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Now that they are offering the ability to pay for free, I’ve finally downloaded, installed and started playing a game I’ve long been interested in: Dungeons and Dragons Online.

How does the game make money if the download is free and so is the ability to play? Well, you can buy some expansions and special in-game items at the DDO Store; it’s a business model used in strategy games like Evony, but a bit more ambitious than anything tried by an MMO prior to this.

After all, even one of the most notable pioneers of free monthly play MMOs, Guild Wars, charged for the software, at least; DDO isn’t even doing that – at least not for the main game.

Here’s the down-low: While I haven’t yet played deeply into the game, I will say it sizzles smoothly along on my nVidia 1GB 9800GT-powered system, and looks great doing so. And with a nice enough opening movie, character creation system and an opening sequence that matches up well with Dragon Age: Origins, Dungeons and Dragons Online is worth far more than its price of, well… free. It might even feature free directory submissions for all I know!

I’ll get more specific as I play more deeply into the game, but for now, it’s all positive.

After spending a decent amount of time running Out of the Park Baseball 10 through its paces, I must say that I’ve come away from the experience impressed. Although the game’s interface has not undergone any dramatic changes, that’s probably for the better since version 9, finally fixed that issue up. While there are mild refinements to the graphical presentation of the game, no overhaul was needed and so refinements of that previous makeover was the goal of the day.

For those not in the know, Out of the Park Baseball 10 is the latest entry in the well-tenured Out of the Park Baseball franchise, one of the longest-running PC text-based sports management sims on the market that – surprise – is still around. Once you reach ten editions, you’re no longer a game so much as a tradition.

Fortunately, OOTP Baseball 10 is an addictive tradition, though one that might require a steep learning curve for the newbie. Of course, that steep learning curve is there for a reason: Out of the Park Baseball 10 is awash in deep, deep stats screens and tracking, and any possible way you can track players and their performances in real life, anywhere, ever, you will find in OOTP Baseball 10. And the nice thing is that the game is not a resource hog, requiring little in the way of graphical firepower, RAM or hard disc space; in fact, the game could fit on most SD cards quite easily and with room to spare.

With the new game, OOTP Baseball offers a variety of play modes and starting points. The easiest, of course, is to start with the current 2009 baseball season, which they got just right; I appreciate as a Twins fan that they had Mauer on the DL to start the season, rather than forgetting he existed, for example, as some sports games might. And I appreciate that Lirano is rated on recent post-injury performance and not his phenomenal rookie year of three seasons past. I often measure baseball games by their Twins accuracy for two reasons: one, the Twins are my local team and I know them better than any other team; and, two, the Twins are a smaller-market team, so if a developer gets the Twins right, the rest of the league’s probably just as well-looked-after.

Even so, it’s good to see that OOTP Baseball 10 has everything happen when it’s supposed to, rather than compacting it into a “post-season mode” as many console baseball games do. The rookie draft, for example, happens in June rather than after the season. That is as it’s supposed to be. I also appreciate the franchise for being so accurate on such things as each team’s minor-league system.

And roster management can be as controlled as you wish by the gamer, or can be simplified with a couple clicks to a menu that offers an “Ask manager for full rosters and depth charts” option to make things easier.

The game also is the basis of many online and email leagues, and this year’s edition certainly offers as many tools as ever to enable commissioners to do their tasks with relative ease. In fact, about the only complaint I had in the main part of the game, when I played the current season, is that the game seems to allow too many injuries too often, far beyond the rate at which teams get battered and bruised over the course of a real season. In fact, I had one stretch during a Twins season I ran when three of my starting five pitchers, as well as my top three batters, were all out for at least 15-day absences, with one out for the season. While this can happen, the injury rate seemed to remain unusually high throughout successive seasons, and it also seemed to target the biggest stars on each team to a fictional degree of frequency.

I mean, if that many big-name people were injured that often in real life, we’d have Nick Punto and Michael Cuddyer making the All-Star appearance instead of Mauer and Morneau for the Twins, simply because they’d be the only half-decent Twins not injured more than they are playing. Now, I’m sure the Out of the Park folks are already hearing this complaint and massaging the code for a maintenance patch even as I write this, so it’s a minor note in the end, but certainly notable during my time playing the final-release version of the game.

Like most developers of small sports management titles like this, Out of the Park Baseball developers have a fantastic bond with their consumers and respond to feedback on problems that arise with the code, as it arises. So I don’t expect this “all good players get injured half the time” bug to be around much longer; but it was there while I was working on my review, so, there you go.

So far, I haven’t run into any of the more serious bugs that can sometimes pop up in a game like this; however, I have not had a chance to play more than 2-3 seasons, and as we all know, sometimes the code doesn’t break until you get beyond 10 seasons or more. At times like that, sometimes the NPC GMs can get a little wonky in some games, failing to fill out their teams properly. No sign of that here yet, but again, I’m not far enough in to really know.

In the end, Out of the Park Baseball 10 feels more like a refinement than an overhaul; the game is full of information and stats. So full, in fact, that you can tell the game was designed by a group of real baseball geeks – and anyone who knows anything about baseball will recognize that as a compliment, not a slam. This is a game that is definitely a labor of love by folks who deeply appreciate the sport they are honoring.

Now that I’m an independent reviewer, I won’t use any artificial rating system, like stars or a 10-point scale, to weigh the buy-ability of this game. Instead, I’ll let my whole review stand on its own, demonstrating the things I liked and didn’t care for, and allow the reader to decide if it’s worth it to them.

I know that when it comes to baseball, there’s not another sports management PC game out there that I like as much. After all, Baseball Mogul is a much simpler game, shooting for a younger audience; and Shaun Sullivan’s PureSim Baseball is old, out-of-date and has not yet re-emerged from the ashes to be reborn as Draft Day Sports: Baseball, over at Wolverine Studios.

Does that make Out of the Park Baseball 10 the champ by default? Certainly not. The game has been a standard-setter for quite a while, so even of Shaun’s new game were out, OOTP Baseball 10 would be giving it a run for its money.

There was a time when the next installment of the Star Ocean series would have been a no-brainer for release on the PS3. After all, Sony published the second Star Ocean title, SO: Second Story, the first in the series to even appear in the US, and Sony platforms have been host to every title in the series, be it on PSone (Star Ocean: Second Story), PS2 (Star Ocean: Til the End of Time) or PSP (remakes Star Ocean: First Departure and Star Ocean: Second Evolution).

So it is truly a sign of the state of this generation of consoles that the fourth title in the Star Ocean series, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, not only appears on the Xbox 360, but is currently a 360 exclusive. That’s a treat for 360-owning RPG fans, of course, since the newest entry in the series is its most mature and impressive installment to date, though not quite as mature as a series of Liporexall reviews.

Like most SquareEnix RPGs these days, the early emphasis is on storytelling and immersive a gamer into the game world. To that end, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is almost completely lacking interaction with the game world in the first half-hour, and the series clocks in close to an hour before you encounter your first battle (aside from a lame battle simulator which is just a disguised tutorial for the game).

This time out, the game is set in a near-future version of our own world – Earth about 100 years hence. There’s a big nuclear exchange between the US and a foreign leader who looks, for all the world, like a resurrected Saddam Hussein. They make post-war peace and unite the world to explore and colonize space, apparently; somehow, it works.

OK, so maybe the set-up’s a bit lame in concept if impressive in eye-candy. Right. Whatever. Point is, this is quite unfamiliar territory for the Star Ocean series, which has always been set on highly fictionalized worlds.

The first installment was nearly a Star Trek ripoff; the second installment owed less to pre-existing SF worlds; the third revolved around a kid who was a videogame addict until circumstances destroy his home world and toss him into space where he must find a way to survive. And now, we’re getting a lukewarm version of the war with Iraq as a setup to, well … the same sort of science fiction setting, ultimately, only a lot more impressive-looking on this generation of consoles.

In fact, developer tri-Ace uses SO:TLH to show off their mastery of the current generation of hardware. While the game might not feature bleeding-edge graphics necessarily, there’s plenty of HD detail to be found as a 360 game that’s compatible all the way up to 1080p (so long as you have the proper HDMI cable and a 1080p HDTV, that is). But bleeding-edge or otherwise, the game is so stunning, such pure visual eye candy, it’ll make your eyes gain weight.

Still, it’s a bit bothersome that there’s so little connective tissue between this Star Ocean and previous installments; although, in fairness, there is an early cameo appearance by a grizzled military commander named Stephen Kenny. This is an allusion to Claude Kenny, the male hero of the second Star Ocean title, as well as Ronyx Kenny, Claude’s father, who was featured in the first Star Ocean. Other characters with connections to prior installments include Elayna Farrence and Lias Warren.

Still, that’s about where the similarities end and while for some that may be a good thing, it really makes this installment feel disconnected to the others in the series. The style of play is markedly different, as is the sort of story that is being told. The setting, as I mentioned earlier, is quite unique. And about the only thing that’s familiar is the survival of non-weapon skills in the mix that is the new game.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope features a nicely complex battle system, once you get past all that prologue and can start fighting, and nicely enough the worlds you visit are all visually unique, which could not often be said of the first two installments in the series, though that saw improvement in Star Ocean: Till The End of Time.

The main protagonist in all this, though, is Edge Maverick, a prototypical idealist with a quick and impulsive nature. At least he doesn’t have amnesia, though, which helps him stand out from too many SquareEnix heroes. The character design, though, is all too reminiscent of Tidus of Final Fantasy X fame, and oddly enough, his childhood friend Reimi is not that different in how she looks from Yuna, of FFX fame as well.

There’s plenty of planet-exploring and fun to be had in the three-disc game found in this package. About the only deep complaint is the awkward movement/camera system. Basically, you move with your left analog stick and move the camera with your right stick. That means it’s hard to gain and maintain a sturdy angle on things as you explore, though battles are not affected by this flaw. The best solution is to turn on the optional fixed camera in the Options screen and turn it off only as needed.

In the end, though, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is an impressive title; while it does feel only loosely a part of the series, features an over-long introduction, and has some movement and camera issues, the strength of the story, the visual appeal of the game design and the fun depth of the action battle system make The Last Hope also among our best.

Labeling a game as an RPG and actually producing a good, solid, playable and enjoyable RPG experience are two entirely different things, as EA Games keeps proving whenever if releases a new title based on the Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings Conquest promises gamers they’ll be able to fight in and relive every major battle from the movie and more; that’s all well and good if the battles are, you know, actually fun.

Lord of the Rings Conquest is loosely categorized as a tactical action RPG, but what it really is is a mess. In the game, they toss a seemingly never-ending stream of enemies your way; the trouble is the stream of enemies is so uninterrupted that it makes progress through a map, area or even a single battle quite difficult and tedious. In fact, I’d be more entertained by Pia Zadora reciting term life insurance quotes.

Sure, the first-person action is well rendered and fully detailed. The graphics may not be up to SquareEnix or Konami standards, but they serve the purpose. Unfortunately, they do little more than that, and many of the character models seem overly recycled from other, earlier Lord of the Rings titles.

You are allowed at least three modes of attack, initially; sword, bow and magic. All three work well and look good enough on screen, but the switching and combination of attack styles some battles seem to require for completion seems arbitrary.

The real downfall of Lord of the Rings Conquest seems to be the assembly-line feel that permeates the game; any real passion for the Lord of the Rings universe seems to have been lost in recent titles and instead, there’s a sense that development was rushed through and deadlines compressed for all the wrong reasons. Not an enjoyable game, even and perhaps especially for Lord of the Rings fans.

Ever since the launch title Resistance: Fall of Man appeared on PS3 systems, there has been a lot of speculation on what its inevitable sequel would be like, and it’s been as loud as a fire alarm. Well, Resistance 2 is finally here and every expectation was at least been met, if not surpassed. Playing off the idea that the first Resistance title’s story did not go well for those of us who are Earth natives, Resistance 2 builds for us a world even more oppressive and apocalyptic than the previous title.

The title is definitely a showcase for the PS3’s HD skills; the game is sharply detailed and rendered, and the boss characters you face off with fill the screen not only with mass, but lovely details that make PS2’s Shadow of the Colossus seem like a children’s coloring book (even though that was a great title).

The level design is impressive in its size and scale, with plenty of room to explore without running into frequent loading delays. The visual effects on display are spectacular and the best aspect of the game is that the action is quick and fluid; especially on HD displays.

In fact, a game like this is certainly a motivator to finally pop for at least a 720p set to play it on, if not a True 1080p HD system, simply because standard definition displays just don’t have nearly as much room to contain all the eye-candy on display in this title.

One thing I enjoyed as a gamer who is not typically a fan of shooters is how intuitive the game system is; there’s never a feeling that one is lacking the depth of a more involved RPG, yet the system for changing weapons, reloading and such never bogs down the action.

Another element I appreciated is that the title has some odd things happen – such as creatures that appear and attack, but don’t stick around to finish you off, necessarily, but who pop back up later to offer a more critical challenge. While it might be overstating things a bit to compare Resistance 2 to the really fun movie Cloverfield, it would seem that the developers were singing from the same hymnal, at least, as the makers of that movie.

If all-out action with a solid story and solid shooter action are what you’re itching for, Resistance 2 delivers it in spades, and ought to be sufficient to keep PS3 fans from feeling like they are missing out on games like Halo 3 or Halo Wars, if they don’t own a 360. Resistance 2 is an instant classic on its own merits.

I got my first taste of the Legends of WrestleMania videogame tonight and while it’s full of nostalgia, it’s not a terrific videogame so far. Sure, there’s footage of a young Vinnie Mac in a tuxedo and that’s pretty funny in and of itself, but essentially the game is a nostalgia trip first, and a game second.

While the graphics are nice, the wrestling interface is shallow compared to the average Smackdown vs. Raw title, and the game spends almost as much time showing clips from old WrestleManias that you can play out, as it does actually letting you play the game.

And the modes are few and shallow. Of course, last November’s Smackdown vs. Raw wasn’t worlds deep, either, come to think of it. THQ seems a bit aimless, lately, to be honest. Maybe I’ll like the game better after playing it a bit more.

Any time a game is released on one platform, and then ported to another a year later, the game often ends up seeming a bit dated and behind the curve. Unless, of course, that game is markedly ahead of the curve to begin with; such is the case with Bioshock.

A year ago, Bioshock was an action-thriller game that took the Xbox 360 by storm and wowed even us jaded DigNews.com folks enough that we named it a game of the year. Now, 2K Games has released its groundbreaking game to the PS3 and the result is, well… it’s still a stunning game that measures up well next to anything else currently on the market.

2K Games took a risk introducing a new IP like Bioshock and in this case, it paid off big time. Stuffed full of atmosphere, a creepy mix of nostalgia from the art deco 1920s and thereabouts, alongside Jules Verne-esque underwater cities and such, Bioshock delivers a specific feel and tone that stick with you long after you turn the console off following a gaming session.

The graphics, which already wowed folks on the 360, fare equally well on the PS3, with plenty of sharp, high-def textures and a great overall look and feel. The control scheme feels natural and is easy to pick up and play. And the storyline?

Well, that’s where Bioshock excels. While many games put together storylines that range from passable to decent, few at this point would be considered to be inspired by great works of fiction, let alone be such themselves. Bioshock, however, at least opens the topic up for debate.

Drawing a strong influence from the work of Ayn Rand, especially Atlas Shrugged, Bioshock is a game that has not only strong, but impressive literary influences, and the world in which it creates actually challenges the mind as much as one’s twitch-reflex and hand-eye coordination. While part action-shooter and part survival horror, and a game that drew early interest largely on the appeal of a trailer that had its protagonist wielding a chainsaw, the real appeal here is toward those who want a bit more out of their gaming session than pure visceral thrills, but perhaps a bit of an intellectual challenge as well.

Of course, don’t be intimidated; Bioshock still offers plenty of action, thrills, luggage deals, gore and excitement; it’s just a game that will give you reason to think about it afterward. Still impressive on a technical level one year after its initial release, PS3 fans should be overjoyed to have a chance to play Bioshock on their system of choice, no matter when it arrived.

Call it a Karaoke Revolution ripoff, a crass money-machine or a very expensive karaoke machine, but Sony’s SingStar karaoke game series is nothing if not persistent. Made available for both the PS2 and PS3, SingStar takes music videos, pops the words on the screen and encourages gamers to sing along. There are both strengths and weaknesses to the series, and since they are as few in number as the number of diet pills in Oprah’s dressing room, let us concentrate on the strengths of SingStar Abba first.

First, a word about the microphones; they are hefty, sturdy and substantial. Considering my wife has pursued musical aspirations most of her life, I’m a karaoke junkie, and we’ve both sang in churches over the years as well, I’ve had ample opportunities to be around audio equipment and distinguish junk from items.

While I don’t know ultimately who made the SingStar microphones – perhaps Sony themselves – I can say they have a very similar weight, feel and sensitivity to a high-quality Shure mic. Considering the cost is lower than most Shure mics, that’s a complimentary comparison.

Yet there is a downside to the SingStar microphones: they are only compatible with SingStar games, and no other audio input devices work with SingStar. That means even if you laid out a cool $50 for a Sony Bluetooth headset, it’s useless when it comes to SingStar; if you already have mics from Karaoke Revolution, they will have new storage space buddies because KR mics don’t work with SingStar, and vice-versa. Oh well.

Mics aside, I also have to say that I was impressed with the vocal performance analysis technology underlying the SingStar system. Whenever I would sing intentionally tone-deaf to test the system, my score in the game suffered; the higher the skill level I played at, the worse my score became. So, good news: you can’t sing like a tone-deaf Black Angus steer and do well in SingStar. Unless you’re a tone-deaf Black Angus steer who was hoping to do well in the game, that is; then it’s probably not-so-great that you have to know how to sing to do well in the game.

Still, the system isn’t perfect. While you must stay in-tune to do well in the game, it doesn’t necessarily measure the quality of the in-tune note you’re holding. So, your voice could be ragged and breathy and you could still score decently in the game, as long as you hold the note in tune. Still some room to grow here.

Now let’s consider song variety; while all other SingStar releases thus far have included a mix of artists, SingStar Abba is one of the first releases to feature a library of work by the same artist. Abba was selected, quite likely, due to the well-timed Blu-Ray release of the cinematic adaptation of Mamma Mia!, the musical based on the song catalog of Abba. For a 1970s band best known for the hit Dancing Queen, Abba’s done pretty well of late garnering post-career attention.
I never knew before exploring SingStar Abba that the Swedish supergroup had even made 30 music videos for their songs, considering they were largely out of the spotlight by the advent of MTV and music videos. Yet this game includes 30 of Abba’s biggest hits and I’d be hard-pressed to even remember a single the group ever released that’s not included in this collection. It really is an ideal companion to the Mamma Mia! Blu-Ray.

That said, there are several drawbacks to SingStar Abba, and most of them have to do with the general SingStar system, rather than being peculiar to SingStar Abba, and the biggest drawback is the karaoke system itself. In most karaoke systems, the real artists’ vocals are removed to make way for the karaoke performer; at worst, one is offered a learning track where they can sing along with the real vocals, as well as a performance track with the lead vocals removed.

Not in the SingStar system; instead, the original artists vocals remain in the song and at full volume at all times. The problem with this should be obvious; even an accomplished vocalist can come off sounding second-rate next to the original artist, especially if one needs to sing an octave lower or higher than the original artist. At best, the player’s overlaid vocals sound like a poor attempt and a duet; at worst, well, it’s best not to listen at all.

Another black mark against the series so far is that the SingStar series, including SingStar Abba, does not possess a real online play element. Sure, each player can create an online profile, have their best scores posted competitively against players worldwide and even upload their favorite performances for the world to listen to; but that’s as far as it goes.

What the series truly needs is an online competition mode, as well as an online duet mode. While such things can be done in your living room, the inability to do the same thing with other players online really cripples the game from reaching its full potential and appeal. If there were a genuine competitive aspect to such on online mode, in the vein of Karaoke Revolution’s recent American Idol license, would help tremendously. Instead, SingStar feels like a PS3 title stuck in a PS2 era of limited online features.

The pricing structure for adding new songs to one’s holster is also problematic; SingStar games always carry only 30 songs per title. While that size is perfect to encapsulate the greatest hits of a band like Abba, it’s actually quite limited when you calculate in the fact that in most SingStar collections, there is likely to be only 2-5 “favorites” that appeal to any one player, and it’s not like one can select a custom play-list at the time of purchase.

That’s where the Sony Store comes in, of course; right within the SingStar game, you can access a library of songs that you can purchase, download and play within any SingStar game, via the Sony Store. The problem here is the pricing model Sony is following; each song is $1.49, and while that may seem low and Sony apologists will protest that SingStar tracks have a video and game programming included in that download, the fact of the matter is that SingStar is in competition with general MP3 music services like iTunes, which charges fifty percent less at 99 cents per tune.

Also, the pricing structure has to be compared to other music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Back, which often include far deeper libraries in each game, and make expansion music packs available at a far lower cost-per-track when bought in packages. To compete over the long haul, SingStar will need to price itself more competitively. Song some individual songs on Guitar Hero and Rock Band exceed $1.49 per track, the average cost is usually lower.

Cost aside, the additional tracks available in the Sony Store are not very deep at this point; a mere 500-plus tracks in all, with the bulk of the catalog coming from the 1980s. While a gamer like myself may find 1980s music appealing, it’s a bit limiting when it comes to younger gamers and music fans.

For example, it is possible to find plenty six tracks of Billy Joel songs, four or so tracks of David Bowie, and even some Blondie; however, there is no Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, only two Britney Spears tracks, no Kelly Clarkson and very little rap/hip-hop. The most accessible pop tracks I could find post 1990s were a handful of Avril LaVigne and one or two tracks by Pink, yet no Evenescence, no Gwen Stefani, no… well, you get the idea.

Another disappointment is the severe lack of musical variety at this point; there is virtually no country music selection, no Elvis, no Beatles, no R&B, and very little in the way of metal. Most of the selections are highly commercial pop artists or little-known underground bands willing to license their music inexpensively for exposure through the game.

Compare that to iTunes, which boasts a library of nearly every kind of music consisting over millions of singles, and one can begin to see the deficit at which the 80s-pop-music-dominated SingStar is operating.

On the whole, SingStar Abba is decent for what it is: a narrowly focused release specializing in one band, with only 30 songs included, whose appeal will ride on whether the songs of Abba are of interest or not. The lack of online duets or online competitive play is severely disappointing, and the relatively narrow, expensive library of additional songs available is also a barrier. While Sony seems committed to making SingStar work, there is a long journey between SingStar Abba and anything approaching an intriguing and viable karaoke franchise.

The latest offering from Wolverine Studios is not a sports game.

OK, now after you’ve allowed that stunner to settle on you for a while, consider what their latest offering actually is, rather than what it is not: Music Wars: Rebirth is a music industry sim that allows the gamer to take on the role of heading up a major music label, managing the careers of established stars, signing acts away from rival labels, and seeking out new, undiscovered talent. It’s a deceptively deep game that seems simple on the surface, but possesses a great deal of hidden depth – even if it is a downloadable title and not some hidden classic that can still only be played on tape drives.

Now, this particular type of simulation game is not without its predecessors. Rob Cooper has, for a long time, offered up a similar game experience with his independent series, Chart Wars. Though built from a decidedly UK perspective, the Chart Wars series saw three main versions released on the freeware marketplace, as well as a final version that never went the full step to a version four.

Also, Music Wars: Rebirth developer Antuan Johnson released three versions of Music Wars to the freeware market before deciding to take the franchise commercial. Do to the game’s freeware background, the most natural question is this: What in Music Wars: Rebirth makes it different enough from Johnson’s previous freeware iterations, to merit a purchase price?

As it turns out, quite a bit. First of all, all three freeware versions of Music Wars were far more limited in scope; at the start of the game, you could choose which artist or band you wanted to control, and then one would play through the game as that band. By contrast, Music Wars: Rebirth shifts the focus of the game from being a recording artist sim to being a record label sim.

This is no small shift; it opens the game up in significant ways, adding an entirely new challenge to succeed in the game. Whereas before you only had to worry about and manage one career, now one is managing the careers of many artists and acts, and miscalculations can be costly.

As the game opens, you can choose either to take over an established label, or start one of your own; the challenge of taking over established labels is that many of them are mismanaged and your task is to bring order to the chaos and turn the companies around. This could mean cutting acts with fat contracts who aren’t performing well, signing the right new acts to small deals so that you can create some cost-effectiveness while hopefully uncovering the next big multinational superstars, or even scaling back some of the extravagant show tours that are flushing money down the toilet at venues that don’t sell out.

Alternatively, at a new label, the challenge is to scout out the cream of the unsigned artists crop – some of whom may not want to sign with you because you’re too small a label – and stay in budget until you can get some singles and albums released and get some money coming in, as well as floating out. Investing heavily in a well-established artist isn’t always the best path for a small label, even if they are willing to sign with you, because they can eat up your limited starting resources quickly before they begin to turn a profit for you.

Either method provides some deep strategic and thrilling game play, and while it may not be quite as interactive as, say, Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero: World Tour, it is nevertheless a fun simulation game for music fans. And the game gets many aspects to the music business just right.

For example, through subtle code-work (rather than over-the-top extremism), Music Wars: Rebirth accurately portrays aspects of the business such as the effects of age on artists. (Hint: after the age of 25 or so, female acts begin to decline in sales, while the career Bell Curve for male artists is less youth-obsessed.)

The game also portrays well the dynamics of how singles sell, versus how albums sell. Other innovations in Music Wars: Rebirth include complete control over your artists’ recording, writing, practicing, and releasing schedule, a detailed economic model, and an evolving industry, meaning the popularity of styles changes as time goes by. All of these are features no previous version of Music Wars offered, and which Chart Wars didn’t even do well at.

Music Wars: Rebirth also features a universe of specific fictional personalities; this is a feature that may remind some PC simulation fans of Total Extreme Wrestling’s “Cornell-verse,” at least in its infancy. While Music Wars: Rebirth lacks the extended backstories for each artist that TEW has developed over the years, it is still a strong core to build upon.

Already, I have developed personal favorites among some of the acts in the game; for me, it wouldn’t be a fun session of Music Wars: Rebirth if there were no Britney Mathis to sign; and growing one’s label large enough to sign a higher-prestige act like Ego Riot makes the achievement of reaching that level of success in the game more memorable.

The game also features an editor mode that is mighty powerful, allowing those interested in futzing with the game before playing it plenty of power to customize the game; these tools ought to make the work of Wolverine’s loyal mod community that much more effective. Already, many from the mod community have rallied around this game to contribute artist portraits as well as work on real-world mod packs and other major undertakings.

Heck, one industrious modder has even rejiggered the game’s purple-themed graphics to a blander silver-gray look that may not be quite as eye-catching, but is certainly highly functional and will be more friendly to users of Microsoft Office, or at least versions of office prior to Office 2007, which introduces a default blue theme, tossing aside its old gunmetal gray design.

Finally, compared to the freeware version of the game, the whole user interface is much more solid and well-designed. Wolverine Studios graphics designer Ivan Carrillo helped Johnson out with this aspect of the game, and the game is the better for it. Certainly MW:R is more pleasant to look at than the splashy, hard-to-read-text-against-it Britney Spears concert photo that served as the backdrop of one of Johnson’s freeware version releases of Music Wars.

All of these aspects are strengths of Music Wars: Rebirth and provide a solid core game experience for fans of the series. However, that is not the whole picture. Like any game, Music Wars: Rebirth has weaknesses and areas where improvement is needed. The drawbacks are these:

One of the first things gamers will notice is that only a handful of the game’s acts have proper portrait art in place. This is due, in part, to the limited team working on the game, since much of Music Wars: Rebirth was completed by Johnson himself, with little outside help. Though the game has been officially released, only about 20 percent of the artists and acts in the game have portraits included in the initial install.

Johnson’s plan is to add more artwork to the game as he releases updates, but in the initial install, don’t expect more than about 20 percent of the acts to have portraits. This will improve, of course, as time goes on, and the portraits included in the game so far are fine, high-quality, high-detail works of art that are certainly worth the wait.

Another drawback to the game is the somewhat sales-centric model used in the game. For this first version of Music Wars: Rebirth, Johnson’s goal was to reflect the actual behavior of Billboard-style singles and albums sales charts. This approach generally reflects retails sales figures of traditional record shops as its economic model, with media exposure playing a minor role of influence.

Of course, this is a “stuck-in-the-’90’s-at-best” economic model. The game does not include or take into account the influence of music videos (an industry reality since the early 1980s), nor the production time or expenses involved. The game also makes no effort to reflect non-retail-store sales that are part-and-parcel of the music industry in the 21st century. That means iTunes and other forms of MP3 sales, as well as the negative stat of illegal music downloads, is not included in the current version of Music Wars: Rebirth, which makes the game – fun as it is – feel a bit dated.

Another disappointment is the lack of any sort of multiplayer mode around which online “leagues” could be formed, similar to Wolverine’s sports titles. Imagine playing competitively against other human label owners to sign a top unsigned act like Britney Mathis, the sort of bidding wars that could be built around online play. The possibilities for having charts that rate record labels against each other in profitability, sales and such might provide a whole new competitive play aspect to the title. However, any form of multiplayer option was ruled out for Music Wars: Rebirth, although Johnson did admit in an interview with DigNews.com that it remains a possibility for future versions if sufficient demand develops for a multiplayer mode.

At this point, interactions with artists are relatively limited within Music Wars: Rebirth. One interacts with their artist when signing them or negotiating a new contract, and one also interacts with the talent if you work them too hard and they get too pissed at you to ever re-sign with your label. (Once this error is achieved, by the way, you can never win back the artists’ affections, so play carefully!)

Music Wars: Rebirth also has the ability to add in things like relationships between artists, which allows them to collaborate but also can take them out of action for several months, if that “collaboration” leads to a pregnancy. Some of this is in the game by default, but far more random events can be added in via the editor interface. By offering such powerful customization tools, Johnson has given gamers the ability to improve the game themselves to quite a significant degree, and the value of this should not be underestimated.

Finally, the game could stand for a lot more data to be added into the database; for example, if one’s record label is based in the US, there are many concert venues of every size in which your acts can perform, ranging from tiny to huge. However, in most other territories (the game features six major media markets) there are only Tiny and Small venues to be found; while this works early on in the game, it can be a limiting factor once you hit International status; it just seems weird to have Ego Riot (for example) play to crowds of 60,000 in the US, and be even more popular in, say, Japan, but limited to played in ventues under 10,000 people.

Despite its shortcomings, however, Music Wars: Rebirth is certainly more than a fresh coat of paint on an old piece of freeware. It is a complete, from the ground up reimagining of the franchise into a form that is deeper, more comprehensive, and more engaging than any previous freeware version. In fact, most of the shortcomings of the game simply demonstrate the “being rebuilt from the ground up” nature of the title. Wolverine has a sterling history of responding to customer feedback and incorporating suggestions from their loyal customer base, and Johnson has proven to be no different than the rest of the company.

Johnson has promised to work to continually improve on MW:R in successive updates, adding more bands, more portrait art, and more data as time goes on. The FirstAccess stage of the game’s development ferreted out quite a few problems and, as a result, the game is relatively light on the bug reports and need for bug fixes following the official commercial release of the game. If this low occurrence of game bugs continues as a trend, that will enable Johnson to continue to build the game out as time goes on, updating not so much to fix broken code, but to add new content to the game.

Some items and features often wished for in this game may never see the light of day in this version of Music Wars: Rebirth. For example, Johnson has stated that to be the case with music videos on Wolverine’s forum boards and in interviews. Like all developers from Madden on down, some ideas had to be back-burnered until the next major release of Music Wars.

While the game still has room to grow to its full potential, it is off to a solid start and is a significant enough upgrade from previous freeware versions to merit a purchase price, if for no other reason than the game will be constantly improved for the life of the product, just like all of Wolverine Studios’ sports titles.

In the end, Music Wars: Rebirth may feel a bit less than finished due to the portrait art deficit, but given the promise of future updates and the titles’ core improvements and re-visioning of the franchise from the ground up, it is certainly worthy of consideration by industry simulation fans with a passion for the music business.

Much like its Hoyle Casino Games companion piece, Hoyle Card Games offers up a nicely comprehensive collection of card games to while away your time, either online or offline, with free online play, including no monthly fees. A clear and eye-catching upgrade to the boring game of Klondike Solitaire included in every version of Windows since Bill Gates first crawled out of his dinosaur egg shell, Hoyle Card Games has a little of everything.

Whether your interest is Texas Hold’Em, Cribbage, Memory Match, Whist, Minnesota Whist, Tarot, Hearts, Pinochle, Skat, Crazy Eights, Gin, Blackjack, Old Maid, Plum Trees, or one of dozens of variations on solitare, Hoyle Card Games is a vast collection of various ways to pass the time with a deck of 52 cards. About the only thing missing is that middle-school classic, 52-Pickup.

Now, while the graphics are a clear upgrade from the Windows version of Solitaire, there’s nothing here that most people will need to worry about in terms of pushing their graphics card to its limits. The system requirements are appropriately modest while still delivering a sharp-looking game. And the Hoyle Face Creator offers enough variety to create an avatar to the tastes of most gamers.

Granted, Hoyle Card Games isn’t innovative or ground-breaking, but it isn’t trying to be. The selling point here is the wide amount of variety and comprehensive nature of this collection, and in that goal, it succeeds. Worth a look, if this sort of game is your sort of thing.

If you have ever wanted to experience Vegas without putting your wealth at risk, Hoyle Casino Games is the game for you. Offering a large variety of slot machines, video poker, roulette, blackjack and even horse racing, Hoyle Casino Games is relatively comprehensive, with over 600 casino games to choose from.

The graphics are sharp but won’t push most graphic cards, and there are both online and offline play options available. Fortunately, online play is free, with no monthly fees and no real money at stake, just like the offline version; the only difference is competitive play against live opponents.

Plus, the official Hoyle Rule Book is included that explains the rules for every game included in this comprehensive package. While casino gaming isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, the nice aspect of this collection is – for those who do enjoy this sort of pastime – the comprehensive nature of the collection; everything’s here except the discount furniture.

In the final analysis, Hoyle Casino Games isn’t groundbreaking and won’t win people over with its innovative game play; but if one is looking for the thrills of Vegas without the risk, there are few packages available that deliver as wide a variety of Vegas games in one compact package.

The only thing missing is a Donny Osmund concert.

Star Ocean is one of the slower-moving RPG series around; the first installment appeared on the SNES system, and never made it to US shores. Star Ocean: Second Story made it to the US, but by the time it appeared, the platform of choice was the original PlayStation. Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, the third chapter in the series, didn’t make its debut until the PlayStation 2 era, and sometime later this winter, we are expecting the Xbox 360 debut of the series, in the form of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the fourth installment in the epic series; at this point, no PlayStation 3 version of Star Ocean: The Last Hope is planned, though it has not been completely ruled out.

In the run-up to the first new Star Ocean since 2005, SquareEnix is releasing the first two Star Oceans on PlayStation Portable Slim (PSP Slim), and Star Ocean: First Departure is the first of these two PSP remakes. It marks the first time the first Star Ocean has ever appeared on North American shores, outside of import shops.

While the game definitely possesses a retro feel, the story is engaging and the various systems from battle to skills to item creation possess enough depth to keep most gamers happy and playing through the entire length of the journey. Although mildly updated, the game’s graphics do not stray too much from their SNES roots. The characters are sprite-based, though more detailed than in the original; and the battles are real-time affairs that will keep action RPG fans mildly satisfied, despite the overall retro feel even of the battle system.

The story centers on Roddick Farrence, a boy determined to save his village from a petrification problem when, in a very Star Trek-style moment, he meets visitors from another planet who tell him the only hope for his world won’t be found on his own. In the update, SquareEnix’s team used Star Ocean: Second Story’s game engine to bring the game’s systems up-to-speed with the rest of the series. That includes an item creation system that allows you to manufacture just about anything with the right ingredients and a recipe, even tire chains. Also, the game was given a fresh, American voice cast and offers up hours and hours of voice acting that were never present – for technological reasons – when it was first released on the SNES.

In the end, Star Ocean: First Departure is not ground-breaking or innovative, but it is an essential key to the origins of the series, and the first appearance of the title on US shores makes it noteworthy in and of itself. Fans of the series will see it as a must-have; it also provides a fine jumping-on point for those who played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time on PS2, or are looking forward to Star Ocean: The Last Hope on Xbox 360, and are wondering about the origins of the series.