Computer Gaming World: Rewind 100

Names in red indicate Editors’ Choice games

Game issue verdict

Across the Dnepr 4/04 An imbalanced, single-scenario

Korsun Pocket add-on: Dnot

worth the Dmoney

America’s Army: 3/04 Special Forces is the tactical-sim

Special Forces v2.0 genre at its finest

Armed & Dangerous 3/04 A straight-laced shooter with great cut-scenes

Battle Engine Aquila 4/04 Gorgeous and fun MechWarrior-

style action, but not deep

or groundbreaking

Battlefield 6/04 Scarier, tougher, and prettier

Vietnam than Battlefield 1942

DBeyond Divinity 8/04 Disappointing graphics, voice acting, and interface outweigh

the few sparks of creativity

Beyond Good & Evil 3/04 Gorgeous, stylish, and wholly original, this action-adventure

is a gem

Black Hawk Down: 4/04 An entertaining add-on that beefs

Team Sabre up the single- and multiplayer

games. Rat-a-tat-tat!

The Black Mirror 2/04 The Black Mirror’s gothic horror

doesn’t require much reflection

Blade and Sword 4/04 A lame Diablo clone that might’ve

been interesting four years ago

Breed 7/04 The Breed wants the planet?

Let ’em have it.

Broken Sword 3: 2/04 Dragon flamboyantly breaks out

The Sleeping Dragon of the box but drags it around a

little too much

Celebrity 2/04 Save your money by just

Deathmatch throwing beer cans at the television

DChaos Legion 8/04 Capcom’s army of fine survival-

horror titles doesn’t include this

Legion

Chrome 2/04 A stunning sci-fi-themed shooter

that makes Halo look hollow

DCity of Heroes 8/04 I hate MMORPGs—but I love

City of Heroes

Civilization III: 4/04 An incredibly refined new version

Conquests of Civ III with multiplayer that

finally works

Combat Mission: 4/04 Combat Mission 2.1

Afrika Korps

Commandos 3 5/04 Maybe the toughest game ever,

and not in a good way

Conflict: Desert 2/04 At times engaging, but not quite

Storm II—Back to all it can be

Baghdad

Conspiracies 5/04 Cheesier than the ripest Greek feta

Contract J.A.C.K. 2/04 No franchise shines forever—

J.A.C.K. is the first blemish on

the NOLF series

Counter-Strike: 3/04 This game was great when

Condition Zero it was free. For $40, it’s just good

DCrusader Kings 8/04 Big sweeping game, but too

unwieldy even for seasoned players

Crystal Key 2: 8/04 A stunning example of why

The Far Realm adventure games aren’t as popular

as they once were

CSI: Crime Scene 8/04 Fun if you’re already a fan—

Investigation— of boredom

Dark Motives

Dark Age of Camelot: 2/04 Good expansion for veteran

Trials of Atlantis players, but not much for

new players

DDead Man’s Hand 8/04 A five-card dud

Dead to Rights 2/04 This no-frills port of an aged,

derivative, repetitive shooter

was dead on arrival

Desert Rats vs. 7/04 A good historical RTS, despite

Afrika Corps flawed infantry and some

puzzlelike maps

Deus Ex 2: 3/04 The sequel to Deus Ex is both

Invisible War dumbed down and smarted up

Dominions II 2/04 The most gameplay of any 4X

game available anywhere

Dungeon Siege: 2/04 Good stuff for fans of the original

Legends of Aranna

Empires: Dawn of 2/04 A solid entry into the burgeoning

the Modern Age historical real-time-strategy subgenre

FIFA 2004 2/04 It might be a rough console port,

but it’s still the best soccer game

on any platform

DFar Cry 6/04 There’s a good, maybe outstanding

game lurking underneath all the

frustration. Good luck getting at it

Final Fantasy XI 2/04 A rock-solid MMORPG from one

of the most unlikely sources

FireStarter 6/04 It’s better than Deer Hunter

Gangland 6/04 A lot of possibilities and potential,

but the riot of unmanageable action

makes it hard to enjoy

Gothic II 2/04 Better than the first, but still a

little too wonky and foreign to

be a classic

Hidden & 2/04 A really good game hampered

Dangerous 2 by the same pesky bugs and

problematic A.I. as the original

DHitman: Contracts 8/04 It’s a flashback expansion pack

that could have been more

Homeworld 2 12/03 It’s no Cataclysm—it’s

not even Homeworld

Horizons: 5/04 More of the same, with dragons

Empire of Istaria

Jack the Ripper 5/04 A good Ripper story butchered

by bugs, feeble puzzles, and a

bad ending

Jetfighter V 2/04 A rare combination of frustration

and boredom

Judge Dredd: 7/04 Dredd-fully underwhelming

Dredd Versus Death

Korea: Forgotten 4/04 A nice attempt at a Commandos

Conflict clone in a fresh setting, with

horrible A.I.

Knights of the Old 2/04 A total masterpiece from BioWare.

Republic Easily the best RPG of the year

and possibly the best Star Wars

game ever made

DLineage II: The 8/04 A lovelier version of Lineage

Chaotic Chronicle

Lock-On: Modern 03/04 A tasty treat for starving jet-sim

Air Combat fans, even without the dynamic

campaign

Lords of EverQuest 03/04 A fairly decent attempt at

capitalizing on a tried-and-true

(WarCraft III) formula

Lords of the 7/04 A clumsy, series-ending combo Realm III of real-time and strategy

LOTR: The Return 2/04 Check your brain at the door for

of the King this sword-swinging, spell-slinging

good time

Magic: The Gathering 4/04 A painful fighting game in which

—Battlegrounds you don’t fight and don’t use

cards. Run away

Manhunt 7/04 Lots of gore, little innovation

Midnight Nowhere 2/04 Horrible horror with a zero for

a hero

MVP Baseball 2004 6/04 A good game that could be

destined for great things but isn’t

quite ready for The Show

Mysterious Journey II 3/04 For puzzle players who like

pretty pictures, too

NASCAR Thunder 2004 3/04 Not bad, but we expected more

NBA Live 2004 3/04 One of the best 5-on-5 games

for any platform

Need for 3/04 Racing doesn’t get much better Speed Underground —unless you’re in a real car

Nemesis of the 7/04 Possibly interesting to mule traders,

Roman Empire history buffs, and Bulgarian RTS fans

Neverwinter 3/04 A five-star expansion sadly undone

Nights: Hordes by bugs

of the Underdark

Nosferatu 2/04 Well, at least it sounds spooky

Once Upon a Knight 2/04 A decent-enough RTS bogged

down by a lame RPG and the

mistaken belief that milk is funny

One Must Fall: 4/04 If you’re into third-person fighting

Battlegrounds games with robots, knock yourself out

DPainkiller 7/04 Doom who?

Patrician III 2/04 Little more than a glorified

Patrician II patch

Pax Romana 3/04 A decent primer for Rome: Total War

PlanetSide: 2/04 A decent idea at its core, but not

Core Combat worth the price

Railroad Tycoon 3 2/04 You don’t have to love trains to

enjoy the historical and economic

challenges here—but a little train

love won’t hurt

Rainbow Six 3: 6/04 There’s no excuse for this game

Athena Sword to have the same sorry bugs and

lame A.I. that plagued the original

Rise of Nations: 7/04 Almost perfect…and then it crashes

Thrones & Patriots

DSacred 7/04 Sacred both improves upon and

diminishes the Diablo model

Secret Weapons 3/04 If the combat didn’t stink,

Over Normandy it might have been cheesy, over- the-top fun

Shadowbane: 4/04 A skimpy add-on that’s barely

Rise of Chaos enough to satisfy true

Shadowbane junkies

Silent Hill 3 3/04 In SH3, the only things that go

bump in the night are klutzy

monsters

Silent Storm 4/04 Like a gorgeous WWII mod to the

revered X-Com. Highly recommended

DSplinter Cell 6/04 A four-and-a-half-star game riddled

Pandora Tomorrow with far too many critical bugs

Squad Assault: 3/04 Better than GI Combat, like

Western Front anchovies are better than lutefisk

Star Chamber 5/04 Original, fun, competitive, and free

to try. What’re you waiting for?

Star Fury 2/04 Open-ended and flexible without

being too complex

Starsky & Hutch 1/04 The bad rep of the ’70s continues

with this crappy game from a

crappy license

Syberia II 5/04 Visually stunning, but the pedestrian

gameplay saps some of the fun

Teenage Mutant 5/04 It’s not as bad as you’d imagine—

Ninja Turtles it’s worse

Terminator 3: 4/04 Ugly and just plain terrible

War of the Machines

The Hobbit 2/04 Standard console fare, lightly

Tolkien-flavored

The Simpsons: 2/04 The best GTA3 rip-off ever, and a

Hit & Run must-have for Simpsons fans

Title Bout 5/04 The undisputed heavyweight

Championship Boxing champion of boxing sims

Two Thrones 6/04 It gets an extra half point for the

low price

Unreal 6/04 Too busy shooting…must… Tournament 2004 write…review

Uru: Ages Beyond 2/04 Some good puzzles, some bad

Myst action, no story, lots of familiar

elements—maybe the eventual

online content can make it more

compelling

Vegas Tycoon 4/04 A colorful and entertaining casino

builder that fell shy of the jackpot

Victoria 3/04 Good game, bad bugs

War of the Ring 2/04 Good use of Middle-earth

elements in a sadly mundane RTS

DWar Times 8/04 Like mayonnaise just starting to

spoil, War Times is blandly bad

Warhammer 7/04 If you don’t have the latest Unreal 40,000: Fire Warrior yet, play Half-Life…or Doom…or….

DWarlords 8/04 A whole lotta RTS goin’ on—

Battlecry III and some bugs

Wars & Warriors: 5/04 Though it has its moments, Joan of Arc Joan lacks a certain je ne sais quoi

Worms 3D 5/04 Short doses of personality don’t overcome the long bouts of frustration

X-2: The Threat 3/04 A much deeper yet less playable

version of Freelancer

XIII 2/04 This Belgian import waffles

between fun and frustration,

excitement and tedium

You Don’t Know Jack: 5/04 Some treasures are best

The Lost Gold left buried

X-Plane 7.40 4/04 Lets would-be aircraft designers

create a wild variety of flyable vehicles