Barbie Computer Games Free Article

DVD of Love CGW's January issue comes with the absolute best pack-in disc you've ever seen in your life.

To celebrate their fabulous January redesign (the one with the exclusive DOOM 3 preview on the cover), the fine folks at Computer Gaming World magazine packaged a thoughtful present for all subscribers and purchasers into the normally decent magazine. That present is a DVD filled with five complete, totally free PC games, five demos, and one kick ass trailer. You might believe me when I say there's a DVD and you might believe me when I say there's a magazine called CGW that has a neat redesign, but would you believe me when I say the DVD is quite possibly the coolest thing I've seen packaged with a games magazine in my entire pathetic life? The Joy Pad Tidy and Nintendo Power's e-Cards have nothing on this.

When someone in our industry claims to be giving away five free titles with a single magazine, we'd expect four random interactive Barbie adventures and one sparkling version of Postal 2 to fuel this flaming wreck of a promise. Fortunately, CGW's DVD does not totally and completely suck like everything else in this miserable games industry of ours. This one little piece of circular plastic that comes inside every January issue of CGW includes pure awesomeness. Don't worry if you lack an actual DVD-ROM drive, you can still plop the disc in and pretend it works. Better still, leave it on your makeshift coffee table so visiting "friends" will know you're rich and powerful and DVD ready and stuff.

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition Content Type: Full Game Publisher: Eidos Interactive Developer: Ion Storm Austin Release Date: 2000 Genre: First-Person RPG More Info: Overview Page Eidos Interactive was courteous enough to supply the pistol wielding stalkers at CGW with a full and complete, totally free build of Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition after a fair bit of "persuasion." Invisible War is coming, so why not learn the past before you explore the future?

Ion Austin's sci-fi opus was widely proclaimed as one of the greatest PC games of all time when it hit in June of 2000. The epic, Unreal technology powered RPG weaved an intricate story of conspiracy, deception, and little grey aliens on tables. Gameplay was as open and freeform as the market had ever seen and involved action, stealth, conversation, and adventure. It's a shooter that has it all. Now, to freshen up, you can play the entire thing front to back (all 70 hours of it) just in time for the release of Invisible War.

Thief II: The Metal Age Content Type: Full Game Publisher: Eidos Interactive Developer: Looking Glass Release Date: 2000 Genre: First-Person Stealth More Info: Overview Page Everybody's favorite one-eyed thief, Garrett, returns in a more refined, polished and ghoul-free sinning escapade. Another of Warren Spector's babies, Thief pioneered the first-person stealth action game, but it was Thief II that really brought the genre into its own and at the same time collapsed it with mystifyingly poor sales and a crumbling development studio. Never fear! CGW's January DVD comes with the entire game packed in. It's a good game. I like it quite a bit.

Thief III will be along shortly, developed in house at Ion Austin and still under the careful supervision of the main man, Mr. Spector. For now, open up that DVD-ROM drive and play through all of Thief II. Thank you CGW and Eidos.

Dark Age of Camelot Content Type: Full Game Publisher: Vivendi Universal Games Developer: Mythic Release Date: 2001 Genre: MMORPG More Info: Overview Page We're not going to pay your monthly fees for you, but if you desire an introduction to that MMO addiction so many of your digital friends rave about, there are few better places to start than Dark Age of Camelot. Widely proclaimed as one of the more polished and addictive massively multiplayer titles available, Dark Age was at one point growing faster in use than any other game of its kind. Now you can forsake the whole $20 to $50 retail box fee and install the full game from this one little DVD taped to the back of this one little PC games magazine.

Me? I hate me some massively multiplayer titles, but that won't stop me from recognizing the value in this, a free version of a popular game with a new expansion on the horizon. Besides, even though I deplore the genre, if I ever were to suddenly start liking and playing it, Dark Age is as good a place as any to begin.

Warlords Battlecry Content Type: Full Game Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Stormfront Studios Release Date: 2000 Genre: Strategy More Info: Overview Page I know little about Warlords Battlecry. Sure, I know people like it. I also know it's free and included as part of CGW's January 2004 issue, but other than that, I know little. So, to save face and waste space, I'm going to cut and paste random bits of text here. While looking for where you can pick up the coolness that is CGW issue #234 (scroll to the bottom of this page), please try to identify which of the following segments of text pertain to Warlords and which are from a description of "Extreme Teen 23."

1) "Combines the role-playing character development with the action of real-time strategy."

2) "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?"

3) "Cast over 80 unique spells and share their power within the command radius."

4) "Are you sure you're a doctor? Anyone for a sponge bath? Sushi without the rice!"

America's Army: Operations Content Type: Full Game Publisher: . Army Developer: . Army Release Date: 2002 Genre: First-Person Action More Info: Overview Page Offering a free game for free sounds a little devious. Well don't worry too much, sweetie. It only sounds suspiciously deceitful because it is. See, with every copy of this DVD bundled magazine sold, the United States Army will provide CGW with one stinger missile. Additionally, regional ISPs were fed up with the millions lost on bandwidth serving the preposterously large America's Army: Operations games files to you, the jerky guy who downloads everything he sees. So, they too will be delivering a stinger missile for every DVD pushed and used. It's business as usual -- deceitful, devious, and just the way CGW likes it.

Truly, why even try downloading the massive America's Army files when you can enjoy this extremely solid first-person action game free of charge and time with CGW's new January DVD? Since America's Army is about to become all the rage, it would certainly be wise to invest in what's free and good. Besides, we need some more missiles. Did You Know? The January DVD doesn't just include these five full games free of charge. Nope, in a move that will surely collapse the universe onto itself, the January DVD also has five demos burned onto it. Click through to the next page to see them all.

DVD of Love (Continued)

Return of the King Content Type: Demo Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: Electronic Arts Redwood Shores Release Date: 2003 Genre: Action Beat 'Em Up More Info: Overview Page Please hack and slash through waves of orcs and other vile things to reach the one ring in EA's Return of the King. Believe it or not, this one is actually available for the PC platform. I know, Ritual was supposed to handle the port of Two Towers, but that obviously never came to pass. No worries though, now we get to play as the lanky Gandalf and his homoerotic minions, the hobbits.

Even though a demo of this particularly good walk and chopper has been available for some time, CGW felt compelled to continue its Lord of the Rings / fantasy theme. Next month's disc will be all about the game of Texas Hold 'Em, provided I have anything to say about it, which I certainly do not. Enjoy.

War of the Ring Content Type: Demo Publisher: Vivendi Universal Developer: Liquid Entertainment Release Date: 2003 Genre: Real-Time Strategy More Info: Overview Page Battle for Middle-Earth may be presently wowing the gaming enthusiast with lush graphics, grand battles, and big promises, but long before that title ever saw a shred of public daylight, the acclaimed developers at Liquid Entertainment were busy toiling away on an RTS game based off of the Lord of the Rings written fiction, whereas everything under EA's corporate umbrella uses the film license.

With colorful graphics and a Warcraft-esque art style, War of the Ring is already making an impression on the Tolkien and RTS fans alike. But, before you buy into the name and style, try the game out for yourself courtesy of CGWs whopping DVD.

How many times can I say DVD in one article? Contribute your guess to our office pool. If you win, I'll send you nothing.

Empires: Dawn of the Modern World Content Type: Demo Publisher: Activision Developer: Stainless Steel Studios Release Date: 2003 Genre: Real-Time Strategy More Info: Overview Page The game should be out now. Just in case you haven't yet picked yours up, our own Reverend Doktor David Smith would like to say, "the Rick Goodman-designed 'global real-time strategy' game (Goodman, for those who missed the name, worked on Age of Empires at Ensemble Studios) clears more ground along the same path as recent large-scale historical strategy titles, featuring civilizations from around the world and a timeline stretching from the Middle Ages through World War II."

So, why not stretch that commanding brain of yours through multiple eras of human history? The demo won't afford would-be conquers the amount of play necessary to overtake the entire planet, but it should provide a good indication of what to expect from the final.

Lords of EverQuest Content Type: Demo Publisher: Sony Online Developer: Rapid Eye Entertainment Release Date: 2003 Genre: Real-Time Strategy More Info: Overview Page Ever play EverQuest and think to yourself, "Man, I'd really like to lord up these dudes." We all have. In fact, so many of us apparently have that Sony Online Entertainment hired Rapid Eye to develop a real-time strategy game based entirely around the subject of lording people and creatures in EverQuest. I honestly don't know what this demo includes, because I'm playing the final version, but I'm going to go ahead and assume it has something to do with: 1) EverQuest 2) Lording.

If it doesn't, please feel free to ask for you money back. Come to think of it, since you're a cheap bastard who's getting this demo as part of a huge, free include, how about you send me money just for daring to think you should be reimbursed. Hahaha. All joking aside, check out the disc and play some of Lords of EverQuest or I will lord you into the ground with a straight lord to the face.

XIII Content Type: Demo Publisher: Ubisoft Developer: Ubisoft Release Date: 2003 Genre: First-Person Action More Info: Overview Page So it's getting mixed reviews? Why not decide for yourself whether or not the conspiracy driven XIII is up your paranoid alley by playing through a chunk of the finished game? To fill space, I'm going to paste a chunk of our review in the next paragraph.

It's a first-person shooter that features the voices of David Duchovny, Eve, and Adam West, it has a spy movie feel, and…uh…it's pretty. See that -- I was almost to write a whole introductory sentence without mentioning the graphics once, but not quite. No easy task when the game at hand is one of the most visually distinctive titles ever.

But who cares about all that? Demos on DVD are way better than demos online, anyway. Usually they offer things like naked women and fights between Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Of course, if you don't actually check out the magazine and the disc, you'll never know if this is true. Did You Know? We're not done yet. As if full games and demos were not enough, the boys at CGW also have one more special surprise for you. There's no way you'll ever guess what it is unless you look at the picture directly to your left. Whoops.

DVD of Love (Continued)

DOOM III Content Type: Trailer Publisher: Activision Developer: id Software Release Date: 2004 Genre: First-Person Action More Info: Overview Page You know what DOOM is. But, have you seen it in action? Probably, huh? Well, have you seen it in super high resolution action? Probably not, huh? As a special bonus, this January DVD I've been speaking about for the last two pages comes with the full E3 2003 DOOM 3 trailer, converted into a very high quality movie. It's buttery smooth, liquid clear, and real fun to watch.

We tried to get the full game packed onto the disc, but after being told, "Hahaha, go to hell" about six hundred and sixty-six times, we settled for this. When you're done watching it, turn to page 66 of the magazine for seven pages of Darren saying things like, "My name is Darren and I suck at games. I have disgraced CGW by letting a programmer beat me in deathmatch. I deserve a flogging and a dunce cap." Yup, I'm fired. But, that doesn't change the fact that this DVD is super duper neat. Did You Know? The January issue of CGW was brought to you by Jeff Green, Ken Brown, Dana Jongewaard, Robert Coffey, William O'Neal, Darren Gladstone, Johnny Liu, Ryan Scott, Rob Schultz, and Michael Jennings. Also, I'd like to point out that they're all way less dorky than anyone else in this "office." And so our look into the January digital versatile disc sweetness ends. Have fun with it.