantly hit with childish horror-house tactics, eg. you walk into a room, 2 nasties appear in front of you, then the door locks behind you, the lights go out so you can't see a thing and have to fire wildly into the dark, while at the same time you hear that corny "evil" laughter - hehehehehe. Well here, you get exactly the same thing. But for me the worst thing in this expansion is the way they have filled it with platform style "obstacle courses". I hate those. They only put those in games when they've run out of ideas of what to do next. And there are a lot of them in this. You know the idea, where you've got to run before a descending wall crushes you but it is perfectly timed (even with that slow-down-time thingy) so that it takes you 8 attempts before you get it right. Annoying. That kind of thing belongs in Tomb Raider, not Doom.

They learned a thing or two...
I was personally quite pleased with the first installment of Doom 3. Some low points existed, however, for me. Like the whole 'flashlight' gripe about the fact that this is the distant future and you can't even have a flashlight on your gun or helmet like they've done already so many years ago! That was just silly. And obstructive to game play as well. They addressed that here. Sort of an apology for such a ridiculous fumble. Next is the fact that while there was an assortment of 'baddies' in the first game, too many of the same-ones were thrown at you of a few sorts, while others were barely even used. This games addresses that as well. You get a nice array of new demons to kill while a few of the lesser used ones were re-introduced into this program. This program is a tad shorter than Doom 3 in my experience. But, that's O.K. with me. Too much of a good thing can go sour. You revisit a few of the locales from the first installment. But, not so many that it feels like exactly the same game. The extra weapon was nice. Familiar when compared to the weapon in Half-Life 2. But, executed very nicely. The ending was very weak. However, i personally believe that they are making room for another add-on in the near future. So, Valve did one-up the original in a lot of ways, but the fear factor is a little bit lost. As the sounds and environments feel similar to the first in an atmospheric way. So, if you've played the 'hell' out of the first, you get a 'been-there-done-that' kind of feeling when you spot another demon in the dark. But, this did have a few moments for me where i had to stop it for a short while. It can get intense.

Double-barreled Savior
I liked Doom3, maybe a little too dark, but my eyes adjusted.This expansion pack wasn't much of an expansion, way too short even for $20!Living in the boondocks and all it probably took me longer to drive to the store buy it, get home and install it than it took for me to beat it, that just blows in my book.I didn't mind the fact that it was pretty much the exact same game because I really did like D3.I find it entertaining running around and mindlessly blowing $hit up.The one part that really saved D3 ROE was the fact that they made up for ID's slip - no double-barreled shotgun!What the hell, it was a great step up in Doom 2 and that crappy version they made for N64, I thought it was a guarantee that we would have been able to use it for the newest addition to the Doom family, but no.I mean come on, it's become a staple in ID's games since Doom 2, why the change?Maybe I'm flippin' out too much about a fake shotgun, but I'm sometimes like an autistic child, I'm very easily amused and upset (I'm going to hell for that one).Bottom line if you are willing to pay $20 for another 5 hours of Doom 3 go for it, otherwise the changes aren't that significant where you won't be able to live your life if you miss it.On a side note, if anyone knows where I can get a mod to use the double-barreled shotgun for D3 e-mail me or post it here. (johnkleineider@northwesternmutual.com) No complaint e-mails about my autistic crack, thanks.

I call that Resurrection of Crap
So, they did manage to squezee out an expansion pack for the DOOM3. I just finished the game today and I have to say that I am utterly disappointed.
First of all, let's talk about the original doom3, with all the poor ratings from mags aside, my personaly experience is poor. There's no doubt that the graphic is surperier, however most times you wont' even get a glimps of the glory, the entire set is way too dark for a video game, at some places even with the "never dying" flashlight you still can't see your own fingers. The story line is pretty simple, no something you would expect from a newer generations of hardcore games, especially from veterian developers such as ID software. I think they focued way too much on the details on the graphics of the games instead of develop a well ploted classic, and may I remaid you that you can't see the nice graphics most of the time!!!
Second of all, the expansion pack. To start off with, I think the game really did finish last time with D3, oh crap, the bad escaped at the end. What's gonna happen? He's gonna come back and cause another Hell return. That's where the expansion pack start. Needless to say, the plot was dry and boring, (IT'S EVEN DARKER THAN THE FIRST ONE). So you go through all these elevators killing monsters mostly from the first one. with the addition of one common one that throws plasma lightbulb instead of fireball. WOW, what an improvement!!! GUNS?? usually the expansion pack come with many new and improved gears and toys to crunch your thirst for blood. The D3 ROE comes with a new "shotgun" that has double barrel and ... wait, that's it! yeh, sorry to disappoint yall, but that was it. Oh yeah... You can't just give us royal fans just one gun for the expansion pack right? Let's borrow an idea from another game HL2, the grabber, you can grab and throw back! How original! For people who hasn't played HL2 before, this might just work as ID's IDEA.
Last but certainly not least, the ending, I can't say too much about the ending, but i can tell you this much, I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT IS DONE when it's done. short and simple, no thinking or other mind twisting strategies, there's isn't even a goshdarn final clip. I mean come on, even the lamest movies have something blow up at the end. THINK ID! THINK!
Ok, i gave it 4 stars from graphics when you can see them, 0 for darkness 'cause what's the point of rating if you dont' know what you are looking at? 1 for storyline since there's really not much to it. and 0 or -1 for the ending. Man, I just can't believe i wasted time for this Resurrection of crap. (try it if you want, if you are really bored)

Resurrection of Blandness
During the writing of this review I'm experiencing the same creative block that the developers obviously experienced when upper management told them to squeeze an expansion out of their rectums. Unlike them, however, I will not resort to stealing random ideas from other games (mainly the grabber, ie the equivelant ofHalf-Life 2's gravity gun) and covering the mess with lots of eye candy and dim lighting. ... Read more

Product Description

The year is 2008.

Citywide blackouts ... stock exchange sabotageelectronic hijacking of national defense systems...this is information warfare.

To prevent these attacks, operatives must infiltrate deep into hostile territory and aggressively collect critical intelligence, closer than ever to enemy soldiers.

You are Sam Fisher, the NSA's most elite black-ops agent. To achieve your mission you will kill from close-range, attack with your combat knife, shoot with the prototype Land Warrior rifle, and use radical suppression techniques such as the inverted neck break. Also take on cooperative multiplayer infiltration missions, where teamwork is the ultimate weapon.

As the enemy evolves, so must you.

• DEADLY AGILITY: Incredibly complete and fluid variety of moves including athletic moves, stealth moves, stealth kills.
• REAL WEAPONS OF TOMORROW: The most complete arsenal of weapons and gadgets from the knife to the experimental Land Warrior System.
• AS GOOD AS REAL: Never see before graphics technology offers the best visuals ever seen on any console yet. Advanced physics engine allowing rag doll physics, particle effects and perfect interaction with the environment.
• ULTIMATE CHALLENGE: Intelligent A.I with personal attributes, natural behavior where NPCs are aware of there environment and remember past events.
• AMAZING REPLAYABILITY: Totally open level design with multipaths and optional secondary objectives.
• COOP STEALTH: Play multiplayer with a friends and coordinate your infiltration in an all new multiplayer challenge

Reviews (13)

A must have buy.
I have played all the Splinter Cell games now after being hooked in by the Pandorra Tomorrow Demo. Chaos theory is a little easier than the previous games though I have only tried it on the 'normal' difficulty. Presumably the higher difficulties will be the way to play this game if you any experience on the series. The 'Starforce' protection issue is something however that you will need to consider. It hasn't caused issues with either my CD-RW/DVD combo drive or my DVD-RW and I have cloned my DvD's without any issues. Nevertheless removing it could be a problem for you so you may want to think about this. Personally I find this better than Steam anyday. Half-Life was such a pain to get going and in the end a slightly better than mediocre game that I decided never to go with valve again. Chaos Theory however is the best game I have had on my system since Far Cry. Not sure why others are having troubles with performance. It runs fine on my PC at 1024x768 with a 2.8ghz P4, a ATI 9600 Extreme (AGP 8X) and 1GM dual channel RAM, running with 2x Anti-Aliasing and 4x Anistropic filtering. There is sufficent performance to run the game at this level and leave bittorrent running as well. If your system is similar then you shouldn't have any troubles. The game looks great. The only downside to using the ATI card is the game downgrades to 1.1 shaders. The nVidia card supports shaders 3.0 so it may look better but I haven't seen it run on nVidia. Either way it looks right up there with Far Cry and half-life 2 so I wouldn't worry either way if you have ATI. The mission format is the same as the previous game and although there has been an attempt to create multiple paths the game is still fairly linear.As I have mentioned the game on 'normal' does feel somewhat easier than previous versions however all in all this is a ripper title that you shouldn't miss if you found any joy in the previous incarnations.

too bad its third-person perspective
I only tried to play the demo. But I have to say right up front that the third-person perspective hurts this game. Having extensively played another stealth game called Thief, from the first-person perspective, I find the third-person perspective of Splinter Cell downright unacceptable. Perhaps the game maker will see the light and go first-person in the next game.

I also found that this game taxed my computer. I have a 2.6 GHz computer with a 128MB video card, but the game video was sticky even at 800x600 resolution. I think that if we could get rid of watching the player's character from the third-person perspective and instead use a first-person perspective, this might alleviate some of the video problem.

Improved gameplay, awesome gaming experience
For those who played the previous Splinter Cells, you don't want to miss #3, and for those who have never played any S.C., here's your chance to catch up.
The overall gameplay is improved, with more moves and more possiblities, and so are the graphics, which are just fantastic.
As a reference, I am playing this with a Nvidia 6600GT and 1GB of RAM, and it looks absolutely gorgeous while being perfectly fluid.
The only critic I would have so far is that, once again, the solo campaign is too short. It's so enjoyable that it's a shame it can't last (the new possible moves and choices, like breaking locks, contribute to that unfortunately).
Other than that, that's a classic, run for it, you won't be disappointed.

Great game... too bad
This is an otherwise excellent game that unfortunately uses the intrusive copy protection software known as Starforce.Normally I don't care a whit about copy protection, but Starforce installs itself as a hidden hardware driver and sits between your IDE / SATA hardware and the operating system.This causes all kinds of system glitches, crashes, slowdowns and on occasions requires a complete reinstall of Windows.Much of this comes from careless and poor programming - but the truth is, as long as the game is protected, the publishers don't care at all what happens to your system.This attitude makes little sense, really since it only takes about a month for the latest protection schemes to be broken anyway.

Oh, and as an added bonus, the Starforce garbage remains on your system even after you uninstall the game.And the Starforce folks won't tell you how to remove it.

Best in series, co-op can be buggy
After being disappointed by Pandora Tomorrow's thoroughly mediocre single player campaign, I was highly skeptical of this title. However, Chaos Theory is vastly improved over its predecessors in every way. The level design is much better, production values rival any game on any platform, and the co-op mode is a fantastic addition to the series - provided it actually works. If the co-op mode had a few more levels and hadn't been so terribly buggy, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory would have been the best PC game in years. As it stands, it is still one of the finest stealth/action games ever made, and every fan of the genre should own it.

The cornerstone of this game is still the single player campaign. The previous titles have featured strictly linear levels with small maps. Chaos Theory features much larger maps and a much larger degree of freedom. It also boasts a much higher degree of interactivity with the environment. The levels are still not open-ended by a long shot. They are best described as "semi-linear". Each level features a linear series of mini-challenges that usually have two or three solutions to them. You might be able to enter a room through the front door or by a vent that comes from a storage room, but you still end up in the same place. On average though, the design and flow of the levels is excellent. The game keeps you moving towards your objectives without ever making you feel like you are on rails. The best part about each level is the size. The levels are very large and typically last you an hour or more, depending upon your style of gameplay. The game's ten levels will probably take you between 10 and 15 hours to finish.

Each level also contains one or more optional objectives, and a scoring system that rates you based upon how many alarms you set off and how many objectives you accomplish. This system works much better than the "three alarms and you fail" or "one alarm and you fail" system of the previous games. It also gives you incentive to replay each mission until you achieve a perfect score.

In addition to the better level design, the single play game features some other improvements. Chief among them is much improved audio - namely, a huge number of sound bites and well-written lines of dialog. The terrific voice acting from the first game has returned. You can interrogate most guards, and most of the interrogation dialog offers some amusing moments, as well as some useful gameplay tips. The atmospheric sound is superb as well. The terrific audio complements the game's gorgeous visuals, which easily rank amongst the best that the PC has to offer. Sam is decked out in detail all over his body and all of his moves look very cool. The environments are beautiful and the lighting is simply perfect. Chaos Theory sports arguably the finest production values in any PC game to date.

Does the gameplay have any faults? A few. One of them is inconsistency in the AI. The sharpness of the AI occasionally changes, based upon the level. Sometimes guards won't notice if their buddy gets knocked out three feet away from them. Other times, they will notice their KO'ed buddy when he is in complete darkness 35 feet away. Another minor flaw is that the game favors an overly aggressive approach versus a nonlethal approach. For most of the levels, You will have to self-impose a "no-kill" rule to give yourself some challenge.Also, like its predecessors, the campaign lacks lasting value, and the story is average.

Once you are done with the single player campaign, a true treat awaits you on-line with the game's innovative co-op mode. This assumes that you can actually get it to work. More on that later. The game mechanics of the co-op mode are largely the same as the single-player campaign, only this time you have a partner, and there are more guards. The game also throws some high walls at you that can only be scaled using special co-op moves. For example, you can give your friend a boost to the top of a wall, and then he can let you climb up his back to get up over it. The result is usually quite thrilling. The co-op mode is full of "you take the guy on the right and I'll take the guy on the left" moments. Quietly taking out a room full of guards with your buddy is an experience that is a unique and very memorable This part of the game is a long, long overdue addition to this genre, and you will probably be left hoping for an exclusively co-op game in the future.

Unfortunately, the co-op mode is riddled with so many bugs that there is less than a 50% chance that you'll actually be able to play it. Ubisoft has patched the game twice, but I wouldn't rely on being able to play co-up just yet. Plus, there are also only four co-op levels, and you can't save your progress. If these issues didn't exist, Chaos Theory would be worthy of a 9.3+ score. Nonetheless, co-op mode adds a lot to the overall package and helps elevate the game to elite status.

"Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory" has breathed new life into a series that was on the risk of going stale. It sets high standards for production values and, in the meantime, provides an innovative new gameplay mode. The single player is by far the best of the series, and co-op is pure ecstasy --- if you can actually get it to work. As an added bonus, you can get the DVD-ROM version for this game, instead of some clumsy 5-CD job.Sooner or later, you should own "Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory". ... Read more

Product Description

Contains Call of Duty and the expansion pack Call of Duty: United Offensive. Call of Duty Developed by Infinity Ward - a newly formed studio including 22 of the individuals, and all of the production leads, who developed the critically acclaimed PC title Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - Call of Duty is the most immersive first-person action game yet.Call of Duty delivers the gritty realism and cinematic intensity of war as never before.For the first time, Call of Duty capture ... Read more

Features

• Call of Duty
• Play as American, British and Russian soldiers.
• Battle through 24 missions spanning 4 interconnected historical campaigns.
• Take on mission objectives ranging from sabotage and all-out assault to stealth, vehicle combat and rescue.
• Authentic weapons, locations, vehicles and sounds of war all contribute to the realism, immersing you in the most intense World War II experience yet.Call of Duty: United Offensive

Reviews (2)

For Mac users - this Edition is Not the Version for the Mac
Amazon made a mistake and put down that this version is for the Macintosh OS X operating system in addition to Windows.That is not the case.Activision does not release games on the MAC platform.They work with other, third party companies to do so.Aspyr is the company that makes Call of Duty on the Mac.Search for games by Aspyr and you'll find it there.

Just an FYI so Mac users don't buy the wrong game.

Possibly the Greatest War Games Ever Made!
If you've played it, then you know. If you haven't, give it a try. You won't be disappointed. Think of the HBO series Band of Brothers. Or the movies Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates. Single player and multi-player modes are equally excellent. ... Read more

Features

• Bomb damage may or may not be repaired, depending on enemy resources and command.
• Pilot three different variants of the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
• Shoot a variety of air-to-air missiles like the AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9 Sidewinder.
• Simulate an entire war with the most advanced and truly dynamic campaign engine ever made for your PC.
• Participate in cooperative or adversarial multi-player flight over a LAN or internet.

Product Description

After Archimonde and the Burning Legion were defeated at the battle of Mount Hyjal, a new threat rises throughout the land and it's up to you to defeat it. ... Read more

Features

• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Genre: Strategy
• Mission: Experience a vast new chapter in the epic Warcraft saga
• Platform: Mac OS 9.0 or higher, OS 10.1.3 or higher; Windows 98/Me/2000/XP

Reviews (88)

Great addition to a great game!
When I first went to my friend's house to play Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, I had lots of fun! I didn't enjoy the normal maps too much, sadly, and I wasn't really looking forward to buying the game.

Then, I went online with my free Battle.net account and downloaded a player-made map. I really loved the map, so I decided I'd save up and buy Warcraft 3. The game kept me entertained on and off. I'd play it for hours on end, then I'd stop for about 2 weeks, then go back to play it again! New maps are made almost every week, as players love to find fame. I, myself, have made a number of maps.

Anyway, when my friend got the expansion pack, I played a few Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne maps at his house. WOW! They were great! I couldn't stand having the game without the expansion! So, I got my allowance, and bought the expansion!

I recommend this to anyone who likes RTSes (real-time strategies) or even people who DISlike them, because the game could be called an "Action\Adventure Role-Playing Strategy Sports Driving Sim" or something! It's a multi-genre!

good stuff
this is definatly a good expansion set, just like the regular Warcraft3 itself. if you beat the first one, i suggest you buy this. graphics improved, more gameplay, and more fun. online action is great, including 1 new hero per race. i love this game and so does everyone i know who owns it.

1 year of frozenthrone playing and im not yet tired of it
Alright people that think this game is boring and it should have a Naga race and a Drenei race is stupid. I mean it would be pretty fun, but it would take lots of balancing and stuff so...no. Humans, nighrelves, undead, and orc are enough and the game is fun enough with out those other 2 races. I mean u can still play as adrenei or naga in the single player...and even on custom games...i was playing open rpg islands and i was a naga and i was swimmin anround shootin things with the naga seaweitch. The game really isnt that hard to play when u get used to it. Heros make everythign so intense and exciting which is why when ur fighting the enemy you really should take out the hero then work on the units.

The thing that i kinda hate about warcraft frozen throne and warcraft roc is the blademaster...cheap crap. he just got cheaper in this patch i mean now he can run through my units. Im always undead...and if youve been undead race u know what im talking about. Death to that dam blademaster. BUT finaly, they just got 2 new heros in a patch a alchemist and a firelord. I am very impressed with the alchemist he can take on the bladeamster pretty well.Anyways, people been saying how starcraft is better then warcraft and im like why? they say because its too shiney. I'm like ok...period over gotta go to enxt epriod...get this game ur kids will liek it buy it!! wee!!!!!!!!!!!Sinferno rulez!!!

Tried and true style of game works yet again
There really isn't much original about the Warcraft 3 game, and its expansion Frozen Throne campaign.It's yet another clone of itself/StarCraft/Ages Of Empires, etc. etc. etc. where you build, upgrade, build some more, upgrade, start sending your forces out, upgrade, replenish your forces, upgrade, repel enemies that may be attacking your base(s), start wiping out major concentrations of enemies, replenish your forces and complete any upgrades not already made, and finish off all your enemies.This has been done a hundred times before, and I'm sure it's not the last strategy game which will use the same method.The hero unit in Warcraft is cool, though.

The game is really easy to start, and gently eases you into the game.The cutscene movies are incredible, the best I've ever seen in a game.It's hard to say which campaign was the best, but I'd have to say it's a toss up between the Orc and Night Elf ones.I didn't like the Undead campaign, but the summoning of buildings was kinda neat.

I did get tired of hearing "Frostmourne hungers" everytime I moved my Undead hero, though.

the beast at this game beassssssssst
Warcraft is my favorite computer game. It has a lot of fun especially when you kill your allies. I'm level 100 because I play every minute of my life except for now and when I'm at school. When I play nobody messes with me. I'm the best person you could find on the game except for my brother. You should definitely buy this game. ... Read more

Features

• Exclusive in game pet
• Play the full game on both CD-ROM and DVD-ROM
• 1 month subscription to World of Warcraft
• 200 plus page hardcover art book
• World of Warcraft Behind the Scenes DVD

Reviews (409)

World of Warcraft
This game starts out very impressive:
1. Immersive graphics
2. you can craft items right away
3. Huge variety of nice-looking monsters and areas to explore
4. Similar variety of quests
5. you get a few points for exploring stuff

However, I have a 55 priest and a few assorted 30+ chars, and some parts are so bad I am forced to pay $16/mo because I keep doing month to month with the idea I will not stay with it much longer.

Bad Parts
1. Support, in game and email is so poor as to be laughable.My petitions are consistently not answered; my emails are met with non-applicable form letters.
2. Their download servers are a joke.On update days, my friend and I play City of Heroes, because we got tired of waiting 4 hours for their cheap download servers to feed us a few KB.Sometimes the download just plain does not work for a couple of days, and you cannot play without the update.Blizzard seems kind of "Hey, that's too bad but it goes with MMORP territory; now hand us your money."
3. Their infrastructure is inexcusable for a pay per month game.Every time they have a patch release or a busy spell, their "realms" are unusable, and all their web pages, account support, boards, etc go down.Are they running in a basement?
4. When you do manage to get on a server, you can expect frequent "lag" delays, even on machines like mine, with 1.5 GB of memory, and 3.2 GHz HT, and Nvidia 6800.They have a lag-time display in game, that "always" shows low latency (Green), even when you are lagging so bad you get disconnected.That's very helpful.
5. Don't play this for challenging PvP action; it's not going to happen.My 55 priest is on a PvP server, so I know what I'm talking about.95% of battles are ridiculously lopsided, with a level 55 / 60 team coming up behind a level 10, and killing them when they are almost dead in the middle of a fight with other monsters.Needless to say, there's no sense of honor or challenge in any aspect of most of these battles.As a general rule, you will rarely be attacked by people your own level or attack people your own level.Don't expect to get much done on PvP servers some days, except fighting other players (if you want to call a 3 second 60 vs 40 gank a fight)I would stick with a PvE server, that's where I play 90% of the time now, despite being almost 60 (max).
6. The variety of costumes in game is pretty weak, and the selections are typically a bit old-fashioned and prudish.Most characters look pretty much the same as others of their race.If you want variety of costumes, then pick up City of Heroes.
7. Trade / Profession Skills are not good.Enchanting is one of the toughest skills to move up in the game.I have a 266 enchanting skill that's basically worthless.Their skill system was full of variety and excitement early, but as you advance through the levels, what you can make becomes increasingly weak comparatively and crazy expensive.Don't spend a lot of time on their crafting system like I did.It takes a ton of time to move up, and you will end up not using it once you get to max level.Who wants a +5 enchantment on a sword that does 200 damage, for 20 gold?Nobody who gives it 10 seconds thought, is the answer.There's no reason to spend the money to go to max skill.Spend the money on a better sword.Gold is too hard to come by in this game to make the skills usable once they get this expensive.I would pick a skill like skinning animals or herb gathering, and focus on selling supplies to make money that you will desperately need.If you pick enchanting, use it only to dis-enchant items for components, that's what the majority of the people in my last two guilds are doing.Stick to quests (and PvP if you are the type of person that loves killing people way below your level).
8. The monster re-population is offensive and unrealistic.Blizzard thinks nothing of having 10 orcs appear around you suddenly, even if you are fighting another group at that location and almost dead.With lag, they pretty much start attacking instantly, despite what their documentation says.City of Heroes is a lot better in this respect.If they sense you are in aggro-range, they hold off on making the mobs appear out of thin air within sword distance.These sudden appearances are so unrealistic as to hurt the immersiveness of the game at times.
9. Every monster in the game is faster than you are.You will feel slower than you are rl, and not able to climb as steep of grades.That's their way of making the game challenging.
10.Priests and Druids draw aggro with heals and shields.I don't know of any other set of designers that's this stupid.Consequently, you will never be able to find enough priests and druids for groups.When battle gets rough, all the monsters run to the priest if they heal too much.The priest has cloth armor.The priest dies, the party dies.That's been a pretty common cycle.If you go priest, consider "Shadow", offensive path.One of the high-level priests in my guild pretty much refuses to heal, because you also don't get good "honor" (big joke) points for healing people, unlike for PvP kills.Would you want to draw monsters to you, die a lot, and not get credit for it?One of my MMO frequenter friends stopped playing this one after 3 weeks, claiming "they don't understand classes and balance".I have to say, she has a point, and she is having fun with her previous MMO for all too many hours.I go back there too, when this game drives me too crazy :)

That being said, I'm still playing so far, on PvE (Player vs Environment, not player), because there is a lot to do and amazing depthIt's a big world, and it feels realistic at those times that a 6 foot beast doesn't suddenly appear standing on your shoes :)

It's so fun at the early levels that I would definitely recommend playing it for a while.Despite how irritating the bad parts are, it's an awesome game.Just keep the shortcomings in mind and don't expect too much, especially from the PvP system, which is the worst in the market, imho.

World Of Warcraft...more then just a game
This the best game i have ever played frist you kill monesters do quests just like and other RPG but add to this: you can do it with other players.
there are also great trade skills to every thing from Makeing a Epic Admante Sword from long lost plans to Enchanting Bracers with spells of Protection
and Even after you have done Every thing Else you can think of in this game (wich may take you a year or too) you can still have fun with your Friends with the slash comands such as
/burp in the face of your Enmeys /slap those you offend you or get drunk and /dance on a Table (waring Magic Beer may have unwanted SideEfficts) you can /beg for gold or your life
(some funny things like:/hug ..."You Need a Hug") you can /flex your arms or /moon your Enmeys and Much Much more

One more thing . . .
It is not made clear mentioned anywhere but not only does one pay 45.00 for the software, they must pay for monthly access to the game system which means $$$ over time.This may not be acceptable to some.

A fun game, but can get boring real quick
First of all, Ive never played a MMORPG before nor ever heard of such of a brand.That was when Wow came into being and, immediatly, I became intoxicated with it.Now as some of you know this is a very simple, very easy game to get into.Blizzard has gone beyond the call of duty and has brought us what could be the most thrilling and comefortable experience we can ever have in an MMORPG.However, heres a big 'but', what you do too well can ruin you in the future.Now I know not everyone will quite get into this game right off the bat, but some do, I just wanna note something.You know how some people wanna reach lvl 60 so they feel all mighty and all later on? Well your in for a nasty surprise.Once you hit 60 theres no going back; youll find yourself in dungeon raids which isnt much fun at all, you wont get anymore XPs (oops), you be making alts just to feel like theres a new adventure, and youll find yourself farming the hell out of an area just sos you can go about affording the epic mount.I hope that Honor Systems and Battlegrounds Blizzards has made will come in and save the day, cause in a short while those community sites will look pretty empty, and some of us dont wanna see our friends go away when we need them the most.

I used to make fun of you people....
.... My roommate had an addiction. She was addicted to evercrack (everquest). I used to make so much fun of her and call her a geek and whatnot. Then she bought WOW and now she has got me hooked. I guess I will see you at the next star trek convention. ... Read more

Product Description

This Game Card offers a whole new way to experience The Star Wars Galaxy without using a credit card and it also makes a great gift. ... Read more

Features

• Pre-Paid 60 day subscription to Star Wars Galaxies
• One card packed inside a standard PC box
• 4 different collectable cards featuring your favorite classic Star Wars characters
• Requires Star Wars Galaxies online game (sold separately)

Reviews (12)

swg d.o.a. of cu 4/26/05
cancelled ROTW expansion when CU hit.
cancelled SWG days later.
CU= death of SWG, and everyone knows it.

WE WILL NOT PAY TO BETA TEST A PIECE OF S#$% GAME SOE.

CU Destroyed SWG
There has been a great disturbance in the Force, as though thousands of players cried out against the SWG "Combat Upgrade," and were silenced.

Star Wars Galaxies used to be an extremely fun, engaging game.However, as of the end of April 2005, the game has completely changed.Just read some of the other reviews here talking about the so-called "Combat Upgrade."SOE is losing a lot of customers because they ruined Star Wars Galaxies.Now, it's just a cheap EverQuest 2 clone with Star Wars skins.If you want to play fun Star Wars games, try Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic 2.

DON'Twaste your money!!!!
Here's an honest question then... I went to 6 different MAJOR cities and NONE I say NO ONE was grouping and I play in one of the most crowded galaxies)... so what am I suppose to do? I'm level 80 andgrinding Jedi (village points)... so I think ok ill give it try and try to FIND my level mobs to kill while I try to find a group, incappd, die, incapped, die, incapped, die, incapped die, etc...
I was soooo freaking frustrated I wanted to cry. So you saying that the ONLY way I can play this stupid game is if I hang around starports for hours on end and try to find some people to group with, THEN hope that they will actually fight when we get there, (which ive heard some people just sitting back in groups and raking in the xp for doing nothing), and I don't know about anyone else but after about 4 strikes to the creature im spent. I spend the rest of the time trying to heal myself (heal for 200 get hit for 1200, heal for 300 get hit for 1200...hmmm I wonder what comes next? incapped, die).
So seriously tell me how to play this game now if I can't group and I can't solo. Become a crafter or entertainer? Lol. Oh and BTW ALLL my friends have quit the game. And frankly im almost there too.
Gee you're right this is a better game, I love how I HAVE to depend on other people to get xp. And how if I wanted a well rounded char I have to get another acct (im sure SOE thought of that when dev this CU). You know and maybe people like to be alone sometime, to go exploring by themselves and not have to worry about being killed when I have to answer the phone, and may they like to watch their char fight instead of having to keep urn eye on the tool bar the entire time trying to gauge your next move...FUN!

Oh, and on top of it I just read that when you go to the higher level planets now and you die and don't have insurance you might wake to CYBERNETIC LIMB- and not a cool looking one like in the movies but a gross disgusting puny one that won't have any combat uses. (You'll have to get them taken off or replaced with another useful one) WTH????

Don't tell me these things are all bugs and just to wait till the devs get the head out of their a$$es. These are ALL actual gameplay problems that I would really like to have a serious answer to. Who has ever heard of a game released after 1 month of beta and NO game manual??? I have a master character and I still can't figure out all the crap they changed... why do we still have stimpacks if everything is "magic" based, and if everything is "magic" based why do I need an enhancer for everything? And why cant a MEDIC heal wounds or stop bleeding, wth is the definition of a medic then?

(OH and I haven't mention my other char who lost all his combat skill points to a buggy respec problem that cs says that MAYBE LATER they can get too, [is soe going to refund me for their buggy system since my husband hasn't been able to play for a week now?] or the metal recycler I was crafting that disappeared and im told SOL on that one too [a known bug that was supposedly fixed pre CU])

I cant speak for all the professions, just the ones ive come across playing my characters (I have 2 accts and 6 characters and my husband also has 3-4 character he plays) I was a master TKA which was one of the coolest professions before CU, now its worthless (I got incapped by a level 3 meatlump and I only have 3 moves- combo hit (which is not working) dizzy and knockdown. Well appartly EVERYTHING has resists to KD now so I really had 1 move and it didn't work (bug maybe)

The armor options are a joke- so I see everyone becoming a commando, or bounty hunter just to be able to wear half way decent armor, and the factional armor is joke too... you need fp just to wear it?? Wth... just being part of that faction should be enough. Bone armor for battle ...lol and who designed the retarded padded armor helmets... I look like I should be riding the short bus or maybe have a propeller on top of it.

*RANT*
What's the deal with A beloved Star Wars icon like Darth Vader hocking fan fest tickets... he is NOT SOE property to mock in any way they feel. I for one think it's in VERY bad taste and it truly offends me as a Star Wars fan to have him paraded like a clown.

This "game" is NOT Star Wars, anything star warsy about it is the remnants of a once beautiful game where a TRUE star wars fan could immerse themselves in something they had only dreamt about while growing up... now its just an abomination. The biggest problem I think is not the game itself, its company running the game and the TOTAL lack of respect it has for STAR WARS, its FANS and GEORGE LUCAS. I'm pretty sure he didn't ever imagine a star wars where all the fighters were on timers and they had special Tinkerbelle glitter evertime they did something, (and in game play what's the deal with my head looking like a siren when im blinded????) ... I don't know, I can't speak for him, maybe he did envision a company taking over the star wars name and making crap out of it... I for one am little less excited about the new movie coming out, little less excited about the hype of SW and the merchandise... I can take or leave it now. This is a sad thing.

What is really sad is all they had to do is maybe put a cap on some of the uber things in the last game and maybe tweak a couple of professions... that's it. Would some people still complain... sure they always did whenever something changed, but they probably would have just done what they always have done, and just got used to it. But instead they TOTALLY change the look and feel and the gameplay of the game giving you some thing completely different with out ever asking (at least I never received that question). I'm pretty sure if they would have they would have gotten the same responses as now...no... Just fix the bugs, and they would still have the thousands of accts in working condition. BUT I guess it's not our game (the paying customers), nor the overworked CSR (they have to be overworked with those terrible attitudes), nor is it George Lucas' vision anymore (I personally don't think he would let sooo many SW fans down)... it belongs to SOE. (A non SW, customer, CSR and George Lucas fan).

Well good luck SOE and I hope you do laugh all the way to bank, but after my subscription runs out you won't be laughing with my money.

This is only MY opinions and I had to say all this, to get it off my chest (this whole CU thing has made my literally sick), my husband has been pretty vocal on all this so far on the forums so figured since I loved this game as much as he did I should take a stand too. I'll be putting this in on every SWG review, post, and sending it to as many gamer web pages and to Lucas arts and to anyone else I can find. I only hope that other fans have done the same if they are serious about the anti CU.

PS. I NEVER thought I'd say this in a million years but I can't wait for *gulp* star trek to come out. :\

SOE destroyed a wonderful game
When Star Wars Galaxies was first launched, it was an incredible and visionary game. The designers created a game like nothing that had come before it. The range of different roles available to players was incredible, and the virtual world was immersive and expansive.

Players got the feeling that they were living in the Star Wars universe, something that many (myself included) had dreamed of since Star Wars first hit theaters.

The games original combat system was highly sophisticated with a broad range of special abilities and a wonderfully organic feel, and players were free to engage in immersive and exciting PvE (Player vs. Environment) or PvP (Player vs. Player) adventure.

Recently Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) the maker of the game, has replaced the core engine of the game, with a new one called the "Combat Upgrade". Unfortunately this new system is lacking the vision and sophistication of the original game and is instead a lackluster clone of every other MMORPG on the market. This so-called "upgrade" has left the game flat and uninteresting and Sony is suffering a mass exodus of players.

I for one have played the game almost since launch, and have learned to expect the routine introduction of new bugs into the game. I have also come to expect some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced with any product. These shortcomings however have always been mitigated by the fact that this was (until recently) one of the most immersive and interesting games ever released.

Sadly this is no longer true. The game no longer holds my attention. My wife, daughter, and I have spent many hours playing this game and have many fond memories, but we no longer enjoy the game and find that most of our friends are cancelling their accounts. We will follow them.

Although I was once a huge fan of Star Wars Galaxies, I cannot continue to recommend it. This is now one of the poorest conceived games I have ever played. If Sony were to reverse the last publish, it would be a great game again, but as it stands it is not.

I strongly encourage potential customers to consider other options rather than buying Star Wars Galaxies.

Subscription Fees
To clear up any misconceptions, Star Wars Galaxies subscription fees are as follows:
1 month - $14.99
3 months - $41.99
6 months - $77.99
12 months - $143.99

As you purchase more months at a time, the cost per month decreases. So since 60 days = 2 months, the cost is $14.99 x 2, or $29.98.

The game card is a good thing. You don't have to worry about your credit card on the internet. You can give them as a gift. And if you don't have a credit card, you can buy a game card and use that instead. The only problem is that you can only buy it for 2 months, so you don't get the discounts for more months.

As for the game itself, I enjoy it. It's quite addictive. It's a little tough to get started, but once you get going and joina PA (Player Association), you'll have a lot of fun. I recommend this game to any Star Wars or RPG fan. ... Read more

Product Description

Pacific Fighters ... Read more

Features

• Online multiplayer option
• WWII flight combat game
• Fly a variety of WWII fighters and bombers over the Pacific theater
• Take off from and land on aircraft carriers; try to take down enemy aircraft carriers in combat
• Fight in famous historical locations such as Midway, Okinawa, Pearl Harbor, and Singapore

Reviews (16)

Pathetic
My issues with IL-2 Sturmovik include taildragger taxiing (they taxi exactly like a tricycle in the game), no groundloops, no roll inertia at all, scripted spins ("Oleg's Banana Peel Stall" and automatic spins even when plane has no torque and stalls are perfectly coordinated), no difference in dive acceleration between planes, hugely incorrect torque (no rudder input necessary, torque affects twin engined planes with contra-rotating propellers, torque present with engine off), Russian differential braking system on all Western planes (especially annoying for someone who is accustomed to the real thing), and incredibly simple "realistic" engine management (they even took out the P-40's mixture control in one of the patches; don't ask me why, because you can see the control right there in the cockpit).

Here's a few other things I've noticed. You can keep flying a constant circle at very low speed while your wingtip is touching the ground, when in real life you'd be cartwheeling. If you touch wings with another aircraft in the air or on the ground, you lose your wing no matter how gently you touch. So much for the historical tactic of wingtipping V-2 rockets (something the game manual claims you can do). If you are out of fuel and ammunition and you hit the ground hard, you still detonate - what? You can drop a five thousand pound bomb two feet away from a tank, and it won't hurt it because you didn't hit it. You can tear about the sky on full throttle all day, and when you start to overheat, just pull back the throttle for a few seconds, and hey presto - you're good to go again. And don't get me started on the fifty caliber issue. In addition, none of the planes behave like a real aircraft. I can only go with my instinct, observations of warbirds, and limited experience with Cessnas on that one.

My single largest issue is the fact that there are no stalls in the game, discounting spins. You cannot stall your aircraft. You can spin it, but you can't stall it. That's one of the most important parts of flying, and it's done completely wrong.

And I haven't even mentioned the incorrect individual aircraft peformance specifications and characteristics.

Terrific fun at any difficulty level
I'd direct your attention to the review by Oesau, below.Very balanced and spot-on.I enjoy the game very much, and look forward to a flight or two each evening.

I don't understand some of the criticisms, here.Pacific Fighters is not arcade-like at all.The player has full control of many, many settings for difficulty and complexity.You can make it as challenging as you like.Even at simpler settings, it's not easy.I've played it for hundreds of hours, and landing on the carriers is still pretty tough for me.Do-able, but tough, and very satisfying.

I gave it 4 stars overall, and I'll tell you why.The documentation is pretty slim.The Readme files on the basic install and with the patches are critical, and still not complete.For instance, the Readme mentions how to pull the wheel chocks, but it nowhere mentions that they are in place at the beginning of every carrier-based mission, and they do not appear on the external views of your aircraft.You can sit there all day at full throttle, and you're not going to move until you pull them.Considering how much enjoyment I get from this game, that is a fairly minor aggravation, but the online communities are very important for getting past "newbie" questions like that.The forums at UbiSoft and SimHQ are full of people who are very helpful, even when answering the same question over and over from new owners of the game.

It does take a fairly powerful machine to run it.The faster your machine is, the more intense will be the feeling that "you are there."The artificial intelligence of the enemy pilots is pretty decent, too.I've been impressed several times at the "imagination" shown by a computerized enemy as they clobbered me.

Bring your patience and get this game.You'll be very well pleased.

Let the buyer beware
My advice to anyone who is interested in buying this game is to wait until it hits the bargin rack. In my case the game refused to load, the program would not recognize either of the cds. The label states the game contains technology to prevent copying which may conflict with some drives. Believe it! The ubisoft support page requires you to provide lots of personal information in order to be told that the problem is with your computer, perish the thought that there would be anything wrong with their software.

If you have a clue as to what a flight sim is you'll know...
"Pacific fighters" is an exquisitely crafted immersion that conveys an intense emotional and intellectual portrait of what it is to be a WWII combat Aviator. Its not really a "Game" although it is sold as such. Its experience asks a lot from the user. To enjoy this simulator the user must know flight basics thoroughly and understand combat flight tactics at least a little bit to begin with. On top of that it takes a very powerful and fast machine to run it well enough to have fun with it. (I have a thousand dollars invested in my machine to run this 40.00 game.) But OH HOT DAMN it is fun!

If you don't have the fastest machine and need to understand the basics of flight a little better but you're still interested in a WWII flight sim I would recommend Microsoft combat flight simulator 2 pacific theater. It has a realistic flight model and comes with a great manual that explains what you need to know on top of that it offers some features like radar that make 16 plane engagements easer to understand and fly. There is Il2 sturmovik which is an excellent and beautiful sim that requires less that the fastest machine to run, it's a little bit more complex though and doesn't have a manual to speak of. There are some great sights on line that will help you learn what you need to know. Of all the combat flight simulators "Pacific fighters" is the caviar but some people think that's just stinky old fish eggs.

Unfinished release, wait for the finished product
They made their release deadline, but at what cost?

You have to get a patch just to get started, then some of the area maps are missing, {how can you attack Pearl Harbor when it's not there?}, some aircraft they said you could fly,... well... you can't, and the patches are already up to 3.4 and megabytes of fixes...... maybe they'll come out with the finished version sometime.... otherwise buy it for $0.01 and find patches online, just to see the intro! ... Read more

Product Description

Since the Beginning of Time the forces of Order and Chaos have been engaged in an eternal struggle to decide the fate of all Creation. That struggle has now come to the Mortal Realm... And neither Man, Demon, nor Angel will be left unscathed.Diablo, Lord of Terror, and youngest of the Three Prime Evils, awoke from his long sleep beneath the dark earth. Setting in motion a grand scheme to free his exiled brothers, Mephisto and ... Read more

Features

• Five all-new character classes with unique attributes and abilities.
• Four different, fully populated towns complete with wilderness areas.
• Multiple dungeons, caverns and crypts in every town for players to explore.
• Expanded world filled with all-new quests, weapons, spells, armor, monsters and non-player characters.

Reviews (533)

Best of the Genre
Diablo II is a helluva lotta fun.I'm not so much a single player person, but a multiplayer person.The gameplay is well thought-out and engaging.The plot is corny, but, then again, this is an RPG.

The graphics are kinda mediocre, but the gameplay makes up for it.The expansion is a must.Playing online is incredibly addictive, which I don't like, but I get a kick out of it.What makes this game is the interaction in multiplayer.

(...) is easy to use.They catch a fair few cheaters.

My main complaint is that there are many lamers.There is a group of people that buys duplicated items of the internet at like 10 dollars a piece.This is what I don't like.There are other people that hack accounts and steal characters and equipment, and that is just lame.Thankfully, this has not happened to me, although my brother got hacked a long time ago.

Even so, the fact that your account might get hijacked just adds to the reality that it is, after all, just a game.

___________________________________________________________________________________________

The single player is a lot like the multiplayer.It is a good way to learn how to start out independently.In fact, the multiplayer is like single player, but just with more people.(surprise)

There aren't many glitches, and there is skill involved, up to a point.

Buy this game.It's worth your money.So is the expansion.

Great game!
Diablo 1 players. Yes, I know you have suffered, but Diablo 2 fixed all their problems and this game is 700 times better! Get it!

Learned some lessons from DIABLO, but quests more restricted
DIABLO 2 can be summarized as "like DIABLO, but more so." DIABLO 2 has more locales, more varied scenery, more (and more elaborate) AIs, more control over developing your character's skills, more types of characters to play, better play balance, and so on.

Like the original, DIABLO 2's settings are (mostly) randomly generated, so that with the exception of some set-piece areas (like the Skeleton King's lair in the original), no two games follow exactly the same map. DIABLO 2 has four acts covering 5 locales (including Tristram, the setting of DIABLO). Each act has very different climate/geography and monsters differing accordingly.

You're following the trail of the Wanderer (the hero of the first game) as he locates the other Prime Evils, Diablo's brothers, before leading you into Hell and the final confrontation with Diablo himself. The settings in general have much greater variety and eye candy, and include outdoor segments as well as dungeon crawls.

Act I is a generic-Europe setting, with a lesser-demon Level Boss rather than a Prime Evil. Act I most closely resembles the earlier stages of the original DIABLO, and contains references back to the original, as the player's task is to help the Sisters of the Sightless Eye. (The Rogue from DIABLO was a member of the order; your closest-equivalent player character in DIABLO 2 is the Amazon, who has a different backstory.)

Act II is a desert scenario, with a sort of Egyptian flavor to the tombs, and a different, more formidable type of undead. Act III, by contrast, is a rainforest, emphasis on poisonous insects, water monsters, and fast-moving little AIs with blowpipe attacks. Act IV's revamped version of Hell is much more larger and elaborate than that in the original, with an assortment of demons and new attacks. The succubae weren't retained, but as a tradeoff Act I has hordes of renegade Rogues.

Many of the AIs have been revamped to make them tougher and to give them more distinctive appearances. While the distinct colour schemes were retained, the details are more elaborate and they're tougher opponents. The carver-type AIs now include shamans, who in addition to their own magical attacks can raise the fallen. Animated skeletons on higher difficulty levels may now have mages as well as archers with them.

That's one of the biggest changes from the original. Monsters not only regenerate after you've cleaned out a level (even lesser "unique" monsters, though not Level Bosses that have to be killed to end an Act), but many monster types can raise the dead or harvest energy from corpses. There are also delayed-action attacks, as poisons and antidotes have been added.

Other changes from original:
- Multiplayer and single player now use the same limited set of quests, rather than single player having a random selection of a larger set of quests.
- Play balance on character abilities now includes active and passive skills, differing by character type. Not just any character can learn spells.
- In addition to mana and life, player has stamina. While you don't have to eat or sleep as in, e.g. DARKSTONE, you either have to pace your character, stock up on stamina potions, or be content to move slowly.
- In addition to Town Portal spells, each Act contains a set of fixed waypoints, and the player can return to earlier Acts if desired.
- Towns are more elaborate. Apothecaries selling potions are now separate from magic sellers, and at least one NPC per Act can "gamble" with you. You can hire and equip NPCs who will follow you and fight what you fight. If they're with you, your experience points are divided with them, but they level up and become more formidable over time.

Some lessons learned by the designers:
- Local smiths can upgrade weapons, e.g. installing runes or gems in them. Partway through Act II, a quest item allows you to combine multiple gems of the same type to get a single gem of a better grade, so strategy is a factor.
- In town/camp you have a chest in addition to the inventory on your character's person. Items in the chest are safe, but if you're killed and resurrected, anything you were carrying has to be retrieved from the body. Since you're fined a large amount of your total gold when you're resurrected, you're motivated to scavenge your own body anyway just to get some of it back.
- Partway through Act I, you revisit Tristram and rescue Deckard Cain, who now has enough gratitude to identify items for free instead of gouging you.
- Some unique items now come in sets (e.g. helmet, breastplate, gauntlets) that are stronger together than apart, and mostly effective for specific character types (e.g. bonuses apply only to a paladin). Strategy comes into play: is it worth saving an item in the hopes of acquiring the rest of the set?

In summary: the thing I miss most from the original is the randomized quest mix on single player. The active/passive skill system is interesting enough to make up for restricting the player's ability to create super-powerful spell-casting Rogues and the like.

As in the original, even in single-player a game can't be saved in multiple states; you can only have multiple characters working through different scenarios. In multi-player, items can be transferred between characters by drop-and-switch, but that's about it.

nothing tops this
there have been many trys by different developers to copy the play style of diablo 2.they are no doubt good but they are NOT diablo 2.diablo 2 has the best story, fun factor, sound, cinematics, addictiveness and replayability.i stopped playing this a long time ago because i was hooked on starcraft but i am going to start a new character tonight just to see how fun this game is again.my previous barbarian only got up to lvl 46.i've been playin WoW and have a lvl 60 alliance human paladin but there is not nearly as much loot as there is in diablo 2, thus making many characters look the same.(to the post below- all mmorpgs require a fee to play...its what basically gets them paid to make updates, fix the servers, etc.)cant wait to start diablo 2 again!

Another increible Blizzard's production
Lord Of Terror
When Diablo came out almost 4 years ago, it was the surprise hit of the 1997. One day there wasn't Diablo, the next it was on store shelves, and the day after North American productivity plummeted 25%. Although Blizzard liked to classify it as a RPG, it wasn't really one. More like an action-RPG, since so much of the game relied on reflex and mouse-clicking. The story development was slim and roleplaying aspects non-existent. Yet the simple, addictive gameplay hooked us all and had us begging for more.

After years of development, a few promises, a few leaked features and dozens of delays - Diablo II is here. The Second Coming of Hell and another dip in all IT stocks came to my desk less than a week ago, and grudgingly I accepted the job of reviewing the game.

For those of you who've been in a timewarp the past 5 years and never heard of Diablo or Diablo II, let me give you a brief rundown on both.


Diablo
Diablo was a game where you played a hero of one of three character classes - Warrior, Sorcerer or Rogue. This hero operated out of a small town called Tristram, underneath which Hell itself was opening up. At first simply trying to clear the local corrupted Cathedral of vermin infestation, the hero soon discovers that something much more sinister is afoot. Hence you keep going deeper and deeper through the game until you discover that none other than the Lord of Terror himself - Diablo - is at the root of all the problems. You see, he, along with his two other brothers - form the Three Prime Evils. They got banished from Hell by lesser evils and then rampaged around the world until they were captured in soulstones given to mortals by the angel Tyrael.

Through 4 different dungeons having 4 levels each you fought, died, and recovered your own corpse. You'd restart the game when it got too hard to gain xp in easier areas, and go back in again. It was all about getting to the next level, getting the next spell, getting the next better weapon or armor. It was simple to the point of being idiotic. Click the mouse to move somewhere, then click-click-click-click-click at some monster until it dies, and move on to kill more. That's an over-simplified description, of course - but the point is that Diablo was extremely addictive.
... Read more

Product Description

Heroes:Heroes come from many places. Some are born to power, while others seek it out. There are even those who have no special abilities, who rely upon technology or their own skills to help them fight crime. While they are heroes one and all, origins have an important effect upon what kind of hero someone becomes. City of Heroes presents five different origin types for players to choose from.Mutant The Mutant was ... Read more

Features

• Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
• Become a superhero, take on personalized missions, and rid the city of evil organizations
• Create your own hero, choosing from hundreds of different powers and costumes
• Band together with other players to fight evil and become the premierehero group in the city
• Explore the streets of Paragon City, a sprawling online metropolis that offers unlimited adventures and countless surprises

Reviews (157)

City of Heroes is a Must Have Game
Although I can not say that I have played a lot of multiplayer games, I can say that out of the 3-4 (so-far) games I have played this is the best of them all. It keeps your attention, and it's ever changing. When I was in search of a new multiplayer game, I called around and asked what was the most popular at that time... they all said "City of Heroes". By looking at the cover of the box, and reading the back of the box, I was not impressed. I thought it seemed too childish (I am 32 years old). But what the heck? It was a father's day gift. I am so glad I purchased it. Now me and my whole family gather around the PC and take turns playing. You start off by picking a costume, there are literally hundred of costumes that you can customize... no two costumes are ever the same on COH (city of heroes). Then, you get to pick what type of hero you would be if you could be a hero. Do you prefer human, mutant, science, technology, etc? Then you pick two power sets of the powers that suite your you and your character. After you go through the whole hero set-up, you go through a quick training sessions where they teach you how to use the controls and your powers. Then, you are off to save Paragon City from evil villains either on your own, or with a group of other on-line heroes... zapping enemies on the streets, or doing one of the many missions... and if your good enough, you can create or join a Task Force that can last up to 3 or more hours of non-stop game-play for experience points to increase your levels and gain new powers. The main focal point is the other on-line heroes. This game is a great way to meet new friends... the game as all about team work. You may start off by yourself, but eventually you HAVE to group together with other heroes. The game forces you to be a team player, or a team leader.I felt a little weird at first and a little shy, but they make it so easy to search for other teams, you just click the button "Seek Team". The game is always changing too... The makers of the game are able to add new sections to cities, add new features, new villains, and more at any time. Also, the Game Masters are watching! I once had a problem getting into a mission because the mission door was a wall... before I knew it a character showed up and fixed the problem right in front of my eyes. This is a great game if you have ever wanted to be a super hero, meet new friends, and be totally entertained.And there next project is "City of Villians" (COV), which will connect both COH and COV together to fight hand to hand with your friends.The one bad side of this game is the price, $15.00 a month is a little high, but its the going rate for online games.Hope this helped you.

good, could be funchier
Well, its fun to roam around the city and kill baddies, but you really need to find people to be on yr team and sometimes this is easy.However, other times you can be online for, like hours and no one wants to hunt with you.WTF??I know yr level 4 and I'm 1, but don't be a stuck up jackass!!? Help a brother out,here!!!!And then if you do helps omeone out in a fight, they just look at you for a second and run away.Not even a "thanks."That sucks!!!So, aside from some lame stuck up jerks, the game is fun.I like to make my character dance and say obnoxious things to people.

Actually, that's more fun than fighting anyway.

A MMOG that isn't a part-time job
Most MMOGs are a little boring to start out with. Brand-new characters don't have the power or the equipment to take on anything more interesting than a rat or a snake. Quests are frequently too difficult at this stage--hope you like hitting giant bees!

Not so in City of Heroes. Your new hero arrives in Paragon City fully equipped to take on the bad guys in the tutorial level. You even get your choice of a cool costume without having to spend any game currency. When you're done with the tutorial, head to Atlas Park or Galaxy City to meet your first "contact" and start doing missions for experience and "influence" (the game currency). You don't have to worry about equipment, because there isn't any (other than "enhancement" disks that boost powers you already possess).

Without equipment to worry about, there's no rush to level your character. You can level fast if you feel like it, but many players are content to enjoy the journey. If your friends are above or below you in level, don't worry--you can "sidekick" the lower ones to within one level of yourself, or "exemplar" down to a lower hero's level.

These features make the game perfect for someone who has a job and a life, someone who wants to log on and play for a while because it's fun. And it IS fun. Combat animations are realistic and physically plausible. Effects are logical AND cool-looking. And you'll never have to commit to a seven-hour "raid" stretch in your computer chair. Even at higher levels, most tasks can be accomplished within an hour, maybe two at the outside.

The instanced missions appear just for you and your team: there's none of the "camping" that exists in other MMOGs. It's really great to have somewhere to go and not worry that some more powerful players will barge ahead of you and wreck your fun.

Customer support from NCSoft is the best I've ever seen--in any kind of organization! GMs are online, and when you petition, they answer in minutes. What's more, they actually help you. The development team is frank and open about their plans for the game. They listen to the player base, and when they make a mistake, they admit it in public, unlike other games where they'll tell you it's "working as intended" until the whole thing blows up in their faces.

There is a monthly fee to keep playing, but I've found that the $15 or so is completely offset by the lack of money I'm spending on other games. Not to mention, the monthly fee is all you have to pay--City of Heroes won't charge you extra for expanded content or "premium" servers.

At this point in the evolution of the game, there isn't a lot to do besides combat. The combat is really fun, but sometimes you just want to do something else. The dev team, however, has stated their plans for alternate systems of character advancement in future expansions.

Still: great graphics, exciting combat, interesting story arcs, a dev team with ears, no worrying about your virtual possessions, no camping, and you can log on for even a little while and still have fun? I don't know why every other game in the universe doesn't follow the CoH model. Big, big thumbs up.

It's a fun game BUT....
I had played City of Heroes for over 2 months at more than 20 hours per week.I enjoyed the game tremendously, however, the game administrators kept putting a 3-day suspension on my account.Because the company repeatedly made mistakes in suspending my account, I had decided that enough is enough!They were suspending me from play, yet billing me for those days that I couldn't play. Is that fair to anyone?Not to mention, my two brothers and another friend had the same thing happen to them.Needless to say, they are no longer fans of City of Heroes!

Tedious so fast that it cannot justify the monthly fee.
This is the very first MMORPG I have tried.After playing it for a month, I am definitely not impressed.I knew about the monthly fee and read many differing reviews so I decided to give this game a go.The character customization is the only thing I really enjoyed.Afterwards, the sheer amount of just running around and clicking the same buttons over and over again just to attack, attack, attack.What this game seriously needs is something besides talking to an npc or attacking.The incredible amount of time it takes to level up and complete later missions of just fighting, fighting, fighting made me truly ask myself: why is this worth $15.00 a month?I could get more fun out of the original Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy.I would only recommend this to a person who is both a true comic book and MMORPG fan. ... Read more

Product Description

In the distant future a small group of human exiles have been doomed to fight for survival on the edge of the galaxy. Through military strength, espionage and deceit, a unified Terran government has maintained an uneasy peace. As resources run short, however, these Confederate nations find themselves looking towards the rich worlds of their alien neighbors, the enigmatic Protoss. To further complicate matters, it seems that a previously unknown and deadly species known only as the Zerg has entered Protoss space and is destroying everything in its path. The time for war has come...

... Read more

Reviews (23)

The Best Strategy Game Now and Forever
Chess has been around for centuries because of its depth and strategy. Monopoly, some decades.

StarCraft BroodWar will be that computer game that you've tucked away in the closet, and upon finding it dust-covered, you'll reinstall it and play it again and again.

GET IT
If you have any doubt about getting this game, drop those doubts and get it. First of all, this is one of the cheapest online games in the world nowadays. Get it. You WILL thank me.

GREAT GAME
Starcraft, produced in 1998 by Blizzard Entertainment, is still as popular as it has ever been with thousands of players still playing it on Battlenet. When it was released in 1998, it was an instant hit, selling over 1.5 million copies that year and receiving numerous awards.The game play isn't revolutionary in the real-time strategy (RTS) genre, following closely to the blueprint of its predecessors, Warcraft and Warcraft II, but it's still a well-crafted game, offering hours of entertainment.
The storyline in Starcraft is compelling, leaving the gamer craving more after each mission is completed.The graphics are two-dimensional, lacking, the rotational option in the newer RTS games, Warcraft III and Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, but it's still impressive even with today's standards.The buildings and units are well-crafted and detailed.The cut scenes are captivating with their excellent animation and voice acting.The music is dark and melodic, which is appropriate for this game.
The single player campaign offers 30 missions, split evenly between the three warring factions, Protoss, Zerg and Terran.The three campaigns can be played in any order but the recommended order is Terran, Zerg and then Protoss.This is because the difficult of each campaign increases and the storyline also follows that order.
Each race is completely unique from the others, containing different units, build orders, and playing styles, but they are still well balanced.Each Zerg unit isn't particular strong, but they are agile and the cost of building each one is relatively inexpensive so players are able to mass many of them.Zerg buildings are living organisms so they cannot be repaired, but instead they have regenerative abilities.The Protoss units are strong, but that strength comes with a price, so each unit should be valued.Protoss structures, unlike the other two races, are teleported in, making building faster.Terran units are a mix of Zerg and Protoss, not particularly strong, and moderately expensive.Large Terran buildings have the ability to lift and relocate, which is useful when moving to another mineral patch, or escaping from an onslaught.
The single-player campaigns are interesting and offer hours of entertainment, but for most players, the single-player campaign is just training for the multiplayer games.Players can play against each over local area networks (LAN), direct connect, modem, TCP/IP or over the internet using Blizzard's free Battle.net servers.
Battle.net is an online community where thousands of Starcraft players go everyday to chat and play.There are many different chat rooms for players to communicate ranging from technical support, to gaming strategies.Players can create their own game or join an existing game.Each game can contain up to 8 players.The artificial intelligence (AI) for Starcraft is impressive, but it's nothing compared to playing another human player, who can think, deceive and exploit weaknesses.Most "newbies" playing over Battlenet will be defeated with the infamous "rush," strategy where players quickly build several units to attack the opponent before he/she is prepared.The games come with a replay option at the end so players can review their games and learn from their mistakes.With time, players can learn how to stop the "rush."
Starcraft isn't only limited to head-to-head games.There are a variety of maps and games ranging from free-for-all, to using map setting (UMS).Players even have the ability to create their own maps using Starcraft's easy to use campaign editor. Players can modify an existing map or they can create a whole new map from scratch.
For those who loved the single-player campaign, they can continue with 24 new single player missions in the expansion, Starcraft: Brood Wars.The game play and feel of Brood Wars is exactly the same as Starcraft and the story picks up where Starcraft left off.There are also seven new units in Brood Wars: corsairs, dark templars, and dark archons for the Protoss, valkyrie and medics for the Terrans, and lurkers and devourer for the Zerg.
Though a bit dated, Starcraft is still an excellent RTS game.With its well-designed game play and its excellent visual and sound, it is one reason why it is still the standard by which newer RTS games are compared to.For those new to RTS games, Starcraft is the perfect gateway into the newer RTS games, and for those who love RTS games, Starcraft is a must play.

Something to note
Im a huge fan of this game and have played it online for several years now... although my computer has rejected the most recent updates.

The only complaint I have is that it's not really a strategy game... no real-time game is.When you play online, chances are that the victor will be the person who can mass the most units the fastest.Granted that requires a degree of strategy, but it really comes down to who's played longer and is more familiar with the buttons.Battle.net has done much to remedy this and there are many games available where the rules stipulate "no rush", which allows all sides to build their forces and then strategy does actually enter the picture.You also get creative scenarios with "use map settings" games, where it's possible to upgrade units hundreds of levels and you dont have to harvest resources.All told, it's a fantastic game that has given me much joy and my opponents much sorrow.Just be aware that this is not really strategy.

If you really want strategy I would recommend any of the "Total War" series, depending on your computer's abilities (in order of increasing technical requirements: Shogun, Medieval, Rome)These games are turn based, but when you fight battles you have the option to command your troops personally.It is real strategy, with factors such as weather, terrain and morale affect the battle seriously.

Best Game EVER!!!!!!
Computer games were never very interesting to me.That is until Starcraft.My CD-Drive failed recently, and I couldn't stop thinking about how when I got it repaired, I was going to play Starcraft for at least 10 hours straight.I am proud to say, that I made it not 10, but a full 12!Starcraft and Starcraft:Brood War are the most addictive RTS games ever! ... Read more

Features

• PC Products
• ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
• Action/Adventure

Reviews (35)

One of worst games I have ever played.............
I am not able to find words befitting this game.A game is supposed to give us some fun ,pass our time ...This game sucks in every aspect.After roaming around the hotel and station for an hour I concluded that there is nothing in there...(You cannot find a single person (or a thing) in this game...you and you all along).It is not scary (for guys who love scary kicks...).Then I went through a walkthrough and found out that the entire game based on some poetic linesor something WHICH CANNOT BE FOUND without a walkthrough.For example we have to find a line in a book in page 21...the funny thing there will be n number of things will be in the room.I do accept that certain level of difficulty must be associated with these things...but they should be rational in the sense...And not the least the entire game was written in Macromedia then you can imagine....


Save your $$$$$$$$ ..........

My First Computer Game
This was my first computer game that I ever played, so I did not have anything to compare it to. I enjoyed playing and I was never board. I didn't have time to be with all the note taking. I just thought that was what you did in these type of games.

As far as the puzzles go, all the clues were given to you so if you had them, the puzzles were not all that hard to figure out. Even the one with buttons.

I am from the Atari generation so, to me, the graphics were great. Since playing Syberia, I know the difference. I was actually board with Syberia at first because I didn't have to take notes!

All in all it was a great game. I did not like the ending at all, it made it seem like a dream. I do hope that DarkFall II will have a better ending.

Not bad...for the price
Darkfall: The Journal was a decent little game.I expected to be a lot more scared than I was, though.Here are a few issues:
1 - Too short.I was able to finish the entire game in two afternoon/evenings of gameplay.
2 - Extensive note-taking required.In some parts there was so much information to write down, I did screen prints to save myself from writer's cramp.
3 - Since the game revolves around finding the hotspot, which may or may not be on a particular screen, the game becomes a tedious exercise in clicking all over each screen, trying to find the elusive hotspots.Some critical hotspots are practically invisible and easy to miss.
4 - The "Load" and "Save" buttons are right next to each other.If you cancel out of the "Load" dialog, it will load the last save game anyway.At one point I wanted to save but accidentally hit load.I cancelled out but it still loaded my last save, causing me to lose several hours of gameplay.
5 - One of the games great aspects is character development.You spend the whole game getting to know these people and gathering clues, building up to what you expect will be a grand finale.However, the ending is very lackluster.All these people you worked the whole game to help, simply disappear after a quick "thank you" from one of them.

For the price I paid, it wasn't too bad, but it ended up being somewhat of a let-down.

Mind-Boggling and Arm-Acheing
I played this game after my older sister played.I listened in on it, but didn't pay attention to what was on the game.I thought I would try my hand at it on my computer.Two days later after finishing the game, I don't even want to look at it again.

The graphics are okay, the sound effects are done really well, but for the most part, ARRGGHH!! My arm is acheing after all the click, click, clicking around.Once I had got to the end, I was just about hitting my head on the wall, because of all the stuff that I had to get, but didn't have just to solve the last bit of it.

The story had promise, but there was an awful lot of useless information in the game that didn't coincide with what was releavant to the game.If you want a good story try the Atlantis games by Dreamcatcher, even the Riddle of the Sphinx's were good.

I'm holding out hope that the sequel to this game is good, but we'll just have to wait and see what the reviews have to say.

Spooky, yet frustrating.
Dark Fall provides a spooky atmosphere using great sound effects and voice acting.However, unless the player is detail-oriented and willing to collect perhaps three times as much information as is needed to solve the game, frustration may ensue.

Clues to exorcise the haunted train station hotel are scattered deeply, often in creative contexts (sound, music, diagrams, coded text).What I found most wearisome was not knowing whether a particular discovery would help solve any of the puzzles.

Some elements were clever, but not well-used: psychic goggles that illuminate crucial clues but which only worked in a few locations.The in-game help from a deceased spirit similarly only worked at a few points during the game.

The point-and-click Myst style of travel is quite dated by today's game standards.Unlike the Myst series, Dark Fall has no face-to-face interaction with characters.I also found the ending, as others have mentioned, to be underwhelming.

While this game creates a scary ambiance within a deeply woven plot, the solutions to puzzles were often overly detailed and sometimes tedious (e.g., try up to 24 combinations of button clicks, without a clue).Since it received 4/5 stars overall, I bought it at Amazon.However, there may be some ratings inflation here---gaming magazine reviews were much lower for Dark Fall and other games that have received high ratings here, including Silent Hill 3, Blair Witch 3, and the scintillating Britney's Dance Beat. ... Read more

Features

• Online and LAN multiplayer option for up to 6 players
• Sequel to the groundbreaking 3-D real-time space strategy game Homeworld
• Enhanced visuals, richer tactics and strategic gameplay
• Fight amongst nebulas, dust clouds, drifting space hulks, asteroids, and debris
• Build your fleet and engage in 3-D space combat

Reviews (4)

Plot is Weak, But Gameplay Is Unique
I'm an RTS (Real-Time-Strategy) fan, and am quickly getting bored of the same old games being rehashed as either a StarCraft or Age of Empires clone.But to my delight I found Homeworld 2 a very unique gaming experience: 3-D!I downloaded the anemic demo, and was surprised to find that the game is more extensive, although not extremely hard.The hot-key and mouse (my best purchase for my Mac was a two key mouse--you should get one anyway!) input has a high learning curve, but once you get it, you'll find it was worth the wait.
The disadvantage is that there are few HW2 games posted on GameRanger...I hope to see that change once the word gets out that Homeworld 2 is a refreshing game in a genre that is full of "copycats."

Does not work on Mac OS X 10.4
Great game! Unfortunately it does not work on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and there are no patches available from Aspyr yet (as of May 2005). I had to set up a second partition on which I installed Mac OS X 10.3 just to play this game. However, HW2 is totally worth it. I played the original Homeworld back in 1999 and also Homeworld Catalyst. Homeworld 2 boasts a new in-game menu interface which does not look as nice as I would have expected from Relic but is easier to use and more effective than the menus in the original Homeworld. Missions are more difficult now. This can be frustrating at times but also makes sure you play the game for a long time.

Good Port Solid Game
I would first like to commend ASPYR for their awsome port over to Mac, with some of their games I find they didn't do a good jo or left things out, not in this case. The graphics are top notch and the enviroments are absolutly gourgeous. As for the story it could do better and the gameplay does get a little repetetive but the way the engine works is absolutley awsome. Another problem with the gameplay is(and I know making a 3D universe for a RTS is difficult) I found the camera angles to sometimes get a bit annoying and often made me use the sensors to play the game (sensors are kinda like the mega map). Overall though it's a top notch title and a top notch port.

Review for the Alaska Apple Users Group
Homeworld 2 is sequel to PC Gamer's 1999 Game of the Year, which was never officially released on the Macintosh (...). Like it's predecessor, Homeworld 2 is a stunningly beautiful strategy game driven by an enthralling and moving story. The innovative 3D approach inspired a series of similar games for Windows, but this is, fittingly, the first to make it to the Mac.

Long after the events of the first game, the Hiigaran people find themselves once again in a prophetic war of galactic-scale. The plot is captivating and does a phenomenal job of tying the individual missions together. The story unfolds through smoothly integrated scripted action with in-game dialog and complementary cut scenes between missions. The latter do not detract from the atmosphere either - they are uniquely artistic with simply animated grayscale visuals.

There is no overstating it: this game is stunning. The nebular backgrounds are lit by nearby stars, fighters leave elegant trails as they maneuver, engines glow ominously, and stylish ship hulls are dramatically lit. Even the violence of weapons, fire, and explosions are stunning.

It even sounds as good as it looks. Homeworld had an award-winning soundtrack and the sequel has a great one too. Sound effects are high quality and active stereo makes you really feel a part of the action. Orders from fleet intelligence and fleet command are well acted and the responses from your ships are varied enough to prevent annoyance.

You command the fleet to victory from the mothership with few allies and a determined foe. The basic mechanics of the game are like most strategy games. You have to harvest resources in order to research new technologies and build more ships to help you achieve victory. The sci-fi environment and plot tie-ins even make that model seem more natural and less tedious than in most strategy titles.

Unlike other games in the genre, the action unfolds in true 3D space. You can - and must - maneuver vertically as well as laterally. This makes battles much more interesting. There is still "terrain" to be exploited in the form meteors that can provide cover and clouds that can be harmful or hide from the enemy. All of this makes the tactical play very unique.

As difficult as the number of units and 3D environment could be to control, Homeworld's approach made it pretty simple and the sequel is even more so. By automatically forming squadrons of fighters, for example, you don't have to worry about banding dozens of individual units. The interface makes selecting ships, assigning formations, and issuing move and attack orders easy. A tactical view makes seeing the big picture a snap and moving vertically is as simple as holding a single key.

There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get started you're likely to be hooked for a while. Even after completing the single player missions (which should take some time) you can replay them to improve your fleet or try a different tactic.

Though multiplayer games are a lot of fun, they are restricted to other Mac users only, since the Windows version uses GameSpy. That also leaves the Mac version without a built-in game browser. Though supported by GameRanger (...), not a lot of people are playing online yet. You also have the option of playing multiplayer games against one or several computer controlled fleets just to test yourself. Realistically though, most of the replay value comes from repeating the campaign missions.

Homeworld 2 is an impressive game. Missions load very quickly and performance is great even near the low-end. Despite it's level of detail I was able to turn the graphics all the way up on a machine that drags Halo and Battlefield 1942 through the dirt without suffering a performance hit until literally hundreds of spacecraft were visible.

Homeworld 2 is a must have for any strategy gamers out there. I highly recommend it for anyone with an attention span longer than ten minutes and an interest in space, science fiction, or who just wants to see something beautiful on their screen. But as Lavar Burton says, "you don't have to take my word for it." (...) ... Read more

Amazon.com Review

The critically acclaimed real-time strategy game TotalAnnihilation is relatively old, but its detailed 3-D graphics and advancedgameplay elements are standing up well to the test of time.

The 3-D units are animated so well they are a treat to watch, and, since theyconsist of several different components, explosions are spectacular. Instead ofseeing the same 2-D explosion graphics found in nearly every other game of thistype, players are treated to pieces of machinery being scattered every whichway. It's fun to just sit back and witness a pitched battle. The diverse terrainis realistically modeled, with gradual elevation changes and lots of interactiveelements like trees that burst into flames when struck with a mistimed shot.

There are many ground, naval, and aerial units to develop in the game,regardless of what side you are controlling--nearly 250 when they are talliedup. Units gain experience as they fight, so you'll want to shepherd your forceswisely and repair them often in order to gain a competitive edge.

This Commander Pack comes with the original game, the excellent CoreContingency add-on pack, and a copy of Total Annihilation: BattleTactics, a version of the game aimed at entry-level players looking for somequick action. There's even a full strategy guide in the box to help novicesthrough the tougher missions. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Hundreds of units and missions make for months of exciting gameplay
• Included strategy guide is great for beginners
• 3-D graphics are holding up well

• Sheer number of available units makes this collection a little overwhelming for beginners

Reviews (7)

The first game I ever owned...
I bought this game in 1999, before my pc was actually delivered to my door, I have been playing it ever since! The single player is great, but buy this game for the multiplayer!

The greatest thing about Total Annihilation is the ability to download new maps and units. There are literally thousands out there. There are also many, many packs called Total Conversions, which rplace every unit in the game with new onces like all Star Wars units, World War II, or Modern tanks and aircraft. These packs change everything about the game accept the gameplay. So you never really get bored with the game. The music is great and always seems to kick in and give you a rush of sound before a battle.

I do sell these here on Amazon, because I think it is such a great game to play. It is rare, but so worth the money. I only sell games I love, and this one is the number one on my list.

Excellent game, but not worth the money
Total Annihilation is one of the best games ever, and the Commander Pack is a supposed to be a bargain deal for those who do not yet own the game.This game worth no more than ten dollars.So don't pay the ridiculous amounts that the third party dealers are offering for used and new copies of this game.If a game is a rare classic, that does not automatically make it a collector's item.You don't see people demanding hundreds of dollars for unopened copies of Super Mario Brothers 3.Do you?
So don't get tempted into wasting tons of money on this game (and other out-of-print computer game classics) when you clearly have other options.Look for an online auction if you know what I mean.You will find much cheaper prices there.

Replayability
I'm not proud of it at all, but my life seemed to revolve around this game for about two years.I'm sure you could have just as much fun without being obsessed though.It just has so much re-playablility.

Total Annihilation: Commander Pack
Total annihilation is one of my favorite games, and this pack expands the play even further. If your still playing without all the great units of Core Contingency and/or Battle Tatics, BUY THIS!

The Best RTS EVER bar none
Well it is really simple if you have any skill whatsoever and like real time stragity type games this is the best game.
No other game has ever given the options, and types of units this one has. It is nothing less than shameless that now, more than 4 years after this games release, no company has come out with a game that even comes close to this in any aspect. Also with this kind of price for the whole set, it is a steal. Get it you wont be dissapointed!!... ... Read more

Product Description

WookiesTowering, fur-covered humanoids native to the planet Kashyyyk, Wookiees are exceedingly strong and prone to fits of rage. However, they are also intelligent, loyal, and trusting. Among the species, bravery and honor are considered paramount. Although their culture is not warlike, Wookiees do make fierce warriors and deadly opponents when angered or threatened.In Star Wars Galaxies, we will strive to capture the b ... Read more

Features

• Includes eight playable species with detailed character customizability
• Entirely new 3D engine designed to portray the Star Wars galaxy in the greatest possible detail
• A seamless universe spanning both familiar and never-before seen worlds from Star Wars
• Vehicles for travel across worlds and through space

Reviews (827)

A galaxy truly, truly ruined...
Brawler classes being forced to use Skill Points that have nothing to do with their profession from Brawler's skills, why do I say this?As a Master Swordsman, 2-Handed Swords, I have to have the 1-Handed tree in which there are no modifiers for 2-Handed Weapons.This applies to all four Brawler Classes, meaning you need a tree that does nothing for you other than waste Skill Points that can be used elsewhere to improve your character.Why was this done? Most likely because all Ranged Professions require not only their basic tree from Marksman but also Ranged Support.What this means is the same Skill Points are used to be either a single Master Marksman Elite Profession as a Brawler Elite.I understand this concept but at least the Marksman get modifiers from the Ranged Support tree that help them no matter what they choose. They should have added modifiers for the other professions that the trees are required for instead of making them just Skill Point wasting trees.

CU is a much needed change.
I've got to hand it to SOE.They were pressured in releasing the "Total Experience" and "Rage of the Wookies" before the release of Episode III.They've had to suffer the thousands of "hate" letters directed in their way, and are still dredging through it all.

SOE had an incomplete Combat Upgrade on their hands, and are making great strides in pulling out a great product.I will admit that there were a lot of bugs and glitches with it, but given the circumstances, they are doing a wonderful job.They do still have a lot of work to do, but so far, I'm 100% satisfied with their progress thusfar.

If you hear anyone complaining about the CU or about SOE, you can rest assured that these people are completely sensless.Everyone was crying for a change to be made about combat in SWG, then along came CU.It is a DRASTIC change from the SWG that anyone had ever played before.Most people that are complaining about it are closed-minded and haven't spent an hour, with eyes wide open, playing this Upgrade.I've had more fun playing since CU than I have in the past 2 years.I also have complete faith thatSOE is doing everything in its power to make this complete.

Wasted Potential
Quite possibly the very best idea for a MMORPG, and also, quite possibly the very worse execution as well.The idea of an online game set in the Star Wars Universe was definitely the most enticing game idea I had ever seen.I actually had to buy a whole new computer to play it two years ago.

This game has, or to say, had dozens of new innovative ideas.It was the first MMORPG to use a skill system, instead of a level system, since I had played UO.It had the greatest crafting system I had ever seen in any game.It was also the first online game I know to include professions specifically aimed towards casual gamers.Players could choose to be Dancers or Musicians.You could place your own houses all over huge sandbox style planets.

Most of things were flawed, and had issues with something being too strong, or not strong enough.For the longest time the game's developers tried unsuccessfully to balance and fix the flaws with the game.A great deal or progress was made in the twenty-two months since the game's launch, but evidentially not enough.The developers created a patch called the "Combat Upgrade" or CU for short.

The combat upgrade fundamentally traded a very flawed, though original and innovative combat system, for a very flawed bland overused combat system.The upgrade switched from a skill based system, to the overly used level system that so many other games have.A unique armor system that involved different damages and certain enemies and armories having certain protections and vulnerabilities was replaced with simply all armor having very similar protections to everything, as well as every enemy having the exact same protections now as well.

Though it was named the Combat Upgrade, this change greatly effected all the non-combative professions as well.Medical professions lost the ability to craft their own medicines, and now simply heal without them.(much like priests or clerics in other games)They may only heal in combat now, if they wish to advance through their profession.Crafting has been made much more simple, and weapons and armor now all very similar stats, and the difference between an exceptional craftsman and a inexperienced one is now very little.

As for it being Star Wars, it's more like Everquest with Star Wars names and characters pasted over it now.The game is set between Episodes IV and V and yet there are dozens of Jedi running around.Ithorians, a pacifist race according to the Star Wars Canon, have 3 suits of exclusive battle armor and can learn just as many destructive skills as other races.The rebels in the game are never hiding and always very much out in the open.

To be a Jedi in the game you must travel a very long, boring, and tedious path full of time sinks and tons of grinding.If you become a Jedi, all that remains is to continue grinding to learn new Jedi skills.They only way to gain XP as a Jedi, good or bad, is to simply kill things over and over again with a lightsaber.Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies is simply another combat profession with different weapons.After you reach Jedi there are no quests or missions for you, at least none that a Non-Jedi could do.

I've been playing since the game's launch late in June of 2003, and have been playing it regularly since.The developers at Sony Online Entertainment have constantly ignored concerns and requests from the player base, and continue to make horrible decisions based on things they never explain to it's loyal customers.The most recent change to the game as left me with no friends left to play with, and can't even find a reason to log on anymore.SOE seems to not only know nothing about Star Wars, but also nothing about managing a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game as well.If you like Star Wars I'd recommend Knights of the Old Republic, Battlegrounds, or Episode III.If you like online games you might want to try City of Heroes or World of Warcraft.But even if you like both Star Wars and Online games, I wouldn't recommend this game to you.

Don't waste your money. REALLY!
This game and the recent work done on it by SOE, is the single reason I will never buy another SOE product. This was once a good game, you could log on and play without spending hours looking for a group unlike Everquest or other online games, but... not anymore. On top of having a huge unfinished patch force upon the live servers, (bringing some of them down for over 24 hours) it was a patch that created huge protest and mass people saying it was not wanted. Let alone wanted in its unfinished full of bugs state. But SOE and their team did not listen. People were banned for protesting and saying they wanted to keep they old game, forum post were deleted for the same reason. To end this review, I must repeat, do not buy this game.

CU/Comic Upgrade ruined this game
I loved this game from day one almost 2 years ago and went through all the changes, but the CU I cant stomach anymore, I gave it a shot and sure if you like grouping with friends Im sure it might be fun. But all my friends have already canceled and tried making new ones and they hate the game now too and cancel and trying to solo and get xp has become impossible now. I have a Jedi too and they forced us to have to group now if we want to gain xp so now we could be hunted consistently by BHs. So unless this game goes back or gets a major overhaul again. Dont waste your money, this is still a beta and shouldnt be paid for or have a monthly fee. Ive gone to Guild Wars (no fees). ... Read more

Product Description

SAMURAI Trained in Art of Bushido: Bushido grants a bonus to several warrior skills and special moves.Samurai Special Abilities Honorable Execution: An attempt to eliminate an enemy with a single attack.Lightning Strike: A ferocious and fast single attack with a 50 percent hit bonus.Whirlwind: A samurais powers increase the more enemies hes fighting.4 other special abilities. NINJA Trained in Art of Ninjitsu: Ninjitsu grants a bonus to several fighting and stealth skill ... Read more

Features

• Treasures include weapons, armor, clothing, magic, and more
• Become a Samurai master or join the ranks of the Ninja elite
• Build a home with new Japanese-themed building options
• Create a guild, set up ranks, and declare wars on other guilds
• Exotic monsters, dramatic landscapes, and fierce but noble warriors

Reviews (28)

Used to be fun, now its gone.
Due to wreckless game masters and constant customer abuse, I am closing my account with this game. STAY AWAY! Unspoken policies are abundant, and exist everywhere, making avoiding a ban like running from the gestapo!!!

The game used to have a wonderful gameplay system, this expansion wrecked it. On top of that, it is being patched out of its time. Less new players are coming in, and more players are leaving. I suggest you all stay away from this title.

The Party Is Over
Let me begin by saying I have been an avid citizen of Sosaria for 5 years and have had great experiences in this game and made many new friends.

That being said, I think this franchise has run it's course.With all the newer and more advanced MMO's out now, this game just seems stuck in the past.EA got behind the power curve of new games like EQ2 and WoW.I haven't logged into UO since WoW came out, for some reason though I just can't seem to bring myself to close my account... :)

UO still fighting the good fight after 7 years...
Ultima Online's main client still uses art from its original version, 7+ years ago. However with a secondary 3D client available, the game doesn't seem as dated. The game isn't however a graphics game. If you want flashy new, break your video card graphics, try another game.

However, UO does have a lot of factors that make up for its age. Community is a big one. With thousands of devoted fans who have built a thriving world that has survived some dubious expansion lauches, there is always someone for you to play with. With player-vs-player combat, crafting, commerce, and champion monsters that require a group, there is no limit to the possible interactions you will have with other players.

The character design system is flexible as well, and for someone who hates being pigeonholed by a class, I enjoy this system. You get around 700 skill points (every year you play gives you a few more up to 720) to spend on 40+ skills.

With custom housing, your character can run a business, start a library, or choose to be a hermit in a quiet villa. With armor, clothing, dyes, and tons of in game items, no two characters ever need look alike.

Origin, the company owned by EA that makes this game, had the motto "We create worlds." UO is a perfect example of what they meant.

The game is ok but the company sucks
I bought this game 2 weeks ago.There is no game codes in the box.I contacted the manufactory (Electronic Art) via email, website support, phone, and mail...They basically treats you like a scammer and keep you in a loop of email and website.I sent them the copy of receipt and barcode but got no answer.Buy this game at your own risk.

MMORPG
UO is an mmorpg which means it can only be played online...i am a large fan of ultima online, but the free shards online are worth the 0 dollars you pay...i love it to death but i think its run its race ... Read more