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Grand Theft Auto (PC)
by businesselite
Before becoming one of the most popular and successful games in the world, there was the original Grand Theft Auto. At first glance there isn't really anything exciting that stands out. The graphics are rudimentary and it kind of looks like a game that would be suited for younger audiences. But when you start to play it, thats when you ... notice the reason why it has become a pop culture phenomenon. This is the one of the first highly controversial games that put the main emphasis towards murder, sex, and violence.
The game is setup on a large scale fictional city. You play the role of a gangster, the purpose throughout the game is to develop your character by doing different missions that all involve criminal activity. Some of the missions include stealing numerous cars, others involve murder, and most of them all have high speed car chases with cops. What makes this game unique though is that you can totally ignore the missions and just roam free throughout the city and cause your own mass destruction. This concept of absolute freedom and no restrictions is the reason why the games franchise has become so popular.
The original version has a top down 2d view for the games perspective. Although low grade and cheesy looking, the player can benefit from this because it gives you a wide view of the map, allowing you to see any nearby enemies and to see upcoming road routes. This is one of the games that really defines the term "graphics aren't everything" and it is true because of the games awesome playability and subject matter.
Grand Theft Auto original is still one of the most entertaining video games that you will ever play. One of the few games that lets its gameplay speak for itself instead of its graphics.
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Formula 1 2010 (PC)
by CallumLaird
As a Formula 1 fan I have been waiting for a simulation based game to use on my wheel for a long time. Many a game has come and gone leaving a path of bad reviews and unsatisfied enthusiasts until now!
Codemasters have hit this bang on the button. Don't get me wrong it has its fall points but I will get to them ... later.
Firstly I am going to talk about the menus and set up. First of all you choose your team, and answer a few questions about yourself. This is then used to set up your season. The menus are then located in the Paddock next to your team hospitality suite and motorhome. Looks impressive and is also very easy to use.
The pre-race menus are then set with you sat inside your car in the pits ready to go out. It does a really good job of making you feel like you are part of a real F1 team!
Secondly the Graphics and weather. Codemasters are extremely proud of their dynamic weather system. If you are clever you can actually spot the changes in weather based on cloud cover, colour, temperature etc. The rain on the track looks phenomenal.. I have never seen such a good graphical representation on a game, and to top it off as you are driving round as it dries up, the racing line slowly becomes dryer than the rest of the track!
As you are driving round the track you can see the tyre marbles begin to build up around the outside! How awesome!
You can taylor the handling to your skills by adding and removing the assists such as ABS and traction control.
I have to mention how it responds with a wheel. If I am honest then I will have to say it is not the best force feedback I have encountered. Please bare in mind though that this is comparing it to real simulations such as R-Factor which sole purpose is to make it feel like a racing car. F1 2010 provides you with a high end experience of racing Formula 1 including teams, strategy, tyres, set ups and more!
Main problem though is the lack of a safety car when there is a crash... Hopefully something for 2011?
I still love playing this game a year on, and I cannot wait for the newer version to be released!
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Grand Theft Auto - London, 1969 (PC)
by Hannard
London eh? A nice place, but you wouldn't want to live there. Particularly if you suffer from claustrophobia of any kind or didn't relish the prospect of being wedged into a low ceilinged mini-train every morning, ending up having to force your way past tourists to get anywhere at all, and choking on car fumes. But things could be worse ... - you could actually be living inside GTA London 1969, a place where the streets are less crowded, but rather dangerous, given the fact that you'd have put up with deranged drivers zooming around, mowing people down at random, blowing up cars and generally causing chaos. Still, it's all in the name of sixties nostalgia so that's okay then.
You've probably got an idea of what to expect from GTA London. Specifically, plenty of zooming around in various sixties style cars, doing jobs for London gangsters, evading the rozzers, and generally causing chaos on the streets of the capital. And in this respect, GTA London delivers, but not for long, since there's only enough game there to last you for four hours or so in single player mode, possibly slightly longer in multiplayer mode.
Granted, GTA London is fun for a short while, and the funky sixties music is pretty good, till you realise that what you're driving round, isn't exactly London. It's more like an American city, with various London place names slapped on. The London featured in GTA London doesn't look that much like London in 1969 or any other era. For a start, there are no curves or corners - the streets are decidedly square, like some big American city, and nothing like London. This may well be a limitation of the now aged GTA 1 engine, but it's a bit off-putting. Also slightly odd is the way that, while the game is set in 1969, none of the pedestrians seem to sport 1969 outfits or fashions, looking exactly like the characters in the original GTA. Even the characters that are supposedly football players look like the rest of the pedestrians - a little bit of character editing wouldn't have gone amiss.
Something else that could have been added to GTA to enhance the atmosphere would have been some more landmarks - as it stands, the whole city looks a little sparse. I don't know whether this could have been done with the GTA game engine, but it would have been something to be able to belt along the streets of London, past actual recognisable locations rather than the five or so bland looking 'landmarks' featured in the game (Tower Bridge's bridge doesn't even raise or lower, for flips sake). And as for the voices in the in-game cutscenes - oh dear - they're amateurish to say the least. The bloke doing the voices of the Crisp twins (a thinly disguised and very poor Kray brothers impression) was utterly crap - even the most muffled and monotonous railway announcement would have more charisma.
GTA London may well have sounded like a good idea on paper, but in practice it's rather disappointing. The sixties-themed cars are okay, even if they're altered so as to deflect legal action from the manufacturers' names. But once you start playing you realise that the 'London' in the game is nothing like the real London, and that you've seen all this before. Add to that the fact that the game is quite short and has only 1/4 of the maps of the original game, and you've got an expansion pack that doesn't come up to scratch. . Unfortunately, as it stands, GTA London isn't really worth stopping for - you're better of picking up GTA 2 if you want some top down car-nicking accent or go the full 3D route and pick up Grand Theft Auto 4 or Saints Row 2.
(review by me, originally posted on GamesDomain)
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