TK317

Battlefront II, although old and certainly not perfect, is a classic 3rd person shooter. Multiplayer is fun and somewhat competitive, and single player continues to entertain. The wide variety of mods for this game also is a big plus. I've had this game since 2005 and I am still playing. Come on Lucasarts! Everyone loved Battlefront 2! Quit screwing around with the Force Unleashed and the Clone Wars and give us Battlefront III!

Grand Ages Rome has beautiful graphics, a fitting soundtrack, and a good campaign, but there are some pretty big problems too. The biggest thing that this game lacks is re-playability; when you first play it you can't get enough of it, but after you beat the campaign two or three times things just get really boring. Free build is a fun feature, but once again, after building a few dazzling cities, things just get boring and repetitive. The family system is nice, being able to get different perks depending on what family you are in, but other than making certain missions easier, it really has no effect on the course of the game. The combat system, although the units look nice, is really terrible as there are too few units, too overpowered special abilities, and no real strategy required. The multiplayer should just be completely ignored; there are few people who play it. The Reign of Augustus expansion adds little of value; the new campaign is far too brief. If the developers were to release a new game in this series, they would have to do a massive overhaul to get even a somewhat replayable game. Great graphics, great voice acting, great idea - poor execution.

Red Orchestra is a tough, fun game that really brings FPS to a whole new level of realism. Ballistics and graphics aren't perfect, but aren't too shabby for a six year old game. Although on easier difficulty levels the friendly AI are painfully un-reliable, the tough enemy AI, useful squad commands, wide range of weapons, and 1st person vehicle combat make Red Orchestra Ostfront 41-45 a highly recommended game in my book. Even if you don't like it, it's only $9.99 on Steam and comes with 2 free mods, so it is a good value.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Men of War is a great game, and as a WWII history buff and a RTS gamer I can honestly say it is one of the best games I've ever played. Tons of historically accurate weapons, vehicles and uniforms, coupled with the decent graphics and realistic effects (ballistics, explosions,cover, etc.) make me feel almost as if I was in the battle myself. The best thing about Men of War definitely is the GEM editor that allows you to create your own maps and missions. The endless possibilities of the GEM Editor really make up for the single player, that has some interesting missions but overall way too few. Assault Squad is a HUGE improvement, but as it is only $15 on Steam I would still highly recommend this game.

My feelings for vanilla Minecraft are mixed. The huge, limitless world is stunning, and the ability to create almost anything you want is awesome. I think the best thing about Minecraft is its endless possibilities, especially when you factor in the huge assortment of mods that have been made for the game. I would rate Minecraft with mods (Technic Pack, etc.) a 9/10, but vanilla Minecraft is sort of becoming a real let down, as the updates are getting fewer and fewer since the game was released and without all the cool mods, vanilla Minecraft does start to get a bit boring. However, I still strongly recommend this game for its huge potential, and as for the graphics: who cares? I am a big fan of realistic graphics, but in my opinion, anyone that would ignore a great game just because of old graphics is a fool. Besides, Minecraft with realistic graphics would need a supercomputer to play.