By Relly Carpio, hackenslash Contributor
INQUIRER.net

“I will not be dictated to, I will not be threatened. I am the morning and evening star, I am Pharaoh!” — “Prince of Egypt”

IT is by your will and decision where the city shall lie along the great banks of the Nile. It is by your wisdom what crops shall be sown after the inundation. It is by your leave when the priests will have their joyous celebrations, exulting the gods. It is by your command how those who dare challenge your rule will fall.

Pharaoh may not be a game for everyone, especially now that the fad for “gamers” is first-person shooter Half-Life clones (which any real gamer will instantly recognize as Quake 2 progeny, but that’s another review). Riding on the fame of the SimCity game fad which took the world by storm then, Pharaoh and its predecessors, the Caesar series were a historical alternative to the present-day sprawls of Will Wright and the boys and girls at Maxis Software. It was a fair alternative to SimAnt and SimFarm.

This game is part of the City Building Series that was published by Sierra Entertainment and Myelin Media. This particular game was developed by Impressions Games and those familiar with it will instantly see that it uses the Caesar III engine. Pharaoh was released in October 1999, and has an expansion, Queen of the Nile: Cleopatra. The game received fair acclaim when it was launched. Surprised? One should consider that the game was released after the movie “The Mummy” was shown in the summer of 1999. And the year before that, Disney’s “Prince of Egypt” came out.

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By Michael Martin Leaño,‭ ‬hackenslash Contributor
INQUIRER.net

Editor’s note: The Xbox 360 and PC game Bioshock is the spiritual successor to System Shock 2. Let’s wax nostalgic and take a look at this classic.

A LOT has happened to video games since‭ ‬the new millennium:‭ ‬photorealistic‭ ‬visuals,‭ ‬emergent gameplay,‭ ‬and more complex game worlds,‭ ‬among other things.‭ ‬But even before all these changes to‭ ‬the medium‭ ‬came to the fore,‭ ‬there was System Shock‭ ‬2.

SS2‭ ‬is a strange mix of first-person shooting,‭ ‬role-playing,‭ ‬and sci-fi horror.‭ ‬Think of it as‭ ‬”Event Horizon”‭ ‬meets‭ ‬Doom.‭ ‬The game‭ ‬was developed by the now-defunct Looking Glass Studios,‭ ‬and Irrational Games,‭ ‬the creators of Freedom Force.‭ ‬SS2‭ ‬is the sequel to System Shock,‭ ‬another hybrid that came out in‭ ‬1994.

This‭ ‬follow-up‭ ‬takes place‭ ‬42‭ ‬years after the events of System Shock.‭ ‬The‭ ‬Von Braun,‭ ‬a spaceship owned by Trioptimum Corp.,‭ ‬is SS2′‬s‭ ‬main setting.‭ ‬Like the ship in ‬”Event Horizon,”‭ ‬the‭ ‬Von Braun is‭ ‬using‭ ‬a‭ ‬new‭ ‬kind of‭ ‬travel technology‭ ‬that lets it travel faster than light.‭ ‬The‭ ‬Von Braun’s‭ ‬mission is‭ ‬to‭ ‬journey‭ ‬into‭ ‬the‭ ‬unexplored areas of space,‭ ‬and it’s being escorted by the‭ ‬Rickenbacker,‭ ‬a military‭ ‬craft.

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NOW on its third go-round, everybody’s talking about how EA’s Fight Night franchise has indeed redefined the boxing game genre. But because it’s a boxing simulation and tries to approximate the real thing as much as possible, it’s not something that everyone can enjoy right away. It does have a Total Punch Control gameplay system that you need to learn first.

Videogame boxing wasn’t always like this, though. Early boxing games were simply more of the pick-up-and-play, button-mashing arcade types, especially back in the day when Atari consoles ruled our homes. But it wasn’t until Nintendo came out with its Punch-Out!! franchise when the boxing games started to come into their own. With the exception of Mike Tyson who appeared on one Punch-Out!! game for the NES in all his jagged glory, the series featured fictional sluggers with colorful personalities complete with matching swagger and signature moves worthy of the World Wresting Entertainment. Needless to say, Mike Tyson felt very much at home with the likes of Soda Popinski, Bald Bull and Mr. Sandman.

It was a lot of fun while it lasted. Sadly, we haven’t heard from the franchise after the release of Super Punch-Out!! for the Super NES. So when EA Sports failed to score a knockout with its more realistic but less than stellar Knockout Kings and its sequels for both the original PlayStation and the Nintendo 64, Midway answered the bell with their own version of Punch-Out!!, only this time in 3D. In this corner, enter Ready 2 Rumble Boxing.

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