The original Saints Row, released in 2006, didn’t try to change the sandbox genre formula and instead focused on making everything just plain fun. Saints Row 2 follows that same plan, and while it doesn’t do anything new or different, it is undeniably enjoyable. Also, and this comment may blow your mind, but while GTAIV is easily more polished in terms of graphics and gameplay, Saints Row 2 is easily the more fun game thanks to its over the top tone and wealth of stuff to do.

In terms of sheer variety of the activities you can do and the amount of fun you can have, Saints Row 2 has GTAIV beat. In terms of the core gameplay, however, Saints Row 2 hasn’t really moved forward while GTAIV made some significant improvements. For example, there is no lock on or cover system in SR2. Instead you just have to prey on the inconsistent A.I. and charge forward guns blazing, which usually works since half the time A.I. characters just stand around and don’t do anything even while other enemies right next to them are doing their best to try and kill you. Also, the driving just feels a little bit off. The cars feel kind of like driving boats, honestly. Sort of floaty with wide turn radiuses. Not bad, certainly, but far from the precision you’d like to have when wading through traffic or winding through city streets trying to lose the cops.

Saints Row 2 does a lot of things right, though. The entire map is open to you right from the start, which means all of the fun minigames and vehicles are available right away. Missions also have checkpoints which means if you fail you usually start over at the middle rather than the beginning. Also, the over the top physics and action make pretty much anything you do fun and potentially funny. My take on sandbox games is that you should be able to play how you want and make your own fun, and Saints Row 2 fits that description perfectly. It isn’t serious, it is goofy and crude and an absolute blast to play.

Saints Row 2 isn’t just a single-player experience, there are also co-op and deathmatch modes available as well on Xbox Live or system link. In co-op, the entire map is open to both players and you can both do whatever you want, and when you tackle missions together the game adds in extra enemies to balance out the addition of the extra player. Competitive multiplayer shrinks the map down to individual neighborhoods, but the smaller play area keeps the matches fast and furious.

The only truly disappointing aspect of Saints Row 2 is the graphics. Technical problems such as pop-in, texture tearing, and vehicles and objects appearing and disappearing seemingly at random are pretty big issues. Also, the game just has a sort of ugly look to it. The textures simply don’t look very good, but at least it is consistent across everything (clothes, buildings, roads, cars) so the game has a coherent look. The game does run at a smooth framerate at least and there are some nifty looking explosions.

The sound is fairly good. The dialogue is silly and filled with swear words, but it works. The music selection isn’t particularly good, however, and the lack of a talk radio station really hurts.

In the end, Saints Row 2 is a solid sequel to the cult favorite original. It isn’t the prettiest looking game and the core gameplay isn’t quite up to GTAIV’s standard, but Saint’s Row 2 manages to be fun and gives you lots and lots of ways to make your own fun which is something that GTAIV was sorely lacking. Between all of the funny minigames and side missions, the amazing Zombie Uprising game, the story filled with good characters, and the overall solid design of the city around you, there is a lot to like in Saints Row 2. If you were let down by the fact that GTAIV cut out a lot of the fun stuff from previous games in the series, Saints Row 2 will not disappoint. It is light hearted and silly, and that is why it is so enjoyable. Saints Row 2 is a good game no matter how you slice it and is highly recommended.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant maintains a balancing act of being decidedly traditional and untraditional at the same time. Leveling, magic usage, and battles are all rooted in typical conventions at their core. Leveling is just a matter of gaining experience, magic uses up secondary “pools” of points, and battles are turn-based. However, the acquisition of magic, special abilities and the execution of commands in battle are all extremely unique. Let me give you a few examples. The character Karin acquires new sword skills by finding pieces of an opera. There is even a character who, sit down for this, collects “stud cards” which is given to a “foppish” store clerk in exchange for new dresses for the character’s doll which he uses in battle. Now, the character in question is named Gepetto and is a puppeteer, so it’s not quite a bad as it first may appear. Still, you see what I’m getting at; this game truly straddles the bizarre at times.

As odd as the game may be at times, it’s consistently the most entertaining RPG I’ve played in a long time. The battle system is complex enough to be engaging, but not so cumbersome that I have to think so much that I feel like I’m in school. While the turn-based system is pretty traditional, the manner in which you execute commands is not. Shadow Hearts: Covenant uses a “Judgment Ring” system. When a character performs any action, attack, spell, special move, even using an item, a ring appears with a clock hand that moves clockwise at varying speeds depending on circumstances. As the hand moves around the ring, it will pass over colored areas at which time you must press the X button. There are several different kinds of areas, and when you have 6 tiny little slivers to nail on the ring for more potent maneuvers, things can get pretty hair-raising. Even normal attacks have a few interesting twists. You can perform them in four ways such as standard, hard hit, high angle, and knock down. Add to that the fact that you can combo character’s regular attacks together and you can come up with tons of different ways to go about a battle.

The storyline of Shadow Hearts: Covenant picks up where the original Shadow Hearts left off. It takes place in 1916, a year after the start of World War I. The main character from the original, Yuri, has secluded himself in a church in the French town of Domremy. The German officer Karin leads a failed assault, later returns with a Vatican cardinal named Nicolai, and then the story begins in earnest. Most of the game is spent traipsing around Europe as you try to uncover a hidden threat that exists beneath the ongoing war.

As I mentioned above, one of the more unique aspects of Shadow Hearts: Covenant are the ways you gain new special attacks and spells. Gepetto collects new dresses, the wolf Blanca challenges other wolves to duels and gains a new skill when he wins. Yuri acquires soul points to spend on new fusion forms and level up ones he already has. This is only about half your characters. Magic also works in an interesting way. You find and equip magic crests to characters, which gives them access to new spells. There is an interesting little diversion for upgrading crests wherein you must place them in their correct positions on a map. When you complete a region of the map, all the crests in that regions will gain new spells.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by how good Shadow Hearts: Covenant turned out to be. While I knew fans of the original were eagerly awaiting this sequel, I had no idea I myself would it enjoy it so much. If you like console RPGs, chances are you’re going to like Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Console RPGs seem to be going through a little bit of a revolution at the moment, with established series’ like Breath of Fire and Final Fantasy going in vastly different directions. Shadow Hearts: Covenant succeeds in keeping a traditional flavor while remaining fresh and fun at every minute.

While frequently a game that borders on the bizarre, Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a game that blends wonderfully classic, yet dark, atmospheres and a souped up traditional turn-based combat system into a truly first-rate RPG title. Shadow Hearts: Covenant has a visual style that is unique to RPGs, except for maybe its precursor, Shadow Hearts. Set in Europe during World War I, every area of the game is filled with the depressing undertone of a continent ravaged by war. The war itself is only in the background however, darker things stand in the path the player must walk. Most of the time, when I was walking around a town, I felt like I was in, of all places, a Resident Evil game. A dark and foreboding undertone permeates through every environment of the game. While never scary or frightening, it is decidedly unsettling. Style aside, the graphics are also technically excellent, with characters and environments that stand up to just about anything else out there.

With an atmosphere as dreary as Shadow Hearts: Covenant’s, it should come as no surprise that the soundtrack is equally sad and melancholy. While appropriate for this game, it also causes the soundtrack to seem more subdued than many contemporary RPGs. You won’t find yourself humming many of these tunes while you walk down the street, but all in all it’s a solid B soundtrack. Sound effects are primarily found in battles and consist of your typical crashes, booms, tones, cries, and so forth. The game also has voice acting, and is decently, if not wonderfully, done.

Diablo III is more. More action, more death, more skills, more color, more history, more beauty, more top-down, click-hungry, loot-happy, quick on – the cover, randomly-generated, killing the fantasy-horror. Beneath the waves of enthusiasm generated by its return in the form of twenty minutes of impressive amount of the game, there is the slightest undertow of anti-climax.

The game takes place in the sanctuary, a world of dark fantasy. Unknown to most of its inhabitants, Sanctuary was saved some twenty years ago of the demonic forces of the world by some earthly heroes that were brave and powerful. Most of those warriors who directly faced the armies of fiery hell were lucky enough to survive; went mad from their experiences. And most of the others have buried their memories and have frequently pushed the horrors from their thoughts.

In Diablo III, the players will return to the sanctuary to confront evil in its many forms once again. The same exciting look continues on to the real game play. The characters were great and rich detail but climbed pleasant environments. The characters are great, but can still be easily dwarfed by some of the largest creatures in the game. While at first thought that this was a boss, due to its rugged package and the complexity of their attacks, was later confirmed this was hardly a crowd crushed the likes of which you expect to see on a fairly regular basis. The enemies during the game will also demonstrate a variety of behaviors.

In Diablo III, potions still play a part in the action, but downplayed by its importance. Health globes, falling off defeated enemies and will boost the health of your character and those around you if you are playing cooperatively. So developers put it, the idea of enemies dropping health is one that will keep the player moving the game forward in comparison to try to avoid combat. In addition, a new toolbar on the skill, similar in location to the old potion belt in Diablo II, will make your skills that much more accessible, allowing you to easily switch between the skills in place. You can even share the skills quickly using the mouse roller for further ease of use. The result is a game you can probably play almost entirely with your mouse, no more hunting skills for using the F key on your keyboard. Here is most important addition with respect to a cooperative game: When a character picks up a health globe, any surrounding allies also benefit from the world of health, which looks like it will encourage players to stick together when cutting and slashing your way through the game. To your ears, it also sounds like almost any kind, but will have to see how it is done while the game comes.

Diablo III will use a new system by hand, but that is currently in development. The only thing which is known for sure is that it does not involve anything as filler items in a Horadric cube. Other mysterious detail, or lack of it, is included in the game’s story and the identity of the new threat as the first three evils were overcome.

BZFlag (an abbreviation for Battle Zone capture the Flag) is an online, multiplayer video game first released in 2007. It is a first-person tank shooting game, similar to Battlezone. It was originally written by Chris Schoeneman for SGI computers running IRIX, and has been ported to other platforms including Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, BSD and Solaris.

Current open source development is maintained by Tim Riker and a team of project administrators. The project is hosted on SourceForge.net. It is currently distributed under the LGPL license.

BZFlag was selected as the SourceForge.net Project of the Month for April 2004.

Features

Play with up to 40 users per server. Any more then this and lag becomes a real issue.

One of the few wildly popular games that can be played on computers with the best of hardware, or the worst.

Pick up different flags like lasor, guided missle, super bullet, and more!

Create your own game maps!

Player vrs player action, capture the flag, and white rabbit, 3 game play modes thats deffinately a blast.

Download the game HERE