Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich
Designer: Matrix Games
Platform: PC only
Focusing on the events of September 1944 and Operation Market Garden, Field Marshall Montgomery's plan to land 35,000 paratroopers 150km behind enemy lines in order to secure bridges across the Rhine, Highway to the Reich gives war-gaming buffs the chance reenact one of the greatest military blunders of World War II.
One of, if not the most true-to-life real-time strategy wargame currently on the market, the 2D game-play engine features cutting edge AI. Players can go into combat as either the Allied or Axis forces in real-time, can pause the game to issue orders or slow things down to a snails pace in order to forestall any upcoming military disaster.
The military units are structured in a hierarchical system, with companies grouped in battalions, battalions grouped in regiments and so on up the chain of command. This enables players to issue orders at any level; meaning you can issue parallel orders to a single company, an entire battalion or the complete regiment. While sounding rather complex the game's user-friendly interface and, of course, the pause mode, comfortably do away with the over-hectic micro-management problems of many a real-time wargame.
Packed with 30 scenarios, several full-length campaigns, a map creation utility which enables players to create custom scenarios, historically correct weather conditions, the game's only drawback is its lengthy learning curve.
Highway to the Reich might not appeal to fans of 3D first-person shoot 'em ups, but with its multitude of options and true-to-life details and decisions, the game will keep armchair generals entrenched for many hours, if not days.
Total Club Manager 2004
International distributor: Electronic Arts
Designer: EA Sports
Local Distributer: EA Sports Taiwan
Platform: PC and PS2
If you're one those people who enjoys yelling at the TV while your favorite club battles it out for 90 minutes and then you bore friends with next-to-useless soccer statistics, then EA Sports latest soccer management game Total Club Manager 2004 is for you.
It allows you to manage one of 1,500 teams, as well as national squads, realistically portraying the pressures of being a football manager. Including teams from 50 leagues, such as the English Premiership, Nationwide, French Ligue, German Bundesliga, Spanish Primera as well as the UK's non-league Conference, Total Club Manager 2004 is the most extensive and complete team management game to date.
The game includes a 3D-Matchplay option, customized formations, individual player orders, passing styles, a realistic transfer market and transfer window, reserve squads, lifelike player attributes and even authentic team chants. And should you wish to renovate your stadium the game's Stadium Editor function allows you to create a unique ground -- all of which works well on fast computers. Owners of slower PCs, however, might get frustrated as the graphics and certain screens take some time to load.
Along with nifty new-look interfaces and gaming actions, players must organize their private lives, buy and sell players and club stocks, create training regimes, discipline players, deal with the media, set prices for club merchandise and, more importantly, keep the fans happy. Should things take a turn for the worse then you can even hire a shaman to improve club moral.
Failure to juggle all of the aforementioned and get your team to the top of the league will see you unceremoniously sacked. On a passing note the game is highly addictive, so be prepared to put friends, girlfriends and family on hold for quite some time should you have designs on becoming the next Sir Alex Ferguson.
Onimusha 3
Designer: CAPCOM, Japan
International distributor: Sierra Entertainment, Vivendi Universal Games, Liquid Entertainment
Local distributor: Electronic Arts Taiwan
Platform: Japanese version for PS2 to be released next week
The somber and secretive combat adventure series Onimusha, which portrays contemporary stars as Ninjas in 16th century Japan, is releasing its third-generation game. It aims to offer more fun with intertwined historical developments.
Japanese pop idol Takeshi Kaneshiro plays a Samurai character Samanosuke, and he is sent from Japan in 1582 to France in 2004. He meets a killer , Jacques, played by French star Jean Reno.
The player gets to kill warlord Nobunaga Oda in a temple in ancient Japan, and is also able to visit famous scenic spots in Paris. But the two heroes' ultimate goal is destroy evil and ghostly warlords.
The heroes are getting better, but so are the evils. The new evils in Onimusha 3 are combined with modern-style machinery. Although they look stuffy, they are actually quite nimble.
The heroes also own their unique weapons: Jacques has something close to Indiana Jones' all-powerful whip, which can block enemy action. He can also use his handgun to shoot at his enemies. The game has a secret weapon for Jacques, a flaming sword that can extend and cut.
"The player plays two superstars at the same time to proceed with the adventure and kill, just like stars in a movie," said game critic Liu Chien-chnag (劉千菖).
Sengoku Musou (戰國無雙)
Designer: Koei (Japan)
Local distributor: Taiwan Koei Entertainment Software
Platform: Chinese version for PS2 to be released next week
Tom Cruise's Last Samurai allowed the world to see the spirit of ancient Japanese warriors, but youngsters have been experiencing that same spirit through playing electronic games produced by Japanese companies for a long time.
Among these type of games, based on the ancient Chinese and Japanese civil war periods, those produced by KOEI have been the most popular and expected.
The American-styled first-person shooting game is based on historical battles and allows the players to control weapons and kill, on maps based on the real world.
Every generation of Sengoku has sold more than a million copies, and the latest version of Sengoku Musou returns to 15th century Japan, a time when Japan was divided up by warlords. The player gets to be a leader of Japanese warriors and achieve the goal of uniting Japan.
"The [defining] feature of the new game focuses on the interaction of different factors, including time, changes in weather, traps on the battlefield and changes in the terrain. These are factors that are difficult for the player to control as he has to conquer to complete the missions," said Sammy Liu (劉政和), general manager of the Taiwan Koei Entertainment Software
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"The new game focuses on attacking the cities and citadels. Through his warrior the player can learn excellent fighting skills by accumulating experiences. He can learn to detect the enemy's ambush and fight back, destroying a whole army on his own," Liu said.
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