January 2004 Archives

Platform: PC
Reviewed on PC
Windows System Requirements: Pentium 600 MHz (2.2 GHz recommended), 128 MB RAM, 32 MB video card, 2.5 GB HD space, CD ROM drive, Windows 98 or more recent operating system

The year is 1943 and war has enveloped the globe. Vast forces are engaging each other in Europe and elsewhere, but both the Allied and Axis sides have a use for a talented, multi-national group of special operatives. Both sides may have larger concerns than just each other. There appears to be a covert, third side that offers allegiance to neither the Germans nor the British. Instead, that new force has access to frightening technology and is working to bring to fruition a frightening operation – Operation Silent Storm.

The Game Changer from Gamester is a nifty "little" device that allows you to tote around your Game Boy Advance SP with three games inserted and requires only a flip of a switch to choose which of the three you want to play. Take your empty GBA SP (this device isn't designed to work with the old GBA model) and slide the Game Changer underneath it. On the two sides and the back, you are now able to place up to three games, and play all three without making another adjustment to your setup.

Platform: PC
Reviewed on PC
Windows System Requirements: Pentium II 400 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 16 MB video card, 300 MB HD space

Having just wrapped up Smash Cars for the PS2, Creat Studio moved their tiny racers over to the PC platform in an entirely different (but essentially the same) game. RC Cars allows you to take control of Remote Control (RC) cars in their natural and not-so-natural environments.

Platform: PC
Reviewed on PC
Windows System Requirements: Pentium 400 MHz, 64 MB RAM, 35 MB HD space, 6x CD ROM drive, Windows 95 or more recent operating system

Coliseum sets players about the task of managing a stable of three gladiators in a medieval arena. Manage training, publicity, and matches while pursuing wealth and the personal satisfaction of guiding the careers of the kingdom's most popular and successful gladiators.

Platform: Game Boy Advance
Reviewed on Game Boy Advance

Some of the denizens of the Dragon Ball Z universe have gathered for yet another bout to see who is the greatest fighter of all.

Platforms: PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube
Reviewed on GameCube

The planet Hillys is under assault by the alien DomZ, and has been for so long that buildings and cities are equipped with protective energy shields to protect the occupants from DomZ meteor attacks. The government's Alpha Section, an elite military cadre, claims to be making strides to contain the DomZ, yet the attacks continue unabated. Citizens continue to disappear from Hillys, apparently related to the DomZ attacks.

Jade is a young reporter, as well as the caretaker of a lighthouse full of orphans (with the help of her adopted uncle Pey'j). She is working to create a photographic catalog of the planet's animal life when she encounters a rebel organization known as the IRIS network and begins to explore the truth about the war, the abductions of sentient beings and the Alpha Section.

Platform: PlayStation 2
Reviewed on PlayStation 2
Requirements: PlayStation 2 Network Adapter

In 1999, the PC game EverQuest launched and single-handedly redefined the massively multiplayer online role-playing game genre (MMORPG). In the years since its release, EverQuest has dominated other stateside subscription-based role-playing games and continues to expand its universe for hundreds of thousands of players. In the beginning of 2003, EQ took over the less crowded console MMORPG market as well by launching EverQuest: Online Adventures for the PlayStation 2. EverQuest Online Adventures: Frontiers (EQOA:F) is the second edition of the popular PS2 game, adding new features, environments, and characters, but retaining everything that is familiar and essential to a game labeled EverQuest.

Platform: PlayStation 2
Reviewed on PlayStation 2

Long ago, the sadistic and evil wizard Bibidi summoned Buu – a creature designed to destroy planet after planet. Buu was ultimately confined in a restraining shell, but Babidi (son of Bibidi and yet another evil wizard) has unleashed Buu upon the universe. Now it falls to Goku and his pals to defeat Buu while simultaneously searching for the complete set of mystical Dragon Balls. Of course, they sometimes get distracted, battling it out to see who might be the greatest fighter of all time.

Platform: Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube
Reviewed on PlayStation 2

Al Simmons was a professional assassin for a corrupt government agency before he found his conscience and was terminated. Sent to Hell for his sins, Simmons made a deal with a demon that transformed him into a Hellspawn – a general in Hell's army with a prominent role in the coming Apocalypse. For the moment, Simmons (as Spawn) lurks in the dark shadows of New York City. Spawn: Armageddon begins as Spawn is startled by a tremendous blast of green energy that rains down from the sky into the center of Manhattan.