AAUG Reviews

by David Enders, AAUG Member

I had previously reviewed Sid Meier’s Civilization IV and was excited to see what the Warlords Expansion pack had to offer. Once you have exhausted the plethora of scenarios in the base game , Warlords is more than a just an upgrade. With the Warlords expansion pack brings me Leaders I studied in high school such as Hannibal. Had I been able to play Civilization in high school I might have really paid attention in History class.

I followed the instructions on installing the expansion pack. Then I clicked on the the Civilization IV icon, I did not see any new scenarios. Further reading revealed that with the original game and the expansion have their own respective icons. I found that to be a bit confusing as some games incorporate the expansion in to its main menu of the original game. All it really required was that I read the manual further than I did before I started the installation.

The documentation states it includes six new civilizations scenarios. With the new civilizations come new leaders and new unique units. The new Civilizations and Leaders are ; Carthage: Hannibal, Celts : Brennus, Korea :Wang Kon, Ottomans: Mehmed II, Vikings : Ragnar, Zulu: Shaka. With these new Civilizations come their own unique units. They have also updated the existing Civilizations to have new Leaders: England _ Sir Winston Churchill, Rome: Augustus Caesar, Egypt: Ramesses II and Russia: Josef Stalin. There are also new buildings and new Wonders included in the expansion pack

(more…)

by David Enders, AAUG Member

Are you a history buff that has wanted to rule your own world and perhaps conquer it at the same time ? If you are then Sid Meier’s Civilization IV might be the Mac game you have been looking to play. I had not played other generations of this game so I cannot comment on whether this version is improved over other versions.

The game for me definitely had a learning curve. It includes a manual but it is a whopping 140 pages, this can be a bit intimidating to an average gamer like myself. I immediately looked for the Help file. There is a fold out chart that is included that tells you what all the items cost, a technical tree and promotion tree as you develop your civilization. This is a handy and valuable reference as you play through the game. If you can post it beside your computer this is even better.

The game can be thought of being similar to The Sims , Sim CIty and even WarCraft — all games I have played. However , this game is different in that it is a turn based game in Single Player mode similar to chess or checkers. What this means is if you have a Scout Team and they can advance two tiles is a single turn , you need to move them 2 tiles, force them to skip a turn or put them to sleep until you awaken them. Then your opponent takes his turn. This is a different concept from the games above which can some times turn into a free for all of activity. In the multi-player version of this game the turns are simultaneous between users. I did not have the opportunity to play a multiplayer game. (more…)

by Richard Alexander, AAUG Member

The Game Specs are as follows:

• Rated: Mature 17

Minimum system requirements:

• OS - Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later
• CPU - PowerPC G4/G5 or Intel Chipset
• CPU Speed - 1.67 GHz or faster
• RAM - 512 MB or faster
• Hard Drive - 3 GB free space
• Video - ATI Radeon 9600 of NIVDIA GeForce 6600 or better
• Video RAM - 64 MB or higher
• Disc Drive - DVD drive required to install and play

Recommended System Requirements:

• OS - Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later
• CPU - PowerPC G5 or Intel Chipset
• CPU Speed - 2.0 GHz or faster
• Video RAM - 128 MB

Quake 4 is a military/violence-based game with outstanding graphics.
I recommend that you have the manufactures recommended system to truly get the most out of this game. I played the game several times and I could not really “get in to it”. The game was somewhat intuitive, and there was not very much in the users manual to help you, just some basic guidelines (more…)

by Elaine V. Robinson, AAUG Member

The fun continues with Electronic Arts and Aspyr’s The Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion Pack. (See my Sims 2 review here.) The basic premise of Nightlife is to add pleasure to the lives of the Sims and to give them a richer social life. This is accomplished with many new additions to the game. There is a new aspiration in their lives by the added Pleasure Seeker aspiration. The Sims just want to have fun!

The Sims 2 core game is necessary to install the Nightlife Expansion Pack. Installation was easy as double-clicking the Installer on the DVD and following the onscreen instructions. Nightlife came with a 12 page paper manual which is all inclusive and very helpful. Nice touch! To start the game, double-click the Sims 2 icon in the Applications folder on your hard drive. Loading one of the three town locations, as does going downtown, takes a minute or two. The time taken was not disconcerting considering the richness of the resulting screens and actions. It is worth the short wait!

The Sims can now date, form groups to go out, have a good time, purchase cars, build garages, go out on the town to restaurants, bowling alleys and nightclubs. They don’t have to depend on the taxi or carpools. There are many new item objects, some of which include a DJ Booth, poker table, Electro Dance Sphere, photo booth and coffins. Coffins are needed to keep vampire Sims protected from the sun. Vampires roam downtown looking for victims so you should (more…)

By Chris Tofteberg, AAUG Member
Reviewed 6/06

Stubbs the Zombie, brought to the Mac by Aspyr, is a 3-D first person shooter (actually, first person brain-eater) that takes place in the 1950s. You are Stubbs and you need to eat brains. And lots of them.

Installation of Stubbs the Zombie was simple click-and-drag. Once installed you’ll want to keep the DVD handy, you’ll need it to play the game. There are also some extras available on the DVD that you may wish to check out.

Game play is pretty simple. You, as Stubbs the Zombie, run around Punchbowl (the town where the game takes place) attacking people, eating their brains, turning them into zombies and just creating havoc in general. Your main goal is to eat as many brains as possible and build your zombie army. Eating brains helps restore Stubbs’ health. As more citizens of Punchbowl are turned into zombies, Stubbs can direct them by shoving them or whistling at them to get their attention.

At various points in the game you are able to use different tools to perform tasks, such as driving a vehicle, running controls and even riding a sheep. Yes, a sheep. Stubbs can also use items in the game as weapons, but for the most part he uses his hands for attacking and eating brains. Stubbs does have some unique bodily weapons, such as the “Gut Grenade,” which involves Stubbs removing an organ from his body to throw at enemies. Stubbs can also rip off his own arm and use it to control other characters. My favorite weapon, purely for crudity, is “Unholy Flatulence,” a fart that stuns everyone within a certain radius of Stubbs. (more…)