Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon (Jewel Case) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Okay I'll admit I was weary of buying this game as I'd heard it wasn't really an adventure but more of a hybrid. I found this to be compeletly false. This is strictly a third person view, adventure game. While not the normal point and click (you have to use the arrow keys like in Grimg Fandango and SOMETIMES a choice of up to four keys). I disagree with the previous reiveiw that this was hard to do without a joystick. I don't own a joystick as the only games I play are adventure games. While I will admit the game controls took me about five minutes to figure out, it didn't take away any enjoyment of the game, in fact it feel as though I'd just sloved the first puzzle! Honestly from me I felt the use of these buttons incorperated more enjoyment, with this game as sometimes (when George or Nico would have to climb a wall by pressing w or do they jump by pressing s)was a puzzle all in itself. There by making the game feel more real and the puzzles fully a part of the game. Also while I only play adventure games I am mediocore at them at best often falling to the use of walkthroughs. I found I only had to look at a walkthrough for this on the first stealth sequence as I'd never had to do one before. Yes there are some places that require stealth however the timing is easy to do, and for a person who hasn't played a game other than an adventure since pac man, I still didn't have too much trouble with it I can honestly say it didn't distract from the game. My only complaint was I felt the story could have used a bit more of an ending but with broken sword 4 currently in the works I don't mind too much :). I really loved this game and I rarley say that, infact the last time I liked a game enough to review it was.... the longest journey. I love the direction and chance this company took with trying out something different from the same old point and click (I never thought I'd type that before!) and hope to see more games like it in the future. Trust me if you liked the Gaberial Knight series or if you just want a good adventure check this game out.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon (Jewel Case)

Platform:WINDOWS 98/ME/2000/XPPublisher:THE ADVENTURE COMPANYPackaging:JEWEL CASERating:TEENThe murder of an underground hacker in Paris is just the beginning of this extraordinary adventure for George Stobbart and Nico Collard in the highly anticipated Broken Sword III. Powerful seismic events are shaking the world. An Ancient Conspiracy the Secrets of the Templars and a fiendish source of pure Evil are responsible From the jungles of the Congo to the deceptive calm of the English West Country and gothic castles time is running out for the Earth and only George and Nico can save itFeatures:An epic narrative from Europe s master interactive storytellers - Revolution SoftwareStunning graphics delivered by a radical new graphic engineWholly intuitive direct control interface fresh gameplay with keyboard and mouse navigation for full control of the character.Movie quality script and voice acting with facial animation choreographed by Revolution s proprietary Virtual Actor Engine.System Requirements:Windows 98/2000/ME/XPPentium III 750 MHz (Pentium III 1.2 GHz Recommended)128MB RAM8x CD-ROM DriveDirectX 8.1GeForce2 64 MB or Equivalent (GeForce4 Ti 4200 or Equivalent Recommended)1 GB Hard Disk space

Get 67% OFF

Click here for more information about Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon (Jewel Case)

Read More...

Syberia Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The first thing you need to know is that "Syberia" is only the first part of Kate Walker's European adventure, so if you are expecting to end up on the fabled lost island of Syberia by the end of this PC adventure, you are going to be disappointed. Actually it was some reviews about "Syberia II" that got me interested in playing that particular game so of course I picked up "Syberia" first. I do not take the time to play a lot of these games, but when I do I like these sort of adventures where you go around and collect items, endure endless conversations, solve some tricky puzzles, and eventually uncover some sort of mystery.
The heroine here is Kate Walker, a sophisticated New York Attorney who is sent by her firm to Valadilene, a smal alpine village in France, to buy-out an old factory, the Voralberg Toy Company, which was once world famous for making automatons. Of course once she is there Kate is confronted with an unexpected twist the turns her business trip into a journey heading east in order to get a signature needed to complete the deal. Kate's journey consists of three additional locations after Valadilene: the university city of Barrockstadt, the forgotten city of Komkolzgrad, and the once lavish seaside resort of Aralbad. Her only companion, once she gets him up on his feet, is Oscar, one of the Voralberg automatons, who will be the engineer for the mechanical train that takes Kate on most of her journey.
Oscar is the most interesting of the supporting cast of characters, although he is a stickler for the rules, especially about having a ticket before you can proceed from one station to the next. Most of the other characters get a bit annoying, especially as you go through the unavoidable pointless conversations you have to endure in this sort of game. It is the nature of the game that they are always impediments to either Kate's overall mission or her specific task at hand (or both). There are also several dead end characters, where you keep thinking at some point talking to them will be of some importance, but that never proves to be the case.
Then there are the phone calls that Kate gets from back home, where her boss, mother, boyfriend, and supposed best friend harangue her about not getting her mission done and back home as quickly as she can. Apparently we are supposed to be watching Kate turn from a boring lawyer into an exciting adventurer as she meets her various challenges. Of course she is the heroine of "Syberia" so we tend to think of her as that from the very beginning and keep looking for a way to get her to dump boyfriend Dan as soon as possible. Of course, you cannot get so annoyed with these phone calls, especially those from Kate's mom, that you do not pay attention to what is being said, because there are some clues there as well. But overall the phone calls tend to detract from both the adventure and Kate as a character.
The best part of "Syberia" are the graphics, which are pretty stunning. There are nice details to each of the settings, all of which are run down to various degrees. I like the way the water ripples and the fact that at one point we can see a soccer game being played on a television set in the background. The music by Nick Varley and Dimitri Bodiansky is also pretty good, with a fairly memorably title theme and some nice Russian/Gypsy influence bits as well. Most of the tasks are rather mundane but fairly logical, which worked out well for me because I only got super stuck three times in the game (until the very end, where suddenly how to use simple objects like a screwdriver were suddenly an almost insurmountable task). Those tasks involving automatons are more interesting and that motif, along with that of mammoths, are also enjoyable aspects of the game. The hardest task, for me, was mixing a drink, but at least once you get through that things move pretty quickly in the end game.
In fact, I was rather surprised when the game ended. "Syberia" comes on two discs and you play with Disc 1 in your DVD-drive and I kept waiting for the point where I had to switch discs, like in "Phantasmagoria" and the Gabriel Knight adventures. My biggest complaint, such as it is, would be that you cannot quickly skip across screens when you have to travel from one end of a train station to another or across town. You can make her run a bit, but some things just take time. I was not especially enamored of games where you get to do 360 degree turns (they make me dizzy at times) so I have no problems with this more traditional way of moving the character around.
The bonus disc includes a short "movie" on the making of Syberia where B. Sokal and others at Microids in Montreal (they speak French so be prepared to read subtitles), both a trailer and a teaser for the game, some examples of the transition "From 2D to 3D," and a nice collection of desktop wallpaper. For each of the four locations of "Syberia" you have a choice of wallpaper that you could put on your desktop to record your journey through the adventure and remind you that there is some reason Kate is carrying around those metal shears.
The bottom line would be that hardcore adventure game fans are going to find "Syberia" too tame for their tastes. But for the occasional PC game player or even the novice, this inventory/adventure game should be quite enjoyable. Plus, "Syberia II" is even better and the story really does end at that point, so that you do not have to worry about picking up "Syberia III: Oscar's Revenge."

Click Here to see more reviews about: Syberia

Get 6% OFF

Click here for more information about Syberia

Read More...

Top Secret: Cypher Mission Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The description listed for this game is incorrect. It has nothing to do with Russian prisons or the KGB or anything; instead, it's the game "Traitor's Gate 2" with a new package, and game play has to do with exploring ancient Babylonian ruins and avoiding spike pits. It's a sort of poor man's Tomb Raider, and not done as well.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Top Secret: Cypher Mission

Get 50% OFF

Click here for more information about Top Secret: Cypher Mission

Read More...