# A Force For Good > classic PC gaming ## Posts - [Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-star-wars-the-force-unleashed-ii/): Hi everyone. Today’s review is from the collection marked ‘Xbox 360-era games I meant to get around to one day’. As I’d already played the first one, I decided to pick out Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. Do we need a bit more hype? Er… is the Force strong with this one? Do they still use that for reviews of Star Wars games? [Probably – Ed.] - [Moments in Gaming: ‘Default’](https://forceforgood.co.uk/moments-in-gaming-default/): Moments in Gaming is where we look back on gaming experiences that have left a particularly strong impression on us over the years: mainly for good reasons, but sometimes for bad ones. I mentioned recently an unsuitability for playing ‘proper’ racing games, with modern simulation and sim-adjacent games being so effective at conveying a sense of danger that a nervous real-life driver might find themselves lacking the nerve to really hit the best lap times. A couple of years ago I decided to fire up one of Codemasters’ Formula 1 titles that had accrued in my backlog without ever being touched, […] - [Review: Space Quest V: The Next Mutation](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-space-quest-v-the-next-mutation/): Hello everyone! For today’s review we’re adding another game to our archive of Sierra adventures with Space Quest V: The Next Mutation. - [Review: SHIFT 2: Unleashed](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-shift-2-unleashed/): Good afternoon! Today’s review is of the racing game SHIFT 2: Unleashed. Almost certainly, after 18 games, this will be the last Need for Speed (yes, this is a Need for Speed game) to be covered on FFG. As long-term readers (if any exist) will be aware, we already have a Brief History summarising all of our coverage, but perhaps the moment deserves a few extra words at some point, too. I’ll see what I can come up with! - [Review: Shardlight](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-shardlight/): Hi there! Today’s review is another modern(ish) indie adventure: Wadjet Eye’s post-apocalyptic point-and-clicker from 2016, Shardlight. Next time I’m here, I’ll have something really exciting for you. (Well, actually, not that exciting – don’t get your hopes up or anything.) - [Review: Bastion](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-bastion/): Hello! And Happy New Year to you all. We’re kicking off 2026 with a discussion review of Supergiant’s indie battler Bastion. - [Review: Whispers of a Machine](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-whispers-of-a-machine/): Hello and season’s greetings to you all. Today we have a review of the sci-fi indie adventure Whispers of a Machine. - [Review: World Racing 2: Champion Edition](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-world-racing-2-champion-edition/): Hi everyone. Apologies for the recent period of silence. Here’s a review that was meant to follow close on the heels of my last one in… (checks dates) late May. It’s from the area of the backlog marked ‘unplayed arcade racers from the last 25 years’: World Racing 2: Champion Edition. - [Review: Strife](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-strife/): Hi all Hope you are well. We have a new review for you, looking at rather fascinating Doom-powered first-person shooter from 1996. So read on for my thoughts on Strife. - [oh good ale](https://forceforgood.co.uk/oh-good-ale/): Sorry things have gone a bit quiet lately – real life continues to distract us from the vitally important work of playing old computer games. We hope to have some more substantial content for you eventually. For now though let me show you all something cool I found on the Youtubes (there’s all sorts of marvellous stuff on there, apparently). It’s an old-timey English drinking song, and I think the earliest references to it date back to the 18th century. However, you will probably know it as something else. Sound familiar? What’s in that grog stuff, anyway? - [Magic Wands and Holy Thieves](https://forceforgood.co.uk/magic-wands-and-holy-thieves/): Just got back from holiday and it turns out that while I was away, we fans of 90s first-person gaming received a double helping of exciting new re-releases! Heretic and Hexen Let’s start with these fantasy shooters from Raven, both using the doom engine. Heretic came first, swapping cacodemons and chainguns for gargoyles and magic wands, but otherwise hewing quite close to Doom’s simple run-and-gun format. Hexen was the sort-of-sequel that tried to be a bit clever with hub-based levels and puzzles, and also had three player characters. Both are still highly enjoyable today, so it’s great to learn they’ve […] - [Moments in Gaming: Demos at Christmas](https://forceforgood.co.uk/moments-in-gaming-demos-at-christmas/): Moments in Gaming is where we look back on gaming experiences that have left a particularly strong impression on us over the years: mainly for good reasons, but sometimes for bad ones. I’m not really sure if demos are a thing anymore; I basically haven’t been short of games to play for a long time, but the last time I saw one for a new game that I was interested in, it had disappeared from Steam before I had the chance to download it. (Apparently, demos that are available for a limited time are a thing). I’d possibly argue that the […] - [Vault of Regret: The Thing](https://forceforgood.co.uk/vault-of-regret-the-thing/): The Vault of Regret is a very large place, which houses dusty old game CDs and boxes, untouched digital libraries, and the metaphysical concepts of remorse and embarrassment. Here we write about all the games we should have played but haven’t, or that we have played but didn’t enjoy, among other things. The Thing is from a fine video game tradition of spin-offs from fondly remembered 80s properties that have been left fallow in movie-world for long enough that the prospect of a sequel, semi-sequel or sidequel in video game form seems like a reasonable way to breathe some life into it […] - [Review: Need for Speed: Rivals](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-need-for-speed-rivals/): Hi there! Hope you’re all doing well. Today we’re going a bit modern, by our standards, to check out 2013’s instalment of EA’s long-running racing franchise. Here’s a review of Need for Speed: Rivals. - [Review: Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-judge-dredd-dredd-vs-death/): Hi there. The urge to play a first-person shooter strikes me only occasionally these days. But, for reasons that will be explained, I was recently motivated to go scrabbling through the games cupboard and dig out today’s game, first released in 2003: Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death. - [Review: The Lost Vikings](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-the-lost-vikings/): Hi all. Last time I posted here, I suggested that I might review a flight sim sometime this year. I’m afraid this rather ambitious goal has, so far, resulted in little more than me flailing around in tutorial missions trying to figure out HUD settings and firing missiles randomly. So for today can I interest you in a puzzle-platformer instead? We’re diving way back to the earliest days of Blizzard Software to look at one of their lesser-known creations, The Lost Vikings. - [Review: Onside Complete Soccer](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-onside-complete-soccer/): Hello there! Today we’re back in the realm of old football games (again). Here’s a review of Onside Complete Soccer. - [Discussion Review: Batman: Arkham Asylum](https://forceforgood.co.uk/23694-2/): Hi all, I’m happy to announce that after a long absence, today we have a new discussion review for you. This time, we’re off to a theatrically gloomy island housing a clearly unsuccessful psychiatric hospital, to trade punches with some costumed maniacs in Batman: Arkham Asylum. - [Review: Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-dragon-age-origins-awakening/): Hello everyone. The reviewing machine appears to be belatedly cranking back into life again in 2025. Today’s review is of the Dragon Age: Origins expansion pack, Awakening. - [Review: Raptor: Call of the Shadows](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-raptor-call-of-the-shadows/): Hello all. I’ve not contributed much to this site lately, but today I have a new review for you! We’re looking at shareware scrolling shooter Raptor: Call of the Shadows. Hopefully more to come in the future – maaaaaybe even a flight sim. - [A Tale of Two Halves](https://forceforgood.co.uk/a-tale-of-two-halves/): The thought may have occurred to some of our regular readers, as they plough through another 3/10 review of an absolutely ancient football game on this site, that trawling this particular section of the retro-gaming ocean is a largely pointless task, in service of a rather niche interest, the only source of enthusiasm for which is the author himself. But, no, you fools! It seems I was right all along, as Bitmap Books recently brought out a heavy, glossy, heftily-priced hardback book on this exact topic. As you might expect, I immediately made sure I owned a copy of A […] - [A belated 'Hello!'](https://forceforgood.co.uk/a-belated-hello/): It’s February, which means it’s too late to wish you a Happy New Year, and also too late to make a comment about not knowing when it’s too late to wish someone a Happy New Year. So we’ll just call this a mid-Q1 check-in instead, shall we? [No, that sounds simply dreadful – a reader]. As you may have noticed, 2024 was the first year for quite some time in which we failed to hit our KPIs and SLAs, modest as they are. From my point of view, a steady trickle of content has somehow endured through numerous ups and […] - [Work Complete!](https://forceforgood.co.uk/work-complete/): Hi all. This humble site has now been transferred to the new host. There were of course more problems than I had expected, mostly relating to this janky customised theme I put together when we first moved to WordPress. Still, we should be 95% back to normal, there’s just a chance of broken images in old blog post. - [Work in Progress](https://forceforgood.co.uk/work-in-progress/): Hi all, we’re currently in the process of moving to new hosting. The site is partially navigable, but not all the menu structures work and some of the formatting is kind of screwy. Hope to have everything back to normal in the next few days!   - [Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!) is now a podcast](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-indie-game-spoilers-is-now-a-podcast/): Some exciting news: the semi-regular discussion series, Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!) has moved to a podcast format! This does mean that future instalments won’t be appearing on FFG in written form. Thanks to everyone who read them, and to Stoo for extending the remit of the site to allow them to be hosted here.  While Jo and I don’t plan to revisit any games covered in our previous discussions, we’ve started off in fairly familiar territory by choosing The Blackwell Legacy for our first episode: a game we’ve both played, but not discussed, previously.  In addition to that discussion, we’ve […] - [Don't you have a kingdom to run? - Warcraft turns 30](https://forceforgood.co.uk/dont-you-have-a-kingdom-to-run-warcraft-turns-30/): Today in “news you’ve already read somewhere else”. The Warcraft series has reached its 30th Anniversary and as part of the celebrations, Blizzard have released remastered versions of the first two games. You get the option of either original graphics, or ” lovingly updated hand-painted artwork”. You might recall the first game was pixelly VGA, the second moved to higher-res SVGA and established the series bold and colourful look. Now they share a similar style, more or less what I’d expect if you took the second game and re-drew it today. So they look great… although it’s disappointing that the […] - [Review: Mafia](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-mafia/): Hi there. Nice to be back with you again. Sorry it’s been a while. Today’s game is Mafia, a 1930s organised crime caper from Illusion Softworks. - [A Real Retro Racer](https://forceforgood.co.uk/a-real-retro-racer/): I recently finished Horizon Chase Turbo. Short review: it’s really good! A number of retro-themed arcade racers have caught my attention in recent years, and it seems (albeit from a position of almost total ignorance of modern gaming trends) as if the increasing focus of mainstream racers on a serious, simulation-focused experience has opened up some space for smaller developers at the more arcadey end of the market. It’s one thing to say that you’re attempting to recapture the spirit of 80s or 90s racers in a new game, but quite another to actually achieve it successfully. Eagerly presenting a […] - [Review: UEFA Euro 96 England](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-uefa-euro-96-england/): Hi there. Depending on how generous you want to be, we’re either a week or a month late with this one. If you’re English, the post-Euros hangover will be over by now, at least. Personally, I made my headache slightly worse by returning to Actua Soccer and playing its first sequel: Euro 96. And, don’t forget, if you like your coverage of mainly terrible old football games in some kind of list-based format, you can find this here. - [Review: Daikatana](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-daikatana/): Hello! Right… how to make this update vaguely topical…? As you know, we’ve just had an election here in the UK. [Leans into microphone] I tell you what, I’ve not seen such a unanimously negative verdict since Daikatana was released! Will that do? Does that, er, you know, work? Hello? - [Review: Tomb Raider: Legend](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-tomb-raider-legend/): Hi there. Today’s game is our first Tomb Raider review. (Not a review of the first Tomb Raider, though: that would be far too logical). Here’s a look at Tomb Raider: Legend, from Crystal Dynamics. - [Technical difficulties](https://forceforgood.co.uk/technical-difficulties/): Hi all. Just a quick note to say we’re aware of some strange issues with our menu pages on the desktop site. The reviews themselves appear to be unaffected, but something seems to have gone wrong with the genre categories. And it all seems to be ok on mobile at the moment. Anyway, we’re looking into it! (Or Stoo is, at least). Update – The menus should now be working as normal. – Stoo - [Return of the Mike](https://forceforgood.co.uk/return-of-the-mike/): Some good news: Alpha Protocol is back, after a few years in digital purgatory, thanks to GOG. While I’ve spent a good chunk of the last few years catching up with Bioware RPGs of a certain vintage, Alpha Protocol was probably the game that kicked that whole process off. (It’s somehow very on-brand for me to be inspired to play 00s Bioware games by something that was neither developed by them or even released in the 00s). Although in some ways, the parameters of your quest are quite narrow by RPG standards – you act alone, and have to be […] - [Review: Dragon Age: Origins](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-dragon-age-origins/): Hi there. If reviews have been in short supply recently, even by our standards, then underestimating the size of the task before me when I took on today’s game is probably one of the reasons why. Still, we got there in the end, and a pretty good time was had along the way. Here’s our review of Dragon Age: Origins. - [Review: Microprose Soccer](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-microprose-soccer/): Hi there. It’s been a little while since we brought you a review of an old game, so here’s an EGA football title from the late 1980s: Microprose Soccer. I’m duty-bound to also remind you that like all old footy titles we discuss here, this one goes into the FFG Football League, which now has a full 40 teams/games! (Almost two full divisions, although if we’re following the English league structure, there’s still room at the bottom of the FFG Championship for a handful of other titles. But to go beyond that and have three divisions would be complete madness, […] - [Discussion: Afterparty (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-afterparty-spoilers/): Hello and welcome again to Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a semi-regular series with a title so ingenious it needs absolutely no further explanation. Today’s game is Afterparty, an adventure game developed by Night School Studio and released in 2019. Our protagonists are Milo and Lola, two recent college graduates who unexpectedly find themselves detained in Hell, and set about trying to return to the land of the living by challenging Satan to a drinking contest. Here’s a trailer: Normally at this point we like to make broadly positive but non-committal noises about the game in question and encourage you to […] - [Moments in Gaming: BETHOR!](https://forceforgood.co.uk/moments-in-gaming-bethor/): Moments in Gaming is where we look back on gaming experiences that have left a particularly strong impression on us over the years: mainly for good reasons, but sometimes for bad ones. Our ancient review of Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels probably belongs in a different series: the Vault of Regret, our chamber of assorted gaming shame. Written on the basis of not much effort and an – incorrect – assumption that everyone, and not just the reviewer, found the game impossibly hard, its continued preservation (with caveats) on the site is occasionally discussed under ‘AOB’ at FFG Executive […] - [FFG Review of the Year: 2023](https://forceforgood.co.uk/ffg-review-of-the-year-2023/): Hello there and welcome along to our semi-regular look back at the year just gone, wherein we discuss how committed we are to this feature (traditionally not very, but now approaching it with renewed vigour), apologise for how late it may or may not be (quite late this time, sorry), consider whether we met our rather modest targets for updates (of the three possible outcomes stated last time – “maintain, improve, or very slightly fall away from” our usual level – eh, it’s probably the third one) and then get on with summarising what we actually wrote about in 2023. […] - [Review: Ridge Racer Unbounded](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-ridge-racer-unbounded/): Bloody Hell! It’s 2024! (Apologies for not wishing you all a good Christmas, as promised – the site went down for a little bit, then we obviously got distracted by the festive preparations.) Anyway, we’re back with what might be considered the third part of a trilogy entitled ‘racing games released about 12 years ago that I always meant to get around to, but didn’t’. After Blur, and Split/Second, here comes Ridge Racer: Unbounded. We’ll be back again soon with the traditional round-up of last year on FFG, despite no-one ever asking for it. [No-one asks for any of this […] - [Review: Split/Second: Velocity](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-split-second-velocity/): Hi there. Today’s review is of the action-packed racer Split/Second: Velocity. Will there be anything more before Christmas? Oh-ho, will there? Will there now?! WILL THERE EVER! [But will there actually be any more reviews or blog posts, though? – a reader] Er, not sure. If not, we’ll be sure to pop back anyway, and pass on a seasonal message of goodwill. But it’s a bit early for that. Like everything else at blummin’ Christmas, all starting too early these days… [cut! – Ed] - [Review: ICC Cricket World Cup England 99](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-icc-cricket-world-cup-england-99/): Good morning. It’s the Cricket World Cup at the moment, a tournament which began with England attempting to retain the trophy as holders. In preparing this review, I was planning to write something about how they’re actually quite good these days, and contrast that with the embarrassments of the past. But, no, they’re out already. All rather reminiscent of 1999, then, a year in which England were the hosts, and EA brought us a severely undercooked tie-in game: ICC Cricket World Cup England 99. - [Discussion: A Short Hike (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-a-short-hike-spoilers/): Hello and welcome to Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a series that I could describe further, but probably needs very little effort to work out. [It’s not our fault you’ve boxed yourself in with these introductions – FFG reader]. Today’s game is A Short Hike, released by Adam Robinson-Yu in 2019, which is a narrative/open-world exploration game that takes place on an island of anthropomorphic animals. The player character is a bird called Claire, who has travelled to the national park located on this island for the summer, and you guide her in her attempts to complete its most challenging walk, […] - [Wipeout: Phantom Edition](https://forceforgood.co.uk/wipeout-phantom-edition/): Mods and source ports haven’t, historically, really been my kind of thing (“clever people doing clever things with FPS games or RPGs that were probably fine to begin with” being my completely uninformed and dismissive summary) but my interest was piqued by news of Wipeout: Phantom Edition, a new source port of the old PSX racer. The sloppy and largely unloved DOS version of Wipeout is to most people worth little more than a footnote in the series’ history. To me, though, despite horrible graphics and unwieldy controls, it was still the version that I played and enjoyed back in […] - [Review: Metal Gear Solid](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-metal-gear-solid/): Hi all. Apologies for the short period of radio silence. Today we’re back, though, with what – if our calculations are correct (which they may well not be) – will be our 400th review. As such, we figured that we’d better go for a vaguely notable title rather than some long-forgotten cricket game. So here’s our review of Metal Gear Solid. - [Review: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-tiger-woods-pga-tour-07/): Hi there. With the DIY (mostly) finished, it’s time to get back on track with a review of some sort. How about some thoughts on a mid-00s golf game, featuring Tiger Woods? No? Well, it’s all we’ve got for now, I’m afraid. So here comes a review of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 anyway, whether you like it or not. - [Moments in Gaming: Ayumi and Harumi](https://forceforgood.co.uk/moments-in-gaming-ayumi-and-harumi/): Moments in Gaming is where we look back on gaming experiences that have left a particularly strong impression on us over the years: mainly for good reasons, but sometimes for bad ones. Boss battles aren’t the strongest part of Blur, Bizarre’s brilliant combat racer. Not only are too many of these ‘expert’ opponents easily dispatched, their characterisation is thin, going little beyond a video introduction, and meaning it’s hard to care that much about besting any of them. ‘What if there were two?’ That’s one way to try and escalate the sense of jeopardy. And ‘what if they were Asian twin […] - [In all things, the calm heart must prevail](https://forceforgood.co.uk/in-all-things-the-calm-heart-must-prevail/): In Fallout 3, you can roam the post apocalyptic ruins of Washington DC alone, if you prefer. However, there are companions available, to help you fight the many enemies that you will encounter. Examples include a hard-bitten mercenary, an old war robot or the leader of a gang your character knew from their childhood. There’s also the loyal and endearing dog called, erm, Dogmeat. Another is Fawkes, and he will be one of the best friends you ever find out here (ok doggo, you too). He’s a super-mutant, a race of massive, imposing yellow humanoids. They were originally created in […] - [Upgrade Complete](https://forceforgood.co.uk/upgrade-complete-2/): Hi all. As mentioned a while back, we’ve been tinkering with the layout of some of the pages here. I don’t want to raise anyone’s expectations too high – yep, you’re still looking at a rather basic wordpress layout. However we hope that your experience reading this site will be improved just a little. First up screenshots in revews have been enlarged. You can still click for an even bigger version but now you have a better idea what the game looks like without having to break out of the review. Also the review menus now contain a brief description […] - [The PC Zone Classic](https://forceforgood.co.uk/the-pc-zone-classic/): In a move not entirely in keeping with the minimal public profile cultivated and maintained by this website over the course of the last twenty years, eschewing all media interest in favour of focusing all our energies on keeping our seven readers happy, we recently received – and accepted – a very kind invitation to a swanky London event in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the launch of PC Zone magazine. With Stoo meeting with investors and shareholders in the States, it was left to myself and Jo to represent Team FFG, and we departed with strict (self-issued) instructions […] - [Under Construction](https://forceforgood.co.uk/under-construction/): Hi all, we’re currently making some improvements to the site, particularly the menu and review pages. Until then some pages might look messy with broken formatting. Should be finished within a week. (Narrator: they were not finished within a week). (ok I’m back from vacation now, will resume work asap). - [Beyond the Cardboard Box: Landfill](https://forceforgood.co.uk/beyond-the-cardboard-box-landfill/): Beyond the Cardboard Box is a series which follows up an earlier effort looking at games packaging and budget ranges in the 90s and 00s. The aim here is to cover anything of interest that might not have cropped up previously, and offer a few stray observations about the steady decline of the physical boxed game that we once knew and loved. The charity shop hunt for hidden gems normally throws up a few familiar candidates: dusty favourites from the Sold Out or Xplosiv ranges, or perhaps an old copy of FIFA for the Xbox 360. Other boxed delights, especially […] - [Review: Dune](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-dune/): Hi there. We’re making a rare venture into the strategy section for today’s review, as we take a trip to Arrakis to mine spice and defeat the Harkonnen, in Cryo’s Dune. - [Discussion: Orwell (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-orwell-spoilers/): Hi there and welcome along to Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a series that I’m rapidly running out of different ways to describe. Today’s game is Orwell (also sometimes known as Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You, perhaps to distinguish it from its sequel), a game by Osmotic Studies and released in 2016. Your task is to snoop on and investigate citizens on behalf of an authoritarian government, all in the name of safety and security, by making use of a top-secret system known as Orwell. Your first day sees you dealing with the aftermath of a terrorist bombing and an […] - [Review: Hocus Pocus](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-hocus-pocus/): Hi all, hope you are well. I’m back with another review, this time just a quick look at another 90s shareware platform game, Hocus Pocus. - [Review: Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-assassins-creed-directors-cut/): Hi there. It’s probably worth noting that there’s nothing sinister or deliberate in the timing of this review, although whether this is the right weekend for a trip back to a fictionalised version of the medieval Crusades will be a matter of personal taste. Anyway, for no particular reason other than the fact we fancied another discussion, Stoo and I decided to take a look at the first Assassin’s Creed game. Hope you enjoy! - [Moments in Gaming: Destroy the Intrepid](https://forceforgood.co.uk/moments-in-gaming-destroy-the-intrepid/): Moments in Gaming is where we look back on gaming experiences that have left a particularly strong impression on us over the years: mainly for good reasons, but sometimes for bad ones. As it’s Star Wars Day (Fourth of May be with you!) we figured it was time for a couple of moments from LucasArts oldies, of which this is the second. (Here’s the first, plus one from the archives, too, for good measure). While the protagonist of 2009’s The Force Unleashed may be able to pull a Star Destroyer into the ground with a mere look to the sky […] - [Moments in Gaming: Pull It Down](https://forceforgood.co.uk/moments-in-gaming-pull-it-down/): Moments in Gaming is where we look back on gaming experiences that have left a particularly strong impression on us over the years: mainly for good reasons, but sometimes for bad ones. As it’s Star Wars Day (Fourth of May be with you!) we figured it was time for a couple of moments from LucasArts oldies, of which this is the first. (Here’s one from the archives, too, for good measure). Exactly how strong in the Force can you be? Strong enough to be a bit handy with a laser sword? To raise a sunken X-Wing from a swamp? To […] - [Review: Jade Empire: Special Edition](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-jade-empire-special-edition/): Hi all. Hope you’re well. Nice weather we’re having, huh? My mood always gets a real lift in the spring. [Note to self: check to see if ChatGPT could write these review intros so they sound more like a human has written them.] Today’s review is of Jade Empire: Special Edition, from Bioware. - [Beyond the Cardboard Box: Best Of Activision](https://forceforgood.co.uk/beyond-the-cardboard-box-best-of-activision/): My most recent clearout of the ‘games cupboard’ followed the usual pattern of taking everything out, putting it on the floor and gazing at the mess I’d created while periodically puffing out my cheeks and scratching my head, before returning it all whence it came (albeit in a slightly different configuration) and telling myself that such an exercise represented a great use of an afternoon. At some point, when there was more of a premium on space, I’d evidently decided that there should be a hierarchy of sorts, with barebones budget releases relegated to a CD wallet, and only ‘proper’ […] - [Review: Doom 64](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-doom-64/): Hello everyone. As promised, here is another review! Sometimes we consider games that originated on other systems, so long as the PC version was released at least roughly around the same time. If on the other hand the port was years later it’s not really of interest to us. So Halo might happen one day but not Final Fantasy 6, even if the latter has now been released on Steam twice. Today’s item is a little different though – while it only arrived on PC last year, it obviously has very close ties to one of the most important games […] - [Review: Gun](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-gun/): Hi there. How’s it going? All good I hope? [What’s with all the question marks? Who are you talking to? Are they going to reply? Especially if you turn off comments on these posts? – Ed.] Today we have another review for you. It seems to be pretty much all reviews at the moment, rather than any other pieces, which I guess is good news if you think we should just get on with reviewing old games in any case. I have it on good authority that another review will follow this one, so if you’re missing the blog posts […] - [Review: Death Rally](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-death-rally/): Hello all. After exploring more recent games in our last few reviews, we’re going back to the 90s for today’s piece, in which we take a look at the action racer from Remedy and Apogee, Death Rally. - [Review: Torchlight](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-torchlight/): Hi all! It’s been a while, but I have a new review for you. Today we’re looking at the action-RPG from Runic Games, Torchlight. More reviews soon. Maybe. Hopefully. - [Review: Wheelman](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-wheelman/): Hi there. Hope all’s well with you. Today’s game is Vin Diesel’s Wheelman™: A Wheelman™ Game (starring Vin Diesel). - [Discussion: Emily Is Away <3 (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-emily-is-away/): Hello! This is Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), our semi-regular discussion series in which Jo and I talk about our chosen indie title with lots of plot spoilers along the way. Today’s game is Emily Is Away <3 – the third Emily game by Kyle Seeley, released in 2021. We’ve covered the previous two already, and so figured we may as well press on with the third one, even if – as we mention below – the experience of a thrice-rebooted tale of high school drama has the potential to be a slightly confusing and exhausting one if the games are […] - [Review: Blur](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-blur/): Hello there. Today’s game is relatively recent by our standards, but is also no longer commercially available and from a developer that is now defunct. All of which is a shame, because it’s an absolute corker. (I could make a joke here about always preferring Oasis or Pulp, which I sort of am doing anyway, now, but in a way that implies I think I’m better than that joke, when the evidence suggests that, clearly, I’m not. Parklife!) Here’s a review of Blur. - [The Reluctant Upgrader](https://forceforgood.co.uk/the-reluctant-upgrader/): In a move that will shock precisely none of our longer-term readers, this week I became one of the last people to make the upgrade to Windows 10, days before the support period for Windows 8.1 expired. (Wikipedia: ‘as of January 2023, 2.59% of traditional PCs running Windows are running Windows 8.1’). Over the past few years, each and every time I’ve written the words ‘Tested on Win 8.1’ at the bottom of a review, I have imagined those reading wondering exactly why anyone was still using this outdated and little-loved incarnation of the Microsoft OS. In the past, my […] - [FFG Review of the Year: 2022](https://forceforgood.co.uk/ffg-review-of-the-year-2022/): Hello. It’s that time of year where we traditionally do a half-hearted round-up of the stuff we’ve covered on FFG. I’m going to eschew the usual small talk about what kind of a year it’s been out in the real world, other than to acknowledge that things are tough for many and to send you all our best wishes. For once, I’m going all-in on this round-up and attempt to make it a bit more detailed. (If you call something half-hearted, it ends up being half-hearted, perhaps). So, in the spirit of new-year positivity, let us lean in to this […] - [The Unreviewed: 2022](https://forceforgood.co.uk/the-unreviewed-2022/): Happy New Year to you all. As we get to the end of the year and the inevitable question of whether to do a reluctant-sounding round-up of 2022 on FFG (spoiler: we will) I figured it might be worth trying something a little different as well. I do quite like our semi-official policy of mainly only talking about games that fall within our remit in a full review, perhaps because in the old days I was guilty of acquiring and flitting between different games at the expense of sitting down and focusing on one thing. Choose the game, play the […] - [Review: World Cup 98](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-world-cup-98/): Hi there. Believe it or not, this review was all set to go live at a suitably relevant point last week, but, as regular readers may have noticed, we had a few technical hiccups to sort out. Anyway, the big international footy thing was in the winter this year, for all kinds of dubious reasons. Here’s a reminder of a late 90s summer tournament, as we go back and revisit EA’s World Cup 98. This also means a new entry in, and a revision of, the FFG Football League standings. Which, in spite of my attempts to pick and choose […] - [Discussion: Emily Is Away Too (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-emily-is-away-too-spoilers/): Hi there. Welcome to Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a series which should really have a generic introduction in italics at the top here but, for some reason, doesn’t. Today’s game is Emily Is Away Too, a 2017 follow-up to the previous game we covered. Yep, you’re back on Windows XP, exchanging IM messages with someone called Emily again. Although this time, there’s another friend – Evelyn – also vying for your attention, making things a little more complicated. Otherwise, it’s a similar tale of teenage awkwardness and intense feelings clumsily expressed, with some potential moments of hot shame thrown into […] - [Review: X-Wing](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-x-wing/): Hello. With a modern tale of an expensive investment quickly destroyed due to a fundamental weakness unfolding as we speak, how about we go back a long time, to a galaxy far, far away (again) and try and blow up the Death Star? It’ll take some doing, though. For me, it’s taken 28 years. Yes, it’s that ‘white whale’ I mentioned a little while ago. Here’s a review of X-Wing. - [Review: Street Racing Syndicate](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-street-racing-syndicate/): Ah one two, microphone check; one-two, microphone check one-two; microphone checka one-two, tell you what I’m gonna do! Yo yo yo yo yo! It’s ya boy Rik from the F-to-the-F-to-the-G, with a sick new ride comin’ to you from 2005, when they knew how to do it! Y’know what I’m sayin’? [No – and can we please have another word about these intros – Ed.] Ahem. Here’s a review of Street Racing Syndicate. - [Discussion: Emily Is Away (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-emily-is-away-spoilers/): Hello! This is Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!) – a series which, like Ronseal quick-drying woodstain, does what it says on the tin. [What tin, you say? What’s Ronseal, you say? Never mind! Let’s move on.] Today’s game is Emily Is Away, a 2015 interactive novel by Kyle Seeley. During which, you are whisked back to the year 2002, and a Windows XP-alike environment, to take part in a series of instant messenger conversations with the eponymous Emily. Starting in the final year of high school and spanning the next five years, the game features all of the awkward ups and […] - [Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-star-wars-the-force-unleashed/): Hi there. Once hyped as an exciting new chapter of the Star Wars canon, with input from the grand high beard himself, now officially relegated to ‘never happened, sorry’, today’s game is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. (Not to dazzle you with thrilling ‘behind the curtain’ insight, but I had a more old school title, and something of a personal white whale, lined up for the next review, but, uh, it’s probably going to be a while. It *will* happen though. That’s the FFG guarantee.) - [Soundtracks: Need for Speed Special](https://forceforgood.co.uk/soundtracks-need-for-speed-special/): Soundtracks is where we take a look back at the use of licensed music in games. Go here if you want to know more. Hello and welcome to Soundtracks, a series that is likely to be ending soon. For a finale, let’s do some more racing games: why not? Specifically, all of the Need for Speed games that have some good tunes but not quite enough for me to be able to write an individual piece about them. Need for Speed: Underground and, especially, Need for Speed: Carbon might not be the best games in the series, but I’d argue […] - [Review: Manic Karts](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-manic-karts/): Hi there. We’ve got some 90s karting action for you today, plus a bonus feature on its slightly nightmarish music. The game is called Manic Karts. [What did we talk about with these intros, Rik? – Ed.] Ah, ok. Also – how are you? Did you have a good summer? September already, huh? What about all of those troubling domestic and world events? I’m fine, yeah. Can’t complain, can’t complain. [Great stuff – Ed.] - [Review: Gemini Rue](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-gemini-rue/): Hi there. We’re heading to the newer end of our normal reviewing territory today (so about 10-ish years ago), although there are plenty of echoes of older games here, in Wadjet Eye’s sci-fi adventure, Gemini Rue. - [Discussion: Telling Lies (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-telling-lies-spoilers/): Hello and welcome to the latest Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a series which, I’ve just decided, needs no further explanation in the introduction. I’m sure you can work it out, readers, even if you’re new around here. Today’s game is Telling Lies, a spiritual sequel (of sorts) to the subject of our very first indie discussion, Her Story. Developed by Sam Barlow, in partnership with Furious Bee, and published by Annapurna Interactive in 2019, Telling Lies is, like Her Story, a game in which you conduct an investigation by searching through video clips. Here’s a brief trailer: I don’t think […] - [Soundtracks: Juiced/Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights](https://forceforgood.co.uk/soundtracks-juiced-juiced-2-hot-import-nights/): Soundtracks is where we take a look back at the use of licensed music in games. Go here if you want to know more. Welcome! If you thought the premise of this feature started off thin and has only got thinner since, get ready for the barrel to be scraped. By which I mean, in celebration of the likely near end of this series, we’re going out with a bang with a couple of specials. This time, we’ve got a double-feature, covering the racing games Juiced and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, two of the sexiest/sexist-est racers of the mid-00s. […] - [Review: MegaRace 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-megarace-2/): Happy Friday everyone. For some reason, I decided it was time to play MegaRace 2. As is customary, here follows a summary of my thoughts. - [Review: Jurassic Park: The Game](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-jurassic-park-the-game/): Hi all. There’s a new Jurassic Park film out at the moment (or are these new ones technically Jurassic World films?) After re-watching the old movies I was in the mood to give Telltale’s 2011 game a go too. So, that’s today’s review. [We really must have a meeting about these review intros – Ed.] - [Soundtracks: Burnout Paradise](https://forceforgood.co.uk/soundtracks-burnout-paradise/): Soundtracks is where we take a look back at the use of licensed music in games. Go here if you want to know more. Hello and welcome to Soundtracks. Today’s game is Burnout Paradise, a 2008 racer from Criterion that lots of people seem to like but which we found to be competent, but slightly clinical and unengaging, as these things go. As an EA game, it does of course come with a lavish budget for a licensed soundtrack, including a theme tune of sorts, with Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses pumped into your ears at every available opportunity, […] - [Blade Runner: 'Enhanced Edition' is finally out](https://forceforgood.co.uk/blade-runner-enhanced-edition-is-finally-out/): I was all ready to click ‘Buy’ on the new ‘Enhanced’ edition of Blade Runner… until the reports of those who were keener and quicker to do so put me off. To be honest I’d sort of forgotten about it – the last time we wrote about Blade Runner here it was to note that after many years of work by fans the game was finally playable in ScummVM, followed by a confident prediction by FFG’s top news-hound that an actual commercial re-release remained unlikely. Which was wrong, as it turned out, and since December 2019 gamers have been happily […] - [Review: Screamer 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-screamer-2/): Happy Friday everyone, hope you’re all doing well. Today’s review is the 1996 racing sequel Screamer 2. - [Review: Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-need-for-speed-most-wanted-2012/): Hello everyone. Today’s game is a return to the Need for Speed franchise, and a remake/reboot of a previously successful instalment. Here’s a review of the 2012 edition of Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Plus, a reminder that we have a brief history of all of the Need for Speed games we’ve covered here, the gaps in which are getting pretty close to being filled. (Hopefully one day there’ll be a complete list with reviews of all the NFS games that fall within our remit (I’m thinking 1995-2013…? Maybe?) – even if those reviews will have been produced in a […] - [Review: F.E.A.R.](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-f-e-a-r/): Hi all, hope you are doing ok. For this review I decided to replicate the mid-2000s PC gaming experience. Eschewing digital distribution, I installed from a DVD. Then I googled, downloaded and manually applied a patch (how quaint). I even ran it in 4:3. All a very authentic reproduction of how it used to be 17 odd years ago. Except for the fact that I’m not a carefree 20-something anymore and, if I stay up gaming until 2am, I’m going to regret it the next morning, Still, today’s game is one that is best played in the dead of night, […] - [Soundtracks: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City](https://forceforgood.co.uk/soundtracks-grand-theft-auto-vice-city/): Soundtracks is where we take a look back at the use of licensed music in games. Go here if you want to know more. Today’s game needs no introduction, although it’s going to get one anyway, because that’s how these things work. Despite generally being regarded as part pastiche and a bit of a light-hearted laugh (by 00s video game standards), my own recent and first-time experiences of Vice City seemed tinged with a sense of melancholy for some reason. - [Review: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-ii-the-sith-lords/): Hello. As regular readers (if they, indeed, exist) will know, when we review a game here at FFG, we make damned sure that we get straight on with reviewing the sequel. Covering a series of games in a timely fashion, and in the correct order, is our top priority, and we will not compromise that for anyone. That’s the FFG guarantee. As such, it won’t be a surprise to anyone that today’s review is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. - [On playing modern(ish) sports games, part 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/on-playing-modernish-sports-games-part-2/): I’ve recently had to downgrade my awareness of modern football games from ‘slightly out of touch’ to ‘haven’t really played one properly for 10 years or so’. Since PES 2010, and a brief flirtation with FIFA at around the same time, it’s largely been a case of buying one or other of the two big hitters, playing it on a moderate difficulty setting with little success, and then putting it down. So there’s been a season of FIFA 14 here, and a Euros campaign with PES 2016 there, but nothing close to the Master League madness of 00s PES. (Except […] - [Discussion: Oxenfree (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-oxenfree-spoilers/): Hello once again and welcome to Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a series with a title that should be self-explanatory but which still prompts me to attempt further elaboration at the top of each and every piece. If you like fairly rambling discussions about indie adventures with a story, you’re in the right place. Be careful, though, there are spoilers, so you might want to check out the game first. Today’s item under consideration is Oxenfree, developed by Night School Studios, and released in 2016. You are Alex, one of a group of teenagers taking an evening trip to Edwards Island, […] - [Soundtracks: Test Drive Unlimited](https://forceforgood.co.uk/soundtracks-test-drive-unlimited/): Soundtracks is where we take a look back at the use of licensed music in games. Go here if you want to know more. And we’re back! Just as the last ‘proper’ instalment of this series promised that we would be, er, 18 months ago. Believe it or not, I do have a plan, of sorts, for these things, but although I always had an intention to do more, and a shortlist of other games to cover, it’s taken a while to get around to it, for some reason. Anyway, let’s call this the start of Season 2, if this […] - [Review: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/): Hi there. I’ve been RPG-ing (and Star-Wars-ing) again. With possibly too many references to Mass Effect and an unwitting segue into the merits or otherwise of recent Star Wars films, here’s a look at Knights of the Old Republic. - [On playing modern(ish) sports games, part 1](https://forceforgood.co.uk/on-playing-modernish-sports-games-part-1/): Cricket games were once released so infrequently that I used to end up buying pretty much each and every one, at some point. If there was one that I thought might be good, I’d get it on release, but even those that I was fairly sure would be disappointing, I’d look out for in sales or second hand. Codemasters’ 00s Brian Lara games were the last time I was reasonably invested, though, and they were a while ago now. To be fair, it has been fairly slim pickings since then, with the 2009 Ashes effort a fairly desperate and stodgy […] - [Review: Road Hog!](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-road-hog/): Hi all. Not that I usually pay attention to such things anymore, but if our records are correct, then this is my 250th review on FFG. And upon which legendary title do I bestow this lofty honour? Why, a daft shareware racer from the mid-90s, of course! Here’s a review of a game called Road Hog! - [Review: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine / Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-indiana-jones-and-the-infernal-machine-indiana-jones-and-the-emperors-tomb/): Hello everyone. The rusty birthday train has been running a bit late, but finally makes its last stop with this look back at Indiana Jones’ 00s action-adventures. First up, a retrospective consideration of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, first released in 1999 and reviewed here in 2002 (!) … Plus a new review of the sequel, Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, released in 2003. Just under 20 years to get around to that one, then. Right, I think that’s definitely it for anniversary features – hope you’ve enjoyed reading. We’ll be back to our usual stuff, at its […] - [Review: Dungeon Siege 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-dungeon-siege-2/): Hi everyone. Roleplaying games were once supposed to be my area of expertise at this site. I’d like to think that, while I was never exactly prolific, I covered a decent range within the genre, from first-person shooter hybrids to proper old-school beardy examples. However, it’s been a long time since I contributed a review to that section. There are a few reasons for my absence, one of which being simply how time consuming they can be. Let’s… not discuss how long ago I started Might and Magic 6. Meanwhile Rik has been broadening his horizons, doing some great work […] - [Review: Vancouver 2010](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-vancouver-2010/): Hi everyone. It’s the Winter Olympics! In real life! Right now! Which is all the incentive I need to dust off some old tie-in game in search of some virtual glory. Here’s a look at Vancouver 2010. - [Discussion: Neo Cab (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/discussion-neo-cab-spoilers/): Hello again, and welcome to our latest instalment of Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a series which usually involves a moderately lively back-and-forth on the topic of a relatively modern indie title. Having covered one particular type of game pretty much exclusively so far, we’ve drawn a line under walking sims for now, capping things off with a spoiler-free round-up last time around. Today’s subject for discussion is Neo Cab, a visual novel developed by Chance Agency and published by Fellow Traveller in 2019. You play Lina, a human cab driver in a near future dominated by automated transport. Over the […] - [Review: Dark Forces, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast](https://forceforgood.co.uk/review-dark-forces-jedi-knight-ii-jedi-outcast/): Hello everyone. Last year was the 20th anniversary for this humble site, and to commemorate the occasion we were revisiting old reviews, and pairing those articles up with new reviews of related games. Such is the leisurely pace at which we create content, that one more of these pairings has spilled over into the new year. So firstly Rik and myself have teamed up to for Dark Forces, the 1995 Star Wars themed first person shooter which I first wrote about waaaay back in 2001. Then you can go read about, Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, the second sequel. That’s […] ## Pages - [Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/star-wars-the-force-unleashed-ii/): Star Wars: The Force Unleashed had some good moments, but didn’t exactly make a compelling case for itself as the opening chapter of a grander tale. This sequel is a slightly strange beast, with certain story events in the first game necessitating somewhat of a cop-out in the introduction and setup here, about which I won’t say too much more for fear of spoiling both games. Needless to say, you’re back with your friend Starkiller for another round of galaxy-trotting adventures, hacking through endless waves of foes with your lightsaber, and using the Force to toss around bits of scenery […] - [Space Quest V: The Next Mutation](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/space-quest-v-roger-wilco-the-next-mutation/): Back in this site’s earlier days Rik reviewed the first instalment in Sierra On-Line’s series of sci-fi parody adventures, Space Quest (or more accurately, he looked at the VGA remake). He wasn’t especially impressed and vowed never to return to the series. Many years later I thought to myself, maybe the later games improved on the original? So I decided to step in and thus began a journey through the adventures of Roger Wilco, Space Janitor. I had intended to complete the series over the course of a year. Should be doable, right? Actually it was a terrible idea because […] - [SHIFT 2: Unleashed](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/shift-2-unleashed/): Farewell, then, Need for Speed. It seems slightly odd that we conclude our slightly patchy round-up of this long-running racing franchise with the only game in the series to remove the words ‘Need for Speed’ entirely, but there we go. Such was the nature of the gaming world at the time, towards the endpoint of what we PC gamers must reluctantly call ‘the Xbox 360 era’, when EA imagined that demand for Need for Speed could not only sustain a rotating cast of developers, but also a spin-off franchise known simply as SHIFT. As it turns out, they were wrong […] - [Shardlight](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/shardlight/): Those who consider games an escape from real world events might be increasingly alarmed by the rapid convergence of global news with the dystopian futures of science fiction settings, particularly if you happen to be nursing a large backlog of titles first released a few years ago. In this particular instance, Shardlight – a collaboration between Ben Chandler and Francisco González (A Golden Wake) for Wadjet Eye Games – appears to have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic, and so perhaps these days should come with a warning for anyone who found that period particularly harrowing or difficult. The full scale of […] - [Bastion](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/bastion/): Hello! Over the past few years we’ve tried to schedule in a discussion review around Christmas time. Due to various factors, these discussions haven’t always been written up and published in a timely fashion (or even happened at all) but for once we’ve got ourselves organised to get this one done and out the door in a reasonably quick timeframe. Bastion is an indie action-RPG game developed by Supergiant Games and first released in 2011. You are ‘the Kid’, a diminutive ass-kicker tasked with battling his way through waves of enemies for the resources necessary to rebuild his homeworld. While […] - [Whispers of a Machine](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/whispers-of-a-machine/): New-fangled point and click games that look like the old point and click games while adding quite a few twists of their own are a relatively recent addition to FFG, but hopefully one of interest to at least some of this site’s 7 readers. True to form, we still lag many years behind the latest releases, although in my mind 2019 still counts as ‘pretty recent’, in the same way that I think that I’ve ‘just turned 40’. Anyway, to Whispers of a Machine, a sci-fi caper with a Scandinavian flavour, in which you guide Special Agent Vera Englund through […] - [World Racing 2: Champion Edition](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/world-racing-2-champion-edition/): World Racing 2 may be the kind of title given to a racing game on cassette tape bought from a petrol station in 1986, but is very much a mid-00s effort, to the extent that if you were to look up ‘2005 racer developed in Germany’ in the dictionary [you can’t do this – Ed.] you’d find full colour screenshots of this game [you wouldn’t – Ed.] As it loads up, you’re hit with a menu picture of a woman in short shorts while extremely twiddly guitar music plays; you can then select an avatar from a variety of characters […] - [Strife](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/strife/): In the 90s there were essentially four major commercial games that used iD software’s Doom engine. Starting with Doom itself, the game that basically defined what a first person shooter was for several years. To keep things simple I’m also going to count its sequel and expansions (Ultimate Doom, Final Doom, Oh no More Doom) as a single entry on our list. Then we have the ones where other developers licensed the engine from iD. At the time this was a new and exciting idea – freed from having to think of the basic nuts and bolts of an engine, […] - [Need for Speed: Rivals](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/need-for-speed-rivals/): While I have a tendency to view comprehensive coverage of the Need for Speed franchise between a certain time period as some kind of Sisyphean task beyond the capabilities of mere mortals, the truth is, of course, that playing one new arcade racing game per year is within the grasp of even casual fans of this long-running racing series. Indeed, such is the haphazard nature of my own reviewing schedule, I’m fairly sure I’ve made this exact point in a write-up before, although I can’t remember or seem to find out exactly where. [It was here, you berk – Ed.] […] - [Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/judge-dredd-dredd-vs-death/): My game purchasing habits must have changed recently, as I’ve noticed a slightly pleading tone to some of GOG’s recent marketing emails, urging me to convert my recent visit to their store into a purchase of some kind. Isn’t that new Robocop game meant to be quite good? And under ten quid now, as well. ‘No, Rik,’ I told myself. ‘You don’t need a law enforcement shooter set in a dystopian near future, you’ve got one at home that you’ve never even played.’ And so, to the dark games dungeon I went, to retrieve an external DVD drive, rip the […] - [The Lost Vikings](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/the-lost-vikings/): By 2000 the output from Blizzard Games had coalesced around three series, a mix of realtime strategy and RPG: Warcraft, Starcraft and of course Diablocraft (you sure about that? -Ed). However during the nineties they did create a few other lesser-known titles that for whatever reasons did not go on to become long-runners. I wouldn’t say they’re lost and forgotten – you can go buy them on battle.net right now – they’re just the sort of thing that only aging MS-DOS nerds are aware of. Like the two of us here and quite possibly like you, our cherished readers. One […] - [Onside Complete Soccer](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/onside-complete-soccer/): Here we are again, readers, in the dungeon of terrible old football titles that only a handful of people might remember or care to hear about ever again. It is, sadly, the only logical conclusion of my recent ruminations on the enduring appeal of old footy games, inspired by the book A Tale of Two Halves, which did at least confirm that there are people out there who have played even more of them than me. Onside is one that has been on my list for a little while, mainly because I do remember it being advertised, and released, back […] - [Batman: Arkham Asylum](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/batman-arkham-asylum/): Hello everyone. Today sees the return of our irregularly-used discussion review format, with a look at Rocksteady’s acclaimed third-person action title, Arkham Asylum. We begins with the Joker in custody, dragged in chains into the depths of Arkham City’s notorious holding facility and psychiatric hospital for its most dangerous criminals. Does it all go horribly wrong? Of course it goes horribly wrong. Its not long before the entire island is under the control of the Joker and his army of goons, with some other big names joining in. Worse, Joker is using his new kingdom as a based of operations […] - [Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/dragon-age-origins-awakening/): My review of Dragon Age: Origins began with some fumbling attempts to place it in time, and at the risk of repeating myself, my main initial thoughts about this expansion pack, Awakening, were a solid memory that it was released in a physical box, which seemed like a slightly outdated concept in a post-00s land of DLC and DLC-related controversies. And while an idle internet search suggests that the Xbox 360 release was playable as a standalone game, the PC edition required the installation of DA:O, like the expansion packs and data disks of old. I’m generalising slightly, but in […] - [Raptor: Call of the Shadows](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/raptor-call-of-the-shadows/): Some games we write about are old favourites, that we played for many hours in our dorky youths. Others are ones we’ve discovered more recently (much as we’d love to pretend we’re already familiar with every single PC Game from the 90s). Then you get some that, for whatever reason, we’ve dabbled with over the years without making any real commitment or progress. One of those for me is the scrolling shoot-em-up Raptor: Call of the Shadows. It has a short but great intro from those days of hand-drawn VGA art, which have aged a whole lot better than the […] - [Mafia](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/mafia/): Last year, I finally watched The Sopranos. It is, like most people agree, a very good TV show. Quite why I avoided it for so long, I’m not sure, but my main reference point for Mafia tales until then was not any of the famous mob movies, most of which I haven’t seen either, but comic references and parodies like The Simpsons’ Fat Tony. Put it this way: I might have been one of the only people to watch The Sopranos with a silly Hugh Grant romcom in mind, losing any credit that I might otherwise have earned as I […] - [UEFA Euro 96 England](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/uefa-euro-96-england/): While my memory occasionally tries to tell me otherwise, it’s been a very long time since a major international football tournament prompted the release of an official tie-in game that wasn’t just a different version of one of the leading brands of the day. (By my calculations, it’s 30 years, and World Cup USA ’94 by Tiertex, a reasonable-looking top-down affair that I periodically revisit and then abandon, due to technical glitches that are probably not insurmountable but remain sufficient to put me off). In early 1996, the best football game – according to most critics – was Actua Soccer. […] - [Daikatana](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/daikatana/): If you’re here, then you probably know this already, but in case you don’t: Daikatana is one of gaming’s most infamous high-profile flops, which was massively over-hyped, then released years late, over budget, and to a chilly critical reception. The tale of its lengthy and troubled development has arguably reached a level of notoriety that makes it inseparable from any discussion of the game itself. Under such circumstances, I think to get any kind of enjoyment from Daikatana, you have to have retained some kind of curiosity about it over the years, sufficient to push past an acceptance that the […] - [Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge - second opinion](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/lotus-the-ultimate-challenge/lotus-iii-the-ultimate-challenge-second-opinion/): I stumbled across the Lotus series when watching a review of the first game on Chinnyvision, (basically the one youtuber I have any time for). It never got a PC release, but the second sequel did so I thought to myself, Rik must have written about that at some point. Returning here to check, I was not disappointed! So here are my own thoughts. The series is clearly inspired by Outrun, with the same sort of pseudo-3D graphics. It’s a more primitive approach than the 3D which by 1992 was fast becoming standard in games like Test Drive 3 and […] - [Tomb Raider: Legend](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/tomb-raider-legend/): While we may be a bit too long in the tooth now to bother with the notion that we ‘should’ cover, or have covered, a particular gaming series, the absence of Lara Croft from this site has niggled periodically over the years, particularly when considered alongside completed reviews of two Indiana Jones action adventures very much ‘inspired’ by the success of Tomb Raider. However, in revisiting my long-held and frankly wrong opinion that Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine was a different sort of game entirely, I also found it a lot more difficult to play than I remembered, and […] - [Dragon Age: Origins](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/dragon-age-origins/): It took me quite a long time to realise something when playing Dragon Age: Origins, a fact that should have been obvious from the title itself, but somehow didn’t quite ‘click’ until after several hours’ play. Instead, at the back of my mind, several questions kept forming and re-forming, questions like, ‘Was this after Mass Effect?’ (Yes, the first one) and ‘When was Game of Thrones first on TV?’ (After this, in 2011). Because, really, what I was thinking was, ‘Goodness, this really is quite a beardy old RPG, rather than some kind of streamlined modern thing.’ In other words, […] - [Microprose Soccer](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/microprose-soccer/): English football in the late 80s had little in common with the glamorous, professional product of the modern Premier League era, and was in those days a sport played largely by heavy-drinking men on muddy pitches in front of dwindling crowds housed in crumbling stadiums. In the gaming world, with the exception of those products in receipt of a celebrity endorsement, it was a time of generic players depicted in hand-drawn box art which attempted to conjure mental images of on-pitch excitement that were rarely matched by the action contained within. Your correspondent’s memories, repeated in this ancient and inadequate […] - [Ridge Racer Unbounded](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/ridge-racer-unbounded/): Despite some mid-90s murmurings, and a pleasingly cheesy approximation of its own, Ridge Racer never actually made its way to PC, with the series largely remaining the preserve of (mostly Sony based) consoles until this 2012 effort, which remains, to this point, the swansong for the series on home machines, and the only game bearing the Ridge Racer name to be released on PC. Without sounding like the superior toffee-nosed snob that I almost certainly am, as a series born in the arcades, the PC probably wasn’t its natural home anyway, although it’s a shame that at least one entry […] - [Split/Second: Velocity](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/split-second-velocity/): In another write-up, earlier this year, we covered the death, temporary or otherwise, of the genuine arcade racer. Rightly or wrongly, your correspondent always considered Split/Second: Velocity (just Split/Second in the US) one half of a double-headed commercial failure that signalled such a fate, with Activision’s Blur being the other. Both were released in 2010 to moderate acclaim and even more moderate sales, leading to the closure of the studios that made them, with the half-decent contemporary reviews and possibility for belated acclaim from cheapskate vultures picking over the bones of their Steam backlogs of little consolation to those involved. […] - [ICC Cricket World Cup England 99](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/icc-cricket-world-cup-england-99/): It’s possible to overstate the extent to which the English cricket team was terrible in the 90s. Rather than losing all the time, they simply lost most of the time, while occasionally providing flashes of brilliance or moments of stern resistance that temporarily raised the hopes of supporters, only for them to soon be dashed again. By most standards, however, 1999 was the nadir: a home World Cup, during which they failed to progress from the group stages, followed by a defeat in the subsequent Test series to New Zealand, which ended with the team bottom of the world rankings […] - [Metal Gear Solid](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/metal-gear-solid/): The PlayStation was the first non-handheld console I ever owned, and having secured a second-hand grey box along with my first priority, International Superstar Soccer Pro Evolution, I soon set about building up a collection of big-name console favourites that had fascinated and eluded me while growing up in a largely computer-based household. Bashed-about, low-price copies of Tekken, Ridge Racer, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy VII were all procured from the local games emporium, and promptly sat next to the console, largely untouched by human hand, while I played non-stop ISS Pro Evolution for the next couple of […] - [Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/tiger-woods-pga-tour-07/): For the last 25 years or so, the story of sports gaming has been dominated by Electronic Arts, to the extent that the annual release cycle of franchises covering virtually all bases at one point made for an extremely dull area of gaming history, characterised by fatigued reviewers trying desperately to articulate the differences between the latest version and its predecessor and offer an opinion on whether it was worth your time and money or not, with the whole process creating a bleak plastic wasteland of cheap and unwanted copies of previous iterations that nevertheless represented something of a bargain […] - [Dune](https://forceforgood.co.uk/strategy/dune/): Until recently, my knowledge of Frank Herbert’s Dune was gleaned entirely from the introduction to Westwood’s real-time strategy spin-off, Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty. While Denis Villeneuve’s recent cinematic take on the story did hold some appeal, as a man in his forties, the prospect of diving into a 2.5 hour film of an evening has become increasingly less appealing than an early night. Still, nothing focuses the mind quite like being sealed into a metal tube for 9 hours, and a recent long-haul flight provided an opportunity to experience this visual masterpiece via a small screen in […] - [Dune: Character Guide (Mild Spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/strategy/dune/dune-character-guide-mild-spoilers/): Want a guide to the characters in Cryo’s Dune, written by someone who’s never read the books and watched the recent Part 1 movie once? Your wish is my command! (I don’t think anything here really counts as a spoiler, but if you don’t want to know anything at all about the game as it unfolds, then consider yourself warned…)   Duke Leto Atreides Leto is, as he reminds you, your father. Despite a slightly austere and formal manner, he nevertheless tells you at one point that all of his hopes rest on you. Gee, thanks, Pop!   Lady Jessica […] - [Hocus Pocus](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/hocus-pocus/): Our journey through early 90s shareware actions games moves at a slow and erratic pace. Still, over years we’ve added a whole stack of them to our archive, from the bleeping CGA of Monuments of Mars to fast and flashy Jazz Jackrabbit. One day I’d like to have covered more or less all of the oldschool platform games and shoot-em-ups from Apogee and Epic Megagames, the two leaders of that scene. Right now our most glaring omission would be the original Commander Keen, since its smooth scrolling graphics were a technical innovation, and also it was the first creation from […] - [Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/assassins-creed-directors-cut/): Hello and welcome! Regular readers will know that the discussion format has been used in a few different incarnations on the site over the years, most commonly to revisit games first covered a long time ago. As it turns out, though, we haven’t actually done a bog-standard discussion review since [checks records] 2016. For no particular reason, we figured it was time to have another crack at it, and today’s game is Assassin’s Creed, first released on Xbox 360 in 2007 and then on PC (and known as the ‘Director’s Cut’) the following year. The action is set in the […] - [Jade Empire: Special Edition](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/jade-empire-special-edition/): What started as a resolution to bloody well finish Mass Effect 2 has led me on a few adventures: to the end of the trilogy, in the first instance; then to explore an earlier, more Star Wars flavoured version of the same thing; and now here, to a mid-point between the two epic space series, as part of a general root around in Bioware’s 00s oeuvre. I’m probably still paddling in the shallow end of the studio’s work (as my mildly horrified reaction to my colleague’s suggestion that I also get stuck into Baldur’s Gate 2 would indicate), but it’s […] - [Doom 64](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/doom-64/): Strictly speaking, today’s item doesn’t qualify for review here. It’s old, and it’s on the PC, but it’s not an “Old PC game”. Instead it’s a relatively recent port of something released for a console back in the 90s. Yet I’d hope we can all agree that it warrants an honorary place here. We start with the original Doom, probably the single most important game in the early years of first person shooters. Building on the tech of its predecessors, the clever code from the guys at iD could render more realistic pseudo-3D environments, whilst still moving at a high […] - [Gun](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/gun/): The phenomenal success of Grand Theft Auto titles in the early 00s was always going to spawn imitators and similar games offering a twist on the big thing of the time. While Gun developers Neversoft had previous third-person action-adventure pedigree through the likes of Spider-Man, and – to a lesser extent – the Tony Hawk skateboarding games, which increasingly developed an open-world/exploration element, it’s hard to think of Gun outside the context of a Wild West GTA: a Grand Theft Horse-o, if you like. (If that line is good, then it’s probably been used elsewhere; if not, then I almost […] - [Death Rally](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/death-rally/): Death Rally is one of those games that made more of an impression on me through its ubiquity on abandonware websites of the early 00s, when DOS games and small download sizes were very much the order of the day, rather than through contemporary reviews. With general vibes a mixture of Micro Machines 2 and Carmageddon, and a release date sandwiched somewhere between the two, at first glance it’s your typical mid-90s fare: top-down racing, but made more exciting by a futuristic setting in which everything has gone ke-razy with weapons, blood, and violence. Or, to put it another way, […] - [Death Rally: Video Clip](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/death-rally/death-rally-video-clip/): Occasionally, if it’s not too much hassle, and we remember to do it, we sling some gameplay clips up on YouTube. Here are a few from Death Rally. (NB: The last clip is of the very final race, so if you consider that a spoiler, here’s a ***SPOILER WARNING***!) This first one is from the middle of the game, on the Palm Side track, with the moderately-powered Sentinel car. Chosen mainly due to footage of nemesis Dark Ryder meeting a sticky end:   Here we’re a bit further along, in the Wraith, on the Eidolon circuit, which is one of […] - [Torchlight](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/torchlight/): Last year, upon concluding my look at Dungeon Siege 2, I decided it was probably my favourite of the Diablo-style action-RPGs from the 2000s. Yet I only rated it seven out of ten. Not a bad score, or even an average one. Yet not quite outstanding either, so you might be a little surprised to see it given to the supposed “top of the class”. I suppose that reflects the odd state of ambivalence I’ve reached, regarding these games. With their simple combat mechanics they’re easy to pick up and addictive for a while; that’s why I was playing DS2 […] - [Wheelman](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/wheelman/): Vin Diesel’s a Real Man, I say to myself. Vin Diesel: Wheelman, Vin Diesel: Real Man. I look at the game box again. I wonder: did someone, somewhere, think people might get this phrase stuck in their head, as some kind of clever marketing ploy, or is it just me, and am I going mad? Most likely, it’s the latter. According to MobyGames, and most other sources, the packaging of this budget re-release edition is wrong, anyway: the game is just called Wheelman, which is legitimately what they call the person in a criminal gang who drives the car (plus […] - [Blur](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/blur/): It may or may not still be the case, but at some point in the last 10 years or so, the high-profile arcade racer became one of the many gaming genres to be declared ‘dead’ by the press and public. At the time of writing, Forza Horizon seems to be the dominant franchise, with the majority of other racing titles seemingly more simulation focused, and the occasional flickers of life from the Need for Speed series one of the few remaining big names from generations past. Certainly, the commercial failure of Blur was cited as a significant factor in the […] - [World Cup 98](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/world-cup-98/): The history of official World Cup games is essentially, bar some underwhelming and low-key early efforts, the history of FIFA. EA have had a monopoly on the license since this game was released in 1998, which means that whenever FIFA was good, the World Cup game was good; when FIFA was bad, the World Cup game was bad. (So much for a quick blog post looking back at official tournament tie-ins, then, especially as the last standalone efforts, based on the 2010 and 2014 tournaments, weren’t even released on PC). Their debut is still kind of uniquely interesting, though: for […] - [X-Wing](https://forceforgood.co.uk/simulation/x-wing/): X-Wing perhaps represents the largest disconnect between extremely strong nostalgic memories of a game and the reality of my actual experience at the time. It was the cover star of the very first issue of the UK’s greatest ever PC gaming magazine, solidifying its reputation in my mind as one of the first ‘must have’ games for the system – something that the Amiga and consoles couldn’t handle. And then there was the animated introduction sequence, expertly tuned to maximise excited anticipation of the game ahead: “Excellent! Prepare the attack…” Even now, those memories and feelings all feel so vivid. […] - [X-Wing: The Official Strategy Guide](https://forceforgood.co.uk/simulation/x-wing/x-wing-the-official-strategy-guide/): The GOG version of X-Wing comes complete with a scan of the strategy guide, which comes in handy for those missions when you can’t quite figure out the best, er, strategy. I was never one for official strategy guides back in the day, preferring GameFAQs for walkthroughs and cheats. It’s tempting to say the internet killed them off, but they persisted for quite a long time considering they cost quite a bit of money. For the struggling X-Wing fan in the 1990s, though, this kind of thing would arguably have been the only option, aside from magazine walkthroughs and/or having […] - [X-Wing: Video Clip - Death Star Trench Run](https://forceforgood.co.uk/simulation/x-wing/x-wing-video-clip-death-star-trench-run/): Ok, so I’ve uploaded this clip for no good reason other than to preserve the moment for posterity. Having despatched those elusive TIEs, our hero dives into the trench for his final attack run, hoping he pressed the DOSBox video record shortcut beforehand. - [Street Racing Syndicate](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/street-racing-syndicate/): 2005 was slap bang in the middle of a period in which I rather neglected my (very old) PC and experienced most contemporary titles of interest through my PS2. Despite maintaining a reasonable awareness of the throwaway racing games of the era, I must admit that I had never heard of this particular effort until relatively recently, although upon booting it up everything about it certainly screams ’00s PS2 game’. Street Racing Syndicate is as ‘2005’ as watching The O.C. on a small kitchen CRT with a single can of Foster’s bought from the corner shop [stop boasting about what […] - [SRS Guide: Unlocking Nitro Xtreme Series 3](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/street-racing-syndicate/street-racing-syndicate-guide-getting-to-nitro-xtreme-series-3/): Street Racing Syndicate isn’t a particularly hard game, but it is one that lets you think you’re getting very close to the end when in fact much of the hard work is yet to begin. You shouldn’t struggle early on, and despite the anti-quit incentives and auto saves, very few mistakes are fatal. If you get short on cash, just go back to some races you won before and bet big on yourself. Here are a few hints and tips on getting to the very end:   1: To cut to the chase: you’ll need 77000 respect points to unlock […] - [Star Wars: The Force Unleashed](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/star-wars-the-force-unleashed/): There are lots of daft names for things in sci-fi in general and Star Wars in particular, many of which don’t deserve much further scrutiny or analysis. However, when the name of LucasArts’ big new secret Star Wars project – one that was going to restore their reputation as a developer, explore potentially fertile plot ground between the prequel and original trilogies, and convince Episode I-III naysayers that the franchise they loved was Back with a capital ‘B’ – was revealed as ‘The Force Unleashed’, all I could think about was an old Charlie Brooker cartoon in PC Zone that […] - [Manic Karts](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/manic-karts/): I was going to start this review by claiming that there were loads of karting games on the PC in the mid-90s. But, as is so often the case, even the briefest moment’s research proves that Rik from the famous gaming site A Force for Good does not know what he is talking about. Instead, ‘a few, including some with rather similar sounding names’ would be a more accurate way to sum things up, and as it turns out three of the titles that most readily spring to mind were all developed by the same studio, Manic Media Productions. Manic […] - [Manic Karts: Manic Music](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/manic-karts/manic-karts-manic-music/): With age comes an ever-growing list of things you used to like doing but don’t (or can’t) do any more, like drinking cider, engaging in meaningful physical exercise, or smiling. For me, though, a growing intolerance of exposure to loud dance music isn’t among them: I used to like quite a lot of that stuff back in the day, and still do. So I don’t really know what it is about the music of certain mid-90s action and racing games that has become so unpalatable to me lately. [Perhaps it’s just bad, and/or not at the same level as your […] - [Gemini Rue](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/gemini-rue/): Grim and gritty sci-fi adventures with blocky graphics were pretty well represented in the original point and click era. Even digging through this site’s limited archives, we have the likes of Future Wars (an old Atari ST favourite, trickier than I remembered); DreamWeb (which made a big impact on me at the time, despite its flaws); Beneath a Steel Sky (the page for which is a persistent target of spam comments for some reason, maybe in karmic retribution for taking a less-than-generous tone in the review, but from memory the slightly flippant approach of the game kind of annoyed me); […] - [MegaRace 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/megarace-2/): MegaRace was a fairly terrible racer of the 90s FMV era, and for this correspondent one of the few titles that immediately springs to mind as synonymous with the words ‘bad game’. Periodically, the thought does occur that our review might have been a little on the harsh side, although I’d argue that there must be some games for which each of us may be allowed to reserve a slightly disproportionate amount of personal animosity, just as we might champion our favourites and turn a blind eye to some of their flaws. (Also, any re-evaluation would involve playing through it […] - [Jurassic Park: The Game](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/jurassic-park-the-game/): Jurassic Park (colon: the film) came out at the perfect time for a classic early 90s multi-format release, with reviews and previews of the various different interpretations across console, home computer, handheld and new-fangled CD formats dominating the pages of magazines like Computer and Video Games for months on end, on top of all of the other marketing and merchandise that such an event movie generated. There was even a version for the IBM PC and compatibles, as it was then, although the eagle-eyed reader will already have spotted that this is not a review of that game, and if […] - [Jurassic Park: Yoder Stories (spoilers!)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/jurassic-park-the-game/jurassic-park-yoder-stories-spoilers/): Note: as indicated by the title of the piece, we are going to be talking about significant major events towards the end of the game here, so if you don’t want any spoilers, please do stop reading! The basic character line-up in JP: The Game is: Nima, the Costa Rican islander who is sent (along with slimey corporate type Miles Chadwick, the bloke by the ship who Nedry is seen talking to in the film) to retrieve the can of stolen embryos; Gerry Harding the newly-hunky science man and his daughter Jess; Laura Sorkin, a previously unseen geneticist working on […] - [Screamer 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/screamer-2/): If the original Screamer was the PC’s answer to Ridge Racer, then Screamer 2 aims its sights at another arcade and console favourite, Sega Rally. Which, unlike Ridge Racer, was actually released on PC eventually, as part of a series of (then) power-hungry Windows 95 ports that followed the commercial demise of the Sega Saturn. I haven’t played it, readers, and nor am I likely to, but the sequel that was also released on the Dreamcast fell on the good side of ok, from what I remember. On PC, Screamer 2 beat Sega Rally to the punch, and generally received […] - [Screamer 2: Video Clip](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/screamer-2/ffg-video-screamer-2/): For some reason, screenshots alone do little to illustrate my point about the slight texture glitching on the 3dfx version. (I don’t even think it’s glitching technically, more that the extra sharpness shows up the joins between the textures – I remember it being an issue on a few other 90s games with 3dfx support). And so in service of showing you what I mean, here’s our annual attempt at featuring video clips on FFG (hosted on YouTube, and attracting literally tens of views in the process). It was all a bit more of a pain in the arse than […] - [Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2012)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/need-for-speed-most-wanted-2012/): There’s no way around it: this is a game with the exact same name as one we’ve already covered, so we have to put dates in brackets after the title. Finally, it’s come to this. (It was a close run thing with the last Need for Speed developed by Criterion, Hot Pursuit, but its 1998 counterpart came from the days when they still put numbers in game titles). While you could view the 2010 incarnation of Hot Pursuit as a remake of that late-90s effort, the two only shared the same common elements as many other Need for Speed games […] - [Most Wanted (2005): Return to Rockport](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/need-for-speed-most-wanted-2012/most-wanted-2005-return-to-rockport/): I remember really liking the 2005 edition of Most Wanted, but it’s been a long time since I played it: it’s got the kind of punishing career mode that can be very satisfying to beat but which also leaves you kind of broken at the end. I think I must have been a little bit rubbish at ending the big, long chases that you end up in towards the end of the game, and for a while the sight of a big police 4×4 in real life made me twitch slightly. But, as I’ve given the remake a bit of […] - [F.E.A.R. First Encounter Assault Recon](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/f-e-a-r-first-encounter-assault-recon/): By the mid 2000s, Monolith had already achieved an impressive track record of first person shooters. Something that particularly stands out is the range of themes, beyond the usual Manly Man Soldier stuff. They brought us Shogo, a tribute to giant mecha anime, the 60s spy capers of No-one Lives Forever and they took us to the scifi crossover of Alien vs Predator 2. They were also responsible for the Blood series, which mixed supernatural horror with a dark sense of humour. For this one they returned to Horror, but of a rather different nature. For a start, there’s no […] - [Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic-ii-the-sith-lords/): The first Knights of the Old Republic game was not without its twists, turns and surprises, but in many ways it remained a conventional ‘classic’ Star Wars adventure, at least as remembered by a certain generation: a tale of good vs. evil, a baddie with a mask, and a big space station that needs to be blown up. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course, and despite being a little bit obsessed with its relationship to Mass Effect, your correspondent found it all held up pretty well. A sequel followed pretty quickly, so much so that Bioware considered […] - [Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/): What is good Star Wars and what is bad Star Wars has been open to some debate recently, although I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that in general the stock of Lucasfilm and LucasArts was higher in the 90s than the 00s. Not long ago, we took a look at Dark Forces and Jedi Outcast, with the latter review making mention of the abandoned PC version of Obi-Wan, with mutterings about improved quality standards a polite way of saying the game wasn’t very good and PC gamers would have been disappointed with it (as, indeed, was everyone else). […] - [KOTOR: Good Star Wars and Bad Star Wars](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/star-wars-knights-of-the-old-republic/kotor-good-star-wars-and-bad-star-wars/): Even in this quiet corner of the internet, simply tossing out a mildly controversial opinion gives one a little more pause than it used to. And once upon a time I think possibly what I am about to say wouldn’t even have been that contentious at all, I don’t think. Here are some pre-emptive caveats: Star Wars should be for everyone; no-one is owed the films or stories they want to see; we grew up with Star Wars being a certain thing, but that is allowed to change; I can well imagine those of a different generation being really fond […] - [Road Hog!](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/road-hog/): Do you remember this? From hackneyed stand-up comedy acts to autopilot social media accounts, everyone has asked this question, to the extent that the question itself has been the subject of some significant mickey-taking. Like it or not, though, it remains the starting point for all of us in the retro reviewing game. Do you remember this? If yes, why not join us on a look back at it? If not, perhaps you might be interested anyway. All of that said, Road Hog! (and yes, the exclamation mark is – appropriately – part of the title) fits into the category […] - [Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/indiana-jones-and-the-emperors-tomb/): Despite the success of LucasArts’ point and click adventures bearing Dr. Jones’ name, they both struggled to a certain extent with the more dynamic knockabout action elements that fans were used to seeing from the movies. Indeed, fisticuffs were considered such an essential part of the experience to demand inclusion in both The Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis, and while these sequences were apparently less problematic in the latter than the former, they were always going to be a challenge to pull off successfully within the confines of the genre. And, while your correspondent attempted at some point in […] - [FFG at 20: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/indiana-jones-and-the-infernal-machine/ffg-at-20-indiana-jones-and-the-infernal-machine/): As regular readers may know, we’ve been doing a little series of retrospectives as part of this site’s 20th anniversary celebrations, in which we look back at some of our oldest reviews, and the games they covered, while also adding a new review of a related title. That’s a long-winded way of saying that I finally got around to playing Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, the 2003 follow-up to Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, which was among the first games I wrote about, in (it says here) the summer of 2002. Looking back at something you wrote nearly […] - [Dungeon Siege 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/dungeon-siege-2/): The action RPG Dungeon Siege, created by Gas Powered games and released in 2002, doesn’t feature any actual sieges. You don’t spend months sat outside a dungeon (or anywhere else) that has been encircled by your army, cutting off the occupants supply lines and starving them into submission. You do run into places and swiftly annihilate everyone inside, which isn’t really a siege. That would be more like “dungeon assault”. My dreadful pedantry aside, what Dungeon Siege does have is a focus on the simple goals of fighting monsters, defeating evil and gathering shiny loot. Designer Chris Taylor set out […] - [Vancouver 2010](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/vancouver-2010/): The thought recently occurred to me that my first experiences of Olympic events were through gaming rather than on television. When I think of Daley Thompson, I’m sorry to say that the first image that comes to mind is of a little sprite athlete scratching his head having failed to successfully put a shot rather than TV celebrations of real-life Olympic gold. Did games based on athletic events continue to exist because of interest in those real-life events? Or was it the residual fondness for those early 80s tie-ins which actually sustained the genre? I say this because, despite never […] - [Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/jedi-knight-ii-jedi-outcast/): In the late 90s, rumours abounded that the sequel to Jedi Knight would be a game called Obi-Wan, only for that game to be belatedly given Xbox exclusivity amid slightly opaque PR speak about the restrictions of technology and ‘heightened quality standards’. Which of course provoked some outrage among PC gamers, as well as another round of ‘is PC gaming dead?’ type editorials and comments. When it came out, however, rather like the prequel film series upon which it was based, Obi-Wan was generally regarded as a load of bum, leading to a possible reinterpretation of those statements about quality […] - [FFG at 20: Dark Forces](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/dark-forces/ffg-at-20-dark-forces/): Last year this site turned twenty, and to commemorate that milestone we’ve been looking back at some of our early reviews, pairing each one with a look at a newer but related title. Our anniversary is now apparently spilling over into the new year, largely because I’m so dreadfully disorganised. So in this instance we’re revisiting Dark Forces, the first person shooter based on Star-Wars and released by Lucasarts in 1995 (meanwhile Rik has been working on a new review of second sequel Jedi Outcast). Our hero is Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the Rebel Alliance. His job is […] - [Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/burnout-paradise-the-ultimate-box/): Burnout was an early PS2-era game based around two simple but relatively novel features: one, to go faster, you needed to earn a boost by driving dangerously; and two, crashing at high speed was no longer the two-cardboard-boxes-nudging-each-other cop-out favoured by many racers, and instead the real-life nightmare of smashed glass and twisted metal would be replicated more closely. It was a nice twist on the standard lap-based fare of the time, with the two headline innovations providing a nice balance of risk and reward. As the series gained momentum during the mid-00s, a succession of sequels put increasing focus […] - [Crusader: No Remorse](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/crusader-no-remorse/): Crusader: No Remorse occupies a strange place in my perception of gaming history, because it seems to have been released both earlier and later than I imagined. On the one hand, a big-budget 2D action game in 1995 seems, post-Doom, slightly passé and surely destined for failure; on the other, it also feels a bit too early for a fast-paced shooter featuring SVGA graphics throughout. I guess that’s the answer: it was a period in which different approaches to getting around technological limitations needed to be actively considered and employed. In simple terms, by keeping to 2D, the resolution could […] - [Crusader: Nice job, Tin Man! (spoilers)](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/crusader-no-remorse/crusader-nice-job-tin-man-spoilers/): Look, it says ‘spoilers’ in the title of this piece. But here’s another warning: **stop reading now** if you don’t want to know what happens in the game. In Crusader: No Remorse, your Silencer is completely, well, silent throughout. Not so your two red comrades seen at the start of the game, with one panicking about getting into trouble and the other trying to be calm and rationalising the situation, before they both get ruthlessly blown away by a WEC mech. I guess it does make sense for the player character not to speak, and it’s arguably preferable to being […] - [Realms of Chaos](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/realms-of-chaos/): Gog.com is still our favourite digital distribution site, and their sales remains a regular temptation. For ridiculously small amounts of money, you can add a multitude of games to your collection which you will never, ever find time to play. I tell myself, Stoo don’t buy any flight sims. You haven’t played one since 1996, you don’t have the patience, you’ll do the tutorial missions and then not touch it again for a decade. Also NO MORE RPGs. You still haven’t finished Might and Magic 6, you’re halfway through Dungeon Siege 2, and whatever the hell happened to Ultima Underworld. […] - [Grand Theft Auto: Vice City](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/grand-theft-auto-vice-city/): Having finally made the transition to 3D with some success, Rockstar were never likely to rest on their laurels when it came to a follow-up to Grand Theft Auto III. Just as the previous generation had brought a mission pack for the first game, and then a sequel that didn’t quite live up to the name, Vice City, too, started life as an extra set of missions for the third game before being developed as a fully-blown, stand-alone release. While the limited timeframe and the restrictions in place by that generation’s console hardware meant that significant technological improvements over GTA […] - [FFG at 20: Grand Theft Auto](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/grand-theft-auto/ffg-at-20-grand-theft-auto/): Well, here we are once more, looking back at an old write-up of an even older game, in celebration of FFG’s 20th anniversary. That I’m going back to 2004 again, rather than 2001, says something about my productivity in the site’s early years, I guess, as we revisit Grand Theft Auto, a game that we apparently first covered in February of that year. At that point, the rest of the world was going crazy for the next generation of GTA action, with GTA III and Vice City among the biggest-selling and most critically acclaimed titles of the early 00s, something […] - [Beijing 2008](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/beijing-2008/): After doing this for so long, the question of what might signal a diminishing interest in the process of rummaging around in PC gaming history does occasionally cross one’s mind. However, as long as a brief couple of hours spent half-watching a real-life sporting event prompts frenzied internet searches that end with the purchase or download of a long-forgotten game, then we’ll still be in business. The Beijing Olympics of 2008 stick out as being of sufficient inspiration to prompt a review of Mindspan’s 90s keyboard-smasher The Games: Summer Challenge, a decent enough and sporadically amusing effort that remains memorable […] - [Need for Speed II: Special Edition](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/need-for-speed-ii-special-edition/): Regular readers, if any exist, will know that we are aware of our failings when it comes to reviewing a series of games in a linear, chronological (some might say, ‘correct’) order. But, even by our standards, Need for Speed rather takes the biscuit. Ever since the first and third games were among the first racing titles to be reviewed here, this second one has been consistently overlooked, with coverage otherwise continuing in an altogether haphazard fashion, as our brief history shows, although belatedly a concerted effort has been made to fill the gaps. My long-running excuse for leaving this […] - [FFG at 20: The Need for Speed](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/the-need-for-speed/ffg-at-20-the-need-for-speed/): In recognition of the unlikely-sounding milestone that is this site’s 20th birthday, we’re going back to a few of our old reviews. But, as part of our ongoing commitment to you, the reader, to produce around 15 or so new reviews per year (no, I don’t know how we do it, either), we’re tying in such frippery with a companion review of a related title. And so, in recognition of finally taking a look at the second game in the Need for Speed series, we’re going back to the first one too. Your correspondent’s recollection is that the third Need […] - [Mass Effect 3](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/mass-effect-3/): Towards the final moments of Mass Effect 3, Commander Shepard checks in with one of his squad mates: a friend, colleague (and more, depending on your choices) since the first game. Shepard asks how she’s doing: she doesn’t turn to meet Shepard’s gaze, instead staring straight ahead, before responding, “This is it, isn’t it?” It’s the kind of quote that you might expect to be deployed at some point in the final episode of a trilogy, and is indeed used to good effect in the pre-release trailers. But it’s not until that moment in the game itself that it takes […] - [Mass Effect 3: *SPOILERS* The Final Choices of Peroxide Man-Shep](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/mass-effect-3/mass-effect-3-spoilers-the-final-choices-of-peroxide-man-shep/): I’ve been fairly careful to avoid spoilers in the main reviews, but I figured that those who’ve also played the game might be interested in some of the choices that I made throughout the trilogy. Obviously, there are big spoilers here. That’s mentioned in the title of this piece, and I’m mentioning it again now. Go no further, if you want to avoid them. Also, there are many, many more little decisions and choices that you can make in the trilogy that have an impact later on in some way. Here, we’re just dealing with the fairly major ones. Ok? […] - [Race Driver: GRID](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/race-driver-grid/): The TOCA Race Driver games of the first half of the 00s were an evolution of the fairly basic structure of two previous TOCA titles that were based firmly on the British Touring Car Championship. With the change of name came a change of emphasis, from simply becoming the BTCC champion to building a career as the titular race driver, bringing a wider variety of vehicle types and circuits into the mix. A supporting storyline was another element to be introduced, with the initial TOCA Race Driver basing the action around a named protagonist, Ryan McKane, before he was shunted […] - [FFG at 20: TOCA Touring Car Championship](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/toca-touring-car-championship/ffg-at-20-toca-touring-car-championship/): We’re 20 this year – and though it may seem a little self-congratulatory to do so, we normally like to mark significant anniversaries in some way. Returning to the earliest days feels like the obvious way to go, but with our rate of producing new content it also feels like it might not be the best use of time. Particularly, rewriting old reviews seems like a strange way to proceed: celebrating your history by destroying a small part of it. And so we decided to tie in any looking back with new content, by choosing a related game to cover […] - [Lost: Via Domus](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/lost-via-domus/): Before streaming services, keeping up with so-called ‘must see’ TV was a little bit harder. I managed to watch most of the first series of Lost after it appeared on terrestrial television, amid a blaze of publicity, but then kept missing episodes of the second, which was not really an option if you wanted to keep up with the various plot machinations. Eventually Sky bought the rights to show the series in the UK, which meant that it was a case of getting a subscription or waiting for the DVD. At that point, the initial hype had died down somewhat, […] - [Mass Effect 2](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/mass-effect-2/): You’d think that the middle part of an ambitious trilogy, a space epic with hours of content, following on from a highly successful first instalment, would feel confident in awarding itself a portentous subtitle. But no: just plain old Mass Effect 2 will do – it’s the second game, the sequel to the first one. Even the supporting cover art is surprisingly lame in its depiction of a generic male version of protagonist Commander Shepard demonstrating some planetside machismo, flanked by hitherto unfamiliar sidekicks. Perhaps the use of subtitles was reserved for the various DLC packs that were released to […] - [Mass Effect 2 DLC: Firewalker With Me](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/mass-effect-2/mass-effect-2-dlc-firewalker-with-me/): If you’re wondering, “Did he play all of the DLC as well?” the answer is no. I would have preferred to have done so, given the choice, but the process of investigation led me very quickly to believe that this would actually not be very straightforward at all. As I’ve mentioned before elsewhere, downloadable content and its associated controversies were things to which I paid little attention at the time they were happening, and assumed that they were basically issues of import only to the excitable crop of ‘current’ gamers, reasoning that, by the time I got around to picking […] - [Sin Episodes: Emergence](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/sin-episodes-emergence/): Sin was one of a number of late-90s competitors for the first person shooter crown that ultimately went to Valve’s Half-Life. The general direction of travel during this period was away from the brown dungeons of Quake and towards a single-player experience that delivered more variety in its environments, as well as some context for the action in terms of accompanying narrative. While Sin certainly delivered in terms of trying to set the action in a recognisable world and providing a sense of visiting different places and settings, its attempts at a story retained some of the lunk-headedness of the […] - [FFG at 20: Sin](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/sin/ffg-at-20-sin/): Somehow, FFG is 20 years old this year. When it comes to anniversaries, we always try to do something to mark the occasion, although with this being a fairly slow-moving project in the first place, revisiting old material seems like time that might be better spent on producing new content. At the same time, we are in the business of looking back here, and 20 years of being online is a milestone worth celebrating somehow. As a compromise, we decided to try and combine any retrospective of the site’s early days with a new review of a related title. And […] - [The F.A. Premier League STARS 2001](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/the-f-a-premier-league-stars-2001/): Football history seems like a source of unexplored potential for the gaming world. 1998’s journey through the World Cup’s past, Viva Football, was a pretty terrible game, but the idea was good enough to be worth revisiting. These days, though, there would likely be complicated licensing issues to be negotiated, in order to recreate old players, teams and events in any kind of detail. Plus, it’s all a bit more complex than simply whacking ye olde kits onto modern FIFA, because the sport itself has changed over the years. While old football games were more simplistic affairs largely due to […] - [Mass Effect](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/mass-effect/): Regular readers, if any exist, may recall that we gave this game the spoiler-tastic discussion treatment a little while ago (see link above). At that point, Mass Effect was still considered, at least by ageing fuddy-duddies like ourselves, to be a prime example of the modern action RPG. In the intervening years, however, it has become old enough to be considered eligible for a remastered update, while one review of the most recent Mass Effect title, Andromeda, asserted that the original was a “relic” and unplayable by modern standards. Such comments would seem to confirm our fuddy-duddy status, and although […] - [Mass Effect: Discussion [with spoilers!]](https://forceforgood.co.uk/rpg/mass-effect/mass-effect-discussion-with-spoilers/): In the grand FFG tradition of doing things in a mixed-up and entirely incorrect order, our review of Mass Effect followed cold on the heels of a 2013 discussion piece, in which Stoo and I both played the game to completion and then indulged in a spoiler-filled discussion. We called it a review at the time, but the dissection of plot details from throughout the game set it apart from our usual approach, which is to assume that even the keenest of gamers is unlikely to have already played all of the games in the world, and may appreciate the […] - [Need for Speed: SHIFT](https://forceforgood.co.uk/racing/need-for-speed-shift/): Need for Speed was always a brand: the name given to EA’s arcade racing series, released on an annual basis throughout the 90s and 00s. But by 2008, such a relentless schedule had started to take its toll, and the resulting dip in commercial and critical performance forced consideration of a new strategy: farm the series out to different developers, allowing each team more time to work on the games while preserving the ability to release a new NFS each year. And so, for a few years at least, Need for Speed was no longer a series that even retained […] - [Sensible Soccer 2006](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/sensible-soccer-2006/): Back when when the initials of the digital store GOG stood for Good Old Games, and their library was rather more limited than it is now, the addition of Sensible Soccer 2006 was accompanied by howls of protest, partly on the basis that this game was far too recent a title to be added to what was then a retro-focused endeavour, and partly because the game itself was considered to be of poor quality. (One comment, along the lines of, ‘It’s not GOOD, it’s not OLD, and it’s not a GAME’, seemed to represent the general tenor of discourse at […] - [Space Quest IV: Roger Wilco and the Time Rippers](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/space-quest-iv-roger-wilco-and-the-time-rippers/): Space Quest, released in 1986, was the first installment in what would become began one of Sierra’s several long-running adventure series. A scifi-comedy written by the Two Guys from Andromeda, it stars Roger Wilco, the intrepid but hapless space janitor. Rik wrote about it way back in 2008 – or rather, the VGA remake – and wasn’t all that impressed. As could be typical for Sierra, particularly in their early games, it’s tough and unforgiving, with sudden deaths and timed puzzles. Worst of all is when the game enters an “unwinnable state”, where you can keep playing but are unable […] - [Iron Assault](https://forceforgood.co.uk/simulation/iron-assault/): Like flight and space sims, big walking robots were a reasonably big deal in the 90s, with their prominence and technical prowess attracting generally positive press coverage and drawing the attention of PC gamers who were perhaps ill-equipped to contend with their complexities. Which is another way of saying that, while we both owned a copy of Mechwarrior 2, my friend and colleague made steady progress through the campaign, while I blew myself up during the training mission. (At least, that is how I’ve chosen to remember it: I have no idea whether this is actually possible or just a […] - [Iron Assault: Generic Hints and Tips](https://forceforgood.co.uk/simulation/iron-assault/iron-assault-generic-hints-and-tips/): My main advice for this game would be to grab a download of the manual. But, in case you can’t/won’t and have pursued a strategy of ‘bash all keys on the keyboard and see what they do’, here are a few key hints and tips: 1. Missions don’t end when you complete the objectives. You have to press F10 to get the drop ship to pick you up. If you press it by accident, you can press it again to cancel. 2. Press F5 to bring up a list of countermeasures and turn them on. The manual says this might […] - [Kathy Rain](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/kathy-rain/): If you’ve been reading our semi-regular, yet-to-be-named discussion series, you’ll know that I’ve recently made a tentative return to gaming. If you haven’t, then you should know that I’ve recently made a tentative return to gaming after a two decade-long hiatus prompted by what seemed to be (but wasn’t, as it turned out) the death of adventure games. Much to my surprise, I recently discovered that dedicated fans, who didn’t throw in the towel following the release of Simon the Sorcerer 3D (we can talk about that some other time), kept the genre alive. Had I not been in a […] - [Alan Wake](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/alan-wake/): “I’m Alan Wake,” says Alan Wake, the lead character in the game Alan Wake. “I’m a writer.” Alan may indeed be a writer, but as we join him on the way to the small town of Bright Falls, he’s finding it hard going, and is in need of a rest and some inspiration. Unfortunately, as it turns out, Bright Falls turns out to be a damned creepy place, not the right setting for a relaxing holiday at all, and definitely not the place to rediscover your zest for writing. Alan doesn’t even know that he’s there to do that, though, […] - [Jill of the Jungle](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/jill-of-the-jungle/): These days Epic Games most prominent work is probably the online multiplayer shooter Fortnite. I’m barely aware of what it’s about; I’m fast closing on 40, have virtually no time to keep up with developments in gaming and have never been interested in multiplayer anyway. Still, the kids seem to enjoy it and I’m not the sort to rant on about how we were Real Gamers in the 90s because we played Wolfenstein 3D. Anyway before Battle Royale games, Epic earned their place as giants of PC gaming by creating the Unreal Engine. This powered a series of the same […] - [Shogo - Second Opinion](https://forceforgood.co.uk/action/shogo-mobile-armor-division/shogo-second-opinion/): I only played Shogo briefly back when it was released, actually I think it was probably a demo from PC Zone. It looked promising but for whatever reasons I never went back to it. I recall it was well received at the time; or at least hasty googling tells me that PC Zone gave it 92%. Still, it never had quite the same impact as Unreal or Half Life. With its sci-fi setting, based around a battle on a distant world, Shogo’s key selling point is that you spend half the game piloting an anime-style mecha. It’s certainly an exciting […] - [The Curse of Monkey Island - Second Opinion](https://forceforgood.co.uk/adventure/the-curse-of-monkey-island/the-curse-of-monkey-island-second-opinion/): Reviewing a series in the wrong order is a long-standing tradition at this site. We tend to cover whatever happens to have taken our interest recently, as opposed to working through anything in a methodical manner. The first Monkey Island that Rik wrote about was this third entry, so it it seems suitable that I start here also. I’d not played Curse before, but picked it up on a gog sale, and I doubt I would easily find a better way to spend £2.89. For a start, the artwork is fantastic. I have a particular love for the early-90s pixelly […] - [NBA Live 95](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/nba-live-95/): While the last 20 years or so may have indoctrinated us into thinking that EA Sports was always a giant behemoth with a stranglehold across all major US sports (and football) with relentless annual releases and a unified corporate branding, that wasn’t, of course, always the case. Once upon a time, for example, they might have released a golf game and a sequel to that golf game without it necessarily being the start of a multi-year franchise. Hence names like PGA Tour 486, a title that doesn’t naturally lend itself to annual updates, with PGA Tour 487 and PGA Tour […] - [NBA Live 95: Video Clip](https://forceforgood.co.uk/sport/nba-live-95/nba-live-95-video-clip/): Stats suggest that very few people watch them, but here’s another a video clip posted in support of a review. Unfortunately I couldn’t quite put my mind to the task of editing together highlights of this particular encounter, so this is the full, unedited match. It’s me (Bulls) vs the computer (Hornets) on medium difficulty in the playoffs. I think I win. Or do I? You’ll have to watch (or skip to the end) to find out! [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)