Games

Wolfenstein 3D is a first-person shooter developed by Id Software and published by Apogee Software in 1992 for DOS. It has since been ported for several systems including PC-98, Mac, Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
The game was inspired by the 1980s Muse Software video game Castle Wolfenstein, a top-down infiltration game.
Wolfenstein 3D came out hot on the heels of the Commander Keen series and utilized the game engine created by John Cormack. It was pre-Doom, but you can see that many of the gameplay elements made their way into this future release. Playing as a captured allied spy, you must escape your Nazi captors and foil their plans for world domination. The game is broken down into six episodes which further break down into ten levels each. Eight regular levels, a boss level, and a secret level. Each level has a labyrinthian set up with lots of areas to explore, secrets to find, and enemies to blow away. You have a set number of lives, but it is possible to earn extra lives as you play.
Wolfenstein 3D is one of Apogee’s best selling games and is looked at by many as the godfather of 3D and first-person shooters, first of all, Doom. It raked in cash for both Apogee and Id in its heyday. 26 years later it still holds up as a classic of the genre and a hell of a good game.

Designing your first amusement park isn’t actually that tough, but once things are up and running do the headaches begin. The key to your theme park’s success hangs on how happy your customers are. Sure, they’ll come to investigate when it opens, but if they don’t like it (if it’s too dirty, boring, lacking key facilities or if the rides look unsafe) then they won’t be coming back for a second visit. Even worse, they might convince their friends not to go. For this reason, you have to think everything from how much to charge for a hot dog to designing your rollercoaster.
One of the other cool, more subtle features of the game is that the quality of people change depending on what kind of a park you’ve built. If your park is very safe and quiet, you’ll be seeing a lot of old folk wandering around. If it has a lot of dangerous and noisy rides then you’ll see younger thrill-seekers visiting. But typically the better way to go is to try to please as many people as possible – provide long, safe rides, have food and drinks nearby, and keep your park clean. Most of the fun of Theme Park is finding that balance that secures your park’s money-making future.

Quake II doesn't need any introduction. The first-person shooter created by id Software was released in December 1997.
The legendary John Carmack worked personally on coding this gem, that was not planned to be a sequel to Quake. The engine of the game, called id Tech 2, has been used for many other games.
In 2001 the source code of the game was released freely.

SimCity Enhanced CD-ROM, also known as SimCity Enhanced Cinematic Multimedia, is a remake of SimCity created by Maxis and released by Maxis and Interplay in 1993 for PC CD-ROM and Macintosh.
The game is not changed compared to the original (if we exclude the VGA graphics instead of EGA). Still, there are several cutscenes with movies recorded with real Hollywood actors, plus voices that will give you feedback and suggestions.
Reviews were not highly positive: many complained because the videos or audio were distracting. Anyway, it's a fun remake of a popular game.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the final game in the series of Harry Potter movie adaptations. It closely follows the plot of the movie of the same name. Harry and his friends will have to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes and then face Lord Voldemort for the ultimate battle.
The game is a single-player third person shooter, with magic spells substituting weapons. The game resembles its predecessor in most aspects, but the stealth sections from the previous game are omitted. The cover system has been tweaked. In different levels the player controls various characters from Harry Potter movies including Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Professor McGonagall and others.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is an adaption of the movie of the same name. The player takes the role of Harry Potter on his quest to find the Horcruxes; the source of the villain's immortality. In contrast to the former games based on the franchise this is a third person shooter. The levels portrait key moments from the movie.
But of course Harry does not use real weapons; he relies on his magic wand to mow down the enemy hordes. He has different magic spells to his disposal; both offensive and defensive. The offensive spells are similar to regular weapon, e.g. expulso acts like a MG and stupor like a gun, and the defensive ones are used to turn enemies against each other or create cover. The latter can be useful because the game features a classical cover system where Harry can duck behind to regenerate his health. With him are his AI allies Hermione and Ron which fight on their own. New or upgraded spells are earned after level ups.
In addition to the shooter sections there are first-person stealth missions in which Harry needs to avoid detection. For this purpose he uses a invisibility cloak which has only limited power - if it runs out Harry is out in the open. It is recharged by standing still. Between the main missions the player has to solve other quests in any order. Those have nothing to with the movie plot.
The challenge mode is unconnected to the campaign and includes missions like killing as many foes as possible in a limited time.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is based on the movie of the same name. The player takes the role of Harry Potter who has to fight against Lord Voldemort and his minions.
The game is not completely linear - between the chapters Harry can explore the school at his own leisure. If the player does not want to walk and search around, they have two ways to cut a corner: portraits, which are unlocked during the course of the game, can be used to teleport instantly to another place. Harry can also call a ghost which shows him the fastest way to the next mission. Exploration has mostly one goal: finding the 150 (more or less) hidden crests which unlock achievements and trophies. Because Harry lost his ability to jump and climb, he has to use spells to reach them.
Mini Games
The player will spend most of his time in three mini games: magic duels, brewing potions, and quidditch. The duels are used to learn new spells respectively improve the already known. Harry basically faces other magicians and uses his spells to defeat them, e.g. by paralyzing them or by parrying their spells. To perform a spell the player has to use his input device to recreate a certain movement.
Quidditch is a reaction test. Harry's broom flies automatically and the player can only slightly move it to fly through rings or avoid obstacles. While brewing potions Harry faces a bowl, ingredients and a time limit. Now he simply needs to recreate the receipt by using the ingredients in the correct on the bowl. Sometimes he needs to heat up the bowl or stir the brew up with his input device. If he makes a mistake there is smoke which costs time.

Based off the fifth book and movie of the series, players take control of Harry Potter in this 3D adventure as he faces the dangers of his fifth year of Hogwarts, avoiding the malicious Professor Dolores Umbridge, builds Dumbledore's Army, and faces off with Voldemort himself as the prophecy continues to unfold.
Players will navigate through the castle of Hogwarts and beyond, learning fifth year spells, solving multiple puzzles, avoiding traps, and even get a chance to play as the Weasley brothers, Sirius Black and Dumbledore himself.
All versions are the same with the exception of the Wii. Players can use the Wiimote as Harry's wand to cast spells, allowing a new level of control never before possible in a Harry Potter game.
Survive the year, learn new spells, and survive one of the darkest battles in Harry's life as he faces his first real battle against Voldemort, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"!

For the first time since the 1970s, there has arisen a marketing force terrifying enough in its inertia to rock the house of LucasArts to its core. Yes indeed, Harry Potter has arrived, and backed by the omnipotent J.K.Rowling has burst on to the gaming market with the force of... well, a million eager children's piggy banks. And that's not even beginning to mention the countless hordes of adults who either pretend to read it to be with their kids, or just admit that they're damn good books.
The game versions of the best-selling novels certainly have a lot to live up to, not least since they're game adaptations of film adaptations of books - not a genre that has the best pedigree. This hasn't stopped them rocketing into the number one slot in the all-format charts in the UK, and in fact, it's not even a matter of concern, because the PC version at least is really very good indeed.
The title loosely follows the plot of the film; and when we say loosely, we really mean it, as the best you get is a brief plot reminder to keep you rolling along. Those who haven't either read the books or seen the film are going to be mightily confused. Our best advice is to settle down and read the lot - we promise you won't regret it. You start with your lessons at Hogwarts school for witches and wizards before rocketing straight to the end of the story with a quick stop-off for dragon rescuing in the middle.
The roller-coaster nature of the game's plot development is a bit of a pity, since it's really excellent entertainment, but essentially leads to a rather short game. You begin with your first lessons during which you learn a number of useful spells by tracing your mouse over a shape onscreen - the more accurate you are, the more points go to your schoolhouse, Gryffindor. The house-points are totalled up on your options screen; nice teachers give them for success, and according to tradition, nasty professor Snape takes them away in a desultory fashion.
Once the spell is learnt, you can use it in the game. Each class contains a challenge that you as Harry are sent on. You're only able to succeed if you use your spells correctly, which is simpler than it might sound. Taking up the spellcasting stance with the press of a button, you can direct your wand to the objects around you. If it's 'spellable', then the spell icon shows up and you can cast upon it. This will either open the pathway, gain you some Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, a collectable Wizard Card, one of the challenge stars needed to complete the task or give you a chocolate frog to restore your health. If you manage to find 24 of the cards, and 250 of the beans through unlocking secret areas, you unlock a special secret wizard card. We'd give you more info but we missed the secret area in the Quidditch lesson - bah!
This brings us neatly to the flying broomstick game. Starting with a quick lesson with Zoe Wannamaker (or rather, her digital equivalent), you're quickly spotted as a star Quidditch player, and promoted to the house team! Through this convenient plot device, you're propelled into an all-star match against the other houses. As the seeker, your task is to zoom around the pitch and pick up the snitch, a tiny golden ball with wings, to clinch the match. In fact, it's probably the trickiest part of the game, and certainly the most fun, which is why the title includes a separate Quidditch league where the enlightened player can zoom and swoop to their heart's content to build their way up the league. You can even have private tuition with the Quidditch teacher to improve your lacking broomstick skills.
Control has been simplified to appeal to all ages, but this leaves you feeling a little bit clumsy. You can move back and forwards, turn left and right, jump, and use a spell, with the mouse being indicated as the sensible way to look around. However mouse control is incredibly awkward, so we ended up moving around with the arrow keys - the lack of a strafe only causing occasional annoyance. Much of the game is platform-style, not dissimilar to a certain Ms Croft's escapades. The way Harry grabs the edge of blocks and bookcases and hauls himself up with a grunt is a dead ringer for the anatomically impossible heroine. What's a bit silly is that the game includes the ability to enable an 'autojump' function. Yes, that's just what it sounds like - we heartily recommend people leave it off since it not only takes away any difficulty from the platform sections, but also reduces the fun quota to near zero.
The game has its fair share of puzzles, although they're not overly taxing, being aimed at an age group with a large span of years. They're made with style, however, as is much of the game itself. Graphically, it's a feast for the eyes, with convincing representations of the film's heroes, heroines, villains and bit-parts all reproduced. Hogwarts itself looks wonderful, just the sort of place to make kids and adults alike wish that they'd been the ones who'd been picked for wizard school. Likewise, the voices are excellently done. Mimicking the film's cast to perfection, the game is truly immersive - sadly this just heightens the disappointment when you reach the game's ending so quickly.
For a film conversion, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone manages, thankfully, to live up to the hype. It's an excellent title for kids of all ages (yes, even the grown up ones), with a fantastic mixture of gaming genres contained within. Alas, a slightly ropy control system, and disappointing length let us down on what is otherwise a truly enjoyable experience.

In this Harry Potter game, join him during his second term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
A dark plot against his "Mudblood" classmates has Harry befuddled as more and more students are strangely petrified. Harry must learn new spells and cast them without mistake to uncover the secrets and solve the mysteries.
In the PC version, the 3D environments are "free-roaming" as players actually become Harry Potter and learn more about his world and personality. Conversations with the various characters and keen observation as you explore are crucial to solving the game. Interact with familiar characters from the movie: Ron, Hermoine and, of course, Gilderoy Lockhart. Additionally, there are multiple mini-games and side quests.

Spread across books, films and videogames, there is no denying the power or popularity of the Harry Potter franchise. Young and old, and on both sides of the Atlantic, the fictional young wizard has fans galore. Other characters in Harry's world have garnered interest, of course, but the one thing that's nearly as popular as the boy wonder isn't a character at all, rather an event: Quidditch! After reading about it, seeing it played on the big screen and then getting a brief taste of it in the videogames, Potter fans clamoured for more and sports behemoth EA responded with Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup.
Although the game is being produced on the EA Games label (apparently EA Sports only does real world stuff), the developers have borrowed from the wealth of sports titles in EA's library in order to ensure solid play mechanics. One part hockey, one part soccer and one part pure fantasy, Quidditch World Cup may not have the draw or the depth of Madden, but it is still plenty of fun to play.
The game of Quidditch is played on a standard rectangular field, much like a game of football, only no one ever touches the field itself - instead of running, all the players fly above the field on magical broomsticks. While this allows for some impressive maneuvers in the films and the game's cinema sequences, players will not be able to utilize 3D space; everything's instead kept on a 2D plane. This results in a little less depth of play, but it doesn't really hamper the game because the learning curve is much less severe.
Seven players make up each team, with positions such as Chaser, Beater and Keeper. For the majority of play, the object is to score points by throwing a ball through one of three goals on your opponent's side of the field. You have the use of standard moves, such as passing, as well as special moves that can be earned by executing combo shots. Special moves are played by pressing a hotkey at the correct time. Throughout the match, a two-part meter at the top of the screen is closing in towards the center - once closed, the game switches from the main field of play to the final race for the Golden Snitch.
The Golden Snitch is worth 150 points, so this segment can easily determine the outcome of the entire match. Catching the snitch plays much like a high speed racing game as players are forced to maneuver their broom on the snitch's narrow trail. Stay on the trail and get a speed boost, slide off and you will slow down drastically giving your opponent a chance to race ahead. A limited turbo meter can be used strategically to close ranks if you are behind.
Because Quidditch has no basis in reality, the game offers an intelligently designed training mode to ease players into the game. You will start out at Hogwart's by learning a few lessons and then playing against another house. Master a few more lessons and a second house becomes available and so on. Special moves are limited at Hogwart's and the AI is automatically set to a very low level making it easy for the player. In many ways, playing at Hogwart's is the Quidditch equivalent of Little League play, master it and you can move on to the big leagues - the World Cup.
World Cup play centers around country-based teams, so Harry and friends are relegated to the sidelines, however, the quality of play ratchets up quite a few notches. Whereas the competition at Hogwart's was something of a pushover, in the World Cup matches, the computer will play to win. Special moves are also fully available in this mode of play.
Team names may not be very inventive (they are named after their respective countries after all) but they are balanced. For this version of the game, there are minor differences in how the teams play, but no distinct strong or weak points. Hopefully those differences will become a bit more pronounced in future releases. Also, there is no option for a custom team. We've become used to seeing that feature in sports games and its absence was notable.
Adding a little bit of depth to the single-player experience are the unlockable card options. Each collectible card is given to the player when certain challenges are met. The cards then grant access to arenas, special moves and other items. When fully unlocked, the game allows players to experience "Queerditch." Poorly named (we pity the one at EA who has to answer customer complaints), but fun to play, Queerditch is the precursor to Quidditch according to Potter lore.
Multiplayer is limited to two players on a single console, with no online or four-player options. Playing multiplayer is similar to the single-player mode, with the exception of a real live opponent. Because of Quidditch's low learning curve, it is very easy for a new player to jump into the game and start having fun quickly.
While we were a bit skeptical when EA first mentioned the game, Quidditch World Cup is surprisingly fun with an appeal that reaches past the core Harry Potter fans. Even if you've never cracked open a Potter book or sat down in the cinema to watch one of the films, there is still plenty to like in the game.

The PC game based on the third Harry Potter story is, like its counterpart on consoles, a three-dimensional action adventure, but with entirely different challenges and levels.
The player controls both Harry as well as his friends Ron and Hermione, while casting spells, solving puzzles and fighting enemies. Each of the three has one unique spell: Harry can freeze things, Hermione can transform statues into living creatures which can reach areas she can't, and Ron can pull himself over chasms or pull things toward him.
When the three (or sometimes only two) of them are together, the one best suited for the task at hand is automatically selected. If the power of several spells is required for a certain task, the other characters (AI-controlled) join in the casting. Spellcasting is context-sensitive - the correct spell is selected according to the object targeted.
When not engaged in a specific mission, the castle of Hogwarts can be freely explored. Many secrets and smaller tasks await. Scattered all around Hogwarts, usually in hidden areas, are Every Flavour Beans, Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes, which function as a sort of currency. They can be traded for Collectors Cards, passwords for portraits that lead to more secret areas, and power-ups.
To finish the game, not only must the main missions be completed, but several side tasks as well. All 80 Collectors Cards must be found, all portrait passwords acquired and several mini-games completed. These include battles against pixies and a magically animated book, and a hippogriff flying course.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is an action-adventure game that follows the story of the fourth movie and book of the same name. In addition to the usual challenges and dangers that Harry, Ron, and Hermione need to face, the Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts and mysteriously Harry is in the tournament!
One to three players control Harry, Ron, and Hermione (the computer controls the remaining characters for one and two-player games). Played with a third-person view, you will need to complete numerous game levels which feature a variety of action and puzzle-solving as well as completing the three tasks in the Triwizard Tournament and facing Lord Voldemort. Each character has magic spells that can be used to help out, and additional spells can be learned as you make your way through the game. Occasionally all three characters will need to work together to complete a task, such as moving a particularly large object or defeating a tough opponent. During the game you will come across Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans; collecting these can help out by restoring stamina or magic powers. Additionally, at the end of each level, the Beans can be used to purchase collector cards; these are used to increase a character's abilities.

This is a puzzle, adventure game about an ultra-secret organization called Bureau 13, whose operatives investigate paranormal phenomenon. After one member of the organization draws unwanted attention to himself, the Bureau decides to neutralize him by sending two agents on his trail. The game offers many characters to choose from such as thief, priest, mech and vampire etc. Since each character has different skills, each puzzle can be solved in a number of ways, leading to different endings.

'Nam 1965-1975 is a strategy game set during the Vietnam war. The player takes the role of both the President of the United States and the commander-in-chief, and the goal of the game is to prevent the South of Vietnam to fall in the hands of the Vietcong, managing its military resources and preventing the public opinion to reject the war. As President, the player has to manage the military resources, and as Commander in chief they can take direct decisions on the terrain, such as tactics or engaging enemies.
The game offers five different scenarios: Khe Sanh, Tet Offensive, 1975 offensive, Nixon and Johnson. The first three are some of the most decisive battles during the conflict, whereas choosing "Nixon" or "Johnson" changes the year (1964 or 1968) in which the player starts playing.

Alien Incident is a fun, unassuming science fiction adventure that is great for young adventurers due to its family-oriented plot and easy puzzles.
You play the role of a teenager called Benjamin who's visiting his uncle's house at Halloween. His uncle, a home-grown scientist, attempts to activate his latest invention, the wormhole spawner. Amazingly enough, it works and rips open a wormhole to another galaxy, transporting an alien spacecraft to Earth. The aliens kidnap your uncle and, surprisingly, your mission is to rescue him (and the world, but you knew that already).
Strategy Plus sums up the game's appeal quite nicely as follows: "GameTek's Alien Incident must have been developed with the fledgling gamer in mind, and in that sense seems to be going in the right direction. Along with its clever animation and interesting storyline, it reinforces to the new or younger gamer the idea that fun, challenging gameplay doesn't have to include violence....
The tone of the game is well established very early and nicely maintained throughout. You cannot hope to rescue your uncle and thwart the plans of the aliens without some obstacles, so there is, of course, the usual gathering and intelligent deployment of assorted objects for puzzle.
On the down side, Alien Incident seems to crash and lock up every now and then. But even when this happens, the game has an automatic recovery system. For instance, if the game crashes for whatever reason, the next time you start the game you'll find it has performed a "disaster save," and asks if you want to start where you left off. Seems like they may have been expecting a crash or two, eh?
Parents will want to add this game to their shopping lists, as the story is fun and easy to follow and the interface intuitive enough to pick up with little or no coaching. Recommended primarily as family fare, this non-violent diversion should prove entertaining to Mom and Pop, as well as Billy and Sue Ellen… assuming they can withstand the occasional technical problems."

If you're bored of racing Formula 1 cars, rally cars or MotoGP bikes in their natural habitats, the Micro Machines series could be for you. It involves racing miniatures representing particular vehicle types across a particular terrain found around the house. The Sports Cars race on the desktop, 4x4s in the sandpit, Formula 1 cars on a snooker table, and so on.
These levels were packed with variation. The Snooker tables has the track painted on, although this is open to deviation (as are most levels), and had you racing through the pockets and across the rim of the table. Tanks raced as well, with the chance of shooting out your opponent if they got directly in front of you. The desktop levels include binders to jump across, pencil-sharpeners to avoid, and lots of visual jokes in the open homework.
Viewed from overhead with small graphics, the races include up to 4 cars. In one player challenge mode you race through the 21 tracks in a set order, selecting your 3 opponents as you go along (adding a fair amount of strategy - ideally you should aim to eliminate the better CPU cars early on), eliminating one after every third race (assuming that you can finish in the top 2 of a race within your 3 lives). If you win 3 races in a row without using a continue you get a time-trial race which can earn you an extra life.
The real innovation of the game was in the multiplayer modes. You started with 4 points each, and when one car gets far enough ahead to force the other car off-screen, the slider moves in their favour. Once it reached the end (which involved beating them 4 times more than they beat you) you win the level, although if 3 laps were completed, the person leading at that point is declared the winner - with a sudden death play off if scores are level. 9 of the tracks are available in this mode, although you can also play this Head to Head system as a 1-player game across all the tracks.

Fishing is a single player game which is controlled by the mouse or the keyboard.
This is not a detailed fishing simulation, it is more of an arcade game. The game has thirty lakes in which to fish and each offers a different challenge to the last, catch a given weight of fish, catch fish in a specific time, race through a course and catch fish at the finish line etc. When the player completes one challenge the next lake is unlocked, the prize money earned by completing challenges can be used to upgrade the fishing tackle.

Winx Club is a 3D action adventure game based on the Italian cartoon series of the same name. The story is similar to that of Harry Potter, only this time the main character is a fairy. She gets to go to a fairy school in fairytale world called Magix where she has to find her true self.
This game loosely retells the story of the first season of the television series.
There are "action" and "adventure"levels. In the adventure levels gameplay consists of finding items for specific NPCs and playing various mini-games. In the action levels the player has to jump, climb, and fight enemies. The main character, Bloom, has a magic shield and two attacks that improve during the game. She can also cast a number of spells that can aid her in finding the items she needs. During boss battle Bloom changes to her Winx form in which she is more powerful and can fly. During the levels there are various items to be picked up which improve Blooms health or attacks or unlock new outfits that can be worn.

Harold's Hills is a fast paced action game that continues the adventures of Harold the Homeboy. Santa Claus has done a sloppy job of delivering presents this year and it's up to Harold to gather them up from the snow and deliver them to the homes of children. He'll also be looking for big bonuses to -- once again -- impress his friends.
The player controls Harold as he slides down a snowy hill with a toboggan; maneuver him left and right to pick up presents from the snow, while avoiding obstacles such as trees and boulders. Delivering presents to homes will result in bonus scores, the more presents delivered in one shot the bigger the bonus, but carrying more presents also means you'll slide faster. Oddly enough it is possible to gain bonus points hitting stumps; hitting them in rapid succession will give cumulative bonuses, but this is tricky because the toboggan will deflect.
The game resembles Icy Tower by Free Lunch Design in its addictiveness and fast pace. With both of these titles, gameplay is intense but short-lived since you only have one life per game.
A final noteworthy feature is the high score table system. The game will track several things like most presents delivered, most stumps hit, most undelivered presents crashing, and of course general high score.

Batttle for Troy is a real-time strategy game that follows the story of the Trojan War as depicted in Homer's epic poems. The game allows the player to command either the alliance of Greek armies (led by the Spartans), or side with the Trojans. Each side has eight campaign missions and nine unit types to command. The Greek missions mainly involve offensive manoeuvres, while the Trojans are more concerned with defending the walls of their city. The primary resource in the game is gold, which can be acquired by destroying enemy units. Supernatural elements ("god spells") are present as well.

Dark Colony wasn’t breaking new grounds with its formulaic mechanics or hackneyed humans vs. aliens plot. These initial clues alone suggest a derivative, mediocre effort that's hardly worth playing. Surprisingly, though, the clues are misleading. While Dark Colony is indeed derivative, a little closer examination reveals enough differences from the standard RTS mold to set it apart as a passable gaming experience.
Dark Colony's premise is simple: while terraforming Mars for colonization, humanity hits a roadblock in the form of bug-eyed, tabloid-style aliens. These aliens (called the Taar) are looking for a few good worlds to call their own, and don't want any pesky humans underfoot. The result, naturally, is full-scale war. While the futuristic setting of Dark Colony suggests a Command & Conquer clone, Dark Colony is modeled very closely on Warcraft II. Like Warcraft II, Dark Colony features a relatively small selection of combat units (only ten per side) for the player to build.
Whether you choose to play the humans or the aliens, a commander appears in every campaign mission. This commander is the only unit that is transferred from one mission to the next. He gains experience as he racks up kills, and thereby increases both his rank and abilities. He can inspire nearby troops to make them fight better, and can occasionally call for reinforcements. When the commander is reduced to dangerously low health, he's beamed away to safety so you needn't worry about losing the mission just because your commander got killed.
Some players will be disappointed with the relative lack of unit variety, both in terms of sheer numbers and in the fact that both sides units are mirror images of one another. This is a definite downside, but on the other hand, it allows the game to be balanced very finely. For better or worse, Dark Colony chooses to stick with Warcraft II's simple elegance and adds only a few legitimate innovations. The formula stays largely intact, save for a radical change of scenery and a few welcome improvements.
 

Earth is hungry, cold, and cramped; its peoples need food, energy, and new frontiers. The Pleidans (called the Grays by Earthlings, and familiar to anyone hanging around Roswell 50 years ago), a race which apparently specializes in genetic manipulation, have troubles of their own; genetic experimentation gone awry apparently decimated their culture, and they're struggling to rebound. That was the main (and largely forgettable) premise from the original Dark Colony.
Council Wars, which requires the original Dark Colony to be installed, adds 16 additional missions that once again pits Grays against Earthlings in canned missions. There’s also the regular stuff you’d expect to find in an expansion pack, such as adding new units, new buildings or environments. Novel environments include an alien fortress or Area 51. Also new is a third neutral species that you can capture and use to your own nefarious goals.

Astro Assembler is a space-faring, top-down, vertically-scrolling, shoot-em-up. Pilot your spaceship against insurmountable swarms of enemy ships and asteroid-planted bases. The player's ship's offensive weapons attack on 2 planes: The rapid fire laser is effective against flying targets, while firing also launches missiles at a lower rate of fire that attack ground targets. There is a plethora of powerups to collect that grant such added capabilities as more speed, more powerful lasers and missiles, and higher rate of fire. Be careful, though, because some collectible items are actually powerdowns.
The "Assembler" part of the title refers to sets of specific ship pieces that the player pursues in the game. These components assemble to create a more powerful ship with greater offensive and defensive capabilities.

Adrian Blake, trapped in a mountain cave, surrounded by a raging war, fears his exciting and adventurous life is almost at an end. The goddess Ishtar appears before him and offers to save him in exchange for his love. Rejecting her advances and safely returning home, Adrian discovers that his fiancée is missing. Realizing that Ishtar has cursed him, Adrian searches ancient scrolls to invoke the goddess to help him find Sophia. Instead, Ishtar challenges him to go back in history to Pompeii in the year 79 A.D. and win the love and trust of Sophia, as a complete stranger. Adrian must race against time - he is aware that Mount Vesuvius is destined to erupt in just 4 days. Overcoming numerous obstacles, Adrian must act quickly to save Sophia and himself before all is lost.