Much better than the PC version. While it feels more janky to control and move than the PC version, which used (I presume) the Requiem Avenging Angel engine, this feels much more pleasing to look at, much more finished and doesn't have too much annoying backtracking. I adore its dark-ish atmosphere and overall mood. It could've been one of those "hidden action adventure gems from the late90s-early00s" but it is not really because the gameplay is still tedious and unfair, rather than challenging. It also isn't connected to the NWC Might and Magic universe and feels like a generic fantasy. Only things like the opening made by the same CGI team who did cutscenes for Heroes3/Might and Magic 7 etc. somehow connect it... a little bit

Now this is the best Star Wars RTS of all time. This game did anything to build up and expand on awesome basic mechanics of the original EaW: new faction, new asymmetric balance system, both on conquest and combat maps, so many new units it is impossible to count.

This game allows everything you can imagine: corrupting planets, fighting with neutral pirates, and building Death Star II and Super Star Destroyer. And this is a great "Expanded Universe" rollercoaster - where else can you construct an Ark Hammer and produce all phases of dark troopers, or can you obtain TIE Phantoms and TIE Defenders as playable units? Or have a Hypori ground map with all those destroyed Acclamator cruisers as depicted in 2003 Clone Wars.

EaW FoC is not a fully proper Paradox-level game, and sadly, the vanilla release does not have all the features promised and had a good number of bugs (building Isalamiri cages.. sounds familiar?) this is the only reason I will not give it a 5-star rating. But there are mods, and projects like Thrawn's revenge enhance it to the full potential of being "Total War Star Wars on steroids".

So I played Sonic Unleashed and decided to start with the PS2 version. And I am pleased to say that I enjoyed what I saw. Despite being "inferior" to the Wii version in terms of visuals, I enjoyed how it looks - it is one of those very late backward-ported PS2 titles from the time when people already knew hardware well enough to make pleasant environments and a nice overall picture. If you start to look very closely into actual game assets, you will see very low poly and low-resolution horrors, but from afar, as a whole, it transforms into more than its parts.

Regarding gameplay, it was the first major step towards the sonic we know today, with more forced events and more narrow levels, boosts, and other moves. However, this title in particular works for me much better than for example Forces or Generations gameplay-wise. PS2/Wii "Day" levels while strict and linear feel more open and free just because of their size and appearance. I find the segmented boost mechanic to be more interesting and complex than just regular "boost", I liked some new moves, some of which, I believe, are Unleashed-exclusive, like the animation of Sonic slowly crawling on its 4 legs, etc. Most Werehog levels are decent too, the downside is that actual combat in them is "press square to win" and it never gets complicated enough to be a problem just smashing everything. Burning wizards and electric flying things are rare exceptions. And since Werehog levels are long, you don't want to replay them. Especially ones with some boring platforming.

Regarding plot - yes, it's more cartoony, and I prefer the world from things like Sonic 06, Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), or Sonic X, than Western-style cartoon presentation. But unlike the mentioned above games, this plot, even in this "cut down" version with 2D towns and characters delivered much better, and it is much longer and competently made. Compared to this, again, Forces or Generations feel so empty and shallow in this regard.

One day I will play the PS3/Xbox360 version and the J2ME version, but for now, I'd say that the PS2/Wii version is worth your time.

Interplay decided again to use a stolen engine from Snowball, creators of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, and adopt yet another "popular isometric RPG franchise" into diablo clone adoption. While it has its interesting moments, and also some minor improvements over the original Dark Alliance, it in general very meh game at best, made on a very limited budget. A true peak of creative crisis of "old" fallout which led to its ultimate destruction and death of Interplay. Honestly, they deserved it. Even if this game was ideally made, it'd get 4-4.5 at max. But with this simple yet crappy combat, issues with assets and levels score of 1.5 stars would be honest. Technically, it is playable tho, it is not one of those "unplayable" games.

It is very difficult to actually give this a score, it is a mixed bag of things. This addon was made by Xatrix. Already not "Redneck Rampage" Xatrix, but not yet RTCW Xatrix. Not too long, it is a decent size for expansion, and in general in terms of level design and gameplay it only a little bit below Quake 2. On one hand, it was made after, there a number of places where I liked detail and ideas a bit more than in original, on other hand, it rawer and less professional than id did it. The same goes with new enemy types, which are "same dudes but with new texture and more powerful". They are more powerful indeed, add-on is noticeably harder than the original game. Also, new weapons look a bit off with their much more high res textures. Overall, will be pretty decent experience for Quake II fans, just be prepared for some S-E-W-E-R level experience!

It is hard to really give this game an objective review and the reason is simple: it has not aged this well.

This game was made by a different company, than AA, thus it ignores its existence: by gameplay and general game design this game is a direct sequel to PS1 titles. However, said gameplay is more streamlined and simplified, in a way, making it mostly a regular corridor shooter with side objectives that often just "press on something you find along the way".

This is one of those "early PS2/GC" titles that feel more like PS1/N64 games with better resolution and assets, rather than true experience made conceptually for the new generation. Another "early" factor is that, at least on the GC version, stick controls don't feel very good. Movement and aim have this "wooden log" quality, typically more for PS1 games where they usually just mapped D-pad controls onto an analog pad.

I understand why it had such high scores and why it is loved by people who played it: the game still has neat scenes and scripted moments, came out still before Call of Duty and when MoH: AA was still very new and on PC only. So at the time of the release, it was the most interesting and advanced WWII FPS on consoles.

Still, playing it in 2024, after MoH: AA, after dozens of CoD titles, after Brothers in Arms, etc., makes you feel like you see before you only raw beta versions of things to come in the subgenre.

It was a weird experience to see Sonic game on a Nintendo console... at least, it was back in the day, I guess. I always adored GBA for bringing "16bit" limitations into a much more modern development space, so we had a continuation of classic late 80s-90s traditions way into the 00s.

Generally - I loved the visuals of this game. While Gameboy had a much more limited resolution of 240x160, compared to even Genesis, its look and detail feel much more artistically refined, thanks to the experience and much more modern tools for developers available in 00s.

I add more than that - if you have an opportunity play it on a CRT! Via some S-video or other analog video cables to smooth pixels and tame colors, instead of GBA's built-in screen. It looks and feels stunning. All sprite detail, animations, little things like water and scaling effects - so many things which were practically impossible back in 16bit era.

I must add that Uekawa's late90s-early00s "modern" sonic works so well in 2d style. Upgraded stylistic visuals combined with the usage of his art style are just like made for each other much better than for 3d Sonic titles.

Music is nice but I must say obvious thing that GBA sound system is not good at all, so OST stuffers from it, esp "speed up" versions of themes.

One of these very underrated games which at the time set a new staple in the genre. Being released prior to Quake II, this game features environmental storytelling, hours of quality FMV story, and full support of first and third-person modes which you can change at any time and abilities.

Being made on a new advanced 3D sector-based engine it was a huge milestone for Lucas Arts. Production of the game was quite a high budget for the time - with tie-in books and concept art made the way Lucasfilm did it with the original trilogy of Star Wars movies and in the end lots of its parts have this "Ralph McQuarrie" aesthetic.

This game is also interesting being made with atmosphere of the 1990s Expanded Universe and its perception of post-endor and old republic before Lucas did his prequels. The game also features no movie locations or characters and does not even mention them, having its own atmosphere and its own story - the story of Kyle Katarn.

Sadly, physics, gunplay, and AI in this game are very janky, the same as force abilities. These were early steps for LucasArts in full 3D FPS and it shows that, don't expect smooth gameplay like from Quake 2 or Unreal. The game also doesn't work well on modern systems because of its old graphics API support and other issues, thankfully there is a modern open-source engine replacement for it which works smoothly.

This game was on the edge between old more arcady shooters and more modern Call of Duty type things, this why experience of playing it for the first time in 2022 was a bit weird one. Like, on one hand, for me personally, it did felt late later, more new WW2 fps game, being using idtech3 engine and all that advanced stuff with comrades and attempts at grounded designs and realistic approach. However, other mechanics more arcady, some elements and scripts which we expecting as given from Call of Duty 1-2 here are more raw and primitive.

I can only imagine how memorable this game was back in the day, being, sort of the first of its kind with this Normandy landing, street fighting in northen french towns and so on. However, nowadays, it may be a bit bleak and simple compared to games which followed it, same as some of its raw mechanics, like forever mentioned sniper mission, may feel dated.

My favorite mission was in night winter french town stealth section, there it worked really well, sad, that there are not that much of memorable places like that.

Liked nods to the original PS1 games, however, despite having similar mission structure, over dramatic animations of enemies etc. for me that game not felt quite like the PS1 ones. Still, if you enjoy FPS games from the era, like RTCW, give it a shot.

Played both on PS2 and PC. At the time of this review being done, backloggd has no PC version listed as optional, but better play this on PC rather on console.

Anyway, this game is sadly VERY unfinished. Not much I can say about it besides it being very promesing thing, in which a lot of work was put into, however, the result is sub-optimal. It is clear that entire game concept, cutscenes, game elements were removed. Lots of things were not polished or finished. Starting this game do not expect some hidden gem, rather than beyond mediocre eurojank FPS with some raw corners and truley bad moments.

While this game potentially is more advanced and in theory was planned to be much better than "Chaser" by same studio, "Chaser" is at least finished product while this is not. Play only if you are curious for such content.

Not the game which you will count ever as your favotite, but memorable enough modern consol-ish FPS title. While being not a "classic" shooter, or, for example, Serious Sam clone, like Painkiller, it still speedy and action driven.
The game also have pretty visuals for UE3 engine. If you love visual style and apperance of Starcraft 2, this game is right in the same valley.
Narrative is not deep or too serious, characters are comical, but I would've not described it as "random". It just don't go deep into universe, giving lots of stuff to your imagination. But what there is there. While being full of dity jokes, I not find it cringe or offensive, unlike some other titles.
My only complains would be about only 3 weapon slots (4th one for heavier stuff would've been a nice addition), sometimes repeative enemies, maybe too much limits on character movement. However, game defenetly has its moments. In general, I had fun and maybe will replay one day edition ported to UE4. Or sequel, if it will be made in future.

Quite a shallow experience to say the least. All interesting bits for engaging open world are here - story, freedom of travel, side quests, items, however everything feels so empty and forgettable. Game have quite a big detailed map, but travel across it mostly feels like travel on foot in TES2 Daggerfall.
Encounters and enemies are repeative, same as tasks for the player. On top of that, cooperative expeirience is broken, with 2nd player attached like some bot for the host. Feels like half-baked mod, however playing solo in FarCry 5 is quite boring.

A pioneer in 3d platforming, this game is surprisingly nice for what it is, given the time it was released. Naughty Dog decided to go with a safer approach of more "forced" and "linear" platformers with lots of 2d sections and 3d sections like some older mode-7 style platformers from the past generation.

Still, I think that the 3d nature of it adds depth, and the low poly/art in it is truly pleasant to look at in my opinion. Naughty Dog and Insomniac back in the PS1-2 era were masters of low poly design and fluid animations. Character controls are nice and solid for the most part, it is not a slippery-sloppery hell of some other, especially early 3d platformers. Gameplay for the most part is simple in concepts, but often it is challenging enough to call this game a "heart attack simulator". The brutal difficulty is not something I miss from earlier arcade 2 platformers and run-n-gun games personally.

Still a nice title worth a try even today if you are enjoying this type of genre.

Finished on PC, using a controller in coop mode. It is a very mediocre game - short, simple structured semi looking levels with obvious arenas. Enemies are bullet sponges and poorly reacting on hits. Not to mention that some elements are poorly balanced, like one-hit enemies with explosive bolts which stick to you. It feels like the bare bones of the game, which initially was a UE3 engine showcase and not much more. In addition to that, we encountered many collision and AI bugs. I guess the game gets such popularity because of graphics and visuals for being one of the most earlier Xbox360 games which showcased its power, but it is not aged well as a game in my opinion. It is playable and okay to waste time, but don't try to find there something special.

Star in the crown of classic CRPGs. A genre, which, is perhaps, forgotten nowadays. World of Xeen is a combination of Might and Magic IV and V entries in the series into one giant game. In CD version - with full voice acting. This game will be the last "classic" Might and Magic game before series moved towards other directions.

For those who don't familiar with subgenre - it will be very hard to describe what it is, sadly, all I can tell are things from conext of the time when it was made. And at the time, game had wonderful visuals, with colorful maps and covers, made by Mike Winterbauer, lots of awesome in-game art (especially in the dark side), lots of colorful and varied places with lots of fully animated NPCs. This game has user friendly fully mouse driven graphical interface, awesome for the time voiced cutscenes. While combat-action driven, the game has no "grind" in classical RPG sence of this word - all monsters are hand placed and gone once you killed them, this is not infinity encounter-based grinder like older CRPGs (including Might and Magic 1-2) or JRPGs. Same time as being fully open world, as you can explore anything on both sides of world of xeen from the start.

Game made on Might and Magic 3 engine, but makes a number of incremental improvements to anything, in particular, to difficulty curve - starting cloud side of xeen is most easy and accesable from all classic Might and Magic series. Some remnants of old engine still present, however - inventory is still pure text and tiny icons in list. There are no mouse drag and drop for items or character paper dolls, like in some other CRPGs of the time, Dungeon Master clones such as Eye of the Beholder and Dungeon Hack in particular. Same as you need to learn item stats in shops, for a price. However, this is not hard to memorize as its have fixed base set of weapons and armor + modifiers. This is probably the only major complaint for this game from me.

WoX, combined version of the game also have additional content and concludes story of all 5 previous games to the end. But don't worry, since Might and Magic 6 linked Heores series and old MM series, their foundations of the universe will continue to evolve beyond Xeen. If you like classic dungeoncrawlers, or a novice for the genre and want to start your turn-based action-driven adventure in VGA 256 color world of xeen - good luck, I hope you will love it!

Game, including CD version can be played vide ScummVM, modern engine port, natively. Sadly at the date of this review made it does not supports Mac version, that one had higer resolution and had more portraits, but anyway, it is not much different.