Daily PC Game Reviews

Raven Squad: Operation Hidden Dagger
Game Category: Action - First Person, Shooter, Tactical, RTS
Developer / Distributor: Atomic Motion / Evolved Games and Southpeak Games
Release Date: 25 Aug 2009
Rating: ESRB - Teen

Introduction
The year is 2011, and the latest battleground lies within the largest jungle in the world - the hot and humid Amazon. You are part of Raven Squad, a mercenary team of six rugged men comprising two teams - an assault and an infiltrator squad. Their mission to rescue air crash survivors and important data has gotten into a little fix.

A blend of both a first person shooter and real-time strategy game, Raven Squad, from Hungarian developers Atomic Motion, is supposed to be a one of a kind innovation that hopefully will attract fans of both genres. Unfortunately, you won't find much bliss in this game thanks to game play design as well as quality issues. Raven Squad is also too short and too easy for the typical AAA player, that we were tempted to slap it with the label of Casual game; this makes us wonder whether more thought and play testing could have gone into it.

Anyway, we still think Raven Squad serves as an interesting alternative for a round of quick play. If you get to see the game in the bargain bin (and you will), grab it. Here's why...

Welcome to Raven Squad

Übersoldier
Game Category: Action - First Person, Alternate History, Military
Developer / Distributor: Burut CT / CDV Software
Release Date: 27 Mar 2006
Rating: ESRB - Mature, PEGI 18+

A Retro Flashback
World War II has been a constant barb in the psyche of humanity, but yet it somehow keeps on getting featured in computer games.

What first started out as a tepid attempt of cashing in on the topic was first seen in Castle Wolfenstein back in 1981; this was a top down stealth action game from Muse Software for the Apple II. It led to the release of a sequel known as Beyond Castle Wolfenstein three year later, which was more successful than it's predecessor.

Perhaps the greatest moment in gaming history was when id Software released Wolfenstein 3D. It featured a prisoner of war by the name of William "B.J." Blazkowicz attempting to flee from the dank confines of Castle Wolfenstein - a bastion of Nazi supremacy. All in glorious pixellated 3D.

Introduction
Today, after a handful of iterations of failed and successful World War II FPS games riding on the success wave of Wolfenstein 3D, Burut CT and CDV Software have come together to bring to us this rather interesting vision of theirs - Übersoldier.

Unlike id Software's debut, you will be taking on the role of a Nazi soldier Karl Stolz, whose resurrection after an untimely death comes along with some supernatural combat abilities.

Tod ist mein leben!

Vampires vs Zombies
Game Category: Casual - Time Management, Horror
Developer / Distributor: Five BN / Alawar Entertainment
Release Date: 3 Dec 2011

Looks like Alawar Entertainment only wants to give us lots of Christmas presents this year. First, there was Elementary My Dear Majesty! - a 3D Hidden Object adventure that I previewed only a few days ago. Now, Daily PC Game Reviews have been informed of a horrifyingly fun and funky new game that goes by the simple name of... (drum roll, please...) Vampires vs Zombies.

This is a review of a full beta build of Vampires vs Zombies. Get ready for yet another innovative release from the people at Alawar Entertainment.

A truly scarifying game

Vampires vs Zombies by Alawar Five BN, is not a new take on the Plants vs Zombies franchise from PopCap Games. In fact, Five BN have designed a time management game that features addictive game play in the vein of games from the Farm Frenzy franchise.


Instead of having to defend rows of plants against hordes of ravening zombies, you get two factions - the rather innocuous looking vampires and the lean mean zombie crunching regime. Both factions only want to go head to head against each other until one victor remains standing. You will be taking control of the vampire faction throughout the entire game - these are the good guys as epitomized by the Twilight novels and movies (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn).

The svelte and sophisticated vampire ladies are at it again

Virtual City
Game Category: Casual - Time Management, Simulation
Developer / Distributor: G5 Entertainment
Release Date: 15 Dec 2009
Rating: ESRB - Rating Pending

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Introduction
Ever wanted to play a casual version of Simcity? Well, we chanced upon Virtual City a few days ago and have not stopped playing with it since then.

Guess, we've been hiding under a rock for far too long. After all, Virtual City has been out since December 2009. There's even a release that ports it over to the Kindle Fire. Imagine playing Virtual City on that after breezing through another chapter of your latest novel!

Virtual City truly fits the bill of a city simulator to a glove; and it oozes quality too. Let's see our checklist - the game comes with lovely residential homes, busy industrial buildings, flashy commercial areas, and idyllic parks - check, check, check, check. Plus, there are also other special buildings like hospitals, and fire stations - check.

Seems like, that is probably where all similarities end... Once we hurdled past the first crucial ten minutes of Virtual City, we immediately realized that the game's lifeblood relies on not only constructing and placing buildings to optimize production of resources, but more importantly - to set up an extensive transportation system that fetches resources to the right place.

Virtual City is a great game for all

Elementary My Dear Majesty!
Game Category: Casual - Hidden Object, Fantasy
Developer / Distributor: Dream Dale / Alawar Entertainment
Release Date: 28 Nov 2011

Welcome to Daily PC Game Review's very first hands-on preview of a soon to be released game. This is a full beta build of the game under preview.

Elementary My Dear Majesty! is a Hidden Object (HO) adventure with a really truly unique feature - the scenes and objects are in full 3D; I kid you not! You will be able to zoom in/out, and rotate your view about 45 degrees (to the left and right) to aid you in finding objects that are so cleverly hidden unless seen from a totally different perspective.

Enter the wonderful fantasy world of Elementary My Dear Majesty!

Icebreakers
Game Category: Action - Third Person, Arcade, Sports, Kids
Developer / Distributor: Xibalba Studios
Release Date: 5 Apr 2011
Rating: ESRB - Everyone

Introduction
Independent game developer Xibalba Studios (based in Mexico) have come up with perhaps the coolest concept for a 3D arena vehicular sport game - Icebreakers!

Come and try out this winter sport game that has you driving ice sleds that leave behind trails of ice. These fancy rides are equipped with a powerful water tank that shoots a powerful stream of water, propelling the sled forward, while leaving behind an icy wall when the water freezes. You will need to outsmart your enemies and get them to run headlong into the ice trails you leave behind. Do this often enough and they'll be knocked out of the game for that precious few seconds to give you the needed advantage to win a match.

Icebreakers is truly a light-hearted fun game that will appeal to kids of all ages. There's even a Flash version (2D top down version only) of Icebreakers for you to get into the spirit of things. Come on now, give this indie game a try!

The coolest sports game in town