Command and Conquer - Tiberium Wars:
It was quite sometime since this was released.... and got my hands on it recently only....
in sequel to the Tiberium series.... CnCTW continues the story of Tiberium started in 1995.
The story is woven very nicely to make it a continuation of the same story... the small plant like tiberium and changed to a crystal form and kane the bad guy is still at large.. its very interesting how they've connected everything together... and once u finish the 3 campaigns you have 3 sides of the same story..... :-)
The game play and graphics has improved marvelously from Tiberium sun... (Renegade was more RPG than stratergy!) The details of the units and the terrains are good.. you get a 3D view where u can rotate the camera angle.. so u know which unit is where... You will not miss out anyone who is behind tall buildings or uneven terrain... You can "zoom in" to a decent distant to see the units and characters clearly too.... and i like the effects of the shadows of the clouds running across the terrain.
Game play... well.. Its not all that CHALLENGING... I finished the game in medium or the default skill level and the game did not have any nail biting tight spots.... and some of the levels were plainly dumb ones... you can really get ur way around easily to achieve the mission objectives.... The Scrin campaign was slightly challenging than the rest.
I played almost all of the CnC series and all the games of Tiberium series.... and I must admit that i've enjoyed them... I think the Music was better when Westwood studios was handling that game... anyone who played Red Alert will agree with me...
8/10 if ur in to strategy games i know that you've already played this...
Jade Empire:
Remember Grey Matter studios??? yes!! the ppl who developed "Return to Castle Wolfenstine" and Bio Ware developed this amazing RPG game....(The X box version was developed by Microsoft)Jade empier is the extreme opposite of what i've metioned before... Based on ancient Chinese mythical background and traditional martial arts. You start by selecting a character, either male or female. Who is the best student of a grand martial arts Master.
Splendid graphics as you can see from the screen shots i've taken. Thats how it looks on 1024X768, 4XAA (high quality settings), on a nVidia 7300GT, 1Gb DDRII, Windows Vista. For that kinda look the games runs VERY smoothly. way above 20fps unless it comes to some specific places where you have to fight against four opponents who sends flames and other particles. other than that the game is smooth. If I had to compare.. I'd Settle to Prince of "Persia Sands of Time" graphics. Very nice and runs smoothly.
Game play is awsome... you're on a quest trying to full fill your unknown destiny learning about you and your past. The martial arts fighting styles can be learned, upgraded and any combat with an opponant can be turned in to a Hollywood action movie sequence. You get to chooose how you want to continue the story and the development of your character. Good Guy or the Bad Guy... The path of the Open palm - the good way or... the Closed Fist - the Bad way... Depending on how you choose to develop your character and the descitions you make the game will give you several diffent endings. I tried three different ending. Good, Bad and well... rather Ugly too...
Apart from the main all mighty fighting and seriouse quest; you get to play this "Raptor" style flight missions. its fun... I thouroughly enjoyed each and everyone of them...
Its all there... Action, Betrayal, Conspiracy, Wisdom, Romance.....
There are some little bugs here and there... you have to save every now and then coz some times the camera seems to loose its sense of direction and location. All of a sudden you find yourself staring at a ceiling or a floor or some wall... and there is simply no way of fixing it... Unless of coz you reload the game... but it can be easily forgiven....
Overall.. it is a VERY good experiance... Its one of those that will keep you up till 5.00 AM and you go to work after only an hours sleep... If you're in to RPG... try not to miss this one out...
9.5/10
(Click the image for a larger view)
