THE SIMS 2

Category: Games

Publisher: EA games
Developer: Maxis

OVERVIEW
The Sims 2 which is a sequel to the extremely popular The Sims is a strategic life simulation game for PC platform in which you can create people and make them go through the motions of life. It challenges your planning and organizational skills and has no fixed storyline or ending. Creating and customizing neighborhoods and creating people, called Sims are some of the important features of the game.

INSTALLATION
I have never played the original Sims. I remember hearing about Sims in my high school days when PC games were catching peoples’ fancy like never before. The concept sounded revolutionary and I was already addicted to tycoon games (which though not exactly similar, also required the basic planning skills as in Sims). Alas, neither had I the resources to buy such a game nor the “download the damn thing” kind of knowledge. I forgot about it in due course and except for the occasional controversy (over the Sims HotDate mod which was too unusual a concept for people to handle) we pretty much never crossed paths.
When I got my hands on Sims 2, I was nothing short of thrilled. Bored out of my wits alternating between FPS and Solitaire, this was like discovering Kryptonite. The Installation was smooth but elaborate. But, Maxis (now taken over by EA) has a balm for the impatience of people like me- a mini game cum quiz, while the game silently installed in the background. The mini game was a simple memory game where you have to match similar images in order to make them disappear. Once you’re through with the game some amusing questions (“How many goths are buried in Bella Goth’s backyard”) pop up. How quickly you finish the game indicates how old your Sims will grow. Screen shots were displayed while you played the game on one corner of the game window.
What miffed me about this mini game scenario was that the game went on even after the installation was complete. I know it’s a really small detail, albeit one they should have payed attention to ‘coz no one wants to keep playing a mini game when the real McCoy is in the picture. I had to manually close the window.

GAMEPLAY
The game begins with a really nice 3D video which is like an introduction to the Sim way of life. On my system it took negligible time to load ( Huah ha ha ha….2Gb RAM!! Okay. I know some of you have better… Hmmmph) and I was acquainted with three different neighborhood options to play with- Pleasantview, Strangetown and Veronaville. Pleasantview, I’m told was also present in the original Sims. So, I started with that.
Pleasantview has seven different families with histories and objects of their own. The Sims have personality traits common to any urban society- from the town Cassanova, to the perpetually broke and recently widowed single mother, who’s aptly called Brandi Broke. You can also move in two other families who are not residents of Pleasantville but contemplating moving in. Apart from this you can custom create your own family and move them in, which is something I’ll elaborate later.

Pleasantview, true to its name, looks and sounds pleasant enough, with the typical suburban feel to it. The houses are pretty and the view of the river, with the yachts, the clouds and the colorful parachutes is quite nice. Cars and school buses ply on the roads. I played the game on Windows Vista Ultimate with a patch downloaded from the internet and found that some of the vehicles simply disappeared at junctions. When I played the game on Windows XP professional however, there was no such occurrence.
The second neighborhood Strangetown is a tiny town in the middle of the desert co-inhabited by aliens and humans; rings a bell, doesn’t it? In this “Area 51”esque town, there are remains of a flying saucer, evil scientists and inventers and alien-human families. However, their needs and wants remain the same, that of being accepted amidst their fellow beings. The Sims of Strangetown routinely get abducted by aliens and underground labs are not an uncommon sight.

The third neighborhood you can play in is called Veronaville. It took a while to hit me, but Veronaville is actually a take on the Shakespearean Romeo and Juliet. The neighborhood story reads of a feud between the Capps and the Montys, a modernized or may be ‘Sim’ ized Capulet and Monatgue and the blossoming love affair of their young children Romeo and Juliette. The only difference is perhaps that the story can actually have a happy ending if play your cards (oops, Sims) right. Veronaville houses various other characters immortalized by Shakespeare’s plays like Hermia, Oberon, etc.
You can also create your own neighborhood from a list of landscapes and decorate the town with various adornments like flying balloons or even Dinosaur remains. Houses of various kinds and suiting various pockets and requirements can be placed in a new neighborhood or an existing one. You can also create people and families and that my dear friends, was one of the funnest things I’ve done.
You can create people of almost any proportion and face type. You can decide what make up they wear and what kind of clothes will look best. Skin tone, eye color, spectacles, beards- you name it, they’ve got it. Add to that personality types and star signs, and you’ve got the kind of Sim you want.
Once you have your Sim family you can move them into a home. Once the Sims have moved in you can custom design the house which I thoroughly enjoyed. You can do the walls and the furniture, the lights and the kitchen. I particularly liked the neon stork and ended up placing one in almost every other room.

Now, for the ‘not so good’ part: Once you’ve started playing, there is no turning back. I played badly the first few times with one of the families and ended up getting a family member killed in a fire. So I wanted to restart the complete game. But, I had no idea how to do it. I tried out all the options, but in vain. One of the forums I went to online, suggests you remove your saved games from the folder in which the game is installed. But, I couldn’t figure out which the saved games were, because they weren’t explicitly named so. Whatever, it isn’t exactly a breeze to figure that out.
Secondly, the game crashes ‘n’ number of times on my system (Intel dual core, 2Gb RAM, Windows Vista Ultimate OS). I don’t know if the problem is with the game or the patch I got from the net. So, I’ll give it the benefit of doubt.
I had a bit of trouble with the camera angles. But then, I wasn’t too patient with the tutorial thingy, which, by the way, is quite informative. I would suggest a swift look through of the tutorials before you start. For those who think they are pro gamers after playing a few games( like Miss Overconfident here), well you may have to return to the tutorials for some enlightenment.

GRAPHICS, VIDEO AND SOUND EFFECTS
I played the game on my system primarily, which, as I have mentioned before does not have a dedicated graphics card. In a 1024x768 resolution, with medium detailing the game ran fine most of the time. But, camera movements were reasonably slow. In the 800x600 mode with low detailing it ran more or less without any glitches.
Obviously, since I enjoyed the game so much, I checked it out on a system with a dedicated GPU, Nvidia GeForce 6600 (I know it’s not exactly a new one) and the graphics were really decent. The reflectivity of the water, the detailing on individual Sims and no jagged edges- to say the least, I liked the effect. Considering the current standard, I am expecting a helluva lot from Sims3.
The sounds are pretty nice. The background score is quite soothing. While you’re playing you can listen to various genres of music on a music systems With a tricky little bit of work in your “My Documents” folder you can add your own mp3s( check the link for cheats, hints and walkthroughs). I especially liked the TV in the game. There premade videos for the Sims to watch and the news channels are too convincingly akin to our news channels in real life; so are the workout videos.
On the whole, the sound quite complements the game. Nothing more, nothing less.

WINDING UP….
Sims 2 is absolutely addictive. Since, it’s an open ended game( one that has no concluding section, finale, blah blah), you can simply go on playing. I won’t say you’ll never get bored of it, but it is engrossing enough for you to forget your examination, creative enough for you to forget your pencils and paintbrushes for a while, challenging enough to at least forget about not getting into family life and turning ascetic (at least for some time) and sweet enough to at least once go Aww…

STUFF TO WATCH OUT FOR
1. Ghosts in the Goth family’s backyard
2. Decorating the Sims’ houses
3. The news channel on the Sim TV
4. The alien abduction in Strangetown.
5. The community lots- parks, malls et al.
6. And finally pregnant men in Strangetown( hahah…really)

LINKS
http://thesims2.ea.com/
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/thesims2/hints.html
http://www.aroundthesims2.com/

PEGGLE (DELUXE) 1.0

Category: Games

Publisher: PopCap games
Developer: PopCap games

“...it is simplicity that is difficult to make.”
-- Bertholdt Brecht

OVERVIEW
Peggle Deluxe 1.0 is a single/ multiplayer 2d arcade game. The game has multiple levels where the sole objective is to gather points by clearing the orange pegs. In each level you are introduced to a new Peggle master who can endow you with some skills in order to help you gather maximum points.
Peggle was introduced to me, by one of my friends (who is lucky enough to be working in Nvidia corp.) and according to him this was the perfect game for people like, well, me! So, a little offended, a little curious I took on the game and was simply floored.
The installation was brisk although my insane curiosity made even the reasonably low installation time seem unbearable. The game started with PopCap games’ colorful logo and went into an equally colorful start screen which said “click to play”. And I clicked. : )

GAMEPLAY
Once I started playing the game however, I was hit with a barrage of emotions. Here before me was probably one of the cutest ( yes, cute is a word than can be used to describe a game) games of all time and what was absolutely astounding was that it was unbelievably simple.
At the beginning of the game you are given a certificate of admission to the Peggle Institute replete with the date of admission and signed by Bjorn a gorgeous white unicorn who is supposedly the founder of Peggle Institute. The game can be played in four different modes – Adventure, Quick play, Duel and Challenge. You can unlock the latter three once you have successfully completed the Adventure mode.
The game is simple enough initially. There are orange and blue round buttons or “pegs” and a ball that comes out of a Cannon like contraption on the top of the screen. The Cannon has a window through which the current Peggle master can overlook your activities. The object of the game is to clear the orange pegs and get the maximum points possible. There are ten balls in the “ball-o-tron” (which is somewhat reminiscent of the Pinball game in the older version of Microsoft Windows) which is the number of chances that you normally get to accomplish your goal. In the second stage you are introduced to rectangular bricks and subsequently to green pegs and magenta pegs. The green pegs impart magical powers to the Cannon which can help you clear the pegs more efficiently. The magenta pegs according to the game mean “big points”.
There is a moving bucket at the bottom of the screen which moves constantly. If you can land the ball into the bucket, you get a free ball. So if you were any good at basic geometry in school you’d probably be good at peggle as well, ‘coz it’s all a matter of angles ( the efficacy of your shot depends on the angle at which the ball is hit). Great, intuitive shots earn you style points depending on how cool your shot is. You can also save your really awesome shots and replay them in your upset times for a boost of confidence.
Each stage consists of five levels and each stage introduces you to a new master. There are ten different masters who are actually different animals, an alien, a sunflower and a pumpkin. Each master has interesting sounding names and different magical powers. The magical powers are cool and the presentation is awesome.
Once the ball approaches the 10th peg you witness a blockbuster style finale which is called the “Fever”. Every remaining ball you hit in this stage gives you 10,000 points. Slots appear at the bottom of the screen into which the ball finally disappears. The slots give you an additional 10,000, 50,000 or 100,000 points.
As the game proceeds it gets more and more complex but not impossible. The playability does not reduce at any point of time. The introduction of newer layouts of pegs, with add-ons like psychedelic portals and rotating wheels ensures that the player stays as far away from boredom as physically possible.
Once the adventure mode has been completed and all levels and masters unlocked, you can go into the Quickplay, Challenge and Duel modes. The “Quickplay” mode allows you to choose and play any of the levels you have unlocked with the help of any master. The “Duel” mode allows you to play against the AI or against another player. The game however lacks true multiplayer capability. The “Challenge” mode offers you a huge number of challenges with a progressive difficulty level.
The physics in the game is pretty good. The nature of the ball has been beautifully and accurately depicted. Evidently, a decent algorithm and some good programming is at play ( literally). The ball bouncing off the pegs is realistically simulated.

GRAPHICS, VIDEO AND SOUND
The game is a 2-D game but for that category it’s pretty good, probably the best that I have seen. The colors are rich, quite unlike the general video game console era depictions. The wow (not to be confused with WOW in sound….aaaa!!! there speaks my geek alter-ego) factor of 3D is of course, absent. It is a 2D game in this era of “z”, but well you can’t have everything. Besides, the addiction quotient of the game is so high that you barely pay attention to any other factor.
The sound quality is quite good and the music suits the game appearance. I was particularly impressed by the sound effects produced when the green pegs are hit and magical powers activated. On the whole, the sound is really decent.

AND SO…
The other day, I asked a real toughie gamer friend (read the counter-strike, quake and bloody gory game playing kinds) of mine to have a go at Peggle. After initially laughing me off, he went at it for four hours at a stretch (he still hates me talking about that episode).
Peggle has been ranked as one of the five most addictive games of all time by MSNBC and at no. 40 in PC gamer magazine’s list of top 100 games. To describe its actual appeal is difficult - for some it’s the colorful presentation, for others, the recollection of childhood days spent playing pinball; but what is absolutely irrefutable is the fact that above all, it’s simplicity that makes us keep returning to this game called Peggle.

PAINKILLER OVERDOSE

Category: Games

Publisher: Dreamcatcher
Developer: Mindware Studios

Painkiller Overdose is a game revolving around Belial the half angel, half demon gatekeeper. Playing the tortured son of heaven and hell Belial roams the ruins and war fields fighting monsters and Zombies (Dreamcatcher claims “more than 40 sickly twisted monsters”).
The game is in essence, an FPS (read First Person Shooter). The game demo (which is what I played) starts with an impressive background that is somewhere between an Egyptian scroll and a forbidden stone tablet. I really liked the loading screen with an inverted pentagon and a sundial. The sound is sufficiently eerie to go with the feel of the game.
Since I am more or less a gaming Idiot (read not a hardcore gamer), I initially expected a cutscene to give me a background of the entire game, a story of sorts. But then I was told that they don't make 'em like that any more. So then I expected a tutorial, but my loyal gamer friend corrected me again and told me to play the first level patiently for some guidance. But nah ah! No flashes from heaven(or hell) in the game. So, if you are going to play the game you must proceed blindly. I was told that this game was merely a sequel in the Painkiller series. But, if you pick this game out of the racks at the department store, don’t expect to understand the entire concept. The installation was simple and took very little time. So I was all set and ready to go.
Obviously I started playing the ridiculously simple beginners level called Daydream. At this point I found myself in a Civil War inspired arena facing zombies with skeletal faces. You have 8 different weapons which I have to say I found decently interesting especially the dragon egg grenades which spew green toxic goo. How you proceed is – kill the monsters and collect their souls.
There is one thing about FPS that you just can’t overlook – they ARE fun. So, disregarding them is probably the last thing you would want to do. There is this silly fun in shooting everything that comes in front of you and I have to confess that in spite of the intellectual lacuna I enjoyed it (smiles). However, if blood and gore is your prerogative you won’t be too disappointed. The monsters, which appear from an inferno, have a tendency to completely disintegrate with body parts flying around. On the not so rare occasions that you blast a monster that is too close to you end up getting splattered with rotting flesh and blood. This is probably why it has been rated Mature.
What is entertaining are Belial’s wisecracks as he goes around ridding the world of monsters from the “kiss my half angel ass” to “tastes like chicken”. Apart from this, where sound is concerned it is sufficiently good but nothing extraordinary. The track that plays( the eerie one, remember) seems straight out of C grade horror movies that few people would like to go and watch. So, there is hardly anything innovative there.
The starting screen or the User Interactive screen is quite interesting as I have mentioned earlier. However, I was not exceptionally impressed with the graphics. It was just okay almost average by today’s gaming standards. At no point of time will you feel “Damn this is so real, it freaks me out”. So that certainly does not get a thumbs up from me. The effects are just about alright too. It also took quite a bit of time to load which is another minus. This is particularly irritating when you are waiting for a level to load or waiting to resume the game after dying.
The game video wasn’t exactly smooth in the “standard video” mode i.e. an 800x600 resolution and medium detailing on my system. But I can't really comment on the graphics because, as a casual gamer I don't have a dedicated graphics processor. Comments are invited however regarding the graphics. One thing I'd definitely like to state though is, had the game story been a tiny bit more interesting I would have been extremely inquisitive about how the game would look with the highest performance using a high end GPU.
The game is divided into four different difficulty levels- Daydream, Insomnia, Nightmare and Trauma. I played the “Daydream” level up to quite a bit. It didn’t have a mode called the black tarot mode the purpose of which I couldn’t decipher even after playing the remaining levels. I got killed in the “Insomnia” level before the first checkpoint. The checkpoints are where your game gets auto saved and they are the animated red inverted pentagons that you find on the way when you have killed the required number of monsters. I tried playing the “Nightmare” and “Trauma” levels as well but died within approximately 2 minutes. So, for a beginner, the higher levels are quite on the tougher side. For experienced gamers, well, I got a gamer friend of mine to play the “Insomnia” level, and he didn’t get very far either. So, it isn’t exactly easy.
Overdose is definitely a game you should give a try, if you’ve been a fan of the Painkiller series and have some idea of the story. It is also an excellent game if you’ve just had a fight and are too chicken to face real people – you can gun down the 40 sickly twisted monsters. However, it would definitely not be your kind of game if intellectual stimulation is what you seek. Coz’ in the end shooting monsters such that they explode like tomatoes is just plain dumb fun and that’s all there is to it.