March 24, 2004 Age of Mythology The Titans >> Microsoft 2003 The Titaris offers players a new Atlantean civilisation, new units, and expanded campaign, and more. The Atlanteans has their own distinct units, buildings, and deities, and are well balanced against the original civilisations, which continue unchanged in the expan- sion, with one significant exception. Each civilisation gains the ability to con- struct a Titan Gate. The titan gate is placed, and workers are assigned to it. Eventually, they dig out a Titan, incredibly powerful uber-units. As with AOM, Titans supports multi- player for up to 12 player over LAN or Ensemble Studios Online. Grade: A Warcraft 3: The Reign of Caos >> Blizzard Entertainment 2003 Warcraft 3 continues the struggle between the Orcish hordes and the Human Alliance in the fantasy lands of Azeroth and Lordaeron, with the addition of two new playable races, the Night Elves and the Undead. As in Starcraft, the different races in Warcraft 3 are all incredibly unique, though also: perfectly balanced. None of the units or buildings in the game are shared between races, though there are similar functions for units among the traces. Warcraft 3 has stunning graphics, with plenty of detail placed into the environ- ments and units. Warcraft 3 also features excellent sound effects and voice acting. Warcraft 3 has some pretty good unit and opponent Al. Computer opponents often resort to kamikaze attacks on your base, but they may occasionally surprise you with a sneaky flanking attack. Units tend to choose targets more intelligently than in many other games. Grade: A+ ' Photo by Dana Schwehr Students will soon have to say goodbye to the old computer science labs in the Library build- ing at UNBC. The new equipment that is going to be used in the new lab spaces should be able to ease the student's loss, however. Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne >> Blizzard Entertainment 2003 Frozen Throne continues the story begun in Warcraft 3, while making some well planned additions to the existing game. Each race is given a few new units and new player-built shops, where heroes can snag new gear. Frozen Throne also adds spe- cial buildings where players can recruit neu- tral heroes and mercenaries to fight in their armies. Like the original, Frozen Throne features multiplayer for up to 12 players over LAN or Blizzard’s Battle.net matchmaking ser- vice. The multiplayer is great, thanks to the meticulous balancing. Grade: A+ Fight Night 2004 Preview >> EA Games, 2004 This demo brings only one word to mind... Wow... and that’s not a good thing. Promising realistic boxing and (in a rever- berating, ominous voice) total punch con- trol, the fight night preview for the PS2 looked like fun. Looked being the key word. The movement had all the grace and finesse of a third person shooter. If you haven’t played one before, that means that you are just as likely to walk directly into an obstacle than reach your target which is straight ahead of you. To make matters worse, total punch control loosely translated is “use this feature and you'll swing wildly.” It would also seem that they released this demo before connecting the block button. When used, our fighter took a lot of damage. Fortunately, this game isn’t a total waste. Two interesting features on the controllers are the illegal punch and the specialty move buttons. Illegal punches can be funny at first, and include such dastardly tactics as backhanding your opponent across the face or hitting them below the belt. The other button will perform a super punch which is the only punch that does decent damage. Fight Night 2004 looks promising but the demo is intensely disappointing. Although! do not recommend this game, I recommend that you wait to pass judgment for your- selves when the game is released on the 5th of April. Grade: Pending. Until then D-. Age of Mythology >> Microsoft 2002 Age Of Myth features three distinct fac- tions: Greek, Egyptian, and Norse, each with its own unique units, buildings, and pan- theon of deities. Each deity has his/her unique power, mythological unit and upgrades for units and buildings. AOM looks and sounds quite good. The voice-overs are excellent, as are the sound effects. The graphics are superb. God pow- ers have suitably epic visual effects associat- ed with them, and everything is wondrous- ly detailed. Artificial Intelligence for units and _com- puter opponents seems to be disappointing- ly average. Computer opponents often send trickles of units into your base, and unit pathfinding is sometimes a problem. AOM is very nearly perfect. There are some minor issues with the interface, partic- ularly that some fairly important actions require multiple mouse clicks to access. The game has hotkeys for nearly everything, but most of them are hidden in the readme file. Grade: A