Grand Theft Auto 2 is a video game that was released worldwide on October 22, 1999, by developer DMA Design (now Rockstar North); initially for the Windows operating system and the PlayStation console. GTA 2 was published by Rockstar Games. The game was later ported to the Dreamcast console and the Game Boy Color. It is the sequel to 1997 hit Grand Theft Auto. The PC and Dreamcast versions of GTA 2 are both rated M by the ESRB. The language and violence were toned down for the PlayStation and Game Boy Color versions. You're able to download this game for free on Rockstar's own website, just like the first game.

GTA 2 retained the overhead viewpoint of GTA, as well as the car-stealing and telephone-answering formula of the original. The player has the ability to explore cities on foot or in various vehicles. The aim is to achieve a certain score to proceed to the next district. Doing missions awards the player more points than any other method but are not essential for completion of the game. You'll also earn a score multiplier when completing missions.

A new feature introduced in GTA 2 is doing missions for separate gangs, of which there are two new gangs for each of the three levels of the game, and one faction (The Zaibatsu Corporation) which is present in all districts. Being employed by one gang will cause distrust from others (when working for gang 1 will incur the wrath of gang 2, working for gang 2 will cause enmity with gang 3). When completing missions for a gang their respect for you will gain. At first you can only do the missions that are least rewarded, but when you complete more missions for that gang (or kill opposing gang members) you can do missions that are harder, but also reward more money.

In the original GTA, only the local police pursued the player. In GTA 2, SWAT teams (four Cop heads) are introduced in the Downtown District, Special Agents (five Cop heads) are introduced in the Residential District, and the army (six Cop heads) is introduced in the Industrial District. These additional types of law enforcement begin chasing the player as his or her wanted level increases. The wanted level is represented by images of a cop's head just like the two other classics.

GTA 2 introduced an improved saving technique, unlike GTA, which saved only when finishing a level. When you enter a church with $50,000, a voice announces "Hallelujah! Another soul saved!". This notifies you that the game has been saved. If the player doesn't have enough money, the voice will say "Damnation! No donation, no salvation!". These lines are not heard on the PlayStation version. Other improvements pertain to city activity. Passing vehicles and pedestrians are no longer only parts of the environment, but actually play a role in gameplay. Sometimes pedestrians would occasionally enter and ride in taxis or buses. The game is noted for the behavior of its non-player characters. Pedestrians, gang members and the police would occasionally engage in fights, and there are other carjackers (always in green sweater) and muggers (always in red sweater) in the city.

This game introduces 'side missions' such as being a taxi driver, along with retrieving 'hidden' packages (GTA 2 signs), completing bonus levels and a health meter. Being a taxi-driver would earn roughly 1 dollar per second. When standing still, passengers could get out if they want to, and the earnings will stop, so if you don't stop they can't get out and you will constantly get money from them.

This is also the first GTA to feature a wide array of weapons to use, ranging from an electric gun to a rocket launcher.

Some weapons in GTA2 feature a Kill Frenzy mission when picked up, where a player has a limited amount of time to kill a certain number of people with a particular weapon loaded. Bonuses are rewarded (and an extra life) if the mission is successful. If a player finds a tank and gets in, a Kill Frenzy mission also starts.

Just like in Grand Theft Auto and GTA: London 1969 you'll get a bonus when running over a group of people with your car. A string of Elvis impersonators are sometimes spotted walking the streets. Their deaths are awarded with a large money bonus, followed by the line ELVIS HAS LEFT THE BUILDING.

The graphics of this game have been improved compared with Grand Theft Auto. Also, light effects have been added. The game can be played in two modes (only in the PC version), noon or dusk. On the noon setting the lighting is bright. On the dusk setting the game is darker, with multiple dynamic lights from explosions and car headlights. The Dreamcast version of the game can only be played in the dusk setting. The PlayStation version of the game can only be played in the noon setting.

To conclude this review: I liked this game, it has nice gameplay, can be addictive and it can also be a hard game sometimes. Since you can download this game for free on Rockstar's website you should check it out immediately.

The third in line of the Tiberium series, C&C 3 Tiberium Wars was released in 2007 by Electronic Arts. By this time Westwood has disappeared and that’s something you can notice throughout the game. This game has one expansion named Kane's Wrath. In the expansion's camapaign you play parallel to the C&C 3 campaign and you get introduced to new 6 splinter factions new units.

C&C 3 starts in the year 2047 where there has been a relative peace between the Global Defense Initiative, or GDI, and the Brotherhood of Nod. During that period of peace Nod has developed itself into a superpower and wants to seize world domination by harnessing the power of Tiberium, while GDI has been working on combating the spread of it and reclaiming land. In C&C 3, the alien substance has spread itself all over the world and has evolved from a plant form to a crystalline form, destroying entire Eco-systems, polluting soil and air and creating devastating ion-storms.
The whole world has been classified into 3 zones. Red zones are uninhabitable being totally infested with Tiberium and covers 30% of the planet. Yellow zones house 80% of the worlds population with some Tiberium shooting out of the ground. This zone covers 50% of the Earth. And finally the Blue zones. These are zones where no Tiberium is present. It’s also under the protection of GDI and houses the remaining 20% of the world’s population and covers 20% of the world.
The campaign begins when Nod attacks the GDI A-SAT centre at Goddard Space Centre, leaving the GDSS Philadelphia, the orbital command station orbiting the earth, vulnerable for an attack. Immediately after A-SAT went down, Nod launches a nuclear missile towards the station, destroying it and crippling GDI. This is the start of the Third Tiberium War.
As the war intensifies another faction enters the battle, the Scrin. The appearance of the new faction totally alters the nature of the war.
When these aliens arrive they immediately start spreading throughout the Red zones and attacking all major cities. The attacks are used as a distraction to keep Nod and GDI at bay while they build huge towers.
Nearing the end of the campaign, GDI has managed to destroy all towers but one in the Italy Red zone. Before GDI has got the chance to destroy it and the Scrin Control Node, the Scrin finish the construction making it invulnerable to all weapons but is also rendered completely inert due to the destruction of the control node.

Between missions, you usually get a short cut-scene giving you a briefing or a headsup on the situation. And to be honest, they really aren't that bad, but then again they really don't add anything to the game.
When you play the game for the first time, you can only chose between Nod and GDI campaign.
But when you completed both campaigns, the Scrin campaign becomes available.

All units in C&C 3 are different with only a few units left that are really recognizable from the previous Tiberium game. I'll take Nod's attack bike and GDI's orca as an example, they have been given a new model but are almost similar to their predecessors. But the rest is virtually build from scratch but again with some help of Tiberium Sun, but that accounts for GDI and Nod. For the Scrin EA had to use it's imagination. The result? A faction with an organic look.
My first impression was wow, this game does look pretty good. But looks can be deceiving. I noticed with the arriral of the Scrin that the balance of the game goes way of the chart. The Scrin is simply said too overpowered. One example is the Devastator Warship has an enormous range, exceeding that of your defenses and all of your units. One ship alone can devastate your entire base. So that is one of my major complaints, the lack of balance.

Harvesting and base construction hasn't changed a lot in Tiberium Wars but you have been given some new toys to build your base with. You can build a crane that acts as a second construction yard allowing you to deploy multiple buildings in a shorter amount of time. Another toy is a unit that can deploy one time anywhere in the field and creating an area where you can build structures.
The defensive structures in C&C 3 are pretty weak when you compare them to the vehicles and infantry. They are easily overrun or destroyed without doing a lot of damage when you rush you enemies base. Only the advanced defensive structures stand a chance and they cost a fortune to build. And the funny part is that they are just as easy to destroy, it's good that they do a larger amount of damage.

C&C 3 also comes with the feature of off-map support powers. Every faction has next to common support powers, their own set of unique ones. Nod, for example, has the Tiberium vapor bomb, that when detonated, creates a big explosion. I find these powers pretty useful, but the downside is that they all cost money making them less attractive to use.

The maps and terrain in C&C3 have been designed well. Some civilian buildings have a futuristic look while others look like apartment blocks found these days. Sometimes you can find some buildings that you can capture. Think of Tiberium Spires that convert Tibirium into credits that can give you a steady income of credits and EMP centres that can cripple your enemy for some time.

One last thing. With the launch of C&C 3, EA tried to market RTS as a sport by recording matches and discussing them in a show you can view on EA's website. What's the name of the show you? It's called Battlecast.

I actually enjoyed playing this game, though I had some moments where I shouted at my monitor out of pure anger. But still a game worth playing, but it could've been better.

Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 is the first expansion pack to the original Grand Theft Auto. GTA: London 1969 was released in April 1999 for the PC and PlayStation. It offered 32 new missions, as well as a total of 30 new vehicles, relative to the time period.

The game is very similar to the original Grand Theft Auto because it uses the same game engine and is presented in the same format of missions, sections and cutscenes. Another expansion pack, Grand Theft Auto: London 1961, was later released solely for the PC version and offered as free download from Rockstar. It requires GTA London 1969, which in turn requires GTA 1. Since London 1969 and London 1961 are almost the same games I'll only review London 1969.

As the name implies, the game takes place in London in the year 1969. You once again enter the role of a criminal looking to work his or her way up the career ladder of organized crime. The temporal setting has been exploited through a number of cultural and historical references, including the appearance of a James Bond-like character. In addition, the cars drive on the left side of the road, as is the case in Britain. I really had a hard time getting used to that, as you can see in the video.

In this game you can also name your character, just like in GTA 1. In GTA: London 1969 you work for a crime syndicate called 'The Crisp Twins', which is a parody to 'The Kray Twins', who were the foremost perpetrators of organized crime in London's East End during the 50's and 60's.

Just like Grand Theft Auto, this game has similar bonuses. For example, when running over a group of people with a car without braking. When successful you'll get the message: 'Keep London Tidy' and a cash bonus.

What I really liked about this game are the dialogs of the characters. When driving through London you hear things like: 'Oi, stop right there!' or 'filthy hippie!' and other hilarious lines. I even fail in my missions on purpose, just to hear the line 'Mission Failed' another time.

Speaking of the missions, some of them are hilarious too. There is one mission where you have to destroy a bus that belongs to the opposing soccer-team. Afterwards you have to pick up their best players and kill them, so that the team your mob supports can win the match.

Because the same engine was used as in GTA, the graphics look only slightly different, but still well done. When playing this game you sometimes hear the same background voices as in the original game. The cars also have the same sounds as the original game.

Still, this game is fun to play and when you liked the original you'll definitely like this expansion pack too, because of the hilarious moments and funny dialogs.

Grand Theft Auto is an action game made by DMA Design (later on they changed their name to Rockstar North), the company that also created Body Harvest. The game was released in October 1997 on MS-Dos and Windows, in February 1998 on Playstation and in November 1999 on Gameboy Color.

In Grand Theft Auto you can play in three different cities, but at first you only have one option, Liberty City. This game works different than the GTA's we play nowadays. In this game you have to reach a number of points before you can start the next level. For example, in the first mission you have to score 1 million points. You can do this primarily by completing missions. When you complete a mission you'll get a multiplier so you get twice the amount of points for every action you make. However, when you get caught by the police you'll lose half of your multipliers. In most missions you have to kill someone or get a car from point A to B, but there are more varieties. You don't have to complete all missions, the primary goal is to get points, and it doesn't matter how you achieve them. You can sell cars, kill people, destroy vehicles, and in some levels there is a train track which you can put to good use, as I demonstrate in the movie below.

In this game you have four lives when you start a level. When you die, you'll lose one life, simple. You can regain lives by playing Kill Frenzy's, in which you have to get a certain amount of points within the time limit. You can find these rampages throughout the level. They can appear as guns, but also as tanks and other vehicles.

As mentioned earlier, there is a police force in this game. The funny thing is that they don't mind your bad driving skills. For example, when driving through the red light, they don't chase you, but when you hit their car they will. In this game there are four levels of police displayed in the amount of police heads you see on your screen. When you've got three heads the police will set op roadblocks and shoot at you with pistols, with four heads they'll shoot you with machine guns.

You are able to choose to play as eight characters in the game: Travis, Kat, Nikki, Divine, Bubba, Troy, Kivlov and Ulrika (the PlayStation version only lets players choose the four male characters, however). In actual gameplay, there is no real difference, since the characters all wear the exact same yellow sweater. You may also name your character, which, with the correct name, acts like a cheat code and alters gameplay.

Now, the graphics of this game are well done. When somebody says Grand Theft Auto most people almost directly think of GTA: San Andreas or GTA IV. This game is different. In the year of 1997 they weren't able to create such nice 3D graphics, but these eagle view graphics are done quite well too.

Conclusion: If you always liked the GTA series, but have never played this game you should try it. Now, I'll let you into a secret. This game is free to download on Rockstar's own website, so check it out immediately.

Lord of the Rings: Return of the King(which I'll later refer to as LOTR:ROTK) is a co-production of EA Games and New Line Cinema. The game was released in 2003, a year in which titles like Rayman 3, Devil May Cry 2, SimCity 4, Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, Warcraft III, Manhunt and many others were released. LOTR:ROTK can best be described as a Hack and Slasher with RPG-influences.

The storyline is pretty self-explanatory, since most people are familiar with the Lord of the Rings movies. This game lets you play in certain events that happened throughout the movies, not only the third movie with the same title as this game. Some levels you'll be playing are Isengard, Mordor, Gondor and many more.

The graphics in this game haven't really aged well, that's something you'll notice straight away. It has a bit of a blurry feeling to it when compared to newer games. But at the time I first played it(at a friend's house, before purchasing the game myself) I was blown away, the graphics were better than I had ever seen before. And therefore it is only fair that we rate the graphics from that perspective. The details when it comes to the characters you control were great for that time, although having the same minor flaws that were common for games from that timeperiod such as capes not having ragdoll psychics and there having stuttering animation in between moves. The levels in which you fight in this game are a faithful copy of the areas in the movies, although a bit limited. This game was also the first game(and I think the only one I've played) that used clips from a movie to tell the story in which you can see the game switching over from a polygon-structured scene to a movie clip, which can be spotted right away of course but it doesn't really bother you.

The overall presentation of this game is quite good, this goes for the sound and music as well. The game features many songs and sound-effects from the movie, giving you that feeling from the movies. Whenever you hear that battletune from the movies, you know that you'll have to pay attention since you'll probably have to face off against many enemies.

The gameplay in this game is very, very smooth. I've spend countless of hours with my friends on this game, since this game also offers co-op(if you have a gamepad, that is). Slaughtering thousands of Orcs, beating bosses and solving puzzles is very fun in this game, especially in co-op. The fighting in this game has been executed very well, you'll be ploughing through crowds like it's nothing, if you've leveled up that is, because this game can become challenging at certain moments. Fighting in this game feels very nice and quick, especially with the rpg-influences this game has, such as the ability to level up and gain experience points which can be used to purchase certain combo's and moves, which add variety to the fighting. The unlockable characters and the leveling really extend the playing-time, because you'll end up trying to unlock every extra the game has to offer such as secret characters, bonus levels and many more.

There are however a few throwbacks in this game, an example of this is that at a couple of levels in the story line you'll find yourself being confused at what it is that you have to do, this can be extremely annoying when you have a timelimit. Another thing is that when playing co-op all things are shared, so if you aren't aware of it you'll end up having no experience points to spend on the stats of player 2's character. In co-op, lives are shared as well, let's say that you play on normal and have 3 lives, then you're both allowed to die once, but if you or your friend dies twice, you're automatically required to stay alive for the rest of the level, this might not seem like a big issue, but when being cornered by Orcs it can lead to having to start over.

So to conclude this review I think I can easily say that this is a good purchase if you ever happen to stumble upon the game, despite the few flaws this game remains to be extremely fun, both co-op and singleplayer, although I'd suggest playing it with a friend, since it adds to the experience. However, if you put great value in graphics and only want to see the latest high-detailed graphics I'd suggest to let this one go, since it's probably not your cup of tea. Another thing I'd like to add is that there's no online multiplayer, but if you look at what type of a game this is, it's not really a surprise. So to end this review I'd like to say that you should really give this game a try, it's extremely fun and probably very cheap since it's from 2003.

Dante's Inferno is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores, and also creator of Dead Space) and published by Electronic Arts, released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. The game is loosely inspired by Inferno, the first book of Dante Alighieri's epic poem, The Divine Comedy.

During the Third Crusade, the story follows Dante, a Christian crusader general, who despite his faith, has committed numerous atrocities under his command. Attempting to seek atonement, Dante stitches a bloody holy cross-shaped tapestry onto his torso, which depicts every sin he has committed. First opening in the city of Acre, Dante has been ordered by King Richard I to seize a holy relic before the forces of Saladin capture it. During a raid by the peasants, Dante is stabbed in the back by an assassin where upon Death appears before him to be taken to the after life. Despite being led to believe by a Bishop his sins were absolved, Dante is ruled by Death to be condemned to "everlasting damnation for his sins", a fate his loved ones will also share. Dante however pulls the knife from his back and refuses to accept his fate, engaging Death itself in combat where he not only destroys Death but also takes his great scythe in the process. He returns to Florence, seeking a life of peace but finds his lover Beatrice Portinari and father Alighiero brutally murdered. Beatrice's soul appears before Dante telling him she knew he would come after her before a shadowy manifestation of Lucifer drags her into darkness, before the undead begin to rise and attacking Dante. After making it to a chapel, Dante seeks assistance by blessing the holy cross that Beatrice gave to him upon making their vows to be faithful to each other, to protect him against the evils that await. Upon doing so, a crack in the earth opens up allowing Dante to descend to the Gates of Hell.

During his journey, Virgil the poet aids you in your quest by telling stuff about the nine circles of Hell and its guardians, like Cleopatra at the circle of Lust. I'll give you the names of the nine circles of Hell: The first circle is Limbo. Limbo is the speculative idea about the afterlife condition of those who die in original sin without being assigned to the Hell of the damned, the guardian of Limbo is the Judge of the Damned, who judges each soul before assigning them a place in hell based on their sins. The second circle is Lust, which is self-explanatory. The guardian of Lust is an immense Cleopatra, as mentioned before. The third circle is Gluttony. The guardian of Gluttony is 'the great worm' Cerberus with its three heads. The fourth circle is Greed, in which the greatly deformed body of your father is the guardian. The fifth circle of Hells is Anger. The guardian of Anger is the great fiery demon 'Phlegyas'. After the fifth circle you descend further into hell by going into the City of Dis and entering the sixth circle of Hell: Heresy. The seventh circle is Violence, where murderers suffer in a pool of boiling blood. The eighth circle is Fraud, where simple thieves and false Popes suffer from their sins. And the lowest circle of Hell is Treachery. Souls like Judas suffer in this circle.

When you kill enemies you'll get souls, and with these souls you can buy new power-ups and stronger spells. By absolving or punishing enemies you'll get an additional soul bonus and with absolving souls you'll get Holy experience and with punishing souls you'll get Unholy experience. Both paths have seven levels. With each level the spells and abilities are stronger, but also cost more souls to purchase.

During this story mode you have to collect a couple of things in order to get bonuses. These things are: Silver Judas coins, (there are 30 pieces of them, with each five pieces you'll get a soul bonus, you can find these in yellow fountains) relics (you can find Holy and Unholy relics and some of them require a certain level in the specific path), Beatrice stones (there are only three of them, and when you acquire them all you're granted the ability to auto-absolve the Damned) and the Damned (you can punish or absolve these suffering souls, and when you absolve them you have to play a mini-game in which you can win an additional amount of souls or you can auto-absolve them when you've acquired all Beatrice stones).

The graphics of this game are difficult to compare with another game, but I think they're okay. However, we can use this game to compare with God of War 3. The level-design is fair enough, but I discovered some areas where you have to jump on a certain platform and there seems to be an invisible wall which almost makes it impossible to get on that platform.

To end this review, I think this game is enjoyable. At least EA was smart enough to release this game before God of War 3 was released.

This game was developed by Crytek and released by Electronic Arts in 2004 for the PC. Crytek was founded in 1999 by three Turkish brothers: Cevat, Avni and Faruk Yerli. The company is known for the game Far Cry which sold over 2.4 million copies world wide and has it’s headquarter in Frankfurt. The game has 2 expansions, Crysis Warhead and Crysis Wars.

In the game you play as a special forces soldier, ordered to evacuate civilians of a fictional group of islands in the South Chinese Sea that is being blocked and occupied by North Korea. Though when arriving on the island, you and your team soon realise that there's more going on than a simple evacuation. An alien civilization is discovered and you enter an alien structure that is built into the island itself. When leaving the structure, the aliens terra form parts of the island into a Tundra climate. When you find out that the aliens are trying to invade the planet, plans are made to eliminate the aliens. The situation then spirals out of control when a nuclear missile it launched at the island. The aliens get stronger and begin to attack a US carrier where you were evacuated too. On the flight deck of the carrier, you finally take down a war barge of the aliens preventing them from further invading the planet. Well that concludes the story.

Now as Special Forces soldier in the year 2020. You wear the most advanced armour, a Nano Suit. This suit can instantaneously increase the armour, strength or speed of the wearer. Even making him or her temporarily invisible. The nano suit in the game is inspired by a concept from the US military.

This game is virtually a sandbox game driven by commands. You can go anywhere but you can't continue the game unless you completed orders given to you. The terrain and the environment are beautiful and require one hell of a graphics card and processor. The game also utilises a day and night cycle which creates some variations.
There are numerous vehicles that you can pilot. Trucks, cars, tanks, you name it. Only jets, destroyers, forklifts and alien vehicles are not drivable

The AI is pretty smart and gets smarter with every increase of the level of difficulty. They will smoke you out of cover, flank you and blow your ass out of this world.

Up to 32 players are supported in each multiplayer match in Crysis. There are two different modes, each with six available maps: Instant Action, a death match type mode; and Power Struggle, which are played by two opposing teams, each trying to destroy the other's headquarters.
Power Struggle features the American Delta Force soldiers fighting the North Korean Army; both sides, however, have nano suits. All players begin armed with only a pistol and a basic nano suit. You may find weapons and vehicles throughout the map, but the majority of weapons must be bought by using "Prestige Points."
The aim of Power Struggle is to destroy the enemy headquarters, a task which is achieved using nuclear weapons in the form of a TAC Tank, a TAC launcher, or a Singularity Tank. To gain access to the nuclear weapons, you must first capture the facility which is used to make them, and then the alien crash sites which feed the facility the energy necessary to build them.

So to conclude the review, I had a lot of fun playing this game. It's beautiful landscape and intense battles made it a very good game. So I would really recommend this game for a buy.
There's only one thing. This game eats your computer alive if you have a weak one. You won't be able to run this game very well on a dual-core and a card from the GeForce 7 series.
I have played this game on a Quad-Core and even then I experienced some lag

This first-person shooter has been developed by Titus Interactive and published by MGM Interactive in 2003. Titus Interactive is a studio based in Paris and has released games like Superman 64 and of course Robocop.

The game begins after the end of the movie Robocop. You are put in the rol of a Delta City's cyborg police officer. There isn't a real story only that you are send to parts of the city to combat crime. And by combat I mean kill every one that is hostile to you. Charming.
To help you do this you have multiple weapons to your disposal such as his trusty pistol, a missile launcher etc.

The graphics in this game are bad and outdated, for a game of 2003 you would expect more than this. It looks like Half Life for the pc and even that game looks better. And that game was released in 1998, so the developers should be ashamed of themselves.
The levels are boring and it isn't always clear where you have to go. And if you have missed one hostile person, the game doesn't allow you to continue.
The characters look weird. With weird I mean that their faces are flat for the most part. So to counter this the developers had the idea to put the flat areas in angles so you would have the idea that the heads aren't flat at all.

The music in this game is weird. It constantly repeats itself so after a while you will be banging your head against the wall, begging to make it stop. Robocop himself talks too. When you pick up ammunition or energy, he will say what he has just picked up. It sounds real cool when you hear it for the first time, but after hearing it a thousand times you will go crazy.

The AI is stupid, really stupid. Instead of taking cover when you show up, they will stand right in front of you, firing at your metal ass. So you won't be having any problems completing the levels, unless of course you miss one individual.

So to conclude this review, don't ever download this game nor buy it. The graphics are bad, the sound is awfull and this game doesn't really make any sense. It's only a rip of from the movie.

Borderlands is a game created by Gearbox Software and was released by 2K Games. Gearbox Software is known for games such as Half-Life, Halo and Brothers in Arms. So it's clear that Gearbox is one of the bigger development studios out there and that it has quite a legacy to it when it comes to games, however I personally think Borderlands could've been way better. Borderlands is a shooter/RPG game.

The storyline of Borderlands is the following, you start out on Pandora, which is a planet known for having treasure in a vault under the ground, the Vault opens every 200 years. On the planet Pandora there are few settlements because the environment is very hostile and most treasurers don't choose the good path but rather turn into bandits. You're send as a mercenary to open the vault and see what it contains, whilst remaining on the good side of the law, because the information you get from the settlers is very important in order to accomplish your goal.

The storyline is pretty cliché and you'll probably won't even bother to read any side information or listen to the woman that pops up in your upper-left screen every once in a while. My major problem with this game is that it tries to be two things at one and does a poor job at both of them, whilst they could've really made them work. I'll start with the gameplay, since that will make things a lot clearer. Borderlands is a shooter in that your weapons are guns and is an RPG in that you accumulate experience and your hits are displayed in numbers, along with an inventory system and quests. So where's the problem you might ask, well throughout the game you'll have to grind through tons and tons of enemies in order to complete quests or get level up. There's little variety in quests, there are only 3 types of quests, search-and-destroy, retrieving certain items and certain objectives. For the most part you're killing thousands upon thousands of enemies in order to level up, and I'm not even kidding here, I had to kill about 20,000 enemies in order to get to level 50. So it's pretty redundant to say that the gameplay gets stale rather quick.

The game doesn't really work like a regular shooter in which it just takes a few bullets in order to kill a certain enemy. In Borderlands you do a certain damage depending on a few factors such as your character's level and your gun experience level for that type of gun. So it's not really special that you sometimes have to shoot more than three cartridges in order to kill a normal enemy, if they happen to be a few levels higher than you. Not even mentioning the bossbattles, which will often lead you to deplete your ammunition for every gun type that you have. I find the inventory system to be an annoyance as well, because when you're completing quests in a rapid pace(it saves time to just accept every quest there is and do multiple quests in one area) you'll often lose track of your inventory since all these quests award you with equipment that you don't really need and when you find a gun or something else that you want to pick up, you're required to clean up your inventory first, by throwing out the stuff you just got from the quests.

It's also a shame that the creators of this game changed the graphics during the development of this game, at first they went for a Fallout 3 style look but later changed it to a cartoonesque style, similar to Prince of Persia. That's what also made it hard to be sucked into the game, the game had a cold, bland, empty feeling to it. Another thing that bothered me is that they re-use enemies a lot, I think there are only 6-7 different enemies in this game and they keep reappearing with different names, pallet-swaps and of course with better stats.

Soundwise there isn't anything that's the noteworthy neither on the bad or good side. The only thing that I thought could've been better is the background music, or the lack of there being background music. The only music that's in the game is the title music and combat music, whenever you get attacked you hear a song, but besides that there's no music at all, which doesn't really help with the fact that the game has a cold, bland, empty feeling to it.

My overall conclusion of this game is that it really let me down, I had been tracking this game for quite a while and I was disappointed when I got it. The repetitive grinding gameplay and the cold, bland, empty feeling to it, make that this game becomes boring pretty fast. If you were looking to buy this game I'd suggest trying your luck somewhere else, since this game isn't noteworthy on both the Shooter-side and the RPG-side. But the truth be told it isn't that bad, everything works like it's supposed to work, but the overall mediocrity makes the game a let-down, especially when you consider the fact that there was such a hype around this game. Oh yeah, about the millions of guns, that's a lie. Surely there are guns with different stats, but they all look pretty much the same, except for a few special ones but for the most part it's just the same gun with a different skin, different stats and a different name. They use the diablo-method of just randomizing the stats. So when you're considering to buy this game, I'd suggest trying your luck somewhere else.

The third title in the Red Alert series, it was released in 2008 by EA.

In RA3 you are introduced with a third faction, the Empire of the Rising Sun. This faction uses state of the art technologies, units and buildings. The other two remain the Allies and the Soviets

All three factions are playable in the campaign and start at the same time in the game. The intro shows you the Soviet Union at the brink of the defeat by the allies, most likely at the end of Red Alert 2: Yuri’s Revenge. By using a time machine general Krukov and colonel Cherdenko travel back in time to Brussels to the year of 1927, where the International Physics Conference is held. There they murder Albert Einstein, which prevents the Allies from obtaining technology that he would have created. When they travel back, they found out that the Soviet Union is winning the Third World War. But Einstein’s disappearance has had a second outcome. Without Einstein the Empire of the Rising Sun (a.k.a. Japan) has risen and declares war against the Allies and the Soviet Union. When Krukov and Cherdenko find out that they don’t have nuclear weapons because of Einstein’s existence, they are forced into a war on multiple fronts.

From that moment onwards all faction have a different storyline, though there are some points where the different campaigns are a bit parallel to each other. But with other scenarios and outcomes of course. Every campaign ends in the same way. the faction you chose at the beginning of the campaign achieves global domination. You always play with a co-commander in the campaign. You can choose play with a computer-controlled AI or with another player online.

RA3 introduces a new range of units and only a few buildings are left from the previous parts. The allies still have the chromosphere and a variant from RA2 prism tower, only this time it’s called the Spectrum Tower. The soviets are still using their mighty Kirov airships and the famous Tesla Coils. The Empire of the Rising Sun is really the only faction that had to be build from scratch. The Allied and Soviet units can find their roots in RA and RA2. Every unit in RA3 has a secondary ability which must be activated manually.

The only thing I find disappointing the balance in the game, because it's almost non-existent. And I will tell you why. The Allies have their bombers that can tear apart almost every unit and even worse their carriers. There's is almost nothing you can do against these monsters, they have only 2 drawbacks: their drones can be destroyed and they suck at close combat. The Soviets have an almighty ground advantage with tanks that can rip through everything especially in the early minutes of a match . And last but not least the Empire of the Rising Sun. To be honest, it isn’t really good at anything as it relies more on adaptability rather than specializing itself. Some examples are transformable submarines that can turn into planes and helicopters that can morph into two-legged walkers. This means that the Empire is a difficult faction to play with, for it has no distinctive strengths or weaknesses.

Each faction has their own way of constructing their base. When playing as the soviets your buildings will be assembled in the field, while the allies are using the traditional way of base building. What’s the normal way you say? Queuing up buildings and when ready place them in the field, immediately ready for use. The Empire uses a more mobile way of building. Its Construction Yard spits out construction vehicles, which can be deployed anywhere and assemble themselves on site.

Resource gathering has been changed but only for a bit. In RA and RA2 you would find concentrated fields of ore (resources), in RA3 resources are centralized in pits which are scattered around the battlefield. You usually have two of those pits at your start position. These pits make resource make harvesting a bit easier, because refineries can be build in front of them. Both the refineries and pits use rotating platforms turn the collectors around pointing them in the right way and while doing so they load and unload the vehicles. Though they have changed one thing. All resources are evenly split between you and your team-mates.

But this has a positive and negative side. The positive side is that you also get resources even when your refineries are destroyed ( only if your partner(s) has any refineries standing). The negative side is that you never get the full amount of resources that you gather, which can sometimes mean the difference between defeat and victory.

The graphics in RA3 have been increased to a ridiculous level where it becomes cartoony. The terrain sometimes looks better than the units. But the one thing that draw my attention is the big detail of the water. It looks excellent when you compare it to the rest of the game. You can see shockwaves appearing in the water during naval battles.

To conclude this review, I had some fun playing this game. It's too bad that there's little balance in the game. But I would still recommend this game for a buy because it's not that bad and it's part of the Red Alert Universe.