Company of Heroes Description:

Company of Heroes PC

• Amazon Sales Rank: #840 in Video Games
• Brand: THQ
• Released on: 2006-09-11
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: Windows XP
• Dimensions: .45 pounds

Features

• From the award winning RTS studio Relic
• Redefines RTS genre, visceral WWII gaming experience, bringing soliders to life
• Proprietary Essence Engine delivers unparalleled graphics, destrutible battlfield using havoc engine and rag doll physics
• 2-8 player multi-player competition via LAN or internet with Clan Support

Customer Reviews:

Excellent RTS give great WW2 feel
First let me say other reviewers mentioned this is a difficult game to play and win because of all the action. It is difficult until you realize two very important things:

1) You can give orders to your units while the game is paused! This makes the game almost like a turn-based game. If you try to play without pausing it does become a very tough click-fest.

2) Relic themselves published a ‘cheat’ that allows you to adjust the game speed from its default of ’10′ all the way down to ’1′. So if you do not like pausing you can simply slow the game in general.

So having said that how is Company of Heroes (CoH)? First the graphics are outstanding. They are almost equal to that of a FPS game of just a few years ago. You can fully rotate and zoom the view. Like Relic’s previous ‘Dawn of War’ title you cannot zoom out very far but they did include an ‘operational’ map view that shows the overall battlefield with unit icons. This helps alleviate the problem with the inability to zoom out.

Sound is very well done. Weapons sound correct and the various audio clues of what is going on are vital. The units do swear, which is unnecessary and really adds little to the game, but it is humorous the first few times you hear it.

Game play is very similar to `Dawn of War’ and most RTS games. What CoH does well is it includes the objective resource system from DoW but expands it to include four different resource objectives: fuel, munitions, gas, and area. Combinations of the four allow you to build and improve your units. In addition, as you capture resources you gain control of an area. It is also possible to cut off an area and thus lose the resources from it. This simple system encourages not only attacking but also higher level options such as flanking. This is unique to a RTS title and is very well done and works even better.

CoH is not a wargame but a RTS game with a bit of wargame feel to it. The game plays much like a normal RTS game. The unit choices are interesting and mostly historical. Most of what you would expect in a WW2 title are here. You can even call in artillery, airstrikes, paradrops, and other support functions. Engagement ranges are ridiculously short and this hurts some of simulation feel as vehicles and heavy weapons are not able to stand off as far as they should. But, again, this is a RTS title not a wargame.

The biggest complaint with the game is the AI. The enemy AI does a very good job overall especially for a RTS game. But the friendly AI reactions have some real brain dead moments that will either cause you a lot of grief or force you to micromanage more than you would wish. For example, an enemy tank will move up and fire on your infantry squad and wipe it out while a friendly tank of yours sits just half a screen away doing nothing about it. I’ve lost buildings to infantry attacks while my own infantry sat by and watched. Units will also make some silly moves. Tanks will sometimes ram each other and rarely try to flank each other or seek nearby cover.

But overall the limits of the AI and few other quibbles are overshadowed by the great game play and overall great `feel’ of the game. It provides the most tactical and combined arms options of any RTS game to date and for that it succeeds and for that any RTS fan should pick up `Company of Heroes’.

An impressive addition to Relic’s RTS stable.
Company of Heroes is the latest real time strategy game from Relic who are known for their excellent Dawn of War RTS titles set in the Warhammer universe.

In Company of Heroes Relic takes a more realistic approach to the RTS genre. Set during WWII CoH follows Able and Fox Companies from their landing on the beaches of Normandy through their closing of the Falaise pocket.

In CoH the gameplay has been adapted and enhanced from Relic’s Dawn of War games. Instead of capturing generic control points on the map just for resources and territory, instead in CoH capturing points gives you control over that territory and in addition provides a population cap increase and generates more manpower. Manpower along with fuel and ammunition are the three resources that you will use to supply your army. While you gain manpower by capturing any control point there are specific control points that generate fuel and ammunition. Obtaining and defending those points successfully is a major part of the game.

Because of this gameplay mechanic, playing the game defensively is usually not a very successful tactic. The game rewards players that move in and capture territory. During the campaign as you capture territory and destroy the enemy you receive special command upgrades that allow you to obtain more advanced units, build units more quickly and call in air and artillery support among other things. These special abilities still cost you resources to use though and the person that has resources to use them when necessary will be the winner in an engagement.

The AI on both sides of the game is able to handle itself fairly well. Your soldiers are usually very intelligent about taking cover, but they still require micro-management to use their special abilities. All infantry units have special abilities that can tip the balance of an encounter in their favor, but without your guidance these abilities will never get used.

The vehicle AI is generally good with the exception of some pathfinding problems and an annoying tendency for vehicles to present their lighter armored backside to enemies at inopportune times. In tight combat situations micromanaging which armor side is shown to enemy gunners is critical and at the same time you’ll need to maneuver your armor to flank the enemy and catch them from the rear. At certain points the enemy AI is very good at keeping their armor effectively positioned and at other times they ignore facing completely and present an easy target. Sometimes this is the difference between facing a green or veteran unit, but at other times the AI just seems to give up their back.

Another issue with vehicle AI is that vehicles when ordered to directly attack another vehicle like to run right up on that vehicle and collide with them rather than come to a stop at a distance and fire. This can be problematic when the enemy you attack is grouped to the rear of other enemies and your unit ends up presenting their rear armor to the other enemies.

The enemy AI can be challenging and in some scenarios overwhelming. The scenarios in general vary in difficulty that way, but usually the challenge is in finding the right mix of units and support to utilize. Each scenario presents primary goals to complete and a secondary goal which will earn the player a medal for outstanding performance. These secondary goals often involve inflicting additional casualties on the enemy or avoiding excessive losses on your side.

While there are only fifteen scenarios to complete these are packed with details and can often last for several hours as each scenario will have multiple goals embedded in it. For instance you might be tasked with capturing a town from the axis and then afterwards you must hold it for a period of time against a counterattack. The aforementioned secondary goals also add performance challenges that will make you rethink how effective you were in completing the scenario.

The graphic engine makes use of as much hardware as you can present. The units are well crafted and scaled, the terrain is detailed and the destructible environments are well done. Being able to reduce buildings and obstacles to rubble adds to the gameplay experience immensely.

Running on two year old hardware my play experience was limited by my Radeon 9800 Pro AGP graphics card with a measly 128mb of RAM and limited support for the latest technologies. In addition I’m running an Athlon 64 3200 with 1GB of RAM. While the game recommended running at 1024×768 with most of the more advanced settings turned down I found that even at that resolution I was getting a good amount of slowdown in large scale battles. I ended up lowering the resolution to 800×600 to keep things moving smoothly. I found the graphic presentation to be quite good even without being able to turn up the juice.

If you haven’t bought/upgraded your machine recently with PCI Express and one of the newer video cards then you’ll probably have the same experience I did in terms of performance as this game requires a lot of computer power in every area. Loading a scenario for the first time can take up to a minute on my machine even with a 10000 RPM SATA drive.

That said, once you are in the scenario there are no loading screens and save game loads within the same scenario are much quicker than the initial load. It’s worth the wait.

The sound in the game is immersive. The explosions and weapon fire will rock you if you have a subwoofer attached to your sound system. The units will call out and alert you when they are under attack and in general respond appropriately depending on their status in a battle or otherwise. As one poster noted there is a bunch of harsh language mixed in, but I didn’t find it to be out of place.

The campaign story itself is well put together, but certainly doesn’t approach something like Starcraft in terms of tying the story and the scenarios together. This didn’t detract from the gameplay, but I wasn’t really drawn into the campaign story very much.

Overall, I found Company of Heroes to be a satisfying game in most aspects with only minor quibbles and very few obvious flaws or bugs in the initially delivered product. Unfortunately, now I think I think it’s put me in mind to upgrade my computer.

Just when you thought you’d seen it all…
Let’s face it, the Real Time Strategy genre is getting old, and I don’t just mean that it’s been around for a while (which it has). One might say the same for WW2-themed games of any sort. How, then, can a WW2-themed RTS possibly be one of the best PC games of this year? I’m still not entirely sure what the answer to this question is, but I do know that Company of Heroes fits the bill.

Anything coming from Relic can be expected to have decent production values, but for CoH they have outdone themselves. This is a title spit-shined and polished to do any parade ground GI proud. I happen to be a military history buff, and can attest to the fact that what you see and hear in this game is the genuine article. The campaign story could have been taken, practically verbatim, from the pages of Stephen Ambrose’s “Band of Brothers” and “Citizen Soldiers,” making the game’s name more than apt.

First and foremost, the graphics are impressive. And by impressive, I mean they are clearly superior to any RTS to date. The units, down to uniforms and weapons, look real. They animate realistically, and the environments are detailed to the point that they resemble pictures taken during the war. Even the mission briefings look like what you’d see in a military ready room. I’ve heard it said that the game can crawl on older systems, but it ran perfectly smooth with all settings turned up to max on my (admittedly high-end) rig. Stability is superb- I have not seen the game crash a single time.

The game’s sound is likewise superb, with excellent voice acting and the best effects I’ve heard in any RTS to date. There’s liberal profanity, which is one of the reasons this game is rated what it is, but this is realistic. Being shot at and shelled tends to warrant expletives. When artillery comes down it actually sounds like artillery, and your men will let you know if they’re in the middle of it.

As can be expected, the AI is advanced. Troops move and react realistically, dropping behind cover or falling prone if under fire. Units support each other and lay down suppressing fire. The computer can be downright brutal, even on moderate difficulty settings.

Campaign design is superb, and multiplay is available. Gameplay in general is somewhat similar to the earlier Warhammer: Dawn of War, especially in terms of the strategic point system. The big difference is that there’s different kinds of points and 3 different resource types, and the points must be linked in a chain to your headquarters to provide anything. Innovations include the use of resources to facilitate special attacks, most of which don’t require any sort of research, as they do in other games. For example, you can have infantry throw grenades, provided you have enough munitions available.

The one big downside is there’s only two factions- Axis and Allies, but there’s also separate commander ‘trees’ for each side. Axis (essentially the Germans) have Blitz, Terror, and Defensive; Allies (essentially the Americans) have Infantry, Armor, and Airborne. You gain experience by completing objectives or destroying enemy forces, and then spend points in one of these trees. The differences are significant, so there’s essentially 3 ways to play each side. Additionally, the two sides are very different to play, with unique weapons and abilities.

I’ll readily admit, despite the fact that I was once a hard-core RTS player, I’ve started to lose faith in the genre and stray to things that were formerly of secondary interest- most particularly, RPGs and MMORPGs. However, Company of Heroes has demonstrated to me that there is hope yet. In fact, it’s the only game that has actually managed to divert my attention from World of Warcraft; no easy task, I can assure you. If you have even a passing interest in real time strategy or World War 2, you owe it to yourself to get this game as soon as possible.

Rm Pdu 120VAC 15A Nema 5-15P 1U Nema 5-15R 8OUT Plug Description:

Raritan’s Dominion PX remote power management devices allow IT administrators to securely reboot and power on/off servers and network devices from a remote location. In addition, users can monitor power usage down to the outlet level, enabling highly accurate power metering. Whether used as a standalone unit or integrated with Raritan access solutions, the Dominion PX also offers flexible and secure access with 256-bit AES encryption, flexible management interface support for HTTP, HTTPS, IPMI, SMASH CLI, SSH and SNMP, as well as user-configurable power sequencing.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43087 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Raritan
• Model: DPXR8-15
• Dimensions: 27.10 pounds

Customer Reviews:

GARMIN 010-10755-00 City Select Mexico NT V2 Micro Secure Digital Card Description:

Garmin 010-10755-00 Select City Mexico N

• Brand: Garmin
• Model: 010-10755-00
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 35
• Dimensions: .25″ h x 4.80″ w x 5.00″ l, .9 pounds

Features

• Contains Detailed Coverage For Select Areas In Mexico
• Includes Detailed Maps Containing Highways, Interstates, Residential Roads & Other Navigational Features With Turn Restrictions & Speed Categories
• Displays Common Points Of Interest, Such As Hotels, Restaurants, Entertainment & Shopping
• Creates Point To Point Routes On Compatible GPS Units
• Compatible With Grm0044000, Grm0043900, Grm0042100, Grm0042200, Grm0046800, Grm0046900, Grm0044100, Grm0043300, Grm0043400 & Grm0049600

Customer Reviews:

Quite Dated and in Need of an Update
I have purchased this and already used it in Mexico. It is helpful to get you to any of the MAJOR cities but even within Guadalajara it was clearly very dated and did not compare favorably with a GPS that my friend was using that he purchased in Mexico.
I bought the Garmin GPS specifically so I could use this map in Mexico. I called Garmin and asked when an update would be available and was told they have no plans to update. When traveling to Ajijic it did not show ANY streets or even a road to get to the city. Ajijic is on the shore of Lake Chipala — the largest lake in Mexico.
Let us hope with that with more requests Garmin will finally update this map. It is at least five years out of date.
KS

Great, if a little dated already.
The coverage for Mexico City surprised me – it’s really complete, most methods of finding a place work great. Highways and major roads are well covered in Central Mexico, too. Not too useful for the road, though it provides just enough info to make it worth taking along (just don’t leave the map behind).

Mexico chip for your Garmin
I love my Garmin and use it extensively in the US. So I purchased the chip for Mexico and was very disappointed with its performance. It did not find even one of the addresses that I programed in to it in Mexico. Often it got stuck on trying to find satalites. Other times it simply couldn’t find the address and so we used the old standbys of using maps and asking directions of the locals. A huge disappointment. I’m going to ask for a refund, it was worthless.

Turok Description:

Turok is an epic, story-driven first person shooter game set on a dark, mysterious planet in the near future. Players take on the role of Joseph Turok, a former Black Ops commando, now part of an elite Special Forces squad on a mission to take down a war criminal on a genetically-altered planet. After the ship is shot down while approaching the planet, Joseph Turok must use his instincts and elite military training to elude an army of well-trained soldiers, and the ravenous, unpredictable creatures that populate the dangerous environment. Joseph Turok’s mission? Survive at all costs.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3453 in Video Games
• Brand: Disney Interactive Studios
• Model: 7000301
• Released on: 2008-04-29
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .53″ h x 5.75″ w x 7.75″ l, .30 pounds

Features

• Strategic Combat ¿ Choose to take out your enemies with quiet kills or massive firepower.
• Intense Dino Combat ¿ Battle vicious dinosaurs or lure them to attack your enemies
• Explosive Weapons ¿ Choose from 13 deadly weapons with most featuring a secondary function
• Intelligent A.I. ¿ Enemy soldiers advance to flank and dinosaurs reacts in unpredictable predatory and defensive behavior
• Frenetic Multiplayer Action – Take the fight on-line with intense action for up to 16 players on dinosaur-infested maps

Customer Reviews:

Great fun
Turok is an entertaining game that doesn’t deserve a lot of the negative reviews it’s getting. To avoid being repetitive, I’ll simply list the game’s pros and cons, and then let potential buyers decide if it’s a game for them:

Pros –
1. Challenging – I found Turok much harder than many first person shooters. There were several areas that took me many tries to finish. Turok blends strategy with a run and shoot approach – you can usually plan your attack, but rarely is there anywhere to hide. The boss fights in particular were well done.
2. HUD – there isn’t one, which may surprise/annoy some die-hards, but I found it refreshing. When you get hit, the periphery of the screen becomes red and you have to heal. If you take too many hits in a short period of time, you die. If you rest without being attacked, you heal fully. As I’ve noted, this makes Turok challenging – you don’t have any special abilities (Crysis, FEAR) or armor (Half-Life, STALKER), and there aren’t medkits lying all over the place (basically every shooter).
3. Dinosaurs – Just for the novelty of it. I mean, how often do you get to fight dinosaurs? Plus, graphically speaking, the dinos are the high point of the game.
4. Graphics – not the typically realistic Crysis style, but they still work. I found them immersive in a weird way. Others may disagree.
5. Weapon secondary fire – many of the secondary options on the weapons were creative and enjoyable. Many areas were almost impassible without using secondary fire; sometimes you needed to turn the mini-gun into a turret, fire a flare with the shotgun, or use the pulse-rifle’s disruption grenades. I never got tired of using the knife’s silent attack on dinos, though some have objected to the third person cut-scenes.
6. Checkpoints – huge plus in my opinion. There is supposed to be a quicksave, but it doesn’t work, and I think that is a tremendous blessing in disguise. It makes the game even harder, which is saying something. Some of the checkpoints are easy, but others are very difficult. This may sound annoying, but only if you don’t like a challenge. I never got tired of replaying the tough areas.
7. Production – Turok is well-designed and well-produced. I did not experience a single crash or bug during play. The levels were mostly well-made and had decent variety. The AI is solid. The plot doesn’t get in the way. In general a well-made game.

Cons -
1. Repetitive – Turok has little replay value. It is very entertaining the first time, but so linear that it would lose a lot of its charm the second time around. The game just isn’t very varied; some shooters you can replay to take a different approach or use a different weapon, but I can’t think of many places in Turok where I would change anything the second time.
2. Weapon variety – Like I said, the secondary features are great, but there isn’t much variety. Nothing speaks to this more than having weapons you receive early in the game – the shotgun and pulse rifle – being the most effective weapons against the final boss. Indeed, I used the pulse rifle basically the whole game, because I found it the most useful against both mercs and dinos. The other weapons are too specialized, so much so that they are a liability in many fights (mini-gun is too unwieldy etc). The good news is that you have a lot of opportunities to change weapons.

Other than that, Turok is a fun game – light on plot, heavy on action!

Don’t do it!
This game sucks! If u like playing the same parts over and over again, then by all means buy this game. There are multiple times when u die and the game gets hung up somehow and ur in limbo and have to restart from an earlier point. There is no quick saves, even though the game has a button for it. The ending is practically impossible so if u like to finish games like I do, you will be spending almost as much time as it took u to play the entire game at the end just to finish it! Go buy Call of Duty 4 and be happy!

Critisized to hard
Ok first of ifind many reviews of this game overly critical< i found teh game quite enjoyable though not all together entirely imerseing, That's not a bad thing , as sometimes it is great to have a game you can just play and stop (i do have to tend to my game art design homework for school)

first lets look at this games good points

1. Kick A– graphics Via Unreal 3 engine
2. solid Level Design that is never confusing not frustrating
3. nice story
4. fun game play particularly the dino spots
5. KICK A– knife scenes when you do a special knife kill

Now the bad

1. not optimised properly for the PC and couldn’t find a patch (in a very very few spots i ahd to turn my resolution down run at deccent frames , I have a very nice comp adn it runs UT3 flawlessly so this tells me they didnt really work on optimization for the pc version)
2. the drop/pick weapon system was a tad confusing but not to distracting
3. the knife cut scenes mention on the good list, ogt old after a while as tehy lacked variety

Now For stuff i think peple were overly critical of

1. copying other FPSers , ok lets fact the facts here , today there really isnt much new you can do with shooters that hasnt already been done, while this game didn’t bring any thing new to the table i can say waht it did do , it did well, it didnt break any thign about the engine it was built on, in that respect I was a quite solid game and i really can’t understad why peopel would critize it for doing something that COUNTLESS shooters do regardless of rather or not thy are on the top of the cream, EVERY Shooter in some part boorws ideas from a diferent shooter, this is how genres work, if they didnt then there woudlnt be a need for genres in teh first place.

2. Linear game, well of course , not every game can be an oblivion , or a GTA. sure this one didnt offer the sprawlign enviroments of stalker , or the little sand box feel of GTA and Far cry.I t did offer a good story and some tactical variety you can play throguh it and do thigns differnetly to a degree. and quite hoenstly i’m sick of this sand box game mentality, the way i figure , it a sandboxc doesnt suit the story , then why have it ? and on turok i don’t a sand box would have fit this game and story , so i think people have been rather harsh in thier persepective on this issue in their reviews.

with all that said , i’d say the game is well worth at least 39 US dollars , i had the fortune of graping it at 8 bucks from here, if you can get it at a deal then do so it would be a steal.

now the run down of my general avargae frame rate while palying
in most spots my machine kept this game running at 40-60 fps at 1280×1024 witha f ew spots it dropped to 18-25 not bad but the game could have used some beter optimazations here.

now my machine specs :

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black edition (oc’ed to 3ghz)
2 gigs of Giel DDR2-800(pc6400) ram
Sound blaster X-fi xtreme music sound card
Nvidia Geforce 9600GT 512 mb vid ram (from Leadtek)

P.S. There is NO DRM on this game !!!!! so no hassles didnt even ahve a cd key , jsut a disk check to see if the g me is in the drive which shouldnt be an issues for any one two disck drives)

Backyard Baseball 2003 Description:

It’s action-packed sports games with kid versions of real-life pros. The award-winning Backyard Sports series lets you pick teams, call plays, compete in single games or a whole season’s worth of fun. It’s the first series of interactive sports games with all the thrills, drama and suspense of healthy athletic competition designed especially for kids!

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2787 in Video Games
• Color: Baseball
• Brand: Atari
• Released on: 2002-06-05
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platforms: Mac, Windows XP, Windows
• Format: CD-ROM
• Number of items: 1

Features

• Join the Backyard Kids for real sports action!
• Create and save a custom player
• Choose kid versions of real pro players or Backyard Kids to be on your team
• Swing for the fences on 4 new playing fields!
• Lay down a bunt and try to score

Customer Reviews:

BYB’03
I am looking forward to the release of this game tremendously. The first BYB was the debut by Humongous Entertainment for the Backyard Sports series. The second was much improved, offering Major League Teams and players, along with online play. The last three releases from Humongous (owned by Infogrames) have been fabulous games with computer animation as well as hand drawn. It’s hard to imagine that Backyard Baseball 2003 will be able to beat the success of BYB’01, but with the return of players like Sammy Sosa, Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez coupled with new players such as Ichiro, Tim Hudson and Carlos Delgado, this looks to be one of the better Backyard Games. I was mildly disapointed with the performance of Backyard Basketball, not because of bad graphics or gameplay flaws, but because of having only two professional players (Kevin Garnett and Lisa Leslie) and no official NBA teams! One minor gameplay glitch miffed me about BYF’02, but it was a small price to pay for excellent graphics and 10 pros such as Brett Farve. BYB’03 wields 4 brand new fields. Go to the Infogrames web site and go to Children’s games and click on Backyard Baseball 2003 for screen shot. Ichiro up to bat against the Twin’s Brad Radke now encompasses my computer screen. I am saddened by the loss of favorites Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, especially Ripken. Regardles of popular belief, Cal IS the best infielder in that game (Sorry, Derek, buddy). Hopefully with the rise of BYB’03, will come more cheats. I think the employment of cheat codes could do no harm to the game. …!! Well, the dawn of a new Backyard game is coming, and while I can’t make the Yankees lose the World Series in the real world, perhaps my Mariners can pull of a few ’03 miricales in the Backyard Realm. Until then, Jah Backyard Peeps, RIDE ON! go M’s, make them yanks cringe. Out.

The Ultimate Baseball Game
Backyard Baseball 2003 is the best game I’ve ever played. While playing you can pick players that have returned such as K.Griffey Jr., S.Sosa, D.Jeter and many many more! You can also pick newcomers such as I.Suzuki, G.Vaghn, R.Sexson, J.Rollins etc. Backyard Baseball 2003 has came up with 4 new ballparks to hit some dingers, rbi’s, singles, doubles, triples and more! You can also pick 30 mlb teams and 31 mlb players because Ja. Giambi and D. Jeter are the 2 Yankees. Take it from me. Backyard baseball 2003 is the #1 game Humongus Entertainment has made. Also the best anyone has made. So go buy Backyard Baseball 2003!

A little disapointing, but still good
I was really excited about this game. The last 2 installments of the Backyard Sports series where good. This one is also. It has new players like Seattle’s Iciro and Colorado’s Todd Helton. My beloved Twins finally have a good representative in Brad Radke. There’s alos Backyard “veterans” (as I call them) like Sammy Sosa of the Cubs, Nomar Garciapara of Boston, and Chipper Jones of Atlanta. Chipper FINALLY goes Lefty when he bats against a right-handed pitcher, unlike 2001. A-Rod and Giambi represnt they’re new teams. In the other reviews, people say they are disapointed in the lack of Cal Ripken, Mark McGuire, and Tony Gywen. Maybe it’s because their RETIRED. I, on the other hand, miss Kurt Schilling and Pudge. I was very surprised they were left out. Well, at least Schilling should have been in this game. And why is Carlos Beltran the only Royal instead of Mike Sweeney. I still don’t get that.
There are big changes between the 2 games. The format is unchanged, but there are new voices for all the players, I think. Some sound a lot like the older versions, but some are really different. Like Sunny Day. I can’t tell her voice apart from Vinnie the Gooch. They took out the online play, too. I think Humongus or Infogrames trashed that feature. It’s also a little slow on my PC. It still good though. For being a good game at a [good] price, I give it 5 stars.

Amazon.com Review
Infogrames has improved upon an already excellent franchise with Backyard Baseball 2003. We hope this software doesn’t become a victim of its own success: the Backyard Kids are getting so good, it’s only a matter of time before they start demanding astronomical salaries and brand-new stadiums.

The pace, strategy, and statistics involved in baseball make it a sport that translates easily to the computer screen. In Backyard Baseball, players can play pickup games, launch a tournament, have batting practice, or just watch the computer play its own game. Options are initially overwhelming, but add longevity to the game as well. Twelve different game fields each exert their own unique influence over play–balls bounce crazily on the gravel lot, while homers are rare in the fenceless field. Games can be tweaked to add errors or include a visible strike zone; even field chatter can be added or eliminated. A wide selection of hits, pitches, and stance possibilities at the plate keep players strategizing, while the occasional power-up or wild pitch serves as a reminder of baseball’s unpredictability.

The creative team outdid themselves with character development in this software. The Backyard Kids are quirky and three-dimensional–the research done on the real players was exemplary as well. For example, did you know Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks listens to Rush in his spare time? Go figure.

Backyard Baseball 2003 will keep both young and old baseball fans engaged for a good long time. Consider it a way to fill that long wintry gap between baseball seasons. (Ages 7 and older) –Anne Erickson

Amazon.com Product Description
See if you have what it takes to create a winning baseball team with Backyard Baseball 2003. Pick from 30 Backyard Kids or kid versions of 30 pro players, choose your field, and position your players. You direct all the action on the field, track player and team stats, and earn pitching and batting power-ups to light up the scoreboard. It’s the chance of a lifetime to play with pros in your own backyard.

Rome Total War Anthology Total War, Alexander And Barbarian Description:

Includes Rome: Total War and the 2 OfficialExpansion Packs!Product InformationThree Rome: Total War titles in one collection.  In Rome: Total War themightiest armies and the most brilliant commanders of ancient times clash in anepic war game only Total War can create.  An all new campaign map extendsthe Rome: Total War experience further Eastward than ever before taking youinto Macedonia and the Persian Empire. A host of new content includes four newfactions and 60 all new units in Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion ExpansionPack.  It is 363 AD and the last Emperor of the unified Rome is dead. Hissuccessors now rule a divided Empire. Beyond the frontiers of the sunderedEmpire new enemies are lurking. The barbarians are at the gates in this officialexpansion pack for Rome: Total War Alexander.Product Title Included Rome: Total War Rome: Total War – Barbarian Invasion Expansion Pack Rome: Total War – Alexander Expansion PackProduct OverviewRome: Total WarStorm clouds gather over Europe Asia and North Africa as mighty armies marchforward in Rome: Total War.  Command the greatest forces of the ancientworld including the Roman Legions Carthage and Gaul; lay siege tocivilizations using powerful war engines; and decimate your enemies usingspecial units like ferocious war dogs armored elephants or Scythed chariots. In Rome: Total War the most epic cinematic real-time 3D battles ever seen in agame come to life with awe-inspiring graphics.  Vast armies are led bybrilliant generals such as Hannibal leader of the Carthaginians and JuliusCaesar Rome’s greatest general and leader.  The mightiest armies and themost brilliant commanders of ancient times clash in an epic war game only TotalWar can create.Features: Easily manage vast cities and gigantic battles with the aid of advisors auto managing tools and pick-up and play controls. Forge an empire on the revolutionary 3D campaign map with

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2214 in Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• ESRB Rating: Teen
• Dimensions: .40 pounds

Customer Reviews:

A true classic PC game
While I haven’t had much time to mess around with the Alexander expansion, I have to say that there are few, if any, video games that have sucked me in as much as Rome Total War and the Barbarian Invasion expansion. While I obviously love Medieval 2 Total War as much as the next guy (when I get to borrow my ex’s super laptop anyway , there’s something amazing — especially for a history buff — about the diversity, challenge, and overall feel of the RTW games, never mind the various mods available which pretty much keep it from becoming obsolete.

Generally, I am the type of gamer who avoids flavor of the month games, but who REALLY gets into 2-3 great games a year (typically console games, e.g. I’m way too into Fallout 3 right now, as I was codependent with Assassin’s Creed a year ago), and I kind of laughed at my good friend who recommended this game to me a few years ago (yes, yes…I know: I’m totally with it…). It just seemed like too much time and trouble. After borrowing it from him in August of 2006, I think he finally got it back in late 2007, right after I bought my own copy.

I’ve played various custom battles and campaigns with various factions with all kinds of difficulties and I NEVER get sick of it. I’m a fledgling writer who studies ancient, medieval, and modern history (both eastern and western), along with general military history and theory, pretty seriously, so conquering the world with Parthia or Rome never gets old–EVER!

The sheer quality of the Total War games, let alone the constant barrage of and variety of mods, make them worth every penny. I HATED RTS games prior to experiencing this series: now I LOVE ‘EM. I can’t think of a better compliment than that.

Best Series Ever by SEGA
This series of rome total war awesome, I think its better than Medievial 1, 2, and kingdoms. Because of the cannons and guns. It looks way better when its archers, and swords men. The graphics are amazing. Just unspeakable. The storyline and length is just long, theres missions, battles, wars, and theres a ton of different factions. You can fight during the night. Command over 1000 of units in one battle. Just amazing. Conquer Europe, go over a 1000 battles just to beat the game. Online is just super hard but fun. Very hard to get the ememy running. The only thing that sucks is that you need to pay for online. Theres many different factions you can be but two get all of’em is a secret. Just search it like I did. The best Total War I’ll say is the first one, Rome total war. Because of more of the terriorty that you can take over. And more factions than the other ones. The historical battles on these battles are super hard from defending cities and attacking cities. Just try to play on Very Hard, thats what I play on so just get used to it…lol….well I reccmmond this to any newbie for strategy because its eazzzzy to control your unit, and its not much of a clutter for the units. And just get yours soon.

Fun but one major drawback
I have enjoyed playing Rome Total War and I think the concept is great but what I hate is the civil disorder aspect. It seems that there is nothing you can do to stop it. The population starts rioting in your cities so you add troops but eventually they rebel and evict your troops anyway and suddenly there is this huge rebel army in your city and since these cities are usually behind your main lines of conflict it is difficult to get the troops there to retake the city. Especially since this usually starts happening in earnest right at the critical time when you are just starting to battle your strongest enemies for dominance. I was fighting as the egyptians and was just starting the critical battles with the 3 Roman factions and suddenly one after another of my cities rebelled (even though they were strongly garrisoned) until it had cut back my income to the point that I was losing money each turn and couldnt reinforce or retrain my vital armies. I ended up quiting the game even though I had played for days to get to that point. The Barbarian Invasion version is even worse as you have your generals suddenly switch sides and you are dealing with huge armies invading your territory so it is difficult enough dealing with them even with all of your armies staying loyal. I only played that one once and that was enough for me. Maybe there is something I am not doing or dont understand but overall I think it was a waste of money for me because I cant see myself putting in the time it takes to get to the critical point just to have something beyond my control decide the game.