Return mine to me. No. 25 (parasitic-mining September 2001)

Today we go to a distant (damn, the whole generation has grown since that time) 2001, in which the game championship called The 1st World Cyber ​​Games with a prize pool of $ 300,000 is announced.
The sponsor of this event was Samsung, and in terms of scale and quality, the event should be a kind of analogue of the Olympic Games, only e -sports. 350 players from 25 countries should have participated. By the way, gamers from Russia then took 10th place, with 2 silver medals.

Nintendo spent, in the light of the GameCube prefix, which was coming out on September 14, her event Nintendo Spaceworld 2001, in which she spoke about her plans to release the console and about two dozen games that will accompany her release release. The initial cost of the console in Japan was $ 210.
The main surprise and the most shocking event is the Legend of Zelda show, the audience expected something similar to Zeld’s technology, Nintendo shown at last year’s exhibition. However, she appeared in a new graphic style, and became more like a cartoon than a cg. It seemed that the game was lacking in detail, but in action the game looks great, and the animation in the game is beyond praise.
Years go, and Nintendo does not change when I read information about the game, it could be safely attributed to the game of Breath of the Wild in 2017.

Well, today in line we have a review of September 2001. Yes, I know, most of you do not like particularly old years, but nothing can be done – this is a story. So cook tasty and go.

The first screenshots of this game appeared back in 1997, about then the information of the plot of the game appeared – the policeman takes revenge on his family.
Then the game seemed ordinary action, of which at that time there was countless. And at what point the developers passed that line to the ingenious action movie is unknown. But the fact is obvious – so saturated with cinematic techniques and effects of the game then. Before us the most spectacular game, the game – Max Payne from the Finnish studio Remedy.

Max Payne came out, suddenly excellent, so much so that the game public scattered countless opinions. And they were all mainly – enthusiastic.
Although the plot in the action movie is not the main thing, the game tells us the story of the once happy policeman, who had a beautiful wife, daughter, house, promising work, and so on. Overnight, through the efforts of a criminal group, he loses his family and does everything possible to find the one who sent the killers.

Max Payne is an atmospheric and stylish project, and this style is transmitted, first of all, thanks to the gradual presentation of the plot in the form of comics. This is not to say that reading comics is directly here – an interesting activity, but this approach certainly corresponds to the style of the game.

The developers managed to achieve the main thing – a kind of reality and credibility of what is happening, which, to a large extent, contributed to a high and rich level of environment.
The interior and the surrounding world as a whole are stuffed with all kinds of small details, all these plates, racks, magazines on tables, watches on the walls, even toilet paper and many thousands of other small details are made with special care and zeal.
So much more of this could be divided. For example, in one of the rooms we meet a piano, at which, even if desired, Max can play, so – you can shoot the support of the lid, after which it will crash on the deck, you can even shoot the roy of the legs, after which it will flood, and everything is in the same spirit. However, about some prohibitive level of interactivity-there is no need to talk.

Playing Max Payne, people at that time recalled then popular, director of John Wu militants and, of course, “matrix”. It was at that time, both in games and films, the effect of slowing the time, aka Bullet Time or, if you like, Slow-Motion. Who was the first to come up with him-the creators of the film “Matrix” or Finns from Remedy for certain, but the Finns declared and were afraid that they made their game without looking back at something, all the more so since they had a game for nearly 4 years.

At first, a spectacular look of how the bullet bursts out of the barrel in the halo of flame, leaving behind a trace in the air is really impressive. And Max himself can make a cool -looking jump in one of the sides. Many scenes here I want to relay over and over again, achieving the greatest effectiveness and reasons. What, in due time, I did. In the rooms, otherwise, in the jump – you no longer enter.
A breathtakingly beautiful effect, literally after half an hour or an hour, it becomes, almost the only one, the salvation of the player who got into a meat grinder. Enemies here shoot quite accurately, and, grabbing a considerable part of health.

The game presents about one and a half dozen types of weapons divided into 6 groups. At the same time, one will not work to get rid of one two beloved guns and you will have to use all types of weapons.
The graphic component of the game is just science fiction, again, the decoration of the interior and attention to details and little things play an important role, despite the fact that everything was optimized perfectly. And the models and animation of enemies are brilliantly made and you do not stop admiring them to the very end.

Some disadvantages of the game, as for me, reviewers are greatly attracted by the ears, but nevertheless. Someone does not like Max Payne’s grin in the game. Almost all reviewers lack that bloodiness and dismemberment of Soldier of Fortune. Someone complains that the game is too short and passes after 2-3 pm. Also, there are some complaints about AI of enemies. But, all this is hard to call even a spoon of tar in a barrel of honey.

In general, this I points of 10

It was hard to break away from this game, and throwing in the middle is simply unrealistic. It’s just a masterpiece and masthev of that time. Until then, hitherto, the level of the action of Aquen forced to pass the game in one breath, and then replay it again and again.

Venom (Codename: Outbreak)

This game truly surprised at that time. Of course in https://bingositesnotongamstop.co.uk/review/winstler-casino/ the most positive sense. Immediately – make an excellent tactical action, having only a couple of strategies behind him – it is worth a lot. And before us is a shooter from the creators of the Cossacks and a stalker, Ukrainian developers GSC Game World, Venom. Well, and so that you do not think that where Tom Hardy or Spider-Man should run-there is a continuation of the name, codename: outbreak.

Although the plot here can be similar in something. In the yard of 2034 and humanity is in danger in the form of a comet, which can destroy all living things. However, the comet flies by, and it soon turns out that she still left a trace on the ground in the form of an alien form of life. Which, in addition, turns out to be parasites, and very aggressively configured. These parasites, mainly, live on the heads of people, completely subordinating the bodies to themselves, there is also a form existing separately from the carrier.

And we play behind the commander of the detachment, where each fighter has a set of six characteristics: speed, power of endurance, and so on. Accordingly, each of the fighters has these characteristics to varying degrees and you are free to choose between them, as well as equip them, before the start of each mission.
Since, we have a tactical action here, then we physically cannot carry 10 guns with us, but if you give us a couple of trunks for the whole game, it is also not cool. The developers very elegantly twisted from this dilemma-since the future is in the yard, they handed us one gun, but … with the 9th, as a maximum, different trunks that combines a machine gun, Shotgan, a sniper rifle, and so on.

Accordingly, fighters, whose characteristics of endurance leave to be desired better, still cannot drag, and they can only be chosen a few of the trunks.
There are 14 missions that occur in different parts of the globe in the game. We will visit the USA, and in Russia, and in Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia, and a bunch of places.
The levels themselves are gigantic open spaces for 2001, striking in their diversity. All these valleys, mountains, trees, bushes, ferns look very worthy.

You are not alone on the task, but with a partner who is not for fracture for the sake of, but quite successfully copes with its tasks and it is noted that the gaming and here is just at the highest level. The partner performs your standard orders properly. Anyway, you can switch to it at any time and take control.

Not only your partner has a high level of AI, but also enemies who behave very interestingly. For example, if suddenly the enemy hears your steps from behind, he will immediately shoot towards the noise source, and he will not stupid – “Oh I heard something there, I’ll go look.”
In general, in battle they behave correctly: move, hide, crouched on a knee for better shooting and so on.
Any wound, here very, seriously responds to your character, hitting the head – this, of course, is a certain death immediately.
The problem is that you practically do not know where the patrols are on a huge map, and often it happens that the enemy has already noticed you, but you are not there, and it is not clear where the bullets have come from you. Here you are helped out by the sound scanner, who will give you opponents who speak and make noise at this moment.

The physical game engine with the curious name Vital Engine ZL also deserves a high rating. It is felt well when shooting, and when giving up, and even when a soldier crawls, you inexplicably feel that the soldier is really crawling.

Graphic and sound accompaniment – leaves purely positive emotions. Venom consists of a huge number of little things that create a unique atmosphere and style. Admit it, because many of you, even until I called the developer, sensed the elusive style of the same “stalker”.
Fights here are carried out both on open locations and in closed rooms. The design of laboratories, factories and other things is made in ascetic style, and there are few interactive elements here, and beer banks or wooden boxes here – they do not react to shooting at them or explosions. But open spaces, on the contrary, are perfect and, it seems, looking at your feet, you can see every blade of grass.
For this, however, sometimes I had to pay with rare brakes of the game in a collision with the enemy. It is noted that, straight, stunning graphics, nevertheless, you can’t call. But the rude performance of characters models disappoints, although their animation is gorgeous.

In general, this is 8.5 points of 10.

Venom is an extremely high -quality tactical shooter, with the amazing attention of developers to insignificant details. It was a game of a truly world level, capable of captivating for long hours.

The project is not easy to fate at the development stage. For 5 years, which has moved from the initially declared Quake engine to the second Quake engine, which turned out to be painful and took away a lot of time for the game.
However, the main reason for such a long (as it seemed) stage of development was the scale of the initial ideas of the developers. Yes, and in the final version the game looked huge, even though most of the developments were thrown away. And then, finally, when it became clear that it was no longer possible to pull time – she saw the light. And before us, the game from Ion Storm developers released by Eidos Interactive – Anachronox.

It will not be possible to tell and cover the entire plot in a nutshell, it can be recognized here, only by spending a couple of days before the monitor.In what period of time the Anachronox events take place – it is not specified here, but the game begins with the preface that originates 300 years before the events of the game.
It was then that the first artifact was found left by an ancient alien race, and later artifacts began to be found throughout the universe. Some turned out to be weapons, some medical devices. All these remnants of the disappeared racks were called Mysterium Technology, or abbreviated “Mystech”.

The plot of the game itself, unfolds around the former private detective Sylvester Buts nicknamed Sly (Sly), living in the city of Anachronoxes located in the center of the planet Sender. Slowly, our hero was drunk and climbed deeper into debt, until I realized that I needed to change his life and led to the scientist’s bodyguard. Which, just, was engaged in the search for artifacts Mystech.
And now, once, hoping to get rich, they and the team go in search of an artifact. And there everything spun, spun and, in short, unknown forces are trying to destroy all living things. Well, we, of course, have to save the world.

From our team, we can choose partners for ourselves, each of which, of course, has its strengths-the Sly itself knows how to hack locks, the robot, for example, knows how to hack databases, someone knows how to make well and so on. In search of artifacts, our team will travel from the planet to the planet, of which there are 6 pieces here, and they differ from each other, quite, decently, on democratus – people live in harmony and equality. There is even a planet of Crapton here – where supermen lives entirely.

The game itself here, with a high content of various jokes, a stack, sarcasm and other elements of humor.
When you go out, it is better to communicate with all the characters you meet-otherwise there is a great risk of missing something important. By the way, the dialogs are good here and do not get bored. The game has hundreds of NPCs who are in a hurry to work and about their own business, but you can chat with each of them, and not just in one word. At first it seems that the developers overloaded the game with conversations, but then, on the contrary, it becomes interesting, namely, to communicate.
In the course of the game, by the way, we will meet a large number of characters who want to join our team, but, directly, only two can accompany the main character.

The combat system here migrated, straight, from Japanese RPG. Yes, yes, the battles here step by step. We are waiting for the energy indicator and make the move. Accordingly, here you can attack, move around the battlefield, use inventory items, use spells and, accordingly, apply your skills.
For the use of spells, we need artifacts. They themselves are quite banal, but look spectacular and original. In addition, mini games are in wait for us almost every step, and in the bars there are slot machines, and all sorts of shooting machines in space. The camera in the game is good, and often gives beautiful, unusual angles making sulfur in the air, which absolutely do not interfere, at the same time, play.

Graphics in the game, directly to say, is not a masterpiece for its time, the Quake 2 engine no longer looks. The design is ambiguous, and sometimes, it is it that draws so much that you even wonder how cool everything is, making you forget about the antiquity of the engine. But it happens on the contrary, the exact opposite effect.
The animation of the characters is very good, but only the main characters, the rest of the NPC, sometimes looks very ridiculous. The main thing to mark is that the graphics do not repel, and the players were drawn much faster than they managed to understand that this might look more interesting.
And in the end, this 8 points of 10.
In this game – there is no innovation and there are no technical delights. Filled with a bunch of smallest details and gaming elements of the soldered together – it is just a huge, majestic and absolutely wonderful game,

That we have a lower rank?

The Ward or in our localization “Messenger“. From developers Flagile Bits. Today, out of fashion, the quest genre was very popular at that time. And the “messenger”, just one of those games, which was then called classic quests with gameplay, which, practically has not changed since the 90s.
Literally, everything in this game is at the level of “not a hit, but it’s interesting to play”. It all depends on whether this story will captivate you.

So, the crew of the Apollo-19 ship landed on the back of the moon. Where, unexpectedly, aliens appeared – everything was pretty, they killed everyone, and only our hero Devid Walkers survived alive. He gets to the secret base of the aliens, then he turns out to be chosen, good aliens appear there.
In general, everything is according to the standard, and history mainly is a set of stamps, nevertheless, a couple of interesting plot turns, for that time, there is well and history may well captivate you.

Of course, most of the game time, we will have to collect objects and try to put them somewhere to work. There is here, and collecting circles and triangles in the correct drawing, and Pixel Hunting is present, where when the cursor is hung, it shows that this object is.
But living from this does not become easier. Pull the cursor on the wall and they will tell you for some reason that this is a wall, although for the whole game-you need to do anything with it well.

In addition, the graphics are not shining here. Basically, due to the not particularly conscientious work of artists-objects here sometimes, simply, merge into a blurry picture.
The dialogs are not voiced, although there are not so many texts, and the voices would not hurt here at all.
The main advantage of the game is that the action here is very diverse. Despite the fact that basically, we solve puzzles here, nevertheless, there will be, and alien technologies that give us unusual abilities, and the opportunity to play for each of the warring parties.

In principle, a game from the category – if missed – is not scary, but if you still play, then you will not have to regret the time spent time for passing. 6 points

Battle for Britain, Well Battle of Britain. From the developers Rowan Software. Almost like Rawen, only Rowen)).
The game transfers us in 1940, where the insolent Germans are trying to take possession of the advantage, invading the airspace of Britain.

In principle, the game is a typical representative of the games of the genre of air systems of that time. In stock, there is a campaign, single missions and multiplayer. But first, you still have to go through the flight school, otherwise, you simply cannot, even take off. After you, more or less, confidently begin to feel in the sky-the campaign will offer you to choose from, or fight on the side of England, or on the side of Fritz.

Missions, there are enough, diverse, and the elaboration of the physical model, for 2001, causes enthusiastic epithets, both beginners and players of players.
Perhaps everything is realistic – from overloads and models of pilot wounds to control of the aircraft itself.
AI is pleasing, and to deal with virtual opponents here is not easy. Beginners here will especially help that in the game there are already five modes of complexity settings and you can configure the game for yourself.

The game looks beautiful, albeit not too much, and generally meets the need for the gameplay – no more, not less. The whole game is diluted with high -quality videos about the Second World War, immersing in the atmosphere of that time.
In general, the battle for Britain will give a pleasant pastime, both fans of air systems and inexperienced players. 7 points

It is time for today to say goodbye to September 2001, and of course, we will return to him in the future, because there are still many games left, about which you need to tell. And now, all civilian – urgently leave the territory! There was an officer Startarev with you. Bye.