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PC Game Reviews

Burnout 3: Takedown
Publisher: EA Games
Platform: X-Box and PS2
Taiwan release: already available
If on-road mayhem is your thing and you possess some twisted love for watching and causing car wrecks, then EA's Burnout 3: Takedown is for you. Unlike racing games where you have to place first to win, with Burnout 3 the only way to be awarded is to cause mass pile-ups and destroy every other vehicle on the road.

First hitting the market in 2001, the Burnout series has gone from strength to strength. Burnout 1 gave console players the sense of speed and Burnout 2 paved the way for chaos with its crash mode. Burnout 3 combines all the aspects of the previous games and adds some interesting new aspects including a nerve-wracking fender bending career mode.

The races all take place on freeways and city streets, where, of course, you'll find plenty of vehicles to trash, smash and crash into. If you've lived in Taiwan for any period of time and are a regular driver here, then winning should prove no problem, as you can simply ape what you see on an everyday basis.

Drive on the sidewalk, pull U-turns in the middle of on coming traffic, go down one-way roads the wrong way and drift into other lanes without waiting to see what's coming up behind you. All of which will, if you plan your line of attack correctly, result in some of the most graphically stunning and spectacular pile-ups you could ever hope to witness without, of course, causing the untimely death of anybody at all.

If you're an automotive sociopath or a frustrated motorist in need of release, then Burnout 3: Takedown and its awesome car crashes is probably just what the doctor ordered.

Rainbow Six: Black Arrow
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: X-Box
Tawian release: already available
There are now nearly as many Tom Clancy-related PC and console games on the market as there are techno-thriller tomes on bookshelves and Unisoft's Rainbow Sis: Black Arrow is the latest in the long line of what continue to be some of the most intensive and absorbing first

person shooters avaialble.

Like its half-dozen Team Rainbow based predecessors, Rainbow Six: Black Arrow is a squad- based tactical shooter in which players take on the role of Domingo "Ding" Chavez -- a longtime character in several of Clancy's novels.

As Ding you're tasked with leading your four-man elite international anti-terrorist squad on a series of missions aimed at -- and stop me if you've heard this before -- snaring an evil genius who is intent on destroying the free world.

Although team-based, meaning you as the player are charged with controlling all members of the team, Rainbow Six: Black Arrow is free of many of the annoying glitches that plague many a team- based game. Giving basic orders is simply a case of hitting one button and ordering the team to undertake more complex tasks is just as easy.

You take your team from London to Cannes on to the streets of Milan and finally to some rather rugged and hostile Middle Eastern locales. Along the way you're tasked with killing scores of bad guys, rescuing hostages and defusing bombs.

The 10 excellently designed, magnificently detailed and realistic campaign games include plenty of wide-open spaces and narrow corridors, offering heaps of cover for both you and your foes to hide or cower behind. None of the missions are dull and all are guaranteed to keep players wrapped up for many hours.

Entente: WWI the Great War
publisher: Encore
Platform: PC
Taiwan release: already available
There are numerous WWII themed 3D real-time strategy games on the market, but Encore's Entente: WWI The Great War is the first one that sets out to tackle what was once called "the war to end all wars."

While the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and ensuing global conflict wasn't the war that ended all wars, Encore's latest venture could easily be the WWI themed game to end all WWI themed games.

Featuring 60 scenarios, all of which are based, albeit loosely, on real battles and campaigns, Entente: WWI The Great War's classification as a strategy game is somewhat dubious. There is in fact very little strategy involved.

Like the war itself, the crux of the game is based on attrition. Don't bother trying to outflank, outwit and outmaneuver your enemy here, as actions that would win you medals in the real world and that account for more than half the game play in some of the leading WWII strategy games mean nothing. The crux of the game is to send your boys over the top on mad dashes toward the enemy and then sit back and watch as the AI takes over and thousands of little pixels are slaughtered.

Graphically, the game is on par with any of the 3D war games currently on the market. Uniforms, tanks and other equipment all look pretty real. The maps, while magnificently detailed, are so huge, however, that it is easy to lose track of entire regiments. And as you'll have thousands of units in play at any given time this can prove maddening. As a strategy game Entente falls flat, but it gets top marks as an illustration of how a PC game should not be designed.

Nascar 2005: Chase for the Cup
Publisher: PC, X-Box and PS2
Taiwan release: already available
If you're not familiar with NASCAR then the title of EA Sports' latest addition to its long line of sporting titles may not instantly sing out to you. Yet while nearly all of EA's sport specific titles are geared predominantly toward fans of those particular sports, NASCAR 2005 will appeal to anyone even those who have never heard of Dale Earnhardt Senior or Junior.

The game offers players the chance to create their own driver or opt to be one of 130 real drivers, participate in hundreds of different events and race on 25 official tracks and 12 fantasy tracks. It features everything any NASCAR enthusiast could ask for and includes the Nextel Cup Series, the Busch Series, the Craftsman Truck Series and the Regional Featherlite Modified Series.

The most addictive of all the game's options is the "fight to the top" mode, which takes you through multiple seasons. If you do well enough and earn enough money, then you'll have the option of buying your own team.

In keeping with all EA Sports titles the graphics are impeccable, play is smooth and glitz-less and the controls are easy to master. The bottom line is that NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup is one of the most addictive and true-to-life racing games on the market.

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