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Legendary Heroes: Legendary Heroes lead powerful armies while they complete quests, gain experience and acquire special items. As the core of each race's force, Heroes have the ability to advance in levels, learn new spells and abilities and confer special benefits to nearby units.
Special Items and Equipment: Legendary Heroes can carry up to six special items in a small inventory. The items can turn the tide of battle as they grant the Hero the ability to cast offensive and defensive spells, heal units, utilize special abilities or gain bonuses to specific statistics.
Neutral Units: There are numerous Neutral Units - known as Creeps and Critters - that inhabit the world of Azeroth. Creeps are hostile units that relinquish Gold when killed and sometimes guard valuable resources or Neutral Buildings. Critters are friendly neutral units such as sheep or seals.
Huge Spell-casting System: Many types of spells are available to the clever player, including Offensive spells, Defensive spells, Counter spells, Autocast spells that are cast automatically, Auras, and the extremely potent Ultimate spells." (Blizzard.com)
LINKS
The Unofficial Warcraft III Site
...Cops are more vigilant this time--minor offenses like whacking innocent bystanders will more often than not get you a two-star wanted level--and are harder to elude (though they still can't seem to climb stairs or negotiate sharp turns). So while free-roaming exploration is as fun as ever, there is more incentive to perform the missions instead of randomly raising hell. Not that that's a bad thing: even lazy criminals like myself... will be quickly caught up in the vivid characters and hilarious, fascinating story, in which you play an acid-washed-jeans-wearing thug named Tommy Vercetti. ...this time tasks move the story briskly along and deftly blend cinematics and game action. ...There are more, and more detailed, indoor environments, including a hotel, police station, and mall (a slight downside to this is that some of the more elaborate indoor environments require load times). The layout of the city, with tons of backyards, narrow alleys, and fire escapes, encourages creativity when eluding pursuit, as does greater access to rooftops. Get your motorcycle up the fire escape and a whole new world of action is possible, including... well, use your imagination."
(David Stoesz, Amazon.com Editorial Review)
LINKS
GTA: Vice City on GameSpot - Reviews, Q&A, etc.
Blood Omen 2, the latest installment in the Legacy of Kain Series is a 3rd person 3D action/combat game in which the player assumes the role of the vampire Kain. A compelling story drives the player through huge lushly detailed 3D environments and challenges their game play skills in combat, puzzle solving, stealth and exploration. With each success, the player achieves new dark powers that will grant Kain the ability to access treacherous new areas to explore and the power to face stronger, more aggressive enemies. As the player develops a stronger, more skilled vampire, they are rewarded with dozens of dazzling in-game cinematic sequences that unfold the continuing epic of Nosgoth, and Kain’s attempts to ultimately rule over it." (Eidos Interactive)
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A Strangely Familiar, Yet Utterly Wicked Tale... Romp through a surreal but hauntingly familiar Wonderland, including the Pool of Tears, the Mushroom Forest, and Mad Hatter's Domain... Lead Alice on her quest to reclaim Wonderland -- stunning third-person, 3D action based on an enhanced version of Quake III technology...
Duel to the death with psychotic renditions of characters from the original Alice adventures, including the Mad Hatter, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and the Jabberwocky.
Be guided by Wonderland's more benign creatures, including the Cheshire Cat and a frenetic White Rabbit...
Fight the Queen's vicious minions, sadistic card guards, demonic fire imps, ravenous jabberspawn, and many more... Unravel devious puzzles, from the labyrinthine Fortress of Doors to chicanery-filled Psychedelic Funhouse... Defeat your enemies with a collection of the most deadly toys ever imagined - roll nasty dice, hurl an exploding jack-in-the-box, and much more... Immerse yourself in the Alice sound, which includes original music composed especially for American McGee's Alice."
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After possessing the body of the hero who defeated him, Diablo resumes his nefarious scheme to shackle humanity into unholy slavery by joining forces with the other Prime Evils, Mephisto and Baal. Only you will be able to determine the outcome of this final encounter...
In Diablo II, return to a world of dark fantasy. As one of five distinct character types, explore the world of Diablo II -- journey across distant lands, fight new villains, discover new treasures, and uncover ancient mysteries, all in the quest to stop the Lord of Terror, once and for all..." (Blizzard.com)
LINKS
Diablo II Battle Chest on Amazon.com
A brief movie featuring a horrific car crash, with you cast as the unlucky driver, opens the game. Your head completely swathed in bandages, you regain consciousness in a burning, Grand Guignol snake pit of an asylum. Surrounded by babbling lunatics bashing their heads bloody against the wall, your first order of business is to make your escape. After that, you'll need to discover little things like, oh, your identity and how you came to be institutionalized.
Broken into eight chapters, the entire game is a journey through your own madness to potential salvation. Chapters dealing with the unfolding mystery at the sanitarium are interspersed with segments set in the hallucinatory hells of your character's tortured mind. These alternate, internal realities are the true high points of Sanitarium, covering such disparate ground as a devastated Aztec tribe, a Children of the Corn-style rural community, and a grotesque alien insect hive that practically oozes agony. The Freudian quotient is jacked up further as your madman takes on a different persona, such as a four-armed cyclops, for each setting. By ping-ponging from hallucination to reality and back again, Sanitarium puts you in the hospital slippers of its protagonist, wondering what is real, what is delusion. The ambiguity of the tattered memories and flashbacks triggered by game events will keep you guessing until the end.
Reflecting the internal conflicts and issues your character is grappling with, these worlds establish unique moods that drive the story of the game forward. Particularly effective is the sequence where you wander your childhood home, rendered in washed-out sepia, and observe the specters of your family coping with monumental grief. These shifts in tone keep the game from getting boring and, more importantly, engage you emotionally as well.
As terrible as some of the subject matter is, the game is a delight to play, thanks to a simple mouse-driven interface controlling every aspect of gameplay, and some of the most lush, richly imagined graphics I've seen in a long time. Somehow, the designers of Sanitarium have found a way to make the horrendous beautiful - no mean feat considering the freaks, monsters, and gargoyles peopling the gameworld. Sound makes a solid contribution as well, further enhancing the game." (GameSpot)
LINKS
Sanitarium review on CdMag.com
You're given a plot of barren land to zone into industrial, residential, and commercial areas where people work, live, and play. Lay roads, subways, highways, and railroads to connect the zones and watch your city grow as citizens immigrate into your city.
As your city grows, you must deal with crime, education, and health issues by strategically placing police stations, schools, and hospitals. Add parks and stadiums, on-ramps and bus stops, airports and seaports as your citizens' needs grow." (5Star-Shareware.com)
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"Struggling with inner demons, wrestling with soul-wrenching torment, battling to regain even a slippery grip on reality - doesn't exactly sound like the makings of a good time, does it? All the more reason to marvel at Sanitarium, Dreamforge Intertainment's wholly original and gripping adventure game, for these are the very keystones upon which this game is built....
"Based on the phenomenally successful SimCity Classic, SimCity 2000 allows you to build and manage a hustling and bustling metropolis.