Safari

At one time, web browsers simple got you to the internet. But from the day it was released Safari set the bar higher for web browsers. It introduced sophisticated design elements that made browsing a joy. Easy to use, Safari stayed out of your way and let you effortlessly navigate from site to site.

More Browsing Space: Safari is designed to emphasize the browsing not the browser. The browser frame is a single pixel wide. You see a scroll bar only when needed. By default there's no status bar. Instead a program indicator turns as your page loads. You'll find tab's at the very top of the browser, opening an even wider window for viewing websites. A great browser, Safari lets you simple enjoy the web.

Find the sites you need: Looking for the site you visited in the past but can't quite remember?
Use full history search to quick find sites using even the sketchiest search terms. And when you click on the web page in Cover flow, it's because you've already recognized it as the site you were looking for. No more
guessing. Innovative features like these show you how good browsing can be.

Details
Title:     Safari 5.1.7

Filename:     SafariSetup.exe

Requirements:     Windows XP / Vista / Windows7 / XP64 / Windows7 64 / Windows8 / Windows8 64

Languages:     en-US

License:     Freeware

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The Sims Medieval-Pirates & Nobles

The Sims Medieval brings some irony this popular series of life simulations. Whereas the proper Sims games make the mundane aspects of everyday life interesting this Renaissance faire spin-off  takes interesting concepts and makes them mundane. It's initially entertaining fueled by the peculiar charms that have always made these games so delightful. But eventually the pleasures of calling the local bard a lack-witted cur are undercut by the sensation that you're just treading water and never really getting anywhere. Of course you could say this about those previous sims games but their joy came from your ability to make a life as worthy as you liked just as your little digital people built relationships with each other, so you built relationship with them and the stories you played out your own imagination. In the Sims Medieval, you don't play out your own stories-you play out someone else's. And you do so over and over again in a weired computer-game version of groundhog day. The first 10 hours or so are pleasant ones and some worthwhile ideas work out rather well.

The games begins letting you create a sim called a hero in this case your hero is a monarch in charge of a kingdom. Your king doesn't have an enormous selection of  outfits to choose from but this is more like Ye Olde Sims so you wouldn't expect a plethora of sunglasses and tank tops. Luckily the create-a-style feature from the Sims 3 Returns which let you customize those garments using various patterns and colors.

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Total War Shogun Limited Edition

Fall of the Samurai the first stand-alone expansion for Total War Shogun 2 is set during Japan's Boshin War of the 1860s a civil war that began as an ideological struggel over the shogunate's pro-Western policies. Clans opposed to these policies fought to overthrow the shogunate and return power to the emperor and over the course of the war both sides were compelled to embrace armaments like Armstrong guns and ironclads. The result is a unique setting a maelstrom of sword-wield samurai Gatling guns railroads and ancient Buddhist temples. that settings also adds some new dimensions to the series with naval bombardments, railroads and the ability to take direct control over artillery units. If  you wanted to see the Total War series cover more recent conflicts then Fall of the Samurai is a major step in the right direction.

While Fall of the Samurai does add plenty of new content it retains the distinctive traits of the Total War series. For instance the single-player campaign emulates a handful of real battles from the period and follows the series tradition of combining turn-based strategy and real-time battles. The real-time battles focus on crushing your enemies morale before running them down. Factors like terrain and weather play a large role on the strategic map and in tactical battles. The multi-player options remain essentially identical to those in Shogun 2. You can play campaign with a friend or play the Avatar Conquest mode where you improve a persistent avatar through online battles. The result is a game that feels instantly familiar to anyone who has played a Total War title.

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Opera Mini

A full-featured Internet browser, Opera includes pop-up blocking tabbed browsing, integrated searches and advanced functions like Opera's groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. And becouse we know that our users have different needs, you can customize the look and content of your Opera browser with a few clicks of the mouse.

• Speed Dial: Your favorite sites are just one click away at all times.
• Search Shortcuts: Faster search type your queries directly into address bar.
• Trash Can: Instantly reopen recently closed tabs.
• Mouse Gestures: With opera you can navigate the web with your mouse.
• Opera link: Synchronize data of your choice online or among different computers and devices.
• Quick Found: Opera remembers not only the titles and addresses but also the actual content of the web pages you visit.
• Feed Preview: Preview a Feed by clicking on the feed icon and you will see it in clean and efficient multiple-column layout.
• Quick and Customizable Web search: Get quick access to Google, eBay, Amazon and more with the search field in the upper right corner.

Details

Title:     Opera 19.0.1326.63

File Name:     Opera_19.0.1326.63_setup.exe

File Size:     33.97MB

Requirements:     Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / XP64 / Vista64 / Windows7 64 / Windows8 / Windows8 64

Languages:     Multiple Languages

License:     Freeware

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Microsoft Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight is a programmable web browser plug-in that enables features such as animations, vector graphics and audio-video playback so you can experience rich internet applications.

Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python and Ruby and integrates with existing Web applications.

It supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows.

Details

Title:     Silverlight 5.1.20913

Filename:     Silverlight.exe

File size:     6.63MB

Requirement:     Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / XP64 / Vista64 / Windows7 64 / Windows8 / Windows8 64

Languages:     en-US

License:     Freeware

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Java Runtime Environment 1.7.0.51

Java software allows you to run applications called "applets" that is written in the java programming language. These applets allow you to have a much richer experience online than simply interacting with static HTML pages.

Java plug-in technology, includes a part of the Java 2 Runtime Environment, Standard edition (JRE), establishes a connection between popular browsers and the java platform. Java allows applications to be downloaded over a network and run within a guarded sandbox. Security restrictions are easily imposed on the sandbox.

Many cross platform applications also require Java to operate properly.

   Details

Title:     Java Runtime Environment 1.7.0.51

File name:     jre-7u51-windows-i586.exe

File size:      27.79MB

Requirements:     Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / Windows7 / Windows8

Language:     en-US

License:     Freeware

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Warhammer 40K Space Marine

If you're a Warhammer 40K fan, you're dreamed of taking up a chain sword and carving Orks into blody chunks of flesh and bone. Warhammer 40,000 space marine plants you in the heavy boots of an ultramarine and lets you do just that. The viscera fly in this third person shooter hybrid. They stain the ground splash against your screen, yet the brainless hordes continue their assault, crying out their familiar "waaagh!" before presenting themselves for slaughter. Space Marine is simple fun and a treat for fans of the franchise and for anyone and who delights in the ceaseless bloodletting of bad guys. It is in fact a little too simple. As entertaining as it is the game lackes the variety the memorable moments and the sense of scale of the finest shooters. After you annihilate yet another great mess of green skins the questions arises. Is this all there is to it? with some exceptions  yes , that's all there to it and its heard not to wonder what might have should have been. but the action is so satisfying and the Atmosphere so grim that you'll want to see the adventure through.

What space marine does best is capture the spirit of it's universe. The ultramarine's weathered armor is so heavy and hardy they don't so much wear it as it wears them. As you push through battle worn trenches the Orks makeshift machinery erupts from the ground shaking the earth. Roaming green skins in rocket packs rush past providing a touch  of  comedy amid all the carnage.

Age Of Canon Hyborian Adventures

As imagined by developer Funcom the land of Cimmeria's lush green landscapes are dotted with impaled corpses upon which crows roost and flap their wings apparently pleased with both the height of their perch and the scent of death.Thus the stage is set for one of the finest online role playing games in years, one in which fertile fields and aride deserts contrasts with the blode spilling by hundrads of sharp toothed warthogs and hulking mantises. Age of Canon hyborian adventures is an explorer's paradise, offering rich grisly surprises inthe crevasses of its bustling cities and green meadows. Weather it's a looming pyramid hiding deadly secrets or a spider's liar nestled with in the rocky hills, the sights are impressive and striking and the vivid backstory that supports this sprawling paradise is mature and appropriately enough.

But this is a flawed paradise. Funcom has been quick to handle the most egregious blemishes since the launch of it's massively multiplayer online game but a number of frustrating bugs remain. the most minor ones have little yo noimpact on the game proper, like placeholder text and a mini map that occasionally goes blank.Others are more significant such as broken quests and memory leaks that lead to the occasional crash.

Anarchy Online Alien Invasion

The Alien invasion expansion pack for Anarchy online adds what seems like a a lot of intriguing new content but in practice it's mostly for advanced players who have already spent lots of time with the original game. Yes, anarchy online is a massively multiplayer online role playing game which means that you create a character and then go off on adventures in search of better weapons better armor and advancement for your character by gaining experience levels. And yes anarchy online takes place in a persistent online world inhabited by thousands of other players. But unlike other such games this one takes place in a futuristic world that consists of both hardcore science fiction and Star Wars like mysticism. And the new expansion does add all new features to the game in the from of player cities and armies of invading aliens that can attack those cities. But since player cities are hugely expensive and because these attacks scale with character strength you won't be able to get much out of these features if you're not already a veteran.

The premise of anarchy online is fundamentally the same as it was at launch a futuristic mining colony known as Rubi-Ka is disputed by major political factions the evil Omni tek corporation the rebellious clans and an independent group of neutral parties. However, since anarchy online's launch this feud has been enhanced by the addition of shadowlands a previous expansion pack that introduced an alternate dimension and an all new set of experience points, quests, armor and items.

Anarchy Online Shadowlands

The online role-playing game known as Anarchy Online originally launched in 2001 and like in other similar games before it, players could create a persistent character by chossing from a number of different races and proffesions then go off to explore a huge online world with other like-mineded players. The game distinguished itself with it's futuristic sci-fi of gunn toting techonologists and mystics and also with sever technical problems that were later resolved. The new expension pack Shadowlands adds a huge amount of new contents to the games in the form of an entirely new realm to explore  alonge with two brand-new character professions an all new character development system and loads of new quest to undertake that further develop the games unusual sci-fi setting. While it's still extremely complicated Shadowlands adds a tremendous amount of intriguing new content that helps make anarchy Online much more worthwhile.

The new expansion pack adds an entirely new realm to Anarchy Online's futuristic world of Rubi-ka the titular shadowlands a huge nether realm inspired by Dante Alighieri's the Divine comody. The Shadowlands are a vast realm bordered by the huge floating city of jobe which acts as an entry point into the new area for both new and returning players as well as the site of the expansions all new player dwellings luxurious penthouse apartments where you and your friends can role play as lounging socialites if you are into that kind of thing.

Asheron's Call 2 Fallen Kings

So-called massively multiplayer online role-playing games have roots in text-based multiuser dungeon games, but they've since involved into one of the most prominent and most fiercely competitive PC game markets around. These games let players create characters to adventure in a huge online world with other players, and they get thousands of subscribers hooked on their addictive hack-and-slash combat and lengthy quests. And though these players always keep coming back for more, it seems like some of them are never happy-they constantly complain about how certain aspects of their favorite games are tiresome or even infuriating. Play Asheron's Call 2: Fallen kings for a while and you'll realize that developer turbine Entertainment clearly wanted to avoid as many of these problems as possible. Such nettlesome issues-like losing items after your character dies or being forced to run back to the nearest town to sell off burdensome loot and replenish supplies-simple aren't  in the game. As a result, Asheron's Call 2 is a highly streamlined highly accessible online RPG. Yet although the developer plans to add plenty of new content to the game in the coming months the game's world of Dereth also seems bare for a number of reasons.

Then again, when you first step into the world of Asheron's Call 2, you will immediately find something that the game can't be faulted for its super graphics. Asheron's Call 2 makes excellent use of new DirectX graphical features to creat spectacular effects like animated water, colorful magic spell effects and gorgious sunrises and sunsets.

Asheron's Call Dark Majesty

Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty is the first official expansion to Turbine Entertainment's online role-playing game, Asheron's call. And the most obvious and appealing feature of Dark Majesty is that it's cheap. Or rather that it's a remarkably good value for your money. Though it's been called an "expansion". Dark Majesty actually feature as much new content as you'd expect from a retail expansion, plus the full version of the original game and a month's subscription fee, all at a retail price of the 20$. So buying Dark Majesty basically lets you jump right into the game's huge online world of Death for a month at a price of about $ 10. And if nothing else, Dark Majesty's extremely attractive pricing goes a long way toward keeping it competitive with newer, more expensive online role-playing games.

Asheron's call is an online role-playing game that was released shortly after Sony's EverQuest back in 1999. Both Dark Majesty and the origional game let you create a human character from one of three ethnicities, choose its ability scores and skills and then set off into the world of dereth to explore, fight monsters, and increase your character's power by gaining experiance levels. If you take a quick glance at the world of dereth, you may not think that Asheron's call has changed much since it was released in 1999.

Auto Assault

On the surface, Auto Assault seems like an entirely different type of massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Instead of running around with swords or laser pistols, you're a postapocalyptic car, armed to the teeth and armored for protection from all sorts of mutants, scavangers, rogue militiamen, and so on. As you get deeper into it,though. Auto Assault reveals itself as a pretty standard MMORPG. Like most games i the gener, it's addictive. And the tweaks and the setting itself help make it feel different. But it also has a series of problems that really hold it back.

The biggest change that Auto Assault makes to the genre's typical farmula is it's combat. Rather than just press an attack button and watch the fun while firing off the occasional spell or special skill. Auto Assault makes you thik more about your cars position while you're fighting. That's because your main methodes of attack are a front-mounted weapon and turrets atop your vehicle. And you dont just hit an attack button to start firing your weapons.

Avencast Rise of the Mage

Describing Avencast: RRise of the Mage is bit tricky. This role-player relies on WASD contros, but it does'nt have the nonstop action of a typical action role-playing game. Quest feature standard go-fetch objectives, although they're often jazzed up with adventure game puzzles. And while the plot Strays into world-saving Dungeons & Dragons Cliches, it begins with a bored teen mage doing the Hogwarts things. With so much cross-gener experimentation, it's difficult to figure out what the developer was trying to get at, although the one thing you can say is that this grab bag of RPG styles comes together remarkable well.

The look and feel of Avencast are pretty similar to that original Neverwinter Nights.
ClockStone started developing the game four years ago, so it has something of an old-school vibe. This is most notable in the visuals, which are a bit chunky for a modern game. Character and monster models are burdened with boxy features, the animations are just a touch robotic, and most quests take place in run-of-the-mill dungeon corridors. nothing here is practilly ugly, just uninspired. Outstanding colored lighting at least gives most scenes an eerie glow, a mood enhanced by the often creepy musical score.

Story is par for the course for a traditional role-playing game. you play a young playing wizard studying at the magical academy of Avencast, sort of a Hogwarts rip-off set in the usual D&D-style fantasy world. There is very little in the way of initial character creation. You just type in a name and go at it, later using skill points from leveling up to augment traits and select spells.

Company of Heroes

Company of Heroes is a visually stunning real-time strategy game that depicts all the violent chaos of World War II with uncommon intensity. Set during the invasion of Normandy toward the end of the war, Company of Heroes takes its cues from Saving Private Ryan, by portraying both the sheer brutality of the war as well as the humanity of its combatants. Many other recent WWII games have also drawn influence from Steven Spielberg’s landmark film, but Company of Heroes is even more graphic. This and the game’s highly authentic-looking presentation are its distinguishing features, and it boasts some frantic, well-designed strategic and tactical combat to match. Company of Heroes trades a wide breadth of content for an extremely detailed look at WWII-era ground combat, and its action is so fast paced that it’s best suited for the reflexes of an experienced RTS player. So if you’re unfazed by any of that, you’ll find that this latest real-time strategy game from the developers of Homeworld and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is one of the best, most dramatic and exciting examples in years.
Provided you have a powerful-enough system and graphics card to fully appreciate the visuals in Company of Heroes, you’ll quickly be struck by the level of detail depicted in the game. Infantry move in teams, darting from cover to cover. They may be ordered to occupy any building on the map, and you’ll see them shutter the doors and take aim out the windows. Vehicles are shown to scale, so tanks and other armored vehicles look big and imposing, and, indeed, they are. Infantry seem almost helpless against tanks, and you’ll hear the men screaming as tank shells explode around them, sending bodies flying, while lucky survivors dive out of the way. Yet by attacking a tank’s vulnerable sides and rear armor with explosives, it’s possible to turn the tables on these lumbering threats…turning one of the most basic confrontations in Company of Heroes into a thrilling cat-and-mouse game, much more than a typical clash between a couple of RTS units. What’s more, the battlefields themselves have at least as much character to them as the various infantry squads and vehicles as your disposal. The quaint French towns that are the set pieces of many of the game’s skirmishes truly look as if a war was waged there once the battle is done, since buildings will catch fire and collapse, telephone lines will topple, blackened craters will appear in the wake of artillery blasts, and more. These changes aren’t just cosmetic, either. Those blast craters provide cover for your infantry, while the ruined husks of blown-up tanks might interfere with a machine gunner’s line of fire.

Dark Age of Camelot

You don’t need 20/20 hindsight to see why the successful early-October launch of Dark Age of Camelot was such a significant event in PC gaming. It’s safe to say that this impressive online role-playing game marks the dawning of a new era in a gaming genre that has steadily gained prominence since Ultima Online made national headlines in 1997. Developed by the experienced but heretofore little-known Mythic Entertainment, Dark Age of Camelot squarely takes aim at other popular online role-playing games–namely, Sony and Verant’s definitive EverQuest, Microsoft and Turbine’s Asheron’s Call, and Funcom’s recent sci-fi-themed Anarchy Online–and, by and large, it blows them away. Even if you’ve already invested hundreds of hours into one or more previous online role-playing games, you’ll find that a brush with Dark Age of Camelot–let alone countless sleepless nights with it–will justify making the switch to Mythic’s game. That’s because, through and through, Dark Age of Camelot is solid, well designed, interesting, and rewarding. It’s not for everyone–like most online RPGs, it demands much more of your time than the average game, and you won’t enjoy it as much if you can’t commit yourself to spending hours on end in its sprawling world. Regardless, Dark Age of Camelot has a great concept, is already teeming with tens of thousands of players, and promises to keep getting better.
Those thousands have no use for this review–they’re enjoying the game already. This long review is best suited to those who’ve yet to decide whether Dark Age of Camelot is worth its retail price, the time commitment, and the monthly fee (approximately $10, payable by credit card or numerous other methods) for the service after the first free month. Based on extensive research and play time, this review is intended to empirically evaluate every significant aspect of Dark Age of Camelot, and, in doing so, to imply the broad scope of the game. Rest assured, you wouldn’t have spare time for too many other games if you get into Dark Age of Camelot–but we’ll suggest that such a sacrifice would be worthwhile. Furthermore, note that this review is based on Dark Age of Camelot as it exists to date–less than a month after its release. The nature of online games is one of constant change, which means that, over time, some of the following statements may no longer be applicable. In light of this, it’s important to try to anticipate how a game like Dark Age of Camelot might change over time, using all available evidence to support the predictions.

Darkspore

You’d be forgiven if you assumed Darkspore might be similar to 2008′s Spore; after all, the titles are similar, and both games were created by the same developer. Well, let go of any preconceptions: this spin-off may have some elements in common with the game that spawned it, but it is structurally quite different. It’s also rather good. Darkspore is an online-only role-playing game in which you and up to three buddies (or strangers) slice and dice your way through factory corridors and forest pathways en route to an end boss. Your goal: collect as much awesome loot as you can. And you’ll need all you can get, for as you level up, you gain access to more and more heroes and group them into squads of three creatures each. This “catch ‘em all” mechanic is one of Darkspore’s main draws, though there are a few other twists on the traditional action RPG formula that keep it from feeling like a simple space-age Diablo clone.
That isn’t to say that Darkspore feels totally fresh, however. There’s too little context for all this hacking and slashing: it’s all grinding for levels and loot, with little sense of purpose. That might sound like a damning flaw, but some hours in, the game hits its stride, throwing greater challenges at you on the battlefield and balancing the dungeon crawling with the satisfaction of maintaining the look and equipment of up to 100 different heroes. These elements don’t fully compensate for the missed opportunities, but they’re enough to make for dozens upon dozens of entertaining hours in front of your monitor.
Make sure to note the “online only” bit. Though you can play on your own, you must be online and signed into the game in order to play. Once signed in, you enter a game hub and a chat lobby, where you can find other players to group up with while futzing around with your inventory. The first time you sign in, a tutorial gets you quickly up to speed, putting you in control of a nimble little scamp called Blitz. Blitz, like all of Darkspore’s heroes, is a creature that would have been right at home in Spore. Some of the game’s heroes look like insects; others, like robots; and still others, like the monsters your childhood self imagined might be hiding under your bed or in your closet. In any case, Blitz is easy to get a handle on: you click to move, you click to attack, and you press a numeral key to perform special attacks. In Blitz’s case, he can teleport forward for a quick, stunning attack; deliver a flurry of slashes with his claws; and surround himself with electrical globes that zap nearby enemies.

Dracula Origin

Good storytelling never goes out of style. For proof, check out Dracula: Origin, a point-and-click reimagination of Bram Stoker’s classic novel from Frogwares that delivers a gothic tale as atmospheric and chilling as a London fog. While you couldn’t ask for a more done-to-death story, the treatment of this legendary material is both respectful and innovative, with familiar characters and scenes being mixed in with all-new escapades set across Europe and the Middle East. Too many pixel hunts and logic puzzles that occasionally stray into “good luck solving this without a walkthrough” territory cause a few problems, although these frustrations aren’t enough to ruin a great Victorian spook story.
Dracula: Origin keeps the bare bones of the Stoker novel, but adds to it by branching out in a few places and changing the focus from drawing-room horror to something of a detective story. Vamp hunter Van Helsing moves to center stage from his supporting role in the novel, as the dour professor turns sleuth and ventures to London, Cairo, Vienna, and, of course, Transylvania on a one-man quest to save poor Mina Murray and stop Dracula’s plans to resurrect the dead. The story unfolds like a mash-up of Stoker’s Dracula, any number of Sherlock Holmes short stories, and the less weird tales of HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, with you playing vampire hunter, gumshoe, and intrepid researcher.
The script doesn’t borrow much from Stoker, although it is excellent in its own right as a modern take on the old Victorian penny dreadfuls that influenced Dracula. Voice acting is generally impressive, as long as you’ve got a taste for melodrama. Van Helsing in particular gets awfully worked up over the slightest little thing, becoming so uptight over such minor annoyances as running into a locked door that you’ll frequently think that Dracula himself has just jumped out of the shadows.
Counterbalancing this fresh story is gameplay that feels like something out of a point-and-click adventure made 20 years ago. As Van Helsing, you stroll from one scene to another, carefully scanning the surroundings for anything that can be pocketed and later used to construct some sort of contraption necessary for opening a door or unlocking a safe, for example. You gather and hoard all sorts of items, such as meat hooks, mummy wrappings, and even a jar of flies. There generally isn’t any rhyme or reason to all of this scrap collecting, other than that you know you’re playing an adventure game, so you’re going to need this junk at some point down the road. Van Helsing’s entire philosophy of vampire hunting is expressed in one line he repeats over and over: “This might be useful. I’m taking it.”

Dragon Age Origins Leliana’s Song

Dragon Age: Origins’ Leliana may have seemed sweet enough, but her initially faithful and spiritual demeanor masked an unsavory past. In Leliana’s Song, the most recent downloadable content released for last year’s superb role-playing game, you explore the bard’s dark side and glimpse the circumstances that led her to pledge to the Chantry in Lothering. Effective storytelling makes this add-on worth a look for dedicated Dragon Age fans, particularly those that experienced Leliana’s personal quest in the original game. Unfortunately, you won’t find many surprises lurking within this fun but unremarkable adventure. The combat remains enjoyable, but because your party is capped at three rather than the usual four members, battles aren’t as exciting as they might have been with a larger party. Though some later encounters in an atmospheric alcove grant a little variety, you will fend off the usual foes in a number of well-worn environments. This isn’t Dragon Age at its best, but Leliana’s Song is an appealing slice of character-driven content.
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If you developed a close relationship with Leliana in Dragon Age: Origins, you may also have met Marjolaine, her past mentor. Marjolaine plays an important role in Leliana’s Song, even though she is not a playable character, and her influence over the pretty and impressionable Leliana is uncomfortably ominous. The two bards play “the game,” a sport of political intrigue in which factions are pit against each other with a bit of clever information swapping and document planting. Heavy-handed foreshadowing keeps the plot twists that follow from being particularly shocking, but the strong characterizations of the two main players will draw you in nonetheless. Characters are introduced in short montages that take great advantage of Dragon Age’s most important theme: blood. Thanks to fantastic voice acting and a few effective camera angles, Marjolaine’s dismissive smarminess will make you squirm, while Leliana’s wicked streak is likely to bring a grin to your face. It’s too bad that Leliana’s Song rounds out your party with forgettable companions that lack a sense of presence and amount to little more than generic henchmen.

Drakensang The Dark Eye

Last year’s hit from Germany, Drakensang: The Dark Eye, has arrived in North America with a budget price and a classic scope that evokes the likes of Baldur’s Gate. Production values are wanting in spots, but even with voice acting that might make your ears bleed and some convoluted character development, this remains an involving, old-fashioned heroic saga. The Radon Labs-designed game still hits the spot if you’re looking for a traditional RPG with just the right mix of wizards in pointy hats and unsung heroes looking to fulfill their destiny.
Drakensang’s story and setting have been compiled from so many fantasy novels, movies, and games that Drakensang will initially cause deja vu. You play a stereotypical hero who starts off as a nobody, yet soon becomes a legendary adventurer as the fulfillment of–yep, you guessed it–a prophecy. Everything here seems to have been randomly pulled out of the grab bag of RPG cliches. Gruff but lovable dwarves, hippie elves who just want to be left alone, mysterious messages from old friends, rampaging goblin hordes, and forgetful mages who are mirror images of Gandalf make up the cast of characters in the medieval fantasy land of Aventuria. As with timeless RPGs such as Baldur’s Gate, you manage an entire party of up to four adventurers. Quests are many and feature myriad goals that run the gamut from keep-busy jobs such as killing a white wolf and tracking down a stolen diadem to cleaning out a crypt of the undead and solving riddling rhymes. Just about the only touch of originality comes from the main plotline’s focus on dragons, which at one time ruled the world before a scaly civil war.
The game’s mechanics are derivative and cluttered up with extraneous rules taken from Drakensang’s pen-and-paper inspiration, The Dark Eye. Characters are crammed with finicky stats, talents, and attributes that can be hard to come to grips with, especially in the beginning. Each hero comes with eight attributes, nine base values, five talent pools with five separate skills in each, a raft of combat talents dealing with each weapon type, three schools of special abilities, magic talents for spellcasters, and a recipe book for the alchemical, blacksmith, and archery goodies that you can put together on your own. Whew. In addition to all of this, there are a pile of races to choose from, all pulled from standard fantasy folk such as humans, elves, and dwarves, and in turn slotted into about 20 race-exclusive professions. For example, if you choose to play as an elf, you can become a ranger, fighter, or spellweaver. Pick a dwarf, and you’re stuck with a mercenary, sapper, or prospector. And so on.

E Y E Divine Cybermancy

E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy is an unusual, engrossing, and maddening game that is unmistakably itself. This first-person role-playing action game may be painted with shades of Deus Ex, but its atmosphere and pace are unique, and this uniqueness keeps you engaged in the face of some uninviting elements. E.Y.E. is ambitious. It hands you guns, swords, and cybernetic skills, and then drops you into a chilling sci-fi world, letting you accomplish your goals in any way you see fit. It’s also confusing and awkward, dropping unnecessary obstacles in your path proudly, as if to say, “These aren’t bugs; they’re features!” And so you might sometimes curse and grit your teeth, but you will also be entertained and perhaps even in awe at times. Once you’ve played E.Y.E., you aren’t apt to forget it. Whether you remember it more for its oppressive futuristic ambience and impressive flexibility, or for how hard it works to alienate its own players, depends largely on how much patience you have.
It’s a shame that E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy demands so much of that patience from the get-go. After making a series of unexplained statistical choices, you awaken on a stone walkway. Obelisks engraved with mysterious runes rise above you on either side. The sky is a yellow hue, but the darkness envelops you as you move toward the only exit you see: a shimmering door shining its turquoise light into the darkness. You’re met by a figure clad in black armor, his helmet crowned with a golden halo. Like every character you meet, he speaks in a rumbling garbled language, translated into sometimes passable, sometimes broken English subtitles. After you enter the door, the first level begins–and so does the confusion. E.Y.E. introduces the first-person shooter basics during this level: how to crouch, jump, aim, shoot, and so on. What it doesn’t do is teach you the important things. This is a complex game in which you hack turrets, research technology, use PSI powers, and suffer from broken limbs. And it takes a while to make sense of these mechanics. Few of these concepts are introduced in any meaningful way, and the included video tutorials are only minimally helpful.

EverQuest The Ruins of Kunark

Few games maintain such an avid fan following as Verant’s online role-playing game EverQuest. That’s partly because Verant created an impressive game to begin with and also because Verant has consistently appealed to its many dedicated subscribers, both by adding new gameplay features and also by adding entire new regions to the game’s already enormous world. As such, it’s understandable why some of EverQuest’s more skeptical players felt as if the new expansion, The Ruins of Kunark, was a ploy to milk its customers for more money for the same sort of additions they’d already been getting as part of the package. But as you explore the new continent of Kunark, it’ll become increasingly clear to you that the expansion’s value is as immense as that of the original game.
In addition to the huge continent, the expansion also introduces an interesting playable race and scores of new monsters to fight and items to find. Furthermore, many of the new graphics in The Ruins of Kunark looks noticeably better than in the original EverQuest, which isn’t surprising given that the expansion was published more than a year after EverQuest’s early-1999 release. Kunark’s many indigenous life-forms look outstanding by EverQuest’s own high standards, or by any others: From conventional creatures like rhinos and scorpions, to stranger beings like the draconian Sarnak and the ravenous nibblers, the sheer variety of Kunark’s dozens of new monsters is certainly the best thing about them.
Unfortunately, the improved graphics do have consequences: You’re likely to experience a significantly lower frame rate in Kunark’s more densely populated zones than anywhere else in Norrath. Although the expansion has higher system requirements than the rest of EverQuest does, and although the frame rate can be improved by reducing the clipping plane so that you won’t see as far into the horizon, you’ll still find that some parts of Kunark run slower than you’d like. Nevertheless, the general improvement in the expansion’s visual quality makes the frame-rate sacrifice worthwhile, just as the new regions in Kunark help make the great-looking game look even better. Unfortunately, there’s little new sound in the game and no new music.
The expansion’s new playable race, the Iksar, also look good. Newcomers to EverQuest may like the Iksar because they look so unusual: They’re snarling, hunched lizardmen with long, whipping tails. The Iksar are inherently easier to start out with than most EverQuest races, not only because they naturally regenerate their hit points faster than other races except trolls, but also because they’re inherently able to see in the dark, to run and swim quickly, and to forage food and drink. In addition, the four zones outlying the Iksar’s huge home city Cabilis are filled with many different types of monsters to fight. These zones themselves are huge, varied, densely populated, and interconnected. They look good and they’re fun and dangerous to explore.

Fahrenheit

The term “cinematic gameplay” gets tossed around an awful lot these days. And it’s often tossed around by game makers who simply throw in a few letterboxed cutscenes and minimalist heads-up displays and then just call it a day. Developer Quantic Dream’s Indigo Prophecy is a game that actually gives cinematic gameplay some context, as well as some real heartfelt meaning. More movie with an interactive progression than video game pretending to be a movie, Indigo Prophecy eschews practically any modern gameplay convention in favor of a significantly more subtle mechanical interface. You take part in every action in Indigo Prophecy–from the biggest fight sequence, to the most minor of day-to-day tasks–and you do it all with simple movements of the analog sticks on your controller, or with some quick button presses that are more akin to a rhythm game than a typical third-person adventure. But where Indigo Prophecy truly shines is in its story, which is a deep, captivating, and sometimes disturbing tale of one average man’s journey to solve a murder that he himself committed.
The average man in question is Lucas Kane, a handsome but worn gentleman who lives his life as any IT professional in the great city of New York would. Kane’s life takes a decidedly dark turn one night, however, when he decides to visit a local diner. In the very opening scene of the game we find Lucas sitting in a bathroom stall, convulsing and carving bizarre symbols into his forearms. An unlucky schmo happens into the bathroom during this period, and Lucas, seemingly unable to control his actions, attacks him, stabbing him multiple times. Moments after the killing, Lucas returns to his senses, only to be equal parts horrified and stupefied by his actions. From here you take control of Lucas, and it’s up to you to get him the hell out of there.
This opening sequence gives you an excellent glimpse into how thoroughly intertwined Indigo Prophecy’s plot and gameplay are. Presented with a corpse, a murder weapon, and one of NYPD’s finest sitting out in the restaurant, it’s up to you to decide how to proceed. Should you take the time to hide the body, ditch the weapon, clean yourself up, and try to casually make your way out of there? Or will you simply make a run for it as quickly as possible? You can do any or all of these things, and the outcomes will vary from a very quick game over screen to you getting Kane the hell out of dodge. And first and foremost, that’s what Indigo Prophecy is about: choice. Every decision made and every question asked takes the story in a slightly different direction. Of course, in most cases these changes are merely cosmetic, simply letting the core scene play out marginally differently while ultimately pushing you toward the same goal. But in more than a few cases, your choices will drastically change the flow of the story

Fallout New Vegas Honest Hearts

In the Fallout universe, nuclear war has ravaged the country, but religious faith abides. In Fallout: New Vegas – Honest Hearts, men of God struggle to find peace in a land where strife is inescapable–a powerful theme for a downloadable add-on. The story in Honest Hearts doesn’t take advantage of this fertile premise, but that premise still enriches this formulaic yet enjoyable adventure into Utah’s Zion National Park. As its name would suggest, some see this region as a promised land, and it’s here that two religious leaders struggle to maintain control in the face of a warring tribe that would drive them out. Zion is a big and atmospheric setting for a new adventure, and there’s enough new content here to keep you busy for four or five hours as you shoot up charging geckos and get to know the local tribes. That said, Honest Hearts doesn’t make a lasting impression; none of its characters, places, or events stand up to those of the main game or even those of Fallout 3′s better content packs. Yet, this enjoyable excursion gives you several welcome chances to exercise the power of choice, and it rewards you with new perks, new weapons, and an increased level cap.
The two men at the center of Honest Hearts are good, sincere blokes that nonetheless don’t see eye to eye on how to deal with the White Legs, a violent tribe of nomads eager to scalp anyone that dares oppose them. One of these men is Daniel, a Mormon missionary with close ties to a tribe called The Sorrows. The other is Joshua Graham, otherwise known as The Burned Man. Joshua favors an aggressive approach toward the White Legs, which is no surprise given his violent past with Caesar’s Legion. He is beloved by the Dead Horses tribe and preaches that mankind should shun the greed of the outside world. You stumble upon both men after the trading caravan you join falls victim to the White Legs, though neither makes a very strong impression. Joshua needs supplies like lunch boxes and walkie-talkies; Daniel sends you to find maps and disarm traps. These are nice men that nonetheless make you wonder how they managed to inspire the devotion of the locals. Joshua tells you that he was put on Earth to show people how to fight, yet he speaks in even tones, without an ounce of passion. For someone called The Burned Man, his personality lacks fire, and the tasks he needs performed are hardly extraordinary.

Fate Undiscovered Realms

Fate: Undiscovered Realms adds a pair of new levels, a dead-is-dead option, and pretty much nothing else to the original Fate. So expect this hack-and-slash role-playing stand-alone add-on to provide you with a good dose of deja vu if you have any experience with the previous game released back in early 2005. The simple charm of the core game design still looms large over this Diablo clone, however, which gives its clickfest dungeon crawling the power to suck you in for many, many hours.
Undiscovered Realms is a continuation of the single-player story from the original Fate (there’s still no multiplayer). After a long campaign against the forces of evil, your hero returns to the town of Grove. Forget about any celebrations with beautiful elf maidens and grog, though. A mysterious stranger soon arrives and cons you into opening portals into two new realms, a wooded world called Druantia and an icy kingdom named Typhon. The cowled weirdo then reveals himself as some kind of evil wizard and takes off, leaving you to head through these gates as well to stop his dastardly machinations.
Character design covers the same old ground. Development is exactly as it was in the first Fate. There are no set character classes, so you craft your hero by assigning points to traits like strength and dexterity and to skills such as swords and magic every time you gain enough experience to level up. It’s a smooth, elegant system that lets you effortlessly build a fighter, a mage, or a jack-of-all-trades. Items are largely carried over from the original game. Monster drops feature a lot of the same swords, axes, and armor as before–albeit with the addition of some special items, such as the swathe quest gear–and the character spell list is identical. A pet dog or cat companion that levels up automatically is still at your side helping to battle the monstrous hordes, although now there are more transformation options available every time you feed Fido or Trixie one of the game’s magical fish. It’s kind of hard to tell what’s new, since you could already morph your pooch or feline into a wide selection of giant spiders, unicorns, wyverns, and more.