The 20 year-old American is just the second stateside man to grace the NHL  series’ cover and will be the youngest player ever to have his likeness slapped upon the plastic wrapping of the game.

Want to read a PR-spun statement? Enjoy what Mr. Kane had to say below.

“It’s exciting to be on the cover of my favorite videogame after playing just my second year as a professional,” said Kane. “When you look back at some of the great players who have had this opportunity, it’s an honor to be a part of the EA SPORTS family and contribute to a game I’ve been playing for more than 10 years.”

As for the game itself, NHL ‘10 is said to have over 200 refinements to core game-play including a first-person perspective on fighting, a first-ever addition, and one that will accentuate the “aggressiveness” of the sport.

Terminator Salvation hit shelves today, May 19 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC a full two days before the film debuts in theaters nationwide.  But this is alright because the video game form is set two years before the film and actually informs the gamer of just what the hell is happening in the impending motion pciture.

We’ll have a review for the Xbox 360 version up and ready just as fast as we can.  Sit tight.

The story follows Anthony the Ant as he searches for the Golden Sunflower in order to save his ant colony. You go from level to level and all over the world in your search for this elusive sunflower, which in turn means you have levels in different areas; I had the chance to test out a marble puzzle covered in ice, which increases the difficulty and changes the strategy significantly compared to levels that just have regular flooring.

The controls are handled entirely by the tilting of the Wii Remote in various directions. In the options menu you can decide to either hold the controller as you normally would or sideways like an NES controller, whichever is more comfortable. Once you get the hang of the sensitivity, it becomes a very intuitive control scheme that controls better than analog, and it feels more immersive to boot. This is good news, as the point is not just to blow through the level as fast as you can; sometimes you will need to slow down, or make very subtle movements or change direction entirely.

Out of the complaints for the first game in the series, two things stood out. First of all, the game was far too short, and the game was too easy. Hudson has remedied this problem by increasing the difficulty of the puzzles, which makes for a more satisfying puzzle experience, and by significantly ramping up the number of levels you could play. In Marble Mania, you had 40 levels, and then 40 mirrored versions of those same levels. This time, Hudson is promising 150 total levels, in a variety of forms.

You get the levels that come with the game, but Hudson will also have levels ready for you over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection at launch. You can also create your own levels and store 20 of them, and then store an additional 20 levels made by your friends. There are also 20 levels designed for use with the Wii Balance Board, but if you lack a balance board, they can be played with the Wii Remote just like all of the others. The fact that you can swap your friends levels and your own in and out all the time also means that the title has far more replay value than the original, so those who already own and love that version should have no issues running out to get the improved one.

What makes creating levels intriguing are the number of “widgets” you can use to customize your levels in order to make them more than just a marble rolling over a floor until he reaches the exit. There are magnets, shrinking machines, acceleration tubes, movable bridges, cannons…there’s a lot you can do when creating these levels; my one complaint is that there doesn’t seem to be a central hub for uploading strangers levels. It would be a neat feature if Hudson checked out some of the better levels people were uploading to their friends and made them into downloadable packages, just incase your friends lack any kind of imagination (or don’t own the game in the first place).

Though there isn’t any online play, there are online leaderboards, so you can see where you rank among the fastest and most efficient marble rollers. I’m a sucker for time trial based levels, so that’s something that appeals to my inner competitive gamer.

Not only did I test out the sequel to Marble Mania while at Comic Con, but Hudson gave me a demo for the game to play back at home on my Wii, which allowed me to give the multiplayer a shot. You can play Marble Saga: Kororinpa with 2-4 players in multiplayer mode, and it’s a race to the finish line here. You will have to move faster than you do in the single-player mode, since you are not just racing your own personal time, you’re going at it against friends. Thanks to the nature of some of the more difficult levels, this is a mode that is sure to give the game replay value, as competitive puzzle solving makes for a fun night gaming at home with friends.

I didn’t play the first in the Kororinpa series because the game seemed short and was considered easy, but the concept showed promise if Hudson just worked on their formula a bit to enhance it. After sitting down with Marble Saga, I can say that they did just that, and have created a very enjoyable game that looks to be well worth the $30 asking price. Marble Saga: Kororinpa releases March 17 of this year, and we will have more information for you and an eventual review as that date approaches.

Though the battle-hardened RTS gamers among you may question my suitability for this assignment, I’d like to contend that my inexperience makes me the perfect man for the job; after all, as a Halo-playing console gamer, I’m the target audience. If I could be turned-well, I wouldn’t be a powerful ally. But my conversion would bode well for the game’s chances of succeeding on a platform which has represented a formidable proving ground for RTS games in the past.

After downloading the 1.4 GB demo and navigating past an extremely prominent seizure warning (does Ensemble know something I don’t?), I found myself gazing at the soothing blue tones of a Halo menu screen, as remixed monks (or monk impersonators) chanted with abandon. Because I’m the methodical sort (and an RTS n00b), I made a beeline for the tutorial option, which was divided into “basic” and “advanced” sections. The former provided instruction in, well, the basics: unit selection, movement, and attacking. The latter forced me into the deep end, introducing me to the harvesting, “expo,” and research mechanics which normally send me running for the nearest shooter, platformer, or RPG.

Halo Wars’ controls are fairly intuitive. The left joystick controls the camera; leave the cursor centered on one of your units, and the camera will move along with it. Individual units can be selected with the A button, and the left bumper selects all units. The X button is context-sensitive, and can be used to mark destinations, attack enemy units, and salvage supplies from conveniently situated crates (where would gamers be without them?), depending on the cursor’s location. Y controls special attacks-grenades for foot soldiers, a “ram” attack for warthogs, and the like. If “preserve your own base long enough to destroy the enemy’s, and occasionally blow up other stuff,” proves too complicated an assignment for you to recall, you can press the Back button at any time to call up your objectives. “Leader powers,” accessible via the D-pad, allow you to call upon the UNSC flagship, “Spirit of Fire,” for an orbital bombardment. D-Pad commands also allow you to jump quickly to the opposition base, or to your army’s leader.

The game’s streamlined control scheme is designed for ease of use, and, given the limitations of the Xbox 360 controller, it mostly delivers the goods. However, I did have a few complaints. Even with the rather generous radius surrounding each actionable item, I experienced occasional difficulties in selecting the objects I meant to select; unfortunately, if you intend to attack an enemy unit, and miss by a millimeter, you’ll send your unsuspecting, unprepared proxies directly into the line of fire. Path-finding didn’t seem to be an issue, except for one instance, when I ordered a contingent of Locusts to obliterate a legion of Marines, only to watch them concentrate their fire on a rocky outcropping between the two.

Rather than mapping the zoom level to a button, Halo Wars consigns this setting to the start menu, making it difficult to gain a different perspective in the heat of battle. At the default setting, camera movement is somewhat jerky, but its scroll speed and “stickiness” can also be adjusted in the menu.

Despite Ensemble’s lofty claims about Halo Wars’ handling, I don’t believe that it measures up to the precision of the traditional mouse-and-keyboard arrangement. The absence of a click-and-drag feature (which somehow made its way into Mech Platoon on the GBA) limits the player’s ability to divvy up his or her forces. Although the right trigger enables sub-selections (a feature which the tutorial fails to mention), I found myself most often using employing either one unit, or all of them. The lack of an option to build units without placing the cursor on a base, or to have newly constructed units join the fray automatically, rather than loitering outside of the barracks, also hurts the game’s flow.

Upon entering a level, you’ll find yourself situated near a base, or a likely location for base construction. A few button presses later, you’ll have a large central building, multiple supply pads, a reactor, and a barracks, all airlifted from orbit or assembled from scratch-the United Nations Space Command doesn’t believe in getting estimates and hiring contractors. Selecting new units, buildings, and technologies is accomplished through a circular menu system, which seems quite natural after a brief adjustment period. The Covenant base features a radically different design aesthetic, as one might expect, but functions in much the same way.

The main campaign takes place 20 years before the “Halo event,” and pits human and Covenant forces against each other on the surface of Harvest. A lengthy opening cinematic sets the scene, providing a glimpse of the carnage which the conflict has already engendered, as well as a new AI hologram, Serena, who has Cortana beaten handily in the looks department. The demo’s two playable missions, which provide roughly half an hour of gameplay, charge you with rounding up scattered survivors in an effort to retake a vanquished base. After the conclusion of each level, a mission summary recaps your performance, awarding a medal based upon your completion time, damage accrued, and havoc wrought. More detailed statistics offer information tailored toward helping you identify weaknesses in your game, not unlike Halo 3’s post-match summaries.

The demo also includes a skirmish mode, limited to a one-player showdown (with deathmatch mode locked) against an AI opponent on the “Chasms” map. You probably won’t want to play it more than once.

Visually, the game shines-packed with detail, the landscape of Harvest looks just like a Halo environment should. Bases bustle with activity, featuring flashing lights and hovering transports, and the exteriors of damaged buildings and units convincingly reflect their conditions. Warthogs move just like warthogs, which only served to remind me how much more I’d prefer to drive one than control one from afar. Weapons sound like they should, and the orchestral score picks up at all the right times, though the voice work is somewhat lackluster.

The Halo Wars demo may have made me pine for a lengthy Halo 3 session, but it also heightened my previously feeble sense of anticipation for the game’s March 3^rd release. Ensemble’s parting effort appears on track to deliver an experience over which RTS veterans and console shooter fans can bond, which should add to the popular franchise’s already impressive legacy.

Edit: Thanks to JadedTarget and Jason for throwing a rookie a bone in the comments below. Also, thanks to William, who emailed me with the news that holding A and moving the left joystick around controls the click-and-drag function I was pining for. The moral of this story is: don’t believe anything I say when I’m talking about an RTS game. With those concerns addressed, though, I’m certainly feeling more optimistic about the Halo Wars experience. I just hope there’s a more detailed tutorial in the final build, or one humdinger of a manual.

The game was developed by Ensemble Studios, and it’s their last project as well, with the Microsoft-owned studio put down despite being trusted with the reins to Microsoft’s most significant franchise.

We’ll have a hands-on for the demo soon, so check back here for more info on this new twist in one of gaming’s most popular franchises.

The demo is broken up into two levels, Public Assembly and Shanty Town. No context is given as to why you are in either location, or how the events that unfold came together, which is good for those who were hoping to avoid spoilers. Yes, there are a few cutscenes that show off the graphical prowess of this slick looking title, but without the proper context they are all flash and little story.

Capcom didn’t screw around either, letting you get used to the controls or the way that your enemies react to you, instead throwing you into the middle of two areas full of baddies who are armed and want to harm you. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the controls since the demo released, but it’s tough to sympathize too much; there are four different control types, and you can adjust the speed at which you aim. The demo defaults to normal, so moving it to fast or fastest like I did may be best for those who are used to making split-second headshot movements.

Yes, you still feel like a tank since you can’t move while shooting, but the enemies are designed to attack you in a way that will keep you from noticing this for very long. They may run at you quickly, but will slow down in order to melee attack you with a bottle or shovel, or whatever it is they have armed themselves with. That’s your time to set your shot and take out their head in one satisfying press of the right trigger button.

The controls do take some getting used to though, just like every other Resident Evil title that isn’t on the Wii. In control style Type D, the default for the demo, reloading is performed by holding down the left bumper and hitting A, which feels awkward at first. By the time I finished the demo though, it was a fluid motion that you got used to.

Taking out the knife does make things a bit awkward for a time though, as you press the left trigger to wield that before pressing the right trigger to swing it; it’s just a matter of remembering what button combinations perform a specific task, nothing repetition can’t fix. The preference would of course be for controls that feel intuitive right off of the bat, but they are not setup in a way that anyone interested in playing Resident Evil cannot quickly adapt to.

There’s the worry that Capcom has replaced the survival horror element entirely with a more action-oriented approach, but that’s another area where the complaints need to tone down a bit, just based off of the demo anyways. The areas you were in were brightly lit, but you were sorely outnumbered, low on ammunition and health, and fighting mini boss enemies in tight corridors and enclosed spaces; that’s a different kind of dread that Capcom is trying to make you feel. Whether it’s as effective as the old style is something that needs to be figured out over the course of the full game, not the short demo.

One thing that does work is the co-op mode. Sheva, when controlled by the AI, is intelligent. She doesn’t just sit around and let you take out the enemies, and she is there to heal you, free you from the clutches of an enemy, or give you ammunition when you are low on it. You need to keep her alive as well, so be a good teammate and return the favors. If you don’t want to deal with the AI, you have the option to play co-op both offline or online as well.

It looks like this game is shaping up to be another great entry in the series, but time will tell if it’s as good as its predecessor. Those are some big shoes to fill, which is why Capcom has changed some parts of the game so drastically (the setting, adding co-op, etc.). This is definitely a demo you are going to want to check out though; just remember to play with the controls a bit, because they take some getting used to.

On that note, we will have hands-on impressions of the demo hear at Blast Games this week. The hope is to get you information on both the solo play as well as the co-op, which can be played with someone else over Xbox Live, and to tell you how well it holds up. I’m just hoping the controls are tight enough that I won’t miss my zombie headshots via the Wii Remote, or I’ll be even more upset Capcom didn’t port this over to the Wii using the RE4 engine.

Resident Evil 5 releases for both Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 in March. Download the demo today if you can, and tell us what you think of the series progression from true survival horror to action-oriented shooter.

From Capcom:

“Resident Evil 5″ Demo Available Exclusively on Xbox LIVE Today

Xbox 360 is inviting members of Xbox LIVE to be among the first to get hands on with an exclusive, playable demo of the upcoming “Resident Evil 5,” available one week before anywhere else, starting today for Xbox LIVE Gold members.* The launch means that millions of Xbox LIVE members around the globe will get access to this special sneak peek before any other platform.

In preparation for the eagerly awaited arrival on Xbox 360, March 13th 2009, Resident Evil fans will be challenged to be the first to find the secret at www.Xbox.com/RE5, then head to www.residentevil.com/Kijuju to crack the code starting at the end of January.

As part of the demo launched today, fans will be able to get hands-on with new “Resident Evil 5″ features including three new levels of single- and two player co-op play (limited to Gold members), characters, weapons and environments. In this latest installment of the renowned survivor-horror franchise, returning “Resident Evil” hero Chris Redfield is joined by new partner Sheva Alomar to take on the frightening effects of the latest bioterrorist attack in the depths of Africa.

I also had no fear of walking down hallways, streets and Metro stations, but this was all before I decided to download and play the recently released F.E.A.R. 2 demo off of Xbox Live.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, an action-adventure FPS slash pseudo-Japanese horror story from Monolith Productions, is the second installment of one of the most talked about and frightening FPS franchises in recent memory. Though I never did get on the bandwagon to play the original title, the Project Origin demo did more than enough to convince me that the hype was well deserved.

Project Origin begins with a dramatic opening cinematic. Starting with a deep black screen, you hear the words “Her name is Alma” spoken by the narrator. If you’ve ever been to a video game forum or website in the last year, you know that when Alma is mentioned, you’re probably in big trouble.

From the black screen, the cinematic slowly zooms into Alma, a seemingly harmless 8-year-old child blessed (or should I say cursed?) with psychic abilities, playing on a swing set atop a peaceful grassy hill. However, the portrait is not pleasant for long as the sequence starts to dart violently back and forth between clips of burning buildings and mayhem. Each frame becomes more dramatic, pulsating and contracting. The tension builds as the shot slowly closes in on the girl on the swing set. The cinematic converts seamlessly to gameplay, reminding me of the opening sequence of Bioshock. It was a true “Oh wow, this IS the game” moment.

Once you realize that you’re in control, you assume the role of a weaponless Michael Beckett on an abandoned street. As you walk Beckett further down the street, you see Alma just ahead of you, signaling to the player of which direction to head. Why you would want to chase Alma down a street sans a weapon, I have no idea.

From there, you navigate your way through streets, schools and subways systems, finding weapons and Delta Force members along the way. You also encounter a good variety of foes including ghosts, mechwarriors and one particularly annoying falling bus.

Reflex Time was one of my favorite parts of Project Origin. If I ever found myself surrounded by enemies, I would just toggle the Y button and unload with my shotgun. It was a satisfaction I’ve missed since Max Payne’s Bullet Time.

What was great about this demo was the fact that you never really know what is coming or when it is going to happen. All you know is that it WILL happen and that you may need another clean pair of boxers very soon.

From this, you are trapped in a constant state of terror. You are continuously wondering when the next paranormal event will happen. This is definitely tolerable in a demo format but I do wonder what affect it may have on players in a full-scale campaign.

The flaws in this demo are few and far between. Sometimes the enemy character models as well as the doors and other landmarks can be hard to see due to shading and shadows. I recommend keeping your flashlight on at all times and perhaps even adjusting the brightness settings in the game menu up a notch or two. I did enjoy the gore, though I thought it to be a bit over the top when combined with Reflex Time.

In any case, I am looking forward to the full version of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. From what I saw, the story has potential and the campaign will certainly be full of surprises. The only doubts I have about the game are with the brightness of the in-game environments and how many hours I will be able to play before I start having nightmares about Alma.

We reviewed the PC version, but ti was also released on PlayStation. Click here to download the original demo!

Taylor’s review

When I first saw the box for KKnD 2 Krossfire, I thought “Wow, this game doesn’t look that bad!”

Little did I know how wrong I was. Installation was probably the best part of this game — smooth and quick with no restart afterward.

Even the opening movie was informative and actually looked good, but this is the only part of the game that has good graphics. The rest of the game did not impress me at all.

The graphics, in my opinion, were no better than Command & Conquer, which is 3 or 4 years old. Why they didn’t try to the improve graphics is beyond me. With such games as Command & Conquer 2: Tiberium Sun coming out soon, you would think that they would want to get an one up on the competition.

KKnD2 Krossfire ran exceptionally well on my system, probably because of such of its low quality graphics etc. Levels took only a moment to load while the movies would only take a few seconds.

The Sound for KKnD2 Krossfire was nothing special. When you click on an unit, it makes the same sound every time you click on the unit. Not to mention that it makes the same sound for every unit for your race. Now, I don’t mean to complain, but hearing the same marine saying the same thing over and over and over again gets on my nerves and I found myself often turning down the sound because of this.

The gameplay is quite boring. There are almost too many units in this game. You cant even figure out what you are making as a unit sometimes. It’s such a stupid design for making a unit. You click on “Constructibles” then a submenu pops up and you choose a base (small, medium, huge) then pick parts. Unfortunately, there is no way to know what these parts do however. Then there is the control factor of these units. To select a unit you left click on it. To move a unit you left click where you want it to go. This is okay, except if you have a lot of units together, and you try to move a unit away from enemy fire, but accidentally click on another unit, the unit is toast.

Despite the genre, this game requires absolutely no strategy to play. It’s just get money, build units, die, build even more units, more, more, more. You get the idea. There is no balance in the units. It’ll take a million archers to take out one sentry gun. The only way to win is to mass-produce units from the very start.

There are only one or two units that can attack air units, so air dominance is key in this game. It kinda makes the game unfair because if you have air and the other person is still researching things to make anti air, they will never win.

To sum it up, if you really want to play a game that bores you, and needs no thinking at all, this is for YOU! If not? go play StarCraft, a much better game. 2 out of 5 stars

Stormy’s 1998 analysis/preview

I guess this must be a pretty popular game cause it comes in several languages, they are English, German, French, Spanish & Mandarin. (I think that is the first time I’ve seen a game available in Mandarin!)

There are two CD’s, one containing the installation and Survivor missions, the other containing the Series 9 and Evolved missions. When you start the game with disk one in, you must pick a Survivor mission. If you pick either one of the other two, the game will bounce back to the desktop, and that’s that. The only way to play the other two missions is to start with disk 2 in the drive, BEFORE you choose the mission. There will be no “please insert disk 2″ prompt, which of course surprised the heck out of me, I thought the CD was broke.

The folks that wrote the instruction manual are aware that a lot of people don’t like to read manuals, so they wrote it humorous. Unless you already know how to play, you ought to get a kick out of learning how to play this game.

The game has 51 missions, and your objective is to gather resources to build your own buildings and fighting units while looking for the enemy so you can crush everything he’s got, in some of the missions, and in some of the missions your only objective is to kill. You can kinda tell right away, either you have the stuff to gather resources, (oil rigs, tankers, buildings, etc) or you don’t. If you don’t have all the extra stuff, then you gotta figure out how to kill the enemy with what you got, cause you can’t build any more. However, there are surprises lying around, there is buried 21st century goodies, and during a mission where I found myself with just one fighter, (he was a nasty one, but not invincible) suddenly I found a repair bay out in the middle of nowhere (thank god!) You can play this game alone or 2 people over Modem and Serial connections, or up to eight players on TCP/IP, or IPX.

Ye Olde System Requirements

• Pentium 133 or faster
• 16MB RAM
• 4X CD
• 2MB DirectX compatible video card
• DirectX compatible digital sound card

Official website

“Red Bull BC One is one of the most important B-Boy competitions in the world. The legendary battle hosts 16 of the world’s best B-Boys in a one-on-one, knock-out-battle to determine who is The One,” Ignition said in a statement Wednesday.

B-Boys and B-Girls are hip hop terms. The term originated as a way to refer to any follower of hip hop, identifiable by clothing habits, listening tastes or lifestyle. It has since more specifically been used to refer to the hip hop dancing.

There are a ton of Red Bull BC One videos, screens, wallpapers and info on the game’s website.

GAME FEATURES:

• Officially licensed game, featuring the world of Red Bull BC One competitions
• 36 battles throughout 8 stages in story mode, plus training mode
• 70+ different dance animations
• Many un-lockable mini games and items
• 35 unique music tracks
• 3D backgrounds (basketball court, urban street, beach and more)
• Multiple customization options (outfits, hair, shoes and more)
• Battle against a friend in wireless multiplayer mode

Red Bull BC One hits shelves September 16.

Demo features:

• Design and develop your own character, seeing it come to life in 3D and in the comic-style 2D cut scenes
• Play through the tutorial level and the beginning of the game’s storyline
• Access the Startling Developments Agency screen to browse through the case log, inventory and dossier to get a sneak peek at the full game

Get it:

Windows
Mac
Linux

Doom 95 was Doom’s first foray into the native Windows world. It let you run Doom, Doom 2 and PWAD’s in 640×480 resolution — twice the image quality of the original Dos version.

While it suffers some compatibility issues on modern systems, Doom 95 remains a decent, quick, portable and easy option for running Doom and user-created levels. Doom 95 includes the shareware Doom1.wad first episode.

Download Doom 95 free from Blast Magazine

Around 1995, well before my High Heat days, I played hours and hours and hours of Hardball baseball. One of the first CD-ROM’s I ever owned — which came with my first 4X CD-ROM drive — was an Accolade game compilation that contained Hardball, Unnecessary Roughness football and Jack Nicklaus golf.

Hardball never had awesome graphics, but it, like many other PC sports games, especially at that time, was game you could truly make your own. You could add players, change teams, add yourself and your friends, add legendary players and change everyone’s skills accordingly.

The March 1996 edition of Computer Gaming World Extra, the free CD that came with issue 140 of the magazine, contains a demo of Hardball 5 as well as CRY.SYS, Space Bucks, 11th Hour, Age of Rifles, Fulltilt! Pinball, Heroes of Might and Magic, NCAA College Basketball and FPS Football 96 packed into a disc with patches, a comic strip and the obligatory AOL installation. It was a very typical magazine CD back then.

The Hardball series itself has been around since 1985, when Accolade put it on Commodore 64. It later ended up on Apple II, Apple IIGS, Macintosh, the Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, Amiga, MSX, ZX Spectrum, PC (DOS in CGA and EGA), and eventually the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and Sony PlayStation — if you believe Wikipedia.

Hardball 5 is one of the highest-rated PC baseball games ever made. Gamespot’s Hugh Foster called it “the most playable baseball sim on the shelves today,” in an early review.

It was also one of Accolade’s late titles before the Infogrames took over in 1999. Accolade is responsible for the Test Drive, Deadlock, Bubsy, Brett Hull Hockey, Barkley: Shut Up and Jam (AWESOME Genesis title) and Star Control gaming franchises among many others.

Download the Hardball 5 demo free from Blast Magazine

After many battles, a former kingdom has been divided into many small principalities and earldoms. The king’s troops were pushed back into one last royal province, and the rulers of the other provinces waged terrible, destructive wars against one another. The whole land fell into a state of chaos and now the former royal capital itself is under siege by the armies of the rebel lords. You belong to the last remaining group of loyal king’s men, and have been commanded to go to the king in view of the imminent attack.

In my reading of a latest magazine, I had found that it had given Knights and Merchants a poor review. In the advertisements and previews I had seen, however, I found it to be a game deserving of a much higher rating. That is why I rushed to review it, to prove that magazine wrong, or at least to try.

Well, I was right. Knights and Merchants gets a four star review from me. If the game were less complicated, it would have been perfect. The game’s battle system is very complex. A setup like that ought to be its own game. When you throw in the kingdom management, the game becomes very frenzied. Otherwise, it is the greatest detail I’ve ever seen in a game. Until it, Age of Empires was the best. But in Knights and Merchants, your little people do exactly what they should be doing. My favorite was the farmer on the vineyard. He put a basket on his back, walked out into the fields, and he picks the grapes off the vines. Then, he gets back to his house, pours the grapes out into a huge well, removes his shoes, and stomps on the grapes, making wine. That is exactly the kind of game that this is. Everything makes a whole lot of sense. Soldiers and servants need bread, sausage, and wine for food, and the serfs are expected to bring everything to them. Builders require wood and stone as they are working, and they will stop until they get these things from the serfs.

Another good thing about the game is the amount of people needed. In traditional RTS games, there is one servant/peon that will do all your day to day tasks. In Knights and Merchants, serfs only bring commodities to building sites, food to hungry troops, and other things like that. Then, builders only will construct your needed buildings, which are also very numerous. For wood, you need a saw mill; for bread, a windmill and a bakery; etc. There are so many different variations in this game. However for people who don’t like these complicated games, I wouldn’t recommend Knights and Merchants, but if you want a new style of Real-time Strategy, go buy Knights and Merchants.

Download the demo free from Blast Magazine.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Interactive Magic
Developer: JoyMania
Platform: PC CD-ROM
Genre: Real-time strategy
Players: 1
Launch Date: 1998

Playability: 4 out of 5 stars
User friendly: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
Ratings were determined in 1999

Ye Olde System Requirements

• PC Pentium 133
• 7 0MB Disk space
• 24MB RAM or more
• 28.8 modem for net play

Oh what a magazine it was. Launch was mainly a music publication, which offered a Macromedia-powered CD-ROM magazine in the 90s. It was an early form of convergence journalism, and we pay homage to them and their efforts.

Like just about every other good thing in the tech bubble years, it got bought out and bastardized, homogenized and repackaged. Today, Launch is unrecognizable as merely an Internet radio station incorporated into Yahoo! Music. Yahoo! paid $12 million for Launch in 2001.

But Launch CD-ROM did some great things back in the day, and one of the things they did pretty well was throw in video game reviews and game demos.

In Launch 11, which I believe was the February 1997 issue, they included a review and install program for a new action game called Tomb Raider.

To give you a sense of where we were back then, Launch 11 also offered an interview with Silverchair and reviews of cd’s from Bush, Branford Marsalis, Cardigans, Cake and Merril Bainbridge. Also featured, a review of the soundtrack from Romeo and Juliet (by the way, one of the best soundtracks ever made). They also reviewed Waverace 64, Grid Runner, Temptest 2000, Tobal No. 1, Mr. Bones and Drowned God.

The Tomb Raider review (read it here) is a classic early take on Tomb Raider.

Download the Tomb Raider Demo
Download the original readme

Switchball is an intricate puzzle game set in a stunning 3D world. Control an ever-changing ball along a narrow winding course suspended in midair. Solve your way through challenging levels jam-packed with obstacles, traps and mazes. This one is addictive!

Features:

• Inventive and fun puzzle-driven play based on real world physical interactions.
• Beautiful and elegant 3D graphics offer panoramic views of 30 incredible levels in 5 amazing environments – Skyworld, Iceworld, Caveworld, Cloudworld and Lavaworld.
• More than 40 interactive objects including wooden blocks, sheets of cloth, spinning fans, magnets, cannons and many more.
• Morph the marble into a different ball, with unique physical properties including the metalball, powerball and airball to more easily get through each area.

Download the Switchball PC demo free from Blast Magazine.

“The demo will take players into a world where nothing is as it seems,” said Onur Samli, CEO of Zoetrope Interactive. “Mysteries unfold and players will toe the fine line between sanity and insanity. We wanted to create an eerie game world where players will enjoy being frightened.”

Samli said the game packs an involving story that builds the protagonist’s character as the game goes on and you try to locate the fugitive murder suspect Loath Nolder.

“Darkness Within stands out from other games in its genre since it takes players deep into the dark recesses of the human psyche exploring themes such as the occult, nightmares and paranormal events,” said Erik Schreuder, CEO of Lighthouse Interactive. “The demo gives players a peek into the twisted world built around a compelling murder investigation. Darkness Within will keep players entertained for hours!”

The demo allows you to play one of the scenes you’ll encounter during the murder investigation. The company promises “strange happenings will occur, so players will need to keep their wits about them in order to escape the terrifying darkness.”

Official game summary:

As police detective Howard E. Loreid, players are tasked to solve the murder of Clark Field, a wealthy man involved in the occult. At the top of your list of suspects is Loath Nolder; a highly respected private investigator who mysteriously abandoned his last case for reasons unknown. Rumor had it that he ventured to several exotic places around the world learning from tribe shamans and sorcerers. It remains a great mystery as to why Loath Nolder disappeared so suddenly, resurfacing five years later and resuming his investigations just as abruptly as he had left them. Why does this venerated P.I. now sit on the other side of the law?Your seemingly routine investigation takes a dramatic twist as strange and terrifying happenings begin to plague your psyche. You experience lucid horrifying dreams and are tormented by paranormal happenings. Why do days pass instead of hours when you sleep? What’s real and what’s not? As you pursue fugitive murder suspect Loath Nolder, you must face dire truths hidden deep within a haunting darkness and the recesses of your mind.

Other game features:

• Built-in Hint System with 3 Difficulty Levels – Players can choose to play in Standard, Detective or Senior Detective modes.
• Unique Inventory System – Utilizing the ‘thinking screen’ allows players to collect and examine items, and thoughts. Clues can also be researched, combined or used.
• Dynamic Puzzles and Features – Traditional adventure game puzzles are complimented by deciphering dreams and underlining excerpts in documents to garner critical clues.
• Enhanced Gameplay Experience – The proprietary game engine enables compelling special effects, stunning visuals, and dynamic lighting and shading, in a panoramic first person game environment.
• Eerie Gameplay Atmosphere – An immersive experience is created by a fascinating story, chilling real-time cut scenes, and haunting music.

Download the demo (152 MB)

“Avencast combines role-playing with a fluid combat system found in beat-em-up games, which is unique to the RPG genre,” publisher Lighthouse Interactive and developer ClockStone Software, said jointly in a statement.

Avencast is Windows Vista compatible and has now gone gold. Michael Schiestl, CEO of ClockStone Software said, “Players will now have the chance to play the demo and experience first hand some of the exciting features in Avencast — intense, action-packed combat sequences, and mighty spells that are graphically stunning.”

Avencast features indoor and outdoor locations and more than 20 unlockable spells to unlock.

“This is just a taste of what Avencast has to offer,” Schiestl siad. “We hope players will enjoy challenging the malicious foes from the world of Avencast!”

Both companies are hopeful that the game will bring success.

“ClockStone created a unique and fluid combat system for Avencast that stands out and differs from other action RPGs,” said Erik Schreuder, CEO of Lighthouse Interactive. “The demo focuses on the combat system and spell casting.”

The demo features a tutorial, so players can learn the game before diving into it, as well as about 1.5 hours of gameplay, featuring spells, items and battles.

As the sun rises over Avencast, the renowned academy of magic; a young adept begins his perilous journey. In a world of wizardry, wonder and untold mystery, you must undertake some of the most diverse quests to hone your abilities in spell casting, weaponry and melee combat. Your martial skills are soon put to the test as demonic monsters of unknown ancient origin descend upon Avencast turning the academy into a horrific state of chaos and destruction.Armed with over 50 combat moves and spells, and a vast arsenal of equipment items, you must uncover the source of these ominous happenings while vanquishing an onslaught of fiendish enemies. Treachery and deceit reveal themselves as the vicious army of adversaries beleaguers your frail haven threatening Avencast’s very existence. Amidst the mayhem, an astonishing truth unfolds which will forever change the battle scarred Wizard. Avencast: Rise of the Mage is accessible to novice RPG game players, but it will also challenge core RPG and Action fans. Both combat and non-combat interactions create a perfect balance between brains and brawn. By requiring players to bring their own combat and strategic skills to the forefront, they will have the excitement of crafting a powerful character unleashing their hero’s potential.

Features:

• Cast Lethal Spells from Different Skill Trees – Surrounded by vicious foes, unleash a mighty soul magic spell. The pure agglomeration of energy alone produces a warp in the surrounding atmosphere before the catastrophic nova demolishes your enemies. Blood Magic (elementally charged blows with varying speeds, ranges, and damage properties) and Soul Magic (covers all kinds of ranged magic spells allowing better area control) – both allow players to summon reinforcements during combat.
• Perilous Quests – While brawn and agility will win most battles, acumen and strategic thinking are necessary to survive challenging quests.
• Fluid Combat System – Chain together spells and easily execute lethal attacks using an innovative system that favors skillful gameplay over dull mouse clicking. Unleash your hero’s potential as you bring your own player skills to each intense battle.
• Strong Player Personification and Character Development – Acquire new equipment, armor, weapons and spell casting skills to craft a powerful character.
• Over 30 Nightmarish Monsters with Advanced AI – Each with versatile combat strategies, attacks, and defensive moves dependant upon the player’s behavior and attack strategy.
• State-of-the-art 3D Engine – Stunning graphics enhanced with advanced visual effects make for an impressive display of devastating spell casting.
• Many Hours of Exciting Gameplay – Set in diverse worlds with both indoor and outdoor environments to explore.
• Attractive to a Broad Range of Players – An Action RPG at its core, but dynamic gameplay and adventure-like quests make Avencast attractive to a broad range of game players.

Download the Avencast demo here! (309 MB)