Multiplayer lets the game down

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is not a subtle game. The story is silly, but takes you through lush jungles, to Sarajevo and mountains in Tibet. Some segments see you working with a Spotter, or supporting another team. In these parts you are guided through where to look and who to kill. How hard this is depends on the setting. Medium difficulty gives you a red dot that helps you allow for distance and wind when shooting, but this is removed on Hard.

The multiplayer portion is small. It sets two teams up sniping against each other. This makes game pretty quiet, as searching for other snipers is a slow, painstaking process. There really needed to be more creative game modes to make multiplayer worthwhile in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2.

Playability

The controls are well handled. You can hold your breath, which momentarily slows time, allowing you to take a more accurate shot, and in general it plays like a standard first person shooter. The night and infrared vision modes are well done, but you rarely need to use them creatively.

While it never reaches Dishonored or Hitman levels, there is a puzzle element to watching and learning soldiers' movements, and it's fun to get through a level undetected. The good looking environments don't allow for much exploration, and there isn't the same level of fascinating detail like there was in Dishonored.

Quality

Enemy AI can be a little hard to predict. When you're sniping from a great distance, and being guided by your team, this isn't a problem. When you're fighting on your own, deciding which enemies to take down first doesn't always give you predictable results. If you are detected and rushed by a few soldiers, you will find the pistol woefully underpowered to protect yourself! You can take out an enemy very close to another without problem sometimes, but if you miss, generally you'll alert everyone to your position. But not always...

Conclusion

Apart from the dodgy AI, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is an enjoyable, if short, sniping adventure. It doesn't have the gory bullet cam of Sniper Elite:V2, but it's still a solid sniper game.

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In Desura you'll find some free to play games plus some mods to popular games like Half-Life and Red Alert. Unfortunately however, you won't find many major titles on there - it's very limited when compared to Steam.

Desura does however also provide tools and hosting for game developers, as well as a useful forum for the gaming community to exchange opinions and tips. Desura is free to register for and within a few clicks you will be able to play and download games with the rest of the Desura community.

Desura is an interesting alternative to Steam although it lacks many really big games.

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Garena currently supports quite a limited number of games but does include some major titles such as Age of Empires I and II, Battlefield 2, Bordelands, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2, Call Of Duty: World At War, Counter Strike: Source, Call Of Duty 2, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, Red Alert 3, Starcraft, Team Fortress 2 and Warcraft 3.

When you download and install Garena, you have to create and account to log into the Garena network. You will be assigned an avatar that will identify you within the Garena community. You can instantly see who is online and which players are at a similar ability to you. Garena seems somewhat more focused on some games more than others though e.g. World of Warcraft 3, for which there is even an online video channel and high-level championship mode.

To communicate with other gamers, Garena has its own Instant Messaging and internal mail system and forums to discuss gaming issues. There's also a points system for those users with more experience and forum activity.

Garena isn't compatible with enough major titles but for those it does work with, it's a simple way of finding like-minded gamers.

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You have free hand at every mission. Coordinate your men, call the right carunits and apply the proper equipment. Yourknowledge and your strategic skills decidethe success of your mission.

FEATURES. Thrilling missions like plane crash, tornado or earthquake. Lots of different units like ladder truck, fire brigade crane, fire truck.

Realistic equipment for all units. For casual and core gamers. Enthralling sound and extensive voice response. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. Minimal:Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.

Pentium 3 800 Mhz or higher. RAM 128 MB. DirectX9 compatible 32 MB RAM graphic card. free disc space 1 GB. DirectX9 compatible sound card. Recommended:Windows 2000/XP.

DirectX9 compatible sound card.

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Hunting Unlimited is the perfect solution for those who want a taste of hunting in the jungle or the African savannah, but without leaving home. The animals don't suffer and you don't run the risks, but even still you get the chance to go after some of the most impressive beasts on the planet, right on your computer screen.

Animals & Locations

Lions, elephants and majestic European red deer are just some of the many beasts you'll find in Hunting Unlimited. Depending on where in the world you choose to hunt, species change and adapt to each area. Hunting Unlimited's locations include places like North America's Rocky Mountains and the African plains.

Weapons

To make the experience as real as possible, the Hunting Unlimited brings dozens of weapons and accessories that facilitate hunting. Jeeps, maps, special food for animals, lookout towers... Stay alert and practice sport hunting without falling into the clutches of the beasts. When you do come face to face with one of the giants, Hunting Unlimited provides you with over 42 weapons to take them on, from shotguns and rifles to crossbows and more.

Hunting Unlimited is an interesting game with a unique theme that surprised us with its wealth of options, although the graphics were a little lacking.

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There are four mini campaigns in Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising. Each of the main factions has a campaign - the Soviets, Allies and Empire of the Rising Sun. The other campaign follows the story of the Yuriko, the telekinetic, psychic schoolgirl weapon.

There are also Commander's Challenges, great for Command & Conquer experts, as they offer greater difficulty. The campaigns too get harder, faster than in the original game, making Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising very much geared towards fans who want more!

If you're new to the series, it's an over-the-top real time strategy game set in a world where Einstein was assassinated, which created a completely different reality. Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising is full of the cheesy live action cut scenes that add to the ridiculous story lines!

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3: Uprising offers a lot for fans, with more story and more challenges. Its only weak point is mutiplayer.

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Codename: Panzers Cold War is a real-time strategy war game set in the cold war.

Unlike Red Alert, this fictional version of the cold war is pretty realistic. If you loved the over the top cartoon action of Red Alert, Codename: Panzers Cold War will seem pretty dry.

Control is via keyboard and mouse, and while there are of course plenty of controls, picking units and giving the orders is pretty simple. When taking on small groups of the Russian enemy, you feel a little removed from the action, as your troops can take care of themselves! With more challenging numbers of enemies, there's a bit more strategy involved in taking out the bad guys.

Graphically, there's a good amount of detail in both the environment and the units themselves. The sound effects are pretty good, especially with the tanks. Much of the environment is destructible, and the sound of a tank crunching over trees is great.

For real-time strategy, Codename: Panzers Cold War, takes the middle road. It's neither complex enough for hardcore strategists, nor as easy to use as something like Nintendo's Pikmin games. Unlike some of its peers, there's no instruction here (at least in the demo), so you're left to guess the controls and basic strategies. However, it's a solidly built game, and if you like the scenario, there's a lot to enjoy here.

Although it lacks a training mission, Codename: Panzers Cold War is an enjoyable real-time strategy game.

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One of the great franchises of PC gaming, Command & Conquer: Red Alert has been a firm favorite since the mid-Nineties thanks to its unique combination of real-time strategy, Cold War aesthetics and camp humor. The latest edition, Red Alert 3, continues this fine tradition with major improvements to the game's graphics and sound.

The Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 demo consists of three tutorial missions and a couple of playable campaign missions, one each for the Soviets and NATO, making for a decent-sized demo which will give you a good idea of whether or not you'll like the full game

As in previous editions of Red Alert, this latest version pits the Soviet Union against the Allies and manages to pack time travel, nuclear weapons and a hilariously high-camp series of performances into its 7-minute introductory movie. The movie also introduces Red Alert 3's main addition: the Empire of the Rising Sun, a new playable power bent on world domination.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 makes use of the new graphics and 3D effects that were unveiled in last year's Tiberium Wars title, meaning that C&C fans will already be completely familiar with the game's controls and appearance. We thought we detected slightly higher CPU and GPU load in this title over Command & Conquer 3 but this caused nothing more than minor glitching with the maximum settings applied. The sound, video and acting are all of superior quality, making the game feel like a really well-rounded product.

At the end of the day, though. what Red Alert 3 is really missing is something new. Sure, the vehicles and units have been shaken up a bit (including the bizarre War Bear addition for the Soviets), and Japan has been added to the roster of competitive powers. But Red Alert 3 really isn't that different from Command & Conquer 3, or Red Alert 2 for that matter. The graphics and sound are much improved but the gameplay is pretty much exactly the same.

Fans of the series will enjoy Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3's graphical improvements and comedic moments. But anyone expecting new gameplay features will be disappointed.

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