 |
Cro Mag Rally (PC)
by dangaroo
Cro Mag rally is a game of about 10 years old designed for Macs, it's also available on the Iphone I believe but as I'm yet to migrate to the world of smartphones, I can't confirm the experience of playing it on one.
Over Christmas I was looking for a computer game that would be fun and relatively not too demanding to play and ... I came across this. The demo version is available on the mac store and this gives you full access to the tracks but doesn't allow for championship play - to buy the license for the whole game it costs about $19.95. Personally, I think you're fine with the demo version but if you want to thank the creators or desperately want to play in championship mode, then go ahead.
Cro Mag Rally is a cartoon like rally game - you have a choice of several cavemen like vehicles - the type of vehicle you might see on The Flintstones only not quite as decorated, you can race in a turtle, a log and a giant bone to name a few. Different courses are based in different periods of history, there are 3 courses in the stone age, 3 in the bronze age and 3 in the iron age and the courses are imaginative and fun. You can choose from two cavemen racers or should I say one caveman and a cavewoman (Brog and Grag), both fairly ugly looking specimens! If you've ever played Mario Kart then you'll notice the similarities - the range of power ups that can improve your performance or be used as weapons are basically the same as in Mario Kart only repackaged to suit the course and historical period. It's effective and simple.
There aren't really any shortcuts as such but there are a few glitches or so called 'holes' in the course where you can somehow exit the course. This only happens on about 3 of them though.
If there's one criticism I have of the game, it's that there could be more in the way of obstacles on the courses and the racers tend to be automatically spaced quite a long distance from one another by the computer engine which means a lack of contact with the other racers and little possibility to use your power-ups to your benefit.
I do not really use my mac for gaming and therefore do not have any swanky control pads or steering wheels that can be used with it, I'm stuck with the keyboard controls and have to say that due to the attention the game needs, the fact that you are almost constantly required to be pressing at least one of the arrow keys, it makes your fingers very stiff and is not particularly comfortable.
The game is fun enough without ever really setting the world alight, I cannot imagine playing this game for day's on end but it's an entertaining enough racing game to warrant its place on my Mac.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Need for Speed: The Run (PC)
by D3m1rc1
If you are familiar with other Need For Speed games, then you know that the franchise has taken into many different directions over the years. NFS: The Run tries to take the game back to its original points, but also tries to introduce new elements into the game. Some of the classical elements like doing illegal stuff and being chased by ... cops hold true.
In this NFS game, you play as a character named Jack. Jack owes a mob a lot of money, and decides to join this race, which if we wins, will grant him the money to pay off his debts. The plot is very interesting, and it keeps the player entertained.
You zip through various terrains racing other people in an attempt to get first place. The visuals in this game are amazing, as it is quite an adrenaline rush being chased by cops while speeding like no other. The varied environments make each race feel different. There are different race types to choose from, but I feel like there could have been more race types.
I feel like this game sometimes gets repetitive very quickly, as I feel like I do the same thing over and over again. At a few points of the game, I felt like this wouldn't last very long in entertainment value. But if you find the interest to beat the game, you will be disappointed to see that there is not much to do once you are done.
Overall, I think this game was fun. I have been a fanboy with the Need for Speed series for as long as I can remember, and I am not majorly disappointed in this game. Sure, it did have its tedious moments, but it was overall an enjoyable experience.
Read the complete review |
 |
Audiosurf (PC)
by MonsoonBaby
There are plenty of rhythm games out there-take Rockband and Guitar Hero as prime examples, but there are many that somehow escaped the radar. Audiosurf may be pretty successful now, but upon it's release, it could definitely be classed in the underdog category.
Released on Steam, Audiosurf allows players to experience their ... music collection in a fun and addictive new way. Audiosurf takes (almost) any song and incorporates it into the game. Perhaps the most fun comes in waiting to see what kind of track the game has generated depending on the song, and it is so easy to get absorbed for a long amount of time in the gameplay.
To look at, Audiosurf is very similar to racing game Wipeout, but this is no straight forward racing game. Players use either the keyboard or mouse to move a futuristic looking craft left, right or to the middle on a floating track in order to pick up brightly coloured bars. The bars coincide with your chosen musical track, and the distance between them decreases the faster the track is. Slower songs tend to make your craft float slowly uphill, whilst faster songs or segments rapidly build up pace downhill. Like other rhythm games, faster songs are definitely much more fun, but a real sense of challenge lies in many of these tracks.
To put it simply, Audiosurf's main objective is to collect points as you navigate your craft through a track. Blocks can often be cleared by matching colours into groups of three, thus allowing the bricks to disappear. Bolder colours, such as red and yellow are worth more (these are considered the trickier blocks to hit), and the more blocks you collect without crashing into a fake one, the higher your combo score will be. A little bit of fun competition between friends is added in the form of scoreboards, where players can aim to beat their friends scores on particular tracks.
Although Audiosurf is a lot of fun, it isn't without it's drawbacks. First of all, the game has a tendency to lag on some of the faster songs. This in turn makes the track fall out of sync with the music a little, which can be somewhat frustrating. Occasionally the game generates blank tracks with my chosen music file not playing, or it freezes midway through a song. Again, a little frustrating, but thankfully this is not too common. The last downside is the syncing issue. As previously mentioned, Audiosurf analyses your music to generate a track, but sometimes the blocks do not follow the beat particularly well.
Apart from a small variety of modes to plough your way through, Audiosurf isn't a particularly large game to perhaps many people. However, this seems completely irrelevant when it is so easy to immerse yourself in this enjoyable musical experience for long periods of time. The game is not without it's glitches, which seems a terrible shame considering that for the most part, the gameplay is satisfying enough. There is never a shortage of tracks to mess around with, as Audiosurf allows for the majority of songs in a users library (I've only found two songs in my iTunes library deemed incompatible so far), as well as weekly free downloads of tracks via Audiosurf radio.
Music fans will probably love this somewhat relaxing experience. The vivid HD colours combined with music of your choice is appealing enough. It does suffer from a few technical issues, and may chug a little if your system isn't that powerful, but Audiosurf gives you a brand new way of experiencing your own music. Oh, and it's pretty cheap on Steam too.
Also on 8-Bit Girl: http://8-bitgirl.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-audiosurf.html & Ciao under "MonsoonBaby88"
Read the complete review |
