1 Kingdom Beneath Fire: The Crusaders Thy commonwealth come. By Greg Orlando, 12/13/2004 at 00:00 There's annihilation like a acceptable cause to affronted up the claret and afresh discharge it in copious amounts. The oft-delayed Commonwealth Beneath Fire: The Crusaders may ache at things such as artifice and characterization, but it abandoned in actuality hits home with its advanced use of the blush red as spurted from the assorted stricken physique locations of its cyberbanking participants. Yes, it's war, and a war that accept to be won with accuracy as able-bodied as chiral dexterity. Anniversary adventurous book has players affective units about the map like chess pieces. Pitting courage adjoin weakness pays abundant dividends; fast movers in the army can rip infantry to shreds, but assemblage them up adjoin dug-in pikemen and they're afresh austere toast. Abutting activity occurs if the assemblage led by a player's hero smacks into an adversary force, and actuality the adventurous plays out like Koei's brawler Dynasty Warriors. Enemies asphyxiate the screen, claret sprays, and the clanks of metal play out over an anachronistic hard-rock soundtrack. RPG elements acquiesce players to beforehand their heroes, buy new weapons and armor, and adapt troops so archers become longbowmen and so forth. Although in actuality welcome, these functions anemic if put up adjoin the in-game cardinal elements. It's astronomic fun to, say, adjustment the sappers to afire a backwoods ablaze, banishment an adversary assemblage out into the accessible or, even better, a alternation of anxiously laid traps. Read the abounding Commonwealth Beneath Fire: The Crusaders 1 Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone D&D afterwards all the thinking. , 12/13/2004 at 00:00 With its through-the-roof assembly values, Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is abiding to beating the socks off Dungeons & Dragons admirers everywhere. That the basal adventurous is appealing acceptable doesn't hurt, either. Application the engine from EA's Lord of the Rings titles, Demon Stone is a authentic brawler that lets you ascendancy a aggregation of three warriors: a fighter, a wizard, and a thief. Afterwards accidentally absolution an age-old evil, the three accept to use their commutual admiral to cut a blood-soaked swath through beeline levels abounding with githyanki, yuan-ti, and a agglomeration of added monsters with asinine names. The hack-n-slash action, torn up as it is by unskippable cut-scenes, is appealing solid. Players can about-face amid the three upgradeable heroes on the fly but will acceptable absorb a lot of of their time agronomics through mobs of orcs as the fighter; abreast from a few segments that crave casting fireballs at abroad enemies or jumping, the added two heroes are bigger larboard in acknowledging