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

The Star Wars universe is expanded and enhanced in this action-packed game. You'll interact with droids, Wookies, Jedi and more as you battle across the galaxy. Travel to a total of 10 awesome worlds—both familiar and new. May the force be with you. ... Read more

Features

• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Genre: Action/Adventure
• Mission: The ongoing battle between the Jedi and the Sith rages on. Your actions determine the outcome of this colossal galactic war—and your destiny as a Jedi
• Platform: Windows 98/98SE/Me/2000/XP

Reviews (206)

Play tester anyone?
I couldn't give this game a "fun" rating, because you have to be able to play a game to know if it's any fun.I ranked it a 1 because I certainly didn't have any fun with this product.

KOTOR didn't allow me that opportunity.

When I loaded the game, the framerate was something like 5 frames per second, and that was just the main menu screen.Once I got into the actual game, it ran at about 2 fps.

It's not like I was playing this on an overclocked 486 either.This was on a brand new computer that I had literally bought the week before I tried to play this game.

My specs:

Compaq Presario 4012 notebook
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor
512MB of RAM
ATI Mobility Xpress 200 graphics card

I spent three days mucking about with Bioware's tech support forums before I got an email back from Bioware's tech support that told me that ATI graphics cards in the family that my graphics card is in are incompatible with this game.If I wanted to play it, I'd need a card from NVIDIA.

Gee, that would have been nice to know before buying the game.Maybe they could have put something in the system requirements (Far Cry, for example, lists the compatible graphics cards in the system requirements)

Furthermore, that doesn't explain the fact that the reviewers at Gamespot (who for some inexplicable reason gave the game an 8.8 ranking) noted that they game flat-out wouldn't play on three of the four systems they tried it on.These are professional game reviewers.Surely, if a system exists that could handle this game, they would have more than one.(And one that it crashed frequently on, I might add)

The review is here:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/starwarsknightsoftor/index.html?q=knights+of+the+old+republic


It's obvious that Bioware developed this game for one hardware configuration, and didn't playtest it on anything that didn't match that configuration.Bioware is currently blaming ATI for faulty drivers-- adbicating any responsibility they have to release a product that actually works as advertised.



Here's a word of advice:Before you buy this game-- or any game from Bioware-- make darn sure you contact their tech support staff and ask them if the game will work with your specific hardware setup.And don't accept a "should work" answer either.Otherwise, you might just wind up with a very expensive set of shiny coasters.

GREAT GAME
THERE IS NO PS2 VERSION!! FOR THE PERSON THAT SAID HE HAS THE PS2 VERSION OF KOTOR. ONLY PC AND X-BOX.

Awsome Game
One of the best games i ever played, great story, really 2 different games choosing light or dark sides, highly recommend to anyone, even not star wars fans, great game.

PlayStation 2 version
I have this game in the PlayStation 2 version.It's a great game.I would like to sell it if anyone is interested.

the best video game of all time!
if that doesnt say it all,i will elaborate.this is a star wars role playing game.you pick this dude,gather droids,a wookie,some soldiers,some jedis and such then travel many planets and getting into all sorts of high adventure!you can choose from a long list of force powers to have.there are weopons practicly falling out of the trees.unlike older rpgs,you have control of your characters during battle.you can even customize weopons with all sorts of cool upgrades.theres a lot of stuff to do but it is highly unstructured.you could pay very little attention to the actual story and still become powerful just fighting monsters.then theres a few more cool things.one is you can coax just about anybody into a fight.you remember the old days when a king just told your guy off and sent him on a perilous journey then screwed him out of his money later?well now,if he tells you off,you can dismember him and if you dont want to do the job,you dont have to.if he screws with you,more often than not you can force choke him or blast him.so no more putting up with mouthy npc authority typeson a power trip!the other really cool thing is you dont have to be a good guy either.now you can go to the dark side if youd like.every decision you make can ultimately lead to a dark or light side point being gained.here are some examples of bad things that can get you dark side points.............using the jedi mind trick to force a wookie to kill his best friend,or using it to make someone commit suicide,refusing to pay docking fees,smuggling,killing witnesses,going to sith school.the story even changes for whatever style guy you run.but ultimately,you fight the same last boss,just under different circumstances.this is definately worth checking out! ... Read more

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

This game lets you customize your character by choosing species, gender, clothing, and more and then create a custom light saber to do battle against the forces of Darth Vader. ... Read more

Features

• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Genre: Action/Adventure
• Mission: Learn the true ways of the Force from Jedi Master Luke Skywalker
• Platform: Windows 98/98SE/Me/2000/XP

Reviews (92)

firebrand, your pc is a load of rubbish
hey, last time i checked "P4 3.0 Ghz, 512 MB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon X300 SE with 128MB of Video Ram" is NOT a "powerhouse pc". it wasnt even a powerhouse pc 1 year ago. most pc's have been running a gig of ram for over a year. and last time they checked, they had to overclock a 3.6/3,8 ghz p4 processor to like 5ghz to match an fx55, so your processor is crap. 3.4ghz has been the standard for over a year now in most new pc's.
most gamers also use 256mb cards.

also your graphics card is also the cheapest, lowest range card ati do since yours is x300 and they go right up to x850,lol.
plus its a dell, which shows how ignorant you are about "power computers".
so yeah, dont moan and say u got a powerhouse pc, because all u got was a really rubbish spec'd pc, no doubt for a very cheap price from dell.

I CANT WAIT TO GET IT
I want this game so much it sounds like fun espically the plot. Im looking foward to playing out my favorite battle in the series the battle between maul,qui gonn,and obi-wan!!I WANT THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

best internet play ever!!
this games play is good.i was just finished with another game and board so i looked through my games i came acrose jedi academy i thought hmm could be good then i saw the multiplayer option and i was hocked!!! i ended up playing loads this game is ot only fun i realised it was also addictive.starwars fans or people who like slashing people with light sabers this is for you!!!!!!!!

Fun, awesome star wars action, one complaint
first the complaint.I just bought myself a Dell Dimension 8400 with P4 3.0 Ghz, 512 MB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon X300 SE with 128MB of Video Ram.This is a powerhouse computer.

I played Call of Duty, which graphically is a more advanced game than Jedi Academy, and finally had it play perfectly smoothly.It was such fun to do so.I then popped in Jedi Academy to test its performance in a faster environment (before I had a P4 2.0 Ghz, 64 MB NVIDIA GeForce 4, and 256 MB of RAM), and I was disappointed.I put the highest settings (1024x768, 32 bit color, high graphics) and the game ran choppy!I put it on "normal" settings, and the game STILL ran choppy.How is it possible that Call of Duty runs perfect, but Jedi Academy runs choppy?It doesn't make sense...

Anyway, you can set the graphic settings to the lowest (which is what I did), and it will play smoothly, but you won't get any of the graphics benefits.The game, however, is fun.

What happened?!!!?
This game was my introduction to Jedi Knight series. The only Star Wars game I had played before this was Knights of the Old Republic (which I loved). After finishing it I was excited about more Star Wars gaming and I tried Jedi Academy.

The game seemed to be a mixed bag: there was some great things like ability to customize your character and choosing between saber styles. The acrobatics were fantastic. But these alone were not enough to save the game: some of the graphics looked really bad especially outdoor environments. In general everything felt like it was made in great hurry: the textures, lightning and everything felt unpolished. Quake III engine is capable of much better when levels are planned with artistic vision. Character animations in cutscenes looked clumsy and unfinished. But the biggest problem with the game was the story (or the lack of it). Overall the game feels like you had different fan made maps put together.

I know a lot of people probably wanted more lightsaber combat. Well you certainly got that with this game. The problem is that it gets VERY repetitive after a while. In movies the saber fights were used sparingly and always connected to major turning points in the plot. Now it is just endless repetition (didn't I beat this guy already? Like 100 times!!!)

I recently tried Jedi Outcast (the previous game in the serie) and I was SHOCKED to realize just how much better it was in almost every way: the graphics, the plot, the missions all had real touch of quality in it. It seems Raven tried to improve some elements in the game and totally forgot everything that made Jedi Outcast such a classic. Or more likely this product just had to be finished with a real tight deadline. That just how it feels like: an unfinished product which COULD have been great if they had maintained the quality of previous game. I truly recommend Knights of the Old Republic and Jedi Outcast over this. ... 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

Product Description

The game that started it all is back and badder than ever! Graphically enhanced and developed with NovaLogics latest game engine, Delta Force: RELOADED not only enhances a proven winner, but ads to it, offering seasoned Delta Force fanatics and FPS fans new to the franchise, a fresh prospective on the game that broke the mold in modern combat FPS games. ... Read more

Features

• As a member of the elite Delta Force, re-deploy in over 20 graphically enhanced single-player missions the best of the best from the original game
• Additional new single-player missions created especially for Delta Force: Reloaded add a new challenge for hardened Delta Operators
• Take your friends into battle in over 25
• co-operative missions
• Over 20

Reviews (3)

excellent remake!!!
I played the original Delta Force years ago and I really liked it.I love this one!!It's a reload of the original but it does come with a few downers.Getting extra health and ammo is easy just look for the red and blue boxes on your gps or map.There are extra missions and this one is challenging but not too challenging or you might have to work to hard to play the game lol!It does need save points and a few more health power ups since bad guys come from out of nowhere and wax you.You can't assume you've cleared a part of the map or territory or you'll get waxed.For anyone into FPS I very highly recommend this one!!!!Besides needing save points it could also use a few more weapons.There is a mp5sd3 but no mission truly allows it.

Chad S

Good Game But Too Short
Though this game is very fun to play, it is also very short (20 single player missions). But the multiplayer is also fun. This game is short because the company didnt spend too much time on this. If you loved delta force 1, you will love this even more. If you just want to play the single player missions then you should rent this game. There also might be an expansion for it. Anyways deffinetly try this game out.

A chance to re-live a fond gaming experience.
Delta Force: XTreme is a re-make of the excellent original "Delta Force", which was released in 1998. They've pulled the best levels out of the original game and ported them over to NovaLogic's latest graphic's engine, along with adding some more levels. And the results are amazing! From the moment I was plopped into Mission one (the same Mission One from the original game), I was in heaven. I hadn't played the game since 98, so the nostalgia I felt was palpable. It was so fun to be able to play through that very familiar level with the superb graphics, which bear a strong resemblance to the FarCry graphics, only with even longer draw-distances. And if you can see a place, you can go there. You can travel for miles out of your way if you want to. Truly open-ended.

I liken the gameplay to Operation Flashpoint. It's pretty difficult and there doesn't appear to be a way to save your game. However, it does give you the option if you are killed, to re-start the level with full ammo and the enemies you've killed already dead. But that felt kinda like cheating. I'd have preferred a save-anywhere scheme, or at the very least, a couple of save points would help. As it is, it's very difficult, which adds to the tension. I kinda actaully like it that way really, since it forces me to be careful, however the option to choose a save scheme would be appreciated for those who can't live without it.

Enemies appear in droves, and come from all over at the sound of gunfire. You're best off to lie down in prone position and try to pick them off. However, I have not yet found a way to get more ammo. There is no manual with this game. One mission I started with 300 rounds, and that's it baby. I couldn't grab more from fallen enemies or find any anywhere. By pure luck, I finished the mission as my ammo meter reached zero. There may be a way to get ammo that I don't know about, but I haven't found it.

I haven't tried multiplayer yet. Though I am greatly looking forward to playing the 25 included co-op levels with my brother over NovaWorld. The last time we did that was when Delta Force: Land Warrior came out, and that was a blast. At the time, we loved NovaWorld. It was stable, and I'm amazed to see it's still around after all these years.

NovaLogic has been around a long time too. They've been making great games since I bought my first computer. Not many game companies are left from that era, and it's a testament to their dedication to all their games, both old and new. Nothing is abandoned. If you're a fan of an old NovaLogic game, there's still help and support on their website for you. ... 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

Dotted about the landscape are tribes of human-type creatures. From a perspective high above the clouds you can zoom in to watch these individuals going about their daily business. Just by observing them, you will find they live "natural" lives with virtually every aspect of village life built in. Not only will the villagers plough, hunt and fish, but they will visit friends, play games, fall in love, and get married. A full range ... Read more

Features

• Choose the sharp-toothed Crocodile, the mighty horned Rhinoceros, or any of the creatures from the original game to act as your representative on Creature Island
• Your creature gains an apprentice and a pet as it is tasked with the care of the little tyke
• Your creature falls head-over-heels for the beautiful Eve and must win her favor by completing her labors of love
• Set off with your creature to explore the many wonders of Creature Isle and Graduation Island
• Teach your creature a variety of new skills, including bowling, building, and playing soccer

Reviews (23)

Fun, but a lot of work
I just recently got this game in preperation for B&W 2.When I first started playing it, I absolutely loved it and would have easily given it 5 stars.After playing it for a while, I got annoyed and overwhelmed at the micro management and would have reviewed it probably at about 2 stars.But now after getting used to it and 30 plus hours of play, I think 4 is right.

The game starts out with a very helpful tutorial that shows you the basic controls, how to cast spells, and taking care of the people.You later pick the creature you want and it helps you in training him and taking care of him also.After you get through that, you then go to a town where you will need to start your own civilization.This is where you may get frustrated because your people always need food, homes, children, andbuildings.A smart thing to do is build plenty farms before bulding homes or children no matter how much they complain because eventually there will not be enough food in the few farms to supply the villige store (where the food and wood is stocked) so you will be constantly hovering over the store supplying food (very annoying).With the Deluxe version of B&W, it comes with several patches that fixes a ton of problems.One major issue that it will fix is that your wirshippers will not eat like horses any more so you will get to pay less attention to them.Install these before playing the game because it comes in as a HUGE help.

There are 2 things that kept me from giving this game 5 stars even after disliking it so much at first.
One is that it crashes every few times I play.Sometimes it will go for hours on end without a jitter but sometimes it will crash twice within 5 minutes.I am running it on a Windows 98 PC with 512MB RAM and an old NVIDIA Video card.The game is from 2001 so it does OK.I also installed it on my newer Dell PC that has 1.5 Gigs of RAM, Windows XP,and the newest ATI graphics card.I started an evil god on it and it has not crashed once.Some are saying that the game does not run on XP, but it does fine with me.
The second thing that kept me from giving 5 stars is the part of the game I am on now.I'm not going to say much to keep from ruining the game for some of you but this level of the game is really ticking me off.Every time I get a few buildings built they get burned!!!I dont have enough villigers to give me enough prayer power to constantly cast shield miracles because my people are getting stolen!!!I don't know what to do.Maybe I'm doing something wrong or not doiing something I should but it is really making me mad.Earlier in the game on another level, I had just gotten a big enough population to start to convert another village ( you have a realm of influence based on the amount of people that you have in your town. You connot do anything outside that realm. Therefore, the more people you have the bigger your influence realm will be).I was performing miriacles for them when I started hearing the word "death" and my conscience guy said that we were being attacked.I went back to my villiage and there was a lightning storm stricking my town center.Every time the lighting would hit it, it would catch on fire.My villiagers would run to put it out when another lighting bolt would hit, catching everyone around it on fire.They would die so more people would run to the fire to put it out and they to would be set aflame!It finally stopped dtorming but I ended up losing about 70% of my population with my influence realm very small again.After that I went to the setup menu in the game and downloaded the realtime weather that was happening outside my own home (it was snowing) so that did not happen again.This is a cool feature to use if you want to make the weather in the game be more realistic to what you are seeing out your own window.

This game has a very steep learning curve.It has a lot of micromanagement to deal with so you will never be sitting back watching things take place.I reccommend this game to one who has a lot of time and a ton of patience.So if you decide to get the game, have fun and good luck.

If you have Windows98/ME and A LOT of Ram, you need see this
I saw some people have problems running this game.If your system is Windows98/ME and you have more than 512 MB memory in stalled, you need to see this ... otherwise you will get game crashes more frequently ... not just in Black & White, but other games as well. You need to follow the workaround method as follows.

I first come across this knowledge from www.nvidia.com FAQ : Windows 98 and ME were based on the original Windows 95 kernel which was never designed for handling a lot of memory. These systems will experience various operational difficulties if more than 512MB physical memory is installed. These problems are due to how the 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (VCache) for Windows 9x/ME reserves memory.With more than 512MB memory, VCache may reserve most of the virtual addresses available.This issue does not affect Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 2000. Directions for correcting this problem are outlined in Microsoft's Knowledge Base article number 253912:[...]

CAUSE :
The Windows 32-bit protected-mode cache driver (Vcache) determines the maximum cache size based on the amount of RAM that is present when Windows starts, or 800MB, whichever is less. Vcache then reserves enough memory addresses to permit it to access a cache of the maximum size so that it can increase the cache to that size if needed.. These addresses are allocated in a range of virtual addresses from 0xC0000000 through 0xFFFFFFFF (virtual address occupy between 3 gigabyte and 4 gigabyte area - a space of only 1 gigabytes) known as the system arena.

On computers with large amounts of RAM, the maximum cache size can be large enough that Vcache consumes nearly all of the addresses in the system arena, leaving little virtual memory addresses available for other system process.

This problem may occur more readily with Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) video adapters because the AGP aperture is also mapped to addresses in the system arena. For example, if Vcache is using a maximum cache size of 800 MB and an AGP video adapter has a 128-MB aperture mapped, there is very little address space remaining for the other system code and data that must occupy this range of virtual addresses.


WORKAROUND :

- Add the MaxFileCache line as follows in the System.ini file to reduce the maximum cache size that Vcache uses to 512 MB (512x1024 =524288 KB. Note: The value for these settings are in kilobytes) or less :
[VCache]
MaxFileCache=524288

- Then reboot computer to have setting take effect. You should suffer FAR LESS crashes in many games. Your game can still crash, though.But it will be due to other problems - game bugs, drivers too old, etc.