Victory! The world is safe once again. The terrorist threat that loomed over the American way of life has been neutralized. And even though I, Sam Fisher, go unrewarded or even mentioned, I sleep soundly at night, knowing that I was instrumental at restoring peace. I'm talking of course about Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, which i finally finished. All by myself. With no body's help. All me. And it was fun. This is officially my favorite game of the year. That is, until Half-Life 2 comes out. So I hope. I hate getting all hyped up about a game and then have it suck. I'll give you an example:
I just started playing Angel of Darkness, the new chapter in Tomb Raider games. I have very mixed feelings about this game. I read some previews, I've seen ads on websites, I've seen the movie (of course), and I finally sat down this weekend and tried it. The game looks good. In fact it looks the best out of the other Tomb Raider games. It has very realistic environments, realistic rain and reflections, and the character animation and models are top notch. This is the most detailed Lara Croft outside of Hollywood movies. Also another plus - there are actual options available for display settings. You can change more things than I know what to do with. The same with Audio settings. That is always a bonus in any game. The serious gamer needs control over his settings. I'm also happy for the built in support for my Logitech Game Pad, which the game identified BY NAME in the Options screen. The sounds is also great, courtesy of EAX and SB Live series card.
OK, now for the bad stuff. The player controls SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did I mention that the player controls suck? There is no strafe AT ALL! At least in the previous games you got to strafe when Walking. Here we only have forward and back, and very wonky turning controls. I played for a few hours with the keyboard/mouse and the WADS keys that brought me so much joy while Splinter Cell'ing, and I was ready to scream. I was ready to throw the game away, get my money back (if i actually paid for the game), stomp on it and scream some more. Then I dug up my rumble gamepad, restarted the game, got a happy surprise to see its name in the Control Config, and then I jumped back in.
It got a little better. The Dual Analog stick made my life a little easier, making the character easier to move and turn, but it still wasn't good. I used the same gamepad for The Hulk and I had a very pleasant experience. This was disappointing. This is my major grudge against the Tom Raider series: the control scheme has never changed. Someone needs to tell Eidos (or whoever is in charge now) that the same control scheme from the 90's will not cut anymore. Look at the masterpiece that Splinter Cell is in terms of controls. You NEED to be able to nimbly move Sam in order to stay quiet and be productive. Take some notes Tomb Raider dudes. Even if the game is a console port, it does not mean you get to screw up controls for the PC player. At least throw in Strafing - and let us decide if we want to use it or not.

Some other ports that I enjoyed: GTA III and Vice City, Enter The Matrix, The Hulk, and .... I'm sure there is more. PC gamers don't mind ports, just make then easier to play with the equipment we already own. OK, I'm off the soap-box. I just love computer games and I get very passionate about them. If you are like me and you love computer games, check out this link: Penny Arcade. It is a really funny cartoon strip, with gamers in minds. Enjoy it :)  ¶ 11:33 PM