ooutland

sacrifice can be at times a very inspiring game, filled to the brim with detail and creativity. it has a cartoon edge that gives it a MORE believable feel, in the same way animated sci-fi feels more real at times.

the storyline feels original, even if it is somewhat basic: you are a wizard who has left your destroyed world and is looking for "work". work comes from the 5 gods who rule the lands, and you can chose which one you would serve with your skills (the gods cannot directly affect the land, so they employ wizards to do their bidding). at the same time, one of the gods is planning to overthrow the others and upset the balance.

graphically, the game is still beautiful today (two years after it was made). its use of 256 bit textures allows for an amazing view of the landscape. spells have been worked so that you feel the power behind them, but aren't so powerful that you would think your target, you, and the rest of the planet should have been become extra crispy by that fireball you launched (which is becoming more and more of a problem).

however, there were some problems with glitches. numerous times the boss couldn't be killed, and you cant tell if its because you didn't do something, or the game just had a glitch. also, while the game tries to allow units to be controlled by afar, the inability to angle around anyone other than the wizard leaves many times where no one knows what's happening on the other side of the world.

overall, the game is fun once you play by their rules. learning what those rules are is the hard part, and may lead to glitches in the scripting. that doesnt completely stop sacrifice from being fun, however, and you could end up finding something just short of an experience in surrealism.

Doom. Proper title for a game that had people running out to buy two thousand dollar computers, probably causing a cornering of the technology market.

Yeah, Doom wasnt really the first FPS (first person shooter), but it got everything moving. Apparently, someone over at ID software got it into his or her twisted head that running around armed to the teeth with enough weapons to blow away Los Angeles and tearing down all sorts of enemies far beyond normal human imagination can be... fun. Those Arnold Schwarzenegger movies actually taught us something.

The only downside to doom would be a lack of story line. Nothing else driving you through the game but continued slaughter here. Kind of a shame that most FPS's would stay like this until 1998.

But thats another matter entirely. Doom is still an amusing game, even with the games currently on the market. But why am I telling you this? not having heard of Doom is like not having heard of Star Wars. Just assume that the millions of people who have played this game are right for once and check it out.

My Rating: 9

Max Payne is more of an experience than a game. You can see a level of realism that most games-and some movies-cant touch. You can hear every bullet just barely miss you as you dodgeshoot (a form of slow motion action similar to what is seen in The Matrix). You can feel max's world around him as he physically and psychologically deteriorates in front of you. Above all, you will admire the action-packed thrill and the overwhelming terror of the game. When you dodge a thousand bullets and look behind you, you will see a wall with a thousand holes in it. Your dual ingrams will tear down rows of those who wish to stop you, as every death leads to more questions. You will know what it is like to escape from flaming buildings and be ripped into chaos as the dreaded "V" melts away your mind. Throw in a story to rival any movie, and you have, like half-life before it, a true experience. From the murder of his family at the hands of a designer drug to his framing of murder, to the very end, this game will leave you screaming that you are never "too tired to go on".