Solitaire is probably the most popular application on all Windows machines — it helps that it’s on every version of the OS since Windows 3.x. On the Mac, it’s not the same. No solitaire is included, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t options out there.

Look no further than Mondo Solitaire by Ambrosia Software. A native Mac application, Mondo Solitaire has more iterations of solitaire than anyone will ever need — most I wasn’t even aware of their existence.

In terms of reviewing the ins and outs, there’s not a whole lot you can say. The graphics and sound are what you would expect from a digitized card game. They look and sound good, and aren’t annoying, nor do they get in the way of the digital card solitaire gameplay.

This is a short review — basically if you own a Macintosh and enjoy Solitaire, Mondo Solitaire by Ambrosia Software is a wonderful diversion. At $9.99 through the Mac App Store, the game is a lot of fun, and will give you more variety in your solitaire playing than you’ll ever need.

Our Nintendo Wii had sat idle for quite awhile — after an initial daily usage/play of Wii Sports and Wii Fit. But, the Wii’s been resurrected in the past few weeks with the purchase of Mario Kart Wii. Graphically, the game looks pretty much like its Gamecube predecessor, but the Wiimote as a controller adds some fun. The game’s classic Mario Kart, so if you’re a fan of the series, MK Wii will be your cup of tea. If not, there’s nothing to see here. I’m a big fan so this one is a lot of fun. Offline, there’s a lot of hours to put into the game, trying to win all of the eight cups in 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. There are ton of unlockables for the game — a ton of characters and karts and bikes. To unlock some, you’ll need to put in a ton of hours. Now the online is a lot of fun, lag-free but pretty flawed.

Nintendo’s always been a little wonky with their online offerings, starting with the Nintendo GameCube (GCN). Two accessories were offered for online gameplay — a modem and a broadband-based adapter, but only a few games supported the adapters, including Mario Kart Double Dash.

So far, the Nintendo Wii is also a little sparse on the online gaming as well, well behind competitors’ systems. But not only are the games sparse, but the setup to play online is a little clunky as well. Granted, with MK Wii, it’s easy to get online and play, but rather than having a buddy list, you’ve got to swap friend codes: a unique serial number of your user/Mii within a given game.

Unlike the Xbox 360′s Xbox Live, there’s no universal system for checking friends status, nor for inviting them to play. So far, we’ve had to use text messaging to setup game invites. Once you have gotten people together, in MK Wii, you’ve got a chat room where you can send a bunch of preset messages, but no way for a custom message, nor voice chat. No voice chat is another major missing piece for online play. Granted, you don’t get the annoying chatter, cussing, homophobic and racist drivel from the twelve year olds, but you also doing get to dog friends after a nice red shell blast at the line.

The other complaint is even though you can play two players online, both don’t get credit for wins. This is also a complaint offline. The first player is the only one who gets credit for winning cups, etc. I’m not sure why they allow the second player to associate with a Mii, but then don’t give them the full credentials that the player #1 gets.

Another complaint is an inconsistency in the setup for a given race. Mario Kart Wii prides itself in maximizing the time online actually racing, implementing a very short timer for players to select racer, kart/bike and automatic/manual setups. With two players, I cannot tell you how many times, that timer has cut off our full selection during setup, often meaning a player doesn’t get the player/kart/setup combination they desired. I applaud Nintendo for keeping people from stalling here, but then they are inconsistent when all users are voting for the next track. Here, there are always a few people that take their time in this step voting for their next track. I’d say it’d make more sense to swap the timer to this selection, rather than character and kart setup/selection.

While the audience is different for the Wii than either the 360 or PS3, with its casual gaming, there are a ton of users that have the Wii as a secondary (or tertiary) console. Because of that, a lot of users are used to a much better and more sophisticated online experience. While Nintendo makes some great and unique games, they’ve got a long way to go to compete online.

So we just snagged a great deal on a used copy of Scene It! for the Xbox 360 at our local Game Stop – $19 (though I see now you can get it new for $30). That’s great for a game that retails for $60 with its four specialized buzzer controllers. Amanda and I just ran through 2 games of it to give it a whirl and its a lot faster paced and nicer looking that its grandfather DVD game counterparts of the same franchise. The 360 version allows for four people to buzz in on every question and it moves at a better pace. The clips are varied, and even include some HD content thrown in for good measure, along with a fair amount of old time films for the real film buffs, or at least those more cultured than us and the gang we hang out with.

Regardless, the game is a blast and good for a group of four (or more in teams I guess). We’ve only now played two games, but I also like the feature that it remembers the the questions you’ve already seen to both keep it fresh, and simultaneously keep it fair. I believe there are plans to offer add-on packs for the game to keep the questions new with extended play.

The other thing though, is the in-between narrations that blast and congratulates players reminded me of the old You Don’t Know Jack franchise and made me long for those titles to be resurrected for family play on the Xbox 360 console. It would be great to extend the use of the include wireless buzzer controllers to the YDKJ franchise. Doubtful, but would love to see the games come back.

So my copy of Gears of War 2 for the Xbox 360 (as opposed to what other system, right?) arrived this afternoon. Finally! It couldn’t have come at a better time – it’s been a rough and stressful week, and it’s only Wednesday. Anyway, as soon as I got home, I started playing through the single-player campaign mode on the second to hardest skill level and got stuck pretty quickly – damn incoming mortars.

Ultimately though, the real fun came tonight playing with guys from work in the Horde mode. The level we were on, I found good spots to perch and take on the waves and waves of exponentially harder villians. I’ll be diving more into the game as the days and weeks progress. For any fan of the first game, this is more of the same, but that’s not a good thing. They’ve expanded on the theme ever so slightly and the scope of levels, enemies, etc. is bigger and harder. If the first was a lot of fun for you, so too will this one. But if the first wasn’t your cup of tea (I’m sure there are a few of you out there… somewhere), this one won’t be either.

So I snagged “Grand Theft Auto IV” for the Xbox 360 last week and finally got to put some real time in with it last night and I’m really enjoying it. Thus far, I’m not finding anything crazy different from the prior games, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The previous games were hours upon hours of fun and this one will be too.

If you didn’t like the previous games in this series, this one isn’t going to be your cup of tea either. On the other hand, if you knew your way around the prior titles, this is going to feel very familiar and there’s little to no learning curve. The game obviously looks better and run smoother than its predecessors.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the explorable area, but this game is humongous! The game still centers around doing little missions and tasks for people. The game does have some nice additions like GPS navigation and a cell phone for contacting people, etc. But all and all, it’s more of the same from the series. Again, this is not a bad thing, but so far I’m not seeing anything that just blows me away. I’m thoroughly entertained, but have yet to see anything that is going to be a huge new thing introduced in the series.

That being said, I have yet to go online and try out the multiplayer which looks to be pretty deep. I’ll probably wait until I’m deeper into the story mode before I venture into that.

Expect a followup review in the weeks and months to come as I work through the game.

So last Monday when I was working from home, I also took the time to call around to see if any of the local Game Stops had any of the Rock Band Special Editions in for the Xbox 360 (Special Edition is just the game, the drum kit, guitar and mic). None did initially, but I’m glad I called around, as a couple just said no, while others informed me that they expected some via UPS later that day.

Late that afternoon, I snagged one from the closest Game Stop and since I had sold my PS2 hardware and all the games back, I had a massive store credit. Brought it home and did a little drum and guitar playing solo. Lots of fun!

But the real fun came yesterday when Bret, Tina and JC came and we had a full band. It really rocks with a group of people, and there’s a good variety of tasks in the career mode. We really were rocking out on a lot of tracks and had the most success and fun when Bret was on drums, Tina on bass, JC on vocals and me on guitar.

The only downer came toward the end of our extended session. Reports have been widespread about faulty hardware (EA Acknowledges Rock Band Guitar Defect, Promises Replacements, Rock Band Users Discovering Hardware Issues).

I was hoping since I didn’t get a box from the initial release batches, I’d be fine. But by the end of Sunday’s extended jam session, only upstrums were working on the Fender Rock Band Guitar. My guitar strum bar is slightly limp, hanging down from its usual centered home position. Luckily, EA is doing a two day turnaround on the faulty equipment, so a new guitar should be here Wednesday or Thursday this week – plenty of time before the next D’ Bagz jam session commences this weekend.

Local play was great, but is greatly enhanced by having a few friends in the room with you. I have yet to play online. I tried late Saturday night to, but gave up on trying to hook up with people to play with. I kept getting kicked out of the initial join “lobby.” I’m thinking I didn’t have enough experience. Maybe I’ll make it through on a couple of instruments solo and with the D’ Bagz before any further foray.

Despite the hardware issues, I highly recommend this game, especially if you have a few buddies that will be into it with you. The price tag is steep, but oh so much fun. I feel that I’ve already got my money’s worth, but there’s still a lot of fun, achievements, content and songs yet to unlock and/or tackle.

The Worms series has been alive and exploding worms since the old 8-bit Nintendo.

The newest in the series from Team 17, Worms Armageddon, adds features and improves slightly on its most recent predecessor, Worms 2.

The game is a team vs. team game. While there is a one-player mode, it comes to its full potential in multi-player mode, either with several people hunched around one screen, mouse and keyboard, or via a Local Area Network (LAN) or an Internet server.

Teams consist of warrior worms that can be customized with names to your liking and even sound files. Our team members found sound schemes for everything from "The Simpsons" to "Pulp Fiction."

So rather than a missed shot resulting in a scolding from a worm with a high-pitched voice, you can hear Homer Simpson yelling "D’oh!"

Teams take turns trying to eliminate all of the worms not on their team. If you were a worm, how would you take out the enemies? Team 17 decided to give the worms 60 different choices, all with their own quirks, tricks and situational uses. The favorites on my team are the Holy Hand Grenade (paying a little homage to Monty Python), the banana bomb, which explodes and then distributes several clusters of volatile bananas. There’s also the Super Sheep, capable of bleating its little heart out before donning a cape and taking to the sky in an explosive kamikaze mission.

Sound weird? It is – but it was instantly addictive and fun to play with a group of people. The game builds on the old game Scorched Earth, in which opposing tanks fired at one another relentlessly with a plethora of weapons.

Most everything can be customized in the game, giving great and varied play. Players can build the landscapes and choose which and how many weapons to start with. There are so many options I’ve yet to totally tweak all the settings.

The game play is very similar to Worms 2. A few weapons have been added, while others areabsent. The biggest additions are improved graphics on each landscape and a couple of more powerful weapons.

Sadly, the multiple random cartoon intros that Worms 2 started up with are gone and they are sorely missed.

But side by side, Worms 2 and Worms Armageddon are pretty much the same game. Neither will disappoint you when you’re looking for a fun multiplayer game with a bit of a sense of humor and a lot of options.

Team 17
Rating: ages 11 and up
Requirements:
Pentium-100,
Windows 95/98,
32 MB RAM,
2x CD-ROM,
50 MB free hard drive space, 1 MB SVGA card,
16-bit sound card

Originally printed in the News & Observer and NandoNext.

Dark Angel was a great little show on Fox, created by T2′s James Cameron and starred the beautiful Jessica Alba as Max, a genetically enhanced soldier in a post-apocalyptic near future. The first season of the television show was great sci-fi / action. The second season stretched a little and my interest waned, as did others, as a third season never popped up.

The Dark Angel game, available on the PS2 and X-Box appeared on the market months after the series went defunct. It was most likely in development before plans to cancel the series took place and Sierra decided to still release it.

At a full game price of $49.99 this is one of those titles to avoid like the plague, as the PS2 has just so many titles better in every way, shape and form. But if you can snag it previously played for a few bucks, it is worthy of a little bit of your time, especially for fans of the show.

The game centers on Max running, kicking and punching through cityscapes, military installations and the like, but really has no connection to the television series’ plot lines. The whole game has a sort of generic plot that is along the lines of the show, but doesn’t fit exactly.

The action and game play is not very deep, consisting of a combination of stealth moves and combat. The stealth is pretty lame when compared to other games already out there, like the Tenchu series, or our buddy Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series. There is a danger level meter to let you know when guards are approaching and the like, but it changes almost instantly, making it impossible to react most of the time.

The combat can be pretty cool, with Max having a lot of combos and different moves, including doing flip kicks off of walls, and some cool grappling combos.

The scenery is pretty nice, though can get a bit repetitive. Combat is similar. The combat moves’ variation make for some good variation initially, but the fighting, including the encounters with level bosses gets monotonous after a few levels, as well.

One nice touch is that Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly both do the voices for their characters, which is a nice welcomed addition, adding a little bit more to linking it up to the now canceled series.

Another note, the in-game and cinematic cut scenes renderings of Max don’t do justice to the beauty of the real life Jessica Alba, but in-game renderings never do, do they?

If you pay full price for this game, you are going to feel cheated and ripped off. If you can find it used somewhere for $9.99 like I did, it’s well worth $10, but not much more.

A lot of my focus and enjoyment from the PS2 thus far has been through sports and driving games (and always will be), but I’ve always had a thing for the iron eagles of the sky and really loved the 80′s flick, Top Gun. While Top Gun: Combat Zones does not have a thing to do with the Top Gun movie, besides the F-14s and dogfighting, it does share the delight of flying the not-so friendly skies.

The game is split into three eras, a Vietnam-era, Desert Storm and a near-present Middle-East skirmish. Each of the eras have a series of training missions that must be completed before tackling the real combat missions. The training missions seemed to fall into one of two categories: ones that could easily completed in one or two tries, and ones that got tedious, taking uncountable attempts to successful accomplish. These training missions do really prepare you for the enemies you’ll face.

Top Gun: Combat Zones is not a straight fighter sim though, it really leans toward being an arcade fighter, but that’s just fine in my book. The controls are pretty simple to master and turning seems pretty realistic to the actual fighters’ movement through the skies. For example, just as real naval aviators do, to really turn the F-14 efficiently, the plane has to be put nearly on its side to execute quick turns. The buttons are laid out nicely for the default control setup and after the first couple training missions, maneuvering the aircraft becomes second nature.

One of the cool facets of the game, which is also one of the reasons the game isn’t considered a true simulation is the fact that points are throughout. While success of your mission ultimately rests on whether you destroy your targets, score is being kept throughout the game for much more than just the number of bogeys you blow out of the sky. Your score is greatly enhanced by dare devil maneuvers, such as low-altitude flying, soaring under obstacles such as bridges, cranes, etc. and having close brushes with obstacles. While we’re not talking, edge-of-your-seat excitement, the bonus scoring is a nice touch and essential to get the highest rankings for missions.

Missions consist of two main types — dog fighting and bombing missions. The dog fighting can be extremely tough and frustrating. Locating enemies in the sky is difficult, as the radar is two dimensional, while the sky is obviously a three dimensional plane. It’s really tough to visually identify the planes, and can become really frustrating. The fighters I’ve encountered thus far tend to keep a fairly high altitude. Often, bogeys can be located a little easier by ascending a few thousand feet.

The bombing runs also are not without their share of frustration, as these are usually the missions that have to be done over and over again. Your aircraft can take a fair amount of damage (honestly a lot more than a jet could handle in real-life conditions), but all the missions are timed. During the first two eras of missions, failures most often come from time expiration, rather than the plane being shot down. The bombing runs consist of multiple targets, meaning you will have to criss-cross your fighter over a section of land countless times to succeed and move on to the next training or wartime skirmish. One hint is to take your first pass or two to destroy anti-aircraft batteries and tanks. This allows you to concentrate on locating and lining up bombing targets on subsequent passes. Quicker missions, withless damage to your aircraft also translates to bigger bonus points upon mission completion.

The graphics are pretty nice overall, and the sense of flying is decently realistic. The land-based graphics, such as the mountains, canyons, bridges and buildings look nice, as do the explosions that take out those structures.

I love the replays, the close-ups and different angles look like they came right out of the Top Gun movie. My only complaint is that a lot of the camera angles are way too shaky. It seems the developers were going for realism with their fighter-mounted camera views, but I’d gladly sacrifice a bit of realism for a steady shot of my F-14 cutting through the air at supersonic speeds. Why shoot for total realism here, when I get extra points for putting my aircraft at risk by soaring under a rock formation?

This game isn’t mind blowing or a must-have for your Playstation 2 library, but it is decent fun and a game that you can sit down and play, without investing major time. The game is definitely a welcome addition to my collection, providing a change of pace from some of my other games that require major time investment to progress.

I have yet to play Ace Combat 4, but it is supposed to be even better than Top Gun: Combat Zones, so you might want to rent that one prior to this. If the store happens to be out of AC4 copies, Top Gun is still worthy of checking out.

The Simpsons Road Rage sounded like a great concept for the die-hard Simpsons freak. The concept is sound, but in practice, it’s amusing and fun initially, but very swiftly becomes monotonous and lacks any real challenge or fun.

The premise of the game is billionaire Montgomery Burns has taken over Springfield’s mass transit system with a fleet of nuclear busses, that have exorbitant fares. The citizens strike back, using their personal vehicles to taxi others around the city to earn enough money to buy the mass transit system back.

The detail to the Simpsons “universe” is great, and the developers should be applauded for all the inside details they’ve included. All the landmarks, both regular locations and even a fair amount of ones featured only in a single episode are all here. For example, Marge drives the monstrous SUV, Canyonero and brief mentioned locations such as Lard Lad Donuts and The Frying Dutchman are here.

Initially, the game is amusing, discovering all of these details, and hearing the characters interact, but it quickly becomes monotonous. Your character carries people around, earning money, getting bonuses for speedy deliveries. The overall goal is earn $1,000,000 to buy back Springfield’s bus system, but it takes so long and there really isn’t enough incentive to finish that goal.

As you reach certain dollar amounts, you unlock more characters and more areas of Springfield, but it’s all pretty much the same. The vehicles are a little bit different, but like the game overall, they become tired quickly. Occasional missions give you bonuses based on a safe trip (hitting 2 or fewer cars) or by taking out scenery (road rage). The road rage missions are fun, but pretty simple and don’t offer any real challenge.

The most annoying thing about the game is the load time. It takes an eternity for the levels to load. One could argue that it takes a large amount of time and memory to load an entire portion of Springfield so that one can wander about freely. This may be true, but Grand Theft Auto III has a similar concept of roaming a city, yet their load time is probably a quarter of the time of Road Rage. This snail’s pace load time is a major strike against Road Rage. The long load times don’t pay off unfortunately.

The Simpsons characters and the town of Springfield are nice, but the game itself is pretty bland. The taxing around under time constraints is done better in both Crazy Taxi and in the taxi missions one can undertake in Grand Theft Auto III. Spend your money on those, unless you’re just a die hard Simpsons freak. I’m a big Simpsons fan, but there’s not enough game to make it worthwhile.